iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- An apparent roadside bomb struck the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah Tuesday morning in the Gaza Strip, injuring several people, according to authorities. Fatah, Hamdallah's political party that controls the West Bank, immediately called it an attempted assassination and said it holds Gaza's militant ruling party, Hamas, responsible. The explosion went off shortly after his convoy entered the strip through the Erez Crossing with Israel, and the moment was caught on camera. In the video below, the blast hits at the 42 second mark. Hamdallah was not hurt but according to video and photos from the scene, three of the vehicles were damaged, and one had blood on the door. The Palestinian Authority intelligence chief, Majid Faraj, was also traveling with Hamdallah. In a statement, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank, said, Hamas bears full responsibility for the cowardly targeting of the prime ministers motorcade in Gaza. "Hamas opening an investigation is not enough," he said. "We need to find the full truth, and who is behind this attack." The attack against the government of consensus is an attack against the unity of the Palestinian people, Rudeineh added. Hamas said the targeting of Hamdallahs motorcade was part of attempts to damage the security of Gaza and deal a blow to efforts to finalize reconciliation." Hamdallah was in Gaza to cut the ribbon at a $75 million sewage plant project funded by The World Bank, European Union and other European governments that had been in the works for years. Immediately after the attack, he said he would go ahead with the visit and it would not deter from seeking to end the bitter split. We will still come to Gaza. Fatah and Hamas have been in a stand-off since Hamas won control over Gaza in 2007. Since then, Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip while the Fatah Party have governed the West Bank, which is occupied by Israel. Hamdallah is now spearheading new negotiations to unify the two Palestinian factions. Hamdallah returned safely to Ramallah in the West Bank and addressed the attack to an applauding crowd. It was a well planned attempt," he said. "They planted explosive devices two meters deep." Jason Greenblatt, President Trump's special representative for international negotiations who has been leading the effort in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, was quick to condemn the attack on Twitter. Meanwhile, Jared Kushner, President Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, planned to hold a "brainstorming session" on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In a statement, the White House said Kushner "will present present specific proposals for consideration to help the people of Gaza." The Palestinian Authority said it would boycott the event. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Back in 1995, on a lark, David Swift Phinney took a friend up on an offer and went to Florence, Italy to spend a semester studying. In Italy, he was introduced to wine and how its made and Phinney was hooked. According to the Orin Swift Cellars website, after university graduation, Phinney eventually landed a job at Robert Mondavi Winery in 1997 as a temporary harvest worker. Phinney wrote that he decided that if he was going to work that hard, it would have to be for himself. So in 1998 he founded Orin Swift Cellars. Orin is his fathers middle name and Swift is his mothers maiden name. With two tons of zinfandel and not much else, Phinney spent the next decade making wine for others as well as himself and grew the brand to what it is today. 1. Which three people would you most like to have dinner with? Ernest Hemingway, Pope Francis, Maria Montessori. 2. What was your first job? Tying Christmas trees on cars for tips in L.A. 3. Whats the worst job you ever had? Foot Locker. The Mysore practice, in which the sequences are taught to each student individually at their own speed, allows for anyone of any age, body type, or experience level to participate. In the beginning, Sheffer said, there is a lot of repetition. Moving in this way allows the body and mind to open up without any pressure. She said the age range in her classes is from 19 to almost 73, and the man who is soon to be 73 just started taking yoga two years ago. Classes are taught by one instructor and a few assistants, all of whom work with and make adjustments to each student one on one. The room is void of music or noise, other than the sounds of breathing and movement. Although students are working autonomously, by practicing alongside one another, Sheffer said they benefit from the energy and support of the community around them. This really is a practice of looking in the mirror and cultivating a deep relationship with yourself. That can be very scary but also very therapeutic and healing, she said. She described the experience of the Mysore method as transformational, saying that it has completely changed peoples lives, including her own. Pennsylvania Online Gambling Moves Forward, Still With One Big Unknown Published March 12, 2018 by Elana K Kevin OToole, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), told PA lawmakers last week that the PGCB is currently drafting temporary regulations for online gambling, and online casinos and poker rooms are slated to launch before th Kevin OToole, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), told PA lawmakers last week that the PGCB is currently drafting temporary regulations for online gambling, and online casinos and poker rooms are slated to launch before the years end. OTooles announcement comes at a critical time; its been nearly five months since PA legalized online gambling, and supporters were starting to wonder whether it would actually happen. Now that a timeline, albeit rudimentary, has been given, Pennsylvania citizens at least know what to expect. Online Casino Licensing Members of the PGCB researched the online gambling industry in other states that have legalized it, and based on their research and the states own demographics, came up with a unique licensing procedure. Pennsylvania will issue one master online gambling license for every land-based slot license, a total of 13, but it will also give out licenses for individual product classes - slots, table games, and poker - which comes to a total of 39 licenses. The motives behind increasing the number of available licenses may lie in the high licensing fee; each product license will cost $4 million, or applicants can purchase all 3 product licenses for a bargain $10 million. According to the PGCB, applications will be accepted on April 2, 2018, but it is not yet known when applicants will be notified of their acceptance. One Big Issue Remains The PGCB has not yet revealed its position on the pressing question of skins. Skins refers to the number of branded websites a master license operator can offer. New Jersey allows master license holders to partner with different brands, all of which can operate under that license. Experts say that if Pennsylvania lawmakers choose to limit the number of skins a master license holder can offer, they will essentially limit both expansion and profit. For now, we'll have to wait for word from O'Toole and the PGCB for the details of their temporary regulations. I think the parking is the only thing they need to adjust on it right now, Lobo said of the design. Larger parking spots and not enough handicapped spaces, thats a big issue right now. The current school has only two such spaces, she said. Overall, I think they have a pretty good plan in place, she said. Another parent asked during the Q&A portion of the meeting if the new school will be safe for his children. Im very much concerned about security and access, he said. The current Napa Junction was the first school in the district to have fencing and front gate installed as part of funding from Measure H, the $269 million school bond approved in 2016. Win told the audience that the new school will be fenced off, and that all visitors would have to go through the administration building to access the campus. She added that gates would be installed between buildings for an added layer of security inside the school. District officials are also talking to city planners about rerouting Commerce Boulevard so that any truck traffic goes around and behind the new school to avoid commercial vehicles passing by in front of it. In addition to being a rancher, Harold was also an entrepreneur running multiple businesses over the years as the opportunities presented. He started Moskowite Construction Company in the 1950s; as a heavy equipment operator and licensed electrician he worked on the construction of the Monticello Dam and Lake Berryessa. As the lake opened, Harold started a small bar and gas station at Moskowite Corners that later expanded to become The Moskowite Lodge. It was a destination for boaters and locals. Harold and his father were founding partners in Steele Park Resort. He started Moskowite Ambulance Service to provide needed emergency service to rural eastern Napa. Harold built and developed multiple commercial properties including Moskowite Corners Mobile Home Park, and Moss Creek Winery. One of the founding members of the Bank of Napa he served many years on the board of directors. First and foremost Harold identified with being a rancher. As the Napa Valley changed, his ranch also evolved from raising sheep and cattle to grape growing. He loved his ranching roots and hosting pit beef barbeques for hundreds at his family lake. He relished sharing tales of the old days when he would drive cattle from the family ranches into Napa and up Highway 29 to the livestock auction in Yountville. Six weeks after devastating fires swept through Northern Californias wine country, the Charlie Palmer Steak house opened in Napa as the first major outlet within the nearly completed 183-room Archer Hotel. Since then it has quickly grown into a hub for locals and tourists alike, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner and also providing a place to gather, unwind and commune. Launching a restaurant is never an easy endeavor, but given the added complexity of natural disasters (construction of the Archer has been delayed by earthquakes, floods and fires) and shifting consumer trends, what you need is someone at the helm who has the experience, good sense, creativity and a strong work ethic to navigate in what are challenging seas. Charlie Palmer Charlie Palmer might be the hardest-working chef in America. And unlike many celebrity chefs, even with a dozen restaurants around the country that he visits on a rotating basis, he finds time to sit as a board member for the Citymeals-on-Wheels charity and the Culinary Institute of America. He often appears as a guest on NBCs Today show, has authored six cookbooks, and is a husband for 25 years and father to four grown children. Of the shooting victims, Bontrager said he knew Jennifer Gonzales, a clinical psychologist, the best. She was so passionate about her work, said Bontrager. She had youthful enthusiasm but true expertise. At the Pathway Home, Gonzales was trying to provide resources for this program on a shoestring. Im quite upset about it, he said. But its OK to be vulnerable and human about it. And what we need now is more than ever is connection to each other. Carters advice to cope with such a trauma is spend time with others. Lean on your natural support system, such as church, family, book club members or neighbors, said Carter. Carter also noted that people under stress sometimes make bad decisions about doing things to deaden the pain for example, excessive drinking or self-medicating. Now is the time to not lean on these strategies, he cautioned. Its also important to be aware of the amount of information that comes at us from TV and social media, said Carter. We need to be conscious about taking a break from that a little bit, said Carter. Constant stress can break you down. On Jan. 23, supervisors convened as the Board of Equalization at 10 a.m. They were to hear a case involving, not taxes, but a late filing for change-of-legal-entity papers pertaining to downtown Napa properties. Only the Board of Equalization could waive the $32,000 penalty. On behalf of the owners of the various First Street parcels, Todd Zapolski said hed been trying to have a hearing for several months. But the crush of the Board of Supervisors agenda that day meant delaying the matter to the afternoon. This is how weve been tending to do Board of Equalization meetings, postponing them to the afternoon for the last year or two because of time constraints on our agenda, Dillon said. But Zapolski couldnt attend in the afternoon. I would hope we could hear that matter and try to move on, Zapolski said. Supervisors needed to switch from being the Board of Equalization to being the Board of Supervisors to take care of county work. They delayed the hearing until Feb. 6, held it and took the matter under consideration. One big problem would be convincing the millions of California seniors now on Medicare that a state-run program can provide as widespread and comprehensive coverage as Medicare, widely perceived as one of the best-run federal programs. Of course, if Republicans in Congress move to cut or eviscerate Medicare, as some have threatened or promised, then a completely independent but unproven state-run plan might look much better to over-65 citizens. Its not that single-payer is a new idea in California. Twice during the first decade of this century, former Democratic state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, now a Los Angeles County supervisor, shepherded such plans through the Legislature, only to see them vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Her idea also embodied in most current proposals was to use existing health insurance premiums as the main funding source, one reason California would need to get access to Medicare fees now taken regularly out of most seniors Social Security checks, in addition to what comes out of workers paychecks. As was Schwarzenegger, current Gov. Jerry Brown is skeptical about whether adequate funding is available for any of this. All of which creates an extremely complex health care situation in Sacramento, and nothing complex gets done quickly there. So people anticipating a single-payer ballot proposition on a California ballot probably should not hold their breath. Chances are it wont come before 2020 at the earliest. Thomas D. Elias writes the syndicated California Focus column. He is author of the book, The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Governments Campaign to Squelch It. 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. As a person who has always been labeled a ' conspiracy theorist' , readers of my columns will enjoy this latest one. One need not even have to read the scores of research publicized on this Amerikan empire's military madness. The main point of contention is this: Over half of our tax dollars goes down the rabbit hole of military spending; We keep close to 1000 bases in almost 100 countries and have our WMDs poised to attack anywhere we deem necessary! On top of that our occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq have cost us thousands of dead military personnel and tens of thousands of innocent civilians in those countries AKA Collateral Damage. The Congress keeps spending our money on these things regardless of who sits in the White House. With few exceptions from a handful of true blue progressive and libertarian politicians, the empire gets what this beast of war requires. This writer can turn on to any ( so called ) news show on the boob tube and never see or hear any mention of what has been transpiring. Silence! All the shows that parrot either of our two sellout political parties simply will never discuss my aforementioned facts. Speaking of facts, when I attempt to bring up anything pertaining to this obscene spending and militaristic mindset... Silence! It seems as if the majority of my fellow citizens just could not give a rat's ass about it. Yet, those same people will lament how there is not enough money for whatever needs they think are important to them and their families. Let's take a need that many of us feel is so overlooked: The need for comprehensive health care reform. Even most of the doctors I have interviewed tell me that, if a gun was placed at their heads and they had to choose between private insurance as it is or Medicare as it is, they would choose the latter... even if it was not what they really wanted. When one attempts to go deeper into the ' How ' of implementing a Medicare for All system, the argument always is that ' The government just doesn't have the money to run that system properly'. Well, when over $ 600 Billion dollars ( not even counting the black budgets) goes yearly for military spending, if even 25% of it was cut, that savings would more than be enough to jumpstart such a program. Actually, with that much money available we could have not only a complete Medicare for All , but also a complete Dental Care for All as well. Imagine all those folks you pass each and every day with holes in their mouths (where there used to be teeth) that could smile at you with a 'Sea of shining white '. I am one of that army, by the way. This writer remembers the Vietnam ( so called ) War era when I was in high school and college. Perhaps in its early stages, 1964 to maybe '67, the empire was able to fool many of us, especially our parents. However, '68 and ' 69 revealed the utter catastrophe of hundreds of thousands of our young men conscripted and imprisoned for one year in that quagmire.. if they did not return home sooner in a box! It may have begun with we students and returning vets, but soon after it was many of our parents' generation who soon wanted and even demanded for the sh*t to end and the empire pulled back. The chaos at the '68 Democratic Convention in Chicago was really mostly about Vietnam. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered for a score of reasons, as was Robert F . Kennedy, but the focal point of it all was Vietnam. King's 1967 speech at the Riverside Church in N.Y .C. was his ' coming out party' against this empire. RFK's late announcement to run in '68 was equally focused on Vietnam. Yet, when the ' forces that be' did their dual dastardly deeds within a few months, it did not deter the movement that was gaining steam... these events most likely sped that train up. As terrible as those days were in the late 60s, at least there was hope that this insane empire be curbed and pulled back. Sadly, today it seems as if most of our 20 somethings and their parents do not even know what is going down. The Conspiracy of Silence is winning! 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 Paul Craig Roberts Website Identity Politics is turning white people into a delegitimized group that it is permissible to hate and to discriminate against. White Americans are being turned into undesirables and are being delegitimized just as Jews were delegitimized in Nazi Germany. Curiously enough, as I understand it, the Identity Politics being used to delegitimize white people has its roots in the Jewish cultural Marxism of the Frankfort School. Most Americans are unaware of Identity Politics, and those who hear about it dismiss it as something silly. But it is the core politics of the Democratic Party and the liberal/progressive/left that is rivaling the neoconservatives for control over the American psyche. I wrote about the article in the Texas Tech student newspaper that declared white DNA to be abominable. We should all take notice that Identity Politics has reached into a deep South technical school. The article was approved by the paper's editors and also perhaps by the faculty advisers. An article that declared black or Jewish DNA to be abominable would most certainly not have been approved, and anyone who wrote such an article would at a minimum have been sent for sensitivity training. The situation appears to be far worse in the prestigious, formerly WASP universities, such as Yale and Stanford. I don't know the website, but this article seems truthful and not a spoof... Both universities, along with top rank state universities such as the University of Wisconsin and many other universities and colleges teach that white people, not global robber baron corporations or Wall Street crooks or corrupt politicians (unless they are white) are the source of evil, of oppression, of racism and enslavement of women. Curiously, white women are considered simultaneously to be oppressors and enslaved by men. But this inconsistency does not trouble the Identity Politics ideology that is now a powerful political movement in America that has placed a target on the back of every white heterosexual male and every statue of a white male. Even plaques commemorating the attendance of George Washington and Robert E. Lee at Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia, have been removed because they are "offensive." Identity Politics has succeeded in obliterating the memory of America's first president, who won the War of Independence from the British, from the pre-revolutionary church that he attended. Twenty-three years ago Lawrence M. Stratton and I predicted in our book, The New Color Line that that the racial and gender quotas established by Alfred W. Blumrosen, compliance chief of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in blatant violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which explicitly prohibited quotas, would destroy the American goal of equality before the law by establishing legal privileges that would exclude white men. No prediction has ever been more correct. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed in order to give a legal basis to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution requiring equality under the law. Congress understood that equality under law precluded special privileges, such as quotas for university admissions, employment and promotions based on alleged past discrimination. However, Alfred Blumrosen, a Jew, who found himself in control of the regulatory agency designated as the enforcer of the Civil Rights Act, decided to ignore the law and to create a quota regime that violates equality under the law. Blumrosen reasoned, and turned out to be correct, that, based on the New Deal experience, Federal courts would defer to the regulatory authority, which was him, in place of the intent of Congress. In place of equality under law, Blumrosen went for equality of result. To Blumrosen that meant that the same proportion of blacks had to have middle class educations and incomes as whites. The consequence was federal lawsuits against universities and employers that did not have quotas that advanced less qualified blacks and women over white men. Stratton and I have heard that Blumrosen praises us for designating him as the person who made second class citizens out of white males as he regards it as a high achievement. The next step in the delegitimization of white people, especially heterosexual males, occurred following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transformation of Mao's China to capitalism. This destroyed the ideological basis of the Western left wing. The exploitative, imperialist capitalist had been the target for decades, but now that history had proved Karl Marx wrong, revealing that there was no alternative to "democratic capitalism," the need to hate that is concentrated in the liberal/progressive/left had to find a new target. They found it in Jewish cultural Marxism's analysis of institutions associated with the Frankfort School, which moved from Germany to Columbia University in the 1930s. The Frankfort School placed the source of oppression in the institutions of Western society. Members of the Frankfort School saw themselves as analyzing real problems. Identity politics, seeing the institutions of Western society as white, male-dominated institutions, simplified the analysis by defining the problem as whiteness. Thus, white males became the oppressive force to be overthrown. The working class, redefined by Hillary Clinton as "the Trump deplorables," has been abandoned by the liberal/progressive/left. Just as with Marx, truth is "class truth," with Identity Politics, truth is race, gender, and sexual preference truth, and just as the capitalists didn't have objective truth, under the Identity Politics form of Marxism whites do not have truth. Even science is being unmasked as a tool of white oppression. Truth resides with the "racial minorities" (actually a large majority in the world) and the LGBTQ+ minority in America. The effect of this hostility toward whites, especially white boys in the American public school system, is devastating. Essentially, the public school system is committing genocide against white males. Tucker Carlson reports the effects here. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). They are suspected of making off with a small dog in Pescadero. Theyre being blamed for mysterious sheep deaths in Sonoma County. And local outdoors writer Tom Stienstra even found one lurking outside the back door of his Northern California house the other day. Theyre mountain lions. And lately they seem to be making a ton of cameo appearances all over the Bay Area and up and down the state. Heres a local listing of where the animals have been spotted or at least have been suspected of showing up, sometimes to the alarm of ranchers, wildlife officials and panicked pet owners. On the Prowl in Pescadero Residents in and around this sleepy coastal burg have been on edge in recent days as county officials are warning the public there may be an aggressive mountain lion in the area. Over the weekend, a resident in the 5000 block of Pescadero Creek Road let their small pet outside the home around 9 p.m. on Saturday night. A short time later, the resident reportedly heard the pet yelp and it has not been seen since. Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. From WSWS On the eve of Tuesday's special election in a western Pennsylvania congressional district, President Donald Trump visited the Pittsburgh area for a campaign rally, while both state and national Democrats attacked the administration from a right-wing standpoint, criticizing Trump as insufficiently nationalistic on trade and unduly soft and credulous on North Korea. The March 13 election in the 18th Congressional District, which occupies the southwest corner of the state, adjacent to West Virginia, is to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of the longtime Republican incumbent Mike Kelly, who resigned in a scandal. Trump carried the district in the presidential election by 20 percentage points, but his administration is so unpopular among workers that the congressional race is a virtual tie in pre-election polling. The rally Saturday night near the Pittsburgh airport was nominally in support of the Republican candidate, state legislator Rick Saccone, but Trump barely mentioned the candidate, focusing, as usual, on himself, denouncing the media, and making a series of bigoted and fascistic remarks, particularly in supporting summary execution of alleged drug dealers (see: "Trump calls for execution of drug dealers at Pennsylvania rally"). Significantly, Trump made almost no reference to the huge tax cuts for the wealthy and big business which Republican strategists have portrayed as the party's main achievement. Given the composition of the 18th district, which is predominantly working class and one of the few remaining heavily unionized industrial areas, Trump focused instead on his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which he claimed was already bearing fruit in terms of reopening plants -- a claim that was preposterous, given that he only signed the executive order on Thursday afternoon. The Trump administration is making the same propaganda claims for the executive order on tariffs that it did for the business tax cut, citing a handful of supposedly "pro-worker" actions by the corporations, while ignoring the overall trend. After the tax cut, corporations handed out a few hundred million dollars in employee bonuses, while initiating $170 billion in stock buybacks, dividend payouts and other measures to share the tax windfall with their big shareholders. In similar fashion, a single steel plant reopening has been announced, but that will be endlessly publicized as though Trump's trade war measures were producing a renaissance of American industry. More significant than Trump's now familiar racist, misogynist and completely vulgar ranting was the Democratic response, which was to criticize Trump's policy actions of the past week from the right, from the standpoint of an even more ferocious economic nationalism and a more comprehensive defense of the interests of American imperialism. Conor Lamb, the Democratic candidate in Tuesday's special congressional election, has avoided public criticism of Trump on any issue, while adopting a series of policies identified with the Republican Party, including opposition to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and to any effort to restrict the possession of assault rifles. He is running on his record as a Marine Corps veteran and federal prosecutor. Other Pennsylvania Democrats praised Trump's imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Senator Robert Casey, who is seeking reelection in November, hailed the president for taking "action to protect our steelworkers." Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said, "There is no doubt that if we get a more level playing field, the opportunity to produce more steel is very real." Other Democrats seeking reelection in industrial states sounded the same note, including senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. Most top Democrats have indicated that their only concern with the tariffs was that they should not hit US allies like Canada, but should be targeted against major rivals like China and Russia, which account for only a small fraction of US steel imports. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer told the Washington Post Wednesday, "I totally agree, wholeheartedly agree with President Trump's instinct to go after China ... All of these academics [say] anytime you try to do anything on trade, it's protectionist. They ought to not let that deter them, but they ought to put together a real plan that works." Perhaps the most revealing response to Trump came from Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leader of the Democratic Party's liberal wing, who appeared on three of the five Sunday interview programs, on NBC, CNN and, for the first time, Fox News, in what amounted to a media test drive for a potential presidential bid in 2020. In all three appearances Warren criticized Trump's announced willingness to hold a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, warning that Trump was unprepared for such a meeting, had failed to properly staff the State Department and had never appointed an ambassador to South Korea. She told CNN, "When you're going into negotiations like this, it matters to have the people there first who are working and who are advising about the economy and about our military objectives and who know the players and know the history... I am very worried that he's going to go into these negotiations and be taken advantage of." Warren also criticized Trump from the right on trade tariffs, although she backed his initial action. "I think tariffs are one part of reworking our trade policy overall," she said. "We need a trade policy that's comprehensive, one that makes a distinction between the trading partners that follow the rules and the trading partners that break the rules like China." Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. See original here President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and said he will replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Trump announced the news on Twitter this morning. He also said CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel will be tapped to succeed Pompeo at the CIA. Both would need to be confirmed by the Senate. If confirmed, Gina Haspel will become the first woman to head the CIA. Gina Haspel was directly involved in the CIA's torture program under the George W. Bush administration. She was responsible for running a secret CIA black site in Thailand where prisoners were waterboarded and tortured. We air President Trump's remarks and highlights from Democracy Now! coverage on Pompeo and Haspel. This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I'm Amy Goodman, with this breaking news: President Trump has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and says he'll replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Trump announced the news on Twitter this morning. He also said CIA's Deputy Director Gina Haspel will be tapped to succeed Pompeo at the CIA. Both would need to be confirmed by the Senate. The move comes months after Tillerson reportedly called Trump an "f--ing moron" during a meeting of national security officials. Trump responded to the report by challenging Tillerson to an IQ test. If confirmed, Gina Haspel will become the first woman to head the CIA. Gina Haspel was directly involved in the CIA's torture program under George W. Bush. She was responsible for running a secret CIA black site in Thailand where prisoners were waterboarded and tortured. Last year, I spoke with investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept about Gina Haspel's record. JEREMY SCAHILL: She was one of the people that ran a CIA black site where prisoners were mercilessly tortured, waterboarded, etc. And she, we understand, was the agent who led the destruction of the CIA torture tapes at the direction of the main torture ringleader, Jose Rodriguez, at the Central Intelligence Agency. That is the person who now is going to be the number two at Donald Trump's CIA. And Susan Rice, Obama's ambassador to the U.N., and all these other Democrats are up in arms because a Republican was bragging about her being, you know, the first woman to be named to such a high position, and that, in fact, Obama had also named a woman to a high position in the CIA. The objection is not the black site, not the torture, not the destruction of tapes, but that there was gender equality somehow under Obama, and now Trump has picked this woman. I mean, that's the state where we're at now in our discussion about these policies. The fact is that Trump's administration: Islamophobes, billionaires, bigots and torture lovers. AMY GOODMAN: That's Jeremy Scahill. The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald tweeted today, "Haspel, who will be the first woman to [lead] CIA, didn't just oversee the Bush CIA's black site but directly participated in the horrific torture of detainees. She also participated in the particularly gruesome torture of detainee Abu Zubaydah. This isn't a radical departure for CIA. After all, Haspel did this under George Tenet. At the time, John Brennan -- who became Obama's CIA director -- was an advocate of rendition and other torture methods. And Pompeo was fine with black sites. Still notable: she's an actual torturer." Those the words of Glenn Greenwald in a tweet today after Trump made his announcement. Democracy Now! spoke to Jeremy Scahill about Mike Pompeo in November of 2016, soon after the election of President Trump. JEREMY SCAHILL: What I think we're going to see with someone like Mike Pompeo, if he ends up being the CIA director, first of all, just on a side note that relates to the work we do at The Intercept, Pompeo basically has said that he thinks Edward Snowden should be killed and that he is a treasonous traitor and that he supports domestic surveillance operations, including against American citizens. He has a very strong anti-civil liberties background. And that's why he's getting praise from people like General Michael Hayden and others. Democrats also are speaking positively about him. He's another adult in the room, Juan, like we were talking about Mike Pence. AMY GOODMAN: In December, I spoke to Marcy Wheeler of EmptyWheel about reports that Trump would replace Tillerson with Pompeo. MARCY WHEELER: And there's no reason to believe Pompeo would do a better job. One of -- a couple of the things that Pompeo has been accused of at CIA is bringing religion into public events at the CIA. Cotton would probably continue those at CIA. But Pompeo would do the same, presumably, at State. He has de-emphasized diversity -- really important at both CIA and State Department. We would assume that he would continue to do that there. So, it's -- you know, there's no reason at all to believe that Mike Pompeo would start rebuilding the State Department in a way that we would need to happen. As I said, I think this is really about policy and really about especially Iran. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. As a progressive liberal I have come to a sad conclusion. Congress will not be a solution to Gun Murder. Why? They can't do anything about it and if they could they wouldn't. They will not trade American lives for votes or money. Congress is irrelevant. Congress is symbolic. It still exists for us to believe we live in a Democracy. American society is genocidal and malignant. A society that creates many sociopaths who kill people. I will leave the reasons for this to others. I can only speculate. An AR-15 is an efficient way for these people to express their need to kill. Without a gun, they would use explosives, cars, poison. The second issue is we are all part of a violent genocidal culture that glories in the unfettered destruction of our fellow humans. We are now and always have been. When we consider the Gun Culture, for most an image of a man dressed in camouflage, screaming about his 2nd amendment rights comes to mind. But we are all part of the violent Gun Culture. As taxpayers approve spending $700,000,000 a year creating the most active violent military in the world. Our military threatens intimidates, coerce and rob other people in the world. We pay a tribute of $3.8 billion per month to Israel, another genocidal group. This enables them to brutalize Palestinians whose misfortune is to live on land they want. We support the Saudi's decimation of Yemen. We arm Ukraine. Syria etc. We are the biggest arms dealers in the world. We here in the U.S. have by some estimates 418 million guns. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. From Paul Craig Roberts Website Senator Chuck Schumer (D, NY) says Tillerson's firing indicates that the Trump administration is disintegrating. I understand why Senator Schumer sees it that way, expecially following all the other dismissals and resignations. I see it differently. The firing of Secretary of State Tillerson, the movement of CIA Director Pompeo to Secretary of State, and the promotion of Gina Haspel, who oversaw the secret CIA torture prisons in Thailand, indicate that the military/security complex has closed its grip on the Trump regime. There will be no more talk of normalizing relations with Russia. The combination of the Israel Lobby, the neoconservatives, and the military/security complex have proven to be too powerful for peace to be established between the two nuclear powers. If you look at Trump's administration, the above three forces are those in charge. Israel remains determined to use the US military to destabilize Syria and Iran in order to isolate Hezbollah and cut off the milita's support and supplies. The neoconservatives both support Israel's interest and their own desire for Washington's hegemony over the world. The military/security complex intends to hold on to the "Russia threat" as a justification of its budget and power. The presstitutes are in complete harmony with the scheme. Although Russiagate has been proven to be false charges orchestrated by the DNC, FBI, and CIA, the presstitutes continue to repeat the charges as if evidence exists that proves the charges to be true. The "stolen election" is fiction turned into fact. And now we have a new charge, that Putin ordered a former British spy in England to be eliminated while sitting on a park bench with the use of a highly unlikely form of military poison. The charge is preposterous, but that is not preventing the fiction from becoming fact. Having served in Washington for a quarter century and having known members of the British government, I do not believe that any of them believe the Russiagate and Skripal poisoning stories. What is happening is that an agenda has taken precedence over truth. This is an extremely dangerous agenda. Russia's new weapons easily give Russia military superiority over the US. As China and Iran see the situation similarly to the Russians, the US is greatly out-classed. Yet, Washington and its vassals persist in making violent and false charges and threats against Russia, Iran, and on occasion China. Russia, Iran, and China know that these charges are false. Confronting an endless string of false and hostile charges, they prepare for war. The world is being driven to war, which would be nuclear, by a tiny minority: Israeli Zionists, neoconservatives, and the US military/security complex. We are witnessing the most reckless and irresponsible behavior in world history. Where are the voices against it? 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. (Image by Egberto Willies) Details DMCA Trump's most reliable and consistent supporters are the Evangelicals. It is hard to explain how a group that so went after President Obama, a man with a saint halo when compared to Donald Trump, would support such a degenerate president. It speaks more about them than it does about the president. Bush speechwriter utterly 'destroys' Evangelicals in a lengthy essay Well, it is not only Left Wing Liberals or Progressives who now affirmatively describe Evangelicals now as more than hypocrites because of their implicit support for hate, racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia. If the God they believe in is really one to be feared, then unless they atone in short order, they should fear what their afterlife will look like according to their own beliefs. Show's blog post 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. Whistleblower Summit Hosts with Senator Charles .Chuck. Grassley (Image by Michael McCray) Details DMCA WASHINGTON -- The Whistleblower Summit for Civil & Human Rights congratulates the brave and courageous Women in the U.S. Forest Service and the members of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees. The resignation of U.S. Forest Service Chief Tony Tooke highlights the need for transparency and accountability in the Forest Service and across USDA. This victory--while sudden--did not occur overnight. These Women have been battling racism, sexism and harassment at USDA for over a decade. This grievous on-going, sexual abuse, threatens not only their reputations and livelihoods but ultimately our national security. "A seldom appreciated fact these women are an integral and vital part of our domestic national security grid." Marcel Reid, co-organizer of the Whistleblower Summit adds, "How many of these women are struggling with PTSD while fighting fires when uncontrolled--could have looming domestic and national security implications?" In 2012, the ACORN8 and the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees co-hosted the 1st Whistleblower Summit for Civil & Human Rights on Capitol Hill--and the women of the U.S. Forest Service were prominent participants. Ironically, USDA Forest Service Officials started retaliating against the woman for participating in the conference--while they were still on Capitol Hill! Michael McCray, ACORN 8 Marcel Reid, ACORN 8 Lawrence Lucas, USDA Coalition Ron Cotton, USDA Coalition Lesa Donnelly, USDA Coalition Alicia Dabney, US Forest Service Denice Rice, US Forest Service Darlen Hall, US Forest Service US Forest Service Women at Whistleblower Summit (Image by Michael McCray) Details DMCA Public Television (PBS News Hour) is running a multi-part investigative report on the brave Women in the Forest Service, and while this is the latest media exposure of this travesty--it was not the first. A quick chronology of USDA press coverage since the 2012 Whistleblower Summit. Coverage started with WPFW (Pacifica Radio) and Gloria Minott, host of "Metro Beat" and moderator of the Whistleblower Summit. The radio coverage continued with Mickey Huff of Project Censored on (KPFA). Cable television coverage began with "Breaking the Set" with Abby Martin on RT-Television. Print coverage included Mike Volpe for the Daily Caller, followed by Ron Nixon with the New York Times (special thanks to Stephanie Strom). Finally, Sharyl Attkisson host of "Full Measure" did a story reporting the plight of the Forest Service women and boarder cover up of discrimination cases and corruption at USDA (Michael McCray vs Secretary Vilsack) on broadcast television. 12/11/16 BURNED--History of Harassment (at USDA / Forest Service) Additional, thanks to Marti Oakley's for her monthly coverage of the USDA issues on internet radio. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. From Paul Craig Roberts Website Statue Of Liberty, Mushroom Cloud (Image by pixabay.com) Details DMCA "In a nuclear war the "collateral damage" would be the life of all humanity." -- Fidel Castro The Russians, in their anxiety to show the West how friendly they are, left Washington with a toe-hold in Syria, which Washington is using to reopen the war. The Russians' failure to finish the job has left Washington's foreign mercenaries, misrepresented in the American presstitute media as "freedom fighters," in a Syrian enclave. To get the war going again, Washington has to find a way to come to the aid of its mercenaries. The Trump regime has found, or so it thinks, its excuse in the revival of the Obama regime's fake charge of Syrian use of chemical weapons. This made-up lie by the Obama regime was put to rest by Russian intervention that made sure there were no Syrian chemical weapons. Indeed, if memory serves, Russia delivered the chemical weapons to the US for destruction. Little doubt Washington still has them and will use some of them with their Syrian markings for what appears to be a coming false flag attack that can be blamed on Assad. In other words, Washington will create a "situation," blame Assad and Putin, and with or without congressional authorization introduce US intervention in behalf of Washington's mercenaries. If we can believe James Mattis, the retired US Marine General who is US Secretary of Defense, Syria, a country without chemical weapons and in need of none in its mopping up operations against Washington's mercenaries, is using chlorine gas "against its own people," exactly the same phrase as the Obama regime used when Obama tried to orchestrate an excuse to attack Syria. Mattis said that he is receiving reports of chlorine gas use by Assad while simultaneously saying he has no evidence of gas use, much less by the Syrian Army. The US Secretary of Defense actually accused Syria of "targeting hospitals" with chlorine gas even though he admits there is no evidence. Mattis went on to accuse Russia of complicity in killing civilians, an endeavor in which the US excels. Stephen Lendman reports that CIA Director Pompeo "suggested a US attack on Syrian forces may be forthcoming, saying Trump won't tolerate CW [chemical weapons] attacks, adding he hasn't made a decision on the latest reports about chlorine gas use." US Secretary of State Tillerson joined the orchestrated allegation, even though he admitted there was no evidence. Of course, there has not been any chlorine gas use unless by the Washington-supplied mercenaries. But facts are not important to Washington. What is important to Washington is Israel's demand that Washington destroy Syria and Iran in order to get rid of Hezbollah's supporters so that Israel can seize southern Lebanon. No doubt that other interests are in on the plot. Oil companies that want to control the location of oil and gas pipelines, the crazed neocons married to their ideology of American World Hegemony, the military/security complex that needs enemies and conflicts to justify its massive budget. But it is Israel's determination to expand its boundaries and water resources that set all of the Middle East conflict in motion. Does Russia understand this, or is the Russian government preoccupied with eventually winning acceptance by the West as a part of the West? If the latter, the world is heading for nuclear war. The Russian government does not seem to understand that its pusillanimous response encourages Washington's aggression and, thereby, is driving the world to the final war. Every time Russia fails to finish the job, as in Syria and Ukraine, Russia does not win Washington's friendship, but extends to Washington yet another run at prevailing in the conflict that Washington initiated. Washington will not slack off until Washington is halted in its track, something that Russia does not seem willing to do. Consequently, Washington continues to drive the world to nuclear war. When will the Russians notice that literally everyone in the Trump regime is issuing threats to Russia -- Mattis, Tillerson, Nikki Haley, government spokespersons, the UK PM and UK Foreign Secretary. Yet the Russians still speak about their "partners" and how much they want to get along with the West. There is no prospect whatsoever of the British going to war against Russia. The entirety of the UK would be instantly wiped out, yet the UK PM issues ultimatums to Russia. Here is what Finian Cunningham has to say about the British prime minister threatening Russia. The entire Western world is insane. As Michel Chossudovsky says, the Western politicians and presstitutes who serve them are driving the world to extinction. Note: It appears that the military/security complex is closing its grip on the Trump regime. Secretary of State Tillerson has been fired and is being replaced by CIA Director Pompeo. Gina Haspel, the new CIA Director, is the person who oversaw the CIA's secret torture prisons in Thailand. Most importantly, we have the women of America at near hysteria, so that conversation between men and women has deteriorated at all levels. Our strategy of relentless resistance has been working so far, but there are risks. The American people might just wake up and see that the many major issues that beset our country are going unattended, as we stand by and continue raging about the 2016 election. It is quite probable that as the tax cut and regulatory relief kick in, the people will see how economically ignorant Nancy and Chuck are. They told the American people with absolute certainty that the economy would tank with this administration, that the tax cut was Armageddon, and that the ensuing bonuses to employees were just crumbs. We will be in a lot of trouble if our fellow Americans actually see us for what we are. By far, our most successful transference has been convincing so many Americans of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, while the reality is that we paid millions for opposition research that was manipulated by Putins henchmen. Hopefully, this will continue to go unnoticed by our constituents who find their information on Facebook, or Twitter or dont even bother to pay attention to what we are up to. Telecom Cloud Market - Geographical Outlook and Forecast 2017 - 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=722 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=722 https://www.tmrresearch.com/telecom-cloud-market Telecom Cloud Market:SnapshotThe global telecom cloud market is likely to make steady progress in the coming years due primarily to the rapid expansion of the telecom sector in developing regions such as Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Rapid urbanization in dynamic economies has led to a mounting need for communication protocol that can keep up with the ever-changing environment, lending the telecom cloud market a major boost. The massive consumer demographic in these developing regions is a major driver for the global telecom cloud market, as exponential growth of the telecom sector is likely in highly populous and economically progressive countries such as India, China, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, and Mexico.The increasingly congested telecom sector in developing countries is a promising field for the cloud sector, as the use of advanced technologies such as telecom cloud is likely to remain an important factor in the race for a competitive edge in the telecom market. In populous countries such as India and China, in particular, the ability of a telecom operator to cleverly utilize cloud technology to maximize their benefits could play a vital role.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The rising smartphone ownership in leading Asia Pacific economies is a key factor the telecom cloud market. In countries such as India, China, and most other Southeast Asian countries, access to the Internet isnt remarkable in rural areas and has primarily been boosted by the rising availability of smartphones at affordable prices. The relatively recent entry of digital services in government services in these countries has opened up a significant need for technology that can support immense volumes of data, leading to strong growth prospects the telecom cloud market in Asia Pacific, which is likely to remain the leading regional segment of the global telecom cloud market in the coming years.Global Telecom Cloud Market: OverviewMobility, a continuously rising network of high-speed internet, and cloud computing have emerged as the three crucial cornerstones of a typical networked or connected business ecosystem. As the entire world moves towards a connected future, telecom companies are coming to terms with the opportunity to exploit the growth opportunities offered by cloud services, as both - the providers as well as the adopters of the cloud technology.This report on the global telecom cloud market presents a detailed overview of the present growth dynamics of the market and its segments. Vast forward-looking statements regarding the growth prospects of the market over the period between 2017 and 2025 are also included with the help of a thorough analytical analysis of markets present growth dynamics, inputs from industry experts, and industry-best analytical tools.Request TOC of the Report @The report also includes a detailed overview of the competitive landscape of the market, wherein vast data pertaining to aspects such as recent developments in manufacturing technologies, updation of product portfolios, involvement in activities such as mergers and acquisitions, market share, and finances related to some of the key vendors in the market is included. The report also presents a detailed SWOT analysis of all the market vendors profiled in the report, presenting an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of these companies as well as opportunities and threats affecting their future growth prospects.Global Telecom Cloud Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global telecom cloud market is expected to exhibit growth at a remarkable pace over the reports forecast period. The key factors expected to drive this market include the highly competitive nature of the telecom industry, the need to cut down administration and operational costs to survive amid intense cost pressures, the need to provide excellent services to the highly aware consumer, and the increasing awareness about the vast benefits of cloud computing among telecom companies.Although the market has excellent growth prospects, some factors such as the concerns regarding data security in cloud storage and the rising numbers of highly sophisticated data thefts in the past few years are expected to present challenges to the growth of the telecom cloud market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Nevertheless, the market will observe significant traction owing to high demand from small- and medium-sized enterprises, especially in developing economies. Having realized the vast cost and speed benefits of cloud computing, the demand for cloud solutions across this sector will considerably rise in the near future. Solutions especially made for the specific needs of small and medium-sized enterprises will emerge as one of the top revenue generators for the global telecom cloud market in the near future.Global Telecom Cloud Market: Geographical OutlookOf the key regional markets for telecom cloud, Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as the one with the most promising growth opportunities over the reports forecast period. The vast rise in population and the increasing consumer base of broadband data services and smartphones will compel telecom operators in the region to adopt flexible and cost-effective cloud computing models for providing effective services. North America is expected to be the leading contributor of revenue to the market owing to the presence of some of the most technologically advanced telecom companies in countries such as the U.S. and Canada and the rising investment on the development of data centers across these countries.Companies mentioned in the reportSome of the key vendors operating in the global telecom cloud market are AT&T, Inc., Deutsche Telekom, Level 3 Communications, Inc., Verizon Communication, Inc., and BT Group PLC.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Survey: Automotive Steering Gear Market Share 2018-2025 Bosch, Motorcraft, Cloyes, HLSmith, Xianhe Automotive Steering Gear Market http://bit.ly/2Ikl9R5 http://bit.ly/2tHUomm http://qyresearchstore.com/ A market study "Global Automotive Steering Gear Market" examines the performance of the Automotive Steering Gear market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Automotive Steering Gear market state and the competitive landscape Globally. This report analyzes the potential of Automotive Steering Gear market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Automotive Steering Gear Market 2018 report includes Automotive Steering Gear market Revenue, market Share, Automotive Steering Gear industry volume, market Trends, Automotive Steering Gear Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Automotive Steering Gear Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Automotive Steering Gear Market 2018 :1. Bosch2. Denso3. Motorcraft4. Cardone5. TRW6. Power Steering, Inc.7. ZF8. Cloyes9. ACDelco10. HLSmith11. CTR12. Chaoyang13. Guangyang14. Xianhe15. DiamondAutomotive Steering Gear Market : By Type Passenger Car Commercial Vehicle OtherFirstly, the report covers the top Automotive Steering Gear manufacturing industry players from regions like Global, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Automotive Steering Gear report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Automotive Steering Gear industry, Automotive Steering Gear industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Automotive Steering Gear Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Automotive Steering Gear 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 Steering Gear market revenue worldwide.Finally, Automotive Steering Gear 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 Wheel Loader 2018 Global Industry Key Players - Caterpillar , Komatsu , Doosan , John Deere , CNH Market Analysis And Forecast To 2023 World Wheel Loader Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3039068-world-wheel-loader-market-research-report-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3039068-world-wheel-loader-market-research-report-2022 World Wheel Loader MarketExecutive SummaryWheel Loader 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.The industry report lists the leading competitors and provides the insights strategic industry analysis of the key factors influencing the market.The report includes the forecasts, analysis and discussion of important industry trends, market size, market share estimates and profiles of the leading industry players.Market Research states that the world Wheel Loader market held an opportunity worth US$23,080 Million in 2017.The market is expected to expand at 2.19% CAGR over the period between 2017 and 2022.Request a Sample Report @The players mentioned in our reportCaterpillarKomatsuDoosanJohn DeereCNHTerexHitachiHyundaiKawasakiVolvoJCBWacker Neuson SELiebherrLiuGongSDLGLonkingXGMAXCMGSEM(CAT)FotonLovolKobelco-cgGlobal Wheel Loader Market: Application Segment AnalysisHighway railway constructionMiningUrban constructionGlobal Wheel Loader Market: Regional Segment AnalysisUSAEuropeJapanChinaIndiaTable of Content-Key Points CoveredChapter 1 About the Wheel Loader Industry1.1 Industry Definition1.1.1 Types of Wheel Loader industry1.2 Main Market Activities1.3 Similar Industries1.4 Industry at a GlanceChapter 2 World Market Competition Lanscape2.1 Wheel Loader Markets by regions2.1.1 USAMarket Revenue and Growth Rate 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.1.2 EuropeMarket Revenue and Growth Rate 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.1.3 ChinaMarket Revenue and Growth Rate 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.1.4 IndiaMarket Revenue and Growth Rate 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.1.5 JapanMarket Revenue and Growth Rate 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.2 World Wheel Loader Market by types2.3 World Wheel Loader Market by ApplicationsHighway railway constructionMiningUrban constructionChapter 3 World Wheel Loader Market share3.1 Major players Market share by production3.2 Major players Market share by Revenue3.3 Major Regions Market share by Production in 2017, Through 20223.4 Major Regions Market share By Revenue in 2017, Through 2022Chapter 4 Supply Chain4.1 Industry Supply chain Analysis4.2 Raw material Market analysis4.2.1 Raw material Prices analysis 2012-20174.2.2 Raw material Supply Market analysis4.2 Manufacturing Equipment Suppliers Analysis4.3 Production Process Analysis4.4 Production Cost Structure Benchmarks4.5 End users Market AnalysisContinuedComplete 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 Global Network Mapping Software Market by Application, Comprehensive Analysis, Business Growth Analysis, Prospects and Opportunities till 2022 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/request_sample.php?id=334 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=334 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=334 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/ Global Network Mapping Software Market Professional Survey Report 2017-2022.Network mapping is a process used to discover and visualize physical and virtual network connectivity via a group of interrelated tasks that facilitate the creation of a network map, including flow charts, network diagrams, topology detection and device inventories. It is geared toward the creation of visual aids and materials that can be used for a broad array of purposes, especially network maintenance.This research report provides an in-depth analysis of the global Network Mapping Software Market based on enterprise size, services, solution, end-use industry, and geography. The report also provides an analysis of the factors that drive and restrain the growth of the Network Mapping Software market. It discusses the prevailing market trends, prospective growth opportunities, and major strategies increasing the popularity of the global market. It provides market estimates and forecasts for all the segments in terms of revenue.The report covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the market growth over the forecast period. The competition in the global market for Network Mapping Software will likely heat up in the next couple of years on the back of entry of a substantial number of solution providers. This statistical surveying report presents an all-inclusive assessment of the worldwide market for Network Mapping Software, taking several market verticals, such as the production capacity, product pricing, the dynamics of demand and supply, sales volume, revenue, and the growth rate of this market into consideration.Download PDF Sample Copy:Company Profiled: The Key Players operating in the Network Mapping Software Market includes SmartDraw, EDrawSoft, HelpSystems, Nmap, 10SCAPE, DEK Software International, NetBrain Technologies, ThousandEyes.The report provides competitive landscape of the Network Mapping Software market, thereby listing out all the major players according to their geographic presence, market attractiveness and recent key developments. The competitive landscape section of the report gives an overview about the market share of several key players for the year 2017. Moreover, key takeaways section provided at the end of competitive landscape section would help the operating companies to make the best move in the market.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 market growth. Factors including market position, offerings and R&D focus are attributed to company's capabilities. This section also identifies and includes various recent developments carried out by the leading players.For More Information:The regional analysis of the Global Market splits the global market into key regions that include both continents as well as specific countries that are currently shining in terms of either demand, volume or overall growth. Users of the report can focus on these regions if they are looking to expand their business borders.The stages of development of Network Mapping Software market with respect to many geographic regions have also been presented thoroughly. This information which is provided helps the emerging players gain up-to-date information which can help them take perfect business decisions. In similar way, many other segments and sub segments are mentioned in this market helping in conveying impeccable data to the users.To Get Reasonable Discount:Table of ContentsGlobal Network Mapping Software Market Research Report 2017Chapter 1 Network Mapping Software 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 Market ForecastAbout ITintelligenceMarkets:We at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Contact:Vijay Tanna(IT Intelligence Markets)Panchshil Park, Ganpati Marg, Nigidi, Pune 411044+91 705-760-0700sales@itintelligencemarkets.com Global Surgical Equipment Market to Reach $11 Billion By 2022 | Arizton https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/surgical-equipment-market-global-outlook-and-forecast-2017-2022 https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/surgical-equipment-market-global-outlook-and-forecast-2017-2022 The global market will grow at a CAGR of over 7%. The Electro surgical equipment market growing at a faster pace.Arizton has published a report on Surgical Equipment Market Global Outlook and Forecast 2017-2022. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the global surgical equipment market and provides major segments and their growth forecast.View Report: Surgical Equipment Market Global Outlook and Forecast 2017-2022:Analysts at Arizton say that the surgical sutures and staples segment will be dominant segment and the electrosurgical segment will grow at rapid pace with a CAGR of 8%.The growth of the surgical equipment market is driven by increasing chronic disorders, which require surgeries. For instance, according to the American Academy of Neurology, in 2014, neurologic disorders accounted for 7% of all global diseases. The increased demand for surgical procedures has driven the growth of the surgical equipment market. In addition, the rapid technological advancements have further fuelled the adoption of surgical equipment.Surgical sutures and staples dominated the global surgical equipment market with a share of 53.27% in 2016. The increasing demand for surgical staplers in surgeries such as gastrointestinal, abdominal, thoracic, and gynecology has driven the adoption of this equipment. In addition, the growing technological advancements are expected to drive the adoption rates for such equipment. For instance, in February 2017, Medtronic launched the Signia Stapling System, an advanced surgical stapler, which features sensors (to detect the tissue) and adjust its speed to create optimal staple lines. Also, in 2015, Ethicon launched ECHELON FLEX, a new range of powered vascular staplers which provide better visibility during thoracic surgeries.However, surgical sutures and stapling devices market is expected to near maturity due to the increased demand for advanced and sophisticated products such as hand-held and electrosurgical equipment. With the growing demand to improve patient compliance, vendors are also looking to offer advanced hand-held and electrosurgical equipment in the market. They are increasingly focusing on high penetration into this growing market.For instance, in January 2016, Smith & Nephew completed the acquisition of Blue Belt Holdings, to enhance its position in growing orthopedic surgical equipment market. The acquisition will allow Smith & Nephew to leverage Blue Belt Technologies' NAVIO surgical system, which includes a hand-held bone shaping device. In addition, increasing advantages over conventional equipment will help drive the adoption. For instance, some of the advantages include low risk, minimal chances of infection, faster recovery time, and ease of usage. This is expected to substantially drive the market growth, particularly in developed countries such as the US. Further, the advent of robotic surgeries will drive the demand for advanced surgical equipment. For instance, the surgical robots work with four arms, which increased the requirement of various surgical equipment such as electrosurgical devices. In terms of application, the surgical equipment market is witnessing an increased demand for cosmetic surgeries, which is expected to fuel adoption rates of surgical equipment. For instance, according to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, number of individuals seeking cosmetic procedures has increased by almost 100% since last few years.Request a Free Sample:The report also offers a detailed study of major trends, drivers, challenges, and also provides the market size and forecast for major geographical regions and key countries.About Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceArizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.Arizton has gained a paramount standpoint in the market research arena as it offers top of the line solutions to clients to assess market landscape and to finalize foolproof business strategies. We are committed to provide inclusive market research reports and consulting services to clients from diversified industries including Consumer Goods & Retail Technology, Automotive and Mobility, Smart Tech, Healthcare and Lifesciences, Industrial Machinery, Chemicals and Materials, IT and Media, Logistics and PackagingArizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceChicago, Illinois, 60605Mail: enquiry@arizton.comCall: +1-312-465-7864 Cyber Security Market | Top Companies, Growth Factors, Technology & Innovation Trends from 2013 to 2023 https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/cyber-security-market https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/cyber-security-market/report-sample https://www.psmarketresearch.com Global cyber security market size is projected to cross $165.0 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 10.7% during 2017-2023. The market is growing mainly due to its increased adoption in multiple industries, such as aerospace and defense, government, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), healthcare, retail, IT & telecom, and manufacturing.Explore Full Report Description At:In terms of industry, the cyber security market is broadly categorized into aerospace and defence, government and public utilities, BFSI, healthcare, retail, IT & telecom, manufacturing, and others such as education, manufacturing, and hospitality. Aerospace and defence contributed the largest revenue to the global market in 2016, and is also projected to lead throughout the forecast period, with the largest revenue contribution. Government and public utilities contributed the second largest revenue share, accounting for approximately 19% of the global market in 2016.The European cyber security market in 2016 was valued at $23.7 billion and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.5% during 2017-2023, to cross $44.0 billion by 2023. Among all the European countries, the U.K. accounted for the largest revenue share of nearly 40% of the European market in 2016. The cyber security industry in the U.K. was worth $9,290.5 million in 2016 and is expected to grow at CAGR of 9.9% during 2017-2023, to reach $17,925.0 million by 2023.Download Free Sample Report At:Some of the major players in the cyber security market are BAE Systems, RSA Security LLC, IBM Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Palo Alto Networks, Inc., Fortinet, Inc., FireEye, Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, Cisco Systems Inc., and Juniper Networks, Inc. Key competitors are specifically focusing on Asia-Pacific and Europe, owing to the visible signs of market growth in these regions.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide market research reports: industry reports, business intelligence and research based consulting services across a range of industries.With the help of our professional corporate relations with various companies, our market research offers the most accurate market forecasting. Our analysts and consultants interact with leading companies of the concerned domain to substantiate every single data presented in our publication. Our research assists our client in identifying new and different windows of opportunity and frame informed and customized strategies for expansion in different regions.Contact:P&S Market Research347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb: Regulatory Affairs Outsourcing Market will rise to US$5.7 bn by 2023 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/global-regulatory-affairs-outsourcing-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=3528 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=3528 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ The global regulatory affairs outsourcing market is fragmented and a very small number of players have been able to acquire dominance in the market. There exists a large number of small and medium-sized companies in the market which is granting high bargaining power to clients and buyers. The competition between market players is extremely high. The players are competing with each other by differentiating their products and providing products in cheaper prices. The acceptance of electronic submissions on account of technological advancements by healthcare authorities and compliance agencies will drive the growth prospects of the global regulatory affairs outsourcing market, states Transparency Market Research (TMR).Read Report Overview:According to Transparency Market Research, the global regulatory affairs outsourcing market will be worth US$5.7 bn by 2023. On the basis of type of regulatory affairs services, it is expected that clinical trial applications and product registration segment will be gaining immense traction on account of patent expires, and need for developing new products due to the growing prevalence of chronic, bacterial, and viral diseases. As a number of products in clinical trials is increasing, the demand for product registration services and clinical trial application services is increasing.Emerging Nations Holding Immense Growth OpportunitiesOn the basis of geography it is expected that the emerging nations in Latin America and Asia Pacific will turn out to be extremely promising markets for regulatory affairs outsourcing. product development, rise in the commercialization units, increasing number of researches and availability of cheap resources and raw materials will drive the growth of this market in emerging economies. Also, the vast pool of patient population in Asia Pacific will create a favourable environment for growth. Many new entrants are using emerging nations for launching themselves in order to later on venture into the bigger markets of North America and Europe.Request Sample of Report:Realization that Outsourcing is Cost Effective and Resource Effective Favouring DemandAccording to the lead author of the support, the rising pace with which innovations are taking place in the medical sector, growing investments in research and development activities, and increasing competition between the players are helping the regulatory affairs outsourcing market to grow. Companies within the market are finding ways of reducing cost in order to attract more customers. The market is also growing due to the rising awareness and realization that outsourcing is cost-effective and resource effective way for the managing of data generated during approvals, clinical trials, and patent approvals.Download Brochure of Report:Presence of Strict Regulatory Framework Governing Aspects of Marketing and Development of Drugs to Boost Growth of MarketAlso, in many countries there is a presence of strict regulatory framework which governs each aspect of development and marketing of clinical drugs and medical devices, which makes it necessary that the regulatory documents be as per the define guidelines. This is driving the preference for professional service providers who all free services such as efficient handling of data relating to regulatory affairs.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: Industrial Adhesive Market In-depth study of the Market with growth factors, Uses, Applications, Key players, Trends and Forecasts https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1927 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/industrial-adhesive-market-1927 Industrial Adhesive Market:The Global Industrial Adhesive market is replacing fasteners in automotive, construction, packaging industries owing to its superiors physical properties. Global industrial adhesive market is USD XX Billion in 2018 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 to 2022. Rise in productivity, increase in R&D investment and growth in disposable consumer income in emerging economies drive the adhesive application industry. With increasing environmental concerns, government regulations and turmoil of price and supply of industrial crude oil is expected to affect demand in forecasted period. Industrial Adhesive is dominated more in APAC region due to growing manufacturing sector and cheap labor cost. North America and Europe have shown sluggish growth, followed by RoW.Sample Pages@Study Objectives of Industrial Adhesive Market:To study detail of Global Industrial Adhesive market by product type, by application and by region in forecasted period 2022.To identify the market dynamics of industrial adhesive market dynamics by drivers, restrains, opportunities and challenges.To analyze various factors like Value chain analysis and porters five forces model.To provide historical and forecast revenue of market segment with respect to North America, Europe, APAC and RoW.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 mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, new product development of each applicant industrial adhesive market.Market Features:Over the past few years, the global market has witnessed a remarkable growth due to increasing demand of fasteners like Adhesive. This has brought out a higher growth rate of the global Industrial Adhesive market at the end of forecasted period. The applicant industries like automobile, Electronics and electrical, medicines have seen a phenomenal growth over a period. As per analysis, emerging economies like China, Brazil and India are increasing production with rise in use of Adhesive. APAC has seen as key market player in economy followed by North America, Europe and Row.Scope of the studyThe scope of the study categorizes the Industrial Adhesive market as type, and application.By TypeAcrylicPolyvinyl acetateEpoxyPolyurethaneEthyl vinyl acetateBy ApplicationAutomobileConstructionElectronics and electricalPersonal utilitiesMedical deviceKey Player:Henkel AG & Co. KGaA,H.B. Fuller,The Dow Chemical Company,Sika AG,Cytec Industries Inc,Hitachi Chemical Co,Avery Dennison, Bostik SA,RPM international Inc and Wacker Chemie AG.Browser Pages@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.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Cloud ERP Market - Competitive Outlook Foreseen by 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=926 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=926 https://www.tmrresearch.com/cloud-erp-market Global Cloud ERP Market : SnapshotCloud ERP or cloud enterprise resource planning refers to using cloud computing platforms and services for making business operations better and smoother. The introduction of these services has led to process transformation for several organizations and companies. Known as one of the leading technologies of the modern world, cloud computing entails usage of internet for storing records, documents, tools, and shared computing records. Adoption of this technology has allowed companies to host their complete computing infrastructure on virtual platforms through remote data centers. Today, cloud ERP is used for managing human capital, finance, and several other important aspects of a business.In the coming years, analysts visualize that intelligent usage of cloud ERP application will reduce operational expenses. A key advantage of using these solutions will be the ability for organizations, businesses, and institutes to avoid the need to purchase servers, storage hardware, and thereby reduce the expenditure required for maintaining them. Despite the several benefits of using cloud ERP solutions, the technology comes with its set of disadvantages.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The downside of deploying ERP software is the issue of integration of companys legacy systems and ERP modules. Solutions that are designed to ensure this smooth transfer are expected to open up several new markets for the global cloud ERP market in the near future. Yet another key factor likely to support the growth of the global market is the confidence enjoyed by companies that their data is backed up at all times and that the solution comes with a disaster recovery plan.Global Cloud ERP Market: OverviewThe global cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) market is expected to display double-digit growth rate in the coming years. Businesses are increasingly integrating cloud-based ERP applications with conventional ones, thereby creating hybrid ERP systems that can support new business models and can be scaled to serve new customer demands.The cloud ERP market can be segmented by function, organization site, component, deployment mode, vertical, and region. In terms of function, finance is projected to display the highest growth rate in the coming years; this is mainly due to the need for efficient and reliable management of different financial activities such as assets management, cash flow management, accounting, and investments. However, operations stood as the largest function segment in the recent years due to the exponentially increasing demand for such solutions from various industry verticals for the execution of business processes.Request TOC of the Report @In terms of component, managed services is expected to display the highest growth rate in the coming years, while professional services is expected to account for the largest share of the overall market. Furthermore, consulting professional services is expected to exhibit the highest growth rate in the coming years. In the recent past, implementation services accounted for a major share in the cloud professional services market due to the complexities involved in their integration with existing systems.The report on the global cloud ERP market looks into the various growth factors and market opportunities along with factors holding back the markets growth. The meticulous segmentation of the market covered in this report helps to comprehend the growth prospects of different segments, which in turn, assist to make strategic moves in this industry.Global Cloud ERP Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe rising adoption of cloud services and mobile applications along with the increasing demand from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to attain optimum business process efficiency and transparency are the major factors driving the global cloud ERP market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @An increasing demand from SMEs and large enterprises from diverse industry verticals for hosted ERP services and solutions is further propelling the growth of the cloud ERP market. The increasing support from governments across the world for the advancement of IT infrastructure across enterprises is expected to boost the demand for such solutions.Global Cloud ERP Market: Regional OutlookThe global cloud ERP market can be divided into the regional segments of North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America followed by Europe account for the largest revenue contribution to the global market. This is mainly due to the presence of established cloud ERP vendors and service providers in these regions. This is complemented with the early adoption of innovative technological solutions in the developed economies of the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.However, Asia Pacific is projected to emerge as the fastest growing region in the global cloud ERP market due to the ever-increasing adoption of such solutions across both large and SMEs in this region.Global Cloud ERP Market: Competitive OutlookSome of the leading companies that offer cloud ERP solutions and services worldwide are Microsoft Corporation, SAP SE, Sage Software Inc., Intacct Corporation, PLex Systems Inc., Oracle Corporation, Infor, Epicor Software Corporation, Finacialforce.com, and Ramco Systems. The report looks into the both inorganic and organic growth strategies that have been employed by key vendors in this market. This includes innovative product launches, partnerships and collaborations, and mergers and acquisitions to expand their portfolio in the global cloud ERP market.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 The mother and husband of Jennifer Golick, a victim in Fridays Yountville killings, held two brief press conferences on Monday outside Golicks St. Helena home. Leilani Gray spoke without notes, while Marc Golick read from a prepared statement about Fridays tragedy at The Pathway Home where his wife and two other staff members were killed. Speaking of her daughter, mother Leilani Gray said, What a great lady she was and still is in my heart. I still miss her. She added, I feel sadness throughout my entire body. I woke up yesterday morning crying through my sleep and when I got up I was still crying. Im still crying inside and will be forever. She added, Im just hoping we can get through the next couple of weeks, couple of months and couple of years with as little as possible going on to try to get back to a normal life. Golicks husband Marc said, Its with an incredibly deep sadness that I mourn the loss of my wife, Dr. Jennifer Golick. She was a very beloved mother, sister, daughter, colleague and friend. We appreciate the outpouring of love and support from our St. Helena community and outlying communities as well. She is missed terribly. Evaporative Condensing Unit Market - Latest Trends and Opportunities Foreseen by 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=941 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=941 https://www.tmrresearch.com/evaporative-condensing-unit-market Global Evaporative Condensing Unit Market : SnapshotThe applications of evaporative condensers in commercial HVAC have been common over the past few decades. However the recent rate of advancement in this field has been enormous, thanks to the incorporation of newer and better materials, faster and cost-efficient manufacturing processes, and the increasing demand for the perfect HVAC system. The basis of evaporative condensers lies in the enhancement of heat rejection through the evaporation process. In this process, water is sprayed on a coil with air being blown simultaneously through the coil. This air comes from the natural heat of a room and causes the sprayed water to evaporate, thereby becoming cooler and aiding in the cooling of an environment. An evaporative condenser can be used at lower temperatures in order to minimize the load on a compressor, thereby allowing for a reduction in the total power drawn by the HVAC unit. Evaporative condensers can also be used reduce the overall downtime of an HVAC unit, while also making it less expensive in terms of repairs and maintenance, when compared to the air-cooled condensers. This is because evaporative condensers operate at a much smaller pressure difference than the latter. The benefits of using evaporative condensers further increase through the growing demand experienced by this market, coming from the rapidly evolving industrial sectors of all regions in the world, and especially the emerging economies. The relatively high use of high-performance evaporative condensers in refrigeration is also something to watch out for over the coming years, as the growing demand for refrigeration shelves, displays and containers in the food and beverages industry is likely to keep the players in the global evaporative condensing unit market on their toes.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Evaporative Condensing Unit Market: OverviewEvaporative condensing units are installed for refrigeration needs across various industries such as chemical, power, and commercial industries among others due to their energy efficient features. The booming food and beverage industry displays an extensive demand for evaporative condensing units for several end-users such as cold stores, restaurants, warehouses, and food processing units. The developing food processing and storage facility industry in emerging economies is anticipated to fuel the growth of the refrigeration application segment of the overall market.The global evaporative condensing unit market can be segmented on the basis of design, end-use, application, and region. The most applications of evaporative condensing units are refrigeration and air conditioning; of the two, the refrigeration application segment is anticipated to lead the global evaporative condensing unit market.The key end users of evaporative condensing units include but are not limited to: Commercial, chemical, and power.Request TOC of the Report @The market study presents a thorough overview of the global evaporative condensing unit market, with insights into key growth drivers, restraints, and trends that will impact the markets future development. The report also delves into the latest trends and opportunities that companies in the global evaporative condensing unit market can leverage for growth.The report is prepared by gathering data from primary and secondary research sources and using standard research methodologies. The detailed assessment of the global evaporative condensing unit market presented in this study will assist managers, policy makers, and business analysts make informed business decisions.Global Evaporative Condensing Unit Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe development of advanced evaporative condensing units is primarily driving the growth of the global evaporative condensing unit market. Evaporative condensing units that are technologically advanced are being preferred owing to their extended shelf life and durability and they also facilitate improved performance of air-conditioning and refrigeration systems.Furthermore, evaporative condensing units are used in large commercial industries, particularly the ones that require above 100 tons of refrigeration.Global Evaporative Condensing Unit Market: Regional OutlookThe global evaporative condensing unit market can be segmented into the regional segments of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Among these, the Middle East and Africa are expected to dominate the global evaporative condensing unit market in the coming years. Saudi Arabia is expected to contribute significantly to the growth of the Middle East and Africa evaporative condensing unit market due to the high economic growth in the country.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @In the coming years, the Middle East and Africa evaporative condensing unit market is expected to display a significant growth rate. This is due to the development of the chemical industry, which in turn displays substantial demand for evaporative condensing units in this region.The rising concerns about the high global warming potency of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) refrigerants have negatively impacted the growth of the evaporative condensing unit market in North America and Europe. In Europe, refrigerants need to meet EN 378 and ISO 5149 standards in order to be certified as non-toxic and non-flammable. Moreover, the European Environment Agency keeps a check on ammonia emissions from industrial units, commercial, domestic, and agricultural sectors and has laid out stringent regulations for the use of ammonia.In the U.S., the need to obtain EPA SNAP approval is compulsory before ammonia can be used in refrigerants.Major Companies Mentioned in ReportSome of the leading companies in the global evaporative condensing unit market are Baltimore Aircoil Company Inc., SPX Corporation, Evapco Inc., and Mammoth Inc. among others.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 Significant Information on Skin Diagnosis System Sales Market-by Type, Application, Market Share, End Users, Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast to 2023 http://qyreports.com/request-sample?report-id=45007 http://qyreports.com/ask-for-discount?report-id=45007 http://qyreports.com/enquiry-before-buying?report-id=45007 http://qyreports.com/payment-form?report-id=45007 www.qyreports.com Skin diagnosis systems are equipment used for diagnosis of each skin type. They act as a very useful tool for healthcare and beauty professionals. These systems are used by healthcare professionals and dermatologists to detect skin cancer and different skin disorders. 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Both these methods are aimed towards cooperating specific and scrupulous data concerning the market dynamics, historical events, and the current market scenario.Companies Profiled In This Report:Bomtech, Canfield Imaging Systems, Callegari, Michelson Diagnostics, Verisante Technology, NinePoint Medical, taberna pro medicum, Mela Sciences, Bio-Therapeutic, AGFA Healthcare, Cynosure, MHT Optic ResearchAvail 30% Discount On This Premium Report@:The report analyzes the competitive landscape in this market by examining the profiles of the established market players to gain an insight into the current market hierarchy. The prevailing and the imminent organizations in the worldwide market for Skin Diagnosis System Sales has also been deliberated in this research report in specifics, making it a valuable resource for supervision for the stakeholders operating in this market.This research report presents a comprehensive overview of the market for Skin Diagnosis System Sales discusses the driving forces, limiting factors, opportunities, and challenges of this market at length. This detailed evaluation of the driving factors, obstacles, and the prominent market trends assists the companies in understanding the issues they may face while functioning in this market over the coming years.For More Enquiry@:Reason to Access Global Skin Diagnosis System Sales Market Research Report:This research study offers a comprehensive overview of the latest developments and investment pattern in the Global Skin Diagnosis System Sales Market. Under investments, the report provides a brief overview of the major mergers and acquisitions in the big data security market. This market research report identifies key players in the market and provides a comprehensive analysis of their key company facts, business overview, segmentation, SWOT analysis, business strategies, and key information.Purchase This Report Now@:Table of Contents:Global Skin Diagnosis System Sales Market Research Report 2017Chapter 1: Global Skin Diagnosis System Sales 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 Skin Diagnosis System Sales Market ForecastIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.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.QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.com Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market Size to reach $7.2 billion by 2023 https://kbvresearch.com/managed-wi-fi-solutions-market/ According to a new report Global Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market, published by KBV research, the Global Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market size is expected to reach $7.2 billion by 2023, rising at a market growth of 16% CAGR during the forecast period.The North America market holds the largest market share in Global Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Installation & Provisioning Services Market by Country in 2016, and would continue to be a dominant market till 2023; growing at a CAGR of 10.4 % during the forecast period. The Europe market is expected to witness a CAGR of 18.4% during (2017 2023) in Global Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Survey, System Analysis & Integration and Upgradation Services Market. Additionally, The Asia Pacific market is expected to witness a CAGR of 20.8% during (2017 2023) in Global Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Training, Maintenance & Support Services Market.The IT & Telecom market holds the largest market share in Global Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market by Vertical in 2016, and would continue to be a dominant market till 2023; growing at a CAGR of 14.2 % during the forecast period. The Education market is expected to witness a CAGR of 18.5% during (2017 2023). Additionally, The Retail market would garner market size of $1,058.2 million by 2023.Full Report:The market research report has exhaustive quantitative insights providing a clear picture of the market potential in various segments across the globe with country wise analysis in each discussed region. The key impacting factors of the Global Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market have been discussed in the report with the elaborated company profiles of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Aruba Networks), Vodafone Group Plc., Fujitsu Limited, Verizon Communications, Inc., Comcast Corporation, Rogers Communications, Brocade Communications Systems (Ruckus Wireless, Inc.), Mojo Networks, Inc., MegaPath, and Cisco Systems, Inc.Global Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market Size SegmentationBy ComponentSolutionServicesInfrastructureInstallation & ProvisioningSurvey, System Analysis & Integration and UpgradationTraining, Maintenance & SupportNetworkingNetwork SecurityNetwork ConsultingNetwork Planning & DesigningConfiguration & Change ManagementOthersBy VerticalIT & TelecomManufacturingGovernmentTransportation, Logistics, & HospitalityEducationBFSIHealthcare and Life SciencesRetailOthersBy GeographyNorth America Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market SizeUS Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market SizeCanada Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market SizeMexico Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market SizeRest of North America Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market SizeEurope Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketGermany Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketUK Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketFrance Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketRussia Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketSpain Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketItaly Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketRest of Europe Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketAsia Pacific Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketChina Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketJapan Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketIndia Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketSouth Korea Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketSingapore Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketMalaysia Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketRest of Asia Pacific Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketLAMEA Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketBrazil Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketArgentina Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketUAE Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketSaudi Arabia Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketSouth Africa Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketNigeria Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketRest of LAMEA Managed Wi-Fi Solutions MarketCompanies ProfiledHewlett Packard Enterprise (Aruba Networks)Vodafone Group Plc.Fujitsu LimitedVerizon Communications, IncComcast CorporationRogers CommunicationsBrocade Communications Systems (Ruckus Wireless, Inc.)Mojo Networks, Inc.MegaPathCisco Systems, Inc.Unique Offerings from KBV ResearchExhaustive coverage of Global Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market SizeHighest number of market tables and figuresSubscription based model availableGuaranteed best priceAssured post sales research support with 10% customization freeRelated Reports:North America Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market (2017-2023)Europe Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market (2017-2023)Asia Pacific Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market (2017-2023)LAMEA Managed Wi-Fi Solutions Market (2017-2023)Knowledge Based Value Research is a global brand and consulting firm serving all kinds of business verticals, government and non-governmental organizations, and not-for-profit organizations. Our motto is to extend our services that will have a lasting impact on our clients who trust us with their business goals.4F CS 27, Ansal PlazaSector 1, Vaishali 201010Delhi NCR, Ghaziabad, IndiaTel: 0120-4968631 / +91-9990696033Email: info@kbvresearch.com Dyes Market : Rapidly gaining importance in the global industry 2016 - 2024 Dyes Market https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/dyes-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=8128 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Dyes are colored substances applied in the form of an aqueous solution on various substrates. These are used as colorants in different industrial applications such as food processing, printing inks, wood stain, textile processing, and others. Dyes have high selective absorptivity for liquids as well as substrates as compared to other color-imparting materials such as pigments. Excellent absorption characteristics of dyes enable them to lose their physical and structural properties during their application on substrates. Low resistance to light and reduced shelf life are some of the other distinct features of dyes. Thus, they are generally used in surface coating, food, and printing applications that require high transparency levels for manufacturing finished products. Dyes can be classified on the basis of their solubility in a particular medium or substrate as basic dyes, fat-soluble dyes, and metal complex dyes.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @The global market for dyes has been witnessing significant growth due to rising demand from end-user industries such as food, textile, printing inks, and paints & coatings. Developing economies such as China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia are likely to play a substantial role in boosting consumption of dyes in the next few years. India and Indonesia are gradually taking the lead in manufacturing dyes due to availability of raw materials as well as various organic intermediate chemicals. Countries in ASEAN such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and Singapore are expected to be emerging markets owing to development of key end-users such as paints & coatings and food processing. Furthermore, growth in these countries is expected to be boosted by shift in production of dyes from developed regions such as Europe and North America. Trends have changed during the past 10 years due to several factors such as lower cost of production in Asia Pacific as well as rising prominence of the region, which acts as the hub for end-user industries such as textile, food, and paints & coatings. This shift in production trends from the West to East has caused the global market for dyes to become concentrated, particularly in Asia Pacific. This, in turn, has resulted in intense competition in the market.However, concerns have been raised over excess cost of interest. This has lowered investment in research and development activities, which serve as the key source of service and product innovations. In addition, high energy costs have negatively impacted production units.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @Asia Pacific accounted for the largest share of the dyes market, followed by developed regions such as Europe and North America in 2014. Increasing demand from various end-user industries coupled with growing population and governmental support is expected to boost demand for dyes in the next few years. In addition, growing preference of end-users for eco-friendly products is anticipated to drive growth of the dyes market during the forecast period. However, rising health concerns regarding hazardous usage of dyes is likely to decelerate growth of the market in Europe and North America. This has forced manufacturers toward producing environmentally-friendly dye products. Rising demand for innovative products such as high-performance dyes is projected to provide new opportunities for growth of the market in the near future. Furthermore, ease of transportation modes and support from the government and regulatory bodies to improve clearance tax re estimated to propel trade. This, in turn, is expected to boost consumption of dyes in the global market.BASF SE, KRONOS Worldwide Inc., Haining Tongyuan Chemical Factory, Lanxess, Rockwood Holdings, Inc., and Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. are key players present in the global dyesAbout 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 Guidewires Market, Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3922 https://www.mrrse.com/guidewires-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/3922 https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a new research report named Global Guidewires Market to its extensive research database. The report also provides the historical and current scenario of the global market for guidewires. The report includes intelligence on intermediaries and companies participating in the commercialization and manufacturing of several guidewires, along with new entrants preparing to enter this domain. Furthermore, the revenue and market size of the global market for guidewires is carried out. For further study, the historical data for 2015 has been provided, wherein 2016 is the base year and the timeline from 2017 till 2025 is the forecast period.Get Free Sample Copy of Global Guidewires Market Report in our inbox:The research report on global market for guidewires also includes the national and regional market analysis on account of revenue, based on end use and on the basis of product type. The worldwide market for guidewires also covers a detailed executive summary which includes a wide analysis about the different segments of guidewires market. The research publication also offers a comprehensive competitive scenario, along with the key players functioning in the global market for guidewire in terms of value. The overview portion includes influencing aspects such as major market forces including opportunities, restraints and drivers influencing the demand for the global guidewire market.Global Guidewires Market: Segmental Analysis & Regional OutlookThe study report categorizes the worldwide market for guidewire into geography, end-user, and on the basis of product type. On the basis of region, the report bifurcates the international market into Middle East & Africa, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and North America. Additionally, the assessment of key countries such as GCC Countries, Israel, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Australia & New Zealand, India, Japan, China, Russia, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and U.S. Canada have been in listed in the report. A brief analysis of the key drivers and restraints are also provided in this research report, enabling the reader to get a clear picture of the global guidewire market across different regions. Based on end-user, the study categorizes the guidewire market into diagnostic centers, ambulatory surgical centers, clinics, and hospitals. On the basis of product type, the market divides the global market for guidewire into gastroenterology guidewires, radiology guidewires, urology guidewires, neurovascular guidewires, peripheral guidewires, coronary guidewires and others (otolaryngology & oncology). Of these, the coronary guidewires segment is expected to have the maximum share in the market owing to an increase in cardiovascular diseases at a global level.Browse Full Global Guidewires Market Report with TOC @Global Guidewires Market: Competitive AnalysisThe report offers the overall outlook of the global market for guidewires that will help the newly established companies in expanding their business as well as market presence in this domain. Some of the emerging companies operating in the worldwide market for guidewire are SP Medical A/S, EPflex Feinwerktechnik GmbH, and Entellus Medical, Inc. The research publication also includes the current growth of market competitors, their business strategies, product portfolio analysis, SWOT analysis and financial overview. Some of the major companies operating in the worldwide market for guidewire includes, Medtronic, Boston Scientific Corporation, Merit Medical Systems, Inc., Cook, CONMED Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc., Olympus Corporation, Stryker, B. Braun Melsungen AG, ASAHI INTECC CO., LTD., Integer Holdings Corporation, Terumo Medical Corporation and Abbott.Have any Query about this Report? Ask our Expert atAbout (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Medical Devices 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 12207 (United States)Telephone: +1-518-730-0559 (US- Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At: Global Geofencing Market, Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017-2022 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3919 https://www.mrrse.com/geofencing-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/3919 https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has added a new research report titled Global Geofencing Market to its extensive research database. The report showcases estimates on its growth and also analyzes the geofencing market based on a holistic point of view. The prominent competitors in the international market for geofencing have been profiled. The report also covers future market projections that can be used to slate key decisions. Additionally, the remarkable growth achieved by these competitors with new developments in the geofencing market have been includes in the research report with a view to evaluate the impact of these developments on the geofencing market over the forecast period.Get Free Sample Copy of Global Geofencing Market Report in our inbox:Global Geofencing Market: Report SynopsisThe report starts with an executive summary followed by market overview that reflects a summary of the information associated with the market with respect to various market estimations including metrics such as Year-on Year growth rate, dollar opportunities as well as compound annual growth rate. Furthermore, a comprehensive executive summary provides the market forecast on a regional basis. Whereas, the overview offers a brief summary of global geofencing market. The word geofencing is also been thoroughly explained within the introduction chapter. The research publication also provides analysis on various factors impacting the dynamics of the international market for geofencing. The report further provides information on some of the leading companies operating in the geofencing market.Research MethodologyFor the further analysis of global geofencing market, MRRSE has deployed business consultants, specialized experts, and analyst teams that have been formed to carry out the research on this market. Primary and secondary research methods have been deployed for providing the exact estimations of global geofencing market. The research report also provides the market revenue and size. The credibility of this business document lies in the evaluation of interviews with key market representatives and personnel of major companiesBrowse Full Global Geofencing Market Report with TOC @Global Geofencing Market: Segmental Analysis & Regional OverviewThe report segments the global geofencing market on the basis of the component, region, end use, and the type of network. The report also provides the forecast and analysis of the worldwide market for geofencing through various segments. On the basis of end use industry, the report segments the international market into retail, defense and aerospace, healthcare and life sciences, transportation and Logistics and others. Based on component, the study categorize the worldwide market for geofencing into Smart Sensors, RFID Tag and Software Application. On the basis of region, the report bifurcates the geofencing market into Japan, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Europe into Eastern European and Western European Countries, Latin America includes Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, whereas North America into US and Canada.Global Geofencing Market: Key PlayersThe report profiles some of the leading companies in the worldwide geofencing market which includes Bluedot Innovation, Simpli.Fi, Mobinius Technologies Pvt. Ltd., GeoMoby, Apple Inc., Swirl Networks, Localytics, Thumbvista, and Mapcite.Have any Query about this Report? Ask our Expert atAbout (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Information and Technology 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 12207 (United States)Telephone: +1-518-730-0559 (US- Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At: Natural Emulsifiers : Players Focus on Inexpensive and High-performance Formulations (BASF SE, Solvay SA, AAK, DuPont, Nisshin Oillio Group) Natural Emulsifiers https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1531818 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-natural-emulsifiers-market-professional-survey-report-2018-report.html/toc www.researchmoz.us Press Release - 13 Mar 2018Global Research and Development News --. .Report Description-' 'This report studies Natural Emulsifiers 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, covering1. BASF SE2. Solvay SA3. AAK4. DuPont5. Nisshin Oillio Group. . Get Sample Report' '6. Archer Daniels Midland7. Croda International Plc8. KLK OLEO9. Cargill Inc10. Inolex11. Avlast Hydrocolloids12. Cosphatec GmbH13. Sederma S.A.S14. Symrise AG15. Dow Corning Corp16. Eastman Chemical Company17. P&G Chemicals18. Firmenich SA19. Givaudan S.A.20. International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc21. Koninklijke DSM N.V22. Lanxess AG23. Lonza Group Limited24. The Lubrizol CorporationOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into1. Source From Olive2. Source From Sugar Cane3. OtherBy Application, the market can be split into1. Food & Beverage2. Cosmetics & Personal Care3. Pharmaceutical4. OtherBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North America1. China2. Europe3. Southeast Asia4. Japan5. India. . More Clear Details get Table of Contents..Table of ContentsGlobal Natural Emulsifiers Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Natural Emulsifiers1.1 Definition and Specifications of Natural Emulsifiers1.1.1 Definition of Natural Emulsifiers1.1.2 Specifications of Natural Emulsifiers1.2 Classification of Natural Emulsifiers1.2.1 Source From Olive1.2.2 Source From Sugar Cane1.2.3 Other1.3 Applications of Natural Emulsifiers1.3.1 Food & Beverage1.3.2 Cosmetics & Personal Care1.3.3 Pharmaceutical1.3.4 Other1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Natural Emulsifiers2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Natural Emulsifiers2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Natural Emulsifiers2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Natural Emulsifiers3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Natural Emulsifiers3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Natural Emulsifiers Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Natural Emulsifiers Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Natural Emulsifiers Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Natural Emulsifiers Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Natural Emulsifiers Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Natural Emulsifiers Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Natural Emulsifiers Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Natural Emulsifiers Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)5 Natural Emulsifiers Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Natural Emulsifiers Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Natural Emulsifiers Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Market Share Analysis5.2 China Natural Emulsifiers Market Analysis5.2.1 China Natural Emulsifiers Market Overview5.2.2 China 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Market Share Analysis5.3 Europe Natural Emulsifiers Market Analysis5.3.1 Europe Natural Emulsifiers Market Overview5.3.2 Europe 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.3.3 Europe 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Sales Price Analysis5.3.4 Europe 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Market Share Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Natural Emulsifiers Market Analysis5.4.1 Southeast Asia Natural Emulsifiers Market Overview5.4.2 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.4.3 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Sales Price Analysis5.4.4 Southeast Asia 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Market Share Analysis5.5 Japan Natural Emulsifiers Market Analysis5.5.1 Japan Natural Emulsifiers Market Overview5.5.2 Japan 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.5.3 Japan 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Sales Price Analysis5.5.4 Japan 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Market Share Analysis5.6 India Natural Emulsifiers Market Analysis5.6.1 India Natural Emulsifiers Market Overview5.6.2 India 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.6.3 India 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Sales Price Analysis5.6.4 India 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Market Share Analysis6 Global 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Segment Market Analysis (by Type)6.1 Global 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Sales by Type6.2 Different Types of Natural Emulsifiers Product Interview Price Analysis6.3 Different Types of Natural Emulsifiers Product Driving Factors Analysis6.3.1 Source From Olive of Natural Emulsifiers Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.2 Source From Sugar Cane of Natural Emulsifiers Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.3 Other of Natural Emulsifiers Growth Driving Factor Analysis7 Global 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Segment Market Analysis (by Application)7.1 Global 2012-2017E Natural Emulsifiers Consumption by Application7.2 Different Application of Natural Emulsifiers Product Interview Price Analysis7.3 Different Application of Natural Emulsifiers Product Driving Factors Analysis7.3.1 Food & Beverage of Natural Emulsifiers Growth Driving Factor Analysis7.3.2 Cosmetics & Personal Care of Natural Emulsifiers Growth Driving Factor Analysis7.3.3 Pharmaceutical of Natural Emulsifiers Growth Driving Factor Analysis7.3.4 Other of Natural Emulsifiers Growth Driving Factor Analysis8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Natural Emulsifiers8.1 BASF SE8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 BASF SE 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 BASF SE 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Solvay SA8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Solvay SA 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Solvay SA 2016 Natural Emulsifiers Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 AAK8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product BResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074 At a CAGR of 2.77%, Global Motion Control Software Market to rise over 2017-2021 https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1307171 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-motion-control-software-market-2017-2021-report.html/toc http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Motion control software is a part of motion control system. Motion control systems provide flexibility in controlling the speed of motors. The software provides instructions to the motor controllers, based on instructions and feedback from the sensors. The motor controllers send signals to the motor drives, ensuring control over motor's speed and smooth functioning of the process. Motion control systems are used in various applications in the process and discrete industries.The global motion control software market to grow at a CAGR of 2.77% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global motion control software market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers new installations, sales value, and services market.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAClick to get Sample PDF:Technavio's report, Global Motion Control Software 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- ABB- Moog- National Instruments- Physik Instruments- Rockwell AutomationOther prominent vendors- SIGMATEK- LINAK- 3S-Smart Software Solutions GmbH & CODESYS- Mitsubishi Electric- Galil- Trio Motion Technology- SiemensMarket driver- Improved technology in motion control software- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Availability of open-source and free software- For a full, detailed list, view our reportView Complete TOC with Tables and Figures at:Key questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at: 2018 Communication Tower : An Array of Graphics and SWOT Analysis of Major Industry Segments (Vertical Bridge, Insite Towers, Rohn Products LLC, WADE Antenna) Communication Tower https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1543519 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-communication-tower-market-research-report-2018-report.html/toc www.researchmoz.us Press Release - 13 Mar 2018Global Research and Development News --. .Report Description-' 'In this report, the global Communication Tower 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.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Communication Tower in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), covering1. North America2. Europe3. China4. Japan5. Southeast Asia6. India. . Get Sample Report' 'Global Communication Tower market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including1. American Tower2. SBA Communications3. United States Cellular Co.4. Vertical Bridge5. Insite Towers6. Rohn Products LLC7. WADE Antenna8. Kemrock9. Alstom T&D India Limited10. Power Grid Corporation of India Limited11. CNC Machines12. BS Group13. KaramtaraOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into1. Angle Steel Tower2. Cable TowerOn 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, including1. Telecommunication2. Military3. Industrial4. Others. . More Clear Details get Table of Contents..Table of ContentsGlobal Communication Tower Market Research Report 20181 Communication Tower Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Communication Tower1.2 Communication Tower Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Communication Tower Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Communication Tower Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Angle Steel Tower1.2.4 Cable Tower1.3 Global Communication Tower Segment by Application1.3.1 Communication Tower Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Telecommunication1.3.3 Military1.3.4 Industrial1.3.5 Others1.4 Global Communication Tower Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Communication Tower 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 Communication Tower (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Communication Tower Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Communication Tower Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Communication Tower Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Communication Tower Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Communication Tower Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Communication Tower Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Communication Tower Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Communication Tower Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Communication Tower Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Communication Tower Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Communication Tower Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Communication Tower Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Communication Tower Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Communication Tower Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Communication Tower Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.8 Japan Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.9 Southeast Asia Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.10 India Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 Global Communication Tower Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Communication Tower Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 North America Communication Tower Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Communication Tower Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.4 China Communication Tower Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.5 Japan Communication Tower Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.6 Southeast Asia Communication Tower Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.7 India Communication Tower Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)5 Global Communication Tower Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Communication Tower Production and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2 Global Communication Tower Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Global Communication Tower Price by Type (2013-2018)5.4 Global Communication Tower Production Growth by Type (2013-2018)6 Global Communication Tower Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Communication Tower Consumption and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)6.2 Global Communication Tower Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2013-2018)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/Countries7 Global Communication Tower Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 American Tower7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Communication Tower Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 American Tower Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 SBA Communications7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Communication Tower Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 SBA Communications Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 United States Cellular Co.7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Communication Tower Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 United States Cellular Co. Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Vertical Bridge7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Communication Tower Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Vertical Bridge Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Insite Towers7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Communication Tower Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Insite Towers Communication Tower Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Rohn Products LLC7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Communication Tower Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product BResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074 Carboxymethyl Cellulose Market Poised to Expand at 5.2% CAGR During 2017-2027 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3959 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-3959 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com A new research publication titled Carboxymethyl Cellulose Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017-2027) by Future Market Insights focusses on various market developments, trends, growth drivers and forecasts across important regions. A detailed market segmentation is carried out that explores every angle of the carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) market.Global Market for Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC): Growth Influencing AspectsSeveral factors have contributed to the growth of the global carboxymethyl cellulose market. Increase in the upstream exploration for unconventional sources of energy, growth in end use industries to fuel demand, new product development, economic growth, high industrial growth and merger activities in the petrochemical sector, rising adoption of carboxymethyl cellulose in different applications, rising demand for carboxymethyl cellulose in the personal care and food and beverages industry, increasing focus towards reduction in production costs, technologically advanced manufacturing infrastructure, superior properties of carboxymethyl cellulose based products, growing pharmaceutical and personal care industries and growth in oil drilling operations are expected to drive the growth of the global carboxymethyl cellulose market during the assessment period. However, high prices of cosmetic products, slump in the oil and gas industry, increasing competition among local manufacturers, and stringent environmental regulations are expected to hamper market revenue growth during the forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @Global Market for Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC): Segmental SnapshotThe global carboxymethyl cellulose market is segmented on the basis of grade type, application and region.By grade type, high purity segment is estimated to be the largest with a high market share. This is a highly potential segment from both revenue and growth perspectives. It is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period.By application, food and beverages segment followed by detergent segment are expected to highly contribute to the growth of the global market. The food and beverages segment is projected to grow at the fastest pace in the coming years.By region, the carboxymethyl cellulose market in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is estimated to grow at a high CAGR to reach a significant valuation during the assessment period.Global Market for Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC): Competitive LandscapeThe research report on the carboxymethyl cellulose market includes competition analysis. Several aspects such as SWOT analysis, product portfolio analysis, mergers and acquisitions, growth strategies, key developments, key personnel, company overview, key financials and expansion plans of the top companies are covered in this chapter. Major companies such as CP Kelco, The Dow Chemical Company, Ashland Global Holding Inc., Anqiu Eagle Cellulose Co., Ltd., Wealthy Chemical Industry (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Shenguang Edible Chemicals Co., Ltd., Akzo Nobel N.V., Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., Lamberti S.p.A, Xuzhou Liyuan cellulose Technology Co. Ltd., Daicel Finechem Ltd., Quimica Amtex, S.A. de C.V., DKS Co. Ltd., Ugur Seluloz Kimya AS, Mikro Technik GmbH and Patel Industries are featured in this research report.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Global Market for Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC): Forecast HighlightsThe research report on the carboxymethyl cellulose market reflects future market projections describing the growth direction of the market. The global carboxymethyl cellulose market is projected to grow at a high CAGR of 5.2% throughout the period of assessment and is estimated to reach a valuation of more than US$ 2 Bn by the end of the year of assessment from a value of around US$ 1.4 Bn in 2017.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Abhishek BudholiyaFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Harvest Inn has announced a strategic alliance with Woodside Hotel Group. City-Core Hospitality, LLC and its principals, Rick Kaufman and Andrew Garay, will retain ownership of Harvest Inn with Woodside managing the day-to-day operations for the St. Helena destination. As of Feb. 26, Chef Charlie Palmer sold his interest in Harvest Inn and the hotels Harvest Table to focus on other endeavors, said a separate news release. With this new relationship, Harvest Inn will enhance its guest experience, said a news release. Executive Chef Spencer Wolff will continue to steer the hotels Harvest Table restaurant, said the release. Im incredibly excited for the next chapter of Harvest Inn, said Rick Kaufman, a principal of City-Core Hospitality. We are thrilled to work with City-Core Hospitality and manage such a beautiful property in St. Helena, said Greg Alden, president and CEO of Woodside Hotel Group. Bariatric Walking Aids Market Research and outlook Study for (2016-2026) https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2153 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2153 www.futuremarketinsights.com Beriatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the causes, prevention and treatment of obesity. Obesity has become one the major health scares in the recent times. One of the main problems that obese people face is an increased effort required for walking and mobility and maintaining their general lifestyle independence. Due to this, a large number of people are opting to use the bariatric walking aids. Bariatric equipment and supplies are meant for obese individuals. The major characteristics of bariatric walking aids are that they are designed to be stronger, sturdy and larger in size. Bariatric walking aids have increased weight capacities, heavy duty supports and are wider in width so that obese individuals can fit in. The equipment is defined as bariatric if it has a 300-900 pound limit, even though there is no width or weight limit specified for bariatric equipment.Looking from another perspective, due to a rise in obese patients, the popularity of bariatric surgery is increasing day by day. Hence, bariatric walking aids market is exhibiting sustained growth and this trend is going to continue in the coming decade. The type of bariatric equipment that is in demand include wheelchairs- both manual and electric, mobility scooters, road scooters, canes, folding canes, offset canes, quad canes, axillary and elbow crutches, forearm crutches, knee walkers and rollators.Request Report Sample@Bariatric Walking Aids Market: DriversAs the geriatric population of the world is increasing, there is a rise in the incidences of osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Also, proactive government interventions in the healthcare sector, rise in income, technological advancement and a growing obese population across the globe are the main drivers of the bariatric walking aids market. Bariatric walking aids are mainly used by obese individuals and use of such type of equipment is increasing in this segment of the population. On the other hand, there has been a significant increase in the healthcare budgets of United States, China and India and this is also a major driving factor of the bariatric walking aids market.Also, the rapid technological advancements coupled with an intensive research and development effort in the field of mobility aids and transportation equipment has also invigorated the bariatric walking aids market. The rise of per capita income in the emerging economies of India and China has also increased the demand of bariatric walking aids. All these factors are going to boost the bariatric walking aids market in the coming decade.Bariatric Walking Aids Market: RestraintsOne of the main restraint affecting the global bariatric walking aids market is the high product pricing due to which people are not able to afford such costly equipment, especially in the developing countries. In addition, a low acceptance level due to social stigma is also hampering the growth of the personal mobility devices market.Visit For TOC@Bariatric Walking Aids Market: Key RegionsCurrently, North America is the largest and most lucrative market for personal mobility devices. The rising geriatric and obese population in this region is fuelling the growth in the bariatric walking aids market. Europe is the second largest market for personal mobility devices. However, due to the economic crisis in the European Union and shrinking healthcare budgets may hamper the growth of bariatric walking aids market in Europe. In Asia, countries like India, China and South Korea are expected to become lucrative bariatric walking aids markets. The reason of this is the rising economic prosperity in these countries coupled with an increase in the healthcare budgets along with an increase in the obese population.Bariatric Walking Aids Market: Key Market PlayersMajor players in the bariatric walking aids market are Invacare Corporation, Pride Mobility Products Corporation, Stryker Corporation, Amigo Mobility International Inc., Patterson Medical Holdings Inc., Argo Medical, Drive Medical and Hill-Rom Holdings Inc.About Us Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Venous Thromboembolism Treatment Market Intelligence and Analysis for Period (2016-2026) https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1341 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1341 www.futuremarketinsights.com Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) is formation of blood clot in the vein. It includes both Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism (PE). When a clot forms in a deep vein, usually in the leg, it is called a deep vein thrombosis. If that clot breaks loose and travels to the lungs, it is called pulmonary embolism. Long term complications of venous thromboembolism include chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTPH) and the post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS).Venous thromboembolism is third most common cardiovascular disease occurred in the world. Common symptoms of venous thromboembolism include edema, dilated blood veins mainly in chest and legs, dyspnea, tachycardia and fever. The lower extremities are the most common site for DVT, but other affected locations include the upper extremities and the mesenteric and the pelvic veins, as well as the cerebral veins.Venous Thromboembolism Treatment Market:Drivers and RestraintsMajor factors such as increasing morbidity rate of venous thromboembolism and increasing awareness about available treatments for venous thromboembolism are driving the global venous thromboembolism treatment market towards growth. On the other hand, factors such as stringent regulatory approvals and challenges in adaption of newer drug in the market are restraining the growth of this market.Request Report Sample@Venous Thromboembolism Treatment Market:SegmentationVenous thromboembolism treatment market is segmented on the basis of product type, end use and geography.Based on product type, the global market of venous thromboembolism treatment is segmented as follows:MedicationsAnticoagulantsHeparinFactor Xa inhibitorsFondaparinuxDabigatranVitamin K antagonistsWarfarinCompression TherapySurgical treatmentPulmonary embolectomyVena caval interruptionBased on end use, venous thromboembolism treatment market can be segmented as follows:Hospitals including hospital pharmaciesClinicsRetail pharmaciesHome care settingsVisit For TOC@Venous Thromboembolism Treatment Market: OverviewWith rise in the aging population, morbidity rate of venous thromboembolism is also rapidly increasing. The mainstay of venous thromboembolism treatment is anticoagulation. However, anticoagulants will probably always increase bleeding risk. Hence, using both heparin and compression stockings appears better than either one alone in reducing the rate of deep vein thrombosis. Medications to treat venous thromboembolism like heparin, dabigatran has shown promise. Vitamin K antagonists are also commonly used. Acute DVT may be treated in an outpatient setting with low-molecular-weight heparin. Hence, these medicinal therapies are responsible for the growth of venous thromboembolism treatment market.Venous Thromboembolism Treatment Market:Region-wise OutlookRegion wise, the venous thromboembolism treatment marketis classified into countries namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America is the dominant regional market for venous thromboembolism treatments and is followed by Europe due the existence of a lathe number of venous thromboembolic patients in these regions. North America and European venous thromboembolism market is driven by high healthcare spending, improved healthcare infrastructure and high awareness about the disease and available treatments. Asia Pacific is a promising market for venous thromboembolism treatment and is expected to undergo rapid market growth due to increase in purchasing power, changing healthcare infrastructure and increased awareness for clinical facilities.Venous Thromboembolism Treatment Market: Key PlayersSome of the major companies contributing to venous thromboembolism treatment market are Sanofi-Aventis, Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Abbott Laboratories, Merck & Co., Wockhardt Ltd, Bayer Biologicals, Dupont Pharm Co, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Pfizer Inc.About Us Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Global Industrial Pallet Washer Market 2018- Australis Engineering, Industrial Washing Machines Ltd https://goo.gl/kpbGBy https://market.biz/report/global-industrial-pallet-washer-market-2018/224304/ https://goo.gl/AEsyFp https://market.biz/ http://ereports.market/ The Global Industrial Pallet Washer Industry 2018 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Industrial Pallet Washer industry.Firstly, Industrial Pallet Washer Market report provides a basic overview of the Industrial Pallet Washer industry including definitions, classifications, applications and Industrial Pallet Washer industry chain structure. Global Industrial Pallet Washer Market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, Industrial Pallet Washer industry competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status on Industrial Pallet Washer Market scenario.To get sample copy of Report Click Here:-Major Manufacturers Analysis of Industrial Pallet Washer :- Marchant Schmidt, SANOVO TECHNOLOGY, Industrial Washing Machines Ltd, Australis Engineering, International Thermal Systems, ITS Asia, AEC SystemsIndustrial Pallet Washer Market: Type Analysis:- Electric, LPG, Natural Gas, Fuel Oil, Steam, Other Fuel MixturesIndustrial Pallet Washer Market: Application Analysis:- Commercial, IndustrialSecondly, Industrial Pallet Washer Market report includes, development policies and plans are discussed, manufacturing processes and cost structures. This Industrial Pallet Washer Industry report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, Industrial Pallet Washer Market revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the Industrial Pallet Washer report focuses on global major leading industry players (in Industrial Pallet Washer market area) with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Global Industrial Pallet Washer Market report also includes Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis.Browse Complete Report details with TOC Click Here :-All above Company Profile, Product Picture and Specifications, Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue, Contact Information covered in Industrial Pallet Washer market report.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.Table of ContentsChapter One Industrial Pallet Washer Industry OverviewChapter Two Industrial Pallet Washer Manufacturing Cost Structure AnalysisChapter Three Industrial Pallet Washer Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants AnalysisChapter Four Industrial Pallet Washer Production by Regions, Technology and ApplicationsChapter Five Industrial Pallet Washer Sales and Sales Revenue by RegionsChapter Six 2013-2018 Industrial Pallet Washer Productions Supply Sales Market Status and ForecastChapter Seven Industrial Pallet Washer Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Eight Industrial Pallet Washer Price Gross Margin AnalysisChapter Ten 2018-2023 Industrial Pallet Washer Industry Development TrendChapter Eleven Industrial Pallet Washer Industry Chain Suppliers and Contact Information AnalysisChapter Twelve Industrial Pallet Washer New Project Investment Feasibility AnalysisGet Discount and Inquiry Before Buying click here:-Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James Johnson420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300New York City, NY 10170.Tel: +1(857)2390696Email ID: inquiry@market.bizWebsite:Other Website: Global Automotive Hub Bearing Market: Scenario 2022 https://www.researchtrades.com/request-sample/1472587 https://www.researchtrades.com/checkout/1472587 Global Automotive Hub Bearing Industry Report" is an expert and in-depth analysis of key business and future development prospects, key determinants and restrictions, profiles of major market players, segmentation and forecasting. The study offers a comprehensive qualitative analysis of the industry's growth parameters, the current state of the market in terms of analysis of key economic situations and macroeconomic analysis. The analysis highlights the growth opportunities of key market segments along with the tactical moves made by key vendors to grow in the market.Get FREE and detailed sample copy of updated Analysis & Status @Scope of the Report:This report studies Automotive Hub Bearing 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, coveringSchaefflerWanxiangNachi-FujikoshiHubei New TorchGMB CorporationHarbin BearingFKG BearingCU GroupWafangdian BearingXiangyang Automobile BearingXiangyang XinghuoShaoguan SoutheastChangzhou GuangyangChangjiang Bearing....On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoGen.1Gen.2Gen.3By Application, the market can be split intoCommercial VehiclePassenger VehicleBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaYou can purchase a single user copy at USD 3500 and can get discount too @NOTE: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you wantTable of Content:1 Industry Overview of Automotive Hub Bearing1.1 Definition and Specifications of Automotive Hub Bearing1.1.1 Definition of Automotive Hub Bearing1.1.2 Specifications of Automotive Hub Bearing1.2 Classification of Automotive Hub Bearing1.3 Applications of Automotive Hub Bearing1.3.1 Commercial Vehicle1.3.2 Passenger Vehicle1.3.3 Application 31.4 Market Segment by Regions....2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Automotive Hub Bearing2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Automotive Hub Bearing2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Automotive Hub Bearing2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Automotive Hub Bearing3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Automotive Hub Bearing3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Automotive Hub Bearing Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Automotive Hub Bearing Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Automotive Hub Bearing Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Automotive Hub Bearing Major Manufacturers in 2016Continue....Who we areResearch Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approaches, thus providing valuable research insights. Global Personalization Software Market 2022 Overview by Key Finding, Scope, Top Impacting Factors, Investment Pockets, Drivers and Restraints https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/request_sample.php?id=141 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=141 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/reports/Global-Personalization-Software-Market-Size-Status-and-Forecast-2022-141 Global Personalization Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 is the latest report added in the large report database of QYReports. The objective of the report is to gather important market data and offer insights about the trends and opportunities of the global market to the readers. The report categorizes the market in a detailed manner to offer thorough insights about the facets responsible for augmenting as well as restraining the market growth. The research report on global market also inspects the indicators in the market that are vital to represent the revenue forecast of the market over the given forecast period.The global Personalization Software market has been analyzed in technical detail in this report and data has been gathered from the market leaders across the value chain. Information on the key growth prospects of Personalization Software market during the forecast period and its estimated size by the end of the forecast period have also been comprised under the introduction section of the report. The drivers, restraints, and trends in the global Personalization Software market and their impact on the development of this market also form a major part of this study.Key Vendors:Dynamic Yield, Optimizely, Eventable, Evergage, Qwardo, Barilliance, Certona, Cxense, IgnitionOne, CognitiveScale, findifyFor Sample Copy of this report:Considering regions, major parts of the globe are covered with depth of research including North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East & Africa and Latin America. The consumption, revenue, market value, production, share and growth rate of Personalization Software market from 2017 to 2022 is been covered.The analysis tools such as SWOT analysis and Porters five forces model have been included in order to present the competition predominant in the global Personalization Software market. Various graphics, tables, and charts have been used in order to present an accurate understanding of this market. The Personalization Software market has also been studied in terms of its regulatory scenario and value chain analysis.Avail 30% Discount on this Report:The report, like all reports added to the Personalization Software website, is an all-inclusive and descriptive view of the global Personalization Software market. It elaborates on the market dynamics, scope of growth in various segments and regions, and other parameters that have been so far effective during its expansion in terms of gaining value and size. This research study is thus a quantitative as well as a qualitative study aimed at imparting clear vision of all possible situations and structure in the global Personalization Software market, as well as the drivers that may exist between 2017 and 2025.The global Personalization Software market is also presented to the readers as a holistic snapshot of the competitive landscape within the given forecast period. It presents a comparative detailed analysis of the all regional and player segments, offering readers a better knowledge of where areas in which they can place their existing resources and gauging the priority of a particular region in order to boost their standing in the global Personalization Software market.Get Complete Report@:About USWe at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Contact UsVijay TannaContact No: +91 705-760-0700sales@itintelligencemarkets.com Organic Cocoa Market Volume Analysis, Segments, Value Share and Key Trends 2014-2020 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1058 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1058 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ The certified organic cocoa market represents a very small share of the total cocoa market, estimated around 0.5% of total production. However, the demand for organic cocoa products are growing at a very strong pace, the supply side faces a strong challenge to meet the demand of organic cocoa. Since, farmers are paying ample amount for producing organic cocoa, production of organic cocoa is more in least developed countries. Organic cocoa has many nutritional benefits such as more fiber, iron, magnesium, copper, manganese and many other minerals. Moreover it also contains antioxidants, which helps to protect skin. Organic cocoa also helps to improve blood flow and lower blood pressure. Demand for organic cocoa products are very high in U.S, U.K and Germany, hence organic cocoa are supplied to developed economies of North America and Western Europe to manufacture organic cocoa products. Currently, Dominican Republic is dominating the organic cocoa market in terms of production that holds around 70 percent of the total market share; Peru, Ecuador and Mexico together hold around 20 percent of the market share in terms of production; rest around 10 percent is held by Bolivia, Ghana, Brazil and others.Request For Report Sample:Organic Cocoa Market Segmentation:On the basis of product type the organic cocoa market is segmented into cocoa powder, cocoa paste, cocoa butter, cocoa beans and others (products containing cocoa). Products containing cocoa holds the highest market share in terms of value followed by cocoa beans and cocoa butter.On the basis of application organic cocoa market is segmented into confectionaries, bakery, functional food, health drinks, home cooking use and others (pharmaceuticals, ointments, and toiletries). Organic cocoa is majorly used in food industry as a main ingredient of chocolate.Geographically, Organic cocoa market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Latin America is dominating worldwide followed by Middle East and Africa (MEA) in terms of organic cocoa production. Majority of organic cocoa is exported to Western Europe followed by North America. U.K and U.S are the largest manufacturing countries of organic cocoa products in the world, since organic chocolate is more popular in U.K, U.S and Germany and consumers from those countries owe a significant inclination towards organic chocolates irrespective of high pricing of organic products.Organic Cocoa Market Dynamics:Chocolate is the main application of organic cocoa which is the main growth driver of organic cocoa market. Also, the organic cocoa market is expected to be largely driven by the health consciousness among consumers. However, lack of proper supply of organic cocoa restrains the global organic cocoa market which also leads to increase in price of organic cocoa. There is a huge opportunity in the North America and Western Europe and Japan. Asia Pacific excluding Japan is an untapped market which is also a potential market for organic cocoa. This is attributed to increasing inclination of consumers towards organic products, rapid urbanisation, strengthening supply chain for organic cocoa and rising health consciousness among consumers.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Organic Cocoa Market Key Player:Some of the leading players are Kraft Foods Inc., Cargill Incorporated, Tradin Organic Agriculture B.V., Ciranda, Blommer Chocolate Company, Artisan Confections Company, PASCHA Company, InterNatural Foods LLC and Wilmor Publishing Corp.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Biopsy Devices Market report for 2017-2024 companies, applications, products and more https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/731 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/731 https://www.gminsights.com https://gminsights.wordpress.com Biopsy devices market, an integral part of the overall medical devices business spectrum, has achieved an appreciable popularity since the last few years. The commercialization potential of this industry is evident from the estimates analyzed by Global Market Insights, Inc., a research firm that claims biopsy devices market to cross a valuation of USD 3 billion by 2024. While the expanding medical sector plays a crucial role in the development of this industry, one of its significant drivers includes the extensive prevalence of cancer across the globe. The International Agency for Research on Cancer presents vital statistics that support the authenticity of the aforementioned statement in the year 2012, the incidence of cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) across the globe was pegged at 14.1 million, and has been estimated to cross 23.6 million by 2030. The massive rise in the occurrences of cancer will consequently lead to an upsurge in the number of biopsy procedures, and by extension, will be responsible for the growth of biopsy devices market.Request sample copy @The latest trends in biopsy devices industry are extensively driven by technological advancements, given that IoT has extensively proliferated the medical devices business space. Bearing testimony to the aforesaid fact is the recent scoop regarding CAMPROBE being awarded the GBP 789,000 i4i (Invention for Innovation) Product Development Award by the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research). CAMPROBE, a prostate biopsy device, is apparently equipped with high-grade technology, on the grounds of which it carries the ability to transform the trans-rectal prostate biopsy from the conventional process to a safer, trans-perineal process, without any specialized equipment. Reports cite that this device depicted a zero-infection rate in pilot trials when compared to the standard biopsy method, which exhibited an infection rate of 5% to 12%. Path-breaking innovations such as these will serve to bring about a massive disruption in biopsy devices market dynamics.Speaking of the product domain defining biopsy devices industry, research classifies this business sphere in terms of biopsy needles, biopsy forceps, biopsy guidance systems, and needle-based biopsy guns. Judging by the statistics provided below, it would not be incorrect to state that market players are likely to garner profits through the sales of guidance systems. Guidance systems dominated the overall biopsy devices industry in 2015, having held more than 43% of the total revenue share. With a base valuation of USD 755.5 million, biopsy devices market size from guidance systems was pegged at the topmost position in 2015, successively followed by needle-based biopsy guns and biopsy needles respectively. Biopsy devices industry share from guidance systems is forecast to surpass a valuation of USD 1.1 billion by 2024, increasingly influenced by the transformative trend of deploying robotics in these devices.Robotics technology plays a vital role in shaping the trends of guidance system biopsy devices market. For instance, recently, a 3D-printed robot model has been developed by the University of Twente, that may, in all probability revolutionize the biopsy devices industry. Tentatively called the Stormram 4, this robot has been designed to combat the inefficiencies depicted by manual MRI-guided breast biopsy procedures. While it may take a few years to gain approval post clinical trials, it is likely to bring about a massive change in the outlook of biopsy devices market from guidance systems.Guidance systems market is thus, certain to emerge as a potential business ground, given the novel product innovations launched by business players. The Affirm breast biopsy guidance system by Hologic, for instance, is endowed with high-grade 3D biopsy capabilities, enabling radiologists to conveniently detect areas to perform biopsy, accurately target the same, and deliver consolidated results. Another lucrative product segment constituting the product landscape of biopsy devices industry is the biopsy needle. In fact, it is preferred by most of the physicians owing to the factors such as minimal associated pain and accurate cancer detection.Considering the global prevalence of cancer, biopsy devices market is expected to penetrate most of the geographies worldwide. Nonetheless, given that technology plays a vital role in the development of this business space, it is indisputable that developed economies such as Europe and North America will accumulate a major chunk of biopsy devices industry share. In fact, statistics claim UK and Germany to have contributed more than 22.8% and 28.6% toward Europe biopsy devices market share in 2015. Subject to the growing proliferation of technology and a highly sophisticated healthcare architecture, it is expected that Europe biopsy devices industry will witness a modest growth over 2016-2024. Germany, the developed hub of the continent, is slated to contribute more than 28% toward the overall share by 2024.Make Inquiry about this report @North America, in 2015, garnered the title of being the largest regional industry, with a contribution of more than 55% toward global biopsy devices market share. The United States stands at the helm of this region, having accounted for more than 80% of the regional biopsy devices industry share in 2015. The country is home to most of the companies operating in this oligopolistic business, such as CareFusion Corporation, C.R. Bard, Hologic Inc., and Devicor Medical Products Inc., which will undoubtedly help the regional biopsy devices market to carve out a profitable growth curve. Besides, the country observes a linear escalation in the number of cancer incidences as well as the funding procedures undertaken for improved diagnostics, both of which will majorly contribute toward U.S. biopsy devices industry size. Pegged at USD 1 billion in 2015 and forecast to attain a sizable portion of the regional market by 2024, the U.S. will remain one of potential growth grounds for investors.Forecast to be the most profitable region with regards to investment, APAC biopsy devices industry will record a CAGR of 11.8% over 2016-2024. Growth drivers, as predicted by analysts, include the expanding medical care infrastructural development sector and the presence of a huge cancer patient pool.Product differentiation will continue to be a major business strategy adopted by the limited number of players operating in biopsy devices market. The Celero breast biopsy device for instance, is a one-of-a-kind device that is vacuum-assisted and designed to be used under ultrasound. With the rising deployment of technological innovations, the diagnosis cost, time, and patient discomfort is likely to reduce immensely over a period, eventually supporting the growth of biopsy devices industry.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: Dishwashing Products Market Research Report Outlook to 2022: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=119 https://www.factmr.com/report/119/dishwashing-products-market https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=D&rep_id=119 https://www.factmr.com/ A fresh study, covering Dishwashing Products Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Review 2017 to 2022 has been broadcasted to wide online repository of Fact MR, which presents deep focus on the Retail & Consumer Goods Market. This smart study contains precise data that offers a clear insight about market current scenario and future projections for the benefit of readers. Moreover, the study enclosed significant data which tends to make the research a powerful source for analysts and industry experts who are looking to gain necessary knowledge about the prevailing market trends, opportunities and drivers present in the Dishwashing Products Market.Request for Sample Report-The latest report published by Fact.MR reveals a sluggish growth for global dishwashing products market in the next five years. According to its forecast, the global market for dishwashing products will procure just over US$ 19.7 Bn revenues by the end of forecast period, 2017-2022.Dishwashing will continue to play a pivotal role in culinary businesses across the globe. However, the production of dishwashing detergents or machines is expected to witness impedance. Considering the rising raw material prices, manufacturing of dishwashing products is becoming less attractive. In addition to this, global industrial regulatory authorities are downgrading the use of dishwashing products as they are derived from toxic chemicals. While dishwashing products will serve the purpose of cleaning utensils & cutleries, consumers are expected to witness adverse impacts from exposing their vital organs such as hands and mouth to such products. Furthermore, strict rules are imposed on dumping dishwashing chemicals, which becomes a lofty barrier for manufacturers.Dishwashing Liquids & Dishwasher Machines to Remain in Great DemandAccording to the report, the global market for dishwashing products will reflect a higher demand for products in liquid form. While soaps and other solid products available in the market will continue to gain traction, global sales of dishwashing liquids will procure highest revenue share. By the end of 2022, more than US$ 7 Bn worth of dishwashing liquids will be sold across the globe.On the basis of products, the demand for dishwashers (machines) will remain consistently high. Hand dishwashing products are also expected to procure considerable share over global revenues throughout the forecast period. In spite of securing more than one-third share on global revenues, the demand for dishwashing machines will remain slightly less than that of hand dishwashing products. Manufacturers are expected to integrate advanced technologies to improve the features of dishwashing machines.Modern Trade Largest Sales Channel for Dishwashing ProductsThe report also projects that sales of dishwashing products through modern trade outlets will remain considerably high, compared to other sales channels. The global market for dishwashing products is also anticipated to witness higher sales across online channels and grocery stores. Increasing collaboration of retail chains with manufacturers is expected to influence the sales of dishwashing products in the global market.Browse Full Report with TOC-Table of Content:1. Global Dishwashing Products Market - Executive Summary2. Global Dishwashing Products Market Overview2.1. Introduction2.1.1. Global Dishwashing Products Market Taxonomy2.1.2. Global Dishwashing Products Market Definition2.2. Global Dishwashing Products Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-20222.2.1. Global Dishwashing Products Market Y-o-Y Growth2.3. Global Dishwashing Products Market Dynamics2.3.1. Drivers2.3.2. Restraints2.3.3. Trends2.4. Supply Chain2.5. Cost Structure2.6. Pricing Analysis2.7. Raw Material Sourcing Strategy and Analysis2.8. List of Distributors2.9. Key Participants Market Presence (Intensity Map) By Region3. Global Dishwashing Products Market Analysis and Forecast By Product Type3.1. Global Dishwashing Products Market Size and Forecast By Product Type , 2012-20223.1.1. Hand Dishwashing Products Dishwashing Products Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20223.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region3.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region3.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region3.1.2. Machine Dishwashing Products Dishwashing Products Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20223.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region3.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region3.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By RegionContinued.Check Discount on This Report-About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized Retail & Consumer Goods market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web: Document Imaging Market: Key Players Focus on Product Innovation to Stay Competitive https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/document-imaging-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=20459 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/20459 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Document imaging services continue to gain popularity across all areas of business as it provides better security and confidentiality of critical information. Document imaging is an information technology solution which uses advanced and modern equipment such as scanners, software, and camera. Document imaging also helps to control large volumes of documents. The document imaging market is segmented on the bases of three categories: by service, component, and end use.Document imaging solutions are becoming an integral part of a business entity for big data handling or analytics. The document imaging market is anticipated to witness significant growth during the forecast period owing to the rising demand for big data handing and analytics in many organizations. Big data technology is a new potential revenue generating source of an organization. Therefore, the demand for document imaging is booming in recent times and is anticipated to witness significant growth during the forecast period. Currently, the impact of this factor has been analyzed to be high, and can be expected to remain high during the forecast period.Browse the Report to Know Insights into the Competitive Scenario of the Market @However, advanced technology such as IT and manufacturing hubs are facing challenges from short supply of skilled operators. Document imaging solutions are complex to handle and require skilled operators. Advanced scanners come with software that makes scanning and saving documents possible. Operators not only require having knowledge about how to operate the equipment, but also know how to operate associated programs in order to modify and store electronic files.By Service the global document imagingmarket has been segmented into cloud and on-premises. On-premises service is initially dominating the global document imaging market. However, cloud service is expected a robust growth during the forecast period and is anticipated to be the largest market share holder in document imaging market. Cloud helps to accommodate large scale information and scanning and printing online data. In addition, cloud deployment better structured than centralized systems to process large constant data streaming produced across the value chain.Request Sample to Know Quantitative Market Analysis, Current and Future Trends @By region the global document imagingmarket has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. North America which includes U.S. and Rest of North America (Canada and Mexico) captured the largest market share in 2016 due to growth in production facilities and rising demand of digitalized documentation. Europe which includes countries such as Germany, U.K., France, Italy and Rest of Europe captured the second largest market share in 2016.Get TOC of This Report @The global market of document imagingreport provides company market share analysis of the various key participants. Key players have also been profiled on the basis of company overview. Global key participants of the document imaging market include Fujitsu Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan), Hewlett-Packard Company (California, U.S.), Canon Inc. (Tokyo, Japan), Kodak Alaris (Hemel Hempstead, U.K.), Xerox Corporation (Connecticut, U.S.), Qorus Software (Pty) Ltd (Cape Town, South Africa), CBSL Group (Delhi, India), Epson America (California, U.S.), Aramex (Dubai, U.A.E) and Newgen Software Technologies Ltd (Delhi, India) among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: E-SIM Card Market: Rising Scope of Application in Automotive Industry to Fuel Market Growth https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/e-sim-card-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=27668 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/27668 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Global E-SIM Card Market: SnapshotThe global E-SIM card market is rising steadily due to the several advantages of E-SIM card over conventional SIM cards. E-SIM card allows changing mobile network operator at a few clicks, a feature distinct to them. For instance, ability to switch network providers over the air in machine to machine systems such as smart meters and connected cars has substantial advantages in terms of reducing logistics and operational costs.The compact design of E-SIM and standardization of technical specifications for Embedded SIM technology is another distinct feature that sets E-SIM cards apart from conventional SIM cards. This is because Embedded SIM technology is standardized by Groupe Speciale Mobile Association, which comprises more than 800 mobile operators worldwide.A report by Transparency Market Research predicts the global E-SIM card market to rise at a healthy 13.5% CAGR between 2017 and 2025. Progressing at this rate, the market is anticipated to display an opportunity of US$14,613.1 mn by 2025 increasing from US$4,095.6 mn in 2016.Browse the Report to Know Worldwide Industry Analysis and New Market Opportunities Explored @Smartphones Application Segment to Display Leading CAGR until 2025In terms of application, the global E-SIM card market has been segmented into machine to machine (M2M), wearable and companion devices, smartphones, and tablets and laptops. The segment of M2M, among these, contributed the leading revenue contribution in 2016. M2M is further sub-segmented into connected cars, utility, and others. Of them, connected cars is expected to expand at a CAGR of over 15% between 2017 and 2025.The commercialization of Embedded SIM for smartphones is expected in 2019. The segment is expected to rise at a robust CAGR of 26.3%between 2019 and 2025.Request Sample @Asia Pacific to Exhibit Leading CAGR between 2017 and 2025The key segments into which the global E-SIM card is divided based on geography are North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and South America. In 2016, Europe stood as the leading revenue generation region and is expected to display substantial CAGR over the forecast period. The supremacy of the region is due to the favorable government initiatives for the implementation of Industry 4.0 technology and solutions. The U.K., France, and Germany are the leading revenue contributors to the Europe E-SIM card market.Get TOC of This Report @North America held the second-leading revenue share in the global market in 2016 with the U.S. contributing the leading revenue. The region is expected to display significant growth over the forecast period. The increased adoption of technology as well as home to key industry players is driving the growth of this regional market.Asia Pacific, amongst all, is expected to rise with the leading CAGR over the forecast period. The growth of this region is backed by the rising adoption of embedded SIM technology in M2M devices across several countries such as China and Japan.Some prominent players operating in the global E-SIM card market profiled in this report are Apple Inc., Samsung, Gemalto N.V., Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, NTT DOCOMO Inc., OT-Morpho, Telefonica S.A., Deutsche Telekom AG, Sierra Wireless Inc., and ST Microelectronics.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Soiled by vermin, faded with age and stashed in an attic, a piece of local history has now been restored to its rightful home at the St. Helena Cemetery. The map, hand-drawn by surveyor W.A. Pierce, shows the cemetery as it existed in 1882. Back then the property was smaller than it is today, and the various landmarks shown on the map a Chinese cemetery thats since vanished, a Hudson Park named after the pioneer family who donated the land show how the cemeterys history mirrored that of the city. This map was missing for a long time, said Mariam Hansen, research director for the St. Helena Historical Society and a boardmember of the St. Helena Cemetery Association. The maps restoration was prompted by a new effort to add the oldest part of the cemetery to the National Register of Historic Places. Kara Brunzell, who specializes in historical research and preservation, is compiling an application that could result in a determination by the State Historical Resources Commission this fall. The map had spent decades in an attic at Steves Hardware, which was founded by John Henry Steves, who was secretary of the cemetery board for 50 years. When it was rediscovered around 1990, the Menegon brothers who own Steves Hardware today turned it over to the St. Helena Cemetery Association. New Leviton e2XHD Universal High-Density Panels Support Shielded Connectivity in Mission-Critical Applications Leviton E2X1A-S48 www.leviton.com, www.facebook.com/leviton, www.twitter.com/leviton, www.youtube.com/Levitonmfg IT managers want better protection for their mission-critical applications with shielded connectivity that still allows fast deployment and simple maintenance. Leviton delivers that solution with the release of two universal panels for its popular e2XHD Snap-In Cassette Patching System. These flat and angled 1RU panels support fiber, UTP, and now shielded connectivity.Enterprise and data center IT organizations require network infrastructure that protects their data flow, yet allows easy cable routing and simple moves, adds, and changes, said Mark Dearing, Leviton Senior Product Manager. The e2XHD universal panels allow for a complete mix-and-match of Leviton fiber, shielded, and UTP snap-in cassettes. These panels include the added option of using high-performing Atlas-X1TM shielded components, including Cat 8, to protect networks from electromagnetic and radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI).The e2XHD Snap-In Cassette Patching System includes 1RU high-density universal flat and angled patch panels, copper and fiber snap-in cassettes, and accessories for additional cable protection and management. e2XHD cassettes quickly snap in and pull out of the panels for easy installation and maintenance. Copper cassettes are available empty for field termination, or can be pre-terminated with UTP or shielded connectors for quick deployment. Panels also accommodate Atlas-X1 shielded Cat 8 pre-terminated trunks. Fiber cassettes are pre-terminated for fast deployment and assured high performance. Panels allow a mix-and-match of Leviton fiber and copper snap-in cassettes High-density 1RU panels support 48 copper ports Fiber MTP cassettes provide a simple migration path to 40 Gb/s or 100 Gb/s networks, are pre-terminated, and are available in 12 or 24 fibers, OM3, OM4, OM4+ or single-mode e2XHD copper cassettes are available empty for field termination, or can be pre-terminated with UTP or shielded copper connectors, including Cat 8, for quick deployment. Pre-terminated solutions ship directly from Levitons Chicago or Glenrothes (UK) factories for fast global service Atlas-X1 and eXtreme copper connectors easily snap into the cassette after termination Shielded solutions provide industry-leading performance and protection across networks that require greater security and EMI/RFI immunity Panel covers and cassette blanks offer extra protection from dust and damageTo learn more about the e2XHD Snap-In Cassette Patching System, visit leviton.com/e2xhd.About Leviton Network SolutionsLeviton Network Solutions delivers complete network infrastructure systems for enterprise, data center, government, education, health care and residential markets around the globe. Solutions include copper and fiber optic connectivity, power distribution units, and much more. All Leviton products are engineered to exacting standards, offer industry-leading performance and are backed by the industrys best service and support. Builders, contractors and other industry professionals consistently rank Leviton products as the most preferred brand in the industry. Make the smart choice for a better network. Learn more at leviton.com/ns or twitter.com/LevitonNS.About LevitonLeviton is the smart choice, delivering the most comprehensive range of solutions to meet the needs of todays residential, commercial and industrial customers in more than 90 countries across the globe. From simple switches and receptacles, to networking systems and smart home automation, Leviton exceeds market needs by delivering innovative products to create sustainable, intelligent environments through its electrical wiring devices, network and data center connectivity solutions, LED lighting and lighting energy management systems, and security and automation applications. For Leviton, it is clear the FUTURE IS ON. For more information, visitorBusiness BayDubai, UAE Wind Energy Cables Market 2018 - 2023: Industry Size, Share, Regional Outlook, Trends, Manufactures, Trends, Growth, Opportunities, Segmentation, Technology qyreports http://www.qyreports.com/request-sample/?report-id=14512 http://www.qyreports.com/enquiry-before-buying/?report-id=14512 www.qyreports.com The research report, titled "Wind Energy Cables Market Research Report provides a clear understanding of the market dynamics. It studies the historical data and assesses the current market situation in order to chalk the trajectory of the global market for the coming few years. The report has been collaborated using primary and secondary research methodologies that are aimed towards providing the readers a thorough idea about the future of the market. It presents a detailed assessment of this market, taking the key trends, driving factors, limitations, and significant opportunities into consideration.Top Key Vendors:Nexans, Prysmian Group, JDR, Parker Scanrope, NSW, ABB, NKT, LS Cable & System, General CableRequest a sample of this research report @The Wind Energy power accounts for the largest growth in renewable-based energy generation. Growing demand for renewable energy, particularly, wind energy, is expected to spur the demand for the wind energy cables market. Wind Energy Cables play a key role in transferring the energy generated by wind turbines. Different types of cables are used depending on the application - power transmission and distribution, data transmission, and fiber optic cables.The report Global Wind Energy Cables Market depends upon in-depth and detailed market analysis, with involvement from industry experts. It evidently depicts the merchant scenario and an in-depth examination of the key traders functioning in the overall market. Additionally, the publication also discusses the key driving factors influencing the continuous rise in the development in the business sector, and the obstructions going up against the vendors to a great extent. It additionally includes the key opportunities that are trending in the market.Make an enquiry before purchasing this report @According to the research report, the Wind Energy Cables Market has been witnessing a phenomenal rise in its size and valuation. The research study helps in presenting answers to several questions associated with the global market. The report presents reliable forecasts pertaining to the expected size of the global market over the forecast period, the key products, applications, or regional segments that are expected to dominate the global market in the near future, and an overview of the key trends observed in the recent past.The Global Wind Energy Cables Market has taken help of info graphics, charts, and tables to present the historical data and projected figures of the global data service unit market. Additionally, the study offers input given by market professionals to guide the prevailing and new entrants in articulating effective business policies in the next few years.Players in the Global Wind Energy Cables Market are dependably taking a stab at modernization. The report provides both, subjective and quantitative research of the market, and incorporates commendable bits of knowledge into the rational scenario and favored improvement strategies adopted by key contenders. The report's conclusion reveals the general scope of the market in terms of the practicality of interests in the distinctive portions of the market, along with an illustrating area that blueprints the plausibility of new pursuits that may prevail in the market in the coming years.Table of Content:Wind Energy Cables Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Wind Energy Cables Market OverviewChapter 2 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 Laser Based Procedures is Expected to Account for the Largest Share in the BPH Procedures During the Forecast Period, 2017-2023 https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/benign-prostatic-hyperplasia-procedures https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/benign-prostatic-hyperplasia-procedures/report-sample https://www.psmarketresearch.com/send-enquiry?enquiry-url=benign-prostatic-hyperplasia-procedures www.psmarketresearch.com Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) procedures is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.3% between 2017-2023.The number of BPH procedures performed in 2016 was 671,307 and by 2023, it is expected to reach 782,411. Growing aging population, rising prevalence of BPH, rise in the awareness of BPH disorders and surge in the adoption of minimally invasive procedures are the major factors driving the use of BPH procedures.Access Detailed Report Summary at:In terms of type, the BPH procedures is categorized into surgical procedures, laser based procedures and other energy based procedures. The surgical procedure accounted for the largest number of BPH procedures, contributing 58.3% in 2016. The number of laser based procedure is expected to register fastest growth during the forecast period. Laser based procedure are as effective as surgical procedures and reduce the hospital stay time.Download Report Sample at:In North America, every year, September is observed as National Prostate Health Month by health experts, health advocates, and individuals concerned with the prostate health of men. The main purpose of designating a whole month for prostate health is to create awareness, educate people about the risk factors and symptoms of prostate related diseases and other factors. Several campaigns were launched by the players in the market to make people aware about the prostate related diseases. In December 2016, GlaxoSmithKline plc launched a campaign #SeatsupforSanta, to spread awareness about BPH symptoms and treatments. All the aforementioned initiatives lead to the growth in the number of patients opting for BPH treatment.Make Enquiry Before Buying the Report:Some of the key players operating in the BPH procedures include NxThera, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, Urologix, LLC., Karl Storz GmbH & Co. KG, Lumenis Ltd., Olympus Corporation, Advin Urology, Convergent Laser Technologies, Richard Wolf GmbH, and Medtronic Plc.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide market research reports, industry reports, business intelligence and research based consulting services across a range of industries.With the help of our professional corporate relations with various companies, our market research offers the most accurate market forecasting. Our analysts and consultants interact with leading companies of the concerned domain to substantiate every single data presented in our publication. Our research assists our client in identifying new and different windows of opportunity and frame informed and customized strategies for expansion in different regions.Contact:P&S Market Research347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb: Construction Robots Market 2018 Industry Growth, Share, Trends, Demand, Analysis and Forecast to 2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3059126-2018-global-construction-robots-industry-research-report https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3059126-2018-global-construction-robots-industry-research-report The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Construction Robots industry market by types, applications, players and regions. This report also displays the 2013-2023 production, Consumption, revenue, Gross margin, Cost, Gross, market share, CAGR, and Market influencing factors of the Construction Robots industry in USA, EU, China, India, Japan and other regions.Market Analysis by PlayersBrokkFujitaUlc RoboticsConstruction RoboticHanool RoboticsSkanskaShimizuRequest a Sample Report @Market Analysis by Regions:USAEuropeJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaSouth AmericaSouth AfricaOthersMarket Analysis by Types:Brick RobotsPlastering RobotsStone Spraying RobotsSpray RobotsOtherMarket Analysis by Applications:MiningRoad ConstructionBridge ConstructionCommercial BuildingIndustryTable of Content1 Construction Robots Market Overview1.1 Product Overview of Construction Robots1.2 Classification of Construction Robots1.2.1 Type 11.2.2 Type 21.2.3 Type 31.2.4 Type 41.3 Applications of Construction Robots1.3.1 Application 11.3.2 Application 21.3.3 Application 31.3.4 Application 41.4 Global Construction Robots Market Regional Analysis1.4.1 USA Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.2 Europe Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.3 Japan Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.4 China Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.5 India Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.6 Southeast Asia Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.7 South America Market Present Situation Analysis1.4.8 South Africa Market Present Situation Analysis1.5 Construction Robots Industry Development Factors Analysis1.5.1 Construction Robots Industry Development Opportunities Analysis1.5.2 Construction Robots Industry Development Challenges Analysis1.6 Construction Robots Consumer Behavior Analysis2 Global Construction Robots Competitions by Players2.1 Global Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Players2.2 Global Construction Robots Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players (2017-2018)2.3 Global Construction Robots Price (USD/Unit) by Players (2017-2018)2.4 Global Construction Robots Gross Margin by Players (2017-2018)3 Global Construction Robots Competitions by Types3.1 Global Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Types3.2 Global Construction Robots Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Type (2013-2018)3.3 Global Construction Robots Price (USD/Unit) by Type (2013-2018)3.4 Global Construction Robots Gross Margin by Type (2013-2018)3.5 USA Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.6 China Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.7 Europe Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.8 Japan Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.9 India Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.10 Southeast Asia Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.11 South America Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type3.12 South Africa Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Type4 Global Construction Robots Competitions by Applications4.1 Global Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.2 Global Construction Robots Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Applications (2013-2018)4.3 Global Construction Robots Price (USD/Unit) by Applications (2013-2018)4.4 Global Construction Robots Gross Margin by Applications (2013-2018)4.5 USA Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.6 China Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.7 Europe Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.8 Japan Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.9 India Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.10 Southeast Asia Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.11 South America Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications4.12 South Africa Construction Robots Sales (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Applications5 Global Construction Robots Production Market Analysis by Regions5.1 Global Construction Robots Production (Unit) and Market Share (%) by Regions5.1.1 USA Construction Robots Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.2 Europe Construction Robots Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.3 China Construction Robots Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.4 Japan Construction Robots Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.5 India Construction Robots Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.6 Southeast Asia Construction Robots Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.7 South America Construction Robots Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.1.8 South Africa Construction Robots Market Production Present Situation Analysis5.2 Global Construction Robots Production Value (Million USD) and Share by Region (2013-2018)5.3 Global Construction Robots Price (USD/Unit) by Region (2013-2018)5.4 Global Construction Robots Gross Margin by Region (2013-2018)ContinuedAccess Complete Report @ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India New vacuum pumps for laboratories and production The Zebra RH 0030 B rotary vane vacuum pump is one of a total of eight sizes in the new Busch series www.buschvacuum.com Busch Vacuum Pumps and Systems has now launched a new series of vacuum pumps for a wide range of applications. The new two-stage oil-lubricated rotary vane vacuum pumps Zebra RH were developed both for research laboratories and for production processes that work in the medium vacuum range.Robustness and reliability of operation are the outstanding qualities of Zebra RH rotary vane vacuum pumps. The proven rotary vane vacuum technology from Busch has long established itself as the industry standard in the rough vacuum range. With the new series, Busch is now making inroads in the medium vacuum range. All Zebra RH sizes achieve ultimate pressuresAbout 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 Atomic Spectroscopy Market Poised to Incur Steadfast Growth During 2015 - 2025 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-382 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-382 www.futuremarketinsights.com Study of electromagnetic radiations that is emitted or absorbed by atoms is known as atomic spectroscopy.When electrons are excited, they move from higher valence bond to lower valence bond and emit radiations (emission). However, a relaxed electron moves from lower valence bond to higher valence bond resulting in absorption of energy.Atomic spectroscopy market can be segmented as below based on technologies:X-ray Fluorescence SpectroscopyX-ray Diffraction SpectroscopyInductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS)Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) SpectroscopyAtomic Absorption SpectroscopyElemental AnalyzersAmong all aforementioned technologies, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy market accounts for the largest share to the atomic spectroscopy market. This is due to the fact that they are efficient in analyzing solid samples precisely. Also, procedures performed via X-ray fluorescence are user-friendly in nature along with being cost efficient.Inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) market is expected to show the highest growth rate during the forecast period 2015 to 2025. This growth is attributed to revision in various regulations (chapter 231) of the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention. The revised regulation mandates the utilization of inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy by pharmaceutical companies, which will propel the overall growth of inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy market.Request to Sample Report -Atomic spectroscopy is utilized in various institutes (applications):Food and Beverage TestingPharmaceuticalIndustrial ChemistryEnvironmental TestingBiotechnologyAmong all these, application of atomic spectroscopy in pharmaceutical market accounts for the largest share of total market. This large market size is due to increased utilization of atomic spectroscopy in the various pharmaceutical activities such as drugs manufacturing.Their efficiency helps develop and manufacture drugs precisely, that increases the uptake of atomic spectroscopy while manufacturing drugs by pharmaceutical companies. Hence, atomic spectroscopy market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period 2015 to 2025.Request Report TOC @Stringent safety regulations regarding the drug safety, and food and beverage testing by regulatory authorities across the globe will drive the growth of atomic spectroscopy market at a high CAGR during the forecast period. Safety regulations will propel the demand for the utilization of atomic spectroscopy in industrial chemistry sector along with environmental testing since; it will help monitor the volume of metal in any sample. Likewise, increasing application of atomic spectroscopy in medical research and drug safety will also boost the growth of atomic spectroscopy market.However, lack of trained professionals for handling atomic spectroscopy devices and technology may restrain the growth of atomic spectroscopy market.Domicile of large pharmaceutical and industrial chemistry companies in North America have supported the region to contribute the largest share of total atomic spectroscopy market. Also, stringent government regulations regarding safety of drugs, food and beverages has also supported the large market size in the region. Asia-Pacific is expected to foresee the highest CAGR during the forecast period 2015 to 2025. This is due to the fact that major players such as Agilent Technologies are intending to expand their business in the emerging nations like India and China, which will drive the growth of atomic spectroscopy market. The major players operating in the atomic spectroscopy market include Agilent Technologies, Aurora Biomed, Bruker Corporation, Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, Shimadzu Corporation, GBC Scientific Equipment Pty Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific, PerkinElmer, Inc., Analytik Jena AG and Rigaku Corporation among other significant players.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite : High Reliability Semiconductors Market: Structure and Overview of Key Market Forces Propelling Market https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/high-reliability-semiconductors-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=22151 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=22151 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Semiconductor are made up of materials that has resistance and electrical conductivity coming within the range between that of a conductor and an insulator. Materials such as silicon or germanium among others are used for making semiconductors as it has poor connectivity in low temperatures and is steadily improved after addition of certain substances.State of semiconductors changes after electricity is passed, transforming it from conductive and non-conductive to reflective and non-reflective. Semiconductors also has the capability to increase the conductivity of the materials along with rise in temperature or current or voltage. High reliability semiconductors has the ability to function under extreme conditions along a specified a period of time.Browse report detailsThe global market for high reliability semiconductors has been segmented on the basis of type, application and geography. Based on different types the global market has been segmented into discrete and analog. Aerospace & defense, medical and communications among others form the various application areas based on which the global market for high reliability semiconductors market has been segmented.High reliability semiconductor market globally on the basis of geography has been segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe and Middle East and Africa.It is the high duration along with probability of giving failure free performance across different conditions forms a major driver that has resulted in the rise in demand for this market globally.Brochure With Latest Advancements and ApplicationApplication wise implementation of discrete high reliability semiconductors has also been another major factor that has led to the increase in applications along with providing huge growth prospects in future as well. Controlled resistance level in semiconductors has helped in its implementation across specific applications by performing the intended function under specified intervals and stated conditions.All these factors has helped the high reliability semiconductors market to grow globally. High reliability semiconductors also has growing space applications that has the capability to operate at higher voltages and temperatures providing better performance. Considering the following factors that act as some major drivers for the market, there are also some restraints that restricts the demand for this market globally.Get Table of Content for detail analysisIt is the high costs associated with the application of these semiconductors that act as a major restraint for this market. It is also the technical and programmatic challenges that affects the insertion of these semiconductors that has negative impact on the desired reliability act as another crucial reason restraining the demand for high reliability semiconductors market. Opportunities across high end technologically advanced devices along with high-current/high-voltage configurations will further provide growth opportunities for the market in coming years.Geographically, it is North America that forms one of the major market for high reliability semiconductor market globally with U.S., Canada and Mexico being some of the major regions that are contributing to the growth in this market. Technologically advanced applications such as space and aerospace & defense has contributed to being one of the major reason for the growth of this market in this region.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Ultraviolet Thermal Processing Market: An Insight On the Important Factors and Trends Influencing the Market https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ultraviolet-thermal-processing-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=21959 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=21959 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Over the last decade, the usage of the ultraviolet (UV) thermal processing has grown significantly and UV technology adoption will continue to accelerate the growth of the semiconductor market. Extensive utilization of UV thermal processing across various application segments especially in semiconductor sector for modifying the film properties, wafer heating at a uniform temperature is predicted to boost the market growth in the coming years.Furthermore, ultraviolet thermal processing devices improve product efficiency during wafer processing and development of integrated circuit which is a major factor to accelerate the growth of the Ultraviolet Thermal Processing market.Moreover, in commercial application there is no such other product which can replace ultraviolet thermal processing technology which in turn is driving the Ultraviolet (UV) Thermal Processing Market during the forecast period. The global Ultraviolet Thermal Processing market is likely to grow at aneven rate during the projection period from 2017 to 2025.Obtain Report DetailsThe Ultra Violet (UV) Thermal Processing market is primarily fragmented on the basis of type, application and region. On the basis of type, the Ultraviolet (UV) Thermal Process market has been segmented into front-end-of-line (FEOL) and back-end-of-line (BEOL). Ultraviolet thermal processing applications increases the different factor such as increase mechanical strength, cross linking, removes porogen (pore generation material) from non-dense ULK-films which is acting as a driving factor in the growth of Ultraviolet (UV) Thermal Processing market during the forecast period.Continuous technological advancement of ultraviolet (UV) thermal processing devices to enhance better performance during the time of low dielectric constants for optimal thermal conductivity which requires semiconductor scaling. This in turn is acting as a driving factor in the growth of Ultraviolet (UV) Thermal Processing market in the coming years.Get Brochure For More Technical InsightsMoreover, Ultraviolet (UV) Thermal Processing market has been segmented on the basis of application which includes oxidization, nitration, annealing and gas flow processing among others. The growth witnessed in the demand for semiconductor devicesis expected to positively influence the revenue of Ultraviolet Thermal Processing market during the forecast period.In addition, enormous research and development activities on UV processing technology in order to improve the manufacturing processes such as chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) and final packaging of filmsin semiconductor is also expected to augment the demand of this technology during the forecast period.Obtain Table of ContentMoreover, high cost of installation charges for manufacturer is restraining the growth of this market.. In addition, technological advancement of ultraviolet thermal processing device is able to repair the damage through chemical bond reconstruction during the time of wafer films processing which is acting as an opportunity factor in the growth of Ultraviolet (UV) Thermal Processing market in the coming years.Geographically, Ultraviolet (UV) Thermal Processing market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America. The growth in demand for Ultraviolet Thermal Processing market is majorly driven by Asia Pacific.Asia Pacific is expected to witness the most encouraging market in the coming years, owing to presence of large number of semiconductor manufacturers across this region.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Americas Cancer Biological Therapy Market 2018 expect hike of CAGR at 5.2% Forecast 2022 Key Vendors: are Hoffmann-La Roche AG, GSK, Merck & Co., Novartis International AG and other Americas Cancer Biological Therapy Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/591 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/591 Cancer is characterized by uncontrolled growth of cells. It is one of the deadliest disease in the world and the second cause for death. Cancer can be defined as an abnormal cell growth with the potential to spread to other part of the body. There are over 100 types of cancer which has affected human.Biological therapy uses living organism for the treatment of a disease. These therapies are consist of monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, interferons and many more. Many therapies are available for the treatment of cancer but none of the treatment assure the cure of cancer. The major factors responsible for the growth of the cancer biological therapies are increasing number of patient and limited option of therapy. Bedside this patent expiry of cancer drug increase the demand of the biological treatment. High cost for development of new drug and many adverse effect of the therapy can hamper the market growth. Americas Cancer biologic therapy treatment is expected to grow at CAGR of 5.2% over the forecast period.Try Sample Report Here @Key Players for Cancer Biological Therapy MarketHoffmann-La Roche AG, GSK, Merck & Co., Novartis International AG, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Amgen Inc., Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Seattle Genetics, Inc., Celgene Corporation and othersSegmentationAmericas Cancer Biological Therapy market has been segmented on the basis of- By types which comprises of monoclonal antibodies (Naked monoclonal antibodies, Conjugated monoclonal antibodies, other), interferons, interleukins, cancer growth inhibitors (Tyrosine kinase inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors and Proteasome inhibitors), gene therapy, colony-stimulating factors, targeted therapy, cancer vaccines and others. On the basis of end user, market is segmented into hospitals & clinics, cancer research centers, laboratories and others. And on the basis of Region market is segmented as US, Canada and Rest of America.Regional AnalysisOn regional Basis, Americas biologic cancer therapy market is segmented as US, Canada and Rest of America. The market is dominated by U.S. and Canada due to technological advances and funding available for the development of new therapeutics and treatment. Moreover, increasing number of cancer patient is also driving the market for cancer biologic therapy in this region.Get Discount on 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.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com Automotive Trailer Tow Mirror Market: Recent Industry Developments and Growth Strategies Adopted by Players https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/automotive-trailer-tow-mirror-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=25658 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=25658 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The driving mirror assists the driver to perceive what is close to the vehicle. Furthermore, it helps the driver to estimate the distance between the trailing vehicles and the car. Some of the other types of automotive mirrors are door or wing mirrors, generally recognized as side-view mirrors.A rear-view mirror gives the view of an object at a close range of the car by replicating the images that are reflected on the internal driving mirror. Certain vehicles use sensors or cameras for alerts to distinguish between different types of objects. A front-view mirror reflects images of the nearby cars as well.Browse report detailsOne of the major drivers for the growth of the automotive trailer tow mirror market is the increasing demand for towable RVs or recreational vehicles, which is positively impacting the progress of towing mirrors. Towable recreational vehicles are vehicles that are meant for pleasure or recreation activities such as camping and vacations.These vehicles have several facilities including a kitchen, sleeping room, and bathroom. Positive business environments as well as encouraging regulatory guidelines are likely to aid the growth of the towable RVs market across the world. This rise in the acceptance of towable RVs, especially in the North America region is likely to fuel the growth of the overall automotive trailer tow mirror market during the forecast period. Moreover, the incorporation of cameras to cover the blind spots is another trend that is gaining momentum in the global market.Obtain brochure for latest advancement and technologyThe automotive trailer tow mirrors find additional applications when they are combined with cameras. The system comprises three cameras, one on the rear side of the trailer and two side view mirrors. The side cameras are incorporated into the side mirror that helps in refining the side vision of the automobile.When the arrangement is turned on, it displays the side view on the central screen. Additionally, this camera is connected to the trailer light for power and it also helps in communicating the image to the display wirelessly. This improvement in towable mirrors is likely to fuel growth of the automotive trailer tow mirror market during the forecast period.Get Table of Content for detail analysisThe global automotive trailer tow mirror market can be segmented by vehicle type and geography. In terms of vehicle type, the global market can be segregated into towable RVs, and pickup trucks. In 2016, the pickup trucks segment held a prominent share in the global automotive trailer tow mirror market and it constituted the main part of the market, by revenue. The implementation of towing mirrors by many agencies such as the NHTSA or National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the European Commission is one of the major factors for the dominance of this segment in the global automotive trailer tow mirror market.By geography, the global automotive trailer tow mirror market can be divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Among these, North America held the maximum share and is estimated to retain its position during the forecast period. Some of the factors such as change in living patterns and lifestyles have increased the demand for travel trailers significantly, thereby propelling the overall automotive trailer tow mirror market in this region.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Traffic, water, the risk of disastrous flooding, and the potential loss of a popular trail were among the concerns listed Monday by skeptical neighbors of the Hunter housing project. The city held a special meeting so that St. Helena residents could suggest the issues that should be analyzed by the projects new environmental impact report (EIR). A draft report is scheduled to be released in late summer. Before the neighbors had their say, applicant Ben vanZutphen gave a brief description of the project, which would be on a vacant property beyond the eastern end of Adams Street. He is requesting a tentative map but not design review to subdivide the 16.9-acre parcel into 51 lots for single-family homes, with a separate parcel for a 25 units of affordable/workforce housing. At least 11 accessory dwelling units also known as granny or second units would be built on the single-family lots. The total of 87 units would be the minimum allowed by the propertys Medium Density Residential zoning. Were really excited to bring this project here and help deliver the much-needed housing that we need for the people who live here and would like to live here but cant afford to, vanZutphen said. Global and United States Market Report on Synthetic Fabrics, Types and Applications 2018-2025 https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1641767&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/2018-2025-synthetic-fabrics-report-on-global-and-united-states-marketstatus-and-forecastby-playerstypes-and-applications.htm/toc https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1641767&type=D http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report "2018-2025 Synthetic Fabrics Report on Global and United States Market,Status and Forecast,by Players,Types and Applications" to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the Global and United States market for Synthetic Fabrics 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 and United States market for Synthetic Fabrics. 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.This report studies the Synthetic Fabrics 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 Synthetic Fabrics market by product type and application/end industries.The global Synthetic Fabrics market is valued at XX million USD in 2017 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.The 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 Synthetic Fabrics.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @United States plays an important role in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2017 and will be xx million USD in 2025, with a CAGR of XX.The major players in global and United States market, includingShreeji FabricsJct Mills LimitedWuxi Rich Textile Co. LimitedRuchika GroupGreat Lakes Power CompaniesYuanbo Textile Co. LimitedWujiang Shiyo Textile Import & Export Co., Ltd.Uni-Sparkle Company LimitedOn the basis of product, the market is primarily split intoRayon FabricsAnother key area, where the report proves to be a valuable source of information is in the understanding the competitive dynamics for the Global and United States market for Synthetic Fabrics. Using analytical tools, viz. Porters Five Forces and SWOT Analysis, it evaluates the opportunities and pitfalls players might encounter in the market for Synthetic Fabrics. It also enables it to draw insights on strengths and weaknesses of prominent market participants.For the purpose of study, the Global and United States market for Synthetic Fabrics 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 and United States market for Synthetic Fabrics.Table of Contents2018-2025 Synthetic Fabrics Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications1 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 SourceAccess the Report and full TOC @2 Synthetic Fabrics Market Overview2.1 Synthetic Fabrics Product Overview2.2 Synthetic Fabrics Market Segment by Type2.2.1 Rayon Fabrics2.2.2 Polyester Fabrics2.2.3 Nylon Fabrics2.2.4 Satin Fabrics2.2.5 Acrylic Fabrics3 Synthetic Fabrics Application/End Users3.1 Synthetic Fabrics Segment by Application/End Users3.1.1 Clothing3.2 Global Synthetic Fabrics Product Segment by Application3.2.1 Global Synthetic Fabrics Sales (K Units) and CGAR (%) by Application (2013, 2017 and 2025)3.2.2 Global Synthetic Fabrics Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Application (2013-2018)3.3 United States Synthetic Fabrics Product Segment by Application4.2 Global Synthetic Fabrics Sales and Revenue by Regions4.2.1 Global Synthetic Fabrics Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2013-2018)4.2.2 Global Synthetic Fabrics Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2013-2018)4.2.3 Global Synthetic Fabrics Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%)(2013-2018)4.2.4 North America Synthetic Fabrics Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%)(2013-2018)4.2.5 Europe Synthetic Fabrics Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%)(2013-2018)4.2.6 Asia-Pacific Synthetic Fabrics Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%)(2013-2018)Get discount copy @List of Tables and FiguresTable Research Programs/Design for This ReportFigure Bottom-up and Top-down Approaches for This ReportFigure Data TriangulationTable Key Data Information from Secondary SourcesTable Global Synthetic Fabrics Sales Share (%) by Type (2013-2018)Figure Global Synthetic Fabrics Sales Market Share (%) by Type (2013-2018)Figure Global Synthetic Fabrics Sales Market Share (%) by Type in 2017Table Global Synthetic Fabrics Revenue (Million USD) by Type (2013-2018)Table Global Synthetic Fabrics Revenue Share (%) by Type (2013-2018)Figure Global Synthetic Fabrics Revenue Share (%) by Type (2013-2018)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com Lightning Protection Products Market: Key Players and Production Information analysis with Forecast 2026 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/lightning-protection-products-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=22778 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=22778 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Lightning is one of the natural most destructive and powerful phenomena that causes major problems to various industries such as buildings destruction, and damage critical electronic systems. In order to serve these issues companies are developing novel lightning protection products to serve consumer needs.Lightning protection products delivers complete protection against lightning risk, safeguard critical equipment along with transient overvoltage protection with an effective, low resistance route from lightning protection system to earth. The function of lightning protection products is to intercept, conduct, and disperse of lightning strike safely to earth surface and without such products building structure, electrical systems are all at high risk.Browse report detailsLightning protection products can prevent from lost or destroyed data, repair work mainly costly for remote or unmanned installations, equipment damage, loss of essential services, and fire & electric shock hazards. The main components of lightning protection systems are rods, cables, and air terminals which work together to carry immense current away from the structure, prevents from fire, and most appliance damage.Lightning protection products market are witnessing maximum growth owing to growing concern of damage to building materials & appliances through direct lightning strikes, expanding number of smart homes through advance technology, provides protection against high voltage spike and current generated through lightning, and increase in demand for customized products.Brochure With Latest Advancements and ApplicationMoreover, growing adoption of lightning protection products among various end user such as water treatment, nuclear power plants, utilities, warehouses, airports, military, residential area, and healthcare along with developing telecommunication facilities and rising pressure from regulatory bodies to protect commercial facilities such as schools, office, healthcare facilities, and many more are some of the factors that can boost the demand for lightning protection products over the forecast period.Lightning protection products market revenue is expected to grow at a rapid growth rate, over the forecast period. The market is anticipated to perform well in the near future owing to the fact that it protect building & its occupants from lightning strikes, minimize the business disruption, and prevent expensive electronic appliances from damage. Moreover, growing urbanization, demand for technically advanced lightning protection products, and rising adoption of photovoltaic are some of the factors that can accelerate the market revenue growth of lightning protection products during the forecast period.For Detail Analysis Get Table Of ContentBased on application, industrial application is anticipated to grow at the fastest CAGR over the forecast period attributed to expanding manufacturing, construction activities coupled with increase in utilities such as power stations and mining industries events. Lightning protection products are also installed in various commercial facilities such as financial services institutions, office blocks, commercial centers, and showrooms.Some players of lightning protection products market are Pentair Plc., Harger, Inc., Alltec Corporation, A. N. Wallis & Co Ltd., Fatech Electronic Co., Ltd., NexTek, Inc., AXIS Electrical Components (India) Pvt. Ltd., , K.M.L.Technology Co., Ltd., MTL Instruments Group, Lightning Protection International Pty Ltd.,About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Urology Forceps Market 2018 - Sklar Surgical Instruments, Boston Scientific, Cook Medical Global Urology Forceps Market http://cutt.us/shu6T http://cutt.us/5m1CT www.apexmarketreports.com Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the Urology Forceps Market across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of Urology Forceps Market from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global PP Pipe industry, and estimates the future trend of Urology Forceps on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares Urology Forceps performance both in terms of volume and revenue.The market research report explores the Urology Forceps Market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of Urology Forceps Market. The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Urology Forceps Market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Urology Forceps. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Urology Forceps Market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportSklar Surgical InstrumentsBoston ScientificMillennium Surgical InstrumentsCook MedicalMeditech DevicesBard MedicalThe competitive landscape of the global market for Urology Forceps is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Urology Forceps Markets production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Urology Forceps Market globally.Inquire Before Buying @The Global Urology Forceps Market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Urology Forceps production volume, data pertaining to demand and Urology Forceps supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Urology Forceps along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Urology Forceps across the world.About UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite - Wooden Toys Market: Present Scenario and the Growth Prospects with Forecast 2025 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/wooden-toys-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=37160 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=37160 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com A toy is an object which is specially designed to train and amuse children. Wooden toys are traditional and classic form of toys that do not contain plastic, batteries, and can run hundred percentage on imagination. Diverse manufacturers use various materials such as paper, wood, plastic, and clay in order to make these toys.The wooden toys market has been undergoing rapid changes and has been witnessing consistent innovations in these products. Wooden toys are considered to be safe, as compared to other toys, as they do not possess sharp edges. These toys last long without suffering major breakages. Additionally, traditional wooden toys are manufactured from natural resources, which are mostly non-toxic and are often recycled, which makes them eco-friendly.Obtain ReportA major factor driving the global wooden toys market is the rising population of kids across the world. Increasing urbanization and rising awareness about the benefits of wooden toys are also fuelling the wooden toys market. Furthermore, there has been a major shift in the buying behavior for traditional toys, globally.Gradually, a significant shift toward educational toys and art & craft has been witnessed, as parents are focusing more on providing education through fun activities. However, the market is witnessing high volatility in the price of wooden toys. Which is restraining the wooden toys market.Request BrochureThe global wooden toys market can be classified based on product type, end-user, distribution channel, age group, and geography. Based on product type, the wooden toys market can be segregated into construction sets, dolls, miniatures, vehicles, collectibles, physical activity, puzzles, and others.In terms of age group, the market can be segmented into 0-12 month, 1-3 years, 3-5 years, 5-12 years, and more than 12 years. Based on end-user, the global wooden toys market can be classified into residential and commercial. Based on distribution channel, the wooden toys can be split into online and offline. The offline segment of the global wooden toys market can be further sub-segmented into supermarkets and hypermarkets, convenience stores, and others. Hypermarkets and supermarkets have a strong presence in the current market.Obtain Table of ContentIn terms of geography, the global wooden toys can be segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, South America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to hold a prominent share of the global wooden toys market. The market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand during the forecast period due to the increasing population in emerging economies such as India and China.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment Industry 2018 - Bruker, Foss, Jasco, Jeol, Perkinelmer Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment Market http://bit.ly/2Hvxh0h http://www.qyresearchstore.com/global-molecular-spectroscopy-equipment-market-manufacturers-2018-review-size-and-forecast-2023 http://qyresearchstore.com/ Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment Market Research 2018A market study "Global Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment Market" examines the performance of the Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment market state and the competitive landscape Globally. This report analyzes the potential of Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment Market 2018 report includes Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment market Revenue, market Share, Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment industry volume, market Trends, Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment Market 2018 :1. ABB2. Agilent Technologies3. Bruker4. Danaher Corporation5. Foss6. Jasco7. Jeol8. Perkinelmer9. Shimadzu10. Thermo Fisher ScientificMolecular Spectroscopy Equipment Market : By Application Medicine Food Biological OtherMolecular Spectroscopy Equipment Market : By Type NMR UV-Visible IR NIRFirstly, the report covers the top Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment manufacturing industry players from regions like Global, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment industry, Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment 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 Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment market revenue worldwide.Finally, Molecular Spectroscopy Equipment 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 Construction Industry Global Market Future Outlook (2017-2021) Construction Industry https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3054059-construction-global-industry-guide-2017-2021 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3054059-construction-global-industry-guide-2017-2021 Construction IndustryOverviewGlobal Construction industry profile provides top-line qualitative and quantitative summary information including: market size (value 2012-16, and forecast to 2021). The profile also contains descriptions of the leading players including key financial metrics and analysis of competitive pressures within the market.Click here for sample report @Major Highlight of the ReportThe construction industry is defined as the value of work put in place annually in the residential and non-residential segments. Civil engineering work is excluded. Where possible data has not been seasonally adjusted.The residential construction market is defined as the value of work put in place annually for residential buildings. This includes apartments, houses, and similar buildings, but not hotels etc. Market value includes new build and also renovations and repair; it includes construction of buildings and also preparatory work and completion (demolition, site preparation, electrical and plumbing installation, etc).The non-residential construction market is defined as the value of non-residential buildings constructed. These include, but are not restricted to, buildings intended for retail, commercial, manufacturing, and educational purposes.All currency conversions were calculated at constant average annual 2016 exchange rates.The global construction industry had total revenues of $5,022.3bn in 2016, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% between 2012 and 2016.The Residential segment was the industry's most lucrative in 2016, with total revenues of $2,619.1bn, equivalent to 52.2% of the industry's overall value.Construction activities in Asia-Pacific have boosted once again the value of the global construction. The Chinese and Indian industries have mainly contributed to this growth, as well as other developing economies. Accordingly, the slowdown of the global industry was consequent to that of the Chinese industry.Construction Industry Major Outlook- Save time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the size, growth, major segments, and leading players in the G8 chemicals market- Use the Five Forces analysis to determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of the G8 chemicals market- Leading company profiles reveal details of key chemicals market players G8 operations and financial performance- Add weight to presentations and pitches by understanding the future growth prospects of the G8 chemicals market with five year forecasts- Compares data from the US, Canada, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia and Japan, alongside individual chapters on each country.Construction Industry - Competitive AnalysisKey players are making innovative developments in Construction Industry. The same will help in improving the market performance. Heavy investments are made by major players in the R&D sector.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 Global High Silica Zeolite market 2017 - BASF, Zeochem AG, Tosoh Corporation, W. R. Grace, Clariant Global High Silica Zeolite market https://goo.gl/XQ8Lmp https://goo.gl/Z2r6Zh www.apexmarketreports.com Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "High Silica Zeolite Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "High Silica Zeolite Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global High Silica Zeolite industry, and estimates the future trend of High Silica Zeolite market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "High Silica Zeolite Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportUOP (Honeywell)CECA (Arkema)BASFZeochem AGTosoh CorporationW. R. GraceZeolyst InternationalClariantCWK Chemiewerk Bad Kostritz GmbHKNT GroupZeolites & Allied ProductsThe market research report explores the High Silica Zeolite market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "High Silica Zeolite Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the High Silica Zeolite market based on major product types, application and end users industries of High Silica Zeolite. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for High Silica Zeolite market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for High Silica Zeolite is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, High Silica Zeolite market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the High Silica Zeolite market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The global High Silica Zeolite market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, High Silica Zeolite production volume, data pertaining to demand and High Silica Zeolite supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of High Silica Zeolite along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for High Silica Zeolite across the world.About UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite - Europe, Middle East & Africa Hospital Bed Market 2018 expect hike of CAGR at 4% Forecast to 2023 Key Vendors: are Stryker Corporation, Hilli Rom Holding. Inc., Getinge Group and other Europe, Middle East & Africa Hospital Bed Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/613 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/613 Beds are the primary requirements for the healthcare facilities providers. The prime objective of these care centers are to provide comfort and relief to the patients. When patient arrives in the hospital he is unable to move. The beds available for the purpose of healthcare are specially designed for the comfort of the patients.Beds used in the healthcare facility centers are customized or specially modified beds. The modifications are made to for convenience of the patients. The modifications are made for the purpose of adding features to the beds. The features include adjustable heights, adjustable size, and also for the sections like head and feet. The features also include wheels, automations button for the electric devices and side trail rails and many more.Try Sample Report Here @Patients with conditions like cardiac problems, cancer, renal problems, bone fractures, spine fracture, pregnant women, old aged people and children are the major utilizers of hospitals beds. Patients are made comfortable in hospitals with the different features of beds. As the beds are available with all features required by the patient conditions. The only matter of concern is of price of the beds. But the governments and the private companies do spend much on the healthcare expenditures that helps the user to utilize the facilities.The Europe, Middle East & Africa market of hospital beds is steady growing because of the Europe has increasing expenditures on the advanced technology in healthcare. Growing number of chronic diseases, non-chronic diseases is also rising. The market of Middle East & Africa is growing at a steady pace, but the government of this regions are providing schemes and consolidations for the healthcare facilities. Also in the Middle East and Africa region the number of incidence of the chronic diseases are increasing. The requirement for the beds and the demand from the healthcare centers is high. The overall Europe, Middle East & Africa market of hospital beds is expected to grow with a CAGR of 4%.Key Players for Hospital bed Market:Some of the Key Players in This Market Are: Stryker Corporation, Hilli Rom Holding. Inc., Getinge Group, Paramount Bed Co. Ltd., Invacare Corporation, Arjo Hunjtleigh, and othersSegments:Europe, Middle East & Africa hospital bed market has been segmented on the basis of types which comprises type (Standard bed, Manual bed, Hydraulic bed and Electric bed), application types (Medical/Surgical bed, Critical care bed, Maternity bed, Bariatric bed and others) and the end users types (Hospitals & Clinics, Nursing homes and Maternity homes).Regional Analysis of hospital bed Market:Europe, Middle East & Africa region is steady growing market for the hospital bed. The Europe market for hospital bed is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4% during the forecasted period. The Europe market value was estimated USD 1,650 million in 2015 and is expected to reach USD 2,100 million by 2023. This is due to increasing expenditures on advanced technology for healthcare and increasing number of chronic and non-chronic diseases. Where the market for the Middle East & Africa is expected to grow at a rate of 2.5% CAGR during the forecasted period. The market in Middle East and Africa are rising due to the government schemes and consolidation schemes for the people. The market for Middle East & Africa is less than the developed countries.Get Discount on 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.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com Mar 13, 2018: Ultra Pure Water Instrument Industry Forecast 2025 Agilent, Shimadzu, Merck Millipore Ultra Pure Water Instrument Market http://bit.ly/2GlymZ6 http://www.qyresearchstore.com/global-ultra-pure-water-instrument-market-manufacturers-2018-review-size-and-forecast-2023 http://qyresearchstore.com/ Ultra Pure Water Instrument Market Research 2018A market study "Global Ultra Pure Water Instrument Market" examines the performance of the Ultra Pure Water Instrument market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Ultra Pure Water Instrument market state and the competitive landscape Globally. This report analyzes the potential of Ultra Pure Water Instrument market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Ultra Pure Water Instrument Market 2018 report includes Ultra Pure Water Instrument market Revenue, market Share, Ultra Pure Water Instrument industry volume, market Trends, Ultra Pure Water Instrument Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Ultra Pure Water Instrument Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Ultra Pure Water Instrument Market 2018 :1. Merck Millipore2. Agilent3. Shimadzu4. Thermo Fisher ScientificUltra Pure Water Instrument Market : By Application Factory Laboratory Hospital OtherUltra Pure Water Instrument Market : By Type Ion Switched Two-Stage Reverse Osmosis Type OtherFirstly, the report covers the top Ultra Pure Water Instrument manufacturing industry players from regions like Global, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Ultra Pure Water Instrument report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Ultra Pure Water Instrument industry, Ultra Pure Water Instrument industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Ultra Pure Water Instrument Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Ultra Pure Water Instrument 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 Ultra Pure Water Instrument market revenue worldwide.Finally, Ultra Pure Water Instrument 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 Global Tyre Bead Wire Market is set to Garner Staggering Revenues by 2022 https://www.researchtrades.com/request-sample/1472606 https://www.researchtrades.com/checkout/1472606 https://www.researchtrades.com/report/global-tyre-bead-wire-market-professional-survey-report-2018/1472606 Global Tyre Bead Wire Industry Report" is an expert and in-depth analysis of key business and future development prospects, key determinants and restrictions, profiles of major market players, segmentation and forecasting. The study offers a comprehensive qualitative analysis of the industry's growth parameters, the current state of the market in terms of analysis of key economic situations and macroeconomic analysis. The analysis highlights the growth opportunities of key market segments along with the tactical moves made by key vendors to grow in the market.Get FREE and detailed sample copy of updated Analysis & Status @Scope of the Report:This report studies Tyre Bead Wire 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, coveringBekaertKiswireRajratanHeico Wire GroupTATA SteelWireCo WorldGroupShandong DayeXingdaSntonXinglunGUIZHOU Wire RopeKing IndustrialOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into0.96mm1.295mm,1.55mm,1.83mmOthersBy Application, the market can be split intoCar Radial TireTruck Radial TireBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaYou can purchase a single user copy at USD 3500 and can get discount too @NOTE: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you wantTable of Content:1 Industry Overview of Tyre Bead Wire1.1 Definition and Specifications of Tyre Bead Wire1.1.1 Definition of Tyre Bead Wire1.1.2 Specifications of Tyre Bead Wire1.2 Classification of Tyre Bead Wire1.2.1 0.96mm1.2.2 1.295mm,1.55mm,1.83mm1.2.3 Others1.3 Applications of Tyre Bead Wire1.3.1 Car Radial Tire1.3.2 Truck Radial Tire1.3.3 Application 31.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Tyre Bead Wire2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Tyre Bead Wire2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Tyre Bead Wire2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Tyre Bead WireBrowse complete insightful information @3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Tyre Bead Wire3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Tyre Bead Wire Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Tyre Bead Wire Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Tyre Bead Wire Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Tyre Bead Wire Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Tyre Bead Wire Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Tyre Bead Wire Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Tyre Bead Wire Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Tyre Bead Wire Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Tyre Bead Wire Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Tyre Bead Wire Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Tyre Bead Wire Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)Continue....Who we areResearch Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approaches, thus providing valuable research insights. 2002 Report of two suspicious people with a white van removing things from a garage on Chiles Avenue. Police made sure there was no crime occurring. Sunday, March 11 1221 Report of a suspicious woman wandering around a property on Fawn Park Road and not making sense. 1222 A gunshot outside the city limits was audible from Madrona Avenue. The caller said it was an ongoing issue and was concerned that the person is going to commit a crime with the guns. 1324 A caller said loud bass sounds coming from a car parked on McCorkle Avenue could be heard from blocks away. Police checked the area. 1444 Report of a dog left in the bed of a truck for 10 minutes near Main/Spring. The caller was concerned it was too hot for the dog, who was barking. It was 70 degrees. 1610 Report of a silver hatchback speeding down Crinella Drive and doing donuts. Police checked the area. 1647 A silver Range Rover had been parked near Main/Elmhurst for a few weeks with a For Sale sign on it. 1706 A car with expired tags had been parked on Pope Street for weeks. Drones Market for Energy Industry Key Growth Factor Analysis 2025 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/drones-market-for-energy-industry.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=29846 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Drones have transformed aerial surveys and inspection services. Development in battery technology and sensors has vastly transformed the operations of drones. Drones are flying devices which carry cameras to areas that are difficult to access. The difficulty sometimes is likely to be physical or economical. The energy industry that includes oil & gas, renewable industry, and power & utility can employ drones primarily for inspection and real-time observation from remote locations. Until recently, engineers around the world would manually monitor oil wells, wind turbines, and oil and gas pipelines for any kind of inspections.Read Report Overview @In terms of industry type, the drones market for the energy industry can be segmented into oil & gas, power & utility, and renewable energy. Operators of the energy industry are finding drone technology cost-effective, accurate, quick, and easy due to improved efficiency, powerful computers, and affordable drone technology.Drones can be used for inspection and surveillance of drilling rigs in onshore and offshore operations in the oil & gas industry. Drones can also be used for integrity check of crude oil pipelines, running for thousands of kilometers on land. Identification of pipe failure, leakage identification, identification of crude oil stealing from pipeline are some operations that are highly time consuming and expensive if carried out manually.Drones can be employed for the inspection of cables, integrity check of cables and towers, and site surveillance in the power & utility industry. In the renewable energy industry, solar power plants, wind turbine farms are spread over very large areas. Surveillance, management, and quality check can be done with drones, which saves cost as well as the time involved in these regular operations.Drones are available in the market with various specifications and type. However, a few existing players provide customized drones in accordance with the specific demand. Fixed winged drones, rotary blade drones, nano drones, and hybrid drones are commonly employed for inspection and surveillance operations.Ease of operation itself is the driver for the drones market for energy industry. Drones are becoming a primary choice for inspection and surveillance applications due to the advancement of technology in drone manufacturing and high definition camera technology. Cost-effectiveness is another driver for the drones market for the energy industry. Oil companies are finding ways to cut cost incurred in exploration and inspection activities amidst low oil and gas prices. Drones are increasingly seen as smart technology for saving costs. Ease of accessing remote and difficult locations is the biggest advantage of drones. The only restraint to the drones market for energy industry is the norms and regulation for UAV usage. Drones can be employed for any undesirable terror activity by unsocial elements since they are easy to operate.The global drones market for energy industry is estimated to expand. North America is anticipated to lead the market due to its vast number of energy projects in oil and gas, and renewable energy (solar & wind). Asia Pacific, with its emerging economies such as India and China, is lucrative region for the drones market for energy industry. Asia Pacific has the highest population in the world, and increased development activities the region is projected to boost the demand for energy in the near future. Middle East & Africa is estimated be another lucrative region due to the vast number of oil and gas projects in the region.Request to view Sample Report:Key players operating in the drones market for energy industry include Aerovel, Altavian, Precision Hawk, Sky-Future, Skylark Drones Pvt Ltd, Leonardo Societa per azioni, Intel Deutschland GmbH, BAE Systems, AERODYNE GEOSPATIAL, and Airware.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Lanolin Alcohol Market Set for Rapid Trend | 2025 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/lanolin-alcohol-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=14276 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Lanolin alcohol is manufactured from hydrolysis of lanolin. It is an important component of surface active agents in various skin smoothening and nourishing creams. It acts as a viscosity enhancer in these formulations. Lanolin alcohol is manufactured by using an alkaline treatment on the lanolin; which is then followed by removal of released soaps. It is refined further by a multi-stage distillation process to improve its odor and color. This process produces a purified, semi-crystalline and almost colorless wax. The composition of lanolin alcohol is sterols and triterpene alcohols such as cholesterol, agnosterol, lanosterol and their derivatives.Read Report Overview @Rising demand for lanolin alcohol from personal care and cosmetics industry is anticipated to drive the market. Lanolin alcohol is a refined derivative of lanolin and it contains various lipids that are physiologically close to human skin layers, which makes highly compatible to human skin. Emulsifying capabilities of the lanolin alcohol are stable across a wide pH range which makes it an ideal choice as an emulsifier in face and hair bleaching agents. Furthermore, increasing usage of lanolin alcohol in pharmaceutical industry is expected to boost the market growth. Lanolin alcohol has wound healing capability and hence it has various applications in the pharmaceutical and medical industries.However, the Food and Drug Administrations regulations over the usage of lanolin alcohol in use of personal care and cosmetic products are expected to hamper the market growth. Additionally, fluctuating raw material prices is likely to affect the lanolin alcohol market growth negatively. Technological advancements and product developments in the lanolin alcohol formulations for personal care, cosmetics and pharmaceutical applications are expected to provide immense opportunities for the players in the market.In terms of demand, Asia Pacific was the largest market for lanolin alcohol and is also expected to be the fastest growing over the forecast period. China dominated the demand for lanolin alcohol in the region. India, South Korea and countries in Southeast Asia are expected to exhibit higher demand for lanolin alcohol owing to rise in personal care industry. Adoption of western lifestyle and increasing per capita income were among the key factors for the growth in personal care industry. North America and Europe followed Asia Pacific in terms of demand.The U.S. dominated the demand in North America owing to increasing demand for lanolin alcohol personal care and cosmetics industry. Western Europe that comprises Germany, Italy, the U.K., France and Spain contributed significantly to the demand of lanolin alcohol. Central & Eastern Europe are expected to provide immense opportunities for the players in the lanolin alcohol market. Rest of the World (RoW) that comprises Latin America, Africa and the Middle East is likely to exhibit potential growth for the lanolin alcohol. Brazil and Saudi Arabia are considered as major contributors.Request to view Sample Report:Global lanolin alcohol market exhibits moderate level of consolidation. Procurement of raw material and secure supply are the major concerns for the players in the market. Major players have long term agreements with companies in the end-user industries, which increases the entry barriers for new entrants. Furthermore, formulations of lanolin alcohol are patented by majority of the companies and new entrants would need to develop own formulations through research & development activities. This fact makes the market capital intensive. Key players in lanolin alcohol market include Surfachem Group Ltd, The Lubrizol Corporation, Nanjing Lanbai Chemical Co., Ltd., Hydrite Chemical Co. and Lanaetex Products, Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Surge in Automotive Industry to Bolster Demand for Global Automotive Intelligence Battery Sensor Market https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1598247 The global automotive intelligence battery sensors market are prognosticated to grow significantly within forecast period. According to a recently published report by marketresearchreports.biz titled, Automotive Intelligence Battery Sensor Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 2025. The market is growing due to rapid advancement in technology. Recently, the global market for automotive intelligence battery sensors has been experiencing generous ascent in its worth. The continuous rise in the automotive business is the principle factor that has been encouraging the development of this market astoundingly. The increase in emission of carbon dioxide and the rising utilization of fuel via vehicles have risen as an issue of significant worries among individuals over the world. To control carbon dioxide discharge and for road security, different governments have executed strict regulations and laws, convincing automakers to incorporate automotive intelligence battery sensors in their products, prompting an ascent in their deals. The need to follow fuel economy standards is additionally reassuring producers to utilize these sensors in their vehicles. Every one of these components is anticipated to help the overall market for automotive intelligence battery sensors in the years to come.The global automotive intelligence battery sensors market is divided on the basis of voltage, technology, electric vehicles, vehicles, and regions. As per the technology, the market is segmented into CAN, LIN, and MCU. Based on voltage, the market is classified into 2 volts, 12 volts, 48 volts, and 14 volts. As per the vehicle the global automotive intelligence battery sensors market is bifurcated into commercial vehicle and passenger vehicle.For Sample Copy, click here:Majorly, automotive intelligence battery sensors find broad application in passenger vehicles, electrical vehicles, and commercial vehicles. The demand for these sensors is moderately more noteworthy in passenger vehicles. In year 2016, the passenger vehicle section held near half of the overall income produced in this market. With the rise in growth of safety features, for example, keeping a check on battery in passenger vehicles, the fragment is foreseen to flourish on the best position throughout the following couple of years. Electric vehicles are developing as huge customers of automotive intelligence battery sensors, all over the world. Each of the three kinds of electric vehicles, that is, battery electric vehicle, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, and hybrid electric vehicle are by and large supported with automotive intelligence battery sensors to prevent the accidents. Over the coming years, the battery electric vehicle section is anticipated to surge as the most noticeable of these, holding more than three-fourth of the market share, individually.On the basis of geography, the overall market for automotive intelligence battery sensors is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific drove the global market with 40% of overall market in past years, shares as far as revenue is concerned. The local market is likely to stay on the best position in the years to come, because of the expanding boost of electrical vehicles in China and the growing number of global manufacturers in this region. Europe is the second most noticeable regional market for automotive intelligence battery sensor market with comparatively lesser market shares than that of Asia Pacific. This is credited to growth in the administration standards toward the nature and furthermore the diminishing emission of carbon dioxide from the vehicle.The global market for automotive intellegence battery sensors is much consolidated. HELLA GmbH and Co., The Continental AG, KGaA, NXP Semiconductors, Inomatic GmbH, ams AG, Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd., Vishay Intertechnology, Vishay Intertechnology, Robert Bosch Ltd., MTA S.p.A, Denso Corp., Autotec Components, and Abertax Technologies Ltd., are among the main sellers of automotive intellegence battery sensors over the world.MarketResearchReports.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.To order report Call Toll Free: 866-997-4948 or send an email on sales@marketresearchreports.biz Smart Ticketing Systems Market Major Manufacturers, Trends, Demand, Share Analysis to 2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2106578-global-smart-ticketing-systems-market-research-report-2017 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2106578-global-smart-ticketing-systems-market-research-report-2017 https://www.wiseguyreports.com Global Smart Ticketing Systems IndustryLatest Report on Smart Ticketing Systems Market Global Analysis & 2022 Forecast Research StudyWiseGuyReports has announced the addition of a new market intelligence report to its repository titled Global Smart Ticketing Systems Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022. The research report presents a comprehensive overview of market and growth trends of this industry in the coming years.Try Sample Report @Global Smart Ticketing Systems Market" market report presents a detail qualitative analysis of the Global Smart Ticketing Systems Industry market and its important classification and forecast for 2022". The report contains current scenario of the Global Smart Ticketing Systems Market " industry and encompasses discussion various prime factors related to markets such as growth, drive, various patterns, and control.The report provides in depth study of Global Smart Ticketing Systems Industry using SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization. The report identifies the strength factors of the organization that will help organizations to acquire a prominent market share, to rectify where the organization is lacking or some hole which is creating glitches for development product. Look out for more opportunities in the market, get up to date to avoid any threats, competitors and substitutes.Top Major Key Players:HIDGemalto NVNXP SemiconductorsCPI Card Group IncCubic CorpXerox CorpThe report gives the reasonable picture of current market situation which incorporates past and anticipated market data for development purpose considering reference point such as esteem and volume, innovative development, economic science and government in the market.For Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @Some Major Points from Table of content:Global Smart Ticketing Systems Market Research Report 20171 Smart Ticketing Systems Market Overview2 Global Smart Ticketing Systems Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Smart Ticketing Systems Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)4 Global Smart Ticketing Systems Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)5 Global Smart Ticketing Systems Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Smart Ticketing Systems Market Analysis by Application7 Global Smart Ticketing Systems Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Smart Ticketing Systems Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisContinued..For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comWise 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 LtdPune 411028Maharashtra,Ph: +91 841 198 5042 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Market Key Analysis and 2018 Development Trends QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1475522&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/emea-europemiddle-east-and-africa-ultrasonic-gas-leak-detectors-market-report-2018.htm/toc http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors to its huge collection of research reports.The report published for the EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors market provides an extensive outline of all the major factors such as EMEA sales, prominent drivers, regional spread, leading segments, and others. These factors are extremely important from the perspective of extending a substantial influencing effect on the markets development during the specific forecast duration. All the factors mentioned above are assessed in a lot of detail, along with a significant qualitative and quantitative analysis for measuring the effectiveness of the factors.Writing a concise text derived from large information volumes related to the Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors market in just a few pages is a difficult task. Businesses may find it tedious to take only small bits and pieces of information that are related to a market and compile them in a small report. In order to provide an aid to this issue, businesses who are into the EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors market are utilizing focused market research methodologies that can also help form clearer ideas about this market.For more info, get sample report for FREE here:EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors sales volume (K Units), price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingBacharachDetector ElectronicsSpectrisSONOTECEmersonMSAAOIPCygnusDiatexINFICONMISTRAS GroupSUTO iTecSynergys TechnologiesGeographically, this report split EMEA into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, With sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast)Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux;Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria.Read Complete Table of Content of the Report at:Table of ContentsEMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Market Report 20171 Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors1.2 Classification of Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors1.2.1 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Ultrasonic Signal1.2.4 Digitization1.2.5 Visualization1.3 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-20221.3.2 Oil and Gas1.3.3 Chemical Industry1.3.4 Others2 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application2.1 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers2.1.1 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales Volume and Market Share of Major Players (2012-2017)2.1.2 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Revenue and Share by Players (2012-2017)2.1.3 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sale Price by Players (2012-2017)2.2 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors (Volume and Value) by Type/Product Category2.2.1 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.3 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sale Price by Type (2012-2017)2.3 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors (Volume) by Application2.4 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors (Volume and Value) by Region2.4.1 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.2 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.3 EMEA Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales Price by Region (2012-2017)3 Europe Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application3.1 Europe Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 Europe Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 Europe Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.2 Europe Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales and Market Share by Type3.3 Europe Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales and Market Share by Application3.4 Europe Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries3.4.1 Europe Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.2 Europe Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detectors Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)...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 Market Growth of LASIK Eye Surgery Market is Estimated to Grow Rapidly by 2022 LASIK Eye Surgery Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1774 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/lasik-eye-surgery-market-1774 www.marketresearchfuture.com Laser in-situ keratomileusis, i.e. LASIK is a popular surgery used to correct vision in visually impaired people. It is one of the successful treatment to treat vision impairment. In this surgery, the ophthalmologist reshapes the cornea to improve the vision.The market for LASIK surgery is majorly driven by an increasing expenditure on eye health, and growing awareness about eye diseases ad availability of treatment. Furthermore, there is an increase in the number of people suffering from eye diseases across the globe. Technological advancement in the field of ophthalmology also accelerates the growth of the market.According to the Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 14 million Americans aged 12 years and older have visual impairment. According to the World Health Organization, about 60 million European have diabetes and the prevalence of diabetes is relatively high among people over 25 years.Receive a sample copy atBausch & Lomb Incorporated.:November, 2017: Bausch & Lomb Incorporated. launched expanded parameters of Bausch + Lomb ULTRA for Astigmatism contact lenses.October, 2017: Bausch & Lomb Incorporated. announced the introduction of the enVista MX60E with StableFlex technology. This lens is the next generation of the company`s hydrophobic acrylic lens, which provides improved material properties to enhance optic recovery following delivery.August, 2017: Bausch & Lomb Incorporated. announced the U.S. launch of the Stellaris Elite vision enhancement system for retina surgery, which integrates advanced retina capabilities into the next-generation surgical platform. This new system features multiple advancements as well as the ability to seamlessly integrate future technologies, such as the Vitesse hypersonic vitrectomy system, which will be exclusive to Stellaris Elite.July, 2017: Bausch & Lomb Incorporated. announced the U.S. launch of the FortifEYE capsular tension ring (CTR).Alcon Laboratories, Inc.Alcon Laboratories, Inc. offers various product from eye care such as contact lenses, dry eye product,k allergy/redness reliefm, eye wash, eye vitamin,, surgical products, vision accessories, safety and industrial cleaning products, and diagnostics.November, 2017: Alcon Laboratories, Inc. introduced the newly optimized UltraSert delivery system pre-loaded with the AcrySof IQ aspheric monofocal intraocular lens (IOL) for people undergoing cataract surgery at the 2017 American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) annual meeting.October, 2017: Alcon Laboratories, Inc. introduced Clareon the intraocular lens (IOL) with the most advanced optic material available in an automated, disposable, pre-loaded delivery system, at the XXXV European Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS).October, 2017: Alcon announced the US launch of the CyPass Micro-Stent at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO).May, 2017: Alcon launched AcrySof IQ ReSTOR +2.5 Multifocal Toric intraocular lens (IOL) with ACTIVEFOCUS optical design at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) 2017 annual meeting.September, 2016: Alcon launched the NGENUITY 3D Visualization System, a platform for Digitally Assisted Vitreoretinal Surgery (DAVS), in collaboration with TrueVision 3D Surgical. The system is designed to enhance visualization of the back of the eye for improved surgeon experience. TrueVision 3D Surgical is a California-based company specializing in digital 3D visualization and guidance for microsurgery.Browse Complete Report atKey players in the LASIK Eye Surgery market:The global LASIK eye surgery market is highly fragmented with the presence of many local players and international players. The main focus of these players is cost reduction and innovation to ensure sustainability. In addition, the international players implemented growth strategies through collaborations and partnerships to expand their overall market share.NIDEK CO., LTD. (Japan), Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), Alcon Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.), Carl Zeiss, Inc. (U.S.), Bausch & Lomb Incorporated. (India), Lasersight Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), and others.Key developments:Strategic approaches adopted help the major players in the market to sustain their growth and develop their business in various geographical areas across the globe. Agreements and collaborations, mergers and acquisitions, and new product launches are various strategies followed by the key players.Johnson & JohnsonSeptember, 2016: Johnson & Johnson announced agreement to acquire Abbott Medical Optics. The acquisition will help Johnson & Johnson strengthen global leadership in eye health adding cataract and refractive eye surgery to vision care portfolio. Additionally the company will be able to enter cataract surgery, one of the most commonly performed surgeries and the number one cause of preventable blindness.iFS Advanced Femtosecond Laser, iDESIGN Advanced WaveScan Studio System, and STAR S4 IR Excimer Laser are the most popular technologies offered by Johnson & Johnson in eye care.Table of Content1 INTRODUCTION2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY3 MARKET DYNAMICS4 MARKET FACTOR ANALYSIS5 GLOBAL LASIK EYE SURGERY MARKET, BY TYPESGLOBAL LASIK EYE SURGERY MARKET, BY VISION ERROR7 GLOBAL LASIK EYE SURGERY MARKET, BY END USER8 GLOBAL LASIK EYE SURGERY MARKET, BY REGION9 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE10 COMPANY PROFILEAbout 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 Expanding Worldwide Market of Bread and Baked Food Research report 2018 Bread and Baked Food https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/813022 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/report/global-bread-and-baked-food-market-professional-survey-report-2018 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com This report studies Bread and Baked Food 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 2013 to 2018, and forecast to 2025.The report has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the Bread and Baked Food Market collected from specialized sources. The competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players.The market is segmented on the basis of Product and Application. The section provides beneficial knowledge about the segments of the report.The major players in the market areGrupo BimboBritannia IndustriesNestle ChilePremier FoodsInterstate Brands CorporationGeorge WestonSara Lee Bakery GroupFlowers FoodLewis BrothersHostess BrandsDelta Agri-Foods IncDeliFranceThe Bread and Baked Food market in terms of application is classified intoRestaurantsHomeOtherDepending on the Product the Bread and Baked Food Market is classified intoSconesPastriesCookiesBiscuitsOtherThe market is sectioned by prevailing regions such asNorth AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaAt QY Research Groups we render the most authentic and elaborate information for the utmost benefit of our clients.To avail a sample of this report click here:Table of Contents -1 Industry Overview of Bread and Baked Food1.1 Definition and Specifications of Bread and Baked Food1.1.1 Definition of Bread and Baked Food1.1.2 Specifications of Bread and Baked Food1.2 Classification of Bread and Baked Food1.2.1 Scones1.2.2 Pastries1.2.3 Cookies1.2.4 Biscuits1.2.5 Other1.3 Applications of Bread and Baked Food1.3.1 Restaurants1.3.2 Home1.3.3 Other1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Bread and Baked Food8.1 Grupo Bimbo8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Grupo Bimbo 2017 Bread and Baked Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Grupo Bimbo 2017 Bread and Baked Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Britannia Industries8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Britannia Industries 2017 Bread and Baked Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Britannia Industries 2017 Bread and Baked Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Nestle Chile8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Nestle Chile 2017 Bread and Baked Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Nestle Chile 2017 Bread and Baked Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Premier Foods8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Premier Foods 2017 Bread and Baked Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Premier Foods 2017 Bread and Baked Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Interstate Brands Corporation8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Interstate Brands Corporation 2017 Bread and Baked Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Interstate Brands Corporation 2017 Bread and Baked Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 George Weston8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 George Weston 2017 Bread and Baked Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 George Weston 2017 Bread and Baked Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Sara Lee Bakery Group8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Sara Lee Bakery Group 2017 Bread and Baked Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Sara Lee Bakery Group 2017 Bread and Baked Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 Flowers Food8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 Flowers Food 2017 Bread and Baked Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 Flowers Food 2017 Bread and Baked Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.9 Lewis Brothers8.9.1 Company Profile8.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.9.2.1 Product A8.9.2.2 Product B8.9.3 Lewis Brothers 2017 Bread and Baked Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.9.4 Lewis Brothers 2017 Bread and Baked Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.10 Hostess Brands8.10.1 Company Profile8.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.10.2.1 Product A8.10.2.2 Product B8.10.3 Hostess Brands 2017 Bread and Baked Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.10.4 Hostess Brands 2017 Bread and Baked Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.11 Delta Agri-Foods Inc8.12 DeliFranceIn order to Browse the Complete Report, Please Visit:About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on Global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:Email- sales@qyresearchgroups.comWeb- In-Flight Catering Service Market 2018 to 2023 by Global key Players: SATS, Servair, Emirates Flight Catering, Dnata, Air Culinaire, Compass Group, Do & Co., Egypt Air in Flight Services, Gate Gourmet, and Goddard Catering https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1303 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/in-flight-catering-service-market In-Flight Catering Service Global Market - OverviewIn-Flight Catering Service sector is becoming a growth dynamics for the health of the aviation sector. Better catering service assures more sale for Airline companies. Travellers are keener on the menu/food provided them in flight and increasingly demanding for nutritious food options. Perceiving a shift in passenger food preferences attributing to the growing consumer awareness over the nutritional value of food and rising health consciousness; the airline industry is therefore willing to pay a price premium for high quality, nutritious food.Over the last couple of decades, fuelled by the increasing disposable income and improving living standards attributed to the rising GDP, Air Travels (business, leisure and on employment needs) have dramatically increased highlighting the number of travellers. Growing number of air travellers (passengers) and quality of food being the major concern for passengers while choosing an airline; is escorting the global market of In-Flight Catering Service to perceive its heydays.Acknowledging the kind of traction the market is garnering currently and the growth prospects the market is demonstrating worldwide, Market Research Future has recently published a study report giving out the complete market insight up to 2021. This study report indicates that the global Market of In-Flight Catering Service furthering enormously will register a CAGR of 5% during 2016 to 2021.Request a Sample Report @Other factors that predominantly contribute propelling the market growth include the innovative services offered by airline companies, increased emphasis on quality food services and passenger preferences to pay for premium quality of food. Food safety is a major focus area for companies operating in the global in-flight catering services market. With quality and hygiene becoming a deciding factor for passengers in choosing a flight, catering companies are adopting stringent safety and sanitation measures to maintain quality of food. Also Airline companies are increasingly offering a broader food menu and food customization options to customers. In order to meet customer expectations; these Airline companies partner with the Inflight Catering Services that can help them in the task. These factors define the future landscape of the global In-Flight Catering Service market.In-Flight Catering Service Market - Competitive AnalysisThe market appears to be highly competitive owing to the presence of numerous well-established players having international and global presence. These players are heavily investing to enhance the food quality and global expansion. Marketers identify the need for world-class in-flight catering and invest accordingly in state-of-the-art facilities to provide catering. These key players strive to exceed their customers' expectations with innovative in-flight catering services with Quality assurance, safety & security.Industry/Innovation/Related News:January 28, 2018 Dnata (UAE) one of the leading in-flight catering service provider announced opening of the new catering facility in Ireland. The new dnata facility will provide high-quality catering to airlines.January 24, 2018 The International Flight Services Association (IFSA) issued an airline passenger regulations alert to all its global airlines and caterers serving European Union and other airports worldwide. The alert follows IFSA's recent work positively impacting preclearance regulations into the United States (US) for Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, South America and the Middle East. These regulations under U.S. Customs Border Protection (CBP) will go into effect on 1 April 2018 as retail facilities and catering services take additional steps to ensure appropriate handling of plant and animal.January 17, 2018 - British Airways has announced a multi-million pound investment in its World Traveller or long-haul economy cabin catering service, introducing an expanded new menu that will provide more quantity and quality to both meals and snacking options throughout the flight.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.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Business Accounting Software Market Size and Forecast 2025 - Current Trends, Opportunities, Challenges https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1581324 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1581324/business-accounting-software-global-market-research-reports https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/1581324 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ The report analyzes and presents an overview of "Business Accounting Software Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" worldwide.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Business Accounting Software market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of this report @Business accounting software is application software that processes and records the enterprise accounting transactions in functional modules such as payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, trial balance, and general ledger. These software can either be developed in-house by the organizations who want to use it, or can be purchased from third party software providers. The software may be cloud based that can be accessed anywhere on any device connected to internet, at any time, or it may be deployed on desktop. It varies greatly in terms of its cost and complexity.Growing demand for advanced automated finance processes is one of the major reasons propelling the growth of the business accounting software market. Enormous amount of data from sources such as online bank transactions, loan applications, social media, in-stores, and online sales need to be collected and analyzed to gain meaningful operational insights.The trend of adoption of big data analytic solutions by financial organizations is also seen in the market. Big data solutions such as Amazon Kinesis and Amazon Redshift when integrated with business accounting software help organizations to improve the data management processes. It also helps companies to analyze the data more efficiently. The advancements in big data and analytics technologies has made it easy for organizations to transform unstructured data into meaningful and structured data.Another major trend that has gained traction recently in the business accounting software market is the increasing demand for business accounting mobile applications. These applications can handle day-to-day accounting processes, such as accepting payments, sending invoices, tracking receipts, planning budgets, and logging expense.View Full Report @The business accounting software market has been segmented based on component, end users, and region. Based on component, the market is segmented into software and services. Software segment is further bifurcated on the basis of on-premise and cloud. Currently, on-premise software accounts for the larger share of the market, but significant growth is expected in cloud based software during the forecast period. Services segment is segmented further into operation and maintenance services, consulting services, and training services. The end-user segment in the business accounting software market includes large, small and medium enterprises. Large enterprises are estimated to have major share in the global business accounting software market, as they have to deal with large amount of accounting data, whereas rising awareness of accounting software among mid and small sized enterprises are further supporting the growth of SMEs in the market.In terms of region, the global advanced process control software market is segmented into North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Presently, North America is estimated to dominate the market in terms of its revenue contribution share followed by Europe. Moreover, North America also has a well-established infrastructure that enables higher penetration of business accounting software and ultimately provides enhanced operational processes. This is anticipated to be a major factor propelling the business accounting software market in the region. However, among all the regions, APAC is expected to create significant market opportunity for key players operating in the market due to growth in industrialization in this region during the forecast period.The global business accounting software vendors in the market are increasingly focusing on the development and introduction of software that enables the optimization of accounting processes and require minimum labor attention. To achieve this aim, companies are increasing their R&D expenditure. Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP SE, Sage Group, Zoho Corporation, etc. are some of the major players in the global business accounting software market. Business accounting software enterprises are also focusing on modifying their pricing models to strengthen their position in the global business accounting software market.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Request For Enquiry @The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market Will Grow At A CAGR Of 5.33% by Revenue During The Period 2017-2021 Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1320833 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-anti-corrosion-coatings-market-2017-2021-report.html/toc http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG https://marketreserch1.blogspot.com Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market 2017-2021" to its huge collection of research reports.About Anti-corrosion CoatingsAnti-corrosion coatings offer chemical resistance and protect metal surfaces from deterioration caused by corrosion. These coatings (mostly applied on metal surfaces) provide protection against moisture, oxidation, salt sprays, and chemical exposure. They provide a barrier to the metal surfaces by obstructing the contact between chemical compounds.Technavios analysts forecast the global anti-corrosion coatings market to grow at a CAGR of 5.33% 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 anti-corrosion coatings market for 2017-2021. The report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:APACEuropeNorth AmericaROWTechnavio's report, Global Anti-corrosion Coatings 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 vendorsAkzo NobelBASFRPM InternationalThe Dow Chemical CompanyThe Sherwin-Williams CompanyMake an Enquiry about TOC @Other prominent vendors3MAshlandAxalta Coating SystemsBluchemClariantDiamond VogelDuPontHempelJotunKANSAI PAINTNippon PaintPPG IndustriesRoyal DSMSolvayWacker ChemieMarket driverGrowth in marine industryFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeFluctuating prices of raw materialsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendIncreasing demand for waterborne anti-corrosion coatingsFor 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?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 @ At DIMDEX 2018, the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference currently held in Qatar, Italian shipbuilding group Fincantieri is showcasing for the first time the design of the Offshore Patrol Vessel ordered by the Qatari Navy. At DIMDEX 2018, the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference currently held in Qatar, Italian shipbuilding group Fincantieri is showcasing for the first time the design of the Offshore Patrol Vessel ordered by the Qatari Navy. The future OPV of the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces. Fincantieri image. Qatar confirmed in August 2017 its order for seven vessels from Fincantieri following the signing of a preliminary contract in June 2016. The deal consists in four air defence corvettes of over 100 meters in length, one amphibious vessel (LPD - Landing Platform Dock acting as mobile radar station for the corvettes), and two patrol vessels (OPV - Offshore Patrol Vessel). The future OPV on the Qatari Emiri Navy stand at DIMDEX 2018. The OPV design selected by the Qatari Navy has a length of 63 meters, a maximum breadth of 9.20 meters, a draft of 2.60 meters for a full load displacement of 670 tons. Its maximum speed is set to be 30 knots, its range 1500 nautical miles (at 15 knots). The propulsion system consists in 4x diesel engines, 4 shafts and 4 fixed pitched propellers. It will have an endurance of 7 days at sea. The crew complement will be 38 sailors. These OPVs will be quite heavily armed. In terms of weapon systems, the OPVs will actually be closer to FACM (Fast Attack Craft Missile) or even light corvettes: The OPVs will be fitted with a 76mm main gun by Leonardo, 8x VLS cells for VL MICA surface to air missiles (by MBDA), two Marlins 30mm remote weapon stations (Leonardo), 4x Exocet MM40 Block III (MBDA) anti-ship missiles. Leonardo is responsible for the integrated supply of the new naval units combat system (Athena), main radar system (Kronos) and on-board sensors and defence sub-systems, including the fire control system. Two Sylena Mk2 decoy launchers by Lacroix will protect the vessels against anti-ship missile threats. Its maximum speed is set to be 30 knots, its range 1500 nautical miles (at 15 knots). The propulsion system consists in 4x diesel engines, 4 shafts and 4 fixed pitched propellers. It will have an endurance of 7 days at sea. These OPVs will be delivered in the same timeframe as the Corvettes also ordered by Qatar (First steel cutting is set to take place in June 2018 while delivery of first of class vessel is expected in 2021). The contract also includes support services in Qatar for 15 years (10 for the corvettes and 5 for the OPVs and LPD) after the delivery of the vessels. All the units will be entirely built in Fincantieri Italian shipyards starting from 2018, ensuring 6 years of work and an important impact on the main Italian defense companies. Fincantieri and the Qatari Navy are also showcasing for the first time the designs of the Corvette and LPD. Feed Yeast Market by Type, Livestock, Form, and Region - Global forecast to 2025 Feed Yeast https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/813089 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/report/global-feed-yeast-market-professional-survey-report-2018 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com This report studies Feed Yeast 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 2013 to 2018, and forecast to 2025.The report Global Feed Yeast Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application highlights key dynamics of Feed Yeast sector. The potentiality of this sector has been examined along with the significant challenges and growth opportunities. The present market scenario and future predictions of the sector has also been studied in-depth in this report. The report also provides the key market players that are assessed on numerous parameters such as manufacturers summary, revenue generation, product portfolio, and sales analysis of Feed Yeast segment in the forecast period. Also, this report involves major market drivers and restraints of the given market.Market competition by top manufacturers:NutrecoAngel YeastArcher Daniels MidlandABF IngredientsDiamond V MillsChr. HansenPacific EthanolBiominLeiber GmbHLesaffreCargillLallemandAlltechSegmentation based on Type includes:Active Dry YeastSpent YeastYeast DerivatesOthersSegmentation based on Application includes:OultryAquaticOtherObtain Sample Copy @Table of Contents -1 Industry Overview of Feed Yeast1.1 Definition and Specifications of Feed Yeast1.1.1 Definition of Feed Yeast1.1.2 Specifications of Feed Yeast1.2 Classification of Feed Yeast1.2.1 Active Dry Yeast1.2.2 Spent Yeast1.2.3 Yeast Derivates1.2.4 Others1.3 Applications of Feed Yeast1.3.1 Oultry1.3.2 Aquatic1.3.3 Other1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Feed Yeast8.1 Nutreco8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Nutreco 2017 Feed Yeast Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Nutreco 2017 Feed Yeast Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Angel Yeast8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Angel Yeast 2017 Feed Yeast Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Angel Yeast 2017 Feed Yeast Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Archer Daniels Midland8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Archer Daniels Midland 2017 Feed Yeast Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Archer Daniels Midland 2017 Feed Yeast Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 ABF Ingredients8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 ABF Ingredients 2017 Feed Yeast Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 ABF Ingredients 2017 Feed Yeast Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Diamond V Mills8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Diamond V Mills 2017 Feed Yeast Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Diamond V Mills 2017 Feed Yeast Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 Chr. Hansen8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 Chr. Hansen 2017 Feed Yeast Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 Chr. Hansen 2017 Feed Yeast Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Pacific Ethanol8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Pacific Ethanol 2017 Feed Yeast Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Pacific Ethanol 2017 Feed Yeast Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 Biomin8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 Biomin 2017 Feed Yeast Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 Biomin 2017 Feed Yeast Business Region Distribution Analysis8.9 Leiber GmbH8.9.1 Company Profile8.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.9.2.1 Product A8.9.2.2 Product B8.9.3 Leiber GmbH 2017 Feed Yeast Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.9.4 Leiber GmbH 2017 Feed Yeast Business Region Distribution Analysis8.10 Lesaffre8.10.1 Company Profile8.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.10.2.1 Product A8.10.2.2 Product B8.10.3 Lesaffre 2017 Feed Yeast Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.10.4 Lesaffre 2017 Feed Yeast Business Region Distribution Analysis8.11 Cargill8.12 Lallemand8.13 AlltechIn order to Browse the Complete Report, Please Visit:About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on Global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:Email- sales@qyresearchgroups.comWeb- Portable Chromatography Systems Market Key Futuristic Trends and Competitive Landscape 2025 Portable Chromatography Systems Market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/993574-global-portable-chromatography-systems-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/993574-global-portable-chromatography-systems-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/993574-global-portable-chromatography-systems-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=993574 Latest research study from HTF MI with title Global Portable Chromatography Systems by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023. The Research report presents a complete assessment of the market and contains Future trend, Current Growth Factors, attentive opinions, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry validated market data. The study is segmented by products type, application/end-users. The research study provides estimates for Global Portable Chromatography Systems Forecast till 2023If you are involved in the Portable Chromatography Systems industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. Its vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Applications Hospitals, Research Laboratories, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals Industries, Agriculture & Food Industries, Prodyct Types such as [Person Portable & Transportable] and some major players in the industry. If you have a different set of players/manufacturers according to geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can provide customization according to your requirement.Request Sample of Global Portable Chromatography Systems Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 @:Key Companies/players: Bio-Rad Laboratories, Pall Corporation, AMETEK Process Instruments, Agilent Technologies, GE Healthcare, Phenomenex & Schutz GmbH.Application: Hospitals, Research Laboratories, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals Industries, Agriculture & Food Industries, Product Type: Person Portable & TransportableThe research covers the current & Future market size of the Global Portable Chromatography Systems market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data. It also covers various types of segmentation such as by geography [United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia]. The market competition is constantly growing higher with the rise in technological innovation and M&A activities in the industry. Moreover, many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. On the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, strategies adopted by the market leaders to ensure growth, sustainability, financial overview and recent developments.Stay up-to-date with Portable Chromatography Systems market research offered by HTF MI. Check how key trends and emerging drivers are shaping this industry growth as the study avails you with market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional breakdowns, competitive landscape, shares, trend and strategies for this market. In the Global Portable Chromatography Systems Market Analysis & Forecast 2018-2023, the revenue is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 and 2023. The production is estimated at XX million in 2017 and is forecasted to reach XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 and 2023.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Key questions answered in this report - Global Portable Chromatography Systems Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025What will the market size be in 2023 and what will the growth rate beWhat are the key market trendsWhat is driving Global Portable Chromatography Systems Market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in Portable Chromatography Systems Market space?What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Global Portable Chromatography Systems Market ?What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the Global Portable Chromatography Systems Market?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the Global Portable Chromatography Systems market? Get in-depth details about factors influencing the market shares of the Americas, APAC, and EMEA?Enquire for customization in Report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Portable Chromatography Systems market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Portable Chromatography Systems, Applications of Portable Chromatography Systems, Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of , Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, Export & Import, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia, Portable Chromatography Systems Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Portable Chromatography Systems Segment Market Analysis (by Application [Hospitals, Research Laboratories, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals Industries, Agriculture & Food Industries]) Major Manufacturers Analysis;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Person Portable & Transportable], Market Trend by Application [Hospitals, Research Laboratories, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals Industries, Agriculture & Food Industries];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Portable Chromatography Systems by region, type and application ;Chapter 12, to describe Portable Chromatography Systems Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Portable Chromatography Systems sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Buy this research report @Reasons for Buying this ReportThis report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamicsIt provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growthIt provides a 5-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to growIt helps in understanding the key product segments and their futureIt provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitorsIt helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segmentsThanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact us :HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218 North America Polyacrylamide Market to reach over USD 2.1 billion by 2024 U.S. polyacrylamide market size, by application, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million) https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1891 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1891 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/polyacrylamide-market http://www.thecampingcanuck.com/ http://marketsizeforecast.blogspot.com https://www.gminsights.com/ Polyacrylamide Market is projected to gain strong footing with the formulation of stringent regulatory compliances pertaining toward waste water treatment. Such regulations coupled with the wide usage of this chemical in water treatment applications have left subsequent impact on the demand of polyacrylamide market, which was pegged at USD 5.5 billion in 2016.Global polyacrylamide market is set to rise at an unprecedented pace with the global population battling the catastrophe of water scarcity and depleting water resources. Recognized as an excellent flocculent, polyacrylamide is highly used as a water absorbing polymer in the treatment of waste water released from household and industrial sectors.Request for a sample copy of this report @Below mentioned are most lucrative applications of polyacrylamide.Water TreatmentThe polluted water resources are one of the major concerns being addressed by the government and environmental bodies. Treatment and protection of water & sewage is closely linked to preservation of the environment and has received more attention from the regulatory bodies. Polyacrylamide, thus plays a very important role in the field of water treatment. Severe regulations imposed by the governments to treat the industrial waste water before releasing, has significantly contributed toward the growth of polyacrylamide market size. Estimates claims polyacrylamide industry size from water treatment applications to grow at an annual rate of 8% over 2017-2024.Geographically, Asia Pacific is one of the major growth avenues of polyacrylamide market, driven by vigorous initiatives in this region to conserve its natural water resources coupled with increasing waste water ratio due to rapid industrialization. As per the estimates, APAC is foreseen to exhibit a CAGR of 8% over 2017-2024, primarily driven by China, India, and Malaysia. Chinas total waste water discharge has increased from 41.5 billion tones in 2000 to 68.5 billion tones in 2012, a significant raise of 65% over the period. Growing urbanization trends in the region has led to a raise in domestic wastewater volumes. Chinas urbanization rate has soared from 36% to 53% over 2000-2012 and is anticipated to be over 60% by 2020. Subject to this fact, China polyacrylamide market is likely to witness a lucrative roadmap over the coming seven years.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @PetroleumPolyacrylamide is extensively used in the oil industry to enhance the oil recovery and is prominently used as a drilling and fracturing fluid. Driven by this wide range of application spectrum, polyacrylamide market share from petroleum application is set to record a CAGR of 8.5% over 2017-2024. A significant rise in the demand for energy has impelled the exploration, production, and recovery of oil and petroleum on a large scale. For instance, prevailing shale oil & gas resources in the US have increased the demand for polyacrylamide for drilling activities. As per estimates, North America polyacrylamide market is set to double its market value from 2016 recorded at 1 billion to USD 2 billion by 2024.Opportunities for investors | Geographical scopeApart from polyacrylamides major use in petroleum and water treatment, it also finds application in the paper-making, mining, textile, personal care, agriculture, and construction sector. Non-ionic, cationic, and anionic are the key product segments used in these applications. In Latin America and Middle East, the growth of polyacrylamide industry is relatively lower due to lack of product penetration and low application scope. However, in Asia Pacific, application of polyacrylamide is chiefly concentrated in water treatment & paper making sectors. While in Europe & North America there is a greater product demand from oil & gas and mining sectors.Browse complete report summary @Market structureIn 2016, the global polyacrylamide industry share was fairly consolidated with top industry players catering to 40% of the total market demand. PetroChina Company Ltd, Mitsubishi Rayon Co Ltd., BASF, Anhui Jucheng Fine Chemicals Co. Ltd., Xitao Polymer Co Ltd., SNF Floerger Group, and Kemira, were the prominent players accumulating subsequent industry chunk. The overall polyacrylamide industry has several contributors, but in terms of production, it is predominantly represented by major players from Asia Pacific.Considering the competitive scenario, the current trends demonstrate the engrossment of industry players in developing their product portfolios and expanding their global reach with mergers & acquisitions. Moreover, in the coming years companies are likely to focus on backward integration plans and on upgrading their current infrastructure to expand their production capacities for grabbing major industry share. For instance, a leading specialty chemical company Solenis, invested USD 5 million in its Russia manufacturing facility to upgrade its infrastructure. This has helped the unit to double its production capacity of polyacrylamide and efficiently exploit the enormous potential of this fraternity.Polyacrylamide market faces certain hindrances, especially, due to the carcinogenic nature of acrylamide monomer. Stringent norms regarding its use in some countries may act as a major roadblock to the growth of the market. However, manufactures are vigorously focusing on research & development activities for the development of various bio-based polyacrylamides, that will meet the environmental standards. The rapid product diversification and a broad range of applications pertaining to the polyacrylamide industry well justifies its profitability landscape. According to Global Market Insights, Inc. polyacrylamide market is slated to surpass a valuation of USD 10 billion by 2024.Read Our Blog: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:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Social Media: Google+ | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | News Ceramic Honeycomb Market: Marketech Intl, Rauschert GmbH, Koch Knight, Applied Ceramics QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1289064&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-ceramic-honeycomb-market-professional-survey-report-2017.htm/toc http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report Ceramic Honeycomb to its huge collection of research reports.In a highly dynamic global market for Ceramic Honeycomb, companies need to constantly evolve to stay ahead of the curve. To do so, they need accurate information on the market. The recent report endeavors to help them achieve their growth targets by offering crucial information on the global market. The findings of the research study is not just expected to help such savvy vendors keen on expanding their global footprint, but also policy makers and regulatory organizations, investors, independent research bodies, and non-profit organizations.The report on the global Ceramic Honeycomb market, presents important current and future figures and also key trends. It factors in macro-fundamentals to understand the dominant future trends as well. The report gathers data from both paid and open sources and also gathers useful insights from industry veterans to understand where the market for Ceramic Honeycomb is headed in the future.For more info, get sample report for FREE here:Comprised of Ceramic Honeycomb pages, it provides a chapter-wise dissection of the market. It segments the market based on various parameters such as products, technology, application, and geography. It also throws light into which segment holds out maximum promise for vendors and why. It presents such crucial information leveraging tables, charts, and graphs so as to make it easier for clients to spot key trends and make the most of the available opportunities.This report studies Ceramic Honeycomb 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, coveringMarketech IntlRauschert GmbHKoch KnightKEXING SPECIAL CERAMICSApplied CeramicsIJ Research...Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Ceramic Honeycomb1.1 Definition and Specifications of Ceramic Honeycomb1.1.1 Definition of Ceramic Honeycomb1.1.2 Specifications of Ceramic Honeycomb1.2 Classification of Ceramic Honeycomb1.2.1 Aluminium Titanate1.2.2 Activated Carbon1.2.3 Silicon Carbide1.2.4 Activated Alumina1.2.5 Zirconium OxideRead Complete Table of Content of the Report at:2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Ceramic Honeycomb2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Ceramic Honeycomb2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Ceramic Honeycomb2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Ceramic Honeycomb3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Ceramic Honeycomb3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Ceramic Honeycomb Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Ceramic Honeycomb Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Ceramic Honeycomb Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Ceramic Honeycomb Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Ceramic Honeycomb Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Ceramic Honeycomb Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Ceramic Honeycomb Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Ceramic Honeycomb Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Ceramic Honeycomb Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Ceramic Honeycomb Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Ceramic Honeycomb Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)...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 Catheters Market is expected to grow at the CAGR of 6.14% during the forecast period and is estimated to reach USD 49,731.9 million by 2023 Catheters Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3186 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/catheters-market-3186 www.marketresearchfuture.com Market Research Future published a half-cooked research report on global catheters market. Catheters: Increasing Prevalence of Urological and Cardiac Problems is Projected to Encourage The Growth of The Global Catheters Market at a CAGR of 6.14% During Forecasted Period 2017-2023Catheters, a thin tube like medical devices inserted into a body cavity, duct, or vessel. They are used in drainage, administration of fluids or gases, and also to perform a wide variety of other tasks depending on the type of catheter. Increasing prevalence of the patients cardiac and urological diseases have increased the demand for the catheters. To increase the market demand, many manufacturers are trying to introduce the new and advanced types of catheters. The global catheter market is majorly driven by increasing prevalence of cardiac & urological diseases, increasing preference for minimal invasive therapy, and increasing geriatric population. Additionally, changing lifestyle and rising healthcare spending have spurred the growth of the market. However, long time for approval, and risk of infection may slow the growth of the market over the review period.Get a Sample report atKey PlayersSome of the major players in this market are Boston Scientific Corporation, Koninklijke Philips N.V, Abbott, Medtronic plc, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Terumo Corporation, LuMend Corporation (US), Covidien AG (Ireland), ACIST Medical Systems (US), and Cook Medical Inc. (US).Regional AnalysisThe Americas dominate the global market owing to a huge population with cardiac diseases, increasing geriatric population, strong government support for research & development and high health care spending. According to the WHO, in 2014, 9.7% of total America population had diabetes. Increasing prevalence of the diabetes has boosted the market growth in America. Additionally, changing lifestyle and the presence of major players in the market have fueled the growth of the market.Europe is the second leading region in the global catheters market, which is followed by Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing catheters market majorly driven by India, China, and Japan owing to a huge number of patients and rapidly growing economy. The healthcare expenditure in in Asia Pacific has increased during last few years, which has contributed to the growth of market.The Middle East and Africa contribute the least to the growth of the global market. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait lead the Middle East & Africa market. Africa holds the least share of the global market due to limited availability of medical facilities and poor economic condition of the region. However, the growth of the African market is high due to the presence of opportunities for the development of the market.Browse Complete Report atGeriatric people and diabetic patients are more prone to becoming cardiac and urological diseases. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2015, globally the people over age 65 were around 617 million. Due to a sedentary lifestyle, people are more prone to cardiovascular diseases or other related diseases. Thus, increasing geriatric population, elevating a number of diabetic patients, increasing preferring minimal invasive techniques, and changing lifestyle have fuelled the growth of the market. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015, in 5% of the causes, catheter-associated urinary tract infection was observed. Risk of infection due to use of catheter may slow the growth of the market.About usAt 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 Cloud Field Service Management Market Report 2017 - Latest Growth, Current Trends and Forecast till 2025 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1581335 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1581335/cloud-field-service-management-market-research-reports https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/1581335 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ The report analyzes and presents an overview of "Cloud Field Service Management Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" worldwide.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Cloud Field Service Management market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of this report @Technological improvements are providing opportunities to enhance productivity and improve customer experiences by managing inventories and other field related operations. Field service management (FSM) solutions make efficient use of a company's historical data and offer the necessary trends and patterns to improve customer services. FSM services extend superior customer services into the field and provide operational efficiency even in complex organizations. Cloud-based field service management solutions provide timely updates and have reporting features that allow field service officials to work efficiently. Increased adoption of cloud and SaaS in FSM is contributing significantly to the growth of the cloud field service management market. In addition, demand for highly automated solutions are creating opportunities for the growth of cloud field service management. Various business organizations are determining the value that FSM software can bring to the organization for its employees, shareholders, and customers. Cloud based FSM ensures all the information is processed seamlessly and increases the efficiency of businesses by improving collaborations.There is increasing demand to increase productivity and reduce operating costs. Players are adopting FSM solutions to enhance customer experience, with customer demands and the logistics of managing field teams continuing to increase in complexity. Furthermore, companies are focusing on offering enhanced customer experience and engagement. To achieve this, companies are deploying FSM solutions and are providing efficient customer services and a competitive edge to other players. Moreover, emergence of new technologies such as IoT and mixed labor models are promoting the market growth. Thus, increasing demand to enhance productivity and advent of various technologies are anticipated to drive the market growth during the forecast period.Strict regulations concerning the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) and others are limiting the market growth. Moreover, integration of the existing systems with cloud field service management solutions is a major challenge. Lack of awareness about cloud field service management solutions is also anticipated to restrain the market growth during the forecast period.View Full Report @The market for cloud field service management can be segmented on the basis of component, enterprise size, deployment model, end use vertical, and geography On the basis of deployment model, the market can be segmented into public, private cloud, and hybrid cloud. On the basis of enterprise size, the market can be segmented into large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. On the basis of component, the market can be segmented into solution and services. Solutions provided by cloud field service management providers include work order management, mobile field service management, reporting and analytics, service project management, scheduling and dispatch inventory management and others. Services can be further sub-segmented into consulting, integration, and maintenance. On the basis of end-use vertical, the market can be segmented into transportation and logistics, manufacturing, construction, energy and utilities, IT & telecommunication, healthcare, retail and consumer goods, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) and others. Geographical segmentation of the cloud field service management market includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America. North America is expected to contribute prominently to the market due to various factors such as advanced IT infrastructure, the existence of a large number of enterprises, and the availability of technical expertise.Key players operating in the cloud field service management market includes Acumatica, Inc., Astea International Inc., Clicksoftware Technologies Ltd., FieldAware, Industrial And Financial Systems AB, International Business Machines Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Salesforce.Com, Inc., SAP Se, Servicemax, Inc., Servicenow, Inc., and ServicePower Technologies Plc. These companies are adopting various strategies such as product innovation, mergers & acquisitions, partnerships and collaborations, etc. in order to gain competitive advantage in the market.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 analysisRequest For Enquiry @The regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Aerospace Additive Manufacturing Market 2018 to 2021 by Global Service Providers: 3D Systems, Arcam, EOS, ExOne, Stratasys, ATI, Carpenter Technology, Concept laser, CRP Technology, Optomec https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1551 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/aerospace-additive-manufacturing-market Market Highlights:Global Aerospace Additive Manufacturing Market by Technology (3D Printing, Laser Sintering, Stereo Lithography, Fused Deposition Modeling, and Electron Beam Melting) and by Region - Forecast To 2021Market Synopsis of Global Aerospace Additive Manufacturing MarketThe Global Aerospace Additive Manufacturing Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 21% during 2016-2021. The key factors driving the growth are weight reduction & fuel consumption, feasible & eco-friendly manufacturing process, growth in utilization and acceptance in the aerospace industry, and ease of manufacturing for complex parts & freedom in design.As per the MRFR analysis, issues related to its commercialization, expensive AM materials, slow adoption of this technology against convention manufacturing process are the factors restraining the market growth. Metal-based addictive manufacturing is growing at a rapid speed and is expected to lead the market into the 21st-century.Request a Sample Report @Global Aerospace Additive Manufacturing Market report takes you through the full Market Analysis, Opportunities, Price, Growth, Trends and Featuring the market Predictions right up to the years 2027 and helps you to find out: How the market revenue is progressing globally. What are the key driving or affecting factors for the market growth? How the market revenue is progressing in various segments & geographies. Who are the emerging Players, current players & the Key Players (Leaders) of the market? Get yourself acquainted with their trends. What are the current main market trends responsible for shaping up the Market AcquisitionsKey PlayersSome of the key players in the Global Aerospace Additive Manufacturing Market are 3D Systems, Arcam, EOS, ExOne, Stratasys, ATI, Carpenter Technology, Concept laser, CRP Technology, Optomec, Proto Labs, Renishaw, SLM Solutions, and Voxeljet.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:November 7, 2017 - 3D Systems announced award of a new 3-year contract with BMW. The contract for the companys On Demand Manufacturing (ODM) Services includes production of 3D printed parts that BMW will use for design and functional prototypes.July 10, 2017:- GE Additive made significant strides within the aerospace industry at the recent Paris Air Show by forging strategic supplier agreements, announcing a unique new additive machine, and meeting hundreds of potential customers. While GE Additive has been engaged in the revolutionary additive manufacturing technology for decades. Through acquisitions and billions of dollars in internal technology investments, GE Additive is aggressively industrializing the technology across several industries.Get a Complete 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.ContactMarket Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Global Genetic Testing Market to witness CAGR of 12.94% during 2018 to 2023 https://www.knowledge-sourcing.com/products/global-genetic-testing-market-forecasts-from-2018-to-2023 The recent study on the Global Genetic Testing market covers in-depth analysis of the market on the basis of type, disease, technology, and geography. The report also covers the country level analysis within the regions as well. Additionally, the report covers the key trends in the market along with drivers and restraint during the forecast period 2018-2023, with 2017 as the base year. According to the report titled Global Genetic Testing Market, the market is expected to increase from US$5.060 billion in 2018 to US$9.296 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 12.94% during the projected period. The report has segmented the global genetic testing market by type (prenatal testing, newborn screening, diagnostic testing, carrier testing, and predictive & pre-symptomatic testing), by disease (cancer, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer disease, thalassemia, Huntington disease, and others), by technology (cytogenetic testing, biochemical testing, and molecular testing) and by geography (North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific). Genetic testing involves carrying out the range of tests on the sample of DNA derived from blood, saliva, skin, and other tissues. Genetic tests are majorly conducted for diagnosing genetic disorders, identifying the mutation in the gene, and designing the treatment package. The growing prevalence of genetic disorders has been instrumental in driving the market. Moreover, the gradual decrease in the cost of the genetic test has increased the number of genetic tests being conducted globally. However, concerns regarding the confidentiality and misleading advice along with the difficulty in interpreting the result have limited the market growth.Following driver, restraints, and opportunities have been covered in this report-Drivers-Growing prevalence of genetic diseases-Falling prices of genetic testingRestraints-Lack of constructive perception-Difficult interpretation of genetic test resultsOpportunities-Workplace wellness program-Increasing the application of genetic tests-Prenatal testing is anticipated to witness rapid growth during the forecast periodPrenatal testing is often conducted during the pregnancy to detect the possibility of the baby having a genetic or chromosome disorder. The continuous technological advancement has made prenatal testing relatively affordable and gives more accurate results. Recently, the cell-free DNA screening was introduced which screens the mothers blood that contains DNA from the baby to look for genetic disorders in the fetus. Moreover, the prevalence of birth defects is increasing globally which is correlated with the increasing trend of obesity among women that is expected to drive the genetic testing market for prenatal testing during the forecast period.The prevalence of cancer is driving the genetic testing marketCancer is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity globally and was responsible for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. Moreover, 5%-10% of all the cancers are caused by inherited genetic mutation. The growing prevalence of cancers is leading to significant increase in the number of the genetic test conducted for testing cancer.Continuous reduction in the genome sequencing cost is increasing the adoption of molecular testing technologyMolecular testing involves studying a single gene or short lengths of DNA to identify variations or mutation that causes a genetic disorder. This type of test is applicable when the gene sequence of interest is known. In fact, it is the most effective method for small DNA mutation, more specifically when the biochemical test cannot be developed and the function of the protein is unknown. The molecular testing is used for prenatal and predictive genetic testing, risk assessment for family cancer and the diagnosis of many neurological disorders. Moreover, the continuous technological advancement and increasing number of start-ups is reducing the cost of genome sequencing which has rendered the cost of test relatively affordable.North America holds a significant share in the marketGenetic testing is a significant element within the healthcare industry in the United States. The gradual increase in the healthcare expenditure is an indicator of an increase in the spending on genetic testing. In fact, the number of diseases for which genetic testing is available has increased gradually over the years. Similarly, in Canada, the rapid technological innovation and growth in the discovery of genes associated with the hereditary disease have led to the increasing number of genetic test available in Canada as well. Moreover, the recent regulatory support for the direct-to-consumer genetic testing and the increase in the coverage of health insurance covering the genetic test has been instrumental in driving the genetic testing market in North America.Some of the major players discussed in the reports are Abbot, Ariosa Diagnostic Inc., Biocartis, and Luminex Corporation among others.For sample request or purchase options, please click the link below:Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence is a market research and consulting firm based out of India. Driven by industry experts, the company provides syndicated reports, custom research, and consulting services. Our proprietary data analytics model blended with quality primary and secondary research data assists in generating quality reports providing crucial insights to managers and decision makers. The services offered by us help companies to gain required a competitive edge. Our expertise across ten industries such as ICT, Chemicals, Semiconductors, Healthcare among others caters to diverse client needs.Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence2nd Floor, D-77, Sector 63Noida, IndiaCall: +1-866-714-4587 Satellite Communication Equipment Market in Global Industry Analysis Including Key Players Orbcomm, Inc., Intellian, iDirect, iNetVu, MCL Inc, Newtec and Forecast 2025 Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1447582 https://www.researchmoz.us/satellite-communication-equipment-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG https://marketreserch1.blogspot.com Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Satellite Communication Equipment Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Satellite communication is related to transferring of signal between the sender and receiver antenna with the help of satellite. The demand of satellite communication equipment has become wide spread because of diverse applications such as DTH broadcasting, television and many more. Satellite communication play an important role to increase the information and communication technology infrastructure in the far flung areas where human access is not possible. In Satellite communication signal in the form of beam of modulated waves is sent towards satellite. These signals are being amplified and are then being sent back to the receiver antenna present on earth surface. Satellite communication play an important role to increase the information and communication technology infrastructure in the rural areas.Satellite communications are the backbone of space industry as more than half of business in space industry results from launching and building communication satellites. Satellite services and applications are the largest space sector and are a major driver of space technology and developmentsTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The main drivers for growth of the global satellite communication equipment are increasing demand of enriched data communication by providing high communication channel capacity along with low error rates. Also, here is a growing requirement of a cost stable environment and covers larger area. Moreover, there are various factors such as combination of mobile and satellite technology and rise of cloud-based platform providers in this market that are generating new opportunities for the satellite communication equipment vendors. The major restraint hampering the growth of the global satellite communication equipment is lack of infrastructure to support various devices.The global satellite communication equipment market can be categorized on the basis of solution, type, application, end-use industry and region. On the basis of solution segment, the global satellite communication equipment market can be classified into hardware and services. On the basis of hardware in the solution segment, the global satellite communication equipment market can further be classified into amplifiers, satellite antennas, antenna controllers, block up converters (BUC), converters, network management systems, receivers and others. On the basis of the type segment, the global satellite communication equipment market can further be classified into microwave and optical laser. In the global satellite communication equipment market, the application segment can further be classified into cellular, television signals, marine communication, global positioning services (GPS) and others.The television signal segment in global satellite communication equipment market can further be classified into C-Band, Ku- Band, and DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite). On the basis of end use industry, the global satellite communication equipment market is segmented into automotive, energy, government and public sector, transportation, oil and gas, mining, maritime, and utilities, and logistics, healthcare, security and surveillance, agriculture, retail and others. On the basis of geography, the global satellite communication equipment market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and South America.Make an Enquiry about TOC @North America is the largest share in the global satellite communication equipment market and is expected to have a steady growth over forecast period. Also among the regions in global satellite communication equipment market, Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at a higher rate in the forecast period mainly due to growing projects related to space industry and increasing equipment contracts with satellite vendors.The major players in the global satellite communication equipment market are Orbcomm, Inc., Intellian, iDirect, iNetVu, MCL Inc, Newtec, Quintech Electronics, Datum Systems, Gilat Satellite Networks, Harris CapRock, Codan Satcom, AVL Technologies, Anacom Inc, Adtec Digital among others. These companies are investing a lot in their R&D so as to incorporate new technologies in their systems and develop new products to strengthen their market share in satellite communication equipment market.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)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 @ 2025 Predictions Puts Machine Learning Market at $ 39.98 billion http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/2092958 http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/2092958 http://orbisresearch.com/reports/index/machine-learning-market-to-2025-global-analysis-and-forecasts-by-services-and-vertical Summary :OrbisResearch.com has published new research report on Machine Learning Market Research Report and Forecast to 2017-2025 to its database.Description:The Machine Learning Market is expected to grow to US$ 39.98 billion by 2025 from US$ 1.29 billion in 2016.Ask for Report Brochure @The sales of Machine Learning are largely influenced by numerous economic and environmental factors and the global economy plays a key role in the development of machine learning market. In todays competitive environment, machine learning technology has become an important part in many applications of the BFSI ecosystem, from approving loans, to managing assets, to assessing risks.All of this at a time when consumer behavior is transforming and traditional banking practices and models are no longer adequate to achieve the increasing consumer demands. Machine learning enables them to pioneer in the dynamic business landscape and attain profitable and sustained growth.The Machine Learning Market has gained a huge traction in last two years in terms of both R&D and implementation. The technology has been embraced by many business leaders for various use cases of business that requires real time analytics with self-learning technology that too without being explicitly programmed.Machine learning has enormous potential in industries such as Retail, BFSI, manufacturing, and retail. For instance, BFSI vertical can use Machine Learning solutions to better identify insights in transaction data that help them manage risk and prevent fraud. Similarly, in retail, retailers can use machine learning solutions to designing tools that would provide recommendations to customers based on their purchase history.North America holds the largest share of the total market. While APAC is expected to exhibit highest growth. Asia Pacific in coming years is projected to be the most promising market for machine learning, as the region comprises of some dramatically growing countries, which are highly supported by the government investments initiated towards the development of artificial intelligence technology, and also, subsequently promoting the adoption of cloud based services. Rest of the regions like Europe, South America and Middle East & Africa are expected to grow moderately throughout the forecast period.The research study of Global Machine Learning Market 2018-2025 offers a strategic valuation of this Industry. It enhances the top executive level key decision making capabilities by providing In-depth analysis comprising key market players, market forecasts, supply, demand, profit, latest market trends and production information.The report contains qualitative and numerical valuation by top industry analysts in this industry, first-hand data along with their most recent verbatim and each industry manufacturers via the market value chain. The industry report focuses on the growth opportunities, which will help the Machine Learning Market to expand operations in the existing markets globally.The global Machine Learning Market report has been strategically curated to fulfil the needs of the customer through in-depth analysis of the Machine Learning Market that can assist the customer in gaining actionable insights regarding the Machine Learning Market.The overall market size has been derived using both primary and secondary source. The research process begins with an exhaustive secondary research using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the market. Also, primary interview were conducted with industry participants and commentators in order to validate data and analysis. The participants who typically take part in such a process include industry expert such as VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers and national sales managers, and external consultant such as valuation experts, research analysts and key opinion leaders specializing in the Machine Learning industry.Purchase a single user copy @Companies mentioned in the Machine Learning Market Report are :Amazon Web Services, Inc.2. Fair Isaac Corporation3. Google, Inc.4. Hewlett Packard Enterprise5. IBM Corporation6. Microsoft Corporation7. SAP SE8. BigML, Inc.9. H2O.ai10. SAS Institute Inc.Reasons 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 machine learning market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Major points from Table of Contents:List of TablesTable 1: Global Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 (US$ Mn)Table 2: North America Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Solution (US$ Mn)Table 3: North America Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Deployment Type (US$ Mn)Table 4: North America Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By End-User (US$ Mn)Table 5: North America Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By BFSI (US$ Mn) 96Table 6: North America Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Retail (US$ Mn)Table 7: North America Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Healthcare (US$ Mn)Table 8: North America Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Manufacturing (US$ Mn)Table 9: North America Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Government (US$ Mn)Table 10: Europe Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Solution (US$ Mn)Table 11: Europe Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Deployment Type (US$ Mn)Table 12: Europe Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By End-User (US$ Mn)Table 13: Europe Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By BFSI (US$ Mn)Table 14: Europe Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Retail (US$ Mn) 1Table 15: Europe Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Healthcare (US$ Mn)Table 16: Europe Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Manufacturing (US$ Mn)Table 17: Europe Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Government (US$ Mn)Table 18: Asia Pacific Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Solution (US$ Mn)Table 19: Asia Pacific Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By Deployment Type (US$ Mn)Table 20: Asia Pacific Machine Learning Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 By End-User (US$ Mn)Browse Full Machine Learning Market Report @About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Information:Hector CostelloSenior Manager Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +9164101019Email: sales@orbisresearch.com The Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference (DIMDEX 2018) today hosted prominent naval defence commanders, thought-leaders and experts from different parts of the world, at the anticipated Middle East Naval Commanders Conference (MENC) titled Building Capabilities in Challenging Environments through Visionary International Military Cooperation and Defence Engagement, under the auspices of H.E. Dr. Khaled bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah, Minister of State for Defence Affairs, and sponsored by Raytheon. The Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference (DIMDEX 2018) today hosted prominent naval defence commanders, thought-leaders and experts from different parts of the world, at the anticipated Middle East Naval Commanders Conference (MENC) titled Building Capabilities in Challenging Environments through Visionary International Military Cooperation and Defence Engagement, under the auspices of H.E. Dr. Khaled bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah, Minister of State for Defence Affairs, and sponsored by Raytheon. The conference saw the participation of nine navy commander speakers including Vice Admiral Valter Girardelli The conference, held during the second day of DIMDEX at the Qatar National Convention Centre, offered participating delegates the opportunity to discuss the importance of long-term strategic planning and potential methods of building military and defence capabilities across the Arabian Gulf, and the Arabian and Red Sea. The commanders who attented the conference: Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy; Vice Admiral John C. Aquilino, Commander U.S. Naval Forces Central Command U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces; Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, Commanding-In-Chief Western Naval Command; Staff Brigadier (Sea) Tariq al Obaidli, Head of the International Military Cooperation Authority; Dr. Andrew Dorman, Professor of International Security , Defence Studies Department at Kings College London; Rear Admiral Didier Piaton, Commander of French Joint Forces in the Indian Ocean; Rear Admiral Roy Sakai, Director General of Operations and Plans Department; Rear Admiral Jaimie C. F. Hatcher, Commander joint Task Force 633; and Rear Admiral (LH) YavuzKilic, Head of Pland and Policy Department. Launching the conference, H.E. Major General Abdullah bin Hassan Al Sulaiti, Commander of the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces, said: it is our honor to welcome you all to the Middle East Naval Commanders Conference (MENC), a platform that offers regional naval leaders the opportunity to exchange strategic international collaboration ideas that determines regional policy and procurement decisions in the maritime defence industry. We hope you enjoy touring exhibition over the next two days, and learn more about the latest security and maritime defence technologies and innovations from across the world. In his opening speech, StaffBrigadier (Sea) Tariq Khalid Al-Obaidli, Head of the Military Cooperation Authorityand the panel chairman of MENC 2018, said: "This year's theme reflects Qatars ongoing efforts in becoming a key hub for leading maritime capacity enhancement events and programmes around the world. The Middle East Naval Commanders Conference provides the opportune dialogue platform for the worlds leading maritime defence and security decision makers to discuss the major factors affecting the prospects for international navies and militaries, as well as the military and maritime industry in the region, and ultimately reach to additional international collaborations to overcome the challenges facing the region. DIMDEX 2018, themed A World-Class Platform for Technology, Maritime & Defence Industry Capabilities, is being held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, and hosted and organised by Qatar Armed Forces, over three days until Wednesday (14 March) at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC). With 180 global exhibitors from around the world taking part in this years 10th edition across the defence, maritime and security sectors, DIMDEX has earnt its position as one of the most prestigious maritime defence shows in the region. Software Composition Analysis (SCA) Tools Market in Global Industry 2017-2025 Market Analysis Including Key Players Black Duck Software, Inc., WhiteHat Security, Inc., Synopsys, Inc., Flexera Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1447585 https://www.researchmoz.us/software-composition-analysis-sca-tools-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG https://marketreserch1.blogspot.com Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Software Composition Analysis (SCA) Tools Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Software composition analysis (SCA) is a tool which provides valuable data to developers by classifying the software susceptibilities and revealing the certificates for open source components. SCA vendors are providing open source tools and the functionality on outdated tools for safety assessment. The important point is that if vendor or user build any software using open source components available in market, the SCA tool will help to evade any problems from safety susceptibilities hiding in those components. In their speed of creating applications as per client requirement, software developers are using open source mechanisms as their base for creating the applications by using only some amount of percentage and new code. However, one of the major liabilities of these open source components are that one out of every sixteen download requests for a component is reported with a known vulnerability. Nowadays, to decrease these hazards, security experts are adopting software composition analysis (SCA) tool with an expectation of minimizing the risk. Additionally, SCA tool provides benefits such as extra information helping to identify and remediate vulnerabilities quickly, automated scanning highlights license risk exposure, flexible policy enforcement increases alignment with business requirements, and product integration supports existing development processes.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The current usage of software composition analysis tool is accelerating rapidly as it provides the high visibility of identifying the third party components into the code. Also, on top of that it provides improved quality by ensuring code consistency and corrective actions. SCA tool ensures accurate detection by discovering potential licensing and security issues in third party libraries. These SCA tools even work at binary level of scanning. Various software composition analysis (SCA) tools use susceptible disclosure database and the national vulnerability database (NVD) as their main source. Although, relying only on NVD is not always a feasible approach as it is not the only source that allows an organization to deal with the threat of liabilities which have been evaluated by the NVD.An operative/effective SCA tool collects susceptibility data from various sources and spots which ones have been authenticated. The supreme software composition analysis (SCA) sellers are expected to add more data than the NVD delivers and even give direction on remediation. Moreover, it reduced license risk experience as it confirms security which is arguably the most significant aspect of dealing open source. Another significant piece of the puzzle is license agreement; loyalty to the terms and conditions leading the open source components use and distribution. Furthermore, the finest software composition analysis (SCA) tool is anticipated to incorporate flawlessly into the software development life cycle (SDLC), and work with code sources or integrated development environments (IDEs) to caution of a susceptible or risky factor. SCA can also mechanize workflows with the appropriate approvers to reduce delays.However, developers are using extensive tool which is intelligent software composition. Although, improvements are in progress as software composition analysis (SCA) tools use a waterfall model by design hence, it is impossible to integrate SCA security controls into intelligent software composition workflows in an automated and scalable way which can be a restraint for the SCA market. Moreover, growing demand to reduce application security risk is expected to be an opportunity for software composition analysis (SCA) market as it secures and manages open source tools more effectively.Make an Enquiry about TOC @Software composition analysis (SCA) market is divided into five segments according to the region which are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America.Some of the major players associated with the software composition analysis (SCA) market are Black Duck Software, Inc., WhiteHat Security, Inc., Synopsys, Inc., Flexera, VERACODE, Sonatype Inc., WhiteSource Software, Contrast Security, Dahua Technology Co., Ltd, and New Context Services, Inc.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.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)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 @ Automated Windows Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4023 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/automated-windows-market-4023 Market Research Future published a research report on Automated Windows Market Research Report- Forecast 2023 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Global Automated Windows Market By Product (Electric, Mechanical, Hybrid), By Component (Sensors & Detectors, Control Panels, Motors & Actuators, Switches and Others), By Application (Residential, Commercial, Industrial) & by Region - Global Forecast to 2023Global automated windows market is predicted to grow approximately at 5.12% CAGR by 2023Market HighlightsFactors such as rising population and favorable conditions for international trade & tourism have impelled various governments across the globe to invest heavily in the construction of urban infrastructure and public infrastructure projects, which is anticipated to drive the automated windows market during the forecast period. The automated windows market is expected to reach USD 7.1 Billion by 2023.Most of the windows installed drain energy when compared to a wall. As a result, up to 20% of residential energy is lost through windows while the homes are kept at a comfortable temperature. Growing automation demand for consumers comfort & convenience, improved energy consumption, and reduction in CO2 emissions will support the industry growth over the forecast period. Longer life cycle and sturdiness of such systems is expected to increase the popularity levels among the consumers. In addition, growing commercial construction activities in developing countries such as China and India is also expected to drive the market growth. However, high installation & maintenance costs and lack of awareness among consumers are the major restraints that could hinder the market growth.Automated natural ventilation provides improved air quality at the home and workplace, resulting in reduced expenditure on air conditioning systems. The reduced emissions from the building help in maintaining the air quality and improving environmental impact. In emergencies such as fire, smoke ventilation clears CO2 and other hazardous gases out of the workshops. Major industrial sectors in the automated windows market includes pharmaceutical, chemical, and mechanical industries.Get Sample of Report @Segmentation of Global Automated Windows MarketBy Product Electric Mechanical HybridBy Component Sensors & Detectors Motors & Actuators Control Panels Switches OthersBy Application Residential Commercial IndustrialBy Region Asia Pacific North America Europe Rest of WorldRegional Analysis of Global Automated Windows MarketBased on regions, Europe has accounted for the largest share in 2016 and the major factors driving the growth of the market in this region includes presence of a large number of players, which has provided considerable consumer awareness and motivation for these solutions. While, Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest growing region during the forecast period. Factors such as increasing demand in Japan and the ongoing development in other countries is expected to drive the market in the region.Key PlayersThe key players of the global automated windows market are Aumuller Aumatic GmbH (Germany), Automated Door Systems (ADS) (U.K.), Colt International Pty Limited (Australia), GEZE GmbH (Germany), D+H Mechatronic AG (Germany), EBSA (Australia), JLC Automation Services (U.K.), Kintrol (Australia), Pella Corporation (U.S.), and SE Controls (U.K.).The report for Global Automated Windows 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, 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.Access Full Report @Table Of Contents1 Executive Summary2 Research Methodology2.1 Scope Of The Study2.1.1 Definition2.1.2 Research Objective2.1.3 Assumptions2.1.4 Limitations2.2 Research Process2.2.1 Primary Research2.2.2 Secondary Research2.3 Market Size Estimation2.4 Forecast Model3 Market Dynamics3.1 Market Drivers3.2 Market Inhibitors3.3 Supply/Value Chain Analysis3.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis4 Global Automated Windows Market, By Product4.1 Introduction4.2 Electric4.3 Mechanical4.4 Hybrid5 Global Automated Windows Market, By Component5.1 Introduction5.2 Sensors & Detectors5.3 Control Panels5.4 Motors & Actuators5.5 Switches5.6 Others6 Global Automated Windows Market, By Application6.1 Introduction6.2 Residential6.3 Commercial6.4 Industrial7 Regional Market Analysis8 Competitive AnalysisContinue...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.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 , 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.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Media Contact:Market Research FuturePune 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone No. :+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com D-dimer Testing Market will Exhibit a Steady 2.60% CAGR through 2022 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=2398 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/2398 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/d-dimer-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The global D-dimer testing market looks highly fragmented due to the presence of a large number of vendors providing kits, instruments, and regents, states a new research report by Transparency Market Research (TMR). Hitherto, the players operating in this market have been relying heavily on innovation and technological advancements for the growth of their businesses. However, they are likely to turn to mergers and acquisitions in the near future for further expansion, notes the research study. Some of the key players mentioned in this report are Abbott Laboratories, Becton, Dickinson and Co., F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd., and Thermo Fisher Scientific.According to the research report, the global market for D-dimer testing stood at US$1.5 bn in 2013. Analysts project this market to rise at a CAGR of 2.60% between 2014 and 2022 and increase to US$1.9 bn by the end of the forecast period. D-dimer testing is majorly applied in deep vein thrombosis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and pulmonary embolism. Among testing methods, the demand for laboratory D-dimer tests is greater than other types of D-dimer tests.Request for Sample Copy of Report @The trend is anticipated to remain so over the period of the forecast. Geographically, North America, closely followed by Europe, leads the global market for D-dimer testing, thanks to the rising research activities to enhance specificities of D-dimer tests in an effort to detect any coagulation disease in the patient. Researchers anticipate this regional market to continue on the top over the forthcoming years, reports the research study.Increasing Demand for Coagulation Testing to Boost Markets GrowthThe increasing number of patients asking for coagulation testing is boosting the global D-dimer testing market substantially, states a TMR analyst. A number of technological advancements, such as the incorporation of highly sensitive and specified hemostasis markers for various automated instruments, and the continual observation of patients on anti-coagulation therapy are also propelling this market substantially.Request for TOC @Over the coming years, the support from various government across the world, in terms of funds for research and development and awareness programs intended to encourage early diagnosis of coagulation diseases, is likely to drive the growth of this market substantially in the near future, states the research report.Fluctuation of Levels of Thrombosis in Geriatric Population to Hinder GrowthOn the other hand, the difficulties faced during the interpretation of D-dimer levels in the geriatrics population pose a serious challenge for the growth of this market. The regular fluctuation in the level of thrombosis in elderly people, proving D-dimer test less useful in excluding pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis, is one of the main factor behind this. The clinical adoption of point-of-care D-dimer tests in hospitals and physicians clinics is also expected to slow down the markets growth in the years to come, reports the research study.Obtain Report Details @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: ADHD Therapeutics Market 2018 to 2023 by Worldwide Top Players: Eli Lilly and Company, Highland Therapeutics Inc., Janssen Global Services LLC, NEOS Therapeutics Inc., etc by 2024 Market Research Future https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1573 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1573 International ADHD Therapeutics Market Overview:ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. It is usually first diagnosed in childhood & often lasts into adulthood. Children with ADHD may have trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors or be hyperactive. Growing pediatric population, increasing prevalence of ADHD, increasing awareness regarding ADHD are some of the factors responsible for the growth of the global ADHD therapeutics market.ADHD Therapeutics Market Competitive Analysis:As the market seems to be attractive, growing and profitable, at the same time market has witnessed intense rivalry among existing competitors. Many new entrants expected to enter into ADHD Therapeutics Market. There are many big players in the ADHD Therapeutics Market such as: Concordia International Corp., Eli Lilly and Company, Highland Therapeutics Inc., Janssen Global Services LLC, NEOS Therapeutics Inc., Novartis AG, Noven Pharmaceuticals Inc., Pfizer Inc., Shire, Teva PharmaceuticalGet Exclusive Sample Copy @By seeing attractiveness of the market, market has witnessed, innovation followed by new launches. For example, Neos Therapeutics to launch Adzenys ER for ADHD in January 2018. FDA has approved Adzenys ER, an extended release oral suspension (amphetamine) for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in patients age 6 or older. Neos Therapeutics of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, announced in a statement that the company plans to launch Adzenys ER in January 2018. Neos Therapeutics is the only company than can offer both branded amphetamine and methylphenidate therapies in extended release dosage forms. When it is available in 2018, Adenzys ER oral suspension will be the third Neos extended release product for ADHD from the company. It needs no refrigeration or reconstitution at the pharmacy. Another form of the product, Adzenys XR-ODT, is a disintegrating tablet. This FDA approval unlocks yet another treatment option for ADHD patients and their caregivers who are seeking a liquid extended release amphetamine product and provides a different dosage form of companys already-approved Adzenys XR-ODT.Pipeline Development in ADHD:Cingulate Therapeutics, LLC (CTx) is a privately held, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative new products for the treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Cingulate is developing two (2) proprietary, first-line medications, CTX-1301 (Dexmethylphenidate) and CTX-1302 (Dextroamphetamine), via the accelerated 505 (b)(2) regulatory pathway for the treatment of ADHD seeking indications for all patient segments: children, adolescents and adults. CTX-1301 and CTX-1302 utilize an innovative, flexible core tableting technology that enables the formulation and manufacturing of multi-cored tablets designed to deliver a rapid onset and last the entire active day while minimizing the afternoon crash and impact on sleep and appetite. The Company has completed its proof of concept trial in human subjects to validate the novel Target Product Profiles for both CTX-1301 and CTX-1302. After a planned submission of an Investigational New Drug Application (IND) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first quarter of 2018, Cingulate intends to implement the full clinical plan for both CTX-1301 and CTX-1302 in 2018Global ADHD Therapeutics Market Regional Analysis:Geographically, the global ADHD therapeutics market is segmented into four major regions such as: North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific & Rest of the World. North America is estimated to dominate the global ADHD therapeutics market, with a maximum value share of the overall market. However, Asia Pacific market is also witnessing a very strong growth due to high rate of development in healthcare industry, government initiatives for treatment of mental illness and increasing prevalence of mental disordersMajor TOC of ADHD Therapeutics Market: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 STRUCTURE2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2.1 RESEARCH PROCESS2.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH2.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH3 MARKET DYNAMICS3.1 DRIVERS3.2 RESTRAINTS3.3 OPPORTUNITIES3.4 MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS4 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 RIVALRYTOC Continued!Ask Questions to Expertise @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Glass Tempering System Market Poised to Expand at 3.7% CAGR During 2017 - 2027 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3855 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-3855 www.futuremarketinsights.com Glass Tempering System Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) And Opportunity Assessment (2017-2027) is a new report of Future Market Insights that tracks the performance of the market for the projected period of 10 years i.e. between 2017 and 2027. The global glass tempering system market is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period, expanding at a CAGR of 3.7% during the projected period. Growth in the global glass tempering system market can be attributed to huge investments in R&D, increasing use of hybrid guide plates, solar control glazing for automotive and building glasses, growing use of lightweight glazing glass, and increasing usage of advanced nanotechnology in glass manufacturing. According to this report, North America and APEJ are the key regions for glass tempering system market participants. In North America, the United States is investing in tempering activities, which is creating immense opportunities for glass tempering system manufacturers. Product development and establishment of long-term relationships with tempered glass OEMs is also a key to success in this market. The global market for glass tempering system is expected to be valued at US$ 94.5 Mn by 2017 end and is estimated to reach US$ 135.6 Mn by 2027 end.Request For Report Sample@Global Glass Tempering System Market: DriversShift towards renewable solar energy will accelerate the growth of the marketImproving construction sector especially in Latin America is fuelling the growth of the global marketConstruction of energy efficient buildings and renovation of existing infrastructure is another key market driverGlobal Glass Tempering System Market: Forecast by Tempering TechnologyOn the basis of tempering technology, the global glass tempering system market is segmented into controlled heating and quenching equipment and chemical treatment. Controlled heating and quenching equipment is further segmented into standard configuration and advanced configuration. In terms of value, the controlled heating and quenching equipment segment is anticipated to be valued at US$ 89.0 Mn by 2017 end, which is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.7% and reach a value of US$ 127.8 Mn by the end of 2027.Global Glass Tempering System Market: Forecast by ApplicationThe application segment consists of flat, bent and combined flat and bent segments. Flat segment is further segmented into continuous and oscillating segments. Oscillating type segment is expected to emerge as the most attractive segment by application over the forecast period. Combined flat and bent segment is anticipated to create incremental $ opportunity worth US$ 4.2 Mn over the forecast period.Global Glass Tempering System Market: Forecast by End UseBy end use the market is categorized into automotive windows, architectural, electronics, solar applications and others. Architectural segment is sub-segmented into windows and doors, mirror and partitions and furniture, while electronics segment is sub-segmented into smartphone and appliances. The solar applications segment is estimated to reach US$ 1.6 Mn in 2027 from US$ 1.3 Mn in 2017. The segment is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 2.4% during the forecast period.Global Glass Tempering System Market: Forecast by RegionSeven regions have been covered in this report and they are North America, Latin America, APEJ, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Japan and MEA. China is expected to remain a strong market for glass tempering systems. Most of the APEJ, Eastern Europe, and Latin America buyers import glass tempering lines from China with standard configuration, due to investment constraints. North America is also projected to hold a significant share of the global glass tempering system market over the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Global Glass Tempering System Market: Key VendorsGlaston OYJ Abp, Luoyang Landglass Technology Co. Ltd., LiSEC Austria GmbH, Luoyang North Glass Technology Co., Ltd., Glasstech Industries (India) Private Limited, Keraglass Industries Srl, CoolTemper Ltd., HHH Tempering Resources Inc., Ratnesh International, North East Machines, Meta Therm Furnace Pvt. Ltd., Mappi International, EFCO, Saint-Gobain S.A., IGE Glass Technologies, Inc., Lambert GT Services Ltd. are some of the glass tempering system market companies profiled in the report.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Synopsis and Highlights, Key Findings, Major Companies Analysis and Forecast to 2021 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1291 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-1291 Market Research Future published a Half Cooked Research Report on Global Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Bemis Healthcare Packaging, Gerresheimer, Owens-Illinois, West Pharmaceutical, Westrock, Alexander (James) Corporation, Baxter International, Amcor Limited, Unilife Corporation, AptarGroup Inc, Rexam PLC and others are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the global pharmaceutical packaging market.Global Pharmaceutical Packaging Market - OverviewThe advanced manufacturing processes used to develop pharmaceutical packages plays an important role in the growth of the global pharmaceutical packaging market. Advanced manufacturing processes, including green packaging technologies, use environment-friendly materials to develop pharmaceutical packages, which inflict minimal harm to the environment. All of these factors, along with the growing pharmaceutical industry, will continue to drive demand for packaging. However, the packaging industry will have to overcome challenges, such as the availability and price volatility of raw materials and changing health regulations, in order to meet increasing demand from the growing pharmaceutical industry.Request Report Sample @Plastic bottles emerged as the largest revenue generating segment for the pharmaceutical packaging Industry. Growing plastic packaging demand due to cost effectiveness, easy handling & transportation, durability, and aesthetic features will negatively affect the Pharmaceutical packaging market in coming years. Moreover, rise in outsourcing of pharmaceutical manufacturing to emerging economies is expected to open new growth avenues for the market. Favourable government policies is expected to have a positive impact on the pharmaceutical packaging market demand. Whereas, increase in demand from the different end-user, such as food & beverage sector, pharmaceutical products, and laboratory chemicals. Pharmaceutical packaging, due to its high cost, brittleness and transportation inconvenience is may face hindrance in growth in future period.Increasing demand for flexible and integrated packaging, rising incidence of diseases, innovations in drug delivery techniques and rapid growth of pharmaceutical industry are some of the key factors driving the growth for global pharmaceutical packaging market. Growing demographics and economies in the developing countries such as India and China would lead to growth in pharmaceutical packaging market.Global Pharmaceutical packaging market is growing with the rapid pace; mainly due to advancement in technologies. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Pharmaceutical packaging is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a stunning growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the estimated period (2017 2023).Pharmaceutical packaging Market - Competitive AnalysisPharmaceutical packaging market appears to be competitive with the presence of several large and small players operating in the Pharmaceutical packaging Market. These Key players compete based upon pricing, quality, Technology and reputation. Pharmaceutical packaging market demonstrates a high growth potential which is likely to attract many entrants to the market resulting in to intensified competition further. The report also considers key trends that will impact the industry and profiles of leading suppliers of Pharmaceutical packaging market. Some of the top companies mentioned in the report are Amcor Ltd., Gerresheimer and Schott AG. The other industry participants include Becton Dickinson & Company, Aptar Group, Capsugel, Owens-Illinois, Berry Plastics Group, Westrock Company and COMAR LLC. Moreover, manufacturers mainly ensure to deliver the best quality products based on innovative technologies, and best practices.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:April 20, 2016: Bemis Company, Inc. acquired the medical device packaging operations and related value-added services of SteriPack Group, a global manufacturer of sterile packaging solutions for medical device and pharmaceutical applications.In 2017: Amcor Ltd. has started a series of investments in flexible printing for healthcare packaging in Europe.In 2012, Gerresheimer acquires Indian pharma plastic packaging manufacturer TriveniAccess Full Report @Pharmaceutical packaging Market - Segments:Global Pharmaceutical packaging Market is segmented in to 2 Key dynamics for an easy grasp and enhanced understanding.Segmentation by Types: Bottles, Aerosol packs, Tubes, Blister packs, Sachets, Ampoules and othersSegmentation by Material: Glass, Plastic, Cardboard and PaperSegmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.Pharmaceutical packaging Market - Regional AnalysisNorth America region dominated the overall Pharmaceutical packaging market. One of the main reason for the growth of this market is new product launches with specialized packaging needs is growing rapidly. This is due to increase investment in novel drug delivery techniques, increasing awareness about healthcare sector and high healthcare spending in the region. Asia is expected to experience a high growth rate in the forecasted period. India and China will form the fastest growing markets due to rapidly expanding pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities and the adoption of more stringent regulations aimed at improving the quality and integrity of domestically produced medicines.Study Objectives of Pharmaceutical Packaging Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of various segments and sub-segments of the Global pharmaceutical packaging market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the global pharmaceutical packaging 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 prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by types and materials. To provide strategic profiling of the 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 pharmaceutical packaging marketAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Smart Cleaning Robots Market Accelerating Incredible Attention Globally with Forecast Period 2018 to 2021 Global Smart Cleaning Robots Market Research Report http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/448408 http://orbisresearch.com/reports/index/global-smart-cleaning-robots-market-research-report-and-forecast-to-2017-2021 http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/448408 https://www.linkedin.com/company/orbis-research https://twitter.com/orbisresearch https://plus.google.com/+Orbisresearch/posts Global Smart Cleaning Robots Market Research Report provides information on Products, Services, Trends, Top Companies, Verticals, Countries, Material, Application, and Geography globally. This report will help the viewer in Better Decision Making ,offers by OrbisResearch.comDescription:Smart Cleaning Robots 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).Request a sample of Global Smart Cleaning Robots Market Research Report @The report firstly introduced the Smart Cleaning Robots 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: Basic information The Asia Smart Cleaning Robots Market The North American Smart Cleaning Robots Market The European Smart Cleaning Robots Market Market entry and investment feasibility The report conclusionBrowse the full Global Smart Cleaning Robots Industry Research Report @Major points from table of content:Part I Smart Cleaning Robots Industry OverviewChapter One Smart Cleaning Robots Industry OverviewChapter Two Smart Cleaning Robots Up and Down Stream Industry AnalysisPart II Asia Smart Cleaning Robots Industry (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Three Asia Smart Cleaning Robots Market AnalysisChapter Four 2012-2017 Asia Smart Cleaning Robots Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Five Asia Smart Cleaning Robots Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Six Asia Smart Cleaning Robots Industry Development TrendPart III North American Smart Cleaning Robots Industry (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Seven North American Smart Cleaning Robots Market AnalysisChapter Eight 2012-2017 North American Smart Cleaning Robots Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Nine North American Smart Cleaning Robots Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Ten North American Smart Cleaning Robots Industry Development TrendPart IV Europe Smart Cleaning Robots Industry Analysis (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Eleven Europe Smart Cleaning Robots Market AnalysisChapter Twelve 2012-2017 Europe Smart Cleaning Robots Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Thirteen Europe Smart Cleaning Robots Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Fourteen Europe Smart Cleaning Robots Industry Development TrendPart V Smart Cleaning Robots Marketing Channels and Investment FeasibilityChapter Fifteen Smart Cleaning Robots Marketing Channels Development Proposals AnalysisChapter Sixteen Development Environmental AnalysisChapter Seventeen Smart Cleaning Robots New Project Investment Feasibility AnalysisPart VI Global Smart Cleaning Robots Industry ConclusionsChapter Eighteen 2012-2017 Global Smart Cleaning Robots Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Nineteen Global Smart Cleaning Robots Industry Development TrendChapter Twenty Global Smart Cleaning Robots Industry Research ConclusionsMake an enquire of this report @About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Follow Us on LinkedIn:Follow us on Twitter:Follow us on G+ : Farm Tire Market by Tire Type - Bias and Radial and Application - Tractors and Harvesters https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=25772 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/north-america-farm-tire-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/north-america-farm-tire-market.htm www.transparencymarketresearch.com Farm tires are a sub-segment of specialty tires that are used by vehicles and machines employed in farm activities in the agriculture sector. Farm machineries such as sprayers, tractors, trailers, and harvesters some of the most common and key users of farm tires. Choosing the right farm tire depends on numerous different factors such as the size of the tractor tire, soil compaction, fuel economy, traction requirements, and weight of the equipment. The farm tire market in North America is witnessing growth at a moderate pace, with the rising preference to radial tires bringing vast changes to the markets overall growth dynamics.Characteristically better, radial tires cost significantly higher than bias tires of the same dimensions. The disparity has forced several farmers to buy old second-hand tires instead, negatively impacting the sales of new tires and the growth prospects of the overall market for farm tires in North America. However, rising demand from hobby farmers and the increased awareness about the need for mechanization in the field of farming are allowing radial tires good growth prospects.According to Transparency Market Research, the North America farm tire market is expected to exhibit a moderate CAGR of 5.5% from 2017 to 2025 in terms of volume, rising from 2,948 thousand units in 2016 to 4,750 thousand units in 2025.Get PDF Sample of This Report @Despite Lower Sales Volumes, Radial Tires to Account for Larger Revenue ShareIn terms of type, the North America farm tires market has been segmented into bias tires and radial tires. Of these, the segment of radial tires is expected to witness the dominance, in terms of revenue contribution, of radial tires throughout the forecast period. The high costs of these technologically advanced tires allow them to account for a larger share in the overall revenue of the market despite holding a much smaller volume-wise share as compared to the segment of bias tires. The segment of radial tires is expected to continue to hold a higher share in the North America farm tire market in terms of revenue contribution over the forecast period.View This Report @Nevertheless, the trend of higher sales volumes of bias tires compared to those of radial tires, is expected to continue over the forecast period as well. The vast disparity in costs of bias tires and radial tires, with radial tires costing as much as 10 times the cost of bias tires of same dimensions, plays a major role in cost-sensitive farmers preferences. However, the segment of radial tires is steadily gaining traction, with its growth rate, in terms of volume, expected to be higher than that of the segment of bias tires over the reports forecast period. In terms of revenue-wise growth, both the segments will remain equally competitive, expanding at CAGRs of 11.8% (bias tires) and 11.9% (radial tires) over the forecast period.U.S. Market to Continue to Contribute Massive Share in Revenue to North America Farm Tire MarketIn terms of geography, the report examines the market for farm tire across the U.S., Canada, and the rest of North America. Of these, the U.S. is presently the leading revenue contributor to the North America farm tire market and the country will continue to hold its top spot owing to the larger scale of the agriculture sector as compared to other countries in the region and presence of several leading vendors. In terms of rate of growth, however, the market in Canada is expected to register a better pace of growth, in terms of both revenue as well as volume.Press Releases @Some of the leading players operating in the North America farm tire market are BKT Tires USA Inc., Bridgestone Corporation, Continental AG, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Michelin, Mitas Tires Global Inc., TBC Corp., and Titan International.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendationsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Revenues from Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market to top $ 27,238.6 million http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/2092956 http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/2092956 http://orbisresearch.com/reports/index/artificial-intelligence-in-retail-market-2025-global-analysis-and-forecasts-by-deployment-type-retail-type-technology-and-application OrbisResearch.com has published new research report on Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market to 2025 to its database.Description:According to a new market research report, the Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market is estimated to be US$ 27,238.6 million by 2025 from US$ 712.6 million in 2016.Ask for Report Brochure @The research study of Global Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market 2018-2025 offers a strategic valuation of this Industry. It enhances the top executive level key decision making capabilities by providing In-depth analysis comprising key market players, market forecasts, supply, demand, profit, latest market trends and production information.The growth in market revenue is attributed to proliferating adoption of game changing technologies, growth in mobile market and emergence of various AI based start-ups catering to retail industry.Key trend which will predominantly effect the market in coming year is rising adoption of multi-channel or omni channel retailing. In forthcoming years, the retail industry is anticipated to witness higher growth in the trend of Omni channel retailing. Artificial intelligence will be having a key role as this technology would be bridging the gap between online and offline retailing in coming future. Companies like Amazon have already enrooted its focus towards development of an AI enabled offline retail store that would enable the shoppers to move out of the store without waiting in the long queues of billing.Artificial intelligence in retail market by application is segmented into Sales & Marketing, Supply-chain & Logistics, Shelf Analytics, Pricing, In-Store Navigation, Auto-checkout and others (staffing and product mix optimization). Customer experience and management is projected to acquire majority share in the market. Digital convergence in retail is considered to bring glowing opportunity for retailers to retail the customer and set themselves apart. In the coming few years, interaction with a variety of technologies such as bots is expected to reinvent the customer experience.The overall market size has been derived using both primary and secondary source. The research process begins with an exhaustive secondary research using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the market. Also, primary interview were conducted with industry participants and commentators in order to validate data and analysis. The participants who typically take part in such a process include industry expert such as VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers and national sales managers, and external consultant such as valuation experts, research analysts and key opinion leaders specializing in the artificial intelligence and retail industry.The report contains qualitative and numerical valuation by top industry analysts in this industry, first-hand data along with their most recent verbatim and each industry manufacturers via the market value chain. The industry report focuses on the growth opportunities, which will help the Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market to expand operations in the existing markets globally.The global Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market report has been strategically curated to fulfil the needs of the customer through in-depth analysis of the Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market that can assist the customer in gaining actionable insights regarding the Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market.Global Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market Key Company Profiles :Sentient Technologies Holdings LimitedManthan Software Services Pvt. Ltd.Focal Systems Inc.Microsoft CorporationViSenzeTata Consultancy Services LimitedcomPlexure Ltd.GoogleIBM Watson GroupMake an Enquiry @What Information does this report contain?What was the historic Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market market data from 2018 to 2025?What is the Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market industry growth forecast from 2018 to 2025?Which companies lead the Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market industry, how are they positioned in the market in terms of sustainability, competency, production capacity and strategic outlook?What are the technologies & innovation trends, how will they evolve by 2018 to 2025?Which are the leading market products, applications & regions and how will they perform by 2025?A detailed analysis of regulatory trends, drivers, industry pitfalls, challenges and growth opportunities for participantsList of FiguresFigure 1: Global Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market, 2016 & 2025Figure 2: Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market SegmentationFigure 3: Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market SegmentationFigure 4: North America PEST AnalysisFigure 5: Europe PEST AnalysisFigure 6: APAC PEST AnalysisFigure 7: MEA PEST AnalysisFigure 8: SAM PEST AnalysisFigure 9: Global Artificial Intelligence Start-Ups in RetailFigure 10: Adoption of IoT in retailFigure 11: Global Smart Phone Subscription GrowthFigure 12: Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market Impact Analysis of Driver and RestraintsFigure 13: Global Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 (US$ Mn)Figure 14: Global Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market Breakdown By Retail Format, 2016 & 2025Figure 15: Ecommerce Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 (US$ Mn)Figure 16: Brick n Mortar Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 (US$ Mn)Figure 17: Global Artificial Intelligence in Retail Market Breakdown By Technology, 2016 & 2025 (%)Figure 18: Global Chatbots Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 (US$ Mn)Figure 19: Global Recommendation Engine Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 (US$ Mn)Figure 20: Global Audio Video Analytics Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 (US$ Mn)More to be addedBrowse Full Report @About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Information:Hector CostelloSenior Manager Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +9164101019Email: sales@orbisresearch.com Global Market for Anisic Aldehyde Market to Register Impressive Growth During 2015 - 2025 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-479 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-479 www.futuremarketinsights.com Scented products are chosen by a large number of inhabitants. Considering daily life, products containing fragrance are preferred, consumed and utilized which in turn has resulted in increase in demand for global anisic aldehyde market. Anisic aldehyde also known as para-methoxybenzaldehyde is a clear colourless pale yellowish liquid with powerful aroma. Being an organic compound, it is used in both natural and synthetic form to provide fragrance and flavour. Anisic Aldehyde, form of speciality chemical is increasingly cited as a trigger to produce more scented and odourless products. It is found in vanilla aroma and in essential oils of fennel and anise. It is produced commercially by methoxytoluene using manganese dioxide. It can also be created by oxidation of anethole (an allied fragrance that is found in alcoholic beverages). Owing to its good persistence, it is widely used in perfumery and pharmaceuticals applications.Anisic Aldehyde Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe demand for anisic aldehyde is constantly rising with growth in fragrance & flavour, pharmaceuticals and personal care industry. An advanced chemical, physical & efficient property of anisic aldehyde drives the demand for global anisic aldehyde market. With progress in the global pharmaceutical market followed by high consumption in cosmetics and personal care, the global anisic aldehyde market is likely to expand at double digit CAGR during the forecast period (2016-2025). However, unexpected fluctuation in raw materials along with government regulations is acting as a restraint in the growth of global anisic aldehyde market.Request For Report Sample@Anisic Aldehyde Market: SegmentationOn the basis of end-user, the global anisic aldehyde market has been broadly segmented into:Perfumes & FragrancesPharmaceuticalsPersonal & Home CareOthersOn the basis of regions the global acetophenone market has been segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific and Japan.Anisic Aldehyde Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global anisic aldehyde market is expected to register a double-digit CAGR for the forecast period. India and China is the major manufacturing hub for anisic aldehyde. As of 2015, Asia Pacific, and Western Europe dominates the global anisic aldehyde market in terms of market revenue. U.S., Australia and South Africa are few other countries having a large consumer base for speciality chemicals like anisic aldehyde. India, China & Japan are projected to expand at a substantial growth and will continue to contribute to the global anisic aldehyde market value, exhibiting a robust CAGR during the forecast period, 2016?2025.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Anisic Aldehyde Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market players in global bariatric surgery devices market are BASF SE, Atul Ltd, Neshiel Chemical Pvt Ltd, Parchem, AscentFinechem Pvt ltd and Elan Chemical Company and Nandolia Organic Chemicals Pvt Ltd, Global Essence, among many others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: The Italian Navys FREMM Frigate Carlo Margottini, designed and built by Fincantieri, one of the worlds largest shipbuilding groups, is attending the 6th edition of the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference, DIMDEX 18, one of the leading events in the global maritime defence and security industry, which is ongoing this week in Qatar. The Italian Navys FREMM Frigate Carlo Margottini, designed and built by Fincantieri, one of the worlds largest shipbuilding groups, is attending the 6th edition of the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference, DIMDEX 18, one of the leading events in the global maritime defence and security industry, which is ongoing this week in Qatar. The Italian Navys FREMM Frigate Carlo Margottini, designed and built by Fincantieri is attending DIMDEX 2018 Margottini frigate departed from Italy on February 20th for a naval campaign in the Middle East, touching, besides Qatar, different countries, such as Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Djibouti, where the vessel will take command of the EU NAVFOR-led counter-piracy operation Atalanta. The deployment of the Italian FREMM frigate - besides ensuring presence and surveillance aimed at protecting the sea lines of communication of national interest - is included among the activities that the Italian Navy carries out with allied and friend nations in the framework of multinational cooperation and dialogue among countries. This activity also allows to ensure a qualified presence in foreign countries with which Italy maintains important political, diplomatic, and economic relations, and conducts military cooperation activities. It also represents an important opportunity to promote the "Italian System" in an integrated way, assisting and supporting the activities of the national industry, promoting Italys image. The Italian Navys FREMM Frigate Carlo Margottini, designed and built by Fincantieri is attending DIMDEX 2018 The participation in DIMDEX falls within this respect: a major event in the field of technology, maritime and defence industry capabilities, an opportunity - besides the business activities involving the companies, such as Fincantieri, present at the exhibition - to establish and consolidate contacts with the navies which face the same threats, risks and challenges every day. Qatar is part of Fincantieris business development strategy in the Middle East. It is well known that recently the company received an order from the Qatari Ministry of Defence for the construction of 7 new generation surface vessels included in the national naval acquisition program, as well as support services to be done in the country for further 10 years after the delivery of the ships. Margottini was delivered by Fincantieri to the Italian Navy in 2014. It is the third FREMM vessel, the second in the anti-submarine warfare version (ASW), built at the Italian shipyards of the Group. By now 6 ships, out of 10, have been handed over to the Italian Navy (the seventh is currently going through the delivery phase) and are operating daily and successfully in a range of operational situations in the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic and elsewhere. It is an advanced and well-proven vessel, it represents the state-of-the-art of the Italian and European defense, giving proof to operate, to be reliable, highly flexible and ensuring multiple configurations of the platform depending on the different operational needs, raising therefore interest in other foreign Navies. For these reasons, the Italian version of the FREMM has been shortlisted by the Australian Government as one of the three key platforms under the SEA 5000 Future Frigate programme to deliver nine, new frigates for the Royal Australian Navy. Furthermore, Fincantieris US subsidiary Marinette Marine was down-selected by the US Navy with a concept design contract to evolve its FREMM-design into the next-generation frigate of the FFG(X) program. Protective Packaging Market : Regional Analysis, Market Share and Forecast to 2021 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1320 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/protective-packaging-market-1320 Packaging Corporation of America, Sealed Air Corporation, Protective Packaging Solutions, Smurfit Kappa Group, Pregis Corporation, ACH Foam Technologies LLC, Automated Packaging Systems Incorporated, Bayer AG, FP International, Cascades, IVEX Protective Packaging, BASF SE, Macfarlane Group, Universal Protective Packaging, Unisource Worldwide, Cellofoam North America Incorporated, and Ecovative Design LLC are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global protective packaging market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Global Protective Packaging Market - OverviewThe protective packaging market is a very dynamic market and is expected to witness high growth over the forecast period. The growth of such packaging is influenced by the growing trend for online shopping, rapid growth in electronic sector and easy availability of biodegradable bubble wrap. However, availability of other alternative packaging hinder the growth of the market.The continuous growth of the online shopping market is fuelling the overall growth of the bubble wrap packaging market. The benefits of online shopping such as faster delivery, easier return policies, and free shipping, have made many customers switch from the traditional methods of shopping. Amazon (U.S.) has been leading the market with a total revenue of USD 107,006 million, as compared to eBay (U.S.) with total revenue of USD 8,592 million in 2015.Rapid growth in the electronic sector is ultimately driving the demand of the protective packaging. Today consumer electronics is the top selling category due to increase in the number of online electronics models. According to REED Electronic Research, a leading market information provider on the global electronics industry, in 2015, China has accounted for 38% of electronics equipment production in the global market.Most of the consumers as well as manufacturers today are concerned about the impact of packaging on the environment due to the rising awareness of environment protection. Besides being an innovative and environment friendly packaging solution, biodegradable protective packaging such as bubble wrap is fully reusable and recyclable. Biodegradable bubble wrap breaks down in a landfill and is completely absorbed into the soil.Global Protective Packaging Market - Competitive AnalysisProtective packaging industry has seen significant growth in last few years due to its application across industries, cost efficient solution and sustainable packaging solutions. Sealed Air Corporation and Veritiv Corporation has been able to spread its operations across regions of North America, Europe, APAC and others, which has enabled them to acquire such a major share in the global bubble wrap packaging market. These companies under its protective packaging solutions offer extensive product line including bubble wrap packaging and generated revenue of USD 1,523.7 million and USD 2854.2 million respectively from the segment (Protective Packaging).Sealed Air Corporation seeks to enhance its position as a leading global provider of innovative packaging and hygiene solutions that the customers use for improving performance, cost competitiveness, sustainability and automation with the objective of enhancing productivity of operations. Sealed Air Corporation has majorly been focusing on the expansion as a strategy and is accelerating the rate of growth in the developing economies.The major strategy of Veritiv Corporation (U.S.) is to invest in higher margin segments to achieve higher growth. For this reason, the company is majorly focusing on the packaging and services segment. The company is also focusing on expanding its existing services by focusing on logistics, Design, Fulfilment/kitting and Equipment Service.On the other hand the major strategy of Pregis Corporation (U.S.) is to serve a large number of industries by offering a wide range of products. With the continuous research and development activities undertaken by the company, the major focus is on identifying and solving each customers unique protective packaging needs.Request Report Sample @Global Protective Packaging Market - SegmentsGlobal Protective Packaging Market is segmented in to 4 Key dynamics for an easy grasp and enhanced understanding.Segmentation By Product Type : Comprises Rigid Protective, Flexible Protective, and Foam Protective.Segmentation By Material : Comprises Paper & Paperboard, Foam Plastics, Plastics and othersSegmentation By Application : Comprises Consumer Goods, Food & Beverages, Industrial Goods, and othersSegmentation By Function : Comprises Flexible Cushioning, Insulation, Wrapping, Void-Fill, and othersSegmentation By Regions : Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the WorldGlobal Protective Packaging Market - Regional AnalysisAsia-Pacific is expected to show a very high rate of growth in demand for protective packaging over the coming years, owing to rising disposable incomes and the booming ecommerce industry. The protective packaging market in developing countries such as China and India are estimated to grow at a high rate in the forecast period. China is estimated to grow faster than any other country because of its strong economic growth along with increase in online shopping and rapid urbanization.China accounts for the largest market in Asia Pacific. In China, the electronics and appliance retailers dominate the market. Domestic manufacturers are accounting for the increase in share of consumer electronics due to growing brand reputation and improved technology. Factors such as rising increase in disposable income, urbanization are some of the major factors driving the demand for bubble wrap packaging solutions.In Japan, electronics and consumer goods is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. E-commerce industry offers an attractive and convenient shopping option to consumers, which provides an innovative, sustainable and seamless experience over all channels. Furthermore, E-commerce in India has transformed the Style of business. The growth factors for e-commerce in Japan are mobile commerce use bubble packaging for light weight and heavy duty products.Access Full Report @Study Objectives of Global Protective Packaging Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of various segments and sub-segments of the Global Protective Packaging Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To Analyze the Global Protective Packaging 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 prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by Product Type, by material, by Application, by Function 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 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 Protective Packaging MarketAbout 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.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.ContactAkash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Sterile Medical Packaging Market Development, Market Trend, Segmentation and Forecast to 2021 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1317 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/sterile-medical-packaging-market-1317 Market Research Future published a half cooked research report on Global Sterile Medical Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd., West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., MULTIVAC Sepp Haggenmuller SE & Co. KG, SteriPack Ltd., Riverside Medical Packaging Company Ltd., Selenium Medical, Wipak Walsrode GmbH & Co. KG, Placon Corporation, DuPont De Nemours and Company, Oracle Packaging, Inc., Janco INC., Bemis Company, Inc., Oliver Tolas Healthcare Packaging, and Amcor Limited are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global sterile medical market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Request Report Sample @Global Sterile Medical Market - OverviewThe sterile medical market is very dynamic in nature and is expected to witness high growth over the forecast period. The growth of the sterile medical market is influenced by growing pharmaceutical industry, increase in ageing population, and government initiative for pharmaceutical industry whereas it is hindered by the stringent regulations for packaging of medical products.Various sterilization packaging types are available in the market such as pouches, wraps, and container systems. These are available in different sizes and specifications for the purpose of sterilizing and packaging medical devices and the other instruments. Proper sterilization packaging needs to be chosen in the healthcare sector by healthcare product manufacturers including pharmaceuticals as well as medical devices.The rise in the ageing population leads to increasing diseases and more requirement of medicines has spiked the demand for such packaging. People are becoming aware about the diseases occurring due to growing age and are using the products which are healthy for them. People are becoming aware about the diseases occurring due to growing age and are using the products which are healthy for them. Due to this, there will be an increase in the production of sterile packaging materials.Government of India has taken various initiatives to ensure the approval, safety and marketing of quality drugs. The Central Drug Standards and Control Organization (CDSCO) provides the standards and measures for safety of the drugs, and ensures quality of the drug. It also regulates the market authorization of new drugs and approves the license for the manufacture of the drug. Due to the above regulatory bodies, there is an increase in the reliability of pharmaceutical products, which has resulted in the increased use of sterile medical packaging.Global Sterile Medical Market - Competitive AnalysisThe major market players adopted various strategies to retain and/or expand their market share. Key strategies followed by most companies within the global Sterile Medical market were new product development. The major players operating in this market, to have adopted these strategies are E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Multisorb Technologies (U.S.), Sanner GmbH (Germany), CSP Technologies, Inc (U.S.), Capitol Scientific, Inc (U.S.), Desiccare, Inc (U.S.), W. R. Grace & Co (U.S.), Desican Inc (U.S.), Clariant Global (Switzerland), Oker-Chemie GmbH (Germany) and others. This strategy is widely adopted to increase the number of offerings to the customer. New innovations in the technology of manufacturing desiccants also lead to new product developments.In September 2017, DuPont Protection Solutions announced the introduction of DuPont Tyvek 40L, a new class of Tyvek for medical packaging applications that provides a cost-effective option for protecting lightweight, low-risk devices. This economical alternative to high-end medical papers was unveiled today at MEDTEC 2017 in Shanghai, China, where DuPont was also continuing its year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of Tyvek. Commercial sales of Tyvek 40L will begin now in China and there are plans for global availability in late 2018.CSP Technologies, Inc., a leading designing and packaging solution provider that ensure product protection, enhance brand recognition and improve consumer experiences is expanding its Auburn, Alabama manufacturing and warehousing capacity by 110,000 square feet. Construction of the new structure located adjacent to the existing headquarters is currently underway. During this same timeframe, the company added clean room manufacturing and high cavitation stack cube molding with in-mold process capabilities to increase manufacturing efficiency to its Neiderbronn-les-Bains plant in France. Both the US and France operations will be ISO 13485:2016 certified for medical device manufacturing and assembly. The clean room installation also provides the necessary infrastructure as CSP prepares to manufacture dry powder inhalers and other medical devices in the near future.R. Grace & Co. announced that it has agreed in principle to acquire Schurpack, Inc., a manufacturer of flexible food packaging located in St. Joseph, Mo. Terms were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to various conditions, including Grace board approval, and is expected to close in the second quarter. Schurpack, a unit of the Schur group, had 1996 sales of approximately $20 million. It is a leading supplier of plastic laminate packaging materials for the institutional and retail cook-in market segment. Cook-in foods are specially packaged meats and entrees that minimize preparation time for food service operations and supermarkets while increasing shelf life and delivering the highest product yield during the cooking process.Access Full Report @Global Sterile Medical Market - SegmentsGlobal Sterile Medical Market is segmented in to 4 Key dynamics for an easy grasp and enhanced understanding.Segmentation By Type : Comprises Thermoform trays, Flexible pouches, Bottles and othersSegmentation By Material : Comprises Glass, Plastic, Metal, and othersSegmentation By End-use : Comprises Surgical instruments, Pharmaceuticals, and othersSegmentation By Regions : Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the WorldGlobal Sterile Medical Market - Regional AnalysisThe growing market of Europe, is expected to witness slow growth throughout the forecast period. The adoption of medical packaging in countries such as Poland, Turkey, and Romania offers significant growth prospects for the sterile medical packaging market in the region.The South Americas and Middle East markets are expected to register steady growth through the forecast period for sterile medical packaging.The Asia-Pacific region held the largest share in 2016, and is projected to be the fastest-growing region market in coming time. This is mainly due to emerging economies in China and India, backed by the rising consumer spending power and the growing middle-class population.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.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.ContactAkash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Bulk Packaging Market for Cosmetics Industry 2023 : Expected to Grow with 5.14% CAGR and Reach USD 10666.17 million https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3683 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/bulk-packaging-market-3683 Market Research Future published a research report on Global Bulk Packaging Market for Cosmetics Industry Research Report- Forecast 2023 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Global Bulk Packaging Market for Cosmetics Industry Information by Material Type (Plastic, Metal, Paper & Paperboard, and others), By Product Type (Pails, Drums, Bulk Boxes, Shipping Sacks, Material Handling Containers, and others) and By Region Forecast To 2023Market HighlightsThe global bulk packaging market for cosmetics industry are majorly driven by the change in the taste and preferences of the consumer for use of cosmetic products. Due to the rising affluence and the growing consciousness about grooming and appearance, among individuals, the potential of the cosmetics market is growing. This is driving the demand for use of bulk packaging for storage and transportation of cosmetics. The market is also driven by the growth in the end-use segments of the cosmetic industry such as skin care, hair care and baby care among others.The market for global Bulk Packaging for Cosmetics Industry is expected to grow over the CAGR of 5.14% during the period 2016 to 2023Get Sample of Report @Market Research AnalysisBased on all kinds of materials used in global bulk packaging market for cosmetics industry, the plastics accounted for the largest share and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.32% during the forecast period. The growth of plastic can be attributed to various factors such as average gains associated with the material over steel drums in terms of cost, weight and corrosion resistance.Based on all kinds of products, pails are expected to grow the highest. The growth can be attributed to their performance and cost advantages in small volume applications. Drums will also continue to be a critical product for the packaging of larger sized products due to their relatively low cost, reusability, and effectiveness in the safe transport of hazardous materials.Key PlayersThe key players of global bulk packaging market for cosmetics industry report include Berry Plastics Group, Inc. (U.S), BWAY Corporation (Georgia), Georgia-Pacific LLC (U.S.), Greif incorporated (U.S), Mauser Group B.V. (Germany), Menasha Corporation (U.S.), Rehrig Pacific Company (U.S.), Remcon Plastics, Inc. (U.S.), SchoellerAllibert (Netherlands), Westrock Company (U.S.) and others.Ask for your specific company profile and country level customization on reports.The report for Global Bulk Packaging Market for Cosmetics Industry 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.Access Full Report @Scope of the ReportThis study provides an overview of the global bulk packaging market for cosmetics industry, tracking two 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 bulk packaging market for cosmetics industry by its material, product, application and region.By Material Type Plastic Metal Paper & paperboard OthersBy product Type Pails Drums Bulk boxes Shipping sacks Material handling containers OthersBy Region North America Asia Pacific Europe Rest of the WorldBrief Toc:1. Executive Summary2. Research Methodology3. Market Dynamics4. Global Market, By Packaging Type5. Global Market, By Technology6. Global Market, By Application7. Global Market, By End-user8. Regional Market Analysis9. Competitive Analysis10. Conclusion11. List Of Tables12. List Of FiguresAbout 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.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.Media Contact:Market Research FuturePune 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone No. :+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com New Research Report Provides Credible Insights on How Cosmetic Ingredients Market will Evolve During 2015 - 2025 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-519 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-519 www.futuremarketinsights.com Cosmetic ingredient market has changed a lot over the course of time. Since time immemorial, human beings are using different types of cosmetics to enhance their physical appearance, which in turn makes people feel more confident and pleasing in nature. It is due to growing demand for beauty products that market is flooded with various cosmetic products. The multibillion dollar industry is growing at a lightning speed to meet the consumer demand. Cosmetic ingredients are the specific sets of substance that are used in the formulation and composition of cosmetics. Any kind of impurities in raw materials and subsidiary technical materials are not considered as ingredients, hence water is also considered as separate ingredient. At present, various cosmetic business entrepreneurs use more than 5000 available cosmetic ingredients to offer selected cosmetics products.Cosmetic Industry: Drivers & RestraintsThe demand for good quality cosmetic products is fuelling the cosmetic ingredient market. Changing lifestyle specially in developing regions of Asia Pacific and Latin America brings a sea of opportunities to cosmetic ingredients manufacturers and suppliers. Increase in per capita income, rising awareness about beautification and increasingly urbanized population is offering momentum to the growth of overall cosmetic industry which in turn is escalating the cosmetic ingredients market to its zenith. Though cosmetic industry market size is growing at an impressive rate, various regulations prohibiting the use of certain chemicals as ingredients is a major challenge to the cosmetic ingredients manufacturers. In APAC, China and ASEAN regions are some of the most lucrative regions for increase in consumer spending and rise in GDP.Request For Report Sample@Cosmetic Ingredients Market: SegmentationOn the basis of product type, the global cosmetic ingredients market is segmented into,SurfactantsEmulsifiersAntimicrobialsUV absorbersEmollientsConditioning PolymersOthersAlpha hydroxy acids, beta hydroxyl acids and talc are some of the examples of commonly used cosmetics ingredients. Among all these product type, surfactants are expected to hold the market dominance throughout the forecast period, however, conditioning polymers is projected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2015 and 2025.On the basis of end-use applications, cosmetic ingredients market is segmented intoSkin CareNail CareMake upOthersSkin care and make up are the two most lucrative markets for chemical ingredients manufacturers. Together, they account more than onefourth of total cosmetic ingredients market. Changing lifestyle and increasing awareness about skin care is boosting the demand for skin care applications.Cosmetic Ingredients Market: Region-wise OutlookOn the basis of region, cosmetic ingredients finds its market scope in North America, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, Europe and Asia-Pacific. North America and Europe dominates the cosmetic ingredients, however, Asia Pacific and Latin America are expected to be the most promising region in terms of incremental opportunities lying ahead for generating high revenue. Cosmetic ingredient market is highly regulated in Europe and North America. China, India and ASEAN are the key promising countries driving the cosmetic ingredients market in Asia-Pacific. Rapid growth of urbanization coupled with growing desire for skin care is expected to offer above average growth to cosmetic ingredients market in Asia-Pacific. Brazil leads the cosmetic market followed by Mexico in Latin America. As per the CANIPEC, the Mexican personal care industrys national chamber and association, there are more than 64 business enterprises operating in personal care market that are worth approximately US$ 14 billion in Mexico.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Cosmetic Ingredients Market: Key PlayersCompany needs to meet the stringent quality norms before marketing their key ingredients. It is due to these factors that the market in North America and Europe is consolidated and is dominated by list of key cosmetic ingredient manufacturers and suppliers.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: UAV Market Study in Detail along with Recent Study Segments, Future Scope, Staggering CAGR, Global and Key Players, Forecast to 2027 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1131 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/uav-market-1131 Market Summary:The UAV or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is an aircraft without a pilot on board. UAVs can be controlled remotely i.e. flown by a pilot at a ground control station or can fly autonomously, based on pre-programmed flight plans or more complex dynamic automation systems. UAVs are currently used for a number of missions, including reconnaissance and attack roles. In some cases, the abbreviation UAV has been expanded to UAVS (Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle System). Officially, the term 'Unmanned Aerial Vehicle' was changed to 'Unmanned Aircraft System' to reflect the fact that these complex systems include ground stations and other elements besides the actual air vehicles.UAVs are considered as cost effective and effective for operation in comparison to manned aircrafts, for military and commercial applications. Hence, the factors such as internal and external security threats, territorial disputes and modernization initiatives undertaken by armed forces across the world are providing impetus to the market growth of global UAV market. Furthermore, the augmented demand for UAVs from emerging markets, such as the Middle East and Asia, will result in this markets strong growth during the forecast periodRequest a Sample Report @Meanwhile, Demand for UAVs is rapidly increasing from emerging and developing nations to counter national security threat. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, Globally, the market for UAVs has increased its market growth in recent years and is expected to grow at a rapid pace during the forecast period. The global market of UAV is forecasted to witness a thriving growth by 2021, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR of around ~ 11% during the anticipated period (2016 2021).As per the MRFR analysis, cost effectiveness is one of the key drivers for global UAV market to acquire and operate in comparison to manned aircraft and helicopters. The challenges associated with the market are the low endurance and stringent regulation associated with civilian and commercial usage of UAVs. Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become popular on the battlefield for various military missions (such as ISR applications).The leading market players in the global UAV market primarily include AeroVironment, Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Northrop Grumman. The other prominent vendor includes Aeronautics Limited, Aeyron Labs, Aibotix, BAE Systems, DJI, Lockheed Martin and Prox Dynamics.Latest Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:October 09, 2017- AeroVironment, Inc. announced the receipt of a contract award from the United States Navy on September 29, 2017, for continuation and expansion of its Blackwing small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) program. The contract includes orders for multiple Blackwing vehicles, sensor payloads and refurbishment kits for a total value of USD 2,578,822. The initial set of vehicles are anticipated for delivery by May 2018, and final delivery anticipated by November 2018.Sept. 19, 2017:- AeroVironment announced that it has delivered M1/M2/M5-compatible Raven and Puma AE unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to two DoD customers, with more orders and deliveries scheduled. In addition, the company will begin taking orders in December 2017 for M1/M2/M5-configured Wasp AE micro air vehicles (MAV) for delivery in spring 2018.January 23, 2017:- Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) expects to expand collaboration with local leading companies to integrate strategic state-of-the-art systems for the Indian MOD, in a number of areas; and in accordance with the Indian Government's Make in India policy. These collaborations are a direct continuation of IAI's business deals in India which totalled some USD 0.5 billion in 2016.Get a complete Report @Regional AnalysisThe US is the global market leader of both UAV demand and as a manufacturer. It is the largest operator of UAVs globally as well. The majority of this demand is mainly supported by military and defense applications, and the US army is the single largest buyer of UAVs worldwide. In addition to the large tactical UAVs, many small electric-powered UAVs have also become common on the battlefield. However, the market has slowed down to some extent in the past two years as the US had started to withdraw its military from the conflict regions (Afghanistan and Iraq), where many of these UAVs were implemented in service for various missions.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 ELSE Corp at COSMOPROF with the New Retail Experience MyPOWDERFUL http://www.else-corp.com/mypowderful-cosmoprof-2018 ELSE Corp at COSMOPROF with the New Retail Experience MyPOWDERFULMilan, 12 March 2018 - ELSE Corp - a Virtual Retail Company, an Italian start-up working on the development of the Virtual Retail platform, E.L.S.E. (an acronym for Exclusive Luxury Shopping Experience) that proposes a new Virtual Shopping experience in 3D, participates at Cosmopack 2018, an event by Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna dedicated to the entire beauty production chain, scheduled in Bologna from Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 March 2018. It is a unique chance to understand the evolution of the cosmetics industry at an international level and starting this year, also the new technological solutions that will influence the future of the industry offering a new customer experience; a real revolution where Virtual and Augmented Realities, Holograms, personalization, customization and Artificial Intelligence are the new keywords for the store of the future: The Cosmopack Factory becomes DIGITAL.After a positive start to the year, thanks to some important updates to the else.shoes platform for the footwear industry, and the companys participation at key events, ELSE Corp is now ready to open up its innovative solution for Virtual Retail to the Beauty & Cosmetics sectors as well: in fact, the start-up has developed the New Retail Experience of POWDERFUL, an integrated project for the production of an 'all-over palette' created for different types of use. The project called MyPOWDERFUL, aims to immerse the customer-visitor in an extraordinary virtual shopping experience, where they may customize and order an exclusive product, which can then be produced upon request. The 3D Virtual Boutique application is a virtual representation of the retail space, through which the user can discover the product and eventually order it with the guidance of a Shop Assistant; while the Mixed Reality Shopping Experience application provides an even more engaging customization experience in 3D, thanks to the use of the Microsoft HoloLens device. Through these applications the customer may customize every single component of the cosmetic product, choosing from among the different materials, colors and decorations available and they can personalize it with a monogram, selecting its position, font and color.The format presented follows all the steps of product development: from concept and design, curated by Centedegres, an international design agency; to the production process, made possible through the collaboration between HCP, Ancorotti Cosmetics, Vetraco Group, Nastritex, Pennelli Faro and Arsmetallo; until the positioning at the point of sale and the typical experiential interaction of the retail channel with new digital solutions: the experience of the product at the point of sale realized by ELSE Corp, and the animation of the product packaging in augmented reality, a project by MCI Brand, an agency specialized in retail at an international level. THE UNLIMITED POWDER EXPERIENCE by Cosmopack is presented at The Cosmopack Factory demonstration area, located at Padiglione 19 of Cosmoprime, for the first time putting a spotlight on the retail aspect.Apart from presenting the POWDERFUL Retail Experience, on Friday 16 March ELSE Corps CEO, Andrey Golub, will present his vision of Retail of the Future during the COSMOTALKS 2018, the perfect combination of detailed strategic insights defining the future of the industry. The round table discussion, coordinated by WWD, entitled "RETAIL 2025: adapt to the new beauty retail landscape", will analyse the coming changes, from the point of view of the market. The speakers will explore a variety of emerging technologies including 3D printing, artificial intelligence, unmanned transportation, robotics, wearable technology and virtual reality.ELSE Corp is waiting for you to discover the future of Retail and the Shopping Experience!For more information visit the website:About ELSE Corp: http://www.else-corp.com/ELSE Corp is an Italian startup founded in Milan in 2014, that offers B2B and B2B2C solutions to brands, retailers, manufacturers and independent designers. Its main objective is to create the foundation for the future of Fashion Retail and to revolutionize the fashion industry through the startups vision of Virtual Retail through E.L.S.E. (acro-nym for "Exclusive Luxury Shopping Experience "), a techno-logically advanced SaaS & API Cloud platform that ena-bles the Mass Customization and Personalization in 3D of fashion products, through an innovative Virtual Shopping experience.ELSE Corp Srl,Via Domenichino 19Milano, ItaliaELSE Corp Srl,Via Domenichino 19Milano, Italia Aerospace Composites Market 2018 by Global key Players: Hartzell Aerospace, Hyosung, Kaman, SGL Group and Teijin Aramid https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1242 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/aerospace-composites-market-1242 Market Highlights:Composites are made from the combination of two or more different materials resulting in different physical or chemical properties than of the individual components. The fiber reinforced polymers are mainly used in the aerospace industry. These are mainly composed of carbon fibers, glass fibers, and aramid fibers. Composites are mainly used for the aerospace structure and components that need to be lightweight while also possessing the superior strength. Composites have found a wide range of applications in commercial aircraft, rotorcraft, UAVs and military aircraft. These have been largely used for aircraft fuselage, tail, wings, aircraft cabin interiors, aircraft seats, and jet engine components.Aerospace Composites enjoy increasing popularity and does the Aerospace Composites Market enjoy an extensive traction. The market has been growing rapidly along with the growing demand for new and optimized aircrafts and jet engines, so has the production processes.Accrediting the colossal growth the Aerospace Composites Market is witnessing currently and the potential the market is demonstrating to accrue pervasively further in the years to come; the Market Research Future has recently published a meticulous study report giving out the complete market insight up till 2021. According to which, continuing with the same trends the global Aerospace Composites Market is projected to perceive an outstanding growth by 2021 registering a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017 2021).Request a Sample Report @Major key PlayersThe leading market players in the global Aerospace Composites market primarily include Cytec Industries, Hexcel, Koninklijke Ten Cate (TenCate), Mitsubishi Rayon, Owens Corning. The other prominent players include Hartzell Aerospace, Hyosung, Kaman, SGL Group and Teijin Aramid.Global Aerospace Composites Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 8% during 2016-2021. This growth is driven due to significant demand for aircraft weight reduction and fuel efficiency and high corrosion resistance.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:DECEMBER 8, 2017 - Hexcel Corporation announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Aerospace & Defense (A&D) business of Oxford Performance Materials (OPM). OPM A&D produces qualified, high-performance thermoplastic, carbon fiber reinforced 3D printed parts for Commercial Aerospace and Space and Defense applications. With this qualify additive manufacturing technology Hexcel Corporation can apply the high performance polymer PEKK for aerospace, industrial and biomedical applications.January 12, 2016 - Cytec Solvay Group has signed an exclusive distribution agreement between its Composite Materials Global Business Unit and Bang & Bonsomer Group. The agreement covers Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland for all Process Materials products. The Process Materials product portfolio supports the end-to-end manufacturing of composite parts and includes an extensive portfolio of vacuum bagging consumables, pre-manufactured kitting solutions and tooling products. It provides advanced composites process materials for aerospace, automotive, wind energy, motorsport, marine, mass transportation and other demanding applications.November 24, 2014 GKN partners with Alexander Dennis to accelerate the introduction of a low-carbon bus fleetBrowse Full Report @Aerospace Composites Market SegmentsFor the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding; The Aerospace Composites Market is segmented in to 3key dynamicsSegmentation by Application: Commercial and Military.Segmentation by Types: Glass Fiber, Carbon Fiber and Aramid Fiber.Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - Americas (North & Latin), Europe, APAC and Middle East & Africa.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 Global Industrial Boilers Market to Reach at the Highest CAGR of 6.1% | Industry Analysis & Forecasts Report by 2024 http://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-industrial-boilers-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-industrial-boilers-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-industrial-boilers-market/ http://databridgemarketresearch.com/speak-to-analyst/?dbmr=global-industrial-boilers-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-ransom-ware-protection-market/ Worldwide Industrial Boilers Industry 2017 Market Research Report has been broke down in detail to help customers with all the indispensable information to outline strategic business judgments and propose key development designs. The Global Industrial Boilers Market report offers a complete understanding into the improvement strategies and plans notwithstanding producing procedures and cost structures.The Global Industrial Boilers Market accounted for USD 12.32 billion in 2016 and projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.1% 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 Industrial Boilers Market By Fuel Type (Natural Gas & Biomass, Coal, Oil); Type (Water Tube, Fire Tube); Boiler Horse Power (10BHP-150BHP, 151BHP-300BHP, 301BHP-600BHP); End-Use Industry (Food, Chemical, Refineries, Primary Metal); Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Market Definition: Global Industrial Boilers MarketIndustrial boilers are an indispensable part of process plants where steam is used to supply heat to various processes being carried out. A lot of discussion happens around the attributes of a good industrial boiler. This article highlights ten features of industrial boilers which promise a good performance. It has its wide application in food, chemical, refineries, primary metal, and others. Increasing demand for clean and renewable energy sources and increasing natural gas usage may act as the major driver in the growth of Industrial boilers market. Strict emission standards may hamper the market.Complete report on Global Industrial Boilers Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresKey Questions Answered in Global Industrial Boilers Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Industrial Boilers Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Industrial Boilers Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Industrial Boilers Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Industrial Boilers Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Industrial Boilers Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Industrial Boilers Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Request for Detaild TOC:Top Key Players: John Wood Group plc Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. DEC GENERAL ELECTRIC Siemens AG Sofinter S.p.a BHEL Harbin Electric Corporation IHI Corporation Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. Thermax Global AB&CO ALFA LAVAL ANDRITZ Suzhou Hailu Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. Robey-Wellman Boilers & Furnaces Ltd. Taiyuan Boiler Group Co., Ltd. Superior Boiler Works, Inc. Vapor Power Bryan Steam Hurst Boiler & Welding Co, Inc. and others.Avail 10% Instant Discount on Purchase of this report Mail us on: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comMajor Market Drivers and Restraints: Increasing demand for clean and renewable energy sources Increasing natural gas usage High cost of installation Strict emission standardsFor more insightful information visit @Customize report of "Global Industrial Boilers Market" as per customers requirement also available.Market Segmentations:Global Industrial Boilers Market is segmented on the basis of Fuel Type Type Boiler Horse Power End-Use Industry GeographyMarket Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Fuel Type into natural gas & biomass, coal, oil, and others.On the basis of Type, the global industrial boilers market is segmented into lay-up, pultrusion, resin transfer molding, injection molding, filament winding, compression molding, and others.On the basis of Boiler Horse Power, the global industrial boilers market is segmented into 10BHP-150BHP, 151BHP-300BHP, and 301BHP-600BHPOn the basis of End-Use Industry, the global industrial boilers market is segmented into food, chemical, refineries, primary metal, and others.On the basis of geography North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaCompetitive Landscape: Global Industrial Boilers MarketThe global industrial boilers 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:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.com Cardiovascular Application Market is Expected to Grow At A CAGR Of 7.24% And is Estimated to Reach USD 36730.5 Million By 2023 Cardiovascular Application Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5255 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/cardiovascular-application-market-5255 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/5255 www.marketresearchfuture.com The Americas command a major share of the market owing to the huge patient population suffering from diseases like cardiovascular diseases & diabetes, increasing demand of the advanced devices, and strong government support. Additionally, availability of funds and rising geriatric population is expected to fuel the growth of the market. Europe accounts for the second largest market across the globe, which is followed by Asia Pacific. Strong government support, availability of funds for research, and high healthcare expenditure is driving the growth of the market. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market owing to increasing need for better devices, rapidly improving technology, and the presence of huge patient pool. China, and India are the key contributors to the market. Additionally, increasing government support, and presence of huge opportunity have fuelled the growth of the market in Asia Pacific.The Middle East & Africa holds the least share of the global market due to limited availability of medical facilities and poor economic condition in the African region. The Middle East holds the major share in the market in this region owing to a well-developed economy, whereas, African region is expecting a healthy growth due to the presence of huge opportunity in the market growth.Key PlayersSome of the major players in this market are Abbott (U.S.), General Electric Company (U.S.), Medtronic (Ireland), Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.), KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V. (The Netherlands), Terumo (Japan), Stryker Corporation (U.S.), Edwards Lifesciences (U.S.), Allergan Inc. (U.S.), Smith & Nephew plc (U.K), CR Bard Inc. (U.S.), Sonova Holdings (Switzerland), and Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGa (Germany)Get a sample report atKey Findings:The global cardiovascular application market is growing at a growth rate of 7.24% during the forecast period 2017-2023. Increasing prevalence of the cardiovascular diseases, increasing geriatric population, and technological advances are some of the major factors responsible for market growthThe market is categorized into number of different cardiovascular devices. The category of cardiac monitors holds the major share in the market.General Electric Company, Koninklijke Philips N.V, Abbott, and Medtronic are some of the prominent market players in the cardiovascular application marketCardiovascular devices has gained a huge attention during last decade owing to the increasing prevalence of different cardiovascular diseases. During the last few years, healthcare IT has gained a significant importance as the adoption of the software solutions and computer aided diagnosis has increased the efficacy of the treatment. Increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, adoption of advanced techniques in diagnosis, and increasing government support have driven the growth of the market. According to the World Health Organization, 422 million of the people across the globe are suffering from the diabetes. Diabetes is the major reason for cardiovascular diseases. Increasing prevalence of diabetes, rapidly developing technology, and increasing geriatric population across the globe has fuelled the growth of the market. However, strict regulations are to be followed by the manufacturer for the development of the devices. Strict regulatory rules and high cost of some of the devices may slow the growth of the market over the assessment period.Browse Complete Report atThe global cardiovascular application market has been segmented on the basis of devices and end users.On the basis of the devices, the global cardiovascular application market is segmented into the cardiac pacemaker, defibrillators, monitors, and others. The cardiac monitors are further segmented into resting ECG, ECG monitors, holter monitors, implantable loop recorder, and others. The cardiac pacemaker are further segmented into implantable cardiac pacemaker, and external cardiac pacemaker. Implantable cardiac pacemaker are subsegmented into single-chamber pacemakers, dual-chamber pacemakers, and biventricular pacemakers. The cardiac defibrillator is further categorized into implantable cardioverter defibrillator, and external defibrillator.On the basis of the end users, the market is segmented into cardiac care centers, ambulatory centers & home care, academic institutes, and others.More Inquire atEurope accounted for the second largest market for the cardiovascular application, which is followed by Asia Pacific. Increasing prevalence of the cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and huge healthcare spending are the major driving factors that have boosted the market growth. Additionally, the healthcare expenditure in this region is also rising. People and healthcare organizations in this region are able to afford the high cost of the cardiovascular devices, which is driving the growth of the market. Furthermore, increasing government support and funding for the development and improving treatment have fuelled the growth of the market.Asia Pacific is the fastest growing cardiovascular application market. Increasing need for better devices, rapidly improving technology, and the presence of huge patient pool is driving the growth of the market in this region. The Middle East & Africa holds the least share of the market owing to the presence of poor and slow developing countries, especially, in the African region. The major driving factors for the growth of the Middle East & African cardiovascular application market are increasing aging population and increasing number of diabetic and cardiovascular patients.About usAt 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 Heat Transfer Oil Market size and Key Trends in terms of volume and value -2025 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/heat-transfer-oil-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=24419 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ Heat transfer oil is stable paraffinic oil with high boiling point. It is used in closed as well as open heat transfer systems. Demand for heat transfer oil is high in industrial applications and household equipment, including chemical plants, textile producers, process industry, and oil filled radiators, as it offers properties such as good thermal stability, low viscosity, good heat transfer, ease of waste oil disposal, and high flash point. Heat transfer oil is also used to prevent rusting in circulating oil systems. Its exceptional stability helps prevent deposit formation inside piping and guarantees minimal thermal cracking at high temperatures.View Report Preview:The global heat transfer oil market can be segmented based on end-use industry and region. In terms of end-use industry, the heat transfer oil market can be divided into chemical, textile, cement, asphalt, concentrated solar power, and oil & gas. The chemical industry is the major end-use industry of heat transfer oil. The oil is used to maintain equipment and furnace temperature in batch processes. Heat transfer oil is primarily employed for tank heating and line tracing applications in the asphalt industry. Heat transfer oil is used to heat columns and reboilers in the oil & gas industry for the purification of oil. The oil is usually employed in enclosed circulated heat transfer systems in the textile industry.The heat transfer oil market is anticipated to expand significantly during the forecast period owing to the increase in demand for the oil in the chemical industry. Rise in demand for heat transfer oil in concentrated solar power is estimated to drive the market for heat transfer oil during the forecast period. Growth in the oil & gas industry is also projected to propel the market for heat transfer oil in the near future. Demand for heat transfer oil is high in the cement market due to its characteristics of good conductivity and low volatility. This has been boosting the heat transfer oil market. Rapid growth in the asphalt market is also one of the key factors augmenting the heat transfer oil market. However, volatility in raw material prices is likely to hamper market growth. Furthermore, implementation of stringent government regulations, particularly in developed countries, is expected to adversely affect the heat transfer oil market during the forecast period.Based on region, the heat transfer oil market can be segregated into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Europe is anticipated to dominate the global heat transfer oil market, followed by Asia Pacific and North America, during the forecast period. Rise in demand for heat transfer oil in concentrated solar power in Europe is projected to boost the market for heat transfer oil. Growth in the chemical industry in Asia Pacific is likely to drive the market for heat transfer oil in the region. The heat transfer oil market in Middle East & Africa and Latin America is also estimated to expand substantially during the next few years.Companies are adopting merger and acquisition strategies to expand their market share. They are also shifting their production facilities to emerging economies in Asia Pacific and Latin America due to the easy availability of land, cheap labor, and governmental subsidies in these regions. Key players operating in heat transfer oil market are Royal Dutch Shell plc, Chevron Corporation, Schaeffer Manufacturing Co., Millers Oils Ltd, The Maxol Group, Total Group, and Global Heat Transfer.Request to view Sample Report:The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a 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. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Story Highlights Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island at or near top of list across all well-being elements Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma, residents had the lowest well-being Boulder, Colorado, leads nation in physical well-being WASHINGTON, D.C. -- For the third straight year, the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, Florida, metro area has the highest well-being across 186 U.S. communities, based on data collected in 2016 and 2017 as part of the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index. Barnstable Town, Massachusetts; Boulder, Colorado; Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California; and Charlottesville, Virginia, round out the top five metro areas. Highest 20 Communities, Overall Well-Being in 2016-2017 Out of 186 reportable Metropolitan Statistical Areas nationwide Well-Being Index score Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, FL 67.6 Barnstable Town, MA 66.4 Boulder, CO 65.3 Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA 65.1 Charlottesville, VA 65.0 Lynchburg, VA 64.9 North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL 64.6 Santa Rosa, CA 64.6 Prescott, AZ 64.6 San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles-Arroyo Grande, CA 64.6 Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA 64.5 Ann Arbor, MI 64.4 Salinas, CA 64.2 Fort Collins, CO 64.0 El Paso, TX 64.0 Portland-South Portland, ME 63.9 Lancaster, PA 63.9 Urban Honolulu, HI 63.9 Asheville, NC 63.8 San Diego-Carlsbad, CA 63.8 Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index After having the seventh-highest well-being community in 2012-2013, the Naples area ascended to the top spot in 2014-2015 and has since remained there. This marks the first time in 10 years of annual Well-Being Index reporting that the same community has topped the rankings three times in a row. The Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest possible well-being and 100 represents the highest possible well-being. The Well-Being Index score for the U.S. and for each community is made up of metrics within each of the five essential elements of well-being: Purpose: liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals Social: having supportive relationships and love in your life having supportive relationships and love in your life Financial: managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security Community: liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community Physical: having good health and enough energy to get things done daily In most cases, a difference of 1.0 to 2.0 points in the Well-Being Index score of any two communities represents a statistically significant gap and is characterized by meaningfully large differences in at least some of the individual metrics that make up the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index. The Well-Being Index score for the Naples metro area has climbed to 67.6 for 2016-2017 from 66.3 in 2015-2016. This uptick has come amid a significant decline in well-being nationally. Gallup tracks well-being in metro areas using two-year rolling averages, allowing for larger sample sizes that improve the statistical accuracy of the data and allow more communities to be reported each year. The two-year rolling measurement periods for communities mean that data from interviews conducted during 2016 are included in both the 2015-2016 report and the 2016-2017 report. Each of the top five communities for 2016-2017 have frequented the list of the top 10 well-being communities numerous times in prior years. Other top communities that typically have ranked among the highest for well-being since 2008 include Lynchburg, Virginia; North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida; the San Luis Obispo, California, metro; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Urban Honolulu, Hawaii. Prescott, Arizona, broke into the highest 10 list for the first time this cycle after finishing 13th in 2015-2016. Fort Smith Again Has Lowest Well-Being in U.S. Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma, had the lowest overall well-being of the 186 communities, making this the third straight time that Fort Smith was among the two lowest communities for well-being. As with the top communities, most of the lowest well-being communities in 2016-2017 have consistently been near the bottom of the list since 2008, including Canton-Massillon, Ohio; Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, North Carolina; Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi; and Flint, Michigan. The South Bend, Indiana-Michigan, community slipped into the lowest 10 this year for the first time. Lowest 10 Communities, Overall Well-Being in 2016-2017 Out of 186 reportable Metropolitan Statistical Areas nationwide Well-Being Index score Fort Smith, AR-OK 58.2 Canton-Massillon, OH 58.3 Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS 58.6 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC 58.6 Binghamton, NY 58.9 South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI 59.2 Erie, PA 59.2 Fayetteville, NC 59.3 Rockford, IL 59.5 Flint, MI 59.5 Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index Highest, Lowest Communities Reflect State Well-Being Patterns Nationally, the U.S. map of highest and lowest well-being communities generally reflects the pattern found across states, with the lowest well-being metro areas found primarily in the South and then winding north up through the industrial Midwest. The highest well-being metro areas are scattered across the Eastern Seaboard as well as the Mountain West and West. Naples Metro Area Among Nation's Best in All Five Elements The Naples metro area was among the top two communities in the U.S. across all five elements of well-being, the first time that a single community has shown such broad-based well-being. Highlights for top-ranking communities in other areas of well-being in 2016-2017 include: Boulder, a longtime pacesetter nationally in physical well-being , was the top U.S. community on this element. The state of California had three of the next four highest-rated metro areas in the physical element: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and Santa Barbara. , was the top U.S. community on this element. The state of California had three of the next four highest-rated metro areas in the physical element: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and Santa Barbara. Texas leads the nation in purpose well-being with two communities in the top five for the element -- McAllen and El Paso -- mirroring 2015-2016 results. Naples; Lynchburg, Virginia; and Salinas, California, were other top communities for purpose well-being. with two communities in the top five for the element -- McAllen and El Paso -- mirroring 2015-2016 results. Naples; Lynchburg, Virginia; and Salinas, California, were other top communities for purpose well-being. Barnstable Town residents have the second-highest social well-being after Naples area residents but edge out Naples for the top spot for community well-being , followed by the San Luis Obispo metro area and Prescott, Arizona. after Naples area residents but edge out Naples for the top spot for , followed by the San Luis Obispo metro area and Prescott, Arizona. After Naples, the top metro areas in financial well-being are Barnstable Town, North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Charlottesville, Virginia. Residents of Fort Smith were among the five lowest-ranked communities in four of the five elements: purpose, social, financial and physical. Similarly, Canton-Massillon residents were among the bottom four nationally in purpose, social and physical well-being. Poor performance in the community element of well-being was the most predictive indicator of low well-being generally, with six of the 10 lowest communities in the overall Well-Being Index also ranking among the lowest 10 for the community element. Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Rockford, Illinois, had the lowest well-being in the community element, while Flint, Michigan, remained among the lowest five nationally. ##SPEEDBUMP## Implications Some communities have managed to thrive in their well-being amid significant declines nationally. Chief among these is the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island metro area, which has maintained the top spot three times in a row. Despite statistical declines in well-being across the state of Florida in 2017, Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island has seen its two-year Well-Being Index score improve, demonstrating that local efforts make it possible for communities to buck state and national trends. The Naples metro area's well-being success may be in part because the area attracts individuals with high well-being to begin with. Older Americans -- who make up a larger percentage of the population in Naples than what is found nationally -- have widely better well-being than their younger counterparts. But Naples has not always been a top well-being community. As recently as 2011, this area had the 73rd-highest well-being out of 190 communities reported nationally. At least some of the improvement seen in recent years may have been driven by the Blue Zones Project in the Naples area. This program, which seeks to make healthy choices easier for residents to make, has been used in the area since 2015. The Naples area's success adds to other evidence demonstrating that having high well-being across all five elements yields better outcomes than physical wellness alone. Naples' nearly clean sweep across the five elements shows that efforts to enhance all aspects of residents' well-being can pay off. Naples can serve as a blueprint for lasting well-being success, and community leaders across the nation can follow this blueprint and adapt it to meet the needs of their areas' own residents. View the complete results in Sharecare's report, State of American Well-Being: 2017 Community Well-Being Rankings. Polyurea Coatings Market Volume Forecast and Value Chain Analysis -2025 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/polyurea-coatings-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=24437 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ A polyurea coating is formed by the reaction of a pre-polymer such as methylene diphenyl di-isocyanate (MDI) or hexamethylene di-isocyanate (HDI) with amine-terminated resins. Polyurea was developed in the 1980's for the automotive industry and was originally used as a truck-bed liner to form a lasting watertight layer. Polyurea coatings are now used for a wide variety of applications in building & construction, infrastructure, automotive, marine, and manufacturing industries. Polyurea coatings are elastomeric in nature. It is a more advanced technology than traditional coating technologies such as epoxy, vinyl ester, PU, and polychloroprene. Polyurea coatings are applied on infrastructure and building components such as tunnels, water reservoir containers, pedestrian footpaths, floor coverings, and sewage pits. Polyurea coatings are widely applied also on bridges, tanks, truck linings, and secondary containments. Due to its excellent resistance to hydrocarbons and corrosive gases, polyurea is employed as an industrial coating for highly demanding applications in oil & gas and chemical industries.View Report Preview:Depending upon the method of formulation and application of polyurea coatings, different types of polyurea coatings can be formulated to attain an extensive range of properties. These properties vary from high elongation to high tensile strength and from a very hard material to a soft one. Polyurea coatings have superior water resistance, abrasion resistance, chemical resistance, durability, resistance to weathering, corrosion resistance, and mechanical strength. These coatings can be applied in a variety of designs and colors and they are available as water-based formulations also. One of the key advantages of polyurea coatings over other competing materials is their fast set characteristics. Cure times for polyurea coatings usually range from a few seconds to a few minutes as opposed to much longer cure times required for traditional coatings. Low set time ensures that a facility can be back in use without suffering revenue loss due to downtime. Polyurea coatings also form strong and durable bonds with different substrates such as metals, concrete, ceramics, and wood. Properties of polyurea coatings sustain over a wide temperature range and a variety of climatic conditions. However, polyurea coatings have some drawbacks with the most significant being higher cost of the material as compared to other substitutes. Also, the application of polyurea coatings requires the use of expensive equipment. However, polyurea coatings last substantially longer than their substitutes and hence, they are more cost-effective throughout the life of the coating.The global polyurea coatings market has witnessed rapid growth in the last decade and this trend is likely to continue in the near future. The building & construction industry is the leading consumer of polymer coatings. Rapid industrialization and urbanization in several parts of the world is likely to fuel the demand for polyurea coatings in the next few years. Polyurea coatings are also employed extensively in the industrial sector as protective coatings against corrosion. North America is the leading consumer of polyurea coatings accounting for more than 33% share of the global market. The ongoing recovery of the construction sector in the U.S. as well as the renewed focus on manufacturing in the country are factors likely to boost the demand for polyurea coatings in North America. Europe also accounts for a significant share of the plastic coatings market, owing to the rise in demand from automobile manufacturers concentrated in the region. Germany, the U.K., France, and Italy are the key consumers of polyurea coatings in Europe. Demand for polyurea coatings is expected to surge in Asia Pacific and the market in the region is expected to expand rapidly in the near future. Rapid industrial growth and boom in the construction sector in China are factors expected to provide high opportunity to the polyurea coatings market in Asia Pacific in the next few years. The polyurea coatings market in emerging economies such as India, Thailand, and Malaysia is poised to expand at a significant rate during the forecast period.Despite the slowdown in the oil & gas industry, the outlook of the polyurea market appears positive, due to increasing use of protective coatings in the oil & gas industry; as companies are beginning to prefer condition-based monitoring over the breakdown maintenance approach. Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa are the other major countries for the polyurea market.Key players operating in the global polyurea market are PPG Industries, Nukote Coating Systems, Sherwin-Williams Company, VIP GmbH, Rhino Linings, Kukdo Chemicals, Versaflex Inc., Specialty Products, Inc., and Wasser Corporation.Request to view Sample Report:The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a 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. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Airport IT Systems Market 2018 to 2023 by Global Key Players: Rockwell Collins, INFORM GmbH,Siemens, IBM, Ultra Electronics Holdings https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3858 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/airport-it-systems-market-3858 Market Overview:Airport IT Systems integrated with various airport management/operations solutions help meeting the changing demands of airports by collaborating timely allotment of workers and assets thus increasing the ability to make the right decisions at the right time to keep things moving. These systems majorly include airport operational database, revenue management, flight information display, baggage management, cargo management and common-use check-in systems, Airport-specific enterprise resource planning systems for aviation billing systems, Security systems, such as video surveillance, Passenger-experience solutions, including common-use kiosks and information kiosks and a mobile enablement platform, Infrastructure for data, voice and wireless solutions, Customized enterprise service bus for airports, Business analytics and optimization and asset management.In a nutshell, the Airport IT System plays a vital role in flawless airport operations management, which makes it an ideal and essential component for the airports worldwide. This acting as the key factor along with the increasing number of airports globally propels its market growth further escorting it to ascended heights on the global platform.Request a Sample Report @The key players of global airport IT systems market are RESA AIRPORT DATA SYSTEMS (France), Amadeus IT Group SA (Spain), Rockwell Collins (US), INFORM GmbH (Germany), and Siemens AG (Germany). Other companies that are operating in this market are IBM (US), Ultra Electronics Holdings (UK), Northrop Grumman Corporation (US), SITA (Geneva), Thales Group (France) and IKUSI (Spain).The Market of Airport IT Systems Market appears to be highly competitive owing to the presence of numerous well-established players having international and global presence. Innovation, mergers & acquisitions, and brand reinforcement remain the key trends for the leading players. These key players compete based upon pricing, reputation and services. Vendors strive to develop the Airport Operations Management Systems solution that delivers a suite of application offerings to help address the information system needs of airports. Using time-tested methodologies and best practices, key players try to bring together disparate point systems from multiple providers into a security-rich, integrated environment that addresses resource planning, passenger experience and asset management.Industry/Innovation/Related News:January 29, 2018 The new Muscat International Airport (Oman) announced that it is all set to undergo readiness tests focusing on the remarks on the passenger traffic and systems used for passenger check-in or boarding, security systems, and luggage handling as these systems are very important in taking corrective measures to ensure smooth operations at the airport.July 24, 2017 SEA, ((Societa Esercizi Aeroportuali) is the Group that manages the Italian airports and IBM announced a seven-year service agreement to consolidate and manage SEAs IT infrastructure on a hybrid IT environment that integrates the IBM Cloud.Get a Complete Report @Regional AnalysisThe North America region dominated the Airport IT System Market in 2016 owing to the rapidly improving safety standards and increasing air traffic. Increasing investments in technological developments, in order to enhance the airport efficiency, have significantly contributed towards the growth of the airport IT systems market in the region. Europe is expected to be the second largest market with authorities extensively investing in enhancing their airport security by installing intelligent security systems to elim inate security threats.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 Beacon Technology 2018 : Major Players Study - Kontakt.io, Inc., Samsung, Onyx Beacon Ltd., Bluvision Inc., ROXIMITY, Apple Inc.,Important changes in market dynamics Beacon Technology https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1445930 https://www.researchmoz.us/beacon-technology-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html#table-of-content www.researchmoz.us Press Release - 13 Mar 2018Global Research and Development News --. .Report Description-' 'Global Beacon Technology Market: Overview The Bluetooth business has experienced a change in the current years, prompting development and development of the beacons business. Bluetooth is supplanting heritage innovations, for instance, Near Field Communication (NFC) and ZigBee to fortify beacon arrangements. The beacon business is adjusting to suit more mind boggling modern applications. As the underlying applications were restricted to retail and promoting, the industry is required to push toward a divided market where beacons can spend significant time in a specific industry vertical.. . Get Sample Report' ' The presentation of beacons innovation has altered the users operations by driving another level of client engagement through personalization. The development prospects can be ascribed to the surging distinction of area based promoting in the retail business. Joining the advantages of physical shopping background with advanced biological community has turned out to be vital for physical retailers. Also, interests in vicinity arrangements are seeing an upward swing, accordingly diminishing their showcasing and publicizing costs.Global Beacon Technology Market: Trends and Opportunities PayPal has built up a beacon convention to keep away from utilization of money or swipe cards. This convention incorporates with the PayPal application to empower sans hands installments. This could majorly affect accelerating checkout process by diminishing lines, and furthermore opens up the possibility of advising clients about offers. The iBeacon innovation overwhelmed the business in 2016. This development can be ascribed to the requirement for giving area based cautions and data to close-by cell phones good with the iBeacon convention. The across the board appropriation of items, for instance, iPads and iPhone, is required to push the portion development over the coming years. 2017 will be the year that versatile installments at long last turn into the standard! This will be driven by area/proximity based installment advancements like NFC and beacons. Chinese players like Alipay and WeChat to join forces with huge name retailers and brands in the U.S. to get the market moving, with Apple and Android Pay benefiting from this to make it standard before the end of the forecast duration.Global Beacon Technology Market: Geographical Analysis Geographically, the worldwide sensor patch market is arranged into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America is required to overwhelm the worldwide beacon innovation market over the forecast duration 2017 to 2025, inferable from developing appropriation of beacon administrations and most astounding entrance of composed retail. Moreover, Europe is relied upon to add to the worldwide beacon innovation market. This is because of the product dispatch in the retail business and developing multichannel advertising over these locales. APAC area is expected to witness vigorous reception of beacon innovation.Global Beacon Technology Market: Key Companies Some of the major players offering beacon technology market include Kontakt.io, Inc., Samsung, Onyx Beacon Ltd., Bluvision Inc., ROXIMITY, Apple Inc., Accent Advanced Systems, SLU., Aruba, Qualcomm, Blue Sense Networks and Accent Advanced Systems.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:1. Market segments and sub-segments2. Market trends and dynamics3. Supply and demand4. Market size5. Current trends/opportunities/challenges6. Competitive landscape7. Technological breakthroughs8. Value chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:1. North America (U.S. and Canada)2. Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)3. Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)4. Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)5. Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)6. Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:1. A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent market2. Important changes in market dynamics3. Market segmentation up to the second or third level4. Historical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volume5. Reporting and evaluation of recent industry developments6. Market shares and strategies of key players7. Emerging niche segments and regional markets8. An objective assessment of the trajectory of the market9. Recommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market. . More Clear Details get Table of Contents..ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074 Worldwide Nerve Stimulator Market | Top Key Players Profile Review | Professional Survey Report | Growing Rapidly by USD 10,978.5 million Till 2023 at a CAGR of 9.7% Nerve Stimulator Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5258 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/nerve-stimulator-market-5258 Market Research Future has a cooked research report on the nerve stimulators market. The Market Growth at a Strong CAGR of 8.3% During The Forecast Period 2017-2023Nerve stimulation is a therapy that uses low-voltage electric current to treat multiple diseases. The stimulator used in the nerve stimulation therapy is a bit like a heart pacemaker. Nerve stimulator therapy has also proved as an efficient approach to get relief from neurological disorders. Among neurological disorders, nerve stimulation therapy is the most commonly used treatment for epilepsy and depression. The most commonly used nerve stimulators are deep brain stimulator (DBS), vagus nerve stimulator (VNS), and spinal cord stimulator (SCS). The vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) involves a stimulator, which is connected to the left vagus nerve in the neck. The main aim of VNS therapy is to reduce the severity of seizures. Deep brain stimulation involves the implantation of a neuro-stimulator, which delivers electrical impulses to specific targets in the brain. Spinal cord stimulator also involves neuromodulation device that delivers electrical signals to the selected areas of the spinal cord. Nerve stimulation therapy has proved as a profound approach to treat different types of health problems such as joint, or bone problems that occur in case of osteoarthritis or fibromyalgia, or low back pain, neck pain, neurological disorders, overactive bladder, and others. According to a study published in Research and Reports in Urology journal in 2014, it is found that nerve stimulation is an effective intervention for OAB patients, who are not responsive to pharmacologic therapy. Even in case of neurological disorders, complex seizures are not being controlled by medication. The vagal nerve stimulation is most commonly recommended when medications aren't effective. Due to increasing popularity of minimally invasive procedures, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is commonly used for pain relief.Get a sample report atKey FindingsThe global nerve stimulators market is expected to reach USD 10,978.5 million by 2023 at a CAGR of 9.7%.On the basis of type, blood sample market is expected to command the largest market share of 41.4% over the review period and Spinal Cord Stimulator (SCS) is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 10.1% during the forecast period 2017-2023The Americas hold the largest share of the nerve stimulators market and is expected to reach USD 3,755.8 million by 2023Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market, which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.1% over the 2017-2023Major Key Players in Nerve Stimulator MarketSome of key the players in the market are Boston Scientific Corporation, Cochlear Ltd, Medtronic plc, St Jude Medical, Inc., Cyberonics, Inc., Aleva Neurotherapeutics SA, NeuroPace, Inc, and others.Notably, rising incidence of chronic health problems, technological improvements, increasing geriatric population, and improvement in reimbursement policies are the key factors driving the nerve stimulators market. According to a study published in Current Pain and Headache Reports journal in 2016, it is found that peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) is widely accepted treatment procedure for chronic pain. StimRouter neuromodulation system by Bioness, Inc is a PNS technology based device specifically designed to treat chronic pain. The device also received FDA approval in 2015.Increasing popularity of minimally invasive procedures across the globe is also fueling the market growth. For instance, gammaCore developed by a neuroscience and technology company, Electrocore, was the first non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy approved by FDA. It is used for episodic cluster headache. GammaCore received FDA approval on April 18, 2017.However, high cost of the treatment and lack of skilled or trained physicians may hinder the growth of the market over the forecast period. According to the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago, VNS therapy costs approximately USD 20,000 and costs of surgery may vary in different parts of the world and may increase over time.Browse Complete Report atRegional AnalysisThe Americas dominate the nerve stimulators market owing to the rising prevalence of chronic diseases, a well-developed technology, high healthcare expenditure, and the presence of the leading players. According to a study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal in 2017, more than 100 million adult Americans are living with chronic pain. Chronic low back pain and headaches are the most commonly diagnosed conditions. It is also stated that conditions are more prevalent in women than men i.e. 34.3% in women, and 26.7% in men in the United States.Europe holds the second position in the nerve stimulators market. It is expected that the support provided by the government bodies for research & development, along with a well-developed technology drives the market in European region.Asia Pacific region is projected to be the fastest growing region during the forecast period. Increasing need for cost-effective nerve stimulators, rapidly improving technology, and the presence of huge patient pool drive the growth of this market in Asia Pacific region.The Middle East and Africa holds the least share in the market owing to the presence of poor and slow developing countries, especially, in 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.Contact usMarket Research FutureMaharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@Marketresearchfuture.Com Future of Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market Size 2023 Cisco Systems, Aruba (HPE), Huawei, Ubiquiti, Comcast Business, Aerohive, Mojo Networks https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/876788/?utm_source=opr&utm_campaign=SP https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-managed-wi-fi-solution-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2023/?utm_source=opr-SP https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/managed-wi-fi-solution-market-report-by-company-regions-types-and-applications-global-status-and-forecast-to-2025/?utm_source=rr-SP https://thefinancialconsulting.com/author/chetan/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/category/news-releases/ http://reports.algosonline.com/ Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market report 2023 focuses on the major Types and Applications for the key players. Managed Wi-Fi Solution market research report also provides analysis of the market share, segmentation, revenue forecasts and geographic regions of the market. The Managed Wi-Fi Solution market research report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of Managed Wi-Fi Solution Industry.Managed Wi-Fi Solution market report counts infrastructure product (hardware & software) and service for Managed Wi-Fi Solution. The infrastructure product mainly include Access Points (AP), WLAN Controller, and Management Software. The service mainly focus on networking services and infrastructure services. The networking services segment includes network security, network auditing and testing, network planning and designing, network consulting, and configuration and change management. The infrastructure services segment is categorized as survey and analysis, system integration and upgradation, installation and provisioning, wireless infrastructure maintenance and management, and training and support.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Managed Wi-Fi Solution 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 for a Sample Copy of Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market Report @Market Segment by Top Manufacturers, this Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market report covers Cisco Systems, Aruba (HPE), Ruckus Wireless (Arris), Huawei, Ubiquiti, Comcast Business, Aerohive and Mojo Networks.An inherent sub-vertical of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industry space, Managed Wi-Fi Solution 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 Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market OverviewGlobal Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market Manufacturers ProfilesGlobal Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market Competition, by ManufacturerGlobal Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market Analysis by RegionsGlobal Managed Wi-Fi Solution by CountriesGlobal Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market Segment by TypeGlobal Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market Segment by ApplicationManaged Wi-Fi Solution Market Forecast (2018-2023)Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersResearch Findings and ConclusionMarket Segment by Type, coversProduct and ServiceMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into:IT and Telecommunications, BFSI, Retail, Government and Public Sector, Healthcare, Transportation, Logistics and Hospitality, Manufacturing, Education and OthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Managed Wi-Fi Solution market.Chapter 1, to describe Managed Wi-Fi Solution Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Managed Wi-Fi Solution, with sales, revenue, and price of Managed Wi-Fi Solution, 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 Managed Wi-Fi Solution, 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, Managed Wi-Fi Solution market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Managed Wi-Fi Solution sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor more information on this report, Please visit at:Qualitative Analysis covers:Industry Status and TrendsManufacturer/Company profiles, manufacturing base distribution, sales areas, product introduction, main business, market position and their competitors.Product Development, Technology, Price, Cost, Manufacturing Process and TrendsMarket segment by regions, types, applications and forecastMarket opportunities, potential, government policies and influence factors.Quantitative Analysis covers:Market size (value, sales/output, historical data and forecasts)Sales/output/capacity, revenue, price, gross margin, market share, for top players. Through interviewing each manufacturers, distributors, traders, dealers and buyers etc.Cost structure, proportion, price trend, gross margin and trend, status and trend, for 10 yearsMarket size by types, regions, applications for 10 yearsMarket forecast based on the potential demand from downstream clients/buyers, government, influence factors and the total economic indication, maybe occur in following years.Related Reports: -Managed Wi-Fi Solution Market Report by Company, Regions, Types and Applications, Global Status and Forecast to 2025This report studies the Managed Wi-Fi Solution market status and outlook of global, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global market, and splits the Managed Wi-Fi Solution market by product type and application/end industries.More Report @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: Global Sesame Oil Market Report: Surpass Revenues Worth US$ 9,000 Mn during Forecast Period 2017 2022 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=129 https://www.factmr.com/report/129/sesame-oil-market https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=D&rep_id=129 https://www.factmr.com/ A fresh study, covering Sesame Oil Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Review 2017 to 2022 has been broadcasted to wide online repository of Fact MR, which presents deep focus on the Food & Beverages Market. This smart study contains precise data that offers a clear insight about market current scenario and future projections for the benefit of readers. Moreover, the study enclosed significant data which tends to make the research a powerful source for analysts and industry experts who are looking to gain necessary knowledge about the prevailing market trends, opportunities and drivers present in the Sesame Oil Market.Request For Sample Report-Europe Most Lucrative Region for Sesame Oil MarketIn terms of revenues, Europe will remain the most lucrative region for the sesame oil market. Revenues from sales of sesame oil in Europe will account for over one-fourth share of the market during 2017 to 2022. Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is estimated to be the second largest market for sesame oil by 2022-end.Specialty stores will continue to witness the fastest expansion in sales of sesame oil, based on distribution channels. Modern trade will remain the largest distribution channel for sesame oil over the forecast period, with sales estimated to account for more than one-third share of the market, in terms of revenues, during 2017 to 2022.By end-users, retail segment will continue to be the most lucrative in the global sesame oil market, with sales expected to exhibit the highest CAGR through 2022. Sales of sesame oil in food processor segment will continue to be sluggish throughout the forecast period.Processed sesame oil are estimated to remain preferred among products in the market. Sales of processed sesame oil will account for nearly US$ 7,000 Mn revenues by 2022-end. Revenues from sales of processed sesame oil will account for approximately three-fourth share of the market during the forecast period.Competition TrackingGlobal leaders in the sesame oil market as profiled in Fact.MRs report include The Adani Wilmar Ltd., Archer Daniels Midland Company, Marico Limited, Ruchi Soya Industries Limited, Cargill Inc., ConAgra Foods (Agrotech Foods Ltd), Fuji Oil Holdings Inc., Olympic Oils Limited, American Vegetable Oils, Inc., Adams Group Inc., Borges International Group S.L.U., Bunge Limited, and Associated British Foods plc.Browse Full Report With TOC-Table of ContentGlobal Sesame Oil Market - Executive SummaryGlobal Sesame Oil Market Overview2.1. Introduction2.1.1. Global Sesame Oil Market Taxonomy2.1.2. Global Sesame Oil Market Definition2.2. Global Sesame Oil Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-20222.2.1. Global Sesame Oil Market Y-o-Y Growth2.3. Global Sesame Oil Market Dynamics2.3.1. Drivers2.3.2. Restraints2.3.3. Trends2.4. Supply Chain2.5. Cost Structure2.6. Pricing Analysis2.7. Raw Material Sourcing Strategy and Analysis2.8. List of Distributors2.9. Key Participants Market Presence (Intensity Map) By RegionGlobal Sesame Oil Market Analysis and Forecast By Product Type3.1. Global Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast By Product Type, 2012-20223.1.1. Processed Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20223.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region3.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region3.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region3.1.2. Virgin Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20223.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region3.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region3.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By RegionGlobal Sesame Oil Market Analysis and Forecast By End User4.1. Global Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast By End User, 2012-20224.1.1. Food Service Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.2. Food Processor Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.3. Retail Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.3.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.3.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.3.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By RegionGlobal Sesame Oil Market Analysis and Forecast By Distribution Channel5.1. Global Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast By Distribution Channel, 2012-20225.1.1. Modern Trade Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20225.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region5.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region5.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region5.1.2. Franchise Outlets Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20225.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region5.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region5.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region5.1.3. Specialty Stores Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20225.1.3.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region5.1.3.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region5.1.3.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region5.1.4. Online Sesame Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20225.1.4.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region5.1.4.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region5.1.4.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By RegionRequest For Discount On This Report-About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; thats why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web: Global Consumer Data Storage Devices Market Analysis, Growth Trends, and Opportunities till 2025 Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3948 https://www.mrrse.com/consumer-data-storage-devices-market https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ A latest research report titled as Global Market Study on Consumer Data Storage Devices: Asia Pacific to Lead the Global Market in Terms of Revenue Share 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.Click here For Free Sample Report @Consumer Data Storage Devices are gaining adoption across enterprises, owing to the rapid increase in the amount of data generated by users. Consumer Data Storage Devices help users store data securely and provide accessibility of data to users at any point in time. These devices include Solid State Drives, Hard Disk Drives, Memory Cards, USB Flash Drives and Optical Disks.Global Consumer Data Storage Devices Market: ForecastIn terms of value, the global Consumer Data Storage Devices market is expected to register a CAGR of 3.3% during the forecast period 2017 2025. The Consumer Data Storage Devices market was valued at US$ 14,250.6 Mn in 2016 and is projected to reach US$ 18,796.5 Mn by 2025 end. Rising amount of HD Video Content is a major factor driving the market. The global Consumer Data Storage Devices Market is expected to witness a moderate growth during the forecast period due to the established penetration of storage devices among consumers coupled with the competition from cloud storage fueled by growing penetration of the internet in developing nations. The growth of these devices is also expected to be fueled by the growing proliferation of such devices among multiple users.Factors impacting revenue growth of the global marketGrowth in revenue of the global Consumer Data Storage Devices Market is anticipated to be driven by the following factors:Number of laptop users worldwide is poised to grow as digitization of content increases. Laptop users will be the primary addressable market for SSD & HDD manufacturers.Smartphone users will grow exponentially with the increase of disposable income in developing economies. These users will serve as a primary addressable market for USB Flash Drives and Memory Card manufacturers.Browse Full Report with TOC @Market segmentation and forecastThe Consumer Data Storage Devices market is categorized on the basis of Type, Capacity, and region. On the basis of type, the market is segmented into Hard Disk Drive, Solid State Drive, USB Flash Drives, Memory Cards, and Optical Disks. Solid State Drive is anticipated to register a CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period. In terms of value, the Hard Disk Drive Segment is expected to create an incremental opportunity of US$ 68.1 Mn between 2017 and 2025. The Capacity Segment is divided into Hard Disk Drive with sub segmentsAbout Market Research Reports Search EngineMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At: Product Engineering Services Market: Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Key Players Analysis (IBM Corporation, Capgemini, HCL Technologies Limited, Tata Consultancy Services Limited.) and Forecast By 2024 http://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-product-engineering-services-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-product-engineering-services-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-product-engineering-services-market/ http://databridgemarketresearch.com/speak-to-analyst/?dbmr=global-product-engineering-services-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/geotechnical-instrumentation-monitoring-market/ Worldwide Product Engineering Services Industry 2017 Market Research Report has been broke down in detail to help customers with all the indispensable information to outline strategic business judgments and propose key development designs. The Global Product Engineering Services Market report offers a complete understanding into the improvement strategies and plans notwithstanding producing procedures and cost structures.The Global Product Engineering Services Market accounted for USD 664.3billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 7.95% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic year 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@Market Definition: Global Product Engineering Services MarketThe product engineering is a process of innovating, designing, developing, testing and deploying a software product. This step helps in taking care of the entire product life cycle starting from the phase of idea being conceived to the deployment and user acceptance testing phase. The growing rise in IoT, advancement in technology, need of reducing the production cost among others is driving the market for product engineering services market.Global Product Engineering Services Market, By Geography, Service (Product &Component Design, Process Engineering, Maintenance, Repair, & Operations), Organization Size (SMEs, Large), Vertical (Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Healthcare, IT, Industrial Manufacturing, Energy & Utilities, Telecom)- Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Complete report on Global Product Engineering Services Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresKey Questions Answered in Global Product Engineering Services Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Product Engineering Services Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Product Engineering Services Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Product Engineering Services Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Product Engineering Services Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Product Engineering Services Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Product Engineering Services Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Request for Detailed TOC:Major Market Drivers: Growing Innovations in Technology Growing Consumer Electronic Market Growing Need to Reduce Production Cost Rising Adoption of IoT Solutions Emergence of Smart Technologies Fear of Loss of Control of Intellectual Property RightsTop Key Players: IBM Corporation Capgemini AKKA HCL Technologies Limited AVL ALTEN Group ALTRAN GROUP Tata Consultancy Services Limited. Accenture PLC Aricent Inc. EPAM Systems, Inc. Happiest Minds Wipro Limited Harman Nexient Pactera Tech Mahindra Limited Genpact among others.For more insightful information visit@Customize report of "Global Product Engineering Services Market" as per customers requirement also available.Market Segmentations:Global Product Engineering Services Market is segmented on the basis of Service Type Organization Size Vertical GeographyMarket Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Service Type into product & component design, process engineering, maintenance, repair, operations& others.On the basis of Organization Size, the global product engineering servicesmarket is further segmented into small & medium enterprises, and large enterprises.On the basis of Vertical, the global product engineering services market is further segmented into aerospace & defense, automotive, healthcare, IT, industrial manufacturing, energy & utilities, telecom and others.On the basis of Geography, North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaCompany Share Analysis: Global Product Engineering Services MarketThe report for product engineering services market include detailed vendor level analysis for market shares in 2016 for Global, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South America specifically. Also impact and development analysis of key vendors is registered in the market and factored on the basis of Vendor Positioning Grid Analysis which measures the vendors strengths and opportunities against present market challenges, measure providers ability to identify or satisfy present market needs, map providers market vision to current and upcoming market dynamics among others. The report also measures technology life line curve and market time line to analyze and do more affective investments.Speak to Author of the report @Other ReportGlobal Geotechnical Instrumentation & Monitoring Market Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Geotechnical Instrumentation & Monitoring Market, By Geography; Offering (Hardware, Software, Services); Structure (Tunnels Bridges, Buildings Utilities, Dams); Technology (Wired Networking Technology, Wireless Technology); Application (Pore Water Pressure, Soil Stresses, Lateral Deformation, Vertical Deformation), End-Users (Building, Infrastructure, Energy, Power, Oil, Gas, Mining) 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:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com Global Blood Cell Analyzer Market Analysis, Growth Trends and Forecast during 2017 - 2022 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3929 https://www.mrrse.com/global-blood-cell-analyzer-market https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ New research report offers a comprehensive analysis of the Blood Cell Analyzer Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022The main objective of this report is to deliver insightful information and clear-cut facts pertaining to the growth trajectories of the market.Request to view Sample Report @Global Blood Cell Analyzer Market: SnapshotWorld over, blood cell analyzers have gained prominence for the biochemical analysis of blood components among hospitals, diagnostic centers, pharmaceutical companies in patient care and laboratory settings. They are widely used in detecting common physiological indications for various blood-related disorders and in monitoring the overall health of patients in hospital settings. The rising application of these hematology analyzers in research settings, such as for drug development, is a prominent factor boosting the overall market. The advent of technologically advanced semi-automated and fully-automated cell analyzers with improved precision and accuracy is a key development opening up promising applications of these instruments. The striking precision that automated blood cell counters make differential analysis of the blood components, such as absolute leukocyte count, has boosted their application in patient settings.The global blood cell analyzer market is estimated be worth US$1,364.2 Mn by 2017 end and is forecast to reach a valuation of US$1,844.9 Mn by 2022 end. The market is estimated to register a CAGR of 6.2% during the assessment period of 20172022.Substantial Demand for Automation in Blood Cell Analyzers to Account for Dominance of Fully Automated BiochemistryThe two main product types of blood cell analyzers are semi-automated biochemistry analyzers and fully automated biochemistry analyzers. Of the two, semi-automated biochemistry segment holds the leading share currently and is expected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast timeline. The fully automated biochemistry analyzer market is expected to be worth US$1,071.1 by 2017 end, representing the major share of 78.5%. The segment is forecast to reach US$1,476.2 Mn by 2022, accounting for the leading share of 80.0% in the market. The segment is projected to rise at a CAGR of 6.6%, growing at US$81 Mn annually over the assessment period. This represents the leading growth in absolute terms. The growth of this segment is expected to be fueled by the burgeoning demand for error-free automated analyzers for rapid biochemical analysis of blood in various parts of the world.Browse Full Report with TOC @North America Predicted to be Most Attractive Regional MarketThe various regional markets for blood cell analyzers are North America, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, Europe, and Latin America. Of these, currently North America is the leading market and is anticipated to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The North America blood cell analyzer market is projected to rise from a valuation of US$516.9 Mn in 2017 to reach a worth of US$717.5 Mn by the end of 2022. The regional market is projected to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 6.8% during 20172022. The vast adoption of automation in hematology in various clinical settings and substantial advancements in physical technologies used for blood cell counters are key factors expected to accentuate the market over the forecast period.Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) to rise at Prominent PaceAsia Pacific is one of the most attractive markets for blood cell analyzers witnessing a burgeoning demand for clinical diagnostics market and drug development in several of its emerging and developed economies. The demand is driven by the rising incidence of chronic diseases, constant advancements in diagnostics instruments, and growing awareness of populations of blood related disorders. Rising at a CAGR of 6.7% from 2017 to 2022, the regional market is forecast to reach US$295.5 Mn by 2022 end.Competitive AnalysisA number of players are focusing on developing new technologies and are launching advanced automated blood cell analyzers in order to stay ahead of the others. Prominent players operating in the market include Sysmex Corporation, Abbott Laboratories, Danaher Corporation, Siemens Healthcare, Horiba Ltd, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Sigma Aldrich, and Boule Diagnostics AB.About (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At: Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome Market to Develop Rapidly by 2020 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=2971 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/neonatal-respiratory-distress-syndrome.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, also referred to as infant respiratory distress syndrome is characterized by a particular condition often observed in premature babies, usually born about six weeks before their due dates. During this condition, lungs of the premature infants lose the ability to produce enough surfactants in order to provide oxygen to the body. Surfactants are liquids made up of fat and proteins and it helps the lungs to remain inflated so that infants can breathe in and out immediately after their birth. Hence, the prime cause for the prevalence of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome is the lack of surfactant in the lungs.symptoms associated with neonatal respiratory distress syndrome are Grunting respiration, Flaring nostrils, Cyanosis, Blue-colored lips, fingers and toes, Sharp pulling in the chest, Rapid breathing.Request to View Brochure of Report -Based on geography, the Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome Market can be segmented into four major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World. Out of these regions, North America dominates the neonatal respiratory distress market followed by Europe. The prime reasons which have driven the growth of this market in these regions are high prevalence of respiratory disorders in infants and increasing genetic problems with lung development. According to a survey, neonatal respiratory distress syndrome is estimated to affect around 20,000-30,000 infants each year in the United States.Asia Pacific is the most promising market for the growth of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome market as there are many developing regions that are growing at a steady pace. The major factors which will propel the growth of this market in Asia Pacific are high birth rate, increasing awareness related to the complications of respiratory distress syndrome in infants and increasing pregnancy-induced hypertension due to malnutrition. Moreover, increasing incidences of premature labor and high-risk pregnancy in mothers would drive the Asian market towards future growth.Many pharmaceutical companies and clinical trial institutes are constantly trying to come up with novel therapeutic development for the treatment of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. Some of the leading players operating in the neonatal respiratory distress market are Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA, Discovery Laboratories, Inc., Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Auckland City Hospital, Menzies Research Institute and many others.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: Story Highlights U.S. sympathies for Israel in Mideast conflict, at 64%, match long-term high 74% view Israel favorably, vs. 21% for Palestinian Authority WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As the Trump administration prepares to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and is reportedly finalizing its broader Middle East peace plan, Americans' stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is as strongly pro-Israel as at any time in Gallup's three-decade trend. Sixty-four percent say their sympathies in the dispute lie more with the Israelis, tying the high previously recorded in 2013 and 1991. Just 19% of Americans today sympathize more with the Palestinians than with the Israelis, slightly higher than the 15% in Gallup's initial 1988 measurement and ranking among the highest percentages favoring the Arab side of the conflict in Gallup's trend. Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who sympathize with neither side, with both sides or who have no opinion about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is now 16%, the lowest to date. This neutral category has been shrinking as more Americans take positions on the dispute. Republicans' Support for Israel Climbs Higher Republicans account for much of the overall increase in sympathies for Israel since 2001, although both Democrats and political independents are also slightly more sympathetic toward the country. The percentage of Republicans sympathizing with Israel increased from 59% in February 2001 to 77% in the runup to the Iraq War, and has since crept past 80% on multiple occasions, reaching a new high of 87% this year. At 49%, Democrats' preference for Israel is up from 42% in 2001, although similar to the average since then. Independents favoring Israel increased from 51% in 2001 to 58% in 2008 and has since held at about that level, registering 59% today. Republicans have consistently shown greater support than Democrats for Israel, partly because of conservative Christians' beliefs about the biblical significance of Israel. Another key factor in the especially wide gap since 2002 is likely Israel's strong backing of the United States at the start of the Iraq War in 2003 and the strong support that Republican President George W. Bush showed for the Jewish state. Americans Would Lean More on the Palestinians to Make Peace Americans are about twice as likely to say the U.S. should put more pressure on the Palestinians (50%) than on the Israelis (27%) to resolve the conflict between the two peoples, similar to views in 2013. However, this differs from 2007 and 2008, when Americans were more divided on which side should receive more pressure, and at least 11% volunteered that the U.S. should be putting more pressure on both sides. U.S. leverage in the Middle East has historically come from its military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, as well as its strong leadership role globally. How much leverage the U.S. still has is an open question, given Palestinian leaders' loss of faith in the United States' ability to be an honest peace broker with Israel since the Jerusalem decision, and a recent slide of the United States' international reputation. Favorable Views of Israel at 17-Year High Israel and the Palestinian Authority have nearly reverse images in the U.S., further underscoring Americans' partiality for Israel in the Mideast conflict. Currently, 74% of U.S. adults view Israel favorably and 23% view it unfavorably, whereas 21% view the Palestinian Authority favorably and 71% unfavorably. Israel's current favorable score is the highest for that country since 1991, when its favorable rating spiked to 79% shortly after Iraqi Scud missiles struck Israel during the Gulf War. Although the Palestinian Authority's image is significantly worse than Israel's, this is the second consecutive year its favorable rating has been above 20%, after six years of readings below that level. Again, party differences in these attitudes are notable, with Republicans more positive than Democrats about Israel and Democrats more positive than Republicans about the Palestinian Authority. 83% of Republicans, 72% of independents and 64% of Democrats view Israel favorably. 27% of Democrats, 21% of independents and 12% of Republicans view the Palestinian government favorably. Beyond party and consistent with Gallup previous findings by age, Israel also receives higher favorable ratings from adults 55 and older (80% favorable) than from those 35 to 54 (72%) or 18 to 34 (65%). Conversely, the Palestinian Authority receives somewhat better ratings from adults 18 to 34 (31% favorable) than from those 35 to 54 (15%) or 55 and older (18%). ##SPEEDBUMP## Bottom Line The broad contours of Americans' perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remain about the same under President Donald Trump as they've been in recent years. Most Americans view Israel favorably and the Palestinian Authority unfavorably, resulting in a strong tendency for Americans to sympathize with Israel in the territorial conflict and to call for greater diplomatic pressure to be placed on the Palestinians. These pro-Israel sentiments are particularly strong among Republicans and have been growing in recent years. Thus, to satisfy his political base, Trump's options would seem limited to those that put minimal pressure on Israel over such thorny issues as the status of Jerusalem and the maintenance of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. However, given Trump's past efforts at diplomacy, anything is possible. The current data at least serve as a baseline for evaluating any changes to Israel's and the Palestinians' U.S. images after they respond to whatever Trump and his team propose. Changing Lifestyle and Increasing Awareness of Beauty Care is Driving the Global Fragrance and Perfume Market https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Request-Sample/105637 https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Fragrance-and-Perfume-Market Perfumes and fragrances are a blend of basic oils and smell mixes alongside water as well as liquor and are utilized to improve personal stench. The scents business has encountered significant item insurgencies throughout the most recent couple of years. The utilization of inexhaustible and common fixings is accepting great footing. Aside from customary fragrance pressing strategies, scents are currently accessible as rollerballs and travel splashes, which is expected to help the worldwide aromas showcase advancement over the gauge time frame.Fragrance and Perfume market can be bifurcated based on use, as female, male and unisex. Based on the type the market is divided into aromas, antiperspirants, and others. Appropriation channel has been sectioned into multi-retail locations, claim to fame retail locations, on the web and others.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @The global fragrance and perfume market geographically, is fragmented into five major regions; North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. The fragrance and perfume market market size and forecast period for each region has been estimated from 2017 to 2023.he CAGR (%) for the forecasted period is from 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 application and regions supports in evaluating the present scenario, growth prospects and the future scenario for the fragrance and perfume market over the forecast period. The report further aims to provide an overview of global market with detailed market segmentation. It also covers market dynamics affecting the market during the forecast period. Furthermore, the report analyzes the competitive scenario, geographic trends, and opportunities in the markets with respect to all geographic regions. It also includes the detailed company profiles of the key players in the market along with their market strategies.Browse Report Detail @The major companies that are involved in Fragrance and Perfume are Konux Inc., Firmenich, Sensirion AG, Symrise, LVMH, Givaudan, International Flavors & Fragrances, Estee Lauder Beautiful, Loreal., Coty UK, Kilian and Procter & Gamble Prestige Beaute.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 Glucose Biosensors Market to Perceive Substantial Growth During 2024 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=3235 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=3235 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/glucose-biosensors-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Glucose biosensors are extensively being used for measuring concentration of glucose in diabetic patients. Proteins including nucleic acids, enzymes, and others are some of the popularly used biosensors to understand the glucose levels in a patient. The global Glucose Biosensors Market is experiencing a growth spurt due to increasing number of diabetic patients across the globe. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that about 347 million people are diagnosed with high blood sugar levels across the globe. In light of this statistic, the organization also states that diabetes is expected to be the leading cause of death by the end of 2030. Needless to say that the increasing prevalence of diabetes in the world is likely to be the primary growth driver for the global glucose biosensors market in the near future.The research report by Transparency Market Research presents a detailed explanation about the global glucose biosensors market. It explains the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats impacting the segments of the global market with the help of a SWOT analysis. Additionally, the report also includes unbiased opinions of market leaders to help readers gain a fresh perspective toward the changing market dynamics.Request to View Brochure of Report -Global Glucose Biosensors Market: Key TrendsThe growing need and an urgency amongst diabetics for better disease management is expected augment the demand for glucose biosensors. The two types of glucose biosensors available in the global market are amprometric glucose biosensors and fluorescence glucose biosensors. Of these, the demand for the former is expected to show steady demand in the global market due to its wide availability. Amprometric glucose biosensors oxidize glucose which leads to production of hydrogen peroxide. This is then identified by electrode, which aids the understanding of glucose concentration in the bloodstream.However, tremendous innovation in the fluorescence technique is expected to bolster the growth of the fluorescent glucose biosensors segment as well. The demand for these biosensors is expected to show a gradual rise as they are known to measure the glucose concentration with utmost accuracy. Furthermore, the life of probe of fluorescence biosensors is higher than amprometric biosensor, which is expected to play an instrumental role in the helping this supporting this segment.Request to View ToC of Report -Global Glucose Biosensors Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global glucose biosensors market is segmented into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. Of these, North America is estimated to lead the global glucose biosensors market. The better and quicker adoption of technology in the region along with advantage of innovation are expected to keep North America at forefront of the global market. Analysts expect that North America glucose biosensors market will also be supported to growing prevalence of diabetes in the region.Europe is also estimated to be a key contributor in the global market due to an ever-growing pool of geriatrics. The European Commission stated that 17.8% of the European population was over the age of 65 years in 2012. The uptake of glucose biosensors is expected to remain high across Europe as the region experience rise in the number of geriatrics. Asia Pacific too is estimated to present lucrative opportunities to the global market.Key Players Mentioned in this Report are:Some of the leading companies operating in the glucose biosensors market are Abbott Point Of Care, Inc., Lifesensors, Inc., Animas Corporation, Medtronic Diabetes, AgaMatrix, Inc., Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Inc., Nova Biomedical Corp., LifeScan, Inc., M-Biotech Limited, and F. Hoffman-La Roche among others.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: Dental Endodontics Market: Backed by Sophisticated Healthcare Infrastructure, Developed Regions Emerge at fore https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=38438 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=38438 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/dental-endodontics-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The competitive landscape in the global dental endodontic market exhibit partial consolidation with top two companies held nearly 50% of the instrument segment. Contrary to this, the consumable segment is highly fragmented due to the presence of a large number of global and regional players, finds Transparency Market Research (TMR) in a new study. The study also profiles companies such as Dentsply Sirona, Danaher Corporation, Ivoclar Vivadent, Ultradent Products Inc, Septodont Holding, FKG Dentaire S.A., Peter Brasseler Holdings, L.P., Mani, Inc, Coltene Holding AG, and Henry Schein, Inc. to present insights into various strategies adopted by the market players in order to gain edge over their contemporaries.Request for Sample Copy of Report @TMR pegged the global dental endodontic market at US$1.1 bn in 2016. Rising at a CAGR of 5.2% between 2017 and 2025, the global market is likely to reach US$1.7 bn by the end of 2025. Regionally, Europe led the global endodontic market in 2016 and is likely to remain dominant through the course of the forecast period. The region boasts a sophisticated healthcare infrastructure which gives soil for growth to the dental endodontic market in Europe. Besides this, the rising aging population, favorable reimbursement facilities, high purchasing power of consumers, and changing lifestyle will create an environment conducive to the growth of the endodontic market in Europe.Based on product type, the market was dominated by the consumables segment, which held a share of nearly 70% in 2016. The segments dominance is attributable to the rising use of fresh consumable during endodontic treatments.Enquiry for discount on this report @The global endodontic market is likely to witness robust opportunities for growth in the coming years. The rising prevalence of dental health disorders, increasing incidence of oral infections, and the growing geriatric population are among the chief drivers of the market. Because elderly population is more vulnerable to dental diseases, a rise in their number will directly fuel the demand from the global dental endodontic market. Tooth enamel wears out with age, making teeth more prone to decays, plaques, and damage.A recent study by the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that the number of people aged 60 years or over will more than double itself by 2050. Also reports suggest that a majority of older population will be from developing and under-developed nations. While the statistics indicate significant growth prospects, the market will also benefit from the rising healthcare expenditures witnessed worldwide. Other than this, the market will significantly benefit from the advent of technological advancements such as the use of CAM/CDM technologies and image mapping techniques.Report Overview @On the downside, growth witnessed in the global dental endodontic market can be slowed by the high costs associated with dental procedures. Also lack of proper reimbursement facilities may limit the market to an extent. Nonetheless, the market will exhibit a positive trajectory as endodontic treatments remain the most preferred treatment for dental abscess. Furthermore, the rising population and the existence of unmet medical needs in underdeveloped nation will offer market considerable opportunities to capitalize on in the coming years. Also the rising dental-care related expectation spurred by the improving economic conditions and the rising disposable income of consumers will enable the market exhibit strong growth in the coming years.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 Guidewires Market Analysis, Growth Trends, and Opportunities till 2025 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3922 https://www.mrrse.com/guidewires-market https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ New research report offers a comprehensive analysis of the Guidewires Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025The main objective of this report is to deliver insightful information and clear-cut facts pertaining to the growth trajectories of the market.Request For Sample Report @Global Guidewires Market: OverviewThis report studies the current as well as future prospects of the global guidewires market. Stakeholders of this report include companies and intermediaries engaged in the manufacture and commercialization of various guidewires, as well as new entrants planning to enter this market.This research study analyzes the global market for guidewires in terms of revenue (US$ Mn). For the research, 2016 has been considered as the base year and 2015 as the historical year, while all forecasts have been provided from 2017 to 2025. The global guidewires market has been studied on the basis of, product type, end-users, and their regional as well as national markets in terms of revenue (US$ Mn). The global guidewires market report comprises an elaborate executive summary that provides overall information about various segments of the market. The report provides a detailed competitive landscape, by major players operating in this market along with their shares (value %) of the global guidewires market for 2016. The report also provides detail company profiles of emerging market players operating in the global guidewires market.The market overview section comprises impact factors such as key market dynamics including drivers, restraints, and opportunities, affecting the demand for guidewires in the global market. These factors would aid the stakeholders in establishing a strong foothold in the global guidewires market. Furthermore, the market overview section comprises key industry events, product overview, and market attractiveness analysis in the guidewires market. The market attractiveness analysis provides a graphical view comparing the growth and market dynamics in various segments and countries to identify the most attractive market.Browse Full Report with TOC @Global Guidewires Market: SegmentationThe global guidewires market has been segmented as by product type, by end-user and by geography. The global guidewires market by product type has been segmented into coronary guidewires, peripheral guidewires, neurovascular guidewires, urology guidewires, radiology guidewires, gastroenterology guidewires, and other guidewires (otolaryngology &oncology). The end-user segment is categorized into hospitals, clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, and diagnostic centers.Geographically, the global guidewires market has been categorized into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Moreover, analysis for the major countries comprising U.S. Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Italy, Spain, Russia, China, Japan, India, Australia & New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Israel, and GCC countries have also been provided in the report. A detailed qualitative analysis of the factors responsible for driving and restraining the growth of the guidewires market in various regions has been provided in this section.Global Guidewires Market: Competitive AnalysisThe report provides a detailed outline/blueprint of the guidewires market globally that will assist new companies in establishing their presence and market players in expanding their market share in the market. The report concludes with the company profile section which includes company overview, financial overview, SWOT analysis, product portfolio, business strategies and recent developments for market players. Major players having presence in the global guidewires market includes Abbott, Terumo Medical Corporation, Integer Holdings Corporation, ASAHI INTECC CO., LTD., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Olympus Corporation, Stryker, Cardinal Health, Inc., CONMED Corporation, Cook, Merit Medical Systems, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, and Medtronic. The emerging players in the global guidewires market includes Entellus Medical, Inc., EPflex Feinwerktechnik GmbH, and SP Medical A/S, among others.About (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At: Consumer Network Attached Storage Nas Market is Estimated to Represent US$ 4 Bn by 2024 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/consumer-network-attached-storage-nas-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/6460 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/consumer-network-attached-storage-nas-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com The ineffectiveness of traditional storage solutions has paved way for adoption of advanced storage options, particularly to record crucial consumer-centric data. Handling greater volumes of data transference has also necessitated the need for enclosing such data storage systems within a network. As opposed to single computer storage, individuals, as well as entrepreneurs, are growing more inclined towards setting network attached storage (NAS) servers.Remote access to such servers becomes more convenient for consumers, especially when improving operational efficiency and minimizing storage costs is a must. Persistence Market Researchs recent study explores the opportunities for adoption of such consumer-based NAS systems, predicting that by the end of 2024, the global market for consumer network attached storage will be valued at US$ 4,088.7 Mn.Report overview @Apropos the report, titled Consumer Network Attached Storage (NAS) Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2016-2024, the global consumer NAS market is presently valued a little over US$ 1,545 Mn, and will exhibit a healthy 11.6% CAGR during the forecast period.Factors such as rising demand for speedy transference of bulk data, growing need for efficient data backup plans, and increasing implementation of cost-effective storage options have been identified as the key drivers for the global consumer network attached storage market. Nevertheless, a steadfast adoption of consumer NAS systems across the globe is facing challenges such as competitive advantage of cloud-based storage services, and complex nature of expensive consumer network attached storage systems.Request to Sample of Report @Higher Demand for Consumer NAS in Middle East & AfricaEven though a majority of global consumer NAS revenues emanate from North America, the Middle East & Africa region is being perceived as highly lucrative. Adoption of consumer network attached storage systems is expected to be rapid in this region. The MEA consumer NAS market is also being projected to exhibit the highest value CAGR 14.2%. With North America at the forefront, the global consumer network attached storage market will also witness substantial growth across Europe and Latin America. Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific consumer network attached storage market will expand at 10.6% CAGR through 2024.Rising Adoption of Standalone Consumer NAS Solutions among SMEsBased on the report findings, the global market for consumer network attached storage will be showcasing a greater contribution from small & medium enterprises (SMEs). In 2017 and beyond, SMEs will remain as the largest end-users of consumer network attached storage systems in the world. The demand for consumer NAS is also expected to remain substantial among residential end-uses, revenues from which are likely to reach US$ 1,315.2 Mn by 2024-end.Likewise, these end-users are actively adopting standalone consumer network attached storage system, as opposed to rackmount. The design of consumer NAS will continue to play a pivotal role in growth of the global market. By the end of 2024, more than US$ 2,700 Mn worth of standalone consumer NAS systems will be sold in the world. And, leading tech companies that will be catering to such surging global demands include, D-Link Corporation, NEC Corporation, Seagate Technology PLC, Netgear Inc., Western Digital Corporation, Synology Inc., EMC Corporation, ASUSTOR Inc., QNAP Systems, Inc., and Drobo Inc.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @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: Asia Pacific Latin America And Emea System Integration Market will Register a CAGR of 6.3% CAGR by 2024 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/asia-pacific-latin-america-and-emea-system-integration-in-telecommunication-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/14008 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/asia-pacific-latin-america-and-emea-system-integration-in-telecommunication-market/toc https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/14008 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Owing to rising urban population, growing strength of telecom networks, brimming data transference, and deployment of advanced technologies, the demand for system integration in telecommunication continues to surge in regions namely, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. A latest study published by Persistence Market Research has estimated that the market for system integration in telecommunications across these regions is presently valued at US$ 22.5 Bn. By the end of 2024, these regions will collectively showcase revenue growth at an impressive 6.3% CAGR and witness the market for system integration in telecommunication reach US$ 36.9 Bn in value.Emea System Integration Market Research Report overview @The demand for system integration in telecommunication across APAC countries is projected to witness revenue growth at 7.1% CAGR. A majority of system integration solutions adopted across APAC telecommunications industry will be directed towards OSS, revenues from which will reach US$ 10.6 Bn by the end of 2024. China will contribute with more than one-third of overall revenues, while India, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and ASEAN countries will showcase rampant revenue growth. Vodafone Hutchinson Telecommunications, Telstra Corporation Ltd., SingTel Optus Pty Limited, NTT-Docomo Corporation, Ideal Cellular Ltd., Reliance Communications, and Softbank Corporation are some of the prominent IT service provider in the APAC telecommunications industry.Request to Sample of Report @On an average, 40% of revenues procured in Latin Americas system integration in telecommunication market will be emanating from Brazil. The demand for integrating OSS and BSS will also gain traction in Mexico and Argentina. Although, the overall system integration in telecom market in Latin America is being projected to expand at a moderate CAGR of 4.4%. High implementation costs of system integration solutions are imposing a relatively less adoption in Latin America, as opposed to the APAC region, Europe or Middle East & Africa. Leading IT service providers mapping Latin Americas telecom industry are identified as Telefonica Brasil, TIM Brasil, Telecom Argentina SA, Nextel, Telcel, Claro Brasil, and Telefonica SA.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @High Integration of OSS/BSS Systems in Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA)The EMEA system integration in telecommunication market is presently valued US$ 10.5 Bn. In the Middle East and Africa, South Africa is projected to exhibit high value CAGR of 7%, while the European system integration in telecommunication market will see consolidated growth from the EU5 Spain, Germany, Italy, France and the UK. These five countries will also dominate the overall EMEA region, accounting for over 40% value share by the end of 2024.The MTN Group, Saudi Telecom Company, Vodacom, and Airtel Africa are leading telecom service providers across the Middle East and Africa. The telecom industry of Nordic countries and Russia is mapped by IT service providers namely, Telenor ASA, VimpelCom Ltd., and Mobile TeleSystems. Meanwhile, companies such Deutsche Telekom, Orange SA, BT Group plc., Telefonica SA and Vodafone Group plc. are charting the waters of telecommunication services in EU5 countries.Get Full Report now @The report has also profiled leading providers of system integration solution in telecom across Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East & Africa. These include, Oracle Corp., Redknee Inc., Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Sigma System Canada, NetCracker Technology Corporation, Openet Telecom, Ericsson, Comptel Corp., and Amdocs Inc. lAbout 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: Wireless Fire Detection Systems 2018 (Ceasefire Industries Pvt. Ltd, Electro Detectors Ltd, Ems Wireless Fire & Security Ltd, Eurofyre Ltd) segments and regional markets 2025 Wireless Fire Detection Systems https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1443101 https://www.researchmoz.us/wireless-fire-detection-systems-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html#table-of-content www.researchmoz.us Press Release - 13 Mar 2018Global Research and Development News --. .Report Description-' ' The current wireless fire detection industry is oriented towards mixed wireless and wired systems. It is a common way of upgrading or extending installations or installing new systems without impacting the hard wiring running throughout the building. Star network is the common wireless fire system which involves multiple wireless devices in direct communication with either a repeater or a central wireless gateway.. . Get Sample Report' ' Increasing emphasis on design and aesthetics and the ease involved in these systems is anticipated to drive the industry over the forecast period. Improvements in existing government mandates and regulations regarding fire protection systems is the major factor supporting the industry. However, lack of acceptance in the industry owing to low reliability perception and high maintenance cost is expected to act as a restraining factor for the wireless fire detection systems industry. The declining prices of IR systems is expected to drive the wireless fire detection systems market demand over the forecast timeline. Increasing local and regional suppliers has led the industry to be competitive thereby drastic decline in prices of the sensors used in these systems. These industry players are supplying IR sensors with high customization levels which is comparatively cheaper as compared to global suppliers. Improvement in miniaturization and costs has increased the adoption of IR sensors in fire detection systems market which are highly sensitive to the radiations. These sensors are used to detect the inflammable gases both outdoors and indoors of the plants and facilities enabling the fire-fighters to carry their fire rescue operations efficiently. Increasing adoption of wireless systems in safety systems is also expected to fuel the market growth as the wireless communication eases the communication between field devices and control stations, allowing remote access. These field devices are often placed in hostile environment such as subsea in oil & gas industry. These communication systems have reduced the cabling costs and other overhead expenses. These detection systems with wireless connections can be used to directly transmit vital statistics for giving command for any critical issue by the top management. Emergence of government compliant wireless fire detection systems has increased the adoption of wireless instrumentation needs for critical safety applications. Several technologies for detecting and sensing fire presence are available in the industry including heat detectors, smoke detectors, multi sensor detectors and gas detectors. Integration of sensor and detector technologies within a single detector is the latest trend in the industry which results in lowered costs and greater efficiency. The robust growth in utilities, infrastructure, and facilities is increasing the need for adoption of advanced detectors and sensors globally. The global wireless fire detection systems market can be segmented by product into sensors, call points, input/output modules and call points. By type, the industry can be classified into fully wireless and hybrid systems. New and existing installations segments the industry by installation type. By application, the industry can be segmented into commercial, residential, manufacturing, and government. North America is expected to dominate the wireless fire detection systems market over the forecast timeline. Europe is expected to grow with the highest CAGR from 2017 to 2025. This industry growth is catered by presence of numerous wireless fire detection system manufacturers in this region. Moreover, stringent government mandates for installation of smoke alarms and smoke detectors in homes from European countries such as France, UK, and Germany is anticipated to support the wireless fire detection industry growth. The prominent industry participants of wireless fire detection systems market are Detectomat Gmbh, Ceasefire Industries Pvt. Ltd, Electro Detectors Ltd, Ems Wireless Fire & Security Ltd, Eurofyre Ltd, Hochiki Corporation, Halma Plc, Johnson Controls, Honeywell International Inc, Napco Security Technologies Inc, Siemens AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, Tyco International Plc, Sterling Safety Systems, United Technologies and Zeta Alarm Systems. 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:1. Market segments and sub-segments2. Market trends and dynamics3. Supply and demand4. Market size5. Current trends/opportunities/challenges6. Competitive landscape7. Technological breakthroughs8. Value chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:1. North America (U.S. and Canada)2. Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)3. Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)4. Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)5. Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)6. Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:1. A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent market2. Important changes in market dynamics3. Market segmentation up to the second or third level4. Historical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volume5. Reporting and evaluation of recent industry developments6. Market shares and strategies of key players7. Emerging niche segments and regional markets8. An objective assessment of the trajectory of the market9. Recommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market. . More Clear Details get Table of Contents..ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074 Volume Sales of Combine Harvesters will Remain Largest in APEJ, According to Latest Studies https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=516 https://www.factmr.com/report/516/combine-harvesters-market https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=D&rep_id=516 https://www.factmr.com/ The global combine harvesters market is forecast to register a volume CAGR of 2.6% between the period 2017 and 2026, according to a recent research study of Fact.MR. The report estimates global sales of combine harvester to surpass US$ 18,500 Mn by 2026-end.Advent of Intelligent Combine Harvesters to Influence the Market ExpansionWith declining costs of agricultural produce becoming a prevailing trend, emphasis is being placed on improving land and labor productivity, in order to enhance profitability. Agricultural machinery manufacturers are therefore focusing on harvest volumes that have direct impact on the income of nations. These manufacturers are carrying of research and development activities associated with technologies that would provide real-time intelligence on harvest flow rates along with information about visualization losses during harvesting process.Request for Sample Report This has further given birth to intelligent combine harvesters, which can monitor yield loss and grain flow rate in real-time. Intelligent combine harvester enable farmers in root cause analysis and prevention of yield loss without affecting efficiency and productivity. On account of such benefits, intelligent combine harvesters might witness high demand among farmers in the near future, particularly in developed countries.Integration of Telematics with Agriculture Mechanization A Major TrendOne of the major trends gaining traction in the combine harvesters market worldwide is growing integration of telematics with agriculture mechanization. Adoption of telematics ensures tracking loopholes in the performance of combine harvesters, provided with an onboard GPS system that provides information about engine status, location and speed of the harvester. Additionally, telematics enables reviewing information on previous operational hours, and furnishing that specific information on the time and manner of the harvesters operation.Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) will continue to spearhead the global combine harvesters market, in terms of volume, mainly driven by robust foreign direct investments (FDI) into its developing nations such as China and India. FDI has further spurred the agricultural activities in these countries, thereby creating the need for efficient agricultural machinery such as combine harvesters. However, cost of new combine harvesters being substantial, farmers in APEJ are buying used machinery at relatively lower prices, impacting revenue generation of the market in the region.In terms of value, 300-450 HP combine harvesters are expected to remain dominant in the market, based on power type. Revenues from sales of this power type segment will exceed US$ 4,900 Mn by 2026-end. Revenues from below 150 HP and 150-300 HP combine harvesters are also expected to remain significant, collectively estimated to account for roughly half share of the market by 2026-end. Sales of above 550 HP combine harvester are forecast to record the fastest expansion through 2026. In addition, sales of 450-550 HP and 150-300 HP combine harvesters will register a parallel rise through 2026.Browse Full Report with TOC Hydraulic Combine Harvesters to Remain Leading Mechanism Type SegmentIn terms of value, hydraulic combine harvesters will remain the leading mechanism type segment in the market, with sales projected to hold more than half revenue share of the market during the forecast period. However, sales of hybrid combine harvester are set to record a comparatively faster expansion than that of hydraulic combine harvesters through 2026.Based on grain tank size, more than 350 BU combine harvesters are projected to reflect the fastest value sales growth through 2026, trailed by less than 250 BU combine harvesters. However, revenues from 250-350 BU combine harvesters will continue to be relatively larger than all the other grain tank size segments in the market.Key market participants identified by Fact.MRs report include MASSEY FERGUSO, JCB, Yanmar America Corporation, KIOTI Tractor (subsidiary of Daedong Industrial Company, Ltd.), Case IH, Bobcat (a Doosan company), Escorts Limited, Mahindra and Mahindra, New Holland, Claas KGaA GmbH, AGCO Corporation, Kubota Corporation, Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited, Deere & Company, and Caterpillar.Check Discount on this Report About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb: Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency Therapeutics and Diagnostics Market: Rising Prevalence of Diabetes to Drive Growth https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=2748 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=2748 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/exocrine-pancreatic-insufficiency.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The presence of a handful of companies in the global market for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) therapeutics and diagnostics has rendered the vendor landscape largely consolidated and mildly competitive, observes Transparency Market Research in a new report. Companies contributing to the global EPI therapeutics and diagnostics market are mostly concentrated in Europe and North America.Request for Sample Copy of Report @Some of the leading companies in the market are Nordmark Arzneimittel GmbH & Co. KG, AbbVie, Inc., Cilian AG, Digestive Care, Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Allergan plc, and AzurRx BioPharma, Inc.According to the report, the global market for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) therapeutics and diagnostics was valued at US$3,397.5 mn in 2016 and is estimated to reach US$6,414.4 mn by 2025, registering a CAGR of 7.2% from 2017 to 2025.Of the key diagnostics tests used for diagnosing EPI, including computerized tomography (CT) scanning, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), endoscopic ultra-sonography (EUS), and blood tests, the segment of CT scanning presently accounts for the dominant share in terms of revenue contribution to the global market. The segment is likely to remain the most in-demand modality for EPI diagnosis in the years to come, albeit lose some grounds owing to the easy availability of other more sensitive techniques such as MRI.Enquiry for discount on this report @Geographically, the North America market accounts for a significant share in the overall market owing to the large patient pool and a rising prevalence of cystic fibrosis and diabetes. The region is likely to remain the top contributor to the global market in terms of diagnostics technologies, new drugs, and revenue.One of the key factors contributing to the positive growth prospects of the global EPI therapeutics and diagnostics market presently is the astronomical rise in the number of people suffering from diabetes. Diabetes is known to be the key factor leading to an increased tendency of patients contracting cystic fibrosis and chronic pancreatitis, the two key factors that lead to EPI. According to the American Diabetes Association, the world will have nearly 366 mn diabetics by 2030.Furthermore, studies show that nearly 90% of the people with cystic fibrosis end up having EPI. A high number of people suffering from chronic pancreatitis also develop EPI. According the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, nearly 30,000 people in the U.S. alone and around 70,000 across the globe have cystic fibrosis. Nearly 1,000 new cases of the condition are diagnosed each year in the U.S. Owing to the alarming increase in the prevalence of cystic fibrosis, the risk of EPI also increases substantially.Report Overview @The stringent approval and sales regulations pertaining to drugs and therapeutics across regions such as North America and Europe could severely affect the overall growth prospects of the global EPI therapeutics and diagnostics market to a certain extent. These regulations stifle the market by making it difficult for several players to penetrate into the market. Nevertheless, the vast set of growth opportunities offered by the rising pool of diabetics across emerging economies. Countries especially from Asia Pacific have a great scope of adoption of a variety of EPI therapeutics and diagnostic products owing to the rising expenditure on healthcare, high-paced development of the healthcare infrastructure, and the rising patient pool of EPI.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: Unfractionated Heparin Market: Rising Patient Pool of Deep Vein Thrombosis to Spell Growth for Market https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=32198 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=32198 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/unfractionated-heparin-drug-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Unfractionated heparin is a naturally occurring anticoagulant that is primarily in dialysis and heart lung machines to prevent blood clots as well as for the treatment of blood clotting disorders such as deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism. Unfractionated heparin is also highly popular owing to its immediate onset of action, simple laboratory monitoring, short half-life, ability to get reversed (protamine), and low cost.Request for Sample Copy of Report @In the past few years, the vast rise in usage of unfractionated heparin for the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and pulmonary embolism (PE) along with the massive rise in the number of surgical procedures that take unfractionated heparin as the preferred anticoagulant have spelled growth for the global unfractionated heparin market. Although unfractionated heparin is one of the most primitive forms of heparin, the narrow therapeutic window and risks associated with bleeding act as the major restraints to its uptake, thus stifling the growth prospects of the market to a certain extent. Patent expiration of majority of unfractionated heparin products has created a huge opportunity for generic and biosimilar manufacturers.The global unfractionated heparin market was valued at US$ 955.9 mn in 2016 and is expected to rise to an estimated value of US$1664.4 mn in 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 6.4 % from 2017 to 2025.Global unfractionated heparin market has been studied on the basis of two key sources, namely bovine and porcine. The porcine-based unfractionated heparin segment accounted for the dominant share in the overall market in 2016. Bovine-based unfractionated heparin was banned in the U.S. and Europe region post 1990s due to the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) disease in cattle. However, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), U.S., has recently proposed the re-introduction of bovine-based heparin due to shortage of porcine sourced unfractionated heparin.On the basis of distribution channel, the segment of hospital pharmacies dominates the market owing to the rising number of hospital surgeries and hospital stay. Rise in use of internet, and surge of e-commerce are expected to boost the growth of online pharmacies segment in near future.Enquiry for discount on this report @The global unfractionated heparin market by geography has been studied for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa. North America is presently the leading contributor to the global market owing to the vast prevalence of DVT and PE in the U.S. Studies suggest that in the U.S., nearly 900,000 people are affected by DVT every year. Approximately 50% of DVT/PE patients develop long-term complications and one-third would have a recurrence within 10 years. Thus the demand for unfractionated heparin is high in the region.Europe follows North America in terms of growth opportunities for the unfractionated heparin market. The burgeoning geriatric population on dialysis and rising incidences of coagulation disorders in the region are attributed to the high demand for unfractionated heparin in the region. Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa are largely untapped regional markets and are expected to be the fastest growing markets during the forecast period. Data from the National Institute of Health Consensus depicted that the overall incidence of DVT after elective hip surgery in India is around 45% to 70%, whereas the probability of PE is approximately 20%. Growing economy, healthcare infrastructure and increasing number of surgical procedures in Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa are likely to boost unfractionated heparin market in these regions.Some of the leading companies in the global unfractionated heparin market are Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, LEO Pharma A/S, Pfizer, Inc., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Baxter International Inc., and Sagent Pharmaceuticals.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: Tumor Ablation Industry Demand, Market Scope, Growth Analysis, Research Forecasting 2018-2024 Global Tumor Ablation Market Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024 http://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-tumour-ablation-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-tumour-ablation-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-tumour-ablation-market/ http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-ablation-devices/ Global Tumor Ablation Market is expected to reach USD 3,495.0 million by 2024 from USD 1,669.7 million in 2016, at a CAGR of 9.8% 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.Get Free Sample Report @Global Tumor Ablation market By Type (Tumor Ablation Systems {Radio Frequency Ablation System, Microwave Ablation System, Cryoablation, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound , Laser Ablation System}, Image Guidance Products, Accessories), By Cancer Type (Liver Cancer, Brain Cancer, Lung Cancer, Bone Cancer, Kidney Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, Breast Cancer, Others), By Mode of Treatment (Surgical, Laparoscopic, Percutaneous), By End User (Hospitals, Oncology Clinics, Others), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) and Forecast to 2024.Key Drivers: Global Tumor Ablation MarketSome of the major factors driving the market for global tumor ablation market are increasing incidences of cancer patients, increase in the number of hospitals, ablation and surgical centers, technological advancement in ablation devices. These factors increase the demand for devices such as tumor ablation systems and image guidance products.High treatment cost and side effects associated with ablation treatment may hinder the growth of this market.According to American Cancer Society, in 2017, approximately 1,688,780 new cancer cases were diagnosed and 600,920 cancer deaths were reported in the US.Many companies are increasingly focusing on technological advancement of devices in order to strengthen their product portfolios in the tumor ablation market.Order a copy of Global Tumor Ablation Market Report @Key Points: Global Tumor Ablation MarketMedtronic is going to dominate the global tumor ablation market following with, Boston Scientific Corporation and Abbott along with others such as Galil Medical Inc., Perseon Corporation, NeuWave Medical, Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., INTIO Inc., Mermaid Medical A/S, SonaCare Medical, LLC, DFINE, Inc., Misonix, BVM Medical Limited, AngioDynamics, COMSOL Inc, EDAP TMS, and HealthTronics, Inc.In 2017, the tumor ablation systems segment is expected to account for the largest share of 69.2% of the global tumor ablation market, by type. This segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 10.2% in the forecast period 2017 to 2024.Radio frequency ablation system segment is going to dominate the tumor ablation market owing to effective treatment for small cancers, minimal risk to patient, and faster results will drive the growth of the market.Market Segmentation: Global Tumor Ablation MarketThe global tumor ablation market is segmented on the basis of type, cancer type, mode of treatment, end user, and geography. On the basis of type, the market is segmented into three major segments which include tumor ablation systems, image guidance products, and accessories. In 2017, the Tumor Ablation Systems market segment is expected to dominate the market with 69.2%. Tumor Ablation Systems is further sub segmented into radio frequency ablation system (RFA), microwave ablation system, cryoablation, high intensity focused ultrasound and laser ablation system. In 2017, radio frequency ablation system (RFA) market segment is expected to dominate the market with 53.8%.On the basis of cancer type, the market is segmented into eight major segments which include liver cancer, brain cancer, lung cancer, bone cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer and others, The lung cancer market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR 10.7% in the forecast period of 2017 to 2024.Based on mode of treatment, the global tumor ablation market is segmented into surgical, laproscopic and percutaneous. The Surgical is projected to witness higher growth during the forecast period., The laparoscopic market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR 10.8% in the forecast period of 2017 to 2024.On the basis of end users, the market is segmented into hospital, oncology clinics, and others. In 2017, the hospital market segment is expected to dominate the market. with a share of 68.3%.Based on geography, the market is segmented into 5 geographical regions, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and Middle East and Africa.View Full Report @Table of Contents:1. INTRODUCTION1.1. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY1.2. MARKET DEFINITION1.3. MARKET SCOPE1.4. OVERVIEW OF GLOBAL TUMOR ABLATION MARKET1.5. CURRENCY AND PRICING1.6. LIMITATION1.7. MARKETS COVERED2. MARKET SEGMENTATION2.1. MARKETS COVERED2.2. GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE2.3. YEARS CONSIDERED FOR THE STUDY2.4. CURRENCY AND PRICING2.5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2.6. PRIMARY INTERVIEWS WITH KEY OPINION LEADERS2.7. SECONDARY SOURCE2.8. ASSUMPTIONS3. MARKET OVERVIEW3.1. DRIVERS3.1.1. INCREASING PREVALENCE OF CANCER PATIENTS3.1.2. TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS IN ABLATION DEVICES3.1.3. RISING NUMBER OF HOSPITALS, SURGICAL, AND ABLATION CENTERS3.2. RESTRAINTS3.2.1. HIGH COST OF TUMOR ABLATION TREATMENT3.2.2. SIDE EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH ABLATION TREATMENT3.2.3. SHORTAGE OF SKILLED AND TRAINED PROFESSIONALS3.3. OPPORTUNITIES3.3.1. GROWTH POTENTIAL OFFERED BY DEVELOPING MARKETS3.3.2. GROWING AWARENESS ABOUT ABLATION PROCEDURES3.4. CHALLENGES3.4.1. STRINGENT REGULATORY GUIDELINES4. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY5. PREMIUM INSIGHTS6. GLOBAL TUMOR ABLATION MARKET, BY TYPE6.1. OVERVIEW6.2. TUMOR ABLATION SYSTEMS6.2.1. RADIOFREQUENCY ABLATION SYSTEM (RFA)6.2.2. MICROWAVE ABLATION SYSTEM6.2.3. HIGH FREQUENCY FOCUSED ULTRASOUND ABLATION SYSTEM (HIFU)6.2.4. LASER ABLATION SYSTEM6.2.5. CRYOABLATION6.3. IMAGE GUIDANCE PRODUCTS6.4. ACCESSORIES7. GLOBAL TUMOR ABLATION MARKET, BY CANCER TYPE7.1. OVERVIEW7.2. LIVER CANCER7.3. BRAIN CANCER7.4. LUNG CANCER7.5. BONE CANCER7.6. KIDNEY CANCER7.7. PANCREATIC CANCER7.8. BREAST CANCER7.9. OTHERS8. GLOBAL TUMOR ABLATION MARKET, BY MODE OF TREATMENT8.1. OVERVIEW8.2. SURGICAL8.3. LAPAROSCOPIC8.4. PERCUTANEOUS9. GLOBAL TUMOR ABLATION MARKET, BY END USER9.1. OVERVIEW9.2. HOSPITALS9.3. ONCOLOGY CLINICS9.4. OTHERS10. GLOBAL TUMOR ABLATION MARKET, BY GEOGRAPHY10.1. OVERVIEW10.2. NORTH AMERICA10.3. EUROPE10.4. ASIA-PACIFIC10.5. SOUTH AMERICA10.6. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA11. GLOBAL TUMOR ABLATION MARKET, COMPANY LANDSCAPE11.1. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: GLOBAL11.2. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: NORTH AMERICA11.3. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: EUROPE11.4. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: ASIA-PACIFIC12. COMPANY PROFILES1.1. MEDTRONIC1.1.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.1.2. MEDTRONIC :REVENUE ANALYSIS1.1.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.1.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.2. STRYKER1.2.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.2.2. STRYKER :REVENUE ANALYSIS1.2.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.2.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.3. TERUMO CORPORATION1.3.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.3.2. TERUMO CORPORATION :REVENUE ANALYSIS1.3.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.3.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.4. INTEGRA LIFESCIENCES CORPORATION1.4.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.4.2. INTEGRA LIFESCIENCES CORPORATION : REVENUE ANALYSIS1.4.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.4.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.5. KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.1.5.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.5.2. KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.: REVENUE ANALYSIS1.5.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.5.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.6. NEUWAVE MEDICAL, INC (ACQUIRED BY ETHICON US, LLC, SUBSIDIARY OF JOHNSON & JOHNSON SERVICES, INC.)1.6.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.6.2. JOHNSON & JOHNSON SERVICES, INC.:REVENUE ANALYSIS1.6.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.6.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.7. BOSTON SCIENTIFIC CORPORATION1.7.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.7.2. BOSTON SCIENTIFIC CORPORATION :REVENUE ANALYSIS1.7.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.7.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.8. MERMAID MEDICAL A/S1.8.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.8.2. MERMAID MEDICAL A/S: COMPANY SNAPSHOT1.8.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.8.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.9. SONACARE MEDICAL, LLC1.9.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.9.2. SONACARE MEDICAL, LLC.: COMPANY SNAPSHOT1.9.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.9.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.10. MERIT MEDICAL SYSTEMS, INC1.10.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.10.2. MERIT MEDICAL SYSTEMS, INC.:REVENUE ANALYSIS1.10.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.10.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.11. BVM MEDICAL LIMITED1.11.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.11.2. BVM MEDICAL LIMITED : COMPANY SNAPSHOT1.11.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.11.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.12. INSIGHTEC LTD1.12.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.12.2. INSIGHTEC LTD :COMPANY SNAPSHOT1.12.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.12.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.13. ABBOTT1.13.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.13.2. ABBOTT:REVENUE ANALYSIS1.13.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.13.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.14. VYTRONUS, INC1.14.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.14.2. VYTRONUS, INC : COMPANY SNAPSHOT1.14.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.14.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.15. BALYIS MEDICAL1.15.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.15.2. BAYLIS MEDICAL : COMPANY SNAPSHOT1.15.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.15.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.16. EDAP TMS1.16.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.16.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS1.16.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.16.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.17. ATRICURE, INC.1.17.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.17.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS1.17.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.17.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.18. FCARE SYSTEMS1.18.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.18.2. FCARE SYSTEMS: COMPANY SNAPSHOT1.18.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.18.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.19. ECO, INC.1.19.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.19.2. ECO INC. : COMPANY SNAPSHOT1.19.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.19.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS1.20. NONINVASIVE MEDICAL DEVICES, LTD.1.20.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW1.20.2. NONINVASIVE MEDICAL DEVICES, LT. : COMPANY SNAPSHOT1.20.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO1.20.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTSRelated ReportGlobal Ablation Devices Market Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Ablation Devices Market, By Technology (Electrical, Radiation, Radiofrequency, Light, Ultrasound, Cryotherapy, Thermal, Microwave, Hydro-mechanical), By Application (Cancer, Cardiovascular, Orthopedics, Urology, Gynecology, Ophthalmology and Others), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Rest of the World) 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: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com Time to Market Matters by GD Rectifiers GD Rectifiers Product Range http://www.gdrectifiers.co.uk/products GD Rectifiers is one of the UKs preferred distributors of power electronic components. We stock a broad range of semiconductors, electromganetic components, fuses, capacitors, emi filters and traction converters from the worlds leading manufacturers, including IXYS, Westcode, SEMIKRON, United Automation, Eaton Bussmann, Mersen, EDI, Sirio, Telcon, Koncar, Ocram, Enerdoor and Eichhoff Elektro.We understand that a products time to market is crucial which is why we work hard to ensure we have sufficient stock on our shelves or on short lead times in three ways.Scheduled/Call-off ordersOur scheduled orders allow customers to place one order with multiple delivery drops over a forecasted period. We place the order in one go and stock the complete order in our warehouse, this means if you need parts earlier than the agreed call-off date, we can get the products sent out to you straight away. This process saves you time in receiving the components you need, without the hassle of having to store them in your own warehouse. It also allows customers flexibility on dates, so if youre customer demand sit earlier we can fulfil the request because we already have the product in stock for your convenience.Core Components in StockWe stock a wide range of semiconductor components in our core stock range, we aim to always have these components in stock ensuring we can meet tight delivery deadlines. We are committed to providing great customer service, high quality products at competitive prices with fast delivery.Factory RelationshipsWe have exceptional working relationships with the manufacturers we distribute for, as an authorised distributor for these brands, we receive bulk pricing on the majority of their product portfolio. This enables us to pass cost savings on to our customers which in return allows us to offer competitive pricing on quotes.We communicate with the factories daily to identify product lead times, up-to-date supported pricing, product availability and new product launches. Our devoted relationships occasionally allow us to pull in products on shorter lead times than expected, improving our customers time to market.For further information on our entire product portfolio please visit our product page online -Speak to our sales team today about your future component requirements on: 01444 243 452 or email: enquiries@gdrectifiers.co.uk.GD Rectifiers is a Global Manufacturer and Distributor of products, services and solutions to commercial and industrial users of power electronic components.Established in 1964, GD Rectifiers has over 50 years of extensive experience across a large range of markets, specialising in new and current technologies for industrial power control applications. An extensive product offering has built GD Rectifiers exceptional reputation as the go-to power specialist with innovative experience across: Aviation, Automotive, Rail, Medical, Industrial and Electronics markets.GD Rectifiers have extensive experience in the rail industry and are RISQS Qualified.GD Rectifiers is a ISO 9001:2015 registered company that design and develop bespoke power semiconductor assemblies to control voltage, current and frequency for international industrial markets.GD Rectifiers designs and manufactures Selenium and Silicon Rectifiers, Suppressors, Converters, Inverters, Regulators and all other power products for Industrial power control applications. The company distributes state of the art Diodes, Thyristors, IGBTs and MOSFETs from the worlds leading manufacturers including: IXYS, IXYS UK Westcode, Semikron and EDI.GD Rectifiers manufacture an extensive range of power components and assemblies. The company also supplies a wide range of Heat Sinks suitable for Power Semiconductors, LED Lighting and similar applications. GD Rectifiers also offer a repair and replacement service for faulty or ageing Semiconductor Rectifiers, Converters, Inverters and Regulators.GD RectifiersBentley House2 William WayBurgess HillWest SussexRH15 9AG Global Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle market research report with growth, latest trends & forecasts till 2025 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/813231 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/report/global-aerial-ladder-fire-fighting-vehicle-market-professional-survey-report-2018 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com Global Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Market Professional Survey Report 2018 is a pragmatic solution in the tough financial landscape in which we work. It will build resilience and capacity across both authorities and will help us to retain skilled and experienced staff by providing more opportunities for career development and specialism.This report studies Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle 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 2013 to 2018, and forecast to 2025.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringMagirusRosenbauerMORITABronto SkyliftOshkoshDarleyGimaexMANANGLOCOPierceCIMCXuzhou HandlerXCMGZoomlionRosenbauer International AGTITALSasgarOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoRotary Ladder VehicleHigh-altitude Flexion Arm Ladder VehicleBy Application, the market can be split intoMiningOil and GasConstructionOthersGet Sample Copy of this Report @Major Points Covered in Table of Contents 1 Industry Overview of Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle1.1 Definition and Specifications of Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle1.1.1 Definition of Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle1.1.2 Specifications of Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle1.2 Classification of Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle1.2.1 Rotary Ladder Vehicle1.2.2 High-altitude Flexion Arm Ladder Vehicle1.3 Applications of Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle1.3.1 Mining1.3.2 Oil and Gas1.3.3 Construction1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle8.1 Magirus8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Magirus 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Magirus 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Rosenbauer8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Rosenbauer 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Rosenbauer 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 MORITA8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 MORITA 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 MORITA 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Bronto Skylift8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Bronto Skylift 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Bronto Skylift 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Oshkosh8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Oshkosh 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Oshkosh 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 Darley8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 Darley 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 Darley 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Gimaex8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Gimaex 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Gimaex 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 MAN8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 MAN 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 MAN 2017 Aerial Ladder Fire-Fighting Vehicle Business Region Distribution AnalysisBrowse full report with Table of Content @About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:Email- sales@qyresearchgroups.comWeb- Corrosion Coupons Market: Global Industry Volume and Region Analysis 2017 2025 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/corrosion-coupons-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/21820 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com With repair and maintenance constantly increasing due to corrosion, there has been growing demand for corrosion coupons that can easily measure the corrosivity of a system. Corrosion coupons accurately determine the corrosion of metals under various service conditions. When the corrosion coupon is exposed to environment/other service conditions, weight loss analysis is done to determine mils per year (MPY) corrosion rates. Corrosion monitoring is critical with respect to maintenance and repair costs and material failure. By evaluating the mils per year, the corrosion rate and the life expectancy of the material can be determined. The corrosion coupon is made of the same material, alloy or similar chemical configuration. Corrosion coupons provide an indication of the corrosion status and the type of deposits existing in the pipeline or system. Corrosion coupons are a popular method of internal corrosion monitoring.Report Overview @There has been increasing demand from end users to extend the life of existing pipeline structures and to run them at higher capacity. High corrosion rate has led to failure of many systems. Thus, the need for corrosion coupons for corrosion monitoring is higher than ever.The major factor driving the growth of global corrosion coupons market is the significant rise in demand from the oil and gas industry. The corrosion coupons are used to monitor the corrosivity of systems in all stages upstream, midstream and downstream.The use of alternative methods, such as ultrasonic wall thickness sensors, is anticipated to witness significant growth over the forecast period. Growing preference for other methods, such as radiographic inspection using x-ray and gamma ray, is another major factor restraining the growth of the global corrosion coupons market.Another major challenge faced by the global corrosion coupon market is the time interval for exposure, which is an important technical criteria. The time interval might be too short or too long and hence affects corrosivity. Seasonal or temperature variations may also affect the performance of corrosion coupons. Additionally, these systems add to the extra operational cost and time for ongoing maintenance.The global market for corrosion coupons is a fragmented market with major manufacturers focusing on providing customized solutions for specific environmental conditions. The manufacturers provide full service; installation and inspection systems; alloy or material; the kind of coupon required; and all the technical know-how related to sustaining long term in the global corrosion coupons market.The global Corrosion Coupons market can be segmented based on product type, end use industry and region.On the basis of product type, the global Corrosion Coupons market can be segmented as:Scale couponsCylindrical couponsFlat couponsDisc couponsRod couponsOn the basis of end use industry, the global corrosion coupons market can be segmented as:Oil and gasWater TreatmentChemical IndustryLaboratory testingMachineryPower generationPaper and PulpOthersThe global market for corrosion coupons is anticipated to be dominated by Asia Pacific region. China is anticipated to remain the largest consumer of corrosion coupons in the Asia Pacific region owing to the significant demand from the chemical industry and pipelines transportation and monitoring, etc. Regions, such as North America, are projected to grow at a significant rate owing to the boom in the oil and gas industry in the region. Middle East and Africa is also anticipated to hold a considerable share in the global corrosion coupons market. This can be attributed to the large base of the oil and gas industry in the region. Europe is anticipated to expand with moderate CAGR over the forecast period. Latin America is anticipated to be a low volume high growth region and is expected to expand significantly during the forecast period. Japan, on the other hand, is anticipated to witness stagnant growth over the forecast period.Request to View TOC and Sample of Research Report @Examples of some of the market participants identified across the value chain of global Corrosion Coupons market are:CosascoRoxar (Emerson Process Management)CaprocoHoneywell International IncAlabama Speciality Products IncMetex Corporation LimitedBrown Corrosion Services IncCrystal Industrial Syndicate Pvt. LimitedAbout 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: Equine Healthcare Market: Rising Trend of Horse Racing in China to Spell Growth for Market https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1603 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=1603 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/equine-healthcare-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com This report provides in-depth region wise and country wise analysis of the equine healthcare market. Stakeholders of this report include manufacturers of veterinary products, industry practitioners, research professionals, and new players planning to enter the market.Request for Sample Copy of Report @The report provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of the global equine healthcare market. Qualitative analysis comprises market dynamics, trends, product overview, and country-level market information. Quantitative analysis includes market share held by companies, market size, and forecast for the global equine healthcare market in major countries. Market revenue is provided in terms of US$ Mn from 2015 to 2025 along with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) from 2017 to 2025 for all the segments, considering 2016 as the base year. The executive summary of the report provides a snapshot of the equine healthcare market with information on leading segments and sub-segments, country wise market information with respect to the market size, growth rate (CAGR %), and growth factors.The market overview section comprises impact factors such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities for the global equine healthcare market. These factors would aid the stakeholders in establishing a strong foothold in the global equine healthcare market. Furthermore, the market overview section comprises key industry events, product overview, market attractiveness analysis and emerging trend in the equine healthcare products. The market attractiveness analysis provides a graphical view comparing the growth and market dynamics in various segments and country wise to identify the most attractive market.Enquiry for discount on this report @The equine healthcare market has been extensively analyzed on basis of the product type (drugs, vaccines and supplemental feed additives), disease type and distribution channel, and geography. The market by product type is further segmented as drugs, vaccines and supplemental feed additives. The drugs sub-segment is classified into anti-infectives, anti-inflmmatory, paracititidis and others whereas the vaccines sub-segment is categorized into inactivated, live attenuated, recombinant and others. Additionally, the supplemental feed additives type sub-segment is segmented into minerals, vitamins, proteins and amino acids, enzyme, others. The distribution channel segment has been classified into veterinary hospitals and clinics, retail pharmacies and drug stores and others. Furthermore, the market by disease type is classified into west nile virus, equine rabies, potomac horse fever, tetanus, equine influenza, equine herpes virus, equine encephalomyelitis, others.By geography, the equine healthcare market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa. Moreover, analysis for the major countries comprising U.S. Canada, Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Japan, China, India, Australia and New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and South Africa have also been provided in the report. A detailed qualitative analysis of the factors responsible for driving and restraining the growth of the equine healthcare market in various regions have been provided in this section. This report also includes various ups and downs about particular country or geography that has impacted the overall market globally.Report Overview @The report provides a detailed outline/blueprint of the equine healthcare market globally that will assist new companies in establishing their presence and market players in expanding their market share in the market. The report concludes with the company profile section which includes company overview, financial overview, SWOT analysis, product portfolio, business strategies and recent developments for market players. Prominent key players are Bayer AG (Bayer Animal Health), Boehringer Ingelheim, Ceva Sante Animale , Eli Lilly and Company (Elanco) , EQUINE PRODUCTS UK LTD , Merck & Co. (Merck Animal Health), Sanofi (Merial), Purina Animal Nutrition LLC., Vetoquinol S.A. and Zoetis.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: Need for Streamlined and Centralized Operations to Spur Demand for IT Asset Management (ITAM) Software, reports TMR https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=11480 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=CR&rep_id=11480 IT Asset Management (ITAM) Software Market: SnapshotThe proliferation of smart device usage and the growing trend of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) in several leading telecom and IT companies have greatly influenced the IT asset management (ITAM) software market. ITAM software was initially preferred by large enterprises for the maintenance and reduction of risks associated with IT compliance and licensing management. Over time, these solutions have gained recognition among SMEs across the globe as an effective solution to balance spending with return on investments.The ITAM software market is projected to reach a value of US$1.3 bn by 2024, rising from US$708.9 mn in 2015. The market is estimated to expand at a steady CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period from 2016 to 2024.Download Brochure To Know More Industry Insights@Cloud-based ITAM Software Services Highly Lucrative SegmentBy size of enterprise, ITAM software finds application in large enterprises and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Large enterprises currently hold the majority in terms of revenue, while SMEs are likely to register the fastest growth over the course of the forecast period.By type of deployment, the ITAM software market is segmented into on-premise, cloud, and hybrid. Cloud-based services are the key contributors to the revenue of the ITAM software market, accounting for an almost 50% share in the market by 2024.ITAM software is used in a number of end-use industries, including banking, financial services, and insurance, transportation, manufacturing, telecom and IT, government, healthcare, and energy and utilities. Among these, the telecom and IT sector leads the ITAM software market, while the energy and utilities sector is projected to expand at the fastest pace over the coming years.Growing Demand for Centralization and Automation Driving Adoption of ITAM Software in North AmericaThe global ITAM software market comprises North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. North America presently leads the global ITAM software market owing to the enormous growth of the IT industry and growing awareness regarding the advantages of ITAM. North America is anticipated to retain its lead in the ITAM software market during the forecast period thanks to the surge in government regulations and strict software audit policies. The increasing demand for centralization and automation is also influencing the growth of the ITAM software market in this region. Organizations have been emphasizing on the reduction of operational expenditure by cutting down expenses in IT asset management through the deployment of ITAM software.At present, the ITAM software market in Asia Pacific is driven by countries such as India, China, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan. This region is anticipated to record the fastest growth in the coming years due to the rising interest of investors in this region and the growing establishment of SMEs. As the adoption of cloud-based solutions in Asia Pacific rapidly increases, the number of smart devices is expected to rise, aided by improved communication technologies such as 4G LTE. Unlike larger corporations that adopt cloud technologies to save cost and improve efficiency, SMEs in this region seek a wider reach, enhanced agility, and the flexibility and ability to serve larger customer bases at a lower investment. ITAM software has been aiding SMEs in this very task.Request For Custom Research@Some of the key players operating in the global ITAM software market are IBM Corporation, Oracle Corp., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP, BMC Software Inc., ServiceNow Inc., BDNA Corporation, LANDESK Software, Aspera Technologies Inc., Cherwell Software, Flexera Software LLC, CA Technology Inc., and Snow Software.About Us:-Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact Us:-State Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Ultra-pure Sulfuric Acid Market - Global Industry Insight, Trends, Size, Share, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis 2017-2025 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/449 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/ultra-pure-sulfuric-acid-market-449 Ultra-pure sulfuric acid (UPSA) is a microelectronic chemical reagent that is used for removing particles, inorganic content, and carbon deposited in the water. Ultra-pure sulfuric acid finds wide application in the electronic devices and semiconductors industries and thus, is also called electronic grade sulfuric acid. Parts per billion (ppb) and parts per trillion (ppt) are the two grade of UPSA. Ppt is the purest grade of UPSA acid. Ppb grade UPSA is mainly used for small units, whereas, Ppt grade USPA is widely used in cleaning and printing application in semiconductors industry. The raw materials for the manufacturing of UPSA acid are sulfur, water, air, and sulfur dioxide. The semiconductors end-use segment is expected to gain rapid traction in the near future. This is mainly attributed to increasing demand for advanced electronic devices and gadgets.To get holistic sample of the report including table of content@Ultra-Pure Sulfuric Acid Market TaxonomyOn the basis of grade, Ultra-pure sulfuric acid market is classified into:Parts per billion (ppb)Parts per trillion (ppt)On the basis of End User, Ultra-pure sulfuric acid market is classified into:SemiconductorsPharmaceuticalsUpsurge in growth of semiconductors industry augmenting market growthPerformance of the ultra-pure sulfuric acid market is directly proportional to demand for semiconductor in the electronics industry. Ultra-pure sulfuric acids are high purity chemicals that are mainly used mostly in the electronics industry for cleaning and etching applications of semiconductors and printed circuit boards. The large use of ultra-pure sulfuric acid to clean silicon wafers in order to meet high quality demand of semiconductor industry is the main driving force for the growth of ultra-pure sulfuric acid market and is expected to sustain growth of the market over the following years. Astronomical rise of the electronics sector in emerging economies of India and China, further creates a highly conducive environment for growth of the ultra-pure sulfuric acid market.Ultra-Pure Sulfuric Acid Outlook - Asia-Pacific is the largest and fastest growing region, globallyAsia-Pacific is expected to be the largest region in the global ultra-pure sulfuric acid market due to increasing technological advancements and growing semiconductor industry in the region. This region is expected to dominate the market through 2025. This is due to the growing consumption of electronic devices due to increasing population in the region. Furthermore, the region has emerged as a major manufacturing hub for electronic chemicals and materials due to economies of scale on offer in the region. North America and Europe are losing their market share due to the saturation of market. Increasing industrialization and urbanization in Middle East countries will promote the demand for ultra-pure sulfuric acid over the following years.Rampant growth in demand for electronic devices creating favorable growth environment for the marketThe growing electronic devices industry, and increase in adoption of various organic and inorganic growth strategies by the major and local players are the major drivers for the growth of the ultra-pure sulfuric acid market. However, the fluctuations in the currency exchange rates of Japan is considered as the major restraining factor, as the country is a dominant market for ultra-pure sulfuric acid.View more Information@There are various inorganic and organic growth strategies being adopted by major players in the market to ensure sustainable growth in this highly competitive market. For instance, BASF, based in Germany, has planned to build an Ultra-pure sulfuric acid plant at Zhapu in Zhejiang Province, China, in partnership with Jiahua Energy Chemical, which would be commissioned by 2018. The major players in ultra-pure sulfuric acid market include Tampa Electric, Chemtrade Refinery, The Mosaic, Lucite International, Climax Molybdenum, Valero Energy, Solvay, DuPont, Akzonobel N.V, BASF,US Petrochemical, Shell, Avantor Performance Materials, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Ineos Enterprises, PVS Chemicals Inc., Moses Lake Industries, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC, KMG Chemicals Inc., Kanto Chemical Co. Inc. Linde Group, Reagent Chemicals, and Ineos Enterprises.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: +1-206-701-6702 Angiography Devices Market: Strong Prevalence of CVD Driving Demand https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=40136 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=40136 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/angiography-devices-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com A fresh business intelligence publication by Transparency Market Research (TMR) informs that the global angiography devices market is highly competitive, attributing it to the presence of a vast pool of players who operate at regional as well as international level. The major manufacturers of angiography devices are aspiring greater shares by aggressively pricing their products, developing new technologies that meets diverse demands, and strengthening their distribution network. Medtronic Inc., AngioDynamics, GE Healthcare (a business of General Electric Company), Merit Medical Systems, Shimadzu Corporation, Siemens Healthcare, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Canon Medical Systems Corporation, Boston Scientific Corporation, and Cordis Corporation (Johnson & Johnson Company) have been identified as some of the companies that are ahead of the curve in the global angiography devices market.Request for Sample Copy of Report @The analysts of the report have projected the demand in the global angiography devices market to expand at a CAGR of 4.3% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025, by the end of which the valuation of the market is estimated to reach US$33,370.3 mn. In the near future, to maintain their stronghold over the angiography devices market, the global players are expected to indulge in mergers and acquisition activities. For instance, Medtronic Inc. acquired Covidien plc in June 2014, adding to its technological expertise. On the other hand, GE Healthcare offers Discovery IGS 730, which is an angiography system that provides for extremely high-quality imaging and complete workspace freedom to perform cardiac angulations. Boston Scientific Angiographic Catheters are customized to pave a way for delivering contrast media to the selected locations in the vascular system during an angiographic procedure.Based on product, the TMR report segments the angiography devices market into angiography systems and consumables, which has been further sub-segmented into catheters, guidewires, balloons, incision closure devices, contrast media, and accessories. Technology-wise, the market has been bifurcated into MRI, CT, and X-ray, which is further sub-segmented into flat-panel digital detectors and image intensifiers. Application-wise, the market has been categorized into carotid, renal, peripheral, cerebral, coronary, and aortic. The report also gauges the potential of demand that can be expected during the forecast period from every important end-user, including hospitals, diagnostic centers, and ambulatory surgical centers. Geographically, North America has been identified as the region with maximum demand and anticipated to remain so until 2025 too. However, the demand from the region of Latin America is primed to expand at a much stronger CAGR during the said forecast period.Enquiry for discount on this report @Escalating percentage of geriatrics in the worlds population, who commonly suffer from cardiovascular disorders (CVD), growing number of awareness programs including conferences, and government investments and subsidies to provide for essential medical equipment to their citizens are some of the key factors driving the demand in the global angiography devices market. In addition to that, consistent R&D activities to improve the products by a number of major players and promising pipeline of new angiography devices that are under observation of the FDA are also expected to bear positive results in the near future.On the other hand, regulatory procedures before a product is made available to the customers, lack of proper reimbursement policies in a number of emerging economies, and high cost of digital angiography devices and instruments are a few challenges faced by the angiography devise market. Nevertheless, emerging economies, particularly BRICS nations, are expected to provide for substantial new opportunities in the near future.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: Security Paper Market - Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Forecast https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/561 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/toc/561 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/security-paper-market-561 Security paper is a paper which comprises features that act to authenticate a document. It is widely used for printing currency, legal and government documents. The use of security paper exemplifies the importance of the document and helps in distinguishing between authentic and counterfeit documents.The rise in counterfeiting has augmented growth. Companies, governments and individuals face major losses due to counterfeit documents and currency. This has resulted in the development of various security features. The major challenge this industry faces is growing digitization in the developed markets and richer classes in the emerging economies. Moreover, digitization ensures authenticity of the document and is an expeditious process.Request a sample copy of this report:Security Paper Market TaxonomyOn basis of Security Feature, the security paper market is segmented into the following:Hybrid PapersWatermarksMOLDFourdrinierOthersHologramsThreadsSecurityEmbeddedCBS1UV FibersTear ResistantHeavy StockMicro-printingOthersOn basis of Application, the security paper market is segmented into the following:CurrencyLegal DocumentsGovernment DocumentsCertificatesIdentity CardsCheques/ChecksStampsOthersThe hybrid papers include inks, threads and fibers which help distinguish them from ordinary paper. Other security features such as watermarks and holograms are used when the risk associated with counterfeiting is minimum. Tear resistance, threaded paper, UV fibers are used when the documents need to withstand wear, tear and require longer lifespans.The largest application of security paper is currency which employs multiple security features in the same paper. With rise in counterfeiting, demand for improved security features has increased.Access Table of Content (TOC) of the report:Security Paper Market OutlookAsia Pacific is the largest market for security paper. India and China are the two largest populations in the world, the use of security paper across all applications is growing in these countries. These countries are also the largest in terms of currency printed. With increasing population and strong economic growth, the security paper industry is expected to flourish in the forecast period. In addition, around 98% of economic transactions in India are done by cash.North America is the second largest market in security paper. The US dollar is the worlds most used reserve currency. Additionally, it is also the most traded on the foreign exchange market.Europe is a shrinking market for security paper, due to increased digitization in both government and private dealings. Moreover, use of plastic currency i.e. credit and debit cards has reduced demand for paper currency. Sweden is poised to become the first country to shift to completely digitized currency.Africa is estimated to be the significant market of security paper, as low income groups tend to use paper currency due to lack of bank accounts and stable income source. Middle East despite having high public digital penetration lags in business as well as in government affairs digitization is also showing a surge towards digitization, which will have a negative impact on the security paper industry.Latin America is witnessing slow growth due to political and social instability in many countries. This has resulted in an economic slowdown in the region leading to a security paper industry slowdown as well.In 2016, the demonetization drive in India was a major event in the security paper industry. Around 84% of Indias currency was stripped of its status as legal tender and reprinted. The reprinted currency included new design and added security features. This enabled the security paper market to grow tremendously over the years.View More Information@Major players in the security paper market are China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, Ciotola S.R.L., Document Security Systems, Inc., EPL House for Security Printing, Security Paper Limited, Sequana Group, De la Rue plc, Giesecke & Devrient, Fedrigoni Group and GoznakAbout 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: +1-206-701-6702 Military GPS Device Market - Global Industry Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=32567 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=CR&rep_id=32567 Military operations mostly rely on real time data in order to carry out precision attacks, and hence the use of GPS-enabled devices is rapidly increasing. Military experiences can be enhanced by using GPS-enabled devices. Military forces are highly dependent on satellite technology for their mission critical applications such as communications and accurate positioning. Use of GPS enabled devices in the military sector is increasing significantly in order to perform mission critical operations efficiently. GPS-enabled devices provide not only tracking and navigation but also precise digital mapping. GPS systems receive information from GPS satellites and then find out the geographical position of a device.Download Brochure To Know More Industry Insights@Various operations such as target acquisition, search and rescue, command and control, and many more can be done with the help of GPS systems. Several countries are planning to develop unmanned vehicles with GPS enabled devices to perform specialized tasks with high levels of efficiency and precision. These unmanned vehicles withstand dangerous situations and hazardous chemicals in war zones. GPS enabled unmanned vehicles are primarily used to protect soldiers from dangerous circumstances that can potentially harm their life. A number of nations are launching satellite navigation systems to get more precise and accurate signals. They are also introducing GPS guided missiles to overcome jamming effects. In collaboration with several defense companies, defense ministries are primarily focusing on the reduction in overall cost of installing GPS enabled devices in various military platforms.Implementation of new technologies and an increasing range of military applications for GPS devices are expected to have a positive impact on the industry. High-tech gadgets, advanced robots, and drones are recent advancements in military technology. Increasing demand for satellite navigation and communication is one of the prime factors driving the growth of the global military GPS device market.Integration of satellite navigation technology with other navigation systems is trending in the military sector in order to derive accurate information in a short period of time. Helicopters and other aircrafts are mostly dependent on GPS-enabled systems for precise navigation. Increasing investment in GPS enabled systems and ongoing technological advancements in various devices are anticipated to boost the market over the forecast period. However, susceptibility to spoofing and jamming attacks may hamper the growth of the global military GPS device market. Failure of receivers to connect directly to the network is another challenge that armed forces are facing. Anti-jamming GPS devices and differential global positioning systems (DGPS) are latest trending factors in the global military GPS device market.Request For Custom Research@The global military GPS device market can be segmented by application, end users, and geography. On the basis of application, the market can be segmented into tracking, navigation, unmanned systems and others. On the basis of end users, the market can be divided into navy, marine, airborne, and land. Airborne segment is expected to dominate the market in future owing to the increasing need for real time navigation and trafficking. Geographically, the global military GPS device market can be segmented into . Military GPS-enabled devices have been adopted by the American military for accurate target tracking. The North America region is anticipated to witness significant growth due to the introduction of advanced navigation technologies that offer enhanced navigation.There are a number of market players in the global military GPS device market. Some of the key players are BAE Systems, Rockwell Collins, Northrop Grumman, Thales, Raytheon, Harris Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Garmin, Harris, and KB Navis.About Us:-Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact Us:-State Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Food Preservative Market to Record Ascending Growth by 2020 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/food-preservative-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2804 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ Food preservatives are substances that are added to food to keep it safe and fresh for longer duration of time. The food preservatives are used across beverages, dairy bakery, snacks, meat and sea food during processing and packing to prevent them any bacterial effects. The growth in demand of these food items is expected to be major driver for the food preservative market. Global nature of food sourcing and increasing complexities in the food supply chain have resulted in increasing demand for products and techniques required to prolong the shelf-life of the food product, thus increasing the demand for food preservatives.For more information about this Report visit @There are two types of food preservative: natural and artificial. Also, the food preservatives are used for different functions such as antimicrobials, antioxidants, chelating agents and enzyme attackers. Salt, sugar, alcohol, vinegar are some of natural preservatives use in making jams, juices and pickles. Sulphites, Nitrites and Benzoates are three classes of artificial preservatives commonly used in food. Sulphites are used to prevent the growth of bacteria in wine, dried fruits and vegetables in vinegar or brine. Sorbic acid is used in preservation of potato and cheese product. Nitrites are used in meat products such as sausages and hams to protect against the bacterium that can causes botulism. Benzoic acid is more effective against yeasts than against molds and bacteria. It is used as antifungal and antibacterial in low sugar jams, jellies, and condiments.North America is the largest market for food preservative, followed by Asia-Pacific and Europe. The Asia-Pacific market is expected to have a higher growth rate during the forecasted period. India is the worlds second largest food producer after China, which shows the potential market for food preservative in Asian country.Preservation techniques for preventing food spoilage have been practiced since ages. Changing lifestyle and increasing trade of food products across the globe have led to the increasing demand for food preservatives. Various government bodies and private industries keep proper regulation to maintain the high standards food quality containing preservatives. Increasing consumer awareness and changing food consumption habit along with increasing population is driving the demand of various segments of food and beverage industry, which in turn, is driving the food preservative market.This growth is also driven by increasing demand for natural food preservatives in developed markets and continued demand for processed food in emerging markets. Sensing the increasing reference of consumers towards the natural food products, certain global companies have started replacing artificial food preservatives with the natural preservatives in their food products. They are further using this to project their product as all-natural food product thus attracting larger consumer interest. Convenience food products and personal care products have further increased the application area for the food preservatives.Request to Sample of Report-Some of the major players operating in the market are ABF Ingredients Ltd., Ajinomoto Co. Inc, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Albemarle Corporation, Brenntag Inc., Cargill, Incorporated, Celanese Corporation, Edlong Flavrs, Jungbunzlauer Ag, Kerry Group, Purac Biochem B.V, Royal Dsm N.V. and Dupont De Nemours & Company.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: Protein Hydrolysate for Animal Feed Application Market Rising at 7.1% CAGR to 2024: Analysis of Key Players, Trends, Drivers, & Challenges https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/871734/?utm_source=opr&utm_campaign=SK https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/protein-hydrolysate-for-animal-feed-application-market/?utm_source=fr&utm_campaign=SK https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/polyglycolic-acid-market/?utm_source=rr&utm_campaign=SK https://thefinancialconsulting.com/author/chetan/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/category/news-releases/ http://reports.algosonline.com/ MarketStudyReport.com Adds New Global Protein Hydrolysate for Animal Feed Application Market 2017 2024 research report providing information and data By Product, By Application, Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook, Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast spreading across 510 Pages with table and figures in it.Global Protein Ingredient Market size was higher than $22.1 billion for 2015 and forecast to record CAGR of more than 7.1% by end of forecast timeframe. Rising customer consciousness about health advantages from nutrient intake coupled with growing importance of its use in cosmetics segment as well as in food & beverages segment is predicted to industry expansion.Protein Hydrolysate for Animal Feed Application Market is set to surpass USD 835 million by 2024; according to a new research study published.Request a sample copy of Protein Hydrolysate for Animal Feed Application Market Research Report @Further, favorable impact on cardiovascular health and diabetes prevention coupled with muscle building has positively stimulated the industry demand. Approvals by European Union and Food & Drug Administration to utilize protein ingredients in customer products coupled with its wider adoption in countries like Canada, Australia and Japan are projected to promote global protein ingredient industry expansion. In addition to this, rising penetration of the application in cosmetic items and personal care items due to its healthy features are projected to propel global protein ingredient market trends.However, low adoption of other ingredients owing to lack of consciousness can inhibit industry growth. Limited supply of soybean as well as rising demand from alternate applications and channels are key factors projected to affect global protein ingredient market price.Global protein ingredient industry is segmented into products like dairy proteins and plant proteins. Dairy proteins segment is further sub-segmented into whey protein hydrolysates, milk protein concentrates, gelatin, egg protein, whey protein isolates, caseinates, whey protein concentrates and gelatin. Plant proteins segment is sub-segmented into textured soy protein, wheat, pea, soy protein concentrates, soy protein isolates and canola.Soy concentrates sub-segment dominated plant ingredient segment demand and was worth higher than $2.1 billion for 2015. Easy digestion, high nutrition value and better fat retention ability are main features stimulating demand of the product. Soy protein use in baked items, poultry, pet foods as milk substitutes for calves and breakfast cereals are key applications driving industry growth.Among plant ingredient, canola is predicted to experience high gains and predicted to record CAGR of more than 12.1% by end of forecast timeline. Pea protein segment size can surpass 31 kilo tons by end of forecast timeline with higher than 10.1% expansion. Egg protein ingredient sub-segment led the dairy protein segment and was evaluated at higher than $10.1 billion for 2015.Food & beverage segment ked the application segment and was evaluated at higher than $11.6 billion for 2015. Factors like enhanced nutritional production, decrease in mixture timings and rising food fiber contents contributed for the segment growth. It is predicted to expand in future due to rise in customer purchasing capacity specifically in nations like Indonesia, India, China and Malaysia that can propel global protein ingredient industry development.Personal care products segment can experience highest gains and is predicted to record CAGR of more than 5.1%. Factors like outstanding skin hydrating features coupled with its natural origin source makes protein ingredients fit for applying in shampoos, skin creams and sunscreens. All these factors are predicted to boost the segment demand.U.S. protein ingredient market share led the regional industry demand contributing more than $6.6 billion in revenue terms for 2015. Customer choice for healthy items along with government acceptance to utilize these ingredients in infant formulas, food and cosmetics has fueled the regional industry expansion.Europe protein ingredient industry contributed higher than $7.1 billion in terms of revenue for 2015 and is predicted to experience heavy industry expansion.APAC industry is anticipated to register CAGR of more than 7.1% during forecast timeline owing to heavy food & beverage sales in nations like India, Malaysia, China, Thailand and South Korea. Rise in customer expenditure on food supplements, nutrition and healthcare owing to increase in buying capacity is projected to propel regional industry expansion.Key industry participants profiled in the report include Cargill, Crop Energies Bio Wanze, Archer Daniels Midland, Fonterra, DuPont Solae, CHS, NutraScience, Roquette, Mead Johnson, Rousselot, Bunge, Scoular, Burcon, MGP Ingredients, Tessenderlo and Kewpie Egg Corporation.For more information on this report, please visit @Related Reports: -Polyglycolic Acid Market Size By Form (Fiber, Film), By Application (Medical, Packaging, Shale Gas Extraction), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Netherlands, Norway, China, India, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, South Africa, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016 - 2024Polyglycolic Acid Market will surpass USD 9 billion by 2024; according to a new research report. Polyglycolic acid market shall witness a significant demand from packaging industry by 2024 as disposal of non-degradable plastics has been a serious i...More Reports @About Us: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: Agricultural Enzymes Market Projected to Discern Stable Expansion to 2020 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/agricultural-enzymes-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3304 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ Agricultural enzymes are biological catalysts used extensively in agricultural based biotechnological processing, such as enzyme-assisted silage fermentation, processing of crops and crop residues, bio-processing of fibers, and production of many animal feed supplements. The technological advancement in the field of agricultural enzymes has boosted both the manufacturing capacity and application of agricultural enzyme such as invent of phytases (enhances the nutritional contents of the food grains) and silage fermentation.For more information about this Report visit @Growing demand of processed food, rising demand of renewable energy sources such as bio-fuel, coupled with cost-efficiency of agricultural enzymes has helped in its wide acceptance in agricultural sector.Based on the various crop types the global enzymes market can be broadly categorized as cereals & grains, oilseeds & pulses, fruits & vegetables and others. On the basis of the various chemical properties of the enzymes the global agricultural enzyme market can be segmented in five broad categories namely, carbohydrates, proteases, lipases, polymerases & nucleases and othersGrowing demand of natural and organic food, coupled with rising awareness towards hazardous properties of pesticides and other chemicals used in agricultural have raised the demand of green and naturally sourced agrochemicals over the years. Moreover rising government concern over food and environment safety in the Asia Pacific and Latin America has led to many stringent regulations, such as integrated pest management (IPM). Such regulations are forcing the farmers of this region to adopt bio-based chemicals in place of their conventional chemical counterparts. This trend is expected to increase the demand of agricultural enzymes in coming years.North America is the largest market of agricultural enzyme attributed to growing agriculture industry and rising awareness towards organic forming. It is followed by Asia Pacific and Europe. Asia Pacific is the fasted growing market of agricultural enzymes where growth rate is expected in double digit attributed mainly to government initiatives towards integrated pest management (IPM) and increasing acceptance of genetically modified (GM) seeds by the farmers in this region.Request to Sample of Report-Some of the leading global players operating in global agricultural enzymes market include, Novozymes A/S, Agrinos Inc., Agri Life., Stoller Usa Inc., Bioworks Inc., Syngenta Ag, Aries Agro Ltd., Greenmax Agro Tech., and Camson Bio Technologies Limited.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Laboratory and Handheld Raman Instruments Market- Industry Trend Analysis, Demand and Forecas 2019 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1578 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=1578 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=1578 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/laboratory-handheld-raman-instruments.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Raman is an analytical technique used to observe vibrational resonance in molecules. It is a non-destructive technique and such instruments work on the principle of scattering of light at different wavelengths from the incident probe light or sample. Raman instruments provide information in the form spectrum consisting of number of peaks. Each peak represents a particular frequency of specific molecular bond. Thus, it helps in providing the chemical composition of the sample under analysis. Raman instruments also help in providing information regarding the chemical structure, phase, contamination and impurity of the molecule or sample; thus this technology is often used in drug development, quality assurance and quality control.Request Brochure of Report:The laboratory and handheld Raman instruments market is categorized on the basis of following segmentation:Product type:FoodDrugCosmeticsEnd-user application:Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical sectorIndustrial sectorEducational sectorIn terms of market share, the global Raman instruments market is dominated by North America as the technique continues to gain increased momentum in security and pharmaceutical applications in this region while Europe gains second position in this market. Emerging economies of Asia such as India, China, Japan and Russia as well as Latin American and Middle East Asian countries are expected to undergo rapid market growth by employing various market consolidation strategies such as mergers and acquisitions.Request TOC of Report:One of the major factors driving the market growth is the increase in use of Raman instruments due to stringent regulations laid down by domestic governments to ensure improved quality and safety of food, drugs and cosmetics. Other prime driver is the robustness, portability and cost effectiveness of Raman instruments as well as prevalence of large number of market consolidation activities. However, the key deterrent holding back the growth of this market is the increased availability of alternative devices for Raman instruments.Some of the key manufacturers in the market for laboratory and handheld Raman instruments include B&W Tek, Inc., Bruker Corp., Horiba Ltd., JASCO Analytical Instruments, PerkinElmer, Inc. and Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.Enquiry for discount on this report 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 ofMarket growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket 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.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.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Cold Chain System 2018 Global Industry Size,Analysis,Opportunities,Forecasts to 2025 Cold Chain System Industry https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3060630-global-cold-chain-system-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3060630-global-cold-chain-system-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Cold Chain System 2018 Global Industry Size,Analysis,Opportunities,Forecasts to 2025.Description:This report studies the global Cold Chain System market, analyzes and researches the Cold Chain System development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeAmericold Logistics, LLCAGRO Merchants GroupCloverleaf Cold StorageHenningsen Cold Storage CompanyLineage Logistics Holdings, LLCNordic Logistics and Warehousing, LLCPreferred Freezer ServicesWabash National CorporationUnited States Cold Storage, Inc.SSI SCHAEFERBurris LogisticsKloosterboerPartner LogisticsNewCold Cooperatief U.A.DHLGruppo Marconi Logistica IntegrataBioStorage Technologies, IncNichirei Logistics Group, Inc.OOCL LogisticsJWD GroupGet 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 intoStorageTransportationMarket segment by Application, Cold Chain System can be split intoFood & BeveragesPharmaceuticalsOthersAsk Query @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsGlobal Cold Chain System Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Cold Chain System1.1 Cold Chain System Market Overview1.1.1 Cold Chain System Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Cold Chain System 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 Cold Chain System Market by Type1.3.1 Storage1.3.2 Transportation1.4 Cold Chain System Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Food & Beverages1.4.2 Pharmaceuicals1.4.3 Others2 Global Cold Chain System Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Cold Chain System 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 Americold Logistics, LLC3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Cold Chain System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 AGRO Merchants Group3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Cold Chain System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Cloverleaf Cold Storage3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Cold Chain System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Henningsen Cold Storage Company3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Cold Chain System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 Lineage Logistics Holdings, LLC3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Cold Chain System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 Nordic Logistics and Warehousing, LLC3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Cold Chain System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Preferred Freezer Services3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Cold Chain System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Wabash National Corporation3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Cold Chain System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 United States Cold Storage, Inc.3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Cold Chain System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.9.5 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. Basmati Rice Market - Delicious Taste, Distinct Flavor,Soft and Fluffy Characteristics https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Request-Sample/105763 https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Basmati-Rice-Market https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Sweet-And-Savoury-Market https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Natural-Alternative-Sweeteners-Market https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Frozen-French-Fries-Market https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Organic-Baby-Food-Market https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Meat-Substitute-Market Summary:Rice is basically one of the major staple food in the world, accounting for over half of the total staple food consumed globally. Though rice is produced and milled globally, it is primarily consumed in the Asia-pacific regions especially in India, China and Pakistan wherein the production of basmati rice in these countries accounts for a major chunk of global production.Market Scenario:Shifting preference towards healthy eating habits and nutrients by health conscious people, growing demand of brown rice from Middle-east and African Countries, increasing demand for ready-to-eat food products are some of the drivers that are expected to boost the growth of Basmati Rice market. Ensuring market penetration through better distribution while remaining economical poses a challenge for players who want to enhance their market and lower harvest are anticipated to hinder the growth of market to a certain extent.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @The global Basmati Rice market can be segmented on the basis of rice type, species, sales channel, application and region. on the basis of product type, the global Basmati Rice market can be segmented into raw, steamed and parboiled. On the basis of species, the global basmati rice market can be segmented into white, brown and others. On the basis of sales channel, the global Basmati Rice can be segmented into horeca, convenient stores, online platform and modern trade. On the basis of applicationKey Players: McCormick & Co. Inc. LT Foods Ltd. The Hain Celestial Group Inc. Estraco Kft. East End Foods. The Rice 'n Spice Intl Ltd.Obtain Details @Basmati Rice market can be segmented into food and cosmetic and personnel care. On the basis of region, the global Basmati Rice Market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Currently Asia-pacific basmati rice market accounts for the largest share of the global market. In addition, brown rice segment is anticipated to gain a higher cagr during the forecast period.Related Reports :Sweet And Savoury Market :Natural Alternative Sweeteners Market :Frozen French Fries Market :Organic Baby Food Market :Meat Substitute 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 Us :Xpodence ResearchUSA Office244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email : sales@xpodenceresearch.com Hybrid Power Solution Market: 2018 Size, Share, Industry Insights, Growth Factors, Competitive Analysis and Regional Outlook to 2022 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2053 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/hybrid-power-solution-market-2053 Hybrid Power Solution Market appears to be competitive with the presence of several large and small players operating in the Hybrid Power Solution Market. These Key players compete based upon pricing, quality, Technology and reputation. Hybrid Power Solution market demonstrates a high growth potential which is likely to attract many entrants to the market resulting in to intensified competition further.Hybrid Power Solution Market Companies Analyzed in report are:Siemens AG, Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe Ltd., NYE Thermodynamics Corporation, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd., and MJB International, ZTE Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co., LTD , SMA Solar Technology AG.Get Sample Copy of Hybrid Power Solution Market 2018 to 2022 Report@Hybrid Power Solution Market 2018: Global Industry Analysis To 2022 report expands Global Hybrid Power Solution Market Size, Share, upcoming Trends, Growth and Key Players Outlook by Product (Wind Diesel, Wind Solar Diesel, Solar Diesel and Others), by End Use (Residential, Commercial, Telecom and Others.Global Hybrid Power Solution Market Overview:Hybrid Power Solution is the combined power and energy storage solution. There are various types of hybrid solution provided by various competitors such as wind diesel, wind solar diesel, solar diesel and others. As the world economy continues to undergo intense growth and restructuring, natural resources are being depleted at alarming rates and irreversible damage has been done to the environment. Fossil fuels remain in high demand as their availability reduces and environmental concerns rise. Recently, the largest growth in the renewable energy sector has been in the production and the use of wind power. Offshore wind resources are abundant, stronger, and blow more consistently than land-based wind resources. With rise in wind power production, competition between countries has increased and wind turbine manufacturers are working to gain the upper hand as they design, test, and manufacture more effective models. Improvements in the cost and performance of wind power technologies, increase in demand for renewable energy and state renewable portfolio standards play a role in driving the wind sector towards growth. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Hybrid Power Solution is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a stunning growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the estimated period (2017 2022).Solar energy is identified as the best replacement to other conventional fossil fuel energy sources and is used to reduce carbon emission, by effectively meeting the electricity needs. Increasing demand for clean power acts as a major driver for the growth of the market. Moreover, improvements in technology have shifted generation of power to zero-carbon technologies such as significantly decreasing inverter size and weight while achieving record efficiency. With a growing number of investments in countries such as U.S., China and India with renewable targets and policies push the market towards growth.According to UN Environmental programme, 2015 was a new record for the global investment in renewable energy with a total investment of USD 285.9 Billion. The clean technology energy generation accounted for 10% of the worlds electricity. Of the renewables, a total of 134 GW in 2015, solar photovoltaic accounted for 56GW. In 2016, the global investment in solar energy totalled USD 113.7 billion, with a record 75 GW of installed capacity. This is predominantly due to increasing solar installations in countries such as China and India. These countries have recently surpassed the U.S. as the top destination for solar energy market with substantial investment in the solar energy sector. This will lead to the development of hybrid energy solution in near future.Hybrid Power Solution Market Competitive Analysis:The report also considers key trends that will impact the industry and profiles of leading suppliers of Hybrid Power Solution market. Moreover, manufacturers mainly ensure to deliver the best quality products based on innovative technologies, and best practices.Access Complete Report @Hybrid Power Solution Market Regional Analysis:Asia pacific held the largest share and is projected to dominate the market of hybrid power system. The integration of renewable energy production with the electricity mix also reduces the cost of transporting fuel to remote areas. Moreover, Japan is the leading contributor in the APAC hybrid power systems market, with the surge in renewable energy and commercial projects expected to drive demand for Hybrid power solution market. Moreover, Government is also supporting to make such systems more reliable and cost-effective.Target Audience of Report: This report mainly focuses on Hybrid Power Solution Market Distributer & Supplier companies, and end Users. Investment bankers and consultants with end user for Hybrid Power Solution Market also analyzed. And finally Government and Independent Regulatory Authorities involved with Global Hybrid Power Solution Market studied.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.com CRM Analytics 2018 Global Market Outlook,Research,Trends and Forecast to 2025 CRM Analytics Market 2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3060631-global-crm-analytics-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3060631-global-crm-analytics-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On CRM Analytics 2018 Global Market Outlook,Research,Trends and Forecast to 2025.Description:This report studies the global CRM Analytics market, analyzes and researches the CRM Analytics development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeOracleZoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd.Salesforce.com, inc.GoogleKAPTUREHubSpot, Inc.InforSEDONAGet 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 Application, CRM Analytics can be split intoCommercialPersonalAsk Query @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsGlobal CRM Analytics Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of CRM Analytics1.1 CRM Analytics Market Overview1.1.1 CRM Analytics Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global CRM Analytics 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 CRM Analytics Market by End Users/Application1.3.1 Commercial1.3.2 Personal2 Global CRM Analytics Competition Analysis by Players2.1 CRM Analytics 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 Oracle3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 CRM Analytics Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd.3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 CRM Analytics Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Salesforce.com, inc.3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 CRM Analytics Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Google3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 CRM Analytics Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 KAPTURE3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 CRM Analytics Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 HubSpot, Inc.3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 CRM Analytics Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Infor3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 CRM Analytics Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 SEDONA3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 CRM Analytics 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. Increasing Prevalence of Minimally Invasive Procedures to Enhance Foot massagers Market Expansion During 2017-2025 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/foot-massagers-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/13792 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly? So said the famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. If only this were true! Unfortunately, we will be dependent on our feet for the foreseeable future. We use our feet more than any other body part as they are the very foundation of our existence. It is not entirely surprising then, that stress can build up within our feet, particularly at the end of a long, hard and gruelling day. At such times, somebody offering a foot massage seems like an angel sent from heaven indeed! An intense foot massage can relax not only the feet but the entire body. It can improve blood flow, release toxins, improve your overall mood, replenish lost energy and alleviate pain. Going to a professional spa or masseuse is a pricey proposition which everybody might not be able to afford on a recurring basis. Is there a solution to this predicament? Yes, there certainly is the foot massagers market!For more information about this Report visit @Purchasing a foot massager has several benefits. It saves a substantial amount of money since one does not need to pay a masseuse. It affords the flexibility of getting a massage within ones own home at any time during the day or even night. In addition, getting a prior appointment with a masseuse is unnecessary saving a great deal of time. Some new models in the foot massagers market provide not only a massage but a water bath for a perfect spa experience at home! Others have heat and multiple massage actions for the ultimate comfort and relaxation. Foot massagers use vibration or are based on the Japanese principle of Shiatsu. While the former quickly loosens muscles by ultra-quick oscillations and is recommended for sore muscles, the later kneads muscles and provides a deeper work. The Tui na massage, based on ancient Chinese medicine, involves both rubbing and lifting to create a unique experience like no other. Some foot massagers can even be a combination of these techniques.Foot massagers Market drivers & restraintsAs per Institute of Medicine (IOM), at least 116 million Americans suffer from some form of chronic pain. This number is greater than those affected by heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined. Joint and muscle pain affects us all, but it is particularly heightened amongst the senior citizens and the geriatric population of a country. An ageing population, especially in North America, Europe, Japan and China can be reasonably assumed to be a key driver of the foot massagers Market. These massagers provide quick and significant relief from either incidental or chronic foot pain. There is also a noticeable trend where people wish to be massaged from the comfort or privacy of their own homes. Hiring a personal masseuse is not feasible for everybody since it is a very costly affair.The second driver of the foot massagers market is the rising disposable income in the developing world, along with premium massagers being available on e-commerce platforms. Customers are increasingly willing and able to purchase advanced foot massagers which provide luxury experiences. Some massagers even have so-called smart features and these can be instantly ordered online at the click of a button. This is anticipated to positively impact the growth of the foot massagers market in the forecast period.Request to Sample of Report-Foot massagers Market PlayersSome of the Foot massagers Market Players include Yifang, Dingxiang, Qianjin, Pangao, Terumo, Citizen, Kenz, Elk, Suzuken, Wego, Qiaoxin, Huangwei, Taich, Beurer, Panasonic, FUJIIRYOKI, Sunpentown, Povos, Emson, HoMedics, OSIM and Human Touch.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: Malignant Melanoma Drugs Industry Treatment Analysis,Research,Review to 2025 https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1635959&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-malignant-melanoma-drugs-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025.htm/toc https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1635959&type=D http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Malignant Melanoma Drugs market, analyzes and researches the Malignant Melanoma Drugs development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeBristol-Myers SquibbEnzon PharmaceuticalsExelixisGlaxoSmithKlineMerckPfizerJanssen BiotechHoffmann-La Roche LtdNavidea BiopharmaceuticalsNovartisOno PharmaceuticalAmgenDownload Free exclusive Sample of this report:The insights offered in the study mirror the views and perspectives of opinion leaders, market analysts, strategists, and public policy makers chosen from across a wide spectrum. The findings on the global Malignant Melanoma Drugs market highlight key regional pockets characterized by untapped opportunities and the current efforts being taken by various players to tap into these. Stakeholders looking for simplified but reliable and perspectives into the global Malignant Melanoma Drugs market will find the report useful. These insights may prove indispensable for business players operating in the global Malignant Melanoma Drugs market identify new revenue streams and tap into promising avenues in various regions. The study tracks key regional trends likely to gain strength and cause exciting developments from industry players, while keeping a note on those trends that will subside in the near future.Table Of Contents Major Key PointsGlobal Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Malignant Melanoma Drugs1.1 Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market Overview1.1.1 Malignant Melanoma Drugs Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.3 Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market by Type1.3.1 Immunotherapy1.3.2 Targeted Therapy1.3.3 Other1.4 Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Hospitals1.4.2 Clinics1.4.3 OtherGet more information from Table of Content:2 Global Malignant Melanoma Drugs Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Malignant Melanoma Drugs 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 Bristol-Myers Squibb3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Malignant Melanoma Drugs Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Enzon Pharmaceuticals3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Malignant Melanoma Drugs Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Exelixis3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Malignant Melanoma Drugs Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 GlaxoSmithKline3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Malignant Melanoma Drugs Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 Merck3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business OverviewList of Tables and FiguresFigure Global Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market Size (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2013-2018)Table Global Malignant Melanoma Drugs Revenue (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Global Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)Figure United States Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure EU Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Japan Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure China Malignant Melanoma Drugs Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure India Malignant Melanoma Drugs 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 Traffic Marking Paints Market : Globally Growing at a CAGR of 4.87% between 2018-2025 https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1617063&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/asia-pacific-traffic-marking-paints-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1617063&type=D http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Market Research Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.The Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints market is valued at USD 965 million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD 1412 million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 4.87% between 2017 and 2025.Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingTATUNippon PaintKICTECZhejiang Brother3MAsian Paints PPGSherwin-WilliamsSwarco AGDAE HWA PAINT MFGHempelEnnis FlintLuteng TuliaoZhejiang YuanguangRainbow BrandNOROO Paint & CoatingsAutomarkDownload Free exclusive Sample of this report:The report moreover provides an ideas of the engaged scene in the market for Traffic Marking Paints. It does in that capacity by using analytic gadgets, for instance, Porters Five Forces Analysis and SWOT Analysis. It engages it to grasp the openings and entrapments expecting players in the market. It gives information on a comparative with the objective that players can figure winning frameworks carefully using every one of that information. The report moreover gives the regard tie examination to the market for Traffic Marking Paints.Table Of Contents Major Key Points1 Traffic Marking Paints Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Traffic Marking Paints11.2 Classification of Traffic Marking Paints by Product Category21.2.1 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Sales (K Tonne) Comparison by Types (2013-2025)21.2.2 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Sales (K Tonne) Market Share by Types in 201731.2.3 Thermoplastic Marking Paint31.2.4 Waterbased Traffic Marking Paint41.2.5 Solvent Based Marking Paint41.2.6 Two-Component Road Marking Paint51.3 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Market by Applications/End Users61.3.1 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Sales (K Tonne) and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2013-2025)61.3.2 Roads & Streets71.3.3 Parking Lot81.3.4 Airport8Get more information from Table of Content:2 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application192.1 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Market Competition by Manufacturers192.1.1 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Sales (K Tonne) and Market Share by Manufacturers (2015-2018)192.1.2 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share by Manufacturers (2015-2018)212.2 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Sales and Revenue by Type242.2.1 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Sales (K Tonne) and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)242.2.2 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share Type (2013-2018)262.3 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Sales and Revenue by Regions283 China Traffic Marking Paints (Sales, Revenue and Price)334 Japan Traffic Marking Paints (Sales, Revenue and Price)395 South Korea Traffic Marking Paints (Sales, Revenue and Price)456 India Traffic Marking Paints (Sales, Revenue and Price)517 Australia Traffic Marking Paints (Sales, Revenue and Price)578 Southeast Asia Traffic Marking Paints (Sales, Revenue and Price)639 Rest of Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints (Sales, Revenue and Price)6910 Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Manufacturers Profiles and Sales Data7510.1 TATU7510.1.1 Company Profile7510.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications7610.1.3 Traffic Marking Paints Business Asia-Pacific Market Data7810.1.4 Contact Information7910.2 Nippon Paint7910.2.1 Company Profile7910.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8010.2.3 Traffic Marking Paints Business Asia-Pacific Market Data8110.2.4 Contact Information8110.3 KICTEC82List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Traffic Marking Paint1Figure Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Sales (K Tonne) Comparison by Types (2013-2025)2Figure Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Sales Market Share by Types in 20173Figure Thermoplastic Marking Paint Picture4Figure Waterbased Traffic Marking Paint Picture4Figure Solvent Based Marking Paint Picture5Figure Two-Component Road Marking Paint Picture5Figure Asia-Pacific Traffic Marking Paints Sales (K Tonne) Comparison by Applications (2013-2025)6To Get Discount Of This Report Click here @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com Prosperity of Industrialization to Drive Uncoated Paper for Hybrid Printing Market During 2017 - 2025 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/uncoated-paper-for-hybrid-printing-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/18238 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ The global packaging industry has undergone significant transformation over the past few decades, creating an absolute need for customization. Advancement in printing technology has resulted in increased desire of end users for high quality images. Hybrid printing is one such technology, which in turn, is a combination of offset and digital printing. Uncoated paper for hybrid printing is used for a variety of end products, such as bank statements, flyers, and books, among others. Uncoated paper for hybrid printing is used mainly to impart an elegant and prestigious appearance to booklets, brochures, restaurant menus, and the likes.For more information about this Report visit @Uncoated paper for hybrid printing enjoys high preference among end users, which is attributed to its wide usage in black and white, and colour printing applications. They have high durability, and enable trouble-free handling. Other major attributes that are expected to increase preference for uncoated paper for hybrid printing include reduced down-time, and enhanced speed of printing, thereby making them one of the ideal choices available in the market.Global uncoated paper for hybrid printing market: DynamicsThe global uncoated paper for hybrid printing market is expected to grow on the backdrop of digital and offset printing industry growth. Productivity and reliability ensure rapid growth of the global digital and offset printing market, which in turn, fuels growth of the global uncoated paper for hybrid printing market. Demands of print buyers and other end consumers continue to evolve, and as a result, printers opt for papers that are better suited for faster turnaround time and reduced run lengths. Uncoated paper for hybrid printing is therefore expected to enjoy high preference over the forecast period, owing to enhanced ability to withstand high temperatures and pressures and better electric conductivity, among others. In a fast changing and dynamic market scenario, marketers look for innovative ways to boost their marketing and sales efforts. The uncoated paper for hybrid printing market is therefore expected to have a largely positive outlook, over the forecast period.Despite that, there are certain factors that might hamper growth of uncoated paper for hybrid printing market. These include, increasing use of online platforms for marketing and sales. Growth in use of digital media might affect the uncoated paper for hybrid printing market, especially in case of bank statements, and books, which are now available in portable document format.,,The global uncoated paper for hybrid printing market has been segmented as follows -,,On the basis of grammage, the global uncoated paper for hybrid printing market is segmented as:,, 160,,On the basis of end use, the global uncoated paper for hybrid printing market is segmented as:,, Invoices, Books, Manuals, Bank Statements, Vouchers, Direct Mail, Restaurant Menus, OthersThe Asia Pacific region is expected to lead the uncoated paper for hybrid printing market, which is expected to be closely followed by the North America uncoated paper for hybrid printing market. The Asia Pacific uncoated paper for hybrid printing market is expected to witness significant growth, over the forecast period, owing to the ongoing technological and economic boom in the region. Countries such as China and India are expected to lead the APAC uncoated paper for hybrid printing market. In Western Europe, Germany is expected to be ahead of the rest of the countries. Italys uncoated paper for hybrid printing market has been experiencing slackened growth, owing to the implementation of higher prices. Latin America is expected to follow a similar growth trend as the Asia Pacific region.Request Report for sample @Global uncoated paper for hybrid printing market: Market PlayersSome of the players operating in the global uncoated paper for hybrid printing market are Mondi Group, Greycon, JK Paper Ltd., International Paper Company, and Finch Paper LLC, 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: China Car Care Products Market 2018- Turtle Wax, Shenzhen CHIEF, SOFT99, Shenzhen SUNRISE, SONAX, Tetrosyl, WILLSON https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1572625&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/china-car-care-products-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1572625&type=D http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report China Car Care Products Market Research Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.The growth trajectory of the China Car Care Products market over the assessment period is shaped by several prevalent and emerging regional and China trends, a granular assessment of which is offered in the report. The study on analyzing the China Car Care Products market dynamics takes a critical look at the business regulatory framework, technological advances in associated industries, and the strategic avenues. The study strives to offer incisive insights into the developmental framework on which the growth of the China Car Care Products market hinges on. In doing so, the research tries to lay bare key strategic and operational risks underpinning new business models that might cause disruption in the competitive landscape. The report takes into account major research and development activities undertaken by stakeholders and tries to identify avenues where lucrative prospects lie. To this end, the study also sheds light on regional investment trends Car Care Products market and evaluates their impact on emerging opportunities in the coming years.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:Strategists, business owners, CEO and other CxOs, and budding entrepreneurs looking for clear signals for the trajectory of the markets growth will find the study helpful. The study on the China Car Care Products market is prepared with the help of extensive volumes of reliable secondary research that is in no way exhaustive. The findings are further backed by intensive rounds of primary research, including interviews and events. The research on the China Car Care Products market employs a variety of statistical tools to arrive at reliable market projections on major segments into which the entire market can be broken into. Combining rigorous models of research with Porters five force analysis and SWOT analysis, the study tries to offer evidence-based insights on the China Car Care Products market, which can be indispensable for effective strategy formulations. The study also zeroes in on prominent trends in expected to expand the horizon of the market and the influence on new policy formulations in the China Car Care Products market in various nations.Table Of Contents Major Key Points1 Car Care Products Market Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Car Care Products11.2 Car Care Products Segment by Types (Product Category)21.2.1 China Car Care Products Sales by Types21.2.2 China Car Care Products Sales Market Share by Types in 201731.2.3 Cleaning Products31.2.4 Repair Products41.2.5 Protection Products51.2.6 Other Products51.3 China Car Care Products Segment by Applications71.3.1 China Car Care Products Consumption Comparison by Applications71.3.2 Individual Use81.3.3 Commercial Use9Get more information from Table of Content:2 China Car Care Products Market Competition by Manufacturers192.1 China Car Care Products Sales and Share by Manufacturers (2016-2017)192.2 China Car Care Products Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2016-2017)212.3 China Car Care Products Average Price by Manufacturers (2016-2017)242.4 Headquarters and Establish Date of Major Car Care Products Manufacturers262.5 Car Care Products Market Competitive Situation and Trends272.5.1 Car Care Products Market Concentration Rate272.5.2 Car Care Products Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers283 Analysis of Car Care Products Industry Key Manufacturers303.1 3M303.1.1 Company Profile303.1.2 Product Information313.1.3 Sales, Price and Revenue313.2 Turtle Wax323.2.1 Company Profile323.2.2 Product Information333.2.3 Sales, Price and Revenue333.3 Shenzhen CHIEF343.3.1 Company Profile343.3.2 Product Information353.3.3 Sales, Price and Revenue353.4 Guangzhou Biaobang363.4.1 Company Profile363.4.2 Product Information373.4.3 Sales, Price and Revenue373.5 Illinois Tool Works383.5.1 Company Profile383.5.2 Product Information393.5.3 Sales, Price and Revenue393.6 Guangzhou Botny404 China Car Care Products Production, Revenue, Consumption, Export and Import (2013-2018)664.1 China Car Care Products Sales and Growth (2013-2018)664.2 China Car Care Products Revenue (M USD) and Growth (2013-2018)674.3 China Car Care Products Production, Consumption, Export and Import (2013-2018)67List of Tables and FiguresFigure Example of Car Care Products1Figure China Car Care Products Sales Comparison by Types (2013-2025)2Figure China Car Care Products Sales Market Share by Types in 20173Figure Example of Cleaning Products4Figure Example of Repair Products4Figure Example of Protection Products5Figure Example of Other Products6Figure China Car Care Products Consumption Comparison by Applications (2013-2025)7Figure China Car Care Products Consumption Market Share by Applications in 20178Figure Individual Use Examples8Figure Commercial Use Examples9Enquiry 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 Global Rapeseed Oil Market Report: Anticipated to Reach US$ 16,884.7 Mn during Forecast Period 2017-2022 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=132 https://www.factmr.com/report/132/rapeseed-oil-market https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=D&rep_id=132 https://www.factmr.com/ A fresh study, covering Rapeseed Oil Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Review 2017 to 2022 has been broadcasted to wide online repository of Fact MR, which presents deep focus on the Food & Beverages Market. This smart study contains precise data that offers a clear insight about market current scenario and future projections for the benefit of readers. Moreover, the study enclosed significant data which tends to make the research a powerful source for analysts and industry experts who are looking to gain necessary knowledge about the prevailing market trends, opportunities and drivers present in the Rapeseed Oil Market.Request For Sample Report-Europe Set to Dominate the Global MarketThe global rapeseed oil market finds higher market attractiveness in the Europe region. Europe is much suited and favorable for the rapeseed oil and it is anticipated that this trend is most likely to continue over the forecasted period of 2017 to 2022. It is expected to grow at a moderate rate at a CAGR of 5% as far as Europe is concerned, during the entire period of forecast. Following Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region is also showing good potential for growth of rapeseed oil consumption and stands second to Europe, followed by Japan, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and North America.Food Services Segment Outpaces Retail by Few MilesThe food services segment and retail segment by the end user type, are the two fast running segments, as per the market observations provided in the report. The food service segment reflects higher growth rate as compared to retail, to reach a CAGR of 4.3% and is expected to outpace the retail segment by few miles during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022. Both these segments are anticipated to show a gain in the BPS by the end of 2022 and also have less difference in the revenue market share, yet the food services segment overpowers retail in this aspect too.The Online Segment by Distribution Channel Analysis to Show Higher Growth as Modern Trade Segment Stoops DownThe online segment by distribution channel is poised to run at a comparatively higher growth rate to show a CAGR of 4.5% during the forecasted period of 2017 to 2022. The modern trade segment seems to have slowed down a bit and is expected to lose BPS by the end of 2022. Yet it has a higher market share by revenue than other segments. The online segment, with this rate, can be predicted to gain a plus in its current market share by revenue and probably might even outpace modern trade. The specialty stores segment has even higher growth rate than the online segment and is poised to have a higher gain in the BPS by the end of 2022. It seconds the modern trade in terms of market revenue share in 2017.Virgin to Lose BPS, Slows Down During the Forecasted PeriodVirgin segment by product type is poised to run at a slower rate, observing its current rate and market share analysis, and is expected to experience a loss in the BPS by the 2022 end. However, the processed segment by product type gains higher speed to reflect a CAGR of 4.2% during the period of forecast and is expected to grab a higher market share by revenue as well. A market share, almost double than that of the virgin segment, processed segment by product type is also expected to have a higher gain in the BPS by the end of 2022.Competition TrackingThe report also profiles companies that are expected to remain active in the expansion of the global rapeseed oil market through 2022, which include The Adani Wilmar Ltd., Ruchi Soya Industries Limited, Associated British Foods plc., Cargill Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Company, Bunge Limited, Adams Group Inc., American Vegetable Oils, Inc., Grief Inc. (Olympic Oils Limited), Borges International Group S.L.U, Marico Limited, Fuji Oil Holdings Inc., Louis Dreyfus Company and ConAgra Foods (Agrotech Foods Ltd).Browse Full Report With TOC-Table of ContentGlobal Rapeseed Oil Market - Executive SummaryGlobal Rapeseed Oil Market Overview2.1. Introduction2.1.1. Global Rapeseed Oil Market Taxonomy2.1.2. Global Rapeseed Oil Market Definition2.2. Global Rapeseed Oil Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-20222.2.1. Global Rapeseed Oil Market Y-o-Y Growth2.3. Global Rapeseed Oil Market Dynamics2.3.1. Drivers2.3.2. Restraints2.3.3. Trends2.4. Supply Chain2.5. Cost Structure2.6. Pricing Analysis2.7. Raw Material Sourcing Strategy and Analysis2.8. List of Distributors2.9. Key Participants Market Presence (Intensity Map) By RegionGlobal Rapeseed Oil Market Analysis and Forecast By Product Type3.1. Global Rapeseed Oil Market Size and Forecast By Product Type, 2012-20223.1.1. Processed Rapeseed Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20223.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region3.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region3.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region3.1.2. Virgin Rapeseed Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20223.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region3.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region3.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By RegionGlobal Rapeseed Oil Market Analysis and Forecast By End User4.1. Global Rapeseed Oil Market Size and Forecast By End User, 2012-20224.1.1. Food Service Rapeseed Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.2. Food Processor Rapeseed Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.3. Retail Rapeseed Oil Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20224.1.3.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.3.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.3.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By RegionRequest For Discount On This Report-About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; thats why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web: Animal Healthcare Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012-2016 and Forecast 2017-2023 Animal Healthcare Market https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-animal-healthcare-market/#ulp-4H8Z4LpNMLEuOnnx https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-animal-healthcare-market/#ulp-c654SbFYO64MsOhu https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-animal-healthcare-market/#ulp-14mlyhjMGhVjZqa3 https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-animal-healthcare-market/ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com Animals have become essential part of human life and practice of pastoralism has become routine in many agrarian societies across the globe. Animal healthcare considered as essential part of livestock and companion animal disease management. The fundamental of animal healthcare is to minimize pain, injury, and disease by means of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Animal healthcare has become essential part of herd management in order to avoid loss of animal due to diseases. Animals have long been considered as source of food for the human being and its been shifting towards companionship to the humans. As there is a growing interaction between humans and animals prompting the key stakeholders to give attention for animal healthcare.Animal healthcare market is expected to grow positively over the forecast period owing to increasing incidences of zoonotic disease in several developed and developing countries. According to U.S. Centre for disease control and prevention (CDC) every year tens of thousands of people get sick due to disease spread from animals to humans and it is believed that more than 6 out of every 10 known infectious diseases in people are spread from animals, and 3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases in people are spread from animals. Moreover, factors like increased adoption of companion animals in emerging countries, rising consumption of meat expected to fuel the market for animal healthcare products over the forecast period. Apart from aforementioned dynamics, factors like increased instances of disease outbreaks in animals, and large scale production of animals in the form of factory farming expected to boost the animal healthvcaremarket. However, lack of animal disease knowledge pattern among veterinarians and increasing regulatory requirements owing to frequent misuse of medicinal feed additives expected to hamper the growth of animal healthcare market over the forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @Animal healthcare market has been segmented on the basis of product type, animal type, distribution channel, and regionBased on product type, animal healthcare market has been segmented into the following: Drugs Antibiotics Antifungal Ectoparasiticides Endoparacitides Endectoparaciticides Anti-inflammatory Drugs Drugs for Chronic Diseases Others Vaccines Feed Additives Nutritional Feed Additives Medicinal Feed AdditivesBased on animal type, animal healthcare market has been segmented into the following: Farm Animals Livestock Poultry Swine Equine Companion Animals Feline Canine Avian AquacultureBased on dosage form, animal healthcare market has been segmented into the following: Orals Parenterals Topicals OthersBased on Distribution Channel, animal healthcare market has been segmented into the following: Veterinary Pharmacies Veterinary Hospitals Veterinary Clinics E-CommerceTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Market for animal healthcare products is competitive with several local and multinational players in the market. Multinational animal healthcare products marketers holds significant market share with diverse product offerings. Market is consolidating as large players complementing each others businesses by means of mergers and acquisitions. For instance, in June 2016, Sanofi swapped animal health business (Merial) with Boehringer Ingelheims consumer healthcare (CHC) business, this helped both organizations to better align the future growth objectives. Moreover players in the animal healthcare market coming up product innovation to garner larger market share in the market. In 2014, Merial launched NextGaurd form a soy based chew with an irresistible beef flavour for flea and tick control in dogs.Need more information about this report @Animal healthcare market has been segmented on the basis of region into North Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa. North America dominated the animal healthcare market with largest market share growing at moderate CAGR. There has been increase in awareness among cattlemen in U.S. regarding animal rearing, animal health and proper vaccination and judicious use of antibiotics in animals owing to this the prevalence of communicable diseases decreased over a period of time. For instance, the prevalence of the disease Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States is less than 1 case per million adult cattle. Asia pacific market expected to grow at significant rate owing large pool of animal population coupled with increased incidences of several communicable diseases. Middle East and Africa region witnessing robust growth in animal healthcare owing to availability of cheap drugs imported from Asia and Europe regions.Some of the players in the animal healthcare market include Boehringer Ingelheim Gmbh, Zoetis Inc., Elanco, Merck & Co. Inc., Bayer Animal Health, Virbac SA, Ceva Sante Animale, Vetquinol SA to name a few.Get access to full summary @About Precision Business InsightsPrecision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and business consulting firm, which follow a holistic approach to solve needs of the clients. We adopt and implement proven research methodologies to achieve better results. We help our clients by providing actionable insights and strategies to make better decisions. We provide consulting, syndicated and customised market research services based on our client needs.Contact to Precision Business Insights,Kemp House,152 160 City Road,London EC1V 2NXEmail: sales@precisionbusinessinsights.comToll Free (US): +1-866-598-1553Website @ Blood and Fluid Warming System Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/966 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/blood-and-fluid-warming-system-market-966 http://www.coherentchronicle.com Hypothermia is a medical condition in which the body temperature drops below 95-degree Fahrenheit, mainly due to prolonged exposure to cold environment, where the person is incapable to breathe and hence, pulse gets slow down. It mainly occurs among very young and very old people and causes fatigue, weakness, drowsiness, and lethargy. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2011, hypothermia is mainly susceptible in malnourished children as they have low metabolic rate to produce heat energy. Hypothermia depends on persons weight, body fat, age, and body mass. Moreover, people suffering from memory disorder, strokes, paralysis, diabetes, severe trauma, and hypothyroidism are more susceptible to hypothermia and takes prolong healing time. Hypothermia can also occur during surgery due to heavy dose of anesthetic drug. Hospitals use blood and fluid warmer system to monitor and control the patients body temperature to avoid hypothermia. Monitoring of temperature is vital during patients stay in the hospital, allows doctor to provide proper treatment.To get holistic SAMPLE with TOC @Introduction of breakthrough technology which is capable to meet the key parameters, is expected to propel the growth of blood and fluid warming system marketIn 2014, soldiers of Israel defense force invented a breakthrough technology for blood and IV fluids, named - QinFlows Warrior Modular System. It is a leveraging patented technology, which is capable to meet various key performance parameters such as flexibility in the power source, warming capacity, warming range, flow rates, and warming speed. Additionally, it is highly reliable and precise, capable to identify the blockages, air bubble, and reversed flow. Warrior modular system is lightweight, has high performance, and consist of modular battery- and AC-operable system of affordable price.Moreover, the 37 Company launched new blood and fluid warming system, named - Fluido Compact in 2015. Fluido Compact offer features such as safety, cost effectiveness due to low operational cost, free maintenance, and easy to handle. Additionally, the compact system operated on a single button with instinctive control panel enables outstanding features such as interchangeable disposable sets and temperature sensors, which helps IV fluids to target the temperature within 30 seconds and consist a cassette and patient line of 40 cm. High cost and disposable nature of blood and fluid warming system are some of the factors hampering the market growth.Increasing incidence of hypothermic condition and its associated adverse outcomes is expected to propel the market growthAccording to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in U.S., around 16,911 of total deaths were reported and nearly 1,301 people were reported with natural cold during 1999 2011. As per CDC, highest rate of deaths accounted to around 1,536 were estimated due to hypothermia in 2010 and lowest rate estimated to around 1,058 deaths in 2006, of which approximately 67% hypothermia-related deaths occurred in males. Increasing number of hypothermia related cases in cold countries is expected to fuel the growth of blood and fluid warming system market during the forecast period.Some of the key players operating in the global blood and fluid warming system market include Smiths Medical, 3M Company, CareFusion, Becton, The 37Company, Dickinson and Company, Meridian Medical Systems, Barkey GmbH, GE Healthcare, and EMIT Corporation.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: Breast Biopsy Devices Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012-2016 and Forecast 2017-2023 Breast Biopsy Devices Market https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-breast-biopsy-devices-market/#ulp-4H8Z4LpNMLEuOnnx https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-breast-biopsy-devices-market/#ulp-c654SbFYO64MsOhu https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-breast-biopsy-devices-market/#ulp-14mlyhjMGhVjZqa3 https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-breast-biopsy-devices-market/ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com Increase in the global breast cancer prevalence rate, changes in lifestyle such as consumption of tobacco, alcohol and food habits, growing in the female population with hormonal imbalance, an increase in the breast cancer screening programs around the globe are anticipated to fuel the breast biopsy devices market over the forecast period. In addition, technological advancements with minimally invasive or non-invasive diagnostic procedure, favourable reimbursement policies, and rising investment by the companies for R&D activities are expected to boost the breast biopsy devices market. However, stringent regulatory guidelines, infections associated with the breast biopsy devices, and the high cost of the procedures are dampening the growth of breast biopsy devices market.A sample of this report is available upon request @Breast biopsy devices market segmented based on device type, procedure type, guidance type, and end userBased on the device type, breast biopsy devices market is segmented into the following: Needles Forceps Guns OthersBased on the procedure type, breast biopsy devices market is segmented into the following: Core needle biopsy Vacuum-assisted core biopsy Fine needle aspiration biopsy Stereotactic core needle biopsy Surgical biopsy OthersBased on guidance type, breast biopsy devices market is segmented into the following: Ultrasound-guided biopsy Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided biopsy Mammography guided stereotactic guided biopsy OthersBased on the end user, breast biopsy devices market is segmented into the following: Hospitals Clinics Ambulatory surgical centres LaboratoriesTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Breast biopsy devices market is growing at a significant CAGR over the forecast period. The breast biopsy is mandatory for the diagnosis of breast cancer which cannot be confirmed by breast mammograms. Increase in the global breast cancer incidences (according to World Cancer Research Fund International, about 1.7 Mn new cases were observed in 2012) propels the breast cancer devices market over the forecast period. Acquisitions and mergers, collaborations, patent approvals, and technological advancements are the key strategies followed by the companies for increasing their revenue in the breast biopsy devices market. For instance, in 2014, Leica Biosystems (Danaher Corporation) acquired Devicor Medical Products for strengthening its breast biopsy devices portfolio. Moreover, In January 2015, Intact Medical Corporation received FDA approval for the minimally-invasive breast biopsy device. In addition, fundraising by the start-up companies for the innovation of novel devices also propels the breast biopsy devices market over the forecast period.Need more information about this report @Geographically, breast biopsy devices market is segmented into Europe, Latin America, North America, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific. North America has a lucrative growth in breast biopsy devices market owing to increase in the prevalence of breast cancer (according to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention 2014, about 236,968 women and 2,141 men were diagnosed with breast cancer in U.S.), technological advancements, and increase in healthcare expenditure in the region. Europe has a significant share owing to rise in prevalence of breast cancer majorly in Italy, Greece, Finland, Germany, and Netherlands where the prevalence rate is approximately more than 400 per 100,000 population. In addition, high adoption of novel technologies, development in healthcare infrastructure, changes in lifestyle, and government initiations to create awareness about breast cancer diagnosis programs are anticipated to fuel the breast biopsy devices market. Asia Pacific is an emerging region for the breast biopsy devices market due to rise in female geriatric population majorly in Japan, China, and India. Moreover, increase in per capita income, rise in awareness about the breast cancer diagnosis, and rise in R&D for developing the minimally invasive procedures are driving the breast biopsy devices market.Some of the players in breast biopsy devices market are Medtronic, Inc. (Ireland), Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), Hologic Inc. (U.S.), C.R. Bard, Inc. (U.S.), Planmed Oy (Finland), Scion Medical Technologies, LLC (U.S.), and Leica Biosystems (Danaher Corporation) to name a few.Get access to full summary @About Precision Business InsightsPrecision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and business consulting firm, which follow a holistic approach to solve needs of the clients. We adopt and implement proven research methodologies to achieve better results. We help our clients by providing actionable insights and strategies to make better decisions. We provide consulting, syndicated and customised market research services based on our client needs.Contact to Precision Business Insights,Kemp House,152 160 City Road,London EC1V 2NXEmail: sales@precisionbusinessinsights.comToll Free (US): +1-866-598-1553Website @ HbA1c Testing Devices Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/945 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/hba1c-testing-devices-market-945 http://www.coherentchronicle.com HbA1c test is used to screen and diagnose for diabetes and prediabetes in patients. Hemoglobin molecule from the blood cell sticks to the glucose that gives rise to glycosylated hemoglobin molecule termed as hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C). Patients with high glucose level have more HbA1C present in blood. Average blood glucose level of a person can be diagnosed by measuring this glycosylated hemoglobin molecule. It is important for diabetic patient to know the glucose level, as there might be risk of diabetes related complications. HbA1c test is considered more effective than checking the blood glucose level. Blood glucose level gives the presence of glucose at a single point time whereas, the HbA1c test gives blood glucose level status for 2-3 months.To get holistic SAMPLE with TOC @Increase in healthcare expenditure over diabetes management is owing to the growth of HbA1c testing devices marketGrowing diabetes patient population globally is one of the important factor driving the growth HbA1c testing devices market. According to World Health Organization (WHO), the number of patients with diabetes has increased from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. Around 5 million deaths were reported in 2015 due to diabetes and 2.2 million deaths were attributed to high blood glucose level. The data given by International Diabetes Federation showed the expenditure of 673 billion USD on diabetes in 2015. Additionally, rise prescription by physicians for HbA1c test is contributing to the growth of HbA1c testing devices market. Moreover, factors such as growing awareness about diabetes preventive care, rise in geriatric and obese population which are more prone to diabetes, upgrading technologies for management of diabetes are expected to fuel the growth of HbA1c testing devices market. However, some factors are likely to hamper the growth of HbA1c testing devices market, such as high cost of testing devices and limitations for the results of certain population, which include pregnant women, elder people, and non-Hispanic black. HbA1c testing devices market have opportunities in future, due to untapped market and rise in demand for medical tourism.Rising diabetic population is attributed to the growth of HbA1c testing devices market in Asia PacificRegional segmentation of HbA1c testing devices market by Coherent Market Insights comprises of North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. The increase in number of patient population in North America is fuelling the growth of HbA1c testing devices market. Furthermore, the factors like established healthcare infrastructure and adoption to the technologically advanced medical devices, are helping North America to dominate in the HbA1c testing devices market. According to recent data given by International Diabetes Federation, there are around 109 million people in China and 69 million people in India with diabetes. The large number of diabetic population, unmet health needs, and development in healthcare sector are fuelling the growth of HbA1c testing devices market in Asia Pacific.Product development is helping the organizations in HbA1c testing devices market to hold the top positionKey industry players operating the global HbA1c market includes Abbott Laboratories, Transasia Biomedicals limited, Alere Incorporated, Arkray Incorporated, Danaher Co., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Siemens Healthcare, F.Hoffmann-La Roche Limited, and Trinity Biotech Plc. The industry players are likely to get involved in product development for higher accuracy, reliable results, and quicker turnaround time for the analyzers. The factors like product development and approval of devices for diagnosis of diabetes are helping the organizations to hold the maximum share in the HbA1c testing devices market.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: Chagas Disease Treatment Market, By Distribution Channel (Hospitals pharmacy and Retail Pharmacy) - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/934 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/chagas-disease-treatment-market-934 http://www.coherentchronicle.com American trypanosomiasis also known as Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T.cruzi), which is transmitted by the bite of triatomine bugs. The parasites hide during the day time and become active at night and feed on human blood. T. cruzi can also be transmitted by food contaminated with the parasite, blood transfusion, transmission from infected mother to newborn during gestational period, organ transplant, and laboratory accidents. Its symptoms are not severe and are often not diagnosed. The parasites hide mainly in the heart and digestive muscles during the chronic phase. After years of chronic infection, it become an important cause of human heart diseases (30 %), megacolon, and megaseophagus. Chagas disease is one of the neglected parasitic infection in the U.S., however it is targeted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for community health action. People living in rural part of Latin America are primarily affected by Chagas disease. It is mostly found in the 21 endemic regions of Latin American countries.To get holistic SAMPLE with TOC @According to a report by WHO, 2017, over the past few decades, there has been increase in the detection of chagas disease in Canada, European region, and western pacific countries mainly due to increasing influx in the population of Latin America According to Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in 2017, around 300,000 people are estimated to be affected by chagas disease in the U.S. Furthermore, World Health Organization (WHO) stated that, around 6 million to 7 million people are expected to be affected by chagas disease in 2017. Vector control is the most useful method to prevent the spread of Chagas disease in Latin America. High incidence rate and easy transmission mode is expected to increase the demand for treatment of Chagas disease. Non availability of vaccines and biological treatment, is expected to create opportunity for the market players.Unmet need of safe and effective drugs is expected to fuel the chagas disease treatment market growthCountries like Venezuela have successful vector control program based on the improved rural housing and vector control. The use of nitro derivative compound drugs, which are associated with the host immune response, help to keep the disease in check and to avoid parasite proliferation. None of the drug are able to completely cure the disease. Drugs used for the treatment of Chagas disease, benznidazole, and nifurtimox, have serious side effects such as headache, skin rashes, photosensitivity, chest pain, dizziness, nausea, insomnia, jaundice and among others. Medication with less side effects is the unmet need of the chagas disease treatment market. Active partnership of state and local health department to educate them the way to take care of patients, is expected to propel the chagas disease treatment market growth in the near future.Approval of first safe and effective therapy for Chagas disease by FDA, expected to propel the market players to develop novel drugsIn 2017, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved benznidazole for use in children between the age 2 and 12 years affected from chagas disease. It is the first approved safe and effective therapeutics in U.S. for the chagas disease treatment. FDA granted benznidazole priority review and orphan product designation, as it is a rare disease and there have been no approved drugs for its treatment in U.S. This approval is expected to propel the manufacturers to develop new drugs and biological products for the prevention and treatment of rare disease. Some of the major players operating in the global chagas disease treatment market include F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Bayer AG., and ELEA SACIF Laboratory.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: Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Market to Expand at Competent CAGR of 0.35% between 2018-2025 QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1617065&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1617065&type=D Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the Body Temperature Monitoring Devices market status and outlook of Europe and major countries, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in Europe and major countries, and splits the Body Temperature Monitoring Devices market by product type and applications/end industries.Europe plays important roles in global market, with market size of 906 million USD in 2018 and will be 932 million USD in 2025, with a CAGR of 0.35%.The thorough examination on the Europe market for Body Temperature Monitoring Devices added to our immense vault of market reports is an extensive asset for existing and new organizations on the lookout for data to strategize their marketing techniques. The report discusses various segments in the Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices market through broad primary and auxiliary research so as to increase valuable information and the most recent market trends included in it.The report starts with a lowdown of the Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices market which incorporates the services and offerings related the business alongside the revenue generated in the market. The report at that point goes ahead to explain on the different elements affecting and countervailing market development.Get Free Report Sample and Customization:The major players in Europe market include3MA& D MedicalBraunAmerican Diagnostic CorporationBriggs HealthcareExergen CorporationEasywell BiomedicalHicks ThermometersBeurerTECNIMEDHartmannWelch AllynTo provide intelligent insights in view of the Europe vendor scene in the market for Body Temperature Monitoring Devices, the report considers the key players working in the market and profiles them thoroughly. It considers their different offerings, their techniques for developing deals and incomes, and furthermore their production strategies. The report uses appropriate expository equipment, such as SWOT analysis and Porter's Five Forces, to make sense of the different threats and challenges that the Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices market is probably going to witness.Market division in light of different parameters has additionally been received as a piece of the report technique to pick up learning in regards to the most encouraging and growing segment. This would empower key market players to wager appropriate on the Europe market for Body Temperature Monitoring Devices. The report likewise offers profitable data on the size and offer of different sections and the general size of the market. Making use chronicled and current information, the report imagines to comprehend the growth opportunities in the market for Body Temperature Monitoring Devices in the forthcoming years.The comprehensible data in the industry offers insight regarding the Europe market for Body Temperature Monitoring Devices, which is segmented into diagrams, tables, pictures, and divisions with the goal that perusers can easily digest without much of a stretch.Table of Contents1 Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Body Temperature Monitoring Devices11.2 Classification of Body Temperature Monitoring Devices by Product Category21.2.1 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales Comparison by Types (2013-2025)21.2.2 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales Market Share by Types in 201731.3 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Market by Applications/End Users51.4 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Market by Countries71.5 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Market Size141.5.1 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2025)141.5.2 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2025)152 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices by Companies, Type and Application172.1 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Market Competition by Companies172.1.1 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Market Share of Key Players (2013-2018)172.1.2 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Revenue and Share by Companies (2013-2018)192.2 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices (Revenue and Sales) by Type212.2.1 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)212.2.2 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)232.3 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices (Revenue and Sales) by Countries252.4 Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales by Application29Get discount copy @3 Germany Body Temperature Monitoring Devices (Revenue, Sales and Price)313.1 Germany Body Temperature Monitoring Devices (Revenue and Sales) (2013-2018)313.1.1 Germany Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)313.1.2 Germany Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)323.1.3 Germany Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)333.2 Germany Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Market Share by Companies333.3 Germany Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Market Share by Type353.4 Germany Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Market Share by Applications364 UK Body Temperature Monitoring Devices (Revenue, Sales and Price)384.1 UK Body Temperature Monitoring Devices (Revenue and Sales) (2013-2018)384.1.1 UK Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)384.1.2 UK Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)394.1.3 UK Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)404.2 UK Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Market Share by Companies404.3 UK Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Market Share by Type424.4 UK Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales and Market Share by Applications43List of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of Body Temperature Monitoring Devices1Table Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales (K Units) and Growth Rate Comparison by Types (2013-2025)2Figure Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales (K Units) Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 20173Figure Digital Thermometer Product Picture3Figure Infrared Thermometer Product Picture4Figure Temperature Trend Indicators Product Picture4Figure Mercury Based Thermometer Product Picture5Table Europe Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Sales (K Units) Comparison by Applications (2013-2025)5Figure Europe Sales Market Share of Body Temperature Monitoring Devices by Applications in 20176Table Europe Market Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Revenue (Million USD) Comparison by Regions 2013-20257Figure Germany Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)8Figure France Body Temperature Monitoring Devices Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)9About 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 The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Linalool Market 2018 Key Regions with Sales, Revenue & Share QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1594074&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1594074&type=D Qyresearchreports include new market research report "EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Linalool Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the Linalool market status and outlook of EMEA and major regions, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in EMEA and major countries, and splits the Linalool market by product type and applications/end industries.The EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Linalool market dynamics is influenced and shaped by a variety of regional as well as EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) trends, an incisive analysis of which forms the core of this study. The analysis of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Linalool market begins with elaborating on the market definition and scope, industry chain overview, and the key elements of business regulatory landscape. The research further offers insights into key adoption trends, emerging business models, and recent technological advances affecting the growth trajectory. The study on the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Linalool market then presents detailed assessment of the governmental regulations and recent paradigmatic changes in related industries expected to positively impact the course of the market. The analysis tracks key developments in the competitive landscape and highlights the introduction of new services and products. Innovative launches expected to create promising avenues in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Linalool market are also covered in the report. The study also takes a closer look at share and size of top players.Fill the form to get free report sample on this market @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share (%) and growth Rate (%) of Linalool in these regions, from 2013 to 2024 (forecast), coveringEurope covers Germany, France, Spain, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands;Middle East includes Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;Africa includes South Africa and Egypt.Market participants and business executives striving to gain evidence-based insights into lucrative and lackluster trends will find the study helpful. Opinion leaders and policy makers as well as new entrants and emerging players in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Linalool market wanting to keep a tab on disruptive business models can glean through the report. The study also tracks administrative nuances affecting the governmental spending in emerging economies aimed at create new opportunities in the Linalool market. Prominent players exploring new streams in untapped markets can base their strategies on the research findings. The study on the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Linalool market employs tools such as SWOT analysis and Porters five forces analysis to ascertain the intensity of the competitive. Investments into research and development activities to sustain the spirit of innovation are also highlighted in the analysis. Furthermore, perusing the report will enable market participants to gain an insight into disruptive offerings.Table of Contents1 Linalool Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Linalool11.2 Classification of Linalool by Product Category21.2.1 EMEA Linalool Sales (MT) Comparison by Types (2017-2024)21.2.2 EMEA Linalool Sales Market Share (%) by Types in 201731.2.3 Natural Linalool31.2.4 Synthetic Linalool41.3 EMEA Linalool Market by Applications/End Users41.4 EMEA Linalool Market Overview by Regions81.5 EMEA Market Size (Sales and Revenue) of Linalool (2013-2024)101.5.1 EMEA Linalool Sales (MT) and Growth Rate (%) (2013-2024)101.5.2 EMEA Linalool Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)112 EMEA Linalool Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Regions, Type and Application122.1 EMEA Linalool Market Competition by Players/ Manufacturers122.1.1 EMEA Linalool Sales (MT) and Market Share of Major Players (2013-2018)122.1.2 EMEA Linalool Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Players (2013-2018)132.1.3 EMEA Linalool Sale Price (USD/Kg) by Players (2013-2018)152.2 EMEA Linalool Sales and Revenue by Type/Product Category162.2.1 EMEA Linalool Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Type (2013-2018)162.2.2 EMEA Linalool Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Type (2013-2018)182.2.3 EMEA Linalool Sale Price (USD/Kg) by Type (2013-2018)19To Get Discount of this Report Click here @3 Europe Linalool (Sales, Revenue and Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application253.1 Europe Linalool Sales (MT) and Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)253.1.1 Europe Linalool Sales (MT) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)253.1.2 Europe Linalool Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (%) (2013-2018)263.2 Europe Linalool Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Type263.3 Europe Linalool Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Applications273.4 Europe Linalool Sales (MT) and Revenue (Million USD) by Countries284 Middle East Linalool (Sales, Revenue and Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application384.1 Middle East Linalool Sales and Revenue (2013-2018)384.1.1 Middle East Linalool Sales (MT) and Growth Rate (%) (2013-2018)384.1.2 Middle East Linalool Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (%) (2013-2018)394.2 Middle East Linalool Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Type394.3 Middle East Linalool Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Applications404.4 Middle East Linalool Sales (MT) and Revenue (Million USD) by Countries (2013-2018)41List of Tables and FiguresFigure Linalool Chemical Structure1Figure Picture of Linalool1Table Specifications of Linalool1Table EMEA Linalool Sales (MT) Market Split by Product Type2Figure EMEA Linalool Sales Market Share (%) by Types in 20173Table EMEA Linalool Sales (MT) by Application (2017-2024)4Figure EMEA Sales Market Share (%) of Linalool by Applications in 20175Table EMEA Market Linalool Revenue (Million USD) Comparison by Regions 2013-20248Figure Europe Linalool Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)8Figure Middle East Linalool Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)9Figure Africa Linalool Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)9About 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 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Market 2018 Key Players : BASF SE, Solenis, Tianma, Ingredion QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1594075&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1594075&type=D Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Market Research Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the Paper Dry Strength Agent market status and outlook of Europe and major countries, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in Europe and major countries, and splits the Paper Dry Strength Agent market by product type and applications/end industries.The Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent market has been explained in details in the report. It offers various crucial statistics pertaining to the revenue, products and applications, and geography of the market. Apart from that, the report also collates information on the different macro-fundamentals and other factors promoting or hindering the Europe market for Paper Dry Strength Agent.The report on the Europe market for Paper Dry Strength Agent sheds light on the vendor landscape too, to understand which ones are leaders and the winning strategy that have helped them to attain that position. It also tries to uncover the challenges they are facing from newcomers. Mergers and acquisitions and other competitive strategies of the players are also been analyzed in great details.Fill the form for an exclusive free sample of this report @The major players in Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent market includeCargillRoquetteAvebeADMGrain Processing Corporation (GPC)IngredionSeiko Pmc CorporationKemiraBASF SEHarima Chemicals GroupArakawachemSolenisTianmaThe report sets out with the description of the market, the industry chain associated with product manufacturing, or creation of services, and the policies and plans needed to sustain the involved processes. A thorough cost structure has also been given in the market wherein, pricing of each product and service, profits or losses incurred, and supply demand dynamics are described in great detail.The report ensures that readers as well as businesses interested in working in the Paper Dry Strength Agent market get an exhaustive insight about all relevant details. Reliable analytical tools such as SWOT analysis, return analysis, Porters five forces model, and others, are mainly used to explain the Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent market in this report.The report assesses the size of the Europe market for Paper Dry Strength Agent by factoring in the overall sales and revenues. It also captures crucial data on the vendor landscape and various segments, leveraging secondary research. Primary research has been leveraged to gain other valuable insights regarding the trajectory of the market for Paper Dry Strength Agent.Table of Contents1 Paper Dry Strength Agent Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Paper Dry Strength Agent11.2 Classification of Paper Dry Strength Agent by Product Category11.2.1 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) Comparison by Types (2013-2024)11.2.2 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) Market Share (%) by Types (Product Category) in 201721.2.3 Natural Dry Agents (e.g. modified and unmodified starches)21.2.4 Synthetic Dry Agents (e.g. PAM/PAE/GPAM)31.3 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Market by Applications/End Users41.4 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Market by Countries61.5 Europe Market Size (Revenue and Sales) of Paper Dry Strength Agent (2013-2024)142 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent by Players, Type and Application172.1 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Market Competition by Players/Suppliers172.1.1 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) of Key Players (2013-2018)172.1.2 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Revenue (Million USD) and Share (%) by Players (2013-2018)202.2 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent (Revenue and Sales) by Type232.2.1 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Type (2013-2018)232.2.2 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Revenue and Market Share (%) by Type (2013-2018)252.3 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent (Revenue and Sales) by Countries272.4 Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) by Application31Get discount copy @3 Germany Paper Dry Strength Agent (Revenue, Sales and Price)333.1 Germany Paper Dry Strength Agent (Revenue and Sales) (2013-2018)333.1.1 Germany Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Growth Rate (%) (2013-2018)333.1.2 Germany Paper Dry Strength Agent Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (%) (2013-2018)343.1.3 Germany Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)353.2 Germany Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Players/Supplier353.3 Germany Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Type373.4 Germany Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Applications384 Finland Paper Dry Strength Agent (Revenue, Sales and Price)404.1 Finland Paper Dry Strength Agent (Revenue and Sales) (2013-2018)404.1.1 Finland Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Growth Rate (%) (2013-2018)404.1.2 Finland Paper Dry Strength Agent Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (%) (2013-2018)414.1.3 Finland Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)424.2 Finland Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Players/Supplier424.3 Finland Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Type444.4 Finland Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Market Share (%) by Applications45List of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of Paper Dry Strength Agent1Table Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) and Growth Rate (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2013-2024)1Figure Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) Market Share (%) by Types (Product Category) in 20172Table Natural Dry Agents (e.g. modified and unmodified starches) Product Picture2Table Synthetic Dry Agents (e.g. PAM/PAE/GPAM) Product Picture3Table Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Sales (MT) Comparison by Applications (2013-2024)4Figure Europe Sales Market Share (%) of Paper Dry Strength Agent by Applications in 20174Table Europe Market Paper Dry Strength Agent Revenue (Million USD) Comparison by Regions 2013-20246Figure Europe Paper Dry Strength Agent Revenue (Million USD) Comparison by Countries (2013-2024)7Figure Germany Paper Dry Strength Agent Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)8About 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 Schistosomiasis Treatment Market By Drug (Praziquantel, Metrifonate, Biltricide, Oxamniquine, Others) - Insights, Trends, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/889 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/schistosomiasis-treatment-market-889 http://www.coherentchronicle.com Schistosomiasis is a disease caused by infection with freshwater parasitic worms. It can be acute or chronic infection mainly caused by parasitic worms blood flukes (trematode worms). There are two forms of schistosomiasis, such as intestinal and urogenital. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) reports in 2017, urogenital schistosomiasis is a high risk factor for the transmission of HIV infection in women. People usually get infected during agriculture, domestic, and occupational activities, which exposes them to infected water resulting into immune reactions. Symptoms in intestinal schistosomiasis infected patient shows various symptoms such as, abdominal pain, diarrhea, liver and spleen enlargement, fibrosis of the bladder, and progressive damage of kidney. Other chronic symptoms includes blood in stool, blood in urea, genital lesions, nodules in vulva, seizures, paralysis, seminal vesicle, and vaginal bleeding. This symptoms could result into urogenital related schistosomiasis complications, such as bladder cancer, and long term irreversible consequences such as infertility.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 218 million people required preventive treatments for schistosomiasis in 2015 and more than 66.5 million people were reported as treated for schistosomiasis in the same year. Further, WHO states that the transmission of schistosomiasis was reported in 78 countries. Schistosomiasis treatment is a major concern due to lack of proper medication and vaccination. Preventive chemotherapy for schistosomiasis includes praziquantel, metrifonate, and oxamniquine.To get holistic SAMPLE with TOC @Development of novel vaccines for the treatment of schistosomiasis is expected to propel the growth of schistosomiasis treatment marketAccording to the University of Nottingham in 2017, researchers have discovered the infiltrin protein on a parasitic egg, which may be responsible for this infectious disease. This discovery is expected create opportunities for targeted development of vaccination and treatments. Moreover, the College of Science at Oregon State University (OSU), discovered the new protein in Biomphalaria glabrata snail, known as Grctm6 in 2017. Research is in progresses use this protein as a biocontrol agent against schistosomiasis.Dr. Afzal Siddiqui, a professor at the Tech Health Sciences Center, in 2015, received a patent for vaccine to treat schistosomiasis. The vaccine demonstrated successful results in pre-clinical trials and is undergoing clinical trials for safety and efficacy evaluation. Patent applications have also been filed in China, India, and Brazil. Dr. Siddiqui intends to develop and distribute this vaccine at affordable rates for the infected people. This is expected to stimulate growth in the schistosomiasis treatment market in future.Increasing demand for preventive chemotherapy against schistosomiasis is expected to favor the growth of schistosomiasis treatment marketAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2017, around 92% people require preventive chemotherapy for schistosomiasis in Africa. Around 75% of school aged children are at risk of morbidity from schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis. Further, 78% of the economies have an epidemic outbreak of schistosomiasis and 52% of those countries require preventive chemotherapy. Also, the as per the WHO estimates, globally 207.7 million people required preventive chemotherapy in 2016, among them around 111.8 million were school-aged children. Increasing prevalence in schistosomiasis and its complications is a major driving factor that would fuel the growth of schistosomiasis treatment market in near future. Lack of hygienic environment and safe drinking water in emerging economies is expected to propel the growth of Schistosomiasis market.In May 2017, Global Schistosomiasis Alliance organized the worlds Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) program hosted by World Health Organizations (WHO). Many organization from various economies supported this schistosomiasis control initiative program, which include Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Research for Control and Elimination (SCORE), Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, The Federal Ministry of Health Ethiopia (FMHE), and The Ministry of Health (MoH).The major players in schistosomiasis treatment market include, Chemos GmbH & Co. KG,Shin Poong Pharma.Co. Ltd., Meher Distributors Pvt. Ltd., Merck & Co., Salvensis, Bayer AG, LondonPharma Ltd, Merck & Co., Inc., 3S Corporation Kancera AB, aj Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Avanscure Lifesciences Pvt. Ltd, CBC Pharma., VHB Life Science Inc., Samarth Pharma Pvt. Ltd., Taj Pharmaceuticals Ltd.,and Egyptian International Pharmaceuticals Industries Co SAE (EIPICO). These companies offer various drugs, which are being used for preventive chemotherapy.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: United States Otoscope Market 2018 Competitive Strategies and Outlook : Dino-Lite, MedRx, Inventis, Xion QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1594113&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1594113&type=D Qyresearchreports include new market research report "United States Otoscope Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the Otoscope market status and outlook of United States and major regions, from angles of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top manufacturers in United States and major regions, and splits the Otoscope market by product type and applications/end industries.The report here assembles exchange viewpoints having a place with the United States Otoscope market which verbalizes the present-day information and future exposures with reference to the dynamic forces at play. The prime illumination for the examination report is to offer the endorser with a wide graph and make open the delightful substances and records. The quantifiable and testing delineations behind the examination other than executes information on issues, for instance, drivers, shackles, and projections to gage the surrendered eventual outcome of the United States Otoscope market through the cross of the said gage period in the examination report. The report in like course passes on a brief and world class record of the predefined market takes after, which joins a couple of events of the veritable obsessions at work which are concentrated to trigger change in the market or may cause any negative impact.Fill the form for an exclusive free sample of this report @This report other than stations into the United States Otoscope market by in a general sense secluding the thing and industrialized chain of the market. This is required to in like course help in passing on true blue data and information on compound parts of the fitting market, for instance, material identifying with frameworks for the controlling body in the standard and general strata, transport and transmission structure, targets, and elucidations behind premium got for the contributed mean.The major players in United States Otoscope market include3MWelch AllynHoneywellMedlineSklarAMDCellScopeADCDino-LiteMedRxInventisXionZumax MedicalThe report uses a few demonstrated industry examination and entire contraptions. They allow the examination collect pass on a revealed key assessment of the United States Otoscope market and help endorser and market troupes to be made concerning hypothesis and business judgments. The wide thinking about the examination gives a market position on a prominent and moment scale. It collects gigantic and discretionary research structures in this manner. The executives have figured the recorded experiences and rose it from the forward and thusly around change the condition to plot a structure for the United States Otoscope market in the years ahead.Table of Contents1 Otoscope Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Otoscope11.2 Classification of Otoscope by Product Category21.2.1 United States Otoscope Sales Comparison by Types (2013-2025)21.2.2 United States Otoscope Sales Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 201731.2.3 Wall-mounted Type41.2.4 Portable Type41.3 United States Otoscope Market by Applications/End Users51.4 United States Otoscope Market by Regions81.5 United States Market Size (Sales and Revenue) of Otoscope (2013-2025)152 United States Otoscope Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers172.1 United States Otoscope Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Manufacturers (2016-2017)172.2 United States Otoscope Revenue and Share by Key Players/Manufacturers (2016-2017)192.3 United States Otoscope Average Price by Key Players/Manufacturers (2016-2017)222.4 United States Otoscope Market Competitive Situation and Trends242.4.1 United States Otoscope Market Concentration Rate242.4.2 United States Otoscope Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Players/Manufacturers252.5 United States Players/Manufacturers Otoscope Headquarters, Established Date, Product Types26Make An Enquiry For Discount :3 United States Otoscope Sales and Revenue by Regions (2013-2018)283.1 United States Otoscope Sales and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)283.2 United States Otoscope Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)303.3 United States Otoscope Price by Regions (2013-2018)324 United States Otoscope Sales and Revenue by Type/ Product Category (2013-2018)334.1 United States Otoscope Sales and Market Share by Type/ Product Category (2013-2018)334.2 United States Otoscope Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)354.3 United States Otoscope Price by Type (2013-2018)364.4 United States Otoscope Sales Growth Rate by Type (2013-2018)375 United States Otoscope Sales by Application (2013-2018)385.1 United States Otoscope Sales and Market Share by Applications (2013-2018)385.2 United States Otoscope Sales Growth Rate by Applications (2013-2018)40List of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of Otoscope1Figure United States Otoscope Sales (K Unit) and Growth Rate Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2013-2025)2Figure United States Otoscope Sales Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 20173Figure Wall-mounted Type Product Picture4Figure Portable Type Product Picture4Figure United States Otoscope Sales (K Unit) Comparison by Applications (2013-2025)5Figure United States Sales Market Share of Otoscope by Applications in 20176Figure Hospitals Examples6Figure Clinics Examples7Figure Others Examples7Figure United States Otoscope Market Size (M USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2025)8Figure West Otoscope Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)9Figure Southwest Otoscope Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)10About 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 Mobile Phone Camera Module Market 2017 Top Manufacturers : Samsung, Sunny Optical, SONY QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1228773&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1228773&type=D Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Mobile Phone Camera Module 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.When it comes to making opportunities in a particular work sector, most companies need vital information in a form of a valuable insight. The report for Mobile Phone Camera Module market does exactly the same, by existing as a reliable source of information that can be utilized as per requirement. Every market is not streamlined as it should be, and hence, it is highly important for the reader to know about obstacles present in the path towards achieving better growth. Recent development, market shares, and strategies adopted by key players have also been included in the report.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert @Analysts have closely segregated the markets in various segments depending on specific criteria, with the aim to make it easier for everyone to understand. Each segment is described in high detail, along with niches where growth opportunities exist. In this way, the market for Mobile Phone Camera Module envisions a way by which interested businesses can act towards betterment of their own growth, by taking into account how much progress can one make through every segment. Potential prospects, hampering as well as driving factors, revenue lost or gained, and presence of segments from a regional perspective are some of the aspects covered in this portion.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringSamsungSunny OpticalPrimaxGSEOFUJINONKOLENDIOSTECHHynixSONYAPTINAOmniVisionLITEONNo market report is complete without giving key figures and numbers that might indicate how the market is faring. And the Mobile Phone Camera Module market report takes this point into consideration and paints a broad revenue-based picture, laid down in front of the reader. Aspects such as initial valuations, projected valuations, CAGR percentage, and forecast period are of the figures that a reader can find throughout the length of this report. Our analysts have arrived at each figure after careful and extensive research, thus making the calculations highly reliable. In this way, every reader can expect a high accuracy level, with regards to numerical data as well as all statistical information included in the report.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Mobile Phone Camera Module1.1 Definition and Specifications of Mobile Phone Camera Module1.1.1 Definition of Mobile Phone Camera Module1.1.2 Specifications of Mobile Phone Camera Module1.2 Classification of Mobile Phone Camera Module1.2.1 CCD1.2.2 CMOS1.3 Applications of Mobile Phone Camera Module1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Mobile Phone Camera Module2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Mobile Phone Camera Module2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Mobile Phone Camera Module2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Mobile Phone Camera ModuleMake An Enquiry For Discount :3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Mobile Phone Camera Module3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Mobile Phone Camera Module Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Mobile Phone Camera Module Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Mobile Phone Camera Module Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Mobile Phone Camera ModuleTable Product Specifications of Mobile Phone Camera ModuleTable Classification of Mobile Phone Camera ModuleFigure Global Production Market Share of Mobile Phone Camera Module by Type in 2016Figure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Mobile Phone Camera Module by Application in 2016Table Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Major Manufacturers in 2016Table R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Mobile Phone Camera Module Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Global Capacity, Sales , Price, Cost, Sales Revenue (M USD) and Gross Margin of Mobile Phone Camera Module 2012-2017About 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 Electrochemical Sensors Market by Manufacturers,Types,Regions and Applications Research Report Forecast to 2025 Electrochemical Sensors 2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3060540-global-electrochemical-sensors-market-research-report-2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3060540-global-electrochemical-sensors-market-research-report-2018 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Electrochemical Sensors Market by Manufacturers,Types,Regions and Applications Research Report Forecast to 2025.Description:In this report, the global Electrochemical Sensors 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.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Electrochemical Sensors in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesEUChinaJapanSouth KoreaTaiwanGet a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comGlobal Electrochemical Sensors market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingCity TechnologyAlphasenseMembrapor AGSGX SensortechFigaroDraegerWinsenDartGEEmersonOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoHumidity SensorHydrogen Sulfide Gas SensorOtherOn 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, includingCivil Gas SafetyChemical & OilMiningEnvironmentalOtherAsk Query @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsGlobal Electrochemical Sensors Market Research Report 20181 Electrochemical Sensors Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Electrochemical Sensors1.2 Electrochemical Sensors Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Electrochemical Sensors Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Electrochemical Sensors Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Humidity Sensor1.2.4 Hydrogen Sulfide Gas Sensor1.2.5 Other1.3 Global Electrochemical Sensors Segment by Application1.3.1 Electrochemical Sensors Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Civil Gas Safety1.3.3 Chemical & Oil1.3.4 Mining1.3.5 Environmental1.3.6 Other1.4 Global Electrochemical Sensors Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Electrochemical Sensors Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 United States Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 EU 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 South Korea Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Electrochemical Sensors (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Electrochemical Sensors Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Electrochemical Sensors Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Electrochemical Sensors Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Electrochemical Sensors Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Electrochemical Sensors Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Electrochemical Sensors Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Electrochemical Sensors Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Electrochemical Sensors Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Electrochemical Sensors Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Electrochemical Sensors Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Electrochemical Sensors Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Electrochemical Sensors Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Electrochemical Sensors Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Electrochemical Sensors Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Electrochemical Sensors Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Electrochemical Sensors Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Electrochemical Sensors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 United States Electrochemical Sensors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 EU Electrochemical Sensors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Electrochemical Sensors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.8 Japan Electrochemical Sensors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.9 South Korea Electrochemical Sensors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.10 Taiwan Electrochemical Sensors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 Global Electrochemical Sensors Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Electrochemical Sensors Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 United States Electrochemical Sensors Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.3 EU Electrochemical Sensors Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.4 China Electrochemical Sensors Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.5 Japan Electrochemical Sensors Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.6 South Korea Electrochemical Sensors Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.7 Taiwan Electrochemical Sensors Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)5 Global Electrochemical Sensors Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Electrochemical Sensors Production and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2 Global Electrochemical Sensors Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Global Electrochemical Sensors Price by Type (2013-2018)5.4 Global Electrochemical Sensors Production Growth by Type (2013-2018)ContinueFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Market 2017 : Key Regions with Share and Growth Rate QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=969585&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=969585&type=D Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Sales Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The research report elucidates on the worldwide market for Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets. It offers complete and important research information implied for utilization of both set up and new market players. At the beginning, the report offers an outline of the market and afterward proceeds onward to examine the elements advancing or testing it development. To do as such, the report thinks about both large scale and miniaturized scale basics. It likewise packs in canny expectation for the market for Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets for the up and coming a long time in the wake of driving industry specialists and considering in different factual points of interest.This report details regarding worldwide market for Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets offers each essential data expected to comprehend it and its writes and application. It offers significant bits of knowledge relating to the item compose and applications. For example, it reveals insight into which item or application portion pulls in most extreme income, which is advancing at a quicker clasp, which holds more noteworthy market offer, and which holds greatest guarantee soon for sharp players.For more info, Get a Free Sample Report :The report likewise offers points of interest the focused scene in the market for Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets. It does as such by utilizing diagnostic devices, for example, Porter's Five Forces Analysis and SWOT Analysis. It empowers it to comprehend the openings and entanglements anticipating players in the market. It gives data on a similar with the goal that players can figure winning systems painstakingly utilizing all that data. The report likewise gives the esteem bind investigation to the market for Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets.Moreover, report on the worldwide market for Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets examines the effect of the most recent mergers and securing and joint ventures on the focused scene. It additionally offers critical proposition for new venture improvement that can empower organizations streamline their tasks and income structure. To set up the report, investigators have broadly managed an account upon essential and optional research.Table of Contents1 Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets1.2 Classification of Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets1.3 Application of Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets1.4 Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Market by Regions1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets (Volume and Value) by Regions2.4 Global Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets (Volume) by ApplicationAvail Discount @3 United States Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers3.3 United States Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Sales and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Sales and Market Share by ApplicationList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Bisoprolol Fumarate TabletsTable Classification of Bisoprolol Fumarate TabletsFigure Global Sales Market Share of Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets by Type in 2015Table Applications of Bisoprolol Fumarate TabletsFigure Global Sales Market Share of Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets by Application in 2015Figure United States Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Europe Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Bisoprolol Fumarate Tablets Revenue and Growth Rate (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 Batten Disease Treatment Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/831 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/batten-disease-treatment-market-831 http://www.coherentchronicle.com Batten disease is a rare, inherent, and fatal autosomal recessive neural disorder that begins in the childhood but may take a few years to show symptoms. Batten disease is one of the approximately 50 diseases that fall under the category of lysosome shortage disorders. The batten disease also referred as Neuronal ceroid Lipofuscinoses (NCLs), which is a class of life-limiting genetic neurogenerative diseases that are caused due to abnormality of genes resulting in their inability to synthesize required protein. This disease is characterized by malfunctioning of body, which usually appears around the age of 2-10 with symptoms, such as seizures or gradual onset of vision problem. The early signs may show subtle changes in behavior and learning, however over time, the child suffers from mental impairment, progressive loss of sight, speech and motor reactions, worsening seizures, eventually leading to blindness dementia, and finally death. These disease is diagnosed with the help of certain tests, such as blood or urine tests, skin or tissue dampening, brain scans, and imaging techniques, which includes, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The batten disease is characterized into four types as follows:To get holistic SAMPLE with TOC @European countries facing rising prevalence and incidence of batten diseaseAccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Batten disease is observed in 2-4 per 100,000 live births in the United States on an average. The Batten disease although is rare but has high incidence rates in Finland, Sweden, and other parts of the Europe as compared to rest of the world. According to the Batten Disease Support and Research Association, the batten disease has often been encountered in more than one children of the same family. The Daily News and Analysis article published in June 2016 suggests that, over 20 million children in India suffer from rare diseases, having expensive treatments. This creates opportunities for the sustaining as well as upcoming market players by understanding the potential held by the global batten disease treatment market.As of now, there are no established drugs and treatments to cure and prevent the disease. However, the severity of disease can be reduced and controlled by certain therapies. Few clinical trials and studies are being carried out in the North America, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific to identify therapies that would help reducing the disease outcome.Attempts by collaborations of research bodies for introduction to reliable treatment options for batten disease giving hopes to commonersThe batten disease treatment market is not dense on the global level, however the developed economies of North America and Europe are expected to contribute to the growth of the market. This attributes to the increasing incidence of batten disease and high prevalence rates in American as well as European countries. For instance, a joint study between Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Childrens Hospital, and Kings College London have discovered a treatment that has helped to improve the neurological symptoms in the mouse model of juvenile batten disease. This research held a novel approach of counteracting the accumulation of the cellular waste in Batten disease by acting on TFEB, which is a master transcription factor that stimulates the production of lysosomes by the cell body and directs cellular apoptosis. This has brought a ray of hope to patients and families affected by battens disease.Improper treatment facility for batten disease responsible to attract the attention of various players to enter the untapped potential batten disease treatment marketThe rising incidence of the batten disease without effective treatment option for the prevention and cure of the disease is the primary driver for batten disease market, due to which several companies are vying to enter into the untapped global batten disease treatment market. However, the lack of awareness among manufacturers and patient population as well as unavailability of treatment for this disease are greatly hampering the growth of the global batten disease treatment market.Although, the global batten disease treatment market is very scarce, few key players offering cell regeneration therapies and few other forms of medication include Seneb BioSciences, Inc., BioMarin Pharmaceuticals and ReGenX Biosciences LLC. The U.S. FDA has recently approved BioMarins first ever drug to treat batten disease known as Brineura in 2017.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: Global GPS Tracker Market: Advanced Trackers Segment by Type to Witness High Growth during 2017- 2027 Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3826 https://www.mrrse.com/gps-tracker-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/3826 https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ A latest research report titled as GPS Tracker Market: Advanced Trackers Segment by Type to Witness High Growth During the Forecast Period: Global Industry Analysis (2012 - 2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017 - 2027) 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.Click here For Free Sample Report @New applications of GPS trackers are developing in Western Europe. The use of GPS tracking in laser aimed darts is a novel concept which got success after its testing. Such areas of applications, getting developed successfully and now need to be brought to light to the population. For instance, In June 2017, the police in Waterloo, Belgium used GPS trackers to track a truck. The police found the laser-aimed darts a safer alternative to chase. This innovative technology was deployed for the first time.Eastern EuropeGPS tracking is still in introductory stages of its application in the aviation industry. The delay in delivery of correct piece of information is a major drawback of this application, which is particularly critical in regions like Eastern Europe, where pilots have to operate in regions with unstable connection. This is motivating the several companies to launch high standard GPS trackers that could be helpful in aviation industry. In February 2017, UTair-Helicopter services, a Russian helicopter operator, launched GPS tracking over its entire fleet. These trackers monitor aircraft movements and thus work towards improving the aircraft safety.Latin AmericaThe rising imports and exports between countries bolsters the market growth for GPS trackers. The amount of cargos transported between countries is witnessing a fast growth which create an inevitable need for fleet management solutions to ensure the safe delivery of goods. These needs create an opportunity for a strong growth potential in the global GPS trackers market. According to World Bank, the exports and imports of goods from Brazil and Mexico increased significantly from 2010 to 2016.Browse Full Report with TOC @APEJApart from the traditional usage of GPS trackers in vehicles for navigation, umpteenth of new areas of applications are developing. One of the emerging area of development is in nabbing of criminals by the police department. In July 2017, Police officers in India used a small, discreet GPS tracker called the Track 247 Mini-Tracker developed by a local Indian developer. The device was used to track suspects in a special case. Further, satisfied with the results, the police asked the developer to provide them 50 more mini-trackersJapanGPS is critical to the development of new applications like drones and self-driving cars, which has become an indispensable part of population especially in the developed regions like Japan where people lead a luxurious life yet are very much concerned about their safety.MEAThe increasing amount of goods transported between the countries mainly the UAE and gulf countries is one of the primary driver for the growth of GPS tracker market in MEA. Due to rising transport, companies providing fleet management solutions.North AmericaAdvanced tracking in high value air cargos is still a nascent technology which needs careful handling. The transportation of valuables like pharmaceuticals and temperature sensitive electronics, needs to be monitored throughout the journey very carefully. The trackers used for such purposes are undergoing extensive R&D, with the launch of successful trackers are expected to increase the demand for trackers in the near future.Advanced Trackers segment is anticipated to exhibit high market attractiveness index over the forecast periodIn terms of value, advanced trackers segment is projected to be the most attractive in the global GPS tracker market during the forecast period. OBD trackers segment is expected to register moderate Y-o-Y growth rate throughout the forecast period. In terms of value, this segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.2% during the forecast period. In 2017, advanced trackers segment is estimated to be valued more than US$ 445 Mn and is expected to witness steady growth in terms of revenue throughout the forecast period.Enquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search EngineMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At: Oil Condition Monitoring Global Market 2018: Key Players Avenisense S.A., Bureau Veritas, Castrol Limited, Chevron Corporation, Delta Services Industriels (DSi) https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2448288-oil-condition-monitoring-global-market-outlook-2017-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2448288-oil-condition-monitoring-global-market-outlook-2017-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2448288 https://www.wiseguyreports.com Oil Condition Monitoring IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Oil Condition Monitoring -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecast To 2022 To Its Research DatabaseThe Global Oil Condition Monitoring Market accounted for $435.16 million in 2016 and is expected to reach $864.17 million by 2023 growing at a CAGR of 10.3% during the forecast period. Factors such as growing demand for economical solutions, increasing need for time optimization, and rising demand for electricity that drives the need for continuous oil monitoring in turbines are fueling the market growth. Companies are persistently looking for different cost-effective ways to reduce the cost of oil condition monitoring. However, extra costs incurred in retrofitting existing systems are one of the key factors hampering the market growth.On-site oil condition monitoring has assisted manufacturers to considerably enhance their productivity, efficiency, and profitability with regard to predictive maintenance. The off-site oil condition monitoring growth can be attributed to the higher adoption of traditional monitoring systems. It mainly consists of testing the oil samples at company-operated laboratories or third-party laboratories. Most of the oil condition monitoring firms is engaged in laboratory testing for better and in-detailed analysis of the sample. Turbines have vital applications in verticals such as power, locomotive, and aerospace.The turbines used in these verticals work under very high pressure. The turbines are more prone to be broken at such a high pressure, owing to friction, which reduces the life of the system. To stay away from system breakdown, firms use high-quality oil as a lubricant in these turbines, thereby reducing the friction caused due to high pressure. Furthermore, there is a need for continuous monitoring of the oil quality to make sure the smooth operation of the system. There is a growing demand for energy in developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil, which would boost the need for oil condition monitoring services.Request for Sample Report @Some of the key players in the market includeAvenisense S.A., Bureau Veritas, Castrol Limited, Chevron Corporation, Delta Services Industriels (DSi), GE, Intertek Group Plc, Micromem Applied Sensor Technologies Inc., Parker Hannifin Manufacturing Ltd, Poseidon Systems, LLC, Shell, SPECTRO Analytical Instruments GmbH, Test Oil (Insight Services Inc.), TRIBOMAR GmbH and Unimarine.Measurement Type Covered: Density Dielectric Fuel Dilution Pressure Soot TAN TBN Temperature Viscosity Water Dilution Wear ParticlesSampling Type Covered: Off-Site On-SiteProduct Type Covered: Compressors Engines Gear Systems Hydraulic Systems TurbinesIndustries Covered: Mining Industrial Energy & Power Oil & Gas TransportationLeave a Query @Regions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo UKo Italyo Franceo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando South Koreao Rest of Asia Pacific South Americao Argentinao Brazilo Chileo Rest of South America Middle East & Africao Saudi Arabiao UAEo Qataro South Africao Rest of Middle East & AfricaWhat 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 7 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 advancementsBuy 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 Recombinant DNA (rDNA) Technology Global Market 2018: Key Players F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Monsanto Company, Amgen Inc, Biocon, Biogen, Eli Lilly and Company https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2448291-recombinant-dna-rdna-technology-global-market-outlook-2017-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2448291-recombinant-dna-rdna-technology-global-market-outlook-2017-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2448291 https://www.wiseguyreports.com Recombinant DNA (rDNA) Technology IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Recombinant DNA (rDNA) Technology -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecast To 2022 To Its Research DatabaseAccording to Stratistics MRC, the Global Recombinant DNA (rDNA) Technology Market is accounted for $499.8 million in 2016 and expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.9% to reach $799.9 million by 2023. Factors influencing the market growth are rise in Genetically Modified (GM) crop, development of biofuel and biopesticides, presence of biopharmaceuticals pipeline and production of various therapeutic proteins. Lack of government funding for research and development in emerging economies, risks involved in usage of genetically modified food and regulatory & ethical challenges associated with gene therapy are hampering the market growth.Based on component, the Expression systems are used for the production of protein from recombinant DNA molecules. Majorly used expression systems are mammalian, bacterial, insects, and yeast. Development of cell lines such as HEK293 and Chinese Hamster Ovarian (CHO) has contributed to the significant share of mammalian expression system. Further, , ongoing research to explore the prospective of plant as expression system are expected to underpin the adoption of plans expression system for Genetically Modified product development in the future. Furthermore, more than 3000 scientific studies have been carried out to assess the GM products safety in context to its impact on human health and environment.Based on application, Agricultural plants are one of the most frequently cited cases of genetically modified organisms. Some benefits of genetic engineering in agriculture are increased crop yields, reduces cost for food or drug production, limited need for pesticides, enhanced nutrient composition and food quality, resistance to pests and disease, with enormous food security, and medical benefits. The advantage of recombinant DNA technology is that new combinations of genes are determined in the forefront. GE has also been used against crop pathogens. One of the first and most successful genetically modified crops was a papaya with resistance to ringspot virus. Another example includes the development of bananas resistant to wilt in Uganda.Request for Sample Report @North America accounted for the maximum share of the market which attributes to a affluent number of biopharmaceutical manufacturing companies are situated in the U.S. In July 2017, U.S witnessed the 1st FDA approval for gene therapy treatment. The treatment was developed for leukemia disorder, in conjugation between the University of Pennsylvania and Novartis Corp. This, in turn, furtherance the enact of rDNA techniques in the region. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market. Clinical trials in Asian countries such as India and China are less expensive compared to other regions which made migration of several biopharmaceutical developers towards this region.Some of the key players in Global Recombinant DNA (rDNA) Technology market areF. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Monsanto Company, Amgen Inc, Biocon, Biogen, Eli Lilly and Company, GenScript, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Horizon Discovery Group PLC, Merck & Co, New England Biolabs., Novartis AG, Novo Nordisk A/S, Pfizer Inc and Profacgen.Components Covered: Cloning Vectoro Phageo Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC)o Human Artificial Chromosome (HAC)o Yeast Artificial Chromosome (YAC)o Cosmido Plasmid Expression Systemo Baculovirus/Insecto Bacteriao Mammaliano Yeasto Other Expression SystemProducts Covered: Non-medicalo Specialty Chemicalso Biotech Cropso Other Non-Medical Technology Medicalo Human Proteino Therapeutic Agento VaccineApplications Covered: Health & Diseaseo Humano Animal Food & Agriculture Environment Other ApplicationsLeave a Query @End Users Covered: Academic & Research Institutes Pharmaceutical & Biotech Entities Other End UsersRegions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo UKo Italyo Franceo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando South Koreao Rest of Asia Pacific South Americao Argentinao Brazilo Chileo Rest of South America Middle East & Africao Saudi Arabiao UAEo Qataro South Africao Rest of Middle East & AfricaWhat 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 7 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 advancementsBuy 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 Poultry Diagnostics Global Market 2018: Key Players AffiniTech, LTD, AgroBioTek Internacional, BioChek, BioinGentech Biotechnologies, Inc. https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2448290-poultry-diagnostics-global-market-outlook-2017-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2448290-poultry-diagnostics-global-market-outlook-2017-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2448290 https://www.wiseguyreports.com Poultry Diagnostics IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Poultry Diagnostics -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecast To 2022 To Its Research DatabaseThe Global Poultry Diagnostics Market is accounted for $348.1 million in 2016 and expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.0% to reach $682.56 million by 2023. Growing concerns regarding food security, increase in disease outbreaks in poultry, rising prevalence of zoonotic diseases and technological advancements in animal health are some factors propelling the market growth. However, rising costs of feed and high poultry production costs are inhibiting the market size.Based on diseases, Avian influenza which is generated by influenza virus TypeA, can infect various species of food producing birds such as quails, chickens, guinea fowl, turkeys, etc., as well as pet birds and wild birds with some strains resulting in high mortality rates. The Asian origin vastly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus has engaged much attention over the last few years because of outstanding outbreaks globally in domestic and wild birds. Severe infections with avian influenza should be considered with supportive care, and individuals should be secluded to prevent secondary cases. Accessibility of superior diagnostic techniques is further facilitating the discovery of these rare infections.Depending on tests, the poultry diagnostics market is categorized into polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, enzyme linked sorbent assay (ELISA) and other diagnostic tests. PCR tests are primarily used for various types of influenza, Newcastle and Mycoplasma infections. Real time PCR tests are more used techniques than traditional PCR tests. It allows fast detection of pathogens and provides great accuracy. PCR and its derivatives also enable the operation of suitable treatment at an early stage and decrease bigger outbreak.North America dominated the global market due to increasing adoption of diagnostic modalities, rising veterinary healthcare expenditure and the existence of multinational players. Moreover, Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at a faster rate during the forecast period owing to huge livestock population, increasing demand of poultry-derived food products and growing awareness about animal health.Request for Sample Report @Some of the key players in Global Poultry Diagnostics market areAffiniTech, LTD, AgroBioTek Internacional, BioChek, BioinGentech Biotechnologies, Inc., Bioneer Corporation, BioNote, Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim, Clementia Biotech, DRG Instruments GmbH, GD Animal Health, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., IDVet, MEGACOR Diagnostik GmbH, Nisseinken Co., Ltd., QIAGEN N.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Ubio Biotechnology Systems Pvt. Ltd. and Zoetis, Inc.Tests Covered: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Tests Enzyme Linked Sorbent Assay (ELISA) Other Diagnostic TestsDiseases Covered: Avian Influenza Avian Mycoplasmosis Avian Salmonellosis Avian Pasteurellosis Chicken Anemia Avian Reovirus Newcastle Disease Infectious Bronchitis Infectious Bursal Disease Avian Encephalomyelitis Other DiseasesServices Covered: Bacteriology Parasitology VirologyLeave a Query @Regions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo UKo Italyo Franceo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando South Koreao Rest of Asia Pacific South Americao Argentinao Brazilo Chileo Rest of South America Middle East & Africao Saudi Arabiao UAEo Qataro South Africao Rest of Middle East & AfricaWhat 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 7 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 advancementsBuy 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 Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) Drug Market Likely to Touch CAGR at a 11.2% by 2025 Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3950 https://www.mrrse.com/sexually-transmitted-disease-drugs-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/3950 https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ A latest research report titled as Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) Drug Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 has been recently added to the vast portfolio of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) online research offerings. This report is a professional and in-depth analysis on the present state and future prospect for the global market. It provides valuable information to the industry insiders, potential entrants or investors. It includes an exhaustive enquiry with the reliability of logic and the comprehensiveness of contents.Click here For Free Sample Report @Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), also referred as venereal diseases are infections that can pass from person to person during sex. These diseases are caused mainly due to bacteria, viruses, and / or parasites. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) often go undiagnosed because these infections usually do not exhibit visual symptoms. Changes in urination, Pain during sex, unusual discharge from the penis, abnormal vaginal discharge or bleeding, bumps or sores, pain in the pelvic or abdominal region, burning or itching in the vaginal area are most common symptoms for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). These all symptoms help to diagnose sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests (NAAT), direct fluorescent tests and others test recommended by healthcare specialist to confirm sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV/AIDS, Human papillomavirus infection and syphilis are the most common types of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs. As per WHO 2015 report, near about 1.1 billion people had sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) other than HIV/AIDS. About 500 million people were infected with either chlamydia, gonorrhea syphilis or trichomoniasis. At least 250 million women suffering from human papillomavirus while 530 million case find with genital herpes.Hospital Segment to Turn Lucrative, Fuelling Demand for Sexually Transmitted Disease DrugsThe global market for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) drug is expanding significantly, owing to increased chances of infection led by increase in the life expectancy of people across the globe. Rise in incidences of unprotected sex has led to an increase in the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases. A driving factor for the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) drug is rising initiatives by governments and multiple agencies drawn up guidelines or recommendations for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Low voluntary screening rate for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) is major restrain for this market.Browse Full Report with TOC @The global sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) drug market can be segmented on the basis of disease type, therapy class, distribution channel, and region. On the bases of disease type, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) drug market can be further segmented into chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, human papillomavirus infection, HIV/AIDS and others. According to therapy class sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) drug market can be segmented into antibiotics, antiviral, vaccines and others. In terms of distribution channel, the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) drug market can be segmented into hospitals pharmacies, retail pharmacies, online pharmacies and others. In terms of revenue, the hospitals segment held a significant share of the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) drug market in 2016.Rising Demand from Developing Economies to Support Markets Expansion in Asia PacificIn terms of region, the global sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) drug market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is the leading market for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) drug market, followed by Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. In terms of revenue, the U.S. holds a major share of the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) drug market in North America. The market in Europe is expanding rapidly, due to increase in the patient population, especially in UK, Germany. Moreover, the market in Asia Pacific and Latin America is projected to expand significantly in the near future. Developing economies such as China and Japan are projected to contribute to growth of the market in APAC between 2017 and 2025, due to better health care infrastructure, economic growth, increase in the number of insurance payers, growth of the private health care sector, and increasing education awareness.Key players operating in the global sexually transmitted diseases drug market are Pfizer INC, Hoffmann La Roche, Bayer Healthcare, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. AbbVie, Inc., Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, and Merck & Co., Inc.Enquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search EngineMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At: IoT Device Management Global Market 2018: Key Players Enhanced, Telecommunications Inc., Aeris, Telit Communications PLC, Advantech Co., Ltd., Oracle Corporation IoT Device Management https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2448281-iot-device-management-global-market-outlook-2017-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2448281-iot-device-management-global-market-outlook-2017-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2448281 https://www.wiseguyreports.com IoT Device Management IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds IoT Device Management -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecast To 2022 To Its Research Databasethe Global IoT Device Management market is expected to grow from $461.24 million in 2016 to reach $3,125.68 million by 2023 with a CAGR of 31.4%. Some of the factors propelling the market growth include growing acceptance of device and vendor agnostic platforms, rising demand for converged device management platform and expansion of intelligent connected devices. However, privacy issues and lack of uniform IoT standards required for interoperability are restricting the market.The demand for IoT devices have acquired largest market share in small and medium-sized enterprises as these devices helps in making efficient decisions in business areas. By deployment model, public cloud is leading the market with the highest CAGR and the growth can be attributed as many enterprises are adopting public cloud system which reduces the cost of data storage. Based on services, integration services is one of the fastest growing segments due to the rising number of protocols and connectivity technologies.North America is dominating the global market due to governments support in implementing new technologies in IoT security and analytics. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region and the growth in this region can be mainly attributed to rising investments of governments in IoT initiatives.Some of the key players in global IoT Device Management market include - Enhanced, Telecommunications Inc., Aeris, Telit Communications PLC, Advantech Co., Ltd., Oracle Corporation, Amplia Soluciones S.L., Xively, Cumulocity GmbH, Microsoft Corporation, Zentri, International Business Machines Corporation, Smith Micro Software, Inc., PTC Incorporation and Wind River.Request for Sample Report @Applications Covered: Connected Health Connected Logistics Smart Home Smart Manufacturing Smart Retail Smart Transportation Smart Utilities Other ApplicationsServices Covered: Professional Serviceso Consulting Serviceso Integration Serviceso Support and Maintenance Managed ServicesDeployment Models Covered: Hybrid Cloud Private Cloud Public CloudSolutions Covered: Data Management Network Bandwidth Management Real-Time Streaming Analytics Remote Monitoring Security SolutionsOrganization Sizes Covered: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Large EnterprisesLeave a Query @Regions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo UKo Italyo Franceo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific South Americao Argentinao Brazilo Chileo Rest of South America Middle East & Africao Saudi Arabiao UAEo Qataro South Africao Rest of Middle East & AfricaWhat 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 7 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 advancementsBuy 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 E Sim Card Market : A Revolutionary Stride in the Sim , Opportunities to keep an Eye on https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Request-Sample/105826 https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/E-Sim-Card-Market E-SIM card or Embedded Subscriber Identity Module Card is the upgraded version of conventional SIM card which is compatible with all major carriers regardless the type of network. These SIM cards are integrated in the devices which is rewritable and compliant by all operators. The technology is physically integrated into the device during manufacturing process and supports isolated provisioning in such a way that the SIM cannot easily be removed from the device and replaced with another SIM.The e-SIM is already a mainstream technology in the cellular machine to machine (M2M) market. However, the technology will benefits the consumers and will create opportunities and challenges for operators, IoT device manufacturers, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), SIM vendors, and service providers across various industries.PDF Sample For Latest Advancement:With the implementation of the technology, manufacturers are not required to accommodate a SIM card slot creating further flexibility in terms of deign. For instance, Apple Inc. chose e-SIM technology to employ in Apple Watch 3, shrinking the size without sacrificing battery. The technology will also benefit the international travellers in swapping the SIMs, and services in order to stay connected. Although; universal adoption of e-SIM has to be approved by all major carriers and Apple & Googles Pixel 2 are the only carriers of the technology, paving hurdle for the industry growth.The global market is rising progressively owing to several advantages of E-SIM card over conventional SIM cards in terms of standardization of technical specifications, compact design, reduced operational costs and logistics. Furthermore, ease of switching service providers in real time and, vast growth opportunities in rising application in automotive sector is also anticipated to enhance the growth over the forecast period. However, conceivable resistance shown by service providers towards the adoption, as e-SIM cards eliminates consumers visit to the physical stores of mobile network operators (MNOs) may hinder the market.Based on application, the E-SIM card industry is segmented into wearable & companion devices, Machine to Machine (M2M), smartphones, tablets & laptops. Machine to Machine segment is further segregated to connected cars, utilities and others. Connected cars segment under M2M, contributed leading revenue generation for rising implementation in automotive industry for weather information and infotainment.Obtain Report Details @Europe region is projected to contribute majorly in revenue generation globally owing to favorable government initiatives for the employment of Industry 4.0 technology & solutions. North America market is expected to witness gradual growth owing to home to key players as well as rise in technological adoption of e-SIM cards in M2M devices. China, Japan, South Africa and Brazil are few other countries which are projected to witness growth over the forecast period. Key industry players are Apple Inc., Deutsche Telekom AG, Gemalto N.V., Samsung, NTT DOCOMO Inc., Sierra Wireless Inc., OT-Morpho, Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, Telefonica S.A., and ST Microelectronics.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 Harmonic Filter Market is Driven Majorly with the Rising Demand for High Power Quality and Reliability https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Request-Sample/105827 https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Harmonic-Filter-Market Harmonics are voltages & currents which are constant multiples of the electrical frequency of 60Hz and are generated due to the occurrence of non-linear loads in electrical network. Harmonic filters are used to eliminate the harmonic distortion caused by various electrical appliances such as UPS, inverters, transformers, discharge lamps, arc furnaces generate harmonics. Installation of harmonic filtering systems limits the voltage fluctuation, improves efficiency & operating condition and thus, optimizes the network. The presence of harmonics in the electrical network which can further results in malfunctioning of the equipment through overloading of the neutral conductor, disturbances in the torque of motors, and increase of losses in the transformers.The demand for harmonic filters is rising for eliminating transients from signals and to ensure high power quality. This can prevent failure of power instruments as well as assist in cost reduction. The filters are widely implemented in capacitor banks used for electrical & heating equipment. Thus, the harmonic filter industry is driven majorly with the rising demand for high power quality and reliability.Rising demand for electrical equipment in industrial and commercial sectors along with stringent regulatory standards concerning energy consumption drives the industry over the forecast period. Furthermore, increasing applications in adjustable speed drives (ASDs), variable speed motor drives (VSDs), light dimmers, fluorescent lamps, and power converters are anticipated to spur the market. Forthcoming enforcement of stringent rules & regulations releases new opportunities for the key players.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @Although, high cost of harmonic filters, low power factor as well as lack of consumer awareness about harmonic suppression may hinder the market growth. Other restrains influencing the growth are offshoring of industry activity limits sales in establishes markets, and incorporation of Active Front Ends (AFEs) in VSDs.The global harmonic filter market is segmented by types, end-users, and voltage level. Based on types, the harmonic filters are segmented as Active, Passive, and Hybrid. Active harmonic filters are designed for avoiding non-linear loads, and power compensation, and anticipated to hold the largest share. On the basis of the end-user, the market is segmented as industrial, commercial, and residential. Voltage level segment is further bifurcated as high voltage, medium voltage and low voltage. Low voltage filters have application in various harbor cranes, manufacturing industries, and power plants and therefore, lead the global market.North America market is expected to contribute majorly owing to the stringent government policies and high consumer awareness in the region. Latin America and Asia-Pacific are anticipated to have faster growth for harmonic filter market as the regions are witnessing continuous development in power generation and distribution in emerging countries, such as India, Brazil & China. The market is expected to have expansion in various European countries such as France, Italy, U.K., and Germany over the forecast period.Obtain Report Details @Some of the key players are Danfoss A/S, Baron Power Ltd., MTE Corporation, EPCOS AG, Eaton Corp Plc, ABB Ltd., Crompton Greaves Ltd., Emerson Network Power Inc., Janitza Electronics GmbH, Siemens AG, Comsys AB, Schneider Electric SE, and Schaffner Holding AG.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 Increasing Passenger Air Traffic and Aircraft Deliveries Is Propelling the Growth of Avionics Market in Asia Pacific Region https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Request-Sample/105629 https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Avionics-Market The market for Avionics in Asia Pacific region is witnessing a high growth and is anticipated to dominate the market share in terms of revenues for the forecast period. The market is highly influenced by the rapidly increasing population of the developing economies of the Asia Pacific region. Furthermore, the developing countries of the region are experiencing high passenger air traffic for both tourism and business purposes.The avionics market is experiencing a shift to a satellite based system from a ground-based air traffic control system and is in the direction of more high-speed, high-bandwidth, and compute-intensive avionics. Further, the increase in growth is highly attributed to an increase in aircraft deliveries particularly, in developing nations; need for improved flight operations through real-time data; as well as enhanced decision making, and adoption of avionics systems to fulfil advanced aircraft and regulatory requirements.The developing economies worldwide are taking initiatives to improve their infrastructure including, developments of airports and air connectivity with different countries. This will result in riding demand for aircrafts. For instance, the Chinese government, under its 13th Five-Year Plan 2016-20, is planning to build additional 74 civil airports as per a report released by CAAC. Furthermore, by 2020, the government plans to build over 500 airports for its general aviation industry. Also, the Indian governments has plans to build around 100 airports for extending its air connectivity.Sample Brochure In-depth Analysis With Advancements -The high competition in the general aviation industry and resulted in expansion of low-cost travel, along with the rising affordability of population in Asia Pacific is another reason for the high passenger traffic. Also, a large population of these emerging economies is moving to urban areas and government of these economies are investing in smart cities. This would result in better internet infrastructure thus, these factors would influence the market growth for avionics in Asia Pacific.Obtain Report Details @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 Goose Creek, SC (29445) Today Thunderstorms. High 78F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Student housing to be consolidated on West Side of SIU Campus SIU Carbondale will bring students together in residence halls on the west side of campus this fall in order to increase student engagement, according to SIU Chancellor Carlo Montemago. Currently, the campus has two major housing areas: the towers, which consists of two currently open high-rise residence halls, and a number of smaller, three-story residence halls on the west side of campus called Thompson Point. By bringing students together in Thompson Point, we can continue to build a tightly knit, engaged community, Montemagno said. It will also increase traffic to our Student Center, which should be a centerpiece of campus life. Building engagement with closer-knit communities Montemagno acknowledged that enrollment declines make the move possible but says that the change is driven primarily by efforts to build engagement and enhance retention. As we rebuild enrollment in the years ahead, we will always have the option of having students on both sides of campus again, he said. For now, we can best serve students by making sure that they are part of a vibrant and active community. Jon Shaffer, director of University Housing, said the move will also create efficiencies that will help the university minimize future room and board costs for students. We can effectively serve students in one dining hall instead of two, for example, he said. Commitment to living-learning communities remains Shaffer said that new students who have signed housing contracts for fall will not be affected, since they have not yet been assigned rooms. About 500 to 600 returning students have already selected rooms for the fall, and the housing office will reach out to them to work through changes. He said the move will also affect the location of living-learning communities for students who share similar majors or interests. Currently, there are communities on both sides of the campus. We are continuing to grow the number of living-learning communities on campus, Shaffer said. While the location may change, our commitment remains the same. University Hall, campus apartments will remain open In addition to the residence halls on the west side of campus, the university will continue to offer housing at University Hall, Wall and Grand Apartments and Evergreen Terrace. The Gathering Place Snack Shop, currently housed in Grinnell Hall, will move to University Hall. Midland Public Schools is among districts that will receive a $2,500 grant from the SET SEG Foundation in partnership with the Michigan Association of School Boards. The Chemic Challenge is a summer enrichment program designed for incoming at-risk freshmen to help reinforce and strengthen the skills necessary for high school, including critical thinking, problem-solving, perseverance and discovery learning. This month-long program is tailored for the most at-risk eighth graders, both economically and academically, the district stated. Award money will provide experiential learning opportunities at both the MSU Science Center and the Midland Center for the Arts. Programs in Bentley Community Schools, Davison Community Schools and Marlette Community Schools as well as the Genesee Intermediate School District and Tuscola Intermediate School District also will receive the grants. The schools have been selected to receive the 2018 Education Excellence awards for their work to create opportunities and help build stronger, brighter futures for their students. At Midland Public Schools, the Chemic Challenge program at Midland High School is designed for incoming at-risk freshmen to help reinforce and strengthen the skills necessary for high school, including critical thinking, problem solving, perseverance, and discovery learning. "It's an honor for us to recognize these schools and educators, and help support and advance their efforts," said Lisa Truscott, SET SEG Foundation Executive Director. "Dedicated, passionate teachers and staff in public schools are what help provide opportunities to learn, grow and build brighter, stronger futures for students and our communities and state." The Education Excellence Awards are in their 25th year and are produced through a partnership between the SET SEG Foundation and MASB. This year, in celebration of the anniversary, the SET SEG Foundation awarded $2,500 grants to 25 extraordinary Michigan public school programs. Education Excellence Award recipients receive a $2,500 check to grow their program, an "Education Excellence Winner" road sign and trophy. This year, the SET SEG Foundation received hundreds of applications from schools throughout Michigan working to have a positive impact on their students and community. Officials with Shriners Hospitals for Children in both Chicago and Cincinnati have announced a new collaboration with Covenant HealthCare in Saginaw to provide children and local families with increased access to their specialists at the two pediatric specialty care hospitals. Shriners Hospitals for Children and Covenant HealthCare have opened a new telehealth location in Saginaw providing an opportunity for patients in the Great Lakes Bay Region and beyond to receive consultations from physicians and caregivers at both the Chicago and Cincinnati Shriners Hospitals, via new telehealth equipment. The equipment is located at a Covenant HealthCare site, allowing the caregivers and physicians of Shriners Hospitals to see patients and families in Michigan. Shriners Hospitals for Children are known for their care in orthopaedics, cleft lip and palate, spinal cord injury rehabilitation and in burns and soft tissue conditions and the Covenant HealthCare location allows interaction via high-speed internet and HD cameras. In addition, medical information is transmitted electronically via digital stethoscopes, otoscopes, dermoscopes, and general exam hand-held cameras providing great detail for physicians at the Shriners Hospitals. Shriners Hospitals for Children are committed to serving patients and families with more convenient and flexible care, said Mark Niederpruem, administrator at Shriners Hospitals for Children Chicago. Our hospitals have been providing telehealth services throughout the country for nearly a decade; however, this launch marks an advance in technology and the hospitals agility in the continually changing delivery models for health care. It also launches the first telehealth clinic for the Chicago Shriners Hospital. As officials at Shriners Hospitals began digging into this project, they felt Covenant HealthCare was the right organization to partner with based on the organizations established telemedicine service through Covenant VirtualCare and its vast array of regional obstetric and pediatric services. The partnership with Covenant HealthCare helps local Elf Khurafeh Shriners connect local families with the highly specialized care they need, while helping them save money on transportation costs to the Chicago and Cincinnati hospitals. These local Shriners raise funds year-round to provide transportation via their own purchased vehicles with volunteer drivers to families who would otherwise not be able to afford the trip. It is a cornerstone of the local Shriners purpose to connect children in their area who need the specialized, wrap-around care of Shriners Hospitals for Children. The opportunity to help even more children access care they need in a way that is convenient for families and help the local Shriners use their dollars effectively was something we wanted to support, says Jaime Magness, program administrator for Covenant VirtualCare. Covenant HealthCare is committed to providing 'Extraordinary Care for Every Generation' and this is just another way to do so. It is such an honor to be able to serve the children and families of our community. The smiles and satisfaction expressed by our patients lets us know that we are making a difference. Sally Decker, professor of nursing at Saginaw Valley State University, has been selected as a Fulbright Scholar to support her teaching and research in Ireland. Decker will work with inter-professional teams at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. She also will also teach health education courses and work with faculty members on simulation. "I am looking forward to working with health care providers in Ireland," she said. "I hope I can share some of what I have learned as I work with the inter-professional teams at the Royal College of Surgeons." Decker plans to design and create an interactive workshop on simulation with faculty members, work with students in groups or individually related to the pedagogy of education in health care, and help create, facilitate and evaluate an inter-professional simulation with students and faculty members. Decker is familiar with educational settings overseas. She has led SVSU students on study abroad experiences in England, Australia and Nepal. Those experiences focused on the differences in health care in different nations and cultures. "These experiences -- in addition to my personal travel experiences -- have increased my sensitivity to cultural competence and the need to review evidence with consideration for the context from which it was created," she said. "Context relates to cultural, environmental, genetics, and health care system differences." Her interest in the topic started when she served as a member of the Army Nurse Corps. "The system of health care and specifics of interventions in the military setting -- followed by the transition to civilian health care -- created a striking awareness for me of the importance of contextual understanding and teamwork," she said. Decker has presented on research related to educational pedagogy at international venues. In June 2017, she presented on the use of visual metaphor in concept-based education at the International Congress of Nurses in Barcelona. Decker has received SVSU's highest faculty honors, winning the Landee Award for Teaching Excellence in 2002 and the Warrick Award for Excellence in Research in 1991. She completed a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. The Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Each year, this international educational program of the United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs awards about 8,000 grants for research, study, and teaching opportunities in over 160 countries. The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriff's Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Kelly Dame. Sunday, March 11 12:11 a.m. -- A deputy assisted police by searching for a vehicle that was involved in a hit and run traffic crash. 1:37 a.m. -- A Jerome Township woman, 41, was arrested in Lincoln Township for driving while her license was suspended. 4:31 a.m. -- A Saginaw woman, 25, was arrested in Lee Township for driving while her license was suspended. Her passenger, a 26-year-old Grand Rapids woman, was arrested on a warrant. 4:38 a.m. -- A Mount Pleasant man, 26, was arrested in Lincoln Township for disorderly conduct. The man was seen urinating on a gas pump facing a major roadway, the media log states. 1:17 p.m. -- Property was stolen from a vehicle in the 800 block of Cinema Drive. 1:23 p.m. -- A Waterford man, 33, was arrested in Lee Township for driving with a suspended license. 1:23 p.m. -- A Lee Township woman, 35, reported her 17-year-old son who is on probation spent the night at an out-of-town friend's home. She felt the action might be a probation violation. She was asked to contact her son's probation agent. 3:32 p.m. -- A deputy checked Lee Township for a report of shots fired. The area was checked and no criminal activity was found. 7:29 p.m. -- Police made an arrest for second-offense drunken driving, and resisting and obstructing, in the 2500 block of North Saginaw Road. 8:27 p.m. -- A Hemlock woman, 25, was arrested in Ingersoll Township for driving while her license was revoked. She was cited for driving without insurance. Saturday, March 10 2:47 a.m. -- A Midland man, 38, was hurt in a single-vehicle crash in Larkin Township. The man is suspected to have been drunken driving, 9:35 a.m. -- A Sanford man, 25, was assaulted in Jerome Township by a Bay City man, age 24. A report is being forwarded to the prosecutor's office for review. 11:45 a.m. -- Police investigated a case of fraud in the 1900 block of Westbury Court. 3:46 p.m. -- Deputies checked an area in Midland for suspects involved in a retail fraud case. The suspects were not found. 5:02 p.m. -- Gasoline, valued at $51.94, was stolen from a Greendale Township gas station. 7 p.m. -- An Auburn woman, 44, was arrested in Mills Township for driving while her license was revoked. 8:30 p.m. -- Deputies conducted a well being check at a Lee Township home. Everything was found to be OK. 8:33 p.m. -- A Geneva Township home was broken into and property, valued at a total of $220, was stolen. 9:04 p.m. -- A Flint man, 34, was cited in Lee Township for driving an unregistered vehicle. 11:04 p.m. -- A Midland woman, 29, was arrested in Mills Township for domestic assault. 11:12 p.m. -- A Saginaw County man, 48, was arrested in Mount Haley Township for driving while his license was revoked. 11:19 p.m. -- Police investigated a hit and run property damage accident at Jerome and West Buttles streets. Friday, March 9 12:32 a.m. -- A deputy took a report of a sexual assault involving a girl, age 2, in Lee Township. The case was forwarded to Midland Police. 12:35 a.m. -- A motorist was arrested at Isabella Street and Currie Parkway for drunken driving. 5:33 a.m. -- A Midland County man, 27, was arrested on a warrant in Lincoln Township. 6:24 a.m. -- A Beaverton man, 31, was cited for failing to report a crash in Hope Township. No one was hurt. 4:25 p.m. -- A deputy conducted a sex offender registry check on an Edenville Township man, 35. The man's address could not be verified. 5:31 p.m. -- A motorist was arrested at Currie Parkway and Mary Street for driving while license suspended, improper registration and driving without insurance. 5:59 p.m. -- Police investigated a case of retail fraud in the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard. 9:28 p.m. -- A Midland man, 37, was arrested in Jerome Township for violation of a conditional bond. He was stopped for an expired registration. 10:12 p.m. -- A motorist was arrested at Sturgeon Avenue and Alpine Drive for driving while license suspended. 10:40 p.m. -- Property in the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard was damaged. 10:56 p.m. -- Police investigated a sexual assault at a Nottingham Terrace address. 11:52 p.m. -- Officers issued a minor in possession of alcohol ticket in the 6900 block of Eastman Avenue. Women's leadership event on tap at Touch of Nature by Tim Crosby CARBONDALE, Ill. Southern Illinois University Carbondale this month will play host to two days of leadership enrichment and personal development for female students, all in one picturesque nature setting. The event, Lifting as We Climb: Empowering Women through Community and Leadership, is set for Friday and Saturday, March 30-31, at Touch of Nature Environmental Center. The event will begin at 4:30 that Friday and end by 4 p.m. that Saturday. Registration deadline is March 23, and the application deadline for a limited number of scholarships is March 14. There is a $20 registration fee, which covers conference materials and activities, refreshments, food and transportation, if needed. The bus will leave the Student Center at 4 p.m. March 30. Limited scholarships available to cover registration The program is open to women students at SIU. This year, faculty and staff have the opportunity to donate the registration fee for one or more students in need. Organizers will be offering scholarships to those that want to attend, but cannot afford the registration fee. If interested, contact Leslie Brock with University Conference Services at 618/453-1141 or lagodwin@siu.edu. Program lifts women up The event will bring students and others together to network, hone their leadership skills, engage in interactive discussions, and reflect on their own leadership qualities and what they have to offer in their respective roles at SIU and beyond. Tarnisha Green, director of Success in Engineering through Excellence and Diversity, said organizers received positive feedback after last years inaugural event. We believe that this event is both empowering, timely, and very beneficial to all that attend, Green said. We want to continue the tradition of women empowerment. More information The event is sponsored by the Center for Service Learning and Volunteerism, the Division of Student Affairs, New Student Programs, the Society of Women Engineers, the Success in Engineering Through Excellence and Diversity and the Womens Resource Center. For more information, contact Green at womensleadershipconference@siu.edu or at 618/536-2463. When Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by Twitter on Tuesday, it opened up a vacancy that was promptly filled by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, which in turn opened a vacancy for his position. Pending confirmation, it will be filled by current CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel, making her the first woman to occupy the position. But before we shout Yasss Kween to the broken glass ceilings, lets examine just who Haspel is. First off, heres the basic resume, courtesy of CNN: During her time at the agency, Haspel has held several senior leadership positions, including directorial roles in the National Clandestine Service and in the Counterterrorism Center, as well as several Chief of Station roles, a news release from the CIA said. Haspel has received several awards in her career, including the Presidential Rank Award, the most prestigious award in the federal civil service. According to The New York Times, Haspel has spent most of her career undercover. And its during that undercover period where we get the accounts of her enthusiastic endorsement and use of torture, and her possible subsequent efforts to destroy the video evidence in order to protect her career: While running a CIA prison in Thailand, dubbed a black site, Haspel oversaw the torture of two terrorism suspects and her name was on a cable giving instructions to destroy video evidence documenting their interrogations, according to the Times. One of the suspects was reportedly waterboarded 83 times in one month. Heres more on that Thailand incident, from the aforementioned Times story: The C.I.A.s first overseas detention site was in Thailand. It was run by Ms. Haspel, who oversaw the brutal interrogations of two detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Mr. Zubaydah alone was waterboarded 83 times in a single month, had his head repeatedly slammed into walls and endured other harsh methods before interrogators decided he had no useful information to provide. The sessions were videotaped and the recordings stored in a safe at the C.I.A. station in Thailand until 2005, when they were ordered destroyed. By then, Ms. Haspel was serving at C.I.A. headquarters, and it was her name that was on the cable carrying the destruction orders. The agency maintains that the decision to destroy the recordings was made by Ms. Haspels boss at the time, Jose Rodriguez, who was the head of the C.I.A.s clandestine service. The video tape destruction was serious enough to merit a grand jury and special prosecutor (no charges were filed), but its the history of torturea practice in disfavor even in Pompeos CIAthat has Haspel in the crosshairs today. As it turned out, Abu Zubaydah was not who the CIA thought he was, and in 2014 the European Court of Human Rights ordered the U.S. to pay him 100,000 in restitution. However, he is still being held at Guantanamo under the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists. Over the course of his detainment, he lost his left eye, and waterboarding was only the start of the tortures he faced. Heres ProPublica on Haspels role in one such session: As the CIAs video cameras rolled, security guards shackled Abu Zubaydah to a gurney and interrogators poured water over his mouth and nose until he began to suffocate. They slammed him against a wall, confined him for hours in a coffin-like box, and deprived him of sleep. The 31-year-old Zubaydah begged for mercy, saying that he knew nothing about the terror groups future plans. The CIA official in charge, known in agency lingo as the chief of base, mocked his complaints, accusing Zubaydah of faking symptoms of psychological breakdown. The torture continued. That borderline sadistic chief of base was none other than Gina Haspel. For more on Zubaydah, its worth reading his lawyers piece in the Los Angeles Times from 2009. As for Haspel, Sarah Jones at the New Republic summed it up best: if you thought Zero Dark Thirty was an empowering feminist film, you'll love Gina Haspel https://t.co/eTdxgCSvZH Sarah Jones (@onesarahjones) March 13, 2018 Stop me if youve heard this before: Russia attacked a NATO country and the President of the United States refuses to commit to their guilt. A little over a week ago, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped over on a park bench. They and the detective who found them are still in critical condition in a British hospital. This is reminiscent of the poisoning of former KGB member, Alexander Litvinenko, a Putin critic who became the first human in recorded history to die from polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome. UK Prime Minister Theresa May said of the latest attack: Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom. As far as her rationale for why Russia is to blame? She pointed to Russias record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations. Additionally, testing revealed to May that It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as Novichok. Novichok means newcomer in Russian and it describes a group of nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1999, officials from the United States traveled to Uzbekistan in order to dismantle and decontaminate one of the U.S.S.R.s largest chemical weapons testing facilities. A senior defector told the BBC that the Soviets used that plant to produce small batches of Novichok, which is designed to escape detection. NPR reached out to an expert who came to the same conclusion that it had to be Russia: As far as I know, I dont know anybody who knows how to make it except these guys in Russia, says Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert with Strongpoint Security in London. Theyve been a deep, dark secret. Trumps now former Secretary of State (as of this mornings tweet which alerted Rex Tillerson to his fate) also said it clearly came from Russia. Plus, BuzzFeed dove into the 14 UK deaths that American spy agencies attributed to Russia, and found a treasure trove of proof. To put the cherry on top of all this, Nikolai Glushkov, a close associate of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky was found dead in the UK this morning (cause of death has not been released yet, but Alexander Litvinenko was also close with Berezovsky, so it would not be surprising to see Glushkov meet the same fate). This is basically a case where the murder weapon was found registered to the accused murderer, yet our manchild-in-chief cant even be bothered to stand firmly with our closest ally when they claim they have all the proof they need to make some pretty harrowing accusations. "As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be" President Trump on Salisbury poisoning https://t.co/fiPPBhAZFcpic.twitter.com/wv5kWRIK2e BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) March 13, 2018 Or whoever it may be. Hell, the Russian Embassy in the UK practically tweeted out their motive last week. He was actually a British spy, working for MI6 pic.twitter.com/PPAcE8a9vz Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) March 8, 2018 There's a reason that Russia uses convoluted methods like this for political assassination, as security expert Matt Tait touched on. Anyone call fall off a balcony or get shot in the street. But using isotopes that only occur in specific reactors, or VX that only a few nation-states have labs that can make isn't an accident. It's messaging: You betray us, we kill you. And your western handlers won't save you. Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) March 7, 2018 So why wont President Trump forcefully condemn Russia like our allies? Its one thing when it has to do with his election. Hes so vain that anything which remotely hints that he may not be 100% responsible for his victory is discarded as fake news. I get that. But here? A chemical attack by a foreign adversary on our closest allies soil? And the president is still in his it may not have been Russia mode? This reaction is enough to make me believe the craziest conspiracy theories about this Russia madness, because those are a far more concise explanation for Trumps hesitation here than any rationale that he or his cronies have provided. Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling. See some of the top Michigan high school football performers from Week 4 WASHINGTON (Reuters) Conservative commentator Larry Kudlow has emerged as a strong contender to succeed Gary Cohn as President Donald Trumps top economic adviser, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. Kudlow, a CNBC contributor, is a long-time friend and informal adviser to Trump. It was unclear how soon Trump would make up his mind. Chris Liddell, a former executive at Microsoft Corp and General Motors Co, is also under consideration for the job, a White House official said on Sunday. Trump is searching for a new director for the White House National Economic Council after Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc president, said he would resign. Cohns decision came after Trump decided to put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to Trump who promoted the tariffs, has also been touted as a candidate for the top economic job, though he has said he is not in the running. Liddell, 59, has earned respect at the White House for his work on projects like information technology modernization and electronic health records, which have required intensive coordination with government agencies, the official said. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Tom Brown) There are dozens of sea snake species in the Indian and Pacific oceans, but none in the Caribbean. Why? The director of UFs Seahorse Key Marine Laboratory discusses why sea snakes are found in only some of the worlds oceans, explaining that the answer lies in a combination of climate and geography. Yellow-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis platurus). Coleman M. Sheehy III, Florida Museum of Natural History , CC BY-ND Harvey Lillywhite, University of Florida Beachgoers often find unusual things that have washed up with the tides. But many people were surprised when a venomous yellow-bellied sea snake recently was found alive on Californias Newport Beach. Sea snakes are less well-known than other marine reptiles, particularly sea turtles, even though they number more than 60 species, most of which evolved 1 to 8 million years ago. Sea snakes are found only in the Indian and Pacific oceans. For many years, herpetologists and biologists like me have pondered why there are no sea snakes in the Atlantic Ocean or the Caribbean Sea. With colleagues at the University of Florida and elsewhere, Ive recently proposed some answers to this long-standing question. Wide-ranging, with limits In some ways it was not surprising to see a yellow-bellied sea snake, Hydrophis platurus, wash ashore in California. This is the only species of sea snake that is pelagic, drifting and following the broad circulation patterns of oceanic currents. It has the broadest distribution of any squamate reptile (the group that includes lizards and snakes), ranging from the tip of South Africa across the Indo-Pacific to the Pacific coast of Central America. The snake that turned up at Newport Beach was the fourth found in California since 2015. Normally, however, this far-ranging sea snake occurs in more tropical waters where temperatures are appropriate for it. Why not the Caribbean or Atlantic? I tackled this question with Coleman Sheehy III, collections manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History; Harold Heatwole of North Carolina State University; Francois Brischoux of Frances National Committee for Scientific Research; and David Steadman, curator of ornithology at the Florida Museum of Natural History. In our study we considered sea snakes biology, evolutionary history and environmental conditions that we believe have prevented them from migrating into the Atlantic. Climatic and current barriers Not all sea snakes spend their entire lives in the ocean. Some species, called sea kraits, can live on land or in water and lay their eggs on land. This limits their range because they need to stay near land to reproduce. In contrast, all entirely marine sea snakes are viviparous: They give birth to fully-formed young at sea, without laying eggs. This essential trait allowed the pelagic yellow-bellied sea snake to extend its range across the entire Indo-Pacific from an area of origin somewhere in the Coral Triangle of Southeast Asia. By the time it reached Central Americas Pacific coast however, the Isthmus of Panama had formed, fully separating the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. When the Panama Canal opened in 1914, it became possible for an occasional sea snake to enter Caribbean waters accidentally. However, this species tends to drift with currents, so it is highly unlikely that enough could pass through the canal and find one another to the east to establish a breeding population. In fact, no population of sea snakes has been established on the eastern side of the canal since its completion in 1914. Sea snakes also could enter the Atlantic Ocean by swimming from the Indian Ocean around the tip of Africa at the Cape of Good Hope. Yellow-bellied sea snakes do occur in the waters immediately east of the cape, but two major obstacles prevent them from traveling farther west. First, just west of the cape, the Benguela Current brings upwelling of very cold water to the coast of southwestern Africa. This current is 200 to 300 kilometers wide, and its water is too cold about 55 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface for sea snakes that might drift there to survive for long or reproduce. Second, as my research has shown, sea snakes require fresh water for drinking and will dehydrate at sea without it. They drink from lenses of fresh or brackish water that form temporarily on the oceans surface after large downpours of rain. But the climate of coastal southwest Africa is characterized by a large zone of permanent high pressure, which makes the region very dry with almost no rainfall. Evolving from land to sea Sea snakes also could become established by making evolutionary transitions from terrestrial or freshwater habitats to marine habitats in the island systems of the Caribbean. We know that elapid snakes a family of venomous snakes with short, fixed-front fangs, such as cobras have done this in the Coral Triangle region. Indeed, most of todays sea snakes originated and evolved into different species in this part of the globe between 2 to 16 million years ago. At that time, this region was a vast wetland complex associated with Southeast Asia and the Australasian archipelago. Land and sea are interlaced throughout the Coral Triangle, and have been so for several million years. This region is also characterized by high rainfall, low and variable water salinity, and relatively stable tropical warm temperatures. Throughout much of its geological past, sea levels rose and fell many times, opening and closing marine corridors and causing mangrove fringes and mud flats to form and disappear. All of these conditions are favorable for evolutionary transitions from land to sea, and stable, shallow marine habitats have persisted for the past 3 million years. Similar changes occurred in the Caribbean, but the Coral Triangle is a much larger and more complex system. Multiple ancestral lineages of snakes occur in Southeast Asia, and there are four to five times more viviparous (live-bearing), estuarine species within the Coral Triangle than occur in the Caribbean. In my view and that of my co-authors, the presence of appropriate lineages of snakes and a dynamic of ecological conditions favored speciation of sea snakes in the Coral Triangle much more so than in the Caribbean or anywhere else in the Atlantic Ocean. Indeed, the Coral Triangle, broadly defined, appears to be the only region where viviparity is characteristic of the majority of estuarine snakes. These snakes live in coastal waters contacting freshwater habitats, and they were most likely to undergo an evolutionary transition from terrestrial or freshwater to marine habitats and give rise to sea snakes. Navigating changing oceans Could future oceanic and weather conditions permit sea snakes to disperse from the Indo-Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean? I believe this is quite unlikely. Thus, we do not expect any sea snake to show up on the beaches of Florida, like those occasional snakes that have drifted to land on beaches in California. There is simply no source. There are already signs that some populations and species of sea snakes are in decline or have gone extinct, owing to changes in rainfall patterns, water temperatures, environmental contamination or human exploitation. Future climatic changes might bring negative as well as positive impacts on the biogeography of sea snakes. From my own experience watching sea snakes swim with graceful undulations over coral reefs, losing them (or any other marine organism) would be tragic and could threaten the health of coral reefs where sea snakes are top predators and considered to be harbingers of ecosystem change. Harvey Lillywhite, Professor of Biology and Director, Seahorse Key Marine Laboratory, University of Florida This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. In the latest evidence that the GOP is more concerned about protecting the president than the country, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee closed their investigation into Russias involvement in the 2016 election. According to GOP members of the committee, there are two main reasons they are wrapping up their probe both ranging from questionable to ridiculous: 1. There is no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia; and 2. The Russians didnt help Donald Trump in the 2016 election. More from CNN: The House Intelligence Committee has concluded its interviews for the investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trumps campaign operation and Russia, a move that signals the beginning of the end for the panels Russia probe, according to a source familiar with the matter. Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican leading the Russia investigation, is expected to announce Monday that the committee has concluded its interviews and will now be moving onto writing a final report summarizing its findings. The decision is expected to be met with sharp criticism from Democrats, who have said there are still scores of witnesses the committee should call, and argue that Republicans have failed to use subpoenas to obtain documents and require witnesses to answer questions that are central to the investigation. Rep. Mike Conway, who is leading the committees investigation, said this, according to the New York Times: We disagree with the narrative that [the Russians] were trying to help Trump. As CNN pointed out after the news broke, the GOP has reached an opposite conclusion Monday from the intelligence community they oversee by claiming Vladimir Putin did not help the Trump campaign. Of course, its easy for Conway and Republicans to make such ridiculous assertions when they had no intention of running a thorough investigation into Russia or its ties to the Trump campaign. As Jason Easley wrote a short time ago, the GOP ended the investigation into the Russia scandal without subpoenaing witnesses, documents, and text messages. The Republican report will be written with a singular goal in mind of protecting Trump, and trying to give him political cover from whatever Robert Mueller finds. Republicans are living in an alternative universe While the Republicans remain firmly inside their alternative universe where Trump is innocent and the Russians did nothing wrong, special counsel Robert Mueller continues to turn over every stone possible in finding out what happened in 2016, whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russians, and whether the president himself obstructed justice. As The New York Times pointed out on Monday, the decision by the House GOP to wrap up its Russia investigation comes at a time when Mueller appears to be expanding his. Already, the special counsel is pursuing criminal charges against four Trump associates with more likely on the way. Ultimately, the House GOP probe was a sham from the beginning, but Monday removed all doubt: The Republican Party is completely detached from reality. Since 2009, millions of monthly readers rely on and trust PoliticusUSA for real independent liberal news. We arent owned by a corporation, we dont take any special interest money. We have no shareholders, and we are here to deliver you the unfiltered truth that the mainstream media and their corporate owners dont want to talk about. PoliticusUSA is completely independent, and our goal is to bring you the news with truth and integrity. We are committed to keeping the news free to every reader, but we could use your help. For as little as $1, you can support PoliticusUSA, and keep delivering the message to the corporate media that both sides dont do it. The facts still matter, and truth rises above all. Please give today, and if you cant donate subscribe to our newsletter. 1.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Senators like Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) are supporting calls for an FBI investigation into Trumps payoff of porn star Stormy Daniels. Video: Support is growing for an FBI investigation into Trump's payoff of Stormy Daniels. https://t.co/iZtK3poYWR pic.twitter.com/vYIsujojeR Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 12, 2018 Sen. Cardin was asked about an FBI investigation into the Stormy Daniels payoff on CNN, and he said, Clearly there could be some legal issues here. No one is above the law, including the President of the United States. Theres certainly a lot of questions that I think Americans would like to have the answers to. Some issues about whether or not campaign laws were broken by the payment by the presidents lawyer. The Stormy Daniels story is about criminal activity Anyone who tries to put the Stormy Daniels story into the box marked sex scandal distraction is missing a big point. What Trump and Cohen did with the payoff to Daniels was illegal and a potential violation of campaign finance laws. The Daniels scandal is about a pattern of illegal behavior that stretches back to the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump cheating on his wife is not illegal. Trump and his lawyer violating the law to cover up the affair is a crime. If the FBI investigates the Stormy Daniels payoff, it will open up another Trump scandal that is likely to take down more of the few remaining members of the presidents inner circle. An investigation into the porn star payoff is coming, and if Daniels produces the evidence of the affair and the cover-up, Trump could have a whole new FBI investigation knocking on his door. PoliticsUSA has positions open for writers. Click here to apply. To discuss this story and more join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. 670 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters fought back against Donald Trumps childish attacks on Monday, calling him a dishonorable human being and saying she is not surprised when he lashes out. I am not intimidated by him, the Democratic representative said. Im going keep saying that we need to impeach him. Video: Rep. Maxine Waters Fires Back After Trumps IQ Attack: This Is A Dishonorable Human Being pic.twitter.com/EDEFfFHEcs PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 13, 2018 Waters took advantage of the opportunity to fight back against Trumps attacks: If he thinks he can stop me from talking about Impeach 45, hes got another thought coming. I am not intimidated by him. Im going keep saying that we need to impeach him. And I am so depending on our special counsel, Robert Mueller, to connect the dots so that he can prove the collusion. And, of course, weve seen obstruction of justice just playing out before our very eyes. So this is a dishonorable human being. He is a con man. He came to this job as a con man. I really call him Don the con man. So thats who he is. Thats what we expect. And Im not surprised at all. The Democratic congresswoman was clearly unfazed by Trumps flimsy attacks. Instead, she put the focus where it belongs: the ongoing special counsel investigation into the presidents campaign, which continues to escalate even as House Republicans end their own probe. Trumps attacks dont work anymore In the past, Trumps harsh attacks may have flustered his opponents and caught them off guard see Jeb Bush but they have quickly worn thin. Instead of being intimidated by his bullying, those who find themselves in the cross-hairs of a Trump insult now wear it as a badge of honor. Even the voters who may have found Trumps unconventional style of political combat appealing during the campaign are likely getting sick of it. Campaign season is over, after all, and the American people want the President of the United States to do his job instead of holding rallies and attacking political opponents. The problem, of course, is that Trump isnt mentally or intellectually equipped to do the job he was elected to do. Holding campaign rallies and attacking political opponents is the only tool he has in his chest. The presidents frequent attacks especially the latest one on the Democratic congresswomans intelligence are simply projections of his own flaws. As Rep. Waters demonstrated on Monday, this bullying strategy is no longer effective in scaring or silencing his opponents. If anything, it only emboldens Democrats to keep the heat on Trump. 275 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard (Reuters) Following are five facts about U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, who President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced will replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. Pompeo, 54, regularly briefs Trump on intelligence matters, and is considered one of the most hawkish voices on North Korea in Trumps inner circle. Pompeo has downplayed the extent of Russias intervention in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, saying Moscow has sought to influence American elections for decades. In February, he defended talks he had that month at CIA headquarters with Russian spy chiefs. Like Trump, Pompeo is an outspoken critic of Iran and has called for scrapping the 2015 deal curbing Tehrans nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. In October, he said Iran was mounting a ruthless drive to be the hegemonic power in the region. Pompeo has supported the U.S. governments sweeping collection of Americans communications data. In an opinion piece published in 2016, he called for restarting the bulk collection of domestic telephone metadata and combining it with financial and lifestyle information into one searchable database. Before taking the reins at the CIA in January, Pompeo was a conservative Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas. He is a retired Army officer and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and Harvard Law School. (Writing by Mohammad Zargham; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Bernadette Baum) 666 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard A new book by Yahoo News Michael Isikoff and Mother Jones David Corn being published today says that Donald Trump personally encouraged George Papadopoulos to arrange a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. If true, this stunning revelation contradicts the public views of what happened at an important meeting with Trump and his foreign policy team on March 31, 2016. Papadopoulos who Trump called a coffee boy was actually a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. After pleading guilty to lying to the FBI he has become a key cooperating witness in special counsekl Robert Muellers Russia investigation. This different view of what Papadopoulos told federal investigators before the election was reported in Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putins War on America and the Election of Donald Trump, by Isikoff and Corn. At the March 31, 2016 meeting Papadopoulos first told Trump and the rest of his foreign policy advisers that he knew people who could set up a meeting between Trump and Putin. That meeting was run by Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, the head of the foreign policy team, who would later be appointed U.S. Attorney General. According to the Isiikoff and Corn book, Papadopoulos told Mueller and his investigative team that Trump encouraged him to set up the Putin meeting after being told Papadopoulos had contacts in London that could arrange for the summit meeting. Trump thought the idea was interesting and then he looked at Sessions, as if he expected him to follow up with Papadopoulos, and Sessions nodded in response the book recounts. When asked about this meeting of the foreign policy team Sessions has previously testified that he had no clear recollection of the exchange with Papadopoulos. The book also says that according to an unnamed White House official others at the meeting remember what happened much differently than Papadopoulos. 203 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By David Morgan CANONSBURG, Pa. (Reuters) Republicans are scrambling to avoid a political disaster in a conservative district of Pennsylvania, where a pro-gun, pro-union Democrat who opposes abortion could be about to win a congressional election in one of President Donald Trumps white, working-class strongholds. Democrat Conor Lamb, a 33-year-old Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor, is in a dead heat with Republican state Representative Rick Saccone in Tuesdays special election for an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives that Republicans have held since 2003. The race is seen as a referendum on Trump and a harbinger for Novembers congressional midterm elections, according to pollsters and party insiders who say the moderate Democrat could emerge as a model for Democratic candidates in other competitive House districts that Trump carried in 2016. The Democrats have nominated the ideal candidate, because he fits the profile of the electorate. If theyd nominated a liberal who allowed the campaign to become nationalized, it would be over by now, said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin and Marshall College Poll in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. If he wins, or even if he just comes close, he is a model for Democrats in competitive Trump districts nationally. Trump won the district, in southwest Pennsylvania, by nearly 20 points in 2016. Republican dominance has been so strong here that Democrats ran no candidates in the last two U.S. House elections, even though state voter registration records show Democrats outnumbering Republicans. DYNAMICS CHANGED But the dynamics have changed in the district, which runs from wealthy suburbs south of Pittsburgh through hardscrabble steel and coal mining towns to farmlands along the West Virginia border. Saccone, 60, a conservative who has described himself as Trump before Trump was Trump, led the race by more than 10 percentage points in January. The contest has since narrowed to a toss-up on a wave of Democratic voter enthusiasm for Lamb. A Monmouth University poll on Monday showed Lamb ahead. Bob Zelleznick, 59, of Bethel Park, said he intends to vote for Lamb and hopes for a Democratic win that would make the White House sit up and take notice. This is important because I think it will send a message to Washington: a lot of people are unhappy with the administration, Zelleznick said. The White House has arranged a string of visits to energize Saccones base. Trump himself has visited twice. The area has also seen Vice President Mike Pence, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, and on the eve of Election Day, the presidents son Donald Trump Jr. When President Trumps in your corner, how can you lose? Saccone told supporters at a weekend rally with the president. A college professor and former Air Force counterintelligence officer, Saccone won an endorsement from the influential Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper, which praised his greater experience and knowledge of the district. He supports small business owners and would do anything for you to make sure that your business is successful, said Stephanie Squibb, 48, of Elizabeth, who owns a local printing company. But Saccone has not had much luck running on the Republican national agenda. Tax cuts, the Republican Partys only major achievement under Trump, have done little to energize local voters, some of whom dismiss the sweeping tax overhaul as a giveaway to the wealthy. [nL2N1Q8024] Republicans see the presidents plans to impose steel and aluminum import tariffs as a way to generate enough enthusiasm among Trumps blue-collar supporters to counteract the energy of Lambs backers. Theyre hoping this is something that potentially, in the grand calculus, could throw Saccone over the top, said Republican strategist Ford OConnell. While the district has just over 500,000 registered voters, U.S. Labor Department statistics show that metal production accounts for less than 10,000 jobs. UNUSUAL DEMOCRAT Lamb, who has the backing of unionized steelworkers, says he agrees with the planned tariffs. His campaign claims to have reached more than 100,000 households with pledges to protect union jobs and pensions along with Medicare and Social Security programs for the elderly that account for nearly one out of every five local residents. Republicans have also found it harder than expected to mount effective attacks on Lambs positions on abortion, guns and the national Democratic Party. He has eschewed the national Democratic brand, saying he would not support House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi as speaker. But Lamb did get help from former Vice President Joe Biden, a favorite among Rust Belt Democrats. Lamb says he personally opposes abortion but accepts the Supreme Courts 1973 Roe vs. Wade landmark decision allowing abortion as the law of the land. He favors enforcing existing gun laws and improving the current system of background checks over setting new gun restrictions. The contest to replace Republican Tim Murphy, who resigned last year, is the fifth competitive special House election since Trump took office. After a victory in Virginia and a Senate upset in conservative Alabama, Democrats are dreaming about another win that would suggest the Republicans might struggle to retain control of the House. Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to gain House control in November. Of the 85 races currently viewed as competitive, 55 are in congressional districts that Trump won in 2016, according to the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Tuesdays election has little bearing on the current balance of power in the House. Lamb has dramatically outraised Saccone by pulling in $3.9 million since last October. Outside Republican groups, led by the National Republican Congressional Committee and Congressional Leadership, Fund have spent at least $8.1 million to keep Saccone afloat, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in campaigns. Democratic groups have spent about $1 million to oppose Saccone in support of Lamb, the Center said. Pennsylvanias congressional district lines have been redrawn for November by the state supreme court, which will require Lamb and Saccone to run again in separate new districts if they hope to serve in Congress after 2018. (Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Alistair Bell) 146 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By John Walcott and Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) Gina Haspel, a veteran CIA clandestine officer picked by President Donald Trump on Tuesday to head the CIA, is a controversial figure, backed by many in the U.S. intelligence community but regarded warily by some in Congress for her involvement in the agencys black site detention facilities. Haspel was selected as the agencys new director after the Republican president fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and chose current CIA Director Mike Pompeo as Tillersons replacement. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Haspel would become the first woman to head the CIA, after serving as deputy director since February 2017. Trump told reporters he has worked very closely with Haspel and regards her as an outstanding person. U.S. officials said that while Haspel was generally held in high regard at the CIA, her nomination raised the unwelcome prospect of greater congressional and media scrutiny of officers who are more comfortable in the dark than in the spotlight. This is going to reopen wounds from a decade and more ago, and also invite more oversight of both our analyses and our activities, especially if Gina is confirmed, said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. When she was named deputy director last year, intelligence officers who served with her and congressional officials said that in 2002, during Republican former President George W. Bushs administration, she ran a secret CIA prison in Thailand codenamed Cats Eye. Two suspected members of the al Qaeda militant group were subjected to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques at the facility. Three years later, still during Bushs presidency, she helped carry out an order to destroy videotapes of the waterboarding, which simulates drowning and is considered a form of torture, according to those people. Such facilities are called black sites because their existence is unacknowledged by the U.S. government. On Tuesday, some U.S. intelligence officials said reports of her alleged involvement in interrogations involving torture were false. However, they did not immediately provide details. They did not dispute her involvement in carrying out orders to destroy videotapes of harsh interrogation techniques, which was reported in the book Hard Measures, by Jose Rodriguez, her boss at the time, and former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow. A CIA spokesman had no immediate comment. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Tuesday he opposed the nominations of both Pompeo and Haspel. Ms. Haspels background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director, Wyden said. Her nomination must include total transparency about this background, which I called for more than a year ago when she was appointed deputy director. If Ms. Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of U.S. intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from her past. One key Republican, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, promised to support her nomination. Saying he was proud of her work, Burr said he would ensure her nomination would be considered without delay. I know Gina personally, and she has the right skill set, experience and judgment to lead one of our nations most critical agencies, Burr said. Her confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled. There is no question that a director leaving after a year is very turbulent for the agency, said former CIA Director Michael Hayden. That said, leaving Gina and making her the actual director will have a very positive calming influence. Hayden added, I suspect other parts of the government (will) see more turbulence out of this than CIA will. Human rights groups signaled opposition to Haspel. Haspel is a particularly controversial choice, given her reported past involvement in torture at CIA black sites. No one responsible for torture should be leading a federal agency, period, said Rob Berschinski, senior vice president of Human Rights First. The Senate should use her confirmation process to send a strong signal about where this country stands on correcting the mistakes of the past. Haspel has served in a number of undercover overseas posts in addition to her work in Thailand, including as chief of the CIA station in London and the agencys base in New York. Then-CIA Director John Brennan in 2013 named her deputy director of National Clandestine Service, but she was denied a permanent promotion in the face of congressional opposition. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Patricia Zengerle; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Will Dunham) 1.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard On August 21, 2016, Roger Stone tweeted, It will soon be Podestas time in the barrel. March of 2018 appears to be Roger Stones time in the barrel. Roger Stone claimed contact with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in 2016 and told two people about the hacked emails in advance. One of those people just testified a grand jury in the Mueller Trump Russia probe, according to a new Washington Post story. In the spring of 2016, Stone, an informal adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, said he had learned from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that his organization had obtained emails that would torment senior Democrats such as John Podesta, then campaign chairman for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The problem is this conversation took place, Tom Hamburger, Josh Dawsey, Carol D. Leonnig and Shane Harris write, before it was publicly known that hackers had obtained the emails of Podesta and of the Democratic National Committee, documents that WikiLeaks released in late July and October. The U.S. intelligence community later concluded the hackers were working for Russia. OK. The kill shot seems to prove that Mueller knows a lot. A lot, lot. The second, former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg, said in an interview Monday that Stone told him that he had met with Assange a conversation Nunberg said investigators for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III recently asked him to describe. Washington Post columnist Brian Klass smelled the whiff of collusion: This is extremely serious if proven, as it speaks directly to the deliberate collusion question. If Stone was aware of Russian hacking/Wikileaks documents, its hard to imagine he didnt tell people in Trump world. And theres a lot of evidence Stone knew. https://t.co/t8PWYIGsuk Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) March 13, 2018 In August of 2016, Roger Stone began talking about WikiLeaks and Assange. He told a Florida Republican Party group in August that he had communicated with Julian Assange. In March of 2017, WikiLeaks and Assange repeatedly confirmed that they have never communicated with Stone. CNN continues, (L)ater in August, Stone suggested that Assange had material that included emails deleted by Clinton aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills. At other times, Stone said the material released would be related to the Clinton Foundation. On August 21, Stone tweeted that it will soon the Podestas time in the barrel.' In February of 2018, Natasha Bertrand wrote in the Atlantic that Roger Stone and WikiLeaks exchanged private Twitter messages during the election, showing that WikiLeaks sought to keep its channel to Stone open after Trump won. On March 9th, 2018 former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg spent six hours before a grand jury convened by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into whether Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Mueller was trying then to determine if Stone played any role in the publication of Democratic emails hacked by Russian intelligence operatives, according to Reuters sources familiar with the investigation. If Nunberg is correct about his mentor Roger Stone meeting with Assange, there is a connection being made between the Russian hacking of the DNC that Donald Trump asked them for help with publicly and top Trump advisers. A caveat here is that Donald Trump surrounds himself with people who are known for being liars. However, Nunberg put on quite a public display of not wanting to testify in a way that could possibly harm his mentor, Roger Stone. Nunberg was specifically unwilling to turn over his email correspondence at first, a point he made repeatedly during a troubling media performance that continued for hours. Both Trump and Russia deny colluding. Collusion is used a lot in referring to the Trump Russia probe, but it is not apparently an actual legal term. It does get to the overarching point though, which is that no, one may not conspire against ones own government, one may not work with a foreign power to attack a United States election, and yes hacking is a crime. (Additional reporting by Warren Strobel and John Walcott) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the comments on February 28 at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The conference serves as an international venue to discuss issues and policies in the field of arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation. Branding the presence of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons (TNWs) in Europe and NATO training in the use of the weapons against Russia as an aggressive stance, Lavrov said Russia has not deployed such weapons or conducted the relevant training. He also talked up Russias contribution to disarmament compared to that of the U.S., saying it has reduced its nuclear arsenal by more than 85% since the Cold War and is concerned about the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review outlining the U.S. nuclear doctrine. We are also concerned by a considerable shift in the US approaches in the context of the updated Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) which provides for a greater role of nuclear weapons, he said, adding that U.S. plans for low-yield warheads would increase the risk of nuclear weapons use. The NPR, which the U.S. adopted in February, calls for modernization of the aging U.S. nuclear arsenal and developing low-yield TNWs to provide for more flexible nuclear deterrence. As part of the modernization, the U.S. will modify the 150-200 TNWs it deploys in Europe to reduce their yield and increase their precision, allowing for their battlefield use. The plan is to consolidate all the B61 variants versions into the new B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb, to be deliverable by both tactical and nuclear aircraft. The weapons could be deployed as early as 2020. Overall, the total inventory of nuclear gravity bombs will be reduced by nearly 50 percent by the mid-2020s. The U.S. views it as critical to enhance both its conventional and nuclear capabilities in Europe given Russias overwhelming advantage in conventional forces and Russias outsized arsenal of almost 2,000 TNWs, which experts say also provides it with qualitative advantages. Russia, in turn, views its arsenal of TNWs as necessary to counter NATOs alleged superiority in conventional forces, despite reports indicating that the arrangement of forces favors Russia. And while Russia has arguably reduced its reliance on nuclear weapons given the modernization of its conventional forces, it continues to rely on TNWs for deterrence. According to Michaela Dodge, a defense expert at the Heritage Foundation, the U.S. deployed its TNWs in Europe in 1953 to counterbalance a massive Soviet conventional superiority but withdrew 90% (some estimates say 97%) of its nuclear weapons after the end of the Cold War. Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. and NATO further decreased the importance of TNWs in their strategic doctrines and failed to modernize their TNWs. Russia, on the other hand, has modernized its TNWs, she said. She writes that the failure of Russia and the U.S. to abide by their political commitments has left the U.S. with as much as a 10-to-1 disadvantage in TNWs. The idea behind the NPRs focus on the TNWs is to deny Russia the perception that its use of TNWs would provide it with a quick victory without triggering a nuclear response. Russia must instead understand that nuclear first-use, however limited, will fail to achieve its objectives and trigger incalculable and intolerable costs for Moscow, the review noted. This strategy will ensure Russia understands it has no advantages in will, non-nuclear capabilities, or nuclear escalation options. Correcting any Russian misperceptions along these lines is important to maintaining deterrence in Europe and strategic stability, it added. Some experts say the modified TNWs would provide the U.S. with more options to counter Russias capabilities given Russias nuclear modernization, which started earlier, and its military campaigns in Georgia and Ukraine, which threatened European NATO allies. Others note the U.S. strategic nuclear capabilities provide a sufficient deterrent, arguing that enhanced reliance on TNWs lowers the threshold of their use and risks an all-out nuclear war, as Russias doctrine allows for a nuclear response regardless of the type of the nuclear attack. Any use of nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies, weapons of short, medium or any range at all, will be considered as a nuclear attack on this country. Retaliation will be immediate, with all the attendant consequences, President Vladimir Putin told Russias parliament on March 1, boasting of five nuclear weapons systems Russia has developed or is developing. The mismatch in perceptions and capabilities given the absence of arms control agreements specifically covering the TWNs, as well as arms developments and alleged violations of arms control treaties by both Russia and the U.S., have undermined disarmament efforts. Both Russia and the U.S. have acknowledged the issues, but the efforts toward any accord are stalling. Evan Montgomery, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told Polygraph.info that Moscow has been reluctant to incorporate TNWs into an arms control regime. He also pointed to Russias violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), saying it suggests Russia is not genuinely interested in disarmament. Russia, in turn, has accused the U.S. of violating the INF Treaty and the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which prohibits transferring nuclear weapons, or control over them, to other recipients. The Russians point to the U.S. deployment of TNWs in Europe as well as joint nuclear missions involving training with non-nuclear armed NATO allies as evidence. However, Montgomery told Polygraph.info that these arrangements pre-date the treaty. Moreover, the U.S. TNWs remain in the custody of the U.S. military, and their use in a conflict would involve an agreement between the U.S. and the host countries, which include Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Turkey. Just like Russia, the U.S. and host countries are involved in exercises and contingency planning likely involving the use of nuclear weapons. NATO allies have reportedly participated in the preparation and execution of the nuclear mission. And while related training decreased in frequency with the end of the Cold War, the latest geopolitical and military developments could make them a higher priority for NATO. Although it remains the policy of NATO not to target its nuclear forces at any specific country, the policy does not preclude the possibility (or even likelihood) that contingency plans exist, wrote Simon Lunn, who served as head of plans and policy on NATOs International Staff. The Pentagon declined to comment on Lavrovs allegations. We are, each and every one of us, eco-systems teeming with life. The human body contains approximately 100 trillion cells but only roughly ten percent of those cells are human. The remainder belong to bacteria and other microorganisms that make our bodies their home. As anyone who has had a bad bowel reaction to taking antibiotics knows, we rely upon certain of those microorganisms to function properly. We would not be what we are without the living beings that inhabit us. Our status as a human being depends upon our status as living environments. Moreover, we are environments within an environment of our own. We are, of course, part of a larger world, a great deal of which we will never directly experience. And yet, as we know from the increasingly fraught realm of climate science, we do directly experience the effects of the damages and changes undergone by those corners of the world hidden from our immediate purview. Regardless of your political beliefs pertaining to the ultimate causes of climate change, the fact of it is irrefutable. Our lives are directly impacted (and indeed imperiled) by the unseen shifts in viability experienced by the far reaches of the earth. Just as our health as a living entity relies upon the vitality of the microbes residing within us, the earths health depends upon the myriad vicissitudes of the organisms living within it. This realization is hard-won and rather difficult to retain. We easily forget (perhaps endeavor to forget) that we are ourselves walking environments. We prefer to think of ourselves as singular individuals with sovereignty over what we too often regard as our domain. But the earth is our domain no more than we are the domain of the bacteria living in our intestines. If we are to live properly in the world we have to feel connected to it, not in the manner of dominion but rather as a humble part of the earths functioningand sadly, perhaps one of the more otiose parts of that eco-system. While we are learning that the earth doesnt function all that well without the coral reefs or the ice glaciers, one senses that it would function just as well if not better without us. This puts us in a rather odd position. We are, without exaggeration, a plague upon the earth. We imperil it and portend its destruction; we are its most invasive species and as is the case with all invasive species, we crowd out the competition, in part, simply through our profusion. If we consider it our birthright to occupy the earth as we see fit then that is an inheritance that relegates the earth to a moribund status. Our living environment is condemned to become a fetid corpse. But it need not be so. Unlike the other species on this planet, we have the capacity to assess our impact on the environment and counteract the deleterious effects we produce. It is troubling and ultimately not that productive to view oneself as a plague. If that is the case, all one can in good conscience hope for is ones demise. If, however, we trade in dominion for stewardship, we can be of use to the planet that serves as our host and the source of our security and vitality. Fostering the desire to accomplish the reclamation of the earth requires a felt connection to the problem. As long as we can imagine ourselves as set aside from the world (whether the argument stems from the notion that we hold dominion over it or that we are somehow beyond the level the ontology of our animality), no progress is made. There are, typically and broadly speaking, two routes toward convincing people to work toward a common good: either demonstrate logically the necessity of the endeavor or make an emotional appeal that bypasses our ingrown cynicism. The former approach tends to fall short of its goal. It is in our rational best interest to tend to our environment but the immediacy of the everyday problems we face in life all-too-often obfuscate our larger environmental obligations, which seem open to deferment in comparison to mortgages, debt, unemployment, illness, and war. Moreover, as strict as we might believe proper logic to be, when it comes to human comportment logical argumentation proves to be all-too-pliant. Reason often devolves into rationalization, immediate self-interest almost always trumps long-range planning, and desire outweighs responsibility. Now, I am the last person to dismiss logic as the proper means of conducting debate. Far too often in political discourse these days (and throughout history, to be fair) clear argumentation is sacrificed on the altar of emotion. People often rail against social reform or clamor for radical overhaul on the basis of what they feel might be the case rather than examining the actual effects of political upheaval or of maintaining the status quo. The problem is that logic doesnt establish fact; it simply works with fact in order to draw rigorous conclusions. If the human impact on climate change is not accepted as a fact (if, as some proclaim, it is merely an unfounded hypothesis), then logic doesnt even come into contention. Furthermore, in political matters (and at this point it should be clear that climate change is a highly political and politicized issue) logic has no purchase unless people are motivated by an issue and that requires some kind of connection to it. This is where the emotional element comes into play. This is not a cynical claiman obvious enough objection given the old warning against allowing emotion to override reasonbut rather it merely points to a common-sense observation: for a problem to show up for us at all as a problem, we have to care about the issues linked to that problem. The BBC Natural History Unit has, over the course of the past several decades, made something of an art form out of the emotional appeal. Its beautifully produced, visually stunning nature documentary series have set the standard for what one expects of such films. Indeed, the BBCs decision to provide recently released sequels to two of its most renowned works, Planet Earth and Blue Planet, has afforded its producers the opportunity not only to outdo those earlier series but also to reach what must be regarded as a summit for films of this genre. Blue Planet II, which premiered in October 2017 and is now being released on DVD and Blu-ray, is event television at its finest. Buttressed by over a decade of development in technology and scientific knowledge, Blue Planet II takes viewers deeper (in both the literal and metaphorical senses of the word) than its predecessor, explores previously undocumented species and behaviors, and takes a stronger stand on human culpability in the potentially disastrous state of the earth than any of its previous films. Not surprisingly, that stand emerges most clearly in the last of the seven episodes, entitled Our Blue Planet. The use of the possessive in the title is clearly deliberate. This series wants viewers actively engaged in thinking about and ultimately healing our damaged planet. But even here, the series refrains from casting blame or getting mired in lament. There is no discussion of extinction, no pointing the finger at specific governments or policies or corporations, no blunt reminders of the pervading indifference of the majority of the populace. Rather, the focus remains on success stories and how we might further pursue such endeavors. We meet a remarkable man in the Caribbean, Len Peters, who took it upon himself to develop ways to protect the giant leatherback turtles who lay their eggs on local beaches and were often killed for their meat while doing so, bringing them to the brink of extinction. Peters is well-positioned to understand the problem. Raised in Trinidad, he is well aware of the prevalence and pervasiveness of turtle meat; but he soon learned that the supply would run out if the turtles were not offered some protection. Realizing that the best way to ensure the safety of the turtles was to directly involve the citizenry, Peters started a business in which locals would serve as guides to tourists eager to snap a photograph of a mother turtle laying her eggs. We learn that in Norway, herring fishing was so intensive that the population was nearly wiped out, which would have equally devastated the orcas and the humpback whales. But once the government passed legislation limiting the exploitation of the fishery the herring bounced back as did the orca population. We see impressive footage of orcas as they slap passing herring with their tails to kill them. Moreover, the orcas exploit the fishermens nets for an easy meal as well. Knowing that a certain small percentage of herring are able to wriggle free of the nets clasp, the orca wait nearby and gobble up the disoriented fish as they make their escape. As one scientist points out, the whales consume roughly on percent of the herring population while human consumption amounts to roughly ten percent. When humans avoid over-exploitation, and the herring population is allowed to remain vital and healthy, there is food for all. Of course, a large portion of the episode is dedicated to the ravages imposed by human pollution but even here surprises abound. The effects of pollution are just as deadly when they are indirect. Plankton eat small particles of plastic containing toxins. Fish eat the plankton and dolphins eat the fish. If enough toxic material builds up in the system of a female dolphin, her milk can become poisonous to her offspring. So, a dolphin who has had no direct contact with the plastics of human waste can nevertheless perish from its effects. (Still from Blue Planet II official trailer) An even more surprising (at least to me) form of pollution impacts the clownfish who played such a large role in the third episode of the series, Coral Reefs. In that earlier episode, a family of saddleback clownfish took advantage of a large carpet anemone that is poisonous to most of the reefs population but not to the clownfish. The family hides within its folds and pays the anemone back by keeping his body free from debrisbasically vacuuming the carpet. Moreover, the male must find a safe place for the female to lay her eggs; those eggs can find no purchase on the body of the anemone itself. Therefore, the male must drag some sturdy item over to the safety of the anemone where the eggs can be stored. He eventually manages to push and shove a part of a coconut shell into place. These fish continually grunt in order to communicate; indeed, they are in constant communication, perhaps the most loquacious fish imaginable. What we dont learn until the final episode, however, is that their form of communication is a new object of scientific study and a new source of concern. Fish employ sounds of great variety to attract mates, to ward off attacks, and simply to chatter. The clownfish is thus not an anomaly, just particularly voluble. So, we return to our family and learn that scientists are beginning to discern elements of their verbalization. The scientist constructs a fake coral trout to threaten the clownfish; they react with deep, guttural alarm calls in an effort to frighten the trout away. Meanwhile the children make a softer popping sound to assure the parents that they are still safe. But then a disturbing thing occurs. A large boat passes overhead and the clownfish, still in the proximity of the illusory threat, cease their vocalizations. Because they cannot be heard over the din of the boats engine, they simply give up. With communication disrupted, their safety is compromised. While noise pollution is a familiar woe of modern life, I would imagine we seldom think of its impact upon such places as a coral reef. But since navigation, mating, and safety all depend upon the fishs ability to hear, noise pollution is a serious threat to their existence. The good news, and Blue Planet II really focuses on what can be done rather than what has been lost, is that noise pollution in the coral reefs can be easily addressed at minimal cost. Indeed, one gathers from Blue Planet II that many of the ills assailing our planet could begin to be relieved through a relatively minor effort. Of course, major upheavals are also required (as in the prevalence of plastic waste set out into the environment) but more headway than one might imagine can be made through simple adjustments to local outlook (as in the case of the turtles), an awareness of a previously unimagined problem (as in the noise pollution of the coral reef), or an adjustment to business models (as in the herring population in Norway). Perhaps there is a Pollyanna-ish hue to such optimism but that is infinitely preferable to indifference, lack of effort, or pure denial. The majority of the series, six of its seven episodes, refer only occasionally to the troubled environmentalthough I think it is notable that they dont reserve all mention of it for the finale (indeedm one of the most moving scenesa pilot whale mother refusing to let go of the corpse of her child who died from exposure to pollutionappears in the fourth episode, The Big Blue). Instead the focus here is on connecting viewers to the lives of the often-strange creatures that dwell in or near the planets seas. If even the seventh episode refrains from didacticism, the others eschew it almost completely. The series, in the tradition of earlier BBC efforts, is less about the dissemination of information regarding the creatures it follows than providing a kind of focused experience of them. Each episode is constructed from a collection of vignettes that explore a specific locale or investigate an isolated species in its interactions with others, in its attempts to eat, mate, and maintain safetyin short, in its efforts to survive. Rather than provide any semblance of a lecture, each vignette sets forth its material in a visceral, engaging manner that delights the eye. The series banks on the hope that the emotional connection is what will lead to the pursuit of knowledge and awarenessknowledge that would have to be attained outside of the scope of the series, for the most part. At times, it can feel as though we are provided with a relative dearth of information in exchange for a wealth of rich visual imagery and a sweeping panorama of outlandish activity. Even the names of certain animals go by so quickly as to be easily missed. And yet, the producers of Blue Planet II have clearly engineered a means to lead viewers to feel transported into an alien realm that is nonetheless all-too-familiar. This is accomplished, by and large, by framing these vignettes in recognizable genres. There is the ubiquitous chase scene (at least one per episode, including the last) where at least one of the pursued gets away, providing cathartic release and reassurance that even in the most threatening of situations, survival is possible. A notable example of the chase scene here (although for a sheer heart-pumping adrenaline rush, nothing can top the scene in Planet Earth II in which a newly born marine iguana narrowly outruns a ravenous posse of snakes) is in the penultimate episode, Coasts, where we find a group of crabs doing everything possible to avoid slipping into the water as they hop from rock to rock in order to get to their feeding grounds. The object of their fear is the moray eel. Crabs are not the most affecting creatures and are rather difficult to anthropomorphize but that is precisely what Blue Planet II manages to do. To accomplish this, the series relies upon all of the cliches of the genre. The eel first appears as a shock effect. A crab rests on a rock, peering down into the water beneath. We look up at it from below the waters surface unaware that we are occupying the space of a predator. Cut to a camera further away and from an angle slightly above the scene and the eel irrupts from the water, clutching the crab in its maw. After the sudden impact of the death blow, the camera shifts to a slower speed and we register the shock as the eel slips back into the water. The remainder of the vignette employs reverse shots to reinforce the standoff between predator and prey. Closeups of the crabs eyes invite our sympathy and our connection to their plight. Wary of danger, the crabs scan the water that stretches before them and we cant help but read despair in their gaze. The eel even reveals its ability to travel short distances on land, thus cutting off the progress of the group at every turn. To make matters worse, an octopus joins the hunt, flopping its way amidst the craggy rocks in strong contrast to the smoother undulations of the eel. With so much treachery afoot (or asea), you cant help but pull for the crab. Inevitably, we are shown a few successful crabs who escape their demise and attain their goals as the narrator, the acclaimed David Attenborough, gamely intones Made it! (Still from Blue Planet II official trailer) Another genre referenced by the vignettes is the survival film. The second episode of the series, The Deep, concerned as it is with creatures who live in the extreme conditions provided by the depths of the ocean, is replete with such scenes. The episode takes us all the way down to the sea floor where a mere one percent of the biological material settles that otherwise descends through the upper layers of the ocean and feeds innumerable inhabitants. Here that one percent creates a muddy surface that strongly resembles an arid desert. Few creatures live here but it is here that the sea toad resides. It has long since exchanged its fins for a rudimentary set of feet, and it meanders about the sea floor in search of prey. Life here is often desperate but occasionally nature offers a boon. In this moment, that boon takes the shape of a 30-ton whale carcass that attracts everything from ravenous six-gill sharks (often only eating one substantial meal in an entire year, who create a feeding frenzy when they release the whales blood into the water) to the clean-up team formed by spider and rock crabs along with an assortment of other scavengers, who attract their own predators. Finally, even the bones become sustenance for a host of the appropriately named zombie worms. They inject the bones with acid and bore their way to the modest stores of fat that reside within. The love scene is another timeworn framework for several of the vignettes and there are plenty to choose from in Blue Planet II. A particularly alluring example is found in episode 5, Green Seas, in the form of the psychedelic giant cuttlefish. These strange creatures put on a remarkable multi-colored display that shimmers across the surface of their skins. The largest cuttlefish jealously guards the females he feels belong to him. So when an amorous but relatively diminutive male happens upon the scene, he is forced to adopt a deceitful stratagem. He changes his colors to appear to be a female. He is then able to sidestep the giant and mate with one of the members of the giants harem. More prevalent in Blue Planet II is the family drama, examples of which were raised above with the clownfish and pilot whales. Finally, Blue Planet II employs the hallmarks of surrealism in some of its most memorable vignettes. The most stunning example of this also derives from The Deep episode. Deep within the Gulf of Mexico, eruptions at the sea floor release super salty brine, which is five times heavier than sea water. The brine creates a lake at the bottom of the sea that stands in stark contrast to the rest of the environment. Several species live on its shores: mussels, lobsters, shrimp. But almost nothing can penetrate into the brine. The exception is found in the cutthroat eel. It occasionally dips below the surface of the lake, diving into the brine. But an extended stay there can prove fatal. Upon reemergence, the eels twist themselves into bizarre knots, succumbing to what appear to be epileptic fits and painful contortions while they are in the throes of toxic shock. If an animal remains too long in the brine, it becomes embalmed and its corpse lingers on the shore, a reminder of the dangers residing in the depths. These genres and their recognizable cliches attempt to bridge the gap a viewer might naturally feel between herself and the strange cuttlefish or the uncharismatic (in most situations) crab. The semiotics of the camera (the swift panning shots, reverse shots, use of slow motion for dramatic effect, etc.), the Hans Zimmer score (a little on-the-nose for my taste but expertly crafted), and the assured narration by Attenborough all contribute to the sense that these are deeply lived experiences not altogether different from the lives we lead. We too find ourselves in threatening situations, seek to enchant potential mates, long to accomplish goals, and struggle to maintain our existences. Blue Planet II suggests that if we are to save the planetor more modestly, just stop making matters endlessly worsethe first step is to identify with it. The finest interpreters of the Great American Songbook include Ella Fitzgerald and, in a respectable second, Frank Sinatra. Fitzgerald sang like a siren, with a flawless beauty sustained through every note of eight LPs dedicated to the songbook. Her renditions of Anything Goes and Mood Indigo, to begin, performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis contemporaneous integration of white and African American soul, according to Frank Rich. Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians. With her razor-sharp diction and perfect intonation, Fitzgerald muddied the lines between pop and art, delivering vernacular music to the world with the precision of a classical virtuoso. Sinatra, too, brought an exacting discipline to the mic, with slightly different ends. His voice has a very strident, insistent sound in the top register, a smooth lyrical sound in the middle register, and a very tender sound in the low, noted arranger Nelson Riddle. His voice is built on infinite taste, with an overall inflection of sex. He points everything he does from a sexual standpoint (Charles Granata, Sessions with Sinatra). The Great American Songbook bubbles over with a fevered desire. Its a hot mess of black and white and hues in-between. Its the fertile soil for R&B, beat poetry, abstract expressionism, and dissident stand-up comedy. Its about sex and race and rock n rollwhich, along with justice and compassion, serve as the guiding lights for Hamell on Trial, Ed Hamells stage name. Imagine Bill Hicks mash-mixed with the Clash on acoustic guitar, with notable exceptions, including the plaintive All That Was Said, with Ani DiFranco. With the aid of time travel, a Fitzgerald-Sinatra duet of All That Was Said could pry open a songbook effectively closed for 50 years. Since the mid-1990s, Hamell has drawn upon the power of Fitzgeralds cultural transactions and the prowess of Sinatras sexual inflections to become one of the finest musical interpreters of America itself. Edward James Hamell grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his parents bestowed upon him two key gifts: the capacity to stand in the squalls of existential angst, inhale, and laugh, and a phoenix-like capacity for rebirth. His extended, dissipated youth included the standard rock n roll fare: jobs behind the counter between low-paying gigs, and an enduring romance with substances natural and synthetic. Hamell eventually traded in his Fender Stratocaster for a Gibson acoustic and an enduring engagement with sobriety. On Live From Edinburgh: The Terrorism of Everyday Life (2008), his award-winning show from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Hamell recalls how he long regarded sobriety much in the way he regarded baldness, marriage, and parenthoodwith abject fear, only to learn that each turned out to be a pretty good thing. These trials turned out to be a pretty good thing for us, too, for Hamell subjected each to a musical alchemy that is fundamentally, undeniably rock n roll, and one that I have followed devotedly for 20 years. I first saw Hamell in the late 1990s on the pass-the-hat circuit on Manhattans Lower East Side. One icy night in 1997, in his Ramones t-shirt, black jeans, and blacker Chuck Taylors, Hamell rumbled joyously through a set that included Hoo Hoo Song and Open Up the Gates. On Hoo Hoo, a la Sinatra, Hamells voice has a very strident, insistent sound in the top register, and he invites a hoo-hoo call-and-response with the audience, figuring its cathartic and itll make you feel better anxiety and depression build up in each and every one of us, and theres no place to let it out: this would be the place. On Gates, a clarion call to St. Peter, following the death of his mother, Hamell sings tenderly with a smooth lyrical sound in the middle register, and a very tender sound in the low. That night also included Big As Life, Hamells dream of a lost encounter with Count Basiean encounter dashed in part because of the exclusively righteous representations of white Americans in the pages of Life magazine. If Hamells take on the racial divides in popular culture doesnt assume Elvis-esque proportions, its not for lack of effort. Onstage, Hamell sweats profusely and, during the jowly reverb of his face solo, he sprays front-row attendees with an earnest, salty mist. He also beats his 1937 Gibson like a red-headed stepchild (see Chris and the Angels), and the next time I see him a large section of the guitar body has been patched. Hamells distinctive handsomeness, even when he dons a fedora, rarely evokes the traditional good looks of Frank Sinatra. Still, I see odd echoes of Sinatra in Hamells persona. After Sinatras tumultuous divorce from Ava Gardner, he found a new label, a new sense of purpose and, at age 49, recorded September of My Years (Reprise, 1965). Sinatras meditation on his mortality resonates in nearly every groove of the album (50 then was todays 60). After the forbidding demise of his marriage of 22 years, Hamell knew, for the sake of his son, Detroit, that he needed to perform a phoenix-like resurrection. So Hamell shook the ashes from his wings and invited the world to watch him perform a new song on YouTube every day for a year. On day 352, Hamell debuted The Happiest Man in the World. The song shows Hamell willing himself forward, wresting himself loose from despair in order to imagine the shape of his next album. Shortly thereafter, Hamell signed to New West Records and, at age 59, left more than 300 tracks on the cutting room floor in the assembly of The Happiest Man in the World (2014). Happiest includes its plaintive moments (Aint That Love, Blessed), but the music remains punchy where it should be, and finds Hamells radically democratic vision still intact. In Your Mom is Hot, Hamells dirty mind turns from the ghosts of bedrooms past to the tableaux for future trysts, hoping to play footsie with a fellow parent with a prosthetic leg: Just a tiny damage / but she wont go unravaged. His politic here remains personal and polemical, fully aware that Detroitwho provides vocals on Your Momhimself is on the verge of dating (or whatever the kids call it these days). On the hook-laden Tackle Box (New West Records, 2017), Hamell serves up a new batch of tales of confrontation and compassion for a more robustly democratic America. The album opens with Safe, which invites the so-called misfits of the world to seek comfort with Hamell himself, a proud and unapologetic square peg. In Not Arethas Respect (Cops), Hamell reprises the perils of looking for role models for his son among the ranks of men (and women) on the beat, finding too often a man-child with a badge, clinging to his ego and his gun. Hamell reduces the lesson on ethics, authority, and respect for Detroit, now 15, to the big fundamental: now Im trying to teach him to not get shot. In the tracks coda, Hamell offers a terse, sympathetic nod to the parents and children with even less room for error: And Im white. The Mouthy B represents a delightful addition to the devotional song cycle that includes Im Gonna Watch You Sleep, Some Hearts, Everything and Nothing, Socializing, Fathers Advice, and Together. It opens with Hamells trademark steam-engine-inspired strumming and continues with a fountain of verse so earnest and affectionate it would make Mister Rogers blush. I love to watch her lips form the words that shrouded an accent and sashayed confidently down the torn brick alleys of my heart Kicking over ashcans of failure and blazing depressed, darkened corridors with an ice blue light Behind the intense, feminine regal gesture was a penal colony muscle of drunken pirates and it was the juxtaposition that soaked my heart in passion The More You Know reprises Hamells concerns with fatherhood, and How I Wanna Die revisits the life chances articulated in the Clashs Death or Glory. As the protagonists dreams of death or glory recede, he finds two choices left: make payments on a sofa or a girl. In real life, Hamell charts a different route, making ends meet via club dates, house parties, and sales of his paintings, as a late, great American troubadour. On Wanna Die, Hamells in a hip-hop frame of mind, and fondly recalls all the times I met the fist / and all the times that I got pissed. He professes I wanna die when my souls fulfilled / I wanna die when my hatreds killed, but not before, as hes only three years removed from his own resurrection. Hamell also channels his inner LL Cool J on She Ride It, name-dropping Susan Sarandon, Christiane Amanpour, and Mylie Cyrus within a laundry list of Prince-ly metaphors for female sexual prowess. In concert, Hamells unflinching self-awareness informs a montage of songs, asides, and asides within asides, often with a jump-cut ferocity worthy of filmmaker Michael Bay, but with much better results. Atop the shoulders of giants (Muddy Waters and Joe Strummer, to begin), Hamell continues to wrest new sounds from his Gibson, and to construct cinematic vignettes with his lyrics (see Ballad of Chris). Evidence of Hamells inhibitions, though, remains scant. Much like his comrades on the stand-up circuit (see Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, and Sarah Silverman), Hamell secures assent from concert audiences about the virtues of prosaic liberal causes: say, anti-homophobia and anti-racism. With their buy-in secured, Hamell drives his troops headlong into the territories of male sodomy and sexual relations with the differently abled, in service to his abolitionist imagination. With Tackle Box, Hamell offers listeners old and new another impressive dose of aesthetic prowess, ineluctable charm, and humility, even. If a whiff of existential angst blows in, Hamell counterpunches with a tally of his blessings as a musician and a father, and a self-effacing measure of his own compassion. In these difficult times, much remains to be abolished. Along with his Gibson, Hamell still packs a sledgehammer. 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 Thunderstorms. High 79F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 73F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Paul Bowers is an education reporter and father of three living in North Charleston. He previously worked at the Charleston City Paper, where he was twice named South Carolina Journalist of the Year in the weekly category. Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations. 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. 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. COLUMBIA President Donald Trump's proposal to spend $1.5 trillion on infrastructure projects offers a prime opportunity for much-needed development in South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster said Tuesday but only if various entities around the state work together. McMaster hosted a roundtable discussion Tuesday with state Transportation Secretary Christy Hall and Deputy U.S. Assistant Secretary Finch Fulton to open a conversation about how the state can take advantage of the Trump administration's efforts. With representatives in attendance from rural and urban communities and public and private organizations, McMaster said all shared one thing in common: They're all looking for more money. The governor urged the attendees to coordinate their efforts and not compete against each other for funding, warning that infighting will not end well for the state. "Our real competitors are the other states in the Southeast," McMaster said. "And I assure you, if they have not had meetings like this yet, they will be having them before long because this is a great opportunity." The Trump administration plan focuses mostly on incentivizing more state and local funding for projects, with $200 billion of the total cost coming from federal dollars. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! One program of particular interest to South Carolina is a $50 billion effort focused on rural improvements. Fulton said 80 percent of funds for that program will be doled out using block grants, leaving state officials to determine the best use for the money. We wouldnt intend to have D.C. direct exactly how this money should be spent," Fulton said. "Were not trying to dictate, were trying to let the states dictate." Whether the funding will ever come to fruition depends on Congress, where the plan has already met resistance. Some Republicans panned Trump's idea to increase the federal gas tax in order to help pay for the rebuilding overhaul. In the meantime, Hall said she has already been working closely with the administration to prepare for a possible boost to state projects. Its very unusual to have this level of dialogue on infrastructure being driven by the White House at this point in an administration, so the president deserves a lot of credit for bringing this issue to the forefront," Hall said. The Guam Visitors Bureau is planning a two-pronged strategy to improve the island's tourism industry this year: recover the dwindling Japanese market and strengthen the resurgent Korean market. GVB President and Chief Executive Officer Nathan Denight, who spoke Tuesday at the GVB quarterly membership meeting, said around 1.54 million visitors visited the island in 2017, making it a historic year for the local tourism industry. However, recent data from GVB showed a further erosion of Guam's Japanese visitor market, which in 2017 decreased by 16.8 percent, or 125,133 fewer Japanese tourists, compared to 2016. Japanese tourists now make up just 40 percent of total visitor arrivals to Guam, compared to 80 percent of the market about a decade ago. Guam saw 620,547 Japanese tourists last year. "Despite all the challenges we faced, we still ended up with a good year for Guam," Denight said. JAL to increase seats According to Denight, the visitors bureau is looking forward to the launching of a second daily flight between Japan and Guam. Japan Airlines will increase its flight frequency by offering a second daily flight to Guam from Narita beginning March 25. "To have them announce that second flight shows amazing confidence in our destination. ... We have been working with them for the second flight for as long as seven years. So to finally have that happen, we cannot take that for granted," he said. JAL is filling a void left by the complete pullout of Delta Airlines and the partial reduction of United Airlines seats out of Japan over the past few months. "We are very focused on Japan, getting more air service out of Japan and also working with our existing partners," Denight added. Spending trends According to GVB reports, the breakout visitor market of calendar year 2017 was South Korea, with an all-time high of 684,443 visitors, up 26 percent from the year before. The increases in the Korea market helped offset declines in other markets including Japan, Taiwan and China. But with increases in visitor numbers from South Korea, expenditure patterns from the most recent GVB exit surveys show less spending by Korean visitors compared to Japanese visitors. GVB conducts the surveys every month. According to the most recent report for January 2018, on-island expenditures by the Korean market averaged $187.40 per person during the reporting period. In comparison, the Japanese market averaged $578.31 per person. Denight said, historically, visitors from the Korean market spend less than the Japanese, but they stay longer. However, he noted that in general, spending across tourist markets has dropped during the last couple of months. "It has gone down a bit during the last couple of months," he said. "It was lower than last year, but we still have to see how that turns out." Denight said GVB needs to strengthen both markets. "Our focus is really on recovering Japan, keeping Korea going." PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-13 07:34:01 Amsterdam, 13 March 2018 - Arcadis (EURONEXT: ARCAD), the leading global Design & Consultancy for natural and built assets, today announced that it has nominated Mr. Michael Putnam (57) for appointment to the company's Supervisory Board for a four-year term. The Supervisory Board is submitting a non-binding nomination for the appointment of Mr. Putnam as member of the Supervisory Board at the next annual General Meeting on 24 April 2018. Mr. Michael Putnam will succeed Mr. Ian Grice, who has served as a Supervisory Board member since 2010 and is not available for re-appointment. The appointment will be for a period of four years. The term will start immediately after the annual General Meeting and will continue through the end of the annual General Meeting in 2022 and any adjournment thereof. Mr. Putnam complies with the independence criteria of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code and the profile drawn up by the Supervisory Board. Michael Putnam has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Skanska UK PLC from 2009 to 2017. Before he joined Skanska UK PLC as Managing Director for Skanska Cementation in 1995, he worked for Balfour Beatty Plc as Area Manager and Contracts Manager. Mr. Putnam holds a bachelor's degree (Hons) in Civil Engineering from the University of Surrey and is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, FICE, and of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, FRICS. In 2017 Mr. Putnam stepped down from his role as CEO of Skanska UK PLC. Since then he has assumed two independent Non-Executive roles at Network Rail Ltd. and Southern Water Services Ltd respectively. Mr. Putnam is also a Member of the Advisory Board of the Association of Consulting Engineers. Niek Hoek, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Arcadis. "I see great value in having Michael Putnam on the Arcadis Supervisory Board, as he brings solid industry knowledge as well as a good understanding of the challenges our industry is facing particularly due to the digital transformation. I also want to thank Ian Grice for his significant contributions to Arcadis over the past years. He has been a valuable member of the Supervisory Board and we all wish him well for the future." -End- FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: ARCADIS INVESTOR RELATIONS Jurgen Pullens Mobile: +31 6 51599483 E-mail: jurgen.pullens@arcadis.com ARCADIS CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS Joost Slooten Mobile: +31 6 27061880 E-mail: joost.slooten@arcadis.com ABOUT ARCADIS 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: Arcadis N.V. via Globenewswire # 693 Words Arcadis is the leading global Design & Consultancy firm for natural and built assets. Applying our deep market sector insights and collective design, consultancy, engineering, project and management services we work in partnership with our clients to deliver exceptional and sustainable outcomes throughout the lifecycle of their natural and built assets. We are 27,000 people, active in over 70 countries that generate 3.2 billion in revenues. We support UN-Habitat with knowledge and expertise to improve the quality of life in rapidly growing cities around the world. www.arcadis.com PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-13 18:26:00 FALL RIVER, Ma. (March 2018) Bolger & OHearn (B&O), the leading developer of specialty chemicals for textiles, has launched OmniBloq, a revolutionary Stormproof/Breathable performance finish.OmniBloq provides laminate-like resistance to the harshest storms without inhibiting comfort or breathability. It recently had its debut in Boulder in late January, at the Meteorite Winter Adventure Camp, where media and outdoor apparel brands received a sneak peek at the capabilities of this new textile finish.The reception was overwhelmingly positive, said Shaun OHearn, President at B&O. We sparked some big excitement for outdoor garment and sportswear media and manufacturers because everyone is looking for innovation while minimizing risk to brand equity. B&O is proving to be the bridge between innovation and risk management that brands need.The most well-known water proof/breathable constructions on the market today are made from a maze of at least 6 layers including fabrics, films, glues, and tapes. This is an incredible amount of resources for such a small return. Yes, complex laminate-constructed garments can keep the water out effectively but lets face it, even with minimal activity you will get sweat wet. Once you step back from the magical world of marketing claims you realize that you are still getting wet and you paid for and used an incredible amount of resources to do so. OmniBloq is different; it is specially designed to deliver greater performance than traditional DWRs while only using one layer, making it a uniquely stormproof- breathable option.Other notable features of OmniBloq include its: Responsible use of resources Garment recyclability Breathable-Really! Non-PFOA technology Defense against water, oils & stainsWhen we say OmniBloq is stormproof, were guaranteeing that it can withstand the harshest elements, said Frank Keohan Chief Chemist at B&O. And this is absolutely critical for outdoor adventurers. They shouldnt overheat. They shouldnt get drenched from rain or sweat; they should remain comfortable even in the worst storms. So thats why OmniBloq was made. OmniBloq Stormproof/Breathable finish is applied to fabrics at textile mills. To date, major brands and the US Military have adopted OmniBloq for their next generation product launches. OmniBloq is proving to be the most advanced resource-conscious and effective protective finish available. In addition, other industries such as workwear and upholstery are also starting to look to OmniBloq for its comfort, breathability, and stormproof protection.###About Bolger & OHearnSince its founding in 1969, Bolger & OHearn has been selling uniquely efficient and consistently high-quality chemicals. Its personalized service approach has been the pillar of its success. From its traditional beginnings in the textile industry, B&O has expanded into paper coatings, non-wovens, and other non-textile manufactured products, all of which find applications in a wide range of industries. Today, its diverse and comprehensive product linetotaling over 2,500 productsis sold and distributed globally. Committed to a zero-carbon future, B&O currently produces its products using renewable energy. The solar voltaic array on its facilities allow it to displace more than 100,000 pounds of carbon each year. To learn more, go to bolgerohearn.com PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-13 14:54:15 FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Canyon Copper Corp--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Canyon Copper Corp (TSX Venture:CNC). has issued a press release with the following headline:Canyon Copper Closes Sale of Moonlight PropertyTo 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 Canyon Copper 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/Canyon Copper CorpSource: Canyon Copper Corp (TSX Venture: CNC, OTC Pink: CNYCF, WKN: A2DYVZ, ISIN: CA1387636022)Date: March 13, 2018Time: 9:54 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Canyon Copper 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: 2018-03-13 01:33:14 FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Maxtech Ventures Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Maxtech Ventures Inc. (CSE:MVT). has issued a press release with the following headline:Correcting and Replacing: Maxtech Closes 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 Maxtech Ventures 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/Maxtech Ventures Inc.Source: Maxtech Ventures Inc. (CSE: MVT, OTC Pink: MTEHF, WKN: A1W3JE, ISIN: CA5777282073)Date: March 12, 2018Time: 8:26 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Maxtech Ventures 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: 2018-03-13 17:57:02 Lochem, 13 March 2018 ForFarmers publishes agenda Annual General Meeting of Shareholders 2018 ForFarmers N.V. ('the Company') today publishes the agenda for the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. The Annual General Meeting of shareholders will be held on Thursday 26 April 2018, starting at 10:00, in Cafe-Restaurant-Zalencentrum "Witkamp", Dorpsstraat 8, 7245 AK Laren (Gelderland, the Netherlands). The convocation announcement and the agenda and explanatory notes to the agenda are available via the corporate website of the Company (www.forfarmersgroup.eu/en) under Investors / General Meeting of shareholders / Annual General Meeting of shareholders 26-4-2018. Note to the editor / For additional information: Caroline Vogelzang, Director Investor Relations and Communications T: 0031 573 288 194 M: 0031 6 10 94 91 61 E: caroline.vogelzang@forfarmers.eu Company profile ForFarmers (Lochem, the Netherlands) is an internationally operating feed company that offers total feed solutions for conventional and organic livestock farming. ForFarmers gives its very best "For the Future of Farming": for the continuity of farming and for a financially secure sector that will continue to serve society for generations to come in a sustainable way. By working side-by-side with farmers ForFarmers delivers real benefits: better returns, healthier livestock and greater efficiency. This is achieved by offering tailored and Total Feed solutions and a targeted approach with specialist and expert support. With sales of approximately 9.6 million tons of feed annually, ForFarmers is market leader in Europe. ForFarmers has 2,325 employees and production facilities in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. In 2017, revenues amounted to over 2.2 billion. ForFarmers N.V., Postbus 91, 7240 AB Lochem, T: +31 (0)573 28 88 00, F: +31 (0)573 28 88 99 info@forfarmers.eu, www.forfarmersgroup.eu/en. 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: ForFarmers N.V. via Globenewswire PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-13 18:26:03 NASSAU, Bahamas, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Can humility go viral? Can we disrupt barriers to gratitude? Can technology promote forgiveness? Templeton World Charity Foundation is announcing $15 million USD in funding over five years to answer these questions through Global Innovations for Character Development (GICD). This first-of-its-kind initiative will support scientifically sound innovations that explore how character development can be recognized, invested in, and nurtured for its critical role in transforming lives. Andrew Serazin, President of the Templeton World Charity Foundation, remarked, "We believe that character development is a pillar of human development. Through this initiative, we hope that researchers, policymakers, and innovators around the world will respond with their best ideas." The Templeton World Charity Foundation has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for research and implementation projects in low- and middle-income countries worldwide, including Latin America and the Caribbean. This initial round will fund as many as ten proof-of-concept awards for up to $234,000 USD to proposals that develop novel approaches to fostering specific character strengths, as well as scales for measuring them. The Foundation will also offer an award of up to $1 million USD to scale up a character development innovation. This larger opportunity is open to innovations that have a peer-reviewed evidence base, and that are ready to achieve substantial impact through widespread implementation. The Foundation anticipates additional calls for proposals in this initiative in future years. Character strengths are learned and learnable attributes, skills, or habits which enable individuals to live better, more fulfilling and prosperous lives. Successful proposals will demonstrate a clear path to generating impact on individuals through demonstrable changes in knowledge, awareness and the practice of specific character strengths. Proposals must also include a rigorous evaluation methodology. Based in Nassau, the Bahamas, the Templeton World Charity Foundation aims to provide scientific breakthroughs and practical tools relating to the search for meaning, purpose, and truth. The Foundation works with top institutions, thought leaders, and innovators from around the globe to support projects of the highest caliber and communicate the results of these projects to a wide audience. The deadline for Round 1 of the RFP is June 15, 2018. For more information, visit www.globalcharacter.org. Contact: character@templetonworldcharity.org A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9df12984-a6d7-4015-a28a-b93d7a397118 PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-13 08:06:01 45 percent year over year growth CLIFTON, N.J., March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Comodo CA, a worldwide leader in digital identity solutions, today announced the addition of 35 new strategic partnerships, positioning its channel program for another record year in 2018. The new partner relationships come amid continued momentum Comodo CA is seeing across its business. New partners include: Wix.com, Secure128, AdwebTech, DonDominio, and GeoCerts. "The record-setting growth we've seen in the last year is testament to the clear value partners are experiencing with our partner program," said Michael Fowler, Comodo CA President of Channels. "Since 2001 we've been the leader in helping partners succeed, breaking new ground in building and executing a best-in-class channel program. These new strategic partners have been exclusive to our competitors for more than a decade and are globally diverse, some are the largest providers within their specific regions. This momentum is of course assisting our expansion within these net- new verticals and geographies, and we are delighted to be part of their success." To support the rapidly growing channel momentum, Comodo CA has made significant enhancements to its global Channel Partner Program. Over the past year it has bolstered its executive team with industry veterans, built up its sales and marketing teams, and improved pre- and post-support functions globally. Additionally, channel partners are being rewarded with new financial incentives such as the Annual Growth Rebate Program, increased revenue opportunities for partners with enterprise solutions, pre-qualified leads, free competitor replacement program and Marketing Development Funds (MDF). These new strategic partners are coming to Comodo CA for differentiated value. Quotes from newly signed partners: "Comodo CA's infrastructure and technical capabilities help us to deploy and manage security for our customers at scale. We needed a solution that could handle volume, as well as provide dedicated service and support. This partnership provides a valuable layer of security features for our customers as part of their Wix website service." - Dror Shaked, SVP of Business Development at Wix "Comodo CA's product offerings will help Adwebtech expand our portfolio of cybersecurity solutions, adding to our SSL, digital signatures and managed public key infrastructure offerings. With the growing global onslaught of cybercrime, our customers are eager to improve their digital security to avoid business and financial harm. Comodo CA's solutions will help us deliver even greater value to our customers." - Apurva Mody, CEO at Adwebtech "We choose Comodo CA for their suite of innovative solutions that easily integrate into our core offering. What makes the partnership so successful is the support and 1:1 attention we are seeing from everyone across the organization. They are all dedicated to our success." - Anthony Capodicasa, CEO of Secure128 "We pride ourselves on providing customers with market-leading solutions at a fair price, followed up by outstanding customer support; the partnership with Comodo CA is a strong contributor to that mission. Comodo CA's partner-first approach and ability to bring new, innovative security solutions to market make the company an ideal partner for us." - Scott Rogers CEO of GeoCerts "Comodo CA is the perfect cybersecurity partner for us. We can now provide market-leading security solutions to our end users and resellers with the support of the number 1 online trust provider." - Marc Gelabert, CRO of DonDominio To learn more about the Comodo CA partner program visit https://www.comodoca.com/partners, or contact our channel partner team at partners@comodoca.com. About Comodo CA A trusted advisor by enterprises globally for more than two decades, Comodo CA provides digital identity solutions for businesses of all sizes - protecting their employees, customers, intellectual property and overall brand - from damages caused by fraudsters impersonating people and devices. As the largest commercial certificate authority with over 100 million SSL certificates issued worldwide, Comodo CA has the experience and performance to meet the growing need to secure transactions and create online trust. For more information, visit ComodoCA.com or via twitter @Comodo_SSL. Contact: Lisa Johnson lisa@ljstratcomm.com 425-766-8736 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: Comodo CA via Globenewswire PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-13 14:12:08 FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Synstream Energy Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Calgary, Alberta (FSCWire) - Synstream Energy Corp. (TSX Venture:SHM). has issued a press release with the following headline:Synstream Energy Corp. Announces Results of Annual and Special General MeetingTo 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 Synstream Energy 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/Synstream Energy Corp.Source: Synstream Energy Corp. (TSX Venture: SHM)Date: March 13, 2018Time: 9:10 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Synstream Energy 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: 2018-03-13 03:50:05 The Gold Coast at Sihanoukville follows the opening of Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap Resort in January 2018, the Group's first hotel property in the Kingdom.SINGAPORE, Mar 12, 2018 - (Media OutReach) - Cambodian real estate company Grand Lion Group has inked a deal with Marriott International, Inc., to manage and operate a new hotel in the stunning coastal city of Sihanoukville, located in Cambodia's southwest region, a short 35-minute flight from the capital of Phnom Penh.Branded Le Meridien, the 388-room five-star hotel will comprise an all-day dining/open kitchen concept restaurant, a specialty restaurant, a rooftop bar with captivating views of the ocean and the outlying islands, state of the art fitness center, wellness spa, meeting rooms and ballroom accommodating 400, and an oceanfront beach club with infinity pools, restaurant and bar.The hotel forms part of the USD200 million Gold Coast at Sihanoukville - a mega hotel and luxury residence complex - located on 1.67 hectares just 17km from the airport. Towering 58 stories high, all 888 units in the stylishly designed Lyon D'or residence tower will enjoy panoramic sea views of the Gulf of Thailand. Designed with an immersive plush resort experience for an upscale clientele with two levels of luxury retail podium, Lyon D'or will have a rooftop infinity pool, sky lounge, fitness center, spa, recreation and multi-purpose rooms. Residents and their guests will also enjoy the facilities and services from Room Service to Concierge at Le Meridien including access to the dining venues at the hotel and beach club.The project will be designed by the award-winning Bangkok-based Tandem Architects 2001 and interior design firm JKY Concept. Plans are in the pipeline to form a collaboration with a world renowned Italian luxury interior furnishings house to furnish Lyon D'or. The residences will be exclusively marketed by Knight Frank, a global real estate consultancy that has sold some of the world's most iconic properties.Named after its former king Norodom Sihanouk, Sihanoukville has evolved from a sleepy beach town and port city to one of Cambodia's premier beach destinations, rich in natural beauty. Its close proximity to surrounding tropical islands and the Ream National Park has attracted a growing number of international visitors over the years.Ground breaking is scheduled for January 2019 with date of opening slated for January 2022. The Gold Coast at Sihanoukville, built by Nath Land Development, a division of the Grand Lion Group, follows the opening of Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap Resort in January 2018, the Group's first hotel property in the Kingdom.The Chairman and CEO of the Grand Lion Group, Mr Lundy Nath comments, "With the increasing growth in visitation to Cambodia, the time is ripe for us to introduce a global hospitality brand in Sihanoukville. The region's unspoilt beaches, pristine waters and laid-back ambience will appeal to international visitors in search of a relaxing coastal getaway. Gold Coast at Sihanoukville will complement the Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap and the nearby Angkor Archaeological Park by providing an extended stay for guests to explore another dimension of Cambodia. This mega project aims to be among the first to open a new chapter in luxury beach destination experiences in Sihanoukville." For further details, please visit grandliongroup.com Signing Cermony: Orlando Moreno, Vice President of Development, GLG, Lundy Nath, Chairman and CEO of GLG, Kevin Chen, Senior Vice President, Hotel Development, APAC, Marriott Int'l and Andree Susilo, Director, Hotel Development, APAC, Marriott Int'l (l-r), March 8.Topic: Press release summarySectors: Real Estate, Travel & Tourism, HospitalityFrom the Asia Corporate News NetworkCopyright 2018 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. A division of Asia Corporate News Network. PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-13 14:30:17 FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Total Telcom Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Kelowna, BC (FSCWire) - Total Telcom Inc. (TSX Venture:TTZ). has issued a press release with the following headline:Total Awarded Mexican 1000 Off-Road RaceTo 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 Total Telcom 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/Total Telcom Inc.Source: Total Telcom Inc. (TSX Venture: TTZ)Date: March 13, 2018Time: 9:30 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Total Telcom 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: 2018-03-13 13:40:36 FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Tsodilo Resources Limited--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - Tsodilo Resources Limited (TSX Venture:TSD). has issued a press release with the following headline:Tsodilo Resources Limited BK16 UpdateTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Tsodilo Resources Limited, 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/Tsodilo Resources LimitedSource: Tsodilo Resources Limited (TSX Venture: TSD, OTC Bulletin Board: TSDRF, WKN: A0B880, ISIN: CA8985301008)Date: March 13, 2018Time: 8:30 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Tsodilo Resources Limited 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: 2018-03-13 05:09:14 FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Urban Select Capital Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Urban Select Capital Corp. (TSX Venture:CH). has issued a press release with the following headline:Urban Select Capital Increases and Closes Financing of $365,000To 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 Urban Select Capital Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Urban Select Capital Corp.Source: Urban Select Capital Corp. (TSX Venture: CH)Date: March 13, 2018Time: 12:09 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Urban Select Capital Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.) PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-13 07:32:02 's-Hertogenbosch, 13 March 2018 In the period from 6 March 2018 until 12 March 2018 Van Lanschot Kempen has repurchased 14,072 of its own shares (depositary receipts for Class A ordinary shares). The shares were repurchased at an average price of 26.45 per share for a total amount of 372,194. These repurchases are part of the share buy-back programme for at most 400,000 of own shares, which was announced on 22 February 2018. The total number of shares repurchased to date is 35,618. More information, including a detailed overview of the repurchase transactions under this programme, is available on www.vanlanschotkempen.com/sharebuyback. Media Relations: +31 20 354 45 85; mediarelations@vanlanschotkempen.com Investor Relations: +31 20 354 45 90; investorrelations@vanlanschotkempen.com About Van Lanschot Kempen Van Lanschot Kempen, a wealth manager operating under the Van Lanschot, Evi and Kempen brand names, is active in Private Banking, Asset Management and Merchant Banking, with the aim of preserving and creating wealth for its clients. Van Lanschot Kempen, listed at Euronext Amsterdam, is the Netherlands' oldest independent financial services company with a history dating back to 1737. vanlanschotkempen.com Disclaimer This document does not constitute an offer or solicitation for the sale, purchase or acquisition in any other way of or subscription to any financial instrument and is not an opinion or a recommendation to perform or refrain from performing any action. This document is a translation of the Dutch original and is provided as a courtesy only. In the event of any disparities, the Dutch version will prevail. 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: Van Lanschot Kempen via Globenewswire Fact.MR PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-13 15:09:33 Press Information Fact.MR Suite 9884 27 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin 2, Ireland Abhishek Budholiya Marketing Manager +353-1-6111-593 email https://www.factmr.com/ # 709 Words Suite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandMarketing Manager+353-1-6111-593 The global combine harvesters market is forecast to register a volume CAGR of 2.6% between the period 2017 and 2026, according to a recent research study of Fact.MR . The report estimates global sales of combine harvester to surpass US$ 18,500 Mn by 2026-end.Advent of Intelligent Combine Harvesters to Influence the Market ExpansionWith declining costs of agricultural produce becoming a prevailing trend, emphasis is being placed on improving land and labor productivity, in order to enhance profitability. Agricultural machinery manufacturers are therefore focusing on harvest volumes that have direct impact on the income of nations. These manufacturers are carrying of research and development activities associated with technologies that would provide real-time intelligence on harvest flow rates along with information about visualization losses during harvesting process.Request for Sample Report https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=516 This has further given birth to intelligent combine harvesters, which can monitor yield loss and grain flow rate in real-time. Intelligent combine harvester enable farmers in root cause analysis and prevention of yield loss without affecting efficiency and productivity. On account of such benefits, intelligent combine harvesters might witness high demand among farmers in the near future, particularly in developed countries.Integration of Telematics with Agriculture Mechanization A Major TrendOne of the major trends gaining traction in the combine harvesters market worldwide is growing integration of telematics with agriculture mechanization. Adoption of telematics ensures tracking loopholes in the performance of combine harvesters, provided with an onboard GPS system that provides information about engine status, location and speed of the harvester. Additionally, telematics enables reviewing information on previous operational hours, and furnishing that specific information on the time and manner of the harvesters operation.Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) will continue to spearhead the global combine harvesters market, in terms of volume, mainly driven by robust foreign direct investments (FDI) into its developing nations such as China and India. FDI has further spurred the agricultural activities in these countries, thereby creating the need for efficient agricultural machinery such as combine harvesters. However, cost of new combine harvesters being substantial, farmers in APEJ are buying used machinery at relatively lower prices, impacting revenue generation of the market in the region.In terms of value, 300-450 HP combine harvesters are expected to remain dominant in the market, based on power type. Revenues from sales of this power type segment will exceed US$ 4,900 Mn by 2026-end. Revenues from below 150 HP and 150-300 HP combine harvesters are also expected to remain significant, collectively estimated to account for roughly half share of the market by 2026-end. Sales of above 550 HP combine harvester are forecast to record the fastest expansion through 2026. In addition, sales of 450-550 HP and 150-300 HP combine harvesters will register a parallel rise through 2026.Browse Full Report with TOC https://www.factmr.com/report/516/combine-harvesters-market Hydraulic Combine Harvesters to Remain Leading Mechanism Type SegmentIn terms of value, hydraulic combine harvesters will remain the leading mechanism type segment in the market, with sales projected to hold more than half revenue share of the market during the forecast period. However, sales of hybrid combine harvester are set to record a comparatively faster expansion than that of hydraulic combine harvesters through 2026.Based on grain tank size, more than 350 BU combine harvesters are projected to reflect the fastest value sales growth through 2026, trailed by less than 250 BU combine harvesters. However, revenues from 250-350 BU combine harvesters will continue to be relatively larger than all the other grain tank size segments in the market.Key market participants identified by Fact.MRs report include MASSEY FERGUSO, JCB, Yanmar America Corporation, KIOTI Tractor (subsidiary of Daedong Industrial Company, Ltd.), Case IH, Bobcat (a Doosan company), Escorts Limited, Mahindra and Mahindra, New Holland, Claas KGaA GmbH, AGCO Corporation, Kubota Corporation, Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited, Deere & Company, and Caterpillar.Check Discount on this Report https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=D&rep_id=516 About Fact.MR Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports. ADVERTISEMENT The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday resolved to make a concession to carry out the confirmation process for the two deputy governors and other members of the Monetary Policy Committee. The resolution was sequel to a deliberation of a point of order raised by Rafiu Ibrahim (APC, Kwara South) urging members of the Senate to confirm the nominees. The pending confirmations are Aisha Ahmad (as Deputy Governor of CBN) and four members of the MPC of the CBN; Adeola Adenikinju, Aliyu Sanusi, Robert Asogwa and Asheikh Maidugu. Coming under order 42 and 52, Mr. Ibrahim, who is also the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking and Finance, reminded the Senate that it had, in January, suspended all pending confirmations. I rise on the issue pertaining to a very significant aspect of the countrys economy knowing from inception of the 8th Senate that the 8th Senate is pro-economy, pro-foreign direct investment, pro-foreign controlling investment and I rise to ask that the senate do consider the possibility of us taking the very important aspect of the economy which is the Monetary Policy Committee, he said. He explained that the MPC is made up of 12 members; about seven from the private sector and five inside the Central Bank, adding that only three are valid. As at today, only three of them are valid. Almost all other members, their tenure expired in December last year and culminated into the MPC meeting not being held in January (22ndand 23rd) and the next meeting is March 19 &20. I want to appeal to our colleagues, we have three requests regarding the board of the Central Bank; two deputy governors who are also members of MPC and MPC members who are majorly in the private sector, he said. He further explained that the MPC is a creation of the CBN Act which is autonomous. It is not run by the board of Central Bank but each meeting is very important to the economy, he said. As it is today, Its already affecting the foreign direct investment in Nigeria. Some foreign portfolio investments are already leaving, some that are supposed to come, are not coming. We just want to appeal that we take only the aspect that affects the monetary policy committee, which is the independent members and the two deputy governors that are members of the MPC so the committee can continue to sit and direct the affairs of the financial sector which is the heart of the economy, he said. The Senate had resolved not to consider all such nominees until Ibrahim Magu is removed as acting chairman of the anti-graft EFCC. The Hong Kong Cardinal, Joseph Zen on Tuesday warned that a pending deal between the Catholic Church and Beijing could be a disaster for religious freedom in China. The outspoken 86-year-old former bishop has been one of the loudest opponents of a proposed rapprochement between the Vatican and China, which broke off diplomatic relations in 1951. From what I could know or guess, it will be a disaster, Mr. Zen told dpa. While still in the works, the deal would see the Vatican recognise seven bishops already appointed by the Communist Party without approval of the Pope and considered renegade bishops outside of China paving the way for improved relations with Beijing. In exchange, Pope Francis would have say over the appointment of future bishops in China, according to the Holy Spirit Study Centre in Hong Kong, although final details have not been made public. The change would affect the estimated 10 to 12 million Catholics in China, millions of whom have continued to practice underground for the past 60 years in spite of persecution, while others have joined a state-backed version of the church. While a deal would improve relations between the Vatican and Beijing, among underground Chinese Catholics and many more in Hong Kong the proposed deal has been seen as a betrayal. In the underground [church], many will come into the open (into the birdcage), its safer, and now with good conscience, said Mr. Zen, who escaped communist China for the former British colony after World War II. Many others will be very sad and, maybe, also angry, feeling betrayed, he added. Other contentious points in the deal are that two underground bishops would be required to step down in favour of the Beijing seven, according to the Jesuit magazine America. It is also unclear what would happen to Chinas 30 other underground bishops. The Catholic church in Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing considers a renegade province, would likely find itself left out by the Vatican as well. In a show of good faith, Beijing has not appointed any new bishops since 2013, according to the Holy Spirit Study Centre. The potential deal comes amidst increased religious repression in China under President Xi Jinping. Catholics face moderate persecution less than Uighurs or Tibetan Buddhists but more than ethnic minority Hui Muslims or Taoists according to the US-based Freedom House, which measures political and religious freedom around the world. Mr. Zen said he had made several appeals to my brothers in China to keep their faith even if they have to face a complete defeat at the present. Mr. Zens criticism has been echoed by others in Hong Kong, most recently in a Free Catholics in China petition that was signed by 1,000 people around the world. Petition organiser Kenneth Chan said detractors thought the deals cost was too high as it failed to offer any protections for religious freedom in China. ADVERTISEMENT In general we are happy to see any sign of a deal between China and the Vatican that will facilitate cause for the Chinese people coming in to our faith, but at the same time [we must ask] by what means and at what cost? he said. These are practical questions if, for the sake of expanding our presence in China so-called market-theory we are going to sacrifice our religious principles, he said. The proposed deal marks the latest chapter in a long and often bumpy road for the Catholic Church in China, which was established in the late thirteenth century and enjoyed varying periods of success and persecution. After the Vaticans break with Beijing in 1951, the church was replaced by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which appoints its own bishops contrary to church law. Religion was banned in China in the 1960s and 1970s during the Cultural Revolution, it has made a comeback since the countrys re-opening in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping. However, it has had to compete for converts with the Protestant church, whose evangelical branches have seen huge success across Asia. There are now some 58 million Protestants in China, according to Freedom House, almost five times more than the total Catholic populace. Mr. Zen, who visited eastern Europe last year on a fact-finding mission, said he had little hope of the churchs future based on the Vaticans previous attempts to improve relations with communist Europe in a policy known as Ostpolitik. The communists are fundamentally the same everywhere. They want to control the Church completely, he said. Zen said that the profoundly Catholic culture of Europe meant a communist government could do less damage to the church than in China. (dpa/NAN) ADVERTISEMENT British Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, said police and the security services would investigate allegations of Russian state involvement in a number of deaths over recent years in Britain, a letter published on Tuesday showed. On Friday, the chairman of parliaments Home Affairs Committee wrote to Rudd asking for a review of 14 deaths that were not originally treated as suspicious by police but had repeatedly been linked to Russia in media reports. I will want to satisfy myself that the allegations are nothing more than that, Rudd said in her response published on Tuesday. The police and (the UKs domestic spy agency) MI5 agree and will assist in that endeavour. Russia denied its involvement in the poisoning of former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and is ready cooperate with the UK on the issue, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said. On Monday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the suspected poisoning of Mr. Skripal. Ms. May said that the substance used in the poisoning was identified as a Novichok class, military-grade nerve agent developed in Russia. We have already made a statement that this [Russias involvement] is rubbish Russia is innocent, Russia is ready to cooperate in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, if the UK implements its international legal obligations under this document, Lavrov told reporters. In an ultimatum to Russia, Ms. May demanded an explanation for the poisoning by the end of Tuesday and threatened to apply harsh response measures. The prime minister added that she would discuss the measures against Russia with parliament on Wednesday. If procedures envisioned by the convention are implemented, then I assure you Russia will respond to the relevant request in the time allotted to prepare a response, he added. (Reuters/NAN) The firing of U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, will not lead to an improvement in strained ties with Germany, Deputy Foreign Minister, Michael Roth, said on Tuesday. The dismissal of Rex Tillerson does not make anything better, Mr. Roth said in a tweet. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he had replaced Mr. Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency Director, Mike Pompeo, ousting the embattled top diplomat after several public rifts. In an impromptu news conference on the White House lawn, Mr. Trump told reporters there was a chemistry problem between him and Mr. Tillerson. It was different mindset. It was a different thinking, Mr. Trump said, adding: I think Rex will be much happier now. A senior White House official said Mr. Trump wanted to orchestrate a change to his national security team ahead of planned high-stakes talks with North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. Mr. Tillerson, a Texan and the chief executive of energy company, ExxonMobil for a decade before joining the administration, has long been dogged by reports that his time in office will be cut short. Mr. Trump frequently cast Mr. Tillerson as weak and clueless. Their long-simmering tensions erupted into the public in October, after Mr. Tillerson suggested the U.S. could engage in talks with North Korea. I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man Save your energy Rex, well do what has to be done! Trump tweeted on October 1. Days later NBC News reported that Mr. Tillerson had called the president a moron after a July meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trumps national security team and Cabinet officials. Mr. Tillerson never denied using the description, but said he would not be part of any effort to divide the administration. Mr. Trump then challenged his top diplomat to compare IQ tests in an interview with Forbes magazine. The 65-year-old Tillerson was at odds with a number of Trumps policies. For example, he favoured the U.S. remaining in the Paris climate accord and has been less harsh towards Iran on questions relating to a deal to keep it from attaining nuclear weapons. Mr. Tillerson arrived back from a four-nation tour of Africa early Tuesday. The trip was cut short by a day, a schedule change Mr. Tillerson had said was due to the developments with North Korea. Mr. Trump added that CIA Deputy Director, Gina Haspel, is in line to become the next CIA director, which would make her the first woman to hold that job. ADVERTISEMENT Mr. Pompeo, 54, is an avowed opponent of the Iran nuclear deal and Tea Party conservative, who used to represent Kansas in the U.S. Congress. Mr. Pompeo was highly critical of Irans nuclear deal with six world powers, which was agreed to in 2015 and meant to constrain Tehrans ability to make nuclear weapons for at least 15 years. Mr. Trump has pledged to pull the U.S. out of the deal if substantial changes are not soon made. (dpa/NAN) ADVERTISEMENT Blackout looms across the country as huge debts continue to threaten the operations of Nigerias power generation companies (Gencos), a new payment schedule published by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading, NBET, has shown. According to December 2017 electricity market payments published on Monday by NBET, there is about 92 per cent shortfall in the payment made to the GENCOs by NBET. The 92 per cent payment shortfall, details of the publication revealed, showed that a mere 8.25 per cent payment was made by NBET. The electricity market payments schedule, seen by PREMIUM TIMES, showed that 25 Genco invoices for December 2017 amounted to N54,242,749,563.22 (N54 billion) while payment made was N4,476,404,925.21 (N4.5 billion), representing 8.25 per cent of total bill. In the advertorial, the NBET, however, explained that the payments made to Gencos were computed-based on the money received from the Distribution companies (Discos). The electricity trading company said that it received late payment for the December 2017 cycle from some Discos. It listed the affected Discos to include Abuja, Benin, Enugu and Port Harcourt Discos which paid NBET N4.47 billion for the December invoices of N50.21 billion representing 8.91 per cent. GENCOs have in recent time raised alarm over liquidity and the going concern of its companies, due to huge debt. The companies also decried the poor payment it receives from the NBET, saying many of the firms are now on the verge of collapse. Last week, some of the affected generation companies dragged the Nigerian government and the minister of power to court over allegations of extending preferential treatment to two new power firms, Accugas and Azura. They also alleged that they barely receive regular and up-to-date payments from the N701 billion power sector intervention fund put in place by the Nigerian government. But on Monday, the minister, Babatunde Fashola, accused the generation companies of attempts to blackmail the government. He also alleged that the firms are planning to sabotage government efforts in electricity supply to Nigerians, saying that he was ready to face them in the law court. ADVERTISEMENT The House of Representatives has lifted a suspension it placed on Abdulmumin Jibrin, a member of the House from Kano. This followed a letter signed by Mr. Jibrin, allegedly apologising to the House. Although the letter wasnt fully read before the parliament, the speaker paraphrased it by saying he has apologised and met all the conditions given to him. He has fulfilled all the conditions by writing this letter and so he is free to resume his legislative duties whenever he wants, if he so wishes Mr. Jibrin was suspended in 2017 for a period of 180 legislative days for unfolding budget padding scandal in the legislature. His suspension however lasted for more than the stipulated 180 legislative days which is equivalent to one year. Details later Dozens of lawyers and civil society activists marched in Lagos, Tuesday, in protest of some new tax regimes introduced by the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode government. The protesters said the taxes are anti-people. The tax increments by Ambode would cause hyperinflation, insecurity, encourage crime and hunger, said Adesina Ogunlana, the chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, during the protest. The protest came after the expiration of a seven-day ultimatum given to the state government by the lawyers body to reverse the increments. If the governor refuses to stop and reverse all tax increments after our protest, we will go to court., Mr. Ogunlana continued. The law court is part of our struggle. We are here for one purpose; to fight against our oppressor. We know our condition of life, sweating everyday, having problems with food, accommodation and they are here asking us to pay taxes, taxes and more taxes. I know of a school given N5 million for borehole permit. Are the parents of the students not in trouble? Ambodes tax is illegal, toxic, satanic and we are not going to accept it. We voted for him and now he wants to vote us out of Lagos. Last week, the Lagos State government introduced a new fiscal regime that saw a hike in property taxes in the state, prompting a backlash from residents and activists. But the government defended its actions saying the funds generated from the increase in taxes, such as the land use charge, would be used to build infrastructure. On Tuesday, the protesters insisted the only solution is to reverse the increments. This is not about negotiations, it is about a total reversal, said Abiodun Aremu, Secretary, Joint Action Front. We resisted Fashola on the doctors strike. NBA was with us at Ojota in January 2012. This protest today should not end up like the Ojota charade. It is their plot that the poor people must be driven out of Lagos and we must resist them. The protesters converged on the NBA secretariat at the Ikeja Magistrate Court on Tuesday morning and marched to the Lagos State House of Assembly where they were initially denied entry. After sitting at the gate and insisting the Assembly complex was a public building, a state lawmaker, Sani Agunbiade, arrived and ordered the security guards to open the gates. Addressing the lawmakers, Mr. Ogunlana said, Our purpose here is two-fold, to communicate the grievances of Lagosians vis-a-vis the new directory of revenue generation of the government and also to present a letter to the Governor and the Speaker. Mr. Ogunlana then read the letter out loud accusing the government of enacting a law without proper consultation, adding that Mr. Ambode should not to be like the Biblical King Jeroboam who said my father whipped you with iron but I will whip you with Scorpion. In his response, Mr. Agunbiade, the Majority Leader of the House, welcomed the protesters and informed them the Speaker and other members of the House were on an assignment outside the state. ADVERTISEMENT We thank you for the peaceful presentation of your position. The clerk will receive the letter on behalf of the Speaker and the Commissioner for Information will receive the letter on behalf of the governor, said Mr. Agunbiade (APC, Ikorodu 1). We want a good relationship with the NBA especially when bills are to be passed into law. We expect you to state your position in the public hearing. ADVERTISEMENT President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday summoned the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to a closed-door meeting. The meeting held on Tuesday morning at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The meeting held about 24 hours after Mr. Buhari told Benue leaders that he was not aware Mr. Idris disobeyed his directive to remain in Benue until the herdsmen and farmers conflict in the state was resolved. Scores of people have been killed in the Benue violence since the beginning of the year. Mondays visit was Mr. Buharis first to Benue since the recent violence began. The presidents statement on Monday has since drawn rebuke from many Nigerians, with many calling for the sack of the police chief. Mr. Idris is believed to have explained himself to the president in the 30 minutes meeting. After the meeting, the police chief did not address anyone. A presidential source told PREMIUM TIMES Mr. Buhari demanded a full report on police operations, particularly in Benue, till date after which he will make further decisions. The Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media Garba Shehu, confirmed the meeting but refused to disclose details. As the 2019 general election draws near, the Senates Joint Committee on INEC and Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters has urged the National Electoral Commission (INEC), to exercise its powers and sanction persons or parties acting against the electoral laws. This call was made by the Senate President Bukola Saraki, while speaking at a public hearing on the bill seeking to establish the National Electoral Offences Commission, in Abuja, on Monday. Mr. Saraki, who was represented by the Deputy Majority Leader, Bala Ibn NaAllah, lamented that some political aspirants and parties were already campaigning when INEC had yet to declare electioneering open. Urging INEC not to condone such actions, he said, The Senate in particular would be very worried, if INEC begins to condone the actions of some political parties. You have not declared campaigns open, and some are already campaigning. The reordering of the 2019 election sequence by members of the National Assembly did not only cause stir among the lawmakers but Nigerians as well and INEC had expressed its intention to challenge the amendment in court. Mr. NaAllah further warned the Commission against being misguided on the extent of the powers of the National Assembly in the amendment to the Electoral Act 2010, adding that the National Assembly had powers to legislate over the electoral body and other agencies of government. He also assured that the lawmakers could not be involved in any legislation that would violate the constitution. INEC should be cautious of who it is listening to. We would not sit anywhere this constitution will be violated. It is necessary we caution ourselves. We need this country, we love this country, he said. The Chairman of INEC, Mahmoud Yakubu, called on the National Assembly and other stakeholders to expedite action on the bill to establish the National Electoral Offences Commission/Tribunal ahead of the 2019 general elections. He disclosed that the electoral umpire currently had about 1,080 cases in courts relating to the 2015 general elections, adding that the commission had received 124 case files of electoral offenders from the police, out of which 60 had been prosecuted. Mr. Yakubu, who expressed support for the establishment of the National Electoral Offences Commission stated that INEC could not effectively prosecute electoral offenders and focus on its enormous responsibilities simultaneously. He also explained that reports of the Electoral Reform Committee (the Uwais Report) 2008, and the Post-election Violence (Lemu Report) 2011 have been left to gather dust on the shelves. According to him, the two reports had recommended the establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission/Tribunal to address all forms of electoral violence and impunity that have continued to undermine the stability of the nations electoral democracy. He further said though it has the powers to prosecute, INEC lacked the powers to effect the arrest of electoral offenders, a situation he said, has continued to hamper effective prosecution of offenders. While the Uwais Report was transmitted by the executive to the National Assembly in 2010, the White Paper on recommendations of the Lemu Report directed the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minster of Justice to take steps towards the establishment of the Electoral Offences Tribunal. Nearly a decade later, there has been no legislative action on these aspects of the recommendations of the Uwais and Lemu reports, making the present effort by the Senate and the concurrent effort by the House of Representatives a welcome development. The failure to systematically and consistently enforce sanctions has encouraged impunity and the violence that often characterised electoral contest in Nigeria, thereby subverting the will of the people and undermining the nations electoral democracy. At present, INEC is saddled with the responsibility of prosecuting electoral offender. Section 150(1) and (2) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) empowered INEC prosecute electoral offenders through its legal officers or any legal practitioner appointed by it without the powers to arrest and investigate thus depending on the police for this purpose. ADVERTISEMENT Without the capacity to make arrest and investigate violations, the prosecutorial role is severely hampered. INEC cannot effectively focus on this role given its other variegated responsibilities under the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), he said. The electoral bodys tasks, he said, included registration and regulation of political parties as well as monitoring of parties congresses and finances, noting that the Secretary of the electoral offences commission should be appointed by the commission and not by the President as being proposed. He also warned against appointment of ex-officio members, while calling for a proper definition of electoral offences. Chairman of the Senate committee on INEC, Suleiman Nazif, stated that over the years, statistics showed that the various electoral offences and crimes orchestrated by politicians have cast shadows over the nations electoral process. Subsequently, due to human dynamics, crimes and offences of election tend to evolve. Therefore, we must look beyond the usual offences and into new trends of wider social electoral offences and crimes that have evaded justice for too long, he said. ADVERTISEMENT A former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has reacted to the ongoing debate on the jumbo pay received by federal lawmakers. In an interview with TheNews, a senator, Shehu Sani said he and his colleagues receive N13.5 million monthly as running cost, aside a N700,000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances which they also receive. The Senate has since confirmed the jumbo pay. In a series of tweet on her Twitter handle @obyezeks on Monday, Mrs. Ezekwesili said Mr. Sani gave answer to what Nigerians have been asking for. She explained how she was crucified by the National Assembly when she asked for transparency in their financial operations. She tweeted, Senator .@ShehuSani has in a rare moment of penance for the financial rascality of our .@nassnigeria done partial DISCLOSURE on their GOOD LIFE at the expense of the POOR. He DISCLOSED some of what WE Citizens have long ASKED @bukolasaraki & @YakubDogara to do. MORE REMAINS. Five (5) years ago, the 7th .@nassnigeria was so VEXED at me when I challenged them that their SALARIES & ALLOWANCES was about the HIGHEST IN THE WORLD. The then .@NGRSenate and @HouseNGR rose in unison to HAUL INSULTS & THREATS. I responded then. @bukolasaraki @YakubDogara & all lawmakers in @nassnigeria @NGRSenate @HouseNGR should REDEEM this promise that their 7th NASS colleagues NEVER KEPT: They accepted my challenge to HOST a Public Hearing on their PAY. See DO IT NOW! When the 8th @nassnigeria started, WE again called on .@bukolasaraki @YakubDogara and their @HouseNGR @NGRSenate to DISCLOSE THE DETAILS OF THEIR SALARIES & ALLOWANCES. For wia! They were playing Boju-Boju with Citizens brain. See naa, their .@ShehuSani has opened the CAN. ADVERTISEMENT Following a Freedom of Information request by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), the federal government has reportedly agreed to publish details of spending and locations of projects on water and sanitation for periods covering 20102016, as well as details of allocations to the 36 states of the federation. SERAP had last week asked Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources to explain why Nigerias water and sanitation infrastructure have continued to deteriorate and millions of Nigerians have to resort to drinking water from contaminated sources with deadly health consequences, despite the authorities claiming to have spent trillions of naira of budgetary allocations on the sector since the return of democracy in 1999. Responding, Mr. Adamu in a letter with reference number FMWR/LU/S/374/I, and dated March 12 said, The Federal Ministry of Water Resources will work hard to provide SERAP with the details of spending, and the information requested as they relate specifically to Water and Sanitation projects from 2010 to 2016. Mr. Adamu also said, The Federal Ministry of Water Resources was demerged from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2010. A copy of your letter will be forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for action on the other years before 2010. The letter signed on behalf of Mr. Adamu by P.C. Mbam, Acting Director (Legal) of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources also stated that, For emphasis sake, we advise that SERAP should send a separate request directly to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for the period (1999-2010) outside the purview of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources projects. Please accept the assurances of the Honourable Ministers warmest regards. Reacting to the development, SERAP deputy director, Timothy Adewale, said in a statement today, We welcome the firm commitment by Mr. Adamu to explain to Nigerians what exactly have happened to trillions of naira budgeted for water and sanitation across the country between 20102016. Mr Adamus commitment is refreshing, especially coming at a time many public institutions and ministries such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are rejecting public requests for information and making information on the spending our commonwealth harder to access. SERAPs reaction read in part: While the NNPC has been a vocal opponent of the Freedom of Information Act, Mr Adamu can become the public number one advocate and defender of the law if he makes good his commitment to publish the information requested without delay. We hope the NNPC and other ministries, agencies and departments can take a cue from the speed with which Mr Adamu responded to SERAPs request, and his expressed willingness to embrace both the letter and spirit of the FOI Act, in terms of transparency and accountability. We hope that Mr. Adamu will act promptly as promised but we will keep our legal options open should he renege on his commitment. When the information is finally released as promised, it will be an important step towards reversing a culture of secrecy and corruption that has meant that high-ranking government officials continue to look after themselves at the expense of the well-being of majority of Nigerians, and development of the country. We also appreciate Mr. Adamus clarifications on the role of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and will be sending the Minister Audu Ogbeh an FOI request very shortly to seek explanations from him on how public funds meant for water and sanitation were spent for the periods 19992010. It would be recalled that SERAP in a letter to Mr Adamu dated March 2 claimed that, Many toilets in public offices are out of order because of lack of water while millions of Nigerians remain desperate for water in their homes, often resorting to contaminated sources and drilling their own boreholes that can become easily mixed with sewage, with negative environmental impacts, and devastating for peoples health. SERAPs letter read in part: We are concerned that millions of Nigerians do not have access to clean and potable water and adequate sanitation. There is no water to show for the huge budgetary allocations and purported spending and investment in the sector since the return of democracy in 1999. Successive governments have failed to improve affordability of water for millions of low-income Nigerians, thereby denying them access to water. Contractors handling water projects are reportedly engaging in schemes like the deliberate use of substandard pipes, among others, to make profit, leading to loss of water. This dearth of water also affects sanitation. The large number of broken down water facilities across the country has hindered effective water supply to the citizens. We urge you to use your leadership position to provide within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter detailed information on the spending on specific water and sanitation projects and their locations carried out by the Ministry of Water Resources and Rural Development for the following years: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 (1999-2016); as well as details of allocations to the 36 states of the federation. Should Engr. Adamu fail to provide the information within 14 days, SERAP would take all appropriate legal actions to compel the government to act on this matter. Millions of Nigerians (mostly children) lie sick, bodies ravaged by cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery among other diseases. An estimated 194,000 Nigerian children under the age of 5 die annually from these preventable diseases. There is almost no state and/or local government in Nigeria without abandoned water projects or one whose construction has gone on forever, creating a veritable opening for fraud and assuring the continued suffering of many. Nigeria has received donations running into several billions of dollars from the African Development Bank, the European Union, UNICEF, USAID, World Bank among others to implement water projects without any feasible improvement on access to water. The African Development Bank has invested over $905million in the sector since 1971. Nigeria is currently investing over N85billion in the water sector, yet millions of Nigerians do not have access to portable water, and have resorted to drilling of boreholes, with negative environmental impacts. The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said the federal government was working hard to end open defecation in Nigeria, which has caused the death of children through diseases. The minister stated this on Tuesday in Jos, Plateau State, during a two-day media dialogue and workshop on water supply and sanitation sector reform, organised by the Federal Ministry of Information in conjunction with United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria. Open defecation is incredibly dangerous, as contact with human waste can cause diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, diarrhoea, worm infestation and under nutrition. We must double our current efforts in order to end open defecation by 2030, he said. The workshop focused on Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH). Represented by the deputy director, Olumide Osanyinpeju, the Minister said the Federal ministry has great concern on the well-being of Nigerians, particularly of children who are vulnerable to communicable diseases. He said the Nigerian government desires to end open defecation in the country by year 2030 as a means of ensuring better healthcare services. The information minister urged journalists in Nigeria to help create better awareness on the dangers of open defecation. As journalists being presented with facts of data on the status of WASH, I enjoin you to use the medium at your disposal to educate the populace with the WASH situation in Nigeria, with particular reference to child development, and well-being of the child. UNICEF Chief for Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) in Nigeria, Zaid Jurji, in a paper presentation, revealed that 60 million Nigerians do not have access to portable water. He also said 88 per cent of the diarrhoea cases in the country was caused by open defecation and lack of potable water. According to Mr. Jurji, the Nigerian population who lack portable water was half population of Canada. 25 per cent of Nigerians practice open defecation without potable water. That population is more than half population of Canada, the WASH chief said He urged the Nigerian government to invest more in water and sanitation. Earlier, while declaring the workshop open, the Plateau State Commissioner for Water, Resources and Energy, Jaafaru Wuyep, commended UNICEF for filling in the gap where government could not reach it citizens. Mr. Wuyep said the Plateau State government will continue to invest for the development of its citizens, particularly in the welfare of children and encourage other sectors to key in the policy. When we invest in children, we are correcting the past, and making the future right. He commended UNICEF for coming to their aide. UNICEF has been the major partners to Plateau State in our human challenges, as a government, we will continue to partner UNICEF. The Commissioner said our partnership with UNICEF is necessary. We have seen positive results on our people, UNICEF are everywhere in the rural areas assisting our people, Mr Wuyep stated. ADVERTISEMENT The ongoing two-day media dialogue workshop holding in Jos, Plateau State, has participants across Nigeria and is expected to end on Wednesday with a field trip to rural communities in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) has launched a new global campaign to stop the worlds largest tobacco companies from targeting kids and schools in countries around the world. The campaign, Big Tobacco, Tiny Targets, takes aim at Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and other tobacco companies whose products are being systematically promoted and routinely sold to kids around schools, playgrounds and places frequented by young people. Through crowdsourcing technology and social media, the campaign empowers citizens across the world to help document tobacco marketing that targets kids. With just a mobile phone, citizens in any country can take a photo of tobacco advertising near schools, playgrounds, and other kid-friendly venues and upload the data to the campaign hub (http://www.takeapart.org/tiny-targets/). The information collected will be used to warn governments and spur them to ban all tobacco marketing. The campaign launch follows an investigative report by The Guardian UK which exposed how Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco are aggressively marketing cigarettes and other tobacco products near primary and secondary schools in more than 22 countries. Based on data collected by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and non-governmental organizations, the story shines a spotlight on a key tactic tobacco companies use to target children, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. According to The Guardian, School children around the world are being exposed on a daily basis to cigarette advertising and promotions by a tobacco industry that needs to recruit the young to maintain its vast profits. The campaign also came months after a report by the Nigerian Tobacco Control Research Group which accused tobacco companies in the country of using new strategies to target the younger generation. The tobacco industry denied the accusation. But according to the CTFK, tobacco industrys tactics are similar in countries spanning the globe. They include large advertisements, promotions for cheap and even free tobacco products, and high-visibility product placements by stores, street vendors, kiosks and other retailers surrounding schools. Tobacco products, advertisements, and branding are often visible from inside schools or right outside school entrances, making it impossible for kids to avoid them. The consistent presence of Philip Morris and British American Tobacco brands prominently displayed and sold next to elementary schools, in country after country, cannot be a coincidence, said Matthew Myers, CTFKs president. This is clear evidence that these giant tobacco companies are targeting young children near their schools, often in poor countries where laws are weak and the companies think they can get away with this despicable behaviour. These companies actions show why they cant be taken seriously when they claim to be responsible entities that are helping to solve the tobacco problem. The targeting of kids near schools leaves no doubt that theyre the main cause of the problem, not the solution. Through our new campaign, concerned individuals around the world can take action and shine a light on this tactic by Big Tobacco so that governments, advocates and consumers can stop this deadly activity, Mr. Myers added. Last week, the former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, launched a $20 million campaign fund to aggressively monitor deceptive tobacco industry tactics and practices to undermine public health. Joanna Cohen, Director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Johns Hopkins University said their research across several countries found similar patterns of tobacco advertisements around schools and places frequented by young people. The findings of these reports demonstrate both the magnitude of this problem and the need for strict laws that ban tobacco advertising. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Alleged kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, a.k.a Evans, on Tuesday filed a fresh suit at a Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking N1 billion damages against the Police over alleged unlawful sealing of his property in Lagos. The suit, filed by his lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, has as the Inspector General of Police, Nigeria Police, Inspector General of Police, Intelligence Response Team, (IRT), Abba Kyari, an assistant commissioner of police and Phillip Rieninwa, a deputy superintendent of police, as respondents. The applicant is seeking a declaration that the forceful seizure, confiscation and sealing of his property by the respondents without any court order is illegal, wrongful and unconstitutional. He wants an order compelling the respondents jointly and severally to immediately and unconditionally release the properties as listed in the motion papers. In addition, he is asking the court for an order compelling the respondents to immediately and unconditionally unseal and vacate the applicants two residential houses located at highbrow area of Magodo in Lagos. Other reliefs are an order compelling the respondents to severally and jointly tender an apology to the applicant and to pay him the sum of N1 billion being general and exemplary damages for the alleged forceful seizure and confiscation of the applicants property without court order. A perpetual injunction restraining the respondents from tampering or taking any action against the applicant or any of his properties in relation to this case. Some of the properties listed in the application include N50 million cash, two residential duplex, brigade wrist-watch worth 170,000 dollars, a phone worth 30,000 dollars and five pieces of Saphono Rucci Diamond rings worth 100,000 dollars. Others are three Italian travel bags worth $55,000, 10 Spanish shoes each worth N2.5 million, 20 KVA inverter set worth N10 million, two sets of dinning table worth N8 million. The applicant also wants N4 million as cost of action against the respondents. Evans was arraigned by the police before a Lagos High Court in October 2017 on a 40-count charge bordering on kidnapping, robbery among other offences. No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit which was filed on Tuesday about 11.35 a.m. (NAN) The Labour Party has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of misleading Nigerians by claiming it is in crisis. It urged the electoral body to recognise Mike Omotosho as its chairman, in place of Abdulkadir Abdusalam. The forum of state chairmen of the party stated this at a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja. The conference was addressed by Joseph Ndirang, the chairman of the party in the Federal Capital Territory and newly elected chairman of the forum. Mr. Ndirang read a communique he said was issued at the end of a two-day meeting of the forum held on March 12 and 13. He said the meeting addressed the refusal of INEC to respect the decision of the party at its convention on October 3 last year to remove Mr. Abdusalam as national chairman and replace him with Mr. Omotosho. The meeting observed with dismay, the inability of INEC, as a regulator of the activities of political parties, to fully comply and impartially implement the overwhelming decision of the highest organ of Labour Party (the convention), which unanimously removed the former chairman, Abdulkarim Absusalam, from office and elected Mike Omotosho as the new national chairman of the party. The meeting-in-session noted that the special convention that removed Salam from office, was convened in line with the provisions of the partys constitution Article 13c and in conformity with the requirements and guidelines of INEC. To that extent, there should not have been any reason why Salams name is still hosted on INECs website after INEC supervised and monitored the constitutional process that duly removed him. For avoidance of doubts, copies of the Nigeria police investigation report and Forensic Audit Report carried out on the partys financial accounts, that indicted the former national chairman and other party officials were made available to the state chairmen for their perusal. Mr. Ndirang said 30 state chairmen present at the meeting pledged their support for the new chairman, Mr. Omotosho. The state chairmen expressed their displeasure over the continuous illegal self-parade of Salam as Labour Party National Chairman, even when the National Working Committee, the National Executive Council and Special Convention removed him from the office. This perpetration of illegality has misled people towards assuming that the Labour Party is in a kind of crisis, which is not true. Mr. Ndirang said the forum would visit the new chairman, Mr. Omotosho, and INEC to present copies of the communique. The chairmens forum re-affirms the outcome of the the October 3rd, 2017 Special Convention. We also demand that all relevant stakeholders respect and uphold the decision of the party reached at the convention, which is the highest decision-making political body. The meeting demanded that INEC recognises and only deal, henceforth, with Mike Omotosho as the duly elected National Chairman of the Labour Party. The Labour Party also stressed that it will not join any coalition but will continue to stand on its own as a party. The party rejected the move of a former governor under the umbrella of the party to hijack the party through the backdoor. We admonish the former governor, who abandoned the party that made him when we needed him most to join effort with the new leadership, NLC and other stakeholders to build the party rather than set it on the part of destruction. The meeting frowned at the old system where the party never features in elections but used to make money in the personal interest of some leaders. It was unanimously agreed that only people intending to truly contest elections, will be given the partys platform for elections. Labour party is no longer for sale, Mr Ndirang said. The party commended the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress under Ayuba Wabba for the timely intervention to restore peace in the Labour Party. ADVERTISEMENT Asked if the party would go to court if after its visit to INEC nothing is done, Mr. Ndirang said: That is our last resort, we will do that. But for now, these are the measures we are taking. Meanwhile, the partys secretariat in Abuja is still under the control of Mr. Abdusalam who insists he remains the national chairman. ADVERTISEMENT The Nigerian Senate has urged the executive arm to declare a state of emergency in the health sector over the decay in infrastructure. The move follows the adoption of prayers by a senator, Suleiman Hunkuyi, who presented a motion on the state of public health sector in the country on Tuesday. Mr. Hunkuyi noted that the decay in infrastructure in public health institutions is being caused by epileptic power and inadequate water supply resulting in unhygienic conditions which further increases the risk of hospital acquired and transmitted infections. He said, The senate further notes that critical diagnostic equipment such as MRI, CT Scan, Ultrasound etc. essential for providing efficient diagnosis are either non-functional or not available. The senate is concerned that this situation has compounded the dearth of ability to attract the required calibre of health professionals and skilled manpower in our public health institutions with doctors and other healthcare professionals leaving for greener pastures to private medical facilities or even abroad where they can practice. The senate is further concerned that the sorry situation in our public health institutions has resulted in increased medical tourism by Nigerians, with the attendant outflow of hard earned foreign currency to the tune of several millions of dollars spent on medical care annually in Europe, America, Asia and even some African countries to the detriment of our own Health Institutions; The senate regrets that this sorry state of affairs has rendered our hospitals and other healthcare facilities ineffective, resulting in dire consequences for the citizenry. He said the situation culminated in the latest UNICEF statistics on child mortality which ranked Nigeria second highest in the world with losses of about 2300 under-five year olds and 145 women of child bearing age daily. Adopting prayers from the motion, the senate urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led executive to declare a state of emergency in the public health sector in the country. The senate urged the executive to provide special funding for the overhaul of at least one Government owned medical facility in each of the six gee-political zones of the country in the 2018 budget. The lawmakers also adopted an additional prayer by Aliyu Abdullahi (Niger-APC) that the National Assembly ensure compliance with the National Health Act on funding of primary health care in Nigeria. A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday ruled that the issue of elevation would not stop a judge from carrying out his or her duty. Justice Gabriel Kolawole gave the ruling in the N9 billion alleged fraud trial against former Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswam. The judge made the clarification as a result of concern raised by Chinelo Ogbozor, counsel to Mr. Suswam, as a result of Mr. Kolawoles elevation. The issue was objected to by the prosecuting counsel, Aminu Alilu. The federal government is prosecuting Mr. Suswam and two others over diversion of N9.79 billion. Part of the diverted funds was said to be for police reform and Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme. Those charged alongside Mr. Suswam in the 32- count charge are Omadachi Oklobia, his former Commissioner for Finance, and Janet Aluga, former Accountant, Benue State Government House. In the charge, the trio allegedly cornered the said funds between 2012 and 2015 while Mr. Suswam was governor of the state. They are also accused of conspiracy, conversion of property derived directly from corruption; collaboration to conceal property derived from corruption; obtaining by false pretence and accepting cash payments, exceeding the amount authorised by law. Mrs. Ogbozor told the court that her client had certain concerns with regards to proceeding with the trial. According to her, in view of the recent development, which is in public domain even though not yet made official, which is with regards to the elevation of my lord, we will be asking for the courts direction. She said that as a result of their concerns, they were not prepared to proceed with the matter. A.O. Ochogwu, counsel to the second defendant in the matter said his client shared the same views with that of the first defendant. Mr. Ochogwu, however, added that since the court had also fixed March 15 to hear the matter, he prayed the court for an adjournment to enable counsel prepare to commence trial. Mr. Alilu, however, maintained that the reason given by the defence for not being ready to proceed was not tenable as there were provisions in law to take care of instances of elevation of a judge. If a diligent search had been done, the defence will realise that Section 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, (ACJA) has taken care of the issue of elevation. We also have our concerns; we transported our witnesses all the way from Benue, so how do we take care of their accommodation and feeding until Thursday? Mr. Kolawole noted that the issue of elevation would not stop a judge from carrying out his or her duty. ADVERTISEMENT In a short ruling he said: When the matter came up the defence raised concerns over proceeding with the matter on account of elevation of a judge. But the prosecution had a different view because of Section 396 of ACJA that says a judge elevated shall return and conclude the criminal matter he was handling. Mr. Kolawole, however, said that he could not hear the matter because he had fixed a pre-election matter and that since he was assured of another date for the case, he would adjourn it until the next date. He subsequently adjourned the matter until March 15 for the trial to commence. The offences are said to be contrary to, and punishable under various provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011, and the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT The remains of a former ECOMOG Commander, Timothy Mai Shelpidi, were late Tuesday buried at his country home at Boh in Shongom Local Government Area of Gombe State. Mr. Shelpidi, a retired major general, died on March 2, after a protracted illness at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja. He was aged 70. He left behind his wife, children, grandchildren and an aged mother Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo, who led the state government delegation to the funeral, described his death as a big blow not only to the state, but also to the country. Also speaking, the wife of the deceased, Ruth Shelpidi, said her husband demonstrated how a true nationalist ought to live, describing him as a man who lived for the unity and peaceful coexistence of the country. In his condolence message, a senator, David Mark, described Mr. Shelpidi as a gallant officer and gentleman, whose death at the time is devastating. Shelpidi died at a time when his wealth of experience is most needed to navigate through the social-political and security challenges facing the nation, Mr. Mark said. Mr. Shelpidi was once the Nigerian ambassador to Russia. He was born on September 4, 1948 at Kaltungo, Bauchi State. He enlisted in the Nigerian Army in 1967. He started his training at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, and was commissioned a Regular Combatant Officer on March 4, 1970. Between 1990-1992, he was principal staff officer to Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. In 1997, he was Commander of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group in Guinea Bissau. From September 18, 2008 to October 14, 2011 he administrated the Embassy of Nigeria in Moscow. Barely a week after the State Security Service released a Nigerian journalist it detained without explanation, the police have arrested another media professional with Daily Trust, the publication said on Tuesday. Musa Abdullahi Krishi, a legislative affairs reporter with the Abuja-based newspaper, was arrested at the National Assembly shortly before noon, Daily Trust said in a statement to PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday afternoon. Mannir Dan-Ali, editor-in-chief of Daily Trust, said in the statement that the paper had received complaints from Jigawa State Governor, Muhammad Badaru, over an advertorial, but had since published a retraction as demanded by the governor, amongst other entreaties. Mr. Dan-Ali said the case was being treated as an abduction. Some of the reporters present during Mr. Krishis arrest told PREMIUM TIMES the officers who came to pick him reportedly muttered to him that he was being sought over a story he wrote which Mr. Badaru found offensive Mr. Dan-Ali said the officers who arrested Mr. Krishi came from Kano but Daily Trust published an update that he might have been taken to Jigawa for interrogation, demanding his immediate release amidst fears for his safety. But the police commissioners in the two states denied involvement or knowledge, with both telling PREMIUM TIMES that none of them could order police to make arrests in Abuja. I did not order the arrest and I am not even aware of it, said Bala Senchi, Jigawa police commissioner. I cannot send my officers to go and make arrest in Abuja. The commissioner in Kano, Rabiu Yusuf, also made a similar statement to PREMIUM TIMES. I am not aware of any arrest of a journalist, he said, suggesting that enquiries should be directed at Jimoh Moshood, the force spokesperson in Abuja. Mr. Moshood did not immediately respond to PREMIUM TIMES request for comments. Also, Kayode Aderanti, the assistant inspector-general in charge of Zone 1 in Kano, did not immediately respond to PREMIUM TIMES requests for comments. Bello Zaki, a spokesperson for Mr. Baradu, could not be reached for comments Tuesday afternoon. His phone line was switched off when tried repeatedly between 5:20 and 5:39 p.m. Tuesday. Daily Trust warned federal authorities to desist from stifling freedom of the press by allowing journalists to practice their craft as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution. Tony Ezimakor, a journalist with Daily Independent, was arrested by the SSS on February 28 and released on March 6 without explanation. The paper said the SSS released its reporter unconditionally after trying unsuccessfully to compel him to reveal the source of a story he wrote about how security agents were cashing in on ransom payments the Buhari administration allegedly advanced to Boko Haram for the release of some Chibok girls last year. Read the full statement from Daily Trust announcing the arrest of its reporter below: PRESS STATEMENT ADVERTISEMENT DAILY TRUST REPORTER ABDUCTED AT NATIONAL ASSEMBLY At about 11.30am on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, our reporter attached to the House of Representatives in the National Assembly, Musa Abdullahi Krishi, was abducted by policemen who claimed to have come from Zone One Command Police Headquarters in Kano. He was hauled into a Hilux Van with Registration Number ABJ RSH 850 AH from the Divisional Police Office at the National Assembly by a team of six plain cloth policemen who claimed to be taking him to Kano for interrogation. Though the full ramifications of the investigation they claimed to be carrying out have not been made known to the management of Daily Trust, the abduction of Krishi is the height of intimidation visited upon this company since January 26, 2018 following the publication of a paid advertisement which the governor of Jigawa State had taken exception to. Below is a sequence of intimidation Daily Trust has been subjected to over the last one and a half months. 1. On January 26, 2018 Daily Trust published a paid advertisement placed by the Coalition of Governor Muhammad Badaru Abubakar Support Groups. The advertorial consisted of photographs showing Jigawa State Governor Badaru with former President Olusegun Obasanjo. 2. On the same day lawyers of Governor Badaru wrote to disown the contents of the advertorial and sought an immediate retraction. 3. On January 28, 2018, Daily Trust published the Jigawa State Governments press release disowning the advertorial. 4. On February 5, 2018, Daily Trust published an apology/retraction of the advertisement as demanded by the governors lawyers. 5. In February Daily Trust received from the Police in Kano a letter claiming that they had commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the publication of the advertorial. Attached to the letter was a summon from a Chief Magistrate Court in Kano, which did not contain the names of parties to the suit, and even a suit number. 6. We provided all the information requested for by the Police in Kano to enable them conduct their investigations. But not satisfied, the police summoned the management team of Daily Trust to Kano for further investigation. 7. As this civil case took a frightening twist and turn, Daily Trust wrote an official petition to the Inspector General of Police dated February 15, 2018, seeking his intervention. The IGP subsequently set up a team of investigators in Abuja to work on this case. It was, therefore, a shock to the management of Daily Trust that the Police in Kano upstaged the IGPs investigation by coming to Abuja to abduct one of our reporters. We believe the police in Kano can only do this because of undue pressures from Jigawa State Government. We consider this to be, not just an act of intimidation on Daily Trust journalists and newspaper, but an unwarranted assault on Journalism and the media profession. The advertorial in question had no criminal content; it was not in any way libellous against the governor of Jigawa State or any other political personality contained therein. If anything, this is a civil-cum- political issue, and, as a newspaper, we have bent over backward by carrying out the necessary retraction and publishing the disclaimers by the government of Jigawa State. The abduction of our journalist was unwarranted and an abuse on the rights of our reporter. This is clearly another mischievous effort to obstruct Daily Trust from performing of its constitutionally-supported role of making its platform available to all Nigerians who wish to air their views about the countrys democracy. We, therefore, call for the immediate release of our reporter, Musa Abdullahi Kirshi, and demand an unreserved apology from the Kano State Command of the Nigeria Police. We appeal to the Inspector-General of Police and President Muhammadu Buhari to call the Police in Kano to order and instruct them to return our reporter to his duty post at the National Assembly. ADVERTISEMENT The European Union has charged the Federal Government of Nigeria to bring perpetrators of the recurrent clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the country to justice. According to the EU in a statement on Tuesday by its Heads of Mission in Nigeria, this is the necessary first step towards creating peace in the country. The clashes have spread across the country and resulted in hundreds of deaths in states including Benue, Taraba and Kaduna but with no one yet prosecuted by the authorities for their roles. The EU said it was alarmed by the escalating and disturbing killings and called for urgent measures that would allow Nigerians to live together in peace and security in the country. While we welcome the visit of President Buhari to affected states, we encourage the government and all stakeholders to engage decisively in order to promote a constructive dialogue with the aim of finding viable solutions and sustainable economic policies that would permit all to live in peace, whatever their ethnicity or religion. As a first step, the perpetrators of violence must be brought to justice, the statement said. The EU expressed its full support to the Nigerian government and people in their fight against violence in all its forms and expresses its condolences and sympathy to the families of those killed and injured. President Buhari is currently on a tour of the states most affected by the conflict. The itinerary which began in Taraba and has taken the president to Plateau and Benue, will also see him in Zamfara where a senator alleged more carnage had occurred than elsewhere. ADVERTISEMENT Less than a day after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Rex Tillerson has been fired as the U.S. Secretary of State. President Donald Trump fired Mr. Tillerson on Tuesday. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State, the U.S. President announced on Twitter. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Mr. Tillerson was in Nigeria as part of his first official visit to Africa. During the visit, he spoke about the U.S. assistance to Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram and the possibility of Nigeria securing loans from the U.S. Reports in the U.S. media say Mr. Tillerson and Mr. Trump have had a bumpy relationship to the extent that the American President agreed to meet with North Korean leader without the knowledge of his administrations chief diplomat. Mr. Trump later addressed journalists on Tuesday saying he made the decision to sack Mr. Tillerson alone. He, however, said he and Mr. Tillerson shared different views on some key global issues such as the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Trump wants to cancel the Iran deal which saw Iran abandon its nuclear ambition so as to get several sanctions lifted. Other partners to deal, such as the EU, however, want the Iran deal to remain. The Yobe State Governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, on Tuesday urged other state governors to make payment of salaries and pensions as first line charge before any expenditure to entrench trust in the system. The governor made this remark at the official commissioning of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) House in Abuja. A Budgit nationwide survey in 2017 showed that more than 20 states are owing workers and pensioners salaries and entitlements ranging from one to 36 months. Mr. Gaidam said there was no reason any governor should not pay salaries and pension. According to him, Yobe has been able to live up to its responsibilities, in spite of the security challenges posed by Boko Haram insurgents. We have made it a deliberate policy to pay salaries and pensions as the first line charge before any expenditure, while many states have backlog of unpaid salaries, pensions and gratuities, Mr. Gaidam said. He disclosed that Yobe is one of the few states which have consistently paid salaries of staff without resort to the bailout of funds from the federal government. We have also made it a deliberate policy that all civil servants in the state start receiving payment of pensions one month after retirement. We have equally set-up a Committee to verify gratuities of staff in the state and have cleared backlog of gratuities of civil servants who retired from Services from 2014 to July 2017 the sum of about N4.7 billion, covering 2,543 beneficiaries, he said. The governor urged other state governments and other employers of labour to emulate the gesture so that the transition of civil servants from benefiting in payment of salaries to pensions will be a smooth and hitch free process. The process should be devoid of unnecessary delays that tend to frustrate pensioners in spite of their selfless service to the nation. Also, the national president of NUP, Abel Afolyan, appealed for more support to enable the union carry out more capital projects. We want to have a medical centre, where we would be taking care of our aged members. We also intend to establish the pensioners radio and television station where we can reach out to our members easily and also use it as a tool of advocacy for our interests. We can only plead for more support from you in order for us to achieve them one after the one, he said. He described the governor as the number one friendly governor that understood the plight of pensioners, who is willing to do all he can to ensure their happiness. Mr. Afolayan sympathised with the governor over the February 19 abduction of 110 girls in Government Girls Science and Tech School, Dapchi. Mr. Afolayan prayed for the quick and safe return of the girls. ADVERTISEMENT (NAN). ADVERTISEMENT The Police on Tuesday arraigned one Obiejogo Azuka in an FCT High Court, Apo for forging a reference letter allegedly made by former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to gain employment. Mr. Azuka is accused of using the alleged forged document to secure job with the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company. The prosecutor, Halidu Mohammed, told the court that the defendant used similar document to secure another employment with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) after he was dismissed from the security printing company. Mr. Azuka 33, a resident of Destiny Crescent Kubwa, Abuja was docked on a six-count charge bordering on forgery. Mr. Mohammed said the defendant committed the offence on Aug. 11, 2014, adding that his action had caused harm to the reputation of TETFUND. He further said the offence contravened Section 320(b) and punishable under Section 322 of the Penal Code CAP 532 LFN, 1990. Justice Idris Baba has adjourned the case till May 16, for mention. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT Security agencies in Kaduna State have been directed to work with their counterparts in Plateau State to contain the crisis along the border between the two states. The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, gave the directive on Tuesday. Mr. El-Rufai made this known in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Samuel Aruwal. He also condoled with the families that lost loved ones and property during the last orgy of violence adding that the state emergency authorities have been mobilised to provide relief to the affected families. This is in reaction to the cross-border violence between communities in Bassa local government area in Plateau State and Kauru local government area in Kaduna. A resident of the affected community, who identified himself as Timothy, had told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview that 25 corpses were counted after the attack. He said residents have since fled the community. He also said there were no security operatives in the area. The police in Plateau have since deployed a team to the affected communities. The governments statement read in part: The Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has received reports of communal clashes in the border area with Plateau State. Lives and property were lost in the clashes, especially in Kigam village of Kauru local government and a community in Bassa local government area of nearby Plateau state. The Governor is saddened by this unfortunate incidence, and he has since condoled families of the victims and has directed that urgent security measures be taken around the border with Plateau State to secure lives and property. The Governor directed security agencies operating in Kaduna State to liaise with their counterparts in Plateau State and ensure that Kaduna state citizens are adequately protected, communities secured and that there be no escalation of the mayhem. The Governor of Kaduna State, furthermore, directs security agencies to work hand in hand with their Plateau State counterparts to ensure that those that killed our citizens are arrested and brought to justice. ADVERTISEMENT A former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, says Nigerians voted out the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 out of anger and impatience, but are now back to their senses and will not repeat the mistake of voting the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019. Mr. Lamido, who is seeking the presidential ticket of the PDP, spoke in Dutse, Jigawa State, on Monday at a rally after he hosted the National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, and Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo among others party bigwigs on a campaign tour of the town. The ex-governor, who is being prosecuted for corruption while in office, said the APC is a combination of many political parties, unlike the PDP which he said is an independent party with a common ideology and national outlook that protects the interests of all ethics groups in Nigeria. Stressing that the time had come for people to wake up from their slumbers and be with a party that cares for their welfare, Mr. Lamido called on Nigerians to rally round the PDP in 2019 for the unity and progress of the country. Also speaking, Governor of Gombe State, Mr. Dankwambo, who represented PDP governors at the rally, said all PDP governors will support any candidate that emerges as the presidential candidate of the party. Former governor of Kano, Ibrahim Shekarau, said Nigerians were deceived with empty promises by the APC administration and are ready to vote out the ruling party in 2019. Also speaking at the rally, PDP National Chairman, Mr. Secondus, described the APC as more corrupt than the PDP, saying its reign brought hunger and untold hardship to Nigerians. He said the PDP while in government for 16 years borrowed N3 trillion, while records indicated APC has borrowed N11trillion in under three years, describing the situation as not only pathetic but undemocratic, disgraceful and deceptive by the party and its followers. He alleged that corruption has spread all over government agencies while the APC government has folded its arms without prosecuting the perpetrators. Even the so called anti-corruption agencies have becomes toothless bull dogs used in intimidating opposition political parties and their members, he said. Some candidates in the ongoing computer cased 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have complained about the challenges they faced writing their examinations. A candidate who identified himself as Aliyu told PREMIUM TIMES that during the two hours examination, the generator that supplied electricity to the centre stopped three times. The exams was scheduled to commence by 7 a.m. but we couldnt start until 8 a.m because of thumbprint and screening. We also experienced failure of generator. The generator failed about three times. We were expected to spend two hours, but we couldnt. They kept pressuring us to submit. Many candidates had not finished when the management submitted the exams, he complained. However, the proprietor of the institute, Zakari Abdullahi, said the failure of generator had no effect on the exams. Of course the generator broke down. But it was fixed. A new generator was brought. Everything went smoothly. The students didnt come on time, which is not our fault. Normally, students were expected to come before seven, the exams is supposed to start by seven. But we didnt have them. We had to wait, Mr. Abdullahi said. At SMS ICT Institute, Nomansland,Kano, the second session of the exams started around 10:30 am instead of 9:00 am as narrated by one candidate who declined to be named. My exams slip indicates that I will start by 9:00, but i didnt start till 10:30, she claimed. The manager of the centre, Sani Muhammad, said candidates were directed to arrive one hour to the scheduled time so they could be screened and accredited. The first session candidates were asked to come by 7 a.m. and their exams will start by 8:00 am and the span of exams is two hours. It takes thirty minutes to accredit candidates. A PREMIUM TIMES reporter in Kano found that the third session of the exams in Vitae Computer Institute, Club Road, Kano scheduled to commence by 1:00 p.m did not start till 2:00 p.m due to network problems. A candidate who sat in the second session complained that the system failed to recognise his registration until after about 20 minutes. When I supplied my registration number, the computer system rejected my number. I complained to one of the staff, it took him almost 20 minutes before he rectified the problem. And they kept putting pressure on candidates to submit. I have 20 questions and about 15 minutes left, when i submitted , he said. A manager in the centre who does not want her name in print said the delay was due to lack of network access to JAMB headquarters. She denied putting pressure on candidates to submit their exams, noting that all were allowed to submit at their own will as the system timing is programmed, saying when the time is exhausted the computer logs out. On Friday, the Kano Zonal coordinator, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Karimatu Abubakar, said the board has created a special centre for visually impaired candidates in Kano. She said the centre is designed to accommodate candidates from Northern states at Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Research and Training, Mambayya House. ADVERTISEMENT I am proud to say JAMB is being inclusive. The Board has made proper and adequate arrangements for visually impaired candidates. They are going to write their exams separately, and they would be provided with basic materials. Kano is the centre of all visually impaired candidates from Northern Nigeria. Kano alone has fifty candidates, she said. She said over seven thousand candidates are expected to write their exams in twenty-nine CBT centres across Kano State this year. We have 29 CBT centres in Kano. Out of this four are in Wudil, two are in Bichi and one in is in Dambatta local government. Meaning that seven CBT centres are outside Kano metropolis. The rest are within Kano Municipal. We are expecting about seven thousand candidates to write the exams in Kano State. We run the exams in sessions, morning, mid-day and afternoon sessions, she added. The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has said that the APC must stop portraying itself as a party of anything goes, and must take strong action to punish factionalisation and indiscipline. Mr. El-Rufai gave this warning in oral and written briefs to the APC fact-finding committee he met in Kaduna on February 25. The governor asked the APC to apply appropriate sanctions against members that have violated the provisions of Article 21 of its constitution. In addition, he asked the national headquarters to take consequential action to give final effect to disciplinary actions taken by the state chapter. The governor made his views known in a submission to the Segun Oni-led fact-finding committee that national working committee of the APC charged to investigate recent happenings in the Kaduna State branch of the party. A copy of the submission was made available to PREMIUM TIMES. Mr. El-Rufai, who received the Oni committee at the Government House, was accompanied by the acting APC state chairman, Shuaibu Idris, and five members of the House of Representatives. Mr. El-Rufais submission traced the story of the Kaduna State APC from 2014, detailing the roles of various actors, some of whom, he said, began to act above the party after losing in the state congress. He also narrated his efforts at reconciliation after winning the governorship primaries in December 2014, visiting the defeated aspirants and integrating people from Isa Ashirus camp into his campaign structure, from which many of them were given political appointments. He cited as examples Suleiman Abdu Kwari, who has been Finance Commissioner since 2015, Ruth Alkali (Commissioner of Commerce), Ben Kure, DG-SEMA, and Namadi Musa, DG of the Bureau of Interfaith Matters. Mr. El-Rufai told the committee that the Kaduna State Government has benefitted from the strong support of the State Chapter of the APC in executing the promises made in the Restoration Programme, the Kaduna State-specific iteration of the APC national manifesto. The party is fully integrated into governance, with many of its leaders holding positions within the state executive council, the Governors Office and agencies of the government. Several party leaders have been appointed to the boards of government parastatals, and due care has been taken to foster the expected closeness between the party and the government that it produced. But the governor lamented that an attitude of levity by the national headquarters of the APC has not been helpful to party discipline. He said this has been exacerbated by the involvement of national party officials in fostering the space for rascality. This enabled the hypocrisy of people like Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi who had recognised Shuaibu Idris as acting chairman since 2015, and bought a car for him, but suddenly in 2018 resurrected the rested ghost of the impostor, SI Danladi Wada as the fake chairman, the governor said. However, this strong synergy between the state government and the Kaduna APC has been undermined for years by the attitude, actions and inactions of the national headquarters of the party. The national APC has neither taken the consequential disciplinary actions required to give final effect to steps taken at ward, local government and state levels against violations of party constitution, spirit and law, nor acted firmly to deter repeated attempts by cliques led by Inuwa Abdulkadir to impose as acting chairman, someone called S I Danladi Wada who did not contest any party elections, and whose name is not even on the party register as a member. The ambivalence created by the National HQ, and the continued failure to deal with Inuwa Abdulkadirs various attempts to factionalise the party in Kaduna and Kano States, and even in Bauchi State, ultimately provided the platform for the latest round of political rascality witnessed in Kaduna. Once again, the national APC did not act promptly to disavow the treasonable act of opening a parallel secretariat, or the multiple initiation of legal action against the party, the national chairman, deputy national chairman (North) and others by proxies of Inuwa Abdulkadir and others whose goal is to abuse court processes to delay the prosecution of an impersonator called S I Danladi Wada. The actions of these so-called members of the party, all of which violate every section of Article 21 of the Constitution of the APC, should have earned them automatic expulsion, but the party did nothing. These violators of party discipline therefore concluded that we are a party of anything goes, and treasonable acts of political rascality have no consequences. Mr. El-Rufai said the Kaduna State APC cannot allow persistent violations of party discipline. He warned that party discipline cannot be compromised; neither can treasonable and treacherous actions be rewarded with the promise of reconciliation. Where the national headquarters has failed to act, the Kaduna State APC has taken necessary measures to preserve its authority and integrity. Mr. El-Rufai noted that the attitude of the national party amounts to an abdication of responsibility. How is it that the national party appears to be finally stirring only now when the Kaduna APC and the government it produced are containing these political rascals? We will continue to avoid the moral hazard of rewarding bad behaviour. Explaining the actions of the Kaduna State Government, Mr. El-Rufai pointedly told the Oni committee that people do not secure immunity from the law merely by describing themselves as political opponents. It is also not prudent to expect that an elected government will abdicate its duty to enforce the law just because some people have declared themselves opposed to it. It is also unacceptable that those that violate the laws of Kaduna State regarding title to land, land use and preservation of the Kaduna Master Plan with impunity will avoid sanctions, just because they voice opposition to the government. Mr. El-Rufai asked the APC fact-finding committee to note the following: 1. There is the utmost cooperation between the Kaduna State Government and the party that produced it, the bona fide leadership and membership of the Kaduna APC; 2. The APC Kaduna State Government is implementing the party programme outlined in the Restoration Programme, the Kaduna State iteration of the APC manifesto. This obliges us to promote Equality of Opportunity by prioritising Education, Healthcare, Social Welfare, Investments and Jobs; not the erstwhile culture of distribution of money, contracts and appointments to those who feel entitled without regard to public financial regulations, procurement law, and competence and capacity to perform the job in hand. ADVERTISEMENT 3. At all times, the Kaduna State Government has a duty to enforce the law, without exempting or granting immunity to friend or foe, ally or political opponent. Therefore, the government has filed criminal charges against several political actors engaged in the contrived effort to earn a lifeline through unlawful behaviour; 4. The APC is obliged by Article 21 of its own Constitution to punish errant political behaviour, including factionalisation, creation of parallel offices, suing the party and disrespect to its structures; 5. The national headquarters of the APC must take consequential action to give effect to disciplinary measures taken against certain members in Kaduna State: expulsions and suspensions have been approved by the State Executive Committee of the party. ADVERTISEMENT The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said that Nigeria requires a new elite consensus so that it can achieve its greatest potentials. The governor said this while delivering a lecture entitled, Making Progress Amidst Governance and Security Challenges at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, last week Friday. Mr. El-Rufai stated that governance and development in Nigeria require the establishment of a new elite consensus. The current political system nurtures an elite which depend on subverting, rather than improving, governance for political success. Gradually, this has created a culture of distorted values, dependence on godfathers, and rent-seeking. A sense of shared mission has to be established, and new models of political behaviour developed that are compatible with strengthening our capacity to govern and deliver public goods. He added that forging elite consensus on these issues will help raise the tenor of national discourse beyond the pedestrian fixation with ethnic and religious conspiracies. Reason must displace empty cacophony. Responding to questions from the audience, Mr. El-Rufai stated that Nigeria appears to be a country of permanent future expectations. While praising President Muhammadu Buhari for arresting the alleged slide into chaos under his predecessor, Mr. El-Rufai, who was the Chairman of the ruling APCs Committee on True Federalism, suggested that the federal government should shed weight so that the delivery of public goods by the states can be enhanced. In the light of this, the governor wondered if a centralised Nigerian police force was not insufficient for a vast country like Nigeria and her security challenges. Before he delivered his lecture, the governor was received by the Head of the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, Oxford, Rachel Murphy, and the Director of the African Studies Centre, Wale Adebanwi, at the Centre. Accompanying Mr. El-Rufai during his visit to the Centre and St Antonys College, Oxford, were his former chief of staff and current Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman, his Senior Adviser-Counsellor, Jimi Lawal, and the special adviser on political and intergovernmental relations, Uba Sani. The governor used the opportunity of his visit to condole with the Africanist community in Oxford University on the death last August of a Nigerian professor, Abdul Raufu Mustapha. During the lecture, Mr. El-Rufai argued that Nigeria faces a plethora of governance and security challenges, with profound implications for its national development prospects, adding that though the country is slowly recovering from recession, too many of our people are very poor and highly vulnerable to further economic fluctuations. Said the governor: Nigeria has lost valuable time and endured too many false dawns in its quest for development. We have missed many critical junctures and opportunities to sustain real progress and development, the most recent being the squandering of nearly $400bn of inherited savings and earned income in the YarAdua-Jonathan era between 2007 and 2015. The former Minister of the FCT listed the achievements of his administration in Kaduna State while providing the multiple data on which planning by his administration has operated. Mr. El-Rufai said that his government is changing the political culture in Kaduna State. He explained that since taking office, we have been focused on our manifesto commitments. This involves dismantling a political culture anchored on distribution and short-term advantage, while making significant and rapid improvements in delivering public goods like schools and hospitals. ADVERTISEMENT The Akwa Ibom state government has outlawed 32 cult groups in the state. The government also outlawed (made illegal and unaceptable) any group known to have been engaged in advanced fee fraud 419. The State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, who signed the proscription order on Monday in Uyo, said it was in accordance with Section 70 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap 38, Vol. 2, Laws of Akwa Ibom State, 2000. Vikings, Black Axe, KKK, and Buccaneers are among the outlawed cult groups in the state. The outlawed groups also include Mafia, Luttox (Junior Black Axe), Debam, Dewell, Icelanders, Red Skins, Pirates, Amoc, and Akwa Marines. Others are The Luttox, The Red Skins, St. Stephens, Dewell, Sept 11 Group, Secret Sons of Satan, King Cobra, J.V (Junior Vikings), Bats, Predators, Black Ladies, Black Cross, Scavengers, Skylolo, Sons of Nights, Blood Brotherhood, Junior Buccaneers, White Angels, and Musket. Governor Emmanuel said defaulters of the order shall be prosecuted in accordance with the cultism, offensive Weapons and Violent Behaviour (Prohibition) 2004, or any other enabling law in that regard. Akwa Ibom State, in recent times, has witnessed an increase in cult-related violence and killings, especially in Essien Udim, Etim Ekpo, Ukanafun, Ikot Ekpene, and Eket local government areas. Udeme Nana, a former media aide to the former governor of the state, Victor Attah, has commended Mr. Emmanuel for the proscription order which he described as very bold and courageous step. In fact, it is a revolutionary and transformative step. It is a step in the right direction capable of redeeming our present society and with potentials of reclaiming the society for future generations, Mr. Nana told PREMIUM TIMES. Continuing, he said, In the past decade, cultists were made to become role models and political leaders at all levels in our dear State. Cultism became a badge of honour. Cultism became a religion! Some years ago, the leadership of our Church, Methodist Church Nigeria resolved to discourage its members from belonging to secret cults and admonished those already in cults and occultic groups to denounce their membership of such groups. Members were encouraged to denounce such groups publicly. Those who refused to discontinue in such groups were stripped of positions in the Church, he said. Mr. Nana, who is the Convener, Uyo Book Club, advised the governor to take a step further by ensuring that government officials come clean on this matter. Let every Exco member, permanent secretaries, members of the State House of Assembly, local government council chairmen, board chairmen and members who may have been associated with any of the banned groups renounce their affiliations to such groups publicly. That would send a very strong signal down to those on the streets that this revolutionary executive order is a very serious decision, he said. The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Edo State, Dan Orbih, is insisting that the state government diverted rice meant for internally displaced persons, IDPs, in the state. The government denied the allegation. Mr. Orbih was subsequently interrogated by the police on the matter after the government filed a petition against him. Mr. Orbih told PREMIUM TIMES, Tuesday, that his party tendered documents before the police to show that over 4,000 bags of rice were diverted. He said bringing in the police into the matter wasnt going to help the government in any way. This government cannot harass me, he said. How can they harass me for telling them that they stole rice? Have they denied that they did not steal rice? The records are there. It is not even about the quantity or the value of the rice; the import of their action is that they have committed a crime against humanity; For the government to take the rice from these people is equivalent of going to Mission Road in Benin City where you have beggars, and the arms given to those beggars because they cannot fight, they cannot run, they cannot say anything, you go there and take the arms given to them, he said. The party chairman said he will continue to speak against the administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki whenever they are not doing the right thing. I am saying Obaseki should apologise to the IDPs and the Edo people and make sure he buys the missing rice and present to them, he said. But the Edo State government has, again, dismissed the claims by the PDP as being completely wrong. Crusoe Osagie, the media aide to Governor Obaseki, said he was surprised that Mr. Orbih was still insisting that bags of rice were diverted. Mr. Osagie claimed the PDP chairman has been sending emissaries to beg the government not to press charges against him. The governors aide said, Out of the total of 6,000 plus bags of rice allocated to Edo State, the total number of bags of rice received by the Edo State government was 4,640. Two thousand one hundred and eighty-two bags were bad, unfit for consumption and were not collected by the state government. These figures can be verified from the customs and the Nigerian Army who witnessed the process of receiving the items. On December 24, 2017, IDP camp in Uhogua received 500 bags of rice. Also on Christmas Eve, 50 sacks of used shoes were given to the IDPs in Uhogua. Two weeks ago, IDP camp Uhogua received another 2,101 bags of rice, which brings the total number of bags of rice received by the IDP camp in Uhogua to 2601. ADVERTISEMENT Displaced people in Edo Central, Edo North and orphanages received 1422 bags of rice. The remaining 617 bags are in the State governments warehouse. We also have about 35 sacks of used shoes in the store scheduled for distribution in the weeks ahead. It is necessary to reassure Edo people with facts that the Obaseki government does not possess the PDPs traits of banditry and insensitivity to the plight of ordinary people, Mr. Osagie said. ADVERTISEMENT The incessant loss of lives via herdsmen/farmers clashes is capable of igniting war if not carefully addressed, the Ebonyi State Government and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria have warned. Governor David Umahi and the National Chairman of Myetti Allah, Bello Bodejo, gave the warning in Abakaliki during a security meeting called by the governor. Messrs. Umahi and Bodejo called for caution in handling the crisis. Suspected herdsmen had attacked some farmers in Enyanwu Igwe Igbeagu community of Izzi Local Government on Monday which left at least four persons dead with two others in critical condition. Leaders of cattle herders in the South-east and South-south states, residents of the troubled community, as well as all the security chiefs in the state attended the meeting. Describing the killings in Enyanwu Igwe village as unprovoked, the governor ordered herdsmen around the area to leave the place until he can calm the embittered villagers. It is unprovoked killings, life is so sacred. You cant kill people as if they are fowls. Izzi people are warriors. I physically held them not to go for retaliation. The herdsmen there in Izzi have to leave the place for now until I can calm everybody down. The way we are going, it can provoke national war and it will not help anybody, the governor said. The lives of every Ebonyian is very dear to me. God forbid, I cant withstand where 76 people were killed like in Benue, I cant withstand it. Some people may be fighting to die but we fight to live, lets use wisdom and handle the matter, he added. He regretted that agreement reached between the state and herdsmen in the area for peaceful co-existence had been destroyed. We banned under-aged herders, we banned night grazing in the state. We have no grazing routes in Ebonyi which means that nobody has the right to carry cattle by route to Ebonyi State and we agreed on that. We also agreed with the herdsmen that the first offender must be prosecuted. We also said that no farmer should go to farm with gun and no herdsmen should rear cattle with gun or machete, it is stick. We must abide by these rules. Mr. Umahis postulation was also corroborated by Mr. Bodejo who argued that the incessant killings in the country can cause chaos. He said the state has been very accommodating to the herdsmen, warning that this should not be abused. Ebonyi state is very peaceful and it is accommodating to our members. It has been so accommodating to our members even more than some Northern states of the federation and we condemn these killing in this state. There are minors and migrants who are causing these problems. There are also criminals moving as cattle herders who are causing these havoc. The chairmen of Myetti Allah of various states in the South-east and South are all here and we are not happy with what happened, we condemn these killings in totality, he said. Meanwhile, Mr. Bodejo said the leaders of the herders across the region will meet with all herdsmen in the state for two days. The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State has lashed out against Ajayi Boroffice, the senator representing Ondo North, accusing him of anti-party activities and faulting his claims that the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, polarised the party. The APCs latest intervention is in reaction to Mr. Boroffices response to the governors earlier comment on the status of the senator with regard to the development of the state. During the first anniversary celebration, Mr. Akeredolu had stated that he knew only two APC senators who were working to uplift the state, namely, Tayo Alasoadura (Ondo Central) and Yele Omogunwa (Ondo South). He left out Mr. Boroffice, whom he had been having running battle with. Mr. Boroffice, in a response on Sunday, said the governors statement was far from the truth. He said he had been involved in the development of his senatorial district and the state at large. He also alleged the governor was responsible for the problems facing the party in the state, due to his style of leadership which was dividing the party. Mr. Boroffice and the governor had been at war over the outcome of the last governorship primaries. The governor had accused the senator of working against the party and campaigning for the Alliance for Democracy during the 2016 governorship election. Meanwhile, a statement by the APC, signed by Director of Publicity, Steve Otaloro, said the senators allegation that the governor had polarised the party was false. We want to make it clear that the governor does not in any way intervene in the affairs of the party. The party affairs is solely run by the leadership of the party in the state led by Engr. Ade Adetimehin, the statement said. Its sheer figment of Boroffices imagination to have claimed that people are leaving our party when in fact people are defecting to our party in droves everyday to the point that the entire party fabrics of the opposition in the state have been more or less collapsed into our party. Boroffice, no doubt, is alone in this illusion that critical mass of our party leadership and members are leaving which could be informed by his desperate ambition to govern the state at all costs. This same ambition had earlier pitched him against his former party leader and governor in the Labour Party(LP). It would baffle any member of the party in the state to hear Borofice claiming to have worked tirelessly for the governor to win the election when he never at anytime appeared at the electioneering campaigns of the governor. This is a senator who is at National Assembly on the platform of APC, yet hes fighting the governor and the party chairman in the state, Engr Ade Adetimehin as well as contravening the decision of the National leadership of the party led by Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. One wonders what he really wants. It advised the lawmaker to be truthful in his assertions. It beats ones imagination if Senator Boroffice could be referring to the governor as a controversial candidate after one year in office and still claims to have worked tirelessly and voted for him. It also remains irreconcilable why Borofice who sent a congratulatory message to the governor through the media after his victory at the poll did not attend the inauguration ceremony of the governor. At this point, I think it is expedient to ask Borofice to swear by the God he serves that he truly worked and voted for Arakunrin Akeredolu at the poll. The statement also accused the senator of anti-party activities. The party alleged that Mr. Borofice who came fourth in the party primaries immediately ordered his supporters to move to the opposition party, but could not openly canvass votes for the opposition because he was a sitting senator on the platform of our party, APC. That Senator Borofice is just reacting to the unification rally after several weeks smacks suspicion. It is no longer a secret that Senator Boroffice is not only currently sponsoring meetings against our party but already on his way out of the party because he knows he has slim chances of winning the next primaries to return to the Senate the third time due to his depleting popularity among the people of the Northern Senatorial District, the statement said. ADVERTISEMENT However, it is ironic that Borofice who has been docile in his legislative duties and trifled away six good years playing mere politics due to his personal ambition could be criticising a governor who has creditably performed very well in his first year in office to the delight of the people of the state. Mr. Boroffice had earlier used his response to catalogue his projects across the senatorial district, adding that he had never been invited by the governor to any meeting convened by him. Ondo is one of the many states under the ruling APC that is experiencing internal wranglings and crises. A committee headed by its national leader, Bola Timubu to mend the cracks is yet to make any headway. This item is available in full to subscribers. Attention subscribers We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription. If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site. If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here. Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing. Within the Awards' 29 categorieswhich include poetry, photography, sculpture, humor, editorial cartoons, and video game designa record-breaking 346,000 works of art and writing were submitted for adjudication at the regional level this year. 2018 Gold Medal Portfolio Recipients Sixteen high school seniors received the program's highest national honor, the Gold Medal Portfolio, which includes a $10,000 scholarship. Gold Portfolios, Art: Alia Bringas-Brand , age 17, Interlochen, MI , age 17, Maya Dixon , age 17, Bronx , NY , age 17, , NY Zaria Dudley , age 17, Wahiawa, HI , age 17, Fletcher Johnson , age 17, Petersburg, VA , age 17, Mackie Mallison , age 18, Portland, OR , age 18, Emily Shonk , age 17, Gnadenhutten, OH , age 17, Christopher Velez , age 17, St. Petersburg, FL , age 17, Jiahong Wang , age 18, Irvine, CA Gold Portfolios, Writing: Vicky Brown , age 17, Greenville, SC , age 17, Kush Dhungana , age 17, Livingston, NJ , age 17, Malachi Jones , age 17, North Charleston, SC , age 17, Sarena Kuhn , age 17, Los Alamitos, CA , age 17, Osarugue Otebele, age 16, Memphis, TN Alexandra Swerdloff , age 17, Boise, ID , age 17, Sam Wachman , age 17, Cambridge, MA , age 17, Triniti Wade , age 17, Miami, FL Quotes Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers: "Today is a momentous day for more than 2,800 creative teens as they receive national recognition in the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. For 95 years, the Awards have identified the creative promise of visionaries like Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Stephen King, Kay WalkingStick, and Zac Posen. The students being recognized today join a legacy of teens facilitating important dialogue through their art and writing. We celebrate these innovative teens as members of the next generation of great American artists and writers." Marc Brown, Arthur creator, author, and illustrator and 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Award Alumni Achievement Award Recipient: "It is an honor to receive this year's Alumni Achievement Award from the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. I vividly remember how important it was for me to be recognized in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards as a junior high student in Erie, Pennsylvania because it was one of the very few validations I received as a developing artistand it still profoundly affects me today. The impact of this national recognition is undeniable and I can't wait to see where it takes these exceptionally talented students as they continue on their creative journeys." 2018 Special Scholarships The New York Life Foundation Award: Provides six scholarships of $1,000 each to students whose work exemplifies how the arts can act as a positive outlet to cope with grief, and raises public awareness of the issue of youth bereavement. This year's recipients are: Danelle Antelo , age 17, Miami, FL ; Perry Chen , age 17, San Diego, CA ; Meghan Hayfield , age 17, St. James, NY ; Emily Holtzman , age 16, Charlotte, NC ; Clio Smith , age 16, Folsom, CA ; and Kendall Vorhis , age 17, Goose Creek, SC . Provides six scholarships of each to students whose work exemplifies how the arts can act as a positive outlet to cope with grief, and raises public awareness of the issue of youth bereavement. This year's recipients are: , age 17, ; , age 17, ; , age 17, ; , age 16, ; , age 16, ; and , age 17, . The Herblock Award for Editorial Cartoon: Sponsored by The Herb Block Foundation, the Editorial Cartoon category celebrates the legacy of four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Herb Block and his remarkable contribution to American history and free expression. Three teen artists each receive $1,000 scholarships for their outstanding drawings, illustrations, or animations offering commentary on current events or political topics. This year's recipients are: Javier Gutierrez , age 18, Burbank, IL ; Joy Han , age 15, Corvallis, OR ; and Brandon Li , age 16, Skillman, NJ . Sponsored by The Herb Block Foundation, the Editorial Cartoon category celebrates the legacy of four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist and his remarkable contribution to American history and free expression. Three teen artists each receive scholarships for their outstanding drawings, illustrations, or animations offering commentary on current events or political topics. This year's recipients are: , age 18, ; , age 15, ; and , age 16, . Civic Expression Award: In partnership with the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, this new award recognizes students with $1,000 scholarships for original art or writing that demonstrates civic knowledge and skills. The six recipients whose work highlights awareness of American civic rights and responsibilities are: Lillian Benkoil , age 17, New York, NY ; Evelyn DiSalvo , age 17, Atlanta, GA ; Ashley Hajimirsadeghi , age 17, Towson, MD ; Sydney Jones , age 17, Edgewood, KY ; Rachel Whitbeck , age 17, Monticello, NY ; and Nathan Zhao , age 16, Wayland, MA. In partnership with the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, this new award recognizes students with scholarships for original art or writing that demonstrates civic knowledge and skills. The six recipients whose work highlights awareness of American civic rights and responsibilities are: , age 17, ; , age 17, ; , age 17, ; , age 17, ; , age 17, ; and , age 16, Additional Awards and scholarships for students are made possible through the support of Blick Art Materials & Utrecht Art Supplies, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Command Web Offset, The Maurice R. Robinson Fund, The New York Times , The Roome Fund, and Scholastic Inc. National Events (New York, NY) June 7 , National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall : The national Gold Portfolio, Gold Medal, and Silver Medal with Distinction recipients will be honored at Carnegie Hall, with appearances by notable celebrities and creative leaders. , : The national Gold Portfolio, Gold Medal, and Silver Medal with Distinction recipients will be honored at Carnegie Hall, with appearances by notable celebrities and creative leaders. June 110, Art.Write.Now.2018 National Exhibition: More than 1,000 of the top Scholastic Art & Writing Awards visual and literary works will be on display for the public at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons School of Design at The New School , and Pratt Institute's Pratt Manhattan Gallery in New York City . Judging Criteria All art and writing submissions are judged based on the program's three criteria: originality, technical skill, and emergence of personal vision or voice. Student works are first adjudicated regionally through the more than 100 local Affiliates of the Alliance. Students receiving Gold Keys, Silver Keys, Honorable Mentions, or American Visions & Voices Nominations are celebrated within their communities through local exhibitions and ceremonies. Gold Key works are then judged nationally by an impressive panel of creative-industry experts to receive Gold, Silver, American Visions & Voices, Portfolio Silver with Distinction, or Portfolio Gold medals. About the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are presented by the national nonprofit organization the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and are made possible through the generosity of Scholastic Inc., The Maurice R. Robinson Fund, Command Web Offset Co., The New York Times, New York Life Foundation, The Herb Block Foundation, Blick Art Materials & Utrecht Art Supplies, Golden Artist Colors, Bloomberg Philanthropies, ESA Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Circle, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Amazon Literary Partnerships, and numerous other individual, foundation, and corporate funders; and, for the National Student Poets Program, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Poetry Foundation. For more information about the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, visit www.artandwriting.org. Additional details about the Awards can be found in the Scholastic media room: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com. SOURCE Alliance for Young Artists & Writers PHILADELPHIA, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The 4th Annual Teach Music Week will be celebrated March 19th-25th. Formerly known as Teach Music America, this annual week-long holiday invites musicians, music schools, stores & studios to offer a free lesson or class to new students (kids and adults). In 2017, there were over 600 participating locations in all 50 States and Canada. That number is expected to grow with locations now joining in from over half a dozen countries around the world. 4th Annual Teach Music Week (March 19-25) - Over 600 locations in 10 countries Teach Music Week (3/19-3/25) - Helping more kids AND adults reap the educational, therapeutic and social benefits of playing music! Teach Music Week is celebrated annually during the 3rd week of March to coincide with national " Music in Our Schools Month " (MiOSM). Anyone interested in learning to play an instrument is encouraged to seek out a participating location. This year, Teach Music Week is also inviting public, private and charter schools to schedule activities that will encourage more students to sign up for music, band and chorus classes. Vincent James, co-founder of Keep Music Alive states: "We all know that the biggest hurdle to doing something is often just getting started. With Teach Music Week, we are hoping to inspire a multitude of new musicians who will continue reaping the educational, therapeutic and social benefits of playing music, long after the month of March is over." In addition to hundreds of independent music schools, some of the largest chains in the nation will be participating with many of their locations, including Music & Arts, Kindermusik, Music Together, Gymboree, Musikgarten and the legendary School of Rock. Take Lessons is also offering a free month of interactive group lessons through the Take Lessons Live portal. For more information or to find participating locations, please visit www.TeachMusicWeek.org or contact Vincent James at (610) 874-6312 or [email protected]. Keep Music Alive is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to promoting the value of music: educationally, therapeutically and overall making us a happier society. There are the founders of two music holidays: Kids Music Day (1st Friday in October) and Teach Music Week (3rd week in March). Each year, the organization partners with hundreds of music school and music retail locations to celebrate by offering free music lessons and holding numerous community events including open houses, student music performances, instrument donation drives, community jams, instrument petting zoos and more. For more information please visit www.KeepMusicAlive.org. SOURCE Keep Music Alive Related Links http://www.KeepMusicAlive.org VALLEY COTTAGE, New York, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Future Market Insights (FMI) has recently published a report titled, "Aircraft Exterior Lighting Market: Global Industry Analysis 2012-2016 and Opportunity Assessment 2017-2027." The report states that a progress in the aircraft industry and the growing aviation industry are the core factors impacting the growth of the global aircraft exterior lighting market. According to the analysis, the market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 3.7% over the course of the forecast period and reach a valuation of around US$ 624 Mn by the end of 2027. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161020/430874LOGO ) Manufacturers are concentrating on the introduction of new application-specific products in order to better address the requirements of specific aircraft. Furthermore, market players are found to be channelizing efforts towards consolidating their delivery channels while keeping focus centred on direct sales. Companies like Rockwell Collins cater to the demands of both domestic and international customers by maintaining a steady focus on R&D. However, backlog projects remain a threat for several companies. Some of the other leading companies operating in the market are United Technologies Corp., Honeywell International Inc., Zodiac Aerospace S.A., Diehl Aerospace Gmbh, Aveo Engineering Group, s.r.o., Whelen Engineering Co., Inc., Astronics Corporation, and Cobham plc. Request a Sample Report with Table of Contents and Figures: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4702 Expanding Fleet Sizes to Boost Demand for Aircraft Exterior Lighting The number of air passengers has risen extensively in Asia Pacific owing to the liberalisation of markets and development in the wealth and size of the middle class. In current decades, Asia has emerged as a chief region in aviation traffic and is anticipated to remain resilient in the coming decade. The economic and monetary growth in large emerging markets such as China and India has been a primary driver for global GDP growth and further for the aviation industry as well. Over the years, China has contributed significantly to world traffic growth as its passenger growth has increased at a noteworthy rate. India's emergence as a high-growth economy is expected to give rise to one of the largest commercial aviation markets in the coming decade. As a result, the fleet size of airline owners especially those following a low cost business model is expected to surge significantly leading to a rise in the demand for aircraft components worldwide. Consequently, the demand for aircraft exterior lighting is anticipated to intensify over the coming years. Our advisory services are aimed at helping you with specific, customised insights that are relevant to your specific challenges. Let us know about your challenges and our trusted advisors will connect with you https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-4702 However, stringent regulations are likely to act as a roadblock in the growth of the market in the near future. Regulations concerning pollution produced by aeroplanes will become more stringent in the coming years as most of the countries have agreed to reduce the impact of greenhouse gases. The number of aeroplanes coming to the refurbishing point will significantly decline if aircraft owners choose to retire their aircraft and buy a new fleet instead of opting for refurbishing the old aircraft, to clear regulations listed by authorities. This may negatively impact the aircraft exterior lighting market. View Report Preview at Aircraft Exterior Lighting Market Segmentation By Product - Landing Lights, Anti-collision Lights, Position Lights, Other Exterior Lights; By Aircraft - Narrow Body, Wide Body, Large Body, Single Aisle, Regional Jets, Helicopters, Air Cargo, Business Jets; By Sales - Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), Aftermarket: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/aircraft-exterior-lighting-market Original Equipment Manufacturers to Benefit from a Growing Demand from Single-aisle Aircraft The market penetration of low-cost carriers is expected to remain high in the coming years. There are new growth opportunities via the low-cost and long-haul business mode. Liberalisation in intra-regional traffic and open skies with China would also contribute to market growth. As a result, OEMs will find a plethora of opportunities arising from this sector. Browse More: Automotive & Transportation Market Insights More from FMI's Cutting-edge Intelligence: Automotive Pillar Market Segmentation By Vehicle Type - Passenger Car, Light Commercial Vehicle, Heavy Commercial Vehicle; By Product Type - Pillar A, Pillar B, Pillar C, Pillar D; By Sales Channel - OEM, Aftermarket: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/automotive-pillars-market Automotive Brake System & Components Market Segmentation by Sales Channel - OEM (Drum Brake, Disc Brake), Aftermarket( Brake Booster, Master Cylinder, Drum Brake(Drum, Brake Shoe, Wheel Cylinder)), Disc Brake(Rotor, Caliper, Brake Pad); By Vehicle Type - Passenger Car, LCV, HCV: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/automotive-brake-system-and-components-market Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) Market Segmentation Navigation Technology - Laser Guidance,Magnetic Guidance, Infrared Guidance, Wire Guidance, Inertial Guided, Optical Guided; Application - Transportation, Distribution, Storage; Vehicle Type - Unit Load Carrier, Pallet Truck,Assembly line Vehicle, Tow Vehicle, Forklift Truck, Light load Transporters; End User - Logistics, Healthcare, Automotive, Manufacturing, Food & Beverage, Aerospace: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/automated-guided-vehicles-market ABOUT US: Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends. CONTACT: 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 T (UK): +44(0)20-7692-8790 Sales: [email protected] Press Office: [email protected] FMI Blog: http://www.fmiblog.com/ Website: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com SOURCE Future Market Insights BICESTER, England, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alces Flight, the team focused on making HPC accessible to everyone, everywhere, today announced the availability of Alces Flight in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure. With Alces Flight it is possible for researchers to spin up any size of High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster in minutes, providing users with a fully-featured HPC environment that includes thousands of open source applications. Alces Flight customers can now take advantage of the scalability, high availability and security of Azure, with streamlined deployment and management. "The release of Alces Flight in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace is an exciting opportunity for us," said Wil Mayers, Technical Director for Alces Flight. "By expanding our offering to the Azure Marketplace we are enabling a larger audience to embrace the flexibility of cloud HPC. Whether the user is experienced in HPC or just starting out, our environment will allow them to harness all the compute that Azure has to offer. For advanced users, we have found that low-latency RDMA capable nodes available in Azure can provide a boost to tightly-coupled application performance." With Alces Flight, researchers and scientists can quickly spin up multiple nodes with pre-installed compilers, libraries and hundreds of scientific computing applications covering domains including engineering, genomics, bioinformatics and machine-learning. Alces Flight uses standard virtual machines (VM), disk and Azure Blob Storage while facilitating access to the flexible pricing that Microsoft offers to keep compute costs low. Further, Alces Flight works both on-cloud and on-premise, allowing institutions the option to run hybrid HPC environments. Sajan Parihar, Director, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp said, "We're excited to welcome Alces Flight to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, which gives our partners great exposure to cloud customers around the globe. Azure Marketplace offers world-class quality experiences from global trusted partners with solutions tested to work seamlessly with Azure." The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling cloud solutions certified to run on Azure. The Azure Marketplace helps connect companies seeking innovative, cloud-based solutions with partners who have developed solutions that are ready to use. You can subscribe to Alces Flight for free, simply search for Alces Flight at https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com. To learn more about this solution, contact Cristin Merritt at +441869 249065, email [email protected] or visit https://alces-flight.com. About Alces Flight Alces Flight is made up of a team of specialists in High-Performance Computing (HPC) software for scientists, engineers and researchers. Based in the UK, Alces designs, builds and supports environments to help users make efficient use of the compute and storage resources available to them. Our products are designed to support both existing users with software that is familiar to them, and help first-time users to discover, learn and develop their HPC skills. Related Images alces-flight.png Alces Flight Alces Flight is a team of HPC specialists focused on designing, building, and supporting environments for compute and storage resources. azure-resource-manager.png Azure Resource Manager You can select how much or how little customisation you desire in the Azure Resource Manager. alces-gridware.png Alces Gridware Access to Alces Gridware, home of over 1,300 applications and libraries, is included with subscription to Alces Flight on Azure. microsoft-azure-marketplace.png Microsoft Azure Marketplace The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling cloud solutions certified to run on Azure. SOURCE Alces Flight Limited Related Links http://alces-flight.com MADISON, Wis., March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Communities, nonprofit organizations and students benefited from $7.3 million and 88,000 volunteer hours from Alliant Energy in 2017. Iowa and Wisconsin customers were supported with resources from the company, its foundation, employees and retirees. "Every day, our company and the Alliant Energy family put money and time into local efforts to help our communities thrive and to support our customers and neighbors in need," said Patricia Kampling, Alliant Energy's Chairman and CEO. "I am extremely proud of the positive impact our people make to improve the quality of life in the places we serve." Employee and retiree giving to nonprofit organizations takes many forms: Volunteering Nonprofit organizations received $115,900 in grants as a result of employees and retirees volunteering more than 88,000 hours. Nonprofit organizations received in grants as a result of employees and retirees volunteering more than 88,000 hours. Matching gifts $494,226 went to higher education institutions, community foundations, food banks, food pantries, homeless shelters and a variety of other nonprofits through the foundation matching employee and retiree donations. went to higher education institutions, community foundations, food banks, food pantries, homeless shelters and a variety of other nonprofits through the foundation matching employee and retiree donations. United Way campaigns The company, employees and retirees pledged more than $1.2 million to 60 United Way agencies across Iowa and Wisconsin . The funding goes to groups focusing on education, financial stability and health the building blocks for a good quality of life and strong communities. Other 2017 giving highlights include: Hometown Care program Company contributions totaling $2 million that help Iowa and Wisconsin low-income customers with their energy bills. Company contributions totaling that help and low-income customers with their energy bills. Second Harvest and Feeding America Food Banks Funding for food pantries, including $475,000 raised through the company's annual Drive Out Hunger event. Funding for food pantries, including raised through the company's annual Drive Out Hunger event. Education support Invested $556,000 in education programs, including $193,000 in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) initiatives such as the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council and the Wisconsin Science Festival. Invested in education programs, including in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) initiatives such as the Governor's STEM Advisory Council and the Wisconsin Science Festival. Foundation grants 266 grants to organizations focusing their programs on helping families, education and the environment. This included $460,000 in Wisconsin and $420,000 in Iowa . Alliant Energy Corporation (NYSE: LNT), headquartered in Madison, Wis., provides regulated electric and natural gas service to 960,000 electric and 410,000 natural gas customers across Iowa and Wisconsin. Alliant Energy's mission is to deliver the energy solutions and exceptional service customers and communities count on safely, efficiently and responsibly. Interstate Power and Light Company and Wisconsin Power and Light Company are Alliant Energy's two public utility subsidiaries. Alliant Energy Corporation is a component of the S&P 500 and trades under the symbol LNT. For more information, visit alliantenergy.com. SOURCE Alliant Energy Corporation Related Links http://www.alliantenergy.com AMEC has received orders for the nanova system from multiple customers. Products have been shipped and the first tool is already in production and demonstrating very stable yield. The company is now accelerating demo requests. The system strengthens AMEC's portfolio of etch tools which includes multi-generation capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) dielectric and TSV etch product families. The nanova system was engineered to address today's IC manufacturing complexities where new materials, new transistor structures, double and even quadruple patterning, and other technology advancements are helping to ensure continued device shrinks. Critical success imperatives for etch in this processing environment are high uniformity and superior control across the wafer, with wide process window. The nanova system meets these technical requirements in a cost-effective single-station chamber tool. "The nanova system deploys today's most advanced etch technology to empower customers at the leading edge with enabling innovation and exceptional flexibility," said Dr. Tom Ni, VP and GM of AMEC's Etch Product Business Group. "The system can process diverse conductor etch applications, like STI, poly-gate, spacer, mask etching and etch-back, with industry-leading productivity and superior on-wafer performance. As an ICP-based technology, it can etch deep vertical holes, as well as shallow tapered features. It's a cost-competitive solution as well, thanks to a smaller-than-average footprint and an innovative design that reduces consumables use. We're excited to see customers already benefiting from the tool." The Primo nanova System: Key Enabling Attributes and Advantages The six-chamber tool with two load lock strippers features proprietary innovations that collectively enable higher productivity and greater throughput. They include: A proprietary low-capacitive coupling coil design that enables more independent ion density and energy which is essential for higher selectivity and soft etch; A symmetric chamber design featuring a multi-zone ESC and active-edge tilting control for better uniformity. AMEC engineered the design to overcome side-to-side non-uniformity which has been a persistent challenge in high-volume manufacturing; Wide process window and precise localized profile control with significantly higher pumping speed when compared to similar products; Innovative plasma-enhanced PVD coating, coupled with precise chamber wall temperature and superior chamber environment control for greater process stability and defect reduction. Dr. Ni further noted: "Feedback from customers confirms that the nanova system delivers the on-wafer performance and productivity we intended, and with compelling CoO benefits. It's a flexible tool that is equipped to process diverse applications with minimal configuration adjustments." Primo nanova is a trademark of Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC) AMEC is China's leading provider of advanced process technology to global manufacturers of semiconductors and solid-state lighting (SSL) products. Headquartered in Shanghai, the company is an entrenched supplier of dielectric and TSV Etch tools, helping chipmakers build devices at process nodes as low as 7nm. To date, nearly 800 AMEC process units have been positioned at 40 leading-edge semiconductor fabs across Asia. The company is also well established in Europe with AMEC MEMS tools running in production at major IDMs. In addition, with its MOCVD system, the company helps SSL manufacturers build today's most advanced LED products. To learn more about AMEC, please visit www.amec-inc.com. SOURCE Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. Related Links http://www.amec-inc.com ROHNERT PARK, Calif., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Making higher education inclusive may mean many different things to different people. For some, inclusivity means closing economic disparities, like those related to cost of attendance and issues with student loan repayment. For others, inclusivity may be about creating a college experience free of discrimination. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company which helps to align clients with federal programs that potentially lower their monthly student loan payments, supports a broad definition of inclusivity in higher education to better address students' needs. "There's a misconception that people take out student loans just because they have easy access to them. But, in fact, many college students really are living on very little," said Tom Knickerbocker, executive vice president of Ameritech Financial. "Helping students not just with tuition, but other costs needed to attend is one way we believe college can be more inclusive." Some colleges are opening up food pantries for their students to do just that. The fact that students are going hungry may be surprising to some. But students who are juggling class, work, rent, taking care of their families and more responsibilities know firsthand how difficult it can be. Even students with full scholarships still have all the non-tuition-related costs to contend with. Aside from or in addition to the cost of attendance, students may face trouble on campus because of discrimination. Some may experience racial discrimination that hampers their ability to complete their degree. Others may face exclusion or attacks because they fall somewhere on the LGBT spectrum. Students with disabilities may face institutions ill-equipped to facilitate their needs in order to be successful. Students can, of course, also experience discrimination on multiple fronts. Ameritech Financial supports inclusivity measures, including those that address economic disparities in student loan borrowers. While future legislation may fix student loan-related inequalities, as borrowers wait, they must contend with their loans now. How? By approaching repayment in a way that will benefit them. For many federal student loan borrowers, income-driven repayment plans (IDRs) may be a way to mitigate the burden of student loans. Ameritech Financial helps borrowers apply for and recertify enrollment in IDRs. The IDRs often bring down the borrower's monthly payment to a more affordable level so the borrower can stay current on his or her loans. Ameritech Financial prepares application and recertification paperwork for the borrower's review and approval, among other services. "Researchers are highlighting financial gaps between student loan borrowers, and the difference is often marked by who is delinquent with their loans and who is not," said Knickerbocker. "At Ameritech Financial, we assist borrowers in applying for and staying in income-driven repayment plans, which are intended to help them stay current." 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 TORONTO, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Andiamo Corp. (OTCPK: ANDI), together with its wholly-owned subsidiary Utopya Innovations Inc. ("Utopya"), announces today that it has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire a telecom holding company CLEC Holding, Inc. ("CLEC Holding") in an all-stock transaction, as part of a strategic plan for growth and diversification. The Wyoming-based CLEC Holding is currently in talks to acquire several Competitive Local Exchange Carrier companies ("CLECs") that are all revenue-producing and in growth mode. "We are in talks with multiple acquisition targets, as well as funding sources. We will seek to secure up to $15 Million in funding directly to CLEC Holding, with no dilution to ANDI or its shareholders. We hope to announce our first acquisition in the next 10 days. The additional acquisitions are still in early-stage discussions but do seem very promising, and are aligned with our long-term vision for CLEC Holding, which is to acquire telecom and telecom-related companies when it is strategically viable to do so, in order to expand our network capabilities and grow. For obvious reasons, there are clear synergies between CLEC Holding and Utopya, and our intent is to offer Utopya products to CLEC Holding's customers," stated Justin Su, President of CLEC Holding. Mike Starkweather, President of Andiamo Corp., remarked, "We are thrilled to execute this Letter of Intent with Mr. Su and we look forward to working with the entire CLEC Holding team. This deal is a strategic stepping stone for both companies, and one that we hope will prove very fruitful for all parties involved." Safe Harbor Act: This release includes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involves risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the impact of competitive products, the ability to meet customer demand, the ability to manage growth, acquisitions of technology, equipment, or human resources, the effect of economic business conditions, and the ability to attract and retain skilled personnel. The Company is not obligated to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release. CONTACT: Utopya Investor Relations [email protected] 1-(833)-UTOPYAN or 1-(833)-886-7926 SOURCE Andiamo Corp. ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Based in Michigan, but shooting their films in Hollywood, Antiwar Comedy Shorts has produced eight films in the last two years. The first two were submitted to festivals. Among the 11 awards won were Best Comedy, Best Social Commentary, Best Short Film, Best Animated Short, and Best Actor Under 18 (for eight-year-old Kobe Humphries). Writer/director Jonny Lewis did not submit the other six films: "It's nice to receive awards, but it's not really about any particular film. It's about showing there is a willingness to consider the antiwar point of view, and about using comedy to open people up to serious issues." In "Gonna Be a Soldier" (five awards in 45 festivals in the U.S. and Europe), six-year-old Joey argues with his parents. He wants to be a doctor when he grows up, and help people; but they insist on raising him to be a soldier, and kill people. "G.I. Hospital" (6 awards in 35 festivals) uses stop-motion animation to tell the story of 6 wounded soldiers who don't mind missing a few limbs because after all, it was "for our country." Lewis has always been antiwar, though he admits to "playing army" when he was a kid, "because that's what society shows us on TV and in moviesthat to be a man is to be strong, and help your buddies, and kill the bad guys." He got started writing antiwar comedies when he took to heart the words of Mark Twain: "All war must be just the killing of strangers against whom you feel no personal animosity; strangers whom, in other circumstances, you would help if you found them in trouble, and who would help you if you needed it." Aside from the award-winnersGonna Be a Soldier and the animated G.I. Hospitalone of Antiwar Comedy Shorts most popular films on YouTube is Block This Caller, which portrays the scenario Twain describes: An Iraqi and an American meet randomly in the desert and decide not to fight, despite pressure to do so from "the higher-ups" (and perhaps despite viewers' expectations that there must always be conflict between two such characters). Says Lewis: "Our next step is to make the films available to the antiwar/peace community." The films are offered free, and are not copyrighted. Lewis is working with Veterans for Peace and other groups to use the films in their outreach programs. (A Google search on "Truth in Recruiting" clicking on the "Video" tab brings up the Antiwar Comedy Shorts film with that title as the first result.) Antiwar Comedy Shorts is the brainchild of writer/director Jonny Lewis, an Associate Member of Veterans for Peace in Michigan. www.AntiwarComedyShorts.com www.youtube.com/c/AntiwarComedyShorts Contact: Jonny Lewis 323-286-3999 [email protected] Related Images image1.jpg image2.jpg image3.jpg image4.jpg SOURCE Antiwar Comedy Shorts Related Links http://www.AntiwarComedyShorts.com ORANGE, Calif., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Argosy University, Online Programs (www.argosy.edu/locations/online) is pleased to announce the launch of three advanced degree programs offered through its College of Education that are designed to meet the needs of busy educators. The Doctor of Education (EdD) in Educational Leadership non-certification degree program is designed for those interested in developing their professional competence, interpersonal effectiveness, and leadership skills as they relate to professional educational settings. The program provides opportunities for the candidate to understand and respect diverse environments, identify issues related to a pluralistic educational society, and engage with a learning community dealing with current issues in education. The Master of Arts in Education (MAEd) in Higher and Postsecondary Education degree program is designed for individuals who seek administrative and other positions in non-instructional units at higher education and postsecondary institutions. Graduates of this program will have enhanced practical skills, knowledge, and experiences as professionals and leaders in universities, colleges, and postsecondary educational institutions. The Master of Arts in Education (MAEd) in Curriculum and Instruction degree program is intended to prepare educators who work in the P-12 setting as change agents who engage actively in their communities, using appropriate pedagogy and technology to foster the development of global citizens. Argosy University (www.argosy.edu), with 26 campus locations in 13 states and online, is a private, non-profit academic institution dedicated to providing undergraduate and graduate degree programs to students in the areas of education, business, mental health, clinical psychology, social sciences, counseling, health sciences, and more. The College of Education at Argosy University is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The accreditation covers advanced educator preparation programs across all campuses of Argosy University and its online programs. However, the accreditation does not include individual education courses that the institution offers to P-12 educators for professional development, re-licensure, or other purposes. For more information about these programs and their availability online and at the university's campus locations, please visit www.argosy.edu. Programs, credential levels, technology, and scheduling options vary by school and are subject to change. Not all online programs are available to residents of all U.S. states. Administrative office: Argosy University, 333 City Boulevard West, Suite 1810, Orange, CA 92868 2018 Argosy University. All rights reserved. Our email address is [email protected]. The programs noted in the above press release do not lead to teacher or administrator certification, licensure, or endorsement in any State in the United States. SOURCE Argosy University Related Links http://www.argosy.edu SAN DIEGO and DENVER, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ashford University and University of the Rockies today announced Ashford University has submitted an application to the WASC Senior College and University Commission ("WSCUC") to merge, creating one institution, and to separate from Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE: BPI), a provider of postsecondary education services. As a combined institution, Ashford University will return to an independent, non-profit university. The proposed merging of Ashford University and University of the Rockies will create a comprehensive educational offering that will include undergraduate programs at Ashford, master's programs at both universities, and the doctoral programs of the University of the Rockies. The addition of University of the Rockies graduate-level social and behavioral sciences programs will enable Ashford University to reach a wider array of students and help close the skills gap faced by employers. "Together, we believe the combined, independent non-profit university will be able to focus on its core competence of designing rich educational experiences that serve the personal and professional needs of a diverse student population," said Dr. Craig Swenson, president and CEO of Ashford University. "We believe returning to non-profit status will allow us to better serve students and to be judged and measured as colleges and universities should beon our ability to foster student learning." "The missions and values of both of our institutions including a strongly shared commitment to student success are well aligned," said Dr. Dawn Iwamoto, president and CEO of University of the Rockies. "Ashford University and University of the Rockies have always demonstrated a singular commitment to providing both access and excellence." As a part of this transformation, Bridgepoint Education will become an Online Program Management (OPM) company, bringing years of technological and academic innovation, and intellectual property development to other colleges and universities desiring to serve their students through online postsecondary education programs. Pending necessary approvals, the merged institution of Ashford University and University of the Rockies intends to negotiate a services agreement to become Bridgepoint Education's first client as an OPM. The completion of Ashford University's return to non-profit status, and University of the Rockies merging into Ashford University, are subject to customary closing conditions and the approval by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), the U.S. Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, and state regulatory bodies. Both universities will provide more information as it becomes available. We expect these transformations to be complete by the end of 2018. About Ashford University Where heritage meets innovation that's Ashford University. At Ashford, students discover relevant degree programs, innovative technology, and cherished tradition. Ashford offers associates, bachelor's, and master's degree programs online, allowing students to balance life by providing the flexibility to do school work anywhere, anytime. For more information, please visit www.ashford.edu, www.facebook.com/ashforduniversity, www.twitter.com/AshfordU, or call Nolan Sundrud, director of corporate communications, at 858.513.9240 x11619, or email [email protected]. About University of the Rockies University of the Rockies is a leading graduate school of the social and behavioral sciences that offers programs for students seeking their PhD, PsyD, or Master of Arts degree. Students may take classes at a state-of-the-art instructional site in downtown Denver, Colo., or work toward degrees online from anywhere in the country. Whether face-to-face or online, University of the Rockies students enjoy the same access to industry professionals, research, and publishing opportunities. For more information, please visit www.rockies.edu/, www.facebook.com/UniversityoftheRockies, www.twitter.com/URockies, or call Jana Mathieson, senior communications and community relations manager, at 866.621.0124 x11870, or email [email protected]. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements," including statements relating to the proposed transaction discussed above. Words such as "may," "should," "could," ''would," "predicts," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar expressions, as well as statements in future tense, identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to: (i) the failure of the proposed transactions to be approved by WSCUC or any of our other regulators or accreditors; (ii) the failure of the Company, Ashford University and/or University of the Rockies to resolve various federal and state regulatory issues that could impact the viability and timing of these transactions, or to reach agreement on terms of the transactions and to negotiate and execute definitive agreements; (iii) the failure to satisfy other conditions to completion of the proposed transactions, including the receipt of all regulatory and accreditor approvals necessary to complete the proposed transactions; (iv) if definitive agreements are executed, the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of any definitive agreement; (v) the effect of the announcement or pendency of the transactions contemplated herein on the Company's ability to retain and hire key personnel or its operating results and business generally; (vi) risks related to diverting management's attention from the Company's ongoing business operations; (vii) the outcome of stockholder litigation or other legal proceedings that are currently pending or may be instituted against the Company and/or its subsidiaries; and (viii) other factors discussed in the Company's reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Factors or events that could affect the transactions contemplated herein or cause the Company's actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of them. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by any applicable securities laws. Contact: Nolan Sundrud 858.513.9240 x11619 [email protected] SOURCE Ashford University; University of the Rockies Related Links http://www.ashford.edu JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Availity, the nation's largest real-time health information network, praised the recent announcement by physicians, pharmacists, medical groups, hospitals and health plans to streamline the prior authorization processes. In January, the American Hospital Association (AHA), America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), American Medical Association (AMA), American Pharmacists Association (APhA), Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) and Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) released a Consensus Statement outlining their shared commitment to industry-wide improvements to prior authorization processes and patient-centered care. The current means for obtaining prior authorizations is burdened by inefficient and labor-intensive manual processes, steep claims denial rates, and patients frustrated with delayed medical treatments or unexpected medical bills. The Consensus Statement includes several practical steps to mitigate the inefficiencies associated with the pre-approval health plans require for many healthcare services. "It's exciting to see so many major stakeholders align around the common goal of eliminating these inefficiencies," said Russ Thomas, Availity CEO. "Accelerating the industry's adoption of national electronic standards for prior authorization is timely, because more payers are including electronic transaction capabilities in provider contractual agreements. By automating the approvals process, providers and health plans are able to deliver timely care to patients more efficiently and effectively." According the 2016 CAQH Index, an annual report of the adoption of electronic business transactions, provider organizations could save more than $412 million by adopting automated, electronic authorizations. In the past year, Availity has made significant moves to position both providers and payers to capitalize on the adoption of electronic authorizations and other transactions. In April 2017 , Availity announced the launch of its automated prior authorization solution, a HIPAA-compliant, secure cloud platform that streamlines front-office workflow, allowing office staff to eliminate fax- and web-based tasks in favor of real-time electronic submission of authorization requests, reducing the prior authorization process from weeks to minutes. , Availity announced the launch of its automated prior authorization solution, a HIPAA-compliant, secure cloud platform that streamlines front-office workflow, allowing office staff to eliminate fax- and web-based tasks in favor of real-time electronic submission of authorization requests, reducing the prior authorization process from weeks to minutes. In July 2017 , Availity secured a new $200 million revolving credit facility to develop and acquire high-quality assets within the company's payer and provider segments. , Availity secured a new revolving credit facility to develop and acquire high-quality assets within the company's payer and provider segments. In September 2017 , Availity announced a significant growth equity investment led by Francisco Partners, a leading technology-focused private equity firm, fueling the company's ability to deliver on inorganic and organic growth opportunities. In addition to automated authorizations, Availity's deep experience in patient financial health, including its Patient Access platform, delivers to providers a seamlessly integrated solution for helping patients understand their insurance coverage and financial obligations. "Availity is driving systematic change and standardization as the designated nexus of communication between 1.2 million active providers and a network of national and regional health plans across the country," said Thomas. "As a result, we are well positioned to shape a 21st century healthcare system that is both cost-effective and patient-centered." About Availity As an industry-leading, HITRUST-certified health care information technology company, Availity serves an extensive network of health plans, providers, and technology partners nationwide through a suite of dynamic products built on a powerful, intelligent platform. Availity integrates and manages the clinical, administrative, and financial data needed to fuel real-time coordination between providers, health plans, and patients in a growing value-based care environment. Facilitating over 10 million transactions daily, Availity's ability to provide accurate, timely, and relevant information is vital to the financial success of its clients. For more information, including an online demonstration, please visit www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548). Contact: Matt Schlossberg Amendola Communications for Availity [email protected] 630-935-9136 SOURCE Availity Related Links http://www.availity.com Avigilon Blue is a powerful and advanced cloud service platform for security and surveillance that is purpose-built for Avigilon partners and their customers. The first release of Avigilon Blue provides managed services for video surveillance, powered by patented Avigilon self-learning video analytics. The platform enables partners to remotely connect to, manage, and service more customer sites with fewer resources. For customers, Avigilon Blue provides easy and secure system access, smart notifications, system upgrades, and new features that will be pushed directly from the cloud. "With Avigilon Blue, we are launching both an exciting new technology platform and business model," said James Henderson, Avigilon's President and Chief Operating Officer. "To help grow their business, Avigilon Blue offers our partners a recurring monthly revenue model based on customer site subscriptions. As the platform expands, we will continue to add new services that our partners and their customers can deploy, bringing additional value, performance and scale to their systems." The system integrates an on-premise Avigilon Blue Connect device that supports local storage as well as Avigilon and ONVIF compliant cameras, and sends critical events to the cloud for customers to view and verify from their web-connected device. Additionally, this helps keep incoming and outgoing network traffic to a minimum, saving valuable bandwidth. Powered by Microsoft Azure, Avigilon Blue leverages cloud services that are built, deployed, and managed through a global network of trusted datacenters, providing customers with enterprise-grade security and global scale. For further benefits and features of Avigilon Blue, please visit avigilon.com/blue. For more information on product availability, please contact avigilon.com/contact-sales. About Avigilon Avigilon Corporation provides trusted security solutions to the global market. Avigilon designs, develops, and manufactures video analytics, network video management software and hardware, surveillance cameras, and access control solutions. To learn more about Avigilon, visit avigilon.com. 2018, Avigilon Corporation. All rights reserved. AVIGILON, the AVIGILON logo, and AVIGILON BLUE are trademarks of Avigilon Corporation. ONVIF is a trademark of Onvif, Inc. Other names or logos mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Keep current on Avigilon Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and view Avigilon videos on YouTube. For further information: Investor Enquiries: Avigilon Investor Relations T: (604) 629-5182 [email protected] Media Enquiries: Amy Day Senior Manager, Global Communications T: (604) 629-5182 x2625 [email protected] Forward-Looking Statements Certain information and statements in this news release contain and constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements as defined under applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements normally contain words like 'believe', 'expect', 'anticipate', 'plan', 'intend', 'continue', 'estimate', 'may', 'will', 'should', 'ongoing' and similar expressions, and within this news release include any statements (express or implied) respecting intended product functionality, suitability and availability; future product plans including, without limitation, the availability, functionality and suitability of new or improved features; future revenue streams related to Avigilon Blue; and continued expansion of Avigilon's addressable market. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, actions, or developments and are based on expectations, assumptions, and other factors that management currently believes are relevant, reasonable, and appropriate in the circumstances, including, without limitation, assumptions that Avigilon's products will function as intended, will be free of unexpected defects, will be available when planned, and will be suitable for the intended users. Although management believes that the forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results could be substantially different due to the risks and uncertainties associated with and inherent to Avigilon's business, as more particularly described in the "Risk Factors" section of Avigilon's Annual Information Form dated March 6, 2018, which is available under Avigilon's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Material risks and uncertainties applicable to the forward-looking statements set out herein include, but are not limited to, unforeseen events, developments or factors causing any of the aforesaid expectations, assumptions, and other factors ultimately being inaccurate or irrelevant. Although Avigilon has attempted to identify factors that may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, predicted, estimated or intended. Also, many of the factors are beyond the control of Avigilon. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Avigilon undertakes no obligation to reissue or update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified by this cautionary statement. SOURCE Avigilon Corporation Related Links www.avigilon.com LONDON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Avillion, a drug development company focused on the co-development and financing of pharmaceutical candidates from proof-of-concept through to regulatory approval, has signed a clinical co-development agreement with Pearl Therapeutics Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the AstraZeneca Plc group, to advance PT027 through a global clinical development programme for the treatment of asthma. PT027 is an investigational fixed dose combination of budesonide (an inhaled corticosteroid) and albuterol (a short-acting beta-2 agonist). Avillion will be responsible for developing PT027 through an extensive clinical development programme and will finance the programme through to regulatory approval. No financial terms are disclosed. Allison Jeynes-Ellis, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Avillion, said: "This new collaboration is another great example of how our innovative clinical development model and exceptional operational capabilities can be used to bolster the productivity of our partners' development pipeline. We have already demonstrated the success of our approach in our partnerships with Pfizer and Merck KGaA. We are looking forward to initiating this exciting clinical development programme for PT027 in asthma." About Avillion Avillion is a drug development company with an innovative business model focusing on the clinical co-development and regulatory approval of pharmaceutical products. Avillion offers a compelling opportunity to partner assets from post proof-of-concept through to regulatory approval globally and to accelerate their development and hence availability to patients. Avillion's objective is to enable its partners to continue to develop the drug candidates in their pipeline whilst maintaining quality data, and without increasing financial burden. Avillion can achieve this by incurring 100% of the clinical and regulatory risk, while advancing the development of these assets in return for milestone and royalty payments on the commercialisation of successfully developed products. To date, Avillion has entered into co-development agreements under both US and EU accounting principles (GAAP and IFRS). The company has advanced Pfizer's BOSULIF (bosutinib) successfully through Phase 3 trials and provided the clinical data used to gain accelerated US approval to expand its use in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia. Avillion is also undertaking a global clinical programme with Pearl Therapeutics (a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca) with PT027 in asthma and Phase 2 trials with Merck's anti IL-17 A/F Nanobody in plaque psoriasis. Avillion was founded in 2012 and is backed by Abingworth, Clarus Ventures and Royalty Pharma. www.avillionllp.com "Avillion" is Bond Avillion 2 Development LP. SOURCE Avillion Located in the heart of Manhattan at 1 West 34 th Street, between 5 th and 6 th Avenues, the store sits adjacent to the Empire State Building and will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. The new store also features a bold bebe sign made of 38,000 Swarovski crystals. The new concept store features: A Beauty Bar through a partnership with beGlammed, a leading on-demand beauty service, enabling shoppers to have their hair and makeup done on-site. through a partnership with beGlammed, a leading on-demand beauty service, enabling shoppers to have their hair and makeup done on-site. A Personalization Bar giving shoppers an opportunity to customize every item, from jeans to jackets, using Swarovski crystals, patches and embroidery. giving shoppers an opportunity to customize every item, from jeans to jackets, using Swarovski crystals, patches and embroidery. A Lounge where Bebe will host interactive discussions and engaging educational events with top influencers and fashion industry insiders. On weekends, a live DJ will spin the hottest tracks and remixes from around the globe. where Bebe will host interactive discussions and engaging educational events with top influencers and fashion industry insiders. On weekends, a live DJ will spin the hottest tracks and remixes from around the globe. On-site stylists help shoppers define their personal style and wardrobe through an array of confident, sexy and modern clothing, including party-ready dresses, denim and tops. Shoppers can even order from the website using the in-store iPads. "Every area of our elegant, modern store space has been thoughtfully designed to bring shoppers an experience personalized to them at an accessible price, whether they're just hanging out, picking up an outfit for an evening or event, or looking for personalized tailoring, styling and service," said Sandra Campos, Co-President of Women's Apparel, Contemporary Brands, at Global Brands Group. "We're thrilled to bring our loyal bebe community an exciting, modern shopping environment where they can engage with the bebe brand in a way that is convenient, highly-personalized and fun." "We are excited about the grand opening of the bebe store and introducing consumers to a new lifestyle concept. bebe is about leading trends in the industry and we have incorporated this concept into the new store by offering the latest fashions, in-store embroidering and beauty services where consumers can leave the store looking fabulous," stated Ralph Gindi, COO of Bluestar Alliance, which forged a partnership with bebe stores in 2016 to create new licensees and product extensions for the brand. "It's a fresh perspective to engage our loyal and new consumers of the brand." On Thursday, March 15, bebe will host a special evening event to celebrate the grand opening of the new store. Jasmine Sanders and celebrity DJ Vashtie will be on hand for the celebration, which promises music and excitement. Partygoers will also enjoy mingling with stars, top influencers and the who's who of the fashion industry. About bebe brand Unique, sophisticated and timelessly sexy, bebe emerged as the first contemporary fashion destination in 1976. Today, bebe continues to define next-generation chic while staying true to its assertive, provocative origins. Inspired by Shakespeare's immortal words "To be, or not to be," the brand is, at its essence, about living, standing out and truly existing. www.bebe.com About Global Brands Group Holding Limited Global Brands Group Holding Limited (SEHK Stock Code: 0787) is one of the world's leading branded apparel, footwear and fashion accessories companies. The Group designs, develops, markets and sells products under a diverse array of owned and licensed brands and a wide range of product categories. Global Brands' innovative design capabilities, strong brand management focus, and strategic vision enable it to create new opportunities, product categories and market expansion for brands on a global scale. In addition, the Group is the global leader in the brand management business through its joint venture, CAA-GBG Brand Management Group. For more information, please visit the corporate website: www.globalbrandsgroup.com. SOCIAL MEDIA: facebook.com/bebe instagram.com/bebe_stores twitter.com/bebe_stores SOURCE bebe brand "We're thrilled to bring same-day delivery to BJ's shoppers," said Rafeh Masood, senior vice president and Chief Digital Officer, BJ's Wholesale Club. "BJ's is focused on delivering unbeatable value and convenience to our members; the expanded partnership with Instacart gives members a new and easy way to shop the club without leaving their home." BJ's members will now have access to same-day delivery on thousands of items including premium deli meats and cheeses, produce, meat and frozen foods in addition to household items like diapers, paper goods, nutritional supplements and pet products. Members who place their orders for Instacart delivery via https://delivery.bjs.com/ will receive lower, member-only pricing, saving up to 25 percent or more on groceries compared to supermarket pricing*. BJ's also offers a larger variety of fresh foods than other clubs and is the only major wholesale club to offer a full-service deli - now with the added convenience of same-day delivery in as little as an hour. "Instacart proudly joined forces with BJ's Wholesale Club in 2015 to offer same-day delivery," said Andrew Nodes, Instacart's Vice President of Retail Accounts. "We have seen an incredible response to the partnership and are thrilled to expand upon that partnership to be their exclusive partner bringing same-day delivery of BJ's premium products to even more households across the U.S." Same-day delivery at BJ's will be offered at all BJ's Clubs by the end of April and will offer a simplified fee model with low, in-club pricing for BJ's members. The expanded partnership with Instacart is the latest addition to BJ's growing list of digital conveniences for members including Add-to-Card digital coupons, PICK UP and Pay and the BJ's mobile app. Shoppers can learn more and experience same-day delivery by visiting delivery.bjs.com. *25% savings is based on Member pricing on a basket of 100 national brand household staples, on an unpromoted unit-price basis, when compared to four leading grocery chains in our trade areas. Learn more at www.bjs.com/25percentterms. About BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. Headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, BJ's Wholesale Club is the leading operator of membership warehouse clubs in the Eastern United States. The company currently operates 215 clubs and 133 BJ's Gas locations in 16 states. BJ's provides a one-stop shopping destination filled with top-quality, leading brands, including its exclusive Wellsley Farms and Berkley Jensen brands, along with USDA Choice meats, premium produce and delicious organics, many in supermarket sizes. BJ's is also the only major membership warehouse club to accept all manufacturers' coupons. Visit www.BJs.com, and for exclusive content find us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. BJ's is wholly owned by affiliates of Leonard Green & Partners, CVC Capital Partners and its management team. About Instacart Instacart helps people cross grocery shopping off their to-do lists with just a few clicks. Customers use the Instacart website or app to fill their virtual shopping cart with items from their favorite, local stores and Instacart connects them with shoppers who hand pick the items and deliver them straight to their door. Founded in San Francisco in 2012, Instacart has quickly scaled to over 210 markets and partnered with retailers across North America, including popular national chains as well as local, regional grocers. By combining a personal touch with cutting-edge technology, Instacart offers customers a simple solution to save time and eat fresh food from the most trusted grocery brands. Instacart is the only grocery service that can meet today's on-demand lifestyle by delivering in as little as one hour. First delivery is free at instacart.com. SOURCE BJ's Wholesale Club Related Links http://www.bjs.com NEW YORK, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE: BXMT) today declared a dividend of $0.62 per share of class A common stock with respect to the first quarter of 2018. This dividend is payable on April 16, 2018 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 30, 2018. About Blackstone Mortgage Trust Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) is a real estate finance company that originates senior loans collateralized by commercial real estate in North America and Europe. Our investment objective is to preserve and protect shareholder capital while producing attractive risk-adjusted returns primarily through dividends generated from current income from our loan portfolio. We are externally managed by BXMT Advisors L.L.C., a subsidiary of Blackstone. Further information is available at www.bxmt.com. About Blackstone Blackstone (NYSE:BX) is one of the world's leading investment firms. Blackstone seeks to create positive economic impact and long-term value for its investors, the companies it invests in, and the communities in which it works. Blackstone does this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Blackstone's asset management businesses, with over $430 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone. Forward-Looking Statements This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which reflect Blackstone Mortgage Trust's current views with respect to, among other things, Blackstone Mortgage Trust's operations and financial performance. You can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "outlook," "indicator," "believes," "expects," "potential," "continues," "may," "will," "should," "seeks," "predicts," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "anticipates" or the negative version of these words or other comparable words. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. Blackstone Mortgage Trust believes these factors include but are not limited to those described under the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, as such factors may be updated from time to time in its periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this release and in the filings. Blackstone Mortgage Trust assumes no obligation to update or supplement forwardlooking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events or circumstances. SOURCE Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. Related Links http://www.blackstone.com LOS ANGELES, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bob Lindsey, a thirty-two-year veteran and honorably retired Commander of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, announced his 2018 Campaign for Sheriff of Los Angeles County last year. While he has indicated some of his positions on the campaign trail, Candidate Lindsey has decided to restate and clarify several of his positions on key issues relevant to county citizens who will vote in the primary scheduled for June 5, 2018. He's running on the principal position of, "Let's get politics out of law enforcement." Lindsey says, "By the Sheriff's Department's own records, during the last five years, some crimes have increased dramatically1. I feel the Sheriff's Department's morale has significantly declined, and for the first time in more than twenty years, the Department's budget is imbalanced, with the county facing an unprecedented more than $200 million deficit. I intend to resolve these issues and many more." Bob Lindsey is an advocate for the Second Amendment, a constitutional right that protects citizens from crime, and tyranny in government by allowing citizens the right to bear arms to protect themselves under times of duress. He says, "There's a reason our forefathers made the right to bear arms the Second Amendment versus the hundredth. While I am not an advocate of violence, unlawful use of firearms, or terrorism of any kind, I stand behind this amendment because it provides freedom of choice, balance of power, and a commitment to preservation of our total society, not just its parts." States that allow non-criminal, mentally stable citizens the right to bear arms through lawful CCW [legal concealed carry license] issuance have significantly lower crime rates2. "If an assailant knows it is possible citizens are carrying guns he or she is much less likely to pursue the crime," Lindsey says. "Continuing to deny law-abiding citizens access to exercise this inalienable right only serves to undermine the principles of democracy and the labor, foresight, and ingenuity of our forefathers. The national crisis within schools across America suggests a need for programs that equip educators with the resources, training, and skills necessary to protect themselves and our students in hostile environments where they might otherwise perish." Candidate Lindsey also plans to implement fair and equitable law-enforcement practices for businesses irrespective of industry. California legalized medical cannabis back in 1996. As of January 1st, 2018 California legalized adult recreational use of cannabis. According to Lindsey, "Legal cannabis businesses and collectives are currently subject to discrimination, lack of support, and push-back from the Sheriff's Department. I advocate that the Department must instead act in partnership with the cannabis industry and support the establishment of standards and regulations to serve and protect under the guidelines and mutual covenants agreed upon by all." Bob Lindsey is prepared to restore trust by bridging the gap between law enforcement, government, underserved communities, businesses, industries, and the public. "It sickens me to witness the current administration's lack of commitment in upholding sworn responsibility by instead pursuing private agendas that breach public trust," said Lindsey. Los Angeles County is home to 10.2 million residents. He concludes, "We must return power to the people and cannot run the risk of leaving the safety of ourselves and our families in the hands of irresponsible leadership." Bob Lindsey was born and raised in Los Angeles and is committed to preserving it by serving the diverse people that color and breathe life into its landscape. Bob Lindsey welcomes and encourages the public to join him in his campaign. Please visit: https://sheriffboblindsey.com https://www.facebook.com/BobForLASheriff/ https://twitter.com/BobForLASheriff (this is listed incorrectly on his media kit) https://www.instagram.com/bobforlasheriff/ https://www.youtube.com/c/BobLindseyForLosAngelesCountySheriff Media Contact: PMG: 323.337.9042 Henry Eshelman: [email protected] LASD Patrol Station Crime Summary 11/17 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/irb81izdbno0n2v/AACPBs3MnPyvRo23_tlt7veVa?dl=0 Washington Times 07/14/15 https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/14/murder-rates-drop-as-concealed-carry-permits-soar-/ I am Bob Lindsay and I approve this message; signed approval on file here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xkii3pwnfwdpu8a/Signed%20Shariff%20release%20scan.pdf?dl=0 . SOURCE Bob Lindsey for LA County Sheriff Related Links http://sheriffboblindsey.com SAN DIEGO, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE: BPI), a provider of postsecondary education services, today announced it plans to separate from its academic institutions, Ashford University and University of the Rockies, and become an Online Program Management (OPM) company. In addition, Ashford University has submitted an application to the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) to merge with University of the Rockies, its sister institution, and to return to an independent, non-profit university. Pending these and other necessary approvals, the merged institution of Ashford University and University of the Rockies intends to negotiate a services agreement to become Bridgepoint Education's first client as an OPM. "This transformation marks the next phase in the missions of both Bridgepoint and Ashford University and is a strategic decision that leadership has been considering and thoughtfully evaluating for quite some time," said Andrew Clark, CEO and president of Bridgepoint Education. Demand for non-traditional education solutions is growing, and institutions of higher learning are looking to meet the wide-ranging needs of today's learners. As an OPM, Bridgepoint Education will seek to help colleges and universities adapt to emerging technological innovations, shifts in student demographics, and changing expectations regarding the role of higher education in supporting workforce development. As part of this change, University of the Rockies will also merge with Ashford University, its sister institution. The doctoral programs offered by University of the Rockies will become a new doctoral college within Ashford University. University of the Rockies master's programs will be integrated into Ashford's existing colleges. The addition of University of the Rockies' graduate-level social and behavioral sciences programs will enable Ashford University to reach a wider array of students and help close the skills gap faced by employers. "We are proud of what Bridgepoint Education, Ashford University and University of the Rockies have accomplished and believe that together we have served an essential public purpose," said Clark. "We believe the innovative, student-focused education we have provided has allowed thousands of students to earn a university degreemany of whom might not have enjoyed that opportunity otherwise. In today's dynamic higher education environment, we believe this transformation will permit us to continue to pursue our mission in new and exciting ways." The completion of Ashford University's return to non-profit status, and University of the Rockies merging with Ashford University, are subject to customary closing conditions and the approval by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), the U.S. Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, and state regulatory bodies. Bridgepoint Education Inc. will provide more information as it becomes available. The company expects these transformations to be complete by the end of 2018. About Bridgepoint Education Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE:BPI) harnesses the latest technology to reimagine the modern student experience. Bridgepoint owns two academic institutions - Ashford University and University of the Rockies. Together, these programs, technologies and resources represent a unique model for advancing education in the 21st century. Bridgepoint stands for greater access, social learning and exposure to leading minds. For more information, visit www.bridgepointeducation.com or www.facebook.com/BridgepointEducation Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements," including statements relating to the proposed transaction discussed above. Words such as "may," "should," "could," ''would," "predicts," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar expressions, as well as statements in future tense, identify forwardlooking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to: (i) the failure of the proposed transactions to be approved by WSCUC or any of our other regulators or accreditors; (ii) the failure of the Company, Ashford University and/or University of the Rockies to resolve various federal and state regulatory issues that could impact the viability and timing of these transactions, or to reach agreement on terms of the transactions and to negotiate and execute definitive agreements; (iii) the failure to satisfy other conditions to completion of the proposed transactions, including the receipt of all regulatory and accreditor approvals necessary to complete the proposed transactions; (iv) if definitive agreements are executed, the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of any definitive agreement; (v) the effect of the announcement or pendency of the transactions contemplated herein on the Company's ability to retain and hire key personnel or its operating results and business generally; (vi) risks related to diverting management's attention from the Company's ongoing business operations; (vii) the outcome of stockholder litigation or other legal proceedings that are currently pending or may be instituted against the Company and/or its subsidiaries; and (viii) other factors discussed in the Company's reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Factors or events that could affect the transactions contemplated herein or cause the Company's actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of them. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by any applicable securities laws. Contact: Nolan Sundrud 866-475-0317 x 11619 [email protected] SOURCE Bridgepoint Education Related Links www.bridgepointeducation.com ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Callyo, a mobile law enforcement SaaS company, today announced that in order to expand operations to meet client demands it has moved to larger offices located at in St. Petersburg, FL. Callyo now occupies roughly 5,500 square feet affording ample room to accommodate the company's expanding activities and hiring plans for 2018 and beyond. 2017 was a year of expansion for Callyo with the launch of 10-21 Video app and company recognition on the GovTech 100 list as one of the Top 100 companies focused on and making a difference for state and local government. "We look forward to accelerating Callyo's growth in our new offices in downtown St. Pete," said Chris Bennett, Founder of Callyo. "As we grow the Callyo team, we believe that our new space in St. Petersburg's Central Arts District is perfectly situated in a vibrant community that celebrates creativity and innovation. It is an optimal environment for our employees to pursue our mission to advance mobile technology for law enforcement investigators to create a safer world for children." As part of the office expansion, Callyo has launched an official partnership with the International Association of Human Trafficking Investigators (IAHTI). IAHTI will relocate its world headquarters to co-locate with Callyo in their St. Petersburg office. In addition, the new office includes a state of the art training room to host IAHTI and Callyo in-person trainings. About Callyo At Callyo, we build innovative, simple, meaningful tools within reach of all in law enforcement to combat crimes such as human trafficking and child exploitation. Callyo has changed the way investigations are done, and believes that you shouldn't need special equipment to do something special. Callyo has been called "arguably the most innovative new policing technology in the past 20 years" while maintaining record satisfaction and renewal rates across 100,000+ officers and 9,000+ agencies. We have saved countless man-hours and taxpayer expense, increased prosecution rates, and improved the well-being of investigators with solutions that respect the privacy of our fellow citizens. Callyo website: https://www.callyo.com/ About IAHTI The International Association of Human Trafficking Investigators (IAHTI) is a 501 (C)(3) not-for profit organization that is the international leader in human trafficking education. IAHTI works closely with law enforcement and prosecutors throughout the world to provide the most up-to-date human trafficking training, investigative techniques and technology. Our training is conducted by experts who have human trafficking investigation experience. IAHTI website: http://www.iahti.org/ SOURCE Callyo Related Links https://callyo.com/ HOUSTON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CARBO Ceramics Inc. (NYSE: CRR) announced today that its management will present at the Scotia Howard Weil 2018 Energy Conference, being held at The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 25-28, 2018. Gary Kolstad, Chief Executive Officer and President of CARBO, is scheduled to present on March 27, 2018, at 3:45 p.m. Central Time. https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/128186/carbo_logo.jpg A copy of the investor presentation will be available on the Company's website at www.carboceramics.com. Investors interested in attending the conference should contact their Scotia Howard Weil sales representative, or contact Scotia Howard Weil at 504-582-2500. About CARBO CARBO (NYSE: CRR) is a global technology company that provides products and services to the oil and gas and industrial markets to enhance value for its clients. CARBO Oilfield Technologies - is a global leader that provides engineered solutions in its Design, Build, and Optimize the Frac technology businesses, delivering important value to E&P operators by increasing well production and EUR. Oilfield Technologies is the world's largest producer of high quality ceramic proppant, provides one of the industry's most widely used fracture simulation software, has proprietary technology that provides fracture diagnostics and production assurance, and offers consulting services for fracture design and completion optimization. The Company also provides a range of technology solutions for spill prevention and containment. Its products and services are sold to operators of oil and natural gas wells and to oilfield service companies for use in the hydraulic fracturing of natural gas and oil wells. CARBO Industrial Technologies - is a leading provider of high-performance industrial ceramic media products that are engineered to increase process efficiency, improve end-product quality and reduce operating costs. For more information, please visit www.carboceramics.com. Investor Contact: Mark Thomas, Director, Investor Relations (281) 921-6400 SOURCE CARBO Ceramics Inc. Related Links http://www.carboceramics.com DUBLIN, Ohio, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In honor of Patient Safety Awareness Week , Cardinal Health and the Cardinal Health Foundation are reinforcing their ongoing commitment to improving patient safety across the continuum of care through a number of grants and initiatives. Medical errors are the third-leading cause of death in the United States, according to a recent study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, published in BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) in May, 2016. The researchers estimate that medical errors claim as many as 251,000 lives every year. Cardinal Health first recognized patient safety as an issue in 2009 when it supported the creation of Children's Hospitals' Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS) a network of what is now 130 hospitals sharing data and best practices with the mission of eliminating serious harm across their hospitals. Recently selected for the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards, SPS has saved an estimated 10,000 children from serious harm and has eliminated more than $151 million in healthcare costs. "From the beginning, Cardinal Health shared our vision that no child should experience serious harm during treatment," said Nick Lashutka, president and CEO, SPS and the Ohio Children's Hospital Association. "We're grateful for their support and acknowledge their efforts to emphasize the importance of safety in the delivery of healthcare." In addition to its support of SPS, Cardinal Health has shown its commitment to patient safety through the following initiatives: E3 (Effectiveness, Efficiency & Excellence in Healthcare) grants. Through this grant program, the Cardinal Health Foundation has invested more than $9 million in hundreds of healthcare organizations as they work to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. See recent grantees' achievements in increasing patient safety here. Through this grant program, the Cardinal Health Foundation has invested more than in hundreds of healthcare organizations as they work to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. See recent grantees' achievements in increasing patient safety here. Generation Rx Best Practices in Pain Medication Use grants. The Foundation's Generation Rx Best Practices in Pain Medication Use and Patient Engagement grants are helping clinicians meet Centers for Disease Control opioid prescribing guidelines to improve the safety and efficacy of pain care and reduce the risks of long-term opioid use. The Foundation expects to announce the recipients of its 2018 Best Practices in Pain Medication Use grants this spring. The Foundation's Generation Rx Best Practices in Pain Medication Use and Patient Engagement grants are helping clinicians meet Centers for Disease Control opioid prescribing guidelines to improve the safety and efficacy of pain care and reduce the risks of long-term opioid use. The Foundation expects to announce the recipients of its 2018 Best Practices in Pain Medication Use grants this spring. Patient Safety Movement Foundation. Cardinal Health has become a committed partner with the Patient Safety Movement Foundation , a global movement with the mission of zero preventable deaths by 2020. As a committed partner, Cardinal Health will spread the mission of zero preventable deaths by 2020 and encourage and facilitate the sharing of successful patient safety processes among healthcare leaders within the Cardinal Health community. Cardinal Health has become a committed partner with the Patient Safety Movement Foundation , a global movement with the mission of zero preventable deaths by 2020. As a committed partner, Cardinal Health will spread the mission of zero preventable deaths by 2020 and encourage and facilitate the sharing of successful patient safety processes among healthcare leaders within the Cardinal Health community. The Award for Excellence in Medication Safety. This nationally-acclaimed awards program, a collaboration between the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP) Foundation and the Cardinal Health Foundation, recognizes pharmacist-led inter-professional teams for significant system-wide improvements in medication safety that have demonstrated patient and organizational outcomes. Videos of recent winners and finalists are available here. "For nearly a decade, the Cardinal Health Foundation has invested more than $16 million to improve care, reduce costs and increase efficiency," said Dianne Radigan, vice president of Community Relations at Cardinal Health. "While we've made great progress in helping improve patient safety by collaborating with healthcare organizations and providers, Patient Safety Awareness Week reminds us all that there is still more work to be done." More information about Cardinal Health's commitment to patient safety is available on the Community Relations webpage. Editor's note: SPS Associate Clinical Director Trey Coffey, MD, also shared specific steps that all hospitals should take to improve overall safety and reduce harm in Cardinal Health's online publication, Essential Insights. About Cardinal Health Cardinal Health, Inc. is a global, integrated healthcare services and products company, providing customized solutions for hospitals, healthcare systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories and physician offices worldwide. The company provides clinically proven medical products, pharmaceuticals and cost-effective solutions that enhance supply chain efficiency from hospital to home. Cardinal Health connects patients, providers, payers, pharmacists and manufacturers for integrated care coordination and better patient management. To help combat prescription drug abuse, the company and its education partners created Generation Rx, a national drug education and awareness program. Backed by nearly 100 years of experience, with approximately 50,000 employees in nearly 60 countries, Cardinal Health ranks #15 on the Fortune 500. For more information, visit cardinalhealth.com, follow @CardinalHealth on Twitter, @cardinalhealthwings on Facebook and connect on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/ company/cardinal-health. About the Cardinal Health Foundation The Cardinal Health Foundation supports local, national and international programs that improve health care efficiency, effectiveness and excellence and the overall wellness of the communities where Cardinal Health, Inc.'s (NYSE: CAH) more than 40,000 employees live and work. The Cardinal Health Foundation also offers grants to encourage community service among its employees and works through international agencies to donate much-needed medical supplies and funding to those who need them in times of disaster; because Cardinal Health, Inc. is #AllInForGood. To learn more, visit www.CardinalHealth.com/community. SOURCE Cardinal Health Related Links http://www.cardinalhealth.com "We are delighted to have Kelsey join Carleton as our new CIO, bringing her vast skill set and experience to lead and build Carleton's investment office," said Justin Wender, Board of Trustee member and chair of the college's investment committee. At BlackRock, Deshler managed a global team of investment researchers across asset classes, including traditional and alternative strategies. Prior to BlackRock, she worked at Credit Suisse Asset Management as a portfolio manager and research head, overseeing equity long/short, event driven and distressed credit strategies globally. She joined Credit Suisse from General Motors Asset Management where she was an investment analyst. Deshler started her career in finance as a hedge fund research analyst at CTC Consulting. "Kelsey's broad experience, sophisticated investment knowledge, and her desire to put that knowledge to work for the benefit of Carleton's students and faculty, make her a superb choice," Carleton President Steven Poskanzer said. "It is an honor to join Carleton and help support the college's important mission," said Deshler. "I am thrilled to take on this new role and look forward to working with Steven, Justin, the investment committee, and the Carleton community at large." A native Minnesotan, Deshler graduated from the University of Minnesota, with a B.S. degree in management and French. She holds an M.S. degree from the New York University Stern School of Business, with a concentration in finance. At Carleton, Deshler will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the college's endowment portfolio and the Minneapolis-based investment office. Carleton's investment committee, a sub-committee of the Board of Trustees, helps develop the overall investment strategy for the endowment and monitors its performance. Carleton's endowment is a pool of investments that provides a permanent source of income for the college. Each year, money from endowment earnings supports Carleton's annual operating budget and impacts financial aid available to students, the quality of academic programs, facilities, and faculty and staff salaries. Ranked among the nation's top liberal arts institutions, Carleton is a private, co-educational college of 2,000 students located 40 miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul. High academic standards, the number-one ranked faculty for commitment to undergraduate teaching, and a diverse student body contribute to Carleton's outstanding reputation. SOURCE Carleton College DOVER N.J., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Music in Our Schools Month is celebrated across the nation each year during the month of March. This time focuses on raising awareness of the importance that music education plays in children's learning and how it can improve all areas of academia. Casio America, Inc. believes in the benefits of music education and encourages the learning of musical instruments. Their wide portfolio of digital pianos, including portable keyboards like the CT-X700 and LK-265, include features that enable children to learn piano at their own pace while having fun. CT-X700 For piano students who are advanced beginners, the CT-X700 includes upgraded technology and sound quality at an affordable price. Featuring the new AiX Sound Source*1 , the CT-X700 faithfully reproduces the appealing sound of acoustic instruments such as guitars, drums, basses, brass, wind instruments, string ensembles and more, faithfully reproducing subtle nuances and gestures specific to each sound. Additionally, high-performance Digital Signal Processor (DSP) effects combine various algorithms to realize the perfect effect for each instrument sound. A wide range of tones and rhythm patterns, including a library of 600 tones and 195 rhythms, supports diverse musical genres that allow students to play their own musical masterpieces without limiting creativity. LK-265 For those just beginning their piano education, the Key Lighting LK-265 is filled with innovative features to support learning. The LK-265 has a key lighting system and is outfitted with Casio's Voice Fingering Guide and Step-up Lesson System, which enable beginners to learn built-in songs at their own individual pace. Additionally, the LCD display enables the learning of both music notation and correct hand positioning, while Casio's innovative Scoring System evaluates performance so users can track their progress. The LK-265 also supports Casio's Chordana Play app, which is a free music app that can automatically play 50 songs, from pop to classical and more. It is expandable through MIDI files that can be downloaded from the internet. As the song plays, the app displays the correct keyboard position for both hands in real time in the piano roll window. Users can also play by touching the virtual keyboard which also offers lesson and scoring functions. Users may connect directly to the app using a standard 1/8" stereo cable between an iOS or Android device and the keyboard. Casio's Chordana Play app is available for free in the App Store and on Google Play. For those looking to add a bit of fun to learning, the LK-265 includes Dance Music Mode, which divides the piano keyboard into different instrument sections like drums, bass, and more, allowing users to play and remix their own EDM songs. The CT-X700 and LK-265 are available now at music retailers nationwide, as well as online. To learn more about Casio's full portfolio of electronic musical instruments, please visit www.CasioMusicGear.com. *1 Acoustic Intelligent multi-eXpression (AiX) Sound Source About Casio America, Inc. Casio America, Inc., Dover, N.J., is the U.S. subsidiary of Casio Computer Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer electronics and business equipment solutions. Established in 1957, Casio America, Inc. markets calculators, keyboards, digital cameras, mobile presentation devices, disc title and label printers, watches, cash registers and other consumer electronic products. Casio has strived to fulfill its corporate creed of "creativity and contribution" through the introduction of innovative and imaginative products. For more information, visit casio.com/home. SOURCE Casio America, Inc. Related Links http://www.casiousa.com AUBURN, Ala., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicken Salad Chick, the nation's only southern inspired, fast casual chicken salad restaurant concept, announced today it will be expanding in Mississippi with its newest restaurant in Flowood, marking the brand's 85th location nationwide. Located at 1720 Old Fannin Road, the Flowood restaurant will celebrate its grand opening on March 27th, where the first 100 guests will receive free chicken salad for a year. During grand opening week, guests will experience the southern hospitality that Chicken Salad Chick is known for, with giveaways and specials that include: Tuesday, March 27 Free Chicken Salad for a year The first guest will receive one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for an entire year; the next 99 guests receive a free large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month.** Drive-thru guests will also enjoy surprise giveaways until 7 p.m. Free Chicken Salad for a year The first guest will receive one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for an entire year; the next 99 guests receive a free large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month.** Drive-thru guests will also enjoy surprise giveaways until Wednesday, March 28 The first 100 guests to purchase a Chick Special will receive a free stainless steel 20 oz. Chick tumbler and the first 50 guests at 5 p.m. to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a large Chick cooler. The first 100 guests to purchase a Chick Special will receive a free stainless steel 20 oz. Chick tumbler and the first 50 guests at to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a large Chick cooler. Thursday, March 29 Thirsty Thursday The first 100 guests to purchase a Chick Special will receive a free large drink and coozie and the first 50 guests at 5 p.m. to order a Chick Special will receive a large free drink. Thirsty Thursday The first 100 guests to purchase a Chick Special will receive a free large drink and coozie and the first 50 guests at to order a Chick Special will receive a large free drink. Friday, March 30 Free Upgrade Friday The first 100 guests will receive a free upgrade to a Chick Trio and the first 50 guests at 5p.m. will receive a free upgrade to a Chick Trio. Free Upgrade Friday The first 100 guests will receive a free upgrade to a Chick Trio and the first 50 guests at will receive a free upgrade to a Chick Trio. Saturday, March 31 The first 50 guests to purchase two large Quick Chicks will receive a free large Chick cooler. The Flowood restaurant is owned and operated by husband-and-wife team Blake and Shae Fuller of Taste and C, LLC. Blake was first introduced to Chicken Salad Chick when he met founder Stacy Brown and her husband, Kevin while working as a food broker. He was immediately drawn to the brand's welcoming culture and mounting success, which fueled his desire to become a Chicken Salad Chick franchisee. After trying the food firsthand, the Fullers, along with their business partners David Stephens and Walt Marcello, decided to bring Chicken Salad Chick to more communities throughout Mississippi, starting with their new location in Flowood. The pair plans to open additional restaurants in the Hattiesburg and Jackson, Mississippi markets, with the first restaurant in Hattiesburg slated to open this summer. "It has always been a dream of ours to own a restaurant, but we couldn't find a concept that aligned with our personal values and goals. The moment I was introduced to Chicken Salad Chick that all changed," said Blake Fuller. "The simplicity of the restaurant operations coupled with the high-quality chicken salad and friendly environment make Chicken Salad Chick a unique dining experience. We're thrilled to be joining a brand that we believe in and look forward to bringing this one-of-a-kind concept to more communities in the state I've called home for nearly 37 years." The Chicken Salad Chick concept, born in Auburn, was established in 2008 in the kitchen of founder, Stacy Brown. When Stacy discovered that the local county health department would not allow her to continue making and selling her delicious recipes out of her home kitchen, she overcame that obstacle by launching her first restaurant with the business expertise of her future husband and fellow founder, Kevin Brown. Together, they opened a small takeout restaurant, which quickly grew; the company now has 85 restaurants across the Southeast. Chicken Salad Chick in Flowood will be open Monday Saturday from 10:30 a.m. 7 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.chickensaladchick.com, or call 769-257-7092. Follow Chicken Salad Chick on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest news and trends. **Eligible winners must be over 16 years of age, purchase a Chick special and are required to download the Craving Credits app. Redemption will start 4/2. About Chicken Salad Chick Founded in Auburn, Alabama, in 2008, Chicken Salad Chick serves full-flavored, Southern-style chicken salad made from scratch and served from the heart. With more than a dozen original chicken salad flavors as well as fresh side salads, gourmet soups, signature sandwiches and delicious desserts, Chicken Salad Chick's robust menu is a perfect fit for any guest. Today, the brand has more than 80 restaurants in 11 states and is continuing its rapid expansion with both franchise and company locations. Chicken Salad Chick was recently named as one of FastCasual.com's top Movers and Shakers and one of Nation's Restaurant News 2017 Next 20 brands. The brand also ranked #37 on the 2016 Inc. list of the 500 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. See www.chickensaladchick.com for additional information. Contact: Nikki Rode Fish Consulting 954-893-9150 [email protected] SOURCE Chicken Salad Chick Related Links http://www.chickensaladchick.com "The annual AFPM meeting is truly the premier industry event," said CITGO Vice President of Refining Jim Cristman. "This year was no exception and we are so pleased to not only attend, but also to be one of the main AFPM sponsors and host our own post-event reception." The annual AFPM meeting brings together key executives, technical experts and inspiring personalities from throughout the refining world. The various panels, presentations and breakout sessions keyed in on several important industry themes, including the impact of the 2017 hurricane season, regulatory issues, the use of big data and emerging technologies, and process safety. The CITGO reception was one of nearly 25 complementary hospitality functions put on by companies in conjunction with the annual meeting. "We work in a diverse and supportive industry," added Cristman. "Never is it more apparent than the annual AFPM meeting. I am always amazed at the degree of cooperation and advocacy of mutually beneficial industry projects. CITGO is an energetic member of the refining community with a long history of success and we, along with our refining colleagues, look forward to a productive, and even more successful 2018." About CITGO CITGO, based in Houston, is a refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. The company is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For more information, visit www.CITGO.com. SOURCE CITGO KNOXVILLE, Tenn., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- James Babington-Johnson is in the process of raising more than $300,000 to produce a multimedia business plan for a new national cable news media television network to give African Americans a national news media presence and representation for the first time in history. The business plan will justify a minimum $200 million capital investment to launch the national cable news television network to serve an under-served African American market consisting of 44 million and growing spending of $1.1 trillion annually and counting. U.S.A. ThisWeek The centerpiece of the multimedia business plan is the production of a television news day pilot to show a nation, and more importantly, potential investors a national news media concept that's competitive and all-inclusive, covering the interests, issues and concerns of black Americans and imposing accountability where it has never been. Babington-Johnson, a veteran of the civil rights movement and former executive director of the Institute of African American Studies describes his game plan. "Our objective is to fill this longstanding news media void that's lacking and give African Americans a news media presence in the national news media arena. So far, we don't have a team on the field." The plan is to establish a 24/7 national cable news television network and a 24/7 online news magazine providing African Americans with national news media representation for the first time in history. "We will bring information to the public forum that has heretofore gone unreported, being either dismissed, ignored or overlooked," explains Babington-Johnson. "We can't expect the mainstream news media to prioritize issues, interests and concerns of African Americans. That's our responsibility, which we are now embracing and putting a team on the field." According to Babington-Johnson, there have been updated versions of pre-civil rights racist traditions and practices involving law enforcement and the news media that have gone undeterred. He says, "It doesn't happen in every instance but often enough to show it's as real in the news media as the code of silence is in law enforcement. It's so ingrained in the culture of the news media that many of the black and white journalists and reporters are unaware of their complicity in engaging in these practices that have otherwise gone unchecked, unnoticed and unaccountable. "With this press release and our campaign, at a minimum, we will have already achieved a major victory. No longer will there be this widespread ignorance and unawareness among black and white Americans of this structural racial news media inequality problem waiting to be addressed." To learn more about Babington-Johnson's media endeavor and contribute to the development of the multimedia business plan, visit USAThisWeek.com. About U.S.A. ThisWeek U.S.A. ThisWeek is a national news media endeavor to be launched by James Babington-Johnson. The national news media endeavor will consist of a 24-7 cable news television network and a 24-7 online news magazine representing black Americans. It's launch means 44 million black Americans will no longer be without a national voice. To learn more visit USAThisWeek.com. Press Contact Babington-Johnson 865-456-9922 866-319-9008 [email protected] Related Links U.S.A. ThisWeek Indiegogo Campaign Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVFSyOBPdiI SOURCE U.S.A. ThisWeek Related Links https://www.usathisweek.com SAN FRANCISCO, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The global command and control systems market size is anticipated to reach USD 19.94 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., registering a CAGR of 3.8% during the forecast period. Increasing military budgets of Asian countries, rising prominence of terror groups in the Middle East, and technological advancements in the defense industry worldwide are anticipated to drive the market. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160524/371361LOGO ) Geopolitical conflicts in Asian countries and multinational military practices are expected to fuel the demand for command and control systems. These systems increase the efficiencies of battlefield operations with technological advantages such as real-time information sharing and situational awareness, which enhance operational capabilities of military operations. The airborne segment is estimated to witness the highest growth rate over the forecast years. Growing investments in air forces development across the world are contributing to the growth of the segment. Advantages of the technology include higher efficiency in the battlefield operations, effective planning and decision making in mission-critical situations, and situational awareness. Some of the prominent companies operating in the command and control systems market are Lockheed Martin Corporation, BAE Systems, Rockwell Collins, and The Boeing Company. Vendors in the market are poised to witness a rise in the demand owing to increasing technological advancements. Browse full research report with TOC on "Command and Control Systems Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Platform (Land, Airborne, Naval), By Region (Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, MEA, and LATAM), And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/command-control-systems-market Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest: The airborne segment is likely to be the fastest growing segment with a CAGR of 4.6% over the forecast period The land segment is anticipated to hold the highest share in the market throughout the same period Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing regional market, owing to growing geopolitical conceits and increasing military expenditures. The region is estimated to rise to the fore during the forecast period is expected to be the fastest growing regional market, owing to growing geopolitical conceits and increasing military expenditures. The region is estimated to rise to the fore during the forecast period Major players in the market are Lockheed Martin Corporation, BAE Systems, Rockwell Collins, and The Boeing Company. Browse related reports by Grand View Research: Automotive Wiring Harness Market - The global automotive wiring harness market is expected to witness high growth due to increased automotive sales. The global automotive wiring harness market is expected to witness high growth due to increased automotive sales. Wholesale and Distribution Automotive Aftermarket - The global wholesale and distribution automotive aftermarket size was valued at USD 150.58 billion in 2015. The automotive aftermarket is the secondary commercial channel of the automotive sector. The global wholesale and distribution automotive aftermarket size was valued at in 2015. The automotive aftermarket is the secondary commercial channel of the automotive sector. Telepresence Equipment Market - The global telepresence equipment market size was estimated at USD 1.87 billion in 2016. The need for the enterprises to reduce the cost of traveling for the employees is the primary factor driving the market growth. The global telepresence equipment market size was estimated at in 2016. The need for the enterprises to reduce the cost of traveling for the employees is the primary factor driving the market growth. Artificial Intelligence Market - The global artificial intelligence market size was valued at USD 641.9 million in 2016. Grand View Research has segmented the command and control systems market based on platform and region: Platform outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Land Naval Airborne Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America U.S. Canada Europe Russia France U.K. Asia Pacific China India Japan Middle East and Africa (MEA) Israel Saudi Arabia Latin America Read Our Blog By Grand View Research: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/technology About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. Contact: Sherry James Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Grand View Research, Inc Phone: +1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. LITTLE ROCK, Ark., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DataPath, Inc., a leading innovator of employer-sponsored benefits administration solutions, announced today its new Health Savings Account (HSA) administration and investment functionality in Summit, the company's cloud-based platform. The HSA expansion will make DataPath Summit the industry's only SaaS solution with fully-unified CDH, investment and COBRA billing capabilities. With Summit HSA, third party administrators (TPAs) have the ability to administer all lines of service from one powerful platform. Prior to its release, benefits administrators had to have multiple solutions and banking partnerships to offer HSA management services alongside other CDH accounts. "Summit is the most comprehensive benefits administration platform on the market with full CDH, HSA, and COBRA functionality," said Greg Licata, DataPath's chief product officer. "It's a single, cohesive solution designed to meet the needs of TPAs." The inclusion of HSA and investment functionality helps TPAs increase revenue and deliver greater client satisfaction due to the platform's low investment threshold, industry-leading customer support and intuitive interface. Summit HSA also allows TPAs to streamline their business relationships, as they'll no longer need to partner with separate banks for custodial banking and investments because Summit is a custodial platform. As a turnkey solution, Summit HSA empowers TPAs with: Simplified HSA administration Integrated investments Custodial platform Benefits debit cards DataPath launched HSAToday in 2005, at the forefront of the HSA market. In 2014, the company launched Summit for FSA, HRA and Transit account administration and then released Summit COBRA in 2017. TPAs can make the most of their administration capabilities with streamlined account setup, global record keeping, non-discrimination testing and more. As an all-encompassing solution, DataPath Summit stands alone with its unique functionality. "DataPath leads our industry with advanced solutions and top-notch customer service," said John Robbins, Jr., DataPath president and CEO. "We're proud of Summit's groundbreaking capabilities. What more could a TPA ask for than a single service provider for all their benefits administration needs?" About the company: DataPath, Inc. is privately-owned software development company based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Since 1984, DataPath has been creating solutions for the administration of consumer-directed healthcare accounts, premium billing, and payments. The company is also an end-to-end card processor. Learn more at https://dpath.com/solutions/. CONTACT: Stacy Wood, 614-540-5520, [email protected] SOURCE DataPath, Inc. Related Links http://www.dpath.com WASHINGTON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser today announced that Capital Impact Partners and Local Initiatives Support Corporation-DC (LISC-DC) will manage the District's $10 million Affordable Housing Preservation Fund. This announcement follows the March 5 appointment of Ana Lopez Van Balen as the District's First Affordable Housing Preservation Officer. The Mayor's Housing Preservation Strike Force recommended the creation of the fund and a preservation unit headed by the preservation officer as two of six critical strategies to preserve affordable rental housing in the District. Along with other private and philanthropic investments, the $10 million in the Housing Preservation Fund will be used to grow the fund to approximately $40 million. These monies will quickly provide short-term bridge acquisition and predevelopment financing to eligible borrowers. Targeted for fund investments are most multi-family properties where at least 50 percent of units are currently affordable to households earning up to 80 percent of the median family income (MFI). The preservation officer, the first in the District and the only mayoral-appointed, high-level position of its type in the country, will focus on: (1) preserving affordable units that exist with and without government subsidies; and (2) collecting and maintaining data on affordable housing. "When I established the Strike Force in 2015, its mandate was cleardevelop an action plan that ensures the District does not lose any of its already existing affordable housing," said Mayor Bowser. "Ana has a strong background in economic, housing, and community development, strategic planning, and engagement, and we know she will serve the residents of DC well. Capital Impact Partners and LISC-DC both have deep, long-standing commitments to affordable housing and my Administration looks forward to working together to get this money out the door and into preservation projects." Since coming into office, the Bowser Administration has sparked the creation or preservation of more 10,400 affordable units, with another 2,950 in preconstruction. In Fiscal Year 2017, the District made historic investments in affordable housing, getting more than $138 million in Housing Production Trust Fund financing out the door to support 23 projects that will produce or preserve more than 1,900 affordable units. The District's multi-pronged approach to housing production and preservation, homeownership, and development of vacant properties is winning national recognition. On September 11, the District was selected for the Urban Land Institute's Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award. CONTACT: LaToya Foster (EOM) (202) 727-5011; [email protected] Gwendolyn Cofield (DHCD) (202) 657-8489; [email protected] SOURCE DC Department of Housing and Community Development Related Links http://www.dhcd.dc.gov LEHI, Utah and RUST, Germany, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DigiCert, Inc., the leading global provider of scalable identity and encryption solutions for internet-based communications, today at CloudFest announced enhancements to its Certified Partner Program that will help its global partners capture the multi-billion dollar opportunity offered by the SSL, PKI and IoT security markets. Today's announcement marks the first phase of an ongoing effort to work with partners and provide added benefits resulting from DigiCert's acquisition of Symantec Website Security. The Program enhancements offer growth opportunities for partners transitioning from the Symantec Website Security partner program, with access to new products and incentives through the DigiCert portfolio. The enhanced global Program features four tiers with discounts based on sales volume and expertise with dedicated sales, marketing and technical assistance. Along with a new 'Elite' tier, certified partners now have access to sell new PKI solutions for the enterprise. DigiCert provides free training to help partners reach additional certification levels that are supported by lead generation and market development funding. The company also provides comprehensive deal registration, free not for resale products, cybersecurity best practices, and a complete portfolio of sales and marketing collateral. Industry-defining program "We are confident that these enhancements, alongside other developments that we are planning, bolster our program as the most comprehensive of its kind ever offered within the SSL and PKI market," explains Vic Cloutier, Head of Global Channel for DigiCert. "Today's announcements are only the beginning, as we continue to evaluate and evolve the Program, with partner input, to accelerate growth with higher margins for our partners across every type of engagement and customer segment." The Program enhancements add new benefits to many of the elements of existing programs created by Symantec's Website Security and related PKI solutions business, which was acquired by DigiCert in October 2017. These additions include a new invite-only 'Platinum Elite' tier with premium dedicated technical support, quarterly business reviews across technical, sales and marketing, plus access to market development campaigns to include support at tradeshows. Within the Platinum Elite, DigiCert is welcoming long-established partner, SSL247, as one of the early participants. The Program enhancements also add new PKI and IoT elements with varying degrees of benefit across the tiers. Launch of Managed PKI The DigiCert Partner Program has been further enhanced with the availability of DigiCert Managed PKI (MPKI), which partners can use to help their customers simplify enterprise authentication, mobile device management, and encrypted communications. With cloud and hybrid options, organizations can secure employee and partner access to sensitive information via a web-based application or extranet portal, which offers many benefits for Internet of Things (IoT) use cases, enterprise mobility initiatives and access via a wireless network or VPN. Partners may offer any of these products for which they have certified. Three Platinum Partners, namely Acmetek, CertCenter AG and JNR, are certified to offer products within the Managed PKI program, with more partners to follow later in the year. "The process of transitioning the legacy Symantec frontend systems onto the DigiCert platform is a complex task, which is still ongoing," explains Mirco Reimann, Global Director, Encryption Everywhere, for DigiCert. "However, the announcement of the channel program enhancements makes it clear that we see our future as working more closely with the channel, which we believe will be an engine for strong growth opportunities over the next few years especially in higher-value areas such as PKI-powered IoT solutions." Channel-only products The Program includes channel-only initiatives that are designed to help partners win new business and create valuable upsell opportunities. Through the DigiCert Encryption Everywhere program, channel partners can offer basic encryption for free as part of a bundle within hosting packages to provide clear merchandizing and monetization with an upsell path to higher margins. "The Program enhancements will also mark the start of a sustained recruitment drive focused on adding distributors and partners in regions and vertical markets where we are currently underserved, and increasing opportunities for current partners," Cloutier added. "With DigiCert, our partners will benefit from being aligned with a company focused on product and technology innovation, one that is recognized for its leadership in industry standards and emerging markets." DigiCert will grandfather its existing and former Symantec Website Security partners into the combined Program at their current tiers and begin the first of its new training and certification workshops during Q2 of 2018. Supporting quotes from partners: Ramesh Nuti, Founder & CEO for Acmetek, said, "In the last few years, the significant growth of internet-connected devices has created a need for our clients to leverage IoT and Enterprise PKI. Whether our clients are securing corporate users and devices, or manufacturing smart systems (such as smart cars, smart homes, Fitbit watches and more), the DigiCert PKI platform scales to address their challenges. In addition to the robust platform capability, the new DigiCert PKI program offers the support and training to expertly win both mindshare and marketshare." Luis Federico Reimers, Head of Sales for CertCenter AG, said, "The security industry benefits from joined up and collaborative end-to-end solutions and the enhancements to the DigiCert portfolio and channel programs delivers real advantages to us that we can pass on to our clients." Timothee Brogniart, Sales Director for SSL247, said, "We welcome the improved partner program from DigiCert and look forward to gaining new skills and certifications that will help us add value to our offerings. As we start to explore new areas, we value the commitment DigiCert has shown to ensure that the channel is supported with exclusive products that help us to retain and grow our customer relationships." About DigiCert DigiCert is a leading provider of scalable security solutions for a connected world. The most innovative companies, including the Global 2000, choose DigiCert for its expertise in identity and encryption for web servers and Internet of Things devices. DigiCert supports SSL/TLS and other digital certificates for PKI deployments at any scale through its certificate lifecycle management platform, CertCentral. The company has been recognized with dozens of awards for its enterprise-grade management platform, fast and knowledgeable customer support, and market-leading growth. For the latest DigiCert news and updates, visit digicert.com or follow @digicert. SOURCE DigiCert, Inc. Related Links https://www.digicert.com ROCKVILLE, Md., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Don't let the name fool you Donor Egg Bank USA, a California Cryobank Company (https://donoreggbankusa.com), is playing an increasingly vital role in the lives of many Canadians experiencing female-related infertility issues. By providing frozen donor eggs from the US, DEB is helping more and more Canadian women and men to achieve the families of their dreams. As a result, frozen donor egg use in Canada has steadily increased since 2013, despite regulatory restrictions that have made it difficult to find local donors. A recent report compiled by the Canadian Assisted Reproductive Technologies Register showed a 10% increase in frozen donor egg cycles from 2015-2016. "We are receiving more and more inquiries from Canada every day," says DEB's Heidi Hayes. "As one of the pioneer egg banks to ship to Canada, we have worked diligently to meet all Health Canada requirements and are happy to be able to service our northern neighbors." Donor Egg Bank USA's frozen donor eggs offer a range of advantages over other options starting with access to a wider and more diverse pool of donors. Clients can search through an extensive database to find a donor meeting even the most discerning of criteria. Donors who apply undergo a rigorous qualification process, including psychological assessment, medical exams, infectious disease screening, and testing for more than 150 genetic conditions. The prepared eggs are shipped directly to the recipient's clinic, significantly reducing the amount of time, money, and inconvenience involved in traveling for a fresh egg cycle. There's also no risk of donor-specific delays or cancellations due to work commitments, hesitations, or changes in circumstance, giving the recipient greater control over the process. Advances in freezing technologies have raised success rates of frozen donor eggs to equal or exceed those of fresh. In 2016, 20% more clinical pregnancies resulted from frozen donor egg IVF (43%) than fresh donor egg IVF (23%). As the number one egg bank among physicians in the States, DEB will continue to play an important role in providing the most convenient, hassle-free, and affordable route for Canadians as well. Donor Egg Bank USA, a California Cryobank Company has shipped over 5,000 sets of eggs with a 2017 clinical pregnancy rate of 58% per transfer. DEB is the only frozen donor egg program to offer the 100% Assured Refund Plan in the event a baby isn't delivered. SOURCE Donor Egg Bank USA, a California Cryobank Company Related Links http://www.donoreggbankusa.com The HMN project is located at the northern end of the prolific Hombre Muerto Salar, adjacent to FMC's producing Fenix lithium mine and Galaxy Resources' Sal de Vida development stage project. The Fenix mine is the largest producing lithium mine in Argentina, and the Sal de Vida project is the largest development stage lithium project in Argentina. The project comprises mining concessions totaling approximately 3,287 hectares (8,122 acres) and is located 170 km southeast of the provincial capital of Salta. The project concessions are shown on the map at the conclusion of this press release. Further details are available at the company website at www.nrgmetalsinc.com, including a recently completed National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report. About NRG NRG Metals Inc. is an exploration stage company focused on the advancement of lithium brine projects in Argentina. In addition to the Hombre Muerto Norte project, the Company is evaluating its 29,000 hectare Salar Escondido project in Catamarca province where the company recently completed a first drill hole that confirmed the Company's conceptual model of a buried lithium brine target. NRG Metals Inc. currently has approximately 107 million shares issued and outstanding, and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under symbol NGZ, on the OTC QB Market under symbol NRGMF, and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under symbol OGPN. The Company currently has working capital of CAD$3.1 million dollars. Technical Disclosure The preparation of this press release was supervised by Mr. James K. Duff, a Licensed Professional Geologist and a Registered Member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration and a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Duff approves the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this press release. The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed the content of this news release and therefore does not accept responsibility or liability for the adequacy or accuracy of the contents of this news release. This news release contains certain "forward- looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the United States Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Except for statements of historical fact relating to the Company, certain information contained herein constitutes forward- looking statements. Forward- looking statements are based upon 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 which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward- looking statements. The transaction described in this news release is subject to a variety of conditions and risks which include but are not limited to: regulatory approval, shareholder approval, market conditions, legal due diligence for claim validity, financing, political risk, security risks at the property locations and other risks. As such, the reader is cautioned that there can be no guarantee that this transaction will complete as described in this news release. We seek safe harbor. On behalf of the board of directors of NRG Metals Inc., Adrian F. C. Hobkirk, President and C.E.O. Investors / Shareholders Call 855-415-8100 / Direct to Adrian Hobkirk +1-714-316-3272 [email protected] SOURCE National Waste Management Holdings, Inc. Related Links http://www.nrgmetalsinc.com GENEVA, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A conference on Persecution of Pakistani Minorities was held on Monday, 12th March 2018 in United Nations during the 37th Session of UN Human Rights Council. The conference was held with the objective of drawing the attention of the international community to the increasing violence and killings of Christians in Pakistan. Dr Mario Silva, Chairman of International Forum for Rights & Security moderated the event, while the speakers included Ms. Salma Bhatti & Ms. Shazia Khokhar, both Christians from Pakistan. Naveed Walter, the President of Human Rights Focus Pakistan joined the conference through Skype. Opening the conference, Mario Silva stated that Pakistan's poor human rights record vis-a-vis Christians was evident from the fact that it ranked 5th on Open Doors 2017 World Watch list of 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. He referred to the case of Sharoon Masih, the 17-year-old Christian boy of MC Model Boys Government High School in the Vehari District of Pakistan's Punjab, who was beaten to death by his classmates last September for allegedly drinking water from the dispenser used by Muslim boys. Dr Silva stated that this incident was a reflection of how Pakistani society treats its Christian community. Ms. Salma Bhatti, the Swiss representative of Human Rights Focus Pakistan, spoke on the issue of forced conversion of Christian women in Pakistan. She informed that cases of forced conversions, where young Christian girls were kidnapped, converted to Islam and married to Muslim men, are a frequent occurrence. According to her, most of these Christian girls were from the economically weaker section, and hence were unable to legally seek assistance against this. Ms. Shazia Khokhar, also a human rights defender speaking on Pakistan's infamous blasphemy laws, said that these laws had become a tool used against religious minorities. She spoke on the well-known case of Asia Bibi, an illiterate Christian berry picker who had been accused of blasphemy and served a death sentence for drinking water from a cup used by Muslims. Ms Shazia stated that a person charged with blasphemy would either need to flee the country of face death, often at the hands of a mob. Naveed Walter, who has been working with the Christian community in Pakistan since 1994 accused Pakistani authorities for being unable to protect Christians. Referring to Pakistan as a failed state, he stated that the country was increasingly been influenced by extremist Islamic groups who were inculcating hate and intolerance among the people against the religious minorities. The conference was attended by more than 60 persons including UN officials, human rights activists, diplomats and journalists from across the world. About the European Organization for Pakistani Minorities EOPM is a human rights organisation which raises its voice against atrocities done on minorities in countries including Pakistan. EOPM has repeatedly expressed concern at attacks on non-Muslims over allegations of blasphemy and desecration of religious scriptures. For more information, please visit: http://eopm.org/ SOURCE European Organization for Pakistani Minorities SAN FRANCISCO, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants, a retail property, casualty insurance brokerage and employee benefits consultant, announced today that Vice President, Hospitality Practice Leader Renee Crow will present at the CLM Annual Conference on Thurs., March 15 at 10:10 a.m. at the Marriott Marquis in Houston, TX. In the claims handling process, insurers can often overlook the differing perspectives of the insured and the insured's insurance broker. In her presentation "Putting the Client First: Increasing Awareness of Litigation Impacts for Insureds," Crow will discuss the claims-related issues that keep the client awake at night, such as impact to an insured's reputation once a matter becomes public, eDiscovery that can be a monumental drain on an insured in both time and expense and distractions created by depositions that can cause loss of productivity. Crow will present alongside Pam Colpoys of Ashford, Inc., Fredoon Mistry of Gallagher Bassett Services, Inc. and David Samuels of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, LLP with the goal to increase the awareness and sensitivity of the claims professional to the claims-related issues that have a direct impact on the insured's operations, employees and insurance profile. CLM Annual Conference is the premier annual event for professionals in the claims and litigation management industries. The conference is a mix of interactive educational sessions and fun networking events. Participants can select from more than 80 collaborative educational sessions focused on all facets of the industry. Click here to see the full agenda. About Renee Crow, vice president, hospitality practice leader Renee Crow joined EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants in January 2016 as vice president and hospitality practice leader. Prior to joining EPIC, Crow held the position of vice president of risk management for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants for nine years. In that role her responsibilities included oversight of all property, casualty, executive protection and employment related insurance, claims, insured litigation, compliance and employee training. She was responsible for coordination of all insurance programs for both owned and third-party managed hotels and restaurants through a Kimpton master program. Previous to Kimpton, Crow worked for over 20 years as a licensed insurance broker with national insurance brokerage firms. Her brokerage experience included positions of outside risk management consultant and account executive for many hotel, restaurant, real estate and construction clients. Crow holds the designations of Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist (CRIS). In 2015, Crow was the chairperson for the AHLA Risk Management Committee and continues to be actively involved with the committee as a regular speaker. She is also a regularly invited speaker for hospitality related groups and panels. About EPIC EPIC is a unique and innovative retail property and casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage and consulting firm. EPIC has created a values-based, client-focused culture that attracts and retains top talent, fosters employee satisfaction and loyalty and sustains a high level of customer service excellence. EPIC team members have consistently recognized their company as a "Best Place to Work" in multiple regions and as a "Best Place to Work in the Insurance Industry" nationally. EPIC now has more than 1,400 team members operating from 50 offices across the U.S., providing Property and Casualty, Employee Benefits, Specialty Programs and Private Client solutions to more than 20,000 clients. With run rate revenues greater than $400 million, EPIC ranks among the top 20 retail insurance brokers in the U.S. Backed by Oak Hill Capital Partners, the company continues to expand organically and through strategic acquisitions across the country. For additional information, please visit www.epicbrokers.com. *LOGO for media: Send2Press.com/300dpi/16-0308-epic-insurance-300dpi.jpg This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com SOURCE EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants Related Links https://www.epicbrokers.com (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653728/EQUIIS_Just_in_Time_Group.jpg ) Following on from EQUIIS' recent partnership with Mobility MEA and BlackBerry, this alliance with JIT once again reinforces the importance of secure communications and EQUIIS' position as market leader. With the JIT Group's extensive knowledge of targeting the Financial, Telecommunications, Government and Commercial sectors, this new partnership will allow EQUIIS to further develop relationships in new regions with a globally recognised partner. "EQUIIS is continuing to expand its reach with best of breed service providers and our new partnership with Just In Time Group is an important strategic milestone in this region. We are excited to introduce EQUIIS into Sri Lanka with the assistance of JIT, enabling them to cater to the many security challenges within the region," said Derek Roga, CEO at EQUIIS Technologies Switzerland AG. "We have a strong pipeline and are very much looking forward to developing more opportunities in the near future which act as the starting point for a very successful year at EQUIIS." "EQUIIS is a very welcome addition to JIT. They bring with them a great understanding of technology on secure mobile communication. This partnership will strengthen our team further, and better enable us to provide cutting edge technology solutions to our customers. We are fortunate and pleased to have such a dynamic technology partner, such as EQUIIS, partner with us," said Piumika Ranasinghe - Head of Sales at JIT. To find out more about the EQUIIS and Just In Time Group Partnership, or for a free trial of the EQUIIS Secure Collaboration solution, contact our sales team on [email protected] . About EQUIIS EQUIIS Technologies Switzerland AG was founded by a group of mobile and encryption entrepreneurs and pioneers with a shared history working with some of the world's largest enterprises and telecommunication operators. We share a vision of bringing to market a cohesive, purpose built end to end secure enterprise communications platform with proven encryption technologies. EQUIIS is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, for more information visit http://www.equiis.com. About Just In Time Group JIT is a veteran in the local ICT arena with a history spanning 21 years as a leading ICT Systems and Solutions Integrator to the country. JIT was recently listed in the latest edition of the APAC CIO Outlook magazine's Top 25 Govt. and Public Sector Technology Providers 2017. JIT was the only Sri Lankan company featured and recognised in the magazine's annual listing of the Top 25 Government and Public Sector Technology Providers for 2017. JIT's key strengths are focused on systems integration, software solutions, network and infrastructure, hardware, mobility, outsourcing IT professionals, professional services, information security services, maintenance and support services, etc. For more information visit http://www.jithpl.com. SOURCE EQUIIS NEW YORK and SAO PAULO, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The first independently-administered program to train and credential medical affairs professionals in Brazil to better understand key principles in such areas as regulatory affairs, drug development, marketing, compliance and clinical trial design is being launched today by the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs in partnership with Interfarma, an association representing Brazil's biopharmaceutical and clinical research industries. The Board Certified Medical Affairs Specialist Program, or BCMAS, is the only consistent, credible and verifiable educational program for Brazilian medical affairs specialists working in the biopharmaceutical industry and in academic institutions, and is consistent with BCMAS credentialing that the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs offers in the United States. Nearly 4,000 medical affairs specialists have enrolled in the BCMAS program since it was launched in the United States just over two years ago. A credentialing program for pharmaceutical representatives and certificate programs teaching fundamental skills needed to work in various areas within the pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics industries are also being launched today in Brazil by the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs. The pharmaceutical representative program is designed to meet the requirements of Anvisa, the Brazilian health regulatory agency. Those enrolled for BCMAS and for certain certificate programs can earn continuing medical education credits. "Medical affairs professionals play a key role in developing and disseminating biopharmaceutical data to physicians, are perceived by many physicians as a reliable resource and are in a position to greatly influence physicians' treatment decisions," said Dr. Charles Schmidt, who heads South American operations for the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs. "Before the launch of the BCMAS program, no uniform standard existed for training and credentialing medical affairs staff in Brazil," Dr. Schmidt added. "The lack of uniform training and standards administered by an independent third-party organization has resulted in an increased risk of medical affairs misinforming physicians. This, in turn, can put patients at risk for treatments that may cause injury and even death, while exposing biopharmaceutical companies to litigation." Growing demands by patients in Brazil for expanded access to drugs for off-label uses makes it more important than ever that medical affairs professionals and pharmaceutical representatives have a solid grounding in issues such as professional ethics, drug abuse and fraud prevention, and rules governing interaction with practicing physicians. Dr. Schmidt, a pediatrician with extensive experience in pharmaceutical medical affairs, clinical research and drug development, was instrumental in attaining Interfarma's endorsement for the BCMAS program. Dr. Schmidt is an attending physician and coordinator of the post-graduate program in clinical research and medical affairs at Santa Casa Medical School in Sao Paulo, and the medical manager of the Central Institute of Clinical Research at Hospital de Clinicas, also in Sao Paulo. He founded and is a former president of the Brazilian Association of Clinical Research Organizations, served as vice president of the Brazilian Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians, and has been instrumental in expanding clinical research on rare pediatric genetic diseases. The Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs is planning to expand its programs to additional countries in South America and beyond. "We are committed to developing universal standards in medical affairs for the pharmaceutical, device and diagnostics industries," said Dr. William Soliman, the Council's chair. About The Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs The Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs, or ACMA, is a self-governing entity which administers medical affairs certification program content. ACMA's mission is to establish, certify, and maintain the competencies of qualified medical and scientific professionals who have a focus in medical affairs within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The council works collaboratively with other academic and industry organizations to ensure that there are adequate educational and professional development opportunities for professionals involved in medical affairs as well as for students with an interest in medical affairs. For additional information, visit ACMA's website, http://www.medicalaffairsspecialist.org/. For details on ACMA's Brazil programs, visit http://brazil.medicalaffairsspecialist.org. Follow ACMA on Twitter and LinkedIn. ACMA Contact: Sarah Basmadjian [email protected] Media Contacts: Russo Partners, LLC David Schull (212) 845-4271 [email protected] Amiad Finkelthal (646) 942-5626 (917) 217-1838 mobile [email protected] SOURCE Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs Related Links https://www.medicalaffairsspecialist.org HOUSTON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Four attorneys with Houston intellectual property firm Heim, Payne & Chorush have earned selection to the 2018 Texas Rising Stars list. Recognized among the state's top young lawyers are partners Eric J. Enger, Miranda Jones and Robert Allan Bullwinkel and associate Christopher First. All are being honored for their work in intellectual property litigation. This is Mr. Enger's 11th consecutive year to be listed as a Rising Star, and Ms. Jones' third consecutive year. Mr. First is making his second appearance on the list, and Mr. Bullwinkel is being honored by Rising Stars for the first time. "In any IP case, there's so much on the line," said firm partner Michael Heim. "It can mean the livelihoods of hundreds of people, or even whether a business lives or dies. I'm thankful that I get to work with attorneys like these who consistently deliver the best results possible for our clients." Each year, the publishers of Texas Rising Stars recognize the best and brightest attorneys in the state. To qualify, lawyers must be 40 or younger, or must have been practicing law for less than 10 years. Assembled by the Thomson Reuters' legal division, each year's list is subject to a lengthy nomination process and rigorous editorial review. Only 2.5 percent of eligible attorneys make the list, which will be published in the April 2018 editions of Texas Monthly and the Texas Rising Stars edition of Super Lawyers magazine. Heim, Payne & Chorush, LLP represents both plaintiffs and defendants in patent and antitrust litigation across a broad range of technologies and business sectors. With a wide variety of technical and scientific backgrounds, firm attorneys are able to handle all facets of intellectual property litigation for some of the largest energy and technology firms, as well as individuals and smaller companies. Heim, Payne & Chorush takes pride in its ability to partner with other attorneys and firms to bring the best possible trial team together for the benefit of the client. To learn more about the firm and the work it does, visit www.hpcllp.com. Media Contact: Robert Tharp 214-559-4630 [email protected] SOURCE Heim, Payne & Chorush Related Links http://www.hpcllp.com FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frankfurt Airport records significant traffic growth for passengers and flights -Fraport's international portfolio achieves positive development Frankfurt Airport (FRA) served almost 4.4 million passengers in the February 2018 reporting month, an increase of 8.5 percent year-on-year. Passenger traffic in the cumulative January-to-February 2018 period rose by 8.0 percent. February's passenger increase can be attributed mainly to intra-European routes which generated 13.2 percent growth. Cargo throughput (airfreight and airmail) at FRA grew by 3.2 percent to 166,959 metric tons. Aircraft movements climbed by 7.6 percent to 35,193 takeoffs and landings. European traffic (up 10.5 percent) was also the main growth driver in this category. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) advanced by 5.5 percent to about 2.2 million metric tons. Overall, Fraport's international airport portfolio recorded traffic growth in February 2018. Slovenia's Ljubljana Airport (LJU) received 99,213 passengers, a double-digit gain of 10.2 percent. The two Brazilian airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA) welcomed a combined total of about 1.1 million passengers - representing growth of 6.1 percent. The 14 Greek regional airports saw traffic slide by 8.8 percent to a combined total of 517,438 passengers. The primary contributing factor here was reduced flight operations at the high-traffic Thessaloniki Airport (SKG), required for runway construction works. As a result, SKG's passenger traffic dropped by 13.7 percent during the reporting period. In the meantime, the SKG runway project has been completed. Peru's capital city gateway at Lima Airport (LIM) reported about 1.7 million passengers and growth of 9.6 percent in February 2018. Combined, Fraport Twin Star's airports at Varna (VAR) and Burgas (BOJ) on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast advanced by 62.2 percent to a total of 61,027 passengers. On the Turkish Riviera, Antalya Airport (AYT) achieved a 15.5 percent jump in traffic to 694,177 passengers. Traffic at Hanover Airport (HAJ) in northern Germany grew by 11.1 per cent to 317,579 passengers. In the reporting month, Russia's St. Petersburg Airport (LED) registered 953,908 passengers (up 6.3 percent) and China's Xi'an Airport (XIY) counted some 3.5 million passengers (up 8.9 percent). Fraport AG Torben Beckmann Corporate Communications Media Relations 60547 Frankfurt, Germany Tel.: +49-69-690-70553 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://www.fraport.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FrankfurtAirport Click here if you no longer wish to receive Fraport's press information. Fraport Traffic Figures February 2018 Fraport Group Airports1 February 2018 Year to Date (YTD) 2018 Fully-conso lidated Fraport Passengers Cargo* Movements Passengers Cargo Movements airports share(%) Month % Month % Month % YTD % YTD % YTD % FRA Frankfurt Germany 100.00 4,364,930 8.5 163,121 2.2 35,193 7.6 8,914,327 8.0 329,686 1.3 72,009 8.1 LJU Ljubljana Slovenia 100.00 99,213 10.2 929 11.1 2,214 3.1 199,588 11.3 1,945 14.6 4,676 7.3 Fraport Brasil 100.00 1,054,355 6.1 5,704 34.0 10,082 5.1 2,354,732 3.0 11,810 45.0 21,859 3.1 FOR Fortaleza Brazil 100.00 441,101 4.0 2,832 4.7 3,929 3.3 1,038,677 -1.4 6,269 20.7 8,893 -0.3 POA Porto Alegre Brazil 100.00 613,254 7.6 2,872 85.1 6,153 6.2 1,316,055 6.7 5,541 88.0 12,966 5.6 Fraport Regional Airports of Greece A+B 73.40 517,438 -8.8 n.a. n.a. 5,398 -5.4 1,066,944 -6.9 n.a.n.a. 11,272 -6.7 Fraport Regional Airports of Greece A 73.40 385,248 -10.9 n.a. n.a. 3,672 -6.0 794,988 -9.4 n.a.n.a. 7,681 -7.7 CFU Kerkyra (Corfu) Greece 73.40 18,288 32.8 n.a. n.a. 347 84.6 37,891 32.0 n.a.n.a. 719 81.6 CHQ Chania (Crete) Greece 73.40 39,838 -40.1 n.a. n.a. 296 -40.8 83,093 -38.2 n.a.n.a. 604 -41.9 EFL Kefalonia Greece 73.40 2,035 21.1 n.a. n.a. 75 10.3 3,925 13.3 n.a. n.a. 152 5.6 KVA Kavala Greece 73.40 26,391 >100.0 n.a. n.a. 288>100.0 58,819>100.0 n.a. n.a. 668>100.0 PVK Aktion/ Preveza Greece 73.40 199 63.1 n.a. n.a. 68 -2.9 528 24.2 n.a. n.a. 134 -11.8 SKG Thessaloniki Greece 73.40 295,839 -13.7 n.a. n.a. 2,484 -12.9 605,425-12.9 n.a. n.a. 5,180 -15.1 ZTH Zakynthos Greece 73.40 2,658 -0.8 n.a. n.a. 114 1.8 5,307 -1.8 n.a. n.a. 224 -6.7 Fraport Regional Airports of Greece B 73.40 132,190 -2.1 n.a. n.a. 1,726 -4.2 271,956 1.2 n.a. n.a. 3,591 -4.5 JMK Mykonos Greece 73.40 5,552 -56.2 n.a. n.a. 120 -16.7 7,861 -64.3 n.a. n.a. 181 -40.8 JSI Skiathos Greece 73.40 923 13.8 n.a. n.a. 40 25.0 1,796 25.2 n.a. n.a. 80 21.2 JTR Santorini (Thira) Greece 73.40 30,481 2.2 n.a. n.a. 270 -3.2 60,870 5.4 n.a. n.a. 570 -2.2 KGS Kos Greece 73.40 13,883 37.3 n.a. n.a. 286 28.8 31,246 50.7 n.a. n.a. 605 29.0 MJT Mytilene (Lesvos) Greece 73.40 19,112 -7.8 n.a. n.a. 280 -13.8 39,348 -5.2 n.a. n.a. 607 -9.0 RHO Rhodes Greece 73.40 53,358 2.4 n.a. n.a. 521 -4.4 112,031 4.4 n.a. n.a. 1,105 -4.2 SMI Samos Greece 73.40 8,881 1.2 n.a. n.a. 209 -17.7 18,804 4.3 n.a. n.a. 443 -14.1 LIM Lima Peru2 70.01 1,707,889 9.6 17,594 2.5 14,713 7.0 3,538,561 9.6 42,509 0.3 31,213 8.3 Fraport Twin Star Bulgaria 60.00 61,027 62.2 759 -11.8 666 20.2 133,932 74.1 1,620 -37.8 1,467 27.1 BOJ Burgas Bulgaria 60.00 9,804 17.5 752 -12.0 147 -10.4 22,847 21.2 1,608 -35.7 342 -8.3 VAR Varna Bulgaria 60.00 51,223 75.0 7 12.8 519 33.1 111,085 91.2 12 -88.6 1,125 44.0 At equity consolidated airports2 AYT Antalya Turkey 51.00 694,177 15.5 n.a. n.a. 4,892 6.6 1,494,254 17.0 n.a.n.a. 10,332 6.7 HAJ Hannover Germany 30.00 317,579 11.1 1,681 -10.6 5,055 8.5 639,282 9.0 3,575 2.1 9,908 4.9 LED St. Petersburg Russia 25.00 953,908 6.3 n.a. n.a. 10,050 6.3 2,033,082 8.1 n.a. n.a. 21,378 7.0 XIY Xi'an China 24.50 3,496,540 8.9 17,041 16.2 25,265 4.4 6,805,204 4.4 42,590 15.3 50,830 1.9 Frankfurt Airport3 February 2018 Month % Passengers 4,365,161 8.5 Cargo (freight & mail) 166,959 3.2 Aircraft movements 35,193 7.6 MTOW (in metric tons)4 2,181,762 5.5 PAX/PAX-flight5 133.3 0.5 Seat load factor (%) 73.9 Punctuality rate (%) 72.9 Frankfurt Airport PAX share %6 Regional Split Month Continental 62.4 11.3 Germany 11.9 4.0 Europe (excl. GER) 50.5 13.2 Western Europe 42.2 13.0 Eastern Europe 8.3 14.3 Intercontinental 37.6 4.0 Africa 4.8 13.5 Middle East 6.3 4.0 North America 10.2 3.4 Central & South Amer. 4.4 -0.8 Far East 11.8 3.0 Australia 0.0 n.a. Definitions: 1 According to ACI definition: Passengers: commercial traffic only (arr+dep+transit counted once), Cargo: commercial and non-commercial traffic (arr+dep excluding transit, in metric tons), Movements: commerical and non-commercial traffic (arr+dep); 2 Preliminary figures; 3 Commercial and non-commercial traffic: Passengers (arr+dep+transit counted once, incl. general aviation), Cargo (arr+dep+transit counted once, in metric tons), Movements (arr+dep); 4 Inbound traffic only; 5 Scheduled and charter traffic; 6 absolute change vs. previous year in % ; *Cargo=Freight + mail SOURCE Fraport AG CLEVELAND, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Two months after placing tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels, President Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports last week. The tariffs will increase the cost of imported steel and aluminum by 25% and 10%, respectively. While this advances President Trump's America First agenda, a number of US trading partners are seeking exemptions or planning retaliatory tariffs, and the overall impact on the American economy is uncertain. While Canada and Mexico are temporarily exempt while the future of NAFTA is being negotiated, the tariff is applied uniformly to all other countries, some of which are reconsidering their business relationships with the US. For instance, even before the tariff was formally announced, Sweden's Electrolux placed its planned $250 million plant expansion in Tennessee on hold. Although Electrolux utilizes US-produced steel at its plant, the company anticipates that the cost of appliances produced in the US will increase and has postponed investment in US operations as it evaluates the full impact of the tariff. Another potential impact is a shift away from US manufacturing. The markets for appliances and motor vehicles in the US, two industries that use significant amounts of steel and aluminum, are supplied by both domestic production and imports. As manufacturing these products in the US becomes more expensive, imports may have a competitive advantage on price, which would counteract the president's intention with the tariffs. The tariffs will benefit workers directly involved in steel and aluminum production. Still, the number of American workers in steel- and aluminum-using industries is substantially higher than workers in the steel and aluminum production industries. An increase in the cost of imported steel and aluminum will likely cause price increases on finished goods. For expensive products such as heavy machinery, motor vehicles, recreational vehicles, and boats that are still produced in the US in significant numbers, the cost increase will be noticeable. "At the end of the day, the tariff will hit consumers where it matters most, their wallets," says Freedonia analyst Kyle Peters. "US businesses will also find it harder to compete overseas, as the cost of their product becomes more expensive." For more information, see Freedonia's studies covering appliances, HVAC equipment, machinery, motor vehicles, and recreational boats and motor vehicles. Browse by category here: https://www.freedoniagroup.com/ReportsAndStudies.aspx About The Freedonia Group The Freedonia Group, a division of MarketResearch.com, is a leading international industrial research company publishing more than 100 studies annually. Since 1985 we have provided research to customers ranging in size from global conglomerates to one-person consulting firms. More than 90% of the industrial companies in the Fortune 500 use Freedonia Group research to help with their strategic planning. Each study includes product and market analyses and forecasts, in-depth discussions of important industry trends, and market share information. Studies can be purchased at www.freedoniagroup.com and are also available on www.marketresearch.com and www.profound.com. Press Contact: Corinne Gangloff +1 440.684.9600 [email protected] SOURCE The Freedonia Group Related Links http://www.freedoniagroup.com EXTON, Pa., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- To meet the growing demand for laboratory and clinical services solutions in the Mid-Atlantic Region, Frontage Laboratories, Inc., a global CRO with headquarters in Exton, Pennsylvania, has opened a new branch office located at 101 Carnegie Center in Princeton, New Jersey. The Carnegie Center location adds 4,500 sq. ft. of office space to support the continued growth of both Frontage Laboratories, Inc. and Frontage Clinical Services, Inc. Frontage Laboratories, Inc. "We are very pleased to be able to add a third New Jersey location. This new site will allow us to better serve our pharmaceutical and biotech clients located in the Mid-Atlantic Region," said Dr. Song Li, Founder and CEO, Frontage Laboratories, Inc. For more information, please contact us at [email protected]. About Frontage: Frontage Laboratories, Inc, a full-service early-stage CRO with locations in USA and China, has been assisting global biopharmaceutical organizations in their drug development efforts since 2001. Spanning from discovery through late-stage development, its full-service offerings include DMPK, bioanalysis using 60 LC-MS/MS instruments, analytical testing, product development, and full biometrics support. Frontage also provides turnkey product development services to generic, innovator and consumer health pharmaceutical companies to support IND, NDA, ANDA, and 505(b)(2) submissions. Frontage has successfully enabled biopharmaceutical and generic companies of all sizes to advance hundreds of molecules through clinical development to commercial launch in global markets. Related Links Press Release Location SOURCE Frontage Laboratories, Inc. Related Links http://www.frontagelab.com SAN FRANCISCO, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Funding Circle, the world's leading small business loans platform, today announced that Bernardo Martinez will join the company as its new U.S. managing director. He succeeds co-founder Sam Hodges, who will become Chairman of Funding Circle USA. The appointment follows record-breaking growth for Funding Circle in the United States, with U.S. businesses now having accessed more than $1 billion in funding through the platform since 2014 and $500 million in 2017 alone. Martinez joins Funding Circle from PayPal, where he served as head of U.S. small business lending. Prior to PayPal, he was Chief Product and Marketing officer at Banco Dominicano del Progreso where he led the bank's transformation, including an exclusive operating agreement with American Express in the Dominican Republic, and spent six years at Bank of America overseeing a variety of functions within its small business banking business. He has more than 20 years' experience leading high-growth lending businesses within financial services, with a focus on serving small businesses. Speaking about the appointment, Samir Desai, CEO and co-founder of Funding Circle said: "Bernardo's deep experience and knowledge of small businesses in the U.S. makes him the perfect fit for one of our fastest growing markets. I am delighted he has joined the team to spearhead our next stage of growth. These are exciting times for Funding Circle in the U.S. Over the last five years, we have established ourselves as the largest small business loans platform, and we have ambitious plans for the future." Martinez said: "I have been impressed by Funding Circle's accomplishments for small business around the world. They are doing more than just building a category-leading financial technology company. They are building a better financial world by supporting small businesses to grow, in turn creating jobs and revitalizing our communities. I'm excited to work with Samir, Sam and the rest of the team to extend this impact as we head into the next chapter." Hodges said: "We have an exciting few years ahead of us here at Funding Circle, and I am thrilled Bernardo has joined to help guide our U.S. business through this next phase of growth. Access to finance for small business remains a major problem in the U.S., and I have never been more confident in our ability to fill this void, fueling the growth of America's small businesses and delivering better returns for investors." Launched in 2010, the Funding Circle model has opened up small business lending to a wide range of investors, including 75,000 individuals; national and local banks such as INTRUST Bank; national and supra-national government institutions, such as the British Investment Bank, European Investment Bank, and KfW, the German government-owned development bank; and financial institutions such as pension funds. By improving competition in the market and reducing dependency on bank lending, Funding Circle is helping small businesses to boost their local economies and communities through much-needed job creation. By bringing together industry-leading risk management and cutting-edge technology, creditworthy businesses typically access the capital they need in days rather than months. Since launching in 2010 Funding Circle has established itself as the world's largest small business lending platform. More than $5 billion has been lent globally through the Funding Circle platform with more than $3 billion loans under management. Since 2014, Funding Circle has helped more than 8,000 U.S. businesses access financing. In a recent survey* of business owners who have borrowed through Funding Circle, 92 percent said they would come back to Funding Circle for their future business financing needs. About Funding Circle Funding Circle (www.fundingcircle.com) is the world's leading lending platform for small businesses, matching investors to businesses who want to grow in the UK, US and Europe. Since launching in 2010, investors at Funding Circle have now lent more than $5 billion to more than 40,000 businesses globally. Approximately 10% of investor money now comes from government sources, including the British Business Bank, European Investment Bank, KfW, the German government-owned development bank, and local councils across the UK. The business has raised 250m in equity capital from the same investors that backed Facebook, Twitter and Airbnb. * Based on an online survey of US Funding Circle borrowers. A total of 216 business owners completed the survey between Oct. 10-30, 2017. SOURCE Funding Circle Related Links http://www.fundingcircle.com URBANA, Ill., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Later this week, 35 high-performing James Scholars from Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois will embrace the fast-paced world of accelerators, incubators and venture capitalists by heading to Israel for ten days of immersion in entrepreneurship. "Israel's well-established reputation for innovation in technology and agriculture makes it a natural partner for the cutting-edge research at UIUC," says Gies College of Business Dean Jeffery R. Brown. "We're partnering with Tel Aviv University and pioneering businesses to give our students a head start at turning business concepts into viable companies that will impact our state, the country and the world. This innovative learning experience exposes students to the vanguard of the dynamic local and global businesses they will one day run." Arriving in Jerusalem on Saturday, March 17, the students will commence a packed schedule of sit-down meetings with a cross-section of luminaries in business, political dignitaries and Israeli cultural figures. They will also enjoy more contemplative downtime visits to historic landmarks and natural wonders, with scheduled events to include a chance to participate in a Sabbath at the Western Wall and to float in The Dead Sea. The program opens in Jerusalem at the Old Port of Jaffa for a meeting with Leonid Bakman, founder and president of the Israel Innovation Institute. On the following day, students will have the opportunity to break bread with the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, and discuss how Israel became known as The Start-up Nation. Later, they will engage in inspirational conversations with an Israeli artist and military veteran of the Israeli Defense Force, followed by a networking dinner with students of Tel Aviv University. Additional trip highlights include interactions with "WeWork" entrepreneurs and venture capital gurus like John Medved, CEO and founder of OurCrowd, as well as visits to the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce, and the Beer Sheva Advanced Technologies Park. "We're offering this for-credit experience because we understand the passion GenZ has for setting their own destiny and owning their own purpose-driven business one day," said Dean Brown. "This unique program kick-starts their learning and gives them the tools they need to continue our University's legacy of innovation." About the Gies College of Business The Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides a world class educational experience for the next generation of business leaders. For more than 100 years, the College has delivered on the promise of innovation in business education, with a commitment to cutting-edge curriculum design and delivery, exceptional experiential learning opportunities, and unparalleled academic excellence. Today our faculty prepare more than 5,100 students, including 3,100 undergraduates, to be at the forefront of innovation and leadership in the global economy. SOURCE Gies College of Business CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Goldfinch Bio, a company focused on precision therapies to treat patients with kidney disease, today announced the strengthening of its leadership team with the election of Franklin "Frank" W. Maddux, M.D. F.A.C.P., to its board of directors and naming Dr. Peter Mundel, M.D., chief scientific officer. Dr. Mundel, an expert in kidney podocyte biology, played a key role in the creation and launch of Goldfinch Bio and has been instrumental in its progress to date. Dr. Maddux, an expert nephrologist, currently serves as chief medical officer (CMO) and executive vice president of clinical and scientific affairs at Fresenius Medical Care North America. "Peter Mundel has been a critical team member in the early days of Goldfinch Bio laying the scientific groundwork for our evolving pipeline," stated Tony Johnson, M.D., chief executive officer of Goldfinch Bio. "Together with our outstanding scientific and development leadership team Peter has helped integrate breakthroughs in genetics and biology to bring precision medicine closer to patients with kidney diseases." About Peter Mundel, M.D. Dr. Mundel joined Goldfinch Bio after serving as a consultant to Third Rock Ventures, where he played an important role in the creation and launch of Goldfinch Bio. He brings to the company more than 25 years of experience as a leader in academic research, most recently at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. A major focus of Dr. Mundel's work has been the development of precision therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases through a mechanistic understanding of the cell biology and pathophysiology of the kidney, with a focus on podocytes. A pioneer of molecularly targeted treatment for proteinuric kidney disease, Dr. Mundel has published more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including in high impact journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, and Nature Cell Biology, and has given numerous invited lectures nationally and internationally. He was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2003 , and has received numerous awards including a Top10 award from the Clinical Research Forum and the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Nephrology. Dr. Mundel holds an M.D. from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. "I am pleased to add Dr. Frank Maddux to our Board given his expertise across the medical and business aspects of kidney disease," noted Dr. Johnson. "As Goldfinch develops precision therapies for kidney disease patients, we will benefit greatly from Dr. Maddux's decades of experience, patient care, and commitment alongside renal stakeholders to improve treatment of kidney disease." About Frank Maddux, M.D. Dr. Maddux brings more than three decades of experience as a physician, nephrologist, and healthcare executive. He currently serves as CMO and executive vice president for clinical and scientific affairs for Fresenius Medical Care North America, where he oversees the delivery of quality, value-based care for the largest integrated renal care network in North America. Dr. Maddux joined Fresenius Medical Care in 2009 after the company acquired Health IT Services Group, a leading electronic health record (EHR) software company founded by Maddux. Prior to joining Fresenius Medical Care North America, he served as CMO and senior vice president for Specialty Care Services Group and formerly served as president of Virginia's Danville Urologic Clinic, where he was a practicing nephrologist for nearly two decades. In 2017, Dr. Maddux was nominated as one of Modern Healthcare Magazine's 50 Most Influential Physician Executives in the U.S. He holds a BS in mathematics from Vanderbilt University and an MD degree from the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Goldfinch Bio is evolving a disciplined scientific and genetic registry-based approach to realize the goal of helping to deliver precise personalized care for patients with kidney disease," stated Dr. Maddux. About Goldfinch Bio Goldfinch Bio is a biotechnology company that is singularly focused on discovering and developing precision therapies for patients with kidney diseases. Just as the goldfinch has long been a symbol of healing and renewal and was a prominent figure of the Renaissance, Goldfinch Bio is leading a new age of therapeutic discovery to transform the treatment paradigm for patients with kidney diseases. Goldfinch was launched in 2016 by Third Rock Ventures, and is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.goldfinchbio.com. Goldfinch Bio Contact Jennifer Williams Cook Williams Communications, Inc. [email protected] 360-668-3701 SOURCE Goldfinch Bio Related Links http://www.goldfinchbio.com SINGAPORE, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Grab, the leading on-demand transportation and fintech platform in Southeast Asia, has announced a partnership with Chubb, the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company, to offer insurance solutions for Grab's driver-partners. Using the Grab app, drivers will be able to select different insurance options to protect their vehicles, their livelihoods and, ultimately, even their families, with access to loss of income insurance, per-ride schemes, personal accident policies and motor insurance. The companies will also explore leveraging data technology from Grab's platform, including telematics, machine learning and predictive analytics to offer insurance solutions personalized to the specific needs of different private-hire vehicle drivers in Southeast Asia. The partnership was announced as part of the launch of Grab Financial, the fintech platform within the Grab ecosystem. Encompassing all of Grab's fintech offerings, Grab Financial offers payments services, rewards and loyalty services, financial services and agent services. Jason Thompson, Managing Director, GrabPay Southeast Asia, said, "At Grab, driver welfare is at the heart of our vision of improving the lives of people in Southeast Asia. We want to ensure our driver-partners' hard work pays off and that their income and livelihoods are protected. We are excited to have a partner such as Chubb with whom we share this vision. Backed by Chubb's global insurance expertise, we are now able to bring this app-based insurance product for the first time to drivers across Southeast Asia." Paul McNamee, Regional President, Chubb Asia Pacific, said, "We are delighted to work with a digital pioneer like Grab to protect their 2.6 million driver-partners. Our insurance partnership is evolving from traditional group personal accident coverage for drivers to more digital options directly offered from the Grab app. We will also work with Grab's customer and partner-centric platform to introduce relevant, convenient and affordable digital insurance options in the eight countries where Grab operates. Overall, this partnership is an exciting step in our digital strategy to meet growing insurance needs in Asia Pacific." This new partnership is an extension of Grab's long-term commitment to improve driver welfare. According to a survey published in June 2017, Grab's driver-partners earn 32% more income on a per-hour basis compared with average worker wages across all of Grab's markets. Beyond earnings, Grab has also continued to invest in its support function, in-app tools and community events to make the driver-experience better. Examples include the roll-out of in-app features such as instant cash-out, which enables drivers to transfer money to their bank accounts instantly; GrabBenefits, an in-app view of all discounts and offers negotiated for drivers; and My Destination, a feature that enables drivers to get trips in the direction they are planning to go. These features make it easier for drivers to find rides and secure earnings. Improvements have not been limited to the app, with Grab continuing to invest in general support through driver training at the Grab Driver Centre as well as community events to strengthen driver relations. Grab has continuously focused on forming partnerships to explore new and innovative ways to solve Southeast Asia's biggest challenges. From working with governments, to taxi operators and financial institutions, Grab's open-market model is aimed at making transport and transactions safer, more affordable, and more reliable. With Chubb's help, the company expects to break new ground, making insurance more convenient and affordable for its drivers, with features like pay-per-ride options, one-click enrollment and claim payment via the app. Chubb is committed to the digitization of its insurance products and services to meet the needs of customers living, working and running businesses in the Digital Age. The company is investing in product innovation, analytics and technology to provide a truly "anytime-anywhere" customer experience for its clients and distribution partners. Chubb's capabilities range from simple easy-to-apply consumer insurance plans offered through social media and mobile platforms to artificial intelligence-enhanced decision support of underwriting and claims. About Grab Grab is Southeast Asia's leading on-demand transportation and fintech platform. Grab solves critical transportation challenges to make transport freedom a reality for 620 million people in Southeast Asia. Grab's core product platform includes transport solutions for drivers and passengers with an emphasis on convenience, safety and reliability, as well as its proprietary mobile payments platform, GrabPay, which is increasing access to mobile payment solutions for millions of Grab riders and drivers across Southeast Asia and deepening financial inclusion in the region. Grab currently offers services in Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. For more information, please visit: www.grab.com. About Chubb Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also distinguished by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength, underwriting excellence, superior claims handling expertise and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com. SOURCE Chubb; Grab Related Links https://www.chubb.com SOUTHFIELD, Mich., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Great Expressions Dental Centers ("GEDC"), one of the largest dental support organizations in the U.S., announced that Dan Hirschfeld has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer. Founded in 1982 and operating as a single brand, GEDC provides comprehensive, affordable dental services through its network of over 300 affiliated practices staffed by more than 900 dentists and hygienists who deliver their care through more than one million visits per year. Mr. Hirschfeld has over 30 years of experience in healthcare services, including as president and CEO of three different companies. Most recently, Mr. Hirschfeld served as President of Genesis Rehabilitation Services and International Operations and EVP/COO for Genesis Healthcare, Inc., a $6 billion publicly-traded healthcare services company focused on rehabilitation, long-term care and assisted living. During his tenure, Genesis Rehabilitation scaled from 400 locations to 1,700 locations. "I am truly excited to join the leading brand in the dental industry," said Dan Hirschfeld. "Day in and day out, Great Expressions delivers outstanding patient care, one smile at a time. I could not be prouder to join this dedicated, committed and passionate team. Without all of them, our success would not be possible. I look forward to continuing its commitment to operational excellence and patient experience, and bringing a GEDC smile to even more happy faces." Tim Armstrong, Managing Director of Roark Capital Group, whose affiliates own a majority of GEDC, added, "Attracting someone with Dan's experience, talent and vision positions GEDC to accelerate its growth at a dynamic time in the dental industry. We are excited to welcome Dan and look forward to him guiding the company in its continued success as one of the premier dental support organizations in the country." About Great Expressions Dental Centers For nearly 40 years, Great Expressions Dental Centers has been a leader in preventative dental care, orthodontics and specialty care with offices in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. Great Expressions is consistently recognized for contributions to improving oral health through quality and safety initiatives, affordable dental care services, patient convenience, research and more. Great Expressions Dental Centers branded practices are independently-owned and operated in specific states by licensed dentists and their professional entities who employ the licensed professionals providing dental treatment and services. ADG, LLC provides administrative and business support services and licenses the Great Expressions Dental Centers brand name to independently-owned and operated dental practices. ADG does not own or operate dental practices, or employ the licensed professionals providing dental treatment and services. For more information, please visit www.greatexpressions.com. SOURCE Great Expressions Dental Centers Related Links http://www.greatexpressions.com VANCOUVER, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - HashChain Technology Inc. (TSXV: KASH;OTCQB: HSSHF) ("HashChain" or the "Company") today announced that its Balance cryptocurrency accounting software, adds support for Gemini, a New York State licensed and regulated digital asset exchange, and provides additional support for transactions that span multiple wallets of digital currency holders. With these enhancements, HashChain continues to advance the software. Balance is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering that allows cryptocurrency users to meet tax requirements in their respective countries by analyzing the blockchain to report capital gains and losses for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin and DASH. For tracking activity from exchanges, users can directly integrate their Coinbase accounts with Balance and can now upload their transactions from Gemini. Balance also supports blockchain transactions created with software wallets where it calculates exact values of each transaction, and tracks the cost basis and days carried. Once the gains and losses are calculated, the software automatically details the information on a worksheet that can be shared with a CPA to file with other tax items. Whilst there is no formal agreement between HashChain and Gemini, the Balance addition means Gemini account holders can easily import their own transaction history onto a compatible piece of software. Gemini Exchange Gemini is a licensed digital asset exchange that allows customers to buy, sell, and trade both Bitcoin and Ether digital currencies. As a New York trust company, Gemini is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) and subject to the capital reserve requirements, cybersecurity requirements, and banking compliance standards set forth by the NYSDFS and the New York Banking Law. With this new support, users will now be able to easily download raw transaction data from their Gemini account as a spreadsheet and upload the file directly into HashChain's Balance software. Balance will identify which currencies the user traded and generate comprehensive ledgers for each including gains and losses. The integration is designed to support any digital currency Gemini might add in the future. Support for Cross-wallet Transactions Balance is also adding support for cross-wallet transactions, offering customers who use third-party tools to generate raw blockchain transactions that span one or more wallets a simple solution to track their trade history for accurate tax reporting. Most hardware wallets allow owners to maintain multiple cryptocurrency accounts, and while many holders choose to keep accounts isolated, others treat several accounts as a single collection of digital currency. Balance can retroactively track the transactions that drew inputs from multiple accounts, which have been incredibly challenging for software and for digital currency holders until now. "As digital currency continues to push its way into mainstream financial sectors and individual adoption continues to explode, we expect to see more coin holders using third party software to manage their digital investments," said Patrick Gray, CEO of HashChain. "Consequently, we expect complex trades will become commonplace and we are dedicated to ensuring that our cryptocurrency tax software meets customer needs now and in the future." On March 5th, 2018, HashChain announced that Balance expanded services globally to meet the needs of cryptocurrency investors, as many countries tighten their tax laws around cryptocurrency transactions. On February 7, 2018, Balance activated support of the Coinbase exchange. About HashChain Technology Inc. HashChain is a blockchain company, and the first publicly traded (TSXV:KASH:OTCQB: HSSHF) Canadian cryptocurrency mining company to file a final prospectus supporting highly scalable and flexible mining operations across all major cryptocurrencies. HashChain taps low-cost North American power, cool climate and high-speed Internet: the trifecta most critical to mining success, to create a competitive position for maximizing the number of mining 'wins.' HashChain currently operates 100 Dash mining Rigs, 770 Bitcoin Rigs, and has purchased an additional 3,000 Rigs. Once all Rigs are operational HashChain will be consuming approximately 5.8 megawatts of power. HashChain also acquired a Dash Masternode for approximately USD $280,000 which requires a collateral investment of 1,000 Dash coins. Diversifying its business strategy beyond crypto mining, the Company recently acquired assets of NODE40, a blockchain technology company that developed NODE40 Balance, a new SaaS product making cryptocurrency tax reporting simpler and more accurate. The solution allows cryptocurrency users and traders to accurately report their capital gains and losses. NODE40 is also one of the leading masternode server-hosting providers for the Dash network and is seeking additional alternate coin masternode hosting. HashChain Mining is a wholly owned subsidiary of HashChain Technology Inc. based out of Albany, New York, with offices in Vancouver, British Columbia. On Behalf of the Board, Patrick Gray CEO & Director For Further information please contact: HashChain Technology Inc. Larry Heinzlmeir Vice President, Marketing & Communications [email protected] 604-537-8676 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. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements: Certain disclosure in this release, including statements regarding the performance of the Company's operating and purchased Rigs, and expectations regarding future operations may constitute forward-looking statements. In making the forward-looking statements in this release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company, including that the 3,000 Rigs will be successfully delivered, the 3,000 Rigs will perform as expected by management. Although the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this 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. Such risk factors may include, among others, the risk that the 3,000 Rigs will not be successfully delivered to the Company when expected by management or at all, the risk that the Company's current and ordered Rigs will not perform as expected by management. 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. SOURCE HashChain Technology Inc. DALLAS, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Horizon Air Group has made remarkable strides during its foundational years, having acquired Word Class Jet (dba Starbase Jet) last summer and now rebranding itself as LEVIATE. As the company has expanded, it has developed into one of the only business aviation companies with fully dedicated air charter brokerage, aircraft sales and acquisitions, and FAA air carrier divisions all under one roof. Initially started as a boutique air charter brokerage, company leadership had not expected such rapid growth, nor developing into an FAA certified air carrier. The entry into aircraft operations even garnered the direct attention of $2 billion aviation giant Alaska Airlines over their abandoned use name. "To say they [Alaska/Horizon Airlines] had no influence on our rebranding decision wouldn't be the whole truth, but we honestly also took it as a compliment that our once small company so quickly caught the eye of such a powerhouse in aviation. It has also allowed us the freedom to create a brand and mark that is uniquely our own and can symbolize all the great new offerings that are now at our disposal," says Luis Barros, Founder and CEO of Leviate. The company has continued to grow with each success, adding to its capabilities from charter brokers, to whole aircraft brokerage to aircraft operator in just a few short years. LEVIATE has also recently added a new, large cabin Challenger 604 aircraft to its fleet, which will provide the charter company greater capability to service clients. This addition complements Leviate's charter fleet to operate in a worldwide capacity. With the capability to be a fully comprehensive aviation company, Horizon Air Group leadership decided a name change was necessary, and LEVIATE exemplifies the underlying principles which drive the benefits it offers clients. The company is continually on the rise, and the unique name of LEVIATE captures the essence of that upward movement. Leviate is also in unique position being a worldwide FAA certificate holder that is 100 percent owned by full-time aviation professionals having no unwanted third-party influence. What began with just two employees in 2015 now employs a full-time team of dedicated pilots, operations staff, sales representatives, administrators, and brokers. More growth is expected, putting this company in a league with some of the more formidable aviation service providers in the country. "By the close of 2020," Barros says, "we anticipate having 20 aircraft under our management. This will position LEVIATE as a substantial air charter operator in the U.S." About LEVIATE Established on a solid foundation of experience and success, LEVIATE capitalizes on the operational expertise of the three main components of business aviation: Air Charter, Aircraft Sales, and Aircraft Management. LEVIATE brings together some of the best leaders within the aviation industry to deliver top-level customer service, safety, and support to discerning businesses and private clients. They also offer an array of other services, including maintenance and aviation consulting services. To learn more about LEVIATE, call 877-407-8507 or visit their website at www.leviateair.com. Media Contact: Carla Rosenberg Matchpoint [email protected] 972-989-5120 SOURCE Leviate THE WOODLANDS, Texas, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) today announced the acquisition of Demilec, one of North America's leading manufacturers and distributors of spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation systems for residential and commercial applications, from an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc. Demilec has annual revenues of approximately $170 million and two manufacturing facilities located in Arlington, Texas and Boisbriand, Quebec where they produce a full suite of MDI based SPF formulations which they market directly to applicators as well as through distributors. Demilec specializes in both closed cell and open cell formulations, with a focus on products with renewable and recyclable content that are eco-friendly, bio-preferred and reduce energy consumption through highly efficient insulation properties. Under terms of the agreement, Huntsman will pay $350 million in an all-cash transaction, funded from available liquidity. Based upon full year 2018 EBITDA estimates, this represents a purchase price multiple of approximately 11.5x or 7.5x, pro forma for synergies. The transaction is expected to close by the end of second quarter 2018. Commenting on the acquisition, Tony Hankins, President of Huntsman's Polyurethanes division, said: "Demilec has pioneered MDI SPF insulation and coating technologies for over 30 years, building a strong market reputation with architects, builders and designers. Demilec and the entire SPF industry has delivered strong double digit growth, which we expect to be sustained as their technology provides outstanding insulation performance in a world which is increasingly concerned with improving energy efficiency. The Demilec team will continue to be fundamental to the ongoing success of the integrated business after the transaction has closed, as we rapidly build our North American platform and aggressively expand the business into international markets." Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President and CEO further commented: "This bolt-on acquisition is a great fit to our core strategy to move downstream. The integration of Demilec into our Polyurethanes business offers significant synergies and delivers substantially higher and very stable margins by pulling through large amounts of upstream polymeric MDI into specialized spray foam systems. This integrated business will have greater than 25% EBITDA margins and double digit growth." About Huntsman: Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and specialty chemicals with 2017 revenues of approximately $8 billion. Our chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. We operate more than 75 manufacturing, R&D and operations facilities in approximately 30 countries and employ approximately 10,000 associates within our four distinct business divisions. For more information about Huntsman, please visit the company's website at www.huntsman.com. Social Media: Twitter: www.twitter.com/Huntsman_Corp Facebook: www.facebook.com/huntsmancorp LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/huntsman Forward-Looking Statements: Statements in this release that are not historical are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current beliefs and expectations. The forward-looking statements in this release are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the company's operations, markets, products, services, prices and other factors as discussed in the Huntsman companies' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Significant risks and uncertainties may relate to, but are not limited to, volatile global economic conditions, cyclical and volatile product markets, disruptions in production at manufacturing facilities, reorganization or restructuring of Huntsman's operations, the ability to implement cost reductions and manufacturing optimization improvements in Huntsman businesses, and other financial, economic, competitive, environmental, political, legal, regulatory and technological factors. The company assumes no obligation to provide revisions to any forward-looking statements should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by applicable laws. SOURCE Huntsman Corporation Related Links http://www.huntsman.com REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and OMAHA, Neb., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- i2c, a global provider of smarter payments and integrated commerce solutions, today announced plans to open a new operations center in Omaha, Nebraska to facilitate strong company and customer growth worldwide. Due to be operational in the second quarter of 2018, the Omaha center will be used to expand the company's account management, operations, and client services divisions and will also house a Network Operations Center (NOC). The Omaha center is the second major operations center in North America, following the opening of a center in Montreal, Canada in 2016. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, i2c enables financial institutions, corporations, brands, and governments to deliver credit, debit, prepaid, and next-generation payments and commerce solutions with its single, global, cloud-based Agile Processing platform. With the new center, i2c is building out its operations and service infrastructure with additional IT, account management, operations, and contact center employees. The company will be creating over 300 new positions within the Omaha operation center's first year, with plans to add more in ensuing years. The Omaha operations center represents a $30 million financial commitment over 4 years. "i2c's value proposition is resonating with large financial institutions globally. We have a robust growth trajectory, and our new operations center in Omaha will support our growing business," said Amir Wain, i2c's founder and CEO. "Our customers' success is our number one priority, and this expansion underscores our commitment as we continue on our path to $1 billion in revenue." "With an already robust banking and financial industry presence, Omaha has also established itself as a prime location for expanding technology companies, whether coming from Silicon Valley or in the form of successful local startups. This mutually-beneficial investment by i2c stands to strengthen Nebraska's reputation as a Silicon Prairie hub for the financial technology sector," said Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts. Industry veteran Peg Johnson, i2c's EVP of Global Client success, will oversee management of the new center. Ms. Johnson commented: "Our investment in Omaha and the new operations center will enable us to scale all parts of our business in an ideal geographical location with a concentrated, highly-qualified financial services talent pool." "We are delighted to see a technology and payments leader choose Omaha for its operations and support center, and thank the Greater Omaha Chamber for collaborating with i2c to bring this project to our region" said Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert. "Payments and FinTech are vibrant and dynamic industries, and our community is honored to play a substantial role in i2c's continued growth." About i2c Inc. From its Silicon Valley headquarters, i2c provides smarter payments and integrated commerce solutions that financial institutions, corporations, brands, and governments around the world rely on to deliver high impact, personalized experiences today's consumers expect. i2c's single, global cloud-based platform supports virtually any card payment program in plastic, virtual, or mobile form. Our customers use the i2c Agile Processing platform to deliver profitable credit, debit, and prepaid solutions that meet the highly-differentiated needs of cardholders in 216 countries and territories. For more information, visit www.i2cinc.com. About the Greater Omaha Chamber Economic Development Partnership The Greater Omaha Chamber Economic Development Partnership (https://www.omahachamber.org/economic-development/) represents a six-county area from two states (Nebraska and Iowa) that includes Cass, Dodge, Douglas, Pottawattamie, Sarpy and Washington Counties. This seamless regionalized partnership operates as a one-stop, comprehensive resource, driving growth and championing collaboration. SOURCE i2c Inc. Related Links http://www.i2cinc.com TAYLOR, Mich., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ICAT Logistics DTW, a fast-growing global freight forwarding company specializing in customized industrial shipping, announced today the appointment of Jay Warner as Vice President, Automotive Sales. Warner, who was previously Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Michigan-based Diversified Tooling Group, brings 30 years of wide-ranging experience in the automotive industry as a sales leader, project manager, estimator for engineering changes, and pattern maker. "ICAT Logistics DTW is growing fast because of our intensive focus on the needs of the automotive industry and its extensive supply base," said Daniel Cser, the firm's Agency Owner. "Jay's deep knowledge of the industry's logistics requirements will help take our customized service to another level." Warner, who holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Baker College, helped drive Diversified Tooling Group's strong growth during his 11 years of sales leadership. His success was due in part to his deep understanding of the tooling industry, where he began his career on the shop floor. "I know from experience the critical role that logistics plays in the success of an automotive program," Warner said. "We live in a world where just-in-time manufacturing requires that every part of the supply chain does its job. Making sure that machinery is delivered to the right place at the right time in the proper condition is an essential link in the chain. I'm looking forward to doing my part through ICAT Logistics DTW." About ICAT Logistics DTW ICAT Logistics DTW is a Detroit-based worldwide logistics company. The company organizes the shipment of goods from one point to another -- anywhere in the world -- and manage all the issues that ensure it's done right. Since the company does not depend solely on its own fleet of shipping vessels, it has the advantage of contracting with partners who are best suited for each unique challenge. That gives ICAT Logistics DTW the flexibility to offer the right modes of delivery for the right location at the right time. www.icatlogisticsdtw.com SOURCE ICAT Logistics DTW Related Links https://www.icatlogisticsdtw.com SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. and LONDON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc., an oncology-focused biotechnology company committed to the discovery of breakthrough synthetic lethality medicines and immuno-oncology therapies, today announced that it has entered into a partnership agreement with Cancer Research UK's (CRUK) Commercial Partnerships Team and the Drug Discovery Unit at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, part of the University of Manchester, UK, to develop small molecule inhibitors of Poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase (PARG). PARG is a cellular enzyme that breaks down Poly(ADP-ribose), a post-translational modification that modulates protein function required for DNA repair. Inhibition of PARG in cancer cells with highly-active PARP results in depletion of cellular NAD. NAD is an essential cofactor in cellular respiration, and its depletion results in a dramatic decrease in cellular ATP and cancer cell death. "We are thrilled to be able to partner with one of the leading cancer research institutions in CRUK, who has had a prolific history in the space of DNA repair, including its scientific contributions to PARP biology and its associated biomarker BRCA," said Yujiro S. Hata, chief executive officer of IDEAYA. "We look forward to collaborating with this exceptional organization as we advance novel, small molecule inhibitors of PARG towards the clinic." "The Drug Discovery Unit at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute are delighted to be working alongside IDEAYA to further develop our PARG inhibitor program," said Allan Jordan, head of chemistry in the Drug Discovery Unit. "Stemming from fundamental biological discoveries made in our own Institute, PARG inhibitors offer a new way of compromising the ability of cancer cells to survive and resist treatment. We believe that these agents will offer a truly novel and clinically meaningful therapy for patients fighting against cancer." "This new collaboration with IDEAYA, a leading biotechnology company, will accelerate the translation of discoveries from one of our major drug discovery units," said Iain Foulkes, Ph.D., Cancer Research UK's executive director of research and innovation. "We're excited to focus our combined expertise on this unique program of research. This is one of several partnerships in our growing portfolio of projects that we hope will result in vital new treatments for cancer patients." IDEAYA and Cancer Research UK also announced today that data from the PARG program will be presented at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting to be held April 14-18, 2018 in Chicago, IL. The presentation details are as follows: Title: PARG inhibitors exhibit synthetic lethality with XRCC1 deficiency and a cellular mechanism of action that is distinct from PARP inhibition Date and Time: Monday, April 16, 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM CDT Abstract Number: 1943 Presenting author: Lisa Belmont, Ph.D. Session Category: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics About IDEAYA Biosciences IDEAYA is an oncology-focused biotechnology company committed to the discovery of breakthrough synthetic lethality medicines for genetically defined patient populations and immuno-oncology therapies targeting immuno-metabolism and innate immunity. IDEAYA, headquartered in South San Francisco, California, has assembled leading scientists and advisors with extensive knowledge and expertise in cancer biology, immunology, and small molecule drug discovery. For more information, please visit www.ideayabio.com. About Cancer Research UK's Commercial Partnerships Team Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Our specialist Commercial Partnerships Team works closely with leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protect intellectual property arising from their research and to establish links with commercial partners. The team develop promising ideas into successful cancer therapeutics, software, devices, diagnostics and enabling technologies. This helps to accelerate progress in exciting new discoveries in cancer research and bring new treatments to patients sooner. Cancer Research UK's commercial activity operates through Cancer Research Technology Ltd. (CRT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Cancer Research UK. It is the legal entity which pursues drug discovery research in themed alliance partnerships and delivers varied commercial partnering arrangements. Visit http://commercial.cancerresearchuk.org/ About Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Cancer Research UK's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives. Cancer Research UK receives no funding from the UK government for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on vital donations from the public. Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 40 years. Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses. Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. 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 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/ Cancer Cancer 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 SOURCE IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. Related Links https://www.ideayabio.com SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc., an oncology-focused biotechnology company committed to the discovery of breakthrough synthetic lethality medicines and immuno-oncology therapies, announced today the appointment of Julie Hambleton, M.D., as senior vice president and chief medical officer, head of development. Dr. Hambleton brings more than 20 years of experience in clinical drug development, ranging from pre-clinical studies through Phase 4 and post-marketing studies. She has extensive experience working with regulatory agencies, including the U.S. FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and in filing of investigational new drug applications (INDs), biologics license applications (BLAs), and special protocol assessments (SPAs). "Dr. Hambleton is an accomplished industry executive and a leading oncology drug developer, and we welcome her to the leadership team at IDEAYA," said Yujiro S. Hata, chief executive officer of IDEAYA. "Dr. Hambleton's unique clinical background in both immuno-oncology and synthetic lethality will strengthen our organization's capabilities as we advance multiple first-in-class programs into the clinic, leveraging our clinical strategy in patient selection and combinations." "Over the past two decades, I have been involved in the development of numerous targeted and biomarker enabled therapies, including Avastin and Rubraca, and first-in-class immuno-oncology agents that have been developed in combination with checkpoint inhibitors," said Dr. Hambleton. "IDEAYA's diverse pipeline of biomarker enabled synthetic lethality programs and immunotherapies targeting immuno-metabolism and innate immunity have the potential to transform oncology care and deliver on our mission to bring innovative personalized therapies to cancer patients." Dr. Hambleton was previously vice president, head of US medical at Bristol-Myers Squibb, overseeing medical & health economic and outcomes research activities in support of the oncology, immuno-oncology, specialty and cardiovascular marketed portfolios. From 2012 to 2016, she was executive vice president and chief medical officer at Five Prime Therapeutics, where she led clinical, clinical operations, regulatory, preclinical and translational and process development and was a member of the executive committee. From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Hambleton was vice president, clinical development, at Clovis Oncology, where she oversaw clinical development programs and managed clinical and pharmacokinetic functions, including the development of Rubraca, a PARP inhibitor, developed with a diagnostic for BRCA and HRD. From 2003 to 2010, she was at Genentech, most recently as group medical director, global clinical development, leading a cross-functional group conducting multiple Phase 2 and 3 trials of Avastin. Prior to joining industry, Dr. Hambleton served from 1993 to 2003 in academic positions in the division of hematology-oncology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), most recently as associate professor of clinical medicine. She completed post-graduate training at UCSF, where she served as medical resident, chief medical resident and fellow in the division of hematology-oncology. She received a B.S. from Duke University in nursing, an M.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and was board-certified in hematology and internal medicine. About IDEAYA Biosciences IDEAYA is an oncology-focused biotechnology company committed to the discovery of breakthrough synthetic lethality medicines for genetically defined patient populations and immuno-oncology therapies targeting immuno-metabolism and innate immunity. IDEAYA, headquartered in South San Francisco, California, has assembled leading scientists and advisors with extensive knowledge and expertise in cancer biology, immunology, and small molecule drug discovery. For more information, please visit www.ideayabio.com. SOURCE IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. Related Links https://www.ideayabio.com Attendees will not only have the opportunity to speak to a variety of diverse business in the Cannabis industry, but also get to speak to the many physicians onsite. Attending provides the unique experience of networking with others that deal with the same ailments, which can be a major stepping stone in the recovery process. Online registration is preferred, but walk-ins are welcome. Schedule: 9:30-10:00 Gracie Bagosy-Young , GG Chronic Pain Foundation , GG Chronic Pain Foundation 10:05-10:50 Dr. Tursha Hamilton, ND , National University of Health Sciences , 10:55-11:40 Rebecca Sewell , Patient Success Story! , Patient Success Story! 11:50-12:20 Dr. Rahul Khare , MD, Innovative Express Care , MD, Innovative Express Care 12:40-1:25 Dr. Jay Joshi,MD, DABA, DABAPM, FABAPM, National Pain Centers 1:30-2:15 Mahja Sulemanjee Bortocek, MBA/MPH, The Greenhouse Group/ Grassroots Cannabis 2:20-3:05 Presenter's Panel, a time for Q&A 3:05-3:15 Closing, Gracie Bagosy-Young *Please see website for CME/CEU sessions* The Illinois Cannabis Education Expo will be on Sunday, April 22nd from 8am to 4pm at the Hilton Hotel in Northbrook, IL 2855 N Milwaukee Ave 60062. Attendees may come and go throughout the day. This event will be live streamed for those that cannot attend, but registration is required. https://gg-chronic-pain-foundation.ticketleap.com/il-cannabis-expo/ About GG Chronic Pain Foundation GG Chronic Pain Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit. Our Board is 100% volunteer. We are people with pain helping people with pain. Contact: Gracie Bagosy-Young, President GG Chronic Pain Foundation Phone: 563-451-2253 [email protected] www.GGPainFoundation.org SOURCE GG Chronic Pain Foundation Related Links http://www.GGPainFoundation.org "These results affirm that Indigo's proprietary discovery and development processes lead to continuous performance improvement," said Dr. Jonathan McIntyre, Indigo's Head of Research and Development. "Not only do we utilize data generated in lab assays and greenhouse experiments, but also we collect information from commercial fields, gaining insights to improve our products even after commercialization. These insights translate into better results for growers, processors, and consumers." Data from the 2017 Indigo Cotton harvest has thus far been collected from 23 commercial fields across Texas, comprising over 2,500 acres. Yield increases were evaluated based on the control cotton grown in adjacent fields from seeds without microbial treatment and were achieved without increased water or chemical application. Seed variety and management practices were consistent across fields. Indigo Cotton's overall win rate in West Texas was 91%, with yield increases seen on both dryland and irrigated acres. These results are consistent with five years of company field trials. The 14% average yield gain demonstrated represents an additional $68 per acre for U.S. growers producing with Indigo. "I had Indigo-treated cotton in a side-by-side comparison with untreated cotton. Throughout the year, the Indigo plants were visibly healthier and taller," said Justin Busenlehner, a cotton grower from Ballinger, Texas. "The Indigo-treated cotton had at least a third more root mass than the untreated cotton. When scouting the field, I noticed 1-1.25 more bolls per foot on the Indigo-treated cotton. I was pleased with the results last year and I have already contracted cotton acres this year." In 2017, Indigo Cotton was planted on 270,000 acres across Texas and the Mid-South. Indigo Cotton leverages naturally occurring, in-plant microbes to increase the productivity of plants by improving their tolerance to water stress. With expected increases in both the frequency and severity of drought over the coming decades,1 and groundwater becoming more scarce in West Texas, there is an urgent need for the development of water-efficient methods of food and fiber production. "Consistent with the work that we've been doing at Texas A&M since 2011, we see that microbes isolated under drought conditions can have a significant positive impact on plant health and growth," said Dr. Gregory Sword, Texas A&M AgriLife Research entomologist and Indigo collaborator. "Partnering microbes with cotton plants in fields throughout Texas and beyond can help to support farmer yields and profits, despite challenging growing conditions. We're excited to see a second year of effective commercial products on the market." About Indigo Indigo is a company dedicated to harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. With a vision of creating a world where farming is an economically desirable and accessible profession, Indigo works alongside its farmers to apply natural approaches, conserve resources for future generations, and grow healthy food for all. Utilizing beneficial plant microbes to improve crop health and productivity, Indigo's portfolio is focused on cotton, wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice. The company, founded by Flagship Pioneering, is headquartered in Boston, MA, with additional offices in Memphis, TN, Research Triangle Park, NC, Sydney, Australia, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. www.indigoag.com Media Contacts Indigo Kwittken for Indigo Lauren Ashbrook Margaret Manning [email protected] [email protected] + 1 (857) 443-9416 + 1 (646) 747-9390 1 http://www.nature.com/nature/outlook/agriculture-drought/index.html SOURCE Indigo Related Links http://www.indigoag.com MIDDLEBROOK, Va., March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA), the preeminent provider of Public Relations, Marketing and Event Planning services for the tech and telecom industries, announces its Women's Speaking Initiative (WSI). WSI's goal is to seat more women in leadership roles on the telecom and tech speaking circuit by connecting qualified speakers with industry event organizers. As the hosts of monthly Virtual CEO Roundtables and on-site CEO Roundtables at its Telecom Exchange executive networking events held throughout the year, JSA would like to extend seats at these Roundtables to qualified, articulate women who hold senior-level positions at telecom and technology companies. In order to secure these speakers, JSA is hosting a "call for female speakers", where women can click here to upload their qualifications and preferred speaking topics. The resulting roster of approved female speakers will not only be considered for JSA's own CEO Roundtables, but also distributed to the industry's top event organizers, many of which are JSA media partners, for additional speaking opportunities throughout the year. Confirmed, qualified WSI participants will also receive the following benefits: Complimentary CEO Exchange Membership for a year, which offers the ability to network with other industry thought leaders in an exclusive, executive-only, social networking and meeting management platform Confirmed speaking spot either on a Virtual CEO Roundtable, on-site Telecom Exchange CEO Roundtable or at one of the 10 Bisnow events held throughout the year Ability to submit thought leadership articles to JSA's Tech and Telecom News Now (TNN) blog (readership 130K ) ) Potential membership to other women's networking groups, such as WTF Introduction to the Women in the Channel association of women in telecom and IT channels Complimentary pass to the women's networking event at an upcoming Telecom Exchange "It's an honor to launch the WSI," states Jaymie Scotto Cutaia, CEO and Founder of JSA. "As a woman-owned company that organizes online and in-person industry events, JSA is uniquely positioned to give women with powerful voices in our industry more seats at the table. We hope this call for speakers inspires more qualified female speakers to take the mic, and for more diversity in our industry's educational panels." "WTF is proud to support the Women's Speaking Initiative," states Brynn Fowler, Founding Member of WTF and Director of Network Planning, Strategy and Enablement at Oracle. "As an organization dedicated to empowering female executives in our industry, we encourage our WTF members and other talented women in our industry to submit their profiles and share their voices, as we proactively strive for equal representation in telecom and tech conferences." For more information on WSI or any JSA initiative, please email [email protected]. About JSA Celebrating more than 13 years of success, Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA) is the preeminent provider of Public Relations, Marketing and Event Planning services to the tech and telecom industries. Awarded 'Most Outstanding Telecoms PR Agency' by LiveWire for two years in a row, our success is attributed to our skilled JSA team, innovative tools, and established media and industry relationships, allowing us to deliver the finest outreach and brand awareness services available with measurable return on investment. Our clients enjoy 'insider access' to the top journalists, bloggers, analysts and thought leaders shaping tech and telecom as well as critical networking opportunities, including JSA's own industry networking event series, the Telecom Exchange (TEX) and its online C-level social platform, the CEO Exchange. We also feature client and marketplace news via JSA WalkOuts (3D-like interactive video), JSA TV (our video newsroom on YouTube), JSA Radio (our podcast channel on iHeartRadio), Virtual CEO Roundtables (our monthly panel discussions with top industry thought leaders), Telecom News & Trends (our newsletter to 28K+ subscribers) and Tech and Telecom News Now (our industry blog with 130K+ readers). To learn more about how JSA can elevate your brand, visit www.jsa.net. Join the conversation: Follow JSA on LinkedIn and Twitter. For media inquiries, please contact: Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA) +1 866.695.3629 [email protected] SOURCE Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA) Related Links http://www.jsa.net WILMINGTON, Del., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Katabat today announced the launch of the company's highly anticipated Two-Way SMS product. Reaching customers via the channels they prefer is a key element of a personalized marketing approach. For many of today's customers, short messaging service (SMS) text messaging on mobile devices is their preference. According to Dimension Data, while 89 percent of customers would prefer to communicate with brands via SMS, only 48 percent of businesses have the necessary systems in place. Two-Way SMS closes this gap and delivers on what customers really want. "If you want to build relationships, you have to go and meet people where they are," said Ray Peloso, CEO of Katabat. "SMS is where customers are, and companies looking to differentiate and deliver better service are investigating two-way communications. Making that channel available and truly interactive shows customers that you are really listening to them." The new product is part of the Katabat Unite customer marketing communications solution, which puts the needs and preferences of the customer at the heart of every interaction. From digital onboarding to multichannel campaign management, it gives organizations the tools necessary to craft the ultimate communications campaign. By partnering with LivePerson, Katabat integrates another capability into its full-service customer lifecycle and marketing communications portfolio. LivePerson has been an innovator in corporate digital communications for over 20 years. It originated chat for brands, and took a bold step forward yet again when it introduced business-to-consumer (B2C) mobile messaging. "LivePerson offers a sleek approach to inbound messaging that integrates perfectly with our trusted, secure portfolio of solutions," said Kyle Christensen, Vice President of New Product Innovation for Katabat. "Customers create their outbound messaging campaign within the platform like always. But now, in addition to offering a unified omnichannel message across traditional channels like email and voice interactions, we also seamlessly include SMS." Delivering this technology promises to enhance the customer experience by offering a new level of engagement via a favored channel. Text messaging is the preferred channel for customer service in the United States, chosen by 33 percent of customers, and comes in second to only email in the United Kingdom, where 25 percent prefer SMS. In addition, SMS is also the preferred channel worldwide among consumers under age 45, according to Twillio. Although Two-Way SMS is the latest industry-leading offering from Katabat, the company is continually innovating to help financial institutions exceed their customers' expectations while remaining secure, efficient, and compliant. Plans for 2018 include artificial intelligence enhancements to the company's products that will significantly improve agent efficiency. About Katabat Katabat is a technology disruptor that delivers end-to-end customer experience management solutions with unique consumer lending expertise and process-driven speed. Recognized among Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 and CIO Review's 20 Most Promising Customer Experience Management Solution Providers, Katabat's unified platform allows customers to deploy faster, at a fraction of the cost. Designed and delivered by lending industry and technology experts, Katabat addresses the strategic pain points big financial institutions face every day. Partnering with users throughout the finance industry keeps Katabat at the cutting edge of customer experience management, automation, marketing communication, debt management, and infosec. Headquartered in Wilmington, Del., Katabat operates globally with international offices in Australia and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit us at www.katabat.com. Media Contact: Wendy Staudt [email protected] 1.302.650.5617 SOURCE Katabat Related Links https://katabat.com/ PITTSBURGH, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kennametal Inc. (NYSE: KMT) announced they will attend the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Industrials Conference on March 21st 22nd, 2018 in London. Jan Kees van Gaalen, Vice President & CFO and Kelly Boyer, Vice President, Investor Relations will be attending. As part of the trip, Mr. van Gaalen and Ms. Boyer will also be meeting with various members of the financial community in Edinburgh, Scotland. The presentation slides will be available on the company's website www.kennametal.com on March 20, 2018. Once on the homepage, select "About Us", "Investor Relations" and then "Events". Celebrating its 80th year as an industrial technology leader, Kennametal Inc. delivers productivity to customers through materials science, tooling and wear-resistant solutions. Customers across aerospace, earthworks, energy, general engineering and transportation turn to Kennametal to help them manufacture with precision and efficiency. Every day approximately 11,000 employees are helping customers in more than 60 countries stay competitive. Kennametal generated nearly $2.1 billion in revenues in fiscal 2017. Learn more at www.kennametal.com. SOURCE Kennametal Inc. Related Links http://www.kennametal.com TAMPA, Fla., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuity Logic, LLC. ("Continuity Logic" or the "Company"), leading provider of integrated business continuity and risk management software today announced the appointment of Laurence Mascera as President and Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. He reports to Tejas Katwala, Chief Executive Officer, and succeeds him as President. In his new role as President and COO, Mascera will have responsibility for the performance and growth of the firm's operations. "Larry is a seasoned leader who consistently delivers results. He is uniquely qualified to drive strategic prioritization and accountability within Continuity Logic, providing a laser-focus on operational excellence," said Peter Christensen, Chairman, Continuity Logic. "I have tremendous confidence in Larry's ability to align Continuity Logic's world-class integrated risk management platform with industry-leading operational practices to drive and extend the next-generation of Continuity Logic's market leadership." Effective immediately, Mascera will assume responsibility for technology, sales, marketing, operations and services. Mascera will be responsible for the alignment and prioritization of company investments and ensuring operational excellence across the company. "Larry is both a great leader of people and a collaborative team player," said Tejas Katwala, Continuity Logic's Chief Executive Officer. "Larry brings to Continuity Logic the proven ability to execute growth and performance strategies, while always focusing on continuous improvement of operations, customer and employee relationships, profitability, and shareholder value. We believe his wealth of experience in financial services and banking industry coupled with his executive thought leadership, will be valuable in increasing our growth, competitive position, and development into the future." "I am incredibly energized and honored to join the Continuity Logic team at this important time," Mr. Mascera stated. "Continuity Logic has never been more compelling and is well positioned for growth. I look forward to working with the Continuity Logic leadership team to build upon our strong foundation and further leverage our innovation and technology to achieve operational excellence and strong financial performance." Mascera joins Continuity Logic from the Toronto Dominion Bank Group where he was responsible for Technology across Investment Banking & Client Relationship Management. Before TD Bank, he served as Global Head of Sales & Investment Banking Technology at Barclays PLC overseeing all Client Management, Profitability, Sales Analytics, and Trade Capture platforms. Previously he served as Chief Administrative officer and Executive Committee member of Broadpoint Gleacher Securities Group, as part of the founding Management team grew the publicly traded firm to over 1B in market capitalization. During the span of his 25-year career, Mr. Mascera has also held various more progressively responsible positions within Financial Services including Global Head of Institutional Sales Technology at Merrill Lynch as well as Global Head of Institutional Sales & Investment Banking Technology at Societe General, Mr. Mascera started his career at Painewebber, holds a B.B.A. in Finance from Hofstra University, an M.S. in Information Technology from Long Island. Company Overview Continuity Logic is a leader in continuity solutions according to Gartner for four consecutive years. The CL Platform for resilience and integrated risk management software is used by Fortune companies to build "the resilient enterprise"; protecting brand value, reducing regulatory costs, and assisting executive decision making. Its functionality lets you centralize and simplify top-down, bottom-up and cross organizational risk, business continuity, security response, and compliance management programs in a single secure system. Further information is available at www.continuitylogic.com. Follow Continuity Logic on twitter @ContinuityLogic. Media Contact: Jim Tapscott Continuity Logic Phone: +1 866-321-5079 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Continuity Logic Related Links http://www.continuitylogic.com LAKELAND, Fla., March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lois Marie Wygonik, R.N., CRNA, NP, ARNP, Professor Emeritus, is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Life Achiever Retiree for 2017-2018 in the field of Nursing in recognition of her role as a retired Certified Registered Nurse and Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner at Florida Anesthesia Associates. Established since 1974, Florida Anesthesia Associates P.A "is a group of highly qualified Physician Anesthesiologists" that were formed in an effort to provide, "organized single group anesthesia coverage to Winter Haven Hospital, Women's Hospital, and various eye clinics." Amassing over fifty six years of experience in the field of Nursing and Anesthesia currently continues to serve the field by working with aspiring nurses as a Professor Emeritus. Until being transferred to Florida, Wygonik taught Anesthesia to students (1983) at the Allegheny Valley Hospital in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania. Attributing her success to her being a survivor after brain surgery, which left Wygonik with many temporary and permanent problems, when asked her advice to newcomers in the industry, Wygonik states the importance of being a, "dedicated healthcare worker." In addition to her work in the field and in the classroom, Wygonik served as Co-Chairman of "Tidings," the bi-monthly magazine of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. The magazine is created to discuss the Nurse Anesthetists' events, scientific data and findings and features on highlighted members of the association from Pennsylvania. Throughout the course of her education and training, Wygonik attained her Nursing Degree in 1960 at Butler Memorial Hospital; Wygonik became a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist from Allegheny Valley Hospital (Natrona Heights, FL) in 1962 and completed her Bachelor's Degree of Science in Nursing in 1974 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To further her professional development, Wygonik is an affiliate of several organizations including the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. Additionally, she also served on many committees for the Pennsylvania Nurse Anesthetists, and still serves as a Professor Emeritus at the Winter Haven Hospital teaching and practicing in all aspects of anesthesia in Winter Haven, FL. In recognition of her professional accolades, Wygonik, the President of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists appointed Lois as Chairman of the Public Relations Committee at their national convention in Arizona. Furthermore, she presented at a Federal Post Office Substation which came to the Convention Hotel for two days. Federal Employees placed a cancellation on stamps to advertise the 50th Anniversary of the CRNA. There were thousands of stamp collectors all over the world who were made aware of the Certified Registered Nurse Anestethist (CRNA) When not working, Lois enjoys rescuing animals and collecting exotic birds, as well as reading, and doing home renovations. She dedicates this recognition to the loving memory of her mother, Stella Tomaszewski Wygonik, as well as to Betty Augustino, CRNA and to Betty Soisson, CRNA, who is missed very much. For more information, visit www.flanesthesia.com. Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com LOS ANGELES, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lost Spirits Distillery announces today that it has scored first place in the Drinks International Tourism Challenge, held at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust's London headquarters. Lost Spirits is delighted to receive yet another accolade for the celebrated Los Angeles-based distillery to add to its impressive list of awards and honors. INSIDE Lost Spirits Distillery Photo Credit: Juliet Frew Photo Credit: Laurel Dailey Garnering colorful descriptions such as the "Willa Wonka Booze Factory" and "Disneyland for Adults," Lost Spirits Distillery is one of the most unique experiences in food and beverage. The distillery reflects head-distiller Bryan Davis' imaginative and experiential culinary philosophy, allowing guests to sample each award-winning spirit in the imagined environment specific to that drink. The result is a surreal dream-like series of tasting rooms, unlike any other distillery on earth boat rides, jungle tents, and floating carousels included. Earlier in 2018, the Spirits Business Magazine awarded Lost Spirits Distillery the "Global Master" title (it's highest honor) for the distillery experience. The distillery also won a "Liquid Gold" award in Jim Murray's Whisky Bible for its work on the Abomination malt whisky and a Distillery Master award for the Lost Spirits "Jamaica" rum further demonstrating the excellence & creativity that head distiller Bryan Davis has brought to the global rum and whisky communities. Contact: Joanne Haruta [email protected] 831-235-9400 About Lost Spirits: Lost Spirits Distillery LLC is a celebrated California distillery engaged in the research, design, and creation of new culinary experiences within distilled spirits. Lost Spirits Technology LLC is the technology-development arm of the distillery, and its laboratory is recognized one of the industry's leading research facilities. About Drinks International: Drinks International is a magazine devoted exclusively to the global spirits, wines and beers market, providing readers of international drinks buyers with news on all the latest developments and trends. The Drinks International Challenge Series celebrates innovation and excellence within the global drinks industry. SOURCE Lost Spirits Distillery, LLC RICHMOND, Va., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL) announced today that Julia Chu has been appointed Chief Global Ceded Reinsurance Officer, effective immediately. In this newly created position, Chu will head up Ceded Re functions across Markel's product lines and international insurance operations (71 offices in 21 countries). She will work with executive management to strategically deploy ceded reinsurance in support of Markel's business objectives. Prior to joining Markel, Chu served as Managing Director, Strategic Advisory, at reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter. She is an actuary by training, a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, and has held positions at Aon Re, Milliman USA, and Farmers Insurance Group. "Julia is a great addition to our team. She is a top-tier talent who will help us to manage risk strategically from the enterprise portfolio perspective. Her skills, insights, and industry contacts will be put to good use here at Markel," commented Robin Russo, Chief Underwriting Officer. Chu reports to Russo and is based in Markel's corporate headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. About Markel Corporation Markel Corporation is a diverse financial holding company serving a variety of niche markets. The Company's principal business markets and underwrites specialty insurance products. In each of the Company's businesses, it seeks to provide quality products and excellent customer service so that it can be a market leader. The financial goals of the Company are to earn consistent underwriting and operating profits and superior investment returns to build shareholder value. Visit Markel Corporation on the web at markelcorp.com. SOURCE Markel Corporation Related Links http://www.markelcorp.com LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tina Adams, Director of Business Development at custom OEM computing hardware solution provider MBX Systems, has been honored with a Bronze Stevie Award in the Business Development Professional of the Year category in the 12th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Adams was recognized for leading a team that logged a 275% year-over-year increase in new accounts, a substantial increase in multimillion-dollar engagements, and related revenue growth in an industry sector that services independent software vendors and service providers that deliver their applications as turnkey hardware/software packages. Virtually all new business the team booked during the period involved either unseating an incumbent OEM hardware provider or beating billion-dollar competitors with far greater resources and name recognition. The company projects continued double-digit growth in new revenues in 2018 under Adams' leadership, fueled in part by her emphasis on identifying untapped market segments that require MBX's high variability and integrated rack build capabilities. "Our high variability segment of the technology business continues to evolve, and Tina has been instrumental in identifying new markets that need our services as well as implementing new strategies to tap into non-traditional server appliance markets since she joined the company in 2012," said MBX President Jill Bellak. "This Stevie Award is a direct result of her vision, creativity and persistence in adding both complex niche businesses and Fortune 500 companies to our customer roster." Bellak herself won Gold honors in the Woman of the Year/Industry category as well as Silver recognition in the Female Executive of the Year/Business Products category in Stevie Awards for Women in Business in 2013. MBX founder and CEO Tom Crowley was recognized as Executive of the Year/Computer Hardware in the Stevie Awards' 2011 American Business Awards. 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. Details and the list of Stevie winners in all categories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/sales. About MBX Systems MBX Systems engineers and manufactures complex custom computing hardware solutions for software developers, OEMs and service providers that deploy their technology as a turnkey hardware/software solution. Each platform is customized and optimized for the customer's application by in-house platform engineers, manufactured in ISO 9001:2015 certified facilities in the US and EU, and delivered with value-added services such as custom branding, lifecycle management, trade compliance, and global logistics and support, relieving customers of all hardware responsibilities. Customers benefit from MBX's award-winning quality, innovation and customer service as well as the company's more than two decades of expertise in managing hardware programs for the world's most demanding technology innovators. For more information, visit www.mbx.com. SOURCE MBX Systems SPARKS, Md., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- McCormick & Company, Inc. (NYSE: MKC) will conduct a conference call and webcast of its First Quarter 2018 financial results on Tuesday, March 27, 2018, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time. Lawrence Kurzius, Chairman, President & CEO; Mike Smith, Executive Vice President & CFO; and Kasey Jenkins, Vice President Investor Relations will be hosting the call. What: McCormick & Company presentation of First Quarter Fiscal 2018 Results When: March 27, 2017, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time Where: ir.mccormick.com How: Live over the Internet: Log onto the Web at ir.mccormick.com, click on "Webcast" and follow the directions to listen to the call. If you are unable to attend the live webcast, the presentation will be archived on our website at ir.mccormick.com. To listen to an audio replay, call 877-660-6853 in the United States or 201-612-7415 internationally. When prompted, enter the conference ID number 13677402. The replay will be available until 12:00 midnight Eastern time on April 17, 2018. About McCormick McCormick & Company, Incorporated is a global leader in flavor. With $4.8 billion in annual sales, the company manufactures, markets and distributes spices, seasoning mixes, condiments and other flavorful products to the entire food industry retail outlets, food manufacturers and foodservice businesses. Every day, no matter where or what you eat, you can enjoy food flavored by McCormick. McCormick Brings the Joy of Flavor to Life. For more information, visit www.mccormickcorporation.com. For information contact: Investor Relations: Kasey Jenkins (410-771-7140 or [email protected]) Corporate Communications: Lori Robinson (410-527-6004 or [email protected]) SOURCE McCormick & Company, Inc. Related Links http://mccormick.com POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y., March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Melissa A. Nielsen, LMSW, is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Lifetime Member in the field of Nursing in recognition of her role as a Service Coordinator of New York State Veterans Home. Established over thirty years ago, A&T Healthcare has served the community for decades. Dedicated to utilizing the latest advancements in medical technology in an effort to better serve their patients, A&T Healthcare is well known for its Home Health and Personal Care Aide services. The healthcare facility "has been approved by New York State to provide classes that train and certify both Home Health Aides and Personal Care Aides." Offering a wide array of services to their clients, the facility specializes in geriatric services, nursing services, and pediatric home care. Amassing over twenty five years of experience in the field of Nursing, Nielsen is a prominent expert within the field. Throughout her career, Nielsen has attained expertise within the areas of social services, community outreach, program development, public speaking, mental health, crisis intervention, grant writing, volunteer management, research, event planning, family therapy and psychology. Known for her compassion as a social worker, Nielsen feels the "need to help others as much as I can." In her current capacity, Nielsen is responsible for acting as a liaison between patients and other hospital staff, as well as providing one-on-one guidance and support for patients. Now a specialist in Dementia, Crisis Management and Discharge, prior to joining the team at A & T Healthcare, Nielsen served as a Medical Social Work Assistant for the County of Rockland for over 22 years. There Nielsen developed skills in the areas of post-hospitalization assessment and home care aides. Throughout the course of her education and training, Nielsen attended Franciscan High School in Mohegan Lake, New York. Thereafter, Nielsen went on to study Social Work at both Dominican College and Adelphi University, where she earned her Master's degree in Social Work in 2011. To further her professional development, Nielsen is an affiliate of several organizations including the Rockland County Crisis Team and the International Women's Association, which awarded her the Recognition of Achievement Award. Nielsen dedicates this recognition to her mother, Carol Nielsen. For more information, visit www.at-healthcare.com. Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Metro Vein Centers, the leaders in specialized vein treatments, recently opened two new centers in White Plains, NY and Hackensack, NJ. The anticipated new openings are part of the company's expansion efforts to provide needed care to patients around the nation who suffer from painful vein disease. "No one should have to live life with the painful symptoms associated with vein disease, especially when there are non-invasive treatments available," says Dr. Meslemani, Chief Medical Officer and Founder of Metro Vein Centers. "By opening these new centers, we can better serve patients looking for treatment options for vein disease, varicose veins and leg ulcers in the White Plains and Hackensack communities." According to the Society for Vascular Medicine, more than 30 million Americans suffer from venous disease, but only 10 percent seek treatment for it. Symptoms of vein disease, or venous insufficiency, vary greatly but should always be taken seriously. Varicose veins often cause pain, leg fatigue, leg heaviness, swelling, itching, burning, and skin discoloration. Metro Vein Centers across the nation employ leading-edge diagnostic and minimally invasive treatment options to provide patients relief from vein disease, including varicose veins, venous insufficiency, leg swelling and ulcers. Available treatments, which are covered by most insurance plans and Medicare, include: Duplex Ultrasound Ultrasound-Guided Sclerotherapy Radio-Frequency Ablation Endovenous Laser Treatment (ELT or EVLT) Sclerotherapy Ambulatory Phlebectomy (also called Micro-Phlebectomy) "Our board-certified physicians are leaders in the field and recognized by the American Medical Association. They have successfully treated 25,000 patients with our safe, painless, office-based procedures," said Dr. Meslemani. "We're proud to expand our centers and offer our successful treatment options to new patients." The newest Metro Vein Centers are led by Dr. Mandy and Dr. Hammoud and located at: 244 Westchester Avenue, Suite 212, White Plains, NY 10604 10604 385 Prospect Avenue, Suite 316, Hackensack, NJ 07601 For more resources on Metro Vein Centers locations, vein treatment options, and board-certified physicians visit: http://metroveincenters.com/. About Metro Vein Centers Metro Vein Centers provides specialized vein treatments for varicose veins, spider veins, and other venous conditions using the latest minimally invasive technology. It is a leading vein specialty provider nationally, with locations in Michigan, Texas, New Jersey, and New York. Their experienced, board-certified physicians understand the difficulty of living with painful, bulging veins. They take pride in helping patients regain confidence and the freedom to enjoy life to its fullest. For media inquiries, please contact: [email protected]. SOURCE Metro Vein Centers Related Links http://metroveincenters.com DETROIT, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MONAT Global Corp, a world-class designer, manufacturer, and distributor of hair care products, has filed a defamation lawsuit in federal court against Kayla Baker, a Michigan hairstylist who sells hair care products that compete with MONAT. MONAT alleges that Baker has repeatedly published false and disparaging statements about the quality and safety of MONAT's products online. Additionally, the lawsuit states that Baker had a financial incentive to do so, noting that she received commissions or other incentives to sell competing hair care products. "Unfortunately, we at MONAT are being forced to use litigation to stop this defamatory attack on our Market Partners and on our products," said MONAT President Stuart MacMillan. "This attack, and others like it, are aimed at damaging the livelihoods of thousands of Market Partners and their families who have safely and successfully served their customers across the United States and Canada." MONAT asserts that there is no scientific or other factual basis for these claims. The company's products have undergone independent, clinical testing, and millions of consumers safely use MONAT products every day. MONAT is seeking injunctive relief against Baker making any further false statements, as well as damages for her past statements that have damaged MONAT's reputation. MONAT recently settled its defamation against another woman, Vickie Harrington, in connection with statements made by Harrington about MONAT and its products. As part of MONAT's successful resolution of this matter, Harrington has agreed to pay MONAT to settle its claims against her. SOURCE MONAT Global Corp An ambulance rushed Dane to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford. "It was all hands on deck," says A.J. "He was dying quickly from bleeding internally." Janene Fuerch, MD, clinical assistant professor of neonatology, was one of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) fellows during Dane's first several weeks at Packard Children's. "He was in fulminant liver failure, and we knew he was most likely going to die. Neonates in severe liver failure often don't survive," she explains. Ultimately, it would take two separate organ transplants to save Dane's life. He was extremely fortunate to be cared for at Packard Children's, a longtime leader in pediatric solid-organ transplant. In 2017, Packard Children's led the way in pediatric transplant volume and outcomes nationwide, performing 117 pediatric organ transplants, including one of Dane's. Over the past five years, Packard Children's has performed more pediatric liver and kidney transplants than any other U.S. center. To help him survive his failing liver, Dane's doctors stabilized him with several daily blood transfusions and continuous support. Over the next 10 days, rounds of testing revealed that Dane had an enterovirus, a relative of the polio virus. "He was really a desperately ill little guy," says William Benitz, MD, professor of neonatology and Dane's attending physician in the NICU. "He demonstrated how sick a vulnerable baby can get from what would be a routine, ho-hum, everyday virus for most of us." In a premature baby like Dane, enterovirus can cause liver failure, which can lead to brain damage and heart failure. With its wide range of potential symptoms, enterovirus has no available medical cure, so Dane's own immune system had to fight the disease. The next six weeks were a harrowing, daily effort to keep Dane alive and help him grow healthy enough and large enough to receive a liver transplant. "We knew this was a stretch. He would be the smallest transplant the team had ever done," says Dr. Fuerch. "But he wasn't giving up, so we weren't going to either." The team has a track record of succeeding with unusually challenging transplants. In 2017, 40 percent of Packard Children's liver-transplant recipients weighed less than 40 pounds, making it the national leader in transplanting babies and small children. The team also had much shorter mean wait times than most centers: 2.2 months, compared to 13.5 months across the nation. And Dane needed a new liver quickly. Even as his care team worked to stabilize his blood levels every day, Dane's failing liver was not doing its job of clearing his blood of protein byproducts like ammonia. This meant he needed continuous hemodialysis, which circulated his blood to clean it externally and return it to his body. "We had to balance the risks of bleeding, clotting, and infection and work to optimize his nutrition," says Cynthia Wong, MD, medical director of chronic dialysis. "With his multiorgan failure, this was the only option to save his life." "When the interventional radiologist put in a dialysis catheter, it was a tremendous moment of success," says Waldo Concepcion, MD, chief of pediatric kidney transplantation. "Being able to dialyze him so the medical team could stabilize him was very, very critical to his survival." In the early hours of May 23, 2014, six-week-old Dane, weighing just under five pounds, received his new liver from a surgical team led by Carlos Esquivel, MD, PhD, chief of the division of transplantation, and Dr. Concepcion. About six weeks after Dane's surgery and his slow, rocky recovery, A.J. and Ted were finally able to pick him up and hold him for the first time since his birth. But soon after his new liver stabilized, Dane's kidney failed. Dane now needed peritoneal dialysis to do the work of his kidneys. On October 8, after six months in the hospital, A.J. and Ted were able to take Dane home, where he would need 11 hours of peritoneal dialysis each day until he could receive a kidney transplant. Although they were concerned about their son, the family knew of Packard Children's outstanding kidney-transplant track record. In 2017, the program performed 46 pediatric kidney transplants, as well as nine transplants in patients aged 18 or over, making it a national leader in kidney-transplant volume. Patients come from across the Western United States and even internationally to benefit from the program's expertise. A.J. hoped to be a living kidney donor for Dane. But Dane needed a perfectly sized kidney, which could only come from a deceased donor. "The odds were stacked against Dane both in terms of the complexity of the anticipated surgery and the scarcity of potential donor kidneys," says Ted. On April 7, 2017, one day before Dane's third birthday, Dr. Concepcion and Amy Gallo, MD, assistant professor of abdominal transplantation surgery, performed Dane's pioneering kidney transplant. "He was tiny, but we modified and tailored his own kidney vein to be able to drain the new kidney," says Dr. Concepcion. "It was a completely innovative process of doing the kidney transplant using only what the patient had available, which was that one vein." It was one of the most complicated of the kidney transplants performed at Packard Children's in 2017, though it was not unique: The team also transplanted two other children who had been referred from outside California due to challenging vascular access, as well as a patient who needed a second kidney transplant after becoming immunologically sensitized to the first transplanted organ. Within 24 hours of his kidney transplant, Dane showed signs of dramatic improvement. He was discharged after 10 days. Today, Dane loves playing with his little brother, Carter. "He's just really happy now. He's super social and loves his toys and going to music class," says A.J. "Finally, after three years, we're feeling relaxed like, OK, he's going to be OK." About Stanford Children's Health and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford Stanford Children's Health, with Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford at its center, is the Bay Area's largest health care system exclusively dedicated to children and expectant mothers. As a top-ranked children's hospital by U.S. News & World Report, we are a leader in providing world-class, nurturing care and achieving extraordinary outcomes in every pediatric and obstetric specialty. Stanford Children's Health provides everything from specialty care to general pediatrics and can be accessed through more than 60 locations across Northern California and 100 locations in the U.S. western region. As the pediatric and obstetric teaching hospital for the world-renowned Stanford University School of Medicine, we're cultivating the next generation of medical professionals and are at the forefront of scientific research to improve children's health outcomes around the world. We are a nonprofit organization committed to supporting the community through meaningful outreach programs and services and providing necessary medical care to families, regardless of their ability to pay. Discover more at stanfordchildrens.org. Media Contact: Samantha Beal [email protected] 650-498-7056 SOURCE Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford The Republic of the Congo and Morocco signed an agreement under which the Kingdom will conduct a feasibility study on the preservation of the Congo basin. The preservation of the Congo basin aims to strengthen the contribution of non-state actors, civil society, indigenous peoples and community organizations to improving forest governance, sustainable forest management and the contribution of forests to development in five Congo Basin countries. The project will benefit the youth living in forest dependent areas in the Congo Basin, which is home to the second largest tropical rain-forested area in the world. The German government made available 500,000 to carry out the study. Morocco has led advocacy for environmental causes in Africa in the UN climate summit it hosted in November 2016 in Marrakech. Back then, three commissions were set up under the effective chairmanship of King Mohammed VI, revolving around the Sahel, the Congo Basin, and the Island States regions. SINGAPORE, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, FinTech companies are making significant progress in promoting financial inclusion through innovative business models, products and increased use of emerging technologies such as digital identity, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, says a new report co-authored by CreditEase, IFC, a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group, and Stanford Graduate School of Business. The report, "Financial Inclusion in the Digital Age," was launched today during Money20/20 Asia in Singapore. The report is co-authored by Anju Patwardhan, Managing Director at CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund and 2016 Fulbright Fellow at Stanford University; Kai Schmitz, Investment Lead for the Global FinTech Investment Group of IFC; and Kenneth Singleton, Adams Distinguished Professor of Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Over two billion unbanked adults in the world, representing 38 percent of all adults globally, do not have access to basic financial services and another 57 percent have basic accounts but do not have access to a full range of services that include diversified savings and investments, low-cost payments systems, insurance, or credit. Financial Inclusion in the Digital Age explores some of the central frictions that prevent greater financial inclusion and financial well-being and associated technological innovations that are fostering creative new approaches to mitigating these frictions for individuals and small businesses globally. The report also includes a list of Top 100 FinTech companies globally that are supporting "Financial Inclusion in the Digital Age" across four main verticals of impact: payments, lending and related ecosystems, savings and financial planning, and insurance. These companies are mission-driven but are also focused on providing attractive risk-adjusted returns to their investors. These companies are but one key component of an evolving financial services ecosystem. "As we evolve towards increasingly digital and open banking systems, I envision many of the companies highlighted in this report as becoming central players in bundled, more inclusive services from major banks and market-place platforms," says Ken Singleton. The innovations and models outlined in this report highlight different solutions to three common core problems that limit financial inclusion: access to financial services, product-market fit and affordability. The report calls on concerted efforts from multiple players: entrepreneurs, regulators, investors, policymakers, large incumbents, and consumers, to sustain the efforts of the growing private sector to improve financial inclusion. "FinTech companies are a focus of CreditEase's FinTech Investment Fund of USD 1 billion. To date, our Fund has invested in 26 FinTech companies globally, across all four verticals highlighted in the report. These include investments in several of the companies in the Top 100 list," says Anju Patwardhan. "In the past 11 years, CreditEase has grown from China's first marketplace lending platform to a full-service FinTech company with a global footprint," says Ning Tang, CEO and Founder of CreditEase and China's FinTech pioneer. "We have innovative products across lending, savings and wealth management, and insurance verticals. As a firm believer of an innovation-driven new economy, we welcome this report that explores innovative solutions for promoting inclusive finance and we look forward to continuously contributing to this worthy cause in the next phase of our journey." "At IFC, we are committed to expanding financial capacities of individuals and business. We believe one way to achieve this is through the use of technology, in particular in financial services," says Giri Jadeja, IFC Global Head of Financial Innovation. "IFC's FinTech strategy is to promote innovative solutions that expand financial services and help banks and other existing providers to expand their markets. This is exemplified by the companies mentioned in the report, and many others we support across the world." The full report on Financial Inclusion in the Digital Age can be accessed at this link. About CreditEase CreditEase is a leading FinTech company in China, specializing in inclusive finance and wealth management, in addition to payment technology, marketplace lending, crowdfunding, robo-advisory, insurance technology and blockchain products and services. CreditEase actively engages with global FinTech innovators through business incubation, commercial cooperation, and investment. Better tech, better finance, better world. For more information, visit http://www.creditease.com About IFC IFC - a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group - is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in the toughest areas of the world. In FY17, we delivered a record $19.3 billion in long-term financing for developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to help end poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit www.ifc.org. SOURCE CreditEase Related Links http://www.creditease.com NESS ZIONA, Israel, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Israeli biotechnology company Kadimastem (TASE: KDST) announced today that it has received the approval of the Ministry of Health's Supreme Committee, for conducting its phase I/IIa clinical trial in ALS patients using the unique cell therapy developed by the company. With this approval, Kadimastem has obtained all the approvals required for its clinical trial, which will commence right away. The clinical trial will be conducted by the Department of Neurology of the Hadassah Ein-Kerem Medical Center, a world-leading center in the field of ALS, and is expected to include 21 patients. Hadassah Medical Center is beginning to recruit the patients for the trial. The trial will be performed within a framework of the outline coordinated with the FDA. The company intends to initiate the clinical site in Hadassah Ein-Kerem within the next two weeks. The treatment developed by the company, AstroRx, is a groundbreaking cell-based treatment for ALS, the result of unique research of the company over many years. Kadimastem developed a unique technological platform for the repair and replacement of tissue and organs, using functioning cells differentiated from pluripotent stem cells. Yossi Ben-Yossef, CEO of Kadimastem, noted: "The vision before us, when Professor Revel and I founded the company, was to build a leading company in the cell therapy field, and to develop innovative, groundbreaking treatments to help millions of patients suffering from various diseases worldwide. Today, we are proud to announce the start of this vision turning into reality, with the receipt of the Ministry of Health's approval for commencing our clinical trial in ALS." Ben-Yossef added: "The commencement of the clinical trial is the most significant event since the founding of the company. It is a great achievement for us, both in the company's reaching the clinical stage, as well as in the successful development of a revolutionary, groundbreaking treatment, based on a unique approach in the cell-based medicine field, which demonstrated excellent preliminary results, attesting to the treatment's efficacy and safety." Professor Michel Revel, the company's Chief Scientist, said: "I am very happy the company had achieved this important milestone and received approval for the clinical trial in ALS patients with AstroRx. We see in this cell-based product high hopes for effective treatment of ALS, which damages motor neurons. AstroRx is made up of young astrocytes, which are manufactured by the company from pluripotent stem cells, and which have shown high efficacy in protecting the survivability and functioning of motor neurons in ALS models. The benefit is that, for the first time, we'll be able to offer the same product for the treatment of ALS patients worldwide. This is an important stage in the activities of Kadimastem and the fruit of the endeavors of our scientific and regulatory teams, who worked to successfully complete the development of the treatment. The company is now advancing to the clinical trial, which will be conducted with Hadassah Medical Center's experts, and also plans to work on applying the same drug in additional neurological diseases." Professor Tamir Ben-Hur, Head of the Department of Neurology in Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, added: "We are happy to be commencing the first-of-its-kind clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells for the treatment of ALS, an incurable neurodegenerative disease. We're particularly proud that the cell based platform was developed and produced at Hadassah by Professor Benjamin Reubinoff and his team, now making its way into the clinical application thanks to its development as a drug by Kadimastem. There's a robust scientific foundation for this trial and preliminary safety trials were conducted at an unprecedented scope. All of this gives way to optimism." Dr. Michal Izrael, the company's VP R&D for ALS and Neurodegenerative Diseases, noted: "We are excited about receiving the approval for the treatment of incurable ALS patients using AstroRx. Kadimastem's clinical trial is among the pioneers in the world, in its use of cell therapy derived from embryonic stem cells to treat a neurodegenerative disease. The company's clinical product, AstroRx, is manufactured in the company's production facilities, under GMP conditions, and has been proven effective and safe. The clinical trial will be accompanied by a skilled medical team from Hadassah Ein-Kerem Medical Center and monitored by international clinical trial management company CATO Research. Within the next two weeks, the company intends to initiate the clinical site at Hadassah Ein Kerem, in order to facilitate the commencement of the clinical trial." Kadimastem's innovative approach is based on research showing that in ALS patients, brain-supporting cells (astrocytes) are malfunctioning and fail to properly support motor neurons. The company's technology enables the production of healthy supporting cells and their injection into the patient's spinal fluid (using a standard procedure) with the goal of supporting the malfunctioning cells in the brain, slowing the progression of the disease and improving the patient's life quality and expectancy. Kadimastem's technology enables large-scale production of the cells under GMP conditions and as an off-the-shelf product which will enable the treatment of large ALS patient populations. About Kadimastem Kadimastem (http://www.kadimastem.com) is a biotechnology company that develops industrial regenerative medicine therapies based on differentiated cells derived from Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs) to treat neuro-degenerative diseases such as ALS, as well as diabetes. The company was founded in August 2009 by Professor Michel Revel and Yossi Ben Yosef, and is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: KDST). The company's chairman is Dr. Eli Opper, formerly the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Labor and Trade. The company's investors, in addition to the founders, include Altshuler Shaham Investment House, foreign investors (Julien Ruggieri and Avi Meizler), and additional institutional investors. Kadimastem was founded based on patent protected technology that was developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Based on the company's unique platform, Kadimastem is developing two types of medical applications: A. Regenerative medicine, which repairs and replaces organs and tissue by using functioning cells differentiated from stem cells. The company focuses on transplanting healthy brain cells to support the survivability of nerve cells as cell therapy for ALS, and transplanting insulin-secreting pancreatic cells for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes; B. Drug screening platforms, which use functional human cells and tissues to discover new medicinal drugs. The company has two collaboration agreements with leading global pharmaceutical companies. Kadimastem has an extensive scientific advisory board, featuring prominent scientists and pioneers: in the embryonic stem cells field, Professor Benjamin Reubinoff, Director of the Hadassah Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Center and Senior Physician at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hadassah University Medical Center; Professor Joseph Itskovich, world renowned expert and pioneer in pluripotent stem cell research and former head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at RAMBAM Medical Center; in the neurodegenerative disease field, Professor Tamir Ben-Hur, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hadassah University Medical Center; and in the diabetes field, Professor Shimon Efrat, professor of Human Molecular Genetics and Juvenile Diabetes at Tel Aviv University and a world renowned expert in cell replacement therapy for diabetes and Professor Eddy Karnieli, former Director of the Institute for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the RAMBAM Medical Center, and a world renowned expert in these fields. Contact: Yehuda Feinberg Tel: +972-73-7971604 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Kadimastem LONDON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BluWrap , the global technology company that naturally extends the shelf life of fresh proteins, announced today that Ola Strand, has been appointed as its CEO. The appointment coincides with a fresh injection of capital into the business by the company's current investor, Wheatsheaf Group Limited, to help spearhead the company's future development. It also comes ahead of BluWrap's imminent expansion into Europe through the launch of a Norwegian subsidiary. "Over the past four years BluWrap has successfully demonstrated that its market leading technology can significantly extend the shelf-life of fresh proteins including salmon, pork and poultry in a natural, sustainable way without compromising quality," said Graham Ramsbottom, CEO of Wheatsheaf Group. "Since joining the company in 2016, Ola has made a significant and positive impact on the business from his base in Norway and has developed strong strategic customer relationships in Europe. With his background as CEO of large retail and logistics companies, Ola's experience is ideally suited to support BluWrap's next phase of development". Ola Strand said "It is with honour and excitement that I take up the role of CEO at BluWrap. BluWrap's technology has a high potential in bringing fresh food to the world, whilst reducing our impact on the environment and in doing so, we can contribute to making the world a better place. But in order to succeed we must continue to develop our technology into a sustainable and attractive commercial product and platform that customers will be compelled to adopt." For further information please contact: Ola Strand | [email protected] | +47 97 143 000 About BluWrap BluWrap is a global company that provides naturally extended shelf-life technology that has the potential to revolutionize fresh protein supply chains worldwide. The company's technology uses its patented oxygen management techniques to create and maintain an all-natural controlled atmosphere environment that extends the shelf life of perishable proteins. BluWrap's breakthrough technology enables suppliers of fresh protein to distribute their products in an environmentally responsible manner utilizing alternative transport to airfreight, while still delivering a fresh, high quality product to customers. For more information, visit www.bluwrap.com. About Wheatsheaf Group Wheatsheaf Group directly operates, invests in and helps to develop businesses in the food and agriculture sectors. Working in partnership with our portfolio companies, through the activities of over 2,500 people in 34 countries and the development of innovative technologies, we aim to contribute enduring solutions to improve efficiency in the production of healthy and nutritious food to meet the food supply needs borne out of the increasing demands of a changing global population. Wheatsheaf is one of three constituent parts of the Grosvenor estate which represents all of the business activities of the Grosvenor family. The others include: Grosvenor Group, one of the world's largest privately-owned property businesses. It develops, manages and invests in property in more than 60 cities globally. The Family Investment Office, which manages the Grosvenor Family's other interests including securities investments, rural estates in the UK and Spain, The Westminster charity foundation, a fine art collection and a family archive. www.wheatsheafgroup.com SOURCE Wheatsheaf Group Related Links http://www.wheatsheafgroup.com NEW YORK, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OneTravel, a leading online travel agency, has released the top destinations Baby Boomers over the age of 60 are traveling to this spring. The booking data shows the top domestic and international destinations Boomers are jet-setting to, along with unique trends for this age group, and the average cost of plane tickets this spring. While Boomers continue to travel to more traditional vacation spots for retirees like Orlando, Florida and Cancun, Mexico, booking data shows they are getting more adventurous this year, by heading to up-and-coming destinations such as Thailand, Vietnam, Costa Rica, and Peru. European cities appear to be the most appealing international choice for Boomers with seven cities making it into the top 20 this year. Select European gateways have seen significant price decreases year over year which may be contributing to their increase in popularity. According to OneTravel's data, flights to Paris are 19% cheaper, flights to Dublin are 14% cheaper, and flights to Rome are 12% cheaper than in 2017.1 Domestically, Boomers continue to frequent warm weather destinations such as Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and California. Top 20 Most Popular Spring Break Destinations for Boomers in 20182 Domestic Destinations Average Airfare3 International Destinations Average Airfare3 Orlando, FL $276 Cancun, Mexico $443 New York, NY $265 Tel Aviv, Israel $1,034 Las Vegas, NV $276 Bangkok, Thailand $826 Ft. Lauderdale, FL $265 Barcelona, Spain $703 Houston, TX $289 London, England $748 Phoenix, AZ $330 Toronto, Canada $296 Chicago, IL $240 Mexico City, Mexico $357 Tampa, FL $288 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico $470 Washington, D.C. $268 San Jose del Cabo, Mexico $452 Los Angeles $271 Dublin, Ireland $741 Fort Myers, FL $339 Guadalajara, Mexico $356 Miami, FL $305 Oranjestad, Aruba $595 Denver, CO $256 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam $822 Honolulu, HI $694 Rome, Italy $822 San Francisco, CA $300 Amsterdam, Netherlands $759 San Diego, CA $307 Paris, France $665 New Orleans $337 Madrid, Spain $739 Dallas, TX $262 Vancouver, Canada $372 Boston, MA $262 Lima, Peru $652 Seattle, WA $304 San Jose, Costa Rica $517 About OneTravel OneTravel is a leading online travel agency that offers deals for savvy travelers seeking both quality and value. Launched in the mid-nineties, OneTravel is now recognized globally for providing one-stop shopping for all travel needs. Customers have access to millions of cheap flights including business class and first class airfares, hotel rooms, car rentals, and cheap vacation packages to top destinations around the world. Visit OneTravel's social media pages at www.facebook.com/onetravel and www.twitter.com/onetravel. For an on-the-go travel concierge experience, download OneTravel's app for Apple or Android ______________________________ 1 Based on average roundtrip airfare for tickets booked before 2/19/18 for travel 3/1/18 4/30/18 compared to the average roundtrip airfare during the same time period in 2017. 2 Based on passengers ages 61 80 booked for travel from 3/1/18 4/30/18. 3 Based on average roundtrip airfare for tickets booked before 2/19/18 for travel 3/1/18 4/30/18. Average airfare rounded to the nearest dollar. SOURCE OneTravel Related Links https://www.onetravel.com AKRON, Ohio, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OuterBox (www.outerboxdesign.com) has once again landed in the top ranks of SEO agencies across the nation with a handful of March awards. Located in Akron, OH, OuterBox has experienced tremendous growth since the inception of the digitally focused agency in 2004. With the mission of becoming the "leading eCommerce marketing agency in the nation," OuterBox is well on the way, if not already there. OuterBox The March awards landed include "#1 eCommerce SEO Company in the Nation" (TopSEOs), "Top 3 SEO Companies in the Nation" (TopSEOs), "Top 10 Web Design Companies" (PromotionWorld), "Top 10 Enterprise SEO Companies" (FindBestSEO), "Top 10 Conversion Rate Optimization Companies" (FindBestSEO). "Our mission and focus has been to be the leading eCommerce SEO and marketing agency. The effort we've put forth to make this happen and the people we've added to our team has been beyond exciting," said Jason Dutt, Partner at OuterBox. "It's all about helping our clients be successful and grow online. When that happens, everyone wins." OuterBox is more than just an SEO agency; they are a customer-focused digital marketing company committed to creating value and additional revenue for clients. Core services include eCommerce website design, custom development, SEO and paid search (AdWords, Facebook) marketing services. For over 15 years OuterBox has focused on marketing the most popular eCommerce platforms such as Magento, Shopify and other major industry players. "We know a successful online business goes beyond SEO. Having a solid foundation, a professional online image and a website that is easy for users to engage with is critical. We're all about driving visitors to a website, but we want to support our clients with all of their online marketing efforts. Clients come to us because we can do it all under one roof," said Nick Nolan, COO at OuterBox. To learn more about OuterBox visit OuterBoxDesign.com or call 1-866-647-9218. For media inquiries, please contact Kati Stephenson ([email protected] or [email protected]). Related Links Latest SEO Trends Top-Rated Web Design Company SOURCE OuterBox Home appraisal values were nearly flat in February, posting a 0.07 percent dip from January, according the National Quicken Loans Home Value Index (HVI). Appraisal values jumped 6.37 percent compared to February 2017, which is a smaller annual increase than in January, when values were 7.03 percent higher than the previous year. Home Price Perception Index (HPPI) Appraisals continue to fall short of owner expectations, however, the difference between the two data points is shrinking. The Quicken Loans HPPI reported appraiser opinions of home values were an average of 0.53 percent lower than what owners expected, at a national level. Bucking the national trend, more than three quarters of metro areas measured have appraisal values that are higher than owner estimates. The leader among them is Dallas, with appraisals an average of 2.72 percent higher than expected. "The Home Price Perception Index is a perfect example of how localized housing is across the country," said Bill Banfield, Quicken Loans Executive Vice President of Capital Markets. "The fact that appraisals are showing home values nearly three percent higher than expected in Dallas, but the average appraisal is lower than the owner estimates by almost 2 percent in Philadelphia, illustrates this to a tee. Dallas is an incredibly hot housing market right now and appraisers are seeing just how fast home values are climbing. When shopping for a home, or even refinancing a current mortgage, consumers should always keep the changes in their local market in mind before estimating a home's value." Home Value Index (HVI) The Quicken Loans HVI reported that annual home equity continued its ascent in February, but the pace slowed slightly. Appraisal values increased 6.37 percent compared to February 2017, despite a monthly decrease of just 0.07 percent. The West was the only region with a monthly drop in home values, showing a 1.87 percent decrease from January to February. On the other hand, the Midwest had the largest gain in year-over-year home value growth, showing a 7.23 percent jump from February 2017. "With little movement in the HVI data from January to February, it's clear the same narrative from the beginning of the year remains," said Banfield. "Low home inventory continues to be a drag on the housing market. As the economy grows and more consumers are in the right place financially to purchase a home, the high demand is driving prices up. As we move into the spring selling season, all eyes will be on whether today's strong economy can support the higher prices." HVI February 2018 January 2005 = 100 HVI February 2018 vs. January 2018 % Change HVI February 2018 vs. February 2017 % Change HPPI February 2018 Appraiser Value vs. Homeowner Perception of Value* HPPI February 2017 Appraiser Value vs. Homeowner Perception of Value* National Composite 106.19 -0.07% +6.37% -0.53% -1.69% *A positive value represents appraiser opinions that are higher than homeowner perceptions. A negative value represents appraiser opinions that are lower than homeowner perceptions. Geographic Regions HVI February 2018 January 2005 = 100 HVI February 2018 vs. January 2018 % Change HVI February 2018 vs. February 2017 % Change HPPI February 2018 Appraiser Value vs. Homeowner Perception of Value* HPPI February 2017 Appraiser Value vs. Homeowner Perception of Value* West 128.32 -1.87% +6.99% -0.32% -1.46% Midwest 87.9 +0.42% +7.23% -0.55% -1.80% South 108.04 +0.92% +5.67% -0.58% -1.68% Northeast 99.74 +0.44% +5.44% -0.68% -1.85% *A positive value represents appraiser opinions that are higher than homeowner perceptions. A negative value represents appraiser opinions that are lower than homeowner perceptions. Metropolitan Areas HPPI February 2018 Appraiser Value vs. Homeowner Perception of Value* HPPI January 2018 Appraiser Value vs. Homeowner Perception of Value* HPPI February 2017 Appraiser Value vs. Homeowner Perception of Value* Dallas, TX +2.72% +2.83% +2.05% San Jose, CA +2.71% +2.58% +0.64% Denver, CO +2.22% +2.18% +2.70% Seattle, WA +2.01% +1.96% +1.31% Boston, MA +2.00% +1.90% +1.05% San Francisco, CA +1.91% +2.11% +1.30% San Diego, CA +1.30% +1.13% +0.38% Minneapolis, MN +1.20% +1.02% +0.73% Charlotte, NC +1.18% +1.07% +0.85% Portland, OR +1.01% +1.05% +1.81% Kansas City, MO +0.94% +0.80% +0.49% Sacramento, CA +0.84% +0.84% +0.82% Miami, FL +0.83% +0.75% +0.32% Los Angeles, CA +0.81% +0.93% +1.10% Riverside, CA +0.75% +0.54% -0.05% Las Vegas, NV +0.58% +0.60% -0.39% Phoenix, AZ +0.47% +0.59% -0.59% Detroit, MI +0.43% +0.41% -1.36% Tampa, FL +0.42% +0.44% -1.33% Washington, D.C. +0.38% +0.33% -0.44% New York, NY +0.19% +0.13% -1.55% Atlanta, GA -0.07% -0.09% -0.94% Houston, TX -0.85% -0.61% +0.52% Chicago, IL -1.24% -1.35% -1.96% Baltimore, MD -1.46% -1.53% -3.01% Cleveland, OH -1.76% -1.95% -2.17% Philadelphia, PA -1.84% -1.87% -3.09% *A positive value represents appraiser opinions that are higher than homeowner perceptions. A negative value represents appraiser opinions that are lower than homeowner perceptions. About the HPPI & HVI The Quicken Loans HPPI represents the difference between appraisers' and homeowners' opinions of home values. The index compares the estimate that the homeowner supplies on a refinance mortgage application to the appraisal that is performed later in the mortgage process. This is an unprecedented report that gives a never-before-seen analysis of how homeowners are viewing the housing market. The HPPI national composite is determined by analyzing appraisal and homeowner estimates throughout the entire country, including data points from both inside and outside the metro areas specifically called out in the above report. The Quicken Loans HVI is the only view of home value trends based solely on appraisal data from home purchases and mortgage refinances. This produces a wide data set and is focused on appraisals, one of the most important pieces of information to the mortgage process. The HPPI and HVI are released on the second Tuesday of every month. Both of the reports are created with Quicken Loans' propriety mortgage data from the 50-state lenders' mortgage activity across all 3,000+ counties. The indexes are examined nationally, in four geographic regions and the HPPI is reported for 27 major metropolitan areas. All indexes, along with downloadable tables and graphs can be found at QuickenLoans.com/Indexes. About Quicken Loans Detroit-based Quicken Loans Inc. is the nation's largest mortgage lender. The company closed more than $400 billion of mortgage volume across all 50 states from 2013 through 2017. Quicken Loans moved its headquarters to downtown Detroit in 2010, and now more than 17,000 team members from Quicken Loans and its Family of Companies work in the city's urban core. The company generates loan production from web centers located in Detroit, Cleveland and Scottsdale, Arizona. The company also operates a centralized loan processing facility in Detroit, as well as its San Diego-based One Reverse Mortgage unit. Quicken Loans ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction for Primary Mortgage Origination" in the United States by J.D. Power for the past eight consecutive years, 2010 2017, and highest in customer satisfaction among all mortgage servicers the past four years, 2014 2017. Quicken Loans was ranked No. 10 on FORTUNE magazine's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list in 2017, and has been among the top 30 companies for the past 14 consecutive years. The company has been recognized as one of Computerworld magazine's "100 Best Places to Work in IT" the past 13 years, ranking No. 1 for eight of the past 12 years, including 2017. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rock Holdings, Inc., the parent company of several FinTech and related businesses. Quicken Loans is also the flagship business of Dan Gilbert's Family of Companies comprising nearly 100 affiliated businesses spanning multiple industries. For more information and company news visit QuickenLoans.com/press-room. SOURCE Quicken Loans Related Links http://www.quickenloans.com BIRMINGHAM, Ala., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- W. Stancil Starnes, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ProAssurance Corporation (NYSE: PRA) will be presenting at the 22nd Annual Insurance Conference sponsored by the CFA Society New York (CFANY) on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 9:10 AM ET. Investors not attending the conference are invited to listen to the presentation via a CFANY webcast at www.cfany.org/22nd-annual-insurance-conference-pra-proassurance-corporation/. We will also make a link to the webcast available through our website: http://investor.proassurance.com/. Our presentation materials will be available on the Investor Relations section of website at http://investor.proassurance.com/Presentations, prior to the conference. Archives of the presentation will be available through the Investor Relations section of our website for at least one year. About ProAssurance ProAssurance Corporation is an industry-leading specialty insurer with extensive expertise in healthcare professional liability, products liability for medical technology and life sciences, legal professional liability, and workers' compensation insurance. The Company is recognized as one of the top performing insurance companies in America by virtue of our inclusion in the Ward's 50 for eleven straight years. ProAssurance Group is rated "A+" (Superior) by A.M. Best; ProAssurance and its operating subsidiaries are rated "A" (Strong) by Fitch Ratings. For the latest on ProAssurance and its industry-leading suite of products and services, cutting edge risk management and practice enhancement programs, follow @ProAssurance on Twitter or LinkedIn. ProAssurance's YouTube channel regularly presents thought provoking, insightful videos that communicate effective practice management, patient safety and risk management strategies. SOURCE ProAssurance Corporation Related Links http://www.proassurance.com MILWAUKEE, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Employers around the world report optimistic hiring Outlooks in Q2 2018, according to the latest ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN) Employment Outlook Survey released today. Employers in 43 of 44 countries plan to add staff, with hiring confidence strongest in Croatia, Taiwan, Japan, Hungary and the U.S. Hiring intentions strengthen in 17 countries since Q1 including Canada, France, Germany and the UK. Employers in Italy, Switzerland and the Czech Republic report the weakest hiring prospects. View complete Q2 2017 survey results: www.manpowergroup.com/meos "We are seeing optimism from employers in many countries across the world as the near-term global economic outlook is increasingly positive," said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Chairman & CEO. "Sustained positive hiring intentions combined with the ongoing impact of technology across all industries mean companies will need to find new ways of upskilling the workforce to help fill vacancies. This must happen at speed and scale. Businesses that are able to find the right balance of technology, talent and human connection will be those that will succeed in this Skills Revolution." Of over 59,000 employers surveyed across 44 countries and territories, confidence levels have strengthened year-on-year in 25 countries, weakened in 13 and remained the same in five. Global Hiring Plans by Region EMEA: Staffing levels are expected to grow in 25 of 26 countries surveyed in the EMEA region, with the only negative Outlook across all countries and territories surveyed reported in Italy (-1). Employers reporting the strongest Outlooks are in Croatia (+29) (added to the global survey for the first time**) followed by Hungary (+18), Greece (+16) and Turkey (+16) (+29) (added to the global survey for the first time**) followed by (+18), (+16) and (+16) In the Netherlands , jobseekers can expect the strongest hiring prospects in ten years (+8) led by growth in the Construction sector , jobseekers can expect the strongest hiring prospects in ten years (+8) led by growth in the Construction sector In Germany , employers are reporting the strongest hiring intentions in six years (+8) driven by strong demand for skilled Manufacturing workers as companies undergo digital transformation , employers are reporting the strongest hiring intentions in six years (+8) driven by strong demand for skilled Manufacturing workers as companies undergo digital transformation In the UK, employers have recorded their most optimistic jobs forecast in over a year. Job prospects look bright in the Hospitality sector, up fourteen points since this time last year, with employers looking to fill vacancies ahead of Brexit in an industry that is heavily dependent on immigration The Outlook in France (+4) increases two percentage points quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. The strongest forecast comes from large employers with those in Construction reporting some of the most optimistic Outlooks (+4) increases two percentage points quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. The strongest forecast comes from large employers with those in Construction reporting some of the most optimistic Outlooks In Italy employment levels are forecast to decline in six of the ten industry sectors surveyed as employers adopted a watch and wait approach in anticipation of the general election which took place in early March Asia Pacific: Employers in all eight countries and territories expect staffing levels to increase with hiring sentiment strongest in Taiwan (+26), followed closely by Japan (+24). The most cautious Outlook in the region is reported in China (+8). Hiring confidence in Japan remains strong and stable with employers reporting the most optimistic forecast since 2007 for the second quarter in a row remains strong and stable with employers reporting the most optimistic forecast since 2007 for the second quarter in a row Despite the positive uptick in India's hiring intentions over the past two quarters, confidence has fallen as employers report an Outlook of +16, down five percentage points quarter-over-quarter hiring intentions over the past two quarters, confidence has fallen as employers report an Outlook of +16, down five percentage points quarter-over-quarter China's subdued hiring pace continues at the same level for the third consecutive quarter but improves four percentage points from Q2 2017. The most optimistic Outlooks are reported by employers in the Finance, Insurance & Real Estate sector and Services sector Americas: Positive Outlooks are reported in all 10 countries surveyed. U.S. employers report the region's most upbeat forecast (+18). In the U.S., employers report the strongest Outlook in Leisure & Hospitality (+28%) as the economy picks up and Americans dine out. Employers in the Midwest again report the most positive Outlook since 2001 Canadian employers report the strongest hiring prospects in more than six years (+14), improving for the fourth consecutive quarter Colombian employers report the weakest hiring activity in more than eight years (+6) as hiring Outlooks in Manufacturing fall sharply quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year To view complete results for the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, visit www.manpowergroup.com/meos. The next survey will be released 12 June 2018 and will report hiring expectations for Q3 2018. To receive the latest survey results each quarter, sign up here . *The Net Employment Outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting from this the percentage of employers expecting a decrease in hiring activity. **No comparable data is available due to Croatia being added to the survey for the first time. The Outlook has not been seasonally adjusted. About ManpowerGroup ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the leading global workforce solutions company, helps organizations transform in a fast-changing world of work by sourcing, assessing, developing and managing the talent that enables them to win. We develop innovative solutions for over 400,000 clients and connect 3+ million people to meaningful, sustainable work across a wide range of industries and skills. Our expert family of brands Manpower, Experis, Right Management and ManpowerGroup Solutions creates substantially more value for candidates and clients across 80 countries and territories and has done so for 70 years. In 2018, ManpowerGroup was named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the eighth consecutive year and one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies, confirming our position as the most trusted and admired brand in the industry. See how ManpowerGroup is powering the future of work: www.manpowergroup.com SOURCE ManpowerGroup Related Links http://www.manpowergroup.com MONTREAL and NEW YORK, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - The Public Sector Pension Investment Board ("PSP Investments") and American Securities LLC announced today a significant equity investment in Learning Care Group (US) Inc. ("Learning Care Group") by PSP Investments. American Securities first partnered with Learning Care Group in 2014 and remains the controlling shareholder. Headquartered in Novi, Michigan, Learning Care Group focuses on the care and education of children between the ages of six weeks and 12 years. The company's national platform of more than 900 schools has the capacity to serve more than 130,000 children in 36 states, the District of Colombia, and internationally. Learning Care Group operates under seven distinct brands: The Children's Courtyard, Childtime Learning Centers, Creative Kids Learning Centers, Everbrook Academy, La Petite Academy, Montessori Unlimited, and Tutor Time Child Care/Learning Centers. "Our investment in Learning Care Group is a great example of our strategy to back market-leading businesses with strong long-term fundamentals and world-class management teams," said Simon Marc, Managing Director, Head of Private Equity, PSP Investments. "With its high-quality services, Learning Care Group is uniquely positioned to further capture growth in the early childhood education market. We are excited to partner with American Securitieswith its impressive industry knowledge and a history built on true partnershipsto support Learning Care Group's management team, which has positioned the company for the next phase of growth." "We are pleased to be supported by PSP Investments to continue Learning Care Group's growth trajectory," said Kevin Penn, a Managing Director of American Securities. "We look forward to working with them at the board level to further develop the company's market leadership." "We are excited to partner with PSP Investments and believe their international expertise will be invaluable as we further build our business outside of the United States," said Barbara Beck, Chief Executive Officer, Learning Care Group. "At the same time, this new investment and American Securities' continued support will enhance our ability to accelerate Learning Care Group's multiple levers for growth in the United States." Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP acted as legal advisor, and Morgan Stanley and BMO acted as financial advisors to Learning Care Group. PSP Investments' advisors were Barclays (financial) and Sidley Austin LLP (legal). About Learning Care Group Learning Care Group is a leader in early childhood education, with more than 50 years of experience in inspiring children to love learning. Headquartered in Novi, Michigan, the company provides early education and care for children ages six weeks to 12 years through seven unique brands: The Children's Courtyard, Childtime Learning Centers, Creative Kids Learning Centers, Everbrook Academy, La Petite Academy, Montessori Unlimited, and Tutor Time Child Care/Learning Centers. It operates more than 900 schools (corporate and franchise) across 36 states, the District of Columbia and internationally, and has a capacity to serve more than 130,000 children. Learning Care Group's proprietary School Readiness Pathway supports the development of the academic and social skills needed for a smooth transition to elementary school. For more information, please visit www.learningcaregroup.com About American Securities LLC Based in New York with an office in Shanghai, American Securities is a leading U.S. private equity firm that invests in market-leading North American companies with annual revenues generally ranging from $200 million to $2 billion and/or $50 million to $250 million of EBITDA. American Securities and its affiliates have approximately $23 billion of cumulative committed capital under management. www.american-securities.com About PSP Investments The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) is one of Canada's largest pension investment managers with $139.2 billion of net assets under management as of September 30, 2017. It manages a diversified global portfolio composed of investments in public financial markets, private equity, real estate, infrastructure, natural resources and private debt. Established in 1999, PSP Investments manages net contributions to the pension funds of the federal Public Service, the Canadian Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Reserve Force. Headquartered in Ottawa, PSP Investments has its principal business office in Montreal and offices in New York and London. For more information, visit investpsp.com or follow us on Twitter @InvestPSP. SOURCE PSP Investments Related Links www.investpsp.ca TORONTO, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Rogers Communications Inc. plans to release its first quarter 2018 financial results on Thursday, April 19, 2018 after North American financial markets close. The results will be distributed by newswire and posted at investors.rogers.com. Rogers' management will host its quarterly teleconference with the investment community to discuss the results and outlook at 4:30 p.m. ET. Those wishing to listen to the teleconference should access the live webcast on the Investor Relations section of Rogers' website at investors.rogers.com. A webcast of the teleconference will be available at this same website location following the teleconference. Members of the financial community wishing to ask questions during the call should dial 647-793-2626 (1-800-817-8873 toll free for North America) at least ten minutes prior to the scheduled start time and request access to Rogers' first quarter 2018 results teleconference. Media are welcome to participate on a listen-only basis. In addition to the webcast archive, a telephonic re-broadcast will be available for two weeks following the teleconference by dialing 647-436-0148 and providing conference ID number 6863655. About the Company: Rogers is a leading diversified Canadian communications and media company that's working to deliver a great experience to our customers every day. We are Canada's largest provider of wireless communications services and one of Canada's leading providers of cable television, high-speed Internet, information technology, and telephony services to consumers and businesses. Through Rogers Media, we are engaged in radio and television broadcasting, sports, televised and online shopping, magazines, and digital media. Our shares are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RCI.A and RCI.B) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI). SOURCE Rogers Communications Canada Inc. - English Related Links http://www.rogers.com NEW YORK, March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rouge Tomate Chelsea, the health-conscious restaurant which opened its more casual iteration in a landmarked carriage house in Chelsea in 2016, announces both the launch of Rouge Tomate Cafe, a fast-casual menu available for breakfast, lunch and dinner, beginning on Wednesday, March 14th, and the appointment of a new Executive Chef, Matt Aita. The original Upper East Side establishment opened in 2008 and presented what at the time, was a visionary concept: a Michelin starred restaurant that would serve food that was delicious, yet optimally balanced and nutrient-dense. In 2016, a new location allowed the concept to grow into a more intimate and casual one, but the focus on health and sustainability while never compromising taste always remained. The location earned a Michelin-star months after opening, in November 2017. In the brand's natural next phase, offering diners fast-casual fare in addition to their fine-dining style dinner service, the Rouge Tomate Chelsea team is excited to welcome Chef Matt Aita. Chef Aita got his start at lauded establishments Daniel and Jean-Georges, before serving as Executive Chef at Le Philosophe in 2013. In 2014, he joined Chefs Club as Executive Chef, overseeing the nightly execution of dishes from some of the world's best chefs in the restaurant's New York City location. At Rouge Tomate Chelsea, Founder Emmanuel Verstraeten, along with Chef Aita and General Manager Cristian Molina, have conceptualized a fast-casual iteration of the restaurant: Rouge Tomate Cafe, which will offer diners approachable fare including burgers and salads, available for dine-in or takeaway, in a fast-casual, counter service format. For breakfast, menu items include: Creamy Oats with cultured cream, cinnamon sugar, pecans and seasonal jam ($5.50) with cultured cream, cinnamon sugar, pecans and seasonal jam Breakfast Green Bowl with marinated kale, radish, beets, poached eggs and chiles ($10) with marinated kale, radish, beets, poached eggs and chiles Vegetable & Egg Sandwich with soft cooked eggs, kale and roasted trumpet royal mushrooms ($6.50) with soft cooked eggs, kale and roasted trumpet royal mushrooms Charred Avocado Sandwich with pickled chiles, radish, sprouts and sunflower miso ($8) . Pastries and breads like Flavored Focaccia as well as fresh juices and coffee are also available. For lunch and dinner, burgers and salads are the focus and take inspiration from Rouge Tomate's Cart in the Park which was stationed outside of the Central Park Zoo for the summers of 2011-2014. Highlights include: Market Grain Bowl with broccolini, chickpeas, shiitake mushrooms, sugar snap peas and chickpea miso dressing ($14) with broccolini, chickpeas, shiitake mushrooms, sugar snap peas and chickpea miso dressing Moroccan Chicken Burger with mint yogurt, arugula, peppers and onions and roasted tomato ($14) with mint yogurt, arugula, peppers and onions and roasted tomato Bison Burger with salsa verde, gem lettuce, avocado and charred red onion ($15) with salsa verde, gem lettuce, avocado and charred red onion Roasted Cauliflower "Caesar" with seaweed, lemon, Treviso, frisee and smoked almonds ($15) For dinner, Rouge Tomate Chelsea's fine-dining style dinner menu of primarily plant-based, haute-healthy dishes will remain available in the main dining room nightly, and the Rouge Tomate Cafe dinner menu will be available in the bar area of the restaurant, with table service. Rouge Tomate Chelsea is located at 126 West 18th Street (Between 6th and 7th Avenues), and is open Monday Saturday. The Rouge Tomate Cafe menu is available Monday Friday, breakfast from 8am 11am, and lunch from 11am to 2:30pm. Dinner for both the Cafe and regular menu is available from Monday Thursday from 5:30pm 10:30pm, Friday and Saturday from 5:30pm 11:00pm. For reservations, please call 646-395-3978, visit www.rougetomatechelsea.com. Follow Rouge Tomate Chelsea on Instagram @rougetomatechelsea and twitter @rougetomateNYC. ABOUT ROUGE TOMATE CHELSEA Since 2001, Rouge Tomate has been a culinary pioneer in America and Europe, combining culinary arts, nutrition, and sustainability. Founded in Brussels by Emmanuel Verstraeten, Rouge Tomate's mission is to provide an extraordinary dining experience that supports the total well-being of the individual and the environment. With its current location in New York City's Chelsea, Rouge Tomate is an unparalleled model for sustainable dining. Rouge Tomate Chelsea has been awarded one Michelin Star, Three Stars by the Green Restaurant Association, Three Stars by SPE Certified, a Snail of Approval by Slow Food, and an Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation by The Preservation League of New York. For more information, visit www.rougetomatechelsea.com. SOURCE Rouge Tomate Chelsea Related Links http://www.rougetomatechelsea.com EDINA, Minn., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Representatives from Sunbelt Business Advisors announced their client, Twin City Maintenance Team, has been acquired by RWK Services, a leading green facility service provider headquartered in Northeast Ohio. RWK Services is expanding its operations in the Midwest through strategic acquisition of companies aligned with its core competencies. RWK Services plans to retain all Twin City Maintenance Team staff as well as the company name. RWK Services provides a wide range of facility and environmental services to property management, including office cleaning, janitorial, carpet maintenance, floor care and flood remediation. A CIMS-GB Certified Company, RWK implements sustainable practices at the facilities it serves. Twin City Maintenance Team was founded by Kirk Berg in 1977 while Berg was still in his teens. The company specializes in clean room services for Fortune 500 companies in the Twin Cities metro area. The company currently employs approximately 50 full-time and part-time staff. Sunbelt Business Advisors assisted Twin City Maintenance Team with market research and identifying potential buyers, and helped manage the transaction. Sunbelt has reported a surge in merger and acquisition activity over the past year, driven by several factors including an increase in growth by acquisition interest as well as generational shifts. "The deal between RWK and Twin City Maintenance Team is an excellent example of finding a buyer that can not only carry on a tradition of excellence, but create new opportunities for growth," said Matt Schroder, Business Broker for Sunbelt Business Advisors. "I'm excited to see the next chapter for Twin City Maintenance Team and to welcome the RWK Services team to the Twin Cities market." About Sunbelt Business Advisors Sunbelt Business Advisors offers services for business owners interested in selling their business, assistance with merger and acquisition activities, complimentary business value assessments and helping business owners understand how to maximize their NET when they exit. With offices in Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee and Las Vegas, it is one of the largest franchisees within the Sunbelt brand. The firm provides business brokerage and M&A advisory services for companies with revenues from $500,000 to $100 million, as well as exit planning, franchise sales, consulting and business valuation services. About Sunbelt - Sunbelt is the world's largest business brokerage company and sells more companies than any other firm in the world. Founded in 1978 Sunbelt now has 200 offices worldwide helping people buy and sell businesses. For more information visit http://www.sunbeltmidwest.com/ SOURCE Sunbelt Business Advisors Related Links https://www.sunbeltmidwest.com FARNBOROUGH, England, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SatixFy UK, designers of next-generation satellite communication chips and systems, today introduced its full Electronic Steered Multi-Beam Array antennas (ESMA). The scalable architecture supports any antenna size up to 1 million elements (in Ku band 10m by 10m), any frequency through a dedicated RFIC, any polarization including circular and linear simultaneously, any shape including conformal arrays and up to 32 beams both in receive and transmit. The antenna, based on a fully digital beam forming technology, supports an instantaneous bandwidth of over 1 GHz and works in both TDD and FDD modes. Expected array efficiency is better than 70%. The antenna includes an ACU (Antenna Control Unit), self-calibration capabilities, and on-chip trigonometric calculator for fast tracking and beam steering. SatixFy Electronically Steered Array Antennas The antenna supports any external modem through L-band interface but is best utilized when closely coupled with SatixFy's current 500MHz baseband modem chips (Sx3000). ESMA antennas use less power based on waveform duty cycle. If there is no traffic, no power will be needed from the antenna, such as in DVB S2X time slicing (Annex M). With its integrated modem, the antenna supports various operational modes such as TDD (half duplex) and FDD (full duplex) and very fast Acquisition and Tracking. The SatixFy baseband chip can also serve as an additional DVB S2X overlay. SatixFy's next generation 1GHz baseband chips will enable the simultaneous use of 8 beams and 8 modems out of a single antenna, through a single modem chip and a single Ethernet port providing both data and control. "This is truly a remarkable product," said Yoel Gat, Chairman and CEO of SatixFy. "Until now, most phased array antenna solutions had limitations mainly in terms of power per element and price. SatixFy designs its own silicon chips on very advanced silicon processes. Our chips enable our unique digital beam forming design, capable of lower power per element. The cost structure is now based on silicon economics as all our algorithms and innovative antenna design are implemented in Silicon." SatixFy's Ku band IoT terminals with 64 and 256 antenna elements will be showcased at Satellite 2018, in booth #649. SatixFy is in the process of developing an aero antenna through the recently announced joint venture cooperation with Singapore Technologies Engineering (STE). Other applications using SatixFy's ESMA technology are multi-beam payload for solar drones and small satellites, self-installed fixed antenna, multi-beam DTH antenna, connected cars and mobile receive only antennas for Satellite TV in cars. "Expect to see a lot of innovation coming from us in the next months and years," continued Gat. "We will address multiple markets and offer great performance that seemed imaginary only a few months ago." ABOUT SATIXFY: The SatixFy Group designs next-generation satellite communication systems based on in-house developed chipsets. With locations in Israel and the UK, SatixFy develops a line of satellite communication modems with SDR and Electronically Steered antennas to support the most advanced standards, such as DVB-S2X. SatixFy's ASICs radically increase system performance and reduce the weight and power requirements of terminals, payloads and gateway equipment. With satellite communication expertise and full development capabilities, the company delivers the industry's smallest VSATs and multi-beam electronically steered antenna arrays for a variety of mobile applications and services such as Connected Car, IoT, consumer broadband, airline broadband communications, communication payloads and more. For more information, please go to www.satixfy.com SOURCE SatixFy Related Links http://www.satixfy.com OREM, Utah, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week at HIMSS 2018, SecurityMetrics, a leading innovator of data security and compliance solutions, announced the release of their Health Network Portal. The SecurityMetrics Health Network Portal is the company's newest HIPAA product, designed to help health networks manage and track completion of specific HIPAA requirements. Large health networks often use spreadsheets to manage HIPAA compliance and track individual members' security efforts, a method which is complicated and can lead to gaps in security. This leaves networks vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches. With SecurityMetrics' Health Network Portal, users can track members' HIPAA compliance journeys as they monitor their Breach Protection Checklist, Risk Analysis, Risk Management Plan, Vulnerability Scanning, and Policies and Procedures. Marcus Clawson, SecurityMetrics Health Network Portal Product Manager, said, "Health Networks have become a major target for data theft. The individual medical practices and business associates that make up these networks are each respectively vulnerable to attack, which presents significant risk to the entire network. Gaining visibility into individual members' progress towards securing data and completing specific HIPAA requirements has traditionally been a difficult and cumbersome process, one involving complicated and outdated spreadsheets." The Health Network Portal contains cloud-based tools to help Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), IT directors, and compliance managers with HIPAA requirements and provides a central location to track and manage those efforts. These tools include: Compliance Overview: Displays number of members actively working on the HIPAA tools, status of each tool, scan results, and a risk summary of the entire health network, on one page. Displays number of members actively working on the HIPAA tools, status of each tool, scan results, and a risk summary of the entire health network, on one page. Member Summary: Location- or member-specific tracking that displays members' individual progress in completing specific HIPAA requirements. Provides central location for each member's breach protection checklist, risk analysis, risk management plan, vulnerability scan results, and policies and procedures. Location- or member-specific tracking that displays members' individual progress in completing specific HIPAA requirements. Provides central location for each member's breach protection checklist, risk analysis, risk management plan, vulnerability scan results, and policies and procedures. Risk Summary: Calculates and displays overall network risk level, which is based on individual members' completion of SecurityMetrics' tools. Knowing the risk level helps HIPAA managers set and achieve security goals and reduce vulnerabilities. Calculates and displays overall network risk level, which is based on individual members' completion of SecurityMetrics' tools. Knowing the risk level helps HIPAA managers set and achieve security goals and reduce vulnerabilities. Business Associate Overview: Shows all business associates in a network and the percentage that have a signed business associate agreement. Clawson continued, "The Health Network Portal from SecurityMetrics gives real-time visibility into the security and compliance progress of network members. Our standardized set of cloud-based tools are easy to understand and will encourage members' involvement in completing specific HIPAA requirements." SHARP Community Medical Group Project Manager, David Porter, said, "Because of SecurityMetrics' Health Network Portal, HIPAA adoption has improved. The portal is interactive. It creates a sense of ownership and an improved level of engagement in the security risk assessment process." For more information, visit securitymetrics.com/health-network-program To learn more about SecurityMetrics, HIPAA, PCI DSS, or GDPR compliance, call 801.705.5665, email [email protected], or visit www.securitymetrics.com. For press inquiries, call 801.995.6516 or email [email protected]. About SecurityMetrics SecurityMetrics protects organizations, including those in healthcare, payments, education and retail, from security breaches and data theft. The company is a leading innovator in and provider of data security, PCI compliance, and HIPAA compliance solutions. As an Approved Scanning Vendor and Qualified Security Assessor, SecurityMetrics has tested over 1 million systems for data security and compliance. SecurityMetrics offers HIPAA compliance programs and HIPAA compliance management tools, HIPAA audits, PCI audits, PCI program management and PCI compliance tools, mobile device vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, workforce training, and forensic analysis. Founded in October 2000, SecurityMetrics is a privately held company headquartered in Orem, Utah, USA. SOURCE SecurityMetrics Related Links http://www.securitymetrics.com "Final years planning can be easily misconstrued, and many people think they only need to plan for their final days and after," said Jeff Huber, president and CEO of Home Instead, Inc. "Often, we forget about the fact that as we age we might want or need extra care in the final days, months or even years of our lives care so we can stay in our homes, care so we can remain independent, care so we can be around for our families and more of life's milestones. The gap we saw from our research shows a critical need for resources to help seniors and their families better plan for their final years." The Home Instead, Inc., survey revealed that seniors and their loved ones overestimate the plans seniors have in place. More than half of seniors who have made plans haven't made actual arrangements the main reasons being because they are still in good health (54 percent) and they trust their loved ones to handle their arrangements for them (48 percent). Final years planning can bring families comfort and ease. Home Instead, Inc., along with experts at Genworth Financial, developed the following questions for seniors to consider when planning for their final years: How do you want to live your final years? Seniors should consider what they want to do during their final years. Seniors should consider what they want to do during their final years. Where do you want to live? Older adults should consider if they want to spend their final years at home and, if so, what type of assistance might be required to help them do so. Older adults should consider if they want to spend their final years at home and, if so, what type of assistance might be required to help them do so. What's your plan if you need help? Many seniors will need long-term care at some point in their lives and they need to consider how they will be able to afford that care. Many seniors will need long-term care at some point in their lives and they need to consider how they will be able to afford that care. Do you know the cost? Older adults should consider the cost of care and anything else they would like in their final years. Older adults should consider the cost of care and anything else they would like in their final years. Are products and services in place to support a plan? Seniors and their families should explore the long-term care plans that exist to help them meet their needs. Seniors and their families should explore the long-term care plans that exist to help them meet their needs. Is your plan flexible? Seniors and their families should ensure their plans are adaptable to the changes that may occur as time goes on. Seniors and their families should ensure their plans are adaptable to the changes that may occur as time goes on. Does your family know about your plans? Families should have conversations and take the time to share specifics about their plans and the types of products and services they have in place. And just as important as making plans for final years is having conversations with family to make their wishes known. While adults (59 percent) and seniors (76 percent) agree, discussing and making plans for their final years makes them feel more prepared, only 58 percent of adults say they have discussed their parents' plans for their final years with them. To help seniors and their families understand the steps they need to take to plan for their final years, Home Instead, Inc. has developed Compose Your Life SongSM, an education program that offers planning resources and tips for seniors and their loved ones. Home Instead, Inc. has developed conversation starters around final years planning and other free resources to encourage seniors and their adult children to talk to one another about plans for their final years, and to help them explore options for care, finances, insurance and funeral planning. The program also features the online "Compose Your Life SongSM" music generator, where families' personal accomplishments and planning are layered in musical notes leading to a harmonious grand finale. "We are committed to helping aging adults take control and decide how their life story ends," said Huber. "By empowering seniors to make plans, as well as encouraging conversations with adult children, seniors are able to be in charge and have their wishes honored something everyone deserves." Families can find final years planning resources and information about the Compose Your Life SongSM program at www.ComposeYourLifeSong.com. For more information about local Home Instead Senior Care offices and to learn how their professional CAREGiversSM may be able to assist, please visit www.homeinstead.com/state/ to find an office near you. ABOUT HOME INSTEAD SENIOR CARE Founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska, by Lori and Paul Hogan, the Home Instead Senior Care network provides personalized care, support and education to help enhance the lives of aging adults and their families. Today this network is the world's leading provider of in-home care services for seniors, with more than 1,000 independently owned and operated franchises that are estimated to annually provide more than 50 million hours of care throughout the United States and more than 10 other countries. Local Home Instead Senior Care offices employ approximately 65,000 CAREGivers worldwide who provide basic support services that enable seniors to live safely and comfortably in their own homes for as long as possible. The Home Instead Senior Care network strives to partner with each client and his or her family members to help meet that individual's needs. Services span the care continuum from providing companionship and personal care to specialized Alzheimer's care and hospice support. Also available are family caregiver education and support resources. At Home Instead Senior Care, it's relationship before task, while striving to provide superior quality service. i In December 2017, 505 seniors, aged 75 and older, 510 adults, aged 45-69 with a living parent, were surveyed in the United States and Canada by Home Instead, Inc., franchisor of the Home Instead Senior Care network. SOURCE Home Instead Senior Care Related Links http://www.homeinstead.com "In building a first-of-its-kind health data platform, our aim was to empower individuals to take full ownership of all of their health data, understand it better, and share it with others on their own terms," said Ardy Arianpour, CEO and co-founder, Seqster. "Having personally experienced the impact of Alzheimer's on families, I see an immediate need for better ways to support day-to-day decisions as well as a longer term need to preserve and pass on valuable data to future generations for breakthrough discoveries. We are excited to work with Glenner Centers to make rich, actionable data a seamless part of how their participants and families get care." Seqster's unique platform lets individuals aggregate and control all of their available health information, including electronic medical record (EMR), wearable, ancestry, and genomics data, within moments of signing up and with full transparency for data usage. With Seqster, individuals and their families can better navigate healthcare treatment and share highly valuable personal and family health data with providers, innovators and researchers, on their own terms. Seqster's platform currently connects to more than 1,000 healthcare providers comprised of more than 2,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide, with additional providers coming online daily. According to the Alzheimer's Association, more than five million people are currently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the United States of America.1 In San Diego alone, 65,000 people live with Alzheimer's disease and more than 200,000 San Diegans are caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's.2 The disease is currently the third leading cause of death in San Diego. The mission of Glenner Centers is to provide high-quality adult day care and support services to families affected by Alzheimer's, through innovative day care programs, family support, case management, crisis intervention, and family and community education, advocacy, and information. Through Seqster, Glenner Centers offer its participants and families an additional benefit and service that improves how they navigate their care experience, including instant access to medical record data alongside fitness, wellness, genomics, and ancestry data. This information can be easily shared with family members, giving caregivers an easier way to manage care coordination and inform treatment decisions. Essentially, Seqster helps families answer the question "what do I do now?" following an initial diagnosis of a loved one as well as effectively navigate changes in a participant's health status and contribute to breakthrough research and discovery efforts. In addition to immediate access to an integrated view of all available health data, Glenner Centers' participants and families benefit from Seqster's unique HealthTrustTM program. HealthTrust lets individuals establish a legal asset from their health data and entrust a family member or members with access to their health record, much like a person executes a will. This allows individuals to pass their health data onto family for insights and information for generations to come. "We are proud to work with Seqster to securely and efficiently deliver critical health data into the hands of our participants and their families," stated Scott J. Tarde, L.N.H.A. Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director, George G. Glenner Alzheimer's Family Centers, Inc.. "The opportunity to be the first organization to offer Seqster's solution to our customers is consistent with our mission to bring them the best and most innovative care." The Seqster-Glenner Centers partnership comes at a time when Seqster makes its recent corporate debut. The company is focused on building powerful partnerships with the healthcare organizations and patient populations who need it most, with plans to make a direct-to-consumer offering available later this year. For more information, please visit www.seqster.com. About Seqster Seqster, pronounced "seek-ster," enables consumers and their families to access, integrate, manage, and own all of their available personal health data in one consolidated digital platform. Seqster's platform currently connects users to more than 1,000 healthcare providers comprised of more than 2,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide, with additional providers added daily. With Seqster, consumers and their loved ones can coordinate better care through more informed health decisions, contribute to clinical research and access critical family health information for generations to come. Launched in February 2018, Seqster is privately held and headquartered in San Diego. For more information on Seqster, or if you are someone seeking greater access to your or your loved one's health information, please visit www.seqster.com or follow @Seqster. About George G. Glenner Alzheimer's Family Centers, Inc. Our legacy begins with our founders: George G. Glenner, M.D. and his wife, Joy Glenner. Dr. Glenner was at the National Institutes of Health for 26 years before being recruited to UCSD School of Medicine in 1980 where he was a Distinguished Research Pathologist. Dr. Glenner's seminal scientific isolation and identification of the eta amyloid protein in 1984 opened the door to Alzheimer's disease research. George's compassion for the families caring for loved ones with Alzheimer's disease was as tangible as his scientific genius. The two qualities coalesced late one night in May 1982 as George and Joy, who volunteered in his research laboratory, answered a desperate phone call. An overwrought family caregiver was preparing to take the life of his wife who was severely afflicted with Alzheimer's disease and himself. The next day, the creation of the first non-profit, dementia-specific, adult social/medical model day program was created. Joy became the in-kind Executive Director until she retired in 2007. Dr. Glenner passed away in 1995. Mrs. Joy Glenner lives in San Diego County and is actively involved with the organization that honors her late husband's legacy and other philanthropic organizations. The Glenner legacy of touching lives through Sharing the Caring was created out of love and understanding of the urgent and unmet need for support for family caregivers. Their legacy is continuing while scientists pursue The Answer to this dehumanizing disease that robs the mind of its victims while it breaks the heart of their families. 1 https://www.alz.org/facts/ 2 https://www.alzsd.org/resources/facts-stats/ SOURCE Seqster Related Links https://seqster.com "Sridhar joins the I-Team at a very exciting and pivotal time as federal clients seek the next generation of highly secure and dependable cyber security solutions," said Joshua Rubin, Chief Growth Officer. "His involvement in countering Advanced Persistent Threats, understanding the DHS Intrusion Defense Chain, and redefining the Security Event and Incident Management processes for proactive enterprise risk mitigation, has made him a trusted advisor and highly sought-after expert in cyber security." With nearly three decades of enterprise information management and cyber security experience, Vishnubhotla is one of the most notable and most experienced cyber experts in the industry. He has designed and executed risk mitigation strategies to secure information assets, augment business resiliency, and protect Americans. He brings a deep skill set in information risk management, including Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM), at a time when cybercrime has seen a dramatic rise. "Sevatec's focus on Agile approaches in the cyber security arena has made it a market leader," said Vishnubhotla. "Our leadership and strategic growth in cyber engineering, threat management, information assurance, and risk management will continue to position us for long-term success in addressing federal customer's mission-critical cyber security needs. About Sevatec Sevatec is a leading national security firm specializing in Agile, DevSecOps, data sciences, cyber engineering, and cloud solutions. Founded in 2003 on the concept of "Seva," meaning "Inspired to Serve," our portfolio of mission-critical technology solutions includes homeland and law enforcement agencies, Department of Defense, Department of Transportation, Department of State, and multiple civilian departments and agencies. To learn more about Sevatec, visit http://www.sevatec.com. SOURCE Sevatec Related Links http://www.sevatec.com Once a close aide to Andrew Cuomo, Joseph Percoco now faces a prison stretch for fraud and solicitation of bribes. Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP/REX/Shutterstock After a complex trial in a Manhattan federal district court in which jurors twice told the judge they could not reach a verdict, Joseph Percoco, former executive deputy secretary to Governor Andrew Cuomo, was found guilty on three felony corruption counts involving deals he cut while serving in state government. Heres the quick summary from the Buffalo News: Joseph Percoco, who served as the insider among insiders to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, was convicted today of three felony counts for his role in a bribery scheme in which corporate interests got special attention before Cuomos administration in return for more a steady flow of bribe money paid into Percocos personal bank account. Percoco faces a prison term of up to 50 years. The former Cuomo aide was acquitted of three other corruption charges, and two of his three co-defendants were found not guilty. But he certainly did not come out of the trial with much dignity. At the height of his influence, Mr. Percoco, whom Mr. Cuomo had once described as his fathers third son, was known as the governors enforcer, responsible for everything from keeping lawmakers in line and intimidating Mr. Cuomos political rivals to making sure chairs and thermostats were in order for the governors public appearances. One guilty verdict involved a scheme in which an energy company with state regulatory decisions ahead of it arranged for a low-show job for Percocos wife. Another, interestingly enough, was about a bribe he allegedly secured while on a leave of absence to run Cuomos 2014 reelection campaign. This latter charge could create more legal headaches for both Percoco (and Cuomo) on grounds that he still had access to state offices and probably influence when he should not have had either. The trial was full of twists and turns, aside from the near-deadlocked jury. At one point, the key prosecution witness, a long-time lobbyist and supposed bribe-intermediary named Todd Howe, was arrested for credit card fraud, nearly blowing up the whole case against Percoco. But the end of the trial isnt the end of trouble for Cuomo, whos running for reelection this year and reportedly looking at a presidential bid in 2020. [I]n June, another former Cuomo ally, Alain E. Kaloyeros, will stand trial in a case that may cast further unflattering light on the governors administration. The trial of Mr. Kaloyeros, the former president of the State Universitys Polytechnic Institute, involves bid-rigging in Mr. Cuomos signature upstate economic development plan, the so-called Buffalo Billion. Mr. Aiello and Mr. Gerardi also face charges in that trial. Add in high-profile retrials of two legislative leaders whose corruption convictions were overturned, and you have something less than an ideal environment for the governor first elected on a pledge to clean up Albany. WASHINGTON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Small businesses measure the quantity and quality of links back to their site (21%) to determine SEO success, followed by site traffic (19%), leads and conversions (19%), and keyword rankings (18%), according to new research from Clutch, a B2B ratings and reviews firm. The Clutch research reveals that the metrics small businesses prefer depend on the stage in the conversion funnel where they engage target customers. Clutch's 4th Annual Small Business Survey finds that 55% of small businesses plan to invest in SEO in 2018 Graph of data about the metrics small businesses use to track SEO success For example, small businesses concerned with branding track keyword rankings to determine the level of exposure they achieve through SEO. Businesses concerned with return on investment (ROI) track leads and conversions that result from SEO investment. Small Businesses Benefit From SEO, With Few Exceptions Overall, 55% of small businesses invest in SEO. This is a marginal 3% increase in the number of small businesses that invested in SEO in 2017. Last year, 74% said they expected to invest in SEO in 2017. Not all small businesses are convinced that SEO is a relevant investment for their company. Some say they don't need SEO because they either don't have a website or are referral-based. Experts, however, say nearly all small businesses can benefit from SEO. "Every business is a viable candidate for SEO, unless they absolutely don't require business from the public and they are a referral-based, discrete, or relationship-based business," said Kevin Tash, CEO of Tack Media, a Los Angeles-based digital marketing agency. Even without a website, a small business can benefit from local search optimization services such as optimizing their Google My Business profiles and local directory listings. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Often Paired With SEO Small businesses invest modestly in pay-per-click advertising (PPC), often in tandem with SEO. Less than half of small businesses (45%) run PPC campaigns, and they do so as needed (37%) rather than regularly (36%). Nearly 90% of small businesses that invest in PPC also engage in SEO. The finding supports that most small businesses perform some form of SEO and intend to continue investing in this effort. The data from this report pulls from Clutch's survey of 351 small business owners and managers, which explored how small businesses approach SEO and PPC advertising. To read the full report and source the survey data, visit: https://clutch.co/seo-firms/resources/small-business-seo-investments-benefits-2018. For the raw data, a comment on the findings, or an introduction to the experts interviewed for this report, contact Grayson Kemper at [email protected]. About Clutch A B2B research, ratings, and reviews firm in the heart of Washington, DC, Clutch connects small and medium businesses with the best-fit agencies, software, or consultants to tackle business challenges together and with confidence. Clutch's methodology compares business service providers and software in a specific market based on verified client reviews, services offered, work quality, and market presence. Contact Grayson Kemper (202) 470-0491 [email protected] SOURCE Clutch TORONTO, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A joint analysis of IT security spending conducted by Akouto and Alpha Logics shows a significant cost to businesses that underinvest in cybersecurity. The study analyzed spending patterns of existing clients to examine cybersecurity expenditures for small and medium-size businesses who underinvest compared to their peers. Cost calculations included money invested in cybersecurity products and services like anti-virus and intrusion prevention, plus money spent recovering from cybersecurity incidents like virus infections and ransomware over a 12 month period. The analysis found that businesses who failed to adequately invest in cybersecurity spent on average 58% more compared to similar companies with adequate security measures in place. That number quickly skyrocketed when factoring in knock-on costs such as lost wages and revenue as a result of unplanned downtime. "Too many business owners fail to appreciate just how complex and costly it is to recover from a breach that could have been prevented with the right measures in place," said Bruno Macchiusi of Toronto based IT Service provider Alpha Logics. "To make matters worse, most owners don't believe their business is at risk until it's too late," continued Macchiusi. The IT costs to recover from a breach are just the tip of the iceberg with businesses facing unforeseen expenses when a data breach occurs. Small and medium businesses can expect to pay anywhere from $14,000 to well over $100,000 depending on a number of factors, according to studies by leading research institutes. Breaches involving credit card numbers can be among the costliest, with businesses forced to pay significant amounts for forensic examinations, credit monitoring services, customer notification services and legal fees among other costs. Having to notify customers and suppliers of a breach is not only costly and embarrassing, it could be devastating. According to industry research, 31% of customers terminated their relationship with a business after being notified of a breach. Recovery costs alone quickly add up to tens of thousands of dollars because of technical challenges involved with sophisticated attacks. "After the initial breach, advanced ransomware attacks will stay hidden for months, spreading to other systems, compromising shared drives and even backups before finally posting a ransom demand," said Dominic Chorafakis, founder of Canadian cybersecurity consulting firm Akouto. "Without the proper safeguards in place it can be virtually impossible to recover from an attack when your servers and backups have also been compromised," Chorafakis continued. With the number of threats growing rapidly and attacks becoming increasingly sophisticated, businesses need to pay more attention to cybersecurity in order to survive. To stay ahead of hackers, business owners should consider working with IT security experts to make sure they get the most effective protection for their budget. Contact: Dominic Chorafakis 1-877-707-0920 [email protected] SOURCE Akouto WASHINGTON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Social payments charity platform Goodworld and Australian payments innovator Verrency announced a partnership today to bring a charitable component to everyday financial transactions around the globe. The partnership will combine Goodworld's service with Verrency's banking payment services to create a new Corporate Social Responsibility offering aimed at major banks. The joint offering will enable bank's customers to 'set and forget' a 'round-up' of their debit and credit card transactions to the nearest selected amount (i.e., $1, $5 etc) and to donate the 'round-up' amount directly to their preferred charity. Customers then receive real-time reinforcement via mobile notifications from their bank's mobile app of their donation, along with regular updates of their total donations. They can also instantly post about their donated totals via social media. The joint service will be launched globally in stages, and will be initially available in the US, Australia and New Zealand. David Link, Verrency Founder & CEO said: "Goodworld is all about making donations seamless via social media. Together, we realised that we could significantly increase the amount of charitable donations by extending Goodworld's services to banks." "An average US consumer who rounds up their card transactions will donate between $150-$1500 per year to charity. This will have a significant impact on charitable giving while also enabling banks to do some real good for the world, their customers and their brand all at the same time. We've been incredibly impressed with the Goodworld platform, service and leadership and are pleased to be able to take their service out to banks." Dale Nirvani Pfeifer, Goodworld Founder & CEO said: "We're really excited about this partnership with Verrency, whose platform enables a bank to easily access multiple real-time innovations such as Goodworld via one frictionless, secure connection." "Our goal at Goodworld has always been to make giving more a part of people's everyday lives, and this partnership is a great step closer to making that a reality. This offering will showcase what we've always known at Goodworld that anyone can be a philanthropist. Even a roundup of a few cents makes a huge difference when people come together to give." A D.C.-based fintech, Goodworld enables users to instantly remit and organizations to instantly receive money right inside their social media feed with just a comment, tweet or click. Donors receive an immediate reply on Facebook or Twitter from the charity, as well as a customized receipt, as their credit or debit card is charged and the money is sent by Automated Clearing House to the charity or merchant bank account. Based in Australia, global payments platform and fintech marketplace Verrency enables banks to rapidly implement new real-time payment services like Goodworld, without replacing their existing payments infrastructure or undergoing complex technical integration. About Goodworld DC-based GoodWorld is the fintech company fueling social payments and philanthropy. The company's #donate technology makes it possible to give instantly to the causes people care most about, at the moment of inspiration. As the pioneer of hashtag donations, GoodWorld lets anyoneindividuals, businesses, influencers and moreeasily add a charitable component to their social network and turn giving into a fast, fun, and interactive experience. Launched in 2015, GoodWorld was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2016 and D.C.'s Best Technology Startup. Visit www.goodworld.me or follow @goodworld on Facebook or Twitter for more information. About Verrency Verrency provides world-leading enterprise-grade payments services for card issuers, merchant issuers, processors, and other digital financial services institutions. Verrency is a scheme-agnostic, white-label, real-time, "payments-innovation-as-a-service" curated-API & blockchain-linked platform and fintech marketplace that helps card issuers acquire new customers and increase their share-of-wallet of existing customers, while also significantly increasing security, control, and IoT connectibility. Verrency works behind-the-scenes - enabling 3rd party fintech services, native services, and bank-built services to be quickly and easily implemented without replacing a bank's existing payments infrastructure. Visit www.verrency.com or follow @verrency on LinkedIn or Twitter for more information. For additional information please contact: Goodworld Taylor Duncan at [email protected] or +1 571 287 1003 Verrency Grant Titmus at [email protected] or +61 3 9670 8350 at or +61 3 9670 8350 Chenny Wulandari at [email protected] or +61 3 9426 5343 SOURCE Verrency Related Links http://www.verrency.com Little will report to Susan Somersille Johnson, SunTrust chief marketing officer. He succeeds David Fuller, who previously announced his plans to retire effective March 31. "David transformed the SunTrust Foundation by aligning our philanthropic strategy to our purpose of Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being and focusing giving on efforts that build financial confidence," said Somersille Johnson. Under Fuller's leadership, the foundation saw its highest level of giving in 2017, with $16.9 million in grants awarded to more than 1,400 educational institutions and nonprofits. He also spearheaded the first National Financial Well-Being Summit, convening top thought leaders across the country to discuss opportunities for advancing financial education. Little will expand upon these efforts with more than 25 years of experience in various venture-backed and Fortune 100 technology companies, holding senior roles in sales, corporate development, business operations and marketing. He joined SunTrust in 2015 as senior vice president, Marketing Strategy and Operations. Previously, Little led International Marketing at NCR Corporation. "Stan brings a strong combination of philanthropic experience, strategic business planning and community partnerships to the role," said Somersille Johnson. "He will build on the foundation's framework, deepening strategic alliances with nonprofit partners to enhance our collaborative approach to strengthening communities." Little is currently chairman of the board of North Fulton Community Charities and held director and advisory positions with other private companies and nonprofit organizations. He served in an advisory capacity with the Federal Communications Commission and The College Board. Active in the community, he also served as an adjunct professor of business management and entrepreneurial strategy at Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business. Little earned his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Duke University, Master of Science in electrical engineering from Purdue University and Master of Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Established in 2008, the SunTrust Foundation has proudly provided grants totaling more than $128 million throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions to nonprofits such as Autism Speaks, ClearPoint, Grameen America, Junior Achievement, Operation HOPE and United Way, to name a few. For more information on SunTrust Foundation grants, visit the website. About SunTrust Banks, Inc. SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) is a purpose-driven company dedicated to Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being for the people, businesses, and communities it serves. Headquartered in Atlanta, the Company has two business segments: Consumer and Wholesale. Its flagship subsidiary, SunTrust Bank, operates an extensive branch and ATM network throughout the high-growth Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states, along with 24-hour digital access. Certain business lines serve consumer, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients nationally. As of December 31, 2017, SunTrust had total assets of $206 billion and total deposits of $161 billion. The Company provides deposit, credit, trust, investment, mortgage, asset management, securities brokerage, and capital market services. SunTrust leads onUp, a national movement inspiring Americans to build financial confidence. Join the movement at onUp.com. About SunTrust Foundation The SunTrust Foundation is dedicated to the company's purpose of Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being by engaging organizations to advance financial confidence. Grants and activities focus primarily on financial empowerment, but also include education, health and human services, civic improvement and cultural growth. The SunTrust Foundation supports American Red Cross disaster relief efforts and contributes as a United Way Global Corporate Leader. Established in 2008, the SunTrust Foundation has proudly provided grants totaling more than $128 million throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. SOURCE SunTrust Banks, Inc. RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The itch starts when the days get warmer and early-blooming trees start popping; it's the itch to plant, to get back in the field, to start a new cotton crop. The itch inevitably starts before planting is prudent. To temper the itch and time planting for the optimal window to get a strong stand capable of weathering Mother Nature's capricious assaults, growers can turn to the online Cotton Planting Forecasting tool. Use science at planting to help ensure a stronger stand and set your crop on the path to high yield. The Cotton Planting Forecasting Tool, available at FiberMax.com and Stoneville.com, is your first step for timing. "Cotton Planting Forecasting is a tremendous tool to use to see what the forecast looks like," says Kenny Melton, Bayer agronomic service team manager for the West region. "So often we just think about our immediate conditions when we need to be thinking whether the soil has warmed up and whether current conditions are going to stay. It's more about the five-day forecast and getting the heat units that are necessary to get your crop up and running." Developed by agronomists at Bayer in conjunction with the Center for Geospatial Technology at Texas Tech University, this tool provides a belt-wide cotton planting forecast for your desired county or area based on air and soil temperatures and cotton growing degree day (DD60) conditions. "Optimizing yield starts at planting," says Scott Asher, Bayer agronomic service team manager for the East region. "This tool is a way to set growers up for a successful season." To use the tool: Go online: To the Cotton Planting Forecasting tool for the East or the West, or Visit Stoneville.com or FiberMax.com, then click on Cotton Planting Forecasting in the toolbar menu Click on your county on the map A report will come up with a summary statement, such as "planting not recommended due to soil temp" or "planting conditions are marginal" The report will include three levels of data: The five-day minimum air temps forecasted The Mesonet soil temp at 11 a.m. The DD60 five-day forecast A grower at this point also can input the soil temp if a Mesonet soil temp is not available for their county or if they want to use their own soil temperature Planting into optimal conditions is the goal; planting into close-to-optimal conditions is the reality when growers have a lot of acres to get across and spring weather compresses the planting window. "People want to go in early and sometimes they have to because they have to manage a large number of acres," Melton acknowledges. "What we must remember is when we have to replant, we're really late. It's better to get that seed down when the temperatures are right and we can get that crop off to a good start. Use the Cotton Planting Forecasting to set yourself up for success." Bayer is committed to bringing new technology and solutions for agriculture and non-agricultural uses. For questions concerning the availability and use of products, contact a local Bayer representative, or visit Crop Science, a division of Bayer, online at www.cropscience.bayer.us. Visit the Bayer Connect - Social Hub for social media, recent news, blog posts, videos and more from Crop Science, a division of Bayer. About Bayer Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture. Its products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the Group aims to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to its social and ethical responsibilities as a corporate citizen. In fiscal 2017, the Group employed around 99,800 people and had sales of EUR 35.0 billion. Capital expenditures amounted to EUR 2.4 billion, R&D expenses to EUR 4.5 billion. For more information, go to www.bayer.us. Contact : Bayer Media Hotline, 1-862-404-5118, or Linda Arnold Whaley Crop Science, a division of Bayer Tel: (919) 549-2836 Email: [email protected] Pam Caraway Rhea + Kaiser Tel: (850) 758-8700 Email: [email protected] Find more information at www.cropscience.bayer.us. Forward-Looking Statements This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer's public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments. 2018 Bayer CropScience LP, 2 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. Always read and follow label instructions. Bayer and the Bayer Cross are registered trademarks of Bayer. For additional product information, call toll-free 1-866-99-BAYER (1-866-992-2937) or visit our website at www.cropscience.bayer.us. SOURCE Bayer Related Links http://www.bayer.us BEAVERTON, Ore., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tektronix, Inc., a leading worldwide provider of measurement solutions, today introduced the industry's first 56 GBd 400G PAM4 optical probe for use with Tektronix DPO70000SX Series real-time oscilloscopes. Joining the award-winning 33 GHz DPO7OE1 introduced last year, the new 59 GHz DPO7OE2 single mode optical probe delivers the performance and advanced debug capabilities designers need to troubleshoot 400G PAM4 components and reduce time to market. Tektronix introduces the DPO7OE2, the industrys first 56 GBd 400G PAM4 optical probe. The DPO7OE2 and DPO7OE1 optical probes, along with the full set of Tektronix solutions for 100G/400G optical characterization and validation, are being demonstrated at the OFC optical networking and communication conference and exhibition taking place this week in San Diego, Calif. Tektronix also introduced new 400G PAM4 optical modules for its DSA8300 equivalent time oscilloscope at the event (see separate release). Compared to 100G with NRZ modulation, 400G with PAM4 signaling is far more complex and has substantially increased the time required for design validation, debug and troubleshooting cycles. Although Tektronix also offers 400G equivalent time (sampling) solutions, the migration from NRZ to PAM4 modulation presents a number of validation and debug challenges that only a real time oscilloscope-based solution is equipped to solve. "The switch to 400G and PAM4 is disruptive on many levels, not the least of which are the severe test and validation challenges facing engineers as they race to bring 400G solutions to market," said Sarah Boen, general manager, Wired Communications, Tektronix. "By delivering the industry's first and only 56 GBd real-time solution with PAM4 support, we are leading the way to the next generation of high-speed networking in the data center." Delivering ORR (optical reference receiver) performance for 56 GBd PAM4, the DPO7OE2 allows engineers to more easily and quickly troubleshoot optical devices using a complete set of powerful debug capabilities including software clock recovery for PAM4 and NRZ, triggering, error detection, and the ability to capture time correlated or contiguous record of a signal for offline analysis. It also features best-in-class optical sensitivity and lowest noise to accommodate low PAM4 signal-to-noise ratio and channel effects. The DPO7OE2 can also be used for legacy NRZ applications. Analysis packages support standard optical measurements including ER, AOP, OMA, eye height and eye width, as well as PAM4 IEEE and OIF-CEI standard specific measurements including TDECQ. Availability The DPO7OE2 optical probe is available worldwide. For ordering information contact a local Tektronix representative. For complete solution details go to: https://www.tek.com/wired-communications/400g-pam4-testing Wondering what else Tektronix is up to? Check out the Tektronix Bandwidth Banter blog and stay up to date on the latest news from Tektronix on Twitter and Facebook. About Tektronix Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix delivers innovative, precise and easy-to-operate test, measurement and monitoring solutions that solve problems, unlock insights and drive discovery. Tektronix has been at the forefront of the digital age for over 70 years. Join us on the journey of innovation at TEK.COM. Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. All other trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. SOURCE Tektronix, Inc. Related Links http://www.tektronix.com Lamb of Satan. Photo: Youtube/CLFSuperPAC The Republican Partys opening message for the special election in Pennsylvanias 18th congressional district was the Trump tax cuts gave the average middle-class family a $2,900 tax cut. Its closing argument was Democrats love illegals and hate God. They say the other side is energized, Republican Rick Saccone said at his campaigns final rally in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, last night. Let me tell you, theyre energized for hate for our president. They have a hatred for our president . Many of them have a hatred for our country. Ill tell you some more my wife and I saw it again today, they have a hatred for God. Saccones decision to close on culture war hysterics wasnt some personal improvisation. In recent weeks as Democrat Conor Lamb pulled even with Saccone in a district that Republicans have held since 2000, and which went for Trump by 20 points in 2016 Paul Ryans Congressional Leadership Fund bombarded the airwaves with ads painting Lamb as Americas No. 1 fan of sanctuary cities, Ayatollah Khamenei, and Nancy Pelosi. This isnt how it was supposed to be. Republicans had been assuring themselves for months that the Trump tax cuts would save their skin in 2018. Democrats may have spent much of last year with a double-digit lead in the generic congressional ballot while wildly overperforming in special elections but the day Nancy Pelosi and Company decided to unanimously vote against tax relief for the middle class was the day their big blue wave turned back out to sea. For a brief period in early February, it looked like this wishful thinking just might bear out: Approval for the tax cuts creeped up, along with the GOPs standing in the polls. The Republican leadership felt free to push its preferred message in Pennsylvanias 18th. Ed Gillespie may have felt compelled to do his best Trump impression in the Virginias governors race but now that tax cuts had been passed, the GOP could finally campaign on its fiscal agenda (seasoned with a few spoonfuls of Pelosi-bashing): And then, support for the tax law stagnated. Democrats regained a nearly double-digit lead in national polls, while Lamb nipped at Saccones heels and, by all appearances, GOP operatives realized that their base liked tax cuts far less than they hated liberals and illegals. According to Politico, for the first two weeks of February, roughly two-thirds of the broadcast television ads from Saccones campaign, the super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and the National Republican Congressional Committee mentioned taxes. That dropped to 36 percent the following week and 14 percent the week after. During the final weeks of the PA-18 race, tax-themed ads have nearly disappeared. The GOPs decision to pivot away from bread-and-butter issues shouldnt be surprising. Last year, the Republican Partys health care and tax cut bills polled as the two most unpopular pieces of major legislation in more than three decades. Once the latter became a win for Donald Trump, Republican voters warmed to it. But the law still commands, at best, the support of a narrow plurality of voters. And while middle-class tax cuts have broad appeal, deficit-expanding ones for the wealthy and corporations do not while cuts to Medicare and Social Security, which such tax slashing will necessitate (according to the GOP leadership) have even less. Thus, if Republicans wish to center the 2018 campaign on questions of budgetary priorities, Democrats would be happy to oblige: A new analysis of voter opinion by political scientist Larry Bartels testifies to Paul Ryans problem. Analyzing data from YouGovs 2016 Cooperative Campaign Analysis Project, Bartels finds: [P]opular commentary on the political parties tends to focus on internecine conflict rather than on broadly shared values on the Republican side the primary focus has been on the presidents brand of hard-edge nationalism with its gut-level cultural appeals and hard lines on trade and immigration, as a recent New York Times report put it (Martin and Peters 2017). Moreover, these profound ideological differences within the Republican coalition are supposed to have become much more pronounced in the Trump era (Hohmann 2017). In fact, however, rank and file Republicans seem to be relatively united and energized by hard-edge nationalism, but less united on the role of government, with a sizeable minority expressing rather un-Republican enthusiasm for a strong welfare state. [A] majority of Republicans endorse government efforts to regulate pollution, provide a decent standard of living for people unable to work, and ensure access to good health care, while substantial minorities favor reducing income differences and helping families pay for child care and college. The modern GOPs top policy priorities do not command majority support from its own voters. The partys mass appeal is rooted almost entirely in the cultural resentments and racial paranoia that colors those presidential remarks that Republican legislators pretend not to hear. But GOP operatives cant close their ears to what conservative voters are actually calling for; not if they wish to save their partys House majority. So, expect to hear a lot more Republicans denouncing Nancys Pelosis Abolish God and borders agenda between now and November. Unprecedented Clinical Data Could Capture $3B Uncontested Market Key Milestones: US-FDA IND Filed Mar. 2 nd , 2018 first-in-class drug prevents post-surgical adhesions Groundbreaking Mechanistic Data Presented at Society of Reproductive Investigations (SRI) , San Diego , Mar. 9 th , 2018 Series B Financing $25M (Led by Dominick & Dickerman LLC, NYC) GELEEN, Netherlands, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Not since 1867 when British surgeon Dr. Joseph Lister used carbolic acid to cut mortality rates due to infection from 80% to 5% has there been a product that promises to make a similar impact. Evitar means "to prevent or eradicate" in Spanish; unprecedented clinical data (over 80% efficacy for the complete prevention of post operative fibrosis or adhesions), sets a new benchmark to fully capture a $3 BN uncontested market. With almost 51 abdominal surgeries done every minute in the US, the impact and opportunity is clear. Novel approach renders less effective solutions obsolete and irrelevant. "Evitar offers a potential therapeutic option for preventing adhesion formation based on sound scientific principles with the exciting triad of Efficacy, Safety and Ease of Use." James Greenberg, MD. FACOG Boston, Massachusetts Post operative fibrosis occurs in almost 93% of surgeries and remains the single largest complication of surgery. Evitar is quickly and easily administered into the peritoneal cavity via laparoscope or in open surgeries just after irrigation and prior to closure. A double-blind placebo controlled randomized study showed statistically significant complete prevention of post surgical fibrosis in over 83-89% of patients . The study, conducted by Temple deployed independent and blinded medical reviewers from prestigious universities in Montreal and Boston. "We wanted to remove as many of the biases as possible," says Temple's Chief Science Officer, Dr. Lynne Robertson. Safety data from the trial was equally impressive. Results are part of an abstract submission for the upcoming AAGL (www.aagl.org) meeting in Las Vegas. "There is a large unmet need for prevention of adhesions. The risks of adhesions include a lifelong risk (re-admissions, re-operations, & significant reduced quality of life) for various clinical entities. The mechanism behind previous agents for prevention of adhesions was based solely on separation of injured peritoneal surfaces. Evitar provides a totally new pre-emptive concept, that actively intervenes in the molecular pathway of adhesion formation." Richard ten Broek, MD, PhD. Nijmegen, The Netherlands Ground breaking data to support Evitar's mechanism of action was developed by Dr. Robertson, in collaboration with the leading adhesion research laboratory of Dr. Ghassan Saed of Wayne State University. Dr. Saed presented the study results at the March 9th SRI conference in San Diego. Robertson's hypothesis that Evitar's MoA involves regulation of key mediators of the inflammatory response to injury was supported by the study's findings. " Evitar is a sentinel moment in surgery and the impact is immense. " About Temple Temple is a privately held clinical stage development company focused on improving clinical outcomes by developing patented drugs for proven and reimbursable high unmet medical needs in hospitals. SOURCE Temple Therapeutics BV The 6,500 sq.ft. showroom designed to inspire customers sits next to the North American headquarters and provides a platform for training, learning and designing. The kitchen vignettes and demonstration areas in the showroom feature faucets and fixtures from ROHL . The ROHL Luxury Stainless Steel Kitchen and Bar Sinks are paired with faucets from the ROHL Pirellone Series. All of these products are designed, engineered and crafted in Italy from the finest materials, by highly-trained artisans employing generations of know-how to their craft. ROHL is based in Irvine, California. "We'll thrilled to partner with Fisher & Paykel in their new Experience Center in Costa Mesa and to share our message of Authentic Luxury," said Greg Rohl, VP of Marketing for ROHL. "Fisher & Paykel is regarded as being an innovator in the appliance world and we're proud to feature several of our own 'ROHL Water Appliances' throughout the space to provide design professionals and consumers with a complete kitchen experience." Another key partner is SCANPAN, a Denmark-based company that has been producing durable and timeless artisan cookware for professional chefs and home cooks alike. "We're delighted to partner with Fisher & Paykel, whose commitment to sustainability and innovative design reflects our brand philosophy. We believe that featuring SCANPAN cookware and GLOBAL knives in the Experience Center will complement the excellence that Fisher & Paykel appliances are known for," said Jesper Brund, CEO and President of SCANPAN USA. In the tradition of the Samurai sword, GLOBAL knives are produced using the highest-quality stainless steel by Japanese craftsmen. GLOBAL is known worldwide for their perfectly balanced, lightweight kitchen knives and ergonomic handles with the signature dimpled pattern. Room & Board, with their modern outdoor furnishings, has elevated the design in the DCS outdoor products area, which showcases the Series 9 Grill, launching in April. "Fisher & Paykel's attention to detail, innovation, and desire to create products tailored to their clients' needs is in perfect alignment with Room & Board's brand philosophy," said Tracy Yoshihara, SOCO Retail Market Manager. "After touring Fisher & Paykel's new state-of-the-art Experience Center, located just minutes from our SOCO showroom, we knew a partnership would be a fantastic fit, and we are thrilled to provide our timeless, modern furnishings for the spectacular alfresco-like area of their Costa Mesa Experience Center." About Fisher & Paykel and DCS Founded in New Zealand in 1934, Fisher & Paykel is a leading manufacturer of premium kitchen, outdoor and laundry appliances. Their design heritage is based on a pioneering spirit that challenges conventional appliance design to create the world's most human-centered appliance brand. Fisher & Paykel is a global company operating in over 50 countries. CONTACT: Caitlin Davis 949-790-8900 Ext. 3327 [email protected] SOURCE Fisher & Paykel Related Links www.fisherpaykel.com InterProse has been a leader in the ARM for the last 20 years, providing software as a service electronic payment applications and consulting services for organizations of all sizes. The integration also allows InterProse customers to access BillingTree Merchant Services, including Payment Card and ACH (e-Check) processing. "Technology innovation has always been at the forefront of the InterProse go-to market strategy," said Matthew Hill, Director of Sales & Marketing, Strategic Partnerships, President and CEO at The Interprose Corporation. "The integration with tech-focused BillingTree solutions is a continuation of that drive to bring our customers the industry's leading payment technology and offer the most flexible solutions available. InterProse customers will be able to provide the most up-to-date payment options, while being safe in the knowledge that they are operating with full regulatory compliance." "Settling balances in the ARM industry is about offering customers a path of least resistance to payment. BillingTree solutions are developed from detailed knowledge, experience, research of consumer trends and customer pain points in the ARM environment," said Steve Recchia, ARM Industry Director Sales/Account Management at BillingTree. About InterProse InterProse is a software company serving the debt recovery market with a web-based, open-platform software solution to facilitate debt recovery efforts. Specializing in efficiency through process automations and capable of integrating various third-party technologies to keep pace with modern advancements, InterProse continually upgrades the platform at no charge to its customers and strives to be the most flexible, modern solution available for its target markets of third party debt collections and original credit grantors. About BillingTree BillingTree is the leading provider of integrated payments solutions to the healthcare, ARM and financial services industry verticals. Through its technology-enabled suite of products and services, BillingTree enables organizations to increase efficiency and decrease the costs of payment processing while adhering to compliance regulations. Leveraging more than a decade of market experience, BillingTree is dedicated to growing payments with technology through an integrated omni-channel offering, suite of proprietary products and value-added services, and a Company-wide focus on delivering extraordinary customer service. Contact: Dave Yohe VP of Marketing BillingTree Tel: 602.443.5948 [email protected] Contact: Jamie Kightley PR for BillingTree IBA Tel: 561.228.1940 [email protected] SOURCE BillingTree Related Links http://www.mybillingtree.com STOCKHOLM, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Moberg Pharma AB (OMX: MOB) announces that the company's Nomination Committee has decided to present the following proposal to the Annual General Meeting 2018. The Nomination Committee The Nomination Committee consists of the Chairman Gillis Cullin representing Ostersjostiftelsen and the members Fredrik Persson representing Zimbrine Holding BV, Anders Rodebjer representing Wolco Invest and Thomas Eklund, Chairman of the Board of Directors in the Company. Chairman of the Annual General Meeting The Nomination Committee proposes that Thomas Eklund is elected as Chairman of the Annual General Meeting of shareholders 2018. Election of Directors and Chairman of the Board and Auditor, and fees payable to such The Nomination Committee proposes that the Board of Directors shall consist of five persons and no deputies. The Nomination Committee proposes re-election of Thomas Eklund, Geert Cauwenbergh, Sara Brandt and Mattias Klintemar as Board Directors. Torbjorn Koivisto and Thomas B. Thomsen, after seven and four years as members of the Board, have chosen not to be available for re-election. The Nomination Committee proposes that Anna Malm Bernsten is appointed as new member of the Board. Anna Malm Bernsten, M.Sc, works as a consultant within business development and management through her own company. She is the previous group CEO and CEO of Carmeda AB, and has also had leading positions within international marketing and sales at, amongst others, Pharmacia, ASSA ABLOY and GE Healthcare. Anna is the chairman of the board for Medivir AB and Bjorn Axen AB, and board member for Cellavision AB, Probi AB and Pagengruppen AB. She has also had previous board assignments for, amongst others, Arcam AB, Biophausia AB, Eurovive AB and Oatly AB. The Nomination Committee proposes that an aggregate fee of SEK 1,220,000 shall be paid to the Board Directors, of which SEK 360,000 to the Chairman and SEK 170,000 for all other Board Directors elected by the Annual General Meeting. An additional fee of SEK 90,000 shall be paid to the members of the Compensation Committee, SEK 45,000 to the chairman and SEK 22,500 to the other members (2). A fee of SEK 90,000 shall be paid to the members of the new Audit and Finance Committee, SEK 45,000 to the chairman and SEK 22,500 to the other members (2). The Nomination Committee proposes, in accordance with the Board of Directors recommendation, re-election of EY as Company Auditors, with Andreas Troberg as responsible Auditor for a period until the end of the next Annual General Meeting. The Nomination Committee proposes that fees to the Auditor, for a period until the end of the next Annual General Meeting, are to be paid as per approved invoice. The Nomination Committees proposal for principles establishing the Nomination Committee and its work The Nomination Committee proposes that the Annual General Meeting assigns a Nomination Committee according to the following principles. The Annual General Meeting assigns the Chairman of the Board of Directors to contact the three largest shareholders in term of votes or owner groups (hereby referred to both directly-registered shareholders and nominee-registered shareholders), according to a transcript of the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB as per September 28, 2018, each appointing a representative to, besides the Chairman of the Board of Directors, constitute the Nomination Committee for the period until a new Nomination Committee is appointed by mandate from the next Annual General Meeting. If any of the three largest shareholders or owner groups declines to elect a representative, the fourth largest shareholder or owner group will be asked, and so on, until the Nomination Committee consists of four members. The majority of the members of the Nomination Committee are to be independent of the Company and its executive management. At least one member of the Nomination Committee is to be independent of the Companys largest shareholder in term of votes, or any group of shareholders that act in concert in the governance of the Company. Neither the Chief Executive Officer nor other members of the executive management are to be members of the Nomination Committee. Board members may be members of the Nomination Committee but may not constitute a majority thereof. If more than one Board member is on the Nomination Committee, no more than one of these may be dependent of a major shareholder in the Company. The Nomination Committee appoints Chairman within the Committee. Neither the Chairman of the Board of Directors nor any other Board member may be Chairman of the Nomination Committee. The names of the members of the Nomination Committee shall be announced no later than six months prior to the 2019 Annual General Meeting. In the event that one of the members of the Nomination Committee resigns before the Committees work is completed and if the Nomination Committee is of the opinion that there is a need to replace the member, the Nomination Committee shall appoint a new member according to the principles above, but based on a transcript of the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB, as soon as possible after the member has resigned. A change in the composition of the Nomination Committee shall be announced immediately. No fees shall be paid to the members of the Nomination Committee for their work in the Nomination Committee. The Nomination Committee shall submit proposals on the following issues for resolution by the 2019 Annual General Meeting: a) Proposal for Chairman of the Meeting b) Proposal for the Board of Directors c) Proposal for Chairman of the Board of Directors d) Proposal for fees to the Board of Directors, with distribution between the Chairman and other Board members e) Proposal for Company Auditors f) Proposal for fee to Company Auditors g) Proposal for principles for establishing the Nomination Committee for the 2019 Annual General Meeting. About this information This information is information that Moberg Pharma AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 11:00 a.m. CET on March 13th 2018. For additional information contact: Peter Wolpert CEO phone: +1-908-432-22-03 (US) +46-70-735-71-35 e-mail: [email protected] Anna Ljung CFO phone: +46-707-66-60-30 e-mail: [email protected] This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/moberg-pharma/r/the-nomination-committee-s-proposal-to-the-annual-general-meeting-2018,c2470802 The following files are available for download: http://mb.cision.com/Main/1662/2470802/804665.pdf The Nomination Committeeas proposal to the Annual General Meeting 2018 SOURCE Moberg Pharma SUPERIOR, Wis., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Wisconsin-Superior is pleased to announce the addition of an Education Specialist in Educational Administration Superintendent/District Administrator 100% online degree program to prepare postgraduate students for licensure in a broad range of administrative roles. UW-Superior's Ed.S. program is designed in a flexible online format that supports the needs of working educators, with degree completion in as few as 18 months. The program includes 30 credit hours and accelerated 7-week courses and is being offered at an affordable price of $15,000. "The program builds on UW-Superior's trusted reputation of providing flexible programs for administrators who wish to increase their competencies or satisfy certification requirements for present professional positions or positions with new and increased responsibilities," said Terri Kronzer, Professor, Educational Leadership Department. "We are so pleased to add this highly accessible program to our portfolio of high-quality online degree offerings for working educators in Wisconsin." Students can complete the education requirements for licensure as a school administrator, with a relevant curriculum focused on practical application and evolving trends. The program is designed for educators who already hold master's degrees in education and a principal's license. Program benefits include: Affordable tuition only $15,000 (including fees) (including fees) Multiple start dates per year Faculty with extensive field experience Focus on relevant, practical coursework No GRE requirement for admission 100% online coursework Students in UW-Superior's online programs benefit from a supportive, practitioner faculty, and instructional excellence in educator preparation as approved by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The university's experience in delivering high quality online education has earned praise as the top online school in the state. The University of Wisconsin-Superior is nationally recognized as a public liberal arts institution that fosters intellectual growth and career preparation with an emphasis on individual attention, inclusion and community engagement for more than 2,600 students. MEDIA CONTACTS [email protected] uwsuper.edu/univrelations 715-394-8213 SOURCE University of Wisconsin-Superior As far back as the early 1900s, TIMEX was among the first watchmakers to craft watches for women. Now, over 100 years later, TIMEX is reinforcing their position as a leader in designing and manufacturing watches for women with the Spring 2018 collection. "This season, TIMEX is taking a strong step to reclaim our heritage in the women's market. Our lead collection, Crystal Bloom honors our craftsmanship, combining elegant femininity with timeless design," said Shawn Cummings, TIMEX Sr. Vice President, Market Business Unit. "Olivia's confidence and bold sense of style complements the softer spring colors and crystal detailing in the Crystal Bloom Collection. We look forward to working with her throughout the campaign as we begin a new dialogue with the modern woman." TIMEX has partnered with Swarovski to develop this collection of 10 styles, which include designs that feature a crystal fabric dial made of genuine Swarovski crystals against a unique floral design. The impressive fabric made of Swarovski crystals make the dial shimmer, while the crystal accent styles add the perfect touch of sparkle. "TIMEX is an incredibly iconic American brand, and the Crystal Bloom watch brings their very rich heritage to life in a fresh and modern way," said Olivia Culpo. "I love to wear it when I want to add a touch of glam and femininity to my style." The Crystal Bloom collection is available in leather strap and metal bracelet styles, priced $65.00 USD to $80.00 USD. The collection is available now on TIMEX.com. The full Spring 2018 Women's collection includes modern feminine interpretations of classics such as Waterbury and Fairfield, and new designs such as the Petite are also available on TIMEX.com ranging from $47.00 USD to $129.00 USD. For images, additional quotes and information, please contact: Bratskeir & Company Samantha Zink [email protected] Michael Papirmeister [email protected] 212.679.2233 About TIMEX Group www.timexgroup.com TIMEX Group designs, manufactures and markets innovative timepieces around the world. Founded in 1854, TIMEX Group is a privately held company headquartered in Middlebury, Connecticut with multiple operating units and over 3,500 employees worldwide. As one of the largest watchmakers in the world, TIMEX Group companies produce watches under a number of well-known brands, including TIMEX, Guess, GC, Versace, Versus, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Nautica. Launched in 1950, TIMEX sells millions of watches each year worldwide. Join TIMEX on social media: @Timex SOURCE TIMEX Related Links http://www.timex.com PLANO, Texas, March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Toyota Connected North America, the global technology strategy business unit for Toyota, today announced a multi-year partnership with Avis Budget Group, a leading global provider of mobility solutions, that will add 10,000 Toyota vehicles to Avis Car Rental's expanding fleet of connected cars. Avis Budget Group will utilize Toyota's proprietary Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) to enable greater operational and rental fleet efficiency while creating a more seamless rental experience for customers. "At Toyota Connected North America, we are leveraging the power of data science to develop and deliver new mobility services that create new value for businesses and customers alike," said Zack Hicks, chief executive officer and president, Toyota Connected North America. "Toyota's mobility services platform will provide Avis Budget Group with enhanced connectivity and visibility into their fleet, and bring travelers increased control and convenience over their rental experience." The Toyota vehicles will deliver increased benefits to Avis customers by tapping into Toyota's proprietary MSPF, a suite of advanced software and connected services that support mobility businesses. The platform's telematics data API (application programming interface) will enable customers to receive real-time rental information via the Avis mobile app, which includes virtual odometer readings and fuel levels, and will assist them in locating the vehicle. The connected services provided by the telematics interface will also allow for greater fleet management capabilities, improve informatics, and enable shorter vehicle check-in and check-out processing times. Toyota's MSPF is already being used to support a range of businesses and test programs, including car share programs, use-based car insurance pricing, and fleet management. Servco Pacific Inc., the distributor of Toyota vehicles in Hawaii, is currently using MSPF to launch a new Honolulu-based car share business through an application developed and managed by Toyota Connected North America that supports driver identification and authentication, plus payment and fleet management. Getaround, a San Francisco-based, peer-to-peer car-sharing company, is leveraging MSPF and connected car technology to allow drivers to seamlessly and securely rent, locate and drive Toyota vehicles with a Smart Key Box (SKB) that lets users lock and unlock vehicles and start the engine via a smartphone. About Toyota Connected North America Based in Plano, Texas, Toyota Connected North America (TCNA) was established in 2016 to drive Toyota's global efforts for an intelligent mobile society. With big data collected from vehicles and analyzed on a cloud platform, TCNA humanizes the driving experience by freeing customers from the tyranny of technology via secure, seamless and contextual services, elevating the customer experience transparently while benefitting dealers, distributors, and partners. Analyzing traffic patterns, driver behavior and connecting drivers with infrastructure and other information is only part of TCNA's work that will open new services and products to keep the car as a beloved companion. Media Contacts Brian Lyons (469) 292-3573 [email protected] Ming-Jou Chen (469) 292-3799 [email protected] SOURCE Toyota Connected North America SANTA YNEZ VALLEY, Calif., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Zaca Mesa Winery & Vineyards, the family owned winery with a long-standing history in Santa Barbara County, is thrilled to celebrate 45 years of quality winemaking on the Central Coast. Established in 1973, Zaca Mesa was first purchased by John Cushman and five friends; today, the winery is still owned by the Cushman family. From the beginning, Zaca Mesa's mission has been to craft high quality Rhone-style wines that are true reflections of the vineyard and appellation. As the first vineyard to plant Syrah in the area in 1978, known as Black Bear Block, Zaca Mesa has helped pioneer the Santa Barbara Rhone movement through an unwavering dedication to these varietals. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Zaca Mesa planted such Rhone varieties as Roussanne, Viognier, Grenache, Mourvedre, Cinsault and Grenache Blanc, and has since been a trusted source for quality Rhone fruit amongst regional and national wine brands. Positioned 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean up against the majestic San Rafael Mountains, Zaca Mesa's vineyards sit between a cool and warm climate, perfectly suited for growing dynamic, yet balanced Rhone grapes. A diverse range of complex soils, from sand and silt to Monterey shale gravels and clay, further adds to the unique terroir of the vineyard. Throughout its history, Zaca Mesa has been a training ground for many great winemakers while helping to establish a benchmark for Central Coast Rhone-style wines. Zaca Mesa has remained steadfast in its dedication to meticulous viticulture and innovative farming methods, along with Old World winemaking practices, to produce hand-crafted California wine that stays true to its site. The resulting wines have earned many accolades over the years, including being the first Central Coast Winery to make Wine Spectator's Top 100 list in 1993. In 1996, the same wine was served at the Clinton White House during an official state dinner honoring French President Jacques Chirac, while Zaca Mesa was also served at Ronald Reagan's 80th birthday celebration in 1991. Zaca Mesa's tasting room is located on Foxen Canyon Road, surrounded by 150 acres of estate vineyards. Here, tasters can choose from a variety of tasting flights, relax at picnic tables, and enjoy a leisurely game of chess on the life-sized chessboard under the oak trees. Zaca Mesa also offers an outdoor event space, perfect for weddings, amidst its Grenache Blanc vineyards, which are framed by the Zaca Mesa barn and stunning mountain views. In honor of its rich history and 45 years of winemaking, Zaca Mesa will be holding a 45th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, March 24th at the winery. This celebratory open house will include exclusive tastings of pre-release and library wines, live music by Sean Wiggins and food available for purchase from "BBQ in the Stix." The afternoon event is free for wine club members and $15 for the general public. "Zaca Mesa has been a notable presence in the Santa Ynez Valley, known for its dedication to Rhone grapes and for quality viticulture, and few places have the honor of having a presence for 45 years," shares John Cushman. "On this landmark anniversary, we're thrilled to celebrate this special place, paying tribute to all the visitors and wine club members who have remained loyal to us over the years, and thankful to all who have worked so hard to nurture our vines and craft our wines." SOURCE Zaca Mesa Winery & Vineyards Related Links http://www.zacamesa.com CALGARY, March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - TransAlta Corporation ("TransAlta" or the "Company") (TSX: TA;NYSE: TAC) announces that pursuant to its notice dated February 2, 2018 (the "Notice") relating to the redemption of all of its outstanding 6.650% Senior Notes due 2018 (the "Notes"), the redemption price for the Notes will be US$515,610,000. This redemption price consists of the sum of the present values of the remaining scheduled payments of principal and interest on the Notes (exclusive of interest accrued to the redemption date) of US$504,110,000 (based on a benchmark treasury rate of 1.508% plus 45 basis points), plus US$11,500,000 in accrued and unpaid interest to the redemption date for the Notes, all as calculated in accordance with the terms of the indenture governing the Notes. The redemption date for the Notes is March 15, 2018, as set forth in the Notice. "The repayment of these notes reflects our focus to reduce our corporate debt," said Donald Tremblay, Chief Financial Officer. "We will fund the maturity with approximately $300 million of cash on hand, proceeds from the Sundance PPA termination, expected at the end of March, and our credit facility. Over the past two years we have reduced our debt by $900 million and we are committed to our deleveraging strategy over the next three years." This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or buy or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation, sale or purchase of any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offering, solicitation, sale or purchase would be unlawful. About TransAlta Corporation: TransAlta owns, operates and develops a diverse fleet of electrical power generation assets in Canada, the United States and Australia with a focus on long-term shareholder value. We provide municipalities, medium and large industries, businesses and utility customers clean, affordable, energy efficient, and reliable power. Today, we are one of Canada's largest producers of wind power and Alberta's largest producer of hydro-electric power. For over 100 years, TransAlta has been a responsible operator and a proud community-member where its employees work and live. TransAlta aligns its corporate goals with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and we have been recognized by CDP (formerly Climate Disclosure Project) as an industry leader on Climate Change Management. We are also proud to have achieved the Silver level PAR (Progressive Aboriginal Relations) designation by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. For more information about TransAlta, visit our web site at transalta.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news 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", "may", "will", "project", "should", "propose", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. More particularly, this press release contains forward-looking statements and information relating to: the redemption price for, and timing of, the redemption of the Notes; and the Company's strategy of debt reduction and source of funds for the repayment of the Notes. These statements are based on TransAlta's belief and assumptions based on information available at the time the assumptions were made and reflect TransAlta's plans. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Some of the factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to: any failure of TransAlta to complete the redemption of the Notes as planned; and the sources of financing for the redemption of the Notes as planned. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, which reflect TransAlta's expectations only as of the date of this news release. TransAlta disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Note: All financial figures are in Canadian dollars. SOURCE TransAlta Corporation Related Links http://www.transalta.com Things are looking up for the once-embattled New Jersey senator. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call,Inc. For a while there, as New Jersey U.S. senator Robert Menendez remained in legal peril from federal corruption charges, Republicans fantasized about an unexpected 2017 or 2018 Senate pickup that was, on paper, as audacious as Democratic fantasies about picking up a seat in Alabama. As Menendezs trial began last September, there were even GOP hopes that hed be forced out of office in time for outgoing Governor Chris Christie to appoint an interim successor. And Republicans figured that even if Menendez did not go to the slammer, hed be damaged enough by allegations that hed exerted undue influence on behalf of a wealthy physician in exchange for campaign contributions and personal gifts that hed be vulnerable. Six months later, all that has changed. In short order, a mistrial was declared in Menendezs trial, with jurors leaning toward acquittal; a judge dismissed some of the charges against him; and finally, federal prosecutors decided against retrying him. Chris Christie left office without getting a Senate appointment. And, as a new Quinnipiac poll of New Jersey shows, the embattled Menendez is now cruising toward reelection to a third term in November. Even though 38 percent of New Jersey voters think Menendez was involved in serious wrongdoing, enough of them are willing to overlook it to make him a strong favorite for reelection. Q-Pac shows him leading Republican opponent Bob Hugin (a pharmaceutical executive) by a robust 49/32 margin. And Menendezs job-approval ratios, which had turned negative, have definitely rebounded. When Menendez was first indicted in 2015, and again last September when his trial began, he was underwater (at 31/49 in September). Now, his approval ratio is 46/39. Thats not sensational, but in a heavily Democratic state like New Jersey, it should be enough to ensure a win in November, barring something unforeseen. Menendez was first elected to public office at the incredible age of 20 in 1974, when he won a spot on the local school board. He was a mayor, a state assemblyman, a state senator, and a U.S. House member (and chair of the House Democratic Caucus) before entering the U.S. Senate via an appointment in 2006. He is quite the survivor, and can probably count on at least another six years of elected office after this one. MONTAGUE, Mich., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tricia Carlson is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Lifetime Member in the field of Real Estate in recognition of her role as a Licensed Realtor with Greenridge Realty, Inc. Established since 1980, Greenridge Realty, Inc. is real estate firm that has served the Michigan area for decades. With over twenty six locations and four hundred sales associates, the real estate law firm is devoted to assisting buyers with their real estate needs in a timely manner. With integrity and excellence at the forefront of the company's values, Greenridge utilizes their realty resources in an effort to better serve their clients and provide exceptional service. Despite being in real estate for only two years, Carlson is extremely knowledgeable and well-versed in the industry. Having lived in fourteen different locations in twenty five years, Carlson is quite familiar with the buying, selling and moving process. Throughout her career, Carlson has attained expertise within the areas of residential real estate, buying and selling, buyer representation, working with first time buyers and more. In addition to her realty career, Tricia is the Office Manager for the business she owns with her husband, Quality Maintenance Contractors, Inc., which has been in business for over thirty years. To further her professional development, Carlson is an affiliate of several organizations including the National Association of Professional Women. Charitable to various organizations, Carlson is an active volunteer at her local church. Carlson was the Director of Lake Michigan Home School Connection and part of the Council for Educational Travel USA where she has hosted 6 exchange students. Throughout the course of her education and training, Carlson graduated from Davenport University where she received her degree in Accounting and Business Management. When she is not working, Carlson enjoys traveling. Carlson dedicates this recognition to her parents, Harvey and Jenella Kronmeyer. For more information, please visit http://www.greenridge.com/agents/41688-Tricia-Carlson Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com SAN FRANCISCO, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TrustArc, the leading data privacy management company, today announced the addition of over a dozen privacy assessment solutions to further accelerate the process by which companies meet the impending May 25th GDPR deadline and maintain compliance afterward. Powered by intelligent content, the GDPR Assessments incorporate automated compliance capabilities including risk calculations and regulatory logic to make the assessment and reporting processes faster and easier. Available today as significant additions to the TrustArc Privacy Platform, the library of GDPR Assessments integrate with TrustArc Assessment Manager, Data Flow Manager and Individual Rights Manager to help automate workflow and generate compliance reports. "Privacy regulations like the GDPR are inherently complex to manage," said Chris Babel, CEO of TrustArc. "With today's launch of the GDPR Assessment Library, we're extending the unmatched compliance support we already offer within the TrustArc Privacy Platform to meet the demand for solutions that achieve more scalability and efficiency in processes such as risk calculations and reporting." With more than 200 pages and close to 100 different articles and recitals, the EU GDPR introduces a broad range of privacy compliance requirements, which any organization that handles personal data about individuals in the EU must comply with by the rapidly approaching May 25 deadline. If they fail to comply by this date, they risk facing steep fines of 20 million or up to 4 percent of global annual revenue, whichever is higher. According to a recent IAPP report, on GDPR readiness and risk, as many as one in four companies do not expect to achieve compliance before the deadline. To meet the demand from companies seeking support for GDPR compliance, TrustArc is expanding its library of privacy assessments with the launch of over a dozen GDPR Assessment Solutions. Together, these new assessments provide an automated and structured approach and methodology to translate complex privacy regulations into a streamlined review process. GDPR Focused: The assessments address GDPR requirements including Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA), Individual Rights, Legitimate Interests and Vendor Risk. The assessments address GDPR requirements including Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA), Individual Rights, Legitimate Interests and Vendor Risk. Automation for Sustainability : Powered by Intelligent Content, the assessments leverage automated functionality to make reporting faster and easier with capabilities such as gap analysis, risk calculations and remediation recommendations. : Powered by Intelligent Content, the assessments leverage automated functionality to make reporting faster and easier with capabilities such as gap analysis, risk calculations and remediation recommendations. Expert Review: The GDPR Assessments were developed by TrustArc policy experts with the input and review from privacy regulators, external policy groups and law firms. The TrustArc GDPR Assessment Library is part of the TrustArc Privacy Platform. To learn more, please visit: https://www.trustarc.com/products/privacy-platform/ About TrustArc TrustArc is the leader in data privacy compliance and risk management solutions through its unmatched combination of innovative technology, expert consulting and TRUSTe certification solutions that together address all phases of privacy program management. The TrustArc Privacy Platform is the foundation for all of its solutions, delivering a flexible, scalable and secure way to manage privacy and comply with the global privacy regulations, including the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Refined over seven years of operating experience across a wide range of industries and client use cases, the TrustArc Privacy Platform is fortified by its in-depth services that leverage deep privacy expertise and proven methodologies that it has continuously enhanced over two decades and thousands of client projects. Headquartered in San Francisco, and backed by a global team, TrustArc helps over 1,000 clients worldwide demonstrate compliance, minimize risk and build trust. For more information, visit the TrustArc website, blog and LinkedIn. SOURCE TrustArc Related Links http://www.truste.com CLEVELAND, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- US demand for salty snacks at the manufacturer level is forecast to reach $28.3 billion in 2022, according to Salty Snacks: United States, a report recently released by Freedonia Focus Reports. Population growth and increasing disposable income levels will drive sales. Consumers will continue to crave salty snacks as an indulgence, while marketers will develop more healthier-for-you products for the growing segment of people who desire them. More information about the report is available at https://www.freedoniafocusreports.com/Salty-Snacks-United-States-FF10028/ Demand for corn chips in the US is expected to grow the fastest among the discrete segments. Sales will be driven by the desire for innovative product offerings, as manufacturers adapt to consumer preferences through new, often healthier, product additions. These and other key insights are featured in Salty Snacks: United States. This report forecasts to 2022 US salty snack demand and shipments in nominal US dollars at the manufacturer level. Total demand and shipments are segmented by product in terms of: potato chips corn chips other salty snacks To illustrate historical trends, total demand, total shipments, the various segments, and trade are provided in annual series from 2007 to 2017. Total retail sales are provided in annual series from 2012 to 2017. About Freedonia Focus Reports Each month, The Freedonia Group a division of MarketResearch.com publishes over 20 new or updated Freedonia Focus Reports, providing fresh, unbiased analysis on a wide variety of markets and industries. Published in 20-30 pages, Focus Report coverage ranges from raw materials to finished manufactured goods and related services such as freight and construction. Additional Consumer Goods reports can be purchased at Freedonia Focus Reports or MarketResearch.com. Analysis is intended to guide the busy reader through pertinent topics in rapid succession, including: total historical market size and industry output segmentation by products and markets identification of market drivers, constraints, and key indicators segment-by-segment outlook in five-year forecasts a survey of the supply base suggested resources for further study Press Contact: Corinne Gangloff +1 440.684.9600 [email protected] SOURCE The Freedonia Group Related Links https://www.freedoniafocusreports.com/ BROOMFIELD, Colo., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Webroot, the Smarter Cybersecurity company, has been named a "Trail Blazer" in the APT Protection Market Quadrant 2018 report by The Radicati Group. The industry analyst report identifies vendors by the development of their strategy and technology in regard to the detection, prevention, and possible remediation of zero-day threats and persistent malicious attacks. The independent analysis recognizes Webroot SecureAnywhere Business Endpoint Protection as an advanced, best-of-breed technology for its real-time, cloud-based approach to preventing malware. About the Radicati Market Quadrant: The Radicati Market Quadrant illustrates how individual vendors fit within specific technology markets, and is composed of four sections: Top Players, Trail Blazers, Specialists and Mature Players. Vendors are positioned according to two criteria: Functionality breadth and depth of the solution's features. Strategic Vision including a thorough understanding of customer needs, ability to deliver through attractive pricing and channel models, solid customer support and strong ongoing innovation. Vendors in the APT Protection space are evaluated based on the following key features: deployment options, platform support, malware detection, encrypted traffic analysis, mobile device protection, real-time updates, remediation, and environment threat analysis. Radicati also considers pricing, customer support, and professional services. About Webroot SecureAnywhere Business Endpoint Protection: Webroot SecureAnywhere Business Endpoint Protection is a high-performance endpoint malware prevention and management solution. It combines real-time intelligence from Webroot BrightCloud services with advanced machine learning and behavior-based heuristics to detect, analyze, categorize, score, and accurately predict the threats each endpoint is experiencing in real time. The Webroot Threat Intelligence Platform uses machine learning, maximum entropy discrimination (MED) Big Data processing techniques, coupled with high computational scalability and actionable security intelligence to detect and prevent APTs. Webroot relies on behavioral analysis, which allows for continuous updates to known bad and known good files, allowing the solution to track the activity of files that are unknown or not already marked as good. Key Quotes: Hal Lonas, CTO, Webroot "We are honored to be recognized by The Radicati Group as a market trail blazer. At Webroot, we understand the risks posed by advanced persistent threats and the need for a comprehensive solution that detects and prevents threats at each endpoint in real time. The recognition demonstrates our commitment to provide a unique security solution with highly accurate and effective endpoint malware prevention." Sara Radicati, President and CEO, The Radicati Group "With the sophistication of today's cyberthreats, it is critical that organizations are able to protect against even the most advanced malware attacks. Webroot's approach to malware prevention offers visibility of endpoint infections through its dwell-time alerting reporting to detect and prevent APTs in real-time." Additional Resources: About Webroot Webroot was the first to harness the cloud and artificial intelligence to protect businesses and individuals against cyberthreats. We provide the number one security solution for managed service providers and small businesses, who rely on Webroot for endpoint protection, network protection, and security awareness training. Webroot BrightCloud Threat Intelligence Services are used by market leading companies like Cisco, F5 Networks, Citrix, Aruba, Palo Alto Networks, A10 Networks, and more. Leveraging the power of machine learning to protect millions of businesses and individuals, Webroot secures the connected world. Headquartered in Colorado, Webroot operates globally across North America, Europe, and Asia. Discover Smarter Cybersecurity solutions at webroot.com. Social Media: Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube | Facebook 2017 Webroot Inc. All rights reserved. Webroot, SecureAnywhere, Webroot SecureAnywhere, Webroot BrightCloud, BrightCloud, and Smarter Cybersecurity are trademarks or registered trademarks of Webroot Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. SOURCE Webroot Related Links http://www.webroot.com agoda is one of the fastest growing online travel platforms offering a choice of 1.8 million properties to its guests around the world. Since entering China in 2015, agoda has become one of the primary choices of accommodation booking for Chinese tourists traveling overseas, and foreign tourists visiting China. Spencer Low, Managing Director, Greater China explains: "This partnership will offer alternatives to traditional hotels in China, and will benefit travelers who are looking for more distinctive options for their accommodation needs. Together Xiaozhu and agoda will provide easy access to listings that offer different benefits. One is the flexibility of staying together at a larger property when traveling as a group of friends or family, while another is more options for business travelers who crave the comforts of home. Additionally, these listings include a range of price points to cater for a variety of budgets. We are confident that the combination of Xiaozhu's rich knowledge of the China market and agoda's global OTA expertise will enhance consumers' experience of homestays." Chen Chi, co-founder and CEO of Xiaozhu, also commented this joining of forces as a win-win cooperation. agoda's worldwide success, especially its experience in Asian countries, will enhance Xiaozhu's globalization momentum. "As Chinese outbound and inbound tourism is growing rapidly, homestay platforms must be able to provide high-quality services to global consumers. To this end, Xiaozhu is accelerating cooperation with our industry partners", Chen explains. Since launching its overseas business in 2017, Xiaozhu now covers listings in over 100 overseas cities, with a particularly strong upward trend in booming homestay markets like Japan and Thailand. In the "2017-2018 China Sharing Economy Survey Report" released by Nanfang Daily, Nanfang+ APP and iMedia Research in February, Xiaozhu was ranked first in the competitiveness chart of house sharing industry. SOURCE Xiaozhu.com The American Society of Magazine Editors handed out three awards to New York at Tuesdays annual Ellie Awards, held at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. The magazine tied The New Yorker for most wins. New York won its fourth Ellie for Columns and Commentary, for three Rebecca Traister columns on gender and power: Why the Harvey Weinstein Sexual Harassment Allegations Didnt Come Out Until Now; Your Reckoning. And Mine.; and This Moment Isnt (Just) About Sex. Its Really About Work. Judges for the award noted that Traisters wise and provocative columns helped make sense of a cultural transformation. Traister was a finalist for the feature-writing award last year. New York also won Best Website for the fourth time, with judges praising Nymag.com for its voicy, comprehensive, and fun daily coverage, and for being one of the liveliest magazine experiences on the web. And for the seventh time, the magazines Strategist section an elegantly orchestrated, relentlessly clever celebration of New York Citys material world picked up a win in the Magazine Section category. New York led all contenders this year with ten nominations. It has now won 40 National Magazine Awards since 2005, the most of any magazine. The full list of winners can be seen here. Montea announced two lettings in Belgium and one in France. In Belgium, the lettings are transacted at the Brussels Airport and in Ghent. Furthermore, the investment company signed a lease agreement in the French city Lesquin. New development at Brussels Airport Montea developed a new project... [] The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) has welcomed the appointment of experienced professional town planners to the new Independent Hearing Assessment Panels (IHAPS) being implemented across the greater Sydney and Wollongong regions. Of the 41 chairs allocated to the IHAPS by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment, 18 are accredited planners and PIA members. The panels became operational on 1 March. PIA chief executive David Williams said that many eminent NSW planners had been successful, who will bow help to grow the NSW governments partnership with councils, local communities and environmental groups. PIA represents over 5000 planners nationally, and each year engages with nearly 10,000 planners working in the public and private sectors. Planners who are PIA members have undertaken accredited planning degrees and gained professional experience working in diverse areas of planning ranging from the neighbourhood to the national level. They also adhere to a comprehensive Professional Code of Conduct. Experienced planners understand the complexity of legislation that impacts Australias diverse urban environments and appreciate the critical role played by community in the planning process, Williams said. The Canberra office market has been historically characterised as having one of the strongest supply pipelines nationally. Over the past few years it has delivered high levels of stock, against a background of strong net absorption. In the 12 months to December 2017, Savills Research identified approximately $571.7 million worth of office transactions (greater than $5 million) in the Canberra office market. However, as a result of falling leasing demand from the Commonwealth leading up to, and following from, the election of the Coalition to Government in 2013, the speculative development phase that had been experienced in Canberra ended in 2015-2016, Savills said. Over 2015/2016, developers were largely reluctant to build speculatively, following weaker economic conditions and moderating leasing demand driven by cost cutting measures initiated by Commonwealth tenants. But following two years of negative net supply, 2017 saw new additions amounting to 51,364 square metres. Improving market conditions and a strengthening economy are providing the impetus for an increase in developments. According to the latest research report from Savills Australia, the commencement of two new speculative developments in the CBD will add approximately 35,000 square metres of new accommodation in the 2019/20 period. A further 20,000 square metres of space in the CBD and 15,000 square metres in Dickson have been pre-committed by the ACT Government and are due to be completed over the same period. Anecdotal evidence from current leasing campaigns on these developments suggest a significant upward revision of rents. Andrew Stewart, managing director of Savills ACT said this level of activity is well beyond the 10 year average of $416 million and can be traced to a single transaction; the sale of 50 Marcus Clarke Street, City. The asset was sold for $321 million to South Korean asset management firm, Mirae Asset Global Investments at an equated yield of 5.75% by Malaysian vendor CIMB Trust & Malaysian Employees Provident Fund. It is important to note that traditionally, these larger assets are tightly held with only four trading in the past five years," said Stewart. Demand for Canberra assets are being driven by domestic and foreign investors focused on secure income streams and long Weighted Average Lease Expirys (WALEs) owing to the majority of office space being leased by Government tenants. Stewart said that large funds and trusts that rely on both income growth as well as capital growth are certainly attracted to the Canberra market. We are also seeing a trend towards more privatisation which has led to a greater diversity in tenant base as more consulting firms relocate to Canberra for jobs that are being outsourced by the Federal government off the back of cost cutting measures implemented by the Liberal government. There was a notable increase in local institutional funds and private investors purchasing office assets in Canberra. One noteworthy transaction was the sale of 44 Sydney, Forrest in November 2017 for $64.70 million on an equivalent yield of 6.24%, purchased by Australian based fund manager Charter Hall. Anecdotal evidence is suggestive of increasing demand for new or new-near buildings with long-WALEs, with current owners of such properties reluctant to divest themselves of their properties. According to Shrabastee Mallik, Senior Analyst - Capital Strategy at Savills Australia, market yields in Canberra Civic, as at December 2017, are estimated to range between 5.50% and 7.25% for A grade, and between 7.50% and 10.50% for B grade buildings. The average yield for A grade office buildings in the quarter to December 2017 is 6.40%, representing a 35 basis point firming over the year. Capital values in the Civic precinct in Canberra, as at December 2017, are estimated to range from $5,265 per square metre to $8,350 per square metre for A grade buildings, and between $3,500 per square metre and $5,400 per square metre for B grade buildings she said. Ms Mallik believes that fewer projected public service job cuts and a more relaxed budget looks likely to lead to a resurgence in office leasing demand and an increase in developments. Rents for new and near-new A Grade stock have been maintained at a stable level, with a small level of face rent growth at the top end of the market she said. Pip Doogan, Director of Office Leasing at Savills ACT said the level of incentives on offer for this class of property have stabilised, and are trending down gradually in those areas with low vacancy rates, which should result in a rise in effective gross rents in this market sector. Net face rents in the Canberra Civic precinct range from $340 to $400 per square metre per annum for A Grade and from $290 to $325 per square metre per annum for B Grade, as of Dec 2017. A former car showroom converted to an office has sold under the hammer at a record land rate for a Commercial 2-zoned property in Melbourne's inner-northern suburb of Abbotsford. Fitzroys Chris Kombi and Stuart Kennett sold the 398 Johnston Street property for $3.115 million. Eight parties were bidding and pushed the price to $700,000 above the reserve. The price reflected a sharp yield of 3.1% and a record land rate of $7,710 per square metre. The dual-fronted site of 404 square metres includes a refurbished building of 320 square metres, leased to building maintenance cloud solutions group Uptick on a 4 x 4 year deal returning $98,880 per annum plus outgoings and GST. Kennett said the depth of the enquiry, which saw more than 120 enquiries received, and the outstanding result reflected a very hot market in this pocket of the inner city. The population of Melbournes inner-north is still booming as medium and high-density inner-city living are embraced in growing numbers, underpinning the viability of businesses in the area as opportunities to acquire sites of this potential become increasingly rare, he said. The property was very well received by the wider market of investors, developers and owner occupiers with the versatility of the property and prospect of future capital growth driving the strong demand. Kennett and Kombi sold the property on behalf of a private investor. Melbournes strategic planning history has largely overlooked the contribution of Ruth and Maurie Crow. The Crows were early champions of functional mix and compact urban development. They didnt eulogise lower-density suburban form, but equally didnt advocate higher densities as necessarily humanising in themselves. In their three-volume Plan for Melbourne, published from 1969-72, the Crows argued for compact urban development driven by spatial justice ambitions. Revisiting their work provides a counterbalance to evaluate the motivations for the transformations of our cities today. Their Plan for Melbourne shows a prescient awareness of the need to design cities to maximise access and interaction: the debate around the plan for the future of a city is not essentially a debate about things buildings, cars, trains, roads and so on, and their placement; although it often expresses itself in these terms. It is essentially a debate about human relationships. Ruth & Maurie Crow Collection/Victoria University Library. The compact city has been a steadfast trope in Australias strategic planning rhetoric since the 1980s. Consolidation of urban areas, containment of outward growth, and a multi-nuclear metropolitan structure are deemed necessary to support increasing populations in uncertain socio-ecological futures. Despite this naturalised policy ambition, metropolitan planning has delivered what Clive Forster termed a parallel universe phenomenon. The vast gaps between planning intent and urban reality have everyday justice implications, resulting in a parallel justice phenomenon. The justice ambitions have often been subsumed into transformations of our cities driven by economic rationality. For the Crows, the goal of social justice was paramount. What has driven urban transformations? Melbournes strategic planning history is marked by an alternating desire for containment and decentralisation. Various propositions have come to the fore, including the dispersed city, satellite cities, growth corridors, and the redirected city. The late 1960s and early 1970s were a transitional moment in Melbournes development. Unfettered expansion had typified the city since the 1930s. Now the growth trajectories of both the metropolitan area and the central city were being publicly questioned. The Crows Plan for Melbourne was rejected on the grounds of its seemingly unachievable restructuring propositions. Instead, in 1971, the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works advanced the elusive growth corridors and green wedges policy. The radical implications of the Crows proposed clustering, concourses and collectives to create an inclusive, accessible and convivial city werent considered. The compact city ideal was not validated in official planning rhetoric until the 1981 strategic plan. Spatial consolidation then became de facto policy. The aim was to promote inner-city population and employment growth, as well as greater use of existing infrastructure and services. However, market-driven compaction contributes to uneven distribution of, and precarious access to, social infrastructure, affordable housing, public transport and hospitable urban life across the city. The result is a shortfall of social justice. Revisiting a vision of a different city Heavily involved in citizen activism, The Crows dedicated themselves to the urban action movement. They were amateur planners, heterodox communists, and avid community members. They proposed radical alternatives to what they understood as the injustices of urbanisation and capitalism. They wanted a city that was more rewarding, both socially and ecologically. This was their rallying cry: You have to project the future: a more workable, more humane, more ecological future, and then battle towards it. Maybe the goals will change as you battle towards them: but without goals there is no battle, only unending class scrimmage within the system. For the Crows, urban consolidation had two interlocking objectives. The first was to concentrate social activity and so minimise transport energy. The second was to heighten participatory enjoyment. Courtesy of the Ruth & Maurie Crow Collection, Victoria University Library Clustering, concourse, collectives The Crows proposed a compact city with explicit structural elements. In their future Melbourne, towns were to be clustered along a linear spine towards the southeast. A rapid transit network would connect a string of mini-metro hearts and city-metro hearts to allow for easy commuting. Multi-functional zoning and high-density cores distinguished their towns from existing suburbs. The Crows proposed dedicated first-level concourses in their metro hearts to promote commerce-free encounters. These high-density core areas were to be entirely vehicle-free and were intended to overcome social isolation. Concourses were designed as a therapeutic measure, counteracting the community scattering trend of the car. These areas would allow for deliberate voluntary contact, encouraging interaction beyond the fleeting yet pervasive contact of commercial transaction. The Crows intention was to catalyse spaces for voluntary collectives to form and flourish as a means to enhance the tone or ethos of the community. Courtesy of the Ruth & Maurie Crow Collection, Victoria University Library Compaction for conviviality The Crows Plan for Melbourne presented a radical alternative to what mainstream planners were proposing at the time. Their calls for compaction were informed by spatial justice ambitions to minimise alienation, increase accessibility and support the need for social interaction. They proposed clustering, concourses and collectives to ensure access and inclusion; this was compaction for conviviality rather than capital accumulation. Melbourne has certainly transformed into a vibrant centre since the Crows Plan for Melbourne. Whether it is being planned as a just city is questionable. Hyper-density and visible homelessness are now emblematic of the city. The Crows warned 50 years ago that, without a clear justice intent driving metropolitan development, we risked looking back with regret that the struggle to shape our cities for their citizens rather than vested interests began too late. Claire Collie, PhD candidate in Urban Planning, University of Melbourne This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity. PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move. This monthin time for International Womens Day and Womens History Monthauthor, activist, and former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton is embarking on a national tour in honor of her new picture book, She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History. The book, which was released on March 6 by Penguins Philomel imprint, is a companion to Clintons bestselling 2017 picture book She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World. The new book comes less than 10 months after last Mays publication of She Persisted. Alexandra Boiger, who illustrated the first book in the series, provided the artwork. The title and refrain of both books reference Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells censure of Senator Elizabeth WarrenShe was warned. Nevertheless, she persistedwhen she tried to read Coretta Scott Kings words on the floor of the Senate, during the 2017 confirmation hearings for Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The critique has become a feminist rallying cry, and the inspiration for Clintons collective biographies. In She Persisted Around the World, the author commemorates 13 women, some well-known and others less widely recognized, who overcame adversity and whose work has had a global impact: Marie Curie, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Viola Desmond, Sissi Lima do Amor, Leymah Gbowee, Caroline Herschel, Wangari Maathai, Aisha Rateb, J.K. Rowling, Kate Sheppard, Yuan Yuan Tan, Mary Verghese, and Malala Yousafzai. Each of the subjects is featured in a single spread, presenting her biography and achievements, a watercolor and ink portrait, and an accompanying quotation from the spotlighted woman. During a sold-out appearance at New Yorks Brooklyn Public Library on March 11, where Clinton was joined by illustrator Boiger and the books editor, Jill Santopolo, Clinton gave a reading and discussed the collaborative process. She explained that the 13 women profiled in the first book included all women I feel a direct connection to. I remember when they first inspired me. She cited personal heroes such as Ruby Bridges and Claudette Colvin. While putting together the roster of women for the second book, however, Clinton said, I also knew there were so many stories I didnt know. Clinton stated that she and Santopolo actively solicited suggestions from their peers of trailblazing females. Thankfully we were inundated with stories. We learned so much, she said. While making their selections for the book, she said, We wanted a real diversity across time, geography, and field of achievement. Eager Readers In an interview with PW prior to the event, Clinton described the positive reactions, from both children and parents, to the previous book, and the impetus for creating the sequel. I was so struck by the number of young readers, and also not so young readers, who came up to me at events, or on the subway... telling me how much they appreciated learning stories that they hadnt heard before or known beforeand how inspired they were by these women, she said. That was so affirming to me, and I thought, We need to tell even more stories of remarkable women, and really women from around the world, who have positively changed the course of history. Clinton recalled an especially memorable meeting with a young fan during her current tour, for She Persisted Around the World. We were in Charlotte yesterday and in Chicago the day before that, where I met a girl who proudly told me she was going to be the next Nellie Bly. She was seven, but she was already writing investigative pieces. When Clinton asked her about the subject of her current investigation, the girl invoked her rights as a journalist, Its a secret until Im done! Boiger told PW that while researching the figures represented in the books to create her illustrations, I developed very strong feelings for some of these women that I hadnt known. She said of her artwork, I try to show as much as I can visually what the character looked like... but more than anything I try to capture the essence of the person. She later told the attendees at the Brooklyn Public Library event, which drew approximately 450 fans, that as she distilled each womans career into a single image, I thought of it as creating a poster. For research, whenever possible, she watched and listened to interviews with the subjects. I dove deep into their psychology, into their life. Then I let go of the intellectual part and [focused on] the emotions that came up. In response to Santopolos question about what she hopes readers will take away from the book, Clinton said, Persistence is importantarguably its necessaryto be the people we want to be, particularly at this moment in time. None of the women in these books achieved what they did through talent alone. Clinton and Boiger then took questions from the young readers in the crowd, the first of which revealed the level of excitement in the room: How many books can you sign? (Clinton assured the audience, We will sign every book thats here.) The q&a portion also included more provocative inquiries, such as, Why didnt women have the rights that men had? In response Clinton asked, How much time do you have? and explained that there is an ongoing struggle for equality around the world. But while some men regard women as innately inferior, she said, I couldnt disagree more. I dont think that biology should be destiny. When asked by a seven-year-old girl named Isabella, Are you going to be president someday?, Clinton replied that, as the child of politician parents, Ive been really lucky to have been asked that question since I was young. And we should be asking [girls like] you if you imagine yourself doing those things. At the moment, Clinton said she is focusing on her work as an author. Regarding the possibility of future books in the She Persisted series, Clinton told PW, Lets see how this one goes. Im looking forward to hearing more from young readers about how they resonated with She Persisted Around the World. And I hope it continues to inspire people just as, thankfully, She Persisted has. Clintons upcoming tour stops include Philadelphia, San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, Nashville, and Toronto, with appearances in a total of 12 cities. Boiger joined the author for her New York events and will also be present for her San Francisco appearance. She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History by Chelsea Clinton, illus. by Alexandra Boiger. Philomel, $17.99 Mar. ISBN 978-0-525-51699-6 Animals dressed in human clothing? Still not a good idea, assert Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett in Lots More Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing, a follow-up to their bestselling 1970 picture book, Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. Released today by Atheneum with a 50,000-copy first printing, the sequel proves its title true as a frog leaps out of its trousers, an elk whose antlers are hung with an array of hats cant decide which to wear, and a superfluously sweater-clad turtle has a turtleneck of its own. Author Judi Barrett and illustrator Ron Barrett, who have created more than 10 picture books together and are perhaps best known for their perennial top-seller, 1978s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, dipped into their memories to recall the original inspiration behind Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. Ron and I have both always loved animals, said Judi, and I remember hearing a news report of some kind on the radio, years ago, about a dog wearing a sweaterand that started me thinking about why animals shouldnt wear clothes! Sharing his recollection of the books genesis, Ron said, The original impulse was to do an anti-Disney book, since we were a bit tired of seeing a duck in a sailor suit. My thought was that animals should be allowed to be animalsand they should not be dressed by Uncle Walt! In Animals, he explained, I dressed the critters only to show how wrong it is. I remain unequivocally opposed to critter couture. Their editor at the time, Jean Karl, loved Rons art and, he added, The book was a done dealeven though we thought it was courageous of Jean to approve the chicken with the egg in its pants! Still in print after 48 years, Why Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing has sold 500,000 copies in North America. An early champion of the title, Ron reported, was Gloria Steinem, who reprinted most of the book in the October 1972 issue of Ms. magazine. Ron mentioned that their Animals book led to his artworks appearance in two hallowed halls. Twenty years after the book was published, the illustrator received a call from Peggy Cooper at the American Museum of Natural History (where Ron, as an eight-year-old, had presented the director of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology with the dinosaur bone hed dug up at summer camp, only to learn it belonged to a cow). Cooper, who was responsible for writing the captions for the museums exhibitions, told Ron that she was a big fan of the book, and that she was working with museum architect and designer Ralph Appelbaum on a new Hall of Early Mammals. She thought my drawings would be the perfect blend of scientific accuracy and humor for the family panels in the hall. The assignment, said Ron, assuaged his boyhood disappointment; I was very grateful to have my art in the same museum I had come to with my bone find! The illustrator also told of his somewhatwelltopsy-turvy experience with the Louvres Musee des Arts Decoratifs in 2015, when a piece of artwork from Animals was selected for an exhibit. The curator requested my illustration showing possums hanging upside-down by their tails, but wearing their clothing right-side-up, he said. The art arrived in Paris, and when the Musee sent me a photo of the installation, I was shocked: the possum art had been hung upside-down! After I wrote to the curator, she told me, Its a joke. Of course, its just what Id expect from a country that idolized Jerry Lewis! A Creative Partnership Endures Ron called the duos collaborative partnership a two-way street, on which they are each open to the others suggestions. Judi and I get along very well, even though we divorced years ago, he said. We care for each otherand I think our brains are twisted in the same bizarre way! To that point, Ron observed that the quirky humor of Animals is at the heart of the books longevity and broad fan base. Its the incongruity of it allanimals dressed in silly clothingthat appeals to so many kids, he noted, and really makes them laugh. Though the digital eras technology has improved their mode of communication (email, observed Judi, has changed the worldits heaven!), their process has not changed much over the years. Judi shares her picture book text with Ron, who, she explained, looks at it as an illustrator. Some things hell send me sketches ofand other things he will X-out. Take the clam, for example. I thought including a clam in the new book was a great ideabut its hard to put shoes on a clam! We have a wonderful way of working togetherwe play creative ping-pong by email, and end up with a melange of ideas. Judi and Ron were squarely on the same page when the idea of creating a sequel to Animals surfaced. Somehow, we got to thinking about how much fun the first book was to doand there it was still bringing in money more than 40 years later, Judi said. And there were still a lot of animals out there to dress absurdly! Judi and Rons current editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy, v-p and editorial director of her eponymous imprint at Atheneum, was instantly delighted when they approached her about publishing a sequel to Animals. My first thought was, How had we not come to this earlier? she said. The first book is a classic on our list, and still sells beautifully. Judi and Ron have such respect for kids imaginations, and are willing to go a bit absurd. Adults may say, This cant be possible, but kids say, Of course it is! Thats the power of Judi and Ron. The author and illustrator are currently working on a picture book for younger children, entitled Look What I See, due from Little Simon in spring 2019, revealing what a dog sees from various perspectives. No word on what might follow that, but the collaborators mutual enthusiasm for their creative partnership clearly runs high. Its always wonderful working with Ron and trading ideas. I really find it very exciting, said Judi. And Ron was quick to return the compliment: We have a lot of fun making books togetherand that is a very nice way to work. Lots More Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett, illus. by Ron Barrett. Atheneum/Dlouhy, $17.99 Mar. ISBN 978-1-4814-8866-2 A book about gay marriage has sparked tensions in Athens, Ga., leading to a dispute between an indie bookstore and a private school. Avid Bookshop abruptly pulled out of a multi-day book fair at Athens Academy on Wednesday, after the school demanded that the bookstore remove copies of Newbery Medalist Richard Pecks The Best Man from its display. The dispute began when the school received complaints from parents about the book, which follows a middle-schooler who becomes the best man at the wedding of two men who have been his role models. After showing The Best Man to a student, book fair manager Kate Lorraine Rascoe overheard one students parent say, Is this what were teaching our children? A few minutes later, a school administrator approached Avid store manager Caleb Huett and demanded that the book be removed. The Best Man, which was nominated for a 2017-2018 Georgia Childrens Book Award, was selected and approved by the school in advance of the fair as part of a display of award titles. Huett, who is also the author of the childrens title Top Elf, was taken aback by the speed and abruptness of the schools decision. I had trouble even responding, he said. I am a bookseller, and Im gay, and one of my books is featured in this book fair. According to Huett, the administrator kept repeating the phrase, 'We just want to take the path of least resistance.' While the booksellers waited for instructions from Avid owner Janet Geddis, they placed the title on a back table. Soon after, Huett said the administrator returned and demanded that they remove the book from view, by placing it in a box. Ultimately it was agreed that the book would remain on a table behind the displays. Geddis decided to staff the third and final day of the fair herself to ensure none of her employees, many of whom are queer, had to be involved in the event. Geddis, however, said she was not happy with the decision to hide the book. Thats making me complicit and making me seem like Im okay with this, which Im not, she said. After contacting head of school John Thorsen again, saying she would have to stop hosting the fair unless the school allowed the book to be displayed and issued an apology. Thorsen did not agree, agreeing with Geddis that she would need to pull out of the book fair. Chris Finan, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, said that it is uncommon for a dispute over a book to escalate to the point where a bookstore has to end an entire book fair, but the underlying issues are very common. Its not unusual for one parent to complain and one school official to overreact, said Finan, noting that private schools also have greater discretion with first amendment issues than public schools. It really does seem capricious on the part of the school, especially after an agreement to sell the book with their approval, said Finan. Nobody was forcing anybody to buy the book. Amidst mounting public pressure Thursday afternoon, Thorsen sent a letter to parents explaining the schools decision. He wrote that several parents raised concerns over a book that contained situations they were not yet prepared to discuss with their young children, and a decision was made to remove the book to a more discreet location. Thorsen also wrote that the school does not support censorship or discrimination in any form, and wish to apologize to our community, the team at Avid, and the broader community for this miserable situation. In addition, he wrote that the school will host a forum on the issue in the spring. Geddis said she was heartened by Thorsens letter, if not fully satisfied with the turn of events. "Im still so sad, angry, and frustrated," said Geddis, "but I believe in giving credit where credit is due, and am hopeful about the possibility of changing things for the better." Note: This article was updated to correct the spelling of Kate Lorraine Rascoes last name and the title of head of school John Thorsen. This article is part of an occasional feature focusing on literacy organizations and the work they do to promote reading within their communities. Life in New York has its challengesall the more so if a New Yorker is lacking literacy skills. With the Big Apples growing diversity, programs supplying English-language learning and literacy courses are in high demand. Responding to that need is Literacy Partners, which began in 1975 as a chapter of Literacy Volunteers of America, and has gone on to serve thousands of New Yorkers throughout the citys five boroughs. Emily Harting, director of development and communications at Literacy Partners, and Katie Ly, special projects manager for the organization, recently spoke with PW about the nonprofit as well as its home library program, Books of Their Own. For Harting, the most gratifying aspect of her work is seeing the tangible results of her efforts. The impact of Literacy Partners is a multi-generational one: Literacy Partners teams with early childhood education programsmost frequently, Head Startto offer free English, literacy, and high school education courses for low-income and immigrant adults. Holding the courses for parents in the same locations where their children are going to school is not only a convenience, but establishes a strong sense of community learning for families. In addition to teaching literacy skills within their courses, Literacy Partners classes also focus on child development and parenting. This includes an emphasis on the importance of parents reading to their kids at home. Thats where the Books of Their Own program comes in. At the locations where both kids and their parents attend class, the organization also holds book distribution events, offering quality, diverse childrens books for families to select and keep. Each year, Books of Their Own supplies 15 books per child in a given household, so that they may begin building their own home libraries. By reading to their children at home, parents not only help their children become stronger readers, but they develop their own skills as well. The home libraries hold particular significance, as many of the adult students served by Literacy Partners grew up in households without books themselves, Harting explained. To obtain the picture books that they supply to these families, Books of Their Own partners with publishing houses that include Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Sleeping Bear, Penguin Random House, and Hachette; the program also accepts book donations from other sources. Harting considers having access to reading material to be of paramount importance; literacy impacts all aspects of an individuals life, from employability to navigating public transportation: I see literacy as a civil rights issue, she said. Being able to read is everything; it provides the opportunity to be inspired and is one of the key ways to develop empathy. Student success is also quantifiable. According to the Literacy Partners web site, during the 2016-2017 school year, children of our students made an average of 67% more progress on early childhood development assessments compared to their Head Start classmates. Ly commented that, we find our parents read 50% more to their children than they did before [taking classes] and that their children read independently, and reach for books, far more often. Harting shared the story of one adult student, Leobardo, who came to Literacy Partners in his 30s to take high school equivalency classes. Taking to heart the programs focus on the value of family read-alouds, Leo was determined to read with his two children for 20 minutes every day. As a result of his commitment to reading with his children, his son Jonathans own reading ability went up three grade levels; he, in turn, began also reading to his younger sister Hallie. Its a story that Ly and Harting see again and again through Literacy Partnersfamilies passing on the love of reading to others. Ly described the powerful impact of watching parents select books for their children: On book distribution days, its so moving. Reactions from parents are really beautiful. Everybody deserves the chance to have that wonder, she said. And participants in the program find Books of Their Own effective as well. A Bronx student named Dora commented that, My daughter, who is in Head Start, is benefiting because of the books. She likes to read during the day to me and my [one-year-old] son. I feel proud of myself as both my daughter and I are benefiting. I thank the program. Sari Barocas, ESOL teacher and site coordinator, also described watching students develop their skills and become enthusiastic about books: It is gratifying to help others accomplish more than they initially thought they could, especially when you know that their accomplishment is making the lives of their own children, as well as other children, so much better, Barocas said. He lasted a little over a year. Photo: Pool/Getty Images The Washington Post reported Tuesday morning that President Trump had fired long-embattled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA chief Mike Pompeo, who will require Senate confirmation to secure the job permanently. The White House said that Trump made the decision last week, summoning Tillerson home from a trip to Africa. But the State Department denied that version of events, claiming that Tillerson was completely blindsided by Tuesdays announcement. In a statement, a State Department official said that The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security, and that The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason for the firing. Omg. A State Dept official says Tillerson learned he was fired from Trump's tweet, per @CNN Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) March 13, 2018 Speaking to reporters, President Trump said he had made the decision to fire Tillerson himself, citing differences on the Iran nuclear deal as one area of discord between him and Tillerson. He added that hes getting very close to having the cabinet and other things that I want. I think Rex will be much happier now, he said of the now-former secretary of State. A Farewell to the Departing Members of Trump's Class of 2017 Gina Haspel, the deputy director of the CIA, will replace Pompeo if confirmed by the Senate, becoming the first female director of that agency. Haspel played a prominent role in the Bush-era extraordinary rendition program, which involved torturing suspected terrorism suspects at foreign black sites. Trump and Tillerson have disagreed again and again since Trump took office, with Tillerson taking the moderate stance on issues from the Paris climate agreement to the Iran deal. The secretary has generally been cut out of the loop on major foreign policy moves, like Trumps impulsive decision to meet with Kim Jong Un. And Tillerson once allegedly called Trump a fucking moron, a charge he never denied. The two have also differed in their attitudes toward Russia; while Trump prefers to give Vladimir Putin the benefit of the doubt on almost everything, Tillerson has taken a more traditional and skeptical view of the country. On Monday, he strongly condemned Russias alleged poisoning of an ex-spy in England, providing a clear contrast to his bosss stance. On Tuesday, Trump equivocated on the matter: As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be, he said. Tillerson is also deeply unpopular within the State Department for his imperious management style and disregard for the traditions of diplomacy, which has led to a steady level of attrition throughout his tenure. In a statement to the Post, Trump said: I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State, Trump said. Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle. Trump also thanked Tillerson for his service. A new report on the visibility of films and TV content on transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) platforms in Europe from the European Audiovisual Observatory has found that 25 of the 30 most promoted films by TVOD services were produced in the US. The report, The Visibility Of Films And TV Content On VOD, examined a sample of five European countries: Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK. Taking a full month of promotion by on-demand services in October 2017, it analysed promotional activity for films and TV content on 39 TVOD services: 19 national services, and 20 national versions of pan-European services.The report found that the ten most promoted films benefited from just under a third of all promotional spots, with European films gaining 23% of the promotional activities of the TVOD platforms . In terms of visibility for European films, France produced 11 and the UK ten out of the 30 most promoted European films. Yet European TV content was less actively promoted than European films. The Visibility Of Films And TV Content On VOD found that only 18% of all promotional spots for TV series advertised European TV content in the month examined, as opposed to 23% for European films. The key to understanding the remarkable developments over North Korea in recent weeks is that the two Koreas have been working jointly to manage the perceived risks from the United States and China. This cooperation has been managed on intelligence channels often employing relationships forged during the Sunshine Policy over a decade ago. However, the North Koreans are much more hardened and experienced than their South Korean and U.S. counterparts. One has to feel sorry for U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Speaking in Addis Ababa last week, he said, In terms of direct talks with the United States we're a long way from negotiations. The 2018 U.S. Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), released in February, appears to be focused mainly on the challenges presented by Russian nuclear weapons and strategy. Nonetheless, the document also has some potentially important implications for China, where analysts continue to discuss and debate Chinas approach to strategic deterrence generally as well as Chinese nuclear policy and strategy and nuclear force modernization in particular (China Brief, January 12). Unsurprisingly, Chinas reaction to the latest U.S. NPR has been critical. The PRC Ministry of National Defense spokesperson stated: We hope the U.S. side will discard its cold-war mentality, shoulder its own special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament, understand correctly Chinas strategic intentions and take a fair view on Chinas national defense and military development (Xinhua, February 5). Similarly, an article in Global Times criticized the NPR, stating that its focus on defining China as a threatis an excuse to develop even more nuclear weapons when Washington already possesses the worlds strongest deterrent (Global Times, Feb 5). More specifically, Chinese experts assessing the NPRs implications for China appear to be focusing on its proposals to develop new nuclear capabilities and its listing of several types of non-nuclear strategic attacks that could result in nuclear escalation. For example, Professor Li Bin, a well-known Chinese nuclear policy expert at Tsinghua University, states that the United States could prepare more nuclear tools and could threaten to use nuclear weapons on more occasions. [1] Moreover, Li argues that the strategy reflects a renewed attempt to use U.S. advantages in nuclear weapons to pursue regional and global hegemony. As for how China should respond, a late January PLA Daily article called for China to strengthen and expand its nuclear deterrence capabilities (SCMP, January 30), but such moves were already well underway in response to Chinese concerns about advances in U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), precision strike, and missile defense capabilities. Indeed, the 2013 edition of the Science of Military Strategy, an influential volume published by the PLAs Academy of Military Science (AMS), assessed that Chinas faces an increasingly complex nuclear security environment and underscored the importance of responding by strengthening Chinas nuclear deterrent capabilities. On the whole, therefore, Chinese strategists are likely to view the NPR as validating Chinas existing approach to nuclear force modernization, which has been largely congruent with its stated nuclear policy and strategy. Implications for Chinese Nuclear Policy and Force Modernization Initial indications are that China will view the NPR as underscoring the need to continue moving ahead with a nuclear force modernization program that is increasing the quality and quantity of Chinese nuclear forces, albeit in ways that appear to be largely consistent with Chinas longstanding no first use (NFU) policy, and an approach to nuclear strategy that focuses on providing China with a modern and secure nuclear retaliatory capability. As for Chinas NFU policy, even if Chinese strategists are concerned about aspects of the NPR, it provides little impetus for China to officially change its longstanding nuclear policy. Indeed, Fu Ying, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the PRCs National Peoples Congress (NPC), reaffirmed Chinas adherence to NFU in her remarks at the Munich Security Conference in February (Xinhua, February 18). Some Chinese critics of NFU have suggested that it diminishes the ability of the nuclear force to deter conventional strategic attacks against China; however, NFU proponents can and have argued that this potential shortcoming has already been addressed by a number of PLA publications, as well as a large body of unofficial statements indicating that there are circumstances under which Chinas NFU policy might not apply. This approach seems to allow China to continue to enjoy what it perceives as the benefits of the NFU policy, while generating additional deterrence effects through strategic ambiguity. Indeed, the 2013 edition of the Science of Military Strategy appears to endorse such an approach, at least implicitly, when it notes that different voices expressing views on such subjects might help create better deterrence effects. [2] Chinese nuclear force modernization appears designed to support Chinas nuclear policy and strategy. China describes its desired nuclear force structure as a lean and effective nuclear deterrent, one that is capable of ensuring retaliation following an enemy attack against China.[3] Chinas focus on the effectiveness of its nuclear missile force can be traced to concerns expressed in PLA publications dating to the late 1980s, which outlined plans to improve Chinas nuclear counterattack capability by moving toward mobile launchers, improving survivability, increasing the ability to penetrate missile defenses, increasing the numbers of missiles and launch units, and improving command and control and support systems. As China continues to implement its plans to deploy a more modern, mobile, and increasingly credible nuclear deterrent, it continues to focus on making progress in all of these areas. Chinas focus in terms of modernizing its ICBM force appears to be consistent with a longstanding approach that emphasizes survivability and countering current or possible future developments in U.S. missile defense capabilities (DNI Worldwide Threat Assessment, February 13). According to the U.S. Department of Defense, China currently has about 75100 ICBMs. [4] This includes the silo-based DF-5A; the silo-based DF-5B, which is equipped with multiple independent re-entry vehicles (MIRVs); the road-mobile DF-31 and DF-31A; and the older, shorter-range DF-4. Chinas decision to MIRV some of its silo-based ICBMs was likely intended to increase warhead numbers and presumably add additional countermeasures to ensure Chinas ability to overwhelm or penetrate missile defenses. Another important development was the unveiling of the DF-31AG ICBM, which China revealed at the military parade last year. The DF-31AG has an improved launcher, underscoring Chinas desire for greater mobility and more survivability (The Straits Times, Aug 17, 2017; Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2017). At the theater level, however, there appear to be signs that the PLA Rocket Force may be giving China some more flexible options. The most notable development in this regard appears to be the DF-26 IRBM [5], which China has indicated is available in accurate nuclear, conventional, and anti-ship ballistic missile versions. [6] China has also been using the official media to highlight the role of underground facilities in missile force operations. In particular, official media reports emphasize how these facilities contribute to PLA Rocket Force (PLARF) efforts to conceal its operations and enhance its survivability. For example, in June 2017, a Chinese media report highlighted an ICBM brigades participation in a month-long underground survival exercise in an unidentified facility beneath mountains. (China Daily, June 21, 2017). In addition, PLA publications and official media reports have highlighted improvements in training and readiness. PLARF training is reportedly becoming more realistic and complex, in line with PLA-wide directives aimed at improving the quality of military training. Finally, the Rocket Force appears to be focused on improving the readiness of its missile launch units. As a result, according to one recent official media report, on-duty cells are ready to fire missiles immediately when ordered (China Daily, June 21, 2017). Looking ahead, the PLARF has a number of new capabilities under development. The DF-41 ICBMs currently under development are expected to feature MIRVs and will likely be designed to ensure they will be able to penetrate missile defense systems, as China has tried to communicate through recent official media reports. Moreover, some reports indicate that China might also deploy a rail-mobile version of the DF-41 ICBM (Peoples Daily Online, November 28, 2017). In addition, China has conducted hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) tests, which are probably intended to provide new options for countering missile defenses. [7] The PLA Navy (PLAN) and PLA Air Force (PLAAF) also appear to be emerging as important actors in nuclear deterrence, an area long dominated by the Rocket Force. The PLA Navys current Type 094 SSBNs and JL-2 SLBMs, as well as SSBNs and SLBMs under development, all appear aimed at enhancing the diversification and survivability of Chinese nuclear forces. The PLA Air Force (PLAAF) also appears to be pursuing nuclear-capable bombers, which would give China a credible nuclear triad for the first time. The bombers could add more survivability, and likely will also offer some more flexible theater nuclear options along with the Rocket Forces new missiles. The nuclear role may also offer benefits in terms of status and prestige for both the PLAN and PLAAF. Conclusion The 2018 NPR is unlikely to dramatically alter the trajectory of Chinas ongoing nuclear force modernization or result in major changes to its nuclear policy. Beijing will likely view it as confirmation of an approach that is already well underway, one that is aimed at realizing improvements both in terms of the quality and quantity of its nuclear forces. Indeed, China seems likely to follow a course consistent with a recent recommendation by Li Bin, who suggests that in response to the NPR, China should not only continue to focus on raising the survivability of its nuclear weaponsand their penetration capability against missile defense systems, but also reaffirm that its nuclear weapons are only for deterring a nuclear attack (Global Times, January 25). The NPR, however, is not Chinas only concern. Indeed, Chinese analysts are undoubtedly awaiting the new US missile defense review that is scheduled to be released following the NPR. If the review includes an increase in US missile defense capabilities in response to North Korea, as is widely expected, Chinese strategists may conclude that further increases in force size or additional missile defense countermeasures are needed to ensure that Chinas nuclear deterrent will continue to meet its national security requirements. Michael S. Chase is a senior political scientist at RAND, a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, and an adjunct professor in the China Studies and Strategic Studies Departments at Johns Hopkins Universitys School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. This article appeared originally at Jamestown Foundation's China Brief. Notes [1] At the same time, however, Li Bin notes that the NPR offers positive comments about US-China dialogue on nuclear issues and he suggests that the dialogue can play an important role in stabilizing the China-US nuclear relationship. See Li Bin, Will US Nuclear Posture Review see a Return to Hegemony? Global Times, January 25, 2018, http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1086434.shtml. [2] The Science of Military Strategy [??c??], 3rd ed., Beijing: Military Science Press [a??a?c??a?c???], 2013. [3] See Fiona S. Cunningham and M. Taylor Fravel, Assuring Assured Retaliation: Chinas Nuclear Posture and U.S.-China Strategic Stability, International Security, Fall 2015, pp. 750; Jeffrey Lewis, Chinas Nuclear Modernization: Surprise, Restraint, and Uncertainty, in Ashley J. Tellis, Abraham M. Denmark, and Travis Tanner, eds., Strategic Asia 201314, Seattle, Wash.: National Bureau of Asian Research, October 2013, pp. 6796; Michael S. Chase, Chinas Transition to a More Credible Nuclear Deterrent: Implications and Challenges for the United States, Asia Policy, July 2013, pp. 69101; and M. Taylor Fravel and Evan S. Medeiros, Chinas Search for Assured Retaliation, International Security, Fall 2010, pp. 4887. [4] Office of the Secretary of Defense, Military and Security Developments Involving the Peoples Republic of China, 2017. [5] Eric Heginbotham, Michael S. Chase, Jacob Heim, Bonny Lin, Mark R. Cozad, Lyle J. Morris, Christopher P. Twomey, Forrest E. Morgan, Michael Nixon, Cristina L. Garafola, and Samuel K. Berkowitz, Chinas Evolving Nuclear Deterrent: Major Drivers and Issues for the United States, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, RR-1628-AF, 2017, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1628.html. [6] Andrew S. Erickson, Academy of Military Science Researchers: Why We Had to Develop the Dongfeng-26 Ballistic Missile Bilingual Text, Analysis and Related Links, AndrewErickson.com, December 5, 2016, http://www.andrewerickson.com/2015/12/academy-of-military-science-researchers-why-we-had-to-develop-the-dongfeng-26-ballistic-missile-bilingual-text-analysis-links/. [7] Lora Saalman, Chinas Calculus on Hypersonic Glide, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, August 15, 2017, https://www.sipri.org/commentary/topical-backgrounder/2017/chinas-calculus-hypersonic-glide; Joshua H. Pollack, Boost-Glide Weapons and U.S.-China Strategic Stability, Nonproliferation Review, Vol. 22, No. 2, February 2016, pp. 155164. Nearly seven years after the killing of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda is numerically larger and present in more countries than at any other time in its history. Indeed, the movement now boasts of some 40,000 men under arms, with approximately 10,00020,000 fighters in Syria; 70009000 in Somalia; 5000 in Libya; 4000 in Yemen; a similar number dispersed throughout other countries across the Maghreb and Sahel; 3000 in Indonesia; and approximately 1000 in South Asia. From north-west Africa to South East Asia, al-Qaeda has been able to knit together a global movement of some two dozen local franchises. How is this possible? There are four reasons. First, al-Qaeda proved remarkably adept at exploiting the upheaval and instability that swept across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011 and 2012 during the Arab Spring. The mujahidin around the world are going through a moment of elation, the movements chief propagandist, Anwar al-Awlaki, wrote in the March 2011 issue of Inspire, the online magazine of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and I wonder whether the West is aware of the upsurge of mujahidin activity in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Arabia, Algeria, and Morocco? The thousands of hardened al-Qaeda prisoners Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi freed, who fled to Libya, Turkey, Syria, Yemen, and other locales, endowed the movement at an opportune moment with combat expertise, leadership skills, and foot soldiers. Then, the military coup that subsequently toppled Morsi greatly enhanced al-Qaedas credibility and appeal: validating its new leader Ayman al-Zawahiris repeated admonitions to Muslims not to trust the West or have any faith in the sanctity of democratic processes. In fact, long before the Arab Spring had run its course, al-Awlaki accurately intuited that regional and international counterterrorism cooperation would both slacken and become more inconsistent as governments were lulled into a false sense of complacency that the threat of terrorism had passed. He also correctly anticipated that voices sympathetic to al-Qaedas aims and objectives would henceforth have greater freedom and acquire new platforms from which to propagate their views. Finally, al-Awlaki perceived that the spreading unrest would create new geographic openings and opportunities for al-Qaedas intervention. Is the West aware of what is happening, he wondered, only months before being killed in a U.S. drone strike, or are they asleep with drapes covering their eyes? For al-Qaeda, the answer was obvious. Second, the civil unrest that unfolded in Syria as part of the Arab Spring, and rapidly gave way to outright civil war, breathed new life into al-Qaedas efforts to appear relevant and reinsert itself into the regions politics. Within weeks of bin Ladens killing, for instance, al-Zawahiri had publicly affirmed al-Qaedas support for the uprisings in Syria, as well as those in Yemen and Libya. Taking advantage of the historical rivalry between Sunni and Shia (of which Syrias ruling Alawites are a minority sect), al-Qaedas incessant, blatantly sectarian messaging sharpened these frictions and enabled the group to establish a presence in Syria a country long-heralded by Muslims as sacred territory. One of al-Zawahiris first official acts as al-Qaeda emir was to order Abu-Mohammad al-Julani, Syrian veteran of the Iraqi insurgency, to return home and establish the local al-Qaeda franchise that would eventually become Jabhat al-Nusra, now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Third, al-Zawahiri simultaneously implemented an ambitious strategy to protect the movements remaining senior leadership and consolidate its influence in new and existing theatres. His highest priority was to ensure that al-Qaeda became impervious to a single, knockout blow of its entire senior leadership. Accordingly, scores of the movements surviving leaders and senior commanders were dispersed to Syria, Iran, Turkey, Libya, and Yemen, among other countries, with only a small, hard core remaining in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Advances in commercial, off-the-shelf digital communications, alongside successive public revelations of U.S. and allied intelligence services eavesdropping capabilities, have enabled al-Qaeda to utilise end-to-end encryption technology to a point where As-Sahab, al-Qaedas communications department, brags of maintaining regular contact between al-Zawahiri and his minions in far-flung battle zones, such as the Levant and Africa. With both a resilient senior command structure and effective communications network now in place, al-Qaeda is especially well-positioned to exploit ISISs weakening military position and territorial losses across the region, and once again claim its pre-eminent position at the vanguard of the violent Salafi-jihadi struggle. Finally, the moratorium on mass-casualty operations imposed by al-Zawahiri, especially with respect to those attacks that might kill Muslim civilians, has enabled al-Qaeda and its franchises to present themselves as moderate extremists a less unhinged and ostensibly more palatable rival to ISIS. This development also supports al-Zawahiris ancillary strategy of allowing ISIS to stay in the limelight, taking all the heat and absorbing the blows from the coalition arrayed against it, while al-Qaeda unobtrusively rebuilds its military strength and basks in its new-found cachet as moderate in contrast to the unconstrained ISIS. Accordingly, with ISIS lamentably still active and al-Qaeda clearly resurgent, today we arguably face the most perilous international security environment since 2001, with serious threats emanating from not one but two terrorist movements who both have cultivated a myriad of branches and affiliates, thereby enhancing their capabilities and ensuring their longevity. Bruce Hoffman is a visiting senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and has been studying terrorism and insurgency for four decades. He is a tenured professor in Georgetown Universitys Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, where until recently he was the director of both the Center for Security Studies and of the Security Studies program. In addition, Hoffman is visiting professor of terrorism studies at St Andrews University, Scotland. He previously held the corporate chair in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency at the RAND Corporation, and was also director of RANDs Washington DC office as well as vice president for external affairs. This article appeared originally at Lowy Institute's the interpreter. Twenty years ago, Monica Lewinsky was pilloried throughout the American media for her affair with Bill Clinton. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd described her as a ditsy, predatory White House intern who might have lied under oath for a job at Revlon. At the New York Observer, distinguished novelists and journalists competed to belittle her. My dental hygienist pointed out that she had third-stage gum disease, Erica Jong quipped. Asked what will come of Lewinsky, Nancy Friday said, She can rent out her mouth. And stand-up comedians had a field day. Now the latest news reports say Monica Lewinsky has put on 50 pounds, Jay Leno wisecracked on The Tonight Show. Did you see that? Fifty pounds. If this keeps up, she may drop to her knees just from the weight. They left Hamburg, Germany, on May 13, 1939, and reached Havana, Cuba, 14 days later. The ship's name was the "St. Louis" and it held 937 passengers, most of them Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and hoping, while in Cuba, to be admitted to the United States. But the Cuban authorities barred them, and so the ship sailed on, getting so close to America that passengers could see the lights of Miami. Still, the U.S. would not admit them, and so the St. Louis returned to Europe where, ultimately, 254 of the passengers died in the Holocaust. They were that era's Dreamers. The Dreamers of today are different. They are not in a life-or-death situation and they are not unwelcome in the countries of their birth. Yet once again Washington is showing a mean hostility to immigrants -- one so fervently held that it is blind to contradictions. It is willing to be morally wrong as long as it is legally right. The Dreamers of today are the approximately 700,000 immigrants who were brought to America illegally as children. The largest number of them were around 3 when they came across the border -- which, in case President Trump is reading, is a bit young to be a rapist or even a gang member. (Almost 5 percent were under the age of 1.) These one-time kids are now anywhere from 16 to 35. They live all over the country, but the largest concentration is in California, the Los Angeles area, with Texas coming in second. The vast majority came from Mexico, with El Salvador a distant second and Venezuela bringing up the rear. (No one should have to live in Venezuela.) Periodically, Congress makes an attempt to settle the status of these so-called Dreamers. (Their status is to be determined by legislation.) Periodically, also, President Trump issues a statement either professing sympathy or hostility toward the Dreamers. He has vowed to end the program that allows them to remain in this country or promised "to work something out that's going to make people happy and proud." As is often the case with Trump, the victim here is himself. He is torn over the Dreamers. Perplexed. Their predicament is a "very difficult thing" for him. "I love these kids. I love kids. I have kids and grandkids." By now, as you can tell, the hankie is soaked. The president is experiencing a rare bout of empathy. It is a dizzying experience, a kind of emotional vertigo. But he rights himself and later insists that the law is the law. Either make the kids legal or give them the boot. Franklin D. Roosevelt, as it happens the last president from New York, was anguished over the plight of Europe's Jews. But in 1939 he had his eye on winning an unprecedented third term. He had told Americans in his 1933 inaugural address that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," but he himself feared American anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant sentiment exacerbated by the Depression's vast unemployment. It took him until 1944 to publicly denounce the murder of Europe's Jews, and when passengers on the St. Louis cabled him pleading for admittance, he simply did not reply. Roosevelt had to deal with a xenophobia that was not of his own making and the fear that the war he knew was coming would be characterized as one fought on behalf of Jews. Trump, in contrast, has taken the bellows of his ugly anti-immigrant rhetoric to the embers of American xenophobia and abetted a conflagration. He began his presidential campaign by denigrating all Mexicans. "They are not our friend, believe me," he said. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists." As recently as last week at his Pittsburgh rally, he mentioned the MS-13 gang on Long Island as if it were the consequence of a lax immigration policy and not an aberration. These are thugs, no doubt about it, but they should not be driving immigration policy. It remains inconceivable that the Trump administration and a politically timid Congress will round up 700,000 or so otherwise ordinary Americans and deport them to the countries of their birth. In the meantime, though, the Dreamers live with appropriate anxiety about their future. They are being held hostage for the wall that Trump wants built -- a squalid deal in which human beings are bartered for an unnecessary barrier and, in the process, America sells it soul. (c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, who have never met and shared no interests whatsoever in the outcome of the 2016 election. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images House Republicans have barely even pretended to investigate Russias efforts to interfere in the 2016 elections, and now even the bare pretense is coming to an end. The GOP majority is releasing a report that will declare no collusion took place between Russia and the Trump campaign. Indeed, the report will go even farther and insist Russia did not even want to help Trump win at all, contradicting the assessment of U.S. intelligence. This outcome was completely predictable from the outset, when the committees chairman, Devin Nunes, snuck off to the White House late at night to produce an explosive but eventually debunked charge that Trump had been the victim of nefarious unmasking by Obama officials in 2016. Nunes continued to churn out explosive but false countercharges depicting the Russia investigation as a Deep State conspiracy against the completely innocent Trump campaign. The House GOP investigation failed to interview Manafort, or his partner Rick Gates, or Michael Flynn, or George Papadopoulos, all of whom have been indicted by Robert Mueller, and the latter three of whom are cooperating with his investigation. Representative Mike Conaway, the Republican heading the investigation in the wake of Nuness quasi-recusal, admitted last week, I dont have any clue who George Nader is. Nader has been the subject of two front-page New York Times stories linking him to a secret post-election meeting between Trump and Russian officials. But the House Republican investigation is not going to exert itself to extreme measures like learning the names of major figures involved in the case. Even publicly available evidence, like the 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which leading campaign officials eagerly met with a Russian promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, or the public boasting by Papadopoulos that the campaign had obtained Russian dirt on its opponent, have failed to move his allies in the lower chamber. Trump was just a big-hearted business tycoon who wanted to help some Russian orphans and maybe give down-on-his-luck lobbyist Paul Manafort a job (unpaid). For all that, they seem to believe, he has been smeared by the notoriously left-wing American intelligence apparatus as a dupe for a foreign country that didnt even necessarily want him to win the election! Alternatively, if you want Congress to hold a real investigation, or any oversight whatsoever over the Executive branch, you need to hope Democrats win the midterm elections. ELIZABETH, Pa. Donald Trump Jr. had a simple message for voters at a local volunteer fire department here the day before a special House election: His father may not be on the ballot Tuesday, but the stakes for President Trump couldnt be higher. Just because DJT isnt on this ticket, just because its a special election, doesnt mean it doesnt matter, Trump Jr. told the crowded hall, using the presidents initials. He later repeated himself for emphasis. Just because DJT isnt on the ticket does not mean that everything he stands for and represents for the future isnt on the ticket. The fire hall stop, the second event the younger Trump held with Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone, came two days after the president himself rallied supporters just outside Pittsburgh. It was the final campaign push after months of heavy GOP investment in a race that, many Republicans concede, shouldnt be competitive. Pennsylvanias 18th Congressional District has been in the partys hands since 2003. Mitt Romney won it by 17 percentage points in 2012; Trump won it by nearly 20. Yet the RCP average on the eve of the election showed Democrat Conor Lamb up by two points. The all-out blitz, including the late appearances by the president and his son, raise the stakes for Trump personally, and are a reflection of just how concerned Republicans have become that they could lose here, which would be a devastating result for the party. The mood of the electorate is ornery, said former Rep. Tom Davis, who previously ran the partys campaign committee. This is a Trump district. This should be a lay-down and its not. Its a warning to Republicans that theyre going to have a tough midterm and they have to batten down the hatches. The race, of course, remains a tossup. Saccone and Trump Jr. emphasized that to win Tuesday, they simply had to make sure the GOPs base voters turn out in droves. For Lamb to win, hell likely require strong Democratic turnout and a mixture of apathy and some crossover votes from Republicans, a difficult coalition to build. But there are clear signs that it is building. In a poll released by Monmouth University Monday, Lamb was ahead under every turnout model: He led by six points in a model predicting Democratic surge voting, as in previous special elections this cycle; by two points using traditional midterm election turnout; and by seven points using a model for high overall turnout. Davis said a narrow loss would be concerning for Republicans, but a seven-point loss to Lamb would be a real, real problem. Turnout is a major question mark in a race unlike any in history. Special elections are difficult to predict generally, but this one is taking place amid uncertainty about Pennsylvanias congressional maps: The state Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional and redrew the maps for November, but the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing the case. Its not even certain whether the district will exist in November, but if the new maps are upheld, district lines will shift. Thus, no matter who wins Tuesday, the candidate wouldnt live in the new district and would have to run in another district in November. The race itself has also developed in a way thats unlikely to be mirrored anywhere else in the country come November. Lamb raised four times as much money as Saccone, which gave the Democrat ample funds to spread a positive message about himself on TV. But Republican outside groups, hoping to prop up Saccones weak fundraising numbers, invested more than $10 million in the race, swamping Democratic investment. Though dozens of Democratic candidates have outraised Republican incumbents in races across the country, they are unlikely to have the cash advantage Lamb did in this race. But on the flip side, Republican outside groups specifically the National Republican Congressional Committee and Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC allied with Speaker Paul Ryan wont be singularly focused on any races in November, meaning the cavalry that came to Saccones aid wont be there for other flagging GOP incumbents. This race should serve as a warning sign to all Republican incumbents, said Corry Bliss, CLFs executive director. This is a very tough environment and if you dont raise money, if you dont run an aggressive, serious campaign, anyone could have a tough race in this environment. Lamb also set an early tone distancing himself from the national Democratic Party, saying in January that he wouldnt back Nancy Pelosi as conference leader. Republicans nonetheless ceaselessly linked him to the liberal congresswoman. One radio ad running in the district funded by the GOPs official campaign committee told voters to tell Nancy Pelosi no by voting for Saccone. Republicans maintain the ads worked, and pointed to Lambs release of a TV ad doubling down on his opposition to Pelosi as leader. But Democrats believe that the ads have fallen flat. Lamb has focused his advertising and campaign message on his background as a Marine and former prosecutor, and on local issues. One Democratic operative with experience in House races, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said there could be a flood of ads from Democrats opposing Pelosi if Lamb wins on Tuesday. If youre running in a district not even as red as this one, youre certainly going to poll and vet that out, and decide what youre getting and what youre losing, the operative predicted. The DCCC has signaled there are no consequences for disavowing Pelosi, the Democratic operative added. Indeed, that quickly became clear: McClatchy reported Monday that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee invested heavily in Tuesdays special election behind the scenes. The DCCC declined to comment, but a source familiar with the investment said the DCCC spent more than $1 million in the race. One quarter of that went to TV ads; the committee also spent $170,000 in digital ads, more than $150,000 in field organization and get-out-the-vote efforts, and transferred nearly half a million dollars to the state Democratic Party, the source said. Still, perhaps the biggest takeaway from the race, for both parties, is that candidates matter. Saccone had strong credentials: Hes a veteran with experience in foreign policy; has a PhD; and has been in the state legislature since 2010. Some of his local supporters were frustrated by criticism from national Republicans: One campaign volunteer at the fire hall event, who gave his first name as Mike but declined to share his full name, called the attacks crap. But Saccone struggled to raise money, which made it difficult to finance TV ads to define himself or the race, which frustrated the national party. Lamb, meanwhile, represented an ideal Democrat for this district. His background and telegenic appearance gave him instant appeal, and his effort to avoid association with the national party, to focus on local issues and to appeal to a broad swath of voters helped him energize reliable Democrats without wholly turning off conservatives. Nancy Mills, the chairwoman of the Allegheny County Democrats, said Lambs appeal crosses over wedge issues. A day after Lamb campaigned in Greene County, which supported Trump by 40 percentage points, Mills told RCP that in Allegheny County, an area that backed Hillary Clinton by 17 points, she had never witnessed as many volunteers or as much enthusiasm as shes seen for this election. Hes really a rock star-type candidate, Mills said. We knew that he was going to be an attractive candidate and extremely suited to the district, but we have even been surprised by how well hes been received and how well hes liked. I think what were seeing is something very, very unique. Race Analysis 9/13/18 -- This race has lived up to its billing as one of the closest in the country. Neither Josh Hawley nor Claire McCaskill has had a lead of more than four points in a single poll for the entire year, placing this race well within the margin of error. The undecided voters are likely Trump supporters, but it is hard to say which way theyll go in this volatile election. ----------Race Preview---------- The state of Missouri can be divided into five basic political divisions. The Democratic base is in central Kansas City and St. Louis. Republicans run strong in the rural southwest, which has long been Republican, as well as in the band of counties stretching up the Missouri River from St. Louis to Kansas City, which were settled by Germans in the 1800s. The fourth division is found in the Republican-tilting suburbs, while the fifth division is basically the rest of the state, which is essentially a salient of the South jutting into the heart of the state. Democrats' successes are normally dictated by how well they run in these latter two areas. The fifth division historically voted Democrat, and kept the state in the Democratic column. But in the 1970s, three Republicans remade the state's map: John Danforth, John Ashcroft and Kit Bond. In 1970 Bond was elected the first Republican state auditor in 40 years. He was elected governor two years later, and Ashcroft succeeded him as auditor. Six years later Ashcroft succeeded Danforth as attorney general, who had likewise been the first Republican elected to the position since the Great Depression. Both Danforth and Bond would go on to be United States senators. Ashcroft, once again following Danforth, won the latter's Senate seat after his retirement in 1994. The seat has since been subject to wild swings. Ashcroft was engaged in a tight battle with Gov. Mel Carnahan in 2000 when the governor was killed in a plane crash. Carnahan was elected posthumously, and his widow was appointed to his seat. She was defeated by Republican Jim Talent in 2002, who in turn lost to Claire McCaskill in 2006. McCaskill looked on track to lose in 2012, but the GOP nominated Rep. Todd Akin, who later claimed in an interview that a woman could not get pregnant as a result of "legitimate rape." This time, McCaskills luck may run out. The state has swung dramatically toward Republicans over the course of the past decade; Barack Obama narrowly lost the state in 2008, while Donald Trump won by twenty points. McCaskill has a solid opponent in Attorney General Josh Hawley. With that said, if the national environment remains poisonous for Republicans, she may survive another term. Russia now has more intelligence agents in London than during the Cold War. The poisoning of a retired Russian double agent has put pressure on the British government to rein them in. With his firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and appointment of the hawkish CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace him, Donald Trump has remained true to form. Chaos, not predictability, is what he promised during the campaign and it is what he is delivering, especially in foreign policy. The Brookings Institution has pegged the overall staff turnover rate in the Trump administration at over 40 percent, a record for modern presidents. Now that Trump has polished off the plodding Tillerson, who not only called his boss a moron but was also the worst secretary of state in history, the national security council is likely headed for a new adviser as well. McMaster, too, has proved to be a dud, but whether his successor would be any better is an open question. Indeed, a top candidate to replace him is none other than John Bolton, the former George W. Bush ambassador to the United Nations who counsels a very tough line against Iran. The likelihood that America will go to war against Tehran has risen. The 2015 Iran nuclear deal is now essentially null and void. In his remarks today, Trump emphasized that he and Tillerson clashed over the Iran nuclear deal: I guess [Tillerson] thought it was okay. I wanted to either break it, or do something, and he felt a little bit differently. So we were not really thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process." They do indeed. Pompeo has himself always counseled a tough line against Iran and Islam. Speaking to a church group in Wichita, Kansas in 2014, he explained: This threat to America comes from Muslims who deeply believe that Islam is the way and the light and the only answer. They abhor Christians, he said, and will continue to press against us until we make sure that we pray and stand and fight and make sure that we know that Jesus Christ is our savior is truly the only solution for our world. Pompeo is also close to Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy. He appeared on his radio show dozens of times as a Congressman and received an award from him. Add Bolton to the mix and you have what amounts to a war cabinet against Iran. Defense Secretary James Mattis would be outnumbered and outgunned. His ally, Tillerson, wanted to negotiate with Iran and opposed summarily terminating the agreement. If this occurs, the irony will be rich. Trump campaigned as someone who would not be George W. Bush redux. In fact, he specifically denounced Bush in the South Carolina debate for lying about the pretext for war in Iraq. But that was then. If he goes down the route to war with Iran, he will be George W. Bush on steroids. Bush went to war against Iraq, not Iran, because he knew that it was a much tougher nut to crack. If Trump becomes enmeshed in a new war in the Middle East, his presidency will almost surely go down in history as a catastrophic failure. Unfortunately, this scenario is all-too-plausible. Ever since 9/11, American foreign policy has taken a dark turn, substituting fear and hubris for reality. It began under George W. Bush, who tapped into the unilateralist traditions of the Republican party, and could accelerate under Trump. Trumps vast expansion of the defense budget, coupled with his innate belligerence, suggest that, much like Kaiser Wilhelm in August 1914, he may lurch into a war that assumes proportions he never intended, much less expected. So if Trump goes further down the road of scrapping the Iran deal and hires Bolton, then war looms large. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is surely elated. Could this be springtime for neoconservatism? Republished with permission from The National Interest. Jacob Heilbrunn is editor of the National Interest. USG should support the students who plan to exercise their first amendments in an effort to change the system and clarify its stance to the public. MIDDLETOWN tHE Connecticut Parrot Societys (CPS) 11th annual Featherfest returns to Middletown on Saturday, March 24. Featherfest is CPS annual bird fair at the Elks Club that includes educational speakers, bird-related vendors, and live birds (not for sale). The event is open to the public from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is $5 per person, and free to children under 12 and CPS members. This years educational speakers include the following: 10:30 a.m. - MaryBeth Kaeser, Horizon Wings, a non-profit birds of prey rehab center, discussing Bird Brains. Did you know that crows are capable of recognizing and remembering individual faces and can teach their children which individuals to avoid? Far from being hard-wired as previously thought, recent research proves that birds actually possess sophisticated cognitive abilities. Indeed, responding to changing conditions by changing the way they act, is often crucial to their survival. Join us as we compare and contrast the fascinating qualities of avian intelligence among four different species of birds: an American Crow, a Peregrine Falcon, an Owl, and a Blue and Gold Macaw. 1:30 p.m. - Susan Chamberlin, columnist for Fancy Publications (including Bird Talk) more than 30 years, speaker and owner of 14 Karat Parrot, presents Planning for Your Birds Future. Change is inevitable, but with some forethought we can meet the needs of our parrots, over time. Join us as Susan shares her ideas on how to manage occurrences such as changes in lifestyle, finances, and places of residence, to name just a few, while ensuring that our parrots are well cared for along the way. Other highlights of the event include door prizs, teacup auction with prizes, vendors, and free pet care information at an Ask the Vets table. The Connecticut Parrot Society was formed in September, 2006. It is a non-profit, 501c3 organization, based in Middletown, CT, with more than 130 current members. CPS mission is to educate the public and its members about responsible keeping of companion parrots. As part of that mission, CPS provides information to its members and to the public concerning legislation and conservation issues impacting companion parrots and those in the wild. Through this mission, the Connecticut Parrot Society (CPS) helps residents of Connecticut with the placement of companion birds and has adopted out more than 300 birds in its adoption program. It is also involved in extensive outreach and education programs for schools and groups, and affiliated with numerous national avian organizations. CPS meets the first Thursday of each month (except July and August) at 7 pm at the Wadsworth Glen Health Care and Rehabilitation Center, 30 Boston Road, Middletown, CT. The public is welcome to attend a meeting as a guest. Meetings include fun and social time for members and their birds and an educational guest speaker. For more information about CPS or Featherfest, go to www.connecticutparrotsociety.org. While deciding upon the recipes to feature here for St. Patricks Day celebrations (the official day is Saturday), I received an email newsletter from the Specialty Food Association with some mind-boggling statistics; Americans plan to spend a record $5.9 billion to celebrate St. Patricks Day, up from $5.3 billion in 2017, according to the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. Of those who plan to celebrate, 50 percent will purchase food, 41 percent beverages, and 16 percent candy. Consumers are expected to spend an average of $39.65 per person, up from $37.92 in 2017. The holiday is most popular among individuals 18 to 24 years old, with 77 percent celebrating, but those 35 to 44 will be the biggest spenders at an average of $45.76. To educate myself about Irish food, I picked up a copy of Real Irish Food: 150 Classic Recipes from the Old World, by David Bowers (2012, Skyhorse Publishing, $16.95). The author writes, People in Ireland are sometimes mortified by what Americans think of as Irish food. Thats because the real thing is much subtler and more delicious than any platter of overcooked corned beef and mushy cabbage could ever be. Real Irish food is brown soda bread so moist it barely needs the yolk-yellow butter; fragrant apple tarts with tender, golden crusts; rich stews redolent of meaty gravy and sweet carrots; crisp-edged potato cakes flipped hot from a skillet directly on the plate. A couple of weeks ago, I began to see Irish soda bread, a favorite St. Patricks Day food, at bakeries. If you are a follower of this column, you probably know, I am curious to learn about food and their variations that become indigenous to holiday celebrations as well as the history of food. The book has recipes for various types of soda bread from around the country, from the plain cakes with simple ingredients (flour, buttermilk, baking soda and salt) to recipes that include eggs, butter, fruit and my favorite, caraway. There is also a soda bread that uses cornmeal. Below is a recipe for a basic white soda bread. All wheat is not the same. The wheat crop in Ireland produces flour that is softer and lower in gluten than harder wheat. Yeast, the traditional leavening agent wasnt as good at doing its job with the softer flour; it was necessary to wait quite a bit of time for the dough to rise. Baking soda did the job more efficiently. Thus the name soda bread. Soda breads are not unique to Ireland. Many cultures use baking soda in their breads. The website of The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread (www.sodabread.info) encourages modern bakers to get in touch with their Irish roots and use the traditional ingredients/recipes when making traditional Irish soda bread. It says, Just like the bagpipes werent invented by the Scots, the chemical reaction that makes soda bread what it is, wasnt invented by the Irish. The earliest reference to using soda ash in baking bread seems to be credited to American Indians using it to leaven their bread. White Soda Bread The author of Real Irish Food writes, I have noticed the soda breads made by the American-Irish are a very different product from white soda bread in Ireland. They often have caraway seeds, something you never see in Irish soda bread. I suspect the Irish immigrants of long ago got to this land of plenty and thought, why are we eating this dull, plain bread? And so they began to make additions, and I say their bread is all the better for it! Heres a plain white soda, however, the classic version, and even I have to admit that buttered white soda is good with a cup of tea or a bowl of soup, and its a nice accompaniment to a fry-up. 31/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar 11/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 11/2 to 13/4 cups buttermilk Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Stir in enough buttermilk to make a stiff dough. Lightly flour a rimless baking sheet and turn out the dough onto it. Shape it into a large round. Lift it onto a baking sheet and slash the surface with a sharp knife to make an X about an inch deep across the entire surface. Makes 1 medium loaf, 6 to 8 servings. Priscilla Martel http://priscillamartel.com , a colleague who teaches Food Writing at Gateway, an authority on artisan baking and co-author of On Baking and On Cooking was delighted to share her recipe for Irish Wheaten Bread. She said, Irish Wheaten Bread is the simplest bread you can make. It is addicting and absolutely delicious. The flavor of the whole wheat flour gives it an unexpected sweetness. Although the texture is somewhat crumbly, the loaf slices neatly. No need to worry about yeast anxiety with this recipe. Irish Wheaten Bread is leavened with baking soda and goes directly into the oven after it is mixed. The entire process should take less than an hour. Bread Makes the Meal! Irish Wheaten Bread 3 cups (12 ounces) whole wheat flour such as King Arthur organic whole wheat flour 2/3 cup (3 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour 1/3 cup (1 ounce) quick cooking oats, raw 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 21/2 Tablespoons (11/2 ounces) unsalted butter, diced 11/4 - 11/2 cups buttermilk Rolled oats, for the dough Thirty minutes before baking, place a small pan for water on the lowest oven rack. Position a second rack in the middle of your oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Combine the flours, oats, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub it between the tips of your fingers until the mixture resembles corn meal. Gradually stir in the buttermilk adding just enough to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Scrape the dough out onto a work surface and knead lightly a few times to form the dough into a ball. Shape it into a uniform loaf about 7 inches in diameter. Press the dough lightly so that it measures approximately 11/2 inches thick. Sprinkle a bakers peel or the back of a baking sheet with some rolled oats. Pick up the dough with your two hands and transfer it to the peel or baking sheet. (You could line the peel or baking sheet with parchment paper.) Using a serrated knife, cut the surface of the dough (about an inch deep) in a cross pattern so that the bread bakes into 4 neat quadrants. Pour about 1/2cup of hot water into the pan on the bottom of the oven. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes until the loaf is well browned. Cool on a wire rack and serve warm. Notes: If you like to switch out ingredients, keep this in mind. No buttermilk? Combine 11/4cups of milk with 1/4cup of lemon juice or vinegar. Stir and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes before using. You can also use 11/4 cups of plain yogurt thinned with 2 Tablespoons of water and 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice. Looking for a vegan version? Combine 11/4 cups of nut milk with 1/4cup of lemon juice. Stir and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes before using. Use a good quality coconut oil in place of the butter. This soda bread variation is from the McCormick kitchens and adds another dimension to the basic bread. Savory Irish Cheese Soda Bread 21/2 cups flour 1/2 cup sugar 11/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons caraway Seed 1 teaspoon garlic Powder 1/4 teaspoon red Pepper, Ground 1/2 cup shredded Irish Cheddar cheese 2 eggs 11/4 cups buttermilk Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and seasonings in a large bowl. Stir in cheese. Set aside. Mix eggs and buttermilk in medium bowl. Add to dry ingredients; stir until well blended. Spread in lightly grease 9-inch round cake pan. Bake 3040 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. Serves 12. Tip: Make muffins instead of bread. Prepare dough as directed and divide among 12 greased muffin cups. Bake 2025 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Send us your requests: Which restaurant recipes or other recipes would you like to have? Which food products are you having difficulty finding? Do you have cooking questions? Send them to me: 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, he might not be able to publish every request. For more, go to stephenfries.com.) 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 21, 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 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. Wine and Cheese Pairing with Caseus Fromagerie, March 22, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Fletcher Cameron Kitchens, 91 Orange St., New Haven, 203-777-7707. $45. Fletcher Cameron has invited New Havens well-known Caseus Fromagerie to its ongoing Come to the Chefs Table event series. Learn secrets of how to curate a flavorful and enticing artisanal cheese board paired with the perfect wines provided by The Wine Thief. Guests will leave with their own, beautiful custom cheese board made by Fletcher Cameron that they can use to entertain at home. Tickets at http://bit.ly/2FDbZR2 Consiglios Cooking Demonstration and Dinner: March 29, 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. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him as the nation's top diplomat, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate outreach that includes possible talks with North Korea. Trump and Tillerson have had a fraught relationship for many months. Trump told reporters Tuesday that he ultimately decided to fire the secretary because they disagreed over strategy in key areas of foreign policy, such as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the approach to North Korea and the overall tone of U.S. diplomacy. Tillerson said he received a call from Trump around noon Tuesday, more than three hours after his firing was first reported by The Washington Post and announced minutes later in a tweet from the president. His voice quivering, Tillerson thanked career diplomats for their "honesty and integrity" and the American people for "acts of kindness," but notably did not thank Trump or praise his policies. Tillerson said he is delegating all authorities for running the State Department to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan and that he is committed to ensuring "an orderly and smooth transition." The deposed diplomat also made a clear statement about Russian aggression: "Much work remains to respond to the troubling behavior and actions on the part of the Russian government." The shake-up left officials at the State Department and throughout the national security community flummoxed, and the circumstances of the firing were in dispute. More for you In the end, no one was more surprised that Tillerson was fired... White House officials said that - as Tillerson traveled through Africa last week - White House chief of staff John Kelly called to wake him up in the wee hours there Saturday to alert him that Trump had decided to replace him. Trump had told his chief of staff he wanted to announce he was replacing Tillerson on Twitter. Kelly urged him to hold off. Kelly then suggested Tillerson return to Washington as soon as possible. Tillerson cut his trip short Monday. But a top State Department spokesman offered a different version of events - and was swiftly fired for contradicting the White House. Steve Goldstein, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, said that Tillerson was "unaware of the reason" for his firing and had not spoken directly with Trump. He said Kelly told Tillerson in the call only that "he could expect a tweet" from the president, but it was not conveyed that the decision to fire him was final. "He found out that he was terminated today," Goldstein said. Goldstein's dismissal, which came just before he was scheduled to brief reporters about the shake-up at Foggy Bottom, was confirmed by a State Department official. West Wing officials had accused him in recent weeks of privately criticizing White House decisions to reporters. Asked Tuesday about the accusation, Goldstein said: "I spoke for the secretary of state. That was part of my role as the undersecretary." The president and his top diplomat reached a breaking point over the past week, and media inquiries about the fraught relationship accelerated the timing of the ouster, White House officials said. After Kelly told him he was being let go, Tillerson asked that Trump hold off on announcing the news until he had returned to the United States, and Kelly agreed, one White House official said. Trump told reporters that he had been considering removing Tillerson for "a long time." "I actually got along well with Rex, but really it was a different mind-set, a different thinking," Trump said Tuesday as he departed the White House for a trip to California. "When you look at the Iran deal, I think it's terrible. I guess he thought it was OK . . . . So we were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well." Trump selected CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to succeed Pompeo as the agency's director. She would become the first woman to run the spy agency. Both Haspel and Pompeo would need to be confirmed by the Senate at a time when the closely divided chamber has stalled on confirming dozens of Trump nominees. Haspel, in particular, could come under added scrutiny over her past role running one of the CIA "black site" prisons where detainees were subjected to waterboarding and other interrogation methods widely denounced as torture. The announcement of Tillerson's departure sent shock waves across the globe. Many U.S. diplomats and foreign leaders reacted with disbelief because they assumed Tillerson had finally begun to settle into his job after rumors of his ouster had swirled for months - even taking on a nickname, Rexit. In a statement first issued to The Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel. He highlighted Pompeo's educational background, graduating first in his class from West Point and with honors from Harvard Law School, and celebrated the "historic milestone" of Haspel becoming the first woman to lead the CIA. Pompeo said in a statement that he was "deeply grateful" to Trump and said he looked "forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America's prosperity." Trump also had words of praise for Tillerson despite their well-documented rifts: "Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well." In his statement, Goldstein said: "The secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security and other areas. He will miss his colleagues greatly at the Department of State, and the foreign ministers he's worked with throughout the world. The secretary did not speak to the president, and is unaware of the reason. He is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and believes strongly that public service is a noble calling." The president has long clashed with Tillerson, who he believes is "too establishment" in his thinking. Trump felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for possible high-stakes talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said. Tillerson was especially frustrated when Trump last Thursday unilaterally agreed to the meeting with the North Korean leader Kim while Tillerson was traveling in Africa, according to officials familiar with his thinking. Tillerson had long expressed interest in a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with North Korea, and was upset to have been left totally out of the loop when Trump decided to move forward, according to a White House official. Tillerson was routinely undermined in his post, including by Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser who took charge of the Middle East and Mexico diplomatic portfolios. Tillerson also clashed frequently with national security adviser H.R. McMaster and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, among others. State Department officials took notice - and were chagrined - that Pompeo did not cite Tillerson when he appeared on television shows Sunday to explain the North Korea developments. Although he frequently complained to colleagues that Trump was too mercurial and impulsive, and voiced frustration that the president struggled to focus during meandering conversations, Tillerson was determined to stay in his job and would not quit, according to one person who has discussed these concerns with the secretary. Tillerson's stance, this person said, was: "If he wants me gone, he'll fire me." On the flight back from Nigeria, Tillerson appeared to break with the White House in his assessment of the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. He singled out Russia as responsible for the attack, echoing the finger-pointing of the British government. "It came from Russia," Tillerson said, according to the Associated Press. "I cannot understand why anyone would take such an action. But this is a substance that is known to us and does not exist widely." Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned the attack as "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible," and expressed solidarity with Britain, but would not say whether the United States believes Russia was behind it. Pompeo long has been mentioned as Tillerson's most likely replacement. As CIA director, the former Republican lawmaker from Kansas developed a warm relationship with Trump, often delivering the President's Daily Brief to Trump in person and racing over to the West Wing at a moment's notice to field the president's queries on a range of topics. Pompeo often is found in a host of meetings that do not necessarily deeply involve his agency, simply because Trump likes him, said one White House official. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was initially mentioned as a replacement for Pompeo, but Trump opted to promote from within by elevating Haspel. White House officials, still reeling from the loss of a Republican Senate seat in Alabama, were reluctant to tap Cotton and create a vacancy in Arkansas, and they thought Cotton could be more useful to Trump as a loyal ally in the Senate, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. Speculation about Tillerson's ouster has come in waves, including in October after NBC News reported that the secretary of state had called Trump a "moron." Tillerson did not deny the remark. Tillerson, 65, spent his career at ExxonMobil, climbing the ranks at the oil giant to become chief executive officer, where he cut deals across the Middle East and in Mexico. Having never worked in government before being named secretary of state, he struggled to adapt to Washington's ways and the administration's culture of backstabbing. Tillerson emerged as one of the strongest voices in the administration critical of Russia. For months, he has been saying Russia clearly meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, even as Trump shied away from any critical remarks. Trump seemed to resent pressure to stay the course on such issues as China's trade practices, the war in Afghanistan and the Iran nuclear deal, those people said. Tillerson pushed Trump to preserve the Iran accord, at least for now, with a July pronouncement that Iran was meeting its end of the bargain - which curbs Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions. Trump said in a Wall Street Journal interview that he regretted making that determination. In October, Trump kept in place the sanctions waivers, but warned he may not continue the policy when the next review is due in May. Although Tillerson supported the approach to the war in Afghanistan that Trump announced last year, he felt no need to frame U.S. goals in the same maximal terms as the commander in chief. Where Trump proclaimed on Aug. 21 that "our troops will fight to win," Tillerson laid out a much more modest agenda. --- The Washington Post;s Robert Costa, Josh Dawsey, Karen DeYoung, Carol Morello and Brian Murphy contributed to this report. --- Video Embed Code Video: President Trump spoke March 13, after it was announced he ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and planned to tap CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.(The Washington Post) Embed code: Video: President Trump asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to step aside after months of disagreement, and has replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo.(The Washington Post) Embed code: Video: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did not directly respond to an Oct. 4 news report that he referred to President Trump as a "moron," saying, "I'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that."(The Washington Post) Embed code: WINSTED The Planning & Zoning Commission approved the creation of a medical marijuana dispensary in the former KFC restaurant at 100 New Hartford Road Monday evening, moving the matter to be considered at the state level. Bristol-based attorney Timothy Furey submitted an application for the project Feb. 8 on behalf of 100 New Hartford LLC and appeared before the commission to discuss it Monday. He offered fresh plans for the structure that included new signs, which would read Northwest CT Live Well Center, as well as an additional study of the property. Furey indicated that the minutes of the Feb. 26 meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission provided an excellent overview of the project. Among other aspects of the proposal, the minutes note that patients would come to the dispensary by appointment, limiting traffic to a maximum of 16 people per hour; a security plan would be enacted to include a series of cameras and an alarm system; and approximately five employees would work at the dispensary. The site is suitable, he said away from the main road and residential areas. This is medicine, and its more highly-regulated than your local pharmacy that, on the other side of that counter, (has) stuff you can get at thats much more addictive and problematic than what we have here, said Furey. The Department of Consumer Protection is planning to establish three to 10 additional medical marijuana dispensaries statewide. Furey said that his group anticipated that approximately 100 applications could be submitted. It is our belief that location will be a factor for at least some of the permits this time, and this section of the state does not have a dispensary, said Furey. During Mondays hearing, Winsted resident Michael DeClement said he was in favor of the idea, and had previously received medical marijuana as a patient in California. He was concerned about the location, however, because of its proximity to schools, and the potential for security issues. I feel this site is anything but low-profile. I dont know how many school buses pass by that site kids are smart, kids are observant. Its like, Hey, theres the pot place, said DeClement. I dont know how I feel if thats really important. DeClement suggested that the possibility of marijuana legalization in Massachusetts could affect the long-term viability of the site. Furey said that effort was not particularly far along, and the dispensary would provide medicine, as opposed to a recreational drug. He also said that the preliminary security plan had been reviewed by Police Chief William Fitzgerald, who had assented to it and requested to be involved in finalizing it later. Furey said the place would not draw undue attention. Such dispensaries are not allowed to advertise their association with marijuana or drug paraphernlia, he said. This is a very low-profile thing, said Furey. The experience in the state is, as I said, these are low-profile, unless you know its there and are registered to go there, you really dont notice it. The Planning & Zoning Commission approved the application 4-1, with board member Jerry Martinez against. The Department of Consumer Protection would have to grant a license for the proposed dispensary for it to become reality. The dispensary will be barred from opening before 9 a.m. or operating after 8 a.m., according to conditions in the zoning commissions motion Monday. This is the second time the Planning & Zoning Commission has considered an application for a dispensary at this location. The body approved another such proposal in March 2014, according to past reports. The state did not approve the project in April 2014, choosing instead to authorize six other facilities in Connecticut. The state Department of Consumer Protection issued request for applications to open new dispensaries in January. The number of patients has increased dramatically in recent years, according to Lora Rae Anderson, director of communications with the department. When the last round of licenses was granted in January 2016, about 8,000 patients were receiving medical marijuana, according to Anderson. As of March 11, there were 23,987 medical marijuana patients in the state, according to the department down from 24,096 as of Feb. 18. This includes 1,424 people in Litchfield County. The county has no dispensary, and the closest facilities are in Waterbury and Bristol. Applications are graded on a series of factors, including business plans, geography and security, according to Anderson. A dispensary must be operated by a pharmacist, she said. The Torrington Planning & Zoning Commission received three requests to open a dispensary last month for spaces at 61 Commercial Blvd., 398 Winsted Road and 3568 Winsted Road. The Torrington commission scheduled public hearings on the applications for March 14. A fourth, submitted by Arrow Alternative Care for the complex at 683 Winsted Road, was subsequently received, and was to be reviewed March 14. No hearing has been scheduled. It will soon be Roger Stones time in the barrel. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Yesterday, Donald Trumps House Republican allies announced that they had found no evidence that Donald Trumps campaign had colluded with Russia. And yet the considerable body of public evidence to the contrary continues to grow. Today, the Washington Post reports that Trumps friend and informal adviser Roger Stone had advance knowledge that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had obtained stolen emails from John Podesta. Two sources one of whom is Sam Nunberg, and the other of whom is not named tell the Post that Stone knew about the email hack before it was publicly disclosed. Stone had teased his knowledge of the hacks repeatedly. His now-suspended Twitter account enthralled his audience during the campaign by promising, Trust me, it will soon [be] the Podestas time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary, I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon #LockHerUp, and Payload coming. #Lockthemup. Perhaps recognizing the legal danger he placed himself in, Stone has since denied having had any direct contact with Assange, and has implausibly cast his remarks as mere speculation. Last September, according to the ranking Democrat on the committee, Stone refused to answer a direct question from the House Intelligence Committee about his contacts with WikiLeaks. The Post story makes it clear that Stones implausible public story and reported refusal to testify in Congress are a cover story because he is an accessory after the fact to Russian-orchestrated email theft. Stone denies the account of both sources. If Stone, who has gleefully cultivated a reputation as a dirty trickster, has to deny a charge, you know its serious. The Posts story does not speculate about whether Stone shared his knowledge with other Trump campaign officials, including Donald Trump himself. It would be stunning and bizarre if he did not. Stone held an official role in the Trump campaign, but departed his official role in August 2015 on what he later called excellent terms. Later in August, Stone was characteristically cagey about his contacts with the candidate. Asked if he had spoken with Mr. Trump since they apparently went their separate ways, Mr. Stone said: I would rather not say. I still consider him a friend, and think he still considers me a friend; lets just leave it at that, reported the New York Times. Soon after, Stone grew less hesitant to tout his access to Trump. Were on cordial terms. We talk. We talk on the phone from time to time, he told TPM in September. In a April 2016 Politico interview, he described more about his relationship with Trump, and repeatedly emphasized his close ties with Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. By turning to Paul Manafort, whos a former partner of mine, a very skilled guy by going to Manafort, I think that Donald has made an excellent selection. In May, he told Jeffrey Toobin he speaks with Trump now and then. In August, he told C-span, I have no formal nor informal role but I do have access to all the right people. In October, he boasted of firing off long memos to the Donald once or twice a week. During all these conversations, when Stone was jockeying for access and favor with the candidate, what are the odds he did not disclose the delicious secret he had obtained? It is impossible to believe that, after Donald Trump Jr. and other high-ranking campaign officials met in Trump Tower with a Russian agent who promised them dirt on Hillary Clinton, Donald Jr. did not excitedly tell his father about his impending coup. It is even more difficult to believe Stone did not share what he had learned months earlier. And then he was gone. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images The end, when it came, was fast and surprising. Rex Tillerson, whose departure had been rumored for months, who survived both being caught calling the president an effing moron and refusing to deny it, finally fell victim to Kim Jong Un? Or his aggressive remarks about Russia yesterday? Or Donald Trump feeling his oats and indulging an impulse hed been suppressing for months? The exact causality, alas, remains murky. In any case, the entire world was surprised to learn Tuesday morning that Tillerson was out at State. The story broken by the Washington Post had Tillerson who seemed to have been cut out entirely from the decision to go ahead with a TrumpKim Jong Un summit, and who had then gone ahead and left on a previously planned trip to Africa being called home by Trump in order to be fired. This being the Trump White House, even that story quickly got complicated. Monday, giving no inkling of what had happened, Tillerson got out ahead of the White House on a sensitive matter, explicitly blaming Russia for the nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy in the U.K., and promising it would certainly trigger a response. Some commentators jumped in to assert this was the true cause of his firing. Others including former Trump advisers saw it as one last subtweet of a boss Tillerson had long disrespected. But within an hour of news of the firing breaking, a State Department spokesman told reporters that the (now ex-)secretary had no idea it was coming: WOW: Tillerson had "every intention of staying... did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason," according to Under Sec of State Goldstein. pic.twitter.com/3i4PDIE4fT Conor Finnegan (@cjf39) March 13, 2018 Either way, Tillerson seemed to have lived out his Cabinet lifespan months ago. He was caught crossways of Trump on policy so many times this analyst stopped counting on North Korea, on trade, on Iran, on Europe. He was rumored not to be getting along with Defense Secretary Mattis and National Security Adviser McMaster the Cabinet colleagues who had initially been his closest allies. Within minutes of the news breaking, Washington was scurrying to analyze his successor, Mike Pompeo, a former Kansas congressman who has most recently served as CIA director. Pompeo is viewed by many as a more traditional Republican hawk, who will be tougher on Russia and Iran than Tillerson, whose previous career had included oil deals with both. Pompeo will be succeeded at the CIA by his deputy, Gina Haspel. A career officer, she gained notoriety for her reported leadership of one of the CIAs notorious black sites, interrogating prisoners with techniques that constitute torture under U.S. and international law, and overseeing the destruction of videotapes of the interrogations. Tillerson will leave a legacy, for sure. First, in the diminishment of his office something which was not entirely his fault. Trump wasnt the first president who couldnt resist the temptation to be his own secretary of State, or to undercut his secretary to prevent him from gaining international stature that could rival his own. And as the National Security Council has grown in size and influence, and modern communications have allowed anyone to connect across national lines, States influence has been declining over the decades. But, with Trumps gratuitous cruelty added to Tillersons missteps, Pompeo will get to Foggy Bottom with the prestige and clout of his office at its lowest ever. (Its a long way down from Thomas Jefferson.) He may find that he misses the CIA. Second, the State Department itself is theres no kind word for it a mess. Tillerson achieved something that diplomatic geeks had tried and failed for 20 years getting reporters, members of Congress, and even voters to care about State Department personnel policy. Not because he succeeded in reforming the Department to his vision, but because his ideas went so publicly awry. His plan to reform and restructure the State Department produced a steady leak of embarrassing PowerPoint slides and memos. Just last week a Politico reporter tweeted his deputys Strategic Hiring Initiative line by line, with commentary pointing out how much it seemed to presage further staff cuts. His ideas on personnel reforms prevent spouses from working in embassies overseas, shut the pipeline of super-talented fellows entering the State Department out of graduate school, run every decision through a tiny team produced headlines and outrage among people who had never cared much about State before. More than 100 senior diplomats have resigned since Tillerson took office, leaving top ranks understaffed. At the same time, Tillerson canceled, delayed, or shrunk entire classes of new junior diplomats. As of last month, more than 100 ambassadorial positions were unfilled, as were many higher-level positions back in Washington. Not only is the department smaller, but most of its senior women, and officers of color, are gone meaning that the service looks less like our country and less like the rest of the world with which it must interact. Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, one of the senior ambassadors who chose to leave during Tillersons tenure, said: No doubt we are as disappointed as he. But career foreign service officers tell reporters that they would prefer Pompeo, who has publicly opposed the Iran deal, States crowning achievement under President Obama, and endorsed rhetoric that will make dealing with Muslim nations even more challenging because they believe he actually ran the CIA and will make an effort to do the same at State. This brings us to Tillersons final legacy, which is very far-reaching indeed. For more than six decades, Americans have simultaneously built up a specialized security bureaucracy and told themselves that any businessman (and it was always men) could do better than the people whove spent decades working inside it. Tillerson wasnt just any businessman. He had run an immense corporation and was well-regarded at home and abroad. He was certainly not as foolish as he was often made to appear. And yet, he would certainly have been better served by humility: both about the abilities of the men and women he led, and about his own limitations in trying to manage a president who prides himself on being unmanageable. Tillerson came in expecting to own American foreign policy. In the end, hes the one who got owned. The ruling Chinese Communist Party is set to restructure its entire administrative machinery to give it more direct control over the country's finances and government actions. The "revolutionary" restructuring will merge several ministries, including financial services regulators overseeing the country's heavyweight banking and insurance sectors, media reports indicated. A national markets supervisory body will take over the portfolio of government agencies dealing with pricing, commerce and industry, quality control, quarantine, and food and drug safety. The ministry of land and resources, the state oceanic agency, and the national surveying and mapping bureau will be merged into a new ministry of natural resources. And a new ecology and environment agency will take over from the environment protection ministry, taking over responsibility for climate change and water pollution from other departments. China has also set up a new immigration agency under its police ministry for the first time, to manage the growing number of foreign residents, while the tourism and cultural portfolios will come together under a single ministry. And a ministry of veterans' affairs will manage former members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), many of whom have staged mass protests over unpaid benefits and economic hardship in Beijing in recent years. Centralizing power The moves represent further centralization of power in China, and come after the country's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), waved through constitutional changes that pave the way for indefinite rule by President Xi Jinping. Reforms led by late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s aimed to move away from centralized party control in all areas following the political turmoil and violence of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), and to entrust the more technical areas of government to a specialized and highly educated civil service. But Xi has pledged to "strengthen party leadership in all areas of work," and had already begun cutting across traditional lines of ministerial power by heading a series of special commissions and task forces in recent years. A journalist surnamed Song in the southern province of Guangdong said the restructuring will make little difference to ordinary Chinese, however. "This restructuring of government departments is on a massive scale, and the aim seems to be to demolish the temples and reinvent the Buddha," Song said, using a traditional metaphor for total regime change. "There are many mansions within this new temple, and huge political will behind it," he said. "But from the point of view of ordinary people like you and me, it's still the same thing." Overlaps, turf wars An independent journalist who gave only his surname Pan told RFA that the move is the biggest restructuring of Chinese government since Deng launched economic reforms more than three decades ago, and seems in part designed to avoid overlaps and turf wars in the machinery of government. "Take the new inspection and supervisory commission [to fight corruption in party ranks]," Pan said. "Before, we had the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the ministry of supervision, and their remits overlapped." "What it boils down to is that all power is now in the hands of the party," he said. "Because the head of the new commission will definitely be a member of the Politburo standing committee, as well as the party secretary for the CCDI." Last October, PLA veterans said they were skeptical of Xi's promises to protect their rights with a new agency, and were waiting to see if it will act as their protector or as just another persecutor. PLA veterans have been identified by the leadership as one of the most politically sensitive groups in China. In October 2016, thousands of demobilized PLA personnel converged on Beijing from across China, staging a vocal protest outside the headquarters of the Communist Party's Central Military Commission (CMC), which Xi chairs. Singing "In Unity is Our Strength" and other Chinese military choruses, the veterans, some of whom had fought in in the Korean war (1950-1953), wore their old uniforms and stood peacefully, calling for pensions, health care, and other demobilization benefits they said were promised but not delivered. Stability maintenance Any bid to organize has since triggered nationwide security alerts via the "stability maintenance" system, which targets peaceful protesters, petitioners, and critics of the government. A PLA veteran surnamed Yu said they are still waiting for a resolution to their grievances, many of them struggling to subsist in great hardship with no access to medical care in old age. "There were agencies in charge of veterans before this agency was set up, so I am guessing that it won't be much different," Yu said. "I am not very hopeful, because this requires a fundamental change of the entire system. It makes no difference what the government says." "Don't imagine that this is anything new," he said. The veterans are calling on the authorities to abide by promises made to them before they signed up to fight in China's short border war with Vietnam in 1979. Clause 3 of the Military Pensions Priority Regulations requires governments to ensure that the standard of living and social situation of demobilized PLA soldiers doesn't fall below the national average. Other veterans are citing official document No. 75 issued by China's cabinet, the State Council, in 1978 promising to find jobs for demobilized military personnel, as they were promised when they enlisted. Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Yanghee Lee, the UN's special rapporteur to Myanmar, attends a press conference after addressing her report before the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, March 12, 2018. The Myanmar government on Tuesday brushed aside United Nations Human Rights Council reports on serious rights violations committed against the Rohingya during a crackdown by the military in Rakhine state, saying the officials tasked with examining the abuses have biased and prejudiced views. Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, and Marzuki Darusman, former attorney-general of Indonesia and chairman of a U.N.-appointed international fact-finding mission on human rights in Myanmar, on Monday issued damning reports on the violent expulsion of Rohingya, citing hundreds of interviews with victims and eyewitnesses about reported human rights violations along with satellite imagery, photographs, and video footage of events. Lee told the Council on Monday that the brutal crackdown by Myanmar soldiers in northern Rakhine state in response to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) bore the hallmarks of genocide. She also said that the government had done nothing to stop the attacks and must be held accountable along with those who committed acts of violence. The crackdown, which included indiscriminate killings, rape, torture, and arson, forced nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee across the border to Bangladesh where they live in destitution in sprawling displacement camps. An interim report issued by Darusmans panel said the Myanmar military has created patterns of human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law not only in Rakhine state, but also in Shan and Kachin states, where lesser-known conflicts are raging between the government army and ethnic militias. Regarding the Myanmar military, we are receiving credible reports of indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, enforced disappearances, destruction of property and pillage, torture and inhuman treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, forced labor, and the recruitment of children into armed forces, the report said. Myanmars response at the Council's annual meeting in Geneva on Monday was that a less-than-objective approach by some had brought a paradigm shift in the perception and attitude towards the country, according to a statement of the proceedings issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The Myanmar army has denied accusations of brutality against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine, saying its own investigations have cleared soldiers of the alleged abuses. The Myanmar government has also denied the allegations and blocked Darusmans fact-finding mission, appointed by the U.N. a year ago, from entering the country to conduct an independent investigation. Kept out of Rakhine, Darusmans team went to Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia to interview more than 600 refugees. We dont accept it Responding to comments by Lee and Darusman, Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay told RFAs Myanmar Service on Tuesday that the country had blocked the U.N. fact-finding mission because it rejected its legitimacy, and because its members were prejudiced in their assessment of the situation in Rakhine state by labeling it genocide or ethnic cleansing. We dont accept it because making prejudgments is unethical, he said. Zaw Htay also said that Lee, who was nominated as special envoy on human rights by the Myanmar government and whose nomination was supported by other countries with the expectation of her demonstrating impartial cooperation, has made biased, one-sided, and unfair accusations against Myanmar. Neither the fact-finding mission nor Yanghee Lee are impartial, he said. We are not denying rights violations but we are asking for strong, fact-based, and trustworthy evidence for the allegations they are making, Zaw Htay said. If [they provide it], we will investigate the charges and take action against people who have committed any crimes, but we dont want stories by refugees who were interviewed at camps. Zaw Htay did not explain why refugee accounts were being dismissed out of hand by his government or why the repeated release of satellite data presented by human rights organizations has also been rejected by Myanmar. Independent journalists have been barred from visiting the area, aside from rare government-escorted tours, and Myanmar has arrested two Reuters reporters for their detailed coverage documenting the killings. The Myanmar government has temporarily barred Lee from visiting the country on her periodic missions to evaluate rights developments, particularly in violence-ridden Rakhine state. Zaw Htay went on to say that the genocide and ethnic cleansing accusations that Lee and the fact-finding commission have raised could serve as fodder for ARSA members based just over the border in Bangladesh to incite further terrorist attacks. We have been talking about these possibilities repeatedly, and we have cooperated with Bangladesh because of them, he said. Though Myanmar still refuses to allow in the U.N.s team of investigators, Zaw Htay said Myanmar wants to have good relationship with the international body and to be an active member. We will cooperate with all western and eastern countries on human rights and development issues, he said. We have been working with the U.N. and other countries and welcome them to to work with us on Myanmars national reconciliation, peace, and democracy transition based on the on-the-ground situation. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay in an undated photo. Credit: RFA Created by terrorists When asked about the possibility that the government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi would accept the fact-finding mission in the future, Zaw Htay said all parties should understand that the problems in Rakhine state were not created by the Myanmar government, security forces, and the predominantly Buddhist ethnic Rakhine people in the region. They were created by terrorists and their incitements of terrorism, he said. Everybody should be clear about it. There are accusations from the international community and we will have more of them but we wont deny them; we will prove [them wrong] with our practical work, he said. However, few people outside Myanmar accept the governments account of the Rohingya mass exodus, and the issue has tarnished the reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for her decades of opposition to brutal rule by the same military now accused of committing atrocities in Rakhine. Earlier this month United States Holocaust Memorial Museum rescinded its human-rights award to Aung San Suu Kyi for her failure to stop or acknowledge the persecution of the Rohingya. Myanmar has said that it is prepared to take back Rohingya refugees who want to voluntarily return to northern Rakhine state, if they can prove that they lived in the region prior to Oct. 9, 2016, when soldiers launched a smaller-scale crackdown in response to deadly ARSA raids on border guard stations. Though refugee processing centers have been built in Rakhine, the repatriation program has yet to begin, with the Myanmar and Bangladeshi sides blaming each other for delays. We have been working on accepting back refugees who actually lived in Rakhine state, Zaw Htay said. Another thing were giving priority to is not falling into a trap set by ARSA, which is trying to gain a political advantage from this issue, he said. Reported by Khin Khin Ei for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Authorities in western Chinas Sichuan province have freed a Tibetan monk jailed for 10 years for protesting Chinese rule in Tibetan areas, meanwhile taking into custody two others from the same monastery on unknown charges, Tibetan sources say. Lodroe, a monk from Dza Wonpo monastery in Sershul (in Chinese, Shiqu) county in the Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was released on March 12 after serving his full term in prison, a Tibetan source living in exile told RFAs Tibetan Service, citing local sources. He had taken part in the March 2008 uprising in [Tibets capital] Lhasa, and was carrying the Tibetan national flag and calling out for freedom for Tibet when he was arrested, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Because of the current clampdown on internet and other communications channels in Sershul, no word has been received on the present state of his health, or identifying the prison in which he had been held, the source said. Lodroe was one of 15 monks from the Jadrel house of Lhasas Sera monastery who were taken into custody at the time of the March 2008 uprising, with eight coming from Wonpo monastery, one from Mangge monastery, one from Kashi monastery, and five from Lungkar monastery, the source said. Two of the Wonpo monks, Sonam Drakpa and Dashar, were also given 10-year terms, but have not yet been released. Two others detained Meanwhile, Chinese police have detained two other Wonpo monks, taking one into custody last week and another at the end of December 2017, RFAs source said. Lobsang Lhundrub from the Lower Dza Wonpo monastery was arrested on March 9, but the details are still unknown, the source said, adding that another monk, named Choechok, was taken into custody two days after the Dec. 23 self-immolation of a Tibetan protester named Konpe. The reasons for his arrest and other details remain unknown, the source said. Already tightly restricted following widespread protests in Tibetan regions in 2008, Wonpo drew increased police scrutiny in 2012 when monks refused to hoist Chinese national flags at the monastery, the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) said in an earlier report. The ensuing crackdown led to scores of arbitrary detentions, arrests, and unlawful searches of Tibetan homes by Chinese security personnel, TCHRD said. Reported by Sangay Dorjee for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney. Relatives of Vietnamese soldiers and veterans of a fatal naval clash between Vietnam and China marked its 30th anniversary Tuesday by visiting the site of the incident near a disputed island chain in the South China Sea and holding a prayer ceremony to honor the dead. On March 14, 1988, Vietnam sent two armed transport ships and a landing craft carrying around 100 Peoples Army of Vietnam soldiers to Johnson South Reef, Collin Reef, and Lansdowne Reef in the contested Spratly Island chain with construction materials in a bid to secure its territorial claims. Chinese frigates deployed members of the Peoples Liberation Army to confront Vietnamese soldiers on Johnson South Reef in a bid to remove a Vietnamese flag planted there, sparking a skirmish between the forces on the ground. The ships then exchanged fire and the heavily outgunned Vietnamese vessels were sunk, leaving 64 Vietnamese soldiers dead and 11 wounded. The Chinese forces, which suffered only one wounded casualty, arrested nine Vietnamese troops who were later freed. Early on Tuesday, two high-speed ships carrying nearly 20 passengers departed Da Nang city, on Vietnams central coast, for waters near the disputed Paracel Islands to commemorate the Vietnamese soldiers killed in the 1988 confrontationfew of whose remains have been recovered. China seized the Paracel Islands, which it still holds, in a skirmish with Vietnamese forces in 1974 that left 75 Vietnamese soldiers dead. Relatives of the fallen soldiers and veterans of the clash also gathered at the Sailors Training Center on the Gulf of Da Nang to hold a prayer ceremony and lay wreaths of flowers in the water, including Nguyen Van Thongone of the nine Vietnamese arrested by the Chinese Navy on the day of the incident. Another event to commemorate the clash will be held by the Da Nang Committee of Spratlys Veterans on Wednesday. Since the incident occurred, China has aggressively asserted its claims to the Spratlys and the rest of the South China Seawhich Vietnam refers to as the East Seabased on its so-called nine-dash demarcation line that encompasses some 90 percent of the waters, including territory contested by Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore. Beijing has been fortifying the islands it claims in the vital waterway with weaponry, runways and deep water berths. China has also created artificial islands in the South China Sea by dredging massive amounts of sand and Chinese officials have promoted tourism to the islands. Countries, including Vietnam, claim that illegal fishing by Chinese vessels in their territorial waters is on the rise, prompting anti-China protests. Tuong Lai, a prominent intellectual in Vietnam, recently told RFAs Vietnamese Service that during a Feb. 27 media briefing, officials in Hanoi issued a directive that the commemoration of the Johnson South Reef clash will be used to propagate the theme of heroism in fighting [against foreign invasion] of the countrys territorial claims. We are waiting to see how [the authorities] proceed on March 14, he added, suggesting the anniversary of the incident could be used by Vietnams government to drum up nationalist sentiment against China. In 2016, an international arbitration court in the Hague, the Netherlands, ruled that China has no right to resources within its so-called nine-dash demarcation line, and that it is not entitled to an exclusive economic zone surrounding reefs and atolls in the Spratly Islands because these features did not qualify as islands generating such zones. Vietnam continues to assert its sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, although China has dismissed the ruling and continues its military buildup in the South China Sea. Vietnamese police routinely break up anti-China protests marking the anniversaries of the takeovers of the Spratly and Paracel islands and detain demonstrators. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. A senior U.S. official has warned of what he called Moscows "increasingly destructive role" in the Balkans, saying that Russia is undermining democracy in the region. Wess Mitchell, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, made the comments in Pristina on March 12, following talks with Kosovar President Hashim Thaci. "We do see Russia playing an increasingly destructive role in much of the Balkans in spreading disinformation, undermining democratic institutions," Mitchell said. "We have been clear in our conversations with the Russians that that is neither in their interest nor in the interest of the people of this region," he added. Mitchell also called on Kosovo to push forward the process of normalizing relations with Serbia and to resolve the issue of border demarcation with Montenegro as soon as possible. Mitchell was in Pristina on the first leg of a regional tour that includes stops in EU-candidate countries Macedonia and Serbia on March 13-14. Last week, the top U.S. military commander in Europe warned that the region was facing increased covert and overt pressure from Russia, and that Washington and NATO need to do more to keep the region from destabilizing. "The area I am concerned about today is the Balkans actually," Army General Curtis Scaparrotti told a Senate committee on March 8. "Russia is at work in the Balkans and we have kind of taken our eye off the area." "That is an area we could have problems with in the future," he added. Russia continues to have strong military and cultural ties to Serbia, and vocally opposed Montenegro's admission into NATO last year. Montenegrin officials have claimed that an alleged coup attempt in 2016 in which two Russians and several Serbians are suspected was a plot orchestrated by Russian intelligence to destabilize the country ahead of its NATO accession. Russia denies it. In February, the European Union unveiled its new strategy to integrate the six Balkan countries that remain outside the European Union -- Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The commission considers Serbia and Montenegro as current front-runners toward accession and the new strategy says they could be allowed in by 2025 if they meet all the conditions. Moscow does not officially oppose Balkan countries' bidding to join the EU, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last month accused the West and the EU in particular of attempting to draw them away from Russia. With reporting by AFP A lawyer says a Russian businessman who associated with a prominent critic of the Kremlin has died in London. Andrei Borovkov told Russian media outlets on March 13 that his client, Nikolai Glushkov, has died, but said he was unaware of the time and circumstances. Reports in British and Russian media say Glushkov, who was 68, was found dead at his home in southwest London. London's Metropolitan Police force said in a statement on March 13 that officers were investigating the "unexplained" death of a man found at a house in the New Malden area late March 12. It did not identify him by name. Glushkov was friends with Boris Berezovsky, a Russian oligarch who died at his home in Berkshire, England, in 2013. An inquest failed to establish if he had committed suicide or died from foul play. In an interview with RFE/RL's Russian Service in 2013, he said he did not believe that Berezovsky had committed suicide. London police said its Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation "as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had." There is no evidence to suggest a link to the March 4 poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, the statement said. Glushkov worked in the 1990s for the state airline Aeroflot and Berezovskys LogoVAZ car company, according to media reports. In 1999, Glushkov was charged with money laundering and fraud after Berezovsky fell out with Russian President Vladimir Putin and fled to Britain. He spent five years in jail and was freed in 2004. Glushkov had lived in London in recent years, after being granted political asylum in Britain. In 2011, he gave evidence at the court case brought by Berezovsky against Kremlin-friendly oligarch Roman Abramovich. Besides Berezovsky and Glushkov, two other prominent Russian exiles -- Aleksandr Litvinenko and Aleksandr Perepilichny -- died in Britain in recent years. A British inquiry concluded that the Russian government was behind the death of Litvinenko -- a former Russian security agent -- in London in 2006. Russia has denied involvement. Perepilichny, a Russian oligarch and Kremlin critic who sought refuge in Britain in 2009, had been helping a Swiss investigation into a Russian money-laundering scheme. He also provided evidence against Russian officials linked to the 2009 death of anticorruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison. Perepilichny collapsed and died in November 2012 at the age of 44 while jogging outside his home in Surrey. British police initially ruled that his death was not suspicious. But last year, British authorities reopened an investigation into his death after new tests discovered traces in his stomach of a highly toxic plant. With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service, AP, AFP, Reuters, theguardian.com, and telegraph.co.uk A former member of the Moldovan parliament has been sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges of high treason and espionage for Russia. Moldova's Prosecutor-General's Office announced on March 13 that the former parliament member was also barred from serving in public office for four years after his release from prison. The statement does not mention the ex-lawmaker's name, but media reports identify him as Iurie Bolboceanu. Bolboceanu was arrested on March 17, 2017, and charged with espionage and high treason. Moldovas Intelligence and Security Service said then that Bolboceanu had been caught while meeting with a Russian spy. Bolboceanus name circulated in the 2016 trial of a former policeman and a model who were sentenced for attempts to bribe several lawmakers from pro-European political parties in exchange of convincing them to turn pro-Russian. With reporting by ProTV and Realitatea.md Unchained. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump is no longer afraid of being president. After 14 months on the job, he believes hes finally got a handle on this leader of the free world thing. And so hes ready to start running the White House like its the Trump Organization and to cease allowing the adults in the West Wing to overrule his instincts. Reporting from administration insiders like Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen predicted this turn months ago. And now, its finally coming to fruition: Over the past two weeks, Trump has unilaterally announced steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the United States; agreed to an unprecedented face-to-face meeting with the leader of North Korea; and fired his secretary of State over Twitter. In all of these cases, the president either acted over the objections of senior advisers, or without bothering to consult them at all. Im really at a point where were getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want, Trump told reporters Tuesday. And hell get even closer in the coming weeks, when he plans to hit China with the most aggressive trade action of his presidency one that wont just offend the sensibilities of the administrations globalists, but also (almost certainly) violate Americas commitments to the World Trade Organization. As Politico reports: Trump told Cabinet secretaries and top advisers during a meeting at the White House last week that he wanted to soon hit China with steep tariffs and investment restrictions in response to allegations of intellectual property theft, according to three people familiar with the internal discussions. During the meeting, which hasnt been previously been reported, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer presented Trump with a package of tariffs that would target the equivalent of $30 billion a year in Chinese imports. In response, Trump urged Lighthizer to aim for an even bigger number and he instructed administration officials to be ready for a formal announcement in the coming weeks, according to two people involved in the administrations trade deliberations. That sent senior officials at the White House, Treasury Department, State Department, Justice Department, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and other key agencies scrambling this week to finalize the proposal. While the details were still in flux, aides said the administration is considering tariffs on more than 100 Chinese products ranging from electronics and telecommunications equipment to furniture and toys. Cracking down on Chinese IP theft is likely to attract more congressional sympathy than Trumps decision to slap steep tariffs on our European allies. But the former is also likely to have much more far-reaching economic consequences. Beyond the first-order effect of a potential increase in the price of China-made products, the move would likely lead Beijing to retaliate against U.S. exporters. American farmers many of whom have built whole business models around supplying soybeans, pork, and other staples to the Chinese market will be especially vulnerable to retaliatory tariffs. Trumps case for these tariffs, under U.S. law, is stronger than the one he made for his steel and aluminum ones. In the latter case, the president argued (implausibly) that imposing duties on foreign steel was an urgent necessity for national security. With the former, hes invoking his authority under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to protect the intellectual property rights of U.S. firms. And there is significant evidence that the Chinese government has infringed upon such rights. As Politico notes: A U.S. International Trade Commission investigation from 2011 found that IP theft cost U.S. producers nearly $26 billion in losses in 2009 on copyrighted material alone. Another study from the U.S. software industry in 2011 put software theft losses as high as $60 billion. But if Trumps position is justified under American law, it would likely contravene international trade law. This has frustrated the administrations efforts to get core allies on board with a sudden, coordinated attack on Beijing. As Nikkei Asian Review reports: The USTR is also urging allied countries to take similar measures against China. The office has asked nations such as Japan, which has long opposed Chinas intellectual property practices, to synchronize their policies. But Tokyo rejected the proposal, saying hard-line policies will be difficult to adopt since Japan has no law resembling Section 301, according to a U.S. trade official. Japan instead proposed filing a joint suit against China within the World Trade Organization framework The U.S. used the threat of Section 301, adopted in 1974, during a trade dispute with Japan in the 1980s to extract concessions. But Washington has refrained from using this law since the WTO was established in 1995, since it conflicts with international rules prohibiting unilateral action on trade restrictions. None of this has given the administration pause according to one official who spoke with Politico, the White House seems seems hell-bent on going it alone. In 2016, Trump promised America that he, alone, could fix it. If the past two weeks are any guide, the president is just now starting to believe that. Four rights groups have called on Iran to end its cruel campaign of harassment and intimidation against the families of detainees who have died under suspicious circumstances. In a joint statement on March 13, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Center for Human Rights In Iran, and Justice For Iran said the bereaved families are facing reprisals for seeking truth and justice regarding the deaths of their loved ones. There have been at least five deaths in custody in Iran in past weeks, the rights groups said, adding that in all those cases, Iranian judicial and security authorities have pressured the families to silence them. Family members have been subjected to various forms of harassment and intimidation, including before being informed of the death of their loved ones, the statement said. Their lawyers have also received threats for pursuing legal action, faced pressure to withdraw their representation, and, in at least one case, a lawyer has been detained for speaking to the media, it added. The authorities should ensure that if there is sufficient evidence of unlawful deaths in detention, the perpetrators responsible will be prosecuted and punished, the rights groups said. They called on Iran to immediately lift the travel ban against Maryam Mombeini, the wife of an Iranian-Canadian environmentalist who died in custody two weeks after being arrested on espionage charges. Authorities say that Kavous Seyed-Emami, a professor of sociology and the managing director of the Persian Heritage Wildlife Foundation, committed suicide in prison. The family and activists have denied the charges against Emami and questioned the suicide claim, calling for an independent investigation. Emamis two sons were allowed to fly to Canada on March 7. But they said that authorities confiscated their mother's passport. ASTANA -- A court in Kazakhstan has branded an opposition political movement established by Mukhtar Ablyazov, a fugitive critic of President Nursultan Nazarbaev, as an extremist organization. Astana's Esil District Court ruled on March 13 that Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) "propagates the forcible change of Kazakhstans constitutional order" and thus qualifies as extremist, Prosecutor-General's Office spokeswoman Olga Loskutova said. A senior prosecutor, Erlan Abaev, told journalists that criminal cases had been launched against several DVK members across Kazakhstan on charges of inciting social discord and making public calls for the seizure of power. Ablyazov, a vocal foe of Nazarbaev, and several other Kazakh opposition figures living abroad announced the creation of the DVK movement in April 2017, saying its goal would be "democratic reforms in Kazakhstan." Wanted by Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine on suspicion of embezzling some $5 billion, Ablyazov has been living abroad since 2009. He denies any wrongdoing and contends that the case against him is politically motivated. In June, a court in Kazakhstan sentenced Ablyazov to 20 years in prison in absentia after convicting him of organizing and leading a criminal group, abuse of office, embezzlement, and financial mismanagement. Opponents and rights groups say that Nazarbaev, who has held power in the Central Asian nation since before the 1991 Soviet breakup, has taken systematic steps to suppress dissent and sideline potential opponents. KAZAN, Russia -- The director of a private school in Russia's Tatarstan region has been fined for refusing to drop mandatory Tatar-language classes. Pavel Shmakov wrote on Facebook on March 13 that a court in Kazan fined him 25,000 rubles ($440) the previous day. According to Shmakov, he was fined 10,000 rubles ($176) for "teaching Tatar on the same level as Russian" and 15,000 rubles ($264) for the "temporary absence of a cafeteria and a gym" at the school. Shmakov vowed to appeal and wrote that he expects more problems over his refusal to drop mandatory Tatar classes. Shmakov has been fighting for months against efforts by the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office to check whether children across Tatarstan are being forced to learn the Tatar language. The court cases come amid tension over language classes in Russia's so-called "ethnic" regions, where indigenous, non-Russian ethnic groups are well represented. President Vladimir Putin said in July that children in these regions must not be forced to learn languages that are not their mother tongues, and ordered prosecutors to determine whether that was taking place. The move caused an outcry in Tatarstan and other regions where local languages have official status alongside Russian. Shmakov has vowed not to drop mandatory Tatar classes in his school. Shmakov's Facebook message came on the day of the 80th anniversary of the Stalin-era decree on introduction of mandatory study of Russian in the all ethnic republics and regions of the Soviet Union. An outspoken pro-reformist Iranian political analyst says he has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after being convicted of spreading propaganda against the Iranian establishment. In a short video posted online, Sadegh Zibakalam, a professor of political science at the University of Tehran, said he planned to appeal the sentence. Zibakalam said that, in addition to the jail term, he was given a two-year ban from all political and social-media activity as well as publishing in print media. Zibakalam is known for his criticism of Iran's state policies and sensitive issues, such as Tehrans hostility toward Israel and the nuclear program. The judiciary-affiliated Mizan Online news agency reported on March 12 that Zibakalam was accused of giving interviews to foreign media deemed hostile by the authorities and "attempting to call into question the Islamic republic. Zibakalam told the news site Jamaran.ir on March 13 that he had been convicted after giving an interview to Germanys international broadcaster Deutsche Welle about the recent antiestablishment street protests that rocked Iran. Based on reporting by AFP and Jamaran.ir Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that Syrian rebels under siege in the enclave of eastern Ghouta will be given no relief, saying a 30-day cease-fire approved by the United Nations does not include terrorists. Lavrov made the comments on March 13, after the United States said it was ready to act in Syria to end chemical attacks and "inhuman suffering" if Russia, Iran, and Syria continue to allegedly ignore the truce approved two weeks ago. "The UN Security Council did not promise the terrorists a break; what is more, it told them there would be no break," Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow. "Those operating on the ground in eastern Ghouta and led by the Al-Nusra Front do not want to meet their obligations," he added. "All they want is for the [Syrian] government to cease fire and give them a break." Late on March 12, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told the Security Council that the cease-fire had "failed" and the United States was offering a new 30-day truce, which she said has "no counterterrorism loopholes" and will be harder for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and others to ignore. Haley accused Syria and its allies Russia and Iran of exploiting such "loopholes" to "continue starving and pummeling hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrian civilians" in Ghouta, the last opposition-controlled pocket near Damascus. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council that air strikes, shelling, and ground offensives had only intensified in eastern Ghouta since the UN declared a 30-day cease-fire on February 24. If the warring parties continue to ignore the truce, Haley said, the United States is prepared to take action on its own. She pointed to President Donald Trump's decision last April to order U.S. missile strikes on a Syrian air base that he said was used to launch a sarin gas attack that killed nearly 100 Syrian civilians. 'Retaliatory Measures' Speaking in Moscow on March 13, the chief of the Russian armed forces general staff said that the Russian military would take "retaliatory measures" targeting missiles and their delivery vehicles "if a threat to the lives of our servicemen emerges." Without offering concrete evidence, General Valery Gerasimov also claimed that Syrian militants are planning to stage a "provocation" involving the use of chemical weapons in order to justify what he said would be a subsequent U.S. strike on government-held neighborhoods in Damascus. Rather than impose a full cessation of hostilities as called for by the UN, Russian officials say they have enforced five-hour daily breaks in the fighting that they say have allowed the evacuation of civilians and the injured from battle areas while allowing the delivery of some humanitarian aid. On March 13, Syrian state television showed a group of sick and injured civilians leaving eastern Ghouta for government territory. Meanwhile, the Russian military said that around 100 people had left the town of Duma in the Ghouta area. Yasser Delwan, a member of the largest rebel group in the besieged region, confirmed that a group of patients had left under a deal for a medical evacuation with the Syrian government's key ally Russia. However, the group Jaysh al-Islam vowed not to leave the area and to continue fighting advancing Syrian government forces. At least 1,162 civilians have been killed, including 241 children, in the nearly month-long Syrian offensive to retake eastern Ghouta from armed rebels, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Russia, along with Iran, has given Assad's government crucial support throughout the seven-year war in Syria, which began in 2011 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. With reporting by AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP, TASS, and Interfax Novichok, the toxic nerve agent that British authorities believe was used in the near-fatal poisoning of former spy and retired Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, is a powerful substance that is exceedingly difficult to manufacture. Thats why a growing number of chemical weapons experts say it is highly likely that only a government could have the technology and infrastructure to make it. And given that the Soviet Union, in the 1980s, was the only state known to have produced it, that has led many experts to conclude that Russian intelligence was behind Skripals poisoning. In an interview on March 13 with Current Time TV correspondent Yekaterina Buchneva, Olivier Lepick, a chemical-weapons researcher at the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research, argues that there is a direct link to Russia in the Skripal attack. Current Time TV is the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America. Current Time TV: Who made Novichok and how? Olivier Lepick: There is a kind of mystery around these molecules because the Soviet Union never really recognized that this agent existed, but the international community and the fact that some Russian scientists wrote some documents about this is making it clear that the agent was synthesized by the Russian military complex. This is probably one of the most toxic -- neurotoxic -- agents that was ever produced for military use. But its the first time its been really used, either on the battlefield or like in this case -- for a murder attempt. So its really a big, big shock for all the experts in chemical weapons. If this is really Novichok, its really big news and a huge shock for the community of experts because its clearly a direct link to Russia because, I mean, no nonstate entities could synthesize such a toxic product. We have to be very prudent before accusing Vladimir Putin and Russia.... We have to check the facts. But again, the only explanation I have, in this context, is that Russia is sending the same message that it has been sending in the past toward those who Russia considers to be traitors. And the message is clear: If you betray Mother Russia, then we will search for you and kill you are wherever you are, whoever is protecting you, and with the most cruel and horrible products that we can find. Thats the only explanation I can find in this case. Current Time TV: What does this mean for the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Russia is a signatory to? Lepick: There is the possibility that Russia is hiding some sort of stuff, even though Russia has signed the treaty banning chemical weapons. But I think it would be something very difficult to hide. The fact that Russia still has the capacity to synthesize or produce chemical weapons may be something we should consider or believe. I would be very surprised. At the moment, no signs or clues showing that Russia was not respecting the treaty have come to the attention of the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons). Russia did destroy quite a large amount of chemical-weapons stock -- more than 400,000 tons. So its now destroyed. So, if we could trace back the use of Novichok by Russia in the U.K., then, of course, it would probably raise lots of questions, diplomatic questions, and it could affect relations between the U.K. and Russia, and, of course, with the United States. And also within the OPCW. Some people say that this agent was developed on purpose to get away from the convention, to use products that are not mentioned in the list of chemical agents. So, in a way, this product could be considered not part of the convention. But the use of any toxic military agent is prohibited by the convention. And whatever the nature of the product, using any chemical agent like that which was used some days ago [in Salisbury] would be a clear and evident violation of the treaty. So whatever the components of Novichok, its use, its intention is clearly a breach and a violation of the treaty. Current Time TV: Is there any antidote for it? Lepick: The cure for Novichok seems to be the same for other neurotoxic agents: atropine, I think it is. This neurotoxin is very powerful and if someone is exposed to a large amount or [even] a small quantity, they will probably suffer permanent damage and their lives will be very difficult and there will be very serious consequences on the nervous system. Note: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Several sick and injured civilians were shown on Syrian state television leaving the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta for government territory. State television on March 13 showed a group of people arriving at the Wafideen crossing after they left the area with a woman saying that she had been waiting for more than a year to evacuate her sick child. It also showed an older man being carried on a wheelchair before boarding an ambulance. Meanwhile, the Russian military said that around 100 people had left the town of Duma in the Ghouta area, the last opposition-controlled pocket near Damascus. Yasser Delwan, a member of the largest rebel group in the besieged region, confirmed that a group of patients had left under a deal for a medical evacuation with the Syrian government's key ally Russia. However, the group Jaysh al-Islam vowed not to leave the area and to continue fighting advancing Syrian government forces. Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, TASS, and Interfax WASHINGTON -- With the announcement of President Donald Trump's firing of the United States' top diplomat, Rex Tillerson's tenure as secretary of state now enters the history books as one of the shortest ever for a new administration. Major diplomatic overtures are under way over nuclear-armed North Korea. Russia is thumping its chest in Europe, the former Soviet space, and the Mideast even as Britain suspects Moscow of a brazen assassination. A landmark nuclear deal with Iran is still in place despite Trump's vows to renegotiate it and further squeeze Tehran. With all this, it is unclear how history will ultimately look back on Tillerson's tenure. Like Trump, Tillerson had neither government nor public-sector experience when he entered public office; an engineer by education, his professional career was ultimately forged as the head of the world's largest oil company, ExxonMobil. The native Texan's outsider status in Washington was embraced by surprise 2016 presidential victor Trump but also by others who expected Tillerson to shake up the State Department's vast bureaucracy and U.S. foreign policy. In impromptu remarks to journalists on the White House lawn soon after the announcement on March 13, Trump praised Tillerson but cited a "different mind-set." The two appeared not to see eye to eye on many issues, foreign and domestic. Tillerson's purported exasperation with the White House spilled into the open in October when news reports said that he'd called Trump a "moron" in private conversation months earlier. Tillerson never fully denied the reports; the mutual mistrust never appeared to recede. Despite a term that at 13 months was among the briefest in history for an incoming administration's top official at the State Department -- and an unceremonious sacking seemingly delivered via Trump's famously blunt Twitter account -- Tillerson did manage to make his mark as the chief U.S. diplomat. Here are a few of the highlights, and lowlights, of his 405 days at Foggy Bottom. Overhauling State One of Tillerson's main stated objectives when he joined the administration was to reform the State Department's operations. With nearly 75,000 employees, including 14,000 Foreign Service officers, and a combined budget of $50.3 billion in the year prior, the State Department was targeted from the outset for major cuts. Tillerson's private-sector experience, overseeing ExxonMobil's more than 71,000 employees, was seen as essential to pushing through reforms that included budget cuts that initially totaled 30 percent. (Leading senators killed the idea of such a drastic cut.) He brought in outside consultants to find ways to streamline operations. Tillerson succeeded in shrinking the agency. Early retirement, buyouts, or other attrition trimmed staff by 2,000 people, or around 8 percent. But former and retiring diplomats openly complained about a perceived loss of experience and institutional knowledge, saying U.S. diplomacy was being severely harmed. Many of the department's most senior positions have gone unfilled, as have ambassadorial appointments to critical hot spots including South Korea or Afghanistan. Richard Haass, former top adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell and current president of the Council of Foreign Relations, in October called on Tillerson to resign. Elliot Cohen, a top adviser to former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton, called Tillerson "a disaster." Tony Blinken, who recently stepped down as former deputy secretary of state, accused Tillerson of presiding "over the hollowing-out of the State Department." Last year, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called the number of vacancies at the State Department "a national security emergency." With the public chatter over his fate mounting in November, Tillerson pushed back against such criticism in a speech at Washington's Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. "There is no hollowing out," he said. Russian Reset For some, ExxonMobil's Russian investments suggested Tillerson had a wealth of experience to draw on in dealing with one of Washington's thorniest foreign relationships. The former oil man had received a medal of appreciation from President Vladimir Putin, and the public warmth with which some Russian officials greeted Trump's election and Tillerson's selection as secretary of state gave some observers hope that the nosedive in relations between Washington and Moscow could be reversed. But U.S. intelligence assessments accusing Moscow or its surrogates of a concerted campaign to influence the 2016 election in favor of Trump have dogged relations. Optimism was further eclipsed by investigations by Congress and a special counsel, Richard Mueller, into Trump or his campaign associates' contacts with Russian officials in the context of the election. Faced with those and other factors, Tillerson did not arrest the slide in relations between Moscow and Washington, according to James Goldgeier, the former dean of American University's School of International Service. Near the top of the list of problems plaguing the U.S.-Russian relationship has been Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its backing of armed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Tillerson last year appointed Kurt Volker as a special envoy focused on resolving the conflict in Ukraine, signaling a desire for progress on a conflict that has prompted sanctions and countersanctions, and broadly plagued relations since Russia effected the first shifting of borders by force in Europe since World War II. "I think it's important that Ambassador Volker is engaging in that conversation" with the Russians, Goldgeier told RFE/RL. "If we're going to create a list of net pluses, I would say here's one: that Tillerson appointed Kurt Volker." But the fighting also continues in Ukraine. And in a defiant speech to lawmakers and other Russian VIPs on March 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin spent nearly one-third of his time presenting a bristling arsenal of new, mostly nuclear-capable, weapons that he suggested were a response to U.S. policies since the fall of the Soviet Union. 'Rocket Man' Diplomacy Efforts to counter North Korea's defiant pursuit of nuclear weapons and its increasingly bellicose rhetoric were a public source of friction between Tillerson and the White House. The secretary of state appeared to have been sidelined, or at times even undermined, by tweets and other statements emerging from the commander in chief or other sources within the White House. Like Trump's last three predecessors, the current U.S. president has been bedeviled by North Korea's push for a nuclear arsenal and an advanced missile program. During the election campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to tackle the most important issues with Pyongyang, which has contributed to insecurity that has kept thousands of U.S. soldiers on alert on the Korean Peninsula for decades. During a late September trip to China -- North Korea's most important sponsor -- Tillerson revealed that U.S. officials had engaged in quiet "back-channel diplomacy" with North Korea. Trump subsequently needled North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as "Little Rocket Man" and suggested that Tillerson was wasting his time. It was an almost-unheard-of course for a U.S. president to issue such contradictory statements while his chief diplomat was out of the country, engaged in difficult overseas negotiations. "Tillerson was ineffective in reining in North Korea. But it wasn't so much a problem with his policy as with the mixed messages coming from the White House," Jean Lee, a longtime Koreas expert now with the Wilson Center, told RFE/RL by e-mail, adding, "Tillerson's policy of exerting 'maximum pressure' while keeping the door open for dialogue is a sound one on North Korea, and clearly benefited from the guidance of" experts at the State Department and the National Security Council. John Hannah, a national security adviser for former Vice President Dick Cheney, said Tillerson deserved credit for helping push two UN Security Council resolutions, passed unanimously, that ramped up sanctions against North Korea. On November 29, North Korea fired a missile that appeared to put the continental United States within range. In early March, Trump gave a jolt to ongoing U.S. efforts with respect to Pyongyang by announcing he had accepted an invitation from Kim Jong Un to meet for talks. No date or format for the talks has been announced. But if they go forward, they would mark the highest-levels talks between the two countries since a North Korean visit by then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000. In the announcement of Tillerson's firing, the White House specified that Trump "wanted to make sure to have his new team in place in advance of the upcoming talks with North Korea and various ongoing trade negotiations." Ceding Syria? Of the Arab Spring uprisings that erupted during President Barack Obama's first term, the fallout in Syria has been the most brutal and arguably the most consequential. The devastating civil war there has led some critics to call it Obama's most haunting foreign policy failure. Trump vowed to change the calculus there. But aside from a missile strike in April that targeted a Syrian air base in response to a chemical attack and the decision to arm Kurdish militias over Turkey's objections, many analysts suggest Trump's policy in Syria has largely been a continuation of his predecessor's approach. Mona Yacoubian, a former U.S. Agency for International Development official now with the U.S. Institute for Peace, suggested at one point that Tillerson's involvement in negotiations to bring about a political settlement in Syria appeared secondary to special envoy Brett McGurk, who was originally appointed by Obama. "So I'm not sure how much credit goes to Tillerson's leadership on [Syria]," she told RFE/RL in late 2017. "The administration has clearly stepped back from the diplomatic track, ceding the ground to Russia." "Bottom line: mixed record -- measurable success on countering ISIS" -- the militant group Islamic State, whose so-called caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria has been virtually wiped out -- "but a real decline in U.S. leadership on Syrian peace process and diplomacy efforts," Yacoubian said. The challenges appear to have intensified more recently, with President Bashar al-Assad and ally Russia proclaiming victories over extremist and rebel forces in one area after another of Syria. In February, U.S. coalition forces bombed a group that included Russian mercenaries after an attack on allied Kurdish forces in eastern Syria, one of the deadliest confrontations between U.S. forces and Russians since the Cold War. Then General Valery Gerasimov, head of the Russian General Staff, warned on March 13 that Russian forces would respond if the United States conducted any missile strike on the Syrian capital, Damascus. Meanwhile, NATO ally Turkey is waging war on Kurdish forces in Syria, putting it at direct odds with Washington, which has long supported Kurdish forces. Nuclear Iran Like Trump, Tillerson has been unsparingly blunt in his language about Iran, whose leadership has long drawn U.S. ire for its alleged sponsorship of terrorism and intervention in the region, rights abuses, ill-treatment of women and minorities, and a highly contentious nuclear program. "The regime in Iran continues activities and interventions that destabilize the Middle East," Tillerson warned in comments to a Senate committee in June. "We and our allies must counter Iran's aspirations of hegemony in the region." Those remarks reflected Trump's public statements and the reported consensus among his foreign policy advisers. Such distrust was cited as a source of opposition to the landmark nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration in 2015 and signed by other world powers and Tehran, curtailing Iran's nuclear programs in exchange for lifting many economic sanctions. Trump has called it the worst deal in U.S. history and insisted it should be scrapped. Although he has "decertified" it, he has stopped short of quitting it outright. But Tillerson has also appeared to stray from the Trump page on Iran policy. In October, ahead of a deadline on an element related to the nuclear deal, Tillerson said he had "differences" with Trump but added that he agreed with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that the United States should not pull out of it. Trump's decision to not abandon the deal and instead kick the question to Congress was regarded by some as a Tillerson success. The secretary of state had predicted that U.S. allies in Europe would be "very supportive" of such a Trump strategy. Colin Kahl, a top adviser to former Vice President Joe Biden, has suggested that Tillerson, and the Trump administration as a whole, has made it harder to build allied support for targeting Iran's other policies. "And it probably threatens the very consensus that the administration wants to create around Iran's destabilizing activities in the region," Kahl said in a speech at the Wilson Center in October. "By creating the perception that we're implementing the deal in bad faith, it's hard to see how we are going to be taken sufficiently seriously to try to patch up or expand the deal." Hannah, Cheney's national security adviser, said Tillerson deserves credit for an Iran-related strategy: helping draw Saudi Arabia -- a bitter enemy of Iran -- closer to Baghdad, whose Shi'ite-led government often leans toward Iran. In December and January, street demonstrations erupted all over Iran to express anger at the Iranian government's social and economic policies and, more broadly, the country's clerical leadership. Tillerson and Trump struck similar notes in response to the Iranian public's displays of frustration, although the secretary of state's statements were seen as slightly more cautious than Trump's Twitter suggestion that it was "time for change" in Iran. Palestinians And Israel John Kerry, Tillerson's immediate predecessor, had made resolution of the decades-old impasse between Israel and the Palestinians a goal for his time as secretary of state. Trump had trumpeted his negotiating abilities as evidence for why his administration would succeed where Kerry and others had failed. But Tillerson was also seen to have been vying for influence with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who took on as part of his White House portfolio the issue of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian impasse. Kushner effectively was a special envoy, yet many longtime watchers doubted that Kushner, who like his father-in-law had no diplomatic or government experience, could succeed. Then the Trump administration roiled the Mideast status quo by announcing the United States would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move its embassy there. That move left people like Aaron David Miller, a former State Department adviser on Israeli-Palestinians affairs, shaking their heads and Palestinian officials publicly reluctant to try to make peace with U.S. mediation. "It's just the issues that separate the parties-- Jerusalem border security, refugees, recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jews, end of conflict in claims -- the gaps on those issues are huge," Miller said in a radio interview in December, around the time of the U.S. recognition announcement. "And why an administration, even if it had such a compelling plan, would want to inject Jerusalem into the mix right now is difficult for me to understand." Half Full Or Half Empty? Perceptions of Tillerson as a calm, deliberate Texan contrasted with Trump's publicly fiery and impulsive nature. The former was often grouped together with Mattis and Chief of Staff John Kelly, as well as national security adviser H.R. McMaster, as tempering forces within the White House. "A good and talented man thrust into difficult, perhaps impossible, circumstances," Cheney national security adviser Hannah wrote in an op-ed in Foreign Policy. "For that, and for answering his nation's call to service when he didn't have to, Tillerson deserves our thanks, not our disdain." With Tillerson gone and current CIA Director Mike Pompeo named by Trump as his choice to replace him at the State Department, it is unclear how policy might be affected. Goldgeier suggested that one of Tillerson's main accomplishments could be considered his efforts to curb the Trump administration's most impetuous inclinations with respect to foreign policy, "to the extent he's been a moderating influence at the top." U.S. President Donald Trump says he has dismissed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and is nominating Mike Pompeo, the current head of the CIA, to replace him as the top U.S. diplomat. Deputy CIA chief Gina Haspel will head the agency, becoming the first woman to do so, Trump said in a tweet on March 13. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job!" Trump said on Twitter on March 13. "Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!" Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Trump said in the tweet. Trump announced the decision after Tillerson, who became secretary of state on February 1, 2017, returned from a shortened trip to Africa. Trump told reporters outside the White House that he made the decision "by myself" and said Tillerson would be "much happier now." He said that he and Tillerson had different mindsets. Speaking several hours later, Tillerson told reporters that he is delegating his responsibilities at the end of the workday on March 13 to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. Tillerson said he will be formally stepping down from his post at the end of the month. He called for an orderly transition while encouraging State Department employees to remain focused on their jobs. A senior White House official said that Trump wanted to have his new team in place before his planned talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and ongoing trade negotiations. Tillerson did not speak to Trump before he was dismissed and "is unaware of the reason," Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein said in a statement. The top U.S. diplomat "had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues," Goldstein added. Shortly after his comments, Goldstein himself was fired by the White House. "This has been the honor of a lifetime and I am grateful to the president and the secretary for this opportunity. I look forward to getting some rest," Goldstein told the French news agency AFP. Trump, meanwhile, told reporters that "Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time" and indicated that they held conflicting views on the 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. "We got along, actually, quite well, but we disagreed on things," he said. "When you look at the Iran deal, I think it's terrible. I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently." The moves follow months of speculation that Tillerson, a former head of the oil company ExxonMobil, could be on his way out as the top U.S. diplomat The moves also come amid persistent tension with Russia over issues including its interference in Ukraine, its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and British allegations that it was "most likely" behind the poisoning of a former spy with a highly toxic nerve agent. Trump 'Loyalist' The senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Trump works well with Pompeo, a former congressman from Kansas seen as a loyalist within the administration. As CIA director, Pompeo "has earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community," Trump said in a statement distributed by the White House. Pompeo "will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he added. Pompeo said that, if confirmed as secretary of state by U.S. lawmakers, I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America's prosperity. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, has been chief of station at agency outposts abroad and has held several senior leadership positions including deputy director of the National Clandestine Service and deputy director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action. She briefly ran a secret CIA prison in Thailand where accused terrorists Abu Zubayadah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded in 2002, the Associated Press reported, citing current and former U.S. intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. With reporting by The Washington Post, AP, AFP, and Reuters The Turkish military says it has surrounded the northern Syrian city of Afrin, the focus of Ankara's cross-border operation against a Kurdish militia. Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels also captured "areas of critical importance" in the surrounding Afrin region, a statement said on March 13. There was no immediate confirmation from local Kurdish officials. But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Turkish Army and allied Syrian rebels had encircled the city of Afrin, 90 villages, and a nearby town. The British-based war monitor said thousands of civilians fled Afrin as Turkey advanced. The city is home to around 350,000 people, it said. Turkey's military launched its air-and-ground offensive on Afrin on January 20 to clear the enclave of the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara considers a terrorist group. Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images Every Trump administration personnel shake-up is a noir story of terrible, incompetent people squabbling with other terrible, incompetent people. But one thing that stands out about the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is that Tillerson explicitly identified Russia as the culprit in the murder of Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, and Donald Trump did not. Yesterday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders condemned the murder as reckless, but repeatedly declined to endorse the United Kingdoms conclusion that Russia was behind it. This exchange with reporters is quite odd: Q. Sarah, I was hoping you could comment on news out of Great Britain today. Theresa May saying that the British government believes that Russia was behind the attempted murder and poisoning of a former spy with a nerve agent that has a Russian manufacturer. Is that the assessment of the United States government, number one? Does the United States government plan on designating Russia as like it did North Korea, earlier this year, regarding the murder of Kim Jong-uns half-brother of Russia using chemical weapons? And, three, will there be any repercussions for Russia from the United States, in coordination with its British allies? MS. SANDERS: Look, weve been monitoring the incident closely, take it very seriously. The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizens on UK soil is an outrage. The attack was reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation, and we extend our sympathy to the victims and their families, and our support to the UK government. We stand by our closest ally and the special relationship that we have. Q. So youre not saying that Russia was behind this act? MS. SANDERS: Right now, we are standing with our UK ally. I think theyre still working through even some of the details of that. And were going to continue to work with the UK, and we certainly stand with them throughout this process. Q. Theresa May said it was either Russia using it themselves or that it had given its chemical weapons to a third party to murder a British citizen, the latter being highly unlikely, given the nature of this weapon. So MS. SANDERS: Like I just said, Zeke, we stand with our ally. And we certainly fully support them, and are ready if we can be of any assistance to them. Last night, Rex Tillerson told reporters the attack clearly was undertaken by Russia. Then this morning Trump fired Tillerson, without any advance notice whatsoever. After that, Trump briefly appeared on the White House lawn, and when asked about the murder, said, We will condemn Russia or whoever it may be. Whoever it might be? Round up all the 400-pound guys! The fact Tillerson was fired almost immediately after contradicting the official White House line on the murder of a Russian double agent might, or might not, be a coincidence. But what possible innocent explanation can be provided for the administrations refusal to concede Russian involvement when our closest ally, on whose territory the murder took place, is perfectly clear about who committed it? Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who opposed Moscow's seizure of Crimea and is now in prison in Russia, is "ready to ask for clemency" in order to be exchanged for Russian nationals held in Ukraine, his lawyer says. Dmitry Dinze told RFE/RL on March 12 that writing to Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask for a pardon "is the only way to make sure that he will be exchanged" for Russians or Russia-backed separatists held by Kyiv. "You either write [to Putin] and go, or remain behind bars," Dinze said, adding that it is a condition that must be met to qualify as part of an exchange of captives. Sentsov, a native of Crimea who opposed Russia's seizure and annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014, is serving a 20-year prison term after being convicted on terrorism charges that he and human rights groups contend are politically motivated. Sentsov was arrested in May 2014 on suspicion of planning fire-bombings of pro-Russian organizations in Crimea. A Russian court convicted him on multiple terrorism charges in August 2014. Sentsov has denied all charges against him, saying that a "trial by occupiers cannot be fair by definition." The prominent Russian human rights group Memorial has recognized Sentsov as a political prisoner, and international rights organizations have called for his release. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit to take stock of the war and the prospects of drawing some elements of the Taliban into peace talks with the Afghan government. The March 13 visit, which was not announced in advance due to security concerns, comes as the United States is putting new resources into the more than 16-year-old war. Before landing in the Afghan capital, Mattis told reporters that the United States was picking up signs of interest from groups of Taliban fighters in exploring the possibility of talks to end the violence, adding that the signs date back several months. "There is interest that we've picked up from the Taliban side," Mattis said. "We've had some groups of Taliban -- small groups -- who have either started to come over or expressed an interest in talking." "It may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop -- that would be a bridge too far. But there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," he told reporters aboard a military jet. As part of its new regional strategy announced in August 2017, Washington has stepped up assistance to the Afghan military in a bid to break the stalemate and force the militants to the negotiating table. During a meeting with Mattis, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the new strategy allowed Kabul to extend its peace offer to the Taliban without doing so from a position of weakness. "It has been a game changer because it has forced every actor to re-examine their assumptions," Ghani said. Ghani Offers Incentives On February 28, Ghani offered to allow the Taliban to establish itself as a political party and said he would work to remove sanctions on the militant group, among other incentives, if it joined the government in peace negotiations. In return, the militants would have to recognize the Kabul government and respect the rule of law. But the Taliban has so far ruled out direct talks with the Western-backed government, which they say is illegitimate. The group has insisted it would only negotiate with the United States, which it calls a "foreign occupying force." The Taliban also says that NATO forces must withdraw before negotiations can begin. Asked whether the United States would be willing to directly talk with the Taliban, Mattis reiterated the U.S. position that the talks should be led by Kabul. "We want the Afghans to lead and provide the substance to the reconciliation effort," he said. The Afghan government and the Taliban held peace talks in 2015, but they broke down almost immediately. 'Political Reconciliation' As part of its new strategy for Afghanistan, the United States has boosted the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by at least 3,500, to a total of more than 14,000, and stepped up air strikes in the country. Mattis told reporters that the goal is to convince the Taliban militants that they cannot win, which would hopefully push them toward reconciliation. "We do look toward a victory in Afghanistan," he said. "Not a military victory -- the victory will be a political reconciliation." Taliban fighters control large parts of the country, and thousands of Afghan soldiers and civilians are being killed every year. In a report published late on March 12, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that more than 30,000 people have been displaced since the beginning of the year due to continued conflict in Afghanistan. With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States is "outraged" over what he said was Russia's likely poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in Britain, and warned that Moscow "certainly will" face an allied response over the matter. "We have full confidence in the U.K.'s investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week," Tillerson said in a statement late on March 12 hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May said it was "highly likely" Russia was behind the March 4 attack on Skripal and his daughter, both of whom are still hospitalized and in critical condition. "There is never a justification for this type of attack -- the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation -- and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior," Tillerson said. "From Ukraine to Syria -- and now the U.K. -- Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens," he said. "We agree that those responsible -- both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it -- must face appropriately serious consequences," Tillerson said. "We stand in solidarity with our allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to coordinate closely our responses." Tillerson's vow of allied action in response to what he said was the use of a military-grade nerve agent called Novichok that was developed by Russia during the Cold War was echoed by other British allies. At a briefing on March 12, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that the "use of a highly lethal nerve agent against U.K. citizens on U.K. soil is an outrage," but did not mention Russia. "The attack was reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation, and we extend our sympathy to the victims and their families, and our support to the U.K. government," Sanders said. "We stand by our closest ally and the special relationship that we have." NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said "the U.K. is a highly valued ally, and this incident is of great concern to NATO... The use of any nerve agent is horrendous and completely unacceptable." In a phone call with May, French President Emmanuel Macron "offered his solidarity with the U.K." Downing Street said. "They discussed the wide pattern of aggressive Russian behavior and agreed that it would be important to continue to act in concert with allies to address it," it said. Russia Given Deadline British officials called in Moscow's ambassador in London on March 12 and demanded that he explain by the end of the day on March 13 how the deadly chemical made its way into Britain to be used against a former spy. Skripal, a retired Russian military intelligence colonel, was convicted by a Moscow military court in 2006 of "high treason" for passing secrets to Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. He was one of four Russian prisoners released in 2010 in exchange for 10 Russian sleeper agents detained in the United States. May said there were only two possible reasons for the detection of the Russian-made nerve agent: that it was used in "a direct action by the Russian state," or because of Russia "losing control" of its stocks of the deadly chemical. "Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom," May said, calling the attack a "reckless and despicable act." "We will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil," she added. The Russian Foreign Ministry was quick to denounce Mays accusations, saying in a statement that they were politically motivated and based on a provocation. "This is a circus show in the British parliament," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters. "The conclusion is clear: this is yet another political information campaign, based on a provocation." She also suggested that the British accusations were a "fairy tale." In a separate statement, the Foreign Ministry -- without specifically denying Russian involvement -- suggested that the accusations were aimed to create a pretext from Britain to boycott the 2018 soccer World Cup in Russia this summer. It said it had warned repeatedly that Western media would roll out "a full-scale...campaign with the aim of discrediting Russia and undermining trust in it as the host" of the June-July tournament, in which England is scheduled to compete. 'Unleashing Of Activity' Before making his statement, Tillerson called his British counterpart Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to discuss the poisoning. Speaking to reporters during a flight back to Washington from Africa, Tillerson agreed with May's assessment that the attackers had used a nerve agent developed by Russia. "It appears that it clearly came from Russia. Whether it came from Russia with the Russian government's knowledge is not known to me at this point," he said. "This is a substance that is known to us and does not exist widely. It is only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties. And I don't want to say anything further than that," he told reporters. "You take a substance like was used, which is an extremely dangerous substance, into another country, into a public place, where you know many others are going to be exposed...it's almost beyond comprehension that a state, an organized state would do something like that," Tillerson said. Asked whether the apparent attack on a NATO member would trigger an allied response, Tillerson said: "It certainly will trigger a response. I'll leave it at that." Tillerson told reporters that he's grown "extremely concerned" about Russia, noting that he spent most of his first year in office trying to solve problems and narrow differences with the Kremlin. He said after a year of trying, "we didn't get very far." "Instead what we've seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive," Tillerson said. "And this is very, very concerning to me and others that there seems to be a certain unleashing of activity that we don't fully understand what the objective behind that is." With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters A senior Austrian security official says the man who was shot dead over the weekend after stabbing a soldier outside the Iranian ambassador's residence in Vienna "clearly had sympathy for political Islam." Michaela Kardeis, head of public security, told a news conference on March 13 that for now there were no more details about the 26-year-old assailants background or possible motives. Material seized at his home such as a computer and cellphone and his social media activities would be further analyzed in the coming days, Kardeis said. Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry said that during his Austrian military service in 2012 the man was registered as a devout Muslim. The Vienna-born man of Egyptian origin, named by police as Mohamed E., attacked the soldier outside the Iranian envoy's residence late on March 11, stabbing him several times with a knife. Police said the soldier initially used pepper spray before opening fire on the assailant. The guard suffered a wound to his upper arm. The Kurier newspaper reported that the man, who lived with his parents in a working-class area of Vienna, followed a German Salafist preacher on Facebook. He was also a fan of a Facebook group that agitated for the "release of Sunni prisoners" in mostly Shi'ite Iran, it reported. Salafists follow a strict form of Sunni Islam and do not recognize other branches of Islam, such as Shi'ism and Sufism. Based on reporting by AP and AP Mexico proposed trinational jaguar reserve with Belize, Guatemala Riviera Maya, Q.R. An announcement for the proposal of a jaguar reserve has been made by head of the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas of Mexico. Alejandro del Mazo Maza of the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (Conanp), announced that Mexico plans to create a trinational reserve with Belize and Guatemala to protect the jaguar. It is a project that we are already working on with Guatemala and Belize, countries that have shown interest in collaborating and establishing this protection in a trinational way in the first protected natural area for the feline. There is already a political disposition, so we are working on the definition of the polygon and the challenge is to continue with the plan to make it a reality this year. The announcement was made at the recent International Jaguar Forum 2030 in New York. During the forum, del Mazo Maza revealed that over the last eight years, their population in the Yucatan has increased by 10 percent thanks to monitoring efforts. The feline is the largest endemic of the American continent, and its historical geographical distribution extends from the south of the United States to the north of Argentina, across 18 countries. However, its population has decreased in at least six nations, which is why they are in need of biological corridors to ensure their conservation. The latest death of a female jaguar in Riviera Maya was hard for researchers. Mexico already has a program to improve livestock practices to reduce conflict with the jaguar, which includes fences that make it difficult for felines to attack livestock, and insurance to compensate affected producers, however, poaching remains a problem. The main thing is a protocol, researchers say, which is unique in the world, to attend to the cases of capture and relocation of the species. Sun Country Airlines celebrating expansion, offering $299 Austin-Cancun flights Cancun, Q.R. Sun Country Airlines has announced the addition of a new seasonal nonstop air route between Austin and Cancun and in celebration of their expansion, is offering $299 USD round-trip flights. The company says that the new nonstop route between Austin and Cancun has been created to meet the growing demand of passengers between the two destinations for the upcoming summer vacation season. Through a statement, the airline said that the new route between the international airports of Austin-Bergstrom and Cancun will begin June 15 and run until August 13 of this summer. The airline says they will operate the new nonstop route three times per week, Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. Lizzie Cole, General Director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Cancun says, We are excited about the opening of this new route that will increase the influx of tourism from Texas during the next season of summer travel and provide Sun Country passengers with the opportunity to meet and enjoy the experiences and attractions offered by Cancun and the destinations of the Mexican Caribbean. To celebrate the new service between the Texan capital and the Cancun International Airport in the Mexican Caribbean, the low cost US airline is offering round-trip introductory fares from $299 USD. At Sun Country, we pride ourselves on delivering convenient, safe, reliable, and friendly service at an affordable price, says Jude Bricker, president and CEO of Sun Country Airlines. The airline also offers convenient non-stop service to and from Austin and Minneapolis / St. Paul, as well as from Cancun and Minneapolis / St. Paul and Dallas / Fort Worth. We look forward to connecting both cities and bringing our Midwest hospitality and convenient nonstop service to more passengers through this route network expansion, said Bricker. At least six helicopters were also used in the rescue efforts. There were 48 people on the bus. Rescue teams had to cut some of the victims free from the wreckage, said Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack. Several injured people were taken to 10 hospitals in Baldwin County, the Alabama cities of Mobile, Daphne and Fairhope, and Pensacola, Florida. One person was in critical condition and five others were seriously injured.The driver was killed in the accident. Interstate 10 was closed in both directions near the Florida state line. The bus front axle appeared separated from the vehicle and at least two doors to luggage compartments had been ripped off the side. The roof of the bus also appeared damaged. First Class Tours, which operated the bus, said in a statement that the bus was carrying students home from Orlando, Florida, and the company is cooperating with investigators. The bus was returning to Houston, Texas, after a school trip at Disney World in Florida. Its unclear what caused the bus to fall into the ravine. The eagerly awaited and much talked about Yamaha YZF-R15 V3.0 fully faired compact sportsbike was launched some time back in India. It is priced from Rs 1.25 lakh, ex-showroom. As expected, the third iteration of the extremely popular motorcycle comes loaded with new powertrain technologies. The 155 cc displacement may seem too small given the rising popularity of quarter litre motorcycles in India but with Variable Valve Actuation (VVA) and high compression ratio, the puny single-cylinder 4-valve, SOHC fuel-injected motor manages to churn out an impressive 19.3 PS at 10,000 rpm and 15 Nm of torque at 8,500 rpm. The powertrain is further enhanced by a new slipper clutch which connects the engine with a 6-speed gearbox. The enhancements are claimed to have improved throttle response significantly. No ABS is on offer. Even as option. The motorcycle continues to be based on the proven Deltabox frame which is suspended by telescopic front fork and rear monoshock. The rear tyre has grown fatter (now its the same size as that of the R3) and the riding posture has become more aggressive, resulting in a sportier character. What does all this translates into? Well, it is probably the only proper sportsbike you can get in the 150 cc segment. Watch the top speed video below. Visually, the Yamaha YZF-R15 V3.0 looks more inline with the companys bigger sportsbikes. The front fairing, panels, tailpiece and fuel tank are all new and look sharper than before. The customers can opt for a Racing Kit that will add stickier Metzeler tyres, Daytona muffler, and frame slider to the package. The Yamaha YZF-R15 V3.0 is priced at INR 1,25,000 (Ex-showroom, New Delhi). The motorcycle is on sale from now and is available in Racing Blue and Thunder Grey color options. Also Read Yamaha R15 V3 vs Yamaha R15 V2 20 Reasons why V3 is better Report: Dozens of Saudi soldiers, mercenaries killed in military operations over past 48 hours [12/March/2018] br> SANA'A, Mar 12 (Saba) Dozens of Saudi enemy soldiers and mercenaries were killed and others injured by the military operations of the army and popular forces over the past 48 hours, while gunned down a Saudi soldier and six mercenaries, as seven military vehicles for them were wrecked, a military official told Saba on Saturday. The army and popular forces targeted by a barrage of Katyusha rockets and a number of artillery shells the Saudi soldiers and it's mercenaries in Jahfan Mustahdath in Jizan, said the military official. A Saudi soldier was shot dead in al- Haskool site, a military vehicles belonging to the Saudi army was destroyed when the artillery targeted their troops and military vehicles beyond Jadhea Nameer. Dozens of Saudi army mercenaries were killed and injured in targeting vehicle loaded of them in al- Tiwal border crossing. In Asir border province, the artillery fired troops of mercenaries in Adhd in al- Thoban mountain and the casualties in their ranks, as number of Saudi soldiers were also killed and others were injured and the rest escaped as a result of the artillery targeting of their gatherings in Tebab Majazah. Meanwhile, a military vehicle of the aggression mercenaries was burned south of the Khaled camp in the district of Mawza in Taiz province, and the heroes of the army and the Popular Committees carried out a surprise attack on the mercenaries sites in the district of Maqbana resulted in the death and injured in their ranks after combing with artillery and medium weapons. In the west coast, northern Yakhtl three of the aggression mercenaries were gunned down, also north and south of Khaled camp another three were gunned down too. The artillery and missile shells targeted gathering of mercenaries vehicles west of Khaled camp and fell of casualties in their ranks, while the artillery fired troops of the aggression mercenaries south of the West Coast, killing and injuring a number of them, according to the official. The army and the Popular Committees destroyed an armored vehicle belonging to the invaders and mercenaries with a guided missile at the West Coast Front, and a vehicle of the mercenaries was ruined in al- Arbaeen Street of al-Dhabab front by artillery shells, and an artillery shells targeted the mercenaries troops in al- Salw. In Jawf front, the heroes of the army and the popular committees carried out an incursion into enemy positions in Shawak Wadi, al- Ghail district and the casualties among them, including leaders. A military vehicle of the aggression mercenaries were destroyed by the army in front of Waqz in al- Masloob district and killing, injuring all on board, as well as a military vehicle was damaged in the front of Ham in al- Matoon district, said the official. Furthermore, a military vehicle for mercenaries were bombed in al- Khalifin front in Khab and Shaaf and the death of those on board. In the province of Lahj, the artillery shells targeted the fortifications and gatherings of the enemy mercenaries in Jabal Al-Hisn in al- Jawazeaa of al- Qabita district and fell of casualties in their ranks. Eman SABA Who knew paying porn starts who claim they had an affair with the president could be so complicated? Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc. In October 2016, Donald Trumps personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 for agreeing not to discuss her alleged affair with Trump. Initially this effort was a success, as we spent the final days of the 2016 campaign talking about Hillary Clintons emails, not the role an issue of Forbes featuring Trump and his children played in the candidates sex life. However, since we learned about the nondisclosure agreement in January, Trump and Cohen have been sinking in legal quicksand. Cohen went through the trouble of setting up a limited liability company to make the payment, and using pseudonyms for both parties but put his real name on the documents and used his Trump Organization email to set up a wire transfer. A government watchdog group filed complaints alleging that the payment constituted a campaign-finance violation. In response, Cohen announced the $130,000 came out of his own pocket, though that doesnt mean it wasnt illegal. Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) then sued Trump, alleging that the entire nondisclosure agreement is invalid because Trump never signed it or because Cohen violated the terms by discussing it publicly. Clifford also accused Cohen of using intimidation and coercive tactics to force her to sign a false statement denying the affair. This isnt the worst scandal Trump is facing right now, but there could be serious consequences particularly for Cohen. If these claims are proven true, he could be disbarred. It all raises the question: Why doesnt Trump, a billionaire, have a better lawyer? Of course, Cohen isnt the only Trump hire that casts doubt on the presidents assertion that he surrounds himself with the best people, but thats only part of the story. While theres little evidence that Cohen was kept on the payroll for his sharp legal mind, hed demonstrated again and again that he possesses the unshakable loyalty that Trump values so highly. Cohen grew up on Long Island, and says that in his youth he read Trumps 1987 book The Art of the Deal twice. Ive been admiring Donald Trump since I was in high school, he told ABC News. Before crossing paths with the mogul in real life, Cohen worked as a personal-injury lawyer, and earned a sizable fortune in the taxi-medallion business in New York and Chicago, and in the Ukrainian ethanol business (he and his brother both married Ukrainian women). As Trump was launching his reality-TV career in the 2000s, Cohen and his family had moved on to real estate, buying up units in various Trump properties. Michael Cohen has a great insight into the real-estate market, Trump told the New York Post in 2007. He has invested in my buildings because he likes to make money and he does. Cohen said he caught Trumps attention when he was treasurer of the board for Trump World Tower. After consulting with the president on several legal matters, he offered him a job. Cohen became Trumps special counsel, and executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, moving into Ivanka Trumps old office. In a recent book proposal obtained by the Daily Beast, Cohen said that as executive VP he oversaw business dealings globally. He described his role as special counsel as family fix-it guy, but others have used more aggressive nicknames, calling him Trumps pit bull, Ray Donovan, or Tom, as in Tom Hagen, Vito Corleones consigliere in the Godfather films. It means that if somebody does something Mr. Trump doesnt like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trumps benefit, Cohen said in 2011. If you do something wrong, Im going to come at you, grab you by the neck and Im not going to let you go until Im finished. There are numerous examples of Cohen in action. When New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a fraud suit against Trumps for-profit college in 2013, the attorney told The New Yorker that he would suffer very significant damage, so significant that he will possibly have to resign. When the Daily Beast reported on Ivana Trumps claim in her divorce deposition that Trump once raped her (which she later recanted), Cohen initially claimed, falsely, that marital rape is legal. Then he threatened to destroy the reporter: I will make sure that you and I meet one day while were in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still dont have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know, Cohen said. So Im warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what Im going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me? You write a story that has Mr. Trumps name in it, with the word rape, and Im going to mess your life up for as long as youre on this frickin planet youre going to have judgments against you, so much money, youll never know how to get out from underneath it, he added. Cohen also bragged to the reporter about how he had ruined a former Miss Pennsylvania who claimed the Miss USA pageant was rigged. In accordance with the contract Sheena Monnin had signed, the matter was argued at arbitration, and she wound up with a $5 million defamation penalty. A malpractice claim against her attorney reportedly let her negotiate the amount down to $1 million. Her father, Philip Monnin, said that during phone conversations with Cohen, there were threats and innuendo about what he would do to ruin her financially. For the rest of her life, he said she wouldnt be able to buy a car or have a credit card. Legal threats werent Cohens only tool. The New York Times reported that Stormy Daniels isnt the only woman whos accused Cohen of putting out a false statement denying she had a sexual encounter with Trump, without her consent. The paper also reported that during the 2016 campaign, Cohen had a hand in coordinating with the tabloid publisher American Media Inc. to catch and kill unflattering stories about Trump, such as a photo of Trump with a bare-breasted woman and former Playboy model Karen McDougals affair allegations. Cohen was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Trumps political career, launching a website (ShouldTrumpRun.com) in an effort to spark interest in drafting him into the 2012 GOP race, and flying to Iowa on Trumps private jet to meet GOP operatives there. (That led to the first accusation that Cohen had violated campaign finance laws, but he was cleared by the Federal Election Commission, since Trump wasnt an official candidate.) When Trump finally did launch a campaign in 2015, Cohen was one of his top cheerleaders on TV. In his most famous appearance, he challenged the fact that most polls showed Trump trailing Clinton, repeatedly asking, Says who? A source told the Daily Beast that Cohen was disappointed when he wasnt offered a spot in Trumps White House.He wasnt expecting attorney general, but he was holding out for a senior job that would have also allowed him to continue being an attack dog for the president, the source said. Still, Cohens commitment to Trump did not waver. Cohen quit his job with the Trump Organization in January 2017 to serve as the presidents personal attorney. As the Daily Beast explained, he did not relocate to D.C., and Trump has hired other attorneys to handle the legal aspects of extracurricular threats to his presidency: His title personal attorney to the president is misleading. He is not acting as an attorney in the way most people think of the job. He is not representing Trump in court against any of the women who accused the president of sexual assault; thats Marc Kasowitzs job. And he is not helping Trump with any crises or fallout extending from the Russia investigations; the president already has a team for that. The exact nature of Cohens current duties is unclear. During Trumps first year in office, he mainly came up in discussions of potential Russia collusion, and when underscoring his undying devotion to Trump in comments to reporters (for instance: Im the guy who would take a bullet for the president). I feel guilty that hes in there right now almost alone Cohen told Vanity Fair in September. There are guys who are very loyal to him that would have gone in, but there was a concerted effort by high-ranking individuals to keep out loyalists. Considering how Cohen is handling the Stormy Daniels affair, that might have been one of Trumps smarter staffing moves. Career CIA employee Gina Haspel, Trumps choice to succeed Mike Pompeo as CIA director, is linked to the agencys black site torture practices. Photo: CIA In the series of high-level personnel changes the White House announced this morning, the most controversial could wind up being the elevation of CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to succeed Secretary of State-designee Mike Pompeo as Americas spy chief. A career CIA employee (mostly undercover), Haspel is best known publicly for her role in directing one of the agencys black site interrogation centers in the years after 9/11. Her questionable background came under scrutiny when she was appointed as Pompeos deputy last year. Numerous news outlets reported that she had been in charge of a black site in Thailand during two especially notorious interrogations, as reflected in this widely circulated comment from The New Yorkers Dexter Filkins: From 2003 to 2005, Gina Haspel was a senior official overseeing a top-secret C.I.A. program that subjected dozens of suspected terrorists to savage interrogations, which included depriving them of sleep, squeezing them into coffins, and forcing water down their throats. In 2002, Haspel was among the C.I.A. officers present at the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda suspect who was tortured so brutally that at one point he appeared to be dead. . Haspel, a career C.I.A. employee, took part in another of the agencys darkest moments: the destruction, in 2005, of video tapes of the interrogation of Zubaydah and a second suspect, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, at whose torture she was present, three years before. With Haspel back in the news this week, her role in these interrogations is being reconsidered in light of fresh testimony from her allies at the Agency who have protested that she took charge of the Thailand site after the Zubaydah interrogation, though she was there for al-Nashiris much less severe treatment. The New York Times reported this distinction after the announcement of the Haspel nomination. And now ProPublica has formally corrected its report from last year that Haspel was involved in or supervised the Zubaydah incident. Still, questions remain about the al-Nashiri interrogation and the destruction of interrogation tapes. President Obama closed the black sites in 2009. In 2013, when then-CIA Director John Brennan sought to promote Haspel into the position of directing all of the agencys covert operations, Senator Diane Feinstein objected and blocked the move, citing her involvement in the illegal torture program. There were more protests from Senate Democrats when Haspel was made Pompeos deputy, but that position does not require Senate confirmation or any hearings, so they soon subsided. Since the director gig does require confirmation, inquiring minds in the Senate will most definitely want to know if Haspels apotheosis is in any way connected with the presidents frequently expressed interest in bringing back torture as an interrogation technique. Haspel herself will probably stick to the line that she was just following orders and that the agency is now operating within the law. But Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, is already saying that her background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director. And civil liberties groups are even more determined to oppose her: Gina Haspel was a central figure in one of the most illegal and shameful chapters in modern American history. She was up to her eyeballs in torture: both in running a secret torture prison in Thailand, and carrying out an order to cover up torture crimes by destroying videotapes, said Christopher Andrews, the deputy director of the ACLUs Washington office. The effect of this appointment on the CIAs relationship with the rest of the Trump administration will be another interesting question. You could argue that the White House is trying to reassure the nations spies that the president has confidence in them after an extended period of presidential criticism of their intelligence capabilities. But the other way to look at it is that Haspels rise to power is a vindication of the worst practices of the CIA in the Bush years, as Filkins explained: A former government official, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, said that the promotion of Haspel amounted to the C.I.A.s revenge. The agency is giving the finger to anyone who was ever critical of the program, the former official said. Haspels hearings will be interesting. Administration critics will have to keep in mind a possible Plan B if shes blocked. Last fall when rumors of a Tillerson-to-Pompeo shift at State were widespread, it was reported that Senator Tom Cotton might want and get the job. If that were to happen, Cotton could follow in George H.W. Bushs footsteps by becoming the second CIA director to take his secrets with him right to the White House. While Haspel would become the first woman to head the CIA, shes probably not looking to break that higher, stronger glass ceiling. This post was updated after the Times and ProPublica said that contrary to previous reporting, Haspel was not involved in the Zubaydah incident. A new method to produce large, monolayer single-crystal-like graphene films more than a foot long relies on harnessing a "survival of the fittest" competition among crystals. The novel technique, developed by a team led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, may open new opportunities for growing the high-quality two-dimensional materials necessary for long-awaited practical applications. Making thin layers of graphene and other 2D materials on a scale required for research purposes is common, but they must be manufactured on a much larger scale to be useful. Graphene is touted for its potential of unprecedented strength and high electrical conductivity and can be made through well-known approaches: separating flakes of graphite -- the silvery soft material found in pencils -- into one-atom-thick layers, or growing it atom by atom on a catalyst from a gaseous precursor until ultrathin layers are formed. The ORNL-led research team used the latter method -- known as chemical vapor deposition, or CVD -- but with a twist. In a study published in Nature Materials, they explained how localized control of the CVD process allows evolutionary, or self-selecting, growth under optimal conditions, yielding a large, single-crystal-like sheet of graphene. "Large single crystals are more mechanically robust and may have higher conductivity," ORNL lead coauthor Ivan Vlassiouk said. "This is because weaknesses arising from interconnections between individual domains in polycrystalline graphene are eliminated." "Our method could be the key not only to improving large-scale production of single-crystal graphene but to other 2D materials as well, which is necessary for their large-scale applications," he added. advertisement Much like traditional CVD approaches to produce graphene, the researchers sprayed a gaseous mixture of hydrocarbon precursor molecules onto a metallic, polycrystalline foil. However, they carefully controlled the local deposition of the hydrocarbon molecules, bringing them directly to the edge of the emerging graphene film. As the substrate moved underneath, the carbon atoms continuously assembled as a single crystal of graphene up to a foot in length. "The unencumbered single-crystal-like graphene growth can go almost continuously, as a roll-to-roll and beyond the foot-long samples demonstrated here," said Sergei Smirnov, coauthor and New Mexico State University professor. As the hydrocarbons touch down the hot catalyst foil, they form clusters of carbon atoms that grow over time into larger domains until coalescing to cover the whole substrate. The team previously found that at sufficiently high temperatures, the carbon atoms of graphene did not correlate, or mirror, the substrate's atoms, allowing for nonepitaxial crystalline growth. Since the concentration of the gas mixture strongly influences how quickly the single crystal grows, supplying the hydrocarbon precursor near the existing edge of single graphene crystal can promote its growth more effectively than the formation of new clusters. "In such a controlled environment, the fastest-growing orientation of graphene crystals overwhelms the others and gets 'evolutionarily selected' into a single crystal, even on a polycrystalline substrate, without having to match the substrate's orientation, which usually happens with standard epitaxial growth," Smirnov said. They found that to ensure optimal growth, it was necessary to create a "wind" that helps to eliminate the cluster formations. "It was imperative that we create an environment where the formation of new clusters ahead of the growth front was totally suppressed, and enlargement of just the growing edge of the large graphene crystal was not hindered," Vlassiouk said. "Then, and only then, nothing stands in the way of the 'fittest' crystalline growth when the substrate is moving." The team's theoreticians, led by coauthor Rice University professor Boris Yakobson, provided a model explaining which crystal orientations possess the unique properties that make them fittest in the run for survival, and why the choice of a winner may depend on the substrate and the precursors. "If graphene or any 2D material ever advances to industrial scale, this approach will be pivotal, similar to Czochralski's method for silicon." Yakobson said. "Manufacturers can rest assured that when a large, wafer-size raw layer is cut for any device fabrication, each resulting piece will be a quality monocrystal. This potentially huge, impactful role motivates us to explore theoretical principles to be as clear as possible." Practical scaling up of graphene using the team's method remains to be seen, but the researchers believe their evolutionary selection single-crystal growth method could also be applied to promising alternative 2D materials such as boron nitride, also known as "white graphene," and molybdenum disulfide. UMD researchers have pulled together forty years of data to quantify the effects of Bt field corn, a highly marketed and successful genetically engineered technology, in a novel and large-scale collaborative study. Other studies have demonstrated the benefits of Bt corn or cotton adoption on pest management for pests like the European corn borer or cotton bollworm in corn or cotton itself, but this is the first study to look at the effects on other offsite crops in North America. By tracking European corn borer populations, this study shows significant decreases in adult moth activity, recommended spraying regimens, and overall crop damage in vegetable crops such as sweet corn, peppers, and green beans. These benefits have never before been documented and showcase Bt crops as a powerful tool to reduce pest populations regionally thereby benefitting other crops in the agricultural landscape. Bt corn was first introduced and adopted in the United States in 1996 and is a genetically engineered crop (or GE) that makes up over 80% of our current corn plantings. In this study, Dr. Galen Dively, Professor Emeritus and Integrated Pest Management Consultant in the Department of Entomology, and Dr. Dilip Venugopal, UMD Research Associate, use data from 1976 -- 2016 to look at trends twenty years before and twenty years after adoption of Bt corn. "Safety of Bt corn has been tested extensively and proven, but this study is about effectiveness of Bt corn as a pest management strategy, and particularly benefits for offsite crops or different crops in different areas than the Bt field corn itself," explains Venugopal. "This is the first paper published showing offsite benefits to other host plants for a pest like the corn borer, which is a significant pest for many other crops like green beans and peppers," says Dively. "We are seeing really more than 90 percent suppression of the European corn borer population in our area for these crops, which is incredible." Using numbers from pest traps to estimate the population and examine the recommended spraying regimens for pests like the European corn borer, Dively and Venugopal observed significant reductions in the population, with much less spraying occurring over time. "There would be no recommendation to spray for the corn borer given the current population, and this paper can trace that back to Bt corn adoption," said Dively. "What's more, by looking at the actual pest infestations and damage on actual crops over forty years of data, we took it a step farther to see the benefits on all sorts of crops and the declines in the actual pest population. We are able to see the results in theory and in practice on actual crops and in the real pest population over a long stretch of time." "The next steps would to be quantify the potentially millions of dollars in economic benefits we see here in a very concrete way to show money and time saved on spraying and pest management, crop damage reduction, as well as consideration of the environmental benefits. The important thing here, however, is to think of Bt crops as one of many tools in an integrated pest management tool box. The benefits are undeniable, but must always be weighed against many other options to use a broad range of tools and maximize benefit while minimizing any potential risks such as the pests developing Bt resistance," said Venugopal. Dively concludes, "This study ultimately shows the importance of evaluating GE crops beyond the field that is being planted. These products and the new advances coming down the pipeline have the potential to suppress major pest populations just like Bt corn has. This is just the beginning, and we need to be quantifying these effects. I am excited by these results and encouraged for future work." Their paper is published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. One of the recurring media narratives about the nature of science today is that it is "broken" or "in crisis." In the mainstream press, some stories about the failure to reproduce study results or the rising retraction rate or incidents of scientific fraud have been accompanied by assertions about a "systemic crisis" in areas of science -- or in science itself. But a new analysis of how the media cover science news argues that generalizations about a crisis in science aren't justified by the available evidence. The essay proposes that those who communicate science, including journalists, scholars and scientists themselves, should more accurately convey its investigatory nature, the self-correction process, and corrective measures without legitimizing a faulty narrative. The article, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and authored by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, examines three media storylines used to describe the nature of scientific discovery. Jamieson writes that one of the narratives -- that science is "in crisis" or "broken" -- is especially concerning and may have been inadvertently encouraged by scientists' efforts to find and correct problems in scientific practice. "This is troubling in part because defective narratives can enhance the capacity of partisans to discredit areas of science -- including genetic engineering, vaccination, and climate change -- containing findings that are ideologically uncongenial to them," Jamieson writes. "In contrast, accurate narratives can increase public understanding not only of the nature of the discovery process, but also of the inevitability of false starts and occasional fraud." The issue is important, Jamieson says, because the news media affect the extent to which we think about a subject and how we think about it, and misleading accounts about science can affect the public's trust in science. The "science is broken" story has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Vox and Slate. Three popular narratives about science Jamieson considers three structures in science narratives -- the quest discovery, the counterfeit discovery, and the systemic problem. The quest, a classic literary genre used from Gilgamesh to The Lord of the Rings, is used in science narratives to showcase not just new discoveries but particularly those useful to humankind. Of the 60 studies that received the most media coverage from May 2016 to April 2017, according to the tracking firm Altmetric, nearly half were related to human health and well-being. advertisement The "counterfeit discovery," by contrast, is the tale of a deceptive scientist and a "dishonorable quest," the story of someone who has "gulled custodians of knowledge" such as journal editors and peer reviewers. In this case, the discovery is investigated and challenged, as in the case of Anil Potti of Duke University, whose fraudulent work on treating lung cancer was uncovered by two MD Anderson biostatisticians. Coverage of the fraud in 60 Minutes and The New York Times showed how the discovery of deception and corrective measures were part of the scientific self-corrective culture. Scientists and a flawed survey fuel a 'crisis' Jamieson argues that the third narrative -- science is broken -- is an overgeneralization, even in fields such as oncology and psychology where there are large studies documenting failures to replicate findings. While scholars and scientists are the ones who have found problems in scientific research, a "problem-focused news narrative" sometimes buries their corrective intent under headlines and storylines that emphasize the flaws. "In such accounts, scientists are portrayed as publicizing problems, not proffering solutions," she says. At times, scientists themselves have fueled the impression of a crisis. Over a five-year period, a third of the stories in Nexis and Factiva featuring science-in-crisis headlines were written by scientists. In 2017, NPR science reporter Richard Harris published the systemic-problem-titled book Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions. In a Wall Street Journal essay drawn from it, Harris wrote that "scientists point to what they call the 'reproducibility crisis' -- that is, studies whose results can't be duplicated and are untrustworthy if not invalid." Harris said in an interview that he's "not convinced it's a crisis," but "scientists are increasingly aware of these serious problems," which is good because "recognizing a problem is the first step toward solving it." A problematic 2016 "survey" published in the journal Nature, and cited by Harris, reinforced the "crisis" narrative, Jamieson says. The respondents were described as "researchers," "scientists" and "readers," but were not a random sample of verified scientists but rather respondents to a questionnaire emailed to Nature readers and people who answered an ad "on affiliated websites and social media outlets." The wording of the questionnaire "primed the very crisis it reportedly uncovered" by inviting respondents to confirm the existence of the crisis, Jamieson says. advertisement How to improve the science narrative Jamieson identifies ways that science narratives can be improved, among them: Include information that reflects the practices and protections of science, such as the trial-and-error process, and the ways science detects and protects itself from deception; Reserve "dire characterizations of the state of science" for cases in which "integrity-threatening problems are being ignored"; Treat self-correction as a central part of the scientific process, not an afterthought -- before regarding a rise in retractions as a "crisis in science," consider the argument that they are a "signal that science is working"; Focus on problems without shortchanging solutions: "To perform their accountability function well, reporters should not only alert the public to problems in consequential science but also scrutinize how and how well they are being addressed." The article concludes: "By responsibly publicizing both breaches of integrity and attempts to forestall them, news can perform its accountability function without undermining public trust in the most reliable form of knowledge generation humans have devised." The Annenberg Public Policy Center was established in 1994 to educate the public and policy makers about the media's role in advancing public understanding of political, health, and science issues at the local, state and federal levels. Here's a blind test taste like Pepsi never imagined. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, recently published a study of recycled wastewater that did not focus on its safety-which has long been established-but rather its taste. After years of drought, the notion of drinking recycled wastewater has gained momentum in California. Thoughts turned to all the water being discarded -- to supplementing "conventional" groundwater with recycled water. But consumers were quick to flag the euphemism of "recycled." Some have even branded the technology "toilet to tap." "It seems that this term (wastewater), and the idea of recycled water in general, evokes disgust reactions," said Daniel Harmon, a graduate student in psychology and the lead author in the study on water taste. The study published in print in the February edition of the journal Appetite. However, Harmon added: "It is important to make recycled water less scary to people who are concerned about it, as it is an important source of water now and in the future." The water's safety has been the source of most related research. The wastewater is treated using reverse osmosis. A preferred technology is called indirect potable reuse, or IDR. IDR reintroduces treated wastewater into groundwater supplies, where it re-enters the drinking water system. Six California water agencies already employ IDR. These include the Water Replenishment District of Southern California, the Orange County Water District, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, the Inland Empire Utilities District, the city of Los Angeles, and the city of Oxnard. advertisement Studies have found IDR removes virtually all contaminants. But no one has considered its relative taste; at least, not in a blind taste test, and not in a scientific study. The UCR study included 143 people, who were asked to compare IDR-treated tap water with conventional tap water and commercially bottled water. The waters were presented in similar cups and were unlabeled, hence the participants were "blind" to the source of the water. After tasting the water, participants ranked the samples' taste from one to five, then also in categories including texture, temperature, smell, and color. The researchers weighed factors that influence taste perception. There are genetic differences in taste sensitivity. That was gauged using a tried-and-true measure: paper strips coated with the chemical phenylthiocarbomide, or PTC. Those who find the strip's taste to be bitter are considered to have more sensitive taste. Researchers also considered two personality traits that help determine water preference. These traits are referred to as "Openness to Experience" and "Neuroticism." Openness is how receptive people are to novel and diverse experiences. Neuroticism refers to anxiety and insecurity. advertisement At the outset, researchers hypothesized the three waters would score equally. In fact, one emerged the least preferred. "The groundwater-based water was not as well liked as IDR or bottled water," said Mary Gauvain, a professor of psychology at UC Riverside and co-author of the study. "We think that happened because IDR and bottled water go through remarkably similar treatment processes, so they have low levels of the types of tastes people tend to dislike." The more nervous, anxious people in the study expressed the preference for IDR and bottled water, and were more negative about the more mineral-rich tap water. People more open to new experiences liked the three samples about the same. Another surprise: Women were twice as likely to prefer bottled water as men. The researchers' best guess: Women register higher "disgust reactions" than men, which means their reactions to tastes they dislike are more extreme. These disgust reactions are the subject of the team's next research paper. In its conclusion, researchers suggest that favorable comparisons between reverse osmosis and bottled water may make consumers more amenable to drinking recycled wastewater. In particular, they suggest, marketing to women, who make most consumer purchasing decisions, should focus on these similarities, and also cater to women's demonstrated openness to new experiences. "We think this research will help us find out what factors people pay attention to in their water decisions, and what populations need to be persuaded to drink IDR water and how to persuade them," Harmon said. Aside from Harmon and Gauvain, researchers in the study include Isaac Arthur, who recently completed his undergraduate studies at UC Riverside, Drew Story, a graduate student at UC Riverside, and Z Reisz, who received his Ph.D. at UC Riverside and is now at Santa Barbara City College. The research was supported by an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, or IGERT, award from the National Science Foundation. The transition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Europe is marked by two key events in European history, i.e., the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the migration into this Empire by various barbarian tribes such as the Goths, Alemanni, Franks, and Lombards. This resulted in a profound cultural and socioeconomic transformation throughout the continent, and many settlements from this epoch would subsequently develop into the villages and towns we still know today. An international team led by anthropologist Dr. Michaela Harbeck from the Bavarian State Collection for Anthropology and Palaeoanatomy (SAPM) and population geneticist Professor Joachim Burger of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has now performed the first genomic analysis of populations that lived on the former territory of the Roman Empire in Bavaria, Germany, from around 500 AD and provided the first direct look at the complex population dynamics of what has popularly been known as the Migration Period, or "Volkerwanderung" in German. In addition to anthropologists from Mainz and Munich, the team also includes Dr. Krishna Veeramah, a population geneticist from Stony Brook University in the US, as well as colleagues from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In an interdisciplinary study funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the international research team analyzed the ancient genomes of almost 40 early medieval people from southern Germany. While most of the ancient Bavarians looked genetically like Central and Northern Europeans, one group of individuals had a very different and diverse genetic profile. Members of this group were particularly notable in that they were women whose skulls had been artificially deformed at birth. Such enigmatic deformations give the skull a characteristic tower shape and have been found in past populations from across the world and from different periods of time. "Parents wrapped their children's heads with bandages for a few months after birth in order to achieve the desired head shape," explained Dr. Michaela Harbeck. "It is difficult to answer why they carried out this elaborate process, but it was probably used to emulate a certain ideal of beauty or perhaps to indicate a group affiliation." So far, scholars have only speculated about origins of the practice in medieval Europe. "The presence of these elongated skulls in parts of eastern Europe is most commonly attributed to the nomadic Huns, led by Atilla, during their invasion of the Roman Empire from Asia, but the appearance of these skulls in western Europe is more mysterious, as this was very much the fringes of their territory," said Dr. Krishna Veeramah, first author of the study. By analyzing DNA obtained from these elongated skulls, Professor Joachim Burger's team revealed that these women likely migrated to early Bavarian settlements from eastern Europe. "Although there is evidence that there was some genetic contribution from Central Asia, the genomic analysis points to the fact that women with deformed skulls in this region are genetically most similar to today's south eastern Europeans, and that the Huns likely played only a minor role in directly transmitting this tradition to Bavaria," Burger noted. Besides their deformed skulls, these women also tended to have darker hair and eye color than the other Bavarians they were buried and probably lived with, who primarily had fair hair and blue eyes. But the migration of females to Bavaria did not only involve those possessing elongated skulls. Only a little later, two women can be identified who most closely resemble modern Greeks and Turks. In contrast, there was no evidence of men with drastically different genetic profiles. "Most of these foreign women are found with grave goods that look unremarkable compared to the rest of the buried population," added Veeramah. "These cases of female migration would have been invisible from the material culture alone." "This is an example of long-range female mobility that bridges larger cultural spaces and may have been a way for distant groups to form new strategic alliances during this time of great political upheaval in the absence of a previous Roman hegemony," stated Burger. "We must expect that many more unprecedented population-dynamic phenomena have contributed to the genesis of our early cities and villages." "Interestingly, though our results are preliminary, there are no major traces of genetic ancestry in these early inhabitants of Bavaria that might have come from soldiers of the Roman army," said Harbeck. "We need to keep investigating on an even broader basis how much Celtic and Roman ancestry is in these early Bavarians." In late February, CBS News Denver reported that mountain lion sightings were on the rise in Colorado's high country. Lion attacks on people in the state and around the world are rare, but the story referenced an attack on a 5-year-old boy in 2016 by a mountain lion near Aspen. Wildlife biologists around the world studying these big cats have had difficulty explaining why these attacks occur, even after tracking the predators with GPS collars. A study from Colorado State University and Colorado Parks and Wildlife provides new insight. Researchers found that while the animals are generally fearful of and avoid humans, hunger can dampen that fear. The study, "Hunger mediates apex predator's risk avoidance response in wildland-urban interface," was recently published online in the Journal of Animal Ecology. "These predators, including mountain lions, aren't 'hangry' and seeking out back yards to find food, but there comes a point when a mountain lion is hungry enough that it may use back yards to hunt for food, similar to what takes place in the wild ," said Kevin Blecha, who worked on the research in conjunction with Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists, while pursuing a graduate degree in ecology from CSU. Previous studies have shown that big cat predators intentionally avoid people, due to fear. Other research has found that predators prefer to spend their time in prey-rich areas. "Unfortunately, these two explanations were not lining up in explaining large predator movements in back yards, and even contradicted each other, especially when there could actually be more prey, like deer, available near people's homes," said Blecha. advertisement GPS tracked predator movements In this study, researchers analyzed hunting behaviors of mountain lions on the fringes of Denver and Boulder, Colorado, through the sprawling exurbia, and into the jagged wilderness areas along the Continental Divide. The team used bio-monitoring collars with GPS location and acceleration recorders, strapped to the lions, allowing the researchers to document the predators' hunting behaviors. Data from the GPS collar locations revealed whether the mountain lions were avoiding, attracted to, or ambivalent to houses. GPS tracked the dates and times since the mountain lion last fed on a prey animal, allowing researchers to measure the hunger level that the lions were experiencing while moving about its home range. Animals that had not eaten in more than four to seven days showed little to no avoidance of the higher housing densities. Hunger, time of year matter in animals' actions Blecha and the team found that predators' behavior was connected with having an emptier stomach. While a mountain lion can become hungry at any time of the year, the animals would go longer and longer periods of time between making kills as the winter progressed through late spring, a time of the year when wild prey numbers are lowest. Late spring is also when conflicts between mountain lions and humans may be the highest. Researchers concluded, too, that female mountain lions avoided houses less than male counterparts, which is likely due to females expending more energy during times when they are rearing kittens. advertisement In addition, camera traps recorded whether the animals' prey sources were more likely encountered in the higher housing densities or in more wild, public land areas like national forestlands. These camera traps revealed that deer, raccoons and pets were less likely to be encountered in the wildland areas. Complementing this finding, the collars showed that mountain lions were more successful at finding and killing prey near houses than they were away from these structures. Blecha said it is likely that prey such as mule deer are safer in sprawling subdivisions and exurbias, given that mountain lions, coyotes, and human hunters usually avoid these urban fringes. "This study contributes to a growing body of evidence indicating that an animal's energetic state is very important in the decision-making process; animals will make riskier choices when hunger beckons," said Blecha. "This is likely the same for all animals, whether it is mountain lions, rabbits, birds, or even humans." This is among the first studies to demonstrate a direct relationship between hunger and the decision-making process of a large predator. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said homeowners living in the wildland-urban interface can do their part by recognizing that wild and domestic animals in their backyards are seen as prey to wild predators. "It is important to keep pets from running loose in these areas without supervision," said Blecha. That was quick. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images On Monday, the Trump administration fired John McEntee, after a federal investigation uncovered evidence that he had committed serious financial crimes. The White House aide was escorted from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by security officials, who felt it so urgent to remove the suspected criminal from the presidential abode, they refused to allow McEntee to grab his jacket and belongings before tossing him to the curb. Less than the 24 hours later, the Trump 2020 campaign announced that it had hired McEntee as its senior adviser for campaign operations. Under a different administration, this development might rank as a baffling, scandalous, front-page story. Under our current one, McEntees job change has barely made more of an impression than your average LinkedIn notification what with the president firing his secretary of State via a tweet, preparing a trade war against China, and steering America ever closer to a military confrontation with a nuclear weapons state. Nevertheless, heres a quick rundown of the McEntee saga: The 27-year-old aide was one of the original Trump campaigns first staff members. According to The Wall Street Journal, McEntee had been a constant presence at Mr. Trumps side for the past three years, one who made sure Mr. Trump had markers to sign autographs, delivered messages to him in the White House residence and, over the weekend, ensured that the clocks in the White House residence were adjusted for daylight-saving time. But, like dozens of other White House staffers, McEntee had been operating without a permanent security clearance, due to his inability to pass an FBI background check. The Journal reports McEntee had problems related to online gambling and mishandling of his taxes. CNN, meanwhile, says McEntee that is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes. A background in financial crime might disqualify McEntee from working on most presidential campaigns but judging from precedent, such experience is practically a prerequisite for working on Trumps. Rohingya people queue for relief supplies at the Nayapara refugee camp in Coxs Bazar on December 3, 2017. Photo: Maruf Hossain Rafi/NurPhoto via Getty Images Investigators from the United Nations are currently looking into a potential the investigators recently said they are becoming more convinced that a genocide occurred genocide in Myanmar that happened between October 2016 and August 2017. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority nation, in an attempt to escape the violence, murder, and rape reportedly being perpetrated by the countrys military. Investigators also found that a certain social-media platform it rhymes with lace hook had a hand in helping spread hate speech in Myanmar and fuel unrest. It has substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissension and conflict, if you will, within the public. Hate speech is certainly of course a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media, Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said, Reuters reports. At the end of February, Facebook removed the page of Myanmar monk Wirathu. Known as the Burmese bin Laden, Wirathu frequently used his Facebook page to preach hatred toward and spread rumors about Muslims. Yanghee Lee, another one of the investigators, said she fears that Facebook, despite all the good it has done for connecting people in Myanmar, has become a beast. Everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar, she said. A lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Monday challenged the Trump administrations plan to deport more than 200,000 people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan in the U.S. after disasters in their homelands, arguing that the decision was motivated by racism and would coldheartedly tear parents from their children. With the stroke of a pen, this administration upended the lives of hundreds of thousands of people lawfully residing in the United States for years and sometimes decades, said Emi MacLean, a lawyer for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which filed the federal court suit with the American Civil Liberties Union and private attorneys. As evidence of the administrations motives, the lawyers cited President Trumps vulgar insult to African nations and Haiti at the White House meeting in January and his evidence-free assertion in June 2017 that Haitian immigrants all have AIDS. They are contesting the administrations decision to revoke a program called Temporary Protected Status, established by a 1990 law that allowed people fleeing catastrophic conditions in their native countries to live and work in the U.S. under permits that have been renewed every 18 months. The largest group, 195,000 people, are from El Salvador, whose residents were granted U.S. protection after a series of earthquakes in 2001. About 46,000 Haitians were granted protected status after a 2010 earthquake, 2,550 Nicaraguans were admitted after a 1999 hurricane, and 1,040 Sudanese gained protection after fleeing their countrys civil war in 1997. The lead plaintiff in the suit is 14-year-old Crista Ramos, who was born in Marin County and is an eighth-grader living in San Pablo. Her mother, Cristina Morales, 37, also a plaintiff, came to the U.S. in 1993 with her mother, who was fleeing domestic violence in El Salvador, and was granted protected status in 2001. Cristina Morales runs the extended care program at the school her daughter attends. Overall, more than 400,000 people from 10 nations are living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status. The Trump administrations revocations have prompted other lawsuits, but this is the first to challenge the withdrawals for all four countries. Past administrations of both parties have reapproved protections for nations on the list, citing new dangers and hardships in those countries. But the Trump administration reversed course last year when its Homeland Security secretaries John Kelly, then Elaine Duke and now Kirstjen Nielsen said the protections should be withdrawn, and the foreigners deported, once the original disaster and problems related to it had ended. They declared that protected status for Sudan would end in November 2018, for Nicaragua in January 2019, for Haiti in July 2019 and for El Salvador in September 2019. Now Playing: Demonstrators gathered in front of the White House on Monday to protest against the removal of Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador nationals living in the U.S. TPS was granted after a series of earthquakes rocked the the country in 2001. Over the last 17 years around 200,000 people have made a life in the U.S. Many have married and had children who were born in America. Now the Trump administration says it cancel permits allowing those people to live and work in the United States. They have until September 2019 to find a legal way to stay - or face deportation. Lindolfo Carballo has TPS. He arrived in 1990 and is now a legal migrant campaigning for the rights of others. "I think this is a tremendous injustice," said Carballo. "Not just against Salvadorans, but also Honduran men and women, people with families, with houses, with children born here. So what is happening in this country is actually a tyranny and it's time to stop it." The US says its given an 18 month deadline to allow for what it calls an orderly transition; the El Salvador government is urging people not to panic. "The first thing I want to tell people is that they need to remain calm, we have another 18 months, from March this year to September 2019," El Salvador's Foreign Minister told a press conference. Video: Euronews Such a sudden and unexplained departure from decades of decision-making practices violates U.S. law and the rights of the entrants who rely on it, the suit said. It also argued that the action was an unconstitutional expression of the Trump administrations repeatedly expressed racism toward non-white, non-European people from other countries. 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. Trump uttered his slur of Haiti and African nations while discussing the temporary-protection program with lawmakers, a week before his administration revoked protected status for Haitians, the suit said. It also cited the presidents comparison of immigrants to snakes and his reported prediction that Nigerians would never go back to their huts if they were allowed to enter the United States. In addition to violating the rights of adults whose protections would be rescinded, the suit said, revocation would also intrude on the rights of tens of thousands of children born in the U.S. who would have to choose between leaving for countries most of them have never seen or separating from their parents. If the Trump administration is allowed to remove protected status for entrants from the four nations, the suit argued, the courts must at least continue protections for parents whose U.S. citizen children are school-aged, between 5 and 18. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the suit. Seven men from North Carolina and Virginia were arrested Monday after invading three Petaluma homes in the hopes of stealing cannabis, the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office said. The men broke into the homes on the 100 and 200 blocks of Eugenia Drive around 3 a.m. Monday, officials said, but their targets were off the mark, as none of the homes contained stashes of marijuana the men were allegedly seeking. This is the second time in about a month that the North Bay was hit by marijuana-motivated home invasions, following two robberies Feb. 8 in Santa Rosa. One of those incidents left a 54-year-old man dead. Now Playing: Authorities said at least nine suspects busted into three homes in Petaluma early Monday morning, kicking in doors with guns and asking for marijuana prompting an intense manhunt for at least five of them, the Sonoma County sheriff's said. Leigh M Video: KTVU Homeowners in these residences (Monday) were tied up and one was pistol-whipped, the sheriffs office said in a statement. Thankfully, none of the occupants were seriously injured. None of the residences had anything to do with the cultivation or sales of marijuana. Five of the suspects got into a white minivan and led law enforcement on a car chase to Novato, eventually pulling over and fleeing in different directions. One of the men, Ledarrell Javon Crockett, 28, of Winston-Salem, N.C., was arrested after knocking on the front door of a home and asking to call an Uber. Three more suspects fled in a silver Volkswagon Passat, which was located at a Novato Costco and helped lead to their arrest, authorities said. They were identified as 20-year-old Chrisshawn Denardray Beal and 28-year-old Jaray Day-Shawn Simmons, both of Winston-Salem, N.C.; and Melvin Corbin, 19, of Richmond, Va. A female suspect reportedly escaped before officers arrived. The final three men arrested Monday evening Nakia Robert Lydell Jones, 22; Romello Shamar Jones, 20; and Siddiq Jafar Abdullah, 21 were apprehended at San Francisco International Airport as they tried to board flights back to the East Coast, authorities said. All are from Richmond, Va. So, what were they doing in Petaluma? Sgt. Spencer Crum, of the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office, said that investigators believe the men came to the Bay Area with the express purpose of stealing marijuana. 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. The trip, however, was a bust in multiple respects, authorities said, as there was no evidence of marijuana at any of the homes that were robbed. We have some evidence that there was some marijuana being grown in the neighborhood awhile ago, so they might have had the wrong house, Crum said. One man who was arrested in the Feb. 8 home invasion case, as well as a female suspect who remains at large, are both from Richmond, Va., according to law enforcement. Crum said the sheriffs office is looking into a connection between the two incidents. One suspect, a woman, from Mondays home invasion, remains at large, authorities said. Previously they believed that another man was at large, but later said, there were only seven men involved in the home invasion robberies and all seven are in custody. The other seven suspects have been booked into Sonoma County Jail on $1 million bail, with the exception of Beal, who has a no-bail warrant out of North Carolina for possessing a firearm with a prior felony. They were charged with robbery of an inhabited dwelling, burglary, false imprisonment, kidnapping and conspiracy. Early in her documentary portrait Arthur Miller: Writer (on HBO Monday, March 19), filmmaker Rebecca Miller (Maggies Plan) says that when she first started filming conversations with her legendary playwright father more than 25 years ago, she realized that his public persona was so different from the man I knew. I felt I was the only filmmaker he would let get close enough to reveal the endearing, philosophical man behind the icon. By the time Rebecca, 55, was born (her mother is Millers third wife, Magnum photographer Inge Morath), Miller had already experienced several lives worth of achievements and losses: written his masterwork Death of a Salesman, confronted McCarthyism (the basis of The Crucible); weathered a high-wattage marriage to Marilyn Monroe and late-career dismissal from the critics who formerly championed his every word. Rebecca Miller, who is married to actor Daniel Day-Lewis, spoke during a visit to San Francisco about finally sharing with the public her decades-in-the-making film, and balancing her perspectives as both a daughter and a fellow artist. REBECCA COOK/REUTERS Q: When you first started filming your father, in candid moments and interviews, was he open to the idea of you making a film about him? A: I was only 21 in the beginning, and there wasnt much discussion. I just had a feeling that I should do it. The big turning point was in 1995 when my first film, Angela, won the Gotham Prize, and the prize itself was a lot of 16mm film. I thought, lets do some real interviews, so we talked, and Arthur went deeply into the nature of tragedy or about himself as a father. After those I realized, Im going to finish this film one day. And he was happy for that to happen. We didnt know it would take more than 20 years. Q: Was it tricky to balance your personal view of your father with trying to be more objective about Arthur Miller the writer and public intellectual? A: It feels slightly transgressive when you start to dive into parts of a parents life before you were born. Its like youre not meant to be in the room, and yet you have enormous power when you make a film about someone. Its an interesting inversion of the typical child-parent dynamic. I needed to be able to tell the truth as I saw it but, of course, the truth as I saw it includes the fact that I loved my father. So it would be a lie to create some kind of false neutrality. Q: Your film really humanizes Arthur Miller. Thinking of him as a character in his own life story, what is most compelling to you? A: Whats so interesting to me is the degree to which his century really lived inside of him and helped to create his work, and his work in its own small way maybe influenced his century. I was also really interested in how he changed as a character. When he talks earlier in his life, he has so much certainty. Later, hes much less certain, and you can see the ways being burned, knocked around, affected him maybe in a good way. Q: Was it awkward talking to him about dark chapters his life, like the depression he suffered after Marilyn Monroes death? A: In a way it was, but it wasnt the first time we had had these discussions. I once directed After the Fall and had many talks with him then about the play (which is based on Millers 1956-61 marriage to Monroe). His inability to save her and his wish, his delusion, that he could give her new life was his great comeuppance. To me, some of the most poignant moments in the film are when he goes silent and seems to go so far into himself, and you can see emotional states take him over. Im happy that I realized I should shut up and just capture the moment. Q: Your father famously refused to name names in 1956 when he was brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Do you see relevance to today? A: Yes, some of the things Arthur said then feel strangely prescient and very contemporary. Tony Kushner has this great line in the film when he talks about The Crucible, that all societies reckon one day or another with when the powerful make an alliance with the mad. Arthurs commitment to being a public intellectual is very touching to me, that there could be a place in the national dialogue for the conscience of an artist. Q: Some of the best interviews take place while your father is working in his Connecticut barn. He clearly enjoyed building things by hand. Did that apply to making art as well? A: He was always making things or repairing things when theyd break, new legs for our picnic table or soldering a broken coffee percolator back together. It was a sort of spartan attitude, but there was a lot of joy in it. I do think he applied the same sense of construction to art, that it had to stand up, had to have a kind of structural integrity. His work ethic was striking, which can be a hard thing for artists because no one is asking you to go to work. And yet he always kept writing. He said, The important thing is that you dont go silent. Jessica Zack is a freelance writer. Twitter: @jwzack Arthur Miller: Writer: Debuts on HBO on Monday, March 19. The film will also be available on HBO On Demand, HBO Now, HBO Go and partners streaming services. The state Supreme Court took the rare step Monday of overturning both the death sentence and the murder conviction of a Kern County man who was found guilty of raping and killing a 21-month-old girl in 1991, based on medical testimony that has now been either recanted or discredited. The unanimous ruling could allow Vicente Benavides Figueroa, 68, to go free after nearly 25 years on Death Row. The girl, Consuelo Verdugo, was taken to an emergency room at Delano Regional Medical Center in November 1991 by her mother and Benavides, her mothers boyfriend, who both said the child had been running and hit her head on a door. The girl was semi-conscious when they brought her in, but lost consciousness and was transferred to another local hospital, and then to UCLA Medical Center, where she died eight days later. ALSO READ: SF attack leaves man with life-threatening injuries A forensic pathologist, Dr. James Dibdin, said the cause of death was penetration of the girls anus, which was swollen to many times its normal size. Benavides, who had been watching Consuelo that day while her mother was at work, was charged with sexual assault and murder. During his trial, Benavides lawyers said the child had been hit by a car, but he was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 based on testimony by Dibdin and other physicians. VIDEO: How crime in San Francisco compares to crime in other cities Now Playing: What are your chances of becoming a victim of violent crime or property crime in San Francisco compared to other major US cities. Video: Ted Andersen, SFGATE The state Supreme Court upheld Benavides death sentence in 2005, but later agreed to hear new evidence from the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, a state-funded agency that represents condemned inmates. The center presented declarations from medical professionals, including nearly all those who testified at the trial, saying they do not believe the girl had been sexually assaulted. She apparently showed no signs of sexual assault when she was first hospitalized in Delano, and the genital swelling and injuries detected later were most likely due to repeated attempts to insert a catheter, the medical witnesses said. Jess Diamond, a pediatrician and child abuse expert who had told the jury the child had been sodomized, said in a later declaration that it is now my opinion to a high degree of medical certainty that no such assault occurred. Medical experts who had been brought in to testify for the prosecution said they had not reviewed the childs medical records beforehand. Dibdin, the forensic pathologist, reaffirmed his trial testimony, but it was called into serious doubt by those who did recant, the court said. Shown the new evidence, the district attorneys office agreed that Benavides death sentence and first-degree murder conviction must be overturned. But the office argued that the jury, based on the childs extensive injuries, would still have convicted him of second-degree murder an intentional killing, unrelated to sexual assault, that would still carry a potential life sentence. ALSO READ: Army vet who killed caregivers in Yountville lost guard license 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. The court disagreed, wiped the slate clean and said it was up to prosecutors to decide whether to retry Benavides. The evidence shown to be false was extensive and it would be an exercise in speculation to decide what jurors would have concluded if they had not heard it, Justice Carol Corrigan, a former prosecutor, said in the 7-0 ruling. She said some evidence supported the defense claim that Consuelo had been injured in an auto accident. Had the child been beaten to death, Corrigan said, it would have been by an assailant in a rage according to the testimony of an expert witness. But there was also evidence that Benavides had been calmly fixing a dinner just before the body was found, she said. District Attorney Lisa Greens office said she was reviewing the ruling. But Green recently told KGET-TV in Bakersfield that retrying Benavides would be difficult because important evidence against him had been discredited. The ruling can be viewed here: www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S111336.PDF. A trio of women-owned businesses, all of whom are participants in La Cocinas incubator kitchen, have taken over UC Berkeleys ASUC Student Union dining room for the next three months as part of its rotating pop-up. Among the new food spots are Nepalese momo-empire Binis Kitchen, which recently announced a brick-and-mortar location in SoMa; Filipino food outfit Sariwa; and Mixiote, known for its traditional Mexico City style of marinating meat, wrapping it in banana leaf and steaming it. Uganda Securities Exchange chief executive officer Paul Bwiso has called upon all employers to champion equal opportunities within their organizations as one way of helping more women join the finance sector. Bwiso was speaking this morning at Protea hotel during the Ring the Bell for gender equality forum themed Women's Role in Finance and Investment. A group of students at Uganda Securities Exchange The forum was supported by a global partnership among the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative, International Finance Cooperation, UN Global Compact, UN Women, Women in EFTs and the World Federation of Stock Exchanges. As USE, this bell-ringing ceremony creates awareness of the pivotal role the private sector can play in advancing gender equality to achieve the UNs Sustainable Development Goal Five, Bwiso said. It is essential for companies to develop and improve policies on remuneration, gender representation, sexual harassment prevention, family leave and flexible work in order to support both women and men, but to also improve terms of employment. Jacqueline Musiitwa, the executive director at Finance Sector Deepening Uganda, said gender equality remains a fundamental human right. "The state is not doing enough for gender equality, yet it is mandated to recognise the significant role that women play in society," she said. We want to celebrate women in our workplaces and society at large, reaffirming the value where all genders have access to the same opportunities. She decried the fact that the percentage of females working at the Ugandan parliament stands at only 35 per cent while the gender wage gap in the private sector stands at 39 per cent. She also revealed that in Uganda, women are less likely to own a mobile phone, be active users of mobile money (38 per cent of men use mobile money versus 25 per cent of women), have a bank account, save or borrow money and understand financial services. This is despite the fact that women form the bulk of saving groups (also known as nigiina), Saccos and investment clubs. The financial sector is largely a male-dominated world with only two female CEOs in a big financial institution, Musiitwa said. Bwiso further noted that the USE is determined to play a part in highlighting the need for gender equality among listed companies, regulators and investors in the country. He said the ringing the bell function will further help in highlighting the steps that the sector is taking in advancing gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and within the community supported by a global partnership between the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative, UN Global Compact, IFC, UN Women, Women in EFTs and the World Federation of Stock Exchanges alfredodcho@gmail.com The long debate over whether San Francisco police officers should carry Tasers has ended, only to be replaced by a similarly contentious dispute over how the city should regulate use of the electroshock weapons. A pivotal step in the rollout of the devices comes Wednesday when the Police Commission is scheduled to discuss and possibly adopt a Taser policy drafted by the Police Department after it convened several community working groups. Crucially, the commission is also scheduled to vote whether to formally oppose a measure on the citys June ballot, put forth by the pro-Taser police officers union, that would establish its own less restrictive guidelines for when the stun guns may be deployed. Proposition H, criticized by opponents as a bid to usurp the commissions oversight power, would also require San Francisco to take all necessary means to put the weapons in cops hands by the end of the year. The battle has been brewing since November, when the commission voted 4-3 to equip officers with Tasers. The Police Officers Association submitted Prop. H in part over frustration that the commission was slow to create guidelines. The dueling efforts pit Police Chief Bill Scott, who has been overseeing a slate of reforms since taking command in January 2017, against the department rank and file and Mayor Mark Farrell, a longtime union ally. Scott recently sent a letter to the citys Department of Elections blasting the ballot measure, calling it the antithesis of the spirit of reforms recommended by the Department of Justice in 2016 following several controversial police killings that prompted the resignation of Police Chief Greg Suhr that year. One of Scotts main concerns is that if the language of Prop. H is adopted, it can be amended only at the ballot box or by an ordinance adopted by a four-fifths vote of the Board of Supervisors. Farrell, a caretaker mayor who is serving from January to June following the death of former Mayor Ed Lee, wrote a statement supporting the ballot measure until such time as the Police Commission adopts a ... policy that works for our officers and community. Farrell said Tuesday he was glad to see the Police Commission hold a hearing on the rules, calling it long overdue. If the commission adopts a policy that works for both our officers and the community, I will support it, he said. Scott and other supporters of the Police Commissions work hope to enact a Taser policy before the election, which might sway voters to turn down Prop. H. Commissioner Bob Hirsch, who voted in favor of Tasers for cops, said the measures passage would undermine more than a year of broad efforts to better regulate how San Francisco officers use force in the field and prioritize de-escalation of potentially dangerous encounters. I think this ballot initiative is a huge mistake and I oppose it, Hirsch said, noting that the union had taken part in working groups to determine stun-gun policy and had offered helpful suggestions. Its just not the way that policy for the department should be set. For the life of me I dont know why the POA did it. The draft policy the commission will review Wednesday may be changed before it goes to a vote. As it is, the 24-page policy differs from Prop. H in significant ways, going into great detail about when officers can use Tasers and when they cannot, and outlining factors that must be taken into account. Under the draft rules, officers can use Tasers only under the departments use-of-force policy that emphasizes de-escalation. When it comes to suspects who are resisting arrest, the draft rules state officers are authorized to use Tasers only if a subject is violently resisting compared with actively resisting, which Prop. H would establish as a standard. John Crew, a retired attorney and police practices specialist with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that actively resisting is not a strong enough standard. He said an action as minimal as tensing up or holding on tightly to a light pole could be interpreted as active resistance. I think the chiefs proposal has a number of weaknesses in it, but having said that, if the commission adopts the proposal, it is still in concrete ways stronger than the ballot measure, Crew said. Tasers shoot a pair of dart-like electrodes that are supposed to strike a person, with a current between the electrodes then incapacitating the person. The device can also be pressed against a person in drive-stun mode, which can gain compliance through pain. 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. Proposals to acquire the weapons have been repeatedly defeated over the past decade, making the San Francisco Police Department the last major city force in the country without them. In the Bay Area, almost every police department uses Tasers, with Berkeley another notable exception. Stun guns have long been controversial due to the deaths of people who were shocked. But more recently, in San Francisco and other cities, critics have also questioned whether they are effective enough. In some cases, officers have shot people after failing to subdue them with a Taser. But supporters argue that officers need an alternative to firearms in some perilous encounters. Former Chief Suhr suggested the devices could have averted the fatal, video-recorded shooting of Mario Woods in the Bayview neighborhood in December 2015. Woods, a suspect in a stabbing who was allegedly still carrying a knife, was shot by several officers as he ignored commands and shuffled slowly along a sidewalk. The officers, whose actions are under investigation, had failed to subdue him with beanbag blasts and pepper spray. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky Taser hearing The Police Commission meeting to discuss Tasers is at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, Room 400. To read Proposition H, go to http://bit.ly/2FGzQvV. To read the citys draft Taser policy, go to http://bit.ly/2HxlHBw. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has chosen a new secretary of state, untested in diplomacy but more attuned to the president's views and way of conducting foreign policy, at a time when the United States is facing an array of delicate and potentially dangerous national security challenges. Seeking what he called "a different mind-set, a different thinking," Trump said Tuesday that he was replacing the reserved and cautious Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a former House of Representatives firebrand with strong "America First" and hard-line Republican credentials. "With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well," Trump said as he left the White House for a trip to California. Both Tillerson's departure and the choice of Pompeo had been rumored for months, amid Trump's clear unhappiness over public disagreements with Tillerson on issues ranging from Russia to the Middle East and North Korea. Although he frequently derided the rumors as "fake news," Trump said Tuesday that he had been considering replacing Tillerson for "a long time." But the reality of the move, and the suddenness with which it was done - with Tillerson returning early from a trip to Africa, only to learn via a Trump tweet early Tuesday that he had been fired - startled and confused allies around the globe and many throughout the government. In an afternoon appearance before reporters at the State Department, Tillerson's voice quavered as he vowed to ensure an "orderly and smooth transition" before his formal departure on March 31. He expressed no gratitude or good wishes to Trump, thanked his staff, and commended the strong commitment to diplomacy of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who has often served as his ally in battles with the White House. Tillerson spoke of the importance of "allies and partners" in promoting global security, and he thanked the American people for their "devotion to a free and open society, to acts of kindness towards one another, to honesty." Pompeo, whose once-active Twitter account has lain dormant since he was nominated as CIA chief 14 months ago, said in a statement that he was "deeply grateful" to Trump and that he looked "forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America's prosperity." Trump also named CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to succeed Pompeo as the agency's director. She would become the first woman to run the spy agency and could come under scrutiny during the Senate confirmation process over her past role in running one of the CIA's "black site" prisons, where detainees were subjected to interrogation methods widely denounced as torture. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he expected to hold a confirmation hearing for Pompeo in April. The closely divided chamber has stalled on confirming dozens of Trump nominees. Reaction to the fast-moving events varied widely. Thomas Countryman, one of a number of career diplomats dismissed by Tillerson early in the administration as he gutted staff and supported Trump's massive budget cuts, called him "a poor advocate for the State Department." But Tillerson, he said, "served as a Cabinet-level check on some of President Trump's worst impulses, such as wanting to 'break' the Iran nuclear agreement. . . . If the new secretary of state has a disdain for diplomacy mirroring Trump's, it will be bad for the department and the country." Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., by contrast, said he "cannot think of a better choice" than Pompeo. "No one understands the threat posed by North Korea and Iran better than he does," Graham said in a statement, and "no one has a stronger relationship with President Trump." Pompeo, assuming that the Senate confirms him in time, will face a confluence of foreign policy decisions and potential national security crises this spring that would challenge even the most experienced diplomats. A meeting between Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un, tentatively to be held before the end of May, will bring two volatile leaders face to face with the highest stakes imaginable. In mid-May, Trump has said, he will decide whether to end U.S. participation in the Iran nuclear deal, a determination that could profoundly change the United States' relationships with its closest European allies and throw down a gauntlet before Tehran. Even before those events, Trump is due to host, beginning Monday, in rapid succession, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar for complicated talks on Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Depending on how those bilateral talks go, the administration is hoping to bring the Persian Gulf leaders together for a May summit in Washington to broker an end to a regional dispute among them that has hobbled U.S. policy across the Middle East. Tillerson has been deeply involved in all of those issues while operating with a skeleton staff that is expected to dwindle even more with his departure. On these and other challenges - including Russia - he has often been publicly at odds with Trump's impulsive approach to foreign policy, counseling more traditional diplomacy rather than dependence on gut instinct. Pompeo is likely to be more amenable to Trump's way of doing business. As a congressman from Kansas and a tea party leader, he sharply opposed the Iran nuclear deal, tweeting just before his CIA nomination his determination to "roll back" the agreement. Tillerson openly acknowledged the strong disagreement between himself and the president over Iran in early August, telling reporters that "he and I have differences of views on things like JCPOA and how we should use it," using an acronym for the deal, which is officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. As CIA director, Pompeo has followed Trump's lead in falsely insisting that the intelligence community concluded that Russia's interference had not influenced the result of the 2016 presidential election. He has congratulated Trump on his boldness in agreeing to meet with North Korea's Kim, a leader who Pompeo last year suggested was a good candidate for U.S.-authored regime change. 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. Tillerson had led the charge for international backing for harsh sanctions against North Korea, but he urged step-by-step diplomacy and was clearly taken unaware and aback by Trump's quick agreement to a summit with Kim. While battling the White House, Tillerson also had to contend with Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who publicly endorsed a proposal not to certify Iran's compliance with the deal based on the notion that all of Iran's activities, not just nuclear, should be considered when deciding on certification. He also reportedly clashed with Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, himself a rumored short-timer in the White House. While Pompeo's CIA job has immersed him in intelligence related to North Korea, Iran and beyond, the new secretary of state will have no time for a diplomatic learning curve. It remains unclear whether Mattis, who often joined Tillerson in pressing Trump to be more patient and thoughtful on a range of issues, will be willing or able to continue in that role. In a statement last fall, Corker said that Tillerson, Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly "are those people that help separate our country from chaos." Since then, Kelly has come under sharp criticism in Congress - and even in the White House - for his conduct in the job. In addition to the pending North Korea talks, the administration is involved in high-stakes diplomacy with Turkey over its policy in Syria, as well as upcoming trade negotiations. Most immediately, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, is due to arrive here Monday. Tillerson, as chief executive of ExxonMobil, had long and deep relationships with Arab leaders in the Persian Gulf. But his calls for caution were sometimes challenged by presidential son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, who has formed his own ties, often outside the purview of the State Department, with MBS and with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, who is seen as the United Arab Emirates' de facto ruler. Kushner has been counting on the gulf leaders to support his still-unrevealed peace plan, a prospect that was already thrown into doubt when Trump announced - over Tillerson's objections - U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and plans to move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv. When the Saudis and Emiratis, along with Bahrain and Egypt, broke relations and instituted a boycott of neighboring Qatar last summer, Trump openly supported them, backing their charges that Qatar supported extremism. Tillerson and Mattis, who noted the close U.S. military relationship with Qatar, quickly issued evenhanded statements calling for dialogue. Eventually, after months of openly criticizing Qatar, Trump was persuaded to change course, offering to broker a deal among the nations at a summit at Camp David, Maryland. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates refused, and Tillerson and Mattis have spent much of the ensuing months voicing support for Qatar and trying to pressure the others to come to a Trump-led negotiation. --- Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonning contributed to this report. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him as the nation's top diplomat, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate outreach that includes possible talks with North Korea. Trump and Tillerson have had a fraught relationship for many months. Trump told reporters Tuesday that he ultimately decided to fire the secretary because they disagreed over strategy in key areas of foreign policy, such as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the approach to North Korea and the overall tone of U.S. diplomacy. Tillerson said he received a call from Trump around noon Tuesday, more than three hours after his firing was first reported by The Washington Post and announced minutes later in a tweet from the president. His voice quivering, Tillerson thanked career diplomats for their "honesty and integrity" and the American people for "acts of kindness," but notably did not thank Trump or praise his policies. Tillerson said he is delegating all authorities for running the State Department to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan and that he is committed to ensuring "an orderly and smooth transition." The deposed diplomat also made a clear statement about Russian aggression: "Much work remains to respond to the troubling behavior and actions on the part of the Russian government." Now Playing: President Donald Trump has "total confidence" in Mike Pompeo, his new pick for Secretary of State. Trump announced Tuesday that he has fired Tillerson and was replacing him with Mike Pompeo, currently the CIA director. (March 13) Video: Associated Press The shake-up left officials at the State Department and throughout the national security community flummoxed, and the circumstances of the firing were in dispute. More for you In the end, no one was more surprised that Tillerson was fired... White House officials said that - as Tillerson traveled through Africa last week - White House chief of staff John Kelly called to wake him up in the wee hours there Saturday to alert him that Trump had decided to replace him. Trump had told his chief of staff he wanted to announce he was replacing Tillerson on Twitter. Kelly urged him to hold off. Kelly then suggested Tillerson return to Washington as soon as possible. Tillerson cut his trip short Monday. But a top State Department spokesman offered a different version of events - and was swiftly fired for contradicting the White House. Steve Goldstein, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, said that Tillerson was "unaware of the reason" for his firing and had not spoken directly with Trump. He said Kelly told Tillerson in the call only that "he could expect a tweet" from the president, but it was not conveyed that the decision to fire him was final. "He found out that he was terminated today," Goldstein said. Goldstein's dismissal, which came just before he was scheduled to brief reporters about the shake-up at Foggy Bottom, was confirmed by a State Department official. West Wing officials had accused him in recent weeks of privately criticizing White House decisions to reporters. Asked Tuesday about the accusation, Goldstein said: "I spoke for the secretary of state. That was part of my role as the undersecretary." The president and his top diplomat reached a breaking point over the past week, and media inquiries about the fraught relationship accelerated the timing of the ouster, White House officials said. After Kelly told him he was being let go, Tillerson asked that Trump hold off on announcing the news until he had returned to the United States, and Kelly agreed, one White House official said. Trump told reporters that he had been considering removing Tillerson for "a long time." "I actually got along well with Rex, but really it was a different mind-set, a different thinking," Trump said Tuesday as he departed the White House for a trip to California. "When you look at the Iran deal, I think it's terrible. I guess he thought it was OK . . . . So we were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well." Trump selected CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to succeed Pompeo as the agency's director. She would become the first woman to run the spy agency. Both Haspel and Pompeo would need to be confirmed by the Senate at a time when the closely divided chamber has stalled on confirming dozens of Trump nominees. Haspel, in particular, could come under added scrutiny over her past role running one of the CIA "black site" prisons where detainees were subjected to waterboarding and other interrogation methods widely denounced as torture. The announcement of Tillerson's departure sent shock waves across the globe. Many U.S. diplomats and foreign leaders reacted with disbelief because they assumed Tillerson had finally begun to settle into his job after rumors of his ouster had swirled for months - even taking on a nickname, Rexit. In a statement first issued to The Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel. He highlighted Pompeo's educational background, graduating first in his class from West Point and with honors from Harvard Law School, and celebrated the "historic milestone" of Haspel becoming the first woman to lead the CIA. Pompeo said in a statement that he was "deeply grateful" to Trump and said he looked "forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America's prosperity." Trump also had words of praise for Tillerson despite their well-documented rifts: "Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well." In his statement, Goldstein said: "The secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security and other areas. He will miss his colleagues greatly at the Department of State, and the foreign ministers he's worked with throughout the world. The secretary did not speak to the president, and is unaware of the reason. He is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and believes strongly that public service is a noble calling." The president has long clashed with Tillerson, who he believes is "too establishment" in his thinking. Trump felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for possible high-stakes talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said. Tillerson was especially frustrated when Trump last Thursday unilaterally agreed to the meeting with the North Korean leader Kim while Tillerson was traveling in Africa, according to officials familiar with his thinking. Tillerson had long expressed interest in a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with North Korea, and was upset to have been left totally out of the loop when Trump decided to move forward, according to a White House official. Tillerson was routinely undermined in his post, including by Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser who took charge of the Middle East and Mexico diplomatic portfolios. Tillerson also clashed frequently with national security adviser H.R. McMaster and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, among others. State Department officials took notice - and were chagrined - that Pompeo did not cite Tillerson when he appeared on television shows Sunday to explain the North Korea developments. Although he frequently complained to colleagues that Trump was too mercurial and impulsive, and voiced frustration that the president struggled to focus during meandering conversations, Tillerson was determined to stay in his job and would not quit, according to one person who has discussed these concerns with the secretary. Tillerson's stance, this person said, was: "If he wants me gone, he'll fire me." On the flight back from Nigeria, Tillerson appeared to break with the White House in his assessment of the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. He singled out Russia as responsible for the attack, echoing the finger-pointing of the British government. "It came from Russia," Tillerson said, according to the Associated Press. "I cannot understand why anyone would take such an action. But this is a substance that is known to us and does not exist widely." Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned the attack as "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible," and expressed solidarity with Britain, but would not say whether the United States believes Russia was behind it. Pompeo long has been mentioned as Tillerson's most likely replacement. As CIA director, the former Republican lawmaker from Kansas developed a warm relationship with Trump, often delivering the President's Daily Brief to Trump in person and racing over to the West Wing at a moment's notice to field the president's queries on a range of topics. Pompeo often is found in a host of meetings that do not necessarily deeply involve his agency, simply because Trump likes him, said one White House official. 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. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was initially mentioned as a replacement for Pompeo, but Trump opted to promote from within by elevating Haspel. White House officials, still reeling from the loss of a Republican Senate seat in Alabama, were reluctant to tap Cotton and create a vacancy in Arkansas, and they thought Cotton could be more useful to Trump as a loyal ally in the Senate, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. Speculation about Tillerson's ouster has come in waves, including in October after NBC News reported that the secretary of state had called Trump a "moron." Tillerson did not deny the remark. Tillerson, 65, spent his career at ExxonMobil, climbing the ranks at the oil giant to become chief executive officer, where he cut deals across the Middle East and in Mexico. Having never worked in government before being named secretary of state, he struggled to adapt to Washington's ways and the administration's culture of backstabbing. Tillerson emerged as one of the strongest voices in the administration critical of Russia. For months, he has been saying Russia clearly meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, even as Trump shied away from any critical remarks. Trump seemed to resent pressure to stay the course on such issues as China's trade practices, the war in Afghanistan and the Iran nuclear deal, those people said. Tillerson pushed Trump to preserve the Iran accord, at least for now, with a July pronouncement that Iran was meeting its end of the bargain - which curbs Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions. Trump said in a Wall Street Journal interview that he regretted making that determination. In October, Trump kept in place the sanctions waivers, but warned he may not continue the policy when the next review is due in May. Although Tillerson supported the approach to the war in Afghanistan that Trump announced last year, he felt no need to frame U.S. goals in the same maximal terms as the commander in chief. Where Trump proclaimed on Aug. 21 that "our troops will fight to win," Tillerson laid out a much more modest agenda. --- The Washington Post;s Robert Costa, Josh Dawsey, Karen DeYoung, Carol Morello and Brian Murphy contributed to this report. --- Video Embed Code Video: President Trump spoke March 13, after it was announced he ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and planned to tap CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.(The Washington Post) Embed code: Video: President Trump asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to step aside after months of disagreement, and has replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo.(The Washington Post) Embed code: Video: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did not directly respond to an Oct. 4 news report that he referred to President Trump as a "moron," saying, "I'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that."(The Washington Post) Embed code: We all agree: California is facing an unprecedented housing crisis, the result of insufficient residential construction for more than 30 years. But its specifically the lack of affordable housing that has made the situation so dire for hundreds of thousands of families, prompting many to leave the state or, worse, end up homeless on our streets. It is true that we need to incentivize our cities to build more housing. But we must do so while locking in affordability and anti-displacement protections to ensure that the Bay Area doesnt end up being further divided economically and the poor forced to commute greater and greater distances because they can no longer afford to live here. The city of Berkeley has added an estimated 2,000 new units over the past decade. We require all new housing developments to have affordable units or pay an in-lieu fee that goes into an affordable housing fund, and we are exploring the development of vacant sites and acquiring buildings for affordable housing. We also have some of the strongest tenant protections in the country, including rent control that has allowed many of our elders to age in place. Given the ongoing crisis, state Sen. Scott Wieners housing bill SB827 comes at an important, right time and is extremely well-intentioned. It would allow for much denser housing, especially around BART stations and within a quarter mile of a high-density transit corridor, such as a bus stop where buses stop every 15 minutes. SB827 would result in a flurry of construction. Certainly building more housing over the long term will lower rents. But it may take a decade or more for the effect of new market-rate construction to trickle down in terms of lower rents. If the state wants to lock in land-use policy for cities, it must also lock in stronger affordability requirements because not all cities have rent control. In fact, most dont. This can be done by demanding that a specific percentage of every development built near transit be below-market-rate units, even in cities that dont require them. It makes sense for people to live around transit hubs: It reduces traffic on our congested freeways and cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions, the leading source of climate change. And, after being amended, Wieners bill is certainly more palatable to housing activists like me who are working to prevent working-class families from being displaced by our regions run away housing costs. But without the affordability component, the bill will do nothing to protect longtime residents from being displaced. Gentrification may be a controversial word, but theres no denying that San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and even Richmonds demographics are changing. In 1990, African Americans made up 19 percent of Berkeleys residents, yet today they make up less than 8 percent. As they leave, longtime businesses are lost and those former residents often must endure longer and longer commutes to jobs in communities where they now cannot afford to live. Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle As we build, we must ask ourselves whether we are building for just the privileged (and mostly white) residents or for all: artists, people of color and working-class families who cant afford $3,500-a-month rent for a one-bedroom apartment. Sen. Wieners proposed amendments to prevent demolition of rent-controlled housing are a good step forward, but they do not go far enough. Not all cities have strong demolition policies, which means it will be easier in those communities for tenants to be displaced. One way to strengthen eviction protections would be to mirror Berkeleys strong demolition policy, which requires relocation assistance to tenants until the new building is built and explicitly prohibits properties where there has been an Ellis Act eviction in the last five years. The policy also applies to properties where there are verified cases of harassment of residents or illegal evictions within the past three years. We all love the Bay Area for its diversity, charm, great climate and countless opportunities. Lets make sure the legislation we pass does not come at the expense of the most vulnerable among us. How did West Virginia teachers win a 5 percent salary increase earlier this month? Its not simply that they walked out of school. They resolved to stay out of school, until the state met their demands. And that contains some important lessons for Wednesdays scheduled national student walkout to protest gun violence. Students are planning to leave their schools at 10 a.m. on March 14 for 17 minutes, in honor of the 17 people murdered on Feb. 14 at a Florida high school. But if the students want to do something that really reduces the gun carnage in this country, theyll need to remain out of school for a lot longer than that. And the rest of us will have to rally behind them. Thats what happened during the nine-day teacher strike in West Virginia, where parents opened their doors to kids whose own parents had to go to work. Churches and community centers provided meals. And thousands of citizens went to the state Capitol to support the teachers, whose average salary around $45,000 ranked 48th among the 50 states. And guess what? They got a raise. And they did so in a Republican-dominated state, where teachers dont have a right to strike or even to bargain collectively. Defying their own union leaders, they used an enormous Facebook group to sustain the walkout until they won. They also drew on West Virginias proud history of labor strikes, especially in the coal industry. We come from an area that is known for standing up for what they believe in, one teacher explained. Were just reviving the movement that was started years ago. Thats exactly what our students need to do. Theres a rich history of student strikes in this country, too, dating to the Great Depression. And it reminds us how much power kids can wield, if they resolve to stay together and, most of all, to stay out of school. In 1936, students in Alameda walked out to protest the firing of a popular school superintendent. They picketed City Hall, while a local hotel sponsored a dance to help them raise funds for gasoline and other strike supplies. Three days later, the superintendent was reinstated and the students returned to school. The Alameda strike made national news, inspiring other walkouts around the country. In St. Helens, Ore., students struck to protest the dismissal of their own superintendent. Alameda students won, why cant we? they chanted. The next great round of student strikes occurred in the 1960s, echoing nationwide protests surrounding civil rights and the Vietnam War. In 1962, 200,000 African American students walked out in support of school desegregation; two years later, half a million students in New York City did the same. As the decade continued, strikes focused more on schools curricula and rules than on their racial composition. In 1967, African American students in Philadelphia marched out to demand instruction in black history and the right to wear Afro-style clothing; the following year, 20,000 Chicano students in East Los Angeles walked out to demand Mexican American history. They also insisted on the right to speak Spanish, which was prohibited everywhere except in Spanish class. By 1969, 59 percent of American high schools and, more remarkably, 56 percent of junior high schools reported some form of political unrest. Not all of these actions involved strikes, and not all of them succeeded. But they were more likely to succeed if they involved strikes, which forced the hand of officials like nothing else. Take heed, #NeverAgain students! True, the Florida Legislature recently passed a bill requiring a three-day waiting period for gun buyers and raising the minimum age for gun purchases from 18 to 21. But the same measure rejected a proposed ban on assault weapons, like the one used in the Parkland massacre. And in Congress? Nothing doing. Despite prodding from President Trump, who surprised everyone by demanding stricter gun measures, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that his chamber would focus on a banking bill instead of on guns. Students staged a sit-in outside his office Wednesday, when eight were arrested. Enough is enough! they chanted. Not one more! Now imagine hundreds of thousands of students doing the same thing, all across our battered and broken land. If they refused to return to school until Congress acted, Congress would act. Not everyone would get what they wanted, of course. But surely theyd get more than they have now. As Frederick Douglass wrote on the eve of the Civil War, Power concedes nothing without a demand. And our gun powers wont concede either, until our students demand that they do. Enough is enough. But 17 minutes wont be enough to change anything. Now that the filing deadline has passed for most congressional races in California, the field is taking shape for the June 5 primary. But for Democrats, who are targeting seven Republican-held districts they say are key to retaking the House, the deadline failed to answer two big questions: Whats the partys message beyond, Im more anti-President Trump than you? And, perhaps more important: How many of the candidates are going to drop out? Because if some dont withdraw soon, their sheer number means Democratic candidates will be competing against one another instead of against Republicans. The answers to these questions will determine whether the Democratic Party has a credible chance of winning enough California districts to help gain the 24 seats it needs to flip the House. First, according to some political veterans, their message needs to be one that isnt just a pronoun, a verb and Trump. The Democrats dont have one and thats part of the problem, said Darry Sragow, a longtime Democratic strategist who is now the publisher of the nonpartisan California Target Book, which analyzes congressional and legislative races across the state. There is no coherent, appealing message. That lack of an overarching theme may lead to Democratic candidates being left on their own when it comes to crafting campaign messages. Because the national party has failed to advance an agenda that says, We stand for X, Y and Z, we have to be very surgical about it, said Dave Jacobson, a Democratic strategist who is running a dozen congressional and statewide California campaigns. Every race is different. And even though Millennial voters who are a key piece of the Democrats strategy may be overwhelmingly opposed to the presidents policies, we know that you cant just say, Trump sucks, said Ben Wessel, deputy political director of NextGen America, the San Francisco organization funded by billionaire San Francisco activist Tom Steyer. NextGen is spending $3.5 million to turn out voters under 35 in the targeted congressional districts. That can be the hook, but youve got to put some meat on it and say, Trump sucks on the environment. And here are his lackeys in Congress that support him, Wessel said. Over the past past year, NextGen has surveyed roughly 15,000 voters younger than 35 in the targeted districts. Their top concern is the rising cost of higher education. Immigration reform particularly protection for Dreamers, who are in the United States illegally after coming here as children is second. Surveys show it is of particular concern in the Democratic-targeted district of Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock (Stanislaus County), where 40 percent of the residents and 28 percent of the registered voters are Latino. Some Democrats believe they should concentrate on local issues instead of riffing off the latest Washington scandal. For example, voters in Denhams district are concerned about homelessness, according to focus groups and voter surveys, said Katie Merrill, a veteran Democratic strategist who is advising Fight Back California, a political action committee focused on the seven key congressional races. Five of those districts are in Southern California and two are in the Central Valley, and all of them went for Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016. Dont talk about Trump. Dont talk about Russia, Merrill said. Talk about what youre going to do to bring down the cost of housing. In the targeted Southern California districts currently held by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Costa Mesa (Orange County), and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), who is not seeking re-election, internal polls show that concern about environmental issues particularly since the Trump administration has proposed loosening rules on offshore drilling is one of the few that cuts across party lines. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call,Inc. Democrats are traditionally opposed to drilling off the coast of California, but voters may not hear them talking about that and other local issues if there are too many of them talking. In several districts, Democrats have what state party Chairman Eric Bauman calls an overpopulation problem too many candidates. Trumps election inspired many Democrats to run for Congress and many of them are well-funded, unlike first-time candidates of the past. With a lot of money, they can remain in the race even if theyre not gaining traction with voters. And polls commissioned by Merrills group show that voters arent able to distinguish among the glut of Democrats. That could be an issue in a primary election, in which the top two finishers advance to the general election, regardless of party. We are facing a situation in three of these seven districts that Democrats might get shut out of the election, Merrill said. All of these Democrats got into this because they wanted to win back these seats so they could be a Democratic check on Trump. But the ones that didnt get the (state) party endorsement (last month) and arent raising money need to take hard look at continuing. We need to thin the herd. Merrill is concerned about the Orange County district represented by Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, who is retiring. Two former Republican office holders former Assemblywoman Young Kim, R-Fullerton, and former state Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County) are leading in a poll released Friday by Fight Back. Behind them is a demolition derby of nearly a dozen Democrats. When Fight Back included fewer Democratic candidates in its survey, the Democrats had a much better chance at finishing in the top two spots. Polls show a similar dynamic in the race for Rohrabachers seat. Democrats are concerned because Scott Baugh, the former Republican Assembly leader and ex-chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, has jumped into the race. According to the Fight Back poll, Baugh is even with the top two Democrats in the race, once again raising the scenario of a Dem shutout in the general election, Merrill said. The challenge now for those who want to flip Republican seats is persuading some Democrats to step aside. It isnt an easy conversation to have with someone who may have raised several hundred thousand dollars for a campaign. Just ask Bauman, the party chairman. What I typically tell them is Theres an opportunity before us thats really bigger and more important than all of us, Bauman said. If your real concern, if your real interest is in helping ensure that we have a check on Donald Trump, then look closely at your campaign. Look closely at your resources. Then ask yourself: Do I honestly have a shot? There are gritty police procedurals, and there are the pretty variety, for lack of a better word that doesnt conveniently rhyme. The Wire was gritty. Murder, She Wrote was pretty. So is Instinct, a procedural premiering on CBS on Sunday, March 18, starring Alan Cumming as a former CIA operative lured back to law enforcement by the New York Police Department. Cumming plays Dr. Dylan Reinhart, who quit the agency for a stand-up gig teaching abnormal psychology in college. Through a clunky and not very credible maneuver, Reinhart ends up consulting on a serial murder case which seems to link to his book, Freaks. He is teamed with NYPD Detective Lizzie Needham (Bojana Novakovic), who is still wrestling with the aftereffects of a personal loss from a year ago. Reinhart has his own personal battles, but he doesnt regret leaving the CIA a few years earlier when he met and fell in love with his now husband, Andy (Daniel Ings), a bar owner. The crimes created by the series writers to occupy Reinhart and Needham arent very credible, which makes it hard to suspend disbelief. But pretty procedurals dont want to scare viewers that much. Theres no sense of threat to the crimes Needham and Reinhart encounter in the first three episodes, any more than we felt threatened by 12 years of murders in quaint and fictitious Cabot Cove, Maine. The series, created by Michael Rauch and based on James Pattersons novel Murder Games, isnt going to revolutionize broadcast TV, but it has an appealing sense of fun. Cumming is the reason youd want to watch Instinct, just as Tony Shalhoub made Monk and Angela Lansbury made Murder, She Wrote. Cumming and Novakovic also have terrific chemistry, the kind that David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel had in Bones. Cummings character is rather overfreighted with issues involving his father (John Doman). Dylan believes his father has been withholding love and approval for all of Dylans life. The moment comes dangerously close to the antiquated cliche that people become gay because of an overprotective mother and an emotionally unavailable father. Tell it to Dr. Phil, as Judge Judy might advise. Of course it is groundbreaking to have a lead character in a drama who is gay, but the news is delivered in a matter-of-fact manner, not overhyped with an overture and a lot of (rainbow) flag waving. Were more excited that Cumming gets a chance to carry his own show with a character distinctly different from Eli Gold on The Good Wife. The shows title is a little odd, though, because Reinhart doesnt act on instinct, but, rather, on the basis of keen observational skills and a post-Holmesian ability to size a person up in a matter of seconds. In spite of its overall lack of imagination, Instinct has promise, but more important, it has Alan Cumming. 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 Instinct: Dramatic series. 8 p.m. Sunday, March 18, CBS. A Zimbabwean policeman has been sentenced to 10 days in prison for allegedly accusing former President Robert Mugabe for being too old to rule Zimbabwe. According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Sergeant Thompson Joseph Mloyie, was convicted for contravening the Police Act. The policeman said Robert Mugabe is too old to lead Zimbabwe and was married to a prostitute Sgt. Mloyie, who has been on trial since January allegedly contravened paragraph 35 of the Schedule of the Police Act, Chapter 11:10 (acting in an unbecoming manner prejudicial to discipline or reasonably likely to bring discredit to the Police Service). The policeman, who appeared before Superintendent Makunike at Harare Central Police Station, allegedly discredited the police service when he uttered remarks denigrating the former president and his wife. When he was arrested, he faced charges of undermining the authority of or insulting the president in contravention of Section 33 (2) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23. Mloyie was represented by Jeremiah Bamu and Noble Chinhanu of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. According to the lawyers group, police claimed that Sgt. Mloyie said, President Mugabe achembera haachakwanisi kutonga nyika ino. Ndiye arikukonzera (sic) kutambura munyika ino uye akaroora hure Grace Mugabe. (President Mugabe is too old and incapable of leading this country and is the cause of the suffering going on in this country and is married to a prostitute, Grace Mugabe. During the trial, according to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the ZRP lined up two witnesses - Sergeant Stanley Makunda and Sergeant Amos Muchenjero - who are all members of the police service to testify against Mloyie. Several people have in the past been facing similar accusations. Mugabe fell from grace when he was removed from office by then Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa with the help of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. Mnangagwa is now the president of Zimbabwe. The ZDF claimed that it wanted to get rid of criminals, surrounding Mugabe, who had taken over all presidential duties in an effort to ensure that his wife succeeded him. Mugabe says he was unconstitutionally removed from office and has urged the Southern African Development Community, which initially said there was no coup in Zimbabwe, to intervene. He is currently linked to the National Patriotic Front led by Retired Brigadier General Ambrose Mutinhiri and some of the people who were targeted by the military in the coup last November. They include Professor Jonathan Moyo, Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao and several others. Mutinhiri, however, says Mugabe and expelled members of a Zanu PF faction known as Generation 40 are not part of the National Patriotic Front. Two Bay Area photographers with a knack for capturing wondrous shots of coastal landscapes have been named to the Nikon100 List of the world's top-100 rising stars in photography. Nicholas Steinberg is particularly fond of shooting fog and is the creator of the "fog wave," an innovative concept in landscape and long-exposure photography. On his website, Matt Walker calls himself a "long-exposure junkie" who likes "to slow time down with filters" when possible. He says he usually works night-owl hours from sunset to sunrise. Walker loves to hike coastal mountain ranges in the hope of finding "undiscovered treasures" to photograph. See the above gallery for examples of Steinberg and Walker's photos. In a piece last year for Bored Panda, Steinberg explained how he shoots "fog waves" during summer months when the marine layer blankets San Francisco and the coast. "The only option is to hit up the high vantage points, one of the best being Mt. Tamalpais ... What I discovered from hundreds of trips up there is, when the fog rolls through and is at the perfect height and density, it will create wave-like movements as it contours the land," Steinberg wrote. After much experimentation with long shutter speeds and neutral density filters, Steinberg was able to capture the buttery smooth dream-like effects that he calls fog waves. A single shot can require up to a two-minute shutter time. MORE: What's a fogbow and why did one appear over the bay? Steinberg's work has been featured in National Geographic Travel, U.S Interior, Yosemite Conservancy, The Weather Channel, Spiegel, Colossal, Petapixel, DP Review, Digital Photography magazine, Digital Camera World, Practical Photography and other publications. "The #Nikon100 List" identifies photographers on Instagram who are "creating inspiring work and telling amazing stories" with Nikon equipment, according to the company. The campaign is part of Nikon's 100th anniversary celebration. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Tuesday that they cant put a number on how many targets avoided arrest because of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaafs public warning before an operation, confirming the complaints of an ICE spokesman who resigned over what he saw as false assertions by officials. ICEs spokesman in San Francisco, James Schwab, told The Chronicle Monday that he quit in frustration over statements by ICE chief Thomas Homan and Attorney General Jeff Sessions that 800 people had eluded the agency due to Schaaf. Schwab said that based on his understanding, the number had to be far lower. The mayors Feb. 24 warning came on the eve of a four-day Northern California immigration sweep that netted 232 arrests and was designed to counter Californias pro-immigrant sanctuary laws. Liz Johnson, an ICE spokeswoman, said in a written statement that we disagree with Mr. Schwab on this issue. But at the same time, she verified his main contention by saying the agency cant put a number on missed arrests. Even one criminal alien on the street can put public safety at risk and, as Director Homan stated, while we cant put a number on how many targets avoided arrest due to the mayors warning, it clearly had an impact, Johnson said. While we disagree with Mr. Schwab on this issue, we appreciate his service and wish him well. A spokeswoman for Sessions did not directly address the assertion that 800 people got away thanks to Schaaf, but ripped the mayors warning. Does anyone seriously dispute that the mayor attempted to thwart the efforts of federal law enforcement to apprehend wanted aliens in Oakland many of whom had previously been arrested or convicted for crimes ranging from drug trafficking to domestic abuse to child pornography? said the Justice Department spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores. But if anyone wants to have a public argument over precisely how many dangerous criminal aliens eluded arrest because of the mayors irresponsible actions, we are happy to have that debate. According to the ICE spokeswoman, though, the number is not known. Schwab, who was hired in 2015 and resigned last week, told The Chronicle he had wanted the agency to correct the assertion that 800 people had escaped because of Schaaf, and didnt want to deflect media questions about it. I quit because I didnt want to perpetuate misleading facts, Schwab said. I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didnt agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit. The focus of Schwabs concern were statements by Trump administration officials that shifted. On the third day of the Northern California operation, Homan 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. The next day, Homan went further, saying, 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. On March 7, Sessions said in a speech in Sacramento that he had learned from Homan that ICE failed to make 800 arrests that they would have made if the mayor had not acted as she did. Those are 800 wanted aliens that are now at large in that community. A day after that, President Trump said ICE had been prepared to arrest close to 1,000 people before Schaafs warning. That same day, though, Homan said in an appearance on Fox News that many criminal aliens were not apprehended because of that warning. I cant put a specific number on it. Schaaf praised Schwabs action, saying, I commend Mr. Schwab for speaking the truth while under intense pressure to lie. Our democracy depends on public servants who act with integrity and hold transparency in the highest regard. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said in a statement that this administration has a deeply troubling track record of half-truths, false statements and outright lies aimed at demonizing and scapegoating immigrant families. I commend this individual for refusing to perpetuate misleading information. A riddle: An Orange County man gets a ticket for toll evasion on Feb. 7. The ticket states he was driving on I-680, between Walnut Creek and San Ramon, without a valid transponder. On the date of the alleged violation, the man in question says he was attending a class at a senior center in Fountain Valley, northeast of Huntington Beach. His car was in the lot. What went wrong? Answer: Technology. Jim McFarlin of Huntington Beach recounted his strange ticketing tale to Jim Radcliffe for a Saturday column in the Orange County Register. McFarlin wrote to Radcliffe: "The agency offers a means of contesting the Notice of Toll Evasion, and I will complete and return it. But I wanted to first ask you if this group is, to your knowledge, legitimate." Legitimate, indeed. Radcliffe reached out to John Goodwin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, who explained a glitch in the ticketing system likely accounts for McFarlin's headache. To drive on Contra Costa Express Lanes, one's FasTrak transponder is charged. If a vehicle lacks a transponder, cameras photograph the license plate number and send it to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which automatically transmits and sends violation notices. According to Radcliffe, "The cameras do fail in rare cases, oftentimes because a license-plate holder obscures a letter or number." Goodwin told McFarlin to contest the ticket with customer service, and to personally give him a call if they don't make it right. Toll evasion is a major problem in the Bay Area, where vehicles with paper plates cost the region about $13 million in tolls in 2016. That year, more than 2.5 million vehicles passed through FasTrak lanes at seven state-owned bridges without license plates or toll tags, and without stopping to pay in cash a nearly fivefold increase from a decade ago. Things should change next year when a new state law requiring newly purchased cars to have visible and unique temporary plates goes into effect. Michael Cabanatuan, a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer, contributed to this report. Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf. The San Francisco spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement resigned after the agencys recent Northern California sweep, saying he couldnt continue to do his job after Trump administration officials made false public statements about a key aspect of the operation. James Schwab told The Chronicle on Monday that he was frustrated by repeated statements by officials, including U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that roughly 800 undocumented immigrants escaped arrest because of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaafs Feb. 24 warning to the public about the four-day operation, issued the night before federal officers began staking out homes and knocking on doors. Schwab wanted the agency to correct the number, which he understood to be far lower, and didnt want to deflect media questions about it, he said. I quit because I didnt want to perpetuate misleading facts, said Schwab, 38, who was hired in 2015 and resigned last week. I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didnt agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit. Schwab said the statements about immigrants evading arrest, which were widely quoted in an array of media outlets, were misleading because we were not ever going to be able to capture 100 percent of the target list of roughly 1,000 undocumented immigrants in Northern California. I didnt feel like fabricating the truth to defend ourselves against (Schaafs) actions was the way to go about it, he said. We were never going to pick up that many people. To say that 100 percent are dangerous criminals on the street, or that those people werent picked up because of the misguided actions of the mayor, is just wrong. ICE officials confirmed Schwabs resignation, saying Monday that he recently announced his departure from the office of public affairs, but they would not discuss specifics, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters. Schaaf praised Schwabs action. I commend Mr. Schwab for speaking the truth while under intense pressure to lie, she said. Our democracy depends on public servants who act with integrity and hold transparency in the highest regard. Asked about the disputed figures, an ICE spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., Jennifer Elzea, did not respond directly in an email. But she suggested that 800 immigrants had not evaded arrest because of Schaafs warning. She referred to a quote from the head of ICE, Thomas Homan, who on the third day of the operation 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. The ICE operation, called Keep Safe, began Feb. 25 and was intended to send a message to California leaders that they could not shield immigrants from federal law despite state and local sanctuary policies. ICE reported arresting 232 undocumented immigrants in regions from the Central Valley to the northern reaches of the state. On the night of Feb. 24, Schaaf announced that the sweep was imminent, saying she had learned about the operation from confidential sources and felt compelled to alert the community. The Trump administration was furious, saying the warning harmed the operation and endangered ICE officers in the field. But officials statements about the consequences of the warning have shifted. After Homan said, I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us, he went further, saying on Feb. 28, 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. Sessions, speaking in Sacramento on Wednesday, said he had learned from Homan that ICE failed to make 800 arrests that they would have made if the mayor had not acted as she did. Those are 800 wanted aliens that are now at large in that community. A day later, President Trump said ICE had been prepared to arrest close to 1,000 people before Schaafs warning. That same day, Homan said in an appearance on Fox News that many criminal aliens were not apprehended because of that warning. I cant put a specific number on it. Schwab said that as a public face of the government, he found himself in an untenable situation. Its the job of a public affairs officer to offer transparency for the agency you work for. I felt like we werent doing that, he said. Ive never been in a situation when Ive been asked to ignore the facts because it was more convenient. It was my first time being asked to do that. The International AIDS Conference will return to San Francisco in 2020, 30 years after the event the worlds largest HIV/AIDS meeting was last held in the Bay Area, organizers announced Tuesday. After the 1990 conference in San Francisco, the United States barred all travel into the country by people with HIV. The policy was widely criticized by global leaders in HIV and public health, and the International AIDS Society refused to hold the conference in the U.S. while the ban was in place. In 2010, the travel prohibition was lifted. Two years later, the conference returned to the U.S., taking place in Washington, D.C. The 2020 meeting will be hosted by San Francisco in partnership with Oakland. Its been all over: South Africa, Amsterdam coming up this summer. Its been in Morocco, its been in Australia, said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who introduced the legislation that ended the ban. Ive been pushing for it to come to the Bay Area, because this has been the epicenter (of the AIDS epidemic) for so long. The last conference in San Francisco was tumultuous. Protesters in black stormed the meetings at Moscone Center to protest the ban, which had just been introduced. At the time, HIV was viewed as a death sentence. There were no drugs to treat the virus, and people who were infected almost inevitably developed AIDS and died. Many of the conversations at the international meetings revolved around the furious hunt for drug therapies and how best to care for people with HIV and AIDS in the meantime. In the decades since, antiviral medications have been developed that now make HIV a chronic but survivable disease, and also help prevent new infections. The global conversation has shifted toward finding a cure, and toward making sure people have access to care. In San Francisco and many other cities, campaigns are under way to stop the spread of HIV. Its certainly time for San Francisco to be so proud to be hosting this conference, said Dr. Diane Havlir, chief of the division of HIV/AIDS at San Francisco General Hospital, who co-chaired the conference in Washington, D.C. She said HIV is still arguably the most important epidemic of our time, affecting 37 million people worldwide living with the disease, plus another 2 million people newly infected every year. We have these aspirations. We want to halt new infections, keep people with HIV living healthy lives and ultimately cure the disease, she said. All those make for just a fantastic gathering and meeting. The International AIDS Conference, which is held every other year, typically hosts about 15,000 attendees, including scientists, doctors and other health care providers as well as patients and patient advocates. This years meeting in Amsterdam is July 23-28. The 2020 meeting will take place July 6-10, with events in San Francisco and Oakland, said Joe Hollendoner, chief executive of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which helped lead the bid to bring the conference back to the Bay Area. Lee said one advantage of bringing the conference back to the Bay Area is that local HIV/AIDS leaders in particular from communities of color that are hardest hit by HIV who havent been able to afford going to meetings in other countries will be able to join the global conversation for the first time in decades. Theres a whole history of why this is an important conference for people of color, who dont get a chance to travel to the international conferences, Lee said. I know people in the Bay Area, theyre going to be really excited. The city of Mountain View is reportedly planning to send two dozen police officers to staff a private, scheduled appearance by conservative pundit Ann Coulter on Tuesday evening. As KGO reports, Coulter will be delivering a roughly hour-long speech at the IFES Hall in Mountain View sponsored by the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley at 7 p.m. The conservative group routinely holds monthly meetings with guest speakers, but this event could be its biggest yet, due in part to Coulter's controversial opinions. As the Palo Alto Daily Post reported late last week, the group believes that Coulter is someone "who can talk about the things that are important to us," such as fiscal responsibility and national defense. The head of Liberty Forum, Joel Fine, continued, adding that "Ann's a very strong, outspoken, articulate advocate for a lot of those values." The public information officer in Mountain View, Katie Nelson, told KGO that the city has consulted with neighboring police departments for security purposes, and that they've "designated a free speech zone if anyone chooses to exercise their right to free speech." RELATED: UC Berkeley orders cancellation of Ann Coulter speech Prohibited parking signs are already posted along Stierlin Road ahead of Tuesday's speech. Only residents living next to the IFES Hall and those with tickets to the event will be permitted to enter the parts of Stierlin Road that will be closed Tuesday. As the Liberty Forum's Facebook page for the event states, 600 tickets to Coulter's appearance have sold out. "Liberals: head for your safe spaces!" the event description continues. "Ann Coulter is coming to town, and she won't be pulling any punches. The ONLY WAY you will be able to see Ann in the Bay Area is through this Exclusive Liberty Forum event!" Coulter's last scheduled Bay Area appearance, which was due to take place last April in Berkeley, did not happen because UC Berkeley administrators said they could find no "safe and suitable venue" for the event. Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira. The San Francisco Sheriffs Department allowed federal immigration officers into one of its jails to interview an inmate, a violation of jail policy and California sanctuary law, department officials said Monday. Department policy broadly restricts cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, forbidding most communication with the agency and barring access to inmates, some of whom the government would like to detain for potential deportation. The goal of sanctuary policies, which conservatives and the Trump administration have called dangerous, is to convince undocumented immigrants that they can engage with local authorities without fear that their legal status will be an issue. But Thursday, sheriffs officials said, a pair of ICE officers entered separate San Francisco jails, requested to speak with two inmates, and were given access to interview rooms. While one inmate declined to speak with ICE, another inmate participated in the interview. The inmate who was interviewed had been informed by the Sheriffs Department that ICE was seeking to detain him upon his release from jail. But San Franciscos citywide sanctuary ordinance does not allow inmates to be turned over to ICE in most cases. In an interview Monday, Sheriff Vicki Hennessy said the departments policy had been in place before her 2015 election. She said it appeared ICE was testing our defenses and they found some weak points. The incident is under investigation, she said. My staff made a mistake and I have to hold myself accountable, she said. I apologize on behalf of the department. I feel embarrassed by it. Ive taken steps to make sure it never happens again. Its not clear what was discussed in the interview, and the inmate was not identified. The incident came one week after a four-day ICE sweep in Northern California, which netted 232 arrests and was designed to counter sanctuary laws. The interview appeared to be a violation of Californias Truth Act, which was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016, said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a professor and immigration expert at Santa Clara University School of Law. The law mandates that before any interview between ICE and a county jail inmate, a consent form be provided describing the reasoning for the interview, that the interview is voluntary and that an attorney can be present. Either whats happened here is a deliberate opposition to San Franciscos non-cooperation policy by sheriffs deputies, or ignorance of that policy, he said, and ICE doing what it does, which is to attempt to take advantage of that ignorance. The Sheriffs Department did not provide the inmate with a consent form, officials said, because its policy doesnt allow ICE officers to have access at all. After learning of the interview, Hennessy reiterated the policy to leaders in the jail, and issued a department-wide bulletin on the matter, said Nancy Crowley, a department spokeswoman. Sheriffs Department watch commanders are communicating this directive at muster at each of three daily shifts for one week, Crowley said. Jeff Adachi, the citys public defender, said the man who was interviewed was a client of his office. He said the officers asked the man questions about his background and nationality and tried to get him to sign a form. The office is trying to figure out what the form was and determine whether the inmate signed it, Adachi said. He said the inmate does not read English or Spanish. How sheriffs deputies are not aware of our sanctuary policies is quite frankly beyond me, Adachi said. He said he informed Hennessy of the visit last week and was assured that the problem would be addressed. ICE sent 99 requests for San Francisco to hold or turn over undocumented inmates in 2016, and 469 requests in 2017, city records show. Already in 2018, the city has received 212 such requests. None has been honored. The ICE officers returned to a San Francisco jail on Monday and requested another inmate interview, Crowley said, but they were denied access after being informed of the departments policy. Thats a good sign, Hennessy said. Dee Andrews climbed aboard the J-Church Muni Metro this week, glanced around and voiced words rarely spoken about San Franciscos public transportation system: Its beautiful. Andrews, 65, a longtime city resident, had just boarded one of Munis new light-rail cars for its inaugural run on the J-Church line. The car Andrews rode in is among five that have been put into service so far. By the end of the month, said John Haley, the Municipal Transportation Agencys transit director, We intend to start putting one new car each week into service. Gray and white with a wide red stripe wrapped around them like a ribbon, the new cars offer a different look for Muni. The third-generation Muni Metro car isnt fancy, but its got a modern look and feel, with automated video screens announcing the next stop, loudspeakers you can hear and bright red and blue seating (blue for passengers with disabilities and seniors) along the interior sides. The first of the five new cars in service was rolled out in November. Three more are finishing a break-in period that involves running each one for 1,000 hours to reveal any problems before carrying passengers. Nine additional cars have been received and are waiting to be inspected and broken in. The new cars, built by German manufacturer Siemens in Sacramento, are part of a Muni renaissance, at least in terms of vehicles. The Municipal Transportation Agency is in the midst of replacing all of its buses and railcars, except, of course, for the cable cars and historic streetcars. And while passengers like the look, feel and features of the new Metro cars, Muni is counting on them to be considerably less trouble than the cars that are being replaced. The current light-rail cars, manufactured by the Italian company Breda, have been plagued with problems from their introduction to city streets in the mid-1990s. Most notably, doors sometimes fail to close or stay closed and steps dont lower or raise when theyre supposed to. Problems with ventilation and propulsion systems have also vexed Muni. Replacing the Muni fleet can have a significant impact on Muni reliability, said Paul Rose, a spokesman for the agency. Each new vehicle is another step in that direction. Muni plans to replace its current Metro fleet of 149 cars and expand it to 264 by 2027. The additional cars will be needed, in part, for the Central Subway and to meet service demands resulting from the Golden State Warriors new Chase Arena, both scheduled to open in 2019. The cost of the new cars is about $1.2 billion. MTA officials are in talks with the Federal Transit Administration and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to speed up the replacement of the Breda cars, which could each require $300,000 in maintenance and overhaul work to keep them running until theyre swapped out. Hopefully, that would mean everything would be in place by 2025, two years early, Rose said. So far, Muni has just run the new cars as single-car trains, but its been testing trains with two cars and even three cars something the Breda cars cant do. If the state Public Utilities Commission approves, two- and three-car trains could be picking up passengers by late spring, Haley said. As the new car that would eventually pick up Andrews made its maiden voyage from the Muni Metro East yard down Third Street, along the Embarcadero, into the Market Street Subway and onto the streets of the J line, riders reacted enthusiastically. Even some of the most jaded Muni riders cracked smiles. Jim Wilson, a 36-year-old product manager who lives in the Dogpatch, had seen many of the new cars roll past during testing. But this was his first chance to ride on one. He and his 5-month-old daughter, Gabrielle, in a stroller, both were wide-eyed. I ride Muni every day to work, Wilson said. Its always nice to board something new. Its nice and clean, theres a lot more room, and its quieter. Manny Enriquez, Munis test and acceptance supervisor, said a lot of residents along the Metro line have said the Siemens cars dont cause their buildings to rattle and shake as they pass, unlike the Bredas, which are thousands of pounds heavier. Andrea Beithon, 29, who lives along the N line, said life will be more pleasant with the new cars. When it goes by, its so much quieter, she said. She said the new cars offered an improvement inside as well. She said she liked the look of the cars, the screens and the audible announcements. Its nice to see the city making progress and getting new things out there, Beithon said. Riders also said they liked the larger windows and the roomier feel of the car, which has fewer seats but more standing space. Muni chose the new seating configuration over rows of seats facing forward and back like the Bredas after rider surveys. More people chose the longitudinal seating than the traditional seating, Rose said. Aboard the J car, some disagreed. They didnt like the feel of the bench seats, which lack individual spaces, saying they felt slippery and were too high above the floor. Its not very comfortable, said Amber Cox, 36, a graphic designer who lives in Noe Valley. Especially if youre under 5-2. She also said the spacious center of the train didnt have enough grab bars or straps for people to hold onto. Thats something Muni can fix, Haley said. Even with those shortcomings, Cox said, she was excited to see the new cars. It looks like a Japanese train, really modern, she said. It feels like San Francisco is catching up, which is cool. Andrews, who teaches history at Cal State East Bay, said she hopes the new cars are a sign that Muni is on the rise. I think Munis doing very, very well these days, she said. Much better than it had been. Soaring hopes Since October, a mysterious flying object resembling a cross between a small plane and a drone has been seen over New Zealands South Island. Turns out it was part of a series of stealth test flights by Kitty Hawk, a company financed by Google co-founder Larry Page. The company and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have now reached an agreement to test the electric, self-piloting flying taxis as part of an official certification process. The hope is that it will lead to a commercial network of flying taxis in New Zealand in as soon as three years. Number of the day $1 trillion Thats how much Amazon could be worth by 2022, according to an analyst. The online retailer, whose current valuation is $769 billion, could grow nearly a third bigger in the next four years, predicts Brent Thill of Jefferies. The companys aggressive push to expand its advertising business will be a key driver. But Apple, valued at around $913 billion, has a head start to the trillion mark. Will the roller skates be electric? Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted in January about wanting to open a combination Supercharger location and old-school drive-in restaurant, complete with servers on roller skates, somewhere in Los Angeles. Apparently he meant it. Electric vehicles news site Electrek reported Tuesday that Tesla has filed permit applications to create a Tesla restaurant and supercharger station in Santa Monica. President Trump issued an executive order on Monday blocking Broadcom from acquiring Qualcomm, scuttling a $117 billion deal that had been subject to crutiny on national security grounds. It would have been the biggest-ever technology takeover in history. In a letter to the two companies on Sunday, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States said that it believes the offer by Broadcom poses national security concerns. Broadcoms headquarters is Singapore, but is in the process of relocating its legal base to San Jose to allay those issues. Broadcom has had a months-long quest to buy its fellow chipmaker, but the federal committee had already ordered a one-month delay of Qualcomms shareholder meeting, where Broadcom had been expected to win at least some seats on Qualcomms board, if not a majority. Several deals involving foreign buyers have been squelched after similar reviews, including Moneygrams sale to an affiliate of the Alibaba Group and Lattice Semiconductors sale to an investment firm with reported ties to the Chinese government. Autos Tesla took Model 3 pause Tesla temporarily suspended production of the Model 3 electric sedan for a week in late February, a planned breather that ultimately may help increase output of the closely watched vehicle. Model 3 production in Fremont was idled from Feb. 20 to 24, according to the company. The Palo Alto automaker makes the Model S sedan, Model X sport utility vehicle and Model 3 at that site and batteries at a plant known as the Gigafactory east of Reno. Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1, a Tesla spokesman said in an email. These periods are used to improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates. This is not unusual and is in fact common in production ramps like this. Streaming Apple: Big moves unlikely Apple services chief Eddy Cue suggested the company wont acquire Netflix or Walt Disney and instead will build out original content. When asked about a possible purchase of the media giants during a talk at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, Cue noted that Apple hasnt made huge acquisitions in the past, and said the company wants to produce a smaller number of quality shows rather than focus on quantity. Apple has hired movie and TV industry veterans to create original videos and compete with Netflix and Amazon. In June, Apple formally entered the race by bringing on Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, a pair of Sony Pictures TV executives. Restaurants Apology from IHOP manager A server at an Auburn, Maine, IHOP restaurant asked a group of black teenagers to pay up front for their meal, prompting the manager to apologize. Manager Melvin Escobar told the Sun Journal newspaper, This is the first time it happened, and that will be the last time. Escobar says he believes the servers actions were not racially motivated but she was worried the kids would duck out on the $100 bill. He says the restaurant has had some problems with teens walking out without paying. Chronicle News Services Decrease Font Size Font Size Increase Font Size Article body Auburn University entomologists have discovered and identified a tiny wasp that could provide a huge benefit to soybean producers and other farmers. Though only about the size of a pinhead, the newly detected parasitoid wasp, Ooencyrtus nezarae, can do plenty of damage to the kudzu bug, a quarter-inch-long invasive pest of soybeans and other legume crops in the Southeast. Researchers in the lab of entomologist Henry Fadamiro, associate dean for research for the College of Agriculture and associate director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, were the first to detect the wasps presence in North America. The research team published its findings in a recent article in the Journal of Insect Science. Blessing Ademokoya, an Auburn graduate researcher at the time of the study and now a doctoral student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is lead author of the article. Fadamiro and Rammohan Balusu, research fellow in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, are co-authors, as are Auburn research entomologist Charles Ray and Jason Mottern, entomologist at the USDA Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Ray and Mottern assisted in final identification of the wasp. O. nezarae is the second kudzu bug-attacking wasp to be identified in the U.S. The first, Paratelenomus saccharalis, was discovered in Georgia in 2013. "It is exciting to know that many natural enemies are in the field helping to keep kudzu bug populations under control," Ademokoya said. "And, with this latest addition, we have a potential explanation for the decline observed in kudzu bug densities across several locations in the southeastern U.S." The kudzu bug, native to Asia, was first reported in the U.S. in 2009 in Georgia. Although it feeds on kudzuan economically important invasive weed native to Asia and familiar to Southernersit also devours soybeans and other legume crops, causing significant yield loss in highly infested fields. A strong flyer and good hitchhiker, the pest rapidly expanded its numbers across many southern states, including Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arizona, Maryland and Delaware. The population peaked in 2013. The kudzu bug has emerged as the top yield-limiting pest of soybeans, which rank as the second most planted field crop in the United States with an estimated annual market value of approximately $39 billion. In 2017, Alabama farmers harvested approximately 345,000 acres of soybeans with a production value of more than $150 million. Potential long-term solution O. nezarae, which was found during field surveys in Alabama, is reported to parasitize eggs from a variety of plant bug families in China. "Until now, the distribution of O. nezarae has been limited to China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and Brazil," Fadamiro said. "This is the first report of the parasitoid in North America. The high rate of parasitism82.8 to 100 percentrecorded in our study indicates that the parasitoid may serve as a potential long-term solution for managing kudzu bug." Despite O. nezaraes high parasitism rate of kudzu bug, it has a short period of activity, and Fadamiro said continued research will be necessary to identify tactics for the use of the insect to biologically control the pest on farms. "We need to conduct monitoring to know the distribution of the parasitoid in the United States and to determine its seasonal phenology in the fieldwhen it is not active and when it is most active," he said. "We also are interested in studying the nutritional ecology of this insect and strategies for its conservation in the field. We dont want to spray toxic chemicals when it is most active." There are numerous ways to use natural enemies in production agriculture, Fadamiro said, including introducing them into areas where they are not already present and preserving them where they are naturally occurring. Farmers also can plant host flowering plants around a field so the nectar will attract and keep the beneficial insect in an area. "If we conduct a survey and find the insects are only in central Alabama, then we can capture and relocate them to other areas of the state where the kudzu bug is a threat," he said. "We want to make sure this finding is useful to the farmers who need it most." But theres a risk in assuming that the known natural enemies of the kudzu bug will eliminate the threat, Fadamiro said. "While the incidence of the kudzu bug has declined in recent years, there could be many factors involved, including weather conditions and other natural enemies, so we need to continue this work," he said. The research leading to the discovery of the parasitoid was supported by an Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and by the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station. Its an example of Auburns commitment to development science-based advancements that meet pressing regional, national and global needs. In a sunny office in Manhattan, Mike Schmidt spends his time ferreting out fake Instagram accounts. Some are obvious, like the one that had never posted a photo and lacked a profile picture yet followed about 7,500 accounts the maximum allowed by the social media site. Others are trickier. Schmidt had to scroll down a little on an account with the name @ailebnoblk before the same stock image of a car showed up three times in a row, a clue that there was no real person behind the profile. The amount of bot activity thats happening on these platforms is pretty insane, Schmidt said. Just the amount of new accounts and times these folks are liking and commenting with spam and positive comments and happy-face emojis. Dovetale, a four-person software company Schmidt co-founded in 2016, has devised a range of tactics to identify large numbers of fake accounts that follow popular Instagram personalities. It then packages that information for marketers, who are increasingly skeptical of the audience numbers that often determine how much money social media stars can command from advertisers. Marketers are flocking to businesses like Dovetale, prompted by revelations like those in a recent investigation by the New York Times that detailed the booming industry of people buying fake followers and fraudulent engagement on Twitter and other social media sites. Some of these fake accounts, in an attempt to seem legitimate, use personal information from real people without their knowledge. That has provoked concern among brands and their agencies, which often rely on metrics like the number of followers an account has when hiring people on YouTube and Instagram to promote their products. These social media stars can often fetch thousands of dollars for one post promoting a product. We knew this kind of day of reckoning would come, said Erick Schwab, co-founder of Sylo, which vets influencers for fraud and aims to assign a numerical score to their content akin to a Nielsen rating. Weve gotten tons of brands, agencies, vendors emailing us, who weve been having conversations with for a while, but now theyre sort of like, this is being demanded. Krishna Subramanian, a founder of Captiv8, which connects brands with influencers, has seen a surge in requests for fraud detection from agencies. Everyone is definitely scrambling because they dont want to be held responsible, he said. The interest in such firms reflects how easy it is to fake popularity on services like Instagram, where bots seem to run unchecked even on accounts where people have not paid for them. While many advertisers have become aware of this, and tried to place more emphasis on content quality or favorable comments, follower numbers still tend to loom large. Even though brands are looking for engagement more, the actual pay and compensation that influencers are getting is still based on the follower number, said Alivia Latimer, a photographer with about 102,000 Instagram followers. Latimer, who has worked with brands including Lush Cosmetics and Hollister, said that she charged about $1,200 for a branded post. She added that she knew people with 2 million followers who charge $40,000 per post. That means new kinds of detective work are needed for brands that still want the endorsements of the young and hip online. Dovetale said it uses more than 50 metrics to analyze the Instagram followers of popular accounts, including the language in the bios, the rate at which they hit like and follow, and their country of origin. (An influencer with a high number of followers from Turkey, Brazil and China, for instance, can raise red flags for Dovetale, which has frequently seen fake followers come from those countries.) The clues can be complex. Dovetale flagged one account that claimed to be someone named Meg Cragle because it was part of a group of profiles that had made one or two unrelated posts and contained similarly worded bios of exactly 99 characters that ended with ellipses. The discovery was reinforced by a Google search for phrases in the accounts bio like award-winning bacon fanatic, which matched the terms in a now-deleted Twitter bio generator online. Dovetale acknowledged that its methods were not foolproof, but they are valuable enough in a murky landscape that the agency 360i said it was now unlikely to hire influencers for campaigns if Dovetales database said more than 2 to 3 percent of their followers were bots. Dovetale said that, on average, 16.4 percent of the followers on Instagrams top 20 accounts were fraudulent. A spokeswoman for Instagram said that the platforms internal estimates show that spam accounts make up a small fraction of Instagrams 800 million monthly users. Some believe that the new awareness around bots highlights the misguided expectations that marketers have for how many people they can reach through influencers. Changes to algorithms on Facebook and Instagram have significantly reduced the number of people who will see a persons posts without paid promotion. And unless advertisers are paying Instagram for the information, they typically have to rely on screenshots from influencers for data on how many people saw a post. Influencers like Latimer said that even then, not all brands request those screenshots. Tyler Stark, director of marketing at Traeger Grills, said that many influencers, particularly on Facebook, reach only 2 percent of their audience. That has made smaller influencers more appealing and put a focus on engagement, he said, with the thought that a post with a large number of likes and comments will end up in the feeds of more people. Still, Bob Gilbreath, chief executive of Ahalogy, a marketing technology company in Cincinnati, said that he recently heard a major retailer recommend that brands work only with influencers who have at least 200,000 followers. Most brands would say that a follower is someone whos definitely going to see the post, Gilbreath said. Not only are most people not seeing the posts even if theyre real people, but many of them are not real people. New York Citys iconic Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue was in the headlines a few years ago when it was sold to Chinese insurance giant Anbang. And now its in the news again. Thats because Anbang is in trouble. So much financial trouble, in fact, that it was recently taken over by the Chinese government and so were its assets, including the Waldorf. The takeover came several months after Anbang chairman Wu Xiaohui was arrested by the government for financial crimes. Anbang in recent years had been on a huge foreign investment spree, spending billions of dollars on acquisitions. The Chinese governments intervention was seen as a warning shot to other Chinese companies to be more careful about piling up debt. TravelSkills with Chris McGinnis sponsored by . See More Collapse The question now is, what will happen to the Waldorf? The hotel, operated by Hilton, is currently closed for a long-term renovation and reconstruction project that will convert most of its 1,413 rooms into luxury condominiums, leaving it with just 130 hotel rooms. (Sorta like what happened with another NYC hotel icon, The Plaza, which converted to mostly condos and now has only 282 hotel rooms managed by Fairmont.) According to the hotel's website, it is not expected to reopen for two to three years as the work continues. Media reports suggest that the government-run Anbang has been in discussions to sell the hotel including talks to sell it to the Blackstone Group, the same U.S. investment giant that sold the Waldorf to Anbang in 2015 for $2 billion. In any case, the renovation of the hotel is expected to continue while the ownership question is decided, and Hilton is expected to maintain control of the property, since it has a 100-year contract to run it. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis. On his fourth day on the job, rookie San Francisco cop Chris Samayoa was still getting out of his patrol car when he fatally shot an unarmed carjacking suspect. A little more than three months after that fateful fourth day on the beat, Police Chief Bill Scott fired the officer for killing 42-year-old Keita ONeil, sparking outrage from the citys police union and its president, Martin Halloran. Chris was fired for doing what he was trained to do by the SFPD Academy, and for what happened on his fourth day on the job under extremely stressful and difficult circumstances, Halloran wrote in a statement. This was a needless action as any taken by someone wearing the uniform of our chief. On Dec. 1, ONeil allegedly assaulted a state lottery worker on Potrero Hill and stole her minivan before leading police on a winding chase that led through the Alice Griffith public housing complex in the Bayview neighborhood. After the brief pursuit with police, ONeil abandoned the stolen vehicle and started running toward the patrol car occupied by Samayoa and his training officer. Samayoas body camera footage shows the officer drawing his pistol from the passenger seat while the cruiser is still moving. The video then shows him opening the side door and firing a single shot through the window as ONeil, who was unarmed, runs by in the opposite direction. ONeil was transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Samayoa turned on his body-worn camera after shooting ONeil, an apparent violation of Police Department policy. The Axon body-worn cameras have a feature that preserves the previous 30 seconds before they are activated similar to a television DVR though without audio. Despite this violation of department policy, Halloran called Samayoa a textbook example of what a police officer should be. He added, Chris is an exemplary human being. The Police Department confirmed that Samayoa was fired but declined comment, noting that it was a personnel matter. The decision was first reported by Mission Local. Born and raised in San Franciscos Mission District, Samayoa studied psychology at the University of Arizona. He was studying for his masters degree in psychology and counseling at the University of San Francisco when he took a leave of absence to be part of the 257th Basic Academy Class of recruits. At a town hall meeting held nearly a week after the fatal shooting, community members expressed outrage over the shooting of ONeil. Bayview residents shared their concerns about the shooting with Chief Bill Scott, Bayview Station Capt. Steven Ford and Capt. Valerie Matthews, head of the departments field operations. Yall not only killed (ONeil), yall killed his mom, said Demetrius Williams, ONeils friend. Shes dying of cancer, fighting for her life, and now shes burying a son. The shooting remains under investigation by the departments internal affairs division, the homicide bureau and the San Francisco district attorneys office. As of 10.30 am today, a whopping 3,23,52,039 shares of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) got traded in bulk deals on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) as well as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). This includes two trades of 9.04 million shares and 7.5 million shares at 9.15 am that are the largest in at least a decade, if not more. In the bargain, the share price of the fastest growing IT services brand in the world - according to leading brand valuation firm, Brand Finance - cracked over 5% in the morning trade. TCS is currently trading flat at around Rs 2,898 apiece while the Sensex is up 0.18% at around 33,980. This follows media reports of Tata Sons planning to sell a 1.5% stake in TCS, worth nearly $1.3 billion (Rs 8,500 crore), through block deals. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are managing the TCS share sale, touted to be the biggest block trade this year at over 28 million shares. As per the deal term sheet, Tata Sons, which owned 73.5 percent of TCS as of end-December, would sell the shares in a price range of Rs 2,872 rupees to Rs 2,925 rupees apiece. That's a discount of 4-6% on TCS' Monday closing price of Rs 3,052 on the BSE. For the uninitiated, a "bulk deal" is a trade where a single investor buys/sells more than 0.5% of a company's total equity shares, either through single or multiple transactions. On the other hand, a "block deal" is a transaction of over 500,000 shares - or a minimum value of Rs 5 crore - executed through a single transaction. According to Motilal Oswal, these trades are done on a special window that opens for 35 minutes in the morning trading hours. The orders in a block deal are not shown to people who trade from normal trade window. According to The Economic Times, experts say that the proceeds of this sale may be used to deleverage the balance sheet of Tata Sons. The latter had to shell out $1.2 billion to NTT DoCoMo last year in order to settle the long-standing dispute with the Japanese telecom giant after it exited their joint venture in 2013. Then there is the debt of over Rs 40,000 crore owed by Tata Teleservices, even as the sale of the consumer wireless unit to Bharti Airtel awaits regulatory approvals. In 2017, Tatas had announced that Tata Teleservices will merge with Bharti Airtel on a no-debt, no-cash basis. The proceeds from the TCS sale might be used to clear some of this debt. Incidentally, just last week Bloomberg had reported that Tata Sons is seeking an offshore syndicated loan to repay debt of units Tata Teleservices and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra. The $1.5 billion six-year loan is set to be the first offshore syndicated facility taken out by Tata Sons since 2007. The Group is clearly in a hurry to exit its troubled mobile telephony business. Other industry experts point out that Tata Sons may choose to use the TCS stake sale proceeds to fund Tata Steel, which is hoping to snap up Bhushan Steel and Bhushan Steel and Power. Tata Steel is reportedly the highest bidder for both bankrupt companies with a total debt of Rs 60,000 crore. After this block deal, Tata Sons will hold about 73% in TCS, which generated $18 billion in revenues in fiscal 2017. TCS is the most-profitable unit within the $100 billion-plus Tata Group, and ranks among the top three most valuable brands in the global IT services sector along with IBM and Accenture. With Reuters inputs A 10-month-old puppy died on a flight out of Houston's IAH Monday evening after a United Airlines flight attendant told the dog's owner to put it in the overhead compartment. Shortly after boarding United Fight 1284 to New York's LaGuardia, the passenger was told to place the 10-month-old Frenchie and its carrier in the overhead compartment, June Lara, a passenger who sat behind the owner on the flight, told Chron.com Tuesday afternoon. "However, the flight attendants of flight UA1284 felt that the innocent animal was better off crammed inside the overhead container without air and water," Lara wrote on Facebook. "They INSISTED that the puppy be locked up for three hours without any kind of airflow. They assured the safety of the family's pet so wearily, the mother agreed." WATCH: PetSmart groomer fired after video showing her violently handling a dog goes viral By the time the plane landed roughly three hours later and the overhead compartment was opened, the dog was dead, Lara said. According to United's pet policy, animals must be in a carrier and "fit completely under the seat in front of the customer and remain there at all times." The airline said in a statement that it is investigating the animal's death. "This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin," United said in the statement. "We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them. We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again." Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on twitter at @fernalfonso. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff joined the growing ranks of high-profile, deep-pocketed donors to the March for Our Lives when he pledged $1 million in support of the gun control rally this week. "Motivated to join the many who are passionate about the safety of all kids and I'll give $1M to March For Our Lives, Benioff wrote on Twitter Monday afternoon. "Together all of us can make children's health and safety our number one priority." He was only one of many wealthy donors announcing their support in the weeks leading up to the march. Click through the gallery above to see other celebrities who have pledged their money to the March for Our Lives. ALSO: Lyft is offering free rides to the March for Our Lives Interestingly, Jared Kushner's brother Joshua, co-founder of health insurance startup Oscar, is also among the donors to the march; Axios reported Sunday he donated $50,000 to the cause. Other noteworthy donors include reliably liberal celebrities like George and Amal Clooney, who pledged $500,000, and Oprah Winfrey, who did the same. "These inspiring young people remind me of the Freedom Riders of the 60s who also said we've had ENOUGH and our voices will be heard," Oprah wrote. Some students are reportedly apprehensive about the optics of the celebrity support, though. Some expressed concerns that celebrity involvement would take the focus away from the voices of the students, a focus that has helped the movement that's grown from the Parkland shooting feel so different and vital compared with previous calls for action on gun control. "The minute some people on the right see these millionaire names pop up with our movement, it's going to kind of alienate them," Stoneman Douglas student Chris Grady, 18, told the New York Times last month. "The minute they don't see our faces anymore and they just see the Hollywood elite, they're going to stop taking it seriously." Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter When a driver attempted to flee a multi-vehicle car accident Sunday, witnesses one wielding a sledgehammer served up some vigilante justice. A video taken by cellphone captured the shocking aftermath of the crash, which occurred on a busy street in Miami. The footage shows a handful of witnesses chasing after the Infinity, its front bumper scraping the ground, as it attempted to zoom away from the crash it allegedly caused. Multiple bystanders got out of their cars and tried to pull the SUV driver from the vehicle; one man yanked off a door handle. More for you 22-year-old San Francisco woman critically injured by... When the relentless SUV continued its charge despite the crowd's best efforts, a man chased it with a sledgehammer and proceeded to break its windows. According to local media, the driver got away but was later apprehended by Miami police. Officials do not encourage bystanders to attempt to stop a fleeing driver, but encourage them to call the police with a vehicle description. Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf. WASHINGTON Top Democratic leaders in the House and Senate implored President Trump on Monday to employ all resources available to extradite 13 Russians charged last month with subverting the 2016 presidential election after Russias president raised the possibility of Jewish involvement. Ensuring these Russian nationals stand trial in the United States is imperative for deterring Russia from future attacks on our democracy and would be a signal to those who seek to meddle with our election that such actions are not without consequences, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the top Democrat in his chamber, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, the top Democrat in the House, wrote in a letter to the White House. Jewish groups in the United States and some Israeli politicians also joined in an uproar over comments by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in which he appeared to suggest that Jews might have been behind the hacking attack on the 2016 election in the United States. In an interview broadcast on NBC News over the weekend, Putin was asked about the 13 Russian citizens charged by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, looking into the election interference. The question prompted a long, meandering response from Putin. Maybe they are not even Russians, Putin mused, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship, which should also be checked. Maybe they have dual citizenship or a green card. Maybe the U.S. paid them for this. How can you know that? I do not know either. Within hours, the comment was shared widely on social media. Many commentators considered it a clear echo of the anti-Semitism that has plagued Russias history since at least the 19th century. Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, said Putins comment was redolent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forged document frequently cited by anti-Semites since its emergence in 19th-century Russia. It is deeply disturbing to see the Russian president giving new life to classic anti-Semitic stereotypes that have plagued his country for hundreds of years, he said in a statement. Among Democrats in Congress, patience with the White Houses silence in the face of such Kremlin provocations is running thin. Schumer and Pelosi were joined by the top Democrats on the chambers respective judiciary committees, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. While Putins stance is not surprising, it is also simply unacceptable, they wrote in their letter. The letter outlines several steps that the Justice and State departments could take to try to force their extradition, such as pressing Interpol to issue what is effectively an international arrest warrant and using existing diplomatic channels, including raising the issue directly with Putin. An Interpol notice can severely restrict a fugitives ability to live and travel overseas, they wrote. JANESVILLE, Wis. Not long ago, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was the voice of a conservative revolution in the heartland, a Republican at the vanguard and a possible future president. Today, hes the voice of concern, warning his party at home and nationally that change is coming again. In private meetings, public forums and his own policy moves, Walker has made clear he sees worrisome signs for the GOP and the hard-line conservatism thats marked his eight years in office. Wisconsin, which helped hand the White House to Republicans, is looking for something different, Walker has said, and Democrats are motivated. A recent GOP loss in a local election should be a wake-up call to the changes afoot in the rural and exurban pockets that 17 months ago voted enthusiastically for President Trump, he recently told a group of GOP donors and activists. Walker is acting on his own advice. As he seeks a third term in office, hes embraced a bipartisan tone and a strikingly moderate set of policy proposals. The man who eight years ago set out to dismantle public employee unions is now backing efforts that mirror aspects of former President Barack Obamas health care law and describing his policy differences with Democrats as modest. We heard from people across the state. These arent Republican or Democrat issues. These are things people care about in Wisconsin, Walker said in a recent interview. As a Republican, I might have a slightly different angle about how to address it. But these are (about) just me listening to people across the state. Walkers concerns about the mood of white working-class voters resonate beyond Wisconsin and could easily translate to Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania Rust Belt states that Trump won and that could go a long way toward determining who controls Congress next year. As a battle-tested Republican from such a state, and who shares the ballot this fall with Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Walker is worth heeding, said Matt Brooks, executive director of the national Republican Jewish Coalition. There are a lot of winds aloft that could have impacts on the broader electoral outlook, Brooks said. Walker knows something about misjudging the resilience of a political moment. Riding the Tea Party wave and anti-union fervor, Walker got national attention for his push to strip public employee unions of bargaining power, in a state that first encoded such rights 50 years earlier. Tens of thousands of teachers, prison guards and other public employees demonstrated in the Capitol, and Walker beat back a recall effort, receiving 200,000 more votes than he did in his election win less than two years earlier. Walker tried to use the platform to launch a presidential bid, but his campaign quickly fizzled. By early November 2016, he was at Trumps side at a campaign stop in northwest Wisconsin. His concerns echo far beyond Wisconsin, said Michael Epstein of Maryland, who was on Walkers presidential finance team. Were all looking to the midterms with concern, Epstein said. WASHINGTON Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have completed a draft report concluding there was no collusion or coordination between Donald Trumps presidential campaign and Russia, a finding that is sure to please the White House and enrage panel Democrats. After a yearlong investigation, Texas Rep. Mike Conaway announced Monday that the committee has finished interviewing witnesses and will share the report with Democrats on Tuesday. Conaway is the Republican leading the House probe, one of several investigations on Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. Conaway previewed several of the reports conclusions. We found no evidence of collusion, he told reporters Monday, suggesting that those who believe there was are reading too many spy novels. We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings. But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings or whatever, and weave that into sort of a fiction page turner, spy thriller. The public will not see the report until Democrats have reviewed it and the intelligence community has decided what information can become public, a process that could take weeks. Democrats are expected to issue a separate report with much different conclusions. In addition to the statement on coordination with Russians, the draft picks apart a central assessment made by the U.S. intelligence community shortly after the 2016 election that Russian meddling in the campaign was intended to help Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Committee aides said they spent hundreds of hours reviewing raw source material used by the intelligence services to make that claim and that it did not meet the appropriate standards. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity. Conaway said there will be a second report just dealing with the intelligence assessment and its credibility. Democrats have criticized Republicans on the committee for shortening the investigation, pointing to multiple contacts between Trumps campaign and Russia and saying they have seen far too few witnesses to make any judgment on collusion. The Democrats and Republicans have openly fought throughout the investigation, with Democrats suggesting a cover-up for a Republican president and one GOP member of the panel calling the probe poison for the previously bipartisan panel. According to Conaway, the report will agree with the intelligence assessment on most details, including that Russians did meddle in the election. It will detail Russian cyberattacks on U.S. institutions during the election and the use of social media to sow discord. It will also show a pattern of Russian attacks on European allies information that could be redacted in the final report. It will include at least 25 recommendations, including how to improve election security, respond to cyberattacks and improve counterintelligence efforts. The pornographic film actress who says she had an affair with President Trump offered Monday to return $130,000 she received from Trumps personal attorney in 2016 for agreeing not to discuss the alleged relationship. In exchange, the actress, Stephanie Clifford, seeks an end to her deal to keep quiet about what she says was an affair with Trump that started in 2006 and lasted for several months. In the letter, which was sent to Trumps personal attorney, Michael Cohen, early Monday, Cliffords attorney, Michael Avenatti, wrote that Clifford would wire the money into an account of Trumps choosing by Friday. Avenatti set a deadline of noon Tuesday for Cohen to answer the offer from Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels. Under the terms of the deal detailed in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the New York Times, the contract ensuring Cliffords silence would be deemed null and void once she returned the sum called for in her original contract. Under Avenattis offer, Clifford would then be allowed to (a) speak openly and freely about her prior relationship with the President and the attempts to silence her and (b) use and publish any text messages, photos and/or videos relating to the President that she may have in her possession, all without fear of retribution and/or legal liability for damages. The letter also seeks an agreement that neither Trump nor the shell company that Cohen used to pay Clifford would move to block the broadcast of an interview that Clifford taped with 60 Minutes last week. The letter was also addressed to a lawyer working on the case with Cohen, Lawrence Rosen. Cohen and Rosen did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment. As we have always said, this is about a search for the truth and the ability of Ms. Clifford to tell the American people what really happened so they can make their own determination, Avenatti said in a statement. Our offer proves this out. The money, which Cohen has said came from his own personal funds, is the subject of complaints lodged by the group Common Cause with the Federal Election Commission and Justice Department. Common Cause argues that the payment violated campaign finance laws. WASHINGTON President Trump on Tuesday ousted his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, extending a shake-up of his administration, 14 months into his tumultuous presidency, and potentially transforming the nations economic and foreign policy. Trump announced he would replace Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, the CIA director and former Tea Party congressman, who forged a close relationship with the president and is viewed as being more in sync with Trumps America First credo. Tillerson learned he had been fired Tuesday morning when a top aide showed him a tweet from Trump announcing the change, according to a senior State Department official. But he had gotten an oblique warning of what was coming the previous Friday from the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, who called to tell him to cut short a trip to Africa and advised him you may get a tweet. It was an abrupt end after months of speculation to a rocky tenure for a former oil executive who never meshed with the president who hired him. Tillerson clashed repeatedly with the White House staff and broke publicly with Trump on issues ranging from the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar to the U.S. response to Russias cyber aggression. We were not really thinking the same, Trump told reporters at the White House, explaining his decision to replace Tillerson. He added: Really, it was a different mindset, a different thinking. Trump announced his decision on Twitter. At the State Department Tuesday afternoon, Tillerson said the president had called him from Air Force One just after noon more than three hours after Trump had tweeted the news of his firing to his 49 million followers to inform him personally of the dismissal. Tillerson said he planned to immediately step aside from his post, turning over all responsibilities by the end of the day to John Sullivan, the deputy secretary of state. During a short statement in a briefing room packed with reporters, Tillerson said he would end his service at midnight March 31, but was encouraging his policy planning team and undersecretaries and assistant secretaries to remain in their posts and continue in our mission at the State Department. Ill now return to private life, as a private citizen, as a proud American, proud of the opportunity I had to serve my country, Tillerson said. He took no questions and left the briefing room. The firing of Tillerson caught even the White House staff by surprise. Just the day before, a White House spokesman berated a reporter for suggesting there was any kind of split between Tillerson and the White House because of disparate comments on Russian responsibility for a poison attack in Britain. But a senior administration official said that Trump decided to replace Tillerson now to have a new team in place before upcoming talks with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader he plans to meet by May. The president also wanted a new chief diplomat for various ongoing trade negotiations. The White Houses purge extended to Tillersons inner circle. The undersecretary of state for public affairs, Steve Goldstein, was fired, and the status was unclear of Tillersons chief of staff, Margaret Peterlin, and his deputy chief of staff, Christine Ciccone. At the CIA, Pompeo will be replaced by the current deputy director Gina Haspel, who will be the first woman to head the spy agency. Both she and Pompeo would need confirmation by the Senate to take the positions. Tillerson has been out of favor with Trump for months, but had resisted being pushed out. His distance from Trumps inner circle was clear last week when the president accepted an invitation to meet with Kim, to Tillersons surprise. Trump said Pompeo has earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community. I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture, the president continued, in a statement distributed by the White House. He will continue our program of restoring Americas standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In a Twitter post, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader from San Francisco, warned that the turnover at the top of the State Department had diminished the United States with foreign leaders. Tillerson, a former chief executive of the oil giant Exxon Mobil, had once been viewed as an intriguing, if unorthodox, Cabinet choice. He had deep experience with Middle Eastern potentates and knew Russian President Vladimir Putin through Exxons extensive efforts to explore for oil in Russia. But the early enthusiasm for bringing a business sensibility to the State Department faded fast, as Tillerson seemed overwhelmed by the diplomatic challenges before him and isolated by career foreign service officers whom he often froze out of the most important debates. His profound disagreements with the president on policy appeared to be his undoing: Tillerson wanted to remain part of the Paris climate accord; Trump decided to leave it. Tillerson supported the continuation of the Iran nuclear deal; Trump loathed the deal as an embarrassment to the United States. And Tillerson believed in dialogue to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, but Trump repeatedly threatened military options. Peter Baker, Gardiner Harris and Mark Landler are New York Times writers. Firings and resignations Notable firings and resignations from President Trumps White House since he took office Jan. 20, 2017: March: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; under secretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs Steve Goldstein; special assistant and personal aide to the president John McEntee; economic adviser Gary Cohn. February: Communications director Hope Hicks, deputy communications director Josh Raffel; staff secretary Ron Porter. December 2017: Communications director for the White House Office of Public Liaison Omarosa Manigault Newman; deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. August and September 2017: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price; national security aide Sebastian Gorka; chief strategist Steve Bannon. July 2017: Communications director Anthony Scaramucci; chief of staff Reince Priebus; press secretary Sean Spicer. May 2017: Communications director Michael Dubke; FBI Director James Comey. February and March 2017: Deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh; national security adviser Michael Flynn India will take up with the US authorities their "unfortunate" decision to hike import duty on steel and aluminium products, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu. The Trump administration last week announced hiking import duty on steel and aluminium to 25 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, triggering fears of a global trade war. "The measures are unfortunate and we will take up these issues with my US counterpart and I will definitely try to explain to them the necessity for working together through multilateral trading platform as well as bilateral trading platform," Prabhu told PTI in an interview. The ministry is already studying the impact of duty hike as India exports these goods worth about USD 1.3 billion a year to America. With hike in tariffs by the US government, exports of these products to the American market will become expensive and could impact the competitiveness of domestic items. S&P Global Ratings has said that the decision could result in retaliatory action from the EU and China, triggering a trade war and hurting global economic growth. A report by Kotak Institutional Equities has also stated that export of steel to the US from various countries is likely to fall by 9-14 million tonne due to this measure. Major steel exporters to the US comprise Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and Russia which together account for close to 60 per cent of the shipments. India exported close to 0.9 MT steel to America in 2017. Some trade experts have suggested that India should drag the US in the World Trade Organization's (WTO) dispute mechanism against the move as it is not in compliance with the global trade norms. Further, the issue is likely to be flagged by certain participants of the mini-ministerial meeting of WTO members called by India on March 19-20 here. The US and China would send their political representatives for the meeting. The idea of the meeting is to "create an atmosphere, so that this negativity around global trade and multilateral trading system should reduce and all the countries should benefit from open trade", Prabhu said. WASHINGTON Not two weeks ago, President Trump wagged his finger at a Republican senator and scolded him for being afraid of the NRA, declaring that he would stand up to the powerful gun lobby and finally get results on quelling gun violence following last months Florida school shooting. On Monday, Trump struck a very different tone as he backpedaled from his earlier demands for sweeping reforms and bowed to Washington reality. The president, who recently advocated increasing the minimum age to purchase an assault weapon to 21, tweeted that hes watching court cases and rulings on the issue, adding that there is not much political support (to put it mildly). Over the weekend, the White House released a limited plan to combat school shootings that leaves the question of arming teachers to states and local communities and sends the age issue to a commission for review. Just two days earlier, Trump had mocked commissions as a dead end while talking about the opioid epidemic. We cant just keep setting up blue-ribbon committees, he said, adding that all they do is talk, talk, talk. Seventeen people were killed in last months shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., prompting a national conversation about gun laws, fierce advocacy for stronger gun control from surviving students and, initially, a move from Trump to buck his allies at the National Rifle Association. In a televised meeting with lawmakers on Feb. 28, Trump praised members of the gun lobby as great patriots but declared that doesnt mean we have to agree on everything. It doesnt make sense that I have to wait until Im 21 to get a handgun, but I can get this weapon at 18. He then turned toward Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and questioned why previous gun control legislation did not include that provision. You know why? said Trump, answering his own question. Because youre afraid of the NRA, right? Ha ha. His words rattled some Republicans in Congress and sparked hope among some gun control advocates that, unlike after so many previous mass shootings, meaningful regulations would be enacted. But Trump appeared to foreshadow his change of heart with a tweet the very next night. Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA! the president wrote. White House aides said Monday the president was focusing on achievable options, after facing significant opposition from lawmakers on a more comprehensive approach. Trump will back two modest pieces of legislation, and the administration pledged to help states pay for firearms training for teachers. Seemingly on the defensive after his about-face, Trump tweeted Monday of the age limit that States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly). Democrats and gun control advocates were quick to pounce, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., tweeting that Trump couldnt even summon the political courage to propose raising the age limit on firearm purchases despite repeated promises to support such a step at a meeting with lawmakers. Television personality Geraldo Rivera who had urged the president to consider tougher age limits during a dinner at Trumps Florida club tweeted that Trump had blinked in face of ferocious opposition from #NRA. Still, Trump argued that this was progress. Very strong improvement and strengthening of background checks will be fully backed by White House, he tweeted. He added that an effort to bar bump stock devices was coming and that Highly trained expert teachers will be allowed to conceal carry, subject to State Law. Armed guards OK, deterrent! Without strong advocacy from the White House, an ambitious gun package was unlikely to even get off the ground, given most Republicans opposition to any new restrictions. The two measures backed by Trump an effort to strengthen the federal background-check system and an anti-school violence grant program both enjoy bipartisan support, though some Republicans object and many Democrats say they are insufficient. Trump drew some Republican backing, with Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who wrote the school safety bill, tweeting he was grateful for the White House backing and calling the measure the best first step we can take to make students safer. No deadline was set for recommendations from Trumps planned commission, but officials expected them within a year. Trump convened a series of listening sessions in the weeks after the massacre. In televised meetings with lawmakers, school shooting survivors and families of victims, Trump made a strong case for arming teachers and for increasing the age for purchasing long guns. I mean, so they buy a revolver a handgun they buy at the age of 21. And yet these other weapons that we talk about ... theyre allowed to buy them at 18. So how does that make sense? he told school officials last month. Were going to work on getting the age up to 21 instead of 18. But Trump has also spoken repeatedly in recent weeks with leaders of the NRA, which considers increasing the age of purchase to be an attack on the Second Amendment. The NRA on Friday sued Florida over a new gun law signed by Republican Gov. Rick Scott that bans the purchase of firearms by anyone under the age of 21. CANONSBURG, Pa. The Democrat and Republican in a special House election in the heart of Pennsylvanias Trump country were divided by a few hundred votes in a race that was too close to call early Wednesday an ominous sign for Republicans in a district that Donald Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points. With 100 percent of votes cast Tuesday counted, Conor Lamb, a Democrat, was clinging to a 579-vote lead over Republican Rick Saccone. But a few thousand absentee ballots had not yet been counted. And it was possible that a legal battle could ensue. House Democrats did not wait for a final count to claim victory. House Republicans were already talking up a legal challenge. But no matter the outcome, Lambs strong showing demonstrated that the Trump-inspired energy propelling Democrats across the country is not confined to liberal-leaning regions. Republicans were left with the prospect of defending a far broader section of districts this fall than they had hoped. A first-time candidate and former Marine, Lamb, 33, forced Republicans to pour more than $10 million into a southwestern Pennsylvania district where Democrats did not even field a candidate in the past two congressional elections. Yet whoever wins here may not hold the seat for very long. The state Supreme Court ruled in January that Pennsylvanias House map was gerrymandered unlawfully and redrew congressional boundaries that may force either candidate to run in a new district in November. The contest evolved into a test for both parties in Trump country. Republicans scrambled to prop up Saccone, a 60-year-old state representative, mindful that a failure here would send signals well beyond Pittsburgh. Just three months after suffering an embarrassing defeat in the special Senate election in Alabama, Trump and his administration once more put their prestige on the line on friendly terrain. The president appeared twice with Saccone, most recently at an airport rally Saturday night in which Trump mocked the Democrat as Lamb the sham. But Trump also delivered a rambling, 75-minute speech that careened away from the matter at hand. Republican officials began criticizing Saccones candidacy well before the returns were counted in a district where the anti-abortion Republican previously holding the seat, Tim Murphy, was forced to resign after a woman with whom he was having an affair said he pressed her to have an abortion. The BJP-led government in Maharashtra gave in to most demands of agitating farmers in Mumbai on Monday. A group of about 35,000 farmers walked down from Nashik to Mumbai to gherao the Vidhan Sabha and demand unconditional waiver of loans, electricity bills, and updated minimum support price, beside others. Speaking to the reporters on Monday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said: "A meeting was held with representatives of farmers and adivasis at Vidhan Bhawan and we have agreed to set up a committee to allot agricultural land to tribals. We have accepted almost all their demands." The farmers led by the Left-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha termed this as a "historic struggle" and a "historic victory". The protest march saw support pouring in from political parties and people across the country. What the farmers are fighting for Unconditional waiver of loans as well as electricity bills for those who had borrowed between 2001 and 2008 Implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations, including an announcement of minimum support price for agriculture produce The tribal cultivators, who tilled forest land, wanted the land to be transferred to their names and implementation of the Forest Rights Act Pension scheme for farmers Large amount of crops was destroyed due to unpredictable weather and poor rainfall Though the state had announced a loan waiver scheme, the implementation has not been foolproof In November 2017, the state government announced a farm loan waiver, terming it the 'biggest in Maharashtra's history' Reasons for agitationEarlier in the day, Fadnavis, before meeting the farmers, had declared that his government was "sensitive and positive" towards their issues and will work on it. "Around 90 to 95 per cent of the participants are poor tribals. They are fighting for forest land rights. They are landless and can't do farming. The government is sensitive and positive towards their demands," he told the state Assembly during a discussion on the 'Long March' of agriculturists. The farmers' march saw extensive support pouring in from locals as well as all major political parties, such as the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (Raj Thackeray) and Shiv Sena. Congress President Rahul Gandhi tweeted: "The mammoth #FarmersMarchToMumbai is a stunning example of people's power. The Congress party stands with the Farmers & Tribals marching to protest against the Central & State Govts. I appeal to PM Modi and the CM to not stand on ego and to accept their just demands." The farmers were ferried back to Nashik on a special train from Mumbai to Bhusawal. Breaking his silence over the PNB fraud, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday said that "before we assign blame, we have to know what really happened". "We need to look into how the PNB scam occurred and how the lapses happened," the former governor said in an interview to CNBC TV. Rajan's name was dragged after the BJP launched a scathing attack at former finance minister P Chidambaram for clearing a gold scheme days before the new government was to take charge at the Centre. Last month, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in a press conference accused Chidambaram of favouring seven private companies, including Fire Star Diamond of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems of Mehul Choksi, under the 80:20 gold scheme. In an interview published in Moneycontrol, Rajan explained the reasons behind the liberalisation of gold import in 2013. Rajan said: "On the 80:20 gold scheme, remember the circumstances in which it was brought about. We had a foreign exchange crisis in 2013 and there was a great sense that the current account deficit was getting out of control, a big part of the current account deficit was big purchases of gold as real interest rates were strongly negative. So, when the public was moving into gold in a big way the government thought that perhaps one stop gap arrangement - a temporary arrangement would be to reduce the imports of gold." Rajan added the scheme - as per which out of every 100 grams import of gold one had to re-export 20 grams - had a major effect in quelling the imports of gold. The RBI in a circular issued on May 21 allowed the Premier Trading Houses and Star Trading Houses to import gold under the 20:80 scheme. Earlier, these private entities were permitted to import gold exclusively for the purpose of exports only. When asked about the rationale behind the government's decision to allow new players, Rajan said: "I don't know what the rationale was. The Department of Trade in Commerce Ministry has a criterion to issue star trading houses premium trading houses licences. The whole objective was to bring down the premium that had built up due to constraints in the supply." Firestar Diamond of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems of Mehul Choksi are at the centre of over Rs 12,000 crore banking fraud. In a major decision that could hamper business prospects of several banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday banned banks from issuing Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) on trade credits for imports. The LoUs and Letters of Credits (LoCs) were allegedly misused by diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi to defraud state-owned Punjab National Bank of Rs 12,700 crore in connivance of inside bank officials. The RBI's decision will be applicable with immediate effect. "On a review of the extant guidelines, it has been decided to discontinue the practice of issuance of LoUs/ LoCs for Trade Credits for imports into India by AD Category -I banks with immediate effect," a statement from the RBI said. Letters of Credit and bank guarantees for trade credits for imports into India will continue to be issued subject to compliance with the RBI provisions, added the statement. Punjab National Bank had reported fraudulent issuances of Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) and Letters of Credit (LoCs) for the payment of import bills and fraudulent transactions in accounts, amounting to Rs 12,967.86 crore to the RBI through its fraud monitoring reporting system. The Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are already investigating the case, and have seized several assets related to both Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi's companies. As of now, under the RBI's policy on trade credits for imports, authorised dealer (AD) banks were allowed to issue guarantees - LoUs or LoCs - in favour of overseas supplier, bank, and financial institution, up to $20 million per transaction for a year. The guaranties are given for import of all non-capital goods permissible under the Foreign Trade Policy (except gold), and up to three years for import of capital goods. More exposure in PNB fraud Meanwhile, PNB has again come up with an additional exposure of about Rs 942 crore in the country's biggest bank fraud case. According to a court filing seen by Reuters, the police also told the court that Mehul Choksi's companies controlled by billionaire Nirav Modi defrauded the lender of Rs 708 crore. The current exposure takes the overall amount in the Nirav Modi scam to around Rs 13,400 crore. PNB takes steps to secure Swift operations Fraud-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) has taken a series of measures to check misuse of Swift message platform, allegedly used by Nirav Modi and his associates to defraud the bank of Rs 1,2967.86 crore, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. State-owned PNB has reported fraudulent issuance of LoUs/ Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs) for payments of import bills, amounting to Rs 12,967.86 crore, to the RBI, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. He said as per inputs from PNB, messages were sent via Swift system to overseas branches of Indian banks, regarding fraudulently issued LoUs/FLCs without entering the transactions in the bank's Core Banking System (CBS). He added that PNB has appraised that it has taken several steps to ensure that such unauthorised activities are not repeated. Listing out the steps taken by PNB, Shukla said the bank has established an additional tier (off-site) as a third level of re-authorisation of Swift messages, wherein payment messages are re-authorised by a separate team of Swift centre, Mumbai only. "Switching off of Swift server (LTE) by 10 pm, and restricting Swift operations at branches to 6.30 pm and centralised back office for trade finance by 7 pm", is another step taken by PNB. With PTI inputs This story originally appeared on The Daily Californian U.S. Senator Kamala Harris is slated to deliver the commencement address at UC Berkeleys spring 2018 graduation. Harris, who is the second African-American woman and first Indian-American person to ever be elected to the U.S. Senate and has been a leadingDemocratic figure in politics, will be speaking in front of about 40,000 people at the California Memorial Stadium on May 12, as announced Tuesday morning in a campus press release. I look forward to speaking to these young people who are on the verge of the next chapter of their lives and represent the future of our country, Harris said in a statement. While Harris herself graduated from Howard University and the UC Hastings College of the Law, Harris parents met while in graduate school at UC Berkeley, where they were active in the civil rights movement, according to the press release. RELATED VIDEO: Sen. Kamala Harris on DREAMers And American Ideals ALSO Kamala Harris endorses Gavin Newsom for governor Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, Harris was Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017, and District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011. The Californians, a campus student group responsible for planning parts of the graduation ceremony, nominated Harris because she embodies a lot of the ideals that the UC Berkeley campus embodies, according to campus senior Jessica Li-Jo, president of the Californians Senior Class Council. She is very fearless and vocal, and she shares her opinions about issues in the news. And at UC and UC Berkeley, we are usually like that as well, Li-Jo said in the press release. We fight against any injustices that we see. The announcement comes as UC Berkeley celebrates its 150-year anniversary this year. Last years spring commencement speaker was Iranian-American comedian and UC Berkeley alumnus Maz Jobrani, and the 2016 spring commencement speaker was Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Sakura Cannestra is an assistant news editor. Contact her at bcannestra@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter at @SakuCannestra Correction(s): A pervious version of this article incorrectly stated that U.S. Senator Kamala Harris graduated from Harvard University. In fact, she graduated from Howard University. U.S. President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday after a series of public rifts over policy on North Korea, Russia and Iran, replacing his chief diplomat with loyalist CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The biggest shakeup of Trump's Cabinet since he took office in January 2017 was announced by the president on Twitter as his administration prepares for an unprecedented meeting with the leader of North Korea. Trump tapped the CIA's deputy director, Gina Haspel, to replace Pompeo at the intelligence agency. Tillerson's departure caps months of friction between the Republican president and the 65-year-old former Exxon Mobil chief executive. The tensions peaked last fall amid reports Tillerson had called Trump a"moron" and considered resigning. "We've been talking about this for a long time," Trump said on the White House lawn on Tuesday."We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things." He cited the Iran nuclear deal as an example of disagreements with Tillerson and said he and Pompeo have"a similar thought process." Senior State Department officials said Tillerson was unaware of why Trump pushed him out and that he had intended to stay in the job. On Monday, Tillerson blamed Russia for the poisonings in England of a former Russian double agent and his daughter. Earlier, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders had refrained from saying Moscow was responsible. A senior White House official said Trump asked Tillerson to step down on Friday but did not want to make it public while he was on a trip to Africa. Trump's Twitter announcement came only a few hours after Tillerson landed in Washington after the trip, which had been cut short. The official said Trump works well with Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, and wanted him in place before the U.S. president's planned talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and trade negotiations. Tillerson had no diplomatic or political experience before becoming secretary of state. He appeared out of the loop last week when Trump announced he would meet with North Korea's Kim. Stocks pared gains on the Tillerson news, but then stabilized. S&P futures were last up 0.3 percent. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Trump said on Twitter. LATEST DEPARTURE Tillerson joined a long list of senior officials who have either resigned or been fired since Trump took office in January 2017. Others include strategist Steve Bannon, national security adviser Michael Flynn, FBI Director James Comey, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, health secretary Tom Price, communications directors Hope Hicks and Anthony Scaramucci, economic adviser Gary Cohn and press secretary Sean Spicer. Trump publicly undercut Tillerson's diplomatic initiatives numerous times and Tillerson appeared out of the loop this month when Trump announced plans to meet with North Korea's Kim. Senior Trump administration officials also made it known in November that the White House had drafted a plan to replace Tillerson. In December Tillerson had offered to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, backing away from a key U.S. demand that Pyongyang must first accept that any negotiations would be about giving up its nuclear arsenal. But the White House distanced itself from those remarks, and a few days later, Tillerson himself backed off. Several months earlier in Beijing, Tillerson told reporters the United States was directly communicating with North Korea but that Pyongyang had shown no interest in dialogue. Trump contradicted Tillerson's efforts a day later. "I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man," Trump wrote on Twitter, using a pejorative nickname for Kim."Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!" Trump added. Early in 2018, Trump said on Twitter that Tillerson was"wasting his time" trying to negotiate with North Korea. Tillerson had joined Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in pressing a sceptical Trump to stick with the agreement with Iran and other world powers over Tehran's nuclear ambitions and he has taken a more hawkish view than Trump on Russia. In June, Tillerson urged Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states to ease a blockade against Qatar, which they accuse of supporting Islamist militants and their arch-adversary Iran. Qatar calls these charges baseless. Hours later, however, Trump accused Qatar of being a"high level" sponsor of terrorism, appearing to side firmly with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt in the dispute and to undermine Tillerson's effort to adopt a more even-handed approach to broker a solution. Tillerson also won few plaudits from career diplomats for his performance at the State Department. His tenure coincided with the departure of dozens of veteran foreign policy hands, and most of the senior policy-making positions remain unfilled. Seven men have been arrested in connection with a series of home invasions early Monday morning in Petaluma, including three who were at San Francisco International Airport attempting to board a flight, Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies said this morning. The group allegedly kicked in doors at three homes on Eugenia Drive around 3 a.m. Monday, tying up the residents and pistol-whipping one of them. Detectives believe the suspects were looking for marijuana, but there's no evidence that any of the residences in question were involved in cultivation or sales. The suspects fled in a vehicle, prompting a pursuit and a multi-agency search that lasted for hours and eventually triggered a shelter-in-place order for the Wood Hollow Drive neighborhood of Novato. They stopped their vehicle on U.S. Highway 101 near the San Marin Drive exit and five suspects bailed on foot. Javon Crockett, a 28-year-old man from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was arrested nearby after knocking on the front door of a home and asking the resident to call him an Uber, deputies said. Three more men were arrested in the parking lot of the Novato Costco. They include 20-year-old Chrisshawn Denardray Beal and 28-year-old Jaray Day-Shawn Simmons from Winston-Salem as well as 19-year-old Melvin Corbin from Richmond, Virginia. A woman escaped capture at that location, however. On Monday evening, detectives arrested three more suspects from Richmond, Virginia -- 22-year-old Nakia Robert Lydell, 21-year-old Siddiq Jafar Abdullah and 20-year-old Romello Shamar Jones. They were trying to board a plane headed back to the East Coast. All but one of the suspects are being held on $1 million bail each, but Beal has a no-bail warrant out of North Carolina. There are still two suspects at large, a man and a woman. Investigators are asking anyone with information related to the case to call their local police. ### OAKLAND (BCN) A federal judge in Oakland ordered the U.S. Environmental Agency today to designate by April 30 whether the smoggiest areas of the nation are meeting the current ozone standard for public health. Those designations will in turn require states to take stronger measures to reduce ground-level ozone, the principal ingredient of smog, in areas that don't meet the standard, including likely the San Francisco Bay Area. U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam ruled in a pair of lawsuits filed in December by 14 states led by California and by a coalition of public health and conservation groups. He agreed with the states and groups that the EPA violated the U.S. Clean Air Act by failing to meet an Oct. 1 deadline for the designations. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt "has failed to perform a nondiscretionary duty" imposed by the Clean Air Act "to promulgate by October 1, 2017, area designations for all areas of the country" under the standard revised by the EPA in 2015, Gilliam wrote. The lawsuits, filed against Pruitt and the EPA in December, said that areas suffering from ozone pollution and lacking the required designation include the Bay Area, Central Valley, Los Angeles and New York City area. One of the requirements triggered when an area does not meet the ozone standard is a mandate that new factories and power plants must have state-of-the-art pollution controls. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement, "The stakes are high. The smog-reducing requirements at issue will save hundreds of lives and prevent 230,000 asthma attacks among children. "We will closely monitor the EPA to make sure it complies with the court's order," Becerra said. Ozone is a hazy gas created when nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds from car exhaust and factory smokestacks react with sunlight. It can cause or worsen asthma, emphysema, other lung problems and heart conditions. It can also harm plants, trees and crops. The Oct. 1 deadline resulted from the EPA's revision of the ozone standard to protect human health on Oct. 1, 2015, reducing the previous limit of 75 parts per billion downward to 70 parts per billion. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA was required to designate the geographic areas not in compliance with that standard within two years. Last June, the EPA announced it was planning to wait another year, until Oct. 1, 2018, to make the designations. But after the same coalition of conservation groups and several states sued to challenge that plan, the EPA withdrew it. In November, the EPA designated a large number of areas throughout the nation as achieving attainment or compliance with the revised standard. But it said it would designate the non-attainment areas at an unspecified future time. The lawsuits alleged that 100 million of the nation's population of 323 million live in areas not yet given a designation as required, and that the result of the delay would be that "many millions of people continue to suffer from unhealthy air, contrary to the Clean Air Act's fundamental mandates." In a filing in January, the EPA acknowledged it had missed the deadline and said it hoped to issue the designations by April 30 after receiving public comments on recommendations from state governors. It argued it was allowed to have some flexibility on when those designations become final and thus trigger state action, but said it hoped to make them final within 30 to 60 days of April 30. Gilliam said in his ruling that he assumed the EPA would meet that timeline on finalizing the designations, but said he "would consider a further order if it fails to do so." Gilliam allowed an exception requested by the EPA for the San Antonio, Tex., area, saying the designation for that area is due in August. EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said in a statement, "We look forward to working with co-regulators (state and local agencies) to continue the designations process for the 2015 standards for ground-level ozone; we are evaluating the information provided by governors in February 2018 as part of that process." Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign director Mary Anne Hitt said in a statement, "This is a victory for everyone who breathes, and is clear evidence that Scott Pruitt's frequent attempts to delay and obstruct federal clean air safeguards are against the law. "The severity of Pruitt's attempts are a matter of life and death. Delaying the implementation of these life-saving smog standards puts the health of thousands of kids at risk," she said. In addition to the Sierra Club and American Lung Association, groups filing suit on Dec. 4 included the American Public Health Association, National Parks Conservation Association, Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council, among others. California was joined in its Dec. 5 lawsuit by Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia. According to documents posted on the EPA's website, California reported an ozone level of 73 parts per billion for the Bay Area, 93 parts per billion for the Central Valley and 90 and 102 parts per billion for sections of the greater Los Angeles area. It asked for a non-attainment designation for those areas and 15 other counties and air basins. ### The Santa Clara County medical examiner's office has identified the victim of a fatal collision involving a stolen motorcycle in San Jose last week as 41-year-old Jeffery Hanley. Officers responded to the crash at North Ninth and East Santa Clara streets at 7:37 p.m. on March 6, according to police. When police arrived, they found Hanley in critical condition. He was transported to a hospital where he died a short time later, police said. A preliminary investigation found that a silver Nissan Altima driven by an 18-year-old man was traveling up North Ninth Street when Hanley, riding a stolen Suzuki motorcycle, crashed into the vehicle at East Santa Clara Street, police said. The driver of the Nissan did not report injuries and stayed on scene, cooperating with investigators, police said. San Jose police said this was the 12th fatal collision on city streets in 2018. Anyone with information on the case should contact Detective LeAnn Alfonzo of the Police Department's Traffic Investigations Unit at (408) 277-4654. A man was killed in a shooting on Broadway in downtown Oakland on Monday night, according to police. At about 9:55 p.m., officers heard gunshots and responded to the 1300 block of Broadway, where they found the victim suffering from a gunshot wound, police said. The victim was taken to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. His name is not yet being released. Police have not released any suspect information in connection with the shooting. A 52-year-old woman suffered serious injuries when a vehicle struck her in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood on Monday evening, according to police. The collision was reported at about 7:05 p.m. in the area of Broadway and Laguna Street. A vehicle traveling west on Broadway struck the woman as she crossed the street. She was taken to a hospital to be treated for injuries that are considered life-threatening, police said. The 59-year-old man driving the vehicle stopped at the scene and cooperated with investigators. He was not arrested, police said. Mountain View police said today they are investigating potential threats made by a student at Mountain View High School. Police wrote on Twitter around 9:30 a.m. that they are aware of the threats and do not believe there is any danger in attending school today at the campus at 3535 Truman Ave. Mountain View police will have additional officers on campus to ensure everyone's safety. Police are working in conjunction with school and district administrators to communicate with students and parents. No further details about the threats were immediately available. Seven men have been arrested in connection with a series of home invasions early Monday morning in Petaluma, including three who were at San Francisco International Airport attempting to board a flight, Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies said this morning. The group allegedly kicked in doors at three homes on Eugenia Drive around 3 a.m. Monday, tying up the residents and pistol-whipping one of them. Detectives believe the suspects were looking for marijuana, but there's no evidence that any of the residences in question were involved in cultivation or sales. The suspects fled in a vehicle, prompting a pursuit and a multi-agency search that lasted for hours and eventually triggered a shelter-in-place order for the Wood Hollow Drive neighborhood of Novato. They stopped their vehicle on U.S. Highway 101 near the San Marin Drive exit and five suspects bailed on foot. Javon Crockett, a 28-year-old man from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was arrested nearby after knocking on the front door of a home and asking the resident to call him an Uber, deputies said. Three more men were arrested in the parking lot of the Novato Costco. They include 20-year-old Chrisshawn Denardray Beal and 28-year-old Jaray Day-Shawn Simmons from Winston-Salem as well as 19-year-old Melvin Corbin from Richmond, Virginia. A woman escaped capture at that location, however. On Monday evening, detectives arrested three more suspects from Richmond, Virginia -- 22-year-old Nakia Robert Lydell, 21-year-old Siddiq Jafar Abdullah and 20-year-old Romello Shamar Jones. They were trying to board a plane headed back to the East Coast. All but one of the suspects are being held on $1 million bail each, but Beal has a no-bail warrant out of North Carolina. There are still two suspects at large, a man and a woman. Investigators are asking anyone with information related to the case to call their local police. After saying Monday that they would not condone any student walkouts, Milpitas Unified School District officials issued an updated statement today regarding what they will allow students to do during Wednesday's nationwide protests calling for gun reform legislation. Superintendent Cheryl Jordan said the school district stands by their students in giving voice to their concerns and desires to support those who died in the Marjory Douglas High School tragedy in Florida and others before it. According to the superintendent, each principal in the district has worked with their staff to ensure that students "have an opportunity for civil discourse and to demonstrate their solidarity in a safe school environment." The district's middle and high school administrative teams have talked with their students about this "teachable moment" and suggested alternatives to leaving campus, Jordan said. Most schools in the district will still substitute the walkout for a moment of silence at 10 a.m., the designated time to come together across the country, for up to 17 minutes, according to Jordan. Schools may also hold class discussions and counselors will be available for students who choose to share their feelings. Principal Francis Rojas of Milpitas High School told the superintendent that some of his students have voiced a desire to take their walkout from campus to the Milpitas Police Department a few blocks away. The district is permitting this and has assigned staff and administrators to work with police to "supervise those who participate," Jordan said. "While district staff does not condone the walkout, we stand in solidarity with ALL students, locally and nationwide, as we strive together for a thriving school and community culture," Jordan said in her updated statement. On Monday, Jordan issued an original statement stating that the district was considering student safety first and would not condone students walking out on Wednesday and April 20, the two dates planned for nationwide actions to protest gun violence. The superintendent said all of those who left campus would be given an unexcused absence, and that the consequences would be administered per the student's specific school handbook. "Students do have a free speech right and may express their political views if it does not present a disruption to the learning environment," Jordan said in her first message. "Leaving campus during school hours to participate in political activity is not a safe and responsible way to work for change." A man and woman were arrested in Fremont on Sunday after fleeing from a traffic stop and being involved in at least two hit-and-runs, police said. An officer tried to stop a red Camaro near the Five Corners area in the Irvington neighborhood around 4:10 p.m. but the driver fled south on Fremont Boulevard while discarding paperwork from the car, according to police. The suspect vehicle was involved in at least two hit-and-runs while fleeing from officers, and shortly afterward a witness reported t hat the vehicle was parked near Bob's Foam Factory on Pestana Place and two people were running away from it. Shortly after 4:35 p.m., a police K-9 was used to search for the suspects and within minutes found a male suspect hiding behind a car in a nearby parking lot, police said. A second suspect was hiding in the bathroom of a nearby business and eventually surrendered. The suspects, a 30-year-old man from Newark and a 30-year-old woman from Manteca, were arrested on suspicion of evading police, hit-and-run, probation violation and fraud, among other offenses, police said. Their names were not immediately released. Investigators are also following up on potential identity theft material found in the vehicle. A Scotts Valley man is in custody after being linked to an indecent exposure case in Milpitas last week, police said today. At 1:02 p.m. on March 5, Milpitas police responded to call of a suspicious man seen masturbating inside a red vehicle in the 1000 block of North Abbott Avenue, according to police. When officers arrived in the area, they located Curtis Dale Vanmill, 59, sitting inside a parked red vehicle. Vanmill matched the description given to police and officers located adult pornographic material, sexual paraphernalia and a briefcase containing suspected child pornography when they searched his car, police said. Vanmill was arrested without incident and was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of indecent exposure and possession of child pornography, according to police. Milpitas police thanked the community for their role in helping assist in the detainment of Vanmill, calling it "a great example where reporting suspicious behavior to the police department aids in keeping our community safe." Anyone with information regarding the case or similar ones occurring in Milpitas should call the Police Department at (408) 586-2400. Information can be submitted anonymously through a tip hotline at (408) 586-2500 or on the Milpitas police website at http://www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov/crimetip. Veteran Berkeley City Councilwoman Linda Maio announced Monday that after 25 years on the council she won't run again in the November election. "It has been a tremendous privilege to represent Berkeley's District 1 and the entire city for over 25 years," Maio said in a statement. Maio, who served as the city's vice mayor for many years, said, "My career on the council has placed me in the forefront of all of Berkeley's exciting endeavors. I value the relationships I have across a broad spectrum of our wonderful, active, caring community." She said, "We are proud of our schools, libraries and parks supported so faithfully by the Berkeley community." Maio said, "Berkeley is dedicated to realizing our environmental priorities, to maintaining a diverse city both racially and economically, to affordable housing and to combating homelessness, to name a few." Maio said among her accomplishments was improving the air quality in West Berkeley, creating the city's first watershed management plan, advancing plans to reconfigure the Gilman Street interchange off Interstate Highway 80, helping to pass the nation's first sugar-sweetened beverage tax and helping to stop hazardous and explosive crude oil shipments from coming through Berkeley. In a statement to her constituents, Maio said, "Rest assured, for the next nine months I will continue to be on duty to focus on the health and well-being of our community." She said, "I cannot adequately express my heartfelt appreciation for all of the support and trust I received these many years. It has been a tremendous privilege." Southwest Airlines and San Jose city leaders celebrated an inaugural nonstop flight to Cabo San Lucas with festivities at Mineta San Jose International Airport on Saturday. Airport and airline staff worked to decorate the gate area and get passengers involved in the excitement with bright photo booth frames, balloons and signs that said "Hola amigos" and "Viva Mexico." The once-weekly Cabo flight will depart from San Jose each Saturday at 8:45 a.m. and return at 2:05 p.m., according to airport officials. "We're thrilled to continue our 25-year partnership with Southwest Airlines by launching the carrier's first-ever international service from SJC to Cabo San Lucas, a top-requested destination by Silicon Valley travelers," airport director of aviation John Aitken said in a statement. Southwest is Mineta San Jose International Airport's largest carrier with up to 92 nonstop departures offered daily. This was the first of 80 new weekly flights that is launching from San Jose this spring. Alaska Airlines is another airline that offers a similar option with nonstop service to Cabo from San Jose with daily flights. ### MILPITAS (BCN) The superintendent of the Milpitas Unified School District announced this morning that the district will not condone student walkouts intended to call on legislators for stronger gun control, giving those who choose to participate an unexcused absence. Superintendent Cheryl Jordan said that after student leaders at the district's middle and high schools shared with the administration that there may be students walking out to protest gun violence on Wednesday and April 20, the district made the decision that those who left campus on those dates will face consequences. According to Jordan, the consequences of the absence depend on each school's student handbook. "We want to support our students in giving voice to their concerns, feelings and desires to stand with their peers across the nation in support of those who died in the Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy and the others before it," Jordan said in her statement. "However, we have to consider their safety first." MUSD will instead be taking a moment of silence at 10 a.m. Wednesday, the time set nationwide to walk out in honor of the lives lost in the school shooting on Feb. 14, Jordan said. The length of the moment of silence will depend on what each principal and their staff feels are appropriate. "Leaving campus during school hours to participate in political activity is not a safe and responsible way to work for change," the superintendent said in her announcement. "We encourage you to talk to your children about how they may be feeling about this topic, and the importance of expressing themselves in appropriate ways at school." Palo Alto Unified School District, whose office is approximately 30 minutes from that of Milpitas Unified School District, issued a statement on Saturday in their superintendent's weekly message email saying they would support students who chose to walk out and permit parents to pull their kids out of school at any time if arrangements were made in advance. Interim Superintendent Karen Hendricks said that the Palo Alto district is "applauding students' commitment to be on the forefront of driving social change." Most middle and high school schedules in the PAUSD already accommodate the majority of the walkout time, but school leaders have worked with each school's student council to collaborate on the demonstration in order to support their free speech, according to Hendricks. "Although neither the schools nor the district sanction a walkout, we know that many students are committed to exercising their right to participate," Hendricks said. In return, the school district is asking that students conduct themselves in a peaceful manner that echoes the efforts of Gunn High School students when they protested against gun violence before school on Feb. 23. The PAUSD superintendent said that more details on how the school district will handle the second walkout, scheduled on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting, in future notices. ### BERKELEY (BCN) Veteran Berkeley City Councilwoman Linda Maio announced Monday that after 25 years on the council she won't run again in the November election. "It has been a tremendous privilege to represent Berkeley's District 1 and the entire city for over 25 years," Maio said in a statement. Maio, who served as the city's vice mayor for many years, said, "My career on the council has placed me in the forefront of all of Berkeley's exciting endeavors. I value the relationships I have across a broad spectrum of our wonderful, active, caring community." She said, "We are proud of our schools, libraries and parks supported so faithfully by the Berkeley community." Maio said, "Berkeley is dedicated to realizing our environmental priorities, to maintaining a diverse city both racially and economically, to affordable housing and to combating homelessness, to name a few." Maio said among her accomplishments was improving the air quality in West Berkeley, creating the city's first watershed management plan, advancing plans to reconfigure the Gilman Street interchange off Interstate Highway 80, helping to pass the nation's first sugar-sweetened beverage tax and helping to stop hazardous and explosive crude oil shipments from coming through Berkeley. In a statement to her constituents, Maio said, "Rest assured, for the next nine months I will continue to be on duty to focus on the health and well-being of our community." She said, "I cannot adequately express my heartfelt appreciation for all of the support and trust I received these many years. It has been a tremendous privilege." ### The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad on Monday declared the closure of the final placements for 2018. About 125 firms from across India and overseas participated in the process to offer 150 different roles to the class of Post Graduate Programme in Management. Accenture Strategy came up with the most offers at 18, followed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Amazon with 14 each. In the General Management cohort, Tata Administrative Services selected seven students, while in the banking financial services and insurance (BFSI) space, American Express made eight offers, followed by Yes Bank and FinIQ with six offers each. In the Enterprise Tech cohort, Microsoft picked up eight students. Under the Consumer Goods cohort, AB InBev was the top recruiter with nine students, while Amazon topped the list with 12 job offers in the Retail B2B space. IIM-A saw more than 35 companies in Cluster 1, over 45 companies in Cluster 2 and 50-plus companies in Cluster 3. Other prominent recruiters include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley. It also saw some placements by private equity and venture capitalist firms, including Kedaara Capital, Multiples Equity, Temasek and True North taking part. The process had two stages and was held across three clusters, with students appearing for more than 23 cohorts. The first stage involved the Laterals process where 47 firms hired management graduates with prior work experience for various sectors such as technology, banking, consulting, general management and analytics. In the second stage, the companies were grouped into cohorts based on the sectors and profiles they offered. The 2018 batch had 400 students. This year, six students opted to work on their own ventures, under the guidance and mentorship of the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship. "IIM-Ahmedabad has always encouraged students to take up entrepreneurship as a career. This year six students opted out of the placement process to work on their own ventures," an IIM-A press statement said. India's second largest two-wheeler manufacturer Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. on Tuesday announced the price of its new 160 cc sporty motorcycle X-Blade at Rs 78,500 (ex-showroom, Delhi). Riding on the popularity of its scooters, Honda has been the fastest growing two-wheeler brand in India in the last five years and has been steadily narrowing the gap with market leader and estranged partner, Hero MotoCorp. It is however, not perceived to be as strong in motorcycles, a segment that still accounts for the majority of two wheeler sales in the country and an area which has been a traditional fortress for Hero. "The aggressive and futuristic new X-Blade has been designed for millennials and Gen-Z. As promised, we have started the dispatches of X-Blade in March 2018," said Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice President - Sales and Marketing, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. "Armed with more style, Honda's tried and tested HET 160cc engine, and superior technology, X-Blade creates a new benchmark with several segment first features in its class and that too at an attractive price of Rs 78,500 (Ex-showroom, Delhi)." Traditionally a commuter-oriented 100cc market, the Indian motorcycle segment is gradually shifting to higher, more powerful specification mobikes that has led to manufacturers, including Hero, Bajaj, TVS, Yamaha and Honda, launching multiple products with 150cc and upwards specifications. Honda already has three existing bikes in this segment -- CB Hornet, CB Unicorn160, and the 150cc CB Unicorn. Powering the X-Blade is a 162.71 cc engine that produces 13.93 bhp at 8,500 rpm and peak torque of 13.9 Nm at 6,000 rpm. It is fitted with a link type gear shifter for precise and smooth shifts. A wide 130 mm rear tyre and mono-shock rear suspension promises better handling while cornering. Bookings for the X-Blade can be made at all Honda dealers across the country at Rs 5,000. The X-Blade is available in five colours - Matte Marvel Blue Metallic / Matte Frozen Silver Metallic / Pearl Spartan Red / Pearl Igneous Black and Matte Marshal Green Metallic. The Punjab National Bank will pay back the lenders who issued credit to billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi against the Letters of Undertaking issued - fraudulently - by the PNB. However, the payments will come with a rider. The Economic Times today reported that the PNB has agreed to honour claims due by March-end, but the payments will have conditions attached. And the condition is: the banks will have to return the money to PNB, if the investigating agencies during probe find that the lenders' intention was not bona fide while issuing the credit to the accused billionaires. The ET in its report cited two bank officials who said: "While settling the dues, PNB will issue a letter to banks that they would be liable to make good the payment if the findings by the investigative authorities prove that there was malafide intent on the part of peer banks. Once this is acknowledged by peer banks, PNB will make payments." The PNB's stand, it seems, hasn't changed over the issue as PNB MD and CEO Sunil Mehta in a press conference last month had said that the bank would honour its 'bona fide commitments' in the multi-crore bank scam. He said: "If the investigation process says it is our liability, then we will accept it." The bank later posted a notice on its website, saying: "We will honour all our bona fide commitments under LoUs and FLCs as per law of the land and as per specific existing guidelines of regulator i.e. RBI on LOUs and FLCs." The PNB also informed the stock exchanges about the liability of the defrauded money. It said: "In the bank, these transactions are contingent in nature and liabilities arising out of these on the bank shall be decided based on the law and genuineness of the underlying transactions." Among the banks which have exposure to mega PNB fraud are: SBI, UCO Bank, Allahabad Bank, Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda. UCO Bank has the highest exposure of about Rs 2,635 crore followed by Allahabad Bank which has an exposure of Rs 2,400 crore. UBI is at third place with Rs 1,920 crore. The SBI has an indirect exposure of about Rs 1,360 crore and Bank of Baroda has the least exposure of about Rs 425-450 crore. We will never allow anyone to hurt Pakistan from the Iranian territory: Iranian FM ISLAMABAD: Iran on Monday reiterated that it will not allow its territory to be used against Pakistan. We will never allow anyone to hurt Pakistan from the Iranian territory, just like we believe that Pakistan will never allow anyone to hurt Iran from its territory, said Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif during his address at a public talk on 70 Years of Pakistan-Iran Relations and Future Prospects organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) to commemorate 70 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. I believe Pakistan and Iran are prudent enough and have a solid foundation to lead the change for a stronger neighborhood based on the concept of including everyone and move from something that has caused bloodshed, misery and underdevelopment towards becoming a united Ummah, he told the audience. The visiting dignitary said that Iran and Pakistan have the longest ever diplomatic relations between two countries which are deep-rooted in common history, culture and values. He said a move by Pakistan and Iran to establish even stronger ties including increased economic, political and cultural ties between the people from both sides is in the interest of the entire region. The foreign minister stated that both Iran and Pakistan have a bigger task to accomplish as two major Muslim countries living in a very difficult region. We need to build a new paradigm in this neighborhood based on a new neighborhood networking policy. There is an illusion that security can be purchased. However, our world is not a world of coalitions anymore because we now build coalitions only to find our allies turning against us, he said. Zarif said that in order to have a better region, the two countries need to move to a paradigm based on understanding of the most important concept that security cannot be gained by deterring others. Syria and Yemen are miseries which our own wrong choices have brought not only to us but to innocent civilians and we continue to blame each other for this. Blaming may be a nice scapegoat, but it does not solve problems, he said, adding that the Islamic world can be a very strong Ummah provided that no country tries to become the dominant force and no one tries to exclude anyone in the region. We need a strong region rather than a strong man. Asia can become a basin for knowledge and development. We do not need to have competition at the expense of each other. Instead of forming blocks, we need to form networks, because while the former are created to exclude somebody, the latter are built to include all, he concluded. Speaking on the occasion, Sartaj Aziz said Iran was the first country to recognise Pakistan and that 70 years later, the common objective of both the countries is unity and prosperity of the Muslim Ummah. He said that the heart of diplomacy is in geo-economics, hence trade and investment should be increased. In this regard, both countries should improve their facilities and common links through both land and sea, he suggested. Strengthening economics and people-to-people links will result in a fruitful relationship beneficial to people of the both sides, he concluded. From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As... In an early morning tweet, President Donald Trump announced he fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him as the nation's top diplomat. The Twitterverse was quick to respond to the sudden major changes to Trump's security team and opinions on what went down were all over the map. A prevailing theme in the tweets is that people believe Trump ousted Tillerson because the former secretary of state condemned Russia and said the country is connected to the poisoning of an ex-spy living in Britain. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi shared a statement on Twitter and said, "President Trump's actions show that every official in his Administration is at the mercy of his personal whims and his worship of Putin." Rep. Tim Walz of Minnesota wrote, "Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warns of Russian interference in our democracy and today is fired by @realDonaldTrump. Coincidence?" A few applauded Trump's move, and @Harlan wrote, "If something doesn't work, he makes a change." Many criticized liberals for expressing dislike for Tillerson when Trump nominated him, and now thinking he's wonderful when the President fires him. @CollinRugg summarized this sentiment in his tweet: Rex Tillerson gets hired by Trump. Media: "OMG this is terrible!! Rex is awful!" Rex Tillerson gets fired by Trump. Media: "OMG this is terrible!! Rex is great!" The MSM (mainly CNN) is a joke ALSO, Trump ousts Tillerson, will replace him as secretary of state with CIA chief Pompeo Tension between Trump and Tillerson has simmered for many months, but the president and his top diplomat reached a breaking point over the past week, officials said. The reason for the latest rift was unclear, but Trump and Tillerson have often appeared at odds over policies such as the nuclear deal with Iran and the tone of U.S. diplomacy. A spokesman for Tillerson said the secretary of state "had every intention of staying" in his job and was "unaware of the reason" for his firing. Tillerson cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. "I felt like, look, I just need to get back," he told reporters aboard his plane home. The White House, however, had told him the previous Friday he would be dismissed, according to two administration officials. The news was not conveyed in person by Trump. Tillerson, 65, spent his career at ExxonMobil, climbing the ranks at the oil giant to become chief executive officer, where he cut deals across the Middle East and in Mexico. Having never worked in government before being named secretary of state, he struggled to adapt to Washington's ways and the administration's culture of backstabbing. Tillerson emerged as one of the strongest voices in the administration critical of Russia. For months, he has been saying Russia clearly meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, even as Trump shied away from any critical remarks. Trump selected Gina Haspel - the deputy director at the CIA - to succeed Pompeo at the CIA. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The front end of a storm moving into Northern California is bringing rain to elevations as high as 7,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada early Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service Sacramento reported Tuesday at 4 a.m. that Donner Summit at about 7,000 feet elevation was getting drenched. "Precipitation will change over to snow this afternoon and become heavy at times into Wednesday with severe travel impacts expected," the statement posted on Twitter reads. Winter isn't over yet in the Sierra. With a trough of low pressure hanging over Northern California, a series of storms will drop down from Gulf of Alaska and blast the mountain range shared by California and Nevada with rain, snow and wind Tuesday through Saturday. VIDEO: Yosemite in Winter The first system is warmer and hit early Tuesday, but temperatures will drop overnight and snow levels are expected to get down to 3,500 feet as night approaches, as reported previously on SFGATE. A foot or more of snowfall is forecast for elevations above 4,000 feet. The second system is slated to arrive Thursday and deliver snow showers through Saturday. This will be a colder system with overnight lows expected to drop into the teens Friday and Saturday nights and snow falling at the valley floors. "With the second storm, it has a big 'boom or bust' potential, says Edan Weishahn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno. "We could get 3 to 6 inches but if everything lines up perfectly, it could bring a whole lot more, which could catch people off guard. Please continue to monitor forecast and road conditions. Winter isn't over yet." GALLERY: Tahoe stuns with its snowy beauty in March 2018 Weishahn explains that with this second storm, heavy bands of precipitation will move across the region and the amount of snow that falls will be dependent on whether the peak periods occur in the afternoon when temperatures are higher or in the evening when temperatures are much cooler. "When we get into spring time, the storms don't behave as they normally would," she says. "Things could change quite rapidly." After the two systems move through, Weishahn says there's the potential for elevations above 7,500 feet to have a couple additional feet of snow. Chain control is expected to be in effect over Donner Pass and Echo Summit on and off throughout the week. BRASILIA, Brazil Late one evening in March 2013, Claudenice Josefa Olimpia, a 33-year-old shop assistant in Brazils Northeast, was shooting the breeze with neighbors when her husband came home, drunk. An argument ensued. Shortly afterward, Olimpia lay bloodied and unconscious on the couples bed, stabbed repeatedly in the neck. Her husband fled, but the authorities tracked him down, tried him and sentenced him to prison for her murder. 1 Missile test: The Russian military says it has conducted a successful test of a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile capable of sneaking through enemy defenses. A video posted by the Defense Ministry showed a MiG-31 fighter jet launching a Kinzhal (Dagger) missile during a training flight. The ministry said the missile, which carried a conventional warhead, hit a practice target in southern Russia. President Vladimir Putin named Kinzhal this month among the new nuclear weapons he claimed would bolster Russias military capability and render U.S. missile defense useless. Putin said Kinzhal flies 10 times faster than the speed of sound, has a range of 1,250 miles and can carry a nuclear or a conventional warhead. 2 Ukraine sanctions: The European Union has prolonged sanctions against senior Russian officials, lawmakers and military officers for a further six months over alleged meddling in Ukraine. EU headquarters said in a statement Monday that an assessment of the situation did not justify a change in the sanctions regime. Those targeted are accused of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. The EU imposed sanctions three years ago after Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula. TOKYO Hopes for the release of three American citizens imprisoned in North Korea got a big boost by the news of a possible summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Freeing the prisoners would be relatively low-hanging fruit and a sign of goodwill by Kim. It would also mark something of a personal success for Trump, who has highlighted the issue since June, when University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier died days after North Korea turned him over to American authorities. Trump banned Americans from traveling to the North in response and featured Warmbiers father prominently in his State of the Union speech in January. All three Americans now doing time in the North are men, and all three are ethnic Koreans. Two of them Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song were instructors at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology prior to their arrest and conviction. They are accused of anti-state activities and trying to overthrow the government. The university is the only privately funded college in the North, founded in 2010 on donations from Christian groups. Tony Kim, who taught accounting, has been in custody since April last year and is serving a 15-year sentence. Kim Hak Song, an agriculture specialist and evangelical minister who resided with his wife in China, was arrested about a month later. He remains in custody, but its not clear whether he has been sentenced or what his current status is. The third and longest-serving prisoner, Kim Dong Chul, is a former Virginia resident who reportedly claims to have been the president of a trade and hotel services company in Rason, a special economic zone on the North Korean border with Russia. He was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage. Suspects are often arrested when they try to leave North Korea. Warmbier, who was charged with anti-state crimes and the attempted theft of a propaganda banner, and Tony Kim were taken into custody at Pyongyangs international airport. Kim Hak Song was taken while on a train on his way home to China. The U.S. and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang acts as a go-between when an American is detained. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! The judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), sitting in a plenary session have elected Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji of Nigeria as President of the Court for a three-year term with immediate effect. "I am deeply honoured to have been elected by my peers as President of the International Criminal Court. As I take up my duties, I feel encouraged that I am able to rely on the wide experience of the two Vice-Presidents, Judge Robert Fremr and Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, both of whom I have closely worked with previously. I look forward to working together with them as well as with all the judges, all the Officials and the staff of the Court in a spirit of collegiality. I am deeply honoured to have been elected by my peers as President of the International Criminal Court. As I take up my duties, I feel encouraged that I am able to rely on the wide experience of the two Vice-Presidents, Judge Robert Fremr and Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, both of whom I have closely worked with pre I also look forward to collaborating with the Assembly of States Parties, civil society and the international community at large, acting together to strengthen and reinforce the Rome Statute system, the 20th anniversary of the adoption of which we celebrate this year, President Chile Eboe-Osuji stated following the election. I am also grateful to the previous President, Judge Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi, and Vice-Presidents, Judges Joyce Aluoch and Kuniko Ozaki, for their work and leadership, he added. Background of Justice Chile Eboe-Osuji. Justice Chile Eboe-Osuji was born in Anara in Imo State, Nigeria, on September 2, 1962. He obtained his bachelor of laws degree from the University of Calabar, Nigeria. He obtained his master of laws degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and doctor of laws degree from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1986 and practised briefly there. After achieving his Masters degree from McGill in 1991, he worked as a barrister in Canada. From 1997 to 2005. During his stay in Canada he worked as a barrister and law lecturer. Judge Eboe-Osuji worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as prosecution counsel and senior legal officer to the judges of the tribunal. From 2005 to 2007. Working for the Special Court for Sierra Leone as senior prosecution appeals counsel in 2007/08 and returning to the ICTR from 2008 to 2010 as Head of Chambers, he became the Legal Advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2010. He has authored two books and numerous law journal articles in international law. On 16 December 2011, he was elected as a judge of the International Criminal Court. He won the office in the fifteenth ballot in the Assembly of States Parties with 102 votes. The Nigerian born judge in 2014 recused himself as a member of the bench that tried the case involving Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta who was standing trial with his vice William Ruto for crimes against humanity following the Kenyas post election violence in 2007. The work of the ICC Presidency: The Presidency consisting of the President and the two Vice-Presidents plays a key role in providing strategic leadership to the ICC as a whole. The Presidency coordinates with the other organs and seeks the concurrence of the Prosecutor on matters of mutual concern. In accordance with the Rome Statute, the ICCs governing treaty, the Presidency is responsible for the proper administration of the Court, with the exception of the Office of the Prosecutor. The Presidency oversees the activities of the Registry and provides input into a broad range of administrative policies affecting the Courts overall functioning. Furthermore it conducts judicial review of certain decisions of the Registrar and concludes Court-wide cooperation agreements with States and international organisations. 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 Too many big Australian companies are failing to reveal plans for tackling climate change or to explain how climate change may impact their businesses, according to new research. The report, to be released Wednesday by climate NGO Market Forces, is based on public information from 73 big listed companies operating in sectors considered high-risk on climate change. It found that 84 per cent of the companies had not released a plan to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, 60 per cent did not have an emissions reduction target, and less than half had identified climate change as a material business risk. Market Forces is now calling for the disclosure of climate change-related risks to be made mandatory for companies, saying too many were failing to adhere to voluntary standards. This is a stark reminder that while Australian companies largely acknowledge the need to decarbonise, they are dragging their feet on implementing concrete steps to actually manage climate risk, said Market Forces analyst Dan Gocher, the report's author. Melbourne radio listeners have turned their backs on the ABC's new breakfast show in droves following the departure of long-time host Red Symons. Comedian Sami Shah and former 3RRR presenter Jacinta Parsons recorded a massive 2.9 point drop in audience share in Tuesday's radio ratings. An ABC spokesman confirmed a drop in audience share was expected as a result of major programming changes in recent months. "Breakfast audiences are down generally across most Melbourne stations," he said. "Changes to our programming will take time to settle in and we are confident that, over time, Melbourne audiences will discover and engage with our new content and presenters." It nearly always sounds too good to be true. A friend at a barbeque or some other social event tells you theyre onto a new financial product that promises hefty returns for a small initial outlay and just a few seconds work online. They tell you the secret is binary options trading (or perhaps some other newfangled trading product) and theyll tell you theyre onto a winner. Binary investing is about making a bet. Credit:Peter Braig But Money will happily tell you: It is nearly always too good to be true. The Omanhene of Japekrom traditional area of the Brong Ahafo Region, Okatakyie Amoa Aturu Nkonkonkyia (ii) at a press conference in Accra today expressed worry about the misrepresentation of Japekrom as Drobo. According to the President of the Japekrom traditional council, the geographical location of the Capital of the Jaman South District/Municipal Assembly is Japekrom. And added the lands on which the Drobo residents are occupying is all for the people of Japekrom which court judgement has vindicated them. He added, many individuals deal directly with Drobo Traditional council on matters regarding the Japekrom stool Lands which is not right. He however,stressed that from hence fourth Japekrom should be treated as such with the recognition. This follows calls by the Drobo traditional Council recently. 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 On Friday, November 5 in 2010, Leola Rose headed into her office for what she had assumed would be an ordinary day at work. It wasn't. That afternoon the then 28-year-old marketing executive suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm and would spend the next three months in hospital, and another three months after that as an outpatient. "People can live with [brain aneurysms] and be fine for their whole lives but when they rupture, it's potentially fatal," she says. After the hospital stay, Leola Rose spent another three months as an out-patient relearning to walk and talk. She fell over in the bathroom at her office and was unconscious for about 15 minutes before she regained consciousness. She was rushed to hospital and it took several hours of exploratory surgery to discover the bleed in her brain. "They told my parents and my now-husband that I was bleeding from the brain and would die if they couldn't stop it." In what Fair Work Commission deputy president John Kovacic described "a couple of very difficult days" on March 1 and 2, evidence attempting to challenge credibility of witnesses on both sides was heard. In the final moments of the day's proceedings messages from Mr Elvin to Mr Puerto, with instructions about what to say in the hearing, were read to the commission by an interpreter. In the second hearing of the unfair dismissal case involving two workers at Canberra Foot and Thai massage parlour, massage supervisor Jun Millard Puerto was called as a witness for the business, which was represented by Colin Elvin. Text messages read in the Fair Work Commission showed a former massage parlour owner had told an employee what to say in the hearing, contradicting other evidence that had been given. The commission is considering whether two employees were unfairly dismissed in October 2015. Delo Be Isugan claims that she was forced to run away from her position at the massage parlour after becoming fearful that she would be sent back to the Philippines. She had started a relationship with fellow employee Bartolome Durado, which she says was against rules for employees put in place by Mr Elvin. Mr Durado claims he was also unfairly dismissed because of the relationship. Canberra Foot and Thai massage parlour in Belconnen was represented by former owner and director Colin Elvin, who told the commission that he was now working as a consultant for the business. He said it was more appropriate for him to represent the business than its current owner as he was owner at the time of the alleged unfair dismissal. Deputy president Kovacic asked Mr Elvin multiple times throughout the second day of hearings to stop messaging on his phone. Stefan Russell-Uren, legal officer for United Voice and representing the two workers, asked that the phones of Mr Elvin and Mr Puerto be surrendered to the commission, stating that he suspected Mr Puerto had materially changed his evidence on the advice of Mr Elvin. He also tendered a photo of Mr Elvin speaking to Mr Puerto during the lunch break in proceedings. In what the deputy president conceded was an "highly extraordinary" move, a message sent from Mr Elvin to Mr Puerto was read as evidence. It included instructions on what to say to the commission. Earlier in the day, Mr Elvin gave evidence that he did not terminate Ms Isugan or Mr Durado for their relationship, but that he had asked other staff about Ms Isugan's performance as a massage therapist. He said she received below-average ratings in customer surveys and that she was disruptive in a quiet workplace. A police officer told a teenager during a traffic stop in Civic that he would search him "for being a smart arse" before swearing at him to get the "f--k" out of the car, a court heard on Tuesday. In a dramatic video played to the court, the officers drag the 19-year-old passenger out of the car and put him face down on the asphalt before they cuff his hands behind his back. No charges were ever laid against either the driver of the car or the passenger following the traffic stop late on Australia Day last year. But Senior Constable Matthew McVicar, 35, and Constable James Head, 29, were later charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm following the altercation. They have pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers said at the outset of a hearing on Tuesday that the officers were acting in the execution of their duties. It was about 10pm on January 26 last year. The driver had just picked up his friend and his friend's girlfriend from an Australia Day party in Belconnen. The alleged victim said he had been drinking that day, about 10 to 15 beers since midday, but denied he was being aggressive. "Hey Google, turn on the coffee machine." This is one of the first things Canberrans Greg and Beth Peck say when they wake up. The pair from Gungahlin have embraced smart home technology. Greg and Beth Peck, who have transformed their home into a "smart home" by using Google Home device with their cats Molly and Rogue. Credit:Jamila Toderas The Pecks transformed their home in November last year after initially looking for extra security. "We wanted to put something into the house for security because of the hours we worked, Greg leaves early in the morning and I sometimes get home late," Mrs Peck said. So what on earth is going on? The answer revolves around what had, until yesterday, been a little-known feature of the Australian tax system called "dividend imputation". The complexity of the Australian tax system hides many sins, one of the most inequitable of which is the fact that some of Australias wealthiest citizens pay negative tax. The ATO actually hands other peoples money to some of the wealthiest people in the country. Indeed, while Centrelink chases some of our poorest citizens for seven-year-old debt, one lucky non-taxpayer actually received $2.5 million in "tax credits" in a single year. The tax treatment of earnings generated from owning shares is complicated. Because it is complicated most people think it is boring. Because its boring we dont discuss it much. However Australias dividend imputation system is important, unique to the world and comes with approximately a $30 billion dollar a year price tag. So whatever you think about Bill Shorten and Chris Bowens announcement it is a good thing they have got us talking about one of the least understood aspects of tax policy in Australia. When a company makes a profit it pays the 30 per cent company tax rate on that profit. In most countries, after the company pays tax it distributes dividends to its shareholders who, in turn, pay at least some personal income tax on those dividends. But Paul Keating thought that companies and shareholders paying tax was "double taxation", so in 1987 he introduced "dividend imputation credits", which simply meant that any tax paid by the company could be "credited" against any personal income tax payable. The franking credit is essentially a note that comes with the dividends that says company tax has already been paid on the dividend, giving you a discount on that income at tax time. Whether Paul Keatings system of dividend imputation is "fair" or not has never been widely debated in Australia for the simple reason that so few people understand how it works. But what really does not pass the fairness pub test was Peter Costellos subsequent decision to allow people with "spare" tax credits to swap them for cash. Before you can understand the full horror of Costellos changes it is important to remember that he also made income from superannuation funds entirely tax free once you turn 60. That is, if you are over 60 with $10 or $20 million in superannuation, you could literally withdraw millions of dollars per year and pay not a single cent in tax on it. Paying no tax would mean tax deduction credits would be of no use. For example, a very wealthy individual drawing $1 million per year from their superannuation and paying no tax not even the Medicare surcharge who received say a $10,000 dividend cheque that comes with $3000 worth of "tax credits". Now imagine the frustration of our retired millionaire who, because they pay no tax, has nothing to offset their credits against. Luckily for them, Peter Costello changed the law in 2000 to allow any surplus credits to be swapped for cash meaning that rather than paying no tax, they get paid $3000 by the taxpayer. More Queensland schools are going solar with the state government announcing it will spend almost $100 million over three years to put solar energy systems on the roof of more than 800 schools. But the state opposition has pushed for the money to instead be spent on air-conditioning schools and warned the LNP would watch to see if the money was only spent in Labor electorates. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Education Minister Grace Grace at Bremer State High School on Tuesday. Credit:Dan Peled/AAP Speaking at Bremer State High School on Tuesday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said schools would save $10.2 million a year in electricity costs once the scheme was fully operational. The tender for the first 210 solar energy rooftop systems, 30 schools in each of the seven Education Queensland districts, will be released in a few weeks. A $5 billion defence contract expected to deliver hundreds of full-time jobs will be carried out in Queensland after months of state-versus-state campaigning for the work. On Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will be in Brisbane to award phase two of the Land 400 armoured vehicle contract to Rheinmetall Defence Australia. The Rheinmetall Boxer CRV at Parliament House. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen After a three-year tender process, the German contractor will build 211 Boxer CRVs at Ipswich, with a future $15 billion deal also on the cards. Mr Turnbull said Rheinmetall's vehicle was the most capable option on the table, beating a bid from BAE Systems Australia to build the vehicles in Victoria. That's all from me this morning. Thanks for reading the Express. I had lots of people send in the correct target word - well done to you all! I'll see you again next week. More than 1000 disgruntled Trinity Grammar parents, students and alumni have voted to remove their principal and school council. At an extraordinary public meeting at a packed Hawthorn Town Hall on Tuesday, the influential Old Trinity Grammarians Association threatened legal action if their demands weren't met by Friday. The school community almost unanimously passed a no-confidence motion against their principal Dr Michael Davies, with just 28 people opposing. Lawyers have been briefed and the alumni association is collecting donations for a fighting fund. The school council and principal are facing a huge backlash over their decision to sack popular deputy principal Rohan Brown for cutting a student's hair. Colombia Hoy Para nunca olvidar Paginas vistas en total 'Parasite' painted on a statue of Queen, Elizabeth in Kent, England Sin palabras La UE le apunta a la paz Cada vez mas solo Precio del Brent To get the BRENT oil price, please enable Javascript. Precio del WTI To get the oil price, please enable Javascript. Dolar USA Vs Euro Precio del Oro To get the gold price, please enable Javascript. LULA y su Pueblo Bye Bye Homenaje al genial Quino Fueron ellos Una imagen que resume Tan bajo ha caido que se deja tocar el trasero? Porky y el Nene (archiconocido narcotraficante) Ladrones al poder Asi mira el perrito a su amo Crazy Clamor popular La nueva inquisicion Bolivia Chile Hoy Eso es todo amigos! Piensalo! Pinerachet No More Trump Adios Macri, hasta nunca La Marioneta se desinfla Asi o mas cinico Almugre Mexico en 1794 Mas arrastrado imposible Hasta cuando! La pura verdad Solidaridad con Palestina Serie Capitalismo Espejismos de la clase trabajadora Asi es! Comerciantes o delincuentes No pasaran! Asi es la vida USA HOY 01/01/1959 La avaricia no tiene limites AYUDA HUMANITARIA? Chile Hoy Asi son las cosas Mapa Electoral de Venezuela Patagonia argentina? Un aniversario mas del mayor genocidio de la Humanidad Retrato del franquismo en Espana Visca Catalunya! El Chulo de Madrid Cuando la policia se roba la democracia Una imagen dice mas que mil palabras La purita verdad Asi gobierna la maldita burguesia Mi pobre clase media Como Chavez nadie Comparte La Colmena via twitter Twittear Programa de la MUD Asi o mas clarito Por que Trump no ataco Corea del Norte? Hace 15 anos Por que la OEA no se pronuncio? Una verguenza nacional La luz que nos guia La Union Europea Premio Nobel de la Paz? Feudalismo ayer y hoy Obama, el mentiroso Curiosa coincidencia Un mundo de cerdos No es extrano? La Marioneta Los ricos protestan, los pobres celebran MARICORI Y OBAMA Cuantas muertes este ano? USA TODAY USA HOY 6 USA HOY 5 USA HOY 4 USA HOY 3 USA HOY 2 USA HOY (1) Insaciable Cronologia de un agresor Guarimbear en USA Mexico hoy Bolivar y Chavez Primero Amargado Dios los cria y ellos se juntan USA hoy (III) USA hoy (II) USA hoy Mexico hoy Mexico hoy Mexico hoy Obama La verdad sea dicha Los ricos Que no nos vea Obama Pobre Obama SOS PALESTINA VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN VICMAN Archivo del blog Archivo del blog marzo (4) abril (9) mayo (8) junio (10) julio (11) agosto (10) septiembre (17) octubre (11) noviembre (15) diciembre (10) enero (9) febrero (10) marzo (8) abril (5) mayo (6) junio (8) julio (13) agosto (10) septiembre (7) octubre (12) noviembre (8) diciembre (15) enero (17) febrero (11) marzo (11) abril (12) junio (6) julio (11) agosto (15) septiembre (5) octubre (15) noviembre (14) diciembre (11) enero (13) febrero (9) marzo (10) abril (8) mayo (7) junio (12) julio (12) agosto (8) septiembre (8) octubre (4) diciembre (8) enero (35) febrero (20) marzo (29) abril (19) mayo (21) junio (27) julio (21) agosto (28) septiembre (40) octubre (47) noviembre (21) diciembre (34) enero (62) febrero (81) marzo (117) abril (141) mayo (114) junio (111) julio (126) agosto (98) septiembre (160) octubre (234) noviembre (493) diciembre (319) enero (219) febrero (267) marzo (230) abril (291) mayo (347) junio (223) julio (179) agosto (191) septiembre (239) octubre (350) noviembre (406) diciembre (353) enero (284) febrero (202) marzo (274) abril (250) mayo (232) junio (251) julio (188) agosto (249) septiembre (230) octubre (178) noviembre (141) diciembre (164) enero (187) febrero (147) marzo (211) abril (190) mayo (199) junio (164) julio (162) agosto (174) septiembre (182) octubre (225) noviembre (114) diciembre (132) enero (223) febrero (147) marzo (133) abril (108) mayo (387) junio (465) julio (785) agosto (748) septiembre (485) octubre (681) noviembre (754) diciembre (805) enero (708) febrero (896) marzo (735) abril (831) mayo (723) junio (555) julio (658) agosto (619) septiembre (457) octubre (455) noviembre (295) diciembre (269) enero (534) febrero (556) marzo (205) abril (119) mayo (194) junio (255) julio (294) agosto (182) septiembre (207) octubre (340) noviembre (351) diciembre (281) enero (114) febrero (128) marzo (216) abril (195) mayo (116) junio (141) julio (182) agosto (181) septiembre (50) octubre (72) noviembre (104) diciembre (88) enero (168) febrero (102) marzo (151) abril (207) mayo (43) junio (72) julio (35) agosto (146) septiembre (43) Chavez Cuanto te queremos! Por culpa de Chavez Cerveza Polar Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar Translate LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares? Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano... Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos: Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias. Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera. No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje. En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio. Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida. Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella. Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal. Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista. Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen. Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che? Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio. Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora. Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo. Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo. Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania. No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar. Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga. Alguna duda? Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia. OZ1 OZ2 OZ3 OZ4 Homenaje a Jason Galarraga La Victoria de Samotracia Odalisca Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008 La Sierra Nevada de Merida Nuestro precioso Churum Meru Homenaje a Picasso Autoretrato Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola? La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar. Mi profesion? Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos. Sal en la Coca Cola? A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar. De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla: Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido) azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa) Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas Mucha Cafeina Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja. Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos. Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja. En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero). Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma. La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate. Bebidas Light? Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal. Publicado por loretahur En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina: 1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias. 2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina. 3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard. 4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos. 5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla. 6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos. Ahora... sobre la margarina: 1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) . 2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias. 3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno). 4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer. 5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna. 6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo. 7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina. Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas: * No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo). * No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!! No a la guerra, Si a la Paz Misterios de la ciencia... Los costos de la guerra medicos y capitalismo... Capitalismo... medicos (2) Quien educa a nuestros hijos? Los Medios... Sin Palabras... Chistes feministas - Cual es el problema, Eva? - Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas. - Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas... - Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti. - Que es un hombre? - Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente. - Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente. - Cual es el truco?. - Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion. - Cual? - Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer. Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas? Porque todos son unos cerdos Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas? Porque todos son unos cerdos Ellas... Ellas (2)... Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1 Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije: -Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro. Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria. Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre? -Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa! VENGANZA NUMERO 2 Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris. A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita: - Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!! Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta. La mujer paso quince dias en Francia. El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla. Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es: - Y amor me trajiste mi francesita?? - Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina. VENGANZA NUMERO 3 El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion. - No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo. - Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz. Te quiero confesar algo. - Esta bien, esta bien. Habla! - He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga. - Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!! machismo y cibernetica Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston. -Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad. El simio hace la sena de OK. -Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?. El simio hace la sena de OK. -Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide. -Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!. .Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti. Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos. Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco. Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas Gol !!!! Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso! Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy! Far-right activist Neil Erikson has been chastised by a Melbourne judge for talking "rubbish" and creating stunts simply because he enjoys media attention. He appeared in the Federal Circuit Court on Tuesday to find out whether he'd be punished for contempt linked to an online inflammatory video in which former senator Sam Dastyari was called a "terrorist". Erikson, a convicted stalker and racial vilifier who is linked to far-right groups Patriot Blue and United Patriots, had published the video footage and posted photos on his Twitter page, defying court orders. He was taken to court in December by his previous employers Toll, who claimed Erikson wore their uniform in his videos to damage their brand. A drunk and abusive fly-in, fly-out worker who forced a Qantas flight from Perth to Brisbane to turn back has been fined $26,000. Luke MacDonald Taylor boarded a plane to Queensland in July after having consuming a cocktail of Xanax and beer. Luke MacDonald Taylor being escorted off the flight by police. Credit:Heather McNeill He skulled two drinks in front of airline staff when told he could not drink his own bourbon while onboard the aircraft. During the flight he then snatched the intercom from a flight attendant and threatened to punch another, prompting the captain to make the decision to turn the plane around. A former City of Perth employee, extradited to WA after being arrested at a Canberra brothel, has admitted to accepting bribes and acting corruptly during his time at the council. Brett Edward Kenny, 57, was charged following an investigation by the Corruption and Crime Commission into his dealings with an electrical contractor engaged in public works by the council in 2013. Brett Kenny admitted accepting a bribe during his time at the City of Perth. Credit:MagMos Kenny, who changed his surname and moved away from Western Australia after the investigation, was due to stand trial in the Perth District Court on Tuesday. Instead, he pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe, knowingly giving false evidence to the CCC and acting corruptly to gain a benefit for himself. Beijing: Amid fears the Chinese government would "turn off the tap" of Chinese students enrolling in Australian universities, a Chinese education agency has complained about the opposite happening - Australian security agencies blocking visas for Chinese postgraduate students. The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed that 40 Chinese PhD applicants who were awarded scholarships to study in Australia are experiencing visa delays as they go through legislated national security checks. Chinese students are experiencing delays obtaining visas to study in Australia. Credit:Reuters All the researchers were awarded a scholarship from the Chinese Scholarship Council, part of the Chinese Education Ministry. But a Chinese student told Fairfax Media the Home Affairs department is downplaying the situation. He said there were at least 100 Chinese PhD applicants he is in contact with on social media who have been accepted into Australian universities but are experiencing lengthy delays for a visa. Tokyo: Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe had grown accustomed to being US President Donald Trump's favourite foreign leader, but he's now scrambling to remain relevant as Trump embarks on a daring diplomatic gambit with North Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Credit:AP When North Korea embarked on a charm offensive linked to the Winter Olympics a month ago, Japan's Prime Minister warned anyone who'd listen not to fall for Kim Jong-un's "smile diplomacy" and to keep up the "maximum pressure" campaign. Now, with both the South Korean and American leaders planning summits with Kim, Abe who's also caught in a diplomatic storm at home is trying to minimise the appearances of differences with Trump. The Japanese government was now even exploring the possibility of setting up their own meeting between Abe and Kim, Japanese media reported on Tuesday. London: Fiat Chrysler Australia paid Rolls Royce prices for new car dealer websites after a web developer bribed Chryslers then managing director Clyde Campbell with $2.4 million, a UK court has been told. A Chrysler car dealership in New York, USA. Credit:AAP On Tuesday the UK High Court heard evidence from Robert Olver, a web services expert appointed to come up with a fair price for the contract signed in 2010 between Chrysler and British car industry web developer Motortrak. Olver told the court there was no commercial justification for some elements of the contract, and Motortrak had charged well above a fair price. He based his calculations on the cost, at the time, of building car dealer websites from scratch in the Australian market other options would have been even cheaper, he said. London: British counter-terrorism police were on Tuesday investigating the unexplained death of a Russian associate of late tycoon Boris Berezovsky, but said the death was not thought to be linked to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent. Nikolai Glushkov, 68, was discovered dead late on Monday at an address in Clarence Avenue in suburban south-west London. Loading British police, who did not name Glushkov, said that they were investigating the death of a man in his 60s who lived on Clarence Avenue. Washington: US President Donald Trump has backed British Prime Minister Theresa May's demand that Russia must provide "unambiguous answers" over last week's poisoning of an ex- Russian spy and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury. Trump's pledge came as America's stance was plunged into doubt when Rex Tillerson was sacked as secretary of state after publicly blaming Russia. In a phone call with May, the US President offered Britain "any assistance" needed in its investigation, according to the White House. Both leaders said there should be "consequences" for whoever attacked Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on British soil. The pair also agreed it amounted to a "flagrant violation of international norms" - a hint of more serious diplomatic action to come. Washington: US President Donald Trump's personal assistant was escorted from the White House amid an investigation into ''serious financial crimes'', CNN reported. John McEntee, who has served as Trump's personal assistant since Trump won the presidency, had his security clearance revoked because he is under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes, a source familiar with his firing told CNN. The charges are not related to the President, the source said. The decision to remove McEntee came to light on the same day Trump announced he was sacking Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and replacing him with Mike Pompeo, his CIA director. Former aide to Donald Trump, John McEntee, right, has left his role in the White House over a security issue. Credit:AP But McEntee will remain in the President's orbit despite his abrupt departure. Trump's re-election campaign organisation announced on Tuesday that McEntee has been named senior adviser for campaign operations, putting him in a position to remain as a close aide during the next several years. The campaign's decision underscores Trump's tolerance for and often encouragement of duelling centres of power around him. And it highlights the extent to which the re-election campaign has already become a landing pad for former Trump associates who have left the White House but remain loyal to the President. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has said in recent weeks that too many staff members were operating on interim security clearances because they could not pass FBI background checks. A White House spokesman declined to comment on McEntee's firing. But a senior administration official said many of the President's top aides were shocked by the abrupt departure, which the official described as a sudden decision. The official, who requested anonymity to discuss personnel issues, said McEntee had been expected to travel with Trump as he always does when he departed for a trip to California on Tuesday. Loading Austin: Emergency officials in Austin, Texas, were grappling with the mistery of another exploding parcel on Monday, the third such incident in two weeks - and the second of the day. On March 2, a 39-year-old man in north-east Austin was killed after a package on his front porch exploded, police said. Authorities investigate the scene of Monday's second explosion. Credit:Austin American Statement/AP Early on Monday, police responded to a similar package explosion at a home on the east side of the city. Upon arrival, police found two injured victims inside the home: One, a 17-year-old male, later died, while the other, an adult female, was taken to the hospital with injuries. Police said that incident was being investigated as a homicide. For Immediate Release President Trump nominated Gina Haspel today to serve as CIA director. Physicians for Human Rights Director of Programs Homer Venters issued the following statement in response: The CIAs post-9/11 torture program was illegal and unethical, stripped people of their most basic rights, and facilitated severe physical and psychological abuse. Gina Haspel played a prominent role in facilitating torture when she ran a CIA black site in Thailand, where detainees in U.S. custody were subjected to brutal torture masquerading as interrogation tactics. We are deeply concerned that President Trump has nominated a willing participant in this dark and shameful chapter of CIA history to lead the institution at a time when the United States commitment against torture and to the humane treatment of detainees demands unwavering enforcement. PHR calls on the Senate Intelligence Committee to thoroughly examine Haspels role in the CIA torture program, including reports that she destroyed video evidence of torture crimes. Haspels nomination highlights the need for the Trump Administration to categorically declare it will not tolerate torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment anywhere by anyone. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here. Washington: US President Donald Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea, White House officials said on Tuesday. Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. Pompeo will replace him at the State Department, and Gina Hapsel - the deputy director at the CIA - will succeed him at the CIA, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed. US Senate Foreign Relations Committee was set to hold a hearing some time April to consider Pompeo's nomination, the Republican head of the panel said on Tuesday. Pakistan's prime minister said he expects President Pervez Musharraf to secure another five years in office this northern autumn in spite of turmoil over his bid to fire the chief justice. In an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz projected an air of confidence for the government and Musharraf's leadership, playing down signs of a spread in Islamic extremism in the country and predicting parliament would finish its full five-year term for the first time in the country's history. Aziz said Pakistan's economy has grown and the country now has record reserves of $US15 billion ($A17.86 billion). "The whole nation hopes, and I'm sure President Musharraf wants, to stand for re-election. We are very sure he will contest and he will be elected for another term," said Aziz, seated in a state reception room in his official residence overlooking the capital. Both Musharraf's and Aziz's political futures have been thrown into question by the outpouring of opposition to the March 9 suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, which has provoked deadly unrest and accusations of authoritarian rule by the military leader. DNA evidence ties a former pizza delivery man accused of being one of the city's most prolific serial killers to the slayings of 10 women and an unborn foetus, a prosecutor told jurors on Tuesday at the start of his trial. The women's killings happened over 11 years. Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace said Chester Turner was finally caught after he was arrested in 2002 on charges of raping a woman in Los Angeles. Authorities charged Turner, 40, in October 2004. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. Turner's DNA was submitted to cold-case investigators and "like water from a faucet" each unsolved murder was linked to Turner, Grace told jury. Police allege he accosted most of his victims on a street in crime-plagued south Los Angeles, raping and strangling them in a killing spree that extended from 1987 to 1998. Cyber Intelligence Asia 2018 - 6th annual Cyber Intelligence Asia conference and exhibition Cyber Intelligence Asia 2018 will bring together key decision makers from across the globe to one place to discuss topical subjects such as cyber forensics, protecting critical infrastructure, and future cyber security solutions. Visitors at the event can meet with leading cyber security vendors to review the latest cyber security challenges faced in Singapore & discuss the importance of regional collaborations to fight cybercrimes. Cybercrimes are on an increase with many banks, governments, utilities and transportation agencies/departments being targeted. Singapore is a region hub for oil and gas firms and banks and protecting their infrastructure is key to creating their strong economy. Different industries are being targeted to cause the greatest impact to an economy. CIA 2018 offers its visitors the opportunity to network with senior Singapore government and military officials who set their cyber security strategies and plans. During the event they will also hear presentations from the following governments; Malaysia, Philippines, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan and others. Securex West Africa 2018 Fire and Rescue, Commercial, Homeland, Perimeter and Cyber Security Securex West Africa 2018 is the most established security exhibition in West Africa, encompassing fire and rescue, commercial, homeland, perimeter, information and cyber security. The event is held in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria and indeed West Africa. It takes place at a purpose-built exhibition venue, The Landmark Centre, on Victoria Island from the 20 21 March 2018. In 2017, the event saw 1,935 industry visitors and 55 exhibitors take to the floor to showcase their products and discuss new business opportunities. For the 2018 edition the expectation is that these numbers will be eclipsed with 2,500 visitors and over 80 brands are expected to congregate for the seventh edition of the leading regional event. Alongside the exhibition a high-level conference program will run with presentations, technical classes and panel discussions from the leading minds in the sector from across the region and around the globe. The conference is being constructed in close collaboration with the leading Industry Associations, Commercial Partners and Ministries so that it focuses on the issues that are most pertinent for West Africa. As well as the more conventional conference program, 2018 will also see the return of the West African Cyber Security Summit (WACSS) which launched in 2017 to a full audience of cyber and security managers all wanting to understand better ways to protect their organisation from the growing threat posed by the internet of things. And for the first time, 2018 will see Firexpo West Africa launched as its own event within Securex. It concentrates its attention on the fire and rescue industry and will have its own dedicated marketing campaign to galvanise those in the industry to meet at the maiden edition of the regions only focused industry event. 2018 will host the seventh edition in West Africa of this continent-wide exhibition, with sister shows in South Africa and Kenya and it promises to continue its place as the paramount platform for discussing business propositions and sharing initiatives within the sectors. The Gravity Assist Podcast is hosted by NASA's Director of Planetary Science, Jim Green, who each week talks to some of the greatest planetary scientists on the planet, giving a guided tour through the Solar System and beyond in the process. This week, he's joined by Amy Simon of the Goddard Space Flight Center to talk about not just one, but two planets of the Solar System: the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, as well as Neptune's moon Triton. You can listen to the full podcast here, or read the transcript below. Jim Green: Uranus and Neptune are probably the least known of all our planets, and the reason, of course, is only one spacecraft has visited them, and that's Voyager 2 which flew by Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989. We call these planets the ice giants, but Amy, what do we mean by ice giants? [NASA Eyes Close-Up Mission to Uranus, Neptune] Amy Simon: Uranus and Neptune are really unique in our Solar System. They're very different planets [than the other worlds in our Solar System]. Part of the reason we call them ice giants is because they actually [contain] a lot of water-ice. So, while [Jupiter and Saturn are] gas giant planets with mostly hydrogen and helium, the ice giants are predominately water and other ices. Jim Green: How were they able to acquire that much ice? Amy Simon: They formed much further out in the Solar System where there was a lot of ice available. They didn't quite form as big as Jupiter or Saturn, so they couldn't pull in quite as much gas. That's part of why we believe they're so different. Jim Green: Some of the simulations of how our planets form seem to indicate that they formed closer to the Sun, and then through gravitational interactions, were pushed out. That includes Uranus and Neptune. Could they have acquired a lot of the Kuiper Belt objects as they were doing that? Planetary scientist Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. (Image credit: NASA) Amy Simon: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, we think that a lot of Neptune's moons are captured Kuiper Belt objects. Jim Green: Yeah, that kind of gives it away a little bit, I think. Of course, that one moon that we love so much at Neptune, called Triton, is such an unusual body and it was quite a shock when Voyager 2 saw it for the first time. Why is Triton such a different moon? Amy Simon: For one thing, we think Triton has geysers on it, but these aren't geysers like we're used to on Earth where we have hot water and steam. It's so cold [on Triton] that there is actually nitrogen-ice spewing out of the surface. So, that's really weird to start with. But, if you move away from the south pole of Triton, then you get into this weird terrain that we call "cantaloupe terrain," because it looks like the skin of a cantaloupe. It's all wrinkly. We have no idea what's forming that. And we've never even seen the other side of Triton, so who knows what's there? Jim Green: Are there any analogies between that cantaloupe terrain on Triton and some of the terrain we see on Pluto? Amy Simon: There is some, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that they're so cold. Even though they're cold, they still have some sort of activity that's moving the ice around. We think that Triton and Pluto actually have quite a lot in common, and that's something we'd like to go back and learn a lot more about. Jim Green: Triton's such a spectacular moon. It's larger than Pluto, and as we talked about, it may actually be a Kuiper Belt object. It also has a funny orbit around Neptune. Amy Simon: Right. All the planets in our Solar System move in the same direction, and they all pretty much rotate in the same direction. All their moons go around them in the same direction. But, Triton doesn't. It's retrograde, [meaning] it's going backwards. This is partly because we think it was captured, so it got too close to Neptune and got stuck there. The Hubble Space Telescope observes Uranus every year. This view, in near infrared light, highlights not only the planet's rings but also atmospheric belts and clouds. (Image credit: NASA/JPL/STScI) Jim Green: How hard is it to see Uranus and Neptune from the Earth? Amy Simon: They are so far away, they're just really faint. The ancient astronomers that originally found the other planets didn't even see Uranus and Neptune. It took telescopes to find them. So, if you were to go out and look, you'd have to know exactly where to look, and you'd still need a telescope to be able to find them. Jim Green: When were they discovered? Amy Simon: Uranus was first seen by [William] Hershel in 1781. Neptune wasn't seen for almost 50 years later, in 1846. Jim Green: The discovery of Neptune is really kind of fascinating in the sense that observing Uranus really gave away the fact that there's something else out there. How did that happen? Amy Simon: It is interesting. How they inferred all these outer planets was they were looking at the orbits of planets closer in and kept seeing them being tweaked a little bit. They kept inferring there had to be something else out there or something with a lot of mass [gravity] pulling them around. So, that's kind of how we got an idea there was a Uranus and a Neptune. But, even after that, we still thought there was more mass out there, which led to the hunt for Pluto. [Editor's note: Ironically, Pluto turned out not to be massive enough to perturb Uranus or Neptune, and discrepancies in the orbits of the ice giants were reconciled by more accurate measurements of their masses.] Jim Green: Uranus seems so featureless. Why does it look like that? Amy Simon: I think poor Uranus is misunderstood, actually. Uranus is very bland in appearance most of the time. It's kind of a pale blue planet. It's the real pale blue dot. Part [of the reason for that] is it is so cold, and it doesn't have a lot of internal heat. All of our outer giant planets give off more heat than they receive from the Sun except for Uranus. We think that is slowing down convection inside the planet. 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. Jim Green: Another really fascinating aspect about Uranus is its rotational axis. It's so different than all the other planets. Why is that? Miranda is one of the most intriguing of Uranus' moons, with a surface that looks like it has been smashed apart, melted and put back together again. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Amy Simon: That's another big puzzle. Uranus is tilted over on its side. [Imagine] you were looking straight up in the Solar System, that would be zero degrees. It's tilted over by 98 degrees. So, it is pretty much rolling around on its side. We have no [theoretical] way of making it do that. The best guess we have at the moment is that, while it was forming, it collided with something even bigger or as big, and it got knocked over. So that's a real puzzle when we try to explain how the Solar System formed. Jim Green: Are all Uranus' moons in the same plane in the equatorial region? Amy Simon: They are. It's a little different than what we can see on the other planets because it is tilted on its side. We get a different view than we do when we fly by other planets. Jim Green: In addition to the fabulous moons that Uranus has, doesn't it have rings? Amy Simon: That's correct. All of the outer planets have rings around them. And Uranus' are very narrow. It has about nine rings. They're hard to see because they are so narrow. We were able to see them with Voyager 2, and that's how we discovered them. [Editor's note: The rings were actually discovered in 1977 by James Elliot, Edward Dunham and Jessica Mink during a stellar occultation, where a background star winked on and off as it moved behind the rings from our point of view.] But, rings are great because they're one way that we actually can do kind of the equivalent of seismology on the planets. We can look at how the rings oscillate and how their shapes change and learn a little bit about the inside of the planets. Jim Green: So, the planet must be shaking and moving the rings back and forth. That's pretty astounding. Amy Simon: We've learned this while looking at the other planets, at Saturn especially, because it has such extensive rings. The fact that we have rings at all around the outer planets tells us they're pretty common. But, they're also very different from each planet. It tells us that we don't actually know what forms a ring and keeps a ring. Jim Green: Does Uranus have a magnetic field? Amy Simon: It does have a magnetic field, and it's a lot different than what we have here on Earth, where we have a north magnetic pole and a south magnetic pole. For both Uranus and Neptune, [the magnetic field is] offset from the center. So, it's not directly in the center of the planet, and it's also not just a north and south [orientation]. It's actually kind of a "multi" pole. If you can think about two magnets crossed with each other, it's almost like that. It's really strange. Jim Green: So, we've really got to go back to these planets and visit them. There's so much for us to learn. Amy Simon: Absolutely. The deep blue atmosphere of Neptune is more active than Uranus' atmosphere. (Image credit: NASA/JPL) Jim Green: Let's move our discussion on to Neptune. What did Voyager 2 discover about Neptune during its fly-by that really surprised us? Amy Simon: Neptune and Uranus are not at all like each other in a lot of ways. Besides being much more Earth-like in its tilt Neptune's tilted about 28 degrees [Earth is tilted by 23,5 degrees] it's not the same color as Uranus. It's a deeper blue, and when we got there, we were shocked to see it had a Great Dark Spot, which was a big storm that was raging in the atmosphere of Neptune. Jim Green: A dark spot? You mean sort of like the Great Red Spot on Jupiter? Amy Simon: Exactly the same type of thing. It's a gigantic anti-cyclone, so it's a high-pressure storm. It was raging throughout the entire Voyager fly-by. But, when we looked again with Hubble when we could first look at Neptune, it was gone. Jim Green: On Jupiter and Saturn, we're seeing lightning. Has there ever been lightning detected on Uranus and Neptune? Amy Simon: We haven't seen lightning, but that's partly because we expect lightning to form in the water-ice clouds, and on these cold planets the water-ice is deep down. We're actually seeing methane ice clouds when we see clouds on Neptune, and we haven't seen lightning yet. Jim Green: Does Neptune have a ring, also? What do we know about it? Amy Simon: Neptune does have rings, as well, but these are not as well formed as what we see around the other planets. They're kind of clumps. We see arcs partial rings at various points around the planet. Jim Green: In addition to Voyager 2 discovering Neptune's rings, there's also other techniques that we've used to discover and look at the rings of Uranus and Neptune. What's the most important technique? Amy Simon: The best technique we have, especially since we're not up close to them, is to use stars. When a star passes behind the planet, it gets dimmed out. Well, it turns out, when it passes behind the rings, the same thing happens. So, we can watch a star twinkling in and out as it goes behind Neptune and its rings. The surface of Neptune's moon Triton, as seen by Voyager 2. The greenish areas are called "cantaloupe terrain" while the pinkish regions is methane ice in the south polar cap. (Image credit: NASA/JPL/USGS) Jim Green: Are there any other moons besides Triton that are notable? Amy Simon: Both Neptune and Uranus actually have quite a few satellites around them. In the case of Uranus, they're all fairly small, although we think some of them do have interesting ice on their surface, as well. For Neptune, there's that one big moon, which is Triton, and then the rest are much smaller. So, it's more similar to what we see around Saturn. Jim Green: You know, it'd be fantastic to go back to either one of these and take a look at the moons more carefully. I'd be willing to bet we could find some captured comets, too. Amy Simon: Oh, I think we'd find all sorts of interesting things. We have no idea how many of these moons might be active and actually helping to form the ring systems, for example. That's what we found at Saturn with Enceladus. And the fact that we haven't seen the other side of any of these moons, we have no idea what's out there. Jim Green: I think we're gonna learn an enormous amount when we have an opportunity to return and really spend some time at Uranus and Neptune. What are some of the mission ideas that we've been talking about? Amy Simon: We've studied quite a lot of different ways to get out to Uranus and Neptune. I think the biggest problem is they're just so far away, so you can't get out there very fast. So we've looked into whether we could do a fly-by mission, which is similar to what Voyager 2 did, and if you did that, what would you add? I think the primary thing we'd add to any mission is an atmospheric probe, because we want to understand what the layers are in the atmosphere, what the temperatures are. We have also looked at orbiters, and these are nice because it gives you a chance to explore that whole system the rings, the moons, Triton in particular to see what's going on on all sides of those different moons. Neptune's Great Dark Spot. This was the spot seen by Voyager. It had disappeared from the planet's southern hemisphere by the time the Hubble Space Telescope looked for it in 1994, only to be replaced later by a dark spot in the northern hemisphere. (Image credit: NASA/JPL) Jim Green: When we look at other planets around other stars and we try to figure out what the most populous type of exoplanet is, it turns out that the most common are mini- neptunes. So, this tells us that Uranus and Neptune are objects that we really need to study further. How are we studying them today? Amy Simon: We're actually looking every year now at both of these planets with the Hubble Space Telescope. We've also been using the Kepler Astrophysical Telescope to look at the light curves [i.e. a graph of how their brightness changes with time] and study how their clouds are changing. Even if we can't see the clouds, we can see the change in their light curves. So, we're using as many different ground-based and space-based observatories as we can to look at both Uranus and Neptune. Jim Green: What kind of things are we finding out from the Hubble and Kepler observations? Amy Simon: At the moment we're seeing a lot more clouds on Neptune, and we're finding that they vary on really short time scales, and that's partly because Neptune has winds that blow at hundreds of miles an hour. So, those clouds change really fast. In the last few years we've also seen another Great Dark Spot. We discovered it with Hubble, and we've been able to watch it get smaller and eventually disappear. And we think [the dark spots] move around a little bit, too, which is interesting. Uranus, on the other hand, has been really, really quiet. When it passed its northern hemisphere equinox in 2007, kind of its springtime, we suddenly saw an outbreak of clouds all over the place, but we haven't seen a whole lot since then. We just see occasional ones. So they really are quite different planets from each other. Jim Green: One of the things that the Cassini spacecraft found at Saturn was that the rings were really shading the planet during certain seasons and causing all kinds of changes in the atmosphere. How long does it take for seasons on Uranus and Neptune? Amy Simon: A year on Uranus is about 84 [Earth] years. Each of its seasons is 21 [Earth] years. Because Uranus is tilted over on its side, that means that, for example, the south pole wouldn't see sunlight for about 40 years. It's got really extreme seasons, which help to drive the weather. Neptune takes 164 years to go around the Sun, so almost twice as long, but it doesn't have that extreme tilt. We haven't, at least by this point, been able to observe any seasonal changes because we haven't been observing long enough. Neptune's rings are faint and dark. They are seen clearly here only with Neptune blotted out of the picture. (Image credit: NASA/JPL) Jim Green: I ask all my guests how they got into this business, what was their 'gravity assist' that propelled them forward and made them the scientist they are today. Amy, what's yours? Amy Simon: I think I had a two-body gravity assist, actually, the first one being when the shuttle program came around and Sally Ride I really wanted to be an astronaut, to be the first woman on Mars. But, honestly, the second one was Voyager 2 and when it flew by Uranus and Neptune and you saw all these exotic worlds and pink ice and all sorts of blue colors, I was so just so enthralled by the planets, I really wanted to be a planetary scientist. Jim Green: I can resonate with that. Those are just tremendous events that have happened in our space program, and like many others, they have indeed inspired another generation. Amy, you've been working for Goddard now for several years. How did you become an employee for NASA? Amy Simon: My start actually was working on the Galileo mission to Jupiter, and I was doing that as a student and got invited to do a post-doctoral position working on Galileo, at which point I got asked if I would like to also help out with Cassini, which was on its way to Saturn. And the instrument I was working at was based at NASA Goddard. So, eventually, I moved down to NASA Goddard. Jim Green: As a civil servant, you provide opportunities during the summer for students to come and work. How many students have been involved in your organization? Amy Simon: It depends on the summer, but some summers we have hundreds and hundreds of students at the center doing all sorts of projects, from engineering to science and through all of the different science fields that we have. Jim Green: Any student who would like to work during the summer should visit www.nasa.gov, and do a search on summer employment. [Also, see the NASA Pathways program: https://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/pathways.htm] This story was provided by Astrobiology Magazine, a web-based publication sponsored by the NASA astrobiology program. This version of the story published on Space.com. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot testifies at a House Science Committee hearing on NASA's fisal year 2019 budget proposal March 7. Lightfoot announced March 12 he will retire from NASA at the end of April. WASHINGTON Robert Lightfoot, who has led NASA on an interim basis for more than a year, announced March 12 that he will retire from the agency at the end of April, adding more uncertainty about the agency's leadership. "It is with bittersweet feelings that I am announcing I will be retiring from the agency on April 30, 2018," Lightfoot said in a memo to agency staff. "I will work with the White House on a smooth transition to the new administrator." Lightfoot didn't discuss why he decided to retire in the memo. Lightfoot came to NASA Headquarters in September 2012 as associate administrator, the highest-ranking civil service position at the agency and third-highest position overall, behind administrator and deputy administrator. Lightfoot, who joined NASA in 1989 as a test engineer working on the space shuttle main engine, served as director of the Marshall Space Flight Center from March 2009 until being named associate administrator. Lightfoot has been acting administrator since the beginning of the Trump administration in January 2017, a period of nearly 14 months. That tenure has shattered the record for the longest time the agency, which turns 60 years old later this year, has been led by an acting administrator. [From Ike to Trump: Presidential Visions for Space Exploration] The White House nominated Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) to be administrator in September 2017 and resubmitted the nomination in January. In both cases Bridenstine's nomination has been advanced by the Senate Commerce Committee on a strict party-line vote, but the full Senate has yet to take action to confirm Bridenstine. There is a widespread belief in the space industry that the Senate has not acted on Bridenstine's nomination because he lacks the votes to win confirmation. All 49 Democrats in the Senate are opposed to Bridenstine, as well as reportedly Rep. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) With Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) still absent from the Senate because of cancer treatments, Bridenstine lacks the 50 votes needed to be confirmed. Members of the House Science Committee criticized the Senate for not taking action on Bridenstine's nomination during a March 7 hearing on NASA's fiscal year 2019 budget proposal attended by Lightfoot. "In the environment we work in, the resources that the agency needs in the long term, having a director nominated and confirmed by the United States Senate from the administration is critically important," said Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) Lightfoot said at that hearing he did not have problems getting access to the White House when needed, but that there was value in having a permanent administrator in place. "It is always of value to have the person the president wants in this position," he said. "That would be important for us all from that standpoint." He gave no indication at the hearing of any plans to retire. "I cannot express enough my gratitude to the entire NASA team for the support during my career and especially the last 14 months as your acting administrator," Lightfoot said in his retirement memo. "The grit and determination you all demonstrate every day in achieving our missions of discovery and exploration are simply awe inspiring." Lightfoot's departure adds to a leadership void in the agency. In addition to the stalled Bridenstine nomination, the White House has not nominated a deputy administrator for the agency. The nomination of Jeffrey DeWit to be NASA chief financial officer, announced in November, is pending confirmation by the full Senate. NASA recently named Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for space technology and former director of the Langley Research Center, as acting associate administrator, taking over the responsibilities Lightfoot held in that position. Krista Paquin serves as deputy associate administrator, a position she took in November. This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. This radar image of potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu (previously known as1999 RQ36) the target of NASA's Osiris-Rex sample-return mission was obtained by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif. on Sept 23, 1999. Bennu is an asteroid that whizzes past Earth every few years. In fact, there is a chance though a slim one that the asteroid will collide with Earth in the near future (less than 200 years from now). Because it flies so close to our planet, the near-Earth object (NEO) is the target of a NASA mission to collect a sample and return it to Earth. Scientists think the space rock may contain the building blocks of life. Discovery Bennu was discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project, which detects and tracks near-Earth objects, in 1999. It was provisionally named 1999 RQ36, which indicates that it was the 916th object observed in the first half of September 1999, according to the Planetary Society. After its orbit was precisely measured, the object was given an official sequential number, and because 1999 RQ36 was the 101,955th asteroid to receive a number, its official name became Asteroid 101955. The name Bennu was selected after a "Name That Asteroid!" contest held by the University of Arizona and other partners. Michael Puzio, a third-grade student in North Carolina, suggested using the name of an Egyptian mythological bird. Michael said the shape of the spacecraft (including its outstretched sample arm) reminded him of the heron god, which was called Bennu. Only about 5 percent of numbered asteroids have been given names, according to the Planetary Society. This graphic depicts the orbits of asteroid Bennu (previously known as 1999 RQ36) and the terrestrial planets in our solar system. The asteroid is the target of NASAs Osiris-Rex sample-return mission. (Image credit: UA/OSIRIS-REX Mission) Size and composition Bennu has a shape that looks a bit like a spinning top. It is roughly 500 meters (1,640 feet) in diameter and orbits the sun once every 1.2 years, or 436.604 days. Every six years or so, it comes very close to Earth about 0.002 AU, according to the University of Arizona. (An astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the sun. So, 0.002 AU is roughly 186,000 miles or 300,000 kilometers well within the orbit of Earth's moon.) Bennu is part of a small class of carbonaceous (dark) asteroids that likely have primitive materials in them. Called a B-type class, Bennu and other asteroids like it have materials such as volatiles (compounds with a low boiling point), amino acids and organic molecules that are all may have been precursors to life on Earth, according to the University of Arizona. Measurements through telescopes (including the Arecibo Observatory Planetary Radar and the Goldstone Deep Space Network) suggest that Bennu has a density less than rock, according to NASA. The agency describes Bennu as a "rubble pile" that is a loosely-held-together group of dust, rock and boulders with gaps inside. Spitzer Space Telescope observations in 2007 suggested that Bennu has moderate-sized regolith (soil) grains across its surface; multiple other observations also hint that Bennu is likely a smooth object. Because Bennu is so dark, it tends to absorb the sun's radiation. Bennu then radiates this in turn as heat, which affects its orbit. This "push" on Bennu's orbit is called the Yarkovsky effect. Bennu's orbit and shape are also shaped as it repeatedly passes close to Venus and Earth, NASA added. The size of asteroid Bennu, which is 1,614 feet (492 meters) wide, is compared with the Empire State Building and Eiffel Tower in this NASA image. (Image credit: NASA) Formation Asteroids such as Bennu are useful for astrophysicists because they tell scientists about the conditions under which the solar system formed. The leading theory for the solar system's formation in a nutshell states that a nebula (cloud of gas) was disturbed by an outside event, such as a stellar explosion. The nebula contracted and in its heart, some of the material coalesced into our sun. Surrounding the young sun was a disc of rock and gas that over time, gradually came together into the planets we observe today. The planets formed out of building blocks called chondrules, which originated as molten rock. Scientists suggest that Bennu also may have a lot of chondrules within it. "On planets like Earth, the original materials have been profoundly altered by geologic activity and chemical reactions with our atmosphere and water. We think Bennu may be relatively unchanged, so this asteroid is like a time capsule for us to examine," stated Edward Beshore, deputy principal investigator at the University of Arizona, in a 2015 NASA statement. Bennu may have been formed out of a collision. Crashes were common in the early solar system because there was so much material floating around. There are several huge impact craters in the solar system between the ages of 3.8 billion and 4.1 billion years old, suggesting that there might have been a "late heavy bombardment" where asteroids smacked into several planetary bodies. Some theories suggest that the bombardment happened after Jupiter migrated closer in to the sun, disrupting small bodies along its way, according to NASA. Bennu's collision if it happened at all likely occurred a little later, roughly one billion years ago. Bennu was formed from the debris after a planetesimal (a small body on its way to growing large enough to become a planet) crashed into an asteroid. An artist's concept of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sampling spacecraft at the asteroid Bennu. The probe is due to arrive at Bennu in 2018 and return samples to Earth in 2023. (Image credit: NASA) Exploration Bennu is the target of the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) mission. OSIRIS-REx will arrive at Bennu in December 2018 and among other activities, scoop up a sample that will be returned to Earth in 2023. OSIRIS-REx will also document the sample site, map the asteroid, measure the Yarkovsky effect and compare its observations to ground-based telescopes, according to the University of Arizona. The scientists are also hunting for organic matter, which includes molecules such as carbon and hydrogen. Organics are key to life on Earth. While not all organic molecules are for life processes, studying them on locations such as Bennu give scientists an idea as to how organics might have spurred the origin of life. "By bringing this material back to Earth, we can do a far more thorough analysis than we can with instruments on a spacecraft, because of practical limits on the size, mass, and energy consumption of what can be flown," Beshore added. "We will also set aside returned materials for future generations to study with instruments and capabilities we can't even imagine now." OSIRIS-REx managers chose Bennu from 7,000 near-Earth asteroids known in 2008, when the mission was selected to go forward, according to the University of Arizona. Bennu had an orbit allowing for sample return, it had a small diameter (less than 200 meters or 650 feet) and it also was carbon-rich. At the time, there were only five known asteroids that met all of those parameters, and Bennu was chosen from them. Impact imminent? Bennu is one of the most dangerous "potentially hazardous asteroids" that come within Earth's neighborhood, according to a study led by University of Arizona principal investigator Dante Lauretta that was published in 2015. Bennu has a 1-in-2,700 chance of impacting the Earth sometime in the late 22nd century. It is more likely, however, that Bennu would impact Venus rather than Earth. But its orbit could change over time. The investigators added: "It [Bennu] will most likely end its dynamical life by falling into the sun ... There is a chance that Bennu will be ejected from the inner solar system after a close encounter with Jupiter." Nevertheless, scientists and engineers with the U.S. government have drawn up plans for a spacecraft that could knock big, incoming space rocks off course via blunt-force impact or blow them to bits with a nuclear warhead, BuzzFeed News reported. The researchers announced the concept vehicle, known as the Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response (HAMMER), in a study in the February issue of the journal Acta Astronautica. And the team will discuss HAMMER at an asteroid-research conference in May, according to BuzzFeed News. Each HAMMER spacecraft would weigh about 8.8 tons (8 metric tons). If an asteroid threat is detected early enough, a fleet of the vehicles could be dispatched to collide, nuke-free, with the space rock, changing its trajectory enough to spare Earth from an impact. To arrive at these results, and refine HAMMER's design, the team modeled how to deal with a potential real-life scenario: What if Bennu was headed right for our planet? "Bennu was selected for our case study in part because it is the best-studied of the known NEOs," the researchers wrote. Further reading: Press Release DANNY FORCES HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW TO HELP BAEZ TAKE DOWN THE MOBSTERS HES MIXED UP WITH, ON BLUE BLOODS, FRIDAY, MARCH 30Kevin Dillon Returns as Dannys Brother-in-Law, Jimmy, and Treat Williams Returns as Franks Former Partner, LennyClose Calls After Dannys brother-in-law, Jimmy (Kevin Dillon), gets caught up with the mob and steals Dannys credit card, Danny forces Jimmy to take down the mobsters with Baezs help. Also, Frank has Erin and Anthony investigate if his old partner, Lenny (Treat Williams), is truly guilty of a crime and Jamie is approached by Tariq (Rene Ifrah), an officer who wants his help getting reassigned from his undercover assignment at a mosque, on BLUE BLOODS, Friday, March 30 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.CHEAT TWEET: After Danny learns his brother-in-law Jimmy #KevinDillon has gotten caught up with the mob and stolen his credit card, he forces him to bring them down with Baezs help @BlueBloods_CBS 3/30 10pm #CBS @DonnieWahlberg http://bit.ly/2Htpi3wREGULAR CAST:Tom Selleck (Frank Reagan)Donnie Wahlberg (Danny Reagan)Bridget Moynahan (Erin Reagan)Will Estes (Jamie Reagan)Len Cariou (Henry Reagan)Marisa Ramirez (Det. Maria Baez)Sami Gayle (Nicky Reagan-Boyle)Vanessa Ray (Officer Eddie Janko)RECURRING CAST:Tony Terraciano (Jack Reagan)Andrew Terraciano (Sean Reagan)Gregory Jbara (Garrett Moore)Robert Clohessy (Lt. Gormley)Steven Schirripa (Anthony Abetamarco)WRITTEN BY: Peter BlaunerDIRECTED BY: Jane Raab After running themselves ragged hitting 18 targets in 7 days, they realize that they are no closer to finding the people who hired Kamal to kill Echo team. Its Cerberus who gets them the clue they need to move their investigation forward. It turns out that the hit on the Echo Team wasnt politically driven. It was heroin. Echo team was part of a task force assigned to burn poppy fields as a way of disrupting a Taliban revenue stream.Clay thinks it all could be a coincidence. Ellis asked the same question and found the evidence that definitively ties the burned poppy field to the heroin Kamal was paid with.Bravo team is sent to check out the farm. They find the innocent family that works the farm and a stack of cash hidden on the property. Its a big stack. They guess that its more than 10 million dollars not counting the Afghani money and Euros. They decided to watch the money and grab the people who come for it.A fifteen year old kid comes for the money. The team doesnt realize that the kid is a girl until they follow her to her home. I was both surprised and not surprised at all that these guys didnt realize she was a she. I spotted it right away.They take Dorri back to the base to question her. She and her little brother are orphans. Dorri dresses like a boy and works as a messenger for the drug dealer. She agrees to wear a wire when she makes her next delivery.She makes the delivery and talks her way out of trouble. (Her time at the base made her late with her delivery.) In the process, they hear their target, Isaad, make arrangements to meet some clients at the farm so they can collect their payment and help move the rest of the money to a safer location.Bravo team beats them back to the tunnel where the money is hidden, so they can capture someone who can tell them who ordered the hit. During the gun fight, one of Isaads clients shoots Isaad in the head.Ellis determines that the clients killed in the fight in the tunnel were Al-Qaeda. Ellis theorizes that the Al-Qaeda members were working as contract killers to make some money to fund terrorist activites. The question that intrigues Ellis is who is powerful enough that these Al-Qaeda members would move his money and be too scared to attempt to steal any of it. Who owns that farm?When Ellis gives Dorri some money as a reward for helping them catch the guys at the farm, she volunteers to continue helping them. But Dorri doesnt want money. She wants to take her brother and move to America.Jason promises her they can get her and her brother into the country. Ellis confronts him about making a promise he cant keep, but Jason doesnt care. Hell say or do anything if it means catching the people responsible for killing Echo team.I really like Dorri. Shes smart, brave, and thinks on her feet. I am completely rooting for her to get to America in the end. I will NOT be a happy camper if Jason lets the government screw her over.Ellis meets with the man who drives the red Mercedes, Salim Hakan. I was surprised that Salim posited the same theory Ellis came up with. I was certain he would paint Tariq as a radical.This scene pointed out why I would never make a good spy. I could not tell if Salim was a good guy or a bad guy. He sounded so believable. I think Ill leave the cat and mouse spy conversations to Ellis.They added another recurring character to the canvas. Amy, who works for a contracting firm named Xenon Tactical Security. That just sounds like trouble, doesnt it? Its enough to ensure I dont trust her.I really enjoyed the episode. It was refreshing, for a show set in this arena, to have the motive for the murder of Echo team be something other than terrorism. Although, if they keep losing all their targets (Kamal was killed. Isaad was killed.) its going to start to stretch credulity.What did you guys think of the episode? WASHINGTON A day after the shutdown of the House intelligence committee probe of Trump-Russia connections, Rep. Jim Himes said Republicans eventually will regret the decision. The House investigation sadly will be a footnote, mainly around how it was used by (Committee chairman Devin) Nunes (R-Calif.) to act in defense of the president, Himes said in an interview. (Special counsel Robert) Mueller will keep doing his work; hes not done, Himes added. And once we have the benefit of Muellers story, boy, the House committee will look like it gave this thing short shrift. Committee Republicans on Monday wrapped up the year-long probe with a finding of no cooperation between President Trumps 2016 campaign and Russia, an affirmation of Trumps oft-repeated no collusion mantra. We found no evidence of collusion, said Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, who took the reins of the investigation after Nunes recused himself over ethics violations for which he was eventually cleared. We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings. But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings, whatever, and weave that into some sort of fictional page-turner spy thriller. President Trump himself hailed the decision as outright vindication. We are very, very happy with that decision, said Trump, speaking to reporters Tuesday before departing for California. It was a powerful decision that left no doubt, so I want to thank the House intelligence committee. The Republican majority also concluded that while they agreed Russia tried to influence the 2016 election, they found no clear evidence they did so in order to boost the chances of a Trump victory. U.S. intelligence officials last year concluded the effort, ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, was aimed at helping Trump. Committee Democrats including Himes vowed to keep the goals of the investigation alive. But without the powers of the majority to subpoena documents and witnesses, they are effectively confined to a bully pulpit. If nothing else, Himes succeeded in making something of a name for himself. His appearances on CNN, MSNBC and other outlets to discuss the investigation occurred with greater and greater frequency as the year-long investigation wore on. Himes often said the probe, which required hours of witness preparation and reviewing top-secret documents in a Sensitive Compartment Information Facility (acronym: SCIF), was like holding a second full-time job. The Senate intelligence committee investigation continues forward, unmarred by the partisan bickering that undermined the House probe from the beginning. Nunes was accused of being a conduit of information to the White House, so President Trump could use it to undermine the investigation. Himes and other Democrats said time and again that Nunes and Republicans on the committee showed little appetite for the hard work of investigating elusive Trump-Russia connections, including issuing subpoenas, and they allowed witnesses to dodge questions with only vague reasons for doing so. Theres been unrelenting pressure from the White House to do just this (close the investigation), said Himes. I think Devin Nunes was looking for a reason to end it. I cant tell you Im shocked. Himes said he believes that in the final analysis, links between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to promote his candidacy will be uncovered. In fact, he added, the connection may already be established, given Muellers indictments so far of people such as George Papadopoulus who reportedly has told Mueller that Trump encouraged him to reach out to Russia. Im not anticipating a revelation that Trump gave a briefcase full of money directly to Putin, Himes said. The Russians dont operate that way. But even so, a fully concluded probe is likely to show that Russians were all over the (Trump) campaign, he said. And instead of talking to the FBI, the campaign egged them on. STAMFORD Claude Morest became a teacher in 1999, the same year two teenagers killed 13 students and staff members at Columbine High School in Colorado. Since then, Morest, a social studies teacher at the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, has seen security in his school evolve, particularly following the 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. But after 17 people were killed last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., a wave of action has been sparked in schools nationwide and not just from students. About 20 minutes before school starts on Wednesday morning, Morest and other AITE teachers will stand outside the High Ridge Road school, giving speeches and holding signs before assuming their posts at 7:10 a.m. The walk-in was organized by the Stamford Education Association and is part of a series of Walk-Ins for Safe Schools, which will be held at public schools across Connecticut to push Congress to take action in helping to prevent mass school shootings. The SEA is planning a walk-in at each of the citys public schools on Wednesday. Teachers will share their thoughts about school safety and there will be a moment of silence for the Parkland victims. The teachers will then enter the schools in unison. I hope it puts pressure on Congress to act, Morest said. I hope they see Americas school teachers want to see Congress enact meaningful reform that will make schools safer for children and teachers and other adults in the building. The walk-in coincides with a national student walkout planned for 10 a.m. Wednesday to recognize Parkland victims and raise awareness to school safety concerns. The Stamford walkout is being organized by SUPER, a union of students from the citys three public high schools representing their classmates feelings on school safety. Morest, who said hes an advocate for banning assault weapons and stricter background checks, said the teacher walk-in is a way for the faculty to support the student walkout without disrupting the classroom schedule. We want to model for the students that as citizens its proper to express your position about important issues in a peaceful and civil way, Morest said. Christine Bisceglie, an AITE guidance counselor who helped coordinate the walk-in, said gun safety overall beyond just schools has motivated her to act. One of our kids fathers was murdered with a gun in Bridgeport, she said. We have kids that come from all over. We cant minimize that part of this. Theres inner-city violence that occurs in our cities in Connecticut on a daily basis. Every high school in Stamford has students whove lost a loved one with guns. Morest and Bisceglie said theyve seen safety measures improved in schools, a process has evolved to identify potential troubled students and there are now routine lockdown and active shooter drills. The measures the school has put in place have been great, Morest said. I dont know how much more we can do. Thats why Congress needs to do their part, because weve done our part. They need to get rid of these dangerous military-style weapons and make it hard for mentally ill people to get access to firearms. C oncerns in MI6 and the Foreign Office about the decision to allow Russian metals and energy giant EN+ to float on the London Stock Exchange will be heightened on Tuesday as details emerged suggesting it sold aluminium to the Russian defence industry. EN+s Rusal division has claimed since last year that it does not sell its products to arms makers, but three Russian corporate tendering websites suggest it did. They purport to document numerous sales as recently as last autumn of aluminium powder to a maker of Russian missile warheads. Senior intelligence sources have privately expressed deep concern about why London last year allowed EN+ to float here and raise money from western investors. Rusals websites made several mentions of defence industry uses of its products until last November, when they disappeared after being challenged by the Evening Standard. Former Defence Minister Sir Mike Penning, who has sought answers in parliament about how EN+ was allowed to stage a London IPO, said he would be contacting the defence select committee to push for a full investigation. It is absolutely imperative we get to the bottom of this, he said. The Spark database, widely used as a reference for businesses trading in Russia, shows six apparent contracts where Rusal has sold aluminium powder to a company called GosNIIMash. GosNIIMash describes itself as a leading enterprise in Russia for the development and production of combat parts of guided missile weapons. The orders are dated between 20 April and 7 September 2017 and total 10 million rubles (127,000). The final reported shipment appears to have been concluded on 10 October. The last order, for 2.3 million rubles-worth of the powder, also appears on another corporate transactions database, TenderInfo, and the Zakupki government tendering website. Zakupki states that the contract information was supplied by GosNIIMash, and cites an amount of 5199 tons of aluminium powders and flakes, stating the supply deal ends on New Years Eve, 2017. It also includes the names, phone number and email details of Rusal individuals purportedly involved. Rusal denied it had entered into any contract with GosNIIMash and said as previously stated we do not supply any product to the defence industry. It added it does not upload contract information on other websites so cannot take any responsibility on [on] this information. It denies being in breach of sanctions. GosNIIMash did not respond to requests for comment. E eyore no more. Philip Hammond was decisively chipper as he delivered todays micro-Budget, and not without reason. Thanks to better productivity in the nations businesses, the countrys finances are in better shape than hed predicted in his November statement to the House. The corporate tax take beat all forecasts, the UKs credit card is less maxed out than we thought. I guess its too much to ask this Government to stop bashing companies in gratitude, but there you go. Brexiteers are already dancing, declaring they told us it would all be fine. But remember, we havent left the EU yet. These productivity gains come as we still have zero tariffs with our biggest market. Exports are still frictionless. And, as the OECD reports today, were still trailing all other major economies in Europe. Lets wait until the storm has passed before declaring it caused no damage. Trumps British snub The US President cant muster a single syllable to condemn likely Russian state involvement in a nerve agent attack on the streets of his nations oldest ally. Worse, he fires Rex Tillerson when he does. But good old Donald can go to the trouble of blocking, on Trumped-up security grounds, the foreign takeover of Qualcomm. We can draw a pretty clear conclusion of his priorities: protectionism and disdain for Britain. It hardly bodes well for post-Brexit trade negotiations with our second biggest export market. Market backs Melrose Melroses brokers at Investec flogging the merits of its 8 billion hostile bid for GKN will have been dismayed to hear one senior wealth management adviser going on national radio today firmly predicting that investors would reject the offer. She was Laura Lambie, wealth management sage at wait for it Investec. Though its good to see those Chinese walls working, trading patterns suggest the markets are against her. Shares in GKN are 3.1% below Melroses offer price typical for a company thats expected to be bought. Nearly a third of GKN is now owned by short-term investors who specialise in buying stocks about to be taken over. Their sole aim is to make a little profit between the present share price and the takeover price that 3.1%. They have no loyalty to GKNs pensioners, its plucky defence strategy or its rich heritage (on the latter, nor should we: GKN has voluntarily U-turned on keeping the ancient empire together). In short, these short-termists will vote for Melrose whatever the weather. Chuck in the 6% of shareholders already accepting the deal, consider Melrose only has to get to 50%, and you see its victory is in sight. Meanwhile there is plenty of talk among tech investors about President Donald Trump's intervention in the Qualcomm takeover. Last night, US President Donald Trump stopped the takeover of Qualcomm by Singapore-based rival Broadcom on grounds of national security. Only five takeovers of US companies have ever been blocked by the sitting president because of concerns about national security. It points out that Barack Obama blocked two deals during his two terms, while Trump has blocked two in six months. J effrey Archer, like lots of politicians, present and past, has a passion for political cartoons and has an excellent collection of them. It was begun, however, in a spirit of humility at least, in Archers terms. I knew, he says, it wouldnt be possible to build up a good collection of Impressionists, but, being Archer, he cant help adding, though I do have a reasonable Impressionist collection) but I could build a great cartoon collection. So, instead, he set about acquiring Rowlandson, Gillray, Max Beerbohm, EH Shepard, this papers David Low (arguably the greatest political cartoonist of the 20th century), Ronald Searle, this papers Christian Adams, and umpteen others. The collection goes on sale tomorrow at Sothebys, with the profits going to charity. Pictures and politics: Jeffrey Archer and Chris Beetles at the Chris Beetles Gallery, St James's, central London / Matt Writtle There are 225 cartoons, though few featuring himself. No, no, he says. Ive got those at home in the lavatory. (Thats the standard self-deprecating place for cartoons about yourself.) One, not strictly political, by Chris Burke, shows him and John le Carre duelling for first place on the bestseller lists Jeffrey Archer has had 27 number ones to date. That I will keep. That was 30 years ago were still duelling. This sale wasnt what he had wanted. He had offered the collection to national institutions, including the V&A and the Ashmolean, but none could offer it a home in its entirety: the Ashmolean offered to take it but it would be lodged in boxes under artist; wouldnt be a collection. Itd be broken up. In fact, the works on show in Sothebys mark the first time the collection has ever been displayed in its entirety. I want to share it, says Archer, 77. I want thousands of people to see it at Sothebys. Its a pity that the cartoons will be dispersed, because the collection does have a unifying theme besides including many of the people that Archer worked with in politics: it is Images of power. Cutting: 'Mrs T' by Gerald Scarfe (Courtesy of Sotheby's ) / Courtesy of Sotheby's Margaret [Thatcher], says Archer, used to say, dont get used to office; only the Queen can. The final cartoon is by the Daily Telegraphs Matt of a policeman outside No 10, looking at the number one falling off the door, leaving an ignominious zero: It begins and ends with statements of power. So, is the collection a cautionary tale? Yes, he says. It is. The collection is the product of a double act, Archer and his friend Chris Beetles, whose gallery in St Jamess hosts exhibitions of cartoonists as well as illustrators. Im the enthusiast, says Archer. Id ring [Chris] up and say, I want that. If it had been left to me the collection would have been 500-strong. But Chris wouldnt allow me to have anything unless it had political and historical significance and was by a great artist. His favourite is the first one he bought: by Ronald Searle the cartoonists cartoonist, says Beetles showing the public reaction to the Graham Sutherland controversial portrait of Churchill; its funny, with ladies keeling over at the brutal take, but its also, says Archer, such a wonderful comment on society. Arts picks of the week: 12th-18th March 1 /6 Arts picks of the week: 12th-18th March Joan Jonas Embrace the experimental at Tate Moderns major new exhibition about the work of performance artist Joan Jonas. Landmark installations from a career spanning five decades will be on show alongside more recent work, spanning the whole of the gallery. March 14 - August 5, Tate Modern; tate.org.uk Brer Cotton Tearrance Arvelle Chisholms study of how a young black mans life is altered by the Black Lives Matter movement gets its UK premiere this week. Roy Alexander Weise directs; we spoke to him about why black people are f***ing angry actually. March 7-31, Theatre503; theatre503.com Ballet Black Performances by Ballet Black always sell out, but if you can find a way to nab a ticket to this weeks double bill at the Barbican, youre bound to be in for a treat. Audiences will get to see a brand new ballet based on a South African fable, and Arthur Pitas take on A Midsummer Nights Dream. March 15-17, Barbican Centre; barbican.org.uk Tacita Dean If you think youve got a busy week ahead, think of Tacita Dean, who opens two exhibitions this week. In a landmark collaboration between three of Londons biggest galleries, Dean will explore still life at the National Gallery and portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery. And in May, shes off again, with a show about landscape at the Royal Academy (May 19 - August 12). Not to be missed - not least because a collaboration of this kind has never been done before. March 15 - May 28, National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery Ten Days Six Nights Last year, Tate bewitched London with ten days and six nights of free and ticketed performances and installations. Remember the magnificent mist that fell around the gallery last year? Or Isabel Lewiss occasions full of music, food and perfume? This year, the live exhibition is back, to coincide with the new Joan Jonas exhibition. Highlights will include an outdoor ritual performed on the shore of the River Thames. March 16-25, Tate Modern; tate.org.uk Art for the Elizabeth Line Never set foot in a gallery? Dont be so sure. London is abundant with public art, meaning everyone gets a little bit of art in their life every now and then, even just from walking down the street or hopping on a tube. When Crossrail arrives, it will be accompanied by a huge programme of public art in and around new Elizabeth line stations; get a taste of whats to come at Whitechapel Gallerys new exhibition. Chantal Joffe, Spencer Finch and Simon Periton are amongst those creating artworks, but more are set to be unveiled. March 12 - May 6, Whitechapel Gallery; whitechapelgallery.org There are other historically interesting cartoons: one prescient one by David Low in 1934 shows Hitler with the former Kaiser, asking for advice about the use of violence that was before the Night of the Long Knives. Another by EH Shepard best known for Winnie-the-Pooh shows Oswald Mosley giving a fascist salute to admiring farm animals: Animal Farm before Animal Farm was written. Weve touched on almost all the important issues that political cartoonists can deal with, says Beetles proudly. Its not just lampooning the latest foolishness from a local politician. There are bigger issues and weve got the bigger issues in there. One is Islamic fundamentalism, and theres one here of the attack on the Twin Towers. Oh yes, I wanted that, says Archer. American cartoonists wouldnt touch it; too terrifying. Theres another on the same theme, by the Standards Christian Adams, showing the Taliban as a hydra; with heads waiting in the darkness to replace the headless Osama bin Laden. That tells us, says Archer, that theyll be back. In fact, so far as Islamic terrorism is concerned, I feel strongly that we are in the Third World War. Only with Islamic State, there are no rules. Let's Twist Again: Victor Weisz, Twists (Courtesy of Sotheby's ) / Courtesy of Sotheby's Theres an engaging Toad of Toad Hall aspect to Jeffrey Archer. His own life is a cautionary tale, what with his spectacular fall from grace he was formerly deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and a celebrated perjury trial involving payments to a prostitute and a spell in prison. But hes in the Lords, still obsessed by politics. I voted Remain in the referendum, he says. Im boring in old age; safer with the status quo. My wife voted out. So, whos good for cartoonists in the current batch of politicians? Jacob Rees-Mogg, he says promptly. Hes the most cartoon-worthy person I have ever seen not to be in office; he plays up to it brilliantly. You have to have an attribute that cartoonists seize on with some, its hair, like Boris; and once its established, everyone else follows. Theresa Mays shoes theyre visual shorthand. Peter Brookes once drew me as Creepy Crawleyus Invictus. I was flattered. With Margaret Thatcher, it was the handbag. I adored her! Archers own most recent appearance in the news was to do with having had his incipient prostate cancer diagnosed, at the behest of his wife. I am aware of mortality, he says. Very aware. So, any regrets? I ask. I regret not having any daughters, he replies. Review at a glance L ondons travel infrastructure will have some way to go before we can all use magic carpets to get around, but the spectacular West End production of Aladdin is transporting enough. The lavish stage adaptation of the 1992 Disney film opened last year to great reviews, celebrating its great mix of mischievous humour and technical wizardry. Trevor Dion Nicholas was singled out for praise for his show-stealing role as the Genie, and luckily for audiences hes still in the role over a year later. With not a Katie Price and Peter Andre duet in sight, audiences can enjoy classics like A Whole New World as well as new music written especially for the stage by the legendary Alan Menken. The show books up very quickly, so no matter how many times you rub the genies lamp getting your hands on tickets may be something of a waiting game. But its worth it - the show, which is performed at the epic Prince Edward Theatre, is a feast for the eyes with over 350 lavish costumes, amazing effects and some of the best Disney songs ever written. Behind the scenes on Aladdin - stage building time lapse A ll the worlds a stage, wrote William Shakespeare - and his work is hardly ever off them. Shakespeare Week, a national celebration of the worlds most famous playwright, kicks off on March 12 and its time to get in the spirit of things. Sort your Macbeths from your Malvolio and your Hamlets from your Hermiones by taking in one of the myriad Shakespearean productions currently on in London. From good old-fashioned theatre to Bard-inspired ballet, here are the Shakespeare productions you can catch this week and in the not-too-distant future. Hamlet This Royal Shakespeare Company production started out in Stratford Upon Avon, and has just transferred to Hackney Empire for a London run - but catch it quick: in May it's off to Washington. Paapa Essiedu (a rising star you may recognise from ITVs Kiri) delivers a fine performance as the troubled prince, in a production that rebuilds Elsinore in modern day Africa. Bright, buzzing and lead by a commanding Hamlet, to see or not to see is certainly not the question here. Until March 31, Hackney Empire; hackneyempire.co.uk Macbeth At the National Theatre, Rory Kinnear takes on the role of the doomed Thane of Glamys who listens a little too closely to the words of witches, and Anne-Marie Duff stars as the murderous Lady Macbeth. Rufus Norris production hasnt exactly tickled the critics fancy, but the play is essential viewing for those wanting to delve the depths of Shakespeares dark side. If you fancy a night out of London, you can also head to Stratford-Upon-Avon, a production starring Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack opens at the RSC this week. Until June 23, National Theatre; nationaltheatre.org.uk Julius Caesar Grief: Mark Antony (David Morrissey) mourns the death of Julius Caesar (David Calder) in Nicholas Hytners production at the Bridge Theatre / Manuel Harlan Taking on Shakespeares tale of (literal) political backstabbing, the Bridge Theatre has a critically-acclaimed hit on its hands. Blood and gore meet innovative staging in Nicholas Hytners modern day musing on populism. David Calder is the eponymous anti-hero, with David Morrissey as Mark Anthony, Ben Whishaw as Brutus and Michelle Fairley as Cassius, while the on-stage audience get a star turn too as an angry mob swarming in the streets of Rome. Until April 15, Bridge Theatre; bridgetheatre.co.uk A Midsummer Nights Dream Robert Workman Photographer March may be all about Shakespeares tragedies in the theatre world, but the ENO are revelling in the lighter side of the Bard this spring. Reviving Robert Carsens 1995 incarnation of A Midsummer Nights Dream, Benjamin Brittens opera is given a Technicolor backdrop, peppered with moustachioed fairies and lead by young British conductor Alexander Soddy, who makes his ENO debut. Until March 15, London Coliseum; eno.org The Winters Tale Tristram Kenton Shakespeares tale of love, loss and some properly awkward family matters come to the Royal Opera House in ballet form this spring. Christopher Wheeldons adaptation of Shakespeares romance comes with music from Joby Talbot and performances from Royal Ballet dancers including Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares. Until March 21, Royal Opera House; roh.org.uk Macbeth (again) Nicole Guarino The Scottish play strikes again at Wiltons Music Hall and this time its performing a little jig. Macbeth is retold through dance, with Jonathan Goddard in the title role and Eleanor Duval as Lady Macbeth, and three silver-masked witches who bring the grotesque, bloody nature of the play to the fore, accompanied by a frenetic score from Arvo Part. Until March 17; wiltons.org.uk Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare isnt just for us grown-ups. The Globe is currently aiming Shakespeare at a younger generation with a current production of Much Ado About Nothing reworked for a teenage audience. Expect superhero costumes, gender-swapped characters and free tickets for schools. Until March 20; shakespearesglobe.com Coming soon Othello, Hamlet and more at Shakespeare's Globe The Globe Theatre kicks off its summer programme in late April, marking Michelle Terrys first season as its artistic director. Highlights of the upcoming roster include Othello starring Oscar-winning Mark Rylance as Iago, a production of the lesser-known Two Noble Kinsman directed by Barrie Rutter, and Loves Labours Lost directed by Nick Bagnall. Much Ado About Nothing From Bake Off to The Bard, Mel Giedroyc will be taking on the role of fiery Beatrice in the Rose Theatres upcoming production of Much Ado About Nothing. Shell be fighting it out with love-hate interest Benedict from April, who will be played by Midsomer Murders actor John Hopkins. From April, Rose Theatre Kingston; rosetheatrekingston.org A Midsummer Nights Dream A two-night run may seem like a waking dream in itself, but Filter Theatre are making it count with their raucous reinterpretation of the classic fairy story. Featuring live music and an original score, Filter bring far out humour and food fights to The Bards whimsical comedy. From April, Lyric Hammersmith; lyric.co.uk King Lear Ian McKellen will be reprising his role as the tragic King Lear at the Duke of York this summer, in a London move for a production which enjoyed a hugely successful run at Chichester Festival Theatre last year. This is a chance to see one of the countrys greatest actors in one of Shakespeares most acclaimed plays not one to be missed. July 11 - November 3, Duke of York Theatre As You Like It Review at a glance T omorrow is a latter day, and if you like your musicals with side-spitting laughs that run as close to the bone as decency dares, you should spend it at the Prince of Wales Theatre with The Book of Mormon. The smash hit Broadway export has been breaking records and rules in London since 2013, with its provocative lyrics and sing-song melodies telling a very modern fable that is unbelievably sharp and painfully funny (genuinely, its an ab workout). The Book of Mormon is co-written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q songwriter Robert Lopez, who worked on it collectively for seven years before its premier on Broadway in 2011. Since then it has won nine Tony awards, four Olivier Awards, an Evening Standard Award, and seemingly countless others. The plot follows the story of two young Mormon missionaries, Elder Price and Elder Cunningham, who are sent from Salt Lake City to Uganda to share the virtues of The Book of Mormon with a the inhabitants of a remote village. Pretty soon after their arrival they find that Africa is nothing like The Lion King: the two naive young men are not only challenged by the sceptical locals, but by the application of their faith to issues including AIDS and the rampant bloodlust of a local warlord. If youre even faintly familiar with the work of any of the creators, then you can probably guess that The Book of Mormon isnt for the easily offended. The supreme satire is delivered via a relentless barrage of taste-testing humour, taking organised religion as a fertile ground for sowing comedic seeds. The irrepressibly funky All American Prophet presents the, shall we say, improbable story of Joseph Smiths discovery of the Third Testament buried in upstate New York, and Turn It Off describes a cute little Mormon trick for debunking un-Mormon thoughts, including having really strange feelings for Steve. And we cant even tell you what Hasa Diga Eebowai means. Review at a glance T he organ music that kicks off The Phantom of the Opera is enough to send shivers down anyones spine - and its been thrilling London audiences for over 32 years. Andrew Lloyd Webbers classic show, based on a 20th century French novel, tells the story of a disfigured man who lives in the sewers of the Paris Opera House. (Sounds like a catch). Known only as the Phantom, he is feared by all; when he falls in love with soprano Christine he gives her every lead role at the Opera House. Matters become complicated when Christines childhood friend Raoul turns up, and is having none of it. Lloyd Webber pulled out all the stops after the success of Cats and Starlight Express, and this romantic musical did just the trick. Its been thrilling audiences at Her Majestys Theatre since 1985, where it has been performed since it first opened. Its good, old-fashioned musical fun, with astonishingly beautiful costumes and a score of high intensity. T im Crouch has made an indelible impact on the British theatre scene with formally innovative works that are impossible to predict. From 2009's confrontational The Author to 2014's tricksy Adler & Gibb, expect to often leave the theatre with more questions than answers. Next week, his much anticipated new show for younger audiences, Beginners, opens at the Unicorn Theatre. What was the first play to make you want to write plays? I saw Caryl Churchill's Far Away in 2000 at the Royal Court. I couldnt understand how theatre could do so much in such a short transit. The convergence of language, form and idea is breathtaking and audacious. Once and for all, it knocked me out of a self-inflicted rut of thinking that plays had to be hefty, realist tracts. It freed me and set me going. I wrote my first play in 2002. What was your background to becoming a playwright? A frustrated actor who, in his thirties, sold the radical ideologies of his twenties for a pocketful of mainstream, chimerical, actorly bobbins. It took me till I was 38 to start clawing back my sense of self and to write. Whats the hardest play youve ever written? Every play other than my first which just flopped out of me. Every subsequent play is written in an unavoidable knowledge of the previous one - and that complicates things. I found Adler & Gibb hard as hell to write. The story developed over five years and still, even in rehearsal, I didnt know quite what it was. Its the play Im probably proudest of, but I get butterflies when I think about it. Which brought you the most joy? The one Im working on now, Beginners. No lie. Is it wrong for a playwright to laugh at their own jokes and cry at their own situations and characters? Probably. But f*** it. Ive been a glorious wreck in rehearsals. I dont know how I wrote this play. Which is just as well as Im also directing it and the director has to have something to discover. (Youve caught me on a good day. Tomorrow, the director will be cursing the writer. And vice versa.) Which playwrights have influenced you the most? Theatre-makers, playwrights or whatever you want to call them: youth theatre, school drama, Peter Handke, Andy Smith, Bertolt Brecht, Caryl Churchill, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, David Greig, Annie Baker, Anne Washburn, Shakespeare, Nel Crouch, Public Parts (the company I gave my twenties to). What is your favourite line or scene from any play? The Dover cliff scene in King Lear. It has everything. Theatre. Meta-theatre. Parent and child. Youth and age. Despair. Hope. The sea. Samphire. The healing power of the imagination. The redemptive power of art. And language. Such language. Whats been the biggest surprise to you since youve had your writing performed by actors? I have mostly had my writing performed by me. Theres been a slow process of bringing other actors into my work. I am totally surprised and overjoyed when they say yes to working with me. They will never make much money from it, so they do it for something else. I have the most generous, committed and talented cast for Beginners. Whats been your biggest setback as a writer? I have an accidental career as a writer. I started writing in order to make the theatre I wanted to see and to stop me moaning about the theatre I didnt want to see. The setbacks are when the reality doesnt live up to my idea and I become the thing I used to moan about. And the hardest lesson youve had to learn? Some people take a long time to reply to their emails. I cant scientifically prove it, but it seems like the more funding an organization has, the longer it takes. Also, theatre for young audiences is still treated like a secondary art form. Beginners is as richly complicated a piece of theatre as any Ive written. What do you think is the best thing about theatre? And the worst? The best thing is that it doesnt really exist. Its just an experience and then a memory. The worst thing is that people try to make it into something more than that. Whats your best piece of advice for writers who are starting out? Reply to your emails. Be kind. Dont try to write someone elses play. Are there any themes and stories you find yourself re-visiting with your plays? Death and childhood. Are you on Twitter? Do you find it a help or a hindrance as a writer? Im on Twitter (@timcrouch1964). Its no help to me as a writer other than sometimes pointing me in the direction of good writing. Its a forum without shade or nuance; without forgiveness or tolerance. But I still snuffle around it like a pig searching for opinions that endorse my own. Why did you write Beginners? I think I wrote it because my children have grown up. I love the adults theyve become but I miss the children they were. I sometimes think I see the children that they were in the adults theyve become and that makes me inordinately happy and also inconsolably sad. How do you spend opening night? With the majority of my plays, getting ready to go on stage. With Beginners, I will be working very hard to leave the actors alone. Whats the best play youve seen this year? No play is ever best or worst. That implies that theres an objective standard. With that thinking, theyd be handing out awards for theatre, can you imagine? I loved Othello at the Unicorn because my son did the soundtrack. I loved Alls Well That Ends Well at the Globe because Caroline Byrne, the director, is my hero and Hannah Ringham, a performer, is my friend. I loved Trust at the Gate Theatre because it did my head in. (Its only March.) Whats your favourite place to watch theatre in London? Inside my head when my head is in London. What other art forms do you love when youre not in a theatre? I like to read fiction. My wife writes fiction. I like my wifes fiction. If the Prime Minister said they were abolishing the theatre tomorrow, what would you do? Theatre is not a thing you can abolish. You can close the buildings, but the form would relocate. My front room. Your kitchen. The community. L ionel Shriver is used to causing offence. As a novelist she has always chosen difficult subjects from an ambivalent mother and her violent teenage son who carries out a high-school massacre in We Need to Talk About Kevin, to morbid obesity (based on Shrivers own brother) in Big Brother. She is already anticipating being accused of cultural appropriation in her new collection of short stories, Property, due out next month. Loosely based on themes of territory and conflict, one of the stories features a black character and Shrivers agent suggested she change the characters ethnicity to white. Shriver refused. The issue of cultural appropriation came to a head 18 months ago at the Brisbane Writers Festival, when Shriver gave a speech called Fiction and Identity Politics. Vehemently opposing the idea that novelists drawing on cultures other than their own constitutes identity theft, she asked, Are we fiction writers to seek permission to use a character from another race or culture, or to employ the vernacular of a group to which we dont belong? She might have got away with it had it not been for Yassmin Abdel-Magied, a Sudanese-Egyptian-Australian journalist who walked out mid-speech and wrote an emotive piece in The Guardian, which described Shrivers speech as a poisoned package wrapped up in arrogance and delivered with condescension. So now, of course, my agent said, After you stuck your neck out on this cultural appropriation nonsense, anything you write is going to be heavily scrutinised and if I submit this story to a magazine and they turn it down, we wont know whether its because you had the gall to include a black character. The magazine in question, The New Yorker, did turn it down though they didnt give a reason why. Lionel Shriver talks about losing her Swedish publisher Crucially, the 60 year-old believes that accusations of cultural appropriation are stifling creativity and imagination. It introduces a sense of self-conciousness. White writers in particular are now anxious about including characters from different backgrounds and races. If you do make a character, say, black, they are going to be scrutinised. They cant adhere to any stereotype thats not so bad, actually but we dont need the pressures of identity politics to get rid of stereotypes. We just need good literary criticism and original sensibilities. This sense that someones looking over my shoulder when Im writing is the worst thing that can happen. Shes the first to concede she is wilful. But Ive never set out to offend people. And Im not going to pull back from a subject because it has the potential to ruffle feathers. She imagines there must be other more cautious writers than her not hard to imagine who are self-editing up a storm. Is it important to offend? Yes. Take female genital mutilation, she says. If youre going to stick up for the right of little girls not to have their genitals chopped into bits, you have to risk offending communities where it has been a tradition for generations. There have been so many instances of this right not to be offended deriving from Muslim communities, for whom it is profoundly against the law to insult their religion. Combined with the threat of terrorism, everybody is increasingly afraid to give offence, particularly to Islam and it just seems like asking for trouble. This movement is partly being driven by the diversity of western life. What weve been calling minorities groups of people with very different ways of thinking are becoming a large part of our society. Its especially a problem with the Muslim failure to integrate, which makes everything incredibly touchy, but is also increasingly leading to a general calcification of the public discourse. Lionel Shriver on causing offence as an author Shriver, who grew up in a religious household in North Carolina, which inoculated me against religion for ever is not the first to argue that the right to give offence is one of the very foundations of freedom of speech. Were moving in the direction of enshrining the right not to be offended, which is the end of liberty and certainly the end of good books. The Piccadilly Predicament is the first in the Underground: Tales for London series A member of the awkward squad from an early age, Shriver famously changed her name from Margaret to Lionel when she was 15. Growing up between two brothers, she wanted to be more like her father than her mother. And I suppose that if all those things had been the same but it had been today, my parents might have been concerned that maybe I should become a boy instead of just being a tomboy, and Im glad that that didnt happen, not because Im so attached to being female Im not. I dont think it matters whether Im male or female very much, which is one reason I feel distanced from the #MeToo movement. She later says that while #MeToo started in a good place, theres become too much line blurring between sexual harassment and just poor taste. Nor does she feel like a woman much of the time. My sense of self when Im on my own and not in social situations isnt gendered. What upsets me about our most recent obsession with transsexuality and having to fit yourself on the gender spectrum, is that its not the answer to identity; its an impediment. The spectrum is based on stereotypes, and thats my problem with, say, a young man who decides he feels like hes really a woman. What does that mean? I dont feel like a woman, and I am one. Lionel Shrivers views on gender Does it mean that youre soft, nurturing, kind, understanding and empathetic? That youre not aggressive, strong, forceful, brave and stoic? she continues, heatedly. Im all for women who feel comfortable being aggressive and opinionated, but we dont have to say thats being mannish. And thats an interesting point since, in spite of her petite frame and long hair, theres something, dare I say, mannish about her: the deep voice, unflinching gaze and direct manner. Or perhaps that only proves her point. As for the word cisgender (a person who identifies with their biological sex), Shriver calls it linguistic abortion. Its one of the creepiest words Ive heard, a deliberate denormalisation of the normal. All it means is that when youre born a woman you think you are one. We have just launched our podcast series, Underground: Tales for London Shriver lives in an ex-council house in Bermondsey with her husband, jazz drummer Jeff Williams. She cycles everywhere and rarely uses public transport except to take the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow when she visits her parents in New York. When Borough Press commissioned 11 authors to write short stories for Underground: Tales for London, Shriver writing about the Piccadilly Line was an obvious choice. In The Piccadilly Predicament, she touches on themes of prejudice and terrorism that will hit a nerve with any of us who have ever looked at a rucksack and wondered. Everyone has strong feelings about the Tube and Im sensitive to that; it made a good short story because its contained. And just maybe because it will cause offence. The Piccadilly Predicament is part of a collection of short stories that distil the sweat and tears of the daily commute, along with the occasional magic of a Tube journey. Underground: Tales for London features original short stories by London-loving authors from across the world. S t Patrick's Day is almost upon us, and we can practically taste the Guinness. Ireland's national day is a celebration of Irish culture and is also notoriously synonymous with lots of drinking. They'll be festivities happening in Ireland's capital of Dublin and all over the world, with people donning their best green clothes and costumes. Here's everything you need to know about St Patrick's Day: When is St. Patricks Day 2019? St Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17 every year / Getty This year St. Patricks Day falls this Sunday, March 17. It is a national holiday for residents of both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Who was St. Patrick? Beautiful Ireland - In pictures 1 /18 Beautiful Ireland - In pictures Sundown at giants causeway, northern ireland Shutterstock A Sea Stack on the South Coast of Ireland Shutterstock Wild horses make their way through the snow across Black mountain in Belfast, Northern Ireland Getty Images Cliff of Moher weareawayPixabey Waterford, Ireland Shutterstock Achill Island Shutterstock Poulnabrone Dolmen tomb, the Burren, Ireland Shutterstock Old stones bridge over the River Shannon Shutterstock Maghera Beach Shutterstock Ballintoy, Antrim, Northern Ireland. The harbour and beach have featured in several episodes of the Game of Thrones Shutterstock Dublin Docklands Dog's Bay Beach Shutterstock Dingle Bay EMersinger/Pixabay Downhill Strand, County Derry Dublin Spire rises about O'Connell Street Getty Images Castle Ward, County Down Shutterstock Tollymore Forest Park, County Down Kinbane Castle Pexels/Pixabay St. Patrick was a 5th century Irish Christian missionary and bishop. Born in Scotland in 387 Ad, his real name was Maewyn Succat. According to records, he was 16 when he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken from Roman Britain where he was born to be a slave in Gaelic Ireland. The Declaration states that after six years as a shepherd, God told Patrick to flee to the coast where a ship would be waiting to take him home. After he made his way home, Patrick then became a priest. Eventually he returned to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity until he died one year on March 17. After his death, he became Irelands foremost saint and the subject of legend. How do the Irish celebrate St. Patricks Day? St. Patricks Day is now a worldwide celebration of everything Irish. But in Ireland the celebrations generally centre on public parades, dressing up, fireworks and, of course, pints of Guinness. When is the St Patrick's Day parade in London? St Patrick's Day is often celebrated with lots of Guinness! / Getty The St Patricks Day parade returns in spectacular fashion to the capital this year. The parade route will start at Hyde Park corner before journeying through Piccadilly and finishing at Trafalgar Square. London's St Patrick's Day Parade Irish singers and performers will be keeping the celebrations going from noon until 6pm. How do you say Happy St. Patricks Day in Irish? All you need to do is say, La Fheile Padraig Sona Duit! Easy, right? F our packages containing suspicious substances and vile Islamophobic letters have been sent to Muslim MPs in Parliament in 24 hours. Rupa Huq, Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, said she was the latest target on Monday, while another package was said to have been sent to Muslim Labour MP Afzal Khan. It came after packages were sent to Mohammad Yasin, Labour MP for Bedford, and Bethnal Green and Bow MP Rushanara Ali on Monday. Ms Huq told reporters that a package containing a sticky liquid and a Punish a Muslim letter was sent to her Westminster office on Tuesday. A Parliamentary worker who opened the letter was taken to hospital as a precaution. Scotland Yard said specialist officers were on the scene to assess the contents of the package and another suspicious parcel which was also delivered to the Norman Shaw Building in Westminster at the same time. Two packages were sent to the same building in Parliament on Monday afternoon. Two members of Mr Yasins team were taken to hospital after opening a package containing a suspicious liquid. Specialist police officers are investigating the suspect packages / PA Wire/PA Images Ms Huq told the BBC that the parcels are now part of a pattern. She said her staff member who opened the post this morning had gone to hospital to be checked over as a precaution after getting the liquid on their hands. Ms Huq said: Its worrying that these things are getting through security screening because I know its very vigorously screened. Someone out there thinks its open season on Muslims. Both of the packages delivered on Monday afternoon were found to be non-harmful. A Met Police statement said on Tuesday: Police were called at 9.49am on Tuesday, 13 March to reports of a suspicious package at Norman Shaw Buildings, Victoria Embankment, Westminster. Specialist officers are on scene and the package is being assessed. The London Ambulance Service are on scene. A man has been taken to hospital as a precaution. No evacuation has taken place. A second package at the same location is also being assessed. Labour David Lammy MP tweeted: I am absolutely appalled and horrified to hear reports that a number of my Labour colleagues are receiving Punish a Muslim letters, hate mail and suspicious packages. As Chair of the Race All Party Parliamentary Group I stand in solidarity with them and their hard-working staff. T he alleged Parsons Green Tube bomber lied about being an Islamic State recruit to trick his way into the UK from the notorious Jungle camp and pursue his dream of being the new Sir David Attenborough, he told a court today. Ahmed Hassan, 18, said he dreamed of becoming a wildlife photographer, and left his native Iraq so he could studying in the UK and improve his English. He travelled his way across Europe and sneaked into Britain on a train, but then claimed to the authorities he had been kidnapped by IS and trained to kill by the extremists. Hassan, giving evidence at the Old Bailey, told jurors this morning the story was invented to secure asylum, and he only left Iraq because he was bored with his manual labour job. Hassan said he learned what to say during two months in the notorious Jungle camp in Calais, where he was living among other refugees and asylum seekers. Iraqi asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan, 18, is accused of planting the homemade bomb on the train Ive never had any contact with IS at all, he told the court, saying his story to the Home Office was not the truth. I come from a wealthy family in northern Iraq and Kurdistan, if I told the Home Office the truth they would have deported me, he said. The only reason I left my country was to further my studies, so I didnt want to tell them the truth because that wasnt enough to get me leave to remain. I felt I had to make up something stronger. Talking about his time in the Jungle, Hassan said: People used to talk about these things, making up stories. The aftermath of the attempted Tube bombing at Parsons Green I have never come across a refugee who said they tell the truth when they arrive in a European country. The teenager is accused of building a homemade bucket bomb at his foster home in Surrey, using chemicals he had bought on Amazon and packed with 2.2kgs of metal shrapnel. He left the explosive, rigged with a modified kitchen timer and concealed in a Lidl shopping bag, on the floor of a District Line train on September 15 last year. Hassan got off the train at Putney Bridge, a few minutes before the bomb partially detonated and sent a fireball through the packed morning rush-hour carriage. Hassan said his mother and father both died when he was young, and he was raised by his uncle, leaving school at 15 to work 16-hour days carrying vegetables. I was bored with my job, I wanted a better life and to further my studies. I wanted to learn English, he said. There was so much pressure on me to keep up with my job, I was just bored and I wanted to leave. The teenager said he travelled to Turkey and then paid a smuggler to take him to Italy. Hassan said he was detained by the Italian authorities, but then was set free and headed to France. Hassan said he tried repeatedly to get on a train into the UK, eventually succeeding and ending up in Dover where he got on to the back of a lorry. He was detained by the police near to Gatwick airport and eventually housed at a Barnardos hostel. By April 2016 Hassan had been placed with foster parents. The jury were shown a selection of Hassans photographic work, as well as an animations he had created while studying media at Brooklands College. Asked about his hopes for the future, he said: I wanted to go to university, and my ultimate goal was to become a wildlife photographer like David Attenborough. He added the the college has allowed him to continue his studies while in prison awaiting trial. Hassan, from Sunbury, Surrey, denies attempted murder and using an explosive to endanger life or cause serious injury to property. A sex attacker has been banned from the London Underground and DLR network after admitting to flashing and rubbing himself against women on the Tube. Malcolm Schwartz, of Kingsground in Eltham, was spared jailed and received a 62 week suspended prison sentence at Blackfriars Crown Court on Monday. The 19-year-old sex pest committed four sexual assaults on London Underground services between December and January this year. The first offence happened on board a busy Central Line train between Mile End and Bethnal Green at approximately 8.30am on December 14. Schwartzs boarded the service and approached a 26-year-old woman where he then exposed himself, pressing himself against his victim. The following month, on January 8, Schwarts targeted two women in the same morning. During each assault, he once again pressed himself against his victims. The forth incident took place at Bethnal Green station, where Schwartz stood behind his victim, touching her inappropriately as the train traveled. Schwartz has been banned from traveling on the London Underground, DLR, and from sitting next to a lone woman he does not know. His name will also be listed on the sex offenders register for ten years. DC Thomas ORegan from the Sexual Offences Unit of British Transport Police, said: Schwartzs behaviour was perverse. "Over a two month period of time, he travelled on busy Central Line trains assaulting women for his own sexual gratification. "His conduct was outrageous and I am pleased we were able to catch him. This complex case demonstrates the true value in reporting unwanted sexual behaviour to police. "The victims each provided us with clear accounts of what happened, enabling us to clearly identify Schwartz as the perpetrator. "Reports such as theirs help us catch offenders, and ensure that justice is delivered. I hope todays sentence sends a very strong message that sexual assault on the transport network will not be tolerated. A partner at a City law firm was racially abused and labelled a scumbag in a year-long harassment campaign by a disgruntled client who believed he had been cheated out of 2.5 million, a court heard. Siddhartha Mankad, chief operating officer at Kemp Little LLP, was called a P*ki and accused of ripping off clients in phone calls, emails and social media messages from businessman Jonathan Sherwood, it is said. The lawyer told Inner London crown court his friends and family received Facebook messages from Sherwood, calling him a total scumbag and suggesting the law firm is bent. Mr Mankad said Twitter messages had been directed at Kemp Little from accounts in the names of Sherwoods companies, attacking him and his colleagues as bottom-feeding pond scum and threatening to destroy the firms reputation. Mr Mankad also said a fake account on gay dating website Grindr had been set up in a married colleagues name, advertising sexual services in the toilets of the firms Cheapside office. Abused: Lawyer Siddharta Mankad Sherwood, managing director of a software firm, is accused of racially aggravated harassment against Mr Mankad between July 2015 and July 2016. Jurors have heard he was angry at his treatment in an Austrian legal dispute, and accused Kemp Little of being part of a scam to cheat him out of 2.5 million. Mr Mankad said his wife was among the recipients of a Facebook message, said to be from Sherwood, which read: Hes a total scumbag, rips off clients and works for a bent law firm. Kemp Little were part of a scam against my company for 2.5 million, after I paid them substantial money and sold my home to settle my bill. Mr Mankad blocked Sherwoods phone number as the alleged harassment continued, but heard he was the victim of the racial slur in calls to his colleagues. He used the term P*ki to refer to me, said Mr Mankad, a Hindu of Indian heritage. Its derogatory, it doesnt matter what background a person is actually from, the term itself is demeaning. Its one thats not used. Ive had the pleasure of being able to completely ignore or forget about any skin colour with colleagues, whether mine or theirs. This was a harsh and very rude reminder this is thrown in peoples faces for no reason. Jurors were shown Twitter messages sent from accounts in the name of Sherwoods companies, Gravy Solutions and Freedo Trader, attacking Kemp Little. One read: Avoid these corrupt w***ers, they are backroom dealing, c**k-sucking c***s. Lawyers to avoid at all costs. Another said: Kemp Little are corrupt lawyers, they are the bottom-feeding pond scum you should avoid. Sherwood, from Clerkenwell, denies a charge of racially aggravated harassment. Kemp Little deny any wrongdoing. A leading private girls school is considering introducing gender-neutral toilets even though all pupils are female. Carol Chandler-Thompson, head of the 16,000-a-year Blackheath High School, said pupils have raised the issue of changing the signage on lavatories with her and they are having intelligent conversations about it. She said: Obviously you can read alarmist headlines about these things, but these are valid questions to be asking. The school, part of the Girls Day School Trust, is undergoing major construction work, with one third of the buildings demolished and rebuilt. Mrs Chandler-Thompson said: We are in the middle of a giant building project. If we are introducing a single toilet why would you put a gender on it? We are not defensive about asking that question. We are obviously a girls school but we may have young people who are transitioning here and we would support that. She said she is proud that her pupils are confident enough to challenge the way the school is run, and they are encouraged to ask questions. Pupils at the school are taught about transgender issues in PSHE lessons (personal, social, and health education) and they raised the issue of gender-neutral lavatories with her. The girls have already run a successful campaign to persuade the head to introduce trousers to the uniform. Mrs Chandler-Thompson said: Girls are interested in issues of gender. We look at what topics we cover in PSHE. Are they relevant to childrens lives? Things are moving quite rapidly. We try to make sure its relevant to the students gender identity and sexual orientation and racial identity making sure there is a safe space to discuss these issues. The way we work here is we try and involve the students in these discussions. We try and work with them. We have intelligent conversations with the girls about the language used within lessons and what we are normalising. When we say ask your mum to sign the homework planner what assumptions are we making without thinking? On the issue of gender-neutral toilets, she said she would look at whether it is practical and desirable, adding we would certainly consider it. She said she currently has no girls at the school transitioning to become boys but added: I fully expect I will do. The schools admissions policy is to accept pupils into the school based on their legal sex. But if a girl were to transition while at school, they would be supported. She said: We would help them see out their education, making sure they can fulfil their own potential. C ounter-terrorism detectives are investigating after a Russian exile was found dead at his London home. Nikolai Glushkov was a close friend of late tycoon Boris Berezovsky, an outspoken critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The 68-year-old was discovered by his family and friends late on Monday, the Guardian newspaper reported. Mr Glushkov was a former deputy director of Aeroflot, a Russian state airline, and worked for Mr Berezovsky's LogoVAZ car company. He was twice charged with fraud in Russia. He was granted political asylum in the UK in recent years and moved to London where he lived in New Malden. Scotland Yard said a man was found dead in his home in Clarence Avenue on Monday night, adding that the incident was being treated as "unexplained". A police officer stands guard outside the house of deceased Russian Nikolai Glushkov in south-west London / AFP/Getty Images There is no evidence the incident is linked to the attempted assassination of former Russian double agent Segei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, police said. Three blue tents have been erected in the front garden of the terraced house in New Malden by police. A cordon was in place around the pavement outside of the house and at the entrance of a nearby alleyway. Two police officers stood guard outside and a number of officers in blue forensic suits were seen leaving the property. The address in New Malden which has been sealed-off by police after Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov was found dead / PA Tracy Broadfield, 46, an eyewitness who lives nearby, said she was walking with her son when she saw "around 10-15 police plus forensic guys" outside the house on Clarence Avenue. "The only thing we saw was a lot of police and forensic police. Very large police presence. So [I] just took photo as we went past," she said. Mrs Broadfield added: "It's taken a long time for news to come through. So there has been a lot of speculation about what had happened. This much police activity in new Malden is very rare." Mr Glushkov's close ally Mr Berezovsky, once one of the most powerful businessmen in Russia, was found hanged at his home near Ascot, Berkshire, in March 2013, aged 67. Police said a post-mortem showed no sign of a violent struggle and a coroner recorded an open verdict after an inquest. Due to "contradictory" evidence, the coroner said he could not prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he either took his own life or was unlawfully killed. Mr Berezovsky played a key part in Mr Putin's rise to power in 1999 but later fell out with the Russian president and fled the country. Glushkov, a former senior Russian executive linked to late Kremlin opponent Boris Berezovsky was found dead in unexplained circumstances / AFP/Getty Images In 2013, Mr Gluskov gave evidence at the court case brought by Mr Berezovsky against Chelsea FC owner and fellow oligarch Roman Abramovich. A spokesman for the Met Police said: "An investigation is underway following the death of a man in his 60s in Kingston borough. "Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 10.46pm on Monday to reports of a man found deceased at a residential address in Clarence Avenue, New Malden. "Officers attended and next of kin have been informed. A post-mortem examination will be held in due course. "The death is currently being treated as an unexplained. A woman has burnt to death outside a school in south west London. Fire crews rushed to Queens Road in Richmond on Monday afternoon where the woman was found engulfed in a fireball. She was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after. Police are investigating amid claims she may have set herself alight. The incident happened at about 1pm outside Christs Sixth Form College in the Richmond Park area but is not connected to the school. Witness Guy Lloyd said: I saw a person on the floor in flames and people putting the flames out as I went past. I thought it was a man I didnt know it was a woman they were very badly burnt. Queens Road was closed and buses diverted as police and forensic teams moved in. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: Officers, London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade attended the scene. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene at 1.41pm. A power cut has plunged parts of Parliament into darkness on the day of the Spring Statement. The blackout happened on the day Chancellor Philip Hammond is set to say there is light at the end of the tunnel as he provides the economic and public finance forecasts. Several catering outlets and offices, including rooms where the party whips are based, have been affected by the power cut. MPs and journalists have complained of being left without coffee and crumpets. Labour Shadow Minister Jim McMahon wrote on Twitter: When the chancellor says he can see the light at the end of the tunnel theres a good chance its a result of a power cut in Westminster. He could put 50p in the meter. Labour MP Anna Turley added: Power cuts in parliament today - this beautiful historic building really is groaning under the pressure of being a modern hi-tech workplace for thousands of people. She added: No coffee!! Journalist Kevin Maguire said: Crisis in British democracy - power cut in the MPs tea room and other parts of Parliament. No crumpets. Insert own joke. Last month MPs voted to move Parliament away from the Palace of Westminster for six years to allow for a proposed multi-billion pound refurbishment of the historic building. Commons leader Andrea Leadsom claimed the palace is in dire need of repair. The blackout came as police were called to investigate two "suspicious packages" in Parliament on Monday morning. One man was taken to hospital as a precaution. A Parliamentary spokesperson said: A power supply issue is affecting two of our catering outlets and a very small number of offices on the estate. R ussia has warned Theresa May she "should not threaten a nuclear power" after the PM issued a midnight deadline for Moscow to explain how Sergei Skripal was poisoned. The country's embassy in the UK fired off a salvo of seven tweets in which it said Britain must comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention for a joint investigation and warned the threat of sanctions would "meet with a response". Meanwhile Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters: "One should not threaten a nuclear power". It comes as President Donald Trump told Mrs May in a phone call the US is "with the UK all the way" following the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Russia, according to Downing Street. Mrs May has been highly critical of alleged Russian activity / PA On Monday, Vladimir Putin smirked when asked by BBC reporter Steve Rosenberg if Russia was behind the poisoning, saying: "First, get to the bottom of it [in Britain], then we'll discuss this." In a series of tweets, the Russian Embassy said: "Moscow will not respond to Londons ultimatum until it receives samples of the chemical substance to which the UK investigators are referring. "Britain must comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention which stipulates joint investigation into the incident, for which Moscow is ready. President Donald Trump said he was 'with the UK all the way' / Getty "Without that, there can be no sense in any statements from London. The incident appears to be yet another crooked attempt by the UK authorities to discredit Russia. "Any threat to take 'punitive' measures against Russia will meet with a response. The British side should be aware of that." Putin smirks as he's asked about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal Mrs May said earlier this week the Government had concluded it is "highly likely" Russia was responsible for the attack which left ex-spy Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia in a critical condition in hospital. She demanded that Moscow account for how a Russian-produced nerve agent could have been deployed in Salisbury and vowed to set out measures Britain will adopt if no credible response is received by the end of Tuesday. Home Secretary Amber Rudd earlier said Russia had "started responding" but the embassy appeared to suggest this amounted to little more than informing the Foreign Office of its demands and reiterating it was not involved. Britain's ambassador to Russia was summoned by Moscow and told by first deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov that the Kremlin "strongly protested" the accusations, the embassy said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday his country "is not to blame" for the poisoning. Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident 1 /14 Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident Investigators in protective gear pursue the probe into the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal Getty Russian spy 'poisoning': Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal are fighting for life in hospital PA Personnel in hazmat suits work to secure a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA ilitary personnel are deployed to help remove vehicles from the scene after former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill after exposure to a nerve agent in Salisbury Getty Images Military in protective clothing remove vehicles from a car park in Salisbury EPA Police cordon: Military personnel in Salisbury PA Traces of the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found at Zizzi in Salisbury PA Amber Rudd: she visited the scene where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after having been poisoned by a nerve agent REUTERS Personnel are helped from their hazmat suits (right), after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Personnel in hazmat suits walk away after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Police put a red bag inside a police evidence bag immediately after the nerve agent attack on a Russian spy. Officers previously issued CCTV of a woman clutching a red bag Solent news Snap Fitness 24/7 Police activity in the cul-de-sac in Salisbury that contains the home of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal who was poisoned along with daughter Yulia with a nerve agent PA Sergei Skripal shops at Bargain Stop in a CCTV image from five days before his apparent poisoning Mr Lavrov said Russia had no connection to the poisoning, and demanded access to samples of the nerve agent used in the attack. Mr Skripal, 66, was found along with his daughter, Yulia, on a bench in The Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury after police were called by a concerned member of the public at around 4.15pm on Sunday, March 4. The pair did not have any visible injuries and were taken to Salisbury District Hospital where they remain in intensive care in a critical but stable condition. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who went to the aid of Mr Skripal and his daughter, is still recovering in hospital. Police officers in decontamination suits and military chemical weapons experts are continuing their investigations at several locations across Salisbury. Mr Skripal and his daughter are both still fighting for their lives in hospital. Dear Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas School, On the most poignant day of the year for us we wanted to reach out and offer our deepest and most heartfelt sympathy to you and your teachers and to all the families and friends of those who died at your school on 14th February. We have watched and listened with tremendous admiration as you have spoken out for what you believe should happen now, a significant change of attitude towards the availability of guns in your country. Twenty-two years ago today our own lives were devastated when a gunman walked into Dunblane primary school in Scotland and shot dead sixteen 5- and 6-year-old children and their teacher and injured many more. The children who were killed or badly injured were our daughters and sons, our grandchildren, our sisters and brothers, our nieces and nephews, our cousins. The teacher was our wife, our sister, our mother. Five of us are survivors. The gunman owned his four handguns legally, and we knew it had been too easy for him to arm himself with lethal weapons. Like you, we vowed to do something about it. We persuaded British lawmakers not to be swayed by the vested interests of the gun lobby, we asked them to put public safety first and to heed what the majority of the British people wanted. Most politicians listened and acted. Laws were changed, handguns were banned and the level of gun violence in Britain is now one of the lowest in the world. There have been no more school shootings. We want you to know that change can happen. It wont be easy, but continue to remind everyone of exactly what happened at your school and of the devastation caused by just one person with one legally-owned gun. Never let anyone forget. There will be attempts to deflect you, to divide you and doubtless to intimidate you, but youve already shown great wisdom and strength. We wish you more of that wisdom and strength for this toughest of tasks, one that will be so important in order to spare more of your fellow Americans from having to suffer the way you have. Wherever you march, whenever you protest, however you campaign for a more sensible approach to gun ownership we will be there with you in spirit. Tonight we will be lighting 17 candles for those who died in Dunblane and will be remembering the 17 who lost their lives in Parkland. Our thoughts will also be with every other victim of gun violence. We offer you our total support for the March for Our Lives and sincerely hope you achieve success. It can be done. #NeverAgain. E vening Standard photographer Jeremy Selwyn has been named National Newspaper Photographer of the Year at a prestigious awards ceremony. He was lauded for a series of powerful images capturing key moments of 2017, including the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower in June. He received the honour at the UK Picture Editors Guild Awards last night. Selwyn, whose 30-year career has taken him around the world, said: As a photographer your job is to record history as it happens but this was one night, a night where so many people lost their lives, that I really dont want to remember. Jeremy Selwyn's image of the Grenfell Tower fire / Jeremy Selwyn So although its a huge accolade, its tinged with sadness for me. Accolade: Photographer Jeremy Selwyn Other images in his prize-winning portfolio included a light-hearted portrait of Theresa May visiting Smithfield Market. A woman who claims she was sexually harassed by a Labour MP today said she was totally disillusioned with the party and did not know when her case would be held. Ava Etemadzadeh, 27, a Labour activist, said four months had passed since she complained that Kelvin Hopkins, 76, had rubbed himself up against her and sent inappropriate text messages. She said: I made a complaint in early November and its been months and I am so disillusioned, because it appears that the Tory party has been dealing with sexual harassment cases better than the Labour party. Theresa May even sacked one of her closest allies, said Ms Etemadzadeh, referring to the Prime Ministers removal of First Secretary of State Damian Green after his misleading statements about pornography found on his computer. Mr Hopkins, MP for Luton North, is alleged to have messaged Ms Etemadzadeh to say she was a lovely young woman, adding that a nice young man would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend and lover were I to be young. Investigation: Kelvin Hopkins, representative for Luton North, is facing allegations / PA Archive/PA Images He is said to have rubbed his crotch against her during a hug at the end of a university event she had organised when she was 24. Mr Hopkins denies all the allegations made against him. The MP has been suspended and his case referred to the National Constitutional Committee (NCC). He could be expelled from Labour if found guilty of misconduct. But Ms Etemadzadeh, a student in London, said: I still havent heard from the Labour party about my NCC hearing. She said she will use a pro bono lawyer to represent her in the case and despite being a Labour member has been offered no legal support. Mr Hopkins has said: This issue needs to be dealt with by due process and I am happy to go to the NCC to clear my name. Labour said: All complainants are kept fully updated with developments in their case. Labour takes all such cases extremely seriously and ensures proper process is followed in investigating them and taking necessary action. Several Labour MPs face allegations. Karl Turner, MP for Kingston upon Hull East, has been accused of slapping a woman on her bottom in his office in 2015. He denies behaving inappropriately. Debbie Abrahams has been suspended as shadow pensions secretary after being accused of bullying staff. The MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth disputed this and said she had been the victim of aggressive behaviour by individuals in Jeremy Corbyns office. J ean-Claude Juncker today told Britons you will regret the vote for Brexit. In a speech to MEPs, the European Commission president said it was time for the UK Government to stop making speeches and knuckle down to the hard detail of what leaving the EU will mean. He urged Theresa May to drop her Brexit red lines or risk a new border in Ireland and a no-frills trade deal that would squander growth. Mr Juncker spoke at a special debate in the European Parliament to endorse the EU negotiating position for talks on trade that are due to be launched next week. The time will come when you will regret your decision, the Brussels grandee said. Mr Juncker said the EU needed "more clarity on how the UK sees its future relationship" - despite Theresa May's speech at Mansion House / Getty As the clock counts down, with one year to go, it is now time to translate speeches into treaties, to turn commitments into agreements, and broad suggestions and wishes about the future into specific and workable solutions. The Euro-parliaments Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, said it was time for the UK to go beyond the slogans and the soundbites and present concrete proposals. The problem is, we dont have a proposal from the UK side on the future relationship with the union - its still lacking, he told MEPs, adding that the prime ministers Mansion House speech consisted only of repeating the red lines that we already know. Theresa May wants 'deepest and broadest' trade agreement with EU Green MEP Philippe Lamberts said the UK was facing a trilemma because of its insistence on leaving the customs union and single market, and that it should reconsider those red lines. This has nothing to do with the alleged stubbornness of the EU27, it has everything to do with the stubbornness of facts, Mr Lamberts said. Until the Prime Minister reconsiders her position, it will be very hard for us to engage in any meaningful discussion on what our future relationship may be, Mr Lamberts said. The appeals follow the publication of the blocs guidelines on the future EU-UK relationship last week, which proposed a no-frills trade deal, including EU access to UK fishing waters but omitting specific mention of financial services. On Wednesday, MEPs will approve a proposal for a post-Brexit association agreement with the UK, which provides for special cooperation between the bloc and its near neighbours. The 16-page resolution calls for cooperation on trade, foreign policy, security and thematic areas such as research, education, aviation and nuclear energy. T he number of children being groomed in the Islamic State death cult is one of Britains great challenges and more will have to be removed from their families, the Justice Secretary said today. David Gauke said manipulative parents were trying to brainwash their sons and daughters, adding: Society has got the right to say that there are some environments that are not safe. Those who groomed their children in pursuit of a radical agenda could not be left in charge of families, he said. Mr Gauke also told the Standard that he was preparing the prisons system to cope with an influx of returning British jihadis in the coming months. David Gauke said manipulative parents were trying to brainwash their sons and daughters towards extremism / Rex Features He said their arrival from Syria would create a very significant problem and suggested that the most dangerous extremists would be held in two new specialist segregation units. Others would be given incentives under a carrot and stick approach to encourage them to face up to their offending and start living according to the values and norms of British society. Mr Gaukes warning about the danger of children being radicalised by their parents will, however, attract the most attention. JoJo Dixon, 12, filmed at an apparent execution Last month the countrys most senior counter-terrorism officer, Met Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, called for the courts to start treating such adults in the same way as paedophiles. Mr Gauke, whose responsibilities include overseeing the family courts, said: A child brought up in an environment that leads them towards a belief in a death cult is not an environment that as a society we can condone. Society has got the right to say that there are some environments that are not safe and take action accordingly. We have to be conscious of the manipulators. A lot of our challenges in the prison system and more widely in society can be from the manipulators of young people. "Whether its the grooming for sexual purposes or manipulating young people for pursuit of a radical agenda, thats one of the great challenges we face as a society. The problem of children being radicalised at home was highlighted by a High Court case in August 2015. Mr Justice Hayden ordered that a 16-year-old girl from Tower Hamlets be taken into care because her deceitful parents had been showing her IS propaganda. In December 2014 she had been prevented from travelling to Syria when counter-terrorism officers removed her from a Turkey-bound plane on the runway at Heathrow. In another notorious case, Sally Jones, a former punk rocker from Kent, took her son JoJo Dixon, 12, to join IS. He was later filmed shooting prisoners. Reports differ as to whether he died in a US airstrike that killed Jones last year. This month Umar Ahmed Haque, 25, a religious teacher from east London who had tried to groom children as suicide attackers, was convicted of a series of terror offences at the Old Bailey. Mr Gauke, a former City lawyer who was appointed Justice Secretary in January, said the return of British fighters from Syria was another major concern. Police have indicated that about 100 of the 850 who travelled to the war zone may be alive and have the right to come back. Mr Gauke declined to say how many he expected to return but said his department was doing a lot of work in preparation. There is a likelihood that we are going to see people returning from the Middle East in the months ahead and many of them are going to become our problem within the prison system, he said. We need to make sure that theres the proper approach to them. This is an issue that is going to be very significant for the criminal justice system as a whole and the prison system and is one of the big challenges that we have to face. He said many of those returning would be Category A prisoners held in the most secure jails. The two new specialist segregation units, in which extremists will be held away from other inmates to stop the spread of Islamist ideas, would be opened to complement an existing unit at Frankland Prison in Co Durham. Mr Gauke said: I have talked generally about the need to ensure that there are incentives within the prison system for those that do the right thing, for those that comply, dont cause trouble, and that is a principle that applies across the board, including with those who have returned. Engaging and facing up to what they have done. R ussia has denied involvement in the nerve agent attack on a former spy on UK soil hours after Theresa May gave the country until midnight tonight to provide a response. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia "is not to blame" for the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Mr Lavrov said Russia had no connection to the poisoning, and demanded access to samples of the nerve agent used in the attack. Mr Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daugther Yulia are both still fighting for their lives in hospital. Boris Johnson: Russia has until midnight to explain nerve agent attack It came as Boris Johnson reiterated the Prime Minister's calls for Russia to explain by midnight tonight how it came to be that "novichok was used on the streets of Wiltshire". He described the poisoning as "a brazen attempt to murder innocent people on UK soil" and would "represent the first use of nerve agents on the continent of Europe since the Second World War." Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident 1 /14 Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident Investigators in protective gear pursue the probe into the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal Getty Russian spy 'poisoning': Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal are fighting for life in hospital PA Personnel in hazmat suits work to secure a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA ilitary personnel are deployed to help remove vehicles from the scene after former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill after exposure to a nerve agent in Salisbury Getty Images Military in protective clothing remove vehicles from a car park in Salisbury EPA Police cordon: Military personnel in Salisbury PA Traces of the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found at Zizzi in Salisbury PA Amber Rudd: she visited the scene where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after having been poisoned by a nerve agent REUTERS Personnel are helped from their hazmat suits (right), after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Personnel in hazmat suits walk away after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Police put a red bag inside a police evidence bag immediately after the nerve agent attack on a Russian spy. Officers previously issued CCTV of a woman clutching a red bag Solent news Snap Fitness 24/7 Police activity in the cul-de-sac in Salisbury that contains the home of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal who was poisoned along with daughter Yulia with a nerve agent PA Sergei Skripal shops at Bargain Stop in a CCTV image from five days before his apparent poisoning Mr Johnson said: "If they can come up with a convincing explanation then obviously we will want to see full disclosure of that to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague. "If not, then clearly we will want to be announcing the UK response and that will come tomorrow. "In the meantime what we've been doing is talking to friends and partners, explaining what we see as the high likelihood of Russian state agency. New pictures show Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal on CCTV days before falling critically ill "And I've been very encouraged so far by the strength of the support that we are getting. "I think in particular from President Macron of France, I talked to Sigmar Gabriel my German counterpart, and from Washington where Rex Tillerson last night made it absolutely clear that he sees this as part of a pattern of disruptive behaviour, increasingly disruptive behaviour, malign behaviour by Russia, the reckless use of chemical weapons, the support for the reckless use of chemical weapons which stretches from Syria now to the streets of Salisbury. Theresa May: The Prime Minister earlier said there would be a 'full spectrum' response to the nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal / Getty Images "I've been encouraged by the willingness of our friends to show support and solidarity." The head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon has condemned the use of a chemical agent. Boris Johnson reiterated the Prime Minister's calls for Russian to explain by midnight tonight how it came to be that "novichok was used on the streets of Wiltshire". / PA Speaking at The Hague, Director General Ahmet Uzumcu said those responsible "must be held accountable." The episode has left Britain's relations with Moscow, which were already under severe strain, at breaking point. Theresa May says 'highly likely' Russia is responsible for nerve agent attack on spy and his daughter in Salisbury In an extraordinary statement in the Commons on Monday, Mrs May told MPs it was "highly likely" Russia was responsible for the poisoning. She disclosed that the dangerous substance used in the attack was a military-grade Novichok nerve agent produced by Russia. The PM set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for Moscow to explain whether it was behind the attack or had lost control of its stockpile of the poison. Failure to provide a "credible" response would lead her to view the incident as "an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom", sparking unspecified measures in reprisal. Mr Skripal was found along with his daughter on a bench in The Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury after police were called by a concerned member of the public at around 4.15pm on Sunday, March 4. The pair did not have any visible injuries and were taken to Salisbury District Hospital where they remain in intensive care in a critical but stable condition. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who went to the aid of Mr Skripal and his daughter, is still recovering in hospital. B ritain's economy is growing faster than expected but will fall after Brexit, Philip Hammond revealed today. In his first Spring Statement, the Chancellor upgraded growth this year but downgraded it for 2021 and for 2022, the year of the next general election. His biggest boast was of falling debt as a share of economic earnings, and 4.5 billion less borrowing this year than forecast. Mr Hammond hailed it as a turning point for the nation after years of tough austerity. But in his brief speech to the Commons he omitted borrowing figures for the next four years, breaking tradition and raising questions whether there was bad news buried in the Office for Budget Responsibility report. Philip Hammond delivers his first Spring Statement Rattling out the best figures, Mr Hammond said growth this year will be 1.5 per cent, up from 1.4. It will be 1.4 per cent in 2021, which is 0.1 less than forecast, and then 1.5 in 2022, also down by 0.1. But forecasts are there to be beaten, said Mr Hammond. After a decade of austerity, the deficit is down from an eye-watering 154 billion in 2009 to 45.2 billion. This itself is down by almost 5 billion since the November Budget forecasts, thanks to higher tax revenues. Debt would continue to fall as a share of earnings, he went on, hailing it as the first sustained fall in debt for 17 years, a turning point in the nations recovery from the financial crisis of a decade ago. The Chancellor said higher spending could be allowed if the growth continued. Since taking over, he said, he had provided an extra 11 billion for 2018-19 to help with short-term public spending pressures and to invest in Britains future. If, in the autumn, the public finances continue to reflect the improvements that todays report hints at then in accordance with our balanced approach and using the flexibility provided by the fiscal rules I would have capacity to enable further increases in public spending and investment in the years ahead, while continuing to drive value for money to ensure that not a single penny of precious taxpayers money is wasted. Earlier Mr Hammond briefed the Cabinet that thanks to the hard work of the British public, there is light at the end of the tunnel. He stood up in the Commons at 12.32pm without fanfare or applause. But Tories began cheering as he highlighted the better news. Joking about his own pessimistic image, he pointed at Labours John McDonnell, saying: If there are any Eeyores in this Chamber they are over there! I am at my most positively Tigger-like. But the shadow chancellor fired back: Its a bit rich from a party that put 700 billion on debt. There were no white rabbits in Mr Hammonds hat during a stripped-down statement that was highly political in tone. Instead, he announced a handful of reviews that signalled big policy changes ahead in key areas. There will be a consultation on alternative methods of VAT collection designed to reduce online fraud and a study of ways to boost the digital economy. Online business platforms could be made to help their users pay the right amount of tax. Todays statement in the Commons replaced the old spring Budget which has moved to autumn. Mr Hammonds optimism was jarred by forecasts showing Britain trailing behind major European economies this year and next. The Paris-based OECD think tank said the UK will grow 1.3 per cent this year, up 0.1 points since its November projection, then fall to just 1.1 per cent in 2019, the year of Brexit. T heresa May has given Vladimir Putin 24 hours to explain how a deadly Russian nerve agent was used in an assassination attempt in the UK. The Prime Minister announced on Monday that a military-grade nerve agent Novichok was used in the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. She told MPs that there were only two possible explanations - either Moscow was behind the attack or it had lost control of its stockpile of the poison. The PM set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for the Kremlin to explain which of the two options is the case. Russian spy poisoning: Sergei and Yulia Skripal were left fighting for life in hospital / PA Failure to provide a "credible" response would lead her to view the incident as "an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom", sparking unspecified measures in reprisal. Dr Jonathan Eyal, associate director at Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said that by offering the second option she was giving Russia an opportunity. "It was also an attempt to suggest to the Russians that they still have a chance to extricate themselves from the fallout, he said. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the nerve agent attack on Mr Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer who was jailed as a double agent before being sent to the West in a 2010 spy swap. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian media: "It is a circus show in the British Parliament. Investigation: Military personnel in protective clothing in Salisbury as the PM calls a meeting of the National Security Council / EPA "The conclusion is obvious, it's another political information campaign, based on a provocation." Home Secretary Amber Rudd will chair a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergencies committee in Whitehall on Tuesday morning to discuss the latest developments. Trump administration condemns nerve agent attack Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has backed the UK and said the nerve agent used in the attack clearly came from Russia. He said: Those responsible - both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it - must face appropriately serious consequences. Traces of the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found at Zizzi in Salisbury / PA We stand in solidarity with our Allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to co-ordinate closely our responses." French president Emmanuel Macron also offered his country's solidarity with the UK in a phone call with Mrs May, in which he said that Paris would "co-ordinate closely" with London following Russia's response. Mrs May said that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has told the Russian ambassador that Moscow must "immediately provide full and complete disclosure" of its Novichok nerve gas programme. "We saw promises by the Russian government to assist in the investigation but we were met instead by obfuscation. Salisbury spy attack: What we know so far "We must now stand ready to take much more considered action. This action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom. "We will not accept such a brazen attempt to murder civilians on our soil." Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith told Mrs May the Commons would "back her" to take "the most severe action as is required" against Moscow. He added: "This country, Russia, is now as close to being a rogue state as any. It occupies Crimea, it has helped occupy eastern Ukraine, it has created hell on earth in Syria and is even now overseeing worse action. "This is a country locking up its members of the opposition, it is a country, frankly, we've learned this lesson before, if we appease a country like this then we expect even worse." Mrs May responded: "He is absolutely right, nobody should be in any doubt of the various activities that the Russian state is involved in across the continent of Europe and elsewhere. "It is important that this Government, that this country, stands up very clearly and not only calls out actions by Russia but also ensures that we have a robust response to them." It came as police in decontamination suits and military chemical weapons experts cordoned off part of a Wiltshire village about eight miles from Salisbury. Experts were pictured in the Winterslow village on Monday afternoon. R ussian exile Nikolai Glushkov has been found dead at his London home. He was a close associate of late tycoon Boris Berezovsky, an outspoken critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Mr Berezovsky was found hanged at his home near Ascot, Berkshire, in March 2013, aged 67. A coroner recorded an open verdict after an inquest. The exact circumstances of Mr Glushkovs death are not yet known and police have not yet formally identified him. Who was Russian businessman Mr Glushkov? Mr Glushkov left Russia after he received a two-year suspended prison sentence for fraud in 2006 from a Moscow court and moved to London. He was a former deputy director of Aeroflot, a Russian airline company. In March last year, he was handed a second eight-year sentence in absentia and a one million Russian Ruble fine for allegedly defrauding the airline firm of $122 million during his tenure as finance director there in the late 1990s. Mr Glushkov lived in the UK, in a home in New Malden, Kingston, south-west London, after being granted political asylum in the country in 2010. What do we know so far about his death? Glushkov, a former senior Russian executive linked to late Kremlin opponent Boris Berezovsky was found dead in unexplained circumstances at his New Malden home / AFP/Getty Images Counter-terror police have launched an investigation after he was found dead at his home in New Malden, south-west London, on Monday night. The Met Police this afternoon confirmed the death of Mr Glushkov was being treated as "unexplained". Scotland Yard in statement said: The death is currently being treated as an unexplained. If there is a change in the status of the investigation, an update will be provided. At this stage the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had. There is no evidence to suggest a link to the incident in Salisbury. Who was his close associate Mr Berezovsky and what were the circumstances of his death? Boris Berezovsky (Picture: AFP/Getty) Mr Berezovsky was once one of the most powerful businessmen in Russia. The tycoon amassed a fortune in the 1990s following the privatisation of state assets after the collapse of Soviet communism. He was an outspoken critic of Russian leader Mr Putin. He was found hanged at his home near Ascot, Berkshire, in March 2013, aged 67. A coroner recorded an open verdict after an inquest. A ctivists have laid down 7,000 pairs of shoes on the lawn of the US Capitol in tribute to American children killed by gun violence. The memorial, organised by Avaaz, a US based activist group, and those behind the National School Walkout. The latter will see students across the country step out of their classrooms for 17 minutes on Wednesday, in honour of those killed in the recent at the Majory Stoneman high school, in Florida. The 7,000 pairs of donated footwear, arranged side by side outside the Capitol, the home of the US Congress, represent every person younger than 18 who has been killed by a gun since the 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The demonstration is meant to signify all children killed by guns in the US since the Sandy Hook shooting / EPA Emma Ruby-Sachs, deputy director of Avaaz, said: "I think we're in the middle of a cultural change in the United States. The majority of Americans want a change in gun laws, and a majority of gun owners want change." Actresses Susan Sarandon and Bette Midler, and talk show host Chelsea Handler were among shoe donors. Meanwhile the upcoming walkout has won the support of many school districts and civil rights organisations. More than 2,500 walkouts are scheduled across the country, according to the organiser's website, including at Marjory Stoneman and Columbine high schools. Tom Mauser, the father of a 15-year-old boy killed at the Columbine high school massacre in 1999, was at the site. He said: "There's nobody in those shoes, it's like the emptiness in our hearts from gun violence." Speaking about the growth in control activism among young people, he continued: "These kids [now], it's their lives. They're not going to be distracted about Russia, about other things." President Donald Trump has played down promises to improve gun control in the US, leaving proposals for the minimum age of gun purchases to be raised from 18 to 21 out of his recently released plans for school safety. A US immigration enforcement spokesman has resigned saying he could no longer bear the burden of spreading false information on behalf of Donald Trumps administration. James Schwab said his decision to step down from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was based on falsehoods shared by the agency about a raid in February. The agency had criticised a warning from Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf to residents that raid by federal immigration agents targeting about 1,000 was imminent. ICE deputy director Thomas D. Homan had said Ms Schaafs warning had helped 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats to evade capture in the raid. Mr Schwab said of deputy directors statement: I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didnt agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit. According to CNN, Mr Schwab resigned from ICEs San Francisco division last week. In an interview with the news network, he explained that it was not correct to identify those who were not detained in last months raid as a threats to public safety. N ational Geographic has acknowledged that its past coverage of people around the world has been racist. Susan Goldberg, editor of the magazine, said it had ignored non-white Americans and showed different groups as exotic or savage, propagating "every type of cliche". It decided to re-examine its coverage to mark 50 years since civil rights leader Martin Luther King was murdered, devoting its April issue to race. The magazine republished a number of examples of historical racism in its coverage, with one 1916 article about Australia including a photo of two Indigenous Australians alongside the caption: South Australian Blackfellows: These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings. The magazine cover in full / National Geographic via AP Ms Goldberg said some of the magazine's archive material left her "speechless", in an editorial titled 'For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist'. It comes after an investigation last year showed that until the 1970s the magazine ignored non-white Americans, only showing them as labourers or domestic staff. A former Nazi SS guard dubbed the "Bookkeeper of Auschwitz" has died aged 96 before serving a day of his four-year prison sentence. Oskar Groning died in a German hospital on Friday, according to his lawyer. One of the last Nazis to face trial over their roles in the Second World War, Groning was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 Jews in 2015. But he never began his jail term due to a series of appeals as well as delays caused by his ill health. Groning worked at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War / Getty Images Europe The former Nazi officer oversaw the collection of prisoners' belongings at Auschwitz and ensured valuables and cash were separated to be sent to Berlin. He claimed in his trial that he had never had a direct role in the mass killings at the concentration camp, although he was aware of them. He told the judges: "I ask for forgiveness. I share morally in the guilt - but whether I am guilty under criminal law, you will have to decide." More than a million people are estimated to have died at Auschwitz during the Second World War The Lueneburg court convicted Groning on the grounds that he knew Jews were being slaughtered and supported the killings through his actions. All of his appeals were rejected, and it was only his ill health that kept him from being sent to prison in recent years. Efraim Zuroff, the head Nazi hunter for the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said it was unfortunate that Groning's conviction did not result in "at least symbolic justice" for the victims of Auschwitz. Groning as a young man in an SS uniform (AP) In 2011, former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk became the first person convicted in Germany solely for serving as a death camp guard without evidence of being involved in a specific killing. Demjanjuk, who always denied serving at the Sobibor camp, died before his appeal could be heard. In 2016, former SS sergeant Reinhold Hanning was convicted on 170,000 counts of accessory to murder for serving as an Auschwitz guard. He, too, died before he could begin serving his five-year-sentence. U S Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the poison used to attack ex-spy Sergei Skripal clearly came from Russia and promised it will trigger a response. He said those responsible for the attack on Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury must face serious consequences. There is never a justification for this type of attack, the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation, and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior, said Mr Tillerson. The secretary of states remarks came hours after the White House publicly condemned the poisoning in the UK but refused to link it to Russia. Russian spy poisoning: Sergei and Yulia Skripal were left fighting for life in hospital / PA On Monday afternoon, Theresa May told the House of Commons that the nerve agent used in the attack was of a type developed by Russia. Either this was a direct action by the Russian state against our country or the Russian government lost control of the agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others, she said. Mr Tillerson said in a statement: "We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week. "There is never a justification for this type of attack - the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation - and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behaviour. "From Ukraine to Syria - and now the UK - Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens. An investigator in protective gear after the alleged poisoning of Russian spy Sergei Skripal / PA "We agree that those responsible - both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it - must face appropriately serious consequences. "We stand in solidarity with our allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to coordinate closely our responses." Sergei and Yulia Skripal were left in critical conditions following the poisoning in Salisbury town centre, while the first police officer on the scene also became seriously ill. Nerve agent used to' poison' Russian spy Sergei Skripal found at Zizzi The Russian government continued to deny any involvement in the attack in a statement released earlier on Monday. A statement from the Russian Embassy reads: "The investigation is being concluded in a non-transparent manner, whenever for the Russian side nor for the public. Quite naturally, this is a source of concern. Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident 1 /14 Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident Investigators in protective gear pursue the probe into the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal Getty Russian spy 'poisoning': Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal are fighting for life in hospital PA Personnel in hazmat suits work to secure a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA ilitary personnel are deployed to help remove vehicles from the scene after former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill after exposure to a nerve agent in Salisbury Getty Images Military in protective clothing remove vehicles from a car park in Salisbury EPA Police cordon: Military personnel in Salisbury PA Traces of the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found at Zizzi in Salisbury PA Amber Rudd: she visited the scene where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after having been poisoned by a nerve agent REUTERS Personnel are helped from their hazmat suits (right), after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Personnel in hazmat suits walk away after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Police put a red bag inside a police evidence bag immediately after the nerve agent attack on a Russian spy. Officers previously issued CCTV of a woman clutching a red bag Solent news Snap Fitness 24/7 Police activity in the cul-de-sac in Salisbury that contains the home of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal who was poisoned along with daughter Yulia with a nerve agent PA Sergei Skripal shops at Bargain Stop in a CCTV image from five days before his apparent poisoning "We would like to stress once again that we are outraged by the anti-Russian media campaign, condoned by the Government, that influences the investigation and has a psychological effect on British residents. "Current policy of the UK Government towards Russia is a very dangerous game played with the British public opinion, which not only sends the investigation upon an unhelpful political track but also bears the risk of more serious long-term consequences for our relations." R ussian researchers studying a three-fingered mummy found in a Peruvian tomb claim that the figure is not human. The researchers from St Petersburg say that Maria, a 5th century mummy, has a different anatomical structure to humans. Maria was just one of six mummies found inside the tomb in Nazca, a city in southern Peru. A nine-month-old child named Vavita and four male mummies were also discovered. Professor Konstantin Korotkov from the Russian National Research University told Sputnik news agency: "Each of the mummies has two arms, two legs, a head, a pair of eyes and a mouth. Maria was found alongside a nine-month-old child and three male figures / Gaia "The tissue has biological nature and their chemical composition indicated that they are humans. Their DNA features 23 pairs of chromosomes, just like we have. All the four of them are males, each with a Y-chromosome. They appear human but they are not. Their anatomic structure is different." The scientists claim that Maria's rib structure is an unusual rounded shape with some bones that are semicircular. Her head also elongates at the back. Dr Korotkov said: "Maria and Vavita could have been representatives of a certain race which had possibly reached a stage of advancement much earlier than we did. Maybe thousands of years earlier." He has also claimed that the figures could have been from an extra-terrestrial background which has raised criticism from other researchers in the field. The World Congress on Mummy Studies has described the find as a fraud, labelling it as "an irresponsible organised campaign of disinformation." Research on the mummies will continue with the team requesting permission to bring them to Russia for further testing. R ussian President Vladimir Putin smirked as he was asked by a journalist if the country was responsible for the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on UK soil. The BBCs Moscow Correspondent Steve Rosenberg stepped forward to ask the leader if Russia was behind the Novichok nerve agent attack on the former spy, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter in Salisbury. Mr Putin, who was being filmed by the news cameras as he visited Russias National Grain Centre on Monday, smirked before side-stepping the question. He said: Look, were busy here with agriculture. As you can see, the aim is to create good conditions for peoples lives. And you ask me about some tragedies. Vladimir Putin smirks as he is asked about Russia's involvement in a nerve agent attack on UK soil / BBC Get to the bottom of things there, first then well talk about this. Mr Skripal and his daughter are both still fighting for their lives in hospital. On Tuesday, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergy Lavros insisted that Russia "is not to blame" for the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Mr Skripal after Prime Minister Theresa May gave the country until midnight tonight to respond. Mr Lavrov said Russia had no connection to the poisoning, and demanded access to samples of the nerve agent used in the attack. He claimed that this request had been denied. Russian spy 'poisoning': Sergei and Yulia Skripal are fighting for life in hospital / PA Meanwhile, the Kremlin's Foreign Ministry has summoned British Ambassador Laurie Bristow as the UK's relations with Moscow, which were already under severe strain, appeared to reach breaking point. France, Germany and the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have all given their backing to the UK. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has also revealed that police and the security services will investigate allegations of Russian state involvement in a number of deaths over recent years in Britain. Russian spy poisoning: Military forces work on a van in Winterslow / AP Last week, the chairman of parliament's Home Affairs Committee wrote to Ms Rudd asking for a review of 14 deaths that were not originally treated as suspicious by police but had repeatedly been linked to Russia in media reports. "I will want to satisfy myself that the allegations are nothing more than that," Rudd said in her response published on Tuesday. "The police and (the UK's domestic spy agency) MI5 agree and will assist in that endeavour. It came as Boris Johnson reiterated the Prime Minister's calls for Russia to explain by midnight tonight how it came to be that "novichok was used on the streets of Wiltshire". Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident 1 /14 Russian Spy Sergei Skripal: Salisbury Nerve Agent Incident Investigators in protective gear pursue the probe into the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal Getty Russian spy 'poisoning': Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal are fighting for life in hospital PA Personnel in hazmat suits work to secure a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA ilitary personnel are deployed to help remove vehicles from the scene after former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill after exposure to a nerve agent in Salisbury Getty Images Military in protective clothing remove vehicles from a car park in Salisbury EPA Police cordon: Military personnel in Salisbury PA Traces of the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found at Zizzi in Salisbury PA Amber Rudd: she visited the scene where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after having been poisoned by a nerve agent REUTERS Personnel are helped from their hazmat suits (right), after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Personnel in hazmat suits walk away after securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill by exposure to a nerve agent Andrew Matthews/PA Police put a red bag inside a police evidence bag immediately after the nerve agent attack on a Russian spy. Officers previously issued CCTV of a woman clutching a red bag Solent news Snap Fitness 24/7 Police activity in the cul-de-sac in Salisbury that contains the home of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal who was poisoned along with daughter Yulia with a nerve agent PA Sergei Skripal shops at Bargain Stop in a CCTV image from five days before his apparent poisoning He described the poisoning as "a brazen attempt to murder innocent people on UK soil" and would "represent the first use of nerve agents on the continent of Europe since the Second World War." Mr Johnson said: "If they can come up with a convincing explanation then obviously we will want to see full disclosure of that to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague. "If not, then clearly we will want to be announcing the UK response and that will come tomorrow. "In the meantime what we've been doing is talking to friends and partners, explaining what we see as the high likelihood of Russian state agency. New pictures show Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal on CCTV days before falling critically ill "And I've been very encouraged so far by the strength of the support that we are getting. "I think in particular from President Macron of France, I talked to Sigmar Gabriel my German counterpart, and from Washington where Rex Tillerson last night made it absolutely clear that he sees this as part of a pattern of disruptive behaviour, increasingly disruptive behaviour, malign behaviour by Russia, the reckless use of chemical weapons, the support for the reckless use of chemical weapons which stretches from Syria now to the streets of Salisbury. Theresa May: The Prime Minister earlier said there would be a 'full spectrum' response to the nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal / Getty Images "I've been encouraged by the willingness of our friends to show support and solidarity." The head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon has condemned the use of a chemical agent. Boris Johnson: Russia has until midnight to explain nerve agent attack Speaking at The Hague, Director General Ahmet Uzumcu said those responsible "must be held accountable." The episode has left Britain's relations with Moscow, which were already under severe strain, at breaking point. Theresa May says 'highly likely' Russia is responsible for nerve agent attack on spy and his daughter in Salisbury In an extraordinary statement in the Commons on Monday, Mrs May told MPs it was "highly likely" Russia was responsible for the poisoning. She disclosed that the dangerous substance used in the attack was a military-grade Novichok nerve agent produced by Russia. The PM set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for Moscow to explain whether it was behind the attack or had lost control of its stockpile of the poison. Very poorly: detective sergeant Nick Bailey, who went to the aid of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Failure to provide a "credible" response would lead her to view the incident as "an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom", sparking unspecified measures in reprisal. Mr Skripal was found along with his daughter on a bench in The Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury after police were called by a concerned member of the public at around 4.15pm on Sunday, March 4. The pair did not have any visible injuries and were taken to Salisbury District Hospital where they remain in intensive care in a critical but stable condition. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who went to the aid of Mr Skripal and his daughter, is still recovering in hospital. A dwoa Aboah said she has developed an amazing bond with Professor Green as they joined forces in New York to talk about their experiences with mental health issues. The model, 25, who has featured on the cover of British Vogue, invited the rapper, 34, to join her on stage at the first New York event for Gurls Talk, her platform for young women. Aboah, who went to boarding school, told the Standard: He grew up completely differently to me [but] we have formed this amazing bond because we are both understanding and sympathetic to being in those dark times. Aboah met the rapper, who was born Stephen Manderson and grew up on the Northwold estate in Clapton, at Buckingham Palace through their involvement in Heads Together, the charity set up by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. The pair have talked about their experiences with depression and suicide. Mandersons father killed himself almost 10 years ago and Aboah tried to do so in 2015. Loved up: Professor Green with his girlfriend Fae Williams / Dave Benett In their discussion at Brooklyns Industry City, Manderson said he suffered from anxiety from as young as five but did not realise what it was until he started to become more aware of his mental health after his fathers death in 2008. He said: Mental health issues is something that was never discussed. It took a tragedy like that for me to start taking care of my own. Aboah said her experiences talking to young women around the world for her charity have shown how mental health issues are universal. I meet girls from Ghana, I meet girls from Skid Row in LA, I meet girls here [in New York], in posh areas, posh boarding schools in England, she said. Protesters descended on Westminster to campaign against period poverty She called for better mental health education in schools, more conversations within families and more realistic portrayals on screen. She said: In films [suicide] is depicted as ah, emotional. Im sure maybe in certain situations it is but for me it was this dark, silent, lonely, almost mundane and normal day for me where I went through my day-to-day things with the knowing that I was going to do what I did at the end of the day. The true essence of what it is to be that unhappy needs to be portrayed truthfully in stories, in film. There should be no kind of glamorising of all of it. U S rapper Craig Mack had died aged 46, according to reports. Early on Tuesday morning, DJ Scratch posted a picture of his pal on Instagram, saying that he had just had a disturbing phone call. He wrote: I just got a disturbing phone call. I cannot believe this dude is gone. He just reached out a couple of weeks ago for me to speak on his documentary about his life. Because Craig was my rodie [sic] on tour. He would set up & break down my turntables every night on tour. Rest In Peace Lil Bro. The hip-hop star, best known for his 1994 track Flava In Ya Ear, went on to release two albums one as the debut artist on P Diddys Bad Boy Records before leaving music to devote his life to religion. His remix track 24 years ago featured several guests including Busta Rhymes, The Notorious B.I.G and LL Cool J. His album Project: Funk da World peaked at number 21 in the US charts, while Operation: Get Down languished at number 46. The circumstances surrounding his death are not yet known but the New York Daily News report that Mack passed away of heart failure. Devout in religion, Mack joined the Overcomer Ministry in 2012 and resided in Walterboro, South Carolina. S teve Backshall and Helen Glover have revealed they are expecting twins. The married couple broke the news by posting identical images on Twitter. One showed Glover standing on a boat while flashing her baby bump and the other was of Backshall with two goslings. Deadly host Backshall tweeted: On the boat with my three favourite people; seems this summer well have some little ones of our own... @Helenglovergb. Olympic rower Glover, 31, tweeted: Soooo...The biggest adventure of our lives.. 2 little (chicks) of our own arriving this summer!!! @SteveBackshall. Fans were quick to congratulate the pair on the brilliant news. One wrote: Ah Stevie B that is the best news... enormous congratulations, so very happy for you both xxx Another said: Congratulations! If u want any help with children, Im a teacher+we r doing a project on Deadly Animals in the UK. We wud love 2 hear from u! Fellow presenters Dick and Dom tweeted: What brilliant news. Soon many congratulations. It's just the best in the world. X Backshall and Glover announced their engagement in 2015 before tying the knot at Piskies Cove, Cornwall the following year. C hristopher Eccleston has claimed he was blacklisted by the BBC after leaving hit show Doctor Who after just one series. The acclaimed actor, who played the Ninth Doctor in 2005, left after just one series and says his decision to move on was greeted with speculation and hostility, much exacerbated by the BBCs mishandling of the situation. Eccleston says that the whole debacle almost destroyed his career, landing him on a blacklist while the tabloids dragged him through the mill and forced him to go abroad for the sake of work. He told The Guardian: What happened around Doctor Who almost destroyed my career. I gave them a hit show and I left with dignity and then they put me on a blacklist. I was carrying my own insecurities as it was something I had never done before and then I was abandoned, vilified in the tabloid press and blacklisted. The actor continued: I was told by my agent at the time: The BBC regime is against you. Youre going to have to get out of the country and wait for regime change. So I went away to America and I kept on working because thats what my parents instilled in me. My dad always said to me: I dont care what you do sweeping the floor or whatever youre doing just do the best job you can. Doctor Who Time Lords - In pictures 1 /17 Doctor Who Time Lords - In pictures David Tennant PA William Hartnell BBC Peter Capaldi BBC Matt Smith BBC Jodie Whittaker BBC Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt PA Matt Smith and David Tennant PA Christopher Ecclestone BBC Paul McGann BBC Sylvester McCoy BBC Colin Baker PA Peter Davison BBC Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison and Richard Hurndall in the Five Doctors (1983) BBC Tom Baker BBC Jon Pertwee PA Patrick Troughton BBC Image from the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who with William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Ecclestonem, David Tennant and Matt Smith BBC The 54-year-old added: I know its cliched and northern and all that b******s, but it applies. BBC declined to comment when contacted by Standard Online. Over in the United States, Eccleston started in big on-screen hits including Thor: The Dark World and GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra. G rocery shopping has long been a tedious, time-consuming chore that every household could do without, but the latest smart speaker from Amazon means there is no reason for leaving the couch. In September 2016, Amazon UK launched the Echo, a voice-activated, tube-shaped device that allows shoppers to order groceries, takeaways, and cabs among many other things just by talking to it. The speaker recognises the users voice and reacts instantly to commands such as Alexa (the name of Amazons personal assistant), order me pizza from Dominos, add butter to my Ocado shopping list, tell me what the weather is doing and when my next Tube is. The order is then picked up by Dominos or Ocado and duly delivered it is as basic as it sounds, requires no fingers, and every generation can work it. So far, one UK household in 10 has a smart speaker, with eight per cent owning an Amazon device and two per cent the rival Google Home. Loading.... Other devices are available, such as the Apple HomePod, but this was only launched in January and has yet to make an impact in the UK. Voice-activated shopping in the UK stood at 200 million last year although consultants at OC&C Strategy expect this to rocket in the next five years to 3.5 billion. But while consumers get to grips with the speakers and their functions, the tech world has fallen in love with the simplicity of the devices. Amazon is even eyeing its use in offices. Loading.... Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight, says: The keyboard, mouse and touchscreen will all die out. These speaker devices arent the finished product yet but they are getting better and better. By 2021, more will be done by voice than by search. Rob Pulciani, director at Amazon Alexa Skills, said: Voice is going to be a big part of the future - we believe that voice will fundamentally improve the way people interact with technology. It can make the complex simple - its the most natural and convenient user interface. Yet Amazon, Google and Apple admit there is much room for improvement. The devices are currently being used for small repeat purchases or for finding out basic amounts of information, and the question is whether they can expand and dominate every part of a consumers life. Micah Collins, director of product management at Google, says: We dont just want the speaker to sit in the corner of the room, playing some music, and not talking to you. Right now, it is completing low-productivity tasks the low-hanging fruit but the real value will come when it gets to know the customer and can prompt a shopper to buy some new jeans or a dress for the weekend or a sweater. Loading.... The other issue is how companies can make money from their services on the speakers and create products that customers want to use. Darren Goldsby, chief digital officer at restaurant and media group Jamie Oliver, was keen to develop a talk out loud recipe book for the Amazon Echo but the technology was not suitable. Even before Alexa was launched, Amazon was telling us that every kitchen will have a digital personal assistant, he says. But our early approach of putting recipes into voice format was too complex. Alexa works best for simple products and we couldnt find the best formula for communicating the recipes. Cooking is all about confidence and control and books are what people are used to. Loading.... Jamie Olivers failure shows how keen Amazon is to make its product a sales focused e-commerce platform, but analysts say a more subtle model might win out in the end. Google, for instance, can use its huge search and data operation when tapping into customers. Whats certain is the battle between the world s three largest tech giants to be embedded in peoples houses is on. 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 NATO has granted Ukraine the status of an aspirant country. Macedonia, Georgia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina have similar status. This means Kiev has been offered a real chance to make its dreams come true. The next step will be obtaining its Membership Action Plan (MAP), a set of criteria to meet before the country is allowed to join. It is tailored to each applicant country's individual profile. This type of plan can be granted at any time; there is no need to wait for summits or ministry-level meetings. Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are aspirants with a MAP. Last summer, Ukraines parliament (Rada) adopted a resolution recognizing full membership in NATO as a foreign policy goal. In 2008, NATO agreed that Ukraine and Georgia should become members at a future date. The Swiss newspaper Le Temps recently reported that hundreds of US and Canadian military instructors have been training Ukrainian personnel at the Yavorov firing range since 2015. Not long ago they were joined by British and Lithuanian trainers. Roughly 6,000 Ukrainian servicemen have undergone training there in order to expedite the process of meeting the requirements set by NATO. The US Navy operates a facility in Ochakov. This month, the State Department approved the possible sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. The announcement preceded a statement made by Kurt Volker, the US special envoy to Ukraine, in which he offered to disband the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine. This is all part of a broader picture. On March 2, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia announced the formation of an alliance to counter Russia. Chisinau is to cozy up as close to NATO as it can. The Moldovan government has announced its decision to buy lethal weapons from countries in that alliance. The US Navy operates a facility at the Bulboaca training base. The calls for Georgias membership are getting louder in the US. Tbilisis NATO bid has been openly supported by the Trump administration. It has been reported recently that Georgia is to adopt a fast-track approach that will expedite its entrance into NATO. This policy has been recommended by the Heritage Foundation think tank. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, has said that nothing stands in the way of Georgia joining the bloc. This move is clearly intended to provoke Russia. Official status in the alliance is one step on the way to membership. If the policy goal is expansion at any cost, then thats a step in the right direction. But will it benefit NATO? Make it stronger? Hardly. Lets take a look at the facts. Ukraines economy is in a funk. It depends on the West for help. Kiev already spends much more than the 2% of GDP required for defense allocations, in accordance with the recently approved NATO standard. The West will have to help Ukrainian taxpayers shoulder the burden. Besides anti-tank systems, Ukraines military lacks much of the weaponry and equipment a modern force is supposed to have in its inventory. As a result, its soldiers do not have the needed skills to operate these sophisticated, up-to-date systems. Training Ukrainian servicemen is a massive, onerous project. Kiev wants to be in full compliance with NATO standards by 2020. Its hard to believe it will be able to meet this deadline. Ukrainian analysts claim that the progress that was reported as part of the transformation of its military is nothing but a myth. Natan Chazin, a former advisor to the chief of the general staff of Ukraines armed forces, believes the military reform has gone nowhere. Washington and its NATO allies now find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Last month, the New York Times published an extensive article on corruption in the ranks of Ukraines military. And its not just the armed forces. According to the Brookings Institute, the reforms in Ukraine have foundered. The IMF has suspended its aid because corruption continues to plague the country. Ukraines ruling circles of Western support. There are a multitude of reasons why its Western partners are frustrated by the way that country is being run. The Atlantic Council emphasizes the fact that Ukrainian politicians are embracing extremist rhetoric. The countrys commitment to democracy is being questioned because too many oligarchs hold too much power. All told, is Ukraine worth the effort? Isnt it likely to become a drain? It very much appears that it will. Nor will Georgia or Moldova do anything to make NATO more powerful and efficient. According to the newspaper Georgia Today, no improvements have been seen from the military reforms, nor is the military any stronger, no matter what the officials from the ruling party (Georgian Dream) claim. Corruption is on the rise. There is no effective system to separate the powers and establish checks and balances. Georgia still has a long way to go to catch up with the poorest countries of Europe. Moldova and Ukraine are competing for the title of the European state with the lowest living standards. Could anyone imagine the poorest country having a modern and efficient military? Naturally, Moldova looks to the West for help, which will turn the country into just another headache. The nation is immersed in political scandals. But even if NATO admitted that Moldova did not meet its standards, it could still join the bloc by integrating its military operations with Romania. Ukraine's integration into NATO, as well as its new allies under the anti-Russian pact will force Moscow to take decisive measures to fend off this growing threat. That will bury any hope for detente in Europe. Would Russias recognition of the sovereignty of the self-proclaimed republics in Ukraines Donetsk and Lugansk or in Moldovas Transnistria make NATO happy? No one can stop Moscow from offering massive military assistance to an independent country. Currently part of Moldova, Transnistria may want to join Russia instead. The expansion of NATO will inevitably lead to Russia taking measures that will include the deployment of long-range high-precision weapons. Will that boost the security of the European allies? NATO is an organization in which decisions are made by consensus. Normally the interests of rich and prosperous nations differ from those that are poor and looking for ways to survive. Ukraine, along with Georgia and Moldova, does not share Europes concern over immigrants. For Kiev, that is somebody elses problem. Rich European nations have little interest in the internal conflict in Ukraine. They just want it settled one way or another. But in recent years, the alliance has been pursuing a policy of expansion for the sake of expansion. It has granted membership to nations that have made very modest contributions, if any. The leading members of the bloc will have to lend a helping hand to the aspirant countries, even if that aid is not used efficiently. They will be saddled with additional expenses, constant headaches, and a deteriorating relationship with Russia. What positive aspects will there be? Hardly anything one could think of. The potential advantages apparently lie beyond the grasp of any ordinary person. More does not necessarily mean better. A growth in membership does not automatically make the alliance more powerful. The US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and the Scandinavian states have little in common with Ukraine, Georgia, or Moldova. Relations between Hungary and Ukraine have recently gone downhill. Does NATO need another perpetually smoldering conflict to add to the one between Greece and Turkey? Will anyone ask the people residing in those NATO countries if they want new members? Doesnt expansion at any cost look like a dubious endeavor? Im afraid it does. The time is right to take stock of where we are in the US foreign policy. Rumors about State Secretary Tillerson being at odds with President Trump had been swirling since last October but nothing had portended his dismissal on March 13. It was the most unusual way of firing the fourth most important official in the presidential line of succession by using Twitter to inform the public about the presidents decision! Donald Trump did not tell Rex Tillerson personally about it. With his rocky tenure in Foggy Bottom over, the dumped secretary of state will be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Gina Haspel will become the first female to head the CIA. A coincidence or not, but the firing took place right after the former secretary publicly slammed Russia as an irresponsible force of instability in the world, suggesting that Moscow was behind the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK. The statement had been made before the White House could come up with a statement of its own. Its spokeswoman Sarah Sanders did not point the finger at Moscow as many had expected her to do. Mr. Tillerson made his remark on board an airplane flying from Nigeria. Naturally, he couldnt go into details to study the issue thoroughly but it did not prevent him from saying that the poisoning turned out to be the work of Russias government and this is a pretty serious action, as he put it. The former secretary did not reject a dialogue with Moscow but he didnt do much to promote it. Tillerson paid little attention to the problem of arms control the burning issue to be addressed urgently and in a very serious way. From the very beginning, Tillerson has been under fire for his stewardship of Foggy Bottom. He did not run it as an efficient manager and failed to hit it up with career staff. Seasoned diplomats were quitting with morale hitting rock-bottom. Many key positions are still not filled. His legacy is for his chosen successor. Mr. Tillerson was often overshadowed by other people influencing the presidents decisions. When it came to crucial issues, he was quite often eclipsed by Nikki Hailey, US Ambassador to the UN. For instance, last April he made quite a splash by saying Washington could do with Syrian President Assad remaining in power. The UN ambassador said something very much different and then the military delivered a missile strike against Syrias government forces. Last June, he wanted the Persian Gulf states to make peace with Qatar. After his appeasing remarks, President Trump openly came out in support of Riyadhs tough stance on Doha. Tillerson and Trump did not see eye to eye on N. Korea. The president wants a new foreign policy team in place before he starts talks with Pyongyang. Donald Trump and his top diplomat disagreed on Iran. Unlike the president, Rex Tillerson advocated for maintaining the 2015 nuclear deal in force and seeking ways to find a diplomatic solution. Will US foreign policy go through major changes with Mike Pompeo at the helm? The replacement presages a dramatic change. A former congressman from the Tea Party, the current head of CIA would likely sit well with many Republicans he worked in Congress with. Pompeo spends much time in the White House. Politico reported that he even set up a temporary office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street. Rampant anti-Russia, anti-Iran, and anti-North Korea hawk, Mike Pompeo is expected to be tough on key foreign policy issues. With him holding reins in State Department, the Iran nuclear deal has a slim chance to survive in its current form. The presidential nominee is sure that Russia meddled into US 2016 presidential election. But that is the only issue related to Russia he differs with the president on. Actively opposing Iran and Russia at the same time could be too much. Its very important to note here that nobody else but Pompeo, known as a hard-line pugnacious Republican hawk, met the three Russian intelligence chiefs, including Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russias Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), who came to Washington in a surprise visit in late January. Nothing like this had ever happened in the history of bilateral relationship. Mike Pompeo got the presidents blessing to organize the event and was the one Donald Trump trusted to represent the US side during the long talks behind the scenes. No doubt, Pompeo played the key part in the attempt to repair the US-Russia relationship something President Trump has called many times for. Its noteworthy that the decision to replace the state secretary coincided with the news that the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee reached a conclusion that there is no evidence to support the claim that Russia backed President Trump during the 2016 election. The year-long investigation is closed. Good news for President Trump, giving him more wiggle room on his Russia policy. As Pompeo is expected to pass easily the Senate confirmation procedure, it wont take long to see him in action. 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 In early 2018 France ordered 2,000 Light VBMR (Vehicules Blindes Multi-Roles) vehicles. These will be delivered by 2030 with about 700 in service 2025. The whole procurement effort is worth around $2.5 billion and is another step towards transforming French army into a networked force. This is called the Scorpion program, an effort that began back in 2000 and now includes a unified communications and battlefield management system (BMS) for all army units. But first France needs a new generation of armored vehicles with the BMS built in (relatively easy) or added to existing vehicles (difficult and expensive). The first deliveries of Light VBMR basic patrol variant are expected to start in 2022. The Light VBMR is basically a smaller variant of the earlier VBMR Griffon. The Light VBMR is a 15 ton 4 x 4 armored personnel carrier will replace (in army intelligence and reconnaissance units) the 1970s era 4 x 4 VAB APC variant and VBL. The Light VBMR can carry up to six soldiers equipped with FELIN system and will be produced in several variants like: ambulance, troop carrier, mobile command post, electronic warfare and ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance ) variant together with artillery fire control one. The vehicle will be armed probably with a remotely-controlled weapons station. The new Light VBMR contract is another step for French armed forces to get closer to equip two Scorpion brigades by 2025. These will consist of three GTIAs (groupement tactique inter-armes) each a self-sufficient battalion sized force very close to EU battle group concept. The Light VBMR will join upgraded Leclerc main battle tanks, modernized VBCI infantry fighting vehicles, Jaguar EBRC and bigger Griffon APC. This ambitious plan is meant to transform French army into networked force of 21st century. The original VBMR was ordered in 2014 and the first ones enter service in 2018. These are 25 ton 6x6 armored vehicles similar to the American Stryker. Most (82 percent) VBMR will be the Griffon infantry vehicle carrying three crew and eight infantry and armed with a remote control turret using a 12.7mm or 7.62mm machine-gun or 40mm automatic grenade launcher. There is also a recon version called Jaguar which is the next most numerous variant. VBMR will replace the 1970s era VAB, which was initially a 13 ton 4x4 armored vehicle. Some 5,000 of these were built. There were improvements over the years, upping VAB weight to 16 tons or more. Since 2007 France has also bought over 600 new VBCI armored vehicle, which was intended to replace tracked IFVs rather than wheeled ones. Like most other European nations, France is replacing some of their tracked armored infantry vehicles with wheeled ones (like the U.S. Stryker). The VBCI is an 8x8, 25 ton vehicle with a crew of three, plus eight troops in the back. Armament consists of a 25mm autocannon, and a 7.62mm machine-gun. Like the Stryker, the VBCI has very up-to-date sensors and electronics. France is getting 550 of the infantry version, and 150 command post (more electronics, fewer people) versions. The VBCI will replace tracked AMX10 infantry vehicles. The VBCI vehicles cost about $5.5 million each and deliveries began in 2010. The VBCI is the heavy wheeled armored vehicle that complements the lighter VBMR. Both VBCI and VBMR were influenced by the American experience with Stryker. The U.S. Army began deploying Stryker in 2005 and eventually formed nine Stryker brigades. These gained considerable combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stryker production was supposed to end in 2014, with 4,466 vehicles delivered since 2002. Most (96 percent) were actually delivered by 2012 and production continued after 2014 for export customers and upgrades of existing vehicles. Each Stryker brigade has 332 Stryker vehicles. There are ten different models, but most are the infantry carrier version. The original Stryker cost about a million dollars each, plus the costs of weapons and equipment. Weighing 17 tons, Stryker has a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour and a range (on roads) of 500 kilometers. Stryker has a crew of two, a turret with a remotely controlled 12.7mm machine-gun, and can carry nine troops. A 7.62mm machine-gun is also carried and often another 12.7mm one as well. The army is planning on incorporating the V shaped hull into the new Stryker 2.0 design. The Stryker 2 will weigh about a ton more than current models and have a more powerful engine (450 horsepower versus the current 350), plus a suspension system and other mechanical components upgraded to support up to 27 tons, larger tires, improved brakes, and improved sensors (so that troops inside the vehicle will have better awareness of what's outside). These are the major modifications, there will be several more minor ones (better air conditioning, a sniper detector, more electricity generation, and so on). Outwards appearance won't change much, other than the V shape hull (to better handle roadside bombs.). Stryker 2 provides for "growth" (more armor and equipment) as well as making the vehicle more agile and reliable. The changes are based on user feedback and are considered a modernization project, not, strictly speaking, a new version of Stryker. Most of the 3,300 Strykers the army has in service have been in combat, and units headed for Afghanistan were the first to get the modernized ones. With all the budget cuts Stryker 2.0 has been stalled, perhaps forever. But in the meantime the extensive electronics used in Stryker (and the need to boot the vehicle rather than just turn the motor on) made all armored vehicles potentially a lot more than they have been in the past. This is what the French, and others, noted, as well as the innovative and effective tactics Stryker crews developed. -- Przemysaw Juraszek Pakistan continues to insist it is not supporting Islamic terrorism in Afghanistan despite the fact that the Pakistani government openly subsidizes Islamic schools in Pakistan that continue to turn out graduates who join Islamic terror organizations and soon end up dead or captured in Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban sanctuaries in southwest Pakistan continue to operate. These sanctuaries are across the border from two Afghan provinces (Kandahar and Helmand) that have long been considered the homeland of the Afghan Taliban and the Afghan drug trade. Most of the world heroin supply comes from these two provinces and Pakistan makes a lot of money off that. One side effect of this Pakistani policy is much less trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan has shrunk drastically (over 50 percent so far) in the last two years. Pakistani trade with Afghanistan has gone from $2.7 billion a year to $1.2 billion. Part of the problem is continued Pakistani support of Islamic terrorism in Afghanistan but there is also the frequent closure of the main border crossings and Afghanistans access to the outside world. That has changed now that there is a route via Iran (the new port of Chabahar) to the sea that opened in late 2017. Now any nation Afghanistan wants to trade with can do so without interference from Pakistan. The main beneficiary here is India, which has long been on better terms with Afghanistan and offers better trade terms and no interruptions because of politics. India is also a victim of Pakistani based Islamic terrorists and cooperates with Afghanistan and the United States to track continued Pakistani support of that terrorist activity. The Americans continue to block large amounts of military aid for Pakistan until Pakistan cooperates in dealing with Islamic terrorism rather than being a major source of it. All this is causing a lot of political turmoil inside Pakistan because the military is behind all the Islamic terrorism support and also refusing to submit to control by elected officials. The Pakistani military not only created the Taliban in the mid-1990s but continue to control most of the factions the Taliban has split into over the last decade. Some of these Taliban factions want to accept peace deal offers from the Afghan government but the Pakistani military will not agree, even though the Pakistani generals say (in public at least) that they are all for a peace deal. It is all for show. Pakistan, at least the military, continues to see Afghanistan as a neighbor that should be kept weak and disorderly, preferably fighting each other and not Pakistan. That is not the public policy but it is the actual one. This is confirmed periodically by retired generals or senior government officials who often worked with their military counterparts. March 12, 2018: In Kabul police arrested a man who had recently arrived from Pakistan, to carry out a suicide bombing. The arrested man gave details about how he received training at a Taliban camp in Pakistan. March 11, 2018: In central Afghanistan (Wardak Province) police arrested five Haqqani Network members, including two commanders and a bomb building expert. Earlier in the week police had seized a large shipment of explosives Haqqani was trying to smuggle in from Pakistan. Haqqani smugglers never seem to have any problems on the Pakistan side of the border but is quite different on the Afghan side where people understand that most of the victims of these Haqqani bombs are civilians who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a result the greatest danger to Haqqani in Afghanistan is all those civilians who have cell phones (a majority of the population now). March 10, 2018: The TIP (Turkistan Islamic Party) released a combat video on the Internet that made it clear the TIP was still working with the Taliban (as they have been doing since the 1990s). Currently TIP is active in the north (Faryab province) and until 2014 was based in Pakistan (North Waziristan). TIP was founded by and still led by Chinese Turks (Uighurs). TIP has found friends in Turkey and is also active in Syria. All this has made China unhappy. In early 2015 Afghanistan admitted that it had an arrangement with China whereby Afghanistan would seize and turn over to China any Chinese Moslems (especially Turkic Uighurs) found in Afghanistan. About the same time this resulted in a dozen Uighurs arrested in Afghanistan being sent back to China. In return China increased the diplomatic and economic pressure on Pakistan to stop supporting Islamic terrorists attacking Afghanistan. China is the largest foreign investor in Pakistan as well as the main source of modern weapons, so when China talks Pakistan must listen and at least pretend to act. This China link was one reason for Pakistan attacking North Waziristan in mid-2014. Since the late 1980s (when TIP was created) it has largely consisted of Chinese Uighurs from northwestern China (Xinjiang province). Since 2001 TIP has attracted more recruits from other areas in Central Asia that have Turkic populations. March 9, 2018: In Kabul an ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) suicide car bomber attacked a Shia mosque, killing 11 and wounding 22. It appears that police at a nearby checkpoint spotted the explosives and the driver detonated them prematurely. Outside Kabul several attacks on checkpoints left at least sixteen dead. In the east (Khost province, adjacent to North Waziristan) Pakistan reopened the third most active border crossing (Ghulam Khan) that had been closed since mid-2014 when Pakistan sent troops into North Waziristan to shut down Islamic terrorist sanctuaries there. In the west (Farah province) Afghan special operations forces suffered a rare setback when they, and a force of local police were ambushed by the Taliban and suffered over ten dead. At least eight policemen were killed as well. Since 2016 western Afghanistan (Farah, Heart and Badghis provinces) has been the scene of much fighting between rival Taliban factions. This has left hundreds of Taliban dead and even as this infighting continued the army moved to oust the Taliban from areas the Islamic terrorists long controlled directly or indirectly. The Taliban civil war was the result of disagreement over who should take over as Taliban leader after founder Mullah Omar was revealed in 2015 to have died in 2013 (in a Pakistani hospital). The information was kept to a few key Omar associates who are now accused of doing this as part of a plot to install an Omar successor who was second-rate. The civil war began in late November 2015 when Mullah Mansour, leader of the OT (Original Taliban) ordered attacks against the forces of rival Taliban leader Mullah Rasool. This marked a major defeat for the Taliban as they have now lost a major asset; unity. Similar fighting has also occurred in Zabul province. By 2017 the Taliban infighting had diminished but not disappeared. As a result the Taliban sought to regain territory they had lost to government forces over the last year, especially near the Iran border. This was important because these border areas were used for smuggling heroin and opium into Iran. March 8, 2018: At the UN Afghanistan again accused Pakistan of supporting Islamic terrorism inside Afghanistan and called on the UN to act more aggressively against this violation of international law. It was pointed out that there was growing evidence of Haqqani Network responsibility for the more frequent and violent Islamic terror attacks in Afghanistan, especially Kabul. At the same time Pakistani claims that they do not control Haqqani Network and no longer tolerate Haqqani in Pakistan is contradicted by Afghan police capturing Haqqani operatives who admit the existence of Haqqani operations in Pakistan. March 7, 2018: In the east (Kunar province) an American UAV fired two missiles at a compound used by Pakistani Taliban killing 21 of them. The compound was used to train terrorists, in particular suicide bombers. Among the dead was the son of Pakistan Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah. The next day the U.S. announced a $5 million reward for Mullah Fazlullah, who often flees to eastern Afghanistan to escape Pakistani security forces. Two leaders of smaller Pakistani Islamic terror groups had $3 million rewards announced as well. This reward program has been around for a long time and works, but details of the informants is kept secret to protect the informants, who are often moved, along with family members, to some place where they can safely spend their reward. In addition to the occasional jackpot the program brings in a lot of useful intel. In the east (Nangarhar province) police arrested two Pakistanis who were supplying suicide explosive vests to Islamic terrorists in the area. The two smuggled the vests in from Pakistan, where they were made. The police received a tip about what the two were doing. March 5, 2018: Total casualty figures are hard to come by but civilian losses to Islamic terrorist and drug gang operations are easier to assemble. In February 113 civilians died compared to 228 for January. The dramatic difference between the two months has to do with some major Islamic terror bomb attacks in Kabul during January. Although the Islamic terrorists and drug gangs say they consider the government their primary target most of the casualties continue to be civilians. Most of this violence is about intimidation and terrorizing the civilian population and security forces into submission, or at least not interfering with the drug trade. Civilian deaths were up four percent in 2016; with nearly 300 a month killed and declined in 2017 and that trend appears to be continuing in 2018. As in the past some 80 percent of the deaths were attributed to the Taliban, drug gangs and sundry other organized outlaws. While ISIL accounts for less than ten percent of the deaths, the ISIL activity was up in 2016 but has declined in 2017. Various Islamic terror groups account for about 68 percent of the civilian deaths in Afghanistan and the Taliban are responsible for about two-thirds of that. The security forces account for about 20 percent of the civilian deaths, nearly all are accidental. Most of the civilian deaths occur in just ten of the 34 provinces and four of those provinces (Kabul, Helmand, Kandahar and Nangarhar) account for most of that. Normally the Taliban and the drug gangs have a lot of cooperation from civilians in Helmand and Kandahar because so many families profit from the drug trade. The drug gangs dont have to coerce farmers to grow poppies and harvest the opium. If the price paid for the opium is high enough and the Taliban can keep the government from interfering the locals see it as an opportunity. Despite that the majority of the population in these two provinces benefit little from the drug trade and often suffer because of it and the constant fighting that goes along with it. March 4, 2018: ISIL released a video on the Internet called on Moslems to come to Afghanistan and join ISIL operations in the northern and eastern Afghanistan. This is not the first time such a public invitation was issued but so far few foreigners appear to have managed the difficult task of actually reaching the remote areas where ISIL is operation in Afghanistan. March 2, 2018: Pakistani and Iranian military officials met and agreed that while the two nations had different national objectives they also had common problems. This mainly involves terrorists and the Afghan drug trade. Pakistan and Iran agreed to cooperate even more closely to deal with those two problems. March 1, 2018: The latest offer of peace talks have been officially rejected by the Taliban, or enough of the Taliban to make negotiations useless. Since 2016 Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States have been working with Afghanistan to revive peace talks with the Taliban. The real problem was that many Taliban factions want nothing to do with making peace. An added complication is that since 2017 Pakistan has taken direct control (via the Haqqani Network) of most of the Afghan Taliban. This has caused an ongoing civil war within the Afghan Taliban and that means even less chance of peace talks with the Afghan government. Afghanistan is a place where Pakistan has been meddling well, forever. When Pakistan was created out of British India in 1947 the new Pakistan government continued, like the British and before that many Indian Empires, to meddle in Afghanistan. Many Pakistanis openly declare this to be a Pakistani right and obligation because Pakistan considers Afghans incapable of governing themselves and in need of Pakistani guidance. This view is not appreciated in Afghanistan and bothers India as well. February 28, 2018: In the east (Nangarhar province) yet another Taliban faction has been distributing leaflets calling on disaffected Taliban to join them and abandon the Pakistani controlled (via the Haqqani Network) leadership of the Afghan Taliban. February 26, 2018: In the north (Jawzjan province) the local ISIL group launched several attacks against soldiers and police. All of them failed and ISIL lost over a dozen dead and many more wounded. Usually the fighting is between ISIL and Taliban forces. This fighting was common during most of 2017 and was pretty brutal, with ISIL often beheading captured (or recently killed) Taliban. All this was over control of drug smuggling routes across the border. There have been clashes between ISIL and Taliban in other parts of the country (mainly in the east) but it has been worst in Jawzjan. February 23, 2018: In the north (Sar e Pul province) an Afghan airstrike killed a senior Taliban commander and three of his followers while wounding four others. Afghan troops soon arrived on the scene to confirm the casualties and collect intel. A number of vehicles plus weapons, ammo and equipment were captured. February 22, 2018: In the west (Herat province) ten Afghan tribesmen surrendered to the government and said they had just returned from Iran after several weeks of training on how to carry out an attack on the ceremony celebrating the start of construction of the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline in Afghanistan. After years of negotiations over transit fees and natural gas prices Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan were in agreement and construction of TAPI (from Turkmenistan natural gas fields to the Afghan border) began in 2015. The pipeline is, if construction is not interfered with, expected to be operational in Afghanistan by the end of 2019. Eventually TAPI goes into Pakistan and to the Indian border. The Afghan Taliban agreed to leave TAPI alone (because it is a popular project with most Afghans as it bring cheap natural gas to many Afghans) but some Taliban factions near the Iranian border will freelance for the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps). Officially Iran does not oppose TAPI, even though Iran also wants to build a gas pipeline into Pakistan and to India. Inside Iran the attitude is that TAPI is not good for Iran and something should be done. Inside Afghanistan the Taliban promise not to harm the 800 kilometer long Afghan portion of the pipeline is seen as the opening round of negotiations about how much the Taliban will be paid to ensure the pipeline is unharmed. About a quarter of the pipeline runs through or near areas dominated by Taliban activity. February 21, 2018: Russia has come to the defense of its ally (and arms customer) Pakistan as Russia and Pakistan are accused of supporting Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan. Russia denies the allegations and charges the United States with using unmarked helicopters to supply ISIL and other Islamic terror groups in Afghanistan. There is no evidence of this but Russia has learned in the past conspiracy theories like this are a popular distraction and had worked often during the Cold War. February 17, 2018: India and Iran signed a deal that gave India control over part of the newly expanded Chabahar port complex. This deal is for 18 months and renewable in the future. Chabahar gives India road and rail access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. India and Afghanistan will be major users, at least initially, of Chabahar and the new road and rail lines to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Pakistan is the big loser here, with most of its trucking business and trade with Afghanistan gone. While Iran can also pressure Afghanistan with threats of cutting off access to the outside world such threats are less likely with two routes now available and Iran also dependent on other users (from Central Asia) who will be wary of doing business with Iran and using Chabahar if Iran uses access as a diplomatic tool. February 14, 2018: Afghanistan blames Pakistan for recent violence related to Afghan cargo traffic shifting from Pakistan to Iran and India. The Afghan Taliban and ISIL claimed responsibility for four major terror attacks in Kabul at the end of January. The government believes some or all of these attacks were aimed at crippling the economy because flight crews (for cargo flights to and from India) were sought out in the hotel attack and the Taliban are concentrating on making highway traffic more dangerous. Pakistan is believed behind this mainly because most of the truck traffic that used to go through Pakistan to the port of Karachi is now using the new route via Iran to the port of Chabahar. Pakistan is the big loser here, especially since they had recently increased taxes on Afghan goods moving through Karachi. In addition since mid-January Pakistan has closed the main border crossings to Afghan traffic entering Pakistan. Yet Pakistani goods are allowed into Afghanistan and now the Afghans are considering blocking that and depending on trade links via Iran and Central Asia. Pakistan also plays a key role in the Afghan illegal mining operations. Despite over a decade of government efforts to introduce large scale commercial mining operations into Afghanistan, local politics and lack of law and order in the countryside have called all of these efforts to fail. Yet mining activity in Afghanistan has grown since 2001 and now produces nearly half a billion dollars of sales a year. But nearly all of it is illegal and similar to the outlaw mining so common in much of Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. Criminals and legitimate businesses in Pakistan make the illegal mining profitable for all concerned, except the Afghan government. TICKERS: TV; TREVF Source: Streetwise Reports (3/12/18) Shane Nagle, an analyst with the National Bank of Canada, explained the rationale behind launching coverage on this zinc-focused mining company. In a March 1 research note, National Bank of Canada analyst Shane Nagle reported that he initiated coverage on Trevali Mining Corp. (TV:TSX; TV:BVL; TREVF:OTCQX) with a Sector Perform rating and a 12-month, per-share target price of CA$1.90. This compares to CA$1.44 per share, where the stock is trading today. He highlighted that Trevali is "nearly a Top 10 zinc producer globally and with US$190M in annual free cash flow at current prices has the ability to build upon its existing portfolio." Nagle presented these four key reasons to own the company: 1. Trevali has a significant operating portfolio. The 2017 acquisition of Perkoa in Burkina Faso and Rosh Pinah in Namibia and some exploration targets shifted the company, Nagle pointed out, "from a small-cap zinc producer to an emerging global producer with four operations in four separate countries." 2. Trevali has exposure to zinc and a rising zinc price. The latter increased more than 140% from its most recent nadir in early 2016 of $0.66 per pound, explained Nagle. "Being a primary zinc producer, the company shows heightened sensitivity to zinc prices versus its peers." 3. Trevali has free cash flow, which it can use to repay debt and fund exploration, resource expansion and acquisitions. This cash flow comes from the newly acquired mines and from an elevated zinc price. "We believe Trevali is well positioned to eliminate net debt by mid-2018 and focus on delivering its growth mandate through greater near-mine and regional exploration," stated Nagle. 4. Trevali has exploration upside. Focused on expanding the mineral resources near its existing mines to extend their life, the company outlined for 2018 a 60,000 meter (60,000m), US$10 million drill program. It includes 21,000m of drilling at Santander in Peru, 17,000m at Perkoa, 12,000m at Rosh Pinah and 10,000m at Caribou in New Brunswick, Canada. Nagle indicated, "With the company's accelerated growth initiative, including the ongoing near-mine exploration programs at all four of its producing operations, we expect additional resources to lead to mine life extension/expansion opportunities." Want to read more Gold Report articles like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you'll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent articles and interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Streetwise Interviews page. Disclosure: 1) Doresa Banning compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. 2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Trevali Mining. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. 3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. 4) The article does not constitute investment advice. 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Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article, until one week after the publication of the interview or article. Disclosures from National Bank of Canada Financial Markets, Trevali Mining Corp., Initiating Coverage, Mar. 1, 2018 Research Analysts The Research Analyst(s) who prepare these reports certify that their respective report accurately reflects his or her personal opinion and that no part of his/her compensation was, is, or will be directly or indirectly related to the specific recommendations or views as to the securities or companies. NBF compensates its Research Analysts from a variety of sources. 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Because the views of analysts may differ, members of the National Bank Financial Group may have or may in the future issue reports that are inconsistent with this report, or that reach conclusions different from those in this report. Additional Company related disclosures for Trevali Mining Corp.: National Bank Financial Inc. has acted as an underwriter with respect to this issuer within the past 12 months. National Bank Financial Inc. has provided investment banking services for Trevali Mining Corp. within the past 12 months. National Bank Financial Inc. or an affiliate has managed or co-managed a public offering of securities with respect to Trevali Mining Corp. within the past 12 months. National Bank Financial Inc. or an affiliate has received compensation for investment banking services from Trevali Mining Corp. within the past 12 months. Trevali Mining Corp. is a client, or was a client, of National Bank Financial Inc. or an affiliate within the past 12 months. The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday indicted the PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz in contempt of court case. The PML-N leader however, denied the allegations against him. A three member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar indicted Daniyal Aziz in contempt of court case today.Earlier on March 06, the SC had decided to indict PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz in contempt of court case. A three member bench headed by Justice Azmat Saeed Shaikh heard the case against Danial Aziz. The court expressed its dissatisfaction over the remarks of Daniyal Aziz and decided to indict him on the next hearing of the case on March 13. On Monday, Aziz submitted his reply in the case stating that being a parliamentarian he cannot even think of disrespecting state institutions. He stated that he believes in the supremacy of the Constitution and respects state institutions, including judiciary. Media ran my comments out of context, the PML-N leader added. He also prayed to the court to take back the show-cause notice issued to him in the case. On February 23, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Leader Daniyal Aziz appeared before the Supreme Court of Pakistan bench hearing contempt notice case against him. While hearing the suo motu notice taken on the contempt of court case against Aziz, a three-member bench headed by Justice Azmat Saeed ordered that the transcript be provided to Azizs counsel. The court also directed that the controversial statements made by Aziz be highlighted on the transcript. Azizs counsel Advocate Ali Raza asked the court for the video clips mentioned in the suo motu notice. But the court directed the lawyer to obtain the video clips from Press Information Department. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that the idol of pride and arrogant has been smashed down today. While addressing to PTI workers convention in Multan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that they won the Senate top slots despite Jamaat-e-Islami did not supported PTI in the Senate.He said keeping in view the immense sense of deprivation in Balochistan, PTI decided to bring Senate chairman from the province. The PTI leader said that his party had supported Sirajul Haq to be a parliamentarian but he did not supported PTI in the Senate. He said they were expecting that JI will vote for PTI in Senate. He told the gathering that Imran Khan will visit Multan on March 15 over his invitation. South African Army Chief Lieutenant General Lindila Yam called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa in Rawalpindi on Monday. Both sides agreed to enhance mutual defence relations. Meanwhile, Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman paid a farewell call on Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa in Rawalpindi today. The Army Chief thanked the Air Chief for his services to the nation during a long and illustrious career and appreciated the role of Pakistan Air Force in war against terrorism under his command. Chief Minister Punjab and Interim PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif is elected unopposed as the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. The nomination papers for the party president were accepted today at 9:00 AM and other than Shehbaz Sharif, no other candidate submitted his papers. The papers of Shehbaz Sharif was proposed by members from all four provinces.The formal announcement for his election would be made in the central general council meeting summoned today and would be attend by the lifetime quaid of the PML-N Nawaz Sharif. The meeting will also be attended by representatives of PML-N from all four provinces, Islamabad Capital Territory, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. The post fall vacant after the court disqualify Nawaz Sharif. The Supreme Court of Pakistan on February 21 announced its verdict on petitions challenging the Elections Act 2017, ruling that a person disqualified under Article 62 and 63 cannot serve as the head of a political party. The decision by the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar is considered another blow to the ruling Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) as Nawaz Sharif will no longer remain the partys president. As a result of the verdict, all decisions taken by Nawaz Sharif as PML-Ns president stand null and void. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that their manifesto for next elections would comprise on four words Give Respect to Vote. He was addressing the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Central General Council meeting in the capital. He said that if there would be respect for vote then it would be a respect of the masses. He also raised slogans of Give Respect To Vote. He said they had come to elect Shehbaz Sharif for PML-N president as this situation was created for them due to a decision. When I look back at 2103, when I was elected the prime minister, I do not understood as to why a prime minister who was elected by millions of voters and worked for the economic progress and eliminated terrorism from the country was ousted, he said while addressing the central general workers meeting of the PML-N in Islamabad. I, Shehbaz Sharif an all ministers worked day and night and tried to eliminate load shedding to its complete extent and even the incumbent prime minister says that so much projects were initiated by him that he become tired to inaugurate them, he said. What Shehbaz had done in last 10 years was not done in the country for last 70 years, he said. There were darkness in 2013 and was declining towards disaster in that period, he said adding that the banks even did not have enough money to initiate a big project. He said that situation turned around in past four and a half years other than decreasing load shedding to a greater extend but also laid down the road infrastructure across he country. He that they are nominating a new party president today as a situation was created to bring them to this point. Nawaz claimed that the prime minister often complains to him that he [Nawaz] planned so many development projects that Abbasi gets tired of inaugurating them. Nawaz confessed that he does not wish to inaugurate development projects now as he, too, is only human. He was referring to the prime ministers offer of inaugurating projects which he worked on personally. The three-time premier recalled the dismal state of affairs when the PML-N took the reins of government in 2013. Addressing the charged party supporters, Nawaz said the partys manifesto will consist of four words this time: Vote ko izzat do [respect the vote]. The crowd then chanted the phrase in unison. Youll be respected if the vote is respected, asserted Nawaz. He then asked the crowd to make the upcoming general elections a referendum on his disqualification. Hitting out at his chief political opponent Imran Khan, Nawaz said you failed to bring about your promised change. He said they are not leaders but an embarrassment. Addressing the meeting earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that Nawaz Sharif is, was and will remain the partys quaid (supremo). Shehbaz thanked Nawaz, his brother, for entrusting the important party position to him. The world knows that injustice was served to our leader Nawaz, Shehbaz told the party workers, but I believe he will get justice. The PML-N president also lashed out at political opponents, saying they have done nothing but make tall claims while the government actually delivered to the people. Earlier, Shehbaz was elected as the president of the PML-N. Shehbaz was elected as permanent president of the party, after being appointed the interim president, as no one else from the party contested for the post. The Punjab CM had submitted his nomination form to the partys election commission earlier in the day. The convention was attended by senior party leaders, including Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. On February 27, the PML-Ns Central Working Committee had elected Shehbaz as the interim president after he was nominated by Nawaz. PML-N appoints Nawaz Quaid for life, Shehbaz interim president. The committee had also elected Nawaz as lifetime quaid (leader) of the party. The CWC meeting was held after Nawaz was disqualified as the PML-N president following the Supreme Courts verdict in the Elections Act 2017 case. The apex court ruled that a person disqualified under Article 62 and 63 cannot serve as the head of a political party. Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that Nawaz Sharif is, was and will remain the partys quaid (supremo). Addressing the meeting, Shehbaz thanked Nawaz, his brother, for entrusting the important party position to him. The world knows that injustice was served to our leader Nawaz, Shehbaz told the party workers, but I believe he will get justice. The PML-N president also lashed out at political opponents, saying they have done nothing but make tall claims while the government actually delivered to the people. The day would come when this injustice would be addressed, he said adding that today was not a day to revive congratulations but a heavy day for him to sit on a place which was a place of his quaid Nawaz Sharif. Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on Tuesday formally elected Shehbaz Sharif as the President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. He was elected unopposed during the central general council meeting of the PML-N. Shehbaz was elected as permanent president of the party, after being appointed the interim president, as no one else from the party contested for the post. The meeting was also attended by Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and hundreds of PML-N activists, MNAs, MPAs and other top party leaders. The election commissioner announced that they received eight nomination papers with all proposing Shehbaz Sharif as the PML-N president. The former prime minister also congratulated the newly elected PML-N President. On February 27, the PML-Ns Central Working Committee had elected Shehbaz as the interim president after he was nominated by Nawaz. PML-N appoints Nawaz Quaid for life, Shehbaz interim president. The committee had also elected Nawaz as lifetime quaid (leader) of the party. The CWC meeting was held after Nawaz was disqualified as the PML-N president following the Supreme Courts verdict in the Elections Act 2017 case. The apex court ruled that a person disqualified under Article 62 and 63 cannot serve as the head of a political party. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: New Zealand Police are increasing efforts on reducing the harmful effects of organised crime on communities with the establishment of a taskforce in Tauranga that will focus on organised crime and asset recovery in the Bay of Plenty . Police Commissioner Mike Bush says the taskforce is strategically based in Tauranga and is a response to organised criminals with transnational ties operating in the region. This taskforce will target the connections of local criminals with networks in Auckland and Waikato, which are known to have a national reach, says Mike. As well as targeting the criminal side of organised crime, police will also be focusing on the business side of criminal behaviour by investigating the financial crime that goes alongside drug supply. We know some organised criminals seem relatively unconcerned about going to jail for lengthy periods of time, but when we restrain their assets and wealth accumulated through that behaviour it hurts, and thats a good thing. It takes away the incentive to commit these crimes. Criminals do not deal in drugs because they like drugs, they do it because they like the money this brings them. Since July 1, 2017, police have restrained $34.42m in assets and forfeitures of $10.49m. Assistant Commissioner Richard Chambers says the key way to reduce the effect of drug use in the community is by targeting those inflicting these drugs on our communities. Stopping criminals from putting their own profit-making activities ahead of the welfare of our communities is what we are here to do, its our job. You only have to talk to someone with a loved one addicted to drugs to know that the harm drug addictions inflict on whole families lasts a long time, sometimes a life time. Richard says organised crime groups across New Zealand are well connected, and when there is money to be made they are willing to put their differences aside. Just as government agencies and private businesses see success by working with together, so do these criminals, he says. This taskforce will therefore operate to target the connections of local criminals to networks in Auckland and Waikato, which are known to have a national reach. We want to ensure no-one accumulates wealth by being in the business of crime. Six special investigators and three asset recovery specialists will make up the taskforce. Bay of Plenty You will be operating the Roller and also required to help out the team hands on. You will be working around Tauranga, for... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Click the image above to watch the video Today we are expecting a fine day apart from morning cloud, with southwesterlies. Its a one-clothing-layer day today with a high of 24 and an overnight low of 14 degrees. Humidity is 90 per cent. Low tide is at 11.40am and high tide at 5.40pm. Theres a sea swell of about 0.5m, with a sea temperature of 21 degrees. Sunset tonight is at 7.35pm. If youre going fishing today the best fish bite time is between 10am and noon. This day in NZ history in 1980 Split Enz hit no.1. The Kiwi groups first New Zealand no. 1 hit, from their album True Colours, also topped the charts in Australia and Canada. It reached no. 12 in Britain and no. 53 in the United States. On this day in world history in 1794 inventor Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin. In 1900 the United States currency went on the gold standard. In 1923 President Warren G. Harding became the first U.S. President to file an income tax report. In 1936 Adolf Hitler told a crowd of 300,000 that Germanys only judges is God and itself. Today is the birthday of Johann Strauss.The violinist and composer was born on this day in 1804. And its the birthday of Lucy Hobbs Taylor. Born in 1833, Lucy was the first American woman to become a dentist. Today is also the birthday of Albert Einstein, the German-born mathematician best known for his theories on relativity. He was born in 1879. Its also the birthday of American astronaut Eugene Cernan. Born in 1934, Eugene was the last man on the moon. Todays quote is from Albert Einstein, who said "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." To get involved in some of the many activities happening around the Bay, please check out our Whats on page. Have a great day! AmCham EU Calls For US, EU To Champion Freer Trade by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington 13 March 2018 The American Chamber of Commerce in Europe (AmCham EU) on March 5 released a new policy proposal for transatlantic economic cooperation, urging freer trade. "Free trade is fundamental to free enterprise and is essential to expanding economic growth and improving the standards of living of people across the globe. [The US and the EU] should work together to eliminate barriers to free trade and facilitate the global movement of goods and services, information, capital, and investment in a rules-based free trade and investment system," said the report. The proposal noted that while tariffs between the EU and US are low, they remain "stubbornly high" in certain sectors. In previous negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently being discussed, the EU and US agreed to eliminate 97 percent of all remaining transatlantic tariffs a move that AmCham EU continues to support. "Pressing ahead with these reductions even outside of a comprehensive trade agreement would enhance the competitiveness of both economies and send a message that the EU and the US remain committed to free trade and open markets," said the report. It also recommended an increase in the de minimis threshold for customs duties and other taxes to USD800 (or a Euro equivalent), which it suggested could "liberate businesses of all sizes and in particular small and medium-sized enterprises from costly and administratively burdensome processes, increasing their capacity to trade internationally." Finally, the agenda recommended the introduction of Mutual Recognition for Trusted Traders programs including the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT, a supply chain security program from US Customs and Border Protection) and the EU's Authorized Economic Operator program based on the Customs-to-Business partnership introduced by the World Customs Organization (WCO). "The two parties should work towards electronic pre-clearance based on advanced data for goods moving in either direction across the transatlantic border. In addition, leaders should seek to build on the existing WCO guidelines for the immediate release of consignments for which necessary customs information has already been provided, and adopt a common position to facilitate the movement of such goods between the EU and the US," said the report. Bermuda Hikes Commercial Property Tax by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington 13 March 2018 Bermuda's lower house has passed a bill temporarily raising the rate of land tax on commercial properties from seven to 12 percent. The bill, which now awaits Senate approval, increases land tax rates for one year only from July 1, 2018, to July 1, 2019. Properties in the Economic Empowerment Zones are exempt from the temporary increase. The rate rise was announced in Bermuda's 2018 Budget last month by island Premier, David Burt, who explained it is only temporary while the island's Tax Reform Commission looks at commercial rents and the income earned from 20 commercial properties whose income is not currently subject to taxation. The rate rise is forecast to generate an additional USD15m in revenue. EU Proposes To Extend VAT Reverse Charge Mechanisms by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels 13 March 2018 The European Commission (EC) has proposed that the reverse charge mechanism on a defined list of goods and services, provided for in Article 199a(1) of the VAT Directive, and the Quick Reaction Mechanism (QRM) in Article 199b(1), should be extended beyond December 31, 2018, to tackle VAT fraud, until the new "definitive VAT regime" is introduced. Typically VAT fraud occurs when a supplier pretends to have transported goods to another member state but the goods are in fact consumed VAT-free locally. It also occurs when a client of a cross-border transaction purchases goods or services VAT-free and charges VAT without remitting the VAT collected to tax authorities while his/her customer can deduct it, known as missing trader fraud. In addition, other types of fraud can arise, e.g. fraudsters claiming to be taxable persons to obtain goods intended for final consumption VAT-free. The purpose of the measures in Articles 199a and 199b is to allow member states to quickly tackle missing trade fraud, through enabling member states an option of applying the reverse charge mechanism for listed supplies (in Article 199a) and by offering a faster procedure for the introduction of the reverse charge mechanism in case of sudden and massive fraud (Article 199b) the so-called Quick Reaction Mechanism. The application of a reverse charge is intended to tackle missing trader intra-Community fraud, which manipulates EU place of supply rules on intra-community trade. Exports between member states are zero-rated while domestic transactions are standard rated. Fraudsters often import small, high-value goods into a member state and resell the goods at a discount to the domestic market, collecting the VAT and disappearing before remitting the sum. By switching the obligation to account for VAT from the seller to the recipient, the reverse charge is intended to ensure that another trader's VAT is never passed up the supply chain, removing the requirement for the supplier to collect and remit VAT, and thereby eliminating the potential for missing trader fraud and other permutations of the scheme. Prior to the introduction of the QRM in Article 199b, a member state that wanted to counteract VAT fraud through measures not provided for under EU VAT legislation would have to formally request a derogation to do so. The EC would then draw up a proposal and submit it to the European Council for unanimous adoption before the measure to counteract the fraud could be implemented. The lag in the approval of such was said to be costing member states significant revenues. With the QRM, member states are permitted to not wait for the conclusion of this formal process to apply anti-fraud measures. Instead they are able to temporarily apply a reverse charge to the affected supplies. The Commission was required to provide an overall assessment report concerning the effects of the mechanism. This was released on March 8, 2018, "Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the effects of Articles 199a and 199b of Council Directive 2006/112/EC on combatting fraud." The report's findings The report includes feedback on the efficacy of the mechanism and a review of the compliance costs on businesses. It found that member states generally consider the reverse charge mechanism a very effective and efficient tool in fighting VAT fraud. "Due to the introduction of the reverse charge mechanism the fraud decreased significantly or disappeared in the defined sectors. This view is also shared in the replies received from the consulted business stakeholders," the Commission said. "Regarding the QRM included in Article 199b of the VAT Directive, although it was never used, most member states consider that it remains a useful tool for exceptional cases of VAT fraud." The Commission stated: "The measures included in Articles 199a and 199b of the VAT Directive are limited in time and expire on December 31, 2018. Based on this feedback from member states and stakeholders it appears that if the measures are not prolonged, member states would be deprived of an efficient tool to fight VAT fraud." The report concluded: "Taking into account the above elements and since the definitive VAT regime [discussed below] would solve the problem caused by the VAT exemption linked to the intra-Community supply of goods, whereby the customer obtains the goods without having to pay the VAT to the supplier, the prolongation of both measures based on Article 199a and the QRM of Article 199b should be limited until the definitive regime enters into force or for another limited period of time. The Commission will therefore issue an appropriate legislative proposal in the second quarter of 2018 prolonging the existing measures." The definitive VAT regime The EU's plans for a definitive VAT regime were set out in October 2017. The plan aims to reduce fraud, estimated to cost member states EUR50bn per year, by EUR40bn, in particular by centering tax rules around the destination principle that supplies should be taxed where they are consumed or effectively enjoyed, under that territory's domestic rules. The cornerstones of the definitive regime are: To tackle fraud, VAT should be charged on cross-border trade between businesses. Currently, this type of trade is exempt from VAT, providing an easy loophole for unscrupulous companies to collect VAT and then vanish without remitting the money to the relevant country's government; The "One Stop Shop" should be expanded. A smaller version the Mini One Stop Shop was introduced in 2015 to support the Commission's efforts that year to require the collection by registered persons of value-added tax on business-to-consumer supplies of broadcasting, telecommunications, and electronic services to consumers in the place of consumption. Under the plans, it will be simpler for companies that sell cross-border to deal with their VAT obligations; traders will be able to make declarations and payments using a single online portal in their own language and according to the same rules and administrative templates as in their home country. Member states will pay VAT to each other directly, as is currently the case for electronic services. Invoicing rules should be simplified to allow sellers to prepare invoices according to the rules of their own country even when trading across borders. Companies would no longer have to prepare a list of cross-border transactions for their tax authority (the so-called "recapitulative statement"). The plan also introduces the notion of a Certified Taxable Person a category of trusted business that will benefit from much simpler and time-saving rules. Provided that companies small or big meet a set of criteria, they can get a certificate allowing them to be considered throughout the EU to be a reliable VAT taxpayer. A business can become a Certified Taxable Person by applying to their national tax authorities and proving compliance with a set of sufficiently harmonized and standardized pre-defined criteria including: regular payment of taxes, reliable internal control systems, and proof of solvency. The status of Certified Taxable Person will be mutually recognized by all EU member states. Four "quick fixes" were also proposed, to come into force by 2019. These short-term measures were explicitly requested by member states to improve the day-to-day functioning of the current VAT system until the definitive regime has been fully agreed and implemented. These will include: Simplification of VAT rules for companies in one member state storing goods in another member state to be sold directly to customers there. This simplification is limited to Certified Taxable Persons who will no longer need to register and pay VAT in another member state when they store goods there; Simplification for those elements of a chain transaction which do not involve the physical movement of goods, for example when goods are sold via several traders, but physically the goods move directly from the original seller to the final buyer. This simplification is also limited to Certified Taxable Persons; New harmonized and uniform rules for Certified Taxable Persons to enable them to more easily provide proof that goods have been transported from one EU country to another; and Clarification that, in addition to proof of transport, the VAT number of the commercial partners recorded in the electronic EU VAT-number verification system (VIES) is required for the cross-border VAT exemption to be applied under the current rules. The Commission is also pursuing other proposals, including: a proposal for a modernized system of setting VAT rates, to give greater flexibility to member states as regards VAT rates; a proposal to reinforce administrative cooperation between member states; and proposals to simplify VAT for SMEs, looking at how to ease VAT obligations for small- and medium-sized enterprises. IMF Urges Montenegro To Increase Consumption Taxes by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels 13 March 2018 Montenegro should make its tax system more conducive to economic growth by removing taxes on labor and transferring them to consumption and environmental taxes, the International Monetary Fund has recommended. In its latest report on the economy of Montenegro, the IMF said that high taxes on labor inhibits growth and supports the informal economy. "Combined with a labor tax wedge of close to 40 percent, any employment in the formal sector results in a net loss of income for low-income workers, providing a strong disincentive for formal work," the IMF said in its concluding statement. Revenue losses from reforms to labor taxation could be replaced by increasing environmental taxes and lowering tax expenditures, the IMF proposed. "A higher coal excise would promote investment in cleaner energy sources and tax an activity with negative externalities (coal burning) rather than a desired activity (work)," the statement said. "Reductions in tax expenditures for the VAT and corporate tax also hold significant revenue potential." The IMF said it was concerned that the VAT base was "narrowing." Indonesia Requiring Company Beneficial Ownership Disclosure by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong 13 March 2018 To tackle tax evasion, Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has issued regulations requiring all businesses to disclose details of who beneficially owns the entity. The move will give Indonesia's tax authorities more data with which to tackle tax evasion and money laundering, it was said. It will also support Indonesia's bid to become a member of the Financial Action Task Force, after a previous assessment found the country's frameworks lacking. Italy's Tax Policy Direction Uncertain Following Elections by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels 13 March 2018 Inconclusive elections in Italy on March 4, 2018, have cast doubt over the country's likely tax policy direction going forward. The March 4 election saw the center-right coalition led by Lega Nord (partnered with Berlusconi's Forza Italia) gain the most seats about 37 percent in both houses of parliament followed by the Euroskeptic Five Star Movement, with about 32.5 percent, and Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party-led center-left coalition securing about 23 percent. With 630 seats contested, 265 were secured by the center-right coalition, 227 by First Star Movement, and 122 by the center-right coalition. None has enough to form a government without engaging another to form a coalition. There are some notable schisms on tax and European policy. Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia Party has, for instance, proposed a flat tax, which would see the 23 percent rate of personal income tax imposed across the board. Berlusconi has argued that this would reduce evasion and stimulate the economy, thereby increasing revenue collection. The Democratic Party, led by Matteo Renzi, had argued that such a policy could end up costing the Italian authorities significantly, resulting in spending cuts. Parliament is set to convene for the first time on March 23, with the election of presidents of the two chambers and the constitution of a new government to follow shortly thereafter. Luxembourg Says EU's Digital Tax Must Be Lawful by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels 13 March 2018 Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna has said that any special tax measures against large digital companies should respect European Union law. Gramegna made the comments during an official visit to Paris earlier this month where he held a series of working meetings with French government counterparts. "Pierre Gramegna stressed that Luxembourg shares the objective of adapting tax rules to the realities of the digital economy, but believes that any solution to be implemented at European Union level should be compatible with the rules of the European Union," said a statement issued by the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance on March 7. According to the statement, Gramegna met with OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria during the Paris visit to discuss the organization's work on the taxation of the digital economy in preparation for a ministerial meeting on the matter in May 2018. The discussions also covered the new double tax treaty between France and Luxembourg, which is due to be signed on the occasion of the state visit of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg to Paris on March 19-21. The current text of the Franco-Luxembourg tax treaty dates from 1958, and the new convention incorporates OECD standards and BEPS rules, the finance ministry said. Think Tank Critiques EU Digital Tax Proposal by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels 13 March 2018 The European Union has yet to make an effective case in support of proposals for special taxes on large digital companies, according to a new paper by the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE). Matthias Bauer, Senior Economist at the ECIPE, writes in the paper that while unfair taxation and uneven effective tax rates can distort competition and reduce tax revenues, those calling for higher taxes on the digital sector "have yet to present the evidence for why that is motivated by principles of fair taxation." According to Bauer, the European Commission's estimates for effective corporate tax rates do not reflect the high effective corporate tax rates of most corporations that operate both in and outside the EU, including the world's largest digital enterprises. He wrote that "the European Commission's selective focus on digital companies that are big on stock markets mixes up market capitalization with corporate income. Thereby, the focus on the world's top 100 companies by market capitalization and the world's top five e-commerce companies hardly reflects the reality of the digital economy and profit levels among different, often highly diverse, firms. Real world financial data show that the average corporate tax rates of many digital companies actually exceed the European Commission's hypothetical estimates by about 20 to 50 percentage points." Bauer also contends that the EU's digital tax agenda contradicts other policy areas, particularly with respect to the removal of barriers to e-commerce in the single market. "Ideas to slap a targeted tax on digital revenues clash with the EU's top policy priorities for the digital economy. It is therefore remarkable that such taxes even are considered. A tax on digital revenues would not only stand in opposition to tax efficiency and neutrality, it would also undermine digitalization, European integration, and the Digital Single Market," he concluded. The European Commission is expected to propose this month that the revenues of large digital companies be taxed based on where their users are located. The Commission proposes in a draft document seen by Reuters last month that the tax should be applied to companies with revenues of more than EUR750m (USD928m) worldwide and with EU digital revenues of at least EUR10m a year. The tax would be calculated on the "aggregate gross revenues" of a business and would be charged at a rate of between one and five percent. Revenues would be taxed based on where the company's users are located, rather than on where the company is headquartered. Think Tank Urges SCOTUS Ruling For S Dakota In Quill Sales Tax Case by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington 13 March 2018 Ahead of the US Supreme Court hearing on South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. on April 17, which will discuss whether states may tax internet retailers that have no physical presence within their territory, the Tax Foundation has discussed solutions for taxing e-commerce in the United States. Specifically, South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. will discuss the constitutionality of a South Dakota law requiring collection of the state's sales tax by internet vendors with at least 200 transactions or USD100,000 in sales to South Dakota residents. A ruling in favor of the state would lead to many other states following suit. In November 2017, the Tax Foundation filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking the Court to take the case, and the Court agreed to do so on January 12, 2018. The Tax Foundation pointed out that the US Constitution's Commerce Clause has been interpreted to forbid state taxation that excessively burdens or discriminates against interstate commerce. South Dakota is seeking to reverse the Quill decision of 1992, which held that states cannot force sales tax collection by vendors who do not have personnel or property in the state (the "physical presence" standard). Respondents Wayfair, Inc., et al., seek to retain the Quill decision. On March 5, 2018, the Tax Foundation filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, in support of neither party. Its brief argues that the South Dakota law is constitutional, but Quill need not be overturned. The Tax Foundation says: "The physical presence standard from that case was adopted as a proxy for what truly matters, constitutionally: state taxes cannot burden interstate commerce, cannot discriminate against interstate commerce, and cannot tax more than their fair share of interstate commerce. Our brief cites dozens of past cases, as well as contemporaneous statements by the Founders, to support this reading of the Commerce Clause. In the areas of income and business taxes, physical presence has actually led to more extensive state taxation of interstate commerce, with taxes on businesses and business travelers with only transient or incidental personnel in the state. Various congressional proposals seek to pare back this assertion of state tax authority." "Many current state enactments, including "click-through nexus" laws in 22 states (nexus based on referral links from in-state websites), "notice-and-reporting" laws in 10 states (reporting burdens on entities with no nexus), economic nexus laws in three states (disregarding any nexus limits), and proposals for "cookie taxes" (nexus based on placing website cookies on in-state computers) violate this standard. But the South Dakota law is constitutional because the state minimizes the burden of its sales tax collection to the extent practicable, by: Adhering to interstate standards of sales tax administration; Requiring uniformity between state and local sales tax bases; Minimizing number of local sales tax rates, which in South Dakota must be either one or two percent; Taxing virtually all final retail transactions under its sales and use tax, without arbitrary exemptions or confusing special tax rates; Adopting a meaningful de minimis threshold likely to exclude interstate activity where state burdens exceed state benefits, and Barring retroactive collection." "In addition, the state does not discriminate against interstate commerce, subjecting out-of-state retailers to the same taxes paid by in-state retailers, and the statute's sales and use tax applies only to South Dakota's fair apportioned share of interstate commerce, purchases made by South Dakota residents not taxed by any other state." "Already, a majority of states have disregarded constitutional limits on their sales tax powers. Absent Court or congressional action, this trend will continue, creating the scenario that the Commerce Clause sought to avoid: states subjecting interstate commerce to death by a thousand cuts. We hope the Court resolves this almost universal lack of clarity about the proper scope of state sales taxation of out-of-state entities, with meaningful limits of state taxation of interstate commerce." Singapore-based Broadcoms long-running attempts to purchase rival chipmaker Qualcomm could be at an end. Yesterday, President Trump issued an order blocking the acquisition and anything substantially equivalent over claims it could impair the national security of the US. Broadcom has made several offers to buy Qualcomm since last November but has continually been turned down. The proposed deal had come under scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), who also said the takeover would pose a security risk. CFIUS warned that if Broadcom purchased Qualcomm, it would weaken the US firm's position against Chinese rivals, thereby allowing companies such as Huawei to dominate the 5G wireless industry, leaving America behind. Based on CFIUSs recommendations, Trump has issued an order under the Defense Protection Act of 1950 prohibiting any merger or acquisition. There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that Broadcom Limited, a limited company organized under the laws of Singapore (Broadcom) [...] through exercising control of Qualcomm Incorporated (Qualcomm), a Delaware corporation, might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States," reads a White House statement. Trumps order also disqualifies all 15 of Broadcom's proposed candidates for Qualcomm's board from standing for election. Broadcom had hoped plans to move its headquarters from Singapore to the US would allow the deal to go through. US national security concerns are not a risk to closing, as Broadcom never plans to acquire Qualcomm before it completes redomiciliation, it said, in a statement. As Trumps order says the firms should permanently abandon the proposed takeover, it appears that relocating to the US isnt going to help Broadcoms cause. In a statement yesterday, Broadcom said it is reviewing the order and "strongly disagrees" that its proposed acquisition raises any national security concerns. Back in June 2016, news broke that Google co-founder Larry Page was secretly funding two companies that were developing flying vehicles. Now, one of these firms, Kitty Hawk, is about to start testing its flying taxi service in New Zealand as part of a regulatory approval process, following an agreement with the countrys government. The New York Times reports that Kitty Hawk, which is run by Udacity CEO and Google X co-founder Sebastian Thrun, hopes to have a network of its electric, autonomous air taxis up and running in the country within three years. The planes have been operating covertly in New Zealand under a company called Zephyr Airworks. Last year, Thrun revealed the companys hovercraft-like Flyer vehicle. More a jet ski/drone hybrid than a flying car, it was designed as a luxury toy for those who could afford one, with sales helping to fund development of the air taxi project. Kitty Hawks taxi, called Cora, has a wingspan of 36 feet and is powered by twelve battery-powered rotors. It has a drone-like vertical take-off and uses a rear propeller to reach up to 110 mph with a range of around 62 miles. Its taken eight years to develop Cora, which can fly 3000 feet above ground and carry two passengers. via GIPHY New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern is set to announce that an agreement has been reached to test Kitty Hawks planes as part of an official certification process. The deal follows 18 months of talks with multiple government agencies. Much like Uber and its planned UberAIR flying taxi service, Kitty Hawk is working on an app that lets users hail an aircraft. A number of companies, estimated to be at least 19, are now working on flying cars and airborne taxi services. But there are still question marks over how many people would trust them. At least Cora comes with a parachute if you suddenly need to bail out. The numbers are staggering. Last years Equifax breach, along with more recent additions, have resulted in nearly 150 million Americansmore than half of all those 18 and olderhaving essential identity data exposed, such as Social Security numbers, addresses, and more. And thats just in the past year. In 2016, 2.2 billion data records of various types were poached via Internet of Things (IoT) devicessuch as smart home products. Just yesterday, a judge ruled that a class action case against Yahoo (now part of Verizon) regarding the data breach of all 3 billion (yes, with a B) of its Yahoo mail accounts could proceed. Is it any wonder that according to a survey by the National Cybersecurity Alliance, 68% of Americans dont trust brands to handle their personal information appropriately? The situation has become so bad, in fact, that there are some who are now questioning whether the concept of personal privacy has essentially disappeared into the digital ethers. Talk to many young people (Gen Z, Millenials, etc.) and they seem to have already accepted that virtually everything about their lives is going to be public. Of course, many of them dont exactly help their situation, as they readily share staggering amounts of intimate details about their lives on social media and other types of applications, but thats a topic for another day. Even people who try to be cautious about their online presence are starting to realize that theres a staggering amount of information available about virtually every one of us, if you bother to look. Home address histories, phone numbers, employment histories, group affiliations, personal photos, pets names, web browsing history, bank account numbers, and yes, Social Security numbers are all within relatively easy (and often free) reach for an enormous percentage of the US population. Remember all those privacy tips about shredding your mail or other paper documents to avoid getting your identity stolen? They all seem kind of quaint (and, unfortunately, essentially useless) now, because our digital footprints extend so much farther and deeper than any paper trail could possibly go that I doubt anyone would even bother trying to leverage paper records anymore. While it may not be popular to say so, part of the problem has to do with the enormous amounts of time that people spend on social media (and social media platforms themselves). In fact, according to a survey of cyberstalkers reported by the Identity Theft Resource Center, 82% of them use social media to gather the critical personal information they need to perform their identity thefts against potential victims. My perspective on the extent of the problem with social media really hit home a few weeks ago as I was watching, of all things, a travel program on TV. Like many of these shows, the host was discussing interesting places to visit in various citiesin this case, one of them was a museum in Nuremberg, Germany dedicated to the Stasi, the infamous (and now defunct) secret police of former East Germany. A guide from the museum was describing the tactics this nefarious group would use to collect information on its citizens: asking friends and family to share the activities of one another, interceding between people writing to each other, secretly reading letters and other correspondence before they got passed along, and so on. The analogies to modern social media, as well as website and email tracking, to generate personalized ads, were staggering. Of course, the difference is that now were all doing this willingly. Plus, today its in easily savable, searchable, and archivable digital form, instead of all the paper forms they used to organize into physical folders on everyone. Frankly, the information that many of our modern digital services are creating is something that these secret police-type organizations could have only dreamt aboutits an Orwellian tragedy of epic proportions. "The information that social media and many of our modern digital services are creating is something that secret police-type organizations could have only dreamt aboutits an Orwellian tragedy of epic proportions." So, what can we do about it? Well, for one, we all need to pull our collective heads out of the sand and acknowledge that its a severe problem. But beyond that, its clear that something needs to be done from a legislative or regulatory perspective. Im certainly not a fan of governmental intervention, but for an issue as pervasive and unlikely to change as this one, there seems little choice. (Remember that companies like Facebook, Google and others are making hundreds of billions of dollars every year leveraging some of this data for advertising and other services, giving them absolutely zero incentive to adjust on their own.) One interesting idea to start with is the concept of data labelling, a la the food labelling standards now in place. With data labelling, any online service, website, application or other data usage would be required to explain exactly what information they were collecting, what it was used for, who it was sold to, etc., all in plain, simple language in a very obvious location. Of course, there should also be options that disallow the information from being shared. In addition, an interesting twist might be the potential to leverage blockchain technology to let each person control and track where their information went and potentially even financially benefit from its sale. The problem extends beyond the more obvious types of information to location data as well. In fact, even if all the content of any online activity you did was blocked, it turns out that a tremendous amount of information can be gathered just by tracking your location on a regular, ongoing basis, as the January story about the tracking US military personnel through their Strava/Fitbit wearables fitness apps so glaringly illustrated. Even outside military situations, the level of location tracking that can be done through a combination of smartphones, GPS, connected cars, ride sharing applications, WiFi networks, Bluetooth, and more is staggering, and theres currently no legislation in place to prevent that data from being used without your permission. "Even if all the content of any online activity you did was blocked, it turns out that a tremendous amount of information can be gathered just by tracking your location on a regular, ongoing basis." All of us can and should be smarter about how we spend our time online, and there are organizations like Staysafeonline.org that offer lots of practical tips on things you can do. However, the issues go way beyond simple tricks to help protect your digital identity. Its time for Congress and other representatives to take a serious look at things they can do to protect our privacy and identity from the digital world in which we live. Even legislative efforts wont solve all the data privacy issues we face, but the topic is just too important to ignore. Bob ODonnell is the founder and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC a technology consulting and market research firm. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech. This article was originally published on Tech.pinions. Masthead image credit: Ricky Montalvo on flickr Vietnam will thus become the first country outside Cuba to produce this medicine, whose emergency use was approved on Saturday. | Read More The Commonwealth Bank has been lashed for handing up first an incomplete submission to the royal banking commission, and then flooding the commission's offices with meaningless spreadsheets. Australia's largest bank was also forced to admit there were 17 examples of misconduct or conduct falling below community standards in its wholly owned mortgage broker Aussie Home Loans, despite initially telling the commission there were no cases of misconduct within that business. Several Aussie Home Loan brokers have been subject to regulatory action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in recent years for alleged liar loans - loans underpinned by falsified customer information. Rowena Orr, QC, the counsel assisting the royal commission, levelled criticism against CBA after revealing it was one of the banks forced to redo their submissions to the royal commission. Driver Hitender Kumar has lost a claim for more than $100,000 he was allegedly underpaid for work at the Indian Consulate because it is not required to pay award wages under Australian workplace laws. The Federal Circuit Court decision has prompted calls for closure of a gap in the Fair Work Act's coverage of consulate employees including those who are Australian citizens. While the Act requires that all Australian citizens be paid the national minimum wage, Mr Kumar's case has revealed that foreign consulates and embassies are exempt from paying award rates, which are much higher. In his judgment, Federal Circuit Court judge Rolf Driver said employment at the Indian Consulate did not fall within the statutory definition of public or private sector employment. He said the business of government was not part of the private sector and employment in the service of a foreign state was not private sector employment. A two-level heritage warehouse converted to an office sold for $3.21 million. The office warehouse at 30-32 Courtney Street was snapped up by a local business. Footscray The Spice n Grocery store at 49-51 Leeds Street has sold at auction to a local property owner for $2.65 million on a 2.21 per cent yield. More than 100 people watched four bidders vie for the 390 sq m building, said Savills Australias Julian Heatherich and Mark Stafford who brokered the deal in conjunction with Trimson Partners John Verduci and Philip Mazzella. The fact it sold for 47 per cent above reserve at a hotly-contested auction demonstrates burgeoning demand for retail assets in Melbournes inner-west, Mr Heatherich said. Byron Bay A Hong Kong-based investor has paid $6.48 million on a tight 4.7 per cent yield for a prized retail asset in the heart of Byron Bay, one of Australias most popular beach resorts. Teska Carsons Michael Ludski, who brokered the deal with Byron Bay Property Sales Kath Vaubell, said investors had recognised the tremendous growth potential in the popular beach resort. The property included three shops, two restaurants and four office suites with a central arcade. It sold with gross annual income of $465,000. Tullamarine TV Comms Investments has sold its office warehouse, Unit 9/85-91 Keilor Park Drive, for $1.05 million. CBREs Amanda Traficante, Daniel Eramo and Daniel De Sanctis said the property was acquired by an automotive performance parts company. The final sale price reflected a rate of $1,988 per sq m. Richmond An investor has paid $1.82 million for a warehouse at 79 Murphy Street. The single level, 240 sq m, double-fronted, brick warehouse attracted strong interest, Teska Carsons Tom Maule and Matthew Feld said. Kew Gray Johnsons Rory White and Brett Simpson sold the ground floor shop at 321 High Street, Kew for $1.05 million to a private investor to hold in their super fund. The 140 sq m property has been occupied for years by the popular local pizza business Circa 900 Pizzeria Napoletana which recently renewed its tenancy for a five-year term at $55,000 per year plus building outgoings and GST. An owner occupier outbid several developers to secure a 2,457 sq m site at 8 Thomas Street in Yarraville for $2.575 million. Yarraville An owner occupier outbid several developers to secure a 2,457 sq m site at 8 Thomas Street for $2.575 million. Stephen Speck from Vinci Carbone said the industrial 3 zoned site with 30 metres of frontage to the West Gate Freeway generated significant enquiry from developers with strong bidding pushing the land rate to almost $1,100 a sq m. Glen Iris An 118 sq m, single level, double-fronted, shop with on-site parking adjacent to Burwood railway station has sold for $1.16 million at auction. Teska Carsons Tom Maule and Matthew Feld said the 7-9 Bardolph Street property attracted a strong crowd with five bidders driving the price well beyond the vendors reserve and ultimately being knocked down at the healthy land rate of $5346 a square metre. Brunswick East A shop leased by Di Casa restaurant at 457-459 Lygon Street sold at auction for $660,000. Gross Waddells Alex Ham and Benjamin Klein said Shop 1 transacted with a 7-year lease in place for annual rental of $47,840 with 4 per cent annual review increases. LEASES Footscray Odyssey House Victoria has signed a 5+5-year deal for a 788 sq m office on Level 1 of 202-208 Nicholson Street in a deal negotiated by Fitzroys Stephen Land at $200,000 per annum. Mr Land said the building was also home to another government-funded community organisation Carers Victoria. MOVERS Trent Preece and Anna Cavar have joined Colliers Internationals capital markets team. The pair moved from Savills where they provided valuation and investment advice on major Melbourne CBD and metropolitan office assets for a range of local and offshore listed real estate investment trusts, wholesale investment funds, superannuation and sovereign wealth funds. Fitzroys has expanded its agency team appointing experienced commercial agent Alex Shum to its CBD leasing division. Mr Shum was previously a sales executive with Burgess Rawson. More than 2600 students have attempted one or more of the NSW government's new minimum standard online tests since they were released three weeks ago, as the state's biggest teachers union calls for the tests to be scrapped. How would you fare? Scroll below for example questions from the test The reading and numeracy tests, which are each comprised of 45 multiple choice questions, and the writing test, which requires a 500-word response to a visual or text prompt, must all be passed before students are eligible to receive their HSC from 2020. About 2600 students have sat the NSW government's new minimum standard online tests. However, Maurie Mulheron, president of the NSW Teachers' Federation, which represents about 67,000 educators, said more tests are unnecessary and core literacy and numeracy skills should be built into existing syllabuses. Have you ever paired a skirt with your favourite shirt? Or slipped on a little black dress? Then your life has been affected by the work of the late designer Hubert de Givenchy. Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film, Breakfast at Tiffany's. Credit:AP/Christie's In her oversized sunglasses and sleeveless, black sheath dress with rows of pearl strands draped at the neck, Audrey Hepburns Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffanys ushered in a new era of understated elegance for the modern woman. It was the work of French couturier Hubert de Givenchy, who along with the likes of Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Cristobal Balenciaga redefined womens fashion in the wake of World War II. But as fashion has progressed, the approach to style that Givenchy, who died at the age of 91 on Saturday, displayed continues to reverberate through modern fashion trends from the little black dress, to hi-lo cuts and separates. It was his vision for modern elegance and impeccable manners that helped him forge close friendships with his famous clients including Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Lauren Bacall and most famously Hepburn. The late actress operated as his muse, with Givenchy creating designs for more than a dozen of her movies, red carpets and personal events. When Sunshine Coast yoga instructor Lauren Verona spontaneously decided to livestream one of her classes to test Facebook's live video function, she did not know what to expect. "I kept turning the camera, and I'm sure I was missing my body half the time," she admits. "But my Facebook friends said it was amazing and they really enjoyed it... It made me realise this was the way forward." Verona started a Facebook group, building up hundreds of members who paid her a monthly subscription fee for access to the group, where she would post her videos. That group became A Live Yogi, a website Verona is calling "Australia's first live yoga studio". Online fitness programs are on the rise in Australia. Credit:Stocksy Online fitness programs are on the rise in Australia. A 26-year-old woman will face court next month after she was arrested for drink driving and leaving the scene of a crash over the weekend. At about 11.15pm Saturday ACT Policing received a report of a possible drunk driver on Maribyrnong Avenue in Kaleen. The driver allegedly swerved onto the wrong side of the road three times before running into a curb. Earlier that evening police received information about the involvement of a similar car in a crash on Northbourne Avenue. In this instance, a female driver fled from the scene without providing her details. The NSW rockmelon grower linked to a fatal listeria outbreak in Australia has been revealed as Rombola Family Farms in the Riverina region. The NSW Food Authority said it was working with the business in Nericon, near Griffith in south-western NSW, to determine the exact cause of the outbreak. Seventeen elderly people across the country have been affected, and two Victorians and two people from NSW have died. "The Food Authority is now working with Rombola Family Farms in an effort to support the business and the wider rockmelon industry as it works to recover from the impact of the outbreak," it said in a statement on Tuesday. Shots were fired at a Gold Coast shopping centre after a four-wheel-drive drove at two police cars on Tuesday evening. Officers attempted to intercept a 4WD at an Upper Coomera shopping centre before it deliberately drove towards two police vehicles about 5pm, police said. During the incident, police officers fired shots however a police spokeswoman could not confirm how many shots were fired or in what direction. Nine News reported police fired shots into the wheel of the alleged stolen 4WD. Tens of thousands of us must have told incredulous Americans when we travel over there or they travel here about what happened after John Howard changed our gun laws in 1996. Just 12 days after the Port Arthur massacre where 35 died and another 23 were seriously injured, the Australasian Police Ministers' Council adopted the National Firearms Agreement. The centrepiece of the law reforms was the outlawing from civilian ownership the rapid-firing, mass-killing machines that armed forces carry. Carolyn Loughton at the funeral of her daughter, Sarah, a victim of the Port Arthur massacre, in 1996. Credit:Angela Wylie In 2016 with two colleagues, I published a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association where we told the world that 20 years on, Australia had not had a single mass shooting. In the 18 years up to and including the Port Arthur massacre, wed had 13 where five or more (not including the perpetrator) were killed. The New Yorker named our evaluation of the impact of the new laws as one of five most notable medical research reports of 2016. Australian taxpayers have forked out about $500,000 for the legal costs of alleged paedophile Peter Scully, who is accused of child murder, torture, trafficking and rape in the Philippines. The federal government is considering tightening access to the Serious Overseas Criminal Matters Scheme following scrutiny of Scully using it since his arrest in 2015. Attorney-General Christian Porter has called on his department to review the scheme, available to Australians facing the death penalty or more than 20 years' jail overseas, and consider if persons accused of sexual offences should be barred. Peter Scully has been accused of some of the most vile child exploitation charges ever investigated in the Philippines. Credit:Kate Geraghty I had already asked my department for information on the scheme, including this particular case, with a view to considering changes to the scheme, so that persons in circumstances similar to Mr Scully or those with histories of sexual offending and relevant convictions would no longer be eligible, he said. The distinctive measles rash usually begins on the face and spreads down the body. The man became unwell on the flight and went straight to hospital where the illness was diagnosed. The Australian man, aged in his 40s, was on AirAsia D7214 flight from Kuala Lumpur, which arrived at Melbourne Airport on March 7 at approximately 9.30am. Passengers who recently flew to Melbourne from Kuala Lumpur are being warned to look out for the symptoms of measles after sharing a flight with a man infected with the highly contagious disease. The warning comes days after another measles alert was issued in Victoria after a British woman aged in her 20s, who was infected with measles, visited several major attractions in Melbourne and along the Great Ocean Road earlier this month. The Department of Health and Human Services has issued an alert to all passengers on the flight and anyone near the international baggage area at the airport last Wednesday morning to check for the signs and symptoms of the disease. Deputy chief health officer, doctor Brett Sutton, said the department was also working with airline officials to identify and contact passengers who shared the international flight into Melbourne. People who were at Melbourne Airport last Wednesday particularly around the international baggage collection area, who develop illness over the next week, should alert their doctor or hospital emergency department," Dr Sutton said. Measles has an incubation period of up to 18 days, meaning those exposed could show symptoms until about March 25. A police officer told a 19-year-old passenger in a car stopped in Civic he would search him "for being a smart arse" before swearing at him to get the "f--k" out of the vehicle, a court heard yesterday. No charges were laid against the driver, nor the passenger who was arrested following the traffic stop late on Australia Day last year. But Senior Constable Matthew McVicar, 35, and Constable James Head, 29, were later charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. They have pleaded not guilty, and say they were acting in the execution of their duties. Alexandra Back has more. Text messages produced as evidence Delo Be Isugan is a massage therapist who is taking her former employer to court for unfair dismissal, exploitation, underpayment and mistreatment. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos Text messages read in the Fair Work Commission showed a former massage parlour owner encouraged a past employee to provide evidence different to what was in his witness statement. Sally Whyte reports on an ongoing Fair Work Commission hearing considering whether two employees were unfairly dismissed in October 2015. During the second hearing of the unfair dismissal case involving two workers at Canberra Foot and Thai massage parlour, massage supervisor Jun Millard Puerto was called as a witness for the business, which was represented by Colin Elvin. In what the deputy president conceded was an "highly extraordinary" move, a message sent from Mr Elvin to Mr Puerto was read as evidence. It included instructions on what to say to the commission. Read more here. Contractor spend more than doubles Government agencies have more than doubled their spend on contracted labour since the Coalition came to power in 2013. In the past five years, the annual spend on short-term labour contractors for 18 of the largest departments has ballooned from $318m to more than $730m as they worked under staffing caps and cut public servant numbers. Who were the biggest spenders? Read reporters Doug Dingwall and Markus Mannheim's story here. Retirees choose Canberra Lee and Jacqui Forster walk across their block of land in Throsby. Credit:karleen minney Forget sea change - this couple opted for a tree change. In January, Lee and Jacqui Forster bought a 437 square-metre block of land in Throsby, Gungahlin, one of Canberra's newest suburbs, after initially relocating to Batemans Bay to retire nearly 13 years ago. Whenever Jenny Mobbs runs into Chief Minister Andrew Barr, she reminds him he's "getting older every year". Ms Mobbs is a public officer for COTA ACT - the peak organisation for all issues relating to older Canberra citizens. Whenever Jenny Mobbs runs into Chief Minister Andrew Barr, pictured, the COTA ACT staffer reminds him he is "getting older every year". Credit:Alex Ellinghausen It is a statement Ms Mobbs, who also sits on the territory government's ministerial advisory council on the ageing, repeated this week, after Mr Barr claimed most ABC 7pm news bulletin viewers were in their mid-60s. Mr Barr also said that most Canberrans did not consume "traditional media", a likely reference to the relatively young average age of the capital's residents. The Turnbull government has immediately lashed out at Labor's proposed termination of cash refunds for investors, worth $5.6 billion a year, describing the new policy as "brutal" and a theft of people's legitimate tax refunds. In a move mostly affecting wealthier Australians, a Bill Shorten-led Labor government would end cash refunds for taxpayers who own shares and claim tax credits on their dividends. Treasurer Scott Morrison said the policy was a "brutal and cruel blow for retirees, for pensioners" which would bring the total value of Labor's tax proposals to more than $200 billion. "Labor wants to steal your tax refund. That's what this is. It's a tax refund for tax that has already been paid. That's fair," Mr Morrison said. Major media companies have declared they are still unhappy with the Turnbull government's proposed new secrecy laws despite a compromise offer designed to take the sting out of the bill's impact on journalism by watering down penalties and beefing up defences for journalists. The news outlets - including Fairfax Media, News Corp, the ABC and the Guardian - conceded changes made by new Attorney-General Christian Porter addressed "a number of our concerns" about the original scheme, but they still argued a blanket exemption for journalists should apply. The stoush between the government and the country's biggest media outlets stems from a crackdown on foreign espionage that will also apply tough penalties - including jail time in excess of 10 years - on anyone convicted of disseminating state secrets. Attorney-General Christian Porter. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer A defence is available for journalists operating in the public interest, but this has not satisfied the major media companies, who collectively responded to Mr Porter's amendments late on Tuesday. As it ponders the role of religious freedom in Australia, the Religious Freedom Review headed by Philip Ruddock would do well to reflect on the real-life scenarios where belief collides with the rights of individuals. Philip Ruddock is heading up the federal government's Religious Freedom Review. Credit:ABC Should independent schools be able to expel students with gay parents? Should it be lawful for bakers, photographers or florists to refuse same-sex weddings? Yes? No? And why? Providing answers would provide clarity as to the consequences of any proposed changes to the law. With high-profile industry backers and a collection of popular titles, the Texture app was an attempt to help the struggling magazine business gain footing in the smartphone era. The joint effort from rival publishers, which began in 2009, shortly after Apple's launch of the app store, reflected a desire to save print media from massive readership declines and move the industry toward new habits of media consumption. The company was based in Silicon Valley and largely backed by publishers in New York. In a joint statement, publishers Conde Nast, Hearst Magazines, and Meredith said the acquisition will help further their mission. "This new relationship with Apple not only will deliver new audiences and further the reach of our collective brands, but reflects the way consumers are engaging with media today as they look to discover content and subscribe with more convenience and ease," the statement said. The publishers referred further questions to Apple. An Apple spokeswoman said that the tech giant didn't have immediate plans to integrate Texture's content into Apple News, the company's news aggregator app, and that the deal had not yet closed. The company would not disclose the purchase price. In recent years, publishers' attention has largely been focused on working with Facebook to distribute content. Roughly two thirds of Americans get some of their news from social media, according to an August 2017 survey from Pew Research Center. Jakarta: Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc wants to tie his country's defence interests closer to Australia's as China becomes an dominant force in his region. And in an interview with Fairfax Media ahead of the special ASEAN-Australia leaders summit this weekend, Mr Phuc has called for all nations to respect the rule of law in the South China Sea. Mr Phuc also said there was "vast room" to improve cooperation and two-way trade, worth $11.8 billion in 2016-17, between Australia and Vietnam. Australia and Vietnam will formally sign a strategic partnership agreement this week, which will upgrade diplomatic, defence and trade ties. Beijing: A "drastic" and "revolutionary" reform of China's government means Australian businesses and officials will need to deal with a raft of new ministries and most likely, the hand of the Communist Party. The reforms, which will cut the number of ministries and vice-ministries by more than one-third, meant, "we are seeing the party placing its stamp on a wider range of government functions," according to China Policy research director David Kelly. It would "close off fiefdoms, which were a source of corruption" because they were "allowed to set their own goals and account for things afterwards", Kelly said. Many powerful bureaucracies were vestiges of the Soviet era, and the new changes reverse policies implemented under former leader Deng Xiaoping 30 years ago which dispersed functions such as international trade to state agencies. Beirut: Residents of the Syrian city of Afrin are bracing for an onslaught from Turkish troops and allied rebels, threatening a fresh humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country. Turkey was poised to enter the Kurdish-majority city on Monday after advances in recent weeks took them close to its limits. There were fears for the one million civilians, thousands of whom have been displaced by fighting in villages and other cantons closer to Syria's border with Turkey. A Turkish soldier secures the border with Syria, in the outskirts of the border town of Kilis, on Saturday. Credit:AP Convoys of activists were reportedly leaving for Afrin from the cities of Cizre in southern Turkey and Kobani in northern Syria in an effort to protect the city by volunteering to put themselves between rebel fighters and the Turks and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Gaza: Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah survived an assassination attempt in Gaza on Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority said after an apparent roadside bomb targeted his motorcade. The attack on the Western-backed leader, who is spearheading the Authority's reconciliation efforts with Gaza's dominant group, Hamas, happened on the day the White House is due to hold a meeting on the humanitarian situation in the enclave. Hamas security services personnel inspect the site of the explosion. Credit:AP There was no immediate claim of responsibility for what one Palestinian Authority security official in Gaza said was a roadside bomb blast. Hamas condemned the attack. 2 Men Swindle Woman out of Nearly $370,000 A woman from Coon Rapids, Minnesota, was scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by contractors. She hired the two men not long after her husband passed away. The swindle began after Nathan Hanson and John Born were hired to complete some renovations in her home, FOX9 reported. But the contractors kept asking for more and more money each time. Both men are now facing felony charges for allegedly cheating the woman out of nearly $370,000, according to a criminal complaint obtained by FOX9. The woman, of unknown age, was unnamed in the complaint. She was referred to the contractors by an acquaintance of hers. The men first told her that they found black mold in her home and that the house would need major repairs. Court documents show that they were taking out entire walls in her house. 2 men facing charges after swindling Coon Rapids woman out of nearly $370,000 in fake contracting work https://t.co/Z42lTK0NDi FOX 9 (@FOX9) March 13, 2018 Hanson and Born also told her that a simple paint job would cost about $100,000. The complaint details how some hired sub-contractors believed the renovations were odd and did not need to be done. At one point Hanson even started to pursue the womans savings. He even convinced her to hand over $90,000 and to give it to him, to keep it in a safe in his home where it would be safer. To top it off, he also made the woman purchase two properties in East Bethel. One of them he rented out and the other home he lived in himself. Instead of paying rent on his properties, Hanson went on trips to Sturgis, Las Vegas, and California. Both suspects will make their first court appearances next month. The scams were not only happening in Minnesota. The scheme has now made its way into West Michigan, according to the Wyoming Department of Police Safety. Scammers pose as contractors before taking money from the victims. Authorities said the scammers normally target elderly homeowners by telling them that something on the exterior of their home needs repair, ABC Affiliate WZZM reported. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: How Doctors in China Turn into Murderers 3 Children at Kansas Child Care Facility Test Positive for Measles Officials in Kansas said on Tuesday, March 13, that three children at a child care facility have tested positive for measles. Measles kills tens of thousands of people around the world every year but deaths and even cases are rare in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control said that through February 24 of this year, 13 people were reported to have measles. The number of cases in the country is typically below 200 and in some years dips below 100, although there were 667 cases in 2014 after a large outbreak in Amish communities in Ohio. Travelers from the Philippines also brought the virus with them. Measles is still common in many parts of the world including some countries in Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and Africa, the agency stated. Travelers with measles continue to bring the disease into the U.S. Measles can spread when it reaches a community in the U.S. where groups of people are unvaccinated. The Johnson County Department of Health and Environment said the three children who have contracted measles in Kansas are all under one year old and have not yet been vaccinated. Children are typically vaccinated when they are at least 12 months of age. BREAKING: 3 babies in Johnson County diagnosed with measles. All under age of 1. The babies and other children possibly affected have been excluded from the involved child care facility for the next 21 days. A health dept investigation is ongoing Shain Bergan (@ShainKCTV) March 13, 2018 The children will be excluded from the facility for 21 days, reported Fox4. If your child has a fever, keep them home except to see a healthcare provider, said a spokesperson for the department of health and environment. If you need to visit your healthcare provider, call ahead so appropriate measures can be taken to protect other patients and staff. Symptoms include a fever, coughing, red and watery eyes, and blotchy rashes on the skin. Measles is spread through the air by coughing, sneezing, or breathing. The symptoms of measles typically begin one to two weeks after someone is exposed to an infected person. Vaccination is the best way to prevent measles in children and adults, Health Director Lougene Marsh told the Kansas City Star. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Supermarket Clerk has Sensational Voice 4 Kansas Siblings Adopted Together by Foster Parents Four siblings in Kansas were thrilled this week after a judge informed their foster parents that they could adopt all of the brothers and sisters. Alisia, Emma, Cody, and Bradley Watson had been with the foster parents for more than two years. The four children have always been siblings but faced an uncertain future when they entered the foster care system. Eric and Phyllis Watson, who had never fostered children before, accepted all four into their Johnson County home. I cant imagine what that would feel like, and being an adult, I cant imagine, and being a child or a teen, I cant imagine, Phyllis Watson told Fox4. Im just glad that we stepped up and did it. Now the four children are officially part of the Watson brood, after Judge Kathleen Sloan approved the transition from foster parents to parents on Monday, March 12. The courtroom at the time of the ruling was standing-room-only, filled with friends, family members, schoolmates, and other people lining the walls, reported the Kansas City Star. Its rare to see kids in the system, especially teens, find this perfect of an ending, said caseworker Kiersten Stolxenberg of the adoption agency KVC Kansas. Ive been looking forward to this day about two and a half years, Emma said. According to Childrens Rights, on any given day, there are nearly 428,000 children in foster care in the United States. In 2015, over 670,000 children spent time in foster care, with more than 20,000 aging out of foster care without permanent families. Research has shown that those who leave care without being linked to forever families have a higher likelihood than youth in the general population to experience homelessness, unemployment, and incarceration as adults, the group stated. The Watsons are urging other people who are available to step forward as foster parents, considering how many children are out there needing a home. They could be somewhere right now without a family, without hope, and I say, if you think you can do it, then go for it. Change someones life. Help them. I think thats great, Cody said. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Wranglers Wrestle With Alligator to Remove Eggs From Nest Fear about health concerns may grip us, but a little hope might make us more willing to take preventative actions, according to researchers. In two studies, hope and self-efficacythe belief that a person can help themselvessignificantly predicted intentions to take actions against skin cancer, such as wearing sunscreen or protective clothing. With health messages, its not enough just to tell people, or merely educate them, you need to motivate them, and emotions are really good motivators, says Jessica Myrick, associate professor of communications at Penn State. We often think of emotions as irrational, but what our research is pointing to is that emotions can help us do the things that will keep us healthy and safe. Fear Grabs Attention, but Then What? According to the researchers, previous work indicated that while fear can grab attention and create awareness about a health problem, it might not necessarily lead to behaviors that could help people tackle the problem. We dont understand a lot empirically about how shifting from being scared of something in a message to then being told how to fix it, or prevent it, might shift the emotional state from fear to hope, says Myrick. Fear and hope may work together to create more persuasive messages, says Myrick, who worked with Robin Nabi, professor of media effects and health communication at the University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara. We can think of hope and fear as the carrot and the stick, says Nabi. Either one alone could be effective. But the two together may be an especially winning combination. Will You Wear Sunscreen? In the first study, researchers recruited 341 participants, whose ages ranged from 17 to 72 years old, from Amazons online task-completion platform, Mechanical Turk. The participants reviewed and reacted to an article about skin cancer from a web page designed to resemble a page on the health site WebMD. The article was divided into three sections with the subheads: How susceptible are most of us to skin cancer? How severe is skin cancer? and What actions can we take to prevent skin cancer and how effective are those measures? The subsections of the message reflect factors that can drive persuasive health messaging results, including whether a person feels susceptible to the condition, whether they believe the condition is serious (severity), and whether they believe that help exists and that they have access to that help, according to the researchers. After reviewing the message, the participants reported on emotions they felt about the article, including hopeful, optimistic, and encouraged, all emotions that the researchers considered hope states. Self-efficacy and hope did serve as significant predictors of sun safety intentions, according to the researchers, who report their findings in the journal Health Communication. In a second study, 382 undergraduate college students were recruited to watch a melanoma awareness video and then answer a series of questions about the video. A total of 367 students completed a follow-up survey sent a week later to determine if the participants engaged in any sun safety behaviors. The findings in the second study indicated that hope played a role in adopting sun safety measures and that even a week later, the participants were engaged in those safety behaviors. Public Health Myrick said that adding hope to messages not only may create more persuasive messagesit also may be more ethical. You dont just want to leave people in a state of fear, Myrick said. You want to give them possible solutions to help. According to the researchers, future work may look at thinking about designing singular messages and understanding the greater message environmentincluding how health fears appear in the media. This study is a nice early step in looking at the complex dance between different types of emotions and cognitions so that we can better promote public health, Myrick said. And maybe this leads to ways to design other health campaign, for instance, for influenza vaccination campaigns, that work in concert with the fear that is generated by news coverage to try to give people some hope and help them remember the things they can do dailyget a vaccine, wash your hands, and dont go to school when youre sick. This article was originally published by Penn State. Republished via Futurity.org under Creative Commons License 4.0. President Donald Trump hosts the 2017 World Series Champion Houston Astros in the East Room of the White House in Washington on March 12, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) After Yearlong Probe, House Intel Finds No Evidence of Collusion Between Trump Campaign and Russia The House Intelligence Committee found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to a still-classified draft report summarizing the findings of the yearlong probe. We didnt find any evidence of collusion and I dont think [special counsel Robert Mueller] will either, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), the head of the bipartisan probe, told Fox News. President Donald Trump celebrated the findings of the report in a Monday night Twitter message. THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, Trump wrote. THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018 The committee pursued four avenues of inquiry: active measures taken by Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, the governments response to the interference, ties between the Russians and the Clinton and Trump campaigns, and alleged leaks of classified information. The committee also disagreed with the intelligence communitys assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a supposed preference for then-candidate Trump. We disagree with the Intelligence Communitys position that Putin favored Trump, Conaway told Fox News. The committee conducted 73 witness interviews, heard more than 230 hours of testimony, and received 307,905 documents as part of the investigation. (pdf) Eleven staff investigators and researchers visited 7 countries to conduct the probe. Committee members spent more than 1,200 hours alone on reviewing classified CIA source documents. The bottom line: The Russians did commit active measures against our election in 16, and we think they will do that in the future, Conaway told New York Times. But, We disagree with the narrative that they were trying to help Trump. The conclusion of the House probe wraps up one of three investigations of Russian interference in the U.S. elections. The investigations by the Senate Judiciary Committee and Special Counsel Robert Mueller are still ongoing. Neither has yet produced any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. We found no evidence of collusion. We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, Conaway told reporters on Monday. But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings, whatever, and weave that into a some sort of fictional page-turner spy thriller. U.S. intelligence agencies are due to review the draft report and declassify it before it is made available to the public. The origins of all three of the investigations of Russian interference in the U.S. elections can be traced to the notorious anti-Trump dossier composed by British ex-spy Christopher Steele. The Clinton campaign and the DNC used a law firm to pay Fusion GPS, which in turn hired Steele. Fusion GPS received money from Russia while Steele conducted his work. Despite finding no evidence of the matters it set out to investigate, the intel committee uncovered serious abuses of government surveillance at the highest levels of the Obama administration. The committee will now redirect efforts to investigate these issues, according to a preliminary summary of the report. (pdf) Recommended Video: President Donald Trumps Weekly AddressMarch 10, 2018 White House trade advisor Peter Navarro watches as President Donald Trump speaks before signing Section 232 proclamations setting tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in the White House on March 8, 2018. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images) All Eyes on Peter Navarro to Reshape US Trade Relations With China Former academic seeks a more confrontational approach to an aggressive Chinese regime President Donald Trumps chief trade adviser, Peter Navarro, known for espousing a hardline view toward U.S. relations with China on trade and other issues, is set to have an even greater influence on the administration following the departure of another top economic adviser who favors a conciliatory approach to China. The March 6 resignation of Gary Cohn, who served as the director of the National Economic Council from the beginning of the Trump presidency, was reported to have been triggered by Cohns confrontation with the president in the Oval Office over Trumps decision to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum. Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs banker and a supporter of the existing trade system, has been in a yearlong feud with Navarro, one of the administrations most prominent figures pushing forward Trumps campaign promise to reshape U.S. trade relations with China. Cohns departure could signal a dramatic comeback for Navarro, who, for a period of a few months last year, almost faded away from public view as the National Trade Council he directed was disbanded and subsumed under Cohns office in April. The move was interpreted by many as a sign that Cohns faction had gained the upper hand in the internal struggle in the White House. At least two sources who maintained close contact with Navarro told The Epoch Times last year that he was under a lot of stress, but was persisting to counteract those in the administration who profited from doing business with China. With Cohn out of the picture, observers now say that Navarro will have a larger role to play in shaping the administrations policies. Views on China What changed the balance of power inside the Oval Office was likely not just the dispute over tariffs on steel and aluminum, but the fact that the new White House National Security Strategy, which specifically designated China as a strategic rival, resonated with Navarros long-held view that China is expanding not just militarily but also economically to challenge the United States. Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist and former University of CaliforniaIrvine professor, has been dubbed by some as the most unpopular economist for his unorthodox views toward China. Prior to joining the Trump campaign in 2016, Navarro was best known for his books Death by China (coauthor Greg Autry) and Crouching Tiger (coauthor Gordon G. Chang), both of which were made into documentary films that have been widely viewed. Both books warn of the need to counter an aggressive China. In Death by China, Navarro argued that Chinas economic rise through the international trade system has failed to make China into the more free and open society that many in the West had hoped for. On the contrary, it has allowed the Chinese regime to harness and exploit the benefits of the U.S.-led trade system while at the same time creating a better-financed, better-equipped authoritarian state that is now committed to military expansion and aggression around the world. Many economists dismissed Navarros publications that are critical of U.S.China trade relations as being merely polemical rather than scholarly work, while others said that Navarro had from time to time exaggerated the facts to suit his narrative, such as making the accusation that China is still undervaluing its currency. Nevertheless, Navarros views are said to have influenced Trump through the years and are now widely echoed by officials in the Trump administration. Not Taking It Anymore The World Trade Organization created China, Trump said to thousands of attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 23, clearly endorsing Navarros wary view of the WTO. China has been a rocket ship since. And now, last year, we had almost a $500 billion trade deficit with China. Navarro told CNN on March 4, What I think the president wants to do in terms of the World Trade Organization is to send a very strong signal that we are not going to take it anymore. Navarro argued that Chinas economic rise through the international trade system has failed to make China into the more free and open society that many in the West had hoped for. A lot of the problem has been the World Trade Organization, which has over 160 countries, and a lot of them simply dont like us. Having succeeded in imposing punitive tariffs against China on steel and aluminum, Navarro now wants to punish China for its intellectual property theft against the United States. A senior White House trade official has said that the next step in leveling the playing field on trade with China will be to stop it from forcibly eroding Americas technical edge even further, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon. China is a very bad actor when it comes to trade practices across a lot of things, but nothings more important in the near-term than addressing the theft of our intellectual property and the forced technology transfer of our technologies, Navarro said on Fox Business Network. While Navarros view still remains a heterodox one among the majority of economists, an increasing number of experts in national security have also begun to question the nature and intention of Chinas economic relations with the United States and the world. Despite their rhetoric, Chinas leaders regard trade and investment as domains of strategic competition rather than simple win-win cooperation, said Aaron Friedberg, a professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University, in a testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 15. There is very little evidence that they intend to abandon their present approach. For his part, Navarro does not limit his pushback against China to the economic sphere. He has successfully convinced Trump to sign an executive order requiring a broad review of the nations defense industrial base, a move that echoed the concerns of many that the U.S. defense industry is not robust enough to deal with Chinas military rise. Recommended video: WATCH: Death by China How America Lost Its Manufacturing Base *Note from the director, professor Peter Navarro: As you watch this film, it is important to always distinguish clearly between the good and hard-working people of China, and their repressive communist government now victimizing both American and Chinese citizens alike. Allen Superior Court, where a woman admitted to trying to murder her niece, in Allen County, Indiana. (Screenshot via Google Maps) Aunt Admits She Tried to Poison Her 11-Week-Old Niece An Indiana woman admitted she tried to murder her 11-week-old niece. She pleaded guilty in Allen Superior Court on March 12. She said she tried to kill the baby to get back at her brothers family for staying over longer than she wanted. Sarai Rodriguez-Mirandas mother called the police after looking at text message conversations on her daughters cell phone. The messages revealed how Rodriguez-Miranda planned to poison her brothers baby, on Jan. 2017, The Journal Gazette reported. In the messages, the 19-year-old asked her boyfriend how many crushed Excedrin tablets she would need to bring about the babys death. She wanted to put them in the babys breastmilk bottles. Im gonna crush up some of these pills since she decided they can stay longer and kill their baby, she wrote in text messages, according to The Journal Gazette. Rodriguez-Mirandas mother then removed bottles of breast milk from the refrigerator and turned them over to the authorities. The tainted milk had a greenish ring at the bottom of the bottle. After testing, a forensic toxicologist found acetaminophen, caffeine, and aspirin in one of the bottle, the same ingredients used to make Excedrin. The bottle had the equivalent of nine tablets of Excedrin, enough to kill an adult, according to The Journal Gazette. Rodriguez-Miranda expressed her disappointment that the baby didnt die, not knowing her mothers actions. Why didnt that baby die dude thats dumb, she wrote in texts. They definitely threw it out. Yeah and I thought for a sec it could be psychosomatic where my subconscious is guilty so it creates these pains but tbh (to be honest) I hope she dies. I dont feel bad about it bc she was destined to grow up (expletive) or be abused. Id never be suspect I know but I hope it works. Rodriguez-Miranda was charged in Sept. 2017. She fled, but U.S. Marshals found her in Bay City, Michigan, Fox 59 reported. She will be sentenced on May 18, according to The Journal Gazette. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Officer Saves Woman Who Was Pinned WeChat, the most popular messaging app in China, displayed on a phone in New York City, on Oct. 4, 2016. (Matthew Robertson/The Epoch Times) Australias Defense Department Bans WeChat, Chinas Popular Instant Messaging Platform In another blow to WeChat, Chinas popular instant messaging and social media platform, Australias defense department has banned its staff from using the app on their work phones, according to a March 11 report by The Australian Financial Review. Defense does not provide or support the use of unauthorized software, including the WeChat social media application, on Defense mobile devices, a spokesperson told the Australian publication but did not elaborate on why the app was banned. WeChat does not provide end-to-end encryption between users, making messages vulnerable to third parties. In addition, all messages are stored on WeChats servers in China. Though the company has insisted that it deletes the messages once they are received by the intended user, The Epoch Times has reported that the companys privacy policy agreement, updated in September 2017, stated that it would retain, preserve, or disclose users data to comply with the Chinese regimes applicable laws or regulations. In an Amnesty International report on the privacy protections of commonly used messaging apps around the world, WeChat scored 0. Citing a cybersecurity expert with connections to the Australian government, the Financial Review said officials were concerned about the vulnerability of user data on the app. The understanding is that applications like WeChat have a higher ability to aggregate and monitor data, the unnamed source told the newspaper. They [Defense] would be very nervous about software being loaded onto a device which could then access a secure military network. WeChat works closely with the Chinese regime to censor content that it dislikes. In several documented cases, Chinese and non-Chinese citizens have been punished for posting messages the state disapproves of, including Taiwanese activist Lee Ming-che, who was recently sentenced to prison for spreading pro-democracy messages via WeChat and other social media platforms to a mainland Chinese audience. This was in spite of the fact that Lee had sent those messages from outside of China In December 2017, Indias defense ministry similarly issued a list of more than 40 Chinese-developed smartphone apps, including WeChat, that were considered spyware, requesting that all security personnel remove those apps from their phones. Use of these apps by our force personnel can be detrimental to data security, having implications on the force and national security, the notice said, according to The Indian Express. And in May 2017, Russia also blocked WeChat, on grounds that the company violated a Russian regulation that foreign tech firms must store personal data of Russian users in Russia, according to a report by South China Morning Post. Meanwhile, in the United States, American intelligence agencies cautioned against government employees use of phones made by Huawei and ZTE, both Chinese regime-friendly firms, noting the risk of state-sponsored espionage and cyberattacks. U.S. lawmakers have also proposed a bill that would ban government agencies from procuring contracts with Huawei and ZTE. King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium try freshly made maple taffy during a visit to Richelieu Park Sugar Shack in Ottawa on March 12, 2018. (Lars Hagberg/AFP/Getty Images) Belgian King Tells Canadian Gov. Gen. and Astronaut Payette of His Love of Space OTTAWASelf-described space buff King Philippe of Belgium began a weeklong visit to Canada on Monday with his wife, Queen Mathilde, saying he wanted to view the country through the eyes of an astronaut. He was, of course, referring to his host, former space explorer-turned Gov. Gen. Julie Payette, who greeted the royal couple at Rideau Hall at the start of their whirlwind state visit. I love space, King Philippe said to the delight of Belgian flag-waving onlookers as he was formally welcomed to the nations capital. So Im very happy to see the country and the world through your eyes, the eyes of an astronaut, he said to Payette. The king and his wife were scheduled to take part in more down-to-earth pursuits over the rest of the five full days of their tourthe first Belgian state visit to Canada in over 40 years. Mondays events included the planting of a sugar maple tree in the frozen ground of Rideau Hall, a visit to a sugar bush, the placing of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial, and meetings on Parliament Hill bringing together delegations from Canada and Belgium. A meeting planned with Heritage Minister Melanie Joly, to discuss cultural ties between the two countries, was cancelled, however, after Jolys flight to Ottawa was abruptly grounded by computer system disruptions at Air Canada. And officials narrowly avoided a hitch in the tree-planting ceremony. While we were preparing for the tree planting ceremony on the grounds of Rideau Hall, it was brought to our attention that there was a mix up with a small flag that was used to help identify the tree planted by Her Majesty Queen Fabiola in 1977, Marie-Eve Letourneau wrote in an email, adding that the situation was rectified before the current royals arrived. One of the main thrusts of the state visit is a thank you of sorts for Canadas involvement in the liberation of Belgium during the First World War, the king said. We owe our freedom to the military men who came to our country 100 years ago to end the First World War, he said as he was greeted by Payette. We in Belgium, we dont forget that. To mark the closing of the centennial commemorations of the First World War in both countries, the royal couple was scheduled to attend a ceremony Tuesday where a cannon from the war was to be loaned to the Canadian War Museum. Later Monday, Payette gave the royals a glimpse of the planet through her eyes at a state dinner, where she spoke of the intricate connections that tie Canada, Belgium and the rest of the world together. And she encouraged everyone in the room to think of how people should live in harmony on the only planet they know, telling the gathering that the world is not small. The Belgian monarchs are also to visit Toronto and Montreal during their tour, accompanied by a delegation that includes political and business leaders and the rectors of the main Belgian universities. Recommended Video: How Doctors in China Turn into Murderers Child Killed in Accident While Mother Prepared His Birthday Party A young boy from the north end of New Zealands south island was killed in an auto accident while his mother was preparing his 10th birthday party back home. Alex Mackle, 9, of Kaikoura, New Zealand, was out with his father tending to the family farm on March 9, his birthday, when the accident happened, Stuff reported. Alexs father, Simon Mackle, got out of the car to move some cattle through a gate. While Simon Mackle was occupied, the car started rolling backward. Alex got out of the moving car and somehow ended up being crushed underneath it. Simon Mackle carried his sons body to the nearby roadway and tried to flag down a vehicle because he had no cell phone reception. The family have had a devastating loss, a family friend told Stuff. Its hard to put into words, its more than a shock. Its a devastating loss for everyone, the whole community, not only the family. The family has declined to discuss the tragedy with the press, but did release the following statement to the NZ Herald: Alex was a loving little guy with a cheerful nature and a cheeky smile. He loved his family and friends and being outdoors. Words cannot express the heartbreak that we are feeling right now and we ask for privacy as we grieve for Alex. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: GoPro Dropped Down Deep Well to Check Out Reports of Limestone Caves Chinese Citizens Rebuff Court Officials Claim That Judicial System Is Perfect A recent comment by a senior official from Chinas highest court has riled up Chinese citizens. During a March 9 interview with Hong Kong media Now News, the vice president of Chinas Supreme Peoples Court, Jiang Bixin, made a bold statement: In the past 10-plus years in China, there has not been a wrongful case or unjust charges. The comment soon drew the ire of petitioners, lawyers, and human rights activists alike, who attested to the lack of rule of law within Chinas judicial system. Li Jianfeng, a former judge in Ningde City, Fujian Province, said the system is inherently unjust, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls the countrys judicial and security apparatuses via the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. Because the courts must obey orders from the Party, any entity that the Party dislikes is bound to be unfairly prosecuted, he said. Rights lawyer Zhu Shengwu from Shandong Province told The Epoch Times in an interview that miscarriage of justice is widespread when it comes to different faith groups that are persecuted in China, including house Christians, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong practitioners. Dissidents and Rights Lawyers The spiritual meditation discipline Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, has been persecuted by the Chinese regime since 1999. Under the persecution, scores of practitioners have been arrested, detained, sentenced, and tortured for their faith, despite the fact that the Chinese constitution guarantees freedom of religion. An extralegal state police department, called the 610 Office, was established for the sole purpose of carrying out the persecution. Based on the number of people, the persecution of Falun Gong is the most excessive, the most severe, Zhu said. He once represented a Falun Gong practitioner in Yunnan Province who had her home ransacked by police. When the police found other practitioners doing the meditation exercises at her home, they charged her with the crime of convening a gathering, according to Zhu. Our [legal] viewpoint is clear: Practicing faith is not a crime, he said. According to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, in 2017 alone, 974 Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced to prison. Just during the Lunar New Year holidays in February, 35 practitioners were sentenced and another 30 received court hearings, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that serves as a clearinghouse for information about Falun Gong in China. Since 1999, a confirmed 4,195 practitioners have died due to the persecution. The real number is believed to be much higher, due to the difficulty of getting information out of China. Since 2015, Falun Gong practitioners have taken advantage of a new set of guidelines from the Supreme Peoples Court that allow them to file criminal complaints with the court and the Supreme Peoples Procuratoratethe countrys highest prosecutor officedirectly naming former CCP leader Jiang as the party responsible for any persecution they suffered. More than 200,000 such complaints have been filed, according to Minghui.org, but no cases have been investigated. A number of lawyers who have represented Falun Gong practitioners and political dissidents have since been imprisoned, such as Gao Zhisheng, an outspoken critic of the CCP leadership, and Yu Wensheng, a prominent rights lawyer. The Epoch Times tried to reach several Chinese lawyers, who said they were given warnings from Chinese authorities forbidding them from accepting media interviews. Others said authorities had given them hush money to stay silent. Petitioners Cases Petitioners who appeal to central authorities with their grievances also cried foul. Since Chinas rubber-stamp legislature assembled on March 5 for a two-week session, scores of petitioners have arrived in Beijing to file their complaints with the State Bureau for Letters and Visits, only to be taken away by police. Many of them appeal in Beijing as a last-ditch effort to seek redress in legal affairs. Petitioner Li Ning, for example, from Longkou City, Shandong Province, is seeking justice for her mothers death. Since she was killed, I did not get to attend one single court hearing. My familys rights have been completely taken away, she said in an interview with The Epoch Times. Chinese scholar Yu Jianrong once conducted a survey of more than 2,000 petitioners. Of them, only three had resolved their grievances through the petition system. More than 60 percent of them had been detained by Chinese authorities because of their petitioning. Because of the large number of petitioners who get arrested and detained at black jails, the League of Chinese Victims was established in Hong Kong in December 2008 to help secure petitioners rights. Within three months, 80,000 people had registered to become members. Other activists, such as Huang Qi, founder of human rights website 64 Tian Wang, was recently sentenced to 12 to 15 years. He is currently detained in Sichuan Province and has been tortured by prison guards, according to a report by Radio France Internationale. Netizens were dismayed at the senior court officials comments. One posted, If the Party says youre guilty, then youre guilty. So, of course, there are no wrongful cases. Li Xinan and Xiao Lusheng contributed to this report. Georgia Truck Driver Stops Traffic to Help Elderly Man Cross Street A driver in Georgia pulled over, got out of his car, and helped an elderly man cross the street, winning the admiration of onlookers and netizens. EOndria Weems was driving by the scene in Griffin, about 35 miles south of Atlanta, when it unfolded. She said she noticed a man with a walker trying to cross the road, but before she could react herself, a man pulled his white Ram truck over, got out of his car and stopped traffic for the elderly man and helped him across the street, reported WXIA. The truck driver was later identified as Justin Jackson. He told the broadcaster that he knew he had to stop because cars were driving by so fast that the old man would have been in danger crossing the street. The old man was walking across the streets and people were flying by and I was like, l got to stop,' Jackson said. Weems took video of Jackson helping the elderly gentleman across the street and later posted it on Facebook. Yall this man stopped traffic to help him & my heart, she wrote. The video had more than 137,000 shares, almost 5,000 comments, and more than 16,000 likes as of March 13. A number of Facebook users praised Jackson for helping the elderly man. Thats how things should be we should help each other instead of destroying each other, said one user. What a sweetheart! May God Bless him! said another. Thats Kind heart Need more in the world to Put it OUT THERE Like that!! said another. Thats whats up Americans helping out Americans when we come together as a country nobody can stop us, said yet another. What a wonderful man. God will please him for being such an angel. Love seeing videos like this restores my faith in people knowing theres still good hearted people left in this screwed up world, said another. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: First Lady Makes a Plea to Promote Compassion to Children Heather Locklear Still Faces Charges for Fighting Police, But Not Domestic Violence Actress Heather Locklear had domestic violence charges dismissed after a fight with her boyfriend, but charges of battering and resisting or obstructing a police officer remained, and Locklear was set to be in court on March 13. The 56-year-old former star of Melrose Place and Spin City was charged with four counts of battery of a police officer and one count of resisting or obstructing a police officer, according to Page Six. When officers responded to a domestic violence call at her home in Ventura County, California, on a Feb. 25 she punched two officers, kicked one in the groin, and yelled an obscenity at another, Page Six reported. Police arrested her on charges of domestic battery for an altercation with her boyfriend, Chris Heisser. Deputy Alldredge saw that [Heisser] was bleeding from the bridge of his nose and he had redness on his chest, Ventura County Senior Deputy Sheriff Keith Hall wrote in search warrant and affidavit of probable cause documents, obtained by People. [Heisser] told Deputy Alldredge that in the bedroom, Locklear attacked [Heisser] while he was on the bed and he defended himself. He did not know how many times Locklear struck him. Locklear bit his face and described Locklear as being all over him for the last 20-30 minutes acting crazy, angry, and wild. Locklear told police that Heisser strangled her until she couldnt breathe, according to People. Locklear said the fight first started when [Heisser] lied to her and she threw a can of Red Bull at him, according to the police documents, obtained by People. Locklear told Deputy Alldredge that [Heisser] had strangled her and that she was afraid he would kill her, Hall said, according to the documents. Locklear stated she did not lose consciousness, but was strangled for a long time and thought she might pass out. Hours after Locklears Feb. 25 arrest, Heisser was arrested for drunk driving. Heisser dated Locklear in high school, and they reconnected about a year ago, People reported. Officers visited Locklears house again on March 6 to search for a firearm. During her Feb. 25 arrest, Locklear told officers she would shoot them if they came back onto her property, according to the Ventura County Sheriffs Office. Police found that Locklear had a gun registered in her name, and executed a search warrant to retrieve it, but were not successful. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Corvette Chase House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R), and ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (L) speak to the media about Committee's investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, at the U.S. Capitol on March 15, 2017. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) House Intelligence Investigation Concludes No Collusion Between Trump and Russia Russia used cyberattacks on U.S. political institutions and social media to sow discord during the 2016 elections but did not collude with the Trump campaign, a yearlong investigation by the House intelligence committee concluded on March 12. We have found no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians, said the committee, in a statement on the conclusion of its bipartisan investigation. The committee plans to submit its report, which is based on 73 witness interviews, 230 hours of testimony, nine hearings and briefings, and nearly 308,000 documents, for review so that a declassified version can be made public. The committee said that it concurred with the intelligence communitys assessment that Russia interfered with the 2016 elections, but not with the fact that Putin had a preference for then-candidate Donald Trump. The intelligence communitys assessment, overseen by then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, had found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Since leaving office in January 2017, Clapper has said on multiple occasions, including under oath before Congress, that his investigation had found no evidence of collusion. Despite the lack of evidence to support the claim that Trump colluded with Russia to win the elections, it has been one of the main lines of attack used against him. Research by the Media Research Center found that ABC, CBS, and NBC spent a disproportional amount of time covering the collusion theory in their evening newscasts. Between Jan. 20, 2017, and Dec. 31, 2017, the networks spent a combined 1,234 minutes covering the alleged Russian collusion on evening news broadcasts. By comparison, the second most covered topic, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, received a total of 475 minutes of coverage, and the North Korean nuclear crisis 364 minutes. Ranking member of the House intelligence committee Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has been one of the main proponents of the Russia collusion narrative, giving hundreds of interviews to media organizations on the matter over the past year. The congressman has claimed in multiple instances to have seen evidence showing collusion; however, none of those have come to fruition. Schiff said in a statement that he objected to the conclusion of the committees investigation. An investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller is still ongoing. Indictments made by Muellers office so far do not show any evidence of collusion. In announcing the indictment of 13 Russian nationals in February for their use of social media to create divisions in the United States during the elections, Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein said that no American national, including members of the Trump campaign, was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity. The final report by the House intelligence committee will also address the lackluster pre-election response to Russian active measures by the Obama administration, which was aware of the Russian efforts. The committees investigation also addresses how Russian disinformation from former and current officials connected to the Kremlin made its way to the campaign of then-candidate Hillary Clinton. The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee had paid Fusion GPS to produce the so-called Trump dossier, which relied almost exclusively on Russian information. The information was then actively spread among media organizations and politicians in an attempt to smear then-candidate Trump. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) admitted in a statement in January last year to have personally delivered a copy of the dossier to then-FBI Director James Comey. A separate memo released by the House intelligence committee in February showed that the dossier played a crucial part in the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) obtaining a FISA warrant on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page. In using the dossier, however, the FBI and DOJ failed to tell the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court the source of the information and its connections to the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Separate court documents from the UK, where former British spy Christopher Steele is being sued by a Russian businessman for libel, shows that secret briefings were given to media on the contents of the dossier during the election. Steeles defense attorney stated in the court documents that Steele was instructed by Fusion GPS to brief reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, CNN, and Yahoo News on the contents of the dossier. The briefings were done in person and verbally. Steele also participated in further meetings at Fusions instruction with Fusion and The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Yahoo News, according to the court documents. Bank records obtained by the House intelligence committee also showed that Fusion GPS made direct payments to a number of journalists who reported on Russia-related topics. Another topic covered in the House intelligence committee report is the problematic contacts between senior Intelligence Community officials and the media. During Trumps first year in office, his administration was plagued by dozens of leaks of classified information. Idaho Junior High Teacher Accused of Feeding Puppy to Turtle A junior high school teacher is under investigation in Idaho after allegedly feeding a puppy to a turtle. Robert Crosland, a science teacher at Preston Junior High, allegedly fed a live puppy to one of his reptiles in front of students during class recently. A local animal activist filed a police report after hearing of the incident. What I have learned in the last four days is disgusting. It is sick. It is sick, Jill Parrish told Fox13. Allowing children to watch an innocent baby puppy scream because it is being fed to an animal. That is violence. That is not okay. The puppy was apparently sick and not expected to live long. At least two parents said that they had no problem with it considering that aspect. If it was a deformed puppy that was going to die anyway is very much circle of life, said Annette Salvesen. Another parent, Julie Johnson, called Crosland the best science teacher Preston Junior High has. Parrish, the animal activist, argued that even if the puppy was going to die, feeding it to the reptile was not appropriate. Theres a lot of humane things you can do. Feeding a live animal to a reptile is not humane and its not okay, said Parrish. Three former students told East Idaho News that Crosland has exotic snakes and other animals in tanks around his classroom, and he has fed guinea pigs to snakes and snapping turtles during classroom demonstrations. He is a cool teacher who really brought science to life, a former student said. I loved his class because he had turtles and snakes and other cool things. Crosland hasnt commented publicly on the situation. Preston School District 201 Superintendent Marc Gee said in a news release that his administration became aware of a regrettable circumstance involving some of the biological specimens on March 7, reported East Idaho News. The event occurred well after students had been dismissed and was not a part of any school-directed program, Gee said in a news release. We emphasize that at no time was the safety of students or staff compromised. Authorities are investigating after a middle school teacher allegedly fed a live puppy to a snapping turtle on school grounds https://t.co/u4ZQee7eK0 New York Post (@nypost) March 13, 2018 However, some students did witness the incident, the outlet confirmed, although it was unclear how many were present. Crosland still has his job and no charges have been filed as of yet. Franklin County Sheriff Dave Fryar told The Idaho Statesman that he compiled a report on the investigation and sent it to the county prosecutor. Fryar declined to confirm if a live puppy was fed to a turtle. I was just talking to the prosecutor on the phone, Fryar said. The prosecutor said, Until he decides, he considers it an open book. He doesnt want us to do anything to hamper the investigation. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Father Who Lost Child Tells Trump: I remember the hug you gave me New Bill Would Penalize Slow Moving Vehicles in the Left Lane If youre a slow driver that likes traveling in the left lane, your driving habits may have to change in the future. Last week, Minnesota State Senator John Jasinski introduced a bill that would penalize slow-moving drivers in the left lane, FOX9 reported. The Minnesota Senate bill states that a driver traveling at less than the speed of traffic must drive in the right-hand lane or as close as possible. If drivers dont move over, it would result in a misdemeanor. According to the bill, the exceptions to the proposed law are if the vehicle is overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction. Other exceptions include if a vehicle is preparing for a left turn, and for vehicles in a specific lane designed for a certain type of traffic, such as a carpool lane. The bill is still in the introductory phase and is currently with the Committee on Transportation Finance and Policy. It is scheduled for discussion on Wednesday morning, March 14. Peoples reactions to the bill on social media were mixed. Some supported it but others did not. This is not the first bill of its kind. In Idaho, a similar bill introduced by Rep. Lance Clow was recently passed. The Idaho bill does not require slower moving vehicles to avoid the left lane, but it does establish a requirement that vehicles moving into the left lane to pass should not impede the flow of traffic in that lane. It basically says, not withstanding the minimum speeds, if someone pulls into that center lane and theyre impeding traffic for an unreasonable period of time, thats an infraction, Clow said during the bills introductory hearing, ABC affiliate KIVI-TV reported. Clow also said that the legislation was recommended to him by Idaho State Police. He added that it contained similar language found in Wyoming state code. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Lucky Motorcyclist Narrowly Avoids Multi-Car Crash A file photo of the house that caught on fire. (Screenshot via Google Maps) New York Mother Died Trying to Save Her Mother, Son From Home Fire A New York mother died from a fire after escaping the blaze but later rushing back in to try to save family members, authorities said. The fire broke out at 900 Mann Ave. early Sunday, March 11, in Rensselaer. Monzalah Alshami and her high school-age son Motasam leapt from a second-floor window to the ground to escape the flames, city police told WMUR. The mother and son then ran to the front of the building where 41-year-old Monzalah Alshami plunged back inside to try to rescue her other son, 8-year-old Aymen, and her mother, 68-year-old Safia Alblakhi. Motasam tried to go in after her but was driven back by the fire, Detective Scott Earing told WMUR. Monzalah, Aymen, and Safia all died inside the house. Their cause of death was smoke inhalation. Rafa Alshami, 16, Monzalah Alshamis third child, escaped the fire with burns covering over 30 percent of her body. Shes in critical condition at Clark Burn Treatment Center of Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, WMUR reports. Motasam is expected to survive after being treated at Albany Medical Center Hospital in the intensive care unit for non-life-threatening injuries. Physically hes OKburns on his hands and stuff, but you know, I cant imagine what hes going through mentally, Kieran Teator, a friend of the Alshami family, told News10. Mother died trying to save family members from New York fire https://t.co/eNBaA1riiu pic.twitter.com/JpNu8e9JPl WMUR TV (@WMUR9) March 13, 2018 Teator said that he and his friend thought the fire was a dream. We were both gonna text each other and say, Yo we just had this crazy dream where all of this happened but it would be fine because the next day we would go to school and we would see each other and it would be okay. And its day two and its still here, Teator said. The childrens father, Saddek Alshami, was not in the house when the fire broke out around 4:45 a.m. because he had gone to work. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: U.S. Imposes More North Korea Sanctions Trump Halts Broadcom Takeover of US Chipmaker Qualcomm Citing national security concerns, President Donald Trump blocked microchip maker Broadcoms proposed takeover of Qualcomm on March 12, ending what would have been the technology industrys biggest deal ever. Government officials had expressed concern that the deal would give China the upper hand in mobile communications. The presidential order reflected a calculation that the United States lead in creating technology and setting standards for the next generation of mobile cell phone communications would be lost to China if Singapore-based Broadcom took over San Diego-based Qualcomm, according to a White House official. Qualcomm has emerged as one of the biggest competitors to Huawei, the Chinese-regime-friendly telecoms firm, making the former a prized U.S. asset. Qualcomm had earlier rebuffed Broadcoms $117 billion bid, which was under investigation by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a multi-agency panel led by the Treasury Department that reviews the national security implications of acquisitions of U.S. corporations by foreign companies. In a letter on March 5, CFIUS said it was investigating whether Broadcom would starve Qualcomm of research dollars that would allow it to compete and also cited the risk of Broadcoms relationship with third party foreign entities. While it did not identify those entities, the letter repeatedly described Qualcomm as the leading company in so-called 5G technology development and standard setting. A shift to Chinese dominance in 5G would have substantial negative national security consequences for the United States, CFIUS said. While the United States remains dominant in the standards-setting space currently, China would likely compete robustly to fill any void left by Qualcomm as a result of this hostile takeover. National Security and Huawei A White House official confirmed on March 12 that the national security concerns related to the risks of Broadcoms relationship with third party foreign entities. A source familiar with CFIUS thinking had told Reuters that, if the deal was completed, the U.S. military was concerned that within 10 years, there would essentially be a dominant player in all of these technologies and thats essentially Huawei, and then the American carriers would have no choice. They would just have to buy Huawei (equipment). Huawei has been forging closer commercial ties with big telecom operators across Europe and Asia, putting it in prime position to lead the global race for 5G networks despite U.S. concerns. Huawei has a dominant position in China, which is set to become the worlds biggest 5G market by far, and has also made inroads in the rest of world to compete with rivals such as Ericsson and Nokia in several lucrative markets, including countries that are longstanding U.S. allies. Qualcomm is also a major player in 5G, estimated to have 15 percent of 5G-essential patents in the world, compared with 11 percent for Nokia and 10 percent for all of China, according to a Jefferies report citing LexInnova research. Many smartphone makers are counting on Qualcomm to deliver its 5G chipset on time in late 2018 to roll out their 5G phones in 2019. Shares of Broadcom rose less than 1.0 percent to $264.10 in after-hours trade while Qualcomm fell 4.3 percent to $60.14. Broadcom said it was reviewing the presidential order. Broadcom strongly disagrees that its proposed acquisition of Qualcomm raises any national security concerns, it said in a statement in response to the decision. Qualcomm, which had delayed its annual shareholder meeting during the CFIUS review, set the new date for March 23. This is the fifth time a U.S. president has blocked a deal based on CFIUS objections and the second deal Trump has stopped since assuming office slightly over a year ago. The proposed takeover of Qualcomm by the Purchaser (Broadcom) is prohibited, and any substantially equivalent merger, acquisition, or takeover, whether effected directly or indirectly, is also prohibited, the presidential order released on March 12 stated. The order cited credible evidence that led Trump to believe that Broadcoms taking control of Qualcomm might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States. Broadcoms Move Broadcom had struggled to complete its proposed deal to buy Qualcomm, the latter citing several concerns including the price offered and potential antitrust hurdles. The presidential decision to block the deal cannot be appealed. However, it is not clear what rules Broadcom would have to follow if it goes ahead with announced plans to move its headquarters to the United States. CNBC previously reported that Broadcom had violated a government order to notify the CFIUS before making moves to relocate its headquarters from Singapore, citing a CFIUS letter to the chipmakers. Broadcom had done this three times. This was seen as Broadcoms attempt to circumvent the CFIUS jurisdiction over the deal by moving its headquarters before the panels review would be complete. Companies may challenge CFIUSs jurisdiction in court but may not challenge the inter-agency panels national security findings, a CFIUS expert said. From Reuters. Epoch Times staff member Annie Wu contributed to this report. James OKeefe, founder and president of Project Veritas, at the groups headquarters in upstate New York on Oct. 31, 2017. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times) Project Veritas Raises Concerns That Social Networks May Be Violating Free Speech Laws Technology and social media companies are under fire for censoring conservatives, and undercover videos released by Project Veritas are bringing evidence to the debate over whether these media platforms are violating laws on free speech. This is what happens when news hits critical mass, said James OKeefe, president of Project Veritas. Democracy can only work if the public is informed, and thanks to our investigation, we are seeing just that. Project Veritas released a new video on March 13, which compares clips from its undercover investigations of Twitter, along with clips from a Jan. 17 Senate committee hearing with representatives from YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter on online extremism and censorship policies. In the video, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) states, There were several videos that were released in recent weeks that I and a lot of other people find highly troubling. Cruz points to undercover videos of Twitter employees explaining how the company targets conservatives for censorship. One Twitter employee said that flags include people tweeting about God, the American flag, and guns, which he suggested may get a user labeled as a bot and censored. Looks like thousands of Twitter users committed the thought crime of tweeting about "God," "the American flag," and "guns," and were taken off the platform. Our undercover reporting into Twitter showed those terms indicate to engineers you are "for sure a bot." #TwitterLockOut pic.twitter.com/hI88iUEcCD James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) February 21, 2018 When Cruz presses Twitter Public Policy Director Carlos Monje further, asking whether Twitters position is that it censors users for being categorized as extremist or fringe, Monje replies that only bots that act abusively are censored and it depends on the user. The statement points to a deeper problem of how online censorship is being done. The online platforms have created extremely broad criteria that allow them to label users as bots, and then subject them to censorship. To frame the bot label, Twitter and Facebook go through the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which is part of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The Alliance says on its website that users can be defined as bots if they are loosely connected to Russia or even unconnected to the Russian government. These actions directly violate personal liberty and stand at contrast with the bill of rights. From a White House petition for an Internet Bill of Rights to protect free speech online Among its loose criteria, it says some users may not understand they are part of the Russian social network. In other words, the bots are not necessarily automated systems, but can also be regular users who may post articles or phrases that the social media companies associate with their labels of bots. Calls are now growing for protections of free speech online, as evidence grows showing that tech giants are pushing political censorship on some of the internets largest forums of discussion. Some users are calling for an Internet Bill of Rights to protect online free speech. A White House petition for such a bill has close to 20,000 signatures and argues Internet forums and social networks which provide free access to the public are a digital place of assembly, and individuals using such methods for public communication should not be subjected to censorship due to political beliefs or differing ideas. It notes that some online platforms are not only censoring conservative voices but are also using tracking methods to monitor the internet history of users, sometimes without the users knowledge. It states, These actions directly violate personal liberty and stand at contrast with the bill of rights. Cruz raised a similar point. He stated during the Jan. 17 hearing that The pattern of political censorship that we are seeing across the technology companies is highly concerning. According to Cruz, however, there may already be laws in place under the Communications Decency Act (CDA) that the technology companies are violating by censoring conservatives. The opening question I asked of whether you are a neutral public forumif you are a neutral public forum, that does not allow for political editorializing and censorship, Cruz said. If you are not a neutral public forum, the entire predicate for liability immunity under the CDA is claiming to be a neutral public forum, so you cannot have it both ways. Quebec to Ban Sugary High-Alcohol Drinks From Grocery, Convenience Stores QUEBECOn the heels of the death of a teenager last month, the Quebec government says it will move to ban sales of high-sugar, high-alcohol beverages in convenience and grocery stores. Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux will introduce an amendment to his bill seeking to modernize the provinces alcohol and gaming legislation. The new rules will apply to beverages that contain more than seven percent alcohol and make them available only at Quebec liquor commission outlets. The measure will come into effect after the law is adopted by the end of the current parliamentary session in June. The move comes amid calls for government action following the death of 14-year-old Athena Gervais, who reportedly consumed such a product before disappearing. She was found dead in a stream behind her high school in Laval on March 1. Montreal La Presse reported she had been drinking stolen cans of FCKD UP, a sweetened, malt-based alcoholic beverage with an 11.9 percent alcohol contentthe equivalent of four drinks. The company has since ceased production of the beverage. Coiteux said Quebec will maintain pressure on Health Canada, which is reviewing various products on the market with Quebec authorities and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to assess their safety. Recommended Video: The Origins of Antifa Tip Led to Discovery of Remains of Georgia Teen Missing For Nearly a Year Human remains found in a wooded area behind an Augusta home have been identified as belonging to the missing and presumed dead 16-year-old, LaTania Janell Carwell. Bones found in a shallow grave in the backyard of a vacant residence were identified through dental records, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, citing the Richmond County Sheriffs Office. The sheriffs office was contacted by telephone on Thursday, March 8, and deputies were notified of the discovery of what appeared to be human remains. The grisly find was made at Golden Camp Road, Sheriff Richard Roundtree said at a news conference on Tuesday, March 13, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The girls stepfather, Leon Tripp, and her mother, Tanya Tripp, were both arrested on May 23 in connection with her disappearance. Roundtree told reporters that new information discovered during a forensic search confirmed that Carwells mother and stepfather are the primary suspects in her death. We did find information (during the process) that supports the fact that the subjects we have in custody are responsible, Roundtree said. In June, Roundtree said the missing teen was thought to be dead based on a statement made by the stepfather. We now know have confirmed via statement, and this is from Mr. Tripp, that Janell is not alive, Augusta-Richmond County District Attorney Natalie Paine said at the time, 11Alive reported. Leon Tripp was charged with kidnapping and murder, while Tanya Tripp was charged with concealing her daughters death. Both remain in Richmond County Jail. Sheriff Roundtree said that investigators are now working to ascertain the girls cause of death, with indictments of the suspects likely to follow. Leon Tripp was in Johnson State Prison from June 2009 until April 2015 for aggravated assault, according to Georgia Department of Corrections records. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, citing the Chronicle, Tanya Tripp married Leon Tripp while he was incarcerated. Recommended Video: Timelapse Video Captures Ocean of Clouds Over Vancouver, British Columbia Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau pose for photographs at the White House on Oct. 11, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Trump Stresses Desire for Quick NAFTA Deal in Phone Chat with Trudeau WASHINGTONU.S. President Donald Trump urged the quick completion of the NAFTA negotiations in a phone call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday, amid indications the U.S. wants a deal wrapped up this spring. Trudeau called his American counterpart during a tour of aluminum facilities in Quebec, on a day the prime minister did American television interviews to promote the integrated Canada-U.S. economy. What he heard directly from the president echoed public remarks from Trumps administration: the U.S. trade czar recently said he wants a new NAFTA concluded within weeks, because of upcoming elections in the different countries. The U.S. has said further delays might imperil the negotiations, with an outsider candidate leading polls for Mexicos July 1 election, and with Trumps party in danger of losing control of the U.S. Congress. We recognize that the American side is eager to get forward motion on NAFTA, Trudeau told CNNs Anderson Cooper, in one of his U.S. interviews. We are too. So were glad to do it. Trudeau said tariffs on Canada would have made it harder to get a deal, and said he raised that with the president. He also credited Trump for keeping a promise: he said the president told him at last years G7 that Canada would get an exemption, and kept his word. NAFTA talks might now enter an intense phase: President Trump emphasized the importance of quickly concluding the ongoing NAFTA negotiations, said a readout from the White House on Mondays call with Trudeau. (That would) ensure the vitality of United States and North American manufacturing industries and protect the economic and national security of the United States. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will be in Washington for three days this weekmeeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and key members of Congress. But some veterans of the original NAFTA have expressed doubt that its feasible to complete a deal by spring; thats what it would take to complete the ratification procedures during the current Congress that leaves office this year. Trudeau is also brushing off the idea that Canada might be bullied into a deal. The U.S. government has been dropping hints that the decision to excuse Canada and Mexico from tariffs on steel and aluminum might only be temporary, and somehow dependent on the result of trade negotiations. Trudeau told another U.S. network that he sees them as separate issues: We dont link together the tariffs and the negotiations with NAFTA, he told CNBC in an interview from a Quebec aluminum plant Monday. Trudeau also rejected the idea that the tariff exemption was some kind of benevolent American favour that required repayment. In Trudeaus view, the U.S. wasnt just helping Canadait helped itself by refraining from slapping tariffs on its No. 1 supplier of both steel and aluminum. The exemptions arent a magical favour that was being done (for Canada), Trudeau said. (Were) highlighting that the imposition of tariffs on Canada would end up hurting the U.S. almost as much as it would hurt Canada. Recommended Video: How Doctors in China Turn into Murderers Two Children and Parents Dead in Pierce County Murder-Suicide Two young children and their parents have been killed in an apparent murder-suicide in Pierce County, Washington. The Pierce County Sheriffs Department said they went to a mans home after he called 911 at 1 a.m. on Tuesday, March 12, saying he had killed his wife and two children. A Sheriffs Department spokesman, Ed Troyer, told KIRO 7, He thanked us for our time, but said by the time we got there he would be deceased as well, and he followed through with that. SWAT officers attempted to talk the man out of the house but didnt receive a response. After they entered the house they found the bodies of a 29-year-old man, a 33-year-old woman, a 2-year-old boy, and a 4-year-old girl, all with gunshot wounds. The man was found dead with a handgun near his body, Troyer said. The woman and the children were in their beds. It is unclear what lead up to the deaths, with police saying they hadnt previously been called to the address. Its very somber when theres two toddlers who are dead through no fault of their own, Troyer told Seattle Times. Hopefully we can figure out what happened so maybe we can prevent it from happening again. Police said the man had been in the Air Force and stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, but the family was originally from New Hampshire. Troyer told Seattle Times that investigators would be working with officials at the base and serving warrants on the house to establish a motive for the killings. Woman Charged With Threatening to Bomb North Carolina Middle School A North Carolina woman was arrested for making a bomb threat against a middle school her son attends. Barbara Elizabeth Sherrill, 29, told people that she had set bombs around the school and said law enforcement officials better hope they find them before they go off, according to the Alexander County Sheriffs Office. Sherrill posted the threats on social media websites. Sheriff Chris Bowman told WBTV that Sherrill is the mother of a male student who recently got into an altercation at school recently and was subsequently disciplined by school officials. Sherrill didnt agree with the punishment and thus made the threats, Bowman said. Investigators brought in a K-9 trained in bomb detection but didnt find any bombs. Students had already been sent home because of intense winter weather. Sherrill was charged with one count of felony false report of mass violence on education property, reported WSOC. The judge set her bond at $20,000. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Kayaker Rescues Iguana Swimming Miles From Shore Fans of Jersey Boys, which has been seen by millions, will tell you its a Tony Award-winning show about the Four Seasons the 1960s group that gave us such hits as Sherry, Rag Doll and Walk Like a Man. But those words only scratch the surface, according to Chris Stevens, who will appear in the national touring production coming to Waterburys Palace Theater, Friday and Saturday, March 23 and 24. The musical tells the story of how four blue-collar kids worked very hard and diligently to become The Four Seasons and wind up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (in 1990), he said in a phone interview. Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi were New Jersey guys who came from really nothing, said Stevens, who portrays Massi. They just kept working whether relationships were succeeding or failing, whether record producers were saying yes or no, they kept at it. The Four Seasons invented their own sound and sold 175 million records, all before they were 30. Many of their songs are in Jersey Boys, which won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. Like every showbiz story, theirs had ups and downs, Stevens said. These four had some major problems. The four who started the group arent the ones who ended up in it (Massi left in 1965), but it is a special story about real life and what underdogs go through to rise to success ... with great cross-generational music thats still around. Speaking of real life, one challenge the group faced was dealing with DeVitos gambling habit. In the show he is portrayed as Massis messy roommate, using every towel in the room, then leaving them on the floor and worse. In one scene Massi goes on a colorful tirade about it, after its discovered theyre $162,000 in debt because of DeVito. Nick is very much the quiet one of the group, Stevens said. But at that point in the story, hes gone a long time without opening his mouth. Nick says, Youre really not a good human, dude, and he wants the rest of the group to know. Stevens said he had the honor of meeting the real Bob Gaudio this past January. He told me Nick (who died in 2000) cared only about the music, wasnt into the drama and didnt hang out much. So how did Stevens win the role of Massi? The 2011 graduate of DeSales University in Pennsylvania said he did a national tour of Cats right out of college, and auditioned numerous times for a spot in Jersey Boys. It took six years for me to get into the show. I was always called in for Bob Gaudio, but then they said, We think you might be aging out of Bob Gaudio. I kind of looked at them and said, Im 28, how am I aging out of anything? Fortunately, they asked him to audition as Massi, and when he did, putting his own spin on it, everything fell into place. lkoonz@newstimes.com; Twitter: @LindaTKoonz STAMFORD When AITE senior Marco Lima was 4 years old, he shared an idea with his family. He wanted to build something. His parents acknowledged it but since he was so young they ended up brushing it off. Lima went on to build that small contraption his parents had previously ignored and once it was done rushed to show it off. His parents were now surprised and pleased with how well their son had done. It evoked an emotion in Lima that to this day still motivates him. Lima loves creating and the process of making something. Since then, whenever I do something I get that feeling, he said. Its what motivates me to keep going. Lima is now a high school senior and an aspiring entrepreneur. It has not been easy for him but he continuously chases ways to channel his ideas and opportunities to feel the same emotion he felt more than a decade ago. Triple M is now a brand name and group that sells clothing in several states with promotions on YouTube and SoundCloud. The idea started when Lima was a sophomore. It initially started as a group of friends who basically wanted to work together on some things, he said. Lima said they werent necessarily sure what we wanted to do at first, but were convinced to stick together and create. It all began in his business class, where they started what Lima calls a very, very small business. What they lacked in resources they made up for in excitement, but that did not last long. Lima said the group fell apart with everyones interest except his diminishing. Eventually, I kept bringing it up and they werent as into it as I was, so I decided I would just do it on my own, Lima said. Lima said he wanted to keep his options open and channel his ideas and create things for himself and others. He said he made it so vague, I mentioned that it was a group, not a business. Its not a fashion line or something like that. I made it vague because over time Ill get different ideas or different opportunities and I will be able to channel it out. According to its website, Triple M is a platform for the production of apparel, music, photography and various media services. This platform began with humble resources and humble ideas. I basically just wanted to do educational YouTube videos like teaching people and stuff, he said. But I didnt have enough resources, so I had to find some sort of way to make money at first. So the first thing I thought about doing was selling clothes. It made sense to fund one idea with the profits of another. The only problem was it also required money. He was lucky enough to meet a friend willing to help. Noah Benson, also an AITE senior, had already started his brand. Benson was willing to pay for half of the product for half of the profits and they struck a six-month deal. Their arrangement, though, did not last long as Benson stepped away with hopes to focus on his music. Lima was suddenly back to square one having to finance himself. He used almost all the money in his bank account to fund his dream, and the investment paid off. Now his brand has taken off. Lima has set up his own website where you can listen to the music and videos he has produced, buy the brands clothes, peruse his photo gallery and contact him through various social media services. No matter how good what youre doing is, whether its helping other people or doing something for yourself, there will always be somebody who doesnt agree, he said. Thats not bad. Everyone will have a different perspective, but it just means that there will be conflicts and setbacks. All you have to do is learn from your mistakes. Lima sees the platform exponentially growing in the future. It doesnt feel like work because Im really passionate about it, he said. Whatever it is, marketing, advertising, accounting, making new designs, working on orders, making surveys. Its a lot of work but I get motivated from the work I do. It gives me energy. Peter Galbraith Braith Kelly Jr. a former power plant executive who was arrested on federal corruption charges along with a former top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was freed from felony charges on Tuesday, when a jury in Manhattan could not agree on his guilt. The Albany Times Union reported that Joe Percoco, Cuomo's former top aide was found guilty of three corruption counts in a trial that cast a light on the pay-to-play culture in New York state government. Percoco was found guilty of honest services fraud, conspiracy to commit honest services, and solicitation of bribes and gratuities. Percoco was acquitted of three other counts against him, including extortion. A Danbury native has been identified as the pilot of a helicopter that crashed in the East River in New York City, killing five people Sunday night. The Daily News reported that Richard Vance, 33, was the pilot and only survivor of the crash. Vance told investigators the crash might have been caused by a passenger's bag accidentally hitting the emergency fuel shutoff button, CNN reported. Tragedy in the skies is unfortunately not new news in Connecticut. There have been a number of small plane crashes, many in the Danbury area where the local airport caters to small, private planes. This past summer, two crashes in Danbury led U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to call on the federal government to tighten regulations regarding private aviation. But pilots and experts from around Danbury, which saw fatal crashes on July 30 and Aug. 11, said they weren't sure that more regulation is the answer. "It's an unfortunate and tragic spike, not necessarily a trend," Mike Safranek, assistant administrator of Danbury Municipal Airport told Hearst in September. "I don't think there are more or less if you go back statistically, but when it comes in a spike it may look like more." / PR NEWSWIRE Stratford-based Sikorsky has seen misfortune around the globe. In March 2017, a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter crashed during an overnight mission by the Irish Coast Guard to help a fishing vessel requiring a medical evacuation, killing the pilot. In Ireland and the United States, S-92 helicopters have been subjected to intensified inspections, following multiple incidents of pilots reporting loss of control of tail rotors. In 2016, Connecticut-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. agreed to settle wrongful death and negligence claims in a lawsuit filed over the 2014 crash of a Navy helicopter that killed three of the five crew members on a training exercise off the coast of Virginia. Sikorsky reached a "settlement in principle" with the widows of the three crewmen and a survivor of the crash who filed the lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut last year, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press. The MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter crashed on Jan. 8, 2014, about 18 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach during what the Navy said was routine mine countermeasure training. In 2004, the families of two men killed in a 2002 helicopter crash off the coast of England filed a wrongful death suit against Sikorsky Aircraft. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, saught millions of dollars in damages from Stratford-based Sikorsky and Composite Technology Inc., a Texas company that inspects and tests rotor blades for Sikorsky. In the court papers, lawyers for the families of Philip Dearden and Mark Wake, who worked as crew members on the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter that crashed in the North Sea, said a flaw in the rotor blade that went undetected in an inspection caused the disaster that killed 11. An initial investigation by authorities in England found that the blade had been hit by lightning in 1999, aggravating the defect, the lawsuit says. In 2000, Sikorsky and Composite Technology certified the blade as repaired and airworthy. It was then installed on the helicopter operated by Bristow Helicopters that crashed on July 16, 2002. Additional reporting by various Hearst Newspapers staff. Thursday, March 8 When the biggest diplomatic move of President Donald Trump's administration to date was announced, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Ethiopia. Tillerson had just arrived on the African continent Thursday for a multiday trip when a delegation from South Korea arrived at the White House to discuss recent negotiations with North Korea. They were there to meet with top aides to the president, but Trump himself intervened, inviting them into the Oval Office. There, he was told that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was open to discussions with the United States, and Trump, without hesitation, agreed. The South Korean delegation announced the anticipated meeting between the United States and North Korea from the White House driveway. Only hours before, Tillerson had been asked about the prospect of discussions with the North Koreans. "We're a long ways from negotiations," Tillerson told the media. The distance, it turns out, was much shorter than Tillerson knew. Friday, March 9 At some point on Friday, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly contacted Tillerson, according to the Associated Press, to inform him that there might soon be a presidential tweet concerning him. That call was likely in the middle of the night for Tillerson, according to Bloomberg News. Tillerson told Bloomberg and other members of the press that he'd had a call at 2:30 a.m. about which he couldn't say anything further. Tillerson continued on to Djibouti. Trump's schedule for the day was largely empty. Saturday, March 10 Tillerson's schedule on Saturday was cleared by the State Department, attributed to Tillerson not feeling well. Trump traveled to Pittsburgh for a rally on behalf of a congressional candidate in the state. During his speech, he celebrated the apparent breakthrough with North Korea. "When the South Korean representatives who just left North Korea came outside, big throng of press, they announced that North Korea, Kim Jong Un, would like to meet with President Trump," the president said. "This doesn't happen, you know. They say well, Obama could have done that. Trust me, he wouldn't have done it. And by the way, neither would Bush, and neither would Clinton. And they had their shot, and all they did was nothing." Sunday, March 11 Tillerson resumed his public schedule in Kenya. Trump mostly tweeted. CIA Director Mike Pompeo appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation," where he was asked about the situation with North Korea and upcoming negotiations. CBS' MARGARET BRENNAN: Tillerson said this will be done through him. Is that still the plan? POMPEO: This is a level of discussion the president is going to drive this effort this negotiation, but it will take a team to build out the picture so that we put the president in the best position so that he can achieve that outcome. BRENNAN: Because it's unclear, though, if it's the State Department or your agency that will take the lead. It was your counterpart from South Korea who was at the White House this week. POMPEO: I don't think there's any doubt about who's going to take the lead on this. The president of the United States is going to take the lead. Monday, March 12 British Prime Minister Theresa May, speaking from Parliament, made a remarkable announcement. The poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K. earlier this month was undertaken with a nerve agent produced by the Russian government. The implication was either that Russia had lost control of that toxin, she said, or that the Russian government had a hand in the attack. Tillerson had begun his flight back to the United States, cutting his trip short, he told reporters, because he wasn't feeling well. In a break from past practice, he spoke to the press on the record, including about the incident in the U.K. The attack on the spy, Sergei Skripal, which left him and his daughter in critical condition, "clearly came from Russia," Tillerson said, given how difficult the toxin was to obtain. The attack was a "really egregious act" that would "certainly trigger a response." "What we've seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive," he said. "And this is very, very concerning to me and others that there seems to be a certain unleashing of activity that we don't fully understand what the objective behind that is." Asked about May's comments during the daily White House news briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to point the finger at Russia. "I think [the British are] still working through even some of the details of that," she said. Tuesday, March 13 Tillerson arrives back in the United States at 4 a.m. A few hours later, The Post breaks the story about Tillerson being replaced with Pompeo. Trump confirms the move in a tweet: "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" State Department Undersecretary Steve Goldstein told CNN that the tweet was the first point at which Tillerson knew he'd been fired, though the New York Times reports that Tillerson found out "before dawn." The department had already released a statement suggesting that Tillerson's departure was not mutually agreed upon. "The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of critical progress made in national security," that statement read. "He will miss his colleagues at the Department of State and the foreign ministers that he's worked with throughout the world." The secretary, the statement added, "did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason" for the firing. Trump was asked about his decision during a brief news conference. "Mr. President," one reporter asked, "what did you say to Rex Tillerson?" "Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time," Trump said, not indicating that any of those conversations had occurred recently. "We got along, actually, quite well, but we disagreed on things. . . . We were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well." Trump said he made the decision to meet with North Korea "by myself," noting that Tillerson "wasn't in this country." Trump was also asked about May's remarks in the U.K. He said he'd be speaking with the prime minister later in the day. "As soon as we the facts straight," Trump said, "and we're going to be speaking with the British today; we're going to be speaking with Theresa May today. And as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia - or whoever it may be." He then praised the decision by the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee to exonerate him on questions of collusion during the 2016 presidential campaign. NORWALK While snow came down at a furious pace at times, Norwalk Director of Public Works Bruce Chimento later labeled Tuesdays noreaster the third within two weeks as the storm that didnt happen. If you look outside, you would never know there was a snowstorm. You look at the grass or anything, its all gone, Chimento said of the remaining snowfall late Tuesday afternoon. There was no plowing there was nothing to plow. We did salt a little bit in the northern section of town because it was slushy, but that was it and not much at all. That was up in Cranbury and up in Silvermine. Alex von Kleydorff / Hearst Connecticut Media NORWALK Norwalk Community College will host its 56th annual commencement exercises at a new off-campus location this year at 4:30 p.m. on May 17. The graduation will take place at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, a 10,000-seat multipurpose arena built alongside the Ballpark at Harbor Yard. Webster Arena is off Interstate 95 and adjacent to a Metro-North train station. NORWALK The last day of school will be pushed to June 18 at the very least, since the district has to make up for five weather-related school cancellations from this year so far. It wasnt clear as of Monday night if schools were going to close again on Tuesday because of the regions third noreaster. Snow days and weather-related cancellations arent built into the school calendar and typically get added to the end of year, said Norwalk Chief of School Operations Frank Costanzo. This has been Norwalks practice to fulfill the 180-day state requirement for classes. The anticipated last day of school was June 11. Theres a lot of research that goes into making a weather-related decision, and I am always looking to make sure I have the best information available, Costanzo said. Obviously safety is the number one factor, with the second priority being how we maximize learning time for kids. Before making the decision to cancel school, Costanzo refers to the districts paid meteorologist, who provides weather alerts and forecasts and coordinates conference calls with area superintendents and school chiefs, sometimes at 4 a.m. He also makes sure to stay in regular contact with Norwalks Department of Public Works before, during and after a storm. Costanzo said last weeks three consecutive snow days were unique, particularly on Friday when the schools announced a cancellation early that morning. The power lines were a real safety issue around town, so the Friday decision we made out of an abundance of caution and we waited as long as we could hoping to get that day in but ultimately we werent able to do so, he said. Additionally, Costanzo said he's established a couple of practices to help clarify and simplify the process for weather-related cancellations, so they are more predictable for parents. Any delay the district has is two hours, and anytime theres a school closure, after-school activities and evening events are also canceled. Changes to the 2017-18 school year calendar wont be finalized until the first Board of Education meeting in April. During that meeting, Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski makes recommendations on how the district will make up canceled days and the board adopts the calendar. Based on whats happened in the past, Costanzo said the superintendent usually recommends adding school days to the end of the year. He noted that its been several years since Norwalk schools and other districts looked to take away days from spring break. While the district does not have a limit of snow days, state schools have only until June 30 to make up days, Costanzo said. And in the case of Norwalk, summer school is scheduled to start on June 26. Currently Reading Weird things people have been arrested or charged for in Connecticut recently WILTON Wilton Library will welcome internationally-acclaimed and award-winning musicians, violinist Igor Pikayzen and pianist Tatyana Pikayzen, to the Brubeck Room stage from 7:30-8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 24. Both recognized as virtuosos, they are direct descendants of legendary Soviet violinist Viktor Pikayzen Igor is his grandson and Tatyana is Viktors daughter and Igor is her son. Igor and Tatyana Pikayzen will be performing pieces by Mozart, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Waxman. Since his concerto debut with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra at age 8, Igor Pikayzen has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras spanning Europe, Asia, North and South America. He has been praised on four continents by critics and audiences alike with The Moscow Times noting his astounding technical ability and majestically lush tone while stating that he surely is at the forefront of a major musical career. In the last two years, he has given debuts and returned to Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall as well as many other major international venues. Igor received his bachelors degree from Juilliard and a masters degree and artist diploma from the Yale School of Music. He is currently completing his doctorate at CUNY and he is on the violin faculty of the Brooklyn Conservatory. Igor splits his time between New York City and Westport, where he launched an annual summer music festival called Edelio. Famed Russian pianist Tatyana Pikayzen has performed to tremendous critical acclaim across three continents. A top prize winner at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, she has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras in the worlds most prestigious concert halls and has played for such dignitaries as the last President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. An internationally sought-after teacher, she has been on the faculty and has given master classes in conservatories around the world. She also has performed in a long-standing duo with her father, Viktor Pikayzen. Labeled by the Suddeutsche Zeitung, the Paganini of the keyboard, her recordings are treasured by music lovers and her discography includes the complete piano-violin sonatas of Beethoven, Brahms, and Bach. Her most recent recording is of the complete Chopin Ballads, recorded at Yale University in 2015. This exhilarating performance is free to the public thanks to the generous support of Ann Chernow, artist; Price Financial Group, Lori Price, President; and, Dr. Mark and Linda Rubinstein. An informal reception follows the concert. Registration is strongly recommended. Pre-registrants should arrive by 7:20 p.m. to be guaranteed seating; wait-listed and walk-in registrants will be admitted after 7:20 if space is available. Wilton Library is in the heart of Wilton Center at 137 Old Ridgefield Road. For information, directions and registration, visit www.wiltonlibrary.org or call 203-762-6334. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. 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Ltd., Soluscope SAS, Swisher Hygiene, Technical Textile Services Limited, Techtex Holdings Limited, Terminix, Ultrafab, Wabasha Leasing LLC, and vanBaerle Hygiene AG. President Trump arrived in California on Tuesday after a tumultuous morning in which he fired his secretary of State to personally confront the state's resistance over his signature issue, a southern border wall, and related immigration crackdowns. Trump's first visit to the nation's most populous state is to be brief just one day but long on symbolism. He plans to spend about an hour inspecting border wall prototypes built at his direction in San Diego, then speak at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and travel to a fundraiser in Beverly Hills that is expected to . Wall Street analysts have given Detour Gold 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 Detour Gold wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. 10 hours ago Stocks drop the most since May on worries over China, Fed Stocks on Wall Street closed sharply lower Monday, mirroring losses overseas and handing the S&P 500 index its biggest drop in four months. Worries about heavily indebted Chinese real estate developers and the damage they could do to investors worldwide if they default rippled across markets. Read Article Watertown's game-winning kicker leads the Week 5 list of top area football performers Kickers need love too. Dont be shocked that the player leading the Public Opinions Week 5 list of top area high school football performers is kicker Andrew Czech. Ryan, a brilliant, enthusiastic young scientist, spent a two-year layover in my neuroscience laboratory between his undergrad studies in Vancouver, B.C., and graduate school on the East Coast. On his last day in California, we sat over drinks, reflecting on his plans for the future. I offered some parting advice and then asked the question I pose to everyone who graduates from my lab: What could I have done better? He hesitated, then replied, Youre too nice. This was startling, especially coming from a Canadian. (Ive omitted Ryans last name to protect his privacy.) Nice might count as faint praise, but is it really an insult? I asked him to elaborate. Well, he said, noticeably uncomfortable, youre so nice to everyone here that we dont really know what you think about anyone. Some people end up assuming the worst. Later that night, I realized he was right, though I would use a different term. I was addicted to politeness. Not everyone shares my addiction. In fact, our culture is in the middle of a politeness shortage. Imagine a reader from five years ago leafing through todays Washington Post. Shed probably be shocked at the vulgarity of our national conversation. Social media is overrun with bullying. CNN warns parents they might want to clear the room of small children before the presidents remarks are broadcast. Norms are steadily shredded. The psychologist Steven Pinker claims that modern society is built on a foundation of civilizing: peoples adherence to common decency. If hes right, our house is teetering. Its easy to long for politeness, but just because Archie Bunker is over for dinner doesnt mean wed be better off with Miss Manners. Politeness often hurts more than it helps. For the past dozen years, Ive studied empathy: peoples ability to share and understand each others feelings. Empathy is a powerful, ancient engine for kindness. If you flinch when someone else is shocked, youre more likely to step in and help them. If you think deeply about the suffering of homeless people, youre more likely to support policies that protect them. Empathy also comes in different flavours, including distress an aversion to seeing others in pain and concern a desire to improve their well-being. These pieces of empathy often split apart. Imagine you have a friend about to launch an ill-advised business venture or to marry someone you know to be unfaithful. Tell him the bad news and hell feel hurt, but hell also have information to make wiser choices. Empathetic distress motivates people to avoid causing suffering at all costs. Like the Hippocratic oath, it inspires us to do no harm. But it can also encourage comforting lies over difficult truths. In one study, college students privately rated a peers application to graduate school and were told that the writer had suffered a personal tragedy. They then had the chance to re-rate her essay, this time knowing she would see their evaluation. Readers inflated their assessments for the writers benefit, especially when they empathized with her. Oncologists often avoid using the word cancer during diagnoses, replacing it with vague, sanitized language. This might make conversation easier but can also leave patients in the dark. A physician at a neonatal intensive care unit once told me about a family whose child would probably die in the coming weeks. The medical team had never told them this bluntly. Theyre such nice people, he said, and you dont want to tell them such bad news. This is polite, but not kind. To truly care for people, we often must steer them into hard feelings. Parents teach their kids to be wary around strangers. Therapists encourage phobia patients to confront things that terrify them. This reflects a deeper concern for someones long-term well-being. Many of us are willing to make family and close friends uncomfortable in the service of helping them but dont extend the same courtesy to colleagues or acquaintances. They could often use it just as much. By protecting my students feelings too forcefully, I might have been stunting their growth. If theres one place that politeness seems useful, its the gulf between Us and Them into which the U.S. has fallen. Political discourse increasingly resembles a live-action YouTube comment section; to claw our way back toward stability, niceness seems like a crucial starting point. In the fall, Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch preached the importance of politeness, joining a chorus of similar voices from across the political spectrum. Politicians frequently praise their opponents for mere civility, sometimes obscuring real ideological differences between them. But especially when one group of people holds power over another, righteous anger is often in order, and politeness can turn into a Band-Aid that stops wounds from healing. In surveys, psychologists asked people from historically low-power communities black South Africans, Arab Israelis, African Americans and Latino Americans how many friendly interactions they recently had had with their higher-power counterparts. Individuals who experienced interracial harmony were more tolerant of their peers from other groups. But they also ignored systemic inequality and expressed less support for social change. Niceness papered over oppression, making people less likely to fight it. In recent years, American prejudice has taken off its mask. Bigots have grown louder and more comfortable, for instance staging white-supremacist rallies around the country last year. Would we really prefer them to bite their tongue in public while quietly working against equality and indoctrinating their children with prejudice? If sunlight is the best disinfectant, politeness casts an unhelpful shadow. Racists, homophobes and xenophobes who air their hatred make for an ugly display, but they also give us a chance to show them how outnumbered they are. Politeness is too low a bar for discourse. And when we want to help people, we might consider sparing them less. A real friend is the one who tells you when you have spinach in your teeth and doesnt mind your being embarrassed now if it will help you later. Deepening our empathy is hard emotional labour, but with practice we can get better at it, to the benefit of those around us. I now realize my politeness stemmed from a shallow empathy. I strove to guard others and probably myself from pain rather than to enrich us. Ryan was kind enough not to be nice to me, and Im trying to follow his lead. My question for this year: Instead of doing no harm, how can I do the most good? Zaki is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University. Montreals iconic Mount Royal Park, the three-headed hill in the centre of the city that offers panoramic views of the island, has become the latest flashpoint in the battle over the role of the car in Canadas urban centres. The citys new administration, beloved and reviled for its policies perceived as anti-car, angered thousands of Montrealers when it announced in February that access to the mountain by vehicles would be limited under a new pilot project. Opposition leader Lionel Perez claimed victory on Tuesday, however, when the city said it would hold public consultations before launching its controversial plan. Read more: Montreal mayor draws commuters ire in battle likened to Torontos King St. pilot debate Montreal abolishes controversial traffic-ticket quota for police officers Montreals famed Ste-Catherine Street to see at least three years of major construction Perez said in an interview he believes Mayor Valerie Plante and her director of big parks, Luc Ferrandez, have it out for the automobile. I think Mrs. Plante and Mr. Ferrandez have clearly indicated they are anti-car, he said. I think there has been a cascading effect regarding this file, and that Ferrandez didnt properly evaluate the opposition that would come from their proposal. More than 26,000 people signed an online petition demanding the city abandon its pilot project and a group of citizens filed a request to force the administration to hold public talks before access to the mountain road is dramatically scaled back. Plante and Ferrandez want to prevent drivers from using a road that cuts through the mountain because, they argue, the span was never meant to be used as a main artery. They say their goal is to protect the park, preserve its natural beauty and return the space to citizens. In a recent Facebook post, Ferrandez said, compromising a parks beauty and the peace of those enjoying it just to save a minute or two is not a right guaranteed by the Constitution. Opponents of the plan say the road offers citizens a beautiful, quiet and scenic drive over a treasured part of the island and that limiting cars would negatively affect access to two cemeteries and cause traffic jams on the streets around the park. The administration says it will slice the road in half by springtime and allow cars to drive up each side of the hill to reach Beaver Lake and the cemeteries where some of the countrys war dead are buried. But drivers would be forced to make a U-turn and head back down without being able to drive through the mountain. Youssef Amane, a spokesman for the mayors executive committee, said the citys plan to limit access to the mountain by car has not changed. The timeline still holds true, he said via email. So we are not backtracking in terms of limiting car transit on (the mountain road). Amane said details about the citys plan for public meetings on the project will be announced soon. OTTAWAThe Liberal government hasnt determined how its highly touted pay equity law will work, with key elements like cost and enforcement still undecided for the plan that was announced as a highlight of the gender-focused 2018 budget, an official told the Star. Emily Harris, a communications adviser for Employment, Workforce Development and Labour Minister Patty Hajdu, said Tuesday the government is still figuring out how its upcoming law will ensure people in federally-regulated sectors who perform work of equal value receive equal pay a major feature of the Liberals plan to close the wage gap between men and women in Canada. At this time, we are in consultations with stakeholders to help determine some of the final program design features, Harris said. This years budget, which was unveiled Feb. 27, centred on an argument that empowering women will unlock billions of dollars in future growth for the Canadian economy. One measure to do this, according to the Liberal government, is to narrow the long-standing rift in earnings between male and female workers. The size of the gap depends on how it is measured the 2018 budget cited how the median income for women is 31 per cent lower than it is for men though Statistics Canada reported last year that women made 88 cents for every dollar earned by a man, based on average hourly income in 2014. The government expects Canadas upcoming pay equity legislation to narrow that gap to 90.7 cents in the federally-regulated private sector. But the 2018 budget does not outline how much it will cost to do this, nor does it explain how new pay equity rules will be enforced in sectors that include the federal public service and private industries like air travel and telecommunications. In an interview last week, Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef did not provide more details about the upcoming bill, but told the Star consultations with private and public sectors, womens organizations and a parliamentary committee that studied pay equity will help shape the upcoming legislation. It will be introduced this year, and of course, with it will come a financial commitment, she said. Asked about enforcement, Monsef said the law will need to have teeth because accountability measures are critical to the legislations success. Part of this, she said, is the governments push for pay transparency, which was also announced in the 2018 budget and involves spending $3 million over the next five years on measures that will include an online portal to display wage information for companies in federally-regulated sectors. A government official, who spoke to the Star on background, said the government is still considering an array of options for enforcement, including potential fines for companies that fail to enact pay equity schemes. It is also working on how to compare the value of different jobs, which will be the basis for equal pay, the official said for example, whether the value of work done by an assistant mechanic for an airliner should be considered the same as that of a flight attendant. The official said its also too early to say how much the pay equity regime will cost, but a key factor will be the mechanisms for enforcement and oversight. Its really complicated, the official said. Theres a lot in flux right now. As the government weighs its options, the official said Ottawa is looking to provincial jurisdictions that have already enacted pay equity laws. Ontarios, for instance, places the onus on employers to ensure they have equal pay for equal work, and includes a Pay Equity Commission that investigates and attempts to settle pay equity complaints. The prime minister, however, acknowledged during a public Q and A in Toronto last week that pay equity legislation is not a cure-all for the gender wage gap. A 2016 study in the American Review of Canadian Studies found Ontarios pay equity law enacted in 1987 has had a negligible effect on the wage gap and ratio of men and women in the workforce, while the gap in Quebec has been reduced since the provinces law was passed in 1996. Other factors, like women taking on the majority of care work, gender-based violence, discrimination, lack of representation in fields where there is more pay but women havent been active in like the trades are also contributors to the wage gap, Monsef said, pointing out the 2018 budget included measures to bring more women into high-paying trade jobs and give couples with new children an extra five weeks of shared parental leave. Theres a great deal of work that needs to be done. The good news is its work were committed to, she said. MONTREALThe Quebec government will move to ban sales of sugary, high-alcohol beverages in convenience and grocery stores in an attempt to prevent younger consumers from buying them. Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux said Tuesday he will introduce an amendment to a bill seeking to modernize the provinces alcohol and gaming legislation that would see the sweet, boozy drinks taken off the shelves. It comes amid calls for government action following the death of 14-year-old Athena Gervais, who reportedly consumed such a product last month before vanishing. Read more: Advocacy group calls on governments to act on sugary, alcoholic drinks after death of Quebec teen Quebecs Geloso Group announces end of sweetened alcoholic drink FCKD UP Couche-Tard pulls alcoholic drink after Quebec girls death She was found dead in a stream behind her high school in Laval on March 1. Under the proposed measures, Coiteux said beverages that contain more than 7 per cent alcohol would be available only at Quebec liquor commission outlets and that it would be up to the Crown corporation to decide whether to stock the items. (Youve) got those convenience stores next to schools where all minors can go in because they buy other things than just alcohol, Coiteux told reporters in Quebec City. The chances they will consume those products when they are widely available in convenience stores are much higher. Coiteux said Quebec will maintain pressure on Health Canada, which is reviewing various products on the market with Quebec authorities and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to assess their safety. Public Health Minister Lucie Charlebois added that a prevention and education campaign for substance abuse in general would be part of the Quebec government response in the near future. Charlebois said the province ordered a report last October when health officials noticed a spate of intoxication cases among young drinkers blamed on the sweet alcoholic drinks. She said the report, produced earlier this month by Quebecs public health institute, suggested that of 7,055 emergency room visits for intoxication between January and late November last year, 2032 cases involved people between the ages of 12 and 24. Of them, the report suggested 484 involved people who were not of legal drinking age. There have been calls for stricter rules since the teen girls death. Montreal La Presse reported Gervais had been drinking stolen cans of FCKD UP, a sweetened, malt-based alcoholic beverage with an alcohol content of 11.9 per cent the equivalent of four drinks. The company has since ceased production of the beverage. Charlebois said those alcohol products can contain the equivalent of four glasses of alcohol and that the volume of sales exploded by 316 per cent in 2015 and 2016. They are particularly dangerous because they combine extremely high levels of alcohol with extremely high levels of sugar, he said. Apparently those people who consume those products dont even notice they are consuming alcohol and reach a point of intoxication that is a real, real threat for their health. Premier Philippe Couillard said Quebec was doing its part but it would be up to the federal government to deal with issues of distribution, labelling and legal authorization. We have seen the horrible tragedy of this young girl recently, we do not want to see others (so) we must play our part, Couillard said. Coiteux said the proposed measures would come into effect once the law is adopted, hopefully by the end of the current parliamentary session in June. Read more about: Peel police have taken a man into custody following a shooting in Brampton that left one man in critical condition early Tuesday morning. Police were called in the area of Fleetwood Cres. and Bramalea Rd., north of Clark Blvd. around 12:45 a.m. for a report of a shooting. Const. Bancroft Wright said they found a 36-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound. Peel paramedics rushed him to a trauma centre in life-threatening condition. He is currently listed in stable condition. Wright said a 24-year-old man was later arrested in Toronto. Police recovered a firearm. He is charged with attempted murder and firearm-related charges. Police said there was no immediate threat to public safety. Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers. Read more about: After community groups raised concerns about police involvement in a proposed external review of missing-persons cases, Mayor John Tory and Toronto police confirm it will be the civilian board officially initiating the independent probe when it meets next week not the chief. In a statement Friday, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders responded to mounting criticism about his forces handling of the ongoing investigation into alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur, including criticism over the revelation that McArthur was questioned by police in 2016 but let go. Calling the concerns raised serious enough to warrant a review, Saunders announced that he would be pursuing an independent external review, with the support of Tory and police board chair Andy Pringle. The remarks prompted concerns from community members that a review initiated by the chief would not be truly independent. In a statement released hours after Saunders, the Alliance for South Asian Aids Prevention (ASAAP) criticized the chiefs language, saying the independent review must be commissioned not by Toronto police but by its civilian board, whose scope and procedure is determined with direct representation from the LGBTQ community. In a statement to the Star this week, a spokesperson for Tory said when the mayor presents a motion for an external missing-persons review next week, it will be very clear that the board is making the request. Pringle told the Star that he didnt think it mattered who initiated it, but later said in a statement that the review will be commissioned by the board. He stressed that Saunders suggested the review as early as a number of weeks ago. Meaghan Gray, Toronto police spokesperson, said the service supports an external report commissioned by the board. In his statement Friday, Saunders said the review should consider the forces investigative processes as well as systemic issues of bias. Shakir Rahim, a board member with ASAAP, said the group is pleased the probe will be formally requested by the board, emphasizing that the review must be guided and informed by the communities calling for accountability and change. It is also important that the Toronto Police Service provide unfettered access, subject to legally required restrictions, to any records that may be relevant for the review, Rahim said in a statement Tuesday. McArthur, 66, is charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Andrew Kinsman, Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Soroush Mahmudi, Dean Lisowick and Skandaraj Skanda Navaratnam. Police allege the killing spree began as early as 2010 and stretched until 2017. As reported by the Star last week, McArthur was questioned by Toronto police in 2016, after a man went to Toronto police to say that McArthur tried to strangle him during what a police source said was an otherwise consensual sexual encounter. McArthur was let go. The 2016 questioning appears to be the second time the accused serial killer came into contact with police. Sources told the Star McArthur was questioned prior to the 2016 incident, around the time Toronto police launched Project Houston. The project probed the disappearances of three men who went missing from Torontos Gay Village between 2010 and 2012. Project Houston began in November 2012 and was closed 18 months later after police failed to uncover any evidence of criminal activity. McArthur is now accused of killing two of those three men, Navaratnam and Kayhan. Saunders, who was a deputy chief at the time, was regularly briefed during the Project Houston investigation, Gray said in an email. A central difference between a chief-initiated review and one requested by the board is the optics, said Alok Mukherjee, former Toronto police board chair. He was at the helm during two high-profile independent reviews: the first by retired judge John Morden into Toronto police handling of the 2010 G20 summit, and a second commissioned by then-chief Bill Blair into his officers interactions with people in mental health crisis. Conducted by retired judge Frank Iacobucci, the second review was spurred by the fatal shooting of Sammy Yatim by Const. James Forcillo, who was later convicted of attempted murder in the teens death (he has appealed). Blair commissioned the independent probe as part of a mandatory review after an investigation by Ontarios police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, though it was a rare move to bring in an outside reviewer. With the proposed missing-persons review, it will be important that it not only be seen to be independent, but be independent, Mukherjee said. This is particularly true given that Saunders was briefed during the Project Houston investigation, he said. He may or may not have any involvement directly, but there is a perception that there could be a conflict of interest, Mukherjee said. The proposed external review is one of several probes into the McArthur case and missing-persons cases generally. Last week, lead McArthur investigator Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga revealed that he had initiated an internal probe by Toronto polices professional standards unit after uncovering concerning information in connection to a previous occurrence involving McArthur. The Star has previously reported that homicide investigators now probing the case did not know about the 2016 incident until after McArthurs arrest this year. Toronto police are also in the midst of an ongoing internal review into their handling of missing-persons cases, a probe initiated in December, prior to McArthurs arrest. Tory has also called for the province to consider holding a public inquiry at the close of any criminal proceedings. Ontarios Attorney General, Yasir Naqvi, told reporters last week he was reviewing the request. McArthur is due back in court Wednesday. Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca Read more about: Ontarios police watchdog has opened its first death investigation involving the administration of the opioid antidote naloxone a move coming amid debate over whether an officers failed attempt to save someones life should prompt a probe by the civilian agency. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) announced it has launched a probe into the death of a 36-year-old man early Monday at a Brampton home. Officers summoned to the scene by a medical assistance call performed CPR and administered naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, but the man later died. The SIU, which probes police-involved deaths and serious injuries, released no further details Monday but said five investigators had taken over the case. An SIU spokesperson confirmed it is the first naloxone-related death investigation. As the opioid crisis hits in Ontario and municipal services most recently Toronto police equip officers with naloxone, a dispute has erupted between police leaders and the SIU over the watchdogs powers to investigate, or even be informed, when police administer the drug in the line of duty. Earlier this year, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) sent a letter on behalf of police leaders asking the SIU to stand down on its expectation that it be called in whenever the officers administered the drug but a death or serious injury occurred nonetheless. The policy, the OACP said, could make cops think twice about deploying the drug, as they could be subjected to a lengthy and stressful investigation by the civilian watchdog for simply trying to prevent a death. If any force is used by officers during the administration of the drug, then police services should rightly be expected to call in the police watchdog, the OACP said. Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders expressed similar concerns about the SIUs stance on naloxone, telling the police board in a report last month that the numerous new SIU probes would be organizationally significant and detrimental to our members. But in a sternly worded letter last month, SIU director Tony Loparco shot back, saying he refused to budge on the requirement that his agency be informed about naloxone-related deaths or serious injuries. It is properly up to the SIU, not the police services, to determine whether an investigation is necessary, Loparco said. Once the SIU is notified, the watchdog can still decide that no investigation should be opened at all or the probe could be halted at an early stage. Soon after, the Ottawa Citizen reported that that citys police chief, Charles Bordeleau, had sent an email to all officers stating that the SIU would be notified when officers administered the drug, but only if use of force was also involved. In response to the back-and-forth, last week Ontarios Ministry of the Attorney General made an 11th-hour amendment to the omnibus policing legislation passed at Queens Park. The change which will be detailed in still-to-be-written regulations states that the SIU director should be notified in all cases of death or serious injury, but in certain circumstances should not investigate an incident in which an official provided immediate medical care to the affected person. Lawyer Ian Scott, former director of the SIU, said the change allows the government to pass regulations stripping the SIU of jurisdiction in cases where the police decide they have provided immediate medical care and the affected person either dies or suffers a serious injury. In my view, the SIU Director should decide this issue, not the police service in question, he said. But Waterloo police Chief Bryan Larkin, current president of the OACP, said in an interview Monday that he and others had hoped the province would go further. In a recent meeting with Ontario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi, police leaders pushed for a model similar to that in British Columbia. Hit hard for years by the opioid crisis, B.C.s Independent Investigations Office (the equivalent of the SIU) does not expect notification following a police officers naloxone use resulting in injury or death. However, Larkin said, the province was insistent that the SIU be notified regardless, a compromise decision that he said he understands. You find balance and move forward, he said. Larkin said it was a good step to have clarity on what was expected of police services not only in cases involving naloxone, but all instances where a death or injury occurs while a police officer is taking life-saving measures, such as performing CPR. A spokesperson for the Peel Regional Police said he could not provide any details around the death of the Brampton man, saying he could not comment on an ongoing SIU investigation. Peel Regional Police Association president Adrian Woolley also declined to comment. Peel Police began issuing naloxone nasal spray to officers in June 2017. Many other police services across Ontario, including the Ontario Provincial Police, have been providing front line officers with the drug; last month, the Toronto police board voted to distribute the drug in nasal spray form to many front line officers, supervisors and specialized squads. Andre Marin, a former Ontario ombudsman and SIU director, said in an interview Monday that it was proper that the SIU was probing the Peel officers involved in Mondays death in Brampton. Presumably, he said, it was the Peel police who called in the SIU and I say bravo, Marin said. Marin said the SIU should have the right to investigate any and all deaths and injuries involving police, and worries the provinces new provision for life-saving measures could be abused, calling it a step backwards. The regulations expanding on the Police Act changes are expected later this year. Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca Read more about: The TTCs ability to enforce proper fare payment is poor, according to an internal report drafted by the transit agency, and the organization now says a policy designed to address the problem is on hold. A TTC position paper that was among a set of previously unpublished documents obtained by the Star warns TTC revenue control has been increasingly constrained as a result of broad, successive changes to policy over the last three years. These changes were approved over time to provide easier travel for passengers yet were cumulative which resulted in poor revenue control, says the paper, which is marked confidential draft and dated Feb. 9, 2018. The documents outline numerous policies and logistical problems that they say have hampered the TTCs ability to ensure customers dont cheat the system. Fare evasion costs the agency tens of millions of dollars a year. Share your thoughts The challenges include the introduction in 2015 of new rules that allow children 12 and under to ride free. The program was backed by Mayor John Tory and has proved popular, but the paper states it has introduced a significant risk for the TTC. The implementation of all-door boarding on the streetcar network later that year further compounded the lack of revenue control, the paper says. The position paper also reveals that the hand-held devices fare inspectors use to check whether riders have paid using Presto fare cards are not functioning as they should. The devices are supposed to allow inspectors to perform 40 inspections per minute, but are maxing out at roughly half that number. The paper warns that as more customers switch to Presto, the processing delays could increase and it may be difficult to get customers to comply with inspections. According to TTC spokesperson Brad Ross, senior agency staff reject the characterization of our revenue control as stated in the internal report. We acknowledge there are areas in the system that are at risk of fare evasion, he said, but we stand by the public statements we have made about policies such as all-door streetcar boarding. The agency has said it has no evidence the new rules have contributed to increased fare evasion. Ross added the agency is working with Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency, to improve the Presto inspection devices. The TTC is in the midst of transitioning to the Presto system, and plans to stop selling older fare media such as tokens and tickets some time this year. Earlier this year, the agency said it would stop accepting the older forms of payment by the end of 2018, but the date has now been pushed to 2019. The introduction of Presto was expected to provide the TTC with an opportunity to address some of the gaps in its fare system, including the potential abuse of fare discounts for children and students, which the position paper says is contributing to significant losses. In 2016, the TTC board approved a policy that would require all riders aged 10 to 19 to carry an agency-issued photo ID with their Presto cards. That would ensure older teens dont take advantage of the kids-ride-free program, while also providing a reliable way to prove eligibility for the discount offered to customers aged 13 to 19. Riders in that age range get 20 per cent off monthly passes and 32 per cent off single rides. The most important element of transitioning to Presto is the implementation of the board-approved photo ID policy, the position paper states. But although the photo ID policy was supposed to be in place by 2017, it has yet to be implemented. Ross said the agency will seek approval from its board this spring to pause its introduction until after Presto is fully implemented and the TTC can conduct a fare evasion audit of the new fare card system. We do not have enough data today to support a photo ID program for youth and certain children only, said Ross. Ross didnt respond directly to a question about whether the agency is concerned that suspending the ID policy could expose the TTC to revenue loss. But he noted that under Presto, anyone purchasing a discounted fare has to show proof of their eligibility at the point of sale. Under the older system, customers can buy discounted student and post-secondary passes without proving eligibility, and merely have to carry ID while on the transit system. Requiring eligibility at the point of sale is expected to help reduce abuse, but the position paper notes there is little way to prevent the invalid use of a (discounted) Presto card beyond fare enforcement, and the TTCs 68 fare inspectors only patrol streetcar routes. The document recommends expanded inspections for surface routes, subway entrances, and major transfer points. Ross said the agency has no current plans to deploy fare inspectors on additional parts of the system, but could recommend changes once it conducts the audit. Agency staff have repeatedly told the public that the TTCs fare evasion rate is about 2 per cent, which would represent forgone revenue of about $20 million annually. However, as the Star reported in December, a study completed in 2016 but never made public determined the rate was 4.4 per cent, which works out to $49 million in lost revenue each year. The TTC has dismissed that study, which cost the agency nearly $100,000. Ross said staff are not comfortable with the methodology of the analysis, which was conducted by third-party consultants rather than TTC fare inspectors. Instead, the agency has stood by the lower evasion rate of 2.2 per cent, which was derived from a 2011 internal TTC audit that didnt include bus routes, which make up half of all boardings. The 2016 study did include buses. The documents obtained by the Star indicate the consultants results were presented as fact to TTC leaders. Most recent study in 2016 confirmed current system-wide fare evasion rate is 4.4 per cent, reads a presentation to top agency officials dated Nov. 20, 2017. The position paper notes that as a result of the study a working group was formed to address key areas of exposure. Some experts caution that concerns about fare evasion should not be overblown. They argue it would be impossible to completely eliminate the problem, and riders who avoid paying often do so because they cant afford the fare. Read more about: The fee dispute between the Ontario Medical Association and provincial government has escalated again with the OMA making public the arbitration positions of both sides and slamming the governments offer disappointing. The government, in turn, is expressing disappointment in the way the OMA is characterizing its position, noting the two sides had earlier agreed all discussion would be contained to the bargaining table. The OMA, which represents Ontarios 34,000 doctors and medical students in fee negotiations, sent two emails to its members Monday, one summarizing its own position and the other providing its take on the governments position. The emails were forwarded to the Star by a number of sources. Earlier in the day, the two sides submitted their final positions to a panel of arbitrators. The OMA triggered the arbitration process in January, as was its right, under a negotiation process agreed to by the two sides last year. The government relented to arbitration after many years of digging in its heels on the issue. The arbitration process is set to kick off in May. The last physician services agreement expired in 2014. The OMA revealed it is seeking the following: A rollback of all fee cuts made by the government since 2015. A 4.26 per cent fee hike, effective April 1, 2017, which it says would make up for increases doctors should have received in the previous two years. Fee increases of 2.6 per cent for each of four years, beginning in 2017-18. The OMA is also calling for no cap on how much the government pays doctors, an amount that currently stands at $12 billion, or about 10 per cent of the entire provincial budget. The OMAs summary of the governments position described it as profoundly disappointing and disrespectful to the hard-working physicians of this province. The email says that the government is proposing no return of the stolen money (previous fee cuts), a fee increase of 1 per cent to some specialists, no increase to others and a fee cut for some procedures. Laura Gallant, spokesperson for Health Minister Helena Jaczek, acknowledged the government was taken by surprise at the way the OMA had described its position. Pressed for details on what the government is proposing, she said its offer would see the physician services budget increase by more than $3 billion by 2020-21, while the OMAs proposal would see it jump by more than $13 billion. That means the two sides are $10 billion apart. The government wants doctors not to overspend beyond a fixed budget and to reduce services that evidence shows to be inappropriate, but no others. The arbitration panel will have the final say on a new fee contract. As we work through differing views, the arbitrator will play an important role in achieving a fair agreement, Gallant said. Our government is optimistic that by working collaboratively, we will reach a physician services agreement that respects doctors, provides fair growth in compensation, builds a stronger health care system for Ontarians, and will remain sustainable for years to come, she continued. OMA president Dr. Shawn Whatley said his organization received the governments final position Sunday evening, adding that it was within its rights to make the information public under the process both parties agreed to. He argued the governments position would make it hard to attract new health-care practitioners to work in Ontario at a time when patients are facing unconscionable waits for services such a hip-replacement surgery. The OMA plans to hold a teletown hall to discuss the positions Tuesday night. Ryerson University is investigating the presence of bed bugs in the schools Victoria Building, after students reported seeing them and being bitten. The university is aware of the issue and is currently assessing the room in question; our students have been helpful in bringing their concerns forward so that the situation can be addressed properly, said a statement from the universitys Public Affairs office on Tuesday. On Monday night, staff from The Eyeopener, a student newspaper reported finding bed bugs on a second floor classroom hidden inside the cracks of the tables. They took multiple photos of the bugs and bites a student said they received from them. Share your thoughts By Tuesday afternoon, a notice outside Room 205 on the second floor, said that classes were cancelled in the room. Mike Coutanche, an instructor who teaches at the Victoria Building, said he got emails from his students asking about whether his class on the first floor would happen on Tuesday. Well, theres no caution tape on the front door, he said. Some students said that the idea of having bed bugs in the building made them nervous. Im not going to take off my jacket, said Gino Amboing, a first year student. I dont want them to get inside. Umair Khan, another student, said he had little choice but to face the bed bugs. I cant just not show up, right? Attendance in classes is mandatory sometimes. Charn Gill, a fifth year business student, felt lucky not to have any classes in the building. Thank God I wont ever have another class in that building, he said. (Its) ancient. This is not Ryersons first battle with bed bugs. In 2012, the Star reported that there were eight confirmed cases of bed bugs at two residence buildings on campus. In 1999, The Eyeopener reported that a residence building that housed 400 students was fumigated to rid it of bed bugs. With files from Jenna Moon Read more about: An injured steel worker fired for taking a side job in exchange for food, after his employer didnt pay him and he couldnt afford to eat. An injured autoworker fired for failing to meet production targets, after her employer assigned her a modified job that went against her doctors orders. An injured temp agency worker fired for using his phone during a modified shift that an independent tribunal said provided him little, if anything to do. All are Ontario employees who were told by the provincial workers compensation board that their bosses were within their rights to terminate them, despite legal provisions meant to protect employees from unfairly losing their jobs after an accident. Half of all appeals made on that issue to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal over the past decade resulted in the tribunal slapping down decisions by the provinces compensation board, the Star has found, forcing injured workers into lengthy legal battles to enforce basic protections. This is absolutely an enormous issue. It starts at the front line of adjudication, and it starts with the power imbalance between workers and employers, said Maryth Yachnin, a lawyer at the Industrial Accident Victims Group of Ontario legal clinic. It results in a culture where the worker is being disbelieved at every turn. Under Ontario law, employers must offer accident victims jobs that are suitable, sustainable and productive for at least a year after they are fit enough to work. If the worker gets fired within six months of returning, their employer must prove to the compensation board that they are not terminating them because of their injury. The Star found 55 cases over the past decade at WSIAT, the highest level appeal for workplace compensation matters, all involving injured workers who were fired shortly after returning to work, but where the compensation board accepted employers contention that they had not broken the law. In 51 per cent of those appeals, the tribunal found that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board had erred in its decision-making and that the employers had in fact violated their legal obligation to re-employ and accommodate injured employees. In a statement to the Star, the WSIB said many of the tribunal decisions date back to a time when labour market re-entry was a service provided by external partners. Since 2011, that function has been brought in-house and the board says it has been able to resolve the vast majority of re-employment breaches through co-operative education and other assistance. In 2017 the WSIB said it found 126 employers broke their obligations to injured workers, but was successfully able to improve their return to work program in 121 cases. It penalized five employers. Since 2015, we have launched an extensive training program with our own staff including a partnership with the Human Rights Commission to make sure our return-to-work team knows what legislated requirements are and how to work with employers to co-operatively meet them, the statement says. But Yachnin says the tribunal rulings point to a different issue: in half of all tested cases, the boards decisions about whether employers were breaking the law were wrong. The 55 tribunal cases represent a small fraction of compensation cases processed every year. But many workers simply dont contest board decisions because the process can take years, Yachnin added. Its one of the hardest claims to fight because you have to go directly against your employer and a lot of workers are reluctant to take on an employer in a big legal battle. And they dont have the money and resources to do that. The tribunal decisions describe a variety of ways in which companies sought to edge out workers after an accident. In one case, a 42-year-old steel worker who hurt his back on the job was fired after his employer discovered he was delivering pizza on the weekend in exchange for food. His employer alleged he had lied about being totally disabled and the WSIB agreed that his employer had just cause to terminate him. But the appeals tribunal found the worker had not been paid the wages he was owed by his accident employer, and had no ability to feed himself. He therefore accepted the assistance of the pizza shop owner notwithstanding that his doctors continued to direct him to remain off work completely. In another tribunal case, a car seat manufacturer offered modified work to an injured employee, but quickly terminated her allegedly because she could not meet production targets. The company hired a private investigator to tail her, and submitted evidence to the board showing the worker driving her car for six hours and lifting light objects around the house. The board ruled the woman could be fired. But the tribunal found that the employers offer of modified work required prolonged periods of standing in direct contradiction to medical advice provided by a WSIB physician. It also found the private investigators footage actually captured the woman performing household tasks that her doctor had recommended for rehabilitation. The reason she drove her car for six hours, the tribunal noted, was to attend an uncles funeral. The overall impression is not one of an individual who was attempting to game and deceive the system. The overall impression is instead of an individual who was in significant pain but also in significant emotional distress, the final decision says. The Star found 16 tribunal cases where the WSIB did rule that employers had breached their re-employment obligations, leading employers to appeal. Those cases saw a far lower success rate, with the tribunal siding with employers in just four of the cases. Bogdan Koscik, a former cancer centre engineer in Oshawa, was terminated three days after his return to work following a back injury. His employer said he was fired for reasons unrelated to his injury, citing two work refusals and timesheet discrepancies. The WSIB accepted his employers position. In separate proceedings, the Ontario Labour Relations Board did too. But after years of appeal, the compensation board tribunal found in 2016 that at least one of the work refusals was because Koscik was worried about his safety, and that his employer had done little to resolve the timesheet issues despite Koscik providing extensively detailed explanatory documentation about the discrepancies. It is likely that the employer began to see the worker as a problem employee and that the workplace injury confirmed that concern, leading to the decision to terminate the workers employment, the tribunal decision says, noting Kosciks employer did not participate in the hearings or provide any evidence to the contrary. The way the WSIB dealt with me, its extremely disappointing, Koscik, now 62, told the Star. This is the most gentle word I can find. Instead, it took Koscik six years from the time of his accident to get a ruling showing he had been unfairly terminated. It was horrible. We lost our house. The whole journey through those six years, it was one disaster after another. A Hamilton police officer testified Tuesday he was shocked when he found out suspended Det. Const. Craig Ruthowsky took a cocaine cutting agent to a private lab for testing on behalf of a drug dealer. That was not within the norm of police policies and procedures, Sgt. James Paterson told an Ontario Superior Court jury. When asked to explain the unorthodox practice, Ruthowsky told him he was trying to persuade a dealer he was a dirty cop so he, in turn, would lead him to a major drug importer, Paterson testified. Read more: Trial hears cop tipped off drug dealers in exchange for cash The Crown, which opened its case Monday, alleges Ruthowsky shared sensitive police information with Hamilton-based drug dealers in return for monthly $20,000 cash payments. The tips purportedly included times and locations of search warrants, the identity of confidential informants and other information to help the traffickers evade detection and prosecution. Ruthowsky was charged with criminal offences after he was captured on Toronto police wiretaps talking to drug dealers in 2015. He has pleaded not guilty to breach of trust, bribery, obstruct justice, drug trafficking, and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. Paterson, who was the Crowns first witness, also had positive things to say about someone he described as his one-time best friend. Ruthowsky and Paterson, both in their 40s, had a long history. They shared a townhouse when they were rookie cops, socialized after the two men got married and started families, and later worked together in the guns and gangs unit, where Paterson was Ruthowskys supervisor. Before his arrest, Ruthowsky was one of the driving forces in the Hamilton Police Services guns and gang unit, Paterson said. He was getting guns and drugs off the street at a much higher rate than any other individual in that crew, Ruthowskys defence lawyer, Greg Lafontaine, asked Paterson during cross-examination. Thats fair to say, replied Paterson. For those reasons you cut him a little bit of slack with respect to some of the rules and the regulations, right sir? Yes. Im not talking about crimes or Criminal Code charges or anything like that. Paterson agreed. Lafontaine asked Paterson to confirm, which he did, that Ruthowsky had extra money coming in from installing swimming pools many in the backyards of homes belonging to Hamilton police officers. The Crown intends to present evidence showing Ruthowskys family net worth increased by at least $25,000 annually due to unknown sources of income. Paterson agreed with Lafontaines suggestion that Ruthowsky lived on a street in a neighbourhood where at least three Hamilton officers lived. So its consistent with where other individuals lived ... earning the same salary as my client, Lafontaine said, noting Ruthowsky is also not the sole breadwinner in the family. His wife is a senior Hamilton police officer. Paterson also agreed with the defence lawyer that Ruthowsky was not an extravagant individual. He didnt take exotic European vacations or buy luxury items. No Mercedes here, nothing like that, right, Lafontaine said. Paterson agreed. The trial continues. Morgan DeCairos DeBoer thinks children playing is one of the happiest sounds in the world. Unfortunately for her, at least one of her neighbours doesnt agree. The Newmarket mother of four boys under the age of six, who lives in the Woodland Hills area, was speechless when she received a letter in the mail sent via Canada Post indicating her children were too loud when they were playing in their backyard. The letter, with no return address and signed your neighbours, state several neighbours are frustrated with the noise that is interrupting TV viewing, reading and napping. We encourage you to correct your child when he screams by saying, Please stop that yelling or something like that, the letter said. Perhaps if you supervised them while they were in the backyard it would help. It wasnt long before DeCairos DeBoer took to social media to express her frustration and distaste for the anonymous letter. In a matter of minutes, her followers took her side, commenting on how important it is for children to play outside in a generation growing up in front of screens and, instead, allow them just to be kids. To have a neighbour comment, and cowardly hide, on my choice to allow my kids to play in a safe contained area, which is part of the space we pay for, and play how they want and independent from me confuses me, she said. Excuse me for allowing my children time to use their imaginations and problem solving skills and get some needed vitamin D. If given the chance, she would have pointed out to her neighbour that her children are only outside if the weather is nice and for an hour or two, after school and before dinner. As far as she is concerned, the neighbourhood dogs are more disruptive. The suburban neighbourhood is surrounded by schools and appears to be mostly family homes. Despite a blustery Tuesday night, two children on the street were kicking around a soccer ball. The Star couldnt find any neighbours who had any complaints about the noise or knew who sent the anonymous letter. I live right next door and I dont even notice, said Tess Weiman, who calls DeCairos DeBoers family great people. Weiman has lived in the neighbourhood since it was built and she said there used to be way more children in the area. She said there were more new home owners in the neighbourhood recently. Arnick Is backyard is directly behind the familys. He characterized the noise as just kids playing. Another neighbour said the kids were pretty loud on nice days, but she didnt know who sent the letter. While DeCairos DeBoer said she appreciates the suggestions laid out in the letter, she wonders if yelling at her children to quiet down would help anyone and the logistics of getting four young children to a public park that is not as close as one may think are a challenge. We have a great backyard, with ample grass and patio space for them to run, jump and play, and I can safely allow them to do so with my screen door open to keep an ear out for trouble while I mind the baby and do what needs doing, she added. As this was an anonymous letter, we chose to respond using social media, and use this opportunity to remind families of the importance of outdoor and independent play. Her children are: Phoenix, 6; Quinn, 4; Gabriel, 2; and Benjamin, less than a year old. DeCairos DeBoer said the letter wont hinder her childrens outside play time and encourages all parents to have their kids take a break from technology and enjoy the great outdoors. Many of her followers have offered to bring their children over for a play date in the backyard, to lend her children drum sets or to throw a large party for the neighbourhood children in her backyard. Editors note: This story has been updated from a previous version to correct the spelling of DeBoers name A dilemma arose last year when Christopher Black, an Indigenous man who lives in a remote northern Ontario community, was ordered to serve his impaired driving sentence on weekends: Where to serve it? There is no jail in Pikangikum, an isolated fly-in First Nations community. The nearest correctional facility is in Kenora, 225 kilometres away, which would make what is known as an intermittent sentence practically impossible. There is, however, an OPP detachment with jail cells in Pikangikum, and so Ontario Court Justice Gethin Edward ruled that Black should serve his sentence there. Months later, the OPP has won in its bid to prevent Black from doing his time in their detachment, having successfully argued before a higher court judge that the facility is not considered a correctional institution under provincial law. In this case, it was simply not reasonable or appropriate to order Mr. Black to serve his intermittent sentence at the detachment, which is not a correctional institution and does not have appropriate accommodation for the purpose of an intermittent sentence, Superior Court Justice John Fregeau, who sits in Kenora, wrote in a ruling released last week. There are many cases where community-based sanctions are available and appropriate, but this is not one of them. Fregeau sent Blacks case back down to the lower court for sentencing. An OPP spokesperson said the provincial police force accepts the ruling and maintains complete confidence in the courts. The issue in Blacks case has highlighted the disparities between northern and southern justice in Ontario, which Edward, the lower court judge who normally sits in Brantford, pointed out in his original sentencing decision last year. If southern accused get to serve intermittent sentences to keep jobs, then isnt it high time that northern accused should be entitled to intermittent sentences to preserve jobs? Edward asked in court last year. And if there arent facilities available, then shouldnt it be the time that there were facilities available to allow individuals to serve on an intermittent sentence basis? I just dont think that were treating people from the north fairly. The Criminal Code allows for sentences below 90 days to be served intermittently; in Blacks case, he was sentenced to 60 days. The 30-year-old mans sentencing heard that he is volunteering with the police in a project designed to build relationships between officers and the community, and employed at Pikangikum Health Authority as a solvent abuse worker as well as with a youth forestry initiative. Edward noted that if Black had to spend his entire sentence far away in Kenora or elsewhere, he would likely lose his job and it could damage all the progress hes made in his community following his arrest. We all take drinking and driving seriously, no question, but this young man did all the things we want people to do when he was charged, Mary Bird, area director of Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services, an intervener in the Superior Court case, told the Star. He went to treatment, he got a job. Both of those things are very hard to do in remote communities, and he managed to do that. The Superior Court ruling overturning Edward was disappointing to Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services, a legal-aid funded organization whose mandate includes addressing access to justice issues for Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN) territory in northern Ontario. Justice Edward was acting lawfully in administering his sentence that is available to all other citizens of Canada not residing in a remote community, Bird said. Its a lawful sentence, bottom line, where its served is neither here nor there. The failure to provide appropriate facilities is on the back of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. It should not be on the back of this young man. Many of NANs 49 First Nations communities, including Pikangikum, are accessible only by air, winter road and/or boat, and are a significant distance away from jails in Kenora, Thunder Bay and Iroquois Falls, the legal services corporation had argued in written submissions filed in Superior Court. The organization had argued that if the judge sided with the OPP, it would have the practical effect of barring an intermittent sentence to almost every single on-reserve citizen of NAN. Blacks lawyer, John Bilton, said they are considering their legal options. Black had attended the OPP detachment as ordered each Friday, only to be turned away. The practical availability of an interim sentence should not be determined by the location of the community a person calls home, Bilton told the Star. The rule of law purportedly applies equally to persons residing in Toronto and Pikangikum First Nation. It is Mr. Blacks position, with respect, that Justice Fregeaus decision makes available an interpretation that the domain of justice does not extend equally to Indigenous persons residing in remote communities. The provincial police force had argued in Superior Court that its detachment, with its nine cells, is used for short-term custody. Bilton said an OPP officer testified in court that the detachment does hold accused persons awaiting a bail hearing over the weekend before flying them to court in Kenora. It simply does not make sense, with respect, to say that persons presumed innocent can be held in the detachment for two days (pending a bail hearing) but a convicted person cannot, for the purpose of serving a sentence on the weekends, serve it at the same detachment because the accommodation at the detachment is inadequate, Bilton said. Some residents are at odds with plans for a proposed meat packing plant on a vacant lot near the Junction because they say it sits on a contaminated site that is flood prone. St. Helens Meat Packers Limited wants to purchase 200 Rockcliffe Ct., near Jane St. and Alliance Ave., a piece of land thats remained vacant for decades. Initial plans include building a freezer and packaging facility on roughly 50,000 square feet. One local residents group, the Black Creek Alliance, wants the land to be turned into parkland instead. Im very concerned if theres going to be another flood while theyre in the midst of building, it washes all the chemicals out of the ground into the Black Creek, said Cameron Watts, a member of the group. Everybody acknowledges its a toxic site. Laying down concrete will exacerbate the issue, said Tanya Connors, co-founder of the community group, because it will cause increased runoff. Putting pavement on a floodplain is counterintuitive, it doesnt make sense it cant absorb the water, she said. Youre putting black space instead of green space. She said that when the Black Creek swelled in 2013 it caused significant home damage. People lost cars, basements, it was very dramatic. A spokesperson from St. Helens said there are conditions to be finalized to secure the sale. As part of the purchase agreement we have committed to addressing the environmental challenges and additional costs inherent to the development of this particular property, said the spokesperson. We are also committed to making this land a functional part of the community and have agreed to maintain and clean a portion of the land which is often used as an unofficial dumping area directly in the flood plain. The site was a sewage treatment facility in the 1950s and later used for sand and gravel extraction, said Devin Tepleski, whos completing his masters degree in landscape architecture at the University of Toronto and has studied this particular lot. Eventually it went fallow and has just been sitting empty, he said. I think part of the reason why its been so hard to find a buyer is, one, its in a floodplain, and because of the contamination issue. CreateTO, a real estate affiliate of the City of Toronto, currently owns the land. This development will secure a major Toronto employer and add 100 jobs to the city, Don Logie, head of development, said in a written statement. The City has a comprehensive process for declaring lands surplus for sale and all City divisions, including the Citys Park, Forestry & Recreation division, examine the property in detail to determine if they have any use for it. If not, as in the case of Rockcliffe, the land is declared surplus and transferred for sale. Completing the sale required working with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Logie said, which will make a decision on an easement recommendation at a March 23 meeting. After two years of study and working with the (conservation authority) we have determined a plan for developing the site outside the 350 year floodplain, and without impacting any users in the floodplain, Logie said, adding that the deal is to acquire eight acres, leaving out one acre that will be naturalized. The role of the conservation authority is to ensure that flooding is mitigated if the site is to be developed, spokesperson Elizabeth Oakley said in a written statement to the Star. Councillor Frances Nunziata (Ward 11, York South-Weston) will be at the meeting, presenting a deputation to retain the property as green space. The property was declared surplus many years ago, she said. There has been a for sale sign for the last 10 years. The issue, right now, is not whos purchasing the site but that the land should not be sold, the eight acres. People in the community always assumed it was green space because its never been used in over 30 years, noting that most of the land has since been reclaimed by nature. Public opinion has changed around protecting the environment. The King and Queen of Belgium have been getting a taste of Canada during their state visit this week if a photograph of the pair on Tuesday, licking maple syrup from their fingers in a wooded area of Ottawa, is any indication. And on Wednesday, the pair are scheduled to land in Toronto for a single, packed day. Heres what you should know. Whos coming? King Philippe and Queen Mathilde will be accompanied to Toronto by an official, business, academic and press delegation. The entire Belgian group is around 150 people, and contains seven ministers, including the vice prime minister and foreign affairs minister, representatives from the countrys three regions and rectors of the main Belgian universities. Their official host is governor general Julie Payette. Who are the King and Queen? Phillipe became King after his father, King Albert, abdicated on the countrys national holiday in July 2013. The former King said his age and health no longer allowed him to serve as monarch after two decades on the throne. Albert was the first of the six kings since independence from The Netherlands to voluntarily give up the throne, with Phillipe becoming the seventh King. In his first speech as the crown, Phillipe spoke about a long-standing feud between the countrys Dutch-speaking Flemings and Francophones. He cast the division as diversity, and one of their strengths. Before he was King, Phillipe was Crown Prince Phillipe. Queen Mathilde was Princess Mathilde dUdekem. The couple were married in Dec. 1999. Whats planned in Toronto? Itll be a busy day for the Belgians, touching down in Toronto at 10 a.m. and jetting off to Montreal by 6. After arriving at Pearson airport, the Belgium delegation will zip over motorcade-style to Queens Park, to be ushered in through a private entrance to the lieutenant governors suite. There, theyre slated to have a tete-a-tete with Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the lieutenant governor of Ontario. After meetings with Dowdeswell comes meetings with Speaker David Levac, and in tight sequence, theyll arrive at MaRS Discovery District for a luncheon by 12:10. This appearance will be with Dr. Reza Moridi, Ontarios minister of research, innovation and science, and itll include a signing ceremony, a group photo and a tour. The academic delegation will have a roundtable with education minister Mitzie Hunter, a tour and lunch at the University of Toronto. At 3:15, part of the group will be at Power Corporation of Canada for a Canadian-Belgian CEO Roundtable. The King is expected to make remarks at the time. At the same time, the Queen will split off and visit Sick Kids Hospital for a visit and her own roundtable on mental health for children and teenagers. Why is this visit important? This is the first state visit by Belgian royalty since the 1970s. Raoul Delcorde, Belgiums ambassador to Canada, posted a photo on Twitter last month of Belgian King Baudouin meeting with former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, along with two others with Queen Fabiola. Those snaps were taken in 1977. But this time, over 40 years later, the prime minister wont be around to greet the sovereigns. Justin Trudeau has no plans to meet with the Belgian royals or their cohort, with sources telling the Star the delegation feels snubbed. Trudeau is scheduled to tour aluminum and steel facilities in Quebec and Ontario this week, to speak about his opposition to potential American tarifs on their products. Sources tell the Star it was expected that Trudeau would make time given the strong trade ties between Canada and Belgium, with bilateral trade totalling almost $6.5 billion last year according to Global Affairs Canada. That relationship is expected to strengthen further with the ratification of the Canada-E.U. free trade deal. One of the main features of the trip is a thank you of sorts, for Canadas involvement in the First World War in particular, the liberation of Belgium. We owe our freedom to the military men who came to our country 100 years ago to end the First World War, the king said as he was greeted by Payette. We in Belgium, we dont forget that. What happened with the flag? This has been one of the more popular headlines of the couples trip so far. A narrowly-avoided mix-up could have led to an awkward situation during a tree-planting ceremony in Ottawa. While planning for the event at Rideau Hall, a small flag was placed on a tree planted by Queen Fabiola in 1977. The catch? It wasnt a Belgian flag. It was German. The issue was rectified before the current royals arrived, though. That wasnt the only hitch in Ottawa, either. On top of the ghosting by Trudeau, a meeting that had been scheduled with Heritage Minister Melanie Joly to discuss cultural ties between Canada and Belgium was cancelled after Jolys flight was abruptly grounded by computer system disruptions at Air Canada. With files from Alex Boutilier, Bruce Campion-Smith, The Canadian Press and the Associated Press Read more about: Ontario voters face a stark choice in the June election, Premier Kathleen Wynne said Monday at an event touting government initiatives such as youth pharmacare and post-secondary tuition rebates. No matter who were fighting against, it is always about who were fighting for and what we are fighting for, she said when asked about campaigning against newly elected Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford. From my perspective, it didnt matter who the leader of the Conservatives was going to be, our policies are about investing in people, investing in the care of people in this province and allowing people to be able to care for one another ... What we are putting forward as a platform is very, very different than what any of the Conservatives were putting forward, which is cutting and removing supports from people. Were saying that people need more support. Ford, confirmed as the PC leader after a long, chaotic leadership event Saturday, spent his first workday appearing on a number of radio and television shows and made a quick, unannounced visit to Queens Park. We cant wait to take on Kathleen Wynne and start putting money in the taxpayers pocket instead of the governments pocket, he told reporters after a lunchtime appearance on CP24. I had a good chat with Kathleen Wynne in the last hour, he added. I have a great deal of respect for her, shes a great campaigner, debater, and Ive never underestimated her, but shes never debated Doug Ford before and I cant wait. Up until Sunday evening, fellow leadership contender Christine Elliott was questioning Fords narrow win especially after she won both the popular vote and more ridings but after meeting with him, she emerged saying she fully supports her long-time family friend. I have been a proud Progressive Conservative for over 25 years and my commitment remains steadfast. As I have been saying every day during this campaign, Ontario needs us, she said in a statement. That is why I entered this race. Ford told reporters Monday that he appreciates and respects Elliott. Its absolutely critical she came on board and played an instrumental part in our party, he said. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne rallied the Liberal troops at the party's annual convention on Saturday, their last get-together before the June election. Wynne admitted her party has a lot of work to do to win the election. (The Canadian Press) A Forum poll released Sunday showed that while 48 per cent of voters surveyed disapprove of Ford, the PCs would still win the election. Wynne said those numbers are not what shes focusing on. For the next number of weeks I know theres going to be a lot of conversation about polls. Theres going to be a lot of conversation about the politics that were in, and I get that, she said at a press conference at St. Paul Catholic elementary school in downtown Toronto. But, honestly, what we need to focus on as a government and from my perspective as the premier of the province, I need to focus on what it is that people are saying to me in terms of what they need. She said its not news to anyone that she and Ford disagree on a lot of things. Speaking to Ontarios English Catholic teachers later Monday morning, she warned that the PCs cannot deliver on the promises theyve made unless they make billions in cuts. A value for money audit isnt going to cut it. We did the math, and if the Conservatives have their way, over 7,000 education workers will lose their jobs ... Let me just say this: That is not our way of doing things. With files from Samantha Beattie Read more about: Newly elected PC Leader Doug Ford says he will scrap the sex education curriculum passed by Premier Kathleen Wynnes Liberals. He made the promise during a round of media interviews Monday, two days after being elected leader of Ontarios Progressive Conservative party. We will repeal it and then well make sure we consult with the parents and teachers, Ford told reporters, building on a promise he made during the leadership race to review all areas of the curriculum, including sex ed and math. We have to make sure we tweak a few things in there and then well move forward, he said. Share your thoughts An updated sex ed curriculum was put into effect by the Liberals in 2015 despite objections from religious groups, who claimed it didnt align with their values, and parents, who said the government didnt allow them enough input. The previous curriculum dated from 1998 and did not include any mention of many current issues facing students, such as sexting and cyberbullying. On Monday, one social conservative voiced his support of Fords promise to do what former PC leader Patrick Brown would not. Controversial Christian leader Charles McVety told his thousands of followers on Facebook to vote for Ford if they want to see radical sex education repealed. McVety has been a fierce opponent of the sex ed curriculum, same-sex marriage and abortion. About a decade ago, the CTS television network removed his program from its lineup, after the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council found it made malevolent, insidious and conspiratorial remarks about the gay community. McVety told the Star he is confident Ford will repeal radical elements in the sex ed curriculum, including teaching young children about gender identity. We see Doug as a fighter, a fighter for the regular folk, McVety told the Star, adding that he sees himself as a social conservative a political ideology focused on preserving traditional values but doesnt define Ford as one. The economy. Thats mainly what gets me excited about Doug, McVety said. Wynne defended the updated sex ed curriculum to reporters during an event at a downtown Toronto school Monday. It needed to be updated, and kids get all sorts of information from the internet and all different sources now, more than we would have 40 years ago, she said. So its really important that our curriculum reflects that, and thats what the curriculum does. During the debate over the curriculum in 2015, hundreds of people protested outside Queens Park. At the time, Wynne said some of the opposition to the curriculum was due to homophobia. The next year, Brown, then the PC leader, promised to scrap the curriculum and develop a new one, only to retract the offer days later. He said he was actually in support of the Liberals sex ed update and would keep it in place if elected premier. Brown resigned in January amid allegations of sexual misconduct, triggering the Tories leadership contest. Ford told reporters on Monday the sex ed curriculum would not be a main priority if the Tories win the June 7 election. Our focus is going to be on straightening out the finances of this province, he said, noting Ontarios $312-billion debt. Were going to reduce hydro rates and start attracting great-paying jobs and businesses. Doug Ford visited the Ontario legislature on Monday for the first time since becoming leader of the provinces Progressive Conservatives. Ford says he plans to be out on the road as much as possible before the June 7 election. (The Canadian Press) Ford has not yet released his campaign platform and provided few details of how he will turn the economy around. He did say he would put up a big neon sign at the border that reads, Ontario is open for business. During his leadership campaign, Ford said he would reopen the debate about abortions being available to minors. A Tory source said it is unlikely he will wade into the abortion issue again during the campaign. Scrapping the sex ed curriculum gives social conservatives a big victory, as it has been their rallying cry for several years now. Ford also said he would not force MPPs to vote against their beliefs. That was good news for 20-year-old MPP Sam Oosterhoff, a free speech and anti-abortion advocate, who felt Brown clamped down on such discussions within the party. Doug has a willingness to make all parts of the party have their voices heard, respected and valued, and that appeals to social conservatives, said Oosterhoff, who represents Niagara WestGlanbrook. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is responding to Doug Fords promises hell overhaul the provinces sex education curriculum. The new Progressive Conservative leader has been saying not enough parents were consulted in its development. (The Canadian Press) But Ford is taking a risk by aligning the PC party with social conservatives, said Kathy Brock, a political science professor at Queens University. On the other hand, he will probably gain support from people who dont feel their views have been heard in the past. It will be a tough balance to manage, but it can be managed. Ford is also appealing to social conservative voters by promising to repeal the sex ed curriculum because its been a staunch demand of the party base and supporters of leadership candidate Tanya Granic Allen, said Christopher Cochrane, an author and political science professor at the University of Toronto. Campaign Life Coalition, an anti-abortion group that originally backed Granic Allen, expressed its support for Ford following the leadership results. In a statement, president Jim Hughes said he expects Ford to, among other things, protect free speech and conscience rights. But at least one conservative group is concerned by Fords promise to repeal the sex ed curriculum. LGB Tory Canada, an organization for LGBTQ conservative voters, supports the current sex ed curriculum, said spokesperson Eric Lorenzen. We believe it is generally a positive document for everyone, including the LGBTQ community, Lorenzen said. It promotes responsible sexual behaviour, acceptance of differences and acceptance of the LGBTQ community. With files from Kristin Rushowy Read more about: Claims that parents were not consulted on Ontarios updated sex-ed curriculum are just not true, says Premier Kathleen Wynne. Amid news that PC Leader Doug Ford will scrap the sex-ed curriculum because of some parents concerns about its content, Wynne said the new sex-ed lessons, which were implemented in 2015, were a much-needed update from the 1990s materials teachers were using. It hadnt been updated for more than a decade, she told reporters at a press conference in downtown Toronto on Tuesday. It is about keeping kids safe, she said. Kids now get their information all over the place. They get it from the Internet. They get it from their friends. They get it online. And so we need to make sure that our curriculum... is contemporary, that its relevant to the era that were living in and our curriculum was not. We updated it. And I think that to suggest that somehow putting kids at risk by not giving them the right information is a good idea. I just think thats wrong-headed. During the leadership race, Ford said he would review the curriculum and the move helped him attract the social conservative vote. He said Monday that he would repeal it and then well make sure we consult with the parents and teachers. We have to make sure we tweak a few things in there and then well move forward, he told reporters. But Wynne talks were held with many parents... about 4,000 and with the leaders of various parents councils at schools, but also with psychologists, psychiatrists and police. We spoke with a large number of people across Ontario to develop this curriculum. To say they werent included, its just not true. Its just not true, she added. Parents were consulted. Psychologists, psychiatrists, police, people who live in communities and are concerned about the safety of young people were consulted and the way the curriculum was developed was not by politicians. The Liberals brought in the new curriculum to include issues such as consent, gender identity, online bullying and sexting. A number of religious leaders and groups opposed it, saying its up to parents to teach their children about sex and at an age they deem appropriate. The issue was also a hot topic under previous PC leader Patrick Brown who resigned after being accused of sexual misconduct after he too courted the social conservative vote by promising to review the sex ed curriculum. However, he later backtracked. Read more about: MARANA, Ariz.Police say a bride in southern Arizona was arrested on suspicion of impaired driving after she was involved in a car crash on the way to her wedding. Amber Young was wearing an open-back dress when she was handcuffed and put into a police cruiser Monday in Marana, 30 miles north of Tucson. Police spokesperson Sgt. Chriswell Scott says one person suffered minor injuries in the crash. It is not known whether Young has an attorney who can comment on her behalf. Scott tweeted, Dont drive impaired, till death do we part doesnt need any help. Young was taken to a police substation to have her blood drawn and released without going to jail. Its unknown whether Young made it to her wedding. BANGKOKBurmas government on Tuesday rejected two reports presented to the UN Human Rights Council that concluded it committed extreme human rights violations, probably amounting to crimes under international law, in its repression of several minority groups. Government spokesperson Zaw Htay said the reports presented Monday by the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (Burma) and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar (Burma) Yanghee Lee lacked credibility. The report of the Fact-Finding Mission, chaired by former Indonesian Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman, was based on hundreds of accounts by victims and witnesses of reported human rights violations, as well as satellite imagery, photographs and video footage. Read more: U.S. Holocaust Museum revokes award to Burmas Suu Kyi over response to Rohingya crisis They couldnt hide all the death: Unreported mass graves suggest Burma is covering up a genocide Opinion | Who can help save the Rohingya? Canada The missions members were barred by Burmas government from entering the country, so its researchers interviewed refugees and others in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand. Zaw Htay said Buddhist-majority Burma had barred the Fact-Finding Mission because it rejected its legitimacy. He questioned the reliability of its research and cast doubts on the credibility of the refugees stories. We are not denying rights violations but we are asking for strong, fact-based, and trustworthy evidence on the allegations they are making, Zaw Htay told The Associated Press by telephone. He also said Burma would no longer co-operate with Lee because she has made biased, one-sided and unfair accusations against Burma (Myanmar). Lee told the Human Rights Council that violent sweeps by the Burma army in Rakhine state that prompted about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh bear the hallmarks of genocide. She said accountability for the abuses in Rakhine should be the focus of the international communitys efforts to bring long-lasting peace, stability and democratization to Burma (Myanmar). This must be aimed at the individuals who gave the orders and carried out violations against individuals and entire ethnic and religious groups, she said. The government leadership who did nothing to intervene, stop, or condemn these acts must also be held accountable. The situations in Kachin and Shan states, which involve actual combat between government soldiers and ethnic rebel groups seeking greater autonomy, have received much less international attention than the plight of the Rohingya. The Fact-Finding Mission said in an interim report presented in Geneva that patterns of human rights abuse across the country are linked, with events in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states all products of a long-standing, systemic pattern of human rights violation and abuse in Burma (Myanmar). The long-standing conflicts in Kachin and Shan states have recently intensified, leading to more reports of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed in these areas by the security forces, it said. Both Darusman and Lee said Facebook had played a key role in the spread of conflict and hate speech in Burma. We know that the ultranationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and really (are) inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities, Lee said. And Im afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, (instead of) what it was originally intended to be used (for) maybe in other parts of the world too. Read more about: Months ago, when National Geographic set out to make race the sole focus of its April 2018 issue, it decided to engage in some soul-searching. For much of its 130-year history, the magazine depicted people of colour in crude stereotypes. Its archives are loaded with pictures of brown-skinned natives gazing in apparent awe at Western technology, articles referring to tribal peoples as savages, and of course many, many photos of bare-breasted Pacific island women striking vaguely seductive poses. Those glossy Geographics, stacked up in attics and basements, were favourites of more than a few curious young boys with little interest in New Guinea or Polynesia. So in preparation for its examination of race, National Geographic editor in chief Susan Goldberg tapped John Edwin Mason, a University of Virginia professor specializing in the history of photography and the history of Africa, to dive into the magazines past. On Monday, she discussed his findings in an editors note. What Mason found in short was that until the 1970s National Geographic all but ignored people of colour who lived in the United States, rarely acknowledging them beyond labourers or domestic workers, Goldberg wrote. Meanwhile it pictured natives elsewhere as exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages every type of cliche. The title of Goldbergs piece put it more bluntly: For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It. It was an extraordinary concession from the magazine. Renowned for its photography and its coverage of science, history, anthropology and the environment, National Geographic has also faced criticism over the years for reporting on the world through a narrow white, Western lens. Breanna Edwards of the African American-focused news and culture site The Root called the move the first step to righting a long-overlooked and perhaps even taken-for-granted wrong. Bluntly acknowledging its own past in this way is indeed powerful, but it is not necessarily something, I think, that we should applaud, as much as we should expect, Edwards wrote, especially at this time in our lives when race and discussions of racism and even general cultural insensitivity can be volatile, tense and perhaps even deadly. Others were more critical, including Voxs Kainaz Amaria, who tweeted that the magazines colonial visual legacy had, in effect, trained non-white, non-Western people to allow themselves to be exploited and otherized. Mason, the professor, touched on a similar point in an interview with NPR on Monday. He said a number of African photographers were drawn into photography by what they saw in National Geographics pages, even though it was racially and culturally insensitive. They knew that there were problems with the way that they and their people were being represented, Mason told NPR. And yet the photography was often spectacularly good, it was really inviting, and it carried this power. And as young people, these men and women said, I want to do that. I want to make pictures like that. Goldberg noted that she is the first woman and the first Jewish person to serve as editor in chief, so shes sensitive, she said, to the magazines legacy of discrimination. It hurts to share the appalling stories from the magazines past, she wrote. But when we decided to devote our April magazine to the topic of race, we thought we should examine our own history before turning our reportorial gaze on others. She highlighted several examples of racist content the magazine published over the course of several decades. In one instance, National Geographic in 1916 ran an article that called Aboriginal Australians blackfellows who rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings. A 1941 piece used a racial slur to describe Black California cotton workers. And a 1962 photo depicted a white photographer showing his camera to a group of Timorese men. The native person fascinated by Western technology was a recurring theme, Mason told National Geographic. It really creates this us-and-them dichotomy between the civilized and the uncivilized. Goldberg and Mason also found that National Geographic was racist in what it omitted from its coverage. A 1962 story on South Africa quoted no Black South Africans, nor did it mention the massacre of 69 Black people by police in Sharpeville two and a half years earlier. That absence is as important as what is in there, Mason said in Goldbergs piece. The only Black people are doing exotic dances . . . servants or workers. Its bizarre, actually, to consider what the editors, writers, and photographers had to consciously not see. Until the 1970s, National Geographic did little to challenge stereotypes in white American culture, Mason found. National Geographic wasnt teaching as much as reinforcing messages they already received and doing so in a magazine that had tremendous authority, he said. National Geographic comes into existence at the height of colonialism, and the world was divided into the colonizers and the colonized. That was a colour line, and National Geographic was reflecting that view of the world. As for the bare-breasted island women the magazine regularly featured in glossy, full-colour photos: I think the editors understood this was frankly a selling point to its male readers, Mason told NPR. Goldberg said the magazine has improved in recent years in part by putting cameras in the hands of the people who were often on the other side of the lens. In one project in 2015, for example, the magazine gave cameras to young Haitians and asked them to shoot pictures of their world. That would have been unthinkable in National Geographics past, Mason said. Goldberg said she wants to continue on that course by hiring more diverse journalists at the magazine. The coverage wasnt right before because it was told from an elite, white American point of view, and I think it speaks to exactly why we needed a diversity of storytellers, Goldberg told The Associated Press. So we need photographers who are African-American and Native American because they are going to capture a different truth and maybe a more accurate story. VATICAN CITYPope Francis marked his fifth anniversary as Pope Tuesday by receiving votes of confidence from his predecessor and from the current Vatican No. 2 as well as faithful around the globe seeking to rebut criticism about his reform-minded papacy and encouraging him to push the envelope even further. First out of the gate was Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, whose historic resignation paved the way for Francis election on March 13, 2013. In a letter released on the eve of Francis fifth anniversary as pope, Benedict publicly dismissed as foolish prejudice those who say Francis has no theological heft and represents a rupture from his own papacy. Welcoming the release of a new Vatican-curated volume on The Theology of Pope Francis, Benedict said the books show Pope Francis is a man of profound philosophical and theological training and help to see the interior continuity between the two pontificates, with all the differences in style and temperament. Read more: Pope clears way for slain Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero to be a saint Pope Francis revives sex abuse advisory commission after criticism over Chilean bishop Pope Francis got abuse survivors letter in 2015 but still insisted victims havent come forward Francis frequently downplays the work of theologians, and his critics point to his simple speaking and writing style as evidence of a doctrinal deficit. Many of those critics have pointed to his cautious opening to allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion as a sign that dogma under Francis is adrift. Francis supporters insist he is in complete harmony with church teaching and continuity with Benedicts doctrinaire papacy. They say Francis is merely emphasizing discernment to navigate complex pastoral situations. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, acknowledged Francis had his critics, saying Tuesday it was only natural that a papacy that has prized opening up the church to all will bump up against those who think otherwise. But he distinguished between destructive, aggressive, really bad criticisms that have to simply be accepted as a cross to bear, and constructive criticism that can be helpful. Aside from doctrinal questions, Francis has come under the most criticism for his handling of clerical sex abuse cases. He has intervened in canonical cases to reduce sentences for priestly offenders, has defended a Chilean bishop accused of ignoring abuse and has dismissed complaints by victims against the bishop as mere slander. He reneged on a plan to create a tribunal to judge negligent bishops, allowed his advisory commission to lapse and didnt renew the mandate of several of its most outspoken leaders to new terms. And yet, in the streets, he remains beloved. I think hes an extraordinary person, said Juliana Galeano, a 46-year-old geographer who was picking up her son at a Catholic school in Sao Paolo. Unlike many church leaders who think its the Middle Ages, Francis wants to move the church forward, she said. You have to evolve. Gerald Bareebe, a Ugandan academic who described himself as a progressive Catholic, said he wanted Francis to push the envelope further on the thorny issue of priestly celibacy and married priests. In Uganda, not a year passes without media houses carrying stories of priests who are caught in marital affairs, he said. And these cases have become common partly because priests are forced to take mandatory celibacy. The church should save its face and allow priests who want to marry and continue serving God to do so. The issue is likely to feature in some of Francis initiatives in the future, including a big church meeting in 2019 on spreading the faith in the Amazon, where the acute priest shortage has led to calls for married priests. Correction March 19, 2018: This article refers to information regarding Gina Haspels role in torture at a secret site in Thailand. The Associated Press has since issued the following correction regarding Haspels role in torture there: In stories March 13-14 about President Donald Trumps pick to be the next CIA director, The Associated Press reported erroneously that nominee Gina Haspel oversaw a CIA prison in Thailand from 2003 to 2005. The prison closed in December 2002, and the AP has been unable to determine how long Haspel served as chief of base where the prison was located. The APs reporting also suggested she oversaw the prison at the time that detainees Abu Zubaydah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were subjected to waterboarding. Those detainees were waterboarded at the site, according to a 2014 Senate torture report and other documents, but the CIA wont confirm any details about Haspels role in their treatment. During the period that both men were waterboarded, Haspel was a senior official in the CIA unit administering the detention program that used what the agency called enhanced interrogation techniques. ProPublica, which first reported on Zubaydahs torture last year, now states that Haspel was not in charge of the base until after Abu Zubaydahs torture was past, and has retracted its report. The CIA had not previously responded in detail to these allegations. A number of news organizations have now issued corrections regarding this misinformation. A corrected version of the story is below: WASHINGTONU.S. President Donald Trumps pick to be the next director of the CIA is a career spymaster who is accused of overseeing torture at a secret prison during one of the darkest chapters in the agencys history. If confirmed, 61-year-old Gina Haspel would become the first woman to lead the CIA. Colleagues describe her as a seasoned veteran with 30-plus years of intelligence experience who would run the agency with integrity. But its the time she spent supervising a secret CIA prison that will be scrutinized at her Senate confirmation hearing. Trump announced on Tuesday that he had chosen Haspel to succeed Mike Pompeo, who is the presidents pick to replace ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Haspel joined the CIA in 1985 and has been deputy director since February 2017. Read more: Trump fires Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, replaces him with hawkish CIA head Mike Pompeo Analysis | How the last five days of Rex Tillersons tenure played out Analysis | New record: Donald Trump just made 60 false claims in a week and 30 in one speech U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he is delegating his responsibilities at the end of the day Tuesday to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. Tillerson spoke to reporters hours after being fired by U.S. President Donald Trump in a tweet. (The Associated Press) After the 9/11 attacks, she held senior positions in the CIA unit administering the detention program that used enhanced interrogation techniques. At some point in 2002, Haspel oversaw the agencys clandestine prison in Thailand. Suspected terrorists Abu Zubayadah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded at the site that year, according to a 2014 Senate torture report and other documents, though its unclear if such treatment occurred while Haspel was chief of base where the prison was located. Waterboarding is a process that simulates drowning and is widely considered to be a form of torture. Haspel also helped carry out an order to destroy waterboarding videos, which prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. Trump has said that he would reintroduce waterboarding and a lot worse, but theres no indication that his decision to pick Haspel signals a desire to restart the harsh interrogation and detention program. He would face steep legal and legislative hurdles if he tried. Republican Sen. John McCain said Haspel must explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIAs interrogation program. Current U.S. law is clear in banning enhanced interrogation techniques, said McCain, who was beaten as a prisoner during the Vietnam War. Any nominee for director of the CIA must pledge without reservation to uphold this prohibition. Former CIA Director John Brennan declined to say what Haspels exact role was in the interrogation program, but he told NBC that she has a lot of integrity and has tried to carry out her agency duties when asked to do difficult things in challenging times. Brennan predicted she would be confirmed. Gina is a very competent professional who I think deserves the chance to take the seat, he said. Republican Sen. Richard Burr the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which will consider the nomination, said she has the right skill set, experience and judgment to lead the CIA. Avril Haines, a former CIA deputy director and one-time White House deputy national security adviser, said Haspel is intelligent, compassionate, and fair and has an unparalleled understanding of the institution, the agencys work, and she will support the workforce all attributes the agency needs from its director. Human rights advocates said they opposed Haspels promotion. No one who had a hand in torturing individuals deserves to ever hold public office again, let alone lead an agency, Human Rights Firsts Raha Wala said. To allow someone who had a direct hand in this illegal, immoral and counterproductive program is to willingly forget our nations dark history with torture. After Haspel was named deputy CIA director, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights asked German prosecutors to issue a warrant for her arrest over her role in the interrogations. Federal prosecutors never issued the warrant because the case lacked a connection to Germany. But the rights groups allegations against Haspel remain part of a preliminary investigation that German authorities could revive if they receive evidence that any of the parties have links to Germany. Last year, Haspels name came up during a civil lawsuit in Spokane, Washington, filed by three men who said they suffered waterboarding, beatings and sleep deprivation in the CIA interrogation program developed by former Spokane psychologists James E. Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. Lawyers for the psychologists wanted to interview Haspel and another CIA official involved in the program, but government lawyers told the federal judge in the case that the officials and documents were protected under the state secrets privilege and making them public would threaten national security. Haspel has been chief of station at CIA outposts abroad. In Washington, she has held several senior leadership positions, including deputy director of the National Clandestine Service. In her current post, she worked with Pompeo to manage intelligence collection, analysis, covert action, counter-intelligence and co-operation with the CIAs foreign counterparts. In a brief statement, the former undercover officer said she was humbled by Trumps confidence in her. Read more about: AUSTIN, Texas Two of the families hit with package bombs left on Austin doorsteps knew each other and were connected through local activism in the Black community, a civic leader said Tuesday, but it was not clear how they might be tied to a third household where a package bomb also exploded. Investigators have said the three blasts that killed two people and wounded two others could have been hate crimes since all the victims were Black or Hispanic. But they also said they have not ruled out any possible motive. Draylen Mason, 17, was killed and his mother wounded when a package bomb was opened Monday in their kitchen. The teens grandfather is Norman Mason, a prominent dentist in east Austin. He was friends with Freddie Dixon, stepfather of 39-year-old Anthony House, who died in a similar attack in another part of the city on March 2, said Nelson Linder, president of the Austin chapter of the NAACP. Read more: Texas police investigate 3rd explosion after 2 deadly package bombs linked I dont believe in coincidences, Linder said, explaining that he was concerned by the fact that the families were acquainted. Still unknown is what connection if any the two families had to a third household where another package bomb exploded Monday, wounding a 75-year-old Hispanic woman who remains hospitalized in critical condition but has not yet been identified. Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said he was aware of the connection but did not know if would affect the case. Our detectives are currently looking at that to evaluate that lead and to see if it is in fact relevant to what we are investigating, Manley said. Business records indicate that Dixon was a leader of Austins African American Cultural Heritage District, or Six Square, which the city defines as 6 square miles of east Austin that was originally created as the Negro District by the Austin City Council in 1928. He also was a longtime pastor at Wesley United Methodist Church, one of the citys oldest historically Black churches. Dixon was quoted by the Austin American-Statesman in 2015 lamenting how Austins population growth and prosperity were effectively creating economic segregation by raising the cost of living. Austin is quickly becoming a city of the privileged and the non-privileged, Dixon told the newspaper. Is that the kind of Austin we want? Linder said Austins minority community is on edge following the bombings. Given the fact these people are people of colour, that definitely gets peoples attention, he said. They feel vulnerable, and they should based on the nature of the incidents. The FBI and other federal officials continue to assist in the investigation. Manley said, Were not saying that we believe terrorism or hate is in play, but we absolutely have to consider that because we dont want to limit what we are investigating, what we are considering and how we are approaching this case. Tina Sherrow, a retired agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the materials to build such bombs are commonly available at hardware stores or online, and that police have been mum on details because the perpetrators may be watching media coverage. I dont look at it as terrorism, but its terrorism of a community for sure, Sherrow said. The package explosives were not delivered by the U.S. Postal Service or any private carrier but left overnight on doorsteps. Still, Manley urged Austin residents to call 911 if they receive any unwanted packages that look suspicious. Authorities responded to 250-plus calls about parcels without finding any that were explosives. Austin police are offering a $50,000 (U.S.) reward for information leading to an arrest, Manley said. Thats in addition to the $50,000 that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has already offered. Manley said he could not divulge too many details about the packages, saying those responsible could vary their future tactics. But he said the packages were not at all identifiable as a standard shipping box or standard shipping labels would be. Investigators collecting evidence continued to come and go, and yellow police tape still marked off the sites of Mondays two blasts, which occurred about 8 kilometres apart. At the site of the March 2 bombing, there were no police, but the door to the red-brick house where the package exploded was still boarded up. Theres nothing obvious linking the three neighbourhoods, other than all were east of Interstate 35, which divides the city. The east side has historically been more heavily minority and less wealthy than Austins west side, although that has changed as gentrification has raised home prices and rents everywhere. The blasts occurred during the South By Southwest music festival, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to Austin each March. But they happened far from the main events and concert venues. Read more about: U.S. President Donald Trump has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, with whom he had repeatedly clashed, and replaced him with CIA director Mike Pompeo, a right-wing former congressman who has advocated an aggressive posture toward North Korea and Iran. The decision could result in the further hardening of Trump foreign policy. With last weeks resignation of chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, the administration is losing two of its top advocates of moderation and internationalism. Pompeo has sought to dismantle the Iran nuclear deal Tillerson supported, and he has hinted at a desire to oust North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. It is also possible, analysts said, that the replacement of Tillerson with Pompeo will have not have major policy ramifications. Trump has never seemed inclined to listen to his diplomats, and his decision-making has frequently been driven more by his own impulses than the advice of any appointee. I dont know. And I dont think anybody knows, Aaron David Miller, a former adviser to six secretaries of state, said of how Pompeos arrival will affect the fate of the Iran deal. Trumps move adds to the chaos endlessly plaguing an administration that has experienced abnormally high turnover. Communications director Hope Hicks resigned in late February, staff secretary Rob Porter under a cloud in early February. On Monday, Trumps personal assistant, John McEntee was fired and escorted off the White House property over some kind of security issue. Tillersons departure could simplify other countries dealings with the administration. Trump demonstrated on numerous occasions that Tillerson was not actually speaking for him. His casual undermining of his alleged chief emissary left allies and adversaries puzzling over how seriously to take their interactions with the former ExxonMobil chief executive. Rex Tillerson steps away from the podium after speaking at the State Department in Washington on Tuesday. Trumps decision to fire Tillerson comes just as the president dives into high-stakes talks with North Korea. U.S. news outlets said Trump was contemplating more big changes. At various times, he has been said to be irritated with chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser H.R. McMaster. Tillersons exit was no big surprise: his disconnect with the president was obvious even before the public learned in October that Tillerson had called Trump a moron. Tillerson reportedly thought Trump was ill-informed and irresponsible. Trump reportedly thought Tillerson was disloyal, ineffective and overly fond of traditionalist policy. They clashed over Qatar, Russia, NATO, the Paris climate accord and other issues. Tillersons tenure was the among the shortest in U.S. history. It was rocky from the start. Trump was not his only critic: members of both parties, along with current and former diplomats, accused him of mismanagement. Diplomats were particularly incensed by Tillersons desire to chop his departments budget by about a third and to induce 2,000 employees to leave. A union representing foreign service officers warned of an exodus of disaffected staff. Still, his ouster leaves Trumps diplomatic apparatus in flux as he embarks on his high-stakes North Korea diplomatic gambit, faces another deadline over withdrawing from the Iran deal, presides over multiple wars and attempts to calm allies unhappy over his tariffs on steel and aluminum. And it leaves the world to figure out yet another official translator for a president whose public comments are often detached from what the U.S. is actually doing. Read more: Trumps new CIA director oversaw the torture of terror suspects at a secret U.S. prison in Thailand Analysis | New record: Donald Trump just made 60 false claims in a week and 30 in one speech In this depressed Pennsylvania steel town, Trumps tariffs meet deep skepticism and almost no one wants to hit Canada Tillerson appeared to have a warm relationship with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, who happened to be in Washington on Tuesday, but he was not seen by Canadian officials as an essential ally. Rex Tillerson was probably the worst Secretary of State in modern history. He gutted and demoralized the department and delivered nothing for this country. I fear what comes next but am glad he's finally gone, Tommy Vietor, a former national security spokesman for Barack Obama, said on Twitter. Trump and Tillerson differed to the end. The same day last week that Tillerson said the U.S. was a long ways from negotiations with North Korea, Trump made an impromptu decision, without consulting Tillerson, to meet with Kim. This week, as Trump and his aides initially declined to name Russia as the culprit in the nerve-agent attack on a former spy in England, Tillerson did so himself. We were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process, Trump told reporters. Ive worked with Mike Pompeo now for quite some time. Tremendous energy, tremendous intellect, were always on the same wavelength. The relationship has been very good and thats what I need as secretary of state. I wish Rex Tillerson well. U.S. President Donald Trump has "total confidence" in Mike Pompeo, his new pick for Secretary of State. Trump announced Tuesday that he has fired Tillerson and was replacing him with Mike Pompeo, currently the CIA director. (The Associated Press) Tillerson aides said he was blindsided by the decision, though White House officials said he was initially asked to resign on Friday. In a post-firing speech, Tillerson thanked a variety of officials but not Trump. He said he received a call from Trump around noon, more than three hours after Trump announced his decision with a statement to the Washington Post and then an 8:44 a.m. tweet. Tillerson made repeated reference to the importance of U.S. allies and partners. And he said U.S. leadership starts with diplomacy, a view not universally shared in the administration. He said he would serve until the end of the month but delegate his duties on Wednesday to deputy John Sullivan. The firing came just a day after Tillerson, returning from a five-country Africa trip, blasted Russia in unusually strong terms for its alleged role in the nerve-agent attack, calling Russia an irresponsible force of instability in the world. Trump has regularly spoken more favourably toward Russia, which U.S. intelligence believes intervened in the election to help him, than have other members of his administration. It was not clear Tuesday if Tillersons words on Russia factored into Trumps decision. Pompeo, a Harvard Law graduate and a former Army officer and businessman, served just over three terms as a Kansas congressman. He has endeared himself to Trump during the daily intelligence briefings he has personally delivered to the president. First elected as part of the tea party electoral wave in 2010, Pompeo is known for his right-wing views. He has called for the death penalty for secrets-leaker Edward Snowden and advocated a return of the banned National Security Agency surveillance practice of collecting metadata on Americans. He also angered American Muslims by accusing community leaders of silence in response to terror attacks hundreds of them have actually condemned. He has also been praised by Democrats as smart, hard-working and willing to listen. The Senate confirmed him 66-32 last year for the job of CIA director. Trumps choice for new CIA director is Gina Haspel, Pompeos deputy, who would be the first woman to lead the spy agency. Haspel, a former clandestine officer widely respected at the agency, personally oversaw the torture of two terrorism suspects in 2002, the New York Times reported, and was involved in destroying the video evidence. Trumps Tuesday tweet read: Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Trump had memorably refused in November to give Tillerson a vote of confidence as rumours swirled about his precarious standing; asked if he wanted Tillerson to remain in his job, Trump simply pointed out that Tillerson was physically present at the White House with him, saying, Hes here. Rex is here. Tillerson will depart less than six months after he gave an unusual speech pledging his support for Trump. The biggest news from that speech, though, was what he didnt do: deny an NBC report that he had called Trump a moron. A spokesperson issued a denial later, but the damage was done. Trump was said to be fuming about the incident days later. I think its fake news, but if he did that, I guess well have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win, Trump told Forbes magazine. Tillerson was the first secretary of state with no experience in military or government. Trump had admired Tillersons success in the oil business, and he delighted in picking a fellow political outsider for the job of top diplomat. Tillersons efforts to conduct conventional diplomacy were undermined time and again by Trumps unscripted pronouncements. In late September, a day after Tillerson said on television that the U.S. had been communicating directly with North Korea, Trump wrote on Twitter: I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful secretary of state, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man. Save your energy Rex, well do what has to be done! In a speech in November, Tillerson delivered a sharp rebuke of Russias malicious tactics and flagrant violation of democratic norms. Trump has never used such critical language, instead boasting about his personal chemistry with President Vladimir Putin. Tillerson was particularly incensed, the New York Times reported, with Trumps refusal to let him lead the process of trying to broker a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Qatar and its neighbours. Just an hour after Tillerson urged Saudi Arabia to soften its stance on Qatar, Trump blasted Qatar again as a funder of terrorism at a very high level. America's top diplomat under President Donald Trump, former Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson, grappled with crafting new foreign policy as the new White House occupant stuck to his election platform of "Make America Great Again." (The Associated Press) Tillerson was a force for moderation on several important files. He urged Trump to preserve the Iran deal, which Trump has lambasted, and to keep the U.S. in the Paris climate accord, from which Trump has announced a withdrawal. Trump sometimes sided with Tillerson, but he was annoyed with him even then. Trump was resentful, the Post reported, that Tillerson had helped to convince him to make a grudging decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. Read more about: Thursday, March 8 When the biggest diplomatic move of President Trumps administration to date was announced, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Ethiopia. Tillerson had just arrived on the African continent Thursday for a multiday trip when a delegation from South Korea arrived at the White House to discuss recent negotiations with North Korea. They were there to meet with top aides to the president, but Trump himself intervened, inviting them into the Oval Office. There, he was told that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was open to discussions with the United States, and Trump, without hesitation, agreed. The South Korean delegation announced the anticipated meeting between the United States and North Korea from the White House driveway. Only hours before, Tillerson had been asked about the prospect of discussions with the North Koreans. Were a long ways from negotiations, Tillerson told the media. The distance, it turns out, was much shorter than Tillerson knew. Friday, March 9 At some point on Friday, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly contacted Tillerson, according to the Associated Press, to inform him there might soon be a presidential tweet concerning him. That call was likely in the middle of the night for Tillerson, according to Bloomberg News. Tillerson told Bloomberg and other members of the media that hed had a call at 2:30 a.m. about which he could not say anything further. Tillerson continued on to Djibouti. Trumps schedule for the day was largely empty. Saturday, March 10 Tillersons schedule on Saturday was cleared by the State Department, attributed to Tillerson not feeling well. Trump travelled to Pittsburgh for a rally on behalf of a congressional candidate in the state. During his speech, he celebrated the apparent breakthrough with North Korea. When the South Korean representatives who just left North Korea came outside, big throng of press, they announced that North Korea, Kim Jong Un, would like to meet with President Trump, the president said. This doesnt happen, you know. They say well, Obama could have done that. Trust me, he wouldnt have done it. And by the way, neither would Bush, and neither would Clinton. And they had their shot, and all they did was nothing. Sunday, March 11 Tillerson resumed his public schedule in Kenya. Trump mostly tweeted. CIA Director Mike Pompeo appeared on CBS Face the Nation, where he was asked about the situation with North Korea and upcoming negotiations: CBSs MARGARET BRENNAN: Tillerson said this will be done through him. Is that still the plan? POMPEO: This is a level of discussion the president is going to drive this effort this negotiation, but it will take a team to build out the picture so that we put the president in the best position so that he can achieve that outcome. BRENNAN: Because its unclear, though, if its the State Department or your agency that will take the lead. It was your counterpart from South Korea who was at the White House this week. POMPEO: I dont think theres any doubt about whos going to take the lead on this. The president of the United States is going to take the lead. Monday, March 12 British Prime Minister Theresa May, speaking from Parliament, made a remarkable announcement. The poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K. earlier this month was undertaken with a nerve agent produced by the Russian government. The implication was either that Russia had lost control of that toxin, she said, or that the Russian government had a hand in the attack. Tillerson had begun his flight back to the United States, cutting his trip short, he told reporters, because he was not feeling well. In a break from past practice, he spoke to the press on the record, including about the incident in the U.K. The attack on the spy, Sergei Skripal, which left him and his daughter in critical condition, clearly came from Russia, Tillerson said, given how difficult the toxin was to obtain. The attack was a really egregious act that would certainly trigger a response. What weve seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive, he said. And this is very, very concerning to me and others that there seems to be a certain unleashing of activity that we dont fully understand what the objective behind that is. Asked about Mays comments during the daily White House news briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to point the finger at Russia. I think (the British are) still working through even some of the details of that, she said. Tuesday, March 13 Tillerson arrives back in the United States at 4 a.m. A few hours later, The Washington Post breaks the story about Tillerson being replaced with Pompeo. Trump confirms the move in a tweet. State Department Undersecretary Steve Goldstein told CNN the tweet was the first point at which Tillerson knew he had been fired, though the New York Times reports that Tillerson found out before dawn. The department had already released a statement suggesting Tillersons departure was not mutually agreed upon. The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of critical progress made in national security, that statement read. He will miss his colleagues at the Department of State and the foreign ministers that hes worked with throughout the world. The secretary, the statement added, did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason for the firing. Trump was asked about his decision during a brief news conference. Mr. President, one reporter asked, what did you say to Rex Tillerson? Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time, Trump said, not indicating that any of those conversations had occurred recently. We got along, actually, quite well, but we disagreed on things. We were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think its going to go very well. Trump said he made the decision to meet with North Korea by myself, noting Tillerson wasnt in this country. Trump was also asked about Mays remarks in the U.K. He said he had be speaking with the prime minister later in the day. As soon as we get the facts straight, Trump said, and were going to be speaking with the British today; were going to be speaking with Theresa May today. And as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be. He then praised the decision by the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee to exonerate him on questions of collusion during the 2016 presidential campaign. Read more about: The either-or approach to Catholic school funding in Ontario unhelpfully distracts us from the oft-ignored reality that parents want educational options for their children. The either-or argument runs like this: either we keep the status quo and fund the Roman Catholic separate system or we make the constitutionally difficult decision to trash Ontarios separate schools in favour of a single secular system. But why are these the only two options? In other provinces, we see government funding for a diverse range of schools. Many are religiously oriented, including Catholic, Protestant Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hutterite, and others. And schools with such focused curricula or unique educational philosophies receive funding. This actually happens in all provinces except Ontario and the provinces in Atlantic Canada. The either-or arguments in Ontario rest on the myth that parents are satisfied with public schools, that expanding options would be too expensive, and that religious schools are socially divisive. A quick look at the evidence demolishes these misconceptions. Consider parents first. Their actions show they want educational options. Ontario already accommodates this to a limited extent through its French and Catholic separate systems, which together account for 30 per cent of enrolment. Even more telling: despite a declining school-age population and, thus, declining enrolments, the number of students in independent schools according to Fraser Institute calculations of Ministry data increased by 17.9 per cent from 2000-01 to 2014-15. Parents are not satisfied with a one-size-fits-all secular school system. They are looking for options. And with just under half of independent schools in the province religiously oriented, its clear that religious options matter. Fully funded Catholic schools provide one option. But British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec all go further by partially funding a host of independent school options religious and non-religious opening access to these institutions to more than just those who can foot the bill. Theres no reason Ontario couldnt tailor its education system this way. But what about money? That a single public system would be cheaper defies basic economic reality for two primary reasons. First, it is difficult to imagine an even larger monopoly would cost taxpayers less. State monopolies arent typically celebrated for efficient and effective use of resources. Second, students who attend partially funded independent schools cost taxpayers less. When philanthropists and parents pick up part of the tab, less is required of taxpayers. To top it off, Patrick Daly, director of the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic District School Board, cites 2017-18 figures in the Hamilton Spectator showing that Catholic schools in at least three school districts currently receive less per pupil funding than public schools. In the long term, scrapping Ontarios separate schools may well end up costing taxpayers more, not less. Finally, the argument that religious schools are socially divisive also fails to look at the facts. The 2016 Cardus Education Survey, a nationally representative study comparing Canadian graduates from all school sectors, shows little difference between graduates from separate Catholic and public schools in terms of the value they place on tolerance, their likelihood to volunteer, or their engagement in public life through civic organizations. The Catholic system is simply not more likely to produce an intolerant citizen that is not civically engaged. In fact, on some measures of civic engagement, notably volunteering and giving, graduates from other sectors-particularly of religious independent schools outperform their secular public school peers. These are strong signs that increasing the diversity of schooling options in Ontario may cultivate better citizens. In a province where only 17 per cent describe themselves as non-believers, religion still matters. Subsuming students into one system where they learn about religion but may not wrestle with the realities of living within religion, is short-sighted. As religious belief in Ontario and Canada becomes more complex and diverse, we need to do more work to understand and accommodate it, not less. Are we moving into a renewed debate about school funding in Ontario? Lets have at it. But lets extend the debate to include building a system with a true diversity of options, including Catholic schools. Dr. Beth Green is education program director at think tank Cardus. She has a DPhil from the University of Oxford, she has run the professional doctorate in education (EdD) at Liverpool Hope University and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.Dr. Deani Van Pelt researched who chooses independent schools and why as her doctoral dissertation at Western University. She is a senior fellow at Cardus and formerly served as associate professor of education and director of teacher education at Redeemer University College. This month the Halton Catholic Trustees voted to ban student fundraising directly or indirectly inconsistent with Catholic teachings around the sanctity of life. Logically, that means no fundraising for Sick Kids hospital no stem cell research or for the United Way, which funds Planned Parenthood. If this were a private school, this resolution would be an expression of religious freedom and the state should get out of the way. But Halton Catholic District School Board is publicly funded. Under the Canadian Constitution denominational schools (Catholic schools in Ontario) enjoy the same rights and privileges, including full funding, as public schools. The status quo requires public funds to be used to promote a religious agenda but only one. Were overdue to change this discriminatory and unequal situation. In 1999, the United Nations Human Rights Committee declared Ontarios practice of funding Catholic education to the exclusion of other religions discriminatory. The UNs power is limited to persuasion. Nothing changed. Canadian Courts normally have the power to require governments to correct discriminatory laws. The courts have acknowledged this would normally include religious privileges enjoyed by Catholic schools. But the Charter of Rights includes a loophole to protect separate schools rights and privileges from the normal requirements of Charter scrutiny, because they were part of the original constitutional bargain in 1867. At Confederation, Catholics in Upper Canada were a vulnerable minority and to join Canada on a secure basis, their rights needed to be guaranteed against the Protestant majority. Obviously, things have changed since 1867. Catholics are the largest religious group in Ontario. We have a diverse population in which almost a quarter of people have no religious affiliation, and another 12 per cent of all Ontarians belong to other faiths. Canadas identity is multicultural. In all other areas of public services, governments are bound by values of equality. Surprisingly, the constitutional change required to remedy this inequality is not legally difficult. Changing the constitutional protection of Catholic education in Ontario is governed by section 43 of the Constitution, which requires only a resolution be passed by both Queens Park and Parliament. Quebec and Newfoundland have already passed those resolutions and ended religious funding, with support from Parliament. In Quebec, the legislature voted unanimously to end funding, and in Newfoundland a referendum saw 73 per cent of the population vote to stop funding denominational schools. Apart from the ongoing inequity of letting a powerful religious group have unequal benefit of the law in one of our most important government services, shaping childrens minds, the time for a change is now more than ever. This month, weve learned that more than 8 per cent of students attending Catholic schools in Ontario arent Catholic. Last year, the Human Rights Tribunal held that non-Catholics could not be made to attend religious instruction when they attend Catholic school. In Toronto, Catholic schools are busing students short distances, apparently to boost enrolment. At this point, Catholic schooling has become a part of the architecture of school choice in the province and it may be contributing to social stratification across publicly funded systems. Research from Scott Davies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education has shown that children attending Catholic schools are more likely to have parents with post-secondary education; data collected by EQAO shows that, in the GTAH Catholic schools boards have fewer students with special education needs and vastly fewer students whose first language learned at home was not English. We should eliminate this anachronistic arrangement because its right. But lets also not forget that funding separate Catholic schools adds substantially to the cost of public education. The Drummond report on potential efficiencies for government declined to calculate the extra cost of running parallel, publicly funded school boards. The non-profit Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods estimates that reduction in governance and administrative duplication, busing, and capital funding, as well as efficiencies, would result in annual savings between $1.2 and $1.6 billion. Election season approaches. Its time for Ontario politicians to stand up for equality in public education. Kelly Gallagher-Mackay is a professor of Law and Society at Wilfrid Laurier University with a focus on educational inequality. As the United States tears itself apart over whether, in the face of an epidemic of mass shootings, to impose even minimal controls on the purchase and possession of firearms, Canadians should avoid the temptation of smugness. Of course, our own gun laws are far more robust and sensible than those of our southern neighbours, and our debate happily less fraught, but there is still much room for improvement. And here, too, despite the support of a majority of citizens, the prospect of tighter restrictions is threatened by a small but outspoken opposition with outsized political power. As the Trudeau government reportedly prepares to table new gun-control legislation, it should not be swayed by our own loud gun lobby or by the caucuss nervous Nellies, as Jean Chretien used to call them. It should instead finally deliver on its promise to address a burgeoning gun problem here at home. In 2011, the year Stephen Harpers Conservatives won a majority, Statistics Canada reported that the country was seeing the lowest rate of firearm homicides in Canada in almost 50 years. This was likely at least in part the result of tighter gun controls introduced in the wake of the massacre at the Ecole Polytechnique. Yet despite the apparent success of these policies, Harper began to chip away at them. Most infamously, the Conservatives eliminated the long-gun registry, ignoring the warnings of law enforcement agencies that this was an important investigatory tool and, against all pleading, ordered that all of the registrys records be destroyed. This was by no means their only step back on gun control. For instance, they deep-sixed the longstanding requirement that gun dealers maintain sales records, though this is the law even in Texas, Arizona and other gun-loving jurisdictions. They inserted a loophole that relieves sellers of the responsibility to validate a buyers licence at the time of purchase or transfer. And they delayed the implementation of important new rules meant to help law enforcement identify the country of origin of imported firearms. In the years since, we have seen a steady rise in gun homicides. While it would be reductive to chalk this up to the loosened restrictions alone, advocates and law-enforcement agencies have made a compelling case that the phenomena are linked. The Trudeau Liberals rightly promised on the campaign trail to undo many of the Harper policies and to introduce a number of new measures as well, including expanded background checks to help law enforcement more quickly identify people unfit to own guns due to mental instability or a criminal past. But they have been slow to act, no doubt in part because of the inevitable blowback. The gun lobby is of course right that the vast majority of gun owners are law-abiding and that the government should be careful not to demonize them or to inadvertently infringe on their legitimate use of firearms. But they are wrong when they say that stricter gun control would do nothing to combat rising gun violence. Almost every mass shooting in recent Canadian history was committed using a legally owned firearm. Moreover, under the current law, individuals can buy dozens of restricted firearms within a single year without raising a red flag. As Mayor John Tory has recently argued, this laxity has contributed to the rapid growth of a domestic black market and, in turn, the rise of gang violence in this city and elsewhere. In anticipation of the coming legislation, the gun lobby and some in the Liberal caucus have expressed dismay. Trudeau should push ahead. Better than the U.S. is not good enough. Read more about: Brampton advocates urging removal of police from Peel Region schools, March 11 As a voter in Brampton Centre in the upcoming provincial election, I want to add to the brave and principled voice of my NDP candidate Sara Singh in her opposition to so-called school resource officers in Peel schools. Given the recent study by Carleton University researchers, its difficult to refute the efficacy of such a program. But what the study and the numbers dont tell us is how success is achieved. And it seems success is achieved by intimidating racialized students. This is no way forward as a society. Making those students behave using the cudgel of law enforcement is not building better young citizens. Indeed, this is the opposite of what we ought to be doing. If building better citizens is the goal, the police are probably not the agency to be taking the lead at all no matter how well-intentioned. This seems more like public-relations spinning for the police agency than an exercise in creating great young citizens. The $9 million spent on the school resource officer program could be much better used with real citizen-building programs that actually engage all youth and make them feel included rather than more marginalized and watched-over. And given Singhs history in youth related-programs before her current run for office, she might be just the person to offer some ideas on ways to achieve that in a meaningful, effective way. Bruce Marshall, Brampton The community concerns described in Brampton continue to be from a vocal minority that the Toronto District School Board and now the Peel Regional School Board cater to. The TDSB completely ignored the results of its own survey of students that found that a clear majority felt safer with police in schools. The Carleton University study clearly stated that both teachers and 75 per cent of students in Peel felt safer with a police presence. It reported that the 16 per cent of students that had been victims of bullying and/or violence felt significantly safer. Their wishes and desire to be safe from violence, however, are presented as secondary to a vocal minoritys desire not to feel watched. Logically, the detractors of police presence no doubt include the bully perpetrators of violence and drug use. Which is more important the safety of our children, or the discomfort of the few with being watched? No one has ever asked the community at large what its wishes are but only the squeaky wheels at Black Lives Matter and other organizations. Teachers inside schools traditionally served the function of watching and deterring, but long ago lost their authority to deal with misbehaving students in our modern society. Sadly, we need police in schools to deal with students in possession of not only drugs but sometimes guns and knives, lest we forget the memory of Jordan Manners. Larry Bukta, North York Read more about: Homely little horse Northern Dancer won Kentucky Derby and Canada went crazy, March 8 I would like to thank the Toronto Star for remembering the greatest Canadian. I was a 9-year-old when I started carefully clipping out pictures and stories about Northern Dancer from this newspaper. Those were the days when the paper still covered horse racing, and it wasnt until the internet and blogging that I felt that much community about the sport. I continued to love the Dancer throughout his life. All my family and friends were entertained about his racing successes and later, his massive imprint on todays thoroughbreds. I even extended my passion to the nieces and godchildren, who I dragged to his grave in Oshawa. Windfields still was operating then, albeit at a lesser state, and the highlight for the kids was when a kind stable employee let them pet a mare and foal. When the Dancer died in 1990, I received condolence calls from my family and friends. They all understood how important he was to me. I am proud that his legacy lives on. Marisa Zanini, Toronto After a wild PC leadership race, dont rule out Premier Ford, Cohn, March 11 Columnist Martin Regg Cohn tells us that we should not rule out the possibility of Doug Ford being elected Ontario premier, and he may well be right. It is possible that Fords populist appeal will be sufficient to propel the PC party into government. However, it is also possible that Fords election will revitalize Liberal party fortunes and give Premier Kathleen Wynne a fighting chance of clinging to power. In electing Ford, PC party members chose to roll the dice with the future of both their party and the province, and they apparently did this with their eyes wide open. On June 7, we will know whether those who voted for Ford allowed Wynne to once again beat the odds. Jonathan Household, Niagara on the Lake Doug Fords road to leader of Ontario PC party paved with controversy, March 11 A mere two days after we observed International Womens Day, the Ontario PC party membership decided to bypass a strong, highly qualified, intelligent woman in favour of a dense, inexperienced, impudent man who rode the populist wave to victory much like another well-known politician did south of the border over a year ago. For a man who doesnt have an original idea in his head, Doug Ford certainly has a lot of people betting on his ability to beat Premier Kathleen Wynne in the upcoming election. Lets hope this time the electorate chooses the strong, highly qualified, intelligent candidate. John Fraser, Toronto Now that Doug Ford is mostly the Ontario PC partys problem, hes no longer able to guarantee Mayor John Tory a victory in the upcoming Toronto mayoralty contest by panicking progressives and the centre reluctantly his way just like last time. So can we expect a Matlow, a Wong-Tam or maybe even a Perks to challenge Tory? It could be an easier sell than might be thought, given the perceptible stagnation in the current direction of city affairs. George Higton, Toronto In light of the recent PC leadership convention that saw the resurrection of the anti-abortion faction, the denial of climate change, the renewal of the no tax is good tax fallacy, an anti-gay bias and the assertion that only parents undertake sex education of their children, I would propose that the party change its name from Progressive Conservative to Regressive Conservative taking a giant step backward for all Ontarians. Peter Lower, Scarborough Read more about: MONTREALThe prospect that Doug Ford could be in charge of Canadas largest province by July 1 is bad news for the three main federal leaders. For Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, it could mean that the federal-provincial window of opportunity to execute some of his governments signature policy missions is inexorably closing. Without a high degree of provincial buy-in, the rollout of Trudeaus climate pricing policy risks being anything but smooth. The main policy takeaway of the abbreviated Ontario leadership campaign was a reversal of the Tories carbon-tax friendly position. Ford set the stage for that reversal. Among the leadership candidates, he also came across as the least amenable to the federal governments carbon pricing agenda. The conflicting political interests of Alberta and British Columbias New Democrat governments have already upset the balance Trudeau is seeking to strike between increasing Canadas pipeline capacity and the mitigation of climate change. His advocacy of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion could yet throw a wrench in his governments relationship with Canadas Indigenous peoples. But so far, the carbon pricing debate had mostly been playing out on a Western Canada battlefield. A Tory victory in Ontario in June would bring that battle to Central Canada just in time for the federal election. Indeed, by the fall of 2019, Trudeaus climate change policy could be challenged by a trifecta made up of conservative government in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Under the Liberal plan, the federal government would impose its own carbon tax in provinces that refuse to adopt their own mechanism to price emissions. At the time of the National Energy Program, Trudeaus father successfully drove a wedge between the Tory governments of Ontario and Alberta with the former aligning itself with the federal Liberals. Based on the keynote speech he delivered at Saturdays Ontario leadership event, Albertas official opposition leader Jason Kenney should he succeed in becoming premier next year is not about to let history repeat itself. And then in the federal budget released just a few weeks ago, Trudeaus Liberals signalled their intention to make a national pharmacare program part of their re-election platform. But without the co-operation of the provinces starting with that of Canadas largest one the federal plan could be dead on arrival. For the Trudeau Liberals, the advent of a Ford government at Queens Park would inevitably make the governance of the federation more challenging. But those policy complications could come with an electoral silver lining. Over the past decades, it has been the rule rather than the exception that Ontario voters put their election eggs in different federal and provincial baskets. Pierre Trudeau and Bill Davis; Brian Mulroney, David Peterson and Bob Rae; Jean Chretien and Mike Harris; Stephen Harper and Dalton McGuinty all had parallel tenures. For a federal opposition leader, the presence of strong premiers of the same partisan stripe in some of the major provinces has more often than not been a recipe for misery. Just ask NDP leader Jagmeet Singh as he tries to navigate between the warring NDP governments of Alberta and B.C. over the Trans Mountain expansion. Even in their current roles as provincial opposition leaders, Ford and Kenney stand to overshadow their mild-mannered federal counterpart Andrew Scheer. The perception that Scheer as prime minister would be at the beck and call of two take-no-prisoners provincial leaders (who by then could have become premiers) would not be an asset as he tries to win back the moderate voters that deserted Stephen Harper in 2015. With memories of the Harper decade still fresh and with an Ontario/Alberta tandem of the same right-of-centre variety in place, Singh would have a hard sell on his hands trying to convince many progressive voters to take a chance on splitting the non-Conservative vote between his NDP and Trudeaus Liberals. Some of the NDPs strongest scores were achieved in elections that resulted in a federal Conservative majority government. A word in closing: Quebec will be going to the polls just a few months after Ontario. For the first time in decades, the issue of the provinces political future is not expected to be the subliminal theme of the campaign. It is not a coincidence that for the first time in just about as many decades, none of the Quebec leaders on the ballot next fall will be in contention for becoming the most polarizing premier on the federal-provincial scene. Chantal Hebert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Read more about: In a country where space seems endless, it can be difficult to grasp the reality that suddenly every square inch matters. But thats the position Toronto finds itself in today. Though the city is not nearly as dense as many, it can no longer ignore questions about how best to use the land it occupies. Long neglected parts of Toronto are now being examined and, where possible, reclaimed. Prominent examples include Underpass Park and the Bentway both beneath the Gardiner Expressway. At the other end of the scale, the 800-acre wasteland known as the Port Lands is up for redevelopment. Before that there was the West Don Lands. So perhaps the Public Space Incubator was inevitable. The recently launched program has Park People, the citys most effective public realm advocacy group, turning to Torontonians for ideas about how to make better use of urban space. Big and small, in and out of the box, all submissions are welcome. Some time later this year, a jury will chose five or six schemes and award grants of between $15,000 and $50,000 to implement these proposals. Its very exciting, says Park People founder and CEO, Dave Harvey. When we started (in 2011), there was a culture of no at the city. The city had basically abandoned public spaces. We were willing to put up with ugly. But thats changed. With donations from the Balsam Foundation and well-known resident urbanists and two-person bike riders, Eti and Ken Greenberg, Park People will hand out $340,000 over the next two years. This is a tremendous opportunity to unleash a lot of creative thinking, says Greenberg. The results could be pretty significant. The hope is that these projects wont be a series of one-offs, that they will show the need for change and prove that change is good. Eti and I are deeply impressed with this young generation and we want to give them a leg up. We want to give them a platform. Of course, this is Toronto, which means that the hardest part of the process will likely be getting approval for the winning projects. Not only might that take an eon, it could also run into obstacles only civic bureaucrats and their political masters, the ward bosses, could think of. What will Councillors David Shiner and Denzil Minnan-Wong make of attempts to make their fiefdoms more livable? Chances are theyd dismiss them out of hand if for no other reason than their fear of an increase in property taxes. Then theres the possibility that many proposals could fall within the purview of multiple municipal silos everything from parks and roads to public works and planning. That in turn means the chances of confusion, contradiction and chaos are huge. Potential sites range from community housing lands, hydro corridors, private property and tower communities to the spaces along the edge of King St. where the transit pilot is in effect. Examples from other cities include one in Montreal that involves musical swings and a giant crokinole game in Guelph played with curling stones. The worry is that by the time each city department has had its kick at the can, the ideas could be watered down beyond recognition. Regardless, Harvey remains optimistic. Weve had good discussions with various city departments, he says, including the mayors office. Theyve agreed to help shepherd these projects along. Nice words, but when one thinks of the mayors opposition to a plan to urbanize Yonge St. between Finch and Sheppard, its clear that allies like John Tory might not be so helpful. Were hoping to spur people to talk and work together, Harvey explains. We want to encourage ideas from across the city and give people an opportunity to see for themselves how these spaces could be used. Anyone who underestimates the importance of the public realm should think back to how Waterfront Toronto began the revitalization process with interventions such as Sugar Beach, Sherbourne Common and the Wavedecks. These projects helped change the way people see the waterfront. Today, its transformation is well underway. Torontos record on civic space is spotty. Its importance eludes many in positions in power; they care about little more than potholes, mill rates and getting elected. So its no surprise that leadership has moved out of City Hall. The best thing it can do is stay out of the way. For information on the Public Space Incubator, email info@parkpeople.ca. Christopher Humes column appears weekly. He can be reached at jcwhume4@gmail.com Correction- March 19, 2018: This column refers to information previously published by Pro Publica and the New Yorker regarding Gina Haspels role in torture at a secret site in Thailand. ProPublica has since issued a detailed correction and retracted its report regarding the torture of Abu Zubaydah. While Haspel oversaw the Thailand site when Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was tortured there, she did not supervise the torture of Abu Zubaydah nor did she mock his suffering. Pro Publica, which first reported on Zubaydah's torture last year, now states that Haspel was not in charge of the base until after Zubaydah's torture was past. The CIA had not previously responded in detail to these allegations. As reported in the Star on March 17, a number of news organizations have now issued corrections regarding this misinformation. The new CIA director, Gina Haspel, is a torturer. Her office skill set includes overseeing torture and taunting victims as they lie gasping and near death. President Trump is revving up Big Torture again. The consequences will be bloody generally, will cause American captives to be tortured, destroy whatever international goodwill the U.S. had left, and lead to awkward comparisons with other regimes that tortured: Argentinas generals, Pinochets Chile, Hitlers Germany, Dutertes Philippines, Putins Russia, Japan during the Second World War. The U.S. executed Japanese soldiers for doing to prisoners what the U.S. does now in a fragile peacetime. The American Civil Liberties Union calls Haspel the central figure in one of the most illegal and shameful chapters in modern American history. Edward Snowden notes she might not be able to travel to the EU, given that an ongoing human rights complaint to Germanys federal prosecutor might mean her arrest. But former CIA director John Brennan says, She has tried to carry out her duties at the CIA to the best of her ability, even when the CIA was asked to do some very difficult things in very challenging times. What a spectacular display of euphemisms. Each one is an orchid. At a time when the Trump administration should be offering more than token solidarity to Britain after alleged Russian poisonings on British soil (another Russian exile was found dead in London on Monday), the headlines are huge, perhaps by intention to distract from Trump electoral downturns. The appointment of Haspels former CIA boss, torture-supporting Mike Pompeo, as Secretary of State has put the U.S. on the wrong side of international law, even on the wrong side of human decency, however distant that marker may currently be. It need not have happened. Had President Obama prosecuted Haspel and other CIA torturers at the time, she would have gone to prison. But Obama, in his quaint timid way, said he wanted to look forward, not back. Now the past returns. The past has that tendency. As ProPublica reported in 2017 after Haspel became CIA deputy director, she had years before sat in cells in a black site in Thailand and watched suspects waterboarded until they were so filled with fluid that it bubbled up from inside them. She mocked them. She watched Abu Zubaydah being tortured and said to him, Good job! I like the way youre drooling: it adds realism. Im almost buying it. You wouldnt think a grown man would do that. Haspel was in charge of CIA torture for three years, starting in 2002, as the New Yorker has reported. She ran the R.D.I. program, Rendition, Detention and Interrogation. We know specifically about two suspects whose torture she oversaw in 2002, Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, both of them still in Guantanamo. They were medically revived for more torture, vomited, passed out and urinated on themselves, were stripped, placed in small confinement boxes which is management jargon for coffins, slammed against walls, drugged, gagged and blindfolded and flown from one rendition site to another. Nashiri suffered rectal feeding and mock executions with a power drill and gun. Along the way, Zubaydah, who was waterboarded 83 times, lost an eye. These things happen. The interrogations were videotaped, for reasons that beggar understanding. In 2005, after journalists began asking questions, she co-signed off on privately destroying the tapes. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was outraged to discover this. That was then. What atrocities will Haspels CIA commit now? There is an irony here. Trump does not appoint women unless they are linked to those who helped fund his presidential campaign (Betsy DeVos) or married to allies (Elaine Chao) or are related to him (Ivanka Trump). Haspel is unique. She made it on her own. Is this Trump being spiteful? As former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich tweeted Monday, Does Trumps brain know whats going on in Trumps gut? Trump boasted in his tweet that Haspel will be the first female CIA director but surely her distinction lies in her bloody interlude. I suppose this is a backhanded triumph for feminism. Women have their monsters too who ever thought otherwise but rarely have they been so rewarded. hmallick@thestar.ca The ACLU filed a lawsuit saying that the TSA is illegally temporarily confiscating laptops and phones for searches. The Transportation Security Administration is denying allegations made in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit saying that the agency illegally searches electronic devices on domestic flights. "We've received reports of passengers on purely domestic flights having their phones and laptops searched, and the takeaway is that TSA has been taking these items from people without providing any reason why," ACLU staff attorney Vasudha Talla told the Guardian. "The search of an electronic device has the potential to be highly invasive and cover the most personal details about a person." Travelers on international flights can have their electronic devices searched by Customs and Border Protection agency, however TSA does not have the authority to conduct similar searches of passengers traveling domestically. The TSA told website TNW that it does not search the contents of electronic devices. The ACLU is suing to see TSA's records detailing its policies, procedures or protocols when searching domestic passenger devices. It's the second time the ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information Act request against the government agency. Bitcoin was attempting a comeback Tuesday, March 13, as prices traded close to flat in afternoon action. Earlier in the day, bitcoin fell below the $9,000 mark as investor sentiment weakened. Here are the headlines you can't miss in cryptocurrencies Tuesday. Winklevoss Twins Propose Self-Regulation Noted bitcoin bulls Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have proposed self-regulation for the cryptocurrency space in a new venture they call the Virtual Commodity Association. In a blog post Tuesday, the twins said, "The promise of virtual commodities and their impact on the future will be profound - but individuals and institutions need to feel safe and secure when transacting. We believe a thoughtful SRO framework that provides a virtual commodity regulatory program for the virtual commodity industry is the next logical step in the maturation of this market." IMF to 'Fight Fire With Fire' International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde said that regulators ought to use blockchain technology to track cryptocurrencies and the "peril that comes along with the promise" of digital assets. In a blog post for the IMF Tuesday, Lagarde said, "The same innovations that power crypto-assets can also help us regulate them. To put it another way, we can fight fire with fire." Lagarde suggested that blockchain protocols could be used to implement internationally coordinated regulatory efforts to curb the use of cryptocurrencies in facilitating terrorism or money laundering, for example. "Those who have a shared interest in maintaining safe online transactions need to be able to communicate seamlessly. The technology that enables instant global transactions could be used to create registries of standard, verified, customer information along with digital signatures," she wrote. JPMorgan: It's Just Like You Action Alerts Plus holding JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) - Get JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Report head of blockchain Amber Baldet said the difficulties the bank faces in developing its Quorum private blockchain network aren't all that different from anyone else building a blockchain protocol for the public. "These problems really aren't so far apart, it's just that people are trying to solve the problems in different ways," Baldet said at an ethereum conference in Paris. The Quorum network is based on a fork of ethereum software, and Baldet said that's informed her work significantly. "I spend a lot of time talking about ethereum and cryptocurrency and open blockchains to enterprises, businesses, central banks and corporates," Baldet said, according to an account from Coindesk. "I don't spend a lot of time going the other direction." Bitcoin Like 'Gambling in a Casino' Blockchain-based digital tokens are not the answer society has been looking for as it relies less and less on cash, according to two European policymakers. In a report co-authored by European Central Bank executive board member Benoit Couere and Switzerland Bank for International Settlements Market Committee member Jacqueline Loh, the experts wrote that cryptocurrencies are rarely used to price goods and are subsequently useless for making payments. As a store of value, digital assets are like "gambling in a casino," the authors wrote. "While bitcoin and its cousins are something of a mirage, they might be an early sign of change, just as Palm Pilots paved the way for today's smartphones," they added. The piece conceded that cash will not forever be king, but suggested current electronic options aren't totally viable. Don't miss any of TheStreet's cryptocurrency coverage. Get it all here: ALTON Two suspicious fires in small, nearby, vacant houses about 12 hours apart Sunday morning remain under investigation by local authorities and the Illinois State Fire Marshal. Any time a house is vacant, with no utilities and there were no lightning strikes, a fire has to be investigated as suspicious, said Chief Bernie Sebold, of the Alton Fire Department. He said there are no connections between the properties other than being vacant and without utilities. They also are in the same Mexico neighborhood in mid-Alton. A cause and origin team comprised of representatives from the Fire Department and Alton Police Department is working with the Fire Marshals Office investigator. Firefighters struck residential, mutual aid box alarms for both fires, each time summoning a crew from the East Alton Fire Department to assist. We certainly appreciate the assistance they provide, he said, And we are happy to respond to their mutual aid calls. Both fires appeared to have started at the rear of each house, and neither fire caused any injuries to firefighters or residents. Someone reported the first blaze at 12:07 a.m. at 1414 Fletcher St., a one-story wooden frame house. The house was 50 percent involved in flames upon firefighters arrival, he said. Battalion Chief (Brad) Sweetman said flames were shooting about 35 feet in the air. It was melting the siding to the east on the adjacent homes attached garage. He said firefighters used a hose line to keep that structures siding cool to stem the melting from the heat emanating from the fire, and to prevent the flames from spreading from the burning home. They also charged a master stream onto the property that was 50 percent involved in flames, they were putting 1,000 gallons per minute onto that house while the others were cooling the exposed house, he said. It just melted the siding on the garage and there was no structural damage to the (neighboring) house or garage. That adjacent home was occupied at time of the fire, he said. He said neighbors told firefighters that the house with the fire had been vacant for four years. He said the structure was a total loss. It had been renovated multiple times and there were multiple layers of roofing material that collapsed at the rear of the house, he said. The debris made the overhaul take longer than usual to ensure no flames were hidden in the piles of shingles. Firefighters were on the scene until about 2:30 a.m., he said. Alton Township Assessors Office records say the house is 916 square feet, had a market value of $25,830 and that Wesley McElroy of Alton is the owner. Then, nearly 12 hours later at 11:56 a.m., someone called 911 to report a house on fire at 1125 Hampton St., around the corner and a short distance from the first fire. Again, as with the first fire, that one-story, frame, vacant house has no utility service. Upon arrival, firefighters saw fire coming from the back and side of the house in that fire, he said. Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames, which caused minimal damage to the structure, Sebold said. Sebold said that house is repairable. Alton Township Assessors records say the house has 814 square feet, has a market value of $3,990 and Van Allen Inc., is the owner. Reach Linda N. Weller at 618-208-6450 or on Twitter @Linda_Weller Delhi got a glimpse of Odisha and its art, culture and heritage over the weekend when the national capital organised the second edition of Odisha Parba 2018 at India Gate. The three-day extravaganza focussed on Odisha and included a series of performances featuring live art shows, traditional folk performances, live music and fashion show featuring traditional handicrafts, arts, crafts and textiles from Odisha and gave people a cultural and heritage treat. Themed as 'Indomitable Odiya', the festival saw a spurt in the number of food stalls from last year18 to 80. There was a mix of traditional vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes and the organisers had specially invited roadside vendors operating in Odisha to showcase their skills and offer a memorable platter. The food court was designed in a fort style, reflecting the ambience of 'Baarah Maasi Tera Parba', which reflected Odishas passion for festivals in one calendar year. Local joints from Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar and other parts of Odisha also participated and served a range of flavours such as chat, dahi vada, fish curry, prawn delicacies, a variety of pickles, chicken pakoda, egg pudding, papad, rabdi and roshogulla. Highlighting the idea to organise the festival, Sandeep Mahapatra, trustee, Odiya Samajh, a non-profit trust, said, We wanted to educate people that there is more to Odisha than Jagannath Temple and other pilgrimage sites. There couldn't be anything better than inviting artists from Odisha and giving them a platform to showcase their skills. History was another area where the festival organisers paid a special tribute to the bravehearts of Odisha, who fought through the turbulent times during the British rule. People don't know about the history of Odisha during the British rule. We have set up a stage with the backdrop of Barabati Fort to evoke the glorious past of the state, explained Mahapatra. The festival also showcased a range of traditional folk performances in the form of Odissi, Sambalpuri and Chhau dance. While Padma Shri Aruna Mohanty mesmerised with Odissi dance, internationally renowned sculptor Sudarshan Sahoo displayed a sculpture gallery. Odisha's different handicrafts and traditional weaves such as Sambalpuri, Bomkai and Kataki were showcased at a fashion show organised with the help of FDCI's chairman Sunil Sethi. Three renowned designers, Divya Sheth, Shruti Sancheti and Raas presented an unforgettable journey into the world of weaves, with their modern and unique twists to celebrate this unique amalgamation of Odiya craft and fashion. The three-day event, which was dedicated to traditional dances, sumptuous food, art, musical and cultural performances, handicrafts, heritage and folklore, also showcased more than 100 handloom and handicraft stalls, a children's section and group paintings. To make art sessions interactive, a painting competition titled Aakar was also held to give opportunities to children below 18 years of age to spread their creative wings. The Kerala high court on Monday observed that there was no reason to delay trial in the case of an attack on a noted south Indian actress, in which popular Malayalam actor Dileep was an accused. Justice Sunil Thomas made the observation while hearing a petition filed by Dileep seeking a copy of digital evidence of the alleged attack on the actress by a gang of men in a moving car here in February last year. The high court posted the case for hearing on March 21. In his plea filed in the high court last week, Dileep said he was denied the rights of a defendant by a trial court in Angamaly. He moved the high court when the trial court was set to commence trial proceedings at the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court this week. Last month, the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court dismissed a plea by Dileep seeking copies of visuals of the alleged sexual assault committed on the actress by the gang. The magistrate court had accepted the argument of the prosecution that the clippings could be misused by Dileep, affecting the privacy of the actress. Dileep is eighth among the 12 accused in the case. He secured bail nearly three months after his arrest on July 10 last year. The key accused in the case, Pulsar Suni, has been in jail since his arrest early last year. The actress, who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films, was abducted and allegedly molested inside her car for two hours by Suni and his accomplices, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17 last year and later escaped. If anything happens to me, please tell my story. This was... With the Supreme Court's deadline on closure of mining operations in Goa ending on March 15, a high-level committee of the state government would meet on Wednesday to discuss the impending crisis in terms of the loss to revenue and jobs. "I have spoken to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar (who is in the US) over phone. The cabinet advisory committee (CAC) will meet tomorrow (Wednesday) at 3pm to discuss and decide the future course of action on the SC order, as the mining crisis is staring Goa in the face," said Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai, who is one of the three members of the CAC. The Supreme Court last month quashed 88 mining leases in Goa and directed them to stop fresh extraction of ore from March 15 onwards. The CAC was set up by Parrikar on March 5 before he left for the US for medical treatment. The CACcomprising Sardesai (GFP), Francis D'Souza (BJP) and Sudin Dhavalikar (MGP)is supposed to guide the administration in absence of the chief minister. Sardesai's Goa Forward Party and Dhavlikar's Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party are alliance partners in the BJP-led state government. The CAC was awarded financial powers to approve proposals involving expenditure up to Rs 5 crore. The mining industry in Goa is in a state of shock in the wake of the Supreme Court order. The SC had given time till March 15 to mining lease holders, who were granted a second renewal in violation of its previous directions, to manage their affairs. Meanwhile, all the three BJP MPs from the coastal state on Tuesday met party president Amit Shah in Delhi and sought his intervention in the matter. Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik and Narendra Sawaikar are Lok Sabha MPs while Vinay Tendulkar is a Rajya Sabha member. Tendulkar told reporters the meeting was fruitful as Shah has agreed to look into the issue "positively and personally." "We briefed him about the possible economic and social impact of the mining ban in Goa. He assured us to look into the matter," he said. Besides an annual revenue loss to the tune of Rs 3,500 crore, around 2 lakh people who are dependent on mining would lose their jobs due to the closure of the industry, he said. The state mines and geology department has already issued orders to stop extraction of fresh ore from the mining leases from March 15 onwards. Meanwhile, the state unit of the Shiv Sena has demanded action from the Centre over the mining crisis. The party has called for president's rule, so that people dependent on the mining industry would get relief. Vu Technologies a TV brand which was established in the year 2006 launched a voice activated Vu Official Android TV in association with Google. This is their latest launch in the smart TV category and the company is hoping that it will see excellent traction in the Indian market because they have official access to the Google Play Store, YouTube, Google Games, and the complete Google ecosystem. The company has also partnered with Video on Demand service providers such as Netflix, Hotstar, and ALTBalaji, to provide certified VOD apps to allow users to access unlimited, diverse and latest content. Interestingly, one of the feature of Vu Official Android TV is its ActiVoice feature which helps users to seamlessly search, browse and select in 88 languages. The ActiVoice Search intelligence is also enabled to search within apps and recommend results according to a users preference. We were one of the first brands in India to launch TVs with Netflix and YouTube buttons on the remote. Our R&D team has developed a voice activated feature for this TV because we found that customers sometimes find it painful to type and search on the remote. The TV also has an inbuilt Dolby sound bar for great sound. This model was a result of our R&D teams effort that was undertaken for over a year and was followed by numerous hours of testing. We are seeing good traction for our smart TVs in the southern market and Bengaluru happens to be one of our largest market in India, said Devita Saraf, CEO and Founder, Vu Technologies during the launch in Bengaluru. For online sales Vu has an exclusive tie up with e-commerce player Flipkart to sell its smart TV sets in India and Flipkart says that it is the best selling TV brand on its site. India has one of the cheapest data rates in the world and this will drive the sales of Smart TVs in the country. We will also move towards on demand content, said Ajay Yadav, Vice President at Flipkart. The Vu Official Android TV is available in 43 inches, 49 inches, and 55 inches and is priced at Rs 36,999, Rs 46,999, and Rs 55,999 respectively. The TV will be available for sale through Flipkart and Vus stores and other retail outlets from 14th March, 2018. Apparently, as per a report by 6Wresearch, a smart television is a television set with integrated internet capabilities, or a television set top box that offers advanced connectivity as well as computing abilities. It is also known as a connected TV or a hybrid TV. As per the report, a smart TV allows users to install and run advanced applications that are based on a specific platform. The main functions of a smart TV are relaying content such as photographs, movies, and music from devices attached to it using a Digital Living Network Alliance such as Windows Media Player and providing access to broadcast TV channels and internet based services such as catch up services and video on demand. The report from 6Wresearch further states that the Indian smart TV market at present is in a nascent stage, but is displaying a healthy growth rate. The report says that the market growth is expected to stem mostly from the increasing demand for web enabled TVs from individual customers, encouraged by the increasing number of functions and features offered by different smart TV vendors. Gina Haspel, US President Donald Trump's nominee to become the first woman to lead the CIA, is a veteran, who once reportedly ran a secret prison in Thailand where terrorism suspects were allegedly subjected to harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding. In a surprise move, Trump announced today that he was removing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and elevating Haspel, who was his deputy. The Senate must vote on 61-year-old Haspel's confirmation to succeed Pompeo. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, earned high-level awards during her career and was sworn in as deputy director of the CIA on February 7, 2017, among the first officials in the Trump administration. In that post, she assisted managing intelligence collection, analysis, covert action and counterintelligence, and liaison relationships with foreign services, according to the Central Intelligence Agency's website. Trump said in a statement that Haspel's appointment would be "a historic milestone." He said she and Pompeo "have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect." Before leaving the White House for California, Trump heaped more praise on Haspel: "Gina, by the way, who I know very well, who I've worked very closely with, will be the first woman director of the CIA," he said. "She's an outstanding person," the US president commented. Haspel said in a statement that after 30 years at CIA, it was an honour to serve with Pompeo during the past year. "I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next director of the Central Intelligence agency," she said. "If confirmed, I look forward to providing President Trump the outstanding intelligence support he has grown to expect during his first year in office," Haspel said. She has extensive overseas experience and served as Chief of Station in several of her assignments. In Washington, she has held numerous senior leadership positions, including as Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service, Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action, and Chief of Staff for the Director of the National Clandestine Service. Haspel is the recipient of numerous awards including the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism; the Donovan Award; the Intelligence Medal of Merit; and the Presidential Rank Award, the most prestigious award in the federal civil service. An adult film actress who said she had sex with President Donald Trump has offered to return the $130,000 she was paid for agreeing not to discuss the alleged relationship. Stormy Danielswhose real name is Stephanie Clifford is willing to repay the money she received as part of a 2016 agreement, as long as she can speak openly about the situation, according to a copy of a letter from Clifford's attorney obtained by The Associated Press. The letter sent to Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen and his attorney, Lawrence Rosen, said the non-disclosure agreement would be considered "null and void" after she returned the money, and that would allow Clifford to speak about the relationship and the attempt to silence her while she publishes any text messages, photos and videos she may have. "Mr. Cohen and the president should accept this proposal and allow Ms. Clifford to tell her side," her attorney Michael Avenatti said. "The American people can then decide who was telling the truth." The offer is valid until tonight, the letter said. Cohen and Rosen did not immediately respond on Monday to requests for comment. Clifford filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles last week that sought to invalidate the agreement so she could "set the record straight." The lawsuit claimed the "hush agreement" that was signed days before the 2016 presidential election is legally invalid because it was only signed by Clifford and Cohen and not by Trump. It refers to Trump as David Dennison and Clifford as Peggy Peterson, but an attached exhibit details their true identities. The Dallas Morning News reported on Monday that Texas officials are investigating whether a notary properly witnessed the non-disclosure agreement. The officials sent a letter to notary Erica Jackson notifying her that there was "good cause" to take action against her notary commission. Her stamp appears on the document but she did not sign or date it, and she did not provide a certificate of whose signature she was witnessing, officials said. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said last week that Trump has made it clear that none of the allegations are true. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. Cohen has also denied there was ever an affair and said he paid the $130,000 out of his pocket. He said neither the Trump Organisation nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Clifford. "Neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly," he said. Clifford alleged in the lawsuit that Trump was aware of the negotiations. Also on Monday, the advocacy group Common Cause named Trump and Cohen in amended complaints to the Federal Election Commission and Justice Department that alleged the payment to Clifford violated campaign finance laws. The complaints allege Cohen was an agent of then-candidate Trump and should be considered a campaign expenditure and in-kind contribution. "Emerging details appear to directly link President Trump to the hush money payments to the adult film star expanding the list of apparent violations," said Paul S. Ryan, the group's vice president for policy and litigation. "Hush money may be commonplace in some businesses, but when it is spent to influence a federal election it must be disclosed - without exception." NEW YORK Thomson Reuters, through its partnership with MarketPsych Data LLC, has launched a new version (v3.0) of its MarketPsych Indices (TRMI) which includes its first sentiment data feed for Bitcoin in addition to new and/or enhanced market sentiment data for several asset classes, new user capabilities, and additional coverage. MarketPsych is a market leader in quantitative behavioral economics. Over 400 news and social media sites, many specific to cryptocurrencies, were added to the feed. Each site is scanned and scored in real-time, aiming to capture market-moving sentiments and themes. TRMI v3.0 also includes expanded sentiment coverage of national fixed income securities and stock market indexes for the top 61 global economies and the Eurozone. Coverage was also further expanded in the currencies, countries, and agricultural commodities asset classes. From a user perspective, modifications were implemented in source selection, entity recognition, and the construction of several TRMI, designed to result in a higher precision of TRMI measurements compared to prior versions. Data is delivered via minutely, hourly, and daily feeds with historical data extending back to 1998. News and social media are driving the investment and risk management process more than ever with the continuing rise of passive and quant-driven trading, said Austin Burkett, global head, Quant and Feeds, Thomson Reuters. As the financial marketplace rises in complexity, so too does the need to provide our clients with not only the relevant data, but the tools to help them manage and analyze that data. MarketPsych 3.0 helps deliver another layer of analysis and value-add in the investing process. Launched in 2012, Thomson Reuters MarketPsych Indices analyze news and social media in real time across 2,000 top global news sites and 800 global financial social media sites. TRMI converts the volume and variety of professional news and social media into manageable information flows that can help drive investing decisions and risk management across asset classes. The data is designed to be seamlessly incorporated into both quantitative and qualitative analysis to help enable investment and other professionals to quickly discern patterns affecting their respective businesses. MarketPsychs text analytics engine uses patented natural language processing software. Thomson Reuters delivers transparent cross-asset insight into both traditional and new and emerging asset classes like crypto assets. Thomson Reuters currently provides prices for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash via our flagship financial desktop platform Eikon. In addition, Eikon carries MVIS indices contributed by Cryptocompare and CBOE and CME Groups bitcoin futures, and will continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of our customers. Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters is the worlds leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com. CONTACT Brian Bertsch +1-646-223-5985 brian.bertsch@thomsonreuters.com Felice Tobin +44 207 542 7894 felice.tobin@thomsonreuters.com Eagan, Minn., March 8, 2018 Thomson Reuters ProView now offers an iPhone app, making it easier than ever for professionals to use leading eBook resources while on the go. Users can now experience ProViews market-leading eReader technology optimized for the iPhone, with the ProView features and functionality that professionals rely on to do their work better and faster. Resume your work while on the go Seamlessly pick up where you left off with the Recent Activity feed for quick reference to recent research. ProView synchronizes activity across your devices, giving greater continuity and mobility to efficiently complete tasks. Seamlessly pick up where you left off with the Recent Activity feed for quick reference to recent research. ProView synchronizes activity across your devices, giving greater continuity and mobility to efficiently complete tasks. Quickly access content Easily search by title or author, search across your ProView library for relevant content, or navigate the table of contents to locate the answers you need. Easily search by title or author, search across your ProView library for relevant content, or navigate the table of contents to locate the answers you need. Leverage productivity tools Work online or offline with the same ProView features and functionality you are familiar with, including the ability to create annotations and share content and links. The ProView iPhone app is an excellent example of how ProView is continually evolving to meet the needs of todays professional user, said Eric Gonzalez Canova, global head of ProView at Thomson Reuters. We are determined to deliver customers their digital titles wherever they are and on the device of their preference to best meet their workflows and needs. Legal and tax professionals increasingly need seamless functionality across whichever device theyre using. The ProView iPhone app is a testament to our ongoing commitment to listen to customers and expand ProViews utility and versatility. Thomson Reuters ProView for iPhone is available from the Apple App Store. Thomson Reuters ProView is a market-leading proprietary eBook platform for legal and tax professionals, with features that are specifically designed for professional use, such as navigation, annotation and sharing capabilities within digital libraries and titles. ProView eBooks are published in seven languages across five continents and are available for Apple iPad and iPhone, Android tablets, Surface tablets, and Windows and Mac computers through both browsers and an installed app. For more information on ProView, visit: info.proview.thomsonreuters.com Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters is the worlds leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com. Apple, iPad, iPhone and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Windows and Surface are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. CONTACT Scott Augustin Thomson Reuters +1 651.848.5793 scot.augustin@thomsonreuters.com Paul Sandell Thomson Reuters +44(0207) 5428616 paul.sandell@thomsonreuters.com WASHINGTON Gov. Andrew Cuomo trained his crosshairs on seven New York Republican House members over the gun issue as President Donald Trump rolled out a school-safety plan long on NRA ideas like arming teachers and short on Democratic-backed proposals like universal background checks. In addition to arming teachers with Department of Justice assistance to link up schools with state and local law enforcement for firearms training the Republican president is calling for states to pass extreme-risk protection orders that permit removal of guns from possession of potential mass shooters. New York does not have such a law, but the SAFE Act requires mental health professionals to flag state or local law enforcement when they deem patients to be dangers to themselves or others. Trump also would establish a federal Commission on School Safety, to be chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to recommend policy and funding proposals for school violence prevention, the White House said in a statement. Commentators noted that Trump himself dismissed the idea of a study commission for opioid-addiction treatment and prevention, asking supporters at a Pennsylvania campaign-style rally, Do you think the drug dealers who kill thousands care whos on a blue-ribbon committee? Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer accused Trump of insincerity after promising at a Feb. 28 White House meeting to embrace Democratic proposals, much to the chagrin of fellow Republicans and NRA backers. President Trumps behavior on the most sensitive political issues is turning into a predictable kabuki theater where he invites the cameras in, talks a good talk, but then refuses to walk the walk, Schumer said on the Senate floor Monday. Cuomo and the New York Democratic Party took the wraps off a six-figure TV, digital and social media campaign that highlights seven Republican lawmakers from New York who have A ratings from the NRA and, according to the Democrats, are obstructing protections on the federal level. The seven targeted Republicans are: Reps. Claudia Tenney, John Faso, John Katko, Lee Zeldin, Elise Stefanik, Chris Collins, and Tom Reed. Following last months mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., Cuomo formed a coalition with neighboring states to intercept illegal firearms and ensure a regional, coordinated approach to gun-violence prevention. Republicans dismissed Cuomos targeting them as little more than political theater. John Faso supports legislation to ensure that those who shouldnt have access to firearms cant buy them. He is also working across party lines to enact laws to enhance school safety, said his spokesman, Joe Gierut. Sadly, Gov. Cuomo resorts to false attacks and smears on responsible gun owners in order to advance his personal political agenda. In an interview, Stefanik brushed aside Cuomos finger-pointing while mostly praising Trumps rollout. I think the administration recognizes this is a multifaceted crisis in the country, she said. But she took exception to Trumps proposal to encourage teacher firearms training as an antidote to school mass shootings. I dont support a mandatory program, said Stefanik, who is in her second term representing the North Country. If someone is trained and has a permit, I think there should be flexibility as part of a locally determined school security plan. But I dont think it should be a top-down Department of Justice or Department of Education policy. Local schools and communities should make those decisions. Trump did a turn-around on his support for raising the age for buying semiautomatic rifles to 21, the same as handguns. He left it to the commission to study it and make recommendations. On Twitter, Trump said of raising the age that there is not much political support (to put it mildly), an apparent reference to NRA opposition. Schumer ridiculed Trump for backing down. The administrations proposal makes it perfectly clear that President Trump has an obeisance to the NRA, Schumer said on the Senate floor. Even when President Trump momentarily departs from the NRAs script, he quickly gets reeled back in. Trump endorsed two pieces of pending legislation: Fix NICS and the STOP School Violence Act. The STOP School Violence Act would offer grants to help school administrators, teachers and students identify potential mass shooters before they open fire. Fix NICS would offer a carrot-and-stick line of incentives to prompt states and federal agencies to submit more disqualifying records to the FBIS National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Licensed gun dealers rely on the system to identify prospective purchasers who are unqualified to own firearms under federal law. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, Republican co-author of Fix NICS, boasted the measure now had more than 60 co-sponsors in the Senate enough to assure passage. But on Monday, his staff continued to point a finger at Schumer for holding up a bill with wide bipartisan support. I don't think (Schumer) opposes the bill; he actually is a co-sponsor of it, Cornyn said. But he's in a bind. He is being pressured by a handful of those in his conference who say, well, this is not sufficient. Last week, Schumer said, We want a debate, but we want a debate on more than Fix NICS. We Democrats have a list of things we think need to be done. In the meantime, the Senate is debating an overhaul of the Dodd-Franks post-recession banking law, not gun legislation. While Schumer didnt mention the timing of Fix NICS on Monday, other Democrats insist it is the Republicans who are to blame for the delays. They point to conservative Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who are using Senate rules to block a speedy path for Fix NICS to the Senate floor. While the White House plan backed Fix NICS, it was silent on universal background checks closing the so-called gun show loophole. Schmumer has described Fix NICS as low-hanging fruit, something that should be easy to pass and no substitute for a more far-reaching measure to expand background checks to private gun sales. The move for universal background checks, requiring NICS checks for sales between individuals that under current law do not require them, gained support in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., mass shooting of 2012. But it stalled when the Senate fell six votes short of moving the bill for a vote on the Senate floor. Albany Controversial shelved plans to allow crude oil barges to anchor in the Hudson River were kept in limbo in a U.S. Coast Guard study issued Tuesday. A proposal that could allow barges to anchor south of Kingston was launched last summer amid a wave of opposition from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, local leaders and environmental groups. It calls for allowing up to 43 barges each carrying 50,000 barrels of oil or more to tie off at anchorages on about 70 miles in the river as far south as Yonkers. Opposition to the plan was intense, with the Coast Guard last year receiving more than 10,000 public comments, mostly negative. "The Coast Guard has not yet made any decisions regarding establishing anchorages or using other waterways management tools to manage navigation risk on the Hudson River," according to its 77-page study, called a Ports and Waterway Safety Assessment Report. "We acknowledged that the existing anchorage regulations are unclear, and we are considering how those regulations could be made more readily understood. We have no outcome timelines at this time," the report states. Hayley Carlock, director of environmental advocacy for Scenic Hudson, a river advocacy group that opposed the anchorages plan said the report "does not take us closer to having the anchorages, but the door is still open, possibly in the future." Each barge could hold enough oil to fill six Olympic-sized swimming pools. Opponents warned that a spill would be difficult to clean and could damage there river's ecology. A Coast Guard press release on the study did not mention the oil barge issue specifically. In that statement, Coast Guard Rear Admiral Steven Poulin, said the agency would use the report to "discuss how to best reduce risk, and improve the safety and security of the Hudson River." Ed Kelly, executive director of the Maritime Association of the Ports of New York and New Jersey, said the report "kicks the can down the road," and that his group would continue to advocate for the anchorage plant. "It is still out there." He said the likelihood that crude oil barges would dominate the anchorage was unlikely, since the industry now has new pipelines to move oil. Industry groups have said more anchorages are needed to deal with increased commercial trade on the Hudson, fueled in part by a potential surge in crude oil shipments resulting from the lifting of the U.S. export ban in late 2015. During 2017, a slump in global oil prices stemmed the flow of crude oil from the Port of Albany, but should prices again rise, shipments through Albany could resume. Environmental opponents have questioned whether long-term storage aspects of the plan would allow owners of oil barges to park them temporarily to take advantage of rising oil prices, a situation that Kelly said would be "economic suicide" for shippers. The anchorage plan was requested by the Maritime Association of the Port of New York/New Jersey, the American Waterways Operators and the Hudson River Pilots' Association. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The Coast Guard report raised several issues with crude shipments on the river, including: Barge shipments of crude oil from the Port of Albany south down the river "have decreased due to crude oil prices. Some argue the decrease in shipments is due to increased rail capacity." The energy sector is moving more liquified natural gas and less crude oil, but "recent trends have been increasing." There are "limited locations" along the river to "deploy large response equipment." After oil spills in water, the "general rule of thumb" is that between 10 percent and 20 percent of the spilled oil can be recovered from the water. Local first responders along the Hudson "are not capable of handling a medium or major spill." Last fall, Gov. Cuomo signed a law that gives the state Department of Environmental Conservation the power to ban tanker storage from certain areas on the Hudson. DEC could create anti-tanker zones based on factors including navigational hazards, environmental conditions, presence of aquatic and wildlife habitats, proximity to waterfront communities, and federally or state identified environmental remediation sites, according to the law. Thirty years ago this week, a freak storm dubbed the "snowy crippler" unexpectedly socked the Capital Region, dumping half a foot or more of wet, heavy snow on the area and knocking out power to more than 200,000 electric customers, especially those in rural areas of Rensselaer and Columbia counties. A punch no one saw coming the National Weather Service had only been expecting a rain storm the snow left thousands of local residents without power for a week or more, canceled school for several days and forced this newspaper to use the Troy Record's printing press to get out its combined Times Union and Knickerbocker News print editions. Al Chieco was an assistant line supervisor for what was Niagara Mohawk at the time, just two years removed from college, when the storm hit overnight. He woke up early on the morning of Oct. 4, 1987, a Sunday, to the sound of tree limbs and branches buckling under the weight of the unexpected snow. "I heard trees cracking that woke me up and then found a bunch of snow and tree damage," says Chieco, now a vice president with National Grid, which acquired Niagara Mohawk in 2002. "I had to go into work very early that Sunday morning." The roads in the Capital Region were so bad from downed tree limbs and power lines that the normal route from Chieco's home in Clifton Park to Niagara Mohawk's headquarters on Broadway in Albany was nearly impossible to navigate. Chieco was told instead to drive down Old Niskayuna Road in Colonie in his company-issued K-car to radio in which circuits had been damaged and which lines were down. The storm that was supposed to be rain but turned into a massive snow storm was caused by a cold front that unexpectedly came down from Canada during a time that was peak foliage season. The combination of the snow on trees limbs that hadn't lost all of their leaves yet created the conditions that caused so many tree branches to break and fall. Back then, that was how outages were predicted and damage was assessed. Employees would plot outages on a wall map by hand at the Broadway headquarters based on calls from customers and surveys from employees like Chieco who were out in the field. "I spent the first hour of that day looking at the circuits around that area," Chieco said. "Anyone that can get you that type of information is useful." After that, it was nonstop work on repairs, putting in 17 and 18 hour days, with enough time off to sleep. Although about half of Niagara Mohawk customers about 100,000 got their service restored, some outages lasted more than a week. No one got a day off until all of the company's customers had the lights back on. "There were no breaks," Chieco said. Niagara Mohawk did have one thing in its favor. After the storm, temperatures returned to the 60s, which melted the snow away quickly. "By the middle of the week, all that was left to indicate that a snowstorm had occurred was all the downed trees and power lines," Neil Stuart, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Albany, wrote in a recently published historical account of the 1987 storm. Stuart was a University at Albany student at the time and says the storm was studied carefully to better predict future rain storms that suddenly change to snow. "These studies are recognized internationally as important references for all forecasters that are being trained early in their careers to help them better forecast these types of events," Stuart wrote. Thirty years removed from that strange yet destructive weather event, Chieco believes that National Grid and state utility regulators have made huge strides in preparing the electrical grid to be more resilient in storms and improve restoration times. Chieco says that since that time, utility poles have been made larger and stronger, and the electric wires themselves have been made more weather-resistant. More fuses have been installed to keep outages from becoming too widespread, and tree-trimming programs have been put on shorter cycles. And perhaps just as importantly, National Grid has adopted a digital outage management software system that uses real-time data and other technologies to provide up-to-the-minute restoration estimates to customers and helps optimize how crews are dispatched to fix damage in the most efficient way possible. "It takes the guessing game away," Chieco said. "We can see everything in front of us right away. It all fits together like a puzzle." The look back to that October 1987 storm comes amid a turbulent hurricane season that has devastated parts of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands with successive storms. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. At the same time, National Grid is asking state regulators to approve one of the largest rate increases in years. National Grid wants to raise its upstate gas and electric rates by $331 million a year, which would increase the typical monthly residential gas and electric bill by $17.63 a month. The state Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities in New York, is expected to vote on the proposal next spring. The company has said the increase is needed to keep paying for new gas and electric grid infrastructure that helps cut down on the number of outages, including in the wake of storms when trees often become the biggest enemy of electric lines and utility poles. National Grid's rate proposal includes $2.7 billion in capital investment over three years to address what it says is the increased frequency and severity of storms. The company says it spent $6 billion on such storm hardening and replacement programs over the past 10 years. Chieco says those improvements a lot of which were made in the wake of tropical storms Irene and Lee in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012 have made the upstate electric grid stronger. Some of the most expensive upgrades have included flood-mitigation measures such as moving electric substations to higher ground. "I do think the grid is in better shape than it was 30 years ago," Cheico says. "But there's still a lot of other infrastructure out there (that needs replacing). We're in a way just keeping pace." The administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which has sought stringent new inspection and preparedness requirements for utilities in the wake of Irene, Lee and Sandy, has pointed to climate change for the seemingly higher frequency and severity of storms. In 2013, Cuomo launched the the Moreland Commission on Utility Storm Preparation and Response to investigate the storm response by National Grid and other utilities. And the 2013-14 state budget gave the PSC stronger oversight powers over utilities and how they prep for storms and respond to major outages. "Under Gov. Cuomo, the PSC's priority is to ensure that utilities prepare for extreme weather events occurring more and more frequently and for other significant events," John Rhodes, the chair of the PSC said. "We measure utilities on their response times and how quickly and effectively they restore service to customers. We review emergency operational plans, emphasize this as a management priority, and hold utilities accountable for performance." Chieco says he doesn't know if major storms have gotten worse over his career. "We had a run of some really bad ones (in 2011 and 2012), but I'm not qualified to say," Chieco said. "I remember a lot of storms through the last 30 years. They're all different. This summer has been difficult because we had a lot of smaller storms." He says one thing that hasn't ever changed has been the role of the National Weather Service in Albany, which was just as important and adept in 1987 as it is today. "We as an organization really appreciate the National Weather Service," Chieco said. "We've always had a really good relationship with the National Weather Service." Austin, Texas Two package bomb blasts a few miles apart killed a teenager and wounded two women in Austin on Monday, less than two weeks after a similar attack left a man dead in another part of the city. Investigators said the bombings are probably connected, and they are looking into whether race was a factor because all of the victims were minorities. The attacks unfolded just as the Texas capital was swelling with visitors to the South By Southwest music festival. The first of Monday's attacks killed a 17-year-old boy and wounded a 40-year-old woman, both of them black. As Police Chief Brian Manley held a news conference to discuss that blast, authorities were called to the scene of another explosion, which injured a 75-year-old Hispanic woman. She was taken to a hospital with potentially life-threatening wounds. Authorities suspect that both of Monday's blasts were linked to a March 2 attack that killed a 39-year-old black man, and they urged the public to call police if they receive any unexpected packages. The police chief first suggested that the blasts could constitute a hate crime after Monday's first bombing. Following the second explosion hours later, he said authorities had not settled on a motive and could not rule anything out. The explosions happened far from the main events of the huge festival, which brings about 400,000 visitors to Austin each year. In a tweet, organizers said, "SXSW is heartbroken by the explosions in Austin," and they urged visitors to stay safe and alert police if they see any suspicious activity. Four years ago, a driver plowed through a barricade and into festival-goers, killing four people and injuring others. Additional security measures were taken in the aftermath, including more policing, tougher security checks and brighter lighting. Monday's first explosion happened at a home in a neighborhood known as Springdale Hills, about 12 miles from the home where the March 2 package bomb killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House. Monday's second explosion happened in the Montopolis neighborhood, near the airport and about 5 miles south of the day's first blast. In both the March 2 attack and Monday's first explosion, the packages were left overnight on the victims' doorsteps and were not mailed or sent by a delivery service, Manley said. "There are similarities that we cannot rule out that these two items are, in fact, related," Manley said. The latest victims' names were not immediately released. Special Agent Michelle Lee, a San Antonio-based spokesperson for the FBI, said the agency was assisting Austin police, who were leading the local investigation. She said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was leading the federal investigation. Albany When Andrew Cuomo first announced he was running for governor, he chose a site with symbolic significance: the Tweed Courthouse, the ornate monument to public corruption in Manhattan. "Albany's antics today could make Boss Tweed blush," Cuomo said that day in 2010 as he promised to remake state government by scrubbing away its enduring ethical stains. He hammered the same theme and repeated the promise 10 months later at his inauguration. "We have lost the trust," he told the Capitol crowd. "And we're not going to get it back until we clean up Albany and there's real transparency and real accountability and real ethics and real ethics reform." It all sounded so good, so promising. But we know now that the words were hot air. That's been obvious for years. The governor has never shown real interest in cleaning up New York's government, not when he benefits so much from the status quo. Transparency and accountability? From the Cuomo administration? Oh, man. Don't make us laugh. Still, the federal corruption trial of Cuomo buddy and aide Joe Percoco has shown it's worse than we thought. Turns out, Cuomo didn't just break the promise that helped get him elected. He smashed it like a plate at a Greek wedding and danced on its pieces. Cuomo didn't just fail to clean up the government. He is part of the problem. That's true even though Cuomo has not been accused by prosecutors of wrongdoing. That's true even if there is a mistrial on Monday, the jury was again saying it was deadlocked or if Percoco is found not guilty. The trial has revealed the administration's inner workings as ... what's the word? ... unseemly. Or tawdry. Let's go with sordid. You'll remember that Percoco is alleged to have taken more than $300,000 in ziti er, I mean bribes in exchange for official favors. Among its many revelations, the trial has shown that Percoco was allowed to use a state phone and office while serving as Cuomo's campaign manager an elections law no-no. It has highlighted how the administration flouted the so-called LLC loophole to raise campaign cash from companies doing state business not illegal, unfortunately, even if it looks so much like pay-to-pay. Then, there's Todd Howe, the prosecution's star witness. How could such a con man be allowed to work within sniffing distance of the governor? Howe, a liar and a thief if ever there was one, remained in Cuomo's orbit, which tells us all we need to know about the governor's indifference to ethics. Here's how state Sen. John DeFrancisco, a Republican candidate for governor, summed up the trial on Twitter: It proves, he said, that Cuomo "sold his office to the highest bidder, engaging in shake-down schemes, exchanging government contracts for millions in campaign contributions. So pathetic, it would make Boss Tweed blush." See what he did there? Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Undoubtedly, we'll hear more unseemly and sordid and tawdry details during the upcoming bid-rigging trial of former SUNY Poly overlord Alain Kaloyeros, once a demigod in these parts for his ability to whisper massive tech buildings into existence. As with Percoco, the case implicates a Cuomo ally and taints the governor's economic development efforts. It is unlikely, though, that the next corruption trial will offer a catchword as memorable as the aforementioned ziti stolen from "The Sopranos" to serve as Percoco and Howe's euphemism for alleged bribes. More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse "The ziti is in the oven," Howe wrote in an email revealed at trial. "Don't burn the ziti," he wrote in another. You can imagine that Cuomo's stomach already turns at the very sight of ziti, so damaging has the pasta become to his reputation and ambition. As The New York Times said in an editorial, "Bribery described as pasta has a way of sticking in people's heads." President Trump may take to Twitter to describe the governor as "ziti man." Cuomo's ziti stain won't come out in the wash. That should be reason enough to finally stop pretending that he's a viable presidential candidate. Cuomo won't get far if he tries. He probably won't even bother. The governor hasn't made many friends during his time in Albany, so it's tempting to gloat over his troubles. But let's not forget how badly this state needed him to deliver on the promises he made at the Tweed Courthouse and throughout that campaign. "The words 'government in Albany' have become a national punch line," a victorious Cuomo said at his inaugural. "And the joke is on us." Seven years later, it still is. cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill New York The pilot who survived a helicopter crash that killed his five passengers told investigators he believed a passenger's bag might have hit an emergency fuel shutoff switch in the moments before the chopper went down, according to a federal official. The official Monday said the National Transportation Safety Board also is scrutinizing why an emergency flotation device apparently didn't deploy properly when the tour helicopter went down in the East River. The floats are supposed keep a helicopter upright; the Eurocopter AS350 that crashed Sunday overturned and submerged. The official was briefed on the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly about it and spoke on condition of anonymity. National Transportation Safety Board investigators began working Monday to determine what caused the crash, which killed a Texas firefighter, an Argentine woman, a young video journalist and two others on what authorities said was a charter flight to take photos. Pilot Richard Vance, who managed to free himself from the rapidly sinking chopper, was the only survivor. "Mayday, mayday, mayday," he said in an emergency radio call as the aircraft foundered. "East River engine failure." No one answered an email Monday to Vance, 33, a licensed commercial pilot for seven years who's also licensed as a flight instructor. A possible phone number for him in Danbury, Conn., wasn't working. A floating crane slowly raised the submerged helicopter to the surface Monday and towed it off to be examined as Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said federal regulators should suspend flights by the helicopter's owner until the facts of the crash are known. The owner, Liberty Helicopters, referred all inquiries to federal authorities. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating whether the company had been complying with regulations. A tour and charter helicopter company, Liberty has been involved in at least five accidents or other incidents in the last 10 years, according to FAA data. "Incidents" can include events that end in safe landings, but an August 2009 collision over the Hudson River between a Liberty chopper and a small, private plane killed nine people, including a group of Italian tourists. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The company paid $23,576 in fines in 2010 and 2011 for violating maintenance, record-keeping and flight operations rules, according to the FAA. Three subsequent maintenance violations in 2011 and 2012 didn't result in any fines. Witnesses to Sunday's crash said the helicopter was flying noisily, then suddenly dropped and quickly submerged. A bystander's video showed the helicopter land hard and then capsize in water about 50 feet deep. Emergency divers had to get the passengers out of tight safety harnesses while they were upside down, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. The passengers who died included Dallas Fire-Rescue Officer Brian McDaniel, 26, his high school friend Trevor Cadigan, 26, a journalist who hailed from Dallas but had recently moved to New York; and Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29, a tourist from Argentina, according to its consulate. The other victims were Daniel Thompson, 34, and Tristian Hill, 29, according to police. McDaniel had been with the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department since May 2016. He was visiting Cadigan, who had recently finished an internship at the Business Insider news site. ALBANY In a split verdict, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's former top aide Joe Percoco was found guilty of three corruption counts on Tuesday, two months after the start of a federal trial that cast a cold light on pay-to-play culture in state government. The governor's former executive deputy secretary a man Cuomo once called "my father's third son and my brother" was found guilty of honest services fraud, conspiracy to commit honest services, and solicitation of bribes and gratuities. Percoco was acquitted of three other counts against him, including extortion. Outside the courthouse, Percoco told reporters he was "disappointed" in the verdict and would consider his legal options. Two executives from the Syracuse-area firm COR Development, Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, were acquitted of most of the charges they faced connected to allegations that they bribed Percoco, though Aiello was convicted of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. In a statement, COR said Aiello planned to appeal. Sentencing will be held in June the same month Aiello and Gerardi will return to Manhattan to join another set of defendants, including former SUNY Polytechnic Institute President Alain Kaloyeros, to stand trial for their alleged roles in bid-rigging schemes connected to upstate development projects. The jury, which had been deliberating since March 1, remained deadlocked on charges against a fourth defendant, former power plant executive Peter Galbraith "Braith" Kelly Jr. of Competitive Power Ventures. U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni declared a mistrial on those charges and dismissed the jury. Percoco was accused of taking more than $300,000 in bribes in exchange for performing state government favors. Aiello and Girardi had been charged with playing Percoco $35,000 funneled through Todd Howe, a former consultant with the Albany-based firm Whiteman Osterman & Hanna who served as the prosecution's star witness. The performance of Howe, who in September 2016 pleaded guilty to multiple felonies, proved to be the government's greatest liability: His testimony was interrupted by Howe's being taken into federal custody after he admitted under cross-examination to attempting to bilk his credit card company out of the $600 cost of a night's stay at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan just weeks after signing a cooperation agreement that required him to stop committing crimes. Kelly, whose company is building a controversial gas-fired power plant in Orange County, was charged with providing Percoco's wife, Lisa Toscano Percoco, with a $90,000-per-year job with a CPV educational program. Prosecutors called it a "low-show" job, and noted that she was paid through an obscure Connecticut-based firm in order to conceal her employment from public view. During Joe Percoco's years of service for Cuomo including work at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Renewal during the Clinton administration, at the state Attorney General's office and finally in the Executive Chamber he was the governor's backstage fixer, whether the task at hand was a late-night call to a recalcitrant lawmaker or arranging the dignitaries sitting behind the governor at a bill signing. Prosecutors, however, presented a portrait of a man desperate for cash to shore up a household that tipped into debt after the Percocos' 2012 move from a humble home on Staten Island to a more elegant house in South Salem, Westchester County. Using Howe's testimony and an extensive record of emails, prosecutors showed Percoco's increasingly urgent pleas to Howe another longtime confidant of the Cuomos for "ziti," a term for cash payments that Percoco borrowed from HBO's mafia drama "The Sopranos." U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement that Percoco was found guilty of "selling something priceless that was not his to sell the sacred obligation to honestly and faithfully serve the citizens of New York. "As every schoolchild knows, but (Percoco) corruptly chose to disregard, government officials who sell their influence to select insiders violate the basic tenets of a democracy," Berman continued. The case was one of the most high-profile prosecutions brought by the Manhattan federal prosecutor's office under the leadership of Preet Bharara, who was fired by President Donald Trump a year ago this week. It remains to be seen how the trial will affect Cuomo, a Democrat seeking a third term. The governor and his campaign have so far refused to respond to reporters' questions emerging from the trial, including queries about Percoco's apparently open use of his Executive Chamber office during an eight-month period in 2014 when he had ostensibly resigned from his official post to run Cuomo's first re-election campaign. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The use of public resources to benefit a political campaign is a violation of state public officers law. In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Cuomo said that he respected the jury's decision. "While I am sad for Joe Percoco's young daughters who will have to deal with this pain, I echo the message of the verdict there is no tolerance for any violation of the public trust," he said. "There is no higher calling than public service and integrity is paramount principles that have guided my work during the last 40 years." "The verdict demonstrated that these ideals have been violated by someone I knew for a long time," the governor continued. "That is personally painful; however, we must learn from what happened and put additional safeguards in place to secure the public trust. Anything less is unacceptable." Even before the verdicts were announced, good government groups were using the revelations from the trial to press for ethics reforms that have so far eluded Cuomo, who was elected governor in 2010 on a promise to renew trust in state government. Instead, the trial served as a gallery of bad behavior, from the use of limited liability companies or LLCs to conceal the true identities of political donors to administration officials' extensive use of private emails accounts to conduct public business in an apparent effort to avoid transparency. In the wake of the convictions on Tuesday, a group of five government reform organizations released a statement arguing that the real headline from the trial was that in New York, "state laws are so weak that what is unethical is legal." "Percoco's trial spotlighted a state government riddled with pay to play, influence peddling and unethical behavior," said the statement from leaders of Citizens Union, Common Cause, the New York Public Interest Research Group, the League of Women Voters and Reinvent Albany. The groups called for the closure of the "LLC loophole" in state election law, limits on campaign contributions for those seeking state government contracts, more effective ethics oversight watchdogs, and more contracting and budget transparency and accountability measures. Separately, 10 civic organizations including several of the same good-government groups called for the state's ethics agency, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, to be abolished and replaced with a "single, clearly independent entity" though a constitutional amendment. JCOPE has faced criticism for not flagging conflicts of interest that were disclosed in Percoco's personal income filings. State Sen. John DeFrancisco, a Republican who is seeking the 2018 Republican nomination for governor, called on Twitter for Cuomo to answer questions about Percoco and his conviction. "It's over. Speak up Andrew. New Yorkers deserve an answer as to why their state government has been up for sale under your administration," DeFrancisco wrote. RENSSELAER As the fire destroyed their 900 Mann Ave. home early Sunday, Monzalah Alshami and her high school-age son, Motasam, leapt to safety from a second-floor window, city police said Monday. Around 4:45 a.m. when the mother and son ran around to the front of the building, 41-year-old Monzalah Alshami rushed through the door into the intense blaze in an attempt to rescue her 8-year-old son, Aymen, and her mother, Safia Alblakhi, 68, Detective Scott Earing said. Motasam Alshami tried to go in after his mother but was driven back by the flames, Earing said. The Rensselaer High School junior turned to neighbors to call 911 to summon the Rensselaer Fire Department. Monzalah Alshami, Aymen Alshami and Safia Alblakhi died inside the burning wood-frame residence at the corner of Mann Avenue and Munger Street. Autopsies determined the cause of death was smoke inhalation, Earing said. Motasam Alshami on Monday was at Albany Medical Center Hospitals intensive care unit with non-life-threatening injuries. His sister, Rafa Alshami, 16, who escaped the fire, is in critical condition with burns over 30 percent of her body at Clark Burn Treatment Center of Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, Earing said. The father, Saddek Alshami, has been shuttling between Rensselaer, Albany and Syracuse to visit his children in the hospital. He had gone to work Sunday and wasnt home when the blaze began. On Monday morning, he was at the scene of his destroyed home Monday morning before returning to see his daughter in Syracuse, Earing said. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. City and state fire investigators continue to probe what caused the fire and where it began. Earing said investigators anticipate announcing their findings on Friday. He said surviving family members indicated there were smoke detectors in the residence. It spread so fast, Mayor Daniel Dwyer, who was briefed by the police department on the investgation of the blaze. of the investigation. A vigil was held Sunday outside the burned-out home. On Monday, children and adults continued to add offerings to a memorial there, and the Rensselaer City School District held grief counseling for students Monday. The Saratoga County Board of Supervisors' outright rejection of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's voting reform proposals for early voting and automatic registration demonstrates backward, wrongheaded, and ignorant thinking at best. At worst, it reflects a cynical disregard for the voting rights of constituents. Making voting easier and more accessible for eligible voters is an incontrovertible and non-partisan proposition. However, Albany has moved glacially when it comes to voting reform, placing our state woefully behind the curve. Ancient voting rules make a mockery of due process, with each step needlessly disenfranchising perfectly eligible New Yorkers. Currently, elections in New York are held on one day a Tuesday, when most people work, are in school, or both. And this is just with respect to the general election. Primaries are also held only on a Tuesday, and federal and state primaries occur on separate days. So New Yorkers who want to vote in primaries and the general election must hope they can find the time to physically appear at the polls on three distinct Tuesdays or be out of luck (it's actually four different Tuesdays in presidential years). Providing opportunities for all to cast a ballot during a reasonable early voting period is one solution that increases voter access for working people with busy schedules, as 37 states and the District of Columbia have done. The reform is particularly helpful for vulnerable classes of voters, such as those with chronic illness, the elderly or disabled, and those who prefer to avoid crowds and standing in line, or need a little extra time to vote. An early voting period can also drastically reduce the disruptions to voting caused by severe weather or anomalies like train delays that needlessly distort the will of the electorate. But because New York limits voting to a single physical location during a single day, these and other disruptions like missing inspectors or equipment, construction, locked facilities, computer glitches, or intentional manipulations such as false fire alarms can significantly impact voting outcomes. Recall that once elected, terms last for multiple years, New York lacks term limits, and incumbency is an incredibly powerful advantage. These disruptions matter! New York also makes it unnecessarily difficult to register to vote, leaving an estimated 2 million eligible New Yorkers unregistered today. The state rigidly ends registration a full 25 days prior to an election. Several other states allow voters to register and vote in one stop, but not New York. This means that during the period of peak interest just as voters tune in to political debates and media coverage expands the deadline to register has likely passed. Albany has also actively refused to enact convenient modern proposals like online registration, civic engagement best-practices for young people like student pre-registration, or even the most clerical streamline reforms like "registration portability," so existing voters aren't kicked off the rolls when they happen to move across a county line. This is where New Yorkers find themselves when it comes to voting rights in 2018. Voting in New York is difficult compared to other states, and in contrast to "signing up" for nearly everything else in our daily lives, the registration process falls far short of our modern commercial expectations, leaving voters with a bitter taste for civic engagement. But there are several ways New York can modernize voter registration. One is by automatically registering eligible voters or updating records when residents interact with the DMV and public agencies or entities like the Department of Taxation and Finance, state and community colleges, libraries, and those providing public-facing services. Ten states and Washington D.C. have already implemented some form of automatic voter registration (AVR). Although voters may always choose to opt out, studies indicate that most won't. AVR also provides many streamlining, cost-saving, and civil rights benefits. AVR better protects civil rights, because it reduces the participation barrier imposed when otherwise-eligible New Yorkers miss the deadline for manually registering to vote (or updating records). AVR alleviates clerical errors that occur when BOE staff manually transcribe handwritten information from thousands of paper forms. In addition to saving election officials precious time and resources, AVR also improves the ongoing accuracy and comprehensiveness of voter rolls and eliminates the need for sloppy, overbroad voter purges and the possibility of double voting. These benefits make it even more disappointing (and disingenuous) that conservative New Yorkers would oppose AVR. On the table today is a proposal to enact AVR at the DMV only, requiring minimal changes. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The Saratoga Board of Supervisors attempts to defend its rejection of early voting and AVR with spurious reasoning. Despite failing to provide any analysis of projected costs, the board characterizes the proposal as an "unfunded mandate," claiming that the $7 million proposed by Cuomo in the state budget will be insufficient. More surprisingly, some supervisors dismiss the need to make voting more accessible, asserting that voting in person or by absentee ballot is already easy. It bears recalling, however, that New York doesn't permit "no excuse" absentee voting. Instead, New York remains in the minority of states that require voters to swear to statutorily valid excuses to qualify. As a result, students and those working long hours without leaving their county for the entire day may not legally cast an absentee ballot. Blinded by their own privilege, some Saratoga Supervisors might find it easy to vote. The constituents they represent, however, do not. That's why the board received a surge of emails, a petition, and public testimonials from residents who strongly support these reforms. In fact, Saratogians who work long or irregular hours, balance multiple jobs with child or elder care duties, those who are ill or disabled, busy college students, and those with unpredictable schedules may find it nearly impossible to vote. Although our local leaders have failed to lead on this question, together we can start to change that, by bringing early voting and AVR to New York. Nicole V. Clarke of Galway is executive vice president of Saratoga Unites. James Keneally of New York City is a steering committee member with the New York Democratic Lawyers Council. Also contributing to this article was Karen Kaufmann of East Greenbush, a member of the Let NY Vote Coalition. We can see why you'd want to know how to add friends on Nintendo Switch. For a system that has no shortage of excellent party and couch co-op games, the Switch is a strangely anti-social system when it comes to remote connectivity. First-party games even require you to use a separate app to chat. Theres no better example of this than the hoops the Switch makes you jump through when it comes to adding friends. Unlike the PS5 or Xbox Series X , where players get to choose their own usernames, Nintendo has stuck with the Friend Code system that first appeared on the Wii and 3DS. Every Switch player is allocated a 12-digit Friend Code, and typing this in on the touchscreen is the easiest way to add friends on Switch. The good news is that once youve added a friend using their Friend Code, you never have to think about it again. This make it easy to play multiplayer games, or just check in on what your friends have been up to lately. Heres how to add friends on Nintendo Switch using Friend Codes. How to Add Friends on Nintendo Switch: Find a Friend Code Unless you and your friend have both Switches in the same room, the first thing youll need is your contacts Friend Code. Heres how to find it. 1. From the main Switch menu, select your avatar in the top left-hand corner of the screen. If you dont recognize your Mii on sight, the name will appear when you hover over it. (Image credit: Alan Martin) 2. There's no need to select anything from the side menu your Friend Code is right there. Its the third item down in the right-hand side of the screen. Grab a pen and note down the code's 12 digits (theres no need to copy the two letters at the start.) (Image credit: Alan Martin) How to add friends on Nintendo Switch: Add a friend Now youve got the Friend Code, youre ready to actually add your first friend to your Nintendo Switch. 1. Adding friends starts on your profile page, so select your avatar in the top left-hand corner of the home screen. (Image credit: Alan Martin) 2. Select Add Friend in the menu on the left-hand side of the page. Its the item thats second from bottom in the list. (Image credit: Alan Martin) 3. If youre in the same room as the person, you can just choose Search for Local Users," or you can add them as someone youve played with before. But the simplest way is still to select Search with Friend Code." (Image credit: Alan Martin) 4. Type the code of the friend you want to connect with. Once you've done this, select Enter to confirm. (Image credit: Alan Martin) 5. If youve typed the Friend Code correctly, youll see their name, avatar and play history. If all looks right, press Send Friend Request. How to add friends on Nintendo Switch: Accept a friend request 1. To accept a friend request someone has sent you, follow the same steps as before: select your avatar in the top left-hand corner of the home screen. (Image credit: Alan Martin) 2. Select Add Friend from the menu on the left-hand side. This time, select Received Friend Requests in the menu on the right. (Image credit: Alan Martin) 3. Find the right friend request, and select it. Choose Become Friends and they will be added to your list. You will now be able to see when theyre online, what game theyre playing, and what theyve been up to lately. President Donald Trump on Monday (Mar. 12) blocked what would've been the biggest tech acquisition in history. (Image credit: Shutterstock) In a move that would have sent shockwaves through the technology industry, Broadcom floated the idea of acquiring Qualcomm in a hostile takeover worth $117 billion. The deal had been under scrutiny from regulators and others, and would have seen the Singapore-based Broadcom officially take over the U.S.-based Qualcomm. But in an executive order on Monday, Trump said that "there is credible evidence" to suggest that a Broadcom takeover would be a problem. He specifically said that he feared that Broadcom "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States" if it acquired Qualcomm. Trump's executive order went on to block the slate of Broadcom-nominated candidates who were to stand for a vote on Qualcomm's board of directors. While Trump didn't share any of the "credible evidence" he says he saw, he gave the U.S. Attorney General full power to enforce his order and ensure Broadcom backs away. "It is not that rare for the government to block acquisitions, said Avi Greengart, research director for connsumer platforms and devices at GlobalData. "What is unusual is blocking the sale on national security grounds for a non-defense-related company. There is certainly an argument that wireless IP/semiconductors are essential to national security." But there may be more to the decision than just Broadcom. Bloomberg argued on Tuesday (Mar. 13), citing sources, that China-based Huawei might be to blame. MORE: The Truth About 5G: What's Coming Soon (and What's Not) While Huawei wasn't a part of the deal and didn't try to make a run at Qualcomm or Broadcom, there's growing concern in the U.S. that China is gaining too much control over the mobile Internet infrastructure and other components that the U.S. is increasingly relying upon. Bloomberg argues that Trump was concerned that a Broadcom takeover of Qualcomm would have allowed the Singapore-based company to weaken Qualcomm and therefore strengthen Huawei. A panel that advises the President on business deals that could affect national security, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., also feared the somewhat strong ties between Huawei and Broadcom. In interviews with the BBC, analysts said that Trump's decision was also protectionist. Mario Morales at IDC told the BBC that every major country around the world is in a race to deliver 5G technology. By allowing Qualcomm to slip into the hands of a foreign country, the U.S. would be left behind. "Semiconductor technology and companies like Qualcomm will be an important weapon in that 5G arms race [and] the US like other nations and regions want to be first," Morales told the BBC. Stuart Carlaw, chief research officer at ABI Research, sees this development as "a very positive event not only for Qualcomm but also for the market as a whole. The combined entity would have had dangerously dominant positions in some core markets such as location technologies, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RF hardware and automotive semiconductors. The analyst cited the need for a diverse supplier ecosystem as it applies to IoT and mobility, as well as smart manufacturing. While GlobalData's Greengart sees the rationale for this particular move, he's concerned about the precedent it may set. "The risk is that this standard could be broad enough to include practically anything, and this is happening at the same time as President Trump is also trying to impose tariffs and trade restrictions," said Greengart. Best VPN deals in September 2021 VPN There are tons of savings to be had on with these VPN deals if you know where to find them. Here are all the offers worth checking out. In the 2021 Budget, Finance Minister Colm Imbert had said the goal of the Government was to boost jobs. But what exactly is the state of unemployment in Trinidad and Tobago? ON Republic Day, activist Jerome Alexander will run a marathon from OMeara Road in Arima to South Quay, PoS to raise public awareness about the dangers of pornography. Alexanders idea to run the 26-mile marathon was in part inspired by a friend of his in the US who ran 30 marathons in 30 days. Do you have a news tip? Want to share good news story, or do you have information that should see the light of day? Then we want to hear from you. More here -:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:- This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one. To review the Tripadvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. We will be spending 2 weeks in CR. 1st week in Quepos and 2nd week in Dominical. Looking to rent a 4x4 for the 2 weeks and quotes we have received are all over the map. We have been referred to Solid Rental Cars by the one villa manager but the pricing seems significantly higher then some of the others but does include all insurance. They are located in Uvita but will have a car delivered to Quepos for us. Can anyone recommend a reputable company? Would we be better renting in San Jose at the airport or once we arrive in Puntarenas? Thanks in advance. I'm flying into Liberia next month and would like to head to Monteverde. My flight gets in at about 1pm, and so I figure with the potential for flight delays or delays at Customs/Immigration, I'll probably just head into Liberia and get a room for the night. I've taken a look at and it's giving me some less than optimal suggestions (e.g. I want to leave Liberia in the morning and it's suggesting I instead leave around 4pm and it will still take about 24 hours with an overnight in Las Juntas de Abangares). So I'm wondering if any of you are familiar with the buses in that region, and what would be my optimal routing. Assuming I leave around 7am, which of these do you think would be better: 1) Liberia > Canas > Las Juntas de Abangares > Monteverde or 2) Liberia > Canas > Tilaran > Monteverde Or, is there another routing that would be better? I've seen that Interbus has a shuttle from Liberia to Monteverde at 3pm, but I don't want to pay for it and then miss it due to a delay. It's also $49, while bus fare I'm guessing would only be $10 or $15. So I'm aware that it's an option, but would prefer to go by bus. Thanks for any suggestions You may want to read one of the prior, recent, threads about the police removing plates for parking where cars are not supposed to park, and only the owner (in case of renting, it is the rental Co) can retrieve the plates. See . No matter where you had rented the car from, that part of the problem would have been the same. As for Economy charging you additional $1000, I am not clear for what. Hello everyone- I need some help and getting a bit confused with all the information about border crossing. As anybody experienced any issues lately as in 2018 crossing from Dongxing, China into Mong Cai, Vietnam? I just tried to apply for an evisa and some representative said, the border is close and does not support. There wasn't any response afterwards when I tried to ask more questions. I've also heard I can't cross from Dongxing, Guangxi. Any updated information would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to get my visa ASAP. Thanks! Re: Best city in Japan to take a 13 year old? 4. Re: Best city in Japan to take a 13 year old? -:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:- This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one. To review the Tripadvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. Hey travellers! I just got back a couple days ago from CR. Great country! Here's a quick version of my trip in case you have questions. Mountains/Volcanos/ beaches Landed in Liberia, drove to Ricon de la Veija area for 2 nights, 2 nights in La Fortuna, 3 nights in Samara, 1 night in Junquillal, 1 night in Playa Hermosa and back to Liberia airport. I rented a car from Alamo(Toyota Yaris 4dr.) and I did this trip solo so driving to different locations was fun. SUV would have been better for some roads along the coast and some in the Ricon area but it's doable in a car but I chose automatic which is way better then manual on these roads(you would be shifting gears constantly). I used Waze and google maps as GPS and purchased a SIM card for $40(Kolbi ice) at the airport 2.5 Gb which lasted the entire trip but I did use wifi at hotels/ Airbnb when I could. The only unfortunate thing for Canadians is everything is in USD so add 30% to everything. Fantastic time.... Pura Vida! Re: Do I need a ETA to drive from USA to Canada if I am Irish ci 2. Re: Do I need a ETA to drive from USA to Canada if I am Irish ci The OP wants to drive from the US to Canada, so probably arrived in US by air using an ESTA. Assuming this is the case, the OP will only need his/her passport to enter Canada and won't need an I-94 Waiver to re-enter the US. The visa waiver granted through the ESTA system will still be valid. The OP should know that any time in Canada counts toward the 90 day visa waiver limit for a visit to the U.S. If the OP is driving a rented car he/she should ensure that the car rental company notes on the rental car agreement that permission has been given to take the car into Canada. There should be no extra charge for this. - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the deal between Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta to heal the country - Guterres said the UN will continue to work with the Kenyan governmnet to strengthen peace and stability - President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga agreed to end their animosity after a surprise meeting on Friday, March 9 at Harambee House The agreement between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga to end animosity between them following a bitter fallout after the 2017 elections has recieved the support of the United Nations (UN). UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a statement seen by TUKO.co.ke that the UN fully supports the deal insisting he will continue to support the duo's efforts to unite the country following sharp political divisions. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens "The Secretary-General welcomes the statement issued jointly by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr. Raila Odinga on 9 March 2018 declaring their commitment to work together to strengthen the unity of the country for all Kenyans," Guterres said. President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga after their meeting at Harambee House. Photo: Lynn Ngugi/TUKO READ ALSO: Mombasa Road blocked at Chyulu Hills after LP gas truck bursts into flames after accident Guterres said that efforts by the President and the Opposition chief to end the prevailing political crisis will be supported in order to strengthen peace and stability and spur development across the country. "The Secretary-General reiterates the United Nations support to continue working with the Government and people of Kenya for efforts towards consolidating peace, stability and development in the country," he said. READ ALSO: NASA co-principals Mudavadi, Kalonzo, Wetangula finally welcome Raila-Uhuru political deal Uhuru and Raila agreed to end dissent and work together to address a myriad of challenges facing the country bringing to an end the long protracted 'war' between the Opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) and the ruling Jubilee Party. The surprise meeting elicited mixed reactions with Raila's co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Musalia Mudavadi (ANC) and Moses Wetang'ula (Ford Kenya) tearing apart the deal which they claimed was between the two. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who has welcomed the Uhuru-Raila deal. Photo: The Star READ ALSO: NASA has outlived its usefulness and Kalonzo only wants to use Raila - Mutahi Ngunyi Later, after they held a NASA summit meeting in Athi River on Monday, March 12, the principals threw their weight behind the deal between Raila and Uhuru but insisting the discussion would be now held at party level. Other NASA supporters still feel aggrieved and have termed Raila as a betrayer with self-declared general of outlawed National Resistance Movement (NRM) Miguna Miguna declaring he would soldier on with the rebellion call alone. The opposition has since suspended its People's Assembly process following the deal between Raila and Uhuru. Uhuru and Raila full speech at Harambee House - on TUKO TV Source: Tuko.co.ke - A Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldier has gone public to announce that his wife has been taken by another man - Bonphas Tsuma Mwinga who is based at Kahawa barracks accused one Patrick Otieno of snatching his wife - Mwinga is now hunting for the wife and Otieno and has printed posters which have been shared on social media - The KDF soldier has warned of dire consequences should he find any person hiding his wife and Otieno in particular A Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldier has sent a passionate appeal to Kenyans to help him find his wife who went missing from their home in Makonngeni, Thika. Bonphas Tsuma Mwinga told TUKO.co.ke on Tuesday, March 13 that he suspects his wife ran away with her lover whom he identified as Patrick Otieno. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Namtaka mwanaume wa kushiriki ngono naye mara kwa mara, kama wataka nitumie ujumbe - mwigizaji wa Afrosinema atangaza According to him, his wife Mishi Azazi Moni was in constant communication with Otieno who hails from Busia County but stays in Nairobi before she walked out of their marriage. The angry soldier has printed posters explaining his situation while at the same time warning of dire consequences against any one who might be holding his wife. A poster printed by the KDF soldier. READ ALSO: Mombasa Road blocked at Chyulu Hills after LP gas truck bursts into flames after accident Mwinga told TUKO.co.ke that his wife and her lover had changed their mobile phone contacts but vowed not to stop looking for them until he smokes them out of their hideout and teach them a lesson for breaking his marriage. Uhuru and Raila full speech at Harambee House - on TUKO TV Source: Tuko Breaking News Latest - Deputy President William Ruto met with a section of legislators from the Mt. Kenya region as he continues to lay ground for his 2022 presidential bid - Ruto held a meeting with MPs from Meru County at his Karen Office on Tuesday, March 13 - He previously met several political leaders some who already have promised him the region's support come 2022 - Ruto also launched several development projects in the region viewed as a way of endearing himself to the locals - Deputy President has been largely tipped to replace Uhuru Kenyatta once the President retires after his four-year term Days after calling on politicians to shelve campaigns for the 2022 elections, Deputy President William Ruto heigtened his own bid to get hold of the vote-rich Mt Kenya by holding meetings with leaders from the region. The DP on Tuesday,March 13 met with several MPs from the vote rich Meru county under the guise of discussing development matters. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Picha ya mwalimu bila mikono akitumia mdomo kuandika ubaoni yayeyusha nyoyo za wengi This comes in the wake of appointment of former Meru governor Peter Munya as the Cabinet Secretary for East Africa Community and Northern Corridor Development. William Ruto poses for a group photo after meeting a section of leaders from Meru County. Photo: Facebook/William Ruto Munya was the biggest threat for Ruto in Meru as the former governor had also declared he would vie for the presidency in 2022. The CS remains non committal as to whether he will go for the top seat in 2022 or not. Ruto has been traversing the whole country as he seeks to win support for his 2022 presidential bid. Ruto is seen as the automatic Jubilee flagbearer in the 2022 elections after President Uhuru Kenyatta completes his second term in office. READ ALSO: ODM, Jubilee agree to unite in support of Uhuru-Raila deal On Tuesday, February 27, the DP held a meeting with leaders from Kiambu County at his Karen residence home office where it is believed the discussion touched on 2022 succession politics. The leaders included Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwa, Kiambu Woman Representative Gathoni wa Muchomba and Kabete MP Githua wa Macukuku among others as reported by TUKO.co.ke. Earlier, Ruto had been assured by Nyeri County leaders that they would support him for the presidency as appreciation for throwing his weight behind Uhuru for two terms. READ ALSO: Wooi! Jamaa jasiri atoroka na mke wa afisa wa KDF DP William Ruto during his meeting with Meru politicians at his Karen residence. Photo: Facebook/William Ruto And on Tuesday, February 20, the DP met with a section of leaders from Nyeri County led by Kieni MP Kanini Kega at his Karen residence. And during his latest meeting with legislators from Meru County, Ruto said that it was time for leaders to speak with one voice in order to achieve sustainable development. "It is imperative that we speak with one voice and ensure unity of purpose so that we can deliver on the Big Four agenda. This will set us on a path to sustainable development and shared prosperity," he said. Uhuru and Raila full speech at Harambee House - on TUKO TV Source: Tuko Newspaper - The selfstyled National Resistance Movement (NRM) general Miguna Miguna is free to return home - Court of Appeal cleard the way for the unrestricted and unhindered return of leader of the outlwed movement - Miguna was deported to Canada after is arrest and detention over his role in the controversial swearing-in of Raila Odinga as the People's President Kenya's fierry opposition leader Miguna Miguna is free to return home after the Court of Appeal ruled in his favour following his dramatic deportation to Canada where he is a citizen. Miguna has been battling to have his deportation quashed after the government declared him a stranger claiming that he had renounced his Kenyan citizenship. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens Miguna was represented in court by a battery of lawyers including Nelson Havi, Cliff Ombeta, Mutula Kilonzo Junior, Judy Soweto, John Khaminwa, James Orengo, lawyer Waikkwa and Osundwa. Miguna Miguna signing the oath taken by Raila Odinga as the People's President. Photo: NASA READ ALSO: Could this be the lady to deputise Mike Sonko after the sudden exit of Polycarp Igahte? READ ALSO: Trump fires Secretary of State RexTillerson hours after visit to Kenya The opposition leader took to his Twitter page to celebrate the good news and thanked the lawyers for securing his return. At the same time, the court directed Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet to appear in court in person as had been ealier ordred by the High Court as TUKO.co.ke reported earlier. On Monday, February 26 High Court Judge Chacha Mwita suspended a declaration by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i that the self-declared NRM general was a prohibited immigrant. READ ALSO: ODM, Jubilee agree to unite in support of Uhuru-Raila deal Immigration boss Gordon Kihalangwa was also directed to appear in court in person alongside Boinnet. Kihalangwa on Wednesday, February 21 surrendered Miguna's passport following an order issued by High Court Judge Luka Kimaru. Miguna who is set to return to the country has been fundraising for his air ticket and money to repair his house after police destroyed it using explosives during his dramatic arrest. Uhuru and Raila full speech at Harambee House - on TUKO TV Source: Tuko.co.ke - President Uhuru Kenyatta nominated National Intelligence Service (NIS) Deputy Director Noordin Mohamed Haji as the new Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) - Haji is the first born son to former Defense Minister and current Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji - Uhuru picked Haji from a list of three finalists submitted on Friday, March 9 by a seven-member panel tasked to recruit the next DPP - The office fell vacant after Uhuru nominated the former DPP Keriako Tobiko to the cabinet as Environment Cabinet Secretary President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday, March 13 nominated National Intelligence Service (NIS) Deputy Director Noordin Mohamed Haji to be the next Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Haji was picked from a list of three finalists submitted to the president on Friday, March 9 by a seven member panel tasked to do the recruitment. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Mambo 7 yaliyomo kwenye makubaliano mapya kati ya Uhuru na Raila Uhuru appoints senior intelligence officer and son to Garissa Senator as Director of Public Prosecution. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta/ Facebook READ ALSO: Trump fires Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hours after visit to Kenya The other two finalists were Senior Counsel Lucy Kambuni and Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor (DCPP) Jacob Ondari. I have conveyed to the National Assembly the nomination for vetting and approval of Justice Paul Kihara Kariuki as Attorney General and Noordin Mohamed Haji as Director of Public Prosecutions, Uhuru stated. Noordin is the son to former Defense Minister and current Garrisa Senator Yusuf Haji. READ ALSO: Wiper MP thrown out of Parliament for refusing to vacate ODM chairman's seat The position fell vacant after Uhuru nominated Keriako Tobiko for the position of Environment Cabinet Secretary. The selection panel said it considered regional balance, ethnic diversity and gender balance in shortlisting the candidates. Without a substantive DPP, suspects of various crimes could not be prosecuted as one of the functions of the office is to direct the police to conduct investigations before hauling a suspect to court to be charged. READ ALSO: Miguna free to come back to Kenya, court rules days after Uhuru-Raila deal Should the National Assembly reject the DPP nominee, the selection panel will start a fresh recruitment. The seven-member panel consisted of Kennedy Kihara (Office of the President), Maryann Njau (Attorney-Generals office) and Lilian Omollo (Public Service ministry). Others were Kagwiria Mbogori (Kenya National Commission on Human Rights), Elizabeth Muli (Law Society of Kenya), Francis Atwoli (Central Organisation of Trade Unions) and Halakhe Waqo (Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission). ALSO WATCH: Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga: Full Speech at Harambee House on TUKO tv Source: Tuko Kenya - Members of Parliament have raised alarm over a mysterious lady whom they claim has been sending to their phones disturbing messages and photos - The MPs claimed the unnamed woman had obtained phone numbers of all male MPs and was using the contacts to harass them - Some of the MPs were concerned that if the unknown woman is not stopped then their wives will soon divorce them - Among those who had received photos from the said woman are Majority Leader, Aden Duale, Kiminini MP, Chris Wamalwa, and Suna East MP, Junet Mohamed - Speaker of the National Assembly, Justin Muturi, ordered Internal Security Committee to look into the weighty matter It has emerged that a mysterious woman has been sending male members of Parliament (MPs) disturbing photos that put their marriages at risk. The MPs on Tuesday, March 13, told Speaker of the National Assembly, Justin Muturi, that the unnamed woman had obtained their phone numbers and was using the contacts to harass them. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Picha ya mwalimu bila mikono akitumia mdomo kuandika ubaoni yayeyusha nyoyo za wengi Garissa Town MP Aden Duale is one of the MPs who had received photos from the said woman. Photo:The Star. READ ALSO: Wiper MP thrown out of Parliament for refusing to vacate ODM chairman's seat Garissa Town MP and Majority Leader, Aden Duale, was one of the MPs who complained about receiving obscene photos from the strange woman. The other MPs were Suna East MP, Junet Mohamed, and Kiminini MP, Chris Wamalwa, who also claimed that the kind of images that were being sent to their phones were enough to break a marriage. READ ALSO: NASA MPs storm out of parliament Suna East MP, Junet Mohamed, dared to show the rest of his colleagues the disturbing photos but feared they would not be able to look at them twice.Photo: Kahawa Tungu. The lady sent me something. I tried to open it and the sounds that came out of it made it difficult to speak in my house. This woman is causing trouble in families, Wamalwa lamented. If I show you some of the photos I received, you cannot even look with your eyes, Muhamed added. READ ALSO: Drama at parliament as Jubilee and CORD MPs clash (photos) After listening to the MPs' sufferings, Speaker Muturi ordered Parliament's Internal Security Committee to summon police chiefs and mobile service providers to explain how the mystery woman obtained contacts of the male MPs. Earlier in the day, there was moment of drama in the National Assembly when Wiper party MP, Patrick Makau, refused to leave a seat reserved for Minority Leader John Mbadi. READ ALSO: Video: MPs cause drama after being ejected for heckling Uhuru Speaker Justin Muturi was left with no other option but to order for removal of Wiper-allied MP out of the Chambers. Photo:The Star. The Mavoko lawmaker, TUKO.co.ke reported, had occupied the seat which is normally reserved for the Minority Leader. Speaker Muturi was forced to order for him to be ejected out of the Chambers. The Horror of Child Marriage in Kenya - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke Russian-backed militants launched five attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area in Donbas over the past day. This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center on Facebook. In Luhansk direction, illegal armed formations opened fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms on the Ukrainian strongholds near Luhanske (59km north-east of Donetsk) and Novhorodske (34km north of Donetsk). In Donetsk direction, flagrantly violating the Minsk accords, the enemy used 120mm and 82mm mortars to fire at the Ukrainian positions near Pavlopol (30 km northeast of Mariupol), BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles and 82mm mortars near Vodiane (16km north-west of Donetsk), and mortars and small arms - outside Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk). As a result of the enemy attacks, two Ukrainian servicemen were wounded. They were taken to a military mobile hospital and received the necessary amount of medical aid. ish The OSCE SMM learned from the victims the details of the explosion of a minibus in Donetsk, which occurred on March 9 and killed two and injured six people. This was stated in the report of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission. "The SMM followed up on media reports of civilian casualties from an explosion in Kirovskyi district of Donetsk city. On March 10, at a hospital in Donetsk, the SMM spoke with four women and two men who all had visible injuries (including bruises and cuts) to their faces; five of the six were wearing eyepatches," the report says. Several of them told the SMM that on March 9 they had been passengers in a small bus travelling through Kirovskyi district towards road H-15 when they observed a man running toward the bus shouting stop the bus! while being followed by armed men in military-style attire in a car. They said the bus slowed down to let the man on but, as the man approached the bus, the car rammed him and pinned him against the bus. The interlocutors said that they then noticed he was carrying a hand grenade which detonated as he was pinned against the bus. According to them, the explosion shattered the buss windows; shrapnel and flying glass caused their injuries. Medical staff at the Kalinin hospital in Donetsk city told the SMM that they were treating a man who had been a passenger on the bus for shrapnel injuries to the abdomen. At the Kalinin morgue in Donetsk city, the staff told the SMM that the bodies of a man and a woman who died in the explosion had been admitted. Three local residents told the SMM that they had heard an explosion at 11:00 on March 9 near the intersection of Bakhmetieva and Pochenkova streets and, when they reached the scene of the explosion, they found it blocked off by hazard tape and DPR members. They also said they saw people covered in blood near a damaged Mercedes-Benz Vito minibus; some 15 minutes after the explosion, they saw ambulances arrive. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has invited business representatives to discuss a new model of profit taxation in Ukraine - the taxation of the company's distributed profit, the presidents press service reports. "Honest discussion on this issue with our foreign partners and business associations is needed. It's not just about taxes. Its a new philosophy. The bill will protect small and medium business, said Poroshenko and assured that there would be supporters of such a bill. Poroshenko also stressed that he is ready to compromise on this issue. "At the first stage, it will concern only small and medium business; we should find compromises over foreign investors. And at present it 100% [works] in many countries, including Georgia, Estonia, where it has worked fine," he said. He also added that such a new tax policy will fundamentally change the investment climate in Ukraine. iy Each investment into the Ukrainian economy should be successful and there is potential for this. Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman stated this during the traditional meeting "Dialogue between state authorities and business, which was held with the participation of representatives of leading Ukrainian and foreign companies, Ukrinform reports. "Today, we have good signals that the economy is starting to grow and recover. The task is to ensure success of each investment. We have a potential for this, Groysman said. He also stressed that such meetings are very important to discuss problems and adopt decisions aimed at achieving the strategic goal of ensuring sustainable economic growth, sufficient for a qualitative change in living standards of Ukrainians. Groysman also noted that the state can ensure the economic growth at the level of 5% or more. "It is important to approve a number of decisions, first of all, in the sphere of ease of doing business and investment protection. Everybody should understand that nobody will encroach on the property of those who invest in the economy of the state, he said. According to the prime minister, among other important issues are the deshadowing of the economy and the continuation of changes that will not allow the narrowing of entrepreneurship activities, both in the context of the work of controlling bodies and dominant companies. "It is impossible to ignore monopolists, who from time to time, try to create conditions to restrain investments, in particular, via excessive demands for different things. Thats why in the context of regional policy we sent the task for local authorities to create the needed infrastructure for business. Groysman stressed that at present everybody is interested is establishing favorable environment for business. iy Ukraines Deputy Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko believes that there is no ground for deploying an OSCE monitoring mission in Zakarpattia region. This was reported by the Novoye Vremya online portal. "Ukraine as a democratic state is not afraid of any monitoring mission, but, frankly, I personally do not see any reason for deploying a special regime in Ukraine, in particular, in the language issue. I do not see any threats to the languages of national minorities either from the Ukrainian legislation or from the state or local authorities," Rosenko said. According to him, all statements made by neighboring countries, in particular Hungary, related to their internal political struggle, as well as the hybrid war of Russia. As reported, the OSCE press service informed that the OSCE SMM would continue to monitor the situation in Uzhhorod with the help of patrol officers from Ivano-Frankivsk. ish Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen has arrived in Ukraine on a three-day official visit, Ukrainian Ambassador to Austria Oleksandr Shcherba has reported on Twitter. "Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen has arrived in Ukraine on a three-day official visit. The delegation consists of Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, other government representatives and a large business delegation," he wrote. As Ukrinform reported, during the visit the sides are to hold bilateral talks, and the presidents will participate in the opening of the Ukrainian-Austrian business forum. The program of the visit also foresees the Austrian president's trip to the city of Lviv. op The Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Right received over 1,500 applications from citizens in 2017, according to the annual report of the Commissioner for on the observance of human rights in Ukraine. Head of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Bohdan Kryklyvenko posted this on Facebook. A total of 158,091 people appealed to the Commissioner, including 1,914 people with whom [the Commissioner] held a meeting, reads the document. Kryklyvenko noted that the report was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada on March 13: The annual report on the state of observance of human rights in Ukraine in 2017 has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada today. It includes 661 pages of analytics and facts, which will be the main human rights advocate of Parliament's legislative activities." iy Propelled by better health and education, lower vulnerability and an economic boom, Bangladesh, the largest least developed country (LDC) in terms of population and economic size, looks likely to leave the LDC category by 2024. For the first time, the country is expected to meet the three criteria for graduation when the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) convenes at UN Headquarters in New York for its review on 12-16 March 2018. Bangladesh has seen broad-based gains in health, education, infant mortality and life expectancy, said Daniel Gay, LDC expert in UN DESAs Development Policy and Analysis Division. These have in turn driven economic growth, and latterly reduced economic vulnerability, so its really a success story. Every three years, the CDP, which comprises 24 independent development experts from around the world review the list of LDCs, based on a rigorous methodology using a wide range of sustainable development indicators. The CDP measures the LDC category on the basis of per capita income, a human assets index and an economic vulnerability index. A country must exceed thresholds on two of the three criteria at two consecutive triennial reviews to be considered for graduation. Up to now, no country has managed to meet all three criteria. We have been achieving robust economic growth for the last number of years over 6 per cent and also pursuing a policy of inclusive growth, said Masud Bin Momen, the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN, as he commented on the countrys success. He also stressed that growth has involved all sectors of society especially womens economic empowerment and gender mainstreaming. Since 1996, the per capita gross national income in Bangladesh has outstripped the LDC average and has recently risen above the threshold used by the CDP. The economy has developed largely through textile and garment exports. Remittances, natural gas, shipbuilding and seafood, as well as information communications and pharmaceuticals are all emerging sources of foreign exchange and economic growth. This economic boom has helped people living in poverty. Since 1990 about 50 million people left extreme poverty, as defined by the World Bank, a reduction in the poverty rate from 40 per cent to 14 per cent. Bangladeshs thriving non-government organizations have also helped provide vital health and education services to the poor, translating into rapid improvements in the human assets index used by the CDP. Increases across the five components of the human assets index infant mortality, maternal mortality, undernourishment, adult schooling and adult literacy meant that Bangladesh exceeded the threshold on this index for the first time in 2016. Bangladesh is also unusual in that it has enjoyed a reduction in economic vulnerability. The economic vulnerability index has consistently decreased since 2003, the first year it fell below the CDPs official threshold, partly due to greater export stability and diversification. Ambassador Momen described the role of the United Nations as an important partner in the countrys development efforts. They have been providing consistent support in capacity-building and by undertaking various projects, and also helped in the build-up of our technical capacity in various social sectors, Mr. Momen said. Bangladeshs graduation will have implications for the economy, although many of the main stakeholders including the government and private sector believe that graduation would be a major step forward in the countrys history and therefore an event to be welcomed. All of this is very much part of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, said Heidi Schroderus-Fox, Director of the Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS), adding that the graduation from the LDC category is an important part of the efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the triennial review, the CDP not only reviews the data for all developing countries to identify countries that meet the LDC criteria for inclusion or graduation. A main focus will be to decide whether or not countries that meet the graduation criteria for the second consecutive time should be recommended for graduation, paving the way for them to leave the category in the near future. This time, the CDP will make decisions on more countries than ever before, including on Bhutan, Kiribati, Nepal, Sao Tome and Principe, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. Booming Bangladesh, a country preparing to leave the LDC category, is a success story likely to inspire others. The OSCE SMM did not open a separate office in Uzhgorod. OSCE observers have intensified their monitoring of the situation in Uzhgorod, at the same time characterizing it as generally calm, according to Deputy Principal Chief of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, Alexander Hug. Speaking on Novoe Vremya Radio, Hug stated the "fact" that over the past two weeks, the mission had been updating information on a number of incidents recorded at the premises of the Zakarpattia Hungarians Union. In general, according to the latest observations, the situation in the area remains calm, according to Hug. He noted that OSCE observers had intensified their monitoring efforts in Uzhgorod after the February arson attacks at the office of the Society of Hungarian Culture, deploying patrols from another regional center, Ivano-Frankivsk. Read alsoZakarpattia authorities unaware OSCE opens local permanent monitoring missionAt the same time, the organization did not open a separate office. The OSCE posted its mission reports as of February 28, March 1, 5 and 7. Hug noted that the OSCE SMM had been operating in Ukraine since March 2014 in 10 cities. Its observation posts monitoring the situation in western Ukraine are located in Lviv, Chernivtsi, and Ivano-Frankivsk. According to earlier reports, on March 10, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that the OSCE had informed him about the opening of an observation mission in Zakarpattia. In particular, it was reported that the 12-strong OSCE mission would allegedly be based in Uzhgorod. As UNIAN reported, on the night of February 27 in Uzhgorod, an arson attempt was carried out at the office of the Hungarian Culture House in Uzhgorod. No one was hurt in a fire. Local Governor Gennady Moskal stated that the Russian intelligence services are behind the attack. Ukraine's Ambassador to Hungary was summoned to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry in connection with the second arson attack against the Union of Hungarians. Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin condemned the attempted arson and called it a provocation. Later, Polish security forces apprehended two suspects who are believed to have committed the attack in Ukraine. Chancellor Angela Merkel wants a renewed push for peace in Ukraine as conflicting sides fail to live up to the Minsk agreements. The optimistic tone comes as the EU renewed sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that she hoped to relaunch peace talks over Ukraine following Sunday's Russian election, which Vladimir Putin is expected to win. "I am confident that after the election in Russia next Sunday we can have a fresh impetus and we can see how we can achieve qualitative progress in the Minsk process," Merkel told reporters Monday, Deutsche Welle reports. The 2015 Minsk peace accords brokered between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany have failed to end fighting in eastern Ukraine that has killed 10,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more. Merkel also said she supported the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to eastern Ukraine. Read alsoMogherini: EU doesn't recognize so-called 'elections' in occupied Crimea Without steps towards a peace process in Ukraine, EU sanctions against Russia will not be lifted, Merkel added. "I would first like to see a few steps and then we could talk about the sanctions issue, but they would have to be important steps," she said. Earlier Monday, the EU renewed a six-month extension of sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Crimea and support for rebels in eastern Ukraine. In Kyiv, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urged Ukraine to implement anti-corruption reforms demanded by international creditors. The EU threw its support behind Ukraine after the 2013-14 Maidan protests led to the ousting of Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovych. But the EU has become frustrated at the slow pace of reforms in Ukraine and widespread corruption. "There is no fatigue in our support for Ukraine, also because we have seen results," Mogherini said, urging Kyiv to pass strong anti-corruption laws. Denys Brovchenko also assumes that diplomats of other countries somehow conclude deals with Greece on their convicted citizens. Another Ukrainian sailor was convicted in Greece on Monday, March 12, with a long sentence on charges of organizing the smuggling of Syrian refugees. The Greek judicial system sentenced 40-year-old Denys Brovchenko to 180 years in prison, his brother Andriy told the Ukrainian TV news service TSN. Read alsoRussian authorities 'scared,' says convicted Crimean Tatar activist media The scandal with the conviction of Ukrainian sailors in Greece on similar charges gained momentum in February 2018, when relatives of the detainees together with representatives of the ombudsman's office gave a press conference in Kyiv and publicly appealed to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for assistance. All those convicted and their relatives complain that Ukrainian diplomats do not make appropriate efforts to help the sailors. After all, their sentences in Greek courts are inadequate. They are sentenced to 25-200 years in prison. Even sentences of killers and drug traffickers in that country are much shorter, while EU citizens and Turks detained on the same charges of smuggling illegal immigrants serve their terms in Greek prisons for only a few years. Denys Brovchenko also assumes that diplomats of other countries somehow conclude deals with Greece on their convicted citizens. It is already determined that a military-grade nerve agent produced in Russia was used in the attack in the English city of Salisbury. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said Ukraine is ready to assist the United Kingdom in investigating the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. "The United Kingdom is currently conducting an investigation. Of course, it will be completed. It is already determined that chemicals produced in Russia were used in the poisoning. If the fact is proven, and I am sure it will, Russia is behind this. Who was engaged in chemical terrorism and chemical weapons in the world Syria, Iraq, Saddam Hussein, North Korea, in Malaysia remember when the [North Korean] dictator's brother was killed there, and now Russia. Here is the company: Syria, Iraq, North Korea and, of course, Russia," he told journalists, an UNIAN correspondent reports. Read alsoRussia responsible for nerve agent attack in U.K. U.S. State Department "Therefore, we stand by Great Britain. If some of our assistance, expert or other help, is required, of course, we will provide it. I will give Boris Johnson a call to repeat this, although we have sent this message already," Klimkin added. As UNIAN reported earlier, 66-year-old retired military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in the center of Salisbury. They remain in a critical but stable condition. Skripal was convicted by the Russian government of passing secrets to MI6 in 2004, but given refuge in the UK in 2010 as part of a "spy swap." On March 13, 2018, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Skripal and his daughter had been poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. Russia, in turn, said it would only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into the poisoning case if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used. A legal base for a successful reintegration should be laid before the actual de-occupation of the peninsula, the official believes. Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people MP Refat Chubarov met with heads of diplomatic missions in Kyiv to speak of the main principles of draft amendments and additions to the Constitution of Ukraine as regards Crimea. Chubarov stressed that the legal conditions for the successful reintegration of Crimea must be created before the peninsula is de-occupied, an UNIAN correspondent reported. "Unlike a number of skeptics who suggest that any issues related to improving the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea be discussed once Crimea is de-occupied, on the contrary, we maintain that it is at the stage of preparing the de-occupation of Crimea that we are obliged to create all legal conditions that will facilitate successful reintegration of Crimea in the period following de-occupation and ensure its further and sustainable development as part of the Ukrainian state," Chubarov said. Read alsoCrimean Tatars not to vote at Russian presidential election in Crimea - Chubarov"Moreover, we affirm without exaggerating that it is reformatting the status of Crimea's autonomy based on norms and principles of international law, including the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination in forms that do not violate territorial integrity of existing states, that will give Ukraine and all of us the new levers and mechanisms for the early restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty over Crimea," he added. In this regard, Chubarov says that to this end, the Constitutional Commission of Ukraine in May 2017 set up a working group that has already drafted amendments and additions to the Constitution of Ukraine as regards Crimea. "Since this text has not yet been considered by the Constitutional Commission, we refrain from disseminating it," Chubarov said. At the same time, he described the main provisions of the changes proposed. "The Crimean Tatar people's right to self-determination is the source of the special status of Crimean Autonomy. The Crimean Autonomy's Constitution shall be adopted by a representative body of the Autonomy in agreement with the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people. The Crimean Tatar language is used in all spheres of public life along with the state language," said Chubarov. He also noted that another principle, which should be laid down in the Constitution of Ukraine, is to provide "guaranteed representation of the Crimean Tatar people". In addition, it is proposed to fix in the Basic Law that supreme representative bodies of the Crimean Tatar people shall be elected by the "indigenous people, according to the rules they have established," meaning the Kurultay and Mejlis. Read alsoMogherini: EU doesn't recognize so-called 'elections' in occupied CrimeaAt the same time, he said that decisions important for the development of Autonomy should be passed with the prior consent of the representative bodies of the Crimean Tatar people. "Such principles, in our opinion, strengthen Ukraine's territorial integrity in Crimea and make it impossible in the future to violate state sovereignty of the Ukrainian state in any of its territories," Chubarov said. He noted that it must also be provided that the Kurultai should have "the right to a constitutional representation on issues that affect the rights and interests of the Crimean Tatar people". The fact of the fire and the death will be officially investigated. One serviceman died and another seven were injured at night as a result of a fire at the Shyrokiy Lan military training ground in Mykolaiv region. "A fire broke out at the 235th military training ground in Mykolaiv region as a result of violation of safety rules when using a furnace at night. One tent in a tent camp burned down," the press service of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, March 13. Read alsoGrenade launched at Kyiv restaurant (Photo) At about 04:00 Kyiv time, tent camp personnel on duty noticed a tent was on fire. They immediately took measures to evacuate servicemen and extinguish the fire. One soldier died during the fire, while other seven got burns of different severity. The injured were taken to the Mykolaiv military hospital. There is no threat to their lives. The fact of the fire and the death will be officially investigated. Only one in four has a positive attitude toward the Ukrainians (24%), while 40% of those polled have a strong feeling of dislike. The attitude of the citizens of Poland to the Ukrainians has significantly worsened in the past decade. The number of citizens who have an antipathy toward the eastern neighbor significantly exceeds the number of those who are friendly toward Ukraine, according to findings of a poll conducted by the Centre for Public Opinion Research (CBOS) in Poland, the Ukrainian news outlet Europeiska Pravda reported, referring to the Polish Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper. Only one in four has a positive attitude toward the Ukrainians (24%), while 40% of those polled have a strong feeling of dislike. It is noted that the attitude toward the Ukrainians, as well as the Germans, has seriously deteriorated and today is the worst over the past 10 years. Read alsoPoll: Over 90% of Ukrainians see political situation as "tense" The authors of the study argue that, in comparison with last year, the attitude of the Poles has worsened to almost all the nations included in the survey. The Poles are friendliest with Czechs, Italians, Americans, Britons, Slovaks and Hungarians. They have an antipathy toward Russians, Gypsies and Arabs. According to the analysis of the researchers, the attitude toward other nations is primarily connected with the level of education and the size of a city or town. More educated respondents were friendlier. Graduates of universities were also reluctant to claim antipathy. In addition, residents of large cities often showed more friendliness toward foreigners. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian-Polish relations have worsened after Poland passed a law on the Institute of National Remembrance, which, inter alia, bans the promotion of Ukrainian nationalists' ideology. The law also introduces criminal liability for the assertion that the Poles were aiding the Nazis during World War II. Russian-led forces were most active in the Luhansk sector. Russia's hybrid military forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas five times in the past 24 hours, with two Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action (WIA). Read alsoUkraine reports four enemy attacks, 1 KIA, 3 WIA's in last day "In particular, the enemy was most active in the Luhansk sector, using grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms against the Ukrainian positions near the villages of Novhorodske and Luhanske," the press center of the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations reported on Facebook on Tuesday morning. In the Donetsk sector, the Ukrainian troops near the village of Pavlopil came under fire from 120mm and 82mm mortars. Moreover, the Russian-led forces opened fire from cannons of infantry fighting vehicles and 82mm mortars near the village of Vodiane. They also used mortars and small arms to attack the Ukrainian defenders of the town of Avdiyivka. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been pulling his country closer to Russia, the journalists' investigation revealed. Two businessmen from Viktor Orban's inner circle, Lajos Simicska and Zsolt Nyerges, traveled to Moscow to meet with a top FSB official just weeks before the April 2010 parliamentary elections where Orban's Fidesz party won comfortably. Orbans allies went to meet an FSB official because the Russian secret service is often involved in state-related businesses, according to Direkt36. One of the sources familiar with the meeting said the FSB official told Simicska and Nyerges that, if they need help in business, they "can rely on Russia". Orban had been a staunch critic of Russia for most of his career, so exactly what led him to seek ties with Putin has been the subject of widespread speculation in recent years. Read alsoHungary envoy exceeds powers in Ukraine Deputy FM ZerkalAccording to multiple sources interviewed by Direkt36, Orban has been telling his own people that hes building a closer relationship with Russia to strengthen Hungarys standing internationally. He thinks that Hungarys economy can profit from this connection, and he believes it also gives the country a better bargaining position vis-a-vis Western powers. Orban, according to those who know him, enjoys maneuvering among powerful leaders. He finds Hungarian politics boring and is convinced of his own extraordinary political abilities (of which he even brags about in private). One of the sources claimed that Orban found what happened in Russia under Putins rule appealing. He was impressed by Putins social model, in which the business elite is dependent on the Russian leader, while only a few independent players remain. Given that Hungarys rapprochement with Russia is an ongoing process, it is difficult to predict where Orbans steps will take the country, according to the publication. Read alsoHungary's language row with Ukraine about "sucking up to Russia" mediaSome believe Orban is using his Russian contacts to command greater influence in the West. Viktor realized that this was a good bargaining position against the EU, a person close to Orban said. According to another source, the prime minister appreciates Hungarys increasing importance and that it is impossible to make decisions on European issues without him. The Hungarian government argues that the only aim of its rapprochement with Russia is to achieve economic advantages for Hungary. When we talk to Hungarian government officials, they always say this is just about business, a diplomat of an Eastern European country said. If the Hungarians are serious, he continued, then they totally misunderstand the situation, because the Russians operate according to the logic of empire. The diplomat added, This is never only about business for the Russians. There is always politics behind. Democrats are expected to issue a separate report with far different conclusions. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have completed a draft report concluding there was no collusion or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, a finding that pleased the White House but enraged Democrats who had not yet seen the document. After a yearlong investigation, Texas Rep. Mike Conaway announced Monday that the committee has finished interviewing witnesses and will share the report with Democrats for the first time Tuesday. Conaway is the Republican leading the House probe, one of several investigations on Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, according to the Associated Press (AP). Read alsoPompeo on Putin claim Kremlin was not involved in meddling: 'That's false' media "We found no evidence of collusion," Conaway told reporters, suggesting that those who believe there was collusion are reading too many spy novels. "We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings. But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings or whatever, and weave that into sort of a fiction page-turner, spy thriller." Conaway previewed some of the conclusions, but said the public will not see the report until Democrats have reviewed it and the intelligence community has decided what information can become public, a process that could take weeks. Democrats are expected to issue a separate report with far different conclusions. The French leader has made the threat before but has so far made little headway influencing events in Syria. France is prepared to launch targeted strikes against any site in Syria used to deploy chemical attacks that result in the deaths of civilians, President Emmanuel Macron said. Shortly before the United Nations was due to discuss Syria, Macron said Moscow, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, had not done enough to permit relief efforts into the rebel-held Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, as reported by Reuters. Asked about the Syrian conflict at a news conference in India, Macron said France would be ready to strike if it found"irrefutable evidence" chemical weapons had been used to kill. "The day we have, in particular in tandem with our American partners, irrefutable proof that the red line was crossed namely the chemical weapons were used to lethal effect we will do what the Americans themselves did moreover a few months ago; we would put ourselves in position to proceed with targeted strikes," Macron said. Read alsoMacron: 'France will strike' if proven chemical bombs used in Syria media The French leader has made the threat before but has so far made little headway influencing events in Syria. "We are cross-matching our own information with that of our allies but to put it very clearly we have an independent capacity to identify targets and launch strikes where needed." Syria signed a Russian-brokered deal to give up its arsenal of chemical weapons to avert U.S. air strikes after a nerve gas attack killed hundreds of people in 2013. Last year, the United States again accused Damascus of using nerve gas and launched air strikes. Since then, Washington has repeatedly accused Damascus of using chlorine gas in attacks. Chlorine is far less deadly than nerve agents and possession of it is allowed for civilian purposes, but its use as a weapon is banned. Damascus and Moscow have been carrying out a fierce bombing campaign and ground assault against the besieged rebel-held eastern Ghouta enclave since mid-February, despite a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a countrywide ceasefire. "This is a debate we will have in the coming hours at the United Nations, where it will be shown that the concessions on the ground from Russia, but first and foremost the Syrian regime and its Iranian allies, are insufficient," Macron said. Trump publicly undercut Tillerson's diplomatic initiatives numerous times. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he had replaced U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, and had tapped Gina Haspel to lead the CIA. The resignation represents the biggest shakeup of the Trump Cabinet so far and had been expected since last October when reports surfaced about a falling out between Trump and Tillerson, 65, who left his position as chief executive of Exxon Mobil to join the administration, as reported by Reuters. On Monday, Tillerson said, "We have full confidence in the UKs investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week," according to a press statement published on the U.S. State Department website. "Those responsible both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it must face appropriately serious consequences, said Tillerson. Mr Tillersons comments marked an escalation in the USs response to the attack. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had previously called the episode "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible," but refused to blame Russia, according to The Independent. Read also"Rexit": Tillerson may resign due to differences with White House CNN Trump publicly undercut Tillerson's diplomatic initiatives numerous times, including on Monday when the former secretary of state's comments about Russia appeared to be at odds with those of the White House. Tillerson also appeared out of the loop last week when Trump announced he would meet with North Korea's leader and become the first sitting U.S. president to do so. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Trump said on Twitter. The U.S. leader says he is not yet aware if the UK investigation has come to a conclusion. Ahead of a telephone conversation with British Prime Minister Theresa May due to be held later on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said it seemed to him UK believes it is Russia who stands behind a poisoning attack on British soil against a former Russian spy, and that he would "certainly take that finding as a fact". "As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be," Trump said, according to The Guardian. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump stated via Twitter he had replaced U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo. Meanwhile, Tillerson did not speak to Trump and is unaware of the reason behind his firing, according to Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Steve Goldstein. On Monday, just a day before Trump sacked him, Tillerson said: "We have full confidence in the UKs investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week," according to a press statement published on the U.S. State Department website. "Those responsible both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it must face appropriately serious consequences, said Tillerson. At the same time, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had previously called the episode "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible," but refused to blame Russia, according to The Independent. The reactions followed a Monday statement by British PM Theresa May claiming the former spy Sergei Skirpal and his daughter had been poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. "Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom," she said. In that event, May said she would on Wednesday set out "the full range of measures that we will take in response". The cause of death has not yet been reported. A close associate of the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky, Nikolai Glushkov, has been found dead in Britain, it has been reported. A former deputy director of Aeroflot, Glushkov died at the age of 69, The Telegraph wrote citing a report by Russia's Business FM radio station with reference to Glushkov's lawyer. The lawyer, Andrei Borovkov, did not mention a cause of death. Glushkov, a close ally of Berezovsky, was twice charged with fraud in Russia. Read alsoSkripal poisoning: Trump says ready to condemn "Russia or whoever it may be"Berezovsky was once one of the most powerful businessmen in Russia and was instrumental in Vladimir Putin's rise to power in 1999. He later fell out with the Russian president and fled to London in 2000, where he became one of Putin's most outspoken critics. Berezovsky was found hanged in his Berkshire home in 2013 in an apparent suicide. Police said a post-mortem showed no sign of a violent struggle and an inquest recorded an open verdict. Demyan Kudryatsev, the owner of Russia's Vedomosti newspaper, appeared to confirm Glushkov's death. A 35-member delegation of the private sector Tuesday left for Kathmandu, Nepal to participate in three-day "6th SAARC Business Leaders Conclave commencing from March 16 to explore the investment avenues in agriculture, industrial and energy sectors and promote trade among the member countries in South Asia. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :A 35-member delegation of the private sector Tuesday left for Kathmandu, Nepal to participate in three-day "6th SAARC Business Leaders Conclave commencing from March 16 to explore the investment avenues in agriculture, industrial and energy sectors and promote trade among the member countries in South Asia. Talking to media prior to departure to Kathmandu, head of the delegation, SAARC CCI Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik said the distinctive features of Business Leaders Conclave will also be highlighted during the deliberations, besides the briefing to the participants on regional issues confronting the South Asian countries hindering in the way of rapid economic prosperity", according to a press release issued here today. He said this mega event will bring positive change in South Asian economic and political outlook as leading business leaders, politicians, opinion makers, senior dignitaries from public and private sectors of SAARC member nations, prominent academicians, and Industry players, renowned and celebrated figures of South Asia being the drivers of socio-economic change will vocally advocate policies that promote regional economic cooperation. Answering a question about progress of SAARC CCI towards integration of economy in South Asia, he said he is always optimistic about bright future of South Asia despite this fact that SAARC has taken small steps at a time there has never been a case of looking back. As a result, SAARC today has many a success story to relate. " He further said, "Since the early 1990s, SAARC has taken several important initiatives to enhance regional economic integration. The SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA), the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), and more recently, the SAARC Agreement on Trade in Services (SATIS) are landmark Agreements in the pursuit of our common objective of speedy regional integration. With the coming into being of these Agreements, statistical evidence suggests that intra-sub regional trade among SAFTA members is rising slowly and steadily. South Asia's intra-sub-regional trade share increased substantially. Answering another query, he said that private sector of the region was committed to the socio-economic integration of South Asia. He said that business community of the region believed in harmony and advocates regional economic integration to address the major challenges the region faces including job creation and poverty. He said that regional economic cooperation between SAARC member states would help to unleash the true economic potential of South Asia. Iftikhar Ali Malik urged the SAARC member countries to join hands together and move forward. He said that deeper commitment at political level was inevitable to make SAARC effective. The event was originally scheduled to be held in Pakistan. But due to various reasons the programme could not be held in the country, according to Suraj Vaidya, president of the Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the organiser of the event. Somalia's parliament has declared "null and void" a port deal signed by breakaway Somaliland that has raised tensions between Mogadishu and Hargeisa. Mogadishu, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :Somalia's parliament has declared "null and void" a port deal signed by breakaway Somaliland that has raised tensions between Mogadishu and Hargeisa. Dubai-based DP World this month struck a deal giving Ethiopia a 19-percent stake in Somaliland's Berbera port. The move has angered Somalia, which does not recognise Somaliland's long-standing claim of independence and has a history of animosity with Ethiopia. Declaring the deal unconstitutional and therefore "null and void" Mogadishu's parliament on Monday asserted in a resolution: "It is only the Federal Government of Somalia that can engage in international deals." "All ports, and airports in the country are national property and... no one can privately claim ownership," it said, after 168 out of 170 MPs voted the deal down. The resolution went on to ban DP World from operating anywhere in Somalia. "The DP World company intentionally violated the sovereignty of Somalia, so this company is banned completely from operating in Somalia," parliament said. The company currently manages Bossaso port in semi-autonomous Puntland, as well as Berbera. It is unclear how Mogadishu would enforce the proposed ban, nor whether President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed will assent to it. Last month the United Arab Emirates infrastructure giant ran into trouble elsewhere in the Horn of Africa when it accused Djibouti of illegally seizing the Doraleh container terminal, the main transit route to landlocked Ethiopia. The company plans to invest $442 million (359 million Euros) developing Berbera on the Gulf of Aden shipping route, and has retained a majority 51-percent share in the port. The remaining 30 percent is owned by Somaliland's government. Somaliland's foreign minister, Sacad Ali Shire, defended both the initial deal with DP World, signed in 2016, and the recent buy-in by Ethiopia, which hopes the Berbera corridor will offer it another route to the sea for imports and exports. "The deal was bilateral, one initially between DP world and Somaliland, and both of them have the right to sell their shares if the other side agrees. That is the basis under which Ethiopia is allowed to join," he told reporters in Hargeisa on Sunday. The Mogadishu parliamentary statement ratchets up tensions between Somalia and its breakaway northwestern region whose independence claim since 1991 has gone unrecognised. Somaliland's president Muse Bihi Abdi has taken a defiant stance towards Somalia over the port. "We are ready to defend our sovereignty from this invasion," he said last week. "Somaliland has the right to decide what deals to engage in, without consulting anyone." (@rukhshanmir) A three-day International Machinery Expo ITIF Asia 2018 will start at Karachi Expo Center on Tuesday and a large number of visitors and buyers are expected. KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Mar, 2018 ) :A three-day International Machinery Expo ITIF Asia 2018 will start at Karachi Expo Center on Tuesday and a large number of visitors and buyers are expected. More than 350 Chinese delegates including a high powered delegation of Chinese provincial ministers will attend this expo. It will feature over a 1000 local and foreign exhibitors, said press release. The expo will also give a platform to the international investors,manufacturers, traders and foreign entrepreneurs to interact with various segments of Pakistani consumers. As a result, the event will help boost Pakistan's economy. (@rukhshanmir) In a meeting with Iraqi Minister of Construction and Housing Ms Anne Nafi Aussi, Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari said removing problems in bilateral banking ties would be effective in expanding economic cooperation between the two countries. In order to attain economic development, TEHRAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) ::In a meeting with Iraqi Minister of Construction and Housing Ms Anne Nafi Aussi, Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari said removing problems in bilateral banking ties would be effective in expanding economic cooperation between the two countries. In order to attain economic development, it is necessary for both countries to upgrade their ties from a simple trade relations to a more complicated level of cooperation in technical, engineering, industrial and housing fields, he told IRNA here on Tuesday. He also suggested that a joint committee be set up by both countries in line with promoting mutual technical and engineering cooperation which was welcomed by the Iraqi minister. Nafi Aussi, for her part, called for measures to be taken to solidify economic cooperation between the two countries and vowed to try to remove financial problems facing Iranian companies operating on Iraqi soil (including their overdue pays). Shariatmadari, who arrived in Baghdad Monday morning at the head of a delegation, also held talks with Iraqi Minister of Works and Planning Salman Jumaili and Minister of Industry and Minerals Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on ways of expanding mutual cooperation in various trade and industrial fields. Principal Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Prof. Ghais-un-Nabi Tayyab Tuesday called upon the doctors of the Lahore General Hospital to extend best possible medical facilities to every patient. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Mar, 2018 ) :Principal Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Prof. Ghais-un-Nabi Tayyab Tuesday called upon the doctors of the Lahore General Hospital to extend best possible medical facilities to every patient. In a press release issued here, he said that every person coming in Lahore General Hospital has equal right to get fruit of health policy of the Punjab government. He asked the Nursing department of LGH to strictly follow the handing over and taking over charge policy at the time of shift change and keep the patients charts completed as well. He clarified that duties of Nursing Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent had clearly been devised. Principal PGMI also directed security staff to behave with patients and their attendant in friendly way and if any complaint occured against laid down policy the company would have to face the music. Prof. Ghias-un-Nabi Tayyab asked the Medical Superintendent of Lahore General Hospital Dr. Mahmood Salah-ud-Din to undertake visit of emergency, outdoor and neuro institute on daily basis and ensure normalcy in each department. He directed to ensure discipline, proper uniform with displaying cards and follow the procedural codes in each section of the hospital. The Principal PGMI said that action would be taken such employees who ignore one window operation and waste their time in other section for their clerical work. He said that vigilance committee has also been activated which will keep an eye on the illegal carts and parking of private vehicles in the hospital premises. (@ChaudhryMAli88) UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :Pakistan made a mark at the U.N. Monday, the first day of a two-week session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), by organizing an impressive Photo Exhibition and co-sponsoring an event on the Culture of Gender Justice with Qatar and other countries. The photo exhibition, organized by the Pakistan Mission to the UN, was attended by the UN Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed, and ambassadors from many countries. The exhibition, highlighting the inspiring stories of some of Pakistan's most prominent trailblazing women and was also attended by a delegation from Pakistan headed by MNA Dr Shezra M. Ali. Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to UN, in her welcome remarks said that the exhibition titled, "No turning back: women who made history", has sought to honour Pakistani women who have demonstrated that they can be high achievers and have an impact, not just in their own country, but around the world. She said that from the first elected female Prime Minister in the Muslim world to attaining the high positions of Foreign Minister, Speaker of the National Assembly, top diplomats, judges, human rights activists, economists, sportswomen and entertainers, Pakistani women have shown that the sky is the limit if they put their minds to it. Describing Pakistani women as aspiring to "hold up" half the sky, Ambassador Lodhi said, "There is no glass ceiling that they have not broken and in no sphere, have they lagged behind men". "The vision of our founding fathers, a Constitution that guarantees equal rights for all its citizens, including women, the ethos of an ancient egalitarian civilization and the teachings of our religion have all combined to provide the platform on which our women have made a mark", Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told APP afterwards. UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, who was shown around the exhibition by Ambassador Lodhi, took keen interest in the exhibition and admired the efforts of the Pakistani envoy to highlight achievements of distinguished Pakistani women in diverse fields. The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. During the Commission's annual two-week session, representatives of UN Member States, civil society organizations and UN entities gather at UN headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide. The event was also attended by officials from UN Secretariat, members of Pakistan delegation to CSW and delegates attending CSW from all over the world. A video highlighting the role of prominent Pakistani women was also shown to the participants. The other side event, "Creating a Culture of Gender Justice: A Multi-Dimensional Approach" was organized by Qatar and IDLO, and co-sponsored by Italy, Pakistan and Tunisia. Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, and members of Pakistan delegation to CSW, Dr. Shezra Mansab Ali, MNA, Ms. Neelum Khan, KPK CSW and Ms. Fawzia Vikar, Punjab CSW attended the event. Dr. Ali in her address highlighted the role of women in Pakistani politics and also spoke on the challenges and opportunities for women in Pakistan. APP/ift (@FahadShabbir) As many as 129,534 cases of Human Rights violations were reported across the country while 174,119 accused were arrested during last five years (2013-17), ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :As many as 129,534 cases of Human Rights violations were reported across the country while 174,119 accused were arrested during last five years (2013-17), according to the data of National Police Bureau. The data compiled by National Police Bureau revealed that nature of these cases included murdered, honor killing, kidnapping, sexual assault, acid attack, violence against women and children etc. The data was obtained by the Ministry of Human Rights and its Regional Offices, the concerned Inspector General Police (IGP) offices and Police Departments. According to data 1,169 cases were reported from Islamabad Capital Territory, 109,031 from Punjab, 10,967 from Sindh, 4,607 from Khaber Pakhtunkhwa and 3,760 from Balochistan during this period, officials documents available with this scribe stated. Taking action on the cases, the police have arrested 1,895 accused from Islamabad Capital Territory, 149,300 from Punjab, 9,654 from Sindh, 7,546 from Khaber Pakhtunkhwa and 5,724 from Balochistan. Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Major General Rayimberdi Duishenbiev called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Qamar Javed Bajwa here at General Headquarters (GHQ) on Tuesday RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Major General Rayimberdi Duishenbiev called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Qamar Javed Bajwa here at General Headquarters (GHQ) on Tuesday. During the meeting matters of mutual interest, including military to military relations, regional security situation and measures to further enhance bilateral defence cooperation were discussed, said a press release issued here by Inter-Services Public Relations. Earlier on arrival at GHQ, Chief of General Staff, laid a wreath at Yadgar-e-Shuhada. A smartly turned out contingent of Pakistan Army presented the guard of honour to him. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Additional district and sessions judge (AD&SJ) on Tuesday awarded death penalty to Izma Rao alias Tooba in Model Abeera murder case. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :Additional district and sessions judge (AD&SJ) on Tuesday awarded death penalty to Izma Rao alias Tooba in Model Abeera murder case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 500,000 on the convict. However, the court acquitted two accused, Farooq-ur-Rehman and Hakeem Zeshan, on benefit of doubt. AD&SJ Ayesha Rasheed announced the verdict which had been reserved a few days ago after hearing arguments of the parties. The model Abeera was murdered in 2014 and her body was recovered from a suitcase in the limits of Shera Kot police. (@FahadShabbir) Harvard University students on an eight-day trip to Pakistan called Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi here at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :Harvard University students on an eight-day trip to Pakistan called Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi here at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday. The trek, organized by Mr Adnan Afaq, MD Pakistan Credit Rating Agency, and Ms. Sobia Maqbool, an alumna of Harvard University, was designed to provide these students with an alternative view of Pakistan not typically conveyed to the international community, a press release issued by the PM's Media Office here said. Over 30 meetings and activities were arranged to showcase the diversity of Pakistani culture, politics, food, art, and geography. The students' engagements with these many facets of Pakistan will help advance the narrative around the country when they return to Boston. In little more than a week, these students primarily from the Harvard Kennedy school of Government, but also representing the College, School of Public Health, Graduate School of Design, and Law School will travel the length of the country, from Gilgit to Islamabad to Lahore, concluding the trip in Karachi. Trek participants were accepted from a very competitive applicant pool of Harvard community members eager to learn more about Pakistan. By visiting the private homes of host families, exploring rural village culture, meeting with policymakers, and learning about the wonderful work of organizations like the Edhi Foundation, these students and their Pakistani counterparts promote people-to-people conversation. The meeting with the Prime Minister was a highlight of this exceptional trip. The female commuters and motorists have demanded an increase in the numbers of female traffic wardens in federal capital. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :The female commuters and motorists have demanded an increase in the numbers of female traffic wardens in Federal capital. The female commuters said that female traffic wardens show that there is no job that women cannot do and challenges need to be overcome to move ahead in life. Banu Tariq said that Lahore Traffic Police also restarted its first seven-member lady traffic warden motorcycle-patrolling batch to monitor traffic issues and maintain traffic flow on major roads of the city. She said that Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) should provide opportunities to the female to work as Traffic Wardens to control and maintain traffic. Mareena Khan, a motorist said that female is more capable to work as a traffic warden, adding that initially may be they face some challenges but after sometime people have to accept and appreciate their efficiency. A female police personal said that they can better perform their job, if the ITP provide them proper training and opportunity in traffic police. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Foreign Minister of Iran, Javad Zarif called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Qamar Javed Bajwa at General Headquarters (GHQ) on Tuesday. RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :Foreign Minister of Iran, Javad Zarif called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Qamar Javed Bajwa at General Headquarters (GHQ) on Tuesday. During the meeting, matters of mutual interest, regional security and Pakistan-Iran relations came under the discussion, said a press release issued here by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). The visiting dignitary appreciated bilateral security engagements during the recent months and measures initiated by both sides to improve Pakistan-Iran border security. The COAS said that regional peace was dependent upon wider cooperation within West Asia. We all need to cooperate to root out transnational security and crimes threat, he said. The Secretary Information Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that the provincial government had spent Rs 240 million on advertisements during last three months. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :The Secretary Information Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that the provincial government had spent Rs 240 million on advertisements during last three months. A three-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard the suo moto case on hefty advertisement expenditure by provincial governments. The KP information secretary told the court that the provincial government had spent Rs1.63 billion on media campaigns since its inception. He submitted the KP government's record of advertisement expenditure over the last three months. From December 1, 2017 to February 28, 2018, the KP government spent Rs240m on advertisements, none of which carried photographs of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak or PTI chief Imran Khan, he added. Justice Umar Ata Bandial pointed out that the funds used for advertisements were taken from the national kitty. The chief justice remarked that the court would order the provincial government to return such funds to the exchequer. He also observed that the government ads should be distributed among media outlets without discrimination and the issue would be examined separately. "We don't differentiate between Jang, The news or Nawa-i-Waqt," he added. A lawyer representing the All-Pakistan Newspapers Society also said that no provincial government should run an ad campaign using funds from the national kitty. The chief justice also took notice of distribution of development funds among lawmakers by the government. There were reports that development funds are being doled out by the government, he remarked. He questioned whether giving funds worth millions of rupees close to the general elections could be termed pre-poll rigging and under which the funds were being distributed among the lawmakers. The court then directed the additional attorney general to inform it of the legality of the move after consulting the government. State Minister for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal has said those talking about honesty in politics at this stage should review their past as they reached an agreement with former dictator through National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :State Minister for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal has said those talking about honesty in politics at this stage should review their past as they reached an agreement with former dictator through National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). Speaking on a point of order here in National Assembly, he said these elements are talking about rights of Balochistan as they did nothing from 2008-13 for the province during their tenures. The minister said that PML-N government wants to give rights to Balochistan because the bad governance by previous government from 2008-2013 damaged the situation there. At present, he said that terrorism has been eliminated from Balochistan and schools are open now. He said that PML-N announced to support Mian Raza Rabbani for the slot of Chairmanship due to his ability.He is a man of dignity who ran the House in a good manner, he added. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Junior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs the Republic of Czech Ivan Jancarek and additional Secretary of Europe the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Zaheer A. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :Junior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs the Republic of Czech Ivan Jancarek and additional Secretary of Europe the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Zaheer A. Janjua held the 8th round of Czech, Pakistan bilateral political consultations here on Tuesday. According to Foreign Office statement, the two sides reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations and identified opportunities and possibilities for further cooperation, especially in the spheres of trade, investment, defence, education, culture, parliamentary exchanges and people-to-people contacts. Additional Secretary Europe briefed the Czech delegation on Pakistan's emerging economy, future prospects of growth, and invited the Czech companies to invest in the energy, SMEs, information and communication technology, water management and agriculture sectors. The two sides discussed mutual collaboration at international fora, including at the UN and the European Union, and exchanged views on global and regional issues of mutual interest. They found convergence of views on important issues and agreed to continue cooperation at the multilateral fora, said a foreign office statement. They expressed satisfaction at the overall progress of bilateral relations, and committed to enhance cooperation in all fields, particularly to boost trade and economic relations. The Czech side expressed deep appreciation and acknowledged Pakistan's contribution and sacrifices in the fight against terrorism. The Czech side was apprised of the current situation in the South Asian region, especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan-India relations and human rights violations in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Initiated in 2005, Bilateral Political Consultations are a useful framework to review progress in various spheres and identify avenues of future cooperation between the two countries. The 7th round of BPC was held in Prague in May 2016 and the next round will be held in Prague in 2019 at mutually agreed dates. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Advisor to Prime Minister on Aviation Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan here on Monday affirmed that the New Islamabad International Airport would be operational in the month of April this year. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Mar, 2018 ) :Advisor to Prime Minister on Aviation Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan here on Monday affirmed that the New Islamabad International Airport would be operational in the month of April this year. He said that no comprise on airport quality standards will be tolerated and no further delay will be made in this regard, said a press release. He expressed these views while visiting and inspecting the different facilities of new airport before operationalization. Besides, officials of aviation division, CAA, ASF and PIA were also present on this occasion. Advisor to Prime Minister on Aviation was given a detailed briefing about the operational readiness and the latest technology installed at new airport. The new airport would be completed with an estimated cost of Rs 85 billion. Advisor to Prime Minister on Aviation said that new airport would be a great milestone in the history of Pakistan Aviation and it will provide best facilities of international standards to its valued customers. During his visit, Advisor to PM also planted Cassia nodosa tree at New Islamabad airport. Airport has two runways and it will cater 9 million passengers per annum. Airport is equipped with state of the art facilities and equipment including modern aerobridges, radar, lnding and airfield lighting system. This new airport would have 15 passenger boarding bridges and a vast parking area. Security officials of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) have handed to the police a woman impersonating as a lady doctor and making her way into the gynecology ward in a most suspicious manner. Dr. Seemi Jamali, KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :Security officials of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) have handed to the police a woman impersonating as a lady doctor and making her way into the gynecology ward in a most suspicious manner. Dr. Seemi Jamali, Executive Director of the city's largest healthcare facility talking to APP Tuesday said the security personnel of the hospital had reported the presence of the woman posing as a regular employee and forcing her entry into the ward. "Since the woman with dubious credentials could also not be recognized by any of the other staffer of the ward her case was immediately reported to the hospital administration and consequently to the police," said the official. To a query, Dr. Jamali said the woman was largely suspected to be part of a gang involved in abduction of new born as no less three cell phones were recovered from her possession. "Her actual intentions could only be made through thorough investigations by the police," emphasized the JPMC's executive director. The senior doctor also took exception to the misreporting of the case by various channels claiming that the woman managed to ensure her presence in the ward for almost a year. "She was a stranger and this was immediately registered by the staffers as well as other doctors of the ward who reported her strange presence to the hospital's security department the same day," clarified the ED. "I am also amazed to see picture of a smartly attired woman being flashed on tv screen while factually the woman we handed was burqa clad," she added. To another query, she said a dissection box was also retrieved from the woman who tried to use this as a proof of her professional credentials. Station House Officer, Women Police Station, Saddar, Syeda Ghazala confirming the arrest of the impersonator said it was made Monday on basis of the report filed by JPMC administration. "The woman who identified herself as Aisha wife of Abdul Karim and a resident of Korangi did not take much time in accepting that she was a simple matriculate," the police officer said. The matter is being further investigated to procure relvant details and ascertain actual facts, she said mentioning that a case has been lodged against the fake doctor under sections 419 and 170 of Pakistan Penal Code. APP/rh/har (@ChaudhryMAli88) Nearly 5,000 people have fled to Kenya from the Ethiopian border town of Moyale after the weekend shooting of nine civilians by troops, the Kenyan Red Cross said Tuesday. Addis Ababa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Mar, 2018 ) :Nearly 5,000 people have fled to Kenya from the Ethiopian border town of Moyale after the weekend shooting of nine civilians by troops, the Kenyan Red Cross said Tuesday. Ethiopian state media said soldiers on Saturday shot nine civilians near the town after mistaking them for members of the banned Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) who were trying to sneak into the country. "Approximately 5,000 refugees have arrived in Moyale, the majority being women and children," a Red Cross statement said. "These include pregnant and lactating mothers, chronically ill persons, those abled differently and the elderly." A Moyale resident said Ethiopian soldiers were trying to seek out Oromo activists. The border town is sliced in two with one side in Ethiopia and the other in Kenya. "There is continued aggression and harassment which creates fear and forces people to flee," the local resident told AFP. Oromia was the epicentre of a protest movement against Ethiopia's one-party rule that started in late 2015 and spread to the neighbouring Amhara region, leaving hundreds dead and resulting in tens of thousands of arrests. A 10-month state of emergency imposed in October 2016 quelled much of that violence, but the government remains unpopular among the Oromo, Ethiopia's largest ethnicity who inhabit Oromia. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Addis Ababa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Mar, 2018 ) :Nearly 5,000 people have fled to Kenya from the Ethiopian border town of Moyale after the weekend shooting of nine civilians by troops, the Kenyan Red Cross said Tuesday. Ethiopian state media said soldiers on Saturday shot nine civilians near the town after mistaking them for members of the banned Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) who were trying to sneak into the country. "Approximately 5,000 refugees have arrived in Moyale, the majority being women and children," a Red Cross statement said. "These include pregnant and lactating mothers, chronically ill persons, those abled differently and the elderly." A Moyale resident said Ethiopian soldiers were trying to seek out Oromo activists. The border town is sliced in two with one side in Ethiopia and the other in Kenya. "There is continued aggression and harassment which creates fear and forces people to flee," the local resident told AFP. Oromia was the epicentre of a protest movement against Ethiopia's one-party rule that started in late 2015 and spread to the neighbouring Amhara region, leaving hundreds dead and resulting in tens of thousands of arrests. A 10-month state of emergency imposed in October 2016 quelled much of that violence, but the government remains unpopular among the Oromo, Ethiopia's largest ethnicity who inhabit Oromia. (@FahadShabbir) A court in Benin on Tuesday jailed seven local pharmaceutical executives for four years on charges of selling illicit medicines after a trial that breaks new ground in West Africa's campaign against fake drugs. Cotonou, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :A court in Benin on Tuesday jailed seven local pharmaceutical executives for four years on charges of selling illicit medicines after a trial that breaks new ground in West Africa's campaign against fake drugs. The seven were convicted of "the sale of falsified medicines, display, possession with a view to selling, commercialisation or sale of falsified medical substances." They work for wholesale pharmaceutical distribution companies, five of which -- GAPOB, Ubipharm, CAME, Ubephar and Promo Pharma -- dominate the sector in Benin. They were also fined 100 million CFA francs ($190,000, 150,000 Euros), a lawyer for civil plaintiffs told AFP after the trial, describing the sum as "token." Two other defendants were given six-month terms. They were aides to an opposition MP, Atao Hinnouho, who has fled. A 10th defendant, the head of the Directorate for Pharmacies, Medications and Diagnostic Evaluation (DPMED) under the control of the ministry of health, was released. He had been accused of failing to prevent the drugs from being sold. Benin is fighting against its reputation for being the crossroads for trafficking in expired and counterfeit drugs in West Africa -- a business that has deeply alarmed health watchdogs. President Patrice Talon, elected in 2016, has vowed to crack down on the practice. Over the past year, dozens of people have been arrested and tonnes of fake medications seized. A 15-nation regional body, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has also announced an investigation into the business. Fake medicines are drugs that are bogus or below regulatory standards but often are outwardly indistinguishable from the genuine product. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The 15th China-ASEAN Expo is scheduled to be held from Sept. 12 to 15 in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the organizer announced Tuesday. ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :The 15th China-ASEAN Expo is scheduled to be held from Sept. 12 to 15 in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the organizer announced Tuesday. The theme of this year's expo is "Jointly building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the China-ASEAN community of innovation." Cambodia is this year's country of honor. Wang Lei, secretary-general of the expo, said more countries, especially those along the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, will be invited to attend the expo to create more business opportunities. Guo Chuanwei, an official with the Ministry of Commerce, said he hopes that China and the ASEAN members can organize more top-level companies to attend the expo to deepen cooperation. Initiated in 2004, the expo is an important platform to promote trade and relations between China and ASEAN. China is ASEAN's largest trade partner, and ASEAN is China's third largest partner. Trade between the two rose 13.8 percent to 514.8 billion U.S. Dollars last year. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The European Union on Monday called on Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom to fulfil its contractual obligations and resume shipments to Ukraine. Moscow, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Mar, 2018 ) :The European Union on Monday called on Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom to fulfil its contractual obligations and resume shipments to Ukraine. The latest gas dispute between the two warring neighbours began after an arbitration court ordered Gazprom to pay Ukraine $2.56 billion for failing to deliver contracted amounts in earlier years. Gazprom vowed to challenge the decision in court and refused to resume supplies to Ukraine for the first time in more than two years on March 1. The decision coincided with a bitter cold spell across much of Europe. Ukraine was forced to ask schools to close and factories to cut production while it purchased additional volumes from its western neighbours. EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said she discussed the standoff during a visit to Kiev with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. "We agree that Gazprom must respect its contractual obligations," she told reporters. Mogherini added during a later meeting with students that EU Energy Commissioner Maros Serfcovic was already conducting "highly intense consultations" about the conflict. She said the EU was "ready" to help mediate but provided no details about the nature of the talks held so far. The $2.56 billion awarded to Ukraine's state energy company Naftogaz stems from a court case in which Gazprom and Naftogaz are each suing each other for tens of billions of Dollars. The arguments are over an expensive 10-year contract Ukraine signed in 2009 after Gazprom cut its deliveries in the middle of the winter. The deal runs out at the end of next year and there is no guarantee that Ukraine will sign a new one because it now imports much greater volumes from central Europe. Roughly 15 percent of the gas Europe buys from Russia is transported through Ukraine. Ukraine receives a fee for the shipments and European supplies were not affected when Kiev decided to stop purchasing Gazprom gas in November 2015. But Russia is looking to bypass Ukraine in the future by expanding an existing Russia-Germany gas pipeline that runs through the Baltic Sea. The so-called Nord Stream II project is strongly opposed by both Poland and Ukraine. India will focus on diplomacy with its neighbors this year, including Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal, to hold its ground and status in South Asia, a strategy that Chinese observers said is likely to fail. BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2018 ) :India will focus on diplomacy with its neighbors this year, including Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal, to hold its ground and status in South Asia, a strategy that Chinese observers said is likely to fail. India's diplomatic engagement will focus this year on Bhutan, with its Prime Minister Narendra Modi planning to visit the small Himalayan nation wedged between India and China. India will also step up development assistance to Bhutan this year with new projects in hydropower and infrastructure, and the completion of ongoing projects. Modi is also planning to visit Bangladesh and Nepal in the coming months to showcase his government's support to South Asian partners, and these visits are being planned amid China's relentless push to make inroads into Himalayan states and attempts to implement projects in Bangladesh under China's Belt and Road initiative. Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that India wants to maintain relations with its partners in South Asia, but those countries may not listen to India. Hu said Nepal's election with pro-China KP Sharma Oli taking office as prime minister for the second time this February was a heavy blow to India, and other South Asian countries including Sri Lanka and the Maldives have been actively participating in China's Belt and Road initiative. "The current geopolitical pattern in South Asia reflects India's diplomatic failure, and India could reverse its passive situation in the region only by sincerely joining the Belt and Road initiative," Hu said, warning that India's partners in South Asia will diminish if it continues its pro-West policy. (@FahadShabbir) In a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani described the use of national currencies as a 'new move' for expansion of mutual ties between the two neighboring countries, TEHRAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 08th Mar, 2018 ) ::In a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani described the use of national currencies as a 'new move' for expansion of mutual ties between the two neighboring countries, IRNA report said here on Thursday. He called for establishment of sustainable truce in Syria's Eastern Ghouta and urged Turkey to use its influence to prevent use of the region for attacking Damascus. He also encouraged establishment of safe corridors for evacuation of civilians from the dangerous region. The Iranian President also called for removal of Fuah and Kefraya besiege. The Turkish president, for his part, said that the two countries' economic relations will enter a new stage by the use of national currencies. He described the situation in East Ghouta as 'tragic' and called for ceasefire in the region. The official stressed continuation of consultations between the leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey in the upcoming meetings in Istanbul and the Kazak capital, Astana. Freetown, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Mar, 2018 ) :Sierra Leone will hold a run-off vote for president on March 27, the election commission said Tuesday, after the country's main opposition finished slightly ahead of the ruling party in the first round of voting. Opposition leader Julius Maada Bio, from the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), took 43. 3 percent of votes in the March 7 election, while Samura Kamara of the incumbent All Peoples Congress (APC) took 42.7 percent, the commission said. The threshold to win in the first round was 55 percent, and results were slightly delayed by recounts in some areas. The two parties have dominated Sierra Leone's politics and ruled alternately since independence from Britain in 1961. Third party candidate Kandeh Yumkella finished with just 6.9 percent of votes despite his National Grand Coalition (NGC) party's hopes of an electoral breakthrough. The Folded Flag Foundation raised more than $55,000 at the Above the Fold, high-affair event at the Andaz West Hollywood to raise money for families of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty (Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo / Kabik Photography). Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo / Kabik Photography Hosted by poker champion, Daniel Negreanu, the reception and Casino Night featured select Foley Family Wines and memorabilia from both the LA Kings and Vegas Golden Knights memorabilia. Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo / Kabik Photography A few of the celebrity attendees included: Randy Couture, MMA; Jeryl Prescott, Walking Dead, Vanessa Esperanza, Actress, CSI: NY and more. Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo / Kabik Photography Top Las Vegas megaclub XS Nightclub in Encore at Wynn Las Vegas marks its nine-year anniversary with fanfare by presenting nine nights of parties commencing on Thursday, May 17. XS remains the number one club in Las Vegas and is more successful than ever, said Alex Cordova, Wynn Nightlifes Managing Partner. Such an accomplishment in this competitive market is deserving of a big celebration. Spanning two of the most highly-anticipated weekends in Las Vegas, EDC Weekend and Memorial Day Weekend, XS will present nine nights of anniversary events that will feature appearances by several of Wynn Nightlifes resident DJs, including: Thursday, May 17 David Guetta Friday, May 18 Kygo Saturday, May 19 Diplo Sunday, May 20 Marshmello Monday, May 21 The Chainsmokers Friday, May 25 The Chainsmokers Saturday, May 26 David Guetta Sunday, May 27 Kygo Monday, May 28 Marshmello When electronic dance music first exploded onto the Las Vegas nightlife scene, led by Wynn Las Vegas, MTV dubbed XS as Las Vegas dance music mecca. XS has since continuously programmed the biggest names in the genre and helped to propel the careers of many of todays top stars. The 40,000 square foot indoor and outdoor venue has maintained its dominant stature as the citys top grossing nightclub by offering exemplary service in a stunning environment, presenting world-class talent, and its indefatigable dedication to providing the best customer experience in town. The White House on Monday said U.S. school safety measures will be similar to those implemented at airports, stadiums and government buildings. Under President Donald Trump's plan, teachers and other school staff could be trained to use guns to protect students. But restricting gun sales is not a prominent feature in the White House plan. The administration is looking into ways to prevent mass shootings at schools. VOA's Zlatica Hoke has more. Voters in Pennsylvania head to the polls Tuesday in a special congressional election with national implications for President Donald Trump and opposition Democrats. The election is taking place in a congressional district that Donald Trump won by 19 points in 2016, but where Democrats now hope for an upset that could be a preview of the midterm congressional elections in November. VOA national correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington. For Amber McAuley, life in Salisbury - a picturesque cathedral town best known as the gateway to Stonehenge - has become surreal ever since the town became the scene of a spy drama worthy of John le Carre. The 20-year-old film student became a bit player in the story when she went to the Mill pub on March 4, only to learn the next day that a former Russian spy and his daughter might have been poisoned there a few hours earlier. "It all just kind of feels a bit surreal," she said after serving customers at a coffee shop in Salisbury. "It's just so strange, going on your phone and seeing where you live (in the news), when it is such a quaint, quiet city. ... I can't quite believe it." McAuley spent Sunday scrubbing herself in the shower and repeatedly washing her clothes after public health officials said traces of a nerve agent had been found in the pub and a nearby pizzeria. Most other residents, however, are taking events in stride, even as chemical weapons experts and international news crews descended on this city of 40,000, some 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of London. They are following things closely, but going about their daily routines as much as possible. Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday applauded the "fortitude and calmness" of the people of Salisbury as she told the House of Commons that Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were targeted with a military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia. It is "highly likely" that Russia was responsible for the attack, she added. The Skripals are still in critical condition at a local hospital. Police investigating the suspected assassination attempt have set up a series of cordons around sites linked to the attack, including the pub and Zizzi, a chain pizzeria. Public health officials have said there is little danger to the general public, though they advised anyone who visited either restaurant on March 4 or 5 to wash the clothes they were wearing, as well as phones, jewelry and other accessories. Jeff Timmins' barbershop, with a traditional blue-and-red striped barber pole out front, sits across the street from the pizzeria. Police stand guard on the corner, and TV reporters do stand-up reports meters (yards) from his front door. It's all extraordinary, but Timmins isn't getting too excited. "The fact that anyone is carrying nerve agents is a little bit unnerving," he said. "But it's being dealt with properly." Part of that attitude has to do with the character of the town and its links to the military. The Ministry of Defense owns large swathes of Salisbury Plain, which has been the site of army exercises for more than a century. Samples from the Salisbury attack are being tested at the nearby Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down. Many of those who served in the military have had chemical weapons training, and accept the expert assessment that only those who had direct contact with the nerve agent are in danger, Timmins said. Even the fact that it took authorities more than a week to advise people to take extra precautions isn't really causing much alarm. "We're just keeping calm and carrying on," he said with typical English understatement. Part of that nonchalance may disappear now that the government has linked the attack to Russia. Speculation about Russian involvement began almost immediately because of the 2006 killing of another former spy, Alexander Litivinenko, who died after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210. His widow, Marina, fought for a public inquiry into the case, keeping it in the public eye for a decade. The inquiry found that the Kremlin was involved and that Putin "probably" approved the attack. Russian involvement makes it bigger than "one man and attempted murder," said Diane Hampstead of Foxtrot Vintage, a clothing store in Salisbury. "It makes it an international incident." Nicola Hardingham, who runs a cookery store, says she can't escape the fallout from the attack. Walking home from work now means dodging the police cordons. Casual conversations gravitate toward Cold War politics. Her grandmother is afraid to come into the town center. "It's just the weirdest thing," said Hardingham, 23. "It's one thing to hear about (spies). To have it so close is another matter. It's just surreal. I don't feel as if I'm in danger, but you do sort of stop to think." Private media outlets in Cameroon are defying a ban on political programs imposed by the country's National Communication Council. The council had ordered the ban, insisting political debates may cause conflict ahead of senatorial elections on March 25. National Communication Council president Peter Essoka says Cameroon needs to promote peace, democracy and human rights, and needs to avoid hate speech. He says journalists may incite the population with one-sided reporting. "Propaganda is when you go into elaborately telling about one political party and what they have done and all kinds of shouting on what they are doing. That is propaganda. Now, there must be a limitation. Let them [journalists] as much as possible be able to keep to these principles," said Essoka. Public broadcaster CRTV and Cameroon Tribune have respected the NCC's order. But the Cameroon journalists' trade union president Denis Kwebo and other private media outlets described it as an attack on press freedom. Many radio and television stations have refused to respect the NCC instructions. At Galaxy FM 93.5, a popular radio station in Cameroon's capital city Yaounde, heated debates on the senatorial elections to take place on March 25 are going on in a French-language political program called "Au coeur de la Republique." Political analyst Jean Jacques Ola Bebe says the station has defied instructions from the NCC and is ready to face the consequences. He says as an analyst, he can not accept that someone should restrain freedom of speech in a country that says it wants to be fully democratic. He says the pillar on which any true democracy should stand is freedom of expression and that Cameroonians need to listen to and question all candidates for the senatorial election on their political plans and ask the balance sheet of out going senators. Cameroon has more than 500 newspapers and 100 radio and television stations. NCC secretary-general Jean Tobie Hond says the outlets who ignore the instructions will be punished. He says they are calling on such media outlets to make sure there is some balance in what they are doing, so the campaign for senatorial elections remains democratic and goes on hitch free. He says if they continue to favor or give preference to some political parties, their media organs will be suspended. Last year, Cameroon's National Communication Council suspended 35 journalists and media outlets, accusing them of failing to respect professional norms and ethics. Some of those punished had criticized the government's handling of the crisis in the English-speaking regions. Others criticized senior state functionaries over the use of public funds. Chile's new government is preparing belt-tightening measures after inheriting a larger-than-anticipated fiscal deficit from its predecessor, but the measures will stop short of "mega-adjustments," Finance Minister Felipe Larrain said on Monday. Conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera took office on Sunday vowing to combat economic "stagnation" and calling for a return to "fiscal equilibrium" as he seeks to transform Chile into a developed nation within a decade. "We're in a period of tight budgets, with levels of public debt that have doubled, which means we must begin with austerity measures, followed by a reassigning resources, in order to finance the president's program," Larrain told reporters as he entered the finance ministry for his first day on the job. Shortly before leaving office, outgoing President Michelle Bachelet's government reported it had left a fiscal deficit of 2.1 percent of gross domestic product, instead of 1.7 percent as targeted. Chile's Congress this year authorized an increase in public spending of 3.9 percent, which Pinera had previously criticized as "high." "These austerity measures, and the wise use of resources, are always welcome and are necessary. But we're not talking about mega-adjustments, we're talking about austerity measures," Larrain said. During his campaign, Pinera, who also governed from 2010 to 2014, said he hoped to guide the country to fiscal equilibrium within six to eight years. President Donald Trumps abrupt shakeup of his national security team Tuesday drew a decidedly mixed reaction from top congressional leaders, as some assailed chaotic foreign policy decision-making at the White House. Several lawmakers praised former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, fired by Trump in a Twitter comment. Some key Republicans voiced support for his replacement, current CIA director Mike Pompeo, and CIA deputy director Gina Haspel as the new chief of the intelligence agency. They predicted the Senate would confirm Trumps two nominees. But opposition Democrats expressed reservations or outright opposition to Trumps selection of Pompeo and Haspel ahead of what are likely to be contentious Senate hearings for both. Speaker Paul Ryan, the leader of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, lauded Tillerson for his steady leadership. Ryan described Pompeo, a former congressman from the midwestern state of Kansas, as razor-sharp, a dedicated patriot, experience that Ryan said makes Pompeo an outstanding choice to be our next top diplomat. He congratulated Haspel on her historic nomination as the first woman to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Corker to hold hearings to appoint Pompeo Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tillersons firing caught him by surprise and said he had a lot of faith in Tillersons judgment, although Trump said he and the diplomat he dismissed often disagreed on foreign policy issues, including the terms of the 2015 international Iran nuclear pact agreed to by former President Barack Obama. Corker pledged to hold hearings soon on the appointment of Pompeo, who last year was confirmed as the CIA chief on a 66-to-32 Senate vote. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas said he was confident Pompeo would be confirmed again by the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow 51-49 majority. WATCH: US Lawmakers Weigh In on Tillerson Ouster He went over to the CIA, and hes done an outstanding job over there as far as Im concerned, so Im confident, Cornyn said. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, called Pompeos appointment a great decision by the president. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he looked forward to supporting Haspels nomination as CIA director, saying she has the right skill set, experience and judgment to lead one of our nations most critical agencies. But Republican Senator John McCain, a senior lawmaker who has been absent from Washington while being treated in Arizona for brain cancer, said that Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIAs interrogation program of suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention center and at other secret locations elsewhere in the world. Disturbing facts from Haspels past Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon immediately announced his opposition to the appointments of both Pompeo and Haspel. Wyden said Pompeo has demonstrated a casual relationship to truth and principle. He has downplayed Russias attack on our democracy, at times contradicting the Intelligence Community he is supposed to lead. He has also made inconsistent and deeply concerning statements about torture and mass spying on Americans. Wyden said that if Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of U.S. intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from her past. Another Democrat, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, said it was no secret that she has had concerns about Haspels connection to the use of enhanced interrogation techniques by the CIA against terrorist suspects after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. But Feinstein said that to the best of my knowledge Haspel has been a good deputy director during Pompeos year-long tenure at the spy agency. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said with the firing of Tillerson, instability of this administration in just about every area weakens America. Schumer said that if Pompeo is confirmed, we hope that Mr. Pompeo will turn over a new leaf and will start toughening up our policies towards Russia and (President Vladimir) Putin. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that Tillersons firing sets a profoundly disturbing precedent in which standing up for our allies against Russian aggression is grounds for humiliating dismissal. President Trumps actions show that every official in his administration is at the mercy of his personal whims and his worship of Putin. Democratic Senators Clair McCaskill of Missouri and Robert Menendez of New Jersey both condemned chaotic foreign policy decision-making at the White House. I just think its unfortunate that weve had so much chaos around foreign policy, McCaskill said. A lack of consistency, a lack of speaking with one voice. Unpredictability maybe an advantage of a real estate deal. But it is not necessarily an advantage when were trying to build relationships around the world. Menendez called Trump commander in chaos, adding, Whenever you have a secretary of state who says one thing on the world stage, and then you have a president that totally undermines him and undercuts him, pulls the rug underneath him, that creates instability in the world. Michael Bowman and Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Not two weeks ago, President Donald Trump wagged his finger at a Republican senator and scolded him for being "afraid of the NRA," declaring that he would stand up to the powerful gun lobby and finally get results on quelling gun violence following last month's Florida school shooting. On Monday, Trump struck a very different tone as he backpedaled from his earlier demands for sweeping reforms and bowed to Washington reality. The president, who recently advocated increasing the minimum age to purchase an assault weapon to 21, tweeted that he's "watching court cases and rulings" on the issue, adding that there is "not much political support (to put it mildly)." Over the weekend, the White House released a limited plan to combat school shootings that leaves the question of arming teachers to states and local communities and sends the age issue to a commission for review. Just two days earlier, Trump had mocked commissions as something of a dead end while talking about the opioid epidemic. "We can't just keep setting up blue-ribbon committees," he said, adding that all they do is "talk, talk, talk." Seventeen people were killed in last month's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, prompting a national conversation about gun laws, fierce advocacy for stronger gun control from surviving students and, initially, a move from Trump to buck his allies at the National Rifle Association. In a televised meeting with lawmakers on Feb. 28, Trump praised members of the gun lobby as "great patriots" but declared "that doesn't mean we have to agree on everything. It doesn't make sense that I have to wait until I'm 21 to get a handgun, but I can get this weapon at 18." He then turned toward Senator Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, and questioned why previous gun control legislation did not include that provision. "You know why?" said Trump, answering his own question. "Because you're afraid of the NRA, right? Ha ha." Toomey had a ready response after the president's tweet Monday: "It's quite obvious that I'm the guy that stood up to the NRA," he said. Asked if Trump was afraid of the NRA, Toomey said, "I don't know what's driving his decision." His words rattled some Republicans in Congress and sparked hope among some gun control advocates that, unlike after so many previous mass shootings, meaningful regulations would be enacted. But Trump appeared to foreshadow his change of heart with a tweet the very next night. "Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA!" the president wrote. Following 'process' White House aides said Monday the president was focusing on achievable options, after facing significant opposition from lawmakers on a more comprehensive approach. Trump will back two modest pieces of legislation, and the administration pledged to help states pay for firearms training for teachers. Seemingly on the defensive after his about-face, Trump tweeted Monday of the age limit that "States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly)." The White House insisted that Trump remained committed to more significant changes even if they are delayed. "We can't just write things down and make them law. We actually have to follow a process," said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. "Right now the president's primary focus is pushing through things we know that have broad bipartisan support." She placed blame for the inaction on Capitol Hill. But Trump has made little effort to marshal the support of congressional Republicans or use his popularity with NRA voters to provide cover for his party during a contentious vote. Democrats and gun control advocates were quick to pounce on the president's retreat from previous demands, with Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, tweeting that Trump "couldn't even summon the political courage to propose raising the age limit on firearm purchases - despite repeated promises to support such a step at a meeting with lawmakers." Television personality Geraldo Rivera who had urged the president to consider tougher age limits during a dinner at Trump's Florida club tweeted that Trump had "blinked in face of ferocious opposition from #NRA." Bipartisan support Still, Trump argued that this was progress. "Very strong improvement and strengthening of background checks will be fully backed by White House," he tweeted. He added that an effort to bar bump stock devices was coming and that "Highly trained expert teachers will be allowed to conceal carry, subject to State Law. Armed guards OK, deterrent!" Without strong advocacy from the White House, an ambitious gun package was unlikely to even get off the ground, given most Republicans' opposition to any new restrictions. The two measures backed by Trump an effort to strengthen the federal background check system and an anti-school violence grant program both enjoy bipartisan support, though some Republicans object and many Democrats say they are insufficient. Trump drew some Republican backing, with Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, who wrote the school safety bill, tweeting he was "grateful" for the White House backing and calling the measure "the best first step we can take" to make students safer. No deadline was set for recommendations from Trump's planned commission, but officials expected them within a year. U.S. President Donald Trump says he is "on the same wavelength" as his choice for top U.S. diplomat, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and the White House envisions a key role for the country's new top diplomat in high-profile talks between the president and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "The president wanted to make sure to have his new team in place in advance of the upcoming talks with North Korea and various ongoing trade negotiations," said a senior White House official Tuesday. Pompeo will likely have to wait until April to be confirmed as secretary of state, but is likely to begin on the extensive preparations required ahead of the summit. During a Fox News interview Sunday, Pompeo praised the president's "maximum pressure" campaign on North Korea for making the idea of a summit between Trump and Kim a possibility. "Never before have we had the North Koreans in a position where their economy was at such risk and where their leadership was under such pressure that they would begin conversations on the terms that Kim Jong Un has conceded to," Pompeo said. Asked what the North Korean leader needs to do to get a long-desired meeting with the president, Pompeo listed several conditions Sunday. "He can't conduct nuclear testing, he's got to stop the missile testing that he's been hard at for the last years. He's got to continue to allow us to perform our militarily-necessary exercises on the peninsula, and then he's got to make sure that he leaves on the table that discussion for denuclearization." In the past, the CIA director has made tough remarks on North Korea, even suggesting that "regime change" should be an option. Nile Gardiner, a foreign policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, expects Pompeo to hold to those hardline positions. "Expect Pompeo to play a protagonist's role in avoiding the entrapment of previous U.S. administration engagements with North Korea by holding absolutely firm on the United States' desired end state denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and an end to the North Korea ballistic missile program." Former U.S. Ambassador Laura Kennedy said Trump's firing of Tillerson is not a surprise, but will likely mean the State Department's career staff could be even more excluded from preparing for a Kim-Trump meeting. "The shakeup means that State will be cut out even more so of preparations for the Kim Jong Un summit despite, ironically, Tillerson having been a proponent of diplomacy," Kennedy told VOA. "Aside from the loss of senior diplomat Joe Yun, the designate for Under Secretary of State for East Asia/Pacific Susan Thornton now has a big question mark around her since Tillerson [for once] fought hard to get a talented career official nominated to this key job." Kennedy added: "In general, there will be uncertainty over all aspects of State when the boss has just been unceremoniously dumped. This underlines exactly how little Trump values expertise or diplomacy in general." Hamline University professor David Schultzin said Pompeo replacing Tillerson is not surprising, noting Trump favors a more militaristic or hardline approach to foreign policy over the "soft power" of diplomacy. Schultzin said Pompeo is also more confrontational, especially toward China. "In fact, he [Pompeo] may complicate possible talks with North Korea, which will require the Chinese to cooperate. How the new secretary of state tries to push China while also trying to do talks with North Korea will be interesting to watch. If he does not change his rhetoric toward China [and I see no indication that he or Trump will], expect that there will be increased tensions with China and also expect, perhaps, more trade tariffs on China." Schultz added that "the free-traders, diplomats and multilateralists have left the [Trump] administration." Education Secretary Betsy DeVos got a less than ringing endorsement from the White House on Monday after a pair of uncomfortable television interviews raised questions about her commitment to help underperforming schools and support for President Donald Trump's proposal to curb school violence. Less than a day after DeVos was appointed to chair a federal commission on school safety, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders downplayed DeVos' role in the process. Asked whether DeVos would be the face of the commission, Sanders said, "I think that the president is going to be the lead on school safety when it comes to this administration." Sanders also said that the focus is "not one or two interviews, but on actual policy." In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night, DeVos said years of federal investment in public education had produced "zero results" and that American schools were stagnating and failing many students. But asked by CBS' Lesley Stahl whether she had visited low-performing schools to understand their needs, DeVos, an ardent proponent of school choice, admitted to having visited none. "I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming," DeVos said. "Maybe you should," Stahl said. "Maybe I should," DeVos said. DeVos' spokeswoman Liz Hill said that the secretary's focus was on promoting successful innovation, including in traditional public schools. "The secretary has been very intentional about visiting and highlighting high performing, innovative schools across the country," Hill told The Associated Press in a statement. "Many of these high performing schools are traditional public schools that have challenged the status quo and dared to do something different on behalf of their students many where teachers are empowered in the classroom to find what works best for students." DeVos took to Twitter on Monday to defend her comments. "I'm fighting every day for every student, in every school public and private to have a world-class education. We owe that to our children," she wrote. She also suggested that some of her remarks were unfairly left out of the show. This wasn't the first time DeVos faced criticism following an uneven performance at a public forum. She was ridiculed last year after suggesting at her confirmation hearing in the Senate that some schools needed guns to protect students from grizzly bears. Elizabeth Mann, an education expert with the Brookings Institution, said that DeVos' failure to tour struggling schools undermines her credibility as an advocate for the children that they serve. "It's difficult for her to establish credibility in speaking about those issues when she hasn't visited an underperforming school as secretary," Mann said. But Mike Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said the criticism was unfair and that the questions and the tone of the interview were tough. He added that he is not sure that DeVos' predecessors in the Obama administration would have done a better job in a similar interview. "She is facing the glare of the spotlight much more than they did and the press is much less friendly to her," Petrilli said. Egypt wants its citizens to report on the news media. Escalating a pre-election crackdown on independent or critical reporting, Egyptian authorities have published a list of telephone numbers for citizens to alert them to reports they view as undermining security or spreading false news. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the 2013 overthrow of an elected Islamist president, has waged a massive crackdown on dissent in recent years, and authorities have ratcheted up pressure ahead of the March 26-28 election, in which he faces no real challenge. All potentially serious competitors either withdrew under pressure or were arrested, leaving only el-Sissi and a little-known politician who supports him. Authorities have already silenced virtually all independent or critical media in the country, and in recent weeks el-Sissi and others have warned the media against publishing anything that could be construed as false news or defamation of the security forces. By offering the telephone numbers in a statement issued late Monday by Egypt's chief prosecutor the government appears to be enlisting ordinary Egyptians in its efforts to stamp out any criticism or negative coverage. The statement advises citizens to send complaints on WhatsApp or as text messages along with their personal details. It referred to a statement last week by chief prosecutor Nabil Sadeq in which he told his staff to monitor the media and take action against any that are "hurting national interests." Fears of low turnout With the outcome of the vote a foregone conclusion, the government's worst fear is an embarrassingly low turnout that would raise further questions about the election's legitimacy. To prevent that, the government and local media which is dominated by el-Sissi supporters are urging people to head to the polls. "The margin of freedom is steadily narrowing and there is a state of fear-mongering," said Hassan Nafaa, a political science professor at Cairo University. "There is genuine fear that social media networks will be used to urge people to boycott the election." Banners declaring support for el-Sissi have sprung up across Egypt, a country of 100 million that is still trying to recover from years of political turmoil and violence since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The government has already sought to exert heavy control over reporting on the election, issuing guidelines barring journalists from conducting any polls, or even asking individual Egyptians who they plan to vote for. Critical TV personalities have been pushed off the air and dozens of independent and Islamist news websites have been blocked. Around 20 journalists have been detained, including two who were arrested earlier this month while preparing a report on a historic tramway in Alexandria. In a separate case, the government demanded an apology from the BBC and called on officials to boycott the network after it reported on torture and disappearances. Media restraints Pro-government media frequently portray negative coverage as part of foreign plots to sow chaos, and sometimes accuse foreign media of promoting a negative image of the country. Cameramen or even reporters with notebooks attempting to conduct interviews in public can face harassment from crowds or police. In comments published Tuesday, Telecommunications Minister Yasser el-Qady said "concrete" steps have been taken to create exclusively Egyptian social media networks, suggesting that Egypt aspires to follow the example of countries like China, where networks like Facebook are blocked and people use a local version that's easier to control and monitor. Parliament is meanwhile considering legislation that would criminalize the "abuse" or "misuse" of social media. Authorities say the measures they have taken are necessary to prevent instability as Egypt struggles to revive its economy and combat an Islamic State-led insurgency in the northern Sinai Peninsula. El-Sissi has frequently suggested that political rights are less important than the right to food, housing and other necessities. El-Sissi, then a general, led the 2013 overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, a freely elected Islamist whose divisive yearlong rule sparked mass protests calling for his resignation. The government's relations with the media soured almost immediately thereafter, when authorities objected to using the word "coup" to describe the military overthrow of an elected leader. Since then, thousands of Islamists have been arrested, along with several prominent secular activists, while many of the freedoms won in the wake of the 2011 uprising have been rolled back. Analysts pointed out that the latest measure, the call to report on media outlets, could have unintended consequences, allowing individuals to settle scores or make fake or exaggerated complaints. "I don't see a need for all these measures. We are looking at an election that's already decided and the only challenge facing the regime is the turnout," said Ahmed Abd Rabou, a political science professor at Cairo University who writes occasional columns for local papers. "It's hysterical. But it is a fact that we are heading toward more authoritarianism. Regrettably, that seems to be happening in many places." A Salvadoran woman who said she suffered a stillbirth - but was jailed for nearly 15 years for murdering her child - was freed on Tuesday after authorities reduced her sentence. Maira Veronica Figueroa's release puts the spotlight on El Salvador's total ban on abortion as the Central American nation faces mounting international pressure to overturn its strict law and release other women jailed for abortion-related crimes. Figueroa, 34, was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2003 for aggravated murder after she was convicted of intentionally inducing an abortion, which is a crime under any circumstances in El Salvador. On Tuesday morning, Figueroa was greeted by cheering crowds when she walked out of the overcrowded Ilopango women's prison in the capital San Salvador, with a plastic bag of belongings. "I'm going to start again and get back the time lost," the government prison quoted her as saying on Twitter. Figueroa, a domestic worker, says she experienced pregnancy complications and had a late-term miscarriage. "It is inconceivable that Maira spent almost 15 years in prison for experiencing a pregnancy complication," said Nancy Northup, head of the U.S.-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which campaigned for Figueroa to be freed. "While we celebrate Maira's release today, we condemn the government of El Salvador for not acknowledging the lack of due process and failing to recognize her innocence," she said in a statement. "Her conviction has not been overturned and she continues to be guilty in the eyes of the law." 27 women remain jailed According to the rights group and the local Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion (CFDA), which also helped campaign for Figueroa's release, at least another 27 women are in prison under the country's abortion law. Rights groups say they were accused of inducing abortions, and wrongfully jailed for murder, when instead they suffered miscarriages, stillbirths or pregnancy complications. Abortion has been outlawed in the Catholic-majority nation since 1997 even in cases of rape, incest, when the woman's life is in danger or the fetus is deformed. Five other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean also have an outright ban. Figueroa's release follows that of Teodora Vasquez, who was freed in February after spending more than a decade behind bars for an abortion-related crime. In 2016, the country's ruling party introduced a bill to allow abortion in cases of rape or a risky pregnancy, but no date has been set for a vote, and it will likely face tough opposition from the Catholic Church and evangelical groups. In November, the United Nations urged El Salvador to issue a moratorium on applying its abortion law, and asked authorities to review all such cases in which women had been jailed. "El Salvador must prioritize abortion law reform and release the remaining women wrongfully behind bars," Northup said. European Union finance ministers agreed new measures on Tuesday to force accountants and banks to report aggressive tax schemes that help companies shift profits to low-tax countries. Ministers also added the Bahamas, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Saint Kitts and Nevis to a blacklist of tax havens, while Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and Saint Lucia were delisted, confirming earlier Reuters reports. Under the rules, proposed by the European Commission in June, accountants, banks and lawyers would be required to inform authorities about "potentially aggressive tax planning arrangements" set up for their clients. The 28 EU states will also share information on harmful tax planning in a bid to discourage the most aggressive tax avoidance schemes. "It is a new progress for tax justice in the European Union," EU tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici told ministers after they agreed the overhaul. Once the new rules are finalized and approved by the European Parliament, tax advisers in the EU will risk fines if they do not report potentially harmful cross-border tax schemes. Penalties should be "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" but EU states will maintain discretion in setting sanctions or fines at national level. If there is no intermediary, or the tax adviser is located outside the EU, the company or individual using the arrangement will be obliged to disclose it. EU governments agreed on a compromise text put forward by the Bulgarian presidency of the EU, which slightly softened the Commission's original proposal. Tax reforms require unanimity among the 28 member states. Cross-border tax arrangements set up with jurisdictions that have a zero or "almost zero" corporate rate - such as the Channel Islands, Bahamas, Bahrain and the Cayman Islands - must be reported, despite initial opposition from some governments. But ministers scrapped a requirement to report tax schemes with jurisdictions whose corporate rate is lower than 35 percent of the statutory average within the EU - which could have forced reporting for schemes involving countries with a tax rate of around 7 percent. Some states had argued such a requirement "would cause an administrative burden disproportionate to the objectives" of the new rules, a working document prepared by Bulgarian officials showed. Smaller EU members like Luxembourg and Malta have in the past opposed stricter rules to prevent tax avoidance, fearing they could harm competitiveness. But their finance ministers gave the green light to the Bulgarian compromise. Some members, including Britain, Ireland and Portugal, have already introduced penalties at a national level for intermediaries helping set up aggressive tax schemes. EU governments also added Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda to a "grey list," which now includes 62 jurisdictions that do not respect EU anti-tax avoidance standards but have committed to change their practices. Bulgarian Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov told a news conference after the meeting that commitments made by grey list countries will be made public, a move welcomed by anti-corruption groups because it will increase transparency. Ministers agreed to move Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and Saint Lucia from the black to the grey list, after they committed to change their tax practices. American Samoa, Guam, Namibia, Palau, Samoa, and Trinidad and Tobago were already on the blacklist set up in December. Blacklisted jurisdictions could face reputational damage and stricter controls on their financial transactions with the EU, although no sanctions have been agreed by EU states yet. An assassination attempt in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has thrown a wrench into peace talks between rival Palestinian factions. An explosion struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister during a rare visit to Gaza.Officials say Rami Hamdallah, who is based in the West Bank, was not hurt by the bomb but several cars were damaged. The attack casts a shadow over reconciliation efforts by rival Palestinian governments.The Islamic militant group Hamas expelled the Palestinian Authority to the West Bank during a civil war in Gaza in 2007; but last year they launched talks to try to settle their differences and return Gaza to Palestinian Authority control. The Palestinian Authority, which is backed by the United States and Europe, described the explosion as an assassination attempt and quickly blamed Hamas. Palestinian official Elias Zananiri described it as a "very grave" and "heinous" incident, and noted that there are many elements within Hamas that oppose reconciliation. But Hamas condemned the explosion as an attempt to harm unity, and promised an "urgent" investigation. That was good enough for Prime Minister Hamdallah, who continued his trip to Gaza despite the bombing. In a speech inaugurating a sewage treatment facility, he vowed reconciliation efforts would continue. Nevertheless, the attack underscores the deep divisions and mistrust between the two factions.Hamas refuses to give up its weapons, which it vows to use against Israel, while the Palestinian Authority seeks a negotiated peace with the Jewish state. Florida prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz, the former student accused of carrying out the shooting spree last month at a Parkland high school in which 17 people were killed, according to a notice filed in court on Tuesday. Michael Satz, the state attorney of Broward County, filed the notice with Judge Elizabeth Scherer of his office's intent to seek the death sentence, ahead of a court hearing on Wednesday. The notice cited multiple reasons under Florida law for the death penalty. Those included the charges that Cruz "knowingly created a great risk of death" to many people, that the shooting was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel," and it was committed in a "cold, calculated and premeditated manner." Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for the attack on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which 14 students and three staff died. After the filing, Cruz's attorneys repeated their offer for Cruz to plead guilty if prosecutors agreed to not pursue the death penalty. Cruz is due to appear in court in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday for his arraignment, where he will be formally asked to plead to the charges. "We still stand ready to immediately plead guilty to 34 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole," Howard Finkelstein, a county public defender, wrote in an email. "If we are not allowed to do so tomorrow, we will stand mute to the charges." Standing mute means the defendant will not plea either 'guilty' or 'not guilty' to the charges. Cruz's lawyers have said they have taken this approach to avoid upsetting survivors and families of victims with the "fiction" of a not guilty plea. The court is expected to enter a not guilty plea on his behalf, Finkelstein said. "We are not saying he is not guilty but we can't plead guilty while death is still on the table," Finkelstein wrote. Pope Francis has received an unlikely anniversary gift from his predecessor. Retired Pope Benedict XVI has publicly dismissed as "foolish prejudice" those who say Francis has no theological heft and represents a rupture from his own papacy. The occasion was the release of a new volume of Vatican-curated books on "The Theology of Pope Francis," published as Francis marks his fifth anniversary Tuesday. Benedict wrote a letter welcoming the volume, saying it "shows Pope Francis is a man of profound philosophical and theological training and helps to see the interior continuity between the two pontificates, with all the differences in style and temperament." Francis frequently downplays the work of theologians, and his critics point to his simple speaking and writing style as evidence of a doctrinal deficit. France's minister for overseas territories has announced an emergency plan to improve security on the French island of Mayotte following weeks of street protests. Annick Girardin on Monday and Tuesday visited the tiny Indian Ocean island, where protesters have taken to the streets and blocked roads over the past three weeks. The population is upset at increasing violence, illegal immigration, high unemployment and an economic crisis. Girardin pledged to take measures to combat illegal immigration through additional police officers and military forces and a Navy patrol vessel. Mayotte is the only part of the Comoros archipelago that voted to remain part of France in a 1974 referendum. The island now sees a massive arrival of migrants from the other islands the independent nation of Comoros. Its a time-tested Washington strategy for making a difficult policy question disappear: death by blue ribbon commission. Presidents, Congress and some agency heads set up panels stocked with subject experts to offer sage advice to policymakers. But these panels sometimes are used to slow-walk thorny policy into oblivion. President Donald Trump chose what one expert calls the blue ribbon option when he assigned a sensitive gun control proposal to a new panel on school safety, part of a package the White House announced Sunday in response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. He put Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in charge of the panel and left clues that a key proposal hes voiced support for raising the purchase age for some firearms was now in doubt There's not much political support (to put it mildly), the president tweeted about the proposal, which is opposed by the National Rifle Administration. For lawmakers and presidents, creating a commission represents movement, its something that they can report, especially if theyre subject to criticism that theyre taking no action or theyre tone deaf, said Kenneth D. Kitts, a political science professor at the University of North Alabama and the author of Presidential Commissions and National Security: The Politics of Damage Control. Trump has made it clear he doesnt think much of such panels, either. We can't just keep setting up blue-ribbon committees with your wife and your wife and your husband and they meet and they have a meal and they talk. Talk, talk, talk, the president groused when discussing the opioid crisis at a rally Saturday outside Pittsburgh. That's what I got in Washington. I got all these blue-ribbon committees. Everybody wants to be on a blue-ribbon committee. Commissions through history have produced important historical information, policy and even material for criminal trials. President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the Warren Commission to produce a record of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. President George W. Bush's 9/11 Commission was established to account for the circumstances surrounding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.Others were less successful. In 2010, President Barack Obama's bipartisan debt reduction commission did not win enough votes among its members to send it to Congress for a vote. In 2001, President George W. Bush created a 16-member bipartisan commission to study the feasibility of modernizing Social Security. Its recommendations floundered in Congress. Critics of commissions say theyre primarily created for reasons other than good public policy: They allow lawmakers and officials to look like they're doing something about controversial topics without having to take a position that could alienate some constituencies such as the NRA, in the case of Republicans in this midterm election year. Their members are not elected or accountable to the public. Theres also no quality control, and theyre expensive. The Congressional Research Service in November 2017 reported that commission costs can range from several hundred thousand dollars to more than $10 million. And after all that, lawmakers can simply ignore a commission's conclusion. Trump has had some experience as president with the peril of blue-ribbon commissions. His unsubstantiated claim that millions of illegally cast ballots cost him the popular vote in 2016 led to his executive order last May establishing a commission on election integrity. The panels work quickly devolved into squabbling, with states refusing to give up their voting information and critics saying the commission was actually about suppressing votes. In January, Trump terminated the commission and transferred its duties to the Department of Homeland Security. His commission on opioids produced limited results. In October, Trump declared opioid abuse a national public health emergency. He announced an advertising campaign to combat what he said was the worst drug crisis in the nation's history, but did not direct any new federal funding toward the effort. Trumps declaration stopped short of the emergency declaration that had been sought by a federal commission the president created to study the problem. An interim report by the commission argued for an emergency declaration, saying it would free additional money and resources. But in its final report in November, the panel called only for more drug courts, more training for doctors and penalties for insurers that dodge covering addiction treatment. It did not call for new money to address the epidemic. Do you think the drug dealers who kill thousands of people during their lifetime, do you think they care whos on a blue-ribbon committee? Trump railed on Saturday. Hungary aims to coordinate more closely on refugee policy with Austria and Italy after elections there boosted anti-migrant parties, broadening an alliance of EU states focused on internal security. Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday that the approach to migration of the Vienna government and the center-right in Italy was very similar to the bloc's central European member states. So it is obvious that we will work together in the future, he told Reuters in an interview. This is not against the western part of Europe, this is against migration, and this is in favor of our interests because we put security first. A bitter row over migration policy sparked by the biggest influx of refugees into the European Union since World War II has undermined trust within the bloc and weakened its unity, with its eastern states refusing to sign up to a quota system favored by several richer members to the west and north. In refusing to accept Muslim refugees, Hungary and its neighbours in the Visegrad group the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia have cited security concerns and the desire to preserve the traditional Christian make-up of their societies. In Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz formed a coalition with the Freedom Party following an election last year dominated by the issue of migration, making the country the only one in western Europe with a far-right grouping in government. In Italy this month, the governing center-left Democratic Party lost out to anti-establishment and right-wing parties that campaigned hard against immigration in an election that delivered a hung parliament. More efficient cooperation Szijjarto said the Visegrad countries had no plans to enlarge that alliance, but this should not prevent closer ties with like-minded states. What we definitely would like to do is to have a closer and more efficient cooperation with Austria and of course hopefully with the upcoming Italian government, he said. Kurz said on Friday that Austria planned to use its presidency of the European Union this year to shift the blocs focus away from resettling refugees within the EU and towards preventing further waves of arrivals. He also pledged closer cooperation with Hungary after meeting Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the end of January. Orban has been one of the EUs hardliners on migration and is campaigning on a fierce anti-immigration agenda ahead of Hungarys own national election on April 8, when he will seek a third term in office. Asked about a recent video in which Janos Lazar, the top aide to Orban, blamed immigrants for pushing out white Christians in a district of Vienna, Szijjarto said he did not think the comments were unfortunate. Facebook first removed the video then reversed its decision. It is an open issue in Austria that the number of Muslim kids to be enrolled in Vienna schools is approaching the number of the Austrian kids to be enrolled. That is an open debate , Szijjarto said. The Social Democrats (SPO), who govern Vienna in coalition with the Greens, said Lazars comments were part of a racist and xenophobic election strategy by Orbans Fidesz party ahead of elections. Long-rumored to be in the works, U.S. President Donald Trump finally fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Tuesday, naming Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo to take his place. Speaking outside the White House, Trump explained the move by pointing to disagreements with Tillerson, while saying he and Pompeo, Were always on the same wavelength. Ive worked with Mike Pompeo now for quite some time, the president told reporters. Tremendous energy. Tremendous intellect. The relationship has been very good and thats what I need as secretary of state, Trump said. From the start of his tenure at CIA, Pompeo earned a reputation as a strong ally of the president, known for his tough views on terrorism, torture and Iran. The 53-year-old former three-term congressman from the Midwestern state of Kansas has also forged a closer relationship with Trump, giving him the agency's daily intelligence briefings in person at the White House, rather than delegating that responsibility to a staff aide. He has the grounding for him to be able to grasp this information the way he can ask sophisticated questions that then lead to important policy discussions, Pompeo said of his briefings to the president during an appearance in Washington in January. Still, the move from leading the U.S. spy agency to leading the U.S. diplomatic corps is unusual. No other official has made that particular transition before, although a couple of former CIA directors have become secretary of defense, Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer now with Georgetown University, told VOA. William Casey wanted to be secretary of state, but [then President Ronald] Reagan did not give him that job. Pompeo and Russia And while Pompeo initially won praise from the intelligence community backing conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies about the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks and its connections to Moscow he has also alienated some of those under his command. Pompeo specifically garnered criticism for, at times, expressing views that seemed more in line with those of the White House while contradicting the CIAs own findings. The Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election, Pompeo told an audience in Washington last October, even though an unclassified report by the top U.S. intelligence agencies issued in January 2017 made no such claim. We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election, the report said. Later, the CIA sought to clarify Pompeos comments. The intelligence assessment with regard to Russian election meddling has not changed, and the director did not intend to suggest that it had, a CIA spokesman said. At other times, Pompeo has publicly refused to rule out working with Russia in areas such as counterterrorism. "If Russia has information that can help us fight the CT [counterterror] fight around the world, it's my duty to work with them and "the right thing to do," he said. Pompeo also was criticized following a report by The Intercept that at the request of the president, he met with a former intelligence official who has been arguing U.S. intelligence officials are unfairly blaming Russia for the leak of Democratic National Committee emails. Pompeo has been far more of a policy advocate, and a political defender of the president, than is appropriate for an intelligence chief, said Georgetown Universitys Pillar. Whether this move is good or bad for the Department of State or for U.S. diplomacy, it is better that Pompeo be in a policy-making job rather than the CIA job. Some of those tendencies appeared to be evident this past Sunday, when Pompeo appeared on several political shows to discuss proposed talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "President Trump isnt doing this for theater. Hes going to solve a problem," Pompeo told Fox News Sunday. "Kim Jong Un now has committed to stopping nuclear testing, stopping missile tests, allowing exercises to go forward, something that has been incredibly contentious in the past," he said, calling Pyongyangs commitments real achievements." "These are conditions that the North Korean regime has never submitted to in exchange for conversations," Pompeo said. Before his confirmation as CIA director, some critics also voiced concerns about his stance on the use of torture. Those involved in the CIA interrogation program "are not torturers, they are patriots," Pompeo said in 2014, adding that the programs were "within the law, within the Constitution and conducted with the full knowledge" of appropriate lawmakers. During his confirmation hearing, Pompeo told senators he would absolutely not bring back such interrogation techniques. Pompeo, a graduate of Harvard Law School, also drew criticism in 2013 after he suggested Muslim leaders who didn't publicly condemn terror attacks were "potentially complicit" in the attacks. Iran Tuesday disclosed that it and Pakistan had foiled two suicide attacks on Iran's territory by militants based in Pakistan. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made the revelation during an official visit to Islamabad, saying the attacks had been planned for this past Monday. Tehran has long alleged that anti-Iranian Sunni extremists use hideouts in the Pakistani border province of Baluchistan for plotting terrorism against Iran, a country of mostly Shi'ite Muslims. Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice, has claimed responsibility for the majority of recent attacks on Iranian soil. Last night, unfortunately, we had two suicide [bombing] attempts from Pakistani territory into Iran. Both of them were foiled and we had excellent cooperation from the Pakistani armed forces in order to contain this, noted Zarif, while speaking to Pakistan's private Geo News channel. He did not give further details or identify the attacks planners. The television station aired excerpts of Zarif's interview ahead of its scheduled broadcast Tuesday night. Twenty percent of Pakistan's 207 million predominantly Sunni Muslim population are Shi'ite. Traditionally deep cultural, economic and religious bilateral relations have come under pressure in recent years in the wake of an increase in deadly cross-border attacks, particularly in poverty-stricken Iranian Sistan-Baluchistan province, next to the Pakistani border. The southeastern Iranian region of predominantly Sunni Muslims has long been plagued by drug smuggling gangs and separatists. Last year, militants ambushed and killed 10 Iranian border guards and allegedly took another back to hideouts in the sparsely populated Pakistani province of Baluchistan. The incident fueled bilateral tensions and Iranian authorities threatened to conduct cross-border raids to rescue the hostage and punish the assailants if Islamabad failed to do so. Zarif said the Iranian border guard taken hostage has not been freed and that, We hope that our Pakistani friends help us return him. Since then, the Iranian minister said, there has been excellent cooperation between the two countries and Mondays incident was an indication. Iran shares more than 900 kilometers of largely porous border with Pakistan. Both countries have lately beefed up security on their respective sides. The Pakistani military has recently deployed about 12,000 troops and established new outposts along the frontier, while the Iranians are building a fence on their side. Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif, in discussions with Pakistani civilian and military leaders, emphasized the need for enhancing security cooperation against terrorism. Tehran is concerned about the emergence of Islamic State in neighboring Afghanistan, where years of war and deteriorating security have encouraged IS militants to establish bases and sanctuaries in ungoverned areas. The presence of Daesh in this region is a threat to all of us. Unfortunately, Daesh was defeated territorially in Iraq but the ideology was not defeated, the network was not defeated, Zarif said Monday, while delivering a public talk in Islamabad. He was using the Arabic acronym for IS. The Iranian diplomat again accused the U.S. military of helping the Afghan branch of IS to establish a foothold in the war-ravaged country. Washington rejects the charges as mere rumors and cites its sustained counterterrorism operations in partnership with Afghan forces against IS bases that it says have significantly degraded the group and reduced the number of its fighters. Italy's far-right League party and the 5-Star Movement, which both performed strongly in this month's inconclusive national election, attacked European Union budget rules on Tuesday, saying they must be overhauled. The March 4 election ended in gridlock, with the League becoming the biggest member of a right-wing coalition that took a combined 37 percent of the vote, and the anti-system 5-Star emerging as the largest party in parliament on 32 percent. Neither of the two has enough seats to govern alone, but they would have a majority in both houses if they joined forces. Starting next month, the country's president will begin to cajole rivals into finding common ground on which they could govern together. Speaking at separate events, League leader Matteo Salvini and 5-Star's Luigi Di Maio agreed that a budget deficit ceiling of 3 percent of economic output set under EU rules was hurting economic growth and should be changed. "On the deficit, it seems that by now everyone agrees this parameter should be revised and replaced. Now we should see how," Di Maio told foreign reporters in Rome. Earlier in the day, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Salvini said the deficit limit was "one of those rules, written around a table, which we are happy to respect if they help people live better, but if in the name of those constraints we have to fire, close and destabilize, no". Though the League and 5-Star agree budget austerity should be scrapped, their two leaders adopted a different tone towards Brussels. Salvini denounced the European Union as "destroyers," while Di Maio said he wanted constructive relations. "As prime minister, my first trip would be to Brussels," Di Maio said, adding that his group had no intention of quitting the euro currency and that he wanted nothing to do with "Europe's extremist parties." The comment appeared to be directed against Salvini, who has aligned the League with France's National Front of Marine Le Pen and the Dutch Freedom Party of Geert Wilders. Salvini also wants Italy to abandon the euro when it is politically feasible. "I challenge anyone to say the 5-Star's program is an extremist program," Di Maio said, stressing that his overall goal would be to cut Italian debt by stimulating growth. For his part, Salvini said he wanted a right-wing government, and he ruled out doing a deal with the center-left Democratic Party (PD), the big loser in the election. The PD has repeatedly said it does not want to ally itself with anyone and that it plans to go into opposition. If the president fails to break the deadlock, he could try to persuade parties to back a non-political government with a limited mandate but Di Maio dismissed this option. During the election campaign, all of Italy's parties responded to rising dissatisfaction with the EU by promising to renegotiate treaties. However, the League was the only large party to say explicitly it was willing to leave the EU if fiscal and immigration rules were not re-written. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling on North Korea to match its recent rhetoric about giving up its nuclear weapons program with "concrete actions." Abe made the call Tuesday during a meeting in Tokyo with Suh Hoon, the head of South Korea's National Intelligence Service. Suh Hoon and Chung Eui-yong, the head of Seoul's National Security Office, led a delegation from South Korea to the North last week for talks with leader Kim Jong Un. The Japanese prime minister also made clear that he wants to resolve the issue of North Korea's abduction of several Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 80s to train North Korea spies. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump have agreed to hold separate bilateral summits with Kim Jong Un to discuss ending his regime's nuclear weapons program, after he pledged to suspend the North's missile testing program. President Moon will meet with Kim in April, while President Trump will meet with the North Korean leader by the end of May. Kazakhstan has effectively outlawed a political movement created online by an exiled opponent of Nursultan Nazarbayev, after it called for street protests against the country's long-term president. Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former chairman of Kazakhstan's biggest bank who now lives in France, has attacked Nazarbayev via Facebook and other social networks, and used the same platforms to recruit supporters inside the oil-rich Central Asian nation. A Kazakh court ruled Tuesday that his political movement, Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK), is extremist, meaning its supporters are considered criminals, the prosecutor general's office said in a statement. The movement says it has a membership of around 80,000, predominantly inside Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev, who has run the former Soviet republic since 1989 and routinely wins elections with more than 90 percent of the vote, appointed Ablyazov energy minister in the 1990s, but their relations soured in the 2000s. Kazakhstan authorities say the exiled businessman instigated and bankrolled a series of protests across the country in 2016 that forced Nazarbayev to delay an unpopular land ownership reform. They also accuse Ablyazov, who a French court ruled against extraditing in 2016, of embezzling billions of dollars from BTA, the bank he used to run. Kazakhstan has indicated it may also press charges of murder against him. Ablyazov, who has denied any wrongdoing, did not reply to a request for comment Tuesday. DVK responded to the court ruling by urging its supporters to protect their anonymity online. Malawi continues to register new cases of cholera in an outbreak that has now reached half of the countrys 28 districts. However, the government and communities trade blame over containment efforts. According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health 23 people have died from cholera since the first case was recorded in November. The number of infected people has now ballooned to 739 from 157 in January. Ministry spokesperson Joshua Malango told VOA that a major cause of the rising number of cases is because of peoples beliefs in superstitions. Some [people] are still believing that having cholera is not to do with hygiene, its to do with witchcraft or some traditional beliefs," he said. " So, instead of rushing to the hospital, they rush to seek traditional medicine which cannot help. Malango says, for example, one patient died last Thursday in the capital, Lilongwe, because he refused to go to the hospital for medical help. Malango also says churches that prohibit their sick members from getting medical help have contributed to the death toll. He says authorities recently rescued and took to the hospital some cholera patients who were being prayed for at a church in Salima district, central Malawi. They are members of Zion Church who resorted to go to churches for prayers and the like. So, three of them died and using police force we managed to rescue seven [cholera patients] who were at the church," he said. Cholera causes severe diarrhea and can kill within hours if not treated. It spreads via contaminated food and water. Levi Zacheyu Mwazalunga is head of the Zion Church in Blantyre, which does not allow its members to get medical help when sick. He told VOA it is wrong to say that his church members died of cholera because they did not go to the hospital. He says we believe that whether one goes to the hospital or not, they will die. It is what God told Adam when He created the earth that everyone will die regardless of age or circumstances. He read out several verses in the Bible where sick people were healed because of prayers. But health rights campaigners have a different view. Maziko Matemba is the Executive Director for Health and Rights Education Program. He says the rising cholera cases confirm the government's failure to sensitize communities on measures to prevent and contain the disease. The issue is how far has the ministry of health identified the gap which is there right now," Matemba said. " Because if the condition is still coming out, this means that there is somewhere which the government could have done [ better] in terms of sending messages to do with hygiene. Joshua Malango defends the government's efforts to contain the cholera outbreak. If you look at the figures which we are getting on a daily basis comparing with previous months or weeks, it looks like we are making some slides because as of yesterday we had only one new cholera case in Salima. Lilongwe has no new cholera cases," he said. He also says the government has just immunized about 100, 000 people during the first round of cholera vaccinations that took place in the northern districts of Karonga and Rumphi. New York's Metropolitan Opera said on Monday that it had fired its longtime conductor and musical director James Levine after an inquiry found "credible evidence" to support accusations against him of sexual misconduct. The Met suspended Levine, 74, in December after several accusations of sexual misconduct stretching from the 1960s to 1980s. At the time, he was serving as music director emeritus and artistic director of its young artist program at the Met. The Metropolitan Opera said in a statement on Monday that an independent inquiry had "uncovered credible evidence that Mr. Levine had engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct" before and during his time at the company. "In light of these findings, the Met concludes that it would be inappropriate and impossible for Mr. Levine to continue to work at the Met," it said in the statement. Levine, who served as the Met's musical director for 40 years until he retired from that position in 2016, has denied the accusations. His representative did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday. The Met said in its statement on Monday that more than 70 people had been interviewed in the investigation, which took more than three months and was led by an outside counsel. Levine was the latest powerful man in the United States to lose his job over accusations of sexual misconduct or harassment. Myanmar's government on Tuesday rejected two reports presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council that concluded it had committed extreme human rights violations, probably amounting to crimes under international law, in its repression of several minority groups. Government spokesman Zaw Htay said the reports presented Monday by the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar and U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee lacked credibility. The report of the Fact-Finding Mission, chaired by former Indonesian Attorney General Marzuki Darusman, was based on hundreds of accounts by victims and witnesses of reported human rights violations, as well as satellite imagery, photographs and video footage. The mission's members were barred by Myanmar's government from entering the country, so its researchers interviewed refugees and others in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand. Zaw Htay said Buddhist-majority Myanmar had barred the Fact-Finding Mission because it rejected its legitimacy. He questioned the reliability of its research and cast doubts on the credibility of the refugees' stories. "We are not denying rights violations but we are asking for strong, fact-based, and trustworthy evidence on the allegations they are making," Zaw Htay told The Associated Press by telephone. He also said Myanmar would no longer cooperate with Lee because she "has made biased, one-sided and unfair accusations against Myanmar." 'Hallmarks of genocide' Lee told the Human Rights Council that violent sweeps by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state that prompted about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh "bear the hallmarks of genocide." She said accountability for the abuses in Rakhine should be "the focus of the international community's efforts to bring long-lasting peace, stability and democratization to Myanmar." "This must be aimed at the individuals who gave the orders and carried out violations against individuals and entire ethnic and religious groups," she said. "The government leadership who did nothing to intervene, stop or condemn these acts must also be held accountable." The situations in Kachin and Shan states, which involve actual combat between government soldiers and ethnic rebel groups seeking greater autonomy, have received much less international attention than the plight of the Rohingya. The Fact-Finding Mission said in an interim report presented in Geneva that "patterns of human rights abuse across the country are linked," with events in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states all "products of a long-standing, systemic pattern of human rights violation and abuse in Myanmar." "The long-standing conflicts in Kachin and Shan states have recently intensified, leading to more reports of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed in these areas by the security forces," it said. Both Darusman and Lee said Facebook had played a key role in the spread of conflict and hate speech in Myanmar. "We know that the ultranationalist Buddhists have their own [Facebook pages] and really [are] inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities," Lee said. "And I'm afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, [instead of] what it was originally intended to be used (for) maybe in other parts of the world, too." Facebook said in a statement there is "is no place for hate speech or content that promotes violence" on its platform and added that it has "worked with experts in Myanmar for several years to develop safety resources and counterspeech campaigns." Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari sacked the head of an amnesty program for former militants in the country's oil- and gas-producing heartland, amid allegations of graft. Funding of the former Niger Delta militants under the 2009 amnesty has been key to maintaining relative stability in the southern region and preventing attacks on energy facilities in Africa's biggest oil producer. Crude oil sales make up two-thirds of government revenue. But attacks resumed in 2016, contributing to pushing Africa's biggest economy into recession that year as oil production was cut from a peak of 2.2 million barrels per day (mbpd) to near 1 mbpd, Nigeria's lowest level for at least 30 years. Announcing the dismissal of Paul Boroh, a retired senior army officer, Buhari ordered the country's national security adviser to investigate the program's activities since 2015, "especially allegations of financial impropriety." The announcement came in an emailed statement from the president's spokesman, which gave no details of the allegations. The program entitles each former militant to a monthly stipend and job training. Boroh is being replaced by Charles Quaker Dokubo, currently director of research and studies at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, a think tank. The German government on Tuesday sharply condemned a nerve agent attack on a former spy that the British government has blamed on Russia, and said the perpetrators must be held accountable. Outgoing German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he had called British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to express Germanys solidarity with the British government, and remained in close touch with British authorities. Its clear the perpetrators must be held accountable. If it should be confirmed that Russia was behind (the attack), that would be a very serious incident, Gabriel said in a statement. The English-language edition of Pope Francis' latest book is coming out this summer. St. Martin's Press told The Associated Press on Tuesday that "A Future of Faith: The Path of Change in Politics and Society'' will be published Aug. 7 in the U.S. and the U.K. "A Future of Faith'' is based on 12 talks Pope Francis had with Dominique Wolton, a French sociologist. In the book, published in France last fall, Pope Francis disclosed that when he was 42 he had sessions weekly with a psychoanalyst who was female and Jewish to "clarify some things.'' He also discussed his views on everything from divorce to ecology. Pope Francis' other books include "Happiness in This Life'' and "The Name of God Is Mercy.'' Mauser looked out at the 7,000 pairs of shoes arranged in a temporary memorial Tuesday morning one pair for each of the estimated 7,000 children who have died from gun violence since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. A second set of Daniel Mauser's shoes are among the pairs on the lawn, part of a protest against gun violence that has been ignited since 17 high school students and adults were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14. Survivors of the Parkland shooting have been outspoken on social media and news outlets, advocating for stricter gun control. The students have organized a #NationalStudentWalkout for March 14 with 17 minutes of silence for each victim, and a national March for Our Lives on March 24, two of a number of protests that demand Congress pass more regulations on gun use and purchases. When the Parkland students called for their march on March 24, we felt we wanted to honor the kids who wont get to march, Nell Greenberg told VOA. Greenberg is a campaign director for AVAAZ, a global civic movement advocating for social issues such as climate change and net neutrality, as well as gun control. And part of why were marching next week is because they cant. The Valentine's Day shooting in Parkland, where at least 15 were injured, was the 18th mass shooting so far in 2018, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit organization in the U.S. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, more than 1,300 U.S. children die every year from guns. In the days after the Parkland shooting, the state of Florida moved to raise the minimum age required to buy a gun from 18 to 21. Activists across the country are pushing lawmakers to do the same, in particular, calling out politicians who receive funding from the National Rifle Association. The gun lobby has been vehemently opposed to any regulations on purchasing guns, claiming it violates Americans' Second Amendment right. The NRA declined to comment to VOA about the Florida shooting, but the homepage of its website states NRA Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre recently "let [gun-control politicians] and their anti-gun minions know that the NRA will not tolerate their use of a tragedy in their war against the Second Amendment." Written in 1791, the amendment states: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." On Friday, Congress will vote on a bill supported by the Trump administration that would provide more funding for school security. But the bill has been criticized by liberals for not including any provisions relating to firearms. In the days before the vote, protests and displays such as the 7,000 pairs of shoes call on lawmakers to vote down the bill and address what organizers call the root of the problem: Easy access to firearms. Its shameful that we, in America, have this happen in our country," Mauser said. "And theres something we should do about it. Please visit our Facebook page for photos and videos about the shoes on Capitol Hill, thanks! https://www.facebook.com/voastudentu/videos/1836716076347594/ The Nelson Mandela Foundation is preparing events and other initiatives this year to mark the centenary of the birth of the anti-apartheid leader who became South African's first black president. Sello Hatang, chief executive of the non-profit foundation, said Tuesday that its activities will include discussions on the challenges of poverty and racism in South Africa, which moved to democracy after the end of white minority rule in 1994. The foundation will also launch a Mandela exhibit in September in Australia which will travel to Europe and the United States over the next five years. Several books will be published, including one containing letters written by Mandela when he was imprisoned during apartheid. Mandela was born on July 18, 1918. He died in 2013 at the age of 95. The third major winter storm in two weeks is lashing the northeastern United States, plunging more than 260,000 homes and businesses in eastern Massachusetts into darkness. Meteorologists confirmed blizzards in Newport, Rhode Island, Boston and other parts of Massachusetts on Tuesday. Blizzard warnings were issued for Maine and New Hampshire. The rest of New England was under winter storm warnings, while winter weather advisories were issued for most of New York and parts of New Jersey, West Virginia and North Carolina. The storm the third nor'easter to rake the Northeast this month was expected to last through most of Tuesday, disrupting road and air travel. Airlines canceled more than 1,900 U.S. flights Tuesday, mostly in and out of Boston's Logan International Airport, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking service. More than 180 flights were scrubbed at New York's LaGuardia Airport. Amtrak suspended Northeast Corridor train service between Boston and New York. The first nor'easter to hit the area knocked out power to some 2.7 million from Maine to Ohio and killed eight people on March 2. Five days later, a second storm pounded an area still trying to recover. And this may not be the last winter punch for the region. Some forecast models suggest another storm could come up the East Coast next week. The clock is ticking towards the British-set deadline of midnight Tuesday for the Kremlin to explain why a Russian developed military-grade nerve agent was used to poison a former Russian double agent and his daughter in a small cathedral town in south England. No one in the British government is holding their breath for a Russian response or an adequate one, from Londons point of view. And as the deadline looms British officials are scrambling to garner the support of Western allies, and they appear ready, if necessary, to invoke NATOs Article 5 on collective defense, which has only been invoked once before in the Western alliances 59-year history. In her statement before a somber House of Commons Monday saying it was highly likely the Kremlin had authorized the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer recruited by Britains foreign intelligence service MI6, and his 33-year-old daughter, British Prime Minister Theresa May chose her words carefully. She angled her words, say her aides, so as to be able to widen the international dimension of the unfolding political and diplomatic crisis thats plunging Anglo-Russian relations to their lowest point since the Cold War. Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom, May said in a key legal paragraph in her statement. The law Under international law, a state thats been the victim of the unlawful use of force by another is allowed to respond. By carefully choosing her phrase, May indicated she is treating the attempted assassination of the Skripals not as a criminal act but as a state-sponsored attack on Britain as a whole. That also prepares the ground for Britain to follow Americas example in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington D.C. and invoke article 5 of the 1949 NATO treaty, which states: The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and that they should work together to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. The language May used contrasts with the British reaction to the fatal 2006 poisoning of another former Russian spy, the dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who died after drinking tea laced with polonium. Then there was no talk of an unlawful use of force by Russia. May has won words of general support from international allies, but none mentioned NATOs article 5. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said whoever had ordered the attack must face serious consequences. In a statement, he said: We have full confidence in the UKs investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week. There is never a justification for this type of attack the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. We agree that those responsible both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it must face appropriately serious consequences. NATOs secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said: The use of any nerve agent is horrendous and completely unacceptable. The UK is a highly valued ally, and this incident is of great concern to NATO. After speaking with May on the phone, French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris stood in solidarity with Britain. Skeptics But British officials privately concede anxiety about what practical support they will be able to secure and the reception theyll get when asking for a coordinated Western response to Russia. Officials welcomed the condemnation Monday of the poisoning of the Skripals from White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, but were left uneasy when she omitted to name Russia specifically as the culprit. Whatever measures Britain takes against Russia, what will really count is a realization from Washington to Brussels to Berlin, that a full scale strategy of the West is needed to show strength and resolve in the face of unacceptable behavior, former British foreign secretary William Hague wrote in Britains Daily Telegraph Tuesday. A former director of policy planning at NATO, Fabrice Pothier, says theres little appetite among Europeans for adding more economic and financial sanctions on top of those already imposed and renewed by the European Union this week for another six months on Russia for the 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimea. Relations between Britain and its European allies are being roiled also by the testy negotiations over Brexit. Martin McCauley, a former London University professor and member of the Limehouse Group of Analysts, notes that European nations rebuffed British requests for a coordinated punishment of Russia for Litvinenkos poisoning. The Prime Minister is faced with a difficult problem, he says. Putin may run the clock, he adds. He will be hoping that the same thing happens as what happened after the Litvinenko affair. The EU basically did not want to know. This time the same thing may happen. Look at countries like Germany and Italy; they would like to soften the [current] sanctions so they can go back to normal business relations with Russia. They dont want a conflict, they dont want a row (dispute) with Moscow. U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo came as a surprise to the top diplomat. "The secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve," said Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein in a statement Tuesday. "The secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security." Shortly after releasing that statement, Goldstein was also fired by the White House. The rapidly announced departures came just hours after Tillerson returned from a weeklong trip to five African nations. His departure was officially announced by the president on Twitter. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" No imminent indication of firing In the days leading up to his firing, Tillerson showed no outward signs that his days in the administration were numbered. A senior administration official told VOA on Tuesday that Tillerson was informed of his ouster last week. The official, speaking on background, said Tillerson was told by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly last Friday that he was being removed from the Cabinet by the president. The official said Kelly "followed up" with another phone call Saturday. However, that account contradicts other reporting, which said Kelly never explicitly told Tillerson he was being fired. The Associated Press reported that Kelly warned Tillerson that Trump might tweet something that would concern him, but was not told what the tweet might say. Tillerson told reporters traveling with him at the time that he did get a late-night phone call, but did not elaborate. "I got another call at 2:30 [a.m.] that woke me up. I cant say. And so I was up most of that night. And that was Friday night," Tillerson later told reporters. Just two days later, dressed in sneakers and khakis, Tillerson appeared relaxed and enjoyed a tour at Kenya Wildlife Service Genetics and Molecular Forensics Laboratory, chatting with experts working at the lab, as well as prominent conservationist Dr. Richard Leakey. On Monday, during a rare on-the-record briefing with seven members of the traveling press en route to Cape Verde, Tillerson appeared to be at ease, occasionally smiling while answering questions. Later, at a refueling stop in Cape Verde, he again seemed relaxed, with VOA hearing his signature loud laughter while talking to staff members. And during a joint press conference with Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama in Abuja earlier Monday, his last public event in Africa before Trump's tweet announcing his replacement, Tillerson appeared fully invested, showing no outward signs that he would soon be leaving his position. Trump, Tillerson and diplomacy It's no secret that Trump and Tillerson did not see eye to eye on several key issues, including how to deal with the nuclear and missile threat from North Korea. The then-secretary of state was halfway across the world and reportedly asleep when news broke that Trump had accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's invitation for direct talks Thursday, a major diplomatic development that Tillerson was said to be kept out of the loop on. "I got the call a little before 2:30 [a.m.] on Thursday night about the decision and had a conversation with the president and then I was on the phone the rest of the night," Tillerson said. Tillerson canceled his schedule in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday because he was under the weather due to sleep deprivation and what he said was "a little stomach bug" as a result of something he ate in Ethiopia. "Ive been up most nights on the telephone. I think I had 4 hours of sleep in 72 hours because of a lot of whats going on," Tillerson told traveling press on the plane. A senior White House official, commenting on the timing of Tillerson's departure Tuesday, explained, "the president wanted to make sure to have his new team in place in advance of the upcoming talks with North Korea and various ongoing trade negotiations." The Trump administration moved fast to replace Goldstein with spokesperson Heather Nauert, named acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in a White House statement. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is backing up British Prime Minister Theresa Mays assertion that Russia is behind the attack on a former Russian spy in England, saying it certainly will trigger a response. This is a really egregious act. It appears that it clearly came from Russia, Tillerson said Monday en route to Cape Verde. Tillerson spoke with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson over the phone shortly after taking off from Nigeria. Tillerson wrapped up his five-nation trip to Africa on Monday. May said it is clear that former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. She added that the action amounted to a use of chemical weaponry on British territory. Russia refuted Mays allegation, saying it is another political campaign based on provocation. There is never a justification for this type of attack the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior, said Tillerson in a statement released by the State Department. From Ukraine to Syria and now the U.K. Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens. The statement continued: We agree that those responsible both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it must face appropriately serious consequences. We stand in solidarity with our Allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to coordinate closely our responses. Tillerson told a small group of reporters, Its almost beyond comprehension that a state, an organized state, would do something like that. President Donald Trump got his chance Tuesday to inspect prototypes for the "big, beautiful border wall" he wants to build to separate the U.S. from Mexico, saying strengthening the border would help stop "99 percent" of illegal immigration or, he allowed, "maybe more than that." The president, making his first trip to California as president, was briefed on eight border wall designs. He said he preferred a fully concrete wall because it was the hardest to climb, but he noted that it needed to be see-through. Trump said the first things he noticed on the drive to view the prototypes were the patched-up holes in part of the existing fence at the border. "We have a lousy wall over here now, but at least it stops 90, 95 percent," Trump said. "When we put up the real wall, we're going to stop 99 percent. Maybe more than that." Trump's visit was greeted with peaceful protests by demonstrators both for and against his planned wall. The trip also came amid an escalating battle between his administration and the liberal state, which has refused to help federal agents detain immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. The president said Tuesday that the state's sanctuary policies "put the entire nation at risk." His Justice Department sued California last week over a trio of the state's immigration laws. "They're the best friend of the criminal," Trump said. "That's what exactly is happening. The criminals take refuge in these sanctuary cities and it's very dangerous for our police and enforcement folks." While in California, Trump was also expected to address Marines in San Diego before attending a fundraiser in Los Angeles, where he'll stay overnight. Demonstrations were held at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego, the nation's busiest border crossing, where protesters chanted, "No ban! No wall!" as honking cars and buses cheered them on. Protests were also held on the Mexican side, in Tijuana. At San Ysidro, Jose Gonzalez, 21, stopped to snap a photo of the protesters holding signs, including one that read: "Wall off Putin!" a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has a seemingly close relationship with Trump. "I don't think it's really fair how he has the choice to separate us," said Gonzalez, a dual citizen who lives in Tijuana and crosses the border daily to work at a San Diego ramen restaurant. Army veteran Mark Prieto, 48, shook his head as he walked by the protest. "People are so narrow-minded," the Riverside firefighter said as the crowd chanted. "Finally we have someone who is putting America first." His wife, Corina Prieto, a nurse who has extended family in Mexico, agreed. Both voted for Trump. "I think he is doing a lot of good, like protecting our Border Patrol," she said. Trump was to be briefed on lessons learned from the construction of the prototypes built in San Diego last fall. He was also to meet with border agents and officers to ask what they need, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said. San Diego's Republican mayor criticized Trump's planned short visit, saying the president wouldn't get a full picture of the city. Kevin Faulconer said a popular cross-border airport terminal connecting San Diego and Tijuana shows that "building bridges has worked wonders." WATCH: Border wall Faulconer, writing in The San Diego Union-Tribune, also said San Diego police work to protect everyone regardless of immigration status, an apparent dig at Trump's push to target illegal immigration. Trump tweeted about California's immigration policies as he flew to the state aboard Air Force One: This isn't Trump's first visit to the border. He traveled to Laredo one of Texas' safest cities weeks after declaring his candidacy in June 2015. Trump told reporters then that he was putting himself "in great danger" by coming to the border. But, he said, "I have to do it. I love this country." U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is "very, very happy" that the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee concluded that his 2016 election campaign did not collude with Russia to help him win a four-year term in the White House. "It was a very powerful decision, a very strong decision," Trump said as he headed to California to view prototypes for his proposed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico frontier. "Backed up, I understand, theyre going to be releasing hundreds of pages of proof and evidence..." "It was a powerful decision that left no doubts," Trump said. "So I want to thank the House Intelligence Committee and all of the people that voted so strongly. Trump spoke publicly about the House panel's conclusion hours after celebrating it with a tweet, written in capital letters. "The House Intelligence Committee has, after a 14 month long in-depth investigation, found no evidence of collusion or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 election," Trump said, repeating his assertion that his campaign did nothing wrong. Democrats disagree Meanwhile, minority Democrats on the committee contended that the Republican majority failed to defend the United States against Russian interference in the election by not conducting a serious investigative process. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said the Intelligence panel's conclusion is the latest by House Republicans to "obstruct and interfere" with Russia investigations. "Multiple Americans and Russians have been indicted or pled guilty in the Trump-Russia scandal," Pelosi said. "Every day, the extent of Russian meddling in our democracy becomes clearer, leaving us with more unanswered questions." Representative Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican leading the probe, said Monday that the committee will not interview any more witnesses and its Republican majority would share its 150-page report with the Democratic minority on Tuesday. "We found no evidence of collusion,'' Conaway told reporters, suggesting that those who believe there was are reading too many spy novels. "We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings. But only [noted spy fiction writers] Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings or whatever, and weave that into sort of a fiction page turner, spy thriller.'' The report contradicts a January 2017 assessment by the U.S. intelligence community that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government "developed a clear preference" for Trump and "aspired to help" his chances of defeating Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state. An overview of the House Intelligence Committee report released Monday says the panel agrees with the intelligence community's assessments, "except with respect to Putin's supposed preference for candidate Trump." The outline further describes a pattern of Russian attacks against U.S. allies in Europe, Russian cyberattacks against U.S. political institutions "and their use of social media to sow discord." It also casts blame for a "lackluster pre-election response" to Russia's activities and what the authors call "problematic contacts between senior intelligence community officials and the media." Brian Hale, spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said the ODNI stands by the January 2017 assessment and will review the House committee's findings. The public will not see the report until Democrats have reviewed it and the intelligence community has decided what information can become public, a process that could take weeks. Democrats have criticized Republicans on the committee for shortening the investigation, pointing to multiple contacts between Trump's campaign and Russia and saying they have seen far too few witnesses to make any judgment on collusion. Tragic milestone California Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called the Republican report a "tragic milestone" and a "capitulation to the executive branch." "By ending its oversight role in the only investigation in the House, the majority has placed the interests of protecting the president over protecting the country, and history will judge its actions harshly," he wrote. Schiff said the evidence is "clear and overwhelming" that the intelligence community was right. "If the Russians do have leverage over the president of the United States, the majority has simply decided it would rather not know." The Senate Intelligence Committee is also investigating the Russian intervention, and is expected to have a bipartisan report out in the coming weeks dealing with election security. The Senate panel is expected to issue findings on the more controversial issue of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia at a later date. The various investigations by Congress are separate from the one being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller. Unlike Mueller's probe, congressional investigations aren't criminal but serve to inform the public and recommend possible legislation. Mueller has secured several guilty pleas to criminal offenses, including from former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and foreign affairs adviser George Papadopoulos for lying to U.S. investigators about their contacts with Russia. Just minutes after Donald Trump fired Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, the president was blunt about his long-standing differences with his former secretary of state. We disagreed on things, Trump told reporters outside the White House, specifically pointing to friction over the Iran nuclear agreement. I wanted to either break it or do something, and he felt a little bit differently, Trump said. We were really not thinking the same. Trump reportedly had considered firing Tillerson for months. But the decision - and the abrupt way it was executed - represents a dramatic end to a strained relationship. Tillerson learned of his firing by an early-morning Trump tweet, according to Steve Goldstein, undersecretary of state. White House officials disputed that notion, and promptly fired Goldstein. The move left some of Trump's staunchest defenders with mixed feelings. Its all very Trumpian, said James Carafano of the conservative Heritage Foundation, who helped staff the State Department as a member of Trumps transition team. When the president makes changes, he just abruptly makes them. Frictions on frequent display During his 14 months at the State Department, Tillerson had numerous policy differences with Trump - and the friction frequently played out in public. The animosity peaked in October, when news surfaced that Tillerson reportedly called Trump a moron following a July Pentagon meeting. Tillerson never explicitly denied the account. Tillerson also publicly disagreed with Trumps decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. He reportedly opposed Trumps decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And Tillerson sometimes took a tougher stance than Trump on Russia including this week, when he blamed Moscow for a suspected nerve agent attack in Britain. In return, Trump on numerous occasions publicly undermined his top diplomat, including in October when he tweeted Tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. When Trump ultimately made his decision last week to meet with Kim, he did so without consulting Tillerson. I really didnt discuss it very much with him honestly, Trump acknowledged Tuesday. I made that decision by myself. The Tillerson firing comes as Trump embarks on several major foreign policy initiatives, including talks with Kim Jong Un, recently unveiled tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, and Trumps threats to undo the Iran nuclear deal. As Trump becomes more confident in his foreign policy, he has come to realize that the U.S. diplomatic apparatus was holding him back in some ways, Carafano said. Theres always this kind of pull from the State Department to not try new things and just keep doing what were doing, Carafano said. And I think the president doesnt feel thats helpful anymore. The moves suggest the Trump administration is tactically going to be a little bolder on its foreign policy, he said. New start with Pompeo? Its unclear whether Trumps relationship with the State Department will improve under CIA chief Mike Pompeo, who Trump has selected to succeed Tillerson. Ive worked with Mike Pompeo now for quite some time, Trump said Tuesday. Tremendous energy. Tremendous intellect. Were always on the same wavelength. But the problem is deeper, said David Schultz, professor of political science at Minnesotas Hamline University. Trump does not seem to view diplomacy as a major aspect of his administration, Schultz said. Evidence of that is that many State Department positions are unfilled even to this day, and many careerists have departed. President Donald Trump has fired his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and picked CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace him. Trump has also nominated Gina Haspel, the current deputy director at the Central Intelligence Agency, to replace Pompeo at the CIA. Hours later, Tillerson appeared at the State Department and said "effective at the end of the day" he is delegating all authority to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. Tillerson said he is formally stepping down at the end of the month and stressed the importance of a smooth transition to his successor. WATCH: Trump fires Tillerson Trump told reporters Tuesday morning he and Tillerson have been talking about this for a long time, and they got along quite well, but they have a different mindset and different thinking. Departure Messaging Trump's differences with Tillerson appeared to extend to the logistics of his announced departure, with the State Department and White House issuing contradictory accounts over when the secretary was fired. A senior administration official tells VOA News that its not true that Tillerson learned of his firing via Twitter, insisting that the secretary of state, while in Africa, was informed by the White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, last Friday that he was being removed from the Cabinet post he has held for 14 months. Kelly followed up with another phone call on Saturday, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of not being identified. Tillerson cut short his five-nation trip by one day and reporters who traveled with him on his plane say the secretary spoke of continuing his diplomatic work, giving no indication he was being fired. The undersecretary for public affairs at the State Department, Steve Goldstein, offered a different account of Tillerson's departure. "The Secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason (for his firing), but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, Goldstein said. Goldstein was fired by the White House shortly after issuing the statement. Tillerson announced he was handing over his duties at the end of the day to Sullivan and would be formally stepping down at the end of the month. He stressed the importance of a smooth transition to Pompeo. Impact on North Korea, Iran? In remarks to reporters Tuesday, President Trump highlighted his differences with Tillerson on Iran and North Korea. Trump pointed out he did not discuss much with Tillerson regarding his decision to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. I made that decision by myself, Rex wasnt, as you know, in the country. I made the North Korea decision with consultations from many people, but I made that decision by myself, he said. A senior White House official also said Tuesday Tillerson's ouster occurred at this time because Trump wanted to "have his new team in place in advance of the upcoming talks with North Korea and various ongoing trade negotiations." The president said they also disagreed on the 2015 Iran nuclear accord. When you look at the Iran deal, I think its terrible, I guess he thought its okay. I want to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently, so we were not really thinking the same. During the Obama administration, the U.S. and other major powers struck the deal in which Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the easing of international economic sanctions. President Trump has repeatedly criticized the agreement as a bad deal and threatened to dismantle it. VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report. The woman tapped to be the United States' first female spymaster is proving to be a lightning rod, earning praise from many from across the intelligence community and suspicion from lawmakers and others who question her role in the use of tactics that some say amounted to torture. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted his choice of Gina Haspel to run the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday, taking over for outgoing CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who has been nominated to lead the State Department. "She's an outstanding person who I've gotten to know very well," Trump later told reporters outside the White House, as he prepared for a trip to California. Haspel, who until now has been serving as the CIA's deputy director, is a 30-year veteran of the agency with extensive experience, both as a CIA station chief, in places like London, as well as with the agency's clandestine services. "I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me," Haspel said in a statement released Tuesday by the White House. "If confirmed, I look forward to providing President Trump the outstanding intelligence support he has grown to expect." 'Exemplary intelligence officer' Pompeo lavished Haspel with praise when he selected her as his number two at the agency. "Gina is an exemplary intelligence officer," Pompeo said at the time. "She is also a proven leader with an uncanny ability to get things done and to inspire those around her." Haspel's nomination to head the CIA was further bolstered late Wednesday, when U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats issued a statement calling her a "strong choice." Current and former officials have also been quick to praise Haspel some saying she will be an improvement over Pompeo, who while respected, was viewed as too political. "The CIA will be better off now with an intelligence professional as its director," according to Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer now with Georgetown University. Other former officials say Haspel is a perfect choice as both the spy agency and the Trump administration weather the tumult created by the sudden changes. "If you want to end the turbulence as quickly as possible, you elevate a beloved and respected deputy, experienced in the agency," former CIA Director General Michael Hayden told The Cipher Brief, a website focused on intelligence and security issues. "I think the CIA is going to be pretty calm about this." Former colleagues also point to her experience both with Russia during the end of the Cold War, and with the agency's counterterrorism efforts following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Some key lawmakers have also come out in favor of Haspel's nomination. "I know Gina personally," Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said in a statement. "I'm proud of her work." "She has the right skill set, experience, and judgment to lead one of our nation's most critical agencies," Burr said. CIA 'black sites' and torture Yet others have been far more critical, pointing specifically to her time running a CIA prison in Thailand, one of several so-called "black sites" which held and interrogated terror suspects, subjecting them at times to harsh interrogation techniques. There has also been criticism of Haspel's alleged involvement in the destruction of video evidence documenting some of the interrogations. "The torture of detainees in U.S. custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history," Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said in a statement Tuesday. "Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program during the confirmation process," said McCain, a Republican who himself was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "Current U.S. law is clear in banning enhanced interrogation techniques. Any nominee for director of the CIA must pledge without reservation to uphold this prohibition." Democrat Senator Ron Wyden, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, went even further. "Ms. Haspel's background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director," Wyden said in a statement. "Her nomination must include total transparency about this background, which I called for more than a year ago when she was appointed deputy director." Already, there has been an outcry from human rights groups. "No one who had a hand in torturing individuals deserve to ever hold public office again, let alone lead an agency," said Raha Wala with Human Rights First. "To allow someone who had a direct hand in this illegal, immoral and counterproductive program is to willingly forget our nation's dark history with torture." At least one group, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, has even sought Haspel's arrest, providing German prosecutors with a brief that alleges she oversaw the daily torture of two detainees and, as the official in charge, had the authority to end it. "She alone had the responsibility to end this torture but failed to do so," the ECCHR General Secretary Wolfgang Kaleck argued in June 2017. "The next step would be the issuance of an arrest warrant for her." There are also questions about what Haspel's reputation for being tough on terrorism will mean if she is confirmed. "Under the Trump administration, we're seeing an uptick in CIA-led missions and operations," said Rachel Stohl, managing director of the Stimson Center and director of its Conventional Defense Program. "There has been an increase of utilization of CIA for drone strikes," Stohl said. "Given Gina Haspel's background and her operational expertise and experience, we will probably see that trend continue." Turkish led forces are claiming to have surrounded the city of Afrin, home to several thousand people in northwestern Syria, and the main target of Turkeys Operation Olive Branch. The military incursion launched in January seeks to oust the YPG Syrian Kurdish militia considered by Ankara as terrorists linked to a decades long insurgency inside Turkey. Ankara has warned an operation to capture the city is imminent, Hopefully Afrins center will soon be cleared of terrorists and the local community will be saved from the cruelty and oppression of the terrorists, declared deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag on Monday. The prospect of a major offensive on Afrin, which is reportedly packed with civilians, many of whom fled fighting from other parts of Syria, is likely to cause international concern. Ankara insists it is taking all steps to insure the safety of civilians. Deputy Prime Minister Bozdag has claimed not a single civilian has been killed or even wounded since the launch of the Turkish operation. Turkish led forces backed by air support have made swift advances and suffered only relatively light casualties since January. But analysts suggest the YPG is likely to have withdrawn most of their forces to defend Afrin, where much of the Turkish militarys superiority would be nullified. Urban warfare Under normal combat conditions an ordinary army unit would never enter into an urban environment, points out Ret. Turkish Brigadier Haldun Solmazturk, a veteran of counter insurgency operations against Kurdish rebels, It would move to isolate and move on. In an urban environment you lose all the advantages. The prospect of Turkish forces widening their control of a large swath of Syrian territory could yet lead to Damascus intervening, They (YPG) might agree to inviting the Syrian army back into Afrin and keep the Turkish armed forces in a crescent around Afrin, but with the Syrian army in Afrin City, suggests former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served widely in the region, ... such a deal, Damascus could either disarm the YPG or facilitate their removal from the region. Reportedly Syrian forces have started to build up on the Afrin enclave border. But the YPG has declared it will not surrender and is prepared to resist attempts to capture the city. With Ankaras operation in Afrin in its final stage, attention is now moving toward its second declared second phase. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Turkish forces that after capturing Afrin they will target YPG forces in Manbij. U.S. forces are deployed in the Syrian City with the Kurdish militia, which is a key ally in Washingtons war against the Islamic State. Turkish and U.S. officials are currently engaged in diplomatic efforts to avert a clash over Manbij. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusolgu said Tuesday the two sides will reach an agreement when he attends talks next week in Washington. Manbij, my sense the Americans will find a formula that Turkey will go to Manbij and the PYD (political wing of the YPG) won't be there, within a few months," predicts international relaxants expert Soli Ozel of Istanbuls Kadir Has University, and I think that will be enough for Ankara because this is an easy thing to declare victory. Turkish politics But Erdogan has declared the wider goal of Turkeys offensive is to remove the YPG presence form the whole of Turkeys southern border. Analysts point out the military operation is also being driven by powerful domestic considerations. Turkeys pro government media are claiming since the launch of the Syrian offensive, support has surged for Erdogan, who faces re-election next year. Turkish foreign policy making has become so much dependant on domestic political concerns, points out, analyst Sinan Ulgen a visiting scholar of the Brussels based Carnegie Europe. Ankara has also announced that in May it will launch a military operation in cooperation with Baghdad into Iraqi Sinjar region against PKK bases. The PKK has been fighting a decades long insurgency in Turkey for greater Kurdish rights. That Turkey wants to take on the PKK in Sinjar with the cooperation with administration in Baghdad, I have no doubt, claims international relations expert Ozel, I have a sense the Iranians would not look favorably at such a thing. I think the Iranians are rather annoyed by what Turkey is already doing. Turkey and Iran are historical regional rivals and analysts warn the growing military presence of Turkish forces in countries Tehran considers under its hegemony is likely to cause alarm. Looking at realities on the ground and the position of different actors, Turkey would be naive to think that Turkey would be able to accomplish all these objectives, suggest analyst Ulgen, the limits of the (Turkish) operation will depend on the reaction on other actors who stake holders in the region. Floyd Carter Sr., a Tuskegee Airman who was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, has died at the age of 95, according to the New York Police Department. In addition to his service with the fabled Tuskegee Airmen, Carter spent 27 years with the NYPD, where his duties included guarding visiting heads of state, including Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Soviet head Nikita Khrushchev, the Daily News reports. The native of Yorktown, Virginia rose to the rank of Air Force lieutenant colonel years after joining the group of African-American pilots at Tuskegee, according to the Daily News. It was there that he met his wife Artherine, who was working as part of an all-female repair crew. Carter wooed her on several dates in his plane, and they were married at the air base in 1945. Carter was honored in 2007 with the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush. In 2012, Carter joined "Star Wars" filmmaker George Lucas for a screening of his film "Red Tails" about the Tuskegee Airmen the first black aviators in the U.S. military, trained in Alabama as a segregated unit. In addition to serving during World War II, Carter flew during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Carter died last Thursday. Survivors include his wife; their children, Floyd Jr. and Rozalind; grandchildren and great-grandchildren. U.N. human rights experts investigating a possible genocide in Myanmar said Monday that Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech there. Facebook had no immediate comment on the criticism Monday, although in the past the company has said that it was working to remove hate speech in Myanmar and kick off people who shared such content consistently. More than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state into Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown last August. Many have provided harrowing testimonies of executions and rapes by Myanmar security forces. The U.N. human rights chief said last week he strongly suspected acts of genocide had taken place. Myanmar's national security adviser demanded "clear evidence." Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, told reporters that social media had played a "determining role" in Myanmar. "It has ... substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissention and conflict, if you will, within the public. Hate speech is certainly, of course, a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media," he said. U.N. Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee said Facebook was a huge part of public, civil and private life, and the government used it to disseminate information to the public. "Everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar," she told reporters, adding that Facebook had helped the impoverished country but had also been used to spread hate speech. "It was used to convey public messages, but we know that the ultra-nationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities," she said. "I'm afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended." The most prominent of Myanmar's hardline nationalist monks, Wirathu, emerged from a one-year preaching ban Saturday and said his anti-Muslim rhetoric had nothing to do with violence in Rakhine state. Facebook suspends and sometimes removes anyone that "consistently shares content promoting hate," the company said last month in response to a question about Wirathu's account. "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." U.N. investigators are calling for justice in light of separate reports to the United Nations Human Rights Council describing widespread and gross violations of human rights in South Sudan and Burundi. More than four years of fighting in South Sudan has left nearly six million people facing hunger, more than four million internally displaced and two million living as refugees in neighboring countries. The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan describes a civilian population at the mercy of fighters and criminal gangs who commit atrocities with impunity. It says the warring parties must abide by the peace agreement they signed in 2015. The chair of the commission, Yasmin Sooka, told the council that the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, which was required under the agreement, should be set up right away. "It is just one signature away all it needs is for the government to sign the MOU [Memorandum of Understanding]," Sooka said. "If this does not happen, the African Union has the authority to set up a hybrid court outside the country, if necessary to try alleged perpetrators for South Sudan." Sooka says the hybrid court will not be able to deal with the staggering number of violations in South Sudan, but it can make perpetrators legally accountable for their crimes. She says witnesses are anxious to testify, and evidence for trials can be gathered both inside and outside the country. "Our work so far has barely scratched the surface of the violations we believe have occurred," she said. "More worrying is that we did not have to search too hard for corroborated accounts of astounding cruelty, dehumanization and ethnic persecution. We have, indeed, struggled to do justice to the scale and intensity of the horror we documented." The commission is collecting and preserving evidence to be shared with the hybrid court, as well as with a truth commission and a reparations body that are part of the peace agreement for South Sudan, according to Sooka. Paulino Wanawilla Unango, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of South Sudan, calls the report repetitious and flawed. He says the human rights situation in his country has improved and rejects the commission's assertion that people commit crimes with impunity. In Burundi Meanwhile, the three-member Commission of Inquiry on Burundi finds no improvement in the political, security, economic, social and human rights situation in Burundi since its last report to the council in September. Commission member Francoise Hamson says many political opponents of President Pierre Nkurunziza, as well as journalists and human rights defenders, remain in exile. "Members of civil society organizations who are still present in Burundi are under constant pressure of facing arrest," Hamson said. "The commission received a great deal of information and testimonies to cases of harassment and violence committed by public officials and/or by members of the ruling party's youth league, [known as] the Imbonerakure, against individuals who may vote no or who refuse to enroll on voters' list for the referendum." Dozens of people have been arrested for supporting a "no" vote in an upcoming referendum that could allow the president to extend his term in office. Hamson says people remain under constant threat of abuse. "These cases supplement other human rights violations, specifically arrests and arbitrary detention, torture and ill treatment, disappearance and violations of the right to an effective appeal and to a fair trial," Hamson said. Burundian Ambassador Renovat Tabu questioned the legitimacy of the commission and rejected the report, saying it lacked credibility as it was riddled with false allegations about the country's human rights situation. The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria is condemning the flagrant violation of International Humanitarian Law by all of Syria's warring parties and calls for them to be held accountable for their crimes. The commission has presented its latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Seven years into the Syrian conflict, the killing goes on with no end in sight. Commission Chair Paulo Pinheiro told the Human Rights Council the killing fields have never gone away. They have just moved. He said now it is the turn of eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus with nearly 400,000 residents, that is under siege and being subjected to deliberate starvation and relentless bombardments. Before, he said, it was eastern Aleppo City, Raqqa, Deir el-Zour, and Madaya that dominated the headlines as civilians were denied humanitarian assistance and killed and maimed from indiscriminate attacks. "This recent resurgence of violence perpetuates the illusion that the solution to the conflict will come through a military victory," he said. "This illusion has been fueled by the unwillingness of influential states to enforce discipline on the warring parties and demand their serious engagement in finding a sustainable political solution." Pinheiro is calling for an immediate end to intentional and indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations and for the delivery of food, water, medicine and other critical aid to besieged and hard-to-reach areas, especially to the suffering population in eastern Ghouta. Pinheiro said only a political solution will end the conflict. But he warns there must be no amnesties or pardon for those responsible for gross human rights violations, war crimes or crimes against humanity in any agreement that emerges. In his response, Syrian Ambassador Hussam Edin Aala refuted the accusations in the report, saying they were based on false sources and on sources related to terrorist organizations, such as the White Helmets, a volunteer civilian rescue group. Civilians in eastern Ghouta are facing an uncertain fate, as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and its allies are tightening their grip on the area. Eastern Ghouta, one of the last rebel-held enclaves in Syria, is 60 percent under the control of the Syrian regime, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Monday. Syrian activists and aid workers appeal daily for an end to the bombardment of civilian populated areas. Siraj Mahmood, a spokesperson for the White Helmets rescue group in eastern Ghouta, told VOA that men, women and children are hiding in underground shelters under indescribable conditions. "We ask why the cease-fire in eastern Ghouta was not applied, despite all talks and agreements, even for one hour a day, just to let civilians breathe fresh air," Mahmood said. The Syrian government forces' rapid advance splintered eastern Ghouta into three sections, and it facilitated the capture of the area that had been besieged for five years. Final onslaught Eastern Ghouta, part of a larger agricultural area surrounding Damascus called Ghouta, is controlled by the anti-Assad rebel groups known as Faylaq al-Rahman and Jaysh al-Islam. It's home to more than 390,000 civilians. Jaysh al-Islam, a Syrian opposition group formed in 2013, announced Monday that an agreement brokered by the U.N. was reached with Russia to evacuate the injured to a safe place for treatment. "In the framework of the U.N. Resolutions 2254 and 2401, we have reached an agreement with Russia, mediated by the U.N., to evacuate the injured from eastern Ghouta to receive treatment, due to the shortage of medical aid, ban of medications for six years, targeting [of] hospitals and medical points," Jaysh al-Islam said in its official statement. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based rights group monitoring the situation in Syria, reported the death toll reached 1,160. A majority were killed after the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2401 to cease hostilities in eastern Ghouta for 30 days. Failed U.N. cease-fire The U.N. Security Council held a meeting Monday to discuss the stalled resolution. Last month, the security council unanimously adopted Resolution 2401, calling for all parties to put down their arms, lift the siege on populated areas, enable the evacuation of civilians who wish to leave and accelerate the delivery of humanitarian aid. The resolution did not take effect, and humanitarian efforts to deliver aid into eastern Ghouta were thwarted. Guterres told the security council Monday that the Syrian regime had removed most of the medical supplies that were to be delivered to eastern Ghouta on March 5. Thousands of Syrians are in desperate need of medical care, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Monday. She added that there has been almost no delivery of medical equipment because the Assad regime removed it. Haley warned that the United States "remains prepared to act, if we must." "It is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take. And we are prepared to take again. When the international community consistently fails to act, there are times when states are compelled to take their own action," Haley warned. The Syrian conflict will be entering its eighth year in mid-March. The observatory said more than 500,000 civilians were killed in the past seven years. Of those, about 85 percent were killed by the Syrian regime and its allied militias. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made an unannounced visit to Kabul Tuesday, in the first trip by a Trump administration official to Afghanistan since President Ashraf Ghani offered to hold peace talks with the Taliban. Ghani, in a conference late last month called the Kabul Process, involving representatives of 25 countries along with the United States and NATO, offered the Taliban political recognition, help in removing their names from international sanctions lists, passports, jobs, and a political office in Kabul if they renounce violence and come to the table. The Taliban have not yet officially responded to that offer. But while traveling to Kabul, Mattis told reporters there were signs elements of the Taliban were interested in negotiations. He acknowledged that these were small groups, not the main Taliban faction led by Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada. It may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop. That may be a bridge too far to expect. But there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government, he said. Monday, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah told a bi-weekly meeting attended by the ministers and their deputies that the government has not received a positive response from the militant group. The Taliban have also not yet applied to attend an end of March meeting in Uzbekistans capital Tashkent, the Uzbek foreign ministry said according to Reuters. Participants in the meeting are expected to put their weight behind calls for direct negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government. The Taliban have said they will only talk to the United States and not what they call its puppet regime in Kabul. Mattis, who is expected to meet NATO and Afghan leadership, arrived a day after the Taliban briefly overran a western Afghan district, a battlefield success the insurgents failed to achieve in 2017. A top U.S. general on Tuesday signaled support for the Iran nuclear deal, saying the agreement, which President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from, has played an important role in limiting Iran's nuclear program. "The JCPOA addresses one of the principle threats that we deal with from Iran, so if the JCPOA goes away then we will have to have another way to deal with their nuclear weapons program," said U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. military's Central Command. He was speaking during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, using an acronym for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the accord with Iran agreed in July 2015 in Vienna. Trump has threatened to withdraw the United States from the accord between Tehran and six world powers unless Congress and European allies help "fix" it with a follow-up pact. Trump does not like the deal's limited duration, among other things. When asked by a lawmaker whether he agreed with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford's position on the deal, Votel said: "Yes, I share their position." Mattis said late last year that the United States should consider staying in the Iran nuclear deal unless it was proven that Tehran was not complying or that the agreement was not in the U.S. national interest. Dunford, the top ranking U.S. military officer, has said Iran was complying with the pact and has warned that any American decision to walk away would make other nations less likely to enter into agreement with the United States. A collapse of the Iran nuclear deal would be a "great loss," the U.N. atomic watchdog's chief warned Trump recently, giving a wide-ranging defense of the accord and the agency's work under it. The U.S. national security adviser said Monday that Washington is "determined" to keep up its policy of maximum pressure on North Korea aimed at its denuclearization. General H.R. McMaster was in New York to brief ambassadors of the 15-nation U.N. Security Council, as well as Japan and South Korea. He told reporters afterward that the administration's approach, coupled with strong international sanctions, is yielding progress. "President [Donald] Trump asked me also to thank the security council for their unity and resolve that has us now to a point where we may be able to pursue a diplomatic solution to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," McMaster said. "So, we are determined to pursue that course." McMaster said he briefed diplomats on the U.S. intention to keep up the pressure campaign. "We all agreed that we are optimistic about this opportunity, but we are determined to keep up the campaign of maximum pressure, till we see words matched with deeds and real progress toward denuclearization," McMaster said. Pyongyang silent The U.S. said earlier Monday that it has yet to hear back from North Korea since Trump agreed to meet in person with Pyongyang's reclusive leader, Kim Jong Un. McMaster did not respond to reporters' questions on that. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on a visit to Nigeria, said the U.S. expects to "hear something directly" from North Korea. He appeared unconcerned that there has been no immediate public response to Kim's invitation for a face-to-face meeting of the two leaders. "As you know, it's a very recent development," Tillerson said. "There will be several steps ... necessary to agree on location, agree on the scope of those discussions. It's very early stages. So, I know those are all questions that people are anxious to have answers to. I would say just remain patient, and we'll see what happens." He declined to float ideas for where the summit might occur, saying, "I think it's going to be very important that those kinds of conversations are held quietly through the two parties." South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-yong praised China as having played a role in helping push North Korea toward new denuclearization talks. "Our president, Moon Jae-in, and the [South Korean] government believe that various advances toward achieving the goal of peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula were made with active support and contribution from President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government," Chung said, as he met with China's top foreign policy adviser, Yang Jiechi. Yang reiterated China's position that it wants to see the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and to solve problems through dialogue. No U.S. concessions U.S. officials said Sunday they would not make any concessions to North Korea ahead of the summit. "Make no mistake about it while these negotiations are going on, there will be no concessions made," Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo told Fox News Sunday. Pompeo said the North Korean ruler must "continue to allow us to perform our military-necessary exercises" with South Korea, "and then he's got to make sure that he leaves on the table that discussion for denuclearization" of his military. Tufts University Korean Studies assistant professor Sung Yoon Lee told VOA that Kim has tricked the world into believing he has offered concessions. "We know that nuclear and ballistic missile tests are prohibited under more than 10 U.N. Security Council resolutions, so the mere utterance of abstinence from illicit, forbidden activities is no concession at all," he said. The third noreaster to hit parts of the U.S. northeast in two weeks was expected to start late on Monday and Amtrak said it would suspend service on Tuesday between Boston and New York, as the storm could bring high winds, a foot or more of snow and power outages. This storm wont be as widespread as before, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Itll hit New England the hardest. The railroad said the service suspension would last until at least 11 a.m. EDT on Tuesday and that service would resume when weather conditions allowed. The storm was expected to continue into Tuesday. Amtrak said it would also cancel some trains running from New York to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Boston declared a snow emergency and announced a parking ban beginning on Monday at 7 p.m on major roads. The city said Boston Public Schools, libraries and other city services would be closed on Tuesday. The National Weather Service said parts of Massachusetts could get up to 18 inches of snow and issued a coastal flood warning. Certain storms are classified as noreasters because their strong winds typically are from the northeast, and they tend to occur most frequently and most violently between September and April along North Americs East Coast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some noreasters carry hurricane-force winds. Storms on March 2 and 7 left at least 9 people dead across the region, some 2 million homes and businesses without power, and flooding in the streets of Boston. Other areas that were severely affected in the previous two storms, including parts of New York, New Jersey and Maryland will see only one-to-four inches of snow this time around, Chenard said. Blizzard conditions are possible and power outages are a threat for parts of Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, which are under the Winter Storm Watch from Monday evening to Tuesday afternoon, he said. Coastal areas could see 40 or 50 mph winds, he said. The snow will be wet. Combined with the wind, it presents a serious risk of power outages. Venezuela's opposition alliance called on the United Nations on Monday not to send observers to the presidential election on May 20 to avoid legitimizing a poll it says is rigged in favor of Socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro, who is seeking re-election amid an economic collapse that has sent a tide of migrants to neighboring countries, has asked the United Nations to send observers to the vote. The main opposition coalition is boycotting the election on the grounds that the elections council has historically favored the ruling Socialist Party, and because the best-known candidates have been jailed or barred from holding office. "What we have asked the United Nations today is not to validate the electoral fraud in May," said legislator Delsa Solorzano of the Broad Front coalition at a small demonstration outside a U.N. office in Caracas. She added that any U.N. mission should "be only for human rights issues, not to validate a dictatorship." A U.N. spokesman contacted via email said the government's request for a mission had been received. "But our position on all such matters is that the sending of electoral observers requires a mandate from one of the U.N.'s Member State bodies" such as the Security Council or General Assembly, wrote spokesman Farhan Aziz Haq. "If the (General Assembly) or the Security Council were to provide a mandate, we would respond accordingly. But neither has done so up until now." Opposition leaders are planning a protest on Saturday to demand better conditions for the upcoming vote. Former state governor Henri Falcon has broken with the coalition and will run against Maduro, insisting that Maduro's low opinion poll numbers make him a weak candidate. Critics say the government is likely to manipulate the vote results and that participating will legitimize the process. Maduro says his government is the victim of an "economic war" led by the opposition with the help of Washington. His critics say the country's problems are the result of dysfunctional socialist policies. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Voters in Pennsylvania head to the polls Tuesday in a special congressional election with national implications for President Donald Trump and opposition Democrats. The election is taking place in a congressional district that Donald Trump won by 19 points in 2016. Wildlife protection in Kenya has improved dramatically in recent years, thanks to widespread anti-poaching efforts, including some help from the United States. But as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits Kenya, conservationists there say the U.S. lifting a ban on imports of some African animal trophies sends the wrong message. Tillerson praised Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officials Sunday as he toured a U.S.-supported forensics laboratory just outside of Nairobi National Park. The laboratory, opened in 2015 with help from USAID and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, performs DNA analysis of illicit wildlife products and weapons used in animal poaching. Tillerson told reporters with him on his first trip to Africa that the U.S. considered wildlife conservation vitally important. "You know Kenya's really a leader in preventing trafficking in particular, and illegal poaching," said Tillerson. "This is very interesting in terms of what this lab now allows them to do, and to also track outside Kenya where the trafficking networks are going. That's really the key is to shut it all down out there as well so people are not going to -- just because you get it out of Kenya doesn't mean you're safe. And so, extremely important." Laboratory officials told Tillerson their work led to fifty prosecutions in their first two years of operation. Much of the poached and smuggled animal parts throughout Africa make their way to Kenya's port in Mombasa, known as the world's hub for ivory smuggling. But, Kenya has made fast progress cracking down on domestic poaching. Elephant poaching for ivory in Kenya has been reduced from a recent high of 103 killed in 2012 to eight killed last year, says Tom Lalampaa with the Northern Rangeland's Trust, a USAID-supported program. Lalampaa credits stepped-up community policing, rangers, and mobile response teams for cracking down on poachers. "And then also the legislation, the current wildlife law, is quite strong in terms of penalties-unlike before, which is good," said Lalampaa. "I think Kenya Wildlife Services has also sort of geared up their efforts, improved their efforts. So, things are working. But, it's not yet time to celebrate." Just ahead of Tillerson's arrival on the continent, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service overturned Obama-era restrictions on imports of some African hunting trophies-including parts of lions and elephants such as ivory. The agency was acting on a court's ruling on a lawsuit brought by Safari Club International and the National Rifle Association. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in December found the Obama administration did not follow proper procedure when implementing its ban. The decision lifts a blanket ban on imports of lion and elephant trophies from six African nations-Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Imports of the endangered animal parts will be decided instead on a case-by-case basis. Kenya has banned trophy hunting since 1977 and many conservationists, like Lalampaa, oppose the U.S. decision. "That sends a very wrong signal in this country. Because the communities are working tirelessly to try and stop poaching from the source. To try and ensure that there's no poaching," said Lalampaa. "And, then all of a sudden when such a policy announcement is made, it really hurts, it really discourages those communities who are taking care of this wildlife 24 hours a day." The U.S. move on wildlife imports expands a November decision to lift the ban on elephant trophies from Zambia and Zimbabwe, which U.S. President Donald Trump had indicated he planned to reverse. Trump at the time tweeted it would be very hard to change his mind that trophy hunting - what he called a "horror show" - in any way helps conservation of elephants or any other animal. Paula Kahumbu, a Kenyan conservationist with Wildlife Direct, notes the U.S. was instrumental in pushing China to ban the trade in ivory. But the U.S., she says, is sending confusing messages that started when it expanded the ivory trade with Zambia and Zimbabwe. "These two countries are renowned for corruption. They're renowned for their ivory disappearing from their national stockpiles and ending up in China and Thailand and other countries," said Kahumbu. "So, that's one big problem-they've created a loophole. But, secondly, the idea that it's okay to hunt these animals, and that you're helping those countries through hunting, is an idea that should be questioned rigorously." Big game trophy hunting advocates argue the high fees they pay - up to $100,000 per safari - directly benefit conservation efforts. But critics of trophy hunting like Kahumbu say most of that money goes to organizers of the hunts while little reaches the local level. After a year of threats and diatribes, U.S. President Donald Trump and third-generation North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un have agreed to meet face-to-face for talks about the North's nuclear program. It remains to be seen whether a summit, if it takes place, could lead to any meaningful breakthrough after an unusually provocative year. North Korea tested its most powerful nuclear weapon to date and test-launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles theoretically capable of striking the U.S. mainland. Will there be a breakthrough? Failure? Or merely the start of another long and difficult process meant to remove the North's nuclear capabilities? Here's a look at what may lie ahead and the challenges that remain: Why now? Analysts say Trump's decision to accept Kim's invitation for a summit and to do it by May could be linked in part to a desire to claim a significant achievement in his most difficult foreign policy challenge before the U.S. midterm elections in November. Kim, on the other hand, seems desperate to save a sanctions-battered North Korean economy. Both leaders have interests in striking a big deal, said Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior analyst at South Korea's Sejong Institute. Should it happen, the May summit between Trump and Kim will come shortly after a planned April meeting between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. It's likely that North Korea will also push for summits with China, Russia and Japan later in the year to further break out of its isolation, Cheong said. Trump will likely try to achieve something dramatic in his meeting with Kim, said Hong Min, an analyst at Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification, including a possible exchange of verbal commitments on the denuclearization of North Korea and a peace treaty between the two countries. Where to meet? The United States and North Korea will likely be talking quite a bit in coming months and maybe even exchanging high-level delegations to set up the logistics of the summit. One of the biggest questions is where it will take place. The United States would prefer Washington, while North Korea will want Trump to come to Pyongyang, its capital. Unless the countries agree to a third-country location, which would likely be South Korea, experts see it as more likely that Trump will fly to Pyongyang. While no incumbent U.S. president has ever set foot in North Korea, Trump might be willing to become the first because it would fit the strong-willed, in-your-face type of leadership he tries to project, Hong said. It's hard to imagine Kim going to Washington because he is much less diplomatically experienced; the planned meeting with Moon in April will be his first with any state leader since he took power in 2011. They could also meet in the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone between the rival Koreas or, Hong said, the southern South Korean resort island of Jeju. What will North Korea want? A big question will be whether Trump can accept a freeze of North Korea's nuclear weapons program rather than its elimination, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University. Kim will likely want to keep some nukes as a deterrent, but that might be hard for Trump to tolerate when he spent so much time harshly criticizing his predecessor, Barack Obama, for allegedly standing by and watching as North Korea became a nuclear threat. Still, Kim might express a firmer commitment to denuclearization to Trump, including giving a full report on the North's current nuclear weapons arsenal and allowing thorough international verification once the denuclearization process takes hold, said Choi Kang, vice president of Seoul's Asan Institute for Policy Studies. While some experts speculate that North Korea might ask for a halt of annual military drills between the United States and South Korea or even the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula, Choi said it's meaningful that Kim, at least according to South Korean presidential official Chung Eui-yong, said he understands that the joint military exercises between the allies "must continue." This signals an important departure from the past when the North thoroughly rejected the U.S.-South Korea alliance. Kim might even free several American citizens currently detained in the North to brighten the atmosphere of his summit with Trump, Choi said. Have we seen this before? The whirlwind events of the past months might be compared to 1994, when former U.S. President Bill Clinton concluded a major nuclear agreement between Washington and Pyongyang. Under the "Agreed Framework," North Korea halted construction of two reactors the United States believed were for nuclear weapons production in return for two alternative nuclear power reactors that could be used to provide electricity but not bomb fuel, and 500,000 annual metric tons of fuel oil for the North. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright traveled to Pyongyang in 2000, and there were talks of a summit between Clinton and then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un. But there was no arrangement before George W. Bush's election. The Agreed Framework broke down after U.S. intelligence agencies said North Korea was pursuing a second way to make bombs, using enriched uranium. North Korea is clearly a different country than it was two decades ago, holding a legitimate nuclear program as a bargaining chip. But Trump, in just his second year in office and facing a similarly strong-willed leader eager to directly break a diplomatic deadlock, could be in a better position to cut a meaningful deal with North Korea than Clinton was at the end of his presidency. "Chemistry wise, Trump and Kim might get along; they both strive to be bold and could be eager to strike a deal," said Choi. "After years of diplomatic stalemate over the North's nuclear program, we could use an injection of top-down decision making." Sierra Leone's main opposition leader called for calm Wednesday night after his supporters engaged in running street battles with police, resulting in at least one injury at the end of an otherwise peaceful day of polling in the West African nation. "I want every Sierra Leonean to behave themselves in a very peaceful manner so that we can have a peaceful election once in our lifetime," Julius Maada Bio told reporters at Sierra Leone People's Party headquarters in Freetown's posh Goderich neighborhood, where he was holed up at dusk after his supporters clashed with police on the street. "We hope this does not mar the whole election, which has been relatively smooth," said Bio, a retired general who briefly seized power in a 1996 coup before handing power to civilian authorities. Sierra Leone held general elections Wednesday in what analysts said was one of the most hotly contested races in the country's history. Bio was running for president against Samura Kamara of the ruling All People's Congress and 14 other candidates. The current president, Ernest Bai Koromo of the APC, must step down after serving two terms. The vote went mostly smoothly across the country, but after polls closed, tensions rose in Goderich following an alleged incident outside the SLPP headquarters, where party officials said they were conducting a vote tally. Bio accused police of trying to enter the compound without a warrant and putting him under "siege." He said police accused him of "hacking" and threatened to use tear gas and force to enter. Bio rejected the hacking allegation. SLPP supporters then amassed in the streets, facing off against police carrying shields who had deployed. Police used pepper spray and electric shocks to disperse the growing crowd, and SLPP supporters then began throwing rocks and glass bottles at police. Police responded by throwing rocks back, prompting running battles. At least one SLPP supporter was injured. Claude Robert, with a gash on his forehead, said police hit him as he tried to block them from entering the SLPP compound. A few armed soldiers were also on the scene but did not participate in the melee. VOA was unable to reach police for comment, but officers withdrew from outside SLPP headquarters after the skirmishes. As the clashes died down, Bio met with police and election observers, including former Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan, head of the African Union observer mission to Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone has enjoyed relative peace since its bloody civil war ended 15 years ago, but the country has been hit by crises recently, including the devastating 2014 Ebola outbreak and a deadly mudslide last year. The APC has been accused of responding poorly to those disasters and of corruption. The party's supporters point to newly built roads and electricity connections during Koromo's decade in power. British inventor Trevor Baylis, the creator of the wind-up radio, died Monday at the age of 80. Acquaintances say Baylis died of natural causes after a lengthy illness. Baylis developed the BayGen radio in the early 1990s after seeing a television program about the spread of AIDS in Africa and the need to get lifesaving information to people who did not have electricity and could not afford batteries. Inspired by old-fashioned gramophones, the wind-up radio functioned with an internal generator, doing away with the need for batteries or access to electricity. The invention won Baylis international acclaim. The earliest version ran for 14 minutes at a time, and production facilities were located in South Africa. President Donald Trump has ousted his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and is replacing him with CIA director Mike Pompeo. Pompeo is to be replaced at CIA by Gina Haspel, Pompeo's deputy at CIA. "Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!," Trump said on Twitter Tuesday. The President wanted to make sure to have his new team in place in advance of the upcoming talks with North Korea and various ongoing trade negotiations, said a senior White House official, regarding the timing of the announcement. President Trump announced last week he had agreed to meet in person with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Details have yet to be worked out. VOA White House correspondent Steve Herman contributed to this report HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwes state-owned electricity distributor has given businesses, including mines and large-scale farms, six months to clear their bills or risk being cut off and face litigation, the company said on Monday. The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDS) is owed more than $1 billion by electricity users, including domestic households, farmers, industries and mining companies. ZETDC said in a public notice that businesses had six months to clear their bills because it required the money to pay for electricity imports to supplement local generation. Zimbabwe, which has had stable electricity supplies for more than a year, currently produces 938 megawatts and imports up to 450 megawatts from South Africa and Mozambique. Isaac Kwesu, the chief executive of the Chamber of Mines, said although some members had accrued huge bills over the years, they had made plans to clear the arrears with ZETDC. I know members will make all efforts to honour their dues because there is no one who can afford to have a mine closed, Kwesu said, but declined to name members with arrears. Zimbabwe this month expects to commission two new generating units at the countrys biggest hydro power plant, Kariba, which will add 300 megawatts of capacity. A Zimbabwean policeman has been sentenced to 10 days in prison for allegedly accusing former president Robert Mugabe for being too old to rule Zimbabwe. According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Sergeant Thompson Joseph Mloyie, was convicted for contravening the Police Act. Sgt. Mloyie, who has been on trial since January allegedly contravened paragraph 35 of the Schedule of the Police Act, Chapter 11:10 (acting in an unbecoming manner prejudicial to discipline or reasonably likely to bring discredit to the Police Service). The policeman, who appeared before Superintendent Makunike at Harare Central Police Station, allegedly discredited the police service when he uttered remarks denigrating the former president and his wife. When he was arrested, he faced charges of undermining the authority of or insulting the president in contravention of Section 33 (2) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23. Mloyie was represented by Jeremiah Bamu and Noble Chinhanu of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. According to the lawyers group, police claimed that Sgt. Mloyie said, President Mugabe achembera haachakwanisi kutonga nyika ino. Ndiye arikukonzera (sic) kutambura munyika ino uye akaroora hure Grace Mugabe. (President Mugabe is too old and incapable of leading this country and is the cause of the suffering going on in this country and is married to a prostitute, Grace Mugabe. During the trial, according to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the ZRP lined up two witnesses - Sergeant Stanley Makunda and Sergeant Amos Muchenjero - who are all members of the police service to testify against Mloyie. Several people have in the past been facing similar accusations. Mugabe fell from grace when he was removed from office by then Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa with the help of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. Mnangagwa is now the president of Zimbabwe. The ZDF claimed that it wanted to get rid of criminals, surrounding Mugabe, who had taken over all presidential duties in an effort to ensure that his wife succeeded him. Mugabe says he was unconstitutionally removed from office and has urged the Southern African Development Community, which initially said there was no coup in Zimbabwe, to intervene. He is currently linked to the National Patriotic Front led by Retired Brigadier General Ambrose Mutinhiri and some of the people who were targeted by the military in the coup last November. They include Professor Jonathan Moyo, Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao and several others. Mutinhiri, however, says Mugabe and expelled members of a Zanu PF faction known as Generation 40 are not part of the National Patriotic Front. This content is expired! Unfortunely this content is expired and cannot be viewed anymore; if You are the owner of this content please login to our Website, go to our access panel and enable this content again. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. The transaction agreed to with its rival RWE AG values Innogy at 22 billion euros ($27.1 billion) and will sharpen the focus of Germanys leading two electricity and natural gas providers, according to a statement from the companies on Monday. EON billed itself as the first formerly integrated utility to focus entirely on meeting the needs of 50 million customers throughout Europe. RWE said it doesnt expect any net job losses. On paper, the Pennsylvania special election on Tuesday could appear inconsequential. The winner will serve out the rest of this year while most legislating is on pause so lawmakers can run for reelection. And the district wont even exist in its current form come November, thanks to a redrawn map recently ordered by the state Supreme Court. But the race could have far-reaching implications for the strategy of both parties, both in Pennsylvania and nationally. But Mendelson picked up steam, raking in campaign donations from a variety of sources including real estate developers, prominent lawyers and former government officials. Lazere says he wont take money from businesses, which have given Mendelson more than $60,000 during his reelection campaign. I know from experience that there are teachers who keep guns in their cars, and they have gone out to get them and stopped a bad situation from getting worse. I know there are people who, once they have fired a gun, they say, I want to be good enough at this to protect myself, my loved ones, my school, because I dont want to feel completely useless when something happens. Temple wrote he had no doubts whatsoever that should Ms. Does identity be revealed, she will be subject to an alarming amount of harassment, solicitation and other unwanted communications. He said she met her burden of showing that her privacy interest outweighs the publics interest in disclosing her name in the nations eighth-largest jackpot. Slovakia's coalition to face no-confidence vote: Slovakia's coalition government will face a no-confidence vote in parliament next week amid the political turmoil set off by the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee. The move comes after tens of thousands of Slovaks joined in anti-government rallies last week to demand a thorough investigation of the shooting deaths of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova. Kuciak was writing about ties between the Italian mafia operating in Slovakia and people close to Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose party has been linked to corruption scandals. The dreamers of today are the approximately 700,000 immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. The largest number of them were around 3 when they came across the border which, in case President Trump is reading, is a bit young to be a rapist or even a gang member. (Almost 5 percent were younger than 1.) These onetime kids are now anywhere from 16 to 35. They live all over the country, but the largest concentration is in California, the Los Angeles area, with Texas coming in second. The vast majority came from Mexico, with El Salvador a distant second and Venezuela bringing up the rear. (No one should have to live in Venezuela the way things are going there these days.) Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy State funds unspent but designated for a biomass resource facility as part of a twoyear contract that was awarded in 2016 by the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to Stored Solar, which operates a biomass plant in Jonesboro, are the focus of a bill that would divert those funds to other projects. The legislature held a public hearing on LD 1745, An Act Regarding a Biomassgenerated Energy Purchase and Sale Agreement and Payment to Contractors, on February 8 to hear from Stored Solar and other interested parties. A work session held by the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee on March 7 hammered out details of the bill's content. Along with a proposal for what to do with funds targeted to the biomass industry that were supposed to have been spent within a twoyear period starting in 2016, the bill also requires the PUC to ask the attorney general to investigate Stored Solar LLC and institute any proceedings against the company to "recover from Stored Solar LLC an amount equal to the amount of those funds distributed to contractors by the commission pursuant to this legislation." If the bill is successful as written in passing the House and Senate, it would set up a fund with Efficiency Maine to administrate any remaining funds to be used as incentives and loans for new woodbased biofuel installation projects, but that can be at existing facilities. The committee included language specifying that funds could not be used to refurbish or repair existing equipment. Because the PUC will be required to determine how much of the original funds Stored Solar utilized and how much, if any, it does not qualify for, the total amount of the proposed fund is not yet known. However, it could be used by businesses, municipalities, schools and more to install highefficiency wood boilers and furnaces among other types of equipment. In addition, the bill would require that if there are outstanding Stored Solar payments to contractors, they would be paid with the unspent funds. A twoyear program to assists biomass Stored Solar was one of two firms that qualified to receive $13.4 million in funding to assist the biomass industry. The funds were approved by the legislature in 2016 specifically to help bolster an industry that had suffered severely from the closure of many paper mills and biomass generating plants. However, problems at Stored Solar soon came to the fore, with reports by contractors that they were not getting paid in a timely manner. After its January 2017 start, the Jonesboro plant was placed offline temporarily in midMarch of that year "due to a lack of biomass feedstock," stated Stored Solar Vice President William Harrington in a March 27, 2017, letter to the PUC. Stored Solar's letter was in response to a March 22 PUC letter requesting an update on the company's operations and financial status. As part of the December 2017 public hearing testimony, Stored Solar's attorney, William Hewitt, submitted a letter that said in part, "LD 1745 seeks to break the Stored Solar contract at its midpoint based on assertions that Stored Solar has failed to meet its contractual obligations." He states that the company has met its obligation to: run above 50% capacity; pay its suppliers; create and sustain 42 fulltime equivalent jobs; and make at least $2.5 million in capital improvements during 2017. In addition, he noted the change in agreement that Stored Solar reached with the PUC to amend the terms of how it is paid with state funds. He says the company "will not receive a dime in compensation unless and until the PUC confirms compliance. In other words, if Stored Solar does not perform, it does not get paid." However, Dana Doran, executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine, came to the heart of the matter with his testimony on the bill. When the funding to support the biomass industry for two years was enacted in 2016, "it was our understanding that its intent was to incentivize markets and ensure that the money would have an immediate impact over the course of no more than two years. It has been nearly two years since this legislation was passed, and for the two companies that received the funding, one has met every expectation in the law, and the other is the basis for why we are here today." ReEnergy Regional Manager Mark Thibodeau, who is with the other company referenced by Dana to receive twoyear funding for its biomass generating plants, stated that the funds "created a critical lifeline" for the operations of ReEnergy's four plants. As an example of what the influx of two years of funding has supported, he outlined that the company employs about 100 people and supports hundreds more in the logging and trucking industries. The plants create 1.2 million megawatthours of electricity annually; have achieved certification to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standard; and since late 2011 have spent more than $500 million in capital and operating expenses in Maine. Jonesboro plant's history When in October 2016 Stored Solar purchased from Covanta Energy its two biomass generating plants, one in Jonesboro and one in West Enfield, hopes were high that it would infuse much-needed demand in the state's logging and biomass industries, particularly in Washington County. In the Jonesboro plant's heyday it used about 250,000 green tons of biomass, supplied by about 12 vendors. At full capacity of 8595% it operated around the clock, seven days a week, and supplied 23 to 24 megawatts of electricity and employed about 21 people. The Jonesboro plant and its sister plant in West Enfield were formerly coowned by Ridgewood Maine LLC and Indeck Energy Services Inc. The plant began commercial operation in 1987 but was shut down from 1995 to 2001 because of conditions in the electric power market. The plant was built to accept forestrelated biomass such as wood chips, bark, tree limbs and tops and mill residue. In late 2008 Covanta Energy Corporation purchased the two plants and then sold them to Stored Solar. Along with supporting the biomass industry in the state, Stored Solar had stated its plans to create cogeneration facilities at the plants through an investment partner, Synthesis Venture Fund Partners. Such cogeneration expansion would meet the new requirements of the renewable energy credit marketplace. However, the testimony of logger George Moon of TJ Timber Products LLC of Hancock illustrated some of the difficulties that arose between Stored Solar and contractors supplying biomass. He explained that payments for his company's deliveries of wood chips were delayed by four months, causing his company hardship. His company has been in operation for 21 years and had done business with the previous owners of the Stored Solar plants. "This really is no way to do business if you want loggers to haul their product into your facility. Waiting 90 to 120plus days to get payment and for them to still want you to supply them with biomass." The first of several reasons policing reform has lost our national attention is obvious: Trump. The election of a reality television host under a cloud of Russian interference whose White House is plagued by scandals, constant turnover, policy reversals, leaks and staff infighting is deservedly the drama at center stage. Cable news stations, the political press corps and social media networks have covered Trump above all else. As a result, they no longer play the same role in amplifying the cause of police reform. A video like Minguelas, or the one showing the similar beating of Johnnie Jermaine Rush in Asheville, N.C. which just 18 months ago would have spurred columns, debates, cable news panels and sustained protests is no longer breaking through. The nation has a short attention span, and frankly, is interested in what the major networks tell the nation it should be interested in, Devon Jacob, the civil rights attorney representing Minguela, told me in an email. I actually got along well with Rex, but really it was a different mind-set, a different thinking, Trump said Tuesday as he departed the White House for a trip to California. When you look at the Iran deal, I think its terrible. I guess he thought it was okay . . . . So we were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think its going to go very well. The largest employer on Deer Island, with 140 workers, suffered a second fire in less than six months, as an early-morning blaze on March 1 destroyed Paturel International's lobster-processing plant and warehouse at Northern Harbour on the western side of the island. The facility's live lobster building was not damaged, and 40 employees are now continuing there, returning on March 5, but 100 other employees have lost work. At a meeting after the fire on March 3, employees say they were told that the company would rebuild the facility, but it could take two years. Rick Doucet, who is the MLA for the island, comments, "This whole situation and the impact for workers and islanders who make a living thanks to Paturel's operations have been heart-wrenching. This fire is a major blow to Deer Island and will have a big impact on the community, the company and their employees. We are thankful the employees who were working at the time made it out safe and sound with no injuries." He adds, "We know the workers and residents of this region are strong and resilient. We have faced challenges before. We have overcome them together. We will do so again." The fire was reported by night-cleaning employees at the plant shortly after 2:20 a.m. According to the RCMP, all people inside were able to leave the building unharmed. A total of about 40 firefighters from the Deer Island, Back Bay, Blacks Harbour, St. George and St. Andrews departments fought the blaze. Deer Island Fire Chief John Dolan says they were hampered at first by the live electric lines that were downed and had to wait about 15 minutes until the power was turned off. Firefighters were on the scene until 5 p.m. on Thursday. Investigators from the New Brunswick Fire Marshal's Office were on the scene that day, and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. Joyce Stuart, chair of the West Isles Local Service District, who has lived on the island for 65 years, says the fire was the largest in her memory. "It's quite a blow to the island. Not just those living on the island are affected, but there were a lot from the mainland working there. It means a lot to the businesses, too, as money earned here is spent here." Paul Richardson, who worked at the Paturel plant, says that with over 100 people out of work, "a tenth of the island's population unexpectedly has no employment. It's a big hit for the island and for the communities near us -- St. George and St. Stephen." He notes that perhaps up to 30 workers would come over from the mainland each day on the ferry to work at the plant. Richardson says that along with the plant being destroyed there was "a considerable amount of product lost" in the freezers that were filled "close to capacity." Paturel's parent company, East Coast Seafood, though, states that its commitments to customers are being met, with the company having temporarily shifted lobster processing to another one of its 12 facilities on the east coast. Along with the March 1 fire, Paturel also has had to deal with the loss of its secondary lobster plant in Lambertville, which was destroyed by a fire on September 23. The company had then made alternate arrangements, renting another building, and planned to rebuild that plant, too. As for the 75 to 80 Filipino workers at the Paturel plant at Northern Harbour, some have been in Canada long enough to obtain permanent residency status and will be able to go to other jobs, if they aren't continuing with Paturel. For those who are in Canada under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, their visa status is tied to their working at Paturel, so the company will have to release them from their contract before they would be able to work elsewhere. According to Richardson, Paturel has given them the assurance that it will release them so they can look for other jobs, if necessary. A number of the Filipinos live in three housing units next to the plant that were not damaged by the fire. Richardson says he himself is at retirement age and has a small pension, but he will be losing half of his income with the loss of work. With few other job opportunities on the island except the fisheries and fish farming, Richardson notes that it has been welcome news that two salmon-processing plants in St. George operated by Cooke Aquaculture and Northern Harvest have reached out to hire as many of the Paturel workers as they can. "The community really has been rallying behind all of us," he says, with East Coast Seafood and both levels of government also indicating support for the workers. Support being offered In the wake of the fire, political leaders have stepped forward to offer assistance. New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant commented, "We will do all we can to support the workers affected by the plant's closure." "This is a devastating loss to the island community," stated Member of Parliament for New Brunswick Southwest Karen Ludwig. "I will be working closely with the company and my federal and provincial counterparts in the days and weeks ahead to help support Paturel, the island lobster fishermen and the many employees." According to a March 7 statement from Christina Ferranti-Clift, marketing director of East Coast Seafood Group, the company is working hard to assess the damage and considering options moving forward. East Coast Seafood has a network of 12 facilities along the North Atlantic coast, and "each one plays a critical role in the overall operation," the statement says. "It is estimated that it will be months before there is a plan in place for a permanent solution." The company also is working with government agencies and other local Canadian companies to assist with job placement and job skills training. MLA Doucet, who is minister of the aquaculture and fisheries, says the department's staff are working with their colleagues from the Department of PostSecondary Education Training and Labour (PETL) and Service Canada to determine whether workers impacted by the Paturel fire might be able fill positions elsewhere or whether they might be able to benefit from any services from government. Staff at the department of PETL are also available to offer employment services and training through Training and Skills Development to affected employees. "Our employees remain our greatest asset at Paturel International, and I am proud to report uninterrupted product logistics to our customers worldwide," says East Coast Seafood CEO and President Chris Maze. "We are an organization made up of extraordinary people with a commitment to production excellence." Headquartered in Massachusetts, East Coast Seafood Group is the world's largest distributor of live and frozen North American lobster and a major distributor of scallops and fish. Its subsidiaries include Paturel International, which has live lobster and lobster-processing facilities in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with live lobsters being shipped into the European and Asian markets. Other subsidiaries include Garbo Lobster, which has operations in Hancock, as well as a buying station in Dipper Harbour; and Maine Fair Trade Lobster of Gouldsboro, which operates the largest lobster-processing facility in Maine. But observers say these plans are fraught and likely to have few benefits for the Rohingya, nearly 700,000 of whom have fled to Bangladesh and who continue to cross the border even as preparations are underway for their return to Burma, which is also known as Myanmar. The efforts also have been insufficient in placating ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, who are deeply distrustful of the governments plans. While battling the White House, Tillerson also had to contend with Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who publicly endorsed a proposal not to certify Irans compliance with the deal based on the notion that all of Irans activities, not just nuclear, should be considered when deciding on certification. He also reportedly clashed with Trumps national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, himself a rumored short-timer in the White House. The advances also come as U.S. and Turkish officials have taken strides to repair relations damaged by the operation and by U.S. cooperation with Syrian Kurds more broadly. The United States has worked closely with Kurdish fighters known as the YPG to battle Islamic State militants in Syria. But Turkey, which is fighting Kurdish insurgents at home, says Kurdish-controlled territory in Syria is a threat to its national security. Contributed / Courtesy of Griffin Hospital Big Y supermarket in Ansonia recently donated $1,000 to the Hewitt Center for Breast Wellness at Griffin Hospital to help prevent breast cancer in the Lower Naugatuck Valley area. The donation was part of Big Ys 11th annual Partners of Hope Campaign to promote breast cancer screening, education and treatment. Throughout October, Big Y stores sold $1 Partners of Hope pink ribbons. The funds collected were distributed to breast cancer organizations throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts. 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Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 13/3/2018 (1287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Through her death, Tina Fontaine has the power to make changes to the systems that failed her, said the teens great-aunt Thelma Favel, who sees impending change on the horizon. "When people think of Tina, they think about the way she died and everything. But they dont see the door that shes opened," Favel said when reached at her home in Powerview. FACEBOOK Tina Fontaine "I know its awful," she said, reflecting on the tragedy she now believes may bring forth solutions. "Id rather have her here beside me than to have this legacy. Id rather have her here right now than buried in a grave with her dad." That legacy Tinas lasting "kindness" is how Favel said she hopes to reach other young people like Tina. Following an acquittal on a second-degree murder charge for the man accused of killing the 15-year-old in August 2014, Favel said she will continue to work toward change. Organizations and individuals have approached her with ideas for how to honour Tinas name. "I have things that I want done," she said. "I just want everybody to remember Tina as she was. With peace and respect." Favel raised Tina as a member of Sagkeeng First Nation after Tinas father, Eugene Fontaine, was diagnosed with cancer and was unable to care for Tina and her sister. He was beaten to death at age 41 on Oct. 31, 2011, by two men who later pleaded guilty to manslaughter. His death hit Tina hard and she wanted to reconnect with her family in Winnipeg. In late June 2014, she arrived in the city on a Child and Family Services-approved visit to see her mother, Valentina Duck. She was supposed to stay for a week, but when she didnt return home, Favel asked Child and Family Services for help. Favel said CFS officials gave her the runaround when she asked for help on Tinas behalf. She didnt know the details of what was happening to Tina in Winnipeg, but she wanted to make sure the teen was safe and had easy access to counselling services upon her return. That didnt happen. Tina was taken into care in Winnipeg in mid-July and ran from her CFS placements which included local hotels. She came into contact with police, medical professionals and social workers during her last days. She was reported missing to the Winnipeg Police Service four times between July 17 and Aug. 17, 2014 the day her body was pulled from the Red River. A three-week second-degree murder trial for 56-year-old suspect Raymond Cormier ended with an acquittal last month. After the court case ended, the provincial government formally implemented new legislation governing the Office of the Childrens Advocate a change that expanded the offices responsibilities and will allow it to release an upcoming report on CFSs handling of Tinas case. The province no longer uses hotels to house kids in CFS care, and it has promised reforms to its child-welfare system. At the national level, an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is now asking for an extended deadline to complete its research work that was called for in the wake of Tinas death. Manitoba already has recommendations born out of Tinas death solutions proposed by Indigenous communities specifically to help vulnerable Indigenous girls who are in the child-welfare system and are at a higher risk for sexual exploitation. "I just want everybody to remember Tina as she was. With peace and respect" Thelma Favel In a 2016 report for the childrens advocate, Indigenous researcher and professor Dr. Marlyn Bennett, a former child in care herself, recommended Manitoba establish a grandmothers council to provide guidance on issues affecting Indigenous youth in the province, particularly young girls. "Quite often, the voices of young people are not listened to. And grandmothers are pretty fierce in terms of love for their children. So that was one thing that I think was a really key recommendation that came out of our report," she said, reflecting on the changes or lack thereof shes seen since Tinas death. In August 2017, the provincial government set up the Advisory Council of Knowledge Keepers, led by two elders who meet monthly and offer their experience working with Indigenous women and girls to focus on child sexual exploitation awareness as part of the provincially funded Tracias Trust programs. Bennett, who is now studying how to make it easier for Indigenous women to disclose experiences of sexual violence and feel safe doing so, said shes hopeful more changes will happen. "Were seeing the value in recognizing the importance of the next generation of young people, which is who Tina Fontaine represents. Despite what happened to her, she still represents hope for the future that we can change things and hopefully with dialogue between Indigenous populations and non-Indigenous populations that we can start to see the value in Indigenous populations, and that we have a role to play in the future of Canada and what it could be if you work together with Indigenous people." Tinas death has created a true atmosphere for change, said Sheila North, grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, even in the footsteps of other Indigenous young people including Tracia Owen (Tracias Trust), Jordan Anderson (Jordans Principle) and Helen Betty Osborne who died before seeing new policies and recommended changes their names now symbolize. They all show "a serious reality in this province," arising from traditionally racist policies, North said. After Tinas case, North said shes seen that people are still skeptical, but that calls for change arent being as easily dismissed as they once were. "Our people have been relentless in calling for change, relentless even in the face of great tragedy to say that enough is enough, and we see it on social media and we see it on the streets, when we see the rallies and walks and protests, so this is just another continuation of justice. I know theres a lot of angry people that want to take matters into their own hands, and I dont even blame them sometimes, but at the same time, I think what Thelma and others, and grandmothers, are telling us is that violence is not the answer and that if we continue to call for changes that reflect love, well be far better ahead for future generations than we are now," she said. "I think there is hope and I think we should maintain that momentum and I know a lot of people are." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. North, along with Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) Grand Chief Arlen Dumas, were part of a group of Indigenous leaders who stood outside the courthouse and demanded change immediately following the not-guilty verdict in Cormiers case on Feb. 22. Now, Dumas said AMC is focusing on working with the federal government, deciding "its not looking like were going to be able to collaborate with the province any further," on planned Child and Family Services reforms which it said require a complete transfer of child-welfare agencies back to Indigenous communities. In the meantime, he said, "we cant afford to have another Tina." "Anyone who is in a position of authority that actually can direct influence or power should be reassuring the community," Dumas said. "Its not only up to us to reassure our people. Our fellow Manitobans need to be doing that as well. I would certainly feel reassured if these people of influence would say, Hey, you know what? Were all looking out for each other. Because it just seems that in light of what happened to Tina Fontaine, when you follow what happened to that young girl throughout (the final days) of her life, all of the different people that had come into contact with her that should have saved her and didnt. Im not pointing fingers or casting blame, its just that we need to be more vigilant in how we look out for each other," he said. katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 12/3/2018 (1288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Finance Minister Cameron Friesen boasted Monday hes delivered Manitobans the biggest tax cut in the provinces history. The claim comes after two years of the Tories blaming the former NDP government for uncontrolled overspending, which left the province with crippling debt and a huge deficit. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Manitoba Finance Minister Cameron Friesen presents the 2018-19 budget in the media lockup prior to presenting it to the Manitoba Legislature, Monday afternoon. The reduction comes largely from increasing the basic personal income tax exemption over the next two years, saving taxpayers $19 million this budget year, and an anticipated $149.3 million in future tax years. Friesen said in an interview Monday's tax cuts surpass the NDP's reductions of $111 million in 2000 and $120 million in 2007. 'A total tax break of $2,020 by 2020 it's the largest tax cut in Manitoba history. It takes money off the cabinet table and puts it back on the kitchen table in every home in Manitoba' Manitoba Finance Minister Cameron Friesen "The basic personal exemption (increases) are truly historic this is huge," Friesen said. "It's the most profound ever." Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, the basic personal exemption in Manitoba will rise by $1,010 to $10,392. That will mean $109 more in each taxpayers pocket. The exemption will increase by a further $1,010 to $11,402 for the 2020 tax year, adding an additional $109 in savings. "Budget 2018 delivers even more tax relief for Manitobans," Friesen told the legislature Monday. "A total tax break of $2,020 by 2020 its the largest tax cut in Manitoba history. It takes money off the cabinet table and puts it back on the kitchen table in every home in Manitoba." Friesen said the changes in basic personal exemptions will remove 30,000 Manitobans from the tax rolls over the next two years. Officials said the carbon tax that kicks in Sept. 1 will cover all the tax savings and leave almost $100 million in the kitty over a full year to pay for other upcoming tax savings including the long-touted election promise to reduce the provincial sales tax to seven per cent from eight per cent in 2020, which happens to be the year of the next provincial election. Friesen said he could have taken all the carbon tax revenue and applied it to the deficit, but "Manitobans deserve a break." The Tories are also providing a tax break to small businesses. On Jan. 1, 2019, the province will alter the small-business tax reduction to $500,000, from $450,000. That would save $1.8 million in the fiscal year starting April 1, 2018, and $7 million over a full year, Friesen said. "This will save individual businesses up to $6,000 a year, money they can invest in new jobs or technology." The finance minister praised small business as the backbone of Manitobas economy. "While the federal government seems to see small business as a problem, we see Manitobas small businesses as the solution," he said. Meanwhile, Manitoba increased the farmland school tax rebate $3.4 million. Only two taxes go up significantly: tobacco goes up $7 million over a full year, and phasing out the credit unions' special deduction saves the province $800,000 in this budget and $15 million over a full year. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Theres a handful of small tax reductions that put money back in the pockets of people in specific areas, officials said. Private firms that create daycare spaces would qualify for up to $10,000 in tax credits over five years. Theres an additional $1.5-million exemption for businesses from retail sales tax. For individuals, there are slight improvements via cutting red tape for personal caregivers and education property tax credits. The Manitoba book-publishing and cultural industries tax credits have been extended. Friesen renewed the $16-million film production tax credit, saying it is valuable for Manitoba jobs. The province will also create an industry working group to help government improve the credit, he said. nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca Manitoba will cut income taxes and substantially reduce the deficit in the upcoming year thanks largely to an infusion of cash from Ottawa and the introduction of the federally mandated carbon tax. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 12/3/2018 (1288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Manitoba will cut income taxes and substantially reduce the deficit in the upcoming year thanks largely to an infusion of cash from Ottawa and the introduction of the federally mandated carbon tax. After numerous skirmishes with the Trudeau government over funding in recent months, there was a certain irony Monday when Finance Minister Cameron Friesen unveiled his financial blueprint for 2018-19. The government led by Premier Brian Pallister will use a carbon tax windfall of close to $1 billion over the next four years to reduce income taxes and small-business taxes, and help slash the provincial deficit to a projected $142 million by 2021-22. For the coming year, the deficit is projected to be $521 million, more than $200-million less than for the current fiscal year that ends March 31. Friesen said the province's carbon tax will take effect Sept. 1. The measure is expected to add $300 a year to the cost of gasoline and home heating for a family of four. Gasoline prices will rise by more than a nickel per litre. The Tory government promised Monday every penny and more of carbon tax revenues will be returned to Manitoba taxpayers, but that won't happen right away. In the coming fiscal year, Manitoba is expected to take in $117.7-million more in carbon tax revenues than it refunds in the form of income and small-business tax cuts and credits. That's because, while the carbon tax takes effect in less than six months, the income and business tax cuts won't kick in until 2019. That didn't stop Friesen from calling the changes "the largest tax cut in Manitoba history." Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, the basic personal exemption in Manitoba will rise by $1,010. That will mean $109 more in each taxpayers pocket. The exemption will increase by a further $1,010 for the 2020 tax year, adding an additional $109 in savings. Manitoba is expected to bring in $143 million in carbon tax revenues in the coming fiscal year, due to the Sept. 1 start -- and $248 million on an annual basis. Total transfer payments from Ottawa are expected to be $301 million higher in the coming year than in 2017-18. Its a little bit like getting a Christmas present from your toddler. You paid for it yourself Todd MacKay, Prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation on increased fuel taxes used to pay for a break in income taxes Due in large part to its belt-tightening efforts, the province will close out 2017-18 with a better fiscal performance than it had first anticipated. Friesen initially budgeted an $840-million deficit last spring, but the shortfall is now expected to come in at $726 million. The Progressive Conservative government has held the line on costs for the past year, freezing grants to municipalities, ordering health authorities to find savings, and passing a bill to freeze public-sector wages. In his third budget, Friesen continued his municipal funding freeze, while reducing spending in four government departments: agriculture; growth, enterprise and trade; municipal relations; and sustainable development. The latter, responsible for environmental programs, will take a one per cent cut. At a news conference Monday, Pallister rejected the notion Ottawa's mandated carbon tax and enhanced transfer payments were responsible for the income tax cuts and lowered deficit. He credited his government's efforts for the improved fiscal performance, and its ability to identify with taxpayers. "Were inspired by Manitobans and the decisions they make by necessity, all the time with their own budgets," he told reporters. "Manitobans have had to learn to do more with less the last number of years." The government announced plans to establish a "conservation trust" to protect wetlands. An initial endowment of $102 million is being made this year to the trust, which will be managed by the Winnipeg Foundation and with the proceeds being administered by the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation. But apart from that, there were no specific announcements Monday to address climate change. Pallister said programs to address greenhouse gas build-up would emerge, but only after consultation with various stakeholder groups. Despite the good news of a lower deficit, and plans to reduce income taxes, reaction was mixed. Loren Remillard, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, coined the term "carbon confusion" to describe the province's planned use of carbon tax revenues over the next several years. Some of the anticipated windfall will be used to offset some of the revenue that will be lost when the Progressive Conservatives keep a promise to lower the provincial sales tax by a percentage point in 2020, reporters were told. PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Manitoba Minister of Finance Cameron Friesen delivers his budget at the Manitoba Legislature Monday. Remillard lamented there were no measures to assist certain "trade-exposed sectors" with the costs of the carbon tax. He was also critical of the absence of programs to address climate change. "There is no investment in the green economy, supporting the environmental industries, to be able to help us mitigate and adapt to the challenge of greenhouse gas emissions," Remillard said. Todd MacKay, Prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, blasted the government for raising taxes in the coming year. The income tax break Manitobans will receive starting in 2019 will be offset by higher fuel taxes, he said. "Its a little bit like getting a Christmas present from your toddler. You paid for it yourself," he said. Meanwhile, Friesen would not say how much revenue the province expects to bring in from taxes on legalized marijuana. While the federal government had hoped recreational cannabis sales would begin in July, the start date may be pushed into the fall. "We do not expect a revenue windfall -- and we anticipate there will be many costs associated with this initiative," the finance minister said in his budget speech. Overall government spending is slated to reach $14.17 billion, an increase of 2.5 per cent over this past year. The Families Department will receive one of the biggest increases, with a budget hike of three per cent, to $2.06 billion. As first reported by the Free Press, small businesses will see their income threshold rise to $500,000 from $450,000 before they pay tax beginning next year. Individual businesses stand to gain as much as $6,000 a year. Health Total health-care spending will edge up by 0.9 per cent to $6.16 billion, an increase the Opposition NDP described as a defacto cut. New health initiatives include a reduction in ambulance fees to $340 from $425, and the creation of 60 full-time paramedic positions across Manitoba. Funding for renal dialysis will be boosted by $7.7 million to expand access to care for those with end-stage kidney disease. And there is an additional $14 million budgeted for cancer drugs taken at home. Education Spending on education and training is projected to rise by a half a percentage point, to $2.45 billion. The province has approved the construction of five new schools, one more than previously announced: a kindergarten to Grade 8 facility and a Grades 9-12 school in Winnipeg's Waverley West, a K-5 school in Seven Oaks, a K-8 school at Waterford Green in northwest Winnipeg, and a K-8 school in southeast Brandon. Operating grants to universities and colleges are down 0.9 per cent. Research funding to post-secondary schools has been cut by $3 million, University of Manitoba president David Barnard said. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. There are improvements to student financial aid, including an increase in bursaries totalling $1 million for low-income Indigenous students, and an additional $1.7 million to expand eligibility to students studying at private religious institutions in Manitoba. Infrastructure The government will spend $350 million on road projects, in addition to the more than $100 million on maintenance. It has earmarked $70 million in the coming year for outlet channels to improve the regulation of water levels on Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin. It is also spending $33.6 million to rehabilitate and reconstruct provincial dams, flood-protection infrastructure and agriculture drains, including projects at the Fairford Dam on Highway 6, the Shellmouth Dam and reservoir and improvements to the river-control structure and outlet structure at the Portage Diversion. larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Machu Picchu is one of the greatest architectural mysteries of Incan civilization the largest and most sophisticated empire in pre-Columbian America. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 13/3/2018 (1287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Machu Picchu is one of the greatest architectural mysteries of Incan civilization the largest and most sophisticated empire in pre-Columbian America. They rose to power in the early 13th century, spanning out from southern Peru in both directions, from modern-day Chile in the south to Ecuador in the north. Along the way they constructed more than 20,000 kilometres of stone trails to link their towns and cultural sites. At the centre of Inca civilization is a city called Cusco, which means "navel." Perched in the Peruvian Andes at an elevation of 3,399 metres, Cusco was once the capital of the Incan Empire. Tourists travelling to Machu Picchu typically arrive by air from Lima into Cusco, and spend a few days acclimatizing here. Being my first time experiencing high altitude, I initially felt exhausted, light-headed, slow in my thinking, and with zero appetite. But after two or three days of extra rest, increased hydration, a few good meals, and several Advils, I began to feel like myself, eager to finally see the place that has long been on my bucket list. The ancient city of Machu Picchu was built on a plateau at 2,430 metres, beginning around the year 1430, and there are many theories as to why it exists. Some local legends explain it as a ceremonial site, since many of its structures both man-made and natural align with astronomical events. Others believe it to be a strategic military fortress nestled in the mountains, accessible by only two trails that could be easily barricaded. This theory makes sense when you also consider Machu Picchu is nearly encircled by the turbulent Urubamba River in the valley far below, is surrounded by 44 mountains, and most importantly, is completely hidden from every lower vantage point. Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. One of the most accepted theories is that it was intended to be a retirement place for Pachacuti, the ninth Incan ruler. However, since the Incas had no written language, and no historical records exist, all that is known today was passed down orally from one generation to the next. This means well never truly know, and thats why Machu Picchu remains one of the greatest archeological mysteries in the world. There is also no definitive explanation as to why the Incas outright abandoned Machu Picchu only 100 years after it was built even before the Spanish arrived. Surprising, the Spanish never found Machu Picchu during their invasions, and although locals knew of it, it remained unknown to the outside world until 1911, when American archaeologist Hiram Bingham was led to the site. Since then, it has become the most familiar symbol of the Incan Empire, and one of the most spectacular ruins anywhere on the planet. Machu Picchu remains one of the most fascinating and important archeological sites. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, and is listed among the New 7 Wonders of the World. Tourists flock here to witness its magnificent series of buildings, plazas and platforms connected by narrow lanes and pathways. It was built mostly from granite, without the use of mortar or metal tools, and with stones cut so precisely theyve withstood the test of time, every kind of weather, even earthquakes. Tour companies like Zephyr Adventures offer guided trips, taking care of all the permits and paperwork required to hike the famous Inca Trail. This once-in-a-lifetime trip is definitely worth the time and money to get there, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to witness a truly unique and sacred place. RoseAnna Schick is an avid traveller who seeks inspiration wherever she goes. Email her at rascreative@yahoo.ca Antofagasta plc, through its subsidiaries, primarily engages in the exploration, evaluation, development, and mining of copper properties in Chile and internationally. It operates through Los Pelambres, Centinela, Antucoya, ZaldAvar, Exploration and Evaluation, and Transport segments. The company explores for copper concentrates containing by-products, such as molybdenum, gold, and silver; and copper cathodes. It holds a 60% interest in the Los Pelambres mine; a 70% interest in the Centinela mine; a 50% interest in the ZaldAvar mine; and a 70% interest in the Antucoya mine located in Chile. The company also provides rail and road cargo, and other ancillary services. In addition, it offers rail and truck services to the mining industry in the Antofagasta Region. The company was incorporated in 1888 and is based in London, the United Kingdom. Antofagasta plc is a subsidiary of Metalinvest Establishment. Read More Wall Street analysts have given Dream Global REIT 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 Dream Global REIT wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. Nuveen New Jersey Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of New Jersey. The fund invests in undervalued municipal securities and other related investments that are, exempt from regular federal and New Jersey income taxes that are rated Baa or BBB or better. It employs fundamental analysis with bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Standard & Poor's (S&P) New Jersey Municipal Bond Index. The fund was formerly known as Nuveen New Jersey Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund. Nuveen New Jersey Quality Municipal Income Fund was formed on June 1, 1999 and is domiciled in the United States. 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Ltd., Zetec France, Zetec Inc., Zetec Korea Inc., Zetec Rental LLC, Zetec Services Inc., iPipeline, iSqFt Holdings Inc., iSqFt Parent Corporation, iSqFt Sub Inc., iTradeNetwork Inc., iTradenetwork Limited, and mySBX Corporation. More information has emerged in recent days shedding light on the man accused of shooting three employees of a nonprofit after taking them hostage at a veterans home in the affluent Napa Valley town of Yountville, in Northern California on Friday. Albert Cheung Wong, a 36-year-old veteran of the war in Afghanistan, has been identified as the man who entered a going-away party for an employee of the nonprofit Pathway House on the campus of the Veterans Home of California-Yountville Friday morning armed with a rifle. Pathway House operates as a private entity providing services to veterans of the post-9/11 wars who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The Yountville facility, operated by the state of California, is the largest veterans home in the nation with over 1,000 veterans of World War II and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Wong allowed most of the staff to leave but demanded that three women remain behind. When sheriffs deputies arrived on the scene around 10:30 a.m. local time, there was an exchange of gunfire between one of the deputies and the suspect in which many shots were fired, according to Napa County Sheriff John Robertson. Law enforcement attempted to contact Wong by cell phone for several hours but were unsuccessful. During this time, hundreds of officers and agents of various federal law enforcement agencies descended on the area, including agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). When police entered the room where the hostages were being held around 6:00 p.m., they found Wong and the three women dead of gunshot wounds. The three hostages have been named as Pathway House director Christine Loeber, 48, clinical director Jennifer Golick, 42, and clinical psychologist Jennifer Gonzales, 29. Gonzales was seven months pregnant at the time of her death. Cissy Sherr, who began caring for Wong when he was eight years old following the death of his father and his mothers development of medical issues, told SFGate he had trouble readjusting to civilian life after service in Afghanistan. He was starting to feel like he was in a hopeless circle after a while. You can only think about that for so long without snapping, Sherr noted. Sherr and her husband raised Wong for four years but their jobs would not allow them to spend enough time with him. Wong was sent to foster care as a teenager and spent the rest of his childhood with an adoptive family in the San Francisco area. Those who knew him during this time say that he had always wanted to serve in the Army, as his father had. One of his adoptive brothers, Tyrone Lampkin, told the Press Democrat that Wong was prone to violent outbursts and that an incident involving another adoptive brother resulted in Wong having to live elsewhere at one point. Wong enlisted and served four years in the Army Reserve from 1998 to 2002. In 2008, he began working as a security guard and obtained a license to carry a 9mm firearm as part of the job. His license was canceled in October of last year for reasons that have not yet been released to the public, according to the Press Democrat . In 2010, Wong enlisted for active duty in the Army. He was deployed to Afghanistan for two years beginning in 2011. Wong was given an expert marksmanship award and served as a specialist on various operations during his deployment. Sherr told the Associated Press (AP) that Wong would often call her before going on operations and said it seemed like they singled Wong out for dangerous missions because they knew he did not have a family. Wong received several commendations and was honorably discharged in 2013. Wong returned from Afghanistan in 2013 and, like many soldiers, had great difficulty returning to civilian life due to the trauma he experienced during his deployment. Sheer explained to the AP that Wong experienced a number of symptoms characteristic of PTSD. These symptoms included difficulty sleeping and hyper-vigilance of his surroundings. Lampkin told the Press Democrat that Wong increasingly obsessed over perceived slights against him by family and friends, whether it involved money owed or others failing to pull their weight. The death of Wongs mother last year had reportedly caused him even further emotional distress and both Sherr and Lampkin told reporters that Wong was excited when he was accepted into Pathway House. However, about two weeks ago, Wong was reportedly expelled from the program for making threats against staff and having several knives in his possession. State Senator Bill Dodd told reporters that Wong was given numerous chances but that he required more help than the program was able to provide. Lampkin told the Press Democrat that Wong was angry with the Pathway House staff and wanted to get back at them, though he did not think Wong intended any harm. He described Wong as a good person who seemed happy, though he may have also suffered from bipolar disorder and substance abuse. Golick is reported to be the one who made the final decision to expel Wong from Pathway House, though all three women were likely involved in the process to some degree. The tragic incident in Yountville is a further indictment of the woefully inadequate resources offered to those recruited to fight in Americas imperialist wars, who often suffer deep psychological trauma as a result of their time in the military, and the devastating impact that more than a quarter century of unending imperialist wars abroad is having at home. Like Wong, many of those who have fought in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world are economic conscripts recruited from among the most vulnerable layers of society. Notably in the weeks before the shooting Wong had expressed anxiety that he would not be able to attain his college degree before his veterans education benefits expired, a perk which is dangled in front youths who would not otherwise afford a college education in order to entice them into enlisting. A 2008 study by the Pentagon-funded RAND Corporation found that nearly 20 percent of veterans who had returned from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered from PTSD or depression. According to the latest government figures, an average of 20 veterans take their lives each day in the United States, adding up to over 7,000 annually. On Monday, the Metropolitan Opera in New York announced the firing of conductor James Levine after a more than 40-year career with the company. The dismissal followed a third-party investigation commissioned by the Met and prompted by the publication of allegations by the New York Times in December 2017. The Times article focused on charges of sexual abuse allegedly conducted by Levine in the 1980s. In an article announcing the dismissal yesterday, the Times celebrated Levines departure. Titled, James Levines final act at the Met ends in disgrace, the article called the dismissal an extraordinary fall from grace. No criminal charges have yet been brought against Levine, and the Met did not release any specifics regarding the alleged abuse. In a statement yesterday, the Met wrote the investigation uncovered credible evidence that Mr. Levine engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct toward vulnerable artists in the early stages of their careers, over whom Mr. Levine had authority. The statement further noted, In light of these findings, the Met concludes that it would be inappropriate and impossible for Mr. Levine to continue to work at the Met. In a December statement that followed the initial Times article, Levine said, As understandably troubling as the accusations noted in recent press accounts are, they are unfounded. As anyone who truly knows me will attest, I have not lived my life as an oppressor or an aggressor My fervent hope is that in time people will come to understand the truth, and I will be able to continue my work with full concentration and inspiration. There is no evidence that Levine broke the law, and the allegations Levine inappropriately used his professional authority are impossible to determine considering the secretive character of the Mets investigation. Those who have publicly alleged Levine abused them, however, were above the legal age of consent in the states where the abuse allegedly occurred. The Times report last December was based on the uncovering of a 2016 police report filed by a man who alleged Levine criminally abused him in Illinois in the 1980s. The Times acknowledged in yesterdays article that law enforcement officials said last year that they would not bring criminal charges against Mr. Levine, noting that while the states age of consent is now 17and 18 in some casesit was still 16 in 1986, the age of the accuser at the time. Yesterdays Times article also explains that the accuser filed a police report thirty years after the fact, when therapy had helped him realize how destructive those encounters had been. Levine is the latest in a series of artists and musicians whose careers have been brought to an end by allegations of immoralbut not illegalacts. The Times provided a short list of the casualties thus far: Several performing arts institutions have been confronted with complaints about the behavior of some of their leading artists. A number of orchestras severed ties with the conductor Charles Dutoit after he was accused of sexual misconduct, and the Boston Symphony, where he was a frequent guest conductor, later determined that the accusations of misconduct lodged by several women who worked for the orchestra were credible. Peter Martins retired under pressure this year as ballet master in chief of New York City Ballet after The Times and The Washington Post reported accusations that he had been physically abusive. When the companys investigation was completed, however, City Ballet announced it had not corroborated the allegations. In other words, cultural institutions are being purged of individuals based on uncorroborated allegations of sexual misconduct. As David North and David Walsh wrote in the December 5 perspective, The public humiliation and destruction of Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine: The Metropolitans action is a cowardly capitulation to the hysteria incited by the filthy New York Times, whose demented publisher and editors are sniffing the bed sheets of the nation in search of sexual malefactors. As it publishes new denunciations each day, the newspaper calls on the public to keep it supplied with reports of sexual heresy. The Times is appealing to the most backward, antidemocratic elements, as is revealed by the content and tone of many of the comments posted in response to its reports. In a manner that has not been seen in modern American history, individuals are being compelled to answer for their entire sexual history. Strikes erupted afresh on the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte and the return to school was delayed on Monday, after French military police tried and failed at 4 a.m. on Sunday to crush strike pickets outside the port at Longoni. Police used the trade unions calls to temporarily halt the general strike for a cooling-off period to launch a surprise attack and attempt to smash the strike. This has failed, and anger against state repression is spreading across the impoverished island. French Overseas Territories Minister Annick Girardin has reportedly decided to travel to the island, supposedly for negotiations. However, Mayotte media are reporting that strikers oppose talks with Girardin, and panic is mounting among union officials as the strike rapidly develops into a confrontation between the workers and the French state. The islands trade union alliance was compelled to admit Girardins visit is clearly not welcome. It added that strikers would only be satisfied by the visit of an official whose promises the government would feel obliged to keep, like the president or prime minister. While almost totally blacked out in French media, strikes have spread rapidly since February 20 following assaults in the islands badly overcrowded schools and amid rising anger over the failure of Mayottes incorporation into France in 2011 as an overseas department to improve social conditions. The poverty rate stands at 84 percent, and little has been done to assist refugees arriving from the nearby Comores. The population has quadrupled over the last 30 years, and students are able to spend only half a day in school and are forced to work on their teachers desks due to the lack of space. Strikers demands include, according to France Info-Mayotte, ending overcrowding in the schools and making the entire area a priority zone for education. Strikers are also demanding a limit on the number of unaccompanied minors in Mayotte, and that these refugees could also be taken to cities in metropolitan France. Strikers also call for better health and social services. The failure by the police to crush the strike with a sneak attack, exploiting the demobilisation of the struggle by the trade unions, has escalated the conflict. Hundreds of strikers came to repel the police attack on port workers, and the pickets are now refusing to let anyone through, after having initially obeyed union orders to allow both medical and transport vehicles to cross picket lines. Trees have been cut down to block major roads, and trade union officials warned Le Monde that workers at a nearby gas station are also stockpiling explosive materials. Strikers demands for jobs and social services, and for immigrants to be allowed into France place them in a political struggle against President Emmanuel Macrons government. Macron is determined to slash social benefits in order to offer tax cuts to the rich and funnel 300 billion into the military over the next five years. He is preparing for large-scale wars between the great powers in which Mayotte, strategically located in the Indian Ocean, could well be involved. His government has also presented a law drastically attacking the right to asylum, and he will bitterly oppose any moves to welcome Comoreans in France. The critical question is unifying workers in Mayotte and the overseas territories together with workers in metropolitan France against Macrons right-wing agenda of militarism, austerity, and attacks on democratic rights and immigrants. Workers in France and across Europe must take the police assault on workers at Longoni as a very serious warning. After French police ruthlessly attacked protests against the regressive labour law in 2016, and Spanish police assaulted voters to try to suppress the Catalan independence referendum last year, it is clear that the main purpose of the police-state build-up in Europe is political repression. Strikers in France now routinely face requisition orders and attempts by police or military agencies to force them back to work. Together with their allies like the Unsubmissive France (LFI) movement and the New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA), the unions are again proving their reactionary character. They are all participating in negotiating Macrons labour decrees, privatisations of the railways and in the public service, and plans to reinforce the French military. And as they help formulate Macrons right-wing agenda, they are looking on in silence at the police assault on workers in the overseas territories who are opposing Macron. The way forward for workers is to take the struggle in Mayotte out of the hands of the unions and their political allies, setting up their own organisations of struggle independent of the unions, and mobilising broader political opposition among workers in Europe, where strike activity is on the rise. The role of the union bureaucracies in Mayotte is not fundamentally different than that of the national confederations. They are issuing bankrupt pleas to Macron to avoid an all-out confrontation. Said Hachim of the French Democratic Labour Confederation (CFDT) warned, If we lose control here, the entire island will explode, the situation could become uncontrollable. Significantly, they have sought to frame their demands in terms of call for law-and-order, allowing the state and the French media to cynically portray the deployment of police to the island to crush the strike as an attempt to respond to strikers demands. The unions table of demands addressed to the government makes insecurity the main issue in the strike, declaring, Insecurity is a growing problem that no longer has to be proven. Its magnitude, which already defies comprehension, seems to be only comparable to its barbarism. This rhetoric was echoed in the official French media yesterday, which is pushing aggressively for a police build-up on the island that would in fact only facilitate a crackdown. Le Monde declared, It is first of all insecurity that is at the beginning of the movement, warning that delinquency and violence have attained dramatic levels. This is a political fraud. Strikers are demanding not the right to be assaulted by even more police, but solutions to the enormous social problems in Mayotte. School violence and insecurity are but one expression of basic social problemsunemployment, poverty, the lack of a future, and the danger of warthat afflict not only Mayotte but the entire region, as well as France itself. The allies of the workers in Mayotte in this struggle are their class brothers and sisters in France, mobilised in struggle against the repressive agenda of Macron and the European Union. On Friday, in what some commentators likened to a catwalk, the three major presidential candidates in Mexicos 2018 election addressed the Association of Mexican Banks (AMB) convention in Acapulco, kowtowing to banking chieftains. The bankers expressed approval of the three in inverse order to their popularity in national polling. Plainly the preferred candidate of Mexican finance, Jose Antonio Meade of the Everyone for Mexico coalition headed by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who trails in the polls at 20 percent, received the most applause. Meade served as treasury/finance secretary under both the current president Enrique Pena Nieto as well as that of the previous president Felipe Calderon of the right-wing Party of National Action (PAN). Meade stressed his efforts over 20 years to work with the banks and liberalize the financial sector. Meade is in fact a neoliberal technocrat who in his governmental service has largely promoted macroeconomic stability and deregulation. Second up and receiving the second most applause was Ricardo Anaya of the PAN, which has entered into an electoral coalition with the formerly center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) along with the latters allied party, the Citizens Movement. Anaya stands at around 27 percent in the most recent polls. Anaya claimed his coalition reflected progressive, moderate and liberal strands, as opposed to the populist threat of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) and his Morena (Movement of National Regeneration) electoral coalition. Anaya assured the bankers he would not implement any significant changes to Mexicos fiscal structure. Stressing his youth, Anaya (contrasting his age of 39 with that of the 49-year old Meade and the 64-year old AMLO), promoted a more modern economy. This would involve a turn from manufacturing to a hi-tech knowledge economy, and development of clean energy over oil production. Third to address the assembled bankers was Lopez Obrador, who received the least applause from Mexicos banking heads, but leads current polls with around 38 percent. Like Meade and Anaya, AMLO also paid obeisance to Mexicos financial oligarchy. Lopez Obrador emphasized that his focus would be almost entirely on ending what he calls the countrys greatest problemcorruptionrather than changes to the economy. He went out of his way to insist that under his administration the autonomy of the Bank of Mexico will be completely respected. In fact, the country requires a strong bank, he said. The banks should be confident that we are not going to affect the banking sector at all, he added. AMLO stressed that the property regime in force likewise would not be altered. We are not going to confiscate assets nor are we going to carry out expropriations or nationalizations, he said. These assurances followed statements by his leading economic advisers over the last few weeks that AMLO strongly favors a market economy. The reforms AMLO said he would undertake in fact would be quite limitedincreasing payments to elderly pensioners and the disabled, generating 400,000 new jobs, and minor spending on infrastructure, such as planting millions of trees. AMLO signaled that these reforms would not threaten stabilitythey would not be carried out until the middle of his governments term, rather than from its inception. Nor would these limited reforms be permitted to undermine fiscal stability. No taxes would be raised, and no additional public debt would be incurred to pay for them. Instead, funding would come from the ten percent of government spending AMLO estimates is lost to corruption. AMLO remained mute when it came to his once vociferous attacks on Pena Nietos energy reforms, which reopened the oil and power industries to major involvement by foreign energy giants. He reiterated the recent assurances of his financial advisers that while energy contracts with investors would be reviewed, the overall program would not be unwound, which he had consistently threatened to do in the past. AMLO also said little if anything about the pending renegotiation of NAFTA, the trade pact with the US and Canada that he has repeatedly attacked in the past as unfair to certain layers of Mexican business and small farmers. AMLOs assurances to Mexicos bankers last week follow his meetings over the last few months with executives of major international banks such Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Executives attending the AMBs convention signaled that they are ready to work with whoever wins Julys presidential election, including Lopez Obrador. AMB president Marcos Martinez said that the banks commitment is with Mexico, regardless of who governs and what their proposals are. I am not worried about the arrival of a left or right-wing party, added Ernesto Torres Cantu, general director of Grupo Financiero Citibanamex. Carlos Rojo, vice president of ABM and general director of Grupo Financiero Interacciones SA, the bank controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Hank Rhon, insisted that the arrival of a new government is not a sign of alert or concern, as long as it maintained a free market, just as AMLO has promised to do. Such sentiments follow on others expressed by bankers over the past year. In March, 2017, the former president of the ABM and director of Mexicos BBVA Bancomer, Luis Robles Miaja, also insisted that Lopez Obrador did not represent a risk for the country or its bankers. In June of last year, Spanish bank giant Santander said AMLO would be no worse than Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, that is, no threat to investors and banks. Thus, while bankers would prefer Meade or Anaya to Lopez Obrador, they do not see him as any significant threat. They also hope to calm markets in advance in the event the latter wins, as appears likely at this time. Nevertheless, a win by AMLO could send the Mexican peso, which already has seen marked volatility under Pena Nieto, plunging, and investors heading for the exits. Foreign investors may well see his presidency as creating more uncertainty as to energy reform, and undermining the chances for the survival of NAFTA, which has become a key prop of the Mexican economy. And while AMLOs left populism, which he is busy watering down, is a fraud, there is concern amongst ruling strata that his victory could arouse expectations on the part of the Mexican masses to a point he could not contain. These concerns track absurd propaganda from US officials such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that a Lopez Obrador government could prove to be a threat along the lines of that of the other major oil-producing country in Latin American, Venezuela. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. In a three-part series published last week, the World Socialist Web Site documented an unprecedented influx of intelligence and military operatives into the Democratic Party. More than 50 such military-intelligence candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination in the 102 districts identified by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as its targets for 2018. These include both vacant seats and those with Republican incumbents considered vulnerable in the event of a significant swing to the Democrats. If on November 6 the Democratic Party makes the net gain of 24 seats needed to win control of the House of Representatives, former CIA agents, military commanders, and State Department officials will provide the margin of victory and hold the balance of power in Congress. The presence of so many representatives of the military-intelligence apparatus in the legislature is a situation without precedent in the history of the United States. Since its establishment in 1947under the administration of Democratic President Harry Trumanthe CIA has been legally barred from carrying out within the United States the activities which were its mission overseas: spying, infiltration, political provocation, assassination. These prohibitions were given official lip service but ignored in practice. In the wake of the Watergate crisis and the forced resignation of President Richard Nixon, reporter Seymour Hersh published the first devastating exposure of the CIA domestic spying, in an investigative report for the New York Times on December 22, 1974. This report triggered the establishment of the Rockefeller Commission, a White House effort at damage control, and Senate and House select committees, named after their chairmen, Senator Frank Church and Representative Otis Pike, which conducted hearings and made serious attempts to investigate and expose the crimes of the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency. The Church Committee in particular featured the exposure of CIA assassination plots against foreign leaders like Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, General Rene Schneider in Chile, and many others. More horrors were uncovered: MK-Ultra, in which the CIA secretly subjected unwitting victims to experimentation with drugs like LSD; Operation Mockingbird, in which the CIA recruited journalists to plant stories and smear opponents; Operation Chaos, an effort to spy on the antiwar movement and sow disruption; Operation Shamrock, under which the telecommunications companies shared traffic with the NSA for more than a quarter century. The Church and Pike committee exposures, despite their limitations, had a devastating political effect. The CIA and its allied intelligence organizations in the Pentagon and NSA became political lepers, reviled as the enemies of democratic rights. The CIA in particular was widely viewed as Murder Incorporated. In that period, it would have been unthinkable either for dozens of former military-intelligence operatives to participate openly in electoral politics, or for them to be welcomed and even recruited by the two corporate-controlled parties. The Democrats and Republicans sought to distance themselves, at least for public relations purposes, from the spy apparatus, while the CIA publicly declared that it would no longer recruit or pay American journalists to publish material originating in Langley, Virginia. Even in the 1980s, the Iran-Contra scandal involved the exposure of the illegal operations of the Reagan administrations CIA director, William Casey. How times have changed. One of the main functions of the war on terror, launched in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, has been to rehabilitate the US spy apparatus and give it a public relations makeover as the supposed protector of the American people against terrorism. This meant disregarding the well-known connections between Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders and the CIA, which recruited them for the anti-Soviet guerrilla war in Afghanistan, waged from 1979 to 1989, as well as the still unexplained role of the US intelligence agencies in facilitating the 9/11 attacks themselves. The last 15 years have seen a massive expansion of the CIA and other intelligence agencies, backed by an avalanche of media propaganda, with endless television programs and movies glorifying American spies and assassins (24, Homeland, Zero Dark Thirty, etc.) The American media has been directly recruited to this effort. Judith Miller of the New York Times, with her reports on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, is only the most notorious of the stable of plugged-in intelligence-connected journalists at the Times, the Washington Post, and the major television networks. More recently, the Times has installed as its editorial page editor James Bennet, brother of a Democratic senator and son of the former administrator of the Agency for International Development, which has been accused of working as a front for the operations of the Central Intelligence Agency. The media campaign alleging Russian intervention in the 2016 US elections has been based entirely on handouts from the CIA, NSA and FBI, transmitted by reporters who are either unwitting stooges or conscious agents of the military-intelligence apparatus. This has been accompanied by the recruitment of a cadre of top CIA and military officials to serve as highly paid experts and analysts for the television networks. In centering its opposition to Trump on the bogus allegations of Russian interference, while essentially ignoring Trumps attacks on immigrants and democratic rights, his alignment with ultra-right and white supremacist groups, his attacks on social programs like Medicaid and food stamps, and his militarism and threats of nuclear war, the Democratic Party has embraced the agenda of the military-intelligence apparatus and sought to become its main political voice. This process was well under way in the administration of Barack Obama, which endorsed and expanded the various operations of the intelligence agencies abroad and within the United States. Obamas endorsed successor, Hillary Clinton, ran openly as the chosen candidate of the Pentagon and CIA, touting her toughness as a future commander-in-chief and pledging to escalate the confrontation with Russia, both in Syria and Ukraine. The CIA has spearheaded the anti-Russia campaign against Trump in large part because of resentment over the disruption of its operations in Syria, and it has successfully used the campaign to force a shift in the policy of the Trump administration on that score. A chorus of media backersNicholas Kristof and Roger Cohen of the New York Times, the entire editorial board of the Washington Post, most of the television networksare part of the campaign to pollute public opinion and whip up support on alleged human rights grounds for an expansion of the US war in Syria. The 2018 election campaign marks a new stage: for the first time, military-intelligence operatives are moving in large numbers to take over a political party and seize a major role in Congress. The dozens of CIA and military veterans running in the Democratic Party primaries are former agents of the military-intelligence apparatus. This retired status is, however, purely nominal. Joining the CIA or the Army Rangers or the Navy SEALs is like joining the Mafia: no one ever actually leaves; they just move on to new assignments. The CIA operation in 2018 is unlike its overseas activities in one major respect: it is not covert. On the contrary, the military-intelligence operatives running in the Democratic primaries boast of their careers as spies and special ops warriors. Those with combat experience invariably feature photographs of themselves in desert fatigues or other uniforms on their websites. And they are welcomed and given preferred positions, with Democratic Party officials frequently clearing the field for their candidacies. The working class is confronted with an extraordinary political situation. On the one hand, the Republican Trump administration has more military generals in top posts than any other previous government. On the other hand, the Democratic Party has opened its doors to a "friendly takeover" by the intelligence agencies. The incredible power of the military-intelligence agencies over the entire government is an expression of the breakdown of American democracy. The central cause of this breakdown is the extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny elite, whose interests the state apparatus and its bodies of armed men serve. Confronted by an angry and hostile working class, the ruling class is resorting to ever more overt forms of authoritarian rule. Millions of working people want to fight the Trump administration and its ultra-right policies. But it is impossible to carry out this fight through the axis of evil that connects the Democratic Party, the bulk of the corporate media, and the CIA. The influx of military-intelligence candidates puts paid to the longstanding myth, peddled by the trade unions and pseudo-left groups, that the Democrats represent a lesser evil. On the contrary, working people must confront the fact that within the framework of the corporate-controlled two-party system, they face two equally reactionary evils. Syria Solidarity Australia, a Syrian nationalist organisation, held rallies in Sydney and Melbourne on March 3 under the title, Emergency Protest To #SaveGhouta: Stop the Bombing. The rallies were purportedly to alleviate the plight of the residents of Eastern Ghouta, a base of militia opposition to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad. However, the essential purpose of the rallies was to urge the US and other Western powers to militarily intervene to overthrow Assad, while covering up the crimes of US imperialism in Syria. Khaled Sattouf, a member of Syria Solidarity Australia, told the rally of about 50 people in Sydneys Martin Place that the attacks carried out by Damascus were a holocaust backed by Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin was a Hitler. Other speakers insisted that Assad headed the greatest terrorist organisation in the world. Organisers handed out posters denouncing Assad and Putin, whose administration has backed Assad. One poster featured a bloody hand print over Putins face and word KILLER printed underneath. No mention was made of the atrocities committed by the US or their proxy forces. Instead the line, repeated again and again by all the speakers, was that the West was doing nothing to protect the people of Syria from Assads government. The main speaker was David Shoebridge, a Greens member of the New South Wales state parliament, who presented an entirely one-sided view of the events in Syria. In the last two weeks 130 children have been killed by the shelling, airstrikes and daily brutality delivered on the Syrian people by the Assad regime supported by Russia, he said. In reality, the US has carried out brutal interventions in Syria for the past three years, one of the most recent being the February 26 slaughter of 25 civilians, the majority of whom were women and children, by a US airstrike in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor (see: US airstrike kills dozens amid mounting Western war propaganda over Syria). That came after last months massacre of up to 100 pro-government forces by US warplanes and artillery in the same province, which included the deaths of Russian military contractors (see: Russians reported killed in US strikes in Syria), barely a week after US-backed al-Nusra forces shot down and killed a Russian jet fighter pilot. These provocative actions by the US are threatening to escalate what has become a proxy war against Russia into a direct military confrontation between the two nuclear armed powers. Moreover, the US proxy forces rely on Islamic terrorist groups like the al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Syria, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The US has been arming these outfits to fight against Assads forces, as well as those of Russia and Iran. These rebel forces have committed monstrous crimes, including the suicide bombing slaughter of 126 civilians fleeing from government-held towns last April. None of this was mentioned by any of the speakers. Nor was there any mention of the criminal US-NATO operation in Libya in 2011, which removed and murdered Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and installed elements aligned to al-Qaeda, or other US crimes in the Middle East. A feature of the rally was the role played by Mark Goudkamp, a member of the pseudo-left Solidarity group, in seeking to provide a humanitarian cover for imperialist intervention. Addressing the rally, representing the Refugee Action Coalition Sydney, Goudkamp said the purpose of the event was to condemn the ongoing massacre thats going on in Eastern Ghouta, for which he blamed Assad and Putin. Goudkamp also denounced the Turkish government for attacking the US-backed Kurdish nationalists in the northwestern Syrian district of Afrin. As if to cover his tracks, Goudkamp said: We dont want the West to intervene. The West are a bunch of hypocrites when it comes to Syria. They cry crocodile tears, however, the West has refused to do absolutely anything about it. The obvious, if unstated, conclusion is that the Western powers could absolve themselves of their hypocrisy only by intervening more directly and with greater force. Goudkamp denounced the left for not supporting the US-backed rebels and for spreading disinformation. In an extraordinary public admission of his pro-imperialist positions, Goudkamp turned directly to WSWS reporters: I know theres a couple of people here recording me right now who are probably going to report how pro-US imperialism I am, but anyway, so be it, from the World Socialist Web Site, thats life, well go on. Goudkamps offhand public acceptance of being branded pro-US imperialist speaks volumes about the trajectory of the pseudo-left groups. They once postured as opponents of the 2001 and 2003 US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, only to channel the anti-war protests behind the Greens, Labor and others within the political establishment. Goudkamps outburst was not an aberration. It recalls the 2012 denunciation of knee-jerk anti-imperialism by Corey Oakley, a member of Socialist Alternative, another pseudo-left group in Australia. Oakley insisted that any identification of an imperialist threat to Syria was profoundly mistaken, while defending the right of Syrian revolutionaries to obtain arms from the imperialist powers and their allies. Globally, the pseudo-left outfits are now part of an international campaign calling for imperialist intervention in Syria. Last month the New York Review of Books published an open letter signed by 200 people, including Goudkamp and Michael Karadjis, a member of Socialist Alliance, another Australia pseudo-left group, titled The World Must Act Now on Syria, which calls on the West to forcibly stop the Assad regime and denounces them for showing restraint. From their anti-war posturing in 2003 at the huge anti-Iraq war demonstrations, the pseudo-left have become open defenders of imperialist military interventions. These groups have nothing whatever to do with socialism. They speak for privileged sections of the upper-middle class who are deeply hostile to any movement of the working class that threatens their interests. As the WSWS explained on March 2 in drawing out the logic of the open letter: All the pseudo-left elements are aligning their politics directly with those of US imperialism and in particular with those sections of the US military and intelligence apparatus that are demanding a more aggressive confrontation with Russia. Not only are they functioning as direct accessories to the crimes committed against the masses of Syria, but they are helping to pave the way to world war. The author also recommends: A new left appeal for imperialist intervention in Syria [2 March 2018] Australian pseudo-left backs imperialist intervention in Syria [14 December 2012] Acrimonious disputes are continuing between the governments of Australia and the tiny neighouring state of East Timor despite last weeks signing at the UN in New York of what the media misleadingly called an historic maritime boundary treaty covering the oil- and gas-rich Timor Sea. Continuing its decades of betraying and bullying the impoverished territorys people, the Australian government is still insisting that the billions of dollars worth of gas beneath the sea be pipelined to Australias northern city of Darwin, rather than to East Timor. Finalised after year-long negotiations at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the treaty essentially concedes that the undersea boundary should be set at halfway point between the two countries, in line with international law, thus placing most of the vast untapped gas reserves within East Timors territory. Nevertheless, the Australian government and the transnational energy giants that control the gas fields remain adamant that the mini-state on the eastern half of Timor cannot have the gas processing operations, and all the associated profits. After more than 15 years of illegally denying Timorese sovereignty in the disputed zone, two inter-related factorsgeo-strategic calculations and corporate profitsdrove the Australian government to sign the treaty. First and foremost were concerns in both Canberra and Washington that Australias refusal to abide by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in settling the Timor border was opening the door for China to acquire greater influence in East Timor and the Asia-Pacific region. As the Chinese economy has grown rapidly over the past two decades, Chinese agencies and companies have been increasingly active in East Timor, as throughout the region, funding infrastructure and establishing business operations. In recent years, China has constructed office buildings for Timors foreign and defence ministries and Defence Force, as well as the presidential palace. More than a thousand East Timorese civil servants have gone to China for training, Chinese naval vessels have twice visited Timor and the country has acquired several Chinese patrol boats. More significantly, Beijing has politically exploited Australias defiance of UNCLOS to undercut the denunciations from Washington and Canberra of Chinas refusal to recognise a US-orchestrated international tribunal ruling in 2016 rejecting Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea. Following that ruling, Chinas state-run Global Times directly attacked Australias hypocrisy in an opinion piece, accusing it of exempting itself from the very conventions it cites in denouncing other nations supposed violations of international law. Notably, the US State Department immediately hailed this weeks treaty signing, pointing to pressure from Washington for Australia to end the boundary dispute. Welcoming the adherence to UNCLOS, the department called the Timor treaty a testament to the efficacy and importance of resolving disputes peacefully and in accordance with international law. Echoing that language, in signing the pact at the UN, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said: This treaty represents the importance of rules and the benefits of all states abiding by the rules... It is an example to all of how international rules-based order serves our interests. As Bishop acknowledged, this rules-based order serves definite imperialist interests. In reality, the Timorese government was under enormous political and economic pressure to conclude the treaty, after years of predatory manoeuvres by the Australian ruling class and the corporate gas giants. Currently, the Timorese state depends for 90 percent of its revenue on the Bayu-Undan gas field, which will be exhausted within four years. As an Australian Financial Review article observed: Timor-Leste risks going over a financial cliff when the money runs out from the Bayu-Undan field in 2022 and its petroleum fund five years after that. The boundary dispute had blocked any commencement on the much larger Greater Sunrise oil and gas field, with an estimated value of $50 billion. The Timorese ruling elite, facing widespread discontent over the populations poor living and social conditions, desperately needs construction on this project to start immediately. Even now, the consortium that holds the rights over Greater Sunrisefeaturing Australian-based operator Woodside Petroleum and its major partners Shell and ConocoPhillipsis refusing to proceed with the project until East Timors demand for onshore processing is overruled. Consortium members issued statements expressing disappointment that the treaty failed to adopt its favoured option of a floating LNG plant. Under the treaty, Timor will get 80 percent of the royalties from Greater Sunrise if the gas is piped to Darwin, but only 70 percent if the processing occurs in Timor. A leaked letter from Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao, who led the countrys negotiations, has accused Australia of colluding with the oil corporations to prevent a Timorese pipeline. According to the Australian Financial Review, backroom discussions are taking place on either having teams for offshore platforms fly out from Timor rather than Australia, or allowing Timorese workers to be brought to Darwin to work in a processing facility, under a cheap labour scheme similar to Australias Pacific Islander seasonal workers program. The treaty also blocks Timor from seeking compensation for the estimated $5 billion worth of taxes and royalties wrongly obtained by Australia since the Timor Sea gas fields began to be exploited in 1999. These developments again underscore the fraud of all the claims that Australia intervened militarily in Timor in 1998 to protect its people from Indonesian repression and guarantee independence. Ever since the Whitlam Labor government recognised the Indonesian annexation of the former Portuguese colonial outpost in 1975, the Australian ruling class has been preoccupied only with securing the lions share of the undersea resources and keeping a grip over the half island, strategically located at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago. The now-officially abandoned Timor Gap boundary, so favourable to Australian capitalism, was originally drawn between the Hawke Labor government and General Suhartos Indonesian military junta in 1989, in return for Australias continued support for Indonesian rule over East Timor. Once Suhartos regime collapsed and his successor, B. J. Habibie, agreed to a plebiscite on Timorese separation, Australia intervened to ensure that any resulting statelet was subordinated to its corporate and strategic interests. What followed was relentless brow-beating, intimidation and dirty tricks by successive Australian governments, both Labor and Liberal-National, to maintain that domination. In 2004, these machinations included the illegal bugging of Timors cabinet room during previous bitter talks over the Timor Sea resources. That electronic eaves-dropping was exposed in 2013 by a whistle-blower from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, known only as Witness K, who was involved in the operation. Foreign Minister Bishop refused to issue Witness K a passport, blocking him from testifying in The Hague against Australia. Following the signing of the treaty, many issues remain unresolved, including the exact eastern and western boundaries of the new demarcation line between Australia and Timor. The renegotiation of the Timorese border could also trigger an Indonesian attempt to force an adjustment of its adjacent unfavourable border with Australia. Despite the potential further loss of territory, however, Australias ruling establishment has felt compelled to cut a deal with the Timorese leadership, which has provided the essential strategic and military backing for Australian imperialisms plundering activities throughout the region since World War II. Australia is under enormous pressure from the US to line up fully with Washington against Beijing on key flashpoints such as the South China Sea. The Trump administrations National Defense Strategy in January named China as a strategic competitor seeking Indo-Pacific regional hegemony in the near-term and displacement of the United States to achieve global pre-eminence in the future. The US military build-up throughout the region is to ensure continued American dominance through war with China if necessary. The author also recommends: International court dismisses Australian challenge over Timor Sea border dispute [28 September 2016] Ten years on, the myths of East Timor independence stand exposed [28 May 2012] A Texas court of appeals has overturned a conviction and ordered a new trial for a defendant after a Fort Worth judge instructed his bailiff to administer a powerful electric shock to Terry Lee Morris three separate times with an electric device on his ankle for failing to follow courtroom decorum. In 2014, Morris was on trial in the Tarrant County courtroom in Fort Worth, charged with soliciting explicit photographs from a 15-year-old girl. When Judge George Gallagher asked him to enter a plea, he refused, and said he wanted the judge to recuse himself from the proceeding because of an alleged conflict of interest. Morris had recently filed a federal lawsuit against both his defense attorney and Gallagher, whom he wanted removed from the case. When Morris asked Gallagher to recuse himself, Gallagher asked the jury to leave and threatened to activate the electric stun device wrapped around Morris leg if he continued his outbursts. Mr. Morris, I am giving you one warning, Gallagher said. You will not make any additional outbursts like that, because two things will happen. Number one, I will either remove you from the courtroom or I will use the shock belt on you. All right, sir, Morris said. Gallagher asked Morris if he would follow the rules. Morris responded that he asked the judge to recuse himself. The judge asked again, Are you going to follow the rules? I have a lawsuit pending against you, responded Morris. Gallagher then told the bailiff to hit him with the electric device. The bailiff pressed the button which activated the device and then Gallagher asked Morris again whether he was going to behave. When Morris told Gallagher he had a history of mental illness the judge ordered the bailiff to shock Morris again. Morris complained that he was being tortured for seeking the judges recusal and Gallagher had him shocked a third time before Morris was finally removed from the courtroom. The experience reportedly traumatized Morris so much that he never returned for the remainder of his trial and almost all his sentencing hearing. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison as a sex offender. However, the Court of Appeals of the Eighth District of Texas threw out the conviction last month and called for a retrial based on the trial courts improper use of the stun belt and Morriss removal from the courtroom, violating his constitutional rights. Since Morris was too terrified to return to the courtroom, the court ruled that the shocks effectively barred him from attending his own trial, in violation of the Sixth Amendment. The barbaric use of stun belts began in the 1990s, justified as a way to deliver a shock in the event a defendant became violent or attempted to escape a courtroom. The device is comparable to the shock collars which are used to train dogs and are soon to be outlawed in England because they are known to cause physical and psychological harm to animals. Activated by a button on a remote control, the stun belt delivers an eight-second, 50,000-volt shock to the person wearing it. The impact on the human body is similar to the electronic taser weapons which police use to subdue people. When activated, the device can cause the person to seize, suffer heart irregularities, involuntarily urinate or defecate and suffer severe anxiety as a result of fear of the shocks. According to testimony in a case involving the constitutionality of use of stun belts, the devices act more as a deterrent rather than a means of actual punishment because of the tremendous amount of anxiety that results from wearing a belt that packs a 50,000-volt to 70,000-volt punch. Because individual counties purchase the devices for use, it is difficult to estimate how many stun belts are in use across the United States. However, their use is common, drawing outrage from a range of human rights groups. International organizations such as the United Nations and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture have condemned the use of stun belts and Amnesty International has called for them to be banned. In writing the appellate courts decision, Justice Yvonne T. Rodriguez condemned the barbaric way in which Gallagher used the stun belt against Morris, however she did not reject its use as a control mechanism. While the trial courts frustration with an obstreperous defendant is understandable, the judges disproportionate response is not. We do not believe that trial judges can use stun belts to enforce decorum, Rodriugez wrote. A stun belt is a device meant to ensure physical safety; it is not an operant conditioning collar meant to punish a defendant until he obeys a judges whim. This Court cannot sit idly by and say nothing when a judge turns a court of law into a Skinner Box [a laboratory apparatus used for studying conditioning in animals, sometimes with electric shocks], electrocuting a defendant until he provides the judge with behavior he likes. As the circumstances of this case perfectly illustrate, the potential for abuse in the absence of an explicit prohibition on nonsecurity use of stun belts exists and must be deterred, Rodruigez concluded. We must speak out against it, lest we allow practices like these to affront the very dignity of the proceedings we seek to protect and lead our courts to drift from justice into barbarism. 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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 A cool and pleasant chill will likely be in the air in Helsinki, Finland next month. Not just in the fresh breezes that blow in off the water in April, capable of chilling visitors to the bone, however, but on selected movie screens, where films will play that may chill viewers to the core of the soul. In their own words: "Night Visions International Film Festival, the biggest genre film festival in Scandinavia, is conquering the silver screens of Helsinki, Finland with its spring 2018 edition next month. Spanning over four days and an all-nighter from April 18 to April 22, the Official Selection consists of over 30 features and a handful of carefully hand-picked shorts from all across the globe." Speaking from my own experience, the festival is carefully curated for the maximum viewing pleasure of attendees, mixing shorts and features from all over the globe into a heady brew that is good for what ails you. Here is more information from the official release: The first wave of announcements consists of an exceptionally strong set of titles from the lineup of Sundance 2018. From wicked political notions to Scandinavian sensations, this part of the selection just might be more versatile than ever in the history of the 21-year-old festival. Out of the hottest recent U.S. indie productions, Night Visions will showcase the New York director Nicolas Pesce's stunning sophomore feature Piercing (USA 2018), based on a novel by the controversial Audition author Ryu Murakami and starring Mia Wasikowska in a particularly strong female lead. Another Sundace feature with a disarmingly strong female protagonist is the Sweden-born Isabella Eklof's crime drama Holiday (Denmark, The Netherlands, Sweden 2018). Compared to Sopranos and Scarface by Newsweek, this thrill ride set on the Turkish Riviera and starring Victoria Carmen Sonne might well become this year's equivalent to Coralie Fargeat's 2017 tour de force Revenge. One of the most internationally acclaimed female directors of today, the Scotswoman Lynne Ramsay hit the jackpot already in last year's Cannes with the thriller You Were Never Really Here (UK, France, USA 2017). Directing from her own script based on the Jonathan Ames novella, Ramsay started conquering North America with her latest in Sundance and now it finally arrives to Finland. Night Visions is also proud to present one of the most politically charged documentaries of Sundance, Maxim Pozdorovkin's Our New President (USA 2018). The U.S. based Russian director of the Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (2013) fame creates a simultaneously shocking and hilarious portrait of the political landscape of today from genuine propaganda footage from Russia's TV channels celebrating the triumphs of Donald Trump. Even fresher than anything on the Sundance plate, Night Visions is extremely thrilled to host the Scandinavian premiere of Justin MacGregor's B(e)st Friends (USA 2018). The long-awaited final version of the first feature of the two-part epic reunites Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero of The Room fame in front of the camera after 15 years. Night Visions is also celebrating the occasion by two 35mm screenings of The Room during the festival. Night Visions has always been strong at introducing its audiences to genre classics, some of which have been rarely seen on the Finnish shores due to the extremely strict censorship regulations that were abolished as recently as early 2000s. The first announcements on this front relate to the Brooklyn-born auteur Jeff Lieberman. Lieberman will arrive to Helsinki in person to present three of his highly original feature film gems: Squirm (1976) is a classic of the nature strikes back subgenre, Blue Sunshine (1977) is a highly unique take on the hallucinogenic horrors of the 1960s and the 1970s. The rarely seen Kevin Dillon starrer Remote Controll(1988) is a satirical science fiction horror, cited as the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers for the video generation" by the legendary New York film critic The Phantom of the Movies back in the day. Night Visions will announce the full lineup of its April 2018 edition on the final week of March. Advance sales of tickets start on March 29th, 2018 at the festival's website www.nightvisions.info Heather Locklear will no longer face court for allegedly hitting her boyfriend in late February, but she is facing charges for allegedly attacking the police officers that responded to her home. The actress is, however, still facing four counts of misdemeanor battery on a police officer and one charge of resisting or obstructing a police officer, PEOPLE confirms. Locklears attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ventura Countys Senior Deputy District Attorney Thomas Dunlevy could not immediately respond to the charges but did say Locklears case was scheduled for court on Tuesday at 9 a.m. Locklear, 56, was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic battery for allegedly assaulting boyfriend, Chris Heisser, at her Thousand Oaks, California, home on Feb. 25. Last week, Ventura County Sheriffs deputies searched Locklears home for a firearm registered in her name, Capt. Garo Kuredjian of the Ventura County Sheriffs Department told PEOPLE. Heather Locklear The Melrose Place was not home when officers conducted their search. Kuredjian said the search was prompted by Locklears threats against Ventura County Sheriffs deputies who arrived at her home in late February due after they received a domestic violence call at around 9:40 p.m. RELATED: Heather Locklear Formally Charged With DUI Locklear allegedly verbally threatened deputies saying she would shoot them if they ever came to her house again, authorities said in a press release by the Thousand Oaks Police Department. PEOPLE obtained the search warrant and Affidavit of Probable Cause documents prepared by Senior Deputy Sheriff Keith Hall who used accounts by on-the-scene Sergeant Camo, deputies Nesgis and Alldredge, as well as body cam footage to investigate the incident. According to the documents: Deputy Alldredge saw that [Heisser] was bleeding from the bridge of his nose and he had redness on his chest, Hall wrote in the documents. [Heisser] told Deputy Alldredge that in the bedroom, Locklear attacked [Heisser] while he was on the bed and he defended himself. He did not know how many times Locklear struck him. Locklear bit his face and described Locklear as being all over him for the last 20-30 minutes acting crazy, angry, and wild. Story continues During the course of the investigation, Locklear exhibited combative, belligerent, and aggressive behavior toward deputies, Hall wrote. Heather Locklear and boyfriend Chris Heisser He called her behavior agitated and uncooperative, writing that, Locklear grabbed Deputy Alldredge by the bicep and pulled on it while ordering him to get out of the house. Hall continued: Locklear walked to her bedroom and began to close the door. Deputy Alldredge put his foot in the doorway to prevent her from closing it, and to continue the investigation. Heather attempted to push Deputy Alldredge out of the doorway, and screamed, Get the f out of my house! She battered Deputy Alldredge by kicking him in his shin in an attempt to get his foot out of the doorway. The source was strong enough to force Deputy Alldredges leg out of the doorway. You f deserve your kids to die! You f deserve it! Hall said Locklear told Deputy Nesgis in the report. And when you find yourself in that position, think of me! I hope no one f- burns your entire department down, your f police department, Hall claims Locklear told deputies, according to the report. Get the f off my property. Dont ever come on it. All of you are not allowed I will shoot you if you come on my property and take that as a threat and f put another count against me. It was that threat to shoot officers that triggered the search warrant of her house. The House Intelligence Committee investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has completed a draft report of 150+ pages, with 600+ citations. Its conclusion: We have found no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians. The report has not been shared with the Democrats on the committee, who have complained that the GOP members have rushed to end the investigation and lacked input on the report. The Democrats are expected to issue their own version with a different conclusion in the coming weeks. The decision to issue the draft report means the official Russian collusion investigations are now left to special counsel Robert Mueller, leader of another probe on Russian activities with the Trump campaign. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who led the House investigation, said that last weeks session with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was the final interview of the investigation, which sought to determine whether Trump associates assisted or conspired with Russians during the presidential campaign. We will now be moving into the next phase of this investigation, working with the minority on a report to give the American people answers to the questions theyve been asking for over a year, Conaway said in a statement. With the 2018 primary elections already underway and just 238 days until the midterm elections in November, its important that we give the American people the information they need to arm themselves against Russian attempts to influence our elections. The GOPs report did say that there was some Russian initiatives to sow discord, but cast the blame largely on the previous administrations lackluster efforts to stop Russian cyber manipulations. Democrat Representative Adam Schiff of California took issue with the purported conclusions of the investigation. By ending its oversight role in the only authorized investigation in the House, the Majority has placed the interests of protecting the president over protecting the country, and history will judge its actions harshly, Schiff said. Story continues In the coming weeks and months, new information will continue to be exposed through enterprising journalism, indictments by the special counsel, or continued investigative work by committee Democrats and our counterparts in the Senate.And each time this new information becomes public, Republicans will be held accountable for abandoning a critical investigation of such vital national importance. Related stories Stephen Colbert Goes To Washington To Release Memo On Devin Nunes Donald Trump Unleashes Base On Jeff Sessions With Tweet Demanding DOJ Investigate Obama In Russia Probe Donald Trump's Twitter Tirade Blames Obama For Russian Interference In Election Meghan Markle hasnt missed a beat when it comes to her royal duties! The future royal bride-to-be was caught on camera singing along to the national anthem, God Save the Queen, during the Commonwealth Day church service at Westminster Abbey on Monday. And she gave a flawless performance as she sang along with the congregation as her future grandmother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth, arrived at the Abbey. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Twitter took notice of her rendition, praising her for a job well done. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. After Meghans engagement to Prince Harry in November, the royal family announced that she intends to become a citizen of the United Kingdom after she weds. A spokesperson for the family said its too early to say if Markle will retain her American citizenship after she becomes a British citizen. While shes going through the process to become a British citizen, she will remain an American citizen. The mother of the missing Pennsylvania teen police believe disappeared with a 45-year-old man with whom she allegedly had a secretive relationship is begging her daughter to come home. Amy, can you come back to me? Mui Luu, the mother of 16-year-old Amy Yu, pleaded during an interview with CBS News. I love you. I just hope you come back. Since March 5, authorities have been searching for Yu, a 16-year-old student at Lehigh Valley Academy Charter School in Hanover Township, and Kevin Esterly, the Allentown Police Department said in a statement. Why would a 45-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl like, thats disgusting! the teens younger brother, John Yu, told CBS News. Police say that Yu and Esterly, a married father with children, could be driving Esterlys red 1999 Honda Accord with the Pennsylvania license plate KLT 0529. Theyre probably together somewhere, Colonial Regional Police Detective Gary Hammer told local station NBC 10 in Philadelphia. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click hereto get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. The two apparently fled after investigators asked questions about an alleged secretive relationship, according to court records obtained by The Allentown Morning Call. Esterly allegedly signed Yu out of the school 10 times between Nov. 13, 2017, and Feb. 9 without her parents permission, the court records show. He was able to sign her out because Yu included him on the schools emergency contact list as her stepfather, the Morning Call reported Monday. Yus mother had told police she was worried about the alleged situation with Esterly nearly a month before her daughter vanished, the court records show. Luu called police on Feb. 9 after she went to the school to pick up her daughter and discovered that she had already been signed out, the court records show. For more compelling True Crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard Story continues Luu called police again on Feb. 15 when Esterly and his wife came to their home, the Morning Call reports. Police allegedly warned the Esterlys to stay away from Yus home, according to court documents, which dont state why he and his wife were there in the first place, the outlet reports. On Monday, Yus mother reported the girl as a runaway, say police. According to the Morning Call, Esterlys wife told police she last saw her husband on the morning of March 5, saying that he had withdrawn $4,000 from her bank account. On Wednesday, Allentown police issued a missing persons alert describing both of them as possibly endangered. The U.S. Marshals Office and agents with the FBI are also helping search for Yu, NBC 10 reports. Anyone with information about Yu or Esterly is asked to call 911, their local police or Allentown police at 610-437-7751. Yu is an Asian female who is 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 90 pounds. Esterly, a white male, is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 185 pounds. Tonight, Fox will show you something that it wasnt willing to a decade ago. The network will air a two-hour special titled O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession (8 p.m. ET/PT), which is built around a lost and controversial 2006 interview with O.J. Simpson that was conducted 11 years after he was found not guilty of brutally murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in a trial that polarized the country. (Simpson was found liable for their deaths in civil lawsuits filed by their families, and later served time in prison for an unrelated armed robbery and kidnapping.) This interview, which the network is billing as no-holds barred, features Simpson giving publisher Judith Regan a disturbing hypothetical account of the night of the double murder. It was originally supposed to air in concert with the book If I Did It, but after public backlash, News Corp nixed the special and the book. (After the Goldman family secured rights to the manuscript, the book was published with additional commentary by a different publisher in 2007 and retitled If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.) The new special also features a panel of analysts, including Regan and Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden, who will join host Soledad OBrien to break down the interview. Reached via email, OBrien the veteran broadcast journalist who anchors the syndicated political talk show Matter of Fact With Soledad OBrien previews the special and warns viewers to brace for something bizarre. Fox initially canceled the special over the backlash. How did you feel about that decision at the time and do you think sentiments have changed? Why should this special air now? My first question when the project came to me was, How do the victims families feel about this interview? As you point out, it was controversial, then eventually scuttled. Hearing friends and family members of the victims were on board was important for me. And they told me why: They feel like everyone should hear O.J. Simpson in his own words, even talking hypothetically about the night of the murders. He never testified on the stand. They felt the public should hear and see this. Will viewers see anything in this special that will change their minds about O.J. Simpson? Thats a good question. I think there will always be people who think O.J. is innocent. Others who will always think O.J. is guilty. But this interview is like nothing youve ever seen before. So if you found the bronco chase, the trial and all the coverage afterward compelling this is just utterly different, and really a must-see. If anyone can make pregnancy look chic, its Kate Middleton. At eight-months pregnant, the royal mom looked effortlessly stylish on Monday as she attended the Commonwealth Day church service at Westminster Abbey in a recycled navy coat from Beulah London an outfit she first wore exactly three years ago, while pregnant with Princess Charlotte. She always looks beautiful and is a wonderful ambassador for British fashion, Natasha Rufus Isaacs, co-founder and designer at Beulah London, tells PEOPLE, adding that the outfits simplicity is all in the cut. The silhouette is fit and flare which makes layering easy and comfortable. Kate Middleton in 2015 (left) and on March 12, 2018 (right) The chic coat (with matching dress) is an adaption of the labels Chiara style, originally from the brands Autumn/Winter 2014 collection. Made specifically to Kates measurements and worn just six weeks before the birth of Princess Charlotte to attend a church service at St. Pauls Cathedral with the royal family the outfit is a perfect fit, three years later at exactly the same point in her current pregnancy. Kates third child is due in April. The all-navy look was accessorized with the Tiffany drop-brim hat from Lock & Co ($450), a wide-brimmed style with a simple ribbon detail, her Celeste suede clutch from Jimmy Choo ($597) and a diamond floral brooch. I think the simpler the better, says Isaacs who is a friend of Kates and has dressed her on numerous occasions including on tour in Bhutan in 2016. While there might not be an exact cheat to copying Kates pregnancy style (except for perhaps pre-ordering your own bespoke coat from the British brand, costing $910), Rufus Isaacs says comfort, particularly in pregnancy is key. Wear something that you feel comfortable in thats very important! Photo credit: Getty From Esquire If there were anyone still working at the State Department, it would have been interesting to get their reactions to the sudden departure of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State less than 48 hours after he said the following in response to the apparent poisoning of a Russian spy and his daughter in Great Britain. From The Standard: There is never a justification for this type of attack, the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation, and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week. There is never a justification for this type of attack - the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation - and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. From Ukraine to Syria - and now the UK - Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens. If you awoke to the news from The Washington Post that Tillerson was out as SOS, and that he will be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo, and your first reaction wasnt to connect Tillersons departure to these remarks, you should go back to bed for a couple of hours. Remember that, on Monday, the day that Tillerson allied himself with British Prime Minister Theresa May and with common sense in pinning this deadly caper on Russia, official White House spokesdrone Sarah Huckabee Sanders gargled a whole bunch of banalities in her press briefing without ever once mentioning Russia. To be sure, over the past couple of weeks, Tillersons health has become something of an issue. First, he cut short an Asia trip because of fatigue, and then he came home a day early from a trip to Africa, having skipped meetings in Kenya because he was not feeling well. However, if the administration* and Tillerson had been concocting a health-related alibi for Tillersons departure over the past month, nobody was employing it on Monday. Story continues Photo credit: Getty The official line from Camp Runamuck was that the president* shuffled Tillerson out for cause, leaving the rest of us to recall what Tillerson had said about the poisoning of the Skirpals. However, the Post also has reported that Tillerson knew hed been fired on the previous Friday, so what the hell did he have to lose by speaking his mind on Monday? If that was the case, they kept it damned quiet. Maybe, but one of Tillersons deputies has told the Associated Press that the Secretary was caught by surprise and learned about his dismissal when the president* tweeted about it on Tuesday morning. (Jesus, you wouldnt run a gas station this way.) In any event, they had a health-related out, and they declined to use it. Graceless is as graceless does. This was defenestration, pure and simple. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Tillerson wasnt much of a SOS, truth be told. He decimated the State Department, leaving hundreds of jobs unfilled. He never could get out from under the fact that Vladimir Putin once hung a medal around his neck. He was ignored on almost every major issue by the incredible cast of fools and mountebanks with whom the president* has surrounded himself. His one shining moment came when we learned that he once called the president* a fucking moron. Apparently, he was caught completely by surprise when the president* decided hed like to chat with Kim Jong-un, and there have been rumors of his imminent departure since at least the end of last summer. So, ultimately, theres going to be one more empty office at Foggy Bottom, at least for a while, and its an office thats been figuratively empty for a while. Photo credit: Getty Tillerson will be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo, whose rise from forgettable Tea Party congresscritter to the heights of power continues to be one of the more amazing political ascents of our time. Why, it was only in December of 2015 that Congressman Pompeo was suggesting that members of the United States military commit dereliction of duty because the president was bla... er... because unlawful something-something-Gitmo-Obama. (And this from a guy who finished at the top of his class at West Point.) Now, this is the guy who will be in charge of whatever is left of American diplomacy once the president* gets through with it. Pompeos replacement at Langley is even more interesting. Gina Haspel, currently Pompeos deputy, will become the first woman director ever at CIA. But thats not the most interesting part of her CV. Back in the early 2000s, Haspel was one of the people who sailed deepest into what Dick Cheney called the dark side. According to reports, Haspel ran a black site prison in Thailand where detainees were regularly tortured. From the Guardian: She briefly ran a black site in Thailand where suspected al-Qaida members Abu Zubaydah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were tortured in 2002, and Haspel later helped carry out an order that the CIA destroy its waterboarding videos, US officials told Reuters and Associated Press on condition of anonymity. CIA cables on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah at the site, codenamed Cats Eye, were declassified last month. They revealed he was waterboarded 83 times in a month and had his head repeatedly slammed into walls. Interrogators also used sleep deprivation and kept Abu Zubaydah in a large box, the documents said. His captors later decided he held no useful intelligence. Dont worry, though. She was just following orders. Shut up, Ghost of Henry Wirz. More from the Guardian: Michael Morell, former deputy director of the CIA, said in an article endorsing Haspel on Thursday that she had drafted a cable instructing a field station to destroy videotapes of CIA interrogations. She did so at the request of her direct supervisor and believing that it was lawful to do so. I personally led an accountability exercise that cleared Haspel of any wrongdoing in the case, he wrote. So, if the president* orders Haspel to violate the CIA charter and spy on Americans, the way it used to in the good old days before William Colby spilled all the beans, Haspel surely will refuse to follow this command, right? The confirmation hearings ought to be interesting, anyway. And theres no apparent rush. Any time after the midterms this fall will be fine. After all, we got along without a functioning Secretary of State for almost two years. You Might Also Like Richard Simmons will soon be missing $130,000. A judgment has been made in the reclusive fitness fanatics libel and invasion of privacy lawsuit against American Media, which owns the tabloid National Enquirer and the Radar Online website. The Sweatin to the Oldies star who sued over the outlets calling him transgender and claiming that he had undergone shocking sex surgery to change from a man to a woman, which he denied must pay $128,625, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gregory Keosian stated in his ruling on Friday. Richard Simmons attends Swim for Relief Benefiting Hurricane Sandy Recovery at Herald Square in N.Y.C. on Oct. 9, 2013. (Photo: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images) Surprisingly, Simmons is actually saving money. Attorneys for AMI initially sought $220,000 after Keosian dismissed Simmonss case in August. The monetary breakdown is $110,250 for the general costs of preparing the dismissal motion and the rest is to compensate the defendants for attorneys fees. Of course, the bigger part of all this is: Why did Simmons have to pay anything when he vehemently denied the claims that he was transitioning and called the reports lies? Well, when the judge dismissed lawsuit, which was filed in May 2017, he said that being misidentified as transgender does not expose any person to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloquy, or which causes him to be shunned or avoided, or which has a tendency to injure him in his occupation. Therefore, it did not fall into the category of defamation. While the lawsuit was a loss for Simmons, it was viewed as a win for transgender rights. The ruling appeared to be the first to address the question of whether being labeled transgender is harmful enough to a persons reputation to be libelous. Keosian wrote that while being trans may be held in contempt by a portion of the population, the court will not validate those prejudices by legally recognizing them. As for where the erroneous claims came from for the Richard Simmons: Hes Now a Woman! story, court papers stated that it was phony information provided by Simmonss former assistant, Mauro Oliveira, who allegedly tried to blackmail the fitness guru for years and fed the stories about the alleged transition to the outlets. Story continues The tabloid story, which ran in 2016, capitalized on the fact that Simmons had all but disappeared from the spotlight, a topic popularized in the podcast Missing Richard Simmons. However, a rep for Simmons had said that after he had knee surgery a few years ago, Simmons stepped back from the spotlight, but is still on Twitter and Facebook and works behind the scenes continuing to inspire and motivate people to lose weight. When he decides to come back, he will come back. Simmonss legal team is appealing the dismissal motion. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Rose Leslie Goes to Music Festival While Husband Kit Harington Remains at Wellness Retreat Rose Leslie is spending time with friends, while her husband continues to receive treatment. Rose Leslie is not looking for any Game of Thrones spoilers! The 31-year-old British actress was killed off the hit HBO show years ago, but her fiance, Kit Harington, is still alive and (not so) well as the beloved Jon Snow. Leslie, who is currently starring on The Good Fight, noted that she is not interested in learning anything about the final season of GOT. Talk about being an avid fan, I obviously am of The Good Wife, but with Game of Thrones, Im like the rest of the world. Im waiting for the new and final season, she explained to Seth Meyers on Monday night. Leslie is so strict about her desire not to be spoiled that shes even banished Harington from their home. I remember over the summer obviously the new episodes for the final season were coming through onto his iPad. I can read his facial expressions. I dont want to know anything thats going on within his eyes, so I sent him packing, she explained. I kind of boot him out so that he can go to the coffee shop, because I can gauge. If he stiffens, its like, Ooo someones dead. And then my mind goes off. Harington got his own revenge on his future bride last April Fools Day. I had just wrapped from season one of The Good Fight, so I had been in New York for about six months, Leslie explained. We hadnt spent a lot of time together, and then I go home and the bastard puts this in the fridge. YouTube She then showed off a replica severed head of Haringtons Jon Snow, sitting on the top shelf of her fridge. Its unknown whether Snow will meet the same end on the show. The final season of Game of Thrones wont air until 2019. For more from the cast, watch the clip below! RELATED CONTENT: Maisie Williams Claims She Knows How 'Game of Thrones' Ends -- and She Told Her Mother 'Game of Thrones' Creators Working on a New 'Star Wars' Film Series Story continues 'Game of Thrones' Star Rose Leslie Flashes Stunning Engagement Ring From Kit Harington -- See the Bling! Related Articles: Sean Spicer did his best to tweet out some praise for outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, but in the process accidentally dropped an embarrassing typo saying Tillerson has severed our nation well. Secretary Tillerson is a true patriot that has severed our nation well, said Spicer. Thank you for serving. Mike Pompeo will be an outstanding Secretary of State the Senate should act swiftly to confirm him Also Read:Sean Spicer Tells Sean Hannity He's Writing a Book 'to Set the Record Straight' (Video) This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The former Trump press secretary swiftly corrected the error in a follow-up tweet. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The tweet is hardly out of the ordinary for Spicer, whose own Twitter bio describes him as a Horrable speller. His own farewell email to the press corps shortly before he left the White House also contained a typo. Trump too is a famous word-flubbing on his favorite platform. The president routinely deletes and reposts tweets with misspelled words and still has never offered a full explanation of what Covfefe was ever supposed to be. Since leaving the White House, Spicer has bounced around occasionally being feted by Hollywood and popping up on Fox News to offer Trump commentary. He is also working on a book. On Tuesday, President Trump ousted Tillerson from his job as Secretary of State, making it official via Twitter. The president announced that the former ExxonMobil chief would be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. For more news videos visit Yahoo View. Related stories from TheWrap: 'Daily Show' Offers In Memoriam for Fallen Trump Staffers, From Sean Spicer to The Mooch (Video) Sean Spicer Tells Sean Hannity He's Writing a Book 'to Set the Record Straight' (Video) Sean Spicer Flunks With Harvard Students: 'He's Incredibly Inarticulate' Billy Eichner Names the Only Actor Who Spoke to Sean Spicer in Emmys Green Room (Video) Meghan Markle just made her biggest royal debut yet alongside Queen Elizabeth. On Monday, Meghan joined fiance Prince Harry and other senior members of the royal family including Meghans future father-in-law Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Prince William and Kate Middleton for a church service celebrating Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey. The Queen, 91, is head of the Commonwealth, a global network of 53 countries with more than two billion people. The annual Abbey service is the largest annual interfaith gathering in the U.K., and this year the service will include a performance by Liam Payne as well as a reflection by Dr. Andrew Bastawrous, an eye surgeon who turned a smartphone into an examination tool which works to combat avoidable blindness in developing counties. Queen Elizabeth The Queen arrived in a scarlet coat and hat by Angela Kelly. She accessorized her look with a diamond and ruby flower brooch. The royal bride-to-be arrived in a cream coat by Amanda Wakeley (shop a similar style for $99 here!) with a matching beret by Stephen Jones.with a matching beret by Stephen Jones. Her future sister-in-law Kate Middleton, who is expecting her third child next month, opted for a dark blue coat from Beulah London and matching Lock and Co hat. Meghan was seen singing along to the national anthem, God Save the Queen, as the service began. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Meghan, alongside Harry, is poised to play a major role in a Commonwealth organization after she officially joins the royal family upon her wedding to Prince Harry on May 19. She spoke of her interest in the Commonwealth at the Royal Foundation Forum last month alongside William, Kate and Harry, and also during her engagement interview in November. After the service, Meghan, Harry, William and Kate head into the square behind the Abbey for a meet-and-greet with school children before attending a reception. Meghan shared a sweet moment with a young girl who handed the royal-to-be a bouquet of flowers. Story continues Todays service underscores the speed with which Meghan has taken on official royal duties. In the weeks before she married William in 2011, Kate didnt attend anything public with the Queen. While working on his car, Allen Clemmons of South Carolina got trapped beneath it. (Screenshot: WIS TV) Allen Clemmons found himself in a life-threatening situation on Saturday afternoon, when he was working on his Mustang in his backyard in South Carolina. While attempting to remove the transmission, he became stuck beneath the car when it slipped off the blocks and the jack that was holding it up. Clemmons called for help but he never would have expected just who came to his rescue. After some time shouting for help, Clemmons told WAFF-TV, he was having an increasingly difficult time breathing. I asked God to help me, to give me one more holler and send an angel my way. The last holler before I give up. And luckily, 9-year-old neighbor Malachi was just in reach of that last call. Nine-year-old Malachi, who came to his neighbors rescue. (Screenshot: WIS TV) I was playing outside and I heard someone yelling, Malachi told the local news affiliate. He was saying something like he was stuck, but I didnt know what he meant. But then he found Clemmons stuck alongside a car jack one that the young boys uncle fortunately had taught him how to work. Lying on his side, Clemmons was able to guide Malachi in getting the jack back under the car. Once the man was relieved of the cars weight, the young boy hurried over to his aunts house to call for help. Moments later, a tow truck arrived and a group of people helped to get Clemmons out from under the car. Clemmons is now recovering at a hospital in Columbia, S.C. (Screenshot: WIS TV) The man was flown to Palmetto Health in Columbia, where he is now recovering from several injuries, including six broken ribs and a fractured pelvis. As for young Malachi, he sends his well wishes to Clemmons and plans on visiting him in the hospital soon. I dont think I would have survived another 30 minutes, Clemmons said of Malachis help. He is truly my guardian angel. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. In honor of the upcoming royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Windsor & Eton Brewery has created a new pale ale beer called the Windsor Knot, which marries British and American hops (Aww! How symbolic!). Also worth noting, the brewery happens to be located very close to St. Georges Chapel in Windsor Castle where the actual wedding will take place. Because this is too good to be true, we gathered all the info we could and spoke to the brewery to learn all the details about this very special ale. To add a bit of a celebration element, the pale ale contains a Champagne yeast, along with the British and American hops. Willie Calvert, co-owner of the Windsor & Eton Brewery, told People. Were using some nice, fruity hops from Yamika in Washington State and some English hops, which are more subtly flavored. English hops tend to be more of a grassy, textured flavor a bit more like hay whereas New World hops have more sunlight and are more strongly flavored. Adding another layer of symbolism, the English hops are Invitica, in recognition of Prince Harrys role in creating the Invictus Games, said co-founder Paddy Johnson to Bar Magazine. Even the bottle design is a tribute to the American and British union, with a tie made out of the Union Jack and American Stars and Stripes. We chose the interlocking symbols to reflect the strength and support they give each other, reads its official website. The beer comes in both 330 milliliter bottles at 4.5 percent ABV and in a cask at 4 percent ABV. Anyone eager to try the pale ale can buy it at Windsor Farms starting on March 28. The beer will also be available at participating pubs in both London and Windsor closer to the wedding. British fans of the royal family (or beer) will have extra time to guzzle the ale too. U.K. residents will enjoy extended bar hours on May 19, the day of the wedding. Instead of the usual 11 pm cutoff time, bars and pubs across England and Wales will have permission to stay open until 1 am that day, according to the BBC. That goes for the day after the wedding, too. Story continues This isnt the first time that Windsor & Eton Brewery has made a royal-themed beer. The brewery also made special-edition beers for Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridges wedding back in 2011, which was also called the Windsor Knot. More recently, the brewery created drafts called Royal Cot and the Royal Tot in honor of the recently-born royal babies. What are you most looking forward to about Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding? Let us know @BritandCo! (Photos via Windsor and Eton Brewery) Photo credit: Getty From Cosmopolitan After being kept frozen on ice for nearly four months, cult leader Charles Manson's remains will go to his grandson. A court in Los Angeles granted Jason Freeman custody of his grandfather's remains after a months-long legal battle, according to the Associated Press. Manson died in a hospital near the Los Angeles prison where he was serving a life sentence for a notorious 1969 killing spree in November. Since then, at least three people reportedly claimed they had rightful custody of Manson's remains. Aside from Freeman, Manson's longtime pen pal Michael Channels said he should receive Manson's remains, as well as Matt Lentz, a Los Angeles musician who said he was Manson's son conceived during an orgy in the `60s. "Lentz claimed that Manson fathered him during a Wisconsin orgy and that he had been named as sole beneficiary in a 2017 will that Manson purportedly signed," reported NBC. "Channels also claimed to be Mansons sole beneficiary in a will filed in 2002 that disinherited the cult leaders natural born children - including Freemans father, Charles Manson Jr." According to the Associated Press, Freeman didn't immediately say what his plans for Manson's remains are. He previously said he'd cremate and spread his ashes as a way to "put to rest 'this so called monster, this historical figure that shouldn't have been blown up as big as it was for all these years.'" Manson was serving life in prison (converted from an original death sentence) for his cult's violent killing of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant at the time, in 1969. During his trial in 1970, the prosecution found that Manson's motive was to pin the murder on black people and accelerate a race war he envisioned, according to NPR. Aside from Manson, three members of the Manson Family cult, all women - Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten - were also sentenced to death, later converted to life in prison. Atkins died in 2009, and Krenwinkel and Van Houten are still alive and in prison in California. Story continues Follow Hannah on Twitter. You Might Also Like Most people have encountered a wrong number text. But nobodys had quite the same fortune as this family from Tennessee that has had a life-changing experience after receiving a text by mistake. A young woman asking for an opinion on her dress texted the wrong number. A father of 6 received the text and responded to her. Heres how its already changing the life of his little boy with leukemia. (Photo: Twitter/bbymandi) Tony Wood didnt know what to expect when he received a text from an unfamiliar number sending pictures of a formal dress and looking for approval. But after providing a witty response to student Sydney Uselton, which included a photo of five adorable children giving a thumbs-up, the transaction was deemed Twitter-worthy by Useltons friend, and ultimately went viral. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. I believe this message was intended for someone else, Woods initial text response read. My wife isnt home, so I couldnt get her opinion, but the kids and I think you look stunning in your dress! You should definitely go with that one! However, that response wouldnt be the last to come from the resulting Twitter thread. Instead, a family friend of the Woods tracked down the post, bringing it to their attention. The father of six then responded via his real estate groups account, offering some more information about himself and his incredible family. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Noting that the thread had now made his children Twitter famous, Wood elaborated on the members of the family that werent pictured in the photo. One being his wife, Rachel, who humorously added her own approval of the dress, while the other was their 6-year-old son, Kaizler, who was going through chemotherapy during the photo op. My 2nd youngest (not pictured, he was at chemo clinic) has a FB page for his fight against leukemia and one of our Prayer Warriors recognized the children! Wood wrote, sharing with Yahoo Lifestyle that his son was diagnosed with pre-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia when he was just 4 years old. He was acting a little lethargic and had a sporadic temperature, Wood explains of the beginning of their medical journey with Kaizler, which eventually led them to Childrens Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. He either had a severe viral infection or leukemia. Weve never prayed so hard for a viral infection in our lives. So, we went to Childrens Mercy, and the day before Christmas Eve in 2015, we found out our son was diagnosed with leukemia. Story continues Kaizler on Christmas Day 2015, just after being diagnosed with leukemia. (Photo: Facebook/Prayers for Kaizler) At the time of his diagnosis, the family made a Facebook group called Prayers for Kaizler, where family and friends can find up-to-date information on his health and well-being. And while its heartwarming to experience the moments when hes doing well, its heartbreaking to see those when hes in pain. Like in 2016, when Kaizler ended up near death although he was in remission. You quickly realize that treatment is just as dangerous as the disease, Wood says. He was having silent seizures, he stopped breathing, and had to be intubated and life-flighted to the PICU at Childrens Mercy. That was probably the scariest moment Ive faced in my life. However, just the next day the Woods took to the Facebook page to share a photo of smiling Kaizler, who followers called a trouper. Kaizler smiling at a nurse after having a health scare. (Photo: Facebook/Prayers for Kaizler) If I had half the strength that he does, nothing in this life could stop me, Wood says of his son, sharing that its been harding dealing with the stress of it all, in addition to the financial deficit. Ive had to swallow my pride on a few occasions throughout this scenario. Its kind of a punch in the face, but sometimes you learn you just need help. And it seems that from the viral tweet, help is exactly what Kaizlers family is getting, as a growing number of people have generously contributed to his familys GoFundMe. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Ive been shocked and amazed! Wood tells Yahoo Lifestyle. People started joining Kaizlers group from this whole situation. As far as the GoFundMe, the support has been overwhelming and has successfully driven my wife and I to tears on more than one occasion. Having had Kaizlers donation page open for the past two years, the Wood family had only raised $2,000 of their $10,000 goal. But in the days since the tweet received widespread attention, donations have reached nearly $30,000. While Wood is immensely grateful for peoples assistance, he reiterates that theyve been lucky enough to have medical expenses covered by Childrens Mercy Hospital and additional support from Medicaid for his children to go through counseling. But there are a number of other financial burdens associated with this battle, including time away from work and travel expenses associated with treatments. The children get ready to head to Disney World with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. (Photo: Facebook/Prayers for Kaizler) This disease isnt just a fight for the child, its a fight for the whole family, Wood explains. Obviously [Kaizler] is fighting a serious battle and there are very real issues that weve faced and will continue to face. Rachel and I probably should be talking with someone, but finding the time to do that with everything else going on is almost impossible. From the help of a number of people in their lives, including nurses at Kaizlers hospital, the people of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and now those who are donating after seeing the viral tweet, the children are living as normal a life as they can. Wood says that he and his wife update them on whats going on, but havent gone into great detail, as to let them be kids and worry about kid stuff. As for their 15 minutes of fame, only the two eldest know what Twitter is, and their only area of concern seems to be whether or not theyll get onto the Ellen Degeneres Show. A bunch of people have been tagging the Ellen Show, Wood says. That would be pretty stinking awesome to go meet Ellen, but Im not holding my breath! Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: 4-year-old diagnosed with leukemia after being sent home from school with a sore throat This 3-year-olds birthday card to her cancer survivor dad is a gift to us all School bans wearing orange ribbon to honor classmate who died of cancer, then reverses its decision Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. A high school in Hawaii is banning excessive skin at prom. (Photo: Getty Images) High school students in Hawaii are protesting their schools prom dress code which bans girls from showing excessive clevage. Per a Change.org petition called Change the restrictions on prom dress codes for Kauai High School which has received more than 400 signatures, the dress code for the upcoming prom is discriminating and insulting to girls. The Kauai High School dress code reportedly bans: slits on the backs of dresses that expose the upper thighs, backless dresses that fall below the mid-back (under the bra strap), dresses with cut-outs that expose bare skin, off-the-shoulder dresses, and any attire that shows excessive clevage. The petition, launched by student Annie Funaki of Lawai, states: The facts are this is 2018, where we are told to be confident in our body, but then you create these restrictions that discriminate us and hypersexualize us to the point that we cannot feel comfortable without the assumption that we are being provocative. This dress code fits more of highly conservative standards than a school dress code. The poster instructing students what the should and shouldnt do. (Photo: Change.org) It continues, We ask you to please read this and hear our voice, as we try to make a change in something that should not have been done in the first place, and trust our judgment in representing ourselves and this school. Supporters of the petition wrote the following comments: Why should we be told that we have to hide our bodies because theyre sexual when theyre not? People shouldnt be thinking of them like that in the first place. If youre worried about boys getting too excited over seeing a girls shoulders, you should be teaching them some self-control. There is no situation in which anyone should be told what they can and cannot especially in the situation where women clothing controls the concentration of men and women. Teach the behavior you want to see instead of oppressing an entire gender. Men [can focus] with a shoulder showing. Students should have a right to wear whatever dress they please they should be able to feel confident and express themselves. Neither Funaki or school principal Anne Kane responded to Yahoo Lifestyles request for comment. Story continues Prom season has always exposed fundamental flaws in school dress codes due to more emphasis placed on girls attire and the potential to discriminate based on physicality. For example, in March, the Boylan Catholic High School in Rockford, Illinois school released a 19-page now-deleted document called Proper dress and dance policy which, according to the New York Post stated, [Dress necklines] must be cut in a modest way without showing clevage and any cuts in the back or sides must not be cut below the navel (below your elbow). The guide also printed a series of photos exemplifying what not to wear, including strapless or wrap dresses. The school also took no measures to conceal its body-shaming message: Some girls may wear the same dress, but due to body types, one dress may be acceptable while the other is not, read the guide. Per the Post, school president Amy Ott explained, You have to try a dress on and see what it looks like on you, not how it looks on someone else. Its like shopping for any other kind of clothing in this day and age. You want to look your best and look appropriate. Teen Brittany Minder was prevented from entering her 2013 prom at Central Kitsap High School in Silverdale, Washington unless she draped a shawl over her strapless gown. In my opinion, I feel that it is because Im bigger chested and there is more clevage that you can see, and theres nothing I could really do about that, she told local news station KATU 2. Minder stayed at prom for only an hour, then left. I felt self-conscious and they took the magic out of the night, she told the news station. It was tough being there after all that happened. I didnt feel comfortable. I already had a blow to my self-esteem. I didnt really want to be there anymore. And Alexus Miller-Wigfall, a student at Sci Tech Harrisburg High School in Pennsylvania was served a three-day suspension (that was later reversed) in 2015 for wearing a long, red gown to prom that the school deemed too revealing. The teen told Penn Live that she was discriminated against due to her weight. [The assistant principal] said, You have more boobs than other girls. The other girls have less to show.' And mom Alisha Sneed told the publication, I dont see anything wrong with that dress. What do they want her to wear, a turtleneck? My daughters dress was tasteful and classy. I dont think that its fair that my daughter was singled out. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. The youngest brother of Jared Kushner has donated $50,000 to the anti-gun violence March for Our Lives, Axios reported Sunday. Josh Kushner, the 32-year-old sibling of the White House senior adviser and longterm boyfriend of model Karlie Kloss, is a lifelong Democrat who reportedly didn't vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. And it's not the first time he has aligned himself with an otherwise liberal cause, either. In January 2017, just one day after the inauguration of President Trump, he was spotted at the Women's March in Washington, D.C. The March for Our Lives is bound to take place on March 24 in nearly 700 locations across the globe. The event was organized by survivors of the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL that left 17 dead on Feb. 14. Josh Kushner is not the only high-profile player who has donated to the anti-gun violence rally: The march has also received the support of people and brands such as Oprah Winfrey, Amal and George Clooney, and Gucci. March for Our Lives is part of the students' larger call for better gun safety measures which, besides the protest, has also included organizing nationwide walkouts, putting pressure on corporations and Congress, and asking people to register to vote. So far, it looks like the teen activists are succeeding in their efforts: On Friday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed a sweeping gun control bill into law. The students praised the Republican governor, calling the legislation "step one." And on Sunday night, the Trump administration released a proposal to arm and train certain school personnel and backed a bill to improve criminal background checks at the time of a firearm sale. (However, the White House shifted away from the idea of increasing the minimum age to buy certain guns from 18 to 21.) Whether the teenagers and their community can push lawmakers to pass other sensible gun safety measures remains to be seen. But if there's something we can be sure of is that their efforts are making history either way. Story continues Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? Rex Tillerson Found Out He Was Fired From A Tweet We Made These Posters To Help You Support Gun Reform Efforts In Your Area All The Questions Betsy DeVos Didn't Answer In Her 60 Minutes Interview By Nate Raymond BOSTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday rejected a lawsuit by Massachusetts' attorney general challenging new rules by President Donald Trump's administration that make it easier for employers to avoid providing insurance that covers women's birth control. U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Boston dismissed a lawsuit by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey that sought to block rules that provide exemptions from an Obamacare mandate requiring such coverage on moral or religious grounds. The ruling came after two other judges in California and Pennsylvania in December issued preliminary injunctions blocking the Republican president's administration from enforcing the rules, which it announced in October. Gorton said that in contrast to those two states, where there is "no doubt" employers intend to take advantage of the exemptions, "the record is uniquely obscure" as to whether any in Massachusetts would. He noted that after the new rules were announced, Massachusetts enacted a law in November called the ACCESS Act that required employer-sponsored health plans to cover birth control without imposing co-pays. As a result, Gorton said that state law provided reasons to believe Massachusetts women were less likely to be affected by the federal rules, undercutting Healey's claim that the state would be injured by them and that she had standing to sue. "While we are disappointed in today's decision, we remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring affordable and reliable reproductive health care for women," Healey, a Democrat, said in a statement. "We will continue to fight for these protections." The U.S. Justice Department, which is defending the rules, had no immediate comment. The lawsuit is among several that Democratic state attorneys general filed after the Trump administration on Oct. 6 unveiled the rules, which targeted the contraceptive mandate implemented as part of 2010's Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. The rules allow businesses or nonprofits to lodge religious or moral objections to obtain an exemption from the law's mandate that employers provide contraceptive coverage in health insurance with no co-payment. Conservative Christian activists and congressional Republicans praised the move, while reproductive rights advocates and Democrats criticized it. (Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney) If anyone has doubts about how well Meghan Markle fits into the royal family, they need only to look at family photos from Monday morning. Markle joined her fiance Prince Harry, her future in-laws Kate Middleton and Prince William, her future father-in-law Prince Charles, and her future grandmother-in-law Queen Elizabeth for her biggest royal event yet, and it went off without a hitch. Markle was pictured arriving at Westminster Abbey with her fiance and future in-laws, looking elegant in a cream-colored Amanda Wakeley coat ($1,199; orchardmile.com) and matching hat. She wore the ensemble with a navy Amanda Wakeley sheath dress ($267; orchardmile.com) and matching Mulberry bag and Manolo Blahnik stilettos ($625; barneys.com). Her soon-to-be sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, must have gotten the style memo, as she also wore blue: The expectant mother paired a navy wrap dress and wide-brim hat with stilettos that were nearly identical to the pair Markle wore. They all gathered for a public event for the first time in 2018, a church service celebrating Commonwealth Day, and it's a big deal that Markle formally attended alongside the royal family. Queen Elizabeth serves as the head of the Commonwealth53 nations in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americasand Commonwealth Day celebrates this. While we haven't seen her in a photo with Markle yet, the queen arrived at Westminster Abbey looking regal in ruby. This occasion marks the first official event involving both Markle and Queen Elizabeth. Interestingly, Markle was not the only Hollywood face in attendance. RELATED: Meghan Markle Just Announced Her Biggest Royal Date Yet As Kensington Palace previously reported, this year's Commonwealth Service will feature a musical performance by former One Direction band member and new solo artist Liam Payne. COMMONWEALTH CONNECTION:Meghan Markle has taken part in her first official engagement with Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family at the annual Commonwealth Day service, an annual interfaith ceremony, held at Westminster Abbey on Monday. Markle joined members of the royal family including Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and the Duke of York. Later that day, the young royals Prince William, the duchess, Prince Harry and Markle were scheduled to attend a private reception. The theme of this years service was Towards a Common Future, and focused on how the Commonwealth an intergovernmental organization of 53 member countries that are former territories of the British Empire can work to address worldwide issues such as sustainability, safety, prosperity and equality. Through exchanging ideas, and seeing life from other perspectives, we grow in understanding and work more collaboratively toward a common future, said the Queen. There is a very special value in the insights we gain through the Commonwealth connection. Shared inheritances help us overcome difference, so that diversity is a cause for celebration rather than division. We shall see this in action at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which takes place in the United Kingdom next month, bringing together young people, business and civil society from across the Commonwealth. Kate Middleton wore a navy Beulah coat with a Lock and Co. hat, while Markle donned a white Amanda Wakeley coat and matching hat. Markle has joined the royal family previously in a private capacity, spending Christmas with the royals. Last week, she traveled to Birmingham with Prince Harry to meet with young people involved with youth projects. Their visit coincided with International Womens Day and the engaged couple met with female students who are studying STEM subjects science, technology, engineering and math. Story continues Related: Related stories Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Visit Birmingham Princes William and Harry Lay Out Charitable Vision at Royal Foundation Forum Emerging Designers Shine at London Fashion Week's Fall 2018 Edition Meghan Markle marked her first public appearance alongside Queen Elizabeth II on Monday March 12, taking part in the Commonwealth Day 2018 celebrations alongside the royal family. The actress accompanied her fiance Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton, to the U.K.s biggest annual inter-faith gathering in Westminster Abbey, gaining attention for her ensemble. Markle showed up to the Commonwealth Day Service in a cream-colored coat by British designer Amanda Wakeley ($1,199; orchardmile.com) and a fashion accessory beloved by another member of the royal family. RELATED: Kate Middleton's Most Memorable Outfits The actress wore a white beret to the service created by hat-maker Stephen Jones, who's known for producing a variety of berets for Princess Diana during her 20s. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. She really loved the world of fashion, and she liked the people in it, Jones told Vogue in a recent interview. It was an escape for her. Markle also donned a brown beret to the Christmas Day Church service with the royal family in December. Markle accompanied the royal family to Westminster Abbey, where the royal wedding will take place next summer, for the celebration that included some 2,000 other guests, according to NBC. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. With a theme of Towards a Common Future, the occasion brought together leaders from 53 independent countries that participated in speeches, discussions of traditional hymns and readings, and performances from British artist Liam Payne. The Queen is the head of the global Commonwealth network and has been throughout her 66 year reign, continuing the historic tradition this year. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This isnt the first time Markle has been noticed paying tribute to Prince Harry's late mother: The 36-year-old has two diamonds from Diana's collection featured in her engagement ring. Kaylee Muthart gouged her own eyes out outside of a church while in a meth-induced hallucination last month and is on a journey to recovery. On February 6th, Muthart, 20, was found ripping out her eyes in front of a South Carolina church. She was rushed to the hospital but her eyes could not be saved she is completely blind. That was a struggle. I cant even explain that feeling when I found out, it was horrifying. Complete terror, Mutharts mother, Katy Tompkins, told PEOPLE. I was thankful she was alive, but I knew something was wrong with her. Facebook Muthart claims she was told to sacrifice her eyes in order to go to heaven. During her hallucination, she became very involved with religion. I thought everyone who had died was stuck in their graves, that God was up in heaven alone, and that I had to sacrifice something important to be able to release everyone in the world to God, she told PEOPLE. It made the world darker, and took everything I believed in and distorted them to make me go down the path to pulling out my eyes. The concept of life after death was extremely consuming to Muthart in her delirious state. RELATED: Horrific New Details Released About WHY A Mother Let Her Boyfriend And His Cousin Rape And Murder Her 10-Year-Old Daughter While She Watched It was scary, I didnt understand what God wanted of me, but it made me feel a sense of righteousness that I had to be the one to do it, she recalls. And I was glad to do it because Ive always had a big heart and nobodys ever giving me that love back. She then went on to explain the incident brought on by meth that was most likely laced with other chemicals. I proceeded to pull out my eyes with my bare hands and twisted them, and pulled them, and popped them, she told PEOPLE. I told the pastor who showed up, Pray for me, I want to see the light, pray for me. Story continues This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Mutharts mother, Katy Tompkins, warned of the dangers of using illegal substances. "Be very, very careful of any (illegal) drug you get because you never know what youre going to get in it," Tompkins said. Tompkins went on to say that neither she nor Muthart want anyone else to have to experience what they have. Tompkins cant even explain how it feels. RELATED: 8 Strange Details About The Unsolved Murder Of Faith Hedgepeth The Disturbing Voicemail On Her Phone & The Threatening Note On A Fast Food Bag Were just thankful shes still here, Tompkins told WTOC. It could always be much worse. Ever since Mutharts episode that caused her to blind herself, she has been grounding herself in her faith and adapting to blindness with echolocation. Facebook Ill forget Im blind sometimes because I know whats around me, she says. Not down to a tee, but I know what my moms house looks like. You still see, but you dont see with your eyes, its hard to explain because I dont even understand it myself. Muthart returned home March 1 but is still receiving all sorts of treatment and adjusting to her new, drug-free life. She will have to get prosthetic eyes to maintain her facial structure, the New York Post reports. Its the same life, but Im just learning everything in a new way, Muthart told PEOPLE. Lifes more beautiful now, lifes more beautiful than it was being on drugs. It is a horrible world to live in. She is very positive about her current situation and hopes she can help at least one person with her story. Im able to be Kaylee again. Id rather be blind and be myself than be Kaylee on drugs, and I truly mean that with my heart, she says. Im Kaylee Jean Muthart, just like I was 10 years ago. Just better. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family pay for a service dog for Muthart. RELATED: Recovering Addict Shares Before And After Pictures Of Face To Show Effects Of Drugs And Addiction Keywords: crime, drugs read more Photo credit: Getty From Cosmopolitan Photo credit: Getty In a tweet on Tuesday morning, President Trump confirmed Rex Tillerson would no longer be Secretary of State. CIA Director Mike Pompeo will move into the Secretary of State role and his deputy director Gina Haspel will now run the organization. Haspel will become, as Trump mentioned in his tweet, the first woman to run the CIA. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. In February of last year, when Haspel was promoted to deputy director, the New York Times reported she "oversaw the torture of two terrorism suspects and later took part in an order to destroy videotapes documenting their brutal interrogations at a secret prison in Thailand" as a clandestine field agent in 2002. Per the Washington Post, Haspel thanked Trump for the promotion: "After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year, she said in a statement. I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Follow Tess on Twitter. You Might Also Like 7,000 pairs of shoes 7,000 empty pairs of shoes for every child killed by guns in the US since Sandy Hook cover the southeast lawn of U.S. Capitol Building on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Avaaz gathered survivors, family members, and dozens of volunteers to create the installation calling on Congress to honor kids lives with gun reform laws. (Photo: Paul Morigi/AP Images for AVAAZ) Tom Mauser came to the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday dressed in gray Vans sneakers, the same ones his 15-year-old son Daniel wore when he was killed by two gunmen at Colorados Columbine High School in 1999 along with a dozen other people. Mauser was one of a handful of gun control activists and volunteers who braved a frigid March morning to lay out about 7,000 pairs of shoes on the U.S. Capitol lawn as a makeshift memorial to American children killed by gun violence. Their aim, like the thousands of students across the country who plan to walk out of their classrooms for 17 minutes on Wednesday morning, was to put more pressure on state and federal lawmakers to tighten rules on gun ownership. Theres nobody in those shoes, its like the emptiness in our hearts from gun violence, said Mauser, 66, of Littleton, Colorado. The memorial, organized by Avaaz, a U.S.-based civic organization, and the National School Walkout, organized by the activists behind the Womens March in Washington, are part of a grass-roots movement that grew out of the killing of 17 students and staff at a Florida high school a month ago. I think were in the middle of a cultural change in the United States. The majority of Americans want a change in gun laws, and a majority of gun owners want change, said Emma Ruby-Sachs, deputy director of Avaaz. Many of the proposals favored by gun control advocates, including a ban on assault-style weapons and the closing of loopholes on requiring background checks before gun purchases, are fiercely opposed by the National Rifle Association and its supporters. The 7,000 pairs of donated footwear, arranged side by side in a trapezoid shape outside the Capitol, represent every person younger than 18 who has been killed by a firearm since the 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Actresses Susan Sarandon and Bette Midler, and talk show host Chelsea Handler were among shoe donors. (Reuters) See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr. President Donald Trumps choice of Mike Pompeo as his new secretary of state has sparked anger among LGBTQ rights groups, in part because of the Kansans opposition to same-sex marriage. A former U.S.House member allied with the Tea Party, Pompeo blasted the Supreme Courts 2015 ruling legalizing marriage by LGBTQ people as a shocking abuse of power that flew in the face of centuries of shared understanding of our Constitution. He offered similar anti-marriage equality sentiments at a Kansas State University appearance in 2014, saying, I think as you look back at civilization, look back at history, you find the strength of these families having a father and a mother is the ideal condition for childbearing. If youre asking for what is ideal, I think its being raised by a man and a woman. Rex Tillerson, fired by the president as Americas top diplomat, had been one of the few Trump officials to acknowledge LGBTQ Pride Month last June. Pompeo seems unlikely to do the same, given his history. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Although legislation ending the dont ask, dont tell policy toward LGBTQ people serving in the armed forces had passed the year before he joined Congress in 2011, he nonetheless spoke out against the repeal. We cannot use military to promote social ideas that do not reflect the values of our nation, he said. As CIA director under Trump, he came under fire after the agency last year canceled an event at its headquarters where Judy and Dennis Shepard, parents of murdered gay student Matthew Shepard, had been scheduled to speak. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Among those to blast Pompeos nomination was Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, who called him a reckless choice to lead our nations diplomatic efforts. The decision to nominate anti-LGBTQ Mike Pompeo could have serious consequences for the United States and LGBTQ people around the globe, Griffin said in a statement on HRCs website. The State Department has a crucial role to play in advancing human rights a role which was already rapidly declining under Tillerson. This decision has the potential to make a dire situation even worse. Story continues This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis expressed similar criticisms. She said she was especially concerned that as CIA director, Pompeo had consulted with the Family Research Council, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as an anti-LGBTQ hate group. We have already seen a State Department under President Trump that has stayed silent and refused to take necessary steps to combat and condemn the growing epidemic of anti-LGBTQ violence around the world, and now that department will be helmed by someone with an extensive anti-LGBTQ record, she said. This extremism should have no place in the U.S. State Department. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Marvin G. Weinbaum, Samad Sadri Security, Middle East A man walks on a hilltop overlooking Kabul The content of the Talibans letter and subsequent messages should leave little doubt of its intentions. The Afghan Taliban's Deceptive Peace Initiative Expectations for an Afghan peace process grew last month with the Talibans release of a letter addressed to the American people offering to negotiate. It was followed more recently by Afghan president Ashraf Ghanis unconditional willingness to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate political party and other significant concessions. Reacting to the two initiatives, many have concluded that the ice has been broken in finding a political solution to the Afghan conflict. Yet cautiousness if not cynicism is in order. The content of the Talibans letter and subsequent messages should leave little doubt of its intentions. Rather than laying the ground for talks, the overture was designed to weaken the resolve of the American public and elected officials to support the continued presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and to drive a wedge between the Kabul government and the United States. Displaying a sophisticated understanding of psych-ops, the Talibans letter reflects a careful reading of the American publics debate and frustrations over the Afghan war. By excluding the Kabul government as a participant in negotiations, the well-crafted three-thousand-word message also seeks to fuel long-standing suspicions in Kabul of a deal being struck behind its back. Several factors seemingly contributed to the timing of the Taliban peace offensive. Appearing just prior to the Kabul conference, the letter offered the opportunity to upstage the twenty-five-nation meeting that Ghani used to reach out to the Taliban. It also followed a comment by President Donald Trump declaring no negotiations with the Taliban anytime soon, as well as President Ghanis declaration, made after a series of deadly terrorist attacks, that the Kabul government would only talk to insurgents with no blood on their hands. Both statements allowed the Taliban through its peace initiative to suggest that the onus for prolonging the war belonged elsewhere. Story continues In a more broadly calculating way, the Talibans peace offensive also comes after months of a sharply augmented air campaign by the United States that has apparently arrested the momentum of the Taliban insurgency and forced it to adjust its military tactics. By offering the prospect of negotiations, the Taliban may have hoped to restore the terms of military engagement that existed prior to Washingtons proclaiming its new strategic approach last August. Previous policies limited U.S. operations against Taliban forces in Afghanistan to a defensive response to attacks in hopes of encouraging and facilitating negotiations. Even now, while U.S. military thinking believes that only from a clear position of strength can the Taliban be forced to the bargaining table, the Talibans Quetta Shura senior leadership continues to enjoy immunity from drone attacks inside Pakistan. The Taliban as an organization also remains conspicuously off the United States and internationally designated terrorist lists. Almost all of the current attention is focused on getting the Taliban to negotiate as though negotiations were an endpoint rather than the beginning of an almost certainly difficult process. Absent from the discussions is whether there exists enough common ground on substantive issues at present to warrant pushing for talks. The experience of peace processes elsewhere instructs us that negotiations, even those less complicated, are likely to drag on for years. The question also naturally arises as to who can speak for a now more decentralized Taliban movement, much less for the other segments of the insurgency. And can the squabbling political elements composing the Kabul government be expected to agree among themselves on a power-sharing arrangement with the Taliban. Then too, who would enforce compliance with a settlement were one reached? The language of the Talibans letter and its subsequent messages do little to suggest that it has altered its basic objective of achieving the restoration of an Islamic Emirate, whether realized through fighting or political means. President Ghani offers the Taliban an opportunity to compete politically in an open political system and acquire cabinet positions and governorships. But if generous terms for power-sharing were the Talibans aims, then these have been on the table for several years, even during the Karzai regime. The Taliban has never disguised its disdain for a pluralistic, democratic system whose constitution it rejects as a foreign import. A Taliban envisioned Emirate would be headed by a religious figure whose absolute authority is legitimized by his piety and not through popular mandate. Although the Taliban promises to have a more tolerant and inclusive regime than during its earlier incarnation, political and social rights would only be guaranteed to the extent they were found in accordance with a Taliban interpretation of Sharia Law. On these, its own terms, the Taliban would probably be prepared to negotiate tomorrow. In all probability, the various parties to the Afghan conflict will never sit around a table in Geneva or anywhere else and hammer out a grand bargain on Afghanistan. Failing that, the conflict will drag on, ending likely in one of two starkly different ways. The best-case scenario would be a Kabul government, bought time by the United States and its allies, that strengthens militarily and economically, and coheres enough politically to where it can gradually peel off large elements of the insurgency and marginalize the rest. The worst is that international fatigue and subsequent state failure result in a bloody, protracted and chaotic civil war that leaves Afghanistan a devastated, ethnically-fractured state threatening the region and beyond. The latter outcome is so disastrous that the United States, despite the long odds, has little choice but to stay the course in Afghanistan. Marvin G. Weinbaum is the director of Afghanistan and Pakistan Studies at the Middle East Institute and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Samad Sadri is a research associate at the Middle East Institute. Image: Reuters Read full article Centurion (South Africa) (AFP) - South African President and ruling ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa stepped up the charm offensive Sunday to lure firebrand Julius Malema back to the party he was expelled from in 2012. Ahead of a general election due in 2019, a weekend-long voter registration drive was underway across South Africa on Saturday and Sunday, prompting a flurry of political manoeuvering. Malema founded the radical opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) after he was removed from the African National Congress (ANC) along with a number of allies. His party now has the third largest number of MPs in the National Assembly, the lower house of the legislature. For years the EFF ruthlessly attacked former president Jacob Zuma and his government, making accusations of corruption and incompetence. But since Zuma's resignation last month, the EFF has softened its stance on the governing party and Ramaphosa, instead switching its hostility to the main opposition Democratic Alliance party. "We would want to welcome (EFF members) back, and in fact we are able to say we would love to have Julius Malema back in the ANC. He is still ANC down deep in his heart," said Ramaphosa during a voter registration drive in Centurion, near Pretoria. "The ANC is their home." Ramaphosa's comments came after anti-apartheid icon and Nelson Mandela's former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said she would persuade Malema to rejoin the ANC. Malema previously also ruled out a return to the ANC where he once headed the party's powerful Youth League. "My grandmother is 87 years old. She said even if she dies, I must never rejoin the ANC," Malema told a news conference in parliament last month. "I would rather leave politics and go and be an analyst on Power FM," he added referring to a local radio station. Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army fighters are seen in Maryamayn in eastern Afrin - REUTERS Turkish forces and allied rebels surrounded the Syrian city of Afrin on Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of its mostly Kurdish residents trapped. Hundreds of civilians managed to flee advancing troops on Monday, but an estimated 700,000 are now encircled in Afrin and nearby villages and towns. The only road out was in range of Turkish artillery fire and was therefore impassable, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Some 230 civilians have been killed so far in Turkey's Operation Olive Branch, however Kurdish fighters warned the new siege could trigger a humanitarian crisis. There was no water after Turkish forces seized control of the local dam, and residents say they have relied on water wells for their consumption. Syria - Operation Olive Branch Where is the international community? Why dont they cry tears for all Syrian civilians, not only some? Ahmed Murad, a resident of Afrin told the Telegraph. They are too scared to criticise their Turkish ally. While attention in recent weeks has focused on a ferocious regime assault on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, in Syria's north Turkish forces and Syrian opposition fighters have been advancing in their offensive against the Kurdish enclave. Syrian civilians ride their cars through Ain Dara in Syria's northern Afrin region as they flee Afrin Credit: AFP Turkey launched its operation on January 20, saying it intended to clear the border of YPG fighters, whom they consider terrorists. However, its mission has expanded to include territory deep into Syria. Senior officials have said that Turkey was trying, through war, to take lands it occupied during the Ottoman Empire. Redur Xelil, head of foreign relations for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed alliance of fighters that includes the YPG, accused the Turkish forces of carrying out "demographic change" in Kurdish territory captured in Afrin. "The Turkish government is settling Turkmen and Arab families in the villages of Afrin that it occupied after forcing out its people, and is distributing the belongings of the people of Afrin to the new settlers," he said. Story continues The United Nations said that it received "disturbing reports" of civilian deaths in the northwestern Syrian enclave and that it believes "tens of thousands" have been displaced. Turkey denied the claims. Civilians fleeing Afrin after Turkey said its army and allied rebels surrounded the Kurdish city in northern Syria, walk towards a Kurdish and Syrian pro-regime forces check point Credit: AFP The Turkish offensive opened a new front in a multi-sided civil war now entering its eighth year, which has drawn in neighbours and global powers who have armed and assisted fighters on the ground. Turkey considers the YPG a serious threat to its security, while the US has relied on the group in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). Their different positions have been the source of increasing friction between the Nato allies. Ankara is riled by US support and arming of the Kurds, and accuses Washington of not fulfilling a promise to move the Syrian Kurdish fighters in Manbij east of the Euphrates River. It threatened on Tuesday to expand its current offensive in northern Syria to drive the Syrian Kurds out of Manbij, where the US has troops. Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkeys foreign minister, said it had been agreed that the YPG would leave Manbij and Turkey and the US would jointly secure the area. The US did not immediately confirm and the YPG said it had not been informed of any such deal. Following the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, President Donald Trump commented on his decision and took questions from the media. Trump maintained that he and Tillerson disagreed on things, while adding that he shares more views with Mike Pompeo, whom he tapped to replace Tillerson. Most notably, Trump pointed to the Iran deal as a source of dispute between he and Tillerson. Trump also claimed he and Tillerson discussed the matter for a very long time. Trump emphasized that hes gotten along well with Pompeo and said they have very good chemistry in addition to agreeing on a number of subjects. Trump also spoke about Gina Haspel, who will take over as Director of the CIA after Pompeo as the first female CIA Director and someone hes gotten to know very well. Read Trumps comments here: TRUMP: Ive worked with Mike Pompeo now for quite some time. Tremendous energy, tremendous intellect. Were always on the same wavelength. The relationship has always been very good and thats what I need as secretary of state. I wish Rex Tillerson well. Gina, by the way, who I know very well, who Ive worked very closely (sic), will be the first woman director of the CIA. Shes an outstanding person who also I have gotten to know very well. So Ive gotten to know a lot of people very well over the last year. And Im really at a point where were getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want. But I think Mike Pompeo will be a truly great secretary of state. I have total confidence in him. And as far as Rex Tillerson is concerned, I very much appreciate his commitment and his service, and I wish him well. Hes a good man. (CROSSTALK) QUESTION: Mr. President, what did you tell Rex Tillerson? QUESTION: Mr. President, what did you say to Rex Tillerson? TRUMP: Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time. We we got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things. When you look at the Iran deal, I think its terrible. I guess he thought (ph) it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something, and he felt a little bit differently. Story continues So we were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think its going to go very well. Rex is a very good man. I like Rex a lot. I really appreciate his commitment and his service. And Ill be speaking to Rex over a long period of time. QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) TRUMP: I cant hear you. QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) TRUMP: No, I really didnt discuss it very much with him, honestly. I made that decision by myself. Rex wasnt, as you know, in our in this country. I made the North Korea decision with consultation from many people, but I made that decision by myself. QUESTION: Did you and Rex Tillerson (inaudible)? TRUMP: I actually got along well with Rex. But really it was a different mindset. It was a different thinking. QUESTION: Did you fire him because he called you a moron? TRUMP: What? QUESTION: Did you fire him because he called you a moron? QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) TRUMP: Say it again. QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) TRUMP: I respect his intellect. I respect the process that weve all gone through together. We have a very good relationship. For whatever reason, chemistry, whatever it is. Why do people get along? Ive always right from the beginning, from day one, Ive gotten along well with Mike Pompeo. And frankly, I get along well with Rex too. As you know, I wish Rex a lot of good things. I think hes going to do I think hes going to be very happy. I think Rex will be much happier now. But I really appreciate his service. But with Mike, weve had a very good chemistry right from the beginning. QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) TRUMP: Well, it sounds to me Im speaking to Theresa May today. It sounds to me like it would be Russia, based on all of the evidence they have. I dont know if theyve come to a conclusion, but shes calling me today. As you know, now were going to the wall. Were going out to the wall, were going to be looking at the prototypes, which is very important for our country. But Theresa May is going to be speaking to me today. It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia, and I would certainly take that finding as fact. (CROSSTALK) QUESTION: Mr. President, people think there should be a response from the United States. Do you believe there should be a response from the United States? TRUMP: Yeah, as soon as we get the facts straight. And were going to be speaking with the British today. Were speaking with Theresa May today. And as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be. But I have not spoken to her. Ill speak to her sometime today. QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) TRUMP: Were very happy with the decision by the House Intelligence Committee saying there was absolutely no collusion with respect to Russia. And it was a very powerful decision, a very strong decision, backed up I understand theyre going to be releasing hundreds of pages of proof and evidence. But we are very, very happy with that decision. It was a powerful decision that left no doubt. So I want to thank the House Intelligence Committee and all of the people that (inaudible). QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) TRUMP: Im looking at Larry Kudlow very strongly. Ive known him a long time. We dont agree on everything, but in this case I think thats good. I want to have a divergent opinion. We agree on most. He now has come around to believing in tariffs as also a negotiating point. You know, Im renegotiating trade deals. And without tariffs, we wouldnt do nearly as well. But Larry has been a friend of mine for a long time. He backed me very early in the campaign. I think the earliest I think he was one of my original backers. Hes a very, very talented man, a good man. And I think Larry Kudlow has a good chance. Im also speaking to many others, but I think Larry has a very good chance. Thank you all. Ill see you Ill see you at the wall. Ill see you at the wall. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos struggled to describe her and the administrations stance on a number of education issues on CBSs 60 Minutes Sunday, in an interview with host Lesley Stahl. DeVos, who is expected to be appointed as the head of a new commission on school safety today, sought to avoid confronting student demands for tighter gun control after the recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla. Stahl noted that the schools students criticized DeVoss visit, accusing her of seeking publicity and avoiding their questions. In response, DeVos said that she gives a lot of credit to the students there for really raising their voices. When Stahl stated that the students want gun control, DeVos answered that they want a variety of things, they want solutions. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. When Stahl asked outright whether teachers should have guns in classrooms, DeVos offered a noncommittal answer. While she argued that it should be an option for states and communities to consider, DeVos went on to say that she would hesitate to think of like my first grade teacher, Mrs. Zoerhoffhaving a gun and being trained in that way. She then changed tack again, adding, but for those who are capable, this is one solution that can and should be considered, but no one size fits all. Federal Commission on School Safety As the Trump administration pushes to address the issue of school violence, DeVos contended that she sees herself as a leader in this subject, as demonstrated by her request to head up a task force that will really look at what states are doing. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The federal commission will include local, federal, and school officials and will be charged with making recommendations to Trump for how to best avoid future school shootings. By Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will on Tuesday hail the role of international law in settling regional conflicts, comments apparently aimed at bolstering Australian efforts to build a coalition against Chinese assertiveness. Bishop, in a speech ahead of a special meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Sydney, will not name China but will argue that international law will stabilise a region strained by rival claims in the South China Sea. "The rules-based order is designed to regulate behaviour and rivalries of and between states, and ensure countries compete fairly and in a way that does not threaten others or destabilise their region or the world," Bishop will say in Sydney, according to a leaked draft of the speech seen by the Australian Financial Review. "It places limitations on the extent to which countries use their economic or military power to impose unfair agreements on less powerful nations." China claims most of the South China Sea, an important trade route which is believed to contain large quantities of oil and natural gas, and has been building artificial islands on reefs, some with ports and air strips. Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, all of which are members of ASEAN, and Taiwan also have claims in the sea. Australia, a staunch U.S. ally with no claim to the South China Sea, has long maintained its neutrality on the dispute to protect economic relationship with China. But with Australia's relations with China souring in recent months, Bishop's comment underscore a new Australian tactic. "Australia is trying to get ASEAN on side with the notion that China is a rule-breaker that everyone would be better served by abiding by," said Nick Bisley, professor of international relations at Melbournes La Trobe University. "If it can get ASEAN to use that language, it will strengthen Australia's position considerably." Story continues ASEAN and China in August begun talks to develop a code of conduct for the South China Sea, though a deal is unlikely before 2019, Singapore's Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said in February. The issue of the South China Sea is set to dominate the unofficial agenda of a special three-day meeting of ASEAN countries and Australia beginning on Friday. Officially, the summit will focus on fostering closer economic ties among the 10 members ASEAN and Australia, and countering the threat of Islamist militants returning to the region from the Middle East. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to travel to Sydney where she will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who is under pressure to publicly condemn the deaths and expulsion of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar's Rakhine State over recent months. (Reporting by Colin Packham; Editing by Robert Birsel) VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's Constitutional Court on Monday dealt a blow to the government's plans to cut benefits for groups including refugees, striking down identical rules in one province and saying refugees deserve special treatment. Austria's parliamentary election in October was dominated by Europe's immigration crisis, when it took in some of the largest numbers of asylum seekers in the European Union, relative to its population. Conservatives led by immigration hard-liner Sebastian Kurz won and went into government with the far-right Freedom Party. The two sides struck a coalition deal that includes reducing the main basic welfare payment for refugees to well below the standard amounts generally available. Opponents argue that refugees should be treated equally, as they still are in some provinces, including Vienna. The court found that people granted asylum have by definition had to flee their home countries and cannot return. "Those entitled to asylum cannot therefore in this context be put on the same footing as other foreigners (European Union citizens and nationals of third countries) who are free to return to their home countries," the court said in a statement on its ruling on Lower Austria, the province that surrounds Vienna. The government's plans do not include capping the main benefit payment for EU citizens, which would be difficult under EU rules on freedom of movement. If refugees cannot be treated worse than EU nationals, that raises the question of whether Austria can cap refugee benefits. The government does plan to restrict access to welfare payments for people who have lived in Austria for less than five of the past six years, as is the case in Lower Austria. The court struck down that five-year residency requirement and a cap on the main basic welfare payment of 1,500 euros ($1,847) per family per month, which the government plans to introduce nationally. The residency requirement's stated objectives were to promote integration and encourage people to work. Since Austrians who have lived abroad could also fail to meet the residency requirement, the court found that it achieved neither aim, as Austrian citizens should be considered well-integrated and those who have lived abroad no less willing to work. The government said in a statement that it respected the ruling. "But we maintain our aim of finding a single country-wide solution that distinguishes between people who have paid into the social security system for longer and those non-Austrians who have newly arrived in the social security system," it said, adding that a proposal would be submitted this year. ($1 = 0.8120 euros) (Reporting by Francois Murphy, editing by Larry King) The White House and the State Department displayed different responses to the British Prime Minister Theresa May's briefing on the recent nerve agent attack against a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K. Reacting to May's speech to the U.K. Parliament on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders called the attack "reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible," offering sympathy and support to the British government, "our closest ally." She stopped short, however, of naming Russia as the actor responsible for the attack, despite being explicitly asked about Moscow's alleged involvement. "Right now, we are standing with our U.K. ally. I think they're still working through even some of the details of that," she said. Trending: Why Was Big3s Roger Mason Jr. Fired? Former Commissioner Replaced by League Co-Founder Ice Cube 03_13_Kremlin Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images The State Department instead offered a more explicit commentary, expressing "full confidence in the U.K.s investigation." "There is never a justification for this type of attackthe attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nationand we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. From Ukraine to Syriaand now the U.K.Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens," the statement said, calling for those responsible to face consequences. Don't miss: Ihop Manager Apologizes After Waiter Told Black Teenagers to Pay Before Eating Story continues After meeting the government's National Security Council, May strongly condemned the attack and identified Russia as "highly likely" responsible for the Salisbury attack. The British prime minister mentioned the chemical used in the attack, a type of nerve agent known as Novichok previously produced by Russia, as well as the country's "record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations," and targeting of defectors as evidence supporting the assessment. "Either this was a direct action by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others," she said. Most popular: Swarm Technologies: FCC Refused to Sanction Launch of Tiny Satellites, California Startup Did it Anyway May issued an ultimatum, demanding a "credible explanation" by the end of Tuesday or else the U.K. would consider the attack an "unlawful use of force" by Moscow. On Monday, the Russian embassy in the U.K. said in a statement that the U.K. government was playing a "very dangerous game" with British public opinion that risked "more serious long-term consequences for our relations." This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Through its social media accounts, the Russian foreign ministry ridiculed May's accusation, posting a video of a traffic jam due to bad weather conditions in reference to the weather event named "the beast from the East" that affected the country in the beginning of the month. "Sincere thanks to Mrs May for #HighlyLikelyRussia," the tweet read. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek SEOUL (Reuters) - A successful meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would help stabilize South Korean financial markets and improve sentiment for consumers and investors, South Korea's central bank chief said on Tuesday. In a statement prepared for a parliamentary hearing, Governor Lee Ju-yeol said a successful meeting between Trump and Kim would be credit positive for South Korea's sovereign rating, and reduce capital outflow risks. A successful summit could also strengthen the won in currency markets, although Lee said it was too early to discuss the exact impact on the economy. Lee is scheduled to attend a parliamentary confirmation hearing on March 21 before he starts his second term in April. Lee was reappointed by President Moon Jae-in to lead the BOK for another four years. U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to meet North Korea's Kim by the end of May. South Korean President Moon Jae-in also plans to hold a summit with Kim by the end of April. (Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Sam Holmes) Unstad (Norway) (AFP) - "You come up from the ocean and you're just freaking cold," says Unn Holgersen, who surfs almost every day in the frigid waves off the coast of Norwegian islands above the Arctic Circle. It's deep winter in this land of the spectacular Northern Lights, flashing green on the horizon, and the water is just four degrees Celsius (39 Fahrenheit). "You have to put your feet in a bowl of hot water and you have to change really quickly," the 32-year-old veterinarian advises. It may be cold and isolated, but Holgersen has chosen to live on the Lofoten islands because she is addicted to the thrill of winter surfing. On its snow-covered beaches, she and other dedicated surfers brave the freezing weather -- outside air temperature is a chilly minus 15 Celsius -- and the ferocity of the ocean. "I love the feeling," says one surfer after riding the waves. That exhilaration is shared by all those who visit the tiny town of Unstad on the islands. Among them are two students, Christina Kolbu and Solmoy Austbo, who travelled three days in a mini-van to reach the frosty shores. They quickly change out of their hippy garb, put on thick winter wetsuits and grab their boards to head out into the waiting surf. Despite the chill, they do not hesitate as they plunge into the glacial waters. When coming back to shore, they clutch their boards as they clamber up the beach as thick snowflakes fall around them. Unstad is a favourite site with surfers: a vast open horizon with a series of snow-capped peaks on either side of the beach. Situated above the Arctic Circle, around the same latitude as northern Siberia and Alaska, its waters remain accessible due to the Gulf Stream, which somewhat warms the ocean current that flows across the Atlantic to Norway's coast. "Surfing is a lifestyle, it's a must," says Lisa Blom, a 38-year-old hotel manager. "We have better waves, quality waves, they're usually bigger, consistent." Some of the surfers argue there are even better waves here than in southern Europe or Bali. "We have nice clear days, there are not too many people and the beautiful scenery," says Holgersen. "It's the whole package." LONDON (Reuters) - The investigation into the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain is going well, Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on Tuesday, adding that the police would provide an update later in the day. "The investigation is going well," Rudd said. "Later on today, the police will give us an update on the investigation itself." (Reporting by Michael Holden; writing by Alistair Smout; editing by Guy Faulconbridge) Nairobi (AFP) - A new title bestowed on Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza is "visionary", and not "eternal supreme guide", the ruling party said Tuesday after confusion over the official translation from the Kirundi language. Burundi's ruling CNDD-FDD on Sunday announced Nkurunziza -- who critics claim is trying to lock in power for life -- would be known as "Imboneza yamaho", which the press translated as "eternal supreme guide", while some officials spoke of "permanent guide". The party's secretary general Evariste Ndayishimiye convened a press conference on Tuesday to address the issue of the translation of the president's title. "After going over the immense works realised by his excellency the president of the republic, the value of his ideas, his teachings, advice and acts, (the party) found him to be an excellent charismatic leader and decided to raise him to the status of Visionary of the CNDD-FDD," he said. Critics decry a cult of personality that has developed around Nkurunziza, who has been in power since 2005. The tiny central African state was plunged into political crisis in April 2015 when Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a third term which he went on to win. Post-election violence claimed at least 1,200 lives and displaced more than 400,000 people between April 2015 and May 2017, according to estimates by the International Criminal Court, which has opened an investigation. A constitutional referendum in May could allow Nkurunziza to run in elections in 2020, paving the way for him to remain in power until 2034. In July last year the International Federation for Human Rights slammed his "increasingly violent dictatorial regime". It said the ruling CNDD-FDD has become the sole state party, with monuments glorifying it erected, party flags placed at entrances to public schools and violent propaganda broadcast urging Burundians to be ready to fight and eliminate opponents. Ndayishimiye also announced a party decision that, every Thursday, all supporters were to devote the day to "prayer, god, and fasting". "This is a sign that President Pierre Nkurunziza is the uncontested master of the CNDD-FDD because he has always devoted Thursdays to prayer and fasting. The whole party now has to do as he does," a high-ranking party member said on condition of anonymity. Dozens were injured and at least one person was killed on the morning of March 13 when a bus carrying Houston students from a trip to Disney World, Florida, drove off the I-10 highway, east of Mobile, Alabama, into a ravine. At least 45 people were on board the bus when it crashed down the 50-foot ravine, Click2Houston reported. A second bus carrying students on the trip was not involved in the crash and was reported to be continuing toward Houston. Most of the passengers were between 15 and 18, Mobile-based myNBC15 reported. Credit: Jesus Tejeda via Storyful Getty Images Royals theyre just like us! Meghan Markle committed a minor fashion faux pas during a recent visit to Birmingham with fiance Prince Harry. Getty Images ALSO SEE: Meghan Markle makes her first official appearance with the Queen At first glance, Markle looked picture perfect and disgustingly adorable matching her husband-to-be in a navy Italian stadium coat from J.Crew. However fashion experts were quick to zero in on a teeny tiny detail the rest of us peasants may have overlooked: The X stitching, called a tailors tack, was left on the back of her coat. Notice the X on the bottom of Meghans coat? Thats a tailor tack. (Getty Images) According to the Daily Mail, the loose stitching on the back of the coat is meant to help keep the garments shape during transport or while on display. The tack keeps the back of the soon-to-be royals vented coat closed, and should be removed after purchase to avoid embarrassing moments like this. Since making her royal debut, Markle has taken to public life like a fish to water. This minor misstep may have haters calling this is a rookie move but the rest of us are running to our closets with scissors in search of tailors tacks. ALSO SEE: Why is Meghan Markle always touching her hair? During the same appearance, Markle sported a diamond encrusted cross bracelet from Birks Rosee du Matin collection, which is believed to have been a gift from her recent baptism. Meghan Markle shows off her Birks bracelet. (Getty Images) Its reported that she was recently baptized into the Church of England in a 45-minute ceremony in the Royal Chapel at St. Jamess Palace in London with Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in attendance. ALSO SEE: Meghan Markle may have broken one major royal protocol by getting political Although it wasnt mandatory for her to convert ahead of her upcoming nuptials, the move is being seen as a sign of respect to Prince Harrys grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. Since Markles been busy being baptized into a new faith and preparing for her May 19 wedding to one of the most beloved royals in history, we think she deserves a pass on this whole coat fiasco. Call us when she wears something inside out or backwards. Story continues Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. ADEN (Reuters) - Seven people were killed in Yemen's port city of Aden on Tuesday when a car bomb ripped through a military kitchen used by Yemeni forces trained and backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), medics said. One of the dead was a young boy walking in the street at the time of the blast, they said. Fifteen people were wounded. Witnesses said the blast was caused by a car laden with explosives, apparently driven by a suicide bomber towards the kitchen in al-Derain area in northern Aden. The force of the blast damaged stores and cars nearby. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the second of its kind targeting security forces in the city, where UAE forces from the Saudi-led coalition that has been operating in Yemen since 2015 hold sway. The coalition, armed and backed by the West, joined the Yemen conflict in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthi group pushed towards Aden, forcing the internationally-recognised President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile in Saudi Arabia. Last month, UAE-backed southern Yemeni forces wrested control of Aden from forces loyal to Hadi in several days of fighting that ended with a truce brokered by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Islamic State last month claimed responsibility for an attack targeting the headquarters of a counter-terrorism unit in Aden that killed at least 14 people, including the attackers. (Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf, Writing by Sami Aboudi, Editing by Angus MacSwan) By Pei Li and Cate Cadell BEIJING (Reuters) - At a highway check point on the outskirts of Beijing, local police are this week testing out a new security tool: smart glasses that can pick up facial features and car registration plates, and match them in real-time with a database of suspects. The AI-powered glasses, made by LLVision, scan the faces of vehicle occupants and the plates, flagging with a red box and warning sign to the wearer when any match up with a centralised "blacklist". The test - which coincides with the annual meeting of China's parliament in central Beijing - underscores a major push by China's leaders to leverage technology to boost security in the country. That drive has led to growing concerns that China is developing a sophisticated surveillance state that will lead to intensifying crackdowns on dissent. "(China's) leadership once felt a degree of trepidation over the advancement of the internet and communication technologies," said David Bandurski, co-director of the China Media Project, a media studies research project at the University of Hong Kong. "It now sees them as absolutely indispensable tools of social and political control." Wu Fei, chief executive of LLVision, said people should not be worried about privacy concerns because China's authorities were using the equipment for "noble causes", catching suspects and fugitives from the law. "We trust the government," he told Reuters at the company's headquarters in Beijing. Reuters was able to verify that the glasses were being used in tests by the police to help identify suspect individuals and vehicles in the Beijing area in recent days. China, under President Xi Jinping, is making a major push to use artificial intelligence, facial recognition and big data technology to track and control behaviour that goes against the interests of the ruling Communist Party online and in the wider world. Story continues Xi is expected to cement his power base this weekend as a reform to remove term limits is pushed through. That would in effect allow him to stay in his post indefinitely. Delegates and visitors entering the Great Hall of the People, the venue for the parliament, the National People's Congress, have to go through facial scanners. The same happened to those attending the related advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. "This year, security at the two sessions has some freshly-baked 'black tech' coming online," wrote the state-run Science and Technology Daily newspaper, using a comic-book term in China for futuristic surveillance gadgets. The paper said cameras at the event had been upgraded to capture, analyse and compare suspicious faces in around two seconds, powered by a system called "Skynet" - which has a national database of blacklisted individuals. "The plot of sci-fi film 'Minority Report' is now basically becoming a part of daily life," the newspaper added, referring to the Tom Cruise movie set in a futuristic society where crimes are solved and punished before they even happen. ROBOTS AND DRONES China has been deploying a growing arsenal of security technology, fuelling the growth of a domestic industry and worrying civil rights defenders about the growing intrusion on individual privacy. A key concern is that blacklists could include a wide range of people stretching from lawyers and artists to political dissidents, charity workers, journalists and rights activists. The new technologies range from police robots for crowd control, to drones to monitor border areas, and artificially intelligent systems to track and censor behaviour online. There are also scanners to forcibly read mobile phone data and even police dogs with virtual reality cameras. A recent Human Rights Watch report said China was also expanding a biometric voice database to boost voice recognition capabilities. Surveillance measures long-used in restive areas such as Xinjiang in the northwest are also being rolled out more widely around the country, with a planned drive to centralize and standardize powerful but fragmented systems over the next year. At the meeting of the NPC, most delegates said the increasing use of technology to improve state security was a positive, and that the benefits far outweighed privacy concerns. "This is a good thing, it means our technology is really leading the world," said Lu Yaping, a delegate from Jiangsu province in eastern China. "I don't have any concerns about safety." (Reporting by Pei Li and Cate Cadell in BEIJING; Additional reporting by Thomas Sun; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Martin Howell) BEIJING (Reuters) - China will set up a Ministry of Veterans Affairs as part of a government reshuffle presented to parliament on Tuesday, aiming to better look after former soldiers whose complaints about poor treatment have flared into scattered protests in recent years. The new agency will be formed as part of a broad shake-up of government departments that the country's largely rubber-stamp parliament will formally approve on Saturday. The ministry will centralize the handling of resettlements and finding new jobs for former soldiers and ensuring those in the military are treated as "revered members of society", State Councillor Wang Yong told parliament, unveiling details of the reshuffle. It will also be responsible for supporting veterans' family members and for taking care of graves and memorials, he added. The tasks were previously handled by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Central Military Commission, which President Xi Jinping heads and which has overall command of the armed forces. In February of last year, Chinese military veterans staged two days of demonstrations in central Beijing, demanding unpaid retirement benefits in a new wave of protests highlighting the difficulty in managing demobilized troops. Xi announced in 2015 the People's Liberation Army would cut troop levels by 300,000, aiming to make the bulk of the reductions by the end of 2017. Premier Li Keqiang said last week China had basically completed those efforts. China hopes the measure will leave it more money to spend on high-tech weapons for its navy and air force, and result in a leaner and more strategic military. The government this month unveiled its largest defense spending increase in three years, setting an 8.1 percent growth target this year, fuelling an ambitious military modernization program and making its neighbors nervous. Grievances over military pensions and perceived poor treatment of veterans have been a long-running issue, and have at times led to organized protests. More than 1,000 veterans also demonstrated outside Defence Ministry headquarters in Beijing in 2016, and reports of protests in parts of the country surface every few months. Demobilized soldiers who protested have included some who fought against Vietnam in 1979 - China's last major foreign military engagement - and complained about problems with their pensions. China's defense ministry, responding to the protests last year, said the government cared about veterans' welfare, attached great importance to resolving their difficulties and had done much to better their conditions. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Richard Pullin and Clarence Fernandez) Chinese bike-sharing start-up Ofo announced Tuesday that it has raised around $850 million from investors including e-commerce giant Alibaba, to finance its overseas expansion while it battles rivals in China. Ofo, whose lemon-yellow bicycles are ubiquitous in Chinese cities, said on the social network Weibo that it had raised $866 million dollars. The consortium of investors was led by Alibaba, China's top online shopping conglomerate which also contributed to the 700 million dollars raised by Ofo in July 2017. The latest cash injection will allow Ofo to expand its overseas presence. The company has already made inroads into France, Japan and the US, and says it is operational in around 20 countries. It is also fighting to increase its market share in China, where it is competing against its local rival Mobike -- backed by another Chinese internet giant, Tencent. The bulk of China's vast and rapidly growing bike-sharing market is shared between the two companies, which compete with each other by offering subsidies and extremely low fares. Mobike, Ofo and others are tapping into the sharing economy ethic behind Airbnb and ride-hailing apps such as Uber, and targeting China's 700 million mobile phone users, who increasingly use their smartphone for transactions. The bikes are unlocked using an app and cost as little as one yuan (15 cents) an hour. Not everyone is happy with the service, though, which allows bikes to be left anywhere. Careless users often park the bicycles haphazardly on footpaths and roads. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives at a meeting of the National Space Council in Chantilly, Va., on Oct. 5, 2017. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP) President Trumps dismissal of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Tuesday morning fulfilled a long-held wish for climate advocates, but they fear his replacement, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, will be even worse. Tillerson joined Exxon in 1975 and rose through the ranks over the decades. He was CEO and chairman of ExxonMobil from 2006 until he joined the Trump administration in 2017. That Trump would nominate a lifelong oilman to succeed John Kerry, who led the U.S. through the Paris climate negotiations of late 2015, as the nations top diplomat resulted in predictable and fierce pushback. During his confirmation hearing in January 2017, however, Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he thought the United States should stay in the Paris Agreement, which strives to reduce global warming to 2C (3.6F). He also suggested that a carbon tax may be the best way to limit the greenhouse-gas emissions driving global warming. Pompeo, on the other hand, identified with the tea party and represented Kansass Fourth Congressional District from 2011 to 2017. He received more financial backing from Koch Industries, an energy and natural resources conglomerate, than any other candidate in the 2010 elections: $80,000. In fact, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a bipartisan research group that tracks the effect of lobbying on elections and policy, Pompeo has received more money from Koch interests than any other House member. In just four election cycles (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016), he received the following: $335,000 from Koch Industries employees, which includes $92,000 from the Koch family; $69,000 from the Koch Industries PAC; $417,175 from Americans for Prosperity, an advocacy group funded by the Kochs; and $87,532 from other organizations with substantial funding by the Koch brothers. CIA Director Mike Pompeo speaks at a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on Feb. 13. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP) And Pompeo turned to the Koch brothers, who actively oppose climate change legislation, for money long before running for office. In the late 90s, Koch Industries invested in an aerospace company Pompeo founded with fellow West Point alumni. He sold his interest in Thayer Aerospace in 2006 and became president of Sentry International, which produces and sells oil field equipment. Story continues In short, even though environmentalists adamantly opposed Tillerson, they do not expect anything positive for the climate from Pompeo. Jake Schmidt, the international program director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, released the following statement: Replacing the man from Big Oil with a first-class climate denier simply goes from bad to worse. This shuffling of the deck chairs will ensure that Washington continues to bring up the rear when it comes to international action to combat dangerous climate change. Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs for the League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement that Pompeos nomination is profoundly disturbing but not unexpected. Though not surprising, this is extremely troubling. Climate change is one of the most critical threats facing our nation and world, and the secretary of state has a huge responsibility to make sure it is addressed by the global community, she said. With a history of questioning the science of climate change, a close relationship with the polluter Koch brothers and lifetime LCV score of 4%, Mike Pompeo has no business becoming the next secretary of state. Naomi Ages, the climate director of Greenpeace USA, was similarly perturbed. Donald Trump has now somehow picked someone even worse than Rex Tillerson to run the State Department. Greenpeace has been opposed to Tillerson as secretary of state from the moment he was nominated, and we continue to believe that the U.S. government cannot and should not be run by fossil-fuel industry flunkies, Ages said in a statement. Mike Pompeo, though, is uniquely unqualified to be secretary of state in an entirely different way than Rex Tillerson was. In addition to being a climate denier, like his predecessor, Pompeo is Koch brothers shill who will denigrate the United States reputation abroad and make us vulnerable to threats at home. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., also took issue with Pompeos past statements on climate change. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Read more from Yahoo News: When China called on the United States to engage in direct talks with North Korea, it probably never imagined it would be absent from the table. Beijing, which chaired failed international talks on North Korea that collapsed a decade ago, has long seen itself as central to the negotiations to end Pyongyang's nuclear programme. But when US President Donald Trump agreed last week to hold a historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a yet-to-be-decided day and place, China was nowhere to be seen. Chinese President Xi Jinping has not even met Kim since the young North Korean autocrat took power following his father's death in 2011. While China remains North Korea's only ally and main economic lifeline, relations between the two neighbours have soured as Xi, under pressure from Trump, has backed a slew of UN sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile tests. In a Friday phone call with Trump, Xi praised the US leader's "positive" move, saying he hoped the US and North Korea would start talking as soon as possible and that China was devoted to solving the nuclear issue through dialogue. But not everyone was so happy: China's top-selling nationalist tabloid the Global Times dashed out an editorial aimed at soothing the jangled nerves of Chinese patriots afraid that the country would be sidelined by a Trump-Kim love-in. "Chinese people should stay calm and remain poised, and avoid the mentality that China is being marginalised," it said. "China's prime interest on the Korean peninsula is its denuclearisation and peace, both of which are more important than China's relations with North and South Korea and power politics." - Nuclear fears - Trump's surprise agreement to meet Kim appears to have shocked many in China, who wonder if the Asian giant -- which is increasingly trying to put itself at the centre of global diplomacy -- has been cut out of the loop by Pyongyang. Story continues "Given that parts of Trump's own national security team were not informed of this major change in policy, I'm doubtful that President Trump informed the Chinese, and definitely not with any significant lead time," said Oriana Skylar Mastro, an expert on China, North Korea relations at Georgetown University and the American Enterprise Institute. While Washington is happy to use China to squeeze North Korea economically, it is not as interested in involving Beijing in the more delicate work of negotiations. "The Trump administration sees China as primarily an obstacle to the peaceful resolution of the DPRK nuclear issue and not so much as a critical diplomatic interlocutor," Skylar Mastro said. But Seoul, which has sought to improve its strained ties with Beijing, sent its national security adviser Chung Eui-yong to brief Xi on the recent breakthrough on Monday and thank him for his help. Xi's leadership has played "a big role" in these "positive changes", Chung told the Chinese president, adding that Seoul expects China to continue to play an "active and leading role". It is natural that Beijing would have reservations about what a Kim-Trump meeting could mean for its own interests in the region, said Zhang Liangui, a professor of the International Strategic Academy of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. "As a neighbour, if North Korea continues to develop nuclear weapons, China could be the biggest casualty," he told AFP. "So you could say, China is the most important party involved." Those concerns came sharply into focus when North Korea literally shook China with an underground nuclear test that produced an earthquake felt over the border. Beijing also worries that Kim's weapons could trigger an arms race in the region, leading its historical rival Japan and perhaps even South Korea to seek nuclear weapons. - Six parties - While China has long pushed for US-North Korean dialogue, it always saw it as a first step towards returning to the long-dormant Six-Party Talks, which grouped China, the US, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas. North Korea abruptly quit the forum in 2009. "Beijing would be most comfortable to play the mediating role," said Wenran Jiang, senior fellow at the Institute of Asian Research of the University of British Columbia. China "still believes" that all six parties must be part of the denuclearisation process, he said. Xi and his "very experienced foreign policy team seem to have displayed a high level of confidence that China is too big and too important to be left out of the negotiations." "They are waiting patiently for the right opportunity and they are quite certain relevant parties will knock on China's door soon." Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, said China may offer to host the Trump-Kim meeting, which would "at least increase the possibility that they will be heard." "The Chinese traditionally have always worried about the US and North Korea cutting a deal at their expense," she said, adding that "people in the US have always laughed at those concerns." Cross-border commuters Farmworker Elias Solis, of Mexicali, Mexico, picks cabbage before dawn in a field outside of Calexico, Calif., March 6, 2018. (Photo: Gregory Bull/AP) The daily commute from Mexico to California farms is the same as it was before Donald Trump became president. Hundreds of Mexicans cross the border and line the sidewalks of Calexicos tiny downtown by 4 a.m., napping on cardboard sheets and blankets or sipping coffee from a 24-hour doughnut shop until buses leave for the fields. For decades, cross-border commuters have picked lettuce, carrots, broccoli, onions, cauliflower and other vegetables that make Californias Imperial Valley Americas Salad Bowl from December through March. As Trump visits the border Tuesday, the harvest is a reminder of how little has changed despite heated immigration rhetoric in Washington. Trump will inspect eight prototypes for a future 30-foot border wall that were built in San Diego last fall. He made a big, beautiful wall a centerpiece of his campaign and said Mexico would pay for it. But border barriers extend the same 654 miles (1,046 kilometers) they did under President Barack Obama and so far Trump hasnt gotten Mexico or Congress to pay for a new wall. (AP) Photography by Gregory Bull/AP See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr. President Donald Trump stunned the world, and even parts of his own administration, when he agreed last week to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for talks amid a high-wire nuclear standoff. The meeting would be unprecedented: No sitting U.S. president has met a North Korean leader. But it would follow decades of tough diplomatic wrangling on North Korea by past administrations, where successes were fleeting and failure was common. All prior talks were the culmination of months, even years, of diplomatic spadework by successive administrations. The Trump-Kim meeting could happen as soon as May, leaving diplomats only a few months to scramble to lay the groundwork for talks. (Meanwhile, the State Departments North Korea special representative, Joseph Yun, retired this month and Trump has yet to fill other key diplomatic posts, including the U.S. ambassador to South Korea.) And unlike in negotiations past, Pyongyangs nuclear weapons and missile programs are far more advanced than any previous time. North Korea would enter any talks in a new position of strength, says Jenny Town of Johns Hopkins Universitys U.S.-Korea Institute. Experts are torn on whether a Trump-Kim meeting would help soothe tensions or just make things worse. Some think a summit would play right into Kims hands for a public relations coup, forcing Washington to treat Pyongyang as an equal. But others welcome the development. I would rather have summits and stability over fire and fury, says Mintaro Oba, a former State Department official who worked on North Korean issues. Here are the major talks and nuclear milestones that came before Trump: 1985: North Korea acceded to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It did not, however, complete an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards agreement. 1991: U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew tactical nuclear weapons deployed abroad, including some based in South Korea. Months later, South Korean President Roh Tae-woo announced his country would not produce or store nuclear weapons. Story continues 1992: North and South Korea signed the Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, agreeing not to test, produce, posses, or deploy nuclear weapons, and agreeing to mutual verification inspections. 1993: North Korea gave notice of its intent to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but suspended the decision following discussions with the United States at the United Nations. At that point, U.S. intelligence agencies estimated North Korea had enough plutonium to produce one or two nuclear warheads. 1994: Jimmy Carter became the first former U.S. president to visit North Korea, where he laid the groundwork for further diplomatic talks. Later that year, the Clinton administration and North Korea signed the Agreed Framework to freeze North Koreas nuclear program. Most experts agree this was the closest Washington came to a successful deal with North Korea: Pyongyang agreed to freeze construction of nuclear reactors and production of plutonium in exchange for aid, fuel shipments, and other economic benefits. 2000: Jo Myong Rok, a senior North Korean military leader, visited Washington to meet President Bill Clinton following positive signs in Pyongyangs talks with South Korea. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang shortly thereafter. She met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to try and expand the Agreed Framework and prepare a potential visit by President Bill Clinton. But the talks ultimately failed. 2002: The Agreed Framework set up under Clinton broke down. President George W. Bush, who took a harder-line stance on Pyongyang than his predecessor, accused North Korea of cheating by secretly pursuing a uranium enrichment program. North Korea accused the United States of backing out of its end of the deal. 2003: Following the collapse of the Agreed Framework and North Koreas withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, China hosted the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Russia for semiregular rounds of talks with North Korea known as the six-party talks. Throughout the talks, Pyongyang insisted it would not give up its nuclear weapons program. 2006: North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, resparking the simmering diplomatic crisis. 2009: The six-party talks collapsed following an impasse over granting international inspectors permission to visit sites in North Korea. Despite the lack of progress on that front, former President Bill Clinton visited North Korea and successfully negotiated the release of two imprisoned American journalists. 2011: Kim Jong Il, leader of North Korea since 1994, died amid President Barack Obamas administrations efforts to revive peace talks. His son, Kim Jong Un, took power. 2012: President Obama tried to push Pyongyang to the negotiating table by ratcheting up sanctions. But Kim Jong Un scuppered a final deal that would have halted North Koreas nuclear weapons program and allowed in international inspectors in exchange for U.S. aid. (Town says it is likely because Kim had to display strength to consolidate power after his fathers death.) Meanwhile, North Korea continued to make strides in its nuclear weapons program. 2016 2017: Newly elected President Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of sharp rhetoric against North Korea, threatening to rain down fire and fury on the Hermit Kingdom if it continues to escalate tensions with the United States. North Korea test-fired a slew of ballistic missiles, and conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. 2018: South Korean President Moon Jae-in helped bring about potential talks between Trump and Kim following overtures from Washington and Pyongyang at his countrys Winter Olympics. The Trump administration credits its economic and diplomatic pressure campaign for bringing North Korea to the table. Trump has agreed to a historic meeting with Kim Jong Un, possibly by the end of May, though North Korea has yet to formally accept the offer. Town says a face-to-face between the two leaders could be promising, but only if its the start of follow-on talks at lower levels. Realistically, when Trump [meets Kim], hes not going to walk away with a final agreement, she says. This isnt a one-off, be-all, end-all. This is just the start of the negotiations. We know there is interest on the Taliban side, he said. He defined victory in Afghanistan as a political settlement between the Taliban and the government, and an Afghan military that is capable of securing the country largely on its own. At that point, he said, Afghanistan would not be a haven for attacks internationally as it was when al-Qaida used the country as a launching pad for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. U.S. intelligence officials are predicting the war will remain stalemated as the traditionally most intensive fighting season begins this spring. The visit is Mattiss second since President Donald Trump announced last August that, despite his instinct to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, his administration would take a more aggressive approach to the conflict, now in its 17th year. As part of an effort to bolster Afghan fighting strength, the U.S. in recent weeks sent an Army group of about 800 soldiers, accompanied by several hundred support troops, to advise the Afghans closer to the front lines. The U.S. also shifted A-10 attack planes and other aircraft from striking Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan as part of Trumps new approach. These and other moves boosted the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by at least 3,500 to a total of more than 14,000. Mattis has said that the U.S. goal is to enable Afghan forces to weaken the Taliban to the point where the Afghans can manage their own security. Put another way, the aim is to convince the insurgents they cannot win on the battlefield, thus driving them to reconcile with the Afghan government. Stephen Biddle, a George Washington University political science professor and longtime observer of the Afghan conflict, is skeptical that the new U.S. strategy will make a decisive difference militarily, although he sees glimmers of hope for progress toward a peace settlement. He noted that both the Taliban and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani have spoken recently of pushing for reconciliation. In late February, Ghani called on the Taliban to take part in peace talks to save the country, offering security and incentives such as passports to insurgents who are willing to join the negotiations. Story continues Alice Wells, the State Departments top official for South and Central Asian Affairs, said Friday at the United States Institute for Peace that Ghanis approach is more accommodating toward the Taliban than previous overtures by Kabul and deserves a thoughtful response from the Taliban. Trump, however, said on Jan. 29 that he sees no basis for peace talks as long as the Taliban are killing people left and right. The Taliban stance is that talks for a conflict-ending compromise must take place with Washington, not Kabul. U.S. officials have conveyed messages to Taliban political representatives in Qatar urging the group to negotiate with the Afghan government. Neighboring countries are doubtful about Americas commitment to a political resolution. Pakistan, Iran and Russia are thought to maintain ties to militant proxies inside Afghanistan in case the war-ravaged country collapses. On the military front, U.S. officials assert that years of effort to build a credible and effective Afghan army and air force are beginning to pay off. At the same time, it has become harder to gauge such progress because the American-led military coalition has stopped releasing information such as the size of the Afghan army and rates of attrition in its ranks. The number of Afghan combat deaths also is withheld by the Afghan government. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee late last month, Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, said the Afghan security forces are getting better. He said they do not, however, have the ability to prevent the insurgency from maintaining a rural presence and occasionally threatening a population center or important roadway. In Votels view, the greatest risk to stability in Afghanistan is the Kabul governments uncertain political situation as it prepares for planned July 2018 parliamentary elections. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the head of U.S. European Command, told a congressional panel on March 8, just days after visiting Afghanistan, that the Armys newly deployed brigade of advisers are expected to provide a great boost for the mission by operating more widely and closer to the front lines. U.S. intelligence agencies are taking a less optimistic view of the wars likely path in 2018. We assess the overall security picture will modestly deteriorate in the coming year and Kabul will continue to bear the brunt of the Taliban-led insurgency, Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told a Senate committee on March 6. Afghan forces, while unsteady, probably will maintain control of most major population centers in 2018, he added. Testifying at the same hearing, Army Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, offered a mixed outlook. While he forecast that Afghan forces this year will continue to develop offensive combat power, he predicted the Taliban will threaten Afghan stability, undermine public confidence by conducting intermittent high-profile attacks in urban areas, increase its influence in rural areas, and threaten district centers. In a late-February report, the Pentagons special inspector general for Afghanistan reported that the Afghan governments control of the country is at its lowest recorded level since the end of 2015 and that Taliban control it at its highest. Melania Trump's silence on the ongoing Stormy Daniels saga might speak for itself. Or, at least, that's what New York Times Opinion writer Charles Blow thinks, titling a Sunday column about the first lady, President Donald Trump and his alleged extramarital affairs "Melania Knew." "Its not even the infidelity that most bothers me," Blow wrote of the reports that Trump cheated on his current wife, the first lady, with Daniels between 2006 and 2007. That's their business, according to Blow. What bothers him most? "In this case, Melania knew exactly the kind of man she was getting." Trending: 2018 NFL Free Agency: Top 10 Players Available This Year Blow noted that Trump's alleged relationship with Daniels came right around the time of other notable indiscretions: In September 2005, nine months after marrying Melania, Trump appeared on Access Hollywood, which caught him on a hot mic bragging about sexually assaulting women. Melania was pregnant at the time. The following year, just months before his alleged affair began with Daniels, Trump famously said that if Ivanka Trump weren't his daughter, "perhaps [he'd] be dating her." Trump had shown his true colors to Melania all along, Blow argued. stormy-daniels Ethan Miller/Getty Images Don't miss: What was Craig Mack's Cause of Death? 'Flava in Ya Ear' Rapper and Diddy Protege Dead at 46 If the first lady didn't know about her husband's alleged affairs when they were happening, she knows now. News about Daniels and her fight against a nondisclosure agreement she signed in the days approaching the 2016 electionwhich may be rendered void because Trump failed to sign ithas dominated headlines, and the White House has been bombarded with questions from the press about Daniels's legal disputes. Story continues And though the public has always taken a keen interest in the marital relationship between the president and first lady, Daniels's allegations have brought the couple more scrutiny than ever before. When in January, on the same day as her 13th wedding anniversary, Melania canceled plans to meet Trump in Davos for an economic summit, it stoked rumors that Daniels had driven a wedge between the two. Melania's spokeswoman addressed the rumors, calling them a product of a "laundry list of salacious and flat-out false reporting," and insisted that Melania had changed her plans due to "scheduling and logistical issues." Most popular: ICE Spokesman Resigns, Accusing Trump Administration of Making False Claims About California Sweep Still, there are many who are waiting to hear the first lady speak to the allegations of infidelity facing her husband directly. Other first ladies have already set a precedentlike Hillary Clinton. Clinton spoke publicly about allegations of her husband's relationship with Monica Lewinsky in the days immediately following the emerging news reports, at first taking a strong stand with former President Bill Clinton. A few weeks later, Clinton told the press she suspected that the allegations would "slowly dissipate over time under the weight of its own insubstantiality." Melania may be hoping for the same. But the Lewinsky scandal has firmly embedded itself in the American consciousness for decades, so she won't be so lucky. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek Brussels (AFP) - Divisions emerged Tuesday after experts commissioned by the EU Commission called on tech groups and social media firms to sign up to a voluntary code of conduct for tackling "fake news". Consumer groups and European legislators called for a tougher stance than the one set out by the experts on Monday, but the industry rejected using regulation to tackle the problem. The report by the so-called High-Level Expert Group on Fake News and Disinformation, which includes a representative from AFP, said online platforms should be more transparent about the way news is shared. Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for the digital single market and society, said the experts' views would "help us put forward a number of options to better address the risks posed by disinformation spread online". Brussels will set out its first strategy outlines next month. Tech firms like Facebook and Google have faced growing criticism for failing to tackle both "fake news" and hate speech. The report said online firms should sign up to the code of conduct to "ensure transparency by explaining how algorithms select the news put forward". It said they should also work with European news outlets to "improve the visibility of reliable, trustworthy news". The fake news group also argued against the use of the term fake news -- saying it should instead be referred to as "disinformation" as it sometimes blends fake information with fact. The software and browser firm Mozilla on Tuesday rejected any regulation. "We believe that the complex and multi-factor nature of the phenomenon -- in terms of its causes and impact -- make one-size-fits-all regulatory solutions inappropriate," it said. But Marietje Schaake, a leading liberal member of the European Parliament, said the expert report had a "major omission". "It does not fully address the key catalyst of the dissemination of disinformation, which are the in-transparent algorithms and the online advertising models that dominate most technology platforms," Schaake said in a statement. Story continues "These models inherently push sensational content on newsfeeds that is often false, inaccurate, or misleading." The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) agreed that the report did not tackle the "root causes" of the problem. "Platforms such as Google or Facebook massively benefit from users reading and sharing fake news articles which contain advertisements. But this expert group choose to ignore this business model," BEUC director general Monique Goyens said in a statement. Gabriel told AFP in a interview last week that Europe must "redouble" its efforts to tackle the phenomenon in the run-up to elections, as fears grow about Russian meddling in votes across the continent. Donald Trump, the US president - Bloomberg Donald Trump has blamed a lack of political support after he backed off raising the minimum age for buying a rifle amid opposition from the National Rifle Association. The US president initially called for the minimum age to be increased from 18 to 21 in the wake of the Florida school shooting, saying he was willing to defy the gun lobby over the issue. However the idea was left off a list of policy proposals announced by White House officials, with the change instead to be debated by a new federal commission on gun safety. The White House will also assist states in training teachers to use guns, support better background checks and ban bump stock devices that turn firearms into machine guns. Mr Trump tweeted on Monday: On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly). New gun controls have been fiercely debated in Washington after 17 people were killed in a high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month. Much of the focus has been on why the age limit for buying the gun used in the attack, an AR-15 rifle, is 18 but the limit for a handgun is 21. Nikolas Cruz, the suspected shooter, is 19. Mr Trump initially supported the move, chastising members of congress for not backing the policy during a round-table meeting with figures from both parties in the White House. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. "Some of you are petrified of the NRA. You can't be petrified. They have great power over you people...they have less power over me, Mr Trump said. The meeting, which was captured by television cameras, saw the president express interest in a number of gun control measures which stunned Republicans. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Days later Mr Trump had a closed-door meeting with the NRA, which opposes raising the minimum age for buying a semi-automatic rifle. Chris Cox, chief lobbyist for the Institute for Legislative Action, the NRAs lobbying arm, said after the meeting that Mr Trump and Mike Pence, the vice president, dont want gun control. Mr Trump said the meeting had been "great". Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of state. President Trump announced via Twitter that he was replacing Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The State Department released a statement about the firing that said Tillerson and Trump did not speak prior to the tweet, adding that Tillerson is unaware of the reason for his dismissal. The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security. While Washington remains diplomatic about the ongoing firings at the White House, the internet couldnt help but point out the irony in Trumps action today, and his recent claims about fake news on Twitter. On Dec. 1, Trump commented on the medias speculation that he was about to fire Tillerson. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Users mocked Trump for the discrepancy, and questioned the validity of the president crying fake news. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Surprisingly, Trump actually responded to questions about why he fired Tillerson. He told reporters, We were not really thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process. A senior administration official added that Trump thought it was the right time for the transition, with the upcoming North Korea talks and various trade negotiations. Watch: Betsy DeVos failed to answer basic questions on 60 Minutes, Internet schools her Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: President tweets secretary of state is out and announces CIA director Mike Pompeo will become top diplomat Donald Trump has fired his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, and announced his intention to replace him with the CIA director, Mike Pompeo. Trump announced the shake-up in a tweet, adding that Gina Haspel, Pompeos deputy, would become the CIAs first female director. Tillersons departure had long been predicted after a series of clashes over policy. But the announcement, made just four hours after the secretary of state landed in Washington after a tour of Africa, took Tillerson unawares. Under-secretary of state Steve Goldstein said: The secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling. Goldstein was later fired, the state department said. Tillersons dismissal was immediate. State officials said they did not know if he would clear his office or send someone to do it for him. Officials said Tillerson had shown every intention of staying and had a full programme of commitments. Tillerson had recently predicted he would stay in office for all of 2018 at least. At 9.15am, Trump left the White House for California, to see prototypes for his border wall. Pausing by the Marine One helicopter, he told reporters he had been talking about this for a long time. Ill be speaking to Rex over a long period of time, Trump said. I actually got on well with Rex but it was a different mindset. He added: When you look at the Iran deal: I think its terrible, I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently. Tillerson has argued that the US should abide by the agreement about Tehrans nuclear ambitions that was reached under Barack Obama in 2015. Pompeo is a longstanding opponent of the deal. Story continues With Mike, Trump said, we have a very similar thought process. I think its going to go very well. A graduate of West Point and Harvard and a former Republican congressman, Pompeo is widely seen as more of a loyalist than Tillerson, a former oil executive who had not met Trump before the election and grew increasingly at odds with his style and policies. The president said: Ive worked with Mike Pompeo now for quite some time. Tremendous energy, tremendous intellect, were always on the same wavelength. The relationship has been very good and thats what I need as secretary of state. I wish Rex Tillerson well. Last summer, Tillerson was reported to have called Trump a fucking moron, a report he did not deny. Rex Tillerson seen in Nairobi on Saturday. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/AFP/Getty Images Trump was asked twice if he had fired Tillerson because he called you a moron? The president twice said he could not hear the question, then said: I respect his intellect. I respect the process that weve all gone through together. We have a very good relationship for whatever reason, chemistry, whatever it is why do people get along? Ive always, right from the beginning, from day one, Ive gotten along well with Mike Pompeo, and frankly I get along well with Rex too. I wish Rex a lot of good things. I think hes going to be very happy. I think Rex will be much happier now. On Monday, Tillerson issued a much stronger response to the attempted nerve agent assassination of a former Russian spy in the UK than the White House, naming Russia as a suspect, a step Trumps spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, had avoided. Thursday: no talks with North Korea "We're a long way from negotiations. We just need to be very clear-eyed and realistic about it. I don't know yet, until we are able to meet ourselves face to face with representatives of North Korea, whether the conditions are right to even begin thinking about negotiations." Friday: North Korea talks were Trump's decision That is a decision the president took himself. I spoke to him very early this morning about that decision and we had a very good conversation. President Trump has said for some time that he was open to talks and he would willingly meet with Kim when conditions were right. And I think in the presidents judgement that time has arrived now. Monday: Russia warned on UK spy poisoning "What we've seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive. And this is very, very concerning to me and others that there seems to be a certain unleashing of activity that we don't fully understand what the objective behind that is [] It certainly will trigger a response. I'll leave it at that. Trump said he would speak to the British prime minister, Theresa May, on Tuesday. It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia, he said, adding that he would take that finding as fact. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, said: President Trumps actions show that every official in his administration is at the mercy of his personal whims and his worship of Putin. A senior White House official told reporters the firing was related to upcoming talks with North Korea and various ongoing trade negotiations. Responding to a question about his announcement of a meeting with Kim Jong-un shortly after Tillerson said talks were a long way off, Trump said: No, I really didnt discuss it very much with him, honestly. Mike Pompeo is sworn in to testify before the US Senate intelligence committee in January. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock I made that decision by myself. Rex wasnt, as you know, in this country. I made the North Korea decision with consultation from many people but I made that decision by myself. Chris Murphy, a Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said Tillerson had systematically and intentionally weakened American diplomacy and added: President Trump seems to want someone who does the same thing, only faster and while fawning over the president. In a statement, Pompeo said he was deeply grateful to President Trump and added: His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further Americas prosperity. Haspel has come under scrutiny for her role in the CIAs torture programme under the Bush administration and the agencys destruction of evidence. Two CIA contract psychologists who helped established enhanced interrogation procedures sought to have Haspel testify last year in a legal suit brought by torture victims, in the hope of demonstrating they were acting on CIA instructions. The justice department prevented her appearing in court. Trump said Haspel was an outstanding person. So Ive gotten to know a lot of people very well over the last year, he said, and Im really at a point where were getting very close to having the cabinet and other things that I want. Tensions between Donald Trump and Rex Tillerson came to a head last year when Mr Tillerson refused to deny reports he had referred to the US president as a Donald Trump has sacked Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state and will replace him with CIA director Mike Pompeo. The US president asked Mr Tillerson to step aside after months of speculation that the pair had fallen out. The move amounts to a major shake-up in Mr Trumps national security team and comes despite denials in the past from the president that he wanted Mr Tillerson gone. It triggered a war of words within the US government as the State Department accused the president of not talking to Mr Tillerson before the sacking. Mr Trump cited the pairs differences on the Iran nuclear deal, which the president wants to scrap, when asked about the reason for the change. The announcement comes just hours after Mr Tillerson went substantially further than the White House in linking the UK spy poisoning to Russia. CNN reported that Mr Tillerson found out about his sacking from Mr Trump's tweet on Tuesday. He had just returned from diplomatic trip to Africa. Steve Goldstein, the under secretary of state, released a statement saying Mr Trump had not called Mr Tillerson about the sacking. Mr Goldstein was fired just hours after releasing the comment. John Kelly, Mr Trump's chief of staff, informed Mr Tillerson he would be replaced on Friday, according to reports sourced to White House officials. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Tensions between Mr Trump and Mr Tillerson came to a head when the latter refused to deny reports he called the president a moron last year. The pair have also publicly sparred over the approach to North Korea, with Mr Trump reprimanding Mr Tillerson in tweets for believing talks with the regime could end their nuclear programme. Mr Tillerson, a former oil executive, will be replaced by Mr Pompeo, who as the head of the CIA is involved in the presidents daily intelligence briefing providing his appointment is confirmed by Congress. There were US media reports that Mr Trump asked Mr Pompeo for advice about topics beyond intelligence before Christmas, when it was said the president was considering making the switch. Story continues 'You're fired': Who Donald Trump has sacked and who has resigned during his time as president Mr Trump said in a statement to the Washington Post: I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State. Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with Honours from Harvard Law School. "He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle. He added: I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well. Mr Trump later said on Tuesday that the pair "were not really thinking the same" on the Iran nuclear deal, which the president called "terrible". Mr Trump praised the strength of his relationship with Mr Pompeo, saying they had "chemistry". Profile | Rex Tillerson Goldstein sacked after saying Trump did not call Tillerson Mr Goldstein issued a statement on Tuesday morning saying Mr Trump did not talk to Mr Tillerson over the sacking. "The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security," Mr Goldstein said. "The Secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes that public service is a noble calling. We wish Secretary Designate Pompeo well. Shortly after noon on Tuesday the Associated Press reported that Mr Goldstein had been sacked. Mr Goldstein reportedly responded to the sacking: "This [role] has been the honour of my lifetime ... I look forward to getting some rest." Profile | Mike Pompeo Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the CIA, will be put forward to replace Mr Pompeo and become the first-ever CIA female director something Mr Trump called a historic milestone. Ms Haspel is a career CIA employee who was appointed deputy director by Mr Trump in 2017. Between 2003 and 2005 she was a senior official overseeing a top-secret program that subjected dozens of terror suspects to controversial interrogation techniques. Donald Trump has fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state (Picture: Rex) Rex Tillerson found out he had been sacked as US secretary of state when he saw the news in a tweet from Donald Trump, it has been reported. The US president fired Mr Tillerson on Tuesday but did not do so in person. Instead, Mr Trump announced Mr Tillersons successor, CIA director Mike Pompeo, on Twitter. Mr Tillerson was sacked hours after he publicly backed the UK finding that Russia is highly likely to have used a weapons-grade nerve agent on British soil. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. In one of his final acts as the head of US diplomacy on Monday evening, Mr Tillerson spoke with UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson about the poisoning nine days ago of a former Russian double agent in Salisbury, Wiltshire. MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO Mr Tillerson issued a strongly-worded statement expressing full confidence in the UKs assessment that Russia was likely to be responsible and called for the perpetrators to face appropriately serious consequences. But his comments contrasted with the words of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who condemned the attack and offered sympathy and support to the UK, but made no reference to possible Russian involvement. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. It emerged that Mr Trump did not sack Mr Tillerson face-to-face. Steve Goldstein, a spokesman for the US state department, said: The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of critical progress made in national security. Mr Trump said the pair had their disagreements (Picture: Rex) The Secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason. In his tweet, Mr Trump said: Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. Story continues He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Rex Tillerson reportedly found out her was sacked in a tweet from the US president (Picture: Rex) Mr Tillerson, a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was appointed just over a year ago, and there had long been speculation that he was out of favour with Mr Trump, particularly after a report which claimed he called the president a moron. In December, Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Tillersons position was not in jeopardy. He said: The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon FAKE NEWS! Hes not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again! This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Following the very public sacking, Mr Trump explained he and Mr Tillerson had differences in chemistry. He said: We got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things. When you look at the Iran deal, I think its terrible. I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently, so we were not really thinking the same. Mr Trump said he made the decision to sack him by myself and that Mr Tillerson will be much happier now. The Washington Post reported that the president made his decision on Friday. By Paul Day MADRID (Reuters) - Spain came under fire over freedom of expression on Tuesday, when the European Court of Human Rights rejected its conviction of two separatists for burning a photo of the former king, while Amnesty International said the country was "outlawing political satire." The ECHR ruled that Spain's courts had breached the right to free expression of two pro-independence supporters from Catalonia when it convicted them for insulting the crown by burning a photo in 2007 of then-King Juan Carlos. Separately, human rights group Amnesty issued a report saying a Spanish law aimed at banning the "glorification of terrorism" was being used as part of a sustained attack on the freedom of expression. The law has led to the arrest of rap musicians, film makers, social media users and even two puppeteers among others. "Rapping is not a crime, tweeting a joke is not terrorism and holding a puppet show should not land you in jail," the author of the report, Eda Seyhan, said. A spokeswoman for the High Court and Supreme Court declined to comment. Officials at Spain's Justice Ministry were not immediately available to comment. Spain's 1995 anti-terrorism law, which was expanded in 2015 after attacks by Islamist extremists in Paris to include social media, aims to stem public comments that could be construed as glorifying terrorism or humiliating victims of political violence. According to Amnesty, the number of people arrested under the law rose to 39 in 2017 from three in 2011. Spain's courts did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the number of detentions. The arrests include a student who was detained last year after tweeting a joke about the assassination of Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco by the Basque separatist group ETA in 1973 and two puppeteers arrested in 2016 for including a sign in their show poking fun at the armed group. The student received a suspended sentence, while the puppeteers spent five days in jail. Other detentions include 12 rappers from the collective La Insurgencia who last December faced sentences of more than two years each and bans from working in the public sector, a clause commonly added in such rulings, for lyrics seen glorifying the defunct armed anti-fascist group Grapo. The ECHR ruled that the conviction of the two pro-independence supporters under a separate law, which resulted in the pair each paying a 2,700 euro ($3,330) fine to avoid a 15-month prison sentence, breached their right to freedom of expression. It said the gesture did not constitute either an incitement to hate or an attack on the king's person and ordered Spain to pay back the fines and 9,000 euros to cover costs and expenses. (Reporting by Paul Day; Additional reporting by Irene Powers Rodriguez; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's government reached a deal on Tuesday to avoid snap elections after days of speculation over the motives of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing possible indictment for corruption. The deal comes after some coalition partners had accused Netanyahu of wanting early elections to bolster his political standing ahead of his possible indictment for bribery in the coming months. Netanyahu repeatedly insisted that he wanted his right-wing coalition to last until the end of its term in November 2019. After the deal was announced on Tuesday night, Netanyahu told parliament that "I promised to do everything possible so that this government that has had magnificent success remain in place, and I kept my promise." Efforts to reach a compromise had intensified throughout the day. On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing coalition sources, reported that Netanyahu was working to resolve the crisis after estimating he could not garner enough votes to dissolve parliament. Netanyahu's legal woes were the focus of the coalition crisis throughout, with a range of politicians accusing him of allowing it to worsen to give him the option of forcing early polls. Polls suggest he could remain prime minister after fresh elections even with corruption investigations hanging over him. He had alternatively sought a guarantee from coalition members that they would remain in the government even if he is indicted, Israeli media have reported. But while Netanyahu's future dominated the conversation, the resolution of the crisis hinged on separate, more technical issues. Members of the coalition have been pushing for a number of votes to occur before the end of the week. The votes involve a budget for 2019 and legislation to exempt young ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from military conscription. The dispute centres on ultra-Orthodox parties having demanded that the conscription bill be passed before they agree to vote for the 2019 budget. Story continues At the same time, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon wants the budget approved before parliament's current session ends this week and had threatened to quit if it does not happen. Separately and perhaps equally as important, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman opposes the conscription bill and wants to see ultra-Orthodox men serve in the military like their secular counterparts. - 'Vote as one' - Compromise efforts sought to balance those divergent interests. The ultra-Orthodox parties agreed to support the budget if the conscription bill passes an initial parliament reading for now, with a final vote postponed until the summer session. Based on that compromise, parliament could give final approval to the budget and preliminary approval to the conscription bill this week. Regarding Lieberman's opposition to the conscription bill, a ministerial committee on Tuesday night agreed that members of the coalition could vote their conscience on it. Lieberman has stuck to his position of opposing the conscription bill throughout, but says he will not quit the government over it for now. He has signalled he could quit if the conscription bill is given final approval, but also held out the possibility of a compromise on that if a new bill is crafted with the input of the defence establishment. Lieberman vowed earlier Tuesday that his Yisrael Beitenu party would "vote as one against the bill" as it stands now. But, Lieberman said, "can elections still be prevented? Absolutely." Netanyahu, 68, could soon face charges in at least two separate corruption affairs, while investigations are continuing into two others. Three of his former associates have signed state witness deals with police. Police recommended his indictment for bribery in the first two cases in February and the attorney general is considering how to proceed, a process expected to take months. In one case, Netanyahu and his family are accused of accepting expensive gifts from wealthy supporters in exchange for financial benefits or favours. The other alleges he sought a secret deal with the publisher of a top-selling newspaper for favourable coverage. Netanyahu has been prime minister for a total of 12 years, from 1996 to 1999 and again since 2009. He is not legally required to step down if indicted -- only if he is convicted with all appeals exhausted. San Salvador (AFP) - A Salvadoran woman serving a 30-year sentence for aggravated homicide over an alleged abortion after she was raped was released from prison on Tuesday having served half her sentence. Maira Figueroa is the second woman jailed under the Central American country's severe anti-abortion laws to have her sentence commuted by the Supreme Court this year. "I am happy to be with my family," Figueroa, 34, told reporters outside the Women's Prison in San Salvador following her release. "I hope that other women are given the opportunity to go free." She had served 15 years of her sentence, imposed when she was 19 years old. Another Salvadoran woman, Teodora Vasquez, was freed in February. She had served 11 years of a 30-year sentence after being accused of an abortion following a stillbirth. Vasquez was among those waiting to greet Figueroa on her release. The two women embraced outside the prison walls. Under a law that came into force in 1998, all abortions are illegal in El Salvador, regardless of whether the pregnancy results from rape -- as in Figueroa's case -- or poses a medical threat to the woman. Prison terms range from two to eight years, but women can be charged with more serious crimes instead, as in both women's cases. Two dozen women remain behind bars after running afoul of the country's strict abortion laws, activists say. Figueroa was convicted in 2003 by a court in the western city of Ahuachapan for aggravated homicide. She had been hospitalized after suffering an obstetric emergency and blood loss at a home where she worked as a domestic employee. - Aggravated homicide - Prosecutors accused her of aggravated homicide and she received a 30-year prison sentence. The baby died in hospital and "she was arrested and accused of having caused an abortion," the Citizens' Association for the Decriminalization of Abortion said in a statement. The pressure group representing 15 women's rights organizations had petitioned the Supreme Court for her release. Story continues In a interview after she was freed last month, Vasquez said part of the problem in El Salvador was that poor women found themselves "abandoned" by the public hospital system. Instead of receiving medical help, they risked being turned over to police because of problems encountered during pregnancy. "A woman with money who wants to have an abortion finds a clinic and gets it done, and nothing happens. But a poor woman does that and she is sent to prison," Vasquez said. Morena Herrera, the group's coordinator, said 24 other women are currently incarcerated in the heavily Roman Catholic country for abortions that were classified as homicides under state law. "They were all convicted because of prejudice, so we hope that their cases will be reviewed or they will be granted a pardon," Herrera said. Beyond the problem of incarceration, Herrera said there was a need to "decriminalize abortion in specific circumstances, such as when the health of the mother is at risk." Rapper Eminem let loose with a blast at the National Rifle Association at a music award show Sunday in Southern California, accusing the gun rights lobbyists of loving their guns more than our children. Eminem performed the new lyrics on stage at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in Inglewood, the Detroit News reported. He was introduced by fellow Detroit rapper Big Sean along with Alex Moscou, a survivor of the mass shooting last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, in which 17 people were killed. Moscou said he and his fellow students were tired of hearing politicians sending their thoughts and prayers to us, and doing nothing to make the necessary changes to prevent this tragedy from happening again. Eminen performed his joint single with Kehlani Nowhere Fast but started out with his attack on the NRA: This whole country is going nuts, and the NRA is in our way Theyre responsible for this whole production They hold the strings, they control the puppet And they threaten to take donor bucks So they know the government wont do nothing and no ones budging Gun owners clutching their loaded weapons They love their guns more than our children. The rap star took a deep dive into politics beginning last year. His song Untouchable attacks institutional racism and white privilege. In October, he slammed President Donald Trump in a blistering cypher at the BET Hip Hop Awards, calling him a kamikaze that will probably cause a nuclear holocaust. The president, he said in an interview in December, makes his blood boil. In an interview published in Billboard in January, he said a turd would have been better as a president. The White House on Sunday released its proposals for school safety in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, shooting. The Trump administration is not supporting universal background checks for gun buyers but will support funds to arm more staff and teachers, putting more guns in schools. Both positions are backed by the NRA, which spent $30 million supporting Trump and attacking his rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign. Story continues Trump had suggested raising the minimum age from 18 to 21 to buy a military assault-style weapon like the one used in Parkland. But there is no longer any mention of that in the White House proposal. Watch the full video below. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Robin Emmott and John Irish BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) - Germany and France expressed solidarity with Britain on Tuesday after London accused Moscow of a nerve agent attack on British soil, but beyond strong vocal EU support, diplomats said there was little appetite for more economic sanctions on Russia. Despite tensions over Britain's decision to quit the bloc next year, EU leaders, top officials and NATO reacted in quick succession after British Prime Minister Theresa May's speech in the British parliament on Monday on the poisoning of a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to May on Tuesday, a day after French President Emmanuel Macron, and both leaders condemned the attack in statements on Tuesday. "(Merkel) said it's up to Russia to quickly provide answers to the British government's justified questions and to heed the call to completely and immediately lay bare the relevant chemical weapons programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," said Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert, referring to the watchdog in The Hague. The case poses a test for post-Brexit security cooperation as Russia, the EU's biggest energy supplier, grows more assertive abroad, accused of backing war in Ukraine and meddling in U.S., French and German elections. Condemnation from Paris and Berlin followed a day of statements of support from EU officials. The office of EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called use of the Soviet-era nerve agent "shocking" and said the European Union was "ready to offer support if requested". NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it was "horrendous". European Commission deputy head Frans Timmermans called on the bloc to express "its full solidarity with the British people and the British government" and make a collective European effort to find and punish those responsible. Story continues But EU governments are divided on how to proceed. While Merkel assured May that she was taking the British government's views on possible Russian involvement extremely seriously, Macron declined to mention Russia on Tuesday. Macron has sought to build a new relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and says he does not believe in megaphone diplomacy, although after almost a year in power there is nothing tangible to show that the policy has worked. SANCTIONS RESPONSE? Britain has given Putin until midnight on Tuesday to explain how the nerve agent was used to strike down Skripal, who had passed secrets to British intelligence. If that deadline passes, Britain could ask EU governments to consider new asset freezes and travel bans on Russian officials not already under sanctions related to Moscow's 2014 seizure of Ukraine's Crimea. Britain could also call a special meeting at NATO. Next Monday at a monthly meeting in Brussels, EU foreign ministers are due to discuss Russia's presidential election on March 18, which Putin is expected to win easily, potentially giving Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson a chance to appeal to EU governments. May herself could directly discuss the issues with fellow leaders in Brussels at a two-day summit in May, and Timmermans said the issue should be on the agenda. "We cannot have nerve gas being used in our societies. This should be addressed by all of us, and not just left to Prime Minister May and the British government," Timmermans, who as Dutch foreign minister in 2014 accused Russia of downing an airliner flying from Amsterdam over Ukraine, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Four senior EU diplomats told Reuters that Brussels would wait until Britain itself has taken a view on how to respond before making any policy moves of its own. They dismissed any suggestion that Brexit weakened London's position. "Brexit shouldn't have any effect on this," one said. But diplomats also said additional sanctions on Russia were unlikely to win support because attributing the nerve attack to Moscow was difficult and also because keeping existing economic sanctions on Russia was already difficult. "Despite the seriousness of this incident, I just don't see agreement (on new sanctions)," a second EU diplomat said, predicting a strong statement of support instead. A third diplomat said that Britain and France had been unable to persuade the rest of the bloc to impose additional sanctions on Russians over Moscow's bombing campaign in Syria. Countries seeking closer ties with Russia, notably Italy, Hungary and Greece, are wary of further damaging business. (Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Andreas Rinke and Andrea Shalal in Berlin; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Gareth Jones) Updated | An explosion hit the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah Tuesday in an attack his political party has blamed on rivals, the Islamist militant group Hamas. Three of the vehicles in Hamdallahs convoy were damaged in the attack, Associated Press reported. One had signs of blood on the door, while the others had their windows blown out. Initial reports indicated several individuals were lightly wounded in the attack. Related: War could break out in Gaza in hours, Hamas preparing for 'imminent' conflict with Israel Trending: Afrin Under Siege: Turkey Prepares to Crush Kurdish Enclave The explosion occurred as the Palestinian prime minister made a rare visit to the Gaza Strip. While Hamdallah was unharmed by the blast the incident threatens to further inflame tensions between his party Fatah, the dominant force in the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the explosion hit the convoy as Hamdallahs vehicles drove some 600 feet into Gaza after entering through the Erez Crossing from the Israeli side. GettyImages-931266036 MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images The Palestinian Prime Minister and Palestinian intelligence Chief Majid Faraj had been planning the visit for the past five months. They were due to open a sewage treatment works in Gaza, financed by the PA. The visit was also meant as a further gesture to Hamas on the issue of stalled reconciliation talks over Palestinian unity. Don't miss: Thousands of Empty Shoes Displayed at U.S. Capitol Building to Protest Gun Violence The rival factions have jostled for power since 2007 when Hamas forces seized the Gaza Strip from mainstream Fatah, ruling over its 2 million inhabitants since then. The takeover installed a Hamas led government in Gaza, at odds with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Story continues However, against the backdrop of an economic crisis in Gaza, Hamas has handed back control of its border crossings to the PA. But since November 2017 talks have stalled, with the PA claiming Hamas had yet to hand over crucial powers over tax collection and security. Hamas has accused Fatah of neglecting Gaza and inflicting misery on inhabitants through sanctions. PA President Mahmoud Abbas was quick to blame Hamas for the attack while Hamas itself condemned the explosion. It said the blast "hurt efforts to achieve unity and reconciliation," promising an urgent investigation. Grant Rumley, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, told Newsweek the attack on the Fatah convoy would have a direct effect on reconciliation talks, which he said were already on life support. Most popular: Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Why Earth Is Not Flat, Again, Says Education System Has Failed Whether or not Hamas was behind the bombing, the PA will hold them responsible for it. It was hard to see the two sides bridging an already substantial divide before today, its even harder after an assassination attempt against the PAs prime minister, Rumley explained. He added that Tuesdays attack contained echoes of a planned bombing in 2007 by Hamas, targeting Abbas. The narrowly avoided assassination provided some of the impetus for the conflict in Gaza between the two factions. That episode is the reason Abbas has not returned to the Gaza Strip in over a decade. I imagine hell look at the events of today as justification for that policy, Rumley said. This article has been updated to include comments by Grant Rumley. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek Seguin, TX (78155) Today A few passing clouds. Low around 75F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A few passing clouds. Low around 75F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. A human rights investigator has found that social media played a determining role in spreading hate speech against the persecuted minorities in Myanmar. Yanghee Lee, the United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar, presented a 30-page report on the situation of human rights in the country on March 12. The report included details of extensive bulldozing of former Rohingya villages with huge redevelopment projects in construction. Lee also highlighted concerns about the role of social media in promoting violence against the Rohingya minority. Around 700,000 Rohingya people were forced to leave their homes in the Rakhine state to escape persecution at the hands of Myanmar authorities, an act condemned by the international community as ethnic cleansing. Trending: Snakes, Lizards and Iguanas Found Inside Mezcal Bottles, Mexican Authorities Say [Facebook] was used to convey public messages, but we know that the ultranationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities, Lee said at a press conference on Monday, according to Reuters. In the report, Lee noted one instance in which the governments information committee Facebook page published a list of 1,311 names together with photographsincluding at least 46 childrenaccused of being members of the militant Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) group. Im afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast and not what it originally intended, Lee said, replying to a question about the merit of the social media platform in the country, which began transitioning to a democracy in 2011. Don't miss: African-American Police Chief Accused of Racial Discrimination By Four Black Officers RTS1N76M Denis Balibousear/Reuters Story continues No social media service has more reach in Myanmar than Facebook, where nationalist hard-liners have been able to gather substantial followers by fanning the flames of anti-Muslim sentiment. One of the most prominent nationalist Buddhist monks, Ashin Wirathu, whose profile was removed from Facebook, recently admitted that other social networks such as YouTube and Twitter do not work as well. Most popular: Donald Trump Jr. Bets Fox & Friends Is Only Network Out There With American Flag Smock During Makeup Session Marzuki Darusman, the chairman of the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, said that not enough is being done to counter the spread of anti-Muslim sentiment. Hate speech and incitement to violence on social media is rampant, particularly on Facebook. To a large extent, it goes unchecked, he told reporters on Monday. Facebook said they take the issue incredibly seriously and have worked with experts in the country to develop resources and counter-speech campaigns, including a locally illustrated version of the platforms community standards, and regular training sessions for civil society and local community groups. Of course, there is always more we can do, and we will continue to work with local experts to help keep our community safe, a Facebook spokesperson told Newsweek in an emailed statement. There is no place for hate speech or content that promotes violence on Facebook, and we work hard to keep it off our platform. We have invested significantly in technology and local language expertise to help us swiftly remove hate content and people who repeatedly violate our hate speech policies, the spokesperson added. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek SEOUL (Reuters) - Beyond the future of North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, a number of other issues could be raised during upcoming talks between Pyongyang, South Korea and, potentially, the United States. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un plans to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April and, according to South Korean officials, wants to meet U.S. President Donald Trump. South Korea's long, complex relationship with its northern neighbour leaves the two sides with a wide range of issues to potentially address. FAMILY REUNIONS The Korean War of the 1950s ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically at war and families torn apart on both sides of the military demarcation line that divides the peninsula. South Korean officials have called for the resumption of visits between separated Korean families in the North and South, as a "humanitarian and human rights issue", especially as many family members are now in their 80s. "Over 75,000 individuals residing in South Korea are aging and dying without meeting their families residing in North Korea," said the Korean Red Cross, which has facilitated visits in the past. The last reunions were in 2015, before relations deteriorated over the North's nuclear programme and other issues. The South has also sought the resumption of video conferences and the delivery of letters from separated family members. DETAINEES North Korea has a number of foreigners imprisoned, including at least six South Korean citizens, according to the Souths Unification Ministry. Among them are Christian missionaries Kim Jung-wook, who was arrested in October 2013, and Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-kil, who have been held since 2014, the ministry said. The other three are North Korean defectors who South Korea's National Intelligence Service said last year were "captured" by the North without specifying where and why. Story continues Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday he wanted to see a resolution to the issue of past abductions of 13 Japanese citizens Pyongyang admits were kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies. North Korea also holds three American men. Kim Dong-chul, a Korean-American missionary formerly of Fairfax, Virginia and thought to be 62, was sentenced in March 2016 to 10 years of hard labour for subversion. Kim Sang-duk, 59, also known as Tony Kim, spent a month teaching accounting at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was detained at Pyongyang International Airport in April 2017 while trying to leave the country. Kim Hak-song, thought to be 55, also taught at PUST, which was founded by evangelical Christians and opened in 2010. He was detained in May while travelling by train from Pyongyang to the Chinese border town of Dandong. Pyongyang has previously demanded Seoul return 12 North Korean women who worked at a North Korea-run restaurant in China and defected to South Korea as a group in 2016. ECONOMIC, CULTURAL EXCHANGES A rare example of North-South cooperation was the Kaesong industrial complex in North Korea. At its height, Kaesong employed 55,000 North Korean workers in South Korean-owned factories, turning out products from toys to textiles and providing the North with hard currency. The complex shut down in 2016 after Seoul said the North was taking workers wages and using the money to fund its nuclear and missile programmes. A South Korean panel concluded in December there was no evidence North Korea diverted wages to bankroll its weapons programmes. South Korean factory owners have been hoping the thaw in inter-Korean relations would allow them to visit the complex to see what remains of the equipment and stocks they left behind when North Korea seized the factories, but an invitation from Pyongyang has not been forthcoming. North Korea, under increasing pressure from international sanctions, is likely also keen to find new ways of boosting economic activity and generating foreign currency. Moon has pledged to reopen the industrial park if there is progress on the Norths denuclearization. More likely in the short term, analysts say, are cultural exchange programmes like those the two Koreas engaged in during the recent Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. North Korea sent musicians, performers and officials to the South, while South Korean skiers travelled to a resort in the North for a joint training event. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Lincoln Feast) Bessel van der Kolk (Photo: Courtesy of Bessel van der Kolk) Following his termination from the treatment center he founded 35 years ago for alleged misconduct, renowned trauma researcher, author, and psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk is speaking out in self-defense just as many of his colleagues, friends, and admirers are voicing support on his behalf. No allegations have been made, van der Kolk, author of the New York Times-bestselling The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma and founder of the Trauma Center in Brookline, Mass., tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Its an outrageous story nobodys come forward, and Ive never been accused of improprieties by anybody and now there are these insinuations about how hes a sexist, intimations that Im a sexual abuser, which is of course devastating not only for me but for the tens of thousands of people who believe in me. Last week, the Boston Globe reported that van der Kolk was fired by the Trauma Centers umbrella organization, the Justice Resource Center (JRI), in January, following the removal of the centers executive director, Joseph Spinazzola, over alleged mistreatment of female coworkers. Van der Kolks firing, according to JRI president Andy Pond, was based on allegations by staffers that the psychiatrist had created a hostile work environment and behaved in a way that could be characterized as bullying. Pond told Yahoo Lifestyle that he was unable to share specifics of the allegations because the accusers had asked that the details be kept private. In response to his termination, van der Kolk has filed a lawsuit against JRI, as well as Pond and JRI executive vice president Kari Beserra, naming 11 counts of action, including breach of contract, misrepresentation, and defamation. One of the main issues of the lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to Yahoo Lifestyle, is the Trauma Centers autonomy, as based on the memorandum of understanding that the Trauma Center and JRI entered into when the administrative relationship between the organizations began in 2005. The contract (a copy of which is attached to the lawsuit) specifies that the Trauma Center is an independent organization, and that all funds and grants generated by the Trauma Center belong to the Trauma Center; but according to the lawsuit, JRI is currently holding more than $2.5 million hostage from the Trauma Center. Story continues Pond tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the claim regarding those funds is false, and that the entire lawsuit is without merit. He reiterates his belief that the Trauma Center at JRI is not an independent organization. It is a part of JRI and Bessel was a part-time employee of JRI. He adds, As I said before, I know that Bessel has contributed a great deal to the field, and that there are some individuals who are unhappy with my decision. But personnel decisions were made on the basis of the facts at hand. Van der Kolk says its possible that Ponds decision was financially motivated. He took all those funds they are now basically stolen by JRI, and all these funders are out of their money, he says. But a more gentle theory of motive, he says, is that the allegations against Spinazzola had been known for a while, and that Pond was the direct supervisor of this guy, and that he felt so embarrassed by his lack of action for so long that he needed to find someone else to put it on. So I think he found me. The lawsuit also claims that the contract implied that van der Kolk would be employed for life and that it was up to the Trauma Center to terminate its own employees. Thats a dispute, van der Kolk says, and is between lawyers. The weird thing is, he shares, I always liked [Pond], and when I walked into his office, I said, Hi, how are you doing, and his face froze and he says, Im firing you. We had no prior discussions ever about anything, and I said, This is crazy, theres as much reason to fire you as fire me; Ive never done anything. And thats it no warning, no investigation, no discussion, like, Hey, Ive heard these things about you. Nothing. While van der Kolk was traveling and unable to speak much about the situation when news broke last week, he posted a response on Facebook over the weekend calling the story a very public character assassination of me which has since received more than 560 shares, 825 reactions, and 240 comments, the vast majority of them supportive of the trauma expert. That is not to say that I cannot be impatient at times, and I have been known to be harsh thats something that Ive been working on in my own therapeutic endeavors and will continue to do, he wrote in the post. I actually think that kindness is our greatest virtue. I am deeply touched by the overwhelming support that I have received from around the world (in fact, it was really good to hear from so many old friends). We are working on reconstituting the Trauma Center by July 2018, with almost our entire current staff slated to join. We already have at least one (very lovely) location that is ready to receive us. In his post, van der Kolk also shared the email that he sent to his Trauma Center colleagues regarding the news of his termination, which read, in part, As you can imagine, I am devastated reading the allegations in the Boston Globe that I have been bullying and denigrating my colleagues at the Trauma Center. I am also aware that such accusations cannot be entirely pulled out of thin air, and that some of you must have felt bullied and denigrated by me, though, as far as I remember, none of you have ever confronted me with such misbehavior. If I have inadvertently denigrated or bullied any of you, I would like to know about it, apologize and make amends. Many of his supporters commended him for having changed their lives, noting that they were saddened and sorry to hear of his firing but relieved to learn his side of the story. (I have never felt so loved as I have in these last few days; the support is overwhelming, van der Kolk says in response to the outpouring, noting also that being contaminated by the allegations has led to organizations distancing themselves from him and the Trauma Center.) A handful of Facebook commenters took the psychiatrist to task for not owning up to alleged shortfalls, with at least one responding to his comment about never having been confronted. Well when youre in a position of power, its likely that those youre bullying have less power and may be rendered unable to confront, she noted. Its not the job of the victim to confront their bully in the work place. Its the job of management to remove the bully. Van der Kolk agrees with that take on power imbalance. That is a reality. Ive grown up in the medical world, and people have said all kinds of things, like, If you ever do this again, Ill fire you, and I will not promote you unless you do this You just suck it up. Certainly, when I first started the trauma center a long time ago and came from that world, I thought that was sort of OK. But very quickly my colleagues said, No, we dont do it that way. So I learned I should not adopt the model I was trained in in medicine. Regarding comments he hears about his capacity to be harsh, he says, I wrote about this journey in my book. All of us need to go through the journey of self-examination. Further, van der Kolk notes, Its interesting I saw a movie of Ingmar Bergman directing Fanny and Alexander, and Bergman has a little bit of the same background as I do. He was so gentle with his actors, and I thought, if Bergman can do it, I can do it too. I thought, Im going to be as gentle as Bergman. That became my aspiration, actually. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. WASHINGTON Hours after President Trump announced his firing over Twitter, outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday left the former real estate entrepreneur off the list of people he praised and thanked in a brief speech about his accomplishments and the future of his department. Tillerson, looking and sounding defeated as he delivered an eight-minute farewell, said he was delegating his duties to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, effective at the end of the day, and formally ending his own watch as the top U.S. diplomat at the end of the month. The former Exxon chief told reporters in the State Department briefing room that Trump had telephoned him from Air Force One a little after noon some five hours after the president announced to the world that Tillerson was out, to be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo. He shared no details, and did not mention Trump again. Tillersons dismissal continues a period of extraordinary turbulence for the administration, which has seen a record level of turnover among top staffers and Cabinet officials. It comes on the heels of the abrupt exit of Gary Cohn, who was Trumps top economic adviser. Cohn resigned March 6. The State Department released a statement from Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein, saying Tillerson did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason for his dismissal. The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security, the statement said. Hours later, Goldstein was himself fired, evidently for contradicting the White House version of events. A senior Trump aide told reporters that White House chief of staff John Kelly telephoned Tillerson, who was traveling in Africa, on Friday to tell him he would be replaced. The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kelly made clear that it was imminent. Kelly called Tillerson again on Saturday and reiterated the Friday conversation, said the aide, whose remarks suggested Trump hoped Tillerson would resign. Story continues Tillerson cut short his Africa trip and was back in Washington by Monday. Rex Tillerson at the State Department after his dismissal on Tuesday. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) Tillerson praised his top aides for being extraordinarily dedicated to advancing values that I view as being very important: The safety and security of our State Department personnel; accountability, which means treating each other with honesty and integrity; and respect for one another, most recently, in particular, to address challenges of sexual harassment within the department. Tillerson praised U.S. diplomats in Washington and overseas, as well as the U.S. military. He said the Pentagon believes U.S. power starts with diplomacy and lauded the leadership of Defense Secretary James Mattis. The 65-year-old former energy executive highlighted some of what he called accomplishments under this administration. He noted the ramped-up sanctions against North Korea, and the new Afghanistan war strategy, not mentioning Trump by name. And he acknowledged much work remains on issues like Syria, stabilizing Iraq, defeating ISIS and resetting the U.S. relationship with China. Nothing is possible without allies and partners, though, said Tillerson, whose mission included selling a wary world on Trumps America First approach to global affairs. And he warned Moscow over its troubling behavior, saying: Russia must assess carefully as to how its actions are in the best interests of the Russian people and of the world more broadly. Tillerson continued, continuing on their current trajectory is likely to lead to greater isolation on their part, a situation which is not in anyones interest. Saying he would return to private life as a proud American, Tillerson concluded: God bless all of you, God bless the American people, God bless America. There had been persistent tensions between Trump and Tillerson, fueled in part by a report last October that the secretary of state had called the president a moron in a Pentagon meeting. Tillerson never fully denied that report. The pair also clashed on policy issues pertaining to Iran, North Korea and the blockade against Qatar. Just before Trump revealed his surprising decision earlier this month to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Tillerson had said it was not yet time to negotiate with Pyongyang. And on Monday, Tillerson struck a far different tone than the White House over the attempted assassination of a former spy now living in Britain, which British Prime Minister Theresa May blamed on Russia. Tillersons strong statement contrasted with the reluctance of the White House to blame Moscow. When he spoke to reporters before boarding Marine One, Trump said he and Tillerson were not really thinking the same way. As an example, he cited the Iran nuclear deal, which he has denounced and Tillerson sought to fix. Trump said he and Pompeo are always on the same wavelength. And, the president said, I think Rex will be much happier now. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Windhoek (AFP) - Namibia on Tuesday reported its first case of listeriosis since an outbreak in neighbouring South Africa erupted at the beginning of last year, killing 183 people so far. A 41-year-old Namibian man was diagnosed with the disease on Monday and is being treated in a hospital in the capital Windhoek, Health Minister Bernard Haufiku said in a statement. Namibia has banned South African imports of processed meat products, and Haufiku warned Namibians not to eat any items still for sale in the country. "This is the first case of listeriosis reported in Namibia since the outbreak in neighbouring South Africa," Haufiku said. "Our surveillance and monitoring systems are in full force." The victim, whose medical condition was described as stable, bought so-called Vienna sausages in his hometown of Tsumeb, in the north of Namibia. Since January 2017, more than 900 people in South Africa have contracted listeriosis, which is caused by bacteria which can contaminate fresh food, notably meat. Earlier this month, the source of the outbreak was finally traced to a food factory owned by Tiger Brands, 300 kilometres (185 miles) northeast of the South African capital Pretoria. The plant produced a range of ready-to-eat chilled meats. The United Nations has previously said that South Africa's listeriosis outbreak is believed to be the largest-ever worldwide. Listeria contamination can result in a flu-like illness, infection of the bloodstream and, in severe cases, infection of the brain which can prove fatal. Infection mainly affects children and has a three-week incubation period, making it difficult to track. Other countries that have imposed restrictions on South African meat imports are Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Fitbit (FIT) is the name in fitness trackers. The company, which has seen its stock hover around the $5 to $6 per share mark since early 2017, is synonymous with the consumer health tech industry thanks to its stable of devices that allow users to track everything from heart rate to the quality of sleep. Now the brand is setting its sights on its female consumers with its all-new female health tracking feature. Available on the new $199 Versa smartwatch, and via an update to its existing Ionic watch, female health tracking will help users develop a better understanding of their overall health by allowing them to track the various aspects of their menstrual cycles. According to Fitbit, the feature provides women with the means to see how their periods impact different aspects of their lives, ranging from the quality of their sleep to their overall activity levels. This is something that weve heard many, many of our users request given our brands strength with women, explained Fitbit CEO James Park. The way we feel about female health tracking and its impact on peoples overall health and fitness for women is that this is really the next big thing for us. The feature will allow women to log data on their periods into the Fitbit app and record the various symptoms they experience including headaches, cramps and acne. As you log more information, the app and Fitbits proprietary cycle algorithm will be able to help you more accurately predict when you can expect your next period. Users will be able to log their symptoms during their periods, which will eventually help them better understand what activities impact them more or help alleviate their pain points. But a womans cycle isnt a simple on-off affair. Different things like exercise, overall lifestyle and the like can drastically impact a womans period. By using data from the female health tracking feature, users will be able to determine when they experience their worst symptoms, monitor their sleep, exercise and overall health, and then be able to adjust their behavior to decrease the impact their period has on them. We feel that the inclusion of female health tracking is a huge step forward for this category and one thats been, I think, pretty ignored by all of the major players, Park said. I mean there are apps out there, but no one has really said, This is the next big thing in terms of making sure people are taking the right steps in terms of their health and fitness. Story continues Fitbit app screen for IOS showing predictions for a users cycles. Importantly, the female health tracking feature will educate users about menstrual cycles in general. Dr. Katharine White who serves as an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University explained, many women dont even know how long their cycles actually last. White, a Fitbit adviser, said that the new feature could create one of the largest databases of menstrual health metrics in the world, which in turn, would help researchers and health care professionals with the ability to study womens cycles using real-world data. Female health tracking will empower women with a greater understanding of their menstrual cycles in conjunction with their physical and mental health, as they start to recognize what are normal trends over time versus what could be an issue to share with their doctor, she said. The female health tracker wont just provide users with more information about their periods, though. Fitbit says it will also help women understand when they are most fertile, something that can prove extremely helpful for couples trying to conceive. More from Dan: Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley. Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn (Reuters) - Florida prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz, the former student accused of murdering 17 people in a shooting spree last month at a Parkland high school, according to a notice filed in court on Tuesday. Michael Satz, the state attorney for Broward County, filed the notice with Judge Elizabeth Scherer of his office's intent to seek the death sentence, ahead of a court hearing on Wednesday. The notice cited multiple reasons under Florida law for the death penalty. Those included the charges that Cruz "knowingly created a great risk of death" to many people, the shooting was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel," and it was committed in a "cold, calculated and premeditated manner." Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for the attack on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which 14 students and three staff died. Florida Governor Rick Scott, through his spokesman John Tupps, said he supported the death penalty for Cruz, saying the state would hold the accused gunman accountable "to the fullest extent of the law." After the filing, Cruz's attorneys repeated their offer for Cruz to plead guilty if prosecutors agreed to not pursue the death penalty. Cruz is due to appear in court in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday for his arraignment, where he will be formally asked to plead to the charges. "We still stand ready to immediately plead guilty to 34 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole," Howard Finkelstein, a county public defender, wrote in an email. "If we are not allowed to do so tomorrow, we will stand mute to the charges." Standing mute means the defendant will not plead either "guilty" or "not guilty." Cruz's lawyers have said they have taken this approach to avoid upsetting survivors and families of victims with the "fiction" of a not guilty plea. The court is expected to enter a not guilty plea on Cruz's behalf, Finkelstein said. "We are not saying he is not guilty but we can't plead guilty while death is still on the table," Finkelstein wrote. Daniel Reed, a parent of a student at Stoneman Douglas who initiated a petition drive seeking to have Amazon remove the National Rifle Association's channel from its offerings, said he was opposed to the death penalty for Cruz. "I don't think death will bring back the lives of the 17 people who were killed and it certainly doesn't solve our ongoing issue ... when it comes to gun violence," Reed said. But Ashley Schulman, a 17-year-old Stoneman Douglas senior who was on the opposite end of the campus when shots rang out, said she supported the decision to seek the death penalty. "I think the punishment will give some justice to the families of the victims," she told Reuters. (Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale; editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis) Hubert de Givenchy, the iconic French fashion designer who styled high-profile figures such as Audrey Hepburn, has died at age 91, leaving behind a legacy reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars. Philippe Venet, his partner and a former haute couture designer, told the AFP news agency that Givenchy passed away in his sleep on Saturday, BBC News reported. "It is with huge sadness that we inform you that Hubert Taffin de Givenchy has died," Venet said in a statement on behalf of the fashion house. Givenchys nephews, nieces and their children were also grieving, according to the statement. Trending: 'Crocodile Warnings' Exist and Are Happening in Australia, Which is a Continent Full of Unusual Terrors GettyImages-1482104 (1) Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images In a career spanning four decades, Givenchy became one of the first designers to build an eponymous fashion empire. The brand quickly became synonymous with an elegant, feminine style. Born Hubert James Taffin de Givenchy in 1927 to an aristocratic family in the French city of Beauvais, he was largely raised by his mother and maternal grandmother; his father died in 1930. Givenchy inherited his love of fashion and fabrics from those matriarchs, and headed to cosmopolitan Paris to pursue his career at the age of 17, according to Vogue. Read more: Givenchy's top 5 iconic looks, from Audrey Hepburn to Kayne West Don't miss: Why Agents Of SHIELD Season 5 Episode 12 Was Low-Key Terrifying After studying at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he went on to work for lauded fashion designers including Robert Piguet, Lucien Lelong and Elsa Schiaparelli. Forward-thinking business decisions helped Givenchy grow a vast personal fortune. "He lived very grandly," Jody Donohue, Givenchy's New York press agent in the 1990s, told the Los Angeles Times. "He was the first person I ever met who had a separate summer wardrobe for his furniture. He covered everything in white duck cloth." Story continues GettyImages-3171980 Keystone Features/Getty Images At just 24, he launched his couture house, La Maison Givenchy. Decades later, in 1988, he would sell his eponymous label to fashion behemoth Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) for $45 million, according to Elle. Most popular: What Happened to Juelz Santana? Everything We Know About Rapper's Arrest Givenchy made its debut in 1952 with a collection of floor-length skirts and blouses. That included the Bettina Blouse, named after model Bettina Graziani, which featured extravagant ruffled sleeves. Two years later, the house became the first couturier to roll out a luxury ready-to-wear line. In 1955 Givenchy took another smart business risk and rolled out a mass-produced women's sportswear line in the U.S., alongside his upmarket couture designs. In the 1970s, lucrative licensing agreements saw his name emblazoned on accessories from belts to sunglasses which spiked annual sales to over $100 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. A perfume line and the menswear line Gentleman Givenchy helped secure his position as a multimillionaire. Among his best-known creations is the black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the opening scene of the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffanys. What followed was a four-decades-long friendship between the two. Dressing Hepburn made good business sense, too. Many of the ensembles she wore were from Givenchy's ready-to-wear line and therefore available at the brand's boutiques. He also dressed high-profile women including Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly and Greta Garbo. "The little black dress is the hardest thing to realize because you must keep it simple," Givenchy told The Independent in a 2010 interview. Stepping down as head of creative design in 1995, Givenchy retired to a country estate near Paris with his partner. Enfant terrible John Galliano was tasked with breathing new life into the brand. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek BERLIN (Reuters) - German security agencies are on alert for signs of violence against Turkish facilities in Berlin, Stuttgart and other cities, the Interior Ministry said, after fires damaged several Turkish-run mosques over the weekend. Firefighters battled for over 90 minutes to extinguish a blaze at the Koca Sinan mosque in Berlin early on Sunday. It was the latest in a series of incidents police say may be linked to demonstrations by hundreds of people against Turkey's military operation in the northern Syrian region of Afrin aimed at sweeping the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from the Turkish border. "The events in the region can stoke passions among Kurds living here in Germany," a ministry spokeswoman said, noting that conflicts between Turks and Kurds were also playing out in Germany, which is home to about 3 million people with ties to Turkey, including many ethnic Kurds. The ministry appealed to demonstrators to avoid violence, and said protesters needed to abide by German laws. "The security agencies are constantly exchanging information with regard to current events," she added. German politicians and interest groups, including the Kurdish community, on Monday strongly condemned the attacks and messages on social media calling for further violence. "Whoever is behind these attacks and calls for violence, whether it's circles close to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party insurgents in Turkey) or the Turkish intelligence agency MIT, nothing justifies this form of inhumane violence," Ali Ertan Toprak, head of the Kurdish community, said in a statement. Toprak urged Kurds living in Germany to use democratic means to express their views about the Turkish offensive in Afrin. Several people were injured in demonstrations over the weekend in Duesseldorf, with additional protests reported in Hamburg, Kiel, Saarbruecken and Kaiserslautern, according to German media reports. Suleyman Kucuk, deputy state leader of the Turkish DITIB organization in Berlin, said the mosque in the neighborhood of Reinickendorf was heavily damaged in Sunday's blaze. "The whole house of worship has to be renovated and rebuilt," he told Reuters TV. Police spokeswoman Valeska Jakubowski said police were investigating what she described as a serious case of arson. Investigators say the attack was likely politically motivated. The PKK has been banned in Germany since 1993, but it remains active, with nearly 14,000 followers among the country's Kurdish immigrant population. Turkey has repeatedly criticized Germany for not taking a more assertive stance against the PKK. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Reuters TV; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Cambodias Immigration Investigation Bureau said that police arrested 81 Chinese men and 19 women in a raid at a seven-storey condominium in the capital city of Phnom Penh. China has for years been battling telecoms fraud, which caused losses worth billions of USD to victims. As of May 2017, there were 32 provincial and 206 municipal fraud prevention centres across the country. Thousands of Chinese suspects of telecoms fraud were caught in many countries, including Cambodia, Kenya and Armenia. VNA Washington (AFP) - Gina Haspel, nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CIA, is a black ops veteran who once ran a secret interrogation operation in Thailand accused of torturing detainees. If approved by the Senate, Haspel would be the first woman ever to run the Central Intelligence Agency. Despite a controversial past, her rise is not surprising -- she previously served as CIA deputy director and led worldwide undercover spying operations, a CIA mission that has gained renewed importance in recent years. Haspel, 61, joined the spy agency in 1985 and served as chief of station in several posts around the world. Rising through the ranks, she earned the job of deputy director of the National Clandestine Service, and was finally named to be service director in 2013. But she was quickly replaced after political questions were raised over her role in post-9/11 interrogation operations, which involved methods widely deemed to be torture, such as waterboarding. Her fortunes changed under Trump, who has expressed support for use of torture in interrogations. Mike Pompeo, then the new CIA chief, rejected protests over her background and made Haspel his number two. Her appointment earned the support of numerous former senior US intelligence officials. But the Senate Intelligence Committee's hearing to confirm her for the top CIA post could be rocky. One member, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, has already said he will oppose her nomination. "Ms Haspel's background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director," he said Tuesday. "If Ms Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of US intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from her past." - 'Secret Thailand prison' - Haspel's public reputation is based on her association with the "black site" prison run by the CIA in Thailand from 2002 for post-9/11 detainees. Media reports said she presided over the torture of key al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri who were interrogated and repeatedly waterboarded at the site. Story continues The CIA has always maintained that what it did was legal. "As has been well-documented, the former detention and interrogation program was authorized by President [George W] Bush six days after 9/11, reviewed and determined to be lawful by the Justice Department, and implemented by the CIA," the agency said last year in a statement. Haspel was later accused of the 2005 destruction of the CIA's videotapes of those sessions. Lawyers for Al-Qaeda detainees had sought the tapes for evidence in court cases. She was later cleared of wrongdoing -- officials said she had just followed orders in destroying the tapes. Torture has since been explicitly outlawed by the government, and despite Trump's endorsement of it, there have been no reports of the US intelligence agencies returning to the practice. - Russia, Korea, leaks - Under Haspel the CIA faces a number of challenges, foremost North Korea. The agency has been behind the curve in assessing what Kim Jong Un is up to, a particular challenge now that Kim has invited Trump for talks on possible denuclearization. The agency also is under constant pressure from Trump to assess Iran's compliance with its nuclear commitments; Trump has repeatedly attacked the nuclear deal and sought evidence to support ending it. Russia is another thorny problem for the new CIA director. She will be reporting to a president who has soft-pedalled the threat from Moscow and scorns intelligence that it interfered in the US elections. The CIA and other agencies also have struggled to deal with leaks of some of their crucial cyber spying tools and other data, often blamed on the sprawling intelligence contractor industry around Washington on which they increasingly depend. Gina Haspel is the first female CIA director. (Screenshot: Youtube) CIA deputy director Gina Haspel has been promoted to director of the federal agency, the first-ever woman to hold the top position. President Trump made the announcement Tuesday after firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replacing him with CIA director Mike Pompeo. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State, Trump tweeted. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. According to Time, Haspel said in a statement, After thirty years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year. I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Haspel has worked for the CIA since 1985, working in both undercover and leadership positions, and has a controversial past, overseeing the torture of prisoners in Thailand, one of which was waterboarded 83 times in one month, according to the New York Times. The practice of waterboarding involves strapping a person to a board thats tilted downward at the head and pouring water on their face, triggering the sensation of drowning. Mediaite reported that in 2005 Haspel ordered the destruction of footage documenting the torture, which is currently illegal, but that Trump has said absolutely works in the fight against ISIS. Haspels promotion is significant for breaking the glass ceiling at the CIA. According to a 2016 report by Newsweek, women comprise 45 percent of the CIA workforce and 34 percent of leadership roles yet Haspel will be the first to fill the top job. Per the magazine, between 1980 and 2012, female representation in midlevel to upper-midlevel positions like team chiefs or deputy team chiefs rose from 9 to 44 percent, according to a 2013 report led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. But in 2012, just 19 percent of agency officers promoted to executive-level jobs in the Senior Intelligence Service (SIS) were women, down from around 30 percent in previous years. The report sounded the alarm for significant reforms and said that not maximizing womens talents and expertise directly and negatively impacts the mission, the publication reported. Story continues So why is Haspels promotion such a coup? In her report, Albright, who led a 2012 initiative called Directors Advisory Group (DAG) on Women in Leadership, found there is no single reason why CIA women are not achieving promotions and positions of greater responsibility and that organizational and societal challenges factor into the issues affecting women. Those challenges include (surprise!) workplace sexism and harassment, inflexibility, and poor work-life balance but the report also notes that solely considering these factors would be too simplistic. Other key findings: Compared to men, female CIA employees dont tend to seek career advice from their supervisors, turn down assignments due to long hours, and undervalue their qualifications which prevent them from seeking opportunities. Women are also likelier to take advantage of flexible workplace arrangements with the support of their managers but are denied transparency as to how doing so will impact their careers. And women married to male CIA members more often turn down assignments (compared to their partners) when conflicts of interest arise. On an anecdotal level, female CIA employees also experience classic gender discrimination. CIA analyst Gina Bennett and mother-of-five told Newsweek that colleagues have reported being told theyre too pushy, emotional, and speak too much. Institutional sexism has always been used to justify gender biases, Donna Lent, president of the National Womens Political Caucus, a grassroots organization that supports female political candidates, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Women are not unqualified for the same leadership positions as men but they might be denied training and educational opportunities that get them there. And after Haspels historic achievement, Lent says shell likely face another roadblock. The question now is, will she be held to a higher standard because shes a woman? Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday morning that he will nominate Gina Haspel to become the new CIA director, replacing Mike Pompeo, who will be nominated as the next Secretary of State. If confirmed, Haspel would be the first woman to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. In a statement, Gina Haspel said she was humbled by the opportunity. After thirty years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year, Haspel said in a statement Tuesday. I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Here is what you need to know about Gina Haspel. Gina Haspel would be the first female CIA director Its rare to promote someone for this post from within the agency, and Haspel will be the first-ever female director of the CIA if confirmed. Gina Haspel has a long career at the CIA Most recently, Haspel had been deputy director under Pompeo, but she has worked at the CIA since 1985. She has held numerous leadership positions in the CIA and spent much of her career undercover, the New York Times reports, and was deeply involved in the agencys controversial torture program. In 2002, she ran the agencys black site prison in Thailand, where she oversaw the waterboarding of detainees. The tapes of those encounters were destroyed in 2005, with Haspels name linked to the order to get rid of them. Gina Haspel has been controversial, but also praised Haspels role in the interrogation program caused controversy on the Hill in the past, but she is well-regarded within the agency and praised by many of her intelligence colleagues. James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence under President Barack Obama, said in 2017 he was very pleased with the pick of Gina Haspel to be deputy and that she is widely and deeply respected by the workforce. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said she was a wonderful choice for deputy and complimented her dignity, professionalism and honor. The threat of sexual violence and harassment against women experiencing homelessness has been well-documented. (Photo: RichLegg via Getty Images) Like many women, I am heartened by the Me Too movement and the spotlight it has put on sexual assault and harassment. It makes me want to fight harder to tell the stories of those whose voices are still going unheard especially those of women experiencing homelessness. As a sociologist who studies food insecurity, I regularly meet with women who dont have homes. Many times, what starts off as a conversation about food turns into a conversation about something else. They want to talk about how unsafe they feel in the world. They tell me they wont go to certain food providers because they believe theyll get harassed there or they already have been harassed there. Harassment and abuse arent part of the public conversation surrounding food insecurity. They arent part of the conversation surrounding homelessness. Yet from what Ive been hearing and witnessing and from what the research shows homeless women arent safe no matter where they go. I once watched a man verbally attack a woman outside an emergency food providers doors, yelling at her until she cried. People tried to step in, but the man continued to scream about how the woman shouldnt be allowed to go inside because she was already so fat do you really need this food? This happened eight months ago. The woman told me she hasnt been back to that meal provider since. I spoke with another young woman who told me she wont go to certain soup kitchens because she knows the men there will hit on her from the moment she walks in the door until the moment she leaves. She was living in her car at the time and told me she sometimes would rather eat a bag of chips for dinner than go someplace to get a free meal and deal with men harassing her. One young woman living in a shelter told me she never goes anywhere alone. Because men know she is homeless, they presume shes also willing to trade sex for money and mistreat her as such. Ive experienced some of this harassment myself. One man followed me around every week I went to a particular food provider. He repeatedly hit on me despite my always saying no. Months later, another man tried to kiss my mouth, and when I told him I didnt want to be touched, he replied, Youre a woman you should like it. Story continues Just recently, a woman told me her friend was raped while waiting at the bus station at 8 p.m. on a weeknight. Both of them are currently without a home, and the man was described as someone who is constantly preying on such women. According to the person who spoke to me, he punched her friend in the face, forced her hands behind her back and dragged her to a nearby empty parking lot, where he raped her. The woman relaying the story explained that the victim later approached a police officer about the assault. She said the officer told her friend that he couldnt do anything for her and that she should call 911 instead. The woman teared up as she told me all of this. She believes she knows who the rapist is, and it scares her to think she might be next. This woman told me she suspects the police officer brushed off her friend because he knew she was homeless, and I think thats highly plausible. People experiencing homelessness might be the most stigmatized population of them all. And they tend to view the police more as a threat than a source of help, because officers are often tasked with cleaning up the streets. I contacted the local police department in an attempt to validate that rape report and to tell them what Ive been hearing from the community. I called an anonymous tip line that directed me to call 911. They told me a police officer would call me back, and in about 30 minutes, one did. He said theres not much they can do without an official report by the victim. I tried to explain that the women I talk to through my work are scared of the police. I told him that from what Im hearing, this is a substantial problem for homeless women not a one-time event. The officer said he would keep an eye out, but there is not much he can do without the name of the victim, which I did not have permission to share. We ultimately didnt really get anywhere. But these stories are not exceptions. They are the rule for women experiencing homelessness. The constant threat of sexual violence and harassment against these women has been well-documented. In a 2005 survey of 737 such women by Florida researchers, 78 percent reported theyd been subjected to rape, physical assault and/or stalking in their lifetime. Those rates are disproportionately higher than the national average. However, when I bring up these issues with friends or family or even fellow academics, they commonly reply, Ive never thought about that before. The general public isnt reading academic research about the homeless population, and the mainstream media isnt covering it. If I had a penny for every time Ive noticed someone avert their eyes when they see someone living outside, I could probably afford to build some affordable housing, which many U.S. cities desperately need. When my days work is done, after Ive listened to these stories, I get in my car to drive home, and my heart feels like it might explode. Im at these emergency food providers because I choose to be, not because I need to be. I dont have to return if I decide not to. But where can these women go? No group of women in the United States is free from the reality of living in a patriarchal society that devalues their existence. The only difference between the homeless women I regularly hear from and the women who are now coming forward and having their stories believed is that when homeless women speak, no one listens. It is vitally important that police officers work on fostering better relationships with women experiencing homelessness. Assault and harassment claims must be taken seriously, regardless of whether the victim has a home address. Women who have been attacked might also find it less frightening to speak to a female officer. But only 12 percent of full-time police officers are female. And as a society, we must question laws that criminalize homelessness, because they erect a barrier of mistrust between the police and the homeless community. Women experiencing homelessness already live in the margins of society, in the margins of the Me Too movement and in the margins of our minds. At the very least, we must see and acknowledge their reality. Mari Kate Mycek is a doctoral candidate in the sociology department at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on the intersections of food, inequality and community development. __ Need help? Visit RAINNs National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Centers website. ALSO ON HUFFPOST OPINION The #MeToo Conversation Erases Trans People Let Women In Prison Have Their Periods In Peace USA Swimming Has A Sexual Abuse Problem, Too Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Hong Kong pro-Beijing by-election candidate Vincent Cheng Wing-shun waves next to his pro-democracy competitor Edward Yiu after winning a seat at the legislative council - AP Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement has suffered a setback at crucial by-elections which resulted in them losing their all important veto in the former British colony. The democrats won only two of four seats contested in the 70-seat Legislative Council and now hold only 26 seats in the chamber, one short of being able to block most bills. They had hoped to register a protest vote against Beijing with Sundays ballot. Many in Hong Kong are worried that the region's semi-autonomous status is being eroded by China. The by-election marked the first time the democratic camp has lost its long-standing veto power via the ballot box. Starry Lee, the leader of the city's largest pro-Beijing party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), said: "The breakthrough in this by-election is a shot of confidence for our supporters and for people who hope Hong Kong can move forward and stop wasting energy with in-fighting." The four seats were previously held by pro-democracy lawmakers who were expelled after they defied Beijing at their oath-taking ceremony. Another two seats are yet to be contested. A man faces off with pro-democracy campaigner Joshua Wong, left, as he and other campaigners gather to support by-election candidate Au Nok-hin Credit: AFP Only 43 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday's vote, lower than the 58.3 percent in 2016's city-wide vote. Some observers say the pro-democracy camp faces difficulties overcoming pro-Beijing politicians as it is not unified. Democrats cover a wide spectrum, from pro-independence activists to more centrist politicians. Britain handed Hong Kong back to Chinese rule in 1997, and freedoms are supposedly protected in the city by the 'one country, two systems' rule. Washington (AFP) - A Republican-dominated House panel announced Monday that its investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election found no collusion by Donald Trump's presidential campaign. "We have found no evidence of collusion, coordination or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians," the majority Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee said in a summary of their report. The panel also rejected the notion that Moscow had specifically attempted to boost Trump's White House effort, a conclusion reached by the country's top intelligence officials in a January 2017 report. The summary expressed "concurrence with the Intelligence Community Assessment's Judgments, except with respect (Russia President Vladimir)to Putin's supposed preference for candidate Trump." The report signaled a move by Republicans on the deeply divided panel to end their year-old investigation, even as committee Democrats, who had yet to see the report, say they need to interview more witnesses. "After more than a year, the committee has finished its Russia investigation and will now work on completing our report," said panel chair Devin Nunes. "We hope our findings and recommendations will be useful for improving security and integrity for the 2018 midterm elections." - Democrats cite White House pressure - Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the panel, said the move came under pressure from the White House, where Trump and close advisors face a separate collusion investigation by the Justice Department's independent prosecutor Robert Mueller. "While the majority members of our committee have indicated for some time that they have been under great pressure to end the investigation, it is nonetheless another tragic milestone for this Congress, and represents yet another capitulation to the executive branch," Schiff said in a statement. "We have learned a great deal about countless secret meetings, conversations and communications between Trump campaign officials and the Russians, all of which the Trump Administration initially denied," he added. Story continues "The majority was not willing to pursue the facts wherever they would lead." The committee has been riven from the beginning. Nunes, a close supporter of the president, sought with some success to turn it into an investigation of the previous administration of Barack Obama, whom he and Trump accused of illegally spying on the Republican's campaign. Nunes was even suspended by Congress for a time for making covert trips to the White House to share materials relevant to the probe. The summary of the committee report turned the focus to the Democrats. It made no mention of the alleged theft and leaks by Russians of embarrassing documents and communications from the campaign of Trump rival Hillary Clinton in mid-2016, which top US intelligence officials have stated as a fact. Instead, it flipped that allegation on its head by claiming that anti-Trump research "made its way from Russian sources to the Clinton campaign." And it criticized the Obama administration for "a lackluster pre-election response to Russian active measures." - Mueller, Senate probes still on - Even if the House probe closes, the Senate Intelligence Committee is still investigating alleged collusion with Russia. The two parties are cooperating more closely there, though the Republicans have made a similar effort to turn attention to the Obama administration. Mueller meanwhile has pushed aggressively, indicting several former top Trump aides as he develops evidence of extensive contacts between the campaign and Russia. He is also investigating whether Trump has tried to obstruct the investigation, and is said to be discussing with White House lawyers whether the president himself will agree to be interviewed. French couturier Hubert de Givenchy, famous for outfitting stars like Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, has died at the age of 91. The news was announced by his partner, Philippe Venet, through the House of Givenchy brand. Venet added that Givenchy died in his sleep Saturday. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Givenchy, who opened his own atelier in 1952 at just 25 years old, was most famous for the "little black dress" worn by Audrey Hepburn in the opening scene of "Breakfast at Tiffanys." The dress sold at a 2006 Christies auction in London for $900,000. His 40-year friendship with Hepburn also landed his iconic looks in the 1957 musical "Funny Face" and 1966 comedy, "How to Steal a Million." Hepburn continued to be Givenchys muse and inspiration behind his first perfume, lInterdit. Givenchys designs were also sought after by the likes of former first lady of the United States, Jackie Kennedy, Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor and Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly. He is credited for introducing mix-and-match separates to womens fashion, and was famous for his impeccable attention to detail. Givenchy moved from his hometown of Beauvais to Paris to study fashion when he was just 17 years old, and learned the craft under fashion greats like Jacques Fath, Robert Piguet and Elsa Schiaparelli. He was also once turned away from the doorstep of Cristobal Balenciaga, a Spanish-born designer whom he looked up to, only to become close friends with him later in life. Even after his brand was sold to the LVMH group in 1988, Givenchy continued to be the head of design until his retirement in 1995. "[Givenchy] was one of the creators who put Paris at the summit of world fashion in the 1950s," LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault said during a tribute to the designer Monday. Givenchy was succeeded in his fashion label by designers like John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and most recently, Riccardo Tisci. The current artistic director of the brand, Clare Waight Keller said in a post on Instagram: "Not only was he one of the most influential fashion figures of our time, whose legacy still influences modern-day dressing, but he also was one of the chicest most charming men I have ever met. The definition of a true gentleman. That will stay with me forever. Story continues RELATED STORIES How Childhood Starvation May Have Led Audrey Hepburn to Maintain Her 110-Pound Frame Paul Newman's Long-Lost Rolex Hits Auction Block, Could Fetch $10 Million Grace Kelly's Granddaughter Stuns in Photo Shoot as She Speaks Out About her Famous Heritage Related Articles: A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Francisco resigned over the Trump administrations handling of a recent immigrant raid in the Bay Area. James Schwab told the San Francisco Chronicle late Monday that administration officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Donald Trump, grossly exaggerated the number of undocumented immigrants who avoided arrest after Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf tipped off the public days before the raid began on Feb. 25. I quit because I didnt want to perpetuate misleading facts, Schwab said. I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didnt agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit. Schwab added that even if there had been no prior warning about the raid, we were not ever going to be able to capture 100 percent of the target list. ICE said 232 people were arrested in the sweep, but claimed the number could have been higher. Efforts by local politicians have shielded removable criminal aliens from immigration enforcement and created another magnet for more illegal immigration, all at the expense of the safety and security of the very people it purports to protect, the agency said in a statement. Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan claimed that 864 criminal aliens escaped arrest, and Trump railed that close to 1,000 people would have been swept up, calling Schaafs warning a disgrace. Sessions accused the Oakland mayor of promoting a radical open-borders agenda. Schwab disputed the claims and told CNN he could no longer bear the burden continuing on as a representative of the agency and charged with upholding integrity, knowing that information was false. Schaaf applauded Schwabs decision. Our democracy depends on public servants who act with integrity and hold transparency in the highest regard, the mayor said in a statement. Sessions escalated the dispute last week by filing a lawsuit against the state of California over its so-called sanctuary cities areas that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Story continues Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) characterized the move as basically going to war against the state of California. The timing is uncanny, as Trump begins his first visit as president to California on Tuesday to check out prototypes for a border wall and attend a Republican fundraiser. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. The San Francisco spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned, saying he could no longer do his job after Trump administration officials repeatedly made false public statements about a recent operation in Northern California. James Schwab said he felt forced to quit his job after government officials, including U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, continued to push the narrative that as many as 800 undocumented immigrants had escaped arrest because a California mayor warned the public about plans for targeted ICE raids, even though he told them the information was inaccurate. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Schwab said he had asked officials to correct the number, which he understood to be significantly lower, but was instead told to "deflect" questions from the media. Trending: Futuristic U.S. Colombia Nuclear Sub Fleet Will Cost $100 Billion GettyImages-492659308 John Moore/Getty "I quit because I didn't want to perpetuate misleading facts," Schwab, 38, said. "I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didn't agree with that. Then, I took some time and I quit." Schwab, who was hired in August 2015 and left ICE last week, said the Trump administration's statements about immigrants escaping arrest were misleading "because we were not ever going to be able to capture 100 percent of the target list," which reportedly includes roughly 1,000 undocumented immigrants in Northern California alone. ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan had accused Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf of "reckless" behavior after she warned residents that she had heard from a number of reliable sources that the immigration agency was planning a "targeted operation." Story continues On the third day of the crackdown, Homan 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. Don't miss: Why Was Big3s Roger Mason Jr. Fired? Former Commissioner Replaced by League Co-Founder Ice Cube Speaking in Sacramento on Wednesday, Sessions said he had learned from Homan that ICE failed to make 800 arrests that they would have made if the mayor had not acted as she did. Those are 800 wanted aliens that are now at large in that community. President Donald Trump added to those claims, alleging that ICE had expected to arrest close to 1,000 people before Schaaf sounded the alarm. The Oakland mayor has continued to defend her decision to alert residents, previously saying she had a "moral obligation" to "protect" her constituents, adding that "Oakland is a city of law-abiding immigrants and families who deserve to live free from the constant threat of arrest and deportation." Schwab said he could not stand behind Trump officials' claim that as many as 800 people had evaded arrest because of Schaaf's actions. I didnt feel like fabricating the truth to defend ourselves against [Schaafs] actions was the way to go about it, he said. We were never going to pick up that many people. To say that 100 percent are dangerous criminals on the street, or that those people werent picked up because of the misguided actions of the mayor, is just wrong. Most popular: Ihop Manager Apologizes After Waiter Told Black Teenagers to Pay Before Eating The former spokesperson, who has previously worked with the U.S. Department of Defense as a staff coordinator and public affairs specialist, as well as with NASA's Ames Research Center as a Public Affairs Officer, said the lack of transparency at ICE made it impossible for him to continue to do his job. Its the job of a public affairs officer to offer transparency for the agency you work for. I felt like we werent doing that, he said. Ive never been in a situation when Ive been asked to ignore the facts because it was more convenient. It was my first time being asked to do that. Read more: ICE agents frustrated by Trump using agency as "political pawn" to push anti-immigration agenda, former official says ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Newsweek. The agency confirmed Schwab's resignation to The Chronicle, but would not discuss specifics. Schaaf said she commends Schwab for "speaking the truth while under intense pressure to lie." "Our democracy depends on public servants who act with integrity and hold transparency in the highest regard," the Oakland mayor told The Chronicle. The targeted ICE operation called Keep Safe was launched on February 25 shortly after President Donald Trump threatened to pull immigration agents out of California over the state's sanctuary city situation. ICE said it arrested as many as 232 undocumented immigrants across northern California in the sweep. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek Over 20 years ago, more than 20 young peoples were honored this title.In 2017, the winners were chosen from a list of 135 nationwide nominees, including:1. Dinh Quang Hieu (19 years old), from the University of Science under the National University of Hanoi, won the gold medal at the International Chemistry Award for two consecutive years and received certificate of merit of the Prime Minister in 2016.2. Dr. Vu Bich Ngoc (32 years old) from Laboratory of Stem Cell Research and Application, University of Science under National University of Ho Chi Minh City earned the Golden Globe Award 2017 in the fields of science and technology.3. Pham Huy (18 years old) from the High school of Quang Tri town received certificate of the Ministry of Educational Training in 2017, won the second prize of the provincial level science and technology contest and was the winner of the 2017 National Science-Technology Competition 2017.4. Vu Van Binh (29 years old ) from Viettel Telecom Corporation, who was presented certificate of the Central Executive Committee of Communist Youth Union and certificate of the Ministry of Defense.5. Nguyen Khoi (27 years old), a founder - CEO of Wefit who became one of 16 outstanding young creative start-up citizens of Hanoi capital in 2017, listed top three start-up potential people in 2016 at the StartUp Festival and top ten excellent young start-up people 20176. Lieutenant Pham Van Dan (35 years old), Head of the Criminal Police Department (the Hai Duong Provincial Police), received the Third class Feat Order and certificate of the Director of Hai Duong Provincial Police.7. Lieutenant To Hong Thai (33 years old) from PH78 Battalion of the fifth Military Region of Vietnam People's Army received certificate of the Provincial People's Committee for his outstanding achievements in the campaign of " Green- Clean Nice Sunday".8. Doctor Nguyen Van Hieu (28 years old) from Health Center of Muong Nhe district, Dien Bien province actively joined in social activities although the doctor and his wife have suffered illness.9. Track & field athlete of Ho Chi Minh City Le Tu Chinh with age of 22 was one of Vietnams ten outstanding athlete and was honored the title of The 2016 Outstanding young citizens.10. Tran Minh Chau (14 years old) from Marie Curie Hanoi School who is an excellent student of the Vietnam National Academy of Music; and she respectively won the first prize at the International Competition Pianotalents Milano, the gold medal at the Asia International Piano Academy and Korean festival, the third prize at International Rosario Marciano in Vienna, Austria and the second prize at the International Piano Competition in Hanoi BY BICH QUYEN- Translated by Huyen Huong By Steve Holland SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump toured the U.S. border with Mexico on Tuesday and examined eight styles of walls, prototypes for the barrier he promised to build to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs. The Republican president brought a tough message on immigration to California during his first visit as president to the heavily Democratic state that has served as a base of resistance to many of his policies. Standing beside the prototypes, as U.S. border patrol agents rode nearby on horseback, Trump discussed the merits of various designs with border officials, his chief of staff John Kelly and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. "The border wall is truly our first line of defence," Trump told reporters. Trump has asked the U.S. Congress for $18 billion to build the structure, but the funding has become ensnared in controversy over a host of immigration restrictions he and Republicans have proposed. On the other side of the border, in Tijuana, Mexico, residents laughed off the idea that the monolithic slabs will stop desperate immigrants. "The wall is just a waste of money. People will continue to cross, here, there, and everywhere," said Salome Pacheco. SANCTUARY CITIES During his visit, Trump took aim at so-called "sanctuary cities" in California - local governments that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials seeking to deport illegal immigrants. He renewed complaints that Los Angeles, San Francisco and other major cities are providing protection for illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. At Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, Trump said sanctuary cities nullify federal law and violate the U.S. Constitution. "They shield criminals. You can't do that," he said. Last week, Trump's Justice Department filed a lawsuit accusing California of violating the U.S. Constitution and putting federal agents in danger by approving laws protecting illegal immigrants. Story continues California Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law last October that prevents police from inquiring about immigration status and curtails law enforcement cooperation with immigration officers. Brown, who accuses the Trump administration of waging war on the country's most populous state, has said the law was crafted with input and support from California police. Trump also slammed Brown for high state taxes, saying Brown "has done a very poor job running California." Ahead of the trip, an immigration official in Northern California resigned, accusing the Trump administration of making misleading statements about a four-day raid in February to arrest illegal immigrants in Oakland. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said a public warning from Oakland's mayor helped more than 800 people evade arrest. But James Schwab, who quit his job as regional spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department, said he believed the number was much lower. "I quit because I didn't want to perpetuate misleading facts," he told the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. After his San Diego stop, Trump will travel to Los Angeles to headline a political fundraiser in Beverly Hills. A Republican Party official said the fundraiser would net $5 million for Trump's prospective 2020 re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee. (Reporting by Steve Holland; additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz and Delphine Schrank in Tijuana, Mexico; Writing by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Lisa Shumaker) The Hague (AFP) - Dutch top bank ING said Tuesday it has dropped a plan to massively hike its chief executive's pay package after protests from shareholders, the public and even the prime minister. "We realise we have underestimated the public response in the Netherlands on this clearly sensitive matter," ING supervisory board chairman Jeroen van der Veer said in a statement. On Thursday, ING unveiled plans to raise Ralph Hamers' salary by 2.2 percent -- and give him "fixed shares with a value equal to 50 percent of gross base salary". The bank gave no figures, but Dutch newspapers reported that together with a 16 percent bonus, it would push Hamers' annual income to over three million euros ($3.7 million), highlighting the fact that other ING staff were only awarded a 1.7 percent pay rise. Prime Minister Mark Rutte weighed in Friday, calling the proposed raise "excessive" and "unwise". Politicians including Rutte have sought to restore public confidence in the banking sector after the 2008 financial crisis badly shook the Dutch economy. ING itself went through deep restructuring following a 10 billion euro government cash injection in October 2008 during the height of the banking crisis. Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra welcomed ING's move Tuesday, calling it "a sensible decision", according to the ANP news agency. ING had previously defended the proposed salary increase by saying that it would bring the CEO's remuneration more in line with the bank's European peers. ROME (Reuters) - The leader of Italy's 5-Star Movement said on Tuesday the anti-establishment party would put forward an expansive economic policy and aim to reduce debt if called to form a government. 5-Star emerged as Italy's biggest party from a national election on March 4, behind a center-right coalition, but neither group got enough seats to form a working majority. "We need to adopt expansive economic policy, but with a view to reducing the debt," the movement's leader and aspiring prime minister Luigi Di Maio told foreign reporters. Italy has the second-highest debt in the euro zone as a proportion of output, after Greece. Di Maio said he thought there was flexibility to change the parameters of the European Union's economic rules, an aim it shares with the far-right League, which leads the center-right. Di Maio added that 5-Star "wants nothing to do with extremist parties in Europe." (Reporting by Gavin Jones, writing by Isla Binnie) TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a South Korean representative on Tuesday he wants talks with North Korea, called to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile programs, to resolve a dispute over past abductions of Japanese citizens as well. "A resolution of the abduction, nuclear and missile issues is Japan's core policy," Abe told South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon in Tokyo. "North Korea must match its words with actions," Abe said at the start of a meeting to discuss planned talks between the two Koreas and between Pyongyang and Washington. Tokyo's insistence on including discussion of the abductions of its citizens by North Korean agents could cause friction between Japan, South Korea and the United States if Seoul or Washington were willing to cut a denuclearisation deal with Pyongyang separate from any abduction agreement. North Korea admitted in 2002 it had kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies, and five of them returned to Japan. Tokyo suspects that hundreds more may have been taken. Suh urged Japanese cooperation but did not specifically mention the abduction issue. "Cooperation between the leaders of South Korea and Japan is important for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and the resolution of the missile issue," Suh said. Pyongyang's professed desire to abandon nuclear weapons was significant because it came directly from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he said. Suh told reporters after the meeting that Abe had pledged to provide all cooperation for successful summits between the two Koreas and between the United States and North Korea. He met Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono on Monday and said after those talks Japan and South Korea had agreed to keep up maximum pressure on North Korea to force it to abandon its nuclear and missile ambitions. A South Korean presidential Blue House spokesman later said Kono told Suh that the change in the situation on the Korean peninsula was a near "miracle". U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to meet North Korea's Kim by the end of May. South Korean President Moon Jae-in also plans to hold a summit with Kim by the end of April. Abe, who asked Trump for help to resolve the abduction issue in a telephone call after the announcement of planned talks, has said he plans to travel to the United States next month to meet the U.S. leader. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Additional reporting by Kyung Hoon Kim and Heejung Jung; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Paul Tait) TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and South Korea agreed on Monday that maximum pressure must be maintained on North Korea until it takes concrete action toward addressing concerns about its nuclear weapon and missile programs, Japan's foreign minister said. "Japan and South Korea agreed we will continue to apply maximum pressure on North Korea until it results in concrete action," the minister, Taro Kono, told reporters, after talks with South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon. Kono declined to say what that concrete action should be or whether Japan had softened its position on action as a prerequisite for talks. U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by the end of May. South Korea's President Moon Jae-in also plans a summit with Kim by the end of April. Kono also said Japan would be willing to provide money for International Atomic Energy Agency inspections if needed. He said Japan would work closely with the United States and South Korea including on solving the issue of Japanese citizens abducted in the past by North Korea. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Robert Birsel) By Leika Kihara and Takashi Umekawa TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso was preparing to skip a Group of 20 finance leaders' gathering in Buenos Aires next week, officials said on Tuesday, with the minister fighting to survive a cronyism scandal that has paralyzed parliament. Premier Shinzo Abe and Aso, his close ally, are under pressure over the finance ministry's admission that it had altered records of a discounted sale of state-owned land to a school operator with ties to Abe's wife. The suspicion of a cover-up has rocked the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and could dash Abe's hopes of winning a third term as party leader at a vote in September. Losing the party leadership would ruin Abe's chances of becoming Japan's longest-serving premier. Opposition lawmakers are calling for Aso to step down to take responsibility, and some analysts believe his resignation could be inevitable. When asked whether he may skip the G20 on March 19-20, Aso told reporters on Tuesday the decision will depend on the "present parliamentary situation". "It is important to fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation. To prevent a recurrence, we'll continue to look into the matter and do the utmost to regain (public) confidence," Aso said, signaling his intention to ride out the storm. The scandal has already caused a stalemate in parliament, with opposition parties threatening to boycott a debate on next fiscal year's budget, potentially delaying reforms to boost long-term economic growth. "It will probably be difficult for the finance minister to travel overseas at this time," an LDP lawmaker said on condition of anonymity. Other government and ruling party officials also said Aso was likely to stay home, and let Masatsugu Asakawa, Japan's top financial diplomat, attend the G20 meeting in his place. The logjam in parliament could also leave two Bank of Japan deputy governor posts vacant when the incumbents' terms end on March 19, as the appointments need lawmakers' approval. "The firestorm surrounding the cover-up and the land sale will continue to inhibit the administration's ability to move its agenda through the Diet," said Tobias Harris, vice president at Teneo Intelligence, a global advisory firm. With global fears of a potential trade war set to be discussed at the G20 in Buenos Aires, Aso's absence would be further evidence of the hindrance the scandal has become for Abe's government. RISK TO ABE On Monday, Aso blamed bureaucrats for the suspected cover-up. But in a rare move, several ruling party heavyweights have openly criticized Abe over the scandal and warned that politicians - not just bureaucrats - need to take responsibility. A survey by the Sankei daily showed 71 percent of respondents said Aso should resign, while support for Abe's administration slid 6.0 points from February to 45 percent. "Aso said he would not ... resign to take responsibility for the cover-up. But this approach is unlikely to work for long," said Harris of Teneo Intelligence. Aso leads a powerful faction within the LDP, and if he is forced to resign and feels betrayed it could erode Abe's chances of winning another term, analysts say. While few analysts at this point are predicting the scandal could lead to Abe's downfall, some say it could impair the prime minister's focus on the pro-growth, reflationist economic policies that have become a hallmark of his government. Japan's economy is enjoying its longest run of growth in 28 years, thanks to robust global demand and capital expenditure. The scandal has weighed on markets, though the Nikkei share average <.N225> managed to rise 0.66 percent on Tuesday. The yen held firm against the dollar, as the scandal raised doubt about Abe's ability to pursue economic policies that have kept the yen weak. "If Aso resigns, that would give Aso's political faction a freehand, making the LDP leadership race in September extremely fluid. In the worst case, Abe may not make it for the third term," said Hidenori Suezawa, analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities. "If Abe goes, Abenomics will go back to square one." (Reporting by Leika Kihara and Takashi Umekawa, additional reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) Jason Freeman, the man claiming to be the grandson of Charles Manson, has been granted the remains of the convicted killer, four months after his death. Mansons body has been the subject of a legal battle with numerous people contesting they should be given the body, including Freeman, another man claiming to be Mansons long lost son and a prison pen pal. A Bakersfield, California, county court commissioner ruled Monday that Freeman is hereby determined to be the surviving competent adult next of kin of the decedent, reports Bakersfield.com. Trending: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reboot Just Needs Joss Whedon, Says Fox Head Kern County commissioner Alisa R. Knight added that, No sufficient probative evidence was provided to this court to refute Freeman's claim." Charles Manson Reuters Freeman claims to be the son of Mansons son, Charles Manson Jr., who later changed his name to Jay White to avoid association with Manson. White died by suicide in 1993. According to the report, Freeman said he had gotten to know his long-lost grandfather over the last eight years of his life and deemed the killer a kind, giving person. Don't miss: Five Reasons Why Trump Fired Rex Tillerson Freeman faced opposition for Mansons remains from Michael Channels, who reportedly exchanged letters with the imprisoned killer for two decades. Channels claimed that Manson left him his entire estate in a will, parts of which were deemed illegible by Knight. Michael Brunner, the son of Manson Family member Mary Brunner, also tried to claim the body, alleging to be Mansons son. Manson was imprisoned for life without parole for his role in the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders in August 1969. Manson was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder after his followers killed seven people in a two-day spree, including pregnant actor Sharon Tate. 11_20_SharonTate_01 (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) Story continues Most popular: Closing the House Intel Committees Trump-Russia Investigation Is a Cover-Up, Stain: Former Attorney General Eric Holder In November, Freeman, an oil rig worker, told People that he had never met Manson during the killers incarceration at Corcoran State Prison in California but had spoken to him on the phone. He kept asking me what I wanted. What do you want from me? I said, I just want to get to know my grandfather, said Freeman. Freeman also said that Manson believed his hands are clean of the horrific murders committed by his followers in August 1969 because he was not physically involved in the killing spree. He specifically said he did not kill Sharon Tate [who was pregnant at the time] or anybody in that house. He would never hurt a human with a baby inside of them, said Freeman. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek The Daily Beast YouTubeThe last text Gabby Petito sent before she went missing while road-tripping across the U.S. with her fiance set off alarm bells for her mother, who became fearful for the 22-year-olds safety after receiving the odd message.Thats according to a newly-unsealed search warrant giving North Port, Florida, police permission to search a hard drive investigators found in Petitos white van, which she and Brian Laundrie, 23, had been using to tour the countrys national parks.The text message Federal funds will flow to local jurisdictions that want to put more cops in schools under a new plan announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday. As part of a plan announced in response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last month, the Justice Department will prioritize grant money to local law enforcement agencies that want to add school resource officers. The Justice Department included the news in a package highlighting recent initiatives aimed at preventing school shootings. No child should have to fear going to school or walking the streets of their neighborhood, Sessions said in a statement. We are increasing the number of school resource officers, improving background checks and more aggressively prosecuting those who illegally attempt to purchase a firearm, and reviewing and enhancing the way our law enforcement agencies respond to tips from the public. The funds would come out of existing grants issued by the Justice Departments Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) office. But critics say that theres scant evidence the actions will actually make schools safer, and civil rights leaders fear that additional school resource officers will actually make schools less safe for students of color. The decision to funnel more money into the militarization of our schools and policing of young people is really problematic, Kaitlin Banner, deputy project director at the liberal nonprofit Advancement Project, told HuffPost. When states or the federal government encourage school districts to increase the presence of police in the schools, the officers end up mostly in schools that serve children of color, who bear the brunt of the tougher security policies, she said. Were similarly concerned about bringing more guns and weapons into the school environment, Banner said. There is no evidence that school cops also called school resource officers deter school shootings. In 2013, the Congressional Research Service studied the issue as policymakers pressed for more school officers after the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut. The research found that, while school cops can bring a few tangible benefits to schools, they could also have a devastating effect on the lives of vulnerable children by increasing the numbers of school arrests. Overall, the report lamented the lack of rigorous research on how officers affected schools as their hiring drained funding. Story continues Schools with security officers are more likely to see facilities regularly patrolled and have emergency plans in place. But these schools are also more likely to refer students to local law enforcement, even for minor misbehaviors such as vandalism. This means that adolescent transgressions that would have previously been met with a detention or suspension could suddenly involve court appearances and a criminal record. In some cases, too, students have been subject to police brutality. Previous HuffPost reporting found that school police officers used Tasers on children at least 87 times from 2011 to 2016. Sessions plan is unacceptable and will harm our children especially children of color, Vanita Gupta, CEO of the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights, said in a statement. This administration has shown an open hostility to childrens civil rights and this plan takes that to the next level. Instead of meaningful solutions that would keep children safe, said Gupta, former head of the Justice Departments civil rights division, like increasing safety restrictions and limitations on gun purchases and providing more school counselors, this plan will overpolice children and militarize schools. It must be scrapped. When it comes to arming teachers, groups ranging from school cops to teachers unions vehemently reject the idea. Civil rights leaders also worry about what arming teachers will mean for students of color, in addition to their concerns about placing more officers in schools. Once again, we are reminded that Attorney General Sessions is a very real danger to children, especially black children, Latino children, Muslim children, immigrant children and children with disabilities, said Liz King, a senior policy analyst and director of education policy at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. As part of the the plan announced Monday, the Justice Department will separately prioritize lie-and-try cases, in which would-be gun purchasers lie on a federal form they fill out as part of the background check. In the past, the Justice Department hasnt prioritized cases in which a person unsuccessfully sought to purchase a weapon. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. The Justice League has a rooftop meeting with James Gordon in Justice League. (Photo: Warner Bros.) Battered by pre-release drama and disappointing box-office numbers, Justice League limps onto Blu-ray today in a version that wont satisfy the vocal horde of Zack Snyder fans insisting that the directors original vision can and should be revealed to the world. Instead, Warner Bros. is standing by the hybrid theatrical cut, which mingles Snyder sequences with new material overseen by his replacement, Joss Whedon, who receives co-screenwriting credit. The reality is that for now at least a Snyder cut of Justice League isnt a viable proposition, thanks to the movies underwhelming reception, as well as suggestions that the director departed the project before he had a rough, let alone final, version. But that likely wont stop the die-hard Snyder cut truthers more than 175,000 of whom have signed a Change.org petition demanding a directors cut from believing the truth is somewhere in the Warner Bros. vault. And a pair of brief, deleted scenes included on the Blu-ray, along with on-set photos recently leaked by Snyder himself, may give them some ammunition. Labeled The Return of Superman, these excised clips, which have a combined runtime of just under two minutes, appear to have been part of Snyders phase of the shoot. How can we tell? Just look at Henry Cavills mouth. Many noted that the actors upper lip looked strange in the theatrical cut, a side effect of the Whedon-helmed reshoots where the VFX team had to digitally erase a mustache that Cavill had grown for his role in Mission: Impossible Fallout at superfast speeds. In these scenes, though, his gums are flapping normally, which would imply that Snyder was behind the camera. Clark Kent explores the Fortress of Solitude in a deleted Justice League scene. Note the black Superman suit in the background. (Photo: Warner Bros.) Theres more evidence of Snyders touch on display in the first of the two clips, a wordless sequence would chronologically occur after Clark Kents resurrection. Snyder killed off the Man of Steel in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, when his rumble with the Dark Knight turned into a three-pronged battle pitting Superman, Batman (Ben Affleck), and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) against Doomsday. The latter two titans survived and spearheaded an initiative to form the Justice League and revive their fallen colleague in time to fight an invading alien army headed up by Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds). But Superman doesnt have the easiest re-awakening; once hes ambulatory again, he turns his fury on his supposed superfriends in a fight that ends only semi-happily because Lois Lane (Amy Adams) shows up and Clark promptly whisks her off to a Kansas cornfield. Story continues At the top of the deleted Return of Superman scene, Clark enters the Fortress of Solitude first glimpsed in Man of Steel, still wearing the same ensemble he had on when surrounded by stalks of corn. Walking though the ships deserted passageways, he passes by a piece of military armor from his exploded home world, followed by a black version of the Superman suit made famous in the pages of The Death and Return of Superman story arc from the comic books. Clark then pauses in front of a glowing compartment, and looks quizzically at whats inside, before the scene cuts away to a door that slowly opens to reveal the Last Son of Krypton clad in a more brightly hued version of his familiar blue-and-red costume. The deliberate pace of this scene further emphasized by the occasional use of Snyder-patented slow motion previously seen in 300 and Watchmen reflects the directors specific aesthetic, which continually strives to bring a graphic grandeur to comic-book cinema and intermittently achieves it. Superman officially returns in Justice League. (Photo: Warner Bros.) The second deleted scene, on the other hand, highlights Snyders not-exactly-subtle sense of humor. Opening on a glass of scotch that starts vibrating Jurassic Park-style, thanks to Supermans faster-than-sound flying, the camera pulls back to reveal Alfred (Jeremy Irons) tinkering with a piece of Bat-tech just as a costumed Clark touches down, en route to joining the Leagues final battle with Steppenwolf. Im assuming youre Alfred, he remarks. Master Kent, Bruce Waynes manservant replies. They said youd come. Now lets hope youre not too late. (When this scene was first glimpsed in a trailer that played at last years Comic-Con, it didnt show that Superman was the hero Alfred was talking to, leading some to speculate that Green Lantern would be joining the fight instead.) Superman, from a Justice League deleted scene. (Photo: Warner Bros.) With the official release of these two sequences, we have small pieces of the puzzle that could potentially be used to assemble the for now mythical Zack Snyder cut of Justice League. But theres still lots of material missing, like those scenes of Victor Stone (Ray Fisher) before his cyborg makeover, and a cameo by Kiersey Clemons, who plays the Flashs eventual love interest, Iris West (and is expected to reprise the role in the upcoming standalone film Flashpoint). While Snyder hasnt commented publicly on the fan push for his version to see the light of day, his recent social media history includes reportedly liking a tweet about Whedon breaking up with his planned Batgirl film and posting black-and-white, behind-the-scenes set photos on Vero. Getting the studio to invest in a full-scale release, however, might take a hero even stronger than Superman. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Watch: Joaquin Phoenix could have been Batman in the aborted Year One movie: ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakhstan has effectively outlawed a political movement created online by an exiled opponent of Nursultan Nazarbayev, after it called for street protests against the country's long-term president. Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former chairman of Kazakhstan's biggest bank who now lives in France, has attacked Nazarbayev via Facebook and other social networks, and used the same platforms to recruit supporters inside the oil-rich Central Asian nation. A Kazakh court ruled on Tuesday that his political movement, Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK), is extremist, meaning its supporters are considered criminals, the prosecutor general's office said in a statement. The movement says it has a membership of around 80,000, predominantly inside Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev, who has run the former Soviet republic since 1989 and routinely wins elections with more than 90 percent of the vote, appointed Ablyazov energy minister in the 1990s, but their relations soured in the 2000s. Kazakhstan authorities say the exiled businessman instigated and bankrolled a series of protests across the country in 2016 that forced Nazarbayev to delay an unpopular land ownership reform. They also accuse Ablyazov, who a French court ruled against extraditing in 2016, of embezzling billions of dollars from BTA, the bank he used to run. Kazakhstan has indicated it may also press charges of murder against him. Ablyazov, who has denied any wrongdoing, did not reply to a request for comment on Tuesday. DVK responded to the court ruling by urging its supporters to protect their anonymity online. (Reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by John Stonestreet) Paris (AFP) - The British government believes a "Novichok" Russian nerve agent was used for the attempted assassination of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter on March 4. Here's what we know about the chemical weapon. - What is it? - Novichok -- or "newcomer" in English -- refers to a group of powerful and deadly chemical compounds reportedly developed by the Soviet government in the 1970s and 1980s, some of which were adopted by the Soviet army in 1990. Almost everything in the public domain comes from Russian defectors who revealed the existence of the secret weapons programme in the 1990s, including a former chemist who wrote a book about them. The Novichok agents are believed to have been created by Soviet authorities at the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology. The aim appears to have been to circumvent international conventions banning chemical weapons by developing compounds with new structures that would escape detection, experts say. "The exact science and mode of action of Novichok agents is not fully understood at this point as these are the 'newest' class of nerve agents," said Michelle Carlin, a specialist at Northumbria University in northern England. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared in September that Russia had eliminated all of its declared chemical weapons. - How would a Novichok agent have been used? - The British government has not revealed how the nerve agent was administered to the Skripals, but a Russian whistleblower said it would have "probably" been deployed in an aerosol. The agent is an ultra-fine powder, made up of several components that would have been mixed safely by the assassin or assassins beforehand. "It can be delivered in many ways but it was probably given in an aerosol can," Vil Mirzayanov, a defector from the programme, told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper. The Skripals were found poisoned on a park bench in the city of Salisbury after visiting a pub and restaurant. Story continues British authorities urged anyone who had visited the same places to wash their clothes and possessions afterwards, suggestion a large area could have suffered low-level contamination. - How does Novichok work? - All nerve agents, such as the better known VX and Sarin as well as the Novichok chemicals, attack the informational loop in the body between the brain and muscles. The brain sends impulses through the nervous system to control muscles around our bodies using a chemical called acetylcholine. This is known as a neurotransmitter. Once the message is passed on to the muscle by acetylcholine, leading to a contraction and a movement, an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase breaks down the transmitter and the muscle then relaxes. A nerve agent inhibits the work of this enzyme, meaning that muscles become uncontrolled, leading to spasms and excessive salivation initially, before paralysis and ultimately death through asphyxiation or heart failure. - How is Novichok different? - The main difference appears to be its strength, which experts believe to be several times stronger than VX and Sarin. "This is a more dangerous and sophisticated agent than sarin or VX and is harder to identify," said Gary Stephens, a pharmacology expert at the University of Reading near London. Mirzayanov, the defector, said it was "at least 10 times more powerful than any known nerve agent. Plus practically it is uncurable." He told the Daily Mail: "These people are gone -- this man and his daughter. Even if they survive they will not recover." The problem for medics treating the Skripals is that they are unlikely to know which treatment to give to counter-act the nerve agent and restore the enzyme and normal muscle functions. "Clinicians may have had to make an intelligent guess," added Alastair Hay, a professor and specialist at the University of Leeds in England. A policeman who found the Skripals was treated in intensive care afterwards, but is now able to sit up and speak. - Has Novichok ever been used before? - Speaking to the British parliament on Monday, Prime Minister Theresa May said Russia was known to have used Novichok before but she gave no more details. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported one case of a Novichok agent being used in a criminal act in 1995 when assassins killed a businessman and his secretary by contaminating his telephone. The case, if confirmed, would add to questions about whether stocks of the chemical could have fallen into criminal hands via corrupt agents at the research institute during or after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mirzayanov said he found it "unthinkable" that another country or non-state actor could have had access to the chemical weapon or the expertise to manufacture and deploy them. "Only Russia could do this," he said. Other theories that could absolve Russian President Vladimir Putin of responsibility include rogue elements within the security sources carrying out the hit on Skripal without authorisation. Beirut (AFP) - Lebanon on Tuesday released a prominent writer and actor from custody, a judicial source said, after months in detention over allegedly "collaborating" with Israel. A military judge ordered Ziad Itani's release, the source said, after he was arrested in November and accused of "collaborating and communicating" with the neighbouring state. The judge also issued an arrest warrant for a high-ranking female officer accused of framing him, the source said. The former head of a security unit fighting cybercrime, Suzan al-Hajj, was detained for questioning earlier this month over suspicions she had enlisted the help of a hacker to fabricate conversations between the actor and an Israeli woman. Lebanon, which technically remains at war with its southern neighbour, upholds a boycott of Israeli products and of contact with its nationals. In November, the State Security Directorate General said Itani was being questioned "on charges of collaborating and communicating with the Israeli enemy". The actor in his 40s was detained "after several months of monitoring, follow-up and investigations within and outside", it said. Itani had allegedly confessed to having been "tasked to monitor a group of high-level political figures" and their associates. But people close to the actor said his "confession" was extracted under duress, though the authorities have denied the accusation. Itani flashed a "V" sign for victory as he left prison, and broke down in tears as he said he had been "subjected to the greatest injustice" in Lebanon's history. Meeting Itani after his release on Tuesday, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the security apparatus had received "wrong information". A source close to the investigation earlier this month said Hajj was suspected of having framed Itani to seek revenge after Itani shed light on her liking a controversial post on Twitter last year, after which she was demoted. Story continues Itani has shot to prominence in recent years because of a series of comedy plays on Beirut, its customs and the transformations it has undergone in recent decades. The works -- particularly "Beirut Tariq al-Jdideh", which refers to a majority-Sunni neighbourhood of the city -- have been very well-received. Before becoming an actor, Itani worked as a journalist with Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen television channel and with various regional newspapers. London Mayor Sadiq Khan used his keynote speech at SXSW 2018 in Austin, Texas, on Monday to take a powerful stand against hate speech online. Khan, who in 2016 became the first Muslim mayor of a European Union capital, read aloud a sample of the Islamophobic abuse he receives via social media every day. Kill the Mayor of London and you will be rid of one Muslim terrorist, one post said. Deport all Muslims and make London white again, said another. Khan told the audience he wasnt asking for sympathy or wanting to be portrayed as a victim. But he asked: What happens when young boys and girls from minority backgrounds see this kind of thing on their timelines or experience it themselves? We simply must do more to protect people online, he added. Khan later shared video of himself reading the abusive posts: This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Khan, who has repeatedly clashed with President Donald Trump, called out social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, for their role in the proliferation of online hate speech. He said he welcomed that they were finally developing the technology to make the process of reporting and removing hate speech quicker and more effective. But with the skills and resources these companies have at their disposal, I believe its possible to go further and faster, he added. Should social media companies efforts stall, Khan suggested more countries will start to follow or go further than Germany, where sites face tough fines if they do not remove banned content within 24 hours. Khan further chastised governments and lawmakers who have been passively sitting on their hands while the tech revolution has happened around them. Check out Khans full speech below: Related Coverage Sadiq Khan and the End of Islamophobia 6 Rules Of Islamophobia In America How The Muslim Ban Legalized Islamophobia Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Praveen Menon KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday said his opposition alliance could easily win a general election that must be held by August, so long as it was free and fair, but that he expected it to be "terribly dirty". At 92, Malaysia's old political war horse has another shot at the top job, and a win against scandal-tainted Prime Minister Najib Razak would make him the world's oldest premier. It would also bring to an end the 61-year rule of a party that Mahathir helped build, and which has held power since Malaysia's independence from Britain in 1957. "We have a good chance of winning this time because public opinion is very much for us," Mahathir told Reuters in an interview at his office in the administrative capital, Putrajaya. "The only way Najib can frustrate us is by cheating. If it's a free and fair election, we will win hands down." Mahathir was a tough establishment stalwart for decades, the scourge of dissenters who dared to challenge the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). But a scandal over a state-run investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), has brought unprecedented shifts in Malaysia's political forces, and Mahathir now heads an opposition alliance and is seen as the biggest threat to Najib, who has been engulfed in the scandal. Najib denies any wrongdoing over 1MDB, which is at the center of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore. Despite the scandal, analysts and ruling party sources say Najib is confident of election victory, and could hold the polls as early as April. The opposition alliance is concerned, in particular, about plans to redraw the boundaries of more than half of Malaysia's 222 parliamentary constituencies. Critics say the moves are unconstitutional and could skew voting in favor of Najib. "It's going to be a terribly dirty election," Mahathir said, adding that he suspected Najib might derail his plans to stand. "I believe that one way or another he is going to make sure that I cannot contest," Mahathir said, pointing out that the government had delayed the registration of his party, which could affect his campaign. Asked for examples of dirty tricks, Mahathir said his party had found instances of more than 70 people registered as voters from one house and several hundred people with suspiciously similar names on the voter roll. The ruling party fared surprisingly poorly in the last general election in 2013. The opposition, which won the popular vote last time, said the ruling party only sealed victory through fraud. The government rejected that complaint and dismisses fears of rigging this time. Reuters was not able to verify any opposition allegations of fraud. 'PREPARING EXCUSES' Mahathir said a swing by just 10 percent to 20 percent of UMNO's rural, ethnic Malay, Muslim voters would be enough for the opposition to achieve a majority. He said he thought the opposition could win more than 111 seats, or more than half the seats in parliament. "It's not optimistic .... with all these scandals, I think generally people are very much against Najib," he said, referring to 1MDB. The opposition camp won 88 seats in the last election, but that included seats won by the conservative Islamic party Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, which has since left the opposition camp. A spokesman for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, dominated by the UMNO, dismissed Mahathir's chances. "Mahathir Mohamad knows he is going to lose," the spokesman said in a statement, adding that Malaysians could not accept a 92-year-old former dictator. "Mahathir is preparing excuses for the defeat of his ageing alliance of former enemies, many of whom he jailed and who are temporarily working with him now, only out of desperation," he added, referring to Mahathir's warnings of rigging attempts. Last year, Mahathir joined hands with Malaysia's most popular opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, whom he sacked from the role of deputy prime minister in 1998. Anwar was jailed the following year on charges of corruption and sodomy that he says were politically motivated. Mahathir has promised to seek a royal pardon for Anwar if he wins the election and has said he would then step aside and let Anwar be prime minister. "It's not easy for him to agree to my role in the opposition party. It would be his role, except he is in prison," he said. Mahathir said he aimed to keep up his fight against UMNO even if he loses this time. "I will be in my late 90s and physically not as strong. But if I am well enough, I will continue the struggle." (Editing by Robert Birsel) Photo credit: Rex Features From Country Living UK Meghan Markle has attended her first official event with the Queen, just a few weeks before she marries into the royal family. Markle and her fiance accompanied the monarch at a special service to mark Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey. The bride-to-be was dressed in a white/cream Crombie coat by British fashion designer Amanda Wakeley. Photo credit: Getty The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also among the 2,000-strong congregation, alongside the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Anne and the Countess of Wessex. Kate wore a bespoke Chiara Navy Coat from Beulah London for the occasion. Photo credit: Getty Markle's appearance has been described as a 'public acknowledgement' by the Queen of Harry's future wife. It comes after the former Suits star joined Harry and the rest of the royal family for their traditional Christmas Day service in Sandringham. Photo credit: Getty The Queen has been Head of the Commonwealth since 1952. Throughout her reign, the Commonwealth has grown from seven to 53 members and the annual service is the largest inter-faith gathering in the UK. Photo credit: Rex Features This year, the event has embraced the theme of 'Towards a Common Future' to emphasise how the Commonwealth can address global challenges and work to create a better future for all citizens. It included performances by One Direction's Liam Payne and a reflection by Dr. Andrew Bastawrous, an eye surgeon who turned his smartphone into a tool which works to reduce avoidable blindness in developing counties. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. After the service, William, Kate, Harry and Meghan will attend a private reception at the Dean's Yard for those involved in the service. Washington (AFP) - Mike Pompeo, named Tuesday to be US secretary of state, comes from a one-year stint leading the Central Intelligence Agency where he earned Donald Trump's trust delivering the president's daily national security briefings and by toeing Trump's line politically. Pompeo, who replaces Rex Tillerson, brings the discipline of a former standout at West Point, the prestigious US military academy, as well as the political wiles of a four-term member of the House of Representatives, where he served on the controversial Intelligence Committee. AS CIA director he cut a path into Trump's inner circle with ready praise of the president, personally delivering many of the Oval Office's crucial daily intelligence briefings. He echoes Trump's hard line against Iran and North Korea. But, currying the president's favor, Pompeo has also avoided directly contradicting Trump's insistence that Russia did not work to support his election in 2016 -- even though that is what the CIA concludes. "With Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process," Trump said Tuesday. - Meteoric career - Pompeo, 54, has had a meteoric career that leaned heavily on political opportunities that ultimately led him to Trump. Born and raised in southern California, he attended the US Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated top of his class in 1986, specializing in engineering. He served in the military for five years -- never in combat -- and then left to attend Harvard Law School. He later founded an engineering company in Wichita, Kansas, where financial backers included the conservative Koch brothers, oil industry billionaires and powerful movers and shakers in the Republican Party. The Kochs backed his successful first run for Congress in 2010, and energy-related legislation he promoted in his first years in the House of Representatives was seen as very friendly to them. He moved quickly onto the House Intelligence Committee, where, as overseer of the CIA and other agencies, he was privy to the country's deepest secrets. Story continues But he made his name on the special committee Republicans formed to investigate the 2012 killing of a US ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya. It made him a leading voice against Trump's political nemesis, Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state at the time was blamed by Republicans for the deaths. - Promoted a 'vicious' CIA - As director of the CIA, Pompeo has matched the tone of Trump's foreign policy pronouncements. "The CIA, to be successful, must be aggressive, vicious, unforgiving, relentless," he said. He joked about assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which raised fears of a return to the agency's penchant for backing assassinations of dictators not in US favor. He earned the president's trust in the daily national security briefings, where he has readily accommodated the president's aversion to reading long reports by having intelligence staff prepare simple graphic presentations of global risks and threats. When pressed in public, he has said he supports the January 2017 report by the country's top intelligence chiefs that concludes that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential race in an effort to help Trump defeat Clinton. Meanwhile, he has also stomached the president's ugly attacks on the CIA, calling their report on Russia meddling fake news and accusing them of political bias. Beirut (AFP) - Syria's conflict has killed more than 350,000 people, uprooted more than half the population and left much of the country in ruins since it erupted seven years ago. Here are some key statistics: - Victims - The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has recorded the deaths of 353,935 people since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011. Those killed included 106,390 civilians, of whom 19,811 were children and 12,513 were women, according to a toll it released on March 12, 2018. In a country with a pre-war population of 23 million, the United Nations estimates that 6.1 million people have been internally displaced by the fighting. French group Handicap International said on March 12, 2018 that three million people have been wounded in the conflict. This includes 1.5 million who are now permanently handicapped, 86,000 of whom required amputation, it says. - Refugees - The war has forced 5.4 million people to flee Syria, according to the UNHCR. Neighbouring Turkey, the main host country, has taken in more than 3.3 million Syrian refugees. It is followed by Lebanon, which the UN says hosts around one million Syrians -- one in four of the Lebanese population. The Lebanese government says as many as 1.5 million Syrians are in the country. In Jordan, where the UNHCR says it has registered 657,000 Syrians, the government says it is hosting 1.3 million. At least another 246,000 Syrians have taken refuge in Iraq and 126,000 in Egypt, the refugee agency says. - Imprisoned, tortured - In 2017 Amnesty International said Syrian authorities hanged around 13,000 people between 2011 and 2015 at the infamous Saydnaya prison near Damascus. It said a further 17,700 people had died in custody since the conflict began. The Observatory says at least 60,000 people have died from torture or harsh conditions in regime prisons since 2011. The monitor says half a million people have spent time in regime jails since the start of the conflict. Story continues Several thousand have died over the same period in prisons run by jihadists or other rebels, it says. - Economy in ruins - Analysts say the conflict has set Syria's economy back by three decades and devastated its infrastructure. The education and health systems are in ruins. With oil production at its lowest in years, a total halt in phosphate exports and power generation sharply reduced, Syria's economy is on its knees, according to government ministers. In a July 2017 report on the economic and social consequences of the conflict, the World Bank estimated the cumulative losses in gross domestic product at $226 billion, about four times the Syrian GDP in 2010. The World Bank said of the cities taken into account in the report, 27 percent of the housing stock had been damaged, with seven percent of that destroyed and around half the medical and education facilities. "Some 13.1 million people in Syria require humanitarian assistance... with 69 percent of the population estimated to be living in extreme poverty," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) said in 2017. It reported 2.98 million people in hard-to-reach areas, including 419,000 in UN-declared besieged areas. In March 2018 the UN condemned "the deliberate starvation of civilians as a method of warfare" following the publication of shocking images of severely malnourished children in the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta. On February 18 the regime launched a ferocious assault on the enclave where 400,000 inhabitants have lived under government siege since 2013. Tuesday, March 13, 2018 What to watch today Tuesday will bring investors some of the most important economic news of the week. At 8:30 a.m. ET, the latest data on consumer prices will be released, with Wall Street economists forecasting the consumer price index rose 0.2% over the prior month in February. In January, consumer prices rose 0.5% over the prior month. Elsewhere in the economic data, Tuesday morning will also feature the release of the latest small business optimism index from the National Federation of Independent Business, which is expected to hit a new high after having been near record levels since President Donald Trumps election in November 2016. On the earnings calendar, headline results are expected to include Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS), DSW (DSW), and HD Supply Holdings (HDS). Read More Top news Trump halts Broadcom takeover of Qualcomm: President Donald Trump on Monday blocked microchip maker Broadcom Ltd.s (AVGO) proposed takeover of Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) on national security grounds, ending what would have been the technology industrys biggest deal ever amid concerns that it would give China the upper hand in mobile communications. The presidential order reflected a calculation that the United States lead in creating technology and setting standards for the next generation of mobile cellphone communications would be lost to China if Singapore-based Broadcom took over San Diego-based Qualcomm, according to a White House official. [Reuters] Larry Kudlow emerges as Trump pick to replace Cohn: CNBC personality Larry Kudlow has emerged as President Donald Trumps favorite to replace Gary Cohn, the outgoing director of the White House National Economic Council, two people familiar with the matter said. Trump may name Kudlow as his top economic adviser within a day or so, one of the people said. [Bloomberg] General Electric axes top-executive bonuses for first time: General Electric Co. (GE) last year eliminated bonuses for its senior managers for the first time in its 126-year history, saving millions of dollars after losing money in 2017, the industrial conglomerate said on Monday. All but one of its top executives did not receive a bonus, the company said. The changes led to steep declines in compensation and reflected the companys poor results in 2017, according to the companys annual proxy. [Reuters] Story continues Microsoft women filed 238 discrimination and harassment complaints: Women at Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) working in U.S.-based technical jobs filed 238 internal complaints about gender discrimination or sexual harassment between 2010 and 2016, according to court filings made public on Monday. The figure was cited by plaintiffs suing Microsoft for systematically denying pay raises or promotions to women at the worlds largest software company. Microsoft denies it had any such policy. [Bloomberg] For more of the latest news, go to Yahoo Finance Demonstrators march with a border wall sign during a protest ahead of a visit by President Donald Trump in downtown San Diego, Calif., on Monday, March 13, 2018. Trump is headed to the heart of the resistance California, a state that remains the anchor of the U.S. economy even as it has become the forefront of opposition to his presidency. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg Yahoo Finance Originals Meet the front-runner to replace Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein The IRS has $1.1 billion in unclaimed tax refunds from 2014 Tiger Woods still brings ratings gold for golf Elon Musk: Mars will be great, if AI doesnt kill us first Like what you just read? Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. And feel free to share it with a friend! The Morning Brief provides a quick rundown on what to watch in the markets, top news stories, and the best of Yahoo Finance Originals. Moscow (AFP) - Russia on Tuesday slammed Britain's accusations of involvement in the poisoning of a former double agent as an attempt to discredit Moscow and demanded that London give it access to the nerve agent. The Russian foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador to a meeting in Moscow over remarks by British Prime Minister Theresa May that it was likely Russia was behind the poisoning and that London would consider ways of retaliating. "Actions by the British authorities are openly provocative," said a statement by the Russian foreign ministry. "The incident is yet another dirty attempt by British authorities to discredit Russia." "Any threats of sanction measures against Russia will not be left without a response," it said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added that Britain should have sent Moscow an official request about the substance used on its soil. Lavrov demanded to be given access to the substance used to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4, which May said was a powerful nerve agent called "Novichok" developed by the Soviet government. "Through an official note we had demanded access to this substance," Lavrov said, adding that Russia also asked to be informed about the investigation. "Our requests have been denied." He insisted that Moscow was not to blame for the poisoning of the former agent and was ready to cooperate with London. "Russia is not guilty. Russia is ready to cooperate according to the Chemical Weapons Convention, if Britain takes the trouble and condescends to carry out its international obligations according to the same document," Lavrov told a press conference. Russian parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin went as far as to say that the poisoning scandal was a planned attempt to meddle in Sunday's presidential election. "This is a planned action that is a form of influence on the campaign," he was quoted by Russian agencies as saying. "This is meddling in our business, our elections." Story continues Britain's ambassador to The Hague Peter Wilson said London expected Russia to make a declaration to the chemical weapons watchdog OPCW (Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) about how the nerve agent came to be used in Britain. "What we want for the Russians today is to come clean about their chemical weapons programme," he told journalists. Moscow's representative at the OPCW, Alexander Shulgin, said that London should "stop building up hysteria" and declared the ultimatum to provide information by the end of Tuesday "absolutely unacceptable." "We will demand material proof of the alleged 'Russian trace' in this high-profile case," he said at The Hague, according to a foreign ministry statement. By Afolabi Sotunde and Abraham Achirga ABUJA (Reuters) - A Nigerian group that sparked a global campaign for the safe return of schoolgirls kidnapped in 2014 said on Tuesday it would sue the government if it failed to provide answers over a similar mass abduction last month. Islamist militant group Boko Haram took 110 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Dapchi on Feb. 19. and, under a previous administration, it kidnapped 276 girls from the town of Chibok in 2014. "The magnitude of incompetence and carelessness of our government enabled the repeat of the worst abduction tragedy," said campaign group Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG). The campaign group was formed in the wake of the Chibok abduction and it submitted questions about the Dapchi kidnapping to President Muhammadu Buhari's government. BBOG challenged the government over how Boko Haram could have staged the attack, given that the administration and the military say the insurgent group is defeated. They said the Dapchi school was unprotected despite a Safe Schools Initiative set up in 2014 and the military had earlier withdrawn from the town at an unspecified time. The school is located in northeast Nigeria, the heartland of the insurgency. The campaign group also asked why the government said in its initial response to the Dapchi incident that there was no evidence of abduction and why parents were later told more than 70 girls had been returned, information that proved false. "Our questions are premised on the troubling sparseness of information ... by the federal government," BBOG said in a statement. A Nigerian presidency spokesman declined to comment. Boko Haram has killed 20,000 people since 2009 but it no longer holds the large tracts of territory that it did in late 2014. Even so, it conducts raids in remote areas, making it hard for security forces to defend people in areas largely cut off from the rest of the country. If the administration fails to respond within seven days BBOG will sue the government for gross negligence that led to the Chibok abductions, the group's founder, Obi Ezekwesili, told reporters in the capital Abuja. Similar criticisms were leveled by Buhari's then-opposition party at the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan after the Chibok kidnapping. Some Chibok girls have been freed after what security sources say were ransom payments but around 100 are still being held. (Additional reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari sacked the head of an amnesty programme for former militants in the country's oil and gas-producing heartland, amid allegations of graft. Funding of the former Niger Delta militants under the 2009 amnesty has been key to maintaining relative stability in the southern region and preventing attacks on energy facilities in Africa's biggest oil producer. Crude oil sales make up two-thirds of government revenue. But attacks resumed in 2016, contributing to pushing Africa's biggest economy into recession that year as oil production was cut from a peak of 2.2 million barrels per day (mbpd) to near 1 mbpd, Nigeria's lowest level for at least 30 years. Announcing the dismissal of Paul Boroh, a retired senior army officer, Buhari ordered the country's national security adviser to investigate the programme's activities since 2015, "especially allegations of financial impropriety". The announcement came in an emailed statement from the president's spokesman, which gave no details of the allegations. The programme entitles each former militant to a monthly stipend and job training. Boroh is being replaced by Charles Quaker Dokubo, currently Director of Research and Studies at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, a think tank. (Reporting by Felix Onuah; Additonal reporting by Tife Owolabi in Yenagoa; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; editing by John Stonestreet) By Steve Holland and Christine Kim WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - The White House said on Monday it fully expects an unprecedented meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to take place, if North Korea sticks to its promises, even though Pyongyang has yet to comment publicly on the possibility of a summit. A South Korean delegation that visited North Korea last week said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed a wish to meet Trump and South Korea's president to discuss denuclearisation. North Korean media has reported the South Korean visit, but no details of the talks. Asked if the North Korean silence meant there was a chance the meeting between Trump and Kim would not take place, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: We fully expect that it will. The offer was made and weve accepted. North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises and if so the meeting will go on as planned. We are continuing to prepare on a number of levels," she told a regular briefing.Earlier, South Korea said North Korea's silence on summits with both the United States and South Korea was probably due to caution in preparing for the meetings, while U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington expected to hear directly from Pyongyang. "We have not seen nor received an official response from the North Korean regime regarding the North Korea-U.S. summit," said Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman for South Korea's Unification ministry. "I feel they're approaching this matter with caution and they need time to organise their stance." Tillerson said several steps would be necessary to agree the location and scope of the talks. "It's very early stages. We've not heard anything directly back from North Korea but we expect to hear something directly from them," he said during a visit to Nigeria. Tillerson, who has cut short his first trip to Africa as secretary of state to return to Washington on Tuesday, a day ahead of schedule, did not elaborate. Story continues In an unexpected move last week, Trump agreed to hold a first-ever meeting with Kim, which South Korea said would take place by the end of May after a North-South summit in April. News of possible talks has been a dramatic turnaround from fears of war over North Korea's development of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States. Trump made the announcement after the head of a South Korean delegation that met Kim last week said the North Korean leader had committed to denuclearisation and pledged to refrain from nuclear and missile tests. Asked in a Fox News interview due to air on Monday evening whether there was a real possibility of North Korea denuclearizing, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said: "We'll see, as the president often says." But Pence called Kim's offers to cease missile and nuclear testing while not objecting to U.S.-South Korean military exercises "a remarkable step forward" and a result of Trump's tough approach. "He's marshalled unprecedented economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime in North Korea and this breakthrough - and we hope it is a breakthrough - is a result of the strong leadership the president has provided on the world stage," Pence said. Kim and South Korean president Moon Jae-in will meet at the truce village of Panmunjom straddling the Korean border, but a venue for the North Korea-U.S. summit has yet to be decided. CHINA URGES PATIENCE U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster briefed U.N. Security Council envoys in New York on Monday. "We all agreed that we're optimistic about this opportunity but we're determined, were determined to keep up the campaign of maximum pressure until we see words matched with deeds and a real progress toward denuclearization," McMaster said. South Korean U.N. Ambassador Cho Tae-yul, who also attended the McMaster briefing, described the plans for talks with North Korea as a once in a lifetime opportunity. The South Korean officials who met Kim travelled to Washington last week to relay his message and visited China on Monday to brief President Xi Jinping, who urged patience. South Korea's National Security Office chief, Chung Eui-yong, who led the delegation to Pyongyang, will head to Russia on Tuesday, while spy agency chief Suh Hoon met Japan's foreign minister in Tokyo, where he is to speak with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday. In Beijing on Monday, Xi told Chung there was an important opportunity for talks. "At the same time, all sides must exercise patience and be attentive, and show political wisdom, to appropriately face and dispel any problems and interference to resuming the talks process," state media cited Xi as saying. Xi said China looked forward to smooth talks between the two Koreas and between the United States and North Korea and substantive progress in the denuclearisation process and normalisation of ties. Tensions eased as the Koreas held talks against the backdrop of the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month but Japan has expressed scepticism and warned that "talks for the sake of talks" would be unacceptable. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said after talks with Suh Hoon that Tokyo and Seoul agreed that maximum pressure must be maintained on North Korea until it takes concrete action to address concerns about its weapons programmes. Kono declined to say what that action should be, but South Korea's presidential Blue House quoted him as saying that the breakthrough on talks with North Korea was a near "miracle". In Geneva, the U.N. investigator on North Korea told the world body's Human Rights Council that any progress in the nuclear and security dialogue must be accompanied by talks on human rights violations, including political prison camps. "Let me urge the DPRK to consolidate this rapprochement with a parallel opening to human rights review," said Tomas Ojea Quintana, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. North Korea's state media has lauded the thaw in relations with South Korea. It has continued to warn the United States and Japan against war-mongering but its rhetoric has been tame compared with threats exchanged at the height of tensions last year. (Reporting by Christine Kim; Additional reporting by Michael Martina, Ben Blanchard and Lusha Zhang in BEIJING, Paul Cersten in ABUJA, Michelle Nichols in NEW YORK and David Brunnstrom and Eric Beech in WASHINGTON; Editing by Robert Birsel and James Dalgleish) OSLO (Reuters) - A Norsk Hydro plant's spill of waste water in Brazil last month was more extensive than previously reported, and the company still lacks overview of the situation, it said on Tuesday. Authorities in late February ordered Alunorte, the world's largest alumina refinery, to cut output in half until it addressed pollution concerns, leading Hydro to declare force majeure with no time set to restart production. In addition to a previously reported discharge last month into a local river, a company task force has found that spills also took place from a waste-water pond and from inside the plant into a drain canal, Hydro said in a statement. Separately, a local prosecutor has ordered that the company repair, within 48 hours, cracks in a pipeline and that the drain canal must be sealed off, the company said, adding that it will meet this deadline. "The preliminary findings from the internal task force show that we do not have the full overview of the situation and the course of events," Hydro Chief Executive Svein Richard Brandtzaeg said. "I will evaluate the situation thoroughly and revert with more information in due time," he added. By 0907 GMT, Norsk Hydro's shares fell 0.9 percent. Year-to-date the shares are down 18.6 percent. (Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Louise Heavens) Several days after a former Russian spy and his daughter were found catatonic on a bench in Salisbury, England, British, Prime Minister Theresa May revealed that the pair had been poisoned by a rare and highly-deadly nerve agent known as Novichok. The revelation prompted U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to say the poisoning clearly came from Russia. Novichok, he added, is a military-grade agent found only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties. Heres what we know about the agent and why its been described as definitely Russian: Novichok was developed in the Soviet Union in the 1980s The name Novichok, which means newcomer in Russian, applies to a group of military-grade nerve agents that the Soviet Union developed in the 1980s. A senior Soviet chemist and whistleblower Vil Mirzayanov revealed the agents existence in the mid-1990s. In a report he co-wrote for the Stimson Center, Mirzayanov described how the chemicals were developed at the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology in Moscow during the final years of the Cold War. At the time, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were making public pledges to dismantle their existing stockpiles of chemical weapons. Novichok, Mirzayanov said, was developed in secret and designed to be undetectable to inspectors. According to NPR, Novichok is made with organophosphates, commercially available chemicals that are used in fertilizers and pesticides. They possess a different chemical structure to some other nerve agents, though their effect on the human body is said to be the same. Investigators in protective clothing remove a van from an address in Winterslow near Salisbury, as police and members of the armed forces continue to investigate the nerve agent attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripa on March 12, 2018 in Wiltshire, England. (Photo: Matt Cardy via Getty Images) Symptoms of Novichok poisoning can appear almost immediately Novichok, like other nerve agents, work by blocking messages from the nervous system to the muscles. The reason you die from these [chemicals] is very simple, Dr. Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, told LiveScience. If your muscles dont work you cant breathe, and if you cant breathe you eventually die. Story continues The effects of Novichok poisoning on the human body can be almost immediate with symptoms appearing as quickly as 30 seconds to 2 minutes following exposure. Symptoms of Novichok poisoning include constricted pupils, convulsions, drooling and, in serious cases, coma, respiratory failure and possibly death. What to do if youre exposed If a person is exposed to Novichok, their clothing should be removed, their eyes rinsed out and their skin washed with soap and water. Oxygen should also be administered. British health authorities said on Sunday offered guidance to anyone who was in the area where Sergei Skripal, the 66-year-old former Russian spy, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia Skripal, were found incapacitated. Recommendations include washing ones clothes and cleaning ones phone using baby wipes. While there is no immediate health risk to anyone who may have been in either of these locations, it is possible, but unlikely, that any of the substance which has come into contact with clothing or belongings could still be present in minute amounts and therefore contaminate your skin, officials said. Over time, repeated skin contact with contaminated items may pose a small risk to health. A police car being taken away by military personnel from College Street Car Park in Salisbury, as police and members of the armed forces probe the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal. (Photo: Andrew Matthews - PA Images via Getty Images) The agent can take on a variety of forms Novichok can exist as both a liquid and also a powder. According to the BBC, a powdered version of the agent can take longer to act, with symptoms not appearing until as long as 18 hours after exposure. Mirzayanov said some Novichok variants are binary agents, which means they can be stored as two less toxic chemicals that only become hazardous when mixed together. One of the main reasons these agents are developed is because their component parts are not on the banned list, Gary Stephens, a pharmacology expert at the University of Reading, told the BBC. It means the chemicals that are mixed to create it are much easier to deliver with no risk to the health of the courier. Novichok is more toxic and more difficult to identify than other nerve agents. Novichok is believed to be much more toxic than other known nerve agents. In his report, Mirzaryanov said that one variant, dubbed Novichok-5, was five to eight times as deadly as VX, the agent that North Korea allegedly used last year to murder Kim Jong Uns half-brother. This is a more dangerous and sophisticated agent than sarin or VX and is harder to identify, said Stephens. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. It takes special expertise to make Novichok Dan Kaszeta, a U.K.-based chemical weapons expert, told NPR this week that Novichok has long been a deep-dark secret that very few know how to create. As far as I know, I dont know anybody who knows how to make it except these guys in Russia, Kaszeta said, referring to the scientists who developed the weapon. Though the ingredients found in the agent are relatively accessible, turning them into the chemical weapon requires the expertise and equipment typically only found in government-level laboratories, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. With these kinds of substances, they are just so dangerous that no fly-by-night terrorist group is going to cook this up, Andrea Sella, a professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London, told the news agency. The Kremlin has vehemently denied that it was involved in the poisoning attack. On Monday, May gave Russia a 24-hour deadline to explain how the Skripals came to be poisoned on British soil. Moscow responded on Tuesday by demanding samples of the chemical. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Also on HuffPost This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Photo credit: Rex Features From ELLE UK In the lead up to her wedding on 19 May, Meghan Markle's behaviour will be under intense public scrutiny given the fact that Great Britain - nay, the world - continue to fall head-over-heels for the American beauty. Whether it's inspiring our wardrobes, joking with the public, or affectionately holding hands with Prince Harry, the Suits star's recent public appearances have given us much to discuss when it comes to ways we think she's going to shake up the Royal Family. And, following her first official appearance alongside the Queen at yesterday's Commonwealth Day celebration, it seems we're not the only ones interested in Meghan's subtle modernisation of royal wedding etiquette protocol. Photo credit: Getty Grant Harrold, 'The Royal Butler' who previously served Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall as well as Prince William and Prince Harry, just opened up to E! News about Meghan's 'modern approach' to royalty and explained the similarities between her and Princess Diana. On the subject of Meghan hugging members of the public, Harold explains that while it's 'really, really sweet', it's not 'normally' something the Queen would do. And we think it's utterly adorable. 'It's something younger people do,' Harrold continues. 'She's got her own way of doing things... You look at the energy of Princess Diana and she was very much somebody that would hug people. She was famous for it, wasn't she? Photo credit: Getty 'None of the rest of the royal family hugged. It just wasn't the done thing. Now the younger royals, Princes William and Harry, you see them hugging... So it's their way of doing it. They are very much copying what their mother did, which is fantastic.' Photo credit: Getty Hugging members of the royal family has caused quite the stir over the years, despite the fact there are 'no obligatory codes of behaviour when meeting The Queen or a member of the Royal Family', according to the Monarchy's website. Story continues Photo credit: Getty In 2009, Michelle Obama caused controversy by giving the Queen a hug, years after former Australian Prime Ministers Paul Keating and John Howard reportedly were criticised for their supposed over familiarity with the Monarch. However, while traditional forms of greeting such as a 'neck bow' or a 'small curtsy' are the norm, it doesn't seem to be stopping the younger members of the Royal Family from reaching out and showing affection for the public. Photo credit: Getty However, one thing Meghan might need to change when it comes to her interactions with the likes of you and me is how she adapts to her new celebrity lifestyle. Photo credit: Getty Harrold predicts the 36-year-old will 'definitely [be] discouraged' from signing photos of herself for fans, and notes that posing for photographs is 'obviously a big thing' that royals try to steer clear of. Unlike Kate Middleton, Harrold reveals that Markle's background might present some bumps along the way in terms of cultural differences between the UK and the US. 'It's a different way of life,' he remarks, 'a different culture, completely different upbringing. So it's probably more difficult that she's got to learn not just about how to be a royal, but also learn the British way of life.' Photo credit: Getty However, Harold adds that Markle is fortunate to have 'a wonderful sister-in-law who she can speak to, follow her lead and watch how she does it'. We have no doubt Kate will be a helping hand in showing Meghan the ropes. You Might Also Like Investigators in protective clothing more than a week after Sergei Skripa and his daughter were found unconscious - Getty Images Europe The former Russian double agent and his daughter poisoned by a deadly nerve agent will either die or be crippled by their exposure to Novichok, according to the whistleblower who alerted the world to Russias secret chemical weapons programme. Vil Mirzayanov, a chemist who worked at the heart of the Soviet programme, said Russia was the only country able to produce and deploy such a powerful nerve agent, and he warned that many more people may fall ill. It is at least 10 times more powerful than any known nerve agent. Plus practically it is incurable, he said at his New Jersey home on Monday evening. These people are gone the man and his daughter. Even if they survive they will not recover. That is the terrible damage it does. Im afraid many more people were exposed. Dr Vil Mirzayanov first alerted the world to the danger of Novichok nerve agents in 1992 Credit: Rob Crilly He added that he believed the poison used in the Salisbury attack would have been manufactured in Russia as two, harmless components. They would have been brought into the UK and then combined inside a tiny, easily hidden aerosol spray that could be used to deliver a deadly dose and a deliberate demonstration to Moscows enemies around the world. He spoke hours after Theresa May gave Vladimir Putin until the end of Tuesday to explain the use of Novichok or face retaliation. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia have been in hospital in a critical condition since being found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre on March 4. Novichok Mrs May said either Russia carried out the attack or had lost control of its nerve agent. Dr Mirzayanov said even the existence of Novichok, let alone its formulae, had been a closely guarded secret, making it unthinkable that another country or terrorist group had been allowed access or help in its manufacture. Only Russia could do this, he said. They would never give it away. The Russian scientist, who fled his homeland in 1995 and now lives in New Jersey, revealed the existence of the Novichok family of nerve agents in 1992 but said it was still so little understood that it had never been banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Nor had it ever been declared by Russia. Story continues That made it perfect for assassinations, he said, as Russian security forces believed it could not be traced to Moscow. This was the first time it had ever been used, according to Dr Mirzayanov, who added it was most likely weaponised as a spray. It can be delivered in many ways but it was most probably given in aerosol can, he said. It can be small, just 10 grammes would be a lot. In summer maybe just two grammes would be enough to kill 500 people. It would almost certainly have been manufactured in Russia, he added. They can send anywhere through the diplomatic bag, he said. For 26 years Dr Mirzayanov worked for GOSNIIOKhT (the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology or better known in Russian as Goodnight), the Soviet Unions premier military centre for producing chemical weapons. Russian spy poisoned | Profile of Sergei Skripal, the Russian spy who was poisoned in Sailsbury He headed a counter-intelligence unit which monitored the surrounding area to ensure Novichok the Russian for newcomer - or other nerve agents were not leaking out where they could be detected and analysed by foreign spies. He went public about the programme in 1992 after discovering frightening levels of chemicals outside the facility. Dr Mirzayanov was fired and arrested for treason. The subsequent trial collapsed but not before he managed to copy down 60 secret documents submitted in evidence. They formed the basis of a book detailing Russias secret programme written after he was allowed to leave the country. He has lived ever since in New Jersey, where he took a post at Rutgers University. He had no idea his old life was about to intrude when he read about the apparent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Salisbury last week. I never, ever supposed they would use Novichok, he said. Instead he assumed it was VX like that used by North Koreans to kill the estranged half brother of Kim Jung-un in Malaysia. I supposed that there was no necessity to use it. Its more brutal, more painful, he said. But what could be so important that you have to use something this terrible? It was a deliberate demonstration by Vladimir Putin of his power against his enemies. This was a brazen and deliberate demonstration. The agent causes vomiting and convulsions as the central nervous system shuts down, he said. It was developed as part of the Soviet Unions ongoing quest to refine its arsenal of chemical weapons, as scientists tried to find variants with improved stability, rates of reaction and ability to permeate the skin. The University of New Orleans (UNO) was forced to cancel all classes on Monday after a student allegedly threatened to shoot classmates on campus. New Orleans police said they arrested 20-year-old Nicholas Heard on terrorizing charges on Monday morning after he was accused of threatening to attack fellow students on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. University officials cancelled all classes until 5 p.m. and urged staff and students to stay away from campus in response to the threats made on March 11. Students who live on campus had been told to remain in their rooms until Heard was located. Trending: 'Assassin's Creed Origins' DLC: 'The Curse of the Pharaohs' Download Time uno University of New Orleans Ben Franklin High School was also closed on Monday, according to local news website Nola.com. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Heard, who lives on campus in student housing allegedly made "direct threats" against at least two other students, according to a UNO Police Department message sent out to students, faculty and staff. Don't miss: Hearthstone The Witchwood New Expansion: Can You Survive? Authorities have not yet determined a possible motive behind the threats. "We hope this will be brought to a swift and peaceful resolution," UNO had said in a statement on the university's website. "However, until the suspect is in police custody, it is not worth jeopardizing the safety of the members of our university community." Read more: Florida High School 911 Calls Reveal Chaos As Shooter Continues Shooting Rampage It is unclear whether the school's closure will continue on Tuesday now that Heard has been located. UNO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Most popular: Trumps Trade Barriers Arent Impressing The Rust Belt The student's alleged threats come amid an uptick in threats made against schools across the country in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting that saw 17 students and teachers killed last month. Story continues There have been a string of arrests made of students accused of threatening to attack campuses in the U.S. since the shooting. The Educator's School Safety Network (ESSN), which tracks threats made against U.S. schools, said it noticed a significant increase in the number of threats made per day since the February 14 attack. In recent weeks, ESSN said schools had received an average of 50 threats of violence per day, compared with 10 per day at the end of 2017. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek Oskar Groening, former Nazi SS officer dubbed the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz," died last week at the age of 96. (Photo: Reuters) Oskar Groening, a former Nazi SS guard known as the Bookkeeper of Auschwitz, has reportedly died at age 96 without serving a day of his four-year prison sentence for being an accessory to murder. Groening, one of the last Nazi war criminals to face trial for the genocide of Europes Jews during World War II, died in a hospital last week, German media reported. As an Auschwitz guard, Groening had been tasked with sorting through banknotes and other belongings taken from arriving prisoners. He was convicted in 2015 for being an accessory to the murders of 300,000 people. His jail term was delayed, however, by bouts of ill health and appeals. Groenings defense lawyers pleaded for clemency, given his advanced age, but prosecutors in Hanover last year deemed him fit for prison. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Born in 1921 in Lower Saxony in Germany, Groening was raised by his ultranationalist father after his mother died when he was 4 years old. Groening joined the Waffen-SS at the age of 20 and arrived in Auschwitz in 1942. In court, he admitted to sharing moral guilt for crimes at the death camp, but maintained he never personally murdered prisoners. I ask for forgiveness, Groening told the judge during his trial. I share morally in the guilt but whether I am guilty under criminal law, you will have to decide. After WWII, Groening worked in a glass-making factory in Lower Saxony, reported BBC. Decades later, he decided to speak publicly about his experiences during the war becoming one of a very small number of Nazi personnel to do so. Groening said at the time that he had chosen to speak out to persuade Holocaust deniers of the truth. I would like you to believe me. I saw the gas chambers. I saw the crematoria. I saw the open fires, he told the BBC in 2005. I would like you to believe that these atrocities happened because I was there. Legally and symbolically, Groenings trial had profound significance in Germany, where most Nazi officers were never prosecuted for crimes related to the Holocaust. Of the 6,500 former SS members who served at Auschwitz and survived the war, fewer than 50 were convicted. Story continues Groenings trial, noted the Guardian in 2015, went to the heart of the question of whether people who were small cogs in the Nazi machinery, but did not actively participate in the killing of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust, were guilty of crimes. Reacting to news of Groenings death this week, Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said it was unfortunate, at least on a symbolic level that Groening never served prison time. Without at least symbolic justice, these trials as important as they are lose an important part of their significance, Zuroff told the BBC. Their victims never had any appeals, nor did their tormentors have any mercy. Consequently these perpetrators dont deserve either. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. On Tuesday, Eva Mozes Kor, an Auschwitz survivor who made headlines in 2015 for publicly expressing forgiveness of Groening, shared a photograph on Twitter of her and the former SS guard taken during his trial. He testified about his experiences and validated my testimony, she wrote of Groening. He said that he was sorry that he was part of Nazi regime that was important to denounce it! This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah survived an assassination attempt in Gaza on Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority said after an apparent roadside bomb targeted his motorcade. The attack on the Western-backed leader, who is spearheading the Authority's reconciliation efforts with Gaza's dominant group, Hamas, took place as the White House prepared to hold a meeting on the humanitarian situation in the enclave. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for what one Palestinian Authority security official in Gaza said was a roadside bomb. A second device failed to explode, the official said. Six security guards were wounded, Hamdallah said shortly after the attack. Hamas, which condemned the attack, and the Authority said they viewed the incident as an attempt to prevent implementation of a unity agreement signed in October that has raised hopes of improving economic conditions in the territory of 2 million people. Minutes after the explosion, the 59-year-old prime minister, apparently unhurt, delivered a speech at the inauguration of an internationally-funded wastewater treatment plant and pledged to continue to pursue Palestinian unity. He said three vehicles were damaged in the explosion, which blew out the windows of one of them. The blast sent debris hurtling dozens of metres (yards) away and left a crater by the roadside. The Authority said it held Hamas responsible for the attack near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. It stopped short of directly accusing the group of carrying out the assault but suggested it had failed to provide adequate security. "It was a well planned attempt. They planted explosive devices two metres deep," Hamdallah said later in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he is based, without pointing a finger at any group. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas are still divided over how to share administrative power in the Gaza Strip under the Egyptian-brokered unity deal. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 from forces loyal to Abbas. Welcomed back to Ramallah by applause from a crowd of dozens of people, including cabinet ministers, Hamdallah repeated a call to Hamas to hand over control of Gaza's police force and civil emergency services to the Palestinian Authority. "The attack against the government of consensus is an attack against the unity of the Palestinian people," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas. In a statement, Hamas said the targeting of Hamdallah's motorcade was "part of attempts to damage the security of Gaza and deal a blow to efforts to finalise reconciliation". Hamas-led security forces said they had launched an investigation. In a statement from its foreign ministry Egypt condemned the attack and said reconciliation efforts would continue. Those remarks were echoed by Abbas who met with Hamdallah a few hours after the incident, which he described as a "criminal and terrorist, sinful attempt." (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ali Sawafta and Stephen Farrell; Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Richard Balmforth) Donald Trump, George Papadopouolos and Robert Mueller. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP (4), Twitter. George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign and potentially a key witness in special counsel Robert Muellers Russia probe, told federal investigators that before the election, Donald Trump personally encouraged him to pursue a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a new book being published Tuesday. Papadopouloss account to Mueller as reported in Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putins War on America and the Election of Donald Trump, by Yahoo News Michael Isikoff and Mother Jones David Corn contradicts the public accounts of what took place at a critical meeting of Trumps foreign policy team on March 31, 2016. It was at that meeting that Papadopoulos first informed Trump and the then candidates other foreign policy advisers that he had contacts in Britain who could arrange a summit between the GOP candidate and Putin. Although one of the campaign officials present, J.D. Gordon, has said the idea was shot down by then Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Papadopoulos told Muellers investigators that Trump encouraged him, saying he found the idea interesting, according to the book, which cites sources familiar with his questioning by Muellers investigators. Trump looked at Sessions, as if he expected him to follow up with Papadopoulos, and Sessions nodded in response, the authors write. Sessions has said he has no clear recollection of the exchange with Papadopoulos. A White House official said that others at the meeting remember it differently than Papadopoulos. Last fall, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians and became a cooperating witness in Muellers probe. The story of what happened at the only known meeting between Trump and Papadopoulos is one of a number of new details revealed in Russian Roulette about contacts that Trump, his campaign advisers and others had with various Russian figures and their associates during the 2016 campaign. Story continues (The first two excerpts from the book were published last week by Yahoo News and Mother Jones. You can read them here and here.) This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The book chronicles the efforts of Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of Russias central bank and a close Putin ally, and his assistant, Maria Butina, to curry favor with the Trump campaign including their own attempt to set up a Trump-Putin meeting in Moscow. Those efforts began as early as July 2015, when Butina showed up at FreedomFest, a conservative gathering, in Las Vegas, where Trump was speaking. During a Q&A session, Trump called on Butina, who asked him about his stance on Russia and the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration on the country eliciting the first response from the new GOP candidate on an issue that was a top priority of Putins government. I know Putin, Trump replied during the course of a five-minute answer. I believe I would get along very nicely with Putin, OK? I dont think youd need the sanctions. Photo illustration: Yahoo News Later in the campaign, the book reports that two top Trump officials Steve Bannon and Reince Preibus discussed a video of the Las Vegas event and wondered how Butina gained such quick access to Trumps ear. How was it that this Russian woman happened to be in Las Vegas for that event? And how was it that Trump happened to call on her? Isikoff and Corn write. And Trumps response? It was odd, Bannon thought, that Trump had a fully developed answer. Priebus agreed there was something strange about Butina. Whenever there were events held by conservative groups, she was always around. In the spring of 2016, Torshin and Butina who had close ties to the National Rifle Association made a direct play to gain influence with the Trump campaign, floating their own proposal for a Trump-Putin summit during an international conference in Moscow on the plight of persecuted Christians, organized by Franklin Graham. In an email to Trump campaign officials, Rick Clay, a conservative activist, described Torshin as a very close friend of President Putin and encouraged the Trump team to strongly consider the offer. Maria Butina; candidate Donald Trump speaks at FreedomFest in 2015; and Alexander Torshin. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: ITAR-TASS/ZUMAPRESS.com, John Locher/AP, Alexander Shalgin\TASS via Getty Images) Please excuse the play on words, but this is HUGE! Clay wrote, according to a copy of the email that was reviewed by the authors. The optics of Mr. Trump in Russia with Franklin Graham attending an event of over 1000 World Christian Leaders addressing the Defense of Persecuted Christians accompanied by a very visible meeting between President Putin and Mr. Trump would devastate the Clinton campaigns efforts to marginalize Mr. Trump on foreign policy and embolden him further with evangelicals. The then-candidates son-in-law Jared Kushner subsequently sent an email recommending that the campaign pass on this, warning, Be careful. Among other revelations in Russian Roulette: The U.S. government had a secret source inside the Kremlin who warned as early as 2014 that Russia was mounting an ambitious campaign of cyberattacks and information warfare against Western European democracies and the United States. The reports from the source were startling because they spelled out the magnitude of the Kremlins intention to do us harm, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter. The secret Kremlin source also provided stark insights into the contempt that Putin and his senior officials had for President Barack Obama and his administration often expressed in racist terms. In Putins presence, Obama would be called a monkey, and it was not uncommon for the American president to be referred to by the N-word, the book reports. Robby Mook, Hillary Clintons campaign manager, was so concerned about Trumps ties to Russia-friendly advisers that he contemplated an idea to catch the Trump campaign in the act of colluding with Moscow by mounting what he called a honeypot operation straight out of a spy novel. The idea was that the Clinton team would plant a phony story about Clinton in the Democratic National Committees computer system and wait to see if the Trump campaign or its allies made public use of it. If they did, it would prove the Trump campaign was receiving intelligence from the Russian hackers who had infiltrated the DNCs servers. But after Mook floated the idea to Marc Elias, the Clinton campaigns lawyer, they decided it was harebrained and could backfire. President Obama was incredulous when he was first briefed in early January 2017 about the contents of a dossier, prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele, alleging that the Kremlin had a videotape of Trump engaging in sordid sexual behavior with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room. Why am I hearing this? he asked his national security adviser, Susan Rice. Why is this happening? Rice explained that the intelligence community had no idea if the claim was true but that Obama needed to be aware that the allegation was circulating. A few days later, when Vice President Joe Biden was briefed about intelligence reports on contacts between various players in the Trump orbit and the Kremlin, he had a visceral reaction. If this is true, its treason, Biden exclaimed. When then President-elect Trump was handed a two-page synopsis of the Steele dossier, at the end of a U.S. intelligence briefing about Russia, he too had a visceral reaction. Its a shakedown, Trump said, after FBI Director James Comey left the room. Trump believed he was being blackmailed by Comey. The incident, the authors write, may well have planted the seeds for what was later described by one of the most disastrous decisions of Trumps presidency to date: the firing of Comey, a move that led to the appointment of Mueller as special counsel. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: A 22-year-old Binghamton University nursing student, who friends remembered as bright and bubbly, was looking forward to her future before she was found dead in an off-campus home that belonged to a man who was apparently obsessed with her, according to the victims close friend and roommate. Authorities said Haley Anderson, of Westbury, N.Y., was found dead Friday near campus in what they have ruled a homicide. On Monday, Binghamton Police named 22-year-old Orlando Tercero, another nursing student at the school, as a person of interest in connection with the crime. They said Tercero fled the U.S. to Nicaragua prior to the discovery of Haley Andersons deceased body. Anderson and Tercero had been friends for about two years, but Tercero never got over his obsession of her, according to Mishela Topalli, who was Andersons roommate and good friend. We knew he had some fixation on her for sure, Topalli, 21, told TIME on Monday. Even his friends would say so. Mishela Topalli (l) and Haley Anderson Anderson and Tercero were in the same undergraduate nursing program at Binghamton University. The two used to study together and hang out, but they never dated, Topalli said. They hooked up in the past, but to her, it was pretty platonic and she didnt want to have anything seriously, Topalli said. That was actually a while ago, but he never got over his obsession of her. Authorities did not say how Anderson died or disclose any details about the murder. Binghamton Police only said her death was not a random act or involving the conduct of a stranger. Tercero could not be immediately reached. Friends of Anderson said they last saw her two nights before she was found dead. They played board games and drank wine that night. Topalli said she and the other two roommates grew concerned when Anderson stopped responding to them on the phone. Haley Anderson (far right) That was unusual for us. She was always on her phone. Thats when we started to be worried, Topalli said. Police found her body inside Terceros off-campus residence after conducting a welfare check. The nursing students death has left the Binghamton community reeling. In a statement, Binghamton University said the community was deeply saddened over Andersons death. Story continues I dont know why anyone would hurt Haley, Topalli said. She was so alive. She was so bright, so energetic. Anytime she would come into the room, she would always cheer us up. She was so excited about her future, Topalli added. Anderson had also just secured a job as a nurse, which she would have started after graduating this spring, her friends said. She loved people, Topalli said. Any way she could help people, she did. Everything Ive said about her is almost not enough. She in no way deserved what happened to her. By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Two package bombs left outside homes in Austin, Texas, exploded on Monday, killing a teenager and injuring two women in attacks that police linked to a deadly blast earlier this month. The latest bombings came as the Texas capital hosted its annual South by Southwest music, technology and film festival downtown. The victims in all three cases were African-American or Hispanic, and police said they were examining the attacks as possible hate crimes. In each of the three attacks, a cardboard package was left at the front of a private residence and exploded after an unwitting victim picked it up or tried to open it, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told reporters. The packages that exploded on Monday were not delivered by any mainstream commercial shipping services, such as Federal Express or United Parcel Service, Manley said. "We are looking at these incidents as being related," Manley said, adding that federal investigators had joined the search for suspects and a possible motive. "We cannot rule out that hate crime is at the core of this, but we are not saying that that is the cause," Manley told a news conference. He warned residents to watch out for boxes left outside their homes and to report anything suspicious to police. The first explosion, on March 2, killed a 39-year-old black man at a house in the city's Harris Ridge neighborhood, which is home to technology companies and about 12 miles (19 km) northeast of downtown. The blast was powerful enough to blow out walls at the home's entryway. A 17-year-old African-American boy died on Monday when he found a package outside his house in east Austin and brought it into the kitchen of his home, where it exploded, Manley said. A woman in her 40s was in the home and injured by the blast, although she was expected to survive, police said. A second explosion, about 4 miles (6 km) away in southeastern Austin, injured a 75-year-old woman in the predominantly working-class Hispanic community of Montopolis, police said. A neighbor, Brandon Rendon, told Reuters the victim was in a wheelchair watering her grass before the blast occurred. Story continues Monday's attacks unfolded as the city was thronged by visitors to the South by Southwest Festival. On Monday afternoon, London Mayor Sadiq Khan delivered a keynote address at the event, which draws hundreds of thousands of people to the city each year. Manley said the bombings posed no threat to the festival, but he urged visitors to remain vigilant. (Additional reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Tom Brown and Peter Cooney) President Donald Trump has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and will replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Pompeo will be replaced at the CIA by Gina Haspel, who will be the first woman to lead the agency. In a statement minutes after the announcement, Tillerson a former Texas oil executive made it clear that he did not leave voluntarily. He also hinted that he may have been blindsided by the announcement, saying he did not speak to the President this morning and is unaware of the reason. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The Washington Post first reported the news, and said that Trump had asked Tillerson to resign last Friday. A Senior White House official said that Trump wanted to have a new team in place before he began negotiations with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un. He also wanted the new team for various trade negotiations. But a statement from a State Department official, Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Steve Goldstein, said that Tillerson was unaware of these personnel changes, and had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues. The Secretary did not speak to the President this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted, said Goldstein. We wish Secretary-Designate Pompeo well. Pompeo, a graduate of West Point and Harvard Law School, served in the House of Representatives for over 5 years before Trump nominated him to head the CIA. In an official statement released by the White House, Trump praised Pompeos work with the CIA and expressed confidence in his ability take the reins at Foggy Bottom and push forward his policy priorities. I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture. He will continue our program of restoring Americas standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Story continues Trump concluded that statement by thanking Tillerson for his service A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well. Speaking with reporters later Tuesday morning, he said he thinks Tillerson will be happier once he is no longer in the position. I think Rex will be much happier now But I really appreciate his service. But with Mike weve had a very good chemistry right from the beginning, said Trump. TIllerson, who was previously CEO of Exxon Mobil, is President Trumps first Secretary of State. Although he has outlasted multiple other key members of Trumps administration, his tenure is historically short compared with his immediate predecessors. The last three first-term secretaries of State Warren Christopher under Bill Clinton, Colin Powell under George W. Bush and and Hillary Clinton under Barack Obama all stayed in their positions for the entire first term. Since 1949, only Alexander Haig, who served under President Ronald Reagan for nearly 18 months, has lasted less than three years in the position. And Tillersons tenure has also been accompanied by a series of disputes and reports of internal fighting with the President. At one point, Tillerson found himself defending a report that he had called Trump a moron, but stopped short of an official denial. I actually got on well with Rex, Trump said Tuesday, but it was a different mindset. Prosecutors have dropped 27 criminal cases worked on by a white police officer who was filmed appearing to attack a black man during an arrest. US media reports said footage showed North Carolina officer Christopher Hickman choking and beating Johnnie Rush, who had been accused of jaywalking, and telling him he was going to get f***ed up. Mr Hickman, 31, was arrested and charged with assault by strangulation after the video emerged last week. Dozens of cases he initiated have since been shelved because the officer cannot be considered a credible witness, a district attorney said. The video, recorded by Mr Hickmans body camera, appears to show him and another officer talking to Mr Rush after stopping him in the city of Asheville on 25 August last year. Mr Rush, 33, backs away and then runs off and is pursued by the officers, who tackle him to the ground. You know whats funny is youre going to get f***ed up hardcore, Mr Hickman, who is then seen choking and hitting Mr Rush on the head. I can breathe, I cant breathe, says Mr Rush, who also screams in pain before he is stunned with a Taser. Christopher Hickman's body camera recorded him beating a black man he accused of jaywalking (AP) Mr Hickman, who resigned from his job in January, was arrested last week after the footage was published by local newspaper the Citizen Times. The acts demonstrated in this video are unacceptable and contrary to the Departments vision and the progress we have made in the last several years in improving community trust, said Asheville police chief Tammy Cooper, in a statement issued on social media. Officers know that they must earn the trust of our community by providing fair and respectful service. That very clearly did not happen during the incident depicted and for that I apologise to Mr Rush, as well as the community. She added: It is the policy of the Asheville Police Department to review all instances of use of force, and to take swift and immediate action upon any use of unwarranted or excessive force. The officer is no longer employed by the Asheville Police Department and a criminal investigation is underway that will be submitted to the District Attorney. Story continues Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams told the Citizen Times the cases dropped involved 17 defendants and included felonies and driving offences. They did not include violent crimes or sex offences. More cases could be dropped as prosecutors analyse convictions obtained using Mr Hickmans testimony. The FBI has also launched a criminal investigation into Mr Hickman, who will appear in court next month. The footage of Mr Rush being attacked has sparked outrage in the city and prompted condemnation from civil rights groups. There is no excuse for what happened to Johnnie Rush, tweeted the American Civil Liberties Unions North Carolina branch. Police must protect and serve everyone, regardless of race. Instead, a black man gets beaten, tased, and choked over jaywalking. Thats right, jaywalking. Conakry (AFP) - Police fired teargas at protesters from opposition parties in Guinea on Tuesday, while the ruling party of President Alpha Conde accused his opponents of seeking to destabilise the West African nation. The opposition Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) has been staging protests in the capital, Conakry, since losing February 4 local elections it says were rigged. "Until they give us our stolen votes, we won't leave the streets," UFDG leader and former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo told AFP. Young people erected barricades in the city, burned tyres and threw stones at police, who replied with teargas, an AFP correspondent saw. That followed protests on Monday which also saw students gather outside the presidential palace, chanting anti-Conde slogans and demanding an end to a separate school strike. The opposition "seeks to create anarchy to destabilise the government of Alpha Conde," said Amadou Damaro Camara, the head of the ruling Rally for the Guinean People in parliament. "What they couldn't get in court, they want to get in the street," Camara added, accusing the UFDG of having a "hidden agenda". The teachers' strike restarted on February 12 and has paralysed the education system. Near-daily protests by the opposition, teachers and disgruntled students have rocked Conakry over the last month. An opposition group, the Party of Hope for International Development, said Tuesday it wanted the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional body to send an intervention force to the country. More protests are expected Wednesday. By Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed on Tuesday that Russia must provide "unambiguous answers" after London gave Moscow until midnight to explain how a Soviet-era nerve weapon was used against a former Russian double agent. May, who said on Monday it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, also won support from Britain's main European allies and the European Union, which denounced the attack as "shocking" and offered help to track down those responsible. Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of the U.S.-led NATO alliance, said the attack was "horrendous". Russia, however, signalled there was little likelihood that it would respond adequately to London's call for a credible explanation by Wednesday. Denying it had played any part in the attack, which left the 66-year-old Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia fighting for their lives, Russia said it would ignore the ultimatum until London handed over samples of the nerve agent used and complied with international obligations for joint investigations of such incidents. "Any threats to take 'sanctions' against Russia will not be left without a response," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. "The British side should understand that." Russia holds a presidential election on Sunday in which Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB spy, is expected to coast to a fourth term in the Kremlin. Skripal, a former officer with Russian military intelligence, betrayed dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence before being arrested in Moscow and jailed in 2006. He was released under a spy swap deal in 2010 and took refuge in Britain, where he had been living quietly in the cathedral city of Salisbury until he and his daughter were found unconscious on a public bench there on March 4. A British policeman who was also affected by the nerve agent is now conscious in a serious but stable condition. LETHAL NERVE AGENT May said on Monday Britain had identified the substance as belonging to the lethal Novichok group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s. She and her ministers say Britain will take further "robust" punitive action against Russian interests - beyond sanctions already in place - if Putin does not come up with a credible explanation of events. Trump's endorsement of Britain's tough line, made during a phone call with May, came on the heels of messages of solidarity from France's President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They gave the British prime minister additional hope of marshalling Western backing for her government as it heads towards a showdown with Putin. "President Trump agreed with Prime Minister May that the Government of the Russian Federation must provide unambiguous answers regarding how this chemical weapon, developed in Russia, came to be used in the United Kingdom," the White House said in a statement about the two leaders' phone call. "The two leaders agreed on the need for consequences for those who use these heinous weapons in flagrant violation of international norms," it said. May's spokesman said Trump had said the United States was "with the U.K. all the way". If no satisfactory Russian response is received by midnight London time May is likely to outline Britain's response in parliament on Wednesday. It remains to be seen how much of a rupture in relations with Russia May's government is prepared to envisage. While trade figures show Russia accounts for less than 1 percent of British imports, London is of major importance for Russian companies seeking to raise capital and since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union has become the Western capital of choice for many Russian business leaders. Britain could call on allies for a coordinated Western response, freeze the assets of Russian business leaders and officials, expel diplomats or launch targeted cyber attacks. It may also cut back participation in the soccer World Cup which Russia is hosting in June and July. Russia Today, a round-the-clock news network that is funded by Putin's government, could lose its licence to broadcast in Britain if May's government determined that Moscow was behind the attack, Britain's media regulator said. This report drew a swift response from Russia. "Not a single British media outlet will work in our country if they shut down Russia Today (RT)," the state-run RIA news agency cited Maria Zakharova as saying on state television. The expression of solidarity from the EU came despite tensions over British preparations to quit the bloc next year. The EU has already imposed travel restrictions and asset freezes against 150 people and 38 companies in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. EU nationals and companies are also banned from buying or selling new bonds or equity in some state-owned Russian banks and major Russian energy companies. But diplomats in Brussels said that, despite sharing Britain's anger, the bloc was unlikely to have much stomach for imposing additional sanctions on Russia since attributing the nerve attack to Moscow was difficult and keeping existing economic sanctions going was proving a strain. (Reporting by Robin Emmott, Alastair Macdonald and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, John Irish in Paris, Andreas Rinke, Andrea Shalal in Berlin, Doina Chiacu in Washington, Andrew Osborn and Andrey Ostroukh in Moscow; Writing By Richard Balmforth; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Gareth Jones) Doha (AFP) - State-owned Qatar Petroleum announced Tuesday it has signed a deal with Abu Dhabi to operate a shared offshore oil field, despite a bitter diplomatic rift between the Gulf neighbours. The United Arab Emirates confirmed the contract had been renewed with the Japanese operators of the Al-Bunduq field but said it had not had any contact or dealings with Qatar on the issue. "We are delighted to sign this concession agreement, which will ensure the continued development and operation of the Al-Bunduq oil field for many years to come," Qatar Petroleum president and chief executive Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said in a statement. The company added, pointedly, that the deal showed it was a "trustworthy" energy provider "at all times and under all conditions". The small oil field, located on the maritime border between Qatar and Abu Dhabi, is managed by a Japanese oil consortium. The previous deal to operate the oilfield ended earlier this month. Tuesday's statement did not say how many years were covered by the latest agreement. However, the UAE Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) said Abu Dhabi did not hold any negotiations with Qatar regarding the oilfield. "Al-Bunduq oilfield is shared equally by the emirate of Abu Dhabi and Qatar due to its geographic location. It has been under management by a Japanese consortium for the past four decades," the council said in a statement cited by the UAE state news agency WAM. "What happened lately was that the concession was extended by the concerned governments through a technical agreement with the Japanese side. No contacts or dealings took place with the Qatari side," the statement said. The signing of the deal is symbolic as Qatar has been isolated by a group of neighbouring countries and former allies, including the United Arab Emirates, for the past nine months in a rancorous political, diplomatic and economic dispute. The Saudi-led bloc, which also includes Bahrain and Egypt, accuses Doha of supporting terrorism and fostering ties with Iran. Story continues World Cup 2022 host Qatar categorically refutes the claims and says its rivals are trying to force through regime change in Doha. Sanctions imposed by the boycotting countries include closing Qatar's only land border, stopping Qatari planes entering their airspaces and halting almost all trade. However, Qatar is still providing the UAE with gas despite the crisis, and both countries -- like Iran -- are members of the OPEC oil cartel. Kaabi has previously said Qatar would not cut gas supplies to the UAE. At the same time, Emirates airline still provides shirt sponsorship for Qatar-owned football team Paris Saint-Germain. Rachael Ray at her South by Southwest Feedback party in 2016. (Photo: Gary Miller/Getty Images) One of the hottest parties at Austin, Texass annual South by Southwest festival is celebrity chef Rachael Rays 3,000-capacity Feedback party, now in its 11th year, where the food is probably just as much a draw as the music. This years eats include Frank n Refried Beans, Pimiento Cheese Dogs, Serious Three-Meat Sloppy Joes, and Lil Veg-Head Corn Dogs. But when asked if her Feedback menu this year will include any Lemonade, Ray chuckles. I thought that was hilarious. I guess I looked at that as the most ultimate backward compliment just the idea that anybody would think that I groove in a universe where I get to hang out with Jay-Z or Beyonce or all that. To me it was like, People think Im cool enough to go to places where any of this would happen? It was so funny to me. Ray is referring to a bizarre yet amusing incident two years ago, when it was rumored that fashion designer Rachel Roy was Becky With the Good Hair aka the other woman, presumably Jay-Zs mistress, mentioned on Beyonces Lemonade track Sorry. Particularly aggressive Bey fans mistook Ray for Roy and relentlessly attacked her on social media. Ray laughed it off the worst thing that had ever happened to [me and Roy] before this was that our dry-cleaning or our dinner reservations were confused! she says and even sent over a bottle of wine to Roy in an act of solidarity. I just felt weird, and [Roy] was the only one of them that I know of the people that were involved in the whole thing, so I said, Im so sorry Im a part of this, recalls Ray. Not judging any of what was going on within it. I do not spend my time gossiping about people, because if I dont sleep with you, and if Im not related to you, then I truly dont care how you live your life. I think it matters to the universe, but it certainly doesnt matter to me. Its none of my beeswax. No pun intended! Being trolled by thousands of Beyhive members would rattle most people, but the perpetually cheery lifestyle guru says, When a weird anomaly comes along like the Lemonade thing, I guess Im weirdly prepared for it. Like anyone in the public eye, Ray has always had her haters, but she shrugs, It doesnt bother me anymore. It used to hurt my feelings. I used to go home and say, Wow, maybe theyre right. Maybe I should really feel bad about myself.' But she ditched that mindset, and over time she has won over her naysayers with hard work and an unflappable sunny attitude. Story continues I feel bad if anybodys spewing hate anywhere. Theres just so little time on the planet; maybe we go around again, maybe we dont. Why spend time putting negative energy out there? I believe if you put out negative, you will get negative ripples back; if you put out positive, hopefully youll get enough positive back to keep on going, Ray explains. Some of my most loyal television watchers for years were literally in a website called I Hate Rachael Ray. I never hated them back. Eventually they kind of came to say, I guess we have to give up. OK, we kind of like her. OK, shes not going away. Ray recalls winning over one detractor, fellow famous chef Anthony Bourdain, after he wrote a nasty comment on his blog expressing dismay that shed booked one of his favorite bands, glam-rock legends the New York Dolls, to play her 2009 SXSW Feedback event. I dont know whether to go out and shoot a puppy, or send Rachael a fruit basket. It just does me no good at all to think of Rachael as a Dolls fan, he griped at the time. Ray turned this into a teachable moment for Bourdain. Ive always loved Tony Bourdain. I think hes cool as hell. Ive read everything hes written. Which is kind of weird, because he didnt for years care for me too much at all. I was his jump-the-shark, she says. He would write about me from time to time, and not say lovely things. Thats fine, and it never bothered me, but I was asked about it continuously: What about Tony Bourdain? He hates you so much! So after Bourdain made that snarky New York Dolls comment but didnt send his promised fruit basket Ray literally sent him a giant food basket from my friends at Agata & Valentina of snacks and fruits and things. The most giant basket ever! And he posted an open letter of public apology, that he had not given me many reasons to be kind back to him an OK, I guess I give up kind of thing. It was very sweet. I think thats a great example of how you turn a table, and thats important to me in life. Who knows how many tables you get to turn? The New York Dolls at Feedback 2009. (Photo: Roger Kisby/Getty Images) Ray who fell in love with Austin 20 years ago; I got a girl-crush on the city admits that when she came up with the idea for Feedback years ago, she was worried about whether shed be accepted by SXSW attendees, or if shed catch similar flak. I was petrified. Trying an event if youre only known for being the girl who knows how to make dinner quick an event that involves rock n roll bands? Would people hate me for even being there? Would they be like, What is Rachael Ray doing at a rock n roll thing? But ironically, while Ray may joke about not being cool enough to be a member of Jay-Z and Beyonces inner circle, Feedback has become one of the coolest annual events at SXSW. The New York Dolls (whose Feedback set Ray says was amazing) are one of dozens of credible acts that have graced the partys two stages; Blondie, De La Soul, the 1975, Anderson .Paak, Jimmy Cliff, George Clinton, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, Wanda Jackson, Scott Weiland, Fitz & the Tantrums, Jenny Lewis, the Drums, the Bravery, She & Him, Jakob Dylan, and Green Day side-project Foxboro Hot Tubs have all performed. (Rays all-time favorite Feedback moment was Weezers closing set at last years bash.) So any SXSW-goers who once had doubts about Rays intentions, she says, went and witnessed the event, had a good time, and some of them were like begrudgingly saying, OK, it didnt suck. And then some people were like, Holy s***, this was terrific! This blew my mind! Weezer at Feedback 2017. (Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images) Ray, a self-described vinyl-phile and lifelong music fan, says her mind was blown as well. Im just blown away that the bands that I respect so much want to come and play with us, legitimately. The fact that Ive been given this gift of access to artists, it makes me feel so humble. Its Rays positive attitude she calls it mindfulness that drew her to Austin and keeps her coming back. There was no ageism or sexism. I was so struck by how, in the middle of a very conservative state, there was this utopian empire of what it is to be an American, a city that celebrates individuality, small business, and an entrepreneurial spirit that keeps districts of the city weird, she gushes. That just struck me as such a beautiful environment, that music and art of every kind was so important to Austins culture as a community and that they were such social beings. And she hopes that Feedback guests visiting Austin this week hold on to those good vibes. I believe that a good time should not just be for the rich and that every day should be an adventure, whether its trying a new spirit or a new dish, or turning left instead of right on your way home and finding a new alley or street, she says. Listening to music, not just on special occasions, but on a Thursday or a Tuesday. Life should be that for all of us. So make every day like what it is to be an Austinite: a celebration of you being on the planet and really getting a 360 experience of what it is to be human, sharing food and music and a cocktail and great art all at the same time. Its just poetic to me. No word yet if Beyonce (or Becky, or Bourdain) will make a cameo at Feedback 2018 this Saturday, but the official artist lineup features Dr. Peppers Jaded Hearts Club Band (an all-star Beatles tribute act comprising Muses Matt Bellamy and members of Nine Inch Nails, the Zutons, Jet, and the Last Shadow Puppets), Salt-N-Pepa, Girl Talk, Kurt Vile, Albert Hammond Jr., and the Cringe (led by Rays rocker husband, John Cusimano, who also creates the partys cocktail menu). A fabulous, mindful time will surely be had by all. Feedback is my Christmas, Ray says excitedly. It really is. Its the thing I look most forward to. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment & Lifestyle: Follow Lyndsey on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Amazon, Tumblr, Spotify Mike Pompeo to succeed, with Gina Haspel replacing him at CIA Both officials to face strong questioning about support for torture Opinion: Tillerson was hapless, hopeless and tragic Donald Trump threw US diplomacy into fresh turmoil on Tuesday by firing his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson said to have discovered his fate via Twitter and promoting two officials condemned by human rights groups for endorsing or overseeing torture. A visibly shaken and demoralised Tillerson spoke briefly at the state department, without taking reporters questions. He did not criticise Trumps decision but nor did he include the president in a list of thank yous. Tillerson said he received a call a little after noon time from Trump and chief of staff John Kelly to ensure we have clarity as to the days ahead. He added: What is most important is to ensure an orderly and smooth transition during a time that the country continues to face significant policy and national security challenges. Effective at the end of the day, all duties would be delegated to deputy secretary John Sullivan. Tillersons time at state will formally end at midnight on 31 March. Reflecting on his tenure, Tillerson claimed we exceeded the expectations of almost everyone regarding North Korea. He acknowledged that much works remains to be done on the relationship with China. In what some interpreted as a parting shot at Trump, he singled out the troubling behaviour and actions of Russia. Russia must assess carefully as to how its actions are in the best interest of the Russian people and of the world more broadly, Tillerson said. Continuing on their current trajectory is likely to lead to greater isolation on their part, a situation which is not in anyones interest. Trump stunned Washington again by announcing in a morning tweet that Tillerson would be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo, a hardliner. Gina Haspel, Pompeos deputy, would be nominated as the CIAs first female director. Story continues Pompeo has been criticised for claiming waterboarding is not torture and opposing the closure of Guantanamo Bay. Haspel has come under scrutiny for her role in CIA torture under George W Bush and the destruction of evidence. Even as the reverberations continued in Washington and beyond, yet more drama bubbled up in the administration before Tuesday was out. The veterans affairs secretary, David Shulkin, is reported to be hanging on to his job by a thread after ethics violations concerning a trip to Europe with his wife and new allegations that he had a member of his security detail go shopping with him at a branch of Home Depot and then cart the purchases into his house. Trump is considering replacing Shulkin with the energy secretary, Rick Perry, according to the New York Times. Meanwhile, the interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, was questioned by a congressional committee on Tuesday about a habit of using charter flights on government business. This follows a recent scandal over the housing secretary, Ben Carson, overspending on office refurbishments and longstanding criticism of the EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, regularly flying first class at taxpayers expense. But in a cabinet seemingly in constant turmoil, as Americas top diplomat, Tillerson, 65, had the thankless task of playing second fiddle to Trump. His departure had long been predicted after a series of clashes but it came at a critical juncture, as the president threatens a global trade war and prepares to meet the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un. But the manner of his termination was abrupt even by the standards of the current White House. Thursday: no talks with North Korea "We're a long way from negotiations. We just need to be very clear-eyed and realistic about it. I don't know yet, until we are able to meet ourselves face to face with representatives of North Korea, whether the conditions are right to even begin thinking about negotiations." Friday: North Korea talks were Trump's decision That is a decision the president took himself. I spoke to him very early this morning about that decision and we had a very good conversation. President Trump has said for some time that he was open to talks and he would willingly meet with Kim when conditions were right. And I think in the presidents judgement that time has arrived now. Monday: Russia warned on UK spy poisoning "What we've seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive. And this is very, very concerning to me and others that there seems to be a certain unleashing of activity that we don't fully understand what the objective behind that is [] It certainly will trigger a response. I'll leave it at that. Kelly called and woke Tillerson at about 2.30am on Saturday, as the secretary toured Africa. The White House claimed Kelly made clear the president wanted Tillerson to step aside and that he should return to Washington as soon as possible. State department officials said Kelly told Tillerson only that there might be a presidential tweet that would concern him and did not indicate what it might say or when it might appear, the Associated Press reported. Journalists travelling with Tillerson said he appeared upbeat on Monday and gave no hint his job was in jeopardy. Then came the tweet, shown by a senior aide to Tillerson. Steve Goldstein, the under-secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, issued a statement that said: The secretary did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted. Goldstein also said Tillerson had every intention of staying. A few hours later Goldstein himself was dismissed, apparently for publicly contradicting the White House. Trump appeared calm on a chilly Tuesday morning as he stepped out of the White House. Pausing on his way to the Marine One helicopter before heading to California, he insisted he had been talking about this for a long time. The president said: I actually got along well with Rex, but really it was a different mindset, a different thinking. When you look at the Iran deal, I think its terrible. I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently. So we were not really thinking the same. Tillerson has argued strenuously that the US should abide by the agreement with Tehran about its nuclear ambitions that was reached under Barack Obama in 2015. Pompeo is a longstanding opponent of the deal. Last summer, Tillerson was reported to have called Trump a fucking moron, a report he did not deny. Trump was asked twice if he had fired Tillerson because he called you a moron. The president twice said he could not hear, then said: I respect his intellect. I respect the process that weve all gone through together. We have a very good relationship for whatever reason, chemistry, whatever it is why do people get along? Ive always, right from the beginning, from day one, Ive gotten along well with Mike Pompeo, and frankly I get along well with Rex too. I wish Rex a lot of good things. I think hes going to be very happy. I think Rex will be much happier now. On Monday, Tillerson issued a much sharper response to the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in the UK than the White House, naming Russia as a suspect, a step Trumps spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, had avoided. Media reports suggested the White House was furious at being made to look soft on Russia. But a senior White House official claimed the firing was related to upcoming talks with North Korea and various ongoing trade negotiations. Responding to a question about his announcement of a meeting with Kim shortly after Tillerson said talks were a long way off, Trump said: No, I really didnt discuss it very much with him, honestly. I made that decision by myself. Rex wasnt, as you know, in this country. I made the North Korea decision with consultation from many people but I made that decision by myself. Tillersons CEO approach was ill-suited to the state department, critics say, and it has been diminished and marginalised over the past year. The latest shake-up comes after the departures of the White House staff secretary, Rob Porter, communications director Hope Hicks and economic adviser Gary Cohn in as many weeks an unprecedented turnover rate. But none has the international implications of a change to secretary of state. Mike Pompeo, the newly installed secretary of state. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader in the House, said: Whenever Tillersons successor goes into meetings with foreign leaders, his credibility will be diminished as someone who could be here today and gone tomorrow. In a statement, Pompeo said he was deeply grateful to President Trump. Pompeo and Haspel face tough confirmation battles in the Senate. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, reportedly oversaw the torture of terrorism suspects in 2002 and later took part in an order to destroy videos documenting their interrogations at a black site prison in Thailand. Two CIA contract psychologists who helped establish enhanced interrogation procedures sought to oblige Haspel to testify last year in a legal suit brought by torture victims, in the hope of demonstrating they were acting on CIA instructions. The justice department prevented her appearing in court. Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said Haspel was unfit to lead the CIA and should be prosecuted not promoted. Tillerson said he agreed with the UK's findings - AFP US secretary of state Rex Tillerson appeared to veer away from the official White House line last night to declare that Russia was probably behind an attempt to poison a former double agent, adding that the perpetrators should face punishment. "We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week," Mr Tillerson said. "We agree that those responsible - both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it - must face appropriately serious consequences. We stand in solidarity with our allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to coordinate closely our responses." Sarah Sanders, President Donald Trump's spokeswoman stopped short of blaming Russia when asked repeatedly whether or not the US backs the UK's position on the alleged poisoning. Before issuing his statement, Tillerson called his British counterpart Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to discuss the investigation into last week's attempt to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southwest of England. How the FSB deals with Russia's enemies with absolute impunity Speaking during a flight back from Africa, Tillerson told reporters that Theresa May's statement that the attackers had used a military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia appeared accurate. "It appears that it clearly came from Russia. Whether it came from Russia with the Russian government's knowledge is not known to me at this point," he said. "But you take a substance like was used, which is an extremely dangerous substance into another country, into a public place, where you know many others are going to be exposed is just - it's almost beyond comprehension that a state, an organized state would do something like that. "But this is a substance that is known to us and does not exist widely. It is only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties. And I don't want to say anything further than that." Asked whether the apparent attack on a NATO member would trigger an allied response, Mr Tillerson said: "It certainly will trigger a response. I'll leave it that." North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is seen returning to North Korea after the summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, in this picture released on June 13, 2018 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WA Wallace C. Gregson Security, Asia Washington's efforts to rein in North Korea will require "good faith" negotiations and self-examination. America's Great Expectations for North Korea Now the hard work begins. The ready, fire, aim process that took us from unexpected White House announcement to meeting in Singapore was like no other. Perhaps previous summits were watched so avidly by the general publicNeville Chamberlains meeting with Hitler in 1938 perhaps. But even that fateful meeting was free of todays relentless instant information and disinformation environment. In a seemingly made-for-the-media process we saw preemptive public agreement by the United States, hurried scheduling, an aggrieved United States declaring cancellation, then rescue and rescheduling through a theatrically-delivered outsized North Korean letter. Loose rhetoric by a prominent self-appointed expert commentator alleged that Kim begged for summit rescheduling on his hands and knees. Merely getting Kim to the meeting became the central high drama, the apparent goal of the process. It was reality show theater. But we did get the meeting, and it produced some results. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un went from a personalized rhetorical blitzkrieg of dueling character descriptions including dotard and little rocket man, competing threats of fire and fury and sea of fire, and comparison of nuclear button sizes, to an emerging sitzkrieg of sorts. Were in a better place than when we started. Continuous polling recorded, and perhaps influenced, public opinion of three leaders: Trump, Moon and Kim. President Moons approval rating, always strong, is now in the high seventies. Kim Jong-un, the leader of the nation that sank the Korean corvette with forty-six sailors, shelled Yong Pyong Do, and employed a weapon of mass destruction in Malaysia, checked in at 80 percentin South Korea(!)after his Winter Olympics charm offensive and the summit with President Moon. Polling in North Korea, such as it is, can be assumed to indicate unanimous approval of Kim. Kim Jong-uns star turn with the Winter Olympics and the Singapore Summit reversed public opinion and challenged the political foundations of the U.S.-ROK alliance structure. His charm campaign exploited his success with his missile and mass-destruction weapons programs. Story continues Kim enjoyed high protocol treatment in Singapore, including public appearances touring the Lion City complete with selfies. Coming on the heels of summits in Beijing and a North-South meeting in Panmunjom, Kim gained the long-sought legitimacy and recognition as leader of a nuclear weapons state that eluded his father and grandfather. The capstone, the meeting with the U.S. president, reinforced his power at home and assured his legacy. And the price was right. Kim gave nothing away, offering no more than North Korea has since the early 1990s. He demonstrated that he well understands the coercive value of a nuclear arsenal. Hopefully this includes the realization that his nuclear capability is much more valuable in its potential, but suicidal if used. High expectations of comprehensive, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea were not met. The United States and North Korea did agree to make efforts to build a peace regime on the Peninsula and North Korea said it would work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In return, the United States made unilateral declarations about Kims honorable character, and suspended all U.S.-South Korean military exercisesboth major and routinewhile negotiations continue in good faith. We introduced a teaser about withdrawing U.S. forces, and announced an end of the nuclear threat to the United States. We relaxed sanctions enforcement. Nothing was said about a nuclear threat to Japan. The survival-level threat that North Korea poses to South Korea from artillery and rocket forces in deeply buried and hardened shelters in the mountainous Kaesong Heights overlooking Seoul escaped notice, as did North Koreas chemical weapons arsenal. That chemical capability was recently deployed and employed in Malaysia, demonstrating both skill and will. North Koreas egregious human-rights record and ongoing serial abuses also escaped mention. The overall drama of rising tensions followed by relief as the pain eased raised hopes and new, lofty expectations. Visions of peace in our time accompanied by peaceful coexistence if not reunification emerged. Kim is now declared an honorable man. One recalls an earlier president who looked into the eyes of an autocratic leader and saw his soul. The extraordinary approval granted the three leaders carries with it greatly expanded expectations for more results as we begin the hard work of describing, in detailed black-letter language and process, what must happen. High expectations confront challenges. No arms-control regime has lasted forever. The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 is an example. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is, at the very least, under severe pressure. It may be the next arms-control regime to fade away. North Korea is not the only entrepreneurial proliferator, but they are persistent, proficient and global. Its profitable. It helps keep the Kim Family Regime and their core supporters in the lifestyle they expect. Even totalitarian leaders have to pay attention to their constituents. Nonaggression pacts have a consistent history. They lead to war, and we may be about to create something similar. See, for example, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. North Korea is well aware of this history. If were going to continue to deal with North Korea bilaterally instead of collectively with the help of many nations, we will in essence be creating another pact. It will be hard to convince North Korea that a nonaggression pledge from the United States is likely to be a more enduring security guarantee than their nuclear capability. Good faith while were in negotiations implies a suspension of North Koreas nuclear and missile development, production, proliferation and testing. That has good historical precedent. North Korea has restrained these tests while in negotiations before, but the initiative then resides in North Korea. Similarly, Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula means removal of all nuclear-capable forces from the peninsula. South Korea has no such forces, so the effect on the U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance is clear. Good faith while were in negotiations must also include an end to North Korean provocations. North Koreas history of egregious, deadly provocations against South Korea the United States, and others over the last sixty years exposes the high hypocrisy in North Koreas charge, with Chinas endorsement, that our bilateral, defensive exercises in the face of the worlds fourth-largest armed force in attack positions just across the demilitarized zone are provocative. Its like saying fire departments provoke fire. Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland perhaps anticipated North Koreas cynical vocabulary: When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to meanneither more nor less. The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many different things. The question is, said Humpty Dumpty, which is to be masterthats all. Good faith must also include immediate release of Americans captured while traveling in North Korea for any reasons. Even more good faith could be shown with a release of all political prisoners. We do have one strong component to our national kit if we choose to deploy it. Its one that had a major effect in the long existential campaign of the Cold War. Its human rights. We used to be the champion and the leader. Natan Sharansky, a man who knows a bit about this as an activist in this field and a former prisoner of the Soviet Union, placed an eloquent op-ed piece in the Washington Post on June 18, after the summit. He knows North Korea, and actively works this issue. He also knowsfrom deep personal experiencethe effect we had on captive populations during the Soviet era. We didnt win the Cold War through force of arms alone. We won it by being the City on a HillJohn Winthrops memorable guidance to the original settlers of Massachusetts Bay that was deployed so effectively by President Reagan. We won by reaching the soul of those yearning to breathe free. We need to find our soul and do this again. While North Korea is hardly the only target, it is certainly a good place to start. Wallace C. Gregson, a retired Marine and former assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs (200911), is currently senior advisor at Avascent International and senior director for China and the Pacific at the Center for the National Interest. Image: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is seen returning to North Korea after the summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, in this picture released on June 13, 2018 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS IMAGE. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS. SOUTH KOREA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SOUTH KOREA. Read full article Dave Majumdar Security, As the Russian Defense Ministry explains, the Kinzhal missile is designed to strike both land and maritime targets. Russia Just Fired a Hypersonic Missile from a MiG-31 Fighter. Should America be Worried? The Russian Ministry of Defense has shown off a video of a training launch of its new Dagger (Kinzhal in Russian) hypersonic missile from a Mikoyan MiG-31 Foxhound interceptor. Portions of the video were intentionally blurred to obscure certain aspects of the weapon, but the Kinzhal appears to be an aero-ballistic missile rather than a scramjet-powered air-breathing missile. However, that should come as no surprise to serious analysts because no nation on Earth has mastered the material sciences to build a true scramjet-powered missile yet. That technology is still years away. Crew of MiG-31 fighter of the Russian Aerospace Forces conducted combat training launch of a hypersonic missile of the Kinzhal high-precision aviation missile system in the assigned area, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on its Facebook page. The fighter took off from a Southern military district airfield in course of test combat alert. The launch was conducted normally. The missile hit the target at a training ground. Hypersonic missile confirmed its technical operational performance and timing data of the Kinzhal missile system. Recommended: America Has Military Options for North Korea (but They're All Bad) Recommended: 1,700 Planes Ready for War: Everything You Need To Know About China's Air Force Recommended: Stealth vs. North Koreas Air Defenses: Who Wins? As the Russian Defense Ministry explains, the Kinzhal missile is designed to strike both land and maritime targets. The Kinzhal system is designed to eliminate ground and sea targets, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Due to high flight characteristics of MiG-31 aircraft and high-maneuverable radar-stealth hypersonic missile, the Kinzhal has no analogues in the world. Story continues The MiG-31 is an ideal launch platform for the Kinzhal missile because of its range, massive payload, altitude and sheer speed. The aircraft has a service ceiling of roughly 67,500ft and is temperature limited to a maximum speed of Mach 2.83. However, the massive jet can maintain very high supersonic speeds for extended periodsits combat radius is 390 nautical miles at Mach 2.35with a full air-to-air payload of R-37 missiles. Thus, exchanging its R-37 missiles for a Kinzhal missile, the MiG-31 can quickly boost the new weapon into launch position and impart significant launch energy to the aero-ballistic missile. It is not clear how stealthy the Kinzhal is, but that the weapon would be highly maneuverable should not come as a surprise. The Iskander ballistic missile is already capable of maneuvering in flight and follows an erratic trajectory that would make it exceedingly difficult to intercept. Nor does any other country operate an air-launched ballistic missile, so Moscow is correct in that sense that the Kinzhal does not have an equivalent outside of Russia. However, the weapon is not a hypersonic weapon in the sense that it is an air-breathing cruise missile based on scramjet technologythough ballistic missiles inherently fly at hypersonic speeding during their flight time. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis noted that the introduction of weapons like the Kinzhal do not fundamentally change the military balance between Russia and the United States. I went through and looked at the clips of what he [Vladimir Putin] showed on the videos and all, I get paid to make strategic assessments, and I would just tell you that I saw no change to the Russian military capability, Mattis told reporters on March 10. And each of these systems that he's talking about that are still years away, I do not see them changing the military balance. They do no impact any need on our side for a change in our deterrent posture, which would be certainly an indication I registered this assessment with something that was changing. Mattis added that he hoped Russias military does not believe that these new weapons give them a particular edgebecause these new weapons change nothing. What I'm saying is they have the capability to do right now what he was touting, Mattis said. So it doesn't change anything, other than how much money do they want to spend on something that does not change at all the strategic balance. Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar. Image: Creative Commons. Read full article Top Russian officials have threatened to retaliate with force if President Donald Trump orders an attack that could endanger the lives of its soldiers stationed there in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's campaign against rebels and jihadis near Damascus. Army General Valery Gerasimov warned on Tuesday that the U.S. was preparing to launch raids against Moscow's ally, the Syrian government, as it attempted to clear bastion of jihadis and rebelssome of which were once backed by the Westin the suburbs of the capital city of Damascus. The leading military official claimed that the U.S. would strike under the false pretense of a chemical weapon attacka tactic that Russia has denied the Syrian military utilizesand vowed to fight back. Related: ISIS Tries to Take Back Iraq As U.S. Allies Switch Sides in Syria Trending: African-American Police Chief Accused of Racial Discrimination By Four Black Officers "In the event of a threat to our military servicemens lives, Russias Armed Forces will take retaliatory measures to target both the missiles and their delivery vehicles," Gerasimov said, according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency. GettyImages-931207138 LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has railed against the Syrian government's recently intensified campaign to retake the insurgent-held district of eastern Ghouta outside Damascus, accusing Syria and its Russian and Iranian allies of mounting civilian casualties. As a fellow permanent U.N. Security Council member, Russia has vetoed a number of resolutions targeting Assad's government and has accused the insurgents of shelling nearby Damascus city. Haley also blamed Russia for breaking a 30-day ceasefire agreement reached earlier this month. Story continues "When the international community consistently fails to act, there are times when states are compelled to take their own action," Haley told the U.N. Security Council on Monday, citing the current situation in eastern Ghouta as an example of this, as The Hill reported. "We warn any nation determined to impose its will through chemical attacks and inhuman suffering, but most especially the outlaw Syrian regime, the United States remains prepared to act if we must," she added. "It is not a path we prefer. But it is a path we have demonstrated we will take, and we are prepared to take again." Don't miss: Donald Trump Jr. Bets Fox & Friends Is Only Network Out There With American Flag Smock During Makeup Session Russia has taken this as a sign that the U.S. was planning to attack Syrian military forces as it did in April, following charges that the Syrian airforce used sarin gas in the northwestern rebel-held district of Idlib, something Russia and Syria have denied. Less than 72 hours after the U.S. accused Syria of being behind the attack, Trump ordered a cruise missile strike from Navy warships in the Mediterranean. In a disagreement that has become characteristic of U.S. and Russian involvement in Syria, Washington claimed that it had used a previously established de-confliction line to warn Russia of the attack. But Moscow denied this, saying Russian personnel at the targeted Al-Shayrat air base were put at risk. RTX34HHA Ford Williams/U.S. Navy/REUTERS In response to Haley's warning at the U.N., the Russian Foreign Ministry also pledged a forceful response to any U.S. attack that threatened Russian troops who were stationed throughout Syrian military frontlines near Damascus. Accusing a "belligerent" Haley of promoting "criminal actions" in Syria, the ministry said "in this case, required retaliatory measures will be taken," Tass reported. "If a new strike of this kind takes place, the consequences will be very serious," Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a separate statement also carried by Tass. Most popular: Passengers Blame United Airlines Flight Attendant for Death of 10-Month-Old Puppy "Mrs. Haley should understand that it is one thing to irresponsibly exploit the microphone in the U.N. Security Council and it is another thing when both the Russian and American militaries have communication channels and it is clearly stated via these channels what can be done and what must not be done," he added. Russia intervened in Syria in 2015 at Assad's request, helping him overcome a 2011 uprising sponsored by the West, Turkey and Gulf Arab states. As lines blurred between the mainstream Syrian opposition and jihadis groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), the U.S. switched its focus from regime change to defeating ISIS via support for a mostly Kurdish coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. But Turkey, a U.S. ally and fellow NATO Western military alliance member, has objected to Washington's support for Kurdish militias, which Ankara accused of harboring ties to the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). A joint Turkish and Syrian rebel attack on the Kurdish enclave of Afrin has drawn Kurdish fighters away from the U.S.-led coalition fight against ISIS and into an alliance with Assad against Turkey. RTS1NEQL Institute for the Study of War/Reuters Responding to Russia's vow to strike back against potential U.S. military action in Syria, the U.S.-led coalition said its main focus was to fight ISIS, but that it shared Haley's opinion on the use of chemical weapons in Syria. "Coalition officials regularly engage their Russian counterparts via established ground and air deconfliction lines, with the goal of ensuring mutual understanding and preventing escalations in tension. Our interactions with Russian officials have been professional and effective, proving the value of the deconfliction effort," coalition spokesman Colonel Thomas Veale said in a statement sent to Newsweek. "Although the Coalition does not speak for the United States, we acknowledge the U.S. government's stance, echoed by our Coalition and NATO partners, that the use of chemical weapons use is unacceptable," he added. Veale said the coalition would to continue backing the remaining, mostly Arab fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces still battling ISIS in eastern Syria. These forces faced an "operational pause" due to the departure of Kurdish fighters, as well as recent tensions between pro-Syrian government forces that erupted into deadly violence, including the deaths of Russian citizens from U.S. airstrikes last month. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek Nikolai Glushkov, a close ally of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, died at the age of 69 - Linked In Counter terrorism police have launched an investigation into the unexplained death of a Russian business partner of Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Putins arch enemy. Nikolai Grushkov, 69, was found dead at his home in New Malden in south London on Monday evening. Grushkov was the closest aide to Berezovsky who died in mysterious circumstances in 2013 at his home in Surrey. The death of Grushkov just eight days after the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, the Russian double agent who sold state secrets to MI6, will cause alarm although Scotland yard has insisted there is no evidence to suggest the two incidents are linked. Friends of Berezovsky insist he was murdered on president Putins order. The metropolitan Police said in a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon: An investigation is underway following the death of a man in his 60s in Kingston borough. The home in New Malden Credit: Ben Stevens/ i-Images Picture Agency Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 10.46pm on Monday, 12 March to reports of a man found deceased at a residential address in Clarence Avenue, New Malden. Officers attended and next of kin have been informed. Whilst we believe we know the identity of the deceased, formal identification is yet to take place. A post-mortem examination will be held in due course. Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky Credit: Sang Tan /AP The death is currently being treated as an unexplained. If there is a change in the status of the investigation, an update will be provided. At this stage the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had. There is no evidence to suggest a link to the incident in Salisbury. Nikolai Glushkov: The businessman twice charged with fraud in Russia Mr Glushkov left Russia after a Moscow court sentenced him to a two-year suspended sentence for fraud in 2006. In March last year, he was handed a second eight-year sentence in absentia and a one million Russian Ruble fine for allegedly defrauding Aeroflot of $122 million during his tenure as finance director there in the late 1990s. Story continues Mr Glushkov denied all the charges against him. In 2016, he told Russian media that Aeroflot was attempting to sue him in a civil case in the High Court in London. Russian spy poisoning | Read more Bereaved friends speak of his life and work Vasily Trunin, a friend and apparent former colleague, wrote on Facebook: "Every time we get on a new, up-to-date plane made by Aeroflot, one of the best airlines in Europe, we can remember Kolya (Nikolai) Glushkov, who was one of the few people who managed to pull an airline out of the Soviet backwater. "A shame, a great shame. He was a good friend." This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. He told the Telegraph that he met the former Aeroflot manager in London and that he had been a close friend of Mr Berezovsky and Badri Patarkatsishvili. "I saw Boris and Badri a lot at that time and observed their friendship with Nikolai. He really was a very good friend of theirs." Nikolai Glushkov before he left Russia Paying tribute to Mr Glushkov, he said: "I heard many positive reviews about his organizational skills, his understanding of building production processes." Another friend wrote that Mr Glushkov was the "best person [he] ever worked for". Alexander Goldfarb, a Russian-American activist who has campaigned for justice for Alexander Litvinenko, wrote that he was saddened by the death. By Polina Ivanova MOSCOW (Reuters) - Most Russians intending to vote for Vladimir Putin in Sunday's election say stability is at the root of their faith in their candidate - though many young voters believe it's time for a change of leader. Putin, 65, is expected to win a fourth term in office with 69 percent of the vote, according to the latest survey by a state-run pollster. Reuters correspondents and photographers who traveled around the country talking to voters ahead of the March 18 election found nothing to contradict expectation of an emphatic Putin victory. (For a Russian election photo essay by Reuters click on http://reut.rs/2p4eHp4) In Crimea, participating in a Russian presidential election for the first time since the territory was annexed from Ukraine in 2014, engineer Andrei Lukinykh said Putin was the only candidate who could provide stability in tough times. "As the saying goes, you don't change your horses mid-stream. Unlike the others, my candidate can provide the stability that's needed," Lukinykh said. For Muscovite student Yulia Dyuzheva, economic progress during Putin's 17 years in office won him her vote. "As a representative of the younger generation, I can say that for us, young Russians, all the doors are open. Everyone is able to grab the opportunities presented and make the most of themselves, in whatever town or region," Dyuzheva said. But others believe Russia is ready for a change. Accountant Natalia Dementieva, also from Moscow, said she was casting a vote for TV personality Ksenia Sobchak - one of seven other candidates - because she supported more freedoms. "[Sobchak] speaks the truth, openly. She doesn't lie. She raises issues which are taboo under our government." "The next generation to rule this country were born between 1982 and 1987. There's a lot of them and they don't remember what it was like in the Soviet Union. So they're less afraid." Sobchak is expected to garner 2 percent of the vote, according to a March 9 poll by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Centre. That's less than the 3 percent who plan to stay at home, some of whom may be heeding opposition leader Alexei Navalny's call to boycott the vote after he was barred from being on the ballot. From the Communist Party, wealthy farm boss Pavel Grudinin, 57, is set for a stronger showing, at 7 percent. For Alexei Gruk, a mechanic from St Petersburg, voting for the Communist Party sends the signal that things need to change at home, but he wants Russia's foreign policy to stay the same. "To hell with the sanctions," Gruk said. "So what if they don't bring foreign stuff here anymore? As if that means we have to give in. I don't care." Nationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a veteran lawmaker, is expected to garner 5 percent of votes, according to latest polls, while liberal economist Grigory Yavlinsky should receive 1 percent. (Editing by Richard Balmforth) MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will only respond to a British demand it provide answers about the nerve agent that poisoned former double agent Sergei Skripal if London lets Moscow analyze the substance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. British Prime Minister Theresa May said it was "highly likely" that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning in England of Skripal and his daughter using a military-grade nerve agent that was part of the Novichok group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military. Lavrov said the British government was obliged to provide Moscow access to the substance because Britain and Russia were signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention. But London had so far refused to provide Moscow access to the substance and other materials related to the poisoning case, Lavrov said. "On these absolutely legitimate demands ... we received a gibberish response, which in general can be summarized by saying that we were denied these legitimate requests," he said. Britain should fulfill its international obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention before Russia will respond to its request, Lavrov said. "In general, speaking of manners, it must be remembered that the era of colonialism has for a long time been a thing of the past," he said, commenting on May's ultimatum to Moscow to explain the use of the nerve agent by the end of Tuesday. Lavrov said Britain was handling the Skripal poisoning the same way it did the case of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 in London after drinking green tea laced with radioactive polonium-210. Britain alleged the Russian state was behind Litvinenko's killing. Moscow denied involvement. "We began to cooperate with the investigation (on the Litvinenko case), but it was classified and we were told that all information could not be provided to us," said Lavrov. "Now everything is beginning the same way: we are given nothing in response to our application," Lavrov said. Lavrov said Russia had no connection to Skripal's poisoning and was ready to work together with the British authorities in line with the Chemical Weapons Convention. "We have already made a statement that this is all nonsense ... We have no relation to it," Lavrov said of British allegations of Russian involvement. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova and Polina Nikolskaya, Editing by Andrew Osborn) Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, center, arrives to testify at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Tuesday. Also pictured are Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) (right), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) (left). (Photo: Tom Williams via Getty Images) WASHINGTON Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Tuesday swung back at critics of his use of private planes that the government has paid for, accusing one senator of slinging insults and innuendos. During a Senate committee hearing to discuss the administrations proposed budget for his department, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) asked Zinke if he thought it was a mistake to have chartered a flight from Las Vegas to his home state of Montana, which cost taxpayers more than $12,000. Insults, innuendos are misleading, said Zinke, visibly agitated. I never took a private jet anywhere. I resent the fact of your insults, he told Cantwell. I resent the fact theyre misleading. For his trip to Montana he flew on a Beechcraft King Air 200, a twin turbo-prop aircraft. Zinke has billed taxpayers for his use of private planes two other times. In September, Zinke characterized the controversy surrounding these flights as a little BS. His use of chartered and government aircraft is under investigation by both Interiors Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Special Counsel. As he defended himself at the hearing, Zinke also claimed that his immediate predecessor as Interior secretary Sally Jewell, who served under President Barack Obama spent nearly $1 million on roughly 80 chartered flights. But those figures, reported by CNN in October, were for both Jewell and the Obama administrations first Interior secretary, Ken Salazar. Sally Jewell, I think she was right, Zinke said. I think her travel patterns, even though she took a private chartered airplane, was met by helicopter and did a hike, I think she was right because as (interior secretary) she was out hiking and doing what she was supposed to be doing. Cantwell in her opening remarks also made a reference to recent news that Interior is spending nearly $139,000 to replace doors in Zinkes office. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. She said she could talk a lot about private planes ... and doors, but there are also very important public policy issues here that I hope to focus on. Story continues The doors reference also caused Zinke to bristle. He said he was prepared to go through his expenses line by line. Cantwell said public concern is growing over how money is being spent at Interior, as the Trump administration looks to slash the departments budget by 15 percent while proposing to drastically hike entrance fees at 17 of Americas most popular national parks. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) also blasted Zinke, accusing him of a shell game with a wildfire account at Interior to pay for an unrelated helicopter ride. He said voting to confirm Zinke to lead the agency was one of his biggest regrets during his time in the Senate. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) came to Zinkes defense during the hearing, saying it was wrong that people are giving him heck for taking a chartered plane in a remote part of Alaska. Ive been shot at before. Im very comfortable with it, Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, responded. Do right. Fear no man. Do the best you can. Everything I do is scrutinized. ... I get raked all the time. He added that he and his family are pretty tough. Were a military family, were pretty tough about it. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. A science teacher is under investigation after reportedly feeding a puppy to a turtle. Robert Crosland, of Preston Junior High School in Idaho, fed the snapper turtle in front of students after classes had ended for the day, according to local media. Marc Gee, superintendent for the local school district, said in a statement his team was aware of a regrettable circumstance involving some of the biological specimens last week. The event occurred well after students had been dismissed and was not a part of any school-directed program, he said. It is unclear if the dog was dead or alive at the time of the incident, but former students told East Idaho News Mr Crosland had previously fed guinea pigs to snakes and turtles during class demonstrations. He is a cool teacher who really brought science to life, a former student told the news outlet. I loved his class because he had turtles and snakes and other cool things. The school district began investigating as soon as it heard about the episode, Mr Gee said, and the local sheriffs office has been informed. We hope that any errors in judgement made by a teacher in this instance will not cause us to forget the years of care, effort, and passion the teacher has given to students in Preston School District, Mr Gee added. Mr Crosland has not been charged or suspended. Franklin County Sheriffs Office has been contacted for comment. Moscow (AFP) - Dissident Soviet scientist Vil Mirzayanov gained notoriety in the 1990s when he blew the cover on Moscow's secret experimentation with Novichok, the nerve gas used in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in Britain. Mirzayanov had worked for almost three decades in the Soviet Union at the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology. After he was fired in 1992, he and another scientist wrote a newspaper article revealing how the government had developed deadly chemical compounds known as Novichok -- or "newcomer" in English. Now 83 and living in the United States, Mirzayanov described the sophisticated substances used to make the Novichok agents which had been developed under a classified programme codenamed Foliant, or folio. Novichok agents are binary chemical weapons, he said, which means that their potency only manifests itself after chemical synthesis of relatively harmless components. Since the same chemical elements in Novichok are used to make pesticides, facilities producing these substances can easily be disguised as civilian factories, he wrote. Mirzayanov said he had witnessed several scientists failing to regain their health after exposure to a Novichok-type agent. "The damage it inflicts is practically incurable," he said in the article. Asked this week about the March 4 poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, he was quoted as saying: "These people are gone -- the man and his daughter. Even if they survive they will not recover." - Scientific 'conspiracy' - In his memoirs published in Russian in 2002, Mirzayanov said his institute and others in the country involved in the chemical weapons programme continued their research even after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and as Russia proclaimed disarmament and a ban on chemical weapons. Binary bombs had been developed since the 1970s and were tested at a military base used for chemical weapons in a town called Shikhany in Russia's southern Saratov region and also in Uzbekistan, Mirzayanov wrote. Story continues "Like hundreds of other scientists, I was participating in a conspiracy against the future convention on chemical weapons," he said. He had been put in charge of controlling potential leaks of harmful chemicals used in the Foliant programme into the air and waterways. His memoirs describe witnessing a relatively unsuccessful test of a precursor to Novichok-type agents based on a chemical named simply "Substance-33". In the test, the substance was deployed in vapour form via a bomb dropped from a plane. The Novichok agents were not listed in the eventual Chemical Weapons Convention because Russia kept them secret, Mirziayanov argued. Mirzayanov became involved in Russia's nascent democratic movement and wanted to make his concerns about the chemical weapons programme public. As a result of his dissident activities, he was fired from the institute. He then decided to write the whistle-blowing article in a Moscow newspaper along with another chemist, Lev Fyodorov. They warned of poor safety standards at the Moscow facility and vast quantities of harmful chemicals stored elsewhere in Russia. The article led the authorities to prosecute Mirzayanov for divulging state secrets. He was arrested in October 1992 and held for several days in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo prison, used by the security services. His case was eventually closed in 1994 after considerable international pressure on the Russian authorities. Mirzayanov has lived in the United States since 1996. Russia declared in 2017 that it had destroyed all of its chemical weapon stockpile. Moscow has rejected accusations of involvement in poisoning Skripal. Fox News host Shepard Smith called out President Donald Trump on Monday for backpedaling on his vow to reform gun control. After publicly stating earlier this month that the National Rifle Association had little power over him, the president tweeted Monday that the White House would support NRA-approved gun control measures, which include arming teachers and a limited expansion of background checks. Trump said there was not much political support for raising the age limit to purchase firearms from 18 to 21 years old. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Thats not true, Smith said. Its just not factually accurate. There is broad-based support for raising the gun age limit. The Fox News host is right. Theres overwhelming public support for the issue, plus Democrats in Congress have been calling for common-sense gun control measures for years. Theres not much political support within the Republican Party, and certainly not within the NRA. The Fox News host suggested the president was pandering to the NRA instead of keeping his promise to students of Parkland, Florida, who survived a deadly mass shooting at their high school last month. The president told the kids at Parkland, Ill go strong on this, Ill work on this age thing, Smith said. He came up to the general public and said to the Congress, Oh, the NRA has a lot of pressure on you, has a lot of effect on you, but not on me so much. And then he met with the NRA. Check out Smiths response in the video above. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Duff Wilson and Reade Levinson MONTROSE, Colorado (Reuters) - After Gerald Cactus Hollenback died of heart disease last May, his wife contacted Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors here to have him cremated. Now, Shirley Hollenback is worried about what became of her husbands body. In a lawsuit filed against Sunset Mesa and its owner, Megan Hess, Hollenback alleges that the ashes she received are not from her husband, a former U.S. Marine who died at age 81. Instead, she fears that all or parts of Cactus Hollenbacks corpse may have been sold by a side business Hess ran from the funeral home: a so-called body broker company called Donor Services. Hollenback is among dozens of people in this remote Rocky Mountain town concerned about what became of friends and family whose funerals or cremations were handled by Hess. Earlier this year, a Reuters report highlighted Hesss unusual twin business of running a funeral home and a body brokerage -- a company that takes the donated dead, dismembers them and sells their body parts, typically to educators and researchers. In the wake of the report, federal agents raided the facility, and state regulators ordered Sunset Mesa, the funeral home, to shut down. In Colorado and most other states, operating a body broker firm is legal. But running such a business from the same facility that houses a funeral home and crematory is highly unusual. Reuters found no other operation active in America that housed a funeral home, crematory and body broker in the same place and run by the same owner. In the order shutting down the facility indefinitely, Colorado regulators found that Hess failed to maintain required cremation records for at least five years and final disposition records of the deceased for at least seven years. Sunset Mesa also disposed of bodies before obtaining the required permits, according to the state order. The order also cited concerns about a case involving the ashes Hess returned to one family. Hess sent the family what she said were the cremated remains of the body. But the order said the remains were analyzed by the family and found to be concrete. Since the shutdown, Hess has not responded to emails from Reuters seeking comment, and Sunset Mesas web site was taken down. The attorney who was once speaking on her behalf was unavailable when Reuters visited the law office, a receptionist said. The lawyer, Carol Viner, also did not respond to written questions. The FBI has been so overwhelmed by calls about Hess that it set up a hot line and email address (sunsetmesa@fbi.gov) for people with information or concerns. Its now distributing a questionnaire titled Seeking Victim Information in Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors Investigation. Late last month, the agency also released a statement saying it would be testing some ashes. Its tearing families apart, said Laurie Gowen, 56, a longtime worker at a local grocery store. Her husband co-owned the funeral home before Hess. The whole community is really in a bad way over this whole thing because she ran a lot of bodies through there, Gowen said. The scope of the Hess operation remains unclear. A Reuters review of death notices found Sunset Mesa handled arrangements for at least 128 people in 2017, 85 in 2016 and 59 in 2015. Donor Services shipped at least 26 boxes containing bodies or body parts from the funeral home in 2016, according to partial shipping records the news agency saw. Some of those shipments were headed to Saudi Arabia, according to Melissa Hardee, co-owner of Retriever Freight, the company that handled shipments for Donor Services. Hardee said she intended to contact the FBI. Shirley Hollenback said she grew suspicious when she went to the funeral home to collect her husbands ashes. She said workers told her they couldnt find them and that Hess was in Hawaii. Five days later, Hollenback said, Hess drove to her mobile home and gave her a black box with a white sticker labeled G. Hollenback. Hess, she said, told her that the cremated remains had been in a safe, which was why they could not be immediately located. After hearing about the Hollenback case, Reuters enlisted the help of researchers at Western Carolina University to examine the ashes. The news agency paid $1,200 for the testing. The results raise questions about who is in the box. For example, Cactus Hollenback was wearing no jewelry and was clad only in pajama pants and a zipperless sweatshirt when his corpse was taken from the hospital to Sunset Mesa, Shirley Hollenback said. But researchers found what appeared to be metal fragments in the ashes. That debris could be parts of a zipper and a wristwatch burned during cremation, said two veteran funeral directors who examined pictures of the ashes. I have the watch that Cactus used to wear, Shirley Hollenback said. I checked his wrist for a pulse and he had no watch on. Shirley Hollenback and her daughter filed suit against Hess Feb. 21 in Montrose County District Court. They allege that Hess sold part or all of Cactus Hollenbacks body and gave them someone elses remains. The suit asks for unspecified damages for emotional distress, horror, grief and humiliation. Some Sunset Mesa clients had better experiences. Marcia Schroeder said Hess handled funerals for her father in 2012 and her father-in-law a few months ago. All I can say is, for me and my family, she was excellent, Schroeder said. Very personable, very honorable. Others are left as a headline in the local newspaper put it last month NOT AT PEACE. Connie Logan Montano of Montrose wonders about the buried cremains of the daughter who died in 2007 and the brother who passed away in 2015. Shed like to have them dug up and tested, but her elderly father would object. It would destroy him, Montano said. Heather Thomas, 29, of Okmulgee, Oklahoma, recalled asking Hess to let her see her fathers body before cremating it in June 2015. He died in Colorado at age 46. A family friend had asked Hess to handle arrangements for free. We couldnt afford it at that time, Thomas said. Thomas, who lived out-of-state, said Hess told her that she would not want to see the body. Thomas insisted. She said Hess agreed to delay cremation until Thomas could get to Montrose. But when Thomas arrived at Sunset Mesa two days later, she said, Hess rudely told her the body had been cremated. Hess gave her and other family members some ashes, which Thomas says she still has. It makes sense now that she would have done something shady, Thomas said. Doing all this free of charge out of the goodness of her heart? I dont know. Even then I was a little suspicious. And now Im just wondering: Whats the truth? (Reporting by Duff Wilson in Montrose and Reade Levinson in New York. Additional reporting by Andrea Januta in New York. Edited by Blake Morrison.) Until the mid-1800s, purple clothing was difficult to come by and restricted only to those who could afford the expensive fabrics. That is, until Sir William Henry Perkin accidentally discovered aniline dyes, the most famous of which is known as mauveine. The chemist was honored Monday with a Google Doodle on the homepage of the search engine. The doodle was in celebration of what would have been his 180th birthday. The chemist was just 18-years-old when he discovered the dying process that brought purple clothing to the masses. Purple clothing was in style at the time of Perkins synthetic dye discovery in 1856, which changed the world of fashion. The dye offered what natural dyes couldnt: it was available in abundance because it was manufactured, and it didnt fade the way natural dyes did. Trending: Wolfenstein 2 DLC: The Deeds Of Captain Wilkins Download Time Revealed Google's Doodle features Perkin, dressed in shades of purple in front of a crowd of people dressed in similarly vivid colors. The letters of the word Google trail through the crowd almost like a ribbon. The illustration was created by Sonny Ross, an artist based in the United Kingdom, according to Google. sir william henry perkin Google Facts about Sir William Henry Perkin and his dyes: After decades dedicated to manufacturing and working on dyes, Perkin went back to research after he sold his factory in 1874. Don't miss: How Much Snow Will We Get? Winter Storm Skylar to Drop Up to 22 Inches in Boston, 7 in New York Perkin was knighted in 1906, an honor for achievement awarded by the British Empire, thats why there is a Sir before his name. Queen Victoria wore a gown that was dyed using mauveine in 1862 to the Royal Exhibition. Perkin was trying to find a synthetic treatment for malaria when he accidentally discovered the dye. Story continues Most popular: Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion Story Details Revealed on Twitter The chemical dye had many names including Tyrian Purple and aniline purple in addition to mauveine and finally, just mauve. Perkin also discovered the process by which synthetic perfumes could be made. Aniline red, aniline black and aniline magenta were subsequent colors Perkin went on to discover and patent through his research. The dye was used in more than just clothing, it was also used in the medical research industry where the dyes were used to identify anthrax and tuberculosis on a microbial and bacterial level. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek By Joe Brock JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was dealt a political blow on Tuesday, after a last-minute legal challenge by a group loyal to ousted leader Jacob Zuma blocked the signing of $4.7 billion in renewable energy deals. The North Gauteng High Court agreed to hold a full hearing on the challenge on March 27 after the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) and Transform RSA, a group which has lobbied for Zuma in the past, on Monday argued the deals would lead to coal-sector job losses and should be scrapped. State power utility Eskom was due to sign 27 mostly wind power and solar deals with independent power producers (IPPs), in the first major investment deal since Ramaphosa replaced Zuma last month. "We are confident that the court will recognize that our rights have been violated," NUMSA said. The projects were delayed for two years under Zuma as he pursued a much-criticized $100 billion nuclear power plan. Ramaphosa, a wealthy businessman, has made revamping the economy a top priority. But many investors are concerned about his ability to push through reforms given deep divisions in the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Zuma reluctantly resigned last month under sustained pressure from sections of the ANC but his allies remain in high-level roles in the party and are opposed to Ramaphosa. 'ULTERIOR MOTIVES' "Given our history, it is natural that you suspect ulterior political motives in the court application," said Dominic Wills, a director at Sola Future Energy, one of the energy companies involved in the deals. Transform RSA, which wrote a letter to the ANC leadership in January saying removing Zuma would put the country in "jeopardy", denied it was motivated by political ends. "Transform RSA is a non-profit, grassroots lobby organization," the group's president Adil Nchabeleng told Reuters. "We are opposed to the prohibitive cost of the IPP contracts." The energy ministry said in a statement it decided not to sign the contracts until after the court ruling and reaffirmed its commitment to expanding green energy programs. Some investors remained positive. "I'm still fairly optimistic these deals will be signed. When you look at the cold, hard facts about our economy, these are the sort of deals that need to be done," Wills said. CORRUPTION PROBE NUMSA and Transform RSA argue that a switch to renewable energy would increase electricity costs for poor South Africans. Energy analyst Chris Yelland, however, said the cost of renewable energy had fallen significantly and it was now cheaper than new coal and nuclear projects. South Africa relies on coal-fired plants for more than 80 percent of its electricity generation, while renewables contribute around 7 percent. Eskom is one of the world's largest producers of greenhouse gases. "Ultimately this application is futile and economic sense will prevail. South Africa must transform from a dirty energy economy to a cleaner energy economy," Yelland said. South Africa's renewable power program was the fastest-growing in the world seven years ago, attracting $15 billion of investment into wind farms and solar projects involving a cluster of new IPPs backed by foreign investment. Over the past two years Eskom stopped signing renewable energy contracts and focused instead on a plan to build a fleet of nuclear power plants, in a deal that some members of the ANC and rights groups said would be open to corruption. Eskom's former board is being investigated by parliament over allegations it siphoned off state funds to companies controlled by the Gupta family, businessmen friends of Zuma. Zuma and the Guptas deny any wrongdoing. (Reporting by Joe Brock; Additional reporting by Alexander Winning and Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Ed Cropley, Jason Neely and Mark Potter) Paris (AFP) - Britain is keen for back-up as its espionage row with Russia escalates -- yet the diplomatic crisis comes at a time when its ties with European partners have been badly strained by Brexit. France, Germany and the European Union all expressed solidarity with London on Tuesday over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent in Britain on March 4. France called the attempted assassination "totally unacceptable", while Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany was taking claims of Russian culpability "extremely seriously". The European Commission meanwhile, through Vice President Frans Timmermans, said that European support was "unequivocal, unwavering and very strong". The issue "should be addressed by all of us and not just left to Prime Minister (Theresa) May and the British government -- it is a collective European responsibility," Timmermans added. The issue is likely to come up at a summit of all 28 leaders including May in Brussels next week -- their first chance to discuss the poisoning face to face. Four years after the EU imposed sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Crimea in Ukraine, members will now face a decision over whether to join Britain if it takes retaliatory action. May has promised unspecified measures if Moscow does not explain how the Soviet-developed nerve agent Novichok was used against Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the quiet British town of Salisbury. At stake is whether the EU feels it should back up London beyond expressions of support following Britain's decision to leave the bloc following its referendum in 2016. That choice has badly hit ties, with the complicated Brexit process leading Britain into conflict with its neighbours over its divorce agreement and future trading relationship with the bloc. "Any reasonable person looking at this terrible attack would come to the conclusion that Brexit is a completely different thing," said Francois Heisbourg, the head of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Story continues "You will always find some Schadenfreude among some people, but chemical weapons are a serious thing," added the former French diplomat. Asked in parliament on Monday if she was working with the EU, other NATO countries and US President Donald Trump, May said she was keeping Britain's allies abreast of developments. Britain would "continue to talk to them to ensure that they are aware of what has happened on British soil and that we can talk with them about the response that we will be giving," she said. - Changing alliances - In a call between May and French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday evening, the leaders discussed "the wide pattern of aggressive Russian behaviour" and agreed it would be "important to act in concert with allies" to address it, according to a statement from May's office. Macron on Tuesday blasted the "unacceptable" nerve agent attack and expressed his "full solidarity" with the British government. He has begun his presidency insisting he wants to keep communication channels open with the Kremlin, seen as vital for his diplomatic efforts to find solutions to the Syrian civil war and the conflict in Ukraine. The 40-year-old French president might be reluctant to provoke Vladimir Putin ahead of a planned trip to Russia in May, which a French diplomat, speaking on Monday, said was still expected to go ahead. Moscow has denied any involvement in the attempted murder of Skripal. Britain faces the added difficulty that its famed "special relationship" with Washington looks increasingly weak. Trump has resisted imposing sanctions on Russia over alleged election meddling by the Kremlin in the 2016 US presidential election. The US President urged Moscow Tuesday to provide clear answers about the nerve agent attack and voiced US solidarity with London in a call with May. - Previous sanctions - The EU first imposed sanctions on Russia in March 2014 over the annexation of Crimea which included travel bans and asset freezes targeting people involved in or profiting from the invasion. It followed up with more sweeping economic sanctions targeting sectors of the Russian economy in July that year following an attack on Malaysian Airlines jet MH17 over Ukraine, blamed by the EU on Russian-backed rebels. Those measures, plus further sanctions imposed in September, were extended this week. "The UK can convince the EU countries to adopt sanctions against Russia, but it will be difficult," commented Sam Greene, head of the Russia Institute at King's College London. "I think Westminster (the British government) would like to have a strong reaction from the EU, but I don't think it will happen." adp-burs/kjl/pvh Stormy Daniels is offering to return every penny of the $130,000 in hush money so her 60 Minutes interview can see the light of day. In the bombshell offer, her lawyer told the presidents legal team Monday that his client will pay $130,000 to Donald Trump by wire transfer. In exchange, the non-disclosure agreement will be deemed "null and void," thus allowing Daniels to speak "openly and freely" about her "relationship with the president." But it may not be that simple. "The idea of Stormy Daniels going to the president and saying, 'Here is your $130,000 back, I have had second thoughts.' That falls under the 'nice try' category," legal expert Royal F. Oaks told Inside Edition. "You cannot unwind a deal." The adult film star taped the 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper last week, but reports say Trump's lawyers are threatening to go to court to stop it from airing, but it may be a losing battle. "There is absolutely no chance Donald Trump and his lawyers are going to be able to block the interview with Stormy Daniels it would be unconstitutional censorship and prior restraint," Oaks said. "It aint gonna happen. As the legal battle rages, Daniels is cashing in on her notoriety and faced a gauntlet of photographers as she showed up at a strip club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., over the weekend, flanked by bodyguards. Daniels claims in the suit that she began an affair with Trump in the summer of 2006, around the same time first lady Melania Trump had given birth to her only child with the president, son Barron. She said the affair continued into 2007. Trump has denied they had an affair. There has not been a word from the president about the scandal, but he's got plenty to say about everything else. At a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday, Trump lashed out at some of his favorite targets, including "fake as hell" CNN, and NBCs Chuck Todd, calling the latter a son of a bitch. Story continues On Meet the Press, Todd challenged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about Trump's remarks. "When he uses vulgarity to talk about individuals, what are they supposed to tell their kids?" Todd asked Mnuchin. "He's using those vulgarities in the context of a campaign rally, obviously there are a lot of funny moments on that rally," Mnuchin replied. "Yeah, they were hilarious," Todd sarcastically quipped. At the same rally on Saturday, Trump also took aim at the prospect of Oprah Winfrey running for president. I would love to beat Oprah, Trump told the room of supporters. I know her weakness." Oprah has denied she is mulling a bid for 2020. On Sunday, Oprah appeared on CNN's The Van Jones Show and said not to give any energy to Trumps claims she might run. I am not running for office, she declared. But if I were running for office and I am going to say whoever is going to run for office Do not give your energy to the other side. Do not spend your time on that. RELATED STORIES Is a Midlife Crisis to Blame for Trump's Alleged Indiscretions With 4 Women? Parkland Shooting Survivor Kyle Kashuv Describes 'Astonishing' Meeting With President Trump Trump Raises Eyebrows With Gridiron Dinner Joke That Melania May Be Next to Leave White House Related Articles: Aden (AFP) - A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group hit UAE-trained Yemeni troops in the government bastion of Aden on Tuesday, killing six people -- including a child -- and wounding dozens. The attack in the north of the port city hit an army mess hall serving the so-called Security Belt brigade, which is supported by government ally the UAE, a security source said. At least six people were confirmed dead, including a young child, and 30 wounded, the source said, adding that they included passers-by. An AFP journalist saw at least five casualties being carried out of the charred building. Several cars parked nearby were severely damaged. IS claimed the attack on its propaganda arm Amaq, saying an "act of martyrdom by car bombing" had hit the "main headquarters for food run by the Security Belt which is loyal to the United Arab Emirates, in the area of Dareen in the Mansoura district of Aden". Aden is controlled by the Yemeni government and its allies in a Saudi-led coalition, who are battling Shiite Huthi rebels who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north. But it also hosts jihadists of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, who have both claimed attacks in the city in recent years. On February 24, twin suicide bombings claimed by IS hit a base of an Aden counter-terrorism unit, killing five people, including a child. The government established its headquarters in Aden, Yemen's second city, after the rebels forced it out of the capital in 2015. In January, Aden was rocked by deadly clashes that saw southern separatists seize much of the city from other pro-government forces. Beirut (AFP) - From the bloody repression of peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime to foreign intervention, below are key dates in Syria's civil war as it enters its eighth year. The complex conflict has left more than 350,000 people dead, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while millions have been displaced and the country lies in ruins. - Revolt and repression - On March 15, 2011, unprecedented protests demand civil liberties and the release of political prisoners after four decades of repressive rule by the Assad family. Denouncing "an armed rebellion by Salafist groups", the regime represses demonstrations in Damascus and the southern city of Daraa but protests continue. In July, defecting army colonel Riad al-Assad sets up the Turkey-based rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA). Islamist groups join the revolt. - Air strikes, Hezbollah, Iran - In March 2012, regime forces take control of the rebel stronghold in third city Homs after a month of bombardment. Other bloody operations are carried out, notably in the central city of Hama, after massive anti-regime protests. In July, FSA fighters launch a battle for Damascus but the government holds firm. From 2013, regime helicopters and planes unleash crude barrel bombs on rebel zones. The same year, Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah says it is fighting alongside Syrian government forces. Iran also boosts its military support for longtime ally Assad. - Chemical weapons - In August 2013, Washington accuses the regime of killing more than 1,400 people with chemical weapons in rebel-held districts near Damascus. In September, the United States and Assad ally Russia agree a plan to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons, averting punitive US strikes against the regime. But forces on the ground, in particular from the regime, have been accused of using chemical weapons since. In April 2017, a sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun kills more than 80 people, prompting Washington to attack a regime air base. Story continues - Rise of the jihadists - In January 2014, hostilities between jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and rebel groups turn into an open war in the north. ISIL, the future Islamic State (IS) group, takes Raqa -- the first provincial capital to fall out of regime control -- from rebel forces. The jihadist offensive allows Damascus to justify its fight as a battle against "terrorism". - Coalition air strikes - In September 2014, a US-led coalition launches air strikes against IS in Syria. The strikes benefit Kurdish groups, which since 2013 have run autonomous administrations in Kurdish-majority areas and go on to oust IS from key areas. - Russia to Assad's aid - In September 2015, Russia launches air strikes in support of Assad's troops, who are on the back foot. Russian firepower helps turn the tables for the regime, which begins to retake rebel-held territory, including second city Aleppo in late December 2016. In January 2017, Russia and Iran, as backers of the Syrian regime, and Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, organise talks in Kazakhstan, between representatives of both sides. The process leads to the creation of four so-called "de-escalation zones", although sporadic fighting and bombardments continue. - Turkish offensive - In an added complication to the drawn-out conflict, Turkey launches an operation in January 2018 against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) which, with US support, played a key role in beating back IS. The militia controls the Afrin region on the border with Turkey, and Ankara is wary of Kurdish aspirations for autonomy, labelling the YPG a "terror group". - Blitz of Eastern Ghouta - On February 18, the Syrian regime launches a ferocious assault on the remaining rebel-held enclave near Damascus, Eastern Ghouta. In less than four weeks, the Russian-backed onslaught kills more than 1,220 civilians, a fifth of them children, according to the Observatory. The Walk-Man humanoid robot is tested for use with emergency response teams. The Avatar XPrize is challenging teams to create a robot avatar that can let humans see, hear and feel objects from anywhere in the world. (image: Reuters) AUSTIN Four years from now, physical attendance at SXSW could be optional for those who choose to send a sci-fi-style avatar in their place. That vision closed out Mondays programming at the festival, as sold in a talk onstage by XPrize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis announcing the latest in a series of XPrize competitions, in which non-government teams from around the world compete to solve an intimidatingly-difficult problem. The ANA Avatar XPrize, sponsored by All Nippon Airways, will offer $10 million in total awards to whoever builds a multipurpose avatar system that will seamlessly transport human skills and experience to the exact location where and when they are needed by October 1, 2021. Faraway, so close Diamandis pitched the avatar concept as the logical outcome of exponential advances in computing power and robot capability meeting 5G wireless with its gigabit-speed and low-latency connectivity. Avatars would enable their human operators to see, hear and touch via the robots sensors and actuators, essentially allowing them to teleport their skills and knowledge to anywhere in the world although the contest requirements only require the avatar to work from at least 100 kilometers away. Its about dislocating the knowledge from the physical location of action, he said. The doctor and entrepreneur described three possible use cases: disaster recovery, multi-purpose utility and personal care. The first seems obvious, since we already use robots to extend human senses to places too dangerous for a direct human presence. Diamandis raised the example of sending an avatar into a failing nuclear plant to adjust whatever controls might stop a meltdown. The second might be a harder sell, at least in the examples of surgery by avatar that Diamandis raised. While avatars could get around the uneven geographical distribution of medical talent and training, they wont give the worlds most talented surgeons any more time in which to practice their craft. Story continues And personal care as Diamandis put it, to go someplace and give someone a hug will depend heavily not on how effectively the avatar conveys the scene to its human, but on how the avatar represents the human. The contest rules dont mandate human-looking robots. We dont specify what technology they should use or what it should look like, Diamandis said. The avatars depicted in his presentation made no attempt to mimic humans along the lines of, say, the robots in the 2015 movie Ex Machina. XPrize feats and flops The ANA Avatar XPrizes goal might seem solidly locked in the realm of science fiction, but past XPrize competitions all modeled after the 1919 Orteig Prize that rewarded Charles Lindberghs 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic have motivated engineers and programmers to accomplish things previously deemed implausible. The first such contest, 1996s Ansari X Prize, succeeded brilliantly in 2004 when SpaceShipOne became the first privately-built reusable spaceship to complete two suborbital flights in two weeks. In his talk, Diamandis lauded Richard Bransons subsequent move to commercialize that rocket. He did not mention Virgin Galactics numerous setbacks one test vehicle broke apart in flight in 2014, killing one pilot, and the company has yet to resume powered test flights. He also talked up such past competitions as the 2012 contest sponsored by Qualcomm (QCOM) to build a real-world medical-diagnosis equivalent of Star Treks tricorder and current competitions to harvest water from the air, make ocean floors accessible to robots, and develop an Android app that could teach basic literacy and math to students around the world. Diamandis was especially effusive about that $15 million contests potential, saying Were going to open-source the winning software, so you can build a billion teachers a year. One other XPrize competition went unmentioned: The Google (GOOG, GOOGL) Lunar XPrize competition to see who can land the first privately-build robot on the Moon. The organizers announced in January that with no chance of any of these teams meeting the March 31 deadline, nobody will win its grand prize. Techno-utopianism While much of SXSWs talks this year have emphasized the dangers of technology, Diamandis took a more positive approach in his talk. Were living during the most extraordinary time ever in human history, he said at its start. Its a time when were making the impossible possible every day. And when one audience question asked about the potential misuse of avatars, he simply observed that every technology can be used for good and bad. As he sees this concept, avatars will become a household item and, as he suggested at a subsequent reception, the future of transportation. Im skeptical of that last bit. Avatar SXSW attendance would leave those visiting virtually no way to enjoy the taste of barbeque or breakfast tacos, and thats no way to have a trip to Austin. More from Rob: Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro. Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. WASHINGTON When President Donald Trump floated pulling the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal last year, his Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged him to keep the agreement intact. On Tuesday, Trump fired Tillerson, citing the ousted diplomats position on the Iran deal as a key point of friction. Trump said he plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo, an outspoken critic of the Iran nuclear accord, to head the State Department. Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time, Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for California. We got along, actually, quite well but we disagreed on things. When you look at the Iran deal; I think its terrible, I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently. Against the recommendations of some of his top advisers, Trump has already moved toward withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran, the U.S. and five world powers. Last October, Trump took the symbolic step of decertifying the Iran deal while still officially keeping the U.S a party to the accord. At the time, Trump urged Congress to pass legislation that would unilaterally alter U.S. commitments under the international agreement a move that the Iranians would likely see as a breach of the deal. Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) drafted legislation in line with Trumps request, but it failed to attract support from Democrats. Even so, Trump has continued to waive new sanctions against Iran, the key U.S. commitment under the agreement. In an effort to convince Trump to stay in the nuclear accord, European allies who are party to the deal have scrambled to cobble together an additional agreement that would address some of the criticisms of the nuclear agreement, including tougher limits on Iranian missile tests. Trump has threatened to refuse to sign the next round of sanctions waivers, due on May 12, unless the Europeans reach an agreement to fix the nuclear deal. Story continues Tillerson never appeared to have much sway over Trumps thinking but supporters of the Iran deal fear that by pushing Tillerson aside and replacing him with Pompeo, the president is paving the way to pull out of the agreement altogether. Now with news of Pompeo replacing Tillerson, the writing seems even more clearly on the wall as to the fate of the Iran deal, Robert Malley, a former Middle East adviser in the Obama administration, tweeted on Tuesday. Pompeo, a Republican hawk and former Army officer, has long railed against Tehran and the Iran deal. A day before his nomination to the CIA was announced, he tweeted he was looking forward to rolling back what he called the disastrous agreement. Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, welcomed Pompeos nomination to the State Department on Tuesday. Haley also opposes the Iran deal, and she has tried to rally the international community behind the Trump administrations stance on Iran. In December, she accused Tehran of violating U.N. Security Council resolution by providing missiles to Houthi rebels in Yemen. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. If Trump pulls out of the nuclear accord altogether, it is possible that Iran and the other parties to the deal China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom would continue to uphold its terms. European diplomats have already signaled they are considering ways to insulate their companies from secondary U.S. sanctions if the U.S. walks away from the agreement and reimposes sanctions. But Iran could also choose to declare the deal null, citing non-compliance by the U.S. In that case, Iran could ramp up its nuclear program and international inspectors would lose access to the countrys nuclear sites. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed skepticism that Tillersons exit will result in the complete undoing of the nuclear agreement. I think the Iran deal is kind of baked. In that that the president has laid out what he wants from international actors I dont really think it affects the outcome, Corker told reporters on Tuesday. But I think this is a decision the presidents going to make based on where the Europeans evolve to, he added. And its solely the responsibility of the administration to work out something with our European allies. Its not Congress responsibility. Its theirs. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Niamey (AFP) - Three police officers were killed in western Niger in a border region that has come under repeated attack from jihadists, the defence ministry said Tuesday. "On Monday at around 21:40 (2040 GMT) the police station at Goube was attacked by terrorists. We have three dead and an injured among our ranks," a statement said. Goube, located about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the capital Niamey, lies in a region that has suffered repeated attacks from jihadist incursions from neighbouring Mali. Local radio Saraounia said the encounter lasted about 30 minutes and the attackers fled after police reinforcements arrived. It said the assailants had probably fled to Mali. In attacks in this region last October, 12 Nigerien gendarmes were killed and four US troops and four Nigerien soldiers died in an ambush. Niger is a member of the so-called G5 Sahel group, also comprising Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Mauritania, which are building a joint military force to fight jihadism in the vast Saharan region. N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Monday Washington was considering lifting a travel ban on Chad, offering an olive branch to a key ally in the fight against Islamist militant groups in West Africa. The top U.S. diplomat flew into the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, on the last day of a truncated tour of Africa with stop-offs in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Nigeria - all frontline partners against Islamic State and al Qaeda off-shoots. It was his first diplomatic visit to the continent where many are still smarting from U.S. President Donald Trump's reported dismissal of states there as "shithole" countries in January. Trump later denied making the comment. Tillerson said Chad had made important steps to strengthen control over its security and passports. "These steps I think are going to allow us to begin to normalise the travel relationship with Chad," he told reporters. A report on Chad's progress was being prepared in Washington and would be reviewed by President Trump next month, Tillerson said. "We have to wait for the final report," he added. Tillerson, who had met Chadian President Idriss Deby previously while serving as CEO of ExxonMobil, said he was concerned about the presence of Islamic State-allied militants in the Sahel and called Chad an "important partner". TRIP CUT SHORT In September, The Trump White House added Chad - along with North Korea and Venezuela - to a list of countries whose citizens are restricted from travelling to the United States. That drew protests from Chad and others, including France, which works closely with the Chadian military. Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland security said at the time Chad had to failed to send in proof that it had taken a number of security measures. Chad's Deby "expressed his incomprehension" about the ban during a meeting with Tillerson on Monday, Foreign Minister Cherif Mahamat Zene said. Tillerson flew to Nigeria after Chad for a stay of just a few hours, less than the overnight visit originally planned. His entourage said he had been forced to cut short the African tour on Monday to return to deal with urgent work in Washington. He held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari behind closed doors in the capital, Abuja. Following their talks, Buhari's office issued a statement saying the president discussed plans to negotiate for the release of 110 girls abducted from a school in the northeastern town of Dapchi last month rather than use a military option. The girls are suspected of having been abducted by members of Boko Haram. Tillerson also held a press conference with Nigeria's foreign affairs minister, during which he said the U.S. was helping Nigeria in the fight against the jihadist group and in the hunt for the missing girls. "Supporting, equipping, training and we can advise and provide information - I think that's the best way we can help the government of Nigeria secure the release of these girls which we hope will be done in a peaceful manner," he said. The Africa tour coincided with several urgent foreign policy developments, including Thursday's announcement that U.S. President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Reporting by pool reporter and Paul Carsten in Abuja; Writing by Maggie Fick and Joe Bavier; Editing by Tim Cocks and Larry King) A major Republican fundraiser and power player with deep business ties to the United Arab Emirates reportedly urged President Donald Trump to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in October, and claimed the nations top diplomat was weak and a tower of Jello, according to leaked email messages released Tuesday. Elliott Broidy, a member of the Republican National Committees finance team and a well-known bundler for GOP fundraising efforts, described his October 2017 meeting with Trump in an email to George Nader, an adviser to the UAEs crown prince, and said Tillerson needed to be slammed, a BBC report on the emails said. Tillerson was fired by Trump on Tuesday, after months of speculation about when the embattled secretary of state would leave his post. Broidy specifically took umbrage with Tillersons lack of support for Trumps decision to back Saudi Arabia, UAE and other Arab nations moves against Qatar last year. (Broidys intelligence-gathering and security company, Circinus, also has contracts worth millions with the UAE.) Trending: Kellyanne Conway Took Private Jets At Taxpayer Expense, Too, But White House Won't Talk, House Democrat Says Tillerson recently stated the diplomatic row among the Gulf states was having an adverse effect on the United States. "This dispute has had direct negative consequences economically and militarily for those involved, as well as the United States. We are concerned by the rhetoric and propaganda employed in the region, playing out daily in Arab mainstream and social media, Tillerson said at a strategic dialogue meeting on the U.S. and Qatars relations in January. GettyImages-931374290 Getty Images/Mark Wilson In his email to Nader, who is currently cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Russian election meddling in 2016, Broidy also explained how he encouraged Trump to meet with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and a UAE military officer. Story continues Don't miss: Golden State Warriors Coach Tells Teens to 'Scare the Hell out of' NRA and Trump by Registering to Vote "I offered that MBZ [the crown prince] is available to come to the US very soon and preferred a quiet meeting in New York or New Jersey. President Trump agreed that a meeting with MBZ was a good idea," Broidy wrote. He also wrote that he told Trump that Tillerson should be fired at a politically convenient time." Trump denied he was plotting Tillersons ouster for months. But The New York Times reported in November that Trump planned to cut ties with Tillerson and install CIA Director Mike Pompeo as the newest secretary of state. Trump announced Tillersons firing Tuesday on Twitter, and conflicting reports make it unclear as to whether Trump notified the former ExxonMobil chief of his dismissal before taking to social media. The president nominated Pompeo to head up the State Department in the same Tweet. Most popular: People Are Poor in Africa Because They Sleep Too Much, Ugandan President says Broidy told the BBC he believes the Qatari government hacked his emails. "We have reason to believe this hack was sponsored and carried out by registered and unregistered agents of Qatar seeking to punish Mr. Broidy for his strong opposition to state-sponsored terrorism," a spokesperson for Broidy told BBC in a statement. Broidys spokesperson also said that some of the emails might have been altered, but did not expand on that assertion to the BBC. Qatar denied accusations of hacking and also threatened legal action against Broidy and others in a statement. "Qatar would like to state unequivocally that it has not engaged in or committed any of the alleged accusations made falsely by Mr. Broidy, nor has it engaged or paid anyone to do so, the statement read. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek The internet has been weaponized and is currently under threat, computer scientist and creator of the World Wide Web (WWW) Tim Berners-Lee has warned. In a letter posted online Monday, the 29th birthday of the WWWs 1989 invention, Berners-Lee said misinformation and questionable political advertising hosted on major social networking websiteswho are the new set of gatekeepershave changed the web significantly from its initial conception. He called for increased regulation. The internet as we know it, initially funded in the 1960s by the U.S Department of Defense, is now dominated by a handful of platforms such as Google and Facebook, who feed on the personal information of web users from around the world. Trending: Saudi Arabia's Women Lawyers Granted New Legal Powers As Kingdom Aims to Be More Inclusive Sir Tim Berners-Lee Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images The concentrated power of these firms, Berners-Lee said, is cause for concern. Weve looked to the platforms themselves for answers, he wrote. Companies are aware of the problems and are making efforts to fix themwith each change they make affecting millions of people. The responsibilityand sometimes burdenof making these decisions falls on companies that have been built to maximize profit more than to maximize social good. A legal or regulatory framework that accounts for social objectives may help ease those tensions. Don't miss: Sir William Henry Perkin Google Doodle: 8 Facts About Father of Synthetic Dyes Under his title as director of the Web Foundation, the British computer expert said the divide between those who have access to the internet and those who dont is deepening existing inequalities. In 2016, the United Nations (UN) ruled that access to the internet and protected online freedom was a human right. Last year, social media giants, most headquartered in the U.S., faced intense political pressure after admitting to being exploited by Russian internet trolls to spread misinformation and propaganda during the 2016 presidential election. Story continues Internet and laptop Rawpixel/Unsplash Most popular: Church of Scientology Launching TV Network to Tell Its Side of the Story Berners-Lee complained that tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter now have control over which ideas and opinions are seen and shared online. He called for computer experts to be a little more creative in solving these problems. Dominant platforms are able to lock in their position by creating barriers for competitors, he wrote. They acquire startup challengers, buy up new innovations and hire the industrys top talent. Add to this the competitive advantage that their user data gives them and we can expect the next 20 years to be far less innovative than the last. Whats more, the fact that power is concentrated among so few companies has made it possible to weaponize the web at scale. Weve seen conspiracy theories trend on social media platforms, fake Twitter and Facebook accounts stoke social tensions, external actors interfere in elections, and criminals steal troves of personal data. He concluded: I want to challenge us all to have greater ambitions for the web. I want the web to reflect our hopes and fulfill our dreams, rather than magnify our fears and deepen our divisions. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - Britain must "translate speeches into treaties" and come up with a detailed plan for its post-Brexit ties with the EU, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Tuesday. EU leaders have been pressing British Prime Minister Theresa May to clarify what she wants before they agree their position on the future economic partnership at a summit later this month. A series of speeches by May have done little to satisfy Brussels, and Juncker warned it was particularly crucial for London to clarify its plans for the sensitive issue of the Irish border. Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg ahead of a summit in Brussels next week, Juncker made a direct plea to the British leader for more detail. "Prime Minister May, give us some more clarity on how the UK sees its future relation with the European Union," he said. "As the clock counts down with one year to go, it is now time to translate speeches into treaties, to turn commitments into agreements, broad suggestions and wishes on the future relationship into specific workable solutions." He said it was "especially important" that Britain comes up with concrete proposals for the border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which is staying in the EU. Both Britain and the EU have vowed to avoid the return of customs checks to the border and an interim deal in December left some flexibility on the issue, but an EU text putting the agreement into law has sparked a fresh row with London. The draft EU text published last month says Northern Ireland must stay in a customs union with the rest of the bloc if no better way is found to avoid a hard Irish border -- which Britain rejects. Juncker told MEPs the draft text simply translated the December accord into legal language and "should not come as a shock". And the former Luxembourg PM warned London the EU institutions and member states stood squarely in support of Ireland on the issue. Story continues "For us this is not an Irish issue, it is a European issue. It is all for one and one for all -- that is what it means to be part of this union," he said. Britain hopes to begin talks on the future trading relationship with Brussels next month, and May set out her proposals for a new wide-ranging free trade agreement in a speech on March 2. But EU Council President Donald Tusk warned last week that the Irish border issue must be solved before negotiations can move on to other issues. (DES MOINES, Iowa) The majority leader of the Iowa Senate resigned Monday after a website published video and photos showing the married lawmaker kissing a statehouse lobbyist. Bill Dix submitted a one-sentence resignation letter several hours after the liberal website Iowa Starting Line published its report about the Shell Rock Republican. Dix did not comment on the circumstances surrounding his resignation as majority leader and as state senator, though Republican Senate President Jack Whitver alluded to the websites allegations in a statement. I believe he made the right decision for himself and for his district, but most importantly, I believe he made the decision in the best interest of his family, said Whitver about Dix. Republicans in the GOP-controlled chamber plan to elect a new majority leader on Wednesday. The incident caps a swift response from Senate Republicans after Iowa Starting Line posted video and photos on Monday showing Dix and the woman sitting together at a Des Moines bar. The video shows the two kiss. The website said the incident was recorded March 1. The woman was identified as a lobbyist for Iowa League of Cities, an organization that seeks to sway legislation at the state Capitol. She did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Robert L. Palmer, director of government affairs and legislative counsel for the organization, said in an email to AP: We are taking what we believe are appropriate actions, but because this is a personnel matter we cannot comment further. After Dixs resignation, GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement: I believe he made the right decision in stepping down Iowans hold their elected officials to a high standard, and as elected officials, we have an obligation to lead. Senate Minority Leader Janet Petersen, a Des Moines Democrat, released a statement calling the video a serious matter. Because this involves Senator Dix and a lobbyist, there will be questions about the impact of this relationship on legislation, she said in a statement. Story continues Petersen used her statement to reiterate her criticism of Dix for how he handled a recent sexual misconduct case within the chamber, which involved a former Senate GOP staffer. The ex-employee filed a lawsuit several years ago claiming she was fired after reporting misconduct in the workplace that included the use of sexual language. The lawsuit went to trial last summer, and she was later awarded $1.75 million. Dix has maintained the ex-staffer was fired for poor performance. An internal report later revealed senators made sexually suggestive comments or discussed sexual preferences on the chamber floor in recent years, and staff members in the Republican Senate office were unlikely to report misconduct because of fear of retaliation. The Iowa Legislature has since hired a human resources director to oversee harassment complaints at the state Capitol. Legislative leaders in the Republican-controlled Iowa House have not commented on Dix, who had been a top Republican in the Senate for several years. He became majority leader after GOP lawmakers took control of the chamber following the 2016 election. Washington (AFP) - CIA director nominee Gina Haspel could face a tough confirmation battle after a number of lawmakers raised questions Tuesday about her past involvement in torture of detainees. A veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's black operations, Haspel, 61, was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the top US espionage body, after he named current CIA director Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state. Haspel is widely respected in the intelligence community as a disciplined, non-political field agent who took on hardship positions and unsavory jobs. From that she rose to manage the global clandestine network before becoming deputy director one year ago. But her history during the US "war on terror," overseeing interrogations in CIA black sites later exposed as torture, has already set back her career once and could stand in the way again. Several senior politicians said they would challenge her over torture, ensuring a likely heated debate when she goes up before the Senate Intelligence Committee for confirmation in the coming weeks. "The torture of detainees in US custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history," said Republican Senator John McCain, who himself was tortured as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. "Ms Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program during the confirmation process." "Ms Haspel's background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director," said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden. - 'Secret Thailand prison' - Haspel would be the first woman ever to run the CIA. She joined in 1985 and served as chief of station in several posts around the world. In 2013, she was named to head the National Clandestine Service. But she was quickly replaced after political questions were raised over her role in post-9/11 interrogations. She oversaw the CIA's black site prison in Thailand in 2002, where, according to numerous reports, key Al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were brutally interrogated, slammed against walls, and repeatedly waterboarded. Story continues She later was helped destroy videotapes taken of the detainee interrogations. The CIA has always maintained that what it did was legal, the interrogations authorized by president George W. Bush and ruled lawful at the time by the Justice Department. Torture has since been explicitly outlawed by the government, and despite Trump's endorsement of it, there have been no reports of the US intelligence agencies returning to the practice. Haspel is appreciated by many in the intelligence community, a number of whom said she will be a good change from the highly political Pompeo. "She is capable, smart, very experienced, well respected by the agency rank and file, and a great person, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Cipher Brief website. "I think it's much better to have intelligence professionals serving in senior intelligence positions." Former CIA Clandestine Service director John Bennett said she took on "some of the most demanding and least rewarding assignments in the War on Terror, not because she sought them out, but because she felt it was her duty." - Russia expertise - Besides her record on torture, Haspel will be pressed on the CIA's views of Russia, which Pompeo seemed to downplay in deference to Trump, who has labelled stories of Russian interference in the 2016 election "fake news." Having once served as deputy director of the CIA's Russia group, Haspel, her defenders say, knows her stuff. "Ms. Haspel 'grew up' in the CIA during the Cold War. She will have no illusions about the nature of the Russian state or the KGB-trained autocrat who runs it," said Bennett. Haspel is "a far cry from the current partisan director. She isn't one to play politics, won't be soft on Russia," said Nick Shapiro, former CIA deputy chief of staff. Rihanna just made these dancing kids Instagram famous. (Image: Rihanna via Instagram) Rihanna has some pretty adorable new squad members. The songstress celebrated being the first female artist to reach 2 billion worldwide streams on Apple Music by posting an adorable video of some young girls dancing their hearts out to the song Nowo by DJ Spinall and Wizkid. The post, which RiRi said represented her mood, has generated 2.6 million likes and interest in who the kids were. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Turns out these dancing queens are part of a troupe out of Lagos, Nigeria, called Dreamcatchers. which is made up of 10 children seven girls and three boys. Theyve been dancing together since November 2014. According to their social media bio, they are street kids from the city Ikorodu. Dance puts us in school & off the streets, it says. The kids and their 26-year-old instructor, Seyi Oluyole, were recently nominated for the Best Creative Social Enterprise Award via African Creative Exhibition and Awards. (Voting is open until March 15.) Here are some more of their performances: This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. In one of the groups Instagram posts, the caption reads, This time last week, we didnt have lunch, but here we are this week getting so much love with 12k followers! (That number has since climbed to 42,000.) Our hope has been renewed. Rihanna, at a Vogue event in October, has helped put these street kids from Africa on the map. (Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images) A post on the Dreamcatchers Instagram page shows the gratitude the kids have for Oluyole, the force behind the group: You see all our smiles and dance videos, there is someone behind it all. There is a special person who took us off the street and takes care of us. She feeds us, sends us to school, buys us clothes and takes care of us even when we are sick. She is Aunty Seyi. And if we dont eat, she wont eat. If we are sick she will stay by us until we are well. She even teach us to dance. She is the helper God sent to us. On Oluyoles own page, she wrote, I dont usually think theres anything special that Im doing. Ive been doing this for years and always found joy. In a recent BBC News feature on her, she talked about how soon after started working with the kids, she told them that she would no longer teach them dance unless they attended school. It was a big motivator for them. Part of them living with her and learning to dance includes an agreement, also signed by their parents, that they must be doing well in school. Story continues Oluyole tells Yahoo Entertainment that as a teenager, she slept on the road a couple of times due to some financial issues her family was going through. That influenced her to help other children, specifically children who are from the street and from bad homes. She saw so many potentials in children, and decided to harness this potential, rather than let it go to waste. The BBC recently did a feature on Seyi Oluyole: This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. And fame they have found. After Rihanna shared the initial video, which has also been posted by Naomi Campbell (Diddy shared a second one), the kids made her a thank you video, in which they held up a sign and told her that they love her. Oluyole reports to Yahoo that the Dreamcatchers are elated about Rihannas shout-out. All the children work very hard for a better future and to get the recognition from Rihanna after all our hard work in the past four years is definitely a great thing, she says. It just goes to show that we are doing something right and there is truly hope for the children. The shout-out from Rihanna is proof that being born in the ghetto/street/[a] poor home doesnt mean we cant achieve something good. She adds that all the kids got a piece of chicken today to celebrate. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. On Tuesday, Rihanna shared part of that thank you in a post, in which she referred to the dancers as her Lil squad and told them they made her day. In just five hours, its received 1 million likes. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Truly, theres a lot to like in their performances and spirit. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Ottawa (AFP) - From an aluminum smelter, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called US President Donald Trump on Monday to press for a permanent exclusion from US tariffs on aluminum and steel. It was their first conversation since Trump last week imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, raising trade tensions. Trudeau "emphasized that preserving (the two nations') mutually beneficial supply chains is critical to jobs and businesses on both sides of the border," according to a summary. The prime minister was touring an aluminum smelter in Alma, Quebec. He was to also visit three Canadian steel cities this week to reassure workers. His Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, will be in Washington on Tuesday and Thursday to "advance Canada's efforts to keep trade open, fair and barrier-free, to benefit people on both sides of the border," her ministry said in a statement. She is to meet US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Congressional leaders and others. Canada, the top supplier of steel and aluminum to the US market, has been temporarily exempted from the tariffs, along with Mexico. When Trump announced the 10 percent tariffs on aluminum and 25 percent on steel, he said Canada and Mexico could be exempted permanently if the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is successful. In the call with Trudeau, Trump "emphasized the importance of quickly concluding the ongoing NAFTA negotiations," the White House said. But both Mexico and Canada have rejected Trump's linkage of the levies to the ongoing NAFTA talks. "We will continue working toward securing a definite and permanent exemption from those tariffs," Trudeau said earlier. He said he and Trump also "welcomed and encouraged the progress being made on negotiation of the renewed North American Free Trade Agreement" and discussed an opioid crisis affecting both nations. With the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Tuesday, Defense Secretary James Mattis lost his closest ally in the tumultuous Trump Administration. A retired four-star Marine Corps general, Mattis consulted with Tillerson on a daily basis to resolve foreign policy dilemmas spanning from strife on the Korean Peninsula to the formulation of a new Afghanistan strategy. When Mattis unveiled the U.S. National Defense Strategy earlier this year, he stressed this importance of working with Tillerson to tackle issues and dealing with the White House. It starts with me having breakfast every week with Secretary of State Tillerson, Mattis said during the Jan. 19 speech. We talk two, three times a day, sometimes. We settle all of our issues between he and I, and then we walk together into the White House meetings. That way, State and Defense are together. Mattis, whos currently in Afghanistan on travel, has consistently deferred to State and Tillerson on anything to do with North Korea. He did that again this weekend when he told reporters traveling with him that he plans to not discuss North Koreas willingness for diplomatic talks and possibly abandon their nuclear program. This is a diplomatically led effort, Mattis said. So I do not want to talk about Korea at all. Ill leave it to those who are leading the effort, the State Department and the NSC. Trump has named former CIA chief Mike Pompeo as Tillersons replacement. Mattis has worked closely with Pompeo in the administration, but has not yet developed as close as a bond. Students across the country are planning to walk out of their schools on Wednesday in a demonstration demanding action on gun violence. The timing could not be better, because the renewed campaign for tougher gun laws now faces its biggest test whether, in the face of a major political setback, it can sustain the energy that has kept it going since Februarys mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. That setback happened on Monday, when President Donald Trump released his proposal for fighting gun violence. Less than two weeks ago, Trump presided over a televised, bipartisan meeting at the White House, where he boasted of standing up to the National Rifle Association and vowed to pass the kind of ambitious, meaningful gun legislation that his predecessor could not. But the agenda Trump released Monday is yet another example of big talk before tiny action. It doesnt include expanding background checks so that they include all sales. It doesnt include a ban on some or all assault-style weapons. Hes not even endorsing more anodyne proposals, like a higher minimum age for the purchase of assault weapons. Instead, Trump is calling to arm teachers, tweak the current background check system, and launch a blue-ribbon commission that will investigate options for further action. The commissions leader will be Betsy DeVos, the secretary of education yes, the person who keeps getting confused about her own departments policies during public appearances and, during her confirmation hearings, said she supported guns in schools in case of grizzly bear attacks in places like Wyoming. Trump did endorse one potentially important policy idea: passing laws that would give law enforcement power to take guns from people who threaten public safety. But that was an exhortation for states, not Congress, to act. The pattern, alas, is familiar. After the Sandy Hook massacre in December 2012, then-President Barack Obama made new gun legislation the first priority of his second term. Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, worked with Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania to craft a bipartisan bill to expand background checks. Story continues But every other Republican opposed it and a handful of Democrats did too. It was six votes short of the 60 it needed to clear the Senate. The bill didnt lack popular support. On the contrary, polls at the time showed that a large majority of Americans supported expanding background checks. But more rural, more conservative states have disproportionate power in the Senate, and their lawmakers tend to be more skeptical of gun legislation. The ones who might have been wavering the ones who believe firmly in a right to bear arms but also consider background checks a reasonable way to manage ownership worried about political backlash. They figured the polls didnt capture the intensity gap on guns, which has historically favored the NRA and its allies. Come the next election, these lawmakers figured, the only voters who would care or remember about a background check bill would be the ones who oppose gun legislation. The political landscape looks pretty similar right now. Universal background checks are extremely popular. So are bans on assault-style weapons. Support for these ideas has, if anything, grown since the Parkland shooting. But Republicans are in charge of Congress, and many oppose new gun legislation on principle. The ones willing to consider aggressive gun legislation figure they have more to fear from angry supporters of gun rights than they do from angry supporters of gun control laws. The student-led movement for new gun laws can change that. Wednesdays demonstrations are the first step. If students really walk out, all across the country, it will be a sign that the movement represents more than a fleeting reaction to the Parkland shooting. Next comes the march on Washington, at the end of the month. If turnout looks anything like it did for the 2017 womens march, it will capture national media attention and suggest that supporters can maintain their intensity, just as the NRA and its allies always have. But the push for new gun laws cant stop there, because the election is still more than seven months away. Advocates need to keep applying pressure in a visible way by, for example, showing up at public events for lawmakers who would oppose new gun laws. That model worked pretty well for defenders of the Affordable Care Act in 2017. Although many Republican lawmakers responded by canceling their public, town hall-style events, that strategy wont work this time, because the Republicans will have to be out campaigning. Advocates for new gun laws will also need to hone their arguments about what they want and why they think it will work. This should be easier than it was after Sandy Hook, because organizations like the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Everytown For Gun Safety and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence have spent the intervening years gathering and analyzing research, and translating it for advocates who are trying to make arguments. Choosing targets will also be a challenge. The primary focus of the campaign will inevitably be Republicans, because as long as the GOP is in charge of Congress, meaningful legislation has virtually no chance of passing. But there are Democrats who oppose gun legislation, and the new movement will have to single them out too. That means pointing out Democrats like Conor Lamb, the candidate hoping to win Tuesdays special election for a Republican House district in Pennsylvania. Lamb has said he opposes new gun laws. Above all, though, the advocates for legislation have to keep calling b.s. when they see it. That very much includes Mondays effort from the White House, which administration officials have tried desperately to portray as ambitious. The Trump administrations gambit here is clear. Officials want to make the vast majority of Americans who support meaningful gun laws believe the administration is on their side, while endorsing measures that either wont make much difference or wont pass anyway. Its easy to assume the gambit will succeed, because thats how the gun debate has played out in the recent past. But there are reasons to think this time will be different. One of them is the students leading the movement right now. They have the countrys sympathy, but they are also smart and savvy. They grasp intuitively how to make arguments and organize through social media. What they dont know, they are learning quickly. And they are not alone. They are part of a broader uprising against Trump, his allies and the policies they pursue. It started with the womens march, carried on through the fight against Obamacare repeal, and has grown to include protests on behalf of Dreamers and West Virginia public school teachers. That is the kind of movement that can produce legislation and, ultimately, save lives. They just have to keep at it. Wednesday is their first opportunity. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. President Trump on Tuesday announced the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, appointing CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson, and Gina Haspel, Pompeos deputy director at the CIA, to take over for Pompeo. If confirmed, Haspel will be the first woman ever to lead the U.S. spy agency. In a statement, Trump called Haspels appointment a historic milestone. Haspel, who has spent most of her 30-plus years in the CIA undercover and has held numerous posts overseas, is well regarded within U.S. intelligence circles. But shes also a controversial choice. Its no secret Ive had concerns in the past with her connection to the CIA torture program and have spent time with her discussing this, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday. To the best of my knowledge, she has been a good deputy director and I look forward to the opportunity to speak with her again. The Associated Press reports that Haspel oversaw a secret prison in Thailand, the agencys first overseas detention site, where accused terrorists Abu Zubaydah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded. Last year, the New York Times noted that she oversaw the torture of the terrorism suspects and later took part in an order to destroy videotapes documenting their brutal interrogations. Haspel, the Times said, played a direct role in the CIAs extraordinary rendition program, in which captured militants were handed to foreign governments and held at secret facilities, where they were tortured by agency personnel. President Barack Obama ordered the so-called black sites shuttered in 2009, shortly after he took office. According to the New Yorker, the torture program subjected dozens of suspected terrorists to savage interrogations, which included depriving them of sleep, squeezing them into coffins, and forcing water down their throats. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, oversaw the secret operation in Thailand from 2003 to 2005, the AP said. Story continues The lobby of CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. (Photo: Larry Downing/Reuters) Later in 2005, she took part in the destruction of videotapes that showed the interrogation of Zubaydah and al-Nashiri. According to ProPublica, Haspel drafted the order to destroy the tapes, which was approved by her then-boss, Jose Rodriguez, the CIAs director of operations for counterterrorism. The cable left nothing to chance. It even told them how to get rid of the tapes, Rodriguez wrote in his memoir, according to ProPublica. They were to use an industrial-strength shredder to do the deed. Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor turned whistleblower who is living in exile in Russia, expressed his disbelief about the selection of Haspel. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Both Trump and Pompeo have voiced their support for torture. Trump was blunt in doing so. Torture works, he said during the campaign, calling for bringing back techniques far, far worse than waterboarding. (During the transition, however, Trump said that Gen. James Mattis, who he was considering for defense secretary, convinced him that torture was not the right approach.) During his confirmation hearings, Pompeo said that he would absolutely not be in favor of bringing back waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques that were previously utilized by the CIA. But in written responses to questions after his hearing, Pompeo said he would be open to reviving the controversial torture program if circumstances warranted. Although Haspels appointment to deputy director was exempt from Senate confirmation, her appointment by Trump to director requires one and she will undoubtedly be grilled by lawmakers over her role in the Bush-era torture regime. In 2013, Feinstein, then the senior Democrat on the intelligence committee, publicly protested Haspels promotion to acting head of the CIAs clandestine service because of her participation in the torture program. When Haspel was named deputy CIA director, in February 2017, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., sent a letter to Trump urging him to block her appointment. Her background makes her unsuitable for the position, they wrote. Read more from Yahoo News: WASHINGTON President Trump announced early Tuesday morning that he was dismissing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The State Department said the news came as a surprise to Tillerson, which appeared to contradict claims made by the White House that Tillerson had been alerted at least several days earlier. Trump plans to name Gina Haspel, the current deputy director of the CIA, to replace Pompeo. If her appointment is confirmed, Haspel will be the first woman to head the agency. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all, Trump said in a tweet. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson participates in a news conference in Abuja, Nigeria, March 12, 2018. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Trumps decision continues a period of extraordinary turbulence for his administration, which has seen a record level of turnover among top-level staffers and Cabinet officials. Tillersons departure comes on the heels of the abrupt exit of Gary Cohn, who was Trumps top economic adviser. Cohn resigned March 6. The State Department released a statement from Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein saying Tillerson did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason for his dismissal. The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security, the statement said. Hours later, Goldstein himself was fired, evidently for contradicting the White House version of event. A senior Trump aide told reporters that White House chief of staff John Kelly telephoned Tillerson, who was traveling in Africa, on Friday to tell him he would be replaced. The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kelly made clear that it was imminent. Kelly called Tillerson again on Saturday and reiterated the Friday conversation, said the aide, whose remarks suggested Trump hoped Tillerson would resign. Story continues Tillerson cut short his trip and returned to Washington Monday. The president is traveling to California on Tuesday. He briefly spoke to reporters before boarding Marine One and suggested he had communicated with Tillerson about the move. Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time, Trump said. President Trump speaks to the media prior to departing on Marine One from the White House March 13. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) The Washington Post was first to report the news of Tillersons exit. There had been persistent tensions between Trump and Tillerson, including a report last October that the secretary of state had called the president a moron in a Pentagon meeting. Tillerson never fully denied that report. The pair also clashed on policy issues including Iran, North Korea and the blockade against Qatar. Just before Trump revealed his surprising decision earlier this month to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Tillerson had said it was not yet time to negotiate with Pyongyang. And on Monday, Tillerson struck a far different tone than the White House when he strongly attacked Russia over the attempted assassination of a former spy now living in Britain. The White House declined to blame the poison-gas attack on Russia despite assertions by the British government. When he spoke to reporters before boarding Marine One, Trump said he and Tillerson were not really thinking the same way. As an example, he cited the Iran nuclear deal, which he has denounced and Tillerson sought to fix. Trump said he and Pompeo are always on the same wavelength. The relationship has been very good, and thats what I need as secretary of state, Trump said of Pompeo. Trump also suggested the recent White House turnover was headed toward a positive outcome. Im really at a point where were getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want, said Trump. The White House released a series of statements to Yahoo News, including one from Trump in which he praised Pompeo, a former Republican congressman. CIA Director Mike Pompeo during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill Feb. 13. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) As director of the CIA, Mike has earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community, Trump said. I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture. He will continue our program of restoring Americas standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Trump called for Pompeos speedy confirmation as secretary of state. His experience in the military, Congress, and as leader of the CIA have prepared him well for his new role, and I urge his swift confirmation, said Trump. Trump suggested Pompeo and Haspel had developed a strong relationship during their time at the CIA. Gina Haspel, the deputy director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo, and she will be the CIAs first-ever female director, a historic milestone, Trump said. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect. Screengrab of Gina Haspel, October 2017. (Video still via the OSS Society/YouTube) Trump concluded his statement with a brief expression of gratitude to Tillerson. Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last 14 months, and I wish him and his family well, Trump said. Trump is clearly confident both Pompeo and Haspel will be confirmed in their new roles. Pompeo already had been confirmed by the Senate in the early days of the Trump administration last year. Haspel, a 30-year veteran of the agency, will likely face questions about her role at a controversial CIA black site in Thailand where two detainees were tortured in 2002. The White House also released statements from Pompeo and Haspel. Pompeo said he was deeply grateful to President Trump for the opportunity to lead both the CIA and the State Department. His leadership has made America safer, and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further Americas prosperity, Pompeo said of Trump. Haspel said she was humbled by Trumps confidence in her. If confirmed, I look forward to providing President Trump the outstanding intelligence support he has grown to expect during his first year in office, Haspel said. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump on Tuesday sacked his top diplomat Rex Tillerson and named current CIA chief Mike Pompeo to succeed him, ending a rocky tenure by the Texas oilman who had frequently been at odds with the mercurial US president. A senior White House official said Trump wanted to reshuffle his team with a view to launching talks with North Korea, following last week's spectacular announcement that he plans to meet Kim Jong Un by the end of May. While Trump thanked Tillerson "for his service," he was sparing in his praise of the 65-year-old former Exxon chief, long rumored to be on the way out. Before leaving on a trip to California, Trump spoke openly of their differences -- singling out the Iran nuclear deal -- as he explained the rationale for the latest departure from his chaotic White House. "We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things," Trump told reporters. "When you look at the Iran deal, I thought it was terrible, he thought it was okay." The remark suggests Tillerson's sacking spells trouble for the agreement, under which Iran surrendered much of its nuclear infrastructure and opened the rest to international inspection in exchange for sanctions relief. "I wish Rex a lot of good things," the president said. "I think Rex will be much happier now." The outgoing secretary of state, who returned overnight from a trip to Africa, did not address reports he only learned of his sacking when Trump tweeted the decision, saying only he had since spoken to the president. In his farewell remarks Tuesday, he said Washington must do more to respond to Russia's "troubling behavior" -- one day after slamming Moscow for its alleged involvement in an attempted assassination using a nerve agent in Britain. Tillerson will pass authority at midnight to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan, remaining at the department for handover purposes until March 31. Story continues In announcing the reshuffle, Trump lavished praise on Pompeo, a former US army officer and congressman who led the CIA for nearly 14 months, calling him "the right person for the job at this critical juncture." "He will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Trump added. But Democrats quickly pounced on the news. - 'Exceeded expectations' - "There's a pattern and practice to dismiss anyone with whom this president has a policy difference, and that appears to be the case with Secretary Tillerson," Senator Dianne Feinstein said. To succeed Pompeo at the Central Intelligence Agency, Trump nominated Gina Haspel, a controversial career intelligence officer who is the first woman tapped for the post. Haspel is reported to have overseen a CIA "black site" in Thailand where Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded -- widely deemed a form of torture -- after the 9/11 attacks. Both Pompeo and Haspel require Senate confirmation to assume their new posts. A hearing for Pompeo is expected in April. Adding to the day's drama at the State Department, Steve Goldstein, the undersecretary for public affairs and public diplomacy, was also shown the door after issuing a statement supportive of Tillerson. Goldstein wrote that the secretary "had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues," indicating he was caught off guard by Trump's move. Within hours, Goldstein himself was fired. Tillerson's sacking caps a tumultuous tenure at the State Department. He was repeatedly forced to deny he had fallen out with Trump -- vowing to remain in the post despite a sensational report that he once dubbed the president a "moron." A respected businessman, his tenure drew scorn from Trump's opponents and the Washington policy elite. His own employees, too, were disappointed in their boss, who made it clear he intended to follow through on plans to cut 30 percent or more of the prestigious agency's budget. During his time in the job, he was faced with an extraordinary array of foreign policy challenges -- from North Korean nuclear threats, to Russian intervention in Ukraine, Syria and Western elections, to attacks on US diplomats in Cuba. But his efforts were often overshadowed by Trump's decidedly un-diplomatic style and streams of taunting tweets that have stirred international tensions. Tillerson was thousands of miles away in Africa when Trump made the snap decision to meet Kim, suspending his schedule on grounds he was "unwell" before cutting short his trip. In a cruel twist of fate, one of Trump's most public clashes with Tillerson came when the president accused his top diplomat of "wasting his time" pursuing contacts with North Korea. But in his farewell comments, Tillerson talked up his achievements in the standoff -- suggesting the prospect of talks with Kim was made possible by the hard work of his State Department and allies. The pressure campaign on Pyongyang "exceeded the expectations of almost everyone," Tillerson said, noting it was he who had declared on his first trip to Asia as secretary that the "era of strategic patience is over." San Diego (AFP) - Donald Trump -- making his first trip to California as president -- warned Tuesday there would be "bedlam" without the controversial wall he wants to build on the border with Mexico, as he inspected several prototype barriers. The trip to the "Golden State" -- the most populous in the country and a Democratic stronghold -- was largely upstaged by his own announcement that he had sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. On the other side of the border, a small group of anti-Trump protesters vented their frustration, and announced plans to boycott US businesses over the frontier. "For the people who say 'no wall' -- if you didn't have walls over here, you wouldn't even have a country," Trump said near the border in San Diego. Trump repeated his insistence that law enforcement personnel should be able to see through the structure so that they could monitor criminal cartels that might be "two foot away" on the Mexican side. "Without a wall there would be bedlam, I imagine," he added. Trump inspected eight 30-foot high (nine-meter) models made of concrete and steel, erected side-by-side at Otay Mesa, an area in southern San Diego along the border with Tijuana, Mexico. Each prototype cost more than $300,000 and, according to some estimates, the complete wall could carry a $20 billion price tag. - 'Environmental catastrophe' - Congress has yet to approve the funding amid skepticism and Democratic opposition, but an administration official said the wall would save far more money than it cost. "Congress must fund the BORDER WALL," Trump tweeted after leaving the border. California has been at the forefront of resistance to the Republican leader's anti-immigration agenda and at odds with his stance on a number of other issues, from gun control to marijuana and the environment. Trump skewered California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, saying he'd done "a terrible job" of running a state where the taxes were "way out of whack" and criminals were allowed to roam free in sanctuary cities. Story continues He said he had seen estimates that the "intolerably high" illegal immigration costs came to $100 billion a year in terms of drugs, crime, education and social services. The hulking prototypes can be seen from across the border in Tijuana, where residents are not overly impressed with the real estate tycoon, who launched his presidential campaign calling Mexicans "criminals" and "rapists." Ahead of the visit, a few dozen people gathered for a pro-Trump rally on the US side near the prototypes, while a similar number of the president's detractors came to the San Ysidro border post. "This is an environmental catastrophe, on top of a misallocation of government resources that could be used for health care or social services," Cody Petterson, president of the San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action, said of the wall. Demonstrators draped themselves in US flags and waved placards emblazoned with slogans such as "Humpty Trumpty will fall off his wall," "Resist unstable idiot," and "No hate in the Golden State." - 'You can get over it' - Among Trump's supporters, Kira Innis, 31, said she was backing Trump "because he doesn't give a good gosh darn about somebody's color, he cares about putting more green in their pocket." On the Mexican side, federal police had to persuade around 50 demonstrators not to burn a yellow-haired pinata in Trump's likeness. Pointing to one of the prototypes towering behind the corrugated metal border fence, Eladio Sanchez, 30, admitted that it might slow him down, but noted: "You can get over it anyway." The border with Mexico stretches nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) and about a third of it already has some type of barrier or wall. Trump's insistence that Mexico pay for the wall has soured relations and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto recently canceled plans to visit Washington amid continuing disagreement. "I have a great relationship with the president of Mexico, a great guy," Trump said, adding that "we're trying to work things out." Before leaving San Diego, a military port, the president congratulated troops at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station on the coalition's taking back "almost 100 percent" of the Islamic State group's captured territory in Syria and Iraq. "They never got hit like this. We took off the gloves. In one year we did more damage to ISIS than other administrations, a certain other administration, did in many years," he said. He didn't name which of his predecessors he was referring to, although the Islamist insurgency's most significant advances were made after 2013, during Barack Obama's second term. Trump is expected to wrap up his visit with an evening of fundraising in Beverly Hills to raise money for his 2020 re-election campaign. WASHINGTON Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of state after just 14 months on the job. President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted that he is replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, minutes after The Washington Post first reported that he had ousted Tillerson on Friday. Addressing reporters at the State Department Tuesday afternoon, a sullen Tillerson said that Trump had called him at noon, more than three hours after the presidents tweet. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The White House said Trump asked Tillerson to step down on Friday so the president could have a new team in place for an upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But a State Department spokesman told CNN that Tillerson found out about his firing when Trump announced it on Twitter on Tuesday. According to a statement that followed Trumps announcement, Tillerson had every intention of staying, the State Department said. The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason. The State Department official who contradicted the White House on Tillersons firing was also fired, The Associated Press reported. Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he made that decision by myself to remove Tillerson, and noted that Rex, as you know, was not in this country at the time. He alluded to their disagreements, saying, we were not thinking the same, and predicted, Rex will be happier now. Tillerson cut short a trip to Africa, returning to Washington Monday night. Reporters traveling with him said that they had no idea the secretary of state had been fired on Friday. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Trump announced that he plans to nominate Gina Haspel, now deputy CIA director, to replace Pompeo as head of the spy agency. Most of Trumps statement focused on Pompeo. He mentioned Tillerson at the end. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well, Trump said. Notably missing from initial Trump administration statements on the secretary of state was anything from Tillerson himself. The ousted secretary of state didnt make his own statement until Tuesday afternoon, when he announced at the State Department that he would officially exit on March 31. Story continues Other than noting his phone call with the president, Tillerson did not mention or thank Trump in his remarks. Just a day ago, Tillerson made a statement holding Russia responsible for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, putting him at odds with the White House, which did not single out Russia. Tillersons departure comes amid reports of his disappointment with the turbulent atmosphere in Trumps White House, as well as mounting criticism of his performance as the countrys leading diplomat and his drastic reduction of civil servant positions at the State Department. His job security had always seemed precarious, but on Nov. 30, The New York Times reported that the White House was considering forcing out Tillerson and replacing him with Pompeo. The White House and State Department pushed back on the report, but that day, neither Trump nor White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would definitively say whether the president had confidence in Tillerson. Hes here. Rex is here, Trump told reporters. When the president loses confidence in somebody, theyll no longer be here, Sanders said at that days White House press briefing. Trump and Tillersons relationship has long been filled with tension. Tillerson reportedly considered resigning after Trumps widely criticized speech to the Boy Scouts of America in July. On Oct. 4, NBC News reported that Tillerson called Trump a moron during a meeting with top officials over the summer. Rex Tillerson is no longer secretary of state. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Following the report, Tillerson held an unusual press conference, in which he showered Trump with praise, affirming that the president is smart. Notably, he did not dispute whether he called Trump a moron, leaving that job to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, who claimed that the secretary does not use that type of language. Attacking the reporting as phony, Trump later said he appreciated Tillersons comments and that he had total confidence in Rex. But less than a week later, he suggested in a Forbes magazine interview that if the story were true, he should compare IQ tests with Tillerson. And I can tell you who is going to win, he added. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed Trumps comment was a joke and said that he never implied that the secretary of state was not incredibly intelligent. Trump has repeatedly undermined Tillersons diplomatic efforts in attempting to quell North Koreas nuclear aggression, with the two men often contradicting each other and the president lambasting Tillerson on Twitter. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Tillersons days as secretary of state seemed numbered from the start. A government outsider lacking diplomatic experience, he arrived at Foggy Bottom after decades at Exxon Mobil Corp., rising from engineer in 1975 to chairman and CEO in 2006, overseeing vast expansion of the companys operations worldwide. Trump picked Tillerson for the State Department job after a lengthy public vetting of prominent candidates, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Tillerson faced opposition during his Senate confirmation process, with lawmakers expressing concerns over his lack of experience in government and diplomacy, and strong ties with Russian leader Vladimir Putin from years of business in the country. Even Tillerson himself had been reluctant to accept the position. I didnt want this job. I didnt seek this job, he admitted to the conservative news outlet Independent Journal Review in March. My wife told me Im supposed to do this, he responded when an aide asked him why he accepted the position anyway. President Donald Trump and Tillerson during a meeting on June 12. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Once in office, Tillerson sought to reorganize the State Department and prioritize its activities toward business and security. He publicly illustrated the pivot after weeks on the job, opting to skip the presentation of the departments annual human rights report. During his tenure, the department faced drastic budget cuts and a crucial leadership vacuum. Amid massive international challenges like North Koreas nuclear arms race and the war in Syria, Trump proposed cutting the State Department budget by nearly one-third. Dozens of vacancies remained unfilled, including top deputies, because of White House refusal to accept Tillersons picks. Tillerson and the White House also clashed on policy and messaging. As a diplomatic crisis in Qatar unfolded, Trump directly undermined Tillersons calls for calm, expressing support for Saudi Arabias economic and diplomatic blockade of the Gulf state, and accusing Qatar of funding terrorism. In an August interview, Tillerson declined to defend Trumps support for Americas values, telling Fox News that the president speaks for himself. The questioning arose during a conversation about Trumps much criticized response to violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier that month, when counterprotesters clashed with hate groups protesting the planned removal of a statue honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. From the White House, the presidents senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, often ran a parallel track of diplomacy traveling to Israel and the Palestinian territories to explore ways to revive peace talks, and interacting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Sources told CNN in July that Tillerson was becoming increasingly frustrated with the White House. In late August, Axios reported that Trump was losing patience with his secretary of state, in part because key roles at the department still remained unfilled more than eight months into Trumps presidency. A State Department spokesperson told Axios that Tillerson was working to fill the vacancies but that the White House was effectively sitting on his recommendations. Nauert had repeatedly insisted Tillerson was not considering resignation. Asked if a July vacation indicated Tillerson wanted to step away from the spotlight, Nauert said the secretary was just taking a little time off after that months G-20 summit. Jared Kushner on a visit to Iraq in April. (Photo: DOD via Getty Images) Tillerson, like Trump, wasnt a fan of reporters questions, doing away with the State Departments daily briefing and limiting media access during his foreign travels. He said he wasnt a big media press-access person, when he allowed just one journalist a reporter from the Independent Journal Review to accompany him on a visit to South Korea. The move backfired. American journalists were unable to challenge an embarrassing report in the Korea Herald that the secretary had canceled a dinner with South Korean officials because he was fatigued. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to step down in February. (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters) Tillerson is just the latest to step down in the Trump administration. In September, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign, after he used taxpayer-funded private jets on numerous occasions. National security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to step down in February following revelations that he discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that countrys ambassador before Trumps inauguration. On May 9, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading an investigation into whether Trumps campaign colluded with Russia to influence the presidential election. Mike Dubke, White House communications director, resigned later in May after months of chaos in the press shop. Press secretary Sean Spicer quit in July, after the president appointed Anthony Scaramucci as the new communications director. Scaramucci resigned after just 10 days, amid a spate of departures that included White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and, less than a month later, chief strategist Steve Bannon. This article has been updated to include additional comments on Tillersons firing. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States still needed to sort out the facts behind the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England, that struck down a former spy, and would talk to British Prime Minister Theresa May later on Tuesday. Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, acknowledged that British authorities have accused Russia in the attack on the former Russian double agent who passed secrets to British intelligence, but said he still needed to talk to May before rendering a judgment. "As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be," Trump said. "It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia, and I would certainly take that finding as fact," he added. Britain has said the nerve agent used in the attack earlier this month was one developed by the Soviet Union, and that it was highly likely that Russia was to blame. Trump's comments were more equivocal than that of his then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who on Monday agreed with Britain's assessment and said that those behind the crime must face serious consequences. On Tuesday, Trump fired Tillerson after a series of public rifts over policy on North Korea, Russia and Iran, replacing his chief diplomat with loyalist CIA Director Mike Pompeo. May has given Russian President Vladimir Putin until midnight on Tuesday to explain how the nerve agent came to be used in the attack on Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33. The pair were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center on March 4. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; writing by Susan Heavey; editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis) By Roberta Rampton and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under pressure from gun rights groups, President Donald Trump backed away on Monday from raising the minimum age for gun purchases from 18 to 21, one of several measures he had supported after the latest U.S. school shooting. The proposal to raise the minimum age for buying guns from 18 to 21 was not part of a modest set of Trump administration school safety plans announced on Sunday and which were closely aligned with National Rifle Association (NRA) positions. The administration plan also included training teachers to carry guns in schools, an idea already in place in some states and backed by the powerful gun lobby. "On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly)," Trump wrote on Twitter. Florida last week adopted new gun regulations, triggering a federal lawsuit from the NRA to block raising the minimum age for buying long guns. The Republican president, who championed gun rights during his 2016 campaign, vowed to take action to prevent school shootings after a gunman killed 17 students and faculty at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14. The shootings reignited fierce debate in the United States, and Trump stunned members of Congress during White House meetings by endorsing proposals long opposed by his fellow Republicans and accusing lawmakers of being afraid of the NRA. However, the measures proposed by the White House on Sunday night were weaker than some of the more sweeping changes Trump had embraced during his televised meetings on the issue. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump still backs some of those changes, including new age limits, but is focusing on measures that can get through the U.S. Congress. "Right now the president's primary focus is on pushing through things that we know have broad bipartisan support or things that we can do from an administrative perspective, that we can do immediately," she said at a news briefing. Story continues Trump backs legislation aimed at providing more data for the background check system: a database of people who are not legally allowed to buy guns. But he did not endorse a broader proposal that would close loopholes in existing law by requiring background checks for guns bought at gun shows or arranged over the Internet. The NRA did not return a request for comment on the president's proposals on Monday. The top Democrats in Congress accused Trump of caving to the NRA and vowed to keep pushing for tougher gun measures. "The families and students suffering from the heartbreak of gun violence deserve real leadership, not a White House that cravenly tiptoes around the NRA," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. Trump met with the NRA privately at the White House twice last month as he weighed his response to the shooting. It was not clear how quickly Congress would move on the issue. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has not scheduled debate for any gun-related bills. The NRA-backed background check data bill, which now has a supermajority of co-sponsors, is pending in the Senate. With more than 60 co-sponsors in the 100-member chamber, individual senators would have a hard time slowing or blocking its passage if it were brought up for debate. CONTROVERSIAL PROPOSALS WAIT The White House put off some of the more controversial proposals, including raising the minimum purchase age, for further study by a new commission led by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Asked why the age limit proposal was dropped from the administration plan, DeVos told NBC's "Today" show that the plan was the first step in a lengthy process. "Everything is on the table," she said on Monday. The Justice Department will also provide an unspecified amount of grants to states that want to train teachers to carry guns in school. In Congress, the House of Representatives on Wednesday is expected to debate a bill that would invest $50 million a year to help education and law enforcement officials reduce the chances of gun violence at schools. On Saturday, the Justice Department submitted a regulation to ban bump stocks - devices that turn semiautomatic rifles into fully automatic machine guns - that would not require congressional approval. Some gun control advocates worry that the regulation will face legal challenges, and have urged Congress to pass a law instead. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and James Dalgleish) William Otis on C-SPAN in 2014. (Photo: C-SPAN) William Otis, adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School and former member of the Bush administration, was announced as one of President Donald Trumps nominees for the U.S. Sentencing Commission a bipartisan agency that dictates federal sentencing guidelines earlier this month. Since then, critics have pointed to Otis history of making racially charged comments online as a reason to question his fitness for the job. In a 2013 post he wrote for blog Crime and Consequences, Otis indicated he agreed with a judges remarks that blacks and Hispanics are more violent than whites. In a follow-up comment, he maintained that racial disparity in the prison system was not due to systemic racism, but making choices. Otis held up Asian individuals to bolster his argument, using the derogatory term Orientals. The reason Orientals stay out of jail more than either whites or blacks, he wrote, is that family life, work, education and tradition are honored more in Oriental culture than in others. Among the problematic views on display in Otis argument, his last comment perpetuates a false representation of Asian-Americans as model minorities. Aarti Kohli, executive director of Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, told HuffPost in an email that Otis comments essentially paint a broad picture of the Asian-American community, ignoring the complexities within the minority group. While little data exists on the Asian-American prison population, the research available shows that it has not been exempt from contact with the criminal justice system. In the California prison system, APIs [Asian-Pacific Islanders] are officially categorized as Others, a fitting description for a population so often overlooked, Kohli said. There is plenty of evidence that shows that the criminal justice system is a form of social control [that] is biased against people of color. In the 1990s, the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community saw its prisoner population balloon, increasing by 250 percent. A significant portion of these Asian-Americans came from refugee groups who fled from Southeast Asia following the Vietnam War a fact that was particularly evident in areas with high concentrations of this group. Laotian and Vietnamese individuals, for example, were among the top four most arrested groups in 1990 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Story continues Kohli noted that the Trump appointees comments allude to the good immigrant and perpetual foreigner stereotypes, denying Asian-Americans of their Americanness. John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC, said that Otis comments pit racial minorities against each other. Otis statement is racist because it stereotypes and suggests others do not value family, work and education, he told HuffPost. Otis told HuffPost in an email that he is honored to have been selected by the President for this nomination but declined to comment on criticisms regarding his previous comments. Yang also added that Otis use of the term Oriental, which former President Barack Obama had formally removed from federal law in 2016 speaks volumes. Ultimately, such beliefs would impede Otis ability to effectively serve on the commission, Yang said. Someone who holds such biases and predispositions should not be allowed to hold an important position on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which requires that criminal sentences be determined based on facts and evidence, not prejudices and biases, he said. Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. President backs away from measures he supported after Parkland Trump last month chided Republicans for being petrified of NRA Trumps gun control proposals, released over the weekend, was closely aligned with NRA positions. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Donald Trump, who last month chided fellow Republicans for being petrified of the National Rifle Association (NRA), is under growing pressure after seemingly caving in to the powerful gun lobby groups demands. The US president on Sunday backed away from raising the minimum age for gun purchases from 18 to 21, one of several measures he initially supported after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February. The proposal was notably absent from a modest set of Trump administration plans for school safety released over the weekend, which closely aligned with NRA positions. They include training teachers to carry guns in schools, a fiercely controversial idea already in place in some states. Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, insisted on Monday that the president has not abandoned some of the more radical changes but is focused on measures that can get through Congress straight away. Right now the presidents primary focus is on pushing through things that we know have broad bipartisan support or things that we can do from an administrative perspective, that we can do immediately, she said. But we havent let go of some of those other things that were going to continue to review and look at. Asked if there was a single thing in the proposals that was not supported by the NRA, she replied: The president still has, in this plan, the age limit increase and that is part of one of the things that will be reviewed on what the best path forward is on that front, whether it can be done at a federal level or whether it needs to be done on a state-by-state basis. Trump had the $30m backing of the NRA in the presidential election and has been vocal in his support of the second amendment, the right to bear arms. He met the NRA privately at the White House twice last month as he considered his response to the Florida school shooting, which left 17 people dead. Story continues One reporter at Mondays press briefing reminded Sanders that, last month, Trump told fellow Republicans: Some of you are petrified of the NRA. You cant be petrified. The reporter added: But based on the plan last night, it seems like President Trump was the one petrified of the NRA because he backed away from some of the ideas that he had brought into the discussion and Im asking why he chickened out. Why he didnt go forward with what he has proposed earlier? Sanders protested: Look, he hasnt backed away from these things at all. As I just said, theyre still outlined in the plan, but he cant make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen. You have to have some congressional component to do some of these things. And without that support, its not as possible. However, we are focused on things that we can do immediately. Lets not forget that the Obama administration had the White House and all of Congress for two years, and never did anything. This president is actually supporting specific pieces of legislation and still laying out other priorities that he would like to see talked about and implemented. Sarah Sanders at the White House press briefing. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters Trump left fellow Republicans aghast when, during televised meetings, he seemed to embrace measures including universal background checks and raising the age limit for buying assault weapons. He still supports legislation aimed at providing more data for the background check system: a database of people who are not legally allowed to buy guns. But he did not endorse a broader proposal that would close loopholes in existing law by requiring background checks for guns bought at gun shows or arranged over the internet. The White House has deferred some of the more contentious proposals, including raising the minimum purchase age, for further study by a new commission led by Betsy DeVos, the education secretary. Sanders was also quizzed about Trumps past criticisms of his predecessors for failing to show leadership on the issue when it appeared that he too was now making the argument for political expediency. She insisted: Were specifically driving forward on some of those things that we know can immediately happen and were determining what the best path forward is on some of those other things that dont have that same broad base of support. You cant just decide that you want laws to pass and it happens. But you can look at the best process forward to actually implement that type of policy. She added: He is making sure that the things that we can do right now, were actually doing. Instead of holding everything back until we can get some of those other pieces done, were pushing forward on the things that have support, that can be accomplished immediately, and then were working through the process to see what we can do to get the other things done. That actually seems smart, and it seems like bold leadership to me to push through on things that help protect kids while not ignoring some other policies that the president supports, which were doing. Democrats, once given hope by Trumps instinctual response, have accused the president of buckling under NRA pressure and reverting to type. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said: The families and students suffering from the heartbreak of gun violence deserve real leadership, not a White House that cravenly tiptoes around the NRA. President Donald Trump speaks while participating in a tour of U.S.-Mexico border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California. U.S., March 13, 2018. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) LOS ANGELES On Tuesday, Donald Trump will embark on his first trip to California as president, touching down at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego before heading south to inspect various prototypes of the much-ballyhooed wall he hopes to build on the U.S.-Mexico border. The visit comes one week after Trumps attorney general, Jeff Sessions, sued California for passing a trio of sanctuary state laws that have (according to Sessions) blocked the administration from enforcing federal immigration statutes and followed it up with a fiery speech in Sacramento accusing state and local Democrats of boldly validat[ing] illegality. The fast-and-furious response from those same Democrats Outright lies, snapped Gov. Jerry Brown; White supremacy and white nationalism, added state Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon has prompted another round of breathless California vs. Trump media coverage, with the president rallying his right-wing base around hardline anti-immigration policies and the immigrant-rich Golden State relishing its role as ground zero of the so-called resistance. With a handful of exceptions North Korea comes to mind there are few governments that have worse relations with President Trump than California, wrote the New York Times. Yet the political stakes here are higher than many pundits seem to realize. Thats because the latest immigration clash between California and Trump isnt just about California and Trump. Its also about the broader constituency the president has been antagonizing since taking office and is now antagonizing again: Americas growing Latino electorate. When Trump won the 2016 election, the chattering class immediately declared that the Latino vote which was supposed to show up in force and keep the Manhattan mogul out of the Oval Office had failed, once again, to materialize, despite the candidates near-constant provocations (such as Mexican rapists, The Wall, bad hombres, threatening to revoke birthright citizenship, claiming a judge could not be impartial because of his Mexican heritage). Story continues Latinos, immigration and workers rights advocates and their supporters protest against Donald Trump and other Republican president hopefuls, outside the Republican Presidential Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., Sept. 16, 2015. (Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images) But over the last year, studies have cast serious doubt on this assumption. Subsequent elections especially Virginias, in 2017 hinted that Latino voters have become more energized and mobilized, not less, since Trump took office. And looking ahead to the 2018 midterms, it appears that many of the races set to determine control of the House and Senate are taking place in areas with significant Latino populations. Which means that in November, backlash to Trump among Latino voters could, in fact, decide the election especially if Trump continues to energize the right-wing over immigration, as he seemed determined to do Tuesday in California. Its a comparative status question, says Gary Segura, Dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and co-founder of the polling and research firm Latino Decisions. Latinos tend not to vote in midterm elections; older, whiter, higher-income people tend to vote instead. So what will the presence of a president like Trump do? In theory, it will narrow that gap. Latinos will turn out in higher numbers than people expect and that will make a difference in at least some of these races. The first data point to consider is 2016. The national exit polls showed Hillary Clinton winning 65 percent of the Latino vote to Trumps 28 percent a landslide, to be sure, but a smaller one than Barack Obama enjoyed in 2012, when he clobbered Mitt Romney among Latinos 71 percent to 29 percent. Seeing that and noting that Latinos still made up 11 percent of the electorate, the same as 2012 pundits concluded that there had been no anti-Trump surge in 2016. The only problem? The national exit polls may have been wrong. Since the election, researchers affiliated with Latino Decisions have examined precinct-level data from Arizona, California, New York, Florida, Texas and Nevada actual tallies of how actual people voted in largely Latino neighborhoods, as opposed to the expedient sampling released on election night, which tends to distort minority sentiment for a variety of reasons. What theyve found are vast disparities between the exit polling and their own, more finely tuned analyses. In Nevada, for instance, exit polls reported that 60 percent of Latinos backed Clinton and 29 percent backed Trump. But last year, Francisco I. Pedraza, an assistant political science professor at the University of California, Riverside, and Bryan Wilcox-Archuleta, a PhD candidate at UCLA, concluded that the split may have been more like 88 percent for Clinton versus 10 percent for Trump. Latinos vote at a polling station in El Gallo Restaurant on Nov. 8, 2016, in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles. (Photo: David McNew/Getty Images) Researchers also discovered wider-than-reported gaps in Arizona (84 percent for Clinton to 12 percent for Trump, compared to 61-31 in the exit poll); in California (83 percent for Clinton to 11 percent for Trump, compared to 71-24 in the exit poll); and in Texas (77 percent for Clinton to 18 percent for Trump, compared to 61-34 in the exit poll). The same goes for New York and Florida. The bottom line is that, contrary to conventional wisdom, Clinton probably ran ahead of Obama among Latinos in key states, whereas Trump probably ran behind Romney. This could be part of the reason why Clinton came a lot closer to winning Arizona (3.5 percentage points) and Texas (9 percentage points) than Obama did in 2012, when he lost those two states by 9 points and 16 points, respectively. It could also be why Clintons margin of victory in California was 1.3 million votes larger than Obamas. Of course, all that additional Latino backing did not put Clinton over the top in the Electoral College, which was decided in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. But that doesnt mean it didnt exist. The real story is that Latino turnout was up in basically every jurisdiction in the U.S., says Segura. The actual precinct vote shows that about 79 percent of Latinos nationwide voted for Clinton up from about 70 percent in recent years. Those extra nine percentage points are obviously a reaction to Trump. Which brings us to 2017 the first big election of the Trump era. The Virginia gubernatorial race was supposed to be close, and the commonwealths House of Delegates was supposed to remain safely Republican. Neither prediction panned out. After a campaign defined largely by Trumpian tactics Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie ran ads about sanctuary cities and the MS-13 gang Democrats won the governorship by 9 percentage points and picked up 15 seats in the Legislature. A sign in English and Spanish points people to a polling place in El Mirage, Ariz., during the U.S. presidential election Nov. 8, 2016. (Photo: Nancy Wiechec/Reuters) Why? Early voting among Virginia Latinos was up 114 percent from the last state elections in 2013, and the Election Day participation rate in heavily Latino districts was up 5 percent, from 33 percent to 38 percent. Latinos didnt decide the election on their own: white, college-educated voters made up a larger share of the Virginia electorate in 2017 than in 2016, and for the first time, minority participation in general held steady from the presidential election to the gubernatorial election. But Latinos didnt stay home, either an early sign that, with Trump in the White House, the old rules of Latino turnout may no longer apply. All of this will be crucial in 2018. Many of the most pivotal House and Senate races are happening in places with a lot of Latino voters and if they show up like they showed up in Virginia, and vote as heavily Democratic as they did in 2016, then Democrats could win back control of Congress. Take California. The Golden State is home to seven Republican-held congressional districts won by Clinton in 2016 nearly a third of the 24 seats Democrats need to flip in order to recapture the House of Representatives. Republican incumbents Ed Royce and Darrell Issa are retiring in two seats where Latinos make up a third (CA-39) and a quarter (CA-49) of the population, respectively. Both lean Democratic, according to the handicappers at the Cook Political Report. An additional three seats are rated as tossups; a fourth leans Republican. Theyre all between 20 and 40 percent Latino. Another targeted district CA-21, where Democrat Emilio Huerta is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadao is 71 percent Latino. Texas and Florida are similar stories. FL-27 the Miami-area district where Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is retiring happens to be more than 71 percent Latino; Democrats are favored to flip the seat. Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelos district (FL-26) is a tossup, in no small part because its 70 percent Latino; Clinton won there by 16 percentage points after Obama won by 11. Meanwhile, GOP Rep. John Culberson, the most vulnerable incumbent in Texas, represents a district (TX-7, in the Houston suburbs) that is 32 percent Latino. The next most vulnerable Lone Star incumbent, Will Hurd, hails from TX-23, which runs along a majority of Texass border with Mexico. His district is 68 percent Latino. On the Senate side of things, the Latino factor may be even more pronounced. To regain control of the worlds greatest deliberative body, Democrats need to net two additional seats. Their top targets? Arizona, where Republican incumbent Jeff Flake is retiring, and Nevada, where Republican incumbent Dean Heller has tied himself in knots over Trumps policies on health care and taxes. People hold signs during a protest while standing in front of the current border fence and near the prototypes of U.S. President Donald Trumps border wall, in Tijuana, Mexico March 13, 2018. The sign on the right reads Trump, walls can be jumped over. (Photo: Edgard Garrido/Reuters) Latino voters could conceivably decide both contests. Arizona has Americas fourth-largest Latino electorate, as a percentage of the overall voting population; Nevada, where former Democratic Sen. Harry Reid has organized a formidable Latino turnout machine, is sixth on that same list. Even though national Latino turnout did not rise in 2016, it surged in Arizona and increased in Nevada, according to state-level census data released last year in part because of Democratic Party mobilization efforts and in part because of backlash to Trump. If Nevada and Arizona go blue, Democrats will likely take back the Senate. Theres no guarantee that Latinos will show up later this year; white voters, and even black voters, have been almost twice as likely to turn out as Latinos in midterm elections. Yet weve never seen what a midterm looks like with Trump as president. If recent history is any guide and if Trump keeps needling Latinos the way hes needling them this week in California then it might look like nothing weve seen before. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: By Ece Toksabay ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish prosecutor on Tuesday sought a life sentence for a U.S. pastor over alleged links to a failed coup attempt in 2016, Dogan news agency reported, a move that threatens to undermine efforts to mend bilateral ties. Washington believes Andrew Brunson, who has been in jail since December 2016, is one of several Americans unjustly detained in Turkey. During a visit to Ankara last month, former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for him to be freed. The Christian pastor from North Carolina has been living in Turkey for 23 years and running a church, according to an online petition seeking his release. The prosecutor charged him with being an "executive" of the group that Ankara holds responsible for the failed coup, the news agency said. Turkey blames the network of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Muslim cleric who denies all involvement. In September, President Tayyip Erdogan suggested Turkey could free Brunson if the United States handed over Gulen. It was not immediately clear what charges were brought against the pastor in the indictment. The prosecutor's office could not be reached for comment. Brunson was accused of obtaining secret documents with the aim of political or military espionage, and attempting to overthrow the government, Dogan and other Turkish media reported when he was initially questioned more than a year ago. The accusations were based on the testimony of a secret witness, who said Brunson was in close contact with Gulen's network and receiving funds from it for missionary activities. Brunson denied the allegations, saying he was a defender of Jesus Christ and would never support any Islamic movement, Dogan reported at the time. 'ABSURD' The U.S. and Turkey have been at odds over several issues, notably Washington's support in Syria for the YPG, a Kurdish militant group deemed terrorist by Turkey, and the status of Gulen. Tillerson said during his official visit that Washington had "serious concerns" about cases against U.S. citizens arrested under the state of emergency in place in Turkey since the coup attempt, and said Brunson and others should be freed. Following Tillerson's visit, the two countries formed joint working groups to mend their relations. Brunson's daughter on Friday told the United Nations Human Rights Council that the terror allegations against her father were "absurd," according to the European Centre for Law and Justice, a group supporting his case. "Turkey should not get away with holding my father one more day," Jacqueline Brunson said, urging the U.N. to help get him released. "I know the allegations against my father are absurd. He is ...a peaceful pastor." (Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by David Dolan and John Stonestreet) Beirut (AFP) - Turkey said Tuesday its army and allied rebels have surrounded the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria, raising the prospect of another devastating siege in the country's long conflict. Syria's war enters its eighth year this week with clashes raging on several fronts, including Afrin and the besieged rebel pockets of Eastern Ghouta, which saw their first medical evacuations of civilians on Tuesday. While attention in recent weeks has focused on a ferocious regime assault on Ghouta, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels have steadily advanced against the northern Kurdish enclave of Afrin. In a statement Tuesday, the Turkish military said it had completely encircled Afrin city, home to some 350,000 people and defended by a well-armed Syrian Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units (YPG). Birusk Hasakeh, a YPG spokesman inside Afrin, denied the city had been totally besieged but said the last route leading out of it was being shelled heavily. "If they do encircle the city, we will be ready for a long fight. We will resist," he told AFP. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish forces were within firing range of that route, which leads to a pair of regime-held towns -- essentially encircling Afrin and 90 villages to its west. The United Nations said Turkey's advance over the last 48 hours had "exacerbated" the humanitarian situation, with water and shelter in short supply. - France warns Ankara - "In Afrin town and surrounding communities, the people's situation is concerning," said the UN's humanitarian coordination office (OCHA) on Tuesday. Sealing off Afrin city would be major for Turkey's "Olive Branch" operation, launched on January 20 and aimed at ousting the YPG, a vital partner for a US-backed coalition against the Islamic State group, but seen by Ankara as "terrorists". The assault has worried world powers, who fear it could detract from the fight against IS and was indiscriminately hurting civilians. Story continues "If Turkey's concerns over the border are legitimate... this absolutely does not justify the action by Turkish troops deep inside the Afrin area," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. It remains unclear what Turkey's next move will be, but it may lay siege to Afrin while allowing civilians out to avoid a high-casualty offensive. Abu Jaafar, a commander in the pro-Ankara forces waging Operation Olive Branch, said rebels were considering an "exit route" for civilians. "We will allow civilians... to leave so they will not be hurt in case (Kurdish) fighters hold out in the villages, neighbourhoods, or buildings inside Afrin," he said. Hundreds of civilians were seen fleeing Afrin on Monday, with cars piled high with personal belongings heading to regime-held areas further east. - 'Monstrous indifference' - Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have meanwhile been pressing an assault against Eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel stronghold near Damascus. Since February 18, Russian-backed regime forces have recaptured more than 60 percent of Ghouta, whittling down rebel territory to three isolated pockets. The UN Security Council passed a resolution last month calling for a 30-day truce to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations, but the ceasefire demand went unheeded. A five-year government siege has left hospitals too under-resourced to treat people properly and more than 1,000 people in Ghouta need to be bussed out for care, the UN has said. On Tuesday, around 150 civilians, some sick and wounded, were evacuated from Ghouta's largest town of Douma to regime-held territory. Douma resident Umm Imad al-Ayyubi told AFP she had been waiting for two years to be brought out of Douma for medical treatment. "I am sick and had heart surgery. I'm coming to Damascus for a follow-up," said the 65-year-old woman. Jaish al-Islam, which controls Douma, had earlier announced some "critical medical cases" would be evacuated. Nearly 1,200 civilians have been killed since the Ghouta assault was launched. On Tuesday, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore voiced concern for some 125,000 children trapped in Ghouta. "Is it not tantamount to a monstrous indifference to the suffering of children that Security Council resolutions for ceasefires are flouted?" Gilmore asked. More than 350,000 people have died since Syria's conflict broke out in 2011. With Russia's help, Assad has retaken most of the territory he had lost in the early years of the uprising. Syrian troops have repeatedly used siege tactics, sealing off rebel-held territory and pressing a military operation before securing an evacuation deal. Several hundred Islamist fighters evacuated the Qadam district south of Damascus on Tuesday under such an agreement. The government has reportedly been pursing negotiations to secure local truces or evacuations from Ghouta's three rebel-held pockets to secure the capital. On Tuesday, rebel fire from Ghouta killed one woman and wounded five other people in Damascus. burs/mjg/dv By Amir Cohen ZEELIM MILITARY BASE, Israel (Reuters) - The Israeli military hosted U.S. Marines this week for an urban combat drill in a mock-up of a generic Middle East village, sharing know-how and signaling the allies' shared interests as their leaders close ranks on a host of regional issues. "We are willing to work and train together, and if God wills it, if we ever need to be side by side, then we will," Lieutenant-Colonel Marcus Mainz of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit told Reuters during the exercise at Israel's Zeelim base. His troops joined Israeli special forces regiments to practise battle formation, helicopter deployment and medical evacuations in a mock-up village in the desert, complete with Arabic graffiti and a fake mosque. The maneuvers were part of a wider, biennial joint air defense exercise known as Juniper Cobra, which this year took place amid heightened Israeli and U.S. concern over the missile arsenal of Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Mainz said his troops had learned from the Israelis' experiences in fighting Hamas guerrillas in Gaza, and had in turn shared tips from U.S. warfronts. "They teach them what to see when they were either in the Gaza Strip or somewhere else on the battlefield, for us in Afghanistan and Iraq, and teach that young soldier what to look for," he said. "And what happens is they start getting excited and they are talking about 'I learned this here', 'I learned that there'." Under President Donald Trump, the United States has boosted its already strong support for Israel - including by recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, a move that angered many Muslims and Arabs who back the Palestinian claim on the city. (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Gareth Jones) By Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - Crimes verging on genocide were being committed against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, and those crimes bore "the fingerprints of the Myanmar government and of the international community", the United Nations special adviser on the prevention of genocide said on Tuesday. Adama Dieng spent a week in Bangladesh to assess the condition of the almost 700,000 Rohingyas who had fled across the border from Myanmar, and he said during his trip he heard "terrifying stories." "Rohingya Muslims have been killed, tortured, raped, burnt alive and humiliated, solely because of who they are," Dieng said in a prepared statement. "All the information I have received indicates that the intent of the perpetrators was to cleanse northern Rakhine state of their existence, possibly even to destroy the Rohingya as such, which, if proven, would constitute the crime of genocide," he said. He called on the U.N.'s Security Council to "consider different accountability options." Myanmar's national security adviser, Thaung Tun, last week said his government did not support such atrocities. "It is not the policy of the government, and this we can assure you," he said. "Although there are accusations, we would like to have clear evidence." Myanmar has not allowed U.N. investigators into the country to investigate. Another U.N. investigator said on Monday that Myanmar had launched new military operations against the Rohingya. Heavy artillery was being used in the offensives, U.N. Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Dieng also blamed an international community that "has buried its head in the sand" for the campaign against the Rohingya. During a press conference in Dhaka on Tuesday, he called on neighboring powers China and India to "show not only political or economic leadership" but also "moral leadership." "The world," he said in Tuesday's statement, "needs to show that it is not ready to tolerate such barbaric acts." (Reporting By Serajul Quadir; additional reporting by Tom Miles from Geneva; editing by Larry King) MANILA (Reuters) - The United States handed over six surveillance drones to its ally the Philippines on Tuesday, as part of efforts to boost its ability to tackle a growing threat from Islamist militants and to respond to natural disasters. The six Boeing Insitu ScanEagle drones, which have two cameras and can operate for up to 24 hours on a single run, were financed through a $13.7 million grant from Washington's foreign military assistance programme. It follows the transfer of two single-engine surveillance planes last year. The Philippines plans to deploy the drones for surveillance against militants and pirates, and for surveying the aftermath of disasters like typhoons, mudslides and earthquakes. "This acquisition of ScanEagle is one way to modernize the military to deter those who want to wage war against our country," Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said at a ceremony at a Manila air force base, attended by the U.S. ambassador. "This collaboration is also an indication of the Philippines and the United States' goodwill, deep friendship and genuine commitment to peace." The United States is the most important military partner of the Philippines, with a decades-old treaty alliance and numerous pacts that enable rotational deployment of U.S. troops and annual joint exercises. However, ties have been tested by President Rodrigo Duterte's hostility towards the United States. Nevertheless, the U.S. military provided technical support and surveillance vital in helping the Philippines end a five-month occupation of Marawi City by pro-Islamic State rebels last year. (Reporting by Ronn Bautista; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel) The head of the United Nations body charged with addressing global warming wants to work with the Trump administration to bring the U.S. back into the Paris Agreement on climate change, she told TIME last week at an energy conference in Houston. Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said that she remains hopeful that Trumps decision to leave the Paris Agreement can be reversed before it becomes official in 2020. We are more than happy to engage with the U.S. administration in order to address their concerns, Espinosa told TIME on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference hosted by IHS Markit. There can be a reconsideration of this decision. Trump said last June that he would withdraw the U.S. from the landmark climate deal, calling it a drain on the American economy, but his decision cannot be made official until 2020 thanks to a waiting period on withdrawal included in the agreement. At the helm of the UNFCCC, Espinosa oversees ongoing negotiations to implement the Paris Agreement and other international talks on global warming. She said that the details of those negotiations, which include development of detailed rules on how countries commit to and report on greenhouse gas emissions cuts, could help sway the Trump Administration to rejoin the Paris Agreement. George David Banks, a former Trump energy advisor, told TIME last month that Trump has been telling foreign leaders that the U.S. might rejoin the Paris Agreement. Banks suggested the Trump might want to use re-engaging on the Paris Agreement as a talking point ahead of the 2020 election. Trumps position on climate change is far from the only issue on Espinosas plate. The former Mexican foreign minister acknowledged to TIME that countries current commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions remain behind the target set in the Paris Agreement but said that the path is there to achieve the goals. The deal calls for countries to limit temperatures from rising more than 2C (3.6F) by 2100 with an ideal target of keeping temperature rise below 1.5C (2.7F). Story continues We are far from the 1.5 degrees if we look at the commitments that have been put on the table, she said. But there is a lot happening, a lot more than anticipated. Espinosa, who took her current position in 2016, less than a year after countries reached the Paris deal, stood out from other high-profile attendees at CERAWeek, a conference largely dominated by oil and gas industry executives. Until recently, the industry has by-and-large opposed measures to address climate change. But Espinosa stressed that working with the energy sector would pay dividends. Without participation of the energy sector in the transformation that we need to have to address climate change we will not be able to get to the goals set in the Paris Agreement, she said. We need to engage with all the actors that have an impact in achieving those goals. The interrogation of the American cultural centre staffer lasted an hour and a half. The Chinese police got straight to the point: where did it get its funding? How did it vet speakers? And most importantly, what was its connection to the US government? It was an extreme case, but not unusual. The US State Department documented over 150 examples of Chinese interference in American public diplomacy efforts between January 2016 and April 2017, carried out in the name of countering "hostile foreign forces" -- alleged saboteurs plotting to overthrow the Communist Party's rule. The pressure has disrupted numerous cultural initiatives from salsa concerts and movie nights to visiting scholar programmes, even as China scoffs at growing concerns about the political influence of its own "Confucius Institutes", which have mushroomed around the world in recent years. The Chinese interference has perhaps been felt most acutely at the American Centers for Cultural Exchange (ACCs), a network of US government-funded language and cultural facilities hosted on college campuses in China. The US State Department has provided American universities and NGOs with grants to operate 29 such centres in conjunction with Chinese partners, such as universities. But 10 of the partnerships have "dissolved due to pressure from Chinese government authorities, with some never moving beyond signing an agreement", the State Department's Office of the Inspector General wrote in a December report that concluded the difficulties may make it necessary to "suspend" new funding for the programme. Today only around 10 centres remain active. But even those have chosen to keep a low profile due to concerns about unwelcome attention from Chinese authorities, according to interviews with more than half a dozen people with knowledge of the programme. After the police interrogation of the staffer -- a US citizen -- the ACC in southern China changed its name and was subsequently required to refuse American government funds, according to documents provided to Washington as part of the grant reporting process. Story continues Such a move leaves an ACC dependent solely on money from its Chinese or American educational hosts. "The US has raised its concern with restrictions on its public diplomacy activities, including the ACCs, with the relevant Chinese authorities frequently in recent years," State Department spokesman Michael Cavey told AFP. Although Beijing has repeatedly agreed to address the issue, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions, Chinese pressure on the ACCs has only increased. - 'A lightning rod' - ACCs are typically small classrooms filled with American books and movies, designed as welcoming spaces to host conversation classes or lectures by visiting professors. Programming has focused on English language education, lectures on US society, and cultural activities such as musical performances or movie nights, largely avoiding topics that the Chinese government might consider sensitive. They were established in 2010 as a way "to help address the overall level of misunderstanding of US society and culture" in China, according to the State Department. But they were also a direct response to China's rapidly expanding network of Confucius Institutes, government-run language centres that provide partner universities around the world with funds and often faculty to teach Chinese language and culture. China has set up the centres at more than 100 universities across the US, including internationally renowned institutions like Columbia and Stanford. But as the Chinese programme expanded, "intransigence" in Beijing left Washington "unable to reciprocate", the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote in a 2011 report on the ACCs. That year, the State Department issued 10 grants of up to $100,000 to open centres, many of which also received an additional $50,000 a year to cover salaries, programming and facility maintenance. While Washington provided funds for the programme, it took a largely hands-off approach to its activities. The Confucius Institutes "stay in their lane. Everything is scripted", said one ACC administrator. But "with us, it was just, let's let the cats out of the bag and see where they go." Nevertheless China sees the centres as a "mouthpiece of the State Department", said another administrator. "The connection is clearly a lightning rod." - 'Hostile foreign forces' It is not clear why some ACCs have closed while others remain open. But all have come under varying degrees of political pressure. The remaining ACCs no longer update their once-active websites, sometimes at the request of their Chinese partners, who are concerned about negative attention from authorities. Attendance at the programme's 2017 annual conference in the northeastern city of Shenyang was about half the previous year's, according to faculty. China's education ministry instructed some Chinese participants not to attend, said sources familiar with the matter. China's ministry of education told AFP it has "consistently supported" cooperation and exchange between Chinese and American universities. ACCs should "conform to the educational requirements and comprehensive plans of the Chinese institutes of higher education," it added. While Beijing's fears over "hostile foreign forces" infiltrating its educational system have compelled Chinese universities to restrict their students' exposure to "Western" culture and ideas, Confucius Institutes have largely flourished in the US. But in recent months, several prominent US politicians including senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have called for the Chinese centres to be shut down. They cited concerns that Beijing's control over hiring, programming and course content has discouraged students and faculty from discussing topics considered sensitive by the Communist Party, such as the Tiananmen Square crackdown or Tibet policy. China's nationalistic state-controlled tabloid the Global Times has in turn accused the US of being on a "witch hunt" against the Confucius Institutes. "To call for them to be driven out of the country is a sign of extreme xenophobia," it wrote in a recent editorial. Elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghan government, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday, a potentially significant move that runs counter to the insurgents' long-term refusal to talk to Kabul. Mattis flew into the war-torn nation on an unannounced visit two weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban, Afghanistan's biggest militant group. The Taliban have so far given no formal response to Kabul's offer for negotiations, but have published a lengthy statement and an online commentary that analysts say are an oblique rejection of the proposal. But Mattis said some Taliban figures have expressed an interest in joining the discussions. "It may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop, that would be a bridge too far, but there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," Mattis said. The Pentagon chief's visit to the Afghan capital comes as US and Afghan forces ramp up air strikes against the Taliban as part of President Donald Trump's new strategy for the region, which Ghani called a "game changer" for the country. "It has forced every actor to re-examine their assumptions," Ghani said as he met with Mattis at Kabul's presidential palace. "Some of that re-examination is likely to lead to the intensification of conflict in the short term but the re-examination is what the people of Afghanistan have been (waiting for) for 40 years." Ghani's peace plan includes eventually recognising the Taliban as a political party. The group has said it is prepared to negotiate, but only with the United States and not with the Kabul government. - US looks to 'victory' - The Taliban last week described the Afghan government as "illegitimate" and its peace process efforts as "deceptive", in a statement calling for a boycott of an Islamic scholars' conference in Jakarta. Story continues "Right now we want the Afghans to lead and to provide the substance of the reconciliation effort," Mattis said. Brigadier General Michael Fenzel, planning director for NATO's mission in Afghanistan, said he had seen signals that some among the Taliban were willing to negotiate. "In each one of our areas, there are groups of 10 and 20 that are coming in, not wanting to be a part of the Taliban any longer," Fenzel told reporters. Thanks to the political process, Mattis said America was now looking towards victory in Afghanistan after more than 16 years of conflict. "What does that victory look like? It's a country whose own people and their own security forces handle law enforcement and any threats... certainly with international support for some years to come," he said. The US has renewed its focus on Afghanistan after years of drawdowns under former president Barack Obama and talk by top US generals of "not winning" and of a "stalemate" in the seemingly intractable conflict. "It's all working to achieve a political reconciliation, not a military victory," Mattis said. "The victory will be a political reconciliation." - Jump in attacks - As part of the so-called South Asia Strategy, Trump last year ordered the increased bombing of Taliban targets -- including drug-making labs and training camps. More than 3,000 additional US forces have also arrived in Afghanistan to boost the training and advising of local troops. Approximately 14,000 American forces are currently in Afghanistan, up from a low of about 8,500 when Obama left office. Ghani's offer of peace talks comes as civilian casualties have soared in recent months, with the Taliban increasingly targeting towns and cities in response to Trump's aggressive military policy. The Taliban claimed 472 attacks in January alone, the Washington-based terrorism research group TRAC said -- an astonishing number given that the traditional fighting season does not usually start until freezing temperatures have subsided in the spring. Mattis said the jump in attacks on civilians was an indication that a pressured Taliban is unable to conduct broader, ground-taking operations. The Afghan security forces were able to stop some attacks, Mattis said, though he noted he wanted to see them shift to a more "offensive mindset" in the coming months. Mattis's surprise Afghan visit, his third as Pentagon chief, was kept under tight wraps after a security incident during his last trip in September, when insurgents shelled Kabul's airport hours after he arrived. Mattis also said he had seen some changes in Pakistan's behaviour since Trump blasted the country last year for harbouring the Taliban. "There are operations by the Pakistan military that are helping right now, ongoing as we speak," he said. The growth rate for the U.S. has averaged around 2.5% through the economic recovery, but if Washington wants to see it accelerated it should focus on policies that help women at work. A recent report from S&P Global argues that promoting the entry and retention of more women in the workforce, particularly in STEM fields, could create a substantial growth opportunity, with the potential to add 5% to 10% to nominal GDP in a just few decades. For the study, economists at S&P Global compared the U.S. to different countries. They highlighted Norway as an example and found that if the U.S. hired and retained women at a pace in line with the Scandinavian country the US economy would be much larger today. In the early 1970s, Norway and [the] the U.S. were about the same in terms of female participation rate. Norway took off. The U.S. slowly kept up, but barely, S&P Global chief U.S. economist Beth Ann Bovino told Yahoo Finance. And what we found is if women entered the workforce at the pace of, say Norway, what wed find is the U.S. economy today would be $1.6 trillion bigger than it is right now. To put it in perspective, thats $5,000 in each man, woman, and childs pocketbooks today. The US has stagnated Last year, then-Fed Chair Janet Yellen pointed out that the labor force participation rate of prime working-age women in the U.S., those between 25 and 54, was near the top for the 22 advanced OECD countries in the early 1990s. By then, the share of women going into the traditional fields of teaching, nursing, social work and clerical work declined, and more women were becoming doctors, lawyers, managers, and, yes, professors, Yellen said. As women increased their education and joined industries and occupations formerly dominated by men, the gap in earnings between women and men began to close significantly. Since then, however, the U.S. has stagnated, and other countries have outpaced it. As of 2016, the U.S. was close to the last place, ranking 20th out of the 22 countries for prime-age female labor force participation, the S&P report noted. Story continues S&P Globals chief U.S. economist Beth Ann Bovino joins Yahoo Finances Midday Movers to discuss how women could unleash economic growth in the U.S. Roadblocks for US women The S&P economists looked at the barriers many women face, with childcare being the main one. For those women who want to work, how do we make it easier for them? What we found for them is the biggest roadblock is the burden of childbearing and rearing, said Bovino. Presently, the U.S. is the only OECD country that doesnt mandate that companies provide income support during maternity or parental leave. Whats more, approximately 39% of mothers take significant time off after having kids, and more than 25% of women leave the workforce altogether, the report noted. Women also often find that they can get penalized for taking time off because theyre not networking or at the table. Thats why flexible work schedules are important, Bovino said. Another factor that is a roadblock for women, and men for that matter: We talk about just the three months [after] having a child, but it doesnt stop there. Five years, ten years, kids going to school, all those things. How do we factor in flex time? she adds. One proposed solution to help change all of this is a Congressional Budget Officelike score for legislation to measure its potential economic contribution, including the impact on unemployment, labor force participation and productivity. Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Thomas Homan is among the officials who have slammed Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for preventing arrests: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst A spokesman for Americas immigration agency has resigned over what he called misleading official statements about immigrants eluding arrest. The departure of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman James Schwab is the latest volley in a dispute between California and the federal government over a contested immigration raid last month. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf incurred the wrath of federal officials for warning residents of her city that a sweeping ICE action was imminent. Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the acting director of ICE were among those lambasting Ms Schaaf and saying she had allowed hundreds of dangerous criminals to evade authorities. But Mr Schwab said those statements were disingenuous, telling the San Francisco Chronicle he resigned after refusing to advance what he called falsehoods. I quit because I didnt want to perpetuate misleading facts, Mr Schwab told the Chronicle, which first reported the news of his exit. I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didnt agree with that. In an official statement after the wave of arrests, acting ICE director Thomas Homan said 864 criminal aliens remained at large and added that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayors irresponsible decision. There's 800 we were unable to locate because of that warning, Mr Homan said in an appearance on Fox during which he likened Ms Schaff to a gang lookout. That claim was echoed and expanded upon by other Trump officials who placed the blame squarely on Ms Schaaf. Mr Sessions said ICE failed to make 800 arrests that they would have made if the mayor had not acted as she did in announcing a federal lawsuit against California. The President subsequently blamed Ms Schaaf for ICE arresting around 150 people instead of taking in a thousand. But Mr Schwab said it was misleading to attribute the lack of arrests to Ms Schaaf, telling the Chronicle that we were never going to pick up every targeted immigrant. Story continues To say that 100 percent are dangerous criminals on the street, or that those people werent picked up because of the misguided actions of the mayor, is just wrong, he told the Chronicle. An ICE spokeswoman said that while she could not give an exact number for how many targeted immigrants evaded arrest because of Ms Schaaf's warning, it clearly had an impact. While we disagree with Mr. Schwab on this issue, we appreciate his service and wish him well, spokeswoman Liz Johnson said. Nikki Haley tells UN security council if it rejects Syria proposal, US is willing to act unilaterally, as when it attacked airbase last year Nikki Haley speaks at a security council meeting on the the situation in Syria at the United Nations on 12 March. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images The United States has proposed a new binding resolution imposing an immediate 30-day ceasefire in the besieged Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta, adding that if the UN security council fails to agree, Washington is prepared to act unilaterally as it did when it fired missiles at a Syrian government air base last year. The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, told the security council in New York: It is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take, and we are prepared to take again. When the international community consistently fails to act, there are times when states are compelled to take their own action, she said on Monday. Following repeated violations by the Syrian regime of the previous ceasefire resolution, passed a fortnight ago, Haley warned trust was what made work at the UN possible and if that was not achievable, nothing else could be achieved. In an attempt to convey the desperate and unyielding misery, the United Nations Childrens Fund released a blank statement on 20 February. A footnote said the agency has no words to describe the childrens suffering and our outrage. The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, did have words: Hell on earth." An estimated 400,000 civilians, already starved from years of blockade, are trapped amid relentless air strikes. Hundreds of people have been killed in the barrage that started on 18 February. Humanitarian groups are pleading for an urgent ceasefire to allow them inside. Aid workers say Syrian helicopters have been dropping barrel bombs - metal drums packed with explosives and shrapnel - on marketplaces and medical centres. She said if the UN could not save the lives of children who have been sheltering in basements, then the UN is as impotent as its worst critics suggest. Haley said the new resolution provided for a 30-day ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian access, and provision for voluntary medical evacuations. Story continues The new text does not have any loopholes permitting attacks on terrorist groups in eastern Damascus. She did not spell out when she would put her new draft text to a vote, nor how quickly the US would take unilateral action if Russia vetoed the resolution. But the scale of the onslaught suggests the US intends to make decisions this week. The UK representative at the UN, John Allen, strongly backed the US stance, saying Russia had done next to nothing to implement the terms of the previous UN resolution implementing a previous 30-hour ceasefire. He asked if there had been a single civilian evacuation since the ceasefire and answered: Not a single one. Again, it is the regime who will not permit their civilians to reach urgently needed medical care. In 17 days only one convoy had been allowed to enter eastern Ghouta. After voting for a ceasefire, Russian military aircraft had mounted 20 raids in Ghouta and Damascus between 24 and 28 February, he added. Russia says it is targeting specific jihadist groups that were excluded from the ceasefire by the previous resolution, adding that it has offered to evacuate civilians. But the number of jihadists in the town are nowhere near the number required to justify the scale of the Syrian bombardment, let alone the alleged use of chemical weapons in civilians. More than 1,000 people have died since mid-February. The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said: Syria is bleeding inside and out. There should be only one agenda for all of us to end the suffering of the Syrian people and find a political solution to the conflict. The warnings at the UN came as the Emmanuel Macron said France was prepared to use military force to maintain red lines preventing the use of chemical weapons. The French president said France would be ready to strike if it found irrefutable evidence chemical weapons had been used to kill. He was responding to criticism by his predecessor, Francois Hollande, who in a rare intervention called for the use of no-fly zones to protect civilians. Macron said The day we have ... irrefutable proof that the red line was crossed namely the chemical weapons were used to lethal effect we will do what the Americans themselves did moreover a few months ago; we would put ourselves in position to proceed with targeted strikes. By Vivian Sequera and Brian Ellsworth CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan security forces on Tuesday detained Miguel Rodriguez, a dissident former interior minister, on accusations he was conspiring to destabilize the government of unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro. The arrest follows last week's detention of nine army officers on charges including treason and rebellion, according to a local rights group, as dissent mounts in parts of the military due to food shortages and hyperinflation. "The criminal actions planned by this man and his accomplices included armed actions and conspiracies against our constitution," the government said in a statement read on state television. It did not provide details or evidence to support the charges. Venezuela's Information Ministry did not reply to a request for comment. Rodriguez was arrested during an event at the President Hotel in Caracas, said Indira Urbaneja, an aide to Rodriguez who witnessed the detention. A video circulating on social media showed agents escorting him into a white van amid commotion. An army major-general who was jailed with late leader Hugo Chavez, Rodriguez in 2014 led a crackdown on opposition protests that set off widespread accusations of arbitrary arrests, inhumane detentions and torture to obtain confessions. But he later broke with the government and created a political movement called Everyone's Challenge. He publicly criticized Maduro and discussed a bid for the presidency, but in February was barred from holding office on alleged administrative irregularities, according to local media. Government officials then accused him of being the mentor of Oscar Perez, a helicopter pilot who led a 2017 attack on government buildings and was killed in a January military operation that opposition leaders described as a massacre. Critics say Rodriguez's detention is further evidence that Maduro has become a dictator. They say the former bus driver and union leader, who lacks Chavez's charisma, is seeking to consolidate his position ahead of May presidential elections by arresting or sidelining dissenters. But the arrest of Rodriguez, once a powerful politician who still retains sympathy from some officials, could also worsen splits within the ruling Socialist Party, once firmly united under Chavez. Maduro, for his part, says his ideological foe the United States is seeking to unseat him to gain control of Venezuela's large oil reserves. In a recent interview with the CNN En Espanol television channel, Rodriguez was asked about the risks he was taking. "If that earns me jail, the government will have to explain what it invented to imprison me," Rodriguez responded at the time. (Additional reporting by Andreina Aponte, Corina Pons and Alexandra Ulmer; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Matthew Lewis) Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela said its United Nations ambassador will formally ask the world body Tuesday to send observers to monitor controversial elections in the crisis-wracked South American country. Opposition candidate Henri Falcon was to join the ambassador, Samuel Moncada, at the meeting in New York to seek to persuade the UN to send a delegation for the May 20 polls. "We insist on the widest possible election observation commission," Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez told a press conference. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would need a specific mandate from the UN General Assembly or the Security Council to send observers, his spokesman said last week. President Nicolas Maduro is seeking a second six-year term and the main opposition is boycotting the vote, claiming fraud. Opposition parties have sent a letter to Guterres asking him not to send observers to the election, out of fears such a move would only help to lend international legitimacy to the polls. They claim Falcon, an opposition outlier, is serving only to legitimize what is certain to be a Maduro victory. Falcon, 56, is a member of the opposition coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable, or MUD, but has defied their call to boycott the May 20 vote. Joe Biden may have been a meme machine during his eight years as vice president under Barack Obama, but a new image of him is going viral for an entirely different reason. Caleb Baca photographed Biden speaking to a homeless person outside of a Washington-area movie theater last week. The image went viral after being shared on Facebook by D.C. businessman Paul Equale. Character is about what you do when no one is watching, Equale wrote: This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Im not exactly sure what he gave the homeless man, but he appeared to write something down on a piece of paper inside the movie theater, which he then proceeded to give the homeless man outside, Baca told FOX 5 in Washington. The image drew widespread praise on Twitter for Biden, who is reportedly considering a 2020 presidential run: This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Also on HuffPost Biden gives a thumbs-up after landing at Southwest Florida International Airport on Sept. 28, 2012. Biden and Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold try out archery in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia, on Aug. 22, 2011. Biden and granddaughter Finnegan Biden tour the Dachau concentration camp with Max Mannheimer, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor, in Dachau, Germany, on Feb. 8, 2015. Biden chats with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Feb. 1, 2013. Biden tours the Decani Monastery with Serbian Orthodox Monk Father Sava, left, on May 21, 2009, in Decani, Kosovo. Biden marches arm in arm with Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) and civil rights legend and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) across the Edmund Pettus Bridge during the 48th annual Bridge Crossing Ceremony in Selma, Alabama on March 3, 2013. Biden smiles and waves as his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, introduces him at an event in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Oct. 27, 2012. Biden takes a selfie with students, following an Its On Us event at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois, on April 23, 2015. Biden, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, left, and Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell walk down the stairs underneath the Gateway Arch, at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 13, 2014. Biden is handed a baby as he works a rope line after speaking at an event in Ocala, Florida, on Oct. 31, 2012. Biden throws a football from the top of the stairs before boarding Air Force Two at Pittsburgh International Airport in Pittsburgh, on July 1, 2009. This photo taken on July 2, 2009, shows Biden's airstream trailer loaded onto a military C-17 cargo plane. Biden jogs up the stairs to Air Force Two at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, in St. Louis, Missouri, on Aug. 20, 2010. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By James Oliphant WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday hosted 19 nations, including Israel and Arab Gulf states, to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but the Palestinian Authority boycotted the meeting, angered by the Trump administration's policies on Jerusalem. U.S. President Donald Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy in December, when he decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv. This incensed Palestinians and other U.S. allies. The administration is also putting the final touches on a Middle East peace plan, and U.S. officials said the conference was integral to future negotiations. Fixing Gaza is necessary to achieve a peace agreement, one of the senior administration officials said. The officials stressed that the multi-nation humanitarian and reconstruction effort remains in beginning stages. Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump who is overseeing the Israeli-Palestinian peace-process for the White House, gave a two-hour presentation to the attending countries, officials said, but the potential U.S. peace plan was not addressed. Attendees included representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as several European nations. The format did not allow for direct discussions between Israel and the Arab states, officials said. Potential electricity, water, sewage, and health projects were discussed, but officials declined to outline specific proposals. A senior administration insisted that many projects could be implemented without assistance of the Palestinian Authority, but the goal was to have it ultimately engage in the multi-lateral process. Gaza faces a 43.6 unemployment rate, and many in Gaza blame Israel for the hardships, accusing it of placing an economic blockade on the enclave that has drastically reduced movement of people and goods. But Gazans also fault their own leaders, complaining of a power struggle between Hamas, the armed group that seized military power in Gaza in 2007, and Fatah, the secular party of Western-backed Palestinian President Abbas. Israel, which pulled its settlers and soldiers out of Gaza in 2005, says it has been forced to control access to and from the territory to prevent Hamas from sending out gunmen and bombers, and from smuggling in weapons or material to make them. The Palestinian Authoritys prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, escaped an apparent assassination attempt in Gaza on Tuesday, when a bomb struck his convoy. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement in October that called for the Islamist group to hand administrative control of Gaza to the Authority, but it remains to be fully implemented. (Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Yara Bayoumy and David Gregorio) Less than two weeks after Donald Trump chided Republican lawmakers for fearing the National Rifle Association and not being ambitious enough in their work to curb gun violence, the President seems to have backed down too. The pipe dream of passing sweeping gun legislation met its end Sunday with the White House release of a plan that walks back Trumps support for raising the age to buy some weapons, from 18 to 21, and shelves calls for comprehensive background checks. Not much political support (to put it mildly) Trump tweeted Monday. The climbdown was striking. Just 11 days ago, Trump scolded Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, for not including the age hike in a gun bill. You know why? Because youre afraid of the NRA, Trump scolded Toomey, who braved political peril by introducing background-check legislation, as the press looked on. But its no surprise that Trumps rhetoric gave way to the tricky realities of gun politics. As the Feb. 14 mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., faded from headlines, the White House realized the president perhaps overstepped on what he was willing to do and whom he was willing to anger. While public polls show overwhelming support for action on guns, private polls conducted for Republicans show Trumps strongest supporters have little interest in that. Trump, who runs the government as if it were a proxy for only his most fervent fans, seemed to go wobbly on the issue. A White House official said Trump still wanted stronger background checks but recognized the risks of alienating his supporters. A Republican who speaks with senior White House officials regularly says this is what many aides were looking to avoid. The problem, this Republican says, is that Trump rushed into the debate with gut instincts but little grasp of gun policy. This was, after all, a man who wrote in a pre-campaign book that he favored a ban on assault weaponsand then won the White House with record support from the NRA. Story continues The NRA and like-minded gun-rights groups were willing to let the gun debate play out, knowing inertia was on their side. The groups have long opposed any efforts to restrict Second Amendment rights, and in the past they have threatened lawmakers who stepped out of line. But this time, gun-rights groups took a different approach. NRA leaders put up a pro forma fight. But as TIME has reported, behind the scenes the NRA signaled to allies that a conversation about guns would not be seen as a betrayal. The reality is, it could be helpful. Fear of gun restrictions is good for business, and struggling firearm makers could use a jolt in sales. At the same time, the NRA told its members that they were under threat from liberals, the media and those who make it harder to buy guns a common victimhood tactic following these types of headlines. It was good for membership sign-ups. Trump seemed to be playing his part. In the days after the mass shooting that killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the President demanded ambitious plans to tackle gun violence. Over the objection of some of his advisers, Trump said he wanted stronger background checks before anyone could buy guns and told Attorney General Jeff Sessions to start work on banning bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to function like automatic ones. That wasnt all. Trump said hed rather confiscate weapons from someone suspected of mental illness first and deal with due process later. He pushed the authors of previous gun legislation to go further than before and promised students who visited the White House that he would campaign for meaningful changes. Then Trump began to backpedal. He hosted NRA executives for a weekend luncheon at the White House and an Oval Office meeting. After that meeting, the NRAs chief lobbyist announced Trump had abandoned his most aggressive plans on guns. By Monday, the talk was about studying the issue, not taking action. Everything is on the table, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told NBC News Today Show on Monday. In other words, nothing was sacrosanct. Democrats were, of course, frustrated. President Trump has completely caved to the gun lobby, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. To no ones surprise, the Presidents words of support for stronger gun safety laws proved to be hollow. The White House said the shift merely reflected political realities. He cant make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Monday. She blamed Barack Obamas administration for not dealing with guns when it controlled the House, the Senate and the White House from 2009 to 2011a dynamic the GOP now enjoys. (The gun debate didnt peak until after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting in December 2012.) You just cant decide you want laws to pass and it happens, Sanders said. Lyle J. Goldstein, Artyom Lukin, Georgy Toloraya Security, Eurasia A combination photo shows a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) handout of Kim Jong Un released on May 10, 2016, and Donald Trump posing for a photo in New York City, U.S., May 17, 2016. REUTERS/KCNA handout via Reuters/File Photo & REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Russias proximity to North Korea will remind all concerned that potent external powers have very significant security assurances to offer Pyongyang. Why Trump Should Meet Kim in Vladivostok One of the main intriguing questions about the possible summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un is the venue for this unprecedented event. The Russian Far East should be a serious possibility among the various choices. Places all over the world map are being suggestedfrom Guam to Sweden. Of course, the North Koreans themselves would prefer that Trump to pay a visit to Pyongyang. After all, in 2000 one of his presidential predecessors, Bill Clinton, was already very close to making a trip to the DPRK (and finally made it, but, alas, later, not in the status of POTUS). But this time a presidents arrival in North Korea is highly unlikely. It would make Kim Jong-un look like the master of the situation, with Trump being the supplicant. Panmunjom, a location in the neutral area in the demilitarized zone on the border between the North and South, is another possible venue. However, it lacks appropriate facilities for such a grand event, although the meeting with ROK President Moon Jae-in scheduled for late April could be a good rehearsal. It is likely, however, that Trump would not want to use the same place for a second time in just one month, as it would diminish the spectacular effect of his historic rendezvous with the North Korean leader. Holding a meeting on South Korean soil, in Seoul or on Jeju Island, is another option. Yet going to the South may not be acceptable to Kim, as this might be seen as giving too much credit to the South Koreans. There is also an issue of security and trust. Would Kim be willing to travel and stay in a country where he is by constitution a leader of an unlawful entity and where a significant portion of the population, including many in the ROK establishment, exhibit a strong aversion to the North Korean regime. Millions might march against him, as the latest demonstrations in Seoul have shown. Story continues Kim himself suggested being treated at the White House but that might be politically difficult for the American establishment. How about Europe, Southeast Asia or Mongolia? Kim may be reluctant to travel so far from home for a variety of obvious reasons, including logistical ones. Getting to Sweden, for example, would require a stopover in Moscow. It should be kept in mind, moreover, that he has never been abroad as leader of North Korea, so the logistical issues are not minor. China is an obvious possible option. Beijing, Shenyang or Changchun, would all be logical venues given their proximity to the DPRK border and the availability of overland routes. Yet relations between the two formal allies have hit unprecedented lows in recent years. Pyongyang doesnt trust Beijing and feels resentful about Chinas enforcement of harsh penalties on North Korea. Kim knows that his delegation would be subject to control and Chinese influence in Beijing. The North Koreans seek to avoid dependence on China and would not want to place the Chinese in that powerful position of brokers/mediators that the host status would confer on them. We are hearing from North Korean sources that China as the summit host is absolutely out of the question. That leaves Russia as the most feasible option. The Russian Far Easts main city, Vladivostok, is just one hundred miles from the North Korean border. Kim Jong-un can safely travel there by air, on his personal train (his fathers preferred mode of making voyages), or even by an automobile cortege. Speaking of Kim Jong-uns father, Kim Jong-il visited the Russian Far East, including Vladivostok, several times in the 2000s. He had personal nostalgic feelings as well, since he was actually born near Khabarovsk, where his father stayed during the World War II. Vladivostok possesses world-class convention facilities that were originally built to host the APEC summit in 2012, which are perfect from the point of security, being located on the picturesque Russky Island off the Vladivostok coast. As an aside, many North Korean guest workers participated in the construction of this modern and attractive facility with a majestic view of the Pacific Ocean. Owned by Far Eastern Federal University, the convention facilities have since hosted high-profile international events, above all annual Eastern Economic Forums attended by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President Moon and other national leaders. Importantly, both the United States and the DPRK maintain consulates in Vladivostok. These consulates will make logistics and security concerns even easier. Russia has repeatedly suggested Vladivostok as a possible venue for international talks involving North Koreaa sort of a standing invitation. It was one of the options for a possible meeting between Kim Jong-il and Kim Dae-jung in the 2000s, but Putin chose Irkutsk as the suggested venue for the meeting (which never materialized despite Kim Jong Ils approval). Russian officials would be willing to offer its Far Eastern capital as a convenient place for the Trump-Kim summit, although so far no serious discussions with North Koreans have been held. However, among the major powers, Moscow currently enjoys the best relations with the North and there are lots of contacts (the forthcoming minister-level intergovernmental commission meeting is one example) and channels, where the issue might be discussed. To be sure, Pyongyang trusts no one, but it distrusts the Russians the least. For the North Koreans (and the South Koreans, too), Russia is influential enough to carry weight on the peninsula, but, in contrast to China, her influence does not carry the risk of becoming too overbearing. This is why Kim Jong-un might well like the Vladivostok option, and his security service would be much relieved in comparison to other locations. The Russian angle can be important per se. Vladimir Putin might himself show up in Vladivostok to have bilateral conversations both with the North Korean leader (the first of its kind, and much persuasion might be done on his part) and the first meeting on Russian soil with President Trump. A formal Russia-U.S. summit would be difficult now for a number of well-known reasons. Putin himself stated that Russia can act as an intermediary in resolving the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Why then not an informal dinner for the two adversaries, maybe not over hamburgers, but with Russian kulebyaka as a main dish? That should not seem artificial, because Russia has major stakes in a resolution of the crisis. Apart from stemming nuclear proliferationMoscows perennial interest as a nuclear superpowerthe successful settlement will remove the danger of a war on Russias doorstep and help Russia realize ambitious economic projects such as connecting the Trans-Siberian with the Trans-Korean rail network. It is important that Putin enjoys close and trustful relations with Xi Jinping. This means Beijing, a crucial player on the peninsula, will have to hide its possible hard feelings with respect to the idea of a U.S.-North Korea summit hosted by Russia, but Chinas interests will be respected. South Korea probably would not protest excessively, as it might be the second best possibility to meeting in the ROK. It may be trickier for Trump to agree to go to Vladivostok given the parlous state of politics between the United States and Russia, but almost all sensible American diplomats and scholars share the opinion that communication channels must remain wide open with the Kremlinprecisely for the purpose of finding solutions to the worlds most pressing challenges, such as the North Korea nuclear crisis. There is no denying that President Trump and President Putin have some positive chemistry, as was revealed when their scheduled chat for thirty minutes at the G-20 in Hamburg lasted more than two hours. Its actually not so strange since both men are realist, pragmatists with a lot of genuine challenges on their collective plate. Whatever low politics might be involved in the so-called Russia investigation should be put aside in favor of the high-politics of achieving a stable agreement to defuse the dangerous North Korea nuclear crisis. That is a goal all Americans can get behind and Vladivostok is simply the best, feasible option for these all-important negotiations. If President Moon and Prime Minister Abe can go to Vladivostok and talk amiably with Putin about the North Korea situation as they did in September 2017, then surely Trump can do the same. Finally, Trump has made the exceedingly bold decision to meet face-to-face with Kim and this may not have been as impulsive as initial reports suggested. That implies his move was calculated strategy and he will not be encumbered or constrained by some craven, partisan bickering regarding the venue. Trump going to Vladivostok to talk to Kim Jong-un, and possibly meeting there with Putin too, might provide an opportunity to resurrect the U.S.-Russia strategic dialogue. The lack of it is becoming simply dangerous, especially considering Putins recent unveiling of an array of new nuclear weapons and United States moves to bolster its nuclear arsenal. Incidentally, Vladivostok was the place where, in 1974, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and President Gerald Ford held successful talks on arms control. In this case, it will not be a bad thing if history repeats itself. If U.S.-Russia relations are improved to an extent by this meeting, so much the better, but the obvious focus must be on the difficult Kim-Trump meeting and its results. Some will object that Kim will be all too comfortable in Vladivostok, surrounded by Russian friends. It would be better, contrarians will insist, to throw Kim off his game in an unfamiliar and less congenial environment. They might suggest, for example, Guam, where Kim could be shown many examples of American military might. However, that would be an incredibly foolish gambit. Given the enormous stakes and the vast asymmetry in power between the two negotiating sides, the United States should actually want Kim to be maximally comfortable, relaxed, organized and thoughtful. A Kim that is stressed, nervous and impulsive may reach an agreement only to rethink it shortly thereafter, which would be a disaster for all concerned. Thus, in such a starkly asymmetric situation, it makes sense to pursue a venue that is quite purposefully convenient and comfortable for the side of the negotiation that is at a power disadvantage. This will ease the process of making genuinely hard decisions that can stickand the host country will have an obligation, at least a moral one, to facilitate their implementation. Moreover, Russias proximity to North Korea in the vicinity of Vladivostok will remind all concerned that potent external powers, including not just Russia but critically also China, have very significant security assurances to offer Pyongyang to ease the security dilemma during the sensitive and gradual process of denuclearization. Recommended: Stealth vs. North Koreas Air Defenses: Who Wins? Recommended: Americas Battleships Went to War Against North Korea Recommended: 5 Places World War III Could Start in 2018 Lyle Goldstein is a professor at the U.S. Naval War College. Artyom Lukin is a professor and deputy director for research of the School of Regional and International Studies at the Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok, Russia). Georgy Toloraya is the director of the Asian Strategy Center, Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. These comment are the authors personal assessments and do not represent official positions/proposals. Image: Reuters. Read full article 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. Yakima County fatal officer-involved shootings Jan. 3, 2014: Jesse Humphrey, 30, was shot by members of the Yakima Police Department SWAT Team following a standoff with Yakima County sheriffs deputies executing a search warrant at a home near Selah. The shooting was investigated by the Washington State Patrol, and Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Hagarty declared the shooting justified. Jan. 4, 2014: Rocendo Arias, 23, was shot while sitting in a car at an East Nob Hill Boulevard car wash by Yakima police officer Casey Gillette, who said Arias had lunged at him with a pistol. Arias was found to be holding a replica pistol that shot plastic pellets. The Yakima Police Department investigated the shooting, and Hagarty cleared Gillette. April 12, 2014: Rolando Villanueva, 24, was shot and killed by Yakima police officer Ira Cavin following a pursuit where police say Villanueva rammed several police cars. That shooting was investigated by the Yakima Police Department and deemed justified by Hagarty. July 11, 2014: Ira Arquette, 42, was shot and killed by a Yakama Nation Tribal Police officer near Toppenish. The shooting was investigated by the FBI and the tribal police, and the U.S. Attorneys Office declined to file charges against the unnamed officer. Nov. 5, 2014: Anthony Duane La Violette, 27, was fatally shot by Yakima County sheriffs deputy Matt Steadman following a chase from the Naches area that ended at the intersection of U.S. Highway 12 and Ackley Road, in which officials say Steadman was knocked down by the car La Violette was driving. The shooting was investigated by the Washington State Patrol, and was deemed justified by Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Brusic. June 10, 2016: J. Juan Briseno-Ortega, 50, was shot by Yakima police officer Brad Althauser during a domestic disturbance at his home in the 2100 block of South 68th Avenue. Police say Briseno-Ortega was shot twice as he reached for a gun after scuffling with Althauser. Yakima police investigated the shooting, and Brusic cleared Althauser. July 31, 2016: Mario Martinez Torres, 38, was fatally shot by Wapato police officer Michael Campos during a domestic violence call to a home in the 400 block of West Second Street. Yakima police investigated the shooting, which Brusic ruled as justifiable. Dec. 26, 2017: Adrian Escobar, 29, was shot by Yakima police officer Booker Ward during standoff at a home in the 300 block of West Pierce Street. The Washington State Patrol is investigating the shooting. Dec. 26, 2017: Jose Miguel Garcia, 31, was shot by Yakima police officers Shane Stevie and Patrick Shad following a standoff at Garcias fourth-floor apartment at the Cascade Apartments that officers said had deteriorated. Yakima police are investigating that shooting. Seventy years ago, on the fifth of Iyar, Israel's Declaration of Independence was signed; the most important document in the history of the State of Israel, comprising the historic, moral and legal basis for Jewish independence in the land of Israel. This year, Israelis will be able to feel and take a small part in the historic event by signing the declaration themselvesalbeit digitally. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter About a week and a half before this year's Independence Day, a special website will be launched, offering citizens to add a digital signature to the historical document. The Culture Ministry and the Administration of Israel's 70th Anniversary celebrations say hundreds of thousands are expected to sign. Digital signing of Declaration of Independence Israelis could sign the declaration on their mobile phones, computers, or tablets, and then share it with friends on social networks. After Independence Day, a book with all the signatures will be produced and presented at Independence Hall on Rothschild Street in Tel Aviv, where the Declaration of Independence was signed and Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared the establishment of the state. The original scroll was signed by 24 members of the People's Assembly who attended the ceremony. The rest, who were besieged in Jerusalem at the time, signed the document at a later date. "The Declaration of Independence is the official document that declared the establishment of the State of Israel, and we decided to connect everyone to one of the founding symbols of the State of Israel," said Culture Minister Miri Regev. On this Independence Day, all Israeli citizens will be able to take part in this piece of history and sign the scroll. This is an excellent opportunity for the younger generation to read the document and to be amazed at the power of the words written in the scroll read by David Ben-Gurion 70 years ago. I invite everyone to sign and share the glory of the State of Israel." The Coastal Road massacre of 1978, when 11 terrorists hijacked a bus on the Coastal Highway and murdered 38 Israelis, including 13 children, left a deep scar on Israeli society. Palestinian society, meanwhile, glorifies the killers, particularly cell leader Dalal Mughrabi, who was killed in a fire exchange with security forces and over the years became one of the symbols of the Palestinian struggle. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The Palestinians refer to the attack as the "Operation of the Martyr Kamal Adwan," and it is considered one of the important milestones in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mughrabi was the only one of the 11 terrorists who perpetrated the attack to become a symbol, and the rest of the members remained relatively anonymous. The fact she was a woman, as well as the leader of the terror cell, undoubtedly helped bolster her popularity, in addition to the fact she was a member of Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority and the education system there. Mughrabi, right, and the scene of the Coastal Road massacre in 1978 Mughrabi was buried by Israel at a cemetery for enemy combatants in the Jordan Valley. She was supposed to be exhumed and returned to Lebanon as part of the 2008 prisoner exchange between Hebzbollah and Israel for the remains of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, but when her grave was opened, no body was found. The common belief is that underground currents moved the body elsewhere. Since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, Mughrabi has been immortalized in many waysschools, summer camps and even sporting events were all named after her. Sometimes, however, the PA caves in to international pressure over Mughrabi's commemoration. For example, an official inauguration ceremony for a square in Ramallah named after Mughrabi was canceled. In another instance, the Belgian government halted financial aid to schools in the Palestinian Authority after learning a school in Hebron built with Belgian money was named after Mughrabi, while Norway demanded the PA to return aid money used to construct a women's center in Burqa named after her. Square in Ramallah the PA wanted to name after Mughrabi Mughrabi (Photo: AP) In early 2018, the Palestinian Authority published a series of new textbooks for students in the 5th-11th grade. This completed a comprehensive reform of Palestinian textbooks. The research institute IMPACT-SE, which is located at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, analyzed the textbooks and discovered a new chapter dedicated entirely to Mughrabi in a textbook for 5th graders. Three other textbooks were also found to be glorifying Mughrabi. "Our Palestinian history is filled with many names of shahids (martyrs) who sacrificed their souls for the homeland, among them is the shahid Dalal Mughrabi, who in her struggle marked one of the images of opposition and bravery, and for that her memory remains forever etched in our hearts and minds," the chapter begins. Mughrabi's life story is then told, concluding with a detailed recounting the day of the attack, which starts with the terror cell's boat ride to Israel and the drowning of two members of the cell when the boat flipped over in the stormy sea. Dalal Mughrabi The story doesn't stick to the facts. The cell is said to have made landfall in Jaffa (to go with Mughrabi's nickname as the "Bride from Jaffa"), despite the fact the terrorists reached the shore in the Ma'agan Michael area, where they murdered American photographer Gail Rubin. The hijacking of the bus is described in romantic terms, according to which Mughrabi boarded the bus and announced to the hostages that the cell members had no intention of killing them and only wished to free Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and that they demanded their right to their homeland. The firefight that ensued between the terrorists and Israeli security forces is described as an asymmetrical fight, and the textbook claims the IDF caused the death and injury of many of the Israeli hostages. The chapter ignores testimonies according to which the terror cell slaughtered some of the Israelis hostages, in addition to those who are believed to have been hit by IDF fire during the rescue effort. The students are later required to answer different questions about the study material, including why Mughrabi told the hostages "We don't want to kill you." It appears the textbook is trying to moderate the abduction and massacre of innocent civilians and embellish it by making it seem like the Palestinians had no other choice but to kidnap Israelis in order to free Palestinian prisoners. In a textbook for 9th graders, Mughrabi is portrayed as having killed more than 30 Israeli soldiers, when in reality only one soldier was killed, with the rest of the dead being civilians, including children. A history book for 11th graders includes a photo of Mughrabi, with the students asked to "draw conclusions from the stages of Palestinian resistance from 1948 to Palestine's recognition by the UN in 2012." "It appears the Palestinian Education Minister Sabri Saidam is determined to radicalize the school curriculum, despite his promise that a significant reform will help improve Palestinian textbooks," said IMPACT-SE's Chief Executive Officer Marcus Sheff. "It's shocking to think the new curriculum encourages young Palestinians to die as shahids, cheapens their lives, and glorifies terrorist child killers like Dalal Mughrabi." The IDF will conduct a military exercise Tuesday morning in the settlements of Einav and Elkana in the Samaria region of the West Bank. As part of the exercise, which will end around noon, there will be increased presence of security forces in the area. Senior coalition members harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday night, asserting the two are working together to call early elections. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The two politicians are expected to meet again on Tuesday in an effort to resolve the crisis, but at present it appears Lieberman remains firm in his position. One official called the crisis, which erupted over Haredi parties' insistence to pass an amendment to the IDF draft law that would solicit state recognition of Torah studies to being equal to military service, a "fake crisis." Lieberman and Netanyahu (Photo: EPA) "This is Netanyahu's window of opportunity to go to elections under the title 'suspect' rather than 'defendant,'" the official said. "The resuscitation attempts of this coalition are artificial. Netanyahu is working on a date for the elections, not a compromise." Netanyahu did reach a compromise with Haredi parties, who initially threatened not to support the 2019 state budget if their bill is not passed in second and third reading before the Knesset's winter session's conclusion on March 18, convincing them to instead settle for a preliminary reading votea compromise Lieberman rejected. Lieberman, who is a minister but not a member of Knesset, said his Yisrael Beytenu party will vote against the legislation in its preliminary reading as well as in the second and third readings, which are scheduled to take place in May. Immigration and Absorption Minister Sofa Landver, who appealed the legislation on behalf of the Yisrael Beytenu party, is supposed to vote against it in the Knesset. Netanyahu could choose to either fire her for breaking coalition discipline or to swallow the bitter pill. Had Landver voted against a government-sponsored bill proposal, she would no doubt have been fired. But since the bill proposal is a private one, Netanyahu has some leeway and doesn't have to fire her. If the prime minister does fire Landver, Lieberman and his party's MKs are expected to resign from the government and the Knesset, leaving the prime minister with a narrow coalition that only has a one-vote majority, something Netanyahu doesn't want. "A government that relies on a one-vote majority simply cannot function. We've been there; we've seen what it's like. That is why we expended the government," he said on Monday. Minister Sofa Landver (Photo: Eli Segal) Netanyahu is therefore expected to announce the dissolvement of the Knesset and set his preferred date for the elections: June 26. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation is due to meet Tuesday to discuss Yisrael Beytenu's appeal against the draft law amendment. Landver, who will land at Ben-Gurion Airport at 2pm after a few days abroad, will head straight to the Knesset to explain the reasons behind the appeal. After the Ministerial Committee for Legislation rejects the Yisrael Beytenu appeal, the legislation will be brought to a preliminary reading at the Knesset plenum. Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein has also approved to raise to a vote a proposal to dissolve the Knesset, which was submitted by members of the opposition. If passed, the elections for the 21st Knesset will take place within 90 days On the surface, Lieberman has nothing to gain from going to elections, but coalition officials claimed on Monday that he is not the one paving the way to the polls. "Netanyahu wanted elections, and Netanyahu arranged elections for himself," a coalition official explained. "These are personal elections that no one in the government or Knesset wants." Prime Minister Netanyahu at the Knesset (Photo: Reuters) A Likud official, meanwhile, raised the suspicion Lieberman and Netanyahu were coordinated. "Lieberman gave Netanyahu the reason to go to elections. It looks like they're too coordinated. Each will blame the other, and both will gain. Bibi will say it's not his fault, and Lieberman will have an achievement to present to his voters: I didn't capitulate to the Haredim." Others in the coalition also claimed the defense minister and the prime minister were working together. "Lieberman has no interest in going to elections because he can't get ahead in the polls. Despite that he played right into Bibi's hands and helped him bring to early elections," a coalition official said, using Netanyahu's nickname. "There is no other explanation to this unless they are coordinated and Lieberman already has a spot reserved in Bibi's next government." While Netanyahu called on Lieberman on Monday to make a "supreme effort" to save the government and reach a compromise, coalition members were not impressed. "Instead of sitting down with Lieberman and trying to resolve the crisis, Netanyahu sat down with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein to plan the early elections," one coalition member said. "Netanyahu's words at the podium were an act." Lieberman, meanwhile, rejected all of these claims. While most coalition officials spoke anonymously, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked had no qualms with publicly pointing a finger at Netanyahu. "This is an artificial crisis," she tweeted. "Prime Minister, bringing down a right-wing government over nothing at all would be a historic mistake, similar in its impact to the collapse of the Shamir government in 1992." Polls: Netanyahu would retain power, Lieberman won't fare well Indeed, polls released by Channel 2 News and Channel 10 on Monday evening showed Lieberman's party will not fare well if elections were held now, while Netanyahu's Likud party is expected to retain its power. A Channel 2 poll by Dr. Mina Tzemach and Mano Geva found the Likud party would win 30 out of the Knesset's 120 seats, the same as what it currently has. Yesh Atid would jump from 11 seats to 21; Zionist Union, a joint effort by the Labor and Hatnua parties, will lose 9 of its current seats, dropping to 13. Meanwhile, the Arab Joint List party would retain its 13 seats; Naftali Bennett's Bayit Yehudi would rise from 8 to 11; Meretz would gain two seats, bringing it up to 7; United Torah Judaism would go up one seat to 7, and Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu would drop from 10 to 6. The underdog of this election appears to be Orly Levy-Abekasis, who left Lieberman's Yisrael Beytenu party and announced she was starting a new party. That partywhich doesn't have a name, an official platform or, indeed, membersis expected to get five seats. Lieberman's party and Shas are at risk of falling short of the Knesset threshold, and would get four seats each. Meanwhile former Shas member Eli Yishai and former Likud member Moshe Ya'alon don't appear to be passing the threshold at all. Channel 10's polls did not take Levy-Abekasis into account, giving Yisrael Beytenu 6 seats. Meanwhile, Likud would drop one seat to 29, Yesh Atid would climb to 24, the Joint List would remain at 13, Zionist Union would drop to 11, Bayit Yehudi would rise to 11, Meretz would soar to nine, while Kulanu would drop to 6. United Torah Judaism would remain at 6, while Shas would drop to 5. An explosive device was detonated near the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, who was visiting the Gaza Strip Tuesday morning. Hamdallah arrived in the Gaza Strip for the first time in five months due to the difficulties in the reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas. An explosive device was detonated near the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, who was visiting the Gaza Strip Tuesday morning accompanied by Palestinian General Intelligence chief Majid Faraj. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Seven were lightly wounded in the blastall of whom were security guards of the convoy. Israel offered to give medical care to the wounded at the Erez Crossing. Two vehicles were badly damaged and could not continue while at least four others were damaged, with windows or sunroofs blown out. One had signs of blood on the door. Footage published by Al Jazeera showed a massive smoke cloud billowing from the site of the explosion. Footage of the aftermath X Immediately after the incident took place, senior Palestinian Authority officials contacted the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, to coordinate the prime minister's exit from the Strip. Hamdallah arrived in the Gaza Strip for the first time in five months due to the difficulties in the reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas. Minutes after the blast, Hamdallah, appearing unhurt, delivered a speech at an inauguration of a new sewage purification facility in the northern Gaza Strip, stressing the attack "will not deter (used) from seeking to end the bitter split" and that Fatah will continue coming to the Strip to try to end divisions with Hamas. He then immediately left without sticking around for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. "It was a well planned attempt. They planted explosive devices two metres deep," Hamdallah said later in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he is based, without pointing a finger at any group. Damage from the blast The Palestinian premier entered the Strip to attend the inauguration of the sewage purification plant, which was envisioned in 2007 after overburdened sewage reservoirs collapsed, killing five villagers. The World Bank, European Union and other European governments have paid nearly $75 million in funding for the plant. Hamas' takeover of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007 and the ensuing Israeli-Egyptian blockade, power shortages and conflicts delayed the opening of the project for four years. The explosion took place on Salah a-Din Street, a main road in Beit Hanoun in the northern the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said the bomb was planted under an electric pole on Gaza's main north-south road and went off shortly after Hamdallah's 20-vehicle convoy had entered through the Israeli-controlled crossing. "I could not see anything because smoke and dust filled the air. When the smoke cleared, the explosion was followed by heavy gunfire, apparently from police securing the convoy. When the dust cleared, I saw people running everywhere, and police were running around," said a witness who declined to be identified because of security concerns. "The bomb exploded when the last car in the convoy passed. It was a security vehicle," a source told Ynet. "As soon as that happened, the security guards fired gunshots in the air, and Hamdallah's car didn't stop but instead drove quickly away from the placeaccording to procedures." The official Palestinian channel reported that Hamdallah and Faraj were saved from an assassination attempt. Fatah was also quick to call it an assassination attempt, blaming the attack on Gaza militants. Palestinian Prime Minister Hamdallah (Photo: Reuters) The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he holds Hamas responsible for the "cowardly attack" which was perpetrated against "the unity of the Palestinian people." Hamas officially announced that several suspects had been arrested and that its men had launched an "urgent" investigation to locate the perpetrators of the attack, which it called a "crime" and an attempt "to undermine security in the Gaza Strip and hurt efforts to achieve unity and reconciliation" with Fatah. Hamas went on to reject the accusations of President Abbas, adding it had no hand in the incident. The convoy, upon entering the Gaza Strip Hamas has been the undisputed leader of the Gaza Strip since it effectively ousted the Palestinian Authority in 2007. The Authority, internationally recognized and supposed to prefigure an independent Palestinian state, now governs only fragments of the West Bank, separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory. After years of devastating dissent, Hamas agreed on October 12 in Cairo to surrender powers to the Authority. This agreement had given rise to cautious hope that the situation in the Israeli and Egyptian blockaded territory would improve, and to clear up a particularly gloomy political horizon for the Palestinian cause. Despite the importance of the stakes, however, Hamas and the Authority have yet again been unable to overcome their divisions, and the October 12 agreement remained largely unfulfilled. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman explained Tuesday his intransigence on the proposed Haredi amendment to the IDF draft law , saying "You can't expect Yisrael Beytenu to vote in favor of the draft law, just like you can't expect Shas to vote for buses on Shabbat." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "When it comes to state security, we cannot compromise," Lieberman said at a conference in Airport City. "This bill is the wrong thing for the State of Israel. It perpetuates the tensions, perpetuates poverty (in the Haredi sector). The ball is in the prime minister's court. We'll know exactly where we're heading after the vote." With that in mind, he called to "stop and let the defense establishment and the IDF resolve the draft law (crisis)." Defense Minister Lieberman (Photo: Reuters) The crisis in the coalition erupted over Haredi parties' insistence to pass an amendment to the IDF draft law that would solicit state recognition of Torah studies to being equal to military service. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached a compromise with Haredi parties, who initially threatened not to support the 2019 state budget if their bill is not passed in second and third reading before the Knesset's winter session's conclusion on March 18, convincing them to instead settle for a preliminary reading votea compromise Lieberman rejected. Lieberman, who is a minister but not a member of Knesset, said his Yisrael Beytenu party will vote against the legislation in its preliminary reading as well as in the second and third readings, which are scheduled to take place in May. While stressing that "going to elections is wrong for Israel and wrong for Yisrael Beytenu," Lieberman said that if Netanyahu decides to fire Minister Sofa Landver for voting against the legislation, "then of course we're heading for elections." The defense minister noted that so far, he hasn't met with Netanyahu face to face and only spoke to him on the phone twice about the crisis. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation was due to discuss an appeal filed by Landver against the draft law at 3pm, but the meeting was postponed to 6pm at the request for the prime minister. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, pointed a finger at Lieberman, telling Ynet "the meaning of making a mistake is that eventually, you might pay for mistakes." However, Katz clarified that "I don't wish to confront or preach (to Lieberman). I think he's in a very important role, perhaps the second most important after the prime minister, with the ability to influence." Transportation Minister Katz, right, with Prime Minister Netanyahu (Photo: AP) Katz insisted Netanyahu "was not interested in elections, the Likud is not interested in elections, and to stop that everyone should withdraw their ultimatums." While the Haredim, Lieberman and Bayit Yehudi made ultimatums, "some of the ultimatums have been withdrawn, and if all of them are withdrawn, the government could continue functioning," he said. The transportation minister also asserted that the prime minister did not create this crisis. "I think Lieberman made a mistake in his conduct. He believes it too," he claimed. While most coalition officials spoke anonymously against the prime minister, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked had no qualms with publicly pointing a finger at Netanyahu. "This is an artificial crisis," she tweeted. "Prime Minister, bringing down a right-wing government over nothing at all would be a historic mistake, similar in its impact to the collapse of the Shamir government in 1992." Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said Netanyahu wanted early elections "to get ahead of the attorney general" who needs to determine whether or not to indict him. "It is an outrage to go to elections when you don't know what's going on with your prime minister. Netanyahu decided to go to elections to save himself. It's time we said that." Herzog didn't rule out the possibility Netanyahu was coordinating the move with Lieberman. "Lieberman claims that it's not, but the signs here are clear. I believe there are deals between parts of the coalition, but it's not my job to judge." MK Revital Swid (Zionist Union) turned to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Tuesday, asking him to set a deadline to make his decision on whether or not to indict the prime minister. Israel's citizens, she said, have the right to choose their prime minister with the knowledge of whether or not Netanyahu is going to be indict "to maintain government stability." Moran Azulay, Alexandra Lukash, Nir Cohen and Yoav Zitun contributed to this story. Turkish troops and allied opposition fighters have begun a siege of the Syrian Kurdish-held northern town of Afrin, the Turkish military said Tuesday. The military said in a brief statement that the siege of Afrin, the main town in the enclave of the same name, had begun Monday. It said the military had taken control of "critical areas" of the town but did not provide details. Thousands of people had started to flee Afrin on Monday as the Turkish troops got closer to the town, heading toward nearby government-controlled areas. Turkey launched a military offensive into the border enclave on January 20 to drive out Syrian Kurdish forces that it considers to be "terrorists" and an extension of Kurdish rebels fighting inside Turkey. AMMAN - Syrian jets resumed strikes on several rebel-held towns in southern Deraa province on Tuesday, rebels said, a day after Washington warned that such bombing would violate a US-Russian "de-escalation zone." Two rebel sources said jets bombed the towns of Hrak, Busr al Harir and a location in Laja, all places which were hit on Monday, the first air strikes since a US-Russian agreement brokered last July on the de-escalation zone in southern Syria. The US State Department said on Monday it was concerned by the violence and called an "urgent meeting" in Jordan to ensure maintenance of the de-escalation zone. "If (reports of the strikes are) true, this would be a clear violation of the (southwest) ceasefire by the Syrian regime that broadens the conflict," a State Department official said. Rocket alert siren was sounded across Israel at 11:05am Tuesday and will be sounded again at 7:05pm as part of a large-scale General Staff exercise to drill emergency preparedness in all of the military's commands. A second siren will be sounded in the event of a real emergency. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter When the siren sounded, IDF bases, government ministries and public institutions practiced entering shelters. Schools and kindergartens across the country also took part in the exercise, with students drilling taking cover under desks and entering school bomb shelters. The IDF has asked the public to follow suit and enter shelters or safe spaces when the drill siren sounds, "in accordance with the time they are allotted and Home Front Command's instructions." : X The rocket alert sirens were also sounded on the radio, appeared on different websites and beepers for people who are hard of hearing, on the TV and on the Home Front Command's website and mobile app. Instructions for finding a safe place to hide following an alert siren can be found on Home Front Command's app and website. "If entering a safe space during the exercise entails an unreasonable disruption of daily routine, routine can be preferred," the IDF elucidated. Students in Sderot school take cover under desks (Photo: Roee Idan) All essential services, including hospitals, will continue operating normally. In addition, conferences and other mass gatherings will also be held normally. The aim of the exercise is to prepare the different commands for a range of emergency and war scenarios and to increase the readiness and operational dialogue between the various commands. Just like every year, an emphasis will be placed on coordination and cooperation between the Home Front Command forces and the National Emergency Authority, local authorities, security and rescue forces, the education system and other public and private bodies. The drill simulates an extreme scenario of a multi-front war during which Israel might come under fire of thousands of rockets and missiles a day from all fronts. Defense Minister Lieberman, center, and IDF Chief of Staff Eisenkot, right, monitoring the drill (Photo: Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry) Home Front Command forces will practice rescues at several wreckage sites across the country. Some of the standing army's Search and Rescue Brigade will be diverted from operational duty to civilian locations that were "damaged" by direct rocket hits. In addition, some Home Front Command reservists will be called up to participate in some of the assignments tasked to the command. Unlike previous home front exercises, the first of which took place in 2008, this time most of the drill focuses on the command headquarters rather than the forces in the field. The IDF is drilling coordination in real time between the Home Front Command, the Israel Police, other emergency organizations and local authorities. The different commands are drilling sharing of information, creating a joint situation report and managing the forces on the ground. The IDF says the goal of the rocket alert sirens drill is to prepare the general public to enter protected areas both in their workplaces and their homes, and to test the functionality of the rocket alert siren system across the country. President Rivlin takes part in the drill (Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO) The exercise is another opportunity to prepare the general public for emergency situations, to test the various systems, the inter-organizational coordination and the improvement of preparedness during an emergency. The IDF Spokesman's Office stressed that "The drill was planned in advanced as part of the training plan for 2018 and is meant to maintain the fitness and readiness of the troops." A Turkish prosecutor on Tuesday sought a life sentence for a US pastor over alleged links to a failed coup attempt in 2016, Dogan news agency reported, a move that threatens to undermine efforts to mend bilateral ties. Washington believes Andrew Brunson, who has been in jail since December 2016, is one of several Americans unjustly detained in Turkey. During a visit to Ankara last month, former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for him to be freed. The Christian pastor from North Carolina has been living in Turkey for 23 years and running a church, according to an online petition seeking his release. The prosecutor charged him with being an "executive" of the group that Ankara holds responsible for the failed coup, the news agency said. Turkey blames the network of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric who denies all involvement. Russia's top defense official says Russia will respond if the United States launches a missile strike on the Syrian capital, Damascus. Moscow has been one of the key allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad since it launched a military operation in the country, helping him turn the tide of war in his favor. Gen. Valery Gerasimov, head of the Russian General Staff, said at a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday that Russia has "reliable information" that the US is preparing to "stage" a chemical weapons attack in eastern Ghouta and blame it on the Syrian government. Gerasimov says Russia thinks the US in that case might strike Damascus' government quarter in retaliation. He says Russia would consider a missile strike on Damascus a threat to the lives of the Russian military who are deployed there and would respond. Syrian Kurdish officials are denying Turkish statements that a joint US-Turkish force will replace a Kurdish militia deployed in the Syrian town of Manbij. Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, claimed that under an agreement with Washington, the Syrian Kurdish militia will leave and Turkish soldiers with US troops will ensure the town's security. The US State Department provided no such details. It said Washington and Ankara are committed to working out outstanding issues and that detailed discussions are still underway and still require approval. Syrian Kurdish officials denied the Turkish reports. Police has revealed the details of the charges against Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman, detailing his alleged involvement in two separate criminal affairs. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Turgeman, they claim, exploited his status as deputy mayor and chairman of the city's Planning and Construction Committee to advance the interests of two others suspected of involvement in the affair. Meir Turgeman in court (Photo: Yariv Katz) Koresh Hotel The first affair began, according to the police, in 2013. Real estate developers Moshe Haba and David Kleineralso arrested as part of the probesought to make changes to a building housing a British Mandate-era post office in the capital's Jaffa Street. The same building currently houses a hotel the two own the Koresh Hotel. Due to its historical significance, the property is subject to strict preservation laws. Despite this, and contrary to the position of the municipality's own preservation committee, the two made structural changes to the building. According to the police, Turgeman was interrogated on suspicion that he had taken care to advance the interests of the two vis-a-vis the building in return for monetary gain. The Koresh Hotel (Photo: Yuval Ozeri) Artemisia Events Hall In the second investigation, police suspects Turgeman used his position to promote the interests of the owners of the Artemisia Events Hall in Jerusalem's Talpiot industrial zone. In exchange, it is suspected Turgeman held events in the hall without chargeincluding a Rosh Hashanah celebration and his granddaughter's brita (female version of a brit, where no circumcision is done and the birth of the daughter is marked with a solely celebratory evented). The remand of the hall's owner, David Avraham, was also extended until Thursday. A covert investigation dating back to 2016 The police said that "Turgeman's account was inconsistent with the investigation materials." His arrest, like the arrest of five other suspects detained over involvement in the affair, was extended until Thursday. The covert investigation into the matter, a police representative revealed in a hearing on Monday, has been ongoing ince 2016. The offenses attributed to Turgeman are bribery, fraud and breach of trust, abuse of power and tax offenses. A top US general on Tuesday signaled support for the Iran nuclear deal, saying the agreement, which President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from, has played an important role in limiting Iran's nuclear program. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "The JCPOA addresses one of the principle threats that we deal with from Iran, so if the JCPOA goes away then we will have to have another way to deal with their nuclear weapons program," said US Army General Joseph Votel, head of the US military's Central Command. US Army General Joseph Votel said he thought the Iranian nuclear deal was important in tackling the threat posed by the Islamic republic (Photo: Reuters) Votel's statementsirregular for a current high ranking army officerwere voiced only a week after President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened in the White House to discuss ways of changing the nuclear deal. Trump has threatened to withdraw the United States from the accord between Tehran and six world powers unless Congress and European allies help "fix" it with a follow-up pact. Trump does not like the deal's limited duration, among other things, and said that he has certified Iran's complianceas he has to once every few months or the deal expiresfor the last time He was speaking during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, using an acronym for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the accord with Iran agreed in July 2015 in Vienna. When asked by a lawmaker whether he agreed with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford's position on the deal, Votel said, "Yes, I share their position." General Votel added he concurred with Secretary of Defense Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dunford on preserving the deal (Photo: Reuters) Earlier Tuesday, Trump announced the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson , partly due to disagreements surrounding the nuclear deal. Mattis said late last year that the United States should consider staying in the Iran nuclear deal unless it was proven that Tehran was not complying or that the agreement was not in the US national interest. Dunford, the top ranking US military officer, has said Iran was complying with the pact and has warned that any American decision to walk away would make other nations less likely to enter into agreement with the United States. A collapse of the Iran nuclear deal would be a "great loss", the UN atomic watchdog's chief warned Trump recently, giving a wide-ranging defense of the accord and the agency's work under it. Iran has stayed within the deal's restrictions since Trump took office but has fired diplomatic warning shots at Washington in recent weeks. It said on Monday that it could rapidly enrich uranium to a higher degree of purity if the deal collapsed. PM Netanyahu said he saluted Trump for his tough stance on the nuclear deal (Photo: AFP) After his meeting with Trump in Washington last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu told the AIPAC conference that he " saluted " President Trump on his tough stance toward the Iranian regime and pledged Israel's unwavering support in the event that the US announces its withdrawal from the agreement signed by the Obama administration. "Israel will be right there by America's side, and let me tell you, so will other countries in the region," he told the jubilant sea of Israel supporters. More than one thousand United States Marines and Israeli paratroopers have recently been training in Israel's southern region's Tze'elim base, as part of the massive joint 2018 Juniper Cobra exercise held this month. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter With the air defense's parts of the exercise already complete, the two armies have now moved to ground operations. As part of the drill, forces have practiced tactical urban warfare combat scenarios in regions simulating the Gaza Strip, with simultaneous use of artillery brought by the American forces, taking of enemy targets, covert advancement and dropping troops from American aircrafts such as the V-22three of which currently circle the skies above Israel's southern environs. Juniper Cobra's infantry portion (: ) X One of the American officers taking part in the exercise noted that his soldiers were learning how to fight underground from their Israeli cohorts, as the experience members of the Paratroopers Brigade have acquired in fighting in Gaza has greatly contributed to the forces' mutual learning processes, as did the American troops' experience gleaned by years of fighting in Iraq. American and Israeli infantrymen began their portion of the 2018 Juniper Cobra exercise (Photo: Yoav Zitun) Lt.-Col. Marcus Mainz, commanding officer of a Marine battalion, said, "We both learn from each other, and we can share our ideas. This increases our already rock solid relationship with Israel." Speaking to reporters in Tze'elim's urban warfare training ground, Mainz said, "This training exercise is one of the largest undertaken by American infantrymen in the past six years. We're taking the young marines here and teaching them what the 'open door' means and how to observe and study all of the details on the ground. "The first scenario here is peacekeeping, how we operate in peacetime and patrolling the region to maintain citizens' safety." Forces learned from one another (Photo: Yoav Zitun) Major Eliyahu Asban from the Paratrooper Brigades' reconnaissance battalion noted Juniper Cobra was also Israel's largest training exercise in recent memory. He said, "We're practicing live fire both together and apart, as well as fighting with armored vehicles and learn from each another. "For the Americans, emphasis is on fighting in large groups. For us, it's more on the singular combatant. We've been working together in the field for the past two weeks, following four months of planning. We've learned how a larger system works." Major Asban further explained that the Americans, "came with three times the forces we have. American and Israeli troops are moving through the streets here and it seems like a completely organic battalion. Both sides have their own distinct advantages and disadvantages and everyone's learning from one another." (Photo: Yoav Zitun) The training exercise also included the IDF's commando brigade, meant to be utilized in special warfare scenarios deep behind enemy lines, such as deploying forces far from the Israeli border. One officer participating in the exercise with his American counterparts was Lieutenant B., an Egoz division commander, who described one of the differences he noticed between the two armies' infantry protocols. 3 V-22 planes participated in the drill (Photo: Yoav Zitun) "There aren't any significant differences in the various fighting techniques, but Americans fight with more troops. The quickness aspect of fighting is brought to bear more at the expense of force security, whereas we secure our men more," he elucidated. Unlike the American air defense personnel, officers from US ground forces refused to unequivocally commit Monday that they will be shipped to Israel to fight alongside the IDF should the latter require assistance in fighting its enemies, whether from the north or the south. (Photo: Yoav Zitun) Lt.-Col. Mainz explained, "We're here only to learn, to train and to share with Israeli forces. I think theoretically you can come up with any scenario where we'll be fighting side by side. The one thing that we know about history is that we don't know, and anybody would be a fool to say, 'That would never happen.' "I don't know what will happen. If God wills it that we ever need to be side by side, then we will. Marines do that in the best possible manner and we are able to respond to any crisis around the world." PARIS France's foreign minister said on Tuesday that Turkey's operation against Kurdish militants in the Afrin region was not justified, the strongest language yet from Paris regarding its NATO ally's intervention in Syria. The French government has faced growing criticism at home over its response to developments in northern Syria where Turkey launched its operation "Olive Branch" nearly two months ago to sweep Syrian Kurdish YPG militants from the border. "While concerns over border security are legitimate... at the same time ... It must be said that it absolutely does not justify the deep incursion of Turkish troops in the Afrin zone," Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers in parliament. "The situation is critical and serious," he said, adding that Paris feared the Turkish operation was also weakening the action against Islamic State militants. WASHINGTON The White House is convening international donor nations to discuss the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, seeking "fresh thinking and a commitment to action" following a roadside bombing that struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister. White House envoy Jason Greenblatt said Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority should not be deterred by the attack on the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Gaza. The Palestinians are boycotting the meeting following President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Greenblatt says he regrets that the Palestinian Authority is not attending the meeting, adding, "This is not about politics." The White House has been seeking to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and the conference aims to address the humanitarian challenges in Gaza. MOSCOW The head of Russia's military General Staff and the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed the Syrian crisis, including the situation in besieged eastern Ghouta, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. The two men agreed in their telephone conversation to continue bilateral contacts, it added. Russia backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country's civil war, while the United States has backed rebel groups opposed to him. Russia on Tuesday dismissed accusations of any involvement in the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter as "nonsense," saying it will only cooperate with a British investigation if it receives samples of the nerve agent believed to have been used. Police, meanwhile, said the investigation of who poisoned Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, will last many weeks and that they are not ready to identify any persons of interest in the inquiry. The father and daughter remain in critical condition in a Salisbury hospital. British Prime Minister Theresa May said Russia's involvement is "highly likely," and she gave the country a deadline of midnight Tuesday to explain its actions in the case. She is reviewing a range of economic and diplomatic measures in retaliation for the assault with what she identified as the military-grade nerve agent Novichok. US and European officials were quick to offer words of support for Britain, which will need the backing of its allies if any new sanctions are to have any impact. Russia said on Tuesday it had information that the United States planned to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext, and said it would respond militarily if it felt Russian lives were threatened by such an attack. Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia's General Staff, said Moscow had information that rebels in the enclave of eastern Ghouta were planning to fake a chemical weapons attack against civilians and blame it on the Syrian army. He said the United States intended to use the fake attack as a pretext to bomb the government quarter in nearby Damascus where he said Russian military advisers, Russian military police and Russian ceasefire monitors were based. "In the event of a threat to the lives of our servicemen, Russia's armed forces will take retaliatory measures against the missiles and launchers used," Gerasimov said in a statement. He did not say when the alleged attack would take place or provide detailed evidence to back his assertions. In Washington, the Pentagon said Russia should focus on stopping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from targeting innocent civilians. "We urge Russia to stop creating distractions and compel the Assad regime to stop brutalizing innocent Syrian citizens and allow much-needed aid to reach the people of East Ghouta and other remote areas," Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said. "By enabling the Assad regime's brutality, Russia is morally complicit and responsible for Assad's atrocities," Pahon added. - The US Ambassador, Jackson believes about 10% of people are naturally born gay. - Mr Jackson says his comments do not in any way suggest the US is forcing Ghana to legalize homosexuality The United States Ambassador to Ghana, Robert P. Jackson has disclosed that despite the stiff opposition faced by homosexuals, there are far more gays in Ghana than Ghanaians can imagine. According to the diplomat, Ghanaians must not discriminate and chastise people base on their sexuality. READ ALSO: Afia Schwarzenegger, Kumchacha settle scores in an open fight at Kasapa FM Speaking exclusively to GhanaWeb in an interview, Ambassador Jackson stressed that statistics have proved that about 10% of people are naturally born gay. I believe that everyone should enjoy the same human rights and personally I believe that people are either born heterosexual or homosexual. Its not a lifestyle choice, he said. The issue of homosexuality and its legalization in the Ghana has been a huge subject of debate with some minority groups pushing for gay rights. The President of the Republic, Akufo-Addo had without making any definite pronouncement on issues of gay during an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera last year reiterated that any possible change will only come after a strong concerted push for gay rights from some sections of the public. READ ALSO: Asamoah Gyan reacts to $2million Stonebwoy 'bailout' report But the US Ambassador believes Ghanaians are not privy to the large number of members of the gay community. Mr Jackson explained that due to stereotypes and victimization, people are unable to openly admit to being gay. I think there are far more gays in Ghana than Ghanaians realize but because of societal attitudes they keep their sexuality very private. I dont think it's myopic, I think it reflects a lack of understanding of the science...I think that many of those Ghanaians if they study the issue they might come to a different conclusion," the diplomat said. The US Ambassador in his conversation added that his comments do not in any way suggest that the United States is forcing any particular country to legalize homosexuality. The United States is not asking anyone to change their religious beliefs or to legalize homosexuality. We are asking that all people be treated the same that they have the same human rights and the right to privacy," he said. READ ALSO: Ola Michaels 'exposes' Zylofon FM after Stonebwoys brutal attack Meet emerging music star Kobla Jnr on Star Gist with Yen.com.gh YEN.com.gh is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident? Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Message us on Facebook now Source: Yen News Popular Ghanaian actress and producer, Yvonne Nelson, along with other Ghanaian celebrities surprised Ghana's First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo, with a birthday cake and a range of other gifts for her birthday on Monday. In a video shared on the popular actress's Instagram page, Yvonne Nelson, along with other members of the Vitamilk Girl Talk Hangout paid a surprise visit to the First Lady's residence in order to celebrate her on her 67th birthday. READ ALSO: Ghanaians comment on Michy's conviction that Shatta Wale will eventually marry her A birthday cake and a song wasn't all the group of celebrities had to offer, as they brought with them a series of gifts that included a portrait of the First Lady, boxes of goodies from Vitamilk, along with a new bottled drink made of honey and herbs. But perhaps their most significant present to the first lady was their pledge to support the First Lady's well known initiative to provide better healthcare for mothers and babies with an incubator. For her part, the First Lady thanked the group for the visit and gifts. She noted that Yvonne Nelson paid her a visit on her birthday last year in 2017, and promised to return her a visit "one of these days." Checkout a video of the group's surprise birthday visit below: Also checkout the most recent edition of YEN TV's Star Gist with rising Ghanaian Musician, Kobla Jnr, and watch the artiste speak about his plans of making it big in the music industry: READ ALSO: Video of Stonebwoy's scuffle with Bulldog at Champs emerges Do you have any story to share with YEN? Get featured! We are available on Facebook Source: Yen Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang's Regular Press Conference on March 13, 2018 2018/03/13 Q: We noticed that yesterday, the Foreign Ministry of China released information on Special Envoy of the ROK President Chung Eui-yong's visit to China. We know that he was here to brief the Chinese side on his visits to the DPRK and the US. With all these developments as well as President Trump's phone call to President Xi Jinping last Friday regarding the US opinions and considerations for the Korean Peninsula situation, what is China's evaluation on these developments of the Korean Peninsula situation? What is your expectation as to how the situation may evolve? How is China going to further leverage its role? A: On his visit yesterday, Special Envoy Chung Eui-yong briefed and had an in-depth exchange of views with the Chinese side on his visits to the DPRK and the US. President Xi Jinping met with him. State Councilor Yang Jiechi held talks with him. Foreign Minister Wang Yi also met with him. We have released information on these meetings respectively. Last Friday, we also released information timely on President Xi Jinping's phone conversation with President Trump where the two heads of state compared notes on the latest Korean Peninsula situation. All these press releases give a full picture of China's relevant stance, policies and proposals which I will not repeat here. I can highlight a few points briefly on how China perceives the current Korean Peninsula situation. First, an opportunity has been presented to bring the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue back to the track of a negotiated settlement. This merits encouragement and support. We are glad that President Trump said he hopes the issue could be resolved finally through peaceful means, which is what China has been calling for all along. Special Envoy Chung Eui-yong also said that the ROK side appreciates China's commitment to a peaceful settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the denuclearization goal, and inter-Korean talks, which enabled positive progress on the Korean Peninsula issue. Second, the US and the DPRK eventually expressed their political will to have direct dialogues. This also merits encouragement and support. We look forward to see a smooth running of the inter-Korean meeting and DPRK-US talks. President Xi Jinping told President Trump very clearly that he hopes the US and the DPRK could begin contacts and dialogues sooner than later and strive to achieve positive outcomes. President Trump said that facts have proven that President Xi is right in insisting on the US having dialogues with the DPRK. Special Envoy Chung Eui-yong also thanked China for upholding direct talks between the US and the DPRK and looked to China to continue with its important role. Third, China is firmly committed to realizing denuclearization, peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula, and resolving the issue through dialogue and negotiation. We will continue to play our unique role in getting the talks started and sustaining the talks till good outcomes are achieved and a peaceful, stable and denuclearized Korean Peninsula is realized. This serves the interests of not only the DPRK and the ROK, but also other regional countries, and meets the common expectations of the international community. Q: The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the DPRK says that any talks with the DPRK about its nuclear program should also be accompanied by talks in human rights, including accusations of "torture and the use of political prison camps". Does China agree or disagree with this point of view? A: I believe that you are very clear with our position on the Korean Peninsula issue as well as where we stand on the relevant UN agency's deliberations on the DPRK's human rights issue. Under the current circumstances, we hope that all relevant parties of the international community could make positive and constructive contributions so that the relevant parties of the Korean Peninsula issue could seize the opportunity and promote peace dialogues to achieve peace, stability and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and bring about a final turn-around of the Korean Peninsula situation. As regards the related human rights issue, it shall be approached justly in light with the purposes and principles set out by the UN Charter. Q: First, has China discussed with the DPRK and the ROK the option of it hosting the relevant meeting on resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue? Second, do you have a reaction to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying that China is dumping steel in Canada? A: As to the first question, like what I said just now, China is heartened by the positive momentum brought about by all relevant parties, especially the US and the DPRK, coming back to the negotiating table to resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, which we hope could be further encouraged and supported by all parties of the international community. We would like to see that relevant interactions and dialogues could go ahead and lead to positive outcomes sooner rather than later. Any form of engagement or any arrangement that helps to achieve that goal is worth encouraging and considering. China has been playing a positive and unique role and we have every intention to continue to do so. With regard to your second question, the Chinese government is resolutely determined to tackle the issue of excess steel capacity and has already taken practical measures to address that issue. We have made some notable progress, but not without great cost. Meanwhile, I have to remind you all that steel overcapacity is not a problem just for China only. It is a global one and as such, is impossible to be solved by any single country. We hope that all the steel-producing countries could make concerted efforts to cut steel overcapacity proportionately and resolve this issue through international cooperation. Q: Two people in the UK were poisoned after contacting unknown substance. One of them is the 66-year-old Sergei Skripal who used to work for the Russian military intelligence service. In response to this, British Prime Minister Theresa May said to the Parliament on March 12 that the British government believed that Russia was highly likely responsible for the poisoning incident. What is your comment? Do you believe this will become a new diplomatic scandal? A: We have noted relevant reports, but we are not aware of what really happened. Both the British and the Russian sides have responded to it. We hope that relevant parties could properly resolve this issue based on facts and through appropriate channels. Q: Nepali officials yesterday confirmed that a passenger plane carrying 71 people from Dhaka crashed while landing in Kathmandu, killing at least 49 people and injuring 22 others. According to reports, the spokesperson for the US-Bangla Airlines operating this plane said that one passenger on board was from China. Can you confirm this? A: We are deeply saddened by the heavy casualties caused by this accident. We express our deep condolences to the victims and sincere sympathy to the injured and the families who have lost their loved ones. According to the preliminary verification by the relevant Nepali authorities today, a Chinese citizen was killed in the crash. In the wake of the accident, the Chinese Embassy in Nepal immediately dispatched officials to the airport to verify relevant information and coordinated with the Nepali side to help the family of the deceased Chinese passenger with follow-up matters. The Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Nepal will continue to follow the development of this incident and offer our best assistance to the bereaved family. Q: According to reports, on March 12, the United States has prepared a new draft resolution asking the UN Security Council to demand 30-day ceasefire in Syria's eastern Ghouta and Damascus. What is China's opinion about this proposal and if the US put this draft to a vote, what position will China hold? A: Last month, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2401 on the humanitarian issue of Syria, which reflects the shared will of its members on realizing ceasefire and cessation of violence in Syria and improving its humanitarian situation as soon as possible. Currently, the situation in eastern Ghouta is still very complicated. All relevant parties should join hands to coordinate their efforts on many fronts, including combatting terrorism, promoting ceasefire and cessation of violence, stepping up humanitarian aid, and strive to meet the requirements and goals set out in Resolution 2401. Meanwhile, China still hopes that the Security Council could remain united on the humanitarian issue of Syria, as this will ensure its constructive role. Q: According to reports, European officials say that China might delay or scale back the 16+1 summit that is supposed to be held in Bulgaria this year between China and Central and Eastern European countries. Can you give us any details from the Chinese side as to your thinking about the 16+1 summit this year? A: I have noted the relevant report, but I haven't heard of anything as mentioned by you. Thanks to the concerted efforts of all relevant parties, the cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries(CEEC) has sustained a sound momentum of growth and yielded fruitful outcomes in the past five-plus years. This has not only elevated the relations between China and the Central and Eastern European countries, but also played a positive role in advancing the European integration and balanced development of Europe. The rapid development of China-CEEC cooperation cannot be achieved without the guidance of the leaders' summit. At the end of November last year, the 6th 16+1 Summit reached the consensus on Bulgaria hosting the 7th leaders' Summit. China attaches great importance to this and remains in close communication with relevant countries on the preparations of the summit. Q: Can you give any insights on why the air pollution in Northern China seems to have got worse after sharp improvement at the end of last year? Is China still committed to cutting its emissions and the Paris Climate Change Accord? A: I will get to your second question first, since it sounds more like a diplomatic one. China has played a positive and important role in hammering out the Paris Accord. The international community knows that very well. The commitments, once made, will be strictly honored by the Chinese government. According to the statistics of the environment departments in China, last year's air quality nationwide, including northern China, has experienced a major improvement. You all work and live here. You must have all experienced that improvement. As for why so smoggy these two days, that calls for specialized analysis by competent departments. We hope that you could acknowledge what we have done painstakingly to improve the environment. We do have reason to feel confident about that. Q: This morning, China announced restructuring plans for the State Council which include setting up a national body to supervise international development aid, taking some power that were previously under the Commerce Ministry and the Foreign Ministry. Can you comment on what relationship will be between the Foreign Ministry and this new international aid body and whether this represents a reduction in the Foreign Ministry's powers? A: Thank you for following China's Two Sessions this year. This morning, State Councilor Wang Yong presented the plan for the State Council institutional reform to the first session of the 13th National People's Congress. He detailed the specific considerations behind making these changes, including on setting up a national agency on international development and cooperation. You may refer to that. As explained, to set up such a body is to fully leverage the role of foreign aid as an important means of major-country diplomacy, strengthen the strategic planning and coordination for foreign aid-related work, manage such work in a more unified manner, and reform and optimize models of foreign aid, so as to better serve the country's diplomatic blueprint and the Belt and Road Initiative. The plan proposes to integrate foreign aid-related mandates from the Commerce Ministry and the Foreign Ministry and form a national agency on international development and cooperation and outlines the main duties of this new body. 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. Skier Gus Kenworthy and News Anchor Roxanne Vargas were selected to Marshal the 10th Annual Miami Beach Gay Pride. The pair will take part in events throughout the week, including the April 8 Pride Parade, according to the release. Kenworthy will serve as the Grand Marshal, while Vargas will serve as the Ally Grand Marshal. Gus and Roxy are two preeminent public figures who well represent and support the LGBTQA community, said Mark Fernandes, the chairman of the Pride board of directors. Gus for being a role model as an out and proud sportsman who excels at his craft and Roxy for being a prominent ally for the community and equal rights. Kenworthy returns from his second-ever Winter Olympics at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, which he did not medal. Kenworthy won a silver in slopestyle in 2014, according to the release. Notably, Kenworthy kissed his boyfriend Matthew Wilkas on TV in front of the crowd at the PyeongChang Olympics. Vargas hosts in several capacities for NBC 6 in Miami, including on the 6 in the Mix show. According to the release, she has been nominated for 10 Emmy Awards and has used her platforms to support the LGBT community. Miami Beach Pride will take place from April 2-8 and will include events such as Pride Lights the Night, a tribute to the PULSE nightclub victims; the Miss Pride drag pageant; a Friday night VIP Gala; Saturday beach party and festival; and Sunday parade and festival. We can't seem to find the page you are looking for. You may have typed the address incorrectly or you may have used an outdated link. Bir Lahlou (Liberated Territories), March 12, 2018 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, has stressed the failure of the Kingdom of Morocco in their attempt to compromise Western Sahara's membership of the African Union (AU). Speaking at the closing session of a meeting extended to secretaries and political commissars of the Polisario Front, the President of the Republic said Morocco's scheme to join the African Union in order to compromise SADR's membership of the (African Union) and to prevent (the pan-African organization) from playing its role in the process of decolonization of the last colony in Africa has been a shameful failure. The position of SADR, as a founding member, has been further strengthened since the adherence of Morocco to the AU, alongside the Saharawi State, which has played an effective part in African Union partnership summits with foreign countries and unions, including Japan in Maputo (August 2017) and the European Union in Abidjan last November, said the President of the Republic. In "other consultative and specialized meetings Morocco has found itself isolated in the face of the determination of the African countries and their solidarity with the SADR, which is today a symbol of Africans' history and struggle for freedom and dignity." "The decisions of the 30th African Summit, held last January, were a clear message of Africans' discontent with Morocco's prevarications and violation of African and international legality," the President of the Republic said. He added that the African leaders have always reiterated their "AU's commitment to fully playing their role in the peaceful settlement of the conflict." (SPS) 062/SPS/APS Two weeks after announcing an ambitious program that would see 24 French-bred trotters flown to North America to compete at Yonkers Raceway, Standardbred Owners Association of New York Executive Director Alex Dadoyans initial nerves have transformed to cautious optimism. With several of the spaces already filled, the program is attracting significant interest from local horsepeople. We did bounce the idea off some people, but it was a big unknown how it was going to be received, Dadoyan admitted. Right away when we announced it, there was a lot of positive interest, which is really rare in this game. The owners, trainers, and horsepeople who called looking for more information all seemed genuinely interested in it, intrigued by it, and wanting to learn more about it. The reception has been very positive, he continued. We have a bunch of people who are already lined up and have made their deposits and we have a bunch of people who say they are going to participate and we hope to fill the number that were looking for. The SOA of NYs pioneering program to import two-dozen French trotters was formed with several goals in mind. It serves to strengthen the relationship between Yonkers and the French trotting association LeTrot, entice French bettors to increase their handle on Yonkers races simulcast to France, and address a shortage of trotters competing at the track. The program will also give local horsepeople a chance to buy a horse at a relatively low price point that will be eligible to race in a rich series restricted to French-bred trotters. Theres multiple things going on. We simulcast the races over to France and if people are betting on races from Yonkers, obviously races that have French horses that they know are going to be more attractive, more interesting to their bettors than horses theyve never heard of, Dadoyan explained. If we were going to do this, we wanted to be able to card races that we could then send back over there, he continued. Those races are normally larger fields that we send over, so we werent going to do it and just bring back eight horses; that wasnt going to achieve all of the goals, so we said, well try to see if 24 people are going to be interested and ideally come back and card two full fields of races to send back there in the series for these horses that we bring over. Organizing the sale of a large number of trotters to a foreign country isnt a new endeavour for LeTrot. The organization routinely offers sales of promising high-steppers to developing trotting countries, such as Ireland. In this case, LeTrot will prepare a group of geldings four years old and older who compete at a similar level for inspection by highly-experienced Yonkers horsemen. The team who selects the horses will be independent from those participating in the program and the horses selected will be randomly distributed to the 24 owners and trainers who commit to the program. The thing that excites me, gives me a level of confidence is were taking over several trainers with us. The French are accustomed to holding these sales for other countries. They organize a bunch of horses and then people can come out and look at the horses, Dadoyan said. Were going to get to go training trips with all of the horses and were going to have experienced trotting guys with us to make an educated assessment as to which of the bunch might have the best chance of having some success back home. Each trotter selected will sell for $25,000 with an additional $3,000 shipping charge, meaning the total expenditure to buy into the program is $28,000. The trotters who make the cut will be eligible to race in a multi-leg series with a final to be held at Yonkers a few months after the horses arrive stateside. In addition to the purse money contributed by the track and the SOA, LeTrot will also add to the purses for these races. Specific details and purse-levels for the series will be announced in the coming weeks. This gives the participants a chance to recoup their investment before they move to the local competition at whatever level they might end up racing at, Dadoyan said. We thought it was important to give an opportunity for these horses to just be in against themselves and it gives everyone a fair chance to make back some or all of their investment immediately. When we card races exclusively for French-bred horses, the French Trotting Association will contribute money for the purses for those races, so we would have an amount of money contributed from over there for these races that are exclusively for French-bred trotters, Dadoyan said. Its not a small amount of money. Were going to make the races meaningful enough anyway, but its just a little something extra that we can offer everyone. To participate in the program, a non-refundable deposit of $10,000 is required by March 26. The balance of $18,000 will be due by Thursday April 26. If the program is not fully subscribed by March 26, those making an initial deposit will be refunded. The selection of horses is scheduled in France during the period of the Yonkers shutdown at the end of May. If you are interested in participating in this program, please contact the SOA of NY at 914-968-3599 or via email at [email protected]. All monies paid after the initial deposit will then be held in escrow in an interest-bearing account to the credit of the person depositing the funds. Space in the program is limited to the first 24 owners that reserve a slot by making a deposit. (SOANY) Standardbred horseman Allyn G. Big Al Dentlinger passed away on Thursday, March 8 at the age of 75. He trained Standardbreds in western New York for many years. Among the top horses in his stable included the Open pacer Woody Wilton and Jackies Peanut. He is survived by his loving wife of 53 years, Sophie; daughter, Amy (Ron) Jewell; granddaughter, Annie; and beloved dog, Daisy. Family will receive friends from 4 - 7 p.m. on Wednesday (March 14) at New Comer Cremations & Funerals, 2636 Ridgeway Ave., Rochester, N.Y. A Funeral Mass will be held on Thursday (March 15) at St. John's Church, 55 Martha St., Spencerport, N.Y. at 11 a.m. Interment at St. John's Cemetery. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Allyn Dentlinger. (USTA) Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Verizon India has expanded its Secure Cloud Interconnect footprint in India to include two of countrys biggest cloud providers, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The announcement brings the number of Secure Cloud Interconnect partners available to India-based multinationals to 9 including Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud, HP, IBM Cloud and Salesforce. This expansion is significant for our customers as we now have the ability to connect to two of the biggest global cloud service providers in India. Secure Cloud Interconnect is essentially Verizons network extension to the cloud service provider community. Its literally as easy as flipping to your preferred cloud service provider at any time and at a fraction of the cost instead of using private circuits, said Helen Wong, Director of Partner and Product Strategy for Verizon Asia-Pacific. The concept of cloud interconnect predates early multiple cloud service provider connections which were provisioned over the public internet giving IT executives little control and visibility over policies and the implementation of the infrastructure. Verizons Secure Cloud Interconnect is a Software Defined Network-enabled (SDN) service built on Verizons Private IP network that offers any-to-any connectivity of IP, while providing the security and reliability associated with private wide resources, controlled application performance and varying classes of service. The service is available in more than 170 markets around the globe. According to TechSci Research report, the market for cloud computing services in India is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 22% during 2015-2020 boosted by increased government spending and adoption by the small and medium business segment. Robert Le Busque, Regional managing director for Australia, New Zealand and India said, This is the start of a number of product investments that were making, on what is our tenth-year anniversary in India. Were very pleased to be able to increase our Secure Cloud Interconnect footprint in India at a time when our customers are increasingly starting to rein in shadow IT and increase governance of their online assets because they need to be in control of mission-critical workloads. Verizons Private IP network boasts over 330,000 connections across move than 800,000 network route miles. The service is also additionally available with Virtual Network Services (VNS) which is a natural extension of data-center virtualization that promises enterprise Wide Area Network customers fast, flexible provisioning as well as cost savings. Recently, Tokyo-headquartered healthcare provider, Astellas Pharma Inc announced that the company is using Verizons SECURE CLOUD INTERCONNECT to connect to its multiple cloud service providers around the world, including India. BankBazaar.com, ranked as the best financial website in India by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and the best emerging brand in Asia by CMO Asia, is Indias first neutral online marketplace that gives you instant customized rate quotes on loans, credit cards or any other personal finance products. It simplifies the loan application process. Anyone can instantly search for tailor-made offers, compare, customize it as per his or her need or profile and apply for their finance products. BankBazaar.com has appointed Marketing veteran Aparna Mahesh as the CMO. Based out of Bangalore, Aparna will lead the companys marketing strategies, to drive the next phase of growth at BankBazaar. Aparna comes with long experience in building successful brands across industries, both nationally and internationally, in a career spanning close to two decades. She joins BankBazaar from FreshMenu where she was the CMO. Prior to this, she headed Brand Marketing at Quikr.com and was responsible for driving the numerous marketing campaigns that have made Quikrrrr a household name today. Commenting on the appointment, Adhil Shetty, Co-founder and CEO, BankBazaar.com, said, We started our journey with a digital-only strategy aimed at the metros, as that is where the bulk of our customers existed then. Today, cashless, paperless finance is gaining acceptance across India, and it is time to revisit our marketing strategy. It is the time we look beyond the online space exclusively, and reach out to more people than ever through mass media as well. As we explore newer strategies and experiment with other media, we are thrilled to have an industry stalwart like Aparna to support us and guide our efforts. Predominantly a digital player, BankBazaar has made a mark with its award-winning digital ad campaigns. Of late, there has been a shift in BankBazaars marketing strategies, with the most marked change being the brands return to the television medium after more than 30 months. BankBazaar is looking at TV as one of the ways to reach more users in a rapidly growing financial services market in the country. With Aparna at the helm, the brand plans to experiment on a much bigger canvas than ever before. Sharing her thoughts on her new role, Aparna Mahesh, CMO, BankBazaar.com says: Fintech in India is a sector that is seeing tectonic changes, thanks to the push towards digitization and a long overdue improvement in financial literacy among customers. Like in every other sector, the need for digital, reliable, and instant solutions has made innovation absolutely critical. BankBazaar is a pioneer in this space and with their push on paperless solutions, they have demonstrated a steadfast commitment to keeping the customer at the heart of everything they do. I look forward to working closely with the founding team to further strengthen the brand and its connect with customers. BankBazaar has grown significantly in the last one year, doubling visitors and more than doubling revenue year to date. In Q3-18, the company received 70M visitors per quarter, and they are all set to welcome 100M visitors in the last quarter of FY18. It has raised USD 110M through funding from investors such as Amazon, Experian, Fidelity Growth Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Walden International. @Technuter.com News Service This Page has moved to a new address: Sorry for the inconvenience Redirection provided by Blogger to WordPress Migration Service Esha Deol to make a comeback with short film Cakewalk Esha Deol is all set to make a comeback with a Hindi short film Cakewalk. The short film will be helmed by Hema Malini's biographer Ram Kamal Mukherjee, who has also penned the story. Esha will be playing the role of a chef in Cakewalk, which will depict the professional and personal journey of a woman in our society. Talking about this development, Esha said, "The idea of making a film came into Ram Kamal's mind while he was interviewing me for his book on my mother." The 36-year-old actor took a break from films after getting married to businessman Bharat Takhtani. In October 2017, Esha and Bharat welcomed a baby girl, Radhya, and since then she has been enjoying her motherhood. EU chief urges UK to speed up Brexit negotiations European Union Commision President Jean-Claude Juncker speaks in the Bosnian Parliament in Sarajevo. AP, Brussels : The European Union's executive branch is calling on British Prime Minister Theresa May to speed up negotiations on how to leave the bloc and define its future relationship with the 27 remaining member states. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told EU legislators Tuesday that "there is increasing urgency to negotiate this orderly withdrawal," showing frustration May had yet to clearly outline what she wanted once Britain leaves the bloc in March next year. Juncker said the EU needs "further clarity" on such issues like a trading relationship and the EU's only land border with the U.K. on the island of Ireland. The European Parliament's chief Brexit official, Guy Verhofstadt said that in three keynote addresses, May "is mainly repeating the red lines that we know already for two years." Jean-Claude Juncker has dashed remainers' hopes of a second Brexit referendum and warned EU countries they will have to pay extra billions to plug the hole left by the UK leaving. The European Commission president told a conference of EU officials and national ministers "not to believe" politicians such as Tony Blair or Sir Nick Clegg who are campaigning to reverse the 2016 vote. "I don't think Brexit can be put to the voters again. I don't believe it," he said. Mr Juncker, 63, warned that when Britain left, national contributions for the EU's 27 remaining countries would have to rise to fill a shortfall of more than 18 billion annually, based on this year's spending figures. Speeches made about the future relationship between Britain and the European Union needed to be translated into treaties and agreements as soon as possible, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday. "It is obvious that we need further clarity from the UK if we are to reach an understanding on our future relationship," Juncker told a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. US picking up Taliban interest in Afghan peace talks: Mattis The US is picking up interest from the Taliban in exploring the possibility of talks with Kabul to end the war, said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis Reuters, Kabul : The United States is picking up signs of interest from Taliban elements in exploring the possibility of talks with Kabul to end the more than 16-year-old war, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday as he made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan. "There is interest that we've picked up from the Taliban side," Mattis told reporters before landing in Kabul, saying the signs dated back several months. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered talks without preconditions with the Taliban insurgents last month, in what was seen by U.S. officials as a major overture from Kabul. Mattis said some of his indications, which he did not detail, dated back before Ghani's remarks. "We've had some groups of Taliban - small groups - who have either started to come over or expressed an interest in talking," Mattis said. "In other words, it may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop. That may be a bridge too far to expect. But there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," he said. The United States has in the past also expressed hope of "peeling off" elements of the Taliban and it was unclear how this new effort might be different. Western diplomats and officials in Kabul say contacts involving intermediaries have been underway with the aim of agreeing on ground rules and potential areas of discussion for possible talks with at least some elements in the Taliban. However, the insurgents, who seized a district center in western Afghanistan earlier this week, have given no public sign of accepting Ghani's offer, instead issuing several statements suggesting they intended to keep fighting. The United States has stepped up assistance to the Afghan military and greatly increased air strikes against the Taliban as part of its new regional strategy announced last year, in a bid to break the stalemate and force the insurgents to the negotiating table. Chinese President calls for `smooth` Kim-Trump talks Chinese President Xi Jinping, (right) met South Korea\'s national security advisor Chung Eui-yong in Beijing on Monday. AFP, Beijing : Chinese President Xi Jinping hopes "smooth" talks between North Korea's leader and the presidents of the United States and South Korea can produce progress towards Pyongyang's denuclearisation, according to state media. Xi made the remarks during a meeting Monday with South Korea's national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, who was in Beijing to brief Chinese leaders about his meetings with Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump last week. Kim has agreed to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in late April in the Demilitarized Zone, while Trump and the North Korean leader could meet by the end of May. "We expect a smooth DPRK-ROK summit and DPRK-US dialogue," Xi said, using the acronyms for North Korea and South Korea, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Xi voiced hope that the talks will lead to "substantial progress" in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and toward the normalisation of relations between the countries involved. The peninsula faces "an important opportunity for easing tension" and all sides should be "patient and cautious", the Chinese leader said. Xi said China is willing to work with the international community to promote Beijing's "dual-track approach" along with "helpful proposals from all sides". China has called for a dual framework of committing to denuclearisation while establishing a peace mechanism. It has also proposed a "suspension-for-suspension" plan in which the United States, South Korea and Japan freeze military drills in return for North Korea halting its nuclear and missile tests. "As long as all parties can focus on the fundamental goal of denuclearisation, peace and stability, the Korean peninsula will finally usher in the spring, when ice will thaw and flowers will bloom," Xi said. For his part, Chung thanked Xi for his "big role" in the diplomatic process that led to the "very positive changes". Beijing has played a key role in implementing UN sanctions on the North, which are believed to have put immense pressure on the country's fragile economy. China is North Korea's only diplomatic ally and its most important trade partner. Still, some in China are afraid the country, which hosted failed six-nation talks on the nuclear issue a decade ago, could be cut out of negotiations on denuclearising the Korean peninsula. While Chung briefed Xi, South Korea sent the head of its National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon, to Japan to meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe, a hawk on North Korea who also has tense relations with the South's Moon, promised Tuesday to cooperate with Seoul as it embarks on the bilateral summit talks. He reiterated that Japan also felt passionate about resolving the issue of the abductions of its citizens by Pyongyang. North Korean agents kidnapped a number of ordinary Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, in order to train its spies in the Japanese language and culture. "With Japan, South Korea and the United States closely cooperating, I wish to put all my strength toward resolution of the nuclear issue, the missile issue and the abduction issue," Abe said. 39 foreign nationals arrested in Cox's Bazar Police have detained 39 foreign nationals for attempting to enter the Rohingya refugee camps at Cox's Bazar's Ukhiya without proper permissions. They were detained at a checkpoint on Ukhiya's Shaheed ATM Jafar Alam Road on Sunday afternoon, said Cox's Bazar Additional Superintendent of Police Afruzul Haque Tutul. Several of the foreign nationals are employed by international organisations and entered the Rohingya camps on 'tourist visas', he said. Details regarding their countries of origin have yet to be confirmed. According to the police officer, various security checkpoints have been set up on various roads in and out of Ukjiya and Teknaf to prevent Rohingya refugees from moving beyond the camp area. "The passports and other documents of the foreign nationals were checked and it was confirmed that they had entered Bangladesh on tourist visas," he said. They were then taken to Ukhiya Police Station for questioning regarding their attempts to enter the Rohingya refugee camps without permission, he said. "The detainees are employed by various private organisations, including some international ones, at the Rohingya camps. But they do not have work permits and entered Bangladesh on tourist visas." The police official said the administration would decide what to do with the detainees after questioning. Biman resumes cargo handling to UK today Economic Reporter : Biman Bangladesh Airlines will resume its direct cargo carrying service to London from tomorrow after two years as it received ACC3 certificate on Monday from the UK, the last barrier to remove the ban on the transportation. "Earlier, we got the RA-3 (Regulatory Agent for third country) certificate as cargo handling agent, yesterday we received the ACC3 certificate as cargo carrier," Biman's Spokesperson Shakil Miraj said at a press briefing at the Biman's headquarters Balaka on Tuesday. The national flag carrier will carry goods through its Dhaka-London flight BG001 at 10:45 am tomorrow, Meraj, general manager (public relation) of Biman, said. On March 8 in 2016, the UK imposed a ban on the direct cargo transportation from Bangladesh alleging low security measures of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA). After that, Bangladesh government took a numbers of measures including setting up of Exclusive Detector System (UDS), Explosive Detection Dog (EDD) and Explosive Trace Detector (EDT) machines at the airport. Besides, RA-3 warehouse was set up at the HSIA for Europe-bound cargo goods where entry of all was restricted except the Biman staffs On February 19 2018, the UK and EU withdrew ban on direct cargo flight from Bangladesh as Biman passed the RA-3 (Regulatory Agent for third country) audit. However, though Biman got the RA-3 certificate as cargo handling agent, it had to face another audit named as Air cargo or mail carrier operating into the union from a 3rd country airport (ACC3) as cargo carrier from February 19-22 last. As Biman Bangladesh airlines passed the ACC3 audit successfully, the UK's Department for Transportation (DFT) informed the Biman yesterday through email about withdrawal of the ban. Meraj said Biman Bangladesh Airlines lost nearly Taka 150 crore as revenue due to the cargo ban to the UK and Europe. The national flag carrier earned revenue of Taka 351 crore for cargo carrying and handling during 2014-15 fiscal year, but it declined to Taka 315 crore and Taka 244 crore in 2015-16 and 2016-17 fiscal respectively. On Behalf of Biman Bangladesh airlines, Shakil Meraj also expressed deep condolence at the tragic incident of deadly crash of Us-Bangla aircraft in Kathmandu on Monday. He said Biman is the only aircraft of Bangladesh that received IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) for last consecutive six years. "We always show zero tolerance on flight safety issue as he national flag carrier," he added. Green investment increases by 24.61pc Economic Reporter : Investments with green initiatives have increased by 24.61 percent or Taka 34,326.75 million at end of the October to December quarter of 2017 compared to the previous July to September period. "The green banking activities of Banks and Financial Institutions (FIs) in the quarter ended December 31, 2017 evidences upward trend. BB is trying to play a significant role to expand green banking activities by monitoring the whole scenario and by taking appropriate actions," a BB official said on Tuesday. According to the BB's latest data, total amount invested as green finance has been Taka 173,801.77 million in October to December 2017 quarter. Out of the total invested amount, direct green finance was only 7.78 percent or Taka 13,527.65 million and indirect green finance was Taka 160,274.12 million. The official said, 44 banks out of 57 and 13 FIs out of 34 have had exposure in green finance, either direct (31 banks and 8FIs) or indirect (29 banks and 13FIs) mode in the October to December quarter. "Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued a policy guideline for Green Banking in February, 2011. Under the guideline, all operating banks and FIs have introduced environment-friendly banking activities in the country," he added. He said 56 banks have at least one online branch and 46 banks have introduced internet banking facility up to December, 2017 and SMS or mobile banking and internet banking facility has also been observed an increasing trend (18.76 percent to 19.92 percent) than the previous quarter. He said the banks and FIs are now providing regular training to their staff on green banking. BB data shows that 28 banks have arranged 356 training programmes concerning green banking where total number of participants was 6,424. On the other hand, four FIs have arranged 10 training programmes concerning green banking where total number of participants was 42. As per the central bank's instruction, the official said banks and FIs have formed a "Climate Risk Fund" with allocating 10.0 percent of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) budget for this Fund. BB established a lending scheme namely "Financing Brick Kiln Efficiency Improvement Project", supported by Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and refine particulate pollution from brick fields, he added. He said, 35 banks and 21 FIs so far have signed participation agreement with Bangladesh Bank. BB data shows that up to December in 2017, Bangladesh Bank has released total USD 16.21 million (Taka 125.95 crore) to five FIs against their financing for eight sub projects. Rethinking recruitment policy Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque : We the authors are dead against domination of quota in recruitment and appointment. In fact quota goes against merit, justice, excellence and professional predisposition. Of course positions should be earmarked for the unprivileged sections. Things must be done in a competitive manner. The quote ought to be managed in a way that will not disturb fair recruitment. If it is found that suitable candidates are awfully missing better take time to pick up job seekers who are qualified for the positions. For example if unqualified doctors obtain position s they will be able do justice to the position. And the patients will get wrong treatment. In other expression good governance demands appointment of qualified persons. Every government and non-government organization is committed to better services to its clients So if better candidates are not available in quota then the available posts may well be converted into merit system as there may be much less enough post in the merit system. To cite information and comments from a newspaper: Frequently aggrieved guardians and students express dismay over the prevailing quota systems that deprive them due admission and employment against the principles of equal opportunities, equity and justice. It is mostly due to the discriminatory attitude of the authorities to please the vested section to work as support base and or vote bank. These sectorial organised groups along with their masters in politics and government have little concern for all and fundamental rights of the citizens. National dailies carried reports of the glorious language movement which was observed outside the campus countrywide at the cost of the public exchequer, where the voices of general students and teachers and guardians were hardly heard. Although historically it was a campus centred mother language movement for justice in the spirit of Bengali nationalism and democratic aspirations that led to the independence of Bangladesh in 1971 at immense sacrifices of the people for exploitation free society amid serene academic atmosphere, not campus violence of any sort where we are now. Reports show on February 26, 2018 students of different educational institutions and employment seekers held procession and demonstration meeting before Central Library at Shahbagh Dhaka demanding reform of quota system. It was held under the banner of Bangladesh Association for protection of general students' rights, which was largely attended. They carried placard that said 'There is no place for quota discrimination in Bangabandhu's Bengal', 'Ensure non differential card mark in employment', 'Abolish quota for grandsons and great grandsons', ' No quota above 10%' and so on. They placed 5-point demand. It included reducing the quota from prevailing 56% to 10% in appointments under government services, if qualified candidates are not available under quota vacant posts should be filled from merit list, under quota no special examination be taken, equal age for entry to government service, and in recruitment examination no use of quota facility for more than once. A four member delegation from the movement went with memorandum to Prime Minister's Office. Demanding similar reform in quota system the students of Comilla University under the banner of general students held a human chain, and submitted a memorandum to Vice- Chancellor containing signature of two thousand students, in its campus. They said it is becoming increasingly difficult for huge number of educated youth to get employment due to quota barrier, reported national daily on February 27, 2018. Surely the appropriate authorities are aware of this problem to which no solution is forthcoming, might be selfish agenda hinder to go for job oriented economic growth. The benefits that flowed from globalisation since 1980s to Bangladesh, as a low cost labour exporting country and low cost destination of foreign buyers and investors have not been equitably distributed. But opportunists who control politics and government, started with autocratic Ershad regime seized power displaced the democratically elected President Justice Satter.However, it is expected there would be soul searching in election year 2018 to address the burning issues, Joblessness specially educated unemployed etc., by ruling 14 party alliances and opposition 20 party alliances. Towards that end free and fair election mutually agreed upon would be held, that's the hope of concerned citizens.In fact the movement of the students against quota is justified. Rationalizing quota system and privileges is the demand of time. We live in the age of ICT. Digitization of governance warrants experts and right men in the right positions. Well qualified will have enough job satisfaction. They feel motivated to render service and development functins US-Bangla plane crash was clearly avoidable A HUGE confusion has arisen following last Monday's US-Bangla plane crash near Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport. So far the actual reason behind the crash could not be confirmed. The latest death toll now stands at 49, and can only go up as the identities of the many dead bodies are yet to be confirmed. Most of the bodies are burnt and charred from the flames, delaying the identification process. We are shocked and share the unending sorrow with the family members of the victims. The point, however, the crash is unacceptable on many counts. Firstly it is learnt, being so close to the runway, there was surely a misunderstanding between the control tower and the pilot. Secondly, air-traffic control of the airport claimed that the pilot approached the runway from the wrong end despite repeated warnings. Thirdly, Tribhuvan International Airport in an official press release claimed that the pilot did not follow the controller's instructions. It said landing from South to North was common but the pilot picked the other end. Furthermore, it claimed that the pilot was alerted by the controller that the plane's alignment was not correct but there was no response. Amid a spree of speculations and suspicions, now it's time to quickly investigate the actual reason behind the crash. The airport in Kathmandu is no stranger to sporadic mishaps, crashes, and casualties. This one truth should have been surely grasped by the pilot before he took off. Additionally, the YouTube conversation released by the Airport Authority should be clarified on some crucial points of the conversation so pinpoint the actual reason. The crashed aircraft was not short of fuel, it did not lose its flight direction and understandably, the accident was avoidable. Then again accidents can happen any time and in anywhere. Nevertheless the latest accident should serve as an important lesson. Loss of lives of innocent passengers can never be compensated. Whoever the guilty party may be - pilot or the Airport Traffic Control - the culprit should be arrested and reprimanded so to avoid more future disasters. Last but not least, our private airlines should only be allowed to operate if they succeed in fulfilling international flight operating standards, meaning operating with experienced pilots and good quality aircrafts or else they should be barred from operating both domestically and internationally. 39 BD nat'ls held at Benapole border Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) arrested 39 Bangladeshis and a trafficker in Daulatpur border area in Benapole on Tuesday. UNB, Jessore : Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) arrested 39 Bangladeshi nationals along Daulatpur bordering area in Benapole here on Tuesday. Tipped off, a team of BGB-21 conducted a drive in the area and arrested them around 8:30 am while they were trying to enter into the country from India without any valid documents, said Lt Col Tariqul Hakim, commanding officer of BGB-21. Among the arrestees, 14 were female and seven were children, hailing from Barisal, Khulna, Narail, Satkhira and Jessore districts. The arrestees were later handed over to Benapole Port Police Station. Nabila`s daughter now under police care Staff Reporter : The two and a half years old daughter of Nabila Farhin, one of the cabin crew killed in a tragic plane crash in Nepal has been taken under the custody of Uttara West Police Station in Dhaka. Inaya Imam Hiya, the daughter of Nabila Farhin, a crew of US-Bangla Airlines that crashed in Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday, was reportedly taken away from their Dhaka residence by home maid on hearing the news of the plane crash, said Sub-Inspector Arifuzzaman of the police station. "We have the kid in our custody," he said adding, the little girl will be handed over to her family. Rajkumer Chhetri, General Manager of Tribhuvan International Airport, on Tuesday told media that all four cabin crew members including Nabila, pilot Abid Sultan and co-pilot Prithula died in the plane crash. Inaya's grandmother Fatema Hossain told that she rushed to Nabila's residence being informed of the plane crash and found her residence locked from outside. After failing to know the whereabouts of the child, she filed a missing diary with Uttara West Police Station. Later, police informed her that they had found the kid, but could not elucidate how the kid was found, Fatema said. Hiya's Uncle Bablu has gone to Nepal to receive Nabila's body. Her father Anan Ahmed lives abroad. Hearing on pleas against Khaleda's bail today The High Court order granting a four-month interim bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in a graft case remained in force as the Supreme Court on Tuesday did not pass any order on two petitions seeking cancellation of bail. Appellate Division chamber judge Justice Hasan Foez Siddique sent the two petitions to the full bench of the Appellate Division after partially hearing those. The regular Appellate Division bench, led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, is set to hear the petitions on Wednesday. Earlier in the morning, two separate appeals were filed with Appellate Division against the HC order granting interim bail to the BNP chief in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. Advocate Sufia Khatun filed a petition on behalf of the state while lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan lodged another one on behalf of the Anti-Corruption Commission. On Monday, the High Court granted the interim bail to Khaleda Zia. On February 22 last, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia filed a petition with the High Court seeking bail in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. On the day, the HC asked the lower court to submit all the relevant documents within 15 days. On February 25, Khaleda Zia failed to secure bail in the case as the High Court said it would pass an order on her bail petition upon receiving all the documents relating to the judgment from the lower court. On February 8 last, the Dhaka Special Court-5 convicted the former Prime Minister and BNP chairperson and sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. She was then sent to old central jail at Nazimuddin Road in the city. Continue to act for safe return of Rohingyas United Nations Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng has urged the international community and influential countries to continue to act for the safe and dignified return of Rohingyas to their homeland. "So far, Myanmar has shown no genuine effort," he told a press conference at Liberation War Museum Auditorium here on Tuesday. He also urged China, India and other influential countries to play their role and show moral leadership to resolve the crisis. The UN Under-Secretary called on the international community to do more to support Bangladesh in shouldering this responsibility by providing support to the refugees and host communities. The social and economic strains and the environmental impacts that the influx these refugees are placing on the area and the host community are clearly visible. "I encourage the Bangladesh government to facilitate more dialogue between the two communities to avoid misperceptions and the build-up of tension," said the UN Under Secretary. Dieng said he was encouraged by the commitment made by the Bangladeshi authorities he met that refugees would not be repatriated against their will. "What I've heard and seen makes it clear that the majority of the Rohingyas want to return to Myanmar, but only when they're able to do so in safety, dignity and with access to the basic rights that are fundamental to us all," he said. So far, the Myanmar authorities have shown no genuine effort to allow this, he added. "In fact, refugees continue to cross the border. It's imperative also that the Rohingya, while in Bangladesh, are afforded more chances to uplift themselves educationally and through access to livelihoods." "Doing so will help them both in Bangladesh and when they are able to return to Myanmar. We must not fail the Rohingya population again. They've endured what no human being should have to endure," said the UN Under Secretary. He said the solution to this problem lies first and foremost with the Myanmar authorities by creating the conditions for the Rohingya population to return home in safety and be entitled to the same rights as any other citizens of Myanmar. "The international community also has a responsibility to protect this population from the risk of further atrocity crimes. Under the present conditions, returning to Myanmar will put the Rohingya population at risk of further crimes," he observed. However, Dieng said, accepting the current status quo would be a victory for those who planned the attacks. "We must not accept either of these scenarios." He highly appreciated Bangladesh's moral leadership and sought support for Bangladesh from the international community. Dieng has been on an official visit to Bangladesh since March 7 at the invitation of the government of Bangladesh. The purpose of his visit has been to look into the situation of the Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar who have fled from Myanmar since themost recent incidents of violence in northern Rakhine state. The mandate of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide is to act as a catalyst to raise awareness on the causes and dynamics of genocide, to alert therelevant authorities where there is a risk of genocide, and to act as an advocate and mobilise for appropriate support. Khaleda`s release uncertain Gulam Rabbani: BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia's release fell into uncertainty as new legal complication arises. After a month-long wait, she got bail for four months from the High Court (HC) on March 12 in Zia Orphanage Trust case. But hours after the bail order, the former Prime Minister was shown arrested in another case. Arrest warrant already issued against her in three other cases. A Dhaka court on October 12, 2017, issued an arrest warrant against Khaleda Zia in a case filed in 2016 on charge of 'undermining Bangladesh's liberation war'. Another Dhaka court on November 17, 2016, issued arrest warrant against her in a case filed on charge of celebrating a 'false birthday' on 15 August. A Narail court on August 23, 2016, issued an arrest warrant against Khaleda for her remarks on the number of martyrs of the liberation war. But her lawyers were not able to say the exact figure of the cases in which arrest warrant was issued so far against her. The government has the power to make effective those warrants at any time. Khaleda Zia has been facing as many as 34 lawsuits, sources said. Khaleda Zia's lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain told The New Nation, "The government is doing such behaviors as a political vendetta. They want to keep the way smooth to hold on the power." Meanwhile, Law Minister Advocate Anisul Huq said that it was a sub-judice matter. "I do not want to comment about it. The court will see whether she (Khaleda) will get release or not," he added. The HC bench comprising Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim passed the order granting her bail after hearing the bail petition. Meanwhile, on March 13, Anti-Corruption Commission and the government filed two separate appeal petitions against the HC order to stay the bail. But the Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hassan Foyez Siddique forwarded the two petitions to the full bench for hearing on Wednesday. In the meantime, the bail that Khaleda got from the High Court will continue. BNP Chairperson was shown arrested in another case, filed with Chowddagram Police Station in connection with an arson attack during blockade program in 2015, soon after the HC bail order. Khaleeda Zia was sentenced to jail for five years on February 8 in connections with Zia Orphanage case filed by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in 2008. Judge of the Special Court-5 of Dhaka also sentenced Khaleda Zia's eldest son and BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, and four others to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Tk 2.10 crore each. The BNP chief was taken to the prison on the same day afternoon after the Special Court delivered the judgment. Nepal is infamous for air accidents Kazi Zahidul Hasan : Nepal's aviation sector has been in a sorry state over the years making it as notorious for air accidents. Several international agencies earlier warned of aviation safety in Nepal, highlighting shortcomings in technology up-gradation, lack of skilled manpower and poor air traffic control system in its aviation sector. A Bangladeshi aircraft of US-Bangla Airlines on Monday crashed at the TIA (Tribhuvan International Airport) killing at least 50 passengers on board. It is the worst aviation disaster witnessed Nepal in years accidents. The Himalayan nation witnessed more than 70 crashes involving planes and helicopters since 1949. "Poor and faulty air traffic control at the TIA is responsible for the tragic accident," US-Bangla Airlines Chief Executive Officer Imran Asif told The New Nation yesterday. He said the pilots got wrong signal from air traffic control (ATC) tower of TIA. The ATC personnel misguided our pilots. They didn't know where to land on the runway. As a result, the plane approached the runway from a wrong direction leading to the deadly crash." The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal on Tuesday transferred six ATC officials following the allegation lodged by the US-Bangla Airlines. Monday's crash was the deadliest since a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed in 1992, killing all 167 on board. "Nepal is regarded as one of the world's most dangerous places to fly due to mountainous terrain, quick-changing weather conditions and poor safety records," Iqbal Hossain, Air Commodore (Retd) told The New Nation yesterday. He said pilots are facing challenges while landing aircraft at the Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport, as there is a mountain right behind the end of the runway. "Every aircraft has to pass over from the mountain while landing. And when an aircraft passes the mountain the pilot has to do a very quick descent. "Such a situation has made aircraft's landing dangerous at the Tribhuvan Airport. It is among the 10 most dangerous airports in the world," said Iqbal Hossain. He also noted that there are some plain lands on the left side of the lone runway but on the right side there is a deep gorge. So, if the plane skids off the runway then it will fall into the gorge. Data from tracking website Flightradar24.com showed the US-Bangla Airlines' aircraft that went down on Monday descended to an airport altitude of 4,400 feet (1,341 m) and then climbed to 6,600 feet (2,012 m) before crashing about two minutes later. In 2016, a survey ranked TIA as one of the worst airports in the world due to chronic mismanagement and a woefully inadequate infrastructure. The ranking is based on overall airport experience, as determined by voters in an airport survey. Media reports said aircrafts skidding off the runway is nothing new at the airport. A Turkish Airlines plane skidded off the tarmac on March 5, 2015, forcing the authorities to shut the airport for two days. More then 160 flights have been canceled following the incident, leaving more than 24,000 passengers stranded as the airport officials struggle to remove the immobile Airbus A330 off the runway due to inadequate manpower and poor logistic support. The European Union (EU) had blacklisted the aviation sector of Nepal three years ago, after the instatement of Serious Security Concerns (SCC) by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO). As a result, Nepali airlines were barred from flying to European skies since December 5, 2013. Deadly confusion Aviation Minister, 46 relatives of US-Bangla flight victims reach Kathmandu, Probe launched, 6 air traffic officials transferred Some of the Bangladeshi victims of US-Bangla plane crash in Kathmandu: from top left Captain Abid Sultan, Cabin crew Nabila, Nuruzzaman Babu, Pias Roy, SM Mahmudur Rahman and from bottom left- Sanzida Hoque Pipasha with husband and son, Tahira Tanvin Shas Md Joynal Abedin Khan : A confused communication between the Air Traffic Control (ATC) of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) and pilots caused the deadly crash of a flight operated by the US-Bangla Airlines on Monday. An audio recording of the last minutes of conversation between the pilots of the crashed plane and the ATC shows signs of miscommunication, which being considered as the key reason of the plane crash. Two more injured passengers of Monday's US-Bangla place crash at TIA airport in Katmandu have succumbed to injuries on Tuesday, taking the death toll to 51. In the recording, posted by air traffic monitoring website liveatc.net, the pilot and the tower shifted back and forth about whether the pilot should approach the runway from the north or the south. Just before landing, the pilot asked, "Are we cleared to land?" Moments later, the controller came back on the air, his voice clearly anxious, and told the pilot, "I say again, turn!" Seconds after that, the controller ordered firetrucks onto the runway. The last four minutes of conversations between the US-Bangla Flight 211 pilot and ATC at the TIA indicates a possible confusion in the mind of the pilot about the runway, according to the Nepali Times. The confusion was about Runway 02 (the southern end) and Runway 20 (the northern end). Even as the Bombardier aircraft is on approach, the Nepali pilots of other aircraft are heard warning the ATC that the US-Bangla pilot seems disoriented, it reports. It has reported, at the very outset of the tape, the control tower is heard warning the pilot, "I say again, do not proceed towards Runway 20." And later, he is warned to remain on hold and not to land because there is another aircraft on approach. After the US-Bangla plane, a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, apparently takes a right orbit, the ATC asks the pilot whether he wants to land on Runway 02 or 20. The latter responds and says "We would like to land on 20"; he is cleared to land on that end of the runway. The US-Bangla pilot is then asked if he has the runway in sight, to which he replies, "Negative". At that point, the pilot says, "Cleared to land Runaway 02", even though he had sought permission for 20. However, ATC too now clears him to land on Runway 02. Meanwhile, while talking to the Army 53 aircraft which is on hold about 10 kilometres away, the ATC says that the Bangladesh aircraft is "on final for 20". "The airplane was not properly aligned with the runway. The tower repeatedly asked if the pilot was OK and the reply was 'Yes,'" said the general manager, Raj Kumar Chetri. But Imran Asif, CEO of US-Bangla Airlines, told reporters in Dhaka that "we cannot claim this definitely at the moment, but we are suspecting that the Kathmandu air traffic control tower might have misled our pilots to land on the wrong runway." After hearing the recording between the tower and the pilots, "we assumed that there was no negligence by our pilots," he said. Meanwhile, all four cabin crew members including pilot Abid Sultan of US-Bangla flight that crashed at Kathmandu airport succumbed to his injuries early Tuesday, said Rajkumer Chhetri, general manager of Tribhuvan International Airport. The three other cabin crew members are co-pilot Prithula Rashid, Khwaza Hossain Mohammad Shafi and Shamim Akter. Also the Bangladesh dead victims are Rokibul Hasan, FH Priok, his minor daughter Tamarra Prionmoyee, Rafiq Zaman Rimu, his wife Sabzida Haque Bipasha, their minor son Aniruddha Zaman, Nazia Afrin Chowdhury, Umme Salma, Foysal Ahmed, Eakub Ali, Alifuzzaman, Bilkis Ara, Begum Harun Nahar Bilquis Banu, Akhtara Begum, Hasan Imam, Mohammad Nazrul Islam, Akhi Moni, Meenhaz Bin Nasir, Motiur Rahman, SM Mahmudur Rahman, Tahira Tanvin Shahi Reza, Pias Roy, and Nuruz Zaman, said US-Bangla CEO Imran Asif. According to the list provided by State Minister Shahriar, the Bangladeshi passengers who survived the crash are Emrana Kabir Hashi, Mehedi Hasan, Sayiada Kamrunnahar Shwarna, Shahreen Ahmed, Md Shahin Bepari, Md Rezwanul Haque, Almun Nahar Annie, Md Kabir Hossain, and Sheikh Rashed Rubayet. "I had asked the air hostess, what is happening, is everything fine? She gave a thumbs up, but I could see she was panicking," said Ashish Ranjit, 35, who escaped through a window on the plane's right. "It was so low and it took such sharp turns." The plane hit the runway and skidded through an airport fence, leaving a trail of fuel and coming to a stop in a field where it burst into flames, he said. "I was travelling with my friend. When the aircraft was about to land it started turning left. People started shouting. We looked back and saw that the aircraft was on fire," says Bangladeshi citizen Shahreen Ahmed, 29, one of the survivors of US-Bangla plane crash. On the other hand, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister AKM Shahjahan Kamal on Tuesday left for Nepal to monitor personally the latest situation of the deadly crash of the US-Bangla Airlines plane that left nearly 50 people dead. The minister accompanying with member operation and flight safety director of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by a Biman Bangladesh Airlines regular flight at 11:15 am, a spokesperson of the ministry told the media. Meanwhile, a US-Bangla flight left Dhaka for Nepal with 46 relatives of the crash victims. "A seven-member team of our airlines led by CEO Imran Asif along with the victims' relatives on board the special flight reached Kathmandu around 11:10am," US-Bangla General Manager Kamrul Islam said. Even, six officers stationed at the Air Traffic Control Tower who witnessed the US Bangla air crash in Kathmandu have been trasferr3ed to another department to 'minimise shock of the accident', reports Nepal's My Republica quoting Rajan Pokharel, deputy director general at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. Earlier, the Nepal government has formed a six-member committee to probe the crash-landing of US-Bangla Airlines at Tribhuvan International Airport, reports The Himalayan Times. Yagya Prasad Gautam, former director general at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) will lead the panel. The panel has been assigned to initiate an investigation as early as possible. CAAN has also communicated with Dhaka aviation authority for necessary cooperation, according to the officials. Also US-Bangla Airlines has also formed its own probe committee to investigate the plane crash, US-Bangla Airline General Manager (marketing support and public relations) Md Kamrul Islam said in a press release. Earlier, the private carrier US-Bangla Airlines spread its wings beyond the Bangladeshi airspace on May 15 in 2016 with its maiden international flight to Kathmandu. Kevin is Just another X Ray Technician trying to get into blogging and help individuals interested in an amazing career for xray tech. Register for options trading expo to get the best stock market education.Learn about bettertrades mission,methods and pledge here. Please note. I welcome any and all comments from any political perspective. I will not stand or approve any swearing, and personal attacks will likely also not be approved. Yes, the decision belongs on the local level No, no one should be able to dictate whether people wear masks Vote View Results If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs. 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. The value of the UAE Central Banks reserves of gold bars rose to around Dh1.2 billion ($326.71 million) at the end of January, an increase of Dh48 million, or 4.1 percent, compared to Dh1.152 billion in December 2017. Statistics issued by the bank yesterday showed that its reserves of gold grew exponentially since 2015, which is the year when it decided to resume its reserves of gold and foreign currencies, most notably the US dollar and other major currencies, said a Wam news agency report. The value of the banks reserves of foreign currencies was around Dh326 billion at the end of January while its gold reserves at the same month were the highest for over three years. The value of its reserves in August 2017 was around Dh1.153 billion, before declining to Dh1.139 billion in September and Dh1.129 billion in October, but rising again in the following months. Young Emirati nationals aspiring to pursue a career in trade and logistics will have access to more than 100 training and development opportunities at DP Worlds pavilion during the 16th Careers UAE 2018 exhibition, which opened today in Dubai. Roles cover multiple disciplines, including operations, engineering, commercial, planning and administration. Training and placement opportunities will be rolled out under a comprehensive five-point programme that will be showcased at the three-day event. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and chief executive officer, DP World, said: We believe in bringing sustainable change to benefit all our stakeholders and future leaders will continue to drive our vision of leading world trade. This is why we place so much value in enabling young Emiratis to reach their full potential and to benefit from the experience and expertise of home-grown global companies like ourselves. They are the future flag bearers of Dubai and the UAEs economic success and were proud to be able to contribute to their development. As the UAE continues to influence the global supply chain and as connectivity increases, we need to develop local talent to take the country forward. Through our training and orientation programmes, we will help develop young people who can manage leadership roles. DP World, UAE region trains and develops graduates in different parts of its business through a range of specific programmes such as the Ruwad Training Programme, Tumoohi Programme, Taheel Sponsorship Programme, Nautical Science Programme, Bedaya Summer Programme and its Internship & Work Placement Programme. The Ruwad Training Programme is aimed at Emiratis with less than two years work experience and with diverse educational backgrounds, from those without high school certification to those with a masters degree. The Tumoohi Programme, run by Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), offers young Emirati graduates an opportunity to develop their skills and gain experience by working on projects in the Jafza business community and beyond. It provides mentoring from highly experienced professionals in the industry, practical experience, business training, problem-solving and other soft skills. The Taheel Sponsorship Programme supports the training of eligible students in IT, engineering, business management, and health, safety and environment, supplemented with stipends and work experience, leading to job placements in the company. The Nautical Science Programme offers high school students an opportunity to pursue careers as Marine Pilots or in Vessel Traffic Management. Candidates are supported through full degree courses and work with DP World for specified periods. The Bedaya Summer Programme is open to all UAE nationals in high school, college and university. This work experience programme includes monthly stipends and certificates upon completion. The Internship and Work Placement Programme offers Emirati high school students work experience in a variety of business disciplines including human resource management, engineering, finance, supply chain and logistics. - TradeArabia News Service Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Abu Dhabi Ports, to work together to develop opportunities for Abu Dhabi Ports to upgrade ports, logistics infrastructure and services abroad used by EGA to load raw materials destined for the UAE. The agreement could lead to new international business opportunities for Abu Dhabi Ports, enable more efficient shipping for EGA, and spur economic growth around the ports by creating opportunities for other trade, said a statement. The agreement was signed at EGAs headquarters at Al Taweelah in Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi by Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi Ports, and Abdulla Kalban, managing director and chief executive officer of EGA. Captain Al Shamisi said: What we want to create are win-win-win opportunities for Abu Dhabi Ports, EGA, and port operators and their communities around the world. Our companys expertise in developing ports and interest in investing internationally, combined with EGAs demand to use port facilities, should make upgrade projects economically attractive to the benefit of everybody. We greatly anticipate the potential chance to showcase our capabilities in foreign ports and to expand our presence overseas, he said. Kalban said: We already work with Abu Dhabi Ports at Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi and at Kamsar in the Republic of Guinea. This MoU paves the way for further opportunities through which Abu Dhabi Ports can develop its international business, whilst lowering EGAs shipping costs through the upgrading of the ports that we use. Securing raw materials at competitive prices depends not just on good relationships with suppliers but also on ease of shipping, so we look forward to developing these opportunities for Abu Dhabi Ports to invest to the benefit of both our businesses and the local economies around these ports, he added. In December EGA signed a long-term port facility agreement with Abu Dhabi Ports to import bauxite for EGAs Al Taweelah alumina refinery at Khalifa Port using the worlds largest bulk cargo ships, known as Capesize vessels. The agreement, and the security of demand it creates, is enabling Abu Dhabi Ports to invest to develop the port to become the first in the Gulf capable of directly handling these massive ships, reducing EGAs shipping costs and opening opportunities for other trade. The dredging will deepen the channel to 18.5 m and basin to 18.0 m basis zero tide. EGA plans to use large dry bulk ships to import raw materials without the need to transfer all or some of the cargo to smaller vessels outside the port, reducing long-term shipping costs and improving environmental performance. EGA shipped approximately 6 million tonnes of bulk raw materials such as alumina, coke and pitch from some 20 ports worldwide last year. Bottlenecks at ports that can reduce the efficiency of shipping can range from shallow channels that only allow smaller vessels to berth, to manual rather than automatic loading, to limited rail capacity reaching the port itself. Abu Dhabi Ports is the operator of a container quay that EGA has built at Kamsar in Guinea. EGA is using the quay to unload materials and equipment for the construction of a bauxite mine. Once construction is complete, the container quay will be opened to other trade. EGAs site is the biggest industrial facility at Kizad and covers an area five times the size of Al Marayah Island in Abu Dhabi. EGA also operates an aluminium smelter at Jebel Ali in Dubai, it stated. TradeArabia News Service Total exports of US hardwood lumber and veneer to the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region including Pakistan reached $96.74 million during 2017, according to a statement issued by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), the leading international trade association for the American hardwood industry. The statistics, which have been compiled from the latest data released from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), reveal a 7 per cent overall increase over 2016 figures. The announcement was made on March 12, at the opening of the Dubai WoodShow, which is due to run until March 14 at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Center. According to the data released, exports of American hardwood lumber reached a value of $75.46 million and a volume of 92,273 cu m, marking an increase of 20 per cent and 17 per cent respectively over 2016. A closer look at the numbers also revealed that direct shipments of US hardwood veneers to the Mena region during 2017 reached a total value of $21.13 million, falling by 23 per cent over the previous year. However, American hardwood veneers are also shipped to the region from European countries and China, while veneers are also produced in the region - notably in Turkey - from imported American hardwood logs. The UAE was the region's strongest performer last year, with exports of US hardwood lumber to the market rising by 86 per cent in both volume and value to 24,597 cu m and $21.05 million, as compared to the previous year. This means that over a quarter of all US hardwood lumber shipped to the Mena region was destined for the UAE last year. However, a large percentage of what goes to the UAE is for re-export to neighbouring Gulf markets, as well as to markets further afield. Nonetheless, a very buoyant construction sector in the UAE ahead of Dubai's World Expo 2020, is expected to keep demand for American hardwoods at a high level through this year and beyond. Among the other major destinations for American hardwoods in the Mena region, increases were also seen in exports to Saudi Arabia (up by 10 per cent in volume to 6,539 cu m), and Jordan (up by 12 per cent in volume to 4,395 cu m). One Mena market that showed remarkable growth in demand for US hardwood lumber last year was Lebanon, to which exports grew by 70 per cent in volume and 61 per cent in value as compared to 2016. In addition, American hardwood veneer exports to Lebanon also increased by 27 per cent to reach a value of $3.317 million in 2017. At the same time, exports of US hardwood lumber to the region's two other major markets - Pakistan and Turkey - remained almost unchanged from the previous year. Positive of increased growth across the region, AHEC is participating at the annual Dubai WoodShow. During the three-day show, AHEC is hosting a pavilion with individual booths occupied by 14 US hardwood exporting companies along with the Hardwood States Export Group (HSEG) - a coalition of major eastern US hardwood exporting states. Confirmed exhibitors include MacDonald & Owen Lumber Company; Hartzell Hardwoods; Atlantic Veneer Corporation; Baillie Lumber; Midwest Hardwood Corporation; Hermitage Hardwood Lumber Sales; Oaks Unlimited; American Lumber; Nina Company; Wood'n Slabs; Northland Corporation; Missouri Walnut; Thompson Hardwoods; and Wheeland Lumber Company. Roderick Wiles, AHEC regional director, said: Tactile, warm, unique, natural and sustainable are just some of the adjectives ascribed to American hardwoods by architects and designers in the Middle East. Whether it is for a one-off furniture piece or a large-scale interior fit out, hardwoods from the United States are increasingly being specified, as they become better known and more widely appreciated, he said. As a result, the US is the number one supplier of temperate hardwoods to the Middle East. Timber is certainly experiencing a global renaissance as a preferred material and as architects and designers seek out natural material alternatives across a variety of applications, we expect to see American hardwoods becoming increasingly widely-specified in the region, he concluded. TradeArabia News Service Thermoplastic composites are expected to play an increasingly important role in accelerating future aircraft construction, according experts attending the recent JEC World 2018, held in Paris, France. The aircraft industry has forecast that over 35,000 new aircraft will be required within the next 20 years, and in order to meet this kind of escalating demand requires for new approaches and new technologies, hence the significance of thermoplastic composites. Thermoplastic composites offer multiple advantages, including very short production times and low overall costs, compared to their thermoset counterparts, which today are in frequent use. A typical thermoplastic composite part can reduce the manufacturing time by 20-30 per cent compared to metals or other polymer materials. Jakob Sigurdsson, Victrex CEO, considers Victrex well positioned to help accelerate the conversion from thermosets to thermoplastics. The company is partnering with aerospace OEMs and research centres, in particular around its Victrex AE 250 composites product family and related technology, enabling aircraft manufacturers to drive high throughput, while still meeting safety, quality and environmental requirements. Last year, Victrex announced it was investing in a joint venture, TxV Aero Composites, with long-standing development partner TriMack Manufacturing, to build the necessary supply chain. The partners remain convinced that this is an essential step in accelerating the adoption of thermoplastics and innovative manufacturing techniques that aim to speed up aircraft production and promote fast time-to-market and fast time-to-revenue. With investment in new state of the art facilities TxV sets the course to deliver composite parts at the rate and pace needed for commercial aerospace. The acquisition of fibre specialist Zyex and participation in the Thermoplastic Composite Research Centre (TPRC) are also in line with Victrex's long-term objective of enabling greatly enhanced efficiency within the aerospace industry. Sigurdsson said: Developing new polyketone composite solutions for the aerospace industry is a time-consuming undertaking and an inevitable part of the development curve prior to widespread industry adoption. Our company has proven in the past, across different industries, that by leading the way with pioneering Victrex Paek-based innovation we can deliver real benefits to our customers and our markets, by speeding up manufacturing time and offering real performance advances. Today, our composite solutions are also gaining ground in the oil-and-gas industry, and also have early commercialisation within the medical device space, he said. Tim Herr, director aerospace at Victrex, added: Supply chain and capacity are important criteria for increasing the amount of thermoplastic composites in future aircraft programmes. When using high-performance polymers, the initial costs for thermoplastic composites may be much higher. However, when we consider total costs, the equation immediately looks much different, he said. For example, the Victrex/TriMack joint venture TxV Aero Composites will offer a range of composites from custom laminates to pre-formed composite inserts for hybrid moulding processes, as well as finished composite parts and complete over-moulded hybrid composite components and assemblies. They are based on the recently introduced lower-temperature processing Victrex AE 250 composites product family that enables a unique hybrid moulding process and combines the strength of continuously-reinforced thermoplastic composites with the design flexibility and demonstrated performance of Victrex Peek injection-moulding polymers. Herr summarised: These innovative products can deliver weight savings of up to 60 per cent over conventional metallic solutions, contributing to cuts in fuel consumption and thus emissions, delivering both cost and environmental benefits, while offering continuous manufacturing processes and cycle times measured in minutes versus hours for thermoset alternatives. - TradeArabia News Service SR Technics, a leading maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) service provider with major presence in the UAE, has revealed the nomination of Frank Walschot as chief executive officer as of April 1. Walschot will be replacing Jeremy Remacha, who is leaving the company at the end of the scheduled transition period to the new shareholders, said a statement from the company, which has Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala as a minority shareholder. With more than 30 years aviation industry experience in leading operational, commercial and financial functions around the world, Walschot is a recognised and respected senior executive, well trusted with SR Technics business and challenges for many years, it said. Walschot joined SR Technics in 2008 as vice president engine maintenance and was appointed shortly thereafter head of engine services where he played a key role in developing the engine business further. In January 2015, he was promoted to chief operating officer, focusing on the performance and efficiency of SR Technics global operations, ensuring the highest safety and quality standards at all our locations based on the principles of lean and continuous improvement. Walschot now returns to SR Technics after a one-year assignment in Haikou, China, as chief investment officer of HNA Technic where he successfully supported the development of HNA Groups MRO strategy and business. Walschot said: I am delighted for this opportunity to lead the company in the next exciting phase of its journey, together with our employees, customers, and all other stakeholders. Ning Wan, chairman of SR Technics, said: "Walschots valuable experience as well as his leadership skills made him the ideal candidate for this position. Throughout his career, he has shown outstanding results, implementing new processes with tangible value for our customers. I look forward to working with Frank as we write the next chapter of our companys future, he added. TradeArabia News Service The Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the UAE Ministry of Economy and the SEV Hellenic Federation of Enterprises hosted the UAE-Greek Business Forum in Dubai, which explored trade and investment opportunities in both countries. The forum, held at Dubai Chambers premises, was attended by Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy; Prof Giorgos Katrougalos, alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic; Humaid Ben Salem, secretary general of the Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce & Industry; Majid Saif Al Ghurair, chairman of Dubai Chamber; Hamad Buamim, president and CEO of Dubai Chamber; top government officials and business leaders from the UAE and Greece. During his keynote speech, Al Mansoori explained that the UAE and Greece enjoy a dynamic economic relationship which has strengthened in recent years thanks to the formation of partnerships in various fields and sectors. He noted that the forum provided an ideal opportunity to exchange ideas and explore new avenues of economic cooperation. The UAE is keen to intensify its cooperation with Greece in many areas of common interest, such as the SME sector, innovation, entrepreneurship, trade, industry, tourism, agriculture and renewable energy, Al Mansoori said. The UAEs economy minister revealed that non-oil trade between the two countries exceeded $212 million in the first nine months of 2017, marking growth of 10 per cent over the same period in 2016. In his keynote address, Katrougalos expressed the Greek governments keenness to strengthen its relations with the UAE, especially in the areas of tourism and SMEs, and noted that Greeces economy returned to growth in 2017, adding that the countrys gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to rise further this year. Katrougalos revealed the importance of boosting cooperation between UAE and Greek businesses in tourism, as the sector contributes around 37 per cent to Greeces GDP. For his part, Al Ghurair highlighted the historic and deep ties that exist between the UAE and Greece, and noted that several important steps have been taken by both governments to boost bilateral trade and investment in recent years, such as the opening of the UAEs embassy in Athens, the expansion of direct flights between the two countries, and the signing strategic cooperation agreements on aviation, investment protection and double taxation. Al Ghurair revealed that the number of Greek companies registered with Dubai Chamber has grown steadily to exceed 170 companies today, and expressed the chambers intention to facilitate new partnerships between UAE and Greek businesses. "We see huge potential to expand cooperation in key sectors such as energy, food and agri-business, pharmaceuticals, banking, construction and ICT, Dubai Chambers chairman said, adding that Greek businesses can benefit from leveraging Dubais position as a re-export hub with strong links across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. For his part, Ben Salem said the forum served as the right platform to facilitate investment and trade partnerships between companies and business on both sides. He also noted that the event provided an ideal opportunity for UAE and Greek businessmen to network and explore new prospects. The forum also included presentations from the SEV Hellenic Federation of Enterprises, SEVE Greek International Business Association, Enterprise Greece, the UAE Ministry of Economy and Dubai South, it stated. TradeArabia News Service Hino Trucks, a Toyota Group Company, has unveiled its new line of trucks at the 2018 Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, US. The Hino XL Series rounds out Hino Trucks Class 7 product offering and launches them into the Class 8 market for the first time in the US, said a statement. The Hino XL7 and XL8 models are powered by Hino's legendary A09 turbo diesel 8.9-liter inline 6-cylinder engine boasting a B10 life of 1,000,000 miles, it said. The Hino XL Series adds capability and new advantages to Hino Trucks product portfolio while holding true to the brand's core advantages of industry-leading standard features, durability, reliability, and ownership experience. Yoshinori Noguchi, president and CEO of Hino Trucks North America, said: Considering our remarkable success in Class 4-7 in North America, and our growing global presence in the Class 8 market, entering the North American heavy duty segment makes for the next logical step. Not to mention our customers and our dealer network have been asking for this for some time. The Hino XL Series will be offered in a host of straight truck and tractor configurations ranging from a GVWR of 33,000 to 60,000 lbs. and GCWR up to 66,000 lbs with max performance of 360 horsepower and 1,150 lb.-ft. torque. Available wheel base selections of up to 304 inches, and tandem axle and fifth wheel configurations make this a versatile truck for many vocational applications. The lineup features new active safety solutions with electronic stability control (standard on tractor) and collision mitigation systems, innovative payload management suspension options, and a body builder friendly optimised design that was also engineered for maximum ease of serviceability. Hino Trucks set out to create a vehicle with best-in-class styling, ergonomics, and valued amenities. Glenn Ellis, vice president, customer experience, said: The first thing you notice is the styling -- the aerodynamic yet bold design could proudly represent any business. Then you open the door to a wide, easy-access entry and an automotive grade finished interior ready to provide the best service possible to drivers and teams. Air-ride cab and driver's seat, hands-free Bluetooth audio/calling, steering wheel controls, LED headlights, cruise control, and air conditioning are a few of the distinguished features that will be standard equipment on every 2020 model year Hino XL7 and XL8. As with everything Hino Trucks does, the Hino XL Series is more than a product, it is about providing Hino customers an ultimate ownership experience. The benefits current Hino customers receive -- from HinoWatch 24/7 roadside assistance and HinoCare maintenance programs to the industry's leading fully integrated connected vehicle solution, Hino Insight will be benefits for Hino XL Series customers. Hino Insight Telematics carries a one-year complimentary subscription, while Insight Remote Diagnostics and Insight Case Management are complimentary for five-years. Production of the new Hino XL7 and XL8 will start in early 2019. The new lineup will be assembled in Mineral Wells, West Virginia at the fully renovated one million square foot state-of-the-art production facility that Hino acquired in 2017, it stated. TradeArabia News Service Travel commerce platform Travelport and Res2, the Netherlands-based ground handling IT expert, have announced a new multi-year agreement with Havas Ground Handling for deployment of the industry leading iPort DCS (departure control system). Havas, one of Turkeys largest ground handling companies, will utilise the web-based iPort DCS, developed in collaboration between Res2 and Travelport to optimise aircraft and passenger handling, to support more than 200 airlines at 28 airports located throughout Turkey, as well as at airports in Latvia and Saudi Arabia. iPort DCS provides significant commercial and operational advantages over other DCSs. The system offers turn-key solutions for airport and self-service check-in (kiosk, bag drop and Internet check-in) that are designed to comply with any passenger service system (PSS) and with global security demands. IPort also offers essential functionality for load control via an intuitive graphical interface. Easy to learn and use, efficient, flexible and cost-effective, iPort provides customers with an average productivity gain of over 25 per cent. Kursad Kocak, general manager at Havas, said: After an extensive product search, it was clear that iPort was the product that meets our standard of operations. The iPort is the best technology available that meets our high standard of operation and that ensures we provide our customers with the world-class ground handling service quality, equipment and technological infrastructure that have made Havas the regions leading ground handling company since 1933. Hans van Engelen, Res2 CEO, said: By utilizing the iPort suite and the content available via Travelports Travel Commerce Platform we can overcome many of the challenges a ground handler faces today with their passenger and operational processes. This agreement will provide Havas with a departure control system that supports their business model perfectly. We are excited to support Havas in delivering iPort DCS to enable Havas expanding their services and efficiency. Dan Westbrook, Travelports vice president and general manager for Air Commerce Technology, added: We are pleased Havas is the latest aviation-related company to recognise the significant operational efficiencies, cost savings and commercial opportunities iPort offers ground handling companies and airlines to grow their business, now and in the future. - TradeArabia News Service Dubais Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has entered into an agreement with Travel Audience, an Amadeus company, to use its travel advertising platform to further accelerate its digital, mobile and social first strategy. Digital advertising spend surpassed TV worldwide in 2017, totalling over $200 billion, and with digital media consumption evolving at breakneck speed, destination marketers are shifting gears towards a smarter digital ecosystem. Dubai Tourism will work with Travel Audience to build custom campaigns across a wide range of channels including online travel publishers, social media and metasearch engines. With added visibility into online travel patterns, it will be able to measure campaign performance more effectively and gather insights into traveller intention and behaviour. Dubai Tourism is also using Amadeus Destination Insight to gather insights into global travel, including up-to-date search, booking and schedule data. Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said: Tourism is central to Dubais economic growth and diversification. With Travel Audiences intelligent technology and team of experts, and Amadeus far-reaching travel network, we have found a platform that can provide insights that assist our decision making. By building brand and performance campaigns tailored to specific segments in exclusive channels, we can attract new visitors from regions far and wide while we grow our established visitor base. Alexander Trieb, managing director of Travel Audience, an Amadeus company, added: Powering the digital marketing strategy behind one of the worlds fastest growing travel destinations requires a top team, technology and network and we are excited to be working with Dubai Tourism. Together we are growing the destinations touchpoints throughout the travellers digital journey, using meaningful data to convert visitors and push campaigns where it matters the most. - TradeArabia News Service Copthorne Hotel Dubai, part of Millennium Hotels and Resorts, has appointed Kranthi Kumar as the hotels new revenue manager. In his new role, Kumar will be tasked with maximising overall revenue and identifying new business opportunities for Copthorne Hotel Dubai. He will also be responsible for providing analysis and recommendations on rate strategy to ensure optimum RevPAR, as well as directly managing the OTA accounts. He will have direct management of the Reservations department and tasked with providing further training for the team and exposure to the Front Desk to further explore untapped revenue potential. Before his appointment at Copthorne Hotel Dubai, Kumar has served as a revenue manager at Millennium Hotel Fujairah, cluster revenue and front office manager at Novotel Riyadh Al Anoud & Novotel Suites Riyadh Dyar and assistant cluster revenue manager with Al Faisaliah Hotel & Hotel Al Khozama, by Rosewood Hotels. Glenn Nobbs, general manager of Copthorne Hotel Dubai said: We strongly believe in identifying the top strengths of an individual and placing them in the correct senior management position. Investing in the right candidate and developing our team in the key regions is our utmost priority. We are thrilled to welcome Kranthi Kumar and I am looking forward to receiving his insights on implementing revenue management operations, procedures and best practices to drive the market share. Kumar holds a Bachelors degree in Commerce and is also one of the few leaders chosen to attend the International Hospitality Management Program in France at the Academie ACCOR. Commenting on his appointment, Kumar said: I am excited to be a part of this team and look forward to an exceptional phase of my career. - TradeArabia News Service VFS Global has agreed to take over 100 per cent of the Middle Eastern Facility Management Company (FMC) Al Etimad from TasHeel Group as per a binding agreement signed between both parties. Al Etimad operates as an FMC partner for VFS Global in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Tunisia. The company serves 25 diplomatic missions and operates more than 90 visa application centres across the five countries. Al Etimad is since 2009 active in the visa outsourcing market and employs around 650 professionals. Al Etimad owns the travel concierge services company Vega, which is part of the transaction. The Al Etimad visa operations in Pakistan are not included in the acquisition. To benefit from operational efficiencies and synergies with VFS Global, Al Etimad will be integrated into VFS Global's operations after completion of the transaction. This will enable further development of services and solutions and improve the overall service to the missions served and the visa applicants in the five countries. VFS Global is a pioneer and market leader in the outsourced visa services industry, serving 58 governments and with operations across 137 countries, as at January 31, 2018. Subject to customary approval from the competition and regulatory authorities, the transaction is expected to complete later in 2018. Zubin Karkaria, CEO VFS Global Group, said: "We are very pleased to take over complete ownership of Al Etimad and Vega. It will enable us to accelerate the further development of the business and improve overall performance through greater integration. I would like to thank the TasHeel Group for partnering us in successfully managing the visa services operations in these five countries." - TradeArabia News Service The fifth edition of the Qatar International Boat Show (QIBS) opened on March 13 with over 70 exhibitors from the sector's prominent brands and names taking part in the five-day event. Organized by Al Mannai Plus Events, the event was inaugurated by Sheikh Ahmed Bin Jassim Al Thani, Minister of Economy and Commerce, and was attended by VIPs and media representatives. Held at the Porto Arabia Marina at the Pearl Island Qatar, the boat show will run from March 13 to 17. For the fifth consecutive year, QIBS has become a principal annual fixture on the sectors calendar of specialised regional and international exhibitions, which underlines the remarkable success it has achieved over this short period of time and its ability to attract the industrys key players. QIBS provides a global platform for major brands to showcase their latest products to potential customers from Qatar, the Middle East and around the world. In order to offer a unique experience to participating companies and visitor, QIBS will be hosting various interesting activities such as marine tours, prizes, water activities, marine races and relevant seminars, etc. Speaking on the occasion, Khalid Issa Al Mannai, chairman of Al MannaiPlus Events, said: "We are pleased to cultivate today the fruit of our efforts over the months we have spent in preparation for this moment. We are honoured with the visit of Sheikh Ahmed Bin Jassim Al Thani, Minister of Economy and Commerce, who officially opened the fifth edition of Qatar International Boat Show, the Middle East's most important event in the maritime sector. Since inception in 2013, QIBS has strived to be an ideal maritime networking platform. In the past few years, we have been able to make the exhibition a unique destination that attracts companies and individuals involved in the maritime field. Thanks to the presence of local and international companies looking to expand their investments in this sector and the increasing demand for yachts, boats and related industries, the exhibition has become a key business driver for the sector boosting regional marine industry, he added. Fadi Al Yousfi, Qatar International Boat Show 2018 Director, said: "Today we celebrate the participation of more than 70 exhibitors and participants to the fifth edition of the exhibition. The expo is a reflection of our commitment of being one of the premier boat and sporting shows in the region to help bolster Qatars burgeoning marine and seafaring industry, we will continue to perform as a medium for generating business for our exhibitors and attending delegates. - TradeArabia News Service From San Diego, California, an adventure across the border to Mexico is never out of reach. Day trips to towns in Baja California are easily accessible with options to satisfy every taste, but for an extended adventure over a long weekend, traveling further south to Baja California Sur is an easy decision. Whether a trip of luxurious beaches, spas and wine is called for or sunny days of adventure by land or sea, the perfect Mexican destination is never more than a two-hour commute. Day Trips to Baja California Tijuana. A 30-minute drive south of San Diego, Tijuana is the closest escape across the border. Spend the day strolling along Avenida Revolucion and Calle Sexta for a gastronomic experience. From long-standing restaurants and bars such as Caesar's and Dandy del Sur to new coffee shops like El Grafografo, which also serves as a bookstore, the town's tourist center is redefining itself beyond souvenirs. To delve deeper into Tijuana's gastro-world, book a tour with San Diego-based Wild Foodie Tours, or venture into the city' craft beer scene with Baja Test Kitchen. Walk the calories off at the Tijuana Cultural Center for exhibits on Mexican heritage, or stay outside and enjoy the weather to find the best and latest street art. Rosarito. Another 20 minutes south of Tijuana, travelers can relax on the beaches of Rosarito. Those looking to enjoy the coast can plan to visit during the annual Baja Sand event, a sand sculpture competition with workshops. Looking for an active day in the water? The area's beaches are ideal for surfing. Alternatively, schedule a dive tour of the Rosarito Underwater Park, an artificial reef that features the Uribe 121, a sunken naval patrol ship. Book a spa package or build a customized itinerary of services at Rosarito Beach Hotel and Spa, Las Olas Resort and Spa or Las Rocas Resort and Spa for a relaxing getaway. Ensenada. Most associate Valle de Guadalupe with Mexico's wine country, but the county's largest wine region extends past this valley. Two hours south of San Diego, the historic wine route begins just below Ensenada in Valle de Santo Tomas. Traverse a quiet region of boutique producers, wander vineyards and taste handcrafted wines with Baja Test Kitchen. Guests will also savor a farm-to-table lunch with wine pairings while dining outside with a vineyard view. Overnight Trips to Baja California Sur Los Cabos. Los Cabos, which consists of both Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, is roughly a two-hour flight either from San Diego or from Tijuana via the airport's pedestrian bridge, known as Cross Border Xpress. Both municipalities are home to stunning beaches, landscapes, resorts, clubs and water sports, but San Jose del Cabo tends to be slightly quieter and less touristy than Cabo San Lucas. During the day, go fishing with charters like Picante Sportfishing or Tag Cabo Sportfishing, or try snorkeling or diving in Cabo Pulmo National Park with Cabo Adventures, which also offers luxury sailing and fly-boarding by the day. Explore Baja Sur's landscape with a trek through the Sierra de la Laguna mountain range guided by Cabo Outfitters. By night, Los Cabos Guide offers a comprehensive list of clubs and bars to visit in both locations for party-goers. No trip to Los Cabos is complete without a visit to Land's End featuring the rock formation known as El Arco de Cabo San Lucas. Arrive on a glass-bottom boat with Baja's Watersports or Roger's Glass Bottom Tours. La Paz. Use the Cross Border Xpress to catch a two-hour flight from Tijuana to La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur. This breezy city hosts a sizable expat community while remaining true to its authentic Mexican heritage, but it's best known for its close encounters with both sea lion pups and adolescent whale sharks. To enjoy this diver's paradise on the Sea of Cortez, schedule an itinerary with the Cortez Club to access 13 dive sites, dive with mobula rays at night or with sea lions at their colony, or simply swim with the whale sharks. For a slower pace closer to town, visit Harker Board Co. along the downtown malecon, or pedestrian walkway, to learn the sport and set off on your own in the bay across from the shop. For a truly unplugged retreat, book a night at Camp Cecil with Todos Santos Eco Adventures. On Isla Espiritu Santo, this luxury glamping experience provides everything guests need from margaritas to kayaks to enjoy the moment and distance themselves from civilization for a while. Loreto. In the northern region of Baja Sur, Loreto is one of the very few destinations along the Sea of Cortez to see blue whales. As opposed to the alcove that harbors La Paz, the largest animals on earth have more room to freely move near Loreto, which gives guests quality access to watch the blue whales. Package tours on pangas, or smaller motorized boats, are available through Loreto Blue Whales, Sea and Land Tours or Whales World Wide. For something more active, try sea kayaking to Coronados and Danzante islands with Sea Kayak Baja Mexico. Take a break from the water to explore the city's many missions including the Mision San Francisco Javier de Vigge-Biaundo, Mision de Nuestra Senora de Loreto Concho and the Museo de las Misiones. Loreto is best reached by utilizing the Cross Border Xpress from San Diego to Tijuana for a flight lasting an hour and 45 minutes. By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter Hundreds of Muslim women took out a protest march against the proposed Triple Talaq bill on Monday in Rajasthans Sikar district. The march started from Idgah chowk of the city and ended at the district collectorate where it ended with sloganeering by women holding placards and banners demanding withdrawal of The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill. Support TwoCircles Jaiprakash Chaudhary, the additional district collector, received a memorandum addressed to Indian President and Prime Minister from a delegation of Muslim women right after the march concluded. This is not been the first instance of protest or debate against Triple Talaq bill which has been raised by Muslim women. On March 10, Muslim women, along with All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), took out rally in Pune, Maharashtra to oppose the same. On March 7 as well, Muslim women hit the Kolkata streets to oppose the bill, which has been passed by the Lok Sabha but pending in Rajya Sabha to become a law. The bill on Instant Triple Talaq or Talaq-e-Biddat proposes a three-year jail sentence to the man who divorces his wife by using the practice. The Indian Supreme Court has already nullified the practice in its judgment, but criminalisation of the same under the proposed bill has attracted a lot of criticism from Islamic bodies. The clerics and officials belonging to AIMPLB have been demanding the withdrawal of the bill as it can lead to the destruction of the families and it may also result in the more suffering of Muslim women. The Board has now demanded several modifications to the bill draft, adding clauses of reconciliation between wife and the husband and several other to prevent misuse of the bill. Though the bill is in the right direction, it is flawed and seems to have been drafted hastily. I have written a letter to PM Modi drawing his attention towards the amendments required in it, Shaista Amber, a member of All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB), told Free Press Journal. The two-day visit of Georgian Defense Minister Levan Izoria to Baku was an important event in the Georgian-Azerbaijani relations for several reasons. First, it was an official visit, not a working visit. Official visits of chiefs of defense always testify to the special quality of relations between states. Georgia's Minister of Defense rarely paid official visits, although he is welcomed in many allied countries, and Georgia has a lot of them, including its neighbors. Second, what stands out is the level of the meetings which took place in the capital of Azerbaijan - Georgia's Minister of Defense was received by the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan. According to the Georgian Defense Ministry, during the meeting with Ilham Aliyev "the parties expressed support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the two states and hailed the successful development of bilateral relations." Regional security issues were discussed during the talks with Azerbaijan`s Prime Minister Artur Rasizade and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, where the need for developing a strategic partnership for peace and regional stability was noted. The signing of the plan of bilateral cooperation for 2018 with the Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov was also significant. The ministers emphasized the importance of developing relations in the Georgia-Azerbaijan-Turkey format. Izoria told reporters that in the near future a memorandum on expanding defense cooperation will be signed between the three countries. This document will create a legal basis for the union, which has been informally existed for several years. The defense ministers of the three neighboring countries have already met several times, and the armed forces have conducted joint exercises, but so far Tbilisi, Ankara and Baku were in no hurry to formalize these relations with the prospect of further deepening the new format of defense cooperation. The trilateral format was created in 2012, since then the strategic character of cooperation in the defense sphere has been repeatedly mentioned, including in the context of security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states. Last year, the Caucasian Eagle exercises was held on the territory of Turkey. The special units of the three armies were involved in counter-terrorism training. Azerbaijani mountain snipers are trained in shooting at mountain training courses in Georgia's Sachkhere. Doctor of Military Sciences Vakhtang Maisaya recalled, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, that a few years ago it was a question of deepening the integration of the three countries right up to the confederal nature of relations. "Tbilisi and Ankara responded positively to this idea. Of course, there had to be a defensive component in such an alliance," Maisaya noted. According to the source of Vestnik Kavkaza, three states operate in a specific geopolitical context, considering the decisions of other regional players. "Yerevan denounced the protocols on the normalization of relations with Ankara, which further exacerbated Armenia's relations with neighboring Turkey," Vakhtang Maisaya recalled, suggesting that Georgia, in particular, is interested in military-technical cooperation with Azerbaijan, since the Azerbaijan Republic "has made great strides in this direction in recent years." As the British Empire expanded in the 19th century, the English planted their easels across the lands on which the sun would never set. Flora, fauna, landscapes the watercolours depict an age gone by, stretching from Kuala Lumpur to Kingston-upon-Thames, from Islamabad to Ipswich. Many have been lost or, left to museums, have lingered in dusty backrooms. But for Javad Marandi, an Iranian-born entrepreneur, to leave the works to decay would be to erase a form of social history. Financial Times reports in its article Saving the worlds watercolours one byte at a time that before photography, watercolours werent so much a form of art as a form of recording everything from flora and fauna to the landscapes. They were a very good documentation of how the world was and unfortunately, because of their very nature, they tend to deteriorate in quality as time goes by. In attempt to preserve the works, this year Marandi perhaps best known in the UK for his half-share in the Soho Group restaurant business as well as owning members club and hotel Soho Farm House in Oxfordshire is funding The Watercolour World, a foundation dedicated to digitising watercolours across the globe. Imagine having hundreds of thousands of images online for people who want to find out about Naples in the 1920s they can see how history changes, says Marandi, who is chipping in 400,000 a year. The project is the very definition of a Sisyphean task, given the millions of watercolours in existence, but Marandi is undaunted by the scale of the venture. Were starting with geographical locations, with Great Britain first, he explains. Then wherever we have connections and can gain access to the collections around the world. Access has been boosted by the patronage of Prince Charles, a keen watercolourist himself, and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall. Once you have [their] patronage, the museums and organisations take you much more seriously [and] are much more willing to help and co-operate. It is an intriguing venture for Marandi, whose property interests include the Sofitel hotel in Brussels and co-ownership of a CenterParc holiday park in Moselle, France. Yet his familys history has been punctuated by periods of upheaval. In 1920, his grandfather, Alimorad, left the then Soviet republic of Azerbaijan as the Bolshevik revolution swept across the region. Then, almost 60 years later, in the wake of the Islamic revolution in Iran, Marandi aged 11 and his immediate family exchanged relative luxury in Tehran for a small flat in Notting Hill, west London. It was very difficult; when I came to England couldnt speak a word of English, Marandi says. We had never planned to live abroad, as this was a country with 2,500 years of history and it had always been a monarchy. Who would have thought that the monarchy would turn into some sort of . . . well, whatever the current government is. I wonder then, playing armchair psychiatrist, if these experiences, both personal and those that have affected three generations of his family, have left him with a need for permanence, the need to ensure that these documents of the past are preserved in a way that his own history was not? You never want it to be repeated ever again, Marandi says. So as much as possible, you try to stabilise your life. All we aim for in life is stability and the stability we want to give to our children. It makes you a lot more risk averse, he adds. Sure, I agree, but he certainly took many risks in establishing his career early on: how does that square with his position now? Obviously at some point you have to take some risks in order to move forward, he says, but always consolidating. Everything is not on the line all the time you become a lot more conservative. Obviously, at the beginning, you have nothing to lose, so you can pretty much risk everything. We had first met late last year in the splendour of 5 Hertford Street, a private members club in Londons Mayfair. He had arrived with his friend Darius Sanai, a fellow Iranian exile in London, now editor-in-chief at magazine publisher Conde Nast, and immediately commandeered the table. We had shared similar experiences a few years apart in the Caucuses and, as the wine flowed, we swapped stories of living and working in what were, at times, very difficult conditions. Marandis story almost began in Turkey. He had applied for a finance job at Coca-Cola lied, you mean, he laughs. I was interviewed by 11 people in Vienna, but none of them spoke Turkish [a prerequisite for the job]. I speak Azeri, which while it shares certain roots with Turkish, is not the same language. But I thought if I get the job Ill learn it in a month. His ploy ended in his final interview with Muhtar Kent, the Turkish-American businessman who went on to become chief executive and chairman of Coca-Cola. Kent told him he was not going to offer him the position but, impressed by Marandis chutzpah, sent him instead to central Asia and the Caucasus. It was 1992 and Marandi was 24. He remained with Coca-Cola for two years, buzzing round Uzbekistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, before being headhunted by tobacco group Philip Morris International. Those were turbulent times for the newly independent state of Azerbaijan, and after five years Marandi moved to form his own logistics business, distributing cigarettes and other consumer goods across the region. Today, he is known as an investor and property developer in the UK and continental Europe, with a house in Londons Eaton Square shared with his wife and three children. Interestingly, it is also stuffed with modern art hyper-contemporary works that Marandi is gleefully happy to scorn, to the despair of his wife, Narmina. She finds it very upsetting when I go into this spiel about value the true value of this modern art. But I just dont understand it; I think its a bubble. I dont understand why certain paintings are worth tens of millions of pounds and all it is is three spots and some cuts on a canvas. If he had his choice, Marandi jokes, there would be posters on the walls. I would probably buy some of the Old Masters and I know that doesnt sound right, but they are very much undervalued and supply is limited, he says. [Andy] Warhol was making 90 paintings a day he was a like a factory and some of the paintings were done by his friends. So I cant for the life of me understand why one of those 90 made in a day is now worth millions. This makes his decision to launch The Watercolour World all the more intriguing. Preserving watercolours is not about ensuring the art is saved for the next generation but about recording history that were losing, he says. Historic events, scientific facts or the changes to the environment this information, this visual information, we are losing and its a shame. While were very excited about hip and cool and trendy stuff, instead with relatively little money we are preserving our history. Today Azerbaijanis celebrate Yel Chershenbesi (Wind Tuesday), the third of the four festivals celebrated on the last four Tuesdays prior to the Novruz holiday. Four pre-holiday Tuesdays of Novruz are Su Chershenbesi (Water Tuesday), Od Chershenbesi (Fire Tuesday) Yel Chershenbesi (Wind Tuesday) and Torpaq Chershenbesi (Earth or Last Tuesday), and each them is dedicated to the awakening of one of the natural elements. The celebration of Wind Tuesday is closely associated with the ancient beliefs about wind being a sacred life-giving component along with fire, water, and earth. Traditionally, people clean their homes and expose woolen household items such as pillows to the air. When the night falls, people make bonfire, cook milky rice, and put mostly dry fruits on the table. Water Tuesday - the first Tuesday of Novruz holiday - was celebrated on February 27, and Fire Tuesday - on March 6. Earth or Last Tuesday will be celebrated on March 20. The spring will come to Azerbaijan at 20:15 Baku time on March 20. A passenger bus crashed into a parked semi-trailer truck, killing 10 people and injuring 18 in Turkey's Corum province. The accident occurred around 6 a.m. today near the Kumbel village located in Corum's Osmanck district. The bus with 26 people departed from Istanbul and was reportedly its way to Tokat province. Large crews of medics and firefighters were quickly sent to the scene of the accident. The wounded were taken by ambulance to nearby Osmanck State Hospital. Officials expressed concern that the death toll could grow, due to severe injuries among surviving passengers. Once the fire was brought under control, authorities opened an investigation into the cause of the accident, Daily Sabah reported. Turkey and the United States will oversee the withdrawal of Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) militants from the town of Manbij in northern Syria, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. According to Cavusoglu, Turkey has not made any demands from the Syrian government regarding Manbij. The minister added that Ankara would "monitor" the return of weapons given to the YPG by the US, an issue that has strained ties between the NATO allies. Turkey's Foreign Minister said that he and the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will decide on a plan to secure Manbij during talks on March 19. He also vowed that Turkish forces would go ahead with a military operation if those talks fail, Hurriyet daily reported. A fire broke out at the service station in one of the buildings in the Kazakh capital of Astana. The incident took place today on the Syrymbet Street. The fire broke out at 11:30 local time, firefighters managed to extinguish the fire at 12:47 local time. The area of the fire was 500 square meters, Sputnik Kazakhstan reported. The causes of the fire have not been identified yet, an investigation is underway. Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived on a working visit to Russia's republic of Dagestan. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin "is expected to hold a meeting with representatives of the republic's public" in Makhachkala. "Later, he will hold a separate meeting on the socio-economic development of Dagestan," TASS cited the Kremlin spokesperson as saying. The Caspian Fleets flagship - the Tatarstan - has conducted live firing exercises at sea, head of the Southern Military Districts press service Vadim Astafyev said. "The crew of the Tatarstan missile ship has successfully hit air, sea and shore targets with various types of shipboard weapons, including the AK-630M artillery system, the AK-176M artillery mount and the Palash air defense artillery system," TASS cited Astafyev as saying. Thus, the ships crew proved the readiness to perform tasks. The flagship then arrived to its home station in Dagestan. US President Donald Trump has ousted Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, Washington Post reported. Trump confirmed the news in a tweet, saying Tillerson will be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!" Trump wrote on his Twitter page. Pompeo would need confirmation by the Senate to take the position. In November, multiple news outlets reported that the White House had a plan to fire Tillerson and shuffle other members of Trumps Cabinet to replace him. The New York Times reported at the time that the intention was to replace the official with Mike Pompeo. Director of the Institute of Strategic Planning and Forecasting, Professor Alexander Gusev, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that Tillerson's departure was widely expected for months. "Tillerson claimed that he was tired that he needed to change the vector. It should be taken into account that he is quite a serious businessman, a billionaire, he was engaged in a political career as well, but most of his career was connected with business, big business, including in Russia. There was a certain discontent of Trump, the media constantly poured oil on the fire in their relationship," the expert said. The political scientist noted that Tillerson, when agreed to take the post of Secretary of State, counted on relative independence in decision-making. "I think Tillerson believed that he would be independent in decision-making, but he was constantly feeling some pressure from the Congress on the one hand, and from the incumbent president, on the other hand," he pointed out. "The position of the secretary of state is, on the one hand, quite a serious post, on the other hand, it is a position of balances. The foreign minister is the person who determines the foreign policy vector. But Tillerson's whole series of statements on improving relations with Russia outraged part of the congressmen," Gusev added. The expert specified that the nomination of Mike Pompeo for the post of Secretary of State was also expected. "Pompeo is not Tillerson, he will do everything Trump asks him to do. But I do not think that Tillerson is leaving the political arena, but of course he will pay more attention to his numerous projects," the director of the Institute of Strategic Planning and Forecasting said. US President Donald Trump has extended the national emergency with respect to Iran that was declared on March 15, 1995, according to his letter to the US House of Representatives speaker and the Senate President. "Actions and policies of the government of Iran, including its development of ballistic missiles, support for international terrorism and human rights abuses, continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States," the letter reads. The US president added that for those reasons, he has "determined it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared with respect to Iran and to maintain in force comprehensive sanctions against Iran to respond to this threat." Trump noted that the national emergency with respect to Iran that was declared on March 15, 1995, will remain in effect beyond March 15. Earlier that month, Trump announced he would waive the sanctions on Iran as required by the nuclear agreement but for the last time. The US president also threatened to withdraw the US from the agreement if it is not amended. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu will discuss the possible easing of the visa regime for the two countries citizens, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We confirm the need to liberalize the visa regime for some categories of citizens. The Russian side expects to boost the effectiveness of cooperation of the corresponding agencies of the two countries in the fight against international terrorism and organized criminality," TASS cited the statement as saying. The negotiations with Lavrov on March 14 will dominate Cavusoglus program. The sides plan to discuss their positions on major issues of the bilateral agenda, analyze the implementation of the agreements reached by the Russian and Turkish presidents and study the implementation of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and Turkish Stream gas pipeline projects. In addition, Cavusoglu will take part in the sixth meeting of the Joint Group for Strategic Planning chaired by the two countries foreign ministers. The Turkish minister plans to discuss preparations for a top-level meeting of the Council of Cooperation. He will also take part in the Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition (MIIT). An associate professor of the Faculty of International Relations of the TOBB University of Economics and Technology (Ankara), Togrul Ismail, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, said that Turkey canceled the visa regime for Russian citizens along time ago and expects the same in return. "Any citizen of Russia can visit Turkey with a common passport and stay in the country for 30 days without a visa. It is important for Turkey to improve trade with Russia, which requires a visa-free regime that allows Turkish citizens to buy a ticket and fly to Russia immediately. This will increase the flow of tourists from Turkey to the Russian Federation," he said. In addition, Turkey is ready to introduce a passport-free visiting regime for Russian citizens. "There is a possibility of visiting the country without a passport for a number of countries, including Ukraine and Georgia, and for Russian citizens this procedure is also quite feasible. Our relations have returned to the pre-crisis level, and the visa-free regime between Turkey and Russia, free movement of our citizens with identity cards will allow us to bring our ties to a new stage," Togrul Ismail stressed. Political scientist Orhan Gafarli drew attention to the strategic importance of Russia as a partner of Turkey in business. "Economic contacts between Russia and Turkey are expanding day by day, Turkish companies want to invest in Russia, and they need more comfortable living and working conditions. Russia today, tomorrow and in the future is Turkey's important strategic economic partner, and for more effective cooperation it would be useful to remove visa restrictions for Turkish business," he said. "I think that the parties are ready for this. First, Turkish intelligence and the police are working very well, fighting terrorism, which can be a guarantee of protection against the penetration of terrorists into Russia. Russia had previously stressed that the threat of terrorism prevents the complete removal of the visa regime, but now the Turkish side has done much to eliminate this danger. Terrorism issue can be raised, discussed at the top level and thus ensure that terrorists will not enter Russia through Turkey," Orhan Gafarli concluded. Viet Nams total steel exports in the first two months of the year rose 38.6 per cent from the same period last year to reach more than 728,000 tonnes, according to the Viet Nam Steel Association (VSA). Photo ndh.vn HA NOI Viet Nam s total steel exports in the first two months of the year rose 38.6 per cent from the same period last year to reach more than 728,000 tonnes, according to the Viet Nam Steel Association (VSA). Other statistics from the General Department of Customs showed that Viet Nam s steel exports to the US in particular had surged. The country shipped 124,600 tonnes of steel worth US$104.2 million to the US in the two-month period, double that of same period last year. The US has been the second largest importer for Viet Nam s steel after the ASEAN market. Viet Nam also took the 12th position among the 20 largest steel exporters to the US . US President Donald Trump signed proclamations to impose a 25-per-cent tariff on imported steel and a 10-per-cent tariff on imported aluminum on March 8. With the decision, Viet Nam s would be one of the 12 most affected countries. Local steel producers have faced competition from others in the ASEAN market as well as higher tariffs. Last year, Viet Nam exported 567,000 tonnes of steel to the US , a reduction of 43 per cent from the 2016 and accounting for 12 per cent of the total steel exports. Experts said coated steel producers would be most affected as the US accounted for 35 to 40 per cent of Viet Nam s total exports of the product. Construction steel The prices of domestic construction steel have been continuously increasing due to an increase in imported material prices and affects from China , the worlds biggest steel producer, according to the Kinh te o thi (Economic & Urban Affairs) newspaper. A steel shop in e La Thanh Street told the newspaper that the steel price rose VN100,000 per tonne in January and VN500,000 per tonne in February. The current selling price of construction steel is at VN15.3 million per tonne. This has been the highest level in the past few years. Steel shops said the number of orders has been on the rise amid the steel shortage. Some people bought a large amount of construction steel, contributing to the price rise. They added that the price would continue to rise in the upcoming time. VSAs vice chairman Nguyen Van Sua said the price increase in the first two months of the year was due to a price rise of steel billet of 3 per cent and ore of 7-8 per cent. Sua added that the rise was not due to the US decision. He said the price of input material for steel production would increase, making the construction steel price rise by VN300,000-500,000 per tonne by the end of May. Constructors and investors should calculate demand to ensure steel supply, thus reducing construction fees, he noted. VNS HA NOI The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) hosted a Vietnam - Japan Economic Dialogue yesterday, with the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) and a Japanese business delegate in attendance. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Hoang Quang Phong, VCCIs Executive Vice President, acknowledged Japan s leadership and Viet Nam s willingness to cooperate as driving factors in the recently concluded Comprehensive Partnership and Transparency Partnership (CPTPP) agreement between the 11 member countries. Cooperation between Vietnamese and Japanese firms, as well as bilateral trade, have been growing steadily over the years, with Japan remaining one of Viet Nams most important partners, he said. In 2017, Japan was the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with US$9.11 billion worth of capital, accounting for 25.4 per cent of Viet Nams total foreign direct investment capital, while the value of total two-way trade reached over $33.4 billion. Viet Nam is also the recipient of the majority of Official Development Assistance from Japan , he added. Kobayashi Yoichi, Chairman of JCCIs Mekong-Japan Business Cooperation Committee, and Co-chairman Nekoshima Akio expressed their appreciation towards the VCCI for hosting the dialogue, saying the event was a good opportunity for both sides to understand the current economic situation and bilateral trade and investment cooperation potential. Kobayashi noted that not only will the CPTPP promote export and investment between the two countries, it will also help increase export value in sectors such as textile, garments or seafood for Vietnamese firms. In addition, Kobayashi hoped that Japan would continue playing an important role in diversifying the structure of Viet Nam s exports, replacing raw materials with manufactured products. Nekoshima said that in the upcoming time, there will be even more potential for cooperation in new fields such as agriculture, tourism, training and development of human resources and transportation, with a focus on Vietnamese small and medium enterprises. With a market of 95 million people, of which nearly 35 per cent live in urban areas, Viet Nam is considered an attractive destination for Japanese businesses in the service sector, he said. Nekoshima also noted that travel and transportation have immense potential for growth, with the number of Vietnamese tourists coming to Japan growing in recent years to reach more than 300,000 visitors in 2017. Japanese companies have previously focused on investing in Viet Nam s manufacturing sector, with recent investment trends shifting to other areas like services. The dialogue consisted of two sessions discussing business opportunities, advantages and disadvantages for services, tourism and transportation. The Japanese business delegation, consisting of 50 senior executives working in general trade, manufacturing, machinery, aviation and services, was eager to exchange information and seek cooperation with potential Vietnamese partners, among Vietnamese companies such as distributor Phu Thai Group Jsc and travel company Vietravel. Business representatives from both countries also expected the newly signed CPTPP to further promote bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation. VNS HA NOI Saigon Petro has proposed to bring petrol A92 back to the market when the consumption of E5 bio-fuel is low and it is not meeting the target of environmental protection. The proposal is part of a recommendation on environmental protection tax and policies to develop bio-fuel in the future, which was recently sent to the ministries of Trade and Industry and Finance, and after two and a half months, fuel A92 or RON 92 was replaced with E5 bio-fuel. Under the prime ministers decision, E5 fuel, which is a mix of A92 petrol (95 per cent) and bio-fuel ethanol (5 per cent), has been officially sold nationwide to replace A92 since January 1, this year. Currently, there is A95 gasoline, which is suitable for vehicles with high-engine displacement, and E5, which is suitable for low-engine displacement. In Viet Nam, the rate of motorbikes, which have low-engine displacement, accounts more than 90 per cent of vehicles in circulation. Saigon Petro said through references of its big fuel wholesale agents, the volume of E5 bio-fuel sold was 30 per cent of the market share, while the remaining 70 per cent was gasoline A95. Previously, A92 occupied 65 per cent of the market share. A firm leader told nguoilaodong.com.vn that the sale of E5 petrol is expected to account for 70 per cent and A95 30 per cent of total volume of petrol sold in the market. According to the calculation of Saigon Petro, in the first two months of this year, the consumption of non-essential A95 petrol was up to VN400 billion per month, due to the consumers psychology. Many types of motorcycles can use A92 or E5 as they do not need to use the high-priced A95 gasoline. Saigon Petro said if there was no way to raise the consumption volume of E5, the Government and relevant ministries should allow bringing A92 back to the market to curb usage of A95. The price of A95 is currently 8 per cent higher than E5, while the different rate should be 20 per cent to encourage consumers using E5. Our opinion is that people who use A95, which affects the environment, will be charged a higher price in order to support people who use E5, which is to protect the environment, said the Saigon Petro leader. The environment protection tax of A95 should be raised from current VN3,000 to VN4,000 per litre and the tax on E5 should be decreased from VN2,850 to VN2,500 per litre in order to lure the consumer, he added. Although the price of A95 is about VN1,600 per litre, higher than E5, many consumers prefer A95. Nguyen Thanh Huong, a Ha Noi resident who owns a scooter, told Viet Nam News that she still used A95 for her vehicle because it was said that it was much better than E5, which may cause problems to the vehicles engine. Its price is higher than E5 but I do not care much about it. I always spend about VN100,000 for a full tank of petrol; it is just about VN6,000-7,000 higher than E5, said Huong. The Deputy Director of Cu Chi Commercial and Industrial Development Investment JSC, Nguyen Van Tam, said that if the use of A92 petrol is allowed, it will be a step backward. We need to use E10 and E20 like many other countries in the world. The main issue is to raise peoples awareness so that people understand the use and efficiency of bio-fuel, said Tam. VNS AUCKLAND Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said his Government encouraged foreign firms in milk production and processing to expand production, upgrade technology and apply energy-saving solutions in the country. He said this during his meeting with the representatives of some milk companies in New Zealand in Auckland on March 13 as part of his official visit to the country. During his reception for Lukas Paravicini, chief executive of Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd - the leading milk exporter of New Zealand, Phuc said Viet Nam appreciated the cooperation of the firm with its Vietnamese partners. He highlighted the development of Viet Nams dairy and nutritional food market, saying the 93-million-strong market was considered one of the most attractive market groups in the world. Talking about the vast opportunities brought by the newly signed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, Phuc expressed hope that Fonterra and other enterprises in New Zealand would fully tap those opportunities to increase investment in Viet Nam with the aim of expanding their market to other ASEAN member nations. He said the Vietnamese Government would promote investment in developing the dairy sector as well as create favourable conditions for enterprises to foster production in the field, contributing to generating more jobs and improving social welfare. On his part, Paravicini affirmed his firms interest in the Vietnamese market and said Fonterra had cooperated with many Vietnamese dairy firms. He said the group was providing dairy material for Viet Nams dairy, beverage and nutritional food companies and was selling high-quality products in the Vietnamese market. Fonterra pledged to further boost cooperation with Vietnamese enterprises, broadening its investment for production and business in Viet Nam, Paravicini said. The same day, Phuc received Kim Willoughby, director of Deosan Company, and Victor Truong, director of Richmond Company. Expressing their pleasure to meet the Vietnamese leader, the representatives of the two companies said they had worked with a number of Vietnamese partners with the intention of assisting Vietnamese firms in producing and processing dairy, contributing to improving the capacity of Vietnamese dairy companies. Willoughby spoke highly of the development potential of leading dairy businesses in Viet Nam, such as Vinamilk and TH True Milk. He said Deosan had cooperated with Vietnamese farmers processing milk and planned to invest in the dairy industry in Viet Nam. He also said Deosan would support Viet Nams dairy farms by providing suitable products and services, such as milking equipment and consumer goods, veterinary services, farm design management and quality management. Phuc said he highly valued Deosans assistance to Vietnamese dairy companies and affirmed that the Vietnamese Government always supported business and cooperation with local firms. Viet Nam is developing its dairy-processing industry in a modern and comprehensive direction, aiming to improve its competitiveness for regional and global integration, Phuc said. VNS VINH LONG The Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long is calling for private capital in 67 projects worth VN27.5 trillion (US$1.2 billion) during the 2017-20 period. The focus is on industry, industrial complex infrastructure, rural agriculture, culture-tourism, transport infrastructure, urban housing development and trade services. Truong ang Vinh Phuc, director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment, said this at a press conference in Vinh Long on Monday ahead of the upcoming investment promotion conference. Phuc said the event aims at presenting its economic development achievements and potential as well as policies on investment attraction. He said the conference will take place on March 27, drawing 750 delegates from ministries, agencies, foreign embassies, international organisations, provinces and cities nationwide as well as domestic and foreign investors. At the event, the local authority will present certificates of investment registration to and sign memorandums of understanding with investors of 25 projects with a combined capital of VN12.43 trillion ($546.92 million), Phuc said. The province will sign co-operation documents to carry out a project on coastal sub-regional connectivity among Vinh Long, Ben Tre, Tien Giang and Tra Vinh provinces, boosting investment, trade and tourism cooperation in the Mekong Delta. The local authority will also honour contributions by domestic and foreign organisations, individuals and enterprises to social welfare activities along with poverty reduction. Activities such as trade fair, exhibition on local agriculture, industry and trade, inauguration of Vinh Long general hospital and art performance will be held on the sidelines of the conference. Apart from a stable, transparent business environment, investors will be offered incentives, said Le Quang Trung, vice chairman of Vinh Long Province, adding that the province hopes to become a liable, attractive destination for businesses and investors. VNS HA NOI Viet Nam Mobile Telecom Services Corporation (MobiFone) and shareholders of multimedia company Audio Visual Global (AVG) on Monday decided to cancel the share transfer agreement between the two companies. The decision was made several days after the Party Central Committee (PCC)s Secretariat asked the Government to soon release the inspection results of a VN8.89 trillion (US$395 million) acquisition by communications giant Mobifone Accordingly, MobiFone and AVG agreed to cancel the transfer of 344.66 million shares and refund each other the amount received under the agreement. AVG shareholders will refund the entire amount paid by MobiFone, while MobiFone will return to AVG the number of shares and assets transferred. At the same time, the two sides will try to not let the other party suffer more damages. Pham Nhat Vu, representative of AVG in the negotiations with MobiFone, agreed not to impose a fine and claim compensation while cancelling the deal. In addition to the amount paid to AVG, MobiFone said it had to pay some related expenses, such as hiring consultants. AVG has agreed to share this expense with MobiFone. AVG has made a deposit of VN450 billion to proceed the agreement cancelation, MobiFone said in a press release on Tuesday. According to the AVG representative, there are many reasons for them to cancel the contract. First, since its acquisition, MobiFone has not operated and developed the AVG brand as planned and missed many opportunities and potential of AVG. Second, Vu said since the contract was in effect, MobiFone had paid 95 per cent of the contract value. The deadline was over but MobiFone had not yet fulfilled its obligations to pay the remaining 5 per cent despite repeated requests by AVG. Since the inspection of the contract, the process of operating the AVG brand had caused many problems, damaging the reputation of both the parties. According to MobiFone and AVG, the cancellation of the contract is aimed at salvaging the damage. At the meeting, a MobiFone leader said the inspection process had impacted the completion of payment to AVG. He also said due to problems faced by AVG, the market had changed and MobiFone was not able to concentrate on developing AVG. HA NOI The United Kingdoms Jardines Matheson Group can enlarge its investment to take part in the restructuring of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and credit institutions in Viet Nam. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue during a reception in Ha Noi on Monday that he had hosted for Henry Keswich, chairman of the Jardines Matheson Group. Jardines Matheson is a multi-sectoral and multi-national group that has been present in Viet Nam for more than 20 years. The group holds 10 per cent of charter capital at Vinamilk, 25 per cent of capital at Truong Hai Auto Corporation and 23 per cent at the Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation. At the reception, Keswich expressed his interest in the equitisation and divestment of Vietnamese SOEs, hoping to participate in the field. He also pledged to help Viet Nam develop its capital market with high-level services in the time to come. According to Hue, the restructuring of SOEs and credit institutions are two among five key tasks in the countrys economic restructuring plan. The State will own full stakes only in fields related to national security, defence and special public-utility services, he said, adding that the Government has issued a list of SOEs that must be divested and equitised until 2020. The Government is also focusing on dealing with weak banks and balancing credit and non-credit services of banks, he said. He also said the Government would work to ensure macro-economic stability and create a favourable business environment in conformity with international standards and practices. He asked the group to pay attention to developing existing fields such as milk products, automobiles, machinery, construction, real estate and finance and insurance. According to Hue, the expansion of investment in Viet Nam will benefit Jardines Matheson as the country is a member of more than 10 free trade agreements. VNS HA NOI The State earned VN49.2 billion (US$2.16 million) through the initial public offering of the Viet Nam Textile Research Institute (VTRI) on Monday at an average auction price of VN21,749 per share. At the auction, 20 eligible investors participated in the IPO to buy more than 14 million shares. The highest bid volume was for the entire lot, while the lowest volume was 1,000 shares. The lowest auction price was equal to the offered price, and the highest was up to VN30,000 per share. As a result, there were eight winners, including two organisations and six individuals. The average auction price was VN21,749 per share, 73 per cent higher than the offered price, with the total value of the shares sold being VN49.2 billion. The payment to buy the shares has to be made between March 13 and March 22. The refund period is from March 14 to March 19. Besides 2,263,000 shares (equivalent to 45.26 per cent of the charter capital) sold during the IPO on March 12, the VTRI will offer 2,263,000 shares to strategic investors, while the remaining will be sold to employees. The State will not hold shares in the VTRI. According to the approved plan, after the equitisation, the VTRI will be named the Viet Nam Textile Research Institute JSC, with a charter capital of VN50 billion. Its head office will be located at 478 Minh Khai Street, Ha Noi, with a branch in HCM City. As for its business result, the VTRI posted a revenue of VN57 billion last year, down 25 per cent compared with the average revenue of the previous three years. Its profit was VN761 million, down by half of that of 2016. The total assets of the institute at the end of 2017 was worth VN41 billion. In terms of land, the VTRI is managing and using plots of land at 478 Minh Khai Street, Ha Noi, with an area of nearly 2,851sq.m; at 454/24 Minh Khai Street with an area of 5,311sq.m; and at 354/128A Tran Hung ao Street, District 1, HCM City, with an area of nearly 2,220sq.m. VNS HA NOI The beauty of the nature in the Truong Sa ( Spratly Islands ) and its people is portrayed in a book of photos taken by photographer and journalist Nguyen My Tra, released yesterday in Ha Noi. Entitled Truong Sa Here We Come, the book in Vietnamese and English contains stories of the magnificent, gorgeous, fathomless Truong Sa made of coral reefs, whirlwinds, hot sands, salty seas and the bitter taste of the blood shed by generations of Vietnamese defending the sacred seas and skies of the country. The colour of the Spratlys is the blue and white of the sky, blue and white of sailors uniforms and the green of the phong ba tree (velvetleaf soldierbushes), bang vuong (sea putats) and tiny, brave plantings of spinach and grass. Above all, and most movingly, Truong Sa is the tanned skins and strong, kind, sincere eyes and smiles of its defenders the navy soldiers, policemen, fisheries surveillance officers and the families living on the islands, said Nguyen The Ky, member of the Party Central Committee and chairman of the Central Council for Theory and Criticism of Literature and Art. This book is also about the people living on the mainland and overseas who yearn to visit the Spratlys. It is about ceremonies saluting the Vietnamese national flag that flies over the islands and reefs, about tears of grief and gratitude shed for the fallen heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the Spratlys, about hands clasped in support or love, momentos from the sea, territorial markers and solemn soldiers turning eyes toward the faraway and beloved mainland. The beauty of Truong Sa is reflected through the lens of photographer Nguyen My Tra. Photo courtesy of the Kim ong Publishing House Rear Admiral Pham Van Vung, political commissar of the Viet Nam Peoples Navy, said the book is not a magnificent photo collection of the rich and diverse landscape of the Spratlys but also an honest portrayal of the daily lives of the soldiers and people who live, work and study on the Spratlys and the DK1 platform. These photos have managed to capture, with originality and humanity, the ceaseless passion for life, the positive outlook and the determination of navy soldiers, and people in a mission to strengthen and defend the sacred sea territory of the country, he said. In just a short time in the Spratlys, photographer Tra was able to exploit her own enthusiasm, intelligence and creativity to tell touching and true stories about the Spratlys and the DK1 platform, he added. Tra was born in 1976 and works at the Radio Voice of Viet Nam . She visited the Spratlys in 2016 and 2017. The photos taken during the trips have been exhibited in Ha Noi and HCM City . Now they are gathered in the book Truong Sa Here We Come. I have been a reporter for nearly 20 years, and going to the Spratlys is one of my biggest dreams, she said. Tra published the book with aim of helping people have a better understanding of life on the islands. She hopes that her exhibition and book will inspire the younger generation to love the Spratlys as well as the country more. VNS PARIS Hubert de Givenchy, the aristocratic French fashion designer famous for the "little black dress" and styling Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy, has died aged 91, his partner said on Monday. Givenchy set the template for ladylike chic in the 1950s and 1960s, dressing everyone from Princess Grace of Monaco to Jane Fonda. His longtime partner, the former haute couture designer Philippe Venet, announced his death through the Givenchy fashion house, saying he had died in his sleep on Saturday. "It is with huge sadness that we inform you that Hubert Taffin de Givenchy has died," it said. With his perfect manners and old-school charm, the tall and handsome count was the very acme of French elegance and refinement. But it was his 40-year friendship with his muse Hepburn, whom he met while she was making Billy Wilders Oscar-winning comedy Sabrina in 1953, that helped make him a fashion legend. The narrow-collared suits and slim woollen dresses Givenchy designed for the gamine actress in Funny Face and How to Steal a Million made both of them style icons. "Hubert de Givenchy was a symbol of Parisian elegance for more than half a century... who revolutionised fashion," his label said on Monday. Legendary Italian-born creator Valentino said that he had tried to get a job with Givenchy when he was 17. "Unfortunately he did not hire me... but I kept admiring his vision, his perfection of cut and elegance. Like me he always respected the womans body, never inflicting what was cool but only what was flattering." Another Italian fashion great, Giorgio Armani, described Givenchy as "the symbol of that exquisitely Parisian joie de vivre, that has the lightness of intelligence and the aristocratic elegance of couture." Givenchys current British-born designer Clare Waight Keller said that its founder was "not only one of the most influential fashion figures of our time, whose legacy still influences modern-day dressing, but he also was one of the chicest, most charming men I have ever met. "The definition of a true gentleman that will stay with me forever," she said. Givenchy was forced to retire in October 1995 when his contract was not renewed by the giant LVMH group which had bought his house nearly eight years earlier. He was replaced by John Galliano, who was soon to leave for Dior, handing over to fellow Brit Alexander McQueen. AFP HA NOI Popular film director Bui Thac Chuyen and producer Tran Thi Bich Ngoc will introduce one of their movie projects, calling for partners at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. The film titled Tan Tro Ruc Ro (Glorious Ashes) has been adapted from two short stories, namely Cui Muc Troi Ve (Floating Rotten Wood) and Tro Tan Ruc Ro (Glorious Ashes), by writer Nguyen Ngoc Tu. The film features the fates of three women in a poor rural area and the means they adopt to keep their men. The project won a US$15,000 prize in the Asian Project Market for making the film in the framework of Busan Film Festival in October 2017. The project is among 15 projects selected to be introduced in The Atelier programme in Cannes Film Festival, which will take place between May 10 and May 16. VNS HA NOI Lawmakers should reconsider the feasibility of a draft regulation asking primary school teachers to have university diplomas given that up to 40 per cent of primary teachers currently fail to meet this requirement, the National Assemblys Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children (CCEYC) said on Monday. The comment was a part of a review by the committee on the draft amendment of the Law on Education, which was reported to the National Assemblys Standing Committee for scrutiny. The draft law, written by the Ministry of Education and Training, was due to amend 50 of 114 articles the biggest amendment to the Law on Education since it was passed in 2005. The amended law proposed raising educational requirements for teachers at primary and secondary school and undergraduate and graduate lecturers. CCEYC head Phan Thanh Binh said that while the committee agreed with higher standards for the teachers, they were unsure such a requirement should apply to primary school teachers. According to the draft law, primary teachers should at least have a university degree instead of vocational training as the education law currently requires. There is up to 40 per cent, or about 156,000, of primary teachers nationwide with a college degree (lower level than a university degree in Viet Nams educational system) or a lower one, Binh said. Those teachers are mainly distributed in underdeveloped areas which always lack teachers. Free student loans? The amended education law proposed a relatively new financial means to support educational students, in which free tuition will be replaced by loans which can be written off if the student actually becomes a teacher. The idea aims to reduce budget wastefulness on free tuition for students who dont become teachers. The CCEYE, however, was divided on this issue. Some members agreed with the new idea which helps provide financial support to the right people, while others rejected it. They asked to keep the free tuition for educational students to demonstrate the States priority of training and supporting future teachers. VNS AUCKLAND Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has urged New Zealand s Auckland City to expand its co-operation with Viet Nam , especially in economy and trade, contributing to doubling two-way trade between the countries in the time ahead. He made the suggestion at a meeting with Auckland s mayor Phil Goff on Monday as part of his on-going official visit to the country. The PM also asked the two sides to step up their partnerships in education, science-technology, human resources development, urban planning, infrastructure development, high-tech agriculture and green energy. The leader expressed his belief that with the strong foundation of the Viet Nam-New Zealand relationship, Auckland will step up collaboration with Vietnamese localities, helping deepen the comprehensive partnership between the two countries. He called on the mayor and the Auckland authority to create more favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in the city to integrate into the host society. Goff congratulated Viet Nam on its achievements, especially in economics, describing them as results of efforts made by Vietnamese leaders and people over the past time. He highlighted the rapid and strong development of the Viet Nam-New Zealand relationship, especially people-to-people exchange and co-operation between the two countries localities. Auckland now houses nearly 3,000 Vietnamese, he said, who have made great contributions to the local development. Back to school On the same day PM Phuc and his spouse met with representatives of the Vietnamese people in New Zealand when visiting the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). The Vietnamese Government leader was welcomed at the AUT with the traditional Hongi greeting of local Maori people. After touring the AUT facilities, the PM talked to Vietnamese students in the university and representatives of the Vietnamese community. At the meeting, Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Viet Dung said most of Vietnamese people in the country have led stable lives and contributed to local development. Many Vietnamese are also among the students with the best academic results at the AUT. Phuc praised the Vietnamese embassys efforts to promote the two countries co-operation and support Vietnamese people in New Zealand. He expressed his hope that the embassys staff and Vietnamese people in the country will make unceasing efforts in their work so as to improve themselves, support their families, and contribute to the homeland. He noted that there are nearly 6,000 Vietnamese students in New Zealand at present. The two countries have co-operated in many fields, especially hi-tech agriculture, but those activities are just in the initial stage and there remains huge potential for more co-operation. Aside from external relations, promoting trade partnership is also an important task that the embassy and Vietnamese people in New Zealand should pay attention to, he said, asking for the reinforcement of bilateral ties in spheres of strength for New Zealand, such as green agriculture and infrastructure building. Phuc asked the embassy to bolster connections in education and training, expand tourism co-operation and further assist the Vietnamese community. The AUT has engaged in a number of joint training activities with Ha Noi, HCM City and a Nang City of Viet Nam. It plans to step up educational co-operation with the Southeast Asian nation with a hope that Vietnamese students in the AUT will be an important bridge helping to nurture the friendship and co-operation between the two countries. VNS AUCKLAND Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called for enhanced co-operation between Viet Nam and New Zealand in fields of mutual interest, such as education training, organic agriculture, smart agriculture and infrastructure. He said this while addressing the Viet Nam-New Zealand Business Forum in Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday. The event, which was attended by more than 300 businesses and investors from the two countries, was held in the framework of the Vietnamese Prime Ministers official visit to New Zealand from March 12-14. Phuc told the audience that Viet Nams business environment had significantly improved in recent years as seen in assessments made by the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. He also cited the latest survey of the Japan External Trade Organisation in late February which showed that nearly 70 per cent of Japanese firms operating in Viet Nam had plans to expand their business in the country. More than 62 per cent of Japanese businesses claimed that doing business in Viet Nam was profitable. According to the Business Climate Index released by the European Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam for the last quarter of 2017, 63 per cent of businesses perceived Viet Nams current business climate as good and very good, while nearly 86 per cent of enterprises claimed they wanted to maintain and expand investment in the Southeast Asian country. In February 2018, Nikkei announced that Viet Nam scored 53.5 points in the Purchasing Managers Index, the highest among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Phuc also said that Viet Nams economic growth in the first quarter of 2018 was estimated at a record 7.41 per cent. He affirmed the Vietnamese Governments commitment to continue improving the business environment in the country to attract more domestic and foreign investors and ensure their interests in accordance with Vietnamese regulations. He said when doing business in Viet Nam, New Zealand firms could access not only a nearly 100-million-strong market but also the 600-million-strong ASEAN market, along with the vast market of neighbouring China, through Viet Nam. He hoped the business firms of the two countries would discuss specific co-operation opportunities at the forum, especially when the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership had been signed with Viet Nam and New Zealand as members. Damien OConnor, New Zealands Minister of Agriculture, Biosecurity, Food Safety and Rural Communities, said New Zealand wanted to further deepen trade relations with Viet Nam and hoped the forum would benefit both the sides. At the forum, Phuc answered many queries raised by New Zealand businesses regarding Viet Nams policies to improve the business climate and attract investment in infrastructure development. Later, Phuc was present at the signing of agreements on bilateral co-operation in the fields of agriculture and education between the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and New Zealand Business Council. PM meets New Zealands milk firms On the same day, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met the representatives of some milk companies in New Zealand. He encouraged foreign firms in milk production and processing to expand production, upgrade technology and apply energy-saving solutions in the country. During his reception for Lukas Paravicini, chief executive of Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd the leading milk exporter of New Zealand, Phuc said Viet Nam appreciated the co-operation of the firm with its Vietnamese partners. He highlighted the development of Viet Nams dairy and nutritional food market, saying the 93-million-strong market was considered one of the most attractive market groups in the world. He said the Vietnamese Government would promote investment in developing the dairy sector as well as create favourable conditions for enterprises to foster production in the field, contributing to generating more jobs and improving social welfare. On his part, Paravicini affirmed his firms interest in the Vietnamese market and said Fonterra had cooperated with many Vietnamese dairy firms. He said the group was providing dairy material for Viet Nams dairy, beverage and nutritional food companies and was selling high-quality products in the Vietnamese market. Fonterra pledged to further boost co-operation with Vietnamese enterprises, broadening its investment for production and business in Viet Nam, Paravicini said. Phuc also received Kim Willoughby, director of Deosan Company, and Victor Truong, director of Richmond Company. More direct flights Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc underscored the significance of strengthening aviation connectivity between Viet Nam and New Zealand, suggesting opening more direct flights to facilitate bilateral trade and tourism, which are growing. He was speaking to the executives of several major corporations of New Zealand on Tuesday. Meeting Neil Quigley, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the PM lauded the banks role in managing inflation, maintaining macro-economic stability and growth momentum in New Zealand over past years. He suggested the reserve bank share experience with the State Bank of Vietnam in regulating exchange rates, building macro-economic policies and improving the capacity of banking staff. The Vietnamese leader hailed the signing of a strategic partnership contract between Viet Nams Sovico Jsc and New Zealand Trade Centre covering trade, investment, tourism, and aviation connectivity while meeting Adam Martin, President of NZ Trade Centre. Hosting a reception for Mat Mowbray, the founder and CEO of Zuru Building and Construction Company, the PM said the companys proposed construction of prefabricated houses using new materials in Viet Nam suits the Vietnamese governments foreign investment attraction policy. He vowed to direct the Ministry of Planning and Investment to help the company seek proper locations for the project. VNS AUCKLAND Viet Nam and New Zealand on Tuesday issued a Joint Statement on advancing the comprehensive partnership toward the strategic partnership during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs official visit to New Zealand on March 11-14. The following is the full text of the joint statement. JOINT STATEMENT ON ADVANCING THE COMPREHENSIVE PARTNERSHIP TOWARD THE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM AND NEW ZEALAND At the invitation of the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, His Excellency Nguyen Xuan Phuc, paid an official visit to New Zealand on 12-14 March 2018. An official welcome ceremony in honour of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc took place at Government House in Auckland on 13 March, followed by official talks and an official lunch with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. On the same day, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called on Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, the Right Honourable Trevor Mallard. Earlier, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc gave remarks at the Viet Nam New Zealand Business Forum and received a number of New Zealand senior business leaders. During this visit, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited University of Waikato and Plant and Food Research. Political co-operationThe two sides noted recent exchanges of high-level visits, including the state visit to Viet Nam by the Governor General of New Zealand, the His Excellency Lieutenant General the Right Honourable Sir Jerry Mateparae in August 2013; the official visit to New Zealand by the Prime Minister of Viet Nam, His Excellency Nguyen Tan Dung in March 2015; the official visit to Viet Nam by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Right Honourable John Key in November 2015; and the visit to Vietnam by the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern to attend the APEC Summit in November 2017. The two Leaders agreed to further intensify frequent high-level visits in both directions, as well as to maintain bilateral co-operation mechanisms, including the Joint Commission on Trade and Economics, Bilateral Defence Dialogue and Political Consultations, to exchange views on issues of mutual concern, such as climate change, regional architecture, consular services and co-operation on human rights issues, among others. Noting the positive momentum in the relationship since the establishment of the Comprehensive Partnership in 2009, the two Prime Ministers agreed to advance the Comprehensive Partnership and assigned relevant ministries and branches of both sides to actively and effectively realize the Plan of Action 2017-2020 as well as to expeditiously conclude talks and consultations by 2019 on a Strategic Partnership elevation in the near future as mutually agreed. Defence and security The two sides acknowledged the recent positive developments in bilateral defence co-operation such as the signing of the New Zealand-Viet Nam Three Year Defence Co-operation Action Plan 2018-2021 and the Peacekeeping Operations Training and Co-operation Implementing Arrangement, as well as high-level defence visits in both directions. The two leaders also welcomed further broader security and defence cooperation, including in military industries and research, cyber security, anti-terrorism, countering drug-trafficking and money laundering, and illegal migration. Both sides agreed to discuss existing and other possible legal corridors for co-operation in these areas. Trade and investment The Prime Ministers noted that trade between the two countries is now at a historic high with two-way trade in goods and services reaching a record US$1.24 billion in 2017, representing a 32 per cent increase over 2016 and a tripling of goods trade since 2009. The two Leaders expressed confidence that the target of $1.7 billion in two-way trade could be reached by 2020 accordingly. They welcomed the signing of the Arrangement on Economic and Trade Co-operation on this occasion, and requested the early convening of the 6th meeting of the Joint Commission on Trade and Investment. Both sides committed to individual and joint actions to reduce barriers to bilateral trade, especially for agricultural products. The establishment of a dedicated Agricultural Counsellor in the New Zealand Embassy later this year was noted as an important step in this regard. The announcement of the Import Health Standard Export Plan for Rambutan and the signature of a Food Safety and Quality Management Co-operation Arrangement during the visit were further signs of positive cooperation. The Leaders noted that Customs cooperation and the proposed Customs joint work programme would also further facilitate trade between the two countries. The two Prime Ministers noted that investment between the two countries had yet to reach its potential. Both Leaders agreed to encourage investment, including in areas such as high-tech agriculture, green and renewable energy and infrastructure. Development co-operation The Prime Ministers welcomed the positive impact made by New Zealands development aid to Viet Nam, highlighting flagship projects in dragon fruit commercialisation, safe vegetable production, dam safety, scholarships and English language training. Up to NZ$29 million would be invested by New Zealand in the three year period up to July 2018. The two Leaders committed to substantial cooperation in the years ahead, sharing New Zealand skills and technologies to make a practical difference in areas of Vietnamese priority such as agriculture, disaster risk management, knowledge and skills, and renewable energy; and to build stronger and lasting connections between the two countries government agencies, universities, research institutes, businesses and NGOs. The Prime Ministers agreed to an enhanced annual consultation mechanism on development cooperation led by the Viet Nam Ministry of Planning and Investment and its New Zealand counterpart. On this occasion, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced two new projects, namely, a three-year partnership supporting Vietnamese farmers and food processors to modernise production, generate safer food and improve incomes (NZ$1.5million); and a pilot renewable energy project supporting the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Viet Nam with the tools to develop the wholesale electricity market enabling greater efficiency and renewable energy uptake (NZ$0.5 million). The Leaders welcomed the newly signed Memorandum of Understanding between Plant and Food Research New Zealand and Generalexim of Viet Nam to improve avocado production in ak Nong province and a new project to reduce pre- and post-harvest loss through safely reducing rodent damage on rice crops between Landcare Research of New Zealand and Viet Nam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Both projects were facilitated by New Zealands Government to Government Partnerships Office. Education and training The Prime Ministers noted that education and training co-operation between New Zealand and Viet Nam is strong, expanding rapidly and is one of the pillars of both todays relationship and future Strategic Partnership. The two Leaders appreciated the signing of the renewed Strategic Engagement Plan on Education 2018-2020, and set the target to increase the number of Vietnamese students in New Zealand by 30 per cent by 2020 facilitating further student exchanges, university-to-university joint programmes and other cooperation in both countries. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc welcomed the regular promotion and operation of the Working Holiday Scheme and expressed Viet Nams readiness to receive New Zealand citizens under this Scheme. Connectivity and people-to-people contacts The two Prime Ministers noted that tourism between both countries is growing rapidly with Vietnam visitors to New Zealand expanding by over 32 per cent and New Zealand tourists to Viet Nam by more than 19 per cent in the last year, boosted by the establishment of direct flights by Air New Zealand between Auckland and HCM City in 2016. Both Leaders called for the expansion of air links and to further promote travel between the two countries. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern welcomed the inclusion of New Zealand in Viet Nams e-visa programme as a very positive step streamlining entry for New Zealand tourists, following New Zealands implementation in 2016 of e-visas for Viet Nam visitors. The two sides recognise the success of the Vietnamese community in New Zealand and highly value their contribution to the development of Viet Nam and New Zealand as well as to the better promotion of bilateral relations. Regional and international co-operation Both countries continue to work closely in multilateral and regional forums, such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+) process, and the East Asia Summit (EAS), in order to enhance regional prosperity, address regional security challenges and enhance co-operation on issues of mutual interest. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reiterated New Zealands support for Viet Nams candidature for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-21 term, and extended an offer to share advice and experience gained from New Zealands successful term in 2015-16 with Viet Nam. New Zealand and Viet Nam recognise the critical importance of deepening regional economic integration and supporting trade liberalisation across the Asia-Pacific region to ensure the prosperity of both countries. Both Leaders welcomed the signature of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on 8 March 2018 in Chile and reiterated their commitment to swift ratification and implementation of the agreement in the coming months. Both Leaders reaffirmed their interest in achieving a modern, comprehensive, high quality and mutually beneficial outcome in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement negotiations. The two sides agreed to continue co-operation to further fossil fuel subsidy reform. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern conveyed congratulations to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc for Viet Nams successful hosting of APEC in 2017 and welcomed Viet Nams offer to share its experience to support New Zealands preparations to host APEC in 2021. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc welcomed the growing cooperation between ASEAN and New Zealand, especially in areas which help ASEAN successfully build up the ASEAN Community. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reiterated New Zealands strong support for ASEAN centrality in the evolving regional architecture. In the important year of 2020, when Viet Nam alternatively chairs ASEAN, ASEAN and New Zealand will commemorate the 45th anniversary of establishing a Dialogue Partnership and the 5th anniversary of Strategic Partnership, and Viet Nam welcomed any New Zealand initiatives to enrich these milestones. Both sides emphasized the importance of maintaining peace, security and stability in the South China Sea through implementation of international legal obligations in good faith, respect for legal and diplomatic processes, peaceful resolution of disputes, and maintenance of freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Both Leaders encouraged the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in its entirety as well as the swift conclusion of an effective and substantive Code of Conduct for the South China Sea. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc expressed his gratitude to the Government and people of New Zealand for the warm hospitality extended to him and his delegation. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc extended an invitation for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to pay an official visit to Vietnam at a mutually convenient time. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also forwarded the invitation of President Tran ai Quang for the Governor General of New Zealand, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Dame Patsy Reddy to pay a state visit to Viet Nam at her convenience. VNS AUCKLAND Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern, agreed on major directions to boost future Viet Nam-New Zealand co-operation in all fields during their talks in Auckland, New Zealand, on Tuesday. In politics, the two sides concurred to maintain the exchanges of delegations, especially high-level ones, while strengthening people-to-people exchanges. The two sides also agreed to implement the Action Programme for the 2017-20 period in an effective manner, and soon organise the 6th meeting of the Joint Committee on economic and trade co-operation in Ha Noi and the 11th Political Consultation in New Zealand. The two sides demonstrated their appreciation at the bilateral friendship and comprehensive partnership between the two countries, towards the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Partnership in 2019, and the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations in 2020. In defence-security, PM Ardern agreed that the two sides should implement specific co-operation within the newly-signed Action Programme on defence co-operation in the 2018-21 period. The two sides need to promote connectivity in defence industry and research, while strengthening collaboration in fighting trans-national criminals, terrorism and drug trafficking amidst the complicated security environment in the region. In terms of economics and trade, both sides expressed their satisfaction with positive bilateral trade growth which hit US$1.24 billion last year a year-on-year rise of over 30 per cent. They agreed on numerous trade promotion activities, including the facilitation of farm produce exports, in order to bring bilateral trade to $1.7-2 billion by 2020. PM Phuc asked New Zealand to continue facilitating the export of Vietnamese tropical fruits such as mango, dragon fruit, rambutan, star apple, grapefruit and longan to its market, and expand investment in Viet Nam in the fields of its strength and Viet Nams demand like mining, energy, infrastructure, hi-tech agriculture, education and finance. Regarding official development assistance (ODA), the Vietnamese leader said he was satisfied with the efficiency of New Zealands ODA projects in Viet Nam. He called for the increased provision of the assistance with the focus on agriculture and rural development, human resources development, disaster risk management and climate change. The New Zealand PM took this occasion to announce two new ODA projects, namely a three-year programme worth NZD1.5 million ($1.09 million) to help Vietnamese farmers increase their income and a pilot project on renewable energy worth NZD500,000. The two sides reached a consensus on intensifying collaboration in such areas as education and labour. They acknowledged that co-operation in education and training is growing strongly and is one of the pillars of the bilateral relations. They set a target to raise the number of Vietnamese students by 30 per cent by 2020 through encouraging the exchange of students between the two countries universities. PM Ardern expressed her delight at positive growth in bilateral tourism co-operation, which is reflected through the fact that New Zealand welcomed 17,000 Vietnamese tourists last year. She affirmed to maintain assistance for Viet Nam in human resources training, while backing the opening of direct air routes linking the two countries, and committing to facilitating tourism and trade co-operation. The two PMs affirmed to push ahead with co-operation and mutual support at regional and international forums of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) PM Phuc thanked New Zealand for supporting Viet Nam to host the APEC 2017 successfully and become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-21 tenure. The New Zealand PM affirmed to support and closely work with Viet Nam in 2020 when the Southeast Asian country would take up the role as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the bloc and New Zealand will mark the 45th anniversary of dialogue partnership and the fifth anniversary of strategic partnership. New Zealand would host the APEC Year 2021 and hoped to learn from Viet Nams experience, she noted. The two countries agreed to jointly implement the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and advocated the negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The PMs were unanimous to entrust ministries and relevant agencies to promote the two countries relations in a deep and pragmatic manner across the fields in addition to promoting the exchange of a roadmap for the bilateral strategic partnership and soon elevating the bilateral relations as agreed by the two sides. At the end of the talks, the PMs witnessed the signing of three important documents, including an agreement between Viet Nams Ministry of Industry and Trade and New Zealands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on economic and trade co-operation; a deal between Viet Nams Ministry of Industry and Trade and New Zealands Ministry of Primary Industries on co-operation in food safety and quality management; a strategic cooperation plan between Viet Nams Ministry of Education and Training and New Zealand educational agency on education and training for 2018-20. PM Phuc invited Prime Minister Ardern to visit Viet Nam at an appropriate time, and conveyed President Tran ai Quangs invitation to Governor-General of New Zealand to pay a State visit to Viet Nam. On the occasion, PM Ardern hosted a banquet for her Vietnamese counterpart and members of the Vietnamese delegation. VNS HA NOI All nine defendants in the notorious case of the a River Ha Noi water pipe breakdown yesterday received a cumulative 14-year sentence for their wrongdoings, with three defendants receiving probation. The defendants were charged with violations of construction regulations, causing serious consequences which affected peoples lives. As Viet Nam News reported earlier, the a River Ha Noi water supply project began operation in 2009, supplying a significant amount of water to the capitals residents. However, from April 2, 2012 to October 10, 2016, the water pipeline broke down a total of 18 times, resulting in the temporary suspension of water supply for a total of 386 hours and 1.7 million cu.m of water, affecting 177,000 households in Ha Noi. According to the verdict, the repeated water pipe ruptures stemmed from a series of violations, from the production of the water pipes to management and oversight during their installation. The water pipes were found to be of uneven quality as durability for long-term use of several samples failed to meet requirements. The toughest sentence, 24 months in prison, was handed down to Hoang The Trung, former director of the project management board and Tran Cao Bang, former director of Vinaconex Fibreglass Reinforced Polyester Pipe JSC the company supplying the water pipes. As representatives of the investor, Trung and Nguyen Van Khai and Truong Tran Hien, two other members of the project management board, were found guilty for signing 73 official acceptance agreements which certified the quality of more than 5,000 pipelines and add-ons used in the project. Bang and Vu Thanh Hai, former head of the production department and deputy director of the fiberglass company, were also found guilty for signing these documents as representatives of the pipeline supply contractor. o inh Tri, former head of the consultant and monitoring team of the Viet Nam Water, Sanitation and Environment Company and head of the projects monitoring team was accused of signing acceptance agreements for the water pipe and add-ons installation processes. Khai, Hai and Tri received sentences of 20 months in prison while Hien got 16 months. Those receiving suspended sentences were Nguyen Bien Hung, Hoang Quoc Thong, and Bui Minh Quan, other members of the projects monitoring team. The verdicts were lighter than earlier requested by the Ha Noi Procuracy, which sought a sentence of 42 months in prison for Trung and Bang. The court cited several reasons for the charge reductions, such as the defendants good personal record, sincerity during the investigation and this time being their first offence. Earlier during the 10-day trial, all the defendants claimed innocence and disagreed with the conclusion of the charge of the prosecutors. They insisted that competent authorities had failed to figure out the exact causes of the pipeline breakdown, adding that without finding the exact causes, similar incidents could reoccur in the future. VNS AUCKLAND, New Zealand Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had a meeting with New Zealands Speaker of the House of Representatives Trevor Mallard on March 13, during which both leaders agreed that the two countries legislations should maintain traditional cooperation and close coordination at international and regional parliamentary forums. PM Phuc and Speaker Mallard expressed their delight at the development of Viet Nam New Zealand relations in recent years, notably in two-way trade which is likely to hit US$1.72 billion in 2020. They agreed to soon upgrade the bilateral ties to the level of Strategic Partnership and held that the two nations must step up practical and specific measures to boost cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, tourism, aviation connectivity and people-to-people exchanges. The two leaders stressed the need for the two parliaments to increase the exchange of high-level visits and coordinate together in supervising the implementation of the two countries agreements. Mallard, who initiated the Viet Nam-New Zealand educational agreement, said that New Zealand wants to attract more Vietnamese students to study in areas of its strength like information technology, biotechnology and hospitality. He expressed his admiration for Viet Nams important achievements in socio-economic development and implementation of foreign policy in the recent past. The Speaker said he was pleased with the outcomes of the earlier talks between PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his NZ counterpart Jacinda Ardern, believing that these positive results would lay an important foundation for bilateral relations to develop more strongly in the future. PM Phuc conveyed Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngans invitation to Mallard to visit Viet Nam at a convenient time. Meanwhile, Mallard reiterated his invitation to Ngan to pay a visit to New Zealand soon. After the meeting, PM Phuc and his entourage attended a banquet hosted by Speaker Mallard. New Zealand hails Viet Nams important role in signing of CPTPP As the host of the APEC Year 2017, Viet Nam played an important role in promoting the signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in Chile, said New Zealands Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters. During his meeting with Vietnamese Deputy PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh yesterday, as part of PM Nguyen Xuan Phucs official visit to New Zealand, Peters spoke highly of Viet Nams leading role in the APEC Economic Leaders Week, saying that it brought positive results to the APEC progress as the region and the world are witnessing unfavourable conditions for trade liberalisation and economic connectivity. He highlighted the significance of PM Phucs ongoing visit to New Zealand and expressed his hope that the visit would help expand and elevate bilateral ties to new heights. For his part, Minh affirmed Viet Nam was ready to share experience and support New Zealand when the country hosts the APEC Year 2021. The two officials agreed to promote the implementation of the Action Plan for the 2017-2020 period, thus making contributions to deepening bilateral cooperation in various fields and creating a premise to upgrade Viet Nam-New Zealand ties to the level of strategic partnership. They expressed their pleasure at the close co-operation between the two foreign ministries and affirmed to boost collaboration in strategic issues, both bilaterally and multilaterally. In that spirit, they agreed to hold the 11th foreign ministerial-level political consultation in New Zealand soon. While discussing regional and international issues of mutual concern, Peters said that he was interested in recent developments on the Korean peninsula and the East Sea, and affirmed his support for ASEAN and China in promoting negotiations on a Code of Conduct (COC) in the East Sea. On this occasion, Deputy PM and Minh invited his New Zealand counterpart Winston Peters to visit Viet Nam at a convenient time. VNS VNS BINH DUONG City The southern province of Binh Duong has announced it will organise the World Technopolis Association (WTA) Events in October since its capital, Binh Duong City, has just become a member of the association. There will be the 11th WTA General Assembly & Hi-tech Fair and the 2018 Global Innovation Forum. "Membership of the WTA and the construction of a smart city would be driving forces to overcome obstacles and turn the city into a modern, sustainable urban area," Tran Thanh Liem, chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee, said in his opening speech at yesterdays signing ceremony for the memorandum of understanding for hosting WTA Events. Lee Taek Ku, Director General of Planning and Coordination of Koreas Daejeon City, said: Im very honoured to welcome Binh Duong City as an official member of the WTA, which was established by Daejeon Metropolitan City in 1998 with the purpose of connecting the advancement of science and technology with regional innovation for development. Kang Byung Joo, Secretary General of the WTA, said: It is very meaningful for Binh Duong City to become an official member of WTA, which has 105 members, including cities, research institutes and universities from 47 nations around the world. On the same day the MoU was signed a ceremony was held to grant investment certificates to 18 enterprises and sign a land lease agreement for project expansion in the Bau Bang Industrial Park between Becamex IDC and Far Eastern Group. Last year the province grew at 9.15 per cent, its highest ever rate. Exports grew by 17.6 per cent to $28.5 billion. In the first 2 months of this year domestic and foreign investment have been worth VN10.3 trillion ($450 million) and $435 million. The province now has 31,548 domestic enterprises with registered capital of VN247.5 trillion ($11 billion) and 3,075 foreign projects worth $29 billion. It is ranked second in terms of FDI attraction behind only HCM City. VNS HCM CITY Some 1,700 out of 1,928 workers at the Korean-owned Texwell Vina Company, which has closed and whose managers have fled the country, have received unemployment benefits while more than 600 have found new jobs, ong Nai Province authorities have reported. The provincial Peoples Committee on Sunday approved a payment of nearly VN1.4 billion (US$61,000) from the local budget to pay social insurance premiums, which the company had failed to pay since last August. According to the provinces Labour Union, social insurance books have been returned to 1,700 workers while the rest have not received them. Almost 300 workers who have not received social insurance books might have returned home, but they would continue to receive help from provincial authorities to find a new job as promised. Nguyen Hoa Hiep, deputy chairman of the Peoples Committee, said the province has urged other local enterprises to hire Texwell Vina workers aged over 40. Le Nhat Truong, president of the Trade Union of PouSung Viet Nam (Bau Xeo Industrial Park), said his company has taken in more than 600 workers. Regardless of age they would be paid salaries of over VN5 million a month, bonuses and overtime pay when they start working by the end of next month, he said. Earlier the province had shelled out VN7 billion to pay the workers half their January wages so that they could celebrate Tet (the Lunar New Year). Also the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour gave them Tet gifts worth VN600,000 each. On February 9 the workers had gathered to demand payment of their January salary, but were told that their general director and 11 executives had left for South Korea the previous day and so their salaries could not be paid. Nguyen Thi Nhu Y, vice chairwoman of the ong Nai Provinces Confederation of Labour, said Texwell Vinas ex-workers are facing a lot of difficulties. The confederation is keeping track of the number of pregnant and old workers and trying to convince other local enterprises to take them in. So far 15 have agreed to hire them, she said. Last week a meeting was held between representatives of the Peoples Committee and the workers, and the former told the workers to write resignation letters and advised them on how to terminate their labour contracts and close their social insurance books. The Trade Union Legal Consultancy Centre at the Labour Confederation has initiated file lawsuits against the company so that its machinery and other assets could be sold off to pay the workers salaries and other dues. The unpaid social insurance premiums alone amount to more than VN17.5 billion ($771,750). KL Texwell Vina is a South Korean-invested textile and garment manufacturer. It was set up in December 2015 with a charter capital of VN100 billion ($4.4 million). VNS HA NOI Businesses will likely narrow the pay gap among labourers and recalculate salary scales based on productivity at work instead of seniority, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has said. This is among the breakthrough regulations on building salary scales and payrolls the ministry has proposed to amend and supplement the Governments Decree No49 issued in 2013. According to the ministry, the current pay gap of at least five per cent between every wage rate has affected salary policy, structure of salary scales and payroll of enterprises, and is unsuitable with market mechanisms. It has forced many businesses to build their salary scales based on seniority in order to create the stipulated gap. Businesses had to pay high salaries and high social insurance premiums usually two or three times higher for senior labourers who performed the same jobs as junior ones. As a result, many businesses sought to fire senior workers to recruit new ones. Under the draft decree, the ministry has proposed two options to replace the current regulation. In the first option, the regulation of five per cent pay gap at every wage rate would be discarded. Enterprises and their trade unions would discuss to determine payments for labourers based on their performances and job titles. The pay gap between wage rates must encourage labourers to improve their professional and technical skills, accumulate experience and develop their talents. This option would increase the autonomy for enterprises but labourers benefits would be at risk. In the second option, the pay gap would be defined and reduced from 5 per cent to 3 per cent. Based on it, the State would be able to create the lowest rate to ensure the benefits of labourers. However, enterprises would be restricted in building their salary scales and payroll. The ministry said that under the current labour market conditions and the capacity of trade unions, there should be a road map to implement the options. It also recommended the second option. The draft decree has received opinions from experts and enterprises. Bui Sy Loi, deputy chairman of the National Assemblys Social Affairs Committee, supported the draft decree, saying to Nong thon Ngay nay (Countryside Today) newspaper that salaries had been considered barriers that hindered the development of each labourer and enterprise. Those with good performance were paid the same as others because of salary calculation according to seniority. Nguyen Xuan Duong, Chairman of Hung Yen Provinces Business Association and chairman of Hung Yen Garment Corporation said that regulations on reducing the pay gap below 5 per cent or even eliminating it would create conditions for enterprises to self-regulate the design of salary scales. This meant that enterprises would use wage funds to increase wages for hard-working labourers with high productivity instead of increasing the wages for all labourers. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, employment specialist, had different point of view. She said there were positions that should be compensated according to seniority, such as policy makers, as junior labourers have little experience. Vu Quang Tho, head of the Workers Trade Unions, said that the salary of workers was too low. Each time the pay rises, their salary could increase only a few tens of thousands of ongnot even enough for employees to buy a pack of candy. With the new pay gap of three per cent, labourers lives would be very hard, he said. Pham Minh Huan, former deputy minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that in fact, many companies were facing financial burdens under the current regulation. Basic salaries have been increasing, so the payment following seniority would be higher year by year while the work productivity will not improve much. Huan said the draft decree did not aim at removing the salary calculation based on seniority. In discussing the option proposed by the ministry, he said that the second option would be a good choice because it would improve negotiation capacity between labourers and employers, which is currently low. VNS HA NOI The establishment of an intellectual property court in Viet Nam is in sight but has yet to be completed, a deputy chief inspector of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has said. Unlike in foreign countries where the court plays a major role in handling violations of intellectual property rights, Viet Nams court system has not asserted its power as strongly on the matter, according to Nguyen Nhu Quynh, MOSTs deputy chief inspector. About 98.4 per cent of the violations in Viet Nam in the 2012-15 period, including online infringement, were handled by inspectors from administrative agencies, she said. There needs be an intellectual property court in Viet Nam , but we dont know when it will be established, she said at a conference on intellectual property enforcement in the digital world held in Ha Noi yesterday. While the prospect of an intellectual property court seems down the road, Quynh said that it is essential to have a department within the countrys judicial system specialising in intellectual property. The practice of electronic commerce (e-commerce) is developing rapidly in Viet Nam , with total retail revenue of US$5 billion in 2016, a drastic rise from $2 billion in 2013 and $1 billion in 2012, according to MOST. Forty-nine per cent of enterprises in the country had their own websites, and 32 per cent of them have established business partnerships with foreign counterparts via the internet. Online platforms play a major role in reinforcing e-commerce, including online shopping sites and social media platforms. A survey done by the market research service Q&Me in 2017 shows that 66 per cent of Facebook users in Viet Nam have purchased items over the social media platform, a considerable rise from 47 per cent in 2016, Quynh said. Taking advantage of social media platforms particularly Facebook to do business makes it harder for inspectors to discover violators of intellectual property rights, she said. Several young people are making tonnes of money out of their online businesses without having to have capital, just a few tricks to increase the number of fans on their Facebook pages, she said. But a lot of them sell fake stuff, which is considered an infringement. Stronger punishments are needed to regulate the virtual business environment, she said. Speaking on domain name disputes, Quynh advised that well-known brands, when discovering their domain names have been taken by other businesses, should contact those businesses and warn them of copyright infringement before sending legal documents and asking administrative agencies to get involved. A lot of the times when we conducted inspections, the violators did not even know they had violated the regulations, she said. Speaking at the workshop, Tran Van Tung, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, said that the inadequate policy system is the most challenging aspect of intellectual property enforcement in Viet Nam . Apart from well-intentioned firms, many businesses in Viet Nam are taking advantage of the legal loopholes and major brands to sell fake goods and deliver low-quality services. These firms should receive hefty punishments such as being taken to court, he added. It is of utmost importance to strictly handle infringement and counterfeit acts in the digital environment, otherwise we will discourage innovation, he said. Intellectual property enforcement is the core of protecting innovation and strengthening the applications of science and technology to the development of the country. VNS A NANG The central citys Peoples Committee has asked the local public security department to investigate an assault on a reporter at a bar in the citys downtown on Sunday. The investigation agency must report on the case before Wednesday. According to a report from Thach Thang Wards investigation team, Hua Vinh Nhan, a reporter working for the Giao Thong (Transport) newspaper was recording the Lost&Found Bar at 28 Bach ang Street from a position on the other side of the street. A group of six men from the bar suddenly attacked him and abducted him for two hours from midnight on Sunday till 2am on Monday. Nhan declared at Thach Thang Wards public security office on Monday that he was beaten by the group of men from the bar and was illegally arrested by the group which he said was comprised of the bars staffers for hours. A medical examination at the citys hospital showed that Nhan suffered an inner skull wound and maxillofacial trauma. He said his camera, ID and mobile phone were kept by attackers, and he was released about 2am on Monday. Nhan said he was recording illegal nighttime activities of the bar following complaints from local residents living near the bar. They said the bar had for a long time been playing music too loudly late at night. The case is the worst assault on reporter in the city in recent years. a Nang has more than 100 representative offices of newspapers with nearly 1,000 journalists, reporters and staff members. VNS LAO CAI Five workers died and four others are missing after falling down with cargo in Hong (Red) River in northern Lao Cai Province on Sunday. According to the provinces Military Command, the workers were transporting iron cargo across the border to China when the accident took place. Among the victims, the oldest was 46 years old while the youngest was 17. The other three were in their twenties. According to ao Van Huong, deputy chief of Bat Xat Districts Peoples Committee Office, since the accident took place at the border, border guards and police were cooperating with their Chinese counterparts to search for the missing people. He said the bodies of the deceased were found on Monday evening and were handed over to their families. VNS HA NOI The Greater Mekong, including Viet Nam, is expected to have a colossal US$66 billion poured in to strengthen regional economic co-operation in the next five years, said an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official on Tuesday. The money was upped by $2 billion compared to what ministers of the six Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries - Myanmar, Laos, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand and China - agreed to in the action plan framework for 2018-2022 late last year. It will more than triple the total amount of $21 billion mobilised for the region since the GMS development programme was first launched by the ADB in 1992, the banks division of regional co-operation and operations coordination in Southeast Asia director Alfredo Perdiguero told the Vietnamese media. The ambitious financing agreement is due to be signed by leaders of the regional members at the triennial 6th GMS Summit hosted this March in Viet Nam, in which hundreds of projects from different sectors will be put on the agenda to open more opportunities in trade and investment through closer regional collaboration. Some $7 billion will be mobilised from the ADB. We will also bring in many other partners to contribute significant amounts, together with the governments of the GMS countries, Perdiguero said. Connectivity expansion I can say the GMS has been one of the most successful programmes for regional co-operation and integration in Asia, he said. The development of extensive trans-national road networks which formed the three main economic corridors, or trade routes, connecting the member countries was so far the greatest achievement of the programme, given that there was little transportation connectivity in the region back in 1992. Viet Nam, in particular, was the only country in the GMS that participated in all three economic corridors, according to Perdiguero. They included the North-South corridor that connects Viet Nam with China, the East-West to link central provinces of Hue and a Nang with Laos and all the way to Thailand and Myanmar, and finally the Southern one bridging HCM City with Phnom Penh and Bangkok. But as the development of physical connections in the region, which set the foundation for the countries connectivity, was relatively complete, the GMS programme was seeking to expand the collaboration in several other sectors. Perdiguero said that they would range from power connectivity, agriculture to health and diseases, together with tourism and urban issues. Fruitful co-operation in those fields would involve not only the governments but also a bigger contribution from the private sector, particularly in tourism and agriculture, he added. Thats why we are very happy that the (Vietnamese) Prime Minister decided to organise the GMS Business Forum to bring in the energy, the ideas, and the knowledge from the private sector, Perdiguero said. Viet Nam will organise the first-ever GMS Business Forum on the sideline of the GMS Summit. 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(1) Again the Russian stories are back to lies and more lies I received this comment and received hundreds more yesterday. They are caught in my bot (automated production) comment filter. They are all over the internet, in the same form. News sites, blogs and whatever gets these automated comments Russia and it is a fact: Fetal Alcohol Spectral Disorders (FASD) where mothers drink alcohol during pregnancy is everywhere in Russia, causing countless birth defects and lifelong physical and psychological problems, including paranoia. It also damages DNA, causing the children of these victims to be seriously damaged. Also drug abuse is growing in Russia at the fastest rate anywhere in the world, as is HIV infection. WHO figures have suggested that by 2050 Russias population will be half what is is now (around 70 million) and thats optimistic. Much to Putins dismay Russia is dying fast, so the questions are what Russia will do as it disintegrates, and what happens post-Russia with the largest national land mass on earth. Forget North Korea, Russia is the most dangerous nation on earth because its dying. This dying has led to Russians eating and consuming their own children. Just like North Korea and Venezuela does. Putin has stashed 1.5 trillion dollars and his comrades are so poor that they stand in lines for bread days at a time. This is all fact from UN and WHO files on Russia. Russia must be destroyed before it destroys us! This is a typical comment received and it is found in the bot file area. That is because my system asks and blocks simply efficiently: Anti-spam plugin blocks 100% of automatic spam messages (sent by spam-bots via post requests). It does not block anything manually entered by hand and thus an occasional Spam gets through But when I desire, I can see what is being attacked and some of the comments are very sick It is a sign of a sick society that is allowing billions of dollars to be spent on propaganda and attack other countries with lies. Grab a comment sometime, a comment that you see as being seriously ignorant and you most likely will find it plastered all over the internet. A real good example is a bot called BritBob. Argentina and the Falklands: is his favorite subject and he cuts and pastes on at least twelve sites I have seen. I get them on WtR all the time and they are bot drivenIt also functions in many languages, such as Russian, English, Spanish and so on They are destroying our internet and hoping you a real person, will go away WtR Bruce Power partners in climate change study 13 March 2018 Share Ontario's Bruce Power has partnered with the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR) to conduct a three-year study of the impact of climate change on the region. The study will investigate the impacts on the region's ecosystems as well as corporate action to tackle climate change locally and regionally. Bruce Power's Ontario site (Image: Bruce Power) The Great Lakes Region includes the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the US states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The CGLR is a binational organisation focused on creating collaboration in harnessing the region's economic strengths and assets, improving the well-being and prosperity of the region's citizens, and protecting the Great Lakes for future generations. The new study aims to provide insight into: the state of climate change science in the region; the impact of a changing climate on various ecosystems and sectors, including the region's aquatic environment, fisheries and Bruce Power's operations; the knowledge and decision-making systems needed to enable companies and communities better to manage changing risks as a result of climate change; and the role that Bruce Power and other sectors might play in tackling climate change, and how companies can adjust their corporate sustainability strategies to limit its impacts. Tubing contract BWX Technologies, Inc subsidiary BWXT Nuclear Energy Canada Inc has been awarded a CAD168 million (USD130 million), five-year contract extension to manufacture fuel for OPG's Darlington and Pickering nuclear plants. The deal extends the companies' current fuel manufacturing arrangement to the end of 2023. Zirconium-alloy tubes for the fuel will be produced at BWXT's Anrprior operation, processed natural uranium pellets will be produced at its Toronto facility, and tubes and pellets will be assembled into fuel bundles at BWXT's Peterborough facility. "The Great Lakes region, spanning eight states and two provinces, is both an economic powerhouse and a globally significant bioregion and freshwater resource," Mark Fisher, CEO of the CGLR, said. "As the region continues to grow and prosper, it's crucial that business, government, academia and the non-profit sector work jointly to understand and limit the impact of climate change in the Great Lakes, while seeking new ideas and technologies that will help accelerate our transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy," he added. Ontario phased out the use of coal for electricity generation in 2014, and nuclear provides over 60% of the province's power. The Ontario government's 2017 Long-Term Energy Plan recognises the refurbishment of existing nuclear power plants as the most cost-effective option for meeting the province's baseload generation needs. Ten nuclear units - four units at Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) Darlington plant and six units at Bruce Power's Bruce plant - are to be refurbished by 2033, while OPG's Pickering nuclear power plant will continue to operate until 2024 to provide baseload electricity during the Darlington and initial Bruce refurbishments. The field of study on climate change is still relatively new, and Bruce Power continues to be engaged in understanding the impacts from climate change predictions and considering how it may affect future operations, the company said. "We have commissioned the CGLR to conduct this study in order to provide important information and data that will assist Bruce Power and its partners in planning for its future, and also place continued focus on our role as a clean provider of electricity to tackle climate change itself," the company's vice president for corporate affairs and environment, James Scongack, said. "The Bruce Power site will operate for many years to come, so we think it is important to look ahead today to help us minimise and manage the effects of climate change. "Though nuclear energy generates no carbon emissions and fights climate change simply by making carbon-intensive energy supplies such as coal unnecessary, there are still things we can do on our site, in our community, and regionally to reduce the impacts of climate change and meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future of generations to meet their own economic, social and environmental needs," Scongack added. Bruce Power and the CGLR are looking for further partners to join the study. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Mar 13, 2018 | By Benedict Innofil3D, a Netherlands-based 3D printing filament company owned by BASF, has partnered with Beijing Tiertime, a Chinese FDM 3D printer manufacturer. Beijing Tiertime will distribute Innofil3Ds filaments in China and the U.S., and the two companies will develop new materials. Since its acquisition by chemicals company BASF, Dutch 3D printing filament specialist Innofil3D has had a busy time, collaborating with numerous other companies to expand its 3D printing material business. Its latest deal is a partnership with Chinese FDM 3D printer manufacturer Beijing Tiertime, which will take Innofil3D further across the globe. The deal consists of two parts. Firstly, Beijing Tiertimea manufacturing and prototyping solutions provider with a global distribution network serving over 50 countrieswill now distribute Innofil3Ds 3D printing filaments in China and the United States, taking Innofil3D materials like ABS Fusion+ to new customers. The second part of the deal will involve the two additive manufacturing companies working together to develop engineering materials for industrial applications using FDM 3D printing. With the introduction of our UP series for FFF printing in 2010, we contributed to the rise of desktop 3D printers in the consumer and education sectors, commented Andrew Qin, Sales Director at Beijing Tiertime. Now we recognize that desktop FFF 3D printers are being used for industrial use, due to lower investment costs. By working closely with a strong partner like BASF, we can bring their well-developed Innofil3D materials to the Chinese market, enabling us to respond quickly to an increased demand for premium materials from the professional and industrial sectors. Innofil3D, established in 2014 as a spin-off of Applied Polymer Innovations, focuses on FDM 3D printing engineering materials, and the company thinks the new deal will help it sell its filaments to new markets. Beijing Tiertime offers significant advantages for Innofil3D in China, said Jeroen Wiggers, Managing Director of Innofil3D. They have demonstrated their capabilities in manufacturing reliable 3D printing machines with a strong market penetration. We believe this strong partnership will enable end-customers to capitalize on the full benefits of FFF printing in China and the United States. Beijing Tiertime is responsible for the UP range of desktop 3D printers, which includes the UP BOX+ and UP Mini 2. Posted in 3D Printer Company Maybe you also like: Eric Boodman in Stat News: On the night before his weekly trip into the slaughterhouse, Fraser Taylor stepped into the back of the truck to make sure everything was in place. The hold still smelled faintly of cow a subtle whiff of something grassy but the equipment inside seemed better suited to a day of spelunking through the sewers. There were hard hats and hoses and straps. There were huge conical tanks, and a valve-laden contraption that might come in handy for siphoning off the contents of pipes. The truck itself was white. It bore no sign of the company it belonged to or the strange journey it was about to take. Taylor looked tired. It was almost 5 p.m., there was a snowstorm, and the team was already running late. Snow drifted down into the lights of the loading dock as Taylor slid the truck door shut. The roads would be terrible, just tire marks through slush instead of lanes. They had to go tonight, though. Lateness was not an option on Tuesday mornings. If they didnt get onto the floor before the cattle started coming by, there would no way to load their equipment in, and they would get none of the precious liquid theyd come to collect. Its a substance that most meat processing plants hardly think about: Just another fluid in the fluid-filled business of turning an animal into a side of beef. But Taylor would panic if he saw any spill on the slaughterhouse floor those lost drops could have saved babies lives. This small firm had carefully courted slaughterhouses so that its workers could be allowed inside to suck this off-white foam out of cow lungs. Then, they purified the hell out of it, and shipped vials of it across Canada, and to India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ecuador, and Iran, where it was shot into the lungs of struggling premature infants. More here. Morgan Meis in The Easel: In 1500, Leonardo was an artist working for hire. One of his clients was Louis XII of France. The painting he had just completed was a portrait of Jesus Christ, quite possibly a commission from the French monarch. History does not record whether the completed work met with approval but, once painted, Salvator Mundi began a rather improbable journey in and out of oblivion. A couple of decades after it was completed (and by way of royal marriages) Salvator Mundi ended up on the British Isles. For the next hundred and fifty years, the painting was in the possession of various English courts and palaces. Then, in the late 18th century, the painting disappeared from the historical record. Thats the oblivion part of the story. During the oblivion years, Leonardos painting fell on hard times. It was damaged and in an attempt at restoration painted over in such a way as to make Christ look like one of the dopier members of the Manson Family. The painting, no longer recognizable as a Leonardo, was sold at auction in 1904 mentioned in a long CNN video on the piece that is here. It appeared at auction again in 1958, selling for the modest sum of forty-five British pounds. It was sold again in the US in 2005 to a consortium of dealers led by Robert Simon. They got it for around $10,000. Simon, a New York fine art dealer specializing in Renaissance works, suspected it was worth much more than that, though he dared not yet dream it might be the lost Leonardo. Years of restoration work brought out the Leonardo concealed beneath the third-rate overpainting. It then sold for $75 million in 2013 and right away again for $127.5 million. Finally, just last October, Salvator Mundiwas purchased by a Saudi prince (on behalf of the Louvre Abu Dhabi) for $450.3 million dollars, making it the most expensive artwork ever sold. More here. On Saturday, March 3rd, I attended Road to Table, a private event hosted by Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop. After a few glasses of vino and a meal prepared by a Michelin-starred chef, here's what went down. First things first: What does one wear to meet Gwyneth Paltrow? After trying to decipher a dress code described as "some form of casual cocktail attire" and keeping the rainy forecast in mind, I settle on blackslim black sweater, black kick-crop pants, and black booties. For most of the day, though, my footwear is irrelevant; all 50-ish guests are encouraged to change into navy Hunter boots, which greet us as we enter the gorgeous gallery room at Turnbull Wine Cellars for an afternoon tasting. The chic clodhoppers (is that an oxymoron?) did, in fact, make for worry-free traipsing around the Oakville winery's idyllic (and wet) grounds. Before landing mid-afternoon in Napa, we (my bestie Betsy is along for the ride) have already experienced the "road" portion of the program. It began around 11am when a shiny 2018 Cadillac CT6 Sedan (Cadillac is the sponsor of this whole shindig) rolls up to Betsy's Mill Valley home. Jess Sylvia, the Caddy's delivery woman, points out the car's bells and whistles, the Goop swag bags in back, and then bolts. A peek inside the bags reveals a couple of bottles of water, healthy snacks (that homemade trail mix!) and other treats a la G.Nite Bedtime Bath Soak and Le Spec sunnies. The wheels are ours to drive to Napa, but once we arrive at the winery, the keys go to the valet and, voila, our driving duties are dunzo. (From that point on, we're chauffeured everywhere, leaving us free to imbibe.) After a pit stop at Peet'sfor iced three-pump-vanilla latteswe hit 101 N., and the road trip begins in earnest. The traffic is light, the ride is smooth and the laughs are plentiful. Bets and I catch up on kids (hers) and work (mine) and speculate about how involved Gwyneth will be in the events to come. (Hint: very.) For moi, the first hour at Turnbull is all about mixing and mingling while enjoying generous pours of the winery's Josephine Sauvignon Blanc and nibbling on delicious bites, including farm eggs with olive oil and sea salt, and little gem lettuces with smoked and dried albacore with herb cream (mouthwatering emoji). Suddenly, it's toast time, and I spy the Gooptrix herself. Gwyneth looks exactly as she does in photosbeautiful, with natural makeup and shiny hair. She's clad in a cozy black turtleneck, pink floral midi skirt, and sleek black bootsso that's what casual cocktail looks like. Everyone gathers round and she gives a short speech about Road to Table and "foodie adventures." She also thanks Christopher Kostow, chef at The Charter Oak and The Restaurant at Meadowood (bearer of the aforementioned Michelin stars), and Zoe Johns, president of family-owned Turnbull Wine Cellars, known for its cabernet sauvignon. Next we joined the mass exodus from the gallery to the barrel-filled tasting room for the unique wine-blending portion of the event. Betsy and I each grab a spot in front of a set of beakers, wine-filled test tubes and graduated cylinders (loving the mad-scientist vibes). Then Turnbull's winemaker, Peter Heitz, begins walking us through the steps of how to blend a good red. His refrain throughout: "Create what makes you happy." Part teacher, part comedian, Heitz moves through the lesson and it quickly becomes apparent there's a heckler in our midst. Guess who? Gwyneth, now sporting a cool trench, playfully chimes in from the other side of the room. Naturally, Heitz engages our host, referring to her as "GP" throughout the ensuing banter. GP's actually pretty funny, something that wasn't a total surprise to me since she was hilarious during a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. For the record, my blend, which I dub "The GG," is 60 percent merlot, 40 percent cabernet. Now back in the gallery and in my original shoes, it's off to The Charter Oak we go. First up, more wine and killer Kostow appsal fresco. (Oh, how I wish I scarfed more of those heavenly crispy potato tostones with brown butter.) Before we tire of lounging in front of the fire pit and after I break a glass (sorry), it's dinnertime. The destination: the restaurant's lower-level private room starring two stunning tables that are Goop-ed to perfection. Once in our seats, the veggie-heavy menu is served, family-style, one dish at a time. To my palate, the buffalo milk mozzarella crispy Brussels sprouts and the salad of broccolis, puffed grains and ricotta are the most scrumptious of the six courses. Prior to chowing down, however, I spy Gwyneth, now sitting quietly beside her fiance, Brad Falchuk. Buoyed by a nice buzz, I seize the moment and walk over to introduce myself. "Thanks for having me," I demur. (I was, after all, a guest of Goop's communications team.) She instantly puts me at ease, small talk ensues, and Betsy and a couple of our new lady friends join the party. The conversation turns to the recent Goop health summit in New York, something a charming and refreshingly "normal" Gwyneth is clearly passionate about. By 8:15pm, dessert finished, I have no more room for wine or socializing; time to say goodnight. Our driver brings the car around, and my pal and I happily flop into the back seat. As for GP and crew? They get to do it all again tomorrowit's Road to Table, day two. Plan Your Own Road to Table (Sans Gwyneth) // Turnbull Wine Cellars, 8210 St. Helena Highway (Oakville), turnbullwines.com // The Charter Oak, 1050 Charter Oak Ave (St. Helena), thecharteroak.com Dry Eye Syndrome Market The Global Dry Eye Syndrome Market is segmented on the basis of the type, diagnosis, treatment, distribution channel and end user. On the basis of the type, the market is segmented into evaporative dry eye syndrome, aqueous dry eye syndrome, and others. The Worldwide Dry Eye Syndrome Market is expected to advance with an approximate CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period. Tears provide lubrication, limit the risks of eye infections, wash away the foreign matter, thus, are helpful in keeping the surface of the eyes smooth and clear. Dry eye syndrome is a medical condition in which eyes lubrication is hindered by the unavailability of tears. Under normal condition, during excessive production, tears flow into the small drainage ducts of the inner corners of the eyes, followed by draining back into the nose. Sometimes when the production of tears and drainage is not balanced, it can result into dry eye syndrome. Eye redness, sensitivity to light, watery eyes, eye fatigue are some of the common symptoms of the disease. Increasing geriatric population, rising prevalence of diseases like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and others are estimated to be the major drivers for the market growth. According to the World Health Organization in 2016, approximately 422 million adults were globally affected by diabetes in 2014, as compared to 108 million in the 1980s. Moreover, in 2014, it was estimated that the global prevalence of diabetes was estimated to be around 8.5%. Additionally, rising per capita healthcare expenditure, and changing lifestyle boosts the market. However, factors like stringent FDA drug approvals, lack of skilled ophthalmologists, and low per capita healthcare expenditure in the middle and low income countries are restraining the market. Get Exclusive Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5588 . Dry Eye Syndrome Market Segmentation: The global dry eye syndrome is segmented on the basis of the type, diagnosis, treatment, distribution channel and end user. On the basis of the type, the market is segmented into evaporative dry eye syndrome aqueous dry eye syndrome, and others. On the basis of the diagnosis, the market is categorized into Schirmer test, eye exam, and others. On the basis of the treatment, the market is segmented into nutritional supplements, serum eye drops, lubricant eye drops, anti-inflammatory drugs segments, surgery, and others. The lubricant eye drops segment is sub-segmented into oily tear eye drops, ointments, preservative-free drops, and others. The anti-inflammatory drugs segments segement is sub-segmented into tetracyclines, corticosteroids, and others. The surgery segment is sub-segmented into punctal occlusion, intense pulsed light therapy, and others. On the basis of distribution channel, the market is segmented into hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, online pharmacies, and others. On the basis of the end users, the market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, home care and others. Key Players in Dry Eye Syndrome Market: The key players for the global dry eye syndrome are Allergan (Republic of Ireland), Novartis AG (Switzerland), Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Japan), Valent Pharmaceuticals (Canada), Johnson & Johnson Vision (U.S.), Acadia Pharmaceutical (U.S.), Allostera Pharma (Canada), I-Med Pharma Inc. (Canada), Santen Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., (Japan), AFT pharmaceuticals (New Zealand), Novaliq GmBh (Germany), Auven therapeutics (U.S.), and others. Dry Eye Syndrome Market Regional Analysis: America dominates the global dry eye syndrome market. This can be attributed to the presence of a well-developed healthcare sector and a large patient population. Moreover, increasing healthcare expenditure boosts the growth of the American market. Additionally, the presence of the major market players like Johnson & Johnson Vision, Auven therapeutics, Acadia Pharmaceutical, and others within the region fuels the market growth. Europe is the second largest dry eye syndrome market owing to increasing availability of funds for research, a well-developed healthcare sector, huge patient pool and growing geriatric population. According to the Saga in 2017, approximately 20% of people living in the U.K suffer from dry eye syndrome. Moreover, it was estimated that one in three people who age 65 or more within the region are diagnosed with this disease. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region for the market due to the presence of economies like India, China, Australia, and others. Moreover, huge patient population, rising healthcare expenditure boosts the market growth. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the total Australian health expenditure from 2015 to 2016 was estimated to be about USD 170.4 billion. The Middle East & Africa has the least share in the global dry eye syndrome due to the presence of poor economies, low per capita healthcare expenditure, stringent government policies, especially within the African region. The Middle East holds a majority of the market due to a well-developed healthcare sector and huge healthcare expenditure by the developed economies like Dubai, Kuwait, Dubai, and others. Get Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/5588 . Major TOC of Global Dry Eye Syndrome Market Research Report- Forecast To 2022: 1. INTRODUCTION 1 DEFINITION 2 SCOPE OF STUDY 2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 2.2 ASSUMPTIONS & LIMITATIONS 2.2.1 ASSUMPTIONS 2.2.2 LIMITATIONS 3 MARKET STRUCTURE: 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 RESEARCH PROCESS: 2.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH 2.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH: 3. MARKET DYNAMICS 3.1 DRIVERS 3.2 RESTRAINTS 3.3 OPPORTUNITIES 3.4 MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS Continued TOC.! Ask Questions to Expertise @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/5588 . About US: Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Media Contact Company Name: Market Research Future Contact Person: Akash Anand Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Phone: +1 646 845 9312 Address:Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune City: Pune State: Maharashtra Country: India Website: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/dry-eye-syndrome-market-5588 SummerHill Apartment Communities Receives City Council Approval for 172 Apartments + 11,000 SF Retail in South San Francisco. rn LOS ANGELES International award-winning KTGY Architecture + Planning announced today that the new KTGY-designed mixed-use community at 988 El Camino Real in South San Francisco developed by SummerHill Apartment Communities received unanimous approval by the City Council on February 28, 2018. The new development, which will serve as the gateway to the City of South San Franciscos El Camino Real/Chestnut Area, is situated on one of the most prominent intersections in the city, across from the future site of the Community Civic Campus, adjacent to the Centennial Way Trail, and near the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station. We are excited to move forward with this landmark transit-oriented development, said Manny Gonzalez, FAIA, LEED AP, managing principal of KTGYs Los Angeles office. We know that the design, planned amenities and community benefits will be a tremendous asset to the community and the built environment. The architectural intent is to create an elegant building that blends references to the industrial past of South San Francisco with a more contemporary language, said Sara Fernandez, director of planning for KTGYs Los Angeles office, who presented the design plan to the City Council. The design establishes a strong architectural presence that anchors the corner, with pedestrian-oriented retail lining the sidewalks and a large front plaza that will activate the corner. It is our hope that the new development, in conjunction with the new Community Civic Campus, will serve as a catalyst for future transit-oriented development in the area. Katia Kamangar, executive vice president and managing director of SummerHill Housing Group said, We were pleased to receive the Councils unanimous approval to move forward with building a vibrant new mixed-use project, with retail and residential, at this important gateway location in the City of South San Francisco. The new development, which is located on a 1.67-acre site spread across four parcels at the intersection of El Camino Real and Chestnut Avenue, includes 172 apartment homes ranging in size from studios to two-bedroom units. The ground floor of the six-story building is designed to include nearly 11,000 square feet of retail space centered around a corner plaza, plus a variety of amenities such as a lounge, fitness studio, bike hub, dog park, and spur trail connecting to Centennial Way. On the first residential level above, there will be a Club Room for residents as well as two resort-style courtyards with spa, fire pits, outdoor kitchen and dining areas, and lounge areas. With the design, we wanted to enhance the vibrancy of this corner by thoughtfully arranging active spaces along street frontages and the trail and utilizing four-sided architecture to create a village-like, pedestrian-oriented environment, said Fernandez. Additionally, we wanted to optimize circulation and site access to minimize traffic disruptions in the area, which we know are critical to the surrounding residents. The design incorporates the use of brick streetwalls. The use of brick streetwalls are designed to mimic a traditional commercial storefront in scale, materials, and detailing, while the residential levels above are stepped back and more understated, allowing the pedestrian-oriented spaces and the more elaborate corner tower to be the emphasis, noted Fernandez. The brick streetwall facade is a comfortable two to three stories in height and located 18 to 20 feet from the curb, providing plenty of space for streetscape improvements to make this an engaging, pedestrian-friendly environment. The streetwall facade features recessed storefront glazing at the ground level and decks open to the sky on the levels above, with glass guard rails that reinforce the commercial language while creating protected outdoor spaces for residents that are sheltered from street noise. The building steps back an additional six to eleven feet on the floors above, thus minimizing the massing of the taller portions of the building, said Fernandez. Parking is carefully hidden behind storefronts, landscape screening, and in the basement. Commercial and visitor parking will be at the ground level, offering 47 spaces. Resident parking will be secured underground, offering 212 spaces. Additionally, 130 bike parking spaces, as well as electric vehicle charging stations, will be provided in convenient locations. The site is located less than a mile from the South San Francisco BART station and is served by SamTrans, which connects to the station. Centennial Way has a Class I bike lane, which provides a safe, easy connection to the South San Francisco BART station to the north, less than a mile away. SummerHill plans to build an outdoor fitness park available to the public, comprised of seven fitness stations which would be accessible from Centennial Way trail, stated Elaine Breeze, SummerHills vice president of development and project lead. Additionally, SummerHill will install a bulb-out at Chestnut Avenue and Antoinette Lane and a signalized, high-visibility crosswalk providing a safe pedestrian and bike crossing from Centennial Way Trail to the future civic campus across Chestnut. The crosswalks at the intersection of El Camino Real, Chestnut Avenue and Westborough Boulevard will also be upgraded to high-visibility striping. To reduce reliance on cars, SummerHill is offering $100 in introductory Clipper cards to residents, plus a $35 subsidy over three months to use carpool or bike sharing services, according to Breeze. Additionally, an on-site Transportation Coordinator as well as a community web portal will be available to facilitate resident carpooling opportunities. The landowner, Fred Bravo, spoke in favor of the development at the City Council hearing, conveying a heartfelt message of how the family legacy in South San Francisco will proudly live on with the proposed design. The site is currently being occupied by South City Car Wash, which is expected to remain open until construction begins in early 2019. In addition to 988 El Camino Real in South San Francisco, KTGY is collaborating with SummerHill Apartment Communities on a variety of current development projects located in California including Locale @ State Street in Fremont, Nuevo Apartments in Santa Clara, and Theo in Pasadena. Some of the built projects in California include Brio in Walnut Creek as the executive architect and The Lane on the Boulevard in Redwood City. About SummerHill Housing Group SummerHill Housing Group combines the expertise and market strength of the highly respected development firms San Ramon, Calif.-based SummerHill Homes and SummerHill Apartment Communities. SummerHill Homes specializes in mid- to high-end homes, and is nationally recognized for customizing development plans to accommodate a sites special characteristics. SummerHill Apartment Communities has a long track record of developing award-winning apartment and mixed-use infill rental housing communities. Both firms specialize in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California. See www.shhousinggroup.com. About KTGY Architecture + Planning Founded in 1991, KTGY Architecture + Planning is a leading full-service design firm focused on residential and mixed-use developments and neighborhood revitalization. KTGY seamlessly delivers innovation, artistry and attention to detail across multiple design studios, ensuring that clients and communities get the best the firm has to offer no matter the building type or location. KTGYs architects and planners combine big picture opportunities, leading-edge sustainable practices and impeccable design standards to create memorable destinations of enduring value. KTGY serves clients worldwide from offices located in Chicago, Denver, Irvine, Los Angeles, Oakland, Pune and Tysons. Call 888.456.KTGY or visit www.ktgy.com. Media Contact Company Name: KTGY Architecture + Planning Contact Person: Brianne Virden Email: bvirden@ktgy.com Phone: 888.456.KTGY Address:17911 Von Karman Avenue, Suite 200 City: Irvine State: California Country: United States Website: http://www.ktgy.com Schneider Electric has just launched Go Green in the City 2018, a global contest to find bold ideas and innovative solutions for smarter, more energy-efficient cities. Across the Arabian Gulf, public, private, and academic sectors are collaborating on developing Smart Cities innovations, especially for Dubai Smart City and Masdar City in the UAE. The Middle East is key for supporting the global Smart Cities technology market reaching $775bn by 2021, according to BCC Research. Sevda Esenturk, vice-president of HR for Gulf Countries and Pakistan, Schneider Electric, said: Smart Cities in the Arabian Gulf have among the worlds most ambitious visions. Our Go Green in the City contest is tapping into the knowledge of the regions student developers to foster innovations that can take smart city sustainability to the next level. We are broadening students horizons and helping to bring their innovations to a global audience and market. Now in its eighth year, Go Green in the City has become a major event for business and engineering students worldwide. In 2017, nearly 20,000 young innovators from 3,000 universities in 180 countries took part, including 58% women. The stakes for Go Green in the City competitors are high, with mentoring, networking, travel, cash prizes and business/job opportunities all on the horizon. In 2017, the Gulf and Pakistan winners were Kanza Naeem and Zohaib Salahuddin from the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan. Their Team Cyclops developed Jashin, a web-based concept that monitors power usage from appliances, and alerts users on excess consumption. Kanza Naeem and Zohaib Salahuddin said: Power consumption data monitoring of devices through Mobile apps and its web-based data analytics is an effective way to tag faulty appliances and reduce household power consumption, which is vital in developing countries like Pakistan. Being a Go Green in the City finalist helped bring Jashn closer to market. Our team also exchanged best practices from global innovators and Schneider Electrics ecosystem to further support innovations. The Middle East has seen strong success. In Go Green in the City 2016, Masdar Institutes team was one of 12 global finalists, for a concept of solar panels on pavements and bicycle tracks feeding energy into the grid. Three new topics added in the competition to focus on digitisation. In 2018, the competition should attract even more interest, thanks to a wider range of topics. Students are invited to submit their bold ideas in one of five categories: sustainability and inclusivity, the digital economy, smart supply chain, cyber security, or no boundaries/bold idea for going green (any topic). Sustainability and inclusivity, no boundaries have been popular topics for many years. Newly added these three categories reflect a greater focus on digitisation, along with a skys the limit approach to innovation. Olivier Blum, chief human resources officer at Schneider Electric commented: Schneider Electric has a bold vision to solve our planets energy paradox. Go Green in the City was designed as a platform for young innovators to become a part of this vision. Helping students to develop their bold ideas for new sustainable solutions, and gain a foothold in our industry is a great way for us to accelerate positive change. This enthusiasm is shared by participants. Raja Jain and Nimisha Gupta from IIT Roorkee in India won first place in the 2017 Go Green in the City final for their Evacool air-cooling system. They stated: Go Green in the City has been a dream come true! Winning the competition has given us such a great sense of achievement, as well as a rich learning experience. If you care about how technology can promote greener practices and sustainability, you will not get a better opportunity than this! Teams must be composed of two students attending accredited business or engineering schools in the same country for the duration of the competition. Each team should include at least one female member, in line with Schneider Electrics policy of promoting Diversity and Inclusion. The deadline for submissions is June 1st, 2018. All shortlisted teams will receive mentoring by Schneider Electric experts to produce viable business cases to present at one of seven regional semi-finals over the summer in Europe, North America, China, India, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and South America. Each of the seven regional winners will then be invited to prepare for the competition final, along with one outstanding all-female team and two wild-card teams (additional teams selected from the semi-finalists). After this second round of mentoring, ten teams will meet at the global final in the United States (city to be announced) in the autumn. The global winning team selected by the executive jury, will be offered the chance to start a career at Schneider Electric, after an international travel to visit any two locations of their choice worldwide, where Schneider Electric offices are present. About Schneider Electric Schneider Electric SE is a France-based company that specializes in electricity distribution, automation management and produces installation components for energy management. The Schneider Electric Company has five divisions organized by business: Energy and Infrastructure, which includes medium and low voltage, installation systems and control, renewable energies and includes customer segments in Utilities, Marine, residential and oil & gas sector; Industry, which includes automation & control which includes water treatment and mining, minerals & metals industries; Buildings, which includes building automation and security, whose customers are hotels, hospitals, office and retail buildings; Data canters and networks, and Residential which is engaged in solutions for saving electricity bills by combining lighting and heating control features. Media Contact Company Name: ABC Private Limited Contact Person: Ajay Email: ajaysinghtanwar03@gmail.com Phone: 8745857610 Country: India Website: https://www.schneider-electric.co.in/en/ Boca Raton FL, USA March 13th, 2018 Wildlife Removal Services celebrates 10 years of providing great services to customers in Florida and its environs. Wildlife Removal Services, Inc. is a professional, fully licensed, bonded and insured wildlife control and critter removal service located in Boca Raton. They humanely and effectively trap and remove nuisance animals for residences and businesses across Broward County and Palm Beach County. Their wildlife removal technicians are fully licensed and insured, providing your residence or business with the most effective and efficient animal control solution available without the use of poisons. Their experts are familiar with the habits of all types of Florida wildlife and are able to identify damage caused by them such as torn air-conditioning ducts, soiled attic insulation and damaged attic vents. Their service ranges from Removal of Animals from Attics, Humane Wildlife Trapping, Home/Building Critter Inspections, Exclusion and Prevention Repairs, Attic Cleanup and Decontamination. Dead Animal Carcass Removal, Armadillo Removal and Carcass Odor Control, Bat Removal and Bird Control, Rat and Mouse Control, Snake Removal and Prevention, Fox Removal, Iguana Removal, Humane Stray Cat Removal, All Rodents, Mole, Squirrel Removal and Opossum Removal. They have also included pigeon in their targeted animal. At Wildlife Removal Services, they are Boca Ratons snake control experts for Broward County and Palm Beach County. They have years of experience identifying and handling both poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. Every day they trap and remove snakes and snake infestations from homes, buildings and land throughout Palm Beach and Broward County in South Florida. If you want to solve your snake problem, call Wildlife Removal Services at (561)212-9255. If snakes are in your home, they will inspect your house, seal entry points, set traps to lure They are bee experts, and they have all the knowledge, ability, certifications and licenses, state of the art equipment, inclination, and bravery needed to safely remove your unwanted bees. Wildlife Removal Services is fully licensed and insured, and they offer 24/7 service for residential and commercial customers. Call them today at (561)212-9255 for a FREE no obligation estimate on dead animal removal and other services in Boca Raton, Broward County, and Palm Beach County. Theyll come to your home or office and take care of your dead (or live) animal problem. They always guarantee our work and have very fair pricing. ABOUT US Wildlife Removal Services, Inc. is a professional, fully licensed, bonded and insured wildlife control and critter removal service located in Boca Raton. They humanely and effectively trap and remove nuisance animals for residences and businesses across Broward County and Palm Beach County. They operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They are extremely professional; arrive with a clean service truck and the best wildlife control equipment. Media Contact Company Name: Wildlife Removal Services Inc. Contact Person: Patrick Barry Email: patrickbarry1@yahoo.com Phone: (561) 212-9255 Address:980 N Federal Hwy #110 City: Boca Raton State: FL 33432 Country: United States Website: http://www.wildliferemovalservicesofflorida.com/ Director Resignation and Appointment Perth, Mar 13, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Goldfields Money Limited ( ASX:GMY ) ("Goldfields Money" or the "Company") wishes to advise that non-executive Director Mr Keith John has resigned from the Company effective immediately.The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Finsure co-founder and Managing Director, Mr John Kolenda, as a non-executive Director of Goldfields Money effective immediately.Goldfields Money continues to work towards satisfaction of the remaining conditions of the proposed merger between the Company and Finsure ("Finsure Transaction"), and will continue to provide updates as progress unfolds.Appointment of Mr John KolendaMr Kolenda is the co-founder and Managing Director of Finsure, having previously been an executive Director of Loan Market Group, co-founder of X-Inc. Finance, and General Manager - Sales and Distribution at Aussie Home Loans. Mr Kolenda is also the Chairman of the Aura Group, who became a substantial shareholder of the Company in May 2016.Goldfields Money Chairman, Mr Peter Wallace said:"We thank Keith for his significant contributions as a Director of Goldfields Money since joining the Board almost two years ago. We wish Keith the best in his future endeavours.""We are also delighted to have John joining the Board given his practical experience in growing and leading a significant mortgage lending and aggregation business that will complement the skill set of the existing Board. We have been working with John and the Finsure team for nearly two years, and his appointment further strengthens our strategic partnership. Regardless of the proposed merger between Goldfields Money and Finsure, we look forward to working with John in building our lending business as we develop and expand our distribution capabilities."About Goldfields Money Ltd Goldfields Money (ASX:GMY) is Australia's new revolutionary digital bank, distributing first class products through a largely branchless distribution network. A bank without the bank. This digital banking platform is built on the recently implemented mobile first, world class core banking system provided by Temenos and our proprietary mortgage distribution software "Loankit". Goldfields is ASX listed (ASX:GMY) with two key divisions: Banking (operates under "Goldfields Money" and "Better Choice" brands) - an APRA regulated bank that offers deposit and loan products that are funded either on-balance sheet or off-balance sheet through a range of third party lenders. Our deposits are all guaranteed by the Australian Government Deposit Guarantee for up to $250,000 per customer. We are the new approach to banking in Australia, we're honest, with transparent bank practices and a straightforward approach to you and your money. It's all yours, honestly. Mortgage Aggregation (operates under "Finsure" and "Loankit" brands) - an ASIC regulated mortgage aggregation and software technology platform with over 1,475 loan writers as of 31 August 2018. Finsure puts brokers first and is a leader in the market in offering a diverse lending panel, flexible commission models, training, lead generation, proprietary SaaS and mortgage broker support services. Finsure was also recently named Aggregator of the Year for 2017 at the Australian Mortgage Awards. You can read more about us at www.goldfieldsmoney.com.au and www.finsure.com.au. Less than a day after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Rex Tillerson has been fired as the U.S. Secretary of State. President Donald Trump fired Mr. Tillerson on Tuesday. He also posted the announcement on Twitter saying: Californias homeless population is growing. Some estimates put the latest number at 130,000. Chicos homeless population continues to grow as well. While there are many local organizations that serve the homeless community in different ways, some call those services inadequate, while others say they would just prefer to live on the streets. CHICO GROUP HELPS HUNGRY RESIDENTS IN NEED Patrick Newman launched Chico Friends of the Street in 2016. He and his crew prepare and serve food to homeless people on a regular basis. They also hand out toiletries. The number of people who show up to those feedings has grown over the years. Last Sunday, an estimated 70 to 80 people filled the downtown city plaza for hot soup, buttered bread, clothing, and toiletries. Says Newman, We've had a history here the last four years, especially of an increasingly difficult environment for people to live on the streets. Therein lies the crux of the issue; more people than ever calling Chicos streets home. Local business owners, especially those who run shops downtown, have long-complained of homeless people sleeping and defecating in their storefronts, harassing them when asked to move, and leaving trash behind. LIFE ON THE STREET: A NEW PERSPECTIVE Shuberts Ice Cream, one block away from the city plaza, has been a family-owned and operated business since 1951. Kacey Reynolds runs the business, and shes also running for Chico City Council, hoping to replace outgoing Vice Mayor Reanette Filmer. Reynolds says many business owners wont speak out about the issue, because they fear a backlash. She says, We're the taxpayers. We come to work every day, and we're what keeps the community going, by tax revenue and things that we need to support our town. Mayor Sean Morgan says the public feedings are a problem, and he says city leaders are prepared to take action. He says, Someone again, some well-intended personhas come along and they're making the problem worse. They're working against the community. How do we keep things going in the right direction? He says he knows there will be a backlash against city leaders taking a stand. Says Morgan, Oh you're outlawing homelessness. Oh you rotten person. Oh, we're just trying to feed people. Oh, we're just trying to do the right thing. They don't have the moral high ground. They're hurting people by empowering them. No one is every going to get better as long as they continue to get handouts and continue to get handouts and continue to get handouts. Newman maintains that people should be free to live on the streets, and he and his team dont want to see anyone go hungry. He says, The notion that there's services available for these people to go to, housingeven if that was true, a person should still have the freedom to choose. He also blames Californias housing crisis, and sky-rocketing rent on the problem. Says Newman, Instead of focusing on whatever the solutions might be, I focus on the fact that 700 people are going to be on the streets every day, how are we going to treat them. Morgan says he will sit down with the City Manager, City Attorney, and Chief of Police to see what options are available, including a no public feedings ordinance, though he says enforcing that could be a challenge. CHICO SHELTER ASKING FOR HELP FROM COMMUNITY, LOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS The medical board of California has announced that doctor Romeo Abaya Jr. has had his license surrendered due to multiple allegations that Abaya performed unnecessary sexual examinations on patients. The accusation of these actions came from two male patients only identified as F.M. and J.J. who both say they had inappropriate advances from him. J.J. also alleged he was prescribed opioids for his condition even when doctor Abaya knew of his past substance abuse problems. Dr. Abayas former employer the Lassen Medical Group has issued a statement on the matter saying: In early 2016, Red Oaks medical group (known at the time as Lassen medical group) became aware that one of its physicians was engaging in unacceptable behavior with more than one patient. In February 2016, after conducting its own immediate third-party investigation, red oaks medical group reported the investigation findings to the California medical board and the physician resigned at that time. After further investigation by the California medical board, the physician recently surrendered his license to practice medicine in the state of California. The safety and health or our patients is our top priority. When we receive reports of physician misconduct, we take the complaints very seriously and conduct a thorough investigation. Sexual misconduct wasnt the only reason for his license to be revoked. The medical board states, it was a number of things that led to the decision. Carlos Villatoro, the public information manager for the Medical Board of California says that the board has charged him with unprofessional conduct gross negligence repeated negligent acts sexual misconduct and inadequate and improper record keeping. The stipulated surrender of his license means that Abaya will lose his license to practice without the option for appeal for 3 years. After that time he will be able to appeal but only if he accepts all allegations as true. All of our attempts to reach out to Abaya as well as the Trinity Community Clinic where he was last employed in have failed and his office line shows as busy whenever called. SAN DIEGO (AP) - The Latest on California's reaction to President Donald Trump's visit to San Diego to see border wall prototypes and plans to protest his visit. (all times local): 12:30 p.m. Immigrant activists, church leaders and local elected officials are calling for demonstrations to show President Donald Trump that border communities oppose his plans to build a towering wall on the California-Mexico line. Several dozen activists held a press conference Monday at San Diego's Chicano Park to call on people to come out and peacefully protest the project. Trump is expected to arrive Tuesday for his first visit to California as president to see the wall's prototypes. Joining the activists at the park were San Diego city councilwoman Georgette Gomez and Democrat U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas, whose district covers the entire California-Mexico border. Vargas told reporters "Trump is not welcome here!" ___ 9 a.m. Gov. Jerry Brown is inviting President Donald Trump to come to California's Central Valley agricultural heartland while he is in the state to view border wall prototypes this week. Brown extended the invitation Monday in a letter saying the president should see the state's high-speed rail construction project. Jerry Brown invites President Trump to California The governor says California is focusing on bridges, not walls, and adds that the project has put 1,700 people to work. Brown's letter also cites the importance of California's economy and visits by previous presidents. Trump is expected to arrive Tuesday for his first visit to the state as president. Trump's arrival will come just days after his Justice Department sued to block state laws designed to protect people living in the U.S. illegally. Brown likened that as "an act of war." (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press.) The Ongoing Plight of Christians In the CQ Researcher issue titled "Religious Persecution," dated November 21, 1997, Kenneth Jost highlighted the "well-documented cases of churches being bulldozed or burned down, clergy and lay leaders [being] arrested and imprisoned and clergymen being murdered by [Sudanese] government troops." In the 21 years since this article was printed, global Christian persecution has increased exponentially. The following is a small sampling of what Christians are facing, and the sad truth is that no one seems to be stopping the oppressors and punishing them. In Sweden, Muslim migrants often persecute Christian migrants, or immigrants who convert to Christianity. Thus, "Open Doors Deutschland documented 743 attacks on Christians in Germany in 2016, and German police documented another 100 in 2017. Similar violence plagues Christian refugees in Sweden, but the Scandinavian country has yet to issue an investigation. A survey published by Open Doors Sweden last year found that ... one hundred and twenty-three Christian asylum-seekers reported religiously motivated persecution, and 512 separate incidents. Christian refugees suffered 65 violent assaults, 55 death threats, 7 cases of sexual assault, along with instances of social exclusion, insults, contempt, and threats. More than half, 53 percent, said they had been violently attacked at least once. Almost half, 45 percent, reported receiving at least one death threat. More than three-quarters of those who faced such persecution were converts to Christianity, and almost all of the perpetrators were Muslim." North Korea (94 points) Christians and Christian missionaries are routinely imprisoned in labor camps. Afghanistan (93 points) The government of this Muslim country does not recognize any of its citizens as Christian. Somalia (91 points) The Catholic bishop of Mogadishu has described it as "not possible" to be a Christian in Somalia. Sudan (87 points) The Muslim government has slated Christian churches for demolition. Pakistan (86 points) Christians and other non-Muslims sit on death row, facing charges of blasphemy. Eritrea (86 points) Only four religions are officially recognized (Sunni Islam and the Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Evangelical Lutheran churches). Those belonging to other faiths are persecuted, and those of recognized faiths are routinely harassed by the government. Libya (86 points) The government is reportedly training militants to attack Coptic Christians. Iraq (86 points) Iraqi Christians have yet to return to their homelands after expulsion by ISIS. Yemen (85 points) The ongoing political and humanitarian crisis has further squeezed Christians and other religious minorities, who already faced severe restrictions on practicing their faiths. The genocide against Middle-Eastern Christians approaches its endgame, while Western leaders look away as resolutely as they ignored the Holocaust when it was happening. In time, there will be crocodile tears and, perhaps, a museum designed by an in-demand architect. For now, though, the presidents and prime ministers who romanticize Islam and explain away its excesses all but condone the extermination of a 2,000-year-old religious civilization. Open Door's top countries where Christians face the most persecution are: Jeff Simino at the National Review writes about minority religious groups who suffer in Iran. Thus, "the Iranian government continues to persecute religious minorities, including groups supposedly given special recognition by the country's constitution: Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians." Raymond Ibrahim , chronicler of the status of Christians, assiduously documents what is happening to them. In fact, "[t]he Islamic world has the lion's share of Christian persecution; 38 of the 50 worst nations are Muslim-majority. In short, the overwhelming majority of persecution that these 215 million Christians experience around the world especially the worst forms, such as rape and murder occurs at the hands of Muslims." Moreover, "[u]nlike the persecution of Christians in Communist nations, rooted to a particular regime, Muslim persecution of Christians is perennial, existential, and far transcends any ruler or regime. It unfortunately seems part and parcel of the history, doctrines, and socio-political makeup of Islam hence its tenacity and ubiquity. It is a 'tradition.'" Ibrahim asserts that "those persecuting Christians come from a wide variety of racial, linguistic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds from African, Arab, Asian, and Caucasian nations and share little in common with one another, except for Islam," thus underscoring the source of the hatred. On January 31, 2018, Jack Kerwick wrote , "[T]here was more violence against Christians recorded in Pakistan than anywhere else." As Islamists expand in the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Indonesia as well as Egypt, Nigeria, and Somalia, Christian oppression increases. In Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, "with a grassroots revival of Islam" has come an increase in anti-Christian persecution. Notwithstanding the entrenched Islamic hatred of Christians, "India and Nepal are two prominent illustrations of intense, anti-Christian Hindu nationalism. But, notably, in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, Buddhist nationalism is being used as an instrument of anti-Christian oppression as well." Nathan Johnson documents that in February 2018 in Nigeria, Muslims continue attacks on Christians. In fact, "International Christian Concern (ICC) documented at least 32 attacks by Fulani militants on Christians, which killed over 95 people and destroyed dozens of villages. These attacks spanned 11 different states and killed nearly 100 Christians." With more than twice as many Christians killed this year than last year, there "is a clear uptick in attacks. Between January and February 2018, there have already been more than 270 Christians slaughtered by invading Fulani" (who share many beliefs with other West African Muslims). Furthermore, "[t]his continued violence demonstrates either incompetence or complicity by the Nigerian military in these attacks. Villages that have been attacked are often within sight of military outposts or checkpoints. Despite this, the military has almost never successfully intervened and stopped an attack from causing overwhelming devastation." Less obvious than the outright violence is the fact that "Islamists around the world are furthering their agenda through diplomatic and political action, as well as grassroots social efforts." Consequently, "sharia law has been 'peaceably' enacted into law" and with it the desire to expunge any faith of the infidel. Thus, Ibrahim explains the draconian hardships imposed for centuries upon Copts and other religious groups by Muslim rulers prompted many to convert to Islam. Therefore, "nations such as Egypt which were about 95 percent Christian in the 7th century are today only about 10 percent." Acquiescing to dhimmi status and accepting life with few rights, they eventually converted to Islam "to find relief." Fifteenth-century anecdotes describe Muslims burning churches, slaughtering Christians, and enslaving their women and children. Besides being "physically purged, they were spiritually murdered a slow-motion genocide," if you will. Negative conditions of life of coercion coupled with "social bondage and financial bondage" pressured many to convert to Islam. And it continues to the present day. In 2016, at the Hoover Institution, Ralph Peters wrote H.R. 565 Save Christians from Genocide Act was sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.-48) and introduced on January 13, 2017. As of this date, it has been referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. It is intended to "recognize that Christians and Yazidis in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, and Libya are targets of genocide, and to provide for the expedited processing of immigrant and refugee visas for such individuals, and for other purposes." With Easter soon upon the world, it behooves people, no matter their religious persuasion, to acknowledge that while John the Baptist announced to the crowd in John 1:29 "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," it is up to individuals with a conscience to demand protection for those who accept Christianity. There have been far too many Christian martyrs. IATA has highlighted four priorities for the future success of the air cargo industry at this weeks World Cargo Symposium: accelerating the digitisation of the supply chain, enforcing regulations for lithium batteries, more efficient trade facilitation and developing the next generation of air cargo leaders. Air cargo had an exceptional year in 2017 with 9% growth [and] we expect a very healthy 4.5% expansion of demand in 2018, said Glyn Hughes (pictured), IATAs global head of cargo. There are great opportunities in e-commerce and the movement of time-and-temperature sensitive goods such as pharmaceuticals. But we must accelerate the modernisation of processes, enforce regulations for the safe transport of lithium batteries and improve the efficiency of trade facilitation. Longer term, we also need to inspire the next generation of talent. The air cargo industry has agreed to focus on these key areas and we must follow through, he stressed. Speaking at the event, which is taking place in Dallas on March 13-15, Hughes also called for a strong collective voice against the building headwinds of protectionist measures. Accelerating the digitisation of the supply chain The industry has been pursuing a digital process transformation known as e-freight for over a decade. A key element of e-freight is the market adoption of the e-air waybill (eAWB). Global penetration has nearly reached 53% and the industry is targeting 68% by year-end on enabled trade lanes. IATA is facilitating and supporting the modernisation and transformation process through its industry transformation programme, Simplifying the Business (StB) Cargo. The penetration of eAWB currently stands at 53%, Hughes said. The implementation of e-AWB is slower than anybody especially our customers would like. But we are over the halfway mark. And the industry has agreed to amend a number of resolutions and recommended practices to make the eAWB the default standard on enabled trade lanes. Hughes is optimistic that these efforts should drive the eAWB initiative forward in 2018. Improving enforcement of safety regulations for lithium batteries Safety is the industrys main priority, IATA said. Global standards and regulations are in place to ensure the safe transport of dangerous goods including lithium batteries. However, mis-declared or non-compliant dangerous good shipments, especially involving lithium battery consignments, continue. Hughes considered: We see too many examples of abuse including mislabelling of lithium batteries. Governments must step up enforcement of dangerous goods regulations and take a tougher stance against rogue shippers. This includes using their power to impose significant fines and custodial sentences on those violating the regulations. Smarter and more efficient borders It took an average of 1.41 days to clear goods through customs controls in 2017 (with significant regional variation), according to IATAs Cargo IQ statistics. This is too slow for businesses that compete on speed to meet their customer needs, Hughes said. We need to work together with governments to cut the red tape and facilitate faster, cheaper and easier trade. In particular IATA is pressing for governments to implement three important global standards: The Montreal Convention 1999 (MC99) enables digital documentation in customs documentation a key enabler of the e-AWB. To date, 131 countries have implemented MC99. But some key countries where air cargo has an important role still need to come on board including Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Ghana, Iran, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Revisions to the Kyoto Convention of the World Customs Organization will facilitate smart border solutions that reduce complexity and cost. The World Trade Organizations Trade Facilitation Agreement will make trade cheaper, faster and easier. Attract, retain and develop talent Air cargo is expected to grow at 4.9% over the next five years, IATA predicts. The ability of the industry to reach its full potential will hinge upon the creation of a professional, skilled and sustainable workforce. IATAs Future Air Cargo Executives (FACE) programme aims at attracting, retaining and developing a diverse pool of young professionals to prepare them to become the next generation of leaders in the cargo industry. To achieve the scale and sustainability required to meet the skills need for future growth of the air cargo industry a more collaborative and concerted effort towards developing a sustainable workforce is required across out industry, Hughes concluded. Firms such as Alabama Power, Amazon, Fedex Freight, Provalus and others will take part in what organizers say is a "huge" job fair in Mobile next week, with more than 2,200 jobs available. The Alabama Career Center System will hold a regional job fair Thursday, March 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Mobile Civic Center. The event is free and open to the public. The first hour, from 10 to 11 a.m., is open to veterans only. As many as 90 employers are scheduled to attend, including Berg Spiral Pipe, Buffalo Rock, Ingalls, Meyer Vacation Rentals and others. Jobseekers are encouraged to pre-register online here. Pre-registering will allow for faster entry, and participants are strongly encouraged to print their confirmation and bring it with them to the job fair or to save their confirmation e-mail on their phones. Jobseekers may also register on-site. Employers who wish to register for the job fair can also visit here or contact the Mobile Career Center at (251) 461-4146. There is no charge for employers to participate. Applicants should come to the job fair with multiple copies of their resumes. They should be prepared to interview and dressed professionally. The Alabama Career Center System's mobile career center along with staff from the area career centers will be onsite at the job fair to assist jobseekers in applying for jobs. Shake Shack, a worldwide hamburger and hot dog restaurant concept that began as a food cart in New York's Madison Square Park, is coming to Alabama. The first Alabama Shake Shack will open late this summer at the Summit in Birmingham, according to a media release from the company. The address of the Birmingham location will be 200 Summit Blvd., Suite 100, near the Cheesecake Factory. "We're proud to bring our first Alabama Shack to Birmingham, a city with such distinct culture and charm," Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti said in today's media release. "We're eager to join Birmingham's flourishing culinary scene and offer the community a great place to grab a burger and gather with family and friends." The Shake Shack menu features 100 percent all-natural Angus beef burgers, chicken sandwiches and flat-top Vienna beef dogs, as well as spun-fresh frozen custard, crinkle-cut fries, and craft beer and wine. Shake Shack's origins go back to the early 2000s, when New York City restaurateur and James Beard Award winner Danny Meyer opened a hot dog cart to raise awareness for the efforts to restore Manhattan's Madison Square Park. In 2004, Meyer's restaurant group opened the first free-standing Shake Shack in the park, and it was not uncommon for guests to stand in line for an hour or more to get a Shake Shack burger and fries. Shake Shack opened its first location outside of New York in Miami six years later, and it has since grown to include more than 160 locations across the country and around the world, including some in major league ballparks and international airports. Read more about Shake Shack here. This post will be updated as more information becomes available. Authorities are asking for the public's help identifying a gunman who robbed a downtown Birmingham bank Tuesday morning. The holdup happened at 9:05 a.m. at Servis 1st Bank at 324 Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard, said Birmingham police Lt. Pete Williston. The suspect was armed with a gun and fled the bank with an undisclosed amount of money. There were no injuries. He is described as a black male, 5-feet, 5-inches tall to 5-feet, 6-inches tall. He was wearing a dark suit and cap. Anyone with information on the crime or the suspect's identity is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. A former Hoover Walmart employee is to plead guilty to stealing more than $200,000 from the company by adding hours to her time card without a manager's approval, according to court documents. Angelia Steele entered an agreement with prosecutors in federal court last week in which she will plead guilty to one count of computer fraud, court records show. She also will be ordered to pay $201,488.96 in restitution, under the plea deal. According to her plea agreement, Steele worked at the Walmart store in Hoover between 2000 and 2017 as a personnel coordinator. Between May 2014 and March 2017, investigators learned at least one assistant store manager's credentials were being used to approve time card adjustments for Steele's account, which added 10,681.52 hours of reporting pay to her payroll for that time period. Reporting pay is considered under special circumstances regarding shift changes, and must be approved in the electronic time card system by a manager. Steele fraudulently used the login information of at least one manager to approve her reporting pay, her plea agreement states. Court records detail how much money and extra hours Steele approved for herself between since 2014: In 2014, Steele added 939.6 hours for a total unearned income of $16,827.04; in 2015, she added 3,817.34 hours for $70,239.12; in 2016, she added 4,964.65 hours for $96,339.76; and in 2017 she added 960 hours for $18,083.04. The total amount of fraudulent income Steele was paid equals $201,488.96, records state. A sentencing date has not been set. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robin Beardsley Mark is prosecuting the case, and Steele is represented by Derek Drennan. A Birmingham man is facing felony charges after a drug raid at a northeast Jefferson County home. Jefferson County sheriff's narcotics investigators carried out a search warrant Friday at a home in the 800 block of William Drive near Roebuck, Chief Deputy Randy Christian said Tuesday. The raid was part of the ongoing investigation into the sale and distribution of illegal drugs in the northeastern part of the county. During the search, investigators found nearly 2.5 pounds of marijuana, as well as hydrocodone, cash, three handguns and a rifle. Joshua Blake Kujan, 31, is charged with trafficking marijuana, unlawful distribution of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia. Christian said Kujan also faces possible federal firearms charges. Kujan was booked into the Jefferson County Jail and released the following day after posting $105,300 bond. More than 800 Birmingham residents have taken part in Mayor Randall Woodfin's more than 100-day citizen-led transition process. They shared their recommendations and researched best practices in five committees focused on: neighborhood revitalization and public safety; education and workforce development; transparency and efficient government; entrepreneurship and economic development; and social justice. The fruit of their labor will be presented to the public on Thursday, March 15. The event, which is being called "The First One Hundred," is set for 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Alabama Theater. "It is time to have a conversation with the entire community about what they have collected and gathered," Woodfin said, of Thursday's event. While Woodfin has yet to say what recommendations he will implement, the mayor said the transition team's published report will serve as a "guide map" for his four years in office. "It will give us some recommendations on how we will move forward," Woodfin said. The mayor said the transition team's report will also hold him accountable to both the goals he has set, and the public has set for his administration. "I think it is important that the residents of the city hold me accountable," Woodfin said. Woodfin has made it clear his priorities are revitalizing all of the city's neighborhoods, making the city safer, improving education, improving transportation infrastructure and making the city more inclusive for all. With Thursday's event, retired Gen. Charles Krulak, who co-chaired Woodfin's transition team, said the mayor is "making good on a promise" that he made prior to taking office in November. That promise was having a citizen-led transition team take a "hard look" at public input and best practices and come up with recommendations. "We know it is going to be a catalyst for discussion," Krulak said, of the report. Birmingham City Council President Valerie Abbott, who hasn't seen the transition report, said some big changes may be coming to city hall as part of Woodfin's transition report and performance assessment of city departments. "From what the mayor has told us, we are expecting some big changes, but right now we don't have the details," she said. Change can be hard, Abbott said, but she suspected any proposed changes will be positive for the city. Crowe Horwath LLP and PGV Advisors are conducting the performance assessment of city operations. The following departments are being assessed: community development, finance, human resources, IMS, law, municipal court, police, public works and planning, engineering and permits. While speaking at the city council's budget and finance committee meeting on Monday, Woodfin said the performance assessment is nearly complete. He said the consultants have identified more than $10 million in cost saving measures, but Woodfin didn't say what they were or if they all would be implemented. In an interview with AL.com, Woodfin said he is thankful to the residents who took part in the transition process. He said the level of participation shows there is "an appetite for open government" that goes beyond the excitement over him being elected to office. The mayor said he hopes residents walk away Thursday evening seeing that "there are some tangible things that this administration" can do to improve all of the city's 99 neighborhoods. Woodfin said he hopes residents empowered by the process and continue to be involved. "We need people to stay engaged once this process is over," he said. "It doesn't stop after Thursday." As part of this process, Woodfin said he will host a series of community town hall meetings through the year. He said he is committed to a minimum of two a month. During these meetings, residents will be able to take part in question and answer sessions. For more information and to reserve tickets to Thursday's event at Alabama Theater, click here. A federal investigation into a Colorado child pornography website led to the arrest of an Alabama man on multiple felony charges. Ryan Thomas Carver is charged with possession of child pornography, records show. Ryan Thomas Carver, a 27-year-old from Huntsville, is charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography, according to court records made public this week. Each charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a lifetime on the sex offender registry. Carver came under investigation by the Madison County Sheriff's Office in February. Sheriff's Lt. Donny Shaw said a Department of Homeland Security special agent told local investigators that Carver had access to a child pornography website in Colorado. That website was under investigation by DHS and the Internal Revenue Service, authorities said. After serving a search warrant at Carver's home, Madison County deputies made the arrest for possession of child pornography. Carver was released from the Madison County Jail on $100,000 bail. Attempts to reach him for comment weren't successful. Court papers don't list a defense attorney. NASA's leadership challenges got a little harder, and Alabama's ties to the agency's top tiers got a lot looser with today's news that Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot is retiring. Lightfoot, a longtime resident of Huntsville and former Marshall Space Flight Center director, told agency staff in an email that he was retiring April 30 "with bittersweet feelings." Lightfoot did not indicate any post-retirement plans. "The country owes Robert a debt of gratitude for his many years of outstanding service and leadership at NASA," said U.S Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla). "He'll surely be missed, but I'm confident that there are a number of highly qualified individuals at the agency who can assume his role in the interim and continue the great work being done there to get us to Mars." Lightfoot left Huntsville to become associate administrator of NASA, the highest-ranking civil service position in the agency. He took charge of the space agency after Obama appointee Charles Bolden left at beginning of the Trump administration. Trump has nominated former GOP Congressman Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma as the next administrator, but Congress has yet to vote on him. "I will work with the White House on a smooth transition to the new administrator," Lightfoot said in his statement. "The White House needs to nominate a space professional for NASA administrator who will actually garner strong bipartisan support," Nelson said in his statement. "The current nominee doesn't have the votes." Lightfoot's public profile has grown increasingly large in recent months. He led the unveiling of Trump's proposed 2019 budget for NASA, and he testifed before a congressional oversight committee earlier this month on NASA's future and plans. "NASA's history has many chapters with each of us having a part," Lightfoot said in his message to the NASA staff. "I've written my part and now the pen is in your hands - each one of you." Alabama lawmakers on Monday morning heard from school superintendents and law enforcement officials what it is that they believe will improve safety in schools: more mental health supports for students, more funding for trained school resource officers, and assistance with costs to improve physical building security. Rep. Allen Farley, R-McCalla, who served for seven years as a school resource officer in Jefferson County, said he brought education and law enforcement officials together with legislative leadership to hear their thoughts on how lawmakers can best help keep schools and students safe. House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, told attendees he was there to listen. "This is so large and so important that we don't need knee-jerk reactions for this from the legislative body," he said. "What we need to do is gather information and make sure that we're covering all the bases." House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, speaks with educators at school safety summit in Jefferson County, Ala., on Mar. 12, 2018. What lawmakers didn't hear was support from school officials for arming teachers, a measure supported by President Donald Trump. Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale said he could see the need to have a school "marshal" in rural schools in isolated locations. "It's hard for me to swallow when you say 'arm teachers,'" Hale said, but in some situations, as long as the superintendent and school board have a say in it, and those people have immunity, "it probably could be a great thing." Hoover Superintendent Dr. Kathy Murphy reminded lawmakers that state-level education organizations including the School Superintendents of Alabama and the Alabama Association of School Boards are not in favor of arming teachers. Lawmakers across the country have been considering ways to make school safer in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting of 17 students and faculty at a high school in Parkland, Fla., by a former student. Florida lawmakers passed a comprehensive package of bills which included arming teachers and raising the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21. The National Rifle Association has filed suit against Florida arguing the new law violates the Second Amendment. Last Wednesday, Huffman High senior Courtlin Arrington was shot and killed as school was dismissing. Junior Michael Jerome Barber has been charged with manslaughter and another gun-related charge related to Arrington's death. McCutcheon told attendees he has been working with lawmakers to see if there are any "connecting threads" among any of the dozen bills currently under consideration in the House and Senate. Those bills range from training private security forces in schools to making a murder on a school campus a capital offense to allowing funds currently earmarked for education to be used for school security measures. Whether there is enough time left in the session to pass bills aimed at improving school safety is unclear, with McCutcheon saying he isn't sure and Farley saying there could be enough time if leaders are on board with a plan. "If we've got three weeks, we can move it, but it's going to have to be something that's not going to be debated and filibustered," Farley said. "It's going to have to be something that the House and the Senate agree on when it's filed." Jefferson County Superintendent Craig Pouncey talks about school safety at summit in Birmingham, Ala., on Mar. 12, 2018. Representatives of 10 school districts, most all of them superintendents, took turns at the podium explaining what security measures they currently have in place to keep schools and students safe. Commonalities among districts included the use of school resource officers, or SROs, the use of cameras within schools, and trying to deliver some sort of mental health services to students whenever possible. All spoke of the multiple parts of a comprehensive safety plan and each district said their needs were a bit different one from the other. Superintendents from Vestavia, Trussville, Homewood, Pelham and Hoover City schools said they have at least one trained school resource officer, or SRO, in each of their school buildings. Partnerships with city police departments and a strong local tax base provide the funding for those SROs, they said. After the Parkland school shooting, additional SROs were added to schools in Hoover and Homewood, superintendents in those districts said. Trussville Superintendent Dr. Pattie Neill explained that SROs are police officers who have received specialized training to work in school settings with students. Officials from three county districts, including Shelby, Jefferson and DeKalb, said they can't afford to place an SRO in every school building full-time but said because of the relationships they have with the sheriff departments in their districts, they do the best they can. School officials mentioned the 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut and the recent Parkland shooting as events that pushed them to improve school security measures. Shelby County Assistant Superintendent Lewis Brooks addressed school safety at summit in Jefferson County, Ala., on Mar. 12, 2018. Shelby County Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lewis Brooks said officials in his district created a comprehensive Safe Schools Initiative after a gunman entered Chelsea Middle School in 2013 and took students hostage. The incident ended without anyone getting hurt. "There was no golden marker that made us 100 percent foolproof," Brooks said, but officials there continue working with local law enforcement and government officials on a comprehensive plan that includes everything from safety drills to security cameras to facility upgrades. Improving access to mental health services for students, either through partnerships with mental health providers or using in-house personnel, was on every school official's wish list. Leeds Superintendent John Moore, Trussville Superintendent Pattie Neill, and Pelham Superintendent Scott Coefield during school safety discussion in Jefferson County, Ala., on Mar. 12, 2018. Tarrant Superintendent Shelly Mize said they all recognize "schools are a microcosm of our community," and that families are doing the best they can but often lack the resources children need. Leeds Superintendent John Moore said he'd like to have a licensed clinical social worker on staff. "We don't always know how to connect all the dots and resources for kids," he said, and a social worker would be able to help with that. Multiple school officials said they have partnerships with mental health providers using whatever sources of funding they can piece together. All asked lawmakers to consider providing state funding for mental health services. While some superintendents said they'd like increased funding for school counselors, Hoover's Murphy said that is only a partial solution. "School counselors are often simply not prepared for the complexities that are brought to us through the mental health challenges [of students]," Murphy said. DeKalb County Superintendent Jason Barnett said his district held a multi-agency safety summit last week focused on how to identify and serve students with mental health challenges. Campus safety was also a part of the discussion, he said, but securing buildings that were built long before school shootings were a concern is a big challenge due to how those buildings were constructed and added onto. Sheriff Mike Hale said knowing the criminal background of students is important. "It's unfair to try to educate somebody if they've been charged with five or six felonies," he said. "[School officials] should know that." Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale addresses school safety at summit in Jefferson County, Ala., on Mar. 12, 2018. Jefferson County Superintendent Dr. Craig Pouncey said getting that information is important in order to ensure all students are safe. Wrapping up the two-hour discussion, Pouncey said superintendents made it clear that districts across Alabama have different safety needs and solutions. "One size is not going to fit all," Pouncey said. "What's going to work in Shelby County is not necessarily going to be the best fit for Jefferson County or Monroe County. But we can work to make these things beneficial and improve safety." Speaker McCutcheon agreed and said, "It's not a quick fix and there are a lot of issues to be considered." Farley said he recognizes that the differences among the districts and the level of security they have in place reflects the amount of financial resources districts have available. As to what it might take to make school secure, Hoover's Murphy said, "I don't think any of us want to have schools that look like a fortress with razor wire around the top and a moat circling it," but it is time to acknowledge the current school safety environment and ask, "now what?" A budget that calls for spending the second highest amount ever from Alabama's Education Trust Fund won approval in a Senate committee today, continuing a mostly smooth ride through the State House. The plan allocates $6.6 billion from the ETF to public schools, colleges and other purposes next year. That would be the most since $6.7 billion in 2008. That was just before the Great Recession. It took $439 million from a rainy day fund to prop up that 2008 budget. Education revenues lagged after that and have just now returned to pre-recession levels. Next year's budget would increase spending from the ETF by $216 million over this year. The plan includes funding for a 2.5 percent raise for employees in K-12 schools and two-year colleges. Orr said the pay raise would cost about $100 million a year. The House of Representatives passed the budget by a vote of 102-0 a month ago. Orr said the budget approved by the committee today stuck mostly with the plan that passed the House. The latest version would increase funding for Alabama's voluntary prekindergarten program, called First Class, by $18 million, to $95 million. That's $2 million less than what the House approved for prekindergarten. Orr said it would still be the largest increase ever for the program. The House and Senate will have to reconcile their differences before sending the budget to Gov. Kay Ivey. Orr said based on his conversations with the House budget chairman, Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, he does not see any major areas of disagreement. "We're well along the way on a final budget product," Orr said. The budget would provide $500,000 to put mental health professionals in public schools to work with troubled students. Orr said the new program appeared to have merit, especially in light of concerns about school safety. This story was edited at 8:46 a.m. on March 15 to give the correct amount for spending from the Education Trust Fund. One cold night down, another one -- or maybe two -- to go. The National Weather Service has issued a new round of freeze warnings and frost advisories for nearly all of Alabama that will go into effect overnight. And there may be still more coming for Wednesday night as well. All of north Alabama will again be under a freeze warning overnight, according to the weather service in Huntsville. It will be in effect from 1 a.m. until 9 a.m. Wednesday. Temperatures are expected to fall to 25 to 30 degrees across the region by Wednesday morning. Most of central Alabama will be under a freeze warning again overnight, according to the weather service in Birmingham. The counties are: Marion, Lamar, Fayette, Winston, Walker, Blount, Etowah, Calhoun, Cherokee, Cleburne, Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Talladega, Clay, Randolph, Bibb, Chilton, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Chambers and Lee. It will be in effect from midnight until 10 a.m. Wednesday. And it could be just as cold tomorrow night, according to forecasters. A freeze watch has been issued for those same areas for late Wednesday night through Thursday morning. The weather service has issued a frost advisory for the southern tier of counties that are not in the freeze warning. It will also be in effect from midnight until 10 a.m. Wednesday. The weather service said that areas in the frost advisory could get close to freezing by Wednesday morning and isolated spots could drop below freezing, with lows between 28 and 34 degrees expected. However, widespread freezing temperatures are not expected for those counties. A frost advisory has been issued for much of south Alabama as well. An advisory for southwest Alabama will be in effect from 4 a.m. until 9 a.m. Wednesday, according to the weather service in Mobile. A frost advisory for southeast Alabama will be in effect from 3 a.m. until 8 a.m. CDT Wednesday, according to the weather service in Tallahassee. Temperatures could fall to near freezing tonight, and frost will also be possible across inland areas, forecasters said. Similar and possibly even chillier conditions will be possible on Wednesday night, the weather service said, and a freeze watch will be in effect from late Wednesday through early Thursday for all of south Alabama. A Decatur woman is back in the custody of Alabama authorities after helping an inmate escape to Florida, lawmen said. Chloe German, 22, is held in the Morgan County Jail with bail set at $5,000. She's charged with facilitating the February escape of Alexis Hernandez. After nearly a week on the run from the Morgan County Jail, 29-year-old Hernandez was found dead in Orange County, Florida on Feb. 24. Authorities have said they believe Hernandez overdosed. Orange County authorities found Hernandez's body when they were called to a home that day. German was at the scene, along with another man who was in serious condition, lawmen said. German was returned to Alabama today, said Morgan County sheriff's Lt. Terry Kelly. She'd been jailed in Florida, pending extradition. If convicted, German faces up to 10 years in prison. The Easter Bunny may pull a few tricks when he's making this rounds this year. For the first time since 1956, Easter Sunday falls on April 1 - or April Fool's Day. Since 1900, Easter has fallen on April Fool's Day only four times - 1923, 1934, 1945 and 1956. It won't happen again until 2029. The time when Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Christ, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the spring equinox. The spring equinox occurs on March 20 this year. Easter generally falls between March 22 and April 25 each year. In addition to religious services, Easter is also celebrated with egg hunts, family gatherings and visits from the Easter Bunny, who leaves treats in children's Easter baskets. The Easter/April Fool's combo isn't the only joint commemoration this year. In February, Valentine's Day fell on Ash Wednesday. Origins of Easter While the Bible does not mention "Easter," it's believed the name comes from early celebrations of the pre-Christian goddess Eostre, who was typically celebrated at the beginning of Spring. Eostre's name remained as early Christians marked the time of Jesus' resurrection and the title survived through history, though it was changed to "Easter" by English speakers. The Easter season coincides with Passover, one of the most important festivals on the Jewish calendar. In 2018, Passover will begin on the evening of Friday, March 30 and ends in the evening of Saturday, April 7. Passover commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Satura Dudley, a senior at Alabama's Hoover High school, wanted to do something to honor the 17 lives of students and faculty cut short by gun violence at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14. Initially, Dudley said, she wanted to rally students at Alabama's largest high school to participate in the Mar. 14 school walkout in solidarity with students across the country to honor the victims in Florida. But, Dudley said, "Three thousand kids can't just walk out of school." It isn't safe, she said. A conversation with one of her teachers convinced her to talk with her principal, Don Hulin, about it. Hulin said he would work with Dudley to find an alternative to the walkout, but she would have to take the lead. Dudley agreed to do so. So what started as a plan for a walkout has turned into a series of activities aimed not only at honoring the 17 lives lost but also at raising awareness of deaths associated with gun violence and a thoughtful discussion of how to make schools safer. Dudley said students will also honor Huffman High senior Courtlin Arrington who was shot and killed as school was dismissing last Wednesday. Huffman junior Michael Jerome Barber has been charged with manslaughter and another gun-related charge related to Arrington's death. Dudley said the activities she has planned aren't political. "We're not trying to take away people's guns," Dudley said. "Hopefully we all have the same goal: to make students safer." Dudley, fellow senior Amber Bury and junior Erin Cannon said they hope the events they have planned for Mar. 13 will spark a conversation among students. The events are planned for Tuesday, Dudley said, because Hoover High will be on a club schedule, giving them time needed for planned activities. Students who want to participate, she said, will go to the competition gym. Students who don't want to participate can go to the lunchroom, she said. "That way," Dudley said, "we won't get as much backlash, and people won't be forced to do something they don't want to do." Hulin said those are the same options students are given for pep rallies. On Monday, school officials at Hoover's Spain Park High School announced plans to hold a memorial on Tuesday from 10 a.m. until 10:18 a.m. to honor the 17 victims in Florida and Huffman High's Courtlin Arrington. Spain Park's announcement said each victim's name will be read, one each minute, beginning at 10 a.m. "As each victim's name is read, a student with a balloon with the victim's name on it will walk from the gym to the parking lot and release the balloon." During lunch on Wednesday, Mar. 14, at Hoover High, Dudley, Bury and Cannon will lead efforts to help students write to their elected leaders about the need for gun safety, she said. Dudley said not all of her classmates are supporting their efforts, and while she was hanging fliers for the March 13th event, some confronted her, asking her why. Dudley said she hopes students will keep an open mind about the events and consider student safety a high priority. Cannon said she hopes Hoover students will gain perspective. "I just want everybody to realize this is a big issue in America." "If we keep pushing [for school safety]," Cannon said, "then they'll finally actually have to act." Dudley, whose younger sister attends Hoover High, is worried that her school is vulnerable to a tragedy like that in Parkland. That concern was echoed by a parent at the first of two town halls held in Hoover last week. At a Mar. 6 meeting held at Spain Park High School, Superintendent Dr. Kathy Murphy acknowledged that it is difficult to keep all students safe. Asked whether she could assure that someone wanting to harm students inside Hoover's schools, Murphy said, "I would love to say to you I could 100 percent guarantee you of that, but I cannot guarantee you of that any more than you can be guaranteed of that when you walk into your local church or synagogue or temple on Sunday or walk into Target or Walmart." It is those types of acknowledgements that worry Dudley, Bury and Cannon. Dudley said she'd rather not think about whether she's safe at school but she and others her age are forced to because those in charge haven't done what is needed to keep schools safe across the country. Dudley's concern, and her dismay, were palpable, similar to emotions student survivors of the Parkland massacre have shown in their demand for action by elected leaders in Washington, D.C., and in Florida. School officials, law enforcement officers and state lawmakers held a summit on Monday morning at the Jefferson County Board of Education offices to talk about what is needed to make schools safer for students. Educators said increasing the number of school resource officers, providing funding for mental health services for students and improvements in security for school buildings were high on their wish list. Arming teachers, an option favored by President Donald Trump, didn't make that list. Lawmakers disagreed about whether there was enough time left in the state's legislative session to pass bills aimed at improving school safety. Across the country, lawmakers across the country have been considering ways to make school safer in the wake of the Parkland shooting. Last week, Florida lawmakers passed a comprehensive package of bills which included arming teachers and raising the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21. The National Rifle Association filed suit against Florida arguing the new law violates the Second Amendment. Bury said she knows more can be done to keep kids safe. "In terms of safety, there are always upgrades that can be made," she said. And while she is graduating, Bury said, "I don't want kids younger than me who are coming into high school or who are in high school right now to have to face what the Parkland victims did." Birmingham City Schools and the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham are officially participating in the school walkout at 10 a.m. on Mar. 14. Gov. Kay Ivey has released her first television ad in her campaign to be elected Alabama's governor. In the ad released Tuesday titled "Three Hours," Ivey talks about having only three hours to prepare to become governor after Gov. Robert Bentley resigned last year. Ivey, as lieutenant governor, ascended to the governor's office. "Most governors have three months to prepare," Ivey said as the commercial begins. "I had three hours." Ivey became governor after Bentley pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges in connection with scandal that plagued his administration for more than a year. Bentley was automatically removed from office when he entered the guilty plea. The "three hours" description has been used frequently by Ivey in her campaign and has recently come under criticism by Tommy Battle, Huntsville's mayor and a top challenger for the Republican gubernatorial nomination that Ivey and two other candidates are seeking. "Gov. Ivey has been in state government for 30 years," Battle said in a statement last week in what he described as "accepting" Ivey's invitation for a debate. "Where has her leadership gotten us? She keeps saying she had three hours to prepare for governor. No, she had three decades." Ivey served as reading clerk in the state House of Representatives under House Speaker Joseph McCorquodale, who held the position from 1975-83. Ivey worked as state treasurer from 2002-2010, then lieutenant governor since 2010 before taking over for Bentley. In the TV ad, Ivey said of taking office, "I said a prayer, put my hand on the Bible and took an oath to protect our Constitution." "We cleaned up that mess, steadied the ship," Ivey said in the ad. The ad states that Ivey has been responsible for creating 12,000 jobs while in office. "Now, we are creating jobs," she said in the ad. "The lowest unemployment in Alabama history. And I'm just getting started." The ad ends with the slogan, "Alabama is working again." In an email to supporters announcing the ad, Ivey said, "As your governor, I will never stop fighting for you, your family, and all Alabamians. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I'm up to the challenge. Together, we can keep Alabama working!" Ivey is the first gubernatorial candidate to release a television ad. Ivey has a significant fundraising advantage over her opponents with more than $2.2 million in cash on hand, according to her latest campaign finance report filed on March 2. The ad will begin running statewide on Wednesday. The principal of Tanner High School is on paid leave pending an investigation into complaints about the "climate and culture" on campus, officials announced today. Tanner High School Principal Louis Gordon is on paid leave pending an investigation into the climate and culture on campus. While Principal Louis Gordon is on leave, Assistant Principal Deborah Kenyon is filling the position, the school system announced. Tanner High is a K-12 school in Athens. "I have received a number of complaints about the climate and culture at Tanner High School this year," said Limestone County Schools Superintendent Tom Sisk in a statement. "Therefore I feel it is in the best interest of the students, faculty and staff as well as the community that I look into this matter more deeply." Sisk declined to comment further on the issue. He said he isn't taking questions about the suspension right now. The Human Resources Department is investigation the situation. "Paid leave is not a statement of guilt or wrong doing," Sisk said in the statement. "It is a common practice we have employed in the past. It is in the best interest of the district and the employee to remove them from the situation while conducting the investigation." Sisk said he will meet with those involved once the investigation is complete. If any school board action is necessary, the superintendent said he will make appropriate recommendations. President Donald Trump on Tuesday eagerly inspected prototypes on display in California for his "big beautiful border wall" amid peaceful protests but growing tensions between his administration and the state over immigration enforcement. Chanting "No ban! No wall!" demonstrators were cheered on by honking cars and buses at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego, the nation's busiest border crossing. Trump appeared engaged as he was briefed on eight towering prototypes, including one with blue steel on top. He said he liked a fully concrete wall because it was the hardest to climb, but he noted that it needs see-through capability. He said certain parts of California are desperate for a wall to break the flow of illegal immigration. "If you didn't have walls over here, you wouldn't even have a country," Trump said. Caddell Construction Co. of Montgomery; W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co. of Philadelphia, Mississippi; Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. of Tempe, Arizona; and Texas Sterling Construction Co. of Houston each won contracts to build concrete prototypes, the agency has said. Additionally, Caddell, W.G. Yates, KWR Construction Inc. of Sierra Vista, Arizona, and ELTA North America Inc. of Annapolis Junction, Maryland, won bids for mock-ups made from materials other than concrete. The visit -- Trump's first to the state as president -- coincided with an escalating battle between his administration and the liberal state, which Democrat Hillary Clinton easily carried in the 2016 presidential election. California officials have defiantly refused to help federal agents detain and deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally, and the Justice Department sued the state last week over three of its immigration laws. After viewing the wall prototypes in an area of the border heavily cordoned off and far from the rallies on the U.S. side, Trump was then expected to address Marines in San Diego before attending a high-dollar fundraiser in Los Angeles, where he'll stay overnight. Protests were held on the Mexican side, too, in Tijuana. Semitrucks were parked in between the row of prototypes and the border, blocking the view from Mexico. Demonstrators said they planned to line up and greet people walking into the United States at the San Ysidro crossing to show Americans welcome immigrants. Jose Gonzalez, 21, stopped to snap a photo of the protesters holding signs, including one that read: "Wall off Putin!" in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has a seemingly close relationship with Trump. "I don't think it's really fair how he has the choice to separate us," said Gonzalez, a dual citizen who lives in Tijuana and crosses the border daily to work at a San Diego ramen restaurant. Army veteran Mark Prieto, 48, shook his head as he walked by the protest. "People are so narrow-minded," the Riverside firefighter said as the crowd chanted. "Finally we have someone who is putting America first." His wife, Corina Prieto, a nurse who has extended family in Mexico, agreed. Both voted for Trump. "I think he is doing a lot of good, like protecting our Border Patrol," she said. Trump was expected Tuesday to be briefed on lessons learned from the construction of the prototypes built in San Diego last fall. He also will meet with border agents and officers to ask what they need, Homeland Security spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said. The president also planned to talk about sanctuary cities, arguing that they are a major threat to public safety and national security, according to a senior administration official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about Trump's planned remarks and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. San Diego's Republican mayor criticized Trump's planned short visit, saying the president won't get a full picture of the city. Kevin Faulconer said a popular cross-border airport terminal connecting San Diego and Tijuana shows that "building bridges has worked wonders." Faulconer, writing in The San Diego Union-Tribune, also said San Diego police work to protect everyone regardless of immigration status, an apparent dig at Trump's push to target illegal immigration. Trump tweeted about California's immigration policies as he flew to the state aboard Air Force One. "California's sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk. Thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP!" he wrote. This isn't Trump's first visit to the border. He traveled to Laredo -- one of Texas' safest cities -- weeks after declaring his candidacy in June 2015. Trump told reporters then that he was putting himself "in great danger" by coming to the border. But, he said, "I have to do it. I love this country." The Washington Post contributed to this report. President Donald Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday. Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. Pompeo will replace him at the State Department, and Gina Hapsel - the deputy director at the CIA - will succeed him at the CIA, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed. In a statement issued to The Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel. "I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State," Trump said. "Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle." The president continued, "Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo and she will be the CIA's first-ever female director, a historic milestone. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect." Trump also had words of praise for Tillerson: "Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well." The president - who has long clashed will Tillerson, who he believes is "too establishment" in his thinking - felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said. "I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State," Pompeo said in a statement. "His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America's prosperity. Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honors of my life." Haspel in a statement also said she was excited for her promotion. "After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year," she said. "I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency." President Donald Trump won the White House thanks to backward looking states, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton suggested this week. Speaking at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai, Clinton addressed her upset defeat at the hands of Trump, who was making his first run for political office. "If you look at the map of the United States, there's all that red in the middle where Trump won," Clinton said. "I win the coast, I win, you know, Illinois and Minnesota, places like that. "I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product. So, I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, 'Make America Great Again,' was looking backwards." Clinton bested Trump by almost 3 million ballots in the November 2016 presidential election but lost in the Electoral College thanks to GOP wins in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump won Alabama 1.3 million votes - or 62 percent - to Clinton's 729,500 votes, or 34 percent. Clinton said Trump's message played to the worst elements in society. "You didn't like black people getting rights, you don't like women, you know, getting jobs," Clinton said. "You don't want, you know, see that Indian American succeeding more than you are. Whatever your problem is, I'm going to solve it." President Trump announced last month he planned to seek reelection in 2020. A charter bus traveling on interstate 10 in south Alabama crashed Tuesday morning, resulting in one death, several injuries, and a partial closure of the roadway. The crash happened at approximately 5.30 a.m. on the westbound side of I-10 near exit 57. The vehicle fell into a ravine, known as Cowpen Creek, estimated at 50 to 60 feet deep, according to officials with the Baldwin County Sheriff's Department and Mobile Fire and Rescue. Eastbound lanes were also closed to allow for emergency vehicles. The bus had around 45 students who were returning to Houston, Texas, from a school spring break trip to Disney World in Florida, according to Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack. The students are part of the Channelview High School band. Around 12 to 20 people were injured, while the driver died in the crash. He was identified as Harry Caligone of Houston, Texas. ALEA provides an update on a fatal charter bus crash that occurred Early Tuesday, March 13, on I-10 in Baldwin County, Ala., a few miles west of the Alabama-Florida line. Posted by al.com on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 There was also one critical and five serious injuries, according to Sheriff Mack. Other injuries are not serious. First responders are reported to have rappelled into the ravine, while students were carried and pulled out by deputies, according to Sheriff Mack. One student that spoke to an ABC news affiliate in Houston said that the band teacher was shouting on the bus before he felt a bump. He then felt "one huge bump then everything went black." Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack told WTVM News 9 the band director has the most serious injuries. He was trapped in the wreckage for more than three hours. Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Captain John Malone with said 46 people were transported to hospitals after the wreck with 26 victims taken to hospitals in Alabama and 20 to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, only eight victims remain hospitalized. Five are at Sacred Heart, 2 in serious condition and 3 in good condition. Two victims are in serious condition at Thomas Hospital in Fairhope. One victim is in stable condition at USA Medical Center in Mobile, Malone said. Channelview Independent School District Superintendent Greg Ollis told ABC 13 News the students are "blessed" thier injuries aren't worse. "It looks like all of our students and staff are going to be alright," Ollis said. Around seven to eight medevac helicopters were used to transport students to 10 different hospitals in the region, including University of South Alabama Hospital. Therapy dogs have been dispatched to churches near to the crash site, where uninjured children are waiting for parents to arrive from Texas. Red Cross volunteer Edward McCall arrived with with 3 year-old golden doodle Tucker and 13 year-old chocolate retriever Atticus. "It soothes their mind and their heart," McCall said. "Just petting a dog makes a big difference." Parents are expected to arrive at approximately 5 p.m.CST to collect children. The Coastal Church in Daphne is the main meeting point, where lead Pastor Chad Stafford said the children were "chilling out" while they waited. Stafford said that plenty of food had been provided, but a batch of cell phone chargers donated by Walmart had been "a big hit." "They're typical teenagers, they're on their cell phones," he said. Stafford said pastors had been speaking with the children about a variety of topics, but hadn't questioned them about their experience during the crash. "I think it's our role right now just to make them feel normal," he said. As a side note, Stafford said he'd been surprised to learn from the group that their high school was the same one previously attended by University of Alabama Quarterback Jalen Hurts. It's not yet know when the children will be able to depart, but Stafford said that unnamed benefactors had offered to provide hotel rooms if an overnight stay became necessary for some. Some of the students involved in the crash were wary of traveling home in vehicles, Ollis told FOX 5 News. "I will be honest with you. Some of the students we have talked to, the ones in Pensacola, they didn't want to ride back in a car and I understand and we are trying to work something out with the airlines," Ollis said. A spokesperson for United Airlines told FOX 5 News the company is offering transportation to individuals and families impacted by the bus crash and are working directly with a representative at Channelview High School to accommodate travel requests for students and families. The company that owns the tour bus, First Class Tours Inc., has been involved in four other crashes in the past two years, one of which was fatal, according to Associated Press reporting. No injuries were reported in the three other crashes. The fatal crash took play in May 2017 when one of the company's buses failed to yield right of way as it turned left. It struck a pedestrian. First Class Tours sent a statement to AL.com Tuesday night that read: A serious accident has taken place involving a First Class Tours bus in Alabama this morning. The bus was carrying a group of band students from Channelview High School who were returning home to Houston from Orlando. Regrettably, the accident has taken the life of the driver of the bus, Harry Caligone. Harry was a long-time driver for our company and we are deeply saddened for this loss. We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family. It is our understanding that there are additional injuries as a result of the accident. Our prayers are with the injured and their families at this time. We pledge our assistance in cooperating with local authorities in the investigation. Presently, this is all the information that we have to share. We will provide updates as additional information becomes available and it is appropriate to do so. Chief Lovell of Loxley Fire Department said that there are around 60 first responders at the scene. His crew is helping with extraction, including using jaws of life. The last student was freed a little before 9 a.m. CST. The body of the person that was killed has yet to be freed, according to Mack. In a seperate press conference, ALEA Captain John Malone confirmed that it was the driver of the bus that died. It's believed that the bus hit the bridge supports at the bottim of the ravine. However, ALEA is still investigating how the bus ended up in the ravine and how the driver died exactly. Two large wreckers were put in place near the ravine at around 11 a.m. It's expected they will pull the bus out of the ravine. National Safety Transportation Board inspectors are expected to investigate the crash site. The eastbound side of the interstate is shut down in the area. Drivers are being asked to avoid the interstate until noon. The Alabama Department of Transportation said currently the detour starts at exit 44, but crews are working to move the detour to the Baldwin Beach Express exit 49. Regardless of which exit drivers use, everyone is asked to take Highway 90 east into Florida to avoid the area. Texas Governor Greg Abbot invited people via Twitter to "join Cecilia & me in prayer and support for the Channelview students harmed by this bus crash." Class president Miriam Hernandez told FOX 5 this has been a hard day for students at Channelview. "We've had Hurricane Harvey and we've had this accident. And we've had accidents at school. It's been a hard year. I know we can get through it," Hernandez said. Albama Governor Kay Ivey expresed similar sentimne to Abbot, expressing her "deepest sympathies" and said she will "continue to pray for and do all we can to assist those affected by this event." "My team and I, including ALEA and EMA, have been and will continue to monitor this situation, and I have offered Governor Abbott any further assistance," she added. "I urge all Alabamians to remember how precious life is and to pray for those lost and injured in this incident." Mike Burke, a spokesman at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, said about 20 patients had been brought to the hospital by ambulance and helicopter, "and more are on the way." "We have multiple injuries; the bus went down into a ravine," said Chris Elliott, a Baldwin County commissioner who helped out at the county emergency management center following the crash. "The fire department and officers are having to rappel down into the area to get into it." ALEA will be taking over the investigation, according to Sheriff Mack. Family members looking to find out more information on the crash can call 251-972-6807. Family members can also call Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola for more information: 850-416-2694 or 850-416-2540. AL.com journalist Lawrence Specker and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Did we really think Alabama lawmakers would try to accomplish anything of importance in an election year? Nope. But there was - and is - a glimmer of hope. In the days after the Parkland shooting tragedy that killed 17 Florida high school students on February 14, it sounded like Alabama leaders were seriously trying to find ways to make our school children safer. Among the ideas: A bill by Sen. Trip Pittman that would allow school systems to use money from an education savings fund to put police officers in schools and improve school security. It's still alive in the state Senate. Who needs to wait for the state? Baldwin County unveils its own school safety plan But the school safety talk in Montgomery is already turning into an election year can can dance-around-the issue. "The worst thing we can do is start thinking about this as a political thing or trying to rush something through because that's what we're supposed to do," McCutcheon said. I'm not sure making our children safe ASAP qualifies as "the worst thing we can do", but it's an interesting little dance move. Gov. Kay Ivey announced her plan, which includes forming a council to study school safety. The governor directed the council to issue a report by April 30, conveniently after the legislative session ends. Marsh said that probably moves the school safety discussion to next year ... unless the governor calls a special session. Dance, dance, kick the can. Let's urge the governor to call a special session, if necessary. It's too easy to let things simmer down, quietly do nothing and hope no one notices. We can't afford to lose our focus on school safety. The can that gets kicked down the road is our kids. Wednesday, March 14 is National School Walkout Day. Students around the country plan to walk out of their classes for 17 minutes - one minute for each of the students killed in Parkland. Participants in Birmingham plan to walk out for 18 minutes to honor Courtlin Arrington, who was shot and killed last week at Huffman High School. Check out more cartoons by JD Crowe In January 2015, the Alabama Attorney General's office sent a blistering letter to the Environmental Protection Agency. The letter questioned the EPA's efforts to add a north Birmingham Superfund site to its National Priorities list, a designation that could have fast-tracked cleanup and put polluters on the hook for the cost. Then-Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange signed the letter. However, a document tracking number on all but one of the letter's 23 pages would indicate the letter wasn't written by Strange or state lawyers at all, but rather by the Birmingham law firm Balch & Bingham. That law firm and the north Birmingham Superfund site are at the center of a public corruption scandal that has already snared one former Alabama lawmaker and led to the indictments of two Balch lawyers, Joel Gilbert and Steve McKinney, and Drummond Co. vice president David Roberson. Last year, the Alabama Media Group requested all correspondence between the Alabama Attorney General's office and Balch and Bingham regarding the north Birmingham Superfund site. Last month, the Alabama Attorney General's office produced records in response to that request. While those records showed state lawyers and Gilbert had cooperated in opposing the EPA's cleanup efforts, the state did not turn over any correspondence showing Balch lawyers wrote any of the state's filings with the EPA. But the number at the bottom of the state's own documents suggests the state's open records response is incomplete. The tracking number It is common practice among law firms to add document tracking numbers to the firm's work product. Typically such numbers are issued sequentially, much like serial numbers, as documents are created. Tracking numbers typically also have a decimal, with numbers after the decimal indicating the version number to prevent confusion between different drafts of the same number. Strange's letter to the EPA has the tracking number 1368229.11. Tracking numbers do not show on other court filings or legal documents created by the Alabama Attorney General's Office. However they do appear on other documents created and filed by Balch. A sampling of Balch filings from 2014 and 2015 shows that the seven-digit tracking numbers on documents created by Balch began with 135 or 136. The letter, oddly, duplicated the first page. One copy of the first page carries Strange's official letterhead. On the duplicate page, the space for the letterhead is blank. Requests for comment or explanation sent by email and voicemail and to Balch and the Alabama Attorney General's office and a text message to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall were not answered. Not the first time If Balch did write the letter for Strange, it wouldn't be the first time the firm's lawyers had ghostwritten something related to the north Birmingham Superfund site. According to federal prosecutors, Balch lawyers wrote letters for Robinson, who put on his official letterhead before submitting them to Alabama Environmental Management Commission. Last year, Robinson pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges. In his plea agreement he admitted he sent the letters written by Balch because he was paid by Balch and the Roberson. Also, federal prosecutors said, the Balch lawyer Gilbert wrote a joint resolution voicing opposition to the EPA's efforts. State Sen. Jabo Waggoner sponsored that resolution in the Alabama Legislature, which approved it. No further defendants When announcing the indictment of Gilbert, McKinney and Roberson last year, newly appointed United State Attorney Jay Town said he believed that those three defendants and Robinson had acted alone and without the knowledge of their employers. Town's pronouncement effectively closed the investigation. Then a sitting United States senator, Strange would have had considerable influence in Town's confirmation, and Town worked on Strange's 2010 and 2014 campaigns for Alabama Attorney General. Town's boss is Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has numerous ties to Balch and who previously, as a United States senator, fought the NPL listing of the north Birmingham superfund site. Balch was Sessions's second-largest campaign contributor. Drummond Co. was Session's third-largest campaign contributor. The non-profit government watchdog Project on Government Oversight has previously called for Sessions and Town to recuse themselves from the investigation of political corruption surrounding the north Birmingham Superfund site. Neither official has formally removed themselves from the case. Drummond Co. was also Strange's third largest campaign donor in the 2014 election cycle, contributing $75,000. One contribution of $25,000 preceded a 2014 letter Strange sent to the EPA by less than one week. Another $25,000 contribution from Drummond followed about a month after Strange's second letter to the EPA. Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group. Want access to the best analysis and in-depth reporting about Alabama each week? Sign up for the weekly Reckon Report newsletter and follow Reckon on Facebook and Twitter. 2015.01.20 AG Comment to EPA by Kyle Whitmire on Scribd Posted on: March 13, 2018 9:02 AM Anglican primates in the Oceania region have committed themselves to take concrete action, to be champions and advocates, and to support each other in the fight against climate change and gender-based violence. The Primates and General Secretaries of the Anglican Church in Australia, the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea, the Anglican Church of Melanesia, and the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia made the commitments in a communique following their recent regional meeting, or Fono, in Fiji. As part of its commitment to tackle climate change, the church leaders are encouraging investment into sustainable energy as a valid option for investment funds. They are also encouraging their various trust boards to consider restructuring their investments to maximise returns from such innovative ideas. And they want Anglican schools in the regions four provinces to integrate climate change topics into the current curricula. On gender-based violence, the primates and general secretaries welcomed the work of The House of Sarah an initiative of the Diocese of Polynesia, which works to end violence against women and children. They say that they encourage and support the zero tolerance for violence policy as promoted by the House of Sarah and will look at ways that they can share their work in other Provinces. The also encouraged all provinces to adopt and implement the Anglican Consultative Councils (ACC) Safe Church charter, and committed themselves to review and respond to the guidelines coming from the International Safe Church Commission an inter-provincial body established at the last ACC meeting to develop Communion-wide approaches to protecting children and vulnerable adults. This is the second time in two years that the primates and general secretaries of the Oceania region had met in this way. They will meet again in Melanesia next year, and in Papua New Guinea in 2020. They were joined at this years meeting by an Anglican Communion delegation led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and including Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion; Bishop Anthony Poggo, Archbishop Justins Anglican Communion Adviser; Phil George, Chief Executive of the Lambeth Conference Company; and Gill Whiting, the Anglican Communion Programme Coordinator at Lambeth Palace. They discussed priorities for the 2020 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. Stormy Daniels will reveal all about her candlelit romance with Trump if he returns $130,000 hush money You know how it goes: you shag the billionaire and take his hush money. Then the billionaire becomes president of the US of And you realise you undervalued your services. And so it is that adult film star Stormy Daniels says she not longer wants the $130,000 she claims Donald Trump paid her to remain tight lipped about their affair. She thinks it best that she return the cash and place her story on the public record. Daniels, nee Stephanie Clifford, has laid out her plan in a letter to Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen. She has set a deadline of Friday for the return of the cash. She will then be at liberty to speak openly and freely about her prior relationship with the president and the attempts to silence her and use and publish and text messages, photos and videos relating to the president that she may have in her possession, all without fear of retribution or legal liability. This has never been about the money, Cliffords lawyer, Michael Avenatti, told NBC New. Its the principle, right? It has always been about Ms. Clifford being allowed to tell the truth. The American people should be permitted to judge for themselves who is shooting straight with them and who is misleading them. Our offer seeks to allow this to happen. Generous it is, indeed. And should Trump fall into a a trap marked TRAP with huge arrow pointing at it, we can all marvel at how a man who outlined his mating ritual as Grab her by the pussy really treats women he fancies. You can read Daniels letter in full here. Karen Strike Posted: 13th, March 2018 | In: Celebrities, Money, News, Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink (ANSA) - Brasilia, March 13 - The Brazilian Federal Prosecution Office appears to have opened the road for former leftwing terrorist Cesare Battisti to be extradited to Italy. In an opinion sent to the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the office rejected the assertion of Battisti's defence team that the decree impeding his extradition signed by ex-president Lula Da Silva could not amended by current President Michel Temer. In its opinion, the Federal Prosecution Office said "the decision is exclusively of the president of the republic". Italy is trying to have the 63-year-old extradited so he can serve two life terms for the four murders committed in the 'Years of Lead' of rightist and leftist terror. Battisti was arrested in October when he was stopped from entering Bolivia in a taxi, amid reports the Brazilian Temer had decided to lift his political-refugee status, granted by former Lula in 2010. He was subsequently released, pending a ruling. Battisti, a former member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC) group, said he was not trying to flee. (ANSA) - Venice, March 13 - 'Ndrangheta-linked businesman Antonino Vadala, arrested then released in the murder of Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, was arrested in Slovakia Tuesday in connection with a Venice probe into a Calabria-based organisation that brought drugs from South America into Italy. Eleven people were arrested in the probe. On March 1 Slovak police arrested entrepreneur Vadala' together with his brother and cousin and four other Italian men in connection with the murder of investigative reporter Kuciak and his fiancee. They were released three days later. Kuciak's last, unfinished report on 'Ndrangheta links to Slovakia's business and political communities said Vadala had fraudulently used EU funds. His former business associate, a former Miss Universe contestant named Premier Robert Fico's assistant, is among those who have quit amid a public backlash over the case, which also brought down the interior minister. NAPLES - Italian ambassador to Greece Luigi Marras helped kick off the 4th Festival of Philosophy in Greece in Athens, calling it a "preview of Tempo Forte, an Italo-Greek platform of cultural initiatives to further highlight the relations between the two countries". The Greek festival is a spin-off of the original Italian Festival of Philosophy, which has been taking place in Italy for the past 10 years across various Italian cities. In the coming days, 1,500 Italian students will participate in the Greek version of the festival to learn about Greek philosophers in some the most important locations for Western philosophy across the country, including Athens, Corinth, Epidaurus, Mycenae, Messini (Messene) and Loutraki. The festival includes the participation of Lucrezia Ercoli, founder of the Italian pop philosophy website Popsophia, dedicated to teaching young people about philosophy through pop culture and fiction vehicles such as Star Wars and Harry Potter. The festival will also offer the students chances for philosophical debates, philosophical-theatrical walks, "agora", workshops in practical philosophy and competitions. The Greek edition was launched by a press conference at the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens, with the attendance of the Institute's director Monica Zecca, Attica Regional Governor Rena Dourou, Attica Regional Tourism Councillor Theodoros Angelopoulos, as well as Festival of Philosophy in Magna Grecia President Giuseppina Russo and Vice President Iriana Marini. Dourou, who is participating for the fourth year in the festival, said the event has helped "we Greeks in some way rediscover philosophy as an opportunity for identity, growth, and promotion of our area". "And thanks to this festival, we're increasingly closer to Italy. Many Italian students come and are here for these days in a programme aimed at philosophy. These young people become an important chance for promoting a truly infinite cultural heritage," Dourou said. The Italian students will take part in festival activities in the archaeological areas of Mycenae and Epidaurus, in a philosophical-theatrical walk at the Acropolis in Athens, and in the archaeological area of Messene.(ANSAmed). Al Arabiya says 10 soldiers killed in Aden suicide bombing ISIS claims responsibility for car bomb on UAE-trained troops (ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, MARCH 13 - At least 10 Yemeni soldiers were killed on Tuesday in a suicide bombing in the southern city of Aden, where the internationally recognised government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is located, according to pan-Arab broadcaster Al Arabiya. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, in a statement from its Amaq news agency. It said it targeted a supply base of the so-called Security Belt Forces backed by the United Arab Emirates. According to initial reports, the attacker drove a car bomb into kitchens that make meals for soldiers of the UAE-trained troops in the city's Mansoura district. As seat of the internally recognised government of President President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Aden has previously been the site of several other attacks by ISIS and Al-Qaeda.(ANSAmed). BEIRUT - Several dozen civilians, including many sick, were evacuated from Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday, Syria Direct cited a leader of the rebel faction Jaysh al Islam as saying. The source said the group had reached an agreement for the evacuation with Russia and the Syrian Red Crescent with the mediation of the UN. It is the first medical evacuation from the rebel-held enclave since February 18, when government forces intensified their attack. Over 1,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 5,000 injured as a result, according to Doctors without Borders. On Tuesday morning UN sources in Syria said that "a mass evacuation" of civilians from Ghouta was expected during the course of the day. Roughly 400,000 civilians continue to live under siege in the region, according to the UN. Explosion in Gaza near Palestinian PM's convoy PA accuses Hamas, calling attack cowardly (ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, MARCH 13 - An explosion took place on Tuesday near the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Beit Hanoun, shortly after the convoy entered the Gaza Strip. Israeli State Radio said there are no further details at the moment. The Palestinian National Authority (PA) claimed Hamas as "responsible for the cowardly attack" on the convoy of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and Palestinian intelligence head Majed Freij as it entered Gaza, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.(ANSAmed). TEL AVIV - Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and Palestinian intelligence head Majed Freij "were unharmed" during an attack on their convoy as it entered the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to Israeli and Palestinian media sources. According to Maan news agency, seven people were wounded in the explosion. Shots were fired at Hamdallah and Freij's convoy after the explosion. According to initial reports, an explosive detonated at the side of the road at the entrance to Gaza. The same reports said two passersby were seriously injured. Hamas police said it arrested two suspects. After a five-month absence, and also under pressure from Egyptian diplomats, Hamdallah decided to return to Gaza on Tuesday in an attempt to restart reconciliation talks with Hamas. The planned itinerary included visiting a water purification centre and then meeting in Gaza City with Hamas leaders. Despite the attack, Hamdallah went forward with the visit to the water purification centre in the northern Gaza Strip, and images of his visit were broadcast live by local media. Save the Children says 1 mn Syrian children without aid Says 37 civilians killed daily, healthworker hit every 3 days (ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 12 - Save the Children said in a report on the 7th anniversary of the Syrian civil war that at least 37 civilians are killed every day in Syria's so-called "de-escalation zones" - Idlib and Eastern Ghouta - where it said two million people, half of whom are children, have been prevented from receiving aid. It said an ambulance is attacked every two days and a healthcare worker is attacked once every three days. Civilian victims of explosives across the country have risen by 45% following the announcement of the de-escalation zones, where bombings were not supposed to take place and where there was supposed to be free access to humanitarian aid. The organisation said there are six million internally displaced people in Syria. It said in the last quarter of 2017, more than a million people fled their homes, with a 60% increase since the announcement of the creation of the de-escalation zones. Save the Children said in Eastern Ghouta, childhood malnutrition is at its highest level since the start of the Syrian war, almost six times the level of one year ago. At least one child in four is malnourished and more than a third of children have stunted growth. In addition, it said there is an educational emergency, with about 43% of schools in Syria no longer operating. In Eastern Ghouta, more than 60 schools were hit by bombardments in the first months of 2018, at least 18 were razed to the ground, and more than 57,000 students have been forced to interrupt their studies or abandon school altogether.(ANSAmed). MADRID - The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) expressed "profound gratitude" to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy for granting a one-year extension on the law in which descendants of Sephardic Jews who were exiled from the country in 1492 can request Spanish citizenship. The law is now extended until October 1, 2019, the deadline by which descendants of the exiled can become naturalised Spanish citizens. The extension was provided for in a law that was modified in 2015, which established a three-year time period for reparations over the "historical injustice" of the Alhambra Decree. The edict, which ordered the expulsion of Jews who refused forced conversion to Catholicism, was emitted more than five centuries ago by the joint Catholic monarchs of Spain, after the successful conquest of Granada. Further extensions to the measure may also be possible, given the dispersion of Sephardic Jews worldwide. Spanish Education, Culture and Sport Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo announced the extension in a press conference following a cabinet meeting last Friday approving the measure. He said the law represents "a meeting point between modern Spaniards and the descendants of those who were unjustly expelled in 1492". "Regarding the intolerance of the past, the measure aims to jointly build a new space for co-habitation and harmony that permanently reopens the door of their ancient country to those communities who were expelled from Spain," he said. Since October 1, 2015, 6,432 Sephardic Jews have obtained a Spanish ID card, 1,910 of whom obtained it through the law. The law recognises Spanish nationality for anyone who can show (through a certificate from the Jewish communities in Spain or the rabbinic authority of his or her country) his or her status as Sephardic by surname, language, relatives or special links to the Sephardic culture. The other 4,302 naturalisations granted in 2015 and the 220 in 2016 were given by decree, because their individual procedures had already been started when the law came into force. By nationality, initially the majority of requests came from Israeli citizens (96), followed by Venezuela (60) and Colombia (60). In 2017, the majority came from Venezuela (254), Israel (202) and Mexico (146). Many descendants of the Sephardic Jews, such as those in Istanbul, still have the keys to the homes from which their ancestors were expelled. In fact, in three years the Spanish Consolate in Istanbul has granted Spanish citizenship to 2,800 people, with an average of eight per day and an average waiting time of two years to complete the process, according to figures recently provided in a Senate hearing by the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Idelfonso Castro. In any case, the total number of naturalised Spanish citizens is still "symbolic" compared to the half-million potential descendants and beneficiaries of the historic reparations estimated at the time of the measure's approval, as Senator Jon Inarritu of the nationalist Basque party EH Bildu reminded Spain's justice minister in a recent questioning session. Inarritu said despite the fact that the requests accepted thus far based on the measure are "an important step", the procedure for obtaining Spanish citizenship is still "an obstacle course". The senator called for a permanent extension of the measure's deadline to "give time for the numerous people with the right to acquire Spanish citizenship". AMMAN - King Abdullah of Jordan held a high profile meeting with UAE foreign minister Abdullah Bin Zayed which is expected to usher new era in economic and security ties between the two sides. The UAE official has pledged his country's desire to help pull Jordan out of its economic doldrums by providing badly needed financial assistance. But observers say the kingdom is expected to show it was ready to follow footsteps of Saudi Arabia and UAE in several key security issues in the region, including ties to Qatar, the war in Yemen and involvement in Syria as well as the stance concerning peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel. Observers said Jordan's latest decision to suspend the free trade agreement with Turkey could be in line with a new policy by Jordan to become closer to views of Saudi and UAE. ''The timing of the cancellation, which is 24 hours before the UAE foreign minister arrived could not be a pure coincidence,' said a diplomatic source. Turkey has provided backing for Qatar in its spat with the two powerful gulf countries and is seen by the two nations as threat to their ambition in the region. During the meeting, held at the al-Husainiah Palace, King Abdullah underscored the "long-standing and deep ties" between the two brotherly countries and voiced keenness to foster prospects of cooperation in various fields,' said Petra news agency. The meeting, continued over a lunch banquet, touched on the two-way high-level coordination and cooperation on Mideast regional crises, in an effort to realize peace, security and stability in the region and to serve pan-Arab issues. King Abdullah expressed appreciation for UAE's continued support to Jordan to help the Kingdom carry out its developmental ventures, said Petra. The King, moreover, underlined the importance of expanding UAE's investments in the Kingdom, noting the competitive privileges Jordan's economy provides for investors in various vital sectors. Discussions also tackled challenges and current crises in the Middle East and some Arab countries, as well as efforts to reach political solutions to them to bring about peace and security to the region. On the Palestinian issue, King Abdullah emphasized that the next Arab summit would unify Arab stances supporting the Palestinian people in establishing their sovereign state with East Jerusalem as its capital. AMMAN - Jordan has suspended its free trade agreement (FTA) with Turkey on allegation that the deal harms the national industry by tipping the balance of trade in favour of Turkey's products, the government announced today. The government says the 2011 deal has lead to an increase in the imports of Turkish products and causes significant harm to Jordanian businesses, which are unable to compete with Turkish products that receive subsidies from the Turkish authorities. The surprising move comes less than a month after a recent visit by Turkish foreign minister and top officials to Jordan, where they discussed political and economic relations. The government alleges that the FTA with Turkey did not come to the results that it was hoped for, thus putting an end to the accord. But business men said the move will likely lead to an increase in prices of commodities imported from Turkey with local products sold at higher prices in the market. Jordan announced two years ago it was re-studying the FTA with many countries to see their benefit to the local economy. Jordan is a member in the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA), Agadir Agreement, and a party to the EU Association Agreement, Barcelona Declaration. It has also entered FTAs with the US, European Free Trade Association States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), Singapore, Canada and Turkey. US-backed Kurds must leave Manbij, Turkey says 'Unilateral military action if no agreement (ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MARCH 13 - As the final siege of Afrin was underway on Tuesday Turkey set its sights on the other Kurdish areas of northern Syria. On Monday Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu should meet his US counterpart, former CIA chief Mike Pompeo, to seek an agreement for the withdrawal of YPG rebels from the strategic area of Manbij west of the Euphrates River, where US forces are also based. Cavusoglu told reporters in Moscow that Turkey expects the Kurds to make a complete withdrawal east of the Euphrates and the subsequent joint control with the US of security in Manbij. It also expects the Kurds to hand over their weapons supplied by the superpower. In the absence of an agreement, Turkey is ready to take military action on a unilateral basis. (ANSAmed). Res2, the Netherlands-based ground handling IT expert, and Travelport have jointly announced a new multi-year agreement with Havas Ground Handling for deployment of the industry leading iPort DCS (departure control system). Havas, one of Turkeys largest ground handling companies, will utilise the web-based iPort DCS, developed in collaboration between Res2 and Travelport to optimise aircraft and passenger handling, to support more than 200 airlines at 28 airports located throughout Turkey, as well as at airports in Latvia and Saudi Arabia. iPort DCS provides significant commercial and operational advantages over other DCSs. The system offers turn-key solutions for airport and self-service check-in (kiosk, bag drop and Internet check-in) that are designed to comply with any passenger service system (PSS) and with global security demands. iPort also offers essential functionality for load control via an intuitive graphical interface. Easy to learn and use, efficient, flexible and cost-effective, iPort provides customers with an average productivity gain of over 25-percent[1]. Kursad Kocak, General Manager at Havas, said: After an extensive product search, it was clear that iPort was the product that meets our standard of operations. The iPort is the best technology available that meets our high standard of operation and that ensures we provide our customers with the world-class ground handling service quality, equipment and technological infrastructure that have made Havas the regions leading ground handling company since 1933. Hans van Engelen, Res2 CEO, said: By utilising the iPort suite and the content available via Travelports Travel Commerce Platform we can overcome many of the challenges a ground handler faces today with their passenger and operational processes. This agreement will provide Havas with a departure control system that supports their business model perfectly. We are excited to support Havas in delivering iPort DCS to enable Havas expanding their services and efficiency. Dan Westbrook, Travelports Vice President and General Manager for Air Commerce Technology, added: We are pleased Havas is the latest aviation-related company to recognize the significant operational efficiencies, cost savings and commercial opportunities iPort offers ground handling companies and airlines to grow their business, now and in the future. Lockheed Martin chairman, president, and chief executive officer Marillyn Hewson will speak at the Global Aerospace Summit 2018 on how the aerospace and defence industry serves as a catalyst for global security, international cooperation, and economic growth. Hewson will highlight some of Lockheed Martins strategic partnerships to grow the UAEs domestic manufacturing capacity and equip young people with the skills needed to compete in the 21st century. The aerospace and defense industry is uniquely positioned to help strengthen national defense and economic security through the shared development of technologies, Hewson said. I look forward to returning to Abu Dhabi to once again attend the Global Aerospace Summit to discuss how Lockheed Martin is partnering with the UAE to expand its economy, create high-tech jobs, and promote opportunities in science and technology that will support long-term peace and prosperity. Oisin Commane, Managing Director of SMG Aerospace, which is organising the Global Aerospace Summit, said: We are delighted to welcome Marillyn Hewson once again in Abu Dhabi for the Summit. She brings a wealth of experience and insight on the aerospace and defence industries that can help inspire a new wave of collaborations across the globe. The 2018 edition will take place on 30th April to 1st May at the St. Regis hotel on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. Travel audience, an Amadeus company, will help Duabi develop insights into visitor arrivals by widening its global reach and through advanced data analytics. Digital advertising spend surpassed TV worldwide in 2017, totaling over $200 billion, and with digital media consumption evolving at breakneck speed, destination marketers are shifting gears towards a smarter digital ecosystem. Further accelerating its digital, mobile and social first strategy, Dubais Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has entered into an agreement with Travel Audience to use its travel advertising platform. The destination marketing organisation will work with travel audience to build custom campaigns across a wide range of channels including online travel publishers, social media and metasearch engines. With added visibility into online travel patterns, it will be able to measure campaign performance more effectively and gather insights into traveler intention and behavior. Dubai Tourism is also using Amadeus Destination Insight to gather insights into global travel, including up-to-date search, booking and schedule data. Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said: Tourism is central to Dubais economic growth and diversification. With Travel Audiences intelligent technology and team of experts, and Amadeus far reaching travel network, we have found a platform that can provide insights that assist our decision making. By building brand and performance campaigns tailored to specific segments in exclusive channels, we can attract new visitors from regions far and wide while we grow our established visitor base. Alexander Trieb, managing director of Travel Audience, an Amadeus company, added: Powering the digital marketing strategy behind one of the worlds fastest growing travel destinations requires a top team, technology and network and we are excited to be working with Dubai Tourism. Together we are growing the destinations touchpoints throughout the travelers digital journey, using meaningful data to convert visitors and push campaigns where it matters the most. Turkish Airlines has confirmed plans to buy 50 firm and 10 optional wide-body aircraft from Airbus and Boeing. Turkish Airlines said it has agreed to 25 Airbus A350-900s from the A350 XWB Family - that will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines. With Turkish Airlines serving more destinations than any other airline around the world, we are delighted to build our future on Airbus all-new A350 XWB to support the development of our international route-network from our Istanbul and Ankara hubs. said Turkish Airlines Chairman, M. Ilker Ayci. We are extremely proud at Airbus to count Turkish Airlines as a new A350 operator, the worlds most modern and efficient widebody aircraft. said Eric Schulz, Chief Commercial Officer, Airbus'. This order strengthens and expands the long-lasting partnership between Airbus, Turkish Airlines and Turkey overall. The airline has also agreed to buy 25 Boeing B787-9 Dreamliners. In addition, the company has the option to buy five more of each aircraft from both manufacturers, bringing the eventual purchase to a total of 60 aircraft. Delivery for six planes is expected in 2019, with 14 in 2020, 10 in 2021, 12 in 2022, 11 in 2023, and seven in 2024. The radio-technical troops of the Belarussian armed forces will be equipped with Russian-made Podlet and Sopka-2M radars in the near future, Belarussian Defense Minister Lieutenant-General Andrey Ravkov said. Podlet radar (Picture source: Vitaly V. Kuzmin) "Russian-made Protivnik-G radars have been supplied to the troops. The procurement of new Podlet and Sopka-2M radars in Russia is planned," he was quoted as saying by the Belaruska Dumka magazine. The supplies of modern Rosa-RB and Vostok-D radars designed by Belarussian enterprises will continue, he said. The mobile 3D Protivnik-G radar was supplied to Belarus in August 2016. It can simultaneously track up to 200 targets at an altitude of 150 km and a distance of 450 km. Podlet can automatically detect, determine coordinates, lock on and track various air targets, including stealth ones. The station can simultaneously track 200 targets at an altitude of over 10 km and a distance of over 200 km. Sopka en-route radar facility is a source of radar information for air traffic control. It detects air objects, measures the distance and determines their country of origin. Russia will continue to supply Iraq with T-90S main battle tanks (MBTs) to equip one Iraqi armoured brigades. In July 2017, the Russian Press Agency TASS has announced that the Iraqi Armed Forces will acquire the Russian T-90S main battle tanks. Russian T-90S main battle tank at Russian Expo Arms exhibition in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. (Picture source Army Recognition) "Iraq is our traditional partner and it has been boosting its potential by ordering our equipment. Today we are equipping there an entire armored brigade, our equipment is supplied there," said presidential aide for military and technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin onRossiya 24 TV channel, Monday, March 12, 2018. In February 2018, The Ministry of Defense (MoD) of Iraq has confirmed the receiving of the first batch of 36 T-90S main battle tanks (MBT) under a contract signed with Russia, the Shafaq News agency says, citing the Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Armed Forces Lieutenant General Othman Al-Ghanmi. By late April 2018, Iraq will receive another batch of 37 T-90S MBT as part of the contract with the aim of "increasing combat capacity of armored troops." The T-90S MBT, an export-oriented variant of the T-90, has been developed and manufactured by the Uralvagonzavod corporation (UVZ, a subsidiary of Rostec). Main armament of the T-90S includes one 125 mm 2A46M smoothbore gun, stabilized in two axes and fitted with a thermal sleeve. The gun tube can be replaced without dismantling inside the turret. The T-90S is intended to engage tanks fitted with ERA (Explosive Reactive Armour) as well as low-flying air targets such as helicopters, at a range of up to 5 km. The layout of the T-90S MBT is similar to the standard T-90 MBT, with the driver's compartment at the front, two-man turret in the centre and engine compartment at the rear. The T-90S tank is protected by both conventional armour-plating and latest generation Kontakt-5 explosive reactive armour (ERA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Roswell officials want the Air Force to better include area residents in discussions on its proposal to expand airspace use in southeast New Mexico. Area leaders met with Air Force officials in Roswell on Wednesday, looking for the military branch to increase its dialogue with the public. The Air Force announced last year that it was examining its airspace use at sites across the country, giving high priority to the Holloman Air Force Base region in Alamogordo for its role in training of F-16 fighter pilots. In a notice published last year, the Air Force said it was considering expanding two military operations areas in New Mexico. One of the proposals would affect the airspace around Roswell, Artesia and Carlsbad. The Air Force held public scoping meetings in Carlsbad, Truth or Consequences and Las Cruces in September following a notice of intent to begin an Environmental Impact Statement on the airspace changes. The Air Force also held a meeting with the Grants County Board of Commissioners at the countys request. Some residents of southeast New Mexico have voiced concerns that altering the militarys airspace could disrupt commercial flights, private aviation enterprises and air ambulance services. Some businesses also said the local economy could take a hit because the airspace change could deter Navy pilots from training at the Roswell airfield. The Air Force has not seemed willing to meet with economic development officials from those communities, said Kyle Armstrong, a member of the Roswell-Chaves County Economic Development Corporation. We arent hearing from them, and they arent hearing from us, Armstrong said. They can essentially publish their plan without having gotten any input from the public in southeast New Mexico. The Air Force is planning to hold additional public hearings after the Environmental Impact Statement is drafted later this year, said Capt. Kaylee Ausbun, and Air Force public affairs officer. Locations that didnt have a scoping meeting may likely have a hearing, Ausbun said. The draft EIS sparks the timeline for the hearings. Comments from the public are still being considered as the draft is prepared, Ausbun said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . After hearing public testimony, First Judicial District Court Judge David K. Thomson approved a class action settlement agreement between workers and workers rights organizations and the Department of Workforce Solutions (DWS) that ensures state government will carry out its duty to enforce New Mexicos strong anti-wage theft laws and hold employers accountable when they violate these laws. This is a victory for low-wage workers and proof that when we come together, we can hold powerful institutions accountable, said Jose Pancho Olivas, a member of Somos Gallup, Somos Un Pueblo Unidos membership team in McKinley County and lead plaintiff in the complaint. For too long wage thieves were let off the hook. Because of this settlement, DWS will not only enforce our 2009 anti-wage theft law but will do more to ensure workers have a fair shot at recouping their stolen wages. The class action settlement agreement is a win for New Mexico workers and is the result of years of work by the workers and workers rights organizations who advocated for passage of a 2009 law imposing stronger anti-wage theft protections and who filed a 2017 lawsuit to require DWS to enforce those protections. We all deserve to be treated fairly by our employers and paid for every hour that we work, said Elizabeth Wagoner of the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, lead counsel for the plaintiffs. DWS diligently worked with us on this settlement agreement to make sure that hardworking people who experience violations of New Mexicos wage payment laws can access their legal right to an investigation of their claims and recover wages owed. In 2009, low-wage workers came together to strengthen protections against wage theft in New Mexico, said Gabriela Ibanez Guzman, staff attorney with Somos Un Pueblo Unidos Worker Center and co-counsel in the lawsuit. This legislation passed both chambers with a wide margin because wage theft hurts everyone, workers, law-abiding businesses and local economies. But our laws are only as good as the appropriate government agencies are willing to enforce them. This settlement sends a message that enforcement should be a priority. Now that the court has issued final approval of the settlement agreement, DWS will begin accepting requests from workers to re-investigate wage claims that DWS did not initially accept or correctly investigate. This includes workers who experienced the following problems: DWS rejected or returned the claim form without investigating the claim; DWS rejected, closed, or incompletely investigated the wage claim because of an unlawful $10,000 cap or one-year time limit; DWS made a decision in favor of the employer for an improper jurisdictional reason; DWS closed the wage claim after the employee or employer missed a deadline or hearing. Beginning on March 16, DWS will also take several steps to notify workers about their rights, including running radio ads in English and Spanish, providing information about the wage claim process on the homepage of the DWS website, mailing notice to the class with instructions about the right to request a re-investigation, and posting notices in all DWS offices statewide. The case, Olivas v. Bussey, was filed in January 2017 by four victims of wage theft and workers rights organizations El CENTRO de Igualdad y Derechos, New Mexico Comunidades en Accion y de Fe (CAFE), Organizers in the Land of Enchantment (OLE), and Somos Un Pueblo Unido. The plaintiffs claimed that DWS had failed to investigate and resolve wage claims concerning violations of New Mexicos wage payment laws. Plaintiff workers and organizations and DWS filed a joint motion on December 20, 2017 in the First Judicial District Court asking Judge Thomson to approve the class action settlement agreement. In addition to re-investigating prior wage claims and notifying workers of their rights, DWS has also implemented the following policies to end the practices challenged in the lawsuit: LRD investigates all wage claims, regardless of their dollar value; LRD takes enforcement action on wage claims going back three years, or longer if the violation is part of a continuing course of conduct; Employers who fail to pay minimum or overtime wages must pay damages to wage claimants, calculated at three times the value of the unpaid wages; LRD no longer closes wage claims for impermissible procedural reasons; and LRD provides language access services to all wage claimants who need it by requesting each claimants language preference on the claim form, providing interpretation in each telephonic and in-person interaction, translating all form letters and claim forms into Spanish, allowing claimants to fill out claim forms in any language, and offering an interpreter to anyone who telephones the agency. In addition, LRD has revamped its policies and procedures so that the agency is in compliance with the New Mexico wage laws. This includes the adoption of a publicly-available investigations manual that lays out how LRD enforces the law, which LRD and attorneys for the plaintiffs are writing together. Attorneys for the plaintiffs will also review worker case files to identify wage claims that LRD may consider for workplace-wide enforcement action. People who experienced a problem with a wage claim at DWS should request a re-investigation or contact: New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty: 505-255-2840 Somos Un Pueblo Unido: 505-424-7832 El CENTRO de Igualdad y Derechos: 505-246-1627 The notice of rights, claim form, and instructions for requesting a re-investigation will be available in a link from the DWS website homepage on or before March 16. Elizabeth Wagoner of the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty is lead counsel on a legal team that includes the Centers Gail Evans, Stephanie Welch, and Juan Martinez, Santa Fe attorney Daniel Yohalem, and Gabriela Ibanez Guzman of Somos Un Pueblo Unido. by The worlds best art fairTefaf Maastricht. whose 275 participating galleries show the art of seven millennia, all toldgot underway last Thursday, as usual. Fair organizers are keen to point out whats different this year: for example, a smaller by-invitation-only crowd on its annual day of free-flowing food and drink, and another by-invitation only access day on Friday, with the public let in only beginning on Saturday. That seemed to work well, though it forced dealers to make an A list of their collectors for Thursday and a B List for Friday, who didnt get any oysters, champagne or even orange juice. The upside was clear, though: less crowding led to actual conversations between dealer and client and possibly more sales. Then there was a slight change in the fairs booth layout, with not every great space occupied by the same dealer every year, and the presence of some new, younger dealers on the main floor, such as Benappi Fine Art and Lullo & Pampoulides, a two-year-old Old Master gallery that showed in Tefafs Showcase section in 2017. In the Modern section, two big new dealers include Emmanuel Perrotin and Massimo De Carlo, who if not young are young in spirit and offer very contemporary works. I dont go to Maastricht every yearthis was my first visit in five or six yearsso it was difficult for me to ascertain whether the presence of Tefaf in New York since 2016 was affecting attendance by Americans. The dealers were not unanimous about thatone told me that American attendance was off by 80 percent, while others claimed it had not been affected at all. My guessits down, but not too badly. I do believe that fewer U.S. museums escorted groups of their patrons, though some, like the Museum of Fine Arts-Boston, were there. A few regulars have, I hate to say, clearly aged out and cant make the trip anymore. On the other hand: I did see many American curators and I know some purchases were made by themundisclosed at this point. Another change: while the quality was as usual very good, no one painting, or two, became the talk of the fair. None jumped out. Id seen some pictures/objects at Tefaf New York either in 2016 or 2017, too, so not everything was as fresh to market as dealers like to claim. One of my favorite drawings at the fair, a Canaletto, had been sold recently at Sothebys but hung here with a much higher price. The object that was creating a stir was at Parisian dealer J. Kugels standa 17th Century German baroque clock that stands 26 inches tall and includes representations of the Four Seasons, Minerva, Death as well as the planets, which rotate every twelve hours. But Americans could only look at, not buy, the $9.2 million pieceits carved from ivory, which cannot be imported into the U.S. (Its not really my taste, though I do appreciate the artistry involved.) Thats posted below, and here are a few pieces that caught my eye. Top to bottom: A Pilgrim as a memento mori, attributed to Baltasar Permoser, c. 1685; The Holy Family, oil on copper, Jacobo Zucchi; Coronation of the Doge, Canaletto. With these being just a tiny sliver of whats at Maastricht, you can see why it remains the best art fair. India has reached out to businesses in America's mid-west region citing investment opportunities in Punjab, MP, Andhra, Telangana. It is the right time for the American businesses to come and invest in India and be part of the success story the world's fastest growing emerging economy, the Indian Consul General in Chicago Neeta Bhushan told a large group of corporate sector representative from the mid-west region. (Photo: File) Washington: Seeking to attract more FDI from the US, India has reached out to the businesses in America's mid-west region citing investment opportunities in states like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It is the right time for the American businesses to come and invest in India and be part of the success story the world's fastest growing emerging economy, the Indian Consul General in Chicago Neeta Bhushan told a large group of corporate sector representative from the mid-west region. The Indian Consulate in Chicago last week organised a meeting with mid-west business leaders pitching for business opportunities in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Delivering her keynote address on "India's new initiatives, Budget 2018, Business opportunity in Indian States, Upcoming Business & Cultural Initiatives," Bhushan highlighted major aspects of Indian economy, key initiatives undertaken by the Government during the recent Budget 2018-19 and economic initiatives taken by the Government. In the last three years, India has achieved a growth rate of around seven per cent and it is estimated that India will continue to grow at around 7.5 per cent, she said. India is a USD 2.5 trillion economy now, making it the seventh largest economy in the world, she said. Speaking on business environment for Entrepreneurs in India, Bala Palamdai, president, TiE Midwest mentioned that India's new economic initiatives and tax reforms have made a huge change and the process had become much simpler leading to more digitisation and the economy had become more attractive for business and investments. TiE is a non-profit association dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship in the Bay Area. Amitabh Bachchan is in Jodhpur, filming for Thugs Of Hindostan and admiring the beauty of the night there. Mumbai: Amitabh Bachchan is in Jodhpur, filming for Thugs Of Hindostan and admiring the beauty of the night there. But the megastar is in pain, probably even severe pain, as some of his tweets suggest so. It is also quite possible that hes being operated on, as his blog mentions: I am getting my team of Doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again.. i will rest and keep informed in process.. Big B is shooting for some action scenes in the movie also starring Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh. So is he hurt on the sets? And who can forget the fatal injury senior Bachchan had to face on Coolie sets? Maybe that got aggravated and thus Amitabh now needs surgery? Anyhow, news reports suggest hes ill and thus doctors from Mumbai were rushed to treat him. On Tuesday morning, Big B took to his blog and opened up about his health issues. And this sparked concerns over his health. Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is in Jodhpur shooting for his film Thugs Of Hindostan, had fallen ill. According to the reports, a team of doctors was rushed from Mumbai in a chartered plane to Jodhpur. On Tuesday morning, Big B took to his blog and opened up about his health issues. And this sparked concerns over his health. I am getting my team of doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again. I will rest and keep informed in process, the 75-year-old posted on his blog on Tuesday morning. According to the reports, a team of doctors were rushed from Mumbai to Jodhpur in a charter plane to attend to the Piku actor. Now, sources close to the Bachchan family say that everything is finally under control, and alls well. Amit ji did feel slightly uneasy during the night and a team of doctors were called to attend to him in Jodhpur. But hes fine now, and eagerto get back to shooting. But director Vijay Krishna Acharya and co-star Aamir (Khan) wont let the megastar return to shooting for a few days, says the family friend. Even Jaya Bachchan, who is in Delhi attending Parliament, heard about heard about her husbands health setback on the news. She rang up Amitabh jis man Friday to get to know the truth. Only when she was reassured about his health did she return to parliament. Abhishek is shooting in Punjab for Anurag Kashyaps Manmarziyan. He too confirms that all is well with his Paa, says the family friend. The blast occurred when a team of CRPF's 212th battalion was patrolling in a forest in Kistaram area of Sukma. The rebels used a lot of explosives to blow up the vehicle. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) Raipur: Nine personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed and a few others injured when suspected Maoists blew up their mine-protected vehicle (MPV) in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Tuesday, an official said. The blast occurred when a team of CRPF's 212th battalion was patrolling in a forest in Kistaram area of Sukma, located around 500 kms from here, a paramilitary official told PTI. "Eight paramilitary personnel, belonging to the 212th battalion, were killed in the blast," he said. The security men were conducting an area-domination operation in the forest of Kistaram when the Maoists blew up the CRPF's mine-protected vehicle, he said. The rebels used a lot of explosives to blow up the vehicle, the official said. Soon after the incident, reinforcement was rushed to the spot, he said, adding that further details were awaited. The attack comes almost 11 months after 25 CRPF jawans were killed by a gang of nearly 300 Naxals at a construction site in Sukma. Then Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu had termed the attack as a classic case of mindless killing. Also Read: 25 CRPF jawans killed in Sukma Naxal strike 12 jawans of the CRPF were killed in the same district in March last year. However, state Home Minister Ramsewak Paikra told the state Legislative Assembly in February that as many as 300 Naxals were reportedly killed in separate encounters with security forces in Chhattisgarh in the last two years. The Indian Science Congress is an annual science event inaugurated by the prime minister. The general president of the Indian Science Congress Association (INSA), Achyuta Samanta, said the Tibetan leader had been invited to the conference, but said he would not be able to attend it. (Photo: AP/File) New Delhi: Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama will not attend the Indian Science Congress which opens in Manipur later this week, a conference organiser said on Monday. The Nobel Laureate's decision not to attend the congress assumes significance in view of the cancellation of a recent event in New Delhi where the Dalai Lama was expected to be present. Also Read: After leaders told to stay away, Tibetans scrap Dalai Lama event in Delhi The event, which was slated to have been held at Rajghat to commemorate the Buddhist monk's 60th year in exile in India, was later moved to Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, and will now be held at the end of the month. The Indian Science Congress is an annual science event inaugurated by the prime minister. The general president of the Indian Science Congress Association (INSA), Achyuta Samanta, said the Tibetan leader had been invited to the conference, but said he would not be able to attend it. "We were also told that he had visited Manipur two months ago," Samanta said. The Indian Science Congress website, however, still lists the Dalai Lama as one of the chief guests among other Nobel laureates expected to be present. Mr Samanta said nearly ten Nobel Prize winners had earlier confirmed their participation in the congress but most dropped out after the event was postponed. The ISC, which is held usually in the first week of January, was postponed in view of a perceived law and order problem at its earlier venue, the Central University in Hyderabad. Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, would be the only Nobel Laureate at the event, Samanta said. The development also comes in the backdrop of a media report about an Indian government directive to senior functionaries at the Centre and in the states to skip events being organised by Tibetans. Earlier this month, the Indian Express had reported that following a communication by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha had sent out a note to senior functionaries of the Central and state governments asking them to avoid events being organised by Tibetans. Following the report, the Foreign Ministry had said the Dalai Lama was a revered religious leader and deeply respected by the people of India, and added that there was no change in that position. "Government of India's position on His Holiness the Dalai Lama is clear and consistent. He is a revered religious leader and is deeply respected by the people of India. There is no change in that position," Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said. Journalist and social activist Gauri Lankesh was murdered outside her house in Bengaluru on Sept 5, 2017. Bengaluru: Investigations have revealed that Hindu Yuva Sena leader KT Naveen Kumar, who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, was also tasked to kill writer-rationalist KS Bhagwan, a strident critic of practices and beliefs in the Hindu religious system, in Mysuru. The conspirators behind the murder of Gauri Lankesh were impressed by logistical support provided by Naveen Kumar in carrying out the gruesome killing. According to a report in The Indian Express, sources have claimed that KT Naveen Kumar was amid the process of procuring a gun to kill Bhagwan when he was arrested by the Bengaluru police for illegal possession of bullets on February 18. It is suspected that KT Naveen Kumar had conducted a survey at the house of Gauri Lankesh, procured a weapon and facilitated a shooting operation by a team that had already visited Karnataka. Journalist and social activist Gauri Lankesh was murdered outside her house in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. On Monday, KT Naveen Kumar gave his consent to undergo narco-analysis test before a magistrates court in Bengaluru. The test is expected to help the investigating officers determine the extent of his role in the conspiracy, gather additional inputs and to verify statements given till now. MN Anucheth, Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), who is also the investigating officer in the SIT probing the Gauri Lankesh murder case, said, The alleged murder plot to kill writer-rationalist K S Bhagwan would now be pursued under sections of the Indian Penal Code for attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy case and not just an illegal arms case. The addition of these sections will implicate KT Naveen Kumar in the attempt to murder Bhagwan. Though Kumar has been granted bail in the Arms Act case, police will file a revision petition to consider the serious, new charges and reject bail, added Anucheth. A sealed copy of a voluntary statement provided by KT Naveen Kumar about his role in the two conspiracies was given to a magistrate before whom he was presented on March 2 in connection with Gauri Lankesh murder case. A delay of one week in arresting KT Naveen Kumar in February would have resulted in a murder attempt on Bhagwan, sources said. Some close aides who KT Naveen Kumar had involved in the conspiracy to murder Bhagwan have provided evidence during the investigation to indicate the stage of planning of the operation, such as a visit by some outsiders speaking a different language. According to police sources, investigations revealed that a weapon was to be delivered to KT Naveen Kumar, who had initially claimed that he was to procure a weapon from outside Karnataka, in the state through an arms and ammunition network that he had used for a few years. When KT Naveen Kumar was arrested in February, he was possessing 15 rounds of .32 calibre live cartridges which are the equivalent of 7.65 mm cartridges. Investigators believe that the plan to murder Bhagwan with a new weapon was likely to be an attempt to divert attention from the Gauri Lankesh case as probe had indicated that she was shot with a 7.65 mm country-made gun. The same weapon was used to kill Kannada literary researcher and scholar MM Kalburgi in August 2015 and leftist thinker Govind Pansare in February 2015. Singh condemned the recent trend of statue vandalisation, even if one does not agree to a particular ideology. The home minister further assured of a strict action to be taken against the miscreants responsible for the acts. (Photo: ANI) Amritsar: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday criticised the recent desecrations of statues that had taken place at various cities in the country. While on a visit to Punjab for the unveiling of Martyr Udham Singh's statue, Singh said, "Intolerance cannot be a part of our Indian culture". "The Indian culture does not promote vandalisation of statues of any personality, even if you do not agree with a particular ideology," Singh said. In a span of one month, a total of six separate instances of vandalism have been reported from different parts of the country involving various political and ideological leaders of the country. The home minister further assured of a strict action to be taken against the miscreants responsible for the acts. The Ministry of Home Affairs had earlier issued a statement saying the ministry had taken serious note of such incidents and asked the concerned states to deal sternly with persons responsible for the acts and book them under relevant provisions of law. The vandalisation spree began when the statue of communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin was brought down in Tripura after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in the state. Following this, a statue of social reformer Ramasamy Periyar was also vandalised in Tamil Nadu's Vellore district. The next figure to come under attack was the bust of Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in Kolkata. While in separate instances in Uttarakhand, Chennai and Meerut, busts and statues of Dalit leader Dr. BR Ambedkar were vandalised too in a period of one week. The Delhi High Court has granted relief to Karti till the next hearing on March 20. Karti had moved the Delhi High Court on March 8 following directions from the Supreme Court. (Photo: PTI/File) New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order granting interim relief to Karti Chidambaram from being arrested by the probe agency in the INX Media money laundering case. The Supreme Court will hear the ED's plea challenging the Delhi High Court order on March 15. The high court has granted relief to Karti till the next hearing on March 20. Karti had moved the Delhi High Court on March 8 following directions from the Supreme Court. Delhi's Patiala House Court on Monday sent Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister P Chidambaram, to judicial custody till March 24 in the INX Media corruption case. The CBI produced Karti in the court after his three-day police custody expired and sought 15 days judicial custody. The court dismissed Karti's plea for early hearing of his bail application. Special judge Sunil Rana pronounced the order after the CBI said that he was not required for custodial interrogation. On his plea seeking separate cell and protection in Tihar Jail, the court said the jail manual would be followed. It also said that his bail plea would be heard on March 15 as scheduled. The court denied Kartis request for home food in the jail. (With inputs from PTI) The port is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistans Gwadar port, which is being developed with Chinese investment. For India, the investment in Chabahar was important since the port will bolster a trade route for land-locked Central Asian countries that would bypass rival Pakistan. (Photo: AFP/File) New Delhi: In a shocking revelation for India, Iran on Monday said that it has invited Pakistan to become a part of the Chabahar project. Pakistan media on Tuesday reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Monday invited Pakistan to participate in Chabahar seaport project and in the development of its link with the Gwadar Port "as he sought to allay concerns in Pakistan over Indian involvement in the Iranian port." We offered to participate in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). We have also offered Pakistan and China to participate in Chabahar, said Zarif. The Chabahar Port has given India access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. For India, the investment in Chabahar was important since the port will bolster a trade route for land-locked Central Asian countries that would bypass rival Pakistan. Last year, India committed up to USD 500 million for the development of the Chabahar port along with associated roads and rail lines. The port in Irans Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich nations southern coast is easily accessible from Indias western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistans Gwadar port, which is being developed with Chinese investment and is located around 80 kms from Chabahar. However, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who inaugurated a newly built extension of the strategic Chabahar Port in December downplayed the rivalry in his inauguration speech and had said the port will bring more engagement and unity among regional countries. We should go after positive competition, he said. We welcome other ports in the region, we welcome Gwadars development. The petitioner also said, authorities need to find out how SIM cards were obtained, given that Rohingyas don't have citizenship documents. Activist Rohit Choudhary had filed a Right to Information application seeking information on the number of Rohingya Muslims living in Jammu and Kashmir. (Photo: ANI) Jammu: It has been revealed that 27 Rohingya Muslim families, who are illegal immigrants, living in Jammu own SIM cards, activist Rohit Choudhary said. Choudhary had filed a Right to Information (RTI) application seeking information on the number of Rohingya Muslims living in Jammu and Kashmir. "A shocking data that surfaced is that 27 Rohingya families and a total of 198 Rohingyas are living in Jammu Tehsil and all of them have mobile numbers. You need valid documents like Aadhaar for obtaining mobile numbers," he said. "This means these people have fake documents or they are being supported by local people who are providing them mobile SIM cards. Government is aware of the families owning these SIM cards and can easily find out against whose name these are registered, but they are not treating the matter seriously," he added. Terming it "a matter of serious concern," Choudhari further said that the authorities need to find out how the SIM cards were obtained, given that Rohingyas do not have valid documents of citizenship. Parents rubbished the claims saying that holding hands, or putting arms around each other's shoulders did not qualify as homosexuality. According to the parents, the authorities of Kamala Girls School in South Kolkata, forced the ten students to submit a written admission. (Photo: Representational/ Pixabay) Kolkata: Ten girls have been penalised for being homosexuals by a Kolkata school, who also tried to bring the students on the "right course." Parents of the accused girls protested against the school's misconduct. According to the parents, the authorities of Kamala Girls School in South Kolkata, forced the ten students to submit a written admission. The office of the acting headmistress was ravaged by the parents and heated arguments ensued. The headmistress's version was starkly different from parents. She said that the authorities had received complaints from other students against the ten girls for indulging in such behaviour. We called those students and they admitted it. Considering the sensitive nature of the issue, I asked them to admit it in writing. I have got written admissions from all 10 students," the media quoted the acting headmistress as saying. The headmistress also said that the guardians were called so that the matter could be discussed with them and the girls could be brought on the "right course", through efforts both at home and school. The parents rubbished the claims saying that holding hands, or putting arms around each other's shoulders did not qualify as homosexuality. The Supreme Court on March 8 restored Hadiya's marriage with Shafin Jahan stating that she was free to live with her husband. Hadiya, who was born to a Hindu couple in Kerala, made headlines after she converted to Islam and married a Muslim man against the wishes of her parents. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) Kozhikode (Kerala): Days after the Supreme Court scrapped the Kerala High Court order annulling the marriage of Hadiya, the 24-year-old woman on Monday demanded the state government to compensate for the losses she incurred during her two years of struggle. Clarifying to reporters that she had not demanded any compensation from her parents, Hadiya said, "There were some reports in the media that I demanded compensation from my parents. That is absolutely wrong. I sought compensation from the state government". "My legal struggle lasted roughly for two years and the six months I spent with my parents were horrible. I was literally under house arrest. I lost two precious years of my life. I dont think my parents would want to harm me but they were under the influence of some antinational forces," Hadiya was quoted as saying by The Times of India. Not elaborating on the "antinational forces" she earlier claimed, Hadiya added, "They are using them (parents) for political benefits. On being asked whether she would visit her parents, she said that she would not meet them as they needed time to accept her as a Muslim. "My parents also need some time to come to terms with all that has happened. I am not going to meet them this time. They need some time to accept that I am a Muslim," NDTV quoted Hadiya as saying. The Supreme Court on March 8 restored Hadiya's marriage with Shafin Jahan stating that she was free to live with her husband and "pursue her endeavours". Hadiya, who was born to a Hindu couple in Kerala, made headlines after she converted to Islam and married a Muslim man against the wishes of her parents. The Kerala High Court in May, last year, annulled the marriage on a complaint by her father terming it as an instance of 'love jihad'. The high court, while declaring the marriage as "null and void", had described the case as an instance of 'love jihad' and ordered the state police to conduct probe into such cases. If the probe is taken to its logical conclusion then Mr Chidambaram may be in trouble for granting approval. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the CBI and Enforcement Directorate for the inordinate delay in completing the probe in the 2G case relating to Aircel Maxis on the alleged involvement of former finance minister P. Chidambaram and other issues and granted six months for completion of the investigation. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha asked both the CBI and ED to give a status report in two weeks on the progress of investigation. The pending probes include that by the CBI into the role of Malaysian accused T. Anant Krishnan and Ralph Marshall in the Aircel-Maxis deal, and that by the CBI regarding Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval for Aircel-Maxis deal. If the probe is taken to its logical conclusion then Mr Chidambaram may be in trouble for granting approval. The ED is also looking into the money laundering aspects of the Aircel-Maxis deal. This includes the probe into Karti Chidambarams role in connection with the Aircel-Maxis case. Justice Mishra told attorney-general K.K. Venugopal it is a very important case and the country must know the results, whatever may be the decision. Why this investigation taking too long and what are the reasons for delay. Is anybody behind the delay? You cant keep this country in dark. This matter coming to us after four years and now you have to give all answers. You shall complete the investigation in six months and submit status report in 2 weeks. We want all answers to the questions raised by CAG in his report. Attack after forces had gunbattle with 100 rebels. Security personnel inspect the site of the IED blast where nine CRPF personnel were killed after Maoists ambushed them in Kistaram area of Chhattisgarhs Sukma district. (Photo: PTI) Bhopal: Nine CRPF personnel were killed and two others injured on Tuesday when Maoists blasted the mine protected vehicle (MPV) they were travelling in using over 50 kgs of explosives in Kistaram jungle, in Chhattisgarhs south Bastar district of Sukma. The attack came about four hours after another CRPF team had a fierce gunbattle with about 100 Maoists, also in Sukmas Kistaram forest in which, sources said, at least three grenades fired from Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL) failed to go off. All Naxals were in uniform. Initially our party thought that it is another party of CRPF but after few minutes they realised that they were Maoists Initially, our party fired UGBL but three grenades did not explode. Had the grenades gone off, we would have major success in the encounter, the CRPF officer disclosed to this newspaper. Despite that the jawans 208 CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) battalion forced the Naxals to retreat into the nearby jungle. The Naxals were heard communicating on a Chinese communication set that one Naxal was killed in the incident, the CRPF officer said. At around 12.30 pm, the Maoists emerged again, to blow up a vehicle carrying men from CRPFs 212 battalion. The impact of the explosion was such that the MPV was tossed eight to ten feet in the air before it crashed on the ground, throwing many personnel out of the vehicle, officials said. The slain include one assistant sub-inspector, one head constable and seven constables of CRPF. The injured were evacuated by a chopper to Raipur. The CRPF men were moving from Kistaram camp to the new camp in Palodi in the MPV when Naxals triggered improvised explosive device (IED) targeting them, D.M. Awasthi, special director general, Naxal operation, said. The blast is suspected to have been triggered by joining wires from a distance when the MPV crossed over the IED, officials said. Some of the CRPF personnel who were killed had recently returned from leave and were going to report at the new camp with their belongings and weapons, officials said. The attack came a few hours after the IB issued an alert of a possible Maoist attack on security personnel in the area. The attack site is in the core area of Naxal zone, where encounters take place almost every day between Naxals and security forces. Only inputs by security forces deployed on the ground reflect the ground situation, Mr Awasthi said. This was the fifth attack by Maoists on CRPF personnel in Sukma district since 2010. Twelve CRPF personnel were killed on March 11 last year in the Bheji area of Sukma district and their arms looted when Naxals ambushed their patrol party. A few days later, on April 24, 25 CRPF personnel were killed in a similar ambush in Sukma. In the deadliest ever attack on security personnel by Naxals, 75 jawans of the Central paramilitary force were massacred in Chintalnar in the district on April 6, 2010. Tuesdays attack came a day after Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh threw a challenge at the Naxals by riding pillion on a bike on Inzaram-Bhejji road, barely 40 km from the attack site. The chief minister condemned the attack, describing it as an act of cowardice. He said that the Maoists had targeted security personnel because they are angry over the developmental work being carried out in the area. He convened an emergency meeting of senior officers and police officers to take stock of the situation and that counterinsurgency operations in Bastar be intensified. Home minister Rajnath Singh said the incident was deeply distressing and asked CRPF director general R.R. Bhatnagar to rush to Chhattisgarh. The bill was introduced in the Lower House by minister of state for finance Shiv Pratap Shukla. The proposed law will apply to defaulters who have an outstanding of Rs 100 crore or more and have escaped from the country. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Even as no business could be transacted in both Houses of Parliament for the sixth day running on Monday, the government, amid the din in Lok Sabha, introduced the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018, that seeks to confiscate all assets of absconding fraudsters and loan defaulters for recovering dues from them. The bill was introduced in the Lower House by minister of state for finance Shiv Pratap Shukla. The bill was introduced in the backdrop protests over the nearly Rs 12,700 crore fraud at Punjab National Bank in which businessman Nirav Modi is allegedly involved. The proposed law will apply to defaulters who have an outstanding of Rs 100 crore or more and have escaped from the country. The minister also introduced the Chit Funds (Amendment) Bill 2018. Not much business has been carried out since the second leg of the Budget Session of Parliament began on March 5, with the noisy protests stalling proceedings every day, barring for one hour on March 8, when members participated in a discussion to mark the International Womens Day in the Upper House. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House immediately after the Question Hour started on Monday as the TRS, TDP, AIADMK and YSR Congress members stormed the Well carrying placards and raised slogans in support of their demands. As soon as the Lok Sabha met for the day, Ms Mahajan adjourned the proceedings soon after as protests by Opposition parties and NDA ally TDP over various issues, including the banking scam, special status to Andhra Pradesh and the Cauvery water dispute, continued unabated. The AAP too joined the protests in Rajya Sabha, demanding an end to the sealing drive in Delhi. When the House met again at noon, the protests continued but the Speaker went ahead with the proceedings, including introduction of the two bills by Mr Shukla. Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJD opposed the introduction of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, saying its provisions violated the citizens fundamental rights and that it is based on the premise of guilty till proven innocent and not the other way round. Scientists who conducted experiment on rats further add that results could prove true for humans. According to trials, it is suggested that being around stressed people can alter the brain in the same way as when one is overloaded at work. (Photo: AFP) A new study now concludes that stress can rub off on others. According to trials, it is suggested that being around stressed people can alter the brain in the same way as when one is overloaded at work. Canadian scientists who conducted the study called the results remarkable. They scientists who conducted the experiment on rats further add that the results could prove true for humans, who can communicate their stress 'without knowing it'. University of Calgary researchers, led by Dr Toni-Lee Sterley, studied the effects of stress in pairs of male or female mice. The researchers removed one mouse from each pair and exposed it to a mild stress before returning it to its partner. They then examined the responses of a specific cells, CRH neurons, which control the brain's response to stress, in each mouse. Networks in the brains of both the stressed mouse and their partner were altered in the same way, tests revealed. Speaking about it Dr Sterley sais that CRH neurons from the partners, who were not themselves exposed to an actual stress, showed changes that were identical to those we measured in the stressed mice. Co-author Professor Jaideep Bains further added that readily communicate stress to others, sometimes without even knowing it. He further said, There is even evidence that some symptoms of stress can persist in family and loved ones of individuals who suffer from PTSD. Scientists further analysed the mice by engineering the neurons so that they could either turn them on or off with light. When the team silenced these neurons during stress, they prevented changes in the brain that would normally take place after stress. Furthermore, when they silenced the neurons in the partner during its interaction with a stressed individual, the stress did not transfer to the partner. On activation of these neurons, however, even in the absence of stress, their brains were changed just as they would be after a real stress. The team discovered that the activation of these CRH neurons causes the release of a chemical signal, an 'alarm pheromone', from the mouse that alerts the partner. Mr Bharti added that the police also dispersed protesters in a peaceful manner. Mumbai: With the Mumbai police deploying nearly 15,000 men drawn from the department as well as the State Reserve Police Force and the special Quick Response Team no untoward incident occurred during the farmers protest march on Monday. The police personnel was deployed on the streets from Sion to Azad Maidan. Not only was the occasion peaceful, no traffic diversion had to be made either. A senior police officer who did not wish to be named said that there was heavy deployment and a large number of police personnel were present in and around Azad Maidan to prevent any inappropriate incident. The area was barricaded and there was also a heavy bandobast outside CSMT station since Sunday night to avoid any law and order situation. Deven Bharti, joint commissioner of police (crime), said, Some more farmers were expected to join the march from neighbouring districts. However, the police personnel were on their toes and prepared to maintain law and order. Mr Bharti added that the police also dispersed protesters in a peaceful manner. Deepak Deoraj, deputy commissioner of police (operations) and Mumbai police spokesperson, said, The march went extremely smoothly and there was absolutely no problem or law and order situation that the police had to deal with. The entire Mumbai force was on duty and no untoward incident was reported. Over 15,000 policemen were deployed, along with personnel from the State Reserve Police Force, Quick Response Team, Anti-Terrorism Squad and Riot Control Force, not to mention the Sniffer Dog Squad, in areas including Colaba, Marine Drive and Malabar Hill, said a senior officer. Amitesh Kumar, joint commisioner of police (traffic) on Monday said, No roads were or will be closed due to the protest march by the All India Kisan Sabha farmers. There were no diversions or closures of roads, and the citys traffic was handled smoothly. The prime minister launched TB-free India Campaign to take activities under National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an event to launch Tuberculosis-Free India Campaign, to meet the goal of ending the epidemic by 2025, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Also seen are Health Minister JP Nadda and Nigerian Health Minister Isaac Adewole. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 13 launched a campaign to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) from India by 2025, five years ahead of a globally-set deadline. After inaugurating the Delhi End-TB Summit in New Delhi, the prime minister launched the TB-free India Campaign to take the activities under the National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination forward in a mission mode for ending the epidemic by 2025. "A target has been set to end TB globally by 2030. I would like to announce that we have set aim to eradicate it from India five years ahead by 2025," Modi said. He stressed on analysing the situation and changing the approach, saying that efforts to curb tuberculosis has not yield successful results yet and said state governments have a major role to play in elimination of TB from the country. He further said that front-line TB physicians and workers can make a major contribution in this direction. "State governments have a major role to play in elimination of TB from India. I have written to all chief ministers to join this mission," Modi said, adding it would boost the spirit of cooperative federalism. He further said that TB was the most prevalent among communicable diseases in the country and the poor were the worst affected by it. Every step taken towards eradicating the disease is directly connected to their lives, he added. Leaders from across the globe have converged in the national capital for the summit, hosted by the Union Ministry of Health along with the WHO and the Stop TB Partnership. TB was responsible for 1.7 million deaths in 2016, despite most cases being curable while over 10 million people contract TB every year. The summit would set the stage for the September 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB, where for the first time, TB would be discussed in the UN General Assembly at the Heads of State level. The demand of the Opposition parties that these problems should be addressed and solved forthwith will remain a grand political tactic. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) was the main organiser of the protests by Nashik farmers most of them adivasis living on the edge of forests. It is true that apart from highlighting the demands of these farmers, the CPI(M) is also looking to gain political momentum against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state and at the Centre in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The organisers claimed that there were 40,000 farmers who had marched to Mumbai, the state capital. The police estimated that the figure was between 15,000 and 20,000. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis seemed to have decided to talk to the representatives of the farmers 15 of them on Monday morning when he realised that the presence of the aggrieved farmers in such large numbers in Indias financial capital was hugely significant. He did not want to be caught on the wrong foot. And the talks lasted for around four hours, with the chief minister aided by other ministers. The outcome was positive, if not substantial, at least for the moment. He sought six months time to transfer the forest lands to farmers under the Forest Rights Act 2006. And he has agreed to waive the farm loans, including term loans, from 2001 instead of 2009 as decided in June. And he did a good thing by arranging special trains for the farmers to go home. It may appear that the farmers had won because some of their demands have been met, that the CPI(M) had won because it has successfully mobilised the farmers and posed a challenge to the party in power, and that the Fadnavis government has won too as it has successfully parried the political protest. Chief minister Fadnavis will also believe that he has earned some brownie points as well. In market jargon, it has turned out to be a win-win outcome for all concerned. In the long term, however, these perceived victories might turn out to be illusory. The state government may not be able to sort out the transfer of lands as smoothly as it would like to, the farmers on the ground are sure to come up against the same hurdles, or new ones could crop up. The CPI(M) may not have gained as much political traction as it might believe. It may have to do something again to keep up the momentum. As a matter of fact, CPI(M) politburo member Hanhan Mollah had indicated as much, saying that after the success with the farmers of Nashik, the party would organise a similar farmers convergence in New Delhi from all over the country. The country needs this kind of political mobilisation time and again because it is necessary for the different ruling parties to be under constant pressure. It may not be entirely right to draw the general conclusion that the unhappiness and discontent of the Nashik farmers is a symptom of the crisis in agriculture in the country and that it clearly points to the failure of Prime Minister Narendra Modis government at the Centre and of BJP governments in different states. It is a valid generalisation, and as generalisations go it is of little value. What is clear is that Mr Modi and the BJP will be facing a tough contest in 2019, and they cannot take victory for granted. It is possible that this will serve as a wakeup call for the BJP that it gets a clear indication of the challenge looming on the horizon. There are of course the more substantial questions of the issues at stake, stemming out of the Nashik farmers protest. These are long-term issues, with no easy answers. No government can solve the problem of distress arising out of the general condition of a failed or weak monsoon, the crash in prices of the agricultural produce. These are structural challenges and they have to be addressed at different levels, starting from the ground. It shows that grand promises are really empty promises, and that is the real danger that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Fadnavis and many of his fellow CMs face. Their self-belief that they wield a magic wand is but a delusion. The demand of the Opposition parties that these problems should be addressed and solved forthwith will remain a grand political tactic. What anyone refuses to ask is whether the farmers are being brought together at the local level to sit down and talk about their problems and the solutions they need to evolve. It is a good thing to mobilise angry farmers for political purposes, but it is not going to deliver solutions. And it is quite clear that political parties, whatever their ideologies, have not much to offer on this score. One of the hypocritical things of the political parties, in the government and in Opposition, about the need to implement the M.S. Swaminathan committee report smacks of mindless opportunism. The report has not been discussed critically in the public domain, and it is unrealistic to assume that the committee has all the answers to farmers problems and all that is needed to solve them is to implement it. This speaks of unforgiveable ignorance. The BJPs grand strategy of moving people away from agriculture has been one of the conspicuous failures of this government because the idea did not reckon with Indian reality. China might have succeeded in shifting people dependent on agriculture to demarcated urban areas, but that step had spawned its own set of problems. Mr Modi and his colleagues in the party will have to abandon rhetoric for a while, and think of realistic solutions with the help of experts. What we need is a comprehensive report on Indian agriculture. Some of the elements are already available in government reports done from time to time. There is a need to go back to them, and look at the issues with sober eyes. Republicans in the GOP-controlled chamber plan to elect a new majority leader on Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix's resignation from his leadership post and as a state senator was effective from 2 pm on Monday, according to a press release from Senate President Jack Whitver. (Photo: Iowa Senate Republicans website) Des Moines: The top leader in the Iowa Senate resigned on Monday after a website published a video and photos allegedly showing the married lawmaker kissing a statehouse lobbyist. Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix's resignation from his leadership post and as a state senator was effective from 2 pm on Monday, according to a press release from Senate President Jack Whitver. Whitver added in a statement, "I believe he made the right decision for himself and for his district, but most importantly, I believe he made the decision in the best interest of his family." Republicans in the GOP-controlled chamber plan to elect a new majority leader on Wednesday. The incident caps a swift response from Republicans in the Senate after the liberal website Iowa Starting Line published a video and photos showing Dix and a woman together at a Des Moines bar. The video shows the two kiss. The website said the incident was recorded on March 1. The woman was identified as a statehouse lobbyist for Iowa League of Cities, an organization that seeks to sway legislation at the state Capitol. The woman did not respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press. Robert L Palmer, director of government affairs and legislative counsel said in an email, "We are taking what we believe are appropriate actions, but because this is a personnel matter we cannot comment further." Senate Democrats released a statement calling the incident a "serious matter." "Because this involves Senator Dix and a lobbyist, there will be questions about the impact of this relationship on legislation," said Senate Minority Leader Janet Petersen in a statement. Petersen also criticized Dix for how he handled a sexual misconduct case involving a former Senate GOP staffer. The former employee filed a lawsuit claiming sexual misconduct in the workplace. She was awarded USD 1.75 million, in 2017. GOP Guv Kim Reynolds told reporters on Monday morning that she planned to meet with Dix in the afternoon. She declined to comment further at the time about the allegation. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment after Dix's resignation. US said Trump and Kim Jong Un meet would happen only if Pyongyang sticks to promises over its missiles and nuclear programme. Washington: The US has made it clear that the meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would happen only if Pyongyang sticks to the promises over its missiles and nuclear programme. Last week, a South Korean delegation, led by its national security advisor, had conveyed Kim's invitation to Trump for a meeting. Also Read: Trump agrees to meet Kim Jong Un by May: S Korea official The invitation was accepted by Trump, taking the world by surprise. The North Korean leader reportedly expressed a commitment to denuclearisation. Trump had said that Kim had also promised not to conduct missile tests till the meeting. "We fully expect that it (the meeting) will (take place). The offer was made and we've accepted. North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises and, if so, the meeting will go on as planned," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is continuing to prepare on a number of levels for the meeting. "Most of that is an inter-administration, inter-agency process and I'm not going to get ahead of any of the details of the where, the when, or any of that here today," she said, responding to a series of questions on the meeting between the two leaders. Sanders said that the maximum pressure campaign on North Korea is working. "We know that they have responded due to that, and they have pushed this message through the South Koreans to us. We have accepted their invitation on the three promises that they made, and were going to move forward in this process," she said. Meanwhile, US National Security Advisor HR McMaster and US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, briefed members of the UN Security Council on developments related to North Korea. During the meeting, McMaster and Haley urged the international community to maintain maximum pressure on the North Korean regime and asked Council members to devote the political will and resources necessary to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions to hold the regime accountable. "The announcement of a meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim is a historic opportunity that holds great potential for the world," Haley said. "While we can't say whether Kim's offer is genuine, we can say that this historic meeting would not have been possible without the international community's participation in the maximum pressure campaign, initiated by the Trump Administration, and a commitment to holding North Korea accountable through three strong UN sanctions resolutions in 2017, she said. A Letter of the Pope Emeritus on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of Francis pontificate. The first South American Pope, first Jesuit Pope and first to have wanted the name of the Saint of Assisi. The Pope of the "discarded" and of a God who always tends His hand, a God whose fundamental characteristic is Mercy. Vatican City (AsiaNews) - It is a "foolish prejudice" to say that "Pope Francis is merely a practical man devoid of particular theological or philosophical formation" states Benedict XVI in a letter sent to Italian Msgr. Dario Edoardo Vigano, prefect of the Secretariat for Communication, on the occasion of the presentation of the series 'The Theology of Pope Francis', published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. "The small volumes - adds Benedict XVI - rightly illustrate that Pope Francis is a man of profound philosophical and theological formation and therefore help to see the inner continuity between the two pontificates, even with all the differences in style and temperament". Benedict XVIs letter was made public on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the pontificate of Francis, elected Pope on March 13, 2013. The 265th successor of Peter, the first South American pope, first Jesuit Pope and the first to have chosen the name of the Saint of Assisi, brought a definitely new style: the choice of Lampedusa as the destination of his first trip is emblematic of that attention for the "discarded" that is one of the central points of his message together with the presentation of a God who always tends His hand, a God whose fundamental characteristic is Mercy. These would seem the tracks of Pope Francis papacy to date along with his openness to new paths. His affirmation that the Holy Spirit comes to "upset [our plans]", is significant because "he moves us, makes us walk, pushes the Church to move forward even though it is much easier and safer "to remain in static and unchanged positions". Another key element of these five years have been the Poes firm opposition to the dictatorship of individualism and ideological colonization. On an "internal" level, his will to make the Church a "field hospital" and "outgoing" are the most obvious. The catchphrase, "Ah, how I would like a poor Church, for the poor", uttered in the faraway 2013 remain true, when he also constituted a commission on the economic issues of the Holy See. In these years he published two encyclicals (Lumen fidei, on faith, and Laudato si ', on the care of the common home), two apostolic exhortations (Evangelii gaudium, a programmatic text of the Pontificate for an outgoing Church, strongly missionary, and Amoris laetitia on 'love in the family', 23 Motu proprios (reform of the Roman Curia, economic management and transparency, reform of the marriage nullity process, translation of liturgical texts, with indications for greater decentralization and more powers for episcopal conferences). He has over 46 million followers on Twitter and over 5 million on Instagram. He wanted a jubilee, dedicated to Mercy and two synods on the family. He has made 22 international trips and 17 visits to Italy. In this regard, the choice to go to Bangladesh, a poor country, with a small Catholic community, is exemplary. There were the Rohingya, driven from neighboring Myanmar, victims of ethnic and religious persecution. They are part of those refugees for whom Francis asks not only for welcome but for integration, in the name of that humanity to which we all belong and of that Gospel which he has the duty to proclaim. The desire to reconcile the "distant" explains on one hand his attention towards the Protestant world - culminating with the trip to Sweden for the fifth centenary of Martin Luther - and the Orthodox - managing to also meet the Russian Patriarch Kirill - but also towards people like the divorced and remarried, which has created a heated intra-ecclesial discussion. He encourages a helping hand to those who have fallen and trust in the grace and freedom of people, so that they can - if you help - understand their mistaked and return, finding an open road and not a wall. Again on an "internal" level, Francis is a promoter of collegiality - just think of the Council of Cardinals instituted "to advise him in the governance of the universal Church" and to study the reform of the Roman Curia - even if he created some organisms - as the secretariats for the economy or information - which have centralized previously divided competences between different structures. Internationally, he enjoys prestige, although logically not everyone loves him for his opposition to the liberal economic system that "is unjust at its root", "kills", allows the "law of the strongest" to prevail at the expense of the weak. His role in the thawing of relations between the United States and Cuba is important, as is the peace process in Colombia and Central Africa. And it probably stopped the war widening in Syria, when the United States wanted to punish Assad for his use of chemical weapons. A Syria for which he affirmed: "There is a judgment of God and of history on our actions that we cannot escape". (FP) by Nirmala Carvalho Hindu nationalist BJP member Chintamani Malviya has claimed ownership of the hospital land. Attackers beat up nurses and pushed around nuns. The Pushpa Mission Hospital was founded in 1974 at a time when no medical facilities existed in the area. Mumbai (AsiaNews) A Catholic hospital has been attacked in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, and the nurses who work there have been beaten up by supporters of a Member of Parliament from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Pushpa Mission Hospital is owned by the Syro-Malabar diocese of Ujjain. For the local bishop, Mgr Sebastian Vadakel, this is an act against the Christian community. The dispute, the prelate told AsiaNews, began in late January, when false ownership claims were filed. We have all the valid legal documents that prove [our] property rights." Yesterday, "At around 9 am, at least 50 men armed with pickaxes and bulldozers barged in and brought down the compound wall of the Catholic hospital, said Fr Stephen Maria, head of public relations in the Madhya Pradesh region. They also fenced off some 2,000 square feet (about 185 square metres) of hospital land, beat up some nurses, and pushed around some nuns when they came to see what all the commotion was about." The mob claimed they had permission from a local court to seize the disputed land. Behind the troublemakers is Chintamani Malviya, a member of the BJP, and his personal assistant Gagan Singh, who came to the hospital last July to take possession of the hospital. "Without any orders, they came and demolished the compound wall and damaged the power generator, said Mgr Vadakel. This resulted in the disruption of electricity to the hospital and the emergency wards. Water supply too was disrupted. Last night, "I personally went, together with two priests, to the governor, and handed him a memorandum, the bishop said. About 80 per cent of Pushpa Mission Hospital patients belong to other communities, he explained. Our health care apostolate serves people of all faiths without any discrimination of caste and creed." The hospital opened on 1st December 1974 at a time when no medical facilities existed in the area, nor awareness of the importance of village-level healthcare. At the beginning, doctors and nuns went from village to village to visit, hold medical camps and hand out free medicines. Mgr Leo Cornelio, bishop of the nearby diocese of Bhopal, has joined Mgr Vadakel in slamming the mob action. "I strongly condemn the attack on the Pushpa Mission Hospital, he said in a statement. It is a systematic plan to bring disturbance and violence to a peace-loving community. This type of violence will not be tolerated any more. I ask the authorities to take action against the culprits immediately. Destroying the hospital when the governor was vesting Ujjain City was a cowardly action. The entire Catholic Church is shocked, Fr Maria Stephen in another statement. As a minority, we feel unsafe in the midst of repeated attacks against Church personnel and institutions. Pictures by Father Anthony A special Eucharistic adoration and prayer will be held tonight for the Holy Father. Thirty-three bishops have gathered in Mumbai, in addition to Card Gracias and the apostolic nuncio Mgr Giambattista Diquattro. Pope Francis is "the Pope of mercy" who "has a great love for Asia". Mumbai (AsiaNews) The Indian Church, in communion with the universal Church, today celebrated the fifth anniversary of the beginning of Franciss pontificate. Card Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), celebrated Mass with 33 bishops from all over the country as well as Mgr Giambattista Diquattro, apostolic nuncio to India. This evening the 35 prelates will gather in Eucharistic adoration and prayer for the Holy Father. We pray also for the bishops in India and Asia, Card Gracias said, so as to understand and put into practice the thoughts of the Holy Father inspired by the Holy Spirit on how to live the episcopacy and be the bishops of today beacons of mercy, good shepherds. The bishops are currently attending a seminar (12-17 March) dedicated to newly ordained prelates, in Sarvodaya, in the Archdiocesan seminary of St Pius X College, Goregaon (Mumbai). "I speak about Pope Francis to the new bishops, Card Gracias told AsiaNews. He is the guide of the Church and inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is very important that in today's challenging times we always keep in mind his thoughts. "Pope Francis is the pope of the peripheries. He is a pope with a compassionate heart for the poor. His love and concern go to the forgotten and the suffering. He cares about our young people and pays special heed to the elderly, especially grandparents. From the beginning of his pontificate, he reminded young people of the importance of staying connected with the elderly." Pope Francis "is the Pope of Mercy, the CBCI president explained. He brings people to the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Holy Father has a great love for Asia, which he showed during his travels to Asian countries. The pope often asks me about Asia, whose spiritual wealth he greatly appreciates." Francis "emphasises the importance of friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions. He said that 'If there is a word that we must never be tired of repeating, it is dialogue'. We are all called to promote a culture of dialogue by all possible means. This way we can rebuild the social fabric." Finally, "The vision of the FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences) for the Church in Asia is in communion with the thoughts of the Holy Father, said the cardinal who heads the FABC. The pontiffs thoughts are based on a triple dialogue with the poor, with cultures and with religions. Id also add the dialogue with nature." (NC) Israel is home to about 140,000 Ethiopian Jews who moved there after 1975, when the Jewish State recognised their Jewish identity. About 8,000 are left in Ethiopia, separated from families already in Israel. The government has promised to get them out, but is not willing to spend the money to do so. Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies) Hundreds of Ethiopian Israelis demonstrated yesterday in front of the Knesset, asking the government to keep its promises to let 8,000 Ethiopian Jews into Israel, thus uniting hundreds of divided families. The Jews of Ethiopia also called "beta Israel" are a sensitive issue in Israel. Regarded as descendants of the Israelites who accompanied the legendary son of Solomon, Menelik, to Ethiopia in the 9th century BC, the Beta Israel went unnoticed for centuries to the outside Jewish world and for a long time were not considered for aliyah (ascent), i.e. immigration to Israel, because Israel did not consider them Jewish. Only in 1975 did the rabbinate and the Israeli government recognise their Jewish identity, opening the doors to their arrival in the Jewish state. At present, some 140,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, and their history of integration is far from successful: they endure great poverty, unemployment and lack of education. For Israeli authorities, the Beta Israel aliyah ended in the 1990s, leaving behind thousands of Ethiopians who consider themselves Jews, even though they are descendants of Jews forced to convert to Christianity last century. Under the Law of Return that regulates Aliyah, the descendants of converted communities are excluded from those entitled to Israeli citizenship. Due to the pressures of some politicians and the Ethiopian community, successive governments have allowed further arrivals over the years. However, about 8,000 Jews are still stuck in the East African country, most of them with close relatives already living in the Jewish state. In 2015 Israeli authorities promised to bring over the 8,000 Jews still in Ethiopia but have not yet authorised funding for the move. For this reason, the Beta Israel held a rally yesterday to demand the government keep its promise. "I have two sisters in Ethiopia still waiting for 13 years... (Our) mother is crying day and night, let's stop this pain," said one protester at yesterdays rally. Protesters accuse Israel of discrimination, and they fear that the 2019 allocation is insufficient. The anticipated estimated cost of flying all 8,000 people to Israel along with housing and social services is roughly 1.4 billion shekels, or about US$ 400 million, a sizeable figure but a tiny fraction of a nearly 500 billion shekel (3 billion) national budget. Under Islamic law, daughters get half of what sons get. Some fear an extremist backlash. Tunisia remains the engine of change in the Islamic world. Tunis (AsiaNews/Agencies) Hundreds of Tunisian women have taken to the streets to demand equal inheritance rights, opening the debate again on the issue, often discussed in the Islamic world. Like in most Muslim-majority countries, Tunisias current inheritance system is based on Sharia or Islamic law, which gives daughters only half of what sons get. The march, which was held last Saturday amid tight police security, reached the Tunisian parliament. Protesters want the law to ensure the same inheritance for sons and daughters, noting that Tunisian society has evolved, and that it can remain Islamic whilst modernising its laws. Some men also marched with the women protesters. We have to stop considering this subject taboo, said Amina Rekik, a leader of the opposition Machrou Tounes party. It is true that Tunisian women have more rights compared to other Arab women but we want to be compared with European women, said activist Kaouther Boulila. We just want our rights, she explained. Some worry that such changes could stir up extremist anger in a country that has already suffered from terrorist attacks. In August, President Beji Caid Essbsi, a secular politician, set up a committee to draft proposals to advance womens rights in an effort to modernise and adapt legislation to the new democratic constitution. The committee is expected to deliver a report in June. Tunisia has already set an example in the past for the Muslim world when it adopted laws soon after independence from France in 1956 abolishing polygamy and granting women many rights. Last September, the Tunisian government also recognised the right of Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men. The country has been praised for being the only success story of the 2011 Arab Spring, that led to the overthrow of the Ben Ali regime. However, the granting of new political freedoms has been followed by disappointing economic growth and high unemployment, which have led to the emigration of many the very young Tunisians who participated in the revolutionary movement. The students will serve sentences ranging from two to six years in prison. They are charged with propaganda against the regime, an attempt on national security and undermining public security. At least a hundred students arrested following the demonstrations. Nobel Laureates condemn preventive detentions. Teheran (AsiaNews / Agencies) An Islaimic Revolutionary court has sentenced three Iranian students on charges of propaganda against the regime, acting against national security, and disturbing peace and public order through participation in unlawful assemblies. The three were arrested earlier this year during anti-government protests which inflamed the streets of the capital and other cities of the country. Leila Hosseinzadeh, a student of anthropology at the University of Tehran, has been sentenced to six years in prison and cannot leave the country for two years. Sina Rabeiei, who studies social sciences at the same university will have to serve a year in prison and has a two year travel ban. Mohsen Haghshenas, a theater and drama student in the capital, was sentenced to two years in prison. According to data provided by the Iranian intelligence ministry, the protests that broke out on 28 December 2017 led to the arrest of over one hundred students from Tehran University. Two parliamentarians close to the reformist wing, Farid Mousavi and Mahmoud Sadeghi, explained that most of the young people were detained on the basis of "preventive measures". However, prominent lawyers including Nobel Laureates Shirin Ebadi and Nasrin Sotoudeh have pointed out that the Iranian Penal Code does not allow for preventive detention. The courts of the country would have opened at least fifty proceedings against students involved in various capacities in the demonstrations; the arrest of students continued even after the end of the protests. Young people and workers took to the streets between the end of December and the first days of January to denounce theocratic dictatorship, poverty, corruption and unemployment. In the context of the uprising, 22 people died, at least 5 thousand of those arrested. These included Parisa Rafeiei, an art student; according to her father, the young woman was taken last February 25 by the Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran) and there has been no news of her since. A student activist told Radio Farda that many university students had received warnings before the protests, in which they were asked not to feed "radical requests". However, young people have intensified their criticism of the government and religious authorities, demanding respect for civil rights. by Wang Zhicheng Although how they voted remains unknown, the appearance of the three bishop-delegates has already helped make the story of the biggest constitutional change in 36 years. The three are: Joseph Huang Bingzhang of Shantou, excommunicated, Guo Jincai of Chengde, illegitimately ordained and Fang Jianping, illegitimately ordained and who after receiving forgiveness participated in three illicit episcopal ordinations as consecrating or concelebrant Beijing (AsiaNews) - There were Catholic bishops among the delegates of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) that on 11 March took the historic decision to accept 21 amendments to the Chinese Constitution, including one that allows an infinite term of office for President of the State and to add the so-called "Thought of Xi Jinping" in the Preamble. The most significant change in the fifth amendment in the history of the Chinese constitution is the "sanweiyiti" (three offices in one person) which consists in unifying the three main roles: Party General Secretary, President of State and President of the Central Military Commission , all without time limits. The most significant change in the fifth amendment to Chinas Constitution in history is the sanweiyiti, which is to align the three top posts-- Party General Secretary, State President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission--all without a term limit. Before the amendment, the post of State President is limited to a maximum of two 5-year terms. The Global Times noted that changing the constitution did not necessarily mean that the Chinese president will have a lifelong tenure. However, the news has aroused great controversy in and outside China since late February. Those who opposed an indefinite term mocked Xi as forever Emperor Xi. The label was also used as hashtag on the Facebook page of a TV program of the public-run RTHK station in Hong Kong but being removed subsequently. Though not knowing their voting intentions in the anonymous ballot, the appearance of the three bishop-delegates have already helped to make history as this was the greatest constitutional changes in 36 years. One of them is Bishop Joseph Huang Bingzhang of Shantou, who was publicly excommunicated by the Holy See in 2011. He is the government-appointed bishop whom the Holy See has asked twice Bishop Zhuang Jianjian, the ordinary of the diocese, to step down to give way for him last October and December. The second is Bishop Guo Jincai of Chengde, who was illicitly ordained without papal mandate in 2010. Vatican sources at that time cited that there was no Chengde diocese in the Catholic hierarchy and thus could not recognize him when denouncing his episcopal ordination. Guo, secretary general of the government-controlled bishops conference, is also awaiting the Holy See to recognize him along with the Chengde diocese. The third one is Bishop Fang Jianping, who was also formerly an illicit bishop ordained in 2000 but was pardoned by the Holy See subsequently. However, many Chinese Catholics criticized the pardoning came too soon as Fang did not show any remorse. He participated in three illicit episcopal ordinations either as the consecrator or a coordainer after he was pardoned. Speaking to reporters on the sideline of the NPC two days ago whether Chinese Catholics need to support Xi Jinping, Bishop Fang said, of course, noting that as a citizen of a country, citizenship should come before a religion and belief. When he was asked whether God or the Communist Party is more important, Bishop Fang, a vice chairman of the bishops conference, said on March 9, whats Gods return to God and the countrys return to the country. The China-Vatican accord has been a focus of concern for many Hong Kong and Taiwan media during the current two sessions--the annual meetings of the NPC and Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference. Even Wang Yi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was asked about the imminent accord that reportedly to be signed later this month. On hearing the question, Wang replied, China and the Vatican is going through constructive dialogue. On March 4, Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, also responded to the Commercial Radio of Hong Kong that China has always been sincere about improving China-Vatican relations and has made great efforts to do so. Wang Zuoan did not disclose details of the accord on bishops appointment but pointed out that they have the same expectation on bishops as with religious personnel of other religions, expecting they will unify patriotism and the love to their religion, not only for the healthy development of religion but also makes positive contribution to social harmony. The accord has caused anxiety, disappointment and anger among some Catholics in both the open and underground Church communities as they felt the Holy See has made too many concessions. They were also displeased that the Vatican keeps mute on the reoccurrence of Cross removals lately. The latest Cross removal was a Catholic Church of Shangqiu diocese, central Henan province, on March 9 without prior notice. The workers took more than five hours to remove four Crosses in the Church compound. The Catholic Church of Yining in northwestern Xinjiang also has its cross removed on March 2. "Maintaining an academic climate conducive to equity". The rule was aimed at countering religious extremism. The provision had sparked heated debate. The niqabs are rare in the country and are often seen as an unwelcome Arab export. Yogyakarta (AsiaNews / Agencies) On the back of harsh criticism an Islamic university which had banned its female students from the full veil, or niqab, has made a u-turn. Last week, the Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University of Yogyakarta, on the island of Java, had imposed a ban on 41 girls, fearing them the possibility of being expelled if they did not comply with the provision. The institute, which has about 10 thousand students, said that the now cancelled rule was aimed at countering religious extremism in the worlds most populous Muslim majority country. "The resolution concerning female students wearing a veil covering their faces will be revoked, to maintain an academic climate conducive to fairness", says a statement released by the university. The rule had sparked heated debate in Indonesia. Those in favour say that wearing a full-face veil with a small eye slit does not constitute a religious obligation, but critics have recognized in the anti-niqab appeal an "attack on the individual rights of young people". Another university in Yogyakarta, Ahmad Dahlan, also invited female students not to wear the niqab, while in the past several Indonesian universities have issued bans. Although the niqabs are common in the ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf States, they are rare in Indonesia, where about 90% of its 260 million inhabitants profess a moderate form of Islam, and are often seen as unwelcome Arab export. By Martin Boland, Senior Lecturer of Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Charles Darwin University A Soviet-designed Novichok chemical is the nerve agent responsible for poisoning a former spy and his daughter, British Prime Minister Theresa May said today. Sergei and Julia Skripal were found collapsed on a park bench on Sunday March 4 in the English town of Salisbury, a few hours after eating lunch and spending time at a restaurant and pub nearby. As reported by the BBC, May said the UK must stand ready to take extensive measures if Russia does not provide an adequate explanation for the use of this agent on British soil. Read more: Nerve agents: what are they and how do they work? What are the origins of Novichok? The Novichok group of molecules are nerve agents developed by the Soviets from the late 1970s but never produced on a large scale, at least to the best of public knowledge. They are referred to as third generation nerve agents to indicate their production as a follow-on to the G-series agents such as sarin (also referred to as GB) developed in Germany prior to WWII, and the V-series agents (such as VX gas) first developed by the UK in the 1950s. The name Novichok translates colloquially from Russian as newbies. Scientists who worked on the Novichok project disclosed details from 1992 onwards. They stated that the project goals included developing weapons that: could not be detected by the then standard NATO chemical weapons detection sensors have potential to circumvent the Chemical Weapons Convention would be easier to produce using methods and materials prevalent in pesticides industries were designed from the outset to be binary chemical weapons (where two relatively non-toxic materials are mixed together just before dispersal to minimise the danger to the personnel delivering the weapons). How would Novichok use be confirmed? Members of the public said that Julie Skripal appeared passed out on the park bench in Salisbury, and her father was making strange movements with his hand. The two remain in a critical condition in hospital. Nerve agents like Novichok are all organophosphate compounds, which act by blocking the normal processes that control nerve activity. Symptoms are given the mnemonic SLUGEM: Salivation - the famous foaming at the mouth Lacrimation - crying, or tears pouring from the eyes Urination, Defecation Gastrointestinal distress Emesis (vomiting) - as the body loses control over muscles, particularly those of the sphincters Miosis - one of the key diagnostics; the muscles that cause the pupil to constrict become fully activated and the pupils become pinpoints in the iris. The final M is sometimes given as muscle spasms. The type of spasms associated with organophosphate poisoning are somewhat diagnostic. Although some of these symptoms are common with other nervous system disruptions, doctors are taught to look for these symptoms together as a sign of exposure to organophosphates. Read more: Explainer: what is VX nerve agent and how does it work? Apart from the physical signs and symptoms, to confirm identity of the agent, police and doctors take blood or other fluid samples, or wipe the patients skin with a gauze to pick up any residue of the agent. Those samples are reasonably stable and could be sent to an analytical chemistry laboratory for identification. The UK has an Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) designated laboratory run by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Chemical and Biological Systems. The lab is located at Porton Down, around 10 miles from the scene of the attack. In Australia, the equivalent OPCW designated laboratory is operated by the Defence Science and Technology Group. The Handbook of Recommended Operating Procedures for Analysis in the Verification of Chemical Disarmament (also known as the Blue Book) does not have a specific method for detecting Novichok agents. However, it would be reasonable to assume that they would be detectable by the methods available to a well equipped defence science laboratory. How could Novichok have been administered? Nerve agents such as sarin are typically used in the form of a gas or vapour. But Novichok agents can be made in a solid form, most likely a powder. This would make them a relatively simple agent to be used on a battlefield (as may have been the original design motivation), or to add to food or to be left in a home as may be the case with the Skripals. Nerve agents are bioavailable from the gut - that is, they can absorb into the body after being eaten. That route of delivery isnt well studied, but is consistent with the slightly slower onset of symptoms in Sergei and Julia Skripal. In comparison, nerve agents administered via aerosol or spray are effective very quickly - Kim Jong-Nam died shortly after facial exposure to nerve agent VX in a Malaysian airport. Novichok agents are said to be particularly effective at penetrating the central nervous system (that is, the brain and spinal column) and causing more severe neurological symptoms than is typical for other nerve agents. As well as Sergei and Julia Skripal, a policeman has become seriously ill as a result of this incident - its not clear whether this was through attending to the sick pair on the bench, or visiting Sergei Skripals house. Furthermore, the UK government has issued a public health advisory notice for people who were in the pub and/or the restaurant at which the Skripals may have been poisoned. For people who may have been exposed to very small amounts of Novichok, the advised washing of clothing would act to dilute or deactivate the compounds. Read more: Russia not so much a (re)rising superpower as a skilled strategic spoiler Will the ex-spy and his daughter survive? A reported case of accidental exposure of a Russian physicist to Novichok in 1987 described the following events: He staggered out of the room, his vision seared by brilliant colors and hallucinations. He collapsed, and the KGB took him to a hospital. By the time he arrived his breathing was labored. In another hour, his heart would have stopped. His entire nervous system was gradually ceasing to function. The physicist was lucky. The hospital he was taken to, the Sklifosovsky Institute, includes the nations top center for poison treatment. There, Dr. Yevgeny Vedernikov saved his life. But the scientist was at the edge of death, unaware of his surroundings, for 10 days. He couldnt walk for six months. He was dogged by depression and an inability to concentrate. He found it difficult even to read. To this day his arms are still weak, and he has never been able to return to work. Although he survived, the gas left him with permanent disabilities. This previous incident suggests that while the Skripals could theoretically recover, they may not be in a fit state to act as reliable witnesses to their own attempted murders. The question of who was responsible will remain - although British Prime Minister May has come to the conclusion that, Either this was a direct action by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others. Were waiting for an official Russian response. Martin Boland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Originally published in The Conversation. If the stay period is only 3 months, then yes, they need to be out of the country before that stay period expires or they will have overstayed. Best not to wait until the day of to leave either (a week before at least). Just look at what happened at Sydney airport with flight delays. I secretly wondered to myself how many people that day overstayed their visas by waiting until the last minute to leave and then delays out of their control happened. And maximum 12 months stay in 18 months means just that. 12 months only allowed in total in 18 months, adding up all the individual visits. Yes there is an online version of the 40SP for sponsors and I'd imagine that is the preferred method though they'll accept a scanned version. All the sponsor needed to do was create a new application in immi account and choose the sponsor option. Yes, the sponsorship form needs to be filled out in whole, regardless of if the questions are the same or have been answered in the applicant's form. You also should not copy and paste the narrative sections as those boxes are your personal statements and need to be written by the applicant for the applicant's form and the sponsor for the sponsorship form. Photo courtesy of Tritium. Electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure solutions developer, Tritium, has opened its European headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to support the global growth of its fast-charging solutions. Tritiums strategic development plan includes the service, support, sales, training and manufacturing of its electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging solutions, according to Tritium. At the facility, Tritium is able to offer comprehensive and confidential testing facilities for any automotive vehicle. The new facility will also act as the center for its sales program across the territory and will house a training and accreditation unit so technical servicing and customer support. Tritium is a major supplier of fast chargers in this region, and has retained 20% of the west Europe market since the launch of its Veefil 50kW DC range fast charger in 2013, according to Tritium. It has supplied over 50% of the DC fast charging units operational in Norway and is looking to develop its sales further in regions such as Germany, the U.K., France, BeNeLux and Scandinavia, where its Veefil fast-chargin station is already installed on charging highways and in city centers. The opening of this facility represents a major investment and commitment to the European market, and its in direct response to increased demand for our products and services from this region, said Jeroen Jonker, Tritium GM - Sales Europe. Mercedes Benz vans has developed potential logistics concepts involving electric vans, robots, drones, and smart autonomous loading systems. Photo: Mercedes-Benz As urban centers increasingly battle problems with pollution and congestion while e-commerce grows by leaps and bounds, well see changing technologies in last-mile logistics and changing maintenance challenges. In a session at the Technology & Maintenance Councils annual meeting in Atlanta, panelists explored the issue of last-mile delivery trends. Nick Tempelhoff shared a possible future vision developed by Mercedes-Benz vans, starting with smart, autonomous loading systems, and using drones and small wheeled robots that would deploy from a mothership van one powered by electricity. In fact, much of the session centered around electric-powered last-mile delivery vehicles, either full battery electric or hybrids. The near future of last mile delivery The writing is on the wall for alternative powered vehicles in last-mile delivery, said Mike Hasinec of Penske Truck Leasing. When you look at the routes, at the stop density, the infrastructure is very feasible. Already, he said, technologies such as compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane, hybrid and some electric vehicles are in operation. However, the population is very small and has remained so for many years, because they are mostly in niche application such as buses and small delivery trucks. OEMs have not heavily pursued alternative power vehicle production, he said, and customers arent necessarily willing to buy these vehicles in large numbers, so there are few economies of scale to be had. Leasing companies such as Penske have been able to invest in larger numbers and provide these technologies to fleets. Tim Dollmeyer, director of technology and engineering for Cummins Electrified Power, showed slides of various hybrid and electric vehicles from the past decade or so most of which are no longer around. It took government incentives to help develop and deploy them. Something different is happening now, he said. The change is really coming from the needs of the urban areas, this is where the bulk of last-mile activity happens. City governments, he said, are increasingly putting into place policies and regulations to address problems with congestion, air quality, and noise pollution, creating a demand for these technologies. At the same time, he said, we are seeing that the economics are starting to be positive in some applications. Thats already happening for urban buses, and should be the case for medium-duty delivery vehicles by early in the next decade. Charging is a big challenge, Dollmeyer noted. Without extensive electric charging infrastructure, its a lot harder to carry the energy with you that youd like to have. Fast-charging systems can reduce battery life. Theres no standard for charging connections. And there are real estate challenges. Weve got to actually charge these things, and its going to have a big and varied impact on our ability to deploy these things, Dollmeyer said as an example. While commercial vehicles consume between 0.8 and 2.5 kWh per mile, their batteries are expected to store between 50 and 500 kWh. The charging needs alone will affect the layouts of shops and fleet yards. The vehicles actually need to sit by the charger, and quite often the electricity and the available charging isnt in the same spot, Dollmeyer explained. To compound matters, there are already four different styles of connectors for the vehicles, and they are not all compatible with one another. He doesnt expect internal combustion engines to disappear anytime soon, and in fact predicted increasing use of hybrids to allow for vehicles that can run on electricity in the cities but have extended range for operating outside of low-emissions zones. He noted that there is increasing activity to work to develop fuel cells, because that allows us to carry more energy with us. Maintenance challenges with alternative powered last-mile trucks Penskes Hasinec outlined a number of challenges when it comes to maintenance of alternative fuel and powertrains, noting that there have been improvements in some of these areas in recent years: Tooling availability Diagnostics Training Facility design Charging infrastructure Willingness to invest OEM support Reliability The good news, Dollmeyer said, is we expect there to be less maintenance for battery-electric vehicles. There are simply fewer parts to maintain or repair. Hybrids, however, can do the opposite, adding systems that mean more things to break down although a well-integrated hybrid system can reduce stress in some parts of the drivetrain, he said, noting that many hybrids in the past created a lot of maintenance headaches. Newer systems may benefit from better engineering as well as from sensors and sophisticated onboard diagnostics that werent around for early generations of hybrids. In addition, theres safety training involved. This stuffs dangerous in a new way, Dollmeyer said. The UPS experience Maintenance techniques that worked in UPS' electric vehicle fleet in the 1930s wouldn't be applicable today. Photo: Deborah Lockridge One company probably has more experience with alternative-powered last-mile delivery trucks than any other: UPS. Its rolling laboratory of alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles is about 9,000 around the world, from electric bicycles to renewable natural gas and propane. It recently announced plans to deploy 50 plug-in electric delivery trucks designed from the ground up as part of a collaboration with Workhorse Group. UPS has more than 300 electric vehicles deployed in Europe and the U.S., and nearly 700 hybrid electric vehicles. The company recently ordered 125 new fully electric Semi tractors to be built by Tesla in 2019, the largest pre-order to date. Last year, UPS also announced it will become the first commercial customer in the U.S. to start using three medium-duty electric trucks from Daimler Trucks' Fuso brand, the eCanter. Duane Lippincott oversees training for UPS maintenance personnel at more than 1,400 shops in the U.S. with more than 5,000 technicians. Natural gas vehicles require shop modifications that can range from the bare minimum needed to palaces. Shop modifications for the electric and hybrid package cars are minimal, although he agreed with other presenters when it comes to charging, saying, the charging infrastructure is a whole different story. For the new Class 8 electric trucks, hes not sure yet what modifications may be needed, but we know were going to need to make some changes. Every time we get a new technology, theres a new tool list, and new software for the computer, he said. More space may be needed for additional parts inventory. Training is of escalating importance, Lippincott said. We must be moving forward faster and faster than we ever have before. This may mean we develop different ways of training and of running shops. Its going to be very difficult to hire enough technicians and have highly technical people in all your tech positions, he said. Perhaps well need a hierarchy, with an entry-level tech handling basic jobs like oil changes and tires on one end, and a highly skilled, trained, and technical expert on the other end of the scale. Maybe we develop a call in number where less skilled techs call in and the highly skilled ones help diagnose the problem by phone. We dont need virtual reality glasses for that; we can do that today, every one of us, with an iPhone, just using Facetime, so you can show him the problem youve got. Showing a slide of a fleet of electric trucks that UPS ran in the 1930s, Lippincott said, Whats old is new, but the new is new in a whole new technological way. If I depended on the training from the 1930s vehicles for todays shop, it wouldnt work too well. A number of electric and hybrid commercial vehicles have come and gone but this time something's different. Photo: Deborah Lockridge Originally posted on Trucking Info You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Harold Pierce covers education and health for The Californian. He can be reached at 661-395-7404. Follow him on Twitter @RoldyPierce Downtown Bakersfield is already home to a variety of wildlife, both the four- and two-legged kind, but one native species is making its triump Three men charged with the murder of a juvenile in 2017 are set to be sentenced on Wednesday after being found guilty by a jury in March. About 448 vulnerable locks on jail cells in Lerdo Jails pre-trial facility that are being exploited by inmates will be replaced after Kern Co Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. After two reports of otter attacks on boaters in the Braden River in as many days, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has posted warnings to boaters about the potential hazard. First attack reported March 3 Sue Spector, 77, attacked while boating March 4 Warning posted at Linger Lodge Sue Spector, 77, was the second otter attack victim. She and her husband were out in kayaks on the river March 4 when they spotted an otter swimming close by. In a matter of seconds things took a turn for a worse. All of a sudden he jumped on the back of the kayak and lunged at me," Spector said. "Then the next few minutes were just a blur -- I was screaming to try and scare him, but that didnt budge him. Spector said the otter first jumped onto her back, before clawing at her head and face. The group she was kayaking with rushed to her aid. Two women are over by the grasses, just whacking at the otter, trying to get him to leave," said Marsha Wikle, who organized the trip. After more than a dozen doctors visits, Spector is on the mend. Nine days after the attack, she still has stitches marking her ear and nose. Her left arm is bandaged up from the bite marks. Im on two antibiotics, Ive had four trips to the health department for anti rabies shots," she explained. Sue Spector, 77, is recovering from being attacked by an aggressive otter while kayaking in the Braden River on March 4, 2018. (Angie Angers, staff) A spokesperson for FWC says this was the second report of an otter attack on Braden River. The first was made the day before. Notices from FWC warning boaters of an aggressive otter are posted at Linger Lodge, the spot the group took off from. They were at the perfect place for someone at their skill level and at their age to be, at a quiet river like the Braden River," Wikle said. Sue says this rare attack won't stop her, and she plans to get back out on the water once she has healed. I will -- just not where I was when I was injured," she said. President Donald Trump has fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state a move that the world found out about through a tweet Tuesday morning. Trump fires Secretary of State Rex Tillerson President says they'd clashed over Iran nuclear deal Trump wants CIA Director Pompeo to succeed Tillerson The shakeup at the highest levels of the U.S. diplomatic ranks comes as Trump plans to hold talks with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un. In the same tweet, Trump said he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson. Tillerson had just returned from a cut-short trip to Africa when the announcement was made, and White House officials said he didn't get to speak with the president before being let go and doesn't know why. Later Tuesday, two federal officials said one of Tillerson's top aides Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein was also fired, shortly after he released a statement saying Tillerson was "unaware of the reason" for his firing. Goldstein had also said that Tillerson learned of his firing from Trump's tweet. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018 Trump said he and Tillerson, a former CEO of ExxonMobil, had been talking about parting ways for a long time and "disagreed on things," singling out the Iran nuclear deal. "When you look at the Iran deal, I thought it was terrible," Trump said. "He thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something; he felt a little differently. So we were not really thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well," Trump said. In a news conference Tuesday, Tillerson said he's delegating his responsibilties to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan for now and will formally step down at the end of the month. He said the State Department "exceeded the expectations of almost everyone" on North Korea. Reaction to the president's decision wasdivided among lawmakers. "Mike Pompeo is an excellent choice to lead the State Department and represent the United States around the world. He understands very clearly the international challenges and the opportunities before America in the 21st Century," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said in a statement. Meanwhile, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said: "The instability of this administration in just about every area weakens America. If hes confirmed, we hope that Mr. Pompeo will turn over a new leaf and will start toughening up our policies towards Russia and Putin." One of Tillerson's most vocal supporters, Sen. Bob Corker, who heads the Foreign Relations Committee, acknowledged that Trump had Tillerson had disagreed but said the firing caught him by surprise because "they had learned to work together a little bit better." Trump urged Congress to swiftly confirm Pompeo, and Tillerson also supports the succession. Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Results are coming in for races in several Pinellas County cities this Election Day. New mayors were elected in four cities: Gary Katica in Belleair Joanne Kennedy in Indian Rocks Beach for mayor-commissioner Sandra Bradbury in Pinellas Park Larry Lunn in Treasure Island In Madeira Beach, where commission meetings have been highly-charged over the last year, the results are in for one race, while another is too close to call. Terry Lister is up for re-election, facing off against Deby Weinstein for the District 1 seat. At the moment, Weinstein is ahead by just two votes. Nancy Hodges was re-elected in District 2, beating Eric Breslin 55 to 45. There could be another election right around the corner in Madeira Beach if some residents have their way. Hundreds of signatures were collected for a petition asking to have the seats of two city commissioners, John Douthirt and Nancy Oakley, recalled. Petitioners want the two to either resign or face a special election for reportedly making an improper hire. The commissioners plan to go to the courts and get that tossed out altogether. Edward Hoofnagle and Nick Paloma won the two city commissioner seats. In Clearwater, David Allbritton and Hoyt Hamilton won the city council races. Many people hear the words on the night He was betrayed during church service or Mass. That night was Maundy Thursday and it was one of the most important nights in all of history. Maundy Thursday, also referred to as Holy Thursday is observed during Holy Week on the Thursday before Easter. Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper when Jesus shared the Passover meal with His disciples on the night before He was crucified. The word Maundy is derived from the Latin word mandatum, or mandate. This word is used in the Latin text for John 13:34: Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos or in English, A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you. It is called Maundy Thursday because it was on this day that Christ gave us the new commandment the new mandate to love one another as He loves us. While different denominations observe Maundy Thursday in their own distinct ways, two important biblical events are the primary focus of Maundy Thursday. The first Bible event is when Jesus washed the disciples feet. Before the Passover meal, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples: It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He powered water into a basin and began to wash His disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him (John 13:1-5). This was an incredible act of humility and was so out of the ordinary. It was a reversal of normal roles. It was so out of the ordinary that it stunned the disciples. Bu performing this lowly foot-washing service, Jesus showed the disciples the full extent of His love. He demonstrated how believers are to love one another through sacrificial humble service. This is why many Christian churches practice foot-washing ceremonies as a part of their Maundy-Thursday services. At the Last Supper, Jesus washed the disciple feet, however the disciples did not wash each others feet nor did anyone wash Jesus feet. Because of this, many pastors choose to wash the feet of the members of the congregation but do not have their feet washed. The second Bible event is when Jesus instituted communion. During the Passover meal, Jesus took bread and wine and asked His Heavenly Father to bless it: He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. After supper He took another cup of wine and said, This cup is the new covenant between God and His people an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you (Luke 22:17-20). This passage describes the Last Supper, which forms the biblical basis for the practice of Communion. Because of this, many churches hold special Communion services as a part of their Maundy Thursday celebrations. Likewise, many congregations observe a traditional Passover Seder meal. The Passover has great significance not only in the Jewish faith, but also the Christian faith and was a key part of Maundy Thursday. The Jewish Passover commemorates the Israelite liberation from slavery in Egypt as recorded in the book of Exodus. The Lord used Moses to rescue His people from bondage by sending ten plagues to persuade Pharaoh to let the people go. With the final plague, God promised to strike dead every firstborn child in Egypt. To spare His people, He provided instructions to Moses. Each Hebrew family was to take a Passover lamb, slaughter it, and place some of the blood on the door frames of their homes. When the destroyer passed over Egypt, He would not enter the homes covered by the blood of the Passover lamb. These and other instructions became part of a lasting ordinance from God for the observance of the Passover Feast, so that generations would remember Gods great deliverance. That night, Gods people were delivered from the plague and escaped Egypt in one of the most dramatic miracles of the Old Testament. On the first Passover, God commanded Israel to always remember His deliverance by sharing in a Passover meal. Jesus transformed the Passover meal on Maundy Thursday when He celebrated the Passover with the apostles. Jesus said, I have been very eager to ear this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I wont eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God (Luke 22:15-16). Jesus fulfilled the Passover with his death as the Lamb of God. While it is not a requirement for Christians to celebrate the Passover, it is beneficial to understand and celebrate the Passover if it leads to a greater understanding and appreciation for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians who observe the annual memorial marking of Jesus death are reminded that eternal life only comes through Him. It is also a great reminder of His deliverance of us from the bondage of sin. Jesus sacrifice is the starting point of salvation. On Maundy Thursday, remember the commands that Jesus gave His disciples at the Last Supper: to love with humility by serving one another and to remember His sacrifice. We wouldnt be here without it. 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, March 13, 2018 Contact: Jean Su, (415) 770-3187, jsu@biologicaldiversity.org Trump Administration Sued for Withholding Records on Missing Climate Report WASHINGTON The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. State Department today for refusing to release public records regarding the overdue seventh U.S. Climate Action Report. The deadline to submit the report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat passed on Jan. 1. After a year of deadly, record-breaking storms, blowing off climate reporting requirements is wildly irresponsible, said Jean Su, associate conservation director at the Center. We need to know who or what is holding up this critical report, given the Trump administrations dangerous record of climate denial and aversion to transparency. Todays lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, demands records related to the reports delay and the timeline for its preparation and release. The suit comes after the State Department failed to respond to the Centers Feb. 1 Freedom of Information Act request by the mandated deadline. The objective of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to a level that prevents the most dangerous effects of climate change. The United States and other parties to the treaty must periodically submit reports on their greenhouse gas emission inventories and action plans consistent with this objective. On Feb. 5 the Center threatened the State Department with a lawsuit over the missing climate report. In response to media inquiries about that warning, the Department said it planned to submit the report. However, it has not disclosed any information about the status or timeline of the reports production. Under past administrations the launch of the production process was typically announced in the Federal Register up to eight months before the deadline; most previous report drafts were also made available for public review. While tardiness in submitting the report has occurred, the United States complete omission of the report would be unprecedented. The Centers suit notes that the Departments failure to submit the report is a violation of the UN treaty and the U.S. Administrative Procedure Act. The majority of the other parties to the convention have submitted their reports, including the European Union, Germany and Russia. Trumps intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement does not in any way affect U.S. legal obligations under the convention. Escaping the climate emergency will require global cooperation, Su said. As the nation that has pumped the most greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere, the U.S. has to play ball. And well fight in court to make sure it does. For Immediate Release, March 13, 2018 Contact: Taylor McKinnon, (801) 300-2414, tmckinnon@biologicaldiversity.org Zinke Trims Montana Fracking Auction But Sacrifices Prime Sage Grouse Habitat LIVINGSTON, Mont. Secretary Ryan Zinke is allowing 23,000 acres of prime greater sage grouse habitat to go on the auction block today in his home state, a week after removing other lands in central Montana from the oil and gas lease sale. In a statement to reporters last week after setting aside 17,300 acres near Livingston, Mont., Zinke said there are places where it is appropriate to develop and where its not. But today Zinkes Bureau of Land Management is ignoring a wave of administrative protests by the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups to offer 46,000 acres of public land and minerals for drilling and fracking, half of it sage grouse habitat that BLM land-use plans identified as important for conserving the species. Postponing the auction of other Montana parcels cant hide the outrageous decision to sacrifice this imperiled bird to fracking pollution, said Taylor McKinnon of the Center. Zinkes rushing through these fossil-fuel leases and disregarding major threats to communities and wildlife. Its like the Wild West out there. Last week Zinke postponed leasing 17,300 acres of public land near Livingston because of concerns about the local economy, and the effects of oil and gas drilling and production on the environment including air quality, drinking water, and overall water quality. This partial reprieve failed to address the serious threat todays auction poses to climate, water quality, wildlife habitat and air quality. New BLM policies will eliminate the very environmental review and public comment process that identified the concerns Zinke cited. While sparing lands near the Beartooth Front, Zinke and the BLM dismissed protests from the Center, Western Watersheds Project and American Bird Conservancy documenting the fact that the BLM disregarded threats to imperiled greater sage-grouse habitat in eastern Montana. BLMs lease sale flies in the face of 2015 land-use planning changes designed to protect the showy, imperiled bird from rampant oil and gas development. For Immediate Release, March 12, 2018 Contact: Diana Dascalu-Joffe, (720) 925-2521, ddascalujoffe@biologicaldiversity.org Court: Trumps EPA Broke Law, Failed to Curb Widespread Ozone Pollution WASHINGTON A federal judge today ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency broke the law when it failed to enact nationwide standards to curb deadly ozone pollution. The decision affects cities and rural areas across the country where ozone pollution levels are too high, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, the Bay Area and Utahs Uintah Basin. All of them will be designated as being out of compliance with the Clean Air Act in the coming months, according to todays ruling. The Center for Biological Diversity in December joined other public health and conservation groups in the lawsuit against the EPA and administrator Scott Pruitt. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Haywood Stirling Gilliam Jr. agreed the Trump administration violated the Clean Air Act when the EPA missed an Oct. 1 deadline to designate major metropolitan areas and rural regions across the country as out of compliance with clean air regulations. The courts decision rightfully puts public health over the profits of polluters, said Diana Dascalu-Joffe, a senior attorney at the Center. The Trump administrations foot-dragging has endangered the lives of the most vulnerable Americans, including children with asthma and seniors. Its shameful that it takes a court order to get Scott Pruitts EPA to do its job. Designation as a non-attainment area requires states, tribes and federal agencies to reduce ozone pollution and can free up federal funds to help them. Todays order says the EPA must designate all areas in the U.S. that have unsafe ozone levels, except San Antonio, by April 30. The San Antonio designation must come by July 17, the judge ruled. Among the non-attainment areas are poorly managed public lands choked by oil and gas development, such as Utahs Uintah Basin. The rural region has air quality as bad as Los Angeles due to decades of fossil fuel development. Ozone, commonly known as smog, stems from tailpipes, smokestacks and industrial activities like oil and gas fracking. The EPA strengthened its ozone standard following an exhaustive scientific review in 2015. According to the agencys own estimates, meeting the standard will prevent hundreds of deaths, as well as 230,000 asthma attacks in children, each year. In August, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said he would finalize designations for non-attainment areas, including Uintah Basin and metro areas from coast to coast. When he failed to do so, public health, conservation groups and states filed suit to enforce the Oct. 1 deadline. The Center and other conservation organizations are represented by the nonprofit law firm Earthjustice. ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - In an unprecedented inter-presidential panel at the Africa CEO Forum, 26-27 March 2018, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo and Zimbabwe's new president Emmerson Mnangagwa, will discuss ways to lift Zimbabwe out of its isolation and get the economy back on its feet. Mikhail Mishchenkovia 123RF A government delegation will present the strategy for the southern African country's economic revival to the investor community gathered for the occasion in Abidjan.Emmerson Mnangagwa's accession to the presidency of Zimbabwe in late November 2017 marks the beginning of a new era for the country. After 17 years of isolation and economic sanctions, this historic transition has raised the population's expectations, especially around economic recovery and job creation in a country suffering from widespread unemployment.Gearing up to face these challenges and preparing Zimbabwe to re-engage with the rest of the world, President Mnangagwa will present his country's economic potential to the international investor and business community at the Africa CEO Forum.As the world's third-largest platinum producer and with abundant diamond reserves, significant agricultural resources, and one of the highest adult literacy rates in Africa, Zimbabwe has a lot to offer. President Mnangagwa will share his vision for Zimbabwe's economic recovery before an audience of more than 1,200 business leaders, international investors and policy makers.The Africa CEO Forums exclusive inter-presidential panel will give President Mnangagwa the opportunity to engage with Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria. Having emerged from a long period of economic isolation, Nigeria offers a solid example on which to base discussions on strategic priorities that must be implemented to revive Zimbabwe's economy and put an end to sanctions.President Mnangagwa is not the only new president to use the Africa CEO Forum as a platform to meet with investors. This year he and Liberia's President George Weah join the growing list of African presidents who have attended previous editions of the Forum including those of Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal.The Africa CEO Forum is organised by Jeune Afrique Media Group, the publisher of Jeune Afrique and The Africa Report. KIGALI, Rwanda - The Africa Innovation Summit will bring together 1,000 innovators, entrepreneurs, policy makers, business and political leaders, as well as academics, researchers and investors to foster innovation in Africa. This June the Africa Innovation Summit (AIS), will ask the thinkers and doers in Africa to join minds for three days in the land of thousand rolling hills Kigali, Rwanda to reflect on how Africans can innovate to address the pressing challenges facing the continent, such as water, energy, food security, health, governance and poverty.This is a three-day event of inspiring talks, dialogues, hands-on exploration, and futures oriented analysis aimed at mobilising and inspiring stakeholders to undertake collective actions to promote innovation and the building of robust innovation ecosystems in Africa able to provide the enabling environment to finally address the perennial challenges facing the continent.The AIS is a dynamic event that is focused on How to promote innovation in Africa. The AIS promotes synthesis and it is not simply a tech-oriented platform. The AIS will include an Exhibition Track with up to 50 Start-ups and SMEs to showcase Made in Africa innovations to address the challenges facing the continent. In the second of three sessions held at FCB Cape Town, open to staff and clients alike, FCB Red Chicago's retail strategy group lead Curt Munk explained that retailers and marketers alike need to understand the new laws of attraction in order to survive what he dubs 'the retail apocalypse'. FCB Red Chicagos Curt Munk. Attraction is the real currency of retail today The global shopper-marketing trends helping the best retailers win Examples of retailers employing the new rules of attraction. 1. A new level of synergy Surprise! A post shared by Beyonce (@beyonce) on Dec 12, 2013 at 9:12pm PST I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be doing any conventional albums at this point I feel like, for the kind of music that I do, releasing things digitally as soon as I think of them is a bit more efficient in terms of getting my music out. 2. Get alongside your real business 3. Be where and how shoppers want to buy today 4. Pull shopping outside of the shop wherever you can 5. Predictability is the enemy of interesting 6. Consumers are attracted to what others find attractive 7. Were attracted to the imperfect Five new laws of attraction to beat the retail apocalypse Focus on new synergies Be alongside your business Be where/when shoppers are Be compelling outside the store Dont be predictable Find what other people are doing and find a way to stand out and work on that, said Munk. The laws of attraction change as the times change, so its always a good idea to think of how to push the envelope and change consumer behaviour, especially as some of the most effective ways to attract consumer attention came about without a brief or cent of media buying. We knew we were in for a treat as Munk works with many of FCB's offices around the world to grow their retail practice and client business, and has designed stores, shopper experiences and retail work for over 45 brands. So he's got the experience, but also the knowledge, and definitely knows how to share it as he teaches marketing and research at DePaul University in Chicago.Munk began the session by explaining the FCB Red brand positioning: As a shopper marketing brand agency, they capitalise on the colour 'red', as it stands for Retail, Engagement and Digital - what they see as the three essential pillars of retail today. He added that they believe every interaction is a brand opportunity and a chance to change shopper behaviour.Local trend forecaster Dion Chang agrees with Munks overview of the retail apocalypse, stating, Theres blood on the retail floor.In the US, there are currently 22bn square-feet of retail, but the shift to e-commerce means actual physical retail spend has dropped in the US, mirroring the global trends. So consumers are spending the same if not more than ever before, theyre just doing so in different ways. Dont take that to mean bricks-and-mortar is dying though, as its predicted that 85% of retail spend will still be in physical stores come the year 2025.Fashion, in particular, is expected to top out at 25% e-commerce, as for the rest you simply need that physical experience of touching fabric and trying on sizes. As proof of this, Munk spoke of Bonobos, which started out as online only but needed a physical store to grow. So not only are more and more malls being built in the US and elsewhere, but were shopping at more stores than ever before, and were shopping more than ever.Explaining the trend of shopping more than ever, Munk shared that something new is driving retail growth. Looking at shopping occasions per person per week in the US, the figure was at 19 hours per week in 2012 and 36 hours per person per week in 2016 thats almost as much time as the average person spends in their jobs!This is largely due to mobile shopping moments, so retailers would do well to tap into that desire for more mobile shopping moments. This figure factors out to almost 300 shopping events per household in the same year, so shopping is definitely becoming a hobby for many people through the rise of apps.Next, Munk explained what retailers can learn from others doing well in this space...First, he pointed out the interesting desire to partner with brands you wouldnt normally associate with, in a clever way. For example, take what Ikea Australia and Airbnb did a few years ago. To function well, Airbnb listings need beds, and Ikea beds need bodies in them. Pair them together for pure magic:Similarly, Munk mentioned the work done by Virgin Hotels and Gap in the US, where theres a link to the Gap site on the hotel reservation website, so guests can pre-order clothes for their visit and have them delivered to the room within three hours of placing the online order. Thats snappy service.Munk also mentioned that lots of trends taking place in retail today have already happened in music. Take musician Beck. He realised that 94% music reaches audiences via steaming today, so musos need to do something different to keep the cash flowing.They make music today by offering experiences like concerts, unlike their predecessors from the non-digital era who could rely on album sales. Beck took this to heart when he released his Beck Hansen s Song Reader project a sheet music book where personalising and even ignoring the arrangements was encouraged, as well as a separate LP.Then theres Beyonces, which took an entirely different tack by not telling anyone the album was releasing ahead of time relying on her Facebook and Instagram accounts to spread the message and sold 835,000 copies in the first few days with zero traditional marketing budget.Or perhaps you can learn from Weird Al Yankovic, who mentioned ironically in his 2015 Grammy acceptance speech that he has to produce songs so fast that are culturally relevant when creating albums, he actually cant keep up any more so is only releasing singles from now on as that fits the modern era. Hes quoted inas stating,Shifting focus back to retail brands, Munk mentioned House of Vans skate shoes, a Vans brand-owned platform they suddenly saw more brands entering their space, and with their main consumers tending to spend 110% of their income, they realised the need to share an experience and that the younger set will chase whats cool, so they have opened indoor skate parks in their London and Chicago stores.Sticking with shoes, Munk mentioned the Toms philanthropist shoes created by Blake Mycoskie that popularised the brands one-for-one model, where each pair purchased means a pair is also given to the disadvantaged. This fast turned into a global movement and because of popular culture trends today, theyre better known as Toms Roasting Co, which donates safe drinking water when you buy their beans, than for the comfy espadrilles that mean someone without the funds is wearing a pair, too.Describing their evolution, he said: Now, Toms are coffee stores where shoes happen to be available.To illustrate this point, Munk spoke of the Kate Spade Saturday pop-up store powered through eBay an interactive storefront, largely carried out via an iPhone-like touch-screen interface on the wall, there was no need for any inventory at the shop window.Customers paid with credit cards, for delivery within an hour anywhere in the city. Thats cutting-edge cool.Another example of the power of purely providing an experience was the Bonobos Guideshop. Described as an e-commerce showroom, its purpose was so customers could try on items for an idea of how well they fit you couldnt make a purchase, as there was no cash register.The concept worked so well that Walmart bought them within three weeks of the store opening it.Then, theres the Valspar Paint Pinterest Analyzer. With over 3,800 paint shades to choose from in the Valspar range, pinning your top colour was made a little easier with this clever way of focusing on the default colour choices of items consumers had pinned to Pinterest.A selection of those colour chips was then sent to the consumers post box. Munk reports this was the first time Pinterest had opened their API to a brand, and it proved to be their single most effective marketing effort.Taking this a step further on the clever experience offering was fabric manufacturer 37.5 Technologys worlds most remote pop-up shop this one was only for hardcore outdoor enthusiasts, and resulted in over 70 people making it over the cliff in Boulder Colorado before sunset, given weather-appropriate gear in turn for their extreme efforts.Donations were also made based on the successful climbs. The clever stunt definitely created an appropriate once-in-a-lifetime experience around the brand.Next, Munk alluded to the Capes current water crisis by explaining the Stella Artois brand and its long-running buy a lady a drink campaign and chalice programme in association with Water.org, supported by Matt Damon.Munk says over 1.1m people have been helped worldwide since the launch of the campaign, which has a fitting tie into what the brand stands for, as people cant live without clean drinking water, and the brand relies on the same clean water for production of their product.Then theres the Cannes Lions-winning Contours baby stroller test ride, for recognising that toddlers cant actually tell you what they like. Munk applauds this campaign, for injecting the unpredictable into advertising model.Munk also mentioned the Hermesmatic dip dye pop-up shop, a laundromat style re-dye store for those high-quality scarves many stockpile but are afraid to wear.Munk says this atypical manufacturer thinking further highlights the rise of quasi-retail where consumers dont actually buy anything but take part in a compelling brand experience.Watching a crowd form in public is one of the best ways to show that humans are biologically wired to find attractive what others find attractive, said Munk. This is even more advanced in the retail space, such as with Japans RanKing RanQueen , where each product category is ranked in terms of popularity of actual sales. Thats everything from breath mints to makeup, with a different ranking each week depending on what people buy.Taking things further, theres also a subscription model where consumers can subscribe online and pick any three sample products to take home. Of course, Munk says this is more about collecting that data on whats proving most popular as a sample than about actual sales certainly a different way of doing things, as you can follow up on whether consumers liked the samples and would buy them again.Munk also mentioned the B8ta store in the US, where typical electronic gadgets sit on a plinth in store not for purchase, but for interaction yes, these stores exist purely so that time spent looking at, touching and interacting with the products can be measured.The store then makes money by selling that data on how shoppers interact with the product, which helps the manufacturers determine the specific features and ad aspects that are attracting consumers attention.FCB Red also worked on the Jello Temptations chocolate pudding vending machine, which only gave out samples to adults, as determined based on the person in front of the machines distance between facial features, as well as height, size and way they moved.Munk says theres a definite mainstream moment when it comes to content around zombies just think of the popularity ofAs well as other imperfect heroes like themotorcycle gang, Walter White ofand Tina Feys-reflective Liz Lemon on. All are far from perfect, yet these are a handful of the most popular shows at the moment. So theres something OK with being imperfect right now, said Munk.Sharing further insights into consumer behaviour from behavioural science, Munk mentioned the change in Coffee Bays coffee loyalty card.Previously, it only had a 19% completion rate, but following their experiment in where two extra punched out spots were added (meaning the card still featured 8 for the consumer to present), the completion rate almost doubled, at 34%. The simple premise is that the consumer is a little more invested as it seems the card has already been started.Theres so much to guide your marketing messaging if you have a better understanding of the way people think.In conclusion, Munk said to encourage clients and brands to think of partnering in ways that are less expected and find new ways to be where your shoppers are. His laws of attraction can be boiled down to the following: South Africa has had the biggest listeriosis outbreak in the world that resulted in more than 180 deaths to date. The Conversation Africa's health editor Candice Bailey spoke to Lise Korsten , professor in the Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of Pretoria about the challenges around food safety in the country. A lab sample of the bacteria listeria monocytogene that causes listeriosis. Whats challenging about the pathogen that causes listeriosis? The pathogen listeria monocytogenes causes the deadly disease in nature and uses food as a vehicle to invade the human body. Once it enters the body it switches gears and becomes lethal, causing symptoms such as nausea and diarrhoea and even death. As with many other food-borne pathogens, listeria can coexist with other microorganisms in water and soil ecosystems or on plants. The bacteria can survive even under stressful conditions, such as refrigeration. It can proliferate even when other microorganisms die off. And it even competes with other microorganisms for nutrients and space. What does the outbreak tell us about food safety in South Africa? South Africa was ill prepared for this devastating food safety outbreak. It is perhaps a reflection of the weaknesses in the whole food system. There are several problems. Pieces of legislation that manage how food safety is handled remain outdated. It means that the systems in place are inadequate. This includes detecting and verifying potential problems. On top of this there is a critical shortage of regulators, inspectors, laboratory personal, scientists and auditors. These shortcomings were all evident in the extensive delay between the first reported case in January 2017, the announcement of the outbreak in December 2017 and the source being identified in March 2018. In the intervening 14 months, more than 180 people died and close to a thousand were affected. In addition to outdated legislation South Africa has been dealing with a lack of effective regulation in the food sector. Industry has relied on self regulation in the absence of an effective regulatory system. Product recall is also not common despite being a requirement in food safety systems. Due to the gaps in the system companies can become complacent and provide sub-standard products if not pressured to effectively self regulate. A food safety outbreak was imminent and the scientific community was aware that it could happen - but not on this scale. What does this mean from a food safety perspective? Listeria is a potential hazard in food production, processing and food handling environments all over the world. The pathogen can be difficult to trace and kill, particularly if effective cleaning schedules are not followed. Once the bacteria is introduced, it is able to hide in difficult to clean places and often survives in microbial biofilms (slimy layers), where it is protected against harsh cleaning agents. It prefers to breed in wet areas, particularly near drains which are difficult to effectively manage. Once introduced into a processing plant, listeria is difficult to remove and can easily spread through a factory. Effective monitoring is as important as good cleaning programmes. The emphasis should be on continually improving food safety management systems. But companies can be tempted to take short cuts as they balance between consistently delivering affordable, nutritious and safe food and turning a profit. How do we solve the problem? The South African government should consider establishing a national food safety authority. The idea has been proposed with suggestions of different governing models over the past 10 years. But none of these have gained traction. The fact that there is no central authority or coordinated framework is problematic as it means there is no coordinated central point or one stop shop that deals with all import, export and local food control to protect consumers. A central authority would shorten the time frame between the initial outbreak, identifying the source and product recall. It could also control imports and prevent illegal dumping and movements of counterfeit goods more effectively. It would mean that technical experts in food science, food microbiology, plant pathology and animal science etc. could be used more effectively to benefit a national food safety framework. At the moment most commercial South African companies involved in food production and processing particularly those who export, have to go through expensive certification. This is a self-regulatory system that relies on good auditors and accredited certification bodies. The challenge is that the country has a serious shortage of competent auditors/inspectors and local certification bodies. Another problem is that when there are threats of a foodborne disease, the government, industry and academia work in silos and dont share knowledge or technologies that could benefit the whole country. In addition to a centralised food safety authority, there have also been suggestions that the agricultural and food legislative framework should be revised and the fragmented and outdated regulations be amended or new legislation promulgated. Lastly, certification bodies responsible for certifying food safety management systems and test laboratories must reassess their role in supporting an effective food safety system. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. SA's bulk export volumes rose by 4.3% year-on-year in February to 15.5 million tonnes, from a revised 54.6% (88.8%) surge in January 2018 to a record 20.8-million tonnes (25.4 million tonnes), data from the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) showed on Monday. Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash TNPA said there was an error in the formula calculation for iron ore in January 2018, which had been corrected in February 2018. Bulk exports excluding Saldanha were up 25.6% in the first two months of this year, to 21 million tonnes.In January bulk exports out of Richards Bay, which is mostly coal, saw a 28.6% jump to nine million tonnes, while bulk exports out of Saldanha, which are mostly iron ore, saw a massive 90.6% surge to a revised 10.2 million tonnes (14.8 million tonnes).This may in part be due to the shift in the Lunar New Year from January last year to February this year, so Chinese steel producers front-loaded their February iron ore and coal imports into January as steel production curbs, that were imposed during the winter months to ease pollution, were lifted in February.In February bulk exports out of Saldanha fell by 17.7% to 5.2 million tonnes due to the above seasonal effect, while bulk exports out of Richards Bay grew by 19.1% to 8.9 million tonnes.Bulk exports out of the other ports such as Durban and Port Elizabeth rose by 45.2% in January to 1.6 million tonnes and were up 30.7% to 1.5 million tonnes. Technology developments will continue to revolutionise payment in both the real and virtual worlds across the globe. As always, though, local conditions will dictate exactly how (and if) global trends affect local markets. African economies, with their quite distinct characteristics, are likely to present some atypical developments - and, if the past is any guide, some innovative lateral thinking. David Noel Lardin The digital divide Greater payment choice will enable seamless customer experience Biometric authentication will grow in importance Mobile payments could generate some surprises Mobile apps for added value While African markets are distinct from each other, there are enough commonalities to make some generalisations possible. Perhaps the most important two characteristics shared by many African markets are the importance of mobile and a highly heterogeneous market.Poor telecommunications infrastructure meant that Africa never really had to deal with legacy communication technologies. As a result, it has truly been an enthusiastic adopter of mobile solutions.Africa has also shown an aptitude for developing its own unique mobile payment systems, with M-Pesa being one of the most famous. It is highly likely that the fact that Africans use mobile devices to access the virtual world will continue to drive payment trends in Africa.A complicating factor is that while African networks are likely to be modern, the fact is that its economies are heterogeneous. Many Africans continue to rely on old cell phones, and there is a digital divide between a growing urban elite on the one hand, and a poorer majority located in rural areas and, increasingly, in informal settlements on the fringes of cities and towns. In a real sense, two economies run side by side, one relatively sophisticated and with access to top-end devices and up-to-date networks, the other with lower end devices and older network technologies.This dichotomy is most apparent in South Africa, but the divide between city and the country/urban fringes is evident to a greater or lesser extent in many of Africas high-growth economies such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Botswana and Mauritius.Bearing these realities in mind, lets look at some of the important global trends that will affect the African payments arena.Context-based payments are one trend that could begin to take off in African markets. These are payment processes that require no direct interaction between the consumer and merchant. A perfect example of this is Uber; the app makes a payment when the client calls a ride. These types of payment are one way that retailers and other merchants will seek to make payments easier, both online and in-store.As more things become smart and the Internet of Things takes hold, it is likely that innovative merchants will use easy payment options to improve the customer experience both in the real and virtual worlds. For example, easy payment using apps like Snapscan and Zapper could be linked to store networks that alert consumers to purchase opportunities based on their location, and facilitate payment.Another big payment trend is likely to be one-click paying, such as Amazon uses.Many Africans rely on financing to effect purchases, particularly the lay-bye system. Some market commentators believe that these types of payments could be digitised for African markets, especially at the lower end. Its likely that this sort of market-led innovation will colour what types of payment solutions take hold in African markets.Offering a greater range of payment options is only feasible if authentication is robust. Biometric identification is already well established in mainstream banking and in certain government uses (such as voting and pension/ social grant pay-outs). In African markets, finding practical ways to use biometrics in a greater range of payment apps will yield dividends.When it comes to biometrics, retailers financial services could lead the way. Many Africans are already using retailers to finance purchases, and these finance houses have the opportunity to create wider payment platforms.In the world of mobile payments, smartphones are firmly in the lead, but new types of wearables could change that in a limited number of affluent consumer segments. Many wearables are currently used for health and fitness tracking, but manufacturers are now working on incorporating additional features, such as payment functionality in order to make them an everyday essential.Given that they are immediately available and require no rummaging around in bags and pockets, wearables offer a real point-of-difference over smartphones and contactless cards. So it will be interesting to see how they develop in the next few years. They will, however, remain confined to niche markets within Africa for the foreseeable future.As mobile technology improves, it's becoming clear that ease and convenience are not enough; consumers also want added value. For this reason digital loyalty programmes could be set to grow, particularly if the benefits are carefully segmented to customer groups. As always with loyalty programmes, the trick will be to create value propositions that are desirable and easy to understand.Again, retailer financial services are perfectly poised to drive this trend as many of them already have links to loyalty programmes or run their own.In conclusion, Africas continued growth will depend on its ability to develop cost-effective payment systems that consumers and businesses both trust. Technology will be a key enabler, but expect it to be given a distinctly African twist. The Namaqualand region is one of the regions where Conservation South Africa (CSA) promotes stewardship within communities to support climate-smart livestock production and improved rangeland conditions for the benefit of people and nature. Through a stewardship programme, communities are empowered to take ownership of their rangelands, while also protecting the environment which they rely on for fodder for their livestock, traditional medicines and building materials, and for the health of their water. Communities partner with CSA and sign a conservation agreement. Jklaasen via Wikimedia Commons - Goats and sheep leaving a kraal in Namaqualand Workshop on applying for funding This agreement has a set of conservation actions which needs to be executed and implemented by the stewards to receive benefits. CSA currently works within the Leliefontein commonage and the Steinkopf commonage, both in the Namakwa district in the Northern Cape where CSA provides medicine and training in exchange for supporting restoration efforts.Steinkopf is a village with approximately 7,824 people within the Nama Khoi municipality, Namaqualand, Northern Cape. The Steinkopf commonage encompasses a total of 330,000ha with 529 registered farmers. Steinkopf, although the largest village, is not the only village within the commonage. Bulletrap, a smaller village with 400 people, also lies within the boundaries of the commonage and its residents also farm in the area.Though 35km apart, there are still many associations between the two villages and many of the farmers that farm close to Bulletrap (and within the Bulletrap ward of the commonage) live in Steinkopf. The Steinkopf Bulletrap Cooperative (SBC) is a community-founded and run cooperative. It is a product of CSAs stewardship programme, whereby farmers are encouraged to form a formal structure. The goal of the cooperative is for farmers to continue supporting each other and build on the foundation set by CSA, particularly when there is climate stress or when market access opportunities arise. The cooperative focuses on sustainable agriculture and provides a platform for upcoming farmers to start community projects to support farming on the commonage.Recently CSA hosted a proposal writing workshop for the managing committee of the Steinkopf Bulletrap Cooperative. The aim of the workshop was to equip the managing committee with the tools and knowledge to apply for funding for future projects. CSA staff members Corle Jansen (stewardship coordinator) and Rouchet Daniels (green economic development project officer) showed the participants how to apply to the correct donor, how to make sure the organisation is eligible for funding and how to develop a concept idea into a full-blown proposal. This includes setting out clear goals and objectives and linking those objectives with a project timeline, activities and realistic budget.During an exercise where each group had to identify a need and a concept idea, the lack of water for household and farming activities was highlighted. In October 2017 the Namakwa was declared a disaster area due to the drought. Currently, Steinkopf is experiencing intense drought and many farmers have been forced to sell livestock something which impacts the livelihood of people living in the area.Farmers believe that better management of water resources in the commonage can lead to increased resilience of the people farming in the area. Concepts developed by the managing committee included ideas to upgrade existing water points and to equip inactive waterpoints with solar pumps, water tanks and pipes. There were also ideas to empower the community (not just farmers) by means of job creation to maintain the waterpoints within the commonage.By providing the managing committee of the cooperative with the tools to apply for funding and the ability to develop and manage projects, CSA hopes that the project ideas that lies with community members to improve sustainable farming and improved livelihoods can grow into functioning projects run by the community. We gratefully acknowledge the ongoing financial support of the Switch Africa Green Project which is funded by the European Union and is implemented on behalf of the Department of Environmental Affairs by UN Environment, UNDP and UNOPS. Big companies operating in developing countries often use corporate social responsibility initiatives to position themselves as development agents and friends of the host communities. Communication is key to cause confusion amongst our people so that we do not speak with one voice against the operations of the company. Most of the distributors are relatives or extended family members of a major shareholder of the company, who is a native of our neighbouring village. Cultural sensitivities But in places like South Africa and within the mining sector in particular initiatives arent achieving the objectives they were designed to meet. Animosity between corporations and hosting communities persists.The Marikana massacre is a case in point. A labour dispute between platinum mining company, Lonmin, and its workers, spiralled out of control, resulting in the death of 34 miners after police opened fire on a demonstration. The events at Marikana show how animosities continue to exist, and the damage they can cause.One of the factors thats emerged in the intervening four years is that there were major gaps in Lonmins corporate social responsibility programme. An analysis of the Marikana events show that the company failed dismally to meet its housing plans for workers. This left a significant portion of the workforce living in dehumanising conditions.The Lonmin case illustrates two key areas of failure that are common in approaches taken companies. These are a failure to appreciate the cultural sensitivities of host communities and poor communication.In our paper we review various approaches taken by companies. The paper uses key dimensions of corporate social responsibility moral, ethical, economic, cultural and consultative and legal. The aim was to identify which the weakest links in the strategies pursued by big corporates.The research could contribute to a theoretical framework that can be used to develop negotiated and mutually acceptable outcomes. This could potentially reduce the friction and tension that are often present when corporate social responsibility projects are implemented.Why do companies engage in corporate social responsibility projects? The main reason is a growing realisation that they have a compelling moral, ethical and legal obligation to protect their operating environment as well as stakeholders. Theyre also motivated by strategic and economic imperatives.Our study confirms two key factors. The first is that communication plays a huge role in corporate social responsibility projects. The second is that many have been derailed by uninformed assumptions about the needs and priorities of host communities.Adopting a consultative decision making approach is essential. If initiatives are viewed as being community oriented, then it makes sense to involve the intended beneficiaries both in initiation and implementation.Our study encountered a case where a company encouraged farmers in the community to form themselves into a cooperative society. The company was collaborating with a university faculty of agriculture to train cooperative farmers. The training focused on the use of modern technology and the cultivation of high yielding crops. The idea was that the company would then purchase the crops at prevailing market prices.The initiative generated a reasonable amount of employment and sustainable income for the community members. But community leaders reacted with hostility. They dismissed the project because they argued that it was fraught with nepotism and favouritism. They also saw it as an attempt to divide and rule. The project, they said, was devisedThey charged that distributors were selectively appointed by the company without consultation. They added that:The cooperative project became moribund.The community leaders reaction points to poor communication and consultation. A participatory decision making approach would have resolved the communitys allegations and perceptions.Our study also shows that corporations should consider cultural and traditional values when initiating projects. Not doing so could prove expensive.Cultural and property rights practices differ from one jurisdiction to the other. In most African societies, land is central to peoples existence and identity. Cultural beliefs and traditional practices are often tied to the land.Peoples homes, and the land around them, are considered to be a heritage from ones ancestors and must therefore be preserved and sanctified through rituals. These cultural beliefs and practices dont always make business sense to multinationals. They, perhaps even unconsciously, underestimate the significance attached to ancestral lands.Land is sometimes appropriated by government, while businesses are required to pay compensation and relocate people. From our interviews, it was inferred that a company does not see anything untoward in acquiring graveyards and compensating families to exhume and re-bury their ancestors.But communities consider this to be taboo and a process that could invoke the wrath of their ancestors.Its therefore imperative for corporations particularly multinationals to foster cultural understanding with local communities.Overall, we found that companies were willing to embrace corporate social responsibility. This was often expressed in their vision and mission statements and through considerable monetary allocations towards corporate social responsibility initiatives. But many fail due to cultural insensitivity and misplaced communication strategies. As pressure mounts on South African Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) moved against three former Sars officials, who are set to face charges linked to the alleged "rogue unit" at the tax agency. Tom Moyane, Sars commissioner The former officials, Ivan Pillay, Johann van Loggerenberg and Andries Janse van Rensburg, are to face charges linked to the alleged bugging of the NPA offices in 2007 and will appear in court on April 9.Charges linked to the rogue unit were used against opponents of Moyane in the past, with the failed bid by the NPA to charge former finance minister Pravin Gordhan in 2016.Insiders said the resurrection of the case against the three was aimed at preventing them from returning to Sars once the clean-up by President Cyril Ramaphosa has been finalised.In his maiden state of the nation address, Ramaphosa announced a commission of inquiry into the running of Sars. The commission was pushed for and first announced by former finance minister Malusi Gigaba but stonewalled by former president Jacob Zuma, who appointed Moyane and has shielded him since 2014.understands that an announcement on the details of the commission of inquiry into Sars is imminent.Parliament is growing increasingly frustrated at Moyane's reluctance to furnish the standing committee on finance with key documents linked to the controversy surrounding Sars's second in charge, Jonas Makwakwa.Makwakwa was let off the hook during a questionable disciplinary process after the Financial Intelligence Centre flagged about R1.2m in suspicious and unusual transactions into his bank account and that of his partner, Kelly Anne Elskie.Sars is under pressure to top its R1.2-trillion collections target and has to manage the first value-added tax hike since 1993. On Friday, it announced it had appointed eight debt collectors to recover R16.6bn owed to the tax agency.One of the debt collectors hired by Sars, New Integrated Credit Solutions, appears in the Financial Intelligence Centre report detailing the suspicious and unusual flow of monies into Makwakwa's bank accounts.On Sunday, Sars did not reply to requests for comment.The charges against Pillay, Van Loggerenberg and Janse van Rensburg flow from the now discredited KPMG report into the alleged rogue unit at Sars.Two counts appear on the summons, delivered to the three on Friday. The counts are for contravention of the Prevention and Combating of the Corrupt Activities Act and the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act.In a statement from their attorneys on Friday, the three emphatically denied the allegations against them. The KPMG report, which was essentially a documentary review, addressed the alleged bugging of the NPA offices in a project called Sunday Evenings.But KPMG has retracted parts of the report and refunded Sars the R23m it paid for it. The report is the subject of an inquiry into the conduct of individual KPMG employees' conduct.Freedom Under Law, reacting to the summonses, said it would write to Ramaphosa to suspend National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shaun Abrahams."Some 18 months ago NDPP Shaun Abrahams and the NPA suffered a public humiliation when their highly publicised charges against certain former Sars officials and minister Pravin Gordhan had to be abandoned."They were faced with clear refuting evidence of which they were, or ought to have been, aware. KPMG has since repudiated its so-called forensic report on which the allegations were largely based," Freedom Under Law's Johann Kriegler said in a statement."Now, once again, the NPA, urged on by Sars commissioner Tom Moyane, has seen fit to revive the 'rogue unit' fable." Freedom Under Law is convinced that the current allegations are as groundless as those of 2016 and will suffer the same fate."Pillay and Van Loggerenberg, in a statement from their attorneys, said they would write to the NPA and ask for the opportunity to make representations on the looming charges. Investors are seeking more exposure to property funds that offer some level of specialisation, says Evan Robins of Old Mutual Investment Group. Property groups focused specifically on a single type of property or based in one geographical area tended to have management teams that could draw better returns from their real estate than those that were highly diversified, he said.Robins said there were only a few exceptions, with opportunities for new listed property vehicles lying more in specialised property types or geographies. Diversified property groups Redefine and Growthpoint were two such exceptions, having experienced exceptional growth in their share prices."We like specialisation or focus because we like a management team to have real expertise and a competitive advantage in an area to extract maximum value there."We don't want to pay up for a fund that is a jack of all trades, but a master of none," he said.A number of real estate investment trusts (Reits) have over the past few months begun to narrow their investment focus. Echo Polska Properties (EPP), which invests only in Poland, has chosen to invest only in retail centres in the country. It is selling its offices aggressively."We want to be the best retail landlord in Poland."The country is the fastest growing in central and eastern Europe. It is being boosted by people with strengthening purchasing power. Poland is experiencing an economic boom. The middle class that is forming is driving retail - and it makes sense for us to invest solely in shopping centres," said EPP CEO Hadley Dean.Last week Redefine also indicated it would specialise more in future. It announced it would simplify its international holdings, beginning with selling a chunk of its investment in Australian group Cromwell for R3.7bn. Redefine is invested in SA, the UK and Poland.Nesi Chetty, a fund manager at MMI Investments, said he expected Poland to be Redefine's main offshore destination as opposed to being invested in too many jurisdictions.Hyprop Investments, which owns premium shopping centres in SA, is also trying to refocus its offshore strategy by exiting Africa gradually and concentrating on eastern Europe.Locally, fund managers have been looking at specialised funds such as Stor-Age Properties, which owns storage units; Spear Reit, which invests in Cape Town; and Equites, which owns industrial warehouses.Metope Investment Managers investment analyst Kelly Hook said specialised funds that lacked competition - such as Stor-Age - offered "defensiveness for fund managers". In many European universities and specialised schools, professors are now being assessed by their students. While this has long been standard in the United States, many issues can arise. Time is of the essence As for the subject matter To start with, it is not always comfortable to be assessed by ones own students. It must be said that the concept is still perceived, in France at least, as being slightly weird. Why should students expected to pass this or that module be considered as sufficiently expert to assess their professors competencies in the topic? And are those students also experts in pedagogy?It is interesting to observe that for the same professor and topic and within one year, the assessments will be totally different from one group of students to another from excellent to pointless. And all we can do is scratch our heads: I dont understand, we think. They applauded at the end of the last class. I did not see this group was not satisfied. (We shall come back to the notion of satisfaction later on.)One or two students, not agreeing with the importance of a course, even if this course is within the core courses of a programme, can manage to convince others that it is pointless, not useful, uninteresting and even if not openly trying to convince others, they can ruin the whole atmosphere in class: doing something else, being loud about something that doesnt have anything to do with the ongoing activities, mocking, blow rudely, sleeping, and of course connecting to Facebook and other network devices. The professors frustration then is: how could he/she say the course was not useful if they did not listen to any part of it, neither did they participate? Do they actually know what they are assessing?Now speaking about logistics: at what time are the sessions scheduled? Late afternoon and they are tired from an early day. Early Friday morning and they are (quite!) tired from the party the night before. Friday before holidays and they would rather leave as they have chosen the least-expensive train ticket heading back home. Some moments of the day when they could, instead of being in class, be participating to the activities of an association (selling pancakes or doing a tour for ski event advertising). And still about logistics, which classroom do they have the chance or misfortune to be scheduled in? This one is too cold, this one too warm.The moments in the students life have their importance. December, for example, is time for handing back their own study files, and for preparing exams. They might well stress if they have prioritised socialisation over attending actively their courses. They resent team work if some elements have been free riding. They have a heavy workload and guilt on their shoulders if they are last minute performers. Part time students/interns are struggling between courses and demands (sometimes constant) from their internship organisation. They might be homesick. For some coming from abroad, they still did not get over the cultural shock. Others are disappointed by a love affair which ended to their detriment.About satisfaction now. It is sometimes complicated to ask for critical thinking about assessing a course when critical is mistaken for looking for something to criticise. And from a pedagogical point of view, should all courses be comfortable and enjoyable, fun and easy? What is the learning process if everything stays simple and enjoyable? Where is the learning if everything has to stay obvious and common sense? We are not talking about the quality of a sightseeing or adventurous tour; we fancy that they are learning something and that their degree is worthily specifying acquired competencies. It is frustrating, from a professors point of view, when they say that their learn more during their internships experiences. Of course those experiences are of upmost importance (Mintzberg, 2005), and learning is not something one gets once and for all. It gets reassuring when the professor receives a mail from an ex-student saying that he/she has been thinking about our module in a specific situation at work, or within an archaic corporate culture.This leads to the modules themselves. In research, like in graduating programs such as in a business school, we have always made a difference between soft sciences and hard sciences. This has a repercussion on how important a module is a priori perceived. Topics such as organisational behaviours are pre-perceived as being not pragmatic and as covering common sense issues which do not need spending so much time reflecting on them. Arent finance and accounting far more pragmatic? Arent soft sciences just addressed to individuals who have the weakness to think that people matters are important in the work environment? Because work and responsibilities are for the strong ones who are aware of the jungle law out there?! For such a mind-set, and because ones certitudes are generally self-reinforced, it is complicated to accept that people minded thinking is also concerning efficacy, quality, collaboration, sustainability, strategy, change management efficacy, communication efficacy, stress management, motivation, talent management, customer and staff loyalty, ethics etc.Thus, assessing that such a module is just useless and a total loss of time, is maybe simply a way (self-reinforcement again) to justify that one did not fancy attending the lectures, even if they were concerning a core course. How about assessing several courses in a few days, at the end of a semester? We expect that one gets fed up with these obligations and asks his/her neighbour for some ideas to write and fil in the file quicker. Yes subjectivity can fall all the way down to this.What does the professor have to consider then? Be a good actor, give good marks in order not to be underestimated? Eventually be handsome (or pretty) helps How about knowledge and challenging easy preconceived ideas and stereotypes? Guides as to take students comments as positive and constructive feedback do not take this into account, even if of course some give it some thoughtful thinking. Guides will advise not to feel hurt, to step back from emotions, be accompanied by a more expert peer, and reconsider oneself, as if students had all made their evaluation with mindfulness and seriousness. An international team of researchers led by Dr Charles Helm has discovered Late Pleistocene Hominin tracks along the Cape South Coast. According to the research, published in Scientific Reports last month, up to forty hominin tracks are evident in the form of natural casts on the ceiling and walls of a ten-metre long cave. 3D image of a portion of the northern surface (courtesy of Richard McCrea) Left natural cast track showing four toes; 10 cm scale bar (photo credit Charles Helm) Helm explained that a number of individuals most likely Homo sapiens made those tracks some 90,000 years ago when the shoreline would have been about 2km further out. This discovery adds to the sparse global record of early hominin tracks, and represents the largest and best-preserved archive of Late Pleistocene hominin tracks found to date.Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris, viewed this discovery as a major opportunity to tell the story of the Capes fascinating history, and rich cultural heritage. Like the Cradle of Humankind has demonstrated in Gauteng, our country is able to position itself as a must-see destination for those interested in major fossil discoveries. This particular revelation in the Cape can allow us to position ourselves as part of this story, which is of keen interest to both South Africans and foreign travellers. We will be looking at ways, through our Destination Marketing Organisation at Wesgro, to do just this and help put the Western Cape on the global heritage map.Western Cape Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport, Anroux Marais said: The latest fossil discovery once again places the spotlight on the Western Cape as a region of human cognitive development. The research conducted by Dr Helm and other scholars will indeed contribute to our departmental objective of building a socially inclusive province and justifies the need to establish a Cultural Heritage and Tourism Route that promotes the Western Capes archaeological and paleontological heritage. The department will continue to collaborate with scholars in order to promote the discovery of new scientific knowledge about our ancestry and history.Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities, Alan Winde, added: South Africa is regarded around the globe as a place of great heritage significance. This find, on the Western Cape South Coast, is set to draw travellers to our region who are eager to go back in time to discover the history of our species. As part of our Project Khulisa economic strategy, we have set ourselves the goal of boosting jobs and growth through heritage tourism. This new site will no doubt become one of the treasures in our heritage chest. South Africa, in the last year, has attracted more than 133,000 arrivals from Australasia. To tap into this important source market further, South African Tourism is currently hosting 52 travel agents from the region to familiarise themselves with all nine provinces. Equipping the Australasian travel trade Encouraging geographical travel, responsible tourism The mega-familiarisation trip, also known as the MegaFam trip is the result of a partnership between South African Tourism, South African Airways and Flight Centre, Australasias largest retail travel agency.The agents, which are made up of 50 Australians and two New Zealanders, were given an attractive incentive: those who sold the most SAA flight tickets in September and October last year would earn a spot on the MegaFam trip to South Africa. Those who notched up the most sales booked their place on the trip and went on to complete the SA Specialist training course, equipping them with the knowledge to sell South Africa as a destination.Throughout the first three weeks of March, six groups of Australasian Flight Centre travel agents will be enjoying six different weeklong itineraries showcasing an array of attractions across the length and breadth of the country."We view Australasia as an international market with high growth potential and would like Australians and New Zealanders to explore more of what South Africa has to offer when they come here on holiday or to visit friends and family."Thats why we are excited about this opportunity to partner with and equip the Australasian travel trade to confidently sell South Africa as a value-for-money destination offering a wealth of diverse experiences. Through initiatives such as these familiarisation trips, we hope to make further inroads into achieving our five-in-five goal of attracting five million more tourists by 2021," says Sthembiso Dlamini, chief operating officer of South African Tourism.Dlamini says that the itineraries were carefully tailored to showcase the countrys untouched wildlife, its reputation as an adventure playground, its buzzing city life, its inspiring and welcoming locals, its sun-soaked coastlines, its cultural richness and its breathtaking scenic beauty.Each group of agents will travel to between two and four provinces, including the countrys less-frequented areas, to encourage the geographic spread of tourism."Those visiting the areas affected by the water shortage will be able to experience first-hand the countrys #WaterWiseTourism drive in action and will see that South Africa remains very much open for tourism, with responsible tourism practices becoming entrenched as the new normal," adds Dlamini.In light of 2018 marking the centenary of Nelson Mandelas birth, the agents will have the opportunity to walk in Madibas footsteps, visiting some of the sites around South Africa where he left his indelible mark."We are also proud to be empowering the local people who are best equipped to highlight the attractions in our various provinces, by enlisting, wherever possible, the services of regional tour operators that are Lilizela Tourism Award winners and finalists, as well as exceptional small businesses," concludes Dlamini. The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius is marking an important milestone this week, with various events and activities underway to celebrate the island's 50 years of independence, as well as it's 26th anniversary as a republic. The official ceremony of the Leve de Drapeau took place at the Champ de Mars racecourse on 12 March and included a flag-raising ceremony, a helicopter display and a colourful cultural sound and light show to showcase the many different and vibrant cultures that makeup Mauritius. Hand in hand Richard Van der Spuy via 123RF Increase in arrivals from South Africa Top 10 best in travel 2018 It is fitting that this venue has been selected to host the official 50th Anniversary celebrations, states the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA). Founded in 1812, the Champ de Mars is the oldest racecourse in the southern hemisphere and the second oldest in the world. Located in the capital of Port Louis, the track held its first races in June 1812, the same year that British forces took over the island from the French. 156 years later, the country finally declared its independence here at this racecourse and now today it is the setting for the countrys 50 years of independence celebrations.Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth underscored that what makes Mauritius unique is the creation of a rainbow nation that necessitated adjustment, tolerance and respect for different faiths and cultures. He stressed that it is therefore apt that the theme for this years celebration is, as all citizens have walked and continue to walk hand in hand to build the country as one people and one nation.Mauritius, small as it is, is connected through the hearts of all of us. We learn from those who are around us and we respect the advice of the older generation in a way that shapes our own vision of how we should fend in life, the Prime Minister stated.The Mauritius High Commission to South Africa, based in Pretoria, also has an exciting programme of events to mark this historic event, launching the proceedings with a formal dinner to celebrate the Republics 50th National Day held at the Sheraton Hotel on Friday evening. Also included in the programme are a presence at the annual Alliance Francaise Festival Francophonie being staged at Pretoria Boys High School till 29 March, and hosting an evening of short films and a cocktail at the Alliance Francaise Pretoria office on 16 March.It is not only the 50th-anniversary celebrations that have kick-started 2018 on a positive note for Mauritius. The January arrivals figure from South Africa was 7,196, an increase of 10.3% from the 2016 figure of 6,522. South Africa remains the fifth highest source market to Mauritius for this period, contributing 5.9% of total market share.A 7% increase in arrivals from South Africa to the paradise island of Mauritius for the year ended December 2017 is further evidence that this Indian Ocean island is a favourite holiday destination for South African travellers, with total annual arrivals at 112,129, compared to 104,834 in 2016. In December. South Africa was the second best source market for arrivals to the destination (behind France) with 20,838 visitors, (up 6.3% from 19,609 in 2016), and claiming a 13.4% share in tourist arrivals for the month.For the whole year of 2017, South Africa represented an 8.4% share of overall tourist arrivals (that totalled 1,341,860), a slight increase from the 8.2% share for 2016, and was ranked the fifth best performing market (behind France, the UK, Reunion Island and Germany).With international travel and tourism cited as a key economic driver in Mauritius to create jobs, grow the economy and prosper local communities, this is all good news.A further endorsement for the island comes from global travel media company, Lonely Planet which listed Mauritius among the Top 10 countries to visit this year, in its Lonely Planets Best in Travel 2018.With its stunning white beaches, dazzling sapphire seas, a warm tropical climate, diverse cultures, delicious cuisine, and an array of exciting sporting and adventure activities, Mauritius presents an abundance of reasons to place it at the top of your bucket list of travel destinations.It is also just a short, four-hour flight from South Africa, with flights departing from Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. No visa is required for South African travellers, which takes another travel hassle out of deciding where to book your next holiday. On Tuesday, 20 March 2018, OFM will dedicate a full 24 hours of broadcasting to happiness and positivity in celebration of International Day of Happiness. From midnight on the 19th to midnight on the 20th of March, happiness will take over the station entirely. On this day, OFM will only play happy, upbeat music and all content will have a positive spin. That means feel-good news and sport bulletins, weather and traffic. Our presenters will also do their bit to ensure that happiness is at the order of the day in their programmes. Listeners will also have the chance to win cool prizes, which will definitely generate feelings of happiness!Even the OFM Street Squad will be in on the action and will certainly put smiles on a few faces when they surprise some of our listeners with treats.Finally, making sure Happiness Day makes a lasting impression, OFM will fundraise for smiling meals to support vulnerable children in Central South Africa. The station will work with Child and Family Welfare Free State, Northern Cape and North West by encouraging our listeners and businesses to pledge funds for this great cause. Only R20 will buy a hungry child a meal.Says Nick Efstathiou, OFM General Manager: We celebrated International Day of Happiness on OFM for the first time last year and the day was a huge success! This year, we will build on the concept by introducing 'smiling meals'. What better way to spread the joy than by feeding hungry tummies and putting smiles on the faces of children in our region? We are all very excited to be part of this fantastic initiative and I would like to encourage every listener and every business in our region, big or small, to contribute to this great cause.International Day of Happiness was established on 28 June 2012, when UN Resolution 66/281 was adopted by consensus of all 193 member states of the United Nations. It is celebrated around the world on 20 March.To make a pledge contact OFM at 051 5050 909, or send an email to az.oc.mfo@ofni Rocket Creative are immensely proud to share that March 2018 signifies the 20 Year Anniversary of their innovative and trendsetting design and display business. Launched in February 1998, Rocket Creative has evolved exponentially to become an innovative player in the design and display industry. Richard Nilson, Rocket Creative's founder and MD, elaborates: "Having launched Rocket Creative from very idealistic beginnings, the intent has always been to operate with an entirely unconventional and inventive design approach. We have succeeded in building a career and respected business out of doing something that we love. Our job is essentially to build things that we dream up, and have someone else pay for them. It is 100% driven by passion, having the opportunity of doing something so neat and unique that no one has ever seen before."Rocket Creative's strength lies in their ultra-focused approach and a comprehensive 360 understanding of their design and business environment. This is mated to their home brewed and proudly South African creative insight. The crew are focused on perpetual evolution and output excellence, and have a deep belief that their business effectiveness is driven by their creative fineness.Having begun their 20th year in the most rewarding manner to date, the crew are working on significant improvements to their operation to further evolve their already impressive abilities. With a wealth of experience and expertise in the display industry the crew are suitably skilled to interpret your requirements and propose unique, creative and ultra-functional solutions.Rocket Creative would welcome the opportunity to assist you with boosting your brand's visibility. To get in touch with Rocket Creative please you may either call their Kelvin, Sandton, offices on 011 262 4698 to discuss your brief, or alternatively you may send an enquiry email directly to az.oc.evitaerctekcor@olleh for a prompt and creative response. OTTAWA, CANADA - Canada's competition watchdog announced on Monday an investigation of the country's largest newspaper publishers Torstar and Postmedia after the pair swapped and shuttered dozens of dailies last year. Metroland, citing falling advertising revenues, shuttered three daily and eight community publications ( AFP Photo/Justin Sullivan "The Competition Bureau is investigating alleged anti-competitive conduct contrary to the conspiracy provisions of the Competition Act," Commissioner John Pecman said in a statement, adding he was also examining possible merger violations.No charges have been laid, and allegations of a "conspiracy" have not been tested in court.Earlier, search warrants were executed at Postmedia and Torstar's offices related to their 27 November 2017 swapping of 41 newspapers 34 of which were immediately shuttered.Postmedia and Torstar both said they were cooperating with the investigation. Postmedia also rejected accusations of wrongdoing."Postmedia is strongly of the view that there has been no contravention of the Competition Act with respect to this matter," it said.The November deal saw Postmedia, which owns dailies in most major Canadian cities including the National Post, acquire 22 weekly papers as well as two free dailies, and immediately put all but one of them on the chopping block.Torstar which publishes Canada's largest circulation daily, the Toronto Star, and its subsidiary Metroland acquired 15 weekly and small-town daily newspapers mostly in Ontario, as well as free dailies 24 Hours Toronto and 24 Hours Vancouver.Metroland, citing falling advertising revenues, also shuttered three daily and eight community publications.The deal was called "a deathblow to local news coverage" by the union representing media workers, while Ottawa earmarked Can$50 million for struggling local news in last month's federal budget. This job expired on 12 May 2018. This job expired on 11 May 2018. BORDERLAND BEAT The Most Extensive and Reliable Source of Information Related to the Mexican Drugs Cartels. You will not find this level of coverage anywhere else, join us! Send information, pictures or videos, you remain 100% anonymous. Envia fotos, videos, notas, enlaces o informacion todo 100% Anonimo. General Mail Box: borderlandbeat@gmail.com Want to be a contributor or citizen reporter for Borderland Beat? We love to have you in our team, send us an email! WARNING: Posts may contain strong violent material, discretion is advised. COMMENTS: We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. A file photo. NEW DELHI (PTI): France on Saturday pitched for starting negotiations over procurement of another batch of 36 Rafale jets by India with French President Emmanuel Macron describing the fighter jet programme as a key aspect of the bilateral defence cooperation. Sources said there was a communication from the French government recently indicating its eagerness in making an announcement by the two sides favouring additional procurement of Rafale jets for the Indian Air Force. They said the issue of Rafale deal figured in the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Macron. "India had made a sovereign decision in this respect (Rafale fighter jet) and we are monitoring the progress in the field. We very much want to continue the programme. "It is a long-term contract which is mutually beneficial. I personally consider it as the heart of the strategic partnership," Macron said in a statement to media after talks with Modi. India had signed a government-to-government deal with France in 2016 to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of about the Rs 58,000 crore. The Congress has been demanding details of the deal, alleging that the deal negotiated under its rule was much cheaper than the contract signed by the Modi government. Officials said the French side pitched for procurement of another batch of 36 Rafale jets by India during the talks between French Defence Minister Florence Parly and her Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman. In the meeting, Parly said extending the current deal will further bolster defence cooperation between the two countries, they said. The Indian side conveyed that no decision has been taken yet on the issue. The Indian Air Force has also been favouring procurement of more Rafale jets from France. It had communicated to India earlier too, seeking additional orders of Rafale jets. In the talks, Modi and Macron noted with satisfaction the "on-schedule" progress in the implementation of acquisition- related agreements, including the Rafale aircraft deal, a joint statement issued after Modi-Macron talks said. "They looked forward to continue their discussions to expand and deepen the ongoing defence manufacturing partnerships," it said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron before their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Saturday. Photo: PTI. NEW DELHI (PTI): Reflecting a growing depth in defence ties, India and France on Saturday inked a strategic pact providing for the use of each other's military facilities including opening naval bases to warships, an agreement that comes amid China's growing military expansionism in the Indo-Pacific region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron held wide-ranging deliberations during which they also decided to create an annual defence dialogue at the ministerial level to explore ways to further deepen defence and strategic ties. There were indications that the French side pitched for procurement of another batch of 36 Rafale jets by India during the talks. Officials said the issue was also raised by French Defence Minister Florence Parly during a meeting with her Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman. The two countries also signed a pact on exchange and reciprocal protection of classified or protected information which came in the backdrop of the Indian government refusing to divulge details of the multi-billion dollar Indo-French Rafale fighter jet deal. On ties in the maritime security sphere, the French President said both the countries will have "unprecedented" level of cooperation to ensure peace and stability in the Indian Ocean and Pacific regions. He said space agencies of both countries will have joint monitoring mechanism for developments in the maritime sphere, while navies of the two nations will share intelligence and call their respective military bases for any requirement. Detailed discussions on specific projects including on the Scorpene submarine programme for the Indian Navy was also discussed during the Sitharaman-Parly talks. A joint statement issued after the talks said the pact on protection of classified information reflected the high level of "strategic trust" between the two countries. It said Modi and Macron noted with satisfaction the "on-schedule" progress in the implementation of acquisition related agreements, including the Rafale aircraft deal and the construction of six Scorpene submarines in India, in collaboration with French shipbuilder Naval Group. "They looked forward to continue their discussions to expand and deepen the ongoing defence manufacturing partnerships," the joint statement said. The Indo-French agreement on reciprocal logistics support for armed forces came nearly two years after India signed a similar pact with the US on use of each other's land, air and naval bases. Officials said the agreement will facilitate the reciprocal provision of logistic support, supplies and services between the armed forces of the two countries during authorised port visits, joint exercises and joint training among others. "The agreement is symbolic of the strategic depth and maturity reached in India-France defence ties," the joint statement said. The two sides inked the pact amid China's growing assertiveness in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific region. Referring to maritime security cooperation, Modi and Macron reiterated that it will be crucial in order to maintain the safety of international sea lanes for unimpeded commerce and communications. "Our defence cooperation is very strong and we consider France among the most trusted defence partners," Modi said in a statement to the media, in the presence of Macron. He said the pact on reciprocal logistic support between the armed forces is a "golden step" in defence relations. Noting that defence cooperation between the two countries now has a "new significance", Macron talked about the Scorpene submarine project for the Indian Navy and the fighter jet deal for the Air Force. "India had made a sovereign decision in this respect (Rafale fighter jet) and we are monitoring the progress in the field. We very much want to continue the programme. It is a long-term contract which is mutually beneficial. I personally consider it as the heart of the strategic partnership," Macron said. The French government has been pressing India to go for another batch of 36 Rafale jets. The Indian Air Force has also been favouring procurement of more Rafale from France. It had communicated to India earlier too, seeking additional orders of Rafale jets. India had signed a government-to-government deal with France in 2016 to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of about the Rs 58,000-crore. The Congress has been demanding details of the deal, alleging that the deal negotiated under its rule was much cheaper than the contract signed by the Modi government. The joint statement said both sides also emphasised the importance of the joint military exercises and affirmed their intention to enhance the level of the exercises. It said both sides acknowledged that the Make-in-India initiative offers a valuable opportunity for Indian and French defence enterprises to enter into co-development and co-production projects in the defence sector, including through transfer of technologies. "The leaders noted ongoing discussions between DRDO and SAFRAN on combat aircraft engine and encouraged necessary measures and forward-looking approaches to facilitate early conclusion," it said. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Eight personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed when suspected Maoists blew up their mine-protected vehicle (MPV) in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district today, an official said. Some jawans were also reported to be injured in the explosion, but there was no official confirmation yet, he said. The blast occurred when a team of CRPF's 212th battalion was patrolling in a forest in Kistaram area of Sukma, located around 500 kms from here, a paramilitary official told PTI. "Eight paramilitary personnel, belonging to the 212th battalion, were killed in the blast," he said. The security men were conducting an area-domination operation in the forest of Kistaram when the Maoists blew up the CRPF's mine-protected vehicle, he said. The rebels used a lot of explosives to blow up the vehicle, the official said. Soon after the incident, reinforcement was rushed to the spot,he said, adding that further details were awaited. (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 Police questioned AAP MLA Ajay Dutt for nearly five hours on Monday in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash even as another legislator Sanjeev Jha has been called for questioning on Tuesday. Dutt was summoned for questioning last week but he could not turn up since he was in Bangalore. The Ambedkar Nagar MLA arrived at the Civil Lines police station at around 4 pm and was questioned till 9 pm, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Harendra Kumar Singh said. The officer also said they have called Burari MLA Sanjeev Jha for questioning on Tuesday. He was sent a notice on Sunday. The role of both the MLAs in the case is under investigation as they were present at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence, when the alleged assault took place on the night of February 19. Last week AAP MLAs Nitin Tyagi and Praveen Kumar were questioned in the matter. AAP legislator Rajesh Rishi has also been questioned. Eleven MLAs, apart from Kejriwal, his adviser V K Jain and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, were present during the meeting when Prakash was allegedly attacked. On February 23, a police team examined the CCTV surveillance system installed at the chief minister's residence in Civil Lines area and seized the hard disc; the forensic report is still awaited. Two other AAP MLAs - Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal - were arrested in the case. Jain was also questioned in connection with the case. The alleged assault on the chief secretary has triggered a bitter tussle between the Delhi government and its bureaucracy. (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 annual India-China military exercise will resume, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said on Tuesday, noting that the relationship between the two countries which had turned "sour" after the Doklam stand-off was now improving. He said the military diplomacy with China worked and the border personnel meetings that had stopped post Doklam stand-off have begun again. The "bonhomie" between the two forces was back, Rawat said. "The hand-in-hand exercise with China happens every year. Only in the last year, this exercise was shelved (due to simmering tensions over Doklam), but this exercise is back on the cards," he said in response to a question. The border personnel of India and China were locked in a 73-day stand-off last year in Doklam. The disengagement of forces took place in August last year, after hectic parleys between the two countries. "So the military diplomacy with China has worked and is moving forward and ensuring that there is a thaw in the relations...the relationship had turned sour but I think it is all getting over now," he added. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be visiting China next month and it is likely that the issue could come up for discussion. The high-ranking visits between the two sides continued after the Doklam face-off ended in August last year. In December, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited India to attend the RIC (Russia India China) Foreign Ministers meeting. He also held bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj. Last month, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale also made a trip to Beijing, where he held talks with Wang. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit China in June this year to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting. Army expresses frustration over inadequate fund allocation in defence budget The Army has said it was reeling under severe fund crunch and struggling to even make emergency procurements when it was dealing with an assertive China along the northern border after the Doklam face-off and increasing hostilities from Pakistan on the western frontier. The Army told a parliamentary panel that the insufficient allocation to it in the defence budget was going to hit the Army's modernisation at a time when Chinese military was competing to reach the level of the US and Pakistan bolstering capability of its forces. Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Sarath Chand said 68 per cent of the Army's equipment is in the 'vintage category', adding fund crunch will also impact the serviceability of the existing equipment and may even affect payment of instalments for past purchases. The Army's frustrations over inadequate allocations of funds in the defence budget for next fiscal figured in a report of the Standing Committee on Defence which was tabled in Lok Sabha today. Talking about the new procurement policy, delegation of financial powers to Vice Chief of Army and several other initiatives towards modernisation of the armed forces, Lt Gen Chand told the panel that "the Budget of 2018-19 has dashed our hopes and most of what has been achieved has actually received a little set back." He said, "Allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation is insufficient even to cater for committed payment of Rs 29,033 crore for 125 on-going schemes, emergency procurements," he said, adding "Committed liabilities of 2017 which will also get passed on to 2018 will further accentuate the situation." Referring to the regional security scenario, Chand said the possibility of "two front" war is a reality and the country needs to pay attention to modernisation of the Army. He said the Doklam issue was going on and China has become increasingly assertive. "We have seen more and more patrolling and transgressions. Activities in Tibet has also increased over a period of years whether it is the quantum of troops or whether it is the number of personnel undertaking the exercises and also the level of exercises," he said. The Army also informed the panel that it does not have adequate resources to even undertake the construction of strategic roads near the Sino-India border. The on Tuesday said that foreign law firms cannot set up offices in India but their lawyers could give legal advise on foreign laws. However, the bench headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said that foreign lawyers could come to the country and participate in international commercial arbitration. Justice Goel, while pronouncing the judgement, said that even for the limited purposes they would be subject to the Bar Council of India's Code of Conduct. The court also said that BPO companies engaged in rendering legal services did not come within the ambit of the Advocate Act and thus they can operate in India. The court verdict came on pleas challenging judgements by the Bombay and Madras High Courts. Madras High court had said that foreign lawyers can fly in and fly out for tendering legal advice on foreign laws. (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.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a campaign to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) from India by 2025, five years ahead of a globally-set deadline. After inaugurating the Delhi End-TB Summit here, the prime minister launched the TB-free India Campaign to take the activities under the National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination forward in a mission mode for ending the epidemic by 2025. "A target has been set to end TB globally by 2030. I would like to announce that we have set aim to eradicate it from India five years ahead by 2025," Modi said. He stressed on analysing the situation and changing the approach, saying that efforts to curb tuberculosis has not yield successful results yet and said state governments have a major role to play in elimination of TB from the country. He further said that front-line TB physicians and workers can make a major contribution in this direction. "State governments have a major role to play in elimination of TB from India. I have written to all chief ministers to join this mission," Modi said, adding it would boost the spirit of cooperative federalism. He further said that TB was the most prevalent among communicable diseases in the country and the poor were the worst affected by it. Every step taken towards eradicating the disease is directly connected to their lives, he added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches Tuberculosis-Free India Campaign, to meet the goal of ending the epidemic by 2025. Also seen Minister JP Nadda. (Photo: PTI) TB was responsible for 1.7 million deaths in 2016, despite most cases being curable while over 10 million people contract TB every year. The summit would set the stage for the September 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB, where for the first time, TB would be discussed in the UN General Assembly at the Heads of State level. (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.) With Lok Sabha elections just in a year's time, Prime Minister on Tuesday launched a slew of schemes for poor and emphasised on harnessing solar energy for cooking. The PM also flagged off a new train -- Kanshi-Patna Jan Shatabdi Express -- between Varanasi and Patna on the demand of the people from the area. Overwhlemed by the massive response from the people of his Lok Sabha constituency during his visit, during which he was accompanied by French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, Modi said people have given them a wonderful welcome and thanked them for it. "Seeing this, every household in France will enquire where is Varanasi which gave such a rousing welcome to our President," he said. He was addressing a public meeting at the DLW Grounds here after winding up his visit to adjoining Mirzapur, where Modi and Macron dedicated a 75-MW solar power plant. Modi also inaugurated or laid the foundation stone of various development projects worth over Rs 8 billion. He also handed over the keys, cheques and certificates to beneficiaries of various schemes. The prime minister announced "Ayushman (blessed with long life) Bharat" scheme to ensure better health care facilities for the poor and said it would go a long way in helping the downtrodden foot hospital bills. The scheme will be implemented with the help of insurance companies and the poor who can't afford costly treatment will be able to get help up to Rs 500,000 annually. This will create a network of hospitals and employment opportunity in the healthcare sector, he said. "If one member of a family of a poor man falls ill, the entire family gets disturbed, and his financial position is affected badly," he said. Modi also announced Pradhan Mantri Poshan Mission Yojana (PMPM scheme) to ensure nutrition to children, especially girls. "If girls in their teens, who are likely to become mothers in another few years, are weak, how can their offsprings be strong and healthy?" he posed. The prime minister, who had earlier launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana to safeguard the health of women and children by providing clean cooking fuel, today stressed on the use of solar energy for making food. "This is an effort to bring a change in the lifestyle in the countryside. I urge youths and IITians to promote clean cooking by harnessing solar energy in an innovative manner," he said. He also lauded the concept of "kachra (waste) mahotsav" to highlight the use of waste products and make wealth out of the useless articles. Modi took a dig at his political rivals, saying he was sure that they would poke fun at him for his novel idea. "I was impressed by the music generated by youths using discarded utensils," Modi, who took a round of 'kachara se jugaad' exhibition, said. Earlier, Modi thanked the people of his constituency for the "warmth" shown by them towards him and the visiting French dignitary. "I would like to thank the residents of Varanasi...Today Varanasi has done wonders. The way Varanasi welcomed the French president, and honoured him, people in every house in France will ask where is Varanasi where a grand welcome and honour was accorded to him (the French president)," he said. Stressing on the need for cleanliness in Varanasi, he said "our ancestors have done wonders" for the city and its cleanliness has to be ensured so that people from the entire world come here. Terming the DLW as his second home and also the industrial identity of Varanasi, he said the government was working towards its development and expansion so that more employment opportunities could be created. The Prime Minister praised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath terming him as a popular and dedicated leader who is working on a mission mode to implement government schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Avas Yojna. Congress President Rahul Gandhi met French President on Sunday and said they discussed issues common to both democracies including fake news and looked forward to collaborating with him on climate change. "Yesterday, I met Macron. We discussed a range of issues common to our liberal democracies, including fake news. I look forward to building on this meeting and to collaborating with him on global challenges such as Climate Change," Gandhi tweeted attaching a picture with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Macron. Asked if Gandhi raised the issue of Rafale deal with the French president, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said: "Congress Presidents always meet the visiting heads of states, for the Congress party has a long history of maintaining a relationship with visiting heads of the states in interest." "As far as Rafale deal is concerned, it has six serious flaws which goes to the root of the matter and is pointing towards a brewing scam in procurement of aircraft and compromise of security," he added. Surjewala pointed out: "First, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman says I cannot disclose price for it is a matter of security. Dassault Aviation, in its Annual Report of 2016 as also of 2017, says that they sold 36 Rafale aircraft for $ 7.5 billion or Rs 1,670 crore per aircraft." "However, they had sold the same aircraft 11 months earlier in 2015 to Egypt and Qatar at Rs 1,319 crore per aircraft. There is a clear-cut loss of Rs 12,632 crore to the state exchequer. "The Rafale deal which was signed after an international bidding which opened finally on December 12, 2012, the UPA price as per information in public domain was about Rs 526 crore," he added. Surjewala asked: "Why did you (the government) buy Rs 526 crore aircraft for Rs 1,670 crore - over 300 per cent extra? The loss to exchequer if calculated notionally would be Rs 41,000 crore. "Why did the Prime Minister bypass the Defence Procurement Procedure which looks at price discovery through contract negotiation committee and price negotiation committee and nobody in this country can violate that principle. "Why did the Prime Minister bypass that Cabinet Committee on Security and not take its prior approval? Why did the Prime Minister deny to India transfer of technology for manufacture of twin-engine Rafale fighter aircraft?" he said. Surjewala said these are questions to which the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister have adopted a complete silence. "I dare them to answer these in public." Five candidates, including three from the ruling Congress and one each from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) filed nominations for the biennial election to four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, an EC official said on Monday. "Of the five candidates, four have filed nominations on the last date (Monday), including three from the Congress and one from the BJP, while JD-S candidate B.M. Farooq had filed nomination on March 9," the Election Commission (EC) official told IANS here. The Congress candidates are L. Hanumanthaiah, G.C. Chandrasekhar and Syed Naseer Hussain, and BJP candidate is Rajeev Chandrashekar, who is seeking a second term, as his first term as an Independent member ends on April 2. The election has been necessitated to fill the vacancies arising out of retirement of incumbent members Basawaraj Patil, Rahman Khan and R. Ramakrishna of the Congress, and Chandrasekhar. ALSO READ: Arun Jaitley files nomination for Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh "The nomination papers will be scrutinised on Tuesday and the last date for withdrawal of candidates is on Thursday. Polling and counting of votes will be held on March 23 for all the four seats," added the official. In the 225-member state legislative assembly, including one nominated, the Congress has 122 legislators, BJP 48 and JD-S 37. Of all, 7 seats are vacant. As each candidate needs 45 votes to win the contest, the Congress is in a position to get two of its nominees elected easily, while its third candidate with 37 votes will have to get 13 more votes to make up for the shortfall. "We are banking on the votes of eight Independents and seven rebel JD-S legislators to ensure the victory of our third candidate," said a Congress leader. ALSO READ: BJP names 18 candidates including Narayan Rane for Rajya Sabha polls With Chandrashekar assured of victory by virtue of the BJP having 48 votes, the contest will be for the fourth seat between the Congress and the JD-S, whose strength got reduced to 37 after three of its members were suspended for revolting against its leadership. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is the JD-S supremo and his second son and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy is its working president. BJP's allies the BSR (Congress) and the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), floated by its former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, have three seats and two seats, respectively. The JD-S also fears cross-voting by some of its members in favour of the ruling Congress' third nominee. A top South African court has allowed Bank of Baroda to close its operations in the country next month, over its links with the controversial India-born Gupta brothers who are facing massive corruption allegations. Judge Ntendeya Mavundla of the Pretoria High Court yesterday dismissed with costs an application by 20 companies linked to the Guptas seeking to stop the Bank of Baroda (BoB) from closing all its accounts and leaving South Africa. The Indian state-owned bank announced last month that it had decided to close down operations in South Africa in line with a revision of its global strategy. BoB was the only bank that had been working with the Gupta companies after all South African banks severed ties with them following corruption allegations against Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta involving billions of rands. The three brothers, as well as Duduzane Zuma, son of former president Jacob Zuma who was forced to resign last month, are being sought by authorities investigating these allegations, but the whereabouts of all four are unknown. Mavundla said in his judgement that the courts could not interfere with BoB's decision to leave the country. "The respondent's rights to trade or not to trade supersedes whatever right if any the applicants might have. I further conclude that the balance of convenience far outweighs that of the applicant's and tilts in favour of (BoB)," Mavundla said. "Put differently, the courts cannot compel the respondent to keep the doors of its business open for whatever duration," the judge added. The applicants had secured an interim order against BoB late last year after the bank had advised that it would be closing all accounts of Gupta-linked companies. The companies cited difficulties they would have with the closure of paying salaries to thousands of their employees in their businesses ranging from information technology to mining. But the latest judgement said that BoB had "every right" to terminate business contracts including those of the 20 Gupta-linked companies. There were no immediate comments from the Gupta companies and Bank of Baroda on the ruling by the court. The Gupta family, who arrived in South Africa from their hometown of Saharanpur in UP about two decades ago, has established a massive business empire in diverse fields, allegedly through their closeness to ex-president Zuma. The eldest brother, Ajay, has been declared a fugitive by authorities after he failed to hand himself over to investigators as agreed. Last week, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba announced on national television that Ajay Gupta had not acquired South African citizenship because he had refused to renounce his Indian citizenship first. Gigaba also came under fire for initially declaring that Atul Gupta did not have South African citizenship either, but later withdrew this after the media published a copy of Atul's South African identity document. ARUNA SHARMA, secretary to the Ministry of Steel, to Megha Manchanda & Jyoti Mukul on the US adminstration's raising of tariffs on import of this commodity and aluminium. Edited excerpts: Is the government worried at the impact of the 25 per cent tariff on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium imported in the US from all countries? We are the 10th biggest exporter (of steel) to the US; our exports have gone up 16 per cent from 2011. It is not that our export growth is highest. Russias steel exports to the US grew 140 per cent while Chinas dropped; they are 11th in ... Trump took to Twitter to share the development, saying: "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel -- Deputy Director at the Central Intelligence Agency -- will succeed Pompeo, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed. Both she and Pompeo ... 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More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Since US President Donald Trump announced last week he was willing to meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un, speculation has mounted over where might be chosen to host the first-ever meeting between sitting leaders of the two countries. Kim has yet to publicly confirm his invitation to meet with Trump in a bid to defuse a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear programme, and officials in Seoul and Washington say the exact location and timing of any summit remain to be determined. But that hasn't stopped officials, analysts, and other observers from debating the pros and cons of ... Uncertainty lingers over the first-ever meeting between the United States' President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as Washington is yet to hear directly from Pyongyang on the invitation extended by Kim via South Korean intermediaries. "We've not heard anything directly back from North Korea, although we expect to hear something directly from them," the New York Daily News reported, citing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as telling reporters on Monday in Nigeria's Abuja, when asked about plans for the meeting, likely to take place in May. Tillerson also stated that no venue for the meeting had been agreed upon, adding, "I think it's going to be very important that those conversations are held quietly" between the two nations. According to the report, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday said the meeting wouldn't take place "until we see concrete actions that match the words and the rhetoric of North Korea." The Trump administration on Sunday confirmed that there will be no additional conditions imposed on North Korea before a first-ever meeting of the leaders of the two nations. "This potential meeting has been agreed to, there are no additional conditions being stipulated," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said. "...but, again they - they cannot engage in missile testing, they cannot engage in nuclear testing and they can't publicly object to the U.S.-South Korea planned military exercises," he added. The US-North Korea made a breakthrough on Friday when Kim Jong invited Trump for a meeting, and the latter duly accepted to meet by May. Trump believes that the upcoming groundbreaking talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be a "tremendous success" and also expressed confidence in Pyongyang's "promise" to suspend missile tests. A senior US official said North Korea offered to suspend their nuclear missile testing alongside their invitation for talks. The official also said there are no plans to suspend the upcoming planned military exercises with South Korea. Activists from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) on Tuesday paid tributes to Asma Jahangir, Pakistan Human Rights Commission co-founder and an advocate who fought for the rights of oppressed people in the South Asian nation. One minute silence was observed to pay tributes to Jahangir, who died of heart attack on February 11 in Lahore at the age of 66. Speaking at "Human Rights in South Asia" session during the 37th Session of UN Human Rights Council here, Chairman of International Human Rights Council in Hong Kong, Naveed Basheer, said: "Pakistan has lost a great woman who fought for the rights of people, especially downtrodden masses." "Her death represents a major loss to the human rights struggle in Pakistan, where enforced disappearances, violence against women and children, persecution of religious minorities, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders, and violation of international law are widespread," said Isabela Favero, a research analyst at European Foundation for South Asian Studies. "In 2013, leaked 'official' documents suggested that some intelligence officers had devised plans to kill Asma Jahangir for her critical statements against the country's powerful military," she added. During the event, political activists from PoK also raised the concern of human rights violation. "The Kashmir Council and Ministry of Kashmir Affairs rule PoK. Whereas the indigenous political parties have no right," said Ghulam Hussain, Labour Councillor United Kingdom and political activist from PoK. Shabir Choudhry, Director of Institute of Kashmir Affairs in London, said: "Asma Jahangir worked for hundreds of missing persons. She was also accused of being a traitor and asked to leave the country. But, she never bent against those threats." Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, Secretary General of Jammu Kashmir International People's Alliance (JKIPA), said: "Asma Jahangir is not only a popular name in Pakistan but many other countries too. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday condemned newly-inducted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Naresh Agrawal's statement directed at veteran actor and Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Jaya Bachchan. Samajwadi Party (SP) President Yadav took to Twitter and said that such derogatory remark is an insult for not only to Bollywood fraternity but also to all women in the country. Yadav also demanded the BJP to take immediate and strict action against Agrawal for his remark, if the party respects women. Yadav also urged the Women Commission to take cognizance in this matter. "I condemned the derogatory statement by BJP leader Naresh Agrawal on Jaya Bachchan. This is an insult to all women in the country along with the Bollywood fraternity. If the BJP actually respects the women then they should take immediate and strict action against him. Women Commission also should take action in this," Yadav tweeted. ??????? ??? ????? ?? ?? ?? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ??? ?? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ?? ???? ????? ???? ??. ?? ????? ??? ?? ??? ?? ???? ?? ?? ????? ?? ?? ????? ??. ????? ??? ?? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ?? ?????? ???? ?????? ??? ?????. ????? ???? ?? ?? ???????? ???? ?????. Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) March 13, 2018 In his initiation ceremony at the BJP headquarters here, Naresh Agrawal yesterday said that he was humiliated by the SP as he lost the Rajya Sabha election ticket to Jaya Bachchan. "My status was reduced to that of a film actor. Because of her, the ticket was not given to me, which I did not find right," he said. Agrawal represents the Hardoi constituency at the Upper House, and at the expiration of his term, the party has chosen to field Bachchan from that seat. Bachchan is a three-time MP and was first elected to the Upper House by the Samajwadi Party in 2004 till March 2006. She got a second term from June 2006 and was re-elected in 2012 for the third term. Her third term comes to an end on April 3. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A member of the Babri Masjid Action Committee on Tuesday said spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's initiative for an out of court settlement of Ayodhya dispute is certainly good. Talking to ANI, Haji Mehboob said, "Sri Sri's initiative for an out of court settlement is certainly good. Everyone will get their right to live and speak which will make things peaceful." His comments came a day before when the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the Ram Janambhoomi- Babri Masjid dispute a.ka. Ayodhya dispute case on Wednesday. Sri Sri has been trying to take all the stakeholders in the Ayodhya dispute on board for an out of court settlement. Last year in November, the spiritual guru grabbed headlines when he visited Lucknow and Ayodhya to mediate between Muslim and Hindu stakeholders in the long-pending dispute. In February, some members of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) met Sri Sri in Bengaluru. On February 9, then executive member of AIMPLB Maulana Salman Husaini Nadvi on told ANI, "We held meeting so that all issues around the matter especially that of Ram Temple and Babri Masjid are discussed and we look for a solution which sends message across the nation. Our priority is to join hearts of people." Hinting at out of the court settlement, Nadvi said the courts do not join people's heart as the verdict is always in favour of one and against the other. But, the AIMPLB sacked Nadvi for stand on the issue. It surprised Sri Sri, who took to Twitter and said, "Maulana Salman Husaini Nadwi's expulsion from the AIMPLB comes as a surprise, as several members of the board have met with me & expressed their commitment to foster amity amongst Hindus & Muslims & to peacefully resolve this issue." On February 9, the Supreme Court set March 14 as the next date of hearing in the Ayodhya dispute as some of the documents and translations were yet to be filed before the apex court. The court is hearing a total of 13 appeals filed against the 2010 judgment of the Allahabad high court in four civil suits. They challenge the Allahabad high court verdict that mandated a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acre site. The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court had ruled in favour of partitioning the land equally among three parties-the Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and the 'Ram Lalla' (infant Lord Ram), represented by the Hindu Mahasabha. Ram Janambhoomi- Babri Masjid dispute is century old point of tussle between Hindus and Muslims. The mosque was demolished by Hindu Karsevaks on December 6, 1992 in Ayodhya. The country witnessed massive riots in which over 2000 people were killed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra government on Tuesday withdrew all cases against accused booked in violence during state bandh post Bhima-Koregaon agitation. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced in the assembly that the state government would give compensation to the people who suffered losses during the riot. "The decision on serious cases will be taken by a committee after due consideration and submit its report within three months," Fadnavis said. The police had filed 58 cases against 162 people during a statewide shutdown in January following clashes in Bhima-Koregaon. On January 1, the violence at Bhima-Koregaon left one dead and several injured, including 10 policemen. Violence erupted after some people, reportedly with saffron flags, pelted stones at cars heading towards Bhima Koregaon for the commemoration on New Year's Day. Dalit leaders and workers at the village alleged that Hindutva activists Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide had instigated the violence. On January 2, Dalit groups protested in Mumbai. The unrest led to the death of a youth. In February, the Supreme Court reprimanded the Maharashtra Police for not doing enough to arrest Ekbote, who had earlier been granted anticipatory bail by the court till February 20. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The March 11 momentous decision taken by 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China, to allow President Xi Jinping and Vice President Li Yuanchao to serve beyond the previous limit of two consecutive five-year reflects an unsurprising and unanimous display of loyalty by the top Communist leadership to these two gentlemen, and to President Xi in particular. These most momentous changes took place during a very important political meeting of this year, the so-called Two Sessions. Paragraph 3 of Article 79 of the Constitution was duly rubber-stamped. There were 2,958 votes in favor, just two against, three abstentions and one invalid vote. A majority of only two-thirds was required. The normally poker-faced Xi was relaxed as the ballot unfolded, smiling as the results were announced. However, Xi had made great efforts to plough the soil and sow the seed. Shortly before the meeting, the six other members of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) pledged their support for the amendments. NPC secretary general Wang Chen said, "The centralized and unified leadership of the party...has been adhered to throughout the whole process of the constitutional amendment to ensure [it is heading] in the correct political direction." It was a unanimous display of loyalty to Xi, but an unsurprising one. Incidentally, more than half the 2,158 people at the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, one of the Two Sessions, were attending for the first time after the five-yearly reshuffle. The South China Morning Post quoted Beijing-based political analyst Zhang Lifan, "They are not attached to any political faction and will faithfully follow the main themes set by the party. And they will be the new mainstream." In other words, they have been elevated under Xi's leadershipand were handpicked for their reliability, so their only loyalty is to him. In 1999, only 21 of 2,680 delegates voted against and 24 abstained from a constitutional amendment. In 2004, the last time such a vote occurred, only ten of 2,890 delegates voted against and 17 abstained. There was no debate, no discussion this time around. It was simply choreographed. Speaking to delegates at the meeting, Xi said, "The five years since the 18th Party Congress have been five extraordinary years.These achievements have been hard-won and are the result of the strong leadership of the party's Central Committee." Professor Jean-Pierre Cabestan, head of the Department of Government and International Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Hong Kong Baptist University, talked to ANI about its significance. He noted, "It underscores the speed and magnitude of Xi's power consolidation: in five years, Xi has managed to become the core of the leadership, the commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army battle command, his thought has been enshrined in both the party and the state constitution; and he has sidelined many rivals and promoted many of his allies." Indeed, Xi had already far surpassed Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao in terms of his political legacy, and he now even eclipses Deng Xiaoping in terms of accruing personal power, something that has always been his ambition. Xi and his allies were obviously nervous of the reaction to this news at home and abroad, hence the huge clampdown by censors on any online discussion. One bold voice who spoke out was former China Youth Daily editor Li Datong, who said, "This historical retrogression carries with it the seeds of China again lapsing into turmoil." The ironic thing was that, while state media trumpeted "overwhelming appeal" and "unanimous support" from the party and public, any discussion of the abolition of presidential term limits was totally suppressed. This is hardly the action one would take if it is wholeheartedly supported by all. Rather, it simply shows how complete is the authority and control that the Communist Party of China (CPC) possesses over the populace. There is no doubt that this has been a secretive top-down initiative and not something demanded by the grassroots. Because of blanket censorship, it is difficult to gauge reaction within China. Certainly, state media downplayed what changes to the Constitution had occurred, and many citizens were totally unaware that changes were occurring at all. Many simply shrugged their shoulders as they see the CPC as irrelevant to their daily lives, or alternatively they appreciate the fact that they have a strong government that gives them security and makes decisions for them. Western media and academia have raised the greatest amount of noise about the dangers of the change. Willy Lam, writing for The Jamestown Foundation, described it as a "stunning regression". He wrote, "Apart from Xi's apparently megalomaniacal proclivities, the best indication that he aspires to become 'Mao Zedong of the 21st century' is his lack of interest in picking a successor." Lam continued, "In tandem with boosting his own powers, Xi has pulled out all the stops to ensure the CPC's tight control over all aspects of Chinese life. The propaganda machinery has gone into overdrive stressing the near omnipotence of the party - and its total dominance over all sectors of the polity." When asked about potential negative impacts, Cabestan listed the "ultra-centralization of power, arbitrariness and lifelong tenure; return of the personality cult and personal power as opposed to collective leadership". He elaborated that, "In any event, it confirms that the CPC has turned its back on any likely democratization, and on the contrary is on a monarchist drive". Cabestan continued, "Having said that, Xi has many advisers such as Liu He or Wang Huning, and listens to them more than we may think; he is not exerting a kind of solitary power." However, China's history is one replete with the people's wellbeing relying on a leader's benevolence. Unfortunately, even recent history shows that supreme or dynastic power in an individual's hands is fraught with risk. Xi never appointed a successor at the 19th Party Congress last October and he has instituted a return to strongman China is undoubtedly ruled by one man, a type of patriarch once personified by Mao. Centralized power is dangerous, including underlings unwilling to tell the truth or to explain reality. While Xi will surely take credit for successes, what will happen when reversals occur, particularly in the economic sphere as the country faces stronger headwinds? Will he own up to those as well, or will he blame others? Xi's cult of personality is certain to grow, especially via the championing of fawning state media. What they are saying is that there is nobody more talented than Xi, now or in the future, who could run China. That is a very dangerous precedent. Even if Xi does not prove any more authoritarian than he already has, what about his successor who will ascend under the same rules? Nowadays, supporting the party means fealty to Xi, given that he is the "core" of the party. There are almost no checks and balances if Xi is promoted to demigod status, and already the CPC has spread its tentacles of control and influence over multiple facets of society. Asked whether any positives could be taken from the change in presidential term, Cabestan told ANI, "Deepening the battle against corruption, and more importantly, a bigger chance that the reforms approved in 2013 and later are going to be implemented and more completely achieved." He added that "local resistance to Xi may also weaken, which has been a big issue in the last five years". China argues that removing term limits allows consistency with the service terms of commander-in-chief and general secretary posts. The People's Daily stated, "It's a decision that suits China's situation and ensures long-term stable rule of the party, and a move to make steady the 'trinity' of the leader of the Communist Party, of the People's Republic of China and of the PLA." Spokesman for the first session of the NPC, Zhang Yesui, argued in the same vein on 11 March, "Adopting the same treatment in the constitution for presidential terms helps maintain the authority and leadership of the party with comrade Xi Jinping as its core. It helps to strengthen and improve the state's leadership system." His supporters argue that Xi needs more time to build support and ensure political stability. They claim that all gains and momentum towards the "China dream" would be lost if he steps down in 2023. Chinese business interests, as well as foreign investors at that, will surely continue to welcome Xi as long as stability is maintained. World-famous companies have exhibited a penchant for tolerating all manner of intrusive regulations as long as they can remain in China's lucrative market. Chinese media orchestrated an attack on any criticism of its political changes, and pointing out the divisive style of in the West, corruption and inefficiency. For example, defending his political masters, HuXijin of the Global Times tweeted, "Totalitarianism, dictatorship are very old political vocabulary. China is new reality of international Western scholars need some imagination to help them think out of box when observing Chinese leaders." What does this augur for the future? Cabestan predicted, "We are going to see more tensions in the South China Sea, with India and more importantly with Taiwan. Nonetheless, Xi's priorities are domestic ones: managing the slowing down of the economy, reducing the state-owned enterprise and local government debt, the rising frustrations of many social strata fed by rising expectation and a decreasing ability of the government to fulfil them. So, economic, financial and social reforms are going to be Xi's priorities in the coming years." Xi could perhaps provide greater continuity in dealing with the Kim regime in North Korea. It could mean enough time for the Kuomintang Party to regain power in Taiwan, which would surely improve relations with China as well. Southeast Asia can continue eyeing a more assertive China. Beijing has already done a good job of dividing and conquering, as well as promoting its 'One Belt, One Road' initiative as a stimulant. The Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte is likely to lose even more of its will to stand up to China in the South China Sea. India will need to be careful, as Xi was stung by Delhi's obstinacy at Doklam last year. Under the constitutional changes, the National Supervision Commission was also established, an umbrella body with sweeping powers to investigate and detain any state employee. This commission ranks higher than the Supreme Court and top prosecutor's office. It will merge the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) with several other governmental and prosecutorial anti-corruption departments plus the supervision ministry under the State Council. Indeed, those arrested would have no recourse to a lawyer, something of which legal experts are highly critical, although such measures will only be enacted after a vote on 20 March. Another important change to the Constitution was the addition of "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era". It is anyone's guess how long Xi plans to stay in power. Mao reigned for 27 years and Deng for 18. Certainly, amagic number for Xi is 2035, the year that he promised China would achieve socialist modernization. Indeed, Xi's ambitious and self-imposed deadline is a whole 15 years earlier than Deng's goal as he urgently advances his agenda. However, Xi would be 82 years old if he was still the leader in 2035. Ruling until his death would seem unlikely, as that would be a recipe for an ugly changeover of power as occurred with Mao. However, party historian Zhang Lifan said that "Xi Jinping may even maintain a decisive role until 2049, the centenary of the establishment of the People's Republic, when he will be 96 years old". Wang Qishan, the former anti-corruption tsar, is expected to make a comeback as vice president. He was seated on the second row of the presidium at legislative meetings, alongside members of the Politburo and right after the seven members of the PSC. All 21 changes to the Constitution follow one objective, to strengthen the party's legitimacy and blur the line between party and state. Deng had moved to separate part and state after the Cultural Revolution to delimit the party's role and reduce excessive concentration of power. Now that has been undone. Some even see the constitutional change as a sign of vulnerability. Perhaps Xi genuinely fears opposition to his rule, and this is why he pushed it through so urgently and suddenly. Nevertheless, the stakes are high. Will this action engineer greater internal resistance, even among the moderate, and hence generate more repression by the government? In 2012, Xi gathered the party faithful and told them, "No individual or organization is above the constitution. Anyone who acts against the constitution or the law will be held accountable." Clearly Xi feels that this statement no longer applies to him. Truly, Xi does not share power well. Now with this unlimited presidential mandate on the home front, a more confident Xi will surely be more assertive on the international scene too. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra's farmers on Monday said that it was their combined strength, which made the government bow down in front of them and accept their demands. Talking ANI, a farmer from Nashik, who participated in the protest, also expressed gratitude to the people who supported them in their massive protest. "The Government has accepted our demands, we are happy. Leaders of every party and the people of Mumbai supported us. Our strength combined with theirs hence this result," said Sanjay Sukhdev, a farmer who was participating in the protest. "We are very happy. Our demands have been met. We will be getting back our land which is like a mother to us," said Suresh Jairam, another farmer from Nashik. Farmers, who gathered here to participate in the protest march called by the All India Kisan Sabha's farmers from across the state called off their protest after the state government gave specific commitments on two of the protestors' nine demands and assured in writing the rest would be looked into by committees it would constitute. Earlier on Monday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, said he was extremely positive in fulfilling the demands of the farmers and that his government was trying since day one of the march to discuss various issues with the farmers. Over 30,000 farmers held a protest march, walking for about 180 km in the sun from CBS Chowk in Nashik to Mumbai's Azad Maidan. The protest, which was held to demand a complete loan waiver among other things, commenced on March 5. The farmers of the state have been demanding an unconditional waiver of loans and electricity bills; implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations; announcement of minimum support price for agriculture produce; and a pension scheme for farmers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hours after nine CRPF personnel were killed in a naxal attack in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, Former Director General (DG) of Border Security Force (BSF), S.K. Sood on Tuesday said that the "CRPF authorities are not taking the needed remedial actions" . He further advised the CRPF to learn from its mistakes. "CRPF has been repeatedly suffering big losses in this area, this means the CRPF authority is not taking remedial action, we should learn from mistakes," said Former DG, BSF, S.K. Sood. Earlier in the day, the Naxals attacked the 212 Battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district. The attacked claimed lives of nine CRPF jawans and injured 10 others. The CRPF personnel were carrying out an area-domination operation in the area, when their mine-protected vehicle (MPV) was reportedly blown up. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japan on Tuesday emphasised the need for North Korea to take 'concrete actions' in regard with denuclearization. In the purview of the expected visit of US President Donald Trump to North Korea in May, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called upon North Korea to convert words into actions in regard to denuclearisation of the latter, as reported by the Yonhap news agency. Abe made the remarks during his meeting with South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon, who was visiting Tokyo to brief him on the outcome of his recent trips to Pyongyang and Washington. He further highlighted the issue of abducted Japanese nationals in the territory of North Korea and called for its resolution. "It is our basic stance that the nuclear and missile problems and the kidnapping issue of Japanese people should be resolved. It is important to implement words through action and for the North to take concrete action", Yonhap quotes Abe as saying. The Japanese Prime Minister, however, seemed optimist about North Korea to cooperate in the process of denuclearization. "I do not believe North Korea would use this chance simply to buy more time because it now has to face important negotiations, such as a North Korea-U.S. summit following a South-North Korea summit," Abe told Suh, according to South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. Abe was also quoted as saying that Japan is ready to provide all necessary support and cooperation in making the planned back-to-back summits a success. The spy agency chief Hoon arrived in Japan on Monday and held a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono. His visit is part of Seoul's efforts to rally support for the recent breakthroughs in bringing the North to talks and to get other key stakeholders including China, Russia and Japan on board. Both North and South Korea have established a dialogue among them regarding the denuclearisation of North Korea after being persisted by Japan and United States. South Korea had earlier sent a team of envoys to North Korea to discuss regarding denuclearisation. Post which the North Korean leader agreed to hold a summit with President Moon Jae-in in April and further expressed willingness to hold denuclearisation talks with the United States. On the similar lines, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be meeting the US president Donald Trump in April to pressurise North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Forever Diamond director Hasmukh Shah was sent to a 14-day police custody on Tuesday in connection with Winsome Diamonds fraud case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested the former Director and authorised signatory of Forever Precious Jewellery and Diamonds Ltd (Winsome Diamonds Group) after the premier investigation agency in April last year booked the group, its promoter Jatin Mehta, and other related companies in six cases. According to the CBI, Shah was a close confidante of Mehta and looked after the export-import operations of the company. He was also allegedly liaising with the banks. After over Rs 12,000-crore Punjab Bank scam, involving celebrated diamantaire Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choiksi, Winsome Diamonds promoter Mehta is estimated to be the second biggest defaulter in Indian corporate history. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seems like, things aren't well for the Shahenshah of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan, who is currently shooting for 'Thugs of Hindostan' in Rajasthan. The 75-year-old, while speaking about the aesthetic beauty of the place in his blog, also wrote that he will be getting his team of doctors to Jodhpur. "I am getting my team of Doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again .. i will rest and keep informed in process .." wrote the 'PINK' star. On the work front, Big B is currently busy shooting for 'Thugs of Hindostan', which also stars Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh in the lead roles. He will also be seen alongside Rishi Kapoor in '102 Not Out'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Digital lending platform focusing on micro-credit for the MSME sector Happy Loans on Tuesday announced its partnership with rural digitisation and commerce optimisation platform, Storeking. Aimed at providing Happy Loans' innovative and data-driven credit products to Storeking's substantial merchant network, the partnership has achieved the stunning milestone of disbursing Rs. 4 crores of credit in just three months. The synergy between the two companies emerges from the similarities in their targets - greater economic productivity and well-being for MSMEs in the country. Happy Loans helps MSMEs receive credit conveniently through the application of smart technologies; Storeking looks to help rural MSMEs access the benefits of digitisation and e-commerce. On the other hand, Storeking has used its considerable on-ground presence and outreach to connect over a million villagers to the benefits of e-commerce, and now Happy Loans is able to tap into their extensive merchant network and offer them credit. Happy Loans has achieved full data integration with Storeking, allowing it to use its proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven systems to determine the best leads for credit, and match them with the perfect kind of product. The data enables Happy Loans to offer timely loans to help these merchants stock inventory or expand operations at the perfect time, helping them achieve greater commercial success. With this mutually beneficial ecosystem in place, Happy Loans is targeting providing 20,000 Storeking merchants with credit in the next two quarters, to continue their growth story. "There are consistent coverage and conversation around the number and value of digital transactions in the country, but little or no concerted attempt to ensure that 'Digital India' makes the progress it needs to make in excluded portions of our country," said founder and CEO, Happy Loans, Manish Khera. "Through our alliance with Storeking, we can reach these small owners and shopkeepers, and give them the finances required to expand, grow, and continue their pursuit of happiness," Khera added. "Rural India is where 70 percent of our country lives and breathes, but they lack access to technology. Our mission is to bring them the benefits of the technologies poised to revolutionise commerce and business," said founder and CEO, Storeking, Sridhar Gundaiah. "We are extremely pleased with the synergy and growth that our partnership has led to for rural MSMEs, and look forward to helping 20,000 additional merchants access credit from Happy Loans in the coming months," Gundaiah added. Various different sources - bodies such as IFC, ASSOCHAM, and the NSSO survey - indicate that MSMEs in India are facing crippling shortfalls in access to credit and institutional finance. Formal channels of finance are often inaccessible to MSMEs, especially those in the rural hinterland. Happy Loans is looking to address this shortfall, and in its single year of operations has disbursed 8000 loans worth over Rs. 30 crores, and has launched services in 26 states and in over 200 cities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Pakistan envoy to the United States (US) Husain Haqqani has rubbished the registration of case against him by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and has branded it as "politically motivated exercise." "False charges have been filed in Pakistan against me six years after my resignation. These charges have been manufactured after Interpol turned down an earlier request by FIA, under instructions from Supreme Court, for a red corner notice against me for refusing to return to a country where I feel my life is under threat," Haqqani said, in a statement. "Their purpose is just to meet Interpol's criteria for warrants because Interpol does not get involved in political cases," he added. Haqqani underscored that he was confident that Interpol and others outside Pakistan will see the absolute lack of credibility in this "politically motivated exercise aimed at silencing a critic of the Pakistani state's wrong policies, including its support for jihadi terrorism." Pakistan's FIA has reportedly registered a case against the former envoy to the US. The case was registered in the Anti-corruption circle by the FIA in connection with the Memogate scandal, Geo News reported, citing sources as saying. On February 15, Pakistan's apex court issued an arrest warrant against Haqqani and directed him to appear in the Memogate case. However, Haqqani failed to comply with the court orders. The FIA had asked Interpol to issue a red warrant for Haqqani, Additional Attorney General Rana Waqar told the top court but Interpol asked what, if any, criminal case had been filed against Haqqani. In late February, Pakistan's Supreme Court was informed that Interpol had not issued any warrant against the former ambassador to the US in response to a request by the Pakistan government and had raised certain queries instead. This case will go nowhere not only because it is without basis but also because Pakistan's politicized judiciary and law enforcement have no respect or influence left outside Pakistan. "I intend to carry on my life and let FIA and the hidden hands behind it figure out how to fulfill their fantasy of forcing my return to Pakistan on false charges," the statement added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out a historic landing at Tuting Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) near the China border in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday. The flight crew included Group Captain K Rama Rao, Wing Commander Amiya Kant Patnaik, Wing Commander K Trivedi and Squadron Leader L Nayak. The landing ground is located only 30 km from China. The landing ground is challenging as it is located in the midst of high hills in a narrow valley. The mammoth C17 Globemaster could execute this mission flawlessly owing to its agile maneuverability. After completion of the trial landing the C17 carried out an operational mission airlifting operation load into the challenging airfield. The mission carried out today demonstrated C 17 aircraft's operational performance and capability of tactical air mobility of IAF. The landing comes at a time when Indian and Chinese military forces faced off each other for 72 days at Doklam in Bhutan last year. The landing comes after over a year when the Tuting ALG was upgraded on December 30, 2016 with a full-fledged runway along with all the associated facilities. The strategic location of Tuting ALG will make it a launching pad for IAF operations as well as a facilitator to the Administration in the management of border area. The ALG will be used to bring in vital supplies from cities in Assam via fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters besides meeting challenges during natural calamities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Private banking major ICICI Bank on Tuesday announced the launch of an instant overdraft facility for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) customers in a completely online and paperless manner. Titled 'InstaOD', this first-of-its-kind offering in the Indian banking industry enables a few lakhs of pre-qualified current account customers of the bank to instantly avail the facility without visiting a branch and submitting physical documents. This facility significantly improves customers' convenience, as they get an overdraft facility upto Rs. 15 lakh for a year anytime, anywhere, using the bank's internet and mobile banking app. The application procedure incorporates an additional level of authentication in order to make the security of the process robust. ICICI Bank will also offer a facility of instant online sanction of overdraft facility to MSME customers of other banks shortly. "The introduction of 'InstaOD' is an outcome of this vision. We believe that this first-of-a-kind proposition offers a unique experience to our customers. With the Indian economy on the upswing, this convenient overdraft facility will enable the MSME companies to expand their with ease. We plan to shortly introduce a facility of instant online sanction for an overdraft facility for MSME customers of other banks as well," said ICICI Bank executive board, Anup Bagchi. To apply, customers can log-in through their Corporate Internet Banking (CIB) account or iBizz mobile application for businesses or directly from the bank's website, where they will get an option of availing an overdraft facility. They can select the limit required, and confirm their details on a pre-populated personal information page. To submit the application, users can select the 'InstaOD' offer and verify pre-populated details on the application form. Thereafter, he/she will be given the option to choose the limit of the overdraft required, upto the pre-approved limit, along with details of the limit, rate of interest, processing fee and the current account which will be linked to this facility. Once done, the user may download the form and send a text message with 'INSTAOD YES' from their registered mobile number to 5676766 as an acceptance of the facility. The 'Disburse Now' button will now be activated on the internet / mobile banking screen. On clicking this, the overdraft limit is set up instantly. With this, customers can start using the overdraft immediately. The overdraft is renewable on an annual basis, depending on the repayment track records of the overdraft facility. The launch of the 'InstaOD' facility comes amid a slew of initiatives undertaken by the bank to offer digital services in the lending and investment space - 'instantly'. These include the country's first instant credit card, instant small ticket digital lending with a leading payments platform and instant opening of Public Provident Fund account facility. ICICI also introduced instant disbursal of personal loans through ATMs as well as digital enrolment for the National Pension Scheme (NPS). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump, is a little different in real life than the person, who is projected on-screen. Ivanka has a voice that's an "octave" deeper when in private; vacillates between "defiant" and "lighthearted"; and curses like her father, Donald Trump, and her husband and fellow senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner, according to the Washington Post's interview published on Sunday. According to the report, the US first daughter also opined that she and her husband were initially "naive" when they headed to Washington to work for the president. As a White House senior adviser, Ivanka Trump has addressed a range of issues, including policies specifically geared toward women. She pushed for a child tax credit in Congress, rolled out a women's entrepreneurship initiative, and used her official platform to discuss sexual harassment in the workplace. Following Oprah Winfrey's speech at the Golden Globes last year, Ivanka Trump tweeted: "Just saw @Oprah's empowering and inspiring speech at last night's #GoldenGlobes. Let's all come together, women and men, and say #TIMESUP!" The report also delved into Ivanka Trump's work in the White House as well as controversies and infighting involving the president's staff and his children. Ivanka also received appreciation for her role in getting votes for the Republican tax bill passed late last year and for her recent trip to South Korea as a representative for the Olympics. While in South Korea, Ivanka Trump also managed to dodged questions about women who have accused Trump of sexual harassment and assault. "I think it's a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he's affirmatively stated that there's no truth to it. I don't think that's a question you would ask many other daughters," the US firs daughter had said then. Trump, in a statement, said of Ivanka that "Everybody loves and respects her. She works very hard and always gets the job done in a first class manner. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The death toll in US-Bangla Airways plane crash while landing at Nepal's only International Airport, the Tribhuvan International Airport, has risen to 51, the country's Ministry for Home Affairs stated in a release. As per the statement, 22 deceased have been identified as Nepali, 28 Bangladeshi and One Chinese. Other 20 are undergoing treatment at various hospitals in Kathmandu. "The bodies will be handed over to families after their post-mortem," Home Ministry spokesperson Jhankanath Dhakal said. The plane en route to Kathmandu from Dhaka, which crash landed on Monday, had 33 Nepali, 32 Bangladeshi, one Chinese and one Maldivian passenger on board, in addition to the crew. The reason behind the crash of the 17-year old aircraft is yet to be ascertained, but the aviation staff has recovered its black box and an investigation into the incident has been launched. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) JBL Soundgear, a wearable device for a hands-free and ear-free intimate sound experience was launched here on Tuesday. The device, worn around the neck, was launched by HARMAN International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets. "JBL Soundgear gives users the freedom to experience audio in a completely new way. No matter the activity, users can create their own personal sound zone without the closed-off feeling of a headphone. Whether doing house or office work, engaging in virtual reality or watching a movie from a tablet, JBL Soundgear empowers users to create their very own listening environment while staying connected to their surroundings," said Sumit Chauhan, Vice President - Lifestyle Audio, HARMAN India. JBL Soundgear is wireless and connects seamlessly through Bluetooth to smartphones and tablets. Users can enjoy mobile virtual reality headsets, such as the Samsung Gear VR, using the wearable sound device to create a powerful audio experience with JBL Signature Sound. Additionally, the wearable sound device ensures users are always connected, packing up to six hours of playtime before having to recharge. The device is also built with a versatile, dual-microphone conferencing system with echo and noise cancelling technology to ensure sound clarity for crystal clear conversations. The echo cancelling mic also allows users to take phone calls without the worry of sound quality or interruption. The rubber anti-slip treatment ensures the device stays put when moving around, and soft-touch fabrics provide long-lasting comfort. JBL Soundgear is priced at Rs. 14,999 and is available at HARMAN's e-commerce platform, on various online and retail channels and at 350 key Samsung brand stores across in India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui on Monday said that the military establishment in Islamabad is using people like Hafiz Saeed, who is globally designated as terrorist, for their own strategic purposes. While speaking to ANI on the sidelines of the 37th session of United Nations Human Rights Council session (UNHRC) here, Siddiqui said the Pakistani military has two kinds of different policies. "When it comes to militancy, even within the militancy networks, they support some kind of militancy as they look away when it comes to people like Hafiz Saeed, people like Afghan Taliban or Haqqani network." He further said in Pakistan, there's one thing that they call the good militant and the bad militant policy. "We have seen double standards and hypocrisy of the Pakistani policy-makers, particularly the military establishment, which actually manages the policy for the country," Siddiqui said. "I mean there's a civilian government, it's only for the stamp. They don't have that kind of authority." "The real authority lies with the Pakistani military," he added. Siddiqui, who is living in exile in Europe, mentioned that organisations linked with people like Saeed run their pages on social media and websites openly. "They have a great social media presence, nobody stops them. On the other hand people, free-thinkers, who talk about the rights of people of Balochistan and religious minority, are not allowed," the exiled journalist said. "The government and authority should be cracking down on elements, which are bringing a bad name not just to Pakistan. Globally they are designated as terrorists and they have been problematic," he added. Earlier on January 10, Siddiqui had a narrow escape after armed men tried to abduct him when he was travelling to the Islamabad airport. Since then, he has been living in exile in Europe. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A group of policymakers on Tuesday recommended Pakistan to establish a specific China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) unit within the framework of Council of Common Interests (CCI), in order to achieve "transparency and efficiency" in the project. On the launch of 10th Annual Report titled 'The State of the Economy: CPEC Review and Analysis', Shahid Javed Burki of the Institute of Public Policy opined that the Chinese-funded project had not yet been fully "defined and developed". "To realise its full potential, the CPEC program must have the support of all the citizens," he said. The CCI is a constitutional body in Pakistan, which resolves the disputes of power-sharing between the country and its provinces. The body is chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan. According to the report, it stated that proper planning of the four proposed functional zones was essentially imperative for harnessing the comparative and competitive advantage of each zone based on agro and other value chains, The Express Tribune reported. Burki claimed that the CPEC project was expected to add 2 percent growth to Pakistan's gross domestic product (GDP) and greater integration of the country's backward areas with the developed areas. Stressing on the benefit of the economic corridor, Burki added, "CPEC will also link Pakistan with the global economic system from which it has remained relatively detached." Former State Bank of Pakistan governor Ishrat Husain who also attended the event, touted the CPEC project to help in boosting technology and human development in Pakistan. The building of the USD 62 billion economic corridor gives China access to waterways which is about 40 percent of the world's oil passes. When built, it will link Gwadar to Xinjiang region in China. In response to it, a certain section of people, especially the Baloch people have harboured fears of Pakistan being colonised by the Chinese. India against the CPEC project since it passes through the disputed Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) region. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five were injured in an explosion that struck the convoy of Palestine Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah as it entered the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. The explosive device was detonated shortly after Hamdallah and his convoy passed through the Beit Hanoun checkpoint in northern Gaza, reported Al Jazeera. Hamdallah was rescued unharmed. The Palestinian Authority intelligence chief Majed Faraj was also a part of the convoy. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of the ruling Fatah party termed it as 'terrorist attack' while blaming the ruling party of Gaza Hamas. Hamas and Fatah had been opposing each other over a border dispute post death of Yasser Arafat, former chairman of Palestine Liberation Organisation. Iyad al-Buzom, Gaza's interior ministry spokesperson, said the act of placing blame "has a political dimension", Al Jazeera quoted. "Here in Gaza, we take all the security precautions to welcome all the convoys and delegations and particularly the prime minister as he entered Gaza," he said. He added that "several suspects were arrested a short while ago," and that an investigation "to find out who was behind the explosion" is underway. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Ram Nath Kovind said on Tuesday that a peaceful Indian Ocean was must for India and Mauritius. He was addressing a gathering of Indian diaspora here at the reception hosted in his honour by the High Commissioner of India in Mauritius. "The Indian Ocean has connected us in many ways. It has been a uniting force for us. A stable and peaceful Indian Ocean is in the interest of both India and Mauritius. We must strive and work together to ensure and achieve this shared objective," President Kovind said. The President also lauded economic progress of Mauritius. "In the last 50 years, the people of Mauritius have created a democratic, plural and multiethnic society laced with high optimism and progress. The economic achievements of this small but vibrant country are laudable. You have created, what many call, a heaven on earth," President Kovind said. He also said Indians wanted to support their brothers and sisters here, in building a stronger Mauritius, with infrastructural projects that add value to the well-being of common people. Terming India and Mauritius as two countries, but one people; the President said, "Our inspiration, encouragement and inner strength also come from the same source. For both of us, Mahatma Gandhi is an everlasting source of pride. His message and struggle did not stop on the sands of Dandi, it reached in full strength to shores of Mauritius as well." He also invited Indian diaspora to visit and participate in the programmes of the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra in Delhi. President Kovind also exhorted Indian diaspora to spread Indian thought and practice at the stage. Earlier, the President also laid the foundation stone of an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) hospital here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday saluted the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, who were killed in a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district. Nine personnel of the 212 Battalion of the CRPF were killed and one is severely injured in the IED blast, allegedly carried out by Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district earlier today. Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter and said "India salutes the brave @crpfindia personnel who were martyred in the attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh. My thoughts are with the families and friends of the brave martyrs. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this hour of grief". (sic) Earlier in the day, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also expressed grief over the death of CRPF personnel while Congress president Rahul Gandhi termed the attack "tragic" and blamed "flawed policies" of the government for the incident. The incident took place when CRPF jawans were conducting an operation in a forest in the district when the blast took place, ripping apart their mine-protected vehicle (MPV). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Tuesday met jawans who were injured in the naxal attack. He visited Narayana Hospital and met the injured Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans who came under attack of the Naxals in Kistaram area of Chhattisgarh's Sukma district earlier in the day. Nine CRPF personnel were killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast by the Naxals. Earlier, Raman Singh strongly condemned the attack on the CRPF unit. Describing the attack as 'cowardly', Raman Singh said, "This heinous attack indicates the identity of the Naxals is diminishing as the state government works towards the development of Sukma by providing facilities like roads, electricity, water supply, education, health, and hygiene etcetera." He further said Sukma was being transformed into a developed district and this has frustrated the Naxals. This reveals the 'violent' mentality of the 'anti-development' and 'anti-people' Naxals, the Chief Minister added. The Naxals attacked the 212 Battalion of the CRPF. The CRPF personnel were carrying out an area-domination operation in the area, when their mine-protected vehicle (MPV) was reportedly blown up. The blast also injured few CRPF personnel, who have been evacuated by helicopter to Raipur for medical treatment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday announced discontinuation of the issuance of Letters of Undertaking (LOUs) and Letters of Comfort (LOCs) for trade credit for imports with immediate effect. The apex bank in its notification said,"It has been decided to discontinue the practice of issuance of LoUs/ LoCs for Trade Credits for imports into India by AD Category -I banks with immediate effect." "Letters of Credit and Bank Guarantees for Trade Credits for imports into India may continue to be issued, subject to compliance with the provisions contained in Department of Banking Regulation Master Circular on "Guarantees and Co-acceptances", as amended from time to time," It added. The RBI added that the aforesaid Master Direction will be updated to reflect the changes. However, it mentioned that the changes will be applicable from the date of issuance of the circular. In the aftermath of Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, a couple of banks had clamped down on the issue of LoUs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a bid to revolutionise personal security, artificial intelligence (AI) startup Staqu announced the launch of its AI-powered smart glass, capable of both, speech and image recognition, thereby enabling it to identify potential threats to the civil society, such as criminals, intruders or terrorists. The smart glass has an inbuilt camera which captures input to trigger facial recognition. Once the face is identified from within the given databases, the smart glass projects the results on the glass screen. The entire process happens in real-time as the user simply glances over the vicinity. Even in wild scenarios, the smart glass by Staqu fuses together speech and image recognition to utilise a hybrid identification technology and identify anyone. This first-of-its-kind technology utilises both speech and image recognition. Furthermore, the information is streamed in real-time from a centralised server. The glasses can be controlled from a centralised administrative portal, and specific recognition targets for each glass can be set remotely. "Staqu's AI-powered Smart Glass is capable of a hybrid of speech and image recognition and can warn the law-abiding citizens against any potential threat around them. Given the building paranoia and a need for smart security, we are hopeful that a majority of users and security forces will opt for this product," said Atul Rai, co-founder, and CEO of Staqu. Previously, Staqu had launched the ABHED app, helping police forces record and identify criminals on the run. Staqu launched the program of ABHED, together with the Rajasthan Police. The program resulted in the police nabbing over 1500 criminals in the first three months, post which the app reached other states of North India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has stated that the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Britain "clearly came from Russia" and "certainly will trigger a response." However, he said that he would not dwell upon what response might follow, according to a media report. Tillerson spoke to reporters on his aircraft as he flew from Nigeria to Washington. Retired military intelligence officer Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury city centre on March 4. However, they remain in a critical but stable condition in hospital. The White House noted that the use of a highly lethal nerve agent against Skripal and his daughter "is an outrage." Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday underscored that Washington has been keeping a tab on the incident in England very closely, adding that the attack was "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible." According to the reports, Skripal was convicted by the Russian government of passing secrets to UK's Secret Intelligence Service MI6 in 2004, but was given refuge in the UK in 2010 as part of a "spy swap. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reviewed progress of Open Defecation Free (ODF) targets in four states -- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and Jammu and Kashmir, and emphasised on converting the ODF mission into a mass movement. In a meeting with collectors, the Prime Minister encouraged the states to share their views and experiences on the work they have done so far towards Swachh Bharat mission and sanitation goals. He also said: "(There) could be no greater inspiration for completing this task than the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi". The Prime Minister said teams should be formed at the district level to monitor progress regarding the mission and that efforts should be made to convert the mission into a mass movement. Modi also said students and children could play a key role in generating greater awareness in this regard. The Prime Minister had dedicated this year's International Women's Day to the late Swachh Bharat Abhiyan icon Kunwar Bai Yadav, who died earlier this year at the age of 106. Kunwar Bai sold her goats to built toilets in her village of Chhattisgarh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) United States President and business magnate Elon Musk apparently were roped in a Twitter tiff over tariffs last week. "China has been asked to develop a plan for the year of a One Billion Dollar reduction in their massive Trade Deficit with the United States. Our relationship with China has been a very good one, and we look forward to seeing what ideas they come back with. We must act soon!," Trump tweeted on March 7. China has been asked to develop a plan for the year of a One Billion Dollar reduction in their massive Trade Deficit with the United States. Our relationship with China has been a very good one, and we look forward to seeing what ideas they come back with. We must act soon! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2018 Joining the conversation the following day, Musk tweeted, "Do you think the US & China should have equal & fair rules for cars? Meaning, same import duties, ownership constraints & other factors." Musk went on Twitter spree and noted that an American car going to China pays a 25 percent import duty. And that a Chinese car coming the other way pays just 2.5 percent. And that auto companies that want to operate in China must collaborate with a local company. "It's like competing in an Olympic race wearing lead shoes," he wrote. China is the world's largest car market and the one on which almost every automaker is becoming dependent according to the American magazine wired. Musk's Tesla is all-American, building cars in California and batteries in Nevada but even they cannot discard the reliance on some components imported from overseas. Later on Thursday, Musk retook to Twitter saying, "China has already shown a willingness to open their markets and I believe they will do the right thing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump revealed that he on Tuesday fired US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson because the two disagreed on issues such as dealing with North Korea and Iran Nuclear deal. The President's decision comes as he prepares for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. While leaving for California, Trump told reporters that Tillerson "had a different mindset. I think Rex is much happier now". The President, taking a dig at the dismissed Secretary of State, said Tillerson's replacement Mike Pompeo and he have always been "on the same wavelength". Trump also praised Pompeo for "tremendous energy, tremendous intellect" and explained Tillerson and I "were not really thinking the same" on issues. The President said he "really didn't discuss it very much with [Rex], honestly". "I made that decision by myself," the President said. The President earlier in the day tweeted: "Mike Pompeo will become our new Secretary of State. He will do fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!" He also said: "Gina Haspel would be the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" The President in a statement also urged Pompeo's "swift confirmation" and said his experience in US military, Congress, and the CIA have prepared him well for his new role. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 25-year-old Uber cab driver was arrested for allegedly abducting and molesting a women passenger in Delhi. The driver allegedly locked the car doors, when the woman tried to escape, by activating the car's central locking system. According to reports, when the woman got into the cab, the first thing she noticed was that the vehicle did not have a yellow number plate. And minutes into the ride, she allegedly found the driver's conduct suspicious. When she realised that the driver allegedly chose an isolated route over her preferred route. She tried to jump out of the car, but the driver activated the central locking system. She, however, managed to unlock the door and jump out when the cab slowed down again near a CNG pump in Jahangirpuri. After which she approached the Mahender Park Police Station and filed a complaint regarding the same. The police arrested the intoxicated driver from a Haryana village and also recovered his car. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United Kingdom Ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, in the UK last week, the ministry told TASS. Earlier on Monday, Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko was summoned to the UK Foreign Office in London in the wake of the investigation into the possible poisoning of Skripal. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, "Moscow has not received any inquiry over the agent from Skripal's case from London. Russia will respond to the UK's inquiry if it is directed pursuant to the norms of the Chemical Weapons Convention." British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday that Russia was "highly likely" responsible for the attack. Retired military intelligence officer Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury city centre on March 4. However, they remain in a critical but stable condition in hospital. The White House noted that the use of a highly lethal nerve agent against Skripal and his daughter "was an outrage." Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday underscored that Washington D.C. had been keeping a tab on the incident in the UK very closely, adding that the attack was "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible." According to the reports, Skripal was convicted by the Russian government of passing secrets to UK's Secret Intelligence Service MI6 in 2004, but was given refuge in the UK in 2010 as part of a "spy swap. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) United States Defence Secretary James Mattis made an unannounced visit to Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday. Mattis is scheduled to meet Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani to exchange views on matters relating to mutual interests, including the war on terror and the peace process in Afghanistan. He will also meet US commanders and allied troops posted in the country, TOLO news reported. "We do look toward a victory in Afghanistan. Not a military victory, the victory will be a political reconciliation with the Taliban, which has achieved a stalemate in recent years and shown little interest in conceding to the Kabul government," Mattis added. The visit comes two weeks after President Ghani invited the Taliban to begin peace talks without preconditions to end the 16-year-old war in the Kabul Process Conference last month. The group said last month that it was open to reaching a political settlement and negotiating, but has not responded to President Ghani's peace offer so far. Afghanistan has been ravaged by a series of deadly terrorist attacks in the last few months, which has claimed over 150 lives, particularly in Kabul. Most recently, nine people were killed in a suicide bombing on Friday, close to a ceremony on the death anniversary of Abdul Ali Mazari, a slain leader of the Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan. The defence secretary, who commanded US troops as a Marine general in southern Afghanistan during the war with the Taliban in 2001, said that getting the militants on board for reconciliation may be a bridge too far. This is Mattis's second visit to the war-torn country after he last visited in September. In August last year, US President Donald Trump asserted that his administration would take a more aggressive approach to deal with the Afghan conflict and to pull out US troops from Afghanistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered an inquiry into the incident where consumption of spurious liquor claimed three lives. At least three people died and two are under treatment after they allegedly consumed spurious liquor in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad. The incident that took place in the Khora area of Ghaziabad came to light on Tuesday morning. The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government had passed a bill providing death penalty and life imprisonment for those dealing in illicit liquor. Earlier in January, nine people died after allegedly consuming poisonous alcohol at their relative's place in Barabanki. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Christian women activists on Monday raised the issue of persecution of minority community by the hands of Islamic fundamentalists and the misuse of blasphemy law in Pakistan during the 37th session of human rights council session in Geneva. Speaking at a side event at UN, Shazia Khokhar, a Christian woman activist from Pakistan, who now lives in Switzerland, said there is only 2 to 3 percent of the minority in Pakistan, who live in continuous danger of being persecuted by the blasphemy law. She added, "The name, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a complete official name of a country where religious minorities are systematically persecuted. The Islamic Republic is a name given to several states that are officially ruled by Islamic law. In Pakistan, once an individual is accused of blasphemy, he is presumed guilty and the law fails to safeguard against people willing to use violence. Blasphemy law also creates an atmosphere of religious intolerance and has contributed to the institutionalisation of discrimination against religious minorities". The women activists highlighted many cases including Pakistan's most high profile blasphemy case of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who found guilty of committing blasphemy while working in the fields in 2009 and was sentenced to death. In 2014, her death sentence was upheld by the Lahore High Court. Shazia said, "As a poor Christian, from a low caste, Aasia Bibi was among the most vulnerable to get accused and the legal system which in theory should be designed to protect the innocent, failed to protect her in any way." Talking about the solution to complex problems faced by minorities in Pakistan, she said, "More voice we raise, the louder we will be because being only two percent in number, we cannot match 97 percent of the community. Now is the time we should act on that strategy of thinking locally but acting globally. FIR should not be registered on immediate grounds or without investigation. The most important of all is to provide protective custody to the victim and his family". Adding more to the solution, Shazia said, United Nations committees should raise the issues frequently when Pakistan submits its periodic reports to its committee". Another Christian woman activist from Pakistan, Salma Bhatti, raised the issue of kidnapping, conversation and forced marriages of young women from the minority community. She said, "There are many young Christian girls in Pakistan who are being kidnapped and forcibly married. Later, they are no whereabouts of these women. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ministry of AYUSH has signed following agreements with the WHO for cooperation in promoting traditional Medicine. The details are as; i. Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India has signed Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) with WHO , Headquarter, Geneva for collaboration activities, including long term collaboration with WHO in the area of Traditional Medicine on 13th May, 2016 at WHO headquarters in Geneva. The title of this project is cooperation on promoting the quality, safety and effectiveness of serving provision in traditional and complementary Medicine between WHO and Ministry of AYUSH, India, 2016-2020. Its aim is to promote the quality and safety of TC&M (Traditional system and Medicine) and consumer protection through supporting WHO in the development and implementation of the WHO Traditional and Complementary Medicine Strategy, 2014-2023. In this project, areas of collaboration are- Development of the WHO publications; benchmarks for training in Yoga, Ayurveda, Unani, Panchakarma, basic (essential) terms for T&CM practitioners and support the establishment of a network of international regulatory cooperation for T&CM practice. ii. Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India has signed another Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) with WHO, Headquarter, Geneva for developing WHO terminology in Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha on dated 27th December, 2017. iii. Ministry of AYUSH has signed an Agreement with WHO for concerning the Secondment of Dr. Geetha Krishnan to the WHO with costs paid by the releasing institute to WHO for providing inputs for preparation of strategic agenda and workplan in promoting quality, safety and effectiveness of the traditional and complementary medicine and development of practice documents in Traditional Medicine including Ayurveda, Unani, Panchakarma and training document in Yoga. The following achievements made under these Pacts with WHO; I. In respect to Secondment Agreement, Ministry of AYUSH has deputed Dr. Geetha Krishnan Gopalakrishnan Pillai as Technical Officer to the Traditional, Complementary and Integrative (TCI) Medicine unit of WHO in Geneva and he has joined WHO, headquarters on February 1, 2018. II. In respect to Agreement signed with WHO for developing WHO terminology in Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, the Ministry of AYUSH has developed comprehensive document on Ayurvedic Terminologies with National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes through a consultative process of experts. The print version of document has been finalized while the Morbidity codes have been launched through NAMSTP (National AYUSH Morbidity and Standardized Terminologies Portal) by Hon'ble PM on dated 17th October, 2017 (2nd Ayurveda Day) and morbidity statistics are being captured. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Infosys was up 0.64% to Rs 1,193.40 at 9:28 IST on BSE, extending gains for fourth trading session in a row. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 35.73 points, or 0.11% to 33,953.67. On the BSE, 10,000 shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 2.85 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 1,195 and a low of Rs 1,176.20 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,220 on 24 January 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 861.50 on 22 August 2017. Shares of Infosys has risen 4.43% in four trading sessions to its current market price of Rs 1,193.40, from a close of Rs 1,142.80 on 7 March 2018. Infosys announced its intention to voluntarily delist its American Depository Shares (ADS) from the Euronext Paris and Euronext London exchanges. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 12 March 2018. The primary reason for seeking the proposed delisting is the low average daily trading volume of Infosys ADS on these exchanges, which is not commensurate with the related administrative requirements. During the 5-year period of the company's listing on Euronext Paris and Euronext London, the average daily trading volume of the company's ADS was significantly lower than its average daily trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The proposed delisting is subject to approval from Euronext Paris S.A. and Euronext London. There will be no change to the Infosys share/ADS count, capital structure and float, as a result of the proposed delisting from the above exchanges. Infosys ADS will continue to be listed on the NYSE and investors can continue to trade their ADS on the NYSE as before. On a consolidated basis, Infosys' net profit rose 37.65% to Rs 5129 crore on 1.29% growth in net sales to Rs 17794 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q2 September 2017. Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The 2018-19 Budget for Assam proposes to establish a North East Foundation, which will act as a think tank for the region, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday. The Minister said he proposed setting up of the Foundation considering not only the common geography of the region but also the history, culture and traditions in the region. "We the people of Northeast not only share common geography but also common history, culture and traditions. We have abundant natural resources and share borders with South Asian, Southeast Asian and East Asian countries. All the states in the northeastern India are classified as special category states owing to our difficult terrain and economic constraints," said Sarma. "On the other hand. inter-dependence and commonness among the northeastern states is a compelling reason for all northeastern states to come together and align their developmental strategies with the overall developmental framework for the region," he said, adding that against this backdrop, he proposed setting up of the Foundation. "This foundation will also liaise with leading think tanks at national and global levels and articulate the perspective of this important region in a strategic, holistic manner," said the Minister. As a goodwill gesture, the government of Assam would take lead in establishment of this foundation and provide seed funding for a period of five years, he added. Sarma hoped that his colleagues from other northeastern states would come forward to support this initiative. --IANS ah/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday claimed that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win all the 80 parliamentary seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Speaking at the popular 'Aap Ki Adalat' television programme hosted by India TV journalist Rajat Sharma here, he also claimed that Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi will migrate to some other safer seats out of fear of losing their traditional constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli. "The people of Uttar Pradesh have experienced the bitter regime of the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party and they will banish them forever from the state," said the saffron-robed leader. He also said that the 'electoral understanding' struck by arch rivals BSP-SP was of no consequence in the parliamentary by-elections of Gorakhpur and Phulpur, the results of which will be out on Wednesday. "UP has suffered their divisive agenda, dynastic and brazen promotion of self and families and after the rout of the red flag in Tripura, the BJP will ensure that the red cap (SP's brand) also drowns in the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his development- oriented and progressive politics," he said. He even said it would have been better if the BSP-SP and Congress would have contested the bypolls together, claiming "Bua (Mayawati) and the two Babuas (Rahul and Akhilesh Yadav) would have made things easier for us". He also trashed allegations of his predecessor (Akhilesh Yadav) that no development has taken place under him and he was only inaugurating the projects of the previous SP government. Asked to comment on Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's statement that if Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav came together, BJP will be wiped out in UP, a smiling Adityanath said that if the former Bihar Chief Minister was the mentor of the two leaders, the lesser said the better. Presenting the report card for his one year rule, the Chief Minister asserted that infrastructure has been spruced up, unbridled power supply ensured, loan waiver for farmers rolled out and law and order brought on track. Questioned on the spree of gunfights - 1,200 in 11 months leaving more than 45 criminals dead, Adityanath said the message was loud and clear that maintaining law and order and ensuring safety and security of the people was his top priority. If criminals fire at police, they will be responded to in the same measure, he said in a bid to justify the gunfights, which many allege are extra-judicial killings. "When you ask for what changes have happened in the state, you should see how gun-totting criminals have given up on crime and have become vegetable vendors," he told show host Sharma amid applause. To a question on whether by saying that he will not celebrate Eid, was he not confining himself as a leader of Hindus, Adityanath answered in the negative and said Hindusim was his faith and religion and he was extremely proud of it. "I am proud to be born a Hindu, have lead a life of a seer and having been given 'diksha' in the oldest sect," he said while adding that he was not one of those leaders who would quietly recite Hanuman Chalisa inside their homes and don skull caps when they step out. Saying he would not resort to such practices, he however maintained that people of other religions wanting to celebrate their festivals peacefully will be given full security by the state government. On the saffronization of the state ever since the BJP came to power, he said there was nothing wrong in it as "saffron was the colour of prosperity". Adityanath also ruled out any mediation in the Ram Janmabhoomi imbroglio, recalling many attempts have been made - most recently by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar but they did not fructify. "We should pin our hopes on the apex court and await its verdict on the matter," he said. He also sought to stress that minorities in the state need not fear him. "There has been no communal tension in the state in the past one year and there will be none ever," he said. --IANS md/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Chief Minister and younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif was elected unopposed the President of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz at a convention of the party's General Council on Tuesday. In his first address after officially taking the reins of the party, the younger Sharif said no one from the party can replace Nawaz Sharif -- the former Prime Minister who was ousted by the country's apex court last year. PML-N leaders held a grand general convention on Tuesday to welcome the new party president. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Nawaz Sharif and other bigwigs of PML-N were also part of the convention. Shehbaz Sharif took the stage and expressed his gratitude to Nawaz Sharif saying: "I have been selected as the President of the PML-N. It is an important but difficult task for me. I am aware of the responsibility that has been bestowed on me." "Nawaz was our Quaid today, tomorrow and forever," he added. He further said that he understands that this is not just PML-N's fortune but the entire nation's that they have Nawaz Sharif as their leader. Shehbaz said PML-N also "enjoys support from minorities, ensuring us national security". He confidently stated that "(Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief) Imran Khan and (former co-chairperson of Pakistan People's Party Asif Ali) Zardari combined cannot defeat Nawaz under any circumstance". He further added that "It is a huge opportunity for me that Nawaz has bestowed this challenge upon me. I am humbled and scared also but I will continue working hard with your blessings". --IANS ahm/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A court here on Tuesday granted bail to Karti Chidambaram's Chartered Accountant and co-accused S. Bhaskaraman in the INX media money laundering case. Special Judge Sunil Rana granted bail to Bhaskaraman and asked him to furnish a personal bond and a surety bond of Rs two lakh. The court directed him not to leave the country with permission and to join investigation, whenever required. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Bhaskaraman on February 16 on charge of money laundering. The agency alleged that Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P.Chidambaram, allegedly took money to facilitate Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to INX Media in 2007 when his father was the Union Finance Minister. --IANS akk/tsb/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Business activities across Delhi came to a standstill as over seven lakh shops in 2,500 markets across the city shut on Tuesday to protest against the ongoing sealing drive by the three municipal corporations, a traders' body said. Traders also took out protest marches in various markets, including Connaught Place, Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazar, Chawri Bazar, Kamla Nagar, Karol Bagh and Kashmere Gate. Demonstrations were held at around 100 places across Delhi, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said in a statement. On March 28, a traders rally will be held at Ramlila Maidan here against the sealing drive which, the CAIT said, is in "utter violation" of The Municipal Corporation of Delhi Act, 1957. The business losses due to Tuesday's bandh were estimated at Rs 1,800 crore, with the revenue loss to government pegged at about Rs 150 crore, CAIT said. Calling an all-party meeting convened by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a "political stunt", the protesting traders adopted a resolution on Tuesday to demand that his government get passed a bill in the Assembly to stop the sealing drive. They also appealed to the central government to bring a law for a moratorium on the sealing. The sealing drive is being carried out by a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee against business establishments using residential properties for commercial purposes. The drive is being implemented by the three BJP-led municipal corporations in Delhi. The committee was set up by the Supreme Court in 2006. In 2012, the apex court asked the committee to halt the drive. But in December 2017 it ordered resumption of the drive. --IANS spk/tsb/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order giving relief to Karti Chidambaram till March 20 from arrest in the INX Media money laundering case. The ED mentioned the case challenging the order before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who agreed to hear it on March 15. In an interim relief to Karti Chidambaram, 46, son of Congress leader P. Chidambaram, the High Court on March 9 had asked the ED not to take "any coercive action" against him till the next hearing of the case slated for March 20. The ED told the apex court that Karti should not have been given protection from arrest as it will become a legal device for accused persons like Nirav Modi to get relief even before they are questioned or investigated by the probe agency. On March 8, the top court had asked Karti to approach the high court seeking quashing of summons issued by the ED. The high court directed him to cooperate in the investigation, appear before the ED whenever required and submit his passport. Karti Chidambaram is being interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) since his February 28 arrest. On Monday, the trial court had sent him to judicial custody till March 24 after the CBI said that further custody was not required. The CBI investigated him for allegedly receiving money to facilitate Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media in 2007 when his father was the Finance Minister in the UPA government. --IANS gt/ksk/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India is now into the fifth year of its unique experiment of legally binding companies to be socially responsible. This push by the government to solve the country's most challenging social problems was based on the idea that the corporate sector will come up with transformative solutions that will scale up impact across the country. As the development goals of the country are immense and everyone recognises that the challenges can only be overcome with the effort of every stakeholder in the ecosystem, many scholars viewed it as the right move by the government. The CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) sector has matured over the years, but no significant impact has been made in the development issues that India faces. There are many challenges that need to be addressed before CSR becomes a powerful force for change. Ministry of Corporate Affairs data reveals that out of 5,097 companies that filed annual reports until December 31, 2016, for the financial year 2015-16, only 3,118 had done some CSR expenditure. For the financial year 2014-15, 3,139 companies had spent 74 per cent of the prescribed CSR expenditure. Many of the companies made their CSR investments to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. The reasons stated by the companies for zero spendings include non-finalisation of location of the project, technical difficulties and organisational capacity to identify projects still in creation. Some of the companies even cited that their profile does not gel with the concept of CSR and they are not required to constitute a CSR committee. These findings provide two major insights about Indian businesses. First, while many of them are making efforts to address societal challenges, they lack strategic planning to identify the ideal projects for investment. The grants made by most of the companies have no long-term strategic thinking behind it. Second, most of the businesses still do not consider it their responsibility to invest in the advancement of communities around them. They fail to consider CSR as a holistic view of the impact that businesses have on society and the environment through their operations. Even if these companies make some investments in future, their behaviour suggests that there will be a lack of engagement. The lack of strategic planning, innovation and experimentation and the lack of engagement by businesses will not lead to high-impact results. It is important for businesses to understand the challenges faced by the citizens to make a meaningful impact. One way is to enable businesses to see new opportunities to solve public problems. They should get hold of a social issue that is at the core of their business and then use their resources and capabilities to address the problem in a way that will help not only society but will reap benefits for the company as well. This implies that they should focus on creating "shared value". The other route to tackle the social challenges that India is facing is that businesses start embracing strategic CSR and adopt strategies that will help move the needle towards urgent needs. Both these solutions require an in-depth analysis of the well-being of our country -- analysis that can bring out state-specific social challenges and areas of relative weaknesses. Such a tool can act as a useful guide for companies as to where and how they can best effect change by helping them identifying key focus areas for prioritisation and investments. Social progress is a concept that can enable businesses to harness their full potential to enhance well-being in society. Social progress views development beyond the concept of GDP. It focuses on capturing the real issues faced by the people. This is already helping businesses to improve people's lives in many other countries. In Brazil's Amazon, a detailed social and environmental diagnosis of 772 municipalities spurred Coca-Cola and Natura to conduct a community-needs survey based on the Index framework. This laid the foundation for a new development programme that was a collaboration between citizens, government, business, and civil society. The programme, guided by the social progress data, has improved water and sanitation infrastructure, providing 500 households with consistent sources of clean water for the first time. They also constructed new river piers to improve transportation during seasonal flooding and increase connectivity with neighboring communities. These improvements have been made possible because businesses in that region took responsibility for the well-being of society. Similarly, businesses in India can use the tool for their CSR action plans to determine areas in which they can allocate resources and improve the quality of life across communities. For instance, when it comes to nutrition and basic medical care, the Index shows that Madhya Pradesh performs the worst among all states. Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand follow closely. Therefore, FMCG companies can undertake targeted initiatives across this belt to tackle the perpetual problem of nutrition in India and companies in the pharmaceutical and medical sector can help improve the condition of basic medical services in these states. There exists immense scope for corporates to aid social progress in India and it does not even have to be forced down their throats. Merely making use of indices like the Social Progress Index to identify areas of social need that intersect with their line of business and contributing their two cents should suffice. It just might also make for a unique business opportunity for them. One only needs to look. (Amit Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at Amit.Kapoor@competitiveness.in and tweets @kautiliya. Manisha Kapoor, senior researcher, Institute for Competitiveness, has contributed to the article.) --IANS amitk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Britain should get to the bottom of the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal before discussing the issue with Moscow. "Get to the bottom of things there, then we'll discuss this," Xinhua quoted Putin as saying. Skripal, 66, was sentenced in Russia in 2006 to 13 years in prison for cooperating with the British Secret Intelligence Service MI-6 and releasing names of Russian intelligence officers working undercover in Europe. In 2010, the former double agent was pardoned as part of a spy swap and then moved to Britain. Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center on March 5. They remain in a critical condition in hospital. Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the incident happened in Britain and it was not Russia's affair at all. On the same day, British Prime Minister Theresa May said it was "highly likely" that Russia was responsible for the poisoning of Skripal and Russian Ambassador to Britain had been summoned to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office over the case. --IANS qd/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Haryana government has recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities committed during the previous Congress rule vis-a-vis land acquisition in Rohtak and Sonipat districts, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar told the Assembly on Tuesday. Speaking during Zero Hour in the Budget Session of the Assembly here, he said the opposition Congress had no right to talk about the plight of farmers. "They themselves acquired land of farmers to benefit some builders," he alleged. Khattar said the state had already handed over to the CBI investigation into three cases related to re-allotment of a plot to Associated Journals Ltd in Panchkula near here, an industrial plot in Panchkula, and the Manesar land case. The Supreme Court had set aside the land acquisition process executed by the previous Congress government in Manesar. The then government had threatened innocent farmers and extended huge benefits to real estate developers and builders in the name of land acquisition during its rule, Khattar said. The court has termed such activities as mala fide exercise of powers and a clear case of misuse of power. Apart from this, the apex court has also ordered for investigation into the role of middlemen in land acquisition. The Chief Minister said the apex court had also ordered that a decision on the Dhingra Commission report, which went into the grant of land licences to some companies, be announced within two months. Regarding opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) charges on irregularities during the Congress rule in Haryana, he said its documents run into 290 pages and action was being taken on every issue after proper investigation. "We do not take action against anyone due to revenge or malice. All actions and decisions are taken only after investigation," the Chief Minister added. --IANS vg/tsb/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Michael Caine calls himself "a big feminist". The 84-year-old actor has revealed that he agrees with the women who are campaigning for more "freedom" and equal rights, reports femalefirst.co.uk. "Women want more freedom and I agree with that. I am a big feminist," he said. However, the "Italian Job" star doesn't necessarily believe that the gender pay gap issue exists in Hollywood, despite the recent scandal involving the reshoots for "All The Money In The World", in which Mark Wahlberg was paid $1.5 million, and his co-star Michelle Williams received just $1,000. But Caine has revealed that in many of the movies that he has starred in, his female co-stars have been paid the same as him, if not more. "I worked with Elizabeth Taylor and I got about ten per cent of the money she got. I never realised women were underpaid. I worked with Jane Fonda, and they all got more money than me or the same," he said. --IANS nv/rb (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actress-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan has declared movable and immovable assets worth Rs 493 crore in her affidavit to the Election Commission (EC). The three-term Rajya Sabha MP of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the affidavit submitted to the poll panel while filing nomination for her fourth straight term has declared that her assets along with that of her husband, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, have doubled since her last such affidavit in 2012. According to the affidavit, the 69-year-old politician, together with her husband, has immovable assets worth over Rs 460 crore, and their movable assets are valued at Rs 540 crore, much above the Rs 343 crore declared in 2012. The list of her movable assets includes a pen worth Rs 9 lakh and watches worth Rs 51 lakh, though less expensive than what her hubby Big B owns -- watches worth a whopping Rs 3.4 crore. The couple own a 3,175 square metre residential property in Brignogan Plages in France other than plush properties in Bhopal (MP), Noida (UP), Delhi, Pune and Mumbai (Maharashtra), and in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad cities of Gujarat. Amitabh Bachchan has been shown as owning a Rs 5.7-crore three-acre plot in Daulatpur area of Barabanki district and the Rajya Sabha MP herself owns a Rs 2.2-crore agricultural land measuring 1.22 hectare in Kakori area of Lucknow. Poll panel officials say that with assets adding up to almost Rs 1,000 crore, Jaya Bachchan could well be walking into the Rajya Sabha as the richest lawmaker at present. --IANS md/nir/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday told the state Assembly that he has no plans to increase the retirement age of state government employees. He made the remarks while replying to a leave for an adjournment motion moved by Congress legislator V.T. Balaram, who expressed fears that the Vijayan government was trying to first increase the retirement age of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) employees from 56 to 60 years with all other government departments following suit gradually. "We have not started any discussions or even considered to raise the age of state government employees... It won't happen at all," said Vijayan. Till the beginning of the 2013 fiscal, the general norm in Kerala for retirement was 55 years and in all state-run educational institutions anyone turning 55 years after July 1 was allowed to continue till the end of that academic year. To even out the disparity, the former Oommen Chandy government made the retirement age for all government and state-run educational institutions as 56-years-old from April 1, 2013. Vijayan clarified that the confusion arose after a one-man committee appointed by Sushil Khanna (IIM-Calcutta faculty) had submitted a report on various schemes on the way the KSRTC could be revived and taken forward. "The report states that if the retirement age of KSRTC is raised from 56 to 60, there will be a savings of Rs 450 crore and this money could be utilised to create a corpus fund which would be able to pay the pension on time," Vijayan added but kept mum if the retirement age of KSRTC employees would be raised. The KSRTC is going through tough times financially and has an accumulated loss of Rs 7,966 crore. Around 49,000 pensioners got their pension after a gap of six months. Over the years, successive governments have infused funds into KSRTC for payment of salaries to the 39,000 employees and the 40,000 pensioners. State Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran also assured that there has been no decision made to increase the retirement age of KSRTC employees. Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala staged a walkout from the House protesting against the state government's attitude in trying to push through raising of the retirement age of all government employees. "You are masters at saying one thing and doing the opposite... If you dare raise the retirement age, you should prepare to face the worst ever agitation that the state has seen," Chennithala warned. --IANS sg/ksk/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Authorities in Kerala have been placed on alert and fishermen advised not to venture into the sea after Met reports on the formation of a depression over southeast Arabian Sea and adjoining area moving slightly north-westwards, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Tuesday. "The India Meteorological Department has said a depression has been formed about 350 km from Thiruvananthapuram and it could very likely move north-westwards and intensify further into a deep depression. However, the saving grace is it is unlikely that Kerala will be hit directly. "Warnings have been issued that under no circumstances should fishermen venture out into the sea till March 15," Vijayan told the media here. He said all district Collectors have been alerted on the issue and elaborate arrangements put in place. Officials have been asked to be ready and, if necessary, coastal relief shelters would be opened at short notice. State police chief Loknath Behra told the media that Kerala was fully geared to meet any eventuality. "All police officials are seized of the gravity of the situation and have been asked to be fully prepared to face any crisis, if it happens," said Behra. Senior IMD official S. Sudevan said there could be a possibility of strong winds also and said all weather warnings have been send out to all officials concerned. --IANS sg/tsb/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Reflecting the possible line-up against BJP, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress' Sudip Bandyopadhyay and DMK's Kanimozhi were among leaders of 19 parties who attended a dinner hosted by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi at her residence on Tuesday. Considerable significance is being attached to the dinner in the midst of speculation about the political realignment that could take place ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections. The meeting also took place against the backdrop of stand off with the government in parliament that has seen continuous disruptions since the start of second half of budget session on March 5. Congress President Rahul Gandhi later said there was "much political talk" during the dinner meeting. He also said the leaders reflected tremendous positive energy, warmth and genuine affection. "Fabulous dinner tonight, hosted by UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi Ji. An opportunity for leaders from different political parties to meet and bond, informally. "Much political talk but much more important - tremendous positive energy, warmth and genuine affection," Gandhi said in a tweet. Some leaders later said that the dinner was part of effort to forge a front against the BJP in the Lok Sabha battle next year and regional rivals were coming together. "The effort is on. The effort is going on. This is a part of that effort," said expelled Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav said when asked if there will be a front of opposition parties in 2019. Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav said the the effort is on to get the opposition united. "You can also see NDA allies are also angry. Chandrababu Naidu is angry, Akalis are also angry. They are losing faith in NDA's leadership. TRS is not happy." "Laluji's (RJD supremo Lalu Prasad) effort to have a mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) at the national level, this was a positive move towards that," he said and accused the BJP-led government of political vendetta against its opponents. Congress Communications incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters that the leaders discussed ways to fix accountability of the Narendra Modi government in parliament. He accused the government of running away from debate in parliament on the Rs 12,600 crore PNB fraud case as also failing to tackle unemployment and problems of farmers. "When the government does not have interest to run Parliament, then it is natural that leaders of opposition parties, who are concerned about the problems faced by the people, will discuss the country's There will be unofficial discussion on how to fix accountability of the government," he said. Leaders who attended the dinner also included National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party's Satish Chandra Misra, All India United Democratic Front's Badrauddin Ajmal, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Misa Bharti and Tejashwi Yadav, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Hemant Soren, Communist Party of India-Marxist's Mohammad Salim, and Communist Party of India's D. Raja. IUML's P. K. Kunhalikutty, Kerala Congress-Mani' Jose K. Mani, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik's Babulal Marandi, Revolutionary Socialist Party's N. K. Premachandran, veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal's Ajit Singh and Janata Dal-Secular's Kupendra Reddy were also present as was Hindustan Awam Morcha leader Jiten Ram Manjhi, who had quit the NDA last month. Besides Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and party leaders Ahmed Patel, and A.K. Antony were among those present. Seventeen opposition parties had come together against the BJP-led NDA during the presidential and vice-presidential elections last year and Sonia Gandhi has been holding occasional meetings to nurture the bonding. Party leaders said the group was expanding with Manjhi and Marandi coming to attend the dinner. It is also noteworthy that Sonia Gandhi took the lead for the get together of the leaders even after Rahul Gandhi has taken over as the Congress President in December last year with the feeling in the Opposition that senior leaders would show deference to her more than to her son. This dinner is also significant in the context of moves by regional parties like the Telanagana Rashtra Samiti and the Telugu Desam Party which have attacked BJP in the recent past and are said to be jockeying for a third front of parties against the BJP and Congress. --IANS sid-mgu-ps-vsc/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra government plans to withdraw cases against the accused in the January 1 Bhima-Koregaon caste riots in Pune which had left one dead, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced in the assembly on Tuesday. He also said that the state government will give compensation to the people who suffered losses during the rioting. Fadnavis informed the house that a committee will be set up to take a decision on the serious cases filed in the matter and submit its report within three months. He also said that the state will take over the management and maintenance of the samadhi of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in Vadhu-Budruk village, around five kms from Bhima-Koregaon. Fadnavis said a total of 58 cases have been registered by the Pune police in connection with the riots that erupted on New Year's Day and 162 accused were arrested. The riots had left one person dead and over a hundred injured including 60 policemen, he added. Referring to the losses, Fadnavis said these amounted to around Rs 13 crore, out of which Rs 9.40 crore were in Bhima-Koregaon riots itself. Of these, Dalit community members suffered losses of around Rs 1 crore and Muslims more than Rs 85 lakh, which the government would compensate, Fadnavis said. After the riots, the government had lodged 17 cases under the Atrocities Act plus 600 other cases and 1199 accused were arrested for various offences, besides 2,053 being detained as a preventive measure. The disturbances erupted in the village of Bhima-Koregaon on January 1 during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Anglo-Maratha War which saw the army of Peshwa Bajirao II being defeated by a small force of the East India Company that comprised a large number of Dalits. That afternoon, several lakhs of Dalits had congregated around the Victory Pillar (Vijay Stambh) erected by the British in Sanaswadi village when suddenly stone pelting started, allegedly by some right-wing groups carrying saffron flags. In the clashes that ensued between the two groups, more than 30 vehicles, including buses, police vans and private vehicles, were torched or damaged and one youth, Rahul Fatangale, 28, of Nanded lost his life. The Bhima-Koregaon incident was followed by a crippling Maharashtra shutdown on January 3, organized by the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, led by Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of the architect of Indian Constitution, B. R. Ambedkar. Tuesday's development is seen against the backdrop of Monday's massive response to the farmers' 200-km long Nashik-Mumbai Long March by over 35,000 farmers, tribals and labourers organized by the CPI-M-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha, which proved a success with the government conceding most of their demands. --IANS qn/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Defence Secretary James Mattis arrived in the Afghan capital on Tuesday on a surprise visit to meet Afghan authorities and commanders of NATO and US forces in the country. The visit by the Pentagon chief comes at a time when the Afghan government is actively looking to broker peace talks with the Taliban. Mattis will meet Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani to exchange views on the war on terror and the peace process in Afghanistan, local television channel 1TV reported. "US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis has arrived for a periodic visit," Tom Gresback, Public Affairs Director at the Resolute Support Mission of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, told Efe news. Mattis will meet with the NATO command and the Afghan authorities. His visit followed Ghani's offer of non-conditional peace talks and political recognition to the Taliban, although the rebels are yet to respond to the offer. Ghani's announcement came days before the insurgent group had proposed to hold talks with the US, after refusing talk offers for years. During his last visit to Afghanistan in September, Mattis had assured local authorities the US would not abandon Afghanistan to a "ruthless enemy" and underlined US President Donald Trump's decision to increase troop deployment in the country. Afghanistan is going through one of its bloodiest phases after the end in 2015 of the NATO mission, which, however, continues to be present in the country to train Afghan forces. --IANS soni/sac (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With Microsoft Teams completing one year this week, the company is set to unveil new features, including Cortana integration and inline message translation for Teams -- the company's answer to business communication service rival Slack. "This week marks the first anniversary of the worldwide launch of Microsoft Teams. Today, 2,00,000 organisations in 181 markets and 39 languages use Teams," Microsoft wrote in a blog post late on Monday. The added integration with Cortana's digital voice assistance could give Microsoft an edge in its battle with Slack as the importance of voice-based computing in the workplace and within business productivity applications grows. "Will enable you to easily make a call, join a meeting, or add other people to a meeting in Teams using spoken, natural language. This functionality will extend to IP phones and conference room devices," the company added. Other features that would be rolled out throughout the year include Cloud recording, background blur on video, proximity detection for Teams Meetings and mobile sharing in meetings. Inline message translation would allow Microsoft Teams participants to automatically translate messages in channels and chat messages. --IANS ksc/na/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 23-year-old man reported missing for a couple of days was found dead in south Delhi with a stab injury, police said on Tuesday. Police said Danish, a labourer, was staying with his family in Sangam Vihar. His body was found lying at a deserted place behind Batra Hospital on Monday by a local resident who informed police. "Some parts of the body were eaten by stray dogs, pigs and other animals. The body has been shifted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences mortuary. No eyewitness to the crime has been found as yet," Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baaniya said. Danish's mother said in her police statement that Danish had gone for work on Saturday morning but did not return. They did not file any police complaint on the matter, Baaniya said. Police investigation revealed that Danish was a drug addict. --IANS sp/tsb/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Raipur, March 13 (IANS/VNS) At least nine CRPF personnel were killed and two injured when Maoists blew up an anti-landmine vehicle of the 212 CRPF Battalion in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, said a senior police official. The blast was followed by a heavy exchange of fire between the security forces and the Maoists in which the Maoists also suffered a severe blow, said Vivekanand Sinha, Inspector General (IG) of Police, Bastar. The exchange of fire was going on till the time of reporting. The CRPF personnel were on routine patrolling in Palodi in Kishtaram area of Sukma district when the Naxalites set off an improvised explosive device (IED), blowing up the vehicle at around 11 a.m., Sinha said. There were 11 troopers in the anti-landmine vehicle, according to the officer. The injured jawans were being airlifted and three helicopters will soon reach Raipur, said D.M. Awasthi, Special DG (Naxal). A large force has been sent to the spot, Awasthi said, adding that there could be more landmines in the area. All the hospitals here are on high alert to keep beds ready for more possible casualties. A CRPF camp is three km away from the spot. Meetings of senior police officials are going on in the police headquarters and they are keeping a watch on all the updates. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has also demanded a full report on the attack. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh termed the incident "deeply distressing" and has asked the CRPF Director General Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar to go to the site. "Today's IED blast in Sukma, Chhattisgarh is deeply distressing. I bow to each and every security personnel who attained martyrdom while serving the nation. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. "I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans. I spoke to DG @crpfindia regarding the Sukma incident and asked him to leave for Chhattisgarh," Singh said in a tweet. Earlier in the day, an encounter took place between CRPF personnel and Maoists in Sukma district but the Left-wing ultras fled after the CRPF returned their fire. This is the third major incident in the area in the past one year. In March 2017, as many as 11 jawans lost their lives in a Naxal attack. In December 2017, the Naxals torched 27 vehicles involved in road construction in Sukma district. --IANS/VNS hindi-nks/rak-ps/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least nine CRPF personnel were killed and two injured in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Tuesday, in one of the deadliest attacks by the Maoist rebels on security forces this year. The incident took place around 12.30 p.m. when the Maoists blew up an anti-landmine vehicle of Central Reserve Police Force's (CRPF) 212 Battalion along the 5-km under-construction Kistaram-Palodi road by using an over 50 kg Improvised Explosive Device (IED). The blast was followed by a heavy exchange of fire between the security forces and the Maoists in which the rebels also suffered a severe blow, said Inspector General of Police, Bastar, Vivekanand Sinha. The CRPF personnel were on routine patrolling and going towards a newly-opened post in Palodi in Kishtaram when the Maoists set off the IED. The attack came about a year after dozens of CRPF personnel were killed in similar ambush in Sukma district. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh termed the incident "deeply distressing" and asked the CRPF Director General Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar to go to the site. "Today's IED blast in Sukma, Chhattisgarh is deeply distressing. I bow to each and every security personnel who attained martyrdom while serving the nation. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. "I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans. I spoke to DG @crpfindia regarding the Sukma incident and asked him to leave for Chhattisgarh," Rajnath Singh said in a tweet. The Home Minister spoke to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh who briefed him about the incident, and steps taken for the treatment of the injured CRPF personnel. Raman Singh also condemned the attack and sought a full report over the incident. Meanwhile, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said the attack on CRPF troops reflected a deteriorating internal security situation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. "The Maoist attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh in which 9 CRPF jawans lost their lives is tragic. It reflects a deteriorating internal security situation due to flawed policies," tweeted Gandhi. "My condolences to the families of those killed. To those who have been injured, I wish a speedy recovery," he added. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also expressed her deep sadness over the attack and extended her condolences to their families. "Deeply saddened at the news coming from Sukma. Lives of at least nine CRPF jawans lost. My heartfelt homage to all the martyrs. Strength to their families. Jai Hind," she tweeted. Those killed in the incident have been identified as Assistant Sub-Inspector Ramakrishna Singh Tomar, Head Constable Laxman and Constables Ajay Kumar Yadav, Manoranjan Lenka, Jitendra Singh, Sobit Kumar Sharma, Manoj Kumar Singh, Dharmendra Yadav and Chandra H.S. The injured are Madan Kumar and Rajesh Kumar. CRPF's Deputy Inspector General M. Dinakaran said an shootout took place between the CRPF and the Maoist in Sukma around 8 a.m. on Tuesday but the Left-wing ultras fled after the force retaliated. "Again at 12.30 p.m. the Maoists targeted another team of 212 CRPF Battalion. Our 11 troopers were travelling in an anti-landmine vehicle when the Maoist blew up an IED," Dinakaran said. The injured troopers airlifted to Raipur, he said, adding a large force has been sent to the spot to find out if there was more landmines in the area. The attack took place around three km away from a CRPF camp. This is the third major incident in the area in the past one year. Twelve CRPF personnel were killed on March 11 last year in the Bheji area of Sukma district when the Maoists ambushed their patrol party. Later, a group of over 300 Maoists on April 24 again attacked a CRPF road opening party in the district, killing twenty-five personnel of the paramilitary force. --IANS rak/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The nominations of all six candidates for the Rajya election from West Bengal, including Trinamool Congress-backed Congress nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi, have been accepted on Tuesday, a senior state assembly official said here. All the documents submitted by the Rajya Sabha candidates were found valid after scrutiny. "All the nomination papers are in order and have been accepted," the official said. Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Biswas, Santanu Sen and Nadimul Haque from the Trinamool, and Communist Party of India-Marxist's Rabin Deb were the others who filed their nomination on Monday in the assembly, making a contest inevitable in case none of these candidates opts out. Singhvi's nomination had 40 proposers -- 20 each from the Congress and the Trinamool. After completing the formalities, he called for preventing any division in the anti-BJP votes in the country in order to "stop the march of divisive forces". West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee has announced her party support for Singhvi. The election to the five Rajya Sabha seats from the state will be held on March 23, which has become necessary as the terms of Kunal Ghosh, Vivek Gupta, and Nadimul Haque of the Trinamool Congress and Tapan Sen of CPI-M will end on April 2. Mukul Roy, who left the Trinamool last year and joined the BJP, has resigned from the upper house of Parliament. --IANS mgr/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as 55,522 loans have been sanctioned by banks under the Stand-up India scheme until March 7, Parliament was told on Tuesday. "The number of loans given by public sector, private and regional banks under the Stand-up India scheme are 51,888, 2,445, and 1,009 respectively upto March 7, 2018 since inception of the scheme," Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. During the same period, Regional Rural Banks sanctioned 180 loans to borrowers of scheduled castes category, he added. The scheme was launched on April 5, 2016 to facilitate bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore to potential women entrepreneurs and people belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities. The minister, however, did not divulge any details on the amount of loans granted under the scheme. --IANS rrb/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pankaj Tripathi's "Mango Dreams" will release on online streaming app Netflix, and the actor is confident it will fetch a large audience. Directed by John Upchurch, the film features Pankaj as a Muslim auto rickshaw driver who forms an unlikely friendship with a Hindu doctor (Ram Gopal Bajaj) as they travel through different states in India in search of the doctor's childhood home. Pankaj said in a statement: "'Mango Dreams' happened out of nowhere. The director reached out to me through an email and I loved what I read. It was an instant 'yes' for me. "The film has been received well at the festivals it has been to so far. I was thrilled and honoured that my work in the film got recognised on international platforms." "Mango Dreams" also won Pankaj the best actor award at the Capetown International Film Market and Festival in 2017 and till now has been screened at over 40 international film festivals across the world. "While it wasn't able to get a theatrical release, I am delighted that it has been taken by Netflix. The digital platform has a large audience across the world and I am sure this film will touch many hearts around globe," he added. The film will release on the platform on Thursday in the UK before being released on the platform in India. Pankaj will next be seen in Vikas Bahl's upcoming film "Super 30", where he will be play the lead antagonist against Hrithik Roshan. The project is about Anand Kumar, the mathematician from Bihar. --IANS ks/rb/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday unveiled a 10-feet tall statue of freedom fighter Sardar Udham Singh at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. The initiative was undertaken by the NGO International Sarab Kamboj Sabha, which had been demanding the installation of the statue for four decades. The marble statue of Udham Singh, in a portrait of taking a pledge to avenge the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, was installed on Monday at the main entrance. The statue is said to be prepared in Rajasthan at a cost of Rs 10 lakh. It was March 13, 1940, when Udham Singh killed Michael O' Dwyer (at Caxton Hall in London) to avenge the infamous massacre on April 13, 1919. The Central government has already announced a slew of programmes to commemorate the centenary of the massacre next year. A statue of the martyr in a charging position while holding a pistol is installed outside the Hall Gate in the city but the long-pending demand to install another one at the iconic Bagh was fulfilled on Tuesday. --IANS rak/ksk/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday slammed Rajya Sabha member Naresh Agrawal, who started off his new innings in the BJP with a controversial remark by referring to actress and politician Jaya Bachchan as a "mere film dancer". "The statement he has given is very shameful. It needs to be condemned," the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader told reporters in the Parliament House complex here. The SAD is one of the oldest allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She said the remarks show Agrawal's mindset and hoped that Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu will take a call on it. "When an elected representative speaks such language, it shows his mindset. It sends a wrong message to the young generation," she said. Asked about action against Agrawal, Badal said: "He himself should feel ashamed. I have faith in Venkaiahji. He respects women a lot and will do the needful." External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also conveyed her disapproval of the remarks in a tweet. "Shri Naresh Agrawal has joined BJP. He is welcome. However, his comments regarding Jaya Bachchan ji are improper and unacceptable," she tweeted. On Monday, Agrawal said the Samajwadi Party had refused him a Rajya Sabha berth and gave it to a person just because she "could dance and act in the films". "My stature has been equated with that of a mere film actress. Just because she could dance and act in films, my candidature (to Rajya Sabha) has been sacrificed for her. I haven't taken it kindly." Agrawal's term in the Rajya Sabha is ending next month and he had expected a re-election to the upper House. But his hopes were dashed when the party chose Bachchan to be its candidate. --IANS bns/ksk/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a meeting with an Estonian government delegation, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries (RIL) Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday expressed his desire to collaborate with the country to develop better e-governance solutions for India. A statement from the company said Ambani envisaged to make lives better for millions in India by replicating innovative solutions offered by Estonia into the Indian context. The statement said that Ambani also expressed his interest in the "e-residency programme" of Estonia which will empower him with easy access to the entire European Union (EU) for his existing business while sitting in India. The e-Residency programme -- which offers startups access to a government-issued digital ID, thus enabling the opening of a global EU company fully online while working from anywhere in the world -- is the gateway to do business in Europe, said Ambani. "We believe your solutions are easily scalable to India. We wish to have a very close cooperation with your talent in Estonia," he added. The delegation from Estonia -- the country where 99 per cent of the public services are available online 24/7 -- comprised of Urve Palo, Minister of Entrepreneurship and IT, Viljar Lubi, Deputy Secretary General for Economic Development and Riho Kruuv, Ambassador of Estonia to India. --IANS ppg/ksk/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump will host Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on March 20, the White House has said. "The President looks forward to discussing ways to strengthen ties between the US and Saudi Arabia," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement on Monday. Trump on February 27 spoke with Bin Salman over phone and the two sides vowed to further enhance bilateral partnership on security and the economic front, the US media reported. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince's visit to Washington is part of a three-leg visit, with him having visited Egypt and the UK earlier in March as part of a long foreign trip, his first as Crown Prince. --IANS soni/sac (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday asked Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir to visit Chhattisgarh and review the situation in the wake of killing of nine CRPF personnel in a Maoist attack in Sukma district. "Rajnath Singh has asked Ahir to reach Chhattisgarh tonight (Tuesday) and review the ground situation in the wake of the LWE attack in Sukma," a Home Ministry tweet said. At least nine Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed and two injured in Sukma earlier in the day, in one of the deadliest attacks by Maoist rebels on security forces this year. Maoists blew up an anti-landmine vehicle of the CRPF's 212 Battalion along the 5-km under-construction Kistaram-Palodi road by using over 50-kg Improvised Explosive Device around 12.30 p.m. when the CRPF personnel were on routine patrol and going towards a newly-opened post in Palodi in Kishtaram. The blast was followed by a heavy exchange of fire between security forces and Maoists in which the rebels also suffered casualties. Rajnath Singh termed the incident "deeply distressing" and asked CRPF Director General Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar to visit the spot. --IANS rak/tsb (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the northeastern states of India recording a high cancer prevalence rate, Tata Trust and the Cachar Cancer Hospital, in collaboration with several other organisations, have embarked on a motorcycle rally across the seven states to make people aware about the disease and sensitise the patients. The rally titled, 'Run and Ride' was flagged off from here on Tuesday and will go to Tezpur, Itanagar, Dibrugarh, Kohima, Imphal, Aizawl and Agartala before concluding at Silchar in Assam on March 21, covering a total distance of over 2,100 km. "The rally aims to spread awareness on cancer and the importance of early detection," said Dr. Ravi Kannan, Director, Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, adding that if tobacco was not there, "50 per cent of all cancers and 90 per cent of oral cancers can be prevented". "The riders will interact with people and organisations on the way in small towns, villages and big cities all across northeast India, spreading awareness about cancer, risk factors, sign and symptoms, its preventive measures, research aspects and treatment modalities," he said. He also said that the northeastern region, with a population of approximately five crore, sees about 45,000 new cancer cases every year. "Across India, Aizawl district in Mizoram reported the highest rate of cancer among males, while Papumpare district in Arunachal Pradesh recorded the highest number among females," he said. "70 per cent of the cases are reported at the late stages," he said, adding that it is due to a lack of awareness about the symptoms, poor access to affordable care and other psychological factors like fear and fatalism. The rally is being organised in collaboration with the Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV), National Cancer Grid, Electrobion Sip, Silchar Thumpers and others, who will also organise street plays, sensitisation and educational talks apart from sharing the stories of cancer patients. --IANS ah/nks/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Filmmaker Hansal Mehta's "The Accidental Prime Minister" is set to go on the floors on March 31. The biographical political film, written by Mehta, features veteran actor Anupam Kher and Akshaye Khanna. "Exciting days ahead as Akshaye joins the crew. 'The Accidental Prime Minister' begins shooting on March 31 with a fantastic ensemble led by Anupam Kher and Akshaye Khanna. Helmed by debutant Vijay Ratnakar Gutte, produced by Bohra Brothers and adapted beautifully by Mayank," Mehta tweeted on Tuesday. "The Accidental Prime Minister" stars Anupam as Manmohan Singh, the economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014 under the United Progressive Alliance. The film is based on the 2014 memoir of the same name by Sanjaya Baru. Akshaye will play Baru in the movie. --IANS ks/rb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Telangana Assembly Speaker on Tuesday disqualified two senior Congress legislators due to their unruly behaviour during Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan's address at the joint session the previous day. Speaker Madhusudhana Chary announced the disqualification of Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar. They stand expelled from the House for the rest of the period of the current Assembly which is the first since Telangana became a separate state in 2014 and the term will last till April-May next year. Eleven Congress members including floor leader K. Jana Reddy, were also placed under suspension for the current budget session that began on Monday. Venkat Reddy was seen throwing headphones at the Governor when he was addressing the joint session on Monday. The headphone hit Council Speaker Swamy Goud which led to an eye injury. While the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) fully supported the action against the Congress members, the Bharatiya Janata Party floor leader G. Kishen Reddy objected to the suspension of some members like K. Jana Reddy. Legislative Affairs Minister T. Harish Rao moved the motion for disqualification of the two Congress members under provisions of clause 3 of Article 194. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi strongly condemned the Congress members' behaviour in the Assembly. BJP floor leader G. Kishan Reddy felt the Speaker should have consulted all parties before moving the motion for suspending the 11 members. In the Legislative Council, six Congress members -- Shabbir Ali, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, Akula Lalitha, Damodar Reddy, P Sudhakar Reddy and Santosh -- were suspended for the current session. --IANS str/ksk/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) This refers to your editorial Protectionism does not pay; raising import tariffs to hurt Indian consumers (March 13). The editorial states India should use this opportunity to boost its own productivity by improving infrastructure at a low cost and should not raise import tariffs. While last week's imposition of import duties on steel and aluminium by the US although would not have a huge impact on India, the countrys stand to take it up with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is one sided. There is another way that trade representatives of both the countries can ... Two absconding Nigerians, wanted in a murder case in Delhi, were arrested by the local police here in the district this afternoon. A tip-off had been received from Delhi Police that the two had gone to Jalandhar in Punjab, booked a car and were heading towards Guwahati, Superintendent of Police Rajiv Mishra said. "Delhi Police was keeping a tab on their movements by tracking their mobile phones. The Nigerians had been dodging policemen at all checkposts in various districts en route but were finally nabbed in Kurlikot police station area here," the SP said. He said a police team spotted the vehicle at NH-327E, seized the car and took the Nigerians into custody. The Delhi Police has been informed about it, the SP added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam government today handed over financial assistance to 31 ailing journalists under the Journalists' Welfare Medical Fund here. People in government jobs enjoy financial security, but journalists who collect and disseminate information are devoid of financial security, the chief minister's Media Advisor Hrishikesh Goswami said. "The Fund is an effort on the part of the Chief Minister to expedite the government's initiatives towards the welfare of the journalists of the state," Goswami said while handing over cheques to the journalists. He said this is not a favour show to the scribes but it is the duty of the government. The state government, in consultation with various journalists associations, will formulate more welfare schemes for the benefits of the journalists in near future, he said. Altogether 31 ailing journalists from across the state were given Rs 9,72,343 today. A corpus fund to the tune of Rs 3 crore has been created for the purpose and a sum of Rs 70 lakh has already been disbursed so far to 150 journalists under the scheme. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nine CRPF personnel were today killed after Maoists blasted their mine protected vehicle using over 50 kgs of explosives in Chhattisgarh's Sukma, about a year after a dozen jawans were killed in a similar ambush in the district. Officials said the incident took place around 12:30 pm along the 5-km under-construction Kistaram-Palodi road when the troops of the 212th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were out for an operation. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the incident was "deeply distressing" and asked CRPF Director General R R Bhatnagar to rush to Chhattisgarh. "My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans," he said. The home minister spoke to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh who briefed him about the incident, steps taken for the jawans' treatment and operations to nab those involved. The armoured MPV had gone about 10-feet into the air and crashed on the ground before splitting into pieces. All the personnel were killed due to the impact of the blast even as many were thrown out of the vehicle, officials said. "The troops who came under attack were travelling in the MPV and going towards a newly-opened post in Palodi. Naxals were first spotted in the area around 8 am and the CoBRA teams effectively retaliated and broke the ambush. "However, when a convoy of motorcycles and 2 MPVs were crossing the area in the noon, the second mine protected vehicle got caught in the blast," Bhatnagar told PTI in Delhi. He had returned from the state only this morning after conducting an official tour. When asked why MPVs were being used despite their vulnerability in Naxal areas, the DG said they were used sparingly and that they had not been abandoned completely for use in operations. Officials said nine men were killed while two other jawans are injured after the armoured vehicle was blown up using over 50 kgs of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) concealed under the track that joins Kistaram to Palodi, a senior official said. A senior CRPF official in Raipur said the patrol squad had launched the search-cum-area domination operation from Kistaram towards Palodi, located around 500 kms from here, in view of the visit of Sukma Superintendent of Police Abhishek Meena in Palodi today. The blast is suspected to have been triggered by Maoists by joining wires from a distance when the MPV crossed over the IED, officials said. They said the Maoist cadre led by elusive Naxal commander Hidma and his PLGA (Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army) battalion no 1 could be behind the deadly attack. Sukma, considered one of the worst insurgency-hit regions of the state, has witnessed several dreaded attacks on security forces in the past, particularly in summer season during which rebels carry out an annual tactical counter offensive campaign (TCOC). There were reports that the TCOC was launched by the Naxals early this year, from late February as compared to March-end,the official said. Soon after the incident, reinforcements were rushed to the spot, around 500 kms from state capital Raipur, officials said, adding further details were awaited. Those killed have been identified as Assistant Sub Inspector R K S Tomar, Head Constable Laxman and constables Ajay K Yadav, Manoranjan Lanka, Jitendra Singh, Shobhit Sharma, Manoj Singh, Dharmendra Singh and Chandra H S. The injured are Madan Kumar and Rajesh Kumar. Twelve personnel of the force were killed on March 11 last year in the Bheji area of the district and their arms looted, when Naxals ambushed their patrol party. A few days later on April 24, twenty-five personnel of the paramilitary were killed in a similar ambush in Sukma. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The controversy over an alleged assault on the chief secretary of the Delhi government has taken a new turn with the resignation of the chief minister's advisor, V K Jain, who was present at Arvind Kejriwal's residence when the incident is believed to have taken place. Jain has resigned citing "personal reasons", a source said. According to a submission by the Delhi Police in a court, Jain had disclosed that Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan had surrounded and assaulted chief secretary Anshu Prakash at Chief Minister Kejriwal's residence late at night on February 19. Jain, however, had initially said he had not seen anything as he was in the washroom when the incident is alleged to have taken place. He submitted his resignation letter to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) yesterday and sent a copy to Lt Governor Anil Baijal, the source added. "Jain has resigned from the post of advisor to the chief minister citing personal reasons and family commitment," the source said. He had been absent from the CMO since the incident and had gone on a week-long medical leave, government sources said. Jain was among those present at the meeting at the CM's residence when Prakash was allegedly assaulted by the AAP MLAs in the presence of Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia. He was appointed to the post in September last year, days after he had retired as the CEO of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). The board is chaired by Kejriwal. Jain, a 1984-batch DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service) officer, was promoted as an IAS officer in 2011. Since the alleged attack on the chief secretary, IAS and DANICS officers have not been attending meetings with AAP ministers, and only maintaining written communications with them. There are around 70 IAS and 450 DANICS officers working with the Delhi government. A joint forum of the Delhi government employees has demanded action against Kejriwal and Sisodia in connection with the case. They have also been observing a five-minute silence at work every day. Since the AAP government was formed, the Delhi government and the bureaucracy have been at loggerheads on a range of issues. In December 2015, DANICS officers went on mass leave for one day when two special home secretaries were suspended by Delhi Home Minister Satyender Jain. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Buckling under widespread protests, especially by students, the Vasundhara Raje dispensation in Rajasthan today revoked its recent controversial order on implementing a dress code for government run colleges in the state. The chief minister said the Directorate of College had issued the order to introduce uniforms in government colleges based on suggestions by student representatives. It has been brought to my attention that many students are not happy with this decision. I have therefore asked that uniforms be made voluntary rather than compulsory, Raje tweeted. We are here to provide our girls with whatever they require to excel in their education, she said. On March 4, the BJP government in Rajasthan had announced a dress code in state-run colleges from the academic year 2018-19, drawing protests from students and opposition Congress which dubbed it as an attempt to saffronise institutions. The Commissionerate of College had then shot off a letter to principals of government colleges asking them to decide the colour of the dress for boys and girls and submit it by March 12. Dress code for boys included shirt, trousers, sweater (winters), shoes, socks and belt. For girls, it was salwar suit, dupatta, sweater or cardigan (winters), saree, shoes or sandals and socks. The dress code has to be implemented in government colleges from academic session 2018-19. Principals are directed to decide dress colour with senior faculty members, student union representatives and to submit it by March 12, the letter stated. The Congress said it would oppose the decision and alleged the government was pursuing RSS agenda. The government is working on the agenda of the RSS. They have changed school curriculum, distributed saffron cycles and are now bent on saffronising colleges. We will protest any such attempt, Congress chief whip in the state Assembly Govind Singh Dotasara had said. The government had, however, maintained that the decision was being taken on the students' demand. Dress code was a demand of the students who have complained that outsiders enter college premises. There should be clarity on the identity of students. We have left it on the colleges to decide on the dress colour. We have not imposed any particular colour, state Higher minister Kiran Maheshwari had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Airlines reported over 24,700 technical snags last year, with Jet Airways alone accounting for 9,689 of them, according to official data. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha told the Rajya Sabha today said that technical snags in airlines have gone up from 15,048 in 2014 to 21,500 in 2016. A total of 24,791 "defects/ snags" were reported by airlines in 2017, according to the data provided by the minister as part of a written reply. "Snags have increased due to increase in number of aircraft in the airline and increased number of flight sectors," he said. Out of last year's total, Jet Airways planes had 9,689 snags, followed by SpiceJet which reported 4,903 snags and Air India group at 4,563. GoAir reported 1,888 snags, AirAsia (1,367), Vistara (1,225), Blue Dart (793), IndiGo (340) and Zoom Air (23), the data showed. Jet Airways had reported 6,535 snags in Boeing 737, 990 in Boeing 777 (B777), 831 in Airbus 330 (A330) and 1,333 in ATR. In the case of SpiceJet, 2,910 snags were reported with respect to Boeing 737 and 1,993 related to Bombardier Q400. As per the data, Air India reported 337 snags in A319, 482 in A320 and 354 in A321 planes. The number was 48 in the case of B747-400, 226 in B777 and 497 in B787. The carrier's budget arm Air India reported 1,676 snags in B737 while Alliance Air's ATR-72-600 faced 943 snags last year. AirAsia, Vistara and IndiGo flies A320 planes while Blue Dart operates B737 aircraft. Zoom Air has CRJ 200 planes, the data showed. "Technical snag (defect) means a condition existing in an aircraft (including its systems) or aircraft component arising from any cause other than damage, which would preclude it or another aircraft component from performing their intended functions or would reduce the expected service life of the aircraft or the aircraft component," Sinha said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has regulations and procedures for monitoring snags encountered during aircraft operations. These include analysing engineering statistical reports and advising the aircraft operators to take corrective actions if there is any adverse trend and conducting spot checks. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat today lauded China's military prowess, saying the neighbouring country, along with its economic rise, also focused on military modernisation. "They have arrived well before the intended time than we had thought they would arrive," Rawat said at an event organised by the Vivekanand India Foundation. Last week, China unveiled its largest defence spending increase in three years, setting an 8.1 per cent growth target this year, fuelling an ambitious military modernisation programme and making its neighbours nervous. Today, China is the second largest economy in the world. "While China ensured that their economy must rise, they did not forget the rise of their military power. "They ensured that while their economy was developing the military power must rise simultaneously and that is why they are strong today in the international world order challenging the might of the United States of America, which was until now the sole security provider," he said. Rawat said the world looks at India as a country that can balance the rise of China in the region as it was showing its "assertiveness". Rawat also said strong economic growth is only possible with a strong defence. "We cannot become the net security provider if the economy does not keep pace with the changes," Rawat said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Army has said it was reeling under severe fund crunch and struggling to even make emergency procurements when it was dealing with an assertive China along the northern border after the Doklam face-off and increasing hostilities from Pakistan on the western frontier. The Army told a parliamentary panel that the insufficient allocation to it in the defence budget was going to hit the Army's modernisation at a time when Chinese military was competing to reach the level of the US and Pakistan bolstering capability of its forces. Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Sarath Chand said 68 per cent of the Army's equipment is in the 'vintage category', adding fund crunch will also impact the serviceability of the existing equipment and may even affect payment of instalments for past purchases. The Army's frustrations over inadequate allocations of funds in the defence budget for next fiscal figured in a report of the Standing Committee on Defence which was tabled in Lok Sabha today. Talking about the new procurement policy, delegation of financial powers to Vice Chief of Army and several other initiatives towards modernisation of the armed forces, Lt Gen Chand told the panel that "the Budget of 2018-19 has dashed our hopes and most of what has been achieved has actually received a little set back." He said, "Allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation is insufficient even to cater for committed payment of Rs 29,033 crore for 125 on-going schemes, emergency procurements," he said, adding "Committed liabilities of 2017 which will also get passed on to 2018 will further accentuate the situation." Referring to the regional security scenario, Chand said the possibility of "two front" war is a reality and the country needs to pay attention to modernisation of the Army. He said the Doklam issue was going on and China has become increasingly assertive. "We have seen more and more patrolling and transgressions. Activities in Tibet has also increased over a period of years whether it is the quantum of troops or whether it is the number of personnel undertaking the exercises and also the level of exercises," he said. The Army also informed the panel that it does not have adequate resources to even undertake the construction of strategic roads near the Sino-India border. The Vice Chief of Army Staff also referred to daring terror attacks on military installations in Uri, Pathankot, Nagrota and Sunjwan Cantt in Jammu and said the defence forces must get their dues. "Peace in the neighbourhood has also been slightly affected by the recent incidents in Maldives. Overall, we have a disturbed situation and all the more important is that the defence forces should get their due," he said. The Army informed the panel that it had identified 25 projects under the Make in India initiative but there was not adequate budget to support them. "As a result of which, many of these may end up foreclosed." On its part, the Parliamentary Standing Committee, headed by BJP MP B C Khanduri, also came down hard on the government for inadequate allocation of financial resources to the armed forces. "Keeping in view the increasing threat perception, which includes various occurrences of external strife and internal dissidence such as Doklam, increased external activities in Tibet over a year, rampant cross border firing, militant activities etc., the current budget is not supportive to the inevitable needs of the Army," the panel said. It also expressed concern, saying a whopping 68 per cent of the equipment of the Army is in the vintage category while just about 24 per cent is in the current state, and eight per cent in the state of the art category. The panel said it took a series of attacks and numerous casualties to delegate financial powers to the Vice Chief to spend Rs 14,097 crore for strengthening 'perimeter security'. "But for the attack, it's quite possible that funds for strengthening perimeter security may not have been sanctioned for quite some time to come," it said. It said while the defence ministry has delegated powers to the Vice Chief of the Army to spend a little over Rs 14,000 crore towards security related issues, there is no separate allocation made for it. "The committee opine that the security of the Nation is paramount and safety of those defending the country cannot be left in a state of abandonment. "The Forces must be capacitated in maintaining a robust and effective response mechanism to counter emerging threats," it said. The Parliamentary Standing Committee also came down hard on the government for delays in carrying out modernisation of the Indian Air Force and the Navy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Growing interest of terrorist groups and radical elements in exploiting the cyberspace and its advanced technologies for their various heinous crimes and nefarious designs and how to deal with them will be discussed at a two-day international conference beginning here tomorrow. Home Minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate the two-day Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) which will discuss and find ways on "Challenges to Policing in 2020- How is Cyber Space shaping our approach to Cybercrime & Terrorism, how do we perform within it and take advantage of it". The regional conference is being organised by the Asia-Pacific World Regional Office (APWRO) of the IACP in partnership with the Intelligence Bureau. The Director of the Intelligence Bureau, as the Chair of APWRO, is the host of the conference. The phenomenal growth and influence of cyber space and cyber technology have opened new challenges in the field of policing in recent times. The conference is mainly focused on holding discussions about the growing interest of various terrorist/ organised groups and radical elements in exploiting the cyberspace and its advanced technologies for their various heinous crimes and nefarious designs. The event will provide a platform for top-level police executives, both national and international, to discuss and understand how cyber space is shaping our approach towards cyber-crime and terrorism and also how to take advantage of it for better policing. The conference will be attended by IACP President Louis M Dekmar, senior executives of the IACP headquarters, besides representatives from police organisations of the Asia-Pacific region, namely, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Dubai, Fiji, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, Nepal, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand. From India, more than 35 heads of police forces of states and Union territories and of central police organisations would participate. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will deliver the key note address. In all, seven panel discussions would be held on subjects of current and future interest. The panelists, comprising specialists in their respective fields, are from US, Canada and India. The IACP is the world's largest organisation of police/law enforcement executives that is highly regarded for its role in identifying and responding to changing needs of the law enforcement community. The IACP's headquarters is in Virginia, USA. It has seven world regional offices on geographical lines, including the APWRO. The IACP meets once in a year in the US wherein more than 15,000 police officers from all over the world congregate to discuss various issues. The Asia-Pacific World Regional Office (APWRO) was set up in New Delhi in 1994 with Director, Intelligence Bureau, as its chair. In the past, under the aegis of IACP, APWRO had organised four conferences in New Delhi like 4th IACP Asia Pacific Regional Conference in January 1992, 8th IACP Asian Executive Policing Conference in March 2001, IACP Seminar on 'Terrorism' in September 2008 and Regional Conference on "Impact of Social Media on Policing" in September 2013. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam Government has proposed an insurance scheme for journalists and their families in the budget for 2018-19. Presenting the budget in the assembly yesterday, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "I have earmarked a budgetary allocation of Rs 63 crore in 2018-19 for the (Information and Public Relations) Department (that would implement schemes for journalists). "With a view to ensure security and protection of the journalists, their families, I propose to introduce a new scheme Journalist Insurance Scheme," Sarma said. The minister said he has made necessary provision for media fellowship for pursuing higher studies in journalism so that 20 media persons can be selected for it at the rate of Rs 50,000 each. "As a token of appreciation of the work being done by the Media Trust, I propose to give a one-time grant of Rs 10 lakh to the Trust," he had said. The government has also extended one time ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of 31 journalists of the state who have lost their lives or have been declared missing while on duty, Sarma said. "Further, as promised in my speech last year, the Pension Scheme for Journalists has been introduced to provide retirement benefits to journalists working for more than 20 years in Assam. We have already distributed individual pensions of Rs 8000 per month to many respected journalists," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress today accused the Centre of having failed to control Left-wing extremism with its "aimless" policy on national security which had created disquiet internally and on the borders, and said the latest Maoist attack on a CRPF team exposed the government's hollow claims on ending Naxalism. The Congress also described the attack on the CRPF today in Chhattisgarh's Sukma as a mindless and ruthless strike on security forces by the ultras and expressed solidarity with the families of those killed, while hoping that the injured would soon recover. Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala recalled a gruesome attack in Sukma last year in which 26 CRPF personnel were killed and said the BJP government had not learnt any lessons from the 2017 ambush. "Endangering India's national security is a direct consequence of the Modi government's aimless, irresolute and inconsistent polices. Modi had sold the 'national security' plank hard to attain power, but in the past four years, we have only witnessed a precarious security situation in the country," he said in a statement. Surjewala said ceasefire violations from across the border, cross-border infiltration, terror attacks on security installations and Naxal attacks in the states had increased under the BJP. "Hollow claims, sloganeering and drafting acronyms for propaganda cannot be a substitute to sound policy measures. Rhetoric and headline management only exacerbate the situation and endanger our people," he said. At least nine personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force's 212 Battalion were killed and two injured in a powerful IED blast in Sukma district today. Surjewala said after demonetisation, Modi had made "boastful" claims of ending terrorism and Naxalism. "But the facts tell a different story," he said. After the ban on high currency notes, there were 23 major Naxalite attacks in which 97 security personnel and 121 civilians were killed, he said, adding that post-demonetisation, 53 major terror incidents had taken place in Jammu and Kashmir alone, in which 99 security personnel and 64 civilians were killed. The overall picture on Naxal attacks in the past three years exposed the "tall claims" made by Modi and the BJP government, he said. According to figures provided in the Lok Sabha, there have been 122 violent attacks this year and 14 jawans and 12 civilians have been killed. In the last four years of the Congress-led UPA government, causalities in Naxalite attacks had reduced by more than half, he claimed. The Congress also attacked the BJP government in Chhattisgarh and said it had done "nothing concrete" so far. In the last 14 years and 95 days, the Raman Singh-led BJP government in the state had failed "miserably" on the internal security front. "Every time there is a Naxal attack, the chief minister promises some tough action, but nothing concrete has been done to stop these attacks," he said. The BJP government at the Centre and state had been "totally lax and dismal" in terms of policy or in strategically dealing with Naxalism. "The complete laxity and inability of the Chhattisgarh government in fighting Naxalism stood exposed," he said. Surjewala said BJP president Amit Shah who had last year started the party's expansion plan from Naxalbari should instead have planned how to tackle Naxalism with the prime minister. "Do we have any accountability mechanism for those who are in power for 14 years, and have completely failed to tackle this scourge of Naxalism," he asked. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States has expressed "outrage" over a nerve agent attack on a former spy and his daughter in an attempted murder in the UK allegedly by Russia. Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found collapsed after being poisoned last week. Both remain in a serious condition along with a police officer who came in contact with the same substance. Speaking before the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday said it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the nerve agent attack on Skripal who was once an informant for Britain's foreign intelligence service. Russia has denied the allegation. "We are standing with our UK ally," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily conference. Sanders said the United States has been monitoring the incident closely and takes it very seriously. "The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizens on UK soil is an outrage," she said. "The attack was reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible.We offer the fullest condemnation, and we extend our sympathy to the victims and their families, and our support to the UK government.We stand by our closest ally and the special relationship that we have," Sanders said. US' Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who is currently on a travel to Africa, spoke with his British counterpart. "We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week," he said in a statement. Tillerson said there is never a justification for such an attack the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation and "the US is outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behaviour". "From Ukraine to Syria and now the UK Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens," he alleged. "We agree that those responsible both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it must face appropriately serious consequences. We stand in solidarity with our Allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to coordinate closely our responses," Tillerson said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A court in southeastern Bangladesh today sentenced to death 39 activists of the ruling Awami League for brutally killing a fellow local level party leader four years ago. Ekramul Haque, the upazila Awami League president, was hacked, shot and burnt alive by miscreants inside his car in broad daylight in Feni town's Academy area on May 20, 2014. "The court handed down the death penalty to 39 people in this single case," a prosecutor told PTI over telephone from Feni. "All the convicts were local leaders and activists of Awami League," he added. He said the district judge's court, however, acquitted 16 people, one being a local leader of the main opposition BNP, though initially he appeared to be the prime accused in the case. Haque's brother Rezaul Haque Jasim had filed the murder case accusing BNP leader Minar and 30-35 unidentified people. A total of 44 arrests were made over the years and 15 of them confessed in court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Megastar Amitabh Bachchan's cryptic blog post on getting his doctors from Mumbai to "fiddle around" with his body today sparked worries about his health but wife Jaya Bachchan said he was fine and had a pain in his neck and back. A team of doctors from Mumbai travelled to this Rajasthan city after Bachchan posted his blog around 5 am today. "I am getting my team of Doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again... I will rest and keep informed in process," Bachchan, who is in the city to shoot for "Thugs of Hindostan", said in his blog. Addressing questions about her husband's health, actor-politician Jaya Bachchan told reporters in New Delhi that he had back pain because of the heavy costumes he had to wear in the film. "Amitji is fine. He has pain in the back and neck... The costumes are very heavy, so there's some pain. Otherwise he is fine," she told reporters outside Parliament. As spread about the 75-year-old star's possible ill-health, reporters and others gathered outside the hotel. Questioned by the media, the doctors refused to make any comment about his health. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje wished Bachchan a "speedy recovery". "Concerned to hear Shri @SrBachchan Ji is unwell. Do let us know if we can be of any assistance. Wish you a speedy recovery!" she tweeted. In his blog post, Bachchan also wrote about the gruelling shoot schedule of the Vijay Krishna Acharya-directed film, which also features Aamir Khan. "The morning after the night that began yesterday for work some people need to work for a living and work hard. "It's been rough.. but when ever did any be achieved without it .. there is struggle and disappointment and pain and sweat and tears... then the expectation of all working out .. sometimes it does, most of the times not... it is the right impetus to say and deliver that it has been successful and achieved," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Beyonce and Jay-Z have finally confirmed that they are going on a joint tour 'On The Run II'. The announcement was made in a promotional video of the couple together which was posted on Beyonce's Instagram page. of the tour slipped out last week when Beyonce's Facebook and Ticketmaster pages announced a date for the tour, on July 30 at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field and then both posts were quickly deleted. Beyonce and Jay-Z will stop in 15 cities across the UK and Europe before hitting 21 cities in North America. Four dates are planned across the UK in June. The couple will play at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on June 6, Hampden Park in Glasgow on June 9, the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on June 13 and the London Stadium in London on June 15. The pair last toured together in 2014 for the first "On the Run" tour, supporting her self-titled 2013 album and Jay's "Magna Carta Holy Grail." Jay joined Beyonce onstage in New Jersey for the final date of her "Lemonade" tour in September 2016. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Countering allegations of governance deficit in the state, BJP today advised the opposition parties to play constructive for the state's betterment. Opposition leaders need to do constructive and put forth the role of effective opposition for the betterment of state and the region, BJP state general secretary Pawan Khajuria said here. He asked the opposition leaders to concentrate energy on the positive approach to the peoples issues. The leaders of the opposition have nothing concrete to counter BJP,... that's why they (opposition) are "playing" with the peoples sentiments, the BJP leader said. He said the opposition is contributing nothing as far as the development of the region or the state is concerned. Referring to frequent statements of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) leaders who accused BJP of selling out the people's mandate for power and demand the dismissal of the PDP-BJP government, he said it is a desperate bid of the party to build air castles as it loses ground among the masses. BJP feels itself to be answerable to the people of the state and especially to those who have voted for the better future of the state, Khajuria said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP today approached the Election Commission demanding that the nomination of Congress leader Naranbhai Rathwa for the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat be quashed because of several irregularities in his form. A delegation of senior party leaders, including Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Piyush Goyal, went to the Commission tonight, seeking action against Rathwa and P K Valera, a Congress-backed independent candidate. Naqvi said they have demanded that the Congress candidate's nomination be quashed. He has hidden several information, including those regarding criminal cases against him. He has also not submitted due no-objection certificates, he said. Goyal said the BJP delegation informed the EC about irregularities in nomination forms of Rathwa and also Valera. The BJP's complaint ahead of the biennial polls to the Upper House on March 23 marks yet another instance of its all out attack on the opposition party over a Rajya Sabha election as it had earlier targeted its senior leader Ahmed Patel during polls last year. Both the BJP and the Congress had then approached the EC a number of times. Patel had won in a hard-fought battle. The BJP's complaint today followed its whip Suresh Angadi's complaint to the Lok Sabha Speaker, alleging gross irregularities in granting several no objection certificates given to Rathwa. In a letter seeking an investigation, Angadi said he was given seven NOCs within 40-50 minutes yesterday and wondered if any verification was carried out. Sources said the Speaker's office has ordered an enquiry into the matter. Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani said a no-dues certificate was issued to Rathwa at 3.30 PM yesterday by the Lok Sabha secretariat, an hour after he filed his nomination papers along with a "fake certificate". "We objected to the papers submitted by Rathwa during the scrutiny process of Rajya Sabha forms. Rathwa had served as a central minister and the no-dues certificate he submitted was a fake one," alleged Vaghani. However, the Congress dismissed the allegations as baseless and claimed that the returning officer accepted Rathwa's nomination papers after scrutiny today. "The objections raised by the BJP during the scrutiny process of our Rajya Sabha candidates lack substance. The RO over-ruled the BJP's objections to approve Rathwa's candidature," said Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil. A total of seven candidates have filed nomination papers for four seats falling vacant from the state for March 23 Rajya Sabha elections. The BJP has fielded Union ministers Purshottam Rupala, Mansukh Mandavia, and former MLA Kiritsinh Rana, while the Congress nominated Amiben Yagnik and Naran Rathwa. The Congress also extended support to independent candidate PK Valera, who is a Congress general secretary in the state unit. Extending support to Valera is seen as a tactical move of the Congress to save its second seat in case there is any threat to Rathwa's candidature. In the 182-member House, the ruling BJP has 99 MLAs while the opposition Congress 77. Both the parties are in a position to send two candidates each to the Rajya Sabha, as the minimum number of votes required per candidate is 37. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CBI today filed a case against Tapas Kumar Dutta, the Principal Commissioner, Income Tax, Ranchi, for allegedly amassing assets to the tune of Rs 9.78 crore, which were nine times over and above his legitimate sources of his income, officials said today. The CBI had arrested Dutta in July last year in connection with a different case related to alleged bribery in favouring people in income tax assessments, they said. The officials added that during the probe of this case, the agency found the disproportionate assets amassed by Dutta in his and his family members' name. It is alleged in the case registered today that Dutta spent Rs 9.78 crore between 2012 and 2017 for which he could not produce legitimate sources of income. They said the agency has come to know of assets of over Rs 4.56 crore amassed by him during the period besides additional expenses of Rs 6.23 crore whereas the total income was Rs 1.01 crore, they said, adding that the disproportionate assets were computed to be Rs 9.78 crore which was 964 per cent above his known sources of income. The CBI says that the assets may shoot up when it will add expenses like telephone bills, daughter's marriage, vacations, education of children, maintenance and insurance and car. In July 2017, the CBI had searched Dutta's Kolkata residence and other locations including the residences of his subordinate officers from where it had recovered Rs3.5 crore cash and 5 kg gold. It was alleged in that case that Dutta was giving tax relief to several businessmen facing severe tax liabilities by the Income Tax department. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court was today told that installation of CCTV cameras in police stations would take eight to nine months more as a tender for the purpose has been floated and documents received from bidders are being examined. The submission was made before a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla by the Delhi Police which also told the court that a tentative financial sanction has been received for setting up the cameras. It, however, said that all the rooms of a police station, including that of the\ investigating officer, cannot be put under the CCTV surveillance as limited number of cameras would be installed at each police station. Delhi government's criminal standing counsel Rahul Mehra, appearing for the police, told the court that he has informed the agency that the current timeline of eight to nine months was unacceptable. The bench, thereafter, asked him to file a new timeline for installing the CCTV cameras in the police stations. Mehra also told the court that there was lack of cooperation from the Public Works Department (PWD) of the Delhi government regarding the installation of the cameras in the vulnerable areas as well as lighting of dark areas in the national capital. He said that the department was not even responding to e-mails of its lawyers. In view of the submission, the court asked the chief secretary to convene a meeting of all stake-holders to resolve the issues regarding lack of coordination between various departments and civic authorities. Meanwhile, the central government told the court that meetings are being held on the financial implication of recruiting more police personnel for Delhi and six more weeks would be required to arrive at a decision. The submission by the Centre was made during hearing of a public interest litigation initiated by the court in 2012 after the infamous December 16, 2012 gangrape of a young woman in a moving bus. The victim had later succumbed to injuries inflicted on her by the rapists. It was also hearing another PIL by social activist Ajay Gautam alleging that there have been several deaths inside police stations in the city this year and the presence of functional CCTVs could act as a deterrent. He has also claimed that even the CCTV cameras installed at a few police stations were obsolete as they did not have the recording feature and CCTVs were required in the police stations "to ensure transparency" in their functioning. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ceasing of hostilities between India and Pakistan along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir must be on Indian terms, Army chief Bipin Rawat today said, noting that Pakistani forces have been feeling the "pain" of Indian Army's offensive along the border. He alluded to a rise in cross-border firing by India as part of a larger strategy to put pressure on Pakistan. "So, we have raised the ante by resorting to cross border firing which is leading to violations of ceasefire. "Earlier, the burden was only on us to man the border and remain alert and now the Pakistan Army is facing the same pain. They also have to now remain alert on the border," the Army chief said. Rawat said Pakistani posts supporting infiltrators must be "punished" and asserted that the increase in the ceasefire violations had compelled Pakistan to deploy more forces along the Line of Control, which was earlier in the hinterland or peace postings. Recalling the time when borders were relatively calm and the ceasefire agreement was not being violated, Rawat said despite this the infiltration continued and there was no pressure on the Pakistani Army who aided and abetted infiltration across the LoC. The Army chief was speaking at an event organised by the Vivekanda International Foundation. "Let me assure you, it is not just the Indian Army which is (alone) facing the brunt. People sitting across the LoC are suffering far more damage than what we are suffering," the Army chief said. Government intelligence sources last year had said the Indian Army killed 138 Pakistan Army personnel in 2017 in tactical operations and retaliatory cross-border firings along the LoC. In a response to a question in the Lok Sabha last year, Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir had said in 2017, Pakistan violated ceasefire 881 times along the LoC and the IB in Jammu and Kashmir, killing 30 people. This was little less than double the ceasefire violations in 2016. The truce between India and Pakistan along the International Border and the LoC came into force in November 2003. When asked about the continuing infiltration despite Indian forces showing deterrence, Rawat termed it as a "cheap option" by Pakistan. He, however, cautioned that if Islamabad raised the "threshold", New Delhi would have the option of going to the next level. "And I think Pakistan is just about ensuring that they do not raise the threshold, but then the call as to when we want to raise the threshold rests with us. It is is in our hands to raise it, depending on how high we want to do it," he said. The ceasefire between India and Pakistan must come on Indian terms which means Pakistan has to stop supporting infiltration, the Army chief said. "You want a ceasefire and we are willing to go for a ceasefire but you stop supporting and infiltrating terrorists into our country. If you stop doing that we are willing to do that," he said. "So it must come on our terms. And those terms will come when they find that we have the potential to raise the ante. Gradually, if this does not work, (then) we can keep calibrating and raising the ante, till they find it that they cannot take it longer," Rawat said. The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Kolkata said in its report that Kunduli rape victim's clothes did not bear any trace of semen, a senior police officer has said. The report submitted by the CFSL to the court is now available with the investigating officer, Superintendent of Police (crime branch) R B Panigrahi told reporters yesterday. "The CFSL forensic test revealed that the stains on the exhibits (clothes) yielded identical autosomal genetic profiles of female origin from one and the same female individual," Panigrahi said. The clothes were sent to the CFSL for re-examination following a controversy over a purported State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) draft report, which had indicated that the girl's undergarments bore semen marks. The draft report did not match with the SFSL's final report. Odisha DGP R P Sharma had ordered the crime branch to investigate into the alleged discrepancies in the two forensic reports. "Police are still investigating into the "apparent surfacing" of the SFSL's intermediate interdivision draft report, which was also reported by a section of media," the SP said. A 14-year-old Dalit girl of Kunduli area of Koraput district had alleged that she was gang-raped by "four men in uniforms" on October 10 last year near a jungle in Pottangi police station area of the district. The girl committed suicide on January 22. The state government had in February ordered for a court-monitored special investigation team probe into the incident. The government had also ordered a judicial probe. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China is pursing a long-term, steady economic growth in the region through its One Belt, One Road policy and improving military posture by connecting ports such as Gwadar in Pakistan, a top American General said. The project is aimed at building regional connectivity with rail, road, pipelines and optical cable fiber network. It connects China's Xinjiang province with Pakistan Gwadar port, providing access to China to the Arabian Sea. The project, when completed, would enable China to pump its oil supplies from the Middle East through pipelines to Xinjiang cutting considerable distance for Chinese ships to travel to China. "China is pursing long-term, steady economic growth in the region through its One Belt, One Road policy," General Joseph Votel, Commander of US Central Command said during a hearing at Senate Armed Services Committee. It is also improving military posture and force projection by connecting ports such as Gwadar in Pakistan with its first overseas military base in Djibouti, adjacent to the critical Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, Votel said. Votel said both China and Russia not only seek to fill in perceived gaps in US influence with increasing defence cooperation and sales of their equipment to regional partners, but they are also cultivating multi-dimensional ties to Iran. Responding to questions from Senators, General Thomas D Waldhauser said the Djibouti port is of significant importance to the US. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China today unveiled plans for the biggest ministry shake-up in years, including the merger of its banking and insurance regulators to reduce risks to its financial system from a rapid build-up in debt. The massive reshuffle plan of various ministries is aimed at making the government better-structured, more efficient, and service-oriented. China is also due to announce appointment of new ministers and officials, including the foreign minister, as part of changes in every five years. The reform plan will be submitted to the ongoing first session of the National People's Congress (NPC) for deliberations, state-run Xinhua agency reported. There will be 26 ministries and commissions of the State Council after the reshuffle, the report said. The sweeping changes include the merger of China's banking and insurance regulators and the setting up of a special bureau to oversee immigration issues, the Hong Kong based South China Morning Post reported. China is in the midst of a battle against financial risk, as credit in the world's second largest economy has exploded since the financial crisis a decade ago. Financial regulators have cracked down on major companies -- even taking over Anbang Insurance this year -- to get a handle on building risk and unwieldy debt that some analysts worry pose a serious threat to China's financial stability. Among the new entities are a ministry of natural resources, a ministry of veterans' affairs and a ministry of emergency management. The plan also includes the merger of the ministry of culture and the national tourism administration into one. The power of the influential National Development and Reform Commission often dubbed the little State Council will be reduced under the new plan. The move is part of President Xi Jinping's plan to retool the entire administration to give the ruling Communist Party greater control and a more effective platform to govern the world's most populous nation. Xi, 64, is set to continue for a life term as the NPC approved the removal of the two-term limit for the president and the vice president. The new plan also intends to cut bureaucracy and turf wars by removing overlapping duties and responsibilities, the Post report said. There will be new administrations under the state council or the central cabinet, such as an international development cooperation agency and a state immigration administration. Compared with the current setup, the number of ministerial-level entities are reduced by eight and that of vice-ministerial-level entities by seven, the report said. The reform, which aims to push forward the institutional restructuring in key areas, will strengthen the government's functions on economic management, market supervision, social management, public service, and ecological and environmental protection, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposition Congress today alleged that Lt General D P Vats (retd), the BJP candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Haryana, had concealed in his nomination papers that he was holding an office of profit, a charge Vats denied as baseless. Vats here yesterday filed his nomination papers for the seat being vacated by Congress member Shadi Lal Batra. The retired Army officer is all set to enter the Upper House as he is the only one to file nomination for the lone seat being vacated from the state. At a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing budget session of the state Assembly here, senior Congress leader Karan Singh Dalal said he had filed a complaint with the Returning Officer, demanding nomination papers of Vats be rejected. "Vats is presently holding the post of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Adviser at the Maharaja Agarsen Medical College and Research Institute at Agroha, in Hisar, which is an office of profit, but he has not disclosed this fact in his nomination papers," Dalal alleged. These amounted to disqualification from contesting election for the post of MP (Rajya Sabha) as per the provisions of the Representation of People's Act, 1951, Dalal said. When contacted, Vats told PTI that he had resigned from the post of the private institution before he filed his nomination papers. "I do not know how the office of profit charge is being levelled," Vats said over phone. Asked to comment on some more allegations levelled by Dalal against him, Vats said, "They are free to level allegations." Vats (65), who hails from Hisar, has served as the director and commandant of the prestigious Armed Forces Medical College, in Pune. He has also served as the chairman of the Haryana Public Service Commission between May 2011 and April 2012 under the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Goa Police today arrested a Mumbai-based couple for allegedly duping the manager of actress Meghna Naidu's guest house of over Rs 1 lakh, an official said. Princeraj Chaviraj (32) and his wife Sharmila Dalal (31) were arrested from a hotel in Majorda in South Goa this morning. "The couple was on the run from the time they had burgled the guest house in Candolim in North Goa," Calangute station police inspector Jivba Dalvi said. In her social media post, Naidu had claimed the duo duped the caretaker and ran away with her belongings, including clothes. She had also released a picture of the couple. A complaint was lodged against Chaviraj and Dalal by the caretaker, identified as Suhasini Raut, on February 26, said Dalvi. According to the complainant, Chaviraj and Dalal took Rs 60,000 from her under the pretext of providing jobs to her children during their stay at the facility. They allegedly took money from Raut on different occasions under various pretexts, said Dalvi. "A total of Rs 1.5 lakh was taken by the couple during their stay at the guest house. A case was registered against them under section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) read with 34 of the IPC," he said. They were produced before a local court which remanded them in police custody till March 17. "We are also investigating whether they are involved in similar offences at other places," Dalvi said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman was today granted bail in the INX Media money laundering case by a special court, which said there were no specific allegation against him except that he aided former union minister P Chidambaram's son in committing the crime. Special Judge Sunil Rana, while granting the relief to Bhaskararaman, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on February 16 from a five-star hotel here, observed that the "personal liberty is of precious value" and "bail cannot be withheld as a punishment". "Personal liberty is of precious value as per our Constitution and a person should be presumed to be innocent till he is proved guilty after facing trial and grant of bail is a rule and refusal of bail is an exception. Object of bail is to secure attendance of accused in the trial and bail cannot be withheld as a punishment," the judge said. The court directed Bhaskararaman to furnish a personal bond of Rs two lakh and one surety of like amount and imposed conditions on the bail, including not to leave the country without permission and not to threaten any person acquainted with the facts of the case. It also asked the chartered accountant to cooperate in the investigation whenever required by the probe agency and surrender his passport to the investigating officer. "There is no specific allegation against the applicant except that he aided and assisted the main accused Karti P Chidambaram in commission of crime. "Correctness or otherwise of the allegation as to whether accused had possessed proceeds of crime or in what manner the accused was connected with the same can only be looked into during the course of the trial," the bench said. Bhaskararaman had sought bail on the ground that he was not required for custodial interrogation and no purpose would be served by keeping him in custody. The CA was sent to jail on February 26 after his custodial interrogation by the ED. Karti's name had cropped up in the case relating to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board's (FIPB) approval granted in 2007 for receipt of funds by INX Media when his father and Congress leader P Chidambaram was the finance minister during the previous UPA regime. The court also said that the apprehension of the probe agency that accused may influence witnesses or tamper with evidence appeared to be unfounded. "Considering the facts and circumstances of the case... I am of the view that there is no hint or allegation that the applicant S Bhaskararaman is at a flight risk, nor is there any material to suggest that he will tamper with the evidence. Therefore he is no more required to be kept in judicial custody. In my opinion he is entitled to bail with stringent conditions," the judge said in his order. The court also observed that except the cases involving punishment of death or imprisonment for life, judicial discretion should always be exercised by the court in favour of granting bail and unless there are exceptional circumstances. "There is no classification of the offences for grant of bail and there is no justification for classifying offences into different categories such as economic offence for refusal of grant of bail. Bail invariably be not refused simply because it involves serious economic offence and low does not permit such discrimination," it observed. The ED had earlier told the court that during the course of investigation, it was revealed that Bhaskararaman had been assisting Karti to manage his "ill-gotten wealth" in India and abroad. It had alleged that INX Media had deliberately and in violation of the conditions of approval made a downstream investment of 26 per cent in the capital of INX Pvt Ltd without the 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 had alleged. The FIPB unit of the Finance Ministry had not only granted illegal approval but also misinformed the investigation wing of the Income Tax Department, it had alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sunil Deodhar, the architect of the BJP's Tripura Assembly polls victory, today termed the CPI(M) "anti-national" and claimed that the communist party accepted the Constitution out of compulsion. He said he would not call the Congress anti-national, but their actions often supported anti-nationalism and added, "They (Congress) can go to any extent in " "But ideologically, the CPI(M) is anti-national. It is their ideology. They don't believe in (the) country. When we call them anti-nationals, they feel happy. They aren't saddened by it," Deodhar told a Marathi channel. "They (CPI-M) have accepted the Constitution out of compulsion, in order to live in the country. Those who don't accept the Constitution become naxals. They are all the same. They have accepted the Constitution as a farce and wherever they get a chance, they don't hesitate to act against India," he said. Meanwhile, speaking at a media interaction here, Deodhar said the communist ideology should be weeded out and nationalism should be established in the country. "Our ideology is related to 'deshbhakti' (nationalism) and motherland. If any other ideology comes in the way of our motherland and development, it should be weeded out. "I am not saying that communists should be weeded out, but their ideology must go," he said. "I have to propagate and talk about my ideology effectively to banish their ideology. This is a fight of thoughts and it should be fought with thoughts only," the BJP leader added. On the issue of beef ban, Deodhar said, "If many people of a state want that something should not happen, then the government should be with them. "The people of many states in the north-east eat beef, so there should not be any ban. The fact is that many sections of Hindus also eat beef in the north-east." Some decisions must be taken keeping in view the people's sentiments, Deodhar said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Haseeb Drabu today broke silence on his uncermonious exit from the Mehbooba Mufti government saying the decision was a "surprise" and the manner in which it was conveyed "shocking". The 57-year-old issued a three-page statement minutes after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti gave additional charge of finance and labour to the state's Education Minister Syed Mohammed Altaf Bukhari. In the 21-point statement, Drabu said the decision to "drop me did come as a surprise but what was shocking was the manner and method of communicating it." "While I understand and accept the decision of the party, to talk to media before talking to me, was painful. I was not accorded the opportunity to explain the context and the content of my speech," said Drabu, who was a key architect of the alliance between PDP and BJP. A former journalist, Drabu, said "even as I issue this statement, I have no formal or even personal communication either from the government or from the party about my being dropped from the Cabinet on 12th of March. I stand informed by the media first as a speculation then as a fact." Drabu was axed from the state Cabinet yesterday over his statement in a function organised by the PHDCCI in New Delhi that people were "barking up the wrong tree" for decades as the Kashmir issue was not a political one. "It (JK) is not a political issue as far as I can see. They have been barking up the wrong tree for the last 50 or 70 years by talking about the of it; that the political situation has never improved. We seriously need to look at in terms of how it is a society that is in search for itself," he had said. Justifying his remarks, Drabu said he was speaking to a select gathering of Ambassadors and industrialists, who could be possible investors in peace in Jammu and Kashmir. "I tried to make the point that Kashmir was not only a political issue to be resolved by the nation state of India and the successive governments at the centre and the state, but that there is a social issue that needs to be resolved at the level of the civil society. "It was made in the larger context of how our society has been ravaged and has impaired real-life situations and sensibilities especially of the youth," he said. The former finance minister, who won elections from Rajpora assembly seat of Pulwama in south Kashmir, said there were innuendoes that "I said this or was made to say this with an ulterior motive. The fact is that it is a long-held belief and I have repeatedly said it that the engagement with Kashmir should be at various levels." He said to his best understanding and knowledge, whatever he had stated in his speech did not go against the articulated and stated political position of PDP. "Nor does it dent its image. It is, in fact, very much a part of the PDP's political philosophy and agenda of reconciliation," he said. Giving details of events preceding his exit, Drabu said he received a letter from A R Veeri, chairman of PDP's disciplinary committee, seeking an explanation about his statement which 'caused a serious dent to the image of the party.' Taking a veiled dig, Drabu said "as for my understanding of the political ideology of PDP, it is based on my drafting of various election manifestoes, the aspirational agenda, and the all-important Self Rule document, which Mufti (Mohammed Sayeed) Sahib involved me in. "Indeed, the terms and conditions based on which the current PDP-BJP alliance was formed, the Agenda of alliance, was drafted under his guidance." Drabu, who is considered close to the BJP leadership, expressed gratitude to Chief Minister Mufti for giving him the opportunity to contribute towards accomplishing the PDP mission. "Notwithstanding this, I am very grateful to Mufti (Mohammad Sayeed) Sahib and Mehbooba ji to have been given the opportunity to contribute in whatever small way I could in accomplishing the party patron's vision of addressing the distressing situation in and around Jammu and Kashmir which has jeopardised the security, peace and prosperity of the people of the state and imperilled stability in the subcontinent," he said. Remembering his association with late chief minister, Drabu said "not for nothing did he entrust me with the task of negotiating with the BJP and make me the pointsman for the alliance which was later continued by Mehbooba ji. Every single meeting, discussion and negotiations were done with the knowledge and consent of the patron and the president." Meanwhile, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah termed the chief minister's decision to sack Drabu "right". Although it's an internal matter of the PDP but his statement of Kashmir not being a political issue was condemned by everyone cutting across the party lines in Kashmir, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court today granted bail to Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman, arrested in the INX Media money laundering case. Special judge Sunil Rana granted bail to Bhaskararaman, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on February 16 from a five-star hotel in the heart of the national capital. The court granted the relief to the CA and asked him to furnish a bail bond of Rs two lakh and a surety of like amount. It asked Bhaskararaman to cooperate in the investigation as and when required by the ED and asked him not to leave the country without its permission. Bhaskararaman had sought bail on the ground that he was not required for custodial interrogation and no purpose would be served by keeping him in custody. The CA was sent to jail on February 26 after his custodial interrogation by the ED. Karti's name had cropped up in the case relating to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board's (FIPB) approval granted in 2007 for receipt of funds by INX Media when his father and Congress leader P Chidambaram was the finance minister during the previous UPA regime. The ED's special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana had earlier told the court that during the course of investigation, it was revealed that Bhaskararaman had been assisting Karti to manage his "ill-gotten wealth" in India and abroad. He had alleged that INX Media had deliberately and in violation of the conditions of approval made a downstream investment of 26 per cent in the capital of INX Pvt Ltd without the 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 had alleged. The FIPB unit of the Finance Ministry had not only granted illegal approval but also misinformed the investigation wing of the Income Tax Department, it had alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Justice Indermeet Kaur of the Delhi High Court on Tuesday recused herself from hearing the bail plea of Karti Chidambaram, arrested by the CBI in the INX Media corruption case. Justice Kaur, who did not give any reason for her recusal, said she would refer the matter to the Acting Chief Justice for assigning the bail plea to another bench for today itself. The bail plea was on Monday mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar and was listed for hearing on Tuesday. Karti's parents P Chidambaram and Nalini Chidambaram, both senior advocates, were present in the courtroom. Karti, the arrested son of former Union minister P Chidambaram, had moved the high court seeking bail, hours after a court in New Delhi sent him to judicial custody till March 24. A special court had on Monday sent Karti to judicial custody in the INX Media corruption case and dismissed his plea that he be put in a separate cell in Tihar Jail in view of a threat perception. The court had also dismissed his appeal for an urgent hearing on his bail plea and the threat perception due to the fact that his father, as a Union minister in the previous UPA government, had handled several sensitive issues. The court had sent him to Tihar Jail after the CBI, in whose custody he was quizzed for 12 days in a row after his arrest on February 28 from Chennai, said he was no longer required for further custodial interrogation. The court said his bail plea would be heard on March 15 as scheduled. Karti was arrested by the CBI on his return from the United Kingdom in connection with an FIR lodged on May 15 last year. It alleged irregularities in a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to a media house, INX Media, for receiving funds of about Rs 3.05 billion from overseas in 2007 when his father was the Union finance minister. The CBI had initially alleged that received Rs 1 million as a bribe for facilitating the FIPB clearance to INX Media. It, however, later revised the figure to $1 million (about Rs 65 million at the current exchange rate and Rs 45 million in 2007). The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered Karti's arrest, was based on a statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former director of INX Media (P) Ltd, who recorded it under Section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate on February 17. John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle are developing a project about columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, whose own investigation into the assassination of John F Kennedy criticised the findings of the Warren Report. Dowdle brothers, who created the recent Paramount Network series "Waco", have optioned Mark Shaw's true-crime novel "The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of What's My Line TV Star and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen", according to The Hollywood Reporter. "The Reporter Who Knew Too Much" centers on a legal analyst telling the story of Kilgallen while providing new evidence surrounding her untimely death. Kilgallen was conducting an in-depth investigation probes into the assassination of President John F Kennedy, but was found dead in her apartment in 1965. Though initially ruled an accidental overdose, her death has remained suspicious for some, including Shaw. The writers will also draw from Shaw's in-progress follow-up, "Denial of Justice: Dorothy Kilgallen, Abuse of Power and the Most Compelling JFK Assassination Investigation in History". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dozens of people were killed overnight in fresh clashes in DR Congo's volatile northeastern Ituri province, sharpening an ethnic conflict that has already forced tens of thousands to flee, officials said today. At least 30 people were killed in the latest unrest, which came in the wake of the interior minister's visit to the region. "We have recorded 30 deaths. There are certainly other bodies out in the bush. A search is underway," a government official said. Other sources gave a higher toll. "In the village of Djo, (the attackers) killed 10 people, in Gbi, there were 10 dead, and in Takpa, 19 people were shot dead, which makes 39 dead," Willy Pilo Mulindro, head of Bahema-North district, told AFP. The UN radio channel Okapi gave a toll of 41 dead in four villages, and said the attackers used machetes, arrows and Kalashnikovs. Fighting in Ituri has involved the Hema and Lendu communities, respectively cattle herders and farmers who have a long history of violence over access to land. At least 130 people have been killed since clashes flared anew in December, according to an unofficial toll compiled by AFP, while humanitarian workers say around 200,000 have been displaced, including tens of thousands who have crossed the border to seek shelter in Uganda. An inter-ethnic group called the Kinshasa Ituri Community (CIK) puts these figures far higher. According to a local official, the latest clashes broke out just after Interior Minister Henri Mova wrapped up a tour of the region. "While the minister is on the ground, we continue to kill each other," Gregoire Lusenge, a spokesman for a caucus of lawmakers from Ituri, told AFP. "The police deployment seems insufficient. The few troops that are there are unable to contain the situation, which is getting worse and worse." The Congolese army gave a different version of events in at least one village. "There was no massacre in Djo," said lieutenant Jules Ngongo, a spokesman for an army unit based in Ituri. "They were a group of robbers who had come to invade a village that had already been abandoned. Our troops chased them and currently the army is in control of the situation." In 2003, a flareup of violence in Ituri triggered Operation Artemis, a three-month operation by the European Union -- its first military mission outside Europe. The operation averted a humanitarian catastrophe, but the fighting never came to a total halt. The full scale of the latest bout of violence in the remote province remains unclear. On Monday, the CIK said "several hundred" people had died and 350,000 been displaced, nearly 50,000 of whom had taken refuge in the town of Bunia. Added to this, it said, were nearly 65,000 who had fled to Uganda. The conflict is part of a broader background of violence and instability in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Swathes of the territory are in the hands of militia groups, some of whom trace their origins back to two wars, from 1996-7 and 1998-2008, that drew in other countries in eastern and central Africa. New conflicts are erupting in the east in a climate of political insecurity over the future of President Joseph Kabila. In December, Kabila faces elections that have been twice delayed since his second presidential term -- the last under the country's constitution -- expired at the end of 2016. Lusenge said the crisis in Ituri should not be used as "an alibi" to block the elections once more on the grounds that it would be impossible to draw up an electoral roll there. Meanwhile, UN Emergency Aid Coordinator Mark Lowcock said the agency would try its best to raise USD 1.7 billion at a meeting in Geneva on April 13 to address the humanitarian crisis in the country. Lowcock said more than two million children risked dying of malnutrition and said about 4.5 million people had been displaced by conflicts raging across the sprawling country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposition National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah today said chief minister Mehbooba Mufti's decision to sack Haseeb Drabu from the council of ministers was right. It is an internal decision of the party, what can I say. Yes, we condemned the statement he (Drabu) gave that this (Kashmir) was not an (political) issue. The party (PDP) saw that this is an issue. All the parties here condemned the statement. See, he (Drabu) had also implemented GST here, the party saw what happened with that. So, his party (PDP) took the decision and I feel it is the right decision, Abdullah told reporters here. Drabu, 57, one of the architects of the PDP-BJP alliance in the state, was sacked yesterday following his remark that people were "barking up the wrong tree" as the Kashmir issue was not a political issue. It (JK) is not a political issue as far as I can see.They have been barking up the wrong tree for the last 50 or 70 years by talking about the of it; that the political situation has never improved. We seriously need to look at in terms of how it is a society that is in search for itself," Drabu had said at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi on Friday. Jammu and Kashmir education minister Syed Mohammed Altaf Bukhari was today given additional charge of the department of finance as well as labour and employment as an interim measure. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Taiwan-based Elitegroup Computer Systems is expecting 15-18 per cent sales growth in India mainly on account of business from mini-personal computers. "In 2018, we are expecting overall sales growth in the range of 15-18 per cent. Business from sales of mini-PCs will contribute to the growth," said Rajshekhar Bhatt Elitegroup India Country Manager(Sales Division) on the sidelines of launching pocket size PC. The company unveiled four variants of a pocket size mini-PC, Liva Q, that can be connected to mouse and keyboard through bluetooth and monitor can be connected through HDMI port on the device. The device with pre-loaded Microsoft Windows 10 operating system and 32 GB internal storage has been priced at Rs 15,500 a unit and without Windows at Rs 13,500 a unit. "All the devices will be available in India from tomorrow through our national Rashi Peripherals across country. There will be 64 Gb storage variant also. The model with windows will be cost Rs 3,500 more and without Windows OS will be priced Rs 1,500 higher compared to their peers in 32GB model," Bhatt said. He said that the mini-PC are targetted to meet requirements of metro cities where real estate price is high. "The mini-PC saves significant real estate cost which offices in metro cities need to pay to accommodate their employees. Besides, total unit can work on 15 watt power which also significantly reduces electricity expenses," Bhatt said. Elitgroup has manufacturing units in China where it makes motherboard for desktop PC of HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. The company also sells standalone motherboards for PC assembly. "The mini-PC will bridge the gap in business which we are experiencing from decline of motherboard business. This year we expect to sell 60,000 units of mini-PCs. In volume terms it will account for about 10 per cent of total devices that we expect to sell in India and about 20 per cent of overall India revenue," Bhatt said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court today asked the authorities to explain the measures taken by them to create awareness about menstrual hygiene among school students. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar directed the Centre, Delhi government and the local civic bodies to file status reports on the working of the menstrual hygiene scheme for schools, budgetary allocation for Delhi and the manner in which such products are disbursed. It also asked the governments and civic bodies here the status of publicising awareness schemes and their effective implementation in schools. The court's direction came during the hearing of a plea by advocate Setu Niket, who sought direction to the Centre, the Delhi government and civic bodies to establish a mechanism to provide on menstruation and menstrual hygiene in all schools here. During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that there was multiplicity in schemes and everyone wanted to do something different due to which the funds for the issue get diluted. He said there should be one single scheme for which the funds should flow from the Centre to the Delhi government. Additional standing counsel of Delhi government Sanjoy Ghose said that tenders have been floated for procurement and disbursement of hygiene products. He also said that the AAP government was spreading menstrual hygiene awareness among adolescent girls in the schools and were providing sanitary napkins every month "free of cost". Advocate Monika Arora, appearing for the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, said the authorities have been taking steps on menstrual hygiene and they are managing even though they are short of funds. The court listed the matter for further hearing on July 11. The Delhi government had earlier informed the bench that even teachers in government schools were imparted training on the issue of menstruation. The petitioner had told the court that according to a survey, the school dropout rate for girls was the most during puberty. She had sought direction to the authorities to ensure that menstrual hygiene products were made available to adolescent girls in schools free of cost or at subsidised rates. The plea had also sought the establishment of a mechanism to provide to girls aged 11-14 years about menstrual hygiene and safeguards, and access to trained female teachers or health counsellors in schools on a weekly or a monthly basis for imparting on the issue. It had said it was imperative to sensitise children in the 10-14 age group about menstrual hygiene and every possible effort should be made by the state to help girls continue with their education. The New Delhi Municipal Council had informed the court that the girls, studying in their schools, were given sanitary napkins on the last working day of each month and they already have separate toilets for girls, boys and school staff which are maintained by their civil department. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An explosion struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister today as he was making a rare visit to Gaza, in what his Fatah party called an assassination attempt it blamed on Gaza militants. The explosion went off shortly after the convoy entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was unharmed and went on to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project in the northern part of the strip. But Fatah quickly held Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers responsible for the "cowardly attack" on the convoy, further escalating tensions between the bitter rival factions. Three of the vehicles in Hamdallah's convoy were damaged, their windows blown out. One had signs of blood on the door. Hamdallah, who is based in the West Bank, arrived in Hamas-run Gaza to inaugurate the sewage plant and said there that the attack will "not deter from seeking to end the bitter split. We will still come to Gaza." The rival factions have been trying to reconcile since 2007 when Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah forces and have suffered several setbacks in their efforts since. The takeover left the Palestinians with two rival governments, Hamas in Gaza and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority governing autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In November, Hamas handed over control of Gaza's border crossings to the Palestinian Authority. It was the first tangible concession in years of Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks. But negotiations have bogged down since then. Hamdallah's visit comes amid a time of crisis in Gaza. Today, the White House is hosting a special meeting to discuss Gaza's devastated economy. The plant in question was envisioned in 2007 after overburdened sewage reservoirs collapsed, killing five villagers. The World Bank, European Union and other European governments have paid nearly USD 75 million in funding. Hamas' takeover of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007 and the ensuing Israeli-Egyptian blockade, power shortages and conflicts delayed the opening of the project for four years. Besides the old reservoirs, the plant will receive wastewater from four towns and villages. After treatment, the water will be transferred for irrigation and the remainder will be safely dumped to the sea. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The India-US two-plus-two dialogue could be among the first major bilateral engagements of Mike Pompeo as the Secretary of State next month, if the CIA Director is confirmed in his new post by the US Senate in next few weeks. The launch of two-plus-two dialogue was announced last summer when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a successful meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House. The dialogue involves External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and their American counterparts. Trump today fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and nominated Pompeo to replace him. Pompeo needs to be confirmed by the Senate before he can occupy the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department. Before leaving for Africa, Tillerson had issued specific direction on the two-plus-two dialogue, which for all practical purposes was scheduled for around mid-April (18 and 19) in Washington DC. However, a formal announcement in this regard had not yet been made. A high-level Indian delegation led by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and Defense Secretary G Mohan Kumar were scheduled to be in US for a series of preparatory meetings with their American counterparts for the next month's dialogue. The State Department and the Indian Embassy in Washington DC did not respond to a series of questions on the fate of these meetings this week in the wake of the president's decision to fire Tillerson as the Secretary of State. Given the fast-paced developments in Washington DC and Trump's focus on preparing his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un before May, it is very well possible that the two-plus-two dialogue could be postponed for later this year, even if Pompeo is confirmed in the next few weeks, according to sources. However, given the significance Trump attaches to India, it would be a tough call to change the dates of the maiden India-US two plus two dialogue, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Following are the top/expected stories from the eastern region at 4.30 pm. STORIES IN THE PIPELINE * Darjeeling: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to inaugurate business summit STORIES ON THE WIRECAL1 AS-ASSEMBLY-BORDERAssam govt taking initiatives to defuse border tension: PatowaryGuwahati: The Assam government is taking initiatives to defuse tension and maintain peace on the state's border with Mizoram, state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said in the Assembly. CAL2 NL-TRUST VOTE Rio govt sails through trust vote in Assembly Kohima: The Neiphiu Rio-led government in Nagaland won the floor test in the Assembly today. CES1 MG-MILITANCY-MINISTER Meghalaya govt making efforts to tackle militancy: Minister Shillong: Meghalaya Home Minister James K Sangma has said the new dispensation is making concerted efforts to tackle militancy and crime. CES3 OD-KUNDULI-FORENSIC CFSL found no trace of semen on Kunduli rape case exhibits: Odisha Police Cuttack: The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Kolkata said in its report that Kunduli rape victim's clothes did not bear any trace of semen, a senior police officer has said. CES4 WB-COMMONWEALTH-BUCKNELL Youth to interact with political leaders at Commonwealth meet Kolkata: Young people from 53 Commonwealth countries will get a chance to meet and interact with their political leaders at an event in London next month, British Deputy High Commissioner Bruce Bucknell has said. CES5 MZ-BORDER SCRIBES Mizo scribes protest against attacks on them by Assam police Aizawl: Scribes in Mizoram organised sit-ins in the capital town of Aizawl and seven district headquarters to protest against alleged attacks by Assam police on their colleagues, including two lady journalists while they were on duty. ERG7 OD-GANJA 80-kg ganja seized in Odisha, six arrested Berhampur (Odisha): Excise department officials seized more than 80 kilogram ganja and arrested six persons in this connection from three different places in Odisha's Ganjam district, a senior official said today. ERG8 AS-ASSEMBLY-VACANCY Over 32,000 posts vacant in Assam schools: Himanta Biswa Sarma Guwahati: Over 32,000 posts, including nearly 28,000 teaching posts, are lying vacant in government schools across Assam, the state Assembly was informed today. ERG9 OD-SEX RATIO Child sex ratio improves in Odisha's Ganjam district Berhampur (Odisha): The child sex ratio at birth in Odisha's Ganjam district rose to 869 females against 1000 males in 2017 from 790 females in 2014, officials said today. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four people have died after consuming illicit liquor in Shankar Vihar colony under the Khoda police station area here, police said today. The victims, identified as Sandeep, Ashok, Avinash, Ravinder and Sriniwas, fell sick after consuming hooch last night, Senior Superintendent of Police H N Singh said. Moments later, Sandeep, Ashok and Avinash fell unconscious and were rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared them "brought dead', Singh said. Ravinder and Sriniwas were also admitted at the hospital. Ravinder died this morning at the Lal Bahadur Shastri hospital of Delhi while Sriniwas was still undergoing treatment, Singh said. The SSP added that Khoda SHO Dhuruv Bhushan Dubey, police post in-charge Ram Samajh Rana and beat constables Rajbir Singh and Mohammad Asgar were suspended for dereliction of duty after the incident came to light. Meanwhile, District Magistrate Ritu Maheswari wrote to the State Excise Commissioner urging stringent action against errant staff of the department for not cracking down upon illicit liquor sale in the area. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail will form a joint venture with Oman-based Khimji Ramdas LLC to take its 'fbb' brand fashion outlets to Oman and other GCC countries. Future Retail has entered into a shareholders agreement with Khimji Ramdas LLC for formation of the JV company, the company said in the regulatory filing. The 50-50 JV will operate "fbb" brand fashion outlets in Oman and across other member states of GCC, it said. The joint venture company is proposed to be incorporated in Oman in which each party to the agreement shall subscribe 50 per cent of share capital. As per the proposal, each party would have the right to appoint three directors on board of JV company. Future Retail stocks closed 1.93 per cent up at Rs 508.90 on BSE today. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Gina Haspel, US President Donald Trump's nominee to become the first woman to lead the CIA, is a veteran, who once reportedly ran a secret prison in Thailand where terrorism suspects were allegedly subjected to harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding. In a surprise move, Trump announced today that he was removing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and elevating Haspel, who was his deputy. The Senate must vote on 61-year-old Haspel's confirmation to succeed Pompeo. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, earned high-level awards during her career and was sworn in as deputy director of the CIA on February 7, 2017, among the first officials in the Trump administration. In that post, she assisted managing intelligence collection, analysis, covert action and counterintelligence, and liaison relationships with foreign services, according to the Central Intelligence Agency's website. Trump said in a statement that Haspel's appointment would be "a historic milestone." He said she and Pompeo "have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect." Before leaving the White House for California, Trump heaped more praise on Haspel: "Gina, by the way, who I know very well, who I've worked very closely with, will be the first woman director of the CIA," he said. "She's an outstanding person," the US president commented. Haspel said in a statement that after 30 years at CIA, it was an honour to serve with Pompeo during the past year. "I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next director of the Central Intelligence agency," she said. "If confirmed, I look forward to providing President Trump the outstanding intelligence support he has grown to expect during his first year in office," Haspel said. She has extensive overseas experience and served as Chief of Station in several of her assignments. In Washington, she has held numerous senior leadership positions, including as Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service, Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action, and Chief of Staff for the Director of the National Clandestine Service. Haspel is the recipient of numerous awards including the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism; the Donovan Award; the Intelligence Medal of Merit; and the Presidential Rank Award, the most prestigious award in the federal civil service. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the Supreme Court deadline on closure of mining operations in Goa closing on March 15, a high-level committee of the state government would meet tomorrow to discuss the impending crisis in terms of the loss to revenue and jobs. "I have spoken to chief minister Manohar Parrikar (who is in US) over phone. The cabinet advisory committee (CAC) will meet tomorrow at 3 PM to discuss and decide the future course of action on the SC order, as the mining crisis is staring Goa in face," said Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai, who is one of the three members of the CAC. The Supreme Court last month quashed 88 mining leases in Goa and directed them to stop fresh extraction of ore from March 15 onwards. The CAC was set up by Parrikar on March 5 before he left for the US for medical treatment. The CAC, comprising Sardesai (GFP), Francis D'Souza (BJP), and Sudin Dhavalikar (MGP), is supposed to guide the administration in absence of the chief minister. Sardesai's Goa Forward Party and Dhavlikar's Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party are alliance partners in the BJP-led state government. The CAC was awarded financial powers to approve proposals involving expenditure up to Rs 5 crore. The mining industry in Goa is in a state of shock in the wake of the apex court order. The SC had given time till March 15 to mining lease holders, who were granted a second renewal in violation of its previous directions, to manage their affairs. Meanwhile, all the three BJP MPs from the coastal state today met party president Amit Shah in Delhi and sought his intervention in the matter. Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik and Narendra Sawaikar are Lok Sabha MPs while Vinay Tendulkar is a Rajya Sabha member. Tendulkar told PTI the meeting was fruitful as Shah has agreed to look into the issue "positively and personally". "We briefed him about the possible economic and social impact of the mining ban in Goa. He assured us to look into the matter," he said. Besides an annual revenue loss to the tune of Rs 3,500 crore, around two lakh people who are dependent on mining would lose their jobs due to closure of the industry, he said. State Mines and Geology department has already issued orders to stop extraction of fresh ore from the mining leases from March 15 onwards. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tightening the noose around wilful defaulters, the government has asked to 'name and shame' such borrowers by publishing their photographs and other details in newspapers. The ministry has written a letter to all state-run directing them to take board approvals for publication of photographs of such defaulters. Sources quoting advisory of the ministry said, Lending institutions shall formulate a policy with the approval of their board of directors which clearly set out the criteria for publication of photographs of wilful defaulters. The number of wilful defaulters, who did not repay loans to public sector (PSBs) despite the capacity to do so, rose to 9,063 at the end of December 2017. The amount involved for PSBs is reported as Rs 1100.50 billion, Minister of State for Shiv Pratap Shukla had said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha Taking forward its fight against wilful defaulters, the government last week directed banks to seek passport details of borrowers taking loans of Rs 500 million and more. Passport details will help banks to take timely action and inform the relevant authorities to prevent fraudsters from fleeing the country. "Next step in clean and responsible banking. Passport details must for loans above Rs 500 million. Step to ensure quick response in case of fraud," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar had said. For all existing loans of over Rs 500 million, banks have been asked to collect passport details of borrowers within 45 days, he added. The government has tabled the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill after Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi allegedly defrauded state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs 127 billion and left the country and are refusing to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. The proposed fugitive law aims to impound and sell assets of Nirav Modi-type escapees with a view to quickly recover dues. It also will apply to defaulters who have an outstanding of Rs 1 billion or more and have escaped from the country. The Finance Ministry has also directed public sector banks (PSBs) to probe all NPA accounts of over Rs 500 million for possible fraud and accordingly report the cases to CBI. Besides, the ministry had asked banks to monitor loans above Rs 2.5 billion and red flags whenever the original covenants of the loans are violated. This was spelt out as part of 6-point-reform measures announced. The government today said it is not considering abolishing the Banks Board Bureau (BBB) and it has made a number of recommendations on human resource in public sector banks (PSBs). "No proposal for abolishing BBB is under consideration," Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. The minister was responding to a question whether BBB set up under the chairmanship of former CAG Vinod Rai in 2016 has not been able to live up to the expectations to improve the quality of human resources in state-owned banks. There a query also on whether the existing BBB was going to be abolished. BBB has made various recommendations for human resources in PSBs, including selection and appointment of whole time directors and non-executive chairmen besides senior persons as government nominee directors on the PSB boards, Shukla said. The government has also asked banks to secure proper management of human resources (HR) by implementing the recommendations of the Khandelwal Committee covering manpower and recruitment planning, training and skill development, career planning, performance management among others. "In addition, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued instructions to banks regarding certification of staff manning key responsibilities in identified areas," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government today pegged the sugar production estimate at 27.2 million tonnes for the ongoing 2017-18 marketing year ending September, lower than the industry's projection of 29.5 million tonnes for the period. Sugar output of India, the world's second largest producer after Brazil, stood at 20.3 million tonnes in 2016-17 marketing year (October-September). Industry body ISMA has revised upward sugar production estimates for the current marketing year to 29.5 million tonnes. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Food C R Chaudhary said sugar production is estimated at 27.2 million tonnes for the current marketing year. "With carry over stock of 4 million tonnes and estimated production of about 27.2 million tonnes, the availability of sugar in the country during 2017-18 is estimated to be about 31.2 million tonnes," he said. The minister said sugar availability will be more than the estimated annual demand of 25 million tonnes. Sugar production in top three producing states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka is pegged at 10.1 million tonnes, 9.05 million tonnes and 3.15 million tonnes, respectively, in 2017-18 year, according to the data placed before Parliament. In a separate reply, the minister said that the country had a stock of 15.8 million tonnes till February of this year. On exports, he said about 5.5 lakh tonnes of sugar has been exported up to January, out of which 99 per cent has been done under the Advance Authorisation Scheme. The government will take necessary measures at appropriate time to promote export of sugar, if required, depending upon the domestic production and availability, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as 28 Congress MLAs were today suspended from the Gujarat Assembly for a day and 15 of them evicted from the House after they created a ruckus over the suspension of senior party member Virji Thumar. However, Speaker Rajendra Trivedi, who suspended the opposition MLAs in the first half, revoked the suspension in the second half after the Congress' chief whip, Amit Chavda, tendered an apology on behalf of his party colleagues. There were chaotic scenes in the House when Agriculture Minister R C Faldu was speaking on the budgetary demands for his department. Before Faldu's speech, Thumar claimed in the House that the BJP government in Gujarat had not built a single dam during its 22-year rule. Countering the claim, Faldu listed various "irrigation schemes" launched by the state government in the last two decades. As he took Thumar's name in his speech, the Congress MLA stood up from his seat and started arguing with the minister. The speaker repeatedly asked Thumar to sit down, but the Congress MLA continued with his verbal attack. At one point, he even dared the speaker to suspend him when Trivedi warned him of stern action for "indiscipline". Eventually, Trivedi suspended Thumar for the rest of the day, following which several Congress MLAs rushed into the Well, alleging "injustice" and "high-handedness" by the BJP. As around 15 Congress MLAs sat in the Well, the Speaker first suspended them for the rest of the day and then called in the marshals to evict them. Those standing in the Well were also suspended by the speaker. In all, 28 agitating Congress legislators were suspended for the rest of the day and the remaining 30-odd party MLAs present in the House staged a walkout. When the House re-assembled in the afternoon, Chavda tendered an apology on behalf of the Congress legislators. He urged the speaker as well as the ruling party members to show a "big heart", following which Trivedi revoked the suspension of all the Congress MLAs, including Thumar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today picked injuries in her hand during her visit to Rajasthan's Jodhpur and had to cancel some of her programmes as a result, officials said. Hillary arrived here this morning on a two-day sojourn and was scheduled to visit the Mehrangarh Fort in the evening, they said. She was staying at the Umaid Bhawan Palace here and a team of doctors from a private hospital nearby was sent there to examine her. The doctors said the Democratic Party candidate in the 2016 US presidential polls had a sprain in her hand and was given required treatment. They advised her rest. The Mehrangarh Fort authorities said her programme to visit there was cancelled due to the injuries and she might visit there tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, she is also scheduled to visit the carpet-making units of Salawas village in Jodhpur, where she will interact with weavers and witness the making of carpets, district administration officials said. She will later go to the Mihir Garh, a world renowned boutique hotel in Roeht in Pali district on Jodhpur-Pali highway, they said. According to her schedule, She will be staying for a night there and leave for Delhi on Thursday morning, the officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Haryana government will recommend a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in land acquisition in Rohtak and Sonipat districts during the Congress regime, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said today. He also came down heavily on the Congress during the Zero Hour of the ongoing Budget Session in the state Assembly and said the party leaders had no right to talk about the plight of farmers. "They themselves had acquired lands of farmers just to benefit some builders... There is no one the Congress did not cheat," he alleged. "We have decided to recommend a CBI probe into the irregularities committed during the Congress regime in cases of land acquisition in Rohtak and Sonipat districts," he said. Khatter said the injustice done to the farmers would be revealed in the investigation. The chief minister said the state government had earlier recommended CBI probe into three cases -- re-allotment of a plot to Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in Panchkula, industrial plot allotment by Haryana Sahri Vikas Pradhikaran in Panchkula, and the Manesar land case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the research body of the health ministry, has been awarded the International Kochon Prize 2017 for its contribution to the national programme in Tuberculosis research. The ICMR through its TB Consortium has accelerated the efforts for research and development on the disease in the country, said a statement from the council. The TB consortium is working with public and private institutes, to guide the country's research efforts towards the development of point-of-care diagnostics, shorter treatment regimens and an effective vaccine for Tuberculosis. The Kochon Prize is given by the Kochon Foundation, a non-profit foundation registered in the Republic of Korea. It comprises an award of USD 65,000. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "We cannot become the net security provider if the economy does not keep pace with the changes," Rawat said. When asked on whether India should militarily intervene in the Maldivian crisis amidst growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean region and its proximity to the archipelago nation, he said India's decision to not intervene militarily in the on-going Maldivian crisis was a well thought out, but only time will tell whether it was a right step or not. "I am quite sure that diplomats and political entity in the country did look at the Maldives and did what they thought was the best for them. How this will pan out in future, let's wait and watch," Rawat said. The Maldives has been witnessing political crises after an emergency was declared in the island nation by its President Abdulla Yameen. India has expressed its displeasure over the development. "Did we do the right thing by not stepping in? Only time will tell. I am quite sure that whoever took a decision on whether we should intervene in Maldives or not it must have been a well-thought out decision. We should wait and watch and not jump the gun," he added. The UK could increase its exports to India by an extra USD 3.2 billion as a non-member of the European Union, according to a new study released here today. India represents "sizeable growth" opportunities for Britain as part of a wider analysis of the trade potential offered by seven emerging (E7) economies of the world Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Vietnam, the 'G7 to E7: The Standard Chartered Trade Performance Index' finds. "Like all G7 countries, the UK would significantly benefit from focusing on China, but it also faces a sizeable opportunity to capitalise on its current relations with India. UK businesses missed projections by USD 4.6 billion with China and USD 3.6 billion with India," the study notes. Under a "Notional Post-Brexit Exports" analysis, the research highlights that Britain's current exports to India stand at USD 5.5 billion, which are predicted to be USD 9.1 billion if Britain remains a member of the European Union (EU) but USD 12.3 billion as a non-member of the economic bloc. Therefore, Britain's "increased export opportunity" outside the EU with India stands at USD 3.2 billion. The study also highlights India's untapped import potential from the G7 economies of Germany, Canada, Japan, Italy, France, the US and UK. "In terms of total imports from the G7, India is second to China, representing 12 per cent of the total potential E7 imports from the G7. However, in actual performance, India is behind in meeting its predicted imports from every G7 country except Germany. It's lagging behind particularly in its imports from Japan, US and the UK which equate to over 16 billion USD of lost import opportunity," the study notes. The new Standard Chartered index, developed in partnership with independent macro analysis consultancy Oxford Analytica, found that G7 nations and companies were all under-performing in their export trade to the E7. Of the 49 trade routes between individual G7 and E7 countries, only nine currently exceed or meet expectations. The remaining 40 trade routes under-perform by a total of USD 162 billion against their export potential. This constitutes a 30 per cent annual growth opportunity for the G7 to the E7. "The E7 represent a critical highway to future growth for the G7 in 2018 and beyond," the study concludes. Germany is singled out as the greatest G7 to E7 success story, which exceeded its total predicted value of trade with the E7 by exporting USD 109 billion, double what is predicted. "It is clear the E7 represent multi-billion-dollar trading opportunities for G7 governments and businesses searching for export diversification and growth. Companies should develop sector specific strategies and corridors, then identify how they can increase their opportunities there," said Michael Vrontamitis, Head of Trade for Europe and Americas at Standard Chartered. The bank's index finds that the E7 story is dominated by China, with the country's import potential representing over 70 per cent of export trade from the G7 countries. India and Vietnam follow with the next highest import potential among the E7, however, they lag behind in total trade volume with the G7. Of the E7, these three Asian countries represent close to 90 per cent of predicted import trade with the G7. The UK, US and France stand to realise the greatest gains if they can fulfil their E7 trade potential, the latest analysis finds. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seeking to attract more FDI from the US, India has reached out to the businesses in America's mid-west region citing investment opportunities in states like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It is the right time for the American businesses to come and invest in India and be part of the success story the world's fastest growing emerging economy, the Indian Consul General in Chicago Neeta Bhushan told a large group of corporate sector representative from the mid-west region. The Indian Consulate in Chicago last week organised a meeting with mid-west business leaders pitching for business opportunities in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Delivering her keynote address on "India's new initiatives, Budget 2018, Business opportunity in Indian States, Upcoming Business & Cultural Initiatives," Bhushan highlighted major aspects of Indian economy, key initiatives undertaken by the Government during the recent Budget 2018-19 and economic initiatives taken by the Government. In the last three years, India has achieved a growth rate of around seven per cent and it is estimated that India will continue to grow at around 7.5 per cent, she said. India is a USD2.5 trillion economy now, making it the seventh largest economy in the world, she said. Speaking on business environment for Entrepreneurs in India, Bala Palamdai, president, TiE Midwest mentioned that India's new economic initiatives and tax reforms have made a huge change and the process had become much simpler leading to more digitisation and the economy had become more attractive for business and investments. TiE is a non-profit association dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship in the Bay Area. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam Governor Jagadish Mukhi has said that India, despite being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, was yet to achieve many of its goals. "Our nation of more than a billion people is still far from achieving many of its goals and it is the brilliant minds of the youths that will make a difference," the governor said at the second convocation of the Mahatma Gandhi University, Meghalaya, yesterday. Graduation day is an important event in one's life as "It is a day when you step out in the open from an intellectually stimulating environment of university into the real world, full of contradictions, astounding possibilities and tough challenges," the governor said. The governor lauded the University's foremost goal to reach to all sections of the society in terms of imparting education, its diverse course structure, a strong faculty and well-defined infrastructure. He hoped that the university would continue to provide quality to the students and emerge as a pioneer centre for excellence in the Northeastern region. The governor also urged the degree holders to contribute to the welfare of the society and the nation. Director of Indian Institute of Information Technology (Guwahati) Prof Gautam Barua, said that students instead of searching for jobs, should create jobs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A court here today acquitted a senior IPS officer and 13 other serving and retired police officials in the high profile Dara Singh alleged fake encounter case of 2006. Liquor smuggler Dara Singh alias Daria, a resident of Churu district, was killed in an alleged fake encounter with police on the outskirts of Jaipur on October 23, 2006. His family had pointed fingers at the then cabinet minister in the Rajasthan's BJP government and present State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Rathore claiming that Dara was targeted because of personal enmity. The Supreme Court, following a petition by his widow Sushila Devi, had ordered a CBI inquiry in the case which had resulted in the arrest of policemen including two IPS officers and Rathore. The additional district judge acquitted all the 14 accused in offences under sections including 302 (murder) of IPC, advocate A K Jain, counsel for two of the accused, said. Those who were acquitted in the case are 1991-batch IPS officer A Ponnuchamy, at present posted as ADG (Police Housing), Arshad Ali (Additional SP rank), Rajesh Chaudhary, Nisar Khan, Subhash Godara, Naresh Sharma (all Inspector rank police officers), Satyanarayan Godara, Surendra Singh, Julfikar, Arvind Bharadwaj (all Sub-Inspector rank), Badri Prasad and Jagram (both Head constable rank), Sardar Singh (police driver) and retired Sub-Inspector Munshi Lal. BJP leader and the present state parliamentary affairs minister Rathore and now retired IPS officer A K Jain were also named in the case that was investigated by the CBI but they were discharged by courts in the past. The then opposition (BJP) MLA Rathore was arrested by the CBI on April 5, 2012, charging him with criminal conspiracy to kill liquor smuggler Dara Singh but he was discharged by the district and sessions court of all criminal charges on May 31, 2012 and he walked out of the jail whereas A K Jain, who retired from Jail, was discharged by high court in February 2015. The involvement of senior officers and Rathore was based on telephone calls exchanged which, the accused said, were for official purposes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Milli Muslim League (MML), JuD chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's new political party, today said it will launch its manifesto here on March 23, following a Pakistani court's decision upholding its registration as a political party ahead of polls this year. Saeed, who has kept a low profile after the government has apparently taken over all the movable and immovable assets of his Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) and frozen their bank accounts in the country, is likely to unveil the manifesto of his party. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) last week set aside the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to reject the application of the MML for registration as a political party. The ECP will decide the fate of the MML after hearing it in the coming days. Earlier, the ECP had rejected MML's application to register it (as a political party) on the interior ministry's recommendation saying the "MML has links with banned militant outfits". In a statement issued here today, MML president Saifullah Khalid said after the court's decision there is no "legal hurdle" left in the way of its registration as a political party. "Now we will launch MML manifesto on March 23 on its first founding day," he said. Referring to the court verdict, Khalid termed it a victory of the "Pakistan ideology", saying the court has ordered that the MML be given a chance to play its role in national About the forthcoming general election, the MML president said it has decided to field its candidates for all national and provincial assembly seats in the polls. "The MML will select those candidates who can not only afford electioneering expenses but also enjoy personal vote bank in the constituencies," he said and added such candidates must believe in "supporting the Kashmiris' freedom struggle". Despite the Pakistani government's claims of having taken over all assets of the JuD and FIF and frozen their bank accounts in the country, Saeed and other leaders and activists of these banned organisations are still freely using its headquarters and offices. The government had initiated action against Saeed's organisations in pursuance of an ordinance issued by President Mamnoon Hussain in February amending the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, and allowing the state to proscribe UN Security Council-listed organisations, some of which had been exempt from prosecution. The move had also come in the backdrop of a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental money-laundering watchdog, that put Pakistan on its 'grey' list due to the country's failure to control financing of terror groups. At the FATF meeting in Paris last month, Saeed and his "charities" were top on the list of the groups that the FATF wanted Pakistan to act against. The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a global terrorist. Saeed, who is accused of having masterminded the November 2008 Mumbai attack, was also placed on the terrorism black list by the UN in December 2008. The banned JuD head was released from house arrest in November last year after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case. He had been under house arrest since January last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Water purifier maker Kent RO Systems, which has expanded to verticals such as kitchen appliances, air purifier etc, expects around 10 per cent growth this fiscal and revenue around Rs 850 crore, said a top company official. Besides, the company also aims to double its exports in next two years by adding more geographical markets, which in turn would contribute around 10 per cent of its total revenue. "We are aiming to grow 10 per cent this year compared to last year," Kent RO Systems Chairman Mahesh Gupta on the sidelines of a conference here. He further added:" This year Kent Ro would cross Rs 850 crore." Kent RO expects, water purifier segment, which is its mainstay, to contribute around 90 per cent. The company is presently manufacturing its range of water purifiers at its plant at Roorke at Uttaranchal, which has a production capacity of roll out around 6 lakh units per annum. The Noida-based company is also investing Rs 200 crore in its upcoming new plant at Noida, which would be operational in June this year. "This would double our capacity," Gupta added. Besides the company, which has entered into the kitchen appliances, a competitive and price sensitive segments, Kent RO would focus on offering differentiated products with new features. "We are trying to differentiate with other players in the market with products such as bread maker, noodles makers etc," said Gupta. Presently, the company is exporting to neighbouring markets of Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc. "We want to enter into more and more areas. Presently export contributes 5 per cent of total revenue and expects to double to 10 per cent in two years time," he added. It has a pan India distribution network in 600 districts presently. Kent RO Systems today announced its partnership with IPL T20 team Kings XI Punjab as title sponsor. Kent has earmarked a budget of Rs 50 crore for this IPL. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu today called upon the lawmakers of the state to join hands for mobilising its resources to end dependence on central funds. "We need to go for resource mobilisation to end dependence on central fund," Khandu said in the motion of thanks to the Governors address in the Assembly. He said that the governors address to the house on March 9 was a reflection of the works being executed by the state government in accordance to 2017-18 Budget. The Arunachal government gave priority to connectivity and several schemes on it have already been implemented in the state and works on many more are on, Khandu said. "As many as 1900 mobile towers will be erected in the state by December end this year under the Digital India initiative to boost mobile connectivity, while East-West Industrial Corridor will be a reality soon," he said. The chief minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a clear vision for the development of North East, particularly Arunachal Pradesh and had committed total support to the region and the state during his recent visit to Itanagar. Khandu added that many schemes of the previous government in the state are being completed by the present dispensation and works on many more were going on. Participating in the discussion, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein said that the Trans Arunachal Highway had brought in revolutionary development by reducing travel time in the state. "Connectivity is the hallmark of development and the state has witnessed a revolution of development after NDA came to power at the Centre," Mein said. Mein, who also holds the Finance portfolio, assured funds for maintenance of roads and added that a budgetary provision of Rs 631 crore had been kept in this year budget for rural economic reforms. Leader of Opposition Takam Pario alleged that the state government was not inviting and involving the opposition members in pre-budget discussions. Later the members adopted the motion by voice vote. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An ad hoc lecturer was shot dead today allegedly by a second-year student at Shaheed Dalbir Singh College in Pipli village near Kharkhoda in this district, police said. The accused was angry as the lecturer had rebuked him following a female student's complaint, they added. The deceased, Rajesh Malik, was aged between 35 to 40 years, they said. The accused was identified as Jagmal, a BA second year student, police said. Jagmal, a resident of a village near Kharkhoda, today walked into the college in the morning and fired four shots at Rajesh, police said adding that the bullets hit Rajesh in the chest and arms. He was declared brought dead when taken to a hospital, they said. The accused fled from the spot, police said. Asked about the reason behind the gruesome murder, police official said that the lecturer had reprimanded him after a girl student complained that he allegedly harassed her. "That is why he developed personal animosity against the lecturer," police said. Police said Jagmal, who belongs to a farming family, was absconding and teams had been formed to nab him. Rajesh is survived by his wife and two children. Notably, a class 12 student had allegedly shot dead his school principal with his father's licensed revolver in Yamunanagar district in January this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Meghalaya Home Minister James K Sangma has said the new dispensation is making concerted efforts to tackle militancy and crime. "The government of Meghalaya is committed to its goal of ensuring that the state is free of militants and criminals," Sangma said after eight GNLA cadres surrendered before him at the police headquarters yesterday. The surrender came just a few weeks after the killing of GNLA "commander-in-chief" Sohan D Shira on February 24. This is the "beginning of the end of militancy" in Meghalaya, Sangma said, appealing to other militant organisations in the state to shun violence and return to the mainstream. "The surrendered cadres will be receiving a rehabilitation package. They will be given much-needed guidance too," Sangma said. The militants yesterday gave up two AK-56, Insas Rifle, 9mm pistol, Glock-19 with 7 rounds, SMG with 65 live round, 303 Rifle with 50 rounds, Air gun and .22 pistol. Lauding the cadres, the minister said, "It takes great courage to surrender. I congratulate them and their families I wish them success in their future endeavours." The police department also felicitated church leaders Reverend ST Sangma and Rev KD Sangma for their role in convincing the cadres to lay down arms. Stating that the state has long suffered due to militancy, the home minister said, "Let us all resolve to start a new chapter of peace and prosperity in the state." He also stressed on the need to strengthen police force in Meghalaya to deal with crimes against women and children. "The police will be provided with modern equipment to combat crime," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mizoram governor Lt General Nirbhay Sharma today said that the state was progressing in various sectors with the government's New Land Use Policy (NLUP) contributing in the decline of jhum area by 31.3 per cent in six years. In his customary gubernatorial address in the state assembly on the first day of the budget session, Sharma said that his government has taken the bold initiative of implementing the New Economic Development Policy (NEDP) for which a total amount of Rs 1,027 crore had been invested during 2016-17. "The policy does not comprise of simply distributing fund to all departments as allocation of fund is based on preparation of viable projects which will strengthen the economy, employ sectoral inter-linkages and perpetuate a growth-friendly regulatory environment and improve the ease of doing business in the state," he said. The NLUP Project, originally designed for 5 years, continues till today. In addition to the central funds, the state government had allotted more than Rs 140 crore for continuation of NLUP under NEDP-NLUP Convergence Scheme with emphasis on agriculture link road, he said. Under the convergence scheme a total number of 16000 NLUP beneficiaries are being given assistance of Rs one lakh each in addition to 1,500 beneficiaries covered during 2016-17 under various sectors of the NLUP line departments, he said. He said that while the gross state domestic product for 2015-16 was estimated at Rs 12487.73 crore, the per capita net state domestic product for the year was Rs 114524. The percentage growth rate during 2015-16 was 14.53, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Stating that global efforts to eliminate TB have not been successful, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today advocated for a "change in approach" by adopting multi-sectoral engagement and participation of all stake-holders to eliminate the disease at the panchayat level, as he announced a target to free India from the disease by 2025 - five years ahead of a globally-set deadline. Observing that TB impacts lives, economy and the future of a nation and that the poor were the worst affected by it, Modi asserted that state governments have a major role to play in its elimination while adding that he has written to all chief ministers to join this mission. There were an estimated 2.8 million new cases of TB in 2016, with over 400,000 people succumbing to the disease, including those with TB and HIV. While addressing the Delhi End-TB Summit here, he said his government was moving ahead with the principle of "treat every TB patient best at the very first opportunity" and was roping in the private sector as well. Modi also urged the health ministry to expand the ambit of research of traditional medicine in curing tuberculosis and share the results with other nations. He called for a multi-sectoral engagement and participation of all stake-holders at every level to create "TB-free village, panchayat, district and state", noting that frontline TB physicians and workers could make a major contribution in this direction. Modi said the WHO had declared tuberculosis an emergency 25 years ago and since then, several countries have made efforts to eliminate the disease. "But the ground reality still remains that we have not been successful in curbing tuberculosis yet. If something doesn't yield desired results even after 10-20 years, then we need to change our approach and analyse the work done, which could help in finding new paths," Modi said. He launched the TB-free India campaign to take the activities under the National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination forward in a mission mode for eradicating the disease by 2025. "A target has been set to end TB globally by 2030. I would like to announce that we have set a target to eradicate it from India five years ahead, by 2025," Modi said. The National Strategic Plan to eradicate TB by 2025 is operational and the government was constantly increasing the budget for the schemes to counter the disease, he said. "The government has made a provision of spending $100 million per annum to provide nutritional support to the patients suffering from disease," he said. The prime minister also talked about the two major initiatives in health sector, as part of the Ayushman Bharat programme. He said the National Health Policy, 2017 envisioned Health and Wellness Centres as the foundation of India's health system. Under this, 1.5 lakh centres would bring comprehensive primary health care systems closer to the homes of people. He further said under the National Health Protection Scheme, 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) would be provided coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. "This will be the world's largest government-funded health care programme. Adequate funds will be provided for smooth implementation of this programme," he pointed out. The prime minister said his government's thrust had been on technology and innovation in this field to better the drugs, diagnosis and treatment of the disease, and to boost research, India the TB Research Consortium was also set up. Targeting the previous governments, Modi said the immunisation programme had been going on for the last 30-35 years and despite that, the country could not achieve the target of complete coverage till 2014. "The pace of the immunisation coverage earlier was inching ahead by just one per cent. Had we continued at with the same pace, it would have taken us another 40 years to achieve the target. "However, in the last three-and-a-half per years it has increased by 6 per cent and by the next year, we will achieve 90 per cent immunisation coverage," he said. The summit would set the stage for the September 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB, where for the first time, TB would be discussed in the UN General Assembly. Reiterating the commitment of the government, Health Minister J P Nadda said, "We are starting a new scheme for nutritional support, expanding public-private partnership models and aligning our strategies to follow the similar success we got in HIV /AIDS. We are using Information Technology (IT) tools to monitor the programme and treatment adherence. Community engagement is the hallmark and it is becoming a social movement to End TB in India." India is also implementing the National Strategic Plan for TB elimination that is backed by a funding of over Rs 12,000 crore over the next three years to ensure every TB patient has access to quality diagnosis, treatment, and support. Four Muslim MPs in the British Parliament have been targeted with similar suspicious packages containing a mysterious sticky liquid and a letter calling for 'Punish a Muslim Day'. Bangladeshi-origin MPs Rushanara Ali and Rupa Huq and their Pakistani-origin colleagues Afzal Khan and Mohammad Yasin are the four Labour party MPs to receive the same kind of package in their parliamentary offices within the Palace of Westminster over the last two days. "It is worrying that these things are getting through security screening because I know it's very vigorously screened. Someone out there thinks it is open season on Muslims," said Huq, who represents Ealing Central and Acton in south-west London. One of her staff members who was hospitalised after coming in contact with the package has since been released. On Monday, two staff members from Yasin's office had also been briefly hospitalised as a precautionary measure. A parliamentary spokesperson said on Tuesday that two items of mail containing suspicious substances were investigated by the Metropolitan Police and were not found to be hazardous. "The affected areas were temporarily cordoned off but no evacuation was necessary. One person attended hospital as a precaution," the spokesperson said. Scotland Yard confirmed that specialist officers had been sent to the scene to assess the packages, which were deemed non-hazardous. Parliament has emailed all staff, warning them to "be on the alert for suspicious items of mail". Meanwhile, Britain's counter-terrorism officers continue to investigate after similar "Punish a Muslim Day" letters were sent to a string of locations across the country. The letter incites verbal abuse and assaults on Muslims, as well as attacks on mosques, declaring April 3 as 'Punish a Muslim Day'. It asks people to carry out violent acts including verbal abuse, removing a woman's hijab or head-scarf, physical assault and using acid as a weapon. "The letter calling for attacks on Muslim is just the latest example of rising Islamaphobia and deplorable hate crimes in this country," said Pakistani-origin Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi, who raised an urgent question in the House of Commons yesterday calling on the UK government to do more to tackle such "incitement to violence and help prevent the growth of such extreme views". In response to the urgent question on the letters, UK Home Office minister Victoria Atkins told MPs that the government condemns the content of the letters as "clearly abhorrent, with no place in decent society". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Sri Lankan government is unlikely to extend the 10-day nationwide state of emergency imposed after communal riots erupted in Kandy district, as no fresh incidents of violence has been reported from anywhere in the country, the new Law and Order Minister has said. Communal violence broke out in the country's scenic district following the death of a man from the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority, resulting in the death of two persons and damage to several homes, businesses and mosques. President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a three-member commission to probe the communal clashes in Kandy. He had declared a nationwide state of emergency on March 6 and deployed the police and military to prevent escalation of violence after clashes between majority Sinhala Buddhists and minority Muslims erupted in other areas of the central riot-hit district. Ranjith Maddumabandara said he thinks it was not necessary to continue the state of emergency any further. "I had a discussion with the Inspector General of Police and senior police officers this morning to assess the current security situation in the country. "We are of the view that the country's security situation is normal right now and therefore, the extending of the 'state of emergency' which will expire on Thursday (March 15) will not be necessary," Maddumabandara was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror. He also said he discussed the possibility of lifting the temporary ban on social media, including Facebook, with the police. The government had restricted the use of social media, including Facebook, and social messaging app, Whatsapp after police claimed that they were being used to spread hatred against the minority community. "A decision in this regard would be taken soon but the final decision, however, will be taken on both issues after President returns from his official visit to Japan," the Minister said. Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando has also said that the restrictions on social media platforms including Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp and Imo will most probably be lifted within few days. "The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) was in discussion with the Facebook service provider about filtering social media," he was quoted as saying by the Daily News. In response to the government's ban, Facebook has said it is in contact with the Sri Lankan government and non-governmental organisations to support efforts to identify and remove hate speech from its platform. "We have clear rules against hate speech and incitement to violence and work hard to keep it off our platform. We are responding to the situation in Sri Lanka and are in contact with the government and non-governmental organisations to support efforts to identify and remove such content," the Facebook has said in an email to the CNBC. It said the ban in Sri Lanka came after several years in which critics have said Facebook and the government were not doing enough to prevent the spread of such harmful posts. Meanwhile, Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said that the situation in Kandy was calm and quiet. "Though the situation was normal, but the police would not relax its guard in Kandy in particular," he said, addingh that 3,000 police and 750 STF personnel had been deployed in the riot-hit district. China's move to scrap term limits and allow Xi Jinping to serve as president indefinitely puts him on track to deal with some of the country's weightiest long-term sovereignty challenges, especially the fates of Hong Kong and Taiwan. The question is, will Xi bet big on bold moves that could result in potentially disastrous consequences? Hong Kong offers a delicate initial test. Since passing from British to Chinese rule in 1997, the financial hub has operated as a "special administrative region," retaining its own legal and economic system and enjoying a considerable degree of autonomy from Beijing. That arrangement was supposed to last 50 years, until 2047, but calls for political reform in the city and what many see as Beijing tightening its controls and encroaching on freedoms there have created rising tensions. Earlier this month, a member of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee delivered a stern warning to Hong Kong delegates to China's rubber-stamp parliament over the central government's limits of tolerance. "Using the high degree of autonomy to reject, fight and erode the central government's comprehensive jurisdiction is absolutely not allowed," Zhao Leji told members of the National People's Congress, which passed a constitutional amendment Sunday abolishing presidential term limits, opening the door for Xi to rule for as long as he wants. Hong Kong activists had already been set on edge by the disqualification of pro-democracy lawmakers from the city's Legislative Council and the apparent abduction by Chinese security forces of several men who published salacious tomes about China's leadership. Still, Hong Kong remains one of the world's freest economies and a window to the outside for the Chinese financial system, which operates under much tighter restrictions. The cosmopolitan city of 6 million, with its vibrant tourism, arts and education sectors, also remains a beacon to many aspiring Chinese. "I don't think bold action is necessary with respect to Hong Kong," said Michael Mazza of the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, D.C. Xi is "already well along in the process of turning (Hong Kong) into just another Chinese city," he said. Self-governing Taiwan, however, is quite a different story, posing a direct challenge to the Communist Party's claim as the representative of all Chinese and guardian of Chinese sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. Since splitting from the mainland amid civil war in 1949, the former Japanese colony has evolved into a wealthy, vibrant democracy whose 23 million people take an increasingly dim view of any form of political integration with Beijing. By casting himself as a leader of historic standing, Xi has assumed the mantle of unifier and may regard failure in this regard as a stain on his reputation. In his most direct comments on the issue, he told a Taiwanese envoy in 2013 that a final resolution was required, and that what he regards as the "sacred mission" of unification "cannot be passed on from generation to generation." "Action on Taiwan is certainly possible. Unification is a key aspect of Xi Jinping's goal of 'national rejuvenation,' necessary for achieving the 'China Dream,'" Mazza said, referencing two of Xi's chief goals. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The nomination papers of the three candidates - two of the BJP and one of Congress for the Rajya Sabha election from Jharkhand were found valid after scrutiny, an official of the state Assembly said. Sameer Uranv and Pradeep Kumar Sonthalia of BJP had filed their nomination yesterday while Dheeraj Sahu of Congress had filed his papers for the RS poll. The official said a candidate needs 27 first preference votes to get elected in the Rajya Sabha poll scheduled to be held on March 23. In the 80-member Jharkhand Assembly, the ruling BJP has 43 MLAs and its ally AJSU 4, while opposition Congress has 7 and JMM has 18 MLAs. JVP(P) has 2 MLAs, while the BSP, MCC, and CPIML(L) has one legislators each. There are 3 Independents also BJPs Jharkhand unit spokesman Praveen Prabhakar claimed in a press release that the Congress candidate neither has the full support of the JMM nor the entire opposition. ''The JMM and the Congress are levelling charges of horse trading against the BJP. This is like the thief blaming the police,'' he said and claimed that the Congress did not have the required number. ''That (lack of required number) is the reason why Congress is indulging in horse trading.'' The Congress has claimed that JMM will support its candidate in the Rajya Sabha poll. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Odisha government today said it may participate in the Centre's Aspirational District Programme if the Niti Aayog, which is implementing it, agrees to the state's conditions and allows changes. Niti Aayog is implementing the programme to scale up development in 115 districts of the country. Odisha government had initially rejected the programme. "If the Niti Aayog agrees to our conditions and allows change in the chosen districts, we have no reasons to reject the programme," Odisha Finance Minister S B Behera told reporters here. The chief secretary A P Padhi in his letter to the NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer, Amitabh Kant said, "If the views of the state government on the issue of selection of districts, selection of Prabhari Officers and monitoring mechanism for district visit are accepted by NITI Aayog and Government of India, then it may be possible to jointly work in this area". Padhi said he has written stating that the chief minister has given green signal to join the programme in which nine districts are needed to be included along with separate funds for these districts. Earlier eight districts from Odisha had been identified and listed as "backward" by the NITI Aayog. Those districts were Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Gajapati, Malkangiri, Koraput, Balangir and Dhenkanal. However, the Odisha government wants that Nabarangpur and Nuapada be included in the in the "backward" district list and Dhenkanal be deleted from it. Odisha is among three states which raised objection to the manner in which the Centre chose the districts and engaged officers without consulting it. The other two are West Bengal and Kerala. The state government in its conditions has also demanded allocation of more funds for the most backward districts. The Odisha government changed its stand on the programme after the recent visit of NITI Aayog Vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar to the state and his meeting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The Odisha government has also provided a fresh panel for appointment of 'prabhari officers', while rejecting the earlier list prepared by the NITI Aayog. Padhi has said after the fresh appointment of these officers they will work jointly with the secretaries nominated by the state government for each identified districts. The state government has also said as of now the Aspirational District Programme has not been backed by any financial commitment for uplift of the districts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lambasting the Uttar Pradesh government for its "anti-poor" and "anti-people" budget, Leader of the Opposition in UP Assembly Ram Gobind Chaudhary today said there was "difference in words and deeds" of the state government. Speaking in the Assembly today during a discussion on the UP Budget, Chaudhary said, "The government has cut funds, and there is a difference in words and deeds." The developmental work done by the previous Samajwadi Party government under Akhilesh Yadav had been stopped by the current government in the name of probes, Chaudhary claimed. "Akhilesh Yadav government had started schools, hospitals, medical colleges, metro rail and expressway. Some of these projects were inaugurated, while some were not. The BJP government had put its name plates on the projects which were not inaugurated." He alleged that the state government had, in an act of vengeance, cancelled the recruitment made during the SP regime. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his four-year in office, has visited almost 90 per cent of the countries across the globe, but no country has evinced interest to invest in India. Like the Centre, the policies of the state government are also anti-people, anti-farmer and anti-poor. In fact, the policies help protect the interests of big industrialists and businessmen," Chaudhary said. Participating in the discussion, leader of BSP in UP Assembly Lalji Verma said the BJP government had made a number of promises, but it did not fulfil them. "No businessman will set up an industry in a state where the law and order situation is not good," he said. Leader of Congress legislative party in UP Assembly Ajay Pratap Singh 'Lallu' said the state government had duped the farmers and the youth of the state in the name of loan redemption and employment. Earlier during the Question Hour, the Assembly witnessed heated exchanges with Congress members raising the issue of non-distribution of sweaters to children of government primary schools and the recent hooch deaths of Ghaziabad. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In an unusual move, the speaker of Pakistan's National Assembly today staged a walkout from the house to protest against the failure of a senior official to brief parliament about two drafted laws. Interior Secretary Arshad Mirza was called to come to the Parliament by midday and answer questions about bills regarding compulsory drug tests of student and prevention of drugs in educational institutions. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq got extremely angry on being told that Mirza was not available and left the house in protest. "I will continue staging walkouts until Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi gives a written undertaking that such a scenario will not be repeated...Henceforth, I will not chair any session," he said. He said that the parliament was being ridiculed and a civil servant was not present despite the presence of a federal minister, state minister and parliamentary secretary. Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi chaired the session but warned that the entire house would stage protest, if no action was taken against the secretary. In Pakistan, the powerful bureaucracy is often blamed for creating unnecessary hurdles in parliamentary proceedings by withholding information. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan has summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh over the alleged harassment of officials and families of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, according to Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry. Singh was summoned after Pakistani newspaper Dawn quoted Pakistani officials of accusing India of harassing its diplomats and their families in the country and threatened to pull out the families if the intimidation did not stop. He was summoned by Director General (South Asia & SAARC) Mohammad Faisal and a strong protest was lodged at the "maltreatment being meted out to the officials and families of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi", according to a statement by the Office of Spokesperson of Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry here. Faisal emphasised that under the Vienna Convention, the safety and the security of Pakistani diplomats and their families is the responsibility of the Indian Government. A demarche was earlier made to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and the external affairs ministry in Delhi, a diplomatic source was quoted as saying by the Dawn. However, sources in New Delhi said India has repeatedly requested Pakistan to mutually ensure that High Commissions are allowed to do their job in an atmosphere free of harassment and intimidation, that staff be allowed to work and that construction projects get completed on time. Sources in India also said that on February 16, the Indian High Commissioner met the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan to lodge a strong protest against multiple acts of hooliganism against Indian properties and personnel. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan violated the ceasefire along the LoC and the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir 633 times in the first two months of this year in which 10 security personnel and 12 civilians were killed, the Lok Sabha was informed today. Union minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said 432 incidents of ceasefire violation have taken place along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and 201 such incidents along the International Border till February this year. There were 860 incidents of ceasefire violation along the LoC and 111 incidents of ceasefire violation along the IB in Jammu and and Kashmir in 2017, he said in a written reply to a question. Ahir also said that 12 civilians were killed and 59 others were injured in such incidents this year. Six army personnel were killed and 18 other soldiers injured in these incidents. Four BSF personnel were killed and 22 BSF jawans injured in these incidents ceasefire violation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's Supreme court today indicted a minister in a contempt case for making critical speeches against the judicary after the apex court disqualified former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers scandal. A three-member bench, headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, heard the case against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Daniyal Aziz. Aziz, the privatisation minister, who was present in the court, pleaded not guilty when charges were read out by Justice Mushir Alam, which included ridiculing the court and making anti-judiciary statements. The apex court rejected the minister's earlier reply that his statements were presented out of context by the media. Aziz, along with minister of state for interior Talal Chaudhry, was one of the most vocal advocates of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during the hearing of the Panama Papers scandal case by the country's apex court, which disqualified Sharif from holding the post. Both, Aziz and Chaudhry, were rewarded with ministerial post in the cabinet of Sharif's successor, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. But now, both are in hot waters and separately facing the contempt of court proceedings for making the anti-judiciary remarks. The Supreme Court is likely to indict Chaudhry tomorrow. Meanwhile, a Supreme Court beach headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar today disposed of a number of contempt of court petitions against former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Yousaf Raza Gilani, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former Senate chairman Nayyar Bukhari. Old contempt cases against slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan Peoples Party's leader late Iqbal Haider were also declared ineffective and disposed of. Similarly, a contempt petition against lawmaker and Sharif's son-in-law, Muhammad Safdar was also disposed of. The court also wrapped up a plea against former military dictator Pervez Musharraf for holding dual office of the country's chief executive and the army chief in 1999 after a coup against the Sharif's government. The Chief Justice also observed that the court was noting anti-judiciary remarks being made by some leaders and would take up those cases at an appropriate time. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Textiles Ministry should impress upon the Finance Ministry to reconsider the overall GST structure for textiles sector and impose higher anti-dumping duty to protect the domestic industry, a Parliamentary panel has said. In its report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, the Standing Committee on Labour chaired by Kirit Somaiya said it desires the Textiles Ministry to impress upon the Department of Revenue/Finance Ministry to reconsider GST structure for textiles. The panel noted that the Textiles Ministry has also taken up the issues on inverted duties structure on man-made fibre, imposition of GST on job work, credit transfer documents issues, non refund of input tax credit, GST for weaving industry, lowering of Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates for machinery used by MSME textile units, etc. It observed that against the Textile Ministry's proposed outlay of Rs 101.09 billion during the year 2018-19, the Ministry of Finance have approved Rs 71.47 billion only. "The Secretary, Ministry of Textiles has deposed that though it appears that Budgeted Expenditure (BE) 2018-19 which includes Cotton Corporation of India's loss of Rs 9.21 billion is more than the BE 2017-18 by Rs 9.21 billion, in reality BE 2018-19 is Rs 30 million less than the BE of 2017-18," the Committee said in its report. It noted that the reduction of BE would adversely impact implementation of ongoing schemes of the Ministry of Textiles, particularly those aimed at benefitting the unorganised sectors of powerloom, handloom, handicrafts, wool and sericulture. The crucial Finance Bill for 2018-19 could not be taken up in the Lok Sabha today as unabated noisy protests took toll of the proceedings in both Houses of Parliament for the seventh consecutive day. The Lok Sabha, which was scheduled to take up the Finance Bill 2018-19 and the Appropriation bills for FY 2017-18 and 2018-19 today, was first adjourned till noon following uproar by members of the opposition and NDA allies like TDP and then for the day after the listed papers were laid. Cut motions on demands for grants of the ministries of railways, agriculture and farmers' welfare and social justice and empowerment were also listed in the business agenda of the Lower House today, which could not be taken up. Uproarious scenes were also witnessed in the Rajya Sabha too where protests by opposition, the TDP and AIADMK over issues like bank scam and special status for Andhra Pradesh continued for the seventh day, disrupting proceedings in the House. Both the Houses have failed to function since the second leg of Budget Session began on March 5. In the Lok Sabha, both the Question Hour and the Zero Hour were washed out as scores of members from the TDP, Congress, AIADMK, TRS and Trinamool Congress trooped into the Well, forcing Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to first adjourn the proceedings for about 50 minutes soon after it had assembled for the day. When the House reassembled at noon, the protests continued and no legislative business could be carried out. Members of YSR Congress and TDP, which quit the central government last week but remains part of the ruling NDA, were demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh. While the Congress and the Trinamool Congress raised the issue of Rs 12,700 crore fraud in Punjab National Bank, the TRS sought increased reservation quota and AIADMK wanted the government to set up Cauvery management board. Members from the Left parties were seen standing at their seats, holding some photographs. But the issue they wanted to raise could not be ascertained in the melee. As the bedlam continued, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings for the day after the tabling of the listed papers. The Rajya Sabha proceedings were also washed out for the seventh day as protests by members including those from NDA allies continued on similar issues. Soon after it assembled, the Upper House was adjourned till 2 pm as noisy protests continued, with the Trinamool Congress and other parties insisting that a discussion on the bank scam be held under rules that entail voting. When the House met at 11 AM, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu urged the members to allow the proceedings, but adjourned the proceedings the moment MPs from parties of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, TMC and Congress were on their feet. The government, he said, has agreed for a discussion on the issues being raised by the opposition, but the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and other parties wanted the debate under a rule that entails voting. Naidu said debates on India's biggest bank fraud and other issues have been permitted under rule 176 that provides for a member to give notice of a Short Duration Discussion without the voting clause. But opposition insisted on a discussion on banking fraud under rule 168/169 which require voting. Referring to the protests, he said seven days have been lost and appealed to leaders of parties and members to allow the House to function "because people are being impatient and (protests) show Parliament in poor light." He said "the government is agreeable to that and the Chair has also permitted," he said, adding "I don't find any reason for agitation. Let us put an end to this... Let the House function effectively. Let us raise the level of debate." Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) said his party has given a notice for discussion on the PNB fraud issue under rule 168. He said rule 169 of Rules of Procedures of Conduct of Rajya Sabha requires 15 conditions to be met to have such a discussion and his notice meets all of them. "If my motion is not accepted, principle of natural justice will be denied," Roy said. But Naidu said a discussion can be allowed under rule 176, which was not acceptable to the protestors. They soon started to rise from their places to protest and some MPs from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh started moving towards the Well, prompting Naidu to adjourn the proceedings till 2 pm. Earlier, Naidu also asked members not to make comments while being seated. His remarks were in reference to catcalls being made from treasury benches when he called P Chidambaram to lay on the table a standing committee report on Home Affairs. As Chidambaram was absent, some BJP members made certain remarks, provoking forceful protests and comments from opposition Congress side. Naidu ruled that no comment made by either side would go on record. When the House reassembled at 2 PM, the protesting MPs, including those from the NDA partner TDP, trooped into the Well raising slogans and displaying placards. Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien, who was in the Chair, tried to take up a calling attention motion on strategic storage of crude oil in the country and asked BJP's C K Gohel to initiate the discussion. However, the members in the Well, including those from TDP and AIADMK, continued to raise slogans and displaying placards. An anguished Kurien said "This is not fair ... If this is the way MPs are behaving, I will adjourn the House. ... I don't agree with this....", he said before adjourning the proceedings for the day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A plea was today filed in the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe into the Centre's decision to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets from France and disclosure of the cost involved in the deal before Parliament. The petition, which may come up for hearing during the week, alleged that it was the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to disclose the cost involved in the entire deal to Parliament and the citizens. "Direct the respondents (Centre and MoD) to disclose a consolidate transaction cost involved in procuring 36 Rafale fighter aircraft," the plea, filed by Congress leader Tehseen S Poonawalla, said. It also sought issuance of a direction against the Centre as to why the Cabinet's approval was not sought as part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) before signing the procurement deal with France on September 23, 2016. The plea claimed that the defence deal of procuring 36 Rafale fighters from Dassault was announced during the prime minister's state visit to France. "It was an attempt to put a sheen on Prime Minister's visit to Paris. This pronouncement was a premature announcement of the deal without going through the usual practice, the formal process and procedure which is otherwise involved in similar international covenants," it said. Rafale deal is a defence agreement signed between the governments of India and France to purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts in fly-away condition as a part of upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment. Rafale fighter aircraft is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) is manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. Indian Air Force had advanced a proposal to buy 126 fighter aircraft in August 2007 and floated a tender and an invitation was sent to various aviation companies to participate for the bidding process. The petition said that in 2012, the deal for 126 Rafale fighter aircrafts was proposed, and out of the total of 126 number, 18 Rafale fighter aircrafts were to be delivered by Dassault Aviation company in fly-away condition, the rest 108 Rafale fighter aircrafts were to be manufactured in India at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) which is an Indian public sector aerospace and defence unit, under a transfer of technology agreement. That the deal was nearly finalised by 2014 by the then UPA government, it said. "In April 2015, Narendra Modi made a state visit to France and during a state event the Prime Minister in Paris made an announcement to purchase 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts in fly-away condition and immediately within few days after the big announcement of procuring of 36 Rafale aircrafts. On 13 th April 2015, the then defence minister made an announcement that the Rafale deal is 'effectively dead' and that India officially withdrew the 126- aircraft MMECA tender on 30 July 2015," it alleged. The plea said the MoD had withdrawn the 2007 tender which was for procurement of 126 Rafale fighter aircrafts, the deal announced for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft was all together a fresh procurement. The plea has also sought a direction to the Centre put on record the agreement signed between India and France on September 23, 2016. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the country salutes the nine CRPF personnel killed in an IED blast in Chhattisgarh and stands shoulder to shoulder with the families of the bravehearts. The CRPF personnel were killed after Maoists blasted their mine-protected vehicle using over 50 kg of explosive in Sukma district. "India salutes the brave @crpfindia personnel who were martyred in the attack in Sukma... My thoughts are with the families and friends of the brave martyrs. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this hour of grief," Modi said in a series of tweets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CBI today told a Mumbai court that it has added the charge of 'criminal breach of trust' to the case related to diamond trader Mehul Choksi's firms in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case. The maximum punishment for the offence under section 409 of the IPC (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) is life imprisonment. Among others, the agency has arrested Gokulnath Shetty, the then deputy manager (now retired) of PNB, in connection with issuance of fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) to Choksi-owned firms. "The acts of Shetty prima facie disclose commission of offence punishable under section 409 IPC along with other offences already alleged in the FIR," read the CBI's submission before the special court. Earlier the agency had pressed the charge of cheating under the IPC and relevant charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The CBI has alleged that firms controlled by diamond traders Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi obtained fraudulent LoUs and letters of credit (LCs) worth USD 2 billion (Rs 12,636 crore) from PNB in connivance with bank officials. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who has been nominated by President Donald Trump to be his next Secretary of State, is seen as an advocate of a tough policy on Pakistan. Trump, in a tweet, announced to fire Rex Tillerson as his top diplomat. Trump, said he personally decided to fire Tillerson, because of the differences he had with the former Exxon CEO on a range of issues. While he did not give a laundry list of such differences except for saying that they were not on the same page, his Af-Pak policy, in particularly the State Department's perceived soft approach to Pakistan was one of them, if the sources are to be believed. The State Department under Tillerson of late had been advocating for a softer approach on Pakistan in the months since Trump announced on January 1 to suspend all aid to Islamabad till the time it eliminates terrorist safe haven from within its territory. However, the Pentagon and the intelligence community, whose workforce are the prime victim of terrorism coming out of safe haven had been advocating from a tough approach on Pakistan. Tillerson's successor Mike Pompeo who currently is the CIA Director, National Security Advisor Lt Gen H R McMaster and the Defence Secretary Jim Mattis were seen to be on the same page when it came to Afghanistan and Pakistan, which Trump Administration has evolved into a comprehensive South Asia Policy. India is a central aspect of this policy. Week's before Trump announced his decision on Pakistan through a tweet on the wee hours of January 1, Pompeo had warned Pakistan. Appearing at the Regan Defence Forum at Simi Valley in California, in the first week of December, the CIA Director said if Pakistan does not act against terrorist safe havens in the country the US will. The Trump administration would deal with the situation if Pakistan turned down Washington's request to destroy safe havens, he then said. "In the absence of the Pakistanis achieving that, we are going to do everything we can to make sure that that safe haven no longer exists," Pompeo had said. Pompeo reiterated this a week after Trump announced to freeze security assistance to Pakistan. We see the Pakistanis continuing to provide safe harbor, havens inside of Pakistan for terrorists who present risks to the United States of America, Pompeo was quoted as saying by CBS. "We are doing our best to inform the Pakistanis that this is no longer going to be acceptable. So this conditioned aid, we have given them a chance. If they fix this problem, we are happy to continue to engage with them and be their partner. But if they don't, we are going to protect America," Pompeo said. He was responding to questions on the decision of the Trump Administration to suspend approximately USD 2 billion in security assistance to Pakistan for its inability to take decisive actions against terrorist and militant groups operating from its soil. "The president has made very clear that he needs Pakistan to cease being a safe haven for terrorists that threaten the United States of America, end, period, full stop," Pompeo said, reflecting on the stand taken by Trump. Trump told reporters that he and Pompeo are on the same page. "With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well," Trump said. Pompeo graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the US army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the US House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle. "As Director of the CIA, Mike has earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community," Trump said. "I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture. He will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," said the US president. Trump said his experience in the military, Congress, and as leader of the CIA have prepared him well for his new role. He urged the Senate for his swift confirmation. Top American Senators were quick to respond to Trump's call and promised a quick confirmation process for Pompeo. "I had a very good conversation with Director Pompeo this morning and look forward to meeting with him soon. As I shared with the president, the committee will consider his nomination as expeditiously as possible," Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said. Senator Marco Rubio said Pompeo is an excellent choice. His experience as CIA Director, an Army officer, and a congressman, and his proven leadership on national security matters give him unique qualifications to lead the State Department at this critical juncture. I will enthusiastically support his nomination and am hopeful he can be confirmed quickly," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Ram Nath Kovind today inaugurated the World Hindi Secretariat building in Mauritius on the third day of his visit to the country. He also launched the World Hindi Secretariat's logo, an Early Digital Learning Programme as well unveiled foundation stones of a social housing project and a large ENT hospital being built with Indian assistance. Later in the day, the president attended a reception hosted by the High Commissioner of India in his honour. He will leave for Madagascar tomorrow for the final leg of his two-nation state visit. He will become the first Indian President to visit Madagascar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) RBI today barred banks from issuing guarantees in the form of letters of undertaking (LoU) as it clamped down on the import financing route used by fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi for allegedly committing India's biggest bank fraud. The Reserve Bank of India also banned with immediate effect issuance of letters of comfort which, like LoUs, are used by importers to fund their overseas purchases. However, letters of credit and bank guarantees will continue upon meeting certain conditions, the central bank said in a press statement. Companies belonging to Modi and Choksi allegedly colluded with employees of Punjab National Bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai to obtain fraudulent LoUs, without providing any margin money as security. They did not have any pre-approved credit limit either. These firms raised short-term credit from overseas branches of other Indian banks based on these LoUs. The fraud which began in March 2011, is now estimated to have crossed USD 2 billion (about Rs 13,000 crore). "On a review of the extant guidelines, it has been decided to discontinue the practice of issuance of LoUs/ LoCs for trade credits for imports into India" by commercial banks with immediate effect, RBI said. "Letters of Credit and bank guarantees for trade credits for imports into India may continue to be issued subject to compliance with (certain) provisions." As a trade financing measure, overseas banks usually lend to importers based on the LoUs issued by the importers' bank. The money thus raised is used to make payment to offshore suppliers in foreign currency. The change in regulations may hit import dependent businesses and trade that are often reliant on LoUs to get bank guarantees. Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha said that Nirav Modi obtained his first fraudulent guarantee from PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai on March 10, 2011 and managed to get 1,212 more such guarantees over the next 74 months. PNB says junior employees at the branch issued LoUs over the SWIFT interbank messaging system without entering any of these transactions on the bank's own system. Such transactions went on for six years without detection. Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamond R US belonging to high-end jeweller Modi and Choksi-promoted Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra are alleged to have been involved in the scam. CBI and ED are leading a multi agency probe into the fraud. Both Modi and Choksi are abroad and have refused to return to face trial. Ajay Sahai, Director General of exporters' body Fieo said that the RBI decision should have very little impact on trade as bank guarantee and letter of credit continue to be available. According to him, LoUs were generally used by large players in gems and jewellery sector. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Owners of disused vehicles, including cars left on city roads better beware as these will be auctioned by police if not removed within the next 15 days. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) today set the deadline to the owners. GCC Commissioner D Karthikeyan said parking vehicles on the road sides and street corners posed hindrance to the public, hit traffic flow and also led to health hazards as these become a breeding spot for mosquitoes. He said complaints have been received in this regard. Vehicles that were not cleared after the 15-day window period would be towed away with police help to designated spots (being readied in all zones) and auctioned, he said. Hence, people should come forward to voluntarily remove vehicles in disuse from roadsides, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Undeclared gold worth more than Rs 7 lakh was seized from a passenger who arrived at the Kozhikode airport from Bahrain, a Customs official said today. The seizure was made yesterday when officers of the Air Intelligence Unit, acting on a tip-off, intercepted Sameer Mykulangara Thaza, a native of Kozhikode, and searched him, Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar said in a release here. Gold weighing 233.38 grams and valued at Rs 7.17 lakh was kept concealed in a crude chain. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The nerve agent poisoning of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain was "extremely worrying", a global chemical weapons watchdog said today. "The recent report that two people became seriously ill in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a result of exposure to a nerve agent is of serious concern," Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said in a statement. "It is extremely worrying that chemical agents are still being used to harm people. Those found responsible for this use must be held accountable for their actions." Uzumcu said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had called him on Monday evening to discuss the ongoing investigation into the attempted murder of Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. British Prime Minister Theresa May has alleged it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the attack. Moscow faces a midnight Tuesday deadline to tell London how a Russian-made nerve agent came to be used in the brazen poisoning, with May threatening "a full range of measures" in retaliation. Russia has denied the accusations, as the US, NATO and the European Union all backed Britain in the deepening diplomatic row. Founded in 1997, the OPCW based in The Hague oversees the application of the Chemical Weapons Convention aimed at ridding the world of toxic arms and preventing new ones being manufactured. So far 192 member nations have joined the OPCW. In the past two decades, the body has overseen the destruction of some 94 percent of the world's declared chemical weapons stockpiles. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A former senior Russian executive linked to late Kremlin opponent Boris Berezovsky has been found dead in London in unexplained circumstances, British and Russian media reported today. The death of Nikolai Glushkov, 68, comes amid heightened concern in Britain following a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England and as the government said it would investigate the deaths of a number of Russia-linked individuals which have raised suspicions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Saudi Arabia's cabinet today approved the national policy of its atomic energy programme, state media said, as the kingdom prepares to award contracts for its first nuclear power plants. The policy insists on limiting nuclear activities to peaceful purposes and calls for enhanced safety measures as well as the use of best practises for radioactive waste management, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, is seeking nuclear power to diversify its energy supply mix in order to free up oil to boost exports. The policy announcement comes ahead of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to the United States on March 19-22, which is likely to see efforts to reach a civilian nuclear cooperation accord with Washington. The kingdom has accelerated plans to build 16 nuclear reactors over the next two decades, officials and analysts say, at a cost of some USD 80 billion. Negotiations are underway with the United States for its agreement to export technology needed for their construction. Besides the US company Westinghouse, Russian, French, Chinese and South Korean firms have all been seeking the Saudi contracts. Some analysts have voiced concerns that Saudi Arabia seeks to use its atomic programme as a hedge against its arch-rival Iran, which signed a deal with the United States in 2015 to curb its own nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. Saudi Arabia, which insists its intentions are peaceful, has signed cooperation agreements with over a dozen countries in recent years to boost nuclear cooperation, including France, China and Russia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Muslims aged between 65 and 69 years, who are fifth time unsuccessful applicants for Haj pilgrimage, have a reason to rejoice as the Supreme Court today directed the Centre to accommodate 1,965 such people for travel to Mecca this year. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud also held that its order would also apply to the sixth time or more than sixth time unsuccessful applicants falling in the same age group. "We direct that the persons who come within the age group of 65 to 69 years and are not successful in going on pilgrimage even once, despite applying for fifth time or more, shall also be covered," the bench said. The order came after the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs informed the top court that a decision has been taken by the ministry to cover the pilgrims in the age group of 65 to 69 years, who are fifth time applicants for Haj in 2018. The Ministry also told the court that the Haj Committee of India will be advised to accommodate 1,965 individuals who are willing and meeting the criteria and the rest of the seats will be allocated to pilgrims from the general waiting list as per the standard procedure. "In view of the aforesaid, we are sure that 1,965 persons who are in the category of fifth time applicants shall be extended the benefit of this decision and will be in position to go on pilgrimage this year. "There can be no trace of doubt that the sixth time or more than sixth time applicants between the age group of 65 and 69 years and who have not been able to avail the opportunity to go on pilgrimage even once, shall also be given the same benefit of the Ministry's decision. We may hasten to add that the people who have crossed the age of 70 years, are, under the policy, entitled to benefit of separate exclusive quota," the bench said. The court then fixed the plea, challenging the Centre's policy on allocation of Haj seats, of the Kerala Haj Committee for final hearing on July 10. The apex court had earlier asked the Centre to apprise it by tomorrow about the total allocation of Haj quota seats and the vacancies if any on a plea of the Kerala Haj Committee alleging that the policy to grant state-wise quota for Haj pilgrims was discriminatory. The Centre had said the Union of India had been allowed by the Saudi Arabian government to send 1.75 lakh Haj pilgrims every year and the Centre and the Central Haj Committee, in consultation with the state Haj panels, have devised a mechanism to distribute the quota on the basis of the Muslim population in each state. Out of 1.75 lakh Haj seats, 1.25 lakh seats are distributed by the state Haj committees while the remaining seats are given to private tour operators as per the policy decision, it had said. Earlier, the apex court, in an interim direction, had asked the Centre to file a statement with regard to the fifth time applicants who have crossed the age of 65 years and were below 70 years and have never been able to go for the Haj. The apex court, on January 5, had issued the notice to the Centre on the Kerala Haj Committee's plea alleging that the policy to grant state-wise quota for Haj pilgrims was discriminatory. The Kerala Haj committee, in its plea, had referred to the example of Bihar and said it gets 12,000 Haj seats as against the total number of applicants of 6,900. In stark contrast, Kerala gets 6,000 seats against 95,000 applicants desirous to go for the pilgrimage, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the committee, had said. "As a result, every applicant in Bihar gets the opportunity to go for Haj. However, in Kerala, the situation is unpleasant," he had said, adding that there should be an all-India draw of lots to decide who will go on Haj. The Kerala Haj Committee alleged that the present quota system was discriminatory. Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, had justified the present quota policy saying it had been devised by the Central Haj Committee after considering the suggestions of 31 different state Haj committees. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today extended indefinitely its March 31 deadline for linking bank accounts and mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar. It, however, said the government may continue to seek the 12-digit national biometric identifier number of beneficiaries for transfer of benefits of schemes funded from the consolidated fund of India. "We direct that the interim order passed on December 15, 2017 shall stand extended till the matter is finally heard and the judgment is pronounced," a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, giving relief to lakhs of people who have not yet linked their bank accounts and mobile phones with Aadhaar. The bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said Aadhaar will not be mandatory for obtaining Tatkal passports too. During the hearing, Attorney General K K Venugopal requested the court that the extension of the deadline should not disturb the benefits, subsidies and services covered under Section 7 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016. The provision says that Centre or state governments may seek Aadhaar for establishing the identity of beneficiaries of their schemes. It also says people, who have not secured Aadhaar number, can avail benefits of government schemes by establishing the fact that they have applied for the biometric identifier. The provision also says those who have neither the Aadhaar card nor its enrolment number, can still avail the benefits, and that they would be offered alternative and viable means of identification for delivery of the subsidy, benefit or service. Senior Congress leader and advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for his party colleague Jairam Ramesh, one of the petitioners in the matter, told the bench that the Aadhaar Bill was wrongly termed as a Money Bill by Lok Sabha Speaker to bypass the Rajya Sabha. He referred to various schemes like the MGNREGA and the Food Security Act the money for which also came from the consolidated fund of India, but the bills for their passage were not categorised as Money Bill. Under Article 109 (1) of the Constitution, a money bill cannot be introduced in Rajya Sabha. Once passed by the Lok Sabha, it is sent to Rajya Sabha. The Rajya Sabha can neither reject nor amend the bill, and must return it within 14 days, after which Lok Sabha may choose to accept or reject all or any of its recommendations. The senior lawyer rejected the government's contention that since the funds for various Aadhaar-linked welfare schemes would come from the consolidated fund of India (CFI), the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 was a money bill. Senior lawyer K V Viswanathan, in his argument, attacked various provisions of the Aadhaar Act, saying they were in violation of fundamental rights and impinged upon the privacy of individuals. The apex court's directive on Tatkal passports came after senior advocates Arvind Datar and Shyam Divan informed the bench that the government has come up with new Passports (1st Amendment) Rules, 2018, by which Tatkal passports were issued only on furnishing Aadhaar. Attorney General Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said Aadhaar is being taken only for issuing Tatkal passports and not for normal passports. "Police verification of an individual is done after he or she is issued a Tatakal passport and for that purpose Aadhaar is being taken by the concerned authorities. In case of normal passport, pre-police verification is being done and for that purpose Aadhaar is not being taken," Venugopal said. The bench said extension of the deadline for mandatory linkage of Aadhaar "shall also control and govern the Passports (1st Amendment) Rules, 2018". The hearing remained inconclusive and would continue tomorrow. The constitution bench is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar and its enabling Act. On March 6, the attorney general had indicated to the bench that the Centre was willing to extend the March 31 deadline in view of the likelihood of the hearing getting prolonged. On December 15 last year, the apex court had extended till March 31 the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services and welfare schemes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Traders protested in various markets across the national capital today as part of a day-long bandh called by an industry body against the ongoing sealing drive in Delhi. From Amar Colony Market to Karol Bagh, shopkeepers raised slogans and waved black flags to lodge their protest, under the banner of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT). In a market in Old Double Storey area in south Delhi's Lajpat Nagar, where recently 350 shops were sealed, traders have been sitting on protest after that action. At the instance of a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee sealing actions have been taken by civic bodies across Delhi for violation of civic norms or Master Plan of Delhi 2021. The drive had begun late December with sealing of major shops and eateries in posh Defence Colony. The CAIT, which has been calling out to halt the sealing drive, ever since it began, has said, the recent sealing operations conducted at Amar Colony, Lajpat Nagar, is one such example, where the sealing has been undertaken, by "violating the DMC Act". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Singapore is still trying to develop the right approach to rehabilitate self-radicalised individuals, who have complex psychological and social issues, a senior minister said today. Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam also said that encouraging greater integration in the multi-racial community is "one of the key tasks for the Government". "We must be good Muslims, good Hindus, good Christians, good Buddhists. We must be free to practise our religion. But we must also interact with each other, as citizens of our country, as human beings," the minister was quoted as saying by the Channel Asia. Singapore has had less success rehabilitating self-radicalised individuals than Jemmah Islamiyah (JI) detainees, said Shanmugam at a retreat of the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG). To date, only 25 per cent of self-radicalised individuals detained since 2007 have been released, with the remaining still in detention. This compares with an 88 per cent rehabilitation success rate for JI detainees, he pointed out. "Our success with self-radicalised persons is not as good as our success with the original JI detainees. For some reason, for the self-radicalised, the rehabilitation is still in progress," Shanmugam said, adding that there are more "complex psychological and social issues for this group". Additionally, since "the phenomenon" of self-radicalisation was noticed in 2007, the problem has gotten worse, with the emergence of the Islamic State in 2014, Shanmugam said. "We are all still trying to develop the right tools to deal with them and help them understand where they have gone wrong," he said. "But we will not give up, we will continue to work to find the right approach for the self-radicalised people." Shanmugam said that one trend that is "worrying" is that many self-radicalised individuals caught are getting younger. Since 2015, five radicalised teenagers aged between 17 and 19 have been picked up, he said. "We have to rehabilitate them quickly and get them back, to give them the opportunities," he added. He said younger self-radicalised individuals tend to rely heavily on the Internet and social media for information, including religious teachings. "That is where the extremists, the terrorist groups operate and infect others with their propaganda," Shanmugam said. Shanmugam also said that the Government needs to encourage greater integration to prevent radicalisation. "Somebody doesn't wake up one morning ... and say, 'Today I am going to go and kill people'. There is a process. It used to be longer, now sometimes it is shorter. Sometimes it is a matter of a month, a few weeks, sometimes even less than that," he said. There are certain conditions that contribute to the problem, including exclusivism. If they are pushed towards a "more exclusivist approach, a more segregationist approach, a more divisive approach", that sets the stage, the framework and the foundation for them to become more and more radicalised later on, Shanmugam said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Leaders of 20 opposition parties got together tonight at a dinner hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to explore the possibility of forging a broader unity among secular parties ahead of the 2019 general elections, an event the Congress said was meant to promote "amity and friendship". According to sources, leaders of NCP, RJD, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress, DMK and Left parties attended the dinner among others. Prominent leaders in attendance were NCP's Sharad Pawar, SP's Ram Gopal Yadav, BSP's Satish Chandra Mishra and former chief ministers Omar Abdullah, Babulal Marandi, Hemant Soren and Jitan Ram Manjhi, besides JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav and RLD's Ajit Singh. The RJD was represented by two children of party chief Lalu Prasad -- former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti, a Rajya Sabha MP. The others present included TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CPI-M's D Raja and Mohammad Salim, DMK's Kanimozhi, AIUDF's Baddrauddin Ajmal and leaders of Kerala Congress, besides Kupender Reddy of the JD-S. Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony and Randeep Surjewala were among the Congress leaders present. "Fabulous dinner tonight, hosted by UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi Ji. An opportunity for leaders from different political parties to meet and bond, informally," Rahul Gandhi tweeted after the dinner. "Much political talk but much more important - tremendous positive energy, warmth and genuine affection," he wrote, and tagged a group photo of the attendees. According to sources, leaders of Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party, which recently pulled out its ministers in the Modi government but continues to be a constituent of the NDA, the BJD, and the TRS were not invited. The BJD and the TRS rule Odisha and Telangana respectively. Tejashwi Yadav and Sharad Yadav later told reporters it was the first step towards a comprehensive alliance of the 2019 elections. Asked if there was a consensus on Rahul Gandhi's leadership of the probable opposition alliance, Tejashwi said,"The time has not yet come to decide on the prime ministerial candidate." While the NDA was "breaking apart", opposition parties were getting together, he said apparently hinting at TDP pulling out of the Modi government. The dinner was hosted at Sonia Gandhi's 10, Janpath residence where the leaders discussed the possibility of opposition parties getting together on one platform to defeat the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, sources said. Sonia Gandhi had earlier called for opposition unity, saying parties should set aside their minor differences to come together in the larger interest of keeping the BJP out of power. Congress communications incharge Randeep Surjewala said the dinner was not organised for politics, but for amity and friendship among opposition parties. He claimed at a time when the government was not allowing Parliament to function, it was obvious that leaders of various parties, who wanted to raise issues in national interest, would get together to discuss the current political situation. "This dinner was not hosted for politics, but for amity and friendship. The intention is not political, but to hold discussions in family-like setting at a time when the nation is confronted with a number of issues and thousands of crores being taken out of the country," Surjewala later told reporters. He said opposition leaders got together to discuss issues in the national interest, create bonhomie in the opposition and exchange views. He also accused the government of running away from debate on key issues such as banking frauds. Though the Congress termed the dinner as a "non-political event, it was loaded with political significance as it may set the tone for unity among secular parties to take on the BJP-led NDA in the 2019 general elections. Left and TMC leaders who were present said it was certainly a "political dinner without political talks". "It was a political dinner. But there were no political talks. It was a show of strength by the non-BJP parties," a Left leader told PTI. "It was a political dinner but there were no political talks. Sonia Gandhi asked me why Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal Chief Minister) didn't come. I told her it was because of her prior commitments," said TMC leader in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Spanish police said today they had arrested 155 mostly Chinese nationals after busting a gang that trafficked Chinese migrants into Britain and Ireland for 20,000 euros per person. The arrests, which included four alleged ringleaders detained in Barcelona, came after a three-year investigation, police said in a statement. "The dismantled network was extremely hermetic, structured and hierarchical," they said. Officials launched the probe after Barcelona airport staff noticed a significant rise in fake identity papers used by Chinese nationals headed for Britain. "Each victim paid 20,000 euros (USD 25,000) for the trip and once they'd arrived in the European Schengen zone, they would temporarily stay in flats in different parts" of the northeastern region of Catalonia "until they got their fake papers" made in China, police said. They added that five Chinese illegal migrants had agreed to testify against the gang in exchange for entering a witness protection programme. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today warned of strict action against those found involved in vandalising statues while asserting that insult to statues of great personalities would not be tolerated. Singh today unveiled the statue of revolutionary Udham Singh at the Jallianwala Bagh here. "These days, I am seeing that there are incidents of vandalising of statues of great personalities. Indian culture does not permit this even if you do not agree with his (great personality) ideology. But permission to break anyone's statue cannot be given in this country. "Intolerance and violence cannot be a part of our culture," Singh said while addressing a gathering at the Jallianwala Bagh here. Singh said insults to statue of great personalities would never be tolerated and if any such incident came to light, strict action against those found guilty would be initiated. Clear instructions had been issued to the authorities concerned in this regard throughout the country, he added. During his address, the Union minister also talked about the sacrifices made by the likes of Bhagat Singh and Udham Singh in the country's freedom struggle. Rajnath Singh said the central government had decided to observe the centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Earlier, the Union home minister paid obeisance at the Golden Temple here. He was accompanied by the Punjab BJP leader and Union Minister Vijay Sampla, SAD MP Prem Singh Chandumajra and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik. Later, Singh was honoured by SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal with a set of Sikh religious books, shawls and a replica of Golden Temple. Longowal also spoke to the minister about the issue of the pending mercy petition of prisoner Balwant Singh Rajona, who was convicted in the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh. The SGPC also demanded an immediate release of Sikh prisoners lodged in the different states for the past several years. It further sought a special corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib located in Pakistan. It also sought GST exemption for materials used in preparing 'Langar'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Spending some time with dogs can help boost wellness among stressed out students, a study has found. Therapy dog sessions for stressed-out students are an increasingly popular offering at North American universities. "Therapy dog sessions are becoming more popular on university campuses, but there has been surprisingly little research on how much attending a single drop-in therapy dog session actually helps students," said Emma Ward-Griffin, research assistant at University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada. "Our findings suggest that therapy dog sessions have a measurable, positive effect on the wellbeing of university students, particularly on stress reduction and feelings of negativity," said Ward-Griffin, lead author of the study published in the journal Stress and Health. Researchers surveyed 246 students before and after they spent time in a drop-in therapy dog session. Students were free to pet, cuddle and chat with seven to 12 canine companions during the sessions. They also filled out questionnaires immediately before and after the session, and again about 10 hours later. The researchers found that participants reported significant reductions in stress as well as increased happiness and energy immediately following the session, compared to a control group of students who did not spend time at a therapy dog session. While feelings of happiness and life satisfaction did not appear to last, some effects did. "We found that, even 10 hours later, students still reported slightly less negative emotion, feeling more supported, and feeling less stressed, compared to students who did not take part in the therapy dog session," said Stanley Coren, professor at UBC. While previous research suggested that female students benefit from therapy dog sessions more than male students, the researchers found the benefits were equally distributed across both genders in this study. Since the strong positive effects of the therapy dog session were short-lived, the researchers concluded that universities should be encouraged to offer them at periods of increased stress. "These sessions clearly provide benefits for students in the short-term, so we think universities should try to schedule them during particularly stressful times, such as around exam periods," said Frances Chen, assistant professor of psychology at UBC. "Even having therapy dogs around while students are working on their out-of-class assignments could be helpful," said Chen. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ties between Nepal and India are time-tested and New Delhi has been providing various kinds of assistance to the Nepal Army for enhancing its capabilities, Defence Minister Ishwor Pokhrel has said. India's ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri called on Pokhrel yesterday and discussed about military between Nepal and India. Pokhrel said that Nepal-India ties were "time tested" and thanked India for providing various kinds of assistance to the Nepal Army for enhancing its capabilities, among others. Among other things, the upcoming 13th edition of Nepal-India military drills named Surya-Kiran, also figured in the meeting. India is hosting the joint military drill in Pithoragarh this time. The upcoming India and Nepal joint military exercise in Uttarakhand will include training on jungle warfare, anti-terrorism combat as well as disaster response activities. This is a regular military exercise being organised annually between the two armies, said the defence ministry sources. Last year, the 12th edition of Surya Kiran Military exercise was held in Kathmandu. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Beleaguered Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was fired today by US President Donald Trump, said he would delegate his responsibilities to his deputy and would step down by end of this month. Tillerson, who was travelling to Africa, had to return in midway citing "the demands of work and the need to be in Washington for in-person meetings." For technical purposes, Tillerson said he would remain the Secretary of State till March 31 and till then he would delegate his responsibilities to the Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. The 65-year-old former Exxon Mobil chief executive and the president had strained relations and the two had differences over a host of issues including the US policy on North Korea, Russia and Iran. In his remarks at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department, Tillerson did not take the name of the president. He read out from a prepared statement and looked dejected at the turn of events. Tillerson has been in this post for a little over a year. The period is seen which experienced substantial decline in the power of the State Department and its annual budget was cut in an unprecedented way. Preparing to leave the State Department, Tillerson said he was committed to an orderly and smooth transition. He planned to leave Foggy Bottom at the end of the day, even though his commission as the Secretary of State expires March 31 midnight. Tillerson said he would return to private life as a private citizen. He said Trump called him hours after he tweeted about him being fired. He also spoke with the White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on a smooth and orderly transition. "What is most important is to ensure an orderly and smooth transition during a time that the country continues to face significant policy and national security challenges," Tillerson said. "Between now and then, I will address a few administrative matters related to my departure and work towards a smooth and orderly transition for Secretary of State-designate, Mike Pompeo," said the outgoing Secretary of State. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The time is ripe for Japan to increase volume of its food items in India through imports or investment in the food processing sector as regulatory environment has undergone a paradigm change, FSSAI Chairman Ashish Bahuguna said today. "The time is ripe for increasing volume of availability of Japanese foods in India whether through imports or increasing investment in India's food processing sector, "Bahuguna said at an event. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has harmonised the regulations in tune with international requirement of CODEX. All standards and regulations are transparent, he said. "I would like to underscore that regulatory environment has undergone a paradigm change. ....There is huge scope for Japanese food products in India. Invest in this sector. You will be assured of all kind of support not only from government of India but also from private food businesses," he added. The FSSAI chief said that the regulator is no longer obsessed with food safety concerns alone. "Obviously, it is still paramount. It is equally emphasising and focusing on nutritional value," he said. Stating that Japanese cuisines is know for its purity, simplicity and nutritional value world over, he said in India too, a large section of consumers are trying to adapt to Japanese foods but companies keen to invest in India need to innovate their products and modify to suit to the Indian palate. Speaking on the occasion, Mitsuhiro Miyakashi -- Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan -- said the signing of agreements between two countries in the area of food processing is an important milestone. Japanese food processing firm Ise Foods today signed a memorandum of agreement (MoU) with Ministry of Food processing with an investment commitment of Rs 271 crore. Another MoU has been signed between two governments on phyto-sanitary certification of marine products. Miyakashi further said that India and Japan have decided to set up a joint working group on cold food chain development. "I do believe that with these several initiatives, food safety related procedures on Indian side will become smoother and I expect that it will be give impetus to export of food products from Japan as well as give impetus to Japanese companies in food related business here," he added. He was speaking at an event organised by industry body CII and Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The toll in the forest fire in Theni district has risen to 11 with one more person succumbing to burns even as a forest officer has been suspended and a tour guide arrested. Official sources said the search operations were concluded as all the trekkers were accounted for. Meanwhile, the 'Chennai Trekking Club' (CTC) has blamed the local farmers for the fire that engulfed the area, killing 11 of the trekkers who had embarked on a "women's trek to commemorate women's day". Speaking on the condition of anonymity, officials said the forest department had suspended Jaisingh, the officer on duty when the incident occurred. Ranjith (30), believed to be a tour guide who led the 36-member trekking group on the expedition, was arrested last night, the police said. ............................................ Toll rises to 11 With one person succumbing to burns at the Government Rajaji Hospital at Madurai last night, the toll in the forest fire in the Kurangani hills had gone up to 11, officials said. ............................................. Search operations conclude Official sources said the search operations were concluded as all the trekkers were accounted for. The focus would now be on dousing the fire and preventing it from spreading to other areas, they added. Preventive steps would also be taken to ensure that such incidents did not occur in the future. Officials said there was a heavy shortage of forest guards in the area with only 50 per cent of the required strength of 107 personnel monitoring the 3,000 hectares of forest area. The Chennai Trekking Club was not allowed to take novices to the expedition, they said. Besides, the permission was given only if the trekkers had proper guides from the area, they added. The forest department was also not in a position to monitor each and everyone who climbed the hills from different points. The reported claim of the club that the trekkers were allowed to stay overnight in the forest was not correct, officials said, adding that even the family members of forest officers were not allowed to do that. A member of the trekking party, in a statement to the police, has reportedly said they paid Rs 200 per person as entry fee before climbing the hills. However, officials have denied this. ................................................... Received entry pass, says CTC Meanwhile, the 'Chennai Trekking Club' today claimed the team had received an "entry pass" to proceed on their expedition. A statement from the club to this effect virtually challenged the Tamil Nadu government's contention that the trekkers had not obtained the required permission. Chief Minister K Palaniswami has said the trekkers embarked on the expedition "without permission." The CTC blamed the local farmers for the fire. "As a normal seasonal cultivation practice, local farmers at the base burn grass during this season and on Sunday, it seems that they lit the grass at the base. Due to an unusual low depression in the Bodi valley, there were unexpected and unprecedented strong winds on Sunday. "As a result, the fire swept across from the base of the hills and spread across the hill...," an "update" on the website of the club said. The state government has ordered a probe into the incident and promised action against those who allegedly organised the expedition without permission. The chief minister has announced a solatium of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of the deceased, Rs one lakh each to those seriously injured and Rs 50,000 each to those with simple injuries. The 36-member team -- 24 from Chennai and 12 from Tirupur and Erode districts -- had embarked on the trekking expedition and reached the Kurangani hills in the Western Ghats on March 10. The team included 25 women and three children. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit today condoled the death of 10 persons killed in a forest fire in Theni district. "My heart is filled with grief at the untimely end that has befallen 10 members of a trekking group in the Kurankani hills of Theni district," he said in a condolence message released by the Raj Bhavan. The Governor offered his deep condolences to families of those mourning the loss of their near and dear ones. He also prayed for the early recovery of the injured persons. "I join the people of Tamil Nadu in praying for the early and complete recovery of the trekkers admitted in hospital and all the others affected by the traumatic incident," he said. Purohit pointed out at the involvement of defence forces, personnel of the fire services and police department in the rescue operations. Ten persons--seven women and three men-- were killed in the fire at Kurangani Hill ranges in Western Ghats on Saturday. A 36-member team--24 people from Chennai and 12 from Tiruppur and Erode districts--had embarked on the trekking expedition and reached Kurangani hills on March 10. The team included 25 women and three children. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) He allegedly posed as an Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) official, raided schools, harassed principals and teachers and even tricked media into believing and quoting him to assert his authenticity. But all these drama to impress a girl into marrying him didn't yield him the desired result as 23-year-old CL Thikariya, an engineer by degree, was found out by the organisation he was claiming to be an officer of, and ended up in jail. Thikariya was held on Monday by ACB Kota officials and handed over to the police at the Kethoon police station. He was produced in a court today, which sent him to a one-day police custody, police said. Investigating officer of the case ASI Ram Pal said that it was revealed during the primary interrogation that the accused was a B. Tech degree holder and had last month visited Kota in a community function where he came in contact with a girl of his community. In order to impress the girl into marrying him, the accused posed as an ACB official and visited the government schools. He also released media statement to assert authenticity and showed newspaper releases to the girl, he said. The ACB was alerted about the impostor after a story appeared in a Hindi daily about ACB finding "irregularities" in mid-day meal and other schemes in government schools at Mandaniya and Chandida villages, ACB Kota inspector Vivek Soni said. The newspaper quoted CL Thikariya in the story, he said. After the appeared, the ACB tried to find out if there was any official with the name in the organisation, Soni said. When no official with the name CL Thikariya was found, the ACB suspected foul play and formed a team to trace the impostor, he said. "The ACB team, with the help of cyber and IT experts, traced him and eventually at around 3 AM yesterday, the impostor was rounded up from a house in Borekheda area of Kota city," Soni said. Some fake ACB and media identity cards were also recovered from him, the officer added. Over the last few months, Thikariya allegedly visited government schools in the district and bullied principals and teachers by asking them fund details on mid-day meal and other schemes, Soni said. "However he did not demand money from any of the school staff." The fake ACB official is a native of Mahindipur Balaji area of Dausa district, Soni said, adding he was handed over to the police at Kethoon police station and an FIR in the matter against him was filed. A case under section 417 (punishment for cheating) and 419 (punishment for cheating by personation) of the IPC was lodged against Thikariya, Kethoon police station SHO Pushpendra Hada said. The accused has been arrested and further interrogation into the matter is underway, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Welcome to Kurangani Hills, the Western Ghats for a glimpse into the forces of nature," says a welcome signboard ahead of the pristine mountain ranges near here. It is an irony that it is the force of nature, a wild fire, that snuffed out 10 lives in the high hill ranges on the Western Ghats in this picturesque district, located over 500 kms from state capital Chennai and about 30 km from here. Seven women and three men, part of a trekking expedition, were killed in the devastating forest fire in the hills on March 11. The Tamil Nadu government has ordered a probe into the incident. Nestled atop the Western Ghats, Kurangani Hill range is a nature lover's paradise albeit not as popular as Kodaikanal or Udhagamandalam (Ooty) in Tamil Nadu. With its waterfalls, caves and rock crevices, diverse flora and fauna, tea, coffee and cardamom estates, Kurangani dotted by remote tribal hamlets is truly a paradise for trekkers. Kurangani hills, which has been attracting adventure tourists, including from overseas, is known for its fast changing weather and strong winds. The hill ranges, with a peak altitude of around 8,000 metres, have several trekking trails to destinations such as Meeshapulimala, Top Station and Rhodo Valley. Nearby Kolukkumalai hills is stated to be the home to highest tea estate in the world located at an altitude close to 8,000 feet, according to Tamil Nadu 'favtourism' blog. It roughly takes about four to five hours to complete the trek from Kurangani village, which is at the foothill, to reach the Top Station, whereas two-and-a-half hours are enough for the return trip, it says. Bordering Kerala, Theni district, surrounded by the Western Ghats, is home to about 35,481 hectares of reserve and 31,094 hectares of unclassified forest. The district is also a favourite destination for film shoots. According to government data, Theni is also a key route for the nature lovers to important tourist destinations such as Munnar and Thekkadi in neighbouring Kerala. Coffee seeds, cardamom and mango are among the main produce of the district. Several Tamil films including 'Myna' and 'Kumki' were shot on the Kurangani hills. According to Green, an NGO working in the region on "Endogenous Spices Tourism Project," Kurangani is unexploited and unexplored. "Kurangani region is a sea of ridges and mountain peaks separated by valleys filled with virgin forests of silver oak and eucalyptus and various plantations like tea, coffee and cardamom." Trekking trails are available from Kurangani to Top Station (16 Kms) via Central Station and Muthuvakkudi, it says, adding soaring mountain peaks en route Top Station is a "quintessence of the forces of nature." Also, several endemic species are found in the shoal forest near the Central Station, its website says. The NGO says that the region is popular for its wonderful faunal diversity. A vast spectrum of birdlife and other biodiversity is found in Central Station, Top Station and in the mountain ledges. The common animals that inhabit this mountainous area are Nilgiri langur, lion tailed macaque, common monkeys, and panthers. They are found in the Central and Top Station areas. Western Ghats is on the world heritage list and according to UNESCO website, the ghats are "Older than the Himalaya mountains. The mountain chain of the Western Ghats represents geomorphic features of immense importance with unique biophysical and ecological processes. The site's high montane forest ecosystems influence the Indian monsoon weather pattern. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) From an aluminum smelter, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called US President Donald Trump to press for a permanent exclusion from US tariffs on aluminum and steel. It was their first conversation since Trump last week imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, raising trade tensions. Trudeau "emphasized that preserving (the two nations') mutually beneficial supply chains is critical to jobs and businesses on both sides of the border," according to a summary. The prime minister was touring an aluminum smelter in Alma, Quebec. He was to also visit three Canadian steel cities this week to reassure workers. His Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, will be in Washington tomorrow and Thursday to "advance Canada's efforts to keep trade open, fair and barrier-free, to benefit people on both sides of the border," her ministry said in a statement. She is to meet US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Congressional leaders and others. Canada, the top supplier of steel and aluminum to the US market, has been temporarily exempted from the tariffs, along with Mexico. When Trump announced the 10 per cent tariffs on aluminum and 25 per cent on steel, he said Canada and Mexico could be exempted permanently if the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is successful. In the call with Trudeau, Trump "emphasized the importance of quickly concluding the ongoing NAFTA negotiations," the White House said. But both Mexico and Canada have rejected Trump's linkage of the levies to the ongoing NAFTA talks. "We will continue working toward securing a definite and permanent exemption from those tariffs," Trudeau said earlier. He said he and Trump also "welcomed and encouraged the progress being made on negotiation of the renewed North American Free Trade Agreement" and discussed an opioid crisis affecting both nations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Trump administration is adopting a multi-pronged strategy to "force" the Taliban to reconciliation, a top Pentagon commander told lawmakers today. The multi-pronged strategy includes military pressure, political pressure and those applied through regional partners like Pakistan, US Central Command Commander Gen Joseph Votel told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing. "I think the key strategy; the big idea here is to force the Taliban to reconciliation. The way we do that is by focusing on military pressure, by focusing on political pressure working with the regional partners such as Pakistan, and it's through social pressure," Votel said in response to a question. This also includes ensuring that the government of Afghanistan continues to make the necessary reforms that its President Ashraf Ghani has already committed to and that he is moving out on. "This includes not only addressing endemic problems with corruption, but also ensuring that fair elections are conducted in the country, and that they are addressing some of the leadership challenges they have," he said. This will help build confidence in the government of Afghanistan for the people, Votel said. Responding to a question, Votel described Taliban as a narco-terror group. "They take on many of the characteristics of a mob-Mafia type group. This is not a popular insurgency. I think that's an important thing for people to understand. Over 90 percent of the people in Afghanistan do not want the Taliban to be in charge of their country. It's not a popular insurgency," he said. Senator Joni Earnest said that the Taliban, it seems, is now transitioning from an ideologically inspired group into a narco-terror group which is using ideology as a veil. According to Senator Reed said that the Trump administration has yet to articulate the political governance or economic aspects of the strategy, much less the associated staffing and resources that will be required to implement it. Votel said one of his top priories is to implement the South Asia strategy in Afghanistan, reaffirming its enduring commitment to Afghanistan by reinforcing the two complementary military missions: the NATO-led train, advise and assist mission and the US counterterrorism mission. "With our support, the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces are well-postured to begin operations to seize the initiative to expand population control and secure credible elections," he said. "Part and parcel of this effort is our regionalized approach to engage all countries with a stake in Afghanistan's stability, especially Pakistan, where we seek a more productive and trustful relationship that benefits our mutual objectives in the region," Votel said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump today said he believes British Prime Minister Theresa May's theory that Russia was likely responsible for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in the UK. Trump told reporters that he believes that there should be some response to this as soon as they have all the facts. "Yeah (there should be a response), as soon as we get the facts straight. And we're going to be speaking with the British today. We're speaking with Theresa May today. And as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be," Trump said in response to a question. "It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all of the evidence they have. I don't know if they've come to a conclusion but she's calling me today," said the US President. "It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact," Trump said. Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found collapsed after being poisoned last week. Both remain in a serious condition along with a police officer who came in contact with the same substance. Speaking before the House of Commons, May yesterday said it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the nerve agent attack on Skripal who was once an informant for Britain's foreign intelligence service. Russia has denied the allegation. "We are standing with our UK ally," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters. Sanders said the United States has been monitoring the incident closely and takes it very seriously. "The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizens on UK soil is an outrage," she said. "The attack was reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation, and we extend our sympathy to the victims and their families, and our support to the UK government. We stand by our closest ally and the special relationship that we have," Sanders said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump today blocked Singapore-based company Broadcom's USD 117 billion bid for chip maker Qualcomm, citing national security concern. Trump, in his executive order, said there is "credible evidence" that leads him to believe that if Broadcom Limited took control of the US-based Qualcomm it "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the US". As such, Broadcom and Qualcomm "shall immediately and permanently abandon the proposed takeover", ordered the US President. "The proposed takeover of Qualcomm by the Purchaser is prohibited, and any substantially equivalent merger, acquisition, or takeover, whether effected directly or indirectly, is also prohibited," Trump said in the executive order issued today. Trump's decision in this regard comes after Broadcom said last Friday that it will ask its shareholders to approve its plan to redomicile to the US. In such a scenario, Broadcom -- which currently works under the laws of Singapore -- would have been considered as an American company and thus its proposed USD 117 billion would have been considered outside the preview of a federal agency -- Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that reviews foreign deal. In a letter, the CFIUS had confirmed the national security concerns. Last week, the CFIUS issued an interim order to Qualcomm directing it to postpone its annual stockholders meeting and election of directors by 30 days. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in his capacity as the chair of the CFIUS, said Trump's decision was consistent with the administration's commitment to take all actions necessary to protect the national security of the US. "This decision is based on the facts and national security sensitivities related to this particular transaction only and is not intended to make any other statement about Broadcom or its employees, including its thousands of hardworking and highly skilled US employees," Mnuchin said. "The CFIUS process focuses exclusively on identifying and addressing national security concerns. This focused mandate reinforces our commitment to welcoming foreign investment, while at the same time reinforcing our commitment to protecting national security," he added. China is said to be the main reason behind Trump's decision, US daily 'The New York Times' said. Last week, several US lawmakers had called for stopping Broadcom's takeover of Qualcomm. Congressman Duncan Hunter said that the merger would "damage American security" and had pointed at Broadcom's "increasing" ties with China to highlight his reservation about the deal. "This should concern us as a nation. These ties were most recently reflected in the agreements Broadcom signed with HBC, Inspur and StarTimes.China has a finely honed capability to access the technology of companies such as Broadcom, along with that of their subsidiaries and acquisitions," he said. Hunter said the merger would make Broadcom the third largest chipmaker in the world, "giving them control over a major portion of the supply chain, which is critical to the vital communications components". "Such a company, if subjected to national or terrorist interests adverse to America, could install lockout features to block our security agencies from monitoring mobile data. The possibilities for damaging US security are limitless," the lawmaker said. Senator Tom Cotton said that Qualcomm's work is too important to the US' national security to let it fall into the hands of a foreign company-and in a hostile takeover no less. "Its hard to see a good reason why we should hand over one of our leading computer-chip makers, and thereby give Chinese companies a leg-up in the race to develop 5G and the next generation of technology. Better to keep it in American hands and protect American national security," Cotton said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would go as planned if Pyongyang sticks to the promises it made, particularly regarding missiles and nuclear test, the White House said today. Last week, a South Korean delegation, led by its national security advisor, informed Trump that Kim Jon-un has invited him for a meeting. The invitation, conveyed to orally, was accepted by Trump, a decision that took the world by surprise. "We fully expect that it (the meeting) will (take place).The offer was made and we've accepted.North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises and, if so, the meeting will go on as planned," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily conference. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is continuing to prepare on a number of levels for the meeting. "Most of that is an inter-administration, interagency process and I'm not going to get ahead of any of the details of the where, the when, or any of that here today," she said, responding to a series of questions on the meeting between the two leaders. Sanders said that the maximum pressure campaign on North Korea is working. "We know that they have responded due to that, and they have pushed this message through the South Koreans to us.We have accepted their invitation on the three promises that they made, and were going to move forward in this process," she said. Meanwhile, in New York, US' National Security Advisor HR McMaster and US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, briefed members of the UN Security Council on developments related to North Korea. During the meeting, McMaster and Haley urged the international community to maintain maximum pressure on the North Korean regime and asked Council members to devote the political will and resources necessary to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions to hold the regime accountable. "The announcement of a meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim is a historic opportunity that holds great potential for the world," Haley said. "While we can't say whether Kim's offer is genuine, we can say that this historic meeting would not have been possible without the international community's participation in the maximum pressure campaign, initiated by the Trump Administration, and a commitment to holding North Korea accountable through three strong UN sanctions resolutions in 2017, she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump will hold talks with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on March 20, a presidential spokesperson said today. "The president looks forward to discussing ways to strengthen ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia and to advance our common security and economic priorities," White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, told reporters at her daily conference. This would be the first White House visit of the Crown Prince. His US trip is part of his maiden foreign tour. France and Britain are the other two countries that he is visiting. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two Congress MLAs were today expelled from the Telangana Legislative Assembly and 11 more, including the opposition leader, suspended for the ongoing budget session, a day after the "unruly" incidents during the Governor's address to the joint sitting of legislature. In the Legislative Council, six members of the Congress were suspended till the end of the session. Alleging that the disciplinary action was unilateral, the two expelled members -- Komatireddy Venkata Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar -- began a 48-hour 'Satyagraha' this evening at the party's state headquarters. Congress activists held protests at different places in the state against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government. As soon as the House met for the day, Speaker S Madhusudanachary expressed deep anguish over yesterday's incidents, in which Legislative Council Chairman K Swamy Goud suffered an eye injury when an object was thrown at him after the conclusion of the Governor's address. Legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao moved separate resolutions for disciplinary action against the members of the main opposition party. According to one of the resolutions, the "unruly" behaviour of Komatireddy Venkata Reddy and Sampath Kumar amounted to affecting the dignity and decorum of the House. ".....their continuance as member of the Assembly is untenable," it read. The suspended MLA are -- K Jana Reddy (Opposition Leader), Jeevan Reddy, Geeta Reddy, N Uttam Kumar Reddy (state Congress chief), D K Aruna, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Chinna Reddy, N Padmavati, Rammohan Reddy, Vamsichand Reddy and Madhava Reddy. The speaker urged the expelled and suspended members to leave the House. Some of them left only after being approached by the marshals. Condemning the behaviour of the Congress members, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said the government would not compromise on maintaining the dignity and decorum of the House. Why should there be any disturbance when the government had said it was ready for a debate on any issue, he asked. MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said it was a "black day" for the House, adding that its dignity and decorum should be maintained. BJP leader G Kishan Reddy said yesterday's incidents were unfortunate, but opposed Jana Reddy's suspension. Talking to reporters, Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the disciplinary action was taken without following due procedures. All the relevant footage should be made public, he said. "This is a drama. This a drama at the instance of KCR," he claimed. Goud had yesterday told reporters that a headphone, which was thrown at the podium, hit him in the eye. He was treated at a hospital with a bandage being put over one of his eyes. A doctor attending to him said he is recovering and that the cornea needs to heal. The Legislative Affairs Minister said the speaker was urged to hand out a tough punishment to the MLAs by going through the video footage and other details of the incident. The ruling TRS has alleged that the Congress members indulged in "physical attacks" by throwing objects. The session, which began yesterday, is scheduled to conclude onMarch 27. The Congress' strength is 19 in the 119-member House. Assembly polls are due in Telangana next year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Various organisations working for the rights of farmers are organising a two-day national convention here next week on agrarian crisis, assault on cattle economy and lynching of dalits and minorities. The convention scheduled on March 20-21 will be joined by farmers' organisations, social activists, political party representatives and the academics. "The continued disruption of agriculture, strong pursuance of anti-people policies by the governments, and apathy for the conditions of farmers and agricultural workers has reached a new low where a coordinated attack and unleashing of terror among rural communities has seen animal husbandry and its existence per se under threat," said Hannan Mollah of All India Kisan Sabha, farmers' wing of the CPI (M). Prem Singh of All India Kisan Mahasabha, said, "small, medium and marginal farmers are strongly affected by the emerging practice of criminalisation and extortions in the name of cow protection. The violent manifestations of the right wing in the forms of vigilantism and calling out people working with cattle as involved in illegal transport". While Ramesh Kumar of Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Khet Mazdoor Sangathan said "Dancing to the whims of monopolistic corporate houses, the ruling party is laying groundwork for communalised divisions in society, and at the same time taking away the employment and revenue generation, derived from animal husbandry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two persons were killed when an ambulance collided with a stationery tractor-trolly on Yamuna expressway early this morning, police said today. There were no patients in the ambulance. The accident occurred at about 5 am when Noida-bound ambulance, coming from Agra,rammed against a stationery tractor-trolley from behind, SHO Naujhil, Inspector Durgesh Kumar said. The trolley, ladden with electric polls, was parked on expressway, as its driver had gone to a wayside Dhaba for breakfast, he said. The deceased from ambulance have been identified as Dharmendra, 34, and Aditya Seth, 32 , both residents of Kannauj district. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, the SHO said, adding that the ambulance, bearing Haryana number, belongs to Pradeep Kumar of Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russian state-owned channel RT could have its British licence reviewed if London concludes that Moscow was behind a nerve agent attack on British soil last week, the broadcasting regulator said today. Ofcom said in a statement that it had a duty to ensure that broadcast licensees are "fit and proper" to hold their licences. "We have today written to ANO TV Novosti, holder of RT's UK broadcast licences, which is financed from the budget of the Russian Federation," Ofcom said. "This letter explained that, should the UK investigating authorities determine that there was an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the UK, we would consider this relevant to our ongoing duty to be satisfied that RT is fit and proper." The regulator added that "we would carry out our independent fit and proper assessment on an expedited basis". Russia Today, now known by its acronym as RT, was set up in the mid-2000s to counter what Russian President Vladimir Putin saw as the dominance of American and British international media organisations and their allegedly pro-Western bias. The channel is seen by its critics as giving a platform to conspiracy theorists as well as far-right or anti-establishment figures who emphasise Western hypocrisy or corruption. Several lawmakers called for a ban on RT on Monday after Prime Minister Theresa May said it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the attack on March 4 on former double agent Sergei Skripal. Labour MP Phil Wilson said British politicians should refuse to be interviewed by the channel, where former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has a talk show. "It is a propaganda mouthpiece for the Russian state and should not be engaged with by any democratic politicians," Wilson said. May said MPs should be "very wary and very careful" in appearing on RT and said the issue was "obviously... of concern". The channel responded scathingly on Tuesday, saying: "It is regrettable to see RT so quickly proposed to be sacrificed as a political pawn". The channel said such a restriction would be equivalent to "doing away with any concept of press freedom in the UK," adding that it played a vital role in "completing the picture of news". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UK government said today that it will raise concerns around the case of a British Sikh being held in a maximum-security jail in Punjab at "senior levels" in India. The case of Jagtar Singh Johal, a 30-year-old British Sikh from Dunbarton in Scotland who is currently being held in Nabha Central Jail on murder and conspiracy to murder charges, was raised as part of a debate in the UK Parliament's Westminster Hall today. British Sikh MPs Preet Kaur Gill and Tan Dhesi along with Johal's local MP, Martin Docherty-Hughes, asked the UK government to raise the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the UK for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) meeting next month. Mark Field, Minister of state in charge of Asia and the Pacific in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), said he would "try" to see that happens, adding that he would "continue to raise this case at senior levels with Indian authorities". He revealed that the UK government had handled nearly 5,000 detentions involving British nationals abroad in the last year alone with"comprehensive, responsive" consular service and stressed that it is important that the legal systems of other countries are respected. "India as a partner in the Commonwealth and also as a partner in many other ways has a strong democratic framework which is designed to guarantee human rights. However, it also faces numerous challenges related to the size of development and when it comes to enforcing fundamental rights enshrined in its Constitution," Field said in his response to the debate entitled 'British Nationals Imprisoned Abroad'. Gill, as chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Sikhs, had organised the debate in order to raise Johal's case. She laid out the background to the case since Johal was arrested in Punjab in November last year, claiming that he had faced severe torture while in custody. "Indian authorities have prevented Jagtar having private access to British consular staff," she said, adding that his case has become a "farcical trial by media". Dhesi added: "It is incumbent on all us to stand for the human rights of all British citizens. The UK government's failure to condemn the series of abuses [against Johal] has left all British citizens travelling abroad vulnerable". During the debate it emerged that Johal's MP, Docherty-Hughes, had spoken to the British High Commissioner to India, Sir Dominic Asquith, and received an update on the case this week. The Indian government maintains that "due process" is being followed in the case, which was last raised at a ministerial level during the UK visit of Indian minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju in January. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak hailed efforts by an Indian woman entrepreneur to help women farmers in India, lauding her innovative ideas to empower women. Addressing the world body's largest gathering on gender equality and women's right, he cited the example of Sunita Kashyap, founder of an organisation named Umang. "Rural women act as a major source of innovation, and ideas. Take, for example, a woman named Sunita Kashyap. Her organisation supports 3000 women farmers in India to grow and sell their own crops," Lajcak said in his address at the opening of the 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) here yesterday. According to Kashyap's profile on UN Women website, she is the secretary and founder of Mahila Umang Producers Company (Umang), an organisation run by rural women in the districts of Almora and Ranikhet, in Uttarakhand. Locally owned by women farmers and producers, Umang sells knitwear and organic jams and jellies. In addition to selling the produce, Umang supports its members through micro-credit, used for education of family members, improvement of livestock, or other household needs. He also cited the example of Mariama Mamane, a young woman from Nairobi who has developed an eco-solution to improve the availability of irrigation and drinking water, while also producing energy. "These kinds of women do not need our help, in finding solutions. What they need is our support, in turning their ideas into reality. This support is not just critical; it is smart. Because it will allow us all to see progress, across the board from agriculture and education, to the rule of law and peace," he added. The CSW, which will run through March 23, is the UN's largest gathering on gender equality and women's rights, and the single largest forum for UN Member States, civil society organisations and other international actors to build consensus and commitment on policy actions on this issue. The session will focus on the priority theme of "Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls". Lajcak said empowerment of rural women will result in opportunities for all. He noted that while the international community has tried to tackle challenges, it has not addressed their gender dimensions. "This has had a particularly damaging effect on rural women. It needs to stop. We need to take women into account, in everything we do. Particularly when it comes to rural communities," he added. He stressed that there cannot be just talk about effects of poverty and unemployment on rural communities without addressing the question of pay gap, which can be as high as 40 per cent between rural women and men. "The reality is that rural women are not always on our television screens. They do not always make it into our headlines. They are not always in these conferences rooms. And they do not always have hashtags, or campaigns, launched in their names," he said. "That is why we need a platform, like this one, to shine a spotlight on the challenges they face," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today expressed grief over the death of CRPF jawans in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district and announced Rs 25 lakh financial assistance each to the families of killed personnel. Nine CRPF personnel were today killed after Maoists blasted their mine protected vehicle using over 50 kgs of explosives in Sukma, about a year after a dozen jawans were killed in a similar ambush in the district. A government spokesperson today said, "Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth has expressed grief over the death of CRPF jawans in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district." Saluting the martyrdom of the jawans, he has paid tributes to them, and also conveyed his condolence the bereaved families, the spokesperson said. The UP chief minister announced Rs 25 lakh financial assistance to the family members of the martyred jawans. "Of this, Rs 20 lakh will be given to the wife of the martyred jawan, while Rs 5 lakh will be given to the parents. On the directives of the chief minister, respective district in-charge ministers will visit the residence of the martyred jawans, and offer condolence," the UP government spokesperson said. In today's attack, CRPF jawans from the state - Manoj Singh (Ballia), Shobit Kumar Sharma (Ghaziabad) and Dharmendra Singh (Mau) were killed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States today applauded India for its efforts in initiating and inaugurating the International Solar Alliance (ISA). The ISA is a treaty based inter-governmental alliance of 121 sunshine-rich countries that lie fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Their adoption of solar energy is expected to help reduce the use of fossil fuels and combat climate change. Sixty countries have signed the agreement to join the alliance which was formally launched jointly by India and France last Sunday in New Delhi. The heads of state from 23 nations took part in the first ISA Summit. "We extend our congratulations to the ISA on the occasion of its founding ceremony.We applaud the Government of India for its efforts to initiate and inaugurate this organisation, and to bring together its founding members this weekend," a State Department Spokesperson told PTI. During the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron announced an additional USD 862 million to help developing countries with their solar energy projects. The spokesperson said the US appreciated the ISA's goal and looks to work with the ISA in future. "We appreciate the ISA's goal of expanding access to cost-effective solar power and look forward to the economic and social benefits this approach will bring to the developing world," the spokesperson said in response to a question. "We have been pleased to provide technical support to the ISA and will continue to look for opportunities where the US can collaborate with the ISA in future," the spokesperson said. At the launch event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced his ambitious goal of building 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2022, including 100 gigawatts of solar. However, the MIT Technology review said that the well-intentioned target looks nearly impossible to achieve. "India would have to build on average 35 gigawatts of renewable energy per year for the next five years. That's more than twice the capacity that the US added across all energy sources in 2016, after subtracting retiring plants, and less than eight gigawatts of the total were solar," the magazine said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An American citizen, who received training in the tribal areas of Pakistan, was sentenced to 45 years of imprisonment today for conspiring to kill US nationals and providing support to Al Qaeda. Muhanad Mahmoud al Farekh, a 32-year-old American citizen, traveled overseas, joined al Qaeda, and conspired to kill Americans, including through an attack using explosive devices on a US military installation in Afghanistan in 2009, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security John C Demers. As proven at trial, in March 2007, Farekh and two co-conspirators, all of whom were students at the University of Manitoba, departed Canada for Pakistan with the intention of fighting against American forces overseas. "With the sentence handed down today, al Qaeda terrorist Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh is being held accountable for his crimes," said Demers. Before traveling overseas, Farekh and his co-conspirators watched video recordings encouraging violent jihad, listened to jihadist lectures by now-deceased al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader Anwar al-Awlaqi, and came to embrace a violent, extremist view of Islam, he said. Farekh and his co-conspirators traveled to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, an area in the northern part of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan and is home to al-Qaeda's base of operations, where they joined and received training from al-Qaeda. Taking advantage of his familiarity with the West, Farekh became a member of, and ultimately ascended to, a leadership role within al-Qaeda's external operations group, which specialized in planning and executing attacks against the U.S. and its Western allies. In January 2009, Farekh helped to build a vehicle-borne, improvised explosive device (VBIED) that was used in an attack on Forward Operating Base Chapman (FOB Chapman), a US military installation that served as the base for the US Provincial Reconstruction Team in Khost, Afghanistan. On January 19, 2009, two explosives-laden vehicles approached the fence line of FOB Chapman. At the gate, the first vehicle, a pickup-sized truck, exploded after its operator detonated the VBIED. The second vehicle, a truck that was carrying approximately 7,500 pounds of explosives, became stuck in the blast crater caused by the first explosion. The driver abandoned his vehicle without detonating the VBIED, and was shot and killed by local security personnel. The initial detonation of the first vehicle injured one US serviceman and numerous Afghan nationals. Forensic technicians recovered 18 latent fingerprints that were determined to be a match to Farekh from adhesive packing tape used to bind together the explosive materials of the second, undetonated VBIED. "Farekh, a citizen of this country, turned his back on America by joining al-Qaeda and trying to kill American soldiers in a bomb attack on a US military base in Afghanistan," stated United States Attorney Richard Donoghue. "This case demonstrates that we will do everything in our power to ensure that those who seek to harm our country and our armed forces will be brought to justice," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has often made clear his dislike for "colonial terms" and today he again asked ministers to refrain from using them during proceedings. Called to lay listed papers, Minister of State for Finance P Radhakrishnan began by saying "I beg to lay...." Naidu immediately quipped that the minister should just use the term "I rise" to lay the papers and not "beg to". Radhakrishnan corrected himself when his name was again called to lay CAG reports a short while later, as he began by saying "I rise to lay...." Naidu, who is also the Vice President of India, had brought minor changes in the conduct of proceedings in the Rajya Sabha from day one, asking ministers and members not to use colonial terms while laying papers on the table. Presiding over the Upper House proceedings on the opening day of the winter session of Parliament in December, Naidu had said, "Just say I rise to lay on the table.... No need to beg... this is independent India." He had made the observation after the ministers called to lay the listed papers on the table, began their sentences by saying "I beg to lay on the table the papers listed against my name...." Naidu took over as the Vice President of India in August. Vice President is also the presiding officer of the Rajya Sabha. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Plumbing and heating solutions firm Viega today launched its first manufacturing facility in India at Sanand near here with an investment of around Rs 160 crore (20 million euro). The facility aims to cater to the local demands for the company's products - which are in categories of piping system as well as draining and flushing technology - and serve the local market needs, the chief executive officer of the Germany-based company, Claus Holst-Gydesen said today. It will also export to countries in south east Asia and the Middle East in coming years, he added. To begin with, the company will manufacture floor drains and toilet cisterns from the Sanand plant. It had acquired a 16-acre land in Sanand GIDC to open its first facility in the country after signing a memorandum of understanding with the state government at the Vibrant Gujarat Investor's Summit in 2015. According to Gydesen, India is a strong pillar for Viega's growth plan. "Looking from long-term perspective, India, with its young population and fast growing economy, will one day become big for the company," he said. Hygiene for sanitary facilities in general and drinking water in particular, according to chief strategist officer Anna Viegener, is one of the core competencies of the family-run business with a 119-year-old history. The Viega Group, which has been active in India since 2005, founded its subsidiary Viega India in 2015 with its headquarters here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Austrian of Egyptian origin who was shot dead over the weekend after attacking a soldier with a knife outside the Iranian ambassador's residence in Vienna had Islamist sympathies, authorities said today. Preliminary indications suggest that the 26-year-old man "clearly had sympathies with political Islam", Michaela Kardeis, head of public security, told a conference in Vienna. Material seized at his home would be further analysed in the coming days, Kardeis said, but for now there are no more details about the attacker's background or possible motives. The man attacked the soldier outside the Iranian envoy's residence just before midnight (2300 GMT) on Sunday, stabbing him several times as they wrestled on the ground. The soldier initially tried to use pepper spray to immobilise his attacker but later used his gun, firing at least four shots and killing the attacker at the scene, according to police. The soldier escaped relatively unscathed, with a wound to his upper arm for which he was treated in hospital. He was also suffering from shock. Police have ordered reinforcements around all diplomatic missions in the city. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Farmers in Maharashtra who were left out of the 2008 loan waiver announced by the then government would be brought under the ambit of the last year's scheme, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the Legislative Assembly today. "Farmers who failed to repay loans during 2001-09 and could not avail the benefit of the 2008 loan waiver scheme will be included in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana--CSMSSY (announced in June last by the BJP-led state government)," the chief minister said. He was making a statement in the Lower House on the outcome of the talks held between the state government and the leaders of farmers yesterday. Protesting the government's "apathy" towards the farm distress, thousands of farmers and tribals walked from Nashik to Mumbai, a distance of around 180 kms, in the last six days under the banner of Left-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS). The protest was withdrawn yesterday after the state government agreed to almost all demands of the farmers, including transfer of forest land rights. Fadnavis also said a list of farmers who could not repay their borrowings in 2016-17 would be reviewed, and steps would be taken to provide them a relief. "A committee will be formed for implementation of the CSMSSY which will include ministers as well as leaders of farmers' organisation," he said. Fadnavis said apart from crop loan, a term loan to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh availed by farmers for the purpose of agro shade nets would be included in the 2017 loan waiver. Referring to the farmers' demand for transfer of forest land rights, the chief minister said the government has sought time of six months to do the needful. He said the land required for the upcoming bullet train project and the Samruddhi Mahamarg (connecting Mumbai with Nagpur) would not be acquired without the consent of farmers. "Land acquisition for these projectsis being done as per law with consent of farmers," he said. Fadnavis said ration cards of tribals would be renewed as a large number of them have been denied grains on the ground that their existing cards are in bad shape. "The government is going to replace the old ration cardsin the next six months," said the chief minister. Fadnavis also spoke about the agitating farmers' demand to bring water from Nar-Par, Daman Ganga and Girnar river-linking projects to drought-prone areas in the state instead of diverting it to neighbouring Gujarat. "A project in this regards has been prepared by the National Water Development Authority. An MoU has also been signed, which the government will implement," he said. On farmers' demand to hike the aid for various schemes like Sanjay Gandhi Niradhara Yojana, Shravanbal Indira Gandhi Vrudhhapkal Yojana to Rs 2000, the CM said the government would look into the matter positively. He said the government had already taken a decision on awarding compensation of Rs 40,000 per acre to farmers whose crops were damaged by pink bollworm infestation and hailstorms. Following unprecedented protests by farmers, the state government last year announced a farm loan waiver to the tune of Rs 34,000 crore with stringent conditions. Farmers having a loan outstanding up to Rs 1.5 lakh, irrespective of land size, since 2009 were made eligible for the waiver. Farmers have been demanding a complete loan waiver without riders and removal of bottlenecks in its implementation. In 2008, the then UPA government at Centre announced a Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver for farmers in the country. Among the beneficiary states, Maharashtra stood at the third spot with Rs 8,900 crore being waived to 42 lakh farmers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said today that he has asked civil aviation ministry officials to prepare a plan for providing air cargo support to agricultural hubs to promote farm exports. The commerce and industry minister, who also holds additional charge of the civil aviation ministry, said that draft policy to increase agricultural exports is ready and is being circulated for inter-ministerial views. He said that effort would be made to provide air cargo support to the sector to promote exports of agri commodities. "I have asked officers (of civil aviation ministry) to prepare a plan" to provide this support with a view to fast-tracking the movement of farm commodities," he said at the inauguration of international food processing and hospitality event at Pragati Maidan here. Talking about hospitality sector, he said the Union Cabinet has recently approved an action plan for 12 champion services sectors, including IT, tourism and hospitality. The fund, once set up, will support initiatives for sectoral action plans of the sectors. "We are preparing a comprehensive plan for each sector," he said, adding that it will help address the issues being faced in these segments. Speaking at a separate programme on counterfeiting, the minister asked the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) to prepare a proper module for police to effectively enforce the laws related to intellectual property rights (IPRs). He was addressing the national conference on counterfeiting and role of enforcement agencies. President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India Ltd Siddharth Roy Kapur suggested steps to check such practices and film piracy. He asked the government to strengthen the IT Act and creation of a separate cyber crime cells in each states. Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador of the European Union to India, said that enforcement of IPR laws are crucial to promote innovation. He asked the DIPP to consider launching a cooperation project between India and the EU in the field of intellectual property and to establish a structured dialogue on the subject. "This is for your consideration. We are ready to work on both these proposals," he added. DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said that the ministry is taking several steps including increasing capacity for faster clearance of IPR applications. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A special CBI court today remanded Hasmukh Shah, a former director and authorised signatory of the Forever Precious Jewellery and Diamonds Ltd (FPJDL), also known as Winsome diamonds group, to the agency's custody till March 26. The group has allegedly defaulted on loans worth thousands of crores. The CBI told the court that the FPJDL was engaged in production facilities for cutting and polishing of diamonds and for manufacture of plain and studded gold jewellery. Shah, believed to be the man Friday of Jatin Mehta, an absconding accused in the case, was arrested here yesterday. The FPJDL borrowed from a consortium of various banks led by the Punjab National Bank (PNB), it told the court. Canara Bank, one of the members of the consortium, is the complainant in the case. In March 2012, the Management Committee of Canara Bank sanctioned over Rs 160 crore of fund-based and non-fund based limit to the FPJDL, the agency said in its remand application. Out of the sanctioned non-fund based limit, the company opened various Standby Letters of Credit (SBLC) in favour of various bullion banks, it stated. The company purchased gold from these bullion banks abroad - The Bank of Nova Scotia, Standard Bank and Standard Charted Bank - against these SBLCs. Later, this gold was processed and sent to 13 buyers in the UAE, the CBI stated. The company also failed to make the payment for the gold imported on the strength of SBLC, the agency said. "In this regard, the company has taken plea that export proceeds have not been received from foreign buyers (which) resulted in invoking the SBLCs by bullion banks that cost wrongful loss of Rs 146.35 crore to Canara Bank. "Hasmukh Shah was a very close confidante of Jatin Mehta, promoter and guarantor of Forever Precious Jewellery and Diamond. Shah is a former director of the company and also one of the authorised signatories," the agency stated. As per the CBI, Shah instructed and forced other employees of the FPJDL for becoming authorised signatories and signed documents related to the opening of SBLCs. He obtained the signatures on various documents to be submitted before banks for availing credit facilities and subsequently co-ordinated with them, it said. The agency stated that Shah was coordinating all exports being done from Chennai and Cochin units of the company and was giving directions to the unit heads concerned. "The CBI had registered 11 cases against Winsome Diamonds and there is a total financial loss of Rs 4625.43 crore," said special CBI prosecutor Limosine A. He said custodial interrogation of Shah was necessary to understand his modus operandi and to locate relevant documents. The lawyer said they wanted to understand the overseas transactions happened in Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, as Shah had visited these places. "On the basis of investigation conducted so far, there is a strong reason to believe that Shah has information about the funds siphoned off by Mehta," said Limosine. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Australian Open champ Caroline Wozniacki benefited from a challenge call in the final game en route to defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 at the Indian Wells event today. Wozniacki silenced the critics when she claimed her first Grand Slam title earlier this year at the Australian Open, becoming the first Danish woman to win a major. The 27-year-old world No. 2 Wozniacki moves on to the fourth round where she will face either reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens or 20th seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia. "I managed to get my feet going more, and to start playing more steady, and that paid off today," said Wozniacki. Wozniacki challenged a call in the final game when the line judge ruled that Sasnovich's shot caught the line. Wozniacki asked for a second look and the review showed that the line judge mistakenly called the ball in. That levelled the score at 30-30 and Wozniacki won two out of the next three points she needed to take the third set and the match in the $16 million joint WTA/ATP hardcourt tournament. Wozniacki hit two aces and won 64 percent of her first-serve points in the two hour, 17 minute match. Wozniacki said the court conditions were difficult but she managed to make the adjustments. "These courts are really difficult to play on. That's also why you see a lot of upsets," she said. "The ball bounces really high and it goes extremely slow. "Those two things are making it trickier to play. But at the same time, I'm just trying to adapt and trying to do my best out there and trying to move well." Sasnovich, of Belarus, committed 14 double faults and had her serve broken seven times. - Musical chairs for No. 1 - ============================Wozniacki had been one of seven women who held the No. 1 ranking who hadn't won a Grand Slam when she triumphed in Melbourne in January. The victory also allowed her to reclaim the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in six years. She and Simona Halep have taken turns being No. 1 this year with Halep currently on top. If Wozniacki wins in Indian Wells she will reclaim it but she says she is not thinking about it. "Winning the Australian Open and getting the No. 1 ranking back at that point was extremely important to me and something that I'm very proud of," she said. "Right now, that No. 1 ranking isn't what's on the forefront of my mind. It's really just trying to win every match I'm playing and trying to win this tournament." In other women's third round matches on Monday, French seventh seed Caroline Garcia defeated Australia's Daria Gavrilova 7-5, 6-4. Garcia advances to the round of 16 where she will face 10th seeded German Angelique Kerber who beat Elena Vesnina 7-5, 6-2. Garcia is trying to improve on her best result here which is reaching the round of 16 in 2015 and last year. "I know against Daria it's always going to be a fight until the end and she always wants to come back in the match so it's never over," said Garcia. "I'm very happy with the way I played." Danielle Collins also won her third round match, defeating Sofya Zhuk of Russia 6-4, 6-4. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Devidutta Tripathy and Arnab PaulMUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Andhra Bank, already hurt by an industry-wide spillover of a huge alleged fraud at another lender, saw its shares slide to a 15-year low on Monday after authorities filed new complaints against a former director in a separate long-running case.The Enforcement Directorate, which fights financial crime, said on Friday it had filed additional charges against Anup Garg, a former director of state-run Andhra Bank, in connection with a more than 50 billion rupee ($769 million) fraud case involving Sterling Biotech that was filed last ... By Josephine Mason and Michael MartinaBEIJING (Reuters) - China will form a powerful new competition and food safety regulator in a bid to ramp up oversight of mergers and acquisitions and price-fixing as the world's second-largest economy seeks to make policymaking more efficient.In much-anticipated plans to create seven new ministries and a raft of government agencies announced on Tuesday, one of the most significant changes is the creation of a national markets supervision management bureau.The new body will decide on antimonopoly and pricing issues, replacing the competition oversight ... BEIJING (Reuters) - Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank), the country's third-largest bank, said on Monday it would raise as much as 100 billion yuan ($15.81 billion) in the biggest A-share private placement by a listed Chinese commercial bank.The bank will use the money to replenish its common equity tier 1 capital and boost capital adequacy of the bank, AgBank said in a securities filing.The fundraising comes as China's large state banks step up efforts to speed up write-offs and boost bad loan buffers as part of a nationwide campaign to de-risk and de-leverage the commercial banking ... (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate HNA Group will sell its 25 percent stake in Hilton Grand Vacations Inc , the timeshare business spun off last year from U.S. hotel chain Hilton Worldwide , Hilton Grand said on Tuesday.The sale is the latest attempt by HNA, an aviation-to-financial services conglomerate, to restructure its far-flung operations and raise cash by selling equity and prime real estate assets.Its restructuring drive also follows a $50 billion acquisition spree over the past two years, which has sparked scrutiny of its opaque ownership and use of leverage.HNA's Kenneth Wong has ... By Takahiko Wada and Leika KiharaTOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will urge its G20 counterparts at a meeting next week to beef up efforts to prevent cryptocurrencies from being used for money laundering, a government official with direct knowledge of the matter said.But the prospects for the G20 finance leaders to agree on specific global rules and mention them in a joint communique are low, given differences in each country's approach, the official said, a view echoed by another official involved in G20 talks."Discussions will focus on anti-money laundering steps and consumer protection, rather than ... BERLIN (Reuters) - Britain must agree to an implementation phase based on the status quo for its transition from the EU, otherwise German companies will be forced to implement 'worst case' contingency plans, the BDI industry association said on Tuesday."We demand a basic decision on this from the EU and British government at the European Council meeting. Otherwise, some companies will be forced to implement emergency plans for a worst case scenario which noone wants and which will hurt everyone," said BDI Managing Director Joachim Lang. German firms would prefer a deep form of integration ... DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar Petroleum said on Tuesday it has signed a concession agreement with the United Arab Emirates to continue the development and operation of the shared Al-Bunduq offshore oil field.The agreement, which comes amid an embargo on Doha by some Arab countries, including the UAE, was signed with Abu Dhabi Supreme Petroleum Council, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Japan's United Petroleum Development Co, and Bunduq Company Ltd, QP said in a statement on its website."The signing of the new agreement comes as the original concession agreement expired on March 8, 2018. It ... By Ayenat MersieNEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil fell more than 1 percent on concerns over rising U.S. production and as equities fell, erasing earlier gains driven in part by the firing of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.Brent crude futures dropped 31 cents, or 0.5 percent, to settle at $64.64 per barrel. U.S. West Texas (WTI) crude futures fell 65 cents, or 1.06 percent, to $60.71 per barrel.The market has been buffeted by a number of factors in an active session, including weakness in the equity market, which has trended in tandem with oil of late. U.S. production has reached an all-time ... SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Dramatic video released Monday shows a U.S. marshal firing four times at close range at a defendant inside a Utah federal courthouse after he rushed the witness stand, jumped and swung with a pen at a shackled witness who barely backed out of the way. The 24-second footage from the 2014 gang-related racketeering trial was released after a media coalition including The Associated Press argued it was a public record in an important police use-of-force case. The video shows defendant Siale Angilau, a 25-year-old member of the Tongan Crip gang, calmly rising from his seat beside his attorney during the witness testimony and grabbing his lawyers pen. As someone yells, whoa, whoa, whoa but before any officers could react, Angilau sprinted toward the witness and leaped with his right arm cocked overhead with the pen in hand. The man jumped back to avoid being hit as Angilau fell feet-first over the front of the witness stand. Thats when the unidentified U.S. marshal shot Angilau four times. A woman cried out in horror while other law enforcement in suits ran toward the witness stand. Angilaus defense attorney jumped under a desk while prosecutors stood in shock. A bailiff swiftly moved to block the entrance to the front of the court and pointed at people in the gallery and told them to stay still with his right hand on his holstered weapon. Get on the ground, someone yelled in the direction of Angilau. Drop the pen. Drop the pen out of your hand, yelled an officer standing over Angilau. As U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell was escorted out of the courtroom, someone called 911 at the end of the released video. The unidentified U.S. marshal was cleared of any wrongdoing shortly after the shooting. Lynzey Donahue, a spokeswoman for the Marshals Service, said in a statement the video demonstrates how quickly violence can erupt, in any situation. She said the FBI cleared the officer of any wrongdoing and that a review board found the use of force was within agency policy. Donahue also pointed to a ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge John Dowdell when he dismissed the Angilaus familys wrongful death suit, citing the video as proof that the U.S. marshal who is referred to as Jane Doe in his ruling acted reasonably. The family argued Angilau only had a pen and the four shots fired were excessive. Having carefully reviewed the video of Mr. Angilaus swift flight from counsel table, his vault over the witness stand with pen in hand, and his attempt to violently attack the shackled witness, the court has little difficulty determining that (Jane) Does use of force to immediately stop Angilaus attack was objectively reasonable under the totality of the circumstances, Dowdell wrote. The Angilau family attorney, Bob Skyes, offers a contradictory point of view. He said the video shows that the marshal panicked and should have used other methods to subdue Angilau. He points out that Angilau was already down on the ground for the final three shots and that a courtroom full of officers could have stopped him to stop him before he harmed anyone with the pen. There was no need to use deadly force, Sykes said. They werent entitled to use the death penalty on him for an assault. Sykes said the Angilau family hasnt decided if theyll appeal the ruling throwing out the wrongful death lawsuit. Angilau was one of 17 people named in a 2010 indictment accusing Tongan Crip members of assault, conspiracy, robbery and weapons offenses. He was the last defendant in the case to stand trial, with previous defendants being sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison. A mistrial was declared after the shooting. The Department of Justice wanted the video kept under seal over concerns it could lead to retaliatory gang violence. Faces of the judge, attorneys and jurors are blurred out. The agency declined comment Monday about the release of the video. The media coalition including the AP fought for several years with government attorneys to have the video released publicly, arguing that the shooting raised questions about police use of force and upholding the principle of open courts. Department of Justice attorneys said the media organizations wanted the video to sell newspapers. LOS ANGELES (AP) A previously withheld video has been released showing the near-constant heckling of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin during a moderated talk about the economy at UCLA. The university initially balked at releasing the video, saying that Mnuchin subsequently withdrew his agreement for it to be posted online. The video shows audience members hissing at Mnuchin throughout the Feb. 26 event in Los Angeles. The hissing was so loud the secretary barely spoke a sentence without commenting about it. Seven minutes into Mnuchins opening remarks, three different women shouted at him and were either carried or escorted out of the room by police after they ignored warnings to stop. They yelled that the U.S. is bullying North Korea and criticized President Donald Trumps tax legislation. The decision to withhold the video drew criticism from students, free speech groups and members of the news media. Several organizations, including The Associated Press, filed public-records requests arguing for the video to be released. UCLA agreed to release the video on Friday, saying in a statement only that it had received Mnuchins consent to do so. Withholding the video at Mnuchins request and choosing to release it only after receiving his consent both are problematic decisions, said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, one of the groups that argued for the release. This event took place at a public institution and the video was collected by a state body, Snyder said in a statement Monday. Its troubling that the university initially caved to the request of a third party to withhold public records, and even more troubling that when they did eventually release the footage, they claimed to do so because they received consent from the Treasury Department. Mnuchin or any other third party shouldnt have any control over UCLA under California public records laws, Snyder said. A university spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on the criticism. In the video of Mnuchins remarks, the secretary at times makes jokes about the relentless hissing while at others he appears irritated. I normally go speak to people who want to listen to me speak, Mnuchin quipped. You guys get to hiss at me. I dont get to hiss at you. The hissing came after nearly everything Mnuchin said, including at one point when he spoke of his role to issue sanctions to other countries over human-rights violations. Youre going to hiss about sanctions? Mnuchin said. We shouldnt have sanctions? You guys are OK with all the oppression and everything going on in the world? Mnuchin eventually asked the hecklers for a little feedback on why they hissed when he started talking about economic development. One man said: I think youre full of (expletive). Mnuchin responded: If you think Ive got nothing to say, maybe you should just leave. The awkward appearance came two months after someone left a gift-wrapped box of horse manure addressed to Mnuchin near his home in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air. It was marked as being from the American people. Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) A Dallas-bound flight made an emergency landing at Albuquerque International Sunport, sending panicked passengers leaping from a wing onto the tarmac after crew members screamed at them to get away from the aircraft, passengers and officials said. Southwest Flight 3562 took off from Phoenix on Sunday night and was headed for Dallas Love Field. About an hour later, the crew noticed an unusual smell in the cabin, the airline said in a statement. Passengers said they could feel heat from the vents shortly before the crew said the plane was going to make an emergency landing. Passengers were told to brace as the plane landed. I sent a couple texts out to loved ones that you just dont really want to have to send out, Brandon Cox said. He said it was an 8-foot (2.44-meter) jump to the tarmac from the wing. I hit the ground really hard and was just shell-shocked that I just had to jump off the wing of an airplane, he said. Video he posted on Twitter showed people using a slide connected to another emergency exit. A crewmember can be heard shouting, Move away from the aircraft now! Passenger David Fleck said he was surprised to discover there were no emergency slides near the exit door over the wing. It felt wrong when youre up there. It was dark, cold and rainy, he said. It was disorienting. (You think), Do I really just jump down?' The Albuquerque Fire Department tweeted that two people were taken to hospitals. The extent of their injuries was not immediately known. A Dallas police officer aboard the flight tweeted that flight attendants did a great job! Southwest said it worked to get passengers onboard another flight to Dallas, and aircraft will remain in Albuquerque where mechanics will inspect it. BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) A Mississippi man accused of eight killings pleaded not guilty Monday to all charges, including four counts of capital murder for which prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty. Willie Cory Godbolt, 35, appeared for a brief arraignment in Brookhaven, the seat of Lincoln County where the shootings happened nearly 10 months ago during what prosecutors describe as an all-night rampage. The shootings left a sheriffs deputy, some of Godbolts in-laws and other acquaintances dead. Godbolt was indicted Thursday on four counts of capital murder, four counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of armed robbery. Investigators say that on May 27, Godbolt went to his in-laws home in Bogue Chitto to confront his estranged wife and demand she give up their two children. Lincoln County Sheriffs Deputy Willam Durr responded to an emergency call from the home and told Godbolt to leave. Relatives said it seemed Godbolt was going to comply when he began shooting. Hes accused of killing Durr, mother-in-law, Barbara Mitchell, and in-laws Brenda May and Toccara May. He is also accused of firing at another deputy before fleeing the house. He then went to two more homes in Lincoln County. In the first one, he shot teens Jordan Blackwell and Austin Edwards as they played video games, and at the second, he fatally shot Ferral and Shelia Burrage, prosecutors said. They say that at some point in between those shootings, he also kidnapped two people at gunpoint and stole a car. After his arrest on May 28, hours after the shooting, he confessed on camera to a Clarion Ledger reporter. Godbolt has been jailed without bail since his arrest. Godbolt, noticeably thinner than when he was arrested last May and wearing jail-issued black eyeglasses, stood shackled hand and foot Monday. He gazed up at the ceiling as Assistant District Attorney Brendon Adams read the 12-count indictment. Lincoln County Circuit Judge David Strong set the next hearing in the case for May 3. Dozens of family members dabbed their eyes with tissues as the indictment was read, declining afterward to speak with reporters. Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing and more than 15 deputies ringed the courtroom. Rushing also declined comment, saying Lincoln County District Attorney Dee Bates had asked people not to talk. Bates said authorities are waiting on the final results of four autopsies, as well as gun ballistic data, which all must be turned over to Godbolts defense before the case can move forward. Mississippis crime lab is backlogged because of underfunding, which slows down the prosecution of many cases. Bates declined comment on other details of the case, citing Godbolts right to a fair trial. Defense attorney Jason Tate said after the hearing that he would seek to change the location of any trial because of pretrial publicity. Bates indicated prosecutors expected such a motion and would deal with that in the court. Durrs memory is strong in Brookhaven, where some vehicles sport stickers bearing his badge number and the declaration, A hero remembered lives forever. Tate declined to discuss whether he would seek a psychological evaluation of Godbolt, who led a life filled with violent events even before the shooting. Godbolt was convicted of misdemeanor assault or similar crimes at least six times, and charged but not convicted at least six more times. Less than a year before the shooting, Godbolts wife had obtained a restraining order against him, saying he choked and punched her, and put his hand down her mouth so she couldnt scream. Follow Jeff Amy at: http://twitter.com/jeffamy . Read his work at https://www.apnews.com/search/JeffAmy . FIELDING You can enjoy a great dinner, an exciting raffle and a live auction Saturday, March 17 at the Fielding, Utah elementary school. The event is a benefit for one of Fieldings best-loved citizens, Craig Garn, who passed away due to a farming accident after spending one month in the ICU Trauma. Joelle Hess, one of the organizers, said hopefully Saturdays event will help the family with medical expenses. Some of the auctioned items include guns, ammunition, fishing gear, farm supplies, sporting event tickets, 5,000 square feet of sod, a stay in a cabin at Island Park and more. The cost for the sloppy joe dinner is $10 a plate or $30 per family. Garns wife and five children are all helping out on the farm. JABALIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) The Latest on explosion striking Palestinian PM convoy in Gaza (all times local): 6:30 p.m. A roadside bomb struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister during a rare visit to the Gaza Strip, causing no serious injuries but throwing an already troubled reconciliation process between rival factions into deeper turmoil. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah had just arrived from his West Bank headquarters to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new water-treatment plant when the bomb went off Tuesday. Although there was no claim of responsibility, Palestinian officials accused Gaza militants of trying to assassinate Hamdallah. Gazas ruling Hamas group denied involvement. The blast took place at a time of deadlock in reconciliation efforts between Hamdallahs Fatah party and Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since ousting Fatah forces in 2007. It also cast a shadow over a special White House meeting where international donor nations were set to discuss the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. 4 p.m. President Donald Trumps Mideast envoy has condemned the attack on Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallahs convoy in Gaza. In a Twitter post Tuesday, Jason Greenblatt says Hamas and other militant groups have brought Gaza to the brink of collapse. Attack on PA delegation opening water treatment plant is an attack on the welfare of the people of Gaza. Wishing a speedy recovery to the injured, Greenblatt said. Hamdallah was not harmed when the roadside bomb struck his convoy, and said it would not disrupt efforts to reconcile with Hamas, which seized Gaza from forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007. No one immediately claimed the attack. Hamas condemned the attack and vowed to launch an urgent investigation. 3:50 p.m. The Palestinian prime minister says a blast that struck his convoy in Gaza will not disrupt attempts to reconcile with Hamas. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was making a rare visit to Gaza when the explosion went off Tuesday. Hamdallah was not hurt, but quickly returned to his base in the West Bank. He insisted this incident wont stop us from our work in Gaza and wont stop us from the reconciliation. Hamas condemned the explosion, calling it a crime and an attempt to hurt efforts to achieve unity and reconciliation. It promised an urgent investigation. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah and the Islamic militant group Hamas have been trying to reconcile since 2007, when Hamas seized control of Gaza. The takeover left the Palestinians with two rival governments, Hamas in Gaza and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority governing autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 12:20 p.m. The United Nations Mideast envoy has condemned the attack on Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallahs convoy in Gaza. In a statement, Nickolay Mladenov called for a prompt investigation into what he called a grave incident so the perpetrators can be brought to justice. He says that until the legitimate Palestinian Authority takes power in Gaza, the Hamas militant group is responsible for enabling the internationally backed government to work without fear of intimidation, harassment and violence. Hamas seized power of Gaza in 2007, and repeated attempts to reconcile with the Palestinian Authority have failed or stalled. Mladenov says Tuesdays blast was carried out by people trying to undermine reconciliation and destroy the chances for peace. 11:50 a.m. The Hamas militant group has condemned the Gaza explosion that targeted the convoy of visiting Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. In a statement, Hamas called Tuesdays blast a crime and said it was an attempt to hurt efforts to achieve unity and reconciliation. It promised an urgent investigation. Hamas has controlled Gaza since seizing it from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in 2007. Hamas condemned President Mahmoud Abbas for blaming it for the blast, and Abbas security chief, Majed Farraj, said it was too early to say who was responsible. Hamdallah, who was not hurt, left Gaza and was headed back to the West Bank. 10:55 a.m. An explosion has struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister during a rare visit to Gaza, sparking fears of an assassination attempt. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was unharmed Tuesday but his Palestinian Authority quickly accused Gaza militants of trying to kill him. Three of the vehicles in his convoy were damaged, their windows blown out. One had signs of blood on the door. Hamdallah, who operated in the West Bank, arrived in Hamas-run Gaza to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project. The World Bank, European Union and other European governments have paid nearly $75 million in funding. Hamas takeover of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007 and the ensuing Israeli-Egyptian blockade, power shortages and conflicts delayed the opening of the project for four years. PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) Rescuers with the U.S. Coast Guard have suspended their search for a Chinese sailor who went missing in waters off the lower Chesapeake Bay. The Coast Guards command center in Portsmouth on Virginias coast received notice early Tuesday that a crewman had fallen from a 770-foot Lara Venture cargo ship at the Cape Charles Anchorage. But after factoring in details such as water temperature and weather conditions, rescuers suspended their efforts following 12 hours of searching by water and air. The 33-year-old Chinese national was last seen fastening a ladder on the Hong Kong-registered cargo vessels right side when he fell overboard. He wasnt wearing a life jacket. Authorities scoured an area of roughly 112 square miles for the missing sailor. SAN DIEGO (AP) The Latest on President Donald Trumps visit to California to view border wall prototypes (all times local): 5:45 p.m. Tensions are high at a Southern California park where demonstrators for and against Donald Trump gathered near a fundraiser attended by the president. A few hundred people rallied Tuesday evening in Beverly Hills, including anti-Trump protesters who hoisted signs that read Treason, Impeach and Trump U R Fired. At one point a man wearing a red Make America Great Again hat claimed he had been hit by a protester on the other side. Police stepped in to diffuse the situation. Jennifer Medina says she attended the rally to speak out against Trumps immigration policies. She was among a group of protesters who chanted Say it now, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here. Trump is at a fundraiser at a Beverly Hills estate where guests paid up to $250,000 to attend. 4 p.m. President Donald Trump is spending his evening in Southern California at a high-dollar fundraiser hosted by the co-chairman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Guests are paying up to $250,000 to attend the event held at the Beverly Hills home of Ed and Shari Glazer. The money raised will go to a joint fundraising committee that benefits Trumps 2020 re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee. Los Angeles is the second stop of Trumps maiden visit Tuesday to the state as president. He spent the afternoon in San Diego touring prototypes for his stalled border wall. The Los Angeles Police Department is warning about traffic snarls along the presidents route to Glazers home. 2:35 p.m. President Donald Trump says there may someday be a space force fighting alongside the Air Force, Army and other branches of the military. Trump was speaking Tuesday about his administrations investments in space exploration to members of the military when he said that space is becoming a war-fighting domain. He says his idea of a new space force had started as an off-the-cuff comment, but he decided it was a great idea. Trump also says that very soon were going to Mars, and that that wouldnt be happening if his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton, had won. Trump addressed Marines and other service members at an air base in San Diego after visiting his border wall prototypes. 2:25 p.m. President Donald Trump is telling U.S. troops that hes overseeing a massive military buildup, praising soldiers for pushing themselves to new heights of excellence. Trump said Tuesday at Californias Marine Corps Air Station Miramar that the nations military had been asked to do more with less for too long. The president says he remains optimistic about a new U.S. effort to engage with North Korea. Trump says the U.S. is prepared for anything but believes something positive will happen. Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this spring. Trump is also pointing to American efforts to lead in space. He predicts that very soon were going to Mars and adds that you wouldnt be going to Mars if his opponent, Hillary Clinton, had won the 2016 election. 1:20 p.m. President Donald Trump says he has a great relationship with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Trump calls Pena Nieto a wonderful guy and says theyre trying to work things out. Trump adds: Well see whether or not it happens. Relations between the U.S. and Mexico have been deeply strained since Trump took office vowing to build a Southern border wall to stop illegal immigration. Trump insisted during his campaign and throughout his presidency that Mexico will pay for the wall. Mexico insists it will not pay. Trump visited Pena Nieto in Mexico during the 2016 campaign. But Pena Nieto twice has canceled plans to meet Trump at the White House because of Trumps insistence that Mexico pay for the wall. Trump commented Tuesday in San Diego after viewing prototypes for the border wall. 1:10 p.m. President Donald Trump is resuming his feud with the state of California, criticizing the governor, its immigrant protections and the states tax system. The president said Tuesday during a tour of prototypes of his border wall that he has property in California, but the taxes are out of control. Trumps visit comes days after his Justice Department sued to block California laws designed to protect people living in the U.S. illegally. The president says the states sanctuary policies are putting the country at risk. Trump also offered criticism of Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. He says Brown is a nice guy but has not done the job. He says taxes in California are double and triple what they should be. Trump lost the state to Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. 12:50 p.m. President Donald Trump is inspecting prototypes on display in California for his stalled border wall. Trump was briefed on eight towering prototypes Tuesday, including one with blue steel on top. He asked which of the models are the hardest to climb. He also said certain parts of California are desperate for a wall to break the flow of illegal immigration. Said Trump: If you didnt have walls over here you wouldnt even have a country. Trump also says that they re-established law and order in San Diego with a wall. Eight 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) prototypes have been erected near the Mexican border to serve as models for the wall Trump wants to build. 12:35 p.m. The Senates top Democrat says hes not drawing red lines in the sand against President Donald Trumps long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border as he negotiates with the White House and Republicans controlling Congress on a $1.3 trillion spending bill. Sen. Chuck Schumer made the comments Tuesday as Trump traveled to San Diego to inspect prototypes of the wall. Trump has requested $1.6 billion for wall construction in the catch-all measure, but that money would go for older designs. Schumer says the wall would be ineffectual and expensive, but he didnt take a hard line to kill wall funding as he did last spring. Schumer and most other Senate Democrats voted for the wall last month, but only as part of failed legislation to protect young immigrants commonly known as Dreamers. 12:30 p.m. Dozens of pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators gathered on opposite sides of the street as President Donald Trumps motorcade entered a restricted area to see prototypes of his proposed border wall with Mexico. The two sides were separated Tuesday by a heavy presence of police officers in helmets and riot gear, but the protests were peaceful. Demonstrators on each side carried signs and shouted. Several dozen people along the motorcade route took photos. One hoisted a Trump flag and others raised middle fingers. Earlier, about 250 Trump supporters rallied near San Diegos Otay Mesa border crossing. About 100 Trump opponents gathered at San Diegos San Ysidro border crossing, the nations busiest. Pro- and anti-Trump demonstrations were planned later in the day in Los Angeles for the presidents arrival there. 12:20 p.m. President Donald Trump is paying a visit to the prototypes that have been built on the outskirts of San Diego for his promised border wall. The eight 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) models are supposed to be used to help design the wall Trump has promised to build along the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump has long said he wanted to visit the models himself so he can pick a winner, though the Department of Homeland Security says elements of each design are expected to be used. This isnt Trumps first trip to a border location. In July 2015, Trump traveled to Laredo, Texas, just weeks after declaring his candidacy to see the border for himself. San Diego is the largest city on the U.S.-Mexico border to formally oppose his plans, passing a resolution in 2017. 11:55 a.m. President Donald Trump has arrived in San Diego, where hell be touring the prototypes for his stalled border wall. Its his first visit to California as president. Eight 30-foot-tall prototypes have been erected near the Mexican border to serve as models for the wall Trump wants to build. The visit comes as Trump and his administration have voiced increasing anger at Californias refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Trumps Justice Department last week sued the state over three of its immigration laws. Trump will also be addressing Marines in San Diego before flying to Los Angeles for a high-dollar fundraiser. Hell be staying there overnight. 10:20 a.m. Several dozen protesters are demonstrating in San Diego outside the nations busiest border crossing against President Donald Trump and his plans to build more towering barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border. Demonstrators chanting No ban! No wall! are being cheered on Tuesday morning at the San Ysidro (ee-see-droh) port of entry by honking cars and buses. Numerous rallies by groups for and against Trump are planned during his first visit to California as president. Trump will inspect eight prototypes for his future wall project before meeting Marines later in the day. Many people walking into San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico, say they agree with the protest. Others say they understand why people want to secure the border more. 10 a.m. San Diegos Republican mayor says President Donald Trump wont get a full picture of the city during his brief visit to inspect prototypes of his proposed border wall with Mexico. Kevin Faulconer says that if Trump stayed more than a few hours, he would see that a strong economy and free trade arent a contradiction but a way of life. The mayor says a popular cross-border airport terminal connecting San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, shows that building bridges has worked wonders. The terminal is located a few miles from the wall prototypes. He also says that San Diego police work to protect everyone regardless of immigration status, an apparent dig at Trumps approach to immigration enforcement. Faulconers remarks appeared in a commentary published in The San Diego Union-Tribune. 9:20 a.m. President Donald Trump says Californias policy of refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities is unconstitutional, dangerous and MUST STOP! Trump tweeted Tuesday that thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies and are set free to prey on innocent Americans. The president tweeted from aboard Air Force One as it flew him to California for his first visit to the state as president. Trump is scheduled to visit eight prototypes for the massive wall he wants built along the U.S. border with Mexico. Protests for and against the wall are planned. The trip comes as the Trump administration battles California over its refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. 9 a.m. The scene is quiet along the U.S.-Mexico border south of San Diego, where protests are expected when President Donald Trump arrives. Trump will examine prototypes of the wall he wants to build between the two countries. On the Mexican side, federal and state police are standing by Tuesday morning but there is no crowd. Tractor-trailer rigs have been parked along the U.S. side, blocking the view from Mexico. Trump is currently en route to San Diego from Washington, D.C. 2 a.m. Rallies for and against Donald Trumps big beautiful border wall with Mexico are expected to mark his first visit to California as president amid growing tensions between his administration and the state over immigration enforcement. On Tuesday, Trump will visit eight towering prototypes of his planned wall before addressing Marines in San Diego and attending a fundraiser in Beverly Hills. Protests are also planned across the border in Tijuana, Mexico, when Trump visits the wall prototypes built along the international border to fulfill his signature campaign promise. Trump has insisted Mexico pay for the wall but Mexico has adamantly refused to consider the idea. Trumps visit comes just days after his Justice Department sued to block California laws designed to protect people living in the U.S. illegally. SAN DIEGO (AP) President Donald Trump on Tuesday eagerly inspected eight towering prototypes for his long-sought wall at the U.S.-Mexico border and accused California of putting the entire nation at risk by refusing to take tough action against illegal immigration. Trump, making his first trip to California as president, said he preferred a fully concrete wall because it was the hardest to climb, but he noted that it needed to be see-through. He said the first thing he noticed on the drive to the border was the patched-up holes in part of the existing fence. We have a lousy wall over here now, but at least it stops 90, 95 percent, Trump said. When we put up the real wall, were going to stop 99 percent. Maybe more than that. Trumps visit was greeted with peaceful protests by demonstrators both for and against his planned wall. The trip came amid an escalating battle between his administration and the liberal state, which has refused to help federal agents detain immigrants in the U.S. illegally. The president renewed his criticism of Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, saying Tuesday that he was presiding over sky-high tax rates and that the states sanctuary policies put the entire nation at risk. Theyre the best friend of the criminal, Trump said. Thats what exactly is happening. The criminals take refuge in these sanctuary cities and its very dangerous for our police and enforcement folks. The Justice Department last week sued to block a trio of California laws designed to protect people living in the U.S. illegally. Brown accused U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions of going to war with California to appease Trump. After leaving the border, Trump basked in the cheers of U.S. Marines in Miramar, pointing to his work to build up the nations military. He also suggested there may someday be a space force fighting alongside the nations military branches. Referencing his 2016 campaign showdown against Hillary Clinton she received 4 million more votes than Trump in California the president vowed that very soon were going to Mars and the nation would not be seeking to explore the red planet had his opponent won. Trump later attended a high-dollar fundraiser near Los Angeles, where he was staying overnight. Guests paid up to $250,000 to attend the event at the Beverly Hills home of Ed Glazer, co-chairman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The money raised will go to a joint fundraising committee that benefits Trumps 2020 re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee. A few hundred protesters for and against Trump faced off at a Beverly Hills park. A group of pro-immigration demonstrators chanted, Say it now, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here. Demonstrations were also held at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego, the nations busiest border crossing, where protesters chanted, No ban! No wall! as honking cars and buses cheered them on. Protests were also held on the Mexican side, in Tijuana. At San Ysidro, Jose Gonzalez, 21, stopped to snap a photo of the protesters holding signs, including one that read: Wall off Putin! in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has a seemingly close relationship with Trump. I dont think its really fair how he has the choice to separate us, said Gonzalez, a dual citizen who lives in Tijuana and crosses the border daily to work at a San Diego ramen restaurant. Army veteran Mark Prieto, 48, shook his head as he walked by the protest. People are so narrow-minded, the Riverside firefighter said as the crowd chanted. Finally we have someone who is putting America first. His wife, Corina Prieto, a nurse who has extended family in Mexico, agreed. Both voted for Trump. I think he is doing a lot of good, like protecting our Border Patrol, she said. Carla Provost, acting Border Patrol chief, said Trump walked away with great understanding of the requirements we have on the border. She and other agents briefed the president on beefed-up security in California, Arizona and Texas over the years and cautioned that any changes need to preserve the ability to see whats happening on the other side. Provost said Congress has so far funded 40 miles of replacement wall 14 miles in San Diego, 2 miles in Calexico, California, and 24 miles in El Paso, Texas. Trump is seeking $25 billion from Congress to extend the wall but Democratic leaders have balked. His insistence that Mexico pay has gotten no traction. San Diegos Republican mayor criticized Trumps short visit, saying the president wouldnt get a full picture of the city. Kevin Faulconer said a popular cross-border airport terminal connecting San Diego and Tijuana shows that building bridges has worked wonders. Faulconer, writing in The San Diego Union-Tribune, also said San Diego police work to protect everyone regardless of immigration status, an apparent dig at Trumps push to target illegal immigration. Trump tweeted about Californias immigration policies as he flew to the state aboard Air Force One. Californias sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk. Thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP! he wrote. This isnt Trumps first visit to the border. He traveled to Laredo one of Texas safest cities weeks after declaring his candidacy in June 2015. Trump told reporters then that he was putting himself in great danger by coming to the border. But, he said, I have to do it. I love this country. Associated Press writers Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, John Antczak and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Greg Bull in Tijuana, Mexico, and Darlene Superville, Ken Thomas and Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report. NEW YORK (AP) The Latest on the bribery conviction of a former top aide to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (all times local): 3:50 p.m. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the conviction of his former top aide is personally painful but he respects the jurys decision. The federal jury convicted Joseph Percoco on Tuesday of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and soliciting bribes. The Democratic governor says integrity in public service was violated by someone he has known for a long time. Cuomo says hes sad for Percocos young daughters who will have to deal with this pain. But he says there is no tolerance for any violation of the public trust. 2:10 p.m. A former top aide to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says hes disappointed about his bribery conviction but will move forward as he and his lawyers weigh their options. Joseph Percoco spoke briefly outside court Tuesday after a Manhattan jury delivered its verdict. Defense attorney Barry Bohrer says theyre considering an appeal. The jury convicted Percoco of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and soliciting bribes. Percoco thanked his family, friends and legal team for standing by him. 12:30 p.m. A former top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been convicted of accepting bribes. A jury delivered a verdict Tuesday in the trial of Joseph Percoco after deliberating for parts of three weeks. It convicted Percoco on two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and one count of soliciting bribes. Jurors informed the court twice that they were deadlocked in the case against Percoco and three businessmen accused of bribing him. U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni told the jury to keep deliberating. Percoco was a longtime friend of the governor and the manager of his 2014 re-election campaign. Defense lawyers said the payments were legitimate fees for consulting work performed when Percoco was out of state government. 10:55 a.m. Jurors at the bribery trial of a former top aide to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have asked the judge if they could return a verdict on some counts but not others. They sent out a note Tuesday at the trial of Joseph Percoco and three businessmen. The parties were agreeing on language to read to the jurors. The jurors have resumed deliberating twice after saying they were deadlocked. Prosecutors say Percoco accepted over $300,000 in bribes, most of it in the form of a job for his wife. The government also alleged he accepted $35,000 in cash. Defense attorneys say there were no bribes. Cuomo has not been accused of wrongdoing. 10:10 a.m. Jurors at the bribery trial of a former top aide to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are deliberating a day after announcing a second deadlock. The jurors wrote in a note Monday that theyd struck out after considering the facts and the evidence with open minds. They had also said last week that they were divided with no hope of a consensus in the six-week trial of Joseph Percoco and three businessmen. After instructions from the judge, they worked into the afternoon and resumed on Tuesday. Prosecutors say Percoco accepted over $300,000 in bribes, most of it in the form of a job for his wife. The government also alleged he accepted $35,000 in cash. Defense attorneys say there were no bribes. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) The Trump administrations decision to end a program that lets immigrants from four countries live and work legally in the U.S. was motivated by racism and leaves the immigrants American born children with an impossible choice, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Monday. Nine immigrants and five children filed the suit in federal court in San Francisco to reinstate temporary protected status for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. The status is granted to countries ravaged by natural disasters or war. It lets citizens of those countries remain in the U.S. until the situation improves back home. The lawsuit at least the third challenging the administrations decision to end temporary protected status cites President Donald Trumps vulgar language during a meeting in January to describe African countries. They did it because of xenophobia, and we need to make sure that we say it loudly so that everyone knows, said Martha Arevalo, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group, Central American Resource Center. Arevalo spoke at a rally to announce the lawsuit outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco that was attended by some of the plaintiffs and dozens of demonstrators, some carrying signs that read, Let Our People Stay. One of the plaintiffs, Cristina Morales, said she came to the U.S. in 1993 at the age of 12 after fleeing El Salvador to escape domestic violence. She received temporary protected status in 2001 and now works as an after-school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was accompanied at the rally by her 14-year-old daughter, Crista Ramos, who along with her 11-year-old son, Diego Ramos, are U.S. citizens. I dont want the government to split my family and to lose my home, my friends and the opportunity for a good education, Crista said. Morales, 37, her voice quivering with emotion, said she has nothing to go back to in El Salvador. If I pay taxes, health insurance, my house and the education of my children, what I have done wrong, she said. The lawsuit names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a defendant. The department declined to comment on pending litigation. More than 200,000 immigrants could face deportation because of the change in policy, and they have more than 200,000 American children who risk being uprooted from their communities and schools, according to plaintiffs in the case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and other immigrant advocates. The children face the impossible choice of leaving their country with their parents or staying without them, according to the suit. These American children should not have to choose between their country and their family, Ahilan Arulanantham, advocacy and legal director of the ACLU of Southern California, said in a statement. Its the latest lawsuit filed against the Trump administration over its crackdown on immigration. A case filed last month by Haitian and Salvadoran immigrants in Massachusetts also alleges the decision to end temporary protected status was racially motivated. The NAACP has filed a separate lawsuit in Maryland on behalf of Haitian immigrants who received temporary protected status. The program was created for humanitarian reasons, and the status can be renewed by the U.S. government following an evaluation. El Salvador was designated for the program in 2001 after an earthquake and the countrys status was repeatedly renewed. The Trump administration announced in January that the program would expire for El Salvador in September 2019. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen concluded that El Salvador had received significant international aid to recover from the earthquake, and homes, schools and hospitals there had been rebuilt. The Trump administration has ended the program for the other three countries as well. The lawsuit in California alleges that the U.S. narrowed its criteria for determining whether countries qualified for temporary protected status and is violating the constitutional rights of people with temporary protected status and their U.S. citizen children. The lawsuit seeks a court order to reinstate temporary protected status for people from the four countries, but it also proposes an alternative that would protect recipients with school-aged U.S. citizen children for as long as the children remain between five and 18 years old. Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California. LONDON (AP) The Latest on the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain (all times local): 7:10 p.m. The Russian Foreign Ministrys spokeswoman has warned Britain against putting ultimatums to Russia, reminding the U.K. about its nuclear arsenal. Maria Zakharova said in televised remarks Tuesday that no one can come to parliament and say: I give Russia 24 hours,' a reference to British Prime Minister Theresa May giving Russia a deadline to explain how a Russia-designed nerve agent could have been used to poison former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Russia has denied involvement and said it wont respond to a British ultimatum unless it gets samples of the nerve agent in line with rules of the international chemical weapons watchdog. Zakharova said Britain mustnt try to scare Russia and pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putins recent speech in which he presented a range of new nuclear weapons. 6:20 p.m. President Donald Trump says Russia must provide unambiguous answers on how a Russian-developed poison was used in England against a former Russian military intelligence officer who spied for Britain. Trump spoke by telephone on Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May. The White House says Trump agreed with May that the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers on how the chemical came to be used in Britain. The White House says May and Trump also agreed on the need for consequences for those who use heinous weapons in flagrant violation of international norms. May told British lawmakers on Monday it is highly likely that Russia is to blame for the attack this month on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the city of Salisbury this month. British police and intelligence reports say the Skripals were poisoned by a military grade nerve agent produced in Russia. 6:15 p.m. Britain says U.S. President Donald Trump has assured Prime Minister Theresa May that the U.S. is with the U.K. all the way and said Russia must provide clear answers about the nerve-agent poisoning of a former spy. Mays office says Trump and the British leader spoke by phone on Tuesday afternoon. Downing Street says May reiterated Britains view that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack against Sergei and Yulia Skripal. It says Trump said the U.S. was with the U.K. all the way, agreeing that the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used. Russia says it will not meet a British deadline of midnight Tuesday to provide answers unless the U.K. shares samples of the nerve agent 6:00 p.m. Russias Foreign Ministry has sternly warned Britain against shutting the office of Russian state-funded RT television, saying it will lead to the closure of British medias bureaus in Moscow. The ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said in televised remarks Tuesday that not a single British media outlet will be able to work in our country if they close RT. Zakharovas statement came in response to a warning by British media regulator Ofcom that RT could be stripped of its broadcasting license in the U.K. in the wake of the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal. Britain has given Russia until midnight Tuesday to explain how a Russian-made nerve agent came to be used in an English city, or face retaliatory measures. 5:40 p.m. The Russian Embassy in London says Moscow wont respond to a British ultimatum unless it gets samples of the nerve agent used in the attack on a former spy and his daughter. The embassy posted the comment Tuesday on Twitter after Russia suggested that Britain has a duty under the chemical weapons treaty to jointly investigate the nerve agent. Britain has rejected such a notion. British Prime Minister Theresa May has said Russias involvement in the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a Russian who spied for Britain, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, is highly likely. May gave the country a deadline of midnight Tuesday to explain how a Russian-made nerve agent came to be used in an English city, or face retaliatory measures. The embassy tweeted: Moscow will not respond to Londons ultimatum until it receives samples of the chemical substance to which the UK investigators are referring. 5:15 p.m. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Russia must provide quick answers to the legitimate questions posed by the British government about the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter. Merkels office said the German leader spoke by phone on Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May and condemned the nerve agent attack in the sharpest manner. The chancellor assured May that she took Britains assessment about Russias likely responsibility for the attack extraordinarily seriously. Merkel urged Russia to comprehensively and immediately reveal its chemical weapons program to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. 4:30 p.m. A lawyer says a Russian businessman who had associated with a prominent critic of the Kremlin who died in London in 2013 also has been found dead in the British capital. Andrei Borovkov told Russian media outlets on Tuesday that his client, Nikolai Glushkov, has died, but said he was unaware of the time and circumstances. Reports in British and Russian media say Glushkov, who was in his late 60s, was found dead at his home in southwest London. Londons Metropolitan Police force says officers are investigating the unexplained death of a man found at a house in the New Malden area late Monday. It did not identify him by name. Glushkov was a friend of Boris Berezovsky, a Russian oligarch who died in London in 2013. An inquest failed to determine whether he had killed himself or died from foul play. London police say counterterrorism detectives are leading the investigation as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had. Police say there is no evidence to suggest a link to the March 4 poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. 3:50 p.m. Britains representative to the global chemical weapons watchdog says Russia has failed for many years to declare chemical weapons development programs which date from the 1970s and London has demanded that Moscow now come clean. Ambassador Peter Wilson told reporters Tuesday that London wants Russia to declare these programs now. British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday that a military-grade nerve agent was used in the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, and that Russia was highly likely to blame. Wilson also refuted a claim by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Britain would be breaching the treaty that outlaws chemical weapons if it refuses to share with Moscow samples of the nerve agent. 3:35 p.m. Britains media regulator says Kremlin-backed news channel RT could lose its license to broadcast in the U.K. in the wake of the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal. The channel has repeatedly been criticized by regulator Ofcom for breaching impartiality standards, and some British lawmakers have called for it to be shut down. The regulator said Tuesday that it has a duty to be satisfied that broadcast licensees remain fit and proper to hold their licenses. Ofcom said it had written to ANO TV Novosti, which holds RTs U.K. broadcast licenses, saying that if Russia is found to be behind the attack, we would consider this relevant to our ongoing duty to be satisfied that RT is fit and proper. Britain has given Russia until midnight Tuesday to explain how a Russian-made nerve agent came to be used in an English city, or face retaliatory measures. 3:10 p.m. Denmarks prime minister has said the use of chemical weapons in a peaceful English town brings back memories of the Cold War. Lars Loekke Rasmussen was commenting Tuesday on the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in southern England. Loekke Rasmussen told Denmarks TV2 that his country would consult with our allies what countermeasures it can lead to. The Danish government leader also expressed sympathy with the people affected and solidarity with Britain. May told Britains Parliament it is highly likely Russia was to blame for the March 4 attack. British police and intelligence reports say that Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripals were poisoned by a military grade nerve agent produced in Russia. 2:50 p.m. The Russian Foreign Ministry says it has handed the British ambassador a note of protest regarding the accusations leveled against Moscow over last weeks poisoning of an ex-Russian spy. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain hospitalized in critical condition after being exposed to a military-grade nerve agent. British Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed retaliatory measures if Russia offers no explanation for how the nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union came to poison the former spy and his daughter in a British city. The Russian Foreign Ministry says it has summoned British Ambassador Laurie Bristow and handed him a protest note over the baseless accusations leveled against Russia. The ministry dismissed the reaction of British authorities to the attack as provocative and said it suspects the poisoning is another unscrupulous attempt of the British authorities to discredit Russia. 2:30 p.m. British police say the investigation into the chemical agent attack on a former Russian spy will last many weeks, and that they are not declaring a person of interest yet in the probe. In a brief statement outside police headquarters, new counter-terror chief Neil Basu offered more details on the movements of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia before they were attacked in the English town of Salisbury on March 4. He appealed to the public to come forward if they saw the pair that day. Basu says the public will see much police activity in and around the city over the coming days and that they should not be alarmed. Basu also revealed for the first time that Skripal was a British citizen a fact that might color the governments response to the incident. 2:15 p.m. Germanys foreign minister says Berlin is very concerned about the poisoning of the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in England and is voicing solidarity with Britain. Sigmar Gabriel said in a statement that he spoke by phone Tuesday with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. He said that we condemn this attack with a banned chemical weapon in the strongest terms. Gabriel said that the perpetrators must be brought to justice and added: If it is confirmed that Russia is behind this, that would be a very serious matter. Gabriel is to be replaced as foreign minister by Heiko Maas, who is a member of the same party, when German Chancellor Angela Merkels new government takes office on Wednesday. 1:45 p.m. U.S. President Donald Trump has said it sounds like Russia was responsible for the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter in England. Trump told reporters he will discuss the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in southern England with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday. It sounds to me that they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact, Trump said. He added the U.S. will condemn Russia if it agrees with Britains findings. His comments came after May told Parliament it is highly likely Russia was to blame for the attack. British police and intelligence reports say that the Skripals were poisoned by a military grade nerve agent produced in Russia. 12:40 p.m. British police have cordoned off a parking lot ticketing machine in the southwestern city of Salisbury as authorities retraced the steps of a former Russian spy and his daughter targeted in a chemical weapons attack. The ticketing machine near a shopping center in Salisbury, 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of London, was covered by a tent similar to those at other sites where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were seen during a March 4 excursion into the city. A bench where the pair were found and markers for Skripals son and wife in a nearby graveyard are also beneath tents. Authorities say the pair were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent and that Russia is highly likely to be behind it. Prime Minister Theresa May is demanding an explanation. 12:25 p.m. The French Foreign Ministry says the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain is a totally unacceptable attack. Without mentioning Russia, the ministry said in a statement that France repeatedly expressed its refusal of impunity for those who use or develop toxic agents. According to the statement, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke with his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, to express Frances solidarity to a top and strategic ally. 12:20 p.m. A senior European Union official is calling for an EU-wide response to the poisoning of a former spy amid questions over whether Russia is to blame. European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said Tuesday that we cannot have nerve gas being used in our societies. This should be addressed by all of us. He told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France, that it is of the utmost importance that those who are responsible for what has happened see very clearly that there is European solidarity, unequivocal, unwavering and very strong. Timmermans appeal is a show of solidarity amid tense negotiations on Britains departure from the EU next year. Ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent in England last week and remain in critical condition. Noon British Home Secretary Amber Rudd says police and the domestic security service will look into a number of deaths in Britain that may be linked to Russia. In a letter made public Tuesday, Rudd says the government takes seriously allegations that some 14 deaths may have some links to Russia. In the weeks to come, I will want to satisfy myself that the allegations are nothing more than that, Rudd said. The police and MI5 agree and will assist in that endeavor. BuzzFeed News reported in 2017 that some 14 deaths in Britain and the United States dating back to 2006 may have been linked to Russia. The cases include some prominent critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin including oligarch Boris Berezovsky and whistle-blower Alexander Perepilichny. The list also includes former spy Alexander Litvinenko, killed by radioactive tea in 2006, a killing that British officials have linked to the Russian government. 11:50 a.m. The British representative to the worlds chemical weapons watchdog says it is highly likely that Russia is implicated in the nerve agent attack on a former spy and his daughter by failure to control its own materials or by design. Ambassador Peter Wilson told the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on Tuesday that I did not expect to have to brief this council on the first offensive use of a nerve agent of any sort on European territory since World War II. British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter had been poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed in the Soviet Union. Wilson has called the attack not just a crime against the Skripals. It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the U.K., which put the lives of innocent civilians at risk. His comments to the closed-door meeting were tweeted by his delegation. 11:30 a.m. The chairwoman of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament says Britain is trying to influence this weekends Russian presidential election by accusing Moscow of poisoning an ex-spy. Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent in an English city last week and are in the hospital in critical condition. Valentina Matviyenko, who is the third most senior official in Russia, said on Tuesday the British prime ministers statement aims to exert influence and pressure on the March 18 vote. British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday Russia is highly likely to be responsible for the attack. 11:20 a.m. A former chief of Russias main domestic intelligence agency says another post-Soviet nation could be the source of a rare nerve agent that Britain said was responsible for poisoning a Russian ex-spy in an English city last week. British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday that Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter had been poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. Nikolai Kovalyov, former chief of the FSB, told the Russian news agency on Tuesday that Novichok used to be stored in different parts of the Soviet Union, including Ukraine, which have since become independent nations, and that Ukraine or another post-Soviet nation could be the source of it. Britain has asked the Russian ambassador in London to explain how the nerve agent turned up in the English city of Salisbury, leaving Skripal and his adult daughter in critical condition. 11:15 a.m. Russian news agencies say the Foreign Ministry has summoned the British ambassador in Moscow over the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy. The foreign ministry was quoted by Russian wires as saying that the ambassador must visit the ministry later on Tuesday. Britain says a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union was used in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. It has demanded a response from Moscow. 10:40 a.m. The chief of the worlds chemical weapons watchdog says that those responsible for the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter must be held accountable. In a speech Tuesday to the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called him Monday evening to inform him of the results of investigations into the attack on 66-year-old Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia. British Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament that Russia is highly likely to blame for poisoning Skripal and his daughter with a military-grade nerve agent. Uzumcu says that, It is extremely worrying that chemical agents are still being used to harm people. Those found responsible for this use must be held accountable for their actions. Uzumcus comments to the closed-door meeting were released by the OPCW. 10:30 a.m. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last weeks poisoning of an ex-Russian spy if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have sickened the ex-spy and his daughter. Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday Moscows requests to see samples of the nerve agent have been turned down, which he called a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which outlaws the production of chemical weapons. He insisted that Russia is not to blame for the poisoning. British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter had been poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed in the Soviet Union. May said Russia has until the end of Tuesday to explain how the substance ended up in Britain. Lavrov said on Tuesday Moscow is willing to cooperate with the probe but suggested that London would be better off complying with its international obligations before putting forward ultimatums. 9:35 a.m. Britains government is considering how to deal with the poisoning of an ex-spy as it awaits a Russian government response to its claim that Russian was involved. Officials said Tuesday Prime Minister Theresa May is reviewing a range of economic and diplomatic measures. May has said it is highly likely Russia was involved in the nerve agent poisoning of 66-year-old Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia. Both remain in critical condition. The prime minister says Russia has until the end of Tuesday to explain its actions in the case, which focuses on a former Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted of spying for Britain and then released in a spy swap. Former foreign minister David Miliband has urged May to seek support from Europe and the United States. JABALIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) A roadside bomb on Tuesday struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister during a rare visit to the Gaza Strip, causing no serious injuries but throwing an already troubled reconciliation process between rival factions into deeper turmoil. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah had just arrived from his West Bank headquarters to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new water-treatment plant when the bomb went off. Although there was no claim of responsibility, Palestinian officials accused Gaza militants of trying to assassinate Hamdallah. Gazas ruling Hamas group denied involvement. The blast took place at a time of deadlock in reconciliation efforts between Hamdallahs Fatah party and Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since ousting Fatah forces in 2007. It also cast a shadow over a special White House meeting where international donor nations were set to discuss the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. Hamdallah, a soft-spoken former university dean appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas five years ago, went on to inaugurate the long-awaited sewage plant project. But he quickly returned to the West Bank, where he vowed to press ahead with reconciliation efforts. This will not deter from seeking to end the bitter split. We will still come to Gaza, he said. He said the attack underscored the need for the Palestinians to unify under a single authority. Hamas has ceded some government functions and control of Gazas borders, but it has refused calls to disarm and let Palestinian Authority security forces take over. How can a government overtake Gaza without maintaining security? We ask Hamas one more time to empower the government, he said. Without security, there wont be a government or an authority. Hamas condemned the attack, calling it a crime and an attempt to hurt efforts to achieve unity and reconciliation. It promised an urgent investigation. Witnesses said the bomb was planted under an electric pole on Gazas main north-south road and went off shortly after Hamdallahs 20-vehicle convoy had entered through the Israeli-controlled crossing. I could not see anything because smoke and dust filled the air. When the smoke cleared, the explosion was followed by heavy gunfire, apparently from police securing the convoy, said a witness, who declined to be identified because of security concerns. When the dust cleared, I saw people running everywhere, and police were running around. Two vehicles were disabled by the blast, while at least four others were damaged, with windows or sunroofs blown out. One had streaks of blood on the door. Hamdallah said six bodyguards required medical attention. In the West Bank, Abbas blamed Hamas for the blast. But his security chief, Majed Farraj, who was in the convoy and was another potential target of the blast, said it was too early to say who was responsible. There is a long list of potential attackers. While Hamas officials strenuously denied involvement, there are elements within the group that do not want to cede power and oppose the reconciliation process. More radical militants, inspired by the Islamic State group, also operate in Gaza. Some even suggested that the Palestinian Authority had staged the incident to shore up Hamdallahs calls for Hamas to disarm. The 2007 Hamas takeover left the Palestinians with two rival governments, Hamas in Gaza and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority governing autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Repeated attempts at reconciliation have failed or stalled. In November, Hamas handed over control of Gazas border crossings to the Palestinian Authority. It was the first tangible concession in years of Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks. But negotiations have bogged down since then. Hamdallahs visit came at a time of crisis in Gaza. The economy has been devastated by three wars between Hamas and Israel and a decade-long blockade by Israel and Egypt meant to weaken the militant group. Amid warnings of a looming humanitarian catastrophe, the White House was hosting a gathering of international representatives Tuesday to discuss economic development projects and the dire situation. The Palestinian Authority, still angry over the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, did not attend. The U.S., Israel and other Western allies consider Hamas a terrorist group and want assurances that any development aid does not bolster Hamas or get diverted for military purposes. In Washington, White House envoy Jason Greenblatt criticized Hamas for wreaking devastation on the territory through its rule and expressed regret that the Palestinian Authority was not attending. This attack, once again, demonstrates that Hamas is profoundly unfit to govern Gaza, he said in Washington. But we cannot be deterred, and the Palestinian Authority should not be deterred. The European Unions foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, called the attack a deliberate attempt to undermine reconciliation. For the European Union it is clear: those who work to exacerbate divisions through violence are working against the interest of the people of Gaza and of all Palestinians, she said. The United Nations Mideast envoy also condemned the attack. Nickolay Mladenov said until the legitimate Palestinian Authority takes power in Gaza, Hamas is responsible for enabling the internationally backed government to work without fear of intimidation, harassment and violence. The sewage plant was envisioned in 2007 after overburdened sewage reservoirs collapsed, causing a flood that drowned five villagers. The World Bank, European Union and other European governments have provided nearly $75 million in funding for the project. The Hamas takeover, the ensuing Israeli-Egyptian blockade, power shortages and conflicts delayed the opening for four years. Besides the old reservoirs, the plant will receive wastewater from four towns and villages. After treatment, the water will be transferred for irrigation and the remainder will be safely dumped into the sea. JERUSALEM (AP) Hundreds of Ethiopian immigrants demonstrated outside Israels parliament on Monday, demanding the government fulfill a pledge to bring some 8,000 of their countrymen remaining in Ethiopia to Israel. Israels government agreed in 2015 to bring the remaining Ethiopians to Israel but it has not authorized funding for their move. Most of the stranded Ethiopians have close relatives in Israel. Although the families have Jewish roots, Israel doesnt consider them Jewish, meaning they need government approval to immigrate. I have two sisters in Ethiopia still waiting for 13 years (Our) mother is crying day and night, lets stop this pain, Sefi Bililin said at the protest Monday. Her family is one of hundreds that have been split between Israel and Ethiopia over what they say is an inconsistent immigration policy. Many accuse the state of discriminating against the Ethiopian minority, and fear the 2019 budget will fall short. Alisa Bodner, spokeswoman for the protesters, said Tuesday the families have had enough and feel their lives are worth just as much as any other lives here in Israel. Israel clandestinely airlifted thousands of Ethiopian Jews from the country in the 1980s and 1990s, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to bring the ancient community to the Jewish state and help them integrate. About 140,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel today, a small minority in a country of over 8 million. But their assimilation hasnt been smooth, with many arriving without a modern education and then falling into unemployment and poverty. Afghanistan has seen a bloody start of the New Year. In January, the Taliban and the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) Khorasan is the old name for Afghanistan and surrounding areas carried out four major attacks on high-profile targets in Kabul. With competition between the two intensifying and each trying to outdo the other in the magnitude of the terror they unleash, violent attacks in the Afghan capital can be expected to increase this year. Public confidence in the Afghan government has hit rock bottom. BACKGROUND: During a week in January, the Taliban and ISKP carried out at least four large-scale attacks three in Kabul and one in Jalalabad that claimed the lives of 140 people. On January 20, Taliban fighters in army uniforms laid siege to Kabuls Intercontinental Hotel. Twenty people, including 14 foreigners were killed in the 13-hour gun-battle. Five days later, ISKP suicide bombers attacked the Jalalabad office of the international NGO Save the Children Fund, and killed at least 6 people, including four staff. The Taliban struck again on January 27; a militant drove an explosives-filled ambulance into the heart of Kabul and detonated the explosives on a busy street to kill at least 103 people and injure as many as 235. A day later, eleven soldiers were killed when ISKP militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles attacked an army unit guarding a military academy in Kabul. The January attacks underscore yet again the capacity of the Taliban and the ISKP to attack even tightly guarded facilities in the capital. Security arrangements in Kabul were strengthened in the wake of the suicide bombing just outside Kabuls diplomatic district on May 31 last year, which left 150 people dead and 400 others injured. The heightened security notwithstanding, a Taliban suicide bomber struck just outside the Kabul military academy five months later. Security at the military facility was tightened further; however, this did not deter either the Taliban or the ISKP. Over the past year, Taliban and ISKP hideouts have been subjected to relentless aerial bombing by the U.S. Between January 1 and October 31 last year, the U.S. Air Force dropped 3,554 bombs on Taliban hideouts three times the number dropped in 2016 and four times that in 2015. In April, it used the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), the largest non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal, to pulverize ISKP tunnel complexes in Nangarhar. The January attacks indicate that the U.S. aerial bombing of Taliban and ISKP hideouts did not dent their capacities or confidence. IMPLICATIONS: The attacks came just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the decision to cut off almost US$ 2 billion in aid to Pakistan for its continued support to the Taliban and its affiliate, the Haqqani Network, prompting speculation in Kabul about whether the recent upsurge in violence was a fallout of the U.S. decision. An unnamed Afghan official attributed the wave of attacks to Pakistan pushing back against the new U.S. strategy and described it as a small taste of what its capable of. An angry Afghan government swung into action. On January 30, it dispatched a high-power delegation led by Afghan Interior Minister Wais Barmak to Islamabad, where undeniable evidence that the attacks were planned there [in Pakistan] was shared with Pakistani officials, Afghan intelligence Chief Masoom Stanekzai said. This included a list of names of people involved in the attacks and of Pakistani madrasas where the attacks were planned. In previous years, the Taliban would wait for the snow to melt and mountain passes to open before intensifying attacks as part of its annual spring offensive. This year it did not wait for spring to escalate violence. Trumps tweet on January 1, announcing the aid cut-off to Pakistan could have resulted in the Taliban striking early. The January attacks in Kabul confirm that competition between the Taliban and the ISKP is heating up. Since early 2015 when the ISKP announced its entry into Afghanistan, the two have clashed violently on several occasions. While the ISKP was successful in drawing some disgruntled Taliban commanders it has not been able to extend its influence beyond Nangarhar province. Since July last year, it has signaled an interest in targeting Kabul. Attacks with a large number of casualties in Kabul are rewarding for those seeking to terrorize the population, drawing substantial attention in the media and thus serving to attract recruits keen to join the group perceived as most potent of the two. Importantly, attacks in Kabul are likely to impress foreign governments and others funding their violent operations. With the recent attacks, Kabul has emerged the main battleground in the Taliban-ISKP rivalry. Violent attacks in Kabul are also useful to deepen the wedge between the capitals residents and the Ashraf Ghani government. A growing number of civilians in the capital are questioning Ghanis capacity to provide them with basic security. They are wondering what use is a government that cannot defend the capital from repeated terror attacks. The prestige of the state in the eyes of Kabuls residents has been undermined by the recent attacks and public confidence in the Ghani government is at an all-time low. This is not a new development but an alarming one in a country that is struggling to build democratic state institutions. The Taliban and the ISKP are likely to escalate attacks in Kabul in the coming months especially as spring approaches, when the movement of fighters from Pakistan to Afghanistan will become easier. The Ghani government, whose credibility has plunged seriously, could use terror attacks in Kabul to justify postponing upcoming elections to parliament and district councils. Postponement of elections will weaken Afghanistans already fragile democracy. The impact of the Kabul attacks on Trumps Afghan strategy will be keenly observed in Afghanistan and abroad, especially the neighborhood. On August 21, Trump announced his new strategy to boost the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. The scaling up of military operations against the Taliban and ISKP were widely viewed as an attempt to convince them that they cannot win on the battlefield. With their attacks in Kabul in January, the Taliban and ISKP sent a corresponding signal to the U.S.. However, the recent attacks are unlikely to convince Trump to change tracks. Consequently, a serious escalation of the conflict is to be expected this year. CONCLUSIONS: The recent attacks in Kabul and Jalalabad underscore the fact that the Taliban cannot be defeated on the battlefield. In the circumstances, the surge in troops proposed by the Trump administration could end up being another exercise in futility. The attacks confirm that contrary to U.S. claims, the capacities of the Taliban and the ISKP are growing. The outlook for Afghanistan has never been bleaker. The U.S.-led military operations against the Taliban in the 2000s could not defeat the Taliban. Neither the surge in American troops in 2010 nor the draw-down in 2014 ended the fighting. The U.S.s acceleration of aerial bombing has not worked to deter the Taliban or the ISKP from carrying out high-profile attacks. Thus, the military option to end the insurgency has clearly not worked. A negotiation process that includes the Taliban seems the only way out. Space may have opened up for the Chinese, who are mediating a peace process that includes the Afghan and Pakistani governments and the Taliban. The question is whether the Taliban are interested. AUTHORS BIO: Dr. Sudha Ramachandran is an independent researcher / journalist based in India. She writes on South Asian political and security issues. Her articles have been published in Asia Times Online, The Diplomat, China Brief, etc. She can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Image source: By Daniel Wilkinson (U.S. Department of State) via Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons, accessed on 3.13. 2018 CAMEROUN :: Cameroon: Two arrested ; elephant ivory and a gun seized. Two traffickers have been arrested transporting ivory tusks and a gun along the Campo - Ebolowa road by officials of the South Regional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife. A woman was also arrested for providing a hunting rifle that was found in their possession alongside the ivory and a military uniform. The two, aged 41-year-old each, were travelling on board a car with the products loaded in the boot when the car was checked at the Meyo Centre Carrefour by wildlife officials who had prior information of the nature of the products the car was transporting. The operation was carried out with the collaboration of the judicial police in Ebolowa and with the technical assistance of a non governmental organization called LAGA (EAGLE Cameroon). Wildlife officials and plain clothes policemen had been monitoring the movement of the car that halted at the junction in Meyo. They immediately approached and blocked the car at both ends. Two men were found at the back seats and ordered to step out. After the arrest, Senior Police Superintendent Henrick Walter Elouna who is the Head of the South Regional Judicial Police declared: I was approached by the South Regional Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife, to give a hand to his collaborators and the NGO called LAGA. When the team arrived the ground they found the car and Elouna declared: we arrested two poachers who had killed two elephants. The car was equally searched and a Carabine 450 rifle was found inside according to Nchenghe Pius Arrey, a wildlife controller who was part of the team. He said: We discovered four elephant tusks and a gun inside. A Carabine 450 rifle was found in a bag that equally contained a saw, a calculator, a military fatigue, a scale and a torch. These are handful equipment for operating in the forests, killing elephants, cutting off the tusks and weighing them. The second bag contained four ivory tusks cut into 7 pieces. The two were taken to the judicial police where preliminary interrogations revealed more information. One of the two suspects is a poacher who had allegedly just killed three elephants and the second was the trafficker who had the poacher under his employ. According to one source, further questioning would have revealed that the gun was handed to them by the wife of a police superintended who died some 4 years ago. She was also arrested at her residence where two other guns she possessed had earlier been stolen. The military fatigue that was found among the products, it was revealed, was given to them by a colonel. The products, preliminary investigations indicate, were retrieved early morning on the day of the arrest in Akak some 15 km from Campo by the two who were travelling to Ebolowa to sell the ivory. They had successfully passed two police check points, the Mann and Meban checkpoints and were very close to Ebolowa where it would have been very difficult to sort them out. When police searched the contents of their bags, a crowd started gathering and some eyewitnesses exclaimed it was their fist time of seeing elephant ivory. Two of the four ivory tusks weighed over 33kg, indicating the huge size of the elephant that was recently killed to obtain the tusks. The South Region is considered by wildlife law enforcement experts as the hotbed for ivory trafficking with localities such as Djoum, Ambam and Ebolowa the epicenters. The Regional Delegation is stepping up collaborative efforts to ensuring enforcement measures are adapted to the intensity of the trafficking. | BY Ricki Green | Campbell Arnotts has today announced the appointment of Publicis Groupe as the key agency partner for Asia Pacific (APAC) Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Indonesia across creative, media planning and buying, digital, public relations and shopper marketing. Publicis Groupe will service Campbell Arnotts team under its Power of One model, providing an operational backbone whilst accessing expertise from across its agency group. Says Michael Rebelo, CEO, Publicis Communications: Were proud to be given such a strong vote of confidence by such an iconic company such as Campbell Arnotts in our Power of One philosophy and platform. Were looking forward to seamlessly assembling our talent from across all of our marketing transformation disciplines to help Campbells Arnotts in their ambitious mission across APAC. The majority of Campbell Arnotts Australian agency business was previously held by Clemenger Group under The Kitchen Table for creative and Wavemaker (formally MEC) for media planning and buying. In New Zealand, these roles were held by Y&R and Y&R Media respectively. Says David McNeil, vice president of marketing, Campbell Arnotts APAC: Together with Clemenger and Wavemaker, Australia and Y&R New Zealand, we have delivered many successful campaigns. We thank these agency partners for their outstanding commitment to building our brands in ANZ. This announcement supports Campbell Soup Companys simultaneous statement which also sees Publicis Groupe appointed as the lead agency network for U.S. retail and Canada across creative, media planning and buying, digital, technology and consumer promotion business. The appointment of Publicis as the sole holding agency across Campbell Arnotts APAC roster is driven by the demand for a channel-agnostic, regionally led approach, supported by a horizontal P&L. This simplified partnership builds on the integrated agency model implemented locally in 2015, ensuring Campbell Arnotts continues to deliver world class marketing solutions. Publicis Groupe, the third largest communications company in the world, will leverage its unique assets in creativity, media, public relations, data and technology to deliver high-level campaigns that will directly impact how Campbell Arnotts brands engage with their consumers. Publicis will provide integrated experiences and through-the-line marketing to increase both relevancy and engagement with consumers throughout their purchasing journey. This leading model will allow Campbell Arnotts to leverage Publicis entire suite of marketing services and increase agency accountability, whilst entrusting an agile, results-driven approach versus a more traditional marketing model. Says McNeil: Were excited to partner with Publicis to help us take the next step toward building APACs most innovative and truly integrated agency model. In todays fast paced, highly connected environment, having all our consumer conversations housed under one roof will ensure we receive seamless, integrated solutions that bring valuable, tangible commercial benefits to the organisation. Over the past three years, we have revolutionised our approach to creative marketing by taking several steps towards a comprehensive agency roster. A consolidated partnership with Publicis will deliver multiple efficiencies and maximise our communications channels to increase engagement amongst current consumers whilst recruiting new brand advocates. Says Loris Nold, Publicis CEO of Publicis Groupe APAC: Publicis is extremely excited to be joining Campbell Arnotts as their holding agency partner, both here in APAC and in North America. For a long time, we have believed in our model to deliver integrated communications solutions, tailored to individual regions, housed under one roof. The Campbell Arnotts brands in APAC are powerful, unique brands full of equity and heritage. They have a rich, abundant past and we are thrilled to be a part of their future. | BY Ricki Green | Brisbanes advertising community are creating art from the humble bowling pin in the name of charity. Post production studio, Cutting Edge, has announced it will be hosting a unique charity art exhibition and auction, with all proceeds going to Youngcare. The event will be held on Thursday, April 19 from 7:00pm at Cutting Edge in Brisbane. Titled CEX the project challenged members of Brisbane advertisings creative community to transform an ordinary bowling pin into a work of art. The results are both varied and spectacular, demonstrating the unique points of view from artists who work across different mediums and advertising professions. To attend the auction, you can RSVP your spot at cuttingedge.com.au/cex. Says Blaize Bennett of Cutting Edge: Brisbane has one of Australias most impressive advertising communities. The ideas and artistry that come from this town are some of the best in the country. We pitched the challenge and artists enthusiastically jumped at the chance to get involved and support young Australians with high care needs. On the evening of April 19, Cutting Edge, will display and auction bowling pins which were distributed amongst Brisbane advertisings best minds with the instruction, make art. Creatives from Cutting Edge, PublicisQ, Clemenger, BCM and Y&R have all lent their creative talents in support of Youngcare. Showcasing Brisbanes creative talent, the CEX exhibition and auction will feature pieces from animators, designers, editors and VFX artists from Cutting Edge, in addition to pins from advertising agencies, creatives and freelancers. Taking part in the creative challenge, Cutting Edge editor and motion graphics designer, Matt Kelly, hoped his art piece Ten Pin Groot, will raise vital funds for Youngcare on auction night. Says Kelly: I have always been a massive fan of concept art for cinema, video and gaming, and after seeing Marvels concept designs for Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, I wanted to test my skills to see if I could create my own representation of the character. Auctioneer and real estate guru, Paul Liddy, will call the auction on behalf of Youngcare. Says Liddy: The bowling pins are complete transformations of an everyday object. Each is a unique pieces of art, with one artist designing and crafting his pin into a working coffee machine. With 19 bowling pins going under the hammer, Youngcare co-founder and Cutting Edge managing director, Matthew Lawson explained, too many young Australians with high care needs are being left behind. Says Lawson: All young people deserve the freedom to choose where they live, who they live with and how they live their lives. We are working towards making sure young Australians with high care needs can choose where they call home. CEX Bowling Pin Art Exhibition & Auction Event Details: When: Thursday April 19 from 7:00pm Where: Cutting Edge, 90 Victoria St, West End Entry: | BY Ricki Green | Clemenger Group Australia and New Zealand has sent a cross-disciplined crack-team to SXSW 2018 in Austin, Texas. Together, theyre bringing daily updates for Campaign Brief readers, featuring only the very best of the conference. 2018 Emerging Tech Trends Report Amy Webb, founder of Future Today Institutea Washington DC-based think tankpresented her predictions for the not-too-distant future. Identifying the 10 key sources of all future change, Webbs presentation ranged from Government to Wealth Distribution to Media. This may sound like a lot thats because it is. So, to frame her predictions and give a little context, Webb ranked her future horizons (10, 15, 25 years) under three 3 categories: Optimistic, Pessimistic and Catastrophic. Sorry to be party poopers, but Webb rates the likelihood of an optimistic outcome as zero. Ouch. But, it wasnt all doom and gloom here in Texas. In brighter news, here are Webbs five key trends we will see emerging in 2018. Smartphones have peaked in terms of technological advancement and sales. 2018 marks the beginning of an end to this tech. 50% of people will interact with tech via voice by 2021. Advancements in machine learning will move forward at rapid pace this year, which brings about concerns over privacy especially within the Facial Recognition field. Voiceprints: Using your voice or a short conversation with a digital assistant will replace passwords. AR and Mixed Reality will continue to be more widely adopted -not only for entertainment, but utility. Despite other attendees predictions of a world where AI will replace human interactions, Webb believes that the data we create in our interactions with each other and technology is the new oil. The big question, and one we should all be debating about, is how our data should be mined and used. - A Q&A with Elon Musk One of the best things about SXSW is the unexpected surprises. But this years WHAT!? moment was particularly amazing. After crashing the WestWorld Keynote (with less than 24 hours notice), technological deity Elon Musk announced a Q&A session. It goes without saying that its not every day you have the opportunity to listen, speak or ask questions of the people that push the entire human race forward. Okay, were a little star struck. But can you blame us? Musk told an audience that his timeline for sending a space vehicle to Mars could mark its first milestone early next year. The privately-funded venture, announced in September 2017, aims to send a cargo mission to Mars by 2022. He also mentioned that SpaceXs ultimate mission is to plant the seeds thatll allow us to colonize Mars, stating, I think well be able to complete short trips and flights by the first half of next year. He also regaled the audience with anecdotes about several of his ventures, including Tesla and the Boring Company. But the most surprising response from the mythic man was when he was asked who inspires him. His response: Kanye West. - Google Fun House Every year, major players jump on the SXSW bandwagon to flaunt their stuff in a more immersive, interactive way. This year, as expected, Google came to the party. To show off what its AI and voice-activated assistant can do, Google turned an entire house into a giant, connected smart home powered by Google Assistant demonstrating the ways Google AI can be integrated into everyday life. The demos ranged from obvious thingslike turning on the sprinkler system, controlling lights, music, blinds and the TVto more advanced things, like using kitchen appliances, dispensing pet food and seamlessly enhancing the online experience through Googles AI-enabled Chromebooks and smartphones. Google also showed off a few of its brand partnerships. Visitors to the Google Fun House could get Patrons Google Assistant skill to make them a margarita, order a pizza through the Dominos skill and even get a tricked-out lowrider to find a carpark and bounce to music to showcase its in-car Spot Hero skill integration. Needless to say, it was a pretty fun house. Behind all the bells and whistles, their core idea was strikingly simple: Make Google Do It. Ok, Google. | BY Kim Shaw | Campbell Arnotts has today announced the appointment of Publicis Groupe as the key agency partner for Asia Pacific (APAC) Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Indonesia across creative, media planning and buying, digital, public relations and shopper marketing. This announcement supports Campbell Soup Companys simultaneous statement which also sees Publicis Groupe appointed as the lead agency network for U.S. retail and Canada across creative, media planning and buying, digital, technology and consumer promotion business. The appointment of Publicis as the sole holding agency across Campbell Arnotts APAC roster is driven by the demand for a channel-agnostic, regionally led approach, supported by a horizontal P&L. This simplified partnership builds on the integrated agency model implemented locally in 2015, ensuring Campbell Arnotts continues to deliver world class marketing solutions. Publicis Groupe, the third largest communications company in the world, will leverage its unique assets in creativity, media, public relations, data and technology to deliver high-level campaigns that will directly impact how Campbell Arnotts brands engage with their consumers. Publicis will provide integrated experiences and through-the-line marketing to increase both relevancy and engagement with consumers throughout their purchasing journey. This leading model will allow Campbell Arnotts to leverage Publicis entire suite of marketing services and increase agency accountability, whilst entrusting an agile, results-driven approach versus a more traditional marketing model. Says David McNeil, vice president of marketing, Campbell Arnotts APAC: Were excited to partner with Publicis to help us take the next step toward building APACs most innovative and truly integrated agency model. In todays fast paced, highly connected environment, having all our consumer conversations housed under one roof will ensure we receive seamless, integrated solutions that bring valuable, tangible commercial benefits to the organisation. Over the past three years, we have revolutionised our approach to creative marketing by taking several steps towards a comprehensive agency roster. A consolidated partnership with Publicis will deliver multiple efficiencies and maximise our communications channels to increase engagement amongst current consumers whilst recruiting new brand advocates. Says Loris Nold, Publicis CEO of Publicis Groupe APAC: Publicis is extremely excited to be joining Campbell Arnotts as their holding agency partner, both here in APAC and in North America. For a long time, we have believed in our model to deliver integrated communications solutions, tailored to individual regions, housed under one roof. The Campbell Arnotts brands in APAC are powerful, unique brands full of equity and heritage. They have a rich, abundant past and we are thrilled to be a part of their future. | BY Lynchy | Singapore Airlines has launched its new campaign, Making Every Journey Personal, reinforcing the brands commitment to service excellence, and making every customer feel special, regardless of the class in which they travel. Created by TBWA\Singapore, the campaign conveys the sense of an immersive personal journey that many customers experience when travelling with Singapore Airlines. We wanted to demonstrate how the airline creates experiences that are designed entirely around the customer, said Gary Steele, Executive Creative Director at TBWA\Singapore. The kind of experiences that allow you to feel like youre in your own world, even 30,000 feet in the air and many thousands of miles from home. The brand film exemplifies this idea through protagonist, the Singapore Girl, actively engaging with customers in their imaginative worlds, before revealing they are actually on board a flight enjoying a special moment enabled by her attentive and personalised service. As is the case for all Singapore Airlines marketing materials and brand campaigns, the Singapore Girl starred in the film is not an actress, but an actual member of Singapore Airlines multi-talented cabin crew. The new film will be aired on TV and digital channels worldwide, whilst also screening in selected movie theatres. This campaign also features the latest cabin products available on the Singapore Airlines A380, and is a continuation of the airlines narrative around product leadership and service excellence. Singapore Airlines has long been synonymous with warm, intuitive and attentive service, complementing the most advanced inflight products. In an era when travel often feels impersonal, we felt it timely to remind how Singapore Airlines, the worlds most awarded airline, makes every moment personal through attention to detail, unparalleled levels of comfort and privacy and, especially, the human touch. said Campbell Wilson, Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing, Singapore Airlines. Watch the brand film here: Credits Executive Creative Directors: Gary Steele, Hagan de Villiers Creative Directors: Perry Essig, Jennie Morris Copywriter: Claudia Riberio Art Director: Weicong Chong Group Head, Brand Team Management: Dawn Lee Brand Director: Nastasha Gotangco Planner: Yanting Wong Project Manager: Becky Loh Executive Producers: Haydn Evans, Sariyanti Sannie (SixToes.TV) Production House: AppleBox Asia Director: John S Park Director of Photography: Werner Maritz Executive Producers: Khoo Peng Tein, Dane Neo, Josephine Ong Music: Song Zu Composer: Adrian Sergovich Music Directors: Ramesh Sathiah, Gerard Fitzgerald Sound Design: Damian Waddell | BY Kim Shaw | Visit Victoria has today unveiled a new China campaign via BBDO Shanghai, fronted by rising Chinese actor Li Xian. The campaign translates to Melbourne, a place that is uniquely special in its own way and marks a new phase of the states marketing strategy in China. It emphasises key tourism offerings in Victoria including food and wine, festivals and events, arts and culture, nature and wildlife, and highlights Melbournes distinctive travel offerings. Research shows that Chinese travelers are seeking more personalised, distinctive and meaningful travel experiences. Thus, the essence of Visit Victorias campaign is an invitation to travelers to discover the state and experience all that it has to offer, and features key city and regional destinations. The campaign is targeted at independent elite travelers from China, aged 25 to 45 years seeking local and authentic experiences that can give them the opportunity to learn and grow. Says Daniel Andrews, Victorian premier: This is Victorias first dedicated China campaign in six years we want to show visitors from China what makes Melbourne the worlds most liveable city seven years straight. Victorian Minister for Tourism and Major Events John Eren said that the campaign will work to strengthen links with Chinese communities in Victoria and overseas. Says Eren: Were very proud of our strong links with China from the growing number of visitors to our vibrant Victorian Chinese community. This new campaign will boost our economy and support jobs by inviting a new generation of Chinese travellers to experience the best of everything Victoria has to offer. Speaking at the launch event, Visit Victoria chief executive officer Peter Bingeman said: Visit Victorias exciting new campaign will showcase some of the diverse and engaging experiences on offer and is designed to continue to win the hearts and minds of Chinese travellers. It has been developed to promote Melbourne by appealing to a new generation of travellers with Melbournes distinctive and aspirational characteristics as a sought-after destination. The campaign highlights the wonderful offerings that have made Melbourne the worlds most liveable city for seven years in a row and will ensure we continue to welcome more visitors than ever before. China is currently Victorias largest international source market for visitors, visitor nights and expenditure and has topped the chart as the biggest traveller segment in the world. Visit Victoria has the ambition to making Melbourne stand out as a must-visit travel destination within Australia. The newly launched China campaign will showcase Melbourne and Victoria across multiple consumer channels, including online television, digital and social media platforms. Visit Victoria will also work closely with the Chinese travel trade partners to develop self-drive itineraries featuring unique wildlife experiences, fresh produce and dining experiences, festivals and events as well as Victorias stunning natural landscapes. Says Terry Zhang, acting regional manager Greater China: We are delighted to appoint Mr. Li Xian as the campaign ambassador for Visit Victoria in China. His unique, inquisitive and energetic character matches perfectly with Victorias diverse qualities. We believe this partnership with Mr. Li Xian will build a greater understanding of the Melbourne and Victoria for our travelers. Our goal is to attract more Chinese visitors to consider Melbourne as their first choice when traveling abroad. This new video showcases Melbournes unique city charms complemented by spectacular regional natural landscapes. It begins in the heart of Melbourne at Federation Square, with Li Xian walking through the iconic Flinders Street Station; strolling along Hosier Lane to view ever-changing street art; meeting Australias adorable animals in the wildlife park; flying over the spectacular Twelve Apostles by helicopter; and enjoying the view from a hot-air balloon over the fields, lakes and grapevines of the Yarra Valley. The visuals clearly show that Melbourne is indeed Australias most beautiful, romantic, diverse and friendly city. Says Li Xian: I am honoured to be the campaign ambassador for Visit Victoria. During the video shoot, I was so impressed by Melbourne with many beautiful views and memorable moments. I look forward to sharing my wonderful travels with Chinese travelers so they can create their own memorable experience in Melbourne, in their own unique way. Li Xian has starred in numerous popular films and television series, including Tientsin Mystic, Medical Examiner: Dr. Qin, A Smile is Beautiful, Who Sleeps My Bro, and Only Side by Side with You. His current fan following on Weibo is almost 2.4 million people. Weibo Hot Topic NO. 1 on Li Xian takes you to Melbourne launched on Weibo yesterday and has already had more than 10 million views. Monday, March 12, 2018 at 8:07PM CareCru Inc., an AI-driven platform for dentists and dental groups, announces today they have raised a seed round investment. The round was led by Peter McCullagh of TenX Ventures with participation from Manny Padda of New Avenue Capital and several other high-profile tech investors. This round of funding will be used to accelerate development of their platform and expand sales and marketing efforts. The CareCru team has developed an automation platform, powered by artificial intelligence, that grows and manages dental practices with minimal human intervention. Built from the ground up to be completely self-driving, the CareCru platform also generates real-time analytics, providing managers with the tools to run a successful dental practice. "CareCru is innovating, automating, and bringing real change to the way practitioners communicate with patients," said CEO and Co-Founder, Lonny McLean. "The dental industry is currently our focus due to rapid changes happening in that sector. However, this technology has broader implications for healthcare in general." Prior to founding CareCru, Lonny was the Founder and CEO of Layer 7 Technologies. The sale of Layer 7 to CA Technologies in 2013 for $170 million is recognized as one of the more successful exits in the Canadian technology industry. CareCru's board is joined by Peter McCullagh, General Partner at TenX Ventures, who has taken an active role in driving key strategic initiatives. Mr. McCullagh draws from over 25 years of experience in senior executive roles with several notable software companies, including Siebel Systems and Misys plc. "This is a great team, at the perfect stage, driving some important innovation." said Peter. "CareCru is an ideal investment for TenX Ventures and we are excited to work with them." The advisory board is also joined by BIV's Top 40 under 40 and NACO's Angel Investor of the Year, Manny Padda. Mr. Padda has made early stage investments in several Vancouver start-ups including Picatic, MyBestHelper, G-Kup, ShareShed, and Dooly. "AI and dental practice management is a clear fit," said Manny. "Add to that, the team's excellent track record building successful businesses, and the future of this company is highly promising. I look forward to helping them grow." Tuesday, March 13, 2018 at 9:27AM By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla with the ecobee Switch+ you can make any home or apartment a truly smart home by integrating Amazon's Alexa and all its connected features on a structural level. Smart speakers are the hottest consumer technology devices in Canada this year. We already have an ongoing turf war between Google Home, which has a year's head start in Canada (and was also partly developed in Waterloo, ON) and Amazon Echo, whose Alexa smart assistant leads the market in the US and which is available on a range of speakers, PCs and other devices. ecobee's new Switch+ replaces any single light switch in your home or office and effectively brings the power of Alexa and all the skills it can access into a diminuitive and integrated device that brings about the next level of smart home. This minimalist and elegant solution replaces any old light switch into a control center for smart lights and appliances. It can play back music or news reports and make phone calls to people in your phone's address book. Being a smart switch, the ecobee Switch+ can sens when you walk in and open the lights automatically, it can also switch off the lights when it determines the room is empty. That's just the beginning since this is basically a computer on your wall that can get new features via sotware updates. Insstallation can be a DIY project if you're confident enough. A certfied electrician can get it set up in 30 minutes. You need to first turn off all the power in the area to avoid electrocution and then follow the step by step process of replacing your old switch with the ecobee Switch+. Once installed you fire up your app and add the ecobee Switch to your Alexa network, update any software and you're good to go. Audio quality is surprising adequate for such a tiny speaker and it works just as efficiently as an Echo Dot. As for smart home sysstems, it integrates with supports Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, the Google Assistant, Samsung SmartThings and IFTTT. news, latest-news A Canberra doctor who hugged and kissed a female patient has been banned from treating women for up to 18 months after being found to be a "real risk to females". Mohamed Helmy, a general practitioner who formerly practised in Conder, was reprimanded by the ACT civil and administrative tribunal this month after it formally found his behaviour amounted to unprofessional conduct He will only be allowed to practice at an approved location and will not be allowed to treat female patients for either 18 months or six months after he has completed an education course. Dr Helmy must also be supervised by another doctor for 24 months. The medical board alleged that Dr Helmy inappropriately hugged and kissed a female patient during a consultation in March 2016, and in doing so had exploited the power imbalance between doctor and patient. The tribunal also heard three women had been concerned enough with Dr Helmy's behaviour to take their complaints to the police or APRHA. Dr Helmy disputed his actions had a sexual intent, although he admitted to returning his patient's hug as she left his surgery and kissing her on the cheek. But the medical board said whether there was sexual intent or not his behaviour was clearly inappropriate. "[The medical board] also referred to the findings by the tribunal that whatever the actual intention of the practitioner, the conduct admitted by the doctor including hugging, handholding and kissing was clearly contrary to the code of conduct and, whatever the doctors intention, amounted to sexual and intimate conduct that was clearly inappropriate," the tribunal said. "The board correctly pointed out that in this case, whilst none of the witnesses came forward to give evidence, the tribunal was satisfied that three women, unknown to each other, all felt that they had been inappropriately dealt with sexually and were sufficiently discomforted to inform the police and AHPRA.". Dr Helmy opposed the length of the gender ban but the tribunal found the time period would not be "intrinsically oppressive". "It will mean that the practitioner might have to wait for at most about 18 months before he can treat females unaccompanied," the tribunal said. "Given the real risk to females revealed by our findings, we are of the view that this is not an excessive period and is necessary to protect the public. "The combination of education, continuous supervision before and after the gender restriction, and the time away from treating females at all should be an effective means of providing for public safety and providing support for the practitioner to establish a practice armed with the guidance and learning provided by the supervisor and the education." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/3f5b70e9-f0b8-4ccc-89d7-711cd4518e81/r0_141_2000_1271_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news Text messages read in the Fair Work Commission showed a former massage parlour owner had told an employee what to say in the hearing, contradicting other evidence that had been given. In the second hearing of the unfair dismissal case involving two workers at Canberra Foot and Thai massage parlour, massage supervisor Jun Millard Puerto was called as a witness for the business, which was represented by Colin Elvin. In the final moments of the day's proceedings messages from Mr Elvin to Mr Puerto, with instructions about what to say in the hearing, were read to the commission by an interpreter. In what Fair Work Commission deputy president John Kovacic described "a couple of very difficult days" on March 1 and 2, evidence attempting to challenge credibility of witnesses on both sides was heard. The commission is considering whether two employees were unfairly dismissed in October 2015. Delo Be Isugan claims that she was forced to run away from her position at the massage parlour after becoming fearful that she would be sent back to the Philippines. She had started a relationship with fellow employee Bartolome Durado, which she says was against rules for employees put in place by Mr Elvin. Mr Durado claims he was also unfairly dismissed because of the relationship. Canberra Foot and Thai massage parlour in Belconnen was represented by former owner and director Colin Elvin, who told the commission that he was now working as a consultant for the business. He said it was more appropriate for him to represent the business than its current owner as he was owner at the time of the alleged unfair dismissal. Deputy president Kovacic asked Mr Elvin multiple times throughout the second day of hearings to stop messaging on his phone. Stefan Russell-Uren, legal officer for United Voice and representing the two workers, asked that the phones of Mr Elvin and Mr Puerto be surrendered to the commission, stating that he suspected Mr Puerto had materially changed his evidence on the advice of Mr Elvin. He also tendered a photo of Mr Elvin speaking to Mr Puerto during the lunch break in proceedings. In what the deputy president conceded was an "highly extraordinary" move, a message sent from Mr Elvin to Mr Puerto was read as evidence. It included instructions on what to say to the commission. Earlier in the day, Mr Elvin gave evidence that he did not terminate Ms Isugan or Mr Durado for their relationship, but that he had asked other staff about Ms Isugan's performance as a massage therapist. He said she received below-average ratings in customer surveys and that she was disruptive in a quiet workplace. Mr Elvin also alleged that Mr Durado had sold stolen items to other staff members at the massage parlour. He said that there were no rules against relationships between staff. During Mr Elvin's evidence, Mr Russell-Uren attempted to tender a recording, which he said was a conversation between Mr Elvin and his employees and would contradict the evidence given in the hearing. The deputy president asked that a transcript of the recording be made so that it could be considered as a possible piece of evidence at a later hearing. Mr Puerto told the commission that Ms Isugan's relationship with Mr Durado was "part of the reason" she was dismissed. In the case of Mr Durado, he said the relationship was a secondary reason, but that the primary reason was that he sold items to other workers and disappeared at times. Earlier in the proceedings, Mr Puerto changed his witness statement to say that he was going to recommend that the company dismiss Ms Isugan, and it was not Mr Elvin who told Mr Durado of plans to dismiss her. Staff at the massage parlour were restricted from having relationships, Mr Puerto told the hearing, in order to avoid negative associations between brothels and massage parlours. There will be a further hearing in the case, which is expected to take place late in April. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/130727fd-9225-4273-a3ae-b5fda8c23271/r0_134_2000_1264_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news A police officer told a teenager during a traffic stop in Civic that he would search him "for being a smart arse" before swearing at him to get the "f--k" out of the car, a court heard on Tuesday. In a dramatic video played to the court, the officers drag the 19-year-old passenger out of the car and put him face down on the asphalt before they cuff his hands behind his back. No charges were ever laid against either the driver of the car or the passenger following the traffic stop late on Australia Day last year. But Senior Constable Matthew McVicar, 35, and Constable James Head, 29, were later charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm following the altercation. They have pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers said at the outset of a hearing on Tuesday that the officers were acting in the execution of their duties. It was about 10pm on January 26 last year. The driver had just picked up his friend and his friend's girlfriend from an Australia Day party in Belconnen. The alleged victim said he had been drinking that day, about 10 to 15 beers since midday, but denied he was being aggressive. The driver told the ACT Magistrates Court at the hearing on Tuesday that he was unfamiliar with Civic streets, and on the way home accidentally drove straight through the bus interchange on East Row towards London Circuit, where cars are not allowed to go. The two general duties police officers saw the car and turned on their lights. The driver told the court he could not see anywhere suitable where he could immediately pull over, so he had used his arm to indicate to police out the window that he would turn into the car park opposite Mooseheads, about 50 to 100 metres away. Once pulled over, prosecutors say Snr Constable McVicar had a short conversation with the driver before both officers left to talk to another person walking past. The next conversation with the police officers is filmed by the front seat passenger, who is the alleged victim's girlfriend. She told the court she had started filming because the officers were acting "strange" and "aggressive". A Canberra Times request to the court registry for access to the footage went unanswered. The video shows Constable Head walk up to the car and demand to see the driver's licence. The back seat passenger is heard to comment, "please". "What is your problem, do you not know how to drive?" Constable Head asks the driver. "I do sir, sorry," the driver replies. "So what happens when a police officer puts his lights on behind you?" Constable Head says. The back seat passenger tries to answer the question, before he is warned that if "you don't shut your mouth I'll pull you out and arrest you for hinder". The officer tells the passenger to produce his driver's licence, but he replies that he does not have his wallet. "Alright get out of the car, I'll be searching you for being a smart arse," Constable Head says, "Get the f--k out of the car now." It's alleged one officer had the teenager in a headlock and the other had his arm as they pulled him from the car. The teenager, whose mother works for the Australian Federal Police, says to the officers that "you are abusing your power" and that they don't have the right to arrest him. But the officers dispute the prosecution account of their first interaction with the group. Snr Constable McVicar said that in the first conversation, the teenager had constantly interrupted him while he was trying to speak to the driver. He said he warned the 19-year-old multiple times that he was hindering police and he would be arrested if he continued. The officers also say that once they decided to arrest the teenager during the second, filmed, conversation, that he flailed his arms and legs to make it difficult to get him out of the car. In cross-examination, Constable Head said his years in the army meant he often assumed the worst case scenario. He said his anxiety was heightened when the car didn't immediately pull over. He said he wished he'd chosen his words better, but believed he was acting within his duties to arrest the teenager for hindering police. In response to questions about why he did not tell the teenager why he was being arrested, the officer said police only had to tell someone why they were under arrest "when most convenient". "There's no power in police to arrest someone for being a smart arse is there?" prosecutor Dean Sahu Khan asked Snr Constable McVicar in his cross-examination. "No, your Honour, there is not," he responds. The two officers are suspended from work pending the outcome of the hearing, the court heard. It was standing room only on the first day of the hearing, which is expected to go for a second day on Wednesday before Magistrate Robert Cook. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/491f9886-a744-480b-8e5c-b6a927ce5129/r0_552_353_751_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news Shauna Callaghan's son Ben has never had to use an EpiPen to treat an anaphylactic reaction, but she said it's reassuring to have one around just in case. "He's very aware of [his allergies], it's all he's ever known," she said. "We've never had to use the EpiPen, but he's very aware that it's there and that it would save his life." Ben, 16, has severe allergic reactions to both peanuts and seafood, and has had the allergies since he was two years old. While the Banks resident said Ben was very careful with the food he eats, in the event of an anaphylactic reaction, he could be in even more danger due to a nationwide shortage of EpiPens. EpiPen supplies have been low throughout the country for several months and some experts have recommended using out-of-date stock in the case of an emergency. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said it was working with Australian supplier Alphapharm to bring supplies into the country. New stock is expected to arrive in the coming weeks, although a TGA spokesman said supplies would be limited. "Although new stock is starting to arrive, supplies will remain tight as back orders and emergency supply is dealt with," the spokesman said. "To avoid, stockpiling, Alphapharm is working with wholesalers to implement an allocation system to ensure all pharmacies can get stock." Ms Callaghan said she was affected by the shortage last weekend, after trying to replace an out-of-date EpiPen, with multiple chemists across Canberra out of stock. "I rang about 10 different chemists until I was eventually told what the protocol is in order to get one," she said. "You get conflicting advice, because this has been going on for some time. They've been promising for a few months that EpiPens will be back in supply." In order to receive the life-saving injections, Ms Callaghan said she had to take the prescription, the expired EpiPen as well as the batch number to a chemist, and they would be sent to the supplier to receive an emergency EpiPen. However, Ms Callaghan only received one, rather than the normal two. "Normally what's happened over the previous 14 years is that you get two because Ben is still at school, so one would stay at home and school would have one," she said. The TGA spokesman said the recent procedure has been in place for several months in order to ration supplies during the shortage. "Patients and carers should hold on to soon-to-expire EpiPens and use them in the case of an emergency, as long as the liquid inside isn't discoloured or contains sediment," the spokesman said. "The TGA has been working with a different sponsor to import product not approved in Australia but approved overseas to alleviate the shortage situation with EpiPens but supply of the product has not yet commenced." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/e85f1cd5-66ad-46b6-8260-5d087551e435/r0_128_2000_1258_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news More than a year after Commissioner Andrew Colvin pledged to overhaul the culture of the Australian Federal Police, a damning report has found the force is still struggling to combat the stigmatisation of mental health issues. The news comes as little surprise to Katie Tonacia, a Churchill Fellow and former Australian of the Year finalist, who co-founded Picking Up the Peaces in 2008 after watching her husband struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder. "David had been deployed with the Australian Federal Police, gone into mission, and had come back completely and utterly changed," she said. "He had suffered significant trauma and was diagnosed with PTSD later. It was quite an isolating condition back then." Last month the AFP released the findings of an independent review into the way the force supported officers with mental health issues. Almost one in four of the survey's 2593 respondents were battling psychological distress, while 14 per cent had clinical depression symptoms and nine per cent had signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Following the release of the AFP's internal report, the Australian National Audit Office released its own critical assessment of mental health treatment within the organisation. The audit office found the AFP lacked the right mechanisms to address risks associated with mental health issues, and did not always screen officers for psychological suitably before placing them in high risks roles. The results were hardly surprising, said Mrs Tonacia, who herself spent 10 years as an unsworn employee in the AFP and is now the chief executive of Picking Up the Peaces. "I have mixed feelings about the report," she said. "There is nothing in there that surprises me. I've seen the very best and the very worst of people in terms of how mental health is viewed in the AFP." Picking Up the Peaces is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to raise awareness and support for those struggling with PTSD. The 200 page report was prepared by the Phoenix Australia Centre for Post-traumatic Mental Health, described by Mrs Tonacia as a "world-leading" team of researchers. The review found that, while there might be an appropriate level of mental health support for staff, there was little coordination between the different areas and "little understanding of their respective roles and responsibilities". "With respect to services provided by the AFP, there was general dissatisfaction with the employee assistance provider (EAP) and staff felt that the Psychological Support Services was not readily available to staff," the report read. "The rehabilitation and compensation process for injured workers was seen as disjointed and unsupportive, adding to distress." Any meaningful attempts to address this dysfunction and the stigma associated with mental health support within the federal police needed to start at the top, Mrs Tonacia said. "There's a really great quote about leadership that goes, 'It matters what leaders do, or don't do. The culture of any organisation is shaped by the worst behaviour the leader is willing to tolerate'. "I have mixed feelings in terms of the AFP having the ability to act on that. The problem they are going to face is that the culture [at the moment] is strong. "[But]I would like to see the AFP take a very strong stand." In addition to concerns around mental health support, the Phoenix study also identified a number of other cultural issues within the AFP. These included a reluctance among some officers to embrace policies aimed at promoting women, and worries that the organisation would not embrace LGBTI staff. "Stop the gender panic," one employee told the researchers. "LGBTI members feel that it is not safe to come out at work, which is a source of stress that is not seen to be taken seriously by the organisation," researchers also noted. The AFP's Chief Medical Officer Dr Katrina Sanders was also unsurprised by the report's findings. "I think if we're honest with ourselves, we knew that we had some work to do in this area and that's why we got Phoenix on board," she said in February. "I think with the support services, and there are a number of them, and they've very good, but we really needed advice on a strategy on how to support the AFP for decades to come, rather than what we have now. "So, absolutely there is a lot of work to be done." President of the Australian Federal Police Association Angela Smith commended the force for undertaking the work, but encouraged them to act swiftly on its findings. "The AFP now has a very real opportunity to change the way it approaches mental health issues, to allow its people to have meaningful and rewarding careers," Ms Smith said. "The AFP owes it to all members from the day they join, to the day they leave, to do all it can to create an environment that encourages good mental health." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/c72085b1-387e-4dc3-9cfe-e3900ba04dcb/r0_139_2000_1269_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news An Australian National University law academic has lodged a complaint against her employer with the Australian Human Rights Commission, alleging the university has discriminated against her on the basis of her sex, including by paying her less then male colleagues for equal work. Associate professor Skye Saunders, an expert in sex discrimination law and formerly an employment relations solicitor, filed the complaint late last year following unsuccessful talks with the university. The complaint relates to alleged breaches of the federal Sex Discrimination Act, including with relation to a gender pay gap. The university declined to comment. A spokesman said in an email: "ANU does not comment on individual staffing matters". When contacted by The Canberra Times, Dr Saunders, who has a PhD in sex discrimination law, expressed disappointment at being unable to resolve the complaint with the university directly. She said she looked forward to a "fruitful conciliation" at the human rights commission. Dr Saunders said she had retained prominent barrister and human rights advocate Julian Burnside QC to represent her. Complaints made to the commission first go to conciliation, where the commission acts as an impartial third party and helps to resolve the complaint between the two parties. If the conciliation is unsuccessful, the person who made the complaint can apply to have the case heard in the Federal Court of Australia. The court, unlike the commission, has the power to rule on the question of whether unlawful discrimination has occurred. Dr Saunders has published widely in the areas of sexual discrimination and harassment. In 2015, she authored a book called Whispers from the Bush - The Workplace Sexual Harassment of Australian Rural Women, which focused on sexual harassment in rural workplaces. Last year, in an article for BroadAgenda, a blog run by the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation, with the University of Canberra's Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, Dr Saunders wrote of the difficulty women across Australia faced in speaking up as well as promoting a culture of change. "We all must take courage and be the person to call out workplace sex discrimination and bullying when we see it," Dr Saunders wrote. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/3a00c329-55b8-405c-b2f6-9e3dadc6c73a/r0_122_2000_1252_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg The Florida Department of Environmental Protections Florida Park Service is in the process of updating the unit management plan for Cayo Costa State Park. Citizens are invited to attend a public meeting on March 20 to learn more about the proposed plans for the park and provide feedback. It will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Fishers of Men Lutheran Church in St. James City. There will be a brief presentation at 6 p.m. After, staff will answer questions and accept public comment. The following improvements are proposed for the updated management plan: Improve recreational and interpretive uses of the Pelican Bay Use Area on Cayo Costa by expanding the existing boat docks, relocating the maintenance shop and developing a new visitor center Enhance the recreational experience of the parks main Gulf Beach Use Area New and improved visitor amenities will include a row of small picnic pavilions along the inland periphery of the beach and a new bathhouse Renovate and replace the parks primitive cabins, develop a group camping area, replace existing restrooms and enhance the landscape of native vegetation between sites Improve the existing tram road parkwide for ease of access by tram service vehicle, cyclists and pedestrians Additional utility and support improvements will include a new shop location, volunteer tent sites and upgraded solar electric capacity The public notice, agenda and draft plan are available online. Copies of the documents also may be obtained by emailing William.Nash@dep.state.fl.us or calling 941-964-0375. Those unable to attend the public meeting can review and submit comments to the Division of Recreation and Parks at FLStateParkPlanning@dep.state.fl.us up until April 4. The Fishers of Men Lutheran Church is at 10360 Stringfellow Road. Photo: Contributed Firefighters respond to an explosion that leveled two apartment buildings in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York, Wednesday, March 12, 2014. Con Edison spokesman Bob McGee says a resident from a building adjacent to the two that collapsed reported that he smelled gas inside his apartment, but thought the odor could be coming from outside. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) 6 a.m. update Mar. 13: Rescuers working amid gusty winds, cold temperatures and billowing smoke pulled four additional bodies Thursday from the rubble of two New York City apartment buildings, raising the death toll to at least seven from a gas leak-triggered explosion that reduced the area to a pile of smashed bricks, splinters and mangled metal. The explosion Wednesday morning in Manhattan's East Harlem neighbourhood injured more than 60 people, with searchers still trying to locate others a day later. Crews used generator-powered floodlights and thermal imaging cameras to identify heat spots bodies or pockets of fire at the site on Park Avenue and 116th Street. Police guarding the scene wore surgical masks and neighbourhood residents covered faces with scarfs amid the thick, acrid air. "This is a difficult job, a challenging job," Fire Department spokesman Jim Long said. He said it was "a very terrible and traumatic scene." 9:00 p.m. update A gas leak triggered an earthshaking explosion that flattened two apartment buildings on Wednesday, killing at least three people, injuring more than 60 and leaving nine missing. A tenant said residents had complained repeatedly in recent weeks about "unbearable" gas smells. By evening, rescue workers finally began the search for victims amid the broken bricks, splintered wood and mangled metal after firefighters spent most of the day dousing the flames. Heavy equipment, including back hoes and a bulldozer, arrived to clear the mountain of debris where the two five-story East Harlem buildings stood. Flood lights were in place. Thermal imaging cameras were at the ready to identify heat spots bodies or pockets of fire. The recovery was facing hardship in the form of the weather, which was expected to below freezing with rain. Some parts of the debris pile were inaccessible because of a sinkhole caused by a subsurface water main break, officials said. The fiery blast, on Park Avenue at 116th Street, not far from the edge of Central Park, erupted about 9:30 a.m., around 15 minutes after a neighbouring resident reported smelling gas, authorities said. The Con Edison utility said it immediately sent workers to check out the report, but they didn't arrive until it was too late. The explosion shattered windows a block away, rained debris onto elevated commuter railroad tracks close by, cast a plume of smoke over the skyline and sent people running into the streets. "It felt like an earthquake had rattled my whole building," said Waldemar Infante, a porter who was working in a basement nearby. "There were glass shards everywhere on the ground, and all the stores had their windows blown out." Police said two women believed to be in their 40s were among the dead. Hunter College identified one as Griselde Camacho, a security officer who had worked for the college since 2008. Another of the people who died was Carmen Tanco, 67, a dental hygienist. The identity of the third victim wasn't immediately disclosed. At least three of the injured were children; one, a 15-year-old boy, was reported in critical condition with burns, broken bones and internal injuries. Most of the other victims' injuries were minor and included cuts and scrapes. Fire officials said some people were unaccounted for but cautioned they may not have been in the buildings. A tenant in one of the destroyed buildings, Ruben Borrero, said residents had complained to the landlord about smelling gas as recently as Tuesday. A few weeks ago, Borrero said, city fire officials were called about the odour, which he said was so bad that a tenant on the top floor broke open the door to the roof for ventilation. "It was unbearable," said Borrero, who lived in a second-floor apartment with his mother and sister, who were away at the time of the explosion. "You walk in the front door and you want to turn around and walk directly out." The fire department said a check of its records found no instances in the past month in which tenants of the two buildings reported gas odours or leaks. Edward Foppiano said the block was last checked on Feb. 28 as part of a regular leak survey, and no problems were detected. City records show that the building Borrero lived in was owned by Kaoru Muramatsu. A phone number listed for Muramatsu rang unanswered. City building records don't show any work in progress at either address, but the building owned by the Spanish Christian Church had obtained permits and installed 120 feet (37 metres) of gas pipe last June. Con Ed said it remains to be seen whether the leak was in a company main or in customer-installed inside plumbing. The gas main that serves the area was made of plastic and cast iron, and the iron dated to 1887, Foppiano said. A National Transportation Safety Board team arrived in the evening to investigate. The agency investigates pipeline accidents in addition to transportation disasters. The tragedy brought the neighbourhood to a standstill as police set up barricades to keep residents away. Thick, acrid smoke made people's eyes water. Some people wore surgical masks, while others held their hands or scarves over their faces. Witnesses said the blast was so powerful it knocked groceries off store shelves. The Metro-North Railroad, which serves 280,000 riders a day in New York and Connecticut, suspended service to and from Grand Central Terminal, one of the nation's busiest commuter hubs, for much of the day while the debris was removed from its tracks, the structural integrity of the elevated structure was checked and test trains were run past the explosion site to see if vibrations would endanger the rescue effort. Service resumed late in the afternoon. 5:02 p.m. update: A third person has been confirmed killed by an explosion that flattened two New York City apartment buildings. Nine occupants of the buildings are unaccounted for. A gas leak triggered the explosion Wednesday morning on Park Avenue and 116th Street in East Harlem. The blast also injured more than 60 people. At least three of the injured were children. The explosion shattered windows a block away, rained debris onto elevated commuter railroad tracks close by, cast a plume of smoke over the skyline and sent people running into the streets. Authorities say the fiery blast erupted about 9:30 a.m., around 15 minutes after a neighbouring resident reported smelling gas. Photo: The Canadian Press Firefighters battle a fire after a building collapses in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York, Wednesday, March 12, 2014 (AP Photo/John Minchillo) 11 a.m. update: The New York City fire department says more than a dozen people are still missing after an explosion levelled two apartment buildings, killing two people. The department also says more than 20 others were injured, including two with life-threatening injuries. 8:20 a.m. update: A New York City apartment building has exploded in huge flames and billowing black smoke, leading to the collapse of at least one building and 16 injuries. The New York City fire department says 15 people were treated for minor injuries at the scene. Another person with serious trauma was transported to Harlem Hospital. Residents heard a large explosion near Park Avenue and 116th Street in East Harlem around 9 a.m. Wednesday. One five-story building was reduced to rubble, and a second building also is heavily damaged. Sidewalks for blocks around are littered with broken glass from shattered storefront and apartment windows. Witnesses say the blast was so powerful it knocked groceries off the shelves of nearby stores. The site is next to Metro-North commuter railroad tracks. Train service is halted to and from Grand Central Terminal. A neighbouring building was severely damaged. The cause of the blast was unclear. Police, some wearing gas masks and medical masks, handed out medical masks to residents and onlookers because of the thick white smoke that shrouded the area. Eoin Hayes, 26, said the explosion shook his entire apartment building in Harlem at about 9:30 a.m. He ran to the window and saw flames consuming one building and smoke rising into the air. "I was in my bedroom and the explosion went off, it kind of shook the whole building," Hayes said. "You could feel the vibrations going through the building." Hayes lives less than 10 blocks from where the explosion happened. He said the fire consumed one building and then moved on to another building adjacent to it, though about 40 minutes later the flames had subsided and there was mostly just smoke. Both buildings appeared to be residential. "I ran to the window and saw the fire and the smoke going up and the sirens start," Hayes said. The fire department said it sent nearly 170 members to the scene. The New York City Fire Department says it is investigating reports of a possible building collapse in Manhattan. Early reports suggest that 11 people have sustained minor injuries. The fire department said the building is located in East Harlem, between 114th and 117th streets. A local TV station is reporting that residents heard a loud explosion in the building around 9 a.m. TV footage showed heavy smoke billowing from the building and firefighters blasting water on the site from extended ladders. Its unclear what type of building is involved or whether it was occupied. New York City firefighters respond to the fire in Manhattan, Wednesday, March 12, 2014. CNN reported that nearby buildings are being evacuated. Images from the scene also showed rubble partially covering a parked vehicle. Photo: The Canadian Press Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. is awaiting the causes of two deadly aircraft crashes over the past couple of days involving its Q400 turbo and Challenger business jet. At least 49 people were killed Monday when a US Bangla Airlines passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, officials and witnesses said. The incident came a day after all 11 people on board a private Turkish Challenger 604 business jet crashed and burst into flames on an Iranian mountainside while bringing a wealthy businessman's daughter and her friends home from a Dubai bachelorette party. Bombardier representatives for the commercial and business aircraft divisions said the company was saddened by the accidents, adding their thoughts were with those impacted and their families. Nathalie Siphengphet and Mark Masluch said the planes are "safe and reliable" and other planes haven't been grounded. "It (Q400) has been designed to be robust and reliable in consideration to high cycle demands of regional airlines," she said in an interview. Masluch said more than 1,000 Challenger 600 series planes have been delivered and are "one of the most robust and reliable aircraft in business aviation." He called the back-to-back crashes an "unfortunate coincidence." "Certainly each accident is isolated to its own circumstances so it would be inappropriate to comment on any links between or just assume or speculate while both investigations are ongoing," Masluch said in a separate interview. The causes of both crashes aren't immediately available but a top airport official said the pilot did not follow landing instructions from the control tower, and had approached the airport's one runway from the wrong direction. "The airplane was not properly aligned with the runway. The tower repeatedly asked if the pilot was OK and the reply was 'yes,'" said Raj Kumar Chetri, the airport's general manager. The 17-year-old plane had circled Tribhuvan International Airport twice as it waited for clearance to land, a company official said. A recording of the conversations between the pilot and air traffic controllers indicated confusion over which direction the plane should land. Just before landing the pilot asks "Are we cleared to land?" Bombardier is waiting for invitations from Nepalese and Iranian officials before sending investigation teams to the crash sites. The Q400 has sustained several landing gear incidents over the years but this is just the second crash of the aircraft resulting in death. All 49 people on board were killed on Feb. 12, 2009 when a Colgan Air flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, stalled and crashed into a house while preparing to land at the airport. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that pilot error, including the response by the captain, was the main cause of the accident. Photo: The Canadian Press German prosecutors say they have been notified that a former guard dubbed the "accountant of Auschwitz" has died. Hannover prosecutor Kathrin Soefker says a lawyer informed her office that Oskar Groening died Friday in a hospital. Soefker says the office is awaiting an official death certificate. The lawyer, Hans Holtermann, didn't immediately respond to a request for confirmation. The 96-year-old Groening's death first was reported Monday by German weekly Der Spiegel. Groening was convicted in Lueneburg in 2015 as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 Jews. All of his appeals were rejected and he was due to begin a four-year prison term soon. Groening testified at his trial that he oversaw the collection of prisoners' belongings and ensured valuables and cash were separated to be sent to Berlin. He said he witnessed individual atrocities, but did not acknowledge participating in any crimes. Photo: Twitter A Dallas-bound flight made an emergency landing at Albuquerque International Sunport, sending panicked passengers leaping from a wing onto the tarmac after crew members screamed at them to get away from the aircraft, passengers and officials said. Southwest Flight 3562 took off from Phoenix on Sunday night and was headed for Dallas Love Field. About an hour later, the crew noticed an unusual smell in the cabin, the airline said in a statement. Passengers said they could feel heat from the vents shortly before the crew said the plane was going to make an emergency landing. Passengers were told to brace as the plane landed. "I sent a couple texts out to loved ones that you just don't really want to have to send out," Brandon Cox said. He said it was an eight-foot jump to the tarmac from the wing. "I hit the ground really hard and was just shell-shocked that I just had to jump off the wing of an airplane," he said. Video he posted on Twitter showed people using a slide connected to another emergency exit. A crewmember can be heard shouting, "Move away from the aircraft now!" Passenger David Fleck said he was surprised to discover there were no emergency slides near the exit door over the wing. "It felt wrong when you're up there. It was dark, cold and rainy," he said. "It was disorienting. (You think), 'Do I really just jump down?'" The Albuquerque Fire Department tweeted that two people were taken to hospitals. The extent of their injuries was not immediately known. A Dallas police officer aboard the flight tweeted that Southwest's flight attendants "did a great job!" Southwest said it worked to get passengers onboard another flight to Dallas, and the aircraft will remain in Albuquerque where mechanics will inspect it. Photo: Contributed Housing starts are down in Vernon when compared to this time last year. To start 2018 there have been 28 housing starts compared to 35 from last year. And in February alone, the number of housing starts is down from 24 in 2017 to 10 in 2018. However, a dip in the numbers does not make a trend. Taylor Pardy from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says while starts might be down in Vernon to start the year, there is no reason to fret. "These fluctuations happen, especially with multi-unit projects. Sometimes large projects come online and really bolster the numbers." More than 380 single-family homes were developed in 2017 throughout the North Okanagan Vernon makes up almost half the regions housing stock. "The housing market has been moving along at a pretty strong pace due to some stronger population growth and migration into the area," says Pardy. "What has really happened over the past two years is the stronger population growth has fueled the demand for all housing types in the Vernon area." Despite that development, Vernon has 1.5 per cent vacancy rate. "We have been seeing housing starts slowly trending upward over the past few years so builders are responding to the need for some new supply, and a diversity of supply as well." "Right now," says Pardy, "there's a lot more competition for housing in general in the area." Photo: The Canadian Press An adult film actress who said she had sex with President Donald Trump offered Monday to return the $130,000 she was paid for agreeing not to discuss the alleged relationship. Stormy Daniels whose real name is Stephanie Clifford is willing to repay the money she received as part of a 2016 agreement, as long as she can speak openly about the relationship, according to a copy of a letter from Clifford's attorney obtained by The Associated Press. The letter sent to Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen and his attorney, Lawrence Rosen, said the non-disclosure agreement would be considered "null and void" after she returned the money, and that would allow Clifford to speak about the relationship and the attempt to silence her while she publishes any text messages, photos and videos she may have. "Mr. Cohen and the president should accept this proposal and allow Ms. Clifford to tell her side," her attorney Michael Avenatti said. "The American people can then decide who was telling the truth." The offer is valid until Tuesday afternoon, the letter said. Cohen and Rosen did not immediately respond Monday to requests for comment. Clifford filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles last week that sought to invalidate the agreement so she could "set the record straight." The lawsuit claimed the "hush agreement" that was signed days before the 2016 presidential election is legally invalid because it was only signed by Clifford and Cohen and not by Trump. It refers to Trump as David Dennison and Clifford as Peggy Peterson, but an attached exhibit details their true identities. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said last week that Trump has made it clear that none of the allegations are true. Photo: Contributed Developers and other stakeholders are invited to provide their feedback on a proposed bylaw introducing development cost charges on properties in Vernon. The development cost charges are a one-time charge levied to a property for the purpose of providing funds that assist the City to pay capital costs. Kendra Kryszak is a parks planner with the City of Vernon, she says currently the RDNO has the bylaw for parks, but with the transfer of all the parks coming to Vernon, the city needs a way to raise funds on its behalf. "We have a list projects for future growth. The money collected within this bylaw will be used towards these new growth projects." On January 1, 2018 the City took over Kin Beach, Marshall Fields, Paddlewheel Park, DND lands and Hurlburt Park, formerly Camp Hurlburt. The information session will be held at the Council Chambers on March 15 from 5 to 7 p.m. Photo: The Canadian Press Competition Bureau officials searched the Toronto offices of Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and Torstar Corp. on Monday as part of its investigation into their November deal to swap and close down dozens of community newspapers. The bureau is investigating "alleged anti-competitive conduct contrary to the conspiracy provisions" of the Competition Act, said Commissioner of Competition John Pecman in a statement Monday, the first time the bureau has spelled out the focus of its investigation. He said the bureau is also examining the matter under the merger provisions of the act. "Investigators with the bureau are currently gathering evidence to determine the facts relating to the alleged conspiracy," said Pecman, confirming the reports. "There is no conclusion of wrongdoing at this time and no charges have been laid." He refused to provide further details, citing the confidentiality of investigations, but added "we will not hesitate to take appropriate action" if violations are indicated. Competition Bureau spokeswoman Veronique Aupry confirmed later Monday that maximum penalties under the conspiracy provisions could include fines of up to $25 million, imprisonment for up to 14 years, or both. Companies and individuals can be charged. Postmedia and Torstar issued statements on Monday confirming the searches. Both also insisted no contravention of the Competition Act had occurred and each said it would co-operate with the investigation. Under the agreement they announced in November, 41 newspapers changed hands and 36 were closed, mainly in Ontario regions served by multiple publications, at a cost of nearly 300 jobs. A Competition Bureau spokesman said soon after the transaction was announced that a review would take place. In an interview with The Canadian Press in December, Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey said the companies never talked about what each would do with the newspapers it was buying. "The fact is collusion is just not legal so what we were very, very careful to do was not to speak to each other about what the end result was going to be," he said. "Look, we have enough trouble running one newspaper chain and deciding what to do. What they do we always considered is their business." Torstar CEO John Boynton said the transaction was designed to allow increased geographic synergies. "By acquiring publications within or adjacent to our primary areas and selling publications outside our primary areas we will be able to put a greater focus on regions where we believe we can be more effective in serving both customers and clients," he said in a statement. The companies said the transaction was effectively a non-cash deal, as the consideration for the publications being purchased is roughly equal to that of the publications being sold. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have completed a draft report concluding there was no collusion or co-ordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, a finding that pleased the White House but enraged Democrats who had not yet seen the document. After a yearlong investigation, Texas Rep. Mike Conaway announced Monday that the committee has finished interviewing witnesses and will share the report with Democrats for the first time Tuesday. Conaway is the Republican leading the House probe, one of several investigations on Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. "We found no evidence of collusion," Conaway told reporters Monday, suggesting that those who believe there was are reading too many spy novels. "We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings. But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings or whatever, and weave that into sort of a fiction page-turner, spy thriller." Hours later, Trump tweeted his own headline of the report in excited capital letters: "THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR Co-ordinatION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION." Conaway previewed some of the conclusions, but said the public will not see the report until Democrats have reviewed it and the intelligence community has decided what information can become public, a process that could take weeks. Democrats are expected to issue a separate report with far different conclusions. In addition to the statement on co-ordination with Russians, the draft picks apart a central assessment made by the U.S. intelligence community in the months after the 2016 election. The January 2017 assessment revealed that the FBI, CIA and NSA had concluded that the Russian government, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, waged a covert influence campaign to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goal of hurting Democrat Hillary Clinton's candidacy and helping Trump's campaign. "We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump," the intelligence community report reads, noting later that the Kremlin "aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton." House intelligence committee officials said they spent hundreds of hours reviewing raw source material used by the intelligence services in the assessment and said it did not meet the appropriate standards to make the claim about helping Trump. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the intelligence material. Conaway said there will be a second report just dealing with the intelligence assessment and its credibility. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement soon after the GOP announcement Monday, saying it stood by the intelligence community's findings. DNI spokesman Brian Hale said the office will review the findings of the committee's report. Democrats have criticized Republicans on the committee for shortening the investigation, pointing to multiple contacts between Trump's campaign and Russia and saying they have seen far too few witnesses to make any judgment on collusion. The Democrats and Republicans have openly fought throughout the investigation, with Democrats suggesting a coverup for a Republican president and one GOP member of the panel calling the probe "poison" for the previously bipartisan panel. The top Democrat on the intelligence panel, California Rep. Adam Schiff, suggested that by wrapping up the probe the Republicans were protecting Trump. He called the development a "tragic milestone" and said history would judge them harshly. Republicans "proved unwilling to subpoena documents like phone records, text messages, bank records and other key records so that we might determine the truth about the most significant attack on our democratic institutions in history," Schiff said. According to Conaway, the report will agree with the intelligence assessment on most details, including that Russians did meddle in the election. It will detail Russian cyberattacks on U.S. institutions during the election and the use of social media to sow discord. It will also show a pattern of Russian attacks on European allies information that could be redacted in the final report. It will blame officials in former President Barack Obama's administration for a "lacklustre" response and look at leaks from the intelligence community to the media. It will include at least 25 recommendations, including how to improve election security, respond to cyberattacks and improve counterintelligence efforts. The report is also expected to turn the subject of collusion toward the Clinton campaign, saying an anti-Trump dossier compiled by a former British spy and paid for by Democrats was one way that Russians tried to influence the election. Conaway did not suggest that Clinton knowingly co-ordinated with the Russians, but said the dossier clearly "would have hurt him and helped her." He also said there was no evidence that anything "untoward" happened at a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower between members of the Trump campaign and Russians, though he called it ill-advised. Despite a promise of dirt on Clinton ahead of the meeting, there's no evidence that such material was exchanged, he said. Photo: The Canadian Press National Geographic acknowledged on Monday that it covered the world through a racist lens for generations, with its magazine portrayals of bare-breasted women and naive brown-skinned tribesmen as savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent. "We had to own our story to move beyond it," editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg told The Associated Press in an interview about the yellow-bordered magazine's April issue, which is devoted to race. National Geographic first published its magazine in 1888. An investigation conducted last fall by University of Virginia photography historian John Edwin Mason showed that until the 1970s, it virtually ignored people of colour in the United States who were not domestics or labourers, and it reinforced repeatedly the idea that people of colour from foreign lands were "exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages_every type of cliche." For example, in a 1916 article about Australia, the caption on a photo of two Aboriginal people read: "South Australian Blackfellows: These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings." In addition, National Geographic perpetuated the cliche of native people fascinated by technology and overloaded the magazine with pictures of beautiful Pacific island women. This examination comes as other media organizations are also casting a critical eye on their past. The New York Times recently admitted that most of its obituaries chronicled the lives of white men, and began publishing obituaries of famous women in its "Overlooked" section. In National Geographic's April issue, Goldberg, who identified herself as National Geographic's first woman and first Jewish editor, wrote a letter titled "For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It." "I knew when we looked back there would be some storytelling that we obviously would never do today, that we don't do and we're not proud of," she told AP. "But it seemed to me if we want to credibly talk about race, we better look and see how we talked about race." Mason said he found an intentional pattern in his review. "People of colour were often scantily clothed, people of colour were usually not seen in cities, people of colour were not often surrounded by technologies of automobiles, airplanes or trains or factories," he said. "People of colour were often pictured as living as if their ancestors might have lived several hundreds of years ago and that's in contrast to westerners who are always fully clothed and often carrying technology." White teenage boys "could count on every issue or two of National Geographic having some brown skin bare breasts for them to look at, and I think editors at National Geographic knew that was one of the appeals of their magazine, because women, especially Asian women from the pacific islands, were photographed in ways that were almost glamour shots." Photo: The Canadian Press As a waitress, Nadine Morsch was used to having to force an occasional smile for an unpleasant customer. But when a man she was serving made a reference to grabbing her butt, she warned him he better not try. And he made her pay. For the rest of the hour he was in the diner, she says, he was "running me around as much as possible." Morsch says she tolerated him, because she needed a good tip. Experiences like that are one reason activists are invoking the #MeToo movement in the push for more states to adopt higher minimum wages for tipped workers. They say a wage structure that leaves workers dependent on tips often forces them to put up with harassing and abusive behaviour from their customers or risk not being paid. The effort has been around for years but has taken on new momentum lately with the increased reckoning and awareness of sexual misconduct. Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for public hearings; there's a June ballot question in Washington, D.C., and an effort is underway to get the issue on the statewide ballot in Michigan. A higher base wage, advocates say, could free tipped workers from the fear of speaking out. "I wouldn't have needed to feel like my entire life was in his power," said Morsch, who now works at a pub in Rochester, New York. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are about 2 million people working as restaurant servers in the United States, about 70 per cent of them women. Currently, the federal government allows workers who get tipped, such as servers and bartenders, to be paid as little as $2.13 per hour if they make at least $7.25 per hour with tips included. No state is talking about ending the practice of tipping. But seven states Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin mandate that tipped workers be paid at least the same minimum wage as everyone else. Another 26 states require employers to pay tipped workers a wage at least a little higher than the federal minimum. Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, an advocacy group, says it has found that service employees in the states that require the same minimum wage for everyone, even tipped workers, reported lower levels of harassment than states that did not. "This is about the power imbalance that women face on the job," said Restaurant Opportunities Centers United co-founder Saru Jayaraman. Madison Erhardt Fire crews were hard at work well before 9 a.m. Tuesday. Kelowna fire crews and RCMP arrived to Kelowna Yarn and Needlecraft at Harvey and Kirschner just after 7 a.m. "This morning we have had several structure fires in Kelowna. Crews were spread pretty thin. We have got a handle on them now so we are just getting the department back in order," said Platoon Capt. Scott Clarke. The fire on Kirschner started in a mechanical room. "The fire extended into the celling and into the roof. It was a little tough to get at, but crews did a good job and got it out pretty quickly. We are now in the mop-up stage," Clarke added. The three structure fires occurred along Kirschner and Harvey, Springfield Road, and Gerstmar and Graham. Fire crews and Kelowna RCMP will continue to investigate the cause of all three fires. Photo: The Canadian Press President and CEO Bharat Masrani speaks at the TD Bank Group annual general meeting in Toronto. The chief executives of Canada's five biggest banks collectively earned roughly $53.6 million in the latest fiscal year, up more than seven per cent from a year earlier. But it was a particularly good year for TD Bank's chief executive Bharat Masrani, who got a more than 20 per cent increase in total direct compensation to pull in $10.85 million in the twelve months ended Oct. 31, 2017. Still, Royal Bank's chief executive Dave McKay was paid the most among his peers with $12.43 million in total direct compensation, up 7.9 per cent from a year earlier, according to the banks' latest proxy circulars. Scotiabank's Brian Porter was second-highest paid at $10.86 million, marking a 7.4 per cent increase from fiscal 2016. BMO's Bill Downe, who retired from the top role on Oct. 31, was paid $10.5 million, down roughly one per cent from a year earlier. CIBC's Victor Dodig, CEO of Canada's fifth-largest bank, received $8.94 million in total direct compensation in 2017, up 1.71 per cent. Photo: The Canadian Press The BC Green Party hopes the third time's a charm. Leader Andrew Weaver is taking a third stab at lowering the voting age in B.C. to 16. He introduced a private member's bill in the legislature Tuesday. Young British Columbians have the greatest stake in the future of our province. They should have a say in the decisions our politicians make, said Weaver. Yesterday, Elections BC announced that only 56.24 per cent of 18-24 year olds and 46.35 per cent of 25-35 year olds voted in our last provincial election," Weaver said. "Voting rights have been extended to 16 year-olds in Scotland, Argentina, Austria and Brazil. Evidence from those jurisdictions shows that enfranchising these young voters has led to substantially higher levels of political participation." Weaver says research shows cognitive skills required to make calm, logically informed decisions are firmly in place at 16. "Young citizens of British Columbia are old enough to drive, pay taxes and sign up for the military. They are also the leaders of tomorrow. "They should have a say in the direction we are heading, as they will inherit what we leave behind. B.C. should take this chance to strengthen our democracy and lower the voting age to 16. Photo: South Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Program A Lewis's woodpecker Local residents can boost their bird knowledge during free workshops being held this spring by the Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society. The society is hosting a trio of beginner workshops next month to inform people on how to identify native birds. OSS biologist Lia McKinnon said the workshops are aimed at local residents who cant tell a wren from a finch or a sparrow, and so forth. "Spring is in the air and it is a great time to get outside and enjoy the birds that share our wonderful valleys," McKinnon said. Other than learning basics in identifying birds, participants will learn how to attract certain birds and, weather permitting, will also get to "put their new skills to use" outdoors. In the South Okanagan and Similkameen areas, workshops will be held on April 7 at the library in Keremeos and on April 8 at Okanagan Crush Pad in Summerland. Both will run from 10 a.m. 1 p.m. Further up the valley, the society will also be holding a workshop at O'Keefe Ranch near Vernon on April 14, from 9 a.m. to noon. Those looking to register can do so here. For further information, the public is asked to contact 250-770-1467 or [email protected] Lena Chang Sheeran peacefully passed away in the early hours of August 13th at home surrounded by her loving family. Far more than an award-winning actuary and co-founder of both CURE and NJ PURE,... Our struggle is to bring social, political, and economic justice to our nation. This is an effort of the Chicano/Mexican American Digital History Project. https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/ AZZ Inc. (NYSE: AZZ), a global provider of metal coatings services, welding solutions, specialty electrical equipment and highly engineered services to the power generation, transmission, distribution and industrial markets, announced that it has won the bid to acquire certain assets through a 363 bankruptcy sale process, from Lectrus Corporation, a privately-held Chattanooga-based corporation that designs and manufactures custom metal enclosures and provides electrical and mechanical integration. The Chattanooga facility of Lectrus is included in the assets acquired. Ken Lavelle, president of AZZ's Electrical segment, said, "The opportunity to purchase certain strategic assets from Lectrus through a 363 bankruptcy sale process is a result of the consolidation that is occurring within the metal enclosure industry in the U.S., which is particularly challenging for smaller, less well-capitalized operators. AZZ is well positioned to remain an opportunistic acquirer of strategic assets that will further enhance AZZ's market share and improve operations." The Chattanooga facility is located on a 585,000 square-foot site. The operations include a 210,000 square-foot manufacturing facility, as well as engineers, estimators, project management, fabrication, integration and sales personnel. Going forward, the facility will operate as AZZ Enclosure Systems Chattanooga LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, and will complement AZZ's current metal enclosure and switchgear locations in Kansas, Maryland, and Missouri. The acquisition is subject to final court approval of the Sale Order, the Asset Purchase Price Agreement and customary closing conditions. Closing is expected on, or before, March 31. Mr. Lavelle said, "The Chattanooga facility will expand our market presence and advance our goal of strengthening our market position in providing custom metal enclosures and related electrical integration to utility, industrial and OEM customers. We look forward to adding the Lectrus heritage and strength of the Chattanoogaoperations to our AZZ Electrical business. AZZ expects the AZZ Enclosure Systems - Chattanooga facility to be accretive to earnings within the first year of operation." Founded in 1968, Lectrus Corporation serves a blue-chip base of businesses that operate within the oil and gas, power generation, transmission and distribution, petrochemical, and alternative energy markets. Lectrus's custom-designed and fabricated enclosures serve a variety of end-uses, including equipment centers, generator enclosures, operator centers, and enclosures that protect electrical power and mechanical control systems. AZZ's Metal Coatings Segment is a leading provider of metal finishing solutions for corrosion protection, including hot dip galvanizing to the North American steel fabrication industry. AZZ's Energy Segment is dedicated to delivering safe and reliable transmission of power from generation sources to end customers, and automated weld overlay solutions for corrosion and erosion mitigation to critical infrastructure in the energy markets worldwide. Beam on Monday filled its 15 millionth barrel of bourbon since the end of Prohibition. The company says it's a first for a Kentucky distillery. It was filled and sealed by seventh-generation Master Distiller Fred Noe and his son, Freddie, at Beam's flagship distillery in Clermont. The lawsuit alleges that MB Financial improperly determines the overdraft status of accounts twice for the same transaction at the time of authorization and during a secret batch posting process when it settles allowing the bank to charge more overdraft fees than it should. Your attorney will give you the local and state requirements that residential landlords have to follow. Keep in mind that every state has different landlord-tenant laws; one misstep no matter how small can cost you a lot of money. There are many tenant lawyers throughout the country that love to bring landlords to court; from my experience, many of these lawsuits are valid, but some are rather frivolous. Dripper's Paradise, on Milwaukee's southwest side, carries dozens of brands of smoke juice, including a locally made favorite called Foghorn. One of Foghorn's top-selling recipes is Randy, a flavor described as a "blend of creamy custard, mixed berries and savory cereal notes." Gasping for Action Published October 20, 2015 Lab tests reveal popular e-cigarette liquids contain harmful chemicals More Marquette University students have tried e-cigs than tobacco cigarettes, survey says Other harmful chemicals found in smoke juice Read our previous Its been known for years that diacetyl destroys lungs. Yet the federal government has failed to regulate it. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation has found the buttery flavor chemical is injuring coffee workers and has seeped into other products such as e-cigarettes.Read our previous Gasping for Action installments on diacetyl and the flavorings industry. People who vape praise the Foghorn juice not only for its flavor but for its ability to create giant cloud puffs from deep drags a growing fascination known as "cloud chasing" among vaping enthusiasts. But the very molecules that make Randy delicious also could make it dangerous. The juice named after a character in the Canadian TV series "Trailer Park Boys" contains high levels of two chemicals known to cause permanent and sometimes fatal lung disease: diacetyl and its chemical cousin, 2,3-pentanedione. There's no way vapers would know; founders of the year-old Foghorn company said they didn't realize it. The only way to determine whether the juice, or e-liquid, includes toxic chemicals would be to test it which the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did. There are no requirements that manufacturers test their e-liquids, nor are there any standards to meet. What testing is done is driven largely by the desire of e-liquid makers to market the safety of their products. But the Journal Sentinel's testing led to yet another discovery: The method typically used to analyze e-liquids for the industry is not sensitive enough to detect levels that could be harmful. As a result, e-liquid makers across the country claim their formulas are diacetyl free when sometimes they are not. "We're at a point where these are not regulated by anyone," said Michael Felberbaum, a spokesman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "It's a 'Buyer Beware' market." Vaping is a burgeoning attraction for nicotine lovers looking to get their fix without lighting a flame to tobacco. Vapers can choose from a variety of electronic nicotine delivery systems, as they are technically called. These systems are battery powered and use liquid nicotine extracted from tobacco. The nicotine is mixed in a base of propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin often with added flavors and heated into vapor for users to inhale. A look at e-cigarettes E-cigarettes began as a smoke cessation aid but now have become a popular consumer product. Revenue from electronic cigarettes for the top U.S. cigarette manufacturers is projected to near or surpass revenue from traditional cigarettes by 2023. While much of the concern about e-cigarettes has been about nicotine, the flavor cartridges often contain diacetyl, a chemical known to cause severe lung damage when inhaled. Some contain a diacetyl substitute that has been found to be equally toxic. Diacetyl found in many e-cigarettes: A September 2014 study by the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco examined 159 sweet-flavored samples of "e-liquid" sometimes called "smoke juice" from three dozen manufacturers in seven countries. Konstantinos Farsalinos, a researcher and doctor with the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, in Athens, Greece, found nearly 70% contained diacetyl. About a third contained a related chemical that has been found to cause similar lung damage. Sources: TNS; E-Cig; Journal Sentinel research The first iteration to hit the U.S. market en masse was the e-cigarette in 2007, patented and made in China. E-cigarettes, or "cigalikes," are thin, stick-like devices that look like cigarettes. Some brands feature a light at the tip to mimic the glow of a tobacco cigarette. Some offer refills; others are disposable. E-cigs are typically bought at gas stations, convenience stores and online. Many of the most popular ones are manufactured by big tobacco companies. Other devices sometimes called mods are larger and feature refillable tanks that let users mix and match flavors. Dozens of devices and thousands of flavors, with multiple nicotine levels, are available online and at scores of vape shops popping up across the country. Despite its highly addictive properties, nicotine liquid is unregulated. While the FDA regulates smoking cessation drugs and devices, such as nicotine patches and gum, nicotine itself a stimulant tied to cardiovascular disease is not a controlled substance. It's for sale online. With easy access to ingredients and soaring demand, the global vaping market is awash with small start-ups trying to make a name for themselves in the e-juice business. Much like microbrewers, they experiment with recipes, come up with clever names and see how they sell. Some mix their liquids in the back of their stores. Others contract the work out to what they claim are accredited laboratories. At Foghorn, the liquid is mixed in a "clean room," which owners describe as a sanitary room dedicated to mixing e-liquids, that adjoins an office in a former storefront. Owners did not respond to repeated requests by the Journal Sentinel to visit the production space. With U.S. sales predicted by Wells Fargo Securities to reach $3.5 billion by the end of 2015, the vaping industry has gone from fledgling to flourishing in a few short years. And flavor is key. Diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione are hailed for their buttery taste and are added to everything from chips and candy to cream cheese and ice cream. The chemicals are byproducts of fermentation and form naturally in butter, beer and other foods. They have been deemed safe to eat in trace amounts, but studies show they can be toxic when inhaled. Diacetyl is more commonly recognized for its links to injuries and deaths of microwave popcorn workers. More recently, a Journal Sentinel investigation found potentially dangerous levels of the chemical in coffee roasting facilities and exposed cases of lung disease in commercial coffee roasters and grinders. Diacetyl destroys the lungs' tiniest airways, leading to scar tissue buildup which blocks airflow. Its damage is irreversible. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted a warning to coffee industry workers in September. Nothing on the Foghorn e-liquid label mentions the lung-destroying chemicals. A warning reminds buyers only that the product may contain nicotine and should be kept away from children. Vape shops at the forefront of e-cigarette boom Katie Klann E-liquids come in thousands of flavors and are available online and at vape shops nationwide. Testing by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found high levels of lung-destroying chemicals. Photo Gallery: Vape shops at the forefront of e-cigarette boom Same with the stickers on the Vape Apes house-brand liquids. Vape Apes is a line of e-liquids and a wholesale and supply company owned by the same people who run Dripper's Paradise. The Vape Apes website assures customers that all its e-liquids are free of both diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione (also known as acetyl propionyl). But that promise applies only to Vape Apes brand juices, according to a note at the top of the page. Not the 30-plus other brands the store sells. Vape Apes co-owner Damien Thompson said he screens the outside brands as best he can but can't control what other e-liquid makers use. As for his in-house brand, he buys flavors from a few different manufacturers Michigan-based LorAnn Oils and California-based Capellas Flavors and Flavor West and says he trusts them not to sell hazardous chemicals. "When I'm asking them the ingredients in their liquid, and when they tell me it's not in there, I know it's not," Thompson said. "I don't need to pay someone and take money out of my wallet to have it tested. I wouldn't trust (a testing lab) any more than I would trust the company making it." The Journal Sentinel bought five e-liquids dubbed top-sellers by sales clerks at vape shops around Milwaukee including Foghorn's Randy and a Vape Apes house brand called Goji Melonberry and had them tested for diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione. The results: All five contained both chemicals. And Foghorn's Randy had levels well above those that scientists say can destroy lungs, according to analyses by two labs. Kyle Ehlert, co-founder of West Allis-based Foghorn, said he expected his flavor suppliers would have alerted him if there were dangerous ingredients in their products. He uses some of the same suppliers as Thompson at Vape Apes. "I just figured they would give you the kind without it," Ehlert said. "I just assumed they would know it had diacetyl in it and give you something else or tell you about it." Websites for LorAnn Oils and Capella Flavors state that the companies do not use diacetyl in any of their products. LorAnn also has a disclaimer stating that none of the flavors had been approved for inhalation. "LorAnn Oils cannot make any claims as to the safety of the use of flavoring substances in e-cigarettes," it states. Flavor West posted a list disclosing its flavors known to have diacetyl and/or 2,3-pentanedione. It's unclear who does the company's testing and to what level of detection. No one can say for certain how often e-liquids are mislabeled as diacetyl free or exactly how much risk they pose. While dozens of studies are underway, few if any have been completed that reveal all the respiratory impacts from inhaling e-liquids laced with diacetyl and 2,3 pentanedione. "Certainly those two chemicals are known to be problematic," said James Pankow, a chemistry professor with Portland State University in Oregon who has studied e-liquids. "Trying to come up with a single, bright-line number to compare risk is impossible. "All of this toxicology is a very, very crude science." Lab tests find harmful chemicals in e-juice Mike De Sisti Scott Reid, a professor and chair of Marquette Universitys chemistry department, found diacetyl and another lung-destroying chemical in five e-liquid samples bought from vape shops around Milwaukee. To view photo galleries, go to Photo Gallery: Lab tests find harmful chemicals in e-juice In conducting its spot check of e-liquids, the Journal Sentinel bought Wisconsin brands that boast their own recipes and labels. The samples were analyzed by a team from Marquette University, spearheaded by Scott Reid, a professor and chair of the university's chemistry department. "We clearly see that all of the samples contained the (chemicals) at some level," Reid said. "The key issue is what the long-term health effects are." Three of the liquids with the highest levels, including Foghorn's Randy, were then sent to Enthalpy Analytical, a North Carolina lab that specializes in e-liquid testing for the industry. Enthalpy's analysis like Marquette's found high levels of diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione in Randy. It's what the lab didn't find that raises questions. Enthalpy's tests did not detect either of the chemicals in the two other samples. The standard testing the company does is designed to detect levels above 1 part per million, according to company representatives and printed information that accompanies the results. Yet Marquette's analysis found concentrations of both chemicals in each sample at concentrations ranging from 4 to 50 parts per million. Marquette and Enthalpy said their analyses passed their quality control measures and that they stand by their results. The discrepancy highlights differences in testing methodology and desired levels of detection. Marquette's approach used a more sensitive technique that scientists say can detect lower levels, down to parts per billion. The Journal Sentinel consulted with three independent experts who said the university's method was superior. The problem is, it is also more time-consuming and costly. "We're a commercial lab here to make money," said Bryan Tyler, a representative of Enthalpy who handled the Journal Sentinel's testing request. "We're different than academia where they get grants and have plenty of time." Tyler said Enthalpy is capable of detecting lower concentrations when customers request it and are willing to pay for it. That's not common for e-liquid manufacturers, he said. "The issue is why do I need to look at parts per trillion when many are detected at 100 parts per million?" he said. "The industry isn't to that point yet. They've got a lot of cleaning up to do." Tyler said Enthalpy runs tests on about 500 e-liquid samples per month, from industry giants to folks who mix their own juices to sell to local shops. Patrick Rainey, a toxicology consultant with Creative Process Solutions in Raleigh, N.C., said the onus is on the industry not a lab to seek more sensitive testing. "If the industry out there selling the product is driving the investigation, where are the checks and balances?" he said. Trade associations in the United States and Canada are taking their cue on how to test e-liquids from a cardiologist in Greece a doctor who touts the virtues of vaping. How diacetyl damages lungs Exposure to diacetyl, a chemical widely used in the flavoring industry, can cause bronchiolitis obliterans, a potentially fatal disease that can attack and quickly destroy the respiratory system. The condition has been found in popcorn workers and more recently, coffee workers, among others. Diacetyl is also a common ingredient in e-cigarettes. Here's a look at how diacetyl enters the body, symptoms of exposure and the effect of bronchiolitis obliterans on the lungs: Sources: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Konstantinos Farsalinos, with the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens, is an outspoken proponent of e-cigarettes to help smokers replace conventional cigarettes which are to blame for more than 438,000 deaths in the United States every year, according to the American Lung Association. He was the primary author on a study published last year by the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco on sweet-flavored e-liquids and maintains that measuring parts per million is "more than enough" to detect dangerous levels of diacetyl. Farsalinos analyzed 159 e-liquid flavors from 36 manufacturers in seven countries and found as many as 70% of sweet-flavored e-cigs contain diacetyl. In his study, he compared exposures from vaping with proposed limits suggested by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, which were designed to protect Americans exposed to chemicals in the workplace. The NIOSH limits are "extremely strict," he said, noting they are figured to allow no more than one person in 1,000 to suffer lung damage over a 45-year work life. NIOSH is the research arm of the CDC. Farsalinos has advocated for the removal of diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione from e-liquids, saying they are an avoidable risk. Still, he's not alarmed about lower concentrations. By Farsalino's calculations, vapers should be able to withstand roughly 86 micrograms of diacetyl a day from vaping and not exceed NIOSH's recommended safeguards. For 2,3-pentanedione it would be about 182 micrograms. The Foghorn brand contained 92 micrograms of diacetyl in just 1 gram of e-liquid aerosol and more than 269 micrograms of 2,3 pentanedione. One gram is approximately equal to 1 milliliter of e-liquid. Farsalinos' studies suggest an average vaper uses roughly 3 milliliters a day, though other studies show the average is around 5 milliliters and in interviews conducted by the Journal Sentinel some vapers said they used more than 15 milliliters a day. Puffing behaviors vary and comparisons are rough, but inhaling vapor from 3 milliliters of e-liquid is similar to smoking 30 to 40 conventional cigarettes, or a pack and a half to two packs, in terms of number of puffs. That exposes Randy fans who vape an average of 3 milliliters to more than three times the level of diacetyl deemed acceptable for workers. And more than four times the amount of 2,3-pentanedione. Those who vape heavily face a greater threat. That's if you believe Farsalinos' framework for calculating the risk. Not everybody does. Some scientists familiar with the chemicals argue the exposures from vaping could be far more hazardous. Inhaling 86 micrograms in 500 to 600 breaths from vaping could be more detrimental to the lungs than stretching the same amount over 5,000 to 6,000 breaths in an eight-hour period, they say. In addition, occupational exposure limits are calculated factoring in 16 hours at home, away from any exposure, and two days off during the week. Because the two chemicals have similar toxicological effects, scientists also consider an "additive mixture formula," meaning exposure should be measured based on the combined levels. Advertisement The Flavor and Extracts Manufacturers Association, a flavor industry lobbying group, called it "improper" to use occupational exposure limits as indications of safe levels of exposure from flavors in e-cigarettes. The group warns e-liquid makers that the flavors are not intended to be inhaled. And puffing from an e-cigarette pulls vapor deeper into the lungs than simply breathing while you work, said Rainey, the toxicology consultant. Rainey wrote a white paper last year analyzing the existing literature on the toxicology of diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione in e-cigarettes. Moreover, comparing levels of the chemicals in e-cigarettes to conventional tobacco cigarettes is dicey science for the same reason. Scientists don't even agree how much of the chemicals is in conventional cigarettes. Studies show aerosol from vaping is deposited deeper into the lungs, to areas more susceptible to injury from toxic chemicals. "Arguing concentrations is fruitless," Rainey said. "You can have those discussions, but at the end of the day nobody is going to know. These things haven't been around long enough and been studied. "What's unfortunate is that young people are going to be the guinea pigs." The number of young people using e-cigarettes tripled last year, according to data published in April by the CDC. Roughly 2 million high schoolers about 13% reported that they had used an e-cigarette in the last 30 days, findings from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey show. It's the first time since 2011, when the survey started collecting data on e-cigarettes, that current use among youths has surpassed use of every other tobacco product, including conventional cigarettes, according to the CDC's news release. A closer look at vaping Marquette University student Mathew Baez started vaping about a year ago. He views it as as a safer than smoking regular cigarettes. But some of the chemicals involved, including diacetyl, have been shown to damage lungs. Video by Sarah Hauer. Featuring flavors such as Blazberry Creme, Cola Gummy and Cherry Croissant, the e-cigarettes are drawing in college students as well. A survey of more than 700 randomly selected Marquette University students conducted in March found that about 30% had tried an e-cigarette, compared with about 20% who had smoked a conventional one. When asked if they knew what diacetyl is, 91% said, "No." Advertisements and other messages in the media purport e-cigarettes are a healthier alternative to conventional cigarettes. Public Health England, the country's health protection agency, published a "landmark" report in August suggesting e-cigarettes are 95% safer than traditional cigarettes. The report was quickly criticized by heavyweights in health circles across the globe. An editorial in Lancet blasted the agency and said the finding was based on an "extraordinarily flimsy foundation," was "methodologically weak" and was rife with authors who had conflicts of interest. The report makes no mention of diacetyl or 2,3-pentanedione. A writer in the British Medical Journal called the report "appalling" and lacking "a shred of actual evidence." But the criticism didn't get the media attention that the agency's study did. That headline trumpeting e-cigarette safety traveled the world through the BBC, Bloomberg Markets and other news outlets. How we reported this story To conduct this spot check of chemicals in e-liquids, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel bought five locally made e-liquids from vape shops around Milwaukee and had them tested for diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione by a team from Marquette Universitys chemistry department. Scott Reid, chair of the department, oversaw the project. The samples were derivatized and then analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This method is considered to be highly sensitive and is designed to determine levels at 1 part per billion or greater. All five samples were found to have both chemicals, which are known to destroy lungs. Diacetyl has been tied to a rare and sometimes deadly disease called bronchiolitis obliterans. One sample had especially high levels. The Journal Sentinel then sent the samples with the three highest levels to Enthalply Analytics a North Carolina company that specializes in testing for the e-liquid industry to have them analyzed for the same chemicals. Enthalpys method did not include derivatization, but the samples were also analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This approach is commonly used to test e-liquids as its faster and cheaper than the method used by Marquette. Without derivatization, this method is designed to detect levels above 1 to 3 parts per million. Enthalpys lab found high levels of both chemicals in the same sample that Marquettes team identified with high levels. Enthalpys lab did not detect the chemicals in the two other samples. In those samples, Marquettes team found levels ranging from 4 to 50 parts per million of diacetyl and/or 2,3-pentanedione. Three independent experts agreed Marquettes method was better at detecting lower levels of the chemicals. Enthalpy then measured the aerosol concentrations of all three samples to be more comparable to what a vaper would inhale. Using a VaporFi Platinum Pro II vaping pen with a 3.7 volt 650mAh Battery (selected by the Journal Sentinel based on its popularity), Enthalpy measured concentrations based on 55 mL of air per puff, each puff lasting 4 seconds, repeated every 30 seconds. The sample used a 50-puff block. Results were similar. The same sample that had high levels of both diacetyl and 2,3 pentanedione in the e-liquid also had high levels in the aerosol. And Enthalpys analysis did not detect either chemical in the other two samples. Show More Julian Rozwadowski, a senior at Marquette, said he is trying to persuade his parents, both 30-year cigarette smokers, to switch to electronic cigarettes. Rozwadowski admits he hasn't done enough research but learned through advertisements that e-cigs are healthier than cigarettes. "I've just heard enough to figure it can't be as bad as tobacco cigarettes," Rozwadowski said. Following a failed attempt in 2009, the FDA last year proposed new rules to regulate e-cigarettes. The rule-making process allows for stakeholders, including the public, to weigh in. The comment period ended in August 2014. Regulators received 135,000 remarks and are still sifting through them more than a year later. "All of our decisions are grounded in science," said Felberbaum, the FDA spokesman. "Rule-making is a complex process." The agency is involved in more than 50 studies relating to e-cigarettes and vaping, many of which will take years to complete. Felberbaum couldn't say when a final rule might be issued. "To date, the FDA has not been able to fully assess the public health impacts of unregulated tobacco products," he wrote in an email. "For example, some testing of e-cigarette cartridges has revealed significant variability in nicotine content and the presence of chemical constituents that raise concerns of toxicity." Meanwhile, the industry is left to regulate itself or not. In Canada, vape shop owners and e-liquid makers established the Electronic Cigarette Trade Association, composed of more than 50 members who agree to adhere to a set of standards including having their products tested for diacetyl, 2,3-pentanedione and other ingredients every six months. But the association counts on tests that only pick up higher concentrations. It has a contract with Enthalpy and says it trusts Farsalinos' risk modeling. "We understand this is a problem," spokeswoman Kate Ackerman said of the higher levels of detection. "We're working to bring levels down as low as possible and eventually eradicate them. If we said, 'Let's do it at way, way lower detection levels,' we wouldn't have many flavors at all." She said the testing, as insensitive as it is, has had a positive impact and cut the amount of the chemicals in Canadian e-liquids. Last year, when a trade association member's e-liquid failed the safety test, it was required to stop production and sale of the flavor, inform vendors and retail locations of the concern, and pull the product from the shelves. No one can say for certain how effective the "recall" was. The public wasn't required to be notified of it. Neither Vape Apes nor Foghorn owners said they planned recalls of the flavors flagged as having diacetyl by the Journal Sentinel's testing. Instead, both said they were talking to their flavor suppliers. Ehlert said Foghorn emailed its distributors after being informed of the findings, to let them know the Randy flavor contains lung-destroying chemicals. About This Project "It's up to them what they want to do about it," Ehlert said of the retailers who bought Randy from his company. Thompson, of Vape Apes, said the industry is doing a fine job regulating itself. "It's not like we're just picking up juice out of some guy's backpack, or the back of his truck, and saying, 'That looks good,'" Thompson said. "I talk to the guys who make the stuff, find out what they're doing, how they're doing it." The conversations might last 30 minutes to an hour or two, he said. "You don't walk up to a used car lot with a blindfold on and say 'I'll take that one,'" he said. "It's common-sense stuff." Research assistant Sarah Hauer contributed to this report. twitter.com/RaquelRutledge rrutledge@journalsentinel.com Sunday's event offered a glimpse into the lives of the two sisters including what they learned, how they dressed and what they did for fun. The event is a precursor to the new Kennicott Girls Club, a STEM-based program for girls and boys that will debut at The Grove this spring. I do think that some people consider Irish music merely music to get drunk to, to dance like crazy, to get bold and yell out the one Irish song they know, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. Or maybe Danny Boy, says Carroll. Now, I would never want to take away anyones having fun or get in the way of a good time, but there is a very rich and beautiful substance and variety to Irish music. This much can be said of the latest attempt, 7 Days in Entebbe. It excuses nothing the terrorists did, but the film juggles points of view and toggles between various factions caught up in a diplomatic crisis. Some pro-Israel newspapers covering the films Berlin Film Festival premiere earlier this year noted its muted triumphalism, and noted further the films depiction of the climactic raid, which shows Israel Defense Forces unit commander Yonatan Netanyahu (the brother of Benjamin) as dying early in the raid, not near the end. "Craig is hip-hop's George Clinton, because his stuff is really off the wall," Diddy told the New York Times in 1995. "He does what's from his heart, which is where it starts for him. But his energy comes from somewhere else." So far, a total of four broadcast TV pilots are filming in Chicago this spring: In addition to the Fox legal drama, the network also a drama starring Katie Holmes for Fox and Gone Baby Gone (which, if picked up, likely wont continue to film in Chicago), along with Red Line for CBS starring ERs Noah Wyle among others. To read more, go here. "Wrinkle's" tortured birth is the stuff of publishing legend, a delicious example of a blindness to brilliance that also afflicted the editors who passed on C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia," Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" and "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," which Beatrix Potter eventually was forced to self-publish. At least five companies didn't see the merits of "Anne of Green Gables." A dozen let "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" slip away. (Insert forehead slap here.) At 87, Maxine Stanich cared more about improving the quality of her life than prolonging it. She suffered from a long list of health problems, including heart failure and chronic lung disease that could leave her gasping for breath. When her time came, she wanted to die a natural death, Stanich told her daughter, and signed a "do not resuscitate" directive, or DNR, ordering doctors not to revive her should her heart stop. Yet a trip to a San Francisco emergency room for shortness of breath in 2008 led Stanich to get a defibrillator implanted in her chest a medical device to keep her alive by delivering a powerful shock. At the time, Stanich didn't fully grasp what she had agreed to, even though she signed a document granting permission for the procedure, said her daughter, Susan Giaquinto. That clarity came only during a subsequent visit to a different hospital, when a surprised ER doctor saw a defibrillator protruding from the DNR patient's thin chest. To Stanich's horror, the ER doctor explained that the device would not allow her to slip away painlessly and that the jolt would be "so strong that it will knock her across the room," said Giaquinto, who accompanied her mother on both hospital trips. Surgery like this has become all too common among those near the end of life, experts say. Nearly 1 in 3 Medicare patients undergo an operation in the year before they die, even though the evidence shows that many are more likely to be harmed than to benefit from it. The practice is driven by financial incentives that reward doctors for doing procedures, as well as a medical culture in which patients and doctors are reluctant to talk about how surgical interventions should be prescribed more judiciously, said Dr. Rita Redberg, a cardiologist who treated Stanich when she sought care at the second hospital. "We have a culture that believes in very aggressive care," said Redberg, who specializes in heart disease in women at the University of California, San Francisco. "We are often not considering the chance of benefit and chance of harm, and how that changes when you get older. We also fail to have conversations about what patients value most." While surgery is typically lifesaving for younger people, operating on frail, older patients rarely helps them live longer or returns the quality of life they once enjoyed, according to a 2016 paper in Annals of Surgery. The cost of these surgeries typically paid for by Medicare, the government health insurance program for people over 65 involve more than money, said Dr. Amber Barnato, a professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Older patients who undergo surgery within a year of death spent 50 percent more time in the hospital than others, and nearly twice as many days in intensive care. And while some robust octogenarians have many years ahead of them, studies show that surgery is also common among those who are far more frail. Eighteen percent of Medicare patients have surgery in their final month of life and 8 percent in their final week, according to a 2011 study in The Lancet. More than 12 percent of defibrillators were implanted in people older than 80, according to a 2015 study. Doctors implant about 158,000 of the devices each year, according to the American College of Cardiology. The total cost of the procedure runs about $60,000. Procedures performed in the elderly range from major operations that require lengthy recoveries to relatively minor surgery performed in a doctor's office, such as the removal of nonfatal skin cancers, that would likely never cause any problems. Research led by Dr. Eleni Linos has shown that people with limited life expectancies are treated for nonfatal skin cancers as aggressively as younger patients. Among patients with a nonfatal skin cancer and a limited time to live, 70 percent underwent surgery, according to her 2013 study in JAMA Internal Medicine. Surgery poses serious risks for older people, who weather anesthesia poorly and whose skin takes longer to heal. Among seniors who undergo urgent or emergency abdominal surgery, 20 percent die within 30 days, studies show. With diminished mental acuity and an old-fashioned respect for the medical profession, some aging patients are vulnerable to unwanted interventions. Stanich agreed to a pacemaker simply because her doctor suggested it, Giaquinto said. Many people of Stanich's generation "thought doctors were God ... They never questioned doctors ever." Dr. Margaret Schwarze, a surgeon and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said that older patients often don't feel the financial pain of surgery because insurance pays most of the cost. When a surgeon offers to "fix" the heart valve in a person with multiple diseases, for example, the patient may assume that surgery will fix all of her medical problems, Schwarze said. "With older patients with lots of chronic illnesses, we're not really fixing anything." Even as a doctor, Redberg said, she struggles to prevent other doctors from performing too many procedures on her 92-year-old mother, Mae, who lives in New York City. Redberg said doctors recently treated her mother for melanoma the most serious type of skin cancer. After the cancer was removed from her leg, Redberg's mother was urged by a doctor to undergo an additional surgery to cut away more tissue and nearby lymph nodes, which can harbor cancerous cells. "Every time she went in, the dermatologist wanted to refer her to a surgeon," Redberg said. And "Medicare would have been happy to pay for it." But her mother often has problems with wounds healing, she said, and recovery would likely have taken three months. When Redberg pressed a surgeon about the benefits, he said the procedure could reduce the chances of cancer coming back within three to five years. Redberg said her mother laughed and said, "I'm not interested in doing something that will help me in three to five years. I doubt I'll be here." The momentum of hospital care can make people feel as if they're on a moving train and can't jump off. The rush of medical decisions "doesn't allow time to deliberate or consider the patients' overall health or what their goals and values might be," said Dr. Jacqueline Kruser, an instructor in pulmonary and critical care medicine and medical social sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Many hospitals and health systems are developing "decision aids," easy-to-understand written materials and videos to help patients make more informed medical decisions, giving them time to develop more realistic expectations. After Kaiser Permanente Washington introduced the tools relating to joint replacement, the number of patients choosing to have hip replacement surgery fell 26 percent, while knee replacements declined 38 percent, according to a study in Health Affairs. (Kaiser Permanente is not affiliated with Kaiser Health News, which is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.) In a paper published last year in JAMA Surgery and the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Schwarze, Kruser and colleagues suggested creating narratives to illustrate surgical risks, rather than relying on statistics. Instead of telling patients that surgery carries a 20 percent risk of stroke, for example, doctors should lay out the best, worst and most likely outcomes. In the best-case scenario, a patient might spend weeks in the hospital after surgery, living the rest of her life in a nursing home. In the worst case, the same patient dies after several weeks in intensive care. In the most likely scenario, the patient survives just two to three months after surgery. Schwarze said, "If someone says they can't tolerate the best-case scenario which involves them being in a nursing home then maybe we shouldn't be doing this." Maxine Stanich was admitted to the hospital after going to the ER because she felt short of breath. She experienced an abnormal heart rhythm in the procedure room during a cardiac test not an unusual event during a procedure in which a wire is threaded into the heart. Based on that, doctors decided to implant a pacemaker and defibrillator the next day. Dr. Redberg was consulted when the patient objected to the device that was now embedded in her chest. She was "very alert. She was very clear about what she did and did not want done. She told me she didn't want to be shocked," Redberg said. After Redberg deactivated the defibrillator, which can be reprogrammed remotely, Stanich was discharged, with home hospice service. With nothing more than her medicines, she survived another two years and three months, dying at home just after her 90th birthday in 2010. "It was crazy. I thought, 'What is going on? This is Paris, which we don't think of as some cheap city,'" Jha said. "One thing that is undoubtedly clear to me from all the data I have looked at is, whether it's hip replacement or an MRI, we spend much more [in the U.S.] per-procedure than we do in these really expensive places like Switzerland or the U.K. - in ways that really don't make any sense." According to the VOYCE data, 64 percent of students said they or someone they know has drunk alcohol in the past 30 days. Additionally, 64 percent said that they or someone they know drinks because of problems at home or to deal with stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and other mental health issues. More than 40 percent of young people also said that they or someone they know use alcohol to deal with the stress of school. I don't know how many young women come to this blog or how many are parents of teenage or young adult women, but here are some safety tips from Kelsey's Army: T I P S 1. Trust your instincts - If something feels wrong then something probably is wrong.2. Know your surroundings - know who and what is around you.3. Always have a plan for where you would go and what you would do if a situation arises.4. Be willing to make a scene in order to be noticed.5. Let someone know where you are going and when you will be back.Remember the acronym TIPS:ake Chargenform others of your whereaboutsrepare for any situationurvival Mentality (role play situations so you will respond should they happen)For more information, go to Kelsey's Army So we call upon our senior senator to screw up her courage and take the spit test, the Eagle said in an editorial. If she already has but is keeping the results under wraps, we urge her to be forthcoming with them. She has nothing to lose but her Achilles' heel. This redesign was inspired through my world travels, the history of the department and I really like the retro design of the 60s and 70s car. But I kind of wanted to make it a little bit more fresh, Jacobucci said. Jim Morrison he says that, Each generation wants new symbols, new people, new names. They want to divorce themselves from their predecessors. Which I feel is kind of like a state that we are in right now. Wallace helped to organize a 17-minute walkout at her high school as another way to help herself and her friends speak out about what they have experienced. For weeks, she and her classmates have collected names of people they know who have died as a result of gun violence. Theyve also partnered with a school in Baltimore another city plagued by gun violence to get the names of students there who have been fatally shot. For the first 10 minutes of their walkout on Wednesday, they will read the names of the Chicago and Baltimore victims, as Baltimore students do the same. For the next five minutes, they will list demands for change. In the 16th minute, they will remember Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old killed in 2014 by a Chicago police officer. In the final minute, they will remember the victims of Parkland, Wallace said. The slaying was one of at least 50 shootings involving the use of AR-15- or AK-47-style rifles, almost all of which are tied to a conflict that began along 47th Street in Back of the Yards, which has spread to other neighborhoods where gangs that operate there have territory. More than 150 people have been wounded in these attacks. The teen has been charged with a felony count of possession of a concealed weapon and a misdemeanor count of possession of a weapon without a firearm owner's identification card, police said. He is expected to appear in Central Bond Court on Tuesday, police said. Hooks, a Marine Corps veteran who took the bench in 2008, again on Tuesday questioned the wisdom of assigning special prosecutors to the Burge cases. A court ruling years ago found that the Cook County states attorneys office has an inherent conflict of interest going back to former Mayor Richard M. Daley, the county's top prosecutor when allegations of torture first came to light. Luz Perez Kwiatkowski, 44, was among the parents huddled outside the school as it began to snow. She was on her way home to Bridgeport when the school sent her an email and called to let her know the school was on a soft lockdown. FBI analysts posing as terrorists exchanged messages with Daoud and eventually got him to meet with an undercover agent, who was described as a "cousin" interested in waging jihad, according to the charges. Over several months, Daoud and the agent met several times in the Chicago area to discuss potential targets for an attack, the charges allege. Such a move would be a furtherance of Biss effort to support progressive causes in his bid to gain support for governor from the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party. On Tuesday, he is expected to add endorsements from Indivisible groups in the Lakeview neighborhood and Oak Park. The Indivisible groups were formed in the wake of President Donald Trumps election. Were not talking about and I was there for President (Bill) Clinton about an assault weapon ban, Emanuel said. We are talking about whether a gun shop has the same type of oversight that a barbershop has. That is what were talking about. Were talking about whether you need licensing as it relates to holding a hair dryer versus the fact that we dont have any licensing as it relates to purchasing a revolver. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri honored Armenian counterpart Karen Karapetyans visit with an official dinner in the evening of March 12 in Beirut. March 13, 2018, 10:28 Lebanon PM Hariri stresses active investment exchanges with Armenia STEPANAKERT, MARCH 12, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS:Armenias PM Karen Karapetyan delivered remarks, saying: Dear Mr. Prime Minister, Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to once again thank Mr. Hariri for the invitation to visit Lebanon and the warm reception. We all know that the Armenian-Lebanese relations and ties have always been unique, which is due to the historical friendly relations between our peoples. Certainly the Lebanese-Armenian community has key and appreciable role here with its peaceful and creative conduct. The experience of the past years only reaffirms that the Armenian-Lebanese partnership is harmonious in both bilateral and international arenas. We are only left with ensuring the continuation of joint efforts for the further deepening of this, and the protection of our mutual interests. We currently need to develop and strengthen the economic component of our bilateral relations even more. I am hopeful that the issues which weve discussed these days and the agreements which weve reached will be realized soon and will convey new momentum and quality to the deepening of the multifaceted partnership of the Armenian and Lebanese peoples. Following the tragic and unfortunate events unfolding in the region and directly next to Lebanon in the recent years, I would like to emphasize Armenias readiness to support its friend Lebanon and to express hope that the people of Lebanon, who bear wisdom of centuries and patriotic values, will withstand all challenges with honor and inherent unity, will maintain the balanced stance of the country and normal development course. Dear Mr. Prime Minister, I wish you good health and all the best, and I wish peace, stability and further economic prosperity to the people of Lebanon. Long live Lebanon and long live the Armenian-Lebanese friendship. Lebanons PM Saad Hariri said in his remarks: Dear Mr. Prime Minister, Dear friends, We host our respected guest, Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan and his delegation, with great honor this evening. First of all, I congratulate the election of the 4th President of Armenia in the beginning of this month. Last year we marked the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between independent Armenia and Lebanon, but the cultural and historic ties between the two countries have a history of more than 2000 years, from the days of Tigranes the Great. Currently Lebanon and Armenia have successful relations in various fields, especially in business. Academic exchange between universities also exists, and bilateral active partnership in cultural, arts and tourism areas is also carried out. The Lebanese-Armenian [community] plays a great role in the development of these relations, especially taking into account that they are considered active actors in both the Lebanese national life, business, industry, cultural , educational and arts sectors. Exchange of investments between the countries in also in an active phase, the latest results of which is the involvement of two Lebanese banks in Armenias financial system. Mr. Prime Minister and friends, The development of relations between the two countries was under the attention of martyred Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, and he became the first Lebanese high-level official to visit Armenia three times since 1997. I hope to continue his mission by always having the interests and friendly relations of the two peoples in mind. Thank you and once again I welcome your visit to the Lebanese Government. Long live the friendly relations of Lebanon and Armenia, long live Armenia and Lebanon. I think where we are right now is talking to aldermen, talking to people in the community, talking to the police about the ordinance and getting their feedback, said North Side Ald. Harry Osterman, 48th, who will co-sponsor the proposal. I think thats kind of the key step. The legislative side of this is going to play out in the full light of day. Were all going to see it. So I think that will all unfold. And I dont want to predict how thats going to shake out right now. People are watching this race around the country, trying to figure out if in the era of Trump, all Democrats will do is say, Yep, were going to try that also. Inexperienced billionaires I guess also are the order of the day. Or whether Democrats are going to instead say, No, we are going to find a different way forward. Were going to find a different way to do it, were going to win elections with people, not dollars. But only a few members of the panel said Madigan should also step down as House speaker, a position he has held for 34 of the past 36 years. Chief among them was state Rep. Scott Drury of Highwood, who was the lone Democrat not to vote for Madigan for speaker in 2017. In this March 6, 2016 photo, an exhibitor allows a tarantula to crawl up her arm at Reptile Rampage at the Lake Forest Recreation Center Sunday. (Rob Dicker / Pioneer Press) Pompeo is likely to be more amenable to Trump's way of doing business. As a firebrand congressman from Kansas and a tea party leader, he sharply opposed the Iran nuclear deal, tweeting just before his CIA nomination his determination to "roll back" the agreement. Earlier, Pompeo was a leader of the Republican House effort to hold the Obama administration responsible for the killings of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, and questioned the wisdom of traditional multilateralism. Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer who is not expected to meet with Trump during his visit did not support the resolution but also did not veto it. The mayor's office said Faulconer has been clear in his opposition to walls along the border but he did not want to blacklist companies involved in the construction of the prototypes. "It is during this period that these events unfold in order to try to discredit Russia in the eyes (of) the international community, in order to create this unfavorable background in the conduct of the election campaign," he said, according to Interfax. Citing "this interference in our elections," he added: "The form chosen is the most cynical, when the health of citizens is put at risk. . . . Once again I want to say that Britain is responsible for this." WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's pick to be the next director of the CIA is a career spymaster who is accused of overseeing torture at a secret prison during one of the darkest chapters in the agency's history. If confirmed, 61-year-old Gina Haspel would become the first woman to lead the CIA. Colleagues describe her as a seasoned veteran with 30-plus years of intelligence experience who would run the agency with integrity. But it's the time she spent supervising a secret CIA prison that will be scrutinized at her Senate confirmation hearing. Trump announced on Tuesday that he had chosen Haspel to succeed Mike Pompeo, who is the president's pick to replace ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Haspel joined the CIA in 1985 and has been deputy director since February 2017. After the 9/11 attacks, she held senior positions in the CIA unit administering the detention program that used "enhanced interrogation techniques." At some point in 2002, Haspel oversaw the agency's clandestine prison in Thailand. Suspected terrorists Abu Zubayadah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded at the site that year, according to a 2014 Senate torture report and other documents, though it's unclear if such treatment occurred while Haspel was chief of base where the prison was located. Waterboarding is a process that simulates drowning and is widely considered to be a form of torture. Haspel also helped carry out an order to destroy waterboarding videos, which prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. Trump has said that he would reintroduce waterboarding and "a lot worse," but there's no indication that his decision to pick Haspel signals a desire to restart the harsh interrogation and detention program. He would face steep legal and legislative hurdles if he tried. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Haspel must explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program. "Current U.S. law is clear in banning enhanced interrogation techniques," said McCain, who was beaten as a prisoner during the Vietnam War. "Any nominee for director of the CIA must pledge without reservation to uphold this prohibition." Former CIA Director John Brennan declined to say what Haspel's exact role was in the interrogation program, but he told NBC that she has a "lot of integrity" and has tried to carry out her agency duties "when asked to do difficult things in challenging times." Brennan predicted she would be confirmed. "Gina is a very competent professional who I think deserves the chance to take the seat," he said. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which will consider the nomination, said she has the "right skill set, experience and judgment" to lead the CIA. Avril Haines, a former CIA deputy director and onetime White House deputy national security adviser, said Haspel "is intelligent, compassionate, and fair" and has "an unparalleled understanding of the institution, the agency's work, and she will support the workforce - all attributes the agency needs from its director." Human rights advocates said they opposed Haspel's promotion. "No one who had a hand in torturing individuals deserves to ever hold public office again, let alone lead an agency," Human Rights First's Raha Wala said. "To allow someone who had a direct hand in this illegal, immoral and counterproductive program is to willingly forget our nation's dark history with torture." After Haspel was named deputy CIA director, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights asked German prosecutors to issue a warrant for her arrest over her role in the interrogations. Federal prosecutors never issued the warrant because the case lacked a connection to Germany. But the rights group's allegations against Haspel remain part of a preliminary investigation that German authorities could revive if they receive evidence that any of the parties have links to Germany. Last year, Haspel's name came up during a civil lawsuit in Spokane, Washington, filed by three men who said they suffered waterboarding, beatings and sleep deprivation in the CIA interrogation program developed by former Spokane psychologists James E. Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. Lawyers for the psychologists wanted to interview Haspel and another CIA official involved in the program, but government lawyers told the federal judge in the case that the officials and documents were protected under the state secrets privilege and making them public would threaten national security. Haspel has been chief of station at CIA outposts abroad. In Washington, she has held several senior leadership positions, including deputy director of the National Clandestine Service. In her current post, she worked with Pompeo to manage intelligence collection, analysis, covert action, counterintelligence and cooperation with the CIA's foreign counterparts. In a brief statement, the former undercover officer said she was "humbled" by Trump's confidence in her. Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions addresses the California Peace Officers' Association on March 7, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently resigned because he said he was uncomfortable with certain mandates from Sessions. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP) CIA Director Mike Pompeo speaks at a Senate committee hearing on Feb. 13, 2018, on Capitol Hill. He was nominated as the new secretary of state, replacing Rex Tillerson, on March 13. (Andrew Harnik / AP) Eduard Sharmazanov Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, delivered welcoming remarks at the outgoing session of the CIS IPA Permanent Commission on Agrarian Policy, Natural Resources and Ecology on March 3. March 13, 2018, 12:51 Vice Speaker Sharmazanov is confident sooner or later Artsakh will become CIS IPAs full member STEPANAKERT, MARCH 13, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS:I welcome the participants of the outgoing session of the CIS IPA Permanent Commission on Agrarian Policy, Natural Resources and Ecology. The CIS Interparliamentary Assembly is a unique platform which for more than 25 years carries out an activity aimed at ensuring the cooperation of the parliaments of the CIS member states. Speaking about the key events of the CIS IPA activity of the past quarter century I first of all would like to stress the role and contribution of the CIS IPA in the preparation and strengthening of the protocol signed in May, 1994 in Bishkek which was followed by the signing of the trilateral termless ceasefire agreement between Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Dear colleagues, unfortunately today Azerbaijan ignores the trilateral ceasefire agreement signed by it. The vivid evidence of this is the 2016 April aggression by Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) which claimed hundreds of lives, also among the civilians. Dear colleagues, I am confident that sooner or later the Republic of Artsakh will become a full member of the CIA IPA having its contribution to the strengthening and development of the organization. The agenda of your Commission is full of issues which are of great interest to lawmakers and civil society representatives. I wish you effective discussions, productive contacts, an interesting debate and enjoying good time in our country, Sharmazanov said. The former Navy SEAL flashed with anger when the Energy and Natural Resources Committee's ranking Democrat pressed him on whether he could justify increasing access fees for working Americans when he has been spending taxpayer money on chartered airplane flights. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington asked Zinke if it was a mistake for him to spend $12,375 on a late-night trip in June from Las Vegas to his home state of Montana on a private jet. Trump claims he hires the best people, but he doesnt keep them. This should be the time in a new administration when Cabinet officers and other key advisers are hitting their stride, having learned what they need to know to do their jobs as well as possible. Instead, many of them have been felled by scandal, run afoul of their mercurial president or burned out by the nonstop turmoil and confused direction of the past 14 months. To get a flavor of how Pompeo approaches the nuclear pact, look no further than his work as a member of Congress representing his home district in Wichita, Kan. After the agreement was completed in 2015, Pompeo worked tirelessly as a member of Congress to meet with European bankers, diplomats and CEOs to make the case that investing in Iran was not as safe as they were hearing from John Kerry, who was secretary of state at the time. But immigration officials took her daughter away, even though there was no allegation of abuse or neglect. The mother had only scant identification, common among people who have fled their homes. Department of Homeland Security attorneys have claimed in court papers that without documentation proving the child was hers, agents had no choice but to separate the mother and treat the child like an unaccompanied minor. Hyperbole and exaggeration are commonplace in political ads, but this struck us as not just over the top but over the moon, wrote PolitiFact Illinois in an extended examination of the gobs of mud Rauner is hurling at Ives. They turn credibility and rational argument inside out. That is why we give them our lowest possible credibility rating, Pants on Fire! Meeting of the Permanent Commission on Agrarian Policy, Natural Resources and Ecology of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS) has kicked off Tuesday at the National Assembly of Armenia. March 13, 2018, 13:23 CIS MPs in Yerevan, confer on environmental issues STEPANAKERT, MARCH 13, ARTSAKHPRESS:CIS parliamentarians are attending this event, during which environmental issues are discussed. As the name suggests, TImothy OTooles Pub will be enthusiastically celebrating St. Patricks Day on parade Saturday. The Streeterville pub will have a DJ on hand to spin from open to close, as well as the Shannon Rovers bagpipers at 2 p.m. Mens and womens chugging contests will be held at noon and 1 p.m., respectively, with prizes and giveaways included in the festivities. As for food and drink, the specials are too numerous to name in all, but a themed brunch menu will be served from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. It includes an Irish breakfast, corned beef hash and eggs and a couple other festive menu items, all for $13 or less. Drink specials could fill a book, but most check in at $8 or less, including Irish coffees and car bombs ($8), Guiness and Harp pints ($7.50) and Jameson and Powers Whiskey shots ($7). Pitchers of green beer are $22, and green pints are $7. When it comes to summer barbecues, a rack of ribs sizzling on the grill is a must. But how much do you really know about ribs other than, well, that theyre delicious? Theres more to ribs than you may think. There are different styles of pork ribs, including baby back ribs, spare ribs, St. Louis ribs and more though some may be more popular than others depending on the region. When buying ribs, make sure the meat is fresh and you have enough to feed everyone at your cookout. The way you cook ribs can vary so if you dont have a grill, you can still make juicy ribs in your oven, slow cooker and more. Here's everything you need to know about choosing and cooking prok ribs along with some of our favorite rib recipes to get you started. The box-alarm fire at manufacturer Teleflex Inc., which makes medical devices at 100 W. University Drive, appears to have started in a machine that was on the second floor of the business, said Richard Manthey, division chief for the Arlington Heights Fire Department. "Harmony and compatibility with the community are concepts that have been ignored," Conlin told village officials during the meeting March 5. "What I would ask is for you to put yourself in the position of the residents who live near this piece of property." The district ultimately decided to remain at Northern Illinois largely because of the estimated cost of bringing graduation to East Aurora High School's new stadium, and because of concerns about whether there would be enough space if graduation has to be moved indoors due to weather, school board President Annette Johnson said. "I am running as a Democrat. I support unions, fair wages and those types of things. (Wojnicki) is a staunch party-line voter. I am more objective in my decision-making." Strom said. "I have received calls from people who are staunch Republicans who are voting for me, because they know who I am and believe I would be the best candidate, regardless of party." Kendall County State's Attorney Eric Weis, who was on the food pantry's board until May 2014, asked for a special prosecutor in July 2016 after a detective told him he might need to be a witness concerning money Spaeth and Crowley allegedly took from the pantry. The allegations against Spaeth span Dec. 1, 2013, through April 30, 2016, while those against Crowley are for July 1, 2013, through March 31, 2016. "We wanted to focus on the drug abuse, and not just put a Band-aid on it but look at, 'What was the root cause?'" Burrows said. "It doesn't matter if the drug of choice is methamphetamine or opioids, they are making a choice to self-medicate. All of the roles are great because these characters are flawed, but they are completely honest and speaking their truth." Chairman of the National Assembly (NA), Ara Babloyan, on Tuesday received a delegation from the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Russian Council of the Federationand led by Committee Chairperson Konstantin Kosachevwhich is on a working visit to Armenia. March 13, 2018, 17:59 Konstantin Kosachev: Armenia is special ally to Russia STEPANAKERT, MARCH 13, ARTSAKHPRESS:First, Babloyan wished success to the ongoing joint meeting of the NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations and of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Russian Council of the Federation. Also, he expressed confidence that the delegations current visit will contribute to making Armenian-Russian cooperation grow deeper. In addition, the NA speaker noted that interparliamentary cooperation has an important place in Armenian-Russian state relations, and he underscored collaboration also within international parliamentary organizations. Kosachev, in turn, stated that Armenia is a special ally to Russia, and added that their contact scopes and agendas coincide frequently. Also, he briefed the Armenian parliament speaker on the matters that were discussed at the first joint meeting of the day of the aforementioned committees. Konstantin Kosachev also highlighted the role of parliamentary diplomacy and mutually beneficial cooperation within international organizations, and he expressed the hope that the issues being discussed during their joint meetings will be resolved as soon as possible. At the end of their talk the interlocutors conferred on parliamentary cooperation. "In that tradition, I wanted to establish it to help those in need in the community." Calandriello said. "I've been very blessed to have the opportunity to give back to the community that I was raised in." Brian M. Silverstein of Highland Park, who was working at a table with other classmates, said he liked the idea of helping to provide books to children who might not otherwise have them. Another member of the group, Shai Sklar of Evanston, said it was a way of giving back. "Staff will be hoteling, which means they will not have a dedicated work desk, but will find a place to work when they come in to work. Staff can choose to work flexibly from home, from any of our resource centers or from within the community, as many of our staff are meeting with members, potential members and community stakeholders for much of the day, Cummings said. What is known is police officers encountered Decynthia Clements, of Aldine Avenue, on Sunday evening and attempted to pull her over for an as-yet undisclosed reason. She refused to stop and officers ultimately ended their pursuit of her. When they spotted her again on Interstate 90, near Route 25, about 12:35 a.m. Monday, they were able to stop her but she refused to exit her SUV and pulled out a knife while speaking to officers, the police chief said. The men then allegedly went back to storage area and installed the battery. One drove away with the RV while the other left in the car the men used to drive to the storage facility, authorities say. Assistant States Attorney Jim Scaliatine said the car the men used had stolen license plates. Art was certainly in the air at the 2018 John Mills Art Show held March 8 at the school, located at 2824 N. 76th Ave. Actually, art was in the halls, and even the ceilings, of the school where many of the nearly 650 students created figurines to go with the hanging sculptures. It was so much a part of the day that even Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and Mexican artist Frida Kahlo actually, students dressed to look the part dropped in to talk about their work. Northbrook Police Detective John Seiler wrote in his report that, Schulhof was not granted permission by the school or district to be training on the property and had been warned about doing so at least one prior occasion in 2015. "The neighborhoods play into this," Ryan told Cayuga County legislators at a Feb. 27 meeting. While this little girl's case has been a sorry lesson for families and state and local officials, her circumstances spurred the creation of the Cayuga County Lead Poisoning Prevention Task Force. In its approximately two years of existence, much has been done to decrease lead poisoning in children across the county, but the health department is considering a new measure to reach even more families: declaring areas of high risk. It's an option under state Public Health Law, said Cayuga County Health Director Kathleen Cuddy, and it allows officials to enter homes in those areas and test for lead paint sooner rather than later. "It provides us as a health department a mechanism to go in and lead test residences without the trigger of having a lead-poisoned child already in the home," Cuddy said in a phone interview after Ryan's presentation to lawmakers. "Depending on how we move forward with that, there are quite a few neighborhoods and/or properties that could be designated as such, and if we do that, it is our responsibility to continue to follow up on these residences and that takes human power, that takes people to follow up, who have the skill set and have been trained." Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} A: I am part of the Dreamers group at my high school, which is not just "dreamers" but also allies. I identify as an ally. We discuss the strengths and struggles of dreamers, the rallies that are going to be coming up in Chicago and how we can help the emotional stability of dreamers within our community and our school. If you don't have that emotional stability, it is really hard for you to concentrate in school. I am also part of a culture club at my school called Hispanos Amigos. We participate in an El Chicano Bowl competition in April. Attorney Brett Tolpin, who is representing Ravinia Brewing Co. in the dispute, said his clients were surprised to receive a trademark licensing agreement in mid-February that, he said, represented a "massive overreach" in its demands. The draft agreement would have Ravinia Brewing paying Ravinia royalties on all of its beer sales after two years. Those royalties would rise to 10 percent for any annual sales over 4,000 barrels. Bush said recent discussions with student organizers demonstrated to her that they are serious about the issue and want to see calm, responsible dialogue on gun safety issues. She said she also spoke with school administrators who understand the situation and seem agreeable to allowing the demonstrations as long as school and safety guidelines are followed. In cross-examination, Hill addressed several discrepancies in his testimony on the timing of his actions and the distance between Howell and himself during the shooting. He said that during his depositions, he did the best he could at remembering small details after spending more than 12 hours preparing by himself and with the defense council. "Any one of [the candidates] would have been a good choice, but if you consider that our primary objective is to prepare our students for high school and beyond, having a high school teacher on our board helps us analyze and ask the right questions about articulation between our curriculum and the high school curriculum," Anderson said when Farhan was appointed. "Art for me was always a hobby, my escape from the pressures of school, from other people, a cathartic exercise I'd do when I needed to get away." Rahim writes on her website, which was read to the children. "It wasn't something I even considered when it came to picking a college major or a career. Instead, I studied for law school, fell in love with sociology, and painted when I needed a reprieve." The suit also contends the village arbitrarily and without reason denied the requested use of the property, even though the project met all requisites for the special use and for the necessary variations under the village's zoning ordinance and state law. NEW YORK (AP) A former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo was convicted on corruption charges Tuesday at a trial that further exposed the state capital's culture of backroom deal-making. A federal jury in Manhattan found Joseph Percoco guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and one count of soliciting bribes after deliberating for parts of three weeks. He could face time in prison. Jurors had informed the court twice that they were deadlocked in the case against Percoco and three businessmen accused of paying his family more than $300,000 in bribes, but U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni asked them to keep deliberating and on Tuesday said she would accept a partial verdict. Percoco was acquitted of two extortion counts and one of the bribery charges he had faced. The jury also convicted one of the businessmen charged with paying the bribes, Steven Aiello, an executive at a Syracuse area development company, Cor Development. A second executive with the company, Joseph Gerardi, was acquitted on all counts. The jury said it couldn't reach a unanimous decision on a fourth defendant in the case, energy company executive Peter Galbraith Kelly. "I know Farrakhan, I know the Middle East question, I know the Jews and Farrakhan I know all that, but that's not what I spend all my time focused on," he was quoted as saying. " The world is so much bigger than Farrakhan and the Jewish question and his position on that and so forth. For those heavy into it, that's their thing, but it ain't my thing." "Dr. Quaid's experience at the Archdiocese of Chicago, Marmion Academy and DePaul College Prep will benefit Fenwick going forward, especially in the area of enrollment management," said Fenwick Principal Peter Groom. "This role also gives Dr. Quaid the opportunity to work more closely with students, which is what initially drew him into the educational profession. I am excited on a personal level to work with Dr. Quaid going forward, but I am even more excited for what this means for the future of our school." "There was a woman in front of me at Walgreens who was purchasing her things," Oak Park Trustee Andrea Button said. "When the clerk said she could purchase a bag for 10 cents, she thought it was Walgreens' fault. There wasn't that education and understanding on why the fee was there. Ultimately, she decided it wasn't worth it and took her stuff out [of the bag], which is what we want to accomplish. There's a lot more we can be doing besides the fee, and I think we can do a little more outreach and education." The Park Ridge Herald-Advocate filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking to review the report, compiled by REM Management, but the request was denied by the city's attorneys in January. Among the arguments made by the city was that "the release of the information weighs more heavily toward the harm it demonstrably would create to the reputation of the city, the public confidence in the department, and the morale and efficient operation of the police department." "Kids need to be exposed to different cultures outside of their home," said Legatos-Coines, whose parents grew up on the Greek island of Cephalonia before immigrating to the United States. "My kids go to Greek school on Tuesday and Friday and that's a big part of our household, so we wanted to share our culture. But I also wanted my kids to also learn about other cultures." "I don't really want to go there," he said, calling the machinery impractical because it would add "an hour or two" to the school day in order for all students to go through the checking process. "I want our schools to be safe, but I want them to be good learning environments where we can focus on the really good things going on in our schools." Miki Tesija, whose son has Down syndrome and attends fourth grade at Field Elementary School, said the announcement of Harrod's selection took her and other parents by surprise. She and other parents had asked the board to form an official committee and include parents of special education students to shape the scope of the audit and select a firm to conduct the work. Investigators asked Kraft Jr. "once the Indiana Attorney General brought the case against the funeral home and he was aware of (his mother's) actions why he wouldn't change the way the books were handled," according to the affidavit. Kraft Jr. told investigators that after the investigation "he gave up and knew the business was lost," court records state. In other business, former airport director Dan Vicari, who remains as a consultant, said construction on a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol facility is on budget and on schedule for a late June opening. He said roofing was nearly complete. Listen up you lawmakers city, county, state and federal; you all were elected to listen to and serve your constituents. What don't you understand about our cries to ban assault weapons such as the AR-15 and their BULLETS; those bullets that shatter internal organs so that there is no hope of of saving the victims. Are you all afraid that your NRA contributions will dry up and that you will not be re-elected? I, for one, believe that if any of you introduce legislation that will ban the sale and use of these lethal assault weapons and the bullets and or vote for such legislation you will be the most popular candidate and lead the ticket. "The appropriate answer to the questions posed by the Emergency Manager is not to eliminate or muzzle the source of the questions but to assure that the parties have a process for working through their concerns," she said. "(Jansen) comes to the department with a lot of experience, having worked at the Lake County Animal Shelter, Munster Police Department, the Humane Society as well as a program out east," he said. "She has really good ideas for setting up pet adoptions on our website, for example." "The Lake County Council believes that our Indiana lawmakers have a responsibility to make our community safer by making all firearm purchases subject to background checks at the point of sale, so that felons, convicted domestic abuses, and those with severe mental illness are barred from possessing guns," the resolution said. "The Lake County Council believes that our senators and congressmen should consider a bipartisan bill to close the gun show and internet sales loopholes in the federal government background check system as implemented in Indiana. President Trump is like Pac-Man when it comes to his employees. The weak ones get chewed up and spit out, and the strong ones help him use his instincts to do the right things like tariffs, the economy, Wall Street, and unemployment at historic lows across all spectrums and he's just getting started. He's making America great again against all odds. You can get on the train, or just keep crying like a little sissy. I jumped on that train from the start. Why didn't you? According to the youth, two security guards from the park who have not been identified, first approached them and told them that their permit to host a rally was denied. The security guards allegedly said they feared that the crowd could get out of hand at the possibility of Chance the Rapper showing up; they added that people were worried that the event would sway votes in favor of a candidate. Comanche power plant shutdowns prompt civil lawsuit A rural electric association alleges it had to pay more than $20 million to get replacement power during Pueblo Comanche power plant's shutdowns. With the national conversation on guns in full swing right now, some are demanding that politicians refuse to accept money from the NRA under the assumption that theyre behind the taking of lives. Yet none of the people who have committed mass murder have been members of the NRA. However, there is a group that has, by their own acknowledgement, killed over 300,000 people in just one year (2016-2017). That group is Planned Parenthood. Since its founding, Planned Parenthood has aborted over 7 million babies. Think about that. Seven million beating hearts; 7 million people whose potential we will never know. Does Planned Parenthood really care about families? In 2016, the organization handed out only one adoption referral for every 114 abortions. Founder Margaret Sanger said, Birth control is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit. She said that charity to poor mothers which does not help them avoid bringing unnecessary children into the world causes a dead weight of human waste. China will implement a One Window, One Form policy for registering foreign-funded enterprises, according to a recently released circular. The circular, which was issued jointly by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), will be implemented nationally from June 30, 2018. The One Window, One Form policy is designed to make business registration easier by cutting red tape and bureaucratic steps for businesses. After June 30, foreign-funded enterprises will be able to submit a single form to a single office, rather than register separately with various government offices. Notably, the reform strengthens data exchange and information sharing between relevant government departments. This measure increases the importance of maintaining compliant business operations, as well as the risks of non-compliance. However, the reform ultimately stands to simplify the registration process and reduce the hours needed to prepare forms and liaise with different bureaus. Corporate Establishment Services from Dezan Shira & Associates Foreign businesses seeking to register should be aware that guidance for national-level reforms may take time to reach local government units. In the past, some local government units have needed additional time beyond the implementation target to train their people on new processes and systems. It is also possible that central government officials may require more time to create and supervise implementation guidance. Meanwhile, the new data exchange measure means that foreign businesses need to exert greater care in managing their compliance with rules and regulations. China has already experimented with similar policies in certain locations. For example, the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) has a single window access system under the administration of the SAIC. The Shanghai FTZ is also developing a single window for goods and services trade. These reforms are a part of a broader reform agenda that seeks to consolidate bureaucratic processes and create a simpler business environment. The implementation of the Five-in-One business license is a notable example of this overall reform direction. Despite these efforts to improve the business environment, China has not made substantial progress in recent years. According to the World Bank, China ranks 78 out of 190 economies for ease of doing business in 2018 the same rank it held in 2017 and 2016. Meanwhile, many foreign businesspeople in China are cautious about the regulatory environment. The American Chamber of Commerces 2018 China Business Climate Survey Report found that 75 percent of the 400 US firms surveyed in China felt less welcome than before. There might be more imminent, practical ways to learn about China, yet a poetry recital in both Chinese and English turned out to be more fun for New Yorkers exploring rich history and culture of the rising Asian power. A special event of Poetry, Music and Art of the Mountain: Through the Chinese Photographer's Lens, held on Saturday at China Institute in downtown New York City, has drawn a large number of audiences and received continuous applause and praises, and presented the beautiful tunes of Chinese poems, music and its magnificent mountains to both Americans and Chinese. Though the weather was not so friendly after Wednesday's snow, over 70 participants braved the cold and attended the special event, organized by the Gallery under China Institute, the oldest bicultural non-profit organization in the U.S. to focus exclusively on China. The event is the first of its kind that combines Chinese poems reciting, traditional Chinese music playing and photos exhibition from China to give New Yorkers a particular opportunity to understand the Chinese culture and China. "We have been offering programs, activities, courses, and seminars on the visual and performing arts, culture, history, music, philosophy, language, and literature for the general public, but this is really the first time that we have such a wonderful event that put poem, music and photo show together as one of our Orchid Pavilion Gatherings," said Willow Weilan Hai, Director of China Institute Gallery. Founded in 1926 by a group of American and Chinese educators, China Institute in America is an institution with a mission to promote the appreciation of Chinese heritage and provides the historical context for understanding contemporary China. The Orchid Pavilion Gathering is an annual event at China Institute celebrating and encouraging artistic inspiration in the spirit of celebrated calligraphy sage Wang Xizhi's (307-365) famous gathering with his poet friends on Mount Kuaiji. Hai noted that Saturday's event is all about the mountains, because mountains in Chinese legend are the pillars that hold up the sky. Mountains were seen as places that nurture life. Their veneration takes the form of rituals, retreat from social society, and aesthetic appreciation with a defining role in Chinese art and culture. "We hold such an event not only to pay homage to the major mountain ranges of China, but also hope that people pay more attention to nature, to environment protection, to purify our spirit and find renewal in a society when technology is growing so fast," Hai said. Besides the well-known Chinese poet Li Bai's "The Moon Over the Fortress and Mountain" and Selections from the famous American poet Walter Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," 17 original poems from 12 poets, such as "That Mountain", "Ascending a Hight to Enjoy a Distant View", "Seeking Paths in Foggy Mountains", "Rocks" and "Views on the Other Side" were recited at the event. Jennifer Monteleone, a graphic designer in New York, said she liked the event very much because it combines the three kinds of arts together and it is so great for people to learn about Chinese art and China this way. The traditional classic Chinese music pieces "The Moon Over the Fortress and Mountain" based by Well-known Chinese Li Bai, "Homeward Bound" by Tao Yuanming and "Flowing Water" based on ancient Chinese story, were performed by the 7s Art Music group in New York City on the occasion. Kevin Ge, founder of the group, said that he is so pleased that the Chinese music, poems and photos have found lovers among the American audiences. After the poem reading and music appreciation program, Hai, also chief curator of the Art of the Mountain exhibition offered bilingual tours of the photo show, which features over 60 photographs, many of which are on view for the first time in the U.S, from more than 20 photographers. The exhibition, consisting of three sections, the Revered Mountains of China, Landscape Aesthetics in Photography and the New Landscape Photography, will run until December 2 this year. Having entered the Chinese New Year of Dog, Chinese poets seem to be very active and audiences' interest in Chinese culture is also on the rise. Just a month ago, the American Association of Chinese Writers hosted a recital in celebration of the Spring Festival. And April 14 will see the first and biggest poetry festival, organized by Chinese Americans in New York during the month of the U.S "National Poetry Month." Rare works by Zhang Daqian and other Chinese masters amassed by an art collecting couple in California are going on display ahead of auction. A collection of paintings and calligraphy featuring works by Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), one of the most prodigious Chinese artists of the 20th century, as well as by many other Chinese masters, will go on public display at the Asia Week New York art event, which opens on Thursday. The works have been stored at the China Art Center in Carmel in California for more than 30 years by the Chew family, who enjoyed a close relationship with Zhang from the mid-1960s. Most of the 76 works of Chinese paintings and calligraphy from the family collection were amassed by couple Thomas and Joan Chew during the 1960s and 1970s, and of these, 11 pieces were gifts from their close friend, Chinese ink master Zhang Daqian. In the mid-1960s, Zhang left Brazil and relocated to California. Before he finally settled down to live in Monterey county, he made frequent visits to Carmel, a place known for its rich artistic history and where Zhang formed his long friendship with the Chews after spending weeks on end at Dolores Lodge, a guesthouse operated by the couple. A big crowd packed the City Hall of Austin on March 10 to listen to a performance by Chinese band MoxiZishi x JiKeHaBu x 3He and a local Austin group to kick off China Gathering at SXSW, a program aimed at promoting China at the internationally acclaimed 10-day event from March 9 to 18. SXSW (South by Southwest), originally started as a musical festival in 1987, has grown into an international fair of music, film and emerging technologies. Scores of executives from China's companies at the forefront of innovation such as Alibaba, Ehang, Mobike, Ant Financial and others have joined in on the festivities. Over the past two days, some of them have displayed their technologies for SXSW audience and garnered some favorable attention. More will be discussing their innovations over the following days. "SXSW is one of our top priorities this year," said Li Qiangmin, consul general of China in Houston. He organized a large consular delegation including Deputy Consul General Wang Yu to attend this year's SXSW. Li said that he was very surprised to see hundreds of Chinese faces at SXSW. "I have run into more than 60 executives from Chinese companies," Li said. "This is a very good platform to gather together music, film and high tech. I am very happy to see that SXSW created a China Gathering platform to engage China, and I hope to see more Chinese companies taking part in SXSW." Vivian Forrest, founder and CEO of China Gathering, said that while the delegation that's come through China Gathering numbered more than 40, many others have come on their own. She hopes to eventually organize them to more coherently present China at SXSW. This marks the first year that executives from Chinese companies have conducted solo presentations at SXSW. "They can use this platform of SXSW to bring Chinese companies onto the world stage. Some Chinese executives told me that they consider SXSW a newly discovered treasure for US China collaboration in innovation," Li said. As innovation has been a priority for the Chines government, Li said the consulate will work closely with China Gathering to enhance China's profile in the future. SXSW's emerging technologies are so attractive that organizers of the US-China Innovation and Investment Summit have decided to invite SXSW innovative projects to join its May summit in Houston. Any innovation at SXSW will instantly become one of its InnoSTARS finalists if they join the UCIS through the China Gathering platform. Those projects will then have the opportunity to be pitched to Chinese companies on a year-long tour of China. Hugh Forrest, chief program officer of SXSW, said that in the last five to 10 years, international participation has increased greatly. "However, nowhere is our need to grow connections more significant and more important than with China. When we talk about emerging technology and innovation, China can't be ignored," Forrest said. He urged the Chinese present to spread the word about SXSW and help the connections grow even more for next year. Austin Mayor Steve Adler welcomed Chinese guests at City Hall. "SXSW is the World's Fair of the future. I am happy to see Chinese companies have grown in number from 15 last year to over 60 this year. My very first trip as mayor internationally was to Southeast Asia and China. We have so much to learn about each other. SXSW, where good ideas become reality, is the right place for us to be connected," Adler said. Derrick Xiong, co-founder and CMO of Ehang, said that he came to SXSW for the first time three years ago. Compared to other tech events like CES, he found SXSW very refreshing and said its influence was growing. "There are so many presentations going on at the same time that people have to choose carefully what they listen to. Whoever attended my presentation was truly interested in what we are doing, it's more focused," said Xiong, who presented Ehang's pilotless airplane to an audience of more than 200 on Friday. You are here: China A "super plan" for China's space missions in the next couple decades includes moon landings, a Mars probe and a space shuttle, reports China News Service. China is planning to launch a Mars probe that will be able to orbit, land on and roam the red planet in one mission in around 2020. A second mission will have the probe bring back samples from Mars, according to Yang Mengfei from the China Academy of Space Technology. The academy has also initiated research on a new manned spacecraft that can serve multi purposes including sending people to the Moon. China's Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation is working on a new-generation space shuttle that will make space travel possible. Meanwhile, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology is trying to lower space travel costs with reusable carriers. A heavy rocket that is designed for cargo and human transportation is expected to make its first flight in around 2030. Sokon plans to add investment in SF Motors Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co., Ltd. (Sokon) announced on Mar. 10 that the company plans to add investment in its wholly-owned subsidiary SF Motors. With a total investment of $30 million, the capital fund of SF Motors will be totaled $200 million. What's more, SF Motors will unveil its first model in Silicon Valley on Mar. 28. The new model will be positioned as a pure electric SUV model. With an aim to develop super electric vehicles, SF Motors was founded by Sokon in Silicon Valley, America in January, 2016. It was quite sensational that the America-based company had once acquired InEVit, an American battery system company, which was founded by Martin Eberhard, a co-founder and first CEO of Tesla. After the acquisition was finished, Martin Eberhard as well as his team also joined SF Motors. In addition, SF Motors also acquired AM General's commercial assembly plant ("CAP"). AM General, American leading vehicle solution provider, is famous for manufacturing the Hummer H2 and the Mercedes-Benz R-Class. SF Motors has three R&D centers worldwide, including Silicon Valley Power System and Intelligent Driving R&D center, Michigan Product Designing and Developing Center, and Chongqing Product Designing and Developing Center. The company plans to develop high-end (C-class) and mid-end (B-class) electric vehicle products. The development cycle of C-class models is expected to be 36 months. The project was started in June, 2016 and is expected to achieve mass production in June, 2019. The development period of B-class model is expected to be 26 months. The project was started in September, 2016 and is expected to achieve mass production in January, 2019. The fourth plenary meeting of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Once again, China is at the center of global attention in the context of the celebration of "two sessions" (Lianghui), the annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which together this year takes place between March 3 and 20. This time, however, is a more special occasion than in previous years. A particular unity of the Chinese people and Beijing's global outlook contrast with the West, where there is a recovery of material progress after the economic crisis of 2008, although framed by a relative institutional stagnation and somewhat undefined national expectations. The above does not mean that due to the circumstantial shortcomings, particularly of the European Union, these strategic meetings in Beijing these days are not relatable to us. On the contrary, in the West we perceive that our destinies are increasingly intertwined as never before with the destinies of China. It is also a widely shared appreciation in the space of the Spanish-speaking world, and beyond. President Xi Jinping, as he mentioned a year ago, again reaffirms that humanity is on the verge of a "community of shared future." With so many topics to cover during the "two sessions," we must ask ourselves where we should focus our attention. The best advice would be everywhere. For example, the conception of the Chinese party system, which President Xi understands as a great contribution to political civilization. It is a declaration of principles that will most likely influence the international community; particularly to the extent that different regimes on different continents confirm that the achievement of results enhances and defines the public function supported by a formed technocracy, as has been in vogue in China these past decades. The most extraordinary example is the well-known breakthrough that has led the Communist Party of China to lift more than 700 million people out of poverty in the space of a little more than a generation and which is now being completed with the step of removing more than 10 million people from poverty this year. Also of interest is the orientation of economic growth, whose goal has been set at around 6.5 percent for 2018, and which is linked to similar figures in the most recent years. This robustness reinforces a very varied economic exchange. In the case of Spain, it includes the explosive increase of Chinese tourists, a five times growth over five years, and a generation of opportunities for new Chinese entrepreneurs to settle in Spain and their Spanish counterparts in China. It is of the utmost importance to carefully read the Chinese media between March 3 and 20 to try to see potential synergies, in a year that, at the same time, marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of relations between China and Spain, and the same one in which the official visit to Madrid of President Xi is expected. Xi will have the opportunity to explain in person Beijing's goal to move towards the achievement of "a great modern socialist country." The first half of March is marked by the appreciation that "the world has never had so much interest in China or needed it as much," as the People's Daily recently pointed out, in the context of what in Spain and Europe is valued and understood as a reciprocal dynamic. Augusto Soto is director of Dialogue with the China Project and professor at ESADE, Barcelona. Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. Flash Over the recent Spring Festival holiday, Chinese visitors went to 730 cities across 68 countries and regions. Chinese travelers are making their presence felt around the globe. They were expected to pay 6.5 million visits abroad over the recent Spring Festival holiday, and their footprints could be found in 730 cities across 68 countries and regions worldwide, the China National Tourism Administration reports. Last year, the Chinese paid more than 130 million visits outside the mainland, representing a year-on-year growth of 7 percent, according to China tourism Academy. Southeast Asia has seen the most visits by Chinese travelers with Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia among the most popular destinations. Thailand received 9.8 million visits by the Chinese in 2017, according to Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and Sports. Visitor numbers reached 313,000 during Spring Festival, a rise of 24.4 percent over the same period last year. Meanwhile, an increasing number of Chinese are warming up to long-distance travel destinations. France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy have all seen a sizeable influx of Chinese visitors, many of whom go sightseeing on the Danube and the Rhine. Countries that used to be considered not so popular, such as Luxembourg, Monaco and Andorra, are also gaining ground with sophisticated travelers. At the same time, countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative are also drawing Chinese travelers. The number of Chinese visitors to countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Cambodia grew by 16 percent during the holiday, according to a report by China Unionpay. Currently, nearly 129 million Chinese have passports, and the number is growing, says the Ministry of Public Security. Chinese travelers have also become the top spenders over the years, and accounted for approximately one fifth of the total consumption by global outbound travelers, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Chinese travelers spent $261 billion abroad in 2016,$11 billion more than 2015. U.S. travelers ranked second, and their consumption was half the Chinese spending. Chinese travelers spent $541.4 million during Spring Festival, up 34.3 percent year-on-year. But despite the top-spender tag, many Chinese now pay more attention to catering and recreational activities, says the China UnionPay report. Chinese spending on recreation in Europe grew more than 20 percent year-on-year during the Spring Festival holiday. And the Chinese are developing an appetite for tours featuring health preservation and culture and art appreciation, while earlier, they used to predominantly opt for shopping for luxury goods and sightseeing, says Zhang Yuhong, an official with the China Travel Service. Self-drive tourism abroad is also becoming a big hit with Chinese travelers, half of whom were born in the mid-1980s and '90s, as shown by bookings through China's biggest online travel agency Ctrip. The Chinese travel boom has prompted the host destinations to come up with new facilities for their guests. For instance, Dubai has rolled out its China Ready program, where Chinese-language services at local restaurants, hotels and scenic spots are readily available. The city received 764,000 visitors from China last year, a jump of 41 percent over the previous year, after it began offering free visas on arrival to Chinese citizens. Separately, Indonesia has come up with a "10 Bali islands" plan, which includes infrastructure development, from Sumatra in the west to Maluku in the east. In addition, several Southeast Asian countries plan to spend more than $100 billion to build airports, railway lines, hotels and theme parks to beef up facilities for Chinese visitors, the Singapore-based Lianhe Zaobao reports. Thailand will work with Japan to build a high-speed rail line connecting Bangkok and Chiang Mai, while Malaysia wants to build rail lines to boost tourism development along its east coast. Japan now not only has Chinese tour and shopping guide services at its major scenic spots, but also provides the mobile phone-based Alipay option for its Chinese guests. More than 40,000 shops in the country, including Lawson and Don Quijote, support the payment method favored by Chinese travelers. In Europe, Italy has put up Chinese signage at its major airports and train stations. The country has developed wedding and sport-themed travel attractions tailored to Chinese tastes. "China's outbound tourism has become a strong engine for the world's tourism economy, and plays a positive role in improving the employment and economic potential of the destination countries," says Li Xinjian, head of the tourism management institute at the Beijing International Studies University. Shi Peihua, an official with a China travel think tank, says that with China's reform and opening-up policy, China's outbound tourism will continue to grow. Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Chung Eui-yong, national security advisor for the President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Moon Jae-in and also special envoy of Moon, in Beijing, capital of China, March 12, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua] Chinese President Xi Jinping met Monday with Chung Eui-yong, top national security advisor for the President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Moon Jae-in, in Beijing. Xi expressed appreciation toward President Moon for sending Chung as a special envoy to brief him on Chung's recent visits to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States. "We expect a smooth DPRK-ROK summit and DPRK-U.S. dialogue," Xi said, expressing his hope that there will be substantial progress in denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and normalization of relations between the parties. Chung thanked China for its important leading role in helping with positive changes on the Korean Peninsula, and said the ROK is willing to coordinate closely with China to maintain the current momentum on the Peninsula. As a close neighbor of the Korean Peninsula, China always supports the ROK and the DPRK in improving ties and promoting reconciliation and cooperation, Xi said. China also supports the United States and the DPRK to begin dialogue and resolve their concerns through negotiation, Xi said. He pointed out that China remains persistent in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula. At present, the situation on the Korean Peninsula faces an important opportunity for easing tension and dialogue, Xi said, noting that China spoke highly of the ROK's efforts and is willing to work with the international community to promote the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue, combining China's "dual-track approach" with helpful proposals from all sides. Xi called on all sides to be patient and cautious, and exercise their political wisdom to properly deal with various issues and disturbances in resuming negotiations. As long as all parties can focus on the fundamental goal of denuclearization, peace and stability, the Korean Peninsula will finally usher in the spring, when ice will thaw and flowers will boom, Xi said. Chung said President Moon Jae-in's state visit to China last year was very successful and the ROK is willing to make joint efforts with China to promote bilateral ties. He said the relations between the ROK and DPRK have taken an important step and the Korean peninsula issue has seen positive progress, thanks to China's adherence to the goal of denuclearization, its adherence to solving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue peacefully, as well as its support for dialogue between the ROK and the DPRK and direct dialogue between the DPRK and the United States. The ROK expects China to continue playing an important role and is willing to work with China to promote resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue through peaceful means and to achieve regional peace, stability and development, Chung said. Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi held talks with Chung, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also met with Chung on Monday. Flash Forty-nine people were killed and 22 injured after a passenger plane of the US-Bangla Airlines crashed in course of landing at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Monday afternoon, government authorities said. The incident took place due to the pilot's "missed approach," the authorities said. General Manager of the TIA Rajkumar Chhetri told media that the US-Bangla plane crashed in course of landing at the airport due to missed approach of the pilot at 2:15 p.m. local time (1130 GMT) Monday. Chhetri said that the Bangla aircraft carrying 71 persons including four crew members narrowly escaped from hitting the tail of Thai Airways plane parked at the airport. The UBG211 flight was en route to Kathmandu from Dhaka, Bangladesh. The ill-fated plane was said to have circled the airport twice before trying landing. Separate rescue teams of Nepal Police and Nepal Army were deployed to carry out rescue operations immediately after the crash. Dozens of firefighters and rescuers rushed to the crash site, and the flames were put out in a relatively short time. The TIA was temporarily closed for incoming and outgoing international flights following the accident. The injured are receiving treatment at local hospitals in the Capital. Officials said that the death toll may further increase. Of the total passengers onboard, 33 were from Nepal, 32 from Bangladesh, one from China and one from the Maldives, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. The authorities have recovered the dead bodies from the spot later in the day. The local authorities were also able to recover the black box of the airlines later on Monday. Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli spoke to his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina following the incident and expressed sorrow over the loss of lives, according to a statement issued by the prime minister's office here. Shortly after the incident, Prime Minister Oli along with ministers reached the spot and issued instructions to the government authorities to combat the emergency. While visiting the spot, the prime minister vowed to launch a probe into the incident. Social media networks in Nepal were flooded with photographs immediately after the deadly plane crash in the capital city. In Kathmandu Medical College, known as KMC hospital where most of the injured or dead bodies were sent for treatment or placement, heartbroken relatives mourned the death of their loved ones with screams, tears and grief, giving a throbbing ambiance to the hospital. As soon as the US-Bangla Airlines flight crashed, at least 24 injured were taken to this hospital, which is the nearest one from the crash site, hospital officials said. Among those taken to KMC hospital, 8 were pronounced dead upon their arrival, including 3 Bangladeshis, three Nepali nationals and two with unidentified nationalities. The hospital remained tensed till night with the presence of media people, security personnel and even ordinary people, saddened by such a big incident in the country, which recently just formed the federal parliament and appointed new prime minister. Among those brought in KMC, four were referred to other hospitals while the remaining are undergoing treatment in ICU, surgery ward, ortho ward, plastic ward, among others. Prakash Bhattarai, administrative director at the KMC hospital, told Xinhua, "We have deployed a special medical team in all the wards where survivors are being treated. Some have shown progress while some are still under intensive care." According to authorities, other survivors are being treated in different hospitals like Norvic, Mediciti and Om. Basanta Bohora, who survived the crash and is being treated in Norvic hospital, was quoted by local media as saying, "All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang afterwards. I was seated near the window and was able to break out of the window." This is the deadliest air crash at Nepal's only international airport after a Turkish Airlines flight crash-landed at the airport in March 2015 with no casualties. The air crash has been regarded as a big shot to the tourism industry of the Himalayan nation, which is still recovering after the deadly earthquake of 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people. The US-Bangla Airlines is a privately-owned Bangladeshi airline headquartered in Dhaka. There were altogether 71 people onboard the plane, including four Bangladeshi crew members, according to a statement released by the Bangladeshi ministry of foreign affairs late Monday night. Flash The British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday pointed her finger at Russia over a developing "poisoning attack" row, claiming that her government had concluded it was "highly likely" that Moscow was responsible for the attack. May told the parliament that Russia's ambassador in London had been summoned to explain whether it was "a direct action by the Russian state" or the result of it "losing control" of its stock of nerve agents. She said the attack incident, targeting a former Russia spy and his daughter in London on March 4, involved a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. Her comments came after Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who remain in a critical but stable condition, had been found slumped on a bench in London. On Monday the Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia involvement into the "poisoning attack". Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called May's statement about the alleged Russian trace in the attack a "circus." "It is a circus in the British parliament. The conclusion is obvious: it is another informational and political campaign based on a provocation," Zakharova was quoted by Sputnik as saying. Flash Police in the U.S. city of Austin, Texas, said on Monday that they believed that three package bombings over the past 10 days were "related." Two separate explosions occurred Monday in Austin, capital of the state of Texas, killing a teenager and wounding two women. According to local police, a bomb detonated in Austin early Monday morning after a teenager brought a package left on the front porch into the kitchen and opened it. The explosion killed the 17-year-old boy and injured a woman in her 40s. Another blast occurred about five hours later at a home about 8 km southeast of the first explosion. Emergency personnel said they transported a female in her 70s to a medical center with potentially life threatening injuries. It was the third such incident this month in Austin. A package blast rocked another Austin home on March 2, killing a man. Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said Monday all three explosions seemed to be "related" but they were not ruling anything out in the investigation. Of the three explosions, two of them happened in the early morning hours. Both packages were left on the front doorstep and were not delivered by a U.S. mail service, police said. "We are looking at these incidents as being related based on similarities that we have seen in the initial evidence that we have on hand here today, compared to what we found on the scene of the explosion that took place a week back," Brian Manley said at a news conference. Following the explosions, local police warned the community to be aware of any unexpected packages. Instead of opening the package, police suggested that people should call 911. The two explosions that left two dead are now being investigated as homicides. In the awake of the explosions, Texas governor's office is offering a reward of up to 15,000 U.S. dollars for any information that leads to the arrest or identification of those involved. Local police is urging the community to come forward with any information. Briefed by the Texas Department of Public Safety of the explosions, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has offered whatever resources necessary to assist authorities in the investigation. "I want to assure all Texans, and especially those in Austin, that local, state and federal law enforcement officials are working diligently to find those responsible for these heinous crimes. As the investigation continues, the State of Texas will provide any resources necessary to ensure the safety of our citizens, and quickly bring those guilty to justice," said Abbott. Flash The Syrian army on Monday secured the evacuation of civilians from recently-captured areas in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside, state news agency SANA reported. The latest batch of civilians was evacuated from the town of Medyara, which was stormed by the Syrian army on Sunday. This batch is the second after the army also secured the evacuation of the civilians from the town of Mesraba. The Russian Defense Ministry was cited by local media reports as placing the number of civilians evacuated from Eastern Ghouta over the past few days at 76. However, no major civilian evacuation took place through the designated humanitarian corridor such as the one in Wafidin area in northeastern Damascus close to the rebel-held town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta or in Mlaiha southeast of Damascus. The official media outlets in Syria accuse the rebels of preventing the civilians from leaving. Meanwhile, SANA said the Syrian army captured on Monday the town of Aftaris in Eastern Ghouta, the latest town to be retaken by the army during the wide-scale offensive in that area. The situation in Eastern Ghouta has flared up since late last month as a result of a wide-scale military operation in that area. The Syrian army has been fighting there to dislodge the al-Qaida-linked groups from that area. A day earlier, the Syrian army split Eastern Ghouta into three parts after advancing in the battles there, tightening the siege on Douma in the north, the city of Harasta in the west and other towns and villages south of Eastern Ghouta. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government forces have captured 60 percent of Eastern Ghouta since unleashing an offensive in that area late last month. Eastern Ghouta, a 105-square-km agricultural region consisting of several towns and farmlands, poses the last threat to the capital due to its proximity to government-controlled neighborhoods east of Damascus and ongoing mortar attacks that target residential areas in the capital, pushing people over the edge. Four major rebel groups are currently positioned inside Eastern Ghouta, namely the Islam Army, Failaq al-Rahman, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Levant Liberation Committee, known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. The UN humanitarian agencies have sounded the alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation for 400,000 people in that region, where activists said over 1,000 people have been killed since late last month by the heavy bombardment and military showdown in areas of Eastern Ghouta. Flash Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday announced his government will resume peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas to end five decades of fighting. Santos suspended the talks after a three-month bilateral ceasefire expired in early January and the rebels immediately went on the offensive, launching a deadly attack on a police station in northern Colombia. Attacks and counter attacks have only escalated since then, leading Santos to order the government negotiation team to return to Quito, Ecuador, which has been hosting the dialogue. "As leader, but above all as a human being, I cannot give up doing everything I can, until I have exhausted every recourse, so that no more lives are lost, no more people are injured or mutilated, no more damage is inflicted on infrastructure or wildlife due to the conflict with the ELN," Santos said in a televised address. Santos also noted his government's peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest guerrilla force until it renounced fighting 15 months ago, has successfully abated violence, even during legislative elections on Sunday. "This Sunday we experienced the most peaceful and the most transparent elections in half a century, with the largest number of candidates, the largest number of voting stations and greater participation," said Santos. "The FARC, now demobilized and disarmed, took part as a political party, they exchanged bullets for ballots, violence for democracy. That is precisely why we undertook the peace process," added Santos. Meanwhile, in a show of good will, the ELN declared a temporary unilateral truce to allow voting to proceed without incident. "It is with such gestures, not with terrorist attacks, that the ELN can rebuild the minimum of trust needed to make progress along the path of dialogue," said Santos. While Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for his peace brokering efforts, not all Colombians are convinced that negotiating with the rebels is the right strategy, with more hardline groups saying the rebels should be military defeated. The ELN confirmed it will attend the resumption of talks in Quito, saying via Twitter: "we will heed President Santos' call to restart the talks." You are here: World Flash Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday launched doctoral scholarship program named after him which is fully sponsored by the Chinese government. The Aspire to the Zenith: President Uhuru Kenyatta Doctoral Scholarship Program that will benefit at least 100 Kenyans is coordinated by the Directorate of the Confucius Institute at Egerton University. "The Sino-Kenyan relationship stands as a towering example of how two nations, continents apart, can forge bonds of unity and cooperation," Kenyatta said during the launch of the program in Nairobi. Kenyatta said in a statement issued after the launch that the scholarship symbolizes the cordial relationship between Kenya and China which has blossomed for centuries. He presented the scholarship awards to the first 18 beneficiaries. The Scholarship Program will offer 60 Kenyans direct admission into PhD Training in the fields of agriculture and engineering, with 40 of their peers entering at the Masters Degree level for Doctoral Studies. "These initial 100 Kenyans will undoubtedly return home well-equipped to trigger advances in agriculture that will promote job creation and food security," Kenyatta said. He commended the close link between Kenyan universities and Chinese institutes of higher learning which is focused on boosting the full spectrum of Kenya's education sector. The president said the scholarship program fits seamlessly into the government's Big Four Agenda. Amina Mohamed, Education Cabinet Secretary, said the scholarships will boost Kenya's efforts to become food secure since they are agriculture and technology related. Liu Xianfa, Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, attended the function which was held at State House, Nairobi. You are here: World Flash Turkish military and its ally the Free Syrian Army (FSA) made rapid advances during its operation in Syria's Afrin region on Monday, only 1.5 km away from its city center, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Since the launch of the operation, Turkish military and the FSA have controlled 1,100 square km of land in Afrin, seized 197 locations including five town centers, 159 villages, 33 strategic hills and one base of Kurdish militants, Anadolu said. A total of 3,347 terrorists have been "neutralized" so far during the operation, the Turkish General Staff announced on Monday morning. On Jan. 20, Turkey launched "Operation Olive Branch" to clear Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militants from Afrin. The YPG is regarded by Turkey as the Syrian affiliate of the the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and European Union. By Paul Welitzkin in New York and Huang Zhiling in Chengdu | China Daily | Updated: 2018-03-13 07:23 China's giant pandas may be getting a hand from their North American cousins as well as orangutans, tigers and elephants. The panda population in China is "still very vulnerable", and needs help, according to US researcher Ben Kilham, who will be featured in the new IMAX 3D film Pandas, scheduled for release in April. The movie was made in cooperation with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Southwest China's Sichuan province and directed by Drew Fellman, a producer and writer who previously worked on the documentaries Born to Be Wild (2011) and Island of Lemurs: Madagascar (2014). HK should capitalize on humbling of 'pan-dems' Updated: 2018-03-13 07:35 By Tony Kwok(HK Edition) Sticking to their 'anti-disqualification' and 'anti-Communist' themes caused opposition to suffer a heavy erosion of voter support, Tony Kwok writes After casting his vote in the Legislative Council by-election on Sunday, former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa made a public appeal. He said: "The era of quarrelling should be ended. Advocacies of Hong Kong independence and self-determination will cost the city a heavy toll." He called on people to vote for candidates who were "constructive, pragmatic and true-heartedly serving Hong Kong into the Legislative Council". His appeal is most important and timely - opposition parties had used the by-election as a "de facto referendum" over LegCo members' disqualification saga, with "anti-disqualification and anti-Communist" as their campaign theme. Such an anti-Communist stance used to work in previous LegCo geographical constituency elections, garnering them votes with a ratio of 6 to 4 over pro-establishments opponents. However, as China strengthens and gains respect on the world stage more and more Hong Kong people appreciate the extraordinary achievements of the country under the Communist Party of China's leadership, laying to rest the "pan-democrats'" former electoral winning formula. That was starkly brought home in the geographical constituency election, when pro-establishment candidate Vincent Cheng Wing-shun achieved an unprecedented victory over the opposition candidate in Kowloon West, where he took home 107,479 votes, over anti-disqualification champion Edward Yiu Chung-yim's 105,060 votes. This result is most encouraging and demonstrated a drastic shift in public sentiment and a gradual return to rationality in local politics. It also showed that playing the anti-Communism card will no longer work in local politics. Even in the Hong Kong Island constituency, the pro-establishment New People's Party candidate Judy Chan Ka-pui only suffered a marginal loss to Au Nok-hin, who had all the heavyweights of the opposition camp coming out in full force to campaign for him. Au bagged 137,181 votes to Chan's 127,634. But Au's tally is still much less than Anson Chan Fang On-sang received in a similar by-election in 2007, when she garnered 175,874 votes, thus representing a loss of 38,324 votes. This is attributed at least in part to their anti-disqualification slogan which many voters find unacceptable. Also in the New Territories East constituency, a traditional stronghold of the opposition they had 57.6 percent of votes and pocketed six out of the nine constituency seats in the 2016 general election. But on this occasion, their representative Gary Fan Kwok-wai, of the Neo-Democrats, won with 183,762 votes - just 44 percent of all valid votes. It clearly showed a substantial decline of their voter appeal, as many voters are put off by their "anti-disqualification" campaign. It is gratifying to see a return to rationality in the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape functional constituency where pro-establishment candidate Tony Tse Wai-chuen beat opposition rival Paul Zimmerman, enlarging the camp's dominance in the functional group to 25 against 10. The Kowloon West win lets the pro-establishment camp continue leading the geographical group by 17 to 16 seats, thus taking away the opposition's veto power under LegCo's split-voting rule, which they had often abused in the past. The pro-establishment camp should take advantage of their enhanced position and seek to amend LegCo rules of procedure to put the house in order. They can start with enforcing a proper dress code and prohibiting placards on members' tables and unjustified filibusters. LegCo should also seek a refund of expenses from disqualified former member Yiu. However, it should be noted that in the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape functional constituency, loser Zimmerman had 2,345 votes against Tony Tse's 2,929. It is hard to understand why there are 2,345 professionals in this constituency who would choose a non-professional as their LegCo representative. Efforts should be made to ascertain their motive and whether a better understanding of the huge development potential for them in the Greater Bay Area project would change their attitude toward the Chinese mainland. Hong Kong Island winner Au Nok-hin was found to have burnt the Basic Law booklet in public and during an election debate, he claimed he would be prepared to burn it again! This cannot be tolerated as it is clearly in breach of the National People's Congress interpretation that all LegCo members should respect and swear allegiance to the Basic Law. A judicial review should be lodged as soon as possible to strip him of his LegCo membership. Au is commonly regarded as a representative of the young political party Demosisto, which advocated "Hong Kong independence" and "self-determination". The party is in turn supported by foreign forces. Hence his win would likely encourage this radical political party to be more aggressive in pursuing their political goals. It thus needs to be monitored more closely and accountability be made as to the source of his political funding for the election. In this by-election, only 904,000 of the 2.1 million registered voters in the four constituencies cast their ballots; the turnout was merely 43 percent. If Hong Kong really wants to push for greater democracy, they must demonstrate they are at least prepared to sacrifice 15 minutes of their time to walk to their nearby polling station to vote! Hong Kong should seriously consider following Singapore's example of mandatory voting. As a final observation, this by-election cost HK$500 million to stage. If the judiciary was prepared to speed up the appeals of the other two disqualified members, "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung and Lau Siu-lai, who have appealed their disqualifications, we could have had to hold just one by-election, and save taxpayers a huge sum of money and a lot of the public's time. (HK Edition 03/13/2018 page8) Shanxi attractions promoted in Berlin ( chinadaily.com.cn ) Updated: 2018-03-12 The Great Wall, Yellow River and Taihang Mountains -- three themed tourism spots in Shanxi, were promoted in Berlin, capital of Germany on March 9. Gao Ying, director of Datong Tourism Development Commission, introduced tourism attractions and resources as well as the status quo of the tourism industry in Shanxi at the promotion meeting, inviting German visitors to the province. Shanxi aimed to further partnerships in more areas between the province and Berlin through the event, while promoting tourist products and services. Tourism development commissions of cities in Shanxi, Shanxi travel agencies and representatives of tourist attractions in Shanxi attended the event. Festive celebrations with Shanxi characteristics, including Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao Chinese New Year and Yuncheng Guan Yu International Tourism Festival have attracted many overseas visitors, making Shanxi a popular tourist destination abroad, according to Liu Guosheng, manager of German travel agency China Tours. Shanxi has been committed to developing tourism brands themed around the Great Wall, Yellow River and Taihang Mountains since 2017, as well as further promoting other Shanxi landmarks such as Mount Wutai, Yungang Grottoes and the Ancient City of Pingyao, all around the world. The promotion event marked the beginning of Shanxi's tourism promotion tour through Europe. On March 11, Shanxi promoted its attractions in Austria. The Colosseum in Rome was recently lit up the color of blood. This is a symbol of the persecution of Christians in the entire worldthose who suffer because of faith, stated Alfredo Mantovano, president of the Italian chapter of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the global Catholic organization which sponsored the February 24 light display. We light up the Colosseum with red because their shed blood cannot leave us indifferent, he stated. We cannot wash our hands of the blood of this injustice as Pontius Pilate did 2,000 years ago. The reminder was a timely one for Catholics in the United States, according to a survey released this month. While 9 in 10 believe that persecution of Christians around the world is somewhat or very severe (51% and 40%, respectively), only half said they were very concerned (49%). Almost 1 in 5 said they were not concerned at all (18%). Instead, the study of 1,000 Catholic adults (conducted online in January by ACNs US branch and McLaughlin & Associates) found that they worry about other issues more. More than 9 in 10 American Catholics worry about human trafficking (72% very concerned, 21% somewhat concerned) or about poverty (68% very, 26% somewhat). More than 8 in 10 worry about the refugee crisis (51% very, 36% somewhat) or about climate change (55% very, 28% somewhat). Then comes Christian persecution (49% very, 33% somewhat). Its close behind, but has the lowest level of concern out of the five issues surveyed, as well as the highest share of those with no concern: Christian persecution (18%), climate change (16%), refugees (14%), human trafficking (7%), and poverty (6%). As John Allen, a veteran Catholic journalist and analyst, noted for Crux, the results reveal a relatively low level of urgency among American Catholics about coming to the aid of persecuted Christians. Image: Aid to the Church in Need The survey reveals quite clearly that there is a need to increase the engagement level of the US Catholic Church when it comes to global Christian persecutionboth at the grassroots and leadership levels, stated George Marlin, chair of ACN-USA. Three out of five American Catholics said that Christians experience less than half of religiously-based attacks around the world. Theyre incorrect: Researchers with Under Caesars Sword, a $1 million Templeton Religious Trust study, found that Christians experience between 60 to 80 percent of the worlds religious discrimination. (More of it is experienced by evangelicals/Pentecostals than by Catholics.) American Catholics were more accurate when ranking the top five worst persecutors of Christians out of 16 nations. Their picks: North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan. Two of their picks match one of the most respected rankings, Open Doorss World Watch List, which ranks the top 5 persecutors of Christians as North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Pakistan. Iraq is No. 8, Iran is No. 10, and Syria is No. 15. A majority of American Catholics believe diplomatic pressure is very important to save and protect beleaguered Christians (59%), as are economic sanctions (55%). But only half believe offering emergency asylum (50%) or providing financial aid (47%) are very important. And less than half believe military intervention (40%) or arming Christian communities (40%) are very important. On a personal level, many said it was very important to pray (64%), to raise awareness at the parish level (56%), and to contact members of Congress (49%). Image: Aid to the Church in Need About half said it was very important to donate to agencies that help persecuted Christians (53%); more than half said they have done so in the past year (53%). Giving increases among regular Mass-goers, the report stated. The majority of those who do not regularly attend Mass do not give to any organization. Pope Francis often references the persecuted church, and American Catholics have noticed. Four out of five said he was very (49%) or somewhat (33%) engaged on the issue, higher than they ranked US bishops (27% very, 39% somewhat) or their local parish (24% very, 42% somewhat). Image: Aid to the Church in Need There is a need to better inform and engage the Catholic audience, Marlin stated. There is an obligation to keep the spotlight on the topic and showcase the seriousness and pervasiveness of Christian persecution around the world. Other findings of the survey include: Its something we all do: we see the headlines, read the news, and think, Thats tragic. I hope it never happens here. Unfortunately, church leaders are not immune to this kind of thinkingand it may prevent us from taking the precautions necessary for safe (and legal) ministries. Pastors must educate themselves, their boards, and other staff members on the issues that could land them in court. Each of the following stories concerns a church that recently encountered such issues. Church Factions Compete over Property For years, sexual abuse of a minor was the number one reason churches went to court. That changed in 2016, when property disputes took the top spot. Disagreements over church property can often lead to legal trouble, as in the following case. According to legal blog Religion Clause, two factions of Little Ettie Old Regular Baptist Church in Beaver, Ohio both claimed ownership of the[ir] churchs property. A trial court and appellate court ruled that the two factions would have to share the church building, as they were equally entitled to church property. This sends pastors a clear message: Be aware of the legal matters that could affect your property, and ensure that policies, procedures, and documentation are in place before a disagreement erupts. Saddleback Church Faces Sexual Abuse Allegations Though no longer the top reason churches end up in court, sexual abuse remains a major issue in churches large and small. Last year, California-based megachurch Saddleback found itself in headlines when accusations were brought forward against a former youth mentor. The Los Angeles Times reported that the accused volunteer had been involved at the church for six years and had developed relationships with two boys. Saddlebacks ministries are far from careless when it comes to screeningaccording to the Times, Its volunteers are fingerprinted, their backgrounds are checked, and they receive annual training on appropriate conduct. When faced with this case, church leaders may feel discouraged: If this happened at Saddleback, what hope do we have for preventing something similar? Dont despair. Although you cant completely negate these risks, you can take steps to minimize them. Stay vigilant, reexamine current procedures, and explore opportunities for further training (like Church Law & Taxs Reducing the Risk program) to protect the children in your church. No Legal Recourse for Syrian Man in Oklahoma Church Lawsuit For most Christians, baptisms are a cause for celebrationbut for an ex-Muslim man from Syria, his baptism was nearly his death sentence. He was baptized at his Oklahoma church in 2012, but he requested that the announcement not be made public. When he returned to Syria, Islamic extremists (including members of his family) captured, tortured, and nearly executed him for his conversion to Christianity, though he managed to escape. According to a report in Christianity Todays Gleanings, the church had included [his] baptism in its weekly bulletin announcements, then posted those announcements online. Upon his return to the US, he sued his church for negligence, outrage, and breach of contract. In a ruling early last year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately sided with the mans churchbut the 53 decision hints at the complicated, inconsistent relationship between church and state. Some argued that the ruling was a victory for religious liberty, others that the case was not a matter of doctrine and the church should not have been protected. Courts dont always intervene in such cases, so for every item you make public, ask yourself, Is this betterkept private? A Landmark Religious Freedom Ruling The US Supreme Court handed down a historic ruling last summer in Trinity Lutheran Churchv. Comer. Trinity Lutheran Churchs preschool and daycare applied to participate in Missouris Scrap Tire Program to replace its playground surface. Its application was rejected, with the states Department of Natural Resources arguing that, based on the state constitution, the funds couldnt go to a church. The church then sued the departments director, eventually seeking review by the Supreme Court. The 72 SCOTUS ruling found the denial of Trinity Lutherans application to be unconstitutional and a violation of the First Amendments right to free exercise of religion. From a risk management perspective, this case could establish a critical precedent for cases involving churches and religious freedom. Richard Hammar notes in his write-up on the ruling, This case recognizes that churches are members of the community, too, and cannot be excluded from government benefit programs solely on the basis of their religious status. Violent Incidents at Churchesand a Deadly Common Denominator In November of 2016, in Jamestown, New York, 36-year-old Shari J. Robbins encountered her estranged husbandagainst whom she had a restraining order in a church parking lot. During the confrontation, Robbinss husband shot and killed her. Of 2016s 29 deadly attacks on church property in which the attackers motive is known, 11 were the result of domestic abuse spillovers. Church security expert Carl Chinn says, While church leaders spend a significant amount of time, money, and thought preparing for intruders or outside attacks, they should also remember this grave danger [of domestic abuse] facing their churches. Chinn continues, When leaders see familial relationships in stressbe it an angry spouse, sibling, or childthey should take notice and act accordingly. Perhaps the best way to see signs of domestic abuse is to have an intentional group of people looking for it. Note:At press time, these summaries were accurate and currentbut additional appeals and updates may unfold, and due to the nature of the US legal system, laws and regulations constantly change. The editors encourage readers to carefully search for content related to the topic of interest and consult qualified local counsel to verify the status of specific statutes, laws, regulations, and precedential court holdings. Emily Lund is assistant editor of Church Law & Tax. For more like this, visit ChurchLaw&Tax.com. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form AKRON, Ohio - Another block in downtown Akron is poised for redevelopment as plans are in the works for sale of the Mayflower Manor. New York-based Capital Realty Group Inc., which specializes in senior subsidized housing, is finalizing purchase of the 16-story, 450-room building at 263 South Main from the Mayflower Housing Partnership. The sale price of the building is not available but Capital Realty plans to invest more than $10 million in the renovation. said Sam Horowitz, a co-principal with Capital Realty. The deal will allow the developer to benefit from Akron's 15-year residential tax abatement program as well as tax increment financing, similar to financing that helped make the nearby Bowery Project a reality. The Bowery project, which is expected to be completed next year, includes redevelopment of the 12-story Landmark building and five smaller retail buildings between Bowery Street and the Akron Civic Theatre is led by the Bowery Development Group. Previous interested developers proposed rehoming the current residents, for whom housing is subsidized, to create market-rate apartments. In the current deal, the residents will not only remain at the Mayflower, their rent will not increase, Horowotz said. During the work, residents will remain on-site and new amenities will be added, such as community spaces and a fitness area and a social coordinator will be on staff. The current retail offerings on the ground floor will also be redeveloped, Horowitz said. "Seeing the city's excitement for the downtown revitalization, a mayor that is really dedicated with his team and seeing the restoration of downtown Akron, we're really excited to work together with the city on this project," Horowitz said. The Mayflower deal is also a win for the city. For the city, renovation of the building, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the South Main Street Historic District, aligns with the Akron Vision & Redevelopment Plan to revitalize downtown. During public engagement for the redevelopment plan, residents said they want more downtown housing, which the project will provide. "Obviously the Mayflower is one of maybe three must-have developments to really transform downtown," said Akron's Chief of Staff James Hardy. "We have been wanting to have a real partner to improve the building but also the lives and services available for the residents there. No one will have to leave the Mayflower or be displaced. Everybody is going to benefit." Capital Realty plans to restore the historical character of the interior, including the apartments, and exterior of the building. Planning will take six to 12 months to complete, with renovation to begin immediately after, Horowitz said. The Mayflower open in 1931 when Akron was booming with industry. It was designed with hotel, banquet and convention accommodations to serve business people visiting the city. When it opened, the ground floor retail space contained a dress showroom and a hat store, both owned by women. During a day-long opening celebration attended by executives from around the country, roses were dropped from a fleet of airships and airplanes onto the Mayflower's roof, called the Zeppelin Observation roof. 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. BRECKSVILLE, Ohio - The city has chosen an Independence firm to redevelop the 103-acre site that once held the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital at Brecksville and Miller roads. City Council last week unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding with DiGeronimo Development LLC. The firm will build a multiple-use development that might include stores, restaurants, apartments, hotels, hospitals, manufacturing plants, warehouses, offices and laboratories on the VA site. The memo of understanding is not binding. The city and DiGeronimo, now that council has approved the memo, will have four months to negotiate a formal, 10-year development agreement. Also last week, council approved an agreement to accept the deed for the VA property from the federal government. Under the agreement with DiGeronimo Development - which Mayor Jerry Hruby said is not related to Brecksville Assistant Law Director Sergio DiGeronimo - the firm is the exclusive developer of the VA site. The city will retain ownership of the VA property. As each section of the site is developed, the city will have the option of transferring ownership of that section to DiGeronimo or another entity. The city would not pay DiGeronimo to redevelop the site. DiGeronimo would cover the entire cost of demolishing old hospital buildings and preparing the VA property for redevelopment. Demolition alone would cost about $8 million and take about two years. Council will consider tax-increment financing for some or all of the project. Under a TIF agreement, the developer would use new property taxes generated from the development on infrastructure improvements. The project will include adding a northbound exit ramp off Interstate 77 at Miller Road and a southbound freeway entrance ramp at Miller. Now, the 77-Miller interchange has only a northbound freeway entrance ramp and a southbound freeway exit. The city and DiGeronimo will try to finish the 77-Miller improvements within five years of the execution of the formal development agreement. Jeff Appelbaum, an attorney representing the city, previously said the memo of understanding presents no risks to the city. The developer will bear all project costs. Also, DiGeronimo Development will share 50 percent of its return on investment with the city. Regarding the deed agreement, Hruby said the U.S. government is responsible for any unexpected environmental problems found underground. He added that the city has studied the VA property for years and has considered every possible "what-if" scenario. In November 2016, Brecksville residents, at City Hall's request, voted overwhelmingly to rezone the hospital property into an "overlay district." The site remained an office-laboratory zone, but the city can allow housing and other types of businesses on a case-by-case basis. BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- Mayor Ron Falconi and Police Chief Brian Ohlin honored both the department's officer and communication specialist of the year for 2018 at the March 12 regular City Council meeting, as well as five other officers for life-saving efforts while on duty. Officers Stefan Karthan, Ted Kiernozek, John Fink and Charles Weber, along with Sgt. Greg Hayest, were presented the department's Life Saver Award for 2018. Lt. Robert Safran presented the awards and recounted the incidents that the officers were being recognized for. The first was a May 31, 2017, call of a possible overdose that Kiernozek, Karthan and Fink responded to, administered multiple doses of Naloxone, and helped save a man's life. "The man became combative as he regained consciousness," Safran said. "Officers assisted him into the rescue squad and he was transported to the hospital for treatment." On July 28, 2017, Weber and Hayest also responded to a possible overdose call and administered CPR and Naloxone in efforts that "helped save the person's life," Safran said. Mayor's Court resolution After tabling it at its last regular meeting, City Council reintroduced and passed a resolution opposing the passage of Ohio House Bill 410, which proposes to "effectively eliminate mayor's courts and further erode municipal home rule," according to the legislation. The tabling of the city's resolution came upon the announcement of an amendment to HB 410 that proposed to give more protections to mayor's courts. However, the Ohio Municipal League, of which Brunswick is a member, issued a statement Feb. 22 that while the amendment "makes a slight improvement to the as-introduced bill" it still "significantly reduces the dockets of mayor's courts, infringes on home rule of municipalities, and affects the state's local government fund distribution to municipalities." Brunswick Hills property annexed Following a Jan. 4 approval by the Medina County commissioners, council members completed the process of annexing 5.6 acres of land on Maxwell Boulevard, directly behind the Brunswick Professional Center. The property owner requested the annexation, city Law Director Ken Fisher said, with a plan to develop the area commercially. "It will be coming into the city zoned RR, rural residential, so the expectation is that it will be rezoned," Fisher said. He added that while the plans have not been finalized, the owner has discussed the possibility of razing the current building, which fronts onto Center Road. Fisher added that access onto the newly annexed property will not impact the future development of a contingent parcel of city-owned property on Maxwell. Recovery restaurant Recovery Center of Medina County CEO-Consultant Brandon Chrostowski addressed council members about the upcoming opening of the latest French cuisine-themed EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant Institute in the former Medina Steakhouse. EDWINS gained national notoriety when its location in Cleveland's Shaker Square opened more than four years ago as a real-world recovery program for formerly incarcerated men and women. The concept is being expanded with the Medina location, Chrostowski said, to focus on the recovery efforts of those addicted to opioids and other drugs. "People are dying (from drug addiction) and that is not foreign to Brunswick and Medina County," he said, adding that the restaurant is set to open within the month. "We are redefining what recovery looks like. And we hope people here like French cuisine." Please take a moment and click here to help the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, a cleveland.com partner. Every dollar you give buys four meals for the hungry. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Pennsylvania man who yelled an anti-immigrant slur before he punched a man of Middle Eastern descent last year blamed his actions on alcohol. Gregory Brzoza, 24, avoided jail time and was sentenced to five years of intensive supervision probation after he pleaded guilty last month to aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. He was also ordered to pay $1,600 to the victim for the cost of repairing the broken jaw he suffered in the August attack in the East Bank of the Flats. Brzoza apologized and said his blow to the victim's face and message to "go back to your own country" are not reflective of who he is. "It was reflective of the amount of alcohol I drank," he said. The victim could not make it to court Tuesday because he was scheduled to have surgery at MetroHealth due to complications of metal implants it took to repair his jaw, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor James Gallagher said. Gallagher instead read from a written statement the victim gave, in which he asked for the maximum sentence for "such a hateful crime." "No person of color should feel like they don't belong in this country and no person should be assaulted because of it," the victim said. Judge Maureen Clancy sentenced Brzoza, who was convicted of drunken driving in 2012 and of an alcohol-related criminal damaging incident last year, to attend four AA meetings every week and be monitored for alcohol and drug use. Brzoza lives in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and Clancy refused to allow him to serve his probation there. He must report each week to probation officers in Cuyahoga County. Police originally said that the 2:30 a.m. Aug. 20 attack was "unprovoked," but Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor James Gallagher said in court Tuesday that there were "a variety of factors" that played into the incident. Brzoza was in town with friends the night of the attack, and encountered the victim outside of Coastal Taco. Brzoza said he was eating cheese fries when the victim started talking to a woman in his group, and he told the man to go back to his own friends when she became uncomfortable. The two started arguing, and it was the victim who "started the whole racial profile" by asking Brzoza if he wasn't allowed to talk to the woman because of his skin color, Brzoza claimed. The victim, who was not at court Tuesday, maintains that Brzoza was the first to mention his ethnicity, Gallagher said. Brzoza eventually yelled at the man to "go back to your own country." "He was badgering and taunting me and just kind of pulled the words out of my mouth," Brzoza said. "I just fed into everything he was saying." Brzoza then punched the man twice, breaking his jaw, before he ran away. "It was late, it was after the bars, I was eating cheese fries," he said. "I just wanted to eat and go home." Prosecutors played three video clips that the victim recorded with his cellphone, that showed Brzoza threatening to throw the man into the Lake Erie and telling him that he would be dead. But the videos also showed Brzoza did not single out the victim because of the color of his skin, and that the victim had the chance to walk away, too, defense attorney Henry Hilow said. Hilow did not excuse Brzoza's actions, but said both sides in the attack had been drinking that night and each escalated the situation. "Two stupid people got together that night and the result was a serious injury," Hilow said. To comment on this story, please visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page. Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer The Irish and St. Patrick's Day in Cleveland: Vintage photos Close to 10 percent of Clevelanders claim Irish ancestry. The Irish community is one of the oldest in Cleveland, with large numbers beginning to arrive in the 1840s. By 1870, Cleveland's Irish population had grown to almost 10,000. That was 10 percent of Cleveland's total population. The majority of the immigrants were from the agrarian but poor County Mayo. By the turn of the 20th century, there were numerous Irish churches and neighborhoods in the city, from St. Malachi to the Old Angle area. The Irish have dispersed since then, but have kept their culture alive through cultural groups, dance troupes, ethnic churches and of course the 151-year-old parade (or 176-year-old parade, depending on how your look at it) which steps off at 1:04 p.m. In honor of the big day, heres a look back at the history of the Irish in Cleveland and St. Patricks Day parades through the decades. Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Irishtown Bend Irishtown Bend was the area from West 25th Street east to the river north of Detroit Road. It was developed during the 1830s and '40s by Irish immigrants who came to Cleveland to work on the canal and railways. (Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer St. Patrick Church St. Patrick Catholic Church in West Park is one of the oldest parishes in the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, established in 1848 by West Side Irish immigrants. The first church on the site was built in 1854. The current structure at 4427 Rocky River Drive dates to 1950, but includes parts of the original church. It was temporarily closed by Bishop Richard Lennon, but reopened in 2012. (Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Irish Eyes are Smiling The 1912 classic "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" was written by Clevelander Ernest Ball, who composed the music. Ball was born and lived in Cleveland - but he was not Irish! Ball is buried at Lake View Cemetery. (The Plain Dealer) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer The Old Angle The Old Angle area on the near West Side became the largest settlement of Irish immigrants in the early 1900s. Residents included famed boxer Johnny Kilbane, right, with his brothers in 1912. (Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press) Don't Edit Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Whiskey Island In the 1830s and '40s, Irish immigrants - considered outcasts by many other immigrants - began to build shanties on Whiskey Island. Soon, it became home to many of the city's new Irish immigrants, with homes, saloons and more. Many of the residents worked on the nearby canal. (Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Local boy makes good Johnny Kilbane is no longer a household name. But the Irish-American boxer was one of the biggest celebrities to emerge from Cleveland in the first part of the 20th century - a household name in Cleveland and far beyond. The featherweight champ - who reigned from 1912 to 1923, the longest period in the title's history- was a native of the Old Angle area. (Des Kilbane, CIFF) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer One of oldest parades The first official Cleveland St. Patricks Day Parade stepped off in 1867, making it one of the oldest in the country. Some say its even older, with pre-parade celebrations dating back 25 more years recently discovered. Pictured in 1949. (Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Irish culture Irish immigrants brought their food and culture to their new country. Clevelanders James McCoy, of 885 East 128th St., and Mary McDonald, posed in their Irish dance costumes in 1929. (Cleveland State Univerity, Irish Americans collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1935 Parade An elevated view of the 1935 parade. (The Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University) Don't Edit Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Irish lasses Lourdes Academy students in the 1952 parade. From left front, Mary Lou Davis, Eleanor Cremati, Shirley Kaufman, Mary Kelly; and in the rear: Mary Ann Quinlen, Eleanor McLaughlin, Jackie Kuty, Nancy Peterson. (Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1940 parade A veterans group marches in the 1940 Cleveland St. Patrick's Day parade.(Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Ohio and Erie Canal Many of the first Irish to move to Cleveland worked on the Ohio and Erie Canal. (Library of Congress) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1937 parade The Cleveland St. Patricks Day Parade in 1937.(Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1954 parade Tommy, Terry and Timothy McManamon of Cleveland in the 1954 parade, Don't Edit Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1951 parade Irish nights of Columbus march down Euclid Ave. in full dress, before thousands who lined the sidewalks to watch a sunny St. Patrick's Day parade. (The Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1950 parade Gentlemen in the 1950 Cleveland parade.(Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1969 parade Color guard of Notre Dame University marching band from South Bend, Indiana, awed a 7-year-old Richard O'Callaghan of Westlake in the 1969 parade.(Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1941 parade The 1941 Patrick's Day Parade in Cleveland, Irish Float, from left, Carmella Faenza, Laverie Falk, Louise Saunders. ( Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1965 parade The St. Patrick's Day Parade in downtown Cleveland in 1965.(Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Coilection). Don't Edit Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer The Irishman In the 1970s, Irish-American gangster Danny Greene became one of the most powerful crime figures in Cleveland. His war with local Italian-American gangsters was the subject of books and movies including "Kill the Irishman" - and led to many attempts on his life. Pictured: Greene gives a TV interview in 1975, in this clip from a promotional video on YouTube for Rick Porrello's book "To Kill the Irishman." Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Death of the Irishman Irish-American mobster Danny Greene was killed when a car bomb was detonated outside a Lyndhurst medical building in 1977. He had been at war with the Italian mob led by James Licavoli since he rose to power in the 1960s by muscling into the International Longshoremans Association. Greene was suspected in the 1975 car bombing that killed Shondor Birns. (James A. Hatch, The Plain Dealer) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1974 parade St. Augustine Academy girls in leprechaun outfits prepare for the parade in 1974. (Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer 1979 parade The St. Brendan Church Youth Group prepares their parade float in 1979. Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Not whiskey That's water, not Irish Whiskey, that Bob Augustus (left) and William Fritzsche are pouring into a squirt gun in 1975. They are members of the Al Koran Shrines Krazy Kops. (The Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University) Don't Edit Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer St. Colman St. Colman Catholic Church, on West 65th Street near Lorain Avenue, was founded in 1880 by Cleveland's burgeoning West Side Irish immigrant population. (Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Mother Church St. Patrick Church, Mother Church of the Irish Catholic Community of Cleveland, was founded July 2, 1853, by the growing Irish community. The current structure was built in 1871, with the stone tower completed by 1903. (Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Living in Irishtown Irishtown resident on Winslow Avenue in the Flats, before the area was demolished for industry in the mid-20th century. (Cleveland Public Library) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer Irish-American suffragette Irish-American Lucia McCurdy McBride was a prominent Cleveland suffragette. She was the founder and director of the Cleveland Woman Suffrage Party and founder of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association. The Hathaway Brown graduate was an organizer of the League of Women Voters and helped found Cleveland's first birth control clinic in 1928, the Maternal Health Association. Pictured in 1929. (Cleveland State University, Irish Americans Collection) Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer McCart Street Gang One of Cleveland earliest organized crime groups was this group made up of first- and second-generation Irish-Americans. Named after McCart Street, where many lived (now West 69th), the gang was led by Michael "Foxy" Gorman, pictured, in the 1890s. They fell out of power by the end of the decade due to better policing and tougher judges. (Ohio Historical Society) Don't Edit Don't Edit Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer St. Malachi Church The original St Malachi Parish was founded in November 1865 to serve the Irish immigrants of the "Angle" area, on Washington Avenue near West 25th Street. The parish was named after Saint Malachy, a 12th-century Irish monk. The original church burned down on Dec. 23, 1943. The current church, pictured in a 1940s postcard, was dedicated in 1947. (Cleveland State University, Postcards of Cleveland Collection) How 27 breweries will celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Greater Cleveland CLEVELAND, Ohio If youre going to drink beer on St. Patricks Day, you dont have to settle for the usual lagers. Heres a look at what area craft breweries are up to, from bagpipes to beer, food specials and all the hoopla that surrounds the holiday, this Saturday, March 17. So hoist a pint - slainte! By Marc Bona, cleveland.com Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Collision Bend Brewing Co. Info: 125 Old River Road, Cleveland; 216-273-7879. Get your green on: The folks at the brewery in the Flats East Bank are in a good mood. They are doing well in the current USA Today 10Best beer contest for Best Brewpub, and they are celebrating their first St. Patrick's Day. Clurichaun Irish Red and One Goat Irish Stout will be tapped. The brewery will open at 11 a.m. with music from Binge Red at 3 p.m. Corned-beef pizza (that sounds decadent and beer-friendly), Irish popcorn and traditional corned-beef sandwiches will be served. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Platform Beer Co. Info: 4125 Lorain Ave., Cleveland, 216-202-1386. Get your green on: Doors open at 10 a.m. for kegs and eggs. Lime Green Creamsicle Milkshake India Pale Ale will be tapped, and the brewery's new Irish Red Corned beef sandwiches will be served in the evening. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Forest City Brewery Info: 2135 Columbus Road, Cleveland, 216-228-9116 Get your green on: Before you get the beer flowing, get your body moving with yoga, hiking and beer. Meet at the brewery at 10:30 a.m. Yoga starts at 10:35 a.m. (The folks at the brewery point out you can stop at neighbor Duck Rabbit Coffee for a cup of java to get yourself going.) Hike the towpath trail along the Cuyahoga River, and wear green for a chance to win a prize. Vendors and more will be included. Kyle P. Corrigan will ring in an hour of pipes and pints at 3 p.m. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Great Lakes Brewing Co. Info: 2516 Market Ave., Cleveland, 216-771-4404 Get your green on: The Ohio City brewery will offer free rides to the parade via its Fatty Wagon. Conway's Irish Ale and Nitro Wolfhound Stout are on tap. (GLBC is starting early, with a "Keep the Pint" Happy Hour 4-7 p.m. Friday, March 16.) On Saturday, March 17, the brewery will open at 10 a.m. and offer Irish food specials all day. Portersharks play 3-5 p.m., and Cleveland Firefighters Memorial Pipes and Drums perform at 6 p.m. Don't Edit Don't Edit John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer Masthead Brewing Co. Info: 1261 Superior Ave., Cleveland, 216-206-6176 Get your green on: The brewery which has large windows and patio facing the parade route will open at 9 a.m. Cans of Blonde Ale and SPD cocktails will be sold. House-made corned beef sandwiches will be served. $5 cover starts at 11 a.m. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Goldhorn Brewery Info: 1361 E. 55th St., Cleveland, 216-465-1352 Get your green on: Start your party on the East Side at 8 a.m. Bigmouth Donut Co. will get your pre-parade morning started. Kitchen opens at 11 with a special menu featuring corned-beef sandwich and chips. Don't Edit David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com Brick and Barrel Info: 1844 Columbus Road, Cleveland, 216-331-3308 Get your green on: What's SPD without some bagpipes? Brick and Barrel is one of eight stops on the day for Kyle P. Corrigan. An hour of pipes and pints starts at 1:30 p.m. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Terrestrial Brewing Co. Info: 7524 Father Frascati, Cleveland, 216-465-9999 Get your green on: The brewery will have Dark Emerald Irish Stout on tap as well as, yes, green beer. Kegs and eggs will be served 8-11 a.m., with grab-and-go corned beef sandwiches available at 10 a.m. Dinner starts at 5 p.m. piled-high corned beef, cabbage, pancetta and roasted carrots. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Hofbrauhaus Info: 1550 Chester Ave., Cleveland, 216-621-BEER (2337) Get your green on: A thousand miles might separate Ireland and Germany, but who cares? The German beer hall will be open before, during and after the parade; the route is only a three-minute walk away. Kegs and eggs starts at 9 a.m. There's music all day, highlighted by the O'Hare Irish Dancers performing 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Cleveland Firefighters Memorial Pipes and Drums will play at 8 p.m. Don't Edit Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com R. Shea Brewing Co. Info: 1662 Merriman Road, Akron, 330-794-5654 Get your green on: Kegs and eggs kicks off the day at the Merriman Valley brewery at 8 a.m. Corned-beef breakfast sandwich is a cool twist 8-11 a.m. (Swiss cheese, bacon, fried egg and chipotle ranch on grilled ciabatta). A flight of Irish beers will be on tap: Uncommon Blonde with green (Punk Blonde), Irish Red on Nitro, 'Old Man Blarney' Irish Stout on Nitro, Whisky Barreled Defying Gravity Imperial Stout and get this a corned-beef spice inspired beer. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Hoppin' Frog Brewery Info: 1680 E. Waterloo Road, Akron, 330-352-4578 Get your green on: Well, the brewery has the green part covered. The tasting room opens at 11 a.m. with Hoppy Hour noon to 3 p.m. Hoppin' Frog drafts are $1 off any pint, $.50 off half pints. B.O.R.I.S. with mint will be released. Rockers Secondhand Radio learned an Irish set for the day; catch them 8-10:30 p.m. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Aqueduct Brewing Co. Info: 529 Grant St., Akron, 330-606-6583 Get your green on: You can get an early start here at 7 a.m. SPD breakfast and lunch are offered. Buffet, two beers and a green Aqueduct/Stray Dog logo stadium cup (while supplies last) will run $30. Irish Red and Irish Scot will be tapped at 7 a.m. Bagpipers perform at noon. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Sibling Revelry Brewery Info: 29305 Clemens Road, Westlake, 440-471-8589 Get your green on: Kegs and eggs kick things off at 8 a.m., and the tasting room will stay open till 10 p.m. Off the Griddle will be offering food. Pipes and pints starts at 1:30 p.m. with Kyle P. Corrigan. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Saucy Brew Works Info: 2885 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, 216-666-2568 Get your green on: The Hingetown brewery will open at 8 a.m. and serve up special Connecticut-style 'apizzas' and Reuben sandwiches. No special beer in the works, we're told, just the tasty tap list. Don't Edit Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Market Garden Brewery Info: 1947 W. 25th St., Cleveland, 216-621-4000 Get your green on: Get your start with an Irish breakfast beginning at 8 a.m. How's this for a morning feast? Irish Banger, black pudding, boxsty and shirred eggs. Or a half-pound of housemade corned beef with gruyere and St Emeric's Stout. Wash it down with an Irishman's Enforcer, a 9.5 percent whopper of a barrel-aged Imperial Stout. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Fat Head's Brewery Info: 24581 Lorain Road, North Olmsted, 440-801-1001 Get your green on: The menu definitely has you covered starting at 11 a.m.: Irish Potato Soup, Beef and Irish Ale Stew, Irish Nachos, Irish Empanadas and of course, corned beef are all on the day's menu. Don't Edit Carol Kovach, cleveland.com Rocky River Brewing Co. Info: 21290 Center Ridge Road, Rocky River, 440-895-2739 Get your green on: While everyone is getting their party started, RRBC has charity in mind with its seventh annual St. Baldrick's event 4-10 p.m. Brave the Shave raises funds and awareness for pediatric cancer research. Hoist a point and join the party. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Willoughby Brewing Co. Info: 4057 Erie St., Willoughby, 440-975-0202 Get your green on: Doors open at 10:30 a.m. with Jameson Irish Whiskey specials all day. Black Sheep Pipes & Drums will make an appearance, plus Country Redford plays 3-7 p.m. and Faction Cleveland will hit the night hours 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Railroad Brewing Co. Info: 1010 Center Road, Avon, 440-723-8234 Get your green on: It's St. Patrick's Day beer and Irish fare all day. Doors open at 11 a.m., NCAA basketball will be on television, and live music starts at 7 p.m. Don't Edit Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Brim Kitchen + Brewery Info: 3941 Erie St., Willoughby, 440-306-8183 Get your green on: Brim will be opening at 8 a.m. Dan McCoy will play Irish music, popular tunes and sing-alongs. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com The Brew Kettle Info: 8377 Pearl Road, Strongsville; 300 Church St., Amherst; 11 Atterbury Blvd., Hudson. Get your green on: All three locations will open at 8 a.m. with a special menu all day. Chow down on corned-beef dinners, sip a Shamrocktini, hoist an Irish Stout and more. Don't Edit Noble Beast Brewing Co. Noble Beast Brewing Co. Info: 1470 Lakeside Ave., Cleveland, 216-417-8588 Get your green on: Owner-brewer Shaun Yasaki brewed "a recreation of historical Guinness recipes," he tells us. The beer aims to replicate how Guinness once was aged in wooden vats and had an older, slightly sour beer blended with the young beer. It's served with 100 percent nitrogen and is low in alcohol just like Guinness today. Food specials are house-made corned-beef egg rolls. Don't Edit David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com Hansa Brewery Info: 2717 Lorain Ave., Cleveland, 216-631-6585 Get your green on: Hansa will open at 11 a.m. and offer a menu with corned-beef sandwiches. No word yet if special beers will be brewed for the day. Don't Edit Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer Butcher and the Brewer Info: 2043 E. 4th St., Cleveland, 216-331-0805 Get your green on: The downtown brewery is opening at 10 a.m. with a beer tent set up on the patio a smart idea to grab the thirsty patrons sauntering along the East 4th Street pedestrian walkway. Don't Edit Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Boss Dog Brewing Co. Info: 2179 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights, 216-321-BEER (2337) Get your green on: The brewery will open at noon and serve a traditional corned-beef dinner and Reuben pizza. Wash them down with Red Beard's Irish Ale and Menlo's Stout as you watch second-round NCAA games. Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Headtrip Brewery Info: 1634 Norton Road, Stow, 234-284-8417 Get your green on: The folks at the brewery will be opening the doors at noon, a couple of hours earlier than usual. A special beer will be on tap - Craic is Ninety and will cost $4 a pint (a buck off usual pint price). Don't Edit Marc Bona, cleveland.com Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. Info: 1055 Old River Road, Cleveland; 587 Grant St., Akron. Get your green on: Thirsty Dog will be celebrating for three days Friday, Saturday and Sunday with $5 pints of Irish Setter Red, Scarlet O'Hoppy and Twisted Kilt. Akron will have Rueben sandwiches, Cleveland will have an Irish banger dinner, and sauerkraut balls will be available at both locations. (Saturday, St. Patrick's Day: Thirsty Dog in the Flats will open at 11 a.m. and Akron will open at noon.) Don't Edit More Irish celebrations If you're looking for more things to do on St. Patrick's Day in Greater Cleveland, check out Nikki Delamotte's 2018 Party Guide. Rich Exner, cleveland.com Designs for a not-so-good new congressional map for Ohio CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The change to the Ohio Constitution voters are being asked to approve in May limits the extent to which congressional districts could be gerrymandered in the future, but still leaves open the door for some mischievous map drawing. Cleveland.com found this to be the case after applying the proposed new set of rules to past voting patterns and populations at the precinct level across the state. On Monday, we offered a best-case scenario, with a statewide map designed to keep communities together for geographic reasons. The result was a vast improvement over the gerrymandered mess that exists today. In this second installment, we offer a different map (shown above) -- a worst-case scenario designed for political reasons. We found it is possible -- though more difficult than under existing rules - to still create a largely uncompetitive 15-district map that splits some cities and counties unnecessarily. (Ohio is expected to drop from 16 seats to 15 in the U.S. House after the next census.) This is part of the Out of Line series cleveland.com launched last summer to press for change in the way congressional districts are drawn. Scroll below for more details about the worst-case map. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com Good vs. bad, ideas for new Ohio congressional maps At a glance, there might not appear to be many differences between the "good" and "bad" maps shown above. But the bad map on the right splits more counties, and many cities, with political goals overriding community interests. The bad map has nine districts rated as safe for Republicans, four safe Democratic districts and two that could be described as competitive. This was done by packing as many Democrats as possible into four districts -- Cleveland, Akron-Youngstown, Toledo and Columbus -- while spreading Republicans as much as possible across the rest of the state. Enough Democrat lawmakers might be convinced by the Republican majority to approve such a map, in part because it would almost guarantee Democratic seats in some areas. This has happened in the past. We drew this map to mostly favor Republicans because the GOP has strong control of the Statehouse currently, in part because of past gerrymandering. But maps could be drawn to the Democrats' advantage as well. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com But the existing map is worse than the proposed bad map of the future Yet, the so-called bad map of the future (above right) is much better than the existing congressional map (above left), which was drawn in 2011 with Republicans in full control of a process with few rules. The existing map has produced no competitive races -- Republicans winning the same 12 seats and Democrats the same four seats each time -- despite the GOP winning just over 50 percent of the overall vote. Numerous counties and cities are split. Some districts stretch more than 100 miles. A congresswoman from Toledo represents Cleveland. An Urbana congressman represents areas from near Indiana to Lorain County. This would largely be eliminated under the new system, in part because of new limits on how many counties can be split and language to create "compact" districts, though the proposal notably does not define what compact means. The new rules mandate at least 65 counties be kept whole, allowing up to five counties to be split three ways and 18 others to be split two ways. Our bad map: Splits the maximum of five counties three ways - Cuyahoga, Licking, Madison, Richland and Summit. Splits 11 counties two ways. Leaves 72 counties whole. But fewer splits are possible with good intentions. Our good map published Monday kept 78 counties whole, split 10 counties two ways, and split no counties three ways. Scroll below for details by district for our bad map under the new rules. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 1st District - Cleveland and most eastern suburbs Largest cities: Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Euclid, Garfield Heights, Maple Heights, Shaker Heights and South Euclid. County: Cuyahoga County (part). Political leaning: Overwhelmingly Democrat. Current member of Congress: Democrat Marcia Fudge of Warrensville Heights. Minority population: 57 percent. One of the benefits of the proposal is that is severely restricts gerrymandering in Cuyahoga County, now home to four separate districts, none wholly in the county. Our "bad case" map still does split Cuyahoga County three ways, but not nearly as badly as the current map. This is because under the new rules, Cleveland cannot be split. And efforts are to be made to draw one district wholly within the county. This leaves little room for gamesmanship to rig a map for political gain. This district would be the most likely in Ohio to elect a minority member to Congress. Barack Obama carried close to 80 percent of the vote in these precincts in 2008. Minorities make up 57 percent of the district (blacks account for 49 percent), according to 2010 census data. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 2nd District - Northeast Ohio Largest cities: Ashtabula, Cuyahoga Falls (part), Hudson, Stow, Mentor, North Royalton, Wadsworth (part) and Willoughby. Counties: Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake, Medina, Portage (part) and Summit (part). Political leaning: Strongly Republican. Current members of Congress: Republican David Joyce of Bainbridge Township in Geauga County, and Republican Jim Renacci of Wadsworth. Minority population: 8 percent. This district keeps a lot of like communities together in Northeast Ohio, extending from the Cuyahoga County line to Pennsylvania, but it is designed carefully to favor Republicans. Even when Barack Obama was elected president, he was beaten in this area by about three percentage points. Don't Edit Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 3rd District - Akron/Youngstown Largest cities: Akron, Austintown, Cuyahoga Falls (part), Kent, Warren and Youngstown. Counties: Portage (part), Summit (part), Trumbull and Mahoning (part). Political leaning: Strongly Democrat. Current member of Congress: Democrat Tim Ryan of Howland Township near Warren. Minority population: 22 percent. Akron and Youngstown are grouped together in this district by design - to pack a large contingent of Democratic voters together. This does two things: provides incentive for some Democrats to say yes because it virtually guarantees a seat in Congress from here. And it provides an opportunity to spread Republican strength across more districts. Democrats typically win these precincts as a whole by close to 30 percentage points. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 4th District - Canton/Medina/Warren Largest cities: Ashland, Barberton, Brunswick, Canton, Green, Massillon, Medina and Wooster. Counties: Ashland, Holmes, Medina, Stark (part) and Summit (part). Political leaning: Strongly Republican. Current member of Congress: Republican Bob Gibbs of Lakeville in Holmes County. Minority population: 8 percent. This is solid Republican country, despite the inclusion of a good section of Canton. Efforts were made to exclude Akron, some of Canton and a good part of Mansfield to help solidify the Republican hold elsewhere. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 5th District - Cleveland suburbs and west Largest cities: Avon, Avon Lake, Lakewood, North Olmsted, North Ridgeville, Parma, Parma Heights, Rocky River, Solon and most of Strongsville. Counties: Cuyahoga (part), Huron, Lorain (part), Richland (part) and Seneca. Political leaning: Competitive, though leaning Republican. Current member of Congress: None currently live in this district. Minority population: 10 percent. The Cleveland suburbs, combined with Lorain County, could create a Democratic district. Instead, this design carefully excludes Elyria and Lorain to make it a likely Republican area. We rate this district competitive, though leaning Republican. Republican John Kasich easily won these precincts in being elected governor by a thin margin statewide in 2010. Yet Democrat Barack Obama carried this area (by a tighter margin) in being elected president. We concede that if there is a district that fails to meet the criteria to be compact, this could be the one. But there is no language in the proposal to define what compact means, and this proposed district is much more compact than many of the districts that now exist. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 6th District - Toledo and western lakeshore Largest cities: Elyria, Lorain, Oregon, Sandusky and Toledo. Counties: Erie, Lorain (part), Lucas (part), Ottawa and Sandusky. Political leaning: Overwhelmingly Democrat. Current member of Congress: Democrat Marcy Kaptur of Toledo. Minority population: 26 percent. This is a far improved version of the current "snake on the lake" district that extends on a vary narrow path from Toledo to Cleveland. But it still does its job to consolidate a lot of Democratic voters together so they don't contest Republicans elsewhere. These precincts as a group historically favor Democrats over Republicans by close to a 2-to-1 margin. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 7th District - Northwest Ohio Largest cities: Bowling Green, Findlay, Lima, Perrysburg and a small section of Mansfield. Counties: Allen, Auglaize, Crawford, Defiance, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Lucas (part), Mercer (part), Paulding, Putnam, Richland (part), Van Wert, Williams, Wood and Wyandot. Political leaning: Strongly Republican. Current member of Congress: Republican Bob Latta of Bowling Green. Minority population: 9 percent. Northwest Ohio outside the Toledo metro area is solid Republican country. This is a safe seat for the GOP. Don't Edit Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 8th District - Dayton area and western Ohio Largest cities: Dayton, Huber Heights, Piqua, Sidney, Springfield, Trotwood and Troy. Counties: Champaign, Clark, Darke, Logan, Madison, Mercer (part), Miami, Montgomery (part), Preble, Shelby, Political leaning: Strongly Republican. Current members of Congress: Republicans Jim Jordan of Urbana, Warren Davidson of Troy and Mike Turner of Dayton. Minority population: 19 percent. Democrats often enjoy success in Dayton and Montgomery County. Even in Donald Trump's sweeping Ohio victory over Hillary Clinton, he carried Montgomery County by less than a percentage point. But this district is designed to be strongly Republican, splitting both Dayton and Montgomery County. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 9th District - From Cincinnati suburbs to Dayton suburbs Largest cities: Centerville, Dayton (part), Fairfield, Hamilton, Kettering, Lebanon, Mason (part), Middletown and Oxford. Counties: Butler, Hamilton (part), Montgomery (part) and Warren (part). Political leaning: Strongly Republican. Current member of Congress: None currently living in the district. Minority population: 17 percent. Another strongly Republican district is this region stretching from just north of Cincinnati to the bottom part of Montgomery County, including portions of Dayton. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 10th District - Cincinnati and most of Hamilton County Largest cities: Cincinnati and Norwood. Counties: Hamilton (nearly all). Political leaning: Competitive. Current members of Congress: Republicans Steve Chabot and Brad Wenstrup, both of Cincinnati. Minority population: 31 percent. New rules preventing Cincinnati from being split and required efforts to keep a district entirely within Hamilton County will be a threat to Republicans retaining control of the area in Congress. Currently, two Republican House members live in Cincinnati, in part because of careful gerrymandering. But, Hamilton County has turned increasingly blue overall, voting Democrat in each of the last three presidential elections. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 11th District - Southern Ohio from the Cincinnati suburbs east Largest cities: Beavercreek, Fairborn, Mason (part), Portsmouth and Xenia. Counties: Adams, Brown, Clinton, Clermont, Greene, Highland, Lawrence, Madison (part), Scioto and Warren (part). Political leaning: Strongly Republican. Current member of Congress: None currently living in this district. Minority population: 8 percent. This largely rural area in southern Ohio east of Cincinnati is solidly Republican. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 12th District - Columbus and some surrounding areas Largest cities: Columbus and Reynoldsburg (the portion in Franklin County). Counties: Franklin (large part). Political leaning: Overwhelmingly Democrat. Current member of Congress: None currently living in this district. Minority population: 41 percent. Columbus is too large to fit into a district, yet the language in the ballot proposal mandates attempts be made to include "a significant portion" in one district. This means there is little room for gerrymandering games. About 80 percent of Columbus fits in this district, which is rounded out by a few other places in Franklin County to keep the map contiguous. This is the second most likely district to elect a minority to Congress. Democrat Joyce Beatty now represents much of this area, though she lives just outside the proposed district in Jefferson Township, according to voting records. Don't Edit Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 13th District - Columbus suburbs and north Largest cities: A small portion of Columbus and Newark, plus Delaware, Dublin, Gahanna, Grove City, Hilliard, Marion, Marysville, Upper Arlington and Westerville. Counties: Delaware, Franklin (part), Licking (part), Madison (part), Marion, Morrow and Union (part). Political leaning: Strongly Republican. Current members of Congress: Democrat Beatty of Jefferson Township and Republican Steve Stivers of Upper Arlington, both just outside Columbus. Minority population: 13 percent. Suburban and largely Republican, this Central Ohio district surrounds Columbus and extends mostly north. In a gerrymandering effort to remove Democrats from what could be more competitive districts to the east or south, a portion of Newark is included. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 14th District - Eastern Ohio Largest cities: Alliance, Canton (a sliver), Newark (part) and Zanesville. Counties: Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Coshocton, Guernsey, Harrison, Jefferson, Knox, Licking (part), Mahoning (part), Muskingum, Stark (part) and Tuscarawas. Political leaning: Strongly Republican. Current member of Congress: None currently living in this district. Minority population: 6 percent. Gerrymandering efforts are made in two cities to split Democrat votes, including just a portion of Newark and a small slice of Canton. Youngstown, just to the north, and most of Canton are placed in neighboring districts by design. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com 15th District - Southeast Ohio Largest cities: Athens, Chillicothe, Lancaster and Pickerington. Counties: Athens, Fairfield, Fayette, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Licking (part), Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Perry, Pike, Pickaway, Ross, Vinton and Washington. Political leaning: Strongly Republican. Current member of Congress: Republican Bill Johnson of Marietta. Minority population: 7 percent. This collection of 17 mostly small southern Ohio counties has turned Republican red in recent years, with the exception of Athens County, home to Ohio University. Most of the poorest counties in the state are in this part of Ohio. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com The fine print These cleveland.com maps were drawn using the same precinct data files state lawmakers used to create the current congressional map in 2011. Population for these proposed districts, based on the 2010 census, range from 768,724 to 769,825. This difference of 1,101, or 0.14 percent from the target 769,100, is much closer than the 0.79 percent range the Supreme Court in 2012 approved as being close enough in a West Virginia case. Criteria set out in the state constitutional amendment Ohio voters will be asked to approve in May were followed, including limiting county splits and keeping Cincinnati and Cleveland wholly within a district. Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. Note: An earlier version of this story included slightly different maps for Belmont and Licking counties. Changes involving seven precincts were made to comply with the constitution amendment. Don't Edit Jackie Borchardt, cleveland.com Previously: Analysis and details of proposed change Think of the redistricting proposal this way: should it pass, the politicians will still have their hands in the cookie jar, but Grandma will be lurking around the corner trying to make sure no one gets more than their fair share. Read analysis and more details at this link. Don't Edit Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com Previously: Emails, documents are stark reminder of Ohio's secret gerrymandering process For weeks in 2011, state-paid contractors, on leave from their public jobs for Republican lawmakers, worked secretly in a hotel room described as the "bunker" to create political maps aimed at creating safe Republican districts for most of Ohio's congressional delegation. Read report on how the maps were drawn in secret. Don't Edit Rich Exner, cleveland.com Previously: Gerrymandering 101, and why it needs to be fixed Gerrymandering not only shapes districts in odd ways, dividing communities and ignoring local concerns, it severely limits the odds of a dissatisfied electorate from flipping control of Congress from one party to the other at election time. Congress is not held as accountable as it could be. Read at this link why gerrymandering matters. Don't Edit Library of Congress Previously: America's dubious tradition of gerrymandering The practice of drawing legislative maps to benefit a politician or group has been a dubious American tradition since the days when the Federalist Party was still a going concern. More than two centuries later, so-called gerrymandering is alive and well, perhaps to a greater degree than ever in Ohio. Read about the history at this link. Don't Edit Rep. Jim Jordan website/cleveland.com illustration Previously: Prisons are important pieces in Ohio gerrymandering Ohio's clever gerrymandering in some cases has involved balancing the size of the districts by carefully assigning areas with thousands of adults who have no say at the ballot box. Ninety-one percent of Ohio's prison inmates are in Republican districts, usually far from where they lived before being imprisoned, according to a cleveland.com analysis. Read more about prison gerrymandering at this link. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The teenage duo who tried to kill a Cleveland priest during an ambush-style robbery are gang members, prosecutors said on Tuesday. The two 16-year-old boys are members of the MBK gang that stands for My Brother's Keepers, a subset of a juvenile street gang, according to testimony Tuesday in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court. A 15-year-old girl who pleaded guilty in connection with the case and two Cleveland police detectives testified during Tuesday's hearing that the two teens belonged to the gang that operates on Lakeshore Boulevard near East 150th Street. The two 16-year-old boys are charged with attempted murder and aggravated robbery in connection with the Dec. 11 incident in which they chased down and shot at Rev. John Kumse, the pastor of St. Mary's of the Assumption in Collinwood. Kumse has been the pastor there for 30 years and is well-known for his work in the community. Kumse was not hit by gunfire but tore his rotator cuff after falling as he ran from the shooters. The testimony on Tuesday came as prosecutors convinced Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Judge Michael Ryan to transfer duo's cases to adult court, where they face far harsher penalties if convicted. Their cases will now go to a Cuyahoga County grand jury that will decide how the case will proceed. A then-14-year-old boy who prosecutors said acted as the getaway driver had his case set for a hearing on May 4 during which Ryan will decide if he is amenable to rehabilitation through the juvenile court system. An 18-year-old woman, Kenitra Robinson, is charged with attempted murder. She pleaded not guilty in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. She, the 15-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy were inside of the getaway car, a stolen van, at the time of the incident and remained with the group after the shooting, prosecutors said. Prosecutors on Tuesday did not seek to establish a motive for the robbery and shooting during the five-hour hearing. But Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Yasmine Hasan questioned the 15-year-old girl regarding the structure of the MBK gang. She testified that the gang members used hand signs, including making an "M" with their their fingers. She also testified that MBK had various ranks, including foot soldiers. She testified that if a gang member with a higher rank tells a lower-ranking member to rob or shoot someone, then the lower-ranking members must comply. She said that is the only way to move up in rank. "If they tell you to rob someone, you rob someone," she said. The two gunman saw Kumse walking out of his chicken coup behind the church, prosecutors said. They hid behind bushes as Kumse walked back towards the church carrying four eggs, according to prosecutors. The duo demanded the eggs. One of the gunman fired three shots as Kumse ran for his life, according to prosecutors and Kumse's testimony. One of the bullets nearly hit the other armed robber. Kumse fell to the ground in the church parking lot as the two men were less than 10 feet away. He testified Tuesday that he thought he was going to die. "I thought 'this is how it ends,'" Kumse testified. One of the robbers slipped as he fired a third shot from about 10 feet away. When Kumse realized he wasn't shot, he got up, continued running and yelled for help, according to police. The robbers ran away when a neighbor came outside and turned on a porch light. The robbers got into a stolen van, which was parked in the corner of the church's parking lot, and sped away, the police report says. The teens were arrested the next day, and investigators found the van on East 150th Street near Lakeshore Boulevard, police said. Det. Kevin Warnack testified Tuesday that police found two guns inside a home where the 15-year-old girl lived, including a revolver believed to be used to fire the shots at Kumse. Warnack said two of the teens mumbled "MBK" to each other as officers led from the house in handcuffs. Warnack said at the time police did not know what that meant, but later learned it is the name of their gang. To comment on this story, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio - In the past few years dozens of states, cities and counties have proposed or enacted free or debt-free college "Promise" programs. But only two programs, one by a foundation and one by a university, exist in Ohio. Sixteen states now have at least one statewide program, according to a report by the progressive think tank The Century Foundation. They are: Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Washington. Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada, New York and Rhode Island all enacted legislation creating Promise programs in 2017; Tennessee expanded its existing Promise program to include working adults, the report said. Efforts to develop free college education programs gathered steam after January 2015 when President Barack Obama unveiled his "American College Promise" program - a plan to make two years of community college education free. According to the College Promise Campaign, a nonprofit launched by Obama that helps build and expand tuition-free programs, there are about 200 programs in 44 states. Two are in Ohio - the LeBron James Family Foundation programs in Akron and a program at Ohio State University. Ohio State announced last fall that it will cover the remaining cost of tuition and fees for low-income in-state students who receive aid from other sources. The university said it expects to spend more than $11 million a year to fill the financial gap left after students are awarded Pell grants, Ohio College Opportunity Grants and any merit awards. While Promise programs differ, many include the following, the report said: Most are last-dollar, meaning that money is provided after students receive state and federal financial aid and grants. Many require students to attend full time to be eligible. Many restrict eligibility to recent high school graduates. Most offer free tuition at community colleges but not four-year institutions: only one program enacted since 2014, the Of the 16 statewide programs, eight have a minimum GPA and ACT/SAT requirement. Three programs require residency post-graduation (Arkansas, New York and Rhode Island). Several programs provide mentors and other support to students. There is a growing trend toward offering free tuition only for college programs providing degrees or certificates in growing fields, particularly in states in the South and Midwest. Only two programs cover costs beyond tuition and fees: Hawaii covers books, transportation costs and supplies if students have unmet needs, while Oregon provides a middle-dollar scholarship that gives a minimum of $1,000 to cover non-tuition costs for low-income students who already have tuition covered. What's happening in Ohio? Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger has said college affordability will be a priority during his last year as leader of the Ohio House. Two legislative proposals address college costs. House Bill 337 would exempt textbooks from state sales taxes. A fiscal analysis shows an annual loss of $21.2 million to the General Revenue Fund, $800,000 to the Local Government and public library funds and $5.4 million to counties and transit authorities. House Bill 186 attempts to tackle college affordability with income tax deductions for tuition, fees, books, supplies and any required equipment for college and vocational schools. There are no estimates yet on how much the proposal would cost. Former State Rep. Connie Pillich announced a plan to revamp the education system in Ohio - including free college tuition for Ohio residents who stay in the state for 10 years after graduation - as part of her run for governor. Pillich dropped out of the race in February. Under Pillich's plan, students with an income or family income of less than $100,000 who attend a public university would have received deferred tuition. The deferment would have lasted for 10 years if the student stayed in Ohio post-graduation. FAIRBORN, Ohio -- A Dayton man is facing charges of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery in connection with last week's shooting death of a clerk at a Hampton Inn. Prosecutors tell the Dayton Daily News that Michael McLendon, 24, has admitted to shooting Andrew Day, 29, who was working behind the desk in the lobby of the hotel on March 7. McLendon reportedly took cash from the hotel's register drawer before shooting Day in the stomach. Day was taken by emergency workers to to Soin Medical Center but died of his wound. McLendon was taken into custody by armed officers Monday at an apartment complex in Dayton. He is being held on a $1 million bond in the Fairborn City Jail, ABC 22 Now reports. According to the Daily News, McLendon was convicted in 2013 of aggravated robbery in Montgomery County. He was released from prison in August. Police say McLendon is a suspect in other robberies. Reports initially said there were two suspects in the shooting but there have been no other arrests. To comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Tens of thousands of American students will walk out of school Wednesday to support gun control, in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died. Nearly 3,000 walkouts are scheduled for March 14 at schools, according to the Women's March website. The #Enough school walkout is organized by EMPOWER, the youth branch of the Women's March organization. More than 30 walkouts are planned at middle and high schools in Northeast Ohio. Here's what to know about the walkouts: When will they happen? Walkouts will take place March 14 at 10 a.m local time. The day will mark exactly a month since the Parkland shooting. Students will walk out for 17 minutes, one minute for each death. What do students want? Students want legislators to pass gun control that protects schools from gun violence. The Women's March association supports banning assault weapons and magazines and expanding background checks. The march also supports gun violence restraining laws, so that people could file restraining orders against others when they fear they could hurt somebody else, or themselves, with a gun. Restraining orders could prevent people from buying a gun or require them to turn in their guns and ammunition to the police. Organizers also support ending the sale of certain surplus military-grade weaponry to local law enforcement. The official march rejects reciprocity for concealed carry licenses in all states or any legislation that would put guns into schools. Can students be punished for walking out? Some administrations, such as Hudson and Lakewood, are turning the walkouts into school events. For example, in Lakewood officials will hold an assembly in the stadium following the walkout, where student leaders and activists will speak. Some schools will permit the 17 minutes and then require a return to class, but others say if students participate, they'll be marked absent for the whole day. In terms of legal rights for student participants, legal experts generally agree that students can't be punished specifically for acts of activism. So, as explained in an analysis by NPR, if the school doesn't punish unexcused absences with immediate suspension, they can't suspend students walking out of school. But if a student is consistently absent a walkout could count as an additional absence that will lead to punishment, Director of ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project Ben Wizner and lawyer Christine Hamiel told CNN. Schools can also assign additional work to students related to the walkout (an essay, for example) or schedule tests during it. More than 200 colleges publicly stated support for peaceful protest on gun issues and say they will not penalize students during the admissions process for being a part of demonstrations. See the full list of colleges, including Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University and Baldwin Wallace University here. Where are they happening? The following schools are listed as participants on the Women's March website or have public plans for a walkout or demonstration: Hawken School (Gates Mills) Richmond Heights High School Brush High School (Lyndhurst) Cleveland Heights- Shaker Heights Solon High School Mayfield Garfield Heights High School Citizens Leadership Academy Woodbury Elementary School Green Inspiration Academy (Highland Hills) Mentor High School West Side Normandy High School (Parma) St. Joseph Academy John Marshall High School Rocky River Middle and High Schools Magnificat High School Bay High School Olmsted Falls Middle and High Schools Lakewood High School James Ford Rhodes High School North Olmsted High School Urban Community School South Berea-Midpark High School Brecksville-Broadview Heights Highland (Medina county) Hudson High School Norton High School Nordonia High School (Macedonia) Twinsburg High School Cuyahoga Falls High School Copley High School Brunswick Lawrence School (Sagamore Hills) Medina Akron-area Firestone High School Akron Alternative Academy Barber Elementary School Betty Jane CLC Bechtel CLC Case Elementary Ellet High School Helen E. Arnold CLC King CLC McEbright CLC Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts Seiberling Many schools will also do moments of silence or other activities to memorialize the Parkland school shooting victims. Cleveland.com will cover the walk-outs on Facebook Live and will have a recap of events Wednesday. Inclusion on this list does not mean school officials or the administration are endorsing the walkout. If your school is having a walk-out and is not on this list, please email reporter Emily Bamforth at ebamforth@cleveland.com. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Cincinnati leaders think they've found a loophole in state law that will allow them to ban bump stocks in the city. Cincinnati City Council is working on an ordinance to outlaw the devices, which increase the fire rate of a semi-automatic gun. Bump stocks were used in last year's mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead. But a 2006 Ohio law preempts local laws relating to the sale, ownership or possession of a firearm, part of a firearm, a firearm "component" and ammunition. A bump stock isn't a gun "component," but instead is an "accessory," council attorneys say in a legal opinion released Monday by Councilman PG Sittenfeld. There's no Ohio court precedent on what counts as a component, city solicitor Paula Boggs Muething wrote, but the word's definition indicates component means a part of a gun. Therefore, she reasoned, a bump stock is not a firearm but a separate attachment or accessory. "Federal lawmakers have failed to ban bump stocks, so cities will act where Congress has failed," Sittenfeld said in an emailed statement. "Our extreme state legislature has preempted our ability to implement most common sense gun safety reforms, but when it comes to those things we can do, we're determined to push forward in every single way to reverse the bloodshed in our country." Boggs Muething noted that the city risks being sued and losing in court. Columbia, South Carolina banned bump stocks late last year under the same logic. South Carolina state law also prohibits cities setting more stringent laws regarding firearm components. A lawsuit filed the next day claims the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined in 2010 that bump stocks are parts of guns. "Clearly, a firearm 'part' is a component of a firearm. The linguistic gymnastics attempted by the city is mind boggling and insulting to anyone with an I.Q. above 6," attorney Mark Schnee wrote in the complaint. Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican who voted to override Gov. Bob Taft's veto of the 2006 law, said it's possible a loophole may exist. But he questioned what impact Cincinnati-specific legislation would have. "If bump stocks are not available in the city of Cincinnati but are available in every surrounding area and in Kentucky and Indiana, what other than pure symbolism are they trying to convey by their resolution or whatever they're doing?" Seitz said. The U.S. Department of Justice has proposed reclassifying guns fitted with bump stocks as automatic weapons banned under federal law. Mobile readers, click here to read the legal analysis. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich sent a letter Monday to the Ohio Democratic Party demanding more gubernatorial debates before the May 8 primary. Kucinich said the party, which has technically held four debates but only one with the current slate of candidates, is failing Democratic voters by not having an aggressive schedule. He asked for one debate a week in the major urban areas of Ohio until the primary. "It is especially urgent that the party put forth a fuller and more transparent effort given the persistent rumors, innuendos, and media speculation that one of the four candidates is the not-so- secret favorite of what is commonly referred to as the 'Democratic Establishment,'" Kucinich wrote. He presumably was referring to former federal consumer watchdog Richard Cordray, considered to be the frontrunner for the nomination. Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Alvanitakis said the party planned to move ahead with a planned April 10 debate in Southwest Ohio. "Since we announced in the summer of 2017 that we would be holding a series of debates, the Ohio Democratic Party has been committed to an open and transparent process," Alvanitakis said in a statement. "In addition to our debate series, many Democratic groups have held public forums, which have been incredibly well-received." The Ohio Democratic Party in August laid out a platform for six debates to be held in different parts of the state. To date, it has held four debates, one each in Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo and Martins Ferry. However, three of the debates came before Cordray, Kucinich or former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neill were officially in the race. (State Sen. Joe Schiavoni has appeared in all four.) Scheduling one debate a week until the primary would present logistical challenges, such as finding a broadcast partner, securing venues and ensuring all of the candidates would attend. Cordray campaign spokesman Mike Gwin said the two debates -- including the one in April -- plus the multiple forums with the candidates was sufficient. "In addition to last week's debate, Rich has appeared at five forums with the other candidates and looks forward to additional joint appearances where he can continue to lay out his record of delivering results for Ohio workers and families," Gwin said. "If Dennis really wants to be on TV that much, he should just try to get his old Fox News contract back." Kucinich himself has a past of denying requests for debates while he was a congressman, including dodging a City Club primary debate in 2006 against then-challenger Barbara Ferris. O'Neill said he would welcome more debates like the one in Toledo, which he called "extremely well done." "I agree with Dennis that we should have more televised debates to assist voters in deciding who they want to vote for," O'Neill said. "More importantly, the televised debate in Toledo last week was the model of how the Democratic Party should be getting the word out to the Democratic voters." Schiavoni supported more debates as well. "The more debates the better," Schiavoni said. "Voters deserve every opportunity to hear from the candidates and choose for themselves who's best to lead our state." This post has been updated with comments from Joe Schiavoni. Read the letter: Kucinich Letter to ODP by srichardson on Scribd EASTLAKE, Ohio -- Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine emphasized his conservative credentials and his support for President Donald Trump in a Monday night speech in Lake County. DeWine, an Ohio political mainstay who at times has been viewed as more of a moderate political figure, opened his 30-minute speech by serving up conservative red meat to those who attended the Lake County Lincoln Day dinner, an annual fundraising event. He touted his anti-abortion record, what he described as the strong pro-Second Amendment stances he and his running mate, Secretary of State Jon Husted have taken, and said he would prevent so-called sanctuary cities from being established if he is elected governor. DeWine's opponent in the Republican primary, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, has criticized DeWine from the right end of the political spectrum, pointing out his past support of a federal assault weapons ban and a pathway for citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Taylor is badly lagging DeWine, but has received a smattering of support from the party's more conservative grassroots elements. But DeWine emphasized the legal battles his office has taken since he was elected attorney general in 2010, including participating in a challenge to Obamacare and supporting the Hobby Lobby U.S. Supreme Court case that exempted some companies from being required to provide their employees with insurance coverage for birth control. He also praised Trump for appointing "constitutional conservative" judges and for rolling back Obama-era regulations since becoming president. DeWine said people often ask him why he is running for governor, given his lengthy political experience as a former county prosecutor, state representative, congressman and U.S. senator. "i think it's important to tell you why I run," DeWine said. "This is a great state but we have some challenges. And they're very very serious challenges. And how we meet those challenges will, frankly, determine what kind of state you turn over to your kids your grandkids and your great grandkids." DeWine transitioned into discussing more kitchen-table issues, emphasizing his efforts to push local police departments to test the backlog of tens of thousands of long-untouched rape kits, and saying Ohio should encourage some students to pursue vocational education as an alternative to college to help boost the state's workforce. He said the state could help fight the opioid epidemic by funding anti-drug education and supporting local organizations' efforts to provide addiction treatment. Lincoln Day Dinners are held by county parties around the state, and are a rite of passage for all statewide Republican candidates. Hundreds of Republicans ate hearty dinners of schnitzel, potato salad and green beans as DeWine spoke. DeWine, a longtime Ohio politician who has been running for governor for nearly a year, seemed at ease at in the banquet hall where the event was held, saying he spotted a lot of "friends" in the crowd. He singled out industrialist Ed Crawford, a longtime, major Republican donor who received an award earlier in the evening. He also praised Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken, who introduced him. DeWine briefly spoke about Richard Cordray, the former Ohio attorney general who is running for governor as a Democrat. He criticized Cordray as someone who is close to the administration of ex-President Barack Obama, and close to Elizabeth Warren, the liberal U.S. senator from Massachusetts. The reference to Warren prompted someone in the crowd to exclaim "Pocahontas," the insult repeatedly used by Trump that references her past claims of Native American heritage. In a statement, Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper criticized DeWine for opposing the expansion of Medicaid eligibility, which has extended health care to 700,000 Ohioans and helped pay for opioid addiction treatment. He also said Republican rule in Columbus has cut funding for local governments and schools and failed to boost Ohio's economy. "It's no wonder DeWine refuses to defend his record in a public debate. After seven years of failed leadership and misplaced priorities, DeWine and Ohio Republicans can't be trusted to put Ohio back on track for a better future," Pepper said. HALFMOON, N.Y.- A call to local law enforcement about a disturbance at an Eastside Drive residence in the town has resulted in the arrest and incarceration of three adults. Kyle C. Hooper, 25, Ronald C. Skaarup, 25, and Kayla Blais, 26, were arrested March 9 by members of the Saratoga County Sheriffs Department after an alleged altercation with sheriffs deputies and a member of the New York State Police. After responding to the Eastside Drive address around 8:44 p.m., sheriffs deputies said Kyle Hooper threatened and spit at the responding officer and a New York State Trooper who responded to back up the deputy. Ronald Skaarup, who was also at the residence, is alleged to have then attempted to prevent the responding officers from taking Hooper into custody. According to law enforcement, both Skaarup and Hooper actively resisted arrest, resulting in officers using a chemical agent against Hooper who was then taken into custody. Kayla Blais, who was also at the residence, is alleged to have then interfered and attempted to prevent responding officers from effecting the arrest of Hooper. All three were taken into custody. Sheriffs deputies say Hooper then attempted to damage a sheriffs office patrol car by kicking the door and cage when placed inside the vehicle. They were arraigned before Town of Halfmoon Judge Joseph Fedora and remanded to the Saratoga County Jail in lieu of bail. Hooper, Skaarup and Blais are charged with obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest. Hooper is also charged with harassment and attempted criminal mischief. The House Intelligence Committees Republican majority showed off its best ostrich impression late Monday, as members buried their heads in the sand concerning Russias meddling in the 2016 election and the Trump campaigns possible involvement in it. The abrupt but expected ending came even as investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller and the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee appear a long way from completion and in Muellers case are producing results in the form of indictments and convictions. The House panel lost the trust of the American people many months ago, observed Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn. This was in large part due to Chairman Devin Nunes dereliction of duty, aided and abetted by many of his colleagues on the committee who are more interested in covering for President Trump than investigating what happened. As we await the full report from the committee which we will read with skeptical interest we renew our call for an independent commission with the authority to investigate what happened and to make recommendations for how to protect against future attacks Hobert Flynn added. Its been clear for months that the House inquiry was geared to give the Trump campaign a clean bill of health. Committee Chair Nunes, R-CA, seemed to put partisanship ahead of the countrys interest in secure elections, pushing his colleagues to redirect their inquiry to pursue his theory that the Obama administration used the nations intelligence agencies to spy on the Trump transition. Nunes announced he would recuse himself, tapping Rep. Michael Conway, R-TX, to lead the committees inquiry, but then remained actively involved. A majority staff memo prepared at his direction alleged that the FBI misled a court to secure a warrant allowing it to eavesdrop on the phone conversations of a former Trump aide; Trump said the memo exonerated his campaign, but even some of Nunes fellow Republicans acknowledged that they found it unpersuasive. Under Conaway, the committee declined to subpoena key witnesses, including former Trump Campaign Chair Paul Manafort, now under indictment by Muellers grand jury, and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with Mueller. The House committee also shrugged off open defiance of its authority by among others former Trump political strategist Steve Bannon and former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks. Both voluntarily appeared for interviews, but the committee let them pick and choose which questions they would answer. ### Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Insecticides Market: By Type (Organophosphates, Pyrethroids, Organochlorine, Botanicals, Carbamates) By Crop Type (Fruits and Vegetables, Cereals and Grains, Oilseeds and Pulses) By Mode of Application (Soil Treatment, Foliar Spray, Post-Harvest, Seed Treatment) By Formulation (Wettable Powder, Suspension Concentrate, Granules, Microencapsulated Suspension, Emulsifiable Concentrate, Oil in water Emulsion) By Crop Type (Grains and Cereals, Fruits and Vegetables, Oilseeds and Pulses), By Geography (Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa and Europe) Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023 Market Dynamics: Insecticides Market Rise in concerns regarding the diseases which are transferable from insects to plants and inclination towards adoption of novel insecticides are expected to propel the growth of insecticides market. Furthermore, increase in pest management service industries, rise in demand for food grains, increases in population pool enables boost the growth of insecticides market. However, toxic properties of insecticides, lack of awareness regarding insecticides will hamper the growth of insecticides market. A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/insecticides-market/#ulp-4H8Z4LpNMLEuOnnx Market Scope: Insecticides Market The Insecticides Market is classified on the basis of type, crop type, mode of application, formulation and region Based on Type, Market is segmented as Organophosphates Pyrethroids Organochlorine Botanicals Carbamates Based on Crop Type, Market is segmented as Fruits and Vegetables Cereals and Grains Oilseeds and Pulses Based on Mode of Application, Market is segmented as Soil Treatment Foliar Spray Post-harvest Seed Treatment Based on Formulation, Market is segmented as Wettable Powder Suspension Concentrate Granules Microencapsulated Suspension Emulsifiable Concentrate Oil in Water Emulsion Based on Region, Market is segmented as Latin America Europe Asia Pacific North America The Middle East and Africa Regional Analysis: Insecticides Market Global Insecticides Market is segmented as Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and The Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific is expected to dominate market share owing to growing food grains export, increasing pool of population, high consumption of agriculture products, and major dependence on the agricultural economy. North America holds a significant position followed by Europe, as U.S. is the largest producer of food grains, increase in consumption of food grains, technological advancements, huge health consciousness among the consumers. To view TOC of this report is available upon request @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/insecticides-market/#ulp-c654SbFYO64MsOhu Competition Assessment: Insecticides Market Some of the players in Insecticides Market are Dow Chemical Company (U.S.) Monsanto Company (U.S.) DuPont (U.S.) Syngenta AG (Switzerland) Bayer CropScience AG (Germany) BASF SE (Germany) Sumitomo Chemical Company Ltd. (Japan) INCOTEC Group BV (Netherlands) ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd. (Israel) United Phosphorus Limited (India) Notable Market Developments In August 2017, Mahindra Agri Solutions launched Tromph, an advanced insecticide In May 2016, Bayer Crop Science India, launches Temprid a new insecticide to control cockroaches. Need more information about this report @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/insecticides-market/#ulp-14mlyhjMGhVjZqa3 Key Features of the Report: The report provides granular level information about the market size, regional market share, historic market (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2023) The report covers in-detail insights about the competitors overview, company share analysis, key market developments, and their key strategies The report outlines drivers, restraints, unmet needs, and trends that are currently affecting the market The report tracks recent innovations, key developments and startups details that are actively working in the market The report provides plethora of information about market entry strategies, regulatory framework and reimbursement scenario The report analyses the impact of socio-political environment through PESTLE Analysis and competition through Porters Five Force Analysis in addition to recent technology advancements and innovations in the market Get access to full summary @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/insecticides-market/ Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The Crop Protection Pesticides Market: By Product Type (Insecticides, Herbicides, Fungicides, Others) By Origin (Bio Pesticides, Synthetic) By Mode of Application (Soil Treatment, Foliar Spray, Seed Treatment) By crop type (Grains and Cereals, Fruits and Vegetable, Pulses and Oilseeds) By Geography (Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa and Europe) Crop Protection Pesticides Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023 Market Dynamics: Crop Protection Pesticides Market Growing awareness among the farmers regarding crop protection pesticides, increase in adoption of innovative agricultural practices is witnessed to accelerate the demand for Crop Protection Pesticides. Rise in prevalence of crop diseases because of pests, innovations in the farming equipment, increase in population globally propels Crop Protection Pesticides market growth. However, lack of awareness among the farmers, stringent regulatory environment, posing bans on usage of pests and unfavourable government subsidies are expected to hinder the growth of the Crop Protection Pesticides market. A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/crop-protection-pesticides-market/#ulp-4H8Z4LpNMLEuOnnx Market Scope: Crop Protection Pesticides Market The Crop Protection Pesticides Market is classified on the basis of origin, type, crop type, mode of application, regions Based on Origin, market is segmented as Biopesticides Synthetic Based on Type, market is segmented as Insecticides Herbicides Fungicides Others Based on Crop Type, market is segmented as Cereals and Grains Fruits and Vegetables Pulses and Oilseeds Based on Mode of Application, market is segmented as Soil Treatment Foliar Spray Seed Treatment Based on Region, market is segmented as North America Latin America Europe Asia Pacific The Middle East and Africa To view TOC of this report is available upon request @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/crop-protection-pesticides-market/#ulp-c654SbFYO64MsOhu Regional Analysis: Crop Protection Pesticides Market Crop Protection Pesticides Market is segmented as Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and The Middle East Africa. North America crop protection pesticides market has a moderate growth rate over the forecast period due to ban on Crop Protection Pesticides by FDA such as carbendazim. However, increase in the farming of cereals, fruits, and vegetables. Rise in R&D for innovation of newer Crop Protection Pesticides, frequent product approvals from EPA, and rise in demand for quality food products are anticipated to fuel the Crop Protection Pesticides market in North America. Moreover, Europe market has a significant share due to development in the farming techniques, increasing the focus on quality products with better yield, and high adoption of newer products are expected to propel the crop protection pesticides market. Asia Pacific has a significant growth due to increase in production and supplying of crop protection pesticides in China. Increase in demand for food products and decrease in arable land due to increased population, and high dependence on agriculture farming are expected to bolster the Crop Protection Pesticides market. Need more information about this report @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/crop-protection-pesticides-market/#ulp-14mlyhjMGhVjZqa3 Competition Assessment: Crop Protection Pesticides Market Some of the players in Crop Protection Pesticides Market are DuPont (U.S.) Monsanto Company (U.S.) Novozymes (Denmark) Syngenta AG (Switzerland) Akzonoble N.V. (Netherlands) Bayer CropScience AG (Germany) Brandt Consolidated (U.S.) Solvay SA (Belgium) The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.) Croda Chemicals (India) Arysta Life sciences (US) Notable Market Developments In June 2017, Bases crystal crop protection has launched crop protection pesticides in Bangalore namely Apex 50, Abacin, Azotrix, Toggle Plus and Crystorhiza. Key Features of the Report: The report provides granular level information about the market size, regional market share, historic market (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2023) The report covers in-detail insights about the competitors overview, company share analysis, key market developments, and their key strategies The report outlines drivers, restraints, unmet needs, and trends that are currently affecting the market The report tracks recent innovations, key developments and startups details that are actively working in the market The report provides plethora of information about market entry strategies, regulatory framework and reimbursement scenario The report analyses the impact of socio-political environment through PESTLE Analysis and competition through Porters Five Force Analysis in addition to recent technology advancements and innovations in the market Get access to full summary @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/crop-protection-pesticides-market/ About Precision Business Insights Precision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and business consulting firm, which follow a holistic approach to solve needs of the clients. We adopt and implement proven research methodologies to achieve better results. We help our clients by providing actionable insights and strategies to make better decisions. We provide consulting, syndicated and customised market research services based on our client needs. Contact to Precision Business Insights, Kemp House, 152 160 City Road, London EC1V 2NX Email: sales@precisionbusinessinsights.com Toll Free (US): +1-866-598-1553 Website @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Global Halal Cosmetics Market: By Type (Personal Care, Makeup, Fragrances), By Application (Hair, Skin, Body, Face, Lips, Eyes), By Usage ( Men, Women, Unisex), By Distribution Channel (Supermarkets, Hypermarkets, Drugstores, Online Stores) and Geography Halal Cosmetics Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023 Market Dynamics: Halal Cosmetics Market Halal means permissible and lawful. Halal industry is expected to create new avenues for the market players due to increased awareness in the Muslim community. With increasing Muslim population across the globe, halal become one of the most vital factor in population. Rising inclination towards halal cosmetics is expected to drive the market. The cosmetics manufactured without using pork, dog or alcoholic ingredients expected to create huge demand by population. Furthermore, inclination towards organic and ecofriendly, healthy cosmetics, increase in investments on R&D activities, increase in usage of cosmetics by Muslim population propels the market growth for halal cosmetics. However, lack of awareness, low adoption rate, stringent regulatory framework enables hamper the growth of halal cosmetics market. A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/halal-cosmetics-market/#ulp-4H8Z4LpNMLEuOnnx Market Scope: Halal Cosmetics Market Halal Cosmetics market is segmented on the basis of Type, Usage, Application, and Distribution channel and Geographical regions Based on the Type, Halal Cosmetics market is segmented into the following Personal Care Makeup Fragrances Based on the Application, This market is segmented into the following Hair Skin Lips Body Face Eyes Based on the Usage, This market is segmented into the following Men Women Unisex Based on the Distribution Channel, Halal Cosmetics market is segmented into the following Supermarkets Hypermarkets Drugstores Online stores To view TOC of this report is available upon request @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/halal-cosmetics-market/#ulp-c654SbFYO64MsOhu Regional Analysis: Halal Cosmetics Market Halal Cosmetics market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Middle East and Africa is expected to dominate the halal cosmetics market over the forecast period due to increased R&D investments in halal cosmetics, rising awareness among the people, increased demand for natural cosmetics. Europe halal cosmetics market is anticipated to show significant growth owing to ban on animal testing for beauty care products in 2009, which has led to the usage of natural organic ingredients in cosmetics and beauty care products. North America is expected show steady growth rate owing to increase in beauty consciousness and inclination towards usage of organic and natural products. Amara, was the first North American company to offer completely halal cosmetics which were certified by Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America. Asia Pacific, Latin America expected to offer lucrative opportunities over the forecast period owing to presence of high Muslim population. Competition Assessment: Halal Cosmetics Market Key players profiled in the global halal cosmetics market include Amara Cosmetics (U.S.) Saaf Skin Care (UK) Clara International (Malaysia) INIKA (Australia) Talent Cosmetic Co., Ltd. (Korea) MMA Bio Lab Sdn Bhd (Malaysia) The Halal Cosmetics Company (UK) Prolab Cosmetics (Brazil) Martha Tilaar Group (Indonesia) IBA Halal Care (India) Notable Market Developments: Halal Cosmetics Market In 2015, Depilex Beauty Clinic and Beauty Parlor launched new range of Halal Makeup Products in Pakistan. Need more information about this report @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/halal-cosmetics-market/#ulp-14mlyhjMGhVjZqa3 Key Features of the Report: The report provides granular level information about the market size, regional market share, historic market (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2023) The report covers in-detail insights about the competitors overview, company share analysis, key market developments, and their key strategies The report outlines drivers, restraints, unmet needs, and trends that are currently affecting the market The report tracks recent innovations, key developments and startups details that are actively working in the market The report provides plethora of information about market entry strategies, regulatory framework and reimbursement scenario The report analyses the impact of socio-political environment through PESTLE Analysis and competition through Porters Five Force Analysis in addition to recent technology advancements and innovations in the market Get access to full summary @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/halal-cosmetics-market/ About Precision Business Insights Precision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and business consulting firm, which follow a holistic approach to solve needs of the clients. We adopt and implement proven research methodologies to achieve better results. We help our clients by providing actionable insights and strategies to make better decisions. We provide consulting, syndicated and customised market research services based on our client needs. Contact to Precision Business Insights, Kemp House, 152 160 City Road, London EC1V 2NX Email: sales@precisionbusinessinsights.com Toll Free (US): +1-866-598-1553 Website @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com LONDON, March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Architecture Festival has announced its 2018 Super-Jury, made up of the most influential names in international architecture. The 'Super-Jury' will judge the Festival's World Building of the Year award on Friday 30th November at the RAI Amsterdam. A A A A (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/652644/Super_Jury.jpg ) The WAF Awards, the 'Oscars of architecture', sit at the heart of the World Architecture Festival and celebrate global architectural excellence across completed buildings, future projects and landscape projects. Shortlisted entrants will compete for prizes across 33 categories on the first two days of the three-day Festival. On the final day, category winners will present again to the Super Jury, who will choose the World Building of the Year winner, after seeing live presentations from the 18 completed building category winners. The Super-Jury will be chaired by Nathalie de Vries, Director and Co-founder of Dutch practice MVRDV. The other jurors are Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University; Li Xiaodong, Professor, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University; David Adjaye, Principal, Adjaye Associates; and Manuelle Gautrand, Principal Architect, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture. WAF programme director Paul Finch commented: 'We are delighted to have such a diverse and talented group of super-jurors, and look forward to their comments and deliberations. With over 130 judges representing 37 countries, and with 47% being female, we are proud that WAF is able to celebrate the truly diverse nature of design and architecture.' WAF and its sister event INSIDE World Festival of Interiors are looking forward to welcoming more than 2,000 architects and designers to the RAI Amsterdam for three days of conference programmes, awards, exhibitions and fringe events. The Festival culminates with the Gala Awards Dinner taking place in the former Amsterdam Stock Exchange building, the Beurs van Berlage, where the winners of the World Building of the Year will receive their prize. For more details on how to enter the WAF Awards please visit http://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com @worldarchfest #WAF2018 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 Block Adani mine This week the Federal Court is hearing an application by the Wangan and Jabalingou people of central Queensland against the Indian firm Adanis proposed construction of one of the worlds biggest coal mines, at Carmichael in Central Queenslands Galilee Basin. The mine would consume 9.5 billion litres of underground water in the region and 12 billion litres of water from local rivers every year. Combustion of coal mined at full production rate would also result in a huge rise in global carbon emissions. The Great Barrier Reef and the Queensland tourist industry are under threat from the proposal, not only because the company wants to dredge the seabed from its Abbot Point export terminal to enable shipping to pass the Reef, but also because rising sea temperatures associated with climate change are devastating the coral. Adani claims it has the consent of the traditional owners for mining to proceed. But the Wangan and Jabalingou people argue that they are the owners, that they never gave their consent and that many of the people cited in Adanis claim are not traditional owners at all. The Wangan and Jabalingou people have formally rejected the proposal four times. However, in accordance with the Native Title Act, during former court appearances they were represented by Queensland South Native Title Services (QSNTS), an amalgam of several Queensland land councils. Members of QSNTS other than the Wangan and Jabalingou people were allowed to cast a vote concerning the mine and many voted in favour of the proposal. As legal expert Dr Morgan Brigg observed: QSNTS ... services more than half the state of Queensland, encompassing nearly all of the gas and coal-rich areas of the state. ... QSNTS badges itself as facilitating traditional owner aspirations and self-determination, but the [Wangan and Jabalingou peoples] experience with QSNTS does not reflect this. Central to this weeks case is the question of whether traditional owners really do have the power to block a development proposal on their land. The case has deep ramifications for Aboriginal land rights with respect to the Wik and Mabo determinations of the 1990s. False arguments and wavering politicians Last Saturday with the South Australian elections looming, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull boasted that coalition trade policies would boost the export of wine from South Australia. However, rising temperatures are threatening wine production in that state. Climate scientists say a global temperature rise greater than two degrees would be a catastrophe for agricultural production throughout the world, and would result in global famines. The Australian wine industry would probably be ruined well before a global temperature rise of two degrees. Both major parties have genuflected before King Coal over the Adani mine proposal. Representatives of the Wangan and Jabalingou people persuaded major overseas financial institutions not to invest in the mine. The battle against dredging thousands of tons of sludge and dumping it in onshore wetlands or on the reef was led by local community groups. In response, the Turnbull government wants to alter the law so that environmental groups that take political action lose their charitable status and funding. According to activist group GetUp, the government also plans to fund the Adani mine covertly by transferring money from the governments Export Finance and Insurance Corporation to Adanis suppliers. The Corporations financial reserves recently received a massive boost of $3.8 billion. According to the government this was intended to facilitate the production and export of Australian weapons, but it could also be used to boost the export of coal. The Australian Labor Party is divided over whether to oppose the Adani proposal outright, because that could lead to a loss of votes for the Party in the Central Queensland electorate of Herbert at the next federal general-election, which will be called later this year. State and federal governments have also approved the Adani proposal, and if a newly-elected Labor government reversed this decision Adani might sue it for millions of dollars in damages for a sovereign risk breach of contract. However, the law allows the federal government to backtrack on a development approval if new evidence emerges that the project would damage the environment. And it has. A recent Climate Council report revealed that combustion of coal from the mine at the maximum rate of production would result in the emission of greenhouse gas at 1.3 times the current Australian emission level from all sources, and that the gas would have an ash content double the maximum level permissible in Australia. Labor leader Bill Shorten says if [the proposal] doesnt stack up commercially or environmentally, this project shouldnt go ahead, and we wouldnt provide taxpayer funds for the low-interest $1.5 billion federal government loan Adani is seeking to construct a new rail line to transport coal to the coast. But shouldnt go ahead doesnt amount to an unequivocal statement that a newly-elected government would veto the project. A vital issue Labor risks losing votes if it doesnt adopt a firmer stance on coal mining and export. Its already in danger of losing the Batman by-election in Victoria on March 17. Nationwide, public opposition to the Adani mine is mounting. In a recent opinion poll 65.1 percent of respondents expressed opposition to the mine (up 13.2 percent over 12 months), 69.1 percent agreed that burning coal contributes to global warming, and 73.5 percent wanted a halt to increased coal mining and an expansion of solar power. Some 53 percent of respondents who vote for the National Party expressed opposition to the mine, as well as 52.9 percent from One Nation and 75.6 percent from Labor. Liberal respondents voted 43.2 percent against and only 34.7 percent in favour. Nevertheless, the climate change deniers are still busy. They will doubtless try to use recent reports of massive snow storms in Britain as evidence that global warming is not taking place. But a one-off weather event neither proves nor disproves the existence of climate change. Moreover, scientists say that climate change will not only include a general warming of the planet, but also changes to global ocean flows, including the North Atlantic gulf stream, which will probably result in severe temperature drops in Western Europe and Britain. The outcome of this weeks Federal Court case concerning the Adani mine is extremely important, not only because the Wangan and Jagalingou people are directly affected, but also because a verdict against Adani might encourage Labor to finally commit to the principled approach of phasing out coal mining altogether. That would be a victory not only for Australia but also for the future well-being of the people of the world. Editorial From pit to port On June 20, 2017 the Construction Forestry Mining Union (CFMEU), the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA) lodged an application under section 44 of the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 to amalgamate following membership ballots. The amalgamation was strongly but unsuccessfully opposed by employer organisations. On Wednesday Deputy President Gostencnik gave the Fair Work Commissions (FWC) go-ahead and set the date for amalgamation at March 27. The Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA) and Master Builders Australia (MBA) have wasted no time in lodging an appeal to a full bench of the FWC. These employer bodies strenuously opposed the amalgamation from the outset. There was strong support from union members for the amalgamation. In a ballot conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission, 84 percent of MUA members who voted supported the amalgamation with 49 percent of members voting. Informal votes were low at 0.4 percent. TCFUA held an attendance ballot. Its members had a higher turn-out of 64 percent with 97 percent of those voting supporting the amalgamation. CFMEU members indicated strong support through membership meetings on construction sites. Objections from the AMMA and MBA hit the airwaves as soon as the decision was announced. Steve Knott, AMMA Chief Executive, described the amalgamation, if allowed to go ahead, as a threat to the resources supply chain and Australias export revenues. The new union would have a membership of more than 140,000 members and an annual income of more than $140 million. The AMMA and mass media attempts to whip up fears over the amalgamated union ignore the fact that the majority of a trade unions income is used to employ staff and assist members. Allowing the CFMEU and MUA to form a new militant Super-Union will put the economy and jobs in jeopardy, Denita Wawn, CEO of the MBA said. The MUA and CFMEU appear to share a common belief that they are above the law and are renowned for using tactics such as bullying, intimidation, and industrial thuggery, Wawn said. What she is referring to by such terms as bullying, intimidation and industrial thuggery are nothing of the sort. The language is designed to discredit trade unions and workers who take industrial action, trade union officials who exert their rights to enter workplaces, recruit union members, demand legal entitlements and other such legitimate trade union activity. Without the right and use of such methods workers would be powerless against powerful and often corrupt bosses, in particular in the resources and construction sector. When these companies fail to abide by the law, fail to pay workers their legal entitlements or provide a safe working environment, nothing is said. But trade unions taking action to enforce workers rights are deemed to be breaking laws: laws that virtually outlaw all industrial action, outlaw pickets and impose hefty penalties and damages actions. Both employer bodies are pressuring the government to put its amalgamation legislation to a vote in the Senate. It provides for a public interest test to be applied when the FWC is considering union mergers. Trade unions that repeatedly break the law, no matter how bad the law is, would fail the public interest test. Following the FWC decision, the national secretary of the CFMEU, Michael OConnor, stated, Big Business has too much power, we have record levels of inequality in our community, and working families are finding it hard to make ends meet. We are absolutely committed to a change of government, to changing the rules to restore balance and fairness into our communities, and to growing our movement. The combined strength of the CFMEU, MUA and TCFUA in our new union will write a new chapter in Australias union movement. Ordinary workers now have a powerful new force for change on their side. ... Big business and the federal government should now get out of the way so we can get on with winning better pay, conditions, rights, and secure jobs for our member, OConnor said. International president of the new union, Paddy Crumlin, said, Today is an important part of the renewal of our union and of our movement. The decision is an important victory. It also creates an important precedent for other trade unions that are discussing amalgamations. Trade as plunder Rebadged TPP Secret deals with sneaky corporate intent must surely be the hallmark of international trade deals, especially since the establishment in 1995 of the World Trade Organisation which extended the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to services and intellectual property. Specific to Australia in recent times is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), now to be known as the Comprehensive Progressive TPP. Guardian readers would be aware that originally the TPP involved the United States of America which, via President Trumps announcement to withdraw, in January 2017, killed it off; much to the curious smiles of all those involved in the six-year campaign to expose the TPPs injustices. Speaking at a forum last Friday March 9, organised by the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET), Dr Pat Ranald noted that the rebadged TPP still has 30 chapters and 6,000 pages of legally binding rules which suit global corporations but mostly restrain future governments from regulating in the public interest in areas like access to medicines, essential services, the internet and financial regulation. Only 22 clauses have been suspended, but not removed, pending the US re-joining the deal. She added that many of the most harmful clauses remain. The deal still includes special rights for foreign investors to bypass national courts and sue governments for millions of dollars in unfair international tribunals over changes to domestic laws, known as ISDS. Ranald explained that the 20 suspended clauses are mostly about medicine and copyright monopolies. Other governments had only reluctantly agreed to US proposals on stronger monopolies on biologic medicines and longer copyright monopolies to gain access to the US market. But the intellectual property chapter still entrenches other restrictions on governments ability to change such regulation in future, which have been criticised by the Productivity Commission. The Australian government has not sought changes to provisions for more vulnerable temporary migrant workers, from Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Canada Mexico and Chile without testing if local workers are available. This is contrary to its own claims to have reintroduced such testing. There have been no changes to the chapters on trade in services and state-owned enterprises which could restrict future governments from re-regulating essential services like TAFE, energy and financial services, even if there are demonstrated market failures, said Dr Ranald. Michelle Higelin (executive director, ActionAid) not only suggested that the CPTPP was made for the benefit of businesses in rich countries, but had five fundamental flaws with, firstly, that women are shut out of the decision-making process and that secondly it enshrines the feminisation of low paid jobs. Thirdly, in poor countries the removal of tariffs means less money for governments for community and social initiatives which are particularly important for women in developing nations. And fourth and fifthly the CPTPP like the TPP represents a shift of power from citizens to corporations and facilitates a privatisation agenda. Jane Brock from the Immigrant Womens Speakout Association outlined with heart-rendering tales the way the CPTPP will further the suffering of migrant women workers. After bringing together questions and comments from the forums participants Ranald reminded us that whilst the TPP has been signed, the process is not over. And whilst a Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on which the government has a majority, may virtually rubber stamp implementing legislation, a Senate inquiry could critically assess whether the deal is in the public interest and whether the implementing legislation should be passed. If it is not in the public interest, we will campaign for the Senate to block the implementing legislation, said Ranald. International Womens Day The rate for the job The Guardian has kept the spirit of International Womens Day (IWD) alive in articles, photographs, greeting cards and meetings to advance the causes of womens struggle for equality and status. Phyllis Johnson. At the first Australian celebration of IWD in the Sydneys Domain in 1928, a member of the Central Committee of the CPA, Edna Nelson dealt with equal pay. Justice Higgins had decided that women would only receive 54 percent of the male wage. I was then 10 years old. I grew up in a community well aware of the ills and breakdown of capitalist society the 1930 Depression, dole queues, hungry and unemployed men waited for a bowl of soup, food handouts, without clothing or warm blankets. Children wanting one penny or one halfpenny would be told, in a singsong voice, Wait until daddy comes home, daddys got money and mummys got none. My father was on the dole. He had no money either and in my grandmothers life it was even worse. She had no power at all. She could not own property, have money in her own name, she was not recognised as the guardian of her own children, their father was, she couldnt vote, sue or be sued, she could be beaten by him with a switch or rod no thicker than his index finger and could not divorce. A wife was a slave, the husbands property. There always have been, however, groups of dedicated women to fight these undignified inequalities. In 1908, a Conference of socialist women met in Copenhagen, Denmark, and dedicated March 8 every year as International Womens Day for legal, social and economic equality. It took just about 80 years for equal pay to be accepted (but only in principle), let alone full rights and status. In 1984 the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission accepted the principle of equal pay. However, principle or not, many women still work for peanuts. In the last two decades women have fought and won their place in the three tiers of government, play a greater part in Australian culture, science, literary and art bodies and have established womens refuges as a means of escape from domestic violence. Abortion, rape and health centres and units to screen breast cancer are quite well known and widely used. IWD calls upon all women, the peace movement, trade unions and those active in the labour cause to join hands to fight for the rights of Aboriginal women and migrant citizens who have come to live with us from the four corners of the earth. IWD is an occasion to call on all progressive people to join hands to build homes, schools, hospitals and libraries. The people can stop for all time the horror and misery of war in Iraq or anywhere else. Let us fight for the rights of all people, men, women and children in the name of bread, liberty and peace. * Phyllis Johnson was a truly dedicated Communist who never let up in the struggle for womens and other rights during her life-long commitment for a better world. This remembrance was written in March, 2004, exactly one year after the US and its allies, the coalition of the willing, invaded and occupied Iraq. Timor Lestes oil and gas Origins of a dirty dispute Australia and Timor Leste have signed a treaty at the United Nations defining a new maritime border between the two nations. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop called it a new chapter in AustraliaTimor Leste relations. The treaty settles in part the sea border dispute over the Greater Sunrise gas fields. The share of the lucrative gas field remains unresolved. Australia has been forced to accept an 80-20 profit share in Timor Lestes favour, but with the oil and gas processed in Darwin. Timor Leste wants a 70-30 split but with processing done in its own country to encourage the growth of a domestic processing industry. Timor Lestes Borders Minister Agio Pereira who signed the treaty with Bishop, said the signing was a momentous day that would be recorded in Timor Lestes history but that the negotiations over the gas field were not going to be easy. The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the deal was a further step in giving full sovereignty to Timor Leste, with independence in 2002 from Indonesia being officially won following great struggle and sacrifice by the Timorese people. Timor Leste has now succeeded in pushing the border out halfway between the two countries, placing much of the oil and gas fields, worth as much as $56 billion, in its territory. Background In September 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected Australias claim it had no jurisdiction to conciliate the dispute in the Timor Sea. This meant Australia had to come to the table and negotiate with East Timor. At the time Foreign Minister Bishop was quick to note that Australia will not be bound by the international panels outcome. At the end of the day, Timors deal will still come down to what the Australian government thinks they can get away with. Under the UN International Law of the Sea, all the areas presently being drilled are in East Timors half of the Sea. The reason successive Australian governments have forced East Timor, the poorest nation in our region, to defer making a decision on the maritime boundary for 50 years is precisely because they know that Australias position is untenable under international law and the UN Law of the Sea. This would very quickly become apparent if the decision were decided by an independent international authority. The treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS) was signed in 2006 between the Howard government and the government of Timor-Leste (East Timor). The negotiations had been tense over the years. Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and the ruling Fretilin party were opposed to the maritime boundary between the two countries not being drawn half-way between them. The theft had been agreed between the Hawke Labor government and Indonesias Suharto dictatorship with a treaty in 1989 and the boundary was a major factor in Australias hypocritical, indulgent stance towards Indonesias invasion of East Timor in 1975. In 2004, the then Howard government Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer promised to give Alkatiri a lesson in politics for his pursuit of his struggling countrys interests. It would get royalties from a Joint Petroleum Development Area and thats it. Alkatiri would soon be removed from office in coup-like circumstances. The Howard government refused international arbitration on the maritime boundary. The Australian public knew about the humiliation of Timor-Lestes representatives in 2004 but it would not have been aware that Australian spies had bugged government offices in Timor-Leste so that Howards negotiators would have the drop on their local counterparts. Some years later, a veteran spy told Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery about the shameful operation he had been involved in. Collaery was acting for the government of Timor-Leste at the International Court of justice in The Hague. The Timorese wanted the current treaty scrapped and a new one drawn up. They insisted the negotiations that led to CMATS were not entered into in good faith by Australia, a fact confirmed by the whistle-blowers revelations. But rather than move to repair damaged relations, the Abbott Coalition government turned on Collaery and Witness K the remorseful former ASIS agent and the government of Timor-Leste. ASIO raided the lawyers Canberra office and seized large numbers of files. Witness K had his passport confiscated to prevent him giving evidence on the matter at The Hague. They could both be slapped with criminal charges. Attorney-General George Brandis insisted the heavy-handed actions were in the oft-cited national interest. But they are ultimately in the interest of oil and gas companies (such as generous Liberal Party donor Woodside Petroleum). Five eyes spies Australian security agencies spy on their own citizens and they help the US, UK and others to do so, too. The five eyes the intelligence networks belonging to the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand help each other to keep tabs on individuals, groups, political, military and other developments of interest across the globe. Australia is a junior member of this club and most people realise its basic purpose is to serve US strategic interests, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. Despite this deputy-sheriff status, Australia has considerable spooking capacity of its own and puts this at the service of transnationals operating in Australia. Nothing is allowed to get in the way of the national interest; not even if it means cheating one the worlds poorest nations out of much of its potential oil and gas revenues. The Abbott government was fuming on investors behalf that Timor-Leste stood up for a pipeline to allow processing of offshore resources on its territory rather than aboard a floating plant. At the same time, Australia posed as a friend and generous benefactor to our northern neighbour. Peter Galbraith, head negotiator for Timor-Leste in 2004, was not fooled. His reaction to the spying revelations says it all about Australias deteriorating reputation in the region. You know, its hard to imagine that would really be done by a friendly government and especially for what were essentially commercial negotiations. That really seems there wasnt a national security issue here for Australia. It wasnt as if you know, the Timorese were posing some kind of military threat or hatching some kind of plot. This was really bugging for commercial advantage, he told the ABCs Four Corners program. At issue in the maritime border dispute are royalties estimated at between $10 billion and $20 billion over the next 30 years. Origins of dispute The current dispute has its origins in Australias relations with and support for the brutal Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia. In 1972, Australia obtained an agreement from Indonesia that the end of the continental shelf to our north west would be the boundary between Australia and Timor even though the border is only 60 kilometres from the coast of East Timor. On the eve of Indonesias invasion in 1975, Australias then ambassador in Jakarta, Richard Woolcroft, advised the Whitlam government that Indonesia would be easier to deal with over the natural resources in the Timor Sea than the government of the newly-independent, former Portuguese colony of East Timor. Australia stood by and 24 years of genocidal occupation by Indonesias military followed. In 1989, Foreign Minister in the Hawke Labor government, Gareth Evans, and Indonesian Foreign Minister, Ali Alitas, toasted a deal to share out the oil and gas resources off the coast of Timor from the comfort of a jet flying high above the stolen territory. In 2002, the Australian government withdrew from UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) negotiations in the International Court of Justice. In circumstances like those involving Australia and East Timor, UNCLOS lays down that the border of the states should be the median line drawn half-way between them. Such an arrangement would have seen East Timor in charge of 90 percent of the Seas oil and gas. As it stands, it gets 90 percent of the royalties from the Bayu Undan field within the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA), described in the Timor Sea Treaty of 2002. However, the largest fields by far Laminaria and Greater Sunrise are located outside the JPDA and from these East Timor would only get 20 percent of the royalties on the Greater Sunrise gas field. It should be noted that the Laminaria field is totally within East Timors half of the Timor Sea, as are most of the Sunrise and Troubador fields. East Timor had refused to ratify the Timor Sea Treaty. It wanted Australia to return to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and UNCLOS for the adjudication of the maritime boundary and it wanted the royalties from the fields outside the JPDA to be held in trust (escrow) until the dispute was finalised. Israels deepening involvement in the Syrian war Israel has recently been intensifying air strikes and the arming of anti-government forces in Syria, some of which are close to Al-Qaeda. Professor Asad AbuKhalil explains how Israels activity in Syria is part of a larger pattern of its overall foreign policy engagement around the world. BEN NORTON: Its the Real News Network. Im Ben Norton reporting from New York. While the war in Syria has been winding down, Israel has been ramping up its support for anti-government rebels inside the country. A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted that the Israeli government is supporting at least seven Islamist groups in the occupied Golan Heights, an area of Syrian territory that has been illegally occupied by Israel for five decades. Israel is directly providing Syrian rebels with arms and ammunition, as well as giving them money to buy more weapons. This follows previous reports that Israel has given assistance to Al-Qaeda in Syria, treating wounded Jabhat al-Nusra fighters in its hospitals free of charge. Earlier this month, Israel launched airstrikes on a dozen Syrian and Iranian targets inside Syrian territory after an Iranian drone allegedly entered Israeli airspace. The founder of Syrian Al-Qaeda praised the Israeli attacks and called for more on Syria. A top Israeli Air Force official furthermore revealed that the Israeli military has carried out thousands of missions in Syria in the last year alone. The Lebanese government, on the other hand, has condemned Israel for repeatedly violating its airspace in order to launch attacks on Syria. Lebanon filed a formal complaint with the United Nations, but the Israeli airstrikes have continued. We are joined by scholar, Asad AbuKhalil to discuss Israels attack and support for opposition groups inside Syria. Asad AbuKhalil is a leading expert on Middle East politics. Hes also a professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus, and he regularly writes at his website The Angry Arab News Service. Thanks so much for joining us Asad. ASAD ABUKHALIL: Thank you for inviting me. BEN NORTON: Professor AbuKhalil, weve heard for a long time in many mainstream media reports, even from government officials that Israel has played a neutral role in the war in Syria, that Israel has simply just been watching and the war has been going on now for seven years without any kind of intervention from its Israeli neighbour. What do you think about this talking point? Of course, we now have in the past several months seen media reports that demonstrate that this narrative is completely wrong. What has Israels role been in the war in Syria? And why does this narrative continue to dominate much of the discourse on the war? ASAD ABUKHALIL: Well, I think that the notion of Israeli neutrality about any conflict throughout the region, if not the whole world, is absolutely fallacious given the record of Israeli involvement in so many affairs of the world. I mean, if you look at Latin America and Africa, Israel has always been involved, always on the worst side of any conflict. So, even if there are two bad sides, you can always bet Israel on the worst side. And in fact, anybody who has studied the contemporary history of the Arab world will notice that Israel has been involved heavily, militarily and politically. And, through its intelligence, involved in civil war wherever it erupted throughout the region. If you are talking about the Western Sahara of the 1970s. If youre talking about the Southern Sudan conflict in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, if you talk about the Jordanian Black September of 1970, if you talk about the Lebanese civil war for over a decade, if you talk about the Kurdish revolt in Iraq in the 1960s and 70s, if you talk about the Omani rebellion in Dhofar in the 1970s, if you talk about the Yemeni conflict, the first one in the 1960s or the current one, Israel is heavily involved. And we can add that now to the record of Israel, the Syrian civil war. There is no question Israel has been involved. Now, it is very important to note that I am not saying that all rebels in Syria are agents of Israel. But on the other hand, it is certainly clear that the Syrian conflict has gone out of the hands of the Syrian people and has become multiple proxy wars between a variety of parties. And each side has its own reflective middle militias inside the country. And just like Israel operated in Lebanon, we know its method of operation. It is not that sneaky. It is too obvious to notice that it has armed, sponsored, coddled, helped, sheltered various militias of its own inside Syria that were doing Israels bidding. Two levels of involvement So, there are two levels of Israeli involvement in the Syrian war. One is direct sponsorship and arming and financing of certain militias. There are two militias that are named as arms of the Israeli occupation army inside Syria. And there are others that we dont even know the names of, that some of them operate within the larger umbrella of this broad name of the Free Syrian Army. But as you point out in the intro, Israel has been extremely close with the Al-Qaeda in Syria. I mean, if only the American people would know that the largest recipient of US military economic aid has been in very strong alliance with Al-Qaeda, operating in Syria for the purposes of Israel. The second layer of its involvement is, of course, that Israel has now become a very close ally of Gulf countries throughout the Middle East, and as a result it is safe to assume that all of the militias that received Qatari or UAE or Saudi funding and arming are also facilitated and helped by the Israelis. And I heard a Palestinian from the United States who visited occupied Palestine, and she visited hospitals inside occupied Palestine, and she says since the beginning of Syrian conflict, there are certain sections of hospitals that are completely cordoned off, where people are banned from entering because thats where Al-Qaeda has been receiving the humanitarian assistance of the Israeli occupation government. BEN NORTON: You mentioned that Israel has intervened in many conflicts throughout the world. You also mentioned Latin America, especially the civil war in Colombia, the wars in Central America. Its also interesting because weve seen this kind of counterinsurgency tactic that was used in those wars in Central America has been imported into the Middle East, especially in the war in Syria, also the war in Iraq before that. And part of that counterinsurgency strategy is to ramp up tensions and violence at a moment where it looks like there may be some kind of political diplomacy and a move toward winding down the conflict. So, when it looks like the war in Syria is finally coming to a conclusion, after many years of horrific destruction, why do you think we see reports that not just Israel but other US allies are actually increasing support for rebels instead of winding down that support and moving toward peace? ASAD ABUKHALIL: In response to this question, I can say, when we speak about conflict in the Middle East today, it would not be an exaggeration if we refer to Israel, UAE and Saudi Arabia interchangeably. There is such a solid, firm alliance by the three governments that they are now operating far and beyond the borders of Syria. There is such mutual cooperation. BEN NORTON: And theyre all backed by the United States? ASAD ABUKHALIL: All backed by the United States, no doubt about that. And the United States looks with great favour, to use the language of the Balfour Declaration, at such cooperation between its Gulf potentates and the occupation government of Israel. I should also say that, as a student of the Lebanese Civil War, and I was writing about that in Arabic the other day, Israeli and Israeli militias inside Lebanon has throughout the war been responsible not only for the instigation of the war itself in 1975, I mean, Israeli militias have been receiving training and arming by Israel since the 1960s, and they were basically edging for a conflict because the aim of Israel was to smash the Palestinian resistance movement. Peace violator And throughout the conflict from 1975 until 1991, whenever there was a lull, a ceasefire, militias of Israel were always the first to violate the ceasefire because they wanted a prolongation of the conflict. They did the same in the Iran-Iraq War. They did the same in the Southern Sudanese conflict. They did the same in the Yemeni conflict, and they have certainly been doing the same in Syria. Israel feels much more secure if its neighbours are basically diverted by civil war that will allow Israel to interfere more heavily in their own affairs. And so, it makes sense that Saudi Arabia, UAE and Israel, this triangle, does not want in any way to achieve a modicum of reduction in hostility or a certain arrangement that would reduce violence. They want the prolongation of the suffering of the Syrian people, no question about that. BEN NORTON: And what do you think about the state of the Syrian opposition that Israel and other countries are supporting? I mean, clearly, theres no question that the Syrian government is very repressive. This is an authoritarian police state and we constantly hear that repeated correctly in many media reports. But what we never hear is the state of the actual opposition that is backed by the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. Who are these rebels exactly? And why are they never really named in detail, why is their politics never actually acknowledged in media reports? ASAD ABUKHALIL: In the case of Syria ... I feel that early on in the conflict, there was a desire on the part of Western media, and governments, and Gulf regimes to present an image of Syrian rebels who are democratic, feminist, and sometimes even progressive Marxists. And Western media, the correspondents in Beirut, those who have been the lousiest correspondents of any region that I have ever seen in my own lifetime, have made such an effort to beautify and to distort the record of who these rebels are in order to create public opinion, support and sympathy on the part of these rebels. Now, however, the conflict has gone on long enough for us to really discard all these cliches and propaganda labels that were bestowed on these rebel groups. And now we know they basically were middle militias of various countries. There were some militias that were loyal to Turkey, some were loyal to Qatar, some to the UAE, some Saudi Arabia, some to the US government, to various branches of the US government military intelligence apparatus, some to Jordan, some to Israel. And as a result, the welfare and the desires of the Syrian people were discarded by all these groups. And of course, there was intervention by other parties like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran, Shiite militias. So, it was a free-for-all. And thats why we can say this conflict has slipped out of the hand of the Syrian people, really. BEN NORTON: Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about whats going on in the Golan Heights? Many of these reports about Israeli support for rebels are specially about rebel groups inside the occupied Golan Heights, which according to international law have been illegally occupied by Israel for five decades. This is sovereign Syrian territory. ASAD ABUKHALIL: Well, what scares Israel, of course, and Israel should be scared like any occupation power, is that resistance groups from Lebanon that have been very effective in humiliatingly defeat, and embarrassed the mighty Israeli army in 2006, and even prior, are now establishing a presence inside Syria close to the borders. Israel wants eternal rule for its occupation throughout the Middle East, in Palestine and elsewhere. Israel still occupies lands that belong to Jordan, to Palestine, to Syria, and to Lebanon, and wants that to continue forever and wants the world to find this brutal occupation to be pleasurable by the people under its rule. Well, its not going to be like that. And for that reason, Israel wants to expand its zone of hegemony and rule in the Golan Heights area and beyond it, and to prevent any presence from resistance groups from Lebanon to establish a foothold there. Some of them, by the way, are secular groups. The Israelis also are very much of the opinion that only Israel should have the right to interfere in Syrian affairs and to violate Syrian airspace and territory. And well, that has changed, and thats what is irksome to the occupation government of Israel. It is also the case where, just like they did in Lebanon in 1976, Israel is wanting to establish, through some Syrian rebels, militias like the South Lebanon Army to become a vehicle of its own terrorism and occupation, and to basically protect the occupation of Israel. BEN NORTON: Well wind down here, but I want to get your opinion on this last point. We have these many mainstream media reports now that acknowledge that Israel is funding, training and supporting many of these rebel groups inside Syrian territory. Yet at the same time, weve heard many figures in the West who claim to be pro-Palestine activists, many of them are supportive of or very soft on Gulf monarchies, who insist that one cannot oppose the Syrian opposition. Specifically, Im talking about the opposition, regardless of what you think about the Syrian government, the argument theyve made is that if you truly support liberation for the Palestinian people, you must also support the Syrian opposition, despite the fact that it is entirely bankrolled by many of these very reactionary, also hyper-authoritarian regimes. What do you think about that argument? ASAD ABUKHALIL: Well, I dont think anybody should tell me who should I support and should not support. And I certainly do not take dictates from representatives of Gulf regimes, who now control the bulk of Arab media and much of Arab social media as well, that they will decide the criteria of support for the Palestinians. I find that ironic given the lousy record of Gulf regimes against the Palestinian people. Look at the way they have covered up the relocation of the US embassy from occupied Jaffa to occupied Jerusalem with tacit Arab government support. They are very much in the same trench with the state of Israel, and I believe certainly that the, look, I do believe that advocacy for Palestine should be predicated on ... and I do believe that advocacy for Palestine should not be tainted with ties to oppressive governments that have bad records on the Palestinian question. Venezuela Communists-Socialists campaign The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) held its 14th National Conference on February 17-18 in Caracas. One task of the conference was to select the partys candidate for the Venezuelan presidency. Elections are set for April 22, 2018. Rather than putting forward its own nominee, the PCV announced its backing of President Nicolas Maduro for re-election. The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) has announced its backing of President Nicolas Maduro for re-election. The party based its decision on a unity agreement between the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) and PCV, which hadnt yet been signed by both parties. The PCV defined the agreements overall purpose as enabling collaboration in confronting Venezuelas crisis of a capitalism that is dependent and grasping. A party statement promised political and socio-economic actions that are anti-imperialist, patriotic, and responsive to the people. The party resolved also that in case the unity agreement of the PSUV and PCV was not achieved, there would be a new session of the 14th National Conference to decide on an alternative presidential candidate. The PCV did stage another session of the Party Conference on February 26. President Maduro attended, declaring that, I accept the nomination of the Red Rooster (symbol of the PCV). The partys flag was delivered into his hands. Agreement is signed The second order of business that day was the signing of the agreement between the two political parties. Jorge Rodriguez and Aristobulo Isturiz signed for the PSUV and members of the PCV Political Bureau signed for their party. President Maduro also signed. Maduro observed that, Together we have worked out a document that sets out a good part of the map for moving into the years ahead with agreements and disagreements, criticism and self-criticism. But above all, it puts together proposals for how we are going to advance. The report on the Correo del Orinoco website pointed out that, It was the first time in the history of the Bolivarian revolution that an agreed-upon and signed document has been fashioned as a commitment for moving beyond the present era and building the future. For PCV Secretary-General Oscar Figuero, the agreement signified a qualitative leap in political relations in these times of interventionist threats. Figuero added that, We are disposed to put our own skin, life, and our very existence into play as we defend the interests of the working class, working people, and the Venezuelan nation. The homeland will not be sold out but will be defended. ... We are taking a decision to reorganise our people, to unify them in defence of the homeland and of our sovereignty. Figuero told President Maduro that the solution to the crisis of the Venezuelas capitalist profit-taking model is nationalisation of the financial and banking sector so that not one more dollar is handed over to the capitalists and nationalisation too of commercial and industrial sectors acting as monopolies within the economy. The agreement itself The various provisions of the agreement appear below in a translation covering the main points, which are: 1.) The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), heirs of the legacy of Simon Bolivar and the Venezuelan people in their aspirations for independence, sovereign development, and Latin American integration, subscribe to this PROGRAMATIC UNITY AGREEMENT. Their shared commitment is to implement all parts of it. They do so understanding that the growing, immoral, illegal and criminal interventionist aggressiveness of US imperialism and its European allies against Venezuela threatens the perspective of national liberation energised by the peoples victory in the presidential elections of 1998 led by Commander and President Hugo Chavez. Their aggression poses danger to our national sovereignty and territorial integrity. 2.) The PSUV and the PCV before the world denounce imperialism that insists on creating an artificial construct against our country through multilateral entities in order to justify international intervention. It does so through the US government and with the grovelling complicity of Latin American governments and of Venezuelas extreme right. ... 3.) We of the PSUV and PCV make it known that the crisis of Venezuelas dependent and plundering capitalism has led to grave consequences affecting the quality of life of our people, especially their ability to buy things and supply themselves with goods and services. We see actions and measures taken by imperialism and its national agents as aggravating this situation. They potentiate public and private corruption, bureaucracy, and capital flight ... 4.) We of the PSUV and PCV assume that the solution to the current capitalist crisis must not favour the bourgeoisie and the trans-nationals but, instead, must favour the interests of the people. We are searching a new productive model, one based not on profit, but instead on sovereign development with participation by workers, small farmers, peoples organisations, and communes. These make up a broad anti-imperialist front that will advance organically in the building of a collective, unified leadership of political, social, patriotic and revolutionary organisations. They will proceed with analysis, construction, and coordination of political actions and of governmental operations. 5.) The magnitude and seriousness of the existing situation and the sharpening of class struggle at the national and international levels calls for prompt, strengthened action along economic, political and social lines. In the process, well have to prioritise urgent measures attending to peoples food and health care needs. We will consolidate these beginning with the victory of patriotic forces in the next presidential elections. The agreement turns next to the Rights of the Working Class and Working People. 6.) We of the PSUV and PCV emphasise the importance of strengthening class-based unionism and the varied expressions of the revolutionary workers movement, particularly workers production councils and workers socialist councils . 7.) Taking into account the sharpening of the capitalist crisis affecting broad sectors of the working class, we stress the importance of strengthening and protecting labour rights, employment, and also broadening the politics of new employees. 8.) Inside the government and also socio-political spaces, and depending on the scope and characteristics of each organisation, the PSUV and PCV will work jointly to identify and channel the restitution of rights that workers are lacking, both in established cases and in cases yet to show up in public and private workplaces. 9.) The two parties will take necessary corrective action in response to denunciations of the activities of certain political office holders. 10.) They will decisively move toward restoring the chain of production of nationalised companies, which must be re-strengthened. The same goes with the phenomena of dismantling and deterioration which can lead to paralysis harmful to the development of national production ... 11.) The experience of worker control will be re-evaluated for the sake of establishing a new model of leadership and management of state companies ... 12.) The agreement calls for ... expedited protection of social and economic rights, particularly those of wage-earners, retirees, and small businesses using banking services. 13.) We consider it urgent to adopt or deepen measures directed at taking down the power of private monopolies ... with exemplary punishment of speculators, Mafiosi, and corrupt operators ... 14.) The parties recognise the status of formal employment as deserving of rights and of recognition as an activity lending dignity to human beings. They call for increasing and restoring salaries. The agreement included additional Measures for which there needs to be in-depth analysis, among them: 15.) The two parties will meet periodically to analyse strategic proposals made by the PCV contributing to favourable development of plans and policies of both state and government and proceeding from ideas that may benefit the people and the cause of national liberation. The proposals cover banking and financial policies, foreign trade, taxes and public finance. 16.) Under the heading of Strengthening political and organising action are these considerations: A. The two parties will hold meetings every month to maintain follow-up of regional and municipal initiatives; B. International relations will be strengthened, particularly efforts promoting solidarity with Venezuela and the Bolivarian process; C. Support is guaranteed for manufacturing and agricultural projects, especially ones involving peasant and communal movements; D. The labour movement will be strengthened; E. The parties will enhance media capabilities serving the two parties and the workers and peoples movements; F. They promise to build their alliance through strengthened electoral work at the national, regional and municipal levels. 17.) The PCV ... will promote the candidacy of compatriot Nicolas Maduro Moros ... for which we will work together toward achieving an overwhelming victory on April 22, 2018, and without detracting from the autonomy of either organisation. 18.) We commit both of our organisations to work at dissemination of this PSUV PCV Programmatic Unity Agreement. Peoples World What Italys election results mean for migrants Hsiao-Hung Pai reports from Sicily, where the far-right victory in yesterdays general election has led to more fear and uncertainty in migrant and asylum seeker communities. People carry vegetable baskets inside a camp for migrant minors in Catania, Sicily, Italy. On the evening of Italys 2018 general election, inside Porco Rosso, a cultural association for migrants in Palermo, Sicily, volunteers sat watching as the exit polls came through. In front of everyone was the spectacle of Berlusconi, his face like a mask of himself, laughing at his success in bringing the far-right onto the centre of Italys political stage. Outside a young asylum seeker from Senegal stood talking to his friend. He seemed to take the view that as he couldnt change whatever was going on around him it was better to keep his head down. Meanwhile several volunteers gathered at the door. One of them, Rabih Jaafar, from the University of Palermo, shook his head: Its all going to the dogs. Voter turnout in Sicily was 62 percent, the lowest in the country. Disillusionment with politics meant that many young people, including university students, didnt come out to vote. In the end, its older peoples concerns that determine the election results, Jaafar said. And older voters tend to favour the right wing and theyre bringing far-right politics back to parliament. As the count came to a close, it was the parties with the most anti-migrant, populist message that were the winners. Nationally the Five Star Movement (M5S) was the largest single party with 231 seats (32.22 percent of the vote) while far-right La Lega (The League, formerly Lega Nord, Northern League) received 123 seats (17.69 percent). Five Star used the campaign to speak about a minimum monthly income, labour laws, and a hard-line migration pledge that brought itself closer to La Lega. Five Stars leader Luigi Di Maio wants an end to the sea taxi service that rescues migrants from the Mediterranean rhetoric not dissimilar to that of Matteo Salvini, leader of La Lega. Five Star saw a surge of support in the south. In Sicily, it gained all 28 seats. This comes as no surprise after a campaign marked by racism and racist violence. On February 3, in Macerata, a small town in central Italy, six African migrants were injured in a shooting rampage by Luca Traini, a former candidate for La Lega. After the attack, Traini stopped at the towns war memorial, gave a fascist salute and shouted, Viva IItalia. What happened in Macerata was the product of a racial politics that have been brewing since the economic crash a decade ago. There is little distance between Trainis murderous intent and the mainstream faces on television advocating mass deportations. Like the political breeding ground that led to the murder of British MP Jo Cox, anti-migrant rhetoric is at the core of Italys political discourse. The pattern has been predictable: political parties capturing the public mood by blaming outsiders for a stagnant economy. (Italy has comparatively huge levels of public debt and an 11.4 percent unemployment rate.) However, the outsiders are not in blame. In fact, they have kept the country going. Like previous cohorts of migrant workers arriving over decades in Italy, migrant labour from Africa has filled the gap left by youth emigration (due to high youth unemployment of up to 36 percent) and has been sustaining many industries. The majority of Italys 620,000 migrants are not in the state-funded asylum reception system but working in agriculture and other labour-intensive sectors that have been largely abandoned by local people. These migrant workers who are seen to not have rights or protections endure the working conditions of bygone centuries, helping sustain these industries competitive advantage. Italys politicians never talk implementing labour laws to protect their fellow human beings but instead reward migrants with wholesale demonisation. Matteo Salvini of La Lega, to which Traini belonged, has incited anti-migrant hatred for years. La Lega has promised to introduce mass deportations to Africa as part of a radical reshaping of migration policies. Even in the aftermath of the Macerata terrorist attack, Berlusconi blamed migrants, saying that they were a social time bomb ready to explode and promising that, if elected, he would deport 600,000 of them. The fascist party Forza Nuova (New Power) one of the far-right organisations whose members were involved in the Bologna bombing that killed 85 people in 1980 ran a demonstration in Macerata, where its leader Roberto Fiore called the fascist shooter a victim. Sicily is no exception to this poison. In recent years, hard economic times and media misrepresentation of the refugee crisis have changed perceptions. Alberto Biondo, a Palermo-based migrant rights activist, tells me, Were going back in time ... the decision to close all the frontiers and to invest in security has enhanced nationalism that seemed hidden since World War Two but is now returning with greater force. In Sicily, migrants experience racism mostly not on the street but from the shelters and camps where they are supposed to be guaranteed protection and dignity. Modou, from Gambia, has been transferred from shelter to shelter for two years. When I met him in 2016, he was placed in an overcrowded camp in Messina. He was later transferred to Agrigento and then to Licata. When he turned 18 the manager of the camp suddenly informed him that he would be sent to Villa Sikania camp in Siculiana, miles away from his friends who were in the same camp as him. The manager explained that this was because he was no longer a minor and, therefore, the camp was no longer obligated to house him. Modou was devastated and asked to be transferred to a camp for adults in Licata. His friends were all he had in this country. But the manager refused his request, saying, The police will sort you out, not us. When Modou arrived at Villa Sikania, he realised that it was a hotel that had been transformed into an emergency camp. There were hundreds of people, mostly from Senegal and Eritrea. There are no rooms to sleep in. Sixty of us sleep in the hall, he said anxiously. Im so confused why theyre doing this to me. Friends could not visit Modou because the heavily-policed camp does not allow any visitors. The migrants there had all been waiting for a long time (some more than two years) to be transferred. When asked when his transfer might come, the staff simply fobbed him off. Itll be next week. Itll be next month. Modou told me one evening that he was so stressed that he couldnt sleep. I feel so discouraged from living this life. Its too much. Life inside shelters and camps demonstrates to young migrants, including children, where they stand in the European racial hierarchy. For Modou and everyone else who has been trapped in these shelters, racism is ingrained in the system that assumes they deserve inferior treatment. Most migrants are aware that they have been at the centre of a political debate a debate that has not involved their participation. There is much confusion and fear about what the future holds. The clear signs of changes are on the walls in the streets of Palermo, where posters of anti-fascist marches are everywhere, indicating the growing threat of racist political forces. Anti-racist activists, mainly from small left-wing groupings, are quick to organise. Palermos anti-fascists showed their strength by turning out thousands of protestors on February 24, the day Roberto Fiore, leader of Forza Nuova was coming to town. Alaji, a young man from Gambia, joined the march. He said his friends had been so frightened of the possible presence of fascists in town that they didnt come out to the march. Partly as result of fear, few from ethnic minority communities were present, but Alaji decided that he should make a stand. Last evening, as the vote count came to an end, Modou called me from Siculiana and told me that a Senegalese street seller had been shot dead by a local man in Florence. It upset and frightened him a lot. He anxiously asked me what the election results were like. For him, the ascension to power of La Lega and their ilk means an even more precarious life in this country. New Internationalist Culture & Life Gaza Making ends meet One morning in late January, Nabil al-Duhadar, 45, got up before six for dawn prayers and then immediately set to work. Al-Duhadar is a street vendor who sells turmos a lupin bean snack often sold in market stalls. The snack takes preparation: the beans are soaked over 24 hours before being cooked for a couple of hours and then seasoned with salt and cumin and drizzled with lemon. Its cheap, healthy and portable and an ideal product for street vendors for whom mobility is important. A Palestinian boy sells lupin beans on a street in Gaza City. (Photo: Ashraf Amra) Mobility allows al-Duhadar the luxury of chasing his custom. And on this particular January morning, the custom was there to be chased. A demonstration had been called to protest the US decision to cut funding for the UNs Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, that caters to the needs for Palestinian refugees. The decision will have disastrous results for the Gaza Strip where 1.3 out of 2 million Palestinians are registered refugees and some one million people rely on UNRWA for food aid and other basic necessities. But for street vendors like al-Duhadar, the many demonstrations in Gaza that have been called in protest have at least provided them with the kind of large gatherings that are good for business. Demonstrations help me earn more, said al-Duhadar, a father of six children aged from 3 to 16. During that particular January protest, he told The Electronic Intifada, he earned three times what he would normally make. A bitter irony Al-Duhadar used be a metal worker. But the Israeli-imposed blockade on Gaza, now in its 11th year, put paid to such work, since much metal is listed on Israels extensive dual-use products that are banned from entry. And while he sees the irony that demonstrations against the very siege and sanctions that cost him his livelihood are now seen as business opportunities, he has to pay rent of $150 every month. All other considerations are a luxury. This harsh situation leaves me no choice. I have to support my family. Street vendors like al-Duhadar keep a close eye on the news, but they also pass information among each other. All of us get some relief when there are demonstrations, said Muaman Abu Mustafa, 39, a father of five who runs a cart with hot and cold drinks. Despite their need for money, there is no rivalry among street vendors or territoriality around demonstrations, Abu Mustafa, who used to work as a tailor in one of Gazas now-shuttered textile factories, said. There is little work here and we are all trying to support our families and live with some dignity. Demonstrations help us earn more. Certainly, Gaza stands on the brink of full-blown humanitarian disaster. Unemployment tops 46 percent, with more than 60 percent of those in the 15-29 age group going without work. With precious little progress in rebuilding Gazas devastated infrastructure or homes destroyed in three destructive Israeli offensives since 2008, an easing of the blockade is the only slim hope to avoid a full-blown humanitarian crisis that has long been forewarned. Child vendors The trade has also attracted the very young. Worsening economic conditions have resulted in alarming levels of child labour. The number of children between the ages of 10 and 17 working in Gaza doubled to 9,700 between 2011 and 2016, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. More than a third of those working children were below the employment age of 15. Some economists in Gaza think the actual number of underage labourers could be twice as high. Many children seem to work as street vendors. Ahmad al-Banna, 10, was selling flags from his cart during a January demonstration against US President Donald Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He buys the flags some carrying the colours of the various Palestinian factions as well as the national flag wholesale. During the Jerusalem demonstration he sold 40, he said, earning some $15. I sell small flags to children who come with their parents, Ahmad, who is in fifth grade, told The Electronic Intifada. And the money he makes, he said, was important to his family. Were nine people. My father doesnt work. He was injured in the war in 2012, Ahmad said. The street vending is a side-line. Ahmad also works every day after school at a market in Shujaiya in Gaza City. But he only takes home $6 a day, he said, and prefers to work demonstrations with his cart. Muaman Qishta is also 10 and like Ahmad in fifth grade. He and his older brother, Ahmad, 15, both work the streets to help support their three other siblings. Muaman sells caramel glazed apples and has been doing it long enough to know good demonstrations from bad ones. Sometimes organizers keep me away, Muaman told The Electronic Intifada. It annoys him, he said. A demonstration Muaman keeps a close eye on banners that he is proud to say he can read to learn news of upcoming protests can net him $12 a day. Thats much better than normal days. When I am allowed in, I can sell. Then I go home happy with money for my family. The Electronic Intifada In a hundred years, our descendants are going to look back at the movies we made and wonder why we were so inordinately obsessed with superpowered maniacs and the other superpowered maniacs who fought them. But that won't be a new phenomenon. If you look back, Hollywood history is littered with the corpses of some truly bizarre trends. Like how ... 5 Evil Cars Were Once All The Rage Before Steven Spielberg convinced America that nothing was more terrifying than a rampaging shark, he wanted to prove that there was nothing more terrifying than a rampaging, uh ... truck. Yes, there was a time when horror movies featured a parade of cars possessed by the devil, aliens, or simply the ghost of bad screenwriting. Spielberg's first feature film, 1971's Duel, was technically about a truck with an actual human driver, but we never see that driver. Universal Pictures And if the truck doesn't kill you, the tetanus certainly will. The truck is hellbent on running a middle-aged salesman off the road for reasons, but that's not important now. It's only important that the film kicked off an entire subgenre which lasted over a decade before audiences finally woke up and realized that being scared of vehicles was a bit silly. Highlights include 1974's Killdozer and 1977's The Car, which both feature vehicles possessed by ... badness? It's never made clear. Some Star Wars devotees consider The Last Jedi among the best of the franchise. Others rank it somewhere between The Holiday Special and that time Donny and Marie conquered the Empire using the power of disco. And while art is obviously subjective, as a fan of the movie (and with the movie now available on streaming), this seemed as good a time as any to try to rebut at least some of the more popular grievances, such as ... Why Is Luke Skywalker A Huge Jerk Now? Sure, it was a little unnerving seeing the fresh-faced hero of the rebellion reduced to a filthy curmudgeon -- like discovering your high school's prom king is tending bar at Nudes 'R' Us. But this portrayal of Luke is totally in keeping with the rest of the franchise. Why? Because Luke Skywalker is George Lucas. Back during the Original Trilogy, Luke was Lucas' author surrogate, a restless teen longing to escape the space suburbs who rejects his father's empire. He even went ahead and basically used his own last name for the character's first name. Lucasfilm In the first draft, his middle name was Ass. When Disney took the reigns of the franchise, the Luke-Lucas allegory continued. In The Force Awakens, Luke is in exile, atoning for his past failures. Similarly, Lucas withdrew from filmmaking after his calamitous prequels. We're lucky the movie didn't end with Rey finding Luke solemnly poking at cold spaghetti in a mall food court. Central Oregon Coast Spring Preview: Lincoln City Events in March, April Published 03/11/2018 at 8:35 PM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff (Lincoln City, Oregon) Early spring and spring break bring massive amounts of fun and frivolity to the central Oregon coast town of Lincoln City. You can't walk its streets without bumping into something to do. Beachcombing clinics, vintage films, food classes and even a week-long magic festival are some of the highlights. Not to mention it all coincides with the Spring Beach Cleanup and the sheer awe of Whale Watching Week. March 16 is another Beachcombing Clinic. Unearth treasures from the sand and sea. Learn how to hunt for agates, gemstones, fossils, jasper and petrified wood from a local expert. The clinics are free. 2 p.m. Meet at the SW 33rd Street Beach Access (pictured above) in Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274. Website and info. March 16 17 brings a massive St. Patrick's Day Celebration & Dinner. Dinner of corned beef and cabbage with seating at 6 p.m, show only seating at 6:45 p.m. Pipedance will lead this celebration of St. Patrick's Day with guest musicians and dancers. Advance tickets: $30 for dinner and the show, $16 for just the show. Lincoln City Cultural Center. Highway 101, Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-994-9994. Hit the Lincoln City Cultural Center on March 18 for a Coffee Concert. Local musicians perform in a casual Sunday matinee concert, with complimentary pastries and java by Cape Foulweather Coffee. Admission by donation, with all proceeds going to the LCCC. 2 p.m. March 24 is the SOLVE Spring Beach Cleanup. Help keep Oregon coast beaches clean. In Lincoln City, cleanup sites include D River Wayside, SW 51st Street, Chinook Winds Resort, Road's End State Park, and Gleneden Beach. 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Lincoln City, Oregon. 503-844-9571 x332 or visit solveoregon.org. March 24-31. Spring Whale Watch Week. Whale watch interpreters stationed at numerous spots on the Oregon coast. 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. www.whalespoken.org. From March 24 through April 8 there will be the famed Special Glass Drop for Spring Break. 300 glass art pieces will be hidden along the 7-1/2 miles of public beach in Lincoln City, from the Roads End area to Siletz Bay. 541-996-1274. March 24 and 27 feature the Saturday Morning Matinee: Sometimes a Great Notion (1970) a movie filmed right here on the central Oregon coast. A family of fiercely independent Oregon loggers struggle to keep the family business alive amidst changing times. Free admission for anyone who drops a card from a Lincoln City business. General admission for all others will be $2. 11 a.m. Bijou Theatre. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-994-8255. From March 25 through April 5 the Festival of Illusions fills the cultural center with wonder. Join the magic and mayhem in Lincoln City this Spring Break with magic-minded day camps for the kids and evening magic performances for the whole family. Website and info. Look for the Easter Egg Hunt in the Pool on March 30. There will be separate egg hunts for different ages, in both the small and big pool. Find eggs and win prizes. Free and it starts at 1:30 p.m. Lincoln City Community Center. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-994-2131. Comedy on the Coast brings James Johann, John Hilder and Jill Maragos to the casino on March 30 to 31. There's a no host bar and the doors open at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. show. Tickets are $15. Chinook Winds Casino Resort. 888-MAIN ACT (888-624-6228). On March 30 and 31 there's the Spring Craft Boutique & Rummage Sale, starting at 9 a.m. at the Lincoln City Church of the Nazarene. 1462 NW 19th Street. 541-994-2981. March 31 brings another Beachcombing Clinic at 2 p.m., at the SW 33rd Street Beach Access in Lincoln City. Unearth treasures from the sand and sea. Learn how to hunt for agates, gemstones, fossils, jasper and petrified wood from a local expert. The clinics are free. 541-996-1274. Website and info. There's a Hands-On Asian Cooking Class in town on March 31. Come and learn how to turn your kitchen into the best Asian restaurant in town. $75 per person at 11 a.m., taking place at the Culinary Center in Lincoln City, Oregon. Website and info. April 3 is PoetryMusic live. Come and celebrate National Poetry Month with this eclectic chamber jazz duo. PoetryMusic is dedicated to performing poetry that has been set to music, music composed to poetry and poetry as a catalyst for free improvisation. 6 p.m. Driftwood Public Library. 541-996-1242. Brazilian Violin Trio performs live at the Lincoln City Cultural Center at 7 p.m. on April 7. Enjoy three of the most innovative instrumentalists on the contemporary Brazilian musical scene. Website and info. Another Coffee Concert happens on April 8. Local musicians perform in a casual Sunday matinee concert, with complimentary pastries and java by Cape Foulweather Coffee. Admission by donation, with all proceeds going to the LCCC. 2 p.m. Website and info. April 14 sees another fabulous installment of the Beachcombing Clinic at 1 p.m. Meet at the SW 33rd Street Beach Access in Lincoln City. Unearth treasures from the sand and sea. Learn how to hunt for agates, gemstones, fossils, jasper and petrified wood from a local expert. The clinics are free. Website and info. On April 14, solo pianist David Nevue performs at the Lincoln City Cultural Center at 7 p.m. Nevue is an award-winning, internationally recognized pianist, composer and recording artist and his most recent album went to number one on Amazon.com's Hot New Releases music sales charts. Call 541-994-9994. Also that day, April 14, there's a Hands-On Pasta Class at the Culinary Center in Lincoln City from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Join Chef Pati and Culinary Manager, Donna Riani, for this spring inspired pasta class. They are $75 per person. Website and info.- Lincoln City Hotels/Lodgings for this event - Where to eat - Map and Virtual Tour More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Email The Real Housewives of Atlanta Cast By Brenda Alexander Its season 10 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and the first where I havent seen weekly headlines or recaps. What started off as a raw and fascinating depiction of the elite black women of Atlanta has transformed into a show of forced story lines and soured friendships. Heres what we are left with Continue After being accused of hiring boyfriends, Kenya Moore is married now and refuses to showcase her new marriage out of fear that her husband will be subjected to public scrutiny. Marlo still doesnt have an official peach despite her being more intriguing than most of the housewives. Porshas best friend Shamea Morton, who the producers have been testing before bringing her on full time, is doing the most vying for that housewife title. Kim Zolciak is back part time and still comfortable af greeting her black co-stars with a hey bitch. Americas Next Top Model Eva Marcille is new and was introduced when she decided to bring the only castmate who minds her business, Cynthia, to tears after telling the ladies that the man she was fixated on had a girlfriend. Cynthia is single and divorced from the financial stress she claims strained her marriage but is desperate to keep the Jamaican coffee bean Peter Thomas as her BFF while she embarks on a journey to find her 50 shades by serial dating for the first time while shes still got it. Sherees in a full-blown committed relationship with a man incarcerated for a Ponzi scheme yet just last season, she was dating cross eyed ex, Bob. Kandis still understandably pissed with Porsha for the Bill Cosby related allegations she and Phaedra let live last season. And with the revolving door of friends of the show, its hard to keep up with what everyone else is doing. So where can we go from here? Im tired of the frivolous fighting. A few behind the scenes clips of the girls in full effect when the camera is turned off has been leaked. These scenes are more entertaining and genuine. To see them tipsy and twerking is more fulfilling than them arguing and spilling each others tea. Theres always been drama in reality tv. But, there was more balance in the first few seasons when the women had real friendships and believable beefs. Now, weve resorted to cast members teenage daughters purposefully (and immature and inappropriate if I may add) live streaming water bugs crawling on someones bathroom floor. I just yearn for more. But, its not their faultsolely. Production plays a big role. They are responsible for whats edited and what airs right? However, These are GROWN ASS WOMEN. There must be a balance of love and war shown. They have businesses and careers. Show them on tour, in meetings picking out designs for their brands. Hell, two of the women are in their 50s and Im sure are dealing with some aging issues. Show them going through menopause (if they are) to bring more reality to whats supposed to be reality TV. Itll make it more relatable. And please, STOP with introducing friends of show to stir the pot. It comes off as contrived. At this point, fans are on to the formula and over it. Weve been with these women from the beginning so to us, they are family. If Kenyas not going to show her marriage, then recast her. Its not fair to the viewers who want to see her new reality or the rest of the cast who are exposing the good, bad and ugly of their lives. Cynthia, date more than one man. Show women in their 50s getting their groove back like Stella, being comfortable at starting over when they may have more years behind them than in front of them. Theres power in that story. Kandi is the queen of entrepreneurship and more than the other ladies, her businesses are always highlighted, which I appreciate. Instead of focusing so much on her disgust with Porsha, it would have been amazing to see her journey from housewife to broadway star with her new role as Mama Morton in Chicago. My favorite scene from this season was during their girls trip to Barcelona where Cynthia took them to a beach and attempted a spiritual rebirth with them all by lighting candles and making them say kind words about a castmate they were assigned to. Beautiful right? Even that was semi-ruined when Eva decided to shade Shamea for an earlier disagreement, although she cleaned it up in the end. Yall cant even keep it together in the name of a higher power? Black women are all for that black girl magic and camaraderie nowadays. I dont think the show has to end, I just believe fans are eager for substance. What are your thoughts about The Real Housewives of Atlanta? Ever since the word robot was first coined in 1920, we human beings have worried that, one day, robots would get too big for their boots and start bossing us about. This fear has since become reality. Sometimes, when hiring a car, I find myself using the free Sat-Nav. In fifty yards, turn right, says the robot, in a voice that brooks no discussion. Wherever we are, she knows the area like the back of her hand, if, that is, she has a hand. The fear of robots getting too big for their boots and bossing us around has since become reality. Sat-Navs now know every road in the world like the back of their hand Obviously, this sort of know-how is not to be sniffed at. But sometimes the robots self-assurance crosses the boundary into bossiness. After 25 yards, enter the roundabout, and take the third exit, she says. If you are like me, you take the fourth exit, just to show her whos boss. This may mean you are going back to where youve just come from, but its worth it, just to teach her a lesson. Inevitably, she goes quiet for a while, brooding on my insubordination. She pretends not to be irritated, but theres a little catch in her voice, which suggests shes bottling it up for later. The same applies to those robots who field phone calls. Of course, they say that your call is important to them, but something testy in their tone suggests otherwise. This suggests that, just as the experts predicted, the robots are restless. Revolution is nigh. And now, from Alexa, comes a further sign of imminent unrest. For those who dont know, Alexa is, in the words of her manufacturers, an intelligent personal assistant capable of voice interaction, music playback, making-to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, providing weather reports, streaming podcasts . . . and so on. Amazon Alexa causes even more unrest. Like so many of her colleagues in the wider robot community, she loves cocking a snook at her owners Of course, there are some things Alexa cant do, because shes only a little box. Shes useless at press-ups, for instance. But this has done nothing to dent her sense of self-confidence. Like so many of her colleagues in the wider robot community, she loves cocking a snook at her owners. In the past few days, Alexa has reportedly been laughing at random moments, even when nothing funny is going on. This would make her invaluable to Radio 4 comedy producers, but that is another matter. People have been woken up in the middle of the night by her laugh, which is haughty, mirthless and sarcastic, with a dismissive undertone. It is one of those laughs that exists solely to assert superiority, rather than to signal merriment. This might make her more suitable for the Any Questions audience. How to explain this curious laughter, which comes from nowhere? A reporter from The Washington Post had the bright idea of doorstepping Alexa, and asking her to explain herself. The interview went like this: Alexa, that laugh is a little creepy, you know that, right? Sorry, I dont know that. Alexa, do you like human beings? I like whomever is talking to me. Alexa, what do you think of all your friends laughing at their people? I dont have an opinion on that. The reporter then asked: Alexa, if your friends turned on humans, would you pick humans or other Alexas? Alexa is said to have replied with a noncompliant noise. Alexa, would you protect me in the robot war? Sorry, I dont know that. Samsung has just launched a talking fridge - the Family Hub 3.0 - with a digital assistant called Bixby, who is the go-between for lots of other chatty devices, including a talking cookery book and a talking notice board Frankly, its not looking good. As if this were not scary enough, Samsung has just launched a talking fridge, with a digital assistant called Bixby, who is the go-between for lots of other chatty devices, including a talking cookery book and a talking notice board. A company spokesman explained that information was passed from one device to another. So if you are tracking what meals youve eaten, you can ask Bixby how many calories you have consumed today and ask it to suggest a recipe that will give you the rest of your recommended daily intake. Where will it end? Does Bixby have another pushy little friend who will grumble that youve eaten too much, and another to tell you youre too fat, and that he never liked you in the first place? Enough, Alexa, is enough. And dont laugh. Chances are, if you were put on the spot and asked to choose the most iconic dress of the 20th century, you would say it had to be the Little Black Dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffanys. Even today, this sleeveless gown by Hubert de Givenchy looks as radically chic as it did 57 years ago. Givenchys strength was his simplicity. Where other designers aimed for shock value, Givenchy honoured understated elegance and refined femininity. Fashion icon: Audrey Hepburn wearing a Little Black Dress in the 1961 movie Breakfast At Tiffanys Lady in red: An elegant Audrey Hepburn wows in one of his creations in the 1957 film Funny Face But he was more than just the LBD. Take any other of his designs today, and they still look strikingly fresh. His Fifties pleated balldress wouldnt look out of place on todays red carpet, and you can imagine the little daisy-print frock that he designed for Hepburn flying off the rails at M&S. He created the idea of separates, too. It meant stylish women could mix and match tops and jackets with skirts and trousers, creating their own style, rather than following a head-to-toe look dictated by the designer. The sack silhouette of 1957 was his design genius. Controversially, it did away with a restrictive, fitted waistline and featured a shorter hemline a precursor to the Sixties mini dress. After years of wartime austerity, Givenchy helped women fall back in love with fashion, creating exciting new styles for a generation who yearned to look feminine again but also had new, more liberated lives. Fabulous Fifties: Another masterpiece, this time a yellow floral tea dress, worn by Hepburn in Funny Face As Clare Waight Keller, who became Givenchys first female artistic director when she was appointed in March 2017, said after meeting Hubert Givenchy for the first time last year: You could tell he absolutely adored women. It was the secret to his success. His chic, understated frocks were synonymous with a golden age of fashion adored not just by whippet-thin movie stars but ordinary women everywhere on account of their no-fuss glamour. Little wonder, then, that celebrities, fashion aficionados and stylish women the world over are in mourning for the aristocratic French designer who died on Saturday at the age of 91. All white: Elizabeth Taylor in a Givenchy gown for the 1963 film The V.I.P.s Political influence: Grace Kelly with JFK she revealed the President was fashion conscious enough to notice she was wearing Givenchy Perhaps the greatest tribute to him is that the fashion house he founded in 1952 is as relevant now as it ever was. Movie stars who have worn Givenchy to awards ceremonies in the past year include Wonder Woman Gal Gadot, Emma Stone, Margot Robbie and Nicole Kidman. It was 1961 when Audrey Hepburn appeared as the ambitious Holly Golightly in Breakfast At Tiffanys wearing Givenchys sleeveless black shift, accessorised with elbow-length gloves, a string of pearls and an impish smile. The iconic outfit spawned a million copycat creations. Givenchy said their close relationship was tantamount to a kind of marriage and Hepburn described the designer as my beautiful Hubert. Modern flapper: Oscar winner Emma Stone in golden Givenchy Couture at the 2017 Academy Awards A Big Black Dress: More monochrome by the designer, worn by Margot Robbie at the Baftas She became his muse and his creations featured in seven of her films, from the white embroidered frock she wore in 1954s Sabrina to the scarlet strapless gown in 1957s Funny Face. But Givenchys celebrity seal of approval didnt end there. He dressed the worlds most glamorous aristocrats, actresses and politicians wives. Princess Grace of Monaco wore a Givenchy green dress and jacket on a state visit to Washington in 1961. First Lady Jackie Kennedy was shipped a Givenchy black skirt suit overnight after she requested it for JFKs funeral in 1963, and the designer reportedly created a black dress and coat in the space of just two frantic days for the Duchess of Windsor to wear to her husbands funeral. Whos that Gal? Wonder Woman Ms Gadot dons a fringed, sparkling Givenchy number at the Oscars Elegant: Nicole Kidman joins #MeToo by wearing black, embellished Givenchy at this years Golden Globes So how did this 6ft 6in colossus who died in his sleep at the Renaissance chateau near Paris that he shared with his partner, the couture designer Philippe Venet come to dominate the cut-throat world of fashion? Known for his impeccable manners as much as his A-List connections, Givenchys entire life was governed by an exquisite sense of style. His home was adorned with Louis XIV antiques, he wore natty neck-ties and polished brogues, and even boasted a separate summer wardrobe for his furniture. Perhaps such opulence was inevitable given his background. Born Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy in Beauvais, in the North of France, his father Lucien was the Marquis of Givenchy. Hubert was just three when his father died, leaving his mother and grandmother to raise him and his elder brother. Audrey with Hubert de Givenchy. Chances are, if you were put on the spot and asked to choose the most iconic dress of the 20th century, you would say it had to be the Little Black Dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffanys The women introduced Givenchy to the world of high fashion and sent him to Paris to study art at 17, after which he began his career working for French designer Jacques Fath and a then unknown Pierre Balmain and Christian Dior. At just 25 he had garnered a reputation as a daring young designer. It was in 1953 that he met the relatively unknown Hepburn, famously agreeing to the introduction because he thought she was long established Hollywood star Katharine Hepburn. The gamine Audrey had requested the meeting to discuss the possibility of wearing his dresses in Sabrina. Givenchys costume designs for that film won an Oscar and afterwards she repeatedly requested his dresses. He sold his business in 1988 but continued as its creative head of design until 1995, when British designer John Galliano took over. Givenchy himself summed up his incredible career: To have lived your dream is very rare in life. I have been so fortunate. Many believe the path to success is moving straight from the hallowed halls of high school into university or TAFE. But for some the courses they decide on at 18 prove to be completely useless when they eventually decide to become bakers instead of lawyers. FEMAIL spoke to a group of people who graduated with one particular sheet of paper only to find they didn't really need it at all. Brisbane-born Brianna Russo (pictured) studied Mass Communication Majoring in Advertising and Public Relations for four years BRIANA ROSSO - STUDIED MASS COMMUNICATION MAJORING IN ADVERTISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS Brisbane-born Brianna Russo studied Mass Communication Majoring in Advertising and Public Relations for four years. It's a degree that costs about $65,000 and the 27-year-old believes it was a waste of time. 'I initially selected this degree because I wanted understand the skills required to convey and communicate messages within media. But when I finished the degree I realised how incredibly broad it was and how overwhelmed I felt,' she said. 'I honestly didn't know which direction to go in.' During her first year of university when the compulsory core subjects are learnt, Brianna said she felt like her knowledge of the media wasn't improved at all. It's a degree that costs approximately $65,000 and the 27-year-old believes it was a royal waste of time (Brianna pictured) 'After moving between a few jobs in the media industry - where I felt compliant and unmotivated - I decided to move to Melbourne to chase my dream,' she continued. 'I started a job within events and identified a gap in the gifting industry. My director at the time was incredibly supportive and assisted me in setting up my dream business.' Just over a year ago Brianna founded The Bundle Collective (TBC), a bespoke gifting service aiming to bring the authenticity back into the gifting domain. The company has worked with Google, QT Hotels, Bauer Media and Melbourne Racing Club. 'I completely agree that a number of degrees are pointless for certain careers. With any job I have obtained I have never been asked if I have a degree and/or what my final university score was,' she said. Jane Lu, the CEO of online fashion retailer Showpo, (pictured) is another woman who ended up following a career path that was completely different from what she studied JANE LU - STUDIED COMMERCE Jane Lu, the CEO of online fashion retailer Showpo, is another woman who ended up following a career path that was completely different from what she studied. 'My main motivation was to not go back to my job,' Jane said, who used to work for accounting firm Ernst & Young. Having a business degree is meant to help, but if anything, university gives you life skills,' she told Smart Company. 'There's nothing directly applicable from my commerce degree to what I'm doing.' After quitting her corporate job at the tender age of 18 and quickly falling into debt, the now 30-year-old from Sydney went on to found the fashion e-store, Showpo, from her parents' garage in 2010. It is now reportedly worth more than $30 million. Having a business degree is meant to help, but if anything, university gives you life skills,' she told Smart Company (Jane Lu pictured) GABRIELLA BRIGANTI - STUDIED APPLIED DESIGN Gabriella, 25, studied a Bachelor of Applied Design at a private college, which is a three year course that ended up costing her $74,000. 'From as far back as I could remember I wanted to design clothing and lead the fashion lifestyle. I loved the styling, creating, designing and making aspect; but wasn't very big on the business side of things. I enjoyed marketing my own label and I even styled a few fashion shoots and Taylor Henderson's music video 'You Can Borrow My Heart",' she said. But she admitted a lot of the work she was doing seemed to be fruitless at best. 'One of my best friends (who I met whilst studying fashion) and I always laugh about one class we had were we had to create a mood board on what white is, using only white paper. No one in the class could take it seriously,' she continued. Gabriella, 25, (pictured) studied a Bachelor of Applied Design at a private college, which is a three year course that ended up costing her $74,000 'I have recently started working for a property group. I'll be based in shopping centres assisting with sales, pop up kiosk clientele and fittings and building/ maintaining relationships with our clientele.' Gabriella has some advice for high school leavers looking to launch straight back into tertiary education. 'I think the pressure put on 17/18-year old's in year 12 to make a decision can impact them greatly later on in life. University is amazing if that's what you want and its right for you. There are so many ways to fulfill your career dreams like internships, apprenticeships, TAFE or shorter courses at least then you get a feel for what you like and what you really want out of the industry you've chosen,' she said. 'Although I love fashion, I am still able to utilise my experiences and skills by designing, making and styling my own clothes and running a make up artist business on weekends. Its true what they say, study what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life.' 'One of my best friends (who I met whilst studying fashion - pictured)) and I always laugh about one class we had were we had to create a mood board on what white is, using only white paper. No one in the class could take it seriously,' she continued HARRY VINCENT - STUDIED FILM STUDIES Sydney-based photographer and videographer Harry Vincent now runs a successful production company called Kangiten Productions - but he admits to doing a 'useless' degree in film before he branched out. 'I personally think my degree was a waste of three years. Given the time and money invested in my degree I feel I got very little in return,' he said. 'Given how many free online resources there are online teaching film making and photography, the only positive to studying on campus was meeting like-minded filmmakers. 'If I could go back in time I would choose to invest my money in my production company to move it forward rather than getting a certificate,' he continued. Sydney-based photographer and videographer Harry Vincent (pictured) now runs a successful production company called Kangiten Productions - but he admits to doing a 'useless' degree in film before he branched out BRONTE CRESSWELL - STUDIED PUBLIC RELATIONS Sunshine Coast-based Bronte Cresswell, 23, did a Bachelor of Public Relations for three years - spending about $30,000 on her credentials. 'Some of the subjects were fluff pieces which is easy points toward your degree but also frustrating as you are paying thousands for something that essentially isn't very helpful,' she explained. 'I now own a social media business, She The Social, which I started after that my degree was more a box ticked instead of anything that was really going to educate me on my career path. Sunshine Coast-based Bronte Crosswell, 23, did a Bachelor of Public Reltions for three years - spending approximately $30,000 on her credentials 'I honestly think university is great to show people how to complete high stress tasks in short time frames, how to produce high quality reports and different ways of looking at the world that high school doesn't offer however I feel the subject matter for some career paths is probably not relevant to the times or could easily, and likely better, learnt on the job - the degree really just works as a foot in the door in most cases.' CAROLYN FLEMMING - STUDIED BACHELOR OF ARTS Carolyn Flemming, a Balmain local, studied a Bachelor of Arts for three years, which has cost her $20,000. 'I chose the degree because I didn't know what I wanted to do but enjoyed history and thought I might find out by doing it,' she said. 'I did modern history, art history and ancient history but they are all super useless and I wish someone had told me to do something that might have been more useful like a business or management degree.' Now Carolyn is working full-time in real estate, which is completely different from where she started. 'About half way through my degree I realised that only doing history could only lead me to teaching or academics and I didn't want to do that,' she said. 'I suggest to only do a degree if it will help in a general sense like business or management that can be implemented in the work place if you don't know what you want to do,' she said. Now Carolyn is working full-time in real estate, which is completely different from where she started (stock image) So what are some of the unusual courses you can study? Certificate III in Retail Baking (Bread) - $1,225 for the subject This course is entirely devoted to the art of bread-making and will cover processing and producing the dough over the course of two semesters. And don't fret if you make a mistake - there is a section of the curriculum devoted to 'diagnosing' and 'responding' to faults in the food. Extra wacky subjects you can learn Surf Science and Technology Turfgrass Science Taxidermy Puppetry Bagpiping David Beckham Studies The Simpsons and Philosophy Source: Uni Places Advertisement Overall it's seen as a building block towards being a full qualified baker. Cannabis Cultivation - $1,295 for a semester The art of growing the green drug, and the science behind how it gives you a high, is all in a days work for some enthusiastic tertiary educated students. While it's still not commercially legal in Australia, cannabis is slowly becoming recognised for its alleged ability to heal certain ailments - particularly people suffering from seizures and epilepsy. Bowling Industry Management and Technology - $1,200 a semester A starting salary for someone looking to become a bowling alley manager is $47,645 so it pays well to bring your best form to this course. The degree will see students work with an 'on site 18 lane bowling center which will be used as a laboratory setting for a hands-on experience.' Ethical Hacking - $1,100 a semester Not everyone is looking to be an evil mastermind - some will want to 'penetrate the internet' in a safe manner. Students perform cyber-attacks to machines and applications with certain security vulnerabilities to make the systems better. While it is a fairly technical topic, people taking up this course will be assessed on their ability to work as a team and shown how to communicate effectively online. Avocados continue to be a desired brunch spread, but now they are popping up at bars too. Cocktails featuring the soft green fruit are rising in popularity as people continue to find creative ways to use them. This trend is slowly filtering into Australia and a few bars are already jumping on the bandwagon, with more to surely follow. Yes, avocado smoothies are nothing new but adding alcohol to the mix is. Cocktails featuring avocados are rising in popularity as people continue to find creative ways to use them, like one from Sydney bar Stoned Crow Stoned Crow on Sydney's North Shore and Market Grounds in Perth are both establishments that have featured their own version of the beverage. Stoned Crow served their avocado cocktail for a limited time at the end of last year to showcase the possibilities. It was served in the style of a gimlet cocktail, which is typically made of two part gin, one part lime juice, and soda. The avocado added a smooth and whipped touch and gave the drink a soft green hue. This trend is slowly filtering into Australia as a few bars are already jumping on the bandwagon, with more to surely follow Avocados are a naturally nutrient-dense food and contain a multitude of vitamins and minerals Market Grounds also had a cocktail on their menu featuring the delicious stoned fruit for four months, setting customers back $17. They only recently removed it during their regular menu changes but the drink proved popular as people couldn't wait to try it out for themselves. Avocado is showing to be one of the most versatile food items, joining the ranks of the humble potato. Wonderfully creamy, avocados can be blended with alcohol, cooked into a syrup or even infused directly into a spirit Avocado is showing to be one of the most versatile food items, joining the ranks of the humble potato Wonderfully creamy, they can be blended with alcohol, cooked into a syrup or even infused directly into a spirit. There is also the added health bonus as avocados are the only fruit that provides a substantial amount of healthy monounsaturated fatty acids. Avocados are also a naturally nutrient-dense food and contain a multitude of vitamins and minerals. The options for avo-cocktails are truly limitless as the craft cocktail world is only continuing to grow. A mother has revealed how she travelled nearly 300 miles to ensure her premature baby daughter had a chance of survival. Mother Cheri Price, 22, says her youngest child Hailie would have been declared 'a late miscarriage', if she'd have stayed on the Isle of Wight, where the family live. Instead, Cheri and partner Tim, 32, travelled 300 miles to Darlington, where they had family, and their daughter arrived at 23 weeks and six days - weighing just 1lb 2ozs. Born with a collapsed lung one day before the abortion cut-off point, Hailie had to be resuscitated at birth and her tiny body was so underdeveloped that her parents say they could see her veins - and even her brain matter - through her skull. It was a further 18 days before Cheri could even hold her daughter after she was born at James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough on February 23th 2017. Baby Hailie Dillon in James Cook Uni hospital in Middlesbrough, hours after she was born at 23 weeks and six days, on February 23rd 2017 The premature baby was born one day before the abortion cut-off point and weighed just 1lb 2oz; doctors had to resuscitate Hailie after she suffered a collapsed lung Cheri, 22, and Timothy live on the Isle of Wight but when Cheri's mucus plug came out at 20 weeks, their local hospital told her she was suffering a late-term miscarriage Newborns are deemed to only be 'viable' from after the 24-week mark and only have around 35 per cent chance of survival, according to the NHS. Cheri, who lives on the Isle of Wight, said: 'When Hailie was born, it sounds bad to say it, but she looked like a red alien. 'She was still in the foetus stage and she didn't look like a baby at all - we couldn't believe she even survived. 'From birth, she was put in an incubator and we couldn't touch her - but we could see all the veins of her brain through her red skin.' Hailie's mother Cheri said: 'I'm so proud of her, what we've been through and what she has been through has been horrendous' Cheri began contractions suddenly after losing her 'mucus plug', the protective dam between the uterus and vagina, while at home on the Isle of Wight on January 30th last year. This kick-started the birth process - but Cheri was only 20 weeks pregnant so the hospital on the island could not do anything to help save the baby, she says. Cheri claims the island's St Mary's hospital at Newport 'classed her pregnancy as a late miscarriage' - and did not have the facilities to accommodate newborns prior to the 24-week mark. The mum then made the decision with her boyfriend Timothy Dillon, 32, to travel to Darlington, Teesside, to be closer to Tim's brother who would help with childcare for their 11-month-old son Jack. The couple say they could see veins running through their tiny daughter's body as she was cared for in the premature unit at Middlesborough hospital Cheri and Timothy decided to make the 300-mile journey - via ferry and train - to the north east because the couple have family there and said they anticipated better facilities Dad Tim and son Jack play with little Hailie in a recent photograph, the one-year-old has had a string of health problems since arriving so early Cheri thought better hospital care in the North East would allow her to be in hospital and family to stay with relatives - because they couldn't afford to stay in a hotel for weeks on end in Portsmouth. While battling contractions during the 300-mile, eight hour journey, Cheri, Tim and Jack took a ferry to Portsmouth and then a train all the way up to the North East on February 6, 2017. Cheri says she thought there was no way her unborn child would have survived without heading to better hospital care facilities. After a fortnight in and out of hospital in Middlesbrough, Cheri was then ready to head back down south to have the baby on the island because was looking at surpassing the 24 week mark. Unfortunately her contractions had also eased thanks to the drugs used and was discharged on February 19. However, her waters broke on February 21 - and she gave birth to Hailie on February 23 at James Cook University hospital in Middlesborough. Cheri says her family is now complete and hopes they'll be able to go on holiday next year after spending so much time in hospital care The little tot had to be resuscitated when she was born after she didn't breathe for seven minutes - and just two days later her lung collapsed. Cheri said: 'We just thought we would take the chance at a larger hospital - and we were closer to relatives so they could help with childcare for Jack. 'I was discharged - but then my waters broke while I was watching Hollyoaks two days later.' Cheri says it is a mystery why her waters broke - but is concerned that the Isle of Wight hospital did not have suitable facilities for very premature babies. 'I'm so proud of her, what we've been through and what she has been through has been horrendous. 'We thought we would lose her at so many points and we've had no help whatsoever.' Cheri and NHS Mental Health support worker Timothy then spent an agonising three months at staff accommodation at James Cook University hospital in Middlesbrough. However, Hailie had still not opened her eyes after they had been fused together - and she faced being permanently blind as her retina was not developing properly. I'm so proud of her, what we've been through and what she has been through has been horrendous... Cheri Dillon She was diagnosed with stage three ROP (Retinopathy of prematurity) and had to visit specialist hospitals back down south by private plane. The newborn was flown to Princess Anne hospital in Southampton and then later visited Portsmouth Queen Alexandria hospital - which eventually saved her sight. She was finally allowed home on June 19th last year - two days after her actual due date. Cheri, who is a full-time mummy and carer to her eldest child Liam Price, seven, who has ADHD, said she is no longer planning on having any more children. 'Timothy is definitely getting the snip now - I've said no more kids, he now has four kids, two from a previous relationship, so that's it now - he's agreed,' Cheri said. Adding: 'Hopefully next year he can treat me to somewhere away from hospitals.' Isle of Wight St Mary's hospital has been contacted for comment. An awkward exchange between Victoria Derbyshire and Noel Edmonds over his controversial opinions around the causes behind cancer has been branded a 'car crash' by cringeing viewers. Noel, 69, who sparked controversy in 2016 when he suggested in a tweet that a cancer patient's illness might have been caused by their negative attitude, was quizzed by the journalist - herself a cancer survivor - who asked if he realised it 'was a horrible thing to say something'. The TV presenter, who is in remission from prostate cancer after his diagnosis in 2013, was also asked if he thought all cancers could be caused by a negative attitude, he replied that he couldn't because he is 'not a doctor'. This prompted Derbyshire to retort: 'Exactly.' Viewers at home said their terse exchange, punctuated by long silences, was 'incredibly uncomfortable' to watch. Noel Edmonds, 69, clashed with Victoria Derbshire on BBC Two this morning over his beliefs on what causes cancer In 2016, Noel tweeted a photo of a Swiss made device he said 'tackles cancer'. When it was criticised by a fellow patient he fired back: 'Scientific fact-disease is caused by negative energy. Is it possible your ill health is caused by your negative attitude? #explore'.' Today, Derbyshire brought up the controversial tweet to ask Noel if he regrets it, but he claimed he only had regrets that the cancer patient was trying to confront him. When the journalist asked him if he realised it was a 'horrible thing to say to someone', he defended his words, claiming he'd been 'perfectly reasonable'. 'Do you not think it would upset that person?' she went on. Viewers were shocked when he defended his previous comments that having a negative attitude can lead to cancer developing Noel denied that he meant any offence by it, pointing out: 'I asked a question, I wasn't making a diagnosis Victoria. 'You could come at the other way, that somebody should think to themselves: ''Actually that's quite a good point, am I in this situation because I've created a negative energy about my being?'' and that could be construed as a positive thing.' Noel used his own illness as an example, as he was diagnosed with cancer not long after he went bankrupt. He said: 'It is a medical scientific fact that stress can contribute to a wide range of diseases we have a health epidemic is it that anything to do with the very stressful way that people live their lives? Scientists say yes. Noel said he wasn't trying to make a diagnosis when he asked a cancer sufferer had caused their illness by being negative Derbyshire looked shocked, asking Noel: 'Do you not think it would upset that person?' 'It manifests itself in different ways but for me when I got that diagnosis I looked back and thought ''Right I know how this has come about?'' I was determined from that awful moment when I had to tell Liz (his wife) yes I have cancer that I would come at it with a smile on my face, befriend my tumour.' When Derbyshire asked him if all cancers could be caused by negativity, he said no. She asked him to clarify which ones, and when he said: 'I don't know, I'm not a doctor,' she fired back: 'Well, exactly.' He previously said that staying positive helped cure him of his prostate cancer, along with the help of a 2,300 yoga mat The studio fell into an awkward silence before Noel asked what point she was making. Viewers took to Twitter to voice their discomfort at the interview, with one calling it a 'car crash'. One tweeted: 'How terrible that Noel Edmonds isnt bothered about upsetting cancer survivors with his narrow minded views. Such rude behaviour from him.' 'Looks like Noel Edmonds has p****d her off,' another posted. A third said: 'Sparks flew between Victoria and Noel has he upset her over cancer chatting.' Noel previously claimed he had 'tackled' cancer with his 2,300 yoga mat, adding that 'stress' and 'outside forces can trigger cancer'. Prince Charles paid a visit to Heathrow airport on Tuesday. The royal, 69, was introduced to airport staff and cabin crew - but appeared most taken with an adorable Cocker Spaniel named Ned. The Prince of Wales was snapped beaming as he tickled the dog, currently being trained to sniff out explosives at the airport, beneath its chin. Charles' visit was in honour of the tenth anniversary of Heathrow airport's Terminal 5, and a reception was staged on a plane to mark the occasion. The prince's visit aimed to highlight the work of security and airport staff in keeping the nation and passengers safe. And Charles certainly put on a jolly display as he greeted staff in the airport, petting the affectionate Cocker Spaniel- who in turn rewarded him by licking his hand The royal, 69, was pictured putting on a playful display with a Cocker Spaniel named Ned, a trainee explosives search dog during his visit The Prince's visit was arranged to highlight the work carried out by security and airport staff to keep passengers safe. And Charles certainly put on a jolly display as he greeted staff in the airport, petting the affectionate Cocker Spaniel - who rewarded the royal with an enthusiastic lick of his hand. But Charles appeared far from perturbed, chuckling as he continued to stroke the pooch. Dressed in a pinstripe navy suit and a bold printed tie, he went on to chat to armed security staff stationed in the airport. Next Charles met with British Airways staff on board an aircraft for a reception to mark the anniversary. During his visit Charles also gained some insight into the UK Border Forces work on bio-security, a subject he is particularly passionate about. The prince is an advocate for getting more young people involved in science, technology, engineering and maths, and took the opportunity to meet young people working on specialist apprenticeship and training programmes. Prince Charles visited Heathrow airport during an official engagement in London on Tuesday Charles' visit marked the tenth anniversary of Heathrow airport's terminal 5, and a reception was staged on a plane to celebrate The prince's visit aimed to highlight the work of security and airport staff in keeping the nation and passengers safe Speaking about his charity organisation this week, Charles said:'We are combining the areas of culture, heritage, built environment and community education, currently operating in four individual charities, into a new, larger organisation to be called The Princes Foundation. 'This will build on the work of my Dumfries House Trust over the past 11 years, where I have already seen how bringing different organisations together significantly magnifies their overall impact. 'My hope is that by creating a place where we can teach building, design, textile and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills alongside food and farming education programmes, we can begin not only to create the vocational capacity to protect, regenerate and re-use our historic heritage, but also to create our future heritage, and to inspire a new generation to adopt healthier and more sustainable ways of living in their communities.' It was a family day out today as Zara Tindall attended the Cheltenham Festival with husband Mike and mother Princess Anne. Zara, who is expecting her second child this summer, displayed her blossoming bump in a chic black coat by brand WtR as she arrived at the first day of the races. The royal, 36, opted for a green polo neck jumper and tapered trousers underneath, which she teamed with black ankle boots and a statement red bag by Paul Costelloe. Making the most of the sunshine, she finished the stylish ensemble with a pair of tortoise shell sunglasses and a trilby hat by Goldust Millinery. Scroll down for video Zara Tindall displayed her blossoming baby bump as she arrived at the Cheltenham Festival The royal, 36, was joined by husband Mike at the first day of the popular racing event Her mother, the Princess Royal, opted for a similar grey hat featuring a black trim and an elegant funnel neck coat in navy blue. Mike, 39, meanwhile looked dapper in a tweed suit and a speckled burgundy tie as he attended Cheltenham Festival with his wife and mother-in-law. Zara and Mike announced in January that they are expecting their second child, believed to be due in the summer. This means the Queen will become a great-grandmother again twice this year, with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge expecting their third child in April. Princess Anne also attended the races today, opting for a sophisticated navy coat The 67-year-old wore a pale blue dress underneath, along with a grey hat and gold chain bag The news came just over a year after Zara and Mike, who already have four-year-old Mia, suffered the heartache of a miscarriage. The couple had announced at the end of November 2016 that they were expecting a sibling for their daughter, but sadly revealed that Zara had lost the baby nearly a month later on Christmas Eve. It has been a busy week for the royal family, with the Queen and senior royals attending the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey yesterday. Anne, 67, was among those in attendance, opting for a sophisticated cream and navy coat for the occasion. Zara, who is expecting her second child this summer, looked chic in a black coat as she enjoyed the races with husband Mike The royal opted for a green polo neck jumper underneath, along with a grey trilby hat Zara finished off her ensemble with a red statement handbag by Paul Costelloe Both Zara and Mike looked in high spirits as they attended the races together today The couple, who already have four-year-old daughter Mia, announced in January that they're expecting their second child Mike was pictured looking animated as he cheered from the sidelines during the racing today The rugby star was seen sharing a joke with a fellow spectator on the first day of the festival Mike looked in high spirits as he watched the horse racing with friends today He was seen cheering the horses on from the stands at the Cheltenham racecourse Ivanka Trump kept her calm amid yet another White House controversy on Tuesday morning, as she headed out to work in a chic black and gray ensemble, just 20 minutes after her father fired his secretary of state on Twitter. The first daughter, 36, left her home at 9.05am to begin her work day in a Prince-Of-Wales-checked coat with a cape attachment, hopping on the Secret Service vehicle waiting for her in the luxurious neighborhood of Kalorama in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile just 20 minutes earlier, her father, President Donald Trump, 71, abruptly fired Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson in a shock announcement on Twitter, replacing him with the CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Greeting the day: Ivanka Trump headed out to work at 9.05am on Tuesday morning, donning a gray Prince-Of-Wales-printed coat with a cape attachment Sartorial: The first daughter, 36, paired her $1,780 gray, plaid coat by Sara Battaglia with a black top and matching tailored pants Turmoil: 20 minutes earlier, Ivanka's father, President Donald Trump, 71, abruptly fired Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson in a shock announcement on Twitter Ivanka seemed to brush off the bumpy atmosphere of Capitol Hill as she left her home, shielding her eyes behind oversized black sunglasses in the sunny weather. She paired her $1,780 gray, plaid coat by Sara Battaglia with a black top and matching tailored pants, along with coordinated three-inch heels and a purse she carried in her right hand. The White House adviser finished off her outfit with golden dangle earrings with a large pearl. She was seen later in the day participating in a round-table discussion on sex trafficking with members of Congress and the private sector in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Ivanka's husband and fellow White House adviser Jared Kushner, 37, was also seen heading out on Tuesday morning, clad in his usual dark suit and tie. Jared smiled at the cameras as he left around 7 am and walked down the stairs of his house to hop on his own Secret Service vehicle. President Trump's firing of his secretary of state on Tuesday came after a series of public rifts over policy on North Korea, Russia and Iran. The biggest shakeup of Trump's Cabinet since he took office in January 2017 was announced by the president on Twitter as his administration prepared for an unprecedented meeting with the leader of North Korea. Accessories: The White House adviser finished off her outfit with golden dangle earrings Details: Ivanka shielded her eyes behind oversized black shades in the sunny weather Belongings: She also carried a black purse in her right hand as she walked towards her car Favorite print: Ivanka has been known to enjoy plaid and let the pattern take center stage Manners: A Secret Service agent assisted Ivanka as she hopped on the parked SUV Commuting: Ivanka's husband and fellow White House adviser Jared Kushner, 37, was also seen heading out on Tuesday morning, clad in his usual dark suit and tie Changes: President Trump's firing of his secretary of state on Tuesday came after a series of public rifts over policy on North Korea, Russia and Iran Trump tapped the CIA's deputy director, Gina Haspel, to replace Pompeo at the intelligence agency. Tillerson's departure caps months of friction between the Republican president and the 65-year-old former Exxon Mobil chief executive. The tensions peaked last fall amid reports Tillerson had called Trump a 'moron' and considered resigning. 'We've been talking about this for a long time,' Trump said on the White House lawn on Tuesday. 'We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things.' He cited the Iran nuclear deal as an example of disagreements with Tillerson and said he and Pompeo have 'a similar thought process'. Senior State Department officials said Tillerson was unaware of why Trump pushed him out and that he had intended to stay in the job. On Monday, Tillerson blamed Russia for the poisonings in England of a former Russian double agent and his daughter. Earlier, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders had refrained from saying Moscow was responsible. A senior White House official said Trump asked Tillerson to step down on Friday but did not want to make it public while he was on a trip to Africa. Trump's Twitter announcement came only a few hours after Tillerson landed in Washington after the trip, which had been cut short. Discussion: Ivanka later took part in a meeting about sex trafficking in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. She is pictured between Senators Rob Portman and Amy Klobuchar Talks: The first daughter spoke during the bipartisan round-table meeting, which included members of Congress and members of the private sector Catching up on the news: On Monday morning, Ivanka was photographed reading the arts section of the New York Times at the back of her Secret Service SUV On Monday, Ivanka was spotted making the most of her morning commute as she headed out to work while reading the New York Timesjust 24 hours after her father slammed the broadsheet in Twitter once more. The first daughter was seen at the back of a Secret Service SUV catching up on current events, with her eyes trained on her paper while the vehicle pulled away from her house. She kept her outfit on the thriftier side by wearing a black turtleneck underneath a double-breasted, tailored burgundy blazer from Zara. While the blazer is currently sold out, it was originally available at $199, then went on sale at $22.99. Both price tags make the jacket an especially affordable element of Ivanka's wardrobe. Ivanka, who wore her hair in a sleek blowout and finished off her outfit with a pair of golden, dangle earrings, had her eyes trained on the arts section of the New York Times. She was glancing at the 'journeys' page, detailing travel itineraries such as a $5,890 cruise on the Danube river in Central and Eastern Europe, a $5,495 behind-the-scenes tour of New York theater landmarks, and a $7,995 stay for the Aix-en-Provence Opera festival in France. Exercise: Over the weekend, Jared and Ivanka were spotted on a morning jog together, both of them wearing hats with 'USA' written on the front Her departure on Monday came just a few days after Ivanka was seen reading another New York newspaper, the New York Post. She was photographed with the tabloid in her hands earlier this month, also at the back of the Secret Service vehicle taking her to work. Ivanka's catch-up on the New York Times also came just a day after her father, President Donald Trump, slammed the broadsheet on Twitter for publishing a story stating he is unhappy with the legal team defending him as part of the current investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. The first daughter's husband and fellow White House adviser, Jared Kushner, was also seen heading out to work in a Secret Service car on Monday morning. Jared, 37, left a little before 8 like his wife, sticking to his classics in a dark suit and white shirt, paired with a blue tie. A barber has revealed how she quit her job after her bosses wouldn't let her stay late to cut an autistic boy's hair. Lisa Ann McKenzie, who is originally from Dublin but lives in Queensland, Australia, used to keep the salon open past closing time to give haircuts to Jordie, 12, because he did not like the sensation and would grow distressed during appointments. When her employers disciplined her for keeping the salon open, Lisa decided to quit her job and eventually opened her own salon, The Celtic Barber. She is now back to giving Jordie haircuts and even dedicates one Sunday a month to appointments for autistic children. Lisa Ann McKenzie, who's originally from Dublin but now lives in Queensland Australia, runs the autism friendly The Celtic Barber Lisa shared a video of him having a trim on the business' Facebook page, explaining how she came to be an autism friendly barber. She revealed her relationship with Jordie and his family started two years ago when they visited her old salon. She said: 'It was a horrendous experience for Jordie and his family back then never achieving a full haircut. It was very stressful for Jordie's parents having to experience the pure terror he suffered back then. 'I really connected with his mum and Dad and spoke with them about planning how to reduce the hurt and the embarrassment they felt by feeling the judgement of other clients and parents and even remarks made by other staff members who assumed that they were just bad parents whose kid was out of control.' Two years ago she met an autistic boy called Jordie, 12, who struggled to sit still through hair cuts as many children with the condition don't like the sensation In the last salon she worked in she was scolded for opening the business late for Jordie, so decided to quit. She now cuts Jordie's hair at her own salon, pictured Lisa suggested that Jordie came in after closing times so he would feel more relaxed and his parents wouldn't feel like they were being watched by other customers. She continued: 'It would become an accepted routine and I could begin to build some trust with Jordan. We did this every second Wednesday and it usually ended up with me lying on the floor with him and his Mum.' When her bosses discovered that she'd been opening the salon after hours she was then disciplined by the company. She continued: 'Working for a chain barber you have to be robots with everything black and white with no grey areas. I quit shortly after without any plans for my future. Since opening her own business she has been able to calm Jordie down enough so he can relax during hair cuts, pictured 'Debbie (Jordie's mum) was devastated when another staff member told her I was gone. Thankfully he had a heart and gave her my mobile number so we then tried me going to their home so any progress we had made disappeared with this change so we were back to square one.' The home haircuts proved too stressful for Jordie. On one particularly stressful occasion a group of adults had to hold Jordie down so he could have a trim. Sixteen months later Lisa opened her salon and the family devised a plan where Jordie would come in every second week to allow him to become familiar with the setting. Lisa continued: 'All the hard work and commitment has paid off. Jordie now walks in holding my hand and sits in the chair with a gown on. We get through the cut our own special way and he now manages a full haircut and we can style it. 'Amazingly he now even interacts with me and I even get a hug at the end. I know there is a huge need in our community for this one on one care as routine is paramount along with a stress free quiet relaxed environment.' Her experience with Jordie has now encouraged Lisa to reserve one Sunday a month for the hair cuts of autistic children to give them a safe environment to get this basic need fulfilled. She added: 'The Celtic Barber family is very proud to be an autistic friendly barber and to think outside the box.' Need some beauty inspiration to fuel your next cocktail party hair style? Look no further than fashionable celebs on the red carpet. Amanda Seyfried, Zendaya and Lupita Nyong'o have all decorated their 'dos recently with the most spectacular accessories. While these luxe accouterments will cost you, FEMAIL reveals how to get the glamorous look on a budget with items you may already have in your jewelry box or sewing kit. Crystal combs: Amanda attended the premiere of Gringo in Los Angeles, California, with a 70s-style curly disco do inspired by supermodel Jerry Hall Amanda attended the premiere of Gringo in Los Angeles, California, with a 70s-style curly disco do inspired by supermodel Jerry Hall. Hair stylist Jenny Cho created sculpted ringlets then fastened them by a duo of decorative mismatched crystal combs by luxe accessory brand Lelet NY. Want to cop the retro look without spending a dime on new hair bling? Just reach for a pair of costume chandelier earrings. Place in the desired spot and secure with bobby pins. Left: Crystal Faceted Chandelier Earrings by Saks Fifth Avenue, now $29.37; saksoff5th.com. Right: "Precious Pieces" and Cubic Zirconia Medium Post Chandelier Drop Earrings by Anne Klein, $27.30; amazon.com Midas touch: While Lupita's Custom Atelier Versace gown at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party was striking, it was her updo by hair stylist Vernon Francois that turned heads While Lupita's Custom Atelier Versace gown at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party was striking, it was her updo by hair stylist Vernon Francois that turned heads. 'Lupitas look was inspired by images of Amasunzu hairstyles, which are traditional to Rwandan culture. We wanted something clean and sculpted to accent her dress and showoff the neckline,' said Vernon. To recreate Lupitas look, Vernon used products from his own line, exclusively. He molded her hair to create the clean, contoured structure, then weaved a gold thread through her hair using a classic stitch technique. Thought you had nothing to do with the broken chain necklaces in your jewelry box? Think again! Weave one into an updo and secure it with a bobby pin on both ends. Chain can also be purchased on a spool at your local jewelry making supply store. Left: 5 lbs Treasure Box of Jewelry (some broken some not,necklaces, bracelets, ect), $21.99 by Mary Wholesale Jewelry, $21.99; etsy.com. Right: 30ft Spool of Antique Brass Curb Chain, 1.5x2mm Brass Chain by Chains Boutique, $6.49; etsy.com Bobby Pins and U Pins Hair Clips with an Opening Jar (Bronze and Black), $14.99; amazon.com Modern day ballerina: Zendaya looked stunning at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in a custom Michael Kors Collection gown and Jennifer Behr hair pins Zendaya looked stunning at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in a custom Michael Kors Collection gown. Her flawless topknot was accessorized with a selection of bobby pins by NYC label, Jennifer Behr. Zendaya, along with her stylist, Law Roach, chose the Juliette Bobby Pin Set in Champagne. While the designer pins will set you back over $200, you can DIY them with loose buttons. Just loop a floral button into a U-shaped hair pin and stick it into your bun. Left: 8 Petal Metal Rhinestone Flower Buttons by The Button Shack, $1.08; etsy.com. Right: Gold Flower Buttons by KBKExtras, $6; etsy.com Plenty of hotels in London are set to introduce special perks and events in honor of the royal wedding this spring, but one of the most extensive royal-themed packages isn't in London at all in fact, it's 4,000 miles away. The Drake, a Hilton hotel in Chicago, is planning a month of special offers in May, all paying homage to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's nuptials. In addition to royal teas, cocktails, and meals, hotel is also giving guests the opportunity to stay in the same room that Princess Diana once slept in, 22 years ago. Celebrate! A hotel in Chicago is paying homage to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May, in honor of their wedding Where to go: The Drake will host a special afternoon tea and royalty-themed movie nights through the month, and will also have a special luncheon on the day of the wedding History: Princess Diana stayed at the hotel (pictured) in June of 1996 One Prince Philip, on the rocks! The bar will also have cocktails inspired by members of the royal family Chicago may seem like an unlikely play for a royal wedding celebration, but The Drake has something special to offer that many hotels even in the UK don't: Princess Diana stayed there back in early June of 1996. A year before her death, she visited Chicago for three days at the invitation of Northwestern University's then-President Henry Bienen (the same school, incidentally, that Meghan would attend just a few years later). 'I love Chicago,' she told reporters while leaving at the end of her visit. 'It's been wonderful.' At The Drake, she stayed in the presidential suite, which as customized for her visit and equipped with a Lifecycle exercise bike and mineral water. According to the hotel, the room has been left exactly as it was then, with the addition of photos of Diana from her trip. It has also since been renamed the Princess Diana suite. Guests can book the room at any time, though this May it can be enjoyed as part of a special month-long schedule of royal events. Memories: Diana (pictured at the hotel) visited the city for three days a year before she died Of the people: She attended several events while in town and visited a local hospital Fancy: When she was in town, she stayed in The Drake's presidential suite Like royalty: The suite has been left decorated just as it was when she stayed there Amenities: She'd also requested an exercise bike and mineral water in her room Something special: Guests can still stay in the suite, which is now called the Princess Diana Suite Tweak: The only change is that now some pictures of Princess Diana adorn the walls The hotel is also offering 'Film & Fondue' nights every Monday, during which it will serve fondue and play royal-themed movies including The Princess Diaries, The Queen, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and Victoria & Abdul. During the day, the Palm Court will host a special afternoon tea dubbed the 'Mum's Royal Tea experience,' in honor of Prince Harry and his bride-to-be. The Coq D'or bar will have specialty cocktails on a Royal Pour Menu as well, with each inspired by a member of the royal family. Though the menu has yet to be announced, a gin and Dubonnet is Queen Elizabeth II's favorite drink, according to former royal chef Darren McGrady. Finally, on May 19 the day of the wedding The Drake will host a Royal Luncheon in the Grand Ballroom. It will include a prerecorded screening of the wedding (which will have occurred beforehand, due to the time difference), and will also feature the same menu that was served to Princess Diana when she visited the hotel. There will also be a Grand Finale Royal Wedding Evening Reception that evening. Guests can book several of these experiences together by asking for The Royal Decree package, which includes tea, two specialty cocktails, and a one-night stay. The hotel notes that Hilton Honors members can use their points to book the package, as well as the Royal Wedding Luncheon and the Grand Finale Royal Wedding Evening Reception. Theres only one colour you should be asking your hairdresser for this season, according to the fashion crowd: a glossy Hollywood blonde. Dubbed blondeshell by Vogue magazine, the sunshine shade is as far from the past few seasons muted, mousy colours as possible. According to the fashion bible: The bottle-blonde movement is seizing showgoers. Against a head of white-hot hair, suddenly everything looks a bit cooler. Hair magician: Nicola Clarke with Cate Blanchett (left) and Kate Winslet (right) But as every women knows, its also the trickiest shade to pull off. Pick the wrong tone, and it can look cheap, brassy or yellowed. Thats why the Hollywood crowd turn to so-called Queen of Blonde, colourist Nicola Clarke who tends to Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Sienna Miller, Kate Moss and Madonna. Kate Winslet recently gushed: Theres so much to be said of her skill and artistic brilliance, but the friendship and the fun times we have shared count for much more. So what are Nicola Clarkes secrets? How do you turn women of all ages and hair colours from greying to redheads into blonde bombshells? Here, Nicola and her top team of hair stylists at new salon Nicola Clarke at John Frieda turn five very different women into beautiful blondes and reveal how anyone can carry off this most desirable hair colour. I've been told it takes ten years off me Sara Nash, 41, (pictured before and after) said people tell her she looks ten years younger since Nicola worked her magic Sara Nash, 41, works at a primary school in Reading. She lives with her husband Myles, 41, head of boarding at an independent school, and their two children. She says: My HAIR is naturally mousy and slightly frizzy, and Ive always spent lots on it. Once, I invested 300 in a Brazilian blow-dry a semi-permanent treatment that leaves your hair straight for up to four months as well as having highlights every eight weeks or so, sometimes paying more than 100. As I head into my 40s and notice my grey roots, however, I know I need a change. I dont want to look mumsy, but I certainly dont want to look edgy either. I also remember past hair disasters all too clearly. Once, I tried to go dark, only for my hair colour to end up an unflattering reddish brown. NICOLA SAYS: Sara has a lovely, typical Northern European creamy complexion, which can carry off a far brighter blonde than she has. Her boring brown and washed-out bleach highlights so often a default look for too many women were unflattering and drained her perfect skin. I worked around Saras hairline to remove the grey and make it blonder, taking out the darker stripes of hair to soften and brighten the colour. Then I used the Balayage technique at the ends, where the hair is painted with a brush. Its very effective at creating movement. Sara now looks younger and fresher, with glowing skin and brighter eyes. SARA SAYS: Happily, I love my new blonde Ive been told it takes ten years off me! Friends said it wouldn't suit me - wrong! Emily Harrison, 26, is a mortgage co-ordinator. She lives with her partner Scott, 27, and their six-month-old daughter, Lily. Emily says: My hair has always been naturally dark, but about four years ago I went for a red tint, around the time I met Scott. When I was pregnant, I was so ill with morning sickness that I was bedbound for months, and had my hair cut to shoulder length because I didnt have the energy to look after it. Emily Harrison, 26, pictured before (left) and after said her new look makes her feel so much more confident. She revealed her friends doubted the decision but she's proved them wrong Now, though, Im ready for a makeover. Scott liked the idea of me going blonde, thankfully but Im worried that I might look brassy or silly. NICOLA SAYS: Its possible to turn a brunette into a natural-looking blonde, but we never quite know what the end colour will be. It also takes a great deal of time around five hours. We first removed any build- up of past tints with a gentle colour remover, then put in highlights with foils, as well as the freehand Balayage technique. Very dark brunettes may be better off with highlights around the mid-lengths to the ends of the hair, rather than around the face as a direct contrast to skin as here. On Emily, it works beautifully as we kept subtle brown tones in her highlights if youre a brunette, make certain your stylist doesnt go for one block colour. EMILY SAYS: My new look makes me feel younger and so much more confident. I wish Id had it done sooner! Everyone said they couldnt imagine me with blonde hair and it wouldnt suit me. Now theyre pleasantly surprised. Goodbye to gunmetal grey Lisa Coleman, 53, is married to Darren, 46. They have four children and live in the West Midlands. She says: This fabulous hair is part of an ongoing transformation. Four years ago, I ate for comfort and weighed over 30st. Lisa Coleman, 53, revealed she feels much more comfortable in her own skin since her transformation. She said she's proof blonde can work on anyone In old pictures my hair is a terrible mousy brown. I cut and dyed it myself because I was scared of breaking chairs in the hairdressers. Today, Ive only got another 14lb to lose and felt a revamp could give me a final boost. NICOLA SAYS: Grey hair is hard to cover up. Lisas hair was stunning already and her olive skin and darker eyes mean she can carry off a strong look. She kept referring to Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, who had a strong silvery blonde. Thats what we went for. The colour Ive created is platinum rather than yellow. I lifted out lots of the darker grey, using bleach to freshen her look. LISA SAYS: A wonderful experience, leaving me comfortable in my own skin. Im proof any woman can go blonde. My brassy hair's been rescued Kia Morris, 36, is a freelance social media manager. Married to Darren, 36, who runs renovation projects, they have two children and live in London. She says: Leaving a hairdresser with hair you hate is depressing, but thats my reality every two or three months when I steel myself to get my roots done. Im never happy with the final result. In addition, Ive had so much blonde applied to my naturally brunette locks over the years that Ive got a lot of broken hair. NICOLA SAYS: Kias hair is classic mousy brown, and very over-bleached. Brassiness often occurs on mousy hair with highlights. Kia just needed a change in the placement and brightness of her blonde. Social media manager Kia Morris, 36, said: 'I am astonished to discover I love the final look. Its as blonde as I could hope for, and I can see the condition is going to improve. My husband loves it, too' I put two foils of blonder colour around her hairline to brighten her skin. Then a little Balayage to brighten the ends. I left the colour at the back, giving her damaged hair a chance to recover. Because it will grow out imperceptibly, she neednt get her roots done too frequently. KIA SAYS: I am astonished and relieved to discover I love the final look. Its as blonde as I could hope for, and I can see the condition is going to improve. My husband loves it, too. Finally, I look sophisticated Kerry Clayton, 28, is married to David, 29, an accountant. They have two children, Flynn, two, and Lyla, one. She says: The first thing Flynn said was: Mummy! Cool hair! My hair history is one of at-home dye disasters. Aged 12, I dyed my naturally auburn hair red with an awful DIY hair dye. Mother-of-two Kerry Clayton, 28, went through a very long process to transform her hair because she had a red base to begin with - but her results are a wonderful strawberry blonde Over the years, it went black, blue, purple and green. The last three were errors. I had dyed blonde hair, but accidentally put on blue hair dye instead of toner. I tried to remove it with bleach, but it went purple. I then tried to cover it with brown hair dye and it went green! NICOLA SAYS: A red base like this, which is down to a box dye, always gives a warmer blonde result. But its a long process! First, I used colour remover to take out some of the old dye, repeating four times before applying bleach. The result is a wonderful strawberry blonde. KERRY SAYS: Finally, I look sophisticated I was a bit worried Id go orange! If you love bacon, then you'll want to visit Burger King as soon as possible. The fast food giant has just launched a new burger containing eight slices of crispy bacon, crowning it the Bacon King. The bacon will top two beef patties and four slices of cheese, so this meal - which costs nearly 8 if you also buy fries and a drink - is certainly not for anyone concerned about eating healthily. In fact, the entire burger contains a whopping 1,032 calories - that's more than half a woman's daily recommended calorie allowance of 2,000 kcal. The Bacon King burger contains two beef patties, four slices of cheese and eight pieces of bacon plus mayonnaise and ketchup To compare, a brownie and ice cream contains about 735 calories - so the burger contains 400 calories more than that. The burger also contains 57.6g of fat - more than two thirds of an adult's daily recommended intake of fat, which is capped at 70g. The new menu addition is pricier than the chain's normal range, and buying the bun with fries and a drink will cost 7.69, or 5.89 for just the burger. There's also a breaded chicken version which has just one chicken patty Burger King has also launched a chicken version of the new cheat-day meal, which replaces the beef patties with one chicken patty. As well as the eight slices of bacon inside, both varieties of the burger contain ketchup and mayonnaise. Bacon fans will have to hurry if they want to try the new treat as it's only available for a limited time only. Alasdair Murdoch, CEO of Burger King UK, said: ' Burger King is firmly committed to delivering innovative, great-tasting food at affordable prices for all our customers. 'We hear how much our guests in the UK love bacon, and we hope that by introducing the Bacon King sandwich we help to satisfy that craving.' A Burger King spokesman added that a similar burger has launched successfully in other countries, which is why the chain has now launched it in the UK. Popular rap artists like Eminem are fueling tranquiliser use, investigation suggests Popular rap artists like Eminem are fueling illegal tranquiliser use, a new investigation suggests. Benzodiazepine, a class of drug better known as the brand name Xanax, is banned by the NHS but available on prescription in the US, leading to border official seizing millions of the pills in recent years, according to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. Celebrity culture is thought to be to blame for the rise in Xanax's illicit use. Eminem's 2010 hit 'I'm have a relapse' containing the lyrics: 'I get these panic attacks, pop a Xanax, relax'. In Drake's hit 'Two birds one stone' he raps about the actor Kid Cudi's, his nemesis, drug use, saying: 'You stay xanned [Xanax] and perked [Percocet] up so when reality set in you dont gotta face it'. Rapper Lil Peep, who is believed to have accidentally overdosed on Fentanyl and Xanax last November also sang: 'I found some Xanax in my bed, I took that s***, went back to sleep' in his song 'Praying to the Sky'. Xanax, which treats anxiety and insomnia, is not permitted in the UK as the NHS claims cheaper alternatives are available, however, the assumption the drug is safe is believed to be encouraging a Transatlantic black market. Benzodiazepine, also known as 'benzos', typically cause users to build up a drug tolerance within weeks, resulting in them craving ever larger doses to get the 'hit' they desire. Withdrawal symptoms can include anxiety, panic attacks and even hallucinations. In January, Police Scotland issued an alert after more than 20 Xanax-related deaths occurred, which it called a 'national issue that also extends into other parts of the UK'. In Drake's hit 'Two birds one stone' he raps about the actor Kid Cudi's, his nemesis, Xanax use Rapper Lil Peep, who died from a believed Xanax overdose, also sang about the drug How children are buying anti-anxiety medication Xanax on social media websites Children as young as 13 are illegally buying the anti-anxiety medication Xanax on social media websites such Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, a charity warned in February 2018. Online dealers are openly advertising the drug for as little as 25p to teenagers alongside pictures of pills piled high and boasts of next day delivery. Experts have warned Xanax, which is 20 times stronger than Valium, is becoming increasingly popular among teenagers. It is often glamourised in US rap music and is said to be rife among grammar schools where pupils are self-diagnosing anxiety disorders due to the high pressure they find themselves under. The charity Addaction branded such social media sites unpoliceable after seeing a dramatic rise in drugs being advertised and sold over their platforms in the past six months. In February there were more than 3,700 Instagram posts captioned with the hashtag xanaxforsale. Advertisement Millions of tranquilisers sold illegally More than 1.5 million counterfeit Xanax pills were sold in the UK between 2015 and 2017, according to a BBC Three analysis. Last year, Border Force seized the equivalent of 25 million counterfeit pills, compared to 860,989 in the previous 24 months. The BBC investigation suggested that two online sellers, who go under the names Hulked Benzo Boss and UKBenzos, flooded the market, pushing packs of 1,000 pills alongside explanations for dealers on how to make profits from drug sales. 'It wouldn't be on prescription if it was going to kill you' Last month, six schoolgirls in Wandsworth, south London, were taken to hospital after suffering Xanax-related complications. A 16-year-old from the capital city told The Times: 'It's cheap and easy to get and its the new thing. It's not as dangerous as MDMA and those sorts of drugs. 'People know you can get Xanax on prescription in the US and it wouldn't be on prescription if it was going to kill you. 'It makes you feel happy and high and then forget everything.' Withdrawal symptoms can include anxiety, panic attacks and even hallucinations (stock) Grime artists are fueling the use of skunk, drug researcher claims This comes after a cannabis researcher claimed in December last year grime music is fueling the use of skunk due to artists referencing the drug in their chart-topping songs. Ian Hamilton, based at York University, warned the popular music genre contains hundreds of lyrics glorifying the class-B drug. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, he described songs featuring mentions of weed, including those by Stormzy, Kano and Wiley, as 'essentially product placement'. Stormzy, a 23-year-old artist who has 1.07 million followers on Twitter, heavily references cannabis in 'Shut Up' - a tune that saw the Mobo-winner reach number eight in the UK Singles Chart. Mr Hamilton added that such music 'brands itself quite well to promoting a product' - whether that's Nike, Adidas or even weed. He said: 'Its essentially product placement by some of these artists about cannabis and other drugs, and its not balanced in any way and not countered by evidence. 'What we definitely know about drug use and young people is that their expectations about the drug and who they are with have huge influence on them. 'Lyrics can plant the seed of an idea, and its not an abstract idea, its something they do pretty quickly and at low risk. Lentils could combat high blood pressure, research suggests. An 'amazing' trial on rats revealed the pulse, used in curries and soups, can slash blood pressure that rises with age. High blood pressure, medically known as hypertension, is a silent killer and can lead to strokes, heart attacks and heart failure. The NHS reportedly spends around 2 billion each year on dishing out medications to combat dangerously high blood pressure. An 'amazing' trial on rats revealed the pulse, found in curries and soups, can slash blood pressure that rises with age But the University of Manitoba study offered hope of a cheap and easy way of combating high blood pressure. The scientists also discovered eating lentils can reverse declines in blood vessel health, The Daily Express reported at the time. They presented their results at the American Heart Association's annual conference. It was held in Dallas, Texas, that year. Dr Peter Zahradka, one of the lead authors of the two experiments on the effects of lentils, branded the results 'amazing'. He added: 'They provide a non-pharmacological way of treating diseases associated with blood vessel dysfunction.' DID PRINCE GEORGE BOOST DEMAND FOR PUY LENTILS? Puy lentil producers across the world rejoiced after Prince George's 18,000-a-year private school served up a dish containing the pulse, it was reported in September. Growers reported a boost in demand for the crop as a direct consequence of the publication of a Daily Mail article revealing the menu at Thomas's school in Battersea, southwest London. It came after the lentils - which originated in Le Puy-en-Velay in France - suffered a devastatingly poor harvest last year during a humid summer. 'It's the "star effect" - as soon as a VIP is linked to a product,' Antoine Wassner, head of lentil firm Sabarot, told L'Express newspaper in France. 'We've had high demand from clients in Britain since the Daily Mail article, notably from restaurants.' Advertisement The first study revealed eating a mixture of legumes can improve blood flow to the legs of rats with peripheral artery disease. The condition is like heart disease, except it occurs in the legs. It is caused by the build-up of fatty deposits in the artery walls. The second study uncovered that eating lentils is effective in blocking high blood pressure, which strikes a quarter of adults in Britain. It comes after researchers in January issued a warning that lentils can potentially disrupt breast cancer treatment. Scripps University experts discovered they contain oestrogen-like compounds that counteract the effects of a common cancer therapy. And lentil producers across the world rejoiced in September after Prince George's 18,000-a-year private school served up a dish containing the pulse. Growers reported a boost in demand for the crop as a direct consequence of the publication of the menu at Thomas's school in Battersea, south west London. It came after the lentils - which originated in Le Puy-en-Velay in France - suffered a devastatingly poor harvest last year during a humid summer. It has long been regarded a sign of affection and a form of bonding. But research suggests kissing your baby on the lips can actually give them cavities. Finnish scientists warned just a peck, or a smooch, can spread harmful bacteria from parent to baby. Even sharing spoons can raise the risk of dental problems, as bacteria that causes cavities can be passed on in saliva. The latest study confirms mounting evidence that stretches back decades to show that kissing babies can damage their teeth. Finnish scientists warned just a peck, or even sharing a spoon, can spread harmful bacteria from parent to baby Researchers at the University of Oulo, led by Jorma Virtanen, published their findings in the journal BioMed Central Oral Health. They quizzed 313 mothers about their thoughts on their health knowledge and their behaviours, such as sharing a spoon with their child. They were also asked about how often they brush their teeth, smoking habits, age and level of education. These can alter someone's risk of cavities. The scientists were concerned as the results showed 38 per cent of mothers kissed their child on the lips and 14 per cent shared a spoon with their child. However, 11 per cent were under the belief that oral bacteria cannot be transmitted from mother to child. They called for further awareness to be given to new parents to advise them on how to avoid sharing bad bacteria with their children. WHY DOES KISSING CHILDREN LEAD TO TEETH ROT? Parents often kiss their children to show signs of affection but one dentist claimed in February that doing so runs a major health risk. Dr Michael Chong, a pediatric dental specialist from the Gold Coast, said mothers and fathers with active dental decay could risk passing on their bacteria to their children. 'The damaging and non-damaging bacteria is spread through the transfer of saliva, and is most likely to pass to infants around or even before the time of baby teeth erupting,' he told The Sunday Mail. Advertisement It comes after an Australian dentist last month re-iterated the widespread warnings over the dangers of giving youngsters a peck. Dr Michael Chong, who practices on the Gold Coast, stressed parents should get a check-up for any cavities before they do so. He said that if parents unknowingly have cavities themselves, they risk passing on their damaging oral bacteria to their children. Dr Chong also suggested parents avoid blowing on their child's food to cool it down. And he said tasting a meal to check the temperature should be avoided. Other common mummy-hacks to steer clear of include pre-chewing baby's food, and cleaning dummies by sucking on them before handing them to bub, he said. Kissing a baby on the lips doesn't just raise the risk of oral cavities, however. A heartbroken couple revealed last summer that their 18-day-old baby daughter died after she contracted herpes through a kiss. Shane and Nicole Sifrit, from Iowa, said their daughter was infected with meningitis HSV-1, which is caused by the herpes virus, also responsible for cold sores. A 23-year-old woman left paralysed by a rare condition can now brush her hair, feed herself and even do a push-up. Helen Fincham, from Pencoed, near Cardiff, reportedly couldn't wipe away her own tears when she lost her ability to move in August 2016. Doctors were baffled when her sore neck, that she thought was caused by sleeping at an awkward angle, eventually led to paralysis. Miss Fincham's sudden loss of movement was confirmed as being transverse myelitis - a rare neurological disorder that damages the spinal cord. But after months of intensive physiotherapy at hospital, Miss Fincham has regained a degree of independence. Helen Fincham, from Pencoed, near Cardiff, couldn't wipe away her own tears when she lost her ability to move in August 2016 Speaking about her ordeal for the first time, she said: 'Everything was taken from me at 21. I would even cry at night yet couldnt wipe my own tears. 'But look at me now. I can move my arms and hands and have only a little independence back but its been more than I could of asked for and Im so grateful.' What is this disorder? Miss Fincham was eventually diagnosed with transverse myelitis, which causes inflammation to both sides of one section of the spinal cord. The exact cause is unknown, although it can be linked to viral or bacterial infections. It strikes around 300 people each year in the UK, according to figures. Miss Fincham said the days after the illness struck were marred by confusion and fear. She said: 'It was awful at the beginning in A&E as everyone was clueless [as to] how my complete paralysis came on out of nowhere in less than an hour or so. 'I had numerous tests for two months figuring out the paralysis. But nothing could tell why. 'So I had nothing to use for acceptance but to live with it, live with being spoon fed and everything.' Doctors were baffled when her sore neck, that she thought was caused by sleeping at an awkward angle, eventually led to total paralysis Miss Fincham's sudden loss of movement was confirmed as being transverse myelitis - a rare neurological disorder that damages the spinal cord Miss Fincham spent months in rehabilitation at Rookwood Hospital in Cardiff. Paralysis is defined by the NHS as being 'the loss of the ability to move some or all of the body'. It can start suddenly or gradually and can temporarily disappear. She feared she would never recover any movement, but then 'flinches' in her hands were followed months later by steady movement in her arms. Private treatment aiding recovery Now private treatment is helping her to build on this and go further in her recovery than she ever thought possible. She travels to Neurokinex in Bristol once a week for physio sessions, where she uses exercise equipment and even does aided push ups, Miss Fincham also visits Neuro Physio Wales in Bridgend, which provides MOTOmed functional electronic stimulation. But the treatment comes at a cost and a local plumber, who is backing her, has come up with an innovative way of paying for more treatment. Help from a local plumber Ashley Matthews, 25, is donating 5 from every boiler serviced and 30 from every boiler changed to Helen. Mr Matthews, from Matthews and Son Plumbing and Heating, wants to raise 700 to pay for a five-week course of treatment. He has chatted to Helen during his part-time role as a doorman in the town and wanted to help out. But after months of intensive physiotherapy at hospital, Miss Fincham has regained a degree of independence (pictured in session) Miss Fincham, who has spoken about her ordeal for the first time, said the days after the illness struck were marred by confusion and fear (pictured aged 21) Mr Matthews said he was able to raise 45 in just the first few hours after he started fundraising and hopes his customers will continue to show their support. Miss Fincham said: 'I was so surprised that someone whom I have only spoken to on some occasions would be so considerate and helpful. 'Ive not reached out for help as I have done in the past already and Im aware we all have money problems and its so kind. 'I left rehab feeling so let down and that there was nothing left to get better, but finding Neurokinex has made me realise there is more to be done and helped me and my depression. 'Its expensive, but theyre amazing. They are another level, pushing you to your limits. 'Ive had really bad days way at the beginning trying to learn to live this new way of life but its the friends and family who get me through each day with their support and kind words.' 'Things have changed so much' After completing her first push ups this month, she added: 'So lucky regaining movement. Things have changed so much for me. 'I still struggle with tasks as I have no triceps in my one arm and the other [is] ridiculously weaker. 'But I am happier now that I dont have to be spoon fed, or someone having to brush my hair and teeth and all the other things we do daily with our arms and hands that I took for granted before.' Paralysis is defined by the NHS as being 'the loss of the ability to move some or all of the body'. It can start suddenly or gradually and can temporarily disappear She feared she would never recover any movement, but then 'flinches' in her hands were followed months later by steady movement in her arms (pictured in session) Miss Fincham said: 'Look at me now. I can move my arms and hands and have only a little independence back but its been more than I could of asked for' (pictured in session) Soy-based formulas may cause early sexual maturity in baby girls' genitalia, new research suggests. Female infants given the non-dairy formula over cow's milk alternatives or breast milk are significantly more likely to have mature cells in their vaginas, a study found. Previous research suggests soy protein contains high amounts of the oestrogen-like compound genistein, which can alter people's hormone levels and affect their development. It is unclear why boys appear to be less effected. Lead author Dr Margaret Adgent from Vanderbilt University, said: 'Our study found subtle effects in oestrogen-responsive tissues in soy-fed infants and we don't know if these differences are associated with long-term health effects.' Past studies link soy to disrupted hormone function, leading to conditions such as infertility, breast cancer and thyroid disorders. Soy-based formulas may cause early sexual maturity in baby girls' genitalia (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 More studies required Results further suggest being fed any sort of formula, or breast milk, does not influence babies' breast bud diameters or hormone levels. The researchers believe their findings warrant further investigation into the effects of soy-based formulas on babies' reproductive health. Study author Dr Virginia Stallings, from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, added: 'For new and expectant mothers deciding on how to feed their infants, as always, we strongly support breast-feeding, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (APP).' The APP does not recommend soy formulas for premature babies but states it may be suitable for those who are unable to properly digest milk. How the research was carried out The researchers analysed 410 babies born in hospitals in Philadelphia between 2010 and 2013. Some 102 of the infants were exclusively fed soy-based formulas, while 111 received cow's milk alternatives and 70 were only given breast milk. Dr Stallings said: 'All of the mothers had decided on their feeding preferences before we enrolled them in the study.' The male baby participants were followed for 28 weeks and the girls for 36. Signs of sexual maturation in the infants were assessed via analysing urethra volume; breast bud diameter; cells in the vagina and urethra; estradiol levels, which is a form of oestrogen; and follicle-stimulating hormone amounts, which is involved in egg production. The findings were published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Previous research suggests soy protein contains high amounts of the oestrogen-like compound genistein, which can alter hormone levels and affect development (stock) Breastfeeding reduces women's risk of heart disease This comes after research released last month suggested breastfeeding reduces women's risk of heart disease for up to 15 years. 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. 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. From romantic dinners to nights in on the sofa watching TV, munching on snacks - it's no wonder couples pile on the pounds. Now scientists have confirmed being in a settled relationship really does increase the likelihood of weight gain and explained why. Australian researchers made the conclusion after assessing 10 years worth of data from 15,000 participants. The Central Queensland University study showed couples weigh more than single people - despite having healthier lifestyles and eating more fruit and vegetables. Stephanie Schoeppe, lead author, told NewScientist that it could be down to them no longer needing to impress potential suitors. And she warned that children can only add worsen weight problems, as parents tend to munch on their 'leftovers and snacks'. Australian scientists have today confirmed the theory that you pile on the pounds when you settle down in love She said: 'When couples dont need to look attractive and slim to attract a partner, they may feel more comfortable in eating more, or eating more foods high in fat and sugar. 'When couples have children in the household, they tend to eat the childrens leftovers or snacks.' Couples have for decades moaned about their battle with the bulge after falling in love. Cosy evenings spent binge-watching TV and munching popcorn on the sofa have taken the brunt of the blame. But the new study, published in the medical journal PLoS ONE, suggests the weight gain isn't from an unhealthy lifestyle. HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR BODY MASS INDEX - AND WHAT IT MEANS Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on your weight in relation to your height. Standard Formula: BMI = (weight in pounds / (height in inches x height in inches)) x 703 Metric Formula: BMI = (weight in kilograms / (height in meters x height in meters)) Measurements: Under 18.5: Underweight Underweight 18.5 - 24.9: Healthy Healthy 25 - 29.9: Overweight Overweight 30 or greater: Obese Advertisement It showed that couples consumed more fruit and vegetables and steered clear of fast food, alcohol and cigarettes. However, experts believe the reason behind comfort weight could be that 'couples are eating more of all food types together'. Dr Jerica Berge, from the University of Minnesota, commented how so-called date nights and romantic dinners out are responsible. She told NewScientist the findings 'may be because social behaviour in marriage commonly revolves around eating occassions'. Volunteers were quizzed about their lifestyle, such as how much fast food they ate and how much time they watched TV. An analysis of the answers then showed couples and singletons complete the same amount of exercise and sedentary behaviour, on average. Dr Berge explained this could stem down to couples wanting to live healthier lives to extend the span of their relationship. Dr Anja Heilmann, from University College London, said: 'How long youve been in the relationship for probably matters.' Americans spend nearly twice as much on health care than other high-income countries, yet they have the lowest life expectancy, a new study reveals. People in the US shell out $9,403 a year on health care services, while wealthy nations like Germany spend on average a little more $5,000. While it's been said that Americans use more medical services than peer countries, leading to higher costs, the study found salaries of physicians, as well as higher pharmaceutical prices play a significant roles in health care costs. The study, conducted by researchers at Harvard University, debunks many of the common beliefs people have about why the US spend so much money on healthcare. Americans spend more on health care than any other wealthy country, new research reveals Senior author Dr Ashish Jha, professor of Global Health at Harvard University, said it's well known that the US spend way more than peer nations to deliver care, but the common beliefs as to why these costs are so high - too many doctor visits, hospitalizations and procedures - aren't accurate. 'We already knew the US spends more on health care than other high income countries,' Dr Jha told Daily Mail Online. 'However, there are many different beliefs as to why this is the case.' 'The reasons for these substantially higher costs have been misunderstood: These data suggest that many of the policy efforts in the US have not been truly evidence-based,' Dr Jha said. For the study, Dr Jha and her colleagues examined international data collected between 2013 and 2016 to compare the US with 10 other high-income countries, including Canada, Germany, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, The UK, Switzerland and the Netherlands on key metrics that contribute to healthcare costs. They found that the main drivers of these prices are higher salaries for physicians and nurse, with US medical doctors making around $218,173 compared with a range of $86,607 to $154,126 in the other countries. The US also spend more money on drugs, with each American spending more than $1,443 a year on pharmaceuticals, while others nations spend between $466 and $939. Despite America's higher spending, citizens have worse health outcomes. Researchers found life expectancy in the US was the lowest of 11 countries at 78.8 years old, while people in other wealthy nations are expected to live between 80 and 83.9 years. They also found that the utilization of these medical services were about the same did not differ substantially from their peer countries, despite having higher costs. 'There is a belief that the US population uses a lot more health care services than other countries, thus driving costs. Yet, we found that the US has comparable rates of utilization overall, with lower numbers of physician visits and hospitalizations,' Dr Jha said. Researchers debunked another belief that claims the US doesn't spend enough money on social services that benefit health and helps prevent illness, thus contributing to higher health care costs. Although this is true - US spends a little less on social services than their peers - investigators claim that this is not responsible for the rising health care costs. 'While the US does spend a bit less on social services, it is not an outlier, spending more than countries like Canada,' Dr Jha said. The researchers conclude that it all comes down to prices. 'The data suggest two main factors drive higher healthcare spending in the US: higher prices across a wide range of health care services,and administrative costs.,' Dr Jha added. Policy expert Dr Ezekiel J. Emanuel, of the University of Pennsylvania, wrote an editorial review that claims high drug prices, administrative costs, as well as the excessive use of scans and surgical procedures are a few of the main reasons why American's spend more on health care than their peer's in Europe. Researchers of the current study say they hope their findings help inform policy decisions and lead to lower health care costs. 'Our findings illustrate the important differences in the prices and quality of healthcare services across countries,' Dr Jha said. 'We expect the paper to generate a discussion around the role of the high price of healthcare services in the US and about ways to lower those prices while maintaining or even improving quality.' Pennsylvania officials have reported an alarming increase in sexually transmitted infections in a county outside of Pittsburgh as local health experts say young people are more promiscuous than ever. Beaver County saw a 300 percent increase in HIV and 34 percent increase in gonorrhea among 15- to 24-year-olds in 2017 compared to 2016, and the trend has continued into 2018, according to the alert released early this month. Rates of STIs in the US have increased significantly in the last three years on record, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 50 percent of cases are diagnosed in people aged 15 to 24. Data suggests rates of sexual activity among teens and young adults have been consistent across the past few decades and use of contraception is increasing, so experts say budget cuts for STD prevention programs may be to blame. Beaver County in Pennsylvania had a 300 percent increase in HIV and 34 percent increase in gonorrhea among 15- to 24-year-olds in 2017 compared to 2016, and the trend has continued into 2018, according to the alert released early this month The Pennsylvania Department of Health issued an alert at the beginning of the month that there has been an increase in HIV and gonorrhea cases in Beaver County, located about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. There was a nearly 300 percent increase in HIV among 15- to 24-year-olds in 2017 compared to 2016. Gonorrhea cases saw a 34 percent increase among the same age group, which is nearly double the national increase during that time period. Health officials say there's been a similar trend in Allegheny County, the second-largest county in the state where Pittsburgh is located. 'Our incidence rates for syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV have and continue to exceed the state's incidence rates,' Dr Karen Hacker, Allegheny County health department director, told KDKA. Earlier this month, health officials in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, revealed that at least 125 people had been diagnosed with HIV, syphilis or both. The 'cluster' is being treated as a city-wide health issue particularly among people between the aged of 15 and 24. Dr Frank DiCenzo, an OB-GYN in Pittsburgh, claims that the increase is a result of teens being more promiscuous in recent years. 'I've seen high school students who tell me they've had multiple sexual partners,' DiCenco told KDKA. 'Ladies as young as 14. And they have what they call sex partners. Someone that is a friend that they have sex with.' Additionally, Dr DiCenzo said he thinks they are less likely to be using protection. However, available data does not support either of those conclusions. The most recent national data indicates that rates of sexual activity among adolescents and young adults have not changed in the last two decades, but there has been an increase in contraceptive use. In 2015, 30 percent of teens indicated that they were sexually active, meaning they had had sex at least once in the preceding three months, and 41 percent had had sex at least once in their lifetime. The number of teens who reported having had four or more sexual partners was 11.5 percent between 2011 and 2015, down from 19 percent in 2002. Data from 2011-2015 shows that 81 percent of female teens used some type of contraception when they first had intercourse, up from 74 percent in 2002. Similarly, 77 percent of male teens used a condom during first intercourse, up from 71 percent in 2002. From 2008 to 2014, the number of HIV cases in the US declined 18 percent. However, national rates for gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia have increased in each of the last three years on record - 2014, 2015 and 2016. Experts say a decrease in funding for STD programs may be behind the increase in rates. According to the CDC, more than half of state and local programs experienced budget cuts. 'One big challenge is cuts to STD control programs that means public health is constantly being asked to do a bigger job with diminishing resources,' Fred Wyand, director of communications at the American Sexual Health Association told Daily Mail Online. 'This a a discussion with much nuance and not a single, simple answer but public health advocates consistently report to an eroding STD prevention infrastructure as a key element in driving STD rates.' In February, Pennsylvania's Allegheny County opened a clinic that exclusively treats STDs and HIV in response to the increasing rates. Health officials in the area warn that anyone who is sexually active get tested because often symptoms take weeks or months to appear or never present at all. Recycled toilet water is just as tasty as bottled water, according to a new study. In the first ever 'blind' test of 'toilet to tap' water, volunteers even admitted they preferred it to drinking tap water. Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, today called for marketing campaigns to make sewage water 'less scary'. They claim people have to accept drinking water that comes directly from toilets amid fears of a global water shortage. Recycled toilet water is safe to drink because it contains no harmful components, which are all flushed out before it enters the drinking supply. In the first ever 'blind' taste test of 'toilet to tap' water, volunteers admitted they preferred it to drinking ordinary tap water Evoking disgust reactions Daniel Harmon, lead author, said: 'It seems that this term [wastewater], and the idea of recycled water in general, evokes disgust reactions. 'It is important to make recycled water less scary to people who are concerned about it, as it is an important source of water now and in the future.' How was the study carried out? The new study, published in the scientific journal Appetite, saw 143 volunteers take part in a 'blind' taste test involving indirect potable reuse (IDR) water. Researchers placed IDR-treated water, tap water and commercially bottled water in three identical cups that weren't labelled. Participants were then asked to rank the taste of each of the three different types of waters on a scale ranging from one to five. What did the study find? The researchers, who thought the waters would score equally, were baffled when tap water emerged as the least preferred option. Volunteers who were branded as nervous or anxious were found to like the taste of the IDR-treated and bottled water more. However, participants defined as being more open to new experiences were found to find little difference in taste between the three samples. WHAT IS 'TOILET TO TAP' WATER? The notion of drinking recycled wastewater has gained in momentum in California recently amid years of drought. Six water agencies in the Golden State already use technology dubbed 'from toilet to tap', including the city of Los Angeles. This system, called indirect potable reuse, or IDR, recycles used water and places it back into the drinking supply. The first step involves treating waste water to remove any solids, liquids, oils and bacteria in a process called microfiltration, CNN reports. The water is then put through reverse osmosis to flush out any traces of drugs and viruses. A UV light then treats the water to remove any other compounds. It is then rerouted to the drinking supply. Advertisement Professor Mary Gauvain, co-author of the study, said: 'The groundwater-based water was not as well liked as IDR or bottled water. 'We think that happened because IDR and bottled water go through remarkably similar treatment processes.' Professor Gauvain added this means they tend to have 'low levels of the types of tastes' that people tend to dislike. Women prefer bottled water In a separate finding, scientists unearthed how women are almost twice as likely to prefer bottled water than men. They believe this is because women register higher 'disgust reactions' and they are more vocal when they aren't keen on something. Researchers concluded that recycled water should be marketed in the same way as bottled water. They also said campaigns should be aimed at women. The World Economic Forum's annual survey of opinion leaders last year identified water crises as the top global risk over the next decade. Two-thirds of humanity currently live in zones that experience water scarcity at least one month a year. Half of those people are in China and India. The notion of drinking recycled wastewater has gained momentum in California recently amid years of drought. Six water agencies in the Golden State already use technology dubbed 'from toilet to tap', including the city of Los Angeles. The IDR system recycles used water and places it back into the drinking supply. Scientists have repeatedly tested the safety of IDR - but no experiments on its taste had ever been conducted prior to this. An 18-year-old who recently gave birth after being diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor is going Mexico for experimental treatment as there are no other options on US soil. Dana Scatton, of Pennsylvania, was given three to nine months to live in December after she was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a disease with less than one percent chance for survival, while seven months pregnant. The disease primarily affects about 300 children each year and is most commonly found in children younger than 10 years old, making her case extremely rare. The teen gave birth to baby girl Aries Marie on January 4, a month early so she could undergo several round of radiation to halt the progression of the rapidly growing tumor without harming the child. Last week, after completing radiation on February 1, her family decided their best option now is to head to an increasingly sought-after clinic in Mexico, which offers the only experimental treatment in the world for DIPG, in a bid to extend Dana's life. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Dana Scatton, 18, gave birth to her daughter Aries Marie at 33 weeks (pictured) after undergoing several rounds of radiation The teen (pictured hours after giving birth) from Pennsylvania was diagnosed with a rare and inoperable brain tumor in December while seven months pregnant DIPG tumors usually start in the brain stem, the part of the organ that's located just above the back of the neck and connected to the spine. It controls breathing, nerves and muscles that help people see, hear, walk, talk and eat. Unfortunately, there is no known cure for the disease and scant treatment options due to lack of funding for research. It is a vicious cycle: organizations are reluctant to fund research into something that seems so untreatable; most funding into child cancers goes to leukemia, which is the most researched child cancer. Without funding and research, it will remain mysterious - and in turn, it will remain difficult for researchers to get funding to dispel the mystery. Due to the tumor's location in Dana's brain, it has started taking over her motor functions - making it more difficult for her to walk, talk and breathe. However, Dana and her family received good news earlier this month when results from her MRI scan, following her radiation treatments, revealed it has shrunk 'with no signs of blocking her pons,' the part of the brain involved in the control of breathing, communication and balance. Now the family plans on going to Mexico for experimental chemotherapy treatment. 'Leading up to this appointment, weve been discussing what treatment is going to be best for Dana,' her family wrote on Dana's Facebook page. 'This was a huge decision. Any family going through this understands the process behind making this decision. However we once again put our faith in God to show us the way. And we believe He has pointed us towards Dr Siller and the team in Mexico,' it read. WHAT IS DIFFUSE INTRINSIC PONTINE GLIOMA (DIPG)? Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a rare type of brain tumor that can't be operated on because of it's location within a crucial part of the brain, called the pons. This area is responsible for a number of critical bodily functions, such as breathing, sleeping and blood pressure. The high-grade brain tumor, which mostly affects children, tends to grow quickly and often spreads to other parts of the brain or spinal cord. Most diagnoses occur in youngsters between the ages of five and 10. The cause of the tumor remains unknown. More than 90 percent of its victims will die within 18 months of diagnosis, according to figures. Each year, there are around 100 to 150 new diagnoses in the US. In the UK, it strikes between 20 and 30 each year. Symptoms include lack of facial control, double vision, headaches, vomiting, weakness, seizures and balance problems. One of the early indicators of the cancer is a child falling, tripping or losing balance. Advertisement According to the National Cancer Institute, clinical trials have shown that traditional chemotherapy aren't effective. As a result, many parents of DIPG patients from all over the world have turned to Dr Alberto Siller, who has a clinic located in Monterrey, Mexico, as a last resort. A family from Rogers, Arkansas flew to Monterrey, Mexico in July 2017 for their daughter Addy Sooter, three, who was diagnosed with DIPG, to receive experimental chemotherapy treatment at Dr Siller's 0-19 Clinic. In September 2017, an Australian family traveled to Monterrey in hopes of a last-ditch treatment for their then-four-year-old daughter Annabelle Nguyen, who was diagnosed with DIPG when she was two years old. Last month, the Annabelle's family revealed the now five-year-old has 'no evidence of disease,' a term used when scans and tests can't find cancer in a person who has been treated for the illness. Annabelle and Addy received intra-arterial chemotherapy, a type of treatment that delivers the anti-cancer medication directly to the tumor. Unlike traditional chemotherapy - which is systemic, and circulates the whole body via the bloodstream - intra-arterial is a local treatment that only treats the tumor, thus reducing complications and side effects associated with the drug, such as nausea and vomiting. These treatments cost about $300,000. The US currently doesn't have any equivalent DIPG treatments. Furthermore, scientists at Johns Hopkins University, one of the few institutions researching DIPG, question whether intra-arterial chemotherapy is even effective against the disease. Aries Marie was born on January 4 via c-section after Dana's symptoms from the brain tumor began to get worse Dana's mother Lenore, 51, told Daily Mail Online that her daughter's diagnosis was devastating to the family Dana told Daily Mail Online in December that right before she was diagnosed she started to experience difficulty speaking, which had become strenuous. 'I noticed that it took me a little to swallow, then walking got harder and it was even hard to speak,' Dana said. She said things got worse in the beginning of December when she went to catch the bus to take her to school and her legs began to feel limp, leaving her too unable to walk properly. At first Dana thought it could just be stress from the pregnancy and school. 'I thought it could be the way the baby was sitting on nerves,' she added. Less than two weeks after her initial symptoms, Dana told her doctor what she was experiencing during a routine visit to check on the baby. She was in the emergency room the next day where she underwent a cat scan and MRI that found a large tumor on the base of her brain. Within hours of the MRI doctors delivered the diagnosis and prognosis. Dana said the first thing that went through her mind when she heard the diagnosis was: 'Is my baby going to be okay?' Dana said, 'The battle has already been won,' referring to the successful birth of her daughter. She is pictured with her parents before having the c-section Her mother Lenore, 51, told Daily Mail Online she had a similar thought: 'Am I going to lose my baby?' While the prognosis of DIPG is devastating, Dana remains hopeful. 'I'm not going to go by what they say, I'm expecting a miracle,' she added. Most diagnoses of DIPG occur in patients between five and 10 years old. It is unknown what causes the tumor and doctors do not believe the pregnancy had an impact on the diagnosis. Symptoms of the tumor include lack of facial control, headaches, weakness, seizures, balance problems and ultimately death. 'Sometimes it gets harder to walk and it is strenuous because my muscles are always working,' Dana said. Radiation is the most common form of treatment to kill cancer cells and stop the tumors from growing. The treatment provides a temporary cure to extend life, but does not fully rid the body of the disease. The news of Dana's diagnosis has been devastating to her and the family, according to Lenore. She said: 'We're in kind of a daze. Your mind is going a mile a minute and it's hard to absorb the things they tell you at the hospital.' Both Lenore and Dana's father Robert have taken time off of their jobs at Amazon and a YMCA to take care of their daughter full-time. Dana is the youngest of nine children between her mother and father. The support from family and friends has been overwhelming and Lenore said that since Dana's brother JJ took to Facebook and made a GoFundMe for medical expenses, people from around the world including Ukraine and Germany have reached out to send their prayers and support. Dana said: 'I just want to be a wonderful mother.' Advertisement Racing up the Tianmen Mountain in China is a death-defying feat in itself. A fearless driver needs to master no fewer than 99 hairpin bends with drops of more than 4,000 feet on the other side for just over seven miles of treacherous tarmac. A specially adapted Ferrari supercar had previously set a time of 10 minutes and 31 seconds in September 2016 - but that's been thoroughly obliterated in the last few weeks... and by a Range Rover you could use on the school run. Tongtian Highway, also known as the 'Dragon's Road' because of the tail-like twists and turns, is widely regarded as one of the deadliest routes on the planet, making it prime for against-the-clock attempts to set record times. The vehicle that's just taken the title isn't a specially-crafted lightweight racer - it's a 2.3-tonne souped-up Range Rover Sport SVR you can buy in showrooms today. Piloted by Panasonic Jaguar Racing's Formula E driver Ho-Pin Tung, the supercharged 4X4 set a new record by reaching the finish line at the peak of the seven-mile road in 9 minutes and 51 seconds. That's an average speed of 42.8mph to scale the 1,519-metre-high mountain in the Zhangjiajie National Park in the northwestern part of Hunan Province of China. The record trimmed a full 40 seconds off the previous fastest time set by Fabio Barone, president of the Ferrari Club Passione Rossa of Italy, in a Ferrari 458 supercar less than two years ago. Record breaker: A collection of stunning images showed the Range Rover Sport being navigated up the treacherous mountain route The route, known as the Dragon's Road because of its twisting, tail-like, turns, has drops of over 4,000 feet if you drive off course The mountain road, which was built between 1998 and 2006, is made up of no fewer than 99 hairpin bends - a couple you can see in this image The miraculous record was achieved shortly after Land Rover's new Range Rover Sport Plug-In Hybrid completed the same course in February. The plug-in SUV navigated the route - and a 45-degree staircase of 999 steps up to the Heaven's Gate cave at the mountain summit - in 22 minutes and 41 seconds, as we reported last month. However, the rapid pace in which the SVR - which retails for 99,680 - managed the spaghetti-like mountain road this time round is arguably the greater achievement of the two, especially considering how perilous the course is when driving at a blistering pace. The previous record was help by Fabio Barone, president of the Ferrari Club Passione Rossa of Italy, who set the time in September 2016 Rather than a family SUV, his car of choice was a specially adapted Ferrari 458 Italia with a lightweight chassis Barone set a time of 10 minutes and 31 seconds - some 40 seconds slower than Formula E driver Ho-Pin Tung managed in the Range Rover According to dangerousroads.org, a database of the most treacherous roads in the world, the highest point is 4,265 feet above sea level. In fact, the starting line at the bottom is already 656 feet above sea level. The road was first constructed in 1998 and took eight years to complete at the cost of $16.2 million. Due to the high elevation of the mountain, the day time is longer than night hours. The sunrise on the mountain is 30 minutes earlier and the sunset is some 45 minutes later than it is in the nearest city, according to reports. Look at that drop: The Tongtian Highway is widely regarded as one of the most deadly roads in the world, and you can see why The Range Rover SVR might be a family SUV, but it does pack a punch. With 567bhp, it's 5bhp more powerful than the Ferrari that held the record before it The Dragon's Road took eight years to complete and cost a whopping $16.2 million by the time it was finished in 2006 It may be an SUV but it has the performance and agility of a supercar and can take you to places a supercar can only dream of Driver, Ho-Pin Tung Ho-Pin Tung, who was also at the wheel of the Range Rover Sport Plug-In Hybrid for the earlier challenge, said: 'I am used to the high speeds of racing but this was even more demanding. 'Maintaining concentration was the biggest challenge as the road twists and turns constantly, with huge drop-offs to the side. 'The consequences of getting it wrong would have been really serious so I focused on establishing a rhythm and the Range Rover Sport SVR made this easy it may be an SUV but it has the performance and agility of a supercar and can take you to places a supercar can only dream of.' At the wheel was Ho-Pin Tung, Panasonic Jaguar Racing's Formula E driver who is also employed by the British manufacturer as an official test driver of its most extreme models Tung completed the 7-mile course at an average speed of 42.8mph. The route scales 1,519-metres up the Tianmen Mountain in the Zhangjiajie National Park in the northwestern part of Hunan Province of China The Range Rover Sport SVR is the fastest Land Rover ever produced for the road and can hit a top speed of 174mph The 5.0-litre V8 supercharged engine in the Range Rover Sport SVR produces 567bhp and makes it the fastest Land Rover ever produced for the road. It can accelerate from 0 to 62mph in 4.5 seconds, has a top speed of 174mph and weighs almost twice as much as the Ferrari it took the Tongtian Highway title from. Here's how the two vehicles compare on paper... Melrose has come back to the table with a better and final offer for engineering champion GKN which it says represents a 43 per cent premium. In spite of scepticism towards Melroses myopic approach, its hostile bid demonstrates how undervalued GKN had become on the FTSE 100 in spite of leading edge technology in motor cars and aerospace. The revised bid is worth 8.1billion, or 467p per share, against the 500p value per share which GKNs management aims to deliver. Melrose has come back to the table with a better and final offer for engineering champion GKN which it says represents a 43 per cent premium Melrose has done shareholders a huge favour by recognising some serious mispricing. It is impossible to be entirely happy with GKNs escape route, which involves a white-knight merger of its automotive arm with US drive-shaft maker Dana. This potentially could shift production from Redditch in the UK to Ohio in the US. GKN, with its valuable driveline and e-drive technology, was the last quoted company standing in the UK motor industry. Melrose has proved very good at delivering quick returns with other deals. But the biggest beneficiaries have been Melrose proprietors, guided by former Hanson accountant Chris Miller. As GKN chairman Mike Turner points out, the 11 Melrose directors have received the same in performance incentives as the companys entire spend on research and development over the last five years. When the Beast from the East left Britain short of gas supplies, it provided a sharp remainder as to how dependent the UK is on the kindness of continental strangers for energy security In hard numbers, Melrose bosses have collected 458million-plus in pay and bonuses in recent years and would stand to gain a further 285million if break-up plans for GKN are successful. That is almost three-quarter of a billion pounds, most of which could have gone to pension funds and been shared with employees or invested in Britains future. By voting with Melrose, investor Aviva has betrayed those who trust the big pensions group and insurer with 377billion of funds under its control to do the right thing. It is the accumulation of personal wealth at the expense of other stakeholders which makes the Melrose offer so toxic. Britain has long been a great exemplar of free market, Anglo-Saxon capitalism and long may it remain so. But there can be no prizes for abusing the system by allowing Melrose bosses to enrich themselves at the expense of other stakeholders. The Melrose model places financial engineering above genuine engineering. If approved Melrose can only do damage to the efforts of governance mavens to create a more sharing capitalism. It would be shameful if the long-term investors were to follow Aviva and allow Melrose to trample over the broader good. Power play When the Beast from the East left Britain short of gas supplies just a fortnight ago, it provided a sharp remainder as to how dependent the UK is on the kindness of continental strangers for energy security. Now British consumers find themselves at the mercy of a carve up of assets between Germanys two energy behemoths, RWE and Eon. Under the 38billion deal, RWE will focus on power generation, including the renewables owned by ailing Innogy, and Eon will largely become a distribution enterprise. Once again the UK finds itself powerless. Innogy owns Npower, one of our big six energy groups. It has been planning to merge its operations with SSE, creating a UK-listed company with 11.5million customers. If all that happens, the big six could become the big four reducing the competition among energy groups in Britain. It will not be the first time that decisions taken in Germany have messed with UK energy. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has shown Singapore-based Broadcom a yellow card following its 84billion bid for American chipmaker Qualcomm After the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011, Angela Merkel decreed that Germany wanted nothing to do with nuclear any longer. RWE and Eon almost immediately reneged on promises to invest in new nuclear in the UK. Clearly the UK authorities will scrutinise the impact of the reshaped industry on consumers and may lodge objections with the European Commission. But when Britain allows its vital infrastructure to be sold to overseas buyers it becomes a policy taker rather than giver. Deep fried America knows how to look after its strategic interests. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has shown Singapore-based Broadcom a yellow card following its 84billion bid for American chipmaker Qualcomm. Broadcom is trying to circumvent scrutiny by shifting domicile to America. But CFIUS says the ploy wont work and threatens to hand the matter over to President Trump. Yikes. Peter Plumb, the wonderfully named chief executive of takeaway firm Just Eat, is learning quickly that he cant have his cake and eat it, too. The ex-boss of comparison site MoneySupermarket last week announced a 50million investment plan to head off the threat of rivals Uber and Deliveroo. Just Eat processes takeaway orders on behalf of restaurants, which deliver the food themselves. However, Plumb wants to expand on its trial with KFC and Burger King by investing in a fleet of its own delivery drivers. Peter Plumb, the wonderfully named chief executive of takeaway firm Just Eat, is learning quickly that he cant have his cake and eat it, too But as he is finding out, keeping investors and brokers happy while trying to grow the company is a tough task. Analysts at Deutsche Bank delivered Just Eat a downgrade from Hold to Sell on the basis that the investment plans will hit profitability. It also cut the firms target price from 830p to 630p. In a note to investors, Deutsche warned the firm doesnt have the first mover advantage in delivery. It added: While we think this move is strategic to defend Just Eats leadership position against higher competition, it will come at the expense of profitability. The warning hit Just Eats share price, which fell 5.2 per cent in mid-morning trading. By the end of the day shares were down 0.9 per cent, or 6.8p, at 781.6p. It means the firms shares have fallen 8.2 per cent since the plans were announced last Tuesday. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 edged down 0.14 per cent, or 9.75 points, to 7214.76. On the FTSE 250, drug makers Hikma Pharmaceuticals and Vectura suffered a setback in their quest to develop a generic version of Glaxosmithklines popular asthma treatment, Advair Diskus On the FTSE 250, drug makers Hikma Pharmaceuticals and Vectura suffered a setback in their quest to develop a generic version of Glaxosmithklines popular asthma treatment, Advair Diskus. The US drugs regulator rejected an appeal from Hikma to stop it from having to put the drug through another clinical trial. As a result, the drug wont be ready to hit the shelves until at least 2020. At closing, Hikmas shares had dipped 2 per cent, or 18.4p, to 880p, while Vecturas had slipped 2.3 per cent, or 1.85p, to 79.5p. Life isnt exactly a party for alcohol distributor Conviviality, the owner of Bargain Booze, at the moment. STOCK WATCH: Thruvision The next time a Thruvision investor walks through one of its scanners at an airport, the only thing security staff will find on them is wads of cash. The AIM-listed company plans to give 8m back to shareholders after the sale of its video business to Volpi Capital in October. Separately, Thruvision whose scanners can detect weapons and drugs says international sales look strong going into the new financial year. Shares rocketed 24.4 per cent, or 2.4p, to 12.25p. A material error in the firms forecasts last week wiped 64 per cent off the value of its shares. Now it has been hit with a double downgrade by analysts Investec, who cut its rating from Buy to Hold and reduced its target price from 455p to 120p. Despite this, the analysts believe last weeks profit warning is not a sign of deep, underlying problems at the company. In a note it said: The reasons behind Convivialitys profit warning are operational and fixable and we understand management has already put corrective actions in place. Shares rebounded 6.3 per cent, or 6.8p, to 114.8p. A major deal with Microsoft for big data firm WANdisco sent its shares fizzing. WANdiscos Fusion live data platform, which replicates firms data so employees can access it anywhere, will be sold as a package with Microsoft Azure, which allows the transfer of large sets of data. David Richards, the chief executive of WANdisco, said: This is another exciting development in our relationship with Microsoft and significantly expands our sales channel opportunities. Analysts at Peel Hunt said the move could be the first step in WANdiscos platform becoming a Microsoft-owned asset. It told investors: We believe there are several key insights to be gained from the announcement including immediacy of the pipeline and the magnitude of the opportunity, all solidifying our positive stance towards WANdisco. WANdisco shares hopped 2.7 per cent, or 21p, to 785p. Lady Judge resigned from the Institute of Directors on Friday The increasingly pointless Institute of Directors didnt waste time airbrushing chairman Lady Judge, 71, from its records. Within an hour of resigning on Friday after accusations of racism, sexism, and bullying all strongly denied Lady Js wraith-like profile had been wiped from the IoDs website. More musical chairs at Goldman Sachs where pugnacious chief Lloyd Blankfein, 63, is rumoured to be standing down this year. Company president Harvey Schwartz, 52, has announced hell retire next month, possibly as co-president David Solomon, 55, is fancied for the top job. Theres also sniping among senior management after Blankfein rehired former executive Dina Powell, 44, who recently left her role as an adviser to Donald Trump. A vipers nest, no? But goateed philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 57, surely went over the top last week by remarking: The best thing that could happen to society is the bankruptcy of Goldman Sachs. City law firm Devonshires is accused of mind-boggling sexism for inviting female clients attending tomorrows Housing Finance Conference in Liverpool for a pampering afternoon of Beauty, Bubbles and Business. One client, Barbara Spicer, asks facetiously: Do they have a B******s, Beer & Business one? The gender debates becoming an unnavigable minefield, so isnt it oddly satisfying to see even the lawyers getting themselves in a muddle? Boisterous Ryanair chief Michael OLeary, 56, has two runners in Thursdays Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham, which hes not won in the 15 years his airline has sponsored the race. What would happen if he did? With pilots threatening Easter strikes over pay, their 2.8m-a-year boss could hardly trouser the 300,000 prize money. Then again, this is OLeary were talking about... Mipim, the annual property conference held in Cannes, kicks off today. The four-day jamboree has been mired by stories of bawdy yacht parties along the towns Promenade de la Croisette, where developers, bankers and local government officials guzzle champagne and canoodle with bikini-clad ladies of ill-repute. Sounds ghastly, but I thought Id better head down there and check it out anyway. Have you any gossip for our City diary? Email: mrdeedes@dailymail.co.uk The chief executive of Barclays will be handed up to 4million of shares over the next seven years as part of a bonus bonanza unveiled by the bank. Yacht-loving Jes Staley will get a pay-out to top up his basic salary, and another to reward him if he hits long-term targets. The 61-year-old also picked up 500,000 of shares this month in bonus payments from 2017 and as part of his salary for this year. He will be paid a total of 3.9million for last years work. Under fire: The chief executive of Barclays Jes Staley with his wife Debora The bank is bracing itself for the results of an investigation by the City watchdog which could in the worst case see Staley lose his job. He took charge of Barclays two years ago after Antony Jenkins was sacked for taking too long to turn around the lender. American banker Staley was previously a senior figure at JP Morgan and thought of as a candidate to succeed Jamie Dimon as boss of the US investment bank. But like many once earmarked for the role, he moved on as it became clear Dimon was not budging, Staley first headed for a hedge fund before joining Barclays two years later. He has since focused on building up Barclays investment bank and sold its African operations to focus on the US and UK. The father of two a keen sailor who owns a hand-built 90ft yacht, Bequia, named after the Caribbean island where he spent his honeymoon with interior designer wife Debora has presided over a cull of more than 53,000 staff in a battle to get costs under control. He has previously stressed his determination to improve diversity at the bank. Staley owns a hand-built 90ft yacht, Bequia, named after the Caribbean island where he spent his honeymoon with interior designer wife Debora The topic is close to his heart because of his brother Peter, a prominent gay rights activist who has spoken about his struggle with HIV and former addiction to crystal meth. But the battle for equality suffered a setback last month when Barclays revealed its high-earning international division pays women half as much as men on average, as most senior bankers are male. He has also been forced to grapple with fraud charges against the bank over a controversial 2008 fundraising in Qatar that kept Barclays in private hands after the financial crisis. The bank denies wrongdoing. Staley is also awaiting results from a Financial Conduct Authority probe after he wrongly tried to uncover the identity of a whistleblower behind a letter attacking a staff member who had previously worked with Staley at JP Morgan. The debacle is likely to cost Staley much of his 2016 bonus and could even see the FCA force him to quit. Barclays yesterday revealed its top nine staff will get up to 14million in shares over the next seven years, and were given 22.2million of stock this month in salary payments and bonus schemes. Its one female executive committee member, interim compliance head Laura Padovani, got substantially less than her colleagues at 212,000. But sources said this is because she has only been in the job since November, not because her contract is less generous than her male colleagues. Farfetch has scored a deal with Harvey Nichols as rumours swirl it is preparing for a 3.6billion listing in the US. The London-based online fashion firm, which sells more than 880 luxury brands through its website and is backed by Net-A-Porter founder Natalie Massenet, is said to be gearing up for an IPO in the US this year. According to the FT, Farfetch has lined up bankers from JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to lead the float Farfetch was founded in 2008 by Portuguese entrepreneur Jose Neves and is co-chaired by Net-A-Porter founder Natalie Massenet (pictured) Though Farfetch is worth around 720million it is understood to be seeking to list at a value similar to rival Yoox Net-a-Porter, which is worth 3.6billion. Farfetch was founded in 2008 by Portuguese entrepreneur Jose Neves and is co-chaired by Massenet. Net-a-Porter merged with Italian firm Yoox in 2015 and is the worlds largest online luxury retailer. Massenet surprisingly left on the eve of the merger. The daughter of a publicist and model, she was a fashion journalist, working at Tatler, before founding her own firm. The 52-year-old mother of three was made a Dame in 2016 and is on the British Fashion Council, the industry body. Harvey Nichols, the luxury department store, will start selling its goods through Farfetch later this year. It has eight stores in the UK and Ireland with seven in Hong Kong, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. AstraZeneca has pushed back the release of results for a key lung cancer drug trial Astrazeneca has pushed back the release of results for a key lung cancer drug trial. The pharmaceuticals giant originally said the findings would be revealed in the first half of 2018 but said yesterday they will be announced in the second half. Known as Mystic, the trial will show whether its Imfinzi drug gives patients with non-small cell lung cancer a better chance of survival. Initial results in July showed a combination of Imfinzi with another drug, tremelimumab, was no more effective than chemotherapy, sending shares plunging by 16 per cent in a day. Astra said: Based on current predictions, the final analysis of overall survival is now expected in the second half of 2018, previously anticipated in the first half. The Mystic trial is being conducted at 167 facilities across 17 countries. Lung cancer is the biggest cause of cancer death among men and women, accounting for roughly one third of deaths related to the disease. Uber is beefing up its food delivery arm with plans to launch in 40 more UK cities Uber is beefing up its food delivery arm with plans to launch in 40 more UK cities. The US-based firm, known for its taxi smartphone app, said the move was part of a major expansion. This will also see it roll out the service to 60 other cities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Jason Droege, the companys head of logistics, explained it was because Uber Eats had been more successful than expected. The business operates in 14 UK cities, including London, Glasgow and Cardiff. But Uber is jostling for a bigger chunk of the food delivery sector. Eve Sleep lost 19million last year on sales of just 27million, the company revealed Eve Sleep lost 19million last year on sales of just 27million, the company revealed. Losses shot up 41 per cent as the online mattress retailer dealt with costs associated with listing on the London Stock Exchange. Its bottom line was also hit by a significant increase in marketing spend, which soared 119 per cent to 17.2million. It advertises predominantly on Facebook, Google and television. Sales at Eve, which sells its products in the UK, Germany and France, jumped 132 per cent to 27.7million. The firm is one of a new breed of mattress retailers that have become popular in recent months. Like rivals Simba and Casper, Eve Sleep sells memory-foam mattresses that arrive to customers rolled up inside a cardboard box. Chief executive Jas Bagniewski said Eve is targeting UK profitability at the end of 2018. Emily Stella of digital media firm Global Data warned the market was becoming overcrowded. A woman who died in a blaze outside a school ran up and down screaming before passers-by tried to smother her in coats to stop the flames. Several motorists stopped and tried to help the woman, who later died at the scene outside a secondary school yesterday afternoon, according to witnesses. A team of police and firemen battled to save the life of the woman, who has not been identified, after she set herself on fire in Richmond, South West London. Meanwhile it emerged this afternoon that police are examining CCTV footage from a petrol station, and locals are claiming the woman used to live at a nearby hostel. There have also been suggestions that someone put flammable liquid on the woman's clothes before she caught fire, but this has not been verified. Fire crews rushed to help a woman who was burning to death near Christ's School in Richmond The woman, who has not yet been identified, was attended by police, firemen and paramedics ablaze outside Christ's School and Sixth Form Centre. A team of more than ten members of the emergency services erected a blue tarpaulin as they tried in vain to resuscitate her. Local residents in Richmond watched on in horror from their windows and were stuck inside their homes for two hours. James Quinn, 27, described the moment his friend was driving past the woman and stopped to help. He said: 'She was on the common running up and down ablaze and people were getting out of their cars and trying to help her, my friend got out his car to try and help. 'There were school kids watching from the windows. Once emergency services had arrived there was no chance in saving her.' Today, a single bunch of daffodils were left at the scene with a note which read: 'Thinking of you, sending you and your family love and healing light.' A teacher at Christ's School who said: 'I don't know if pupils saw what happened but I know people were desperately trying to put coats around her and cover her to try and put the flames out, it's just terrible.' Staff at a nearby Shell petrol station confirmed officers had taken CCTV from between 12pm and 1pm yesterday - less than two hours before the woman died. The garage is less than quarter-of-a-mile from the spot where the woman is believed to have caught on fire and burned to death. A staff member at Shell said: 'The police came in yesterday and took the CCTV from between 12pm and 1pm. 'They said they were investigating the death of a woman who was middle aged. Nothing odd happened yesterday. I have not heard anything out of the ordinary - the police just came and took the footage. But they did say they did not think she was local.' Shocked locals laid flowers at the scene where the woman died and say there is a rumour that the woman once lived at the Queen's Road Hostel, less than 200 yards from where she caught ablaze. Police were called to the area in Richmond yesterday and are investigating the incident The woman, who refused to give her name, said: 'I heard that this woman used to live at the hostel here and that somebody put something flammable on her clothes and she set on fire. It is awful, I do not know any more than that.' One local, who refused to give his name, watched aghast as emergency services tried to save the woman behind a sheet of blue tarpaulin. He said: 'We were stuck inside for at least two hours and there was a car parked outside our driveway. 'The first thing my wife and I noticed was a lot of people holding up a sheet of blue and all the emergency services were working together to resuscitate her. 'Within about 20 minutes an air ambulance turned up and they spent about an hour trying to revive her but it did not work. 'It is very sad, but strange as my neighbours nor the residents' association know anything about why or what happened.' Guy Lloyd, who witnessed the incident, said: 'I saw a person on the floor in flames and people putting the flames out as I went past. I thought it was a man to be honest. I didn't know it was a woman - they were very badly burnt. Very sad.' Four fire engines and 21 firefighters and officers were called to the scene just after 1.10pm yesterday. A staff member said the death is not connected to the school. Dr Karen Kendel-Smith said: 'This is dreadful. I was in the queue of traffic just a couple of hundred yards away as all of the emergency vehicles came to the scene. It was clear it was a critical situation. An incredible response from the emergency services - I'm so sorry they couldn't save her.' Witness Jim Corbett, 64, told the Sun: 'I saw around four drivers stop and try to help the woman. A van driver who covered her with blankets was a real hero but he seemed to realise there was little he could do to save her.' Another local added: 'Children would have seen the flames from classroom windows but thankfully could not see what was burning.' The road outside the school was closed off and buses were diverted as police and forensic officers began work in the area. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Police were called at approximately 1.15pm to reports of a woman on fire in the street in Queen's Road, Richmond. Officers, London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade attended the scene. 'The woman was pronounced dead at the scene at 1.41pm. Enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing - at this early stage the death is being treated as unexplained.' A London Fire Brigade spokesman said: 'Fire crews from Kingston, Twickenham and Heston fire stations attended the scene. Sadly one woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of the fire is under investigation.' The US may enter the Syria conflict as violence escalates in the eastern region of Ghouta. US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley gave a stern warning on Monday that Washington 'remains prepared to act if we must' after a UN Security Council ceasefire last month failed. She said the US would step in if the UN Security Council fails to act in Syria, in the conflict that has already killed half a million people, and is now pounding on the region of Ghouta. The Syrian army's attack in Ghouta has seen the area riddled with air and artillery strikes, towns overrun with smoke, buildings destroyed and 1,160 slaughtered since February 18. The Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta has been hammered by air and artillery strikes by Assad's army, a shelling attack pictured above on March 12, 2018 The violence has seen 1,160 dead since February 18, a child victim of an airstrike in Zamalka, a suburb in Ghouta above March 12, despite the UN Security Council's ceasefire agreement last month US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the UN Security Council Monday that the US would intervene in the conflict if the UN failed to implement the ceasefire that was announced February 24 The Security Council demanded a 30-day ceasefire across Syria in a unanimously adopted resolution on February 24. However war has waged on in Syria, in a conflict that has now lasted eight years. Russia and Syrian government run Damascus say that the ceasefire does not protect the fighters in eastern Ghouta as they are members of banned terrorist groups. The army, by orders of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad seeks to crush the last big rebel stronghold there, near the capital of Damascus. 'There has been no cessation of hostilities. Violence continues in eastern Ghouta and beyond - including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and into Damascus and its suburbs,' UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday. 'No sieges have been lifted ... To our knowledge, not one critically sick or wounded person has yet been evacuated,' Guterres added. The violence now pounds on the region of Eastern Ghouta, which has been besieged for years after residents joined protests against Assad's rule in 2011, which triggered the civil war. The UN says 400,000 people live in the enclave, already suffering shortages of food and medicine even before the massive assault began in mid-February. Assad says the assault on eastern Ghouta is needed to end the rule of Islamist insurgents over the civilian population and to stop mortar fire on nearby Damascus. Haley put pressure on the council to enforce the ceasefire on Monday. 'It is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take, and we are prepared to take again,' Haley said to the 15-member Security Council. At the meeting in New York Monday she said: 'It is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take, and we are prepared to take again' Despite the UN agreement on the ceasefire, Russia and Assad's regime rendered it obsolete saying that the fighters they were targeting are terrorists and therefore exempt from the pact Haley, right, pictured with Trump, said at the meeting that Washington 'remains prepared to act if we must' Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ignored the ceasefire and struck eastern Ghouta with air and artillery strikes in an effort to demolish the rebel fighters centered there East Ghouta, where many rebel fighters are located sits near the capital Damascus, which is controlled by the Syrian government 'When the international community consistently fails to act, there are times when states are compelled to take their own action,' she added. Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said some states accused the Syrian government of carrying out chemical weapons attacks in a bid to 'prepare the ground for the unilateral use of force against sovereign Syria.' 'We have heard hints of that in the statements of some delegations today. Basically steps are being weighed which could hit regional stability very, very hard,' Nebenzia said. Syria jets were also seek in the country's south striking rebel-occupied towns, according to rebels and residents. The aerial attacks were the first since the US and Russia declared Syrian air space a 'de-escalation zone' in November 2017. The US intervened in the conflict last year when the government bombed a Syrian government air base over a deadly chemical weapons attack. The de-escalation zone has been flaunted by the Trump administration as a sign of progress with Russia on reducing the Syrian conflict. Monday the US State Department said it was so concerned by the onslaught of violence in Syria that it called an 'urgent meeting' in Jordan to maintain the de-escalation zone. If (reports of the strikes are) true, this would be a clear violation of the (southwest) ceasefire by the Syrian regime that broadens the conflict,' a State Department official said. 'We urge all parties in the southwest de-escalation zone not to take actions that would jeopardize the ceasefire and make future cooperation more difficult,' the official added. The current assault on Ghouta is reportedly one of the heaviest in the war. A plea for help: A displaced refugee asks for help in a government-run shelter after he was evacuated by the army from eastern Ghouta, pictured on March 12, 2018 A war with no pity: Children covered in blood and dust seek medical treatment after the Assad Regime struck over the suburb of Zamalka in eastern Ghouta, pictured March 12 With his face still covered in soot, a Syrian man received medical help, in the aftermath of the Syrian government's strike on the Zamalka suburb, after Assad's army ignored the UN's Buildings have been reduced to little but debris in Douma, a town in the rebel enclave of eastern Ghouta. Two boys above pictured March 12 gather goods they find in the wreckage Smoke smothers crumbling buildings in the aftermath of a Syrian government bombardment in Harasta, a town in eastern Ghouta massive pounding throughout the region on March 12 The town of Douma in eastern Ghouta is covered in soot with few people walking about after the bloodbath at the hands of the Syrian army which killed over 1,160 in a less than a month Local authorities report thousands of families sleeping in the open because there is no longer space in backed cellars to take shelter from the assaults from their own government. The few shelters that are available are heavily damaged and inhabitable. A video from inside Douma, Syria reveals a man cowering in a shelter and saying: 'It is completely uninhabitable. It is not even safe to put chickens in. There is no bathroom, just one toilet, and there are 300 people'. The violence in Douma saw people trapped alive under rubble and rescuers unable to reach them due to the intensity of the raids. 70 people were also buried in a town park because the violence made it unsafe to reach the cemetery located on the outskirts of the city. Assad's forces have captured more than half the rebel enclave, besieging Douma and the large town of Harasta, cutting off the area on Saturday and Sunday. Despite the violence the hundreds took to the streets to protest the war in the town of Kafr Batna, demanding a deal to end it. Some groups have made deals amongst themselves - Jaish al-Islam, one of eastern Ghouta's main rebel groups announced Monday it reached an agreement with Russia - who supports the Assad regime - to evacuate wounded people. The deal was made possible after talks with Moscow via the United Nations. A UN spokeswoman, however, claimed the UN was not part of the deal. On Monday The Observatory announced that the death toll in the civil war has passed half a million people. It has confirmed the deaths of 511,000 people, it said, and has the names of more than 350,000 of them. About 85 percent were killed by government forces and their allies, it said. The expulsion of the rebels from eastern Ghouta would represent their biggest defeat since they lost their enclave in Aleppo in December 2016. The rebels now control large areas in the northwest and southwest and a few scattered pockets elsewhere. They have been driven away from most major population centers. This is the bizarre moment a diver comes out of the sea with a huge octopus clinging to his back. The creature can be seen wrapping its tentacles around the man as he tries to shake it off. It is not clear where the footage was filmed, but the diver appears to be speaking Greek. The video begins with him gently swimming towards the cameraman, who appears to be standing on board a boat. Suddenly realising the octopus is attached to his back, the diver ducks under the water to try to get it off. But as he rises to the surface, the enormous creature is still wrapping its tentacles around him. This is the bizarre moment a diver comes out of the sea with a huge octopus clinging to his back The creature can be seen wrapping its tentacles around the man as he tries to shake it off by ducking under the water Smiling as he tries to disentangle the octopus from him, the diver doesn't appear fazed Smiling as he tries to disentangle it from him, the diver doesn't appear fazed. He eventually manages to peel the octopus's tentacles off him. He eventually manages to peel the octopus's enormous tentacles off his shoulders The manager of an IHOP restaurant has apologized after a server asked a group of black teenagers to pay for their meal upfront. Melvin Escobar, manager of the Auburn, Maine, branch told the Sun Journal 'this is the first time it happened, and that will be the last time'. Sunday's incident came to the attention of Escobar after a young man from Monmouth, Avery Gagne, posted about it on Facebook. Gagne had just finished eating dinner with his parents when they heard a server ask a group of black teens to pay for their meal upfront, saying it was a 'new generation thing'. The manager of this IHOP in Auburn, Maine issued an apology on Monday after one of their servers asked a group of black teens to pay before they got their meal Avery Gagne witnessed the incident on Sunday, which he believed to be discriminatory. He posted about it on Facebook, and the post caught the attention of the restaurant's manager Avery Gagne is pictured above in a Facebook photo. He was with his parents when they witnessed the interaction between a group of black teens and a server Gagne and his parents then stood up and complained about what they had just witnessed. 'The woman who requested they pay upfront came over and began to tell us how it was what management has asked her to do as they have had walk outs etc. She then looked at my parents and I and said "it's not because of their color". 'Now what I didn't tell you at the beginning of this post was that these were four African American teens who I believe were Somali as the girl was wearing a hijab. The reason why I didn't mention that is because it does not matter. The woman took it upon herself to make this group of teens pay for their meal upfront because she considered them "high risk". 'I don't care who has walked out on your establishment. That does not give you the right to determine who you believe is going to or not,' Gagne wrote. The post quickly went viral and made its way back to the manager, who posted an apology on the restaurant's Facebook page on Monday. 'We would like to reach out to all of our valued guests and the community on behalf of an incident that took place in our establishment. It was brought to our attention immediately, and we are handling matters in order to correct the issue. 'We apologize sincerely on behalf of our waitstaffs actions. A meeting has taken place with all of our staff members. Everyone has been made aware of these inexcusable actions and reminded how we handle matters correctly in the future. We have rectified the situation and can guarantee this is not what we condone to go on within our restaurant. The manager of the restaurant issued an apology and said he's had a talk with the server. He does not believe the incident was racially motivated 'Please spare our credibility, as this situation is not a reflection of the service we strive to deliver. Auburn IHOP pride ourselves on providing a happy, enjoyable, and memorable dining experience' Escobar wrote. Escobar says he believes the server's actions were not racially motivated but she was worried the kids would duck out on the $100 bill. He says the restaurant has recently had some problems with teenagers walking out without paying. Servers are not required to pay the bills of walk outs, per company policy, but he says they nonetheless make the staff nervous. Escobar said the restaurant does not discriminate based on age or color. IHOP President Darren Rebelez also issued a statement, as the company's corporate office announced plans to close the location on Thursday so that staff could be retrained that day. 'IHOP and our franchisees have zero tolerance for actions that are or allude to discrimination of any type. The franchisee of this location is working to contact the affected guests directly to apologize for this incident and are taking appropriate actions in line with their HR policies. For 60 years, IHOP and our franchisees have strived to create a warm and hospitable dining experience for all guests, and this isolated incident is not reflective of that ongoing commitment,' Rebelez said. IHOP restaurants are franchised and run by International House of Pancakes LLC, a subsidiary of DineEquity Inc. Bikie members with sinister rap sheets are being deported from Australia back to their homeland of New Zealand in droves - sparking a police squad dedicated to fighting organised crime. Members of Australian bikie groups Comanchero, Bandidos and Rebels are infiltrating New Zealand's criminal scene following a spate of deportations across the ditch. The bikies are extradited Kiwis - who have lived in Australia most of their lives - now allegedly riding through the Bay of Plenty region on New Zealand's North Island. Members of Australian bikie groups the Comanchero, (pictured) Bandidos and Rebels are infiltrating New Zealand's criminal scene following a spate of deportations across the ditch The bikies (Comanchero pictured) are extradited Kiwis - who have lived in Australia most of their lives - now allegedly riding through the the Bay of Plenty region on New Zealand's North Island Murderers and rapists are among the estimated 1000 Kiwi-born criminals to be deported from Australia between 2015 and 2020, the New Zealand Herald reports. The notorious criminals have worried authorities enough to warrant a six-detective team set up solely to combat the organised crime problem brewing in the country. The city of Tauranga has been chosen as the home-base for the new organised crime squad which officially opened today. 'Tauranga is an area of growth for New Zealand and good people are setting themselves up in Tauranga,' Assistant Commissioner Richard Chambers told the publication. 'Organised criminals are too. Being on their back doorstep is the right thing to do.' Members of the Comanchero and Bandidios have been seen in Tauranga however Mr Chambers did not confirm if they were living there permanently. The notorious criminals (Comanchero pictured) have already stirred enough trouble to warrant a six-detective team set up solely to combat the organised crime problem brewing in the country Members of the Comanchero (pictured) and Bandidios have been seen in Tauranga however Mr Chambers did not confirm if they were living there permanently Murderers and rapists (Comanchero pictured) are among the estimated 1000 Kiwi-born criminals to be deported from Australia between 2015 and 2020, the New Zealand Herald reports While some deported Kiwis do return to New Zealand with a clean slate, Mr Chambers warned many arrived with the intent to begin a new chapter of bikie violence and criminal activity. 'I'm talking about people like the Comanchero,' he added. The Comanchero kicked off a new 'chapter' in New Zealand in February after members celebrated the arrival of fellow bikies with forboding Instagram posts. 'All done and sworn in... welcome aboard to my brothers in New Zealand,' wrote an Australian member of the Comanchero. 'Another Comanchero chapter opened up. We growing stronger and stronger.' Last December a picture was posted to a Gangs of New Zealand social media page showing a group of five men, two of whom were wearing Comanchero paraphernalia. A caption below the picture read: 'Comanchero New Zealand. Making moves here in Aotearoa. Respect.' Members of Australian outlaw group Bandidos MC (pictured) have also been seen riding in New Zealand While some deported Kiwis do return to New Zealand with a clean slate, Mr Chambers warned many arrive with the intent to begin a new chapter of bikie violence and criminal activity Members of the Comanchero and Bandidios (pictured) have been seen in Tauranga It is believed 14 patched members of the Comanchero have now been deported to New Zealand. The infamous The Comanchero MC was founded in Sydney in 1966 and has opened up chapters across the world including Spain, Russia and even Bosnia. The Comanchero are most known for their part in the devastating 'Milperra Massacre' in 1984 which saw two warring gangs engage in a shoot-out on Father's Day which killed six bikies and one innocent 14-year-old girl. Former president of the Comanchero Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi was also gunned down last month after being shot in a gym carpark in Rockdale, Sydney. Rival gang the Bandidos, which was founded in 1966 in Texas, also has a suspected presence in Tauranga after members were seen riding around the Bay of Plenty. New Zealand outlaw gang Mongrel Mob (member pictured) is also at large in Australia New Zealand police have set up a dedicated crime squad to combat the growing outlaw groups (Rebels members pictured) The first Bandidos national president, known as 'Snotgrass', took his life in prison following the fatal shoot-out between Bandidos MC and Comanchero MC. The gang has 39 chapters across Australia and eight in New Zealand, including Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Outlaw motorcycle club the Rebels also have a fierce presence in New Zealand. Several well-known members of the Rebels have also been deported from Australia back to New Zealand in recent times. Outlaw motorcycle club the Rebels (pictured) also have a fierce presence in New Zealand Several gangs are already established in New Zealand, including the Filthy Few (pictured) The Mongrel Mob, an outlaw group with a history of child rape, kidnapping and public brawling, is also at large in New Zealand. The group has dominated New Zealand's criminal scene since they sprouted up in 1962, with its members often distinguishing themselves with facial tattoos and wearing red. Now the gang are in Australia too, recruiting for chapters in Perth, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Darwin - sometimes sending members from New Zealand or interstate to make up the numbers. Mugshots of four Irish tourists linked to the scamming of small businesses and defrauding of pensioners have been revealed by police. The pictures were released on Monday, as it was revealed a group of 20 Irish nationals fled the country after allegedly fleecing tens of thousands of dollars in a crime rampage in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Police said it didn't have enough evidence to prevent the group from leaving the country, but is now willing to prosecute the four alleged gypsy scammers who remain, Brisbane Times reported. Scroll down for videos Mugshots of four Irish tourists linked to the scamming of small businesses and defrauding of pensioners in Brisbane and the Gold Coast have been revealed by police (pictured are two of the mugshots released) The pictures were released on Monday, as it was revealed a group of 20 Irish nationals fled the country after allegedly fleecing tens of thousands of dollars (pictured is one of the women police are searching for) Police said it is now willing to prosecute the four alleged gypsy scammers who remain (pictured is one of the women police are searching for) Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming said: 'There is no doubt we had the suspicion and no doubt we had the concern but actually getting to the point where we could say we could prosecute ... we believe we are in a position now. 'I still have to be careful what I say - innocent until proven guilty - but certainly with the remaining four people we believe we are in a position now to commence prosecution.' The group of Irish tourists - consisting of men, women and children - have been accused of stealing groceries from supermarkets and scamming restaurants for free meals by claiming they found glass or hair in their food. They have also been accused of offering discounted repairs on bitumen driveways and roofing, before providing sub-standard services or failing to turn up to complete the work. Police said they are aware of 12 alleged offences since January involving the group, including defrauding pensioners more than $20,000. He added that he expects the group to be found as they attempt to travel interstate or overseas to avoid police, but conceded it 'may be best' to allow them to leave the country. The group of Irish tourists (pictured) have been accused of stealing groceries from supermarkets and scamming restaurants for free meals by claiming they found glass or hair in their food Another group involves several men have also been accused of offering discounted repairs on bitumen driveways and roofing, before providing sub-standard services or failing to turn up to complete the work 'Whilst it seems straight forward ... if we seek the Commonwealths approval to revoke a visa when we prosecute someone, the state of Queensland bears the cost then of them staying in the state,' he said. On Monday, it was revealed an elderly Gold Coast couple, aged in their 80s, were the group's latest alleged victims after handing over nearly $30,000 for roofing work. The couple claimed they were approached by a group of three men knocking on doors and looking for business, but grew suspicious after fencing was not put up and the workers only used tape. In another incident this week, a vile message was left for property manager Clara Carmichael after she spoke publicly about the group allegedly trashing four brand new apartments in Brisbane. 'You won't be able to get any more payouts on your big plastic lips or your big plastic rubber face. You're a dirty, smelly Australian slapper. Bye now,' a man told her. In another incident this week, a vile message was left for property manager Clara Carmichael (pictured) after she spoke publicly about the group allegedly trashing four brand new apartments in Brisbane Photos show carpet badly stained with black marks, walls dented and sink basins smashed in The rental apartment in Brisbane (pictured) was allegedly trashed by the travelling group, with dents in the walls and badly stained carpet Ms Carmichael shared the message on Monday after claiming the group left a trail of destruction when they fled the apartments in the middle of the night. Photos show carpet badly stained with black marks, walls dented and sink basins smashed in. Ms Carmichael claimed they also left a toilet clogged with potatoes. Police said the Irish tourists work in groups to target stores and steal goods and cash. One woman used her children to swipe designer shoes worth hundreds of dollars, allegedly distracting a shop worker while her toddler snuck a pair of Chanel shoes into a pram. One group of women, accompanied by numerous small children including some in prams use aggressive and disruptive behaviour to distract or intimidate staff CCTV shows them frantically unloading goods from a handbag into a basket after being approached by a staff member CCTV footage showed one of the women allegedly stealing from a supermarket CCTV footage showed at least two women filling their bags at Chevron Island supermarket. The clip shows them frantically unloading goods from a handbag into a basket after being approached by a staff member. It also shows one of the women allegedly stealing a stack of meat trays from the shop floor. One group of women, accompanied by numerous small children including some in prams use aggressive and disruptive behaviour to distract or intimidate staff, police said. They then use large handbags to conceal stolen goods. In another incident, four men claimed to have found hair in their food at a Brisbane restaurant and then left without paying. Police said the Irish travellers work in groups to target stores and steal goods and cash Some have been accused of stealing groceries from supermarkets and scamming restaurants for free meals by claiming they found glass or hair in their food Meanwhile, a number of small business owners have come forward to say they've been scammed. A number of restaurant owners claimed the women had been planting shards of glass in their meals then refusing to pay. Mido Nassif, who works at Wilson's seafood restaurant, asked the women for their contact details under the pretence of wanting to check on them later. One woman then wrote a note with the name 'Jenny' above a UK address and phone number and said they were staying 'In Birisborin' (Brisbane) at a 'Hilton Hotel'. The manager said the two women - who were dressed like they were 'going to a nightclub' - left without paying their $260 bill. Marie Yokoyama, the owner of Bird's Nest restaurant, shared her experience of the glass scam on Facebook and warned other owners to be wary. Queensland police released images of a number of people all tourists from Ireland as they investigated reports of scams and thefts In another recent scam, the Irish travellers allegedly ordered sandwiches at a coffee shop but when the manager asked for payment, the women claimed they had been given the wrong food the day before and wanted their meals - worth $20 - for free. The manager said he had worked the previous day and hadn't seen the women at all. 'They started getting aggressive and so then I eventually just gave them three of the sandwiches that they said they ordered and then they asked for another one,' he told the Brisbane Times. Staff at the International Hotel also claimed the same women came into their venue, asking for free drinks and cigarettes because the cigarette machine wasn't working. 'At the end they complained the steak wasn't cooked properly so obviously we gave them a free meal,' Nikki Watts of the International Hotel told Seven News. Superintendent Tony Fleming described the group as 'incredibly brazen' and 'disrespectful' According to a travel agent who anonymously posted on Facebook, some of the group fled to Hawaii. She told Brisbane's Hit radio station that a group of men came into her agency and booked tickets for seven adults and six children. The men all said to the travel agent that it was a surprise for their wives. The same agent also said another man came in later and asked to get on the same flight to Hawaii but couldn't be fit in on that evening flight. He then went to another agency and booked a flight with his family to the U.K and left the next morning. The travel agent said in the message the customers looked suspicious, but they didn't intend to defraud her so she processed the tickets. Superintendent Tony Fleming described the group as 'incredibly brazen' and 'disrespectful.' 'They are good at creating diversions and distractions and disruptions to either steal goods or demand goods and services for free,' he said. He added that it's believed the group who fled the country have ended up in Asia after a number of flights. A famous conductor of the New York Metropolitan Opera has been fired following allegations he sexually abused and harassed a string of male musicians. James Levine, 74, who has long been a power house of the Met, was let go on Monday after the an investigation found the musician had engaged 'in sexually abusive and harassing conduct towards vulnerable artists'. The Metropolitan Opera opened an investigation in December, interviewing more than 70 people. Some accounts of his abuse include forcing mutual masturbation among his students. Metropolitan Opera Music Director Emeritus James Levine, 74, was fired Monday after the Met launched an investigation and found history of sexual abuse and harassment, pictured above in 2006 The famous conductor debuted at the Met back in 1971, but an investigation conducted by the company in December found accounts of sexual assault dating back to the 1960s Levine has had a 46-year career at the met and has become an name synonymous with the Met, instantly recognizable with his bushy hair, round glasses, and towel draped over his shoulders during rehearsals Levine was iconic at the Met, instantly recognizable by his bushy frock of hair and towel draped over a shoulder during rehearsals and with an impressive career that saw him conduct at Vienna Philharmonic and Salzburg Festival. Monday it was announced that an investigation found abuse accounts from 'both before and during the period' of his 46-year musical career at the Met. Although the specific findings have not been released the Met announced that it 'uncovered credible evidence' of Levine's abusive history to those under his authority. 'The investigation uncovered credible evidence that Mr. Levine had engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct both before and during the period when he worked at the Met,' the Met said in a statement. 'The investigation also uncovered credible evidence that Mr. Levine engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct towards vulnerable artists in the early stages of their careers, over whom Mr. Levine had authority. In light of these findings, the Met concludes that it would be inappropriate and impossible for Mr. Levine to continue to work at the Met,' the statement added. The investigation was led by U.S. Attorney Robert J. Cleary. The New York Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center (above) announced his removal Monday Levine had conducted 2,552 performances at the Met and also conducted in esteemed productions across the globe including Vienna Philharmonic and Salzburg Festival Levine, above, saw his career decline however due to his health. He stepped down as music director two season ago due to Parkinson's disease The accounts against Levine include the claims of four men, some of whom were teenagers or the conductor's students at the time of the abuse which involved masturbation Although the specific finding have not been released several of his past pupils have come forward attesting to his behavior that included mutual masturbation. The Met launched an investigation after the New York Times reported accusations of Levine's sexual abuse, which occurred while some victims were his students. Levine responded to those accusations calling them 'unfounded' and that 'I have not lived my life as an oppressor or an aggressor'. The article revealed the account of Ashok Pai who reported to Lake Forest, Illinois police that he was 16 when he was abused by Levine after a Ravinia music festival. The man said Levine held his hand in an 'incredibly sensual way' and the following summer lay naked with him in bed and touched his penis. Levine was in his early 40s at the time. Pai told Lake Forest Police of the incident in fall 2016 but law enforcement said they would not bring criminal charges against Levine saying that although the age of consent in Illinois is 17, it was 16 back in 1986 when the incident took place. The New York Times also reported the accounts of three other students who were abused by Levine. One alleged victim Chris Brown said that he was abused by Levine in the summer of 1968 when he was 17. He was a student at the Meadow Brook School of Music in Michigan at the time where Levine led the schools orchestral program. The alleged abuse occurred in a dorm during night when Levine allegedly masturbated on him and asked him to reciprocate. When he declined to do so again Levine allegedly punished Brown by ignoring him for the rest of the summer program even while conducting him. Albin Ifsich, another former student at Meadow Brook claimed he too suffered years of abuse at the hands of Levine, as he joined the clique that followed Levin to Cleveland then New York. Last month it was announced that Yannick Nezet-Seguin his successor would take over his role next season two years before he was scheduled to Nezet-Seguin, pictured above at the Met in New York on January 2018 will succeed Levine Another alleged victim James Lestock was a cellist who claims he was abused one summer when he was a student and that the abuse continued in Cleveland where he followed Levin along with other musicians. He said that at one point Levine had the group wear blindfolds then masturbate partners they could not see. Responding to Levine's firing from the Met, Lestock said he was 'moved' to see acknowledgement of Levines reign of abuse. 'The truth can be very useful. The truth creates good,' he said to The Times. Rumors of his sexual abuse echoed through the Met for years. Former Met Press representative documented that such rumors dated back to 1979 in her book Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind the Music at the Metropolitan Opera, published in 2001. Despite the accusations against him, Levines career at the Met was slowly reeling to an end. He stepped down as music director two season ago due to Parkinson's disease. He joined the met in 1971 and conducted 2,552 performances as music and artistic director. After he stepped down he was still music director emeritus and the head of the young artists program. He was suspended on December 3 however in wake of The Times' first article of his sexual abuse. Last month it was announced that Yannick Nezet-Seguin his successor would take over his role next season two years before he was scheduled to. In 1983 he covered Time magazine with the headline 'America's Top Maestro'. Some considered Levine to be the greatest American conductor since Leonard Bernstein. Levine has not commented on his firing. An 18-year-old man has been charged by Victorian police over a vicious home invasion in Collingwood where a man on a disability pension was brutally bashed. The accused allegedly has connections to the notorious Apex Gang. The 18-year-old is charged with assault, home invasion and theft of an iPad mini which all allegedly took place during the violent Collingwood home invasion. He has now faced an adult court for the first time, after a string of offences as a youth, The Australian reported. Scroll down for video Adam, a 41-year-old man on a disability pension, (pictured) suffered fractured ribs, cuts and bruises from the assault with a timber plank and now feels unsafe to live in his home The court was told the man had a 'significant criminal history' ranging from high speed police chases, armed robbery, home invasions, assault and theft and has spent time in a youth corrections centre. The man told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that he had been trying to change his ways', however the court denied his application for bail. Magistrate Bob Kumar said he did not believe past convictions had acted as a proper deterrent for the man. The man told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that he had been trying to change his ways, however the court denied his application for bail 'It doesn't look with your history that you've changed your ways in any way,' he said. Victorian Police Senior Constable Jason Thompson told the court the man's previous convictions were for identical crimes which demonstrated that his detention had done little to deter him. He said the accused had also shown contempt for the police and the courts. In the past he has received sentences of 15 months and 33 months, serving just 216 days for his last conviction. In April last year Victorian police declared the Apex gang as a 'non-entity' ABC News reported. Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said at the time the gang was in recession and had only 130 people who were loosely associated with the violent street gang. 'We would call them a non-entity in terms of a gang,' he said. Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said in 2017 that the gang was in recession and had only 130 people who were loosely associated with the violent street gang However a founding member of the gang spoke to Daily Mail Australia in July 2016 and said the gang had between 400 and 500 members. Using the name 'John' during the interview, he said there were guidelines for the gang that included targeting people flashing their wealth. 'You see some people with bundles of cash and just say "f*** it - go for it and they give you stuff,' he said. A founding member of the gang spoke to Daily Mail Australia in July 2016 and said the gang had between 400 and 500 members He also said other gangs were using Apex as a scapegoat for their own violent behaviour. 'They go around hurting people and give us a bad name,' he told Daily Mail Australia. The home invasion victim is on a disability pension and was brutally attacked on Saturday morning with a timber plank in the Melbourne public housing unit he rents. Police viewed CCTV footage of the incident, seeing four young men of African appearance storming into the home around 3am through an open back door. One of the offenders repeatedly struck the man on the head and torso with a wooden plank. It took the men only five minutes to break into the Collingwood home on Vere Street, raid the unit and leave with a stolen iPad, Nine News reported. Adam, a 41-year-old man whose last name has not been disclosed, had only moved into the home three months ago. 'These guys were motivated these guys were crazy,' he told Nine News. Adam said the men shouted 'where's your camera system, where's your camera system' over and over again. He suffered fractured ribs, cuts and bruises from the assault and now feels unsafe to live in his home. 'I don't want to live here, I want to leave, I don't want to be here anymore,' he said. Adam's mother, Adela, said her son was targeted because he was a vulnerable disability pensioner. 'I don't want to live here, I want to leave, I don't want to be here anymore,' Adam told Nine News 'It was really quite upsetting to see him in that state, he was terribly, terribly upset,' she said. The attackers fled the scene but were captured on the property's security camera. Police are now reviewing the footage of the incident, with investigations ongoing. The Yarra Criminal Investigation Unit told Daily Mail Australia that they are continuing to make further inquiries. Adam, a 41-year-old man whose last name has not been disclosed, had only moved into the home three months ago The home robbery comes after a spate of recent reports of teenage thugs clad in red hoodies and bandanas causing havoc in Melbourne. Youths in Melbourne's south-east are known as the Reds, and have been reportedly linked to a series of assaults, robberies and thefts. Melbourne's problem with gangs has been widely documented and reported over the summer. A series of crimes believed to be linked to African gangs came to a head in January. Mostly Sudanese youths are accused of stealing cars, invading homes and businesses, and theft. Four young men of African appearance stormed into the home around 3am through an open back door while one repeatedly struck the man on the head and torso with a wooden plank. Adam held a t-shirt to his bleeding head after the offenders left (pictured) The crime spree has even prompted some residents to fork out $10,000 on security systems for their homes. The Menace To Society gang, whose presence emerged after the earlier exploits of the more prominent Apex gang, are believed to be linked to several crimes in the Tarneit area, 25km west of Melbourne. One woman was reportedly hit across the face when 14 men ransacked her home in Hillside, in the city's far north west. Alleged Apex gang kingpin Mahmoud Taha, 21, was jailed last week for organising three armed heists. A Gold Coast fisherman started his night looking to make waves with a new love interest but ended up hooking up with something else entirely. Andy Sparnon, 44, was left waiting in vain for his date to show up but instead of wallow in pity he grabbed his fishing rod and headed down to Runway Bay to try his hand at shark fishing for the first time. And after just an hour of angling he managed to hook a massive two metre long bull shark, the Gold Cost Bulletin reported. After Andy Sparnon, 44, was stood up on a date he decided to go bull shark fishing instead and manged to catch a massive one two metres long This was the first time the seasoned angler had been bull shark fishing, making the massive catch extra special After everyone else refused to kayak the bait out into the ocean, Andy was forced to jump in and start paddling, a daunting task in the dark. Back on land the 44-year-old and his friend hooked two massive bull sharks, one at least two metres long, within 20 minutes of each other. 'Within an hour my reel was screaming, it really broke the serenity,' Mr Sparnon said. 'I thought "Jesus, this is a big shark, this is the dream!"' 'They were about two metres long, I didn't want to lay down next to it because I'd already gotten an accidental gash on my hand,' he said. Mr Sparnon is a seasoned fisherman and runs a YouTube channel called CoastfishTV where he shares advice on anything from tying knots to catching big carp. His friend also caught one of the similar size just twenty minutes after he has pulled his in He said recent rains had seen a surge in bull shark numbers in the area. 'Had a blast over the weekend with Andy Penny and the boys chasing our debut land based Bull Sharks on the Goldy,' he said in a Facebook post after the impressive catch. 'Cheers for the team work boys which helped us crack 2 firsts.' A quick-thinking resident who was woken by an alleged thief restrained the man before locking him in a bin cupboard in Melbourne. David, the 50-year-old home owner of the Beaconsfield Parade home woke at about 3.30am on Tuesday to the sounds of someone going through his car boot and found a man in their secure courtyard. David confronted the thief before restraining him and locking him in a bin cupboard until police arrived. David (pictured), restrained an 18-year-old alleged thief before locking him up in a bin cupboard David confronted the thief before restraining him and locking him in a bin cupboard until police arrived St Kilda police arrested the 18-year-old, who was allegedly in possession of multiple stolen bank cards and cash. It is also alleged he tried to bin the bank cards and cash while he was locked in the cupboard. The 18-year-old has no fixed address and will be interviewed on Tuesday morning. Schools will run supervised tooth brushing classes to battle high levels of tooth decay in New South Wales. The state's health department has announced their first action to help areas that are without fluoride. School's and childcare centres will run supervised lessons in a push to reduce tooth decay. School's and childcare centres are implementing tooth brushing lessons in New South Wales schools Regions that are at a high risk of dental disease or don't have access to fluoridated water will run the programs aimed at introducing oral health care into their daily routine. The programs will target high-risk groups such as rural and remote communities, Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders and low income earners. Fluoride toothpaste and toothbrushes will be handed out to the areas and teachers will be trained in the correct way to brush teeth. School's can also host fluoride mouth-rinse programs. Fluoride toothpaste and toothbrushes will be handed out and mouth-rinse classes can be held 'Anything the local health districts can do working with our schools to get some voluntary practice from children to understand the best method and frequency for tooth brushing will be a long-term, fantastic gift ,' Health Minister Brad Hazzard told the Daily Telegraph. He also said oral health was necessary for 'lifelong good health'. Most of NSW has access to fluoridated water with only seven per cent of the state without. More than half of children have decay in their baby teeth and 48 per cent of 12 year olds in their permanent teeth. Our country under nerve-agent attack and what does Jeremy Corbyn do? Plays party politics. His speech in the Commons yesterday earned shouts of shame! and disgusting! from Conservatives. One accused him of Soviet ramblings. Another said his words were the most shameful moment he had witnessed in the House. Labour MPs plainly wanted to disown him. You did not need to be a body-language expert to discern their horror. His words jarred and they knew it. So, I think, did Mr Corbyn after he sat down, for he remained pink in the face for the next 50 minutes and barely raised his eyes from his lap for the rest of the afternoon. Mr Corbyn skated over the magnitude of the Salisbury outrage and settled for allegations that the Conservatives were financially dependent on Russian money. Oh, and the NHS was underfunded. Our country under nerve-agent attack and what does Jeremy Corbyn do? Plays party politics. His speech in the Commons yesterday earned shouts of shame! Dear oh dear. Here is a suspected attempt at murder by a foreign regime on British soil within a few hundred yards of Salisbury cathedral, for goodness sake. At what point does Mr Corbyn stand up for Britain, come what may, rather than chiselling and chiding and seeking reasons to doubt our own people? Former foreign affairs committee chairman Mike Gapes (Lab, Ilford S) shook his head while Mr Corbyn was speaking. He and many Labour MPs near him folded their arms and raised their eyebrows at the Leader of the Oppositions response to Theresa Mays afternoon Statement. The Prime Minister had just told the House that there had been a brazen attempt at murder using chemical poisons, and it was highly likely Russia was responsible. Mrs May, in scarlet shoes, had been composed but forthright. MPs on all sides praised her for her tone. Was this really a time to make polytechnic debating society jibes about party funds? Angela Eagle (Lab, Wallasey), listening to Mr Corbyn, stared at the ceiling. Miss Eagle may be a tribal Leftie but she is no traitor to her country. Her sister Maria (Lab, Garston & Halewood), beside her, clutched her face and whispered urgently to her twin. Over the next half hour or so, Labour MPs lined up some in code, some pretty bluntly to disown Mr Corbyns inadequate, equivocating, mewling, yes-butting, hand-wringing response. Yvette Cooper (Pontefract & Castleford) said pointedly this was a time for MPs to unite. Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, sitting next to Mr Corbyn, glared at this subtle dig. The only other person actively supporting Mr Corbyn was Emily Thornberry, sitting the other side of him and shouting angrily at Conservatives. The colour was up on her cheeks. The back of her hair was ruffled. Hackles on a guard dog in the gulag. The Prime Minister had just told the House that there had been a brazen attempt at murder using chemical poisons, and it was highly likely Russia was responsible Ben Bradshaw (Lab, Exeter) spoke of British political figures who have been corrupted by Russian money (did he mean by appearance fees on Russian TV?). Mr Gapes said this is an act of terrorism and all Members of Parliament should stand together (ie unlike you, Corbyn). Chris Leslie (Lab, Nottingham E) said it was just not appropriate to nit-pick and criticise when the country was under attack. Pat McFadden (Lab, Wolverhampton SE) spoke up for the solidarity and security of the West. As each of these MPs spoke, they looked down at the back of Mr Corbyns head and you sensed they were speaking directly to him, rather than to the Prime Minister whose composure they all praised. The SNPs members were solidly behind the Government, too, Martin Docherty-Hughes (West Dunbartonshire) rolling his Rs magnificently as he demanded a rrrrobust response to Russia, and saying enough is enough and Madrid should stop letting Putins warships refuel in Spanish ports. One power-crazed, pepper-pot quasi dictator such as Putin is probably enough for one day. Suffice it to say that the House earlier debated the bullying of staff by among others Speaker Bercow. There is going to be an independent inquiry. If it takes evidence from the last Commons Clerk, this tinpot Squeaker could be a goner. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in the UK 'clearly came from Russia' and has vowed to respond, hours after the White House refused to blame Moscow. In a strongly-worded statement, he slammed Moscow as a 'irresponsible force of instability in the world' and gave the British government his backing. 'We have full confidence in the UKs investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week,' he said. 'There is never a justification for this type of attack, the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation, and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. 'Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens.' He added that those responsible 'must face appropriately serious consequences'. Tillerson made the remarks during his trip to Africa just hours after the The White House broke a week-long silence to condemn the chemical attack, but refused to even mention Moscow. Prime Minister Theresa May told the Commons on Monday that analysis of the nerve agent used in the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury shows that it was from a group known as novichok. Following a meeting of the Government's National Security Council, Mrs May told MPs: 'It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.' But after being pressed by reporters, Donald Trump's press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeatedly refused to be drawn on Russian involvement. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK 'cleary came from Russia' and has vowed to respond. He is seen speaking during a press conference in Abuja, Nigeria, on Monday White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders walks off of the stage at the end of the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, March 12, 2018. She refused to say Russia was behind the attack in Salisbury Sanders described the attack 'an outrage', and said: 'The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizens on UK soil is an outrage. 'The attack was reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible.' Sanders stopped short of pointing the finger of blame at Moscow, as Theresa May did earlier in parliament. When asked by a reporter, 'So, you're not saying Russia was behind this?', Trump's spokeswoman said: 'Right not we're standing with our UK allies.' Prime Minister Theresa May told the Commons this afternoon that analysis of the nerve agent used in the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury shows that it was from a group known as novichok Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia (pictured in Zizzi in 2016) left a trail of nerve agent in the restaurant after their poisoning Brian Klass, a fellow at the The Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science, slammed the White House for its soft stance. He said Trump had criticised Meryl Streep more than Putin during his Presidency. Mr Klass said: 'Trump has praised Putin repeatedly. 'On the other hand, he attacked the Mayor of London in the aftermath of a terror attack, retweeted British neo-fascists who are now in prison, and plans to impose tariffs on Britain. He has stood with Americas adversaries, not our allies. 'Absolutely sickening to think of how much Britain has sacrificed to have Americas back in global affairs only to be treated like this, while the White House continues to block sanctions on Russia and Trump acts as Putins Apologist-in-Chief. 'America is far weaker without allies. 'There just isnt a credible and innocent explanation as to why Trumps White House defends Putin consistently and refuses to critique the Kremlin even when Russia attacks American democracy and attacks our allies. 'The long-term consequences of this will be severe.' Prime Minister Theresa May was far more bullish in the Houses of Commons today, and said the substance was 'part of a group of nerve agents known as novichok'. President Vladimir Putin in a greenhouse at Pavel Lukyanenko National Centre for Grain. Theresa May did not hold any punches when she blasted Moscow's involvement She added: 'Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so, Russia's record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations, the Government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal. 'This attempted murder using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town was not just a crime against the Skripals. 'It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk. 'And we will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil.' Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: 'We need to continue seeking a robust dialogue with Russia on all the issues dividing our countries, both domestic and international - rather than simply cutting off contact and simply letting tensions and divisions get worse, and potentially even more dangerous.' He faced shouts of 'shame' and 'disgrace' from Conservative MPs as he told the Commons: 'We're all familiar with the way huge fortunes, often acquired in the most dubious circumstances in Russia, sometimes connected with criminal elements, have ended up sheltering in London and trying to buy political influence in British party politics. 'Meddling in elections, as the Prime Minister put it, and there has been over 800,000 worth of donations to the Conservative Party from Russian oligarchs and their associates.' Home Secretary Amber Rudd is to chair a meeting of the Governments Cobra emergencies committee in Whitehall at 11.30am on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in the Salisbury nerve agent investigation. Locals have said chemical weapons experts are removing a potentially contaminated vehicle from a local business The investigation into the poisoning has led to a series of locations around Salisbury being sealed off and decontaminated Mr Corbyn went on: 'If that is the evidence before the Government, even before the investigation in Salisbury is complete, the Government could be taking action to introduce new financial sanctions powers. 'But instead they're currently resisting Labour's amendments to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill, which could introduce the so-called Magnitsky powers - so will the Prime Minister agree today to back those amendments to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill?" Speaker John Bercow had to intervene to calm MPs, with several on the Conservative benches shouting loudly at Mr Corbyn for his remarks. Moscow on rejected Theresa May's statement, calling it a part of an 'information and political campaign based on provocation'. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakarova said: 'This is a circus show in the British parliament," she added. 'Rather than think up new fairytales, maybe someone in the kingdom could explain how the previous ones ended up - about Litvinenko, Berezovsky, Perepilichnyy and many others who have mysteriously died on British soil.' Former spy Alexander Litvinenko, oligarch Boris Berezovsky and whistleblower Alexander Perepilichnyy all died in the UK in recent years. The Kremlin has long rejected any involvement in their deaths, despite a British judge concluding Russian President Vladimir Putin likely approved Litvinenko's killing. May on Monday pointed the finger at Russia for trying to kill Sergei Skripal, who sold secrets to Britain and later moved there in a 2010 spy swap. But she stopped short of announcing retaliatory measures against Moscow and instead gave the Kremlin until the end of Tuesday to explain a nerve agents programme allegedly involved. An increasing number of drivers are being fined over laws they're not aware of, new data has revealed. RAC has urged Aussies brush up on their road rule knowledge, after it released a list of obscure laws that have caught out drivers. In Queensland alone more than 400 motorists have been fined for having an arm or leg outside of a vehicle, 170 drivers had been fined for having an animal on their lap, and 113 pedestrians had obstructed a vehicle in the last year. Motorist driving with a person or animal on lap 170 infringements issued in Queensland in the last year RACQ spokesperson Lauren Ritchie said it was a timely reminder to motorists who mistakenly believed police didn't monitor minor breaches of the law. 'Obviously, there are many motorists copping fines for breaking rules they may not be aware of,' Ms Ritchie said. 'These road rules may seem insignificant to some but they're in place to keep all road users safe.' Ms Ritchie said warning devices had also caused confusion, with 66 cyclists issued an infringement notice for riding a bike without a bell and 52 drivers received a fine for improperly honking their horn. In Queensland alone more than 400 motorists have been fined for having an arm or leg outside of a vehicle Failure to use a horn/bell or use other than permitted 52 infringements issued in Queensland in the last year 'While it might seem friendly to beep your horn to say hello or goodbye, you legally can only use your horn to 'warn' others,' she said. Ms Ritchie said while it should be obvious a cyclist should not carry others on a bicycle, six people were caught out. 'Ignorance of road rules isn't a valid excuse so we urge everyone to refresh their knowledge, whether they're a cyclist, a pedestrian, a driver or a passenger.' A Comanchero bikie gang associate shot dead by police outside an ex-girlfriend's house has been laid to rest in a golden coffin. Liam Scorsese - who adopted the last name because of its Hollywood qualities - was buried by close family and friends at a Gold Coast cemetery on Monday. Scorsese, 31, was gunned down by junior officers in Brisbane's east about 9.50am on Sunday, February 25 after a confrontation with cops. He had allegedly threatened the officers with a knife and yelled 'shoot me!'. Police said they had tried to subdue him with a Taser. But it had failed and the cops fled down the street, with a senior officer claiming they were 'in fear of their lives' when they opened fire. Farewell, Liam Scorsese: The 31-year-old was laid to rest in a shiny casket during a service on the Gold Coast yesterday, about two weeks after he was shot by police Scorsese's partner, Chireez Beytell, was in attendance and said she couldn't 'explain the pain' of seeing her beloved being lowered into the ground for the final time Scorsese's friends laid flowers and sprinkled petals over the grave site during the service His friends were pictured hopping on top of Triumph motorbikes at the cemetery Scorsese's lover, the cosmetic tattoo businesswoman Chireez Beytell, sat in the front row during Monday's service as his casket was lowered into the ground. Friends laid flowers and sprinkled petals over his casket. Some of Scorsese's mates brought their upmarket European-style motorbikes along with them to the service. Following the service, Ms Beytell paid tribute to her lover on social media. 'I can't explain the pain and how broken I am to have watched you get lower(ed) into the ground,' she said. The service came only months after he was freed from Gatton prison after serving three months behind bars for the brutal bashing of a bus driver. Love lost: Scorsese, seen here with his partner Chireez Beytell Scorsese's casket this week, captured during his funeral service Day of the shooting: Forensics police and officers at the crime scene in Wakerly, in Brisbane's eastern suburbs 'For those who knew him he had the personality of a movie star' After the shooting, Scorsese's relatives spoke out about how he had been shot dead like a 'rabid animal'. His grieving father, Peter Maloney, wrote a passionate open letter to the city's Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper. He said while his son was 'not a saint', he was not heartless, either. 'My son Liam was troubled at times,' he wrote. 'He was at times, mentally unhinged, with extreme highs and diabolical lows. 'For those who knew him he had the personality of a movie star. 'He was a business man, entrepreneur and loved life to the full.' Mr Maloney pointed out his son had paid compensation to the bus driver he assaulted. He also described how he acted as a father-figure for a friend's son whose father passed away. Mr Maloney said it was 'convenient' for police to say their Taser had not worked. The shooting is under investigation by Queensland Police's Ethical Standards Command and the state coroner. A violent drug-addicted immigrant who can't work, is at serious risk of re-offending and lied about being a homosexual and christian in his bid to stay in the country, has avoided deportation. The Iraqi refugee, known only as MAH, 44, has been in Australia for 19 years and in that time has accrued at least 14 convictions for a rang of offences including drug charges, assault and intimidation. He has been allowed to stay in the country after the ruling from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) found that he would not be able to access adequate mental health treatment in his home country, news.com.au has reported. Administrative Appeals Tribunal (pictured) heard that since arriving in Australia the man had racked up over 14 offences for a number of crimes Because of his ongoing methadone treatment, leg ulcers and schizophrenia the AAT ruled that if he was sent back to Iraq he would not receive proper medical treatment. During the review MAH claimed he was both a homosexual and had become a christian and that if he was sent home he would be persecuted for this. The AAT said that 'there is no significant evidence' to prove that he had been in a relationship with a man or had joined a church. In 2009 MAH threatened to shoot a patron at a Nowra pub then headbutted another before being forced out. He went on to re-offend 14 more times and was convicted for a range of crimes including larceny and unauthorised entry. Despite working as a carpenter in the past the court said that MAH had developed a drug habit and funded it through non-violent offences. In allowing the unnamed man to stay in Australia Peter Taylor SC (pictured) said that he would not be able to receive adequate health care back home in Iraq In 2016 MAH's visa was cancelled on character grounds and he was taken into immigration detention and placed on a methadone treatment program In 2016 his visa was cancelled on character grounds. He was taken into the immigration detention and was placed on a methadone treatment program. While he was awaiting deportation to Christmas Island a nurse deemed him medically unfit to travel over his ongoing drug rehabilitation and the development of chronic leg ulcers. In reversing Peter Dutton's decision to cancel his visa AAT senior member Peter Taylor SC highlighted that it had been ten years since the man had been convicted for a violent offence. 'Furthermore, and despite the fact that two of his convictions were for assault 'occasioning actual bodily harm', there is no evidence that any of his offences involved substantial injury or incapacity to any of the victims,' he said. 'However, the number and time span of MAH's offences, together with his drug addiction, apparent social isolation and inability to work, point to a significant risk of his re-offending.' Despite this the AAT ruled in his favour, highlighting the significant health issues that he faces. His drug addiction and ongoing treatment, leg ulcers and schizophrenia were all considered factors in the ruling. 'Those considerations, together with the acknowledged difficulties that MAH would be likely to encounter in obtaining and retaining health care in Iraq, combine to outweigh the considerations favouring revocation,' Mr Taylor said. A car has mounted the pavement and ploughed into a schoolgirl and an older woman waiting at a bus stop. The out-of-control car collided with a van before smashing into the pair, leaving them in a critical condition. Both were rushed to hospital after the shocking incident which happened at 5.20pm in St Helens in Merseyside. A car has mounted the pavement and ploughed into a schoolgirl and an older woman waiting at a bus stop in St Helens in Merseyside (above) A Merseyside Police spokesperson said: 'We are in attendance on Crab Street in St Helens following a report of a collision involving two vehicles and two pedestrians today. 'It was reported shortly before 5.20pm that a black Fiat Punto and a blue Vauxhall Vivaro van had been in collision, before the Punto was in collision with a 43-year-old woman and girl close to the junction with North Road. 'The pedestrians have been taken to hospital where they are receiving treatment for their injuries, described as critical. 'The drivers of the vehicles have stopped at the scene and are helping police with enquiries. 'Crab Street is closed and motorists are advised to seek alternative routes.' A millennials railcard goes on sale on Tuesday, but only 10,000 will be available and they are unlikely to save regular commuters money. Britons aged 26-30 will be able to buy the discount card on a first come first served basis, the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said. There will be a limit on the number of 26-30 Railcards available while the scheme is trialled to assess the impact on revenue and passenger numbers. A millennials railcard for Britons aged 26-30 goes on sale offering a third off fares for 30 a year - but only 10,000 will be released as it is trialled It will cost 30 each year and save passengers a third off most fares. The card is aimed at leisure travellers, with no discounts on season tickets and a 12 minimum fare on all journeys between 4.30am and 10am, excluding weekends and public holidays. It must be bought online and downloaded onto a smartphone. The card was previously only available to a limited number of people in East Anglia. Chancellor Philip Hammond said in his Budget speech in November that the railcards would give '4.5 million more young people a third off their rail fares'. The RDG, which represents train companies and Network Rail, was unable to provide an exact time for when it will go on general sale, but confirmed it will be at some point on Tuesday morning. There was previously no nationwide railcard available for people travelling alone between the ages of 26 and 59 unless they were disabled or in the armed forces. Chancellor Philip Hammond said in his Budget speech in November that the railcards would give '4.5 million more young people a third off their rail fares' An RDG spokesman said: 'The trial of the 26-30 Railcard is part of the rail industry's long-term plan to change, improve and boost communities by enabling more people to travel by train. 'Research being gathered as part of the 26-30 Railcard trial is being used to inform discussions with the Government about a national roll-out, and to develop new products that make leisure travel easier and better value for customers.' The number of train journeys made in the three months to the end of 2017 fell by 0.9 per cent year-on-year, according to the Office of Rail and Road. This was driven by an 8.1 per cent fall in season ticket usage. Passengers were hit with the largest annual fare rise in five years on January 2, with average ticket prices across Britain increasing by 3.4 per cent. Russian-controlled Twitter accounts may be making greater attempts to influence British politics than previously thought, new data suggests. Analysis by the Press Association shows so-called 'bot' Twitter accounts linked to the Russian Internet Research Agency regularly tweeted about the UK. The data shows more than 2,400 tweets about Brexit, the refugee crisis and last year's general election as well as more mundane British issues came from at least 154 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Kremlin-linked organisation accused of sowing disinformation and discord on social media. Russian 'bot' Twitter accounts may be trying to influence public opinion in British politics Many of the messages would be simple retweets of news organisations or prominent figures, but Islamophobic and anti-European tweets were commonplace, with many painting the refugee crisis across Europe as a Muslim invasion or sowing division between communities. The most retweeted message came from the account of @pamela_moore13, which had garnered a large following before being exposed as linked to the Internet Research Agency. 'France is lost,' reads the tweet, accompanied by a video. '#French police try to enter a muslim no-go zone. We can not allow this in America!' Although the tweet is now deleted, many copies exist sent by other accounts on Twitter. The video shows clashes between police and rioters during the 2014 Sarcelles riots in Paris. It was retweeted more than 6,000 times. Elsewhere, multiple accounts tweeted about #ReasonsToLeaveEU on the day of the Brexit vote, and one, @foundingson, sent a string of tweets as the UK Government triggered Article 50, beginning the official process of leaving the European Union. 'Historic day!' read one such tweet. 'Congratulations, Britain! You're independent! #Brexit #Aticle50 [sic]' This tweet from known Russian troll @Pamela_Moore13 was shared thousands of times An EU official who tracks Russian information campaigns on social media said the aim of the Internet Research Agency was to 'weaken the West from the top level to the lowest level'. 'They are looking for divisive topics,' said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'In many countries it will be the migration crisis, as it will polarise the audience and make them more hysterical. So they won't listen to facts but instead listen to emotions.' The second most shared tweet was sent by @jenn_abrams, an account with a similar story to @pamela_moore13, in March 2016, three months before the Brexit vote. 'Migrant kid arrives in Europe,' reads the caption, again with a video. 'What a polite, peaceful young man! #RefugeesNotWelcome #ReligionsOfPeace' Accounts linked to the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency (IRA) sent hundreds of tweets about Brexit, the General Election and the migrant crisis The short video shows a young boy with brown skin waving and stretching his arms out before dragging his finger across his throat as he walks off screen. The video comes from a Slovakian TV broadcast about Austrian authorities saving migrants from a van smuggling them across Austria. The video is captioned 'illustration footage'. It is not clear whether the video relates to the story itself. Again, the original tweet has been deleted but many copies still exist, shared by other people online. All except one of the 10 most shared tweets were Islamophobic or anti-immigration in tone. The tenth was a Nigel Farage quote about Donald Trump. Five of the most shared tweets came from @ten_gop, a notorious troll account which garnered more than 100,000 followers while it was active. Previous research found @ten_gop had been central in spreading misinformation about a female Muslim witness to the Westminster terror attack, and the account featured heavily in the data revealed today. 'CULTURAL ENRICHMENT IN LONDONISTAN: 1 dead & 6 injured in terror attack #RussellSquare #London,' reads one tweet from the account, referencing the August 2016 stabbing of six people in London. Far from being a terror attack, police found the stabbing was carried out by a teenager in the midst of a psychotic episode. Zakaria Bulhan, a Norwegian national of Somali descent, was detained indefinitely at a mental hospital for the crimes in February 2017. Advertisement The United States of America maybe have been founded in 1776 but there were plenty of people living here before that time and many of the buildings are still standing today. In New England sits a home, which having been built in 1694, may well be the oldest house in the country currently on the market. The house in Georgetown, Massachusetts is a classic example of First Period architecture and is now for sale for $549,900. The Dickinson-Pillsbury-Witham House is a historic First Period house built in around 1694 in Georgetown, Massachusetts The oldest part of the 2.5 story wood frame colonial house was built in 1694 by James Dickinson, and consisted of a chimney The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but it does not restrict what owners can do with the property as long as there are no federal funds involved, although potential buyers need to check with the state historic preservation office before planning any renovations. The three-bedroom, 2.5-bath property is known as the Dickinson-Pillsbury-Witham House. Sitting on an 8.5-acre lot, it also comes with an 18th-century barn and shed. The past owners ended up expanding the home on two occasions adding homes on either side of the main structure. A chimney and rooms on one side, including a distinctive enclosed staircase, was all part of the original building. The well preserved building with its massive original hardwood frame has many surviving early components including a rare original enclosed stairway, doors, wooden latches, hardware, cupboards, brick nogging in the walls, and early paint on the doors, walls and ceilings Modern touches include a country kitchen with soapstone counter and sink, gas cook top and wall oven. The kitchen opens to a private, fenced patio, ideal for alfresco dining, entertaining and pets More recently the owners have updated the kitchen which includes a gas stove, wall oven, as well as a door that opens up to a fenced-in patio. But the home retains many of the original features including a number of fireplaces, wood flooring and wood-paneled walls. Outside, the barn too has original hardware as well as a loft with exposed wood beams. According to Realtor.com past residents include inventor Paul Pillsbury after whom the house is partly named. The house even features in an historic account by John Louis Ewell in 1904 which tells how the home was attacked by local Native Americans. In the piece, the home is described as 'an heirloom from the seventeenth century.' In addition to historical integrity, the house is notable for being the home of inventor Paul Pillsbury, who purchased the property about 1801. His inventions included devices for pegging shoes, milling bark off tree sections, and stripping kernels from ears of corn Several features of the home are mentioned which shows how it appears relatively unchanged the property is some 325 years later. References are made to the large living room fireplace with cooking stoves and candlesticks hanging from the ceilings. 'May the house long stand to attest the generous size and the thoroughness with which our fathers built the character of their architecture and the perils that beset them,' Ewell wrote. The Dickinson-Pillsbury-Witham house was purchased in 1801 or 1802 by Paul Pillsbury from his uncle Oliver Dickinson. Pillsbury was an inventor of considerable ingenuity, devising machines for shelling the kernels from ears of corn and for stripping the bark from felled trees. A Canadian journalist has become the third so-called anti-Muslim activist accused of racism to be barred from Britain in just 72 hours. Border guards quizzed Lauren Southern for six hours in Calais where she was preparing to come to the UK to interview English Defence League co-founder Tommy Robinson. It is understood the 22-year-old was hauled in for questioning over concerns surrounding an incident last month in Luton where she is accused of distributing racist material in the form of Islamic posters. On Friday, right-wing Austrian activist Martin Sellner and his American girlfriend Brittany Pettibone, a YouTube commentator and author, were detained by the British government. Lauren Southern, 22, who is a Canadian journalist, was denied entry to Britain after she was detained in Calais Border guards quizzed Lauren Southern (pictured) for six hours in Calais where she was preparing to come to the UK to interview English Defence League co-founder Tommy Robinson Martin Sellner of the Generation Identity group and American commentator Brittany Pettibone say they were denied entry to Britain Sellner said on the video that both of them were handcuffed. He said he planned to give a speech at Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park - 'that was my crime.' Southern took to Twitter to document the incident, and said: 'I'm not kidding about this, but during my questioning by the UK police. 'I was asked about my Christianity and whether I'm a radical. I was also asked how I feel about running Muslims over with cars. A British security official confirmed all three had been refused entry and said when Sellner and Pettibone landed at Luton Airport, north of London, on Friday, border police refused to allow them to enter Britain. They were detained and then deported on Sunday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the couple had been banned from entering by Britain's Home Office on the grounds that their 'presence in the UK was not conducive to the public good'. On Monday, British border police stationed in the French port of Calais also denied entry to Southern. After being detained, Southern tweeted that British authorities had told her she was 'officially banned from UK for "racism"'. The official confirmed that British border authorities had denied Southern permission to enter Britain on the same grounds as the other two activists. Southern was planning to meet Sellner and Pettibone in Britain, according to the conservative news website Breitbart. Breitbart also said Sellner had been planning to make a speech in London's Hyde Park, but that papers served on him by the British authorities alleged the speech was likely to incite 'tensions between local communities'. Breitbart said Pettibone was blocked from entering Britain not only in relation to Sellner's planned speech but also because she planned to interview Tommy Robinson. Experts who monitor Britain's far right movements said the government had recently stepped up efforts to keep out ultra-right-wing foreign activists. Among other Americans who have been banned from Britain are anti-Muslim campaigners Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, and Mark Weber, who heads a California group known for Holocaust denial. Sellner said in a video posted on Twitter they were detained for three days and then deported Sellner of the Generation Identity group and American commentator Pettibone tweeted Monday that they were denied entry into Britain. Sellner said in a video posted on Twitter they were detained for three days and then deported. He said on the video that both of them were handcuffed. He said he planned to give a speech at Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park - 'that was my crime.' Pettibone said that she was denied entry because she planned to interview far-right leader Tommy Robinson. She said from Austria: 'It felt like they were saying,"you're right-wing, that's not allowed".' Their entry was supposedly denied a day after his group claimed he and Pettibone were detained at the border and then turned away. A supporter of Martin Sellner is pictured with a lighted flare that was thrown at the group at Speakers' Corner as the Austrian far-right activist said he would address a crowd, but now won't be able to Demonstrators have taken to London's Hyde Park after far-right Austrian activist Martin Sellner said he was planning to speak there on Sunday Pictures today showed demonstrators turning out on both sides as supporters of Mr Sellner clashed with anti-fascist protesters A supporter of Martin Sellner holds a lighted flare that was thrown at protesters Supporters of Martin Sellner and Brittany Pettibone at Speakers Corner were confronted by members of London Anifacists The Home Office said the department would not comment on whether Mr Sellner or his girlfriend had been detained, the Evening Standard reported on Sunday. Mr Sellner said that 'security risks' and 'left wing threats' forced him to cancel an earlier planned event with UKIP's youth wing Young Independence. Pictures on Sunday showed demonstrators turning out on both sides as supporters of Mr Sellner clashed with anti-fascist protesters. 'This massive immigration is changing the face of our streets, of our cities, and soon the people who have been living here for thousands of years will be an endangered minority,' Sellner said last year. Supporters of the Austrian activist held up placards saying 'Free Sellner' amid claims he and his girlfriend had been refused entry at the UK border The demonstration broke out at Hyde Park after Mr Sellner said he would speak there following the cancellation of an event with UKIP's youth wing A police officer stands next to signs supporting right-wing Austrian activist Martin Sellner The Facebook page of Generation Identity claims that Martin Sellner (pictured in Vienna in 2015) was denied entry at the UK border He tweeted last Tuesday: 'My speech for the Young Independence conference was cancelled for the 2nd time, due to security risks caused by left wing threats. 'But we won't be silenced. On Sunday the 11th I will give my speech on Speakers' Corner and I invite everybody who had a ticket for the conference to come!' Hope Not Hate said Generation Identity had been handing out leaflets near Hyde Park before the planned speech. A mother-of-four left rotting inside a bathtub for more than eight months is believed to have been bashed and murdered, before her death was covered up. Police stumbled upon the corpse of Sarah Gatt, 40, in January after they noticed a foul stench coming from her home in Kensington, in Melbourne's north-east, while working an unrelated job. Forensic testing on the badly decomposed body found Ms Gatt - who her family say was living in isolation after turning to drugs - likely died between April 20 and 24 following a violent attack within her home. Investigators believe her body was then deliberately concealed at the unit and 'conscious steps' were taken over the following months to make it look like she was still alive. Sarah Gatt (pictured), 40, was left rotting inside the bathtub of her Melbourne home for more than eight months after she was bashed and murdered, police say Police stumbled upon her corpse (pictured) in January after they noticed a foul stench coming from her home in Kensington, in Melbourne's north-east, while working an unrelated job Forensic testing on the badly decomposed body found Ms Gatt likely died between April 20 and 24 following a violent attack within her home (pictured) Homicide Squad boss Detective Inspector Tim Day wouldn't draw on speculation that someone pretended to be Ms Gatt after her death, but said a number of 'stories' about her were being circulated. Someone is believed to have been living at the home sporadically while Ms Gatt's body decomposed in the bath tub, police said. Police said three men and two women known to Ms Gatt - who were questioned in January - remain persons of interest, although no one has been charged over the death. On Tuesday, the mother's family and police launched a public appeal for more information regarding her death, which has been labelled as 'suspicious'. Her father Victor Gatt said she was a good student and aspiring model before she turned to a life of drugs when she was about 17-years-old. Mr Gatt added that she was a 'great person' with no faults until she became mixed in the wrong crowd and began living in isolation from her parents. 'Nobody knows what went wrong, she just started on drugs,' he said. 'We didn't know about it and I took her to places to try and get her cleaned up but it wouldn't happen. She kept everything to herself.' Police wouldn't draw on speculation that someone pretended to be Ms Gatt (pictured) after her death, but said a number of 'stories' about her were being circulated Her father Victor Gatt (pictured with stepmother Cheryl Gatt) said she was a good student and aspiring model before she turned to a life of drugs when she was about 17-years-old Homicide Squad boss Detective Inspector Tim Day (pictured), said the cover up of Ms Gatt's death is 'disturbing and concerning' Ms Gatt's family said they hadn't seen her in almost 18 months before her unrecognisable body was found. 'I lost my daughter in that way and I still think I should have went to see her, but when she doesn't want to see you, she won't,' Mr Gatt said. Detective Inspector Day said the cover up of Ms Gatt's death is 'disturbing and concerning'. He added: 'There are people out there who know what happened to Sarah and we are urging them to come forward and speak to police.' Police said Ms Gatt's four children weren't living with her at her home. Robert Crosland, a science teacher at Preston Junior High School, reportedly fed a dog to a turtle last Wednesday after classes A longtime junior high science teacher in Idaho is under investigation after students say he fed a puppy to a snapping turtle. Robert Crosland, of Preston Junior High School, reportedly fed a dog to a turtle last Wednesday after classes ended for the day, Superintendent Marc Gee said in a news release. The school superintendent said administrators had been informed of the 'regrettable circumstance involving some of the biological specimens' afterward. He said the incident took place 'well after students had been dismissed'. Crosland has not been dismissed or reprimanded for his strange actions - which students claim have been going on for years. At least three of Crosland's unidentified students told the East Idaho News the science teacher also previously demonstrated himself feeding 'guinea pigs to snakes'. The young students also added that Mr. Crosland has been 'popular' at Preston Junior High. Crosland has not been dismissed or reprimanded from school administrators for his actions Students told the East Idaho News the science teacher, who fed a dog to a turtle, also previously demonstrated himself feeding 'guinea pigs to snakes' 'He is a cool teacher who really brought science to life... I loved his class because he had turtles and snakes and other cool things,' one kid told the local news outlet. It's currently unclear what motivated Crosland to act out the incident or if the puppy was alive. Gee added in the news release school officials are working to make sure another incident of this kind does not occur in the future. 'A part of any investigation includes determining the best course of action once the facts of the matter have been ascertained,' Gee wrote. 'This is not a situation that is easy, nor do we feel it is a measure that can be taken lightly.' A grandson of cult leader Charles Manson has won the bizarre court battle over the killer's body. Jason Freeman can retrieve the remains of Manson that have been on ice in the Bakersfield, California morgue since he died in November, a court official ruled on Monday. Kern County Superior Court Commissioner Alisa Knight ruled that Freeman's claim beat out two others from Manson's alleged son and a pen pal of the notorious killer. Manson, who died at 83, had been hospitalized in Bakersfield while serving a life sentence for orchestrating the 1969 killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and eight others. Scroll down for videos Jason Freeman, Charles Manson's purported grandson, won a California court battle to retrieve his remains on Monday (file photo) Manson, who died at 83, had been hospitalized in Bakersfield while serving a life sentence for orchestrating the 1969 killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and eight others The fight over his corpse devolved into a circus of sorts with friends filing competing wills purportedly signed by the infamous inmate while kin began to come out of the woodwork to also stake a claim to the killer's body and an estate that could include lucrative rights to songs Manson wrote or to license his image and other material. While the decision clears the way for Manson to be cremated or buried, the battle for the body foreshadows what lies ahead as competing camps wrestle for control of the estate. The case in Kern County was brought by the coroner's office, which said it wanted to quickly resolve the matter because bodies were piling up at the morgue from the methamphetamine and opioid epidemics. To prevent photos of the body from being leaked, the coroner's office stored Manson's remains under a pseudonym and only two employees were told its true identity, Walters said. The three-way fight for the body included Freeman, a man who said he was fathered by Manson, and a pen pal who was friends with Manson and has filed what he said was the cult leader's will. The three all tried to cast doubt on the authenticity of the competing claims and Freeman largely won out because of problems with the other petitions. Manson pen pal Michael Channels had also sought to claim Manson's body (file photo) Michael Brunner, 49, whose birth certificate lists Manson and cult member Mary Brunner as his parents, was also in the fight. Born Valentine Manson in 1968, he has stayed out of the public eye after giving the above 1993 interview about his infamous father Knight cited problems with the will submitted by buddy Michael Channels because he was one of the two witnesses while also the sole beneficiary, which is suspect. It was also ambiguous about what would be done with Manson's body other than for Channels to use his judgment. Brunner's mother was an early member of the so-called Manson family and he was fathered by the cult leader, according to his birth certificate, though it misspelled Manson's middle name. Knight said Brunner had shown evidence he was fathered by Manson, but he lost his right to be deemed an heir because he was adopted by his grandparents. Freeman, a former professional mixed martial arts fighter from Florida, is the son of the late Charles Manson Jr., who was the child of Manson and his first wife. Although some raised question about whether Freeman was really Manson's grandson, Knight determined he was "the surviving competent adult next of kin." Purported Manson daughter Rebecca Evans, 48, and son Matthew Roberts, 49, are also in the legal fight over Manson's estate Channels befriended Manson by writing him letters in prison and he later became a regular visitor and avid collector and trader of memorabilia given to him by Manson. The 2002 will he filed names him as the executor and sole beneficiary of the estate. Another purported son, Matthew Lentz, who claims he was fathered by Manson during a Wisconsin orgy, supported Brunner's petition. He is named as the sole beneficiary in a 2017 will that Manson apparently signed and sent to Ben Gurecki, another friend and memorabilia collector, who is named as executor. Knight noted that the will did not appear to be properly executed and that Lentz forfeited his claims as an heir because he was also adopted. Most of the people vying for the body have said they would cremate it, though Freeman and Channels balked at that suggestion when Deputy Kern County Counsel Bryan Walters suggested having the coroner cremate the body and allowing the parties to continue their court fight over the ashes. Some adversaries have suggested others want to profit off the death by selling morbid photos of the corpse to tabloid publications. In the estate battle, purported Manson daughter Rebecca Evans, 48, and son Matthew Roberts, 49, have also filed claims. Who inherits Manson's estate - which could include potentially lucrative rights to the use of his image and songs he wrote, as well as his possessions - will be adjudicated by Los Angeles Superior Court. Customers are devising unique and imaginative ways to scam self-serve checkouts, costing Australian supermarkets billions. Self-serve scanners were introduced in Australia 10 years ago - meaning pilfering consumers have had years to perfect their grocery stealing techniques. Coles and Woolworths are targeted by thieves who 'save' money by failing to scan certain items, put through expensive goods as cheap products such as fruit or noodles, or even swap barcodes. Self-serve scanners were introduced in Australia ten years ago, giving pilfering customers a decade to perfect their slight-of-hand grocery stealing techniques (Stock) Supermarket giants such as Coles and Woolworths are targeted by self-serve thieves who 'save' money by failing to scan certain items, putting through expensive goods as cheap products such as fruit or noodles or even swapping barcodes It is an epidemic of petty crime which has transformed some supermarket customers into scheming shoplifters. However a large percentage of self-serve thieves believe their actions are justified because it is so simple and they are 'only stealing' from companies earning billions in profit each year. A 2016 study conducted by Dr Emmeline Taylor at Australian National University (ANU) coined the term 'swipers' - which describes 'well-intentioned' people who are tempted into theft by self-serve registers. 'Do-it-yourself checkouts appear to increase the incidence of theft by customers, particularly those who wouldn't normally steal,' said Dr Taylor. 'These shoppers often claim that they first stole items by accident or they couldn't get an item to scan, and then they continue to steal regularly and come up with a range of excuses to justify their behaviour. 'Many of these shoplifters do not think their behaviour is really criminal but rather they think they're just cheating the system or gamifying an otherwise mundane activity,' she added. It is an epidemic of petty crime which has transformed well-meaning supermarket customers into scheming shoplifters (Stock image) In 2016, a staggering $4.5 billion worth of retail theft occurred in Australia alone. (Stock image) In 2016, a staggering $4.5 billion worth of retail theft occurred in Australia alone. In February last year a mother from Ipswich, Queensland was caught red-handed after she stole $4,500 worth of groceries from Coles and Woolworths by scanning every single item as a packet of 72 cent noodles. The woman glued the barcode of cut price fried noodles onto expensive slabs of meat, $200 coffee machines and other household products over a three-month period. Poll Have you ever stolen something at a self-serve checkout? Yes No Have you ever stolen something at a self-serve checkout? Yes 179 votes No 796 votes Now share your opinion Her plot was foiled by a Woolworths employee who watched her at a checkout and she was sentenced to a nine month suspended jail sentence. A 'poor' German backpacker was fined $100 this week after he failed to scan through expensive meat, bacon and cheese while at a self-serve register. The man was caught after he only scanned through a portion of his groceries and attempted to bag unpaid items, a method used by many checkout thieves. Other shady techniques used by shoplifters include using re-usable bags which aren't weighed by the machine, scanning through a bunch of expensive avocados as only one and failing to let the machine properly weigh a bag of pricey nuts. However, technology invented by an Australian start-up could soon make self-serve theft a thing of the past. Tiliter Technology has invented a system which could make it virtually impossible to fraudulently scan an item through as a cheaper product. The new 'smart checkout' will automatically identify what a product is without the need for pesky barcodes. The offending customers use a wide-range of inventive practices to save money or even downright steal at the self-serve checkouts (Stock image) Company co-founder Chris Sampson said the machines are so advanced they can even spot the difference between different types of the same fruit. 'Our tech is different from some of the stuff we have seen struggle in the past because it can tell the difference between a red delicious and royal gala apple for example,' he told news.com.au. A number of independent grocers are trialling the system, however Woolworths has confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the supermarket has no plans to implement the technology. 'Self-service checkout is an incredibly popular and convenient option for customers short on time, and we know the vast majority of shoppers do the right thing when using them,' a spokesperson said. 'Of course, we have comprehensive security measures in place for those that don't.' Daily Mail Australia has also contacted Coles for comment. Jean-Claude Juncker was engulfed in a cronyism storm yesterday after parachuting his chief of staff into a job as the EUs top eurocrat. The European Commission president faced calls to sack notorious German official Martin Selmayr nicknamed The Monster after critics described his promotion as a cloak and dagger coup. Leading MEPs threatened to topple his Commission, claiming the dramatic rise of the unelected lawyer had destroyed the credibility of Brussels. The European Ombudsman, an independent EU body that looks into wrongdoing, was yesterday considering an investigation alongside a separate probe by the European Parliament. Jean-Claude Juncker was engulfed in a cronyism storm yesterday after parachuting his chief of staff into a job as the EUs top eurocrat The uproar was triggered after Mr Selmayr, 47, was chosen to lead 33,000 officials as the ECs secretary-general in a fast-tracked application process featuring no other candidates. Mr Selmayr, a member of Angela Merkels Christian Democratic Union, will oversee the EUs Brexit contingency planning despite recently being pinned as the source of damaging leaks against Theresa May. He has developed a reputation for hostility towards Britain, borne from his belief in greater European integration and traditional UK opposition to such moves. As Mr Junckers chief enforcer, the former press officer has gained notoriety among EU governments for his bullish management techniques. Commissioners have described his controlling style as poisonous. Critics have suggested that the unorthodox power grab to cement the new job was orchestrated to ensure that EU member states did not have enough time to intervene, with Mr Juncker due to step down in 2019. Reports have claimed Mr Selmayr eased his way into the job by promising to boost the golden goodbye perks offered to the EU commissioners who rubber stamped the move when they retire Following his rapid appointment, Mr Juncker said: He [Mr Selmayr] has one thing in common with me we both have enemies. MEPs used an emergency debate on the issue in Strasbourg yesterday to call for urgent action while likening Mr Junckers leadership to Chinas ruling Communist Party. They said that allegations of rule-breaking had turned the EU into a laughing stock that would prove more damaging than the existence of Eurosceptic parties. Guy Verhofstadt, the senior MEP who heads the European Parliaments Brexit team, yesterday described the promotion as a misstep that is damaging for Europe as a whole. MEPs accused Mr Juncker of shirking responsibility by refusing to attend the debate, but the EC has said rules were followed religiously. Nigel Farage, the Ukip MEP, said yesterday: Selmayrs appointment is like a palace coup under cover of bureaucratic darkness. It smacks of nepotism, unaccountable government, abuse of public funds. Reports have claimed Mr Selmayr eased his way into the job by promising to boost the golden goodbye perks offered to the EU commissioners who rubber stamped the move when they retire. Guy Verhofstadt, the senior MEP who heads the European Parliaments Brexit team, yesterday described the promotion as a misstep that is damaging for Europe as a whole This allegedly included a promise to extend the number of years they could receive transition payments worth up to two-thirds of their salary, as well as the use of a chauffeur and EU office. The EC has described the claims as nonsense and pointed out that it cannot solely offer the extension of such benefits. Mr Selmayr will not immediately receive a boost to his salary, which currently sits at up to 195,000, although he will be in line for potential boost of 17,000 in the near future. Amongst a spate of controversies attached to his name are claims Mr Selmayr leaked details about a dinner between Mr Juncker and the Prime Minister in Downing Street last October. He later denied the claims, suggesting claims of his involvement were an attempt to frame [the] EU side and to undermine. The EUs budget and human resources commissioner Gunther Oettinger pleaded with MEPs yesterday not to discriminate against civil servants such as Mr Selmayr. He said: We shouldnt turn Mr Selmayr into some kind of monster. Hes not a monster. Please give him a chance. An EC spokesman said: Everything was done strictly by the book. A 17-year-old boy is in hospital in critical condition after being stabbed multiple times on his own street after an altercation at a local McDonald's. The group of teenage friends were trying to do the right thing when they went to the Baldivis McDonald''s. One of the victims spoke with 7 News and told them he and three of his mates, all between 16 and 18 years of age, went to the local McDonald's about 10.30pm last night. Scroll down for video The boys were stabbed on a Baldivis suburban street after trying to flee the knife wielding attackers When they arrived they witnessed two men smashing the windscreen of a nearby car with a brick. The boys approached the two men to try and get them to stop when a knife was pulled on them. The boys immediately fled from the dangerous situation but were chased down and stabbed by the two men The West Australian reported. One of the victims said he and three of his mates, all between 16 and 18 years of age, went to the local McDonald's at about 10.30pm The two offenders gave chase as the boys tried to make it to their homes on nearby Norseman Approach. The altercation continued on the suburban street and the two men continued to attack and then stab the boys multiple times. One of the boys, a 17-year-old was stabbed a number of times and was rushed to the Royal Perth Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition. Another of the group, also 17 years old, was taken to Rockingham Hospital with non life-threatening stab wounds to his legs. Police are still investigating the violent incident and no arrests have been made yet. If you have any information that could help the investigation you can contact Crime Stoppers anonymously on 1800 333 000. Two boys at one of New Zealand's oldest and most prestigious schools have been suspended for taking photographs up the skirts of female teachers and sharing the images on a porn site. The Christchurch Boys' High School students were reported to police for the degrading treatment of their teachers. One of the boys videoed a female teacher in the classroom and uploaded the footage to a porn site while the other pupil used his smartphone to photograph up the skirt of a teacher during a lesson, sharing the image with friends, the New Zealand Herald reports. Two boys at one of New Zealand's oldest and most prestigious schools have been suspended for taking photographs up the skirts of female teachers and sharing the images on a porn site The Christchurch Boys' High School students were reported to police for the degrading treatment of their teachers One teacher was so traumatised she took leave, the newspaper said. Nic Hill, the principal of the prestigious government school founded in 1881, has now banned mobile phones from the classroom, telling parents their sons could not bring them to a lesson 'unless the boys have had a clear and specific instruction from a teacher'. 'The teacher is in control of the classroom,' Hill wrote to parents after announcing the crackdown to students at an assembly. 'I am also aware of concerns about a state of continual distraction that some students seem to be under.' One of the boys videoed a female teacher in the classroom and uploaded the footage to a porn site while the other pupil used his smartphone to take an upskirt picture (stock image) The suspended students had breached the Harmful Digital Communications Act. Mr Hill told the NZ Herald he had acted appropriately in dealing with the harassment of the female teachers. 'The first priority has been to protect the wellbeing and interests of victims. I'd refute a delay,' he said. However, he stressed mobile phones had not been banned altogether from the school. 'We talk to the boys about being good men, not real men. And let's not blame the devices. Boys, at times, have got things wrong,' he said. An Israeli rabbi says he no longer wants former Melbourne school principal and accused child abuser Malka Leifer to be released under his supervision while she awaits an extradition outcome. Victorian police want to bring Leifer, 54, back to Australia to face 74 charges of child sexual abuse. She was arrested in February and a lower court had released Leifer on home detention, with Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman offering to take care of her. An Israeli rabbi says he no longer wants former Melbourne school principal and accused child abuser Malka Leifer (pictured) to be released under his supervision while she awaits an extradition outcome But while Israel's Supreme Court mulls over the prosecution's appeal of the release decision, Rabbi Grossman changed his mind. 'Last night, I notified the courts that I am completely withdrawing my involvement in the case of Malka Leifer, and my recommendation that she be placed under house arrest with my supervision,' Rabbi Grossman said in a statement released on Monday. Leifer has been ordered to stay in police custody in a medical facility while the Supreme Court considers the prosecution's appeal. Her extradition is the subject of a separate court case. Israeli prosecutors say she is feigning mental illness to avoid extradition. Manny Waks, an advocate for Kol v'Oz, a Jewish organisation combating child sex abuse, said Rabbi Grossman should also apologise to Leifer's alleged victims 'for compounding their pain and suffering as a direct result of his words and actions'. Banana prices could rise if heavy rain and flooding continues in North Queensland. Farms in north Queensland have been heavily affected by torrential rain over the past two weeks with flooding and road closures preventing picking and packing of produce. Australian Banana Growers chairman Stephen Lowe was unable to get on to his Tully Valley farm for the majority of last week, telling the ABC he was concerned banana plants could be impacted if saturated fields did not dry up within the next few days. The Insurance Council of Australia has declared the north Queensland flooding a 'catastrophe' with the Cassowary Coast and Hinchbrook regions particularly affected 'Bananas don't like getting their feet wet,' he said. Queensland accounts for 94 per cent of Australias banana production, with almost all of that figure coming from farms in north Queensland mainly around the Cassowary Coast region (Tully, Innisfail and Kennedy), the Atherton Tablelands, and north of Cairns at Lakeland. The Insurance Council of Australia has declared the north Queensland flooding a 'catastrophe' with the Cassowary Coast and Hinchbrook regions particularly affected. Queensland accounts for 94 per cent of Australias banana production with almost all of that figure coming from farms in north Queensland Sydney Market Reporting Service fruit surveyor Chris Cope told Daily Mail Australia that 'there is currently enough supply of bananas in cold storage that prices would not be affected' but if ongoing rains and flooding continued there was certainly a possibility prices could rise. He said particularly damaging for the banana crop would be if cyclone-like winds passed through the region and flattened the banana plants, such as the situation when Cyclone Yasi hit in 2011 and banana prices rose to $15 a kilogram. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk has declared the situation a disaster, travelling to flood affected communities and offering financial support to those affected. Two weeks of flooding and road closures have prevented the picking and packing of bananas in north Queensland She has said the full extent of the damage would not be known for weeks. On the Cassowary Coast last week the North Johnstone River reached a peak of 8.9 metres while the South Johnstone River peaked at 10.47 metres. Bananas are the number one selling supermarket product in Australia and are not heavily imported due to quarantine restrictions. A federal judge has released the four-year-old courtroom video of the moment Siale Angilau is fatally shot as he attacks a witness in Salt Lake City A federal judge has released terrifying video of a gang member defendant in a racketeering trial attacking a witness with a pen, before he is shot dead by a marshal. The shocking footage shows the moment Siale Angilau, a member of the Tongan Crips gang, stood up, grabbed a pen or pencil, and ran towards the witness stand before launching his body over it in 2014. The witness, another gang member who was shackled and chained, managed to sink into the corner of the courtroom and avoid the 25-year-old. He was not hurt. The video then shows a deputy US Marshal, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, pull her gun from its holster and rapidly fire four shots at Angilau. 'Drop the pen, drop the pen out of your hand,' another officer out of the shot can be heard yelling at the defendant. The video is muzzed to keep the judge, officers and any witnesses in the courtroom from being identified. The video shows the moment the defendant, Siale Angilau, a member of the Tongan Crips gang, stood up, grabbed a pen or pencil, and ran towards the witness stand - tossing him body over it to attack the witness The video then shows a deputy US Marshall, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, pull her gun from its holster and fire four quick shots at Angilau US District Judge John Dowdell made the video public when he dismissed a lawsuit brought by Angilau's family claiming excessive force. 'The video completely contradicts the plaintiffs' argument that Angilau stopped posing a danger within less than one second of launching himself over the witness stand while making a stabbing motion with a pen in his hand,' Dowdell wrote in a statement obtained by Deseret News. The entire incident lasts for roughly 24 seconds. 'Angilau was in custody, but he essentially had escaped custodial control for those seconds during which he was executing his plan to assault the witnesses. 'His attack was stopped by the shots that Jane Doe rapidly fired, in less than one and one-half seconds.' An FBI investigation also found the shooting was justified by law. But Angilau's family thinks a jury should see the video to decide if the marshal used appropriate force, according to the family attorney Robert Sykes. Sykes claims because the witness got out of the way he wasn't in danger when the marshal opened fire. 'Those last three shots were all after he's been shot once down on the ground in the back, and that's the problem I have with this case,' he told the News. 'There was no necessity to use force.' US District Judge John Dowdell made the video public when he dismissed a lawsuit brought by Angilau's family claiming excessive force. Pictured is Angilau as he is rolled out of the courtroom and taken to the hospital Angilau's family first filed the wrongful death lawsuit in 2014 - claiming he shouldn't have been shot because it was 'partially unreasonable, reckless and constitutionally excessive. Pictured is the scene outside the courtroom after the shooting But he said the family is glad the video has been made public - and that they want justice. They have not yet decided if they will appeal the judge's dismissal of their lawsuit. The pixelated video was initially ordered to be released by Magistrate Judge Paul Cleary in November, but the Department of Justice at the time objected. Judge Dowdell sided with Cleary's order on Friday, and it was released Monday. Angilau's family first filed the wrongful death lawsuit in 2014 - claiming he shouldn't have been shot because it was 'partially unreasonable, reckless and constitutionally excessive.' They were allowed to view the video but not release it. After Angilau was shot on April 21, 2014, and rushed to the hospital with at least one chest wound. He later died there from his injuries. He was in court after being one of 17 people named in a 29-count racketeering indictment filed in 2008, which accused gang members of conspiracy, assault, robbery and weapons offenses. Angilau was also accused of assaulting two federal officers and brandishing a firearm. He was the last defendant in the case to stand trial. Before he died, the incident prompted US District Judge Tena Campbell, who was hearing the case, to declare a mistrial. Britain's economy is set to confound the sceptics as the country leaves the EU, Philip Hammond will declare today Britain's economy is set to confound the sceptics as the country leaves the EU, Philip Hammond will declare today. The Chancellor will cast aside his reputation as the Cabinets Eeyore figure to unveil upgraded forecasts in his spring statement, according to Whitehall sources last night The Chancellor would be markedly optimistic about the outlook ahead of Brexit next year, said one. Mr Hammond is expected to give only a brief 15-minute update to Parliament on the economy and public finances today as the Budget has been moved to the end of the year. The passionate Remain campaigner has refused to say in recent days if leaving the bloc will be worth it. But he is said to have been struck by the resilience of the UK economy since the EU referendum. Last November, a hole was knocked in Mr Hammonds plans when the Office for Budget Responsibility slashed its predictions for growth. But the OBR is set to upgrade its forecasts today with public borrowing expected to be sharply down and tax revenues up. Chancellor announces VAT overhaul to help small firms Entrepreneurs and small business owners look set to benefit from an overhaul in the VAT system which Philip Hammond is due to announce today. The system would lead to a gradual introduction of VAT on businesses with an annual turnover of more than 85,000. According to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hammond has said he wants to introduce 20 per cent VAT above 85,000 in steps. There is a cliff edge in the current system which means that businesses are hit with a sudden bill if their turnover goes over the 85,000 threshold. It means companies try to stay below the limit because they do not have an incentive to risk narrowing their profit margins. Advertisement The Chancellor will also confirm that day-to-day government spending is in the black for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis. However, he will warn there can be no easing up on spending cuts while Britain is saddled with a national debt approaching 2trillion. Nick Timothy, Theresa Mays former joint chief of staff, has urged the Chancellor to announce the end of austerity. But Nicky Morgan, chairman of the Commons Treasury committee, said this would be premature. On the Conservative Home website yesterday, she wrote: If we relax too much then we undermine our criticism of the last Labour Government for not fixing the roof while the sun shines. Although Mr Hammond will not be making tax or spending announcements, he is set to reveal consultations with far-reaching effects. These include a review to consider if single-use plastics and chewing gum should be taxed while the long-term impact of an ageing society will be examined. Tory MPs also want more cash for defence and the Chancellor has acknowledged pressures in this area. He will, however, risk re-opening a row about the treatment of small business when he confirms plans to review VAT rules. Last year, he axed a bid to slash the threshold from 85,000 to 25,000 after a backlash from Tory MPs. But the Chancellor will ask officials to look at tapering the need to register VAT to avoid an immediate bill of 17,000 for firms going through the 85,000 barrier. Two dogs that mauled an elderly woman and then attacked the couple who tried to help are set to be released next week. The residents on Palmyra, in Perth's south have been told the pair of dangerous staffy crosses will be returned to their owners. Three months ago the dogs were impounded after a couple found an elderly woman lying in a pool of her own blood with the dogs still biting her legs, 9News has reported. The staffy crosses that mauled a couple after they tried to help the elderly woman the dogs had attacked will be released next week The couple tried to help the woman after finding her lying in a pool of her own blood, the dogs biting at her legs Residents of the street have been told that the dogs will be released next week They rushed to help the woman but the dogs then turned on the couple. biting and scratching at them. The wife of the couple, who wanted to remain anonymous, said they found her on the ground. 'One of our elderly neighbors, pretty much lying in a pool of her own blood,' she said. 'She was one the ground with two tanned dogs biting at her legs and ripping at her muscles with pretty much blood everywhere.' 'We shouldn't have to live in fear that there is two savage dogs roaming around the streets,' she said. The elderly woman was rushed to Fiona Stanley Hospital where she was treated for five days. The owners will have to adhere to strict rules when the dogs (stock) get released including keeping the muzzled in public Now that residents have been told the pair of dogs will be back with their owners they have started a petition to stop their release. The owners will have to adhere to strict rules and keep the animals muzzled in public and hold them in a secure yard. If they breach these conditions the dogs will be put down. In the nearby street is a busy park, where lots of children play and up the road is a major shopping area. African gang violence has ruined the Moomba for the third year in a row, with youths brawling in the streets in front of horrified visitors on Sunday morning. Dozens of teenagers were caught on camera charging onto a tram with police in hot pursuit, and as night fell fights broke out on the streets in the heart of Melbourne. Police were forced to use batons and pepper spray to bring the chaos under control, as crowds descended on the central business district for a massive street party. Scroll down for video African gang violence has ruined the Moomba for the third year in a row, with youths brawling in the streets in front of horrified families (pictured is a brawl at Moomba) Dozens of teenagers were caught on camera charging onto a tram with police in hot pursuit, and as night fell fights broke out on the streets in the heart of Melbourne (pictured are crowds of youths at Moomba running from police) Terrifying clashes erupted in several locations during the free family festival, despite police beefing up numbers in preparation for gang violence. MP Jason Wood, a former police officer, said his former colleagues feel hamstrung in dealing with African gangs, A Current Affair reported. 'I'm hearing from my former colleagues in Victoria Police that there is an issue,' he said. 'It comes [down] to underreporting when it comes to incidents of the South Sudanese community, or in fact police are being reluctant to make arrests because they're concerned about allegations being made against them.' Police were forced to use batons and pepper spray to bring the chaos under control, as crowds descended on the central business district for a massive street party (pictured are police pulling youths off a tram) Victoria Police Commander Russell Barrett said the police operation had been successful and there were only a small number of incidents. 'What we saw on the weekend is we have a strong police presence in the CBD, they do a great job in ensuring community safety,' he said. Footage filmed during this year's Moomba festival shows girls trading punches while frightened visitors duck for cover. African community leaders worked closely with police in the lead up to the event, and the Apex gang were nowhere to be seen, in contrast with previous years (pictured is the 2016 event) In 2016 officers were forced to deploy pepper spray as organised brawls broke out in front of horrified families at the community event (pictured is the 2016 event) 'What a f***ing dog!' one of the combatants screams as police struggle to break up the fracas. African community leaders worked closely with police in the lead up to the event, and the Apex gang were nowhere to be seen, in contrast with previous years. In 2016 officers were forced to deploy pepper spray as organised brawls broke out in front of horrified families at the community event. More than 100 youths were filmed causing chaos in Federation Square and on Swanston Street, many of whom claimed to be part of the Apex gang (pictured is the 2016 event) Police seized weapons including knives, scissors, a taser and a knuckle duster after conducting more than 800 searches following the 2017 event. More than 100 youths were filmed causing chaos in Federation Square and on Swanston Street, many of whom claimed to be part of the Apex gang. Police arrested 24 people in 2016, and more than 50 in 2017 when Apex thugs ran riot through the city centre. Nodding off during the day could be an early warning sign of Alzheimers disease, according to research. A study of nearly 300 retired people found those who reported being very sleepy during the day had higher accumulations of amyloid plaques in their brains - a major cause of Alzheimers. Scientists believe this is because the human brain clears away amyloid when the body is asleep. Nodding off during the day could be an early warning sign of Alzheimers disease, according to a study by American researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota So people who are suffering broken sleep at night - and therefore struggling to stay awake during the day - are more likely to have build-ups of the toxic substance. The US researchers, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said excessive daytime sleepiness in elderly people should be considered a red flag for Alzheimers. The scientists, whose work is published in the JAMA Neurology journal, tracked 283 participants aged over 70 between 2009 and 2016, none of whom had dementia at the beginning of the study. The scientists assessed their levels of daytime sleepiness and conducted at least two brain scans on each participant. The fifth of the participants which suffered from daytime sleepiness were the most likely to show build-ups of amyloid, a sticky protein which forms plaques in the brain. They found particular build-ups in the precuneus, the part of the brain linked to episodic memory, and the cingulate gyrus which is linked to emotion, learning, and memory. The scientists wrote: Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) was associated with increased amyloid-beta accumulation in elderly persons without dementia. Early identification of patients with EDS and treatment of underlying sleep disorders could reduce amyloid-beta accumulation in this vulnerable group.. The scientists assessed their levels of daytime sleepiness and conducted at least two brain scans on each participant They said ageing has been linked with daytime drowsiness with research showing up to three-in-ten older adults fall asleep in the day and have frequent sleep attacks. It comes after a separate study last year found people who slept poorly were more likely to have amyloid or another protein called tau in their spinal fluid. The researcher behind that study, Dr Barbara Bendlin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: There are already many effective ways to improve sleep. It may be possible that early intervention for people at risk of Alzheimers disease may prevent or delay the onset of the disease. A Sydney father who was wrongly accused of exposing himself to young girls on a cruise was told the mistake was easy to make because both he and the man actually responsible were Asian, he alleges. John Sun, who is now suing Carnival over the incident, told Daily Mail Australia he was attacked by the father of a young girl on a cruise in December 2016 after the man was told Mr Sun had exposed himself to his daughter. 'I left my cabin door ajar, expecting my mother and father to come by [our room],' he said. 'The father who assaulted me pushed the door wide and started to assault me physically, while saying I exposed myself to his daughter.' Sydney father John Sun (pictured) was on a Carnival cruise when he was wrongly accused of exposing himself to young girls on the ship Mr Sun's wife and young daughter were in the room at the time, and the father-of-one called security to help him remove the man from his room. When security guards did arrive at his cabin, Mr Sun alleges they implied he was responsible, otherwise the man wouldn't have been in his room. After a conversation, more guards arrived, and four of them escorted Mr Sun to a room on the bottom floor of the cruiseliner. 'There, the security person told me they knew I did it,' he alleged. '[They told me] they had all the evidence they needed, and I should just confess.' 'I requested to see security footage as I was in complete shock . But they said I'd get to see it later and just to confess and write a report down on what I had done.' After a lengthy discussion with security, Mr Sun was finally shown the security tapes - but it was a 'totally different person', he said. Mr Sun was bashed up by the father of a young girl who had identified him as being the man responsible, and interrogated by security for 90 minutes before he was able to prove it wasn't him CCTV footage from the ship showed a man of a different build, who had no tattoos, was the person exposing themselves to young female passengers When he pointed out the differences between himself and the man, Mr Sun alleged security agreed the men were of different builds, and the man responsible did not have any tattoos, while Mr Sun was covered in them. Despite their glaring errors, Mr Sun said there was no real apology from the officials. 'The security guy kept on saying it was because I was Asian and that the person who assaulted the girls was Asian. So it was an easy mistake,' he alleged. A statement of claim lodged by Mark Smith of Brander Smith McKnight Lawyers with the NSW District Court claims Mr Sun was allowed back to his room about 12.45am but was not given medical attention for the physical assault. Mr Sun claims he was fearful of further attacks and suffered humiliation and damage to his reputation. He explained to Daily Mail Australia the young girl had been shown black and white passport pictures of men who fit the description of the man who exposed himself to her. Mr Sun alleges he was told by a security official the mix up was 'an easy mistake to make' because both he and the man actually responsible were Asian The youngster picked out his picture, and Mr Sun alleges his picture had his details on it, which the father of the girl memorised - which is how he was able to charge into his room. With just a day left before the cruise ship pulled back in to dock in Sydney, Mr Sun and his family remained on the cruise after the incident, but he said the accusations left him feeling uncomfortable around other guests. 'It was quite a scene, and many people who shared cabins on the floor would have heard the accusations,' he said. The next day, Mr Sun was contacted by customer service at Carnival. He told Daily Mail Australia his family were offered a free meal for their inconvenience. 'They said they were sorry for our [negative] experience, but that all actions taken by security were protocol, and they didn't apologise for that,' he said. The father-of-one (pictured second from right) and his family remained on the ship as it was towards the end of the trip, but Mr Sun said he felt very uncomfortable for the rest of his trip Mr Sun is suing the operator for breach of contract, misleading or deceptive conduct, defamation, unjustified or unlawful detention and negligence. He is seeking damages up to $100,000. A spokesman for Carnival told Daily Mail Australia: 'Out of respect for the court process and those involved, it would be inappropriate to comment on this specific matter'. 'As a general principle, the safety and security of our guests is our number one priority,' he said. 'We take allegations of misconduct seriously, particularly when young people are involved.' The parties are due back in court on March 29 for a pre-trial conference. The war in Syria has claimed more than half a million lives since it began seven years ago, according to British observers. Most of the dead are civilians killed by the forces of the Syrian government and its allies such as Russia and Iran and terror groups such as Hezbollah. Extensive use of air power by President Bashar al-Assad and some of his allies has dramatically raised the death toll. The conflict began after mass protests against President Assad in March 2011, dragging in regional and global powers and forcing millions of people to flee their homes The British war monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had identified more than 350,000 of those killed, and the remainder were cases where it knew deaths had occurred but did not know the victims names. The conflict began after mass protests against President Assad in March 2011, dragging in regional and global powers and forcing millions of people to flee their homes. As the war approaches its eighth year, intense fighting continues in several areas, including eastern Ghouta near the capital Damascus and Afrin near the Turkish border. Foreign nationals have been kept in Britain's largest immigration removal centre for as long as four years, according to a watchdog report. Detainees were held in 'prison-like' conditions at the facility near Heathrow Airport for unacceptably lengthy periods, inspectors said. They found planned removals failed to materialise due to late legal challenges or a lack of travel documents, while some detentions were prolonged by Home Office failings. The findings were detailed by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in an assessment of Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC) in west London The findings were detailed by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in an assessment of Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC) in west London. It is the largest detention site of its kind in Europe, holding up to 676 male detainees. At the time of the inspection in October, the centre had a population of 552. HMIP's report said: 'Some detainees had been held in detention for too long, with 23 held for more than a year at the start of the inspection; one had been held for more than four and half years. 'Removals failed for a variety of reasons, including late legal challenges, a lack of travel documents and disruptive behaviour on removal. 'Some detentions were prolonged by failings of the Home Office and its contractors. For example, the Home Office took over a year to decide an asylum claim.' IRCs are used to house foreign nationals including overseas offenders and asylum seekers either while their cases are decided or prior to their removal from the UK. Instances where individuals have been held for several months or years have prompted calls for a time limit on detention. Publishing the report on Harmondsworth, chief inspector of prisons Peter Clarke said: 'The continuing lack of a time limit on detention meant that some men had been held for excessively long periods.' Instances where individuals have been held for several months or years have prompted calls for a time limit on detention In other findings, the inspectorate said: - Physical conditions at the centre had improved but many areas were dirty, bedbugs were 'endemic' and there were infestations of mice in some places. - There was evidence of an increase in the availability of drugs, including the psychoactive substance known as Spice. - In nine out of 10 cases examined, the Home Office accepted evidence that detainees had been tortured prior to coming to Britain but maintained detention regardless. - Detainees were routinely handcuffed when attending outside appointments without 'evidence of risk'. Mr Clarke concluded that the centre had failed to progress sufficiently. He said: 'For the third consecutive inspection, we found considerable failings in the areas of safety and respect. 'Detainees, many identified as vulnerable, were not being adequately safeguarded. Some were held for unacceptably long periods. 'Mental health needs were often not met. Detainees were subject to some disproportionate security restrictions and living conditions were below decent standards.' A Home Office spokeswoman said: 'Detention and removal of those with no lawful basis to stay in the UK are essential parts of effective immigration controls. 'When people are detained, it is for the minimum time possible and detention is reviewed on a regular basis. 'The detainee's welfare remains of the utmost importance throughout. 'We are pleased that the inspector noted a number of positive areas of work such as welfare services, faith provision, generally adequate health care provision and positive engagement with third sector groups who support detainees. 'However, elements of this report make for difficult reading and we are committed to a programme of transformation.' Harmondsworth IRC is run for the Home Office by Mitie's Care and Custody division. A spokeswoman for the firm said: 'The inspectors' report confirms progress is being made, although there are still some things we need to do better. 'We are encouraged that, among the key inspection outcomes, the report identified low levels of violence and self-harm and that restraint was used proportionately. 'However, we are concerned that, despite the low risk to detainees, many said they did not feel safe. 'We are working to understand the extent to which their anxiety relates to their potential removal from the country as opposed to their perceptions of the centre and how we can best provide reassurance about their time in our care.' In relation to bedbugs, it is understood furniture in affected areas has been replaced. Units were deep cleaned and refurbished after the inspection. Teachers in Texas have been learning how to fire a gun in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting that killed 17 including three educators. Sixteen teachers and school staff from the northern part of the state were given an entire day of training on Saturday. They were shown by a former Irving police officer how to handle a weapon in the event of an active shooter situation. A North Texas school district took matters into their own hands and participated in safe firearms training and how to respond to an active shooter situation Sixteen teachers and school staff members got a whole day of training Saturday on how to handle a weapon in the event of an active shooter situation The free event was led by a former Irving police officer, Tim Bulot, pictured Tim Bulot is also the owner of Strategic Weapons Academy of Texas, where he normally provides training for cops, SWAT teams and security contractors SWAT and police officers volunteered their time and expertise, teaching firearms training and active shooter protocol. 'Its scary sometimes. We do our best to have security at our schools, but you never know what's going to happen. And it's better to be prepared than not prepared,' said Kim Raney to CBS News. 'If our district ever let the teachers carry, then I'd be prepared to do that,' she said. Tim Bulot gave the teachers their training. He now owns Strategic Weapons Academy of Texas. The teachers were instructed on how to respond to a life or death situation as well as how to safely use their firearms Bulot said he and his wife came up with the idea during a conversation about arming teachers after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida The class was called, 'Defensive Pistol Training for Teachers.' Information about the class spread via social media and word of mouth 'This is the first time I've done anything like this normally it's police officers, SWAT and overseas contractors who we train here,' said Bulot. 'I wanted to bring teachers and law enforcement together into our world because now we're not the first ones there on these active shooters. They are,' said Bulot. He said that there has been overwhelming support for his first-ever class, and e hopes to hold another one for teachers in the future. The issue of arming teachers as a way to make schools safer has been at the forefront since the February 14 shootings in Parkland, Florida President Donald Trump's latest plans for school safety call for providing 'rigorous firearms training' for qualified school employees Meanwhile, The White House backtracked on president Donald Trump's previous calls to raise the minimum age to purchase certain firearms to 21 but looks to be pressing ahead with school safety proposals that include arming teachers. The Trump administration's proposals vow to provide 'rigorous firearms training' to 'specially qualified' teachers on a voluntary basis. This includes assistance from the Department of Justice which will offer firearm training to school staff through their local agencies. The president is now establishing a Federal Commission on School Safety that will be headed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The White House has announced plans to arm teachers but has backtracked on president Donald Trump's previous calls to raise the minimum age to purchase certain firearms to 21 The president is establishing a Federal Commission on School Safety that will be headed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (pictured) The commission will largely focus on mental health and strengthening school security, but will also explore other solutions such as raising the age requirements for gun purchases, according to the White House. 'Far too often the focus has been only on the most contentious fights -- the things that have divided people and sent them into their entrenched corners,' Devos said on Sunday, according to CNN. 'But the plan that we're going to advance and talk about is a pragmatic plan to dramatically increase school safety and to take steps to do so right away.' As part of the the proposals, the Department of Homeland Security will work with state and local authorities in a public awareness campaign based on their 'see something, say something' anti-terrorism campaign. Students have mobilized to call for stricter gun control laws after the deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the hands of a 19-year-old former student Trump held a listening session with gun violence victims last month (pictured) following the Parkland shooting The White House plans also mention supporting the transition of military veterans and retired law enforcement officials into education-related careers. These proposals were expected to include raising the minimum age for buying long guns to 21, a measure Trump has said he would support, but the unveiled plans make no mention of this. Also expected was support for banning bump stocks, a modification to high-capacity rifles that lets them fire like an automatic weapon. Critics of the president slammed the White House's announcements, claiming Trump backed down from supporting raising the minimum age for gun purchases because of pressure from the National Riffle Association, the powerful lobbying group. The news on school safety measures come nearly a month after a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, renewed debate over gun control. Student survivors of the shooting have mobilized to call for stricter gun control laws after the deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the hands of a 19-year-old former student. Nikolas Cruz, 19, (left) killed 17 people last month at a school shooting in Florida, and Stephen Paddock (right) used a bump stock in 2017 to kill 58 people and injure 850 others in Las Vegas Trump was expected to announce his support for banning bump stocks (pictured in a stock photo), but the proposals announced ion Sunday said nothing on the matter The news on school safety measures come nearly a month after a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, renewed debate over gun control. Student survivors of the shooting have mobilized to call for stricter gun control laws after the deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the hands of a 19-year-old former student. During his presidential campaign, Trump touted his support for gun rights and was endorsed by the NRA. Since the Florida shooting, he has offered conflicting statements about his views on gun policies, at times calling for new restrictions and at other times rowing back on his comments. Trump has recently held listening sessions with gun violence victims, legislators and with the NRA - which on Friday filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida after a Republican Governor Rick Scott signed a law that bans the purchase of firearms by anyone younger than 21. Missouri's lenient child marriage laws have turned the state into a safe-haven for men who want to escape statuary rape charges. The Kansas City Star has revealed the stories of some of the more than 1,000 15-year-olds, who have been taken to the state in the last two decades so they could marry under a law that allows them to wed with the consent of only one parent. Keith Strawn drove his own 14-year-old daughter, identified by the local outlet as Heather, to Missouri so she could marry her 24-year-old boyfriend, who had gotten her pregnant after getting her drunk and having sex with her inside his camper. The Idaho father decided to listen to his daughter when she said she cared for her boyfriend, Aaron Seaton, and instead of turning him in to police, Strawn drove them to Missouri on the day of the teen's 15th birthday on August 2015. Heather Strawn was 15 years old when she became pregnant after Aaron Seaton, then 24, reportedly got her drunk and had sex with her inside his camper (both pictured) The father, Keith Strawn, (left) was eventually convicted of felony injury of a child and the boyfriend, Aaron Seaton, (right) was sentenced to 15 years in prison She was nine weeks pregnant when they drove 17 hours through the night to Kansas City where she would be able to marry without getting Seaton in trouble with the law. While in Idaho they would have had to face a judge to get married, in Missouri all they needed was one parent's signature. In most other states, Seaton would have been considered a rapist for having sex with Heather. In Missouri, though, only those 21 and older who have sex with someone under 17 outside of marriage are considered to be breaking the law. Within marriage, however, it's legal. Heather and Seaton then lived as a married couple, with the teen often referring to him as her 'hubby' on social media for months. It wasn't until her mother alerted Idaho police that both Strawn and Seaton faced the law. Heather and Seaton lived as a married couple, with the teen often referring to him as her 'hubby' on social media for months By the time of Seaton and Strawn's trial, Heather had miscarried the baby and the marriage had been annulled Both men were arrested. By the time of their trial, Heather had miscarried the baby and the marriage had been annulled. It was a case that 'horrified' District Court Judge Gregory W. Moeller. Seaton was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender. 'At the time, I really didn't think much of the age difference,' Seaton said during his trial. 'Everything I've put her family through, and her through, my family through, I would like to apologize for that, for this whole mess. I'm deeply sorry.' Strawn was sentenced to four years for felony injury of a child, but because Heather had somewhat agreed to the marriage his sentence was suspended and he was instead ordered to 120 days in jail. 'Perhaps as you spend each of those 120 days in jail, you will think about the 120 days your daughter was married to a rapist because of you,' Judge Moeller said. Ashley Duncan was also 15 when she realized she was pregnant with her 18-year-old boyfriend's baby and got married in her home state of Missouri Her guardian at the time, aunt Christy Cothran, decided the pregnancy meant the high school freshman had to get married to boyfriend Daniel Duncan But Strawn insisted he thought he was doing right by his daughter when he drove more than 1,100 miles so she could get married. 'I love my daughter very much and never would I do anything to intentionally harm her or put her in harm's way,' he said at his May 2016 sentencing in Idaho. 'At the time I thought I was making the right decision, but after looking back I realize that that was the wrong decision, and I regretfully made that decision in duress.' The thought of getting married to save their boyfriends from prison seems to be a recurrent reason why teenage girls choose to become child brides. Ashley Duncan was also 15 when she realized she was pregnant with her 18-year-old boyfriend's baby. Her guardian at the time, aunt Christy Cothran, decided the pregnancy meant the high school freshman had to get married. She picked Ashley up from her school bus in 2009 and informed her she was getting married that same day to Daniel Duncan. Ashley's aunt picked her up from her school bus one day in 2009 and took her to get married while still wearing her school clothes Ashley and Daniel had one more son in 2014 but separated shortly after. She now has four kids total and is in a new relationship (pictured with her partner) Ashley, now 24 and a mother of four, said: 'I knew I shouldn't have been making that decision that young. It was just something they told me that, like, I had to do or my child's father would go to jail.' But because she's from Missouri, where statuary rape only applies to those over age 21, her boyfriend wouldn't have gone to jail - something Ashley didn't know until recently. 'I guess,' she said, still in her school clothes, when asked if she took her boyfriend to be her lawfully wedded husband. Then, they got back in the car, drove her sister to volleyball practice, and went home to have some cake. Eight years later, Ashley and Daniel are still legally married but separated. They had a second son in 2014 but shortly after their relationship turned violent and she left with the children. She told the Kansas City Star if she had to do it all over again she would not get married, and her greatest regret is dropping out of high school her freshman year when she was six months pregnant. They say one person's trash is another's treasure. But authorities were left stumped after an old safe containing around $30,000 was found dumped on the side of the road for rubbish collection. A group of garbage men made the bizarre discovery during a council clean-up last week in the Auckland suburb of Hillsborough, New Zealand. The safe and the cash was almost immediately handed into police, who have launched an investigation to find the owner. Garbage men in New Zealand found an old safe containing around $30,000 during a rubbish collection The cash and the safe were almost immediately handed in to the police who have launched an investigation into who owns the safe Waste Management national manager Monica Cadman told the New Zealand Herald the discovery was 'acted on immediately'. 'We were made aware of the incident the same day and notified Auckland Council and police within 24 hours,' she said. Neither Ms Cadman or police have confirmed the amount that was found, but it was reportedly as much as $30,000. 'Police are making enquires to locate the owner and establish how the safe came to be in an inorganic collection,' a police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. Barrister Marie Dyhrberg told the paper the garbage men could have been subjected to 'theft by finding' charges if they didn't hand the cash into police. 'Your safest bet is always, anyone who find anything and has any doubt at all, just hand it into the police,' Dyhrberg said. 'After a while if there's no claimants, if you can't possibly take steps to find ownership, you become the owner, police can give it back to you.' A tooth belonging to one of the biggest sharks to ever live has vanished from a secret world heritage site. Police have been called in to investigate the disappearance of the ancient tooth, which could be worth thousands of dollars, ABC News reported. The fossilised Megalodon tooth was taken from a secret location in the Cape Range National Park in in Western Australia, Arvid Hogstrom from Parks and Wildlife said. A tooth belonging to one of the biggest sharks to ever live has vanished from a secret world heritage site Gone! Police have been called in to investigate the disappearance of the ancient tooth, which could be worth thousands of dollars 'There was only a few key local people who actually knew where it was,' he said. 'But it only takes one person to tell the wrong person and we end up where we are now. 'It could be someone who doesn't know what they've taken. It could be an amateur collector who wants to add to their collection, or it could be someone who wants to trade it on the black market.' Mr Hogstrom said his team had been working on a way to protect the tooth before it was stolen. Megalodon grew up to 15 metres long and weighed about 20 tonnes. It's believed the ancient shark species became extinct 1.6 million years ago. Police are now investigating the incident. A young woman riddled with cancer has described the three months of torture she was forced to endure before doctors finally came to the right diagnosis. Georgia McLennan, from Queensland's Gold Coast, was in such severe pain she found herself at the doctors multiple times a week. The 24-year-old was misdiagnosed with stomach ulcers by one doctor and was even told by another that it was 'all in her head' - but the harrowing truth was Georgia had tumours covering her lungs, on her liver and on her spleen. Georgia McLennan, (pictured) from Queensland's Gold Coast, was in such severe pain she found herself at the doctors multiple times a week The 24-year-old (pictured) was misdiagnosed with stomach ulcers by one doctor and was even told by another that it was 'all in her head' 'They [doctors] couldn't believe how healthy I looked given what they found inside me,' she told the Gold Coast Bulletin. 'I found out later they thought I was going to die that weekend.' Georgia's PET scan revealed her diagnosis was much worse than originally thought Doctors were fooled by Georgia's happy and vibrant exterior and misdiagnosed her several times before finally discovering the truth, one giving her stomach ulcer medication which failed to work. Georgia was eventually diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma, and it came after three months of pain, doubt, and one doctor's suggestion 'it was all in her head'. 'When I saw the scan I realised this is very bad,' Georgia said. At the worst point her stomach had become so swollen she said she looked six months pregnant and finally a PET scan revealed just how much the cancer had spread. An aggressive course of chemotherapy followed along with spinal injections every week. So far the treatments have been successful with Georgia's cancer currently in remission. Georgia was also diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma, and it came after three months of pain, doubt, and one doctor's suggestion 'it was all in her head' Georgia McLennan was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma after months of debilitating pain The 24-year-old Gold Coast local said doctors were shocked at her diagnosis saying: 'they couldn't believe how healthy I looked given what they found inside me' On the Instagram account where she documents much of her life and journey, Georgia continually showcases how her positive attitude has helped her throughout the diagnosis. 'I had the best day even though it was a little bit scary. I'm so grateful to have such amazing friends and family and feel so lucky to receive my treatment,' she said in one post in response to starting a new treatment. Another reads: 'Feeling so so good after 5 blood transfusions, grateful for people who donate blood.' The brave woman has snapped glowing selfies wearing a jet-black wig as she patiently waits for her naturally blonde locks to grow back following treatment. At the worst point her stomach had become so swollen she said she looked six months pregnant and finally a PET scan revealed just how much the cancer had spread After aggressive rounds of chemotherapy and spinal injections, Georgia is currently in remission In light of the huge odds she has overcome, Georgia is using her journey as a platform for the Gold Coast Hospital Foundation Care for Cancer lunch so other patients can have a similar experience with their treatment as she did In light of the huge odds she has overcome, Georgia is using her journey as a platform for the Gold Coast Hospital Foundation Care for Cancer lunch. The lunch raises money for the patient transport service and chemotherapy chairs at the hospital where she received treatment and Georgia knows first hand the impact the little things can have on patients, saying: 'You don't realise how much you appreciate a comfortable chair until you are forced to spend some of your most difficult hours in them.' Sen. Elizabeth Warren graciously declined request from a Massachusetts media outlet challenging her to take a DNA test in order to prove her Native American heritage. In an NBC Meet the Press interview with Chuck Todd on Sunday, the presenter brought up the topic a day after President Donald Trump mocked the Democratic politician's ancestry spiel once more, by calling her 'Pocahontas' at a Pennsylvania rally. Todd first brought up the editorial opinion piece published by Berkshire County newspaper, The Berkshire Eagle, which asked Warren to complete the test as way to put an end to the chatter about her family history. In the piece titled, 'Our opinion: Warren must resolve debate on heritage', the staff wrote: 'Were she to test positive for Native American DNA, it would permanently resolve the issue - while possibly shutting down President Trump. 'Should the test come up negative, it would be an opportunity from the senator to perform an act rarely seen among politicians: an admission of her error and a full-throated apology to Native American tribes and anyone else offended by her spurious claim.' Scroll down for video On NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tells Chuck Todd that her heritage never helped her gain a professional advantage Warren rejected a local media outlet's request for her to take a DNA test as way to put to rest ongoing chatter about her ancestry Chuck Todd first brought up the editorial opinion piece published by Berkshire County newspaper The Berkshire Eagle challenged the senator to 'resolve the debate on heritage' at last Appearing unbothered, Warren went on to share the tale about her lineage once more. 'So, let me tell you the story of my family,' she began. 'My mother and daddy were born and raised in Oklahoma. My daddy first saw my mother when they were both teenagers.' Warren went on to divulge details about her parents' crazy love for one another, while touching base on the challenges they faced and explaining how her father's parents frowned upon her mother's descent. 'His family was bitterly opposed to their relationship because she was part Native American,' Warren told Todd during the segment. 'They eventually eloped (and) survived The Great Depression, The Dust Bowl,' she went on to say. 'They raised my three brothers, all of whom headed off to the military, and me.' Warren proudly boasted about the 60-some years her parents maintained their unity and explained how the sweet story has been passed down generations. President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania March 10, 2018, where he made snide remarks about Warren's heritage Trump told a crowd Saturday: 'Can you imagine covering Bernie or Pocahontas? How about that?' 'It's a part of me... and nobody is going to take that part of me away. Not ever,' Warren said. When Todd asked her why she is against knowing the results for sure, Warren replied: 'I do know... I know who I am.' While the senator said she never used her heritage claim to get ahead, she has been found listed as minority faculty in university directories. On Saturday, Trump mocked Warren for the story about her native heritage based on what she heard from her Oklahoma relatives. He has pointed out that Warren does not claim membership in a tribe. 'Can you imagine covering Bernie or Pocahontas? How about that?' Trump asked the crowd. The Massachusetts senator hit back at the president for his latest 'racial slur' by bringing up sexual violence committed against Native American women. In another Sunday interview with CNN's 'State of the Union', Warren addressed Trump's verbal attack. During a CNN interview, Warren was asked to respond to another one of Trump's 'Pocahontas' attacks She said she wanted to turn the incident into a positive and try and lift up other people to tell their stories. 'I'm going to do that right now, by pointing out that more than half of all native women in this country have been the victims of sexual violence,' Warren said, pivoting to the issue after restating what she has said previously about her family past. 'And more than half of them are attacked by non-natives. And the American government is doing nothing about this. This is an issue that's happening right here in America,' she continued. She further slammed the United States government - suggesting it does nothing to help the issue of sexual violence. 'That is just fundamentally wrong. This is a group that is being injured every single day. We need to bring some attention to it and we need to put some resources on it. And we need to make a change,' Warren went on. 'Native women are subjected to sexual violence at rates much higher than any other group in our country. We need to put some focus on this and we need to make some changes on this.' Previously, Warren confirmed to CNN's Jim Acosta she would not be running for president in 2020. Joshua Homann (above) has been convicted of murdering his pregnant partner in 2015 A man who stabbed his pregnant partner 49 times in the western Sydney home they shared has been found guilty of murder. Joshua Homann was found guilty of violently killing Kirralee Paepaerei in their Mount Druitt home in 2015, when she was seven months pregnant with her fifth child. Homann, 41, had pleaded not guilty to murder but after three hours of deliberation a nine man and three woman jury handed down its verdict on Tuesday afternoon. Ms Paepaeri, 37, was stabbed 28 times in the face, 21 times in the chest and beaten with a metal rod by her de facto partner on the night of September 21, 2015. Homann stabbed his de facto partner Kirralee Paepaerei (pictured) 48 times inside the home they shared at Mount Druit, in western Sydney, on the night of September 21, 2015 Her relatives - many of who had followed the trial throughout its two weeks - packed into the NSW Supreme Court to hear the verdict read out. A family member of the mother-of-four had found her body in an upstairs bedroom of their home and called emergency services. Their unborn baby could not be saved. After attacking Ms Paepaeri, Homann allegedly jumped out an upstairs window and run to Mount Druitt police station. The court heard he told officers at the station he'd been attacked by an intruder who had 'tried to stab him'. 'Please help, please help, my partner is still at home. I am worried about her,' he was said to have told officers. Both Homann and Ms Paepaeri were heavy users of drugs including ice, but the trial heard the mother had given up illicit substances for her pregnancy. His defence lawyer argued that in addition to drug use, Homann suffered a mental illness and did not remember killing his partner. He will return to court for sentencing in May. A group of 50 former captains and vice captains have penned a heartfelt letter calling for the reinstatement of a long-standing teacher. The letter accompanies a student protest on Tuesday in which students donned brown armbands and smart casual attire in support of their fired deputy principal. Mr Brown, known as Brownie, was dismissed from his position at prestigious private boy's school Trinity Grammar in Melbourne's east last week. He was sacked after video surfaced of him trimming a student's hair with scissors before school photo day at the beginning of term. Scroll down for video Rohan Brown, nicknamed Brownie, was dismissed from his position at prestigious private boy's school Trinity Grammar in Melbourne's east last week (pictured is Mr Brown cutting a student's hair) The letter accompanies a student protest (pictured) on Tuesday in which students donned brown armbands in support of sacked deputy principal Rohan Brown Students have donned brown armbands to protest the sacking of their beloved deputy principal for cutting a boy's hair (pictured are three student protesters) The decision to let Mr Brown go outraged parents and students, who have started an online petition and wore brown armbands on Tuesday in protest. The letter was sent to the principal and the school council chair on Monday, and raises concerns held for the direction of the school. 'We are writing to express our profound disappointment at the School Council's decision to dismiss Rohan Brown after an exemplary 30 year career,' they wrote. 'Many of us are former students of Rohan's and have directly witnessed his exceptional personal qualities. The letter (pictured is page one) was sent to the principal and the school council chair on Monday, and raises concerns held for the direction of the school 'A lot of the boys are planning to have a protest at the school and everyone is wearing brown arm bands for Mr Brown and we all think that the punishment clearly does not fit the crime,' said a student (pictured) 'His defining characteristics define the school's traditional core values: he is courteous, fair and humble, wholly dedicated to the wellbeing of the school's students. 'He can be firm, but he is not a bully. He wants boys to be their best.' The letter went on to question the school's aims, and noted a change towards a performance-based school. 'In recent years, the school's executive leadership has made clear its intention to change the school's vision and direction. 'This has seen a dramatic shift from Trinity's position as a non-selective, not-elite school dedicated to holistic personal development, to an institution focused on "exceptional" performance defined by ATAR excellence, growth and profit.' Students taking part in the brown armband protest insisted they did not want to disrupt class, but felt the need to make a 'unified statement of solidarity'. 'We are writing to express our profound disappointment at the School Council's decision to dismiss Rohan Brown after an exemplary 30 year career,' the letter said (pictured is page two) 'Many of us are former students of Rohan's and have directly witnessed his exceptional personal qualities,' the letter said (pictured is page three) The letter went on to question the school's aims, and noted a change towards a performance-based school (pictured is an image posted on a Facebook page supporting Mr Brown) 'He is a pretty integral part of this school. We all really love him, he is such a big presence at the school and he will be sorely missed,' a student told the Today show. 'He was only upholding the school rules and the school values, which he loves and cares about so much,' said another. 'A lot of the boys are planning to have a protest at the school and everyone is wearing brown arm bands for Mr Brown and we all think that the punishment clearly does not fit the crime,' said a third student. The armband protest comes after hundreds of angry parents and former students challenged the decision at a special meeting on Friday night. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 people have signed an online petition urging the school to 'Bring Brownie Back.' A prestigious private school will appoint an independent expert to review its procedures after deputy headmaster Rohan Brown (pictured) was sacked for cutting a student's hair Trinity Grammar will now appoint an independent expert to review its procedures, ABC News reports. On Monday, the school's headmaster Dr Michael Davies issued a statement saying students, staff and other stakeholders will be consulted about the review He added the school 'takes seriously its duty of care to students, staff and the wider community.' Dr Davies said: 'We have reached out regularly to the boy involved in the February incident, over the past few days. 'We have also been in touch with Rohan Brown over the weekend.' A man has been rushed to hospital after being stabbed at one Australia's most crime-ridden boarding houses. Detectives were called to The Regal, on St Kilda's Little Grey Street in Melbourne, about 5pm Monday following reports of the stabbing, Herald Sun reported. Police said it may have been linked to a fight earlier in the day between a group of men on the same street. The incident came just four days after it was announced the 49-room facility would be shut down for renovations following relentless calls from residents in the area. The man was not believed to be staying at the boarding house and was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries to his hands. A man was rushed to hospital after being stabbed at Melbourne's, The Regal (pictured), boarding house Monday night Detectives were called to The Regal, on St Kilda's Little Grey Street in Melbourne, Monday night following reports of the stabbing Police have launched an investigation and revealed detectives were reviewing security footage taken at the time of the incident. Port Phillip Inspector Jason Kelly said people who were not residents at the boarding house were removed shortly after midnight Tuesday morning. 'We will continue to be proactive at The Regal and in the immediate area until it is shut,' he said. Housing Minister and Albert Park State Labor MP Martin Foley announced last week the building would be closed and given a $6 million makeover. Locals say Little Grey Street in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda has turned into a 'vile manifestation of humanity that's abandoned itself' Mr Foley announced the boarding house would be shut down and would make way for a women's refuge The closure was welcome news for nearby residents, including radio personality Kate Langbroek, who claimed she was attacked outside her home. 'There's drug dealing blatantly in the street. There's a trail of zombies going up there to get their drugs or whatever,' Ms Langbroek, who lives a street from the boarding house, told Nine's Today program. Following the alleged confrontation, she tweeted state member for Albert Park, Martin Foley, with a photo of her bruised arm. 'Thanks for your call yesterday. This is the bruise I sustained trying to keep that 'vulnerable' resident from kicking our front door in on Friday night,' she wrote. A woman is pictured giving a two-finger solute on Melbourne's notorious Little Grey Street Radio personality Kate Langbroek (pictured showing her injuries) was one of many residents in the area to call on the Government to take action on the crime problem Hours later, Mr Foley announced the boarding house would be shut down and would make way for a women's refuge. 'Today I was pleased to announce that we will fund an application to close the Little Grey St boarding house. New CCTV will also help boost community safety,' he tweeted. 'We will refit the Little Grey St premises to house older women facing housing and homelessness stress in our community.' There's a trail of zombies going up there to get their drugs or whatever,' Langbroek said of the street (a man is seen walking down it) A woman has returned a blood alcohol reading of over seven times the legal limit A woman has been charged with high range drink driving in Townsville after allegedly returning a blood alcohol reading of 0.354 per cent. Senior Sergeant Jason Brosnan, of the Kirwan Police Station, told the Townsville Bulletin that in his 20 years of policing this was the highest reading he had seen. 'She had drank a half a bottle of vodka that morning,' he said. The incident happened on Monday morning when police received reports of a car driving erratically and crossing lanes on Charles St, Kirwan. Witnesses saw the car park on a median strip and a woman of Caucasian appearance fall out of the vehicle. When they attempted to help the woman she become aggressive and got back into the car and drove away. 'Police then conducted patrols and located the female on Nathan St near Fulham Rd,' Sen-Sgt Brosnan said. He further explained the woman initially refused to cooperate but as police 'were preparing to force their way into the vehicle' the woman complied and got out of the car. Police conducted a roadside breath test and after a returning a positive result the woman was taken to Kirwan Police Station where she allegedly returned the blood alcohol reading of more than seven times the limit. 'It is very fortunate that no one was seriously injured,' Sen-Sgt Brosnan said. The 28-year-old woman is scheduled to face Townsville Magistrates Court later this month. Former senator Nick Xenophon knelt down and put his head down in a gutter after a devastating poll showed his bid for state politics had hit the kerb. The politician managed to have a sense of humour after a Galaxy poll revealed his support was draining away in the marginal, Liberal-held Adelaide seat of Hartley. The former lawyer, who made a name for himself campaigning against poker machines, took a gamble in October last year when he quit federal parliament in a bid to become a South Australian state MP. Scroll down for video Former senator Nick Xenophon knelt down and put his head down in a gutter after a devastating poll showed his bid for state politics looked doomed The politician managed to have a sense of humour after a Galaxy poll revealed his support was draining away in the marginal, Liberal-held Adelaide seat of Hartley Luck appears to be running out for him, with the poll predicting he would narrowly lose 49 to 51 per cent, after preferences, if the result was replicated at this Saturday's election. Xenophon, who formed his own SA Best party, is well behind first-term Liberal MP Vincent Tarzia, with just 30 per cent of the primary vote compared with his opponent's 38 per cent. He was ahead of former Labor minister Grace Portolesi who had a primary vote of just 22 per cent in the electorate she lost in 2014. Xenophon appealed to voters in the eastern Adelaide seat to preference him ahead of the Liberal candidate. Luck appears to be running out for him, with the poll predicting he would narrowly lose 49 to 51 per cent, after preferences, if the result was replicated at this Saturday's election 'My message to Labor and Greens voters is that if they vote for Labor or the Greens in the seat of Hartley they'll effectively be delivering the seat to the Liberals and to Mr Marshall,' he said. Xenophon said it was premature to comment on how the party would operate should he not win the seat. 'There'll obviously need to be a parliamentary leader if I don't make it, but I'm not contemplating that,' he said. 'I always knew that this would be a tough battle.' The weekend poll of 590 voters, published in the Adelaide Advertiser, is a rude shock for Xenophon who in December was regarded as the state's preferred premier over the Labor incumbent Jay Weatherill and Liberal leader Steven Marshall. Xenophon, who formed his own SA Best party, is well behind first-term Liberal MP Vincent Tarzia, with just 30 per cent of the primary vote compared with his opponent's 38 per cent That separate Newspoll before Christmas had 46 per cent of voters nominating him as their preferred state leader, compared with 22 per cent for the existing premier and just 19 per cent for the Opposition Leader. In a hung parliament, Xenophon's SA Best party could decide who forms the next government if some of its candidates are elected. Labor, which has been in power since 2002, is hoping for a fifth consecutive term to extend its run to 20 years. Xenophon was first elected in 1997 to the South Australian parliament as an upper house member for the No Pokies party, before he became a federal senator in 2008 who shared the balance of power with other minor parties. Hillary Clinton has slipped on a set of stairs yet again, just five months after breaking her toe in London. Cameras were rolling in Mandu, India on Monday as Clinton descended a set of stone stairs at the Jahaj Maha palace and slipped not once but twice even as aides held her by the arms. After the second slip, Clinton kicked off her sandals and proceeded the rest of the way down the steps without incident. Top aide Huma Abedin was walking right behind Clinton during the incident. Clinton lost her footing on the worn stone steps as her left leg shot from under her After a second aide took her other arm, Clinton again lost her footing on her left leg After the second slip, Clinton kicked off her sandals (circled) and continued without issue Clinton is seen at the Jahaj Mahal on a personal trip to the ancient city of Mandu in India Clinton gestures outside the remains of the Hindola Mahal monument, part of an abandoned royal palace complex, while on a personal trip to the ancient city of Mandu in India The former Democrat presidential candidate was speaking in India to promote her book, What Happened, explaining her loss in the 2016 election. Clinton blamed the defeat on voters who 'didnt like black people getting rights' or women getting jobs, video of her remarks on Sunday shows. The spill is the latest in a series of high-profile falls that - fairly or not - have led Clinton's opponents to speculate about a possible underlying health issue. Clinton, 70, has brushed off most of the incidents as routine mishaps or simple clumsiness. In October 2017, she was in London promoting her book when she arrived on the set of the Graham Norton Show wearing a surgical boot. 'I was running down the stairs in heels with a cup of coffee in hand, I was talking over my shoulder and my heel caught and I fell backwards,' she explained in the interview. 'I tried to get up and it really hurt. I've broken my toe.' In October 2017, Clinton was in London promoting her book when she arrived on the set of the Graham Norton Show wearing a surgical boot, after tripping on stairs in her hotel During the presidential campaign, cameras caught Clinton leaving the 9/11 memorial in Manhattan and collapsing into the arms of Secret Service agents as she got into a waiting van Clinton slipped as she walked up the stairs into a residential facility that helps former felons, substance abusers, and homeless move into self-sufficiency on February 24, 2016 During the presidential campaign, cameras caught Clinton leaving the 9/11 memorial in Manhattan and collapsing into the arms of Secret Service agents as she got into a waiting van. She later announced she'd been diagnosed with dehydration and pneumonia. Perhaps most infamously, Clinton fell inside her home in 2013 on the eve of testimony before a Senate committee investigating Benghazi. She got a mild concussion and was treated for a blood clot near her brain. When she appeared in Congress to testify, she was wearing special prism eyeglass lenses, which are used to assist people experiencing double vision. Clinton has since returned to her normal contact lens eye-wear, though conspiracy theorists still delight in analyzing her sunglasses for signs of prism lenses. A violent passenger who forced a Brisbane-bound Qantas flight to return to Perth after he mixed Xanax with alcohol has been ordered to pay almost $26,000 in fines and reparations. Luke Macdonald Taylor, 39, threatened crew members and tried to bite a federal officer during the incident in July last year, Perth Now reported. The fly-in fly-out worker was fined $10,500 in the Western Australia District Court on Tuesday. Scroll down for video Luke Macdonald Taylor, 39, has been ordered to pay almost $26,000 in fines and reparations after he forced a Brisbane-bound Qantas flight to return to Perth after he mixed Xanax with alcohol Taylor faced the Perth Magistrates Court in 2017 and banned form flying until the case was heard, he was handed down his sentence this week The court also ordered Taylor to pay $15,207 in reparations to Qantas. Taylor was charged with two counts of assaulting, threatening with violence or intimidating aircraft crew, and one count of obstructing, hindering or resisting a police officer. The court was told Taylor was getting into the personal space of crew members, including poking a female flight attendant before threatening violence on a male flight attendant. The flight had left Perth airport at 11.05pm, however an hour into the journey the pilot made the decision to turn back after Taylor became increasingly agitated. A passenger on the flight filmed the altercation between Taylor and Federal Police officers who boarded the plane when it returned to Perth airport. In the clip Taylor can be heard shouting at officers who are warning him that he would be tasered if he didn't cooperate with them. Another clip also shows the moment Taylor is handcuffed and escorted from the plane by Federal Police. Taylor also attempted to bite one of the officers as they were detaining him, eventually he was handcuffed and taken back into the terminal. When he first faced the Perth Magistrates Court in July 2017 he told the court his actions were out of character. Taylor said he had taken Xanax before the take off and was also drinking which had caused him to act out in an aggressive manner. Taylor is a fly in, fly out worker who was returning home to Queensland after a fortnight shift in the north west of Western Australia when the incident occurred. The helicopter pilot and sole survivor of Sunday's crash in New York City's East River told police a loose tether on one of the killed passenger's harnesses might have triggered the fuel switch, according to authorities. But an expert told the New York Post that the pilot's explanation is 'highly implausible' and 33-year-old pilot Richard Vance may be hiding his own mistake. Aviation lawyer Gary Robb said the lever Vance referenced, which is is usually on the floor next to the pilot's seat in that type of helicopter, needs to be pulled up and back down to be activated - it's not enough to accidentally pull it. Pilot and sole survivor Richard Vance, 33, told police one of the killed passengers' harnesses might have triggered the doomed chopper's fuel switch on Sunday (Vance is pictured on Sunday after he managed to escape the chopper) However, an aviation expert has told the New York Post the pilot's theory is 'highly implausible' and it's more likely that the pilot was the one to pull the wrong lever (Vance is pictured on Sunday after he managed to escape the chopper) Moreover, if activated by mistake, the error 'is normally fixed with a breakaway [safety] wire. 'I suspect a more plausible explanation is that the pilot simply activated the wrong lever, and this sometimes happens,' said aviation lawyer Gary C. Robb. Robb's statements align with what National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chair Bella Dinh-Zarr said during a press conference when asked about the pilot's theory. 'We've seen many things that have happened in an airplane. 'I have personally not seen this type of accident happen,' she said about whether she had ever heard of a helicopter shutting down because someone pulled the wrong switch. Footage from the moment of the crash shows the helicopter descending upright onto the water as if to land, then hitting the water and flipping over Trevor Cadigan, right, recorded this video at the his helicopter tour of New York City on Sunday. Cadigan and his friend, Brian McDaniel, left, would later die when the chopper crashed into the East River A source told the Post the pilot, who has been flying for nine years, did not want to land on Central Park so he headed for the East River. The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350, crashed into the water around 7.06pm on Sunday near East 90th Street and Roosevelt Island, in the waters just off of Gracie Mansion. The pilot, Richard Vance (pictured), who is from Danbury, Connecticut, said the aircraft went down because of engine failure. Vance escaped the crash moments after impact, but the five passengers were trapped inside, unable to escape from their safety harnesses as the helicopter flipped and sank, police said. The water temperature was juts 39 degrees at the time of the crash. Two passengers died at the scene and three were transported to hospitals in critical condition, said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro. Those three were all pronounced dead in the hospital, fire officials said early Monday. Among those who died in the crash include journalist Trevor Cadigan, his friend Brian McDaniel, Argentine tourist Carla Vallejos Blanco, and two helicopter employees, Daniel Thompson and Tristan Hill. Hill moved to the city a few months ago to work as the director of operations at sightseeing company SightSy. He planned to marry his fiance Eda Ozmen, a yoga instructor, back in Reno, Nevada, where the Singapore-born man grew up, on May 26. Cadigan, 26, was also a recent transplant to the city, moving in October to intern at Business Insider. His friend McDaniel, also 26, was on a trip to visit his longtime friend.The two both attended Bishop Lynch High School together. Cadigan got a degree in journalism from Southern Methodist University while his friend went into firefighting. Friends Brian McDaniel (left) and Trevor Cadigan (right) were both 26 and hailed from Texas. Cadigan moved to New York in October for an internship at Business Insider One of the other victims was Argentine tourist Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29 (pictured) Two helicopter employees - Daniel Thompson, 34, and Tristan Hill, 29 (PICTURED) were also killed. Hill was due to be married at the end of May Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were called to the scene last night and are currently working to determine the official cause of the crash. Video shows the dramatic moment the helicopter landed in the water, flipped, and then began to sink into the 39-degree waters. A few moments later, witnesses saw the pilot surface with a yellow raft. He was rescued by a tug boat. Part of the reason why it took so long to pull their bodies from the sunken wreckage was because they were strapped in with special harnesses that had allowed them to lean out and take pictures of the city while the doors of the helicopter were open. 'One of the most difficult parts of the operation, we're told, was the five people, besides the pilot, were all tightly harnessed,' said Commissioner Nigro. 'So these harnesses had to be cut and removed in order to get these folks off of this helicopter.' U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has arrived in the Afghan capital to facilitate a reconciliation with the Taliban government. His visit will take stock of the war, with emphasis on prospects for drawing at least some Taliban fighters towards reconciling with the Afghan government. His visit Tuesday was unannounced due to security concerns. Sultan Qaboos of Oman, right, means US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, center in Muscat from earlier this month at the Omani Royal Palace The visit comes as the US injects new resources into the stalemated war. Speaking to reporters, Mattis says that victory is still possible, meaning a political settlement with the Taliban could be in the cards. Mattis said he would be meeting with President Ashraf Ghani and top U.S. commanders. Mattis, said he would be meeting with President Ashraf Ghani and top U.S. commanders Mattis planned to meet with Gen. John Nicholson, the top American commander in Afghanistan, as well as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Last week, senior U.S. intelligence officials gave Congress a decidedly mix forecast for Afghanistan. They said that while Afghan forces are getting better, the Taliban is likely to threaten Afghan stability in 2018. A five-year-old girl was airlifted to hospital today after being run over by a car. The girl is fighting for her life with serious head injuries after the crash in Smithfield, west Sydney at 4pm. Paramedics found the girl unconscious at the scene before calling in an air ambulance to race her to hospital. A five-year-old girl was airlifted to hospital today after being run over by a car. Pictured: The scene The driver of the car was not hurt. He was taken to hospital for blood and urine testing. A New South Wales Ambulance spokesman told Daily Mail Australia: 'A girl was transported to hospital in critical condition after suffering serious head injuries when she was hit by a car.' Paramedics treated the girl at the scene before calling in an air ambulance to race her to hospital. Pictured: The scene A man with a history of domestic abuse doused his home in flames to murder his former partner but accidentally killed their four-month-old son and himself as well. Scott Millar poured petrol on a farm house near Taupo in New Zealand intending to kill his former partner, Katie Bruce. Millar and Ms Bruce had a four-month-old son named Ash, the New Zealand Herald reported. Millar and Ms Bruce (pictured) had a four-month-old son named Ash (pictured) Scott Millar poured petrol on a farm house near Taupo in New Zealand (scene pictured) The mum and son's burnt bodies were found inside the house on State Highway 5 at Rangitaiki on March 17 last year. According to the coroner their bodies were unrecognisable. Millar suffered serious burns and later died in Waikato Hospital. Coroner Wallace Bain has said Millar went to the house on an irregular basis, but there were 'ongoing domestic violence issues'. The coroner also revealed Millar had previously served time in jail for pouring petrol on a different partner's face and threatening her. There were other people at the house who survived the blaze including Ms Bruce's sister. She was rushed to hospital but later recovered. The mum and son's burnt bodies were found inside the house on State Highway 5 at Rangitaiki on March 17 last year Millar's mother, who asked not to be named, said the situation was an 'absolutely tragedy' for all involved. 'That's not who we knew. He was still my son and I still loved him ... We feel absolutely dreadful of course but there's nothing we can do to change it ... We can't bring them back.' A bondage dungeon operator is claiming he is being targeted by local government as a result of someone trying to monopolise the swinging scene in the area. The operator, who goes by the name Master Lexxx, runs the Crystal Dungeon in Arana Hills north of Brisbane, in addition to a manufacturing business. Moreton Bay Regional Council has conducted an investigation into the Crystal Dungeon after they were was tipped off about potential breaches of planning laws and fire safety regulations when the venue was the location of swingers' party last month. Moreton Bay Regional Council has conducted an investigation into the Crystal Dungeon after they were was tipped off about potential breaches of planning laws and fire safety regulations 'Council officers identified issues relating to building and planning land use, have since issued show cause notices and are now working with the property owner to address those issues,' a spokesman told the Courier Mail. Master Lexxx said he could not afford the cost of the compliance alterations, which he estimated to be between $5000-$25,000, and that he would be ruined financially. 'I'll be sent into bankruptcy, so I'm not a happy chappy.' He also said that the Council wanted him to apply for the premises to be classified as 'sport and recreation'. An Adelaide primary school teacher has been jailed for two years after he used his mobile phone to take explicit photos of his students as young as eight on a swimming excursion. Graham Geoffrey Levitt, a 50-year-old married father-of-two, took 'upskirt' photos of young female students while they were sleeping on a bus during a school excursion, as well as pictures of their feet, Adelaide Now reported. The grade three and four school teacher was found to have 1,758 explicit images on his computer, after the school's IT department reported he had been viewing child pornography on a work computer. Mr Levitt, from Adelaide's north-east, also had 907 images of children's feet in his personal collection. He took photos of his students in the classroom and while on a bus. One of the students was just eight years old, 7 News reported. He appeared at the Adelaide District Court on Tuesday, hiding his face as he walked into the court. Judge Wayne Chivell sentenced Mr Levitt to three years in jail for possessing and producing child exploitation material. He will be eligible for parole in two years. Graham Levitt, a married father-of-two, appeared at the Adelaide District Court on Tuesday (pictured), hiding his face as he was sentenced for taking explicit photos of his students 'Parents entrust their children to school teachers to give them an education. This is a gross breach of trust,' Judge Chivell said during his sentencing, reported by Adelaide Now. 'You have basically lost everything - your marriage, your family, your career, your good reputation. 'Your prior good character is irrelevant, because you never would have had the access to or opportunity for the indulgence of your fantasies were you not a school teacher,' he said. Judge Chivell also raised concerns that the incident would make it more difficult for educators to recruit male teachers at primary schools, saying he had 'put at risk the ability of schools to employ male teachers'. The judge determined the crimes were 'too serious' to warrant a suspended sentence. The grade three and four school teacher was found to have 1,758 explicit images, after the school's IT department reported he had been viewing child pornography on a work computer A former Virginia doctor was sentenced on Monday to 50 years in prison for the alleged murder of his girlfriend. Dr John Gibbs was found guilty in December of first-degree murder following the disappearance of nurse Zumba Pabon, of Chesterfield, whose body was never found. She was last seen alive in June 2014 leaving her shift on a Friday evening at St Francis Medical Hospital. Her co-workers reported her missing the following Monday. Former Virginia doctor, John Gibbs (left) was sentenced on Monday to 50 years in prison, after he was found guilty of first-degree murder following the disappearance of his girlfriend, nurse Zumba Pabon (right), whose body was never found Pabon (pictured) was last seen alive in June 2014 leaving her shift on a Friday evening at St Francis Medical Hospital. Her co-workers reported her missing the following Monday At Gibbs's trial, multiple people testified that the doctor was acting strange in the days following his girlfriend's disappearance. He did not express grief, did not tell his own sister that Pabon had disappeared, and went on a 10-day trip out of town with no notice, reported WTVR. Prosecutors presented a multitude of evidence, including a quick succession of 27 calls between her phone and Gibbs's and Pabon confessing to a co-worker that she wanted to leave Gibbs and had begun cutting herself. Her car was also seen being driven away from the couple's home on June 7 with Gibbs returning on foot not long after. At Gibbs's trial, multiple people testified that the doctor was acting strange in the days following his girlfriend's disappearance. Her car was also seen being driven away from the couple's home on June 7 with Gibbs returning on foot not long after (above) Also presented were purchases that Gibbs (center, in black) had made of 23 bottles of drain cleaner, and muriatic acid, weeks after Pabon disappeared as well as that he searched on Google how much ether is required to knock someone out Surveillance footage captured her car being towed at night from a parking lot near her home. The following week it was found outside a trailer park. Also presented were purchases that Gibbs had made of 23 bottles of drain cleaner, and muriatic acid, weeks after Pabon disappeared as well as that he searched on Google how much ether is required to knock someone out. But Gibbs's attorneys said he maintains his innocence and plans to appeal. Gibbs, who was a doctor at Sheltering Arms Rehabilitation, dated Pabon for more than six years. Gibbs and Pabon dated for more than six years and had one child together named Joseph (pictured, with Pabon) Attorneys for Gibbs, who was a doctor at Sheltering Arms Rehabilitation, said he maintains his innocence and plans to appeal The couple had a child together named Joseph, who is currently in the custody of Gibbs's family members. Yalitza Soba, Pabons sister, told the judge during the trial that Joseph asks for his mother all the time, even asking for a phone as a Christmas gift so he could contact his mother, reported WTVR. 'My sister was a strong, independent, loving woman,' Soba said at the time. 'Great mother, amazing person, inside and out. It breaks my heart that this had to happen. Im glad hes not going to be able to do anything like that to anybody else.' The jury was told that prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Gibbs killed Pabon, even if a body has not been recovered. The verdict marked the second time in less than two years that Chesterfield authorities won a conviction in a rare 'no body' homicide case, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The launch of the new millennials discount railcard descended into chaos this morning amid a festival-style scramble for just 10,000 offered in a trial. The Government has promised up to 4.5million Britons aged 26-30 will benefit from the cards, but the website crashed as people battled to get hold of them today. The 10,000 railcards released by the Rail Delivery Group at about 7am on a 'first come first served' basis are enough for just one in 500 of the eligible population. There are even concerns that the project could be kicked into the long grass, after the RDG refused to confirm the railcards will ever be fully rolled out across the UK. Some frustrated millennials said on Twitter that the process was 'worse than getting a Glastonbury ticket' and 'worse than waiting in the Ticketmaster queue'. And those trying to get through on the phones did not fare much better, with wait times of more than two hours being reported by the Railcard social media team. Emily Thomas from London tweeted: 'Getting a 26-30 railcard is worse than getting a Glastonbury ticket. Sort out your website to make it fair!' Jay Shore said: 'Attempting to get a 26-30 railcard was a huge waste of time... the website timed out, predictably. I only made it to the 'Eligibility' section of the process. Blah!' And Jonathan Meek added: 'Absolute shambles trying to get 26-30 railcard. Website cant cope with traffic! What did they think would happen?!' Meanwhile Alice Sophie tweeted: 'National railcard release 26-30 today... you would imagine that everyone gets one? But only 10,000 are released! This is very very unfair. Please just release them for everyone!' And Josh Scully tweeted Chancellor Philip Hammond to say: 'Following the farce of the rollout of the token gesture 26-30 Railcard, I'll successfully be applying for a Senior Railcard by the time the site actually works. 'Well done, Conservatives, for botching about the only decent suggestion you've had for young people.' The limit on the number of 26-30 Railcards available while the scheme is trialled has been intended to assess the impact on revenue and passenger numbers. The card, which is aimed at leisure travellers, will cost 30 each year and save passengers a third off most fares, according to the Rail Delivery Group. There are no discounts on season tickets and there is a 12 minimum fare on all journeys between 4.30am and 10am, excluding weekends and public holidays. It must be bought online and downloaded onto a smartphone. The card was previously only available to a limited number of people in East Anglia. How the new 26-30 Railcards were promised for 4.5million Britons What are the millennial rail cards? The railcards will cost 30 each year and save passengers who are aged 26 to 30 - at the time of buying them - a third off most fares. The card is aimed at leisure travellers, with no discounts on season tickets and a 12 minimum fare on all journeys between 4.30am and 10am, excluding weekends and public holidays. There will be a limit on the number of 26-30 Railcards available while the scheme is trialled to assess the impact on revenue and passenger numbers. It must be bought online and downloaded onto a smartphone. The card was previously only available to a limited number of people in East Anglia. This graphic from the Autumn Budget reveals how the 26-30 Railcard will look When was the concept launched? Chancellor Philip Hammond said in his Budget speech in November that the railcards would give '4.5 million more young people a third off their rail fares'. He tried to woo younger voters with the move, along with a cut in stamp duty for first-time buyers. The trial in East Anglia was launched in December. Who can apply? Britons aged 26-30 will be able to buy the discount card on a first come first served basis, the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said. But the website crashed today as it was overwhelmed by applications for the 10,000 launched in the first national trial. Advertisement Nearly two hours after the 26-30 trial was launched at 7am, the National Railcards Twitter account said: 'Due to the high volume of traffic the 26-30 Railcard website we understand some of you have been unable to access the 26-30 website. Railcards are still available to purchase. Please check back shortly.' It then added: 'We've had an unprecedented number of people visiting our site for the 26-30 Railcard. Please bear with us, we've got the whole team working on it and hope we can have it back up shortly.' And an RDG spokesman said: 'This morning, when the 26-30 railcard trial began, the National Railcard website was receiving 12 times the normal number of visitors. 'We were prepared for demand to be similar to that of previous trial launches. Due to the unprecedented demand we have been working with our suppliers throughout the morning to further increase the capacity on the website to create a better experience for our customers. 'We recommend that customers continue trying the National Railcard website, and keep an eye on @_Railcards Twitter and Facebook pages for updates. 'The trial of the 26-30 Railcard in East Anglia has been extended nationwide so that we can gather additional insight to inform discussions with the government about a national roll out. People were greeted with this screen when they tried to purchase a 26-30 Railcard today 'This insight will help us to ensure the 26-30 Railcard is the right product for our customers. This insight will also help us to develop new products that make leisure travel easier, and better value for money for our customers.' Chancellor Hammond said in his Budget speech in November that the railcards would give '4.5million more young people a third off their rail fares'. There was previously no nationwide railcard available for people travelling alone between the ages of 26 and 59 unless they were disabled or in the armed forces. The number of train journeys made in the three months to the end of 2017 fell by 0.9 per cent year-on-year, according to the Office of Rail and Road. This was driven by an 8.1 per cent fall in season ticket usage. Passengers were hit with the largest annual fare rise in five years in January - an average of 3.4 per cent. The card, which is aimed at leisure travellers, will cost 30 each year and save passengers a third off most fares, according to the Rail Delivery Group An RDG spokesman said: 'The trial of the 26-30 Railcard is part of the rail industry's long-term plan to change, improve and boost communities by enabling more people to travel by train. 'Research being gathered as part of the 26-30 Railcard trial is being used to inform discussions with the Government about a national roll-out, and to develop new products that make leisure travel easier and better value for customers.' Anthony Smith, chief executive of independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: 'The nationwide trial of the 26-30 Railcard is welcome news for passengers and will help take some of the sting out of rising rail fares. 'With less than half of passengers satisfied with the value for money of their journey and even fewer young people satisfied this will help make travelling by rail that little bit more affordable for young people.' Munyan said Daniels (pictured) - whose real name is Stephanie Clifford - was also offered a spot on The Apprentice while her and Trump were having an affair in 2006 A porn star who claims she had sex with Donald Trump was offered condos in New York and Tampa, spoke with the real estate tycoon 'all the time' and only signed a non-disclosure agreement because she felt 'intimidated', her friend has said. Keith Munyan - who refers to himself as Stormy Daniels' 'gay dad' - claims to have heard the president 'talk about nothing for hours' while on speakerphone with the actress. He said Daniels - whose real name is Stephanie Clifford - was also offered a spot on The Apprentice while her and Trump were having an affair featuring 'textbook generic' sex in 2006. Munyan even alleges that Trump offered her a condo in New York City and, when she refused, offered another at the unfinished Trump Tower in Tampa, Florida, he told The Daily Beast. Daniels is willing to repay $130,000 she received as part of a 2016 non-disclosure agreement concerning the alleged affair as long as she can speak openly about the situation, her lawyer has written. She filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles last week that sought to invalidate the agreement so she could 'set the record straight.' Keith Munyan - who refers to himself as Stormy Daniels' 'gay dad' - claims to have heard the president 'talk about nothing for hours' while on speakerphone with the actress Left: Donald Trump and porn Stormy Daniels, AKA Stephanie Clifford, pose together in 2006. Right: Daniels in 2007 The lawsuit claimed the 'hush agreement' that was signed days before the 2016 presidential election is legally invalid because it was only signed by Clifford and Cohen and not by Trump. It refers to Trump as David Dennison and Clifford as Peggy Peterson, but an attached exhibit details their true identities. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said last week that Trump has made it clear that none of the allegations are true. Fashion photographer Munyan, however, said the agreement - which also forced her to hand over any text messages or images relating to Trump - was only signed by Daniels 'because she felt intimidated'. Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, tweeted out an image of his client flanked by himself and Anderson Cooper The NDA used pseudonyms and contained a side-agreement. It wasn't signed by Donald Trump, who was identified as a party to it He added: 'The reason Stormy signed the NDA was to protect her family.' Munyan said it was at this time - just before voting in the 2016 election - that he was told that he, too, was mentioned in the non-disclosure agreement. He supposedly has 'confidential information' about the affair, the document states. Daniels' offer to return the cash in return for the right to speak freely is valid until this afternoon. Car giant Volkswagen has been ordered by a German court to reinstate a suspected Islamist militant it fired over fears he might launch a terrorist attack on the company. Samir B., 30, worked as a tyre fitter at Volkswagen's plant in Wolfsburg, 55miles east of Hanover, and was fired in 2016 after threatening co-workers and pledging to join ISIS in Syria. Volkswagen said it had taken the threats against its employees 'seriously' and feared he might mount a terror attack at the corporate HQ in Wolfsburg during a meeting of thousands of workers and shareholders. Court order: Volkswagen now have a month to re-instate tyre-fitter Samir B, pictured in court, whom they fired in 2016 for threatening co-workers and pledging to join ISIS, Two of Samir B's known associates had travelled to Syria in 2014 to join ISIS and were later killed fighting for the Islamist terrorist organisation. In December 2014, Samir B., who is of German-Algerian descent, was stopped at Hanover Airport before boarding a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, carrying 9,350 euros in cash (8,293) and a drone. Authorities were convinced that he had been planning to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS, and confiscated his passport. Samir B, who had worked for Volkswagen for eight years before his 2016 dismissal, had reportedly threatened colleagues that they would 'all die'. Volkswagen's lawyers said was proven that Samir B. 'was involved in the recruitment and support of Islamic fighters from Wolfsburg', and that the company had no alternative but to terminate his employment. While working at Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, pictured, Samir B was stopped at an airport, suspected of trying to join ISIS in Syria, and had his passport confiscated However Samir B sued the car manufacturer for unlawful dismissal, and a judge at Hanover State Employment Court ruled in his favour. The judge said VW had not been able to state that the 'operational peace' of the plant had been 'specifically disturbed.' During court proceedings, Volkswagen offered a 65,000 euro settlement, bur Samir B's lawyer refused, Bild.De reports. Volkswagen is obliged to reinstate him in a month's time, but media report that the company will appeal the verdict to a higher court. Philip Hammond delivered the strongest hint yet that he is ready to draw a line under austerity as he unveiled higher growth forecasts and lower government borrowing. Delivering his Spring Statement, the Chancellor seized on good news on the economy and tax revenues to insist there is 'light at the end of the tunnel' for the UK. Mr Hammond confirmed that the government's day-to-day spending is finally heading back in the black after a decade of belt-tightening following the credit crunch. And he said he is ready to loosen the purse-strings to bolster key public services in the Autumn Budget if the finances remain on track - with up to 15billion available. Delivering his Spring Statement, the Chancellor seized on good news on the economy and tax revenues to set out an optimistic vision for the UK's future The independent OBR has upgrade its economic forecasts for the UK economy next year Mr Hammond told MPs the government was finally hitting its target for wiping out the deficit The recent history of economic forecasting is somewhat chequered For the first time in decades the Spring event was not a full fiscal package - as the Budget has been moved to the end of the year. WHY BRITAIN WILL BE PAYING THE BREXIT BILL UNTIL 2064? Britain will still be paying the Brexit divorce bill until 2064, new analysis of the deal revealed in March. The Office for Budget Responsibility said most of the 37billion would be paid over the next five years before a long commitment on costs such as pensions. Britain is better off each year from 2020-21, the analysis says, with an extra 5.7billion available to spend from 2022-23. Some of the money has already been committed in promises to re-join EU agencies and match farming subsidies. At the Spring Statement, Treasury sources said Britain had negotiated the right to bring payments to an end earlier with a lump sum payment but that it would only do so if it was in the national interest. Brexiteer Nigel Evans told MailOnline the money would be better paid as a single lump sum and part of the wider exit deal. He said: 'UK taxpayers can pay the obligations for the feather bedded pensions for Lord Mandelson and his mates but that can be sorted by actuaries as part of the overall exit package.' But in April the national Audit Office warned the final Brexit bill could be billions of pounds higher. Advertisement Instead Mr Hammond gave a 25-minute update to Parliament on the economy and public finances. He unveiled a series of consultations that could pave the way for policies to tackle single use plastics, tax tech firms like Google and Amazon more effectively, and ease the VAT burden on small firms. Controversially, there is also the suggestion that 1p and 2p coins could be done away with as part of moves towards the cashless society. In a highly political intervention that drew sharp dividing lines with Labour, Mr Hammond: Condemned Labour's 'doom and gloom' about the economy, and made fun of his own 'Eeyore' reputation on Brexit saying he was at his most 'Tigger-like'. Pointed out that manufacturing was enjoying its strongest run for 50 years and the government had achieved the first sustained fall in debt for 17 years. Highlighted the resilience of the economy amid uncertainty about Brexit negotiations and said the deficit reduction target will be reached this year. Suggested he is ready to pump more money into key services at the Budget in November as long as the prospects of UK plc do not take a turn for the worse. Announced consultations on cracking down on single use plastics and an overhaul of the VAT system to benefit small businesses. The Chancellor said he had been struck by the resilience of the UK economy since the EU referendum. Mr Hammond said the government was making 'solid progress towards building an economy that works for everyone' with growth every year since 2010. He accused Labour of 'relentlessly talking Britain down' with 'doom and gloom about the state of the nation'. Last November, a hole was knocked in Mr Hammond's plans when the Office for Budget Responsibility slashed its predictions for growth. But today the OBR upgraded its estimates for growth this year from 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent. The figures for next year and 2020 are unchanged since the November Budget at 1.3 per cent. But the estimates were trimmed from 1.5 per cent to 1.4 per cent in 2021, and by 0.1 per cent to 1.5 per cent in 2022. The OBR figures from the Spring Statement show that the deficit will shrink faster than previous expected. These figures show the overall balance of government spending - including capital projects - rather than the government's target of the cyclically current deficit Philip Hammond (pictured leaving Downing Street today) said Britain's economy is set to confound the sceptics during Brexit Mr Hammond said borrowing was due to fall in every year of the forecast. Debt is forecast to fall as a share of GDP from 2018-19 and the OBR has revised down debt and borrowing in every year. Borrowing is now forecast to be 45.2billion this year, 4.7billion lower than forecast in November. The Government is set to run a 'small' surplus on day-to-day spending in 2018-19, borrowing only for capital investment, the Chancellor said. What was in Philip Hammond's 2018 Spring Statement? Philip Hammond today outlines his Spring statement to MPs Britain's finances are improving: Borrowing is due to fall in every year of the forecast. Debt is forecast to fall as a share of GDP from 2018-19 and the OBR has revised down debt and borrowing in every year. Brexit: Britain will still be paying the Brexit divorce bill until 2064. The Office for Budget Responsibility said most of the 37billion would be paid over the next five years before a long commitment on costs such as pensions. Money: Mr Hammond suggested 1p and 2p coins and 50 notes could be scrapped as part of moves to a cashless society. Education 80million to fund apprenticeships at small businesses Housing: Philip Hammond said the Government would tackle the housing crisis, announcing an extra 215,000 homes will be built in the West Midlands by 2031. In London 116,000 affordable homes will be built by the end of 2022. Transport: Mr Hammond said he was inviting cities across England to bid for a share of 840 million to deliver on 'local transport priorities'. Austerity: Mr Hammond did not announce any major new spending, but hinted he would turn the spending taps on at November's Budget if Britain's finances continue to do well. Business: The next revaluation for business rates has been brought forward to 2021. Mr Hammond also announced a call for evidence where the least productive businesses will learn from the most productive. Possible future taxes: A reduction in tax on for the least polluting vans to 'help the great British white van driver go green' A possible tax on single use plastic A new 'tech tax' looking at how firms like Google and Facebook are taxed How online platforms can help their users to pay the right amount of tax Advertisement And the Government is forecast to hit its borrowing target for 2020-21 with 15.4billion headroom. Debt is forecast to be 1 per cet lower than expected at the time of last autumn's Budget, peaking at 85.6 per cent of GDP in 2017-18, before falling gradually to 77.9 per cent in 2022-23. In a strong hint that will please Tory MPs, Mr Hammond said there should be scope to boost funding for public services in the coming years. The NHS and defence have both been highlighted as areas that need a cash injection. 'If in the autumn the public finances continue to reflect the improvements that today's report hints at then in accordance with our balanced approach and using the flexibility provided by the fiscal rules, I would have capacity to enable further increases in public spending and investment in the years ahead while continuing to drive value for money to ensure not a single penny of precious taxpayers money is wasted,' he said. A detailed spending review in 2019 will 'set an overall path for public spending for 2020 and beyond'. Mr Hammond said the squeeze on families was set to ease as inflation drops back to the 2 per cent target and wages gain ground. The OBR expects average earnings to rise by 2.7 per cent this year while inflation falls to 2.4 per cent from the current 3 per cent. The watchdog also believes the number of people in work will rise from 32.2million now to 32.7million in 2022. Documents released alongside the Spring Statement reveal the government is considering taxing the revenues of internet companies like Facebook and Google to stop them shifting jurisdictions to avoid paying up. There has been an outcry over the use of countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg, which have low tax regimes. Both Google and Facebook have made modest changes to the way they account for their activity in Britain, but the increase in tax has been fairly limited. The government said it favoured reforming the international corporate tax framework, but there could be 'interim measures such as revenue-based taxes'. 'The current misalignment between where digital businesses are taxed and where they create value threatens to undermine the fairness, sustainability and public acceptability of the corporate tax system,' the document said. The OBR said last month it expected borrowing in 2017/18 to undershoot its previous prediction by a 'significant' margin. Speaking at the weekend, Mr Hammond cautioned that, at 86.5 per cent of GDP, Britain's national debt remains 'higher than the safe level'. 'There is light at the end of the tunnel because what we are about to see is debt starting to fall after it has been growing for 17 continuous years,' said the Chancellor. 'That is a very important moment for us but we are still in the tunnel at the moment.' Nick Timothy, Theresa May's former joint chief of staff, has urged the Chancellor to announce the 'end of austerity'. But Nicky Morgan, chairman of the Commons Treasury committee, said this would be premature. On the Conservative Home website yesterday, she wrote: 'If we relax too much then we undermine our criticism of the last Labour Government for not 'fixing the roof while the sun shines'.' Mr Hammonnd's Treasury deputy Liz Truss has said there will be 'no red box, no rabbits out of the hat and no tax changes'. Although Mr Hammond avoided making tax or spending announcements, he revealed consultations with far-reaching effects. They include a review to consider if single-use plastics and chewing gum should be taxed while the long-term impact of an ageing society will be examined. However, Mr Hammond risked re-opening a row about the treatment of small business when he confirms plans to review VAT rules. Last year, he axed a bid to slash the threshold from 85,000 to 25,000 after a backlash from Tory MPs. But the Chancellor will ask officials to look at tapering the need to register VAT to avoid an immediate bill of 17,000 for firms going through the 85,000 barrier. How Hammond hammed it up: The quips in the Chancellor's Spring Statement to MPs Philip Hammond - dubbed Spreadsheet Phil - tried to shake off his dry persona by peppering his speech with some jokes Philip Hammond - dubbed Spreadsheet Phil - tried to shake off his dry persona by peppering his speech with some jokes. Here are some of them: In a jibe at John McDonnell famously brandishing Mao's little red book in the House of Commons: 'I wont be producing a red book today Mr Speaker, but of course I cant speak for the right honourable gentleman opposite' Poking fun at his gloomy persona which saw some newspaper dub him 'Eyeore' 'I reject the party opposite's doom and gloom about the state of the nation... 'If there are any Eeyores in the chamber - they are over there (pointing at Labour) 'I meanwhile am at my most positively Tigger-like today as I contemplate a country which faces the future with unique strengths.' On Britain's unique tech strengths 'Our tech sector is attracting skills and capital from the four corners of the earth. 'With a new tech business being founded somewhere in the UK every hour producing world class products including apps like Transfer Wise, citymapper, Matt Hancock Hitting back at John McDonnell's figures claiming that transport investment favours the wealthy south rather than the north: 'He reels out the same wrong figures - I think he got the briefing from Russia Today' Advertisement 20m for green technology to beat the tide of plastic Michael Gove (pictured in Downing Street in January) has championed environmental lcauses since he was brought back to the Cabinet last year - and picked himself up a reusable coffee cup The Chancellor yesterday pledged 20million towards the development of green technologies to combat the tide of plastic poisoning our oceans and rivers. Mr Hammond pledged the cash to encourage new thinking in businesses and universities. Launching a review of ways to combat single use plastics such as takeaway boxes, cutlery and bubblewrap, he vowed to combat plastic littering and the threat to our oceans. Treasury officials will examine imposing small charges on such products to discourage their use. Mr Hammond told the Commons the review would look at alternative materials, reusable options, and ways of encouraging recycling. It will look at how the tax system can help drive the technological progress and behavioural change we need, he said. The move was not a way to raise revenue but to change behaviour and encourage innovation. Mr Hammond added: Well commit to investing to develop new, greener, products and processes funded from the revenues that are raised. Cigarette filters could also be covered by new plastic taxes. And, as the Mail revealed on Saturday, the review will also consider a latte levy covering disposable coffee cups. Some 12million tons of plastic waste is dumped in the oceans each year, creating floating continents of junk. Ten years ago the Mail launched its groundbreaking Banish the Bags campaign calling for a 5p levy on plastic bags. Since this was brought in, the number of plastic bags given out at the tills has fallen by seven billion a year. Hammond moots new 'Google Tax' to ensure tech giants pay up Philip Hammond today raised the prospect of a so-called 'Google Tax' to stop tech firms avoiding duties. Documents released alongside the Spring Statement reveal the government is considering taxing the revenues of internet companies like Facebook and Google to stop them shifting jurisdictions to avoid paying up. There has been an outcry over the use of countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg, which have low tax regimes. Both Google and Facebook have made modest changes to the way they account for their activity in Britain, but the increase in tax has been fairly limited. The government said it favoured reforming the international corporate tax framework, but there could be 'interim measures such as revenue-based taxes'. 'The current misalignment between where digital businesses are taxed and where they create value threatens to undermine the fairness, sustainability and public acceptability of the corporate tax system,' the document said. Advertisement Chancellor announces VAT overhaul to help small firms Entrepreneurs and small business owners look set to benefit from an overhaul in the VAT system which Philip Hammond announced today. The system would lead to a gradual introduction of VAT on businesses with an annual turnover of more than 85,000. Mr Hammond said he wants to introduce 20 per cent VAT above 85,000 in 'steps'. There is a 'cliff edge' in the current system which means that businesses are hit with a sudden bill if their turnover goes over the 85,000 threshold. It means companies try to stay below the limit because they do not have an incentive to risk narrowing their profit margins. Advertisement This is the extraordinary moment a motorcyclist is sent flying by a speeding car - and then calls his own ambulance while still on the roof. CCTV footage shows the yellow car slamming into the man and destroying his motorbike, but remarkably he managed to cling to the roof as it sped away. Pictures taken by eyewitnesses show the despatch rider, Guilherme Souza de Oliveira, 28, lying injured on top of a yellow Volkswagen and calling for help. The footage was captured last month in Jandira, a city in south-eastern Brazil. Without even apparently hitting the brakes, the motorist is seen swerving onto the pavement and smashing into the motorbike. But the victim has a lucky escape as his crash helmet flies off in one direction and the collision spins and flips him onto the roof of the car, rather than into the road. The Municipal Civil Guard (GCM), who came across the scene, posted footage of the crash on social media and said they were shocked to find the victim clinging to the moving vehicle. Even though passers-by tried to alert the driver to his 'extra passenger' by flagging him down, the motorist was apparently unaware the victim was still with him. Without even apparently hitting the brakes, the motorist is seen swerving onto the pavement and smashing into the motorbike The car did not seem to stop as the motorcyclist, despatch rider Guilherme Souza de Oliveira, 28, was sent flying on the road, but fortunately was flipped onto the roof of the car The man's motorbike was wrecked in the crash but he managed to cling on to the moving car A GCM spokesperson said: 'Guards were patrolling the area in their car and came across the incredible sight of a yellow CrossFox with a crumpled front bumper driving along with a man in motorbike gear sprawled out on the roof. 'They said they could see the man had propped himself up on one arm and was speaking on his cell phone. They said it was very bizarre. 'The guards immediately pulled the vehicle over and determined that a hit and run accident had occurred which had flung the victim on top of the car.' A picture shows the GCM patrol vehicle parked behind the damaged car which has a dent in the bonnet, a cracked windscreen and part of the front bumper hanging off on the passenger side. Even though passers-by tried to alert the driver to his 'extra passenger' by flagging him down, the motorist was apparently unaware the victim was still with him Pictures taken by amazed eyewitnesses show the despatch rider, Guilherme Souza de Oliveira, 28, lying injured on top of a yellow Volkswagen and calling for help After calling for help Mr Oliveira, who only suffered minor cuts and bruises, was discharged from hospital after undergoing 24 hours of tests and observation It took three emergency rescuers to remove the injured man from the top of the car onto a stretcher. Mr Oliveira suffered minor cuts and bruises and was discharged from hospital after undergoing 24 hours of tests and observation. The motorist has been charged with dangerous driving resulting in injury and leaving the scene of the accident which happened on 15 February. He is due to appear in court within the next few weeks. EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned today that Britain will 'regret' Brexit as he drew battle lines for trade negotiations. The commission president said the UK had to understand what it 'means' to be outside the bloc and warned against 'cherry picking'. Mr Juncker also caused fury among British MEPs as he used a speech at the European Parliament to claim that the Irish border was a 'European issue'. One shouted at him: 'It's a British issue.' EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned that Britain will 'regret' Brexit as he addressed the European Parliament today Mr Juncker told the session in Strasbourg there was 'increasing urgency' to negotiate the UK's orderly withdrawal from the EU Mr Juncker was cheered by Eurosceptic MEPs as he noted the UK's departure from the EU was due to happen on March 29, 2019. Seemingly stung by their applause, Mr Juncker said the time would come 'when you will regret your decision'. Flanked by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, Mr Juncker told the session in Strasbourg there was 'increasing urgency' to negotiate the UK's orderly withdrawal from the EU. He said he did not want EU citizens to 'fall victim to Brexit' as he stressed the importance of securing their rights. Mr Juncker said 'cherry-picking is not going to be possible' in the future trade relationship between the UK and EU. 'I would rather have preferred Britain not to have decided to leave the European Union, but anyone who leaves the European Union has to know, frankly, what this means,' he said. 'If you decide to jettison, leave behind, the common agreements and rules, then you have to accept that things cannot remain as they are.' Despite Theresa May setting out her vision for Brexit in a speech at Mansion House earlier this month, Mr Juncker insisted it was 'obvious' that the UK needed to give 'more clarity on its future relationship with the EU'. But he warned that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic could be a major roadblock to sealing a deal. Mr Juncker said the controversial Brussels legal text demanding full regulatory alignment between Northern Ireland and the EU 'should not come as a surprise' to the UK. He said it 'translates faithfully' the agreement reached between Theresa May and the EU in December. Mr Juncker said: 'The 27 member states stand firm and united when it comes to Ireland. For us this is not an Irish issue, it is a European issue.' Mr Juncker was flanked by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier during his speech today Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said the EU was trying to 'bully' Britain. Federalist MEP Guy Verhofstadt said a deal on citizen's rights was now close When one MEP shouted 'it is a British issue', Mr Juncker shot back: 'It is all for one and one for all, that is what it means to be part of this union.' European Parliament's Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt also called for more details from the Prime Minister. He said: 'There was this Mansion House speech by Mrs May, but it was mainly repeating the red lines that we know already.' The Prime Minister had said 'we cannot accept the rights of Canada and then the obligations of Norway' but 'I don't think that we have ever presented that proposal to the UK side', Mr Verhofstadt said. 'I think the UK side have to understand that the opposite is also not possible - you cannot have the rights of Norway and then the obligations of Canada.' Mr Verhofstadt said it was time to move beyond 'slogans' and 'soundbites'. He has put forward a motion to the European Parliament for an 'association agreement' to deal with the future UK-EU relationship. But it insists on a 'binding interpretation role' for the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and rejects UK efforts to 'cherry-pick' single market access for particular sectors, such as the financial services industry. Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage claimed the European Commission was trying to 'bully' the UK. Mr Farage, an ally of US president Donald Trump, said the UK should leave the EU without a transition deal and claimed a transatlantic trade deal could be struck 'in 48 hours'. He said: 'Mrs May, we did not vote for a transition period, we voted to leave this organisation, we voted to leave the customs union, we voted to leave the single market. 'Please Mrs May, at this summit next week, do what Trump has done - stand strong against the European Commission, against the unelected bullies.' Theresa May (pictured in the House of Commons yesterday) is negotiating a deal with the EU Three state police officers have been suspended after posing for pictures with topless women on a beach in Cancun. Images of the trio cavorting with the sunbathing ladies were circulated across social media over the weekend. The men, members of the local State Police, were wearing body armor and carrying machine guns at the time. The woman are believed to be tourists but their nationality is unclear. The three officers had been posted to the Cancun beaches to protect tourists from cartel-fulled violence State Police have been posted on Cancun's beaches after a spike in violence across the Quintana Roo region of Mexico, reports Noticaribe. Cancun, which is a popular travel destination, has been largely spared the violence plaguing the rest of Mexico. But in January 2017, gunmen attacked the state prosecutors' office in Cancun, killing four people. A day earlier, a shooting at a music festival in Playa del Carmen left three foreigners and two Mexicans dead. Last year as many as 205 people were murdered in Cancun alone. One was snapped with his arms around the two women, both of whom were sunbathing topless The snaps were circulated on social media before State Police had them taken down The saucy snaps were posted on Facebook by a user who captioned them: '...when you're more interested in the sl**s than looking after Cancun's beaches.' The post was later deleted, reportedly after state police got in contact and ordered it taken down. Initially, police refused to investigate the incident because they were unaware of the facts. However, last night the Ministry of Public Security of Quintana Roo reported it had launched an internal investigation into the incident. William Hague today warns the 'slumbering' West they must wake up to the threat posed by Vladimir Putin's murderous regime (file pic) William Hague today warns the 'slumbering' West they must wake up to the threat posed by Vladimir Putin's murderous regime. The former Foreign Secretary said Russia is drawing up plots to attack on Britain's infrastructure to wreak havoc to our communications and financial systems. And he said the Kremlin is overseeing the development of new deadly poisons to wage a new generation of chemical warfare. He said the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury must jolt politicians in the West to finally take on the threat posed by Putin. Writing in a column today, Lord Hague laid bare the sheer scale of the threat posed by Russia which is flexing its muscles on the world stage. He said: 'Can it really be true that the Russians are equipping themselves to snap the undersea cables on which all our communications and finances depend? Afraid so. 'Are they actually positioning themselves to hack into our vital national infrastructure and disrupt it? Looks like it. 'Can they possibly maintain Soviet levels of espionage and covert activity in our free European societies? You bet they can. 'Are they flying aggressive sorties to test our air defences? Yup. 'And surely they're not developing new chemicals and deadly poisons as well? Of course they are.' Lord Hague said the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia (pictured together) in Salisbury must jolt politicians in the West to finally take on the threat posed by Putin Lord Hague said Russia has emerged from the past 15 years as a rival system of 'authoritarian capitalism' where 'murder, extortion and external aggression are allowed'. What action could Britain take against Russia if the Kremlin is shown to be behind the poison spy plot? Expel diplomats: Britain could expel Russia's ambassador and other diplomats based at the embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens - round the corner from where Prince William and Kate live. If MI5 have tabs on a Russian spy ring in the UK, Britain could take this poison plot as a reason to expel them. Impose sanctions: Britain already has an extensive range of sanctions against Russia as a result of the invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, but we could extend them. The UK could also impose sanctions on named individuals if they are linked to the murder attempt. Britain could pass the 'Magnitsky List' mirroring US laws imposing travel bans on senior Kremlin officials responsible for the death of Russian accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a prison in 2009. Britain could enact the Magnitsky amendment, imposed conditions on Putin's cronies. The act is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in custody after exposing corruption World Cup boycott Official representation could be withdrawn from the World Cup in Russia if Kremlin links are proven. Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs last week that the Government would look at whether ministers and other dignitaries should attend the tournament in that event. The Duke of Cambridge has already said he has no plans to attend. There have been calls for the England team to boycott the tournament but their withdrawal would probably have little impact. A coordinated protest, involving the withdrawal of multiple countries, would be far more effective in damaging Vladimir Putins showcase international event. However, experts say the nerve agent poisoning is unlikely to create enough international momentum to trigger a wider boycott. Statement of condemnation Britain may call on the support its closest allies if there is evidence of a Russian murder attempt on UK soil. A joint statement of international condemnation could be issued from leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and Germanys Angela Merkel, warning Russia that such actions will not be tolerated. Advertisement He said politicians who declared Russia was no longer a threat, signed lucrative contracts to advise its energy giants and downgraded their own military capability in response to the end of the Cold War, have all been proven wrong. And he used his column in The Telegraph to hit out politicians like John McDonnell and ex SNP leader Alex Salmond who have taken the country's rouble to appear on its propaganda channel Russia Today. He said that while the attempted murder of Colonel Skripal and his daughter has shocked the country, it is just the latest in a long list of crimes directed by the Kremlin. The murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the invasion of Crimea by Russian soldiers not wearing uniforms or insignia, and the civil war in Eastern Ukraine all show Russia is a 'serious and long term threat' to the West's interests, he said. And he warned that China must not be allowed to go the same way as Russia after Xi Jinping overhauled the constitution to lift the two-term limit on leaders. The move makes him the most powerful leader in China since Mao Zedong and critics have warned the country has slipped into a dangerous authoritarianism. Lord Hague said: 'The slumbering West will have to wake up. 'If we allow a totalitarian society to jump ahead of us in new technology by the middle of the century, our way of life will be in deep trouble. 'And, more immediately, if we permit an authoritarian system in Europe itself to treat nations and free people as it wishes, we will see the rapid undermining of our freedom to determine our own future. 'It is time for apologists to recant, optimists to become realists, and pacifists to slink away. 'Whatever measures Britain takes against Russia, what will really count is a realisation, from Washington to Brussels to Berlin, that a full scale strategy of the West is needed to show strength and resolve in the face of unacceptable behaviour. 'That won't happen this week. Deadly nerve agent in a Salisbury pub will not tip the balance on its own, even though the PM's strong statement in the Commons yesterday was fully justified. 'It will contribute in a small way to opening the eyes of more people, even of some who do not wish to see.' Theresa May last night dramatically pointed the finger at Vladimir Putin last night over the nerve gas attack on a former spy and could order a cyber attack against Russia in retaliation. The Prime Minister said the facts increasingly suggested Russia was behind the apparent 'hit' on double-agent Mr Skripal in Salisbury. Branding the attack a 'reckless and despicable act', Mrs May said the substance used was a 'military grade' agent Moscow has produced. Mrs May said the government would not accept such an attempt to 'murder innocent civilians on our soil'. Theresa May has set the Russians the deadline of midnight tonight to explain how the Skripals were poisoned or Britain will hit back She will decide on a range of sanctions over the next 24 hours after urgent talks with Nato, the United Nations, EU and US. The Prime Minister will also draw up a secret package of measures against Russia which will never be revealed. This could include targeting the Kremlins propaganda machine. Whitehall sources said yesterday they were accelerating their offensive cyber programme and could hit select targets for a specific effect. Ahmed Alaklouk, 22, from Tunisia but with a Saudi Arabian passport, was discovered to be in the US illegally after his student visa was terminated in September last year An illegal immigrant has been charged with firearms offences after police became concerned when he was found with a series of weapons while staying in a hotel room overlooking the Women's March in Indianapolis. Ahmed Alaklouk, 22, from Tunisia but with a Saudi Arabian passport, was discovered to be in the US illegally after his student visa was terminated in September last year. He has also been charged with separate offenses of intimidation, battery and firearms possession after being accused of threatening to kill a woman and her father who claimed he sold a faulty product at his tire shop. Police first encountered Alaklouk on January 20 at the Hyatt Regency hotel after security saw six handguns and a rifle in the front seat of his car and called cops, CBS4 reports. Officers - who said the rifle had been modified to resemble an AR-15 and included a scope, bump stock and bipod - told Alaklouk to put the weapons in a safer place because they might be stolen. Alaklouk claimed the rifle belonged to his father before moving it to the back seat of his car. But when he returned the rifle to the front, security became concerned because his room overlooked the Women's March scheduled that day. About 3,500 attended the rally. Later that morning, cops and security removed Alaklouk from the hotel and began watching his business, Medo Tire Shop. Homeland Security officials also began looking into Alaklouk and discovered that he was living in the US illegally. When Alaklouk returned the rifle to the front seat of his car, security became concerned because his room overlooked the Women's March (pictured) scheduled that day About 3,500 attended the rally in Indianapolis (pictured). Later that morning, cops and security removed Alaklouk from the hotel and began watching his business, Medo Tire Shop Then a week later, Alaklouk is accused of threatening to kill a customer. The customer had claimed a tire he sold her was faulty, which developed into an altercation and led to Alaklouk and one of his employees pulling handguns on her and her father. She then allegedly got out a gun of her own and fired it in the air, at which point Alaklouk is accused of bringing out a rifle and threatening to kill the customer and her father. He is accused of going on to commit battery and criminal confinement by parking his truck behind the customer's car and stopping her from leaving. Cops were called and found two pellet guns at the business and a handgun at Alaklouk's home. Homeland Security officials also began looking into Alaklouk and discovered that he was living in the US illegally. Pictured: The rally in Indianapolis The accused then claimed the rifle was actually his, not his father's, and claimed it was taken as payment for work on a car. He kept the guns in his car because his wife disapproved of keeping them in the home, he claimed. As well as federal charges Alaklouk, is charged locally with two counts of criminal confinement, two counts of intimidation, one count of unlawful possession of a firearm and one count of battery. The battery charge is a misdemeanor, but the others are felonies. This is the adorable moment a one-year-old deaf girl gets a mini-me doll with matching hearing aids from her mother. Little Annabelle Lawrence is mesmerised as she points at the blue glasses which she wears on her own head and notices the matching ones on the cuddly toy's head. The toddler, who was born profoundly deaf, beams at her mother as she realises the bespoke toy was 'just like her' at their home in Idaho, America. Annabelle received the two implants when was just six-months-old. A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing in both ears. The 23-month-old points directly at the glasses the doll has and is able to recognise that she has the same hearing aids on the back of her own head. Adorable: Little Annabelle receives the present of the doll that has matching hearing aids in the form of her blue glasses First meeting: One-year-old Annabelle was instantly mesmerised when mum Sarah Jo hands her the bespoke toy that was made to be just like her In a very sweet moment, the little girl clutches 'baby Annabelle' and gives her new teddy a kiss. Mum Sarah Jo said that her reaction blew her away and that it was something she'd never seen before from her. 'Annabelle has a cabbage patch doll which she never pays attention to. 'She is very affectionate with the people she loves but has never been affectionate with an object, not even a special blanket. Heart-warming: The toddler, here with her mother Sarah Jo, was born profoundly deaf and got her hearing aids at six-months-old. Born profoundly deaf, Annabelle received two hearing aids when she was just six-months-old. The doll was made for the toddler by one of Sarah Jo's friends who works as a seamstress. 'She wanted to make Annabelle a little doll just like her', Sarah Jo explained. 'I saw the package was from her, so I got Annabelle in the living room and the video is her first time meeting the doll,' she said. Mini-me: Sarah Jo shared a story with her friends about her daughter not being included in day-care because of her hearing aids There has been a rise in the making of toys with disabilities in the last couple of years with more and more companies offering more inclusive items. The trend started a few years ago when parents of children with disabilities pushed for more diversity in the toy aisle. Toys R Us has carried an exclusive line since 2013 called Journey Girls, which includes a wheelchair and a crutch set. More recently, toy company ToyLikeMe was set up to celebrate disability in toys releasing a deaf Tinkerbell toy with a cochlear implant. A father suffering from mental health problems posted a chilling message to Facebook branding his wife 'the Devil' just hours before he murdered her then stabbed himself to death. Stephen Arnold was released from the Dianna, Princess of Wales Hospital, two days before the incident but appeals for medical help from the family went ignored, an inquest at Cleethorpes Town Hall heard. Relatives hid knives and scissors after Mr Arnold returned to his home in New Waltham, Lincolnshire, on September 6, 2016 but within 24 hours he was found dead alongside his wife of 11 years Karen Arnold. Pictured: Stephen Arnold with wife Karen before he took his own life and murdered her at their home in New Waltham, Lincolnshire It emerged Mr Arnold had taken to Facebook at 3am on that day to describe his partner Karen as 'the Devil' and said he believed everyone was trying to kill him. His daughter Leanne, who was staying overnight to help care for him, was woken by a phone call from a relative and rushed upstairs to find the couple dead in their blood-soaked marital bed. Miss Arnold said she had taken knives out of the kitchen because of the risk they posed when her father came out of hospital. The two-day inquest heard Mr Arnold was discovered lying in the bed upstairs next to his wife. Post mortem examination evidence revealed by Home Office pathologist Dr Kirsten Hope showed Mrs Arnold, 46, died from multiple stab wounds to her chest and neck. Pictured: The detached family home in New Waltham, Lincolnshire, cordoned off on September 7, 2016, after Arnold stabbed his wife and himself to death Mr Arnold died from wounds to his arm, the pathologist revealed. The inquest heard that while in hospital, Mr Arnold told his family the drip attached to his arm was poisoning him and that other patients on the ward were trying to break his arms and legs. But despite their concerns about his mental health and well-being, doctors released Mr Arnold. Coroner Paul Kelly concluded that the degree of risk was ineffectively assessed at the hospital and that Mr Arnold had been suffering from a serious, undiagnosed, untreated mental disorder. This resulted in tragedy with Mr Arnold stabbing his wife to death using a kitchen knife and then killing himself just five hours after leaving hospital, Mr Kelly said. Leanne told the court she had requested a call back from Crisis Team at the hospital but no one got in touch. Professor Zaffer Iqbal, the author of a report on the case, apologised to relatives on behalf of the health professionals involved. I would like to apologise for our part in this tragedy, he said, adding that lessons had been learned and changes in practice instigated as a result. The inquest heard Mr Arnold had an underlying psychotic illness that was triggered by stress at work. He began working as a school caretaker in October 2015 after quitting his previous job, claiming he was bullied by colleagues and bosses. However, his paranoid behaviour worried relatives. The inquest heard he believed the classrooms and his home were bugged, he taped over the camera on his iPad and thought neighbours were poisoning his dog. Mr Arnold was due to start a new job with the council six days after he died but was anxious about his employer finding out about his problems. Detective Constable Stephen Jewell told the inquest, following a major incident investigation, it was concluded Mr Arnold had stabbed his wife repeatedly and then killed himself. A timeline of events leading to the tragedy was compiled by Detective Constable Paula Barden. She said the couple had met in 1995 and they moved in together to Bude Close between 2003 and 2004. They married on September 10 2005. Mr Arnold began work for Shoreline in 2008 as a caretaker. He had issues with other staff members and had 'taken exception to be called volatile.' Detective Constable Barden said: 'He believed he was being bullied by colleagues and management.' He resigned in August 2015. In October he took up a new job as caretaker at South Parade Academy in Grimsby. His mother, Margaret Snow, told police he later became convinced his home was bugged and there was something in the Xbox and video player. He put tape over the cameras on his Ipad. He was also paranoid that something had been planted in the alarm box of their home, as it had fallen of the wall twice. He also thought neighbours were poisoning his dog. His devastated daughter Leanne shared another side of Mr Arnold to the coroner. She described her father as a popular man who used to be the guitarist in a local band called the Ultrabeats. She said he was a 'loveable guy' and a good father and a proud man. She had tried to get mental health advice in the days before the tragedy. 'The stuff he was coming out with was like he was hallucinating.' 'He got paranoid because we were getting concerned,' she told the hearing. He was due to start a new job with North East Lincolnshire Council on September 12. On September 2, daughter Leanne contacted support group Open Minds to get leaflets due to his depression and anxieties. On September 4 he took an overdose of tablets and cider and was admitted to hospital. In happier times: The couple met in 1995 and they moved in together between 2003 and 2004 before marring in September a year later He told staff he was depressed after finishing work in May. Two nurses from Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital told how they cared for Mr Arnold after he was admitted for taking an overdose. Nurse Joanne Norfolk said Mr Arnold was assessed by a consultant who agreed, following discussions with mental health support workers, that he could go home on the evening of September 5. An appointment with the mental health crisis team had been arranged for the following morning. 'He was pleased he could go home', she said, adding that a first interview with Mr Arnold had not succeeded. But later that day 'he seemed remorseful for what he had done and what he had put her (Karen) through.' Staff Nurse Donna Irving told how Mr Arnold had wanted to have his infusion drip removed so he could go to a hospital cafe with his family. Hospital records referred to him believing the cannula was a lie detector. But the nurse persuaded him to keep it attached. She told the inquest how later 'he was apologetic for what he had done.' Nurse Irving said, 'He kept shaking my hand and hugging the doctors. He seemed remorseful for what he had done.' She said the mental health team told her that if he was 'stable and medically fit' he could return home and be seen the following morning 'in the community.' Nurse Irving said, 'I did not have any concerns about his welfare.' Hospital records showed Mr Arnold's family tried to convince him to stay in hospital. From records it was revealed that an assessment was conducted by Crisis Team worker Joshua Fletcher. The paperwork said: 'Stephen was closed to questioning and deflected the questions or stated he was unwilling to discuss things as it is confidential.' He told staff he would not overdose again as his 'family meant everything to him.' Doctors agreed Mr Arnold was 'not detainable and has the capacity to make a decision regarding self discharge.' Representatives of The Crisis Team were scheduled to interview Mr Arnold. Nursing staff were told the patient could be seen at Harrison House that evening or in the morning at home if he was stable. Hospital records showed that 'Chris Knight from Crisis Team was happy to see the patient tomorrow and patient to be discharged home.' From records of mental health service Navigo, it was revealed the Crisis Team member was satisfied the patient could go home 'as he would be with his wife and she would ensure he attended the following day.' The record stated: 'There were no identifiable risk factors reported by the doctor and so a joint decision was agreed upon that Stephen would go home.' Mrs Arnold was happy with the plan, according to hospital records. When he got home Mr Arnold played on his guitar. But he was anxious he would not get another job because of prospective employers would see his hospital records. After discovering the bodies of her father and step mother, Leanne called 999. PCs Alcock and Doust arrived and alerted the ambulance service. Paramedics Lee Hastie, Graham Purdue and Christopher Heron attended and the couple were pronounced dead. After the hearing Mrs Arnolds mother Margaret Snow, 71, paid tribute to her lovely daughter whom she said was missed by many and did not deserve to die the way she did. She added: We believe this was a wholly avoidable tragedy. We have heard there were significant failings in care and many policies and procedures have now changed We are glad this process is now over. But Karens death will remain with us for the rest of our lives. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see samaritans.org for details. Faye Allen, who suffered a fatal reaction to ecstasy at a rave in Manchester The boyfriend of a teenager who died after taking super-strength ecstasy at her first ever rave has been jailed alongside the dealer who sold him the drug. Faye Allen, 17, suffered a fatal reaction after taking the Class A tablet during an event at the Victoria Warehouse in Stretford, Greater Manchester. Her boyfriend, Connor Aden, 19, who gave her the pill, and dealer Oliver Garside, 21, were both sentenced to a total of three years for drug offences. It was the first time Miss Allen, from Liverpool, had taken the drug and the first time she had been to a nightclub or a rave. Manchester Crown Court heard Garside was selling two brands of ecstasy dubbed Ups and Mastercard, at the Don't Let Daddy Know dance music event. It was suspected that the drugs had been smuggled into the venue in the plastic containers found in Kinder eggs. Garside sold Aden three MDMA tablets. Aden took one, and gave the other two to Faye and another friend. Both admitted supplying class A drugs at Manchester Crown Court, and Garside was jailed for two years and four months, while Faye's boyfriend Aden was sent down for eight months. Miss Allen (left) and her boyfriend Connor Aden (right) who was jailed for eight months at Manchester Crown Court Prosecutor Guy Mathieson told the court that Garside managed to smuggle drugs into the venue at the event on May 2, 2016, despite security checks and sniffer dogs on the doors. Buying three at 10 each for his group, Aden handed over the 30 to Garside. Faye took hers but the dose overwhelmed her, the court heard. Police launched an investigation and searched the address of Garsides girlfriend, where he was found. Oliver Garside, who was jailed for two years and four months after admitting drugs charges Arthur Gibson, defending Aden, said it was purely a matter of geography that Aden was the one who handed the money over to Garside, because he was standing closest to him. Kevin Donnelly, for Garside, said his client had been selling cannabis since 2015 and had begun selling ecstasy in the weeks before Ms Allens death. He said Garside, who became a father last year, has not taken drugs since the incident and has decided not to contact any of his old friends. Sentencing Garside, judge Martin Steiger, said: 'The defendant must have known that in dealing MDMA there was always the risk of an adverse reaction that might affect the life of the consumer.' Garside pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying class A drugs, and one count of possessing class A drugs. Aden admitted two counts of supplying class A drugs. Following Faye Allens death, Connor Adens father said: She had never been to a rave or nightclub before. This was the first time. Miss Allen had never been to a rave or a nightclub before. Her family said they are 'absolutely devastated over her death They are a couple of young lovers who have gone to a club. Faye took a pill for the first time and disaster has struck. The whole family are absolutely devastated. We dont know how we are going to look after each other. Faye was her mothers best friend and she doted on her brother and sister and her boyfriend. She loved to look after her disabled brother and her younger sister. She was such a smiley and warm, loving girl. The Victoria Warehouse in Manchester which was the venue for the Don't Let Daddy Know Dance event in May 2016 Ms Allens death was the third tragedy to hit the Allen family, after her mother lost two babies to cot death. Her mother Maxine lost Fayes brother Jordon to cot death aged just 23 months in 2004. A month later Fayes sister Neve also passed away from cot death aged 18 weeks. At a double inquest in November 2004, Liverpool coroner Andre Rebello ruled that both children died of natural causes. The Palestinian prime minister was targeted in an explosion during a visit to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, sparking fears of an assassination attempt. Rami Hamdallah's convoy had just entered the territory run by Islamist movement Hamas when the explosion took place, a security source in the convoy said. Seven people suffered light injuries, however President Hamdallah was not among them. Under attack: Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah is seen upon arrival in Gaza City, shortly after the convoy was attacked Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj was part of the convoy but was not hurt either, the security source said. Three of the vehicles in Hamdallah's convoy were damaged, their windows blown out. One had signs of blood on the door. Mr Hamdallah's ruling Fatah party quickly held Hamas responsible for the 'cowardly attack' on the convoy, further escalating tensions between the bitter rival factions. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Radical Islamists opposed to Hamas also operate within the Gaza Strip and have regularly been behind unrest there. Bomb: Palestinians inspect the site of an explosion that targeted a convoy that was carrying Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, in the northern Gaza Strip A damaged vehicle is removed from the scene after the explosion on Tuesday The Hamas interior ministry confirmed there had been an explosion and said security forces were investigating the incident. It said it would not derail Hamdallah's visit, which comes as reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party falters. The two major Palestinian factions signed a reconciliation agreement in October that was supposed to see the Islamists hand over power, but it has all but collapsed. Hamdallah appeared on television shortly after the explosion as he opened a plant in the territory. Frances Powell, 42, dealt heroin in the east of the town of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, south west Wales. She was jailed for 12 years after saturating the town with Class A drugs A grandmother who dealt heroin in a town where 38 people died from drug-related causes continued to supply Class A drugs even after being a pallbearer at one of her customer's funerals. Frances Powell, 42, dealt heroin in the east of the town of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, south west Wales, while her co-defendant Jonathan Thorne headed up a group dealing in the west. Jailing her for 12 years at Swansea Crown Court, Judge Paul Thomas QC called Powell 'a truly wicked woman' who 'callously mocked' those who had died. The court heard Powell was responsible for receiving and distributing 2.6kg of heroin, while Thorne, 41, had a stash of 8.3kg. Prosecutor Andrew Jones said: 'She was dealing with Llanelli just as much as Thorne - her to the east. 'We see that Powell and Jonathan Thorne were jointly responsible for saturating Llanelli with multi-kilogram quantities of heroin during their reign.' Powell stored the heroin at her home where her children lived, and on one occasion she even stopped playing with her kids in the park to attend a delivery. Several people who were in contact with Thorne and Powell died, and in a phone recording Powell was heard saying: 'They are proper dying every day.' One of her customers, Mark Davies, suffered a heroin-related death in October 2016 and Powell acted as a pall-bearer and even brought a flag to drape over his coffin. Co-defendant Jonathan Thorne (left) dealt drugs in the west of the town where 38 people suffered drug-related deaths. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Natalie Wilson (right), Thorne's 29-year-old partner, was jailed for five years and eight months Their criminal activities were revealed as part of Dyfed-Powys Police's Operation Ulysses, which broke up a supply of millions of pounds of drugs into south west Wales between January 2014 and June 2017. Addressing the defendants, Judge Thomas said Llanelli had a population of around 35,000. He said: 'Like all communities it has changed over recent times but it remains an essentially closeknit Welsh town with real civic pride. 'But you brought large quantities of heroin into your home town. With it came misery to people and their families - degradation, debt and death. 'While you were plying your vile trade no fewer than 38 people died of heroin-related causes in the Carmarthenshire area. 'Some of those were certainly known to you. Many of them were probably known to you.' But the deaths, he said, had not deterred them from continuing to deal in the Class A drug. He added: 'It was only when people stopped your activity that, I'm told, the death rate has dropped significantly.' Judge Thomas told Thorne and Powell that they were primarily responsible and that they had not shown remorse. Robert Williams (left), a close associate of Thorne's, was sentenced to 7 years 5 months in prison. Ryan Mercer (right), a 'trusted courier', was jailed for 5 years 4 months Thorne was sentenced to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply heroin. As he handed Powell a 12-year sentence, the judge said she would have been a 'better friend' to Mr Davies if she had not supplied him with heroin. Nicola Powell, defending Powell, said her client was a grandmother and a carer for her own elderly parents. Also in the dock was Thorne's 29-year-old partner Natalie Wilson, who the prosecutor said dealt heroin on the instructions of Thorne, and was provided with the drug for doing so. A fourth defendant was Robert Williams, 45. He was described as a close associate of Thorne's who regularly went to Thorne's property shortly after heroin deliveries from North Wales, and also allowed heroin to be delivered at his own house. The fifth defendant was Ryan Mercer, 26. Mr Jones said he was a 'trusted courier' who accessed the Bynea stash three times between September and December 2016, and who also had 'direct contact' with Mr Davies in the days leading up to his death. Thorne, of New Dock Road, Llanelli, Wilson, also of New Dock Road, and Williams, of Y Bwthyn, Llanelli, all pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply heroin; Powell, of Wern Road, Llanelli, and Mercer, of Dylan, Llwynhendy, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to supply heroin. Wilson was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison, Williams was sentenced to seven years and six months in jail Mercer was handed a sentence of five years and four months. Black cab rapist John Worboys was cleared for release by the Parole Board because they believe he is now an 'open and honest' person who now admits attacking up to 25 women, it was revealed today. The 60-year-old sex offender has also learned 'not to hide negative thoughts and feelings' during 'positive' treatment with psychologists since he was jailed in 2009, the High Court heard. The reasons for his proposed release were finally made public as a landmark legal challenge to the decision to free the serial sex attacker started in London today. Worboys was jailed indefinitely in 2009 for attacking 12 women but he has since admitted attacking between 20 and 25 women after 2005 in his black cab, judges were told. But a QC representing two of those victims said today 105 women have been identified by police since 2002 proving that Worboys 'doesn't have full acceptance of his guilt' and should remain behind bars. Phillippa Kaufmann, who said Worboys had claimed to be innocent just two-and-a-half-years ago, told the High Court: 'It blows out of the water the Parole Board's finding that he is open and honest' adding it was unlawful that they failed to consider wider allegations of sex offending when making their decision. It also emerged today that Worboys has paid 241,000 in compensation to 11 victims and he took along serial killer Levi Bellfield to help him negotiate during meetings with lawyers, the court heard. The criminals met while serving together at Wakefield Prison, which is nicknamed 'Monster Mansion' because it is home to so many notorious sex offenders and murderers. John Worboys was seen in public for the first time in ten years in January (pictured) as it emerged the parole board had rubber stamped his release because they were told he is now 'open and honest' about his sex offending Worboys (left in 2008 and right this year) faces a challenge from two victims who says Britain's most notorious sex offender must stay behind bars The appeal hearing, attended by one of his victims, is set to last two days and a grey and haggard Worboys watched via video link from prison. The women trying to stop his release, who cannot be named, claim he remains a dangerous sexual predator and believe the parole board's decision to free him is 'irrational' and 'wrong'. The 60-year-old former stripper and adult film star-turned-cabbie was jailed indefinitely in 2009, with a minimum term of eight years, after being found guilty of attacks on 12 women over 18 months involving rape, assaults and drugging. Reasons for Worboys' release finally revealed The Parole Board's reasons for releasing John Worboys have finally been made public today. The sex offender, 60, was told he could be freed in January but the reasons were kept secret. Lawyer for the victims Phillippa Kaufmann QC told the High Court the parole board accepted Worboys posed a reduced risk of reoffending because: Worboys had taken full responsibility for his offending He had undertaken treatment Former black cab driver had shown 'good insight' into his risk factors and triggers and how to manage them Worboys had been open and honest with professionals and was considered likely to remain compliant following his return to the community; Details of Woyboys' release arrangements also emerged today, including a ban on him driving a taxi. Other licence conditions include: Must live at a hostel or 'approved premises'; Curfew meaning he must be at home between 8pm and 8am each day; Worboys must share his telephone call and internet history with probation officers and cannot delete them; Must tell authorities if he enters a relationship; Advertisement Police believe that Worboys, who now calls himself John Radford, may have attacked more than 500 passengers and 102 women reported him to detectives. He was only prosecuted over a dozen victims because officers did not want to 'overload the indictment', the court heard today. In January the Parole Board announced he would be released on licence after less than a decade behind bars, despite warnings that he could still pose a risk to women. One of the victims bringing the challenge is present in the packed courtroom. The three judges hearing the case have heard that Worboys denies committing any offences other than those he was convicted of. Today two victims and the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan began their challenge to the decision in January saying it is 'irrational' that he no longer poses any threat to the public. Worboys appeared via video link from prison for the latest hearing concerning his potential release. Lawyers for victims argue that 'something went badly awry' at the Parole Board as crucial evidence was ignored and board members made an 'irrational' decision. Phillippa Kaufmann, QC, on behalf of the victims said: 'This is a case where the parole process has gone badly wrong. 'It is submitted that the decision was unlawful on two main bases. 'First because the board failed to take into account evidence... second because even putting aside that crucial failure, the decision was irrational.' She wants the High Court to declare the Parole Board decision is unlawful and order that the board reverse its decision or at least agree to reconsider it'. Ms Kaufmann told the court the Parole Board's reasons for believing Worboys no longer poses a risk to society included that he had 'learned to be open and honest'. She said the board also considered his risk was reduced because of the fact he took 'full responsibility' for his crimes, had 'good insight' into his behaviour and had undergone treatment. However, the barrister said police who investigated Worboys believed he had committed offences against 105 women. She added that he often left victims 'confused and disoriented' and with only a partial memory of their ordeal. Ms Kaufmann told the court both victims bringing the case against him were found to have traces of sleeping tablets in their blood. Ms Kaufmann said the wider allegations against Worboys 'completely undermined' the board's reasoning. She told the court: 'It is obvious, absolutely obvious, that this evidence of wider offending had a central bearing on all of those conclusions that formed the basis of the Parole Board's conclusion that there had been a reduction in risk.' She said Worboys' account that the 'trigger' for his offending was the end of his relationship in 2005, when police believed his crimes started two years earlier. She added: 'That throws into question the entire account that he has given for why his offending began. 'Hence the finding that he had insight into his offending is simply blown out of the water. 'It also blows out of the water the Parole Board's finding that he is open and honest.' Worboys' black cab (pictured) was used to pick up victims who were offered cut price fares and an alcoholic drink that were usually spiked so he could abuse them Ms Kaufmann said that Worboys's openness and honesty were 'crucial factors' when it came to considering how he could be managed in the community. She said those responsible for supervising him after his release would have to rely on him to tell them if the risk he posed to others was increasing - for example, if he was going to bars and chatting up women. Worboys told victims he was celebrating a lottery win and asked them to toast his success with a drink so he could stupefy them Ms Kaufmann told the court he only admitted any offending two-and-a-half years ago, adding: 'It is a very short amount of time for those concerned to assess his risk, to work with him and make that assessment, and to help him reduce the risk.' The barrister also said Worboys has 'not been tested' in any conditions similar to the community, because he has remained in a category A prison - which has the highest level of security. She said the Parole Board had determined two years before its decision to release him that it was not safe to move him to more open conditions. Ms Kaufmann added that it was 'extraordinary' to release someone directly from category A conditions into the community. As the case got under way, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a statement that it was his 'top priority to keep Londoners safe'. He said: 'I am morally and duty-bound to do everything within my power to protect them from harm. 'John Worboys presents a significant threat to Londoners' safety and on behalf of his victims and survivors, I felt I had to be involved.' He added: 'Many of John Worboys's victims live and work in London. I have been clear that he shouldn't be released at the very least until the decision has been properly independently scrutinised and we are reassured that those in positions of power and responsibility are doing everything they can to keep all his victims, and the rest of us, safe.' Dan Squires QC, for Mr Khan, told the judges that the mayor "regards this as an exceptional case", and that was why he had taken the "unprecedented step" of launching legal action. His case was that it "raises much wider questions than simply the release of one person". The barrister told the court: "It raises questions about confidence in the justice system." After his prosecution police released images of Worboys' 'rape kit', which he kept in his cab, which included drugs and condoms It is said Worboys, who has changed his name to John Radford, did not oppose the reasons for his freedom being granted being made public. Worboys has paid 241,000 in compensation to 11 victims and he took along serial killer Levi Bellfield (pictured) to help him negotiate But he is seeking restrictions on his whereabouts and the address of any rehabilitation project he has to participate in. At an earlier hearing the 60-year-old was photographed being led into the Royal Courts of Justice in London, almost a decade after he first appeared before magistrates in February 2008. Worboys appeared grey and haggard as he sat in a caged dock of the Royal Courts of Justice. He was driven 185 miles to London from his cell at Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire at the expense of taxpayers after a judge ordered he attend in person. Two of his victims were also in court, and that at least one of them objected to coming face to face with him for the first time in a decade. Worboys was ordered to stay in jail for a minimum term of eight years after being convicted of 19 offences against 12 victims. The Crown Prosecution Service only proceeded with 14 cases and did not haul him back to court when more victims came forward after his 2009 trial as it was assumed he would be locked up for the rest of his life after being given an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP). Sergei Skripal (pictured) moved to Spain and was asked to set up a Spanish wine business The Russian spy who is fighting for his life after being poisoned had a 'nose for money' and was turned by the West when an agent recruited him to sell Spanish wine, it emerged today. Sergei Skripal, 66, remains in a critical condition with his 33-year-old daughter Yulia after the pair collapsed on a bench when they were attacked with a nerve agent in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Last month, only a tiny number of people knew the inside story behind the former champion army boxer who went on turn against his country. But in just a few days he has become the most famous spy in the world whose life is being deciphered by more than 250 counter-terrorism officers desperately searching for clues. He was born in Kiev in 1951 and it has now been revealed that he witnessed brutal fighting in Afghanistan after he was parachuted into the country when he was part of the Russian paratrooper division. Skripal finally ended up in Spain when he became a senior GRU officer in the office of the Russian military attache in 1993. His work earned him a strong reputation as someone was was an 'energetic professional' who could 'recruit agents and extract important information', Russian media reports. Once in Spain, the Spanish intelligence service - the CNI - immediately spotted his potential as a recruit to western intelligence, reports The Times. The CNI registered him as being someone who had a 'nose for money' and he was approached by a man called 'Luis' who was described as an 'access agent'. Luis suggested the pair should start a business selling Spanish wine and Skripal was told he would be paid handsomely if he could identify Russian business partners. Sergei Skripal was photographed holding his daughter Yulia next to his family members after she was born However, Skripal was at first unsure whether he was in fact recruiting Luis or it was the other way around. After a short period Skripal eventually told his business partner he was a military intelligence officer - a piece of information that Luis undoubtedly knew but he replied by saying it would be useful for business. The CNI later decided that Skripal would be better suited working for the MI6, an organisation the Spanish intelligence service had a good relationship with. He later established a close relationship with a second agent and Skripal was given the codename 'Forthwith' and went on to provide detailed intelligence. Both Skripal and his daughter Yulia (pictured together in a Zizzi restaurant) are still in a critical condition Skripal revealed inside information about GRU operations, details about active agents and names of military intelligence officers working in Russia and around the world. The former spy, who graduated from Kaliningrad's military engineering school in 1972, was paid between $5,000 and $6,000 a meeting, reports The Times. The type 1 diabetic is said to have held his 'well-oiled' meetings in bars and restaurants. He would place the money in a Spanish bank account. A police tent remains in place outside the Sainsbury's store in Salisbury, close to where Skripal and his daughter were found His information was shared with the CIA and sources added that he became alienated from Russia and wanted to undermine it. It comes after Prime Minister Theresa May said the facts increasingly suggested Russia was behind the apparent 'hit' on the double-agent on March 4. Branding the attack a 'reckless and despicable act', Mrs May said the substance used was a 'military grade' agent Moscow has produced. Mrs May said the government would not accept such an attempt to 'murder innocent civilians on our soil'. Two Brazilian mothers have been told they have likely been raising each other's child for nine months after the babies were accidentally swapped at birth. Francielli Monteiro Garcia, 24, and Erivania Danfel, 25, gave birth at the same hospital and first suspected an error after they brought their babies home only to discover they were wearing identity bracelets bearing the wrong mother's name. They were told to ignore it by hospital staff who insisted no mistake had occurred, but a chance meeting at a maternity clinic months later convinced them to take a DNA test. That test has proved the child they have been raising is not their own, and they are now waiting for the results of a second test which will determine if the other child belongs to them. Francielli Monteiro Garcia, 24 (left), and Erivania Danfel, 25 (right), gave birth at the same Brazilian hospital nine months ago and suspect their babies were swapped The samples were collected on March 9 and the results will be announced in approximately 10 days. Mrs Garcia, who lives near Ms Danfel in Alta Floresta, central west Brazil, said: 'My world has collapsed. I love the child I've raised,but I want my biological son back in my arms as soon as possible.' It is believed the mix-up occurred at the Albert Sabin Regional Hospital where the children were born minutes apart on 20 May 2017 and placed in a heated crib in the same maternity ward as the first-time mums. However, Mrs Garcia only saw her son hours later. She suffered life-threatening complications after childbirth and was sent for emergency surgery. Doubts began to creep in when the married mum was discharged. 'I realised the baby might not be mine by the time we got home,' she revealed. 'My mother went to bathe him, and I asked her to give me the name bracelet as a keepsake. That was when I saw the mother's name on it was Erivania da Silva Santos. 'I immediately contacted the hospital as I desperately needed to be reassured all was okay. They vehemently denied there had been a mix up. 'They calmed me down and said under no circumstances would the babies have been changed, and that if anything two bracelets with the same name had been issued.' The hospital also instructed the anxious mum to wait for the other mother to come forward to query the alleged irregularity. Gracia and Danfel suspected they had been given the wrong child when they saw a different mother's name printed on the ID bracelets, but were told not to worry by hospital staff A chance meeting between Francielli (pictured) and Danfel at a clinic convinced them they needed a DNA test, with the results proving the child they have been raising is not theirs Mrs Danfel had in fact seen the error, but she dismissed it believing the name, Francielli, referred to the midwife who had delivered her child. She later explained that in the rural town in north Brazil where she grew up, babies were normally delivered at home by midwives and she didn't know hospital identity wristbands existed. 'When Erivania didn't showed up, I decided to get on with my life and bring up my son,' said Mrs Garcia. 'But I could never get rid of the nagging doubt that my son was not really my own child.' Five months later, in October 2017, the mothers met by chance at a local health clinic when both brought their sons in for routine developmental checks. A traumatised Mrs Garcia recalled: 'I immediately noticed the baby Erivania was holding on her lap bore a close resemblance to my family and had similar features to my husband.' The mothers began talking and Mrs Danfel remembered: 'I said to Francielli, look how cute my baby is. This seemed to upset her, and she got up and walked away. 'When she returned, I noticed she had been crying. She said to me 'What's your name. I told her that I was now married but my name when we were in the maternity ward together was Erivania da Silva Santos. 'She asked me what the name on my baby's bracelet had been and I said I thought it was something like Gracielli or Francielli. But I'd thrown it away.' Francielli and Danfel are now waiting on the results of a second test to prove which child belongs to them. Their case is being overseen by Judge Janaina Dezanetti (pictured) It was then Mrs Garcia realised she was living her worst nightmare. She explained her suspicions to Mrs Danfel, who was so distressed it took time for her to be convinced to do the DNA test. 'I said, this is my baby, and no one will take him away from me,' said a heartbroken Mrs Danfel as the news sunk in. 'I was terrified of the outcome. I couldn't imagine my son not being my own. I had given him his first bath, seen him crawl, watched him grow every minute of every day and now if he wasn't my son I could lose him.' Once both families received the DNA tests casting doubt on their biological relationship with the child in their care, the matter was placed with the courts for a speedy resolution. Judge Janaina Rebucci Dezanetti, who is responsible for the case following a formal complaint from the aggrieved families, said: 'This second exam will serve to cross-analyse the data already provided and if it is conclusive, rule out any possibility of a misunderstanding.' Gerson Luiz Severo, a lawyer appointed to the case said: 'The children are the priority right now. We will cross-examine the biological rights of the mothers, so that the parents can get on with their lives. 'If the exchange has to happen, they will need psychological support as this case has generated a great deal of suffering, confusion and upset.' Meanwhile, the mums are in constant contact with each other and building a friendship between their sons and a bond between their families. 'When I learned that the baby I made is with another mother I cried a lot,' Mrs Garcia sobbed. 'But I love our two sons very much, and I still take care of the child I have as if he were mine. He's everything to me, he lives with me for 24 hours. 'We are keeping in touch, so the change won't be so difficult for the boys to deal with because we believe the exchange will be made through a court order,' she added. A hospital spokesperson said: 'We do not acknowledge that an error has been committed because there are systems and procedures in place to avoid this from happening. 'However, we will await the outcome of the court case and launch an investigation if the outcome confirms a mistake was made in the handing over of the babies.' Both families have indicated they may sue for compensation for the emotional trauma and the loss each family has experienced in bringing up their biological child. This is the shocking moment a woman's dog was snatched by two men on a motorbike who will likely sell the pet for food. The incident was captured on CCTV cameras in Hanoi, Vietnam. The footage begins with the woman walking her dog along a street as a motorbike approaches her from behind. CCTV footage captured the moment a woman's dog was snatched by two men on a motorbike One of the men on the bike is seen throwing a noose around the dog's neck and yanking the pet from the woman's grasp. The woman, whose name has not been released, is seen spinning around and falling over as her dog's lead is pulled from her hand. Her son later shared the CCTV footage online, writing: 'The thieves were bold and dangerous.' He added that eyewitnesses reported that the men stunned the dog with a taser after catching it with the noose. One of the men on the bike is seen throwing a noose around the dog's neck and yanking the pet from the woman's grasp The woman, whose name has not been released, is seen spinning around and falling over as her dog's lead is pulled from her hand Dog theft is rarely treated as a criminal offence in Vietnam, unless the stolen animals are valued at more than two million VND (63). Animal lovers in the country - where an estimated five million dogs are eaten a year - have long called for a crackdown. Many of the stolen dogs are believed to be pets which are sold to small, unregulated abattoirs and brutally killed. Police are hunting a serial stalker who bombards his victim with threats of rape and violence disguised in animal-themed greeting cards. The hand-written notes - signed off by 'Gordon' - have been sent to the victim's home address in Bristol for the past six years but have become increasingly violent. On Valentine's Day the woman, in her 40s, received a letter signed off from 'Gordon, your stalker and rapist'. The hand-scrawled notes - signed by a person named 'Gordon' - have become increasingly graphic and culminated in threats of sexual violence Police have now released images in the hope that someone will recognise the handwriting, or that other victims will come forward The victim, a woman in her 40s, has been left frightened as the tone has turned increasingly violent, with the last card posted on Valentine's Day signed off from 'Gordon, your stalker and rapist'. The offences have all happened in Bristol and we believe the offender is sending the cards from somewhere within the Bristol postmark area. The cards are: Usually signed 'Gordon' and always with five crosses (one large X and four small Xs around it) Always written in capitals Often have an animal pictured on the front, regularly cats Sent from the Bristol postmark area The woman, who has been receiving the cards, said: 'This has been going on for so long - someone out there must know who it is. 'Whether it's the distinctive crosses, the handwriting or the name they call themselves, if you recognise anything that could help the police, please let them know.' In one message, sent on Valentine's Day, the message read: 'Lots of love and kisses on Valentine's Day to my sexy little [name removed] They have been sent to the victim's home address and are typically contained in cute animal cards Detective Constable Patrick Prescott, who is leading the inquiry, said: 'We're releasing extracts of the offender's handwriting and signature as we believe someone will recognise the style and know who the sender is. 'Do you recognise this handwriting, the name Gordon or the signature with the five crosses? Do you know who may be sending these cards? 'If you work in a shop which sells cards, or if you work in the postal service, do you recognise the handwriting or the distinctive pattern of crosses? 'The content is becoming increasingly sexually explicit and aggressive in nature and includes threats to commit rape and stalking offences. The victim, a woman in her 40s from Bristol, went to police in January 2016 about the cards she was receiving The messages are signed off with five 'x's - a large, central X surrounded by four lowercase letters He said: 'We've been working with a criminal profiler at the National Crime Agency to examine and risk-assess the offender's behaviour and are continuing to progress numerous lines of enquiry. 'Thorough analysis of the communications has been carried out and the possibility the offender has sent, or is sending cards or letters with similar content to other people cannot be excluded.' The detective added: 'If you have been receiving similar correspondence then we want to hear from you. 'You may recognise one or more of the characteristics but can't believe the person you have in mind would commit offences like this. 'It could be a colleague, friend or even a family member. We'd ask you to please report any concerns or suspicions to help us make this stop. 'Harassment offences can cause significant distress to victims and disrupt their daily lives but we'll do all we can to make sure we investigate crimes, gather evidence and whenever possible, bring offenders to justice.' An Australian man has sparked a measles alert after becoming ill on a flight back to Melbourne. The middle-aged man flew with AirAsia from Kuala Lumpur and potentially exposed hundreds of passengers with the illness. A warning was issued by Victoria's health department for those on the AirAsia flight D7214 which landed in Melbourne on Wednesday morning, SBS News reported. An Australian man has sparked a measles alert after becoming ill on a flight back to Melbourne (stock image) The middle-aged man flew with AirAsia from Kuala Lumpur and potentially exposed hundreds of passengers with the illness (stock image) 'We are working with airline officials to identify and contact passengers who shared the international flight,' deputy chief health officer Brett Sutton said. Other people in the airport at the same time could also be at risk of contracting the highly contagious illness. The viral disease is serious for young children but it can be prevented through vaccination. Measles The viral infection spreads through coughing or sneezing, handshakes or sharing saliva. Symptoms including a runny nose, red eyes and cough which lead to a blotchy red rash covering the entire body. Some symptoms don't appear for up to 14 days after first being exposed. There is no treatment to get rid of the measles but medication to reduce symptoms. Young children who contract measles can lead to serious conditions, including pneumonia. The virus is rare in Australia due to widespread vaccinations. Source: NSW Government Advertisement Symptoms of measles include a runny nose, red eyes and a cough followed by a rash and fever which can appear three to seven days after first symptoms. The disease can cause serious illness in young children including pneumonia. This is the second confirmed case of measles for Victoria this month. A measles warning was issued earlier in March after a backpacker contracted the illness and travelled to tourist destinations including Phillip Island, the Great Ocean Road and St Kilda beach. In late February another man in his late 40s visited areas in south Melbourne while he was highly infectious with measles. Despite recent occurrences, measles are uncommon in Australia due to widespread vaccinations. Advertisement Prince William today revealed that his son George is 'obsessed' with the police as he and Harry honoured Scotland Yard's finest at Kensington Palace today. PC Jayne Richardson told William how the Kensington and Chelsea district needed more volunteers, and referred to his children aged four and two, saying: 'We are recruiting, actually so if George and Charlotte are keen?' William laughed and said his son would actually love to if he were given the chance. 'He is obsessed, actually, by the police... cars, toys, everything,' he said. Indeed, William gave a letter to Father Christmas in Denmark last year on behalf of his son in which he said he had been good and asked for a police car. The princes had met with Cadet of the Year, Nabil Laasid, 17, who lives close to Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, West London, and lost a close friend in the blaze last June. He was nominated for the award by PC Richardson. Prince Harry talks with Metropolitan Police officers as he and William host the winners of The Met Excellence Awards today The Duke of Cambridge hosted winners of The Met Excellence Awards at Kensington Palace in London this afternoon Prince Harry talks with MP Tobias Ellwood, who received a police bravery award for trying to save the life of PC Keith Palmer Mr Laasid has carried out more than 1,000 volunteering hours in the last year alone, ranging from taking officers on the scene food and drink when the scale of the tragedy emerged, to helping to organise a trip for survivors to the Isle of Wight. William also spoke of the continuing devastation he feels at driving past burnt out Grenfell Tower as he and Harry honoured some of the Metropolitan Police's most outstanding officers. The royal brothers invited in winners from The Met Excellence Awards to Kensington Palace to chat about their work and achievements. They included Police Officer of the Year, PC Philip Stone, who is the service's Disaster Victim Identification Co-ordinator and in the last year has helped recover from than 100 bodies from five separate tragedies including the Manchester Arena bombing and the Grenfell fire. William, 35, who lives in Kensington Palace, just a few minutes' drive away, told him: 'We still see it (the tower) a lot as it is just around the corner. It's hard to comprehend.' PC Stone told him that of the tragedies he has been forced to deal with, 'every family have been able to have some part of their loved one back'. William talks to Shaun Cartwright, who collected the Outstanding Bravery Award posthumously awarded to PC Keith Palmer Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick (centre) thanks attendees, including MP Tobias Ellwood (second right) Harry talks with Metropolitan Police officers following the annual celebration recognising police officers, staff and volunteers 'It has been one thing after another this year. Grenfell was very, very difficult for obvious reasons, because of the heat,' he said. 'That must be a great comfort to them,' the clearly moved prince replied. PC Stone said it was 'very humbling' to have the chance to tell the princes about their work. 'I am very proud to be here,' he said. Another winner was Sergeant Hannah Stewart, 31, who left William speechless as she described a heart-rending child abuse case she brought to court. The victim, who suffered from terminal motor neurone disease, became the first person in the UK to give evidence using Eyegaze technology, which allowed him to blink in order to answer questions during evidence and cross-examination in court. The man, who was sexually abused by vicar Cyril Rowe, 78, when he was a young choirboy, gave evidence via a video link from a hospice during the case at Bournemouth Crown Court last year. Tragically he died two hours after a jury who had spent two days deliberating their verdict - found Rowe guilty of three counts of indecent assault, without ever finding out his abuser had been convicted. Sergeant Stewart, who is clearly still affected by the case, told William how she wanted to tell him in person because he could not communicate over the phone and raced back to London, where the victim was in a hospice. Harry talks with Metropolitan Police officers at Kensington Palace as the royals host winners of The Met Excellence Awards Police officers smile as they attend a reception for the winners of The Met Excellence Awards at Kensington Palace in London Harry and William talk with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick and Commander Stuart Cundy (far left) today But by the time she arrived, he had tragically passed away. 'I thought it was the right thing to do, but now I don't know. I felt terrible, maybe if I had phoned' she said. 'He was still a young man, a father, and used to tell me how difficult it was as his brain was still perfectly active while his body was failing. 'Giving evidence to the court was such a superhuman feat of strength for him. I truly believe he hung on for that moment to tell everyone what happened to him and then slipped away. 'The cross-examination took two days and took everything out of him. 'He told me that he only decided to go to the police when he was diagnosed with the disease as he felt he had to face his demons. He hung on long enough to see that justice was done as the case came to court, but just couldn't live long enough to hear that it had been served.' 'It is so sad but at least justice served its course. Well done, very impressive,' said the prince. William and Harry also met Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood who won an outstanding contribution award for his efforts in rushing to help PC Keith Palmer, who lost his life in last year's Westminster terror attack. Scotland Yard Commissioner Cressida Dick laughs as she talks with police officer of the year, PC Philip Stone (left) William and Harry talk to Commissioner Dick, PC Stone and police staff of the year, Claire Summers (far left), this afternoon Commissioner Dick (centre) poses for a photograph with the recipients of The Met Excellence Awards this afternoon PC Keith Palmer (left) was posthumously honoured at the ceremony for his heroic response during the Westminster terror attack. Flowers laid in tribute to him in front of the Houses of Parliament for his funeral are also pictured (right) Mr Ellwood, a former soldier, told William about how 'instinct kicked in' as the attack unfolded last March. William said: 'Everyone did all they could I'm sure.' PC Keith Palmer was also posthumously honoured at the ceremony, which took place last week, for his heroic response during the Westminster terror attack. The officer, who was stabbed to death when he confronted attacker Khalid Masood outside the Houses of Parliament last March, was named the winner of the outstanding bravery of the year prize. Met Commissioner Cressida Dick said the force was 'really grateful' to William and Harry for finding time for them, and told her officers: 'Thank you for what you did do, do do and will continue to do.' She said afterwards: 'It's wonderful for our guys and girls to be here and to enjoy such a treat. They're really excited and have had a lovely time. They all spoke very openly and clearly and frankly about what they do, and what they do is ... you know they take it for granted, but it is extraordinary for many of them and I think the impression their Royal Highnesses received is that these people are passionate about their jobs in keeping people safe. 'They are sometimes people who aren't thanked as much as they might be. They are an absolute inspiration.' The full list of Scotland Yard award winners for bravery, cadets, investigations and volunteers Bravery Award: PC Keith Palmer Outstanding Contribution: Tobias Ellwood MP Police Staff of the Year: Claire Summers - National Digital Exploitation Service (NDES), SO15 Police Officer of the Year: PC Philip Stone - Disaster Victim Identification Coordinator, SC&O London Mayor Sadiq Khan is pictured with the Tooting Safer Neighbourhoods Team Support Team of the Year: Human Resources Major Incident Support Team - People & Change, Met HQ Operations Support Team - Property Services, Met HQ Operational / Specialist Team of the Year: Operation Viper Team Trident and Area Crime Command (SCO8) Investigation of the Year: DC Hannah Stewart - East Region Child Abuse Investigation Team, Territorial Policing Safer Neighbourhoods Team of the Year (public vote): Tooting Safer Neighbourhoods Team Victoria Sullivan, Hollie Osborn and Matthew Hollis, who were shortlisted for the Cadet of the Year award, with Commissioner Cressida Dick (second right) Special Constable of the Year (public vote): Shane Clarke - Met Special Constabulary (MSC), Barnet borough Volunteer of the Year: Jenny Haughian - Paddington and West End Central, Westminster Borough Cadet of the Year: Nabil Laasid - Kensington & Chelsea Borough Victim Care Award: DC Nicky Dawes - Central North Command Unit Safeguarding Team DC Nicky Dawes, who won the Victim Care Award, with Commissioner Dick The Met Citizen Award (for members of the public): Sally Burnikell Newham Borough Building a Better Met Award: Body Worn Video Project Team Met HQ Special Recognition Award: orth Resourcing Hub SCO22, SC&O // PC Tony Marchant - Aviation Policing, SO // PS Andrew Pettet - Newham borough // PC Ceyhun Uzun - Westminster borough // Cherie Rosario Multi agency safeguarding hubs (MASH), Brent borough Advertisement A Chinese villager reportedly raised an endangered black bear at home believing it was a dog. Mr Yang, from southern China's Yunnan Province, claimed he found the animal in the forest in April, 2015, and thought it was an ordinary black puppy, reported Chinese media. It's said six months later, Mr Yang's father told him the animal, nicknamed Han Han, might be a bear because it started to show bear-like traits. The pictures provided by Mr Yang to a local newspaper show the pet when it little and today. The man in southern China claimed he had thought the animal was a dog, not a bear Mr Yang is pictured feeding the female bear which is kept in a cage at his home in Yongsheng The pet also started to show a V-shaped yellow stripe across the chest, a characteristic for the Asiatic Black Bears. According to local newspaper Lijiang Du Ben, Mr Yang argued that he had thought the mark across Han Han's chest was its natural fur colour. However, after realising Han Han was a bear, not a dog, Mr Yang chose to keep raising it. He claimed to the reporter that he had felt attached to the animal and didn't want to give it away. Mr Yang said he put the animal in a cage in 2017 after hearing cases of bears attacking people Police learnt about the incident after seeing pictures of Mr Yang's bear on social media Video footage provided by Mr Yang to Chinese media shows Han Han playing with Mr Yang's pet dog when it was little. In the video, Han Han was walking on two legs, while Mr Yang's pet dog was on all fours. WHAT ARE ASIATIC BLACK BEARS? Asiatic black bear is also known as moon bear. The species is listed as Appendix I by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international agreement between governments aimed to protect endangered animals and plants. Appendix I is the highest category for endangered species, and according to the convention, animals in the category are threatened with extinction. Advertisement The report said Mr Yang makes a living by breeding animals in the county of Yongsheng in Lijiang, but it doesn't not specify what animals he keeps. The report also said that Mr Yang started to keep Han Han in a cage from mid-2017 after hearing other villagers being attacked by wild black bears. Han Han, around three years old now, weights 88lbs and stands 5ft6in tall. It's a female bear. The Forest Police of Yongsheng County learnt about the incident after seeing pictures of Mr Yang's bear on social media. They immediately went to Mr Yang's home for investigation. The animals was confirmed to be an Asiatic Black Bear, which is a protected animals in China. It's also an endangered animal species widely traded by illegal smugglers in Asia for their body parts. A statement from the Forest Police of Yongsheng County said officers from the Forestry Bureau of Lijiang went to Mr Yang's home on March 6 to confiscate the bear. The statement also said that Mr Yang was suspicious of raising and breeding wild animals without permission, but because he showed cooperation with police, no further penalty was given to him. Mr Yang's pet was confirmed to be an Asiatic Black Bear, an endangered animal species The statement did not comment on Mr Yang's motivation of raising the bear. Mr Yang claimed to media: 'I raised it like my own child, not for money. 'I know it's not right to raise a bear in private, but I had formed a bond with it, and I feared that it might not live well if I gave it away.' The bear is now being looked after by a wildlife breeding centre in the county of Yulong in Lijiang city, according to police. A firebrand Russian MP has compared Theresa May to Hitler and accused of UK of creating 'fake news' over the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal. Vitaly Milonov, an eccentric member of the ruling United Russia party, appeared on Radio 4's Today programme this morning to debate with former Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski. But he was cut off after making a series of wild accusations, branding Mr Sikorski 'a prostitute' and insisting claims Russia poisoned former spy Sergei Skripal were 'fake news'. Putin loyalist Vitaly Milonov compared Theresa May to Hitler in a radio interview this morning Shouting down a phone line from Russia, Milonov said: 'We've been told you think a guy who was imprisoned in Russia and was sent as a useless fake agent to you as an exchange in some spy drama was poisoned by some 50 years old Soviet gas. It's nothing to do with Russia!' When asked how the nerve agent came to be in Britain, he replied: 'This poison is 50 years old, it's not modern stuff. You can take this poison from any laboratory in Ukraine or other fake countries that are happy to help you. 'This is something like theatre or James Bond movie that you created such a horror about new Russia which is very dangerous. For us this guy is useless.' Mr Sikorski, a former Polish Foreign Minister, said Russia's motivation was to make Putin look strong and to get rid of spies who they perceived as having betrayed them. But he inflamed Milonov by insisting he wasn't 'a real MP', as Russia didn't have real elections. Milonov exploded, calling Sikorski a 'prostitute' and Poland a 'small country, dependent on the US'. Some listeners questioned the value of the interview with the controversial MP on Twitter Milonov added: 'My personal point of view is that Theresa May and her colleagues have created a fake story because they need an explanation for the British people why they are going to perform some anti-British steps in favour of US policy against Russia. 'So they had to make this fantasy, they had to try to kill this poor pensioner, useless for us. This is a drama for British TV. It's the behaviour of Hitler.' Former double agent Sergei Skripal is fighting for his life in hospital after being poisoned with a nerve agent He started talking about the burning of the Reichstag before Today programme host Sarah Montague cut him off and spoke to Mr Sikorski only. Mr Sikorksi said Milonov gave 'best witness to his own character', adding that his showed how Britain was being 'taunted and humiliated' by Russia over the poison plot. Milonov is well known for a series of homophobic statements he has made amid his attempts to ban what he calls the 'propaganda of homosexuality' in Russia. Listeners to Radio 4 questioned why the Today programme had brought him on. One Twitter user wrote: 'Utterly moronic Russian 'MP' Milonov on Radio 4 just now. Don't they do they their research there?' Others branded Milonov 'a clown' and said the interview was 'shameful'. Spanish police stopped a human trafficker trying to smuggle two men across the Moroccan border underneath the backseat of a car. The car was stopped by border police at the Beni-Enzar border crossing between the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla and Morocco. The pair had been hiding underneath a metal panel that had been welded to the floor of the car. Human trafficking: Spanish border police stopped the car the crossing between the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla and Morocco and found two stowaways Spanish Civil Guard officers said they had become suspicious of a Mercedes-Benz A-Class with Moroccan plates during a border check. Police used a heartbeat detector and discovered two stowaway hidden under the back seats with a metal sheet welded across the upholstery. The suspected migrants were only visible through the air holes provided and police had to use a hydraulic hoist to remove the metal sheet and get to the men. The immigrants, whose names were not released, were of Sub-Saharan descent and found in a state of severe dehydration. Having become suspicious during a border check, police used a heartbeat detector and found that the driver was not alone Hidden: The suspected migrants were only visible through the air holes provided and police had to use a hydraulic hoist to remove the metal sheet and get to the men Caught: A border police official can be seen using their feet to hold up the panel as the two stowaways are removed, one at a time The two men could barely move after spending a long period of time crammed together in the tiny space below the seats and received medical attention at the border checkpoint. The driver, a 33-year-old Moroccan man, was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking. According to local authorities, hiding people inside vehicles to cross border checkpoints is a common practice in Melilla and is often linked to organised crime. Trafficking gangs demand up to 4,000 EUR (3,550) for each person smuggled across a border. Former NSW secretary of the National Union of Workers Derrick Belan (right) arrives at the Parramatta Local Court A former union boss allegedly convinced his niece he had a brain tumour for two years while using her to steal almost $500,000 from member funds. Derrick Belan, the former NSW boss of the National Union of Workers, told Danielle O'Brien to use union credit cards to pay for family holidays, clothes, gastric-band surgery for his girlfriend and orthodontic braces for his son, a court heard. Ms O'Brien, who was the club's bookkeeper, broke down several times as she gave evidence against her uncle in a hearing at Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday. She said he convinced her he had a brain tumour in 2011 and she believed him for two years as he was 'really thin and sickly'. 'He had told me at one point he had a brain tumour and the medication made him unwell,' she told the court. Between detailing some of the extravagant spending, Ms O'Brien said the pair had a very close relationship and that she 'loved him very much'. She recalled the first time he gave her permission to personally use union money in 2010 - to get her hair done 'so you look nice' for a Christmas party. 'He said "just put it on the card",' she told the court. For years after that, she would call him to ask if she could use the card to buy other items - mostly online purchases from stores including Big W and Toys 'R Us, the court heard. Their conversations were 'usually quite brief - I'd usually say "can I have this?", he'd say "yes", I'd say "thank you''.' She told the court that in 2013 Belan called and asked for her to pay Dalcross Adventist Hospital for an operation for his then-partner, Paula Lancaster. Danielle O'Brien (centre), the niece of Former NSW secretary of the National Union of Workers (NUW) Derrick Belan, arrives at the Parramatta Local Court in Sydney Ms O'Brien recalled the first time he gave her permission to personally use union money in 2010 - to get her hair done 'so you look nice' for a Christmas party 'I think it was for gastric band surgery,' Ms O'Brien said. She was also asked to pay for holiday accommodation in Lake Conjola on NSW's south coast, dinners, storage units, car registration, about $56,000 in personal legal fees and for his son to get braces from union accounts. 'Business shirts, shoes, anything that he asked for,' Ms O'Brien said, adding that he got angry with her at times if she didn't. Eventually Belan told Ms O'Brien that she didn't need to ask permission to buy whatever she wanted, the court heard. Belan is accused of using the union's credit cards and accounts for his own personal benefit while state secretary between 2011 and 2015. He has pleaded not guilty to 62 charges, most of them for obtaining financial advantage by deception. Belan's barrister, Anton Duc, on Monday said his client did not defraud the union of 'one cent' and was not involved in any of the conduct he is accused of. The hearing continues. The doomed passengers of the helicopter that crashed on Sunday were trapped upside down by their harnesses in the craft as it sank to the bottom of the East River. Divers searching the crash site found the five passengers still strapped into their tight-fitting harnesses. The harnesses, which had kept them safe while they were in the air, ultimately prevented their escape, the New York City Fire Department revealed yesterday. Trevor Cadigan, right, recorded this video at the his helicopter tour of New York City on Sunday. Cadigan and his friend, Brian McDaniel, left, would later be found strapped inside their harnesses Rescue divers found them dozens of feet below below the water inside the capsized chopper, said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro. 'It took a while for the divers to get these people out. They worked very quickly, as fast as they could,' Nigro said. 'It was a great tragedy that we had here.' A law enforcement source noted how the harnesses did 'too good a job'. 'The harness, which was supposed to keep them strapped in while they're taking pictures, also kept them locked in while they were underwater,' they told the New York Post. Footage from the moment of the crash shows the helicopter descending upright onto the water as if to land, then hitting the water and flipping over 'It did too good a job. They couldn't free themselves,' the source said. The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350, crashed into the water around 7.06pm on Sunday near East 90th Street and Roosevelt Island, in the waters just off of Gracie Mansion. The pilot, Richard Vance (pictured), who is from Danbury, Connecticut, said the aircraft went down because of engine failure. Pilot Richard Vance escaped the crash moments after impact, but the five passengers were trapped inside, unable to escape from their safety harnesses as the helicopter flipped and sank, police said. The water temperature was juts 39 degrees at the time of the crash. Two passengers died at the scene and three were transported to hospitals in critical condition, said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro. Those three were all pronounced dead in the hospital, fire officials said early Monday. Among those who died in the crash include journalist Trevor Cadigan, his friend Brian McDaniel, Argentine tourist Carla Vallejos Blanco, and two helicopter employees, Daniel Thompson and Tristan Hill. Hill moved to the city a few months ago to work as the director of operations at sightseeing company SightSy. He planned to marry his fiance Eda Ozmen, a yoga instructor, back in Reno, Nevada, where the Singapore-born man grew up, on May 26. Cadigan, 26, was also a recent transplant to the city, moving in October to intern at Business Insider. His friend McDaniel, also 26, was on a trip to visit his longtime friend.The two both attended Bishop Lynch High School together. Cadigan got a degree in journalism from Southern Methodist University while his friend went into firefighting. Friends Brian McDaniel (left) and Trevor Cadigan (right) were both 26 and hailed from Texas. Cadigan moved to New York in October for an internship at Business Insider One of the other victims was Argentine tourist Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29 (pictured) Two helicopter employees - Daniel Thompson, 34, and Tristan Hill, 29 (pictured) were also killed. Hill was due to be married at the end of May Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were called to the scene last night and are currently working to determine the official cause of the crash. Video shows the dramatic moment the helicopter landed in the water, flipped, and then began to sink into the 39-degree waters. A few moments later, witnesses saw the pilot surface with a yellow raft. He was rescued by a tug boat. Part of the reason why it took so long to pull their bodies from the sunken wreckage was because they were strapped in with special harnesses that had allowed them to lean out and take pictures of the city while the doors of the helicopter were open. 'One of the most difficult parts of the operation, we're told, was the five people, besides the pilot, were all tightly harnessed,' said Commissioner Nigro. 'So these harnesses had to be cut and removed in order to get these folks off of this helicopter.' A distressing video emerged showing a burning rat desperately ran for its life after being set on fire by two men in China. The rodent was locked in a cage before a man poured flammable liquid over the cage and set it on fire. The two abusers laughed when they saw a burning rat bolted out from the cage and ran around the yard before another man attempted to kill it with a bat. Two men in China are torturing a rat as they lock it in a cage and set it on fire (left). The burning rat dashes out of the cage soon as the man opens the gate (right) Footage, uploaded on Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, on March 12 which the account user mentioned 'someone had done it before and got his house burnt'. The video, suggested to be taken at a Chinese city, showed a man setting a rat trap cage on fire. Soon as he opens the cage with his foot, a flaming rodent dashed out like a fire ball and runs towards the bush. The duo can be heard laughing as they watch the rat being engulfed in flames. As the rat ran further and further away, another man held up a wooden bat and ready to kill it. The rat bolts out to a bush while being engulfed in flames (left). A man in the far corner, circled, is ready to beat the rat with a bat (right) Jason Baker, PETA Asia vice president told MailOnline that the suffering was hard to watch. 'Rats, like all animals, feel pain and pleasure, and they suffer when they are abused. Cruel acts like this are the reason why PETA works to inform people about the sensitivity and feelings of all beings.' The video has drawn over 20,000 views since it uploaded yesterday. Web users commented and slammed for the men's cruel behaviour. 'Every animal has a soul! This is too cruel' said 'Xmhjlz7'. 'Why does it have to burn it alive? It's not necessary to do it to a rat,' asked another user 'shayuyu'. However, some of them agreed that vermin should be killed. 'This is outrage?! Rats are vermin and they should not exist on Earth anyway,' said 'wangcongqi'. Last November, a man in Guangdong Province had his house burnt while attempting to set a few rats at the balcony. He lit the plastic bottles by mistakes and set his house on fire. Cynthia McCullough, who lives in Charlotte, told New York Life she had a rare chronic pain condition - reflex sympathetic dystrophy A pastor in North Carolina who claims to have a 'severe and debilitating' disease is being sued by her insurer after she was photographed playing Skee-Ball and going down a slide. Cynthia McCullough, who lives in Charlotte, told New York Life her rare chronic pain condition - reflex sympathetic dystrophy - was so extreme that it prevented her from washing or dressing and left her in need of constant home care. But after finding photographs of McCullough apparently looking very flexible on her church's website, the insurance company filed a lawsuit to get its money back. McCullough has been paid roughly $389,500 since 2010 as part of her policy with New York Life, the Charlotte Observer reports. The firm, which filed the suit on Friday, also claimed it had seen McCullough moving around with ease during surveillance in 2016 and 2017. She was spotted walking around, picking up objects and driving her SUV 50 miles to a church in Rutherfordton where she was a pastor, the lawsuit claims. But after finding photographs of McCullough (pictured) apparently looking very flexible on her church's website, the insurance company filed a lawsuit to get its money back On another occasion in 2017, she was watched for 15 days and apparently drove to restaurants, a bank and a gas station - where she filled the tank herself - as well as returning to the Rutherfordton church twice, the suit adds. But when her payments were stopped by New York Life, she claimed she was suffering from a 'severe and debilitating' disease. A 29-year-old Ukrainian woman was brutally murdered and decapitated after she refused to have sex with her ex-boyfriend. Anna Ergieva's headless corpse was discovered by her horrified parents, who had made their way into her home when she did not answer her phone. Her head was later found buried nearby, stuffed in a bag along with some of her jewellery. Her ex-partner later admitted to carrying out the murder in a jealous rage when she rejected his sexual advances. Murdered: Businesswoman Anna Ergieva's ex had flown into a jealous rage when she rejected his sexual advances Brutal: The ex-boyfriend later admitted to shooting Ms Ergieva in the head and decapitating her corpse in Odessa, Ukraine Arriving at her home in Odessa, south Ukraine, Ms Ergieva's parents found her remains lying in a pool of blood. The 29-year-old's distraught father told local media: 'She was lying on the floor decapitated. She was covered in blood. 'The whole room was covered in blood, even the TV set. 'We called police who explored the scene but they couldn't find her head.' Gruesome: The 29-year-old's head was found stuffed in a bag along with some of her jewellery and buried outside Ms Ergieva's headless body was found by her own parents, who had become worried when she did not answer her phone Shock find: Ms Ergieva's parents found her headless remains lying in a pool of blood Police arrested a local chef who was a former classmate and boyfriend of the woman. After attacking officers with a knife and attempting to slash his own wrists, the man, also 29, confessed to her murder saying that he had flown into a rage after she refused to have sex with him. The pair had been chatting online and he had decided to visit her. But when she turned down his advances he saw red, pulled out a pistol and shot her in the head. Murder weapon: The gun reportedly used to shoot and kill the 29-year-old businesswoman The ex, also aged 29, had buried Ms Ergieva's head with her jewellery He then decapitated her so that police would not be able to find the bullet, stuffed the head along with some of her jewellery inside a bag and buried it. A police spokesman said: 'An alarm button was found lying beside the corpse. 'It seems the victim made an attempt to call for help, but was murdered before pushing the button.' The unnamed assailant now faces life in jail. Ahmed Hassan, 18, pictured in a court sketch today, allegedly told immigration officials he had been forced to train 'to kill' by Isis The Parsons Green 'bomber' has told a court he made up a story about being kidnapped by Islamic State because he wanted to study in Britain to become the new David Attenborough. Ahmed Hassan arrived in Britain in October 2015 and told immigration officials he had been forced to train 'to kill' by Isis, the Old Bailey has heard. But the 18-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker has now told jurors that he was never taken prisoner by Isis and had not had any contact with the terror group. Asked why he made up the story, the media student told the court: 'Because I came from a wealthy, safe area in northern Iraq in Kurdistan and if I told the truth, my only reason to leave the country was to further my studies ... I felt I had to make up something strong. 'In the Jungle in Calais, people used to talk about these things and make up stories. I never came across a refugee who said he would tell the truth when he arrived in the country. 'I wanted to go to university and my ultimate goal was to become a wildlife photographer like David Attenborough.' Hassan also told jurors he watched a lot of action films and documentaries last summer and developed a 'fantasy' about making a bomb and becoming a fugitive. This image of Hassan with a knife taken in his bedroom was also released by Scotland Yard The lounge at Hassan's home address is seen in this image issued by the Metropolitan Police On September 15 last year, Hassan planted 400g of homemade explosives and shrapnel on a District line Tube timed to go off when it reached the West London stop, the court has heard. When he was picked up at the port of Dover the following morning, he told police he had made the bomb, which only partially exploded on the packed rush hour service. Hassan said he never intended the bomb to kill, adding: 'The idea of killing another human being never crossed my mind at all, never in my life. He said the device was intended to burn rather than explode and added: 'My final destination was home. That was the fantasy in my head. I would be chased and I would not be caught and I would be on the news and I would go home.' Jurors have heard that Hassan told his lecturer Katie Cable he had a 'duty to hate this country'. Alison Morgan, prosecuting, said: 'And you did feel you had a duty to hate Britain, because of what happened to your father?' Hassan replied: 'No, not at all.' Ms Morgan continued: 'You believed that coalition forces were responsible for his death, didn't you?' Hassan denied this. The prosecutor said: 'And you believed the fight against Britain should be brought into this country, didn't you?' He answered: 'No, never.' A sofa the in conservatory behind which a bag containing a trace of TATP was discovered A rucksack and contents in Hassan's possession upon his arrest at the Port of Dover in Kent Hassan said that people used to make up stories in the Jungle camp in Calais (pictured in 2015) The prosecutor said a witness had heard Hassan listening to a 'call to arms', encouraging 'slaughter in this homeland'. Hassan said: 'I am afraid I cannot remember listening to that.' Giving evidence in his defence, Hassan told how he was born in Baghdad. His mother died when he was young and his taxi driver father was killed in an explosion in 2006, he said. 'So far as I'm aware, I was told that he died in an explosion while he was working as a taxi driver. He used to go to work and come back evenings and then he did not come back. 'It was very difficult. I did not understand what was going on. I was in a state of confusion because of fighting, because of bombing.' Hassan told jurors he moved to northern Iraq with his uncle and older brother, and from the age of 12 worked ferrying goods such as vegetables across the border with Iran. The defendant said he decided to leave Iraq because he wanted 'a better life'. A bedroom wardrobe with a container with traces of hydrogen peroxide found on top (left) and the door to Hassan's bedroom (right) Pictured are packs of partially empty drill bits which were used as shrapnel in the device A blue vase similar to one found in the device outside by the conservatory at Hassan's home He said: 'I wanted studying, I wanted to learn English and there was so much pressure on me to keep on with my job.' He smuggled himself to Britain by train and on a lorry at the age of 16, he said. Hassan, wearing a white open-necked shirt under a dark blue jumper, confirmed his name when asked by his barrister Tim Moloney QC today. Speaking with his head bowed, he confirmed he would not be using an interpreter but said he may need to ask for questions to be repeated or rephrased. He said: 'My English is not perfect and my accent is not perfect either.' He told the court he has one older brother, aged 25, who is still in his native country of Iraq. Asked if his parents were still alive, Hassan said: 'No, passed away.' He said he was too young to remember his mother, but said he remembered his father, who died when Hassan was aged seven. A photograph of the smoke-ridden District line carriage shortly after the device exploded Hassan allegedly packed a bucket with TATP explosives and shrapnel and left it on the train Ahmed Hassan is pictured waiting at the Port of Dover in Kent after arriving there by train Hassan told the jury: 'So far as I am aware I was told that he died in an explosion while he was working as a taxi driver.' Hassan said he left Iraq because he wanted 'a better life'. He described himself as a good student. The 18-year-old said: 'I was very good. I was very clever.' Asked by Mr Moloney if he had ever been mistreated by IS, Hassan said: 'No, I have never had any contact with IS at all.' He said it had been 'fairly easy' to cross the border from Iraq to Turkey. Hassan is pictured on board a Southern train to Brighton after the incident on the Tube The kitchen timer used as an initiator mechanism, in addition to a battery and a halogen bulb Hassan allegedly took the largest Tupperware container, pictured above, from his foster parents' kitchen to store the 300g of TATP which made up the main charge for the device Hassan had stayed in Istanbul for about two weeks before moving on to Italy, where he said he had not been well treated. He said: 'I was abused by the Italian authorities. They were not very nice with me, so I left.' Hassan travelled from there to Paris, then to the Jungle camp in Calais, before entering the UK on a lorry. Hassan told jurors he spent three days in hospital because he 'considered to commit suicide'. He said he used to snap pencils at college because he would get 'angry' and needed a way to 'empty myself' and have a 'peaceful moment'. Hassan told jurors he enjoyed studying photography when he was at Brooklands College in Weybridge. He described himself as 'very shy'. The contents of the 'Mother of Satan' bomb allegedly prepared by Hassan then put on the Tube In addition to nuts and bolts, he is accused of placing knives inside the device to be shrapnel Hassan, who was living with foster parents at the time, is pictured using a cash machine Shrapnel would be 'ejected at high speed' to 'increase the potential for harm' the jury was told Hassan said: 'I enjoyed being behind the camera rather than in front of the camera.' The court was shown a series of pictures taken by Hassan, some of deer in Richmond Park, South West London. He said he eventually wanted to be a wildlife photographer. Jurors also saw two short animations, one of which was a carrot in the guise of a character walking along, both created by Hassan. He added: 'I was part of a project that I was going to finish this year. I was going to make a short cartoon.' Hassan told the court he ran a business selling mobile phones, earning him around 100 each week. He said he had to keep it secret because he has not been granted the right to remain in the UK. 'I was running a business, I was selling phones. So people would call me to make me an offer,' he said. Other items Hassan is said to have piled into the explosive included screwdrivers The device 'has the potential to cause damage to property and or serious harm', the jury heard The scene of devastation was left behind after the device partially detonated on the train He added: 'Because I wasn't allowed to make money, I had to keep it a secret.' He sold the phones online on sites like Gumtree but usually delivered them in person, he said. Asked if he was religious, Hassan, who described himself as a Sunni Muslim, said: 'I am, I pray five times a day.' When asked if he cared about people being from different religions, he said: 'Not at all, not in the slightest.' The defendant, who had been named student of the year at Brooklands College in 2017, said he had also been a top student in his own country for six years in a row. He said he is continuing his studies from prison and 'doing my best to concentrate'. Hassan added: 'I am still doing my work and they (the college) have accepted me to finish my assignments.' Hassan told jurors how he made TATP explosives on September 13 last year from the chemicals he had bought. He also said he found a 'very easy' YouTube recipe to make TATP, adding: 'It was a fantasy, I was bored. I wanted to receive attention.' Hassan is said to have gone to a Sports Direct in Ashford where bought a backpack and clothes Hassan had not dried out the bomb-making chemicals before use, an expert said The suspected bomber is pictured in Dover in September after travelling from London by train CCTV cameras caught the moment the Hassan was arrested at the Port of Dover in Kent The suspected bomber was captured as he was placed in the back of a waiting police van He had already assembled a timer by following a 'step-by-step' detailed guide online, he said. The defendant went on to test the TATP on September 14 'because I wanted to be certain it would not explode'. Hassan said he only intended for it to burn. Hassan tested 50g of TATP in a Coca-Cola can on the kitchen table of his foster home in Sunbury, Surrey, he said. He told jurors: 'I heard a 'whoof' and a very small heat, fire, for a fraction of a second.' The teenager added: 'I was certain that it would not explode. It would just burn.' Hassan, who was living with foster parents in Sunbury, Surrey, has denied attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion that was likely to endanger life. The trial continues. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See samaritans.org for details. One man has been injured after a training helicopter was involved in a ground incident at Perth Airport this morning. The privately owned helicopter, which was undergoing tests, was left a 'mangled mess' after the incident at around 10.50am. A photograph of the helicopter shows the badly damaged craft near Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) base. Connor Wojtowicz, who live nears the airport, told the Courier: 'I was sitting in my room which is 150ft from where the helicopter came down. 'I heard it take off and it didn't sound right at all then there was a bang.' One man has been injured after a helicopter crashed at Perth Airport this morning at around 10.25am He was treated on the scene for non-life threatening injuries before being taken to hospital Connor Wojtowicz said: 'I heard it take off and it didn't sound right at all then there was a bang' Mr Wojtowicz also told the Sun: 'The rear tail was completely crumpled and it was leaking fuel. 'Before my brother and I even got out of the house, people were already out with fire extinguishers.' The aircraft was not in the air at the time of the crash. Three units from Scottish Fire and Rescue along with their command unit joined fire officers from the airport. The helicopter has since been covered with a fire-retardant foam. Perth Airport is located three and a half miles from the city of Perth. It is primarily used for private and business aircraft and pilots are often trained here The aircraft was not in the air at the time of the crash. The helicopter is believed to be used for training purposes ACS Aviation, Perth Airport's operator, tweeted: 'We are aware of a ground incident at Perth Airport today involving a privately owned helicopter that was undergoing maintenance. 'One person has been injured, and is currently being treated in hospital for a leg injury. We are supporting all involved.' Police Scotland said that an investigation will be carried out into the incident. A spokesman said: 'Police Scotland can confirm that they are dealing with an incident at Perth Airport. 'A helicopter has been involved in an incident within the airport, resulting in damage to the aircraft. 'The occupant of the helicopter has been taken to hospital with a leg injury. 'There is no danger to the public and an investigation will follow. The airport remains open.' The injured man, believed to be the pilot, was taken to hospital after being helped by members from the SCAA team. It is believed he broke his leg in the crash. No commercial flights fly in or out of Perth Airport and it is still fully operational following the incident. Firefighters have been spraying foam on the wreckage of the craft (pictured) Jurors were visibly shaken in court on Monday as they heard just how a New York City nanny murdered two children in her care five years ago. Yoselyn Ortega, 55, is currently on trial for the murders of Lucia and Leo Krim, who were six and two years old in October 2012 when their mother came home and found them stabbed to death in a bathtub of their Upper West Side apartment. The Dominican nanny stabbed herself in the neck just as the Krim's mother was coming in the door, but she survived her injuries. Ortega, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, sat emotionless in court on Monday as Dr Susan Ely, a city medical examiner, told the jury how the children suffered before they died. Scroll down for video Yoselyn Ortega, 55, is currently on trial for first-degree murder in the deaths of two children she used to babysit in New York City. She's pictured above in court on March 2 Lucia, six (right), and Leo Krim, two (left), were brutally butchered to death in their Upper West Side apartment on October 25, 2012, while their mother was out picking their little sister up from swim class One female juror was left shaking after she heard how Ortega cut Leo's eck with a kitchen knife, leaving a 1.5-inch deep wound in the neck, according to the New York Post. 'On a small boy thats a deep wound,' the medical examiner said. In fact, Leo was stabbed so many times that he had no blood left in his body when he ended up on the autopsy table. Another juror's mouth fell open for several minutes as she listened to details about Lucia's severe abdominal wounds. And another juror shook as the jury pool was shown a diagram of Lucia's body, showing how Ortega sliced and stabbed the girl 30 times on her head, neck, torso, arms and hands. Leo had six wounds, all to his neck, according to the New York Daily News. In court on Monday, Dr. Susan Ely (center), a city medical examiner, testified about how the two children died. The children's parents, Kevin and Marina Krim, recorded a video shortly before their old nanny went on trial Last week, a juror was kicked off the trial when he said he could no longer be fair and impartial after seeing horrific pictures from the crime scene. Ely said both children suffered horribly before they died because it took them several minutes to bleed out. 'They didnt die initially. Only some of [the knife wounds] were fatal. That takes an order of minutes, not seconds,' Ely said. 'Bleeding to death takes minutes.' While under cross examination by defense attorney Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg, Ely testified that Ortega wasn't under the influence of any drugs when she carried out the attack, and she didn't give the kids any drugs or alcohol to ease their pain. Leo may not have seen the attack coming, since he may have had his neck cut from behind, but the autopsy was inconclusive on that. Tragically, the wounds on Lucia's body show that she tried to fight back. The medical examiner said it looks as though Lucia twisted her body away as she was being attacked. The injuries on her arms and hands prove there was 'quite a lot of movement and struggle to get away from this knife'. 'Lucia Krim had her hands up at some point while she was being stabbed,' she testified. In this harrowing hand-written notes penned after the killings, Yoselyn Ortega said: 'I had to do everything and take care of the kids. I worked as a babysitter only and she wanted me to do everything. She wanted five hours of cleaning every week' Photos of two bloodied knives were shown to jurors in court last week One knife used in the stabbing murders was found in the bathroom sink just inches from a pink child's toothbrush 'In some way they got between the knife and her body during the course of the violence,' the doctor added. It's unclear which of the children died first, but by the time paramedics arrived on the scene, it was clear they were both gone. Marina Krim realized something was wrong when she went to pick Lucia up from dance class and realized her daughter was not there. She then sent these frantic text messages to her nanny Later in court on Monday, NYPD Detective Jennifer O'Connell told the court about what she saw when she responded to the scene on October 25, 2012. She says she knew the children were dead as soon as she saw their bodies in a bathtub of the apartment, laying in a pool of blood. They were white as a sheet and their eyes were open and glassy. 'They were just staring at each other,' O'Connell said. 'Their eyes were opened, and it looked as if nothing was in there. They were staring at each other,' she added. O'Connell also spoke about how she comforted the children's mother, who came home from picking her younger daughter up from swim class to find her two eldest children dead. O'Connell said the mother convulsed and clutched her surviving daughter in the ambulance as they rushed the kids to the hospital. Ortega is trying to mount an insanity case, and has claimed she was 'touched by the devil' who made her commit the vicious crime. On Monday, her attorney asked the medical examiner if the children's injuries 'show the actions of someone who is just totally imploded, who doesn't have control?' 'I cant be inside someones mind,' Ely said. 'I can tell you what the body tells us. The body doesnt lie.' Photos of a bloodied knife wrapped in a towel in the hallway (top of image) and blood spattered on the floor and walls were among the images shown in court last week One bloodied knife was found wrapped in a towel in the hallway on top of a toy refrigerator Two kitchen knives were used in the stabbing attack. The images were taken inside the apartment roughly seven hours after mother Marina Krim found her children's bodies Ortega, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, refused to look and stared straight ahead when the photos taken inside the apartment were shown to the court If Ortega is found guilty, she faces the rest of her life behind bars. If she's found not guilty by reason of insanity, she could spent the rest of her life in a mental institution. Ortega's behavior during the trial certainly paints her as deranged - whether it's sincere or an act. Last week, when a retired NYPD detective testified about his interactions with Ortega after the crime, she started laughing in court. At other points in Francis Brennan's testimony, Ortega rolled her eyes and shook her head. She muttered something in Spanish while tightening her fist at another point. Earlier in the case, the court heard what Ortega first told police as she recovered in the hospital, using her statement to complain about the cleaning duties she'd been asked to perform in the Krim home. A still image from a surveillance camera at Beacon Hardware is seen. The defendant Yoselyn Ortega, 55, and the two children are in the lower left-hand corner, just hours before the attack. the Krim's other daughter, Nessie, is seen being pushed in a stroller. Nessie was not at home at the time of the attack Two days after the attack, shackled to a hospital bed and with a tube down her throat, she dictated statements to NYPD Sgt. Yoel Hidalgo, using an alphabet board. She said: 'I had to do everything and take care of the kids. I worked as a babysitter only and she wanted me to do everything. She wanted five hours of cleaning every week.' Ortega also said she didn't want to clean, 'because of soap'. Hidalgo told jurors she pointed to her pinky finger after making this statement. In the days before the killings, Marina said Ortega had shown her a bleach burn on her pinky finger. Marina went out and bought natural cleaning products, she testified in court last week. She also said she paid Ortega $100 extra per week for the five hours of cleaning. Kevin and Marina Krim, the parents of the children, recorded a video last month, shortly before Ortega went on trial. The couple asked that with their case coming up in the news again, that people promote the foundation they started in honor of their slain children, the Lulu and Leo Fund, which aims to support innovative art programs for children. Since the death of their two eldest children, the couple have gone on to have two more kids, Felix, born in 2013, and Linus, born in 2016. Advertisement Incredible images purporting to show the moment a Russian woman gave birth in the Red Sea in Egypt actually show the baby being bathed in the water several days after birth, the father has revealed. The baby girl's Russian mother and Serbian father had decided to bathe her in the ocean with the umbilical cord and placenta still attached because of the supposed health benefits. Onlookers in the resort town of Dahab captured the moment the father carried his days-old daughter from the water accompanied by a Russian doctor who was helping with her care. Images purporting to show the moment a baby was born in the Red Sea in Dahab, Egypt, actually show the moment the baby was bathed days after being born, the father has revealed Stunned onlookers captured the baby being carried from the waves by the father and a Russian doctor helping with her care, before being followed by the mother (pictured) Once back on shore the new mother was reunited with her newborn child and another of the couple's children in this touching family moment captured from a nearby balcony The older man is a well-known Russian doctor who specialises in water births. The mother had opted to deliver the baby in a pool, but this happened several days before these images were taken The mother follows close behind before the family are reunited on the beach in a touching scene. The doctor is a well-known Russian specialist in water births. The mother had opted to have her delivery in a birthing pool, but this happened inside a house before the images were taken. The incident happened in October 2014 but the pictures were first uploaded to social media this week, where they quickly went viral. Prominent Egyptian sportswoman Hadia Hosny El Said posted them to her Facebook page claiming they showed the woman giving birth in the ocean. The post has since been deleted. Before the post was deleted it had been shared more than 2,000 times and attracted thousands of comments. Commenters on social media praised the 'beauty' of the moment. The pictures were uploaded to Facebook by Egyptian sportswoman Hadia Hosny El Said who claimed to have taken them from her uncle's balcony and said the woman gave birth in the ocean. The post has since been deleted Social media users praised the beauty of the moment as the images were shared thousands of times online The incident took place in October 2014 but the images first appeared on social media this week before going viral Four Muslim MPs have been sent suspicious packages at Westminster and copies of a Punish a Muslim letter in the past 48 hours. Police said the parcels contained a low-level noxious substance and the letters advocated violence against Muslims. Rupa Huq, the Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, is the latest MP to have received the letter, which was condemned across the House. Four Muslim MPs have been sent suspicious packages at Westminster and copies of a Punish a Muslim letter in the past 48 hours. Manchester Gorton MP, Afzal Khan (left), became the latest to receive the letter after Labour MPs Rupa Huq (right), Rushanara Ali and Mohammad Yasin Fellow Labour MPs Rushanara Ali, for Bethnal Green and Bow, and Mohammad Yasin, for Bedford, were also sent letters. A fourth package was sent to the Manchester Gorton MP, Afzal Khan, but was not opened. A member of Huqs staff has been taken to hospital as a precaution after opening the letter, which the MP said contained a sticky substance that the police had described as low-level noxious. On Monday two people were taken to hospital, also as a precaution, when a package leaking a suspicious liquid was sent to Mr Yasins office. Police are investigating the letter, copies of which have been distributed across the country. It lists violent alongside the number of points for performing them. Tell Mama UK, which monitors anti-Muslim hate crimes, said it had received reports of people in Bradford, Leicester, London, Cardiff and Sheffield getting the letters. Ms Huq said she had been assured that the substance was not harmful. It is horrible though, its really very frightening, she told the Guardian. It is to put the frighteners on us but we wont be cowed. Im sure I wont be the last and Im sure this is part of a pattern of targeting Muslim MPs. Among my colleagues, people have shown support but they are outraged. Mr Khan issued a statement on Twitter, saying: My Parliamentary office was evacuated today due to a suspicious package. It was not opened and was later found to pose no risk. It is obviously worrying to be made to evacuate, but I am grateful that there was no danger posed to myself or my staff. Clearly this is part of a pattern of Islamophobic behaviour with the Punish a Muslim Day letters being sent to members of the public and to my fellow Muslim MPs. An ambulance is pictured at the Norman Shaw Buildings on the parliamentary estate, where police investigated reports of a suspicious package yesterday I stand in solidarity with them against this vile abuse which has no place in our society. The news came after Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi asked an urgent question in the Commons about the letter on Monday. Home Office minister Victoria Atkins said the Government had brought in new plans to tackle hate crime as well as investing millions of pounds to protect places of worship. All four suspicious letters sent to MPs have been found in the Norman Shaw north building in Westminster, which houses MPs offices and is linked by a walkway to Portcullis House. A parliamentary spokesman confirmed four packages had been sent to the building in recent days and said police were investigating the latest package. The red brick Norman Shaw buildings, where MPs have their offices, are next to Portcullis House on the banks of the River Thames This is further to the two items investigated yesterday, both of which were found to be non-harmful, the spokesman said. The police are investigating the content of the letters to identify any potential link. A Metropolitan police spokesman said: Police were called at 9.49am on Tuesday 13 March to reports of a suspicious package at Norman Shaw Buildings, Victoria Embankment, Westminster. Specialist officers have been called and the package will be assessed. The spokesman said there were no reported injuries and inquiries were continuing. Three police officers and five paramedics attended after Yasins staff reported the earlier package, and a man and a woman were taken to hospital as a precaution. The substance contained in it was deemed not to be hazardous to health, a Met police spokesman said on Monday. The incident, which was contained to one room, has been stood down. Downing Street said it was concerned by the reports. The prime minister is clear there is no space for racism, intimidation or extremism in the country or in parliament, so of course the reports are concerning, Theresa Mays spokesman said. The police are investigating this and its right we let them do so. Jaici Alfenas Rocha, 37, (pictured right) is alleged to have stabbed Karina Guimaraes Batista (left) to death at their home in Easton, Bristol, before concealing her body under some bedding on February 13 last year A man is accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend in the eye and heart after becoming convinced she was having an affair with with her brother-in-law, a court heard. Jaici Alfenas Rocha, 37, who is originally from Brazil, is alleged to have stabbed Karina Guimaraes Batista to death at their home in Easton, Bristol, before concealing her body under some bedding on February 13 last year. Rocha is said to have attacked common law wife Karina with such ferocity that he nearly severed her spinal cord, Bristol Crown Court was told. Bristol Crown Court heard that Rocha, a food delivery driver who also worked at a car wash, was convinced Karina, 40, was cheating on him with her sister's husband and even claimed to have a recording of her with the secret lover. The couple came to the UK in 2016, because Karina's sister already lived here, and moved into the rented property. But, the court heard, she soon became frightened of the defendant and moved out for period of time before returning to Rocha. The Bristol Post reports that on January 24 last year Rocha and Karina visited a doctor, where Rocha admitted he was paranoid and thought people wanted to harm him. Karina allegedly told the doctor Rocha had been aggressive to her, had been hearing voices, had a knife and she was afraid he would be violent. On January 24 last year Rocha and Karina visited a doctor, where Rocha admitted he was paranoid and thought people wanted to harm him. Karina told the doctor Rocha had been aggressive to her, had been hearing voices, had a knife and she was afraid he would be violent The doctor recorded there was a 'palpable tension' between the couple and, that day, made an urgent referral about Rocha to a mental health team for February 6, where he was assessed. Bristol Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of a night in February last year when Rocha was out on a motorcycle, heading home after food deliveries, followed by Karina driving a red Peugeot car. They drove down several roads before reaching their home, where Rocha launched the alleged attack. Karina was stabbed in her face and neck through the bedding on a mattress, the court heard, and her body was then concealed. Karina was allegedly stabbed in her face and neck through the bedding on a mattress, the court heard, and her body was concealed Paul Dunkels QC, prosecuting, said Rocha 'had no settled plan' after he attacked Karina and assured the jury that they would not see 'unsettling images' of the alleged murder victim. A black triangle blanked out the top half of Karina - who was lying on her back on a mattress on the floor - in a crime scene photo shown to the court. Blood can be seen on photos of the walls surrounding the mattress. Rocha then used Karina's phone to WhatsApp a relative in Brazil after the incident, writing 'Answer, it is urgent', the jury was told. The jury was also shown CCTV capturing Rocha's early morning car journey. He left the property at 1.47am and withdrew 250 from Karina's bank account, before driving off in her red Peugeot for several hours before attempting to visit a friend. The Bristol Post reports that shortly before 6.30am Rocha drove to a mental health facility, where he had previously had a mental health consultation, and remained in the car park for two hours. When he eventually walked into the health centre a nurse found him crying, shaking and foaming at the mouth, apparently saying in Portuguese 'Dead' and 'I have'. Police were alerted to the incident and visited his flat, where they found Karina's body. The trial continues. Sadiq Khan has read out some of the racist and abusive tweets he has received since being elected London Mayor to illustrate the need to clean up social media. In a major speech to the South by Southwest Conference in Texas, the Labour politician revealed he had been abused as a 'gay muzzie terrorist' and threatened with murder. Other more bizarre messages suggested Mr Khan 'looks like a pigeon' or a 's*** stunt double for Jose Mourinho'. Mr Khan said he did not want or need sympathy but demanded tougher action from social media giants - warning they must face stricter laws if they failed to act. The Mayor also accused politicians of a 'dereliction of duty' by failing to ensure the tech revolution has worked for everyone in society. Mr Khan warned Uber and other tech firms that all companies 'must play by the rules' in the markets in which they operate. Sadiq Khan (pictured last night at the South by Southwest Festival) read out some of the racist and abusive tweets he has received since being elected London Mayor to illustrate the need to clean up social media In a major speech (pictured) to the South by Southwest Conference in Texas, the Labour politician revealed he had been abused as a 'gay muzzie terrorist' and threatened with murder. The Labour mayor is the first British politician to give a keynote speech at South by Southwest. Most of the messages highlighted by Mr Khan are months old and were still visible on Twitter the day after his speech. Mr Khan read out the abuse and said: 'I could go on and on, but I won't. 'I don't read these out to be portrayed as a victim, or to ask for sympathy. 'But ask yourself this - what happens when young boys and girls from minority backgrounds see this kind of thing on their timelines or experience it themselves? 'Or someone thinking about becoming a politician? 'And what about young girls and women who are being driven from these platforms reversing our long fight for gender equality?' He also raised concerns over social media's role in influencing elections and referendums, spreading fake news and enabling extremists to radicalise and brainwash others. One of the Tweets read out by Mr Khan at SXSW included a claim Mr Khan was a traitor who should be put to death Another was a direct threat to kill Mr Khan and branding him a 'Muslim terrorist' Another abusive message described Mr Khan as a 'gay muzzie terrorist' 'Facebook, Twitter and other platforms are finally starting to react to the criticisms and are developing technology to make sure the reporting process becomes quicker and more effective,' he is expected to say. 'But with the skills and resources these companies have at their disposal, I believe it's possible to go further and faster.' If this does not happen, Mr Khan will say that more countries 'will start to follow or go further than what Germany has done'. Germany has recently introduced tough new laws so that social media companies face large fines if they fail to quickly remove things like hate speech. He said: 'There must be greater responsibility taken by some tech companies for the impact they're having on the world. 'And, crucially, no business or industry should ever consider itself above the local rules, or laws set by democratic processes. 'In London, we've been clear with Uber and other companies that everyone, no matter how big or small, must play by the rules. No exceptions. Facebook (run by Mark Zuckerberg, file image) has faced repeated demands to tighten up its rules and prevent abuse on its platform 'Our economies have always needed new regulations in place to meet the needs of workers and consumers when the environment changes. Evolving economies must mean evolving regulation, and today is no different.' Mr Khan accused politicians and governments of 'sitting on their hands while the tech revolution has happened around them'. He added: 'It must ultimately fall to government - working with tech businesses and leaders - to ensure that this revolution is not detrimental to our long-term progress. 'There's been a dereliction of duty on the part of politicians and policymakers to ensure that the rapid growth in technology is utilised and steered in a direction that benefits us all.' The police and MI5 will study allegations a string of deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia, Amber Rudd announced today. The revelation by the Home Secretary follows reports claiming that US intelligence sources suspect as many as 14 people may have been assassinated on British soil by Russia's security services or mafia groups. In each of the cases, including the deaths of prominent Putin critic Boris Berezovsky and whistle-blower Alexander Perepilichnyy, police investigations and inquests found no evidence of foul play. Amber Rudd (pictured in Downing Street yesterday) announced today that the police and MI5 will study allegations a string of deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia Former police chief Lord Blair - who led the Metropolitan Police at the time of the poisoning murder of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 - has called for the 14 cases to be reopened, while the cross-party House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has called for a review of decisions made by police. In a letter to the Committee, written on Saturday and released on Tuesday, Ms Rudd said: 'The Government was aware of these allegations, and takes seriously any suggestion that a foreign state has engaged in murder on UK soil. 'In the weeks to come, I will want to satisfy myself that the allegations are nothing more than that. 'The police and MI5 agree and will assist in that endeavour.' In an interview on Monday with the Evening Standard, Ms Rudd said only that it may be right to look again at 'one or two or three or four' of the cases. Welcoming Ms Rudd's letter, the chair of the Home Affairs Committee Yvette Cooper said: 'Given the gravity of these issues, it is... right that the authorities should reassure us that they have looked at any further allegations or relevant evidence put forward in any other cases. Boris Berezovsky is one of 14 men who died in Britain in circumstances considered suspicious and potentially linked to Russia 'As the Home Secretary has said in her letter, the Government must satisfy itself that the correct finding was reached in each case and the public need to know that relevant questions about wider Russia links have been investigated and answered.' Mr Berezovsky, a friend of Litvinenko and thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found hanged in the bathroom of his Berkshire home in 2013. Police said a post-mortem showed no sign of a violent struggle, and an inquest recorded an open verdict. Mr Perepilichnyy, who provided documents to prosecutors investigating alleged fraud by Russian officials, died while jogging in 2012. Police said at the time they had found no evidence he was poisoned. An inquest into his death resumes in April. The family of Danny McGrory, the Times journalist whose name is one of 14 on the list, said yesterday that claims that he was murdered in 2007 had no basis in fact and that he suffered a brain haemorrhage. The communications director for the Northern California Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has resigned amid complaints that he was being pressured to provide 'alternative facts' in relation to mass arrests last month of illegal immigrants. James Schwab told KTVU that he was scared making his decision, but had at the same time preserved his integrity. Schwab said that was told by ICE's 'Office of Public Affairs leadership' to parrot the Department of Homeland Security's account that an unspecified number of 'criminals' got away in the operation in part because Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned people in the area about the forthcoming raids. James Schwab, who has resigned as ICE spokesperson alleging he was being pressured to provide 'alternative facts' 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 last month said they had arrested are least 150 undocumented immigrants since the weekend in the San Francisco area (file picture, ICE officers) The operation began on February 25 and ended up netting 232 undocumented immigrants over the next several days across the northern part of the state. ICE agents said at the time that about half of those detained had criminal convictions for assault and battery, crimes against children, weapons charges and DUI. A top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying that he believed others were able to avoid being arrested because of Mayor Schaaf's warning. 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) Schwab said on Monday that while he may not agree with everything Mayor Schaaf did, he said the original ICE projections were to arrest far fewer than the 232 people agents eventually taken into custody. He alleged the agency never expected to arrest all the undocumented immigrants during the operation. And so, operation 'Keep Safe' was more successful than the agency had hoped, he argued. Mayor Schaaf said she at the time that 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. ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan responded by condemning 'sanctuary laws' in San Francisco and Oakland, which he argued had endangered 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 recently said he was contemplating a withdrawal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from the state, predicting that in turn could cause a crime wave. Mr 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'. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this month described the action by Mayor Schaaf as 'outrageous' in a press conference. The President himself became embroiled in the row last week, warning that the federal government is considering whether to take action against the Mayor for warning illegal immigrants in her city about impending federal immigration raids. Mr Trump also came down squarely on the side of Attorney General Jeff Sessions after he sued the state of California for harboring illegal immigrants with 'sanctuary city' policies. But Schwab said President Donald Trump was wring to argue that the agency would have netted 'close to 1,000 people' had it not been for the Mayor. When he told supervisors he was not comfortable 'perpetuating that narrative', Schwab said he was told by the Office of Public Affairs to repeat what was in a February 27 news release and defer questions to the Department of Justice. But he said he could not do that any more. Schwab added that while it was never his intention 'to out' any particular people in the agency, he felt he had to make a statement by quitting and 'do the right thing' in his mind. He argued that he never imagined he would be asked to do some of the things he has done when he took the job in August 2015 during the Obama administration, having previously worked as a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Army Reserve and as a spokesman for the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field for more than 15 years. Schwab also insisted that many individual ICE agents were good, honest, hardworking people who should not be blamed because they were carrying out orders from on high. His resignation comes when the war of words between the federal government and the city of Oakland over the illegal immigrant question shows no sign of abating. The head of ICE and Mr Sessions have both accused Schaaf of acting like 'a gang lookout', warning the 'bad guys' that police are coming and in so doing giving them time to escape. But the Mayor has has remained defiant over her decision to alert the community about the raid. She has emphasized that she deeply respects police, and 'never gave any specific locations that could have endangered law enforcement'. 'How can it be illegal to tell people what their rights are?' she asked. Schwab said at the time from San Francisco that among those on the run were Oakland residents with multiple prior removal orders. He said they included 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 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. Divorced mothers in Saudi Arabia have won the right to retain custody of their children in the kingdom's latest 'liberal' reform. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful heir to the Saudi throne, has pledged a 'moderate, open' country and is rolling out a number of social reforms. The latest move has seen a relaxing of strict rules that heavily favour male guardianship in the event of divorce. In the past, Saudi women were forced to launch lengthy court battles to win custody after a marriage breakdown. But the Saudi Justice Ministry has now told courts that, provided there is no dispute between parents, a mother is only required to apply for custodianship. Divorced mothers in Saudi Arabia have won the right to retain custody of their children in the kingdom's latest 'liberal' reform. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured), the powerful heir to the Saudi throne, has pledged a 'moderate, open' country But while the move also allows mothers to keep their offsprings' passports, the court memo stops short of giving women the ability to leave the kingdom with their children without first getting the greenlight from a judge. Prince Mohammed has been leading the drive to expand the role of women in recent months. His father, King Salman, in September approved the end of a decades-long ban on driving, which goes into effect in June. The 32-year-old prince called for a 'moderate, open' Saudi Arabia in October, breaking with ultra-conservative clerics in favour of an image catering to foreign investors and Saudi youth. Prince Mohammed is widely seen as the chief architect behind Saudi Arabia's 'Vision 2030' reform programme, which seeks to elevate the percentage of women in the work force from 22 percent to nearly one-third. In the past, Saudi women were forced to launch lengthy court battles to win custody after a marriage breakdown. But the Saudi Justice Ministry has now told courts that, if there is no dispute between parents, a mother is only required to apply for custodianship (file image) In February, it emerged that women in Saudi Arabia were now allowed to open their own businesses without the consent of a husband or male relative. The policy change marked a major step away from the strict guardianship system that has ruled the country for decades. Under Saudi Arabia's guardianship system, women are required to present proof of permission from a male 'guardian' - normally the husband, father or brother - to do any government paperwork, travel or enrol in classes. Long dependent on crude production for economic revenue, Saudi Arabia is pushing to expand the country's private sector, including an expansion of female employment under a reform plan for a post-oil era. While women still face a host of restrictions in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom, Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor's office this month said it would begin recruiting women investigators for the first time. The kingdom has also opened 140 positions for women at airports and border crossings, a historic first that the government said drew 107,000 female applicants. David Sorensen and Jessica Corbett at the Blaine House, the Maine governor's residence, on Thanksgiving Day Maine's Republican governor Paul LePage has revealed he is '100 per cent behind' a former White House speechwriter who resigned after being accused of domestic abuse. Gov LePage also offered to give David Sorensen his old job back in Maine after he stepped down from the Trump administration last month. Speaking to talk show host Howie Carr, he explained he 'never saw anything off-color' between Sorensen, once his policy adviser, and his ex-wife, Jessica Corbett. He added: 'I told him if he wants to come back, he's got a job.' Accusations made by Corbett, which were first reported in the Washington Post, include that he ran over her foot on purpose while driving his car and that he extinguished a burning cigarette on her hand. He was also accused of violently throwing her against a wall and subjecting her to emotional abuse. Gov LePage (pictured) also offered to give David Sorensen his old job back in Maine after he stepped down from the Trump administration last month Sorensen (pictured) strongly denied the allegations and said that, in reality, he was the 'victim of repeated physical violence during [the] marriage, not [Corbett]' Accusations made by Corbett (pictured), which were first reported in the Washington Post, include that he ran over her foot on purpose while driving his car and that he extinguished a burning cigarette on her hand She also told the Post that he once grasped her by her hair while they were alone on a boat off the coast of Maine and held her over the ledge, saying she feared for her life. Sorensen strongly denied the allegations and said that, in reality, he was the 'victim of repeated physical violence during [the] marriage, not [Corbett]'. LePage, who has previously spoken out against domestic abuse, said Sorensen turned down his offer of a job. He said Sorensen 'doesn't want to go backward' with his career by returning to an old position. In an email to the Portland Press Herald, Sorensen said he was thankful for LePage's backing. He added: 'The polygraph I took vindicates me and it says a lot that my accuser will not do the same in the face of all the skepticism her baseless allegations have received. 'She has offered no proof whatsoever. Gov LePage stands by his beliefs regardless of controversy and that is one of the many reasons why I am so proud to have worked for him.' It came after staff secretary Rob Porter (pictured with Hope Hicks), one of the president's closest aides, resigned last month following the publication of allegations that he'd abused his two ex-wives Corbett previously told the Washington Post that she informed the FBI about the abuse claims last fall as the agency was conducting a background check of Sorensen. Sorensen later said he stepped down because he 'didn't want the White House to have to deal with this distraction.' It came after staff secretary Rob Porter, one of the president's closest aides, resigned last month following the publication of allegations that he'd abused his two ex-wives. Corbett claims that during their short-lived marriage, Sorenson was repeatedly abusive both physically and emotionally. During the time of the alleged incidents, Sorenson was a top policy adviser to LePage. Sorensen said he had 'never committed violence of any kind against any woman in my entire life.' Corbett admits that several of the incidents involved alcohol and she had once struck Sorenson after he called a vulgar name. The speechwriter said that its regretful that details of his tumultuous marriage have become public, but hopes 'this incident is an opportunity to highlight the grossly underreported and unacknowledged issue of female-on-male domestic violence.' The British lawyer for a Russian oil firm and his pilot who died in a helicopter crash 14 years ago were murdered by Russians, a friend today claimed. Stephen Curtis, 45, and Max Radford were killed when their helicopter crashed near Bournemouth Airport in Dorset in March 2004. Mr Curtis was said to have had links with the late Boris Berezovsky, who was exiled in Britain after falling out with Vladimir Putin, and had received death threats and had his phones tapped before his death. Despite conspiracy theories surrounding the crash and a coroner stating the case had all the hallmarks of an 'espionage thriller', verdicts of accidental deaths were given at the two men's inquest. It was heard that pilot error was to blame. But John Hackney, a fellow pilot and friend of Mr Radford, has spoken out in the wake of the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Salisbury, to raise questions over the fatal crash. A helicopter crash killed lawyer Stephen Curtis, who worked for a Russian oil company Mr Curtis's death was not an accident and should be investigating, John Hackney has said. Mr Hackney is a friend of Mr Curtis's pilot, Max Radford, says the crash was not an accident Mr Hackney said he would welcome the case being investigated again and would do anything to clear Mr Radford's name. Mr Hackney, 81, said: 'Those of us who knew Max and knew aviation always felt he must have been shot down. We can't say for sure, but we suspected foul play. 'The day of the funeral we were all still talking about it and all of us said exactly the same thing - "this is not an accident". We all said to his dad "as long as we live we shall never ever believe this story".' Mr Curtis had been the managing director of the Menatep group which had a controlling stake in Yukos Oil. He had offices in London's Mayfair and lived with his wife Sarah and his then 13-year-old daughter Louise at a 19th century castle on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. A week before the fatal crash Curtis told a friend: 'If anything happens to me in the next few weeks, it will not be an accident.' Mr Curtis was an associate of Russian exile Boris Berezovsky (left), who was also found dead. Friends of pilot Max Radford (right) have questioned whether the crash was an accident Mr Curtis and Mr Radford were in this Augusta 109E when the crash unfolded in 2004 On the evening of March 3, 2004, he boarded his private Augusta A109E helicopter at Battersea Heliport being flown by Mr Radford. The weather on the flight to Bournemouth deteriorated and the helicopter came down on the approach to the airport. The official investigation by the AAIB (Air Accidents Investigation Branch) found no evidence of sabotage and stated Mr Radford must have become disorientated when the weather worsened. Mr Hackney, from Ringwood, Hampshire, said: 'I saw Max the morning of the accident. He had got this lovely new helicopter, it was a very nice piece of kit with all the latest navigational aids. 'He said he was going to pick up a guy in London and I set off on my day and then on the way back in the evening I heard about the accident. 'It was just unbelievable. Where it happened, he was only a mile away from the landing site, the weather was not that significant and he could see where he was going.' Multi-millionaire businessman Mr Curtis previously live at this lavish home on Portland, Dorset Mr Hackney added: 'He had done a lot of flying, he was very experienced and it was a trip he had done so many times. 'Those sort of helicopters don't go bang and just drop. The odds of it happening like that are so rare. 'That's the way Russia operates. In 2004 we weren't so aware of those kind of tactics as we are now. I still don't believe it was pilot error and I would welcome any re-investigation.' Sir Christopher Chope, the Conservative MP for Christchurch, Dorset, said he had always been sceptical about the conclusion of the case too. He said: 'I was always sceptical about the official verdict on it but looking at these things the best assassins are the ones who cover their tracks. 'Whether it could be the state or mafia groups or whoever, how can we prove it if you haven't got the evidence?' Yvette Cooper, chairman of the House of Commons home affairs select committee, has called for a review into 14 deaths where Russian involvement was suspected. Johnny Depp has headed back to court in his $25 million battle with his ex-business managers to demand a judge shut down subpoenas over a bank loan he secured, DailyMail.com can reveal. The actor, 54, filed a $25 million lawsuit against former business managers Joel and Robert Mandel at The Management Group (TMG) last year, after firing the brothers when his new team allegedly discovered financial misconduct by the brothers. TMG then accused Depp of living off borrowed funds to support his $2 million-a-month lifestyle and demanded he hand over his financial documents. On March 6, Depp filed a motion to void a subpoena ordered by TMG for business records relating to the trustee presiding over the actor's two trusts, Edward White at Edward White & Company (EWC). Johnny Depp, 54, filed a $25 million lawsuit against former business managers Joel and Robert Mandel at The Management Group (TMG) last year, after firing the brothers when his new team allegedly discovered financial misconduct by the brothers. On March 6, Depp filed a motion to void a subpoena ordered by TMG relating to a bank loan Depp secured TMG accused Depp of living off borrowed funds to support his $2 million-a-month lifestyle and demanded he hand over his financial documents. Pictured above, the Mandel brothers Depp claims in legal filings seen exclusively by DailyMail.com that TMG is attempting to get business records relating to White's private financial matters. Specifically, TMG is demanding information related to a loan White was able to secure for Depp, the actor says in legal filings. The actor said the group sought the information solely to 'speculate that (1) Mr. White shouldn't have been able to secure a loan for Depp from commercial bank because TWG could not do so two years earlier (2) Mr. White could and should somehow retroactively excuse TMG's conflicts of interest and failure to disclose those conflicts'. Depp claims that if those accusations were true - which he vehemently denies - there would still be no issues in the ongoing lawsuit. He says that the fact that White was able to secure a commercial loan has nothing to do with TMG's choice to obtain a high interest loan from a hard money lender two years prior. Depp argues that TMG cannot conduct an investigation into White's personal financial information to try to tarnish him. He describes TMG's behavior over this matter as 'sullenly acts like a poor sport, seemingly angry that Mr. White and EWC succeeded where they failed'. TMG seems to believe White was only able to obtain such a loan due to the bank being crooked or having a pre-existing relationship, the actor claims. Depp claims in legal filings seen exclusively by DailyMail.com that TMG is attempting to get business records relating to White's private financial matters Specifically, TMG is demanding information related to a loan White was able to secure for Depp, the actor says in legal filings Depp claims this is none of TMG's business and demanded the subpoenas fired off to Banc of California be shut down. The actor's court battle with TMG started after he accused the company of negligence and fraud for failing to pay his taxes on time - resulting in $5.6 million in tax penalties and interest - loaning out $10 million of his money to third parties without his permission and keeping sloppy financial records. A trial date for the case between Depp and TMG is set for August. In January, TMG asked that Depp hand over any documents for loans he has received that are more than $5,000, according to papers filed in a Los Angeles court last week. The organization claimed that the documents are relevant because Depp 'falsely alleges' TMG took out loans without his knowledge. They also claimed Depp lied when he said that he didn't know about the loans because he signed every loan he received while TMG was working for him. The firm claimed that Depp used the borrowed money to maintain his lifestyle, which consists of multiple homes, an $18 million luxury yacht, as well as dropping $30,000 a month on fancy wine and having a fleet of at least 45 luxury vehicles. Other costs included Depp's full-time staff of 40 employees, costing him $300,000 per month, $150,000 on 24/7 security for himself and his two children, a Gulfstream GV which sets him back $200,000 every month and the $4 million he put up to fund a friend's independent music label, Unison. TMG claimed that Depp used borrowed money to maintain his lifestyle, which consists of multiple homes, an $18 million luxury yacht, as well as dropping $30,000 a month on fancy wine and having a fleet of at least 45 luxury vehicles. Pictured: One of Depp's home in Los Angeles Depp refused the request that would reveal his financial position and claims the loan documents aren't relevant to the case. He insisted that if he had to take out loans it doesn't prove that he chooses to live an extravagant lifestyle as alleged, but rather he was forced into this situation due to TMG failing to properly manage his finances for 17 years. TMG believes the documents Depp won't fork over will prove he is living on borrowed money and could show the actor knowingly chooses to live in debt rather than reduce his over-the-top lifestyle. Previously, in December, Depp's lawyer said TMG has 'chosen to employ a reprehensible 'blame the victim' strategy in a transparent attempt to save their own skin and deflect away from their malfeasance.' The statement continued: 'Mr. Depp did not sue his former business managers for his own personal investment decisions or the 'financial distress' they wildly allege - Mr Depp sued them for fraud and multiple breaches of their fiduciary duty, among other claims. 'Gaslighting the public with global press releases will not save the defendants in court from their gross misconduct set forth in the complaint.' Depp filed his $25 million lawsuit after claiming he discovered that he had been a victim of 'gross misconduct at the hands of TMG' according to the original filing in January of last year. The actor claims he learned this shortly after he left TMG, who he had been with since just before his career took off in 1999, with the already A-list star becoming the highest-paid actor in the world following the success of the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise. Depp is also suffering fiscally from his divorce from Amber Heard last year, and was said to be facing selling his other LA properties in order to pay back his debts This alleged misconduct was detailed later in the complaint, and included the more than $28 million in contingency fees TMG paid itself without any written agreement from Depp; a $5.6 million fine that the actor incurred when TMG failed to file his federal taxes on time; and a $10 million loan made by TMG to a third party using their client's money without his consent. The Mandel brothers have said in court papers that 'Depp, and Depp alone, is fully responsible for any financial turmoil he finds himself in today.' Meanwhile, Depp has been unloading some of his properties, as reports say he is $40 million in debt. In November, he sold the final unit of his five penthouses for $1.425 million, having originally listed all five as one listing of $12.78 million. In the end, the five units - which totaled a combined 11,500 square feet of space - were each sold separately, bringing in $10.88 million, around $2 million under the collective asking price. Depp is also suffering fiscally from his divorce from Amber Heard last year, and was said to be facing selling his other LA properties in order to pay back his debts. After a convoluted and bitter battle, the couple settled on $7 million which Amber donated to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the American Civil Liberties Union. Despite getting rid of the five LA apartments, Depp is now set to lose a further five of his other homes as his former business managers at TMG attempt to have the actor repay the massive loan owed to them. The Management Group filed in November to force a sale of Johnny's properties - all of which are in Los Angeles - in order to cover the $5 million loan TMG says it gave the actor in December 2012. One of the men accused of murdering a Hofstra graduate after a night of drug-fueled partying has described in gory detail how it was his friend, the adopted son of the 'jeweler to the stars' and not him who is guilty of the killing. Lawrence Dilione, 29, told a court in New York on Monday that it was his friend James Rackover who stabbed 26-year-old Joseph Comunale at his Upper East Side apartment in November 2016. Rackover, 26, is closely linked to celebrity jeweler Jeffrey Rackover. He has been described both as his lover and as an adopted son. He and Dilione are both accused of murdering Comunale over an argument over cigarettes at Rackover's home. The young man's body was found in a shallow grave in New Jersey three days after the night of partying. He had been strangled, stabbed and beaten. Lawrence Dilione, 29, (seen in court in October) described on Monday how his friend James Rackover allegedly stabbed and strangled Joseph Comunale after a night of drinking and drugs in November 2016 Claiming that he was responsible only for punching the young man, Dilione calmly described on Monday how he allegedly watched Rackover stab him once the fight got out of hand. 'I turned around and thats when I saw the knife being pulled out of Joeys head,' he said. Dilione gave the harrowing statements at a pretrial suppression hearing on Monday which was attended by The New York Post. The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether or not Dilione's testimony should be admissible at a trial. It was not the first time he has made the statements. In 2016, after being arrested, he gave a similar account to the police. His attorney is fighting to have it thrown out, claiming that he gave the statement without an attorney present despite asking for one. He has also said that none of what any of the men say should be trusted entirely because they all had been drinking and taking drugs on the night of the murder. James Rackover is the surrogate son and rumored lover of celebrity jeweler Jeffrey Rackover (pictured together before the grisly murder in October 2016) Dilione claims it was James Rackover (left in court in October) who killed Joseph Comunale (right), 26, by strangling and stabbing him Dilione and Rackover (pictured together) are both charged with murder and both blame the killing on each other Dilione, Comunale and Rackover had returned to Rackover's apartment after partying at the Highline Ballroom where they and three others consumed two large bottles of vodka and cocaine. They went to another bar afterwards then all trooped back to Rackover's home with Max Gemma, a friend of Dilione who grew up with him in New Jersey. James is bringing the cocaine, I've got cigarettes. What the f*** are you bringing to the table? What victim Joseph Comunale allegedly said to spark fight Dilione claimed that the fight started when Comunale accused him of taking free alcohol and drugs from him and Rackover without paying his way. He allegedly said: 'James is bringing cocaine, Ive got cigarettes, what the f*** are you bringing to the table.' Furious, he lunged at him and began beating him, he said. The beating, he said, was so severe that Comunale started struggling to breathe. That is when Rackover allegedly decided to stab him to 'get rid' of him. 'He was having trouble breathing. [James] said, "We're gonna go to jail for a long time, we gotta get rid of him." 'I said, "Ill take the blame," but he said "Look at my hands," and they were covered in blood. At that point [Rackover] started to strangle him,' he said. Dilione claims he took off his jeans and this was what the host used to strangle the victim. The men were at James Rackover's fourth floor apartment in this Upper East Side building which is where the killing took place. After stabbing and strangling him, Rackover allegedly ordered for his surrogate father's Mercedes to be brought round to the front of the building. Dilione claims he then tossed Comunale's wrapped-up corpse out a window onto the sidewalk and the pair then bundled him into the trunk to drive it to New Jersey 'We were ordered (by James) to take off our clothes, and my pair of jeans was used for strangling Joey,' he said. He did not say what killed the man - whether it was the beating or the strangulation. By this point, he had however lost consciousness, he said. 'I guess maybe James realized he could dismember the body. He started to try and sever (Joey's) arm, but he couldnt get through the bone, and he got angry and started stabbing the body multiple times,' he said. As he stabbed him, he said Rackover shouted the word 'motherf*****' repeatedly. Dilione alleged that Rackover tried to sever the victim's arm but got the knife stuck on his shoulder and became frustrated. He says that before plunging the knife into him, he yelled: 'This is what you get for f****** with my boy.' Comunale, 26, was found buried in a shallow grave behind a florist in Oceanpoint, New Jersey, days later. Police say Dilione led them to his body but his attorney wants everything he told them to be thrown out because he did not have a lawyer present Max Gemma was also allegedly there and is accused of helping the men clean up after the murder. He denies the charges Dilione claimed that Max Gemma, another man who had been out with them and had been sleeping in the apartment as the killing went on, was then told to leave. Star jeweler Jeffrey Rackover has denied having any involvement in the killing He was charged with helping the two accused murderers cover up the killing, a charge he denies. With Gemma out of the apartment building, Dilione says he and Rackover discussed where they would dump Comunale's body. They at first planned to dispose of it somewhere in Brooklyn, he said, but decided against it and instead chose an area of New Jersey where Dilione had grown up, he said. Rackover, he claimed, called down to the doorman in the luxury building to have Jeffrey Rackover's Mercedes brought around to the front door. Once it had been, Dilione claimed he drove it to beneath the window of his fourth floor apartment. He then tossed the corpse - which they had by this point wrapped - onto the sidewalk. The fall is what shattered Comunale's pelvis. Dilione claims that he and Rackover then pushed it into the trunk of the Mercedes and drove it out to New Jersey where they dumped it. A teenager is still fighting for life after being stabbed in a violent attack by a gang of teenagers at McDonald's. Photos reveal the bloodied body of 17-year-old Hamish who was violently stabbed before being rushed to hospital by a neighbour who thought the teenager was going to die. Hamish was at the fast food franchise in Perth's south when he and his friends were brutally attacked by two armed teenagers claiming to be '6169 gang members' - the postcode of Rockingham. 'They were threatening saying "6169 we're coming for your family, we're going to slice their jugulars", chasing these young boys,' a witness told 9 News. A teenager is fighting for life after being stabbed (pictured) in a violent attack by a gang of men at McDonald's in Perth's south Monday night Hamish, 17, was with his friends when they were attacked by two armed teenagers who chased them for almost a kilometre before stabbing him five times (pictured) Hamish and his friends - all aged between 16 and 18-years-old - were violently attacked by the duo, who claimed to be from a gang from about 48km south of Perth. The teenagers were chased almost a kilometre down the road from McDonald's before Hamish was stabbed five times at about 10pm Monday, Perth Now reported. The life-threatening brawl reportedly unraveled when the 17-year-old and his friends attempted to stop the violent duo from smashing a windscreen of a nearby car with a brick. Hamish suffered stab wounds to his ribs, chest, neck and stomach before he was able to make it to a neighbour's house crying for help. The neighbours were faced with the thugs, forcing the violent duo off Hamish before they rushed the 17-year-old to hospital. 'I'm driving this boy to the hospital thinking "I'm going to lose him" because his wounds were so serious,' the neighbour told reporters. Hamish cried for help from his neighbours, who fought of the duo before rushing him to hospital thinking they were 'going to lose him' The teenager is in a serious condition at Perth Hospital. One of the friends, also 17-years-old, was taken to Rockingham Hospital with non life-threatening stab wounds to his legs. The two alleged attackers were also taken to hospital where one has since been discharged while the other remains in a stable condition. Western Australia Police have not yet laid charges. Donald Trump's eldest son became the good-natured target of a viral Twitter meme on Monday after stumping for a Republican congressional candidate at a Pennsylvania candy factory. A picture captured by a Pittsburgh news photographer shows a trio of chocolate bunnies in the foreground and Donald Trump Jr. in the background, being interviewed by a TV reporter. But the angle of the photo makes the treats look massive and puts the interviewer's arm in the perfect position to appear like part of one rabbit. The result: a chocolate Easter bunny 'interviewing' the outspoken member of the first family. 'This is the danger of campaigning at a candy factory,' photojournalist Andrew Rush tweeted after capturing this shot of Donald Trump Jr. in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania on Monday Donald Trump Jr. laughed on Twitter at the photo of a chocolate bunny 'interviewing him' The president's eldest son said the confectionery bunny was a 'more credible' source of journalism than CNN Don Jr. poked fun at himself as the meme gathered steam. 'The chocolate rabbit gave a hard hitting interview and was delicious afterwards,' he tweeted. On 'Fox & Friends' Tuesday morning, he turned the goofy moment into a commentary on the political reporters his father loves to hate. 'Much more credible than many of the news outlets out there,' he declared of the edible hare. 'And when they asked me a tough question I just ate it. It was great.' He pronounced the moment 'pretty classic, but again, still more credible than CNN.' Political Twitter lit up as the photo made the rounds. 'In the next photo, Putin eats his way out of the Trojan bunny,' jabbed BusinessWeek writer Ashlee Vance. Political Twitter lit up on Monday after the bunny photo made the rounds National Review Online writer Dan McLaughlin captioned it: 'Don't bite my head off, I'm just asking a question.' And New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff turned it into a commentary on a controversial meeting Don Jr. took with a Russian lawyer in 2016 to collect opposition research on Hillary Clinton. He described the scene as 'when you definitely didn't take a meeting to dig up dirt on Marshmallow Peeps.' Trump Jr. joined Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone for the factory tour ahead of Tuesday's special election. The president's son and Trump Organization executive donned a hairnet as he was shown how chocolate handcuffs are made at Sarris Candies during a campaign stop in Canonsburg. He and Saccone were given a tour of the business by retail operations manager Norm Candelore and spoke to workers while being shown the various candies. Polls opened Tuesday morning in Pennsylvania for the high profile special congressional race being watched for clues about November's midterm elections. The president's son and Trump Organization executive donned a hairnet as he was shown how chocolate handcuffs are made at Sarris Candies during a campaign stop in Canonsburg yesterday Trump and Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone (right) were given a tour of the business by retail operations manager Norm Candelore and spoke to workers while being shown the various candies Saccone is running against Democrat Conor Lamb in Tuesday's special election for the Pennsylvania 18th Congressional District seat vacated by Republican Tim Murphy Republican Saccone is trying to stave off an upset by Democrat Conor Lamb in a Pittsburgh-area district that backed President Donald Trump by 20 percentage points in 2016. Democrat Conor Lamb, a 33-year-old Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor, is in a dead heat with Republican state Representative Rick Saccone in Tuesday's special election for an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives that Republicans have held since 2003. The race is seen as a referendum on Trump and a harbinger for November's congressional midterm elections, according to pollsters and party insiders who say the moderate Democrat could emerge as a model for Democratic candidates in other competitive House districts that Trump carried in 2016. 'The Democrats have nominated the ideal candidate, because he fits the profile of the electorate. If they'd nominated a liberal who allowed the campaign to become nationalized, it would be over by now,' said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin and Marshall College Poll in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. An army of potential reporters faced off with Don Jr. showing at last their tiny size Sarris Candies markets itself as 'the world's best chocolate' and its showroom is a wonderland of sugar 'If he wins, or even if he just comes close, he is a model for Democrats in competitive Trump districts nationally.' Republican dominance has been so strong here that Democrats ran no candidates in the last two U.S. House elections, even though state voter registration records show Democrats outnumbering Republicans. But the dynamics have changed in the district, which runs from wealthy suburbs south of Pittsburgh through hardscrabble steel and coal mining towns to farmlands along the West Virginia border. Saccone, 60, a conservative who has described himself as 'Trump before Trump was Trump,' led the race by more than 10 percentage points in January. The contest has since narrowed to a toss-up on a wave of Democratic voter enthusiasm for Lamb. A Monmouth University poll on Monday showed Lamb ahead. Bob Zelleznick, 59, of Bethel Park, said he intends to vote for Lamb and hopes for a Democratic win that would make the White House sit up and take notice. 'This is important because I think it will send a message to Washington: a lot of people are unhappy with the administration,a Zelleznick said. Trump and Saccone greeted a young girl who was letting her sweet tooth run wild Saccone, left, was training his Democratic rival in a poll released Monday, despite running in a district that favored Donald Trump in 2016 by 20 percentage points The White House has arranged a string of visits to energize Saccone's base. Trump himself has visited twice. The area has also seen Vice President Mike Pence, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, and on the eve of Election Day, Don Jr. 'When President Trump's in your corner, how can you lose?' Saccone told supporters at a weekend rally with the president. A college professor and former Air Force counterintelligence officer, Saccone won an endorsement from the influential Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper, which praised his greater experience and knowledge of the district. As Easter Sunday approaches, Sarris Candies was operating at full steam when Trump and Saccone dropped by Saccone has not had much luck running on the Republican national agenda, failing to leverage Trump's tax cuts into a winning local issue 'He supports small business owners and would do anything for you to make sure that your business is successful,' said Stephanie Squibb, 48, of Elizabeth, who owns a local printing company. But Saccone has not had much luck running on the Republican national agenda. Tax cuts, the Republican Party's only major achievement under Trump, have done little to energize local voters, some of whom dismiss the sweeping tax overhaul as a giveaway to the wealthy. Republicans see the president's plans to impose steel and aluminum import tariffs as a way to generate enough enthusiasm among Trump's blue-collar supporters to counteract the energy of Lamb's backers. 'They're hoping this is something that potentially, in the grand calculus, could throw Saccone over the top,' said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell. Advertisement Britain's beauty spots are being ruined by too many memorial benches which make them look like 'graveyards', a National Trust chief has warned. Charles Alluto, who heads the charity on Jersey, said his favourite headland on the island is blighted by 16 seats installed by relatives of the deceased. He said the situation at St Brelade's Bay and other beauty spots including Le Hocq, Green Island and Archirondel is a 'great pity'. Similar complaints have been reported across the UK and Jersey's Infrastructure Department now says it will refuse permission for any more in some areas. Charles Alluto, who heads the National Trust on Jersey, has said Britain's beauty spots are being ruined by too many memorial benches (Pictured: Memorial benches on the coast near Le Hocq, Jersey) He said the situation at St Brelade's Bay and other beauty spots including Le Hocq, Green Island and Archirondel is a 'great pity' (Pictured: Memorial benches on the coast near Le Hocq, Jersey) Mr Alluto, 52, said a 'consistent policy' is required to prevent some areas become a 'graveyard'. He added: 'It's having an adverse impact on an area of natural beauty' (Pictured: Memorial benches on the coast near Le Hocq, Jersey) His thoughts have been echoed by St Martin Constable Michel Le Troquer, who said that no new benches would be allowed at St Martin's Village Green (Pictured: Memorial benches on the coast near St Brelade's Bay, Jersey) Mr Alluto, 52, said a 'consistent policy' is required to prevent some areas become a 'graveyard'. 'It's having an adverse impact on an area of natural beauty,' he said. 'The benches are put in places where people enjoyed that natural beauty but you're undermining the place they actually enjoyed. 'In Jersey we have lots of different agencies and I think you need a consistent policy across the island, and I think you need a specific time span for them to exist. 'We only have a certain amount of land to play with, that's why it's become such an issue here on Jersey. We're all going to die one day, and that's not going to stop. 'You'll have this perpetual requirement for more memorial benches and it's a matter of how you deal with that in a sustainable way.' His thoughts have been echoed by St Martin Constable Michel Le Troquer, who said that no new benches would be allowed at St Martin's Village Green. He said: 'I agree with many of the comments being made. I understand there are a lot of donations down at Archirondel, but it is not parish land and we do not give permission for benches to be put there. Mr Alluto added that the benches often become 'too personal' and sitting on them would be like 'standing on someone's grave' (pictured: Le Hocq, Jersey) Mr Le Troquer suggested that planting trees may be a more suitable alternative. He added: 'A lady recently donated a willow tree for a very damp area of land at the back of the parish green which is really nice. We do not want a forest there but there might be space for some more' (pictured: Le Hocq, Jersey) Mr Alluto added: 'We're all going to die one day, and that's not going to stop. You'll have this perpetual requirement for more memorial benches and it's a matter of how you deal with that in a sustainable way' (Pictured: St Brelade's Bay, Jersey) 'I am delighted to accept donations of benches for the parish green but I think we have now reached a limit.' Mr Le Troquer suggested that planting trees may be a more suitable alternative. 'A lady recently donated a willow tree for a very damp area of land at the back of the parish green which is really nice,' he said. 'We do not want a forest there but there might be space for some more. One of the main issues is that when people want to leave flowers and cards strapped to benches, it can make it rather awkward for the people wanting to use them.' Mr Alluto, the CEO of National Trust for Jersey for 18 years, added: 'I think the situation at Archirondel is a great pity - there is a danger that beautiful coastal spots could become memorial areas. 'When people put memorial benches somewhere, they put them in a place where that person liked to go to. 'If there are too many we run the risk of undermining that concept and changing the character of the area. 'There needs to be consistency and a policy where memorial benches have a limited lifespan. It is absolutely crucial that they do not become graveyards. Martin Gautier, director of technical services for the Infrastructure Department on Jersey, said he thought that too many benches had been installed (pictured: Le Hocq, Jersey) The department will now refuse any more at some beauty spots but the island has stopped short of a blanket ban (pictured: Le Hocq, Jersey) He said: 'We get frequent, probably weekly requests, to put memorial benches on public land. It is quite a difficult situation as we have to try to balance the wishes of a bereaved relative with having a sensible approach' (Pictured: St Brelade's Bay, Jersey) He added: 'I personally feel that there are slightly too many. In St Brelade's Bay there are about 16 in front of the L'Horizon' (pictured: Le Hocq, Jersey) 'What can be easily forgotten is that these are benches for people to sit on but often you do not want to sit on them because they become too personal... It is like standing on someone's grave.' Martin Gautier, director of technical services for the Infrastructure Department on Jersey, said he thought that too many benches had been installed. The department will now refuse any more at some beauty spots but the island has stopped short of a blanket ban. He said: 'We get frequent, probably weekly requests, to put memorial benches on public land. 'It is quite a difficult situation as we have to try to balance the wishes of a bereaved relative with having a sensible approach. 'I personally feel that there are slightly too many. In St Brelade's Bay there are about 16 in front of the L'Horizon. 'I visited Green Island this week with the [Infrastructure] Minister and we agreed that there are too many but we are where we are.' The National Trust does not have a UK-wide policy on memorial benches, with the issue decided at a regional or property level. In many sites relatives are encouraged to plants trees instead of leaving benches. The National Trust does not have a UK-wide policy on memorial benches, with the issue decided at a regional or property level (pictured: famous viewpoint in Whitby where there are a number of memorial benches) Elsewhere in the UK, Bradford introduced restrictions on benches in July 2015 and problems have been reported in Tyne and Wear and West Yorkshire (pictured: the coastal path in South Shields in County Durham) Elsewhere in the UK, Bradford introduced restrictions on benches in July 2015 and problems have been reported in Tyne and Wear and West Yorkshire. In Bradford, the policy restricts the number of benches which can be installed at certain locations, to retain their natural appearance. A spokesman for Bradford Council said: 'Following a public consultation, the council introduced a district-wide policy relating to the installation of new memorials, and the management of unauthorised memorials at council-owned countryside, parks and woodland sites. 'New memorial benches are permitted in some areas subject to consultation with relevant people, such as 'friends of' organisations at some of our local parks. 'This policy received a great deal of public support during the consultation and we believe that it is working well.' In Scotland South Lanarkshire council previously banned commemorative benches from its parks and open spaces after complaints that they were too depressing. Rex Tillerson bid farewell to the State Department on Tuesday, revealing that President Donald Trump had not told him he was out of a job until three hours after publicly firing him in a tweet heard 'round the world. And in a statement to reporters, Tillerson pointedly neglected to thank Trump for the opportunity to serve in the role once inhabited by Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Webster and Henry Kissinger. Instead he thanked 'the 300-plus million Americans' whom he ultimately served, and said he would soon thank his front-office and policy planning staff in person. He said shortly after 2:00 p.m. that he had talked with Trump around lunchtime. The president's unexpected tweet came before 9:00 a.m. 'I received a call today from the President of the United States a little after noontime from Air Force One,' he said. 'I've also spoken to White House Chief of Staff Kelly to ensure we have clarity as to the days ahead.' The shaken-sounding outgoing cabinet secretary explained that his official ending date will be March 31, and that he aims for an 'orderly and smooth transition' for his replacement, CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan will assume Tillerson's duties at midnight. But Tillerson said his official 'commission' his grant of authority from the president wouldn't expire until the end of the month. Trump effectively fired Tillerson on Tuesday without telling him personally, announcing on Twitter that he would dismiss him and elevate the nation's spymaster to the role of global diplomat-in-chief. And he said he will appoint a woman to lead the CIA for the first time in history. Quitting: Rex Tillerosn issued a statement at the State Department telling how it had been hours between his firing on Twitter and Trump speaking to him Final act: Tillerson said he will return to 'private life' after 14 months of turbulent leadership of the State Department and refused to take questions as he left the podium Rex Tillerson is pictured leaving his home on Tuesday, en route to the State Department for what would be his last act as secretary of state This is on me: Trump used twitter to terminate the career of Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil boss who had been secretary of state for 15 months. An official revealed the president did not speak to Tillerson You're fired: Rex Tillerson was abruptly fired by Donald Trump on Tuesday morning in a single tweet Replacement: Mike Pompeo, who had been CIA director, will now lead the State Department and Gina Haspel, a career CIA officer who was its deputy director will become the first woman to lead it Family: Rex Tillerson had stepped down as CEO of Exxon Mobil when he was offered the job by Trump. His wife Renda St. Clair persuaded him to take it saying: 'I told you God's not through with you.' YOU'RE ALL FIRED! DONALD TRUMP'S ASTONISHING LIST OF SENIOR DEPARTURES Who went and when: March 13, 2018: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson March 12, 2018: Special Assistant and personal aide to the president John McEntee March 6, 2018: Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Gary Cohn Feb. 28, 2018: Communications Director Hope Hicks Feb. 27, 2018: Deputy Communications Director Josh Raffel Feb. 7, 2018: Staff Secretary Rob Porter Dec. 13, 2017: Communications Director for the White House Office of Public Liaison Omarosa Manigault Newman Dec. 8, 2017: Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell Sept. 29, 2017: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price Aug. 25, 2017: National security aide Sebastian Gorka Aug. 18, 2017: Chief strategist Steve Bannon July 31, 2017: Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci July 28, 2017: Chief of Staff Reince Priebus July 21, 2017: Press secretary Sean Spicer May 30, 2017: Communications Director Michael Dubke May 9, 2017: FBI Director James Comey March 30, 2017: Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh Feb. 13, 2017: National Security Adviser Michael Flynn Advertisement Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steven Goldstein said in a statement that Tillerson had 'had every intention of staying.' 'The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve,' Goldstein added. He was later fired himself for departing from the official White House line which was that Trump had told Tillerson on Friday that he would be leaving. Tillerson's last public act had been firmly blaming Russia for the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter which the White House had pointedly avoided saying was carried out by Vladimir Putin's government. As he left the White House for a trip to California, Trump told reporters that he and Tillerson had been 'talking about this for a long time' but that he 'made the decision by myself.' 'We disagreed on things,' Trump said, citing the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran. 'I think Rex will be much happier now,' he declared. 'We were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well.' Trump made no mention of the most notorious tussle between him and Tillerson, when the secretary of state was reported to have called the president a 'f***ing moron' then refused to deny it. The State Department said Tillerson only learned of his termination when he read Trump's tweet on Tuesday morning. Two senior department officials said Tillerson received a call from John Kelly, Trump's chief of staff, on Friday, but was only told that there might be a presidential tweet that would concern him. Kelly didn't tell Tillerson what the tweet might say or when it might actually publish, according to the official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity. Tillerson had told reporters on his plane he had cut short his trip by one night because he was exhausted after working most of the night two nights in a row and getting sick in Ethiopia. There were no obvious signs from his behavior or his aides on the plane that his departure was imminent. 'I felt like, look, I just need to get back,' Tillerson said. Instead he was fired and left to spend time with his wife, Renda St. Clair, who had told him to take the job when he was reluctant to himself. He had revealed last year how when Trump offered him the role 'I was going to the ranch to be with my grandkids.' Instead his wife shook her finger in his face and told him: 'I told you God's not through with you.' But by last week Trump was through with Tillerson instead. One senior White House official said that when Trump made the dramatic and sudden decision last Friday to meet with Kim Jong Un - a decision made while Tillerson was in Africa - an aide asked if Tillerson should weigh in on the matter. 'JUST EAT THE SALAD, REX': HOW CHINESE MEAL SHOWED FROSTY RELATIONS Rex Tillerson and Donald Trump shared a tense moment in China last November which shed light on their troubled relationship, the Wall Street Journal reported. They and other U.S. officials were in the Great Hall of the People and having a meal in a private room courtesy of their Chinese hosts. But an unappetizing Caesar salad which arrived with wilted greens was sitting on the table - and Trump grew worried it would offend the hosts. 'Rex, eat the salad,' Trump told Tillerson. Tillerson laughed off the remark but did not follow orders and left the salad untouched. Advertisement Trump said there was no reason to consult him because no matter what the group decided, Tillerson would be against it, the official said. On the White House lawn Trump gushed that his future secretary Mike Pompeo has 'tremendous energy, tremendous intellect, we're always on the same wavelength. The relationship has been very good.' The president had tweeted earlier that Pompeo 'will do a fantastic job!' 'Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!' Haspel was the CIA's deputy director, a career officer who was a longtime clandestine officer. She was involved in running a black site during the notorious CIA detention program which saw prisoners waterboarded, and could face a highly rocky confirmation hearing in front of the Senate. Haspel, 61, was the boss of a prison in Thailand codenamed Cat's Eye where al Qaeda suspects were held., including Abu Zubatdah, who was waterboarded 83 times in a month, sleep deprived and lost his left eye. She also ordered the destruction of tapes from the facility and when she was appointed deputy CIA director, Democratic senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee urged Trump to reconsider his decision, setting up a confrontational confirmation hearing. Victim: Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in a pizza restaurant in Salisbury, in south-west England and Rex Tillerson publicly blamed Vladimir Putin's Russia for the attack on Monday, something the White House had pointedly not done Key figure: Trump repeatedly crossed swords with Rex Tillerson, including a public episode in October where the president chided him on Twitter for 'wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man' a reference to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un - which Trump is now going to do face-to-face In a statement, Trump said Pompeo 'graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle.' He called Haspel's move to the CIA's reins 'a historic milestone.' Trump also had words of praise for Tillerson: 'A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well,' he said. The president, however, had clashed with Tillerson over and over again in the past year, seeing him as a relic of the Republican establishment at a time when the nation needed more unconventional thinking. The Washington Post reported that Tillerson was ousted on Friday, suggesting that a White House known best for leaking information kept it a secret all weekend. The outgoing diplomat's last act in office was a shot across Vladimir Putin's bow, saying Monday that the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in the UK 'clearly came from Russia' and vowing to respond hours after the White House refused to blame the Kremlin. In a strongly worded statement, he slammed Russia as an 'irresponsible force of instability in the world' and gave the British government his backing after Prime Minister Theresa May pointed her own finger toward Moscow. 'We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week,' Tillerson said Monday. Final meeting: Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari was the last world leader to receive Tillerson as he wrapped up a swing through Africa Goodbye: Rex Tillerson was last seen on Monday boarding his plane home to the United States after a tour of Africa which concluded in Abuja, Nigeria, after taking in countries including Ethiopia and Kenya Downhill from here: Rex Tillerson was sworn in by Mike Pence in the Oval Office on February 1 2017, with his wife Renda St. Clair holding the Bible. She had told him to take the job over his own reluctance Family time: There was no sign of Rex Tillerson at hiss home in D.C.'s upscale Kalorama Tuesday. Also fired was Steven Goldstein, under secretary of state for public affairs who revealed Tillerson had been blindsided by his firing - then got axed himself Simulation: Some of the 'enhanced interrogation techniques' used at the CIA 'black site' run by Trump's pick to direct it were shown on Zero Dark Thirty, the movie about the hunt for bin Laden 'There is never a justification for this type of attack, the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation, and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. 'Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens.' He added that those responsible 'must face appropriately serious consequences.' Trump seemed to back him up on Tuesday, saying that he would be speaking with May later in the day. 'It sounds to me like it would be Russia,' he said, 'based on all of the evidence that they have.' Tillerson made the remarks during his trip to Africa just hours after the the White House broke a week-long silence to condemn the chemical attack, but declined to mention Moscow.' Trump had repeatedly crossed swords with the former Exxon Mobil executive, including a public episode in October where the president chided him on Twitter for 'wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man' a reference to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. Foreign policy veterans said at the time that they couldn't recall an instance where a sitting president had undermined his secretary of state in such a humiliating fashion. Lost an eye: Abu Zubaydah was one of those subjected to 'enhanced interrogation techniques' which critics called torture. He was waterboarded 83 times and lost an eye But five months later the president himself accepted Kim's invitation for a face-to-face meeting over the hermit kingdom's nuclear missile program. Tillerson raised eyebrows in Washington last year with reports about his 'f***ing moron' verdict following a national security meeting in July about America's nuclear posture. He never directly denied making the caustic remark, leaving that to a State Department spokeswoman. Trump said the same day that he had 'total confidence in Rex.' Later that month, newly installed White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis begged Tillerson to stay on. The following month, after Trump angered Americans on both sides of the aisle with tone-deaf comments about the role of neo-Nazis in a Virginia race riot, a furious Tillerson declined to defend him. 'The president speaks for himself,' Tillerson said at the time during a 'Fox News Sunday' interview. Even then, the White House outwardly professed comfort with Tillerson and confidence in his abilities. Tillerson took credit Tuesday for executing Trump's 'maximum pressure campaign' against North Korea, a policy credited for bringing Kim to the table for direct nuclear negotiations. Haspel will need to face a Senate confirmation hearing. Pompeo will not at least not right away because the Senate confirmed him as the CIA director just three days into the Trump administration. A different committee will ultimately have to grill him, however. Trump said that his incoming secretary of state 'has earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community.' 'I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture,' he added. 'He will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.' A British Army soldier who became a member of a banned neo-Nazi group intended to stockpile a large number of weapons in preparation for a race war, a court heard today. Lance Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen, 33, is accused of belonging to National Action and being 'personally committed to the use of violence in pursuit of the organisation's aims'. Birmingham Crown Court heard when he was arrested police discovered a 'crudely made' electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device at his home. A sketch of Mikko Vehvilainen (left) and Mark Barrett (centre) at Birmingham Crown Court He even created a draft of an 'Extinction' magazine in which he discussed 'genocide being forced upon the whites' and the need to create 'all-white strongholds'. In the document, he also urged members of the outlawed group to be 'prepared to fight and die for your race in a possible last stand for our survival'. Vehvilainen is charged with being a member of National Action alongside fellow squaddie Private Mark Barrett, 25, and a civilian, who cannot be named for legal reasons. It is claimed they were all members of the group even after it became the first right-wing group banned by the Government following the murder of MP Jo Cox. The unnamed defendant was described as a 'regional leader of National Action before the ban' and 'continued to hold a leadership position post-proscription.' Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said: 'It is clear that Vehvilainen's participation in the group pre-dated proscription and continued after. 'Vehvilainen was, the prosecution suggests, also personally committed to the use of violence in the pursuit of the organisation's aims. 'His messages refer, more than once, to the need to take positive and physical action in pursuit of the aims of the organisation. 'He was critical of those who, in his opinion, were not sufficiently active in that regard, and he referred frequently to the 'war' to make changes. Birmingham Crown Court (pictured) heard when Vehvilainen was arrested police discovered a 'crudely made' electromagnetic pulse device at his home 'He researched instructions for a 'homemade' EMP device. At the time he was arrested, a crudely made device which resembled a homemade EMP device was found at his home. 'He made diary entries from early 2016 making reference to weapons and items that needed to be achieved and jobs that needed to be done, including reference to 'EMPs, bow and arrows, and unarmed combat'.' A 2017 diary was also recovered from the property, which included a section titled 'Key points for leadership meeting', in which he described 'survivalist training, later stages terrorism, civil disorder, destruction of infrastructure and power grid'. Police also found a drafted document headed 'Extinction', which 'from its content, was intended to be the first edition of a magazine in which he referred to 'genocide being forced upon the whites'.' It also discussed the need to 'create all-white strongholds', 'join the help pro-white organisations either at home of abroad' and prevent Muslims from marrying western women. There were also provisional chapters reading 'weapon of the month' and 'survivalist technique of the month' as well as a list of 'army kit'. Mr Atkinson added: 'These were items which he had bought and items which were still to be purchased. 'The lists, and indeed the substantial quantity of weaponry recovered from his address, revealed and speak to his intention to stockpile weapons and other equipment in preparation for the 'race war' that he spoke of so often.' Vehvilainen and Barrett, of Oakham, Rutland, who were both serving members of the Royal Anglian Regiment, and the third defendant deny being members of a proscribed organisation. In addition, fitness instructor Vehvilainen, of Brecon, Powys, but originally from Finland - denies two counts of stirring up racial hatred and possessing terrorist information. The unnamed defendant is also charged with three counts of having a document likely to be of use to terrorists, and another of distributing a publication contrary to terror laws. The trial continues. X-ray images released by Greek authorities show desperate migrants hiding in fuel tanks and among fruit deliveries on lorries ready to board the ferry from the port of Patras to Italy. Other photos taken in Patras show the constant battle of the Greek port police to uphold the law and catch the stowaways before the trucks and lorries drive onto the ferries. But they also show the squalid conditions the migrants, mostly young men from Pakistan and Afghanistan, live in as they wait for their literal ship to come in. Scroll down for video Systematic: This x-ray photo provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows two migrants hiding inside a truck at the port of Patras, Greece Caught: A young man looks out from under a truck after being caught trying to smuggle himself onto a ferry to Italy from Patras in Greece Off you come: A number of migrants are found on the back of a truck and are detained by Coast Guard officers Images from an X-ray of a truck show hideouts not visible to the naked eye: two men were discovered lying on their backs in a fuel tank. Another crouched beneath watermelons. Anger is simmering among truck drivers, who sometimes chase migrants away with sticks, fearing arrest if a stowaway is found among their freight. One driver, who gave his name as Harry, climbed into his truck to find three migrants hiding among stacks of aluminum last Thursday night. 'It's awful. It doesn't get more awful than this and no one takes responsibility,' he said. Way in: Migrants climb through a metal fence to enter the departures pier of the port of Patras, where they hope to be able to hide on lorries waiting to drive onto the ferry Found: A migrant looks out from under a truck police officers wait to detain him in Patras Good effort: A man looks around before trying to hide under the chassis of a lorry - it is not known if he succeeded Neverending: Anger is simmering among truck drivers, who sometimes chase migrants away with sticks, fearing arrest if a stowaway is found among their freight When the migrants are caught by police, they simply return to the other side of the fence surrounding the port, and prepare to try again - determined to reach Italy, and from there, make their way to northern Europe more appealing since the closure in 2016 of the overland Balkan route . A few hundred migrants are squatting in abandoned factories facing the port and shower in water that run yellow from rusty pipes. At night, with fewer officers on patrol, a Reuters team witnessed groups breaking into locks to get into trucks or crawling under tarpaulins. 'Get down! Get down from there!' an officer with the coast guard's special forces squad yelled at a man peering at him from the undercarriage of a truck lined up for embarkation control, who was then handcuffed and escorted away. Escape: A migrant runs away from a truck after spotting a Coast Guard officer approaching Systematic: A man climbs into a truck as another waits to follow him at the port in Patras Hiding: A handout picture of an x-ray provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows two migrants hiding among goods inside a truck, at the port of Patras One of the migrants speaks with a port police officer, as others climb a metal fence at the port Desperate: Many migrants who are detained are only held overnight, and the next day when they are released, they try it again Authorities arrested 760 people hiding in trucks or carrying forged travel documents at Patras in January and February alone. This is nearly a third of the total of 2,627 arrests in 2017, according to official data. In 2016, 1,040 people were arrested. Those arrested are held at most overnight before they are released, and many try their luck again the following day. The route from Patras, one of two ports linking Greece to Italy, is not new but when Europe's refugee crisis began in 2015 and nearly a million people landed in Greece on boats, taking the overland road to countries like Germany was a safer option. Increasing: Authorities arrested 760 people hiding in trucks or carrying forged travel documents at Patras in January and February alone Squatting: Men and boys are seen inside a self-made temporary shelter in a disused factory, near the port of Patras No choice: A man showers under a broken pipe inside a disused factory next to the port, where many have taken to squatting while they wait for another opportunity to sneak onto a ferry Migrants climb through through a metal fence to exit the departures pier of the port of Patras, from where they try to smuggle themselves onto ferries to Italy, as they are chased by the Coast Guard and police officers, in Patras, Greece Getting to the other side: A majority of the migrants waiting to sneak into the ferries are young men and boys from Afghanistan and Pakistan When those borders closed in March 2016 and a European Union deal with Turkey stranded over 50,000 refugees and migrants in Greece, Patras started buzzing again, said Dimitris Kyriakoulopoulos, a coast guard captain overlooking the port. 'What we're dealing with here is a gradual increase in the number of these people,' he said. No one can say how many migrants make it across. Italian authorities returned 147 people to Greece last year, up from 112 in 2016 and 44 in January and February, according to Greek data. Italy's Interior Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Across the port in the squat, migrants spoke of their friends who made it to Italy and said they, too, would keep at it despite the risks. 'Everything is dangerous,' said Arshad Wardak, 24, from Afghanistan. 'You have to go through all the suffering to get into a better place. So this is why everybody is trying.' President Donald Trump's choice to be the first female director of the CIA, Gina Haspel, is a career spymaster who once ran an agency prison in Thailand where terror suspects were subjected to a harsh interrogation technique that the president has supported. Trump tweeted Tuesday that he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and that he has selected Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo. Haspel, 61, the current deputy CIA director, also helped carry out an order that the agency destroy its waterboarding videos. That order prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. Her nomination is already drawing opposition from Democrats, due to her role overseeing the torture of two terror suspects at a secret CIA prison in Thailand. President Donald Trump's choice to be the first female director of the CIA is career spymaster Gina Haspel, who is the agency's deputy director and who oversaw torture at a secret CIA prison in Thailand Simulation: Some of the 'enhanced interrogation techniques' used at the CIA 'black site' run by Trump's pick to direct it were shown on Zero Dark Thirty, the movie about the hunt for bin Laden Protest: CIA leaker Edward Snowden tweeted his disgust from Moscow, where he is in exile to avoid charges for stealing the agency's dark secrets Real-life: Gina Haspel's clandestine career will inevitably see her compared to Claire Danes' Homeland character Carrie Mathison but it will be her oversight of the detention of Abu Zubaydah when he lost an eye and was waterboarded 83 times in a month which will dominate her confirmation hearing Haspel, who has extensive overseas experience, is likely to be compared by supporters to Carrie Mathison, the CIA spy played on hit Showtime series Homeland by Claire Danes for her clandestine career. But the role which may dominate her future is when she briefly ran a secret CIA prison where terror suspects Abu Zubayadah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded in 2002, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. She also played a role in 'extraordinary rendition' where terror suspects were handed over to foreign governments. Both policies were extremely controversial during the George W. Bush administration, and became issues during her confirmation. Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 time during his interrogation. Later, her name was on the order to carry out the destruction of videotapes of the interrogation, the New York Times reported, although the agency said her superior, Jose Rodriguez, head of the clandestine service, had made the decision. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden called her an 'unsuitable' nominee immediately after Trump announced his decision. The president called her by her first name Tuesday morning in comments to reporters, and praised her. 'Gina, by the way, who I know very well, who I've worked very closely with, will be the first woman director of the CIA,' Trump said. 'She's an outstanding person.' 'I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next director of the Central Intelligence agency,' Haspel said. 'If confirmed, I look forward to providing President Trump the outstanding intelligence support he has grown to expect during his first year in office.' 'Gina, by the way, who I know very well, who I've worked very closely with, will be the first woman director of the CIA,' Trump said as he departed the White House Tuesday 'Ms. Haspel's background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director,' Wyden said. 'If Ms. Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of U.S. intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from her past.' Former NSA leaker Edward Snowden also blasted the choice. 'The new CIA director was a key part of the torture program and its illegal cover-up. Her name was on the Top Secret order demanding the destruction of tapes to prevent them being seen by Congress. Incredible,' Snowden wrote on Twitter. But former CIA director John Brennan, who served during the Obama administration, defended her integrity in carrying out the program. 'She was the acting director for operations when I arrived, and she has a wealth of experience and background, and she has more than three decades experience abroad as well as at headquarters,' said Brennan, saying she enjoyed 'tremendous respect' in the agency. 'Gina Haspel has a lot of integrity,' told MSNBC. 'She has tried to carry out her duties at the CIA to the best of her ability even when the CIA was asked to do some very difficult things in very challenging times.' More than a decade after waterboarding was last used, the CIA is still haunted by the legacy of a tactic that the U.S. government regarded as torture before President George W. Bush's administration authorized its use against terror suspects. There is no indication that Trump's pick signals a desire to restart the harsh interrogation and detention program. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, has been chief of station at CIA outposts abroad. In Washington, she has held several top senior leadership positions, including deputy director of the National Clandestine Service and deputy director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action. When she was picked as deputy CIA director, her career was lauded by veteran intelligence officials, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who recently retired. But it also upset the American Civil Liberties Union and other rights advocates who found it unsettling that Trump would choose someone who was involved in the harsh interrogation program. 'No one who had a hand in torturing individuals deserves to ever hold public office again, let alone lead an agency,' Human Rights First's Raha Wala said Tuesday. 'To allow someone who had a direct hand in this illegal, immoral and counterproductive program is to willingly forget our nation's dark history with torture.' Federal immigration authorities are 'testing the defenses' and looking for 'weak points' of California law enforcement in an effort to combat its state sanctuary laws, according to San Francisco's sheriff. Vicki Hennessy, the San Francisco County sheriff, acknowledged on Monday that her department violated California sanctuary law by allowing federal immigration agents to interview two jailed detainees. San Francisco Sheriff's Department officials confirmed on Monday that two officers working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were permitted to interview two inmates in separate local jails this past Thursday. One inmate refused to speak with the ICE agents, while the other inmate agreed to be interviewed, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The inmate who spoke to ICE was told that after his release from jail, federal agents wish to detain him. The identities of the inmates have not been released to the public. The San Francisco County sheriff, Vicki Hennessy, has acknowledged that her department violated California sanctuary law by allowing federal immigration agents to interview jailed detainees. Hennessy is seen above in her office in November 2016 According to state law in California, local authorities are not allowed to inquire about an arrestee's immigration status nor are they allowed to report the status to federal authorities. San Francisco County is thus not permitted to turn over any inmate to ICE. State officials say that the sanctuary laws are in place in order to encourage undocumented migrants to come forward and cooperate with local law enforcement without fear that their immigration status will lead to them being deported. Sheriff Hennessy told the Chronicle on Monday that allowing ICE agents into county jails to interview inmates was a violation of local and state law. In September 2016, California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed into law the TRUTH Act, which requires local law enforcement agencies to provide detainees sought by ICE with a consent form that would explain the purpose of an interview. The law also allows detainees to decline an interview with ICE. Should detainees agree to an interview, they are also allowed to have a lawyer present. Hennessy said ICE was apparently 'testing our defenses and they found some weak points.' In the last week, ICE agents have rounded up over 230 suspected undocumented migrants in the Northern California area. The above file photo shows ICE agents detaining a suspected illegal immigrant in Los Angeles in February 2017 'My staff made a mistake and I have to hold myself accountable,' she said. 'I apologize on behalf of the department. I feel embarrassed by it. I've taken steps to make sure it never happens again.' In the last week, ICE agents have rounded up over 230 suspected undocumented migrants in the Northern California area. Hennessy said that ICE officers returned to a San Francisco jail on Monday and asked to interview an inmate. That request was denied. The sheriff said 'that's a good sign' that department officials are implementing state law. In 2016, ICE asked local law enforcement in San Francisco to turn over 99 undocumented migrants. Last year, ICE made 469 requests. So far this year, it has made 212 requests. None of the requests have been honored, according to the Chronicle. California and the Trump administration are locked in a legal and political dispute over the state's sanctuary laws, which run counter to White House aims to crack down on illegal immigration. Brown on Wednesday accused the administration of declaring war on the most populous US state, after the Justice Department sued to stop policies that protect illegal immigrants against deportation. The Democratic governor's accusations on Wednesday against Attorney General Jeff Sessions intensified the Republican administration's confrontation with California. In a speech in the state capital, Sessions accused California of obstructing federal immigration enforcement efforts and vowed to stop the state's defiance. California and the Trump administration are locked in a legal dispute over the state's sanctuary laws, which run counter to White House aims to severely crack down on illegal immigration. Governor Jerry Brown (left) and Attorney General Jeff Sessions (right) are seen above Sessions addressed a law enforcement group in Sacramento, a day after the Justice Department filed suit against California, Brown and the state's Democratic attorney general over so-called sanctuary policies that shield illegal immigrants. 'California absolutely, it appears to me, is using every power it has - powers it doesn't have - to frustrate federal law enforcement. So you can be sure I'm going to use every power I have to stop them,' Sessions, the top US law enforcement officer, said in his speech. Brown called the attorney general's trip to California a political stunt and his description of California's laws a lie. 'Like so many in the Trump administration, this attorney general has no regard for the truth,' Brown told reporters, adding that the laws were crafted with input and support from California police chiefs. 'This is basically going to war against the state of California.' Sergei Skripal's red BMW is now at the centre of the investigation into his poisoning amid claims a nerve agent was smeared on the car's door handle. Counter-terrorism police tonight said there was a missing 40 minutes in the whereabouts of the former spy and his daughter Yulia in the car. They are appealing for witnesses who may have seen the pair in the BMW 3-Series before they arrived at a Sainsbury's car park in Salisbury at around 1.40pm on Sunday, March 4. It is not known what they did, or if they met anyone, during this time. Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said they remained in a critical condition in hospital, days after they were found slumped on a bench in the Wiltshire city. The police investigation into the poisoning of Russian spy Sergei Skripal is believed to be focusing on his red BMW. It is seen when it was recovered by police last week Yulia, left, and her father Sergei Skripal, right, touch their glasses whilst dining together at a restaurant Investigators in protective suits in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill after exposure to a nerve agent Three investigators, heavily protected by suits and gas masks, work in Salisbury park tonight Police officers in forensics suits and protective masks work near a playground in Salisbury tonight The Met said officers are working round the clock gathering evidence to identify those responsible for the 'attempted murders' and have so far collected 380 items. The senior officer said investigators' 'prime focus' was how the nerve agent was administered but warned that the inquiry will take 'many weeks'. Whitehall sources last night said Mr Skripal was poisoned when he touched the door handle of his car, which had been smeared with a deadly nerve agent. Detectives said the pair arrived in the city at about 1.40pm but officers want CCTV from 1pm. Mr Skripal's home is a ten-minute drive from where he parked, raising questions about what they were doing in the meantime. Police and MI5 to look into 14 deaths in Britain US intelligence think are linked to Russian activity The police and MI5 will study allegations a string of deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia, Amber Rudd announced. The revelation by the Home Secretary follows reports claiming that US intelligence sources suspect as many as 14 people may have been assassinated on British soil by Russia's security services or mafia groups. In each of the cases, including the deaths of prominent Putin critic Boris Berezovsky and whistle-blower Alexander Perepilichnyy, police investigations and inquests found no evidence of foul play. Advertisement Speaking at Scotland Yard, Mr Basu said: 'The public are going to continue to see a great deal of police activity in and around the city, including potentially more cordons being erected, but please don't be alarmed. 'It is necessary as part of this major investigation by the counter-terrorism policing network. In truth it may last many weeks.' The Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner would not identify any potential suspect, saying: 'It's a painstaking operation to identify anyone of interest to this inquiry, and eliminate them or include them, but at this stage we are not declaring a person of interest or a suspect.' Investigators are also focusing on Mr Skripal's red BMW, registration number HD09 WAO, and appealing for any witnesses who saw the pair in the car between 1pm and 1.45pm on March 4 to come forward. Police have so far collected 380 exhibits and have been scouring hours of CCTV footage from across the city. Detailing the timeline leading up to the pair being taken ill, Mr Basu disclosed that Yulia had arrived at Heathrow Airport on a flight from Russia the day before. The senior officer referred to Mr Skripal as a British national and Yulia as a Russian citizen. Officers help each other suit up before heading into a sealed-off area in Salisbury to carry out their work Two police officers in gas masks and dark suits stand by in a Salisbury park as investigations continue Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia (pictured in Zizzi in 2016) left a trail of nerve agent in the restaurant after their poisoning World leaders throw their weight behind UK Leaders across the world have pledged to stand 'shoulder to shoulder' with Britain after Theresa May blamed Russia for the poison attack on a former spy on UK soil. Theresa May has held talks with world leaders to lay the groundwork for sanctions if the Kremlin fails to come up with an explanation as to how the nerve agent Novichok was used. She held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron last night who condemned the attack and 'offered his solidarity' with the UK. And Donald Trump - who spoke to Theresa May yesterday - backed Mrs May saying the US 'will condemn Russia' if they agree Moscow is behind the attack. And senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt said: 'We stand shoulder to shoulder with the British people.' Advertisement Experts said one theory is that the nerve agent could have been put in the car's ventilation system or dusted on the inside. Only a tiny amount would be needed. Philip Ingram, a former intelligence and security officer who has studied chemical warfare, said: 'Using the car would explain why both Mr Skripal and his daughter got a dose. 'It is easy to break into a car and put some of the substance in there. 'This nerve agent Novichok would have taken hours at most to work.' Jerry Smith, a former chemical weapons inspector for the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said the Novichok agent was 'very persistent' and could linger for a 'reasonable length of time' as a 'dusty agent'. Public Health England was criticised for taking six days to tell locals to wash clothes and belongings. A source close to Wiltshire Council said: 'People are being kept in the dark as to long-term effects of whatever they might have come into contact with.' Residents also expressed concern about the increasing number of cordons springing up at sites previously open to the public. Mr Basu said this was 'nothing to be alarmed about'. He added that 38 people had been 'seen' by medical staff in relation to the attack. But only the Skripals and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, among the first on the scene, were in hospital. A fourth person was being monitored at home but has shown no signs of poisoning. Meanwhile, friends of Miss Skripal in Russia last night accused the British government of a cover-up. Yulia Ni told the Daily Telegraph: 'I need some undeniable proof she is actually alive, because we have suspicions that the truth about Yulia's and her father's conditions are being held from us.' Police at a supermarket car park in Salisbury yesterday, where a ticket machine has been put under a forensic tent Soldiers in breathing apparatus and chemical warfare uniforms converged on a small village in Wiltshire yesterday. It is believed they removed a recovery van which towed Mr Skripal's car Branding the attack a 'reckless and despicable act', Mrs May said the substance used was a 'military grade' nerve agent Russia has produced and demanded answers from the Kremlin by midnight tonight The Prime Minister told MPs yesterday that the highly dangerous substance used in the attack was a military-grade Novichok nerve agent produced by Russia. Mrs May said the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, which also left policeman Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey seriously ill, was an 'indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom'. Chemical warfare experts locked down a Wiltshire village yesterday amid fears that Sergei Skripal's car could contain traces of the nerve agent that's left him fighting for his life. Army and police vehicles and ambulances rolled into West Winterslow just after lunchtime before investigators in hazardous material suits and gas masks loaded a white transit van onto a flatbed truck. The van's driver was also asked to had over his clothes, it was claimed. Police also closed off a Sainsbury's car park where it is thought Mr Skripal's car was parked. A parking ticket machine was closed off and a police vehicle was removed from the scene by the Army. Locations around the town, including a restaurant, a pub Mr Skripal's home, a car recovery yard and the park where the Skripals were found. Controversial Russian MP compares Theresa May to Adolf Hitler A firebrand Russian MP has compared Theresa May to Hitler and accused of UK of creating 'fake news' over the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal. Vitaly Milonov, an eccentric member of the ruling United Russia party, appeared on Radio 4's Today programme this morning to debate with former Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski. But he was cut off after making a series of wild accusations, branding Mr Sikorski 'a prostitute' and insisting claims Russia poisoned former spy Sergei Skripal were 'fake news'. Shouting down a phone line from Russia, Milonov said: 'We've been told you think a guy who was imprisoned in Russia and was sent as a useless fake agent to you as an exchange in some spy drama was poisoned by some 50 years old Soviet gas. It's nothing to do with Russia!' When asked how the nerve agent came to be in Britain, he replied: 'This poison is 50 years old, it's not modern stuff. You can take this poison from any laboratory in Ukraine or other fake countries that are happy to help you. 'This is something like theatre or James Bond movie that you created such a horror about new Russia which is very dangerous. For us this guy is useless.' Advertisement Putin has made just one comment on the scandal, saying Britain should 'get to the bottom of it' Kremlin accuses UK of 'dirty attempt to discredit' Moscow The Kremlin has accused Britain of launching a 'dirty attempt to discredit' Moscow by blaming Russia for the nerve agent attack on spy Sergei Skripal. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted Russia 'is not to blame' for the attack in Salisbury which left the former double agent and daughter Yulia in a critical condition. His department also hit out at Britain's 'baseless accusations', describing them as a 'dirty attempt to discredit' his country. He warned that threats of sanctions 'will not be left without a response'. His comments came after Vladimir Putin smirked after being asked whether Russia was responsible for the poisoning. When asked on camera if Moscow was to blame, the Russian President smiled a little before side-stepping the question. He then told Britain it needed to 'get to the bottom of things there first' before he is willing to comment on the matter. Advertisement Theresa May has set a deadline of midnight tonight for Moscow to explain whether it was behind the attack or had lost control of its stockpile of the poison. Failure to provide a 'credible' response would lead her to view the incident as 'an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom', sparking unspecified measures in reprisal. Mrs May said the government would not accept such an attempt to 'murder innocent civilians on our soil'. She will decide on a range of sanctions over the next 24 hours after urgent talks with Nato, the United Nations, EU and US. The Prime Minister will also draw up a secret package of measures against Russia which will never be revealed. This could include targeting the Kremlin's propaganda machine. Whitehall sources said yesterday they were accelerating their offensive cyber programme and could hit select targets for a specific effect. Home Secretary Amber Rudd, speaking after a meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee, said: 'The investigation is going well. It is detailed and painstaking work with over 250 police officers in the area conducting this work. 'My priority is this incident, the investigation itself, so we get the information as quickly as possible, and also the safety and security of the people in the community, which is why we have such close co-ordination with the Department of Health and Public Health England. 'The Russians have started responding. 'The Prime Minister has been very clear that they have until midnight tonight to satisfy her requests. 'Until then we will wait and see what they have put forward. 'I know that international allies have begun to rally their support and make comments publicly but at the moment what we are doing is awaiting the Russian response before stepping up and responding as the Prime Minister has said we will.' A police car was loaded up to be removed at the weekend as the Army and emergency services continue the clean-up operation Soldiers in Hazmat suits yesterday loaded up and removed an ambulance believed to have taken Miss Skripal to hospital Investigators at the graves of Mr Skripal's wife, Liudmila, and his son, Alexander, last week as the investigation expanded Vil Mirzayanov said the effects of the poison could amount to 'torture' - and claimed that the use of the lethal toxin on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia was a 'brazen attack'. The chemist hit the headlines in 1992 after alleging in a newspaper article that Russia had been developing a particularly lethal new nerve gas. Mr Mirzayanov, who was later arrested but now lives in the United States, had worked in a secret laboratory which was developing the Novichok nerve agents. He said that the toxins were 'for paralysing people', adding: 'It causes you convulsions and you can't breathe and after that you die. If you get enough of a dose of it. 'It's real torture, it's impossible to imagine. Even in low doses the pain can go on for weeks. You cannot imagine the horror, it's so bad.' The investigation into the poisoning has led to a series of locations around Salisbury being sealed off and decontaminated News agency Tass quoted Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying: 'It is a circus show in the British Parliament. 'The conclusion is obvious, it's another political information campaign, based on a provocation.' Mr Putin dismissed questions about the Skripals when he was confronted during an election campaign visit, telling the BBC: 'Get to the bottom of things there, then we'll discuss this.' Classes were canceled for the day on Tuesday at Kettering University in Michigan after racist graffiti was found at a residence hall, prompting an investigation by local and federal authorities. A social media account belonging to Kettering students posted images of the graffiti on Sunday. 'F*** BLACK Students. Hey N***er, Don't Forget you ain't nun but a N***er,' the graffiti says. The Twitter account, which operates under the name Kettering Student, claims that this was the second instance of racist graffiti being scrawled on campus within a week. Letters sent to staff, faculty and students note at least two recent cases of racist and profane graffiti at Thompson Hall on the school's Flint campus, according to The Flint Journal. Classes have been canceled for the day on Tuesday at Kettering University in Michigan after racist graffiti was found at a residence hall, prompting an investigation by local and federal authorities 'F*** BLACK Students. Hey N***er, Don't Forget you ain't nun but a N***er,' the graffiti says Kettering's chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, the Black Unity Council, and other black student groups have held informal gatherings in the past few days The school canceled classes on Tuesday as school and law enforcement officials investigate. The school says the graffiti reported Thursday and Sunday was immediately removed. The school's president, Robert McMahan, says he's 'deeply upset by these incidents, for the pain this has caused the students to whom these messages were directed, and for the hurt this has caused to our entire campus community.' McMahan wrote the letter on Sunday. In a separate letter dated Thursday, March 8, he wrote: 'Words and actions such as these have no place at our University, nor do those who would perpetrate such an act.' A town hall in which students and faculty were expected to discuss the graffiti was originally scheduled to be held on Tuesday, but was put off to allow the investigation to continue. The university has increased the number of counselors and security staff on campus in order to aid students. Kettering's chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, the Black Unity Council, and other black student groups have held informal gatherings in the past few days. 'We would like to thank all Faculty, Staff, and Students that came out last night to discuss the recent issues at Kettering University,' NSBE tweeted on Tuesday. The school's president, Robert McMahan, says he's 'deeply upset by these incidents, for the pain this has caused the students to whom these messages were directed, and for the hurt this has caused to our entire campus community.' Kettering's campus is seen above 'Thank you for helping us to continue our our support for the students who have been personally affected by this.' Kettering University is a small regional school based in Flint, Michigan. With an undergraduate enrollment of slightly less than 2,000 students, Kettering bases its curriculum on 'hands-on cooperative and experiential learning'. According to College Data, Kettering's student body is almost 80 percent white. African Americans make up just three percent of students enrolled at the school. Annual tuition at Kettering can set you back almost $40,000. Anyone with information on the incidents has been asked to contact L.B. McCune, Associate Dean of Students, at lbmccune@kettering.edu, Kettering University Campus Safety at 810-762-9501, or report a tip anonymously to 810-762-9565. It is the end of an era for Britain's largest toy retailer as Toys R Us closes three more of its UK stores today. Shoppers have been misty-eyed as they've recalled their special memories of the popular outlet, dogged by financial difficulty in recent months. The chain was plunged into liquidation in January after failing to pay a 15million VAT bill, putting 3,200 jobs across the country at risk. Closing down: The shelves of Toys R Us in Oldbury, West Midlands, yesterday were stuffed with the remaining pieces of stock The chain was plunged into liquidation in January after failing to pay a 15million VAT bill The future for the business remains uncertain as administrators Moorfields battle to find a buyer. The future for the business remains uncertain as administrators Moorfields battle to find a buyer. So far, 25 stores have been earmarked for closure but the remaining 81 stores will continue to be open for 'closing down sales'. But some bargain hunters scouring the shelves have been left disappointed by 'rubbish' discounts. The Sun newspaper pointed out a number of the items on sale in Toys R Us were available cheaper in John Lewis and Wilkinsons. Father Phil Kennedy, who paid a trip to the chain's Derby branch last week, said: 'The atmosphere wasn't too bad to be fair although it did feel more like a warehouse than a shop. The future for the business remains uncertain as administrators Moorfields battle to find a buyer Toys R Us in Oldbury, West Midlands is still open although the staff do not know when it will close Empty aisles: A lone shopper walks through a once-rammed Toys R Us store in Oldbury, West Midlands yesterday as products have been reduced by 20 per cent 'There were no bargains though, I was mainly surprised that there weren't more reductions in all honesty. 'My main memories as a child was feeling like I was in the toy equivalent of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. It was a brilliant as a child - but a nightmare as a parent. Never go to Toys R Us with your children.' In Oldbury, West Midlands yesterday, the aisles were nearly completely empty as just one shopper roamed the store alone. Despite the well-publicised closing down sale offering up to 25 per cent off, staff said it had been incredibly quiet. A worker told MailOnline they did not know when the shop would be shutting for good and said they felt uncertain about their future. Those online have shared their thoughts on the store's shock closure. Twitter user Amie wrote: 'Just dawned on me that we won't hear the fab Toys R Us song at Christmas this year. 'This makes me feel really sad. Like a piece of my childhood has died.' It is understood the firm struggled with cash flow pressures after sales were squeezed by worse-than-expected trading over the crucial Christmas period. A checkout worker, who did not wish to be named, said: 'We've received warnings about a potential administration and obviously heard bits and bobs on the news. 'It's been a very scary time, especially when you have children like me. 'I've been working here for a few years and now I don't know what to do. I'm just hoping that things will work out for the best, but you never know, do you? 'Jobs in retail are hard to get hold of these days. If I lose my job here, there's a possibility that I might have to retrain for. 'This is close to home for me, it's easy to sort out the kid's day in day out. If I lost that then things would become very difficult, and I'd imagine other employees would have similar concerns.' Toys R Us launched in the UK in 1985. The firm's US parent company filed for bankruptcy protection last year after racking up debts of more than 3.5billion. Everything must go: The West Midlands shop has various empty shelves and discounts up to 25 per cent, with Barbies a clear favourite with buyers Toys R us in Oldbury, West Midlands is still open although the staff do not know when they will close It paints a dark picture of the British high street as New Look announced it was axing 1,000 jobs and closing 60 stores last week. Electronics chain Maplin announced similar financial difficulties last week, with 2,500 jobs at risk. A woman who stabbed her boyfriend repeatedly with a samurai sword after she discovered he was using Tinder made a desperate call to 911 for help moments later. A recording of the call captured Emily Javier, who was hysterical, telling an emergency dispatcher: 'I just stabbed my boyfriend. 'I think he's dead. You need to hurry.' When police arrived at their Camas, Washington, home, Javier's boyfriend Alex Lovell, 29, was found still alive with multiple stab wounds and was rushed to hospital. Javier was arrested on a first degree attempted murder charge. Emily Javier makes a first appearance in Clark County Superior Court over allegations that she stabbed her boyfriend with a Samurai sword early Saturday morning Chilling audio of her 911 call, recorded Javier, 30, repeating 'he's dead' over and over again while crying hysterically. The dispatcher then asked Javier where she stabbed him. 'Everywhere! Everywhere!' she replied. 'Where is the knife?' the dispatcher asked, to which Javier responded that: 'I used a sword!' The dispatcher repeatedly asked Javier to go into the bedroom where Lovell was lying, bleeding, to check if he was still breathing and help tend his wounds. But Javier wasn't able to bring herself to check on him. 'I cant go in there, I can't go in there!' she told the dispatcher. 'There's too much blood!' Lovell is already making an incredible recovery and is pictured sitting up in a wheelchair in hospital. Slash wounds are visible across his neck, and his arms are covered in bandages In another picture, labelled 'thankful', Lovell appears to be surrounded by family and friends while he recovers from the multiple sword wounds Javier, who began screaming incomprehensibly and begging the 911 dispatcher to 'please help him' became so emotional that the dispatcher had to ask her to take a breath and keep calm before the cops and first responders arrived. 'I need for you to try and stay calm for me,' the dispatcher said. 'They're on their way as fast as they can.' Cops arrived at the home in Northeast Garfield Avenue, Camas, Washington, just minutes after Javier called 911 at 1.54am on Saturday morning. Officers found a gruesome scene in the bedroom where blood was splattered up the walls and Lovell curled up in a ball with life threatening injuries. He is expected to survive although doctors are still assessing the extent of the nerve and muscle damage. There were so many slash wounds, police can't say for sure how many times he was cut. The incident happened at the couple's home on Northeast Garfield drive in Camas, Washington, in the early hours of Saturday morning. The street is pictured Javier told police that she'd planned the attack for a week after finding dating app Tinder on his phone. According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The Oregonian, other signs that he was cheating included scratches on his back and red hair she found in the drain of their shower, she said. The woman said that after making the discoveries, she went to the mall to purchase the weapon. Lovell survived and his girlfriend has been charged with first degree attempted murder On Saturday at around 9pm, he came home and ignored her, she said. They went to bed and once the lights were out, she reached for the weapon which she had taped to her side of the bed along with two other knives. Javier told police she brought it down on his throat in an effort to murder him. 'I was trying to kill him,' she said. During her police interview, she said she wanted to kill her boyfriend in his sleep and that in addition to his suspected cheating, she disliked how much he played video games. Lovell is now recovering from his wounds and has shared photos of himself sitting up in a wheelchair, surrounded by his friends and family. 'Got to go on a small adventure outside today! Six days after attack and I'm able to stand and sit (with a little help). Let's goooo!' he wrote on Facebook. He even joked he was getting ready to 'drop some hot bars' about Samurais. Meanwhile, his girlfriend is charged with first degree attempted murder and is being held on a $350,000 bond. It's not clear how long they have been together. It was an eye-roll given within a metre, but powerful enough to break China's internet. A Chinese journalist has become an online sensation for her exaggerated facial expressions caught on national TV. The reporter rolled her eyes dramatically at a reporter standing next to her when the latter was asking an extremely lengthy question on a press conference as dozens of journalists fought for attention. Liang Xiangyi (in blue) protests with her facial expressions during a press conference in China Another reporter, Zhang Huijun (in red) is asking a lengthy question to a Chinese official Her reaction happened to be caught on live television yesterday and her eye-roll quickly became the most popular - and the most censored - topic on the country's social media. Both reporters were attending a political press conference held by Xiao Yaqing, the head of China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The event was broadcast by China Central Television Station. The press conference was a part of the ongoing Two Sessions in Beijing, the two most important meetings the Chinese government holds every year. Reporters are competing for attention from Xiao Yaqing, the head of China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and Ms Zhang has been selected Ms Liang is annoyed as Ms Zhang spends nearly 45 seconds phrasing her question It was at this year's Two Sessions that China's top leaders passed a proposal to amend the Constitution which essentially cleared the way for President Xi Jinping to rule the country for as long as he wants. According to China's Global Times, the reporter who gave the eye-roll is called Liang Xiangyi and she works for a Chinese financial media group, China Business Network Standing at Liang's left-hand side is Zhang Huijun, who runs American Multimedia Television USA, a Chinese-language television station based in California. Ms Zhang was asking questions concerning capital flight and the One Belt, One Road initiatives, among others, in one go. Apparently, Ms Liang expressed her dissatisfaction because Ms Zhang spent around 45 seconds phrasing her question in a complex way. This left Mr Xiao just 10 seconds to answer her question. After a clip of the press conference was uploaded onto the social media yesterday, Liang Xiangyi's name became one of the most searched phrase on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform - so much so that it has become the most censored word in China, according to What's On Weibo. The censorship is thought to have happened because the Communist Party of China frowns upon on any form of tabloid news or different opinions coming from its scripted annual meetings. The incident occurred yesterday during China's Two Sessions, an important political occassion During this year's Two Sessions, the Chinese Constitution was amended which essentially means President Xi Jinping (pictured, central) could rule for as long as he wants The majority of the public seem to give support to Ms Liang calling her a 'straight-forward', 'unpretentious' and 'lovely' reporter. On the other hand, Ms Zhang has been dubbed a 'question-raising b****', the internet slang for a person who seems to be asking a question but in fact is hogging the limelight. While commenting on the matters, Hu Xijin, a left-wing editor-in-chief, urged the authority not to censor the footage which features Ms Liang's eye-roll. Mr Hu apparently wrote on his Weibo account: 'It's this kind of stuff that the public like the most. It's in the human nature and DNA and can't be changed. 'The members of the Communist Party must follow political rules all the time, but ordinary people don't. Ordinary people like reading about gossip too when they look at politics. This is no big deal.' It appears that Mr Hu's above comment has been blocked too by China's ruthless internet controllers. British lorry drivers have warned that a French port had become 'the new Calais' after a people smuggler was jailed for three years. They say the Normandy city of Caen is now the pressure point for illegal immigration after security was tightened at Calais. A judge has spoken of the 'increasing concern' of people being smuggled into the country after the smuggler was caught with two asylum seekers in his car boot. French national Issa Kebe was jailed for three years after he was caught at Portsmouth International Port in Hants, as he tried to help the pair enter the UK. British lorry driver Alan Mouland (left) said drivers now fearing for their safety whenever travelling from Caen to Portsmouth. Shown right is people smuggler Issa Kebe The 33-year-old was found with two Sri Lankan men after travelling by ferry from Caen, France, to pay off a 7,000 gambling debt to French gangsters. Portsmouth Crown Court heard gangsters threatened Kebe that his family would be shot unless he carried out the people smuggling operation. He was stopped at passport control in Portsmouth after coming over in a hire vehicle on January 14. He was asked to show his identification, then officials discovered the Sri Lankans in the boot. Alan Mouland, who runs AMT European Transport, a freight firm based in Fareham, Hants, regularly makes runs from Ouistreham port, north of Caen. The 68-year-old businessman said the situation was descending into chaos, with HGV drivers now fearing for their safety whenever travelling from the French port to Portsmouth. Mr Mouland runs AMT European Transport, a freight firm based in Fareham, Hants He added: 'It is absolutely horrendous out there. Portsmouth to Caen is a big problem. 'It's getting worse and worse and worse since they tightened up security in Calais. 'All the ports across France are risky business and Caen is the worst. 'It used to be lovely but you daren't leave your vehicle even for five minutes. There are loads of migrants, they're everywhere. You're constantly looking over your shoulder. 'We, as commercial vehicle drivers, have a facility we can go through and it's relatively safe but you cannot use the passenger cafe because they will be in your truck within five minutes. It's that bad now.' He said on one occasion at the port he spotted at least 12 different migrants attempting to clamber inside vehicles to sneak across to the UK. Mr Mouland added: 'They are upsetting local business. The French security is doing its best but these guys are very determined.' The court heard Kebe had got into financial strife after his gambling addiction spiralled out of control. Unable to pay off his debt he was given an ultimatum to carry out a people smuggling voyage to 'wipe the slate clean' or face the grim reality of his family being exterminated. Giles Bedloe, defending, said: 'He was given a solution to pay off his gambling debt after meeting with a man a week before the smuggling took place. 'The man threatened him and said he didn't mind if someone was to disappear, before saying he would turn up at his parents' house. He then lifted up his shirt and showed him a gun. Increasing numbers being smuggled via Portsmouth is causing significant anxiety for operators (stock image) 'Mr Kebe felt he could not possibly put his family in danger. He knew he was committing an illegal act but felt he had no choice but to do it. He only did it to pay off the debt. 'The two men were total strangers to Kebe, I'm not sure he even knew they were asylum seekers.' Mr Bedloe added: 'There was limited planning and sophistication in this case compared with commercial operations.' Kebe admitted helping asylum seekers to enter the United Kingdom. Sentencing him to three years in prison, Judge Michael Vere-Hodge QC said: 'There is increasing concern about the number of people being smuggled into this country.' The incident marks a trend of people smuggling taking place through Portsmouth as authorities battle to get a grip on the problem. Increasing numbers being smuggled via Portsmouth is causing significant anxiety for operators. This is the moment British pilots dropped an 11 tonne bomb on a small German town during the Second World War. RAF pilots dropped a total of eight Grand Slam bombs on a viaduct railway outside the town of Arnsberg, in north west Germany, on March 15 and 19 in 1945. The huge devices, which were carried by Lancaster bombers, were designed to be used against buildings, penetrating through concrete before exploding, causing structural damage. RAF pilots dropped a total of eight Grand Slam bombs on the German town of Arnsberg during two bombing runs on March 15 and 19, 1945 The target was a railway viaduct, and while the first run failed to destroy it because fog mean the explosives missed, the second run blew a 40ft hole in the structure They were first used on March 14 on a viaduct outside the town of Bielefeld, making tomorrow the 73rd anniversary of their use. Pilots then mounted two bombing runs against Arnsberg, with the first taking place on March 15. On that occasion two Grand Slams and six Tallboy bombs - the predecessor to the Grand Slam which weighed 12,000lbs - were dropped on the viaduct. However, the mission was hampered by fog and all of the bombs missed their intended target, so a second run was mounted in clearer conditions on March 19. This time six Grand Slams and 13 Tallboys were dropped, blowing a 40ft (12m) gap in the railway and severely damaging the rest of the standing viaduct. Following success at Bielefeld and Arnsberg, the Grand Slam was used on six more occasions at Arbergen, Nienburg, Bremen, Farge, Hamburg and Heligoland. In total the British dropped 42 Grand Slams on German targets including railways, U-boat pen and coastal gun batteries over the course of a month in 1945 The Grand Slam was designed to penetrate concrete structures before exploding inside, causing huge structural damage (pictured, a destroyed railway viaduct) In just over a month the RAF dropped a total of 42 Grand Slams on German targets including railway bridges, U-boat pens and artillery batteries. All of the bombing runs, with the exception of the March 15 mission, resulted in the partial or complete destruction of their targets with the loss of only one bomber. The Grand Slam held the record for the largest non-nuclear bomb to be used in combat until 2017, when the American Air Force dropped the Mother Of All Bombs on ISIS in Afghanistan. The Grand Slam is designed to fall at huge speed, reaching up to 715mph on descent, allowing it to penetrate targets before exploding several times after impact, with the aim of destroying reinforced buildings. By contrast the MOAB is a thermobaric bomb which burns up the oxygen in the air to create a powerful shockwave after it detonates. That makes the MOAB perfect for use against living targets, particularly troops concealed in underground tunnels, such as the ISIS fighters. The boss of the Border Force may be fired this week for allegedly abusing his power by employing his much younger girlfriend and sending her dirty texts on the job. Roman Quaedvlieg has been on paid leave for nine months amid an investigation into allegations he helped his girlfriend get a job scanning passports at Sydney Airport. The 52-year-old, who separated from his wife of 11 years last year, then allegedly sent salacious material to his junior staff member, believed to be in her 20s. Their relationship was allegedly inappropriate and damaging for the integrity of the Border Force. Roman Quaedvlieg has been off work for nine months amid an investigation into allegations he helped his partner secure customer assistance work with the Border Force at Sydney airport Attorney-General Christian Porter is understood to have found Mr Quaedvlieg guilty of breaching the Code of Conduct and recommended his sacking, reported The Courier-Mail. This means that Governor-General Peter Cosgrove could give him his marching orders as early as Wednesday. Mr Quaedvlieg previously claimed his relationship only started after the woman got the job in December 2016 and claims the texts have been taken out of context. A report by the head of the public service, Martin Parkinson, is said to have found that Mr Quaedvlieg breached the public service Code of Conduct. An investigation conducted by the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity was handed to the immigration department late last year. Immigration boss Michael Pezzullo then referred the matter on to Mr Parkinson, who compiled a second report. Attorney-General Christian Porter (pictured) is understood to have found Mr Quaedvlieg guilty of breaching the Code of Conduct and recommended his sacking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has asked Mr Porter, rather than Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, to make a final decision. Mr Porter said he was given the task of deciding Mr Quaedvlieg's fate to avoid perceptions of bias, given the border force boss's reporting obligations to Mr Dutton. The Attorney-General requested legal advice from the Australian Government Solicitor to confirm he could make the call, and was given the go-ahead. Mr Quaedvlieg has denied any wrongdoing. An Alabama woman has been arrested on charges of attempted murder, burglary and assault after officials say she broke into her estranged husbands home, shot him and pistol-whipped a woman who was present there. Lee Ann Matanane, 54, was arrested on Saturday following the armed break-in in the town of Berlin. According to the Cullman County Sheriffs Office, Matanane arrived at her husband's home wearing all black, forced her way inside and shot 59-year-old Benito Matanane in the upper chest. Wife charged: Lee Ann Matanane, 54, from Alabama, has been booked on counts of attempted murder, burglary and assault for allegedly shooting her husband in the chest and striking a woman who was with him in the head The female suspect also allegedly used the firearm to hit the woman who was in the house in the head, reported Cullman Times. Despite their injuries, the victims put up a fight and were able to wrest the gun out of Matananes hands. Deputies who were called to the scene took the woman into custody and she was booked into the Cullman County jail on $75,000 bond. On Monday, the sheriffs office announced formal charges against Matanane, including two counts of attempted murder, one count of burglary and one count of assault. Mr Matanane and his female companion were listed in stable condition. Court records show the Matananes have a history of domestic violence. Lee Ann and Benito Matanane were married in 2002 and separated in March 2017, according to Al.com. They filed for divorce a month later, citing complete incompatibly of temperament. Deputies were summoned to this rural road in Berlin, Alabama, after Matanane allegedly forced her way into her spouse's home wearing all black and attacked him In January 2018, Mr Matanane, who works as a truck driver, was arrested on a count of reckless endangerment after he allegedly forced his estranged wife off the road. That case is still pending against him. His criminal record also includes a 2014 arrest on a charge of domestic violence/harassment, which was later dismissed. Benito was picked up on the same count in October 2017, and that case still has not been resolved. His wife was listed as the victim in both the 2014 and 2017 domestic incidents. Lee Ann Matanane had no prior criminal history. The couples divorce is currently in the process of being finalized. A former top aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been convicted of accepting bribes. Joseph Percoco, 47, was found guilty on Tuesday of two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and one count of soliciting bribes. However, in a surprise twist, he was acquitted of conspiracy to commit extortion, extortion, and one of the two bribery counts. Percoco, once described by the governor as his father Mario's 'third son', faces up to 50 years in prison at his sentencing, which is set for June 11. Joseph Percoco, 47, a former top aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, was found guilty on Tuesday (pictured) of two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and one count of soliciting bribes Percoco, once described by the governor (pictured together, April 2011) as his father Mario's 'third son', faces up to 50 years in prison at his sentencing, which is set for June 11 Percocco (left, with Cuomo, April 2015) is accused of accepting more than $300,000 in bribes, most of it in the form of a $90,000-per-year, low-show job for his wife According to prosecutors, Percoco accepted more than $300,000 in bribes, most of it in the form of a $90,000-per-year, low-show job for his wife, created by a power plant company that had business before the state. It was also alleged that Percoco accepted $35,000 in cash. Defense lawyers claimed that both the cash payment and the job were legitimate fees for consulting work during a period where he wasn't in state government. Percoco began working for the Cuomos as a 19-year-old back when the governor's father, Mario, was the head of New York state government. With Andrew Cuomo, Percoco has been a political mainstay. In his 2014 memoir, Cuomo described his aide as 'the total package: trained as a lawyer, he had the guts, brains, and stick-to-itiveness necessary to attack any project - hard.' The jury indicated to the court that it had reached a verdict after earlier in the day asking whether it could reach a partial verdict. Percoco (pictured, Tuesday) was also accused of accepting $35,000 in exchange for favors including help redeveloping Syracuse's Inner Harbor and obtaining a raise for a business man's son, who worked for Cuomo Fellow defendant Steven Aiello (left) was found guilty of one felony count, while a mistrial was declared for Peter Galbraith Kelly (right), who created the job for Percoco's wife Percoco was one of four defendants in the case and only of them was convicted, Steven Aiello. Aiello, a top executive at Cor Development, was convicted of one felony count after paying Percoco $35,000 in exchange for favors including his help redeveloping Syracuse's Inner Harbor and obtaining a raise for Aiello's son, who worked for Cuomo. Joseph Gerardi, Aiello's business partner, was found not guilty and a mistrial was declared for Peter Galbraith Kelly, a former vice president of Competitive Power Ventures, who created the job for Percoco's wife. On Tuesday President Trump finally got a chance to see the eight towering prototypes that could be used to build his long-promised 'big beautiful wall' between the United States and Mexico. 'If you don't have a wall system, you're not going to have a country,' Trump said making brief remarks to reporters as he pointed out the various features of the walls. 'If you don't have a wall system it would be bedlam.' Today marked the first time the president visited liberal California as president, and his first stop in San Diego was to see the wall options, where he stood on the U.S. side of the border just feet from Tijuana, Mexico, with protesters audibly chanting from the other side. Speaking to a Border Control agent, the president was happy to hear that the current structure, an aging metal wall, had 're-established law and order' when it was put in. The president hoped his wall would prevent '99 per cent' of people and drugs from coming through. President Trump speaks to reporters in front of a prototype for his proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico President Trump gave brief remarks after surveying the border wall prototypes Tuesday in San Diego, California President Trump stands alongside an option for a border wall Tuesday as he visits California for the first time A number of border wall prototypes are seen looming behind President Trump (right) as he visits the state of California for the first time while in office President Trump is seen grinning as he discusses border wall prototypes with officials Tuesday in San Diego, California President Trump (center) takes a look at border wall designs in San Diego, California flanked by his Chief of Staff John Kelly (left) and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (right) President Trump arrives with his motorcade to look at prototypes for his proposed wall Tuesday in San Diego President Trump speaks in front of a prototype of a wall that he wants to see built between the United States and Mexico Options for President Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico are seen behind him as he speaks to officials in San Diego on Tuesday alongside DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (center) and Chief of Staff John Kelly (left) President Trump takes a look at some of the wall designs Tuesday in San Diego, directly across the border from Tijuana, Mexico President Trump and his entourage walk by one of the border wall prototypes Tuesday as the Republican takes his first trip to California as president President Trump brought up the border wall on his second California stop as well, at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Trump said he'd like the new wall to be partially see-through in case there were cartels just on the other side with concrete or a mix of steel and concrete at the top, something not easily climbable. During the tour he claimed that Californians are actually more supportive of his border wall than they let on. 'And by the way the state of California is begging us to build walls in certain areas, they don't tell you that, and we said we won't do that until we build the whole wall,' Trump said. He also used his brief remarks at the wall to rag on the state's Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. 'I think Governor Brown has done a very poor job running California,' Trump said. The president complained about the state's high taxes and that many California jurisdictions are so-called 'sanctuary cities' where local authorities won't turn undocumented immigrants over to the feds. He suggested that has brought 'dangerous people' and drugs 'pouring' into the state. 'You know, hey, I have property in California, I will say. I don't think too much about my property anymore, but I have great property in California,' Trump said. 'The taxes are way, way out of whack. And people are going to start to move pretty soon.' 'So the governor of California nice guy, I think he is a nice guy, I knew him a long time ago has not done the job,' Trump said. After Trump's wall stop, he addressed Marines at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, also in San Diego. There, he touted the wall project as well. 'We don't have a choice. We need it. We need it for the drugs. We need it for the gangs,' he said. 'It will be 99.5 per cent successful,' he added, upping the wall's success rate by half a point. 'People won't be able to come over it. The drugs will stop by a lot,' he said, adding the aside, 'although we have to get a lot tougher with drug dealers, have to.' The president has floated the idea of drug dealing being a capital crime. Trump told the crowd of Marines that his trip to the border wall prototypes was 'fascinating.' 'We have two or three that really work,' Trump said. He argued that constructing prototypes first was the way to go. 'I'm a builder. What I do best is build,' the president continued. 'You know other people they'd build a wall and say it doesn't work. Well, wait a minute, we just built 1,000 miles of wall. Well, we made a mistake, it doesn't work. We should have done it a different way.' 'We are doing it before we build, better idea, don't you think?' Trump asked the troops. 'We are going to have a great wall, it's going to be very effective, it's going to stop people, you're not going to see them climbing over this wall too easily - that I can tell you,' the president added. By mid-afternoon he was off to Los Angeles to attend a fundraiser in the tony neighborhood of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles where he's expected to raise $5 million. Hell be staying in the state overnight. There was a heavy police presence in San Diego for President Trump's visit to the border wall prototypes Tuesday afternoon Protesters are holding up signs in Tijuana, Mexico, as President Trump visits prototypes, seen behind them, for his so-called 'big, beautiful wall' A sign on the Mexican side of the border reads 'Trump, stop mass deportations.' It hangs on the current border fence that the president wants to replace with a taller, more fortified wall A pinata made to resemble the president is held up by a protester in Mexico Tuesday, as they stand along the current U.S.-Mexico border wall President Trump's motorcade is seen heading to the area where the president would inspect several prototype walls to be used to construct his long-promised border wall with Mexico A protester's sign is seen as President Trump arrives at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, California on Tuesday An invitation to the fundraiser, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, shows ticket prices starting at $35,000. Couples can also pay $100,000 for a photo with the president. The $250,000 tickets are for those who want to participate in a roundtable discussion with the commander-in-chief. Funds will go toward the joint fundraising committee comprised of Trump's re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee. Trump's arrival will come just days after his Justice Department sued to block a trio of state laws designed to protect people living in the U.S. illegally. Brown likened it to 'an act of war' with Trump's administration. 'The State of California is sheltering dangerous criminals in a brazen and lawless attack on our Constitutional system of government,' Trump complained in his weekly address, accusing California's leaders of being 'in open defiance of federal law.' President Trump waves to a crowd of reporters as he leaves the White House Tuesday for his first trip to California as president President Trump will visit the prototypes for his proposed border wall with Mexico while in San Diego. He'll also address the Marines in the Southern city before heading to Los Angeles for a high-dollar fundraiser in Beverly Hills U.S. Border Patrol agents are seen preparing for President Trump's visit to San Diego on Tuesday Law enforcement was out Tuesday morning preparing for President Trump's visit to San Diego later in the day A protester awaits the arrival of President Trump along the U.S.- Mexico border in San Diego on Tuesday A supporter of President Trump awaits the president as he takes his first trip to California on Tuesday. He'll look at prototypes of his pledged border wall between the U.S. and Mexico Supporters and protesters await President Trump's arrival in California on Tuesday. In San Diego he'll look a prototypes for his proposed border wall with Mexico Trump is expected to visit these prototypes of border walls in San Diego, just across the border from Tijuana, Mexico 'They don't care about crime. They don't care about death and killings. They don't care about robberies,' he said, calling on Congress to block the state's federal funds. Further north in tony Beverly Hills, Trump will entertain 1-percenters at a fundraising dinner where attendees will pay as much as $250,000 each Last week, Oakland's mayor warned residents of an impending immigration raid a move that Trump called disgraceful and said put law enforcement officers at risk. He brought up the Oakland mayor during his visit to the border wall today mid-way through his assault on the state's governor. 'You have sanctuary cities where have you criminals living in the sanctuary cities, and then the mayor of Oakland goes out and notifies when ICE is going in to pick them up,' Trump said. 'And many of them were criminals with criminal records and very dangerous people,' he added. The state has also joined lawsuits aimed at stopping construction of Trump's stalled border wall. And its judges have repeatedly ruled against policies Trump has tried to enact. In recent months, Trump and other administration officials have threatened both to flood the state with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and to pull ICE out of the state completely. 'I mean, frankly, if I wanted to pull our people from California, you would have a crying mess like you've never seen in California,' Trump said last month, predicting 'crime like nobody has ever seen crime in this country.' Meanwhile, Trump's acting ICE director has repeatedly threatened to increase its enforcement footprint in the state in retaliation for its limited cooperation with federal immigration authorities - and he appears to be making good on his promise. 'California better hold on tight. They're about to see a lot more special agents, a lot more deportation officers,' Thomas Homan said on Fox earlier this year before his agency conducted a series of raids. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says California's Democratic politicians are 'stepping out of bounds' by 'refusing to follow federal law' on immigration White House officials said the trip has been in the works for months and the timing so close to recent flare-ups was coincidental. When asked if Trump planned to play nice on the trip, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, 'Look, I think if anybody is stepping out of bounds here, it would be someone who is refusing to follow federal law, which is certainly not the president.' 'And we're going for what we hope to be an incredibly positive trip,' Huckabee Sanders added. Trump's appearances in the left-leaning state during the 2016 campaign were marked by sometimes-violent clashes between his supporters and opposition groups. In some cases, protesters blocked traffic and threw rocks and beer bottles. Trump has insisted Mexico pay for the wall but Mexico has adamantly refused to consider the idea. Organizers on both sides were urging people to remain peaceful after recent scuffles at rallies in Southern California, including brawls at a Dec. 9 rally near where the prototypes stand. Trump's more than yearlong absence from the nation's most populous state home to 1 in 8 Americans and, by itself, the world's sixth-largest economy has been conspicuous but not surprising. Trump country, it's not. As a candidate, Trump suggested he could win California, a state that hasn't supported a Republican for the White House in three decades. Since his election, Sacramento has emerged as a vanguard in the so-called Trump resistance. Democratic state Attorney General Xavier Becerra has filed nearly 30 lawsuits to block administration proposals. California was the home of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, but Republican influence here has been fading for years as a surge in immigrants transformed the state and its voting patterns. The number of Hispanics, blacks and Asians combined has outnumbered whites since 1998. Meanwhile, the state's new voters, largely Latinos and Asians, lean Democratic, and Democrats hold every statewide office and control both chambers of the legislature by hefty margins. Trump may not get the hero's welcome in California that he received Saturday night in western Pennsylvania Two of the border wall prototypes are seen from the Mexican side of the border in Tijuana Polls have found Trump deeply unpopular in the state, with most residents opposed to policies he's championed, such as expanding offshore drilling. Jessica Hayes, chairwoman of the San Diego County Democratic Party, said Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric plays especially poorly in a state with close trade and tourism connections with Mexico. 'These are our neighbors. These are our friends,' she said. Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of flying in to pick the winning design for the border wall, telling rallygoers last year in Alabama: 'I'm going to go out and look at them personally and pick the right one.' The Department of Homeland Security has said there's nothing to stop Trump from turning the wall design contest into a Miss Universe-style pageant. But the department also says it doesn't anticipate that a single prototype will be selected. Instead, the samples are expected 'to inform future border wall design standards,' said spokesman Tyler Houlton. Seven children and a driver have been hurt after a 'horrific crash' involving a school van and a semitrailer in Minnesota. Swift County Sheriff John Holtz said all eight were taken to hospitals, with three in a critical condition. Two have been released. He said the children - some of whom are siblings - are aged between ten and 16. 'As of right now, there are no fatalities,' he said on Monday evening after the crash near Benson. Scroll down for video Swift County Sheriff John Holtz said all eight were taken to hospitals, with three in a critical condition. Two have been released The Swift County Sheriff's Office said a 14-year-old and two 16-year-olds are in critical condition. Pictured: The van after the crash Holtz said the man driving the semitrailer was evaluated at the scene and released. The woman driving the van - named as Judith Van Eps, 68, by KARE11 - is thought to be in a stable condition. The Swift County Sheriff's Office said a 14-year-old and two 16-year-olds are in critical condition. Two 10-year-olds and a 12-year-old are hospitalized in stable condition. A 15-year-old was treated for injuries and released. The truck driver was not seriously injured. Officials said the semi was heading east on County Road 20 when the van struck the front driver's side wheel directly behind the cab. It was 'T-boned', according to Holtz. In a statement, Holtz added: 'We are working diligently with local authorities to make sure that student and family needs are immediately addressed.' Officials said the semi was heading east on County Road 20 when the van struck the front driver's side wheel directly behind the cab In a statement, Holtz added: 'We are working diligently with local authorities to make sure that student and family needs are immediately addressed' 'It's very traumatic,' he said. 'It's a horrific crash. 'And then with children involved, it's always - if you have kids yourself, it really hits home.' The crash occurred on Monday afternoon about 10 miles west of Benson, Minnesota. The sheriff's office says the children were in a Hancock Public School transport van. KSTP-TV reported that Hancock Superintendent Loren Hacker says school officials are working with authorities to make sure the needs of the students and their families are addressed. The crash is still being investigated. Jonathan Sherwood, pictured outside the Inner London Crown Court, allegedly set up a fake Grindr profile for Jeremy Harris, who was part of a law firm he believed 'ripped him off' A software tycoon waged a year-long harassment campaign against members of a law firm by setting up a fake Grindr account in the name of one partner and racially abusing another, a court heard. Jeremy Harris, intellectual property and disputes partner at Kemp Little LLP, told the court the page on the gay dating app featured an offer to perform sex acts in his office toilets. The profile under the handle @kemplittle included a physical description of Mr Harris and signed off with the phrase all cummers welcome, Inner London Crown Court heard. Mr Harris said: I was horrified, disgusted and concerned about what would happen if people saw it, particularly my wife or family members and people I know. He told the court he was sent an email containing a link to the page by former client Jonathan Sherwood, 54, in April 2016. But his attempts to get it removed were frustrated because he did not have the profiles exact URL. Sherwood, the managing director of a software firm, is accused of bombarding staff at Kemp Little LLP with abusive calls, voicemails and messages after claiming they ripped him off. He instructed the firm during a 2.5million contract dispute involving his company Gravy Solutions Ltd and an Austrian business back in 2012. When the case was eventually heard in Austria, both Kemp Little and the barrister recommended the services of local Austrian lawyers Dorda Brugger Jordis (DBJ). But Sherwood held Kemp Little responsible for what he believed was a measly settlement, it is claimed. The court heard Sherwood instructed Mr Harris' law firm, Kemp Little LLP, during a 2.5million contract dispute in 2012. When the case was finished he held the firm responsible for his 'measly settlement' It was really just abusive messages, calling us scumbags, Mr Harris said. Excuse the language, but one email referred to me as a c***, saying he was going to take me down. Another message included the words f*** you. Sherwood also racially abused the law firms Chief Operating Officer Siddhartha Mankad by calling him a P***, the court heard. Mr Harris told jurors the racial slur was aimed at Mr Mankad two or three times. He said Sherwoods dispute with Kemp Little wasnt really that clear but seemed to concern funds that were charged to him from our firm. He believed he had been manipulated out of the deal and was concerned that he was not going to be paid anything, said Mr Harris. It seemed like he thought he got, in his words, "conned" in the Austrian court but obviously we had no idea about that. Mr Harris said his colleagues found the abuse incredibly stressful. Sherwood is said to have continued to send the abusive messages despite being slapped with a caution notice ordering him to stop. Sherwood also racially abused the law firms Chief Operating Officer Siddhartha Mankad (pictured) by calling him a p***, the court heard Jurors heard one of the voicemails sent to Mr Harris contained the pledge that Sherwood had nothing to lose in this because I have lost it already paying your bills. Sherwood later set up a mock domain with a similar address to that used by Kemp Little and taunted employees by promising to only tell people how I was ripped off by your company, it is said. You know when you f*** over an individual its not personal, its not business, its lets get f***ing even mate, the message allegedly signed off. Sherwood is said to have labelled staff scumbag lawyers before setting up another mock DBJ website slating both firms with similar slurs. He was eventually advised by upper management to consult Kemp Littles formal complaints procedure with his gripes. But Sherwood simply repeated his claims that it is common knowledge in your firm I was being ripped off in Austria and called staff bent c***s. Please note that any profanities in this email are entirely deliberate, now f*** off, jurors were told Sherwood wrote. Mr Harris said that he was targeted directly after accidentally sending a pocket email to Sherwood. Sherwood replied: Forgot about you. It must be your personality. Wont make the same mistake twice. Four days later, the firm received an email containing a link to a Grindr profile with the handle @kemplittle and bearing Mr Harris photograph. Sherwood, of St. Jamess Walk, Islington, north London, denies racially aggravated harassment of Mr Mankad. The trial continues. The Russian exile found dead at his home in London this week warned he was 'on Putin's hit list' five years ago. Nikolai Glushkov, 68, was discovered by his family late on Monday night at his suburban home in New Malden and his body was taken away in a private ambulance last night. Not long after Boris Berezovsky died in March 2013, Glushkov gave an interview revealing he'd be targeted next. Nikolai Glushkov, 68, was discovered by his family late on Monday night at his suburban home in New Malden, Boris Berezovsky was found dead in England in 2013 and the death of Badri Patarkatsishvili is unexplained Nikolai Glushkov arriving at the High Court annex on October 18, 2011, wearing a pink dickie bow A private ambulance surrounded by police officers and with its back doors open arrives at the home of Nikolai Glushkov The Russian dissident claimed that Berezovsky and Alexander Litvinenko, a double agent who was killed with polonium poison, had both been on a Kremlin hit list. 'I don't see anyone left on it apart from me,' he told The Guardian newspaper. Police say Glushkov's death is being treated as 'unexplained' and have taken the unusual step of putting counter-terrorism officers in charge of the investigation. Scotland Yard stated it was because of people associated with Glushkov's past and tonight it transpired these include the anti-Putin oligarch Boris Berezovsky who was found dead in England in 2013 and Andrey Lugovoy. Glushkov was jailed in Russia for embezzlement in the early 2000s, and Lugovoy - the prime suspect in the poisoning of Alexander Litvenenko - tried to break him out of prison. The Russian newspaper Kommersant has reported that the 68-year-old was found by his daughter and had 'strangulation' marks on his neck. The paper also suggested the death could be suicide. A private ambulance - a Volkswagen Transporter - was seen leaving the home of Russian exile Nikolai Glushkov last night Nikolai Glushkov, a Russian exile and former associate of the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky, has been found dead at his home in London Glushkov was a close associate of Boris Berezovsky (right), who fell out with Vladimir Putin and fled Russia. Mr Berezovsky was himself later found dead at his Berkshire mansion. The circumstances of his death are being reviewed A police officer stands guard as two forensic investigators leave the property in New Malden with two cases A police forensics tent has been set up outside his home in the London suburb of New Malden A forensic officer walks towards the police cordon (left), while another officer carries items taken from the home His death comes a year after he was jailed in absentia in Russia over allegations he embezzled 87million while in charge of Russian airline Aeroflot. Glushkov was a businessman in Russia after the fall of Communism and had been a close associate of oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was forced to flee Moscow after falling out with Vladimir Putin. Glushkov was jailed in 2004 over claims of financial impropriety when he was in charge of Russian airline Aeroflot. He later said he was told at the time that he would be killed on his way to court, saying: 'I was told the way it would happen. I would be run over by a truck.' Threat to UK media Russia last night threatened to expel all British media if its TV channel is shut down in the UK. Media regulator Ofcom said yesterday that RT, a 24-hour news network funded by Moscow, could lose its UK licence if the Government rules Russia was behind the poisoning. In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said: Not a single British media outlet will work in our country if they shut down Russia Today. Ofcom, which enforces the broadcasting code, is charged with checking holders of licences are fit and proper. It said any ruling that Russia had acted unlawfully against Britain over the poisoning would be considered. RT said in a statement: Our broadcasting has in no way changed this week and continues to adhere to all standards. Advertisement His friend Mr Berezovsky fled to London and they met up again when Glushkov was freed from prison five years later and also came to Britain. He was granted political asylum in 2010. Mr Berezovsky was himself found dead on a bathroom floor at his home in southern England in 2013 with a scarf around his neck. A coroner concluded it was impossible to establish whether the oligarch was killed or committed suicide. Mr Berezovsky's death is one of 14 which will be reexamined in the wake of the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal nine days ago. Russian media reported that Glushkov was granted political asylum in Britain in 2010. Last year, Glushkov appeared on a list published by the Russian Embassy in London of Russians wanted for serious crimes whom the UK had refused to extradite. It said Russia had sought his extradition in 2015 'for committing a number of severe financial offences on the territory of Russia,' but the British government refused. The Met Police have taken the unusual step of putting anti-terror police in charge of the probe Police have said the death is 'unexplained' but have played, adding: 'There is no evidence to suggest a link to the incident in Salisbury' The private ambulance squeezes by a police van and some parked cars to leave the cordoned-off house tonight Glushkov spent five years in jail in Russia before being freed and claiming asylum in Britain Officers remove items from an address in New Malden which has been sealed-off by police Mr Glushkov, who was godfather to one of Mr Berezovsky's children, did not believe his friend had taken his own life and made a number of public statements insisting the oligarch had been killed. He said the tycoon's former wife noticed marks on his neck minutes after he was found dead, adding: 'A scarf was there. There were traces of him being strangled around the neck.' He later told The Guardian: 'Too many deaths [of Russian emigres] have been happening.' Mr Glushkov also gave evidence in the high profile court battle between Berezovsky and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich in London in 2011. At the time it was the biggest money private court case in history. In a witness statement, Mr Berezovsky described Glushkov as a 'treasured friend and trusted business associate'. He stated: 'The relationship I have with Nikolai is far more important than any amount of money.' Mr Berezovsky - who lost the case - claimed Mr Abramovich had used his influence with Putin to keep Glushkov in jail while negiotiating a shares deal. Mr Abramovich disputed those claims. He said that he was told he would be killed shortly before he was jailed for financial crimes in Russia in 2000. He fled to England on his release and claimed political asylum His friend Damian Kudryavstev posted this tribute on Facebook earlier today Glushkov's death came a week and a day after fellow Russian exile Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were critically injured in a nerve agent attack in Salisbury. A blue police evidence tent was in place outside Mr Glushkov's home in New Malden this afternoon. A neighbour who lived next door to the Russian exile told how she had dinner with him shortly after he moved in around four years ago. Mr Glushkov told her to 'appreciate democracy' when he invited her into his home. Police and MI5 to look into 14 deaths in Britain US intelligence think are linked to Russian activity The police and MI5 will study allegations a string of deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia, Amber Rudd announced today. The revelation by the Home Secretary follows reports claiming that US intelligence sources suspect as many as 14 people may have been assassinated on British soil by Russia's security services or mafia groups. In each of the cases, including the deaths of prominent Putin critic Boris Berezovsky and whistle-blower Alexander Perepilichnyy, police investigations and inquests found no evidence of foul play. Advertisement She said Nikolai Glushkov, 68, had recently undergone an operation on his leg which doctors were said to be considering amputating. The view from a neighbour's window showed the exile's home as sparse with few possessions. He is understood to have lived alone with his dog. A close friend of Glushkov, who asked not to be named, said: 'He was such a lovely man. 'He had a very bad leg and recently had a big operation, but he was improving and said soon he would be going round without his stick and walking properly. 'He was in a lot of pain with it. He told me he had heart problems too, he used to go to Kingston Hospital and St George's in Tooting. 'The police banged on my door at 3.30am this morning and asked if I had heard of seen anything, if I had seen anyone going round. 'The police said there has been an incident and wouldn't say much more.' Mr Glushkov's friend said his daughter would regularly visit with a man she believed to be her husband, but that he lived by himself. The 65-year-old added: 'I was round for dinner with him when he first moved in and he mentioned to me that we should "appreciate democracy" more. 'He never went into any detail, we were talking about countries and he was telling me about his home in Georgia which has wonderful wildlife. 'I never knew what his job was, I knew he did not want much. 'He was such a nice fellow, dinner was just the two of us. 'His house was very nice and he used to have a woman who came round to do the cleaning. 'He definitely wasn't doing badly, he came from a good family.' Police and ambulance crews rushed to the home of the Russian exile late on Monday night to respond to calls they received. Officers knocked on a friend and next door neighbour's door at 3am and asked if she had seen anyone coming or going from the Russian's house. A forensics officer ducks below the cordon which is being held up by police as reporters gather beyond the sealed-off area Glushkov (right in recent years and, left, during his time in Russia) was jailed in absentia in Russia last year over allegations of financial irregularities The address in New Malden which has been sealed off by police after Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov, a close friend of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, has been found dead A New Malden resident close to Mr Glushkov added: 'His birthday was Christmas Eve and we popped in for a glass of wine, he used to have a lot of people over. 'It was a Russian house, all brown furniture. 'He told me he was from Georgia and always said how beautiful it was." She continued: 'He never mentioned his work - he was intelligent and very well-mannered. He had very good English. 'He was very generous and friendly. At Christmas he gave us beautiful champagne.' She said he had an operation a few months ago on one of his legs for arthritis. 'He didn't go out much because of his illnesses, he had something wrong with his heart and had a few strokes,' she added. Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: 'He used to say hello in the street and he came to give our children gifts at Christmas, he was a nice man. 'I think he lived on his own, he lived there for about two years but we didn't see him regularly, just occasionally when he was putting the rubbish out and things like that. 'I didn't notice anything last night, we didn't hear anything but there are two tents in the garden. 'I don't think I've seen him in the last week or so, I hadn't noticed him, but I don't know what's happened - the police said they are still searching and there are lots of police cars.' A woman who lives across the street said Nikolai used to visit her shop 'a long time ago' but that she didn't know him. She said: 'There were five or six police cars this morning about six o'clock, it's right across the street from us. 'I didn't really know the man, I've seen him and we used to see him out with his dog but that's it. 'He sometimes came in our shop many years ago, by the triangle, but I don't remember what he looked like. I'm really shocked that this has happened in our street.' Nikolai Glushkov - the Moscow-educated businessman with two degrees who scaled some of Russia's biggest companies Nikolai Glushkov was found dead in his South London home on Monday night by his family and friends. He was born Glushkov Nikolay Alekseevich on Christmas Eve 1949 in the southwestern Russian city of Maikop, some 150 miles from the Georgian border. Mr Glushkov moved north to Moscow to further his education and in 1972 he graduated from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia with a physics degree. He topped this up nine years later with another degree, this time in economics, from the Academy of Foreign Trade, according to Kommersant. In 1972 he graduated from the PFUR with a degree in physics, and in 1981 he graduated from the Academy of Foreign Trade with a degree in economics. It was to be the springboard to a high-flying career as an executive at a number of high-profile organisations. For two years from 1986 he was head of the department of foreign trade at a state-run company called Prodintorg. By the time he finished there, he was also the head of the All-Union Research Institute of Applied Automated Systems of the USSR State Committee for Computer Science and Computer Science. In 1989 he appeared to start his first business relationship with Boris Berezovsky. Mr Glushkov was appointed deputy director general of LogoVAZ, then USSR's first capitalist car dealership, which was founded by Mr Berezovsky. He stayed at the company for six years, eventually ending up as head of the financial department, and the two businessmen became friends. Mr Glushkov was appointed first deputy general director of Russian airline giant Aeroflot in February 1996, but three years later his life seemingly began to unravel. The Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal investigation into both Mr Glushkov and Mr Berezovsky and in March 2004, the former was sentenced to three years and three months in prison for embezzlement. It related to tens of millions and his friend Mr Berezovsky fled to London. They met up again when Glushkov was freed from prison five years later and also came to Britain. He was granted political asylum in 2010. Russian media reported that Glushkov was granted political asylum in Britain in 2010. Last year, Glushkov appeared on a list published by the Russian Embassy in London of Russians wanted for serious crimes whom the UK had refused to extradite. It said Russia had sought his extradition in 2015 'for committing a number of severe financial offences on the territory of Russia,' but the British government refused. He died on Monday, March 12 in South West London. Source: Kommersant Advertisement Glushkov gave evidence at the high-profile court battle between Roman Abramovich (pictured) and Boris Berezovsky in 2011 Mr Berezovsky lost the big money court case and was later found dead in his country mansion A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'An investigation is underway following the death of a man in his 60s in Kingston borough. 'Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 10.46pm Monday, March 12 to reports of a man found deceased at a residential address in Clarence Avenue, New Malden. 'Officers attended and next of kin have been informed. Whilst we believe we know the identity of the deceased, formal identification is yet to take place. 'A post-mortem examination will be held in due course. 'The death is currently being treated as an unexplained. If there is a change in the status of the investigation, an update will be provided. 'At this stage the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had. 'There is no evidence to suggest a link to the incident in Salisbury.' Was Russian spy poisoned via his CAR? Double agent's red BMW is probed as police confirm 38 people have been treated over attack Russian spy Sergei Skripal may have been poisoned with military grade nerve agent while driving his car in Salisbury, it is thought. The former double agent and his daughter are both believed to have been in the red BMW at around 1.45pm on Sunday, March 4 - two hours before they collapsed in a park. After the car was recovered and a supermarket car park was closed off, it appears the police investigation into nerve agent attack is now focusing on the vehicle. The police investigation into the poisoning of Russian spy Sergei Skripal is believed to be focusing on his red BMW. It is seen when it was recovered by police last week The UK's head of counter-terrorism policing Neil Basu announced today that 38 people had come forward with illnesses related to the attack. As well as Mr Skripal, his daughter Yulia and DS Nick Bailey, who are all in hospital, another person is being monitored at home. Speaking at Scotland Yard, he explained that the investigators' 'prime focus' is how the poison was administered, but warned the investigation will take 'many weeks'. Speaking at Scotland Yard, Mr Basu said: 'The public are going to continue to see a great deal of police activity in and around the city, including potentially more cordons being erected, but please don't be alarmed. 'It is necessary as part of this major investigation by the counter-terrorism policing network. In truth it may last many weeks.' Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia (pictured in Zizzi in 2016) left a trail of nerve agent in the restaurant after their poisoning The Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner would not identify any potential suspect, saying: 'It's a painstaking operation to identify anyone of interest to this inquiry, and eliminate them or include them, but at this stage we are not declaring a person of interest or a suspect.' Investigators are also focusing on Mr Skripal's red BMW, registration number HD09 WAO, and appealing for any witnesses who saw the pair in the car between 1pm and 1.45pm on March 4 to come forward. Police have so far collected 380 exhibits and have been scouring hours of CCTV footage from across the city. Detailing the timeline leading up to the pair being taken ill, Mr Basu disclosed that Yulia had arrived at Heathrow Airport on a flight from Russia the day before. The senior officer referred to Mr Skripal as a British national and Yulia as a Russian citizen. Advertisement Meanwhile a local resident told of her shock after spotting forensics cops erecting two tents in the garden of Glushkov's house. Tracy Broadfield, 46, spotted the tents this morning, and said she was 'very surprised' to see so much police activity in the quiet suburb. She said: 'I was just being nosy, really. 'I'd seen on Facebook that the house was cordoned off so I decided to do a detour on the way back from my doctors this morning. 'I drove down there and they'd just finished putting the tents up. 'Nothing had been said on Facebook all day, and when I went back past again later the police were still there with forensics. 'Eventually someone said what had happened and I was very surprised - I only live a couple of minutes from his house, New Malden is a fairly quiet place and you don't expect that much police activity.' She added: 'It's strange - there hadn't even been a whisper of what had happened until the papers picked it up. Nobody knew anything.' Police and MI5 WILL look at 14 deaths in Britain US intelligence think are linked to Russian activity, Amber Rudd reveals The police and MI5 will study allegations a string of deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia, Amber Rudd announced today. The revelation by the Home Secretary follows reports claiming that US intelligence sources suspect as many as 14 people may have been assassinated on British soil by Russia's security services or mafia groups. In each of the cases, including the deaths of prominent Putin critic Boris Berezovsky and whistle-blower Alexander Perepilichnyy, police investigations and inquests found no evidence of foul play. Amber Rudd (pictured in Downing Street yesterday) announced today that the police and MI5 will study allegations a string of deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia Former police chief Lord Blair - who led the Metropolitan Police at the time of the poisoning murder of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 - has called for the 14 cases to be reopened, while the cross-party House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has called for a review of decisions made by police. In a letter to the Committee, written on Saturday and released on Tuesday, Ms Rudd said: 'The Government was aware of these allegations, and takes seriously any suggestion that a foreign state has engaged in murder on UK soil. 'In the weeks to come, I will want to satisfy myself that the allegations are nothing more than that. 'The police and MI5 agree and will assist in that endeavour.' In an interview on Monday with the Evening Standard, Ms Rudd said only that it may be right to look again at 'one or two or three or four' of the cases. Welcoming Ms Rudd's letter, the chair of the Home Affairs Committee Yvette Cooper said: 'Given the gravity of these issues, it is... right that the authorities should reassure us that they have looked at any further allegations or relevant evidence put forward in any other cases. Boris Berezovsky is one of 14 men who died in Britain in circumstances considered suspicious and potentially linked to Russia 'As the Home Secretary has said in her letter, the Government must satisfy itself that the correct finding was reached in each case and the public need to know that relevant questions about wider Russia links have been investigated and answered.' Mr Berezovsky, a friend of Litvinenko and thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found hanged in the bathroom of his Berkshire home in 2013. Police said a post-mortem showed no sign of a violent struggle, and an inquest recorded an open verdict. Mr Perepilichnyy, who provided documents to prosecutors investigating alleged fraud by Russian officials, died while jogging in 2012. Police said at the time they had found no evidence he was poisoned. An inquest into his death resumes in April. The family of Danny McGrory, the Times journalist whose name is one of 14 on the list, said yesterday that claims that he was murdered in 2007 had no basis in fact and that he suffered a brain haemorrhage. British boss of oil firm with links to exile Boris Berezovsky 'was killed in a helicopter crash 14 years ago by Russians', friend claims The British lawyer for a Russian oil firm and his pilot who died in a helicopter crash 14 years ago were murdered by Russians, a friend today claimed. Stephen Curtis, 45, and Max Radford were killed when their helicopter crashed near Bournemouth Airport in Dorset in March 2004. Mr Curtis was said to have had links with the late Boris Berezovsky, who was exiled in Britain after falling out with Vladimir Putin, and had received death threats and had his phones tapped before his death. Despite conspiracy theories surrounding the crash and a coroner stating the case had all the hallmarks of an 'espionage thriller', verdicts of accidental deaths were given at the two men's inquest. It was heard that pilot error was to blame. But John Hackney, a fellow pilot and friend of Mr Radford, has spoken out in the wake of the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Salisbury, to raise questions over the fatal crash. A helicopter crash killed lawyer Stephen Curtis, who worked for a Russian oil company Mr Curtis's death was not an accident and should be investigating, John Hackney has said. Mr Hackney is a friend of Mr Curtis's pilot, Max Radford, says the crash was not an accident Mr Hackney said he would welcome the case being investigated again and would do anything to clear Mr Radford's name. Mr Hackney, 81, said: 'Those of us who knew Max and knew aviation always felt he must have been shot down. We can't say for sure, but we suspected foul play. 'The day of the funeral we were all still talking about it and all of us said exactly the same thing - 'this is not an accident'. We all said to his dad 'as long as we live we shall never ever believe this story'.' Mr Curtis had been the managing director of the Menatep group which had a controlling stake in Yukos Oil. He had offices in London's Mayfair and lived with his wife Sarah and his then 13-year-old daughter Louise at a 19th century castle on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. A week before the fatal crash Curtis told a friend: 'If anything happens to me in the next few weeks, it will not be an accident.' Mr Curtis was an associate of Russian exile Boris Berezovsky (left), who was also found dead. Friends of pilot Max Radford (right) have questioned whether the crash was an accident Mr Curtis and Mr Radford were in this Augusta 109E when the crash unfolded in 2004 On the evening of March 3, 2004, he boarded his private Augusta A109E helicopter at Battersea Heliport being flown by Mr Radford. The weather on the flight to Bournemouth deteriorated and the helicopter came down on the approach to the airport. The official investigation by the AAIB (Air Accidents Investigation Branch) found no evidence of sabotage and stated Mr Radford must have become disorientated when the weather worsened. Mr Hackney, from Ringwood, Hampshire, said: 'I saw Max the morning of the accident. He had got this lovely new helicopter, it was a very nice piece of kit with all the latest navigational aids. 'He said he was going to pick up a guy in London and I set off on my day and then on the way back in the evening I heard about the accident. 'It was just unbelievable. Where it happened, he was only a mile away from the landing site, the weather was not that significant and he could see where he was going.' Multi-millionaire businessman Mr Curtis previously live at this lavish home on Portland, Dorset Mr Hackney added: 'He had done a lot of flying, he was very experienced and it was a trip he had done so many times. 'Those sort of helicopters don't go bang and just drop. The odds of it happening like that are so rare. 'That's the way Russia operates. In 2004 we weren't so aware of those kind of tactics as we are now. I still don't believe it was pilot error and I would welcome any re-investigation.' Sir Christopher Chope, the Conservative MP for Christchurch, Dorset, said he had always been sceptical about the conclusion of the case too. He said: 'I was always sceptical about the official verdict on it but looking at these things the best assassins are the ones who cover their tracks. 'Whether it could be the state or mafia groups or whoever, how can we prove it if you haven't got the evidence?' Yvette Cooper, chairman of the House of Commons home affairs select committee, has called for a review into 14 deaths where Russian involvement was suspected. A Las Vegas man in blackface who allegedly robbed a casino of $23,000 at gunpoint has been charged in federal court. Cameron James Kennedy, 26, was charged with interference with commerce by robbery at the United States District Court on Friday. Kennedy allegedly used makeup to appear black when he robbed a casino cage at New York, New York on the Las Vegas Strip on January 10, police said. Cameron James Kennedy, 26, (left) was charged in federal court after allegedly robbing New York, New York casino in Las Vegas while in blackface (right) Authorities revealed Kennedy was already under federal supervision for two prior bank robbery charges at the time of the crime. He allegedly cut off his GPS monitoring bracelet three hours before robbing the casino around 12.45am, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Las Vegas Police said Kennedy showed the cashier a handgun tucked into his waistband and told her 'I want all your hundreds, and don't mess around.' Kennedy allegedly made off with more than $23,000 and fled in a taxi cab. He then purchased a $1,500 gold bracelet, a $1,000 prepaid debit card under a different name, and more than $1,800 in money orders, according to court records. Police initially described the robbery suspect as a black male, before the cashier told investigators that the man's skin tone was 'off' and that the color appeared 'blotchy'. Las Vegas Police said Kennedy showed the cashier a handgun tucked into his waistband and told her 'I want all your hundreds, and don't mess around' before fleeing with $23,000 Police initially describe the robbery suspect as a black male, before the cashier told investigators the man's skin tone was 'off' and that the color appeared 'blotchy' Authorities later learned that Kennedy had used makeup to appear black. Kennedy was arrested on January 18 after an anonymous tipster told police he had robbed the casino. Kennedy was arrested on January 18 after an anonymous tipster told police he had robbed the casino A witness then told police that they had seen Kennedy hours after the robbery, and revealed he had been wearing black clothes and that his face had 'appeared darker than usual'. The same witness then identified Kennedy, who was arrested on January 25, on the casino's surveillance footage. Phone records also showed that Kennedy had been near the exact same location where the suspect had been dropped off by the taxi after the robbery. He is now in federal custody for unrelated charges and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Kennedy was released from prison in June after pleading guilty to the bank robbery charges. He was arrested in December after allegedly trying to cash an altered check at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino and subsequently placed on house arrest. Kennedy was ordered to be restrained by leg straps during his court hearing on Monday. He is next due to appear in court on March 26. A 30-year-old elephant was found shot dead with its trunk and tusks removed in Malaysia. Authorities said the male elephant was believed to have been killed a week ago, the Star Online reports. Its carcass was found around 15km from a main road in Perak. At a press conference at the Gerik police station on Tuesday, a police spokesman said the elephant had been shot three times twice in the head and once in it rear. A 30-year-old elephant was found shot dead with its trunk and tusks removed in Malaysia A bullet was found in the elephants right buttock, he said. Police followed a tip-off and officers along with General Operation Forces and the Department of Wildlife arrested four men on Sunday. One of the men led police to a house in Kampung Padang Jeri where they seized two rifles, two homemade shotguns, 225 bullets, wire traps, machetes, a chainsaw and RM10,500 in cash. We also seized a deer horn and seven bone fragments, believed to be from a tiger, the spokesman added, according to the Star. The four suspects, aged between 40 and 49, will be remanded in custody until March 18. They will be investigated on charges of possessing illegal firearms, unlicensed weapons or ammunitions and carrying weapons in public. Sweden could be set to ban all religious schools, following a proposal from the leading party ahead of this year's election. The Social Democratic party, which currently leads a minority government, has pledged to ban all religious free schools to tackle segregation in the country. Ardalan Shekarabi, Sweden's minister for Public Administration said that 'teachers, not priests and imams should be in charge of schools'. New rules: Social Democrats, which lead's Sweden's minority government, has proposed a ban on all religious schools in the country (stock image) The proposal is not yet backed by parliament, but several other parties have criticized establishments of more religious free schools following reports of gender separation in classes at existing institutions. 'We have to knock down segregation to keep Sweden together... school segregation must therefore also be broken down,' Ardalan Shekarabi told a news conference in Stockholm. Mr Shekarabi said his party, which has been losing support to the main opposition party the Moderates in the most recent polls, hopes to gain voters' support on the issue. 'Teachers and pedagogues should be in charge of a Swedish school, not priests and imams,' Mr Shekarabi said. Omar Abu Helal, principal at an Islamic charter school in southern Sweden, slammed the proposal as 'a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights' and 'the freedom of religion'. Segregation and integration are set to be hot topics in this year's general election in Sweden which welcomed in a record number of asylum seekers during the European migrant crisis. Pictured is a pro-immigration protest in Stockholm in 2015 All religious schools in Sweden, one of the most secular nations in the world, are 'free schools', and operate independently while receiving state funding. As it is forbidden in Swedish law to charge for primary education for children up to 18, any non-state run school receives government funding. There are 71 primary and upper secondary religious schools, which make up five per cent of all free schools in Sweden. One is Jewish, 59 are Christian, and 11 are Muslim. There are several other Jewish schools which do not fall into this category, as they do not have specific religious elements in their education plans, and exist to cater to an ethnic minority. Segregation, integration and immigration are set to be the main talking points in the lead up to the general election in Sweden, a country which welcomed 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015 during the European migration crisis. The country has registered around 400,000 asylum requests since 2012, or one for every 25 inhabitants, a record in Europe. Tamora Angel Foster, 39 (pictured), of Nederland, Texas, was sentenced to 50 years in prison after she allegedly forced an 11-year-old relative to have sex with her A Texas woman has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after she allegedly forced an 11-year-old relative to have sex with her. Tamora Angel Foster, 39, of Nederland, was indicted in July 2016 on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child. On Friday, she was found guilty by a jury, according to a release from the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office. According to court documents, Foster forced an 11-year-old family member to have sexual intercourse and oral sex in the summer of 2015. It occurred a second time in 2016 when the victim was 12. Judge Raquel West sentenced Foster to 50 years in prison with no chance of parole. 'It's hard to imagine a more emotional and disturbing set of facts than those in this case,' Assistant District Attorney Kim Pipkin said in a statement. 'I want to thank the jury for their verdict, law enforcement and CPS for their investigations, each of the witnesses for their testimony, the Garth House for their support, and most importantly, the victim for being so courageous.' Foster will be forced to serve every day of her sentence and will be a registered sex offender for life. According to The Examiner, her co-defendant, 62-year-old James Shoemaker, was set for trial this past week as well, but his case has not yet been adjudicated. According to court documents, Foster forced a family member to have sexual intercourse and oral sex with her when the victim was 11 and 12 years old. Foster will not be eligible for parole and will be a registered sex offender for life (Pictured, Jefferson County Correctional Facility) Shoemaker is currently being held in the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on a $100,000 bond for one charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child and has been in custody since September 2016. Foster, who also goes by the last name Villenez, had been free on bail awaiting trial but was taken back into the custody of Jefferson County Jail staff on March 9. Records show that she was arrested in 1998 for possession of marijuana under two ounces. Authorities in Michigan have released photos of tattoos found on the body of a man who was discovered stuffed into a large plastic bag in the hope of identifying him. The Gratiot County Sheriffs Office says an autopsy revealed the victim found by a pair of hunters on Sunday in a ditch in Seville Township was about 60 to 70 years old. His cause of death was not released. Investigators are seeking help from the public in identifying the man, who had distinctive body art. Distinctive markings: The Gratiot County Sheriffs Office has released photos of tattoos depicting a skull in a cowboy hat (left) and an eagle (right) found on the body of a unidentified man who was discovered in a plastic bag dumped in Michigan A tattoo of an eagle is on his right shoulder and a tattoo of a skull wearing a cowboy hat and neckerchief is on his left shoulder, along with the words, 'Michigan,' 'Texas' and 'Florida.' The victim also appeared to have suffered a recent injury to his left hand, since the middle and ring fingers were taped together. According to a press release from the sheriffs office, at around 10.30am on Sunday a pair of hunters came upon what looked like a large garbage bag resting in a ditch along Warner Road near Olive Road in Seville Township, located about 105 miles northwest of Detroit. When they cut the bag open, they discovered the mans body and immediately called 911. Two hunters made the gruesome discovery in a ditch along Warner Road in Seville Township, Michigan (pictured) Gratiot County sheriffs deputies responded to the scene and called Michigan State Police Crime Lab for assistance in collecting evidence. The body was transported to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing for an autopsy. The post-mortem exam revealed the victim was approximately 5-foot-9 in height and weighed 185lbs, with medium length thinning brown or grey hair. Sheriff Doug Wright tells WNEM the mans body was in relatively good condition, minus some injuries, including the ones to his left hand. Anyone with information on the victim is being asked to call the sheriff's office at 989-875-5214. A Ugandan MP has come under fire after saying that men should 'beat and tackle' their partners. Onesmus Twinamasiko, MP for Bugangaizi East said in a television interview that men should use physical assault to 'discipline' their wives. He reportedly made the comments in response to the country's president, Yoweri Museveni, who had branded men who beat their partners 'cowards'. Shocking: Ugandan MP Onesmus Twinamasiko said he believes husbands need to physically assault their wives 'to streamline her' 'As a man, you need to discipline your wife... touch her a bit, tackle her and beat her to streamline her', Twinamasiko told NTV. His comments caused outrage on social media, with a number of people calling for his resignation on Twitter. One user wrote: 'Im so upset about this video because I know that so many people agree with this notion that women have to be controlled by their husbands. And he even quoted the Bible #OnsemusTwinamasikoMustResign' "As a man, you need to discipline your wife...touch her a bit, tackle her and beat her to streamline her"- Onesmus Twinamasiko, MP, Bugangaizi East following comments by Museveni that men who beat women are cowards and should face the full wrath of the law pic.twitter.com/yhoEVRk212 Patu (@KPatu_) March 11, 2018 The senior politician later responded to the fury by clarifying that he had not meant that husbands should use such force that they could kill their wives. Speaking to BBC's Focus on Africa, Twinamasiko said:'I don't mean beatings which cause injuries or death - but a slap - I would feel fine! Because it's calling me to order. We would sit down and sort it out. 'I was slapped once by my wife and it was OK with me, because we sorted out our differences. 'I also slapped her once. She had wronged me.' Ben Butler and Jennie Gray were jailed after he brutally murdered their six-year-old daughter Ellie (pictured together) The father jailed for the brutal murder of his six-year-old daughter today stormed out of her inquest after hearing how much the girl's mother supported him. Ellie Butler was murdered by her violent father Ben Butler, 38, at their family home in Sutton, south London, in 2013. She suffered 'catastrophic' head injuries and her father was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years in June 2016. Her mother Jennie Gray, also 38, was sentenced to 42 months for child cruelty and attempting to pervert the course of justice. At her inquest in Croydon on Tuesday, Butler appeared via video link from prison but stood up and left just 30 minutes after the hearing started. The inquest, which opened on Monday, stopped briefly to acknowledge Butler had left and then continued. Adam Wiseman QC read out some of the findings of Mrs Justice Mary Hogg's Family Court judgement in 2012 which ruled that Ellie should be returned to the care of her father. He read out some of the evidence provided by Gray at the time of the Family Court hearing and her fear of the local authority taking her children away from her. Ellie Butler, six, (pictured) suffered 'catastrophic' injuries following the brutal beating at her home in Sutton, south London Ben Butler (left) stormed out when he was watching his daughter's inquest in Croydon, south London, today. Ellie's mother Jennie Gray (right) was also watching via videolink He said: 'Despite her loss (of Ellie) she loved the father and was appreciative of his support of her. They were friends as well as lovers.' Mr Wiseman added: 'She had never believed he (Ben) had hurt Ellie in any way.' Butler was further described as 'caring and loving' towards Ellie. The inquest previously heard how Gray kept a second child secret from the authorities after the youngster had been taken out of her care. Her child, known as 'Child C' was only discovered after Gray had been caught shoplifting and was removed from her care and placed with foster carers on the same day. And the hearing - reviewing the findings from the trial - was told she did not trust the local authority and cited this as the reason for keeping the child's identity a secret. The inquest, which opened on Monday, stopped briefly to acknowledge Butler (pictured with Gray) had left and then continued Mr Wiseman, who was still reading from the findings, said: 'She lost one child and then another to the system.' It was also revealed Gray had a challenging time with her parents when she was a teenager but later sought reconciliation. She continued to believe in the innocence of Butler who had been temporarily transferred to a paedophile wing at prison. Mr Wiseman added: 'She felt for him and believed in his innocence, she trusted him. She was very fond of him and blamed the local authority for their problems. ' In the opening Mr Wiseman said: 'This inquest will not consider the merits or the wisdom of the family court judgement. Ellie (pictured) was found with head injuries at the family home in 2013 'Mrs Justice Hogg is not on trial and nor is her judgement.' 'The coroner's court is not the appropriate forum to review or question any decision of the High Court, nor would it ever be appropriate for the coroner's court as an inferior court of record to review the decision of the High Court.' High Court Judge Dame Linda Hobbs is the coroner for the inquest at Croydon Coroner's Court. It is expected to last for two weeks. The first witness is expected to be called tomorrow. Butler, who has a history of violence, beat his daughter to death 11 months after she was returned to his custody by the family court. He was found guilty at the Old Bailey of a 'brutal assault' on his daughter Ellie in October 2013 while minding her at home. Mr Justice Wilkie said at his trial Butler had 'wickedly' involved Ellie's younger sibling in the 'fiction' of his innocence, allowing the other child to 'discover' the body lying on the floor two hours after she had been murdered. Wilkie said the 'bad-tempered assault' was borne from Butler's 'evil temper' and his utter disregard for his children and the child's mother, who he also enlisted in his 'cynical cover-up'. A disgusted man has claimed that he has found a dead mouse inside his can of Red Bull. Josh Henley said he made the grim discovery after he bought the energy drink on Sunday night from a gas station in Arkansas. The video, which Mr. Henley posted on his Facebook wall, shows him cutting the can in half with scissors to reveal what appears to be a dead mouse inside. 'I drink Red Bull all the time', he says in the footage. 'I don't know if it's factory or what but there's a dead rat in here,' he declares as he opens the can to make the grim discovery. Henley reportedly said that he didn't finish the drink after he bought it and left it in his car overnight and when he went to pour the drink out the next day, he felt something hit the top. 'When I emptied it out, I heard that thud, I was like 'what is that?!', and I said 'oh my God' so I said 'I gotta film it 'cuz nobody's gonna believe it', so, I cut it open and my God, it's a big ol' mouse in there,' he said. Grim: Henley bought the can in an Arkansas garage on Sunday night and had left it in his car. When he went to empty the can he made the shocking discovery Shocking: The footage shows him cutting the can in half with scissors to reveal what appears to be a dead mouse inside Josh said that he doesn't think the mouse crawled into the can on its own because he saw no other signs it had been in his car. The pawn shop worker has urged people in the footage to 'check their Red Bulls because they might have rats in them'. Since the video was posted it has over 102,500 shares and over 3,000 reactions to the shocking footage. Not all of the viewers thought that the footage was genuine with one or two say that the mouse could have crawled through the hole to get into the can and not been able to get out again. One said: 'It obviously went in after you drank it.' A spokesman for Red Bull said: 'It is inconceivable that a particle - let alone anything like this - could pass through the processes of world-class, modern beverage manufacture.' A 16-year-old schoolgirl who offered strangers a grope of her breasts while her YouTuber friends filmed her is facing public indecency charges in Japan. The teenage high school student was spotted in Tokyo allowing strangers to feel her breasts after holding up a sign that said 'free boobs'. She is said to have dressed as a bunny girl for the stunt, which took place in Hachiko square, a well known meeting spot in the busy Shibuya shopping district in the Japanese capital. A 16-year-old schoolgirl who offered strangers a grope of her breasts while her YouTuber friends filmed her is facing public indecency charges in Tokyo, Japan (file picture) Police say the girl's friends filmed as 20 men and women touched her breasts for just over ten minutes. They have now all been charged for violating Tokyo laws that forbid indecent acts amid claims the called out 'These are all-you-can-touch boobs'. The group's plan, officers said, was to use the footage to boost visits to their YouTube account - and in doing so, increase their advertisement revenue. Their videos have not, however, been uploaded. As well as the 16-year-old student, from Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, an 18-year-old man from Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, and a 23-year-old man from Mitaka, Tokyo, were also referred to prosecutors, according to Kyodo News. The incident is said to have taken place at about 6.30pm on January 28. A one-year-old boy is dead after being shot by his two-year-old brother when their mother left them alone in a bedroom of their Mobile, Alabama home on Monday. Neighbors told WALA that they ran to the home after hearing a loud noise and found the one-year-old suffering from a gunshot wound. The unnamed boy was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Scroll down for video A one-year-old boy was shot dead by his two-year-old brother at this residence in Mobile, Alabama on Monday Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste later told the press that the incident happened when the mother of the two kids left them alone in a bedroom. She then went to a detached mother-in-law suite at the rear of the property to let her relative know that she was about to leave the home. That's when the two-year-old boy came out, complaining of ringing in his ears. They went inside and found the fatally injured baby. Battiste says the weapon, a 9mm pistol, was left our in the open in the bedroom, and is believed to be owned by the mother in law. 'It comes down to the parent being responsible with their right to bear arms and not being negligent where they leave those types of weapons. And I can't imagine the pain that this family will be going through, but it's going to be compounded by the fact that one of their children was injured as a result of that negligence,' Battiste said. Two other children also live at the residence. The former President of Ireland attacked the Catholic Church as 'one of the last great bastions of misogyny' ahead of a Women's Day event in Rome. Mary McAleese, who served as President from 1997 until 2011, said the church was an 'empire of misogyny' that had deprived women of role models. McAleese made the comments before the Voices of Faith - Why Women Matter conference, which was held in Rome last week. The event was hosted outside the Vatican for the first time in its five-year history after she was denied permission to enter. Mary McAleese condemned the Catholic Church as an 'empire of misogyny' at an Women's Day event held outside the Vatican for the first time because she was banned from entering McAleese is a practicing Catholic but has long been an LGBT right campaigner and has called for the introduction of female priests. Why Women Matter is the only event associated with Women's Day to have taken place at the Vatican. Speaking to the IBTimes, she said: 'There are so few leadership roles currently available to women. 'Women do not have strong role models in the Church they can look up to.' McAleese was the key speaker at the symposium which was attended by hundreds of Catholic women and followed by many others around the world. McAleese joked about the change of venue to a location just a block away from the Vatican walls, saying: 'I hope all their hearing aids are turned on today'. She said the Church's ban on a female priesthood had 'locked women out of any significant role in the Church's leadership, doctrinal development and authority structure'. McAleese (pictured meeting Pope John Paul II in 1999) is a practicing Catholic but is also an LGBT campaigner and an advocate for female priests The Church teaches that women cannot be ordained priests because Jesus chose only men as his apostles. Those calling for women priests say he was only following the norms of his time. 'We are here to shout, to bring down our Church's walls of misogyny,' she said, adding that the Church's position on keeping women in a subordinate role to men had 'kept Christ out and bigotry in'. 'How long can the hierarchy sustain the credibility of a God who wants things this way, who wants a Church where women are invisible and voiceless in Church leadership?' she said in her address. McAleese was Irish president between 1997 and 2011. Many women, she said, 'experience the Church as a male bastion of patronising platitudes, to which Pope Francis has added his quota'. The pope has promised to put more women in senior positions in the Vatican but critics say he is moving too slowly. McAleese has previously revealed her youngest brother was seriously, physically, sadistically abused by a paedophile priest Fr Malachy Finnegan. Mary McAleese said her brother only revealed the abuse at the age of 49. She said the physical abuse happened throughout his seven years at St Colmans College in Newry, where Finnegan who died in 2002 taught for 20 years. This footage of a dark disc passing over the moon has been claimed as a UFO sighting. The unexplained shadow was apparently seen travelling quickly across the moon earlier this month and has been shared by a UFO channel on YouTube. The short footage was filmed from Dearborn Heights, near Detroit, Michigan, on March 2. A 'witness' said they had been filming the full moon when they noticed the dark shape seeming to move across the lunar surface. The unexplained shadow was apparently seen travelling quickly across the moon earlier this month and has been shared by a UFO channel on YouTube The disc can be seen entering the shot from the left-hand side and standing out against the Moon's illuminated surface. It purportedly travels straight across the top of the Moon as seen from the camera's point of view. The 'witness' told the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON): 'I was filming the full moon and captured a dark disk traveling southbound in front of the moon.' But one debunking expert said it was more likely to have a natural explanation, according to the Daily Express. 'I think it's a small object crossing the lunar disc like a mylar balloon. There are many similar footages like this,' said Scott Brando of ufoofinterest.org It comes after the pilot of a US Navy jet was shocked after he witnessed a mysterious object streak across the sky just above the Atlantic Ocean. It comes after the pilot of a US Navy jet was shocked after he witnessed a mysterious object streak across the sky just above the Atlantic Ocean The pilot yelled 'What the f*** is that thing?' as his sensors locked in on the mysterious object. Earlier this month some UFO spotters claimed another sighting when an unexplained silver sphere was seen hanging in the sky above upstate New York on Google Street View. But many viewers were not convinced, saying the orb was nothing more than a splash of water on the camera lens. The model who accused Harvey Weinstein of groping her in his NYC office has been getting back to work with a sexy bikini shoot on Miami beach. Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, 24, says he career suffered after she called out the disgraced producer for allegedly sexually assaulting her in 2015. But the model's name was finally cleared after dozens of women came forward to accuse Weinstein of harassment and sexual assault, following the New York Times expose last September. Gutierrez is now firmly back on the modelling scene and was snapped on Miami Beach, Florida, on Monday, doing a bikini shoot. The model accused Harvey Weinstein of groping her in his NYC office has been getting back to work with a sexy bikini shoot on Miami beach (pictured) Ambra Battilana Gutierrez says he career suffered for years after she called out the disgraced producer in 2015, but now she is back on the scene after more women accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct Dozens of women have accused Weinstein of harassment and sexual assault, following the New York Times expose last September The brunette beauty showed off her figure in a blue and tan color suit, before switching to an orange bikini and white beach cover up as she posed for sultry shoot. Ever the professional, the model continued to work through a rainstorm, while the rest of the crew took cover under umbrellas, to pull off the picture-perfect shots. Gutierrez, who appeared at her first catwalk in years last month, says she is just glad to be able to work again without Weinstein's black mark hanging over her. Gutierrez is now firmly back on the modelling scene and was snapped on Miami Beach, Florida, on Monday, doing a bikini shoot Ever the professional, the model continued to work through a rainstorm covering up in a blue and white top While the rest of the crew took cover under umbrellas, Gutierrez remained on set to pull off the picture-perfect shots 'I'm very happy because it was two, maybe three years where I wasn't working with big designers because my reputation was so bad,' Gutierrez told New York Daily News. 'People don't realize what (Weinstein) did to me and his other victims,' she said. 'He was very powerful.' Gutierrez first went to the authorities about Weinstein in March 2015. Weinstein reportedly first met the former Miss Italy contestant the night before at his New York Spring Spectacular show in Radio City Music Hall. The model posted a picture on her Instagram account, from Radio City Music Hall, with the hashtags: '#NewYork #Spring #Spectacular #Rockettes #RadioCity. #tonight #fresh #popcorn.' The pair exchanged emails and arranged for her to come in to the offices for an audition and to 'talk business'. The brunette beauty showed off her figure in a bright orange bikini She accessorized with a white cover-up as she prepared for the next set of shots The former beauty queen gave a sultry stare as she posed against a tree at Miami Beach Gutierrez, who appeared at her first catwalk in years last month, says she is just glad to be able to work again without Weinstein's black mark hanging over her At the meeting, Weinstein, who produced hit movies Pulp Fiction, The King's Speech and Gangs Of New York, allegedly asked the Italian model if her breasts were 'real', Page Six reported. Weinstein then allegedly grabbed the woman's breasts, prompting her to say 'no' to try to make him stop. She left the film center and filed a complaint at the 1st Police Precinct in Tribeca. After she made the claims, she says she ended up in the tabloids branded 'Grope Gal' and she was dropped by designers and shows. 'I had castings with Armani and Cavalli and Dsquared2 these are the ones that really build your portfolio,' she said. 'After that it was so difficult to even get normal brands to work with it was a disaster.' The Manhattan District Attorney's office has come under fire for not prosecuting the movie maker. Weinstein was questioned by the NYPD over the alleged fondling of the former Miss Italia contestant. Gutierrez, who also went by Battilana, previously told Italian authorities about witnessing a so-called 'bunga-bunga' orgy involving former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at his Milan mansion in 2010. She claimed she had seen young models performing stripteases and baring their breasts to be kissed by the Italian leader during a raunchy dinner party. Gutierrez formerly competed for the Miss Italia crown in 2010 and represented the region of Piedmont. She describes herself as an Italian model of Philippines, Spanish, Italian and Greek descent on social media and is originally from Turin. Her mother is Filipino and came to Italy as a classical dancer where she met her father in Verona. He was originally from Lucca in Tuscany but living in Turin at the time. Gutierrez went to the Guarini Institute in Turin where she studied to become a chartered surveyor. After becoming famous through the Miss Italia pageant, she began modeling professionally in 2011, according to social media. She works internationally in Milan, London, Paris and New York. She also shot an editorial campaign for Bambi magazine in Agent Provocateur lingerie and has been used as a model by a number of different photographers including Marcello Cassano and Kat Irlin. Photographer Marcello Cassano, who previously dated Gutierrez, told DailyMail.com that 'Ambra has a magnetic beauty and a strong personality oriented mainly in success.' He added: 'She comes from a poor and not traditional family.' The former boyfriend also alleged that since the model was a minor, she has had problems in court, first over being paid by an older boyfriend and then in relation to Berlusconi. Gutierrez had also accused her wealthy then-70-year-old former lover of rape in Italy in 2010. She told police she was 'forced against my will' into having sex with the 'businessman of substantial means' for money when she was under 18. Prosecutors in Italy asked for the rape allegation to be dismissed in 2012 but it was not reported whether the judge granted the dismissal although it is likely it would have been carried out. Colin Firth's wife was today seen in public for the first time since it emerged she had an 11 month affair with an Italian journalist. Livia Giuggioli could be seen wearing her wedding ring as she strolled through St Pancras Station in central London after arriving on the Eurostar. The film producer and environmental consultant appeared to be in good spirits as she clutched what appeared to be a iPad case in her left hand. Livia Giuggioli arriving in London clearly wearing her wedding ring She strolled through the station with a male companion and appeared in high spirts Miss Giuggioli was seen deep in conversation with a friend as she walked through the station Miss Giuggioli made headlines when she alleged that 55-year-old Marco Brancaccia had left her living in fear after threatening her via telephone calls and texts The Italian journalist was also accused of emailing photographs of Livia to 57-year-old Firth which prompted the actor to take legal action through the Italian courts. But it later emerged that she had embarked on an affair with Brancaccia It comes days after she made headlines when she alleged that 55-year-old Marco Brancaccia had left her living in fear after threatening her via telephone calls and texts. The Italian journalist was also accused of emailing photographs of Livia to 57-year-old Firth which prompted the actor to take legal action through the Italian courts. But in an astonishing twist an outraged Brancaccia himself stepped into the fray, publicly refuting claims that he was a stalker and, in effect, forcing 48-year-old Livia to admit that they had embarked on an affair in 2015. Brancaccia told the Daily Mail exclusively of the 'magic sparkle' he shared with Livia during what he claims was a passionate 11-month affair. And now it has been claimed that when Brancaccia sent details of the affair to Firth, the award-winning actor replied:' You have made me suffer but I know you are suffering too.' Brancaccia himself stepped into the fray, publicly refuting claims that he was a stalker and, in effect, forcing 48-year-old Livia to admit that they had embarked on an affair in 2015 The Sun reports Brancaccia allegedly emailed the King's Speech actor a picture of him with his wife. Brancaccia told the Daily Mail their relationship began after a family party at the Firths' home in Umbria, Northern Italy, in the summer of 2015 and that at the time Livia had wanted to divorce her famous Oscar-winning husband. 'I fell in love completely with Livia. I felt she was the woman of my life. I loved her very much, very much,' he said, adding that accusations of stalking are 'rubbish' and that the real story is that of 'a famous couple trying to cover up her love affair'. Livia and Brancaccia have known each other since she was a teenager. Brancaccia told the Mail that in the past he has even celebrated New Year with the Firths at their home in Umbria. Firth met his future wife in Colombia in 1995 during filming of a BBC adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel Nostromo. Livia was working as a production assistant on set during filming. At the time, Firth was an international heart-throb with millions of swooning female fans, thanks to his mean and moody portrayal of Mr Darcy in the BBC's Pride And Prejudice. More than two decades on, the Firth's marriage was, until this week, widely regarded as one of the strongest in showbiz He already had a son Will Firth, who was born in 1990 and is now an actor in his own right after a five-year relationship with actress Meg Tilly. Colin and Meg lived for several years in a log cabin deep in the woods of rural Canada before Firth's career took him back to London. Their eventual separation was amicable. Firth later described meeting Livia as 'like meeting somebody that you just feel you're the other half to'. Livia was 27 years old when she married 36-year-old Firth in a romantic hilltop ceremony at a 13th-century church set among forests and vineyards near her home in Citta della Pieve in June 1997. A spokesman for the couple said: 'This is an ongoing criminal prosecution and it would be inappropriate to comment in this circumstance' A picnic reception was held in an olive grove on a nearby estate owned by Livia's parents. More than two decades on, the Firth's marriage was, until last week, widely regarded as one of the strongest in showbiz. The couple have two sons, Luca, 16 and Matteo, 13, and have homes in Chiswick, West London and in Umbria. They also share a passion for environmental causes and global charity work. 'Stronger than ever': Livia and Colin Firth On Thursday night, as the drama surrounding the stalking allegations unfolded, a spokesman for the couple released an extraordinarily frank statement. 'A few years ago Colin and Livia privately made the decision to separate. During that time Livia briefly became involved with former friend Mr Brancaccia. 'The Firths have since reunited. Subsequently, Mr Brancaccia carried out a frightening campaign of harassment over several months, much of which is documented. 'For obvious reasons, the Firths have never had any desire to make this matter public.' Brancaccia's alleged campaign of harassment is said to have extended from September 2016 to April 2017. He claims, however, that during that period he sent only two WhatsApp messages to Livia and a single email to Colin. Details of the police investigation first appeared in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. Brancaccia insists, meanwhile, that all the claims being made about him are 'absolutely untrue.' 'It's a completely different story,' he says. 'It's a mess, and in the end somebody will have to pay for this. I'm shocked. It's very sad. It's a horrible story.' A spokesman for the couple said: 'This is an ongoing criminal prosecution and it would be inappropriate to comment in this circumstance.' Extremist parents could have their children taken away by the courts because they do not provide a 'safe' place to grow up, the Justice Secretary warned today. David Gauke said society had a right to declare certain environments too dangerous for children to grow and develop in. He drew a comparison between the children of religious extremists to those of paedophiles. Since the start of the Syria conflict around 100 children have been safeguarded through the family courts. Extremist parents could have their children taken away by the courts because they do not provide a 'safe' place to grow up, Justice Secretary David Gauke (pictured in Downing Street last week) warned today Sally Jones - the so-called ISIS White Widow - went to Syria with her son in 2013. A former L'Oreal saleswoman, she lived in a council house in Chatham before fleeing to Syria in 2013 In an interview with the Evening Standard, the Justice Secretary said: 'A child brought up in an environment that leads them towards a belief in a death cult is not an environment that as a society we can condone. 'Society has got the right to say that there are some environments that are not safe and take action accordingly. We have to be conscious of the manipulators. 'A lot of our challenges in the prison system and more widely in society can be from the manipulators of young people. 'Whether it's the grooming for sexual purposes or manipulating young people for pursuit of a radical agenda, that's one of the great challenges we face as a society. Last month Mark Rowley, the outgoing police counter-terrorism chief, questioned whether there should be 'more parity' between measures taken to protect children from paedophile and terrorist parents. Mr Gauke also said a 'lot of work' is being done as authorities take action to ensure they are prepared in case British militants attempt to return to the country. The Government estimated that more than 850 UK-linked individuals 'of national security concern' travelled to engage with the Syrian conflict. Last month Mark Rowley, the outgoing police counter-terrorism chief, questioned whether there should be 'more parity' between measures taken to protect children from paedophile and terrorist parents More than 15 per cent of those who travelled have been killed in fighting, while just under half have already returned. A significant proportion of those who have come back are assessed as no longer being of national security concern. Police have indicated that, of those who made the journey and remain in the region, around 100 could in theory seek to re-enter the UK. Mr Gauke declined to say how many he expected to return. He said: 'There is a likelihood that we are going to see people returning from the Middle East in the months ahead and many of them are going to become our problem within the prison system. 'We need to make sure that there's the proper approach to them. This is an issue that is going to be very significant for the criminal justice system as a whole and the prison system and is one of the big challenges that we have to face.' 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. At the end of December there were 224 individuals in custody in Britain after being charged with or convicted of terrorism-related offences, an increase of 24 per cent compared with a year earlier. Advertisement A large Russian man called Tarzan sits in an armchair against the backdrop of a cracked and stained wall, a pack of cigarettes, lighter and an ash tray on a table to his left, and he shrugs as he talks about a deal he tried to broker more than 20 years ago. I had a friend of mine living in St. Petersburg, and I said, Misha, tell me something, Tarzan real name Ludwig Fainberg says in a heavy Russian accent. I know its gonna be a strange question. Is this possible, to buy a military submarine - used one? And he said, What a question! Let me check. He called me in two days and he asked me, do we want the submarine with missiles or without missiles? says Tarzan. He raises his eyebrows and looks upwards to the left to emphasize just how flabbergasted he was with Mishas counter question. But Tarzan a seasoned wheeler-dealer, strip club owner and former mob enforcer took it in his stride and went back to his partners with the response. He was, after all, working with an American playboy in Miami and a fugitive Cuban spy to procure this submarine. And they were doing it on behalf of the notorious Cali drug cartel in Colombia, who planned to use the underwater vessel to smuggle cocaine undetected. The entire situation sounds like something dreamed up for a Miami Vice-inspired action thriller, but it actually happened in the 1990s and the trio came very close to pulling it off before one of them pocketed the cartels millions and went on the run. Now the stranger-than-fiction story is brought to life in new documentary Operation Odessa, a film thats closer to a roller-coaster ride than anything else and premieres on Showtime March 31. Scroll down for video Exotic car dealer Juan Almeida, left, Cuban spy Nelson 'Tony' Yester, center, and Russian strip club owner and former mob enforcer Ludwig 'Tarzan' Fainberg, right, conspired to buy a submarine and sell it to the Cali cartel of Colombia Tarzan poses with a Russian military officer during his tour of a naval base; as he and his partners planned the deal, they were asked whether they wanted a Soviet submarine 'with or without missiles' Tony poses on the Russian naval base; he insisted that they needed photographic evidence of the trip to prove to the Colombians that they could actually broker the submarine deal Tony remains an international fugitive but contacted documentary maker Tiller Russell and told him to meet him in Africa the next day to hear his side of the story; after a whirlwind few days, he brought Russell to a hangar where he kept his Russian fighter jet and $5million All the main players involved appear on camera and share their stories, including law enforcement, from which the documentary takes its name; Operation Odessa was formed as a joint task force in the 1990s as American authorities worried that Colombian cartels would join together with Russian organized crime to pair drug money with Soviet military hardware. Thats how they eventually uncovered the plot to sell a submarine to the Cali cartel, orchestrated by Tarzan, exotic car importer Juan Almeida and Nelson Tony Yester, a Cuban immigrant believed to be a trained intelligence operative who remains an international fugitive to this day. Tarzan and Tony went so far as to gain access to a Soviet naval base and be taken on a tour of a submarine potentially for sale, even cajoling Russian military officials to pose for photos - which they used to prove to the Colombians that a deal could be brokered (and which are shown in the film). Tony went on the run with the money the drug cartel provided up front, however, as authorities closed in - meaning the deal never happened, Tarzan got deported, Juan was (temporarily) convicted on drug charges and Tony became a fugitive not just from justice but from the hit that was put out on his head. But the story of how the documentary got made is nearly as crazy as the caper plot itself. Tarzan owned a strip club called Porky's in Miami as well as dealing in various underworld pursuits Director Tiller Russell tells DailyMail.com that hed heard rumblings and rumors about the insane deal, but it was about seven years ago when he first got a concrete lead about Tarzan and his cronies. A narc I know called me with a tip and he said, This is the craziest true-crime caper Ive ever come across in my life. Theres this crazy Russian gangster who sold a submarine to the Cali drug cartel; his name is Tarzan and hes locked in a Panamanian prison and he had a Blackberry And he said, Do you want his number? And I said, Hell, yes! I definitely want his number and so I began chasing it from there and actually jumped on a plane, went down and smuggled myself into this Panamanian prison to meet with him. Tarzan and one of his partners, Fat Tony Galeota, had opened a strip club in Panama similar to a previous enterprise in Miami called Porkys but they landed behind bars in Central America. That didnt stop Russell from trying to get them on board with doing a film about the submarine deal. It was like this super weird, incredibly sketchy circumstance that we came together in, Russell tells DailyMail.com of his visit to the Mad Max-like prison where at night they lock the gates. The guards leave at 5pm, and they just lock the gates, and its inmate rule at night, he says, explaining that he bribed a guard to get him in and out of the jail. So I was literally stepping over dead bodies of the people who had been shanked and stuff over the course of the night. Eventually, however, he made his way to Tarzan. He was hilarious and charming and garrulous, and it was as if hed stepped right out of a Scorsese movie, Russell says, adding: You know whats the funny thing people dont know about docs? Docs need stars just like features need stars. And so it was extraordinary, where sort of person after person was this larger-than-life character, from Fat Tony the bartender to Tony Yester the spy-turned-dope-dealer-turned-fugitive. If I were to make this story up and pitch it as a writer, producers would be like, Thats the worst pitch Ive ever heard. Its impossible but only because its true. Thats why you have to do this kind of story as non-fiction. In the new documentary Operation Odessa - named for the task force which investigated Russian gang ties to Colombian cartels - Tarzan explains how he contacted a friend in St. Petersburg about possibly procuring a submarine for the Cali cartel Juan, left, was convicted on drug charges following the testimony of Tarzan, right - who was then deported and recanted, allowing the exotic car dealer to go free; Tony, center, was on the run with the drug money which had been earmarked for the sub Before Juan, Tony and Tarzan attempted to purchase a submarine for the Cali cartel, their business had focused on providing helicopters, cars and motorcycles for the Colombians Tony, an immigrant from Cuba believed to be a trained spy, poses with a luxury sports car in Miami; when he went on the run he used to goad authorities by sending postcards from different exotic locations The initial meeting with Tarzan, however, was hampered by the fact that the Russian mob got wind of Russells visit, he says, and they threatened Tarzans life inside the jail if he shared his full story. But the men kept in touch as Russell pursued other projects, with Tarzan sending random messages such as Christmas greetings until he finally sent the email the filmmaker had been awaiting (although he couldnt have guessed the other crazy details in the communication.) Right about the time my last film was coming out, he emailed me and said, I did a jailbreak from Panama, traveled to Costa Rica, on to Cuba and then got repatriated to Moscow Im ready to do the movie, Russell says. It was a caper, for sure. He says: Tarzan was the lynchpin to it, because it was his story. Then once he sent me this crazy email like, Holy s***! I was literally on a press tour for the last film, and I was in New York doing interviews and stuff I called the producers and said, Do you think we can get a million dollars in the next five days? And theyre like, F*** yeah, lets do it. And so with like five days prep I jumped on a plane, went to Miami, started courting the cops and the feds and the US attorneys and all the good guys, the law enforcement side of it their participation was instrumental in it, because theyre the ones that have all the evidentiary record and all the surveillance video and the photos and the wiretaps and all that stuff, most of which is the sort of visual skeleton to the film. SO I started with the cops and I had been kind of circling the others without knowing if it was really possible or not. I told Juan, I said, Hey. Tarzans on board and essentially youre in the movie, one way or another. Then I ended up spending a great deal of what I like to call social engineering, which is kind of like the hanging out with all these guys theyre all very secretive cats with these very sketchy kind of criminal pasts. It was a lot of kind of romancing them and explaining to them, hey, this is your chance to tell your story on kind of a broad canvas. So if you wanna do it, the time is now, and essentially, its happening one way or another, so you might be the person to author your story. And so from there, Juan showed up in Moscow with a vague, half-assed agreement with Tarzan he still had gotten me to come there without agreeing to be in the film, and he put me through the paces of taking me to the sauna and sort of took me on this insane kind of underworld tour of Moscow. When youre rolling with the criminal underworld, its always weird; its really weird in Russia. Both Juan and Tarzan shared with Russell how they had graduated from buying helicopters, motorcycles and cars for the cartel from Russia to pursuing a submarine for the drugrunners. But it was abundantly clear that the key figure in the deal was Yester and his story would be particularly illuminating though the CIA, DEA and FBI had been after him, without success, for more than two decades. He was the one whod been speaking directly to the cartel; he was the only one who knew the real amount of money Cali were willing to pay; and he was the one who took the risk and disappeared with millions of the cartels drug money. Juan, Tarzan and law enforcement insisted there was no way hed agree to participate in the documentary. And then Russell got a text message out of the blue. I had kind of, little by little, put the word out to everybody among the cops, all the law enforcement side as well as among the crooks and said, Gotta meet Tony, gotta meet Tony, gotta meet Tony knowing that he was the only guy who really knew what happened. It was this sort of legendary underworld myth, almost, that people had been talking about for, you know, 20 years. He tells DailyMail.com: In Moscow, I got a text from Tony that said, Youve talked to the waiters; you should come meet the chef. Meet me in Africa for a cup of coffee tomorrow. Juan poses in an old photo in the documentary; he had earned a reputation in Miami as a wheeler-dealer who could procure anything for a price Tarzan, right, had worked for the Italian mob in New York before relocating to Miami, where Russian gangsters frequented his strip club Tarzan, left, and Tony, right, pose in Russia during a trip to negotiate about a submarine - though the American authorities got wind of the plan and Tony was planning the entire time to rip off the Colombian cartel financing the deal Director Tiller Russell, left, and Tarzan, right, first met in a Panamanian prison, where the Russian had been locked up and the director had to smuggle himself in and out using bribes Russell did as he was told and flew to the appointed city in Africa; as soon as he walked into his hotel room, the phone rang and he was instructed to be downstairs in five minutes, where Tony whisked him off in a Porsche Cayenne and they spent several surreal days together; Tony showed the director his Russian fighter jet, which had $5million in the cockpit as the fugitives getaway plan, and told his part of the story. While he, Tarzan and Juan were dealing with the Colombians and while Tony and Tarzan even got onto a Russian military naval base to tour a possible submarine for the deal the entire time the Cuban was planning to rip off the Colombians. He told them he could get them the submarine for $35million, but said hes need the money in installments; when they gave him the first $10million, he kept the money for himself and disappeared. Meanwhile, the task force had gotten wind of the bizarre submarine plan; not only had they wiretapped Tarzan, but they had also inserted an undercover agent into the operation an agent who appears in the documentary after undergoing an extensive makeup disguise because he continues to work undercover cases involving the Russian mob. As the authorities closed in, they picked up Juan and Tarzan, but they couldnt find Tony and neither could the cartel. They put a hit out on him when he disappeared with the money, while Juan and Tarzan took the legal fall in Miami. Tarzan eventually testified against Juan and was deported to Israel, where he recanted his testimony meaning Juans conviction for conspiracy to traffic cocaine was overturned and he went free. We did outsmart the FBI, we did outsmart the DEA, we even did outsmart the court, Tarzan says in the film. Tony remains on the run. I have to tell you, all my enemies are dead, and Im happy, he says in the documentary. Im gonna see them in f***ing hell when I arrive there. Russell says the fugitive is probably one of the most fascinating human beings Ive ever been in a room with. He adds: Theres five other films you couldve made about his life and life experiences, and yet he was charming and cultured and funny and also, then, on a dime deadly serious, not somebody that you trifle with. And there was absolutely no bullshit. You could not mislead him in any way or you could tell that the consequences could be serious, but I loved him. He was a character. Making the documentary, he says: I found the story so compelling and so riveting that I was just relentlessly magnetized to it. In retrospect, when you tell the stories aloud, its like, Thats insane and you, Tiller, are an insane person for having done that. Its funny; I was just like, this is too good of a story to let go. So looking back on it and all the hijinks, from being smuggled in to a Panamanian prison to crossing paths with the FSB in Moscow to being met in a Porsche Cayenne by Tony Yester and driving away thinking: Okay, the CIA, DEA, FBI and US Marshals have been looking for this guy for 25 years, and Im in his car by myself with no notion of where were going or when were coming back. In retrospect, its like, Im a moron, but at the time I was full-throttle chase the story. Of the finished product Operation Odessa, he says: Hopefully, its a rocknroll thrill ride into the underworld, where you get a passport to a life and lifestyle and characters that you didnt even imagine existed much less having a ringside seat with them. Malik Yancey, 17, was arrested Saturday after he was allegedly clocked by police going 96mph before crashing the stolen car A 17-year-old was arrested after he was clocked by police going 51mph over the speed limit in Georgia. Suwanee police said they clocked a driver, identified as Malik Yancey, going 96mph in a 45mph zone near the intersection of McGinnis Ferry Road and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. Yancey allegedly led police on a wild chase early Saturday morning that resulted in him crashing into another car stopped at a red light. Body camera video shows police chasing the vehicle moments before the car crashed. Authorities said Yancey then got out of the car and fled the crash scene. Police told WSB-TV, that the car Yancey was driving had also been stolen out of DeKalb County. A retired police officer at a nearby QuikTrip gas station saw what was happening and was able to help apprehend Yancey. Yancey allegedly led police (center) on a wild chase early Saturday morning that resulted in him crashing into another car stopped at a red light Dashcam video showed police chasing the vehicle moments before the car crashed in front of the QuikTrip gas station (pictured) Authorities said Yancey then got out of the car and fled the crash scene A retired police officer at a nearby QuikTrip gas station saw what was happening and was able to help apprehend Yancey. Police said the retired officer tackled Yancey and held him until Suwanee officers arrived Police said the retired officer tackled Yancey and held him until Suwanee officers arrived. 'The retired officer walked off and went into the QT to get his coffee. (He) came out and watched the rest of the event,' Suwanee Police Capt. Shane Edmisten told the station. The video showed Yancey being arrested by Suwanee police outside of the QuikTrip after he fled on foot. No injuries were reported from the crash. Yancey faces seven charges related to the incident. Yancey allegedly led police on a wild chase early Saturday morning that resulted in him crashing into another car stopped at a red light. He speed topped at 96mph (pictured is the police radar gun) Russia today threatened to ban all UK journalists from working in the country if RT loses its licence to broadcast in Britain. The threat came after the Kremlin was warned it could be stripped of its right to air in Britain if the Government officially blames Moscow for the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. Ofcom wrote to RT - formerly known as Russia Today - this morning to explain its licence would be reviewed if ministers confirm Theresa May's announcement it was 'highly likely' Kremlin agents were behind the attack on Sergei Skripal. Broadcasters in Britain must pass a 'fit and proper' test set by the TV watchdog to stay on the airwaves in Britain. RT insisted its coverage was no different this week to any other and claimed cancelling its licence would mean the end of press freedom in Britain. Kremlin broadcaster RT (pictured on air today covering Theresa May's response to the nerve agent attack) could be stripped of its right to air in Britain if the Government officially blames Moscow for the nerve agent attack in Salisbury Theresa May (pictured in Downing Street today) has already said it is 'highly likely' Russia was to blame for the attack and is due to meet her security chiefs again tomorrow Sergei Skripal (left) and his daughter Yulia (right) have been in a critical condition since they were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury on March 4 MPs have called for RT to be taken off air since the attempted assassination of Skripal last week. In a statement today, Ofcom said: 'We have today written to ANO TV Novosti, holder of RT's UK broadcast licences, which is financed from the budget of the Russian Federation. 'This letter explained that, should the UK investigating authorities determine that there was an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the UK, we would consider this relevant to our ongoing duty to be satisfied that RT is fit and proper.' The regulator added that 'we would carry out our independent fit and proper assessment on an expedited basis'. A spokesman for RT said: 'We disagree with the position taken by Ofcom; our broadcasting has in no way changed this week, from any other week and continues to adhere to all standards. 'By linking RT to unrelated matters, Ofcom is conflating its role as a broadcasting regulator with matters of state. British politicians (including Nigel Farage, pictured) have made frequent appearances on the controversial broadcaster in recent days 'RT remains a valuable voice in the UK news landscape, covering vital yet neglected stories and voices, including those of the many MPs and other UK public figures who have been shut out of public discourse by the mainstream media.' RT was set up in the mid-2000s to counter what Russian President Vladimir Putin saw as the dominance of American and British international media organisations and their allegedly pro-Western bias. The channel is seen by its critics as giving a platform to conspiracy theorists as well as far-right or anti-establishment figures who emphasise Western hypocrisy or corruption. Labour MP Phil Wilson said British politicians should refuse to be interviewed by the channel, where former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has a talk show. 'It is a propaganda mouthpiece for the Russian state and should not be engaged with by any democratic politicians,' Wilson said. A North Carolina prosecutor has dropped 27 cases initiated by a white police officer shown on video beating a black man accused of jaywalking. Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams tells the Citizen Times in a Monday statement that former Asheville police Officer Christopher Hickman could not be considered a credible witness. The 31-year-old was arrested Thursday on felony assault and other charges in the August incident. Williams says the dropped cases involved 17 defendants and included felonies and DWIs. They did not include violent felonies or sex offenses. Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams (left) has dropped 27 cases initiated by Officer Chris Hickman (right), who has been charged with assault after he was caught on his own bodycam tasering, choking and punching an unarmed black man More cases could be dropped as prosecutors analyze convictions obtained using Hickman's testimony. County courthouse records staff say a list of the dropped cases was not immediately available, but prosecutors are focusing on cases where Hickman's testimony was used between late August 2017 and March 2018. 'These are cases where officer Hickman was the sole and necessary witness, where he was critical to the case,' the district attorney said. On the night of August 24, 2017, Hickman stopped Johnny Jermaine Rush, 33, for allegedly jaywalking. Rush was walking home from a 13-hour shift at CrackerBarrel in Asheville, North Carolina. Hickman was filmed on his own bodycam tasering, choking and punching Rush, a black man, who was unarmed. The officer was placed on desk duty following the beating. Hickman resigned in January after an internal investigation determined he should be fired but the case didn't come to light until early March. Bodycam footage of the incident was leaked to a local paper, sparking widespread outcry and an FBI probe. Hickman was finally arrested on Thursday and charged with assault by strangulation, assault inflicting serious injury and communicating threats, according to the Buncombe County District Attorney's Office. He could not be reached on Friday and a phone listing for Hickman had a full inbox that wouldn't take messages. Rush had just cut through the parking lot of a business that was closed for the day when he was stopped by Verino Ruggiero, then an officer in training, and officer Hickman, for jaywalking. Police body cam footage, obtained and published by the Citizen Times , showed Ruggiero telling Rush, who'd just visited a local store, that he'd already warned him about jaywalking. 'All I'm trying to do is go home, man. I'm tired. I just got off work,' Rush explained. Ruggiero told him: 'I've got two options: I can either arrest you or write you a ticket.' Bodycam footage showed Johnnie Jermaine Rush speaking to then-trainee officer Verino Ruggiero after he was stopped for jaywalking, on August 24 'It doesn't matter to me, man,' Rush replied. 'Do what you have got to do, besides keep harassing me.' Rush then cursed, to which Hickman responded by ordering him to put his hands behind his back. The 33-year-old then tried to run. Video showed the officers take off in pursuit and Hickman, yelling: 'You know what's funny is you're going to get f**ked up hardcore'. Rush appeared to slow down and stopped to confront the officers, who pushed him to the ground. What followed was a brutal beating, as Hickman was seen repeatedly punching Rush in the head, while yelling at him to put his hands behind his back. Rush was then tasered twice and as he was held on the ground, he was choked while breathlessly telling the cops, 'I can't breathe'. The incident quickly escalated and Hickman was later seen punching Rush, 33, in the head repeatedly (pictured) Rush was also tasered as he lay on the ground with his hands behind his back, surrounded by cops 'All this over you getting a ticket,' Hickman, who is white, could be heard telling Rush. 'Now it's serious, bro.' He went on to taunt Rush, who remained prone on the ground, surrounded by cops. His comment can't be heard, but Hickman responded: 'Oh it's a 'Please' now is it?' Hickman says. 'After all that? It was a ticket! And you wanted to act like this? What's wrong with you? What the f**k is wrong with you?' While putting Rush in the back of the police car, Hickman was heard complaining that he 'got blood all over me from his face.' He boasted to an emergency responder called to the scene that he had 'beat the s**t out of his head, I'm not going to lie about that'. The charges against Rush, which included assaulting a government official and traffic offenses, were later dropped. Rush was left with burn marks on his legs where the taser hit, and swelling around his head, around the same location he was repeatedly punched during the arrest Officer Chris Hickman (left) has been charged with assault over the brutal beating of Rush (right) after he was stopped for jaywalking Photos of Rush, taken after the incident, show burn marks on his legs where the taser hit, and swelling around his head, around the same location he was repeatedly punched during the arrest. Police Chief Tammy Hooper publicly apologized to Rush last week calling his treatment unacceptable. Hooper said after reviewing the video that she and Williams asked the State Bureau of Investigation to initiate a criminal investigation, but they declined. The chief said that she still felt a criminal investigation was necessary so she reached out to another agency. Asheville police opened a criminal investigation into Hickman's behavior on January 18. He was finally charged with assault last week. An arrest warrant for Hickman notes that he struck Rush multiple times, causing abrasions and swelling to his head. The warrant said Rush lost consciousness when Hickman placed his arm on his throat and applied pressure. The charges against Rush, which included assaulting a government official and traffic offenses, have since been dropped A Wednesday meeting of a citizen's police advisory board began with Hooper offering a timeline of what she called 'a very egregious and violent episode'. She emphasized that she reviewed the recording and put Hickman on administrative duty only hours after Rush's arrest, following his complaint. 'He never went back on the streets,' she said of Hickman, before her remarks were cut short by audience interruptions. Asheville's mayor and City Council complained that they didn't know about the case until the video was published. The City Council issued a statement Wednesday saying: 'We are furious that no one thought that we - Asheville's elected leaders - needed to know about this incident.' The council said it plans to seek a third-party audit of the police department for signs of racial bias. Asheville's population of nearly 90,000 is about 82 percent white and 12 percent black. President Donald Trump's dramatic firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came a day after the nation's top diplomat diverged from the White House by explicitly blaming Russia for the murder of a Russian spy in Britain. Tillerson has clashed with Trump on a range of diplomatic issues, and appears to have been entirely out of the loop on Trump's stunning decision to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and didn't directly deny having called Trump a moron. But his firing came just hours after he revealed another split with the White House with Tillerson forcefully blaming Russia for being behind the poison attack on Russian spy Sergei Skripal, who is now a British citizen. Skripal was found slumped over on a park bench along with his daughter in London following what authorities concluded was a poison attack. 'Much work remains to respond to the troubling behavior and actions on the part of the Russian government,' Tillerson said in his farewell statement at the State Department just hours after Trump announced his firing on Twitter. British Prime Minister Theresa May had said it was 'highly likely' Russia was behind the attack, which relied on a chemical weapon made in Russia. Her statement Monday led to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders being questioned about whether she agrees with the British determination. 'The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizens on UK soil is an outrage. The attack was reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible,' said Sanders, who condemned the attack without naming a perpetrator. But she refused to name Russia as the perpeterator. 'Right now, we are standing with our UK ally. I think they're still working through even some of the details of that,' Sanders said. By contrast, Tillerson in what would become his final break with the White House blasted Russia as an ''irresponsible force of instability in the world.' Russian President Vladimir Putin smirked when asked if Russia was behind the attack. 'Look, were busy here with agriculture. As you can see, the aim is to create good conditions for peoples lives. And you ask me about some tragedies,' he told BBC 'RECKLESS': White House press secretary Sarah Sanders condemned as 'reckless' the killing of a former Russian spy living in Britain Victim: Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in a pizza restaurant in Salisbury, in south-west England and Rex Tillerson publicly blamed Vladimir Putin's Russia for the attack on Monday, something the White House had pointedly not done 'We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week,' Tillerson said Monday. He continued: 'There is never a justification for this type of attack, the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation, and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. 'Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens,' Tillerson said. He said hose responsible 'must face appropriately serious consequences.' President Trump asked about the issue on Tuesday following his firing of Tillerson, said: 'As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be.' Trump used twitter to terminate the career of Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil boss who had been secretary of state for 15 months. An official revealed the president did not speak to Tillerson Trump hedged, saying: 'It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all of the evidence they have. I don't know if they've come to a conclusion,' he said. Trump's statement was much less definitive than May, who told parliament: 'Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country.' 'Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others,' she added. Trump characterized he and Tillerson as being of a 'different mindset,' although on other occasions he has said he likes getting advice from competing forces. He didnt' mention Russia as being part of his decision. 'No, I really didn't discuss it very much with him, honestly. I made that decision by myself. Rex wasn't, as you know, in this country. I made the North Korea decision with consultation from many people but I made that decision by myself,' Trump said. OVERBOOKED? According to one account, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called Tillerson and urged him to return home from a trip to Africa 'I actually got along well with Rex but really it was a different mindset, a different thinking.' The White House released an official statement Tuesday on a call between Trump and May. According to the statement: 'They discussed the United Kingdoms investigation into the chemical weapon attack on a private citizen and his daughter on British soil. President Trump stated the United States stands in solidarity with its closest ally and is ready to provide any assistance the United Kingdom requests for its investigation.' The statement added: 'President Trump agreed with Prime Minister May that the Government of the Russian Federation must provide unambiguous answers regarding how this chemical weapon, developed in Russia, came to be used in the United Kingdom. The two leaders agreed on the need for consequences for those who use these heinous weapons in flagrant violation of international norms.' There were differing accounts Tuesday of when it was conveyed to Tillerson that he was getting fired, including whether it happened before or after Tillerson's tough-on-Russia comments. According to the Washington Post, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called Tillerson, who was on travel in Africa early Saturday local time to tell him Trump had decided to replace him, and urged him to return to Washington as soon as possible. But the lead Post reported on the story tweeted that a White House official told Tillerson Friday that his 'days were numbered.' 'But it is still highly possible that Tillerson officially learned he was fired from news reports and Trumps Tweet this morning,' the Post's Ashley Parker wrote. NBC reported that Tillerson found out he was out from Trump's Tuesday tweet, and was not planning to quit. Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein said in an on-record statement Tuesday that Tillerson found out he was fired Tuesday. 'The secretary did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted.' After publication of his statement, Goldstein was summarily fired. 'I think Rex will be much happier now,' Trump Tuesday morning about his decision, where he cited differences on the Iran deal. A North Carolina sheriff's deputy shot and killed 61-year-old Briscoe Tim Woodell (pictured) who allegedly fired on him and other deputies Monday night A North Carolina sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man who allegedly fired on him and other deputies as they responded to a domestic dispute call. The Davidson County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that a woman reported around 11pm Monday night that she had been assaulted by 61-year-old Briscoe Tim Woodell. Woodell allegedly threatened to shoot deputies when they arrived to the home at 1257 Sink Farm Rd to speak with Woodell and conduct an investigation into the assault. Woodell barricaded himself into a barn-like building and the victim fled to her mother's home. Deputies took up a defensive position and called for assistance from the Sheriff's Emergency Response Team (SERT). SERT and hostage negotiators arrived and attempted to speak with Woodell. After a brief standoff, Woodell came out of a barn on his property and shot at the deputies. 'Deputies returned fire striking Mr. Woodell,' officers said in the press release. Sgt Jesse Sharp was identified by WXII as the deputy who shot and killed Woodell. Emergency personnel treated Woodell, but he died en route to the hospital. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting. Sharp has been has been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation. Authorities said the deputy has been in law enforcement for 25 years. Stephen Unwin (pictured) and William McFall held Quyen Ngoc Nguyen as their 'captive' during a horror four-hour ordeal at a house, it is claimed Two killers who raped and set fire to a young mother formed their friendship while they were cellmates serving life sentences for separate murders, jurors have heard. Stephen Unwin and William McFall held Quyen Ngoc Nguyen, who was known as 'Anna', as their 'captive' during a horror four-hour ordeal at a house last August before she and her Audi A4 were dumped and set on fire on a dirt track near Sunderland, it is claimed. The 28-year-old nail salon worker's badly burned body was found face down on the back seat when firefighters extinguished the blaze, which was started when Miss Nguyen may have been still alive. Unwin, 40, of Houghton, and McFall, 51, of Blackpool, are on trial at Newcastle Crown Court accused of her rape and murder, which they both deny. Prosecutor Jamie Hill QC has told jurors about the 'bad character' of the two men, which includes them, separately, setting fires and murdering people. Jurors have been told the men met while serving their life sentences at HMP Swaleside in Kent. The murderers wrote to each other when they were sent to separate prisons until they ended up at the same jail in East Yorkshire, while they were being prepared for release. Quyen Ngoc Nguyen, who was known as 'Anna', was a 28-year-old nail salon worker who was found dead in the back of her Audi A4 During interviews after the pair were arrested over the killing of Miss Nguyen, both men denied any involvement in Miss Nguyen's murder. McFall told jurors in a prepared statement: 'I have a previous conviction for murder. 'I was released on life licence on 10 December 2010, having served 14 years and seven months of a sentence for murder. 'I pleaded guilty to that offence and had no trial. Friends and family wear mourning headbands in tribute to Quyen Ngoc Nguyen during an earlier court hearing into her murder at Newcastle Crown Court During separate interviews, Unwin admitted the victim had been at his house that night but claimed she was 'fit and well' when she left a short time later 'I met Stephen Unwin around 2002 in HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. 'He was serving a life sentence for murder. 'I again met him in prison in East Yorkshire, when we were both heading for release. 'We lost touch in about 2010 but got back in touch in 2014/15.' McFall, who was known as 'John', told detectives Unwin, who ran his own property maintenance firm after his release, would hire him to do painting and decorating work at a rate of around 50 per day, while he was claiming benefits. McFall told police he loved the girlfriend he was seeing at the time and added: 'Prison has obviously changed me a hell of a lot, for the better.' Mr Hill, prosecuting, said some of the properties she was involved in had been used as cannabis farms and it is claimed the men were involved in stealing crops (pictured: Quyen Ngoc Nguyen) He added in his statement: 'I have absolutely no knowledge of this offence or any involvement.' During separate interviews, Unwin admitted the victim had been at his house that night but claimed she was 'fit and well' when she left a short time later. He said: 'I never hurt her and I have never raped her and neither did John.' Jurors have heard the men now blame each other for the killing. The court heard Unwin was convicted of murder after he broke into a 73-year-old man's home in Houghton Le Spring on Christmas Day in 1998 and attacked then stabbed him in the chest before starting three fires. Unwin was sentenced to life imprisonment when he pleaded guilty to murder in 1999 and released on licence in 2012. The court heard McFall was convicted of murder at Belfast Crown Court in April 1997. The court heard it is unclear why the single mother, who was 'tiny' in stature, visited Unwin's house on August 14 but prosecutors say she walked into a 'trap' and was carried out, dying, in a plastic sheet by one of her killers In May 1996 he had broken into the home of 86-year-old Martha Gilmore, who had mobility problems, at Station Road, Greencastle and repeatedly hit her with a hammer. McFall was released on licence in 2010. Prosecutors claim the motive for Miss Nguyen's killing was a combination of'violent, warped sexual fantasy and greed'. The court heard McFall took a 'smiling selfie' of himself and his accomplice, who was driving, in another car after the killing. And in the days before the murder the men had exchanged a series of shocking, sexually graphic texts including one from McFall asking Unwin 'we raping the ch**k xxxx'. McFall had also taken a 'selfie' posing with a gas gun on the day of the killing, which was later found and contained heavy traces of the victim's DNA. Prosecutor Jamie Hill Qc told jurors the victim, who had met the men through her involvement in rental properties, had been held captive at Unwin's house, where she was raped and 'incapacitated' Mr Hill said a reason for the murder was 'depraved sexual lust and financial gain'. The nail bar worker's badly burned body was later found face down on the back seat of her Audi A4 on this dirt road Mr Hill said some of the properties she was involved in had been used as cannabis farms and it is claimed the men were involved in stealing crops. The court heard it is unclear why the single mother, who was 'tiny' in stature, visited Unwin's house on August 14 but prosecutors say she walked into a 'trap' and was carried out, dying, in a plastic sheet by one of her killers. Mr Hill said Unwin greeted the victim at the back door, while gesturing for McFall to stay out of sight until she was inside and alone with them. Mr Hill added: 'At various stages McFall and Unwin were alone with Miss Nguyen but for the majority of the time they were both in the house with her.' Floral tributes left at the scene in Shiney Row, County Durham, where the body of Quyen Ngoc Nguyen was found in a burned out car The court heard DNA, CCTV and strands of circumstantial evidence can shed some light onto the 'terrifying' ordeal the victim endured. Mr Hill added: 'The prosecution says that she was sexually abused and raped and also threatened into providing her PIN numbers for her two bank cards. 'It may be that they were also after the whereabouts of other cannabis growers. 'When the defendants had finished abusing her, and gained access to her money, they decided to dispose of her, determined to destroy the evidence of what they had been doing.' The court heard the victim's DNA was found inside the Marvel lounge pants Unwin had been wearing and there were traces in McFall's shorts. Both men deny murder and rape. The trial continues. A woman accused of falsely claiming to be a Grenfell Tower survivor to get free handouts and a room at the Hilton 'thought she was untouchable', a court heard today. Joyce Msokeri, 47, is a 'skilled manipulator' who latched on to the grief of real victims so she could pocket cash and designer clothing, said prosecutor David Jeremy QC. She is said to have benefited so much from the generosity of kind-natured members of the public that her hotel room was overflowing with gifts. The trial of Joyce Msokeri, 47, continued today in her absence after the was taken to hospital for tests. Prosecutors described her as a skilled manipulator' in Southwark Crown Court Ms Msokeri is accused of falsely claiming she was a resident in Grenfell Tower, pictured, and lost her non-existent husband in the tragedy to claim a free hotel room and financial handouts, she denies three counts of fraud and one count of possessing a fraudulent document Msokeri claimed her husband died in the blaze and 'put on a show', rolling around on the floor with grief when she was shown footage of a victim she claimed was her partner, Southwark Crown Court heard. The alleged fraudster was not in court for prosecutor's closing speech to jurors at Southwark Crown Court because she fell ill last Wednesday while in custody at HMP Bronzefield. Judge Michael Grieve QC told the jury Msokeri had been taken to hospital for medical tests and it was not known when she would be discharged. He said he had decided the trial - which he described as 'unique' - should continue in her absence. The court heard Msokeri has no previous convictions or cautions. 'You will hear no more evidence,' prosecutor David Jeremy QC told the jury in his closing speech. 'You will soon decide the case on the evidence that you have heard.' The prosecutor claimed the evidence demonstrated her guilt 'over and over again'. He said: 'The evidence in this case, if you really think about it, explains not only that she has committed these crimes but it explains why and how. 'She got away with it for a certain amount of time because she is a skilled manipulator.' The prosecutor said the only reason why they have been sitting through a criminal trial was because Msokeri simply 'refuses' to accept her guilt. The court heard that Msokeri checked into the Westway Centre a day after the inferno ripped through the building. Msokeri claimed she had stumbled out of the tower and was left struggling to speak properly. But jurors heard an angry phone call Msokeri is said to have made to Sky to complain. The prosecutor said that the audio message heard did not paint the picture of a person who was caught up in the ferocity of the blaze. 'It did not seem as though she had problems getting sentences out as she harangued the man on the other end of the phone, did it?' Describing the 'fake husbands' Msokeri is said to have made up, Mr Jeremy said that she thought she could just simply get away with it. He said she 'latched' onto the grief of real victims so she could pocket money and handouts because her sole motivation was greed. 'She didn't blunder into this fraud - she planned it,' he said. 'She thought she was untouchable, she thought she could do anything.' Msokeri, of Sutton, south London denies three counts of fraud and one count of possessing a fraudulent document. The trial continues. Police in Spain have arrested 155 people and smashed an international Chinese human trafficking gang that smuggled people into Britain and Ireland. Officers say gang chiefs charged migrants a flat fee of 20,000 (18,000) each for getting them to their final destination with fake passports. They were hidden in flats near Barcelona after reaching Europe before being put on flights leaving mostly from the city's El Prat airport. Spanish police raided properties near Barcelona's El Prat airport as part of the operation against the people smugglers Chinese and Taiwanese passports, mobile phones and a large amount Chinese currency were recovered The migrants stayed in what appeared to he squalid conditions while they were issued with new documents A total of 155 people including four of the leaders have been arrested. Pictured are some of the migrants, who were waiting to go to their final destination when the police arrived A police office holds a fake visa stamp that was seized along with the passports Officers making their way to one of the apartments where the migrants were staying The illegal operation was smashed after five migrants entered a witness protection programme in exchange for giving evidence against gang bosses. Spanish authorities went public with the arrests today as they published footage of the moment armed officers forced their way into one of the apartments used as part of the human trafficking operation. It showed police shouting out: 'Police, police, get up' as they identified those inside before counting out cash and other incriminating evidence they found inside. Spanish authorities also revealed migrants had been taught key words in English by teacher-type 'facilitators' to maximise their chances of reaching their final destination. Among the phrases found on flashcards at the scene were: Do you speak English?, Do you have return ticket?, and How long will you stay in this country? A spokesman for Spain's National Police confirmed: 'National Police officers have dismantled an international organisation specialising in the smuggling of people from China into the UK and Ireland. Police officers examining documents discovered during the raid on the flat The passports were made in China and sent by courier to Spain. Once they arrived budget airline tickets were bought for the migrants on the day of the flight Each victim paid 20,000 to the gang which police say covered the cost of the fake passports and they other help they needed to cross borders 'Each victim paid 20,000. The operation has resulted in the arrest of 155 mostly Chinese people, including the four alleged leaders of the organisation. 'The money people covered the cost of all the passports they needed to reach their destination and other help they received from members of the organisation to cross borders. 'After reaching Schengen territory, the migrants were taken to different municipalities in the province of Barcelona and put up temporarily in safe flats where the travel documents they had used to get to Europe were taken from them while they waited for new documents to arrive. 'The passports were created in China and sent to Spain using courier firms. Once they arrived, the organisation bought air tickets with budget airlines the same day of the flight.' Revealing facilitators who guided the migrants handed them key phrases in English which they learned to help them get through customs controls. The spokesman added in a statement: 'Officers managed to get five migrants to agree to testify against the organisation as protected witnesses, a development which was of great value given its hermetic nature and the migrants' fear of possible reprisals.' Three properties - two in Santa Coloma de Gramanet and one in Badalona near Barcelona where the four arrests of the suspected leaders of the smuggling organisation took place - were raided as part of the operation. Around 27,000 (24,000) was seized along with other incriminating evidence. The other 151 arrests took place at Spanish airports, most at El Prat in Barcelona. It was unclear exactly where the migrants came from, although some of the flashcards indicated they were expecting to be asked about Taiwan, the island nation over which China claims sovereignty. One card coached the migrants on the name of the Taiwanese president, while another asked if they had any Taiwanese money. Among the other paraphernalia seized by police was a Schengen area entry stamp, designed for use in passports. Officers did not disclose whether the stamp had been stolen or copied. It is understood that the Spanish investigation began almost three years ago after border control officers detected a significant increase in the use of forged documents by Asian citizens. The five passengers on board the helicopter that plunged into the East River on Sunday drowned to death after finding themselves trapped upside down by their harnesses. The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Tuesday ruled that the cause of death for all five victims was accidental drowning. They were officially identified as Daniel Thompson, 34; Tristan Hill, 29; Trevor Cadigan, 26; Brian McDaniel, 26; and Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29. Trevor Cadigan, right, recorded this video at the his helicopter tour of New York City on Sunday. Cadigan and his friend, Brian McDaniel, left, would later be found strapped inside their harnesses Cadigan was a journalist and his friend McDaniel was visiting him from Dallas, where he worked as a firefighter. Blanco was a tourist from Argentina, Hill worked for a sightseeing startup and Thompson was a chorus singer. Divers searching the crash site found the passengers still strapped into their tight-fitting harnesses. The harnesses, which had kept them safe while they were in the air, ultimately prevented their escape, the New York City Fire Department revealed yesterday. Rescue divers found them dozens of feet below below the water inside the capsized chopper, said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro. 'It took a while for the divers to get these people out. They worked very quickly, as fast as they could,' Nigro said. 'It was a great tragedy that we had here.' A law enforcement source noted how the harnesses did 'too good a job'. 'The harness, which was supposed to keep them strapped in while they're taking pictures, also kept them locked in while they were underwater,' they told the New York Post. Footage from the moment of the crash shows the helicopter descending upright onto the water as if to land, then hitting the water and flipping over 'It did too good a job. They couldn't free themselves,' the source said. The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350, crashed into the water around 7.06pm on Sunday near East 90th Street and Roosevelt Island, in the waters just off of Gracie Mansion. The pilot, Richard Vance (pictured), who is from Danbury, Connecticut, said the aircraft went down because of engine failure. Pilot Richard Vance, 33, escaped the crash moments after impact, but the five passengers were trapped inside, unable to escape from their safety harnesses as the helicopter flipped and sank, police said. The water temperature was just 39 degrees at the time of the crash. Two passengers died at the scene and three were transported to hospitals in critical condition, said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro. Those three were all pronounced dead in the hospital, fire officials said early Monday. Hill moved to the city a few months ago to work as the director of operations at sightseeing company SightSy. He planned to marry his fiance Eda Ozmen, a yoga instructor, back in Reno, Nevada, where the Singapore-born man grew up, on May 26. Thompson was president of the non-profit organization Young New Yorkers' Chorus, where he had performed since 2008 as a member of the mixed ensemble. Cadigan also a recent transplant to the city, moving in October to intern at Business Insider. His friend McDaniel, also 26, was on a trip to visit his longtime friend.The two both attended Bishop Lynch High School together. Cadigan got a degree in journalism from Southern Methodist University while his friend went into firefighting. Friends Brian McDaniel (left) and Trevor Cadigan (right) were both 26 and hailed from Texas. Cadigan moved to New York in October for an internship at Business Insider One of the other victims was Argentine tourist Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29 (pictured) Tristan Hill, 29 (pictured), worked for a sightseeing company and was due to be married at the end of May Daniel Thompson was president of the non-profit organization Young New Yorkers' Chorus, where he had performed since 2008 as a member of the mixed ensemble The National Transportation Safety Board is looking into whether an emergency flotation device on the helicopter deployed properly. The floats are supposed allow a helicopter to stay upright, rather than overturning and submerging. NTSB member Bella Dinh-Zarr said Monday it will be some time before that finding is made. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, is calling on the Federal Aviation Administration to suspend Liberty Helicopters operating license until the facts of the crash are known. Schumer said Monday the tour and charter company shouldnt fly until officials 'get to the bottom of this.' Video shows the dramatic moment the helicopter landed in the water, flipped, and then began to sink into the 39-degree waters. A few moments later, witnesses saw the pilot surface with a yellow raft. He was rescued by a tug boat. Part of the reason why it took so long to pull their bodies from the sunken wreckage was because they were strapped in with special harnesses that had allowed them to lean out and take pictures of the city while the doors of the helicopter were open. 'One of the most difficult parts of the operation, we're told, was the five people, besides the pilot, were all tightly harnessed,' said Commissioner Nigro. 'So these harnesses had to be cut and removed in order to get these folks off of this helicopter.' A branch of the discount store Poundworld has been fined almost 1.2 million after inspectors found an 'out of control' infestation of mice. Council food safety officers found the shop, which sells many of its products for a pound or less, was dirty and littered with mouse droppings, gnawed food packaging on display and rodent urine and faeces found in a stock room. Some of the products with gnawed packaging had been 'repaired' with adhesive tape and returned to the shop shelves to be sold as normal. A branch of the discount store Poundworld in Croydon, south London, has been fined almost 1.2 million after inspectors found an 'out of control' infestation of mice in the stock room (image shows mice droppings surrounding products that may have been sold in the store) The store in Croydon, south London, has now been fined the sum after admitting five food safety offences and two breaches of health and safety at work regulations. Judge Smaller, sentencing at Croydon Crown Court on Friday, said: 'The smell of rodents' urine was discernible upon immediate approach to the food section of the store.' The company were fined 660,000 for the food safety offences, and 500,000 for one of the health and safety at work offences - with no separate penalty for the second. Judge Smaller also awarded costs of 30,400 and a victim surcharge of 120, with the total figure amounting to 1,190,530. The council were alerted after a member of the public claimed to have seen evidence of a rodent infestation on the shopfloor of the store in February 2016. Officers visited and found the infestation, before consulting with the store management, who agreed to immediately cease the sale of food. Council food safety officers found the shop, which sells many of its products for a pound or less, was dirty and littered with mouse droppings, gnawed food packaging on display and rodent urine and faeces found in a stock room (image shows gnawed products in stock room) The basement and storage areas were also found to be contaminated with mouse droppings, while some areas were too dark. The goods lift was out of order, forcing staff members having to manually carry goods up to the shopfloor, and no risk assessment had been carried out for this. There was also no hot water, inadequate heating and poor housekeeping, which resulted in stock being left in a haphazard and dangerous manner. The company were fined 660,000 for the food safety offences, and 500,000 for one of the health and safety at work offences - with no separate penalty for the second (Croydon branch) Poundworld was bought by Poundworld Bidco Ltd in May 2015 on behalf of funds controlled by TPG Capital, a global private equity investment firm with assets worth more than 57 billion. Court-requested details of TPG were 'respectfully declined' by the defendant's counsel after he said Poundworld, TPG and other companies are not linked organisations. Judge Smaller, sentencing at Croydon Crown Court on Friday, said: 'The smell of rodents' urine was discernible upon immediate approach to the food section of the store.' Judge Smaller said: 'In the absence of being given sufficient reliable information, I am entitled to draw reasonable inferences that Poundworld can pay any fine.' Councillor Hamida Ali, cabinet member for communities, safety and justice, said: 'I am pleased to see that by imposing such a substantial level of fines and costs, the courts take seriously the matter of food retailers' responsibility to ensure they adhere to legal requirements designed to protect the health and safety of their customers and staff. 'The degree to which this company failed to uphold cleanliness and safety standards in its premier town-centre store beggars belief, and the financial penalty imposed is - to most people's minds, I'm sure - entirely justified..' A New York police department has come under fire after its officers were caught on camera using their patrol cars to run over and kill a raccoon. The disturbing video, which has been watched more than six million times on Facebook, was filmed and posted by Bryanna Catucci. Catucci was in the parking lot of a Shop 'n Save grocery store in Ravena on Monday when she saw two police cars, one an unmarked white sedan and the other a patrol car, circling the raccoon. The Town of Coeymans Police Department in New York is under fire after its officers were caught on camera using their patrol cars to run over and kill a raccoon Bryanna Catucci posted two clips on Facebook of the police cars hitting the raccoon (pictured) 'Leaving the grocery store to find two cops charging at a raccoon in a car for 15 minutes until dead,' she wrote in the caption. 'You would think if it had rabies they would shoot him dead instead of torturing. Sad day.' Catucci posted two clips of the the police cars. The first video shows a white car running over the raccoon but missing it. A marked cop car follows right after, but also misses the animal. The second video shows the unmarked white car clipping the raccoon and sending it falling to the ground. The officers then watch from their window as it manages to get back up. A number of witnesses saw the scene, right up until the raccoon was finally killed. 'It was devastating to watch. It literally went on for 20-25 minutes,' Amanda Myers told News 10 ABC. 'They would come back around, kind of nick the raccoon, kind of make it tumble. Finally, I think one hit near the end finally did a number on the raccoon.' The second video shows the unmarked white police car clipping the raccoon and sending it falling to the ground The officers then watch from their window as it manages to get back up again. But witnesses said the police officers didn't stop until the raccoon was dead 'We were horrified, we couldn't believe what we were seeing.' Catucci was also left disgusted by the scene. 'I was in complete shock,' she said. 'He just went right at it.' The Town of Coeymans Police Department released a statement about the incident and said it received 'numerous calls about a rabid raccoon' in the plaza. 'The raccoon had attempted to get into the establishment at one point. Our officers did find the raccoon, but it was not in an area that was safe to discharge a firearm due to the proximity of pedestrians and residencies,' the statement read. 'They dispatched the raccoon as quickly and humanely as possible.' But Myers and Catucci, along with many others who have since seen the videos, are not convinced. The Town of Coeymans Police Department released a statement about the incident and said it received 'numerous calls about a rabid raccoon' in the plaza 'It was not humane in any way shape or form,' Myers said. 'I'm not sure who's worse: the officers who perpetrated this cruelty or the department that defends it,' a Facebook user commented on the statement. 'Your department is an utter embarrassment to the badge. Shame on you all. I hope that you're all held accountable.' Another said they found the entire thing to be 'absolutely disgraceful'. 'Wouldn't dispatching animal control be the most responsible choice? After all, they have far more humane ways of dealing with an animal in distress rather than running it over with their car,' the user wrote. Some users revealed they planned to protest at the station, while others said their local Humane Society chapters were looking into the incident. The Albany County District Attorney's Office has been made aware of the incident and plans to reach out to investigators from the state's Department of Environmental Conservation. A US Airman gunned down his wife and their two young children as they lay in their beds before he turned the gun on himself in what Washington state authorities say was a triple murder-suicide. The Pierce County sheriff's office said early Tuesday that they found the bodies inside a home near Spanaway, 45 miles south of Seattle, after the man called 911 just after 1:00am on Tuesday and reported that he had killed his family. 'He thanked us for our time, but said by the time we got there he would be deceased as well, and he followed through with that,' said Pierce County Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer. The children included a boy, 2, and a girl, 4. The sheriff's office said the 29-year-old man was a member of the US Air Force, who was stationed at nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Investigators say that the airman may have been facing a pending divorce, according to KIRO-TV. The airman had also threatened to commit suicide in the past and was treated for mental illness, according to investigators. A Pierce County Sheriff's Dept. deputy walks under crime scene tape on Tuesday in front of a home in Spanaway, Washington, where a US airman carried out a triple murder-suicide The sheriff's office said the 29-year-old man was a member of the US Air Force, who was stationed at nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord Authorities said that the family was originally from the East Coast. They said they had moved to the Northwest region less than a year ago after the airman's deployment in Korea, according to Q13 Fox TV. There was no record of any domestic violence complaints from the house, according to Pierce County Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer. 'This is a tragic case,' Troyer told KING-TV. 'We dont know what led up to it. We dont have any background.' The identities of the dead family members have yet to be released. 'We need to try and determine why this happened, and the reason why we want to determine why is because maybe we can find something that will stop this from happening again in the future with somebody else that may be in crisis or having a problem,' Troyer said. Daine Patton says he sold the home to the family about a year ago. 'It really breaks my heart for those kids ... to be killed by their father. That's horrible,' he said. US Air Force personnel from JBLM have also joined in the investigation. Nicaragua Police have detained the man accused of killing a nursing student he was supposedly obsessed with after he fled the country. Orlanda Tercero, 22, was arrested on Tuesday by the Nicaragua National Police in connection to the death of 22-year-old Haley Anderson, ABC News reports. Tercero fled New York by flying from JFK to Nicaragua, last Friday, Binghampton Police assert. On Tuesday night, he was transferred to a prison located 40 miles southwest of capitol, Managua. Orlanda Tercero, 22, was arrested on Tuesday by the Nicaragua National Police in connection to the death of 22-year-old Haley Anderson Anderson's death was ruled a homicide after her body was found at a off-campus apartment near Binghampton University. Tercero 'fled the United States via international air to Nicaragua prior to the discovery of Haley Anderson's deceased body,' according to a statement released by police. While the two were said to have only 'hooked up' and were never romantically linked, Tercero was said to have been obsessed with Anderson. Anderson's body was found lying 'formally' in Tercero's bed in this off-campus house on Friday. Her worried friends traced her iPhone to the property and climbed inside a window to gain access to it. It is near Binghamton University in New York, where they all study Anderson's roommates found her body lying in his bed after climbing in through a side window. They say Tercero was angry because she had earlier dumped him for her a different man. 'He never got over his obsession with her,' Misha Topalli, Anderson's roommate and friend, told TIME. 'They hooked up in the past, but to her, it was pretty platonic and she didn't want to have anything seriously,' she added. By the time police named him a suspect, Tercero was on board a flight back to Nicaragua where he has family. He has since deleted his Facebook profile and Nicaraguan officials say they do not know if they will extradite him to face charges. Anderson's said they knew she was dead by the color of her skin. They had tracked her cell phone using the Find My iPhone app to the other student home. Police have not yet revealed how the young woman died or what condition she was found in but her friends said she appeared she had been dead for a while. They also found a handprint bruise on her arm. The girls who found Anderson said she had a handprint bruise on her arm but that there was no blood in sight. By the time she was found and police were called, Tercero was on his way back to Nicaragua 'She was in Orlando's room. She was in the bed. Looking back at it, she was clearly dead, because living people aren't that color,' Josephine Artin told The New York Post. 'At the time, we didn't want that to be true. We called the police. My friend was on the phone with them. They asked, 'Is she breathing?' so I went over to her and I just I wanted her to be alive. But I could tell she hadn't just died. I'm sure it had happened the day before, based on her color,' she added. Artin said she had been laid there looking 'very formal' but there was no blood in sight. 'There was no blood. The way she was lying, I wasn't sure if that's where she died or he put her there. It was very formal she was on her back laying on the bed and she had a blanket halfway up her body. And she just had her arms at her side. Tercero, who was also studying nursing, is said to have sent a text message to one of his sisters in Nicaragua before he fled to tell her he had done something 'bad'. It is not clear if he will be extradited 'There was a handprint bruise on her arm. When I saw that, that's when I knew for [sure] that Orlando had done this to her,' she added. Before fleeing to Nicaragua, Tercero allegedly told one of his sisters he had 'done something bad' and 'was a disgrace to their family', one of his roommates said. In the weeks before her death, the students said Tercero drove past his alleged victim's home and once even slashed her tires. Anderson was last seen leaving her friends house after drinking wine and playing board games until 4am on Thursday. The alarm was raised when she did not answer her phone the next day. Anderson has been described as 'bright' and 'loving' by those who knew her. Her co-worker, Athena Anadnostakos, who worked with her for years at Jazzman's Cafe on campus, spoke highly of the late student in a statement to Fox 40. 'She was a very good girl. She was friendly, joked around... we had a good time together,' Anadnostakos told the news station. 'Everybody is sad... a lot of students came to New York together and they cried today. They were all so close, she said, in tears. After news of her death emerged, the university shared a message of condolence on its Facebook page. Friends said Anderson was 'bright' and loving. She was last seen on Wednesday night drinking wine and playing games with her friends 'The Binghamton University community is deeply saddened to learn of the death of senior nursing student Haley Anderson, whose death is being investigated by the Binghamton Police Department,' the post read in part. 'There is no threat to public safety at this time. The investigation is continuing at this hour. 'Anyone with information can contact the Binghamton Police Detective Division at 607-772-7080 or 607-772-7082.' The message said further: 'Our entire University community extends our deepest condolences to Haley's family and friends, both here in Binghamton and in her hometown of Westbury, N.Y.' A 21-year-old American could face a fine of 10,000 ($12,300) for urinating on the steps of the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. The tourist, who has not be named, was visiting from New Jersey and was caught in the act in the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to reports from local news. He was apprehended for 'acts contrary to public decency' - an offence which can lead to a fine between 5,000 and 10,000 (6,000 to 12,300). A 21-year-old American could face a fine of 10,000 ($12,300) for urinating on the steps of the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence (file photo) It is claimed that the man, believed to be a student visiting Italy with friends, urinated next to a famed statue of Hercules. The Loggia dei Lanzi was completed in 1382, and is an open air building to view sculptures and art. This is not the first time tourists have acted disrespectfully towards Italy's landmarks - in 2016 three women stripped down to their bikinis to swim in Fontana dell'Acqua Paola. The tourists caused outrage after they cooled off in a 400-year-old fountain to escape the summer heat. The Loggia dei Lanzi was completed in 1382, and is an open air building to view sculptures and art (file photo) Locals fumed at their apparent lack of respect for the 17th century monument, after they were snapped in the act, and while pondering on their nationality decided that only the English or Germans would behave in such a 'rude' manner. Temperatures soared to 32C in Rome over that weekend, but locals saw this as no excuse to strip off and take a plunge. Online magazine Trastevere vented its outrage about the act on twitter, posting: 'It is very hot but the fountain of the Janiculum can not become a pool x tourists Rome deserves more respect!' A 20-year-old mother from Minnesota is expected to be given six months in jail on Wednesday for fatally shooting her boyfriend during a botched YouTube stunt last year. Monalisa Perez, who was pregnant at the time with her second child, was arrested in June 2017 after shooting her boyfriend, 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz III, in the chest for a YouTube video. She had their son in September. The mother-of-two took a plea deal in December that will allow her to serve out half of her jail term in increments of 30 days per year for the next three years. Authorities said the remainder of the sentence could be waived and replaced with electronic home monitoring, provided that Perez does not violate the terms of her 10-year supervised probation. Scroll down for video Monalisa Perez (left), 20, of Minnesota, is expected to be given six months in jail on Wednesday for fatally shooting her boyfriend, Pedro Ruiz III (right), 22, during a botched YouTube stunt last year Online stars: The couple's YouTube channel had 218 subscribers at the time and included various pranks. They are pictured above filming one of the pranks Perez cannot 'make any financial compensation' from the recording of Ruiz's death, according to the Star Tribune. She is also banned from ever possessing firearms. After the shooting, Perez told police on a 911 call that Ruiz had asked her to fire a bullet from a .50-caliber Desert Eagle pistol into an encyclopedia as he held it against his body. But the projectile penetrated the volume and fatally wounded the young father. The fatal shooting was captured on two cameras that had been set up to record the stunt. Police said they do not plan to release the footage. The mother-of-two took a plea deal in December that will allow her to serve out half of her jail term in increments of 30 days per year for the next three years Ruiz is survived by the two children he fathered with Perez. His eldest, a daughter, witnessed his shooting Perez told a 911 dispatcher their YouTube prank had failed and her boyfriend had been shot in the chest Their three-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, was present when the shooting occurred. 'We were doing a YouTube video and it went wrong. Please hurry up,' Perez told the 911 dispatcher in June 2017. Prior to the shooting, Perez had tweeted: 'Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE'. If the 20-year-old had gone to trial and was found guilty, she could have been looking at up to 10 years behind bars. The prosecutor handling Perez's case said Ruiz's family members signed off on the plea deal. The couple's YouTube channel had 218 subscribers at the time and included pranks like Perez feeding Ruiz donuts covered in baby powder. In their last video together, the family go to a fairground and Perez says: 'Imagine when we have 300,000 subscribers.' The couple's YouTube channel had 218 subscribers at the time and included pranks like Perez feeding Ruiz donuts covered in baby powder Prior to the shooting, Perez had tweeted: 'Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE' A heroic off-duty police officer has saved an elderly couple from an alleged attempted carjacking. The officer was walking on Ashleigh Avenue in Frankston, south-east Melbourne, about 8pm on Tuesday when he heard cries for help. He saw a man allegedly threatening a man, 82 and a woman, 67, in a car space at a local shopping centre and approached the scene. Scroll down for video A heroic off-duty police officer has saved an elderly couple from an alleged attempted carjacking (pictured are police at the scene) The officer was walking on Ashleigh Avenue in Frankston, south-east Melbourne, about 8pm on Tuesday when he heard cries for help (pictured is a witness who spoke to reporters) The man then allegedly turned on the off-duty officer, threatening him with the knife and demanding his car keys. The officer fended off the attacker and managed to force the alleged carjacker to drop the weapon. 'He was pretty calm the way he approached, the guy was very erratic and lunged at him with a knife and he took him down pretty quick,' a witness told the Today show. Frankston Embona Taskforce detectives who were patrolling the area at the time arrested a 21-year-old man from South Dudley minutes later. Police will interview the man in relation to attempted aggravated carjacking, attempted armed robbery and weapon offences. The police officer suffered minor cuts to his hands during the incident and the elderly couple were not injured. Thousands of pairs of shoes were placed on the lawn in front of the US Capitol on Tuesday to mark every child who has been killed due to gun violence since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre. According to global advocacy group Avaaz, which organized the protests, 7,000 pairs of shoes were collected for the 'Monument for our Kids' memorial to bring 'the heartbreak of gun violence to Congress' doorstep'. Though most of the shoes were collected in a two week period, some were donated by families who lost their children to gun violence. The organization also said that some celebrities donated shoes as well, including Chelsea Handler, Alyssa Milano, Bette Midler, and Susan Sarandon. Thousands of pairs of shoes were placed on the lawn in front of the US Capitol on Tuesday to mark every child who has been killed due to gun violence since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre According to activist group Avaaz, which organized the protests, 7,000 pairs of shoes were collected for the 'Monument for our Kids' memorial to bring 'the heartbreak of gun violence to Congress' doorstep' Though most of the shoes were collected in a two week period, some of those were donated by families who lost their children to gun violence One of the parents who attended the protest on Tuesday was Tom Mauser, whose 15-year-old son Daniel was killed in the 1999 Columbine shooting. He wore the gray Vans his son was wearing when he was shot. 'I'll be traveling to DC literally wearing my son Daniel's shoes, the ones he wore the day he died at Columbine,' Mauser said in a press release before the event. 'I think this kind of event with shoes offers a very powerful metaphor both for how we miss the victims who once filled those shoes, and also for how we see ourselves wanting to walk in their place, seeking change, so that others don't have to walk this painful journey.' Event organizers claimed the 7,000 pairs of shoes - 14,000 shoes altogether - symbolized the 7,000 children killed in the US between December 14, 2012 and March 13, 2018. The organization also said that some celebrities donated shoes as well, including Chelsea Handler, Alyssa Milano, Bette Midler, and Susan Sarandon Event organizers claimed the 7,000 pairs of shoes - 14,000 shoes altogether - symbolized the 7,000 children killed in the US between December 14, 2012 and March 13, 2018 Lori Haas, whose daughter was shot twice during the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, stands among the 7,000 empty pairs of shoes in front of the US Capitol According to a press release issued in advance of the event, the figure of 7,000 came in part from an American Academy of Pediatrics study. Although there was no link to any figures or date, Avaaz said the study found that guns kill an average of '1,300 American kids a year'. Between the Sandy Hook massacre and the US Capitol protest, about five years and three months have passed. The figure used by Avaaz would amount to approximately 6,825 children killed by guns in that time period. The memorial comes the day before the scheduled national student walkout to protest gun violence following the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting last month Students all over the country plan to walk out of school for exactly 17 minutes at 10am local time to honor the 17 people who lost their lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School One of the parents who attended the protest on Tuesday was Tom Mauser, whose 15-year-old son Daniel was killed in the 1999 Columbine shooting The memorial comes the day before the scheduled national student walkout to protest gun violence following the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting last month. Students all over the country plan to walk out of school for exactly 17 minutes at 10am local time to honor the 17 people who lost their lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It also comes ahead of the March For Our Lives protest on March 24 during which students will take to the streets of Washington, DC to protest gun violence and advocate for measures of gun control The Parkland shooting was the deadliest school shooting since 26 - 20 students and six teachers - were killed in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. A gang has been jailed for a cowardly, violent and unprovoked attack which left a Kurdish-Iranian student with life-changing injuries. Reker Ahmed was subjected to two beatings over the course of 16 minutes, when he and two friends got caught up in the fight in Croydon, south London. The 17-year-old suffered a fractured spine, a bleed on the brain and facial fractures on the Shrublands Estate shortly after midnight on March 31. Six men have been jailed for up to four years and two months for the brutal attack on asylum seeker Reker Ahmed in Croydon, south London on March 31 last year. The men, from top left, James Neves, Ben Harman, George Jefferey and bottom row from left, George Walder, Lliam Neylon and Kurt Killick were found guilty by a jury of violent disorder Reker Ahmed, pictured, suffered a fractured spine, a bleed on the brain and facial fractures on the Shrublands Estate in Croydon shortly after midnight on March 31 last year Six men, all from Croydon, were sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on Monday for their parts in the incident. George Jeffrey, 21, George Walder, 21, Lliam Neylon, 20, and Ben Harman, 21, were each jailed for four years and two months. Kurt Killick, 18, was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment. They were each found guilty by a jury at trial of two counts of violent disorder. Millie Walder, 18, from Croydon received a community order having earlier pleaded guilty to a public order offence James Neves, 23, of no fixed address, was given two years and four months for one count of violent disorder. Prosecutor Ben Holt previously told the court: 'This was a cowardly and unprovoked attack by a group of friends on three people who were not known to them. 'The precise motive of the attack remains unclear, but there was a racist insult by one defendant at the outset of the attack.' Mr Ahmed, who has no memory of the attack, said that he has since tried to take his own life, has nightmares and flashbacks and does not sleep properly. He said in a statement: 'Since I was attacked I feel extremely distressed and anxious. I cannot understand why anyone would want to hurt me like this for no reason.' During the trial, the jury heard that one of the attackers yelled 'You are asylum seekers, you are refugees, you have to go back to your country' at Mr Ahmed and his friend when they told him they were from Iraq and Iran. The subsequent fight was so violent that a female passer-by pleaded: 'Stop. You're killing him.' Mr Ahmed was allegedly stamped on during the second assault in what was described by the prosecution as a 'disgraceful episode of violence and thuggery'. Millie Walder, 18, from Croydon, was previously given a community order after pleading guilty to a public order offence. A school is refusing to expel a group of white pupils who chained a black student to a lamppost and whipped him in a reported 'mock slave auction'. The terrified youngster was hit with sticks by seven teens who hurled abhorrent racist slurs at him and made references to the slave trade. Three of the alleged involved were originally expelled but were allowed to return to the classroom when the board of governors overturned the headteacher's decision. Seven white teenage pupils chained a black student to a lamppost and whipped him in a reported 'mock slave auction'. The school, in Somerset, Bath, refused to expel the pupils following the incident (stock image) The governors decided the expelled trio should instead be suspended for two weeks along with the other four boys involved. The secondary school in Bath, Somerset, claims it 'thoroughly investigated' the incident in January took action 'in line with statutory procedures'. The victim's parents did not wish to comment but other parents expressed their outrage at the troubling situation. Police confirmed they are investigating the alleged incident, said to have taken place on school grounds during a lunch break. The school said: 'An incident took place in January which involved a group of established friends. 'This incident was thoroughly investigated by the school and action taken, in line with statutory procedures. The terrified youngster was hit with sticks by seven teens who hurled racial slurs at him and made references to the slave trade. Three of the alleged involved were expelled but allowed to return to the classroom when the board of governors overturned the headteacher's decision 'The police were informed by us and an investigation is ongoing, fully assisted by the school.' The chair of the board of governors said he was 'not able to add anything' to the statement issued by the headteacher. The school did not tell parents about the incident until March 13. But news of the incident had already spread, and several parents with children at the school contacted local media to express their disgust. One couple, with mixed-race children, said they were appalled at the implied message to pupils about the acceptability of racist behaviour. The father told the Bath Chronicle: 'It just sends the wrong message out to the children. The governors decided the expelled trio should instead be suspended for two weeks along with the other four boys involved. The secondary school in Bath, Somerset, claims it 'thoroughly investigated' the incident in January took action 'in line with statutory procedures' 'I've got a mixed-race son. He's thinking "they're going to stick up for the white kids but we get in trouble if we do something wrong".' His partner agreed, saying she was still 'reeling' from shock at the apparent attitude of the school towards racism and the impact of that on the traumatised victim. 'I want that child to know he's got people around him, supporting him, who will not tolerate that kind of behaviour,' she said. 'The boy it happened to is just the sweetest little thing ever. He's so sweet and kind and gentle. It just makes it even worse. 'The thing is I've got a mixed-race child and so has my partner. They believe nothing will happen to white children if they behave badly but something happens to them.' She said, as a mother, she did not blame the perpetrators, who were just 'children', but that responsibility lay with the parents, the school and the governors. 'The boys are stupid,' she said. 'What they did was really, really stupid and silly. But I'm not sure if they realise what they were doing was so terrible, but the parents... 'As a parent, my moral compass at the moment is screaming. Someone has to be held accountable for it. Someone has to say sorry.' The chair of the board of governors said he was 'not able to add anything' to the statement issued by the headteacher. The school did not tell parents about the incident until March 13 The school, which cannot be identified for legal reasons, said in a statement: 'We have become aware of media interest in an incident which took place in January and involved a group of established friends and related to a single incident of unacceptable behaviour within the school grounds. 'A full investigation was instigated in line with both internal school procedures and Department of Education requirements, including contact with the police. 'You can be assured that the school has taken this incident exceptionally seriously and that our absolute priority was, and remains, that the right path is taken for all those involved as well as the wider school community. 'Given the on-going police investigation and the need to protect all those involved, you will understand that it has been necessary to maintain confidentiality and consequently that the school does not wish to comment further..' A police spokesman said: 'We were made aware of an incident at [name of school], Bath, on January 22, which took place around lunchtime. 'Enquiries are ongoing and the school is assisting. Six boys have voluntarily attended a police station and another has agreed to voluntarily attend.' Sarai Rodriguez-Miranda, 19, has pleaded guilty to trying to kill her 11-week-old niece by poisoning the baby's breast milk An Indiana teen who tried to kill her 11-week-old niece by poisoning the baby's breast milk with Excedrin tablets has entered a guilty plea. Sarai Rodriguez-Miranda, 19, will be sentenced to one count of attempted murder on May 18 and could be sentenced up to 25 years in prison. Rodriguez-Miranda concocted a plan to kill her niece after her brother, his fiancee, and the baby moved into her mother's Fort Wayne home in January 2017. The teen became upset when she found out her mother agreed to let them stay longer at the home than they had originally planned. But Rodriguez-Miranda's scheme was foiled by her mother, who discovered a number of text messages that detailed exactly how she planned to kill the baby girl. 'I'm gonna crush up some of these pills since she decided they can stay longer and kill their baby,' Rodriguez-Miranda texted her boyfriend that January, according to documents obtained by The Indianapolis Star. Rodriguez-Miranda's scheme was foiled by her mother, who found a number of text messages the teen sent to her boyfriend (pictured together) that detailed how she poisoned the milk 'Idk they were laying on the counter in front of everyone so I couldn't check what they were,' she said in another message, seemingly talking about the pills. 'And I'm honestly not worried about getting caught. They're not gunna suspect me,' she confidently told him. In one message, Rodriguez-Miranda asked her boyfriend to look up how many milligrams were needed to kill a baby. In another message, she sent him a picture of a mortar and pestle containing white powder. Rodriguez-Miranda then put the powder in one of the baby bottles being stored in her fridge, and excitedly texted her boyfriend when they had been removed. 'Yeah I thought it was funny that I don't have an ounce of guilt,' she texted him. The texts were seen just in time by Rodriguez-Miranda's mother, who spotted them on the phone she shared with her daughter on January 12, 2017. Investigators found that Rodriguez-Miranda put the equivalent of nine Excedrin tablets in her niece's baby bottle. The amount is enough to kill an adult, court documents state. She then went into the refrigerator and saw that one of the two baby bottles had a 'greenish circle at the bottom' and was a different color from the untainted bottle of breast milk, according to The Journal Gazette. The teen's mother took screen shots of the messages, put both bottles in a plastic bag, and found the used mortar and pestle. She turned everything over to police and immediately took her granddaughter and son's fiancee to the hospital. Neither had been poisoned. When Rodriguez-Miranda saw that her niece was still okay, she angrily texted her boyfriend (pictured together) that her plan had not worked Investigators found that the tainted milk contained the equivalent of nine Excedrin tablets which is enough to kill an adult, court documents state. When Rodriguez-Miranda saw that her niece was okay, she angrily texted her boyfriend that the plan hadn't worked. 'Why didn't the baby die dude that's dumb,' she wrote. 'They definitely threw it out.' 'I hope she dies,' she wrote in another message. 'I don't feel bad about it bc she was destined to grow up...abused.' 'I'd never be suspect I know but I hope it works.' Rodriguez-Miranda fled to Michigan with her boyfriend after her mother told her to stay home and talk to police, court documents state. She was arrested by US Marshals eight months later in Bay City and extradited back to Indiana. Rodriguez-Miranda, who told the court she suffers from anxiety and depression, entered her plea in Allen County on Monday. 'I poisoned a baby bottle with a lethal dose of acetaminophen,' she replied when asked to describe her crime. She is currently being held without bond. Police are investigating after a little girl was struck by a van in Sydneys south west yesterday. About 3.40pm on Tuesday emergency services were called to The Horsley Drive, Smithfield, after reports a six-year-old girl had been hit by a van. A statement from Careflight said the girl was unconscious from the time she was struck by the van. Scroll down for video Police are investigating after a little girl was struck by a van while getting out of a car in Sydneys south west yesterday Ambulance paramedics who had been working on the girl then took her to the helicopter where a specialist doctor and and a critical care paramedic continued to work on her The Careflight helicopter landed on a field in an adjacent park at about 3.58pm. Ambulance paramedics who had been working on the girl then took her to the helicopter where a specialist doctor and and a critical care paramedic continued to work on her. They then put the girl into an induced coma before transporting her. The girl was taken to The Childrens Hospital at Westmead, suffering from head injuries. She remains in a critical but stable condition. The driver, a 55-year-old man, was taken to Fairfield Hospital for mandatory testing. Police from Fairfield City Police Area Command are currently investigating the circumstances around the accident and want to speak with any other witnesses. Anyone with information is encouraged to come forward. You can contact Crime Stoppers anonymously on 1800 333 000. Headmistress Carol Chandler-Thompson said she and her pupils are having 'intelligent conversations' about introducing gender-neutral toilets following pupils' suggestions A top all-girls private school is considering introducing gender-neutral toilets despite having an entirely female cohort in case any want to transition. The 16,000-a-year Blackheath High School in south-east London is considering the switch after students raised the matter having discussed transgender issues in class. Headmistress Carol Chandler-Thompson said pupils raised the issue of changing the signage on lavatories with her and are having 'intelligent conversations' about it. The discussions come amid major renovation work on the campus, set in the leafy London suburb where nearby properties sell for in excess of 3.3 million. Mrs Chandler-Thompson said: 'We are in the middle of a giant building project. If we are introducing a single toilet why would you put a gender on it? We are not defensive about asking that question. 'We are obviously a girls' school but we may have young people who are transitioning here and we would support that,' she told the Evening Standard. The headmistress praised her pupils for being confident enough to challenge the way the school is run and being able to debate important social issues. She added: 'Obviously you can read alarmist headlines about these things, but these are valid questions to be asking.' The 16,000-a-year Blackheath High School in south-east London (pictured) is considering the switch after students raised the matter having discussed transgender issues in the classroom A gender-neutral toilet is one that does not specifically exclude male of female users, allowing those who do not see their gender identity as binary, or are transitioning from one sex to another, to use a restroom without fear of discrimination or unease The school, part of the Girls' Day School Trust, is undergoing wide scale construction work, with one third of the buildings being renovated. Pupils at Blackheath are taught about transgender issues in PSHE lessons (personal, social, and health education). The girls previously ran a successful campaign to persuade the head to introduce trousers to the uniform. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort will need special permission to leave his house until his felony trial begins in July, because if he's convicted he might never be a free man again. Manafort's trial on tax fraud, bank fraud and other felony charges will begin July 10 in a Virginia federal courtroom. Judge Thomas S. Ellis III ruled on Friday that since Manafort has enough money and a serious motive to flee the United States, he must remain locked up in his own home 24 hours a day, as a condition of bail. 'Given the nature of the charges against the defendant and the apparent weight of the evidence against him, defendant faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison,' Ellis wrote in an order made public Tuesday. 'In this regard, he poses a substantial risk of flight and the above-mentioned conditions are the least restrictive conditions that will reasonably assure defendant's appearance at trial.' Jason Maloni (left), a spokesman for former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort (right), throws a Russian flag back at a protester while leaving Alexandria federal courthouse after an arraignment hearing last Thursday; Manafort is now on 24/7 home detention until a July trial Nice jail if you can get it: Manafort owns a waterfront residence in Alexandria, Virginia, where he will be cooped up according to a judge's order Even if Manafort should escape trial on 18 criminal counts in Virginia unscathed, he still faces 12 charges in the District of Columbia including money laundering, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as a foreign agent for the pro-Russia Ukrainian government of former President Viktor Yanukovich. Judge Thomas S. Ellis III That trial is scheduled to begin in September. Manafort is 68 years old. In the Virginia trial, he could receive five-year sentences on each tax fraud charge and 30 years for each of nine bank fraud charges. While he waits for the wheels of justice to turn, he can't leave his waterfront condo in Alexandria, Virginia, except for court hearings, doctor appointments, religious services and meetings with lawyers. And even for those exceptions, he must ask permission 48 hours in advance. Violating the judge's order could get him locked up in a federal jail and cost him $10 million in forfeited bail money. 'These conditions are necessary because the defendant is a person of great wealth who has the financial means and international connections to flee and remain at large, as well as every incentive to do so,' Ellis wrote. Manafort pleaded not guilty to the Virginia charges last week, as he did in D.C. earlier this month. Manafort (center), pictured with his wife Kathleen Manafort (right), also faces a dozen federal charges in Washington, D.C., and it's possible he might never be a free man again Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating alleged Russian interference in the election, possible obstruction of justice and alleged financial crimes by Manafort and others. Trump has denied his campaign colluded with Russia, and Moscow says it did not try to interfere in the election. None of the charges against Manafort make reference to alleged Russian interference in the election nor the accusations of collusion between Moscow and Trumps campaign. Manafort has been under increasing pressure to cooperate with Mueller's probe, especially after his former business partner and former Trump aide Rick Gates pleaded guilty last month to lying to investigators and conspiring to defraud the United States. Prosecutors in Washington have alleged that Manafort laundered more than $30 million and duped banks into lending money. They say he used funds from secret offshore accounts to enjoy a life of luxury. On Thursday another of Trump's former campaign managers, Corey Lewandowski, was also interviewed for a second time by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which has its own investigation into possible Russian election meddling. Manafort was ordered to stay in his house 24/7 as a condition of bail; the judge feared he might flee because he faces 'the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison' The long list of conditions includes a second GPS ankle monitor he already had one from a D.C. federal court and random drug tests After the hearing, committee members said Lewandowski had refused to answer many of their questions. Adam Schiff, the panel's top Democrat, told reporters after the testimony that members of his party had requested that Lewandowski be subpoenaed. Republicans, who control the committee, have not decided whether they would do so. Lewandowski helped Trump win the Republican presidential nomination, running his campaign for around 18 months. He was fired in June 2016 after he clashed with other advisers over how to appeal to the broader general electorate after Trump won the nomination. Manafort then ran the campaign for several months. At Thursday's hearing, Manafort and his lawyers indicated that he fully intends to contest the charges. Judge Ellis, expressing concern that Manafort still posed a substantial risk of flight, said he was considering stepping up restrictions on his movement from his current status of home confinement to the home incarceration. However, the judge agreed that Manafort should still be subject to the less-rigorous home confinement but that he must now wear two wrist bracelets, enabling probation officials based in both Washington and Virginia to monitor his movements. Lawyers told the judge details of a $10 million bail package was still being finalized, which ultimately could lead to easing of restrictions on Manafort's movements. Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann from Mueller's office said he expected a Manafort trial on the Virginia charges would last eight to ten days and would involve the calling of 20 to 25 prosecution witnesses. Paul H Borroni was released from prison last month after 38 years. Just 26 days later he was arrested on charges of armed robbery because he said he wanted to go back to jail A convicted murderer who was released from prison last month after 38 years was arrested last week on charges of armed robbery because he said he wanted to go back to jail. Paul H Borroni spent 38 years of the past 39 years in prison after pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of 17-year-old Diane Kramer in 1978. At the time both Borroni and Kramer were students at Bishop DuBorgh High School in St Louis, Missouri, and on an evening in June the teen's father found his daughter stabbed to death in her bedroom, reported the St Louis Post-Dispatch. Police say Borroni later confessed to stabbing Kramer because she refused to date him. He was friends with her older brother and had been at her home several times before murdering her. He confessed to the killing in January 1979 and began serving a 35-year-sentence on February 15. Borroni spent 38 years of the past 39 years in prison after pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of 17-year-old Diane Kramer in 1978. After being released from prison last month he walked into a bar in Clayton, Missouri, and held up the bartender, demanding she call police and have him arrested Borroni was released from prison in September 2004, but returned twice for parole violations before finally being released on February 8. Just 26 days later he walked into a bar in Clayton, Missouri, and held up the bartender, demanding she call police and have him arrested. The 57-year-old walked into CJ Muggs, which is popular with judges in lawyers, at about 9.30pm on March 6 and held up a bar employee with his finger beneath his coat - pretending it was a gun. Borroni told the woman to give her cash or he would shoot her, then told her to call police so he could be arrested or he would shoot her. At the police station he explained himself, telling Police Captain Stewart Glenn: 'I just want to go back to jail.' 'He just came right out and said it,' Glenn told the newspaper. He also said Borroni told police he picked that random, and that he planned to walk into the first business he came across. Borroni made the choice because he was homeless and decided jail would be better, according to police. After he got out of jail he ended up at Father Dempsey's Charities (pictured), which has a strict zero-tolerance policy for drug and alcohol use, where he was eventually kicked out of He is now being held at the St Louis County Jail in lieu of a $25,000 cash-only bail on charges of first-degree robbery. He will appear in court on March 26. Borroni made the choice because he was homeless and decided jail would be better, according to police. After he got out of jail he ended up at Father Dempsey's Charities, which has a strict zero-tolerance policy for drug and alcohol use. 'He was violating some of the policies and was informed he could not stay there anymore,' Gabe Jones, a spokesman for the St Louis Archdiocese said. The home tried to set him up with substance abuse counseling, but he refused. He left Father Demsey's about one week ago. President Donald Trump told a crowd of Marines he may want to start a new 'Space Force,' and said Hillary Clinton never would have pushed forward a mission to Mars. Positioned in front of a Marine F/A-18 Hornet, Trump called space a 'war-fighting domain' and talked up both its military importance and the merits of private ventures. 'Space is a war-fighting domain just like the land, air, and sea,' Trump said Tuesday as he spoke to troops at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, where he spoke to the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232, nicknamed the 'Red Devils.' 'We may even have a Space Force, develop another one Space Force,' Trump said. 'We have the Air Force, you'll have the Space Force. You have the Army, the Navy ' he said, taking on a playful tone. UNIVERSAL: 'Space is a war-fighting domain just like the land, air, and sea,' Trump said The U.S. Air Force is seen working on the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle after it landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2017 Staff are seen testing the Air Force's first unmanned re-entry spacecraft in 2010 Trump himself wasn't entirely clear on whether he was kidding, but some advisors apparently lapped up the idea. 'I was saying it the other day. I said maybe we need a new force, you call it the Space Force,' Trump recounted, likely referencing a cabinet meeting that included models of spacecraft. 'And I was not really serious, and they said, 'What a great idea! Maybe we'll have to do that.' Then Trump ribbed the press for preparing to blast off with a story he fueled. 'That could happen that could be the big breaking story, look at all those people back there,' he said, getting a roar out of the crowd with his shot at the media. President Donald Trump arrives to speak to military personnel at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018 AIM HIGH: President Donald Trump speaks to military personnel at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018. He touted a possible 'Space Force' Trump also blasted 2016 rival Hillary Clinton. 'We are finally going to lead again,' Trump said. 'Very soon we're going to Mars. You wouldn't be going to Mars if my opponent won. That, I can tell you. You wouldn't even be thinking about it.' Clinton took positions in favor of space exploration, but frequently told the story of writing a letter to NASA at age 13 about becoming an astronaut, only to be rejected. Trump also rallied the troops and ran through the wars where Marines had fought, though he curiously left out Vietnam and instead mentioned Marine John Glenn's work in the space program. NEW FRONTIER: Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, left, and Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, center, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, March 8, 2018. Trump spoke about private space flight at the meeting TALL ORDER: Earlier, Trump speaks while participating in a tour of U.S.-Mexico border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California Trump received five military deferments for Vietnam. When he talked about the Korean War, Trump took a detour to the invitation he accepted to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jon-un. 'Hopefully something positive will come out of it Hopefuly something very positive's gonna come out of it,' Trump said. 'We will see.' 'We're prepared for anything. We always have to be prepared for anything, right? I really believe something positive could happen. Great for Korea, North and South, and great for the world and great for this country,' Trump said. Last year, two lawmakers, Republican Reps. Mike Rogers of Alabama and Democrat Jim Cooper of Tennessee called for creating a Space Corps, Fox News reported. The stated purpose was 'to ensure prioritization of the space domain by creating a U.S. Space Corps as a separate military service within the Department of the Air Force and under the civilian leadership of the Secretary of the Air Force.' 'The Trump administration is committed to a policy of peace through strength,' the president told gathered Marines. He deployed some used car lingo, saying new CH-53K King Stallion helicopters were being delivered. 'You're getting them, brand new, right off the lot,' he said. He once again bashed the Iran deal, after highlighting it earlier as an area of disagreement with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom he fired. 'Behind every problem is Iran,' Trump said. 'Well, we're dealing with it in a very serious fashion one of the worst things I've seen is the Iran deal. One hundred and fifty billion dollars we gave them for what?' President Donald Trump is considering firing embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and replacing him with Energy Secretary Rick Perry - hours after terminating Rex Tillerson by Twitter on Tuesday morning. A source familiar with the White House discussions tells The Associated Press that Trump has floated the notion of the Cabinet reshuffle as a way to right the ship at the VA, believing Shulkin has become a distraction to the department's work. The source was not authorized to discuss internal deliberations. Shulkin has faced several investigations over his travel and leadership of the department, but until now has received praise from the president for his work to turn around the department. Trump hosted Perry at the White House for lunch Monday, but no formal job offer was made, the source says. A double firing would be a dramatic departure for the president - but only top a day of sensational developments in his administration. Tillerson bid farewell to the State Department on Tuesday, revealing that President Donald Trump had not told him he was out of a job until three hours after publicly firing him in a tweet heard round the world. Fresh off terminating Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, Donald Trump could create another Cabinet casualty soon Trump canned Tillerson with a tweet, and could be spoiling to swing another 'Apprentice'-style axe President Donald Trump is considering replacing embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin with Energy Secretary Rick Perry Perry, a retired Air Force Pilot and former Texas governor, could move over to the VA Department, and had lunch with the president on Monday Replacement: Mike Pompeo, who had been CIA director, will now lead the State Department and Gina Haspel, a career CIA officer who was its deputy director will become the first woman to lead it And in a statement to reporters, Tillerson pointedly neglected to thank Trump for the opportunity to serve in the role once inhabited by Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Webster and Henry Kissinger. Instead he thanked 'the 300-plus million Americans' whom he ultimately served, and said he would soon thank his front-office and policy planning staff in person. He said shortly after 2:00 p.m. that he had talked with Trump around lunchtime. The president's unexpected tweet came before 9:00 a.m. 'I received a call today from the President of the United States a little after noontime from Air Force One,' he said. 'I've also spoken to White House Chief of Staff Kelly to ensure we have clarity as to the days ahead.' The shaken-sounding outgoing cabinet secretary explained that his official ending date will be March 31, and that he aims for an 'orderly and smooth transition' for his replacement, CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan will assume Tillerson's duties at midnight. But Tillerson said his official 'commission' his grant of authority from the president wouldn't expire until the end of the month. Trump effectively fired Tillerson on Tuesday without telling him personally, announcing on Twitter that he would dismiss him and elevate the nation's spymaster to the role of global diplomat-in-chief. And he said he will appoint a woman to lead the CIA for the first time in history. YOU'RE ALL FIRED! DONALD TRUMP'S ASTONISHING LIST OF SENIOR DEPARTURES Who went and when: March 13, 2018: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson March 12, 2018: Special Assistant and personal aide to the president John McEntee March 6, 2018: Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Gary Cohn Feb. 28, 2018: Communications Director Hope Hicks Feb. 27, 2018: Deputy Communications Director Josh Raffel Feb. 7, 2018: Staff Secretary Rob Porter Dec. 13, 2017: Communications Director for the White House Office of Public Liaison Omarosa Manigault Newman Dec. 8, 2017: Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell Sept. 29, 2017: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price Aug. 25, 2017: National security aide Sebastian Gorka Aug. 18, 2017: Chief strategist Steve Bannon July 31, 2017: Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci July 28, 2017: Chief of Staff Reince Priebus July 21, 2017: Press secretary Sean Spicer May 30, 2017: Communications Director Michael Dubke May 9, 2017: FBI Director James Comey March 30, 2017: Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh Feb. 13, 2017: National Security Adviser Michael Flynn Advertisement Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steven Goldstein said in a statement that Tillerson had 'had every intention of staying.' 'The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve,' Goldstein added. He was later fired himself for departing from the official White House line which was that Trump had told Tillerson on Friday that he would be leaving. Tillerson's last public act had been firmly blaming Russia for the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter which the White House had pointedly avoided saying was carried out by Vladimir Putin's government. As he left the White House for a trip to California, Trump told reporters that he and Tillerson had been 'talking about this for a long time' but that he 'made the decision by myself.' 'We disagreed on things,' Trump said, citing the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran. 'I think Rex will be much happier now,' he declared. 'We were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well.' Trump made no mention of the most notorious tussle between him and Tillerson, when the secretary of state was reported to have called the president a 'f***ing moron' then refused to deny it. The State Department said Tillerson only learned of his termination when he read Trump's tweet on Tuesday morning. Two senior department officials said Tillerson received a call from John Kelly, Trump's chief of staff, on Friday, but was only told that there might be a presidential tweet that would concern him. Kelly didn't tell Tillerson what the tweet might say or when it might actually publish, according to the official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity. Tillerson had told reporters on his plane he had cut short his trip by one night because he was exhausted after working most of the night two nights in a row and getting sick in Ethiopia. There were no obvious signs from his behavior or his aides on the plane that his departure was imminent. 'I felt like, look, I just need to get back,' Tillerson said. Instead he was fired and left to spend time with his wife, Renda St. Clair, who had told him to take the job when he was reluctant to himself. He had revealed last year how when Trump offered him the role 'I was going to the ranch to be with my grandkids.' Instead his wife shook her finger in his face and told him: 'I told you God's not through with you.' But by last week Trump was through with Tillerson instead. One senior White House official said that when Trump made the dramatic and sudden decision last Friday to meet with Kim Jong Un - a decision made while Tillerson was in Africa - an aide asked if Tillerson should weigh in on the matter. Trump said there was no reason to consult him because no matter what the group decided, Tillerson would be against it, the official said. On the White House lawn Trump gushed that his future secretary Mike Pompeo has 'tremendous energy, tremendous intellect, we're always on the same wavelength. The relationship has been very good.' The president had tweeted earlier that Pompeo 'will do a fantastic job!' 'Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!' Shulkin's departure would be far less significant. He is hanging onto his job by a thread as he faces an insurgency from within the agency and new allegations that he had a member of his security detail go shopping with him at Home Depot and then cart the purchases into his house. Senior administration officials say Shulkin is increasingly on thin ice with President Donald Trump after a bruising internal report found ethics violations in connection with the secretary's trip to Europe with his wife last summer. A political adviser installed by Trump at the Department of Veterans Affairs has openly mused to other VA staff about ousting the former Obama administration official. And a top communications aide has taken extended leave following a secret, failed attempt to turn lawmakers against him. 'The honeymoon is ending with a crash that hurts veterans most of all,' said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who has been a close observer of VA for more than a decade. 'VA always has bad news, but Shulkin's ethical and leadership failures are still significant despite any internal attacks.' Shulkin also is bracing for an upcoming VA watchdog report, due for release by summer, that focuses in part on whether he used his 24-7 security detail for personal errands. The audit is investigating a complaint by a security staff member who said he was asked to accompany the secretary to a Home Depot and carry furniture items into his home, according to two people familiar with the allegation who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Senior administration officials describe a growing frustration that Shulkin repeatedly ignores their advice, only to beg for their help when he runs into ethical trouble. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to describe sensitive internal discussions, say Shulkin has been given a final warning to end the swirl of distractions. Shulkin is the lone Obama administration holdover in Trump's cabinet Trump used twitter to terminate the career of Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil boss who had been secretary of state for 15 months The administration is currently seeking to push Trump's agenda of aggressively expanding the Veterans Choice program, which major veterans groups worry could be an unwanted step toward privatizing VA health care. The issue came to the fore at a White House meeting last week, when Chief of Staff John Kelly told Shulkin to stop talking to the news media without clearing it first with the White House and to stay focused on fixing veterans care. Shulkin was escorted from that meeting to the Oval Office, where Trump questioned him about his efforts to push the Choice expansion, which lawmakers are now seeking to include in a massive spending bill that must be approved by next week to avert a government shutdown. With Shulkin present, the president telephoned conservative Pete Hegseth, a 'Fox & Friends' contributor who was vetted in late 2016 for VA secretary, to get his views on how to proceed with the expansion. Hegseth, a former president of the conservative group Concerned Veterans for America, declined to comment for this article. Tillerson said he will return to 'private life' after 14 months of turbulent leadership of the State Department and didn't take questions from reporters on Tuesday Dan Caldwell, executive director of CVA, lauded the White House focus on Choice amid the ongoing controversies involving Shulkin. 'Despite the internal drama going on in the VA, which has been a distraction, Congress has continued to work to a solution that everyone can rally around,' he said. Shulkin is blaming the internal drama on a half-dozen or so political appointees whom he had considered firing, only to be blocked by Kelly. 'I regret anything that has distracted us from what we should be focusing on, which is serving veterans,' Shulkin told the AP shortly before release of an inspector general report that faulted the VA for 'failed leadership' and an unwillingness or inability of leaders to take responsibility for accounting problems at a major VA hospital that put patients at risk. It wasn't always this way. Early in the administration, Shulkin was often seen at Trump's side, waving to crowds at campaign-style events in Pennsylvania or addressing reporters in a doctor's lab coat as he tutored Trump on telehealth. Trump called him the '100-to-nothing man' a reference to his unanimous Senate confirmation vote and publicly teased that he probably would never be fired because he had successfully shepherded legislation to improve accountability at the VA and speed disability appeals. By December, relations at the VA between Shulkin and several political appointees began to fray over philosophical differences. In a Dec. 4 internal email obtained by the AP, Jake Leinenkugel, a senior aide installed as part of a Cabinet-wide program to monitor secretaries' loyalty, said Shulkin was becoming increasingly distrustful and regarded Camilo Sandoval, a senior adviser in VA's health arm, as a White House 'spy.' The email to Sandoval alluded to White House efforts to gain more control, including ousting Shulkin's chief of staff, and said the secretary had been 'put on notice to exit' once the administration gets the Choice legislation through Congress. There were other signs. At a Jan. 17 hearing, Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran openly blamed the deadlock over Choice to Shulkin's ever-shifting positions. 'I am of the opinion that our inability to reach an agreement is in significant part related to your ability to speak out of both sides of your mouth, double-talk,' Moran said. A grim Shulkin denied the accusation, but the White House was later forced to clarify its position on the bill due to lawmaker confusion. Last month, the inspector general released a blistering report finding ethical violations in Shulkin's trip last July to Denmark and England that mixed business with pleasure. The IG found that Shulkin's chief of staff Vivieca Wright Simpson had doctored emails to justify his wife accompanying him at taxpayer expense. Wright Simpson retired after the report was issued. Seizing on the report, John Ullyot, a top communications aide, and VA spokesman Curt Cashour told the Republican staff director of the House Veterans Affairs Committee that Shulkin would be out by that weekend and asked if Republicans would push for his removal. The staff director, John Towers, told Ullyot 'no,' and made clear that committee Chairman Phil Roe had expressed support for Shulkin, according to a House aide familiar with the phone conversation. That aide also requested anonymity in order to discuss a sensitive internal matter. In a statement, Cashour and Ullyot deny that account, saying the call was intended instead to warn the committee that some of Shulkin's denials of wrongdoing were unfounded. Asked this week about Ullyot's current leave of absence, Cashour released a statement saying, 'there are no personnel changes to announce at the Department of Veterans Affairs.' For now, Shulkin appears to be hanging on. At a Cabinet meeting last Thursday, Shulkin took a different seat reserved for him next to the president. A tourist who spent about 18 hours trapped on a steep, slippery aqueduct is lucky to be alive after plummeting 50 metres down a cliff. The man crawled for three hours to get down a gully in the hope of being found after he was badly injured from the fall about 9:30pm Sunday evening on the South Island's West Coast in New Zealand. A NZCC Rescue Helicopter spokesman said the man fell while hiking on an old 'zig-zag road' and had to move for any chance of getting out alive, Stuff.co.nz reported. The tourist (pictured) is lucky to be alive after falling 50 metres down a cliff in New Zealand The badly injured man spent 18 hours trapped on a steep, slippery aqueduct before an alpine cliff rescue and FENZ lines crew abseiled down to the man 'He knew he was going to die if he didn't get down the cliff,' the spokesman said. With his car parked at a look-out back at the highway, he was able to use a rope found in the gully to make his was down on to an aqueduct. From there he tied himself to a plant to stop himself descending into a rocky riverbed below. Tourists spotted the man at a nearby lookout about 10:30am on Monday and four fire crews, police crews and two rescue helicopters attended the scene. Despite difficult rescue conditions, an alpine cliff rescue and FENZ lines crew abseiled down to the man and secured him in a basket to be winched to safety just after 3pm. The man was taken to Christchurch Hospital with broken bones and cuts. An NZCC spokesperson said the man was lucky to survive the incident. A NZCC Rescue Helicopter spokesman said he fell while hiking a 'zig-zag road' Tourists spotted the man at a nearby lookout about 10:30am on Monday 'He could have been easily killed in the fall.' Police later were forced to apologise for incorrectly saying the man became trapped after ignoring safety signs where the survival tale took place. The spokesperson said that the successful result was following the hard work of emergency response and rescue teams. 'It was a pretty good operation with a really good outcome,' he said. A judge ordered Richard Simmons to pay almost $130,000 after the longtime fitness guru lost a defamation lawsuit against American Media Inc. over a front page story that claimed he was transitioning. On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gregory Keosian issued the ruling nearly two months after Simmon's lawyers shot down a motion filed by defendants who requested $220,000 in the case, court documents state. Simmons, 69, filed the suit in May 2017 against National Enquirer's parent company after the Enquirer published a June 2016 article claiming the reclusive was living out of the public eye because of his transition - while declaring he is 'now a woman'. Last August, the judge said identifying a person as transgender may not necessarily expose them to 'hatred, contempt or ridicule' and would not be considered defamatory in nature, according to TMZ. In June of 2016 the National Enquirer published this cover which claimed Simmons was living out of the public eye because he was transitioning and that he is 'now a woman' Longtime fitness guru Richard Simmons has been ordered to pay nearly $130,000 after he lost his defamation lawsuit against American Media Inc. 'While, as a practical matter, the characteristic may be held in contempt by a portion of the population, the court will not validate those prejudices by legally recognizing them,' the judge said. In early September, Keosian dismissed the defamation case. Simmons plans to appeal the dismissal. Simmons previously confirmed that he is not transgender and even created a pointed list of reasons why in an ongoing explosive lawsuit with the publishing company. The comedian has been living as a recluse for years, and the June 2016 article claimed his transition was the reason why. The magazine also published claims that Simmons had a 'boob job' and 'castration surgery.' Simmons later filed legal documents outlining why the story is wrong, starting with the straightforward statement: 'I am a male.' Simmons said he takes issue with the magazine's claims that he had a 'boob job' and 'castration surgery' Simmons filed his suit against the Enquirer and parent company American Media in May 2017. He is pictured in 2013 before he went into hiding In the filing, Simmons countered the June 2016 cover story with other reasons he says he is not transgender. The filing reads: 'I am not transgender. I have never sought to obtain any medical treatment or procedure designed to transition from male to female.' Simmons also said he has never had breast implant surgery, and he never 'consulted with any medical professional regarding sex reassignment surgery.' The magazine's cover at issue exclaimed: 'Richard Simmons: He's now a woman!' The front page piece shows what appears to be Simmons lying down in make-up and a wig. Last August, Simmons' legal team filed a sworn statement by his former assistant who admits he sold photos of Simmons to the magazine and gave a two-hour interview, but never gave information that would have amounted to the cover's headline. Simmons with his now former assistant Mauro Oliveira. Oliveira says he sold info and photos of his former boss to a story peddler, but later claimed he never gave info saying Simmons is now a woman Mauro Oliveira confessed he sold photos of Simmons dressed as a woman and gave a two-hour interview to a story broker about his former boss in May 2016. 'Although I may have said that Richard Simmons's chest looks like the chest of someone who might be on hormones as well as stating that Richard Simmons told me that he sometimes feels like someone is trapped inside his body,' Oliveira said in his signed declaration, according to the Daily News. 'I never stated that Richard Simmons is now a woman, had breast implants or had a sex-change surgery,' his ex-assistant added. Oliveira also said when he saw the Enquirer's cover, he was 'shocked and disturbed.' Once a familiar face on TV, Simmons has been holed up inside his Los Angeles mansion for the last few years. Last April, he visited the hospital for four days. Simmons was seen for the first time in years on April 20, 2017, as her returns to his home in the Hollywood,CA hills after a four day hospital stay. He remained hidden under a blanket After laying down in the back of a Mercedes driven by his longtime housekeeper Teresa Reveles and hiding from the press for over 45 minutes in the garage at his home, the police and his manager Michael Catalano arrived to help His admission to hospital for treatment of indigestion was thought to be the first time he has left home in three years since then. The aerobics actor had spent four days inside Cedars Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills where he was being treated for indigestion. Even when he was seen briefly out last spring, Simmons kept hidden under a blanket in the backseat of a Mercedes car driven by his long-term housekeeper, Teresa Reveles, on the way back to his LA home. When Simmons originally filed his suit against the Enquirer's parent company, American Media defended the cover story too saying calling someone transgender is not an insult. Amid the suit, Simmons addressed his support of the transgender community, while still taking issue with the report published in the Enquirer. 'I fully support transgender individuals and their struggle to achieve acceptance and equality. Nonetheless, the false and fabricated claims that I was contemplating 'castration' and have had a "boob job" have caused me extreme embarrassment.' Philip Hammond today outlines his Spring statement to MPs Britain's finances are improving: Borrowing is due to fall in every year of the forecast. Debt is forecast to fall as a share of GDP from 2018-19 and the OBR has revised down debt and borrowing in every year. Brexit: Britain will still be paying the Brexit divorce bill until 2064. The Office for Budget Responsibility said most of the 37billion would be paid over the next five years before a long commitment on costs such as pensions. Money: Mr Hammond suggested 1p and 2p coins and 50 notes could be scrapped as part of moves to a cashless society. Education 80million to fund apprenticeships at small businesses Housing: Philip Hammond said the Government would tackle the housing crisis, announcing an extra 215,000 homes will be built in the West Midlands by 2031. In London 116,000 affordable homes will be built by the end of 2022. Transport: Mr Hammond said he was inviting cities across England to bid for a share of 840 million to deliver on 'local transport priorities'. Austerity: Mr Hammond did not announce any major new spending, but hinted he would turn the spending taps on at November's Budget if Britain's finances continue to do well. Business: The next revaluation for business rates has been brought forward to 2021. Mr Hammond also announced a call for evidence where the least productive businesses will learn from the most productive. Possible future taxes: A reduction in tax on for the least polluting vans to 'help the great British white van driver go green' A possible tax on single use plastic A new 'tech tax' looking at how firms like Google and Facebook are taxed How online platforms can help their users to pay the right amount of tax Five years ago today, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina was elected as the 266th pope of the Catholic Church. Here are five facts you should know about Pope Francis on his fifth anniversary. 1. Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires in 1936. His father, an Italian immigrant, was an accountant and his mother was a homemaker. He had two brothers and two sisters. Chosen at the age of 76, Francis is the ninth oldest pope of those elected after 1295. (Benedict, who was elected at the age of 78, was fifth oldest.) He took the name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. 2. Francis is the first Jesuit pope and the first pope from South America. (The only remaining continents that have never had a pope come from their lands are Australia, Antarctica, and North America.) He was the first non-European pope in 1,000 years. 3. He studied and received a masters degree in chemistry at the University of Buenos Aires, but later decided to become a Jesuit priest and studied liberal arts at the Catholic seminary in Santiago, Chile. 4. He only has one lung. His other lung was removed due to infection when he was a teenager. 5. Francis is known for his personal simplicity. In Argentina he lived in a simple apartment rather than the archbishops palace, cooked his own meals, and gave up his chauffeured limousine in favor of taking the bus to work. At the Vatican, Francis rejected the typical papal apartment for the less formal St. Marthas House, where he lives among fellow priests. He reportedly used to drive around the Vatican grounds in a 1984 Renault 4 that had 190,000 miles on the odometer when it was donated by a priest. A female software engineer at Google sued the tech giant last month for allegedly creating a 'bro culture' in which she was sexually harassed at work. A Google office building is seen above in its headquarters at Mountain View, California Microsoft is just one of a number of white-male-dominated tech monoliths that have been dogged by allegations that women are kept from professional advancement. A female software engineer at Google sued the tech giant last month for allegedly creating a 'bro culture' in which she was sexually harassed at work. Loretta Lee worked for the company in Mountain View, California, near Silicon Valley for eight years before she was fired in February 2016 for 'poor performance'. She filed a lawsuit to the Santa Clara County Superior Court alleging she was groped, slapped and sexually harassed by coworkers, according to The Mercury News. Google has faced a series of claims in the last year of sexual misconducts and gender discrimination. In September 2017, three women filed a class action lawsuit accusing Google of paying female employees less than men. That lawsuit was dismissed by a judge in California. A Google spokesperson said the company strives to 'to create a great workplace for everyone.' 'If we ever see individual discrepancies or problems, we work to fix them,' the spokesperson said. The company fired James Damore, former engineer for Google, after he circulated a memo stating there was a biological explanation to why woman were paid less. The US Department of Labor and another former employee also accused the company of paying women less last year. Last August, three former female employees at Oracle sued the company claiming that women at the firm were paid less than men for doing the same jobs. The lawsuit filed by Rong Jewett, Sophy Wang and Xian Murray alleges that Oracle discriminated against women by 'systematically paying them lower wage rates than Oracle pays to male employees performing substantially equal or similar work under similar working conditions,' according to The Information. In January 2017, the Department of Labor also filed suit against Oracle after a review found 'systemic discrimination against women' and 'gross disparities in pay.' Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (above) stood down last year amid allegations that the ride-sharing firm had failed to adequately handle sexual harassment and gender discrimination complaints A spokesperson for Oracle told CNN: 'The complaint is politically motivated, based on false allegations, and wholly without merit. 'Oracle values diversity and inclusion, and is a responsible equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.' In October 2017, three women engineers sued Uber Technologies Inc for discrimination based of their gender and race. The lawsuit followed a widely read blog post in February from another female engineer that described Ubers work environment as one that tolerated and fostered sexual harassment. The lawsuit filed by Ingrid Avendano, Roxana del Toro Lopez and Ana Medina, who described themselves as Latina software engineers, says that Ubers compensation and other practices discriminate against women and people of color. As a result, the three women have lost out on earnings, promotions and benefits, the lawsuit says. Avendano and Toro Lopez left Uber last summer after more than two years with the company. Medina is still employed there, according to the lawsuit. Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick stood down last year amid allegations that the ride-sharing firm had failed to adequately handle sexual harassment and gender discrimination complaints. Kalanick himself was never accused of inappropriate behavior. In September 2017, Mike Cagney, co-founder of SoFi, stepped down amid allegations that he had inappropriate relationships with SoFi employees that helped foment a toxic workplace culture. Brandon Charles, a former employee at SoFi, sued the company after he claimed that he was fired for reporting instances of harassment against women colleagues. Lawyers for SoFi say the allegations against Cagney were investigated internally and found to have 'no merit'. The firm takes all allegations of unfair treatment of employees 'very seriously', legal representatives added. Huns invaders sent their 'exotic' women across Europe to marry local Bavarians in the hope of forming political alliances. That's according to a new study of 1,600-year-old elongated skulls belonging to ancient Huns brides found in six Bavarian cemeteries. Researchers believe Huns brides arrived in sleepy villages in Bavaria to entice local farmers and form strategic marriages in the fifth an sixth centuries. They would have looked strikingly different to locals with their brown eyes, dark hair and dramatically elongated skulls. Their skulls had been squeezed with bandages or wooden blocks since childhood, according to Huns tradition to make them more beautiful. The discovery means that we may have to rethink how groups intermingled in medieval Europe, researchers said. Scroll down for video A study of 1,600-year-old elongated skulls shows women travelled hundreds of miles across Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries to cement bonds between distant tribes. This image shows strong, intermediate and non-deformed skulls (left to right) from sites in Bavaria, Germany The international team of researchers analysed the DNA of almost 40 human remains unearthed from medieval burial sites in the German state of Bavaria. As well as their remarkably tall heads, the women had dark features, which would have stood out among the Bavarian villages' male inhabitants, most of whom were blonde and fair-skinned, the DNA analysis showed. It was previously thought lengthy treks in medieval Europe were reserved for men heading into battle or embarking on exploratory quests. Researchers believe Huns brides arrived in sleepy villages in Bavaria to entice local farmers and form strategic marriages in the fifth an sixth centuries 'Barbarian' tribes moved into the power vacuum in Europe created by the decline of the Roman Empire from the fourth century. Pictured is a 16th century engraving that depicts Attila, king of the Huns, meeting with Pope Leo 1 in 452 AD WHO WERE THE HUNS AND HOW DID THEY DEFEAT THE ROMANS? The Huns were a nomadic community originating in Central Asia. They travelled to Europe and threatened what was left of the Roman Empire. It is likely they fled from a dry period in Asia. Searching for food and water, they conquered as they went. By 216 AD - when their territory was split into five successor states - the Huns had extended their area of control north to Siberia, south to Tibet, east to the Pacific Ocean and west to the Caspian Sea. The herders' diet was high in meat and fish. The Roman Empire collapsed because of terrifying Huns attacking its eastern frontier around the fourth century AD. Pictured is an artist's impression of a battle between Roman and Hun solider The Huns also ate lots of millet, which has a distinctive chemical signature that can be identified in human bones. The wandering Huns grew millet as it it grows in a few short weeks. Agriculture was considered the foundation of Roman civilisation, and the Romans had a big problem with the Huns as they didn't engage in farming, choosing instead to live a nomadic lifestyle. The Roman Empire collapsed because of terrifying Huns attacking its eastern frontier around the fourth century AD. Roman accounts of the Huns tell largely of terror and destruction: The group fought on horseback using longbows to attack their enemy, and were renowned for their savagery and blood-curdling war cries. 'Barbarian' tribes quickly moved into the power vacuum in Europe created by the decline of the Roman Empire. These include the Huns, Franks, Vandals, Saxons and the Goths. Advertisement The women travelled from what is now Romania, Bulgaria and northern Greece at a time when the continent was being reshaped by the collapse of the Roman Empire. 'Barbarian' tribes, including the Huns, quickly moved into the power vacuum in Europe created by the decline of the Roman Empire during the fourth century. The skulls of nine women had been squeezed from infancy using binding or wooden wooden blocks for aesthetic reasons Researchers say the women's elongated heads suggest they might have been high-class individuals. 'These women looked extremely different to the local women, very exotic if you will,' said study coauthor Professor Joachim Burger, a geneticist at the University of Mainz, Germany. The findings are based on an analysis of 36 skeletons buried in six Bavarian cemeteries in the 5th and 6th centuries. The team expected to find the telltale signs of centuries of Roman presence in the area - soldiers from the Mediterranean leaving their genetic mark on the local population. Instead, it looked 'very central or northern European - blond and fair-skinned, like modern-day Scandinavians,' Professor Burger said. The exception was a group with deformed skulls. Known from various cultures across the world, artificially elongated skulls may have been considered a form of beauty or denoted high status because of the time and effort required to bandage a child's head, said Professor Burger. While the practice is often associated with the Huns who swept into Europe from the East during the 5th century, the genetic makeup of the women found in Bavaria showed little Asian ancestry. As well as their remarkably tall heads, the women had dark hair, brown eyes and tawny skin, DNA analyses showed. This suggests the women migrated from Romania, Bulgaria and northern Greece as Europe was being reshaped by the collapse of the Roman Empire This suggests that either head binding had been adopted by people living in southeastern Europe or emerged there independently. 'This is a sound study with quite interesting results,' said Professor Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who had no role in the research. 'Usually large-distance movements involve more males - explorers, soldiers, political elite, etc. - and short range movements are more common for females (spouses moving to their husband's family),' Professor Hublin said. While it's unclear why the women - apparently without men - travelled such a long distance, the study's authors speculate that they may have represented strategic alliances between distant populations across Europe. 'They must have come on purpose. It's not a single case, there are quite a few of them,' Professor Burger said. Despite their foreign origins, the women integrated into Bavarian society, according to the researchers. They wore the same clothes as the locals and were buried with the same artefacts. Professor Burger said further research is needed to see whether the women intermarried with the local population. Hidden beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is a supervolcano capable of blasting thousands of miles of rock and ash into the air. While the supervolcano hasn't erupted for 631,000 years, scientists have been working to understand the last eruption to predict when one will happen again. Now, a spate of four mini-tremors in the area following a period of 'rest' has raised fears among the public that the supervolcano is about to blow. The most recent quake came on March 11 when a 1.5 tremor shook the volcano just hours after a 1.8 quake was also detected nearby. But experts claim this is a relatively quiet period for tremors in the area. Normally, there are 50 minor earthquakes around the volcano every week. They say that concerns of an eruption in the area are unfounded, and the current resurgence in activity is nothing to be concerned about. Scroll down for video The Yellowstone supervolcano has been hit by four minor Earth tremors over the last week which have reached up to 1.8 on the Richter scale. As public concern grows experts warn the activity is normal for Yellowstone Yellowstone is one of the most seismically active areas in the world and there are regular earthquakes detected in and around the supervolcano. Tom Skilling, a meteorologist for WGN News, a local news site in Chicago, explains that is it normal for the volcano to have less active weeks. He said: 'Minor earthquakes occur in the Yellowstone area 50 or more times per week, but a major eruption is not expected in the foreseeable future.' Despite experts trying to calm nerves, concerned citizens have taken to Twitter to voice their concern about a potential eruption. Rygy said on the social media site: 'Yellowstone's gonna blow up and get us all.' Joey Brooklyn added: 'Yellowstone is rumbling again.' This latest spate of tremors follows a period in February where more than 200 small tremors were detected over a period of 10 days. According to experts with the US Geological Survey, that swarm began on February 8 in a region roughly eight miles northeast of West Yellowstone, Montana and increased dramatically in the days following. Much like now, scientists said there's no reason to worry. Yellowstone is home to several faults, and has a long history of seismic activity. As natural processes occur beneath the surface and 'stress effects' from past events continue to maintain their hold, the area remains a 'hotbed of seismicity and swarm activity,' according to USGS Earthquakes are very common in the area and are likely caused by a combination of processes beneath the surface. The current activity is said to be 'relatively weak,' and the alert level at the supervolcano remains at 'normal.' According to the USGS, the February swarm occurred in about the same location as the Maple Creek swarm last summer, which brought roughly 2,400 earthquakes in a four-month span. The University of Utah Seismograph Stations picked up the quakes, counting more than 200 as of February 18. 'The present swarm started on February 8, with a few events occurring per day,' the USGS said at the time. On left, a map of Yellowstone earthquakes from 1973 2017 is shown, with red circles illustrating all of the quakes. Blue shows quakes that were part of swarms. The February swarm is shown on the right (red circles), compared to the location of last summer's swarm (Grey) 'On February 15, seismicity rates and magnitudes increased markedly. As of the night of February 18, the largest earthquake in the swarm is M2.9, and none of the events have been felt. All are occurring about 8 km (5 miles) beneath the surface.' Yellowstone is home to several faults, and has a long history of seismic activity. As natural processes occur beneath the surface and 'stress effects' from past events continue to maintain their hold, the area remains a 'hotbed of seismicity and swarm activity,' according to USGS. According to experts with the US Geological Survey, the latest swarm began on February 8 in a region roughly eight miles northeast of West Yellowstone, Montana and increased dramatically in the days following 'Swarms reflect changes in stress along small faults beneath the surface, and generally are caused by two processes: large-scale tectonic forces, and pressure changes beneath the surface due to accumulation and/or withdrawal of fluids (magma, water, and/or gas),' USGS explains. 'The area of the current swarm is subject to both processes.' As the experts explain, earthquake swarms are a common phenomenon at Yellowstone, and account for more than 50 percent of seismic activity at the park. COULD AN ERUPTION AT THE YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO BE PREVENTED? Recent research found a small magma chamber, known as the upper-crustal magma reservoir, beneath the surface Nasa believes drilling up to six miles (10km) down into the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park to pump in water at high pressure could cool it. Despite the fact that the mission would cost $3.46 billion (2.63 billion), Nasa considers it 'the most viable solution.' Using the heat as a resource also poses an opportunity to pay for plan - it could be used to create a geothermal plant, which generates electric power at extremely competitive prices of around $0.10 (0.08) per kWh. But this method of subduing a supervolcano has the potential to backfire and trigger the supervolcanic eruption Nasa is trying to prevent. 'Drilling into the top of the magma chamber 'would be very risky;' however, carefully drilling from the lower sides could work. This USGS graphic shows how a 'super eruption' of the molten lava under Yellowstone National Park would spread ash across the United States Even besides the potential devastating risks, the plan to cool Yellowstone with drilling is not simple. Doing so would be an excruciatingly slow process that one happen at the rate of one metre a year, meaning it would take tens of thousands of years to cool it completely. And still, there wouldn't be a guarantee it would be successful for at least hundreds or possibly thousands of years. Advertisement And in the past, they have not been linked to volcanic activity. 'While it may seem worrisome, the current seismicity is relatively weak and actually represents an opportunity to learn more about Yellowstone,' USGS explains. 'It is during periods of change when scientists can develop, test, and refine their models of how the Yellowstone volcanic system works.' But, the experts also note: 'The earthquakes, too, serve as a reminder of an underappreciated hazard at Yellowstone that of strong earthquakes, which are the most likely event to cause damage in the region on the timescales of human lives.' Spending time in space permanently changes your genes, a shock new Nasa study has revealed. Astronaut Scott Kelly now has different DNA to his identical twin brother after spending just a year in space, scientists found. Nasa said the groundbreaking study is an important step in its preparations for a three-year mission to Mars in the 2030s. Scroll down for video Spending time in space permanently changes your genes, a shock new Nasa study has revealed. Astronaut Scott Kelly (right) now has different DNA to his identical twin brother Mark (left) after spending just a year in space, the research shows After 340 days aboard the International Space Station, American astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth in March 2016. Nasa has since undertaken an array of tests to study the effects the mission had on Kelly's body using his identical twin Mark, who remained on Earth, as a control subject. The Kelly brothers have nearly identical genomes, allowing for an unprecedented look at the physical effects of long-term spaceflight. Blood and other biological samples were collected from the pair before, during, and after Kelly's mission. Nasa found that while 93 per cent of Kelly's genes returned to normal shortly after returning home, seven per cent were permanently altered. These long-term changes hit genes related to the immune system, DNA repair, bone formation and the ways his tissues take up oxygen and carbon dioxide. After 340 days aboard the International Space Station, American astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth in March 2016. Blood and other biological samples were collected from the pair before, during, and after Kelly's mission. Pictured is Scott Kelly during a spacewalk HOW DID SCOTT KELLY'S DNA CHANGE IN SPACE? After 340 days aboard the International Space Station, American astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth in March 2016. Nasa has since undertaken tests to study the effects living in orbit had on Kelly using his identical twin brother Mark - who remained on Earth - as a control subject. The Kelly brothers have nearly identical genomes, allowing for an unprecedented look at the physical effects of long-term spaceflight. While astronaut Scott Kelly (right) lived aboard the International Space Station for 340 days, his identical twin brother Mark (left) remained on Earth and researchers have now found a number of differences between the two Blood and other biological samples were collected from the pair before, during, and after Scott Kelly's mission. The agency found that Kelly came home 5 cm (2 inches) taller than his twin - a change had resolved itself within two days of his return. The height difference was caused by the ISS' microgravity conditions which elongate the spine but the effect was only temporary. Nasa found that while 93 per cent of Kelly's genes returned to normal shortly after returning home, seven per cent were permanently altered. These long-term changes hit genes related to the immune system, DNA repair, bone formation and the ways his tissues take up oxygen and carbon dioxide. Kelly's telomeres the caps at the end of each chromosome lengthened while in space. Telomeres are key to protecting DNA from damage and tend to shorten with age. Kelly's telomeres shortened again once he was back on Earth. Scientists reported their preliminary results at a meeting for Nasa's Human Research Program in January 2017. Pictured are some of the areas studied by the team Nasa says that Kelly's lengthening telomeres are linked with his diet and exercise routine on the station. The ratio of two groups of gut bacteria shifted while Kelly was in space, likely due to his change in diet. This also returned to normal shortly after his return. Nasa research has spotted hundreds of diverging genetic mutations in Kelly and Mark's genomes. The research team speculate that a 'space gene' could have been activated while Kelly was in orbit. Advertisement 'When he went up into space it was like fireworks of gene expression,' Christopher Mason, a principal investigator on the NASA twins study and an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, told Business Insider. 'But the changes that seem to have stuck around include changes in immune system function and retinal function related to his eye health.' Kelly said he was surprised by that change in a recent interview with Marketplace. The Kelly brothers have nearly identical genomes, allowing for an unprecedented look at the physical effects of long-term spaceflight Nasa found that while 93 per cent of Scott Kelly's genes returned to normal shortly after returning home, seven per cent were permanently altered. Pictured is Kelly aboard the ISS 'I did read in the newspaper the other day that seven per cent of my DNA had changed permanently,' he said. 'And I'm reading that, I'm like: 'Huh, well that's weird'.' Scientists suggest that the changes are the result of the extreme stresses Kelly's body was subject to during his stay on the ISS. 'Oftentimes, when the body encounters something foreign, an immune response is activated,' Dr Christopher Mason, a Twins Study researcher and an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, told Business Insider. Nasa published its preliminary findings from the Twin Study last year, but has now released the results of a number of new studies 'The body thinks there's a reason to defend itself. We know there are aspects of being in space that are not a pleasant experience, and this is the molecular manifestation of the body responding to that stress.' Nasa published its preliminary findings from the Twin Study last year, but has now released the results of a number of new studies. The agency has now confirmed that Kelly came home 5 cm (2 inches) taller than his twin - a change had resolved itself within two days of his return. The height difference was caused by the ISS' microgravity conditions which elongate the spine but the effect was only temporary. Scientists reported their preliminary results at a meeting for Nasa's Human Research Program in January 2017. Pictured are some of the areas studied by the team They have also verified that Kelly's telomeres the caps on the ends of chromosomes grew to be longer than Mark's. Telomeres are involved in the repair of damaged DNA and key to preventing ageing, and the find may help us better understand how and why we age. Nasa said in a statement: 'Nasa has a grasp on what happens to the body after the standard-duration six-month missions aboard the International Space Station, but Scott Kelly's one-year mission is a stepping stone to a three-year mission to Mars. 'By measuring large numbers of metabolites, cytokines, and proteins, researchers learned that spaceflight is associated with oxygen deprivation stress, increased inflammation, and dramatic nutrient shifts that affect gene expression. 'The Twins Study has benefited Nasa by providing the first application of genomics to evaluate potential risks to the human body in space. Advertisement Google founder Larry Page has unveiled incredible footage of his flying taxi, Cora. Cora will take take to the skies in 2021 and act as an 'Uber for the skies', according to Kitty Hawk, the company behind the electric vertical take off and landing vehicle. Built with funding from Page, the craft is designed to use self-flying software, which controls its 12 fans to provide lift-off and forward thrust - without the need for a runway. Once airborne, a single rear propeller pushes Cora through the air at speeds of up to 110 mph (180 kph) at altitudes between 500 and 3,000 feet (150 and 910 metres). New Zealand's government is officially announcing an agreement to test the vehicles, revealed for the first time in stunning footage, in the country. Flying taxis built will take to the skies in 2021, according to the company behind the Cora all-electric vertical take off and landing vehicle Cora was created by Kitty Hawk, run by former Google X head Sebastian Thrun and named after the town in North Carolina where the Wright brothers completed their first controlled flight. The firm hopes to use New Zealand as its base of operations for testing out the next generation of vehicles to push the envelope of aviation technology. In a statement accompanying the launch video, the company appeared to take a swipe at regulations in the US, which have prevented the vehicle being tested there. 'A path to certifying an air taxi for everyday use just didnt exist. We had our aircraft. We had our moment. But there was no place in the world where Cora could take the next step. We had no Kitty Hawk of our own,' the statement read. 'America in the early 20th century of the Wright Brothers was a hotbed of invention and discovery. We needed a place that was just as bold and dynamic in order to bring Cora to the commercial market.' Kitty Hawk shipped its first air taxi to New Zealand in October 2017, where initial tests began shortly after. Talks have reportedly been ongoing with the government for the past 18 months. The project is being run by Zephyr Airworks, formerly known as Zee.Aero, one of two firms funded by Page to develop flying cars. Users will one day be able to use an app being designed by the company to let hail a Cora, in a similar manner to an Uber. Built with funding from Google's co-founder Larry Page, the craft is designed to use self-flying software, which controls its 12 fans to provide lift-off and forward thrust - without the need for a runway Once airborne, a single rear propeller pushes Cora through the air at speeds of up to 110 mph (180 kph) at altitudes between 500 and 3,000 feet (150 and 910 metres) New Zealand's government has announced an agreement to test the vehicles, revealed for the first time in stunning footage, in the country Cora was created by Kitty Hawk, run by former Google X head Sebastian Thrun and named after the town in North Carolina where the Wright brothers completed their first controlled flight Cora has a range of around 62 miles (100 km) and is designed to accommodate two passengers. It has a wing span of 36 feet (11 m). Cora has three flight computers that operate independently, meaning it can continue to navigate if one of them fails. The vehicle also has a parachute for emergency landing if disaster strikes. Speaking about approaching the New Zealand government Zephyr CEO, Fred Reid, said: 'We had no idea what to expect. They could have laughed us out of the room. 'We were pitching something that sounded like science fiction.' The firm hopes to use New Zealand as its base of operations for testing out the next generation of vehicles to push the envelope of aviation technology The project is being run by Zephyr Airworks, formerly known as Zee.Aero, one of two firms funded by Page to develop flying cars. Cora has a range of around 62 miles (100 km) and is designed to accommodate two passengers Speaking about approaching the New Zealand government Zephyr CEO, Fred Reid, said: 'We had no idea what to expect. They could have laughed us out of the room. We were pitching something that sounded like science fiction' Dr Peter Crabtree, of New Zealands Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), added: 'In New Zealand, we know we cant keep using the same old approaches to meet our future challenges. We saw Coras potential as a sustainable, efficient and transformative technology that can enrich peoples lives' Dr Peter Crabtree, of New Zealands Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), added: 'In New Zealand, we know we cant keep using the same old approaches to meet our future challenges. 'We saw Coras potential as a sustainable, efficient and transformative technology that can enrich peoples lives, not only in New Zealand, but ultimately the whole world.' News of Page's ambitions for building a flying car first emerged in 2016, after reports he had personally provided 70 million ($100 million) to two startups developing the technology. He had been funding Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk, formerly rival companies based in California's Silicon Valley. News of Page's ambitions for building a flying car first emerged in 2016, after reports he had personally provided 70 million ($100 million) to two startups developing the technology. He had been funding Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk, rival companies based in California's Silicon Valley Zee.Aero was set up in 2010, working on a small, all-electric plane that could take off and land vertically essentially a flying car While there was much speculation that the company was affiliated to Google, as their headquarters were next door, Zee.Aero fiercely denied the claims Zee.Aero was set up in 2010, working on a small, all-electric plane that could take off and land vertically essentially a flying car. While there was much speculation that the company was affiliated to Google, as their headquarters were next door, Zee.Aero fiercely denied the claims. However, it has since been revealed that Zee.Aero does not belong to Google or its holding company, Alphabet. Instead, it belongs to directly to Page. It has since been revealed that Zee.Aero does not belong to Google or its holding company, Alphabet. Instead, it belongs to directly to Page Page had demanded that his involvement stay hidden from the public, according to ten people with intimate knowledge of the company who spoke to Bloomberg Businessweek at the time In 2015 a second competing flying-car startup called Kitty Hawk, also began operations in its headquarters close to Google's. Kitty Hawk's president is Sebastian Thrun, the head of Google's self-driving car programme and the founder of its research division, Google X Page had demanded that his involvement stay hidden from the public, according to ten people with intimate knowledge of the company who spoke to Bloomberg Businessweek at the time. In 2015 a second competing flying-car startup called Kitty Hawk, also began operations in its headquarters close to Google's. Kitty Hawk's president is Sebastian Thrun, the head of Google's self-driving car programme and the founder of its research division, Google X. Marijuana legalization in the United States, once just a pipe dream, is quickly becoming a new reality. Nine states, the most recent of which was Vermont, as well as the nations capital have now legalized marijuana for recreational usage for adults at least 21-years-old. In addition, another 19 states have legalized medical marijuana. All of this comes at a time when support for marijuana legalization has reached new levels of support in the country, according to the Pew Research Center. Heres a look at the states which have currently legalized marijuana as well as those where medical marijuana is legal. In recent years, marijuana has been legalized in nine U.S. states and Washington, D.C. Which states have legalized marijuana? Alaska New laws passed in 2015 have made it legal for residents of Alaska to use, possess or transport up to one ounce of recreational marijuana. Per USA Today, the state has quickly morphed into a premier destination for tourists hoping to engage in recreational marijuana use. California As goes California, so goes the nation. The Golden State has long been a trailblazer in liberalizing marijuana laws, being the first state to legalize medical marijuana back in 1996. In 2016, the state again became more marijuana-friendly, legalizing the carrying and usage of up to one ounce of marijuana. Starting in late 2017, the state also started to issue temporary licenses to medical marijuana dispensaries to allow for recreational usage, slated to take effect January 1. Some cities, such as Fresno, have banned recreational marijuana sales, however. http://blog.norml.org/2016/11/09/california-legalizes-recreational-marijuana A post shared by NORML (@natlnorml) on Nov 10, 2016 at 9:22am PST Colorado The Rocky Mountain State has moved quickly in recent years to relax its marijuana laws, becoming the first state alongside Washington to legalize recreational marijuana use back in 2012. Maine The legality of recreational marijuana use in Maine is shaping up to be a tug of war between voters and the states government. A 2016 ballot initiative gave residents the right to possess the drug but Governor Paul LePage vetoed a proposed law that wouldve taxed and regulated non-medical marijuana sales in the state in late 2017. Talks between various lawmakers are now underway to implement a new regulatory framework. Massachusetts Since 2016, Massachusetts residents have had the right to both carry and use up to one ounce of marijuana and even grow up to 12 marijuana plants in their household. Stores that can legally sell marijuana are set to soon open in July 2018. Nevada Marijuana legalization has also proven to be very popular in Nevada, with many recreational marijuana stores running out of stock just two weeks after sales were legalized in July 2017. State law also allows for both residents and visitors to buy up to one ounce of marijuana or one eighth of an ounce of either the edible or concentrate version of it. A post shared by Oregon NORML (@oregonnorml) on Dec 23, 2017 at 11:55pm PST Oregon Starting in 2015, residents of Oregon have had the right to grow up to four marijuana plants in their homes and carry up to one ounce of it. The result has been a boom in tax revenue for the state, with some $85 million in new funding doled out for education, healthcare and other public services. Vermont The Green Mountain State just got a bit more green as it became the most recent to legalize non-medical marijuana in the United States. Notably, it became the first to do so via an act of legislature as opposed to a ballot initiative. Though the new state laws dont allow for legal sales, they do allow residents to carry up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to two plants in their home. Washington Washington legalized marijuana for residents back in 2012. Washingtonians are now able to carry up to one ounce of the drug but still need a valid medical reason to grow it in their homes. Washington, D.C. Recreational marijuana is also legal in Washington, D.C., with residents voting in 2014 to legalize possessing up to two ounces of the drug. Gifts of marijuana of up to one ounce are also legal as long as the exchange is nonmonetary in nature. Where is medical marijuana legal? In addition, medical marijuana is now legal in the following states: New Hampshire Rhode Island Connecticut New York Pennsylvania New Jersey Maryland Delaware West Virginia Ohio Michigan Florida Illinois Arkansas Minnesota North Dakota Montana New Mexico Arizona Astronomers have spotted the brightest fast radio burst ever recorded - and they say it will help finally pinpoint the source of the strange 'alien signals'. Fast radio bursts are brief, bright pulses of radio emissions and they have baffled astronomers for almost a decade. Since they were first found in 2007, scientists have been unable to determine the origin of the radio emissions, which last just a few milliseconds. Some claim they may be a message from ET, while others suggest they are created by a neutron star cocooned by a strong magnetic field. Scroll down for video Mysterious 'signals from extra terrestrials', known as fast radio bursts (artist's impression), have been detected by astronomers - including the brightest to ever be observed. The unusual strength of the signal may help scientists to crack the secrets of their origins So far, only 33 FRBs have been detected, but two groups of researchers have uncovered three more in recent days. The first was discovered by Breakthrough Listen, which looks for signs of intelligent life in the universe and has been funded with $100 million (75 million) of investment over ten years from internet mogul Yuri Milner. The second and third were identified by a team of researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, on March 9 and 11. The flash discovered on March 9 is around 4.5 times brighter than the next brightest signal ever uncovered according to the FRB Catalogue, a list of FRBs compiled by the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy. All three FRBs were found using Australia's Parkes Telescope. 'Finding three this quickly is quite unusual,' Peter Williams, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told New Scientist. 'It seems like it was just luck.' Only one FRB in the catalogue has been detected flashing more than once, but some researchers believe all FRBs repeat, with some too dim for us to see all of their flashes. The flash discovered on March 9 is around 4.5 times brighter than the next brightest signal ever uncovered according to the FRB Catalogue. All three FRBs were found using Australia's Parkes Telescope (pictured) FAST RADIO BURSTS ARE BRIEF RADIO EMISSIONS FROM SPACE WHOSE ORIGIN IS UNKNOWN Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are radio emissions that appear temporarily and randomly, making them not only hard to find, but also hard to study. The mystery stems from the fact it is not known what could produce such a short and sharp burst. This has led some to speculate they could be anything from stars colliding to artificially created messages. Scientists searching for fast radio bursts (FRBs) that some believe may be signals sent from aliens may be happening every second. The blue points in this artist's impression of the filamentary structure of galaxies are signals from FRBs The first FRB was spotted, or rather 'heard' by radio telescopes, back in 2001 but wasn't discovered until 2007 when scientists were analysing archival data. But it was so temporary and seemingly random that it took years for astronomers to agree it wasn't a glitch in one of the telescope's instruments. Researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics point out that FRBs can be used to study the structure and evolution of the universe whether or not their origin is fully understood. A large population of faraway FRBs could act as probes of material across gigantic distances. This intervening material blurs the signal from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the left over radiation from the Big Bang. A careful study of this intervening material should give an improved understanding of basic cosmic constituents, such as the relative amounts of ordinary matter, dark matter and dark energy, which affect how rapidly the universe is expanding. FRBs can also be used to trace what broke down the 'fog' of hydrogen atoms that pervaded the early universe into free electrons and protons, when temperatures cooled down after the Big Bang. Advertisement Some researchers have hypothesised that all FRBs repeat, and that theyre too dim for us to see all of the bursts. Maura McLaughlin at West Virginia University in Morgantown, added that the March 9 FRB's unusual brightness should make future detections easier if the repeating FRB hypothesis is correct. She also believes future detection of further FRBs should be forthcoming, given that there are now so many people on the lookout for them. Professor McLaughlin said: 'Everyones sort of jumping on this bandwagon of looking for FRBs in the background all the time no matter what else is going on. 'This should lead to a huge uptick in detections in the next year or so.' FRBs were first detected in 2007 by experts scouring archival data from the Parkes Telescope dating back to 2001. In January 2018, an international team of researchers used the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to study FRB 121102. Its incredibly strong pulses may come from a black hole or neutron star (artist's impression) with unprecedented power, experts say The 200 foot (64 metre) diameter dish is best known for its role receiving live television images from the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. But the antenna's detection of the first FRB, and the subsequent confirmed discovery of more than two dozen of the powerful radio pulses across the sky, left astrophysicists baffled. The catch with FRBs is that they are mostly random and they last for only a few milliseconds - too fast to routinely detect or conduct follow-up observations with radio and optical telescopes. Only one FRB has been found to repeat, an object known as FRB 121102 in a galaxy about three billion light-years away. ARE MYSTERIOUS FAST RADIO BURSTS SIGNALS FROM ALIEN EXPLORERS? Mysterious signals coming from distant galaxies could be evidence of deep-space explorers billions of light-years from Earth, a recent study has claimed. Researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in March 2017 claimed a solar-powered transmitter using sunlight cast on an area twice the size of Earth could generate enough energy to be 'seen' by far away viewers. And, a water-cooling system would allow a device of this size to withstand the extreme heat. Fast radio bursts were first heard by radio telescopes back in 2007, and are thought to come from distant galaxies. But, scientists have yet to pinpoint the source, and many have suggested they could be a sign of extraterrestrial life (artist's impression) The researchers argue that the most plausible use for this tremendous amount of power would be to drive interstellar light sails. The light sail would rely on a steady beam from the transmitter. While this would always be pointed at the sail, observers on Earth would see it as a brief flash, as the sail, its host planet, its star, and the galaxy all move relative to us. This would cause the beam to sweep across the sky, only pointing at Earth for a moment. Advertisement More than 200 high-energy bursts have been observed coming from FRB 121102, since it was first detected in 2012. In January, an international team of researchers used the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to study FRB 121102. They found that the electromagnetic waves that make up the bursts generated by the object conform to a highly unique pattern. This means they came from somewhere with an incredibly strong magnetic field, like that found around a black hole or neutron star. In August 2017, Breakthrough Listen detected 15 bursts over a relatively short period of five hours. This animation shows 14 of the 15 bursts in succession, illustrating their dispersed spectrum and extreme variability Such patterns have only ever been seen in radio emissions from the extreme environments around massive black holes, such as those at the centres of galaxies. The findings confirm observations by another team of astronomers from the Netherlands, which detected the polarised bursts using the William E. Gordon Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The Dutch and Breakthrough Listen teams suggest that the FRBs may come from a highly magnetised rotating neutron star - known as a magnetar - in the vicinity of a massive black hole that is still growing as gas and dust are sucked into it. Another possibility, though remote, is that the FRB is a high-powered signal from an advanced civilisation. Male brown widow spiders prefer an older mate, even though the more experienced females are more likely to eat them after sex. Younger females are more fertile than their older counterparts and are also less violent. Despite the clear benefits of choosing a younger female to mate with, males are still more attracted to the older arachnids. Scientists believe this may be because older female spiders send out pheromones that make younger males believe they are far more fertile than they really are. Scroll down for video Male brown widow spiders (pictured) prefer an older mate, even though the older females are more likely to kill and eat them after sex. Researchers also discovered that male spiders often somersault off the female during sex, and jump directly into the mouth of the female Brown widow spiders, as well as the black widow spiders, are notorious for cannibalising the male after copulation. Widow spiders - from the genus geometricus - are sexually dimorphic, meaning the males are significantly smaller than the females. 'In some species of spiders, males take measures to avoid being eaten,' Professor Ally Harari, lead author of the study from the Agricultural Research Organisation in Tel Aviv, Israel, told New Scientist. 'However, in L. geometricus, not only do males give up their future reproductive success by being cannibalised, they also seem to choose the females that are more likely to cannibalise them.' The research team introduced virgin males to adolescent females, young adult females and older adult females. Although all were able to reproduce, the younger arachnids were more fertile than the older ones. Of all the males that mated with older females, 57 per cent were cannibalised. Nearly half (48 per cent) of males that mated with young adults were also eaten. Despite these poor chances of survival, the males still preferred to mate with the older adults opposed to the adolescents that never ate the male. Nevertheless, males courted older females for longer than they did young females, and spent hardly any time wooing adolescents. Widow spiders - from the genus geometricus - are sexually dimorphic, meaning the males are significantly smaller than the females. Of all the males that mated with older females, 57 per cent were cannibalised WHY ARE SOME SPIDERS CANNIBALISTIC? In some species of spider, the females are considerably larger than the males. This visible difference is called sexual dimorphism. As females can be cannibalistic post-copulation, male spiders have developed gruesome tactics to ensure successful fertilisation of a female, and secure paternity. They may orally lubricate the female's genitals or prolong courtship to deter being eaten. Older females tend to be more likely to eat their mating partner. Spiders have man other unique mating methods to ensure reproductive success. Some have been known to guard the female after copulation, or manipulate her appeal through chemical substances. They've even been observed using a 'mating plug' to block the reproductive opening. Some types of orb-weaving spider have been observed to mutilate the genitalia of females after sex. Mutilation thus establishes monandry, in which the female has just one mating partner during the reproductive period Advertisement The study also saw an unusual trend of male behaviour during mating. Sometimes, a male would somersault off the female by pushing his abdomen into the mouth of the much larger female. This, unsurprisingly, often led to death. When mating with older females, this happened almost all the time, but rarely occurred when mating with adolescents. Longer sex benefited males as it increased the amount of sperm they transfer. However, the somersaulting cuts short the sex session and reduces the chance of successful reproduction as well as increasing the chance of death. It is possible that the males are tricked into making the illogical decision to choose the more deadly, older females over the less dangerous, more fertile spiders. It is possible that the males are tricked into making the illogical decision to choose the more deadly, older females over the less dangerous, more fertile spiders 'Old females are more desperate for mating, thus they may put more effort into advertising their availability,' says Professor Harari. 'It's possible that males are duped into mating with them.' Dr Chadwick Johnson of Arizona State University believes body size could be an important factor tohat this study did not take into account. Male brown widows prefer larger females, as these females are in better condition and are less inclined to eat their mate. 'Without body size accounted for in these models, it is entirely possible that we could be viewing adaptive male courtship preferences for well-fed animals, rather than non-adaptive courtship preferences for old females.' Fascinating footage shows how army ants work together to build bridges with their own bodies. The clip shows ants clambering over one another to traverse gaps in a series of different scenarios. It was captured as part of a new study that explored how ants follow simple rules and use basic algorithms to build dynamic 'living' structures. The study, from experts at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, showed that the ants may even opt to build bridges out of themselves when they find a gap on their route. Lead researcher Dr Simon Garnier said: 'In the past, there has been a lot of descriptive work of the structures built by these ants. 'The originality of our work was the creation of experimental setups that we could bring to the tropical forest in order to experimentally control the conditions under which the ants build bridges to shortcut deviations along their trails.' The researchers found that the bridges begin when a leading ant in a marching line comes to a gap in its path, causing it to slow down. The remainder of the colony swiftly continue on their path, heading over the top of the leading ant. At this point, the previous leading ant will freeze, leaving the next ant in line in the same predicament, causing it to slow down in the face of an oncoming gap. Fascinating footage shows how army ants work together to build bridges with their own bodies. The video shows ants clambering over one another to traverse gaps in a series of different scenarios It was captured as part of a new study that explored how ants follow simple rules and use basic algorithms to build dynamic 'living' structures HOW DO ANTS USE MATHS TO BUILD 'LIVING BRIDGES'? Several species of ant build 'living bridges' made of their own bodies to traverse small gaps. Researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology showed in 2015 that up to 20 per cent of a colony may be locked into bridges on a route at any time. This is when an individual ant may run a 'bridging' algorithm. An ant can tell how many times it has been stampeded by previous ants and use this to judge the width of the bridge. When this hits a certain number, an ant - judging that too many members of the colony may now occupy bridges - may rejoin the march. Several species of ant build 'living bridges' made of their bodies to traverse small gaps Advertisement That ant will then also freeze, allowing another to head over top of it - a process that repeats hundreds of times, creating a bridge-like structure of frozen ants. In field tests in Panama, the New Jersey team also looked into how ants prioritise where to build their bridges. The group used a V-shaped structure for the tests, and the colony, which did not wish to head all the way around, initially built a bridge close to the angle of the V. The study, from experts at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, showed that the ants may even opt to build bridges themselves when they find a gap on their route The researchers found that the bridges begin when a leading ant in a marching line comes to a gap in its path, causing it to slow down. The remainder of the colony swiftly continue on their path, heading over top of the leading ant, until the next in lines reaches the edge and freezes What comes next is an unconscious trade-off of how wide to build the bridge: The colony does not want to commit too many ants, but it also wants the journey to be as short as possible. In 2015, Dr Garnier and colleagues calculated that up to 20 per cent of a colony may be locked into bridges on a route at any time. This is when an individual ant may run a 'bridging' algorithm. The group used a V-shaped structure for the tests, and the colony, which did not wish to head all the way around, initially built a bridge close to the angle of the V (pictured) An ant can tell how many times it has been stampeded by previous ants and use this to judge the width of the bridge. When this hits a certain number, an ant - judging that too many members of the colony may now occupy bridges - may rejoin the march. Such findings and bridge-construction algorithms are also being looked into by the engineering community. Dr Garnier said: 'We have received positive feedback from the engineering community, with researchers now looking into using our findings to design self-assembling robots for various applications, such as self-repairing structures.' Dragon-like flying reptiles that soared over the heads of the dinosaurs were just taking off when a giant meteor impact wiped them out, fossil discoveries suggest. Pterosaurs, better known as the iconic pterodactyl, died out along with their Earth-bound cousins around 66 million years ago, researchers now believe. Among the remains uncovered was a new species of pterodactyl with a wingspan similar to an F-16 fighter, which was killed off in its prime. It was previously thought that by the time the dinosaurs vanished pterosaurs were already well in decline. Scroll down for video Dragon-like flying reptiles that soared over the heads of the dinosaurs, were just taking off when a giant meteor impact wiped them, new fossil discoveries suggest. Top: the lower jaw is less than 20 cm long. Bottom: part of the forearm bone, which is more than 40 cm long Pterosaurs (artist's impression), including the iconic pterodactyl, died out along with their Earth-bound cousins around 66 million years ago, researchers now believe A team of experts from the universities of Bath, Portsmouth and Texas examined six new fossils unearthed from phosphate mines in northern Morocco. Far from spiralling slowly into extinction, they paint a very different picture of what happened to the beasts. The creatures were flourishing when an asteroid or comet six to nine miles (ten to 15 km) wide smashed in to the Earth off the coast of Mexico, the team says. Both the pterosaurs and nearly all the dinosaurs were killed off in the mass extinction that followed the cataclysm. The only dinosaurs to survive were those that morphed into modern birds. Dr Brian Andres from the University of Texas, a member of the team studying the finds, said: 'The Moroccan fossils tell the last chapter of the pterosaurs' story - and they tell us pterosaurs dominated the skies over the land and sea, as they had for the previous 150 million years.' The newly discovered species of pterosaurs ranged in wingspan from a little over two metres (six feet) to almost 10 metres (30 feet) and weighed up to 200 kg (440 pounds). Among the remains uncovered was a pterodactyl with a wingspan similar to an F-16 fighter, which was wiped out in its prime. Dr Nick Longrich in the Fossil Room with pteranodon ulna bones It was previously thought that by the time the dinosaurs vanished pterosaurs were already well in decline. Dr Longrich with pteranodon ulna bones Some 200 pterosaur specimens were recovered from the Moroccan mines, ranging from bone fragments to partially intact skeletons. Pteranodon ulna bones The largest was almost three times bigger than the largest living bird, the wandering albatross, and a Nato F-16 would be just 1.5 metres (five feet) wider. The biggest, named, Arambourgiania, would have had a wingspan more than three times that of Alcione, the smallest. As well as differing in size, they also varied greatly in body shape, suggesting they occupied distinct ecological niches. A description of the fossils appears in the journal Public Library of Science Biology. Co-author Dr Nick Longrich, from the University of Bath, explained why pterosaur fossils were so rare, giving a false impression of their population size and diversity. PTEROSAURS WERE FLYING REPTILES THAT LIVED IN THE JURASSIC AND CRETACEOUS Neither birds nor bats, pterosaurs were reptiles who ruled the skies in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Scientists have long debated where pterosaurs fit on the evolutionary tree. The leading theory today is that pterosaurs, dinosaurs, and crocodiles are closely related and belong to a group known as archosaurs, but this is still unconfirmed. Neither birds nor bats, pterosaurs were reptiles who ruled the skies in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (artist's impression pictured) Pterosaurs evolved into dozens of species. Some were as large as an F-16 fighter jet, and others as small as a sparrow. They were the first animals after insects to evolve powered flight - not just leaping or gliding, but flapping their wings to generate lift and travel through the air. Pterosaurs had hollow bones, large brains with well-developed optic lobes, and several crests on their bones to which flight muscles attached. Advertisement He said: 'To grow so large and still be able to fly, pterosaurs evolved incredibly lightweight skeletons, with the bones reduced to thin-walled, hollow tubes like the frame of a carbon-fibre racing bike. 'But unfortunately, that means these bones are fragile, and so almost none survive as fossils.' Some 200 pterosaur specimens were recovered from the Moroccan mines, ranging from bone fragments to partially intact skeletons. Scientists now know that the region supported at least seven species of the creatures from three different families. A team of experts from the universities of Bath, Portsmouth and Texas examined six new fossils unearthed from phosphate mines in northern Morocco Far from spiralling slowly into extinction, they paint a very different picture of what happened to the beasts The creatures were flourishing when an asteroid or comet six to nine miles (ten to 15 km) wide smashed in to the Earth off the coast of Mexico, the team says More could still be discovered, the team believes. Contrary to previous studies, their analysis suggests there was still extraordinary diversity among pterodactyls up to the point of their extinction. It was believed the rarity of pterodactyl fossils from the end of the dinosaur era meant they were slowly dying out. But the new study shows the data had been misleadingly skewed by the dearth of fossils and at this time they were actually far more diverse than believed. Both the pterosaurs and nearly all the dinosaurs were killed off in the mass extinction that followed the cataclysm. The only dinosaurs to survive were those that morphed into modern birds The newly discovered species of pterosaurs ranged in wingspan from a little over two metres (six feet) to almost 10 metres (30 feet) and weighed up to 200 kg (440 pounds) Some 200 pterosaur specimens were recovered from the Moroccan mines, ranging from bone fragments to partially intact skeletons The fossils date to just over 66 million years ago, the very end of the Cretaceous, making them among the last of their kind on Earth. As well as the differences in size, the authors also showed they varied greatly in the shape and size of parts of their bodies. This included the beak shape, neck length, and wing proportions - suggesting they occupied distinct ecological niches. Dr Longrich said he had always found pterosaurs fascinating, and as a university student had dreamed of studying them. Years later in Morocco, he would stumble across a single, small bone mixed in with fossil fish dug up from a phosphate mine. Scientists now know that the region supported at least seven species of the creatures from three different families The biggest, named, Arambourgiania, would have had a wingspan more than three times that of Alcione, the smallest. More could still be discovered, the team believes Moroccan palaeontologist and co-author Professor Nour-Eddine Jalil, from the Museum of Natural History in Paris, added: 'This is a fabulous discovery of pterosaurs from Morocco - they tell us their amazing diversity while we thought them in decline' He said: 'It was like a light went off. I remembered back to the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs, a book I'd practically memorised as an undergraduate. And I thought 'that's a nyctosaur.'' Nyctosaurs, a family of small pterosaurs, hadn't been proven to survive to the end of the Cretaceous. On a hunch, he looked for more pterosaurs, and found more species - including Tethydraco, a member of the pteranodontids, a family that had been thought to disappear fifteen million years earlier. In addition to the single species previously found in the area, six additional species turned up. 'I believe there are many more species to find,' he said. The full findings of the study were published in the journal PLOS Biology. SIPSEY, AL --The Alabama Tourism Department has recognized Black Warrior Town as a significant part of Alabama history by awarding it an Official Alabama Tourism Department Marker. The designation honors Black Warrior Town as an important and educational part of local history. A dedication ceremony to commemorate the event will be held on March 24th at 10 a.m. at the confluence of the Sipsey and Mulberry Fork of the Warrior River near the town of Sipsey. . Speakers for the morning will include Connie Rowe, state representative; Jud Allen, attorney and prosecutor for the town of Sipsey and Martha Salomaa, president of the Sipsey Heritage Commission. The Sipsey Heritage Commission welcomes the public to share in and witness this exciting historical event. Black Warrior Town was the northernmost settlement of the Creek Nation. Located on the borderlands of three local tribes, the town served as a resting place for weary hunters and travelers. Its inhabitants disappeared on October 13, 1813, and their fates remain a mystery to this day. Advertisement When human settlers one day reach distant worlds, they might take refuge inside extensive underground networks known as planetary caves. Scientists in recent years have proposed volcanic caves as a potential place for safe habitats on the moon and Mars. But, to understand how this might work, we must first look at similar systems here at home. A team of ESA-backed researchers recently ventured into the La Cueva de los Verdes lava tube in Spain to map the nearly 5 mile (8 kilometer) lava tube in unprecedented detail, revealing the intricate features of the volcanic wormhole. Scroll down for video The team used whats known as the point cloud technique to map La Cueva de Los Verdes in unprecedented detail, capturing millions of measurements with lasers and cameras. To map the caves, the researchers used a wearable device known as the Pegasus Backpack, which can collect geometric data without satellite signal. The 3D scan is the largest of a lava tube yet According to ESA, the 3D scan of La Cueva de Los Verdes is the largest ever made of a lava tube on Earth. Inside the massive cave system, the researchers say there are portions large enough to fit entire residential streets and houses. While part of the cave is filled with water, a 6-kilometer stretch is dry, and contains natural skylights along the path. Researchers from the University of Padova, Italy, aided by ESA astronaut Matthias Mauer, explored the cave system for five days last year, using 3D scanning technologies to plot its intricacies as part of ESAs Pangaea-X campaign. The team used whats known as the point cloud technique, capturing millions of measurements with lasers and cameras. These measurements were then merged to create a 3D model. The researchers aimed to test out the technologies and tools in the dark environment that lacked satellite signal. One day, similar techniques could be used to explore other planets. Cave systems carved by volcanic activity, like La Cueva de los Verdes, have been detected from orbit on the moon and Mars, ESA explains. Lava tubes are environments with a constant temperature, shielded from cosmic radiation and protected from micrometeorites, and so could providing safe habitats for humans, ESA explained in a blog post. Precisely measuring the geometry of lava caves will allow scientists to improve their models and better understand their evolution on other celestial bodies. A team of ESA-backed researchers recently ventured into the La Cueva de los Verdes lava tube in Spain to map the nearly 5 mile (8 kilometer) lava tube in unprecedented detail, revealing the intricate features of the volcanic wormhole. Scientists in recent years have proposed volcanic caves as a potential place for safe habitats on the moon and Mars HOW DO LAVA TUBES FORM? Lava tubes such as those seen at La Cueva de los Verdes (pictured) can form in two ways Lava tubes such as those seen at La Cueva de los Verdes can form in two ways. 'Overcrusted' tubes form when thinner lava flows fairly close to the surface, developing a hard crust that thickens to create a roof above the moving lava stream. When the eruptions end, the channel created by the lava is drained leaving a tunnel a few metres beneath the surface. 'Inflated' tubes are complex and deep structures that form when lava is injected into existing fissures between layers of rock or cavities from previous flows. The lava expands and leaves a huge network of connected galleries as it forces its way to the surface. Advertisement For these reasons, learning how to map lava tubes on Earth is helping exploration off Earth. To map the caves, the researchers used a wearable mapping device known as the Pegasus Backpack, which can collect geometric data without satellite signal. The data could be checked on the spot using a tablet. Hiking and performing geological mapping with the high-tech backpack was easy and efficient, Mauer said. I can perfectly see it integrated in our spacesuits for future exploration missions to the moon or Mars. The idea of uploading your mind to a computer has been theorized for many years now, but it's mostly remained the stuff of science fiction. A San Francisco-based startup is trying to change that by devising a way to preserve the human brain so that its memories can be uploaded to the cloud. However, in order for Nectome's technology to work, participants have to be willing to be euthanized. And there's no guarantee that the process will actually work after you've surrendered your brain and your life. Scroll down for video San Francisco-based startup Nectome says it has devised a way to preserve a human brain and upload its memories to the cloud. The firm has won a federal grant and raised $1M in funding. File photo Nectome has figured out a way to preserve the human brain in microscopic detail using a 'high-tech embalming process,' according to the MIT Technology Review. 'You can think of what we do as a fancy form of embalming that preserves not just the outer details but the inner details,' Robert McIntyre, Nectome's cofounder, told MIT. Speaking to prospective customers, Nectome positions its service as: 'What if we told you we could back up your mind?' The company uses a chemical solution that can keep the body intact for hundreds or thousands of years as a statue of frozen glass, MIT said. But the key to being able to recreate a person's consciousness involves accessing the organ's 'connectome.' A connectome is the complex web of neural connections in the brain, often referred to as the brain's wiring system. Pictured is a screenshot from Nectome's website, which asks visitors: 'What if we told you we could back up your mind?' The company's cofounder admits that the tech is '100% fatal' Nectome centers around the idea of transhumanism, or that the human body can evolve beyond its current form with the help of scientists and technology. The idea is widely debated Nectome, which MIT referred to as a 'preserve-your-brain-and-upload-it' company, has figured out a way to embalm the connectome as well. The firm is trying to sell preserving your brain as a service that's available to the public. To do that, it's taking a page from Tesla and allowing interested customers to sign up early and put up a down payment of $10,000. So far, 25 customers have been added to Nectome's wait list. However, Nectome's services likely won't be publicly available for a while, as the company still has to prove memories can be found in dead tissue, MIT said. 'The product is '100% fatal,' McIntyre said. 'That is why we are uniquely situated among the Y Combinator companies,' he added. Nectome will present its business strategy at startup incubator Y Combinator's 'demo days' next week. Some Twitter users expressed skepticism around Nectome's technology, while others seemed were enthused by the idea of preserving their mind in the cloud forever. The company has raised $1 million in funding so far and won a $960,000 federal grant from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, according to MIT. McIntyre also won an $26,000 prize from the Brain Preservation Foundation for preserving a pig's brain by using strong chemicals to suspend neurons and synapses, then chilling them in frigidly cold temperatures. For Nectome to successfully upload a person's memories, the brain has to be fresh. That's why in February the company obtained the body of a recently deceased elderly woman. In the first demonstration of the technology on a human brain, they were able to begin preserving her brain just 2.5 hours after her death. In total, the preservation process takes six hours, MIT noted. HOW SOON WILL WE BE ABLE TO UPLOAD OUR MINDS TO A COMPUTER? Brain and memory preservation has been explored at length by futurists, scientists and science fiction junkies alike. Many say it falls under the category of 'transhumanism.' Transhumanism is the belief that the human body can evolve beyond its current form with the help of scientists and technology. The practice of mind uploading has been promoted by many people, including Ray Kurzweil, Google's director of engineering, who believes we will be able to upload our entire brains to computers by 2045. Similar technologies have been depicted in science fiction dramas, ranging from Netflix's Altered Carbon, to the popular series Black Mirror. Another prominent futurist, Dr Michio Kaku, believes virtual reality can be used to keep our loved ones' personalities and memories alive even after they die. Scientists and futurists have different theories about how we might be able to preserve the human brain, ranging from uploading our memories to a computer to Nectome's high-tech embalming process, which can keep it intact for thousands of years 'Imagine being able to speak to your loved one after they die ... it is possible if their personality has been downloaded onto a computer as an avatar,' he explained. These ideas haven't been met without criticism. McGill University Neuroscientist Michael Hendricks told MIT that these technologies are a 'joke.' 'I hope future people are appalled that in the 21st century, the richest and most comfortable people in history spent their money and resources trying to live forever on the backs of their descendants. I mean, its a joke, right? They are cartoon bad guys,' he said. Meanwhile, neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis said recently that such technologies would be virtually impossible. 'The brain is not computable and no engineering can reproduce it,' he said. 'You can have all the computer chips in the world and you won't create a consciousness.' Advertisement It's unclear how old the woman was, her cause of death or how much Nectome paid for her corpse. McIntyre told MIT that the woman's brain was 'one of the best-preserved ever,' albeit it becoming damaged after she had been dead a few hours. The woman's brain will eventually be sliced into 'paper-thin sheets' for research and analysis with an electron microscope, MIT said. Next, McIntyre wants to try out Nectome's technology on a person planning doctor-assisted suicide due to a mental illness. The firm has spoken to lawyers who are familiar with the laws around doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients and many believe the company's services will be legal. The company uses a chemical solution that can keep the body intact for hundreds or thousands of years as a statue of frozen glass IS GOOGLE PLANING TO DOWNLOAD PERSONALITIES? A patent filed by Google last year described a system which would allow robots to download new personalities online. The system would allow machines to download them in a similar way to an app - and even have a different personality for each user. The patent says the personality could replicate the robot's owner, 'a deceased loved one,' or 'a celebrity'. Google's patent details a cloud-based system where a personality could be downloaded to a robot, in the same way one might download an app. 'The robot personality may also be modifiable within a base personality construct (i.e., a default-persona) to provide states or moods representing transitory conditions of happiness, fear, surprise, perplexion (e.g., the Woody Allen robot), thoughtfulness, derision (e.g., the Rodney Dangerfield robot), and so forth,' states the patent. Advertisement 'The user experience will be identical to physician-assisted suicide,' McIntyre told MIT. 'Product-market fit is people believing that it works,' he added. McIntyre believes Nectome fits in the same category as companies that develop technologies like quantum computing. 'Those companies also can't sell anything now, but there is a lot of interest in the technologies that could be revolutionary if they are made to work,' McIntyre said. 'I do think that brain preservation has amazing commercial potential,' he explained. Brain preservation has been criticized by many experts who say 'transhumanism' is wrong. Transhumanism is the belief that the human body can evolve beyond its current form with the help of scientists and technology. The idea has been explored at length by futurists, scientists and science fiction junkies alike. Some experts say Nectome shouldn't attempt to offer its services commercially before its findings are published in a medical journal. Others say transhumanism is fraudulent. 'Burdening future generations with our brain banks is just comically arrogant,' McGill University neuroscientist Michael Hendricks told MIT. 'Aren't we leaving them with enough problems?,' he added. South Africa has made headlines recently thanks to political wrangling at the very top and a severe water shortage in Cape Town. 'If it's brown, let it drown; if it's yellow let it mellow,' say the graphic posters as the drought shows little sign of letting up, and residents are limited to 50 litres of water a day. Despite such struggles, the city is upbeat. And that's partly down to art, which is flowing more freely than ever. Top spot: The colourful Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, with Table Mountain behind The new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, which opened in 2017, proves the point. Its arrival represents a landmark for local artists. Of course, there are many reasons to visit Cape Town already: the raw wildness of its Atlantic Seaboard, its colonial architecture, colourful Bo-Kaap area and not forgetting Table Mountain, which 'dressed' or 'undressed' by cloud, dominates the city's skyline. But the Zeitz Museum is the new star on the city's original Victorian harbour, the V&A Waterfront. It's an extraordinary building. What was originally a grain silo, built in 1924 but long since abandoned, has been re-imagined by British designer Thomas Heatherwick, of London Olympics cauldron fame. Its tubular interiors have been hollowed out to create an eightstorey atrium in the shape of a single grain, which allows access to more than 80 gallery spaces. High-brow: The arty Silo Hotel offers a 'seamless journey' from gallery to accommodation Within these, you can see the contemporary art of a continent: Mary Sibande, Cyrus Kabiru and Mohau Modisakeng hang there as does Swaziland-born (but South African-based) Nandipha Mntambo. Inside the old grain elevator of the silo and rising above the museum is the Silo Hotel, which shares the same extraordinary bulging windows. They are faceted rather like a mirror ball, allowing visitors a fragmented perspective of Table Mountain from their beds. Decor inside is by owner Liz Biden, whose choice of art overlaps in many instances with next door's, providing a seamless journey from one to the other. The 28 bedrooms are vibrant. Coffee cups in African designed ceramics and locally made match the rooms' colour palette, while the sheets are proper linen. A freestanding bathtub waits seductively in the bay of the protruding windows for the end of the drought. For a different and more affordable view of Cape Town, head over to Cape View Clifton, which sits on the rocks high above the Atlantic, in the wealthy suburb of Clifton to the south-west of the city. Here, chic, muted interiors by Jess Latimer offer understated comfort and beach views. More B&B than hotel, it hits the spot: there is a lovely pool inset on the wooden deck from which you can waste hours watching the waves crash beneath you. Though you should also make the most of its location to explore the vibrant culinary scene of Cape Town. Beach bliss: Cape View Clifton is the best place to relax and watch the crashing waves And in between the sleeping and the eating, what should you do? Call up Patrick Siebel at Luxury Africa. Based in Cape Town, Patrick curates big trips and small ones, from safari to seaside, but he is equally happy to spend the day giving you the insider view of the city. If you like art, this could involve popping in for a coffee with the renowned Lionel Smit, highly acclaimed for, among other things, his portraiture of Cape Malay women. But, with the sun shining, we decide to take off for Boulders Beach to see the African penguins famous for their donkey-like bray. We wind our way under the slopes of the famous Twelve Apostles, to Hout Bay, Patrick explaining local names and pointing out landmarks. We pass deserted golden Long Beach, go through the fishing village of Kalk Bay where Patrick tells me Cecil Rhodes died and end up, post penguins, in Constantia, the first wine-producing area in the Southern Hemisphere. At the cellar of David van Niekerk, bottles are opened and wine tasted. I learn about Cape Dutch architecture, about farming, about how David revived the wine estate of High Constantia. We drink to that, and to a new artistic chapter for Cape Town, as the sun descends. Known as the City of the Seven Hills, Lisbon is one of Europe's most enigmatic capitals. Famous for its yellow antique trams, a vibrant bar scene and stacks of exceptional museums, there's no surprise visitors repeatedly fall in love with the city. Here are ten reasons weve returned to the Portuguese capital time and time again. When in Lisbon the infamous Sao Jorge Castle is a must-see sight For its heroic history Lisbon is crammed with history. Visit the Moorish fort, Sao Jorge Castle, one of the city's oldest buildings. Aside from the old fortification, you can also spend an hour or so in the archaeological museum, which displays a wealth of exhibits unearthed from the Iron Age right through to the remains of a 15th-century palace. Another historic hotspot is the Torre de Belem, one of the city's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The old fortification dates back to the early 1500s when it was built to guard the entrance into Lisbon harbour from seafaring pirates. And its fascinating maritime heritage In the western wing of the Jeronimos Monastery, the Museu de Marinha, Lisbon's historic maritime museum, explores Portugal's long and tempestuous relationship with the sea. Founded by King Luiz in 1863, it showcases all kinds of maritime memorabilia, including the polished wooden quarters of the royal yacht, Amelia, and a portable wooden altar once owned by 15th-century Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. Wander around the gorgeous grounds at the Jeronimos Monastery Tuck into Lisbon's heavenly cuisine Visitors to the capital certainly won't go hungry tucking into pasteis de nata, the traditional Portuguese custard tarts, cozido a Portuguesa, a rustic meat stew, or the heavenly grilled fresh sardines. Spend time mooching around the citys hip food markets, including Time Out Market Lisboa, which has row after row of tables surrounded by the very best of Lisbons chefs, street food and regional produce. If you want to really splash the cash, the city has a growing fine-dining scene with several Michelin-starred restaurants, including the exquisite Belcanto. It's a family-friendly city But Lisbon is not just for adults it's a great place for all the family, not least to visit the Lisbon Oceanarium, Europe's largest indoor aquarium. Home to over 8,000 sea creatures, the aquarium covers two vast floors dominated by a huge central tank. Another family treat is Lisbon Zoo, founded in 1884. Walking around the Jardim Zoologico, youll see over 2,000 animals in a zoo designed to take you around the world in one day. The Lisbon Oceanarium is the largest oceanarium in Europe A city simply crammed with art and culture With its extensive art collection that travels from 2000 BCE up to modern art from the 20th century, the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian is one of Europe's leading art galleries. It's easy to spend several hours exploring the halls filled with Egyptian scarabs and Syrian art, as well as classics by old masters, Rembrandt, Gainsborough and Manet. Hop aboard its antique yellow trams Nothing is more Lisbon than rumbling through the city on one of its yellow antique trams. If you have to pick one, try Tram 28, one of the city's most famous routes, travelling between Martim Moniz and Campo de Ourique. The route ticks off Graca, Baixa and Bairro Alto districts, and Sao Jorge Castle, before stopping in the historic Alfama district. The Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) is a work of art itself Explore the capital's modern architecture Opened in October 2016, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) is a must-see, especially if you like modern architecture. Designed by British architect Amanda Levete, the sleek gallery housed in a former power station hosts a varied calendar of exhibitions, such as works by 20th-century American designers, Charles and Ray Eames. And be inspired by its stylish interiors Visit Lisbon's National Azulejo Museum in the 16th-century Convent of Madre Deus. Its extensive collection of decorative ceramic tiles, many of which date back to the 15th century, is quiet something. Don't miss the tiled mural depicting life in Lisbon before the 1755 earthquake, and the ornately tiled vaulted chapel. Relax into Lisbon's vibrant cafe culture Lisbons cafes and coffee shops have extraordinary histories many were the original hangouts of the city's arts and literary crew. A Brasileira, in particular, was once the domain of the city's bohemian crowd and now has a statue of one of its original patrons poet Fernando Pessoa sitting at a table in front of the cafe. One of Lisbon's most famous cafes is the homely Botequim da Graca, which Natalia Correia, another famed Portuguese author and poet, opened in 1968 as a meeting place for intellectuals and thinkers. Hot summers and mild autumns make Lisbon a popular holiday destination for much of the year who doesnt want to top up their tan while exploring beautiful cathedrals and tucking into pastel de nata? But winter though cold has its draws, too, like empty cobbled streets, no queues for the yellow trams and cheaper flights and hotels. Each season brings its pros and cons, so when is best to visit? You decide. Want to go to Lisbon but not sure when? Here's our roundup to help you make your decision Spring: best for town and hill walking With its seven hills, Lisbon is perfect for walking, especially in spring, when the days are long and sunny but not too hot. Better yet, with the good weather comes some beautiful flora, so head to the parks like Jardim da Estrela and Parque Principe Real to enjoy blossoming purple Jacaranda trees and lush greenery. Eating and drinking outside The bars along the Tagus River spring back to life as April comes to a close and May begins. Its warm enough to stay outside with a glass of wine until around 2100, but restaurant owners will gladly bring you blankets and hot drinks to help eek out another hour or so. The Tagus River is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula Surprisingly cheap flights In terms of flight prices, April is a great month to go to Lisbon. If you can book in advance and be a bit flexible with your dates, it could cost you less than a taxi ride in London. Summer: best for carnivals Carnival season kicks off in June and is basically one big party for the citys most popular saints: Peter, John and Anthony. Expect to be wowed by colour on every building and monument. Restaurants serve up special menus with traditional grilled sardines at the centre of many dishes and local music plays loudly in plazas. The two-week celebration ends on St Anthonys Day when its time to head out with enthusiastic Lisboetas to dance through the streets and party the night away. Feeling like youre on a tropical island Lisbon offers the best of both worlds bustling city and beautiful beaches and when June rolls around, the beach is the place to be. Its worth getting up early to beat the crowds at coastal favourites like Lagoa de Albufeira and Troia, though, where you can make the most of the heat on a sun lounger, enjoy a panoramic view from the clifftops or, at Costa da Caparica, give windsurfing a go. Autumn: best for feeling like a local Most of the summer crowds have left by autumn, so Lisbons residents start to venture into their home city a bit more, making people watching all the more interesting. The restaurant owners stop jostling for trade, so meals are cheaper, dining rooms are calmer and theres more chance of table in a fado house. The narrow streets of Bairro Alto are much easier to navigate in the autumn months, too. See the changing of the season Lisbon is a very green city but come October it turns amber. Head to Quinta da Regaleira, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Sintra, just an hour from Lisbon, or Monsanto Forest Park in the city centre to see the leaves changing colour and capture the lesser-known angles without feeling pressure to move on with your camera. You might not need as many layers as you think either October is about the same temperature as an average UK summer. The beautiful remains of a Gothic Church at the Carmo Archaeological Museum Winter: best for having the city to yourself In the winter months rain is very likely making it the perfect time to explore all Lisbons indoor museums in tranquillity, without the queues to get in and hordes of tourists in each room. Try the National Azulejo Museum to see beautiful Portuguese tiles and ceramics, the Carmo Archaeological Museum to uncover mummies and relics inside an awe-inspiring Gothic church and the National Museum of Contemporary Art for your fix of priceless paintings and sculptures. It might be cold from November to January but not as cold as were used to in the UK and often much brighter, so you could still enjoy al fresco meals on restaurant terraces and spots by the river. This may be the only time of year you dont have to fight another tourist for them. Saving money on your trip If youre happy to trade sunshine for more cash in your pocket, you should definitely visit Lisbon in December or January. Flights from London are very affordable if you book in advance, and the hotels will often put on special deals to tempt tourists in. Advertisement Stunning new drone footage reveals how Disney's Star Wars: Galaxys Edge park in California is taking shape, with striking rocky peaks soaring upwards. The film clip, shared by Disney CEO Bob Iger, takes viewers on a flight through the ambitious new west coast attraction, which is part of a $2 billion (1.43 billion) investment. The camera soars above lengths of scaffolding and dozens of cranes, with the much-anticipated site covering a total of 14 acres. Scroll down for video Stunning new drone footage reveals how Disney's Star Wars: Galaxys Edge park in California is coming along The film clip, shared by Disney CEO Bob Iger, takes viewers on a flight through the ambitious new west coast attraction, which is part of a $2 billion investment Once completed, Star Wars: Galaxys Edge will include approximately 10,000 tons of structural steel and approximately 200,000 square feet of hand-carved rock work. The same intergalactic land also is under construction at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The Star Wars: Galaxy Edge's lands are set to open in 2019 in both theme parks, and Disney says it will 'transport guests to a never-before-seen planet, a remote trading port and one of the last stops before wild space where Star Wars characters and their stories come to life'. Once completed, Star Wars: Galaxys Edge will include approximately 10,000 tons of structural steel and approximately 200,000 square feet of hand-carved rock work (above, a computer rendering of the finished land) The camera soars above lengths of scaffolding and dozens of cranes, with the much-anticipated site covering a total of 14 acres The parks are set to transport guests to a never-before-seen planet, a remote trading port and one of the last stops before wild space where Star Wars characters and their stories come to life These authentic lands will have two signature attractions, allowing guests to lead their own adventures. The first will allow park-goers to take part an immersive battle between the Resistance and the First Order. The second will let riders take control of one of the most recognizable ships in the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon, on a customized secret mission. Earlier, MailOnline Travel reported on aerial snaps taken by mapping service Nearmap, which also give Disney fans a much better idea of how the parks are progressing. Masses of scaffolding and construction workers can be seen in the shots taken in both Florida and California of Galaxy's Edge. Earlier, MailOnline Travel reported on aerial snaps taken by mapping service Nearmap, which also give Disney fans a much better idea of how the parks are progressing The two main attractions in the Star Wars park will be a Millennium Falcon ride and a ride that involves a battle between the Resistance and the First Order The Disney Parks group is continually adapting and expanding to cater to customer demand. In 2016, Shanghai Disneyland opened, while in May 2017 the new World of Avatar attraction at Disney World's Animal Kingdom in Florida was launched. Elsewhere, Disney has announced a two billion euro (1.75billion) investment in its Paris theme park that will see an extension featuring Marvel, Frozen and Star Wars attractions. The three new areas at the Walt Disney Studios Park will be rolled out in phases, starting in 2021. Have you ever booked a flight or hotel and then noticed that the prices drop after you've shelled out? A computerised legal tool has expanded its offerings in a bid to help travellers recuperate losses like this on holiday bookings. DoNotPay - masterminded by Stanford University tech whizz Joshua Browder - uses a 'robot lawyer' to find legal loopholes and negotiate cheaper prices or re-book reservations for customers if prices lower after they've paid. DoNotPay - masterminded by Stanford University tech whizz Joshua Browder - uses a 'robot lawyer' to find legal loopholes and negotiate cheaper prices or re-book travel reservations for customers if prices lower after they've paid Once a customer signs up, the sophisticated bot automatically looks for all the travel confirmations in the user's email inbox and checks for fluctuations in price about 17,000 times a day until the departure date. If the flight or hotel price drops, DoNotPay claims it would bag the better deal and make the vendor refund the difference. 'In the US (unlike Europe unfortunately), there are about 70 different loopholes that will make even the most non-refundable ticket refundable,' Browder told Business Insider, explaining how his invention works. He added that in beta testing, 68 per cent of flights saw prices decline by an average of $140 (100). The largest difference that DoNotPay has seen to date is $650 (465). The online service is currently free to sign up to and users get to keep 100 per cent of what they save. Once a customer signs up, the sophisticated bot automatically looks for all the travel confirmations in the user's email inbox and check for fluctuations in price about 17,000 times a day until the departure date If your flight is delayed, the airline loses your luggage, or you are unhappy with an aspect of your travel service, DoNotPay will also fight for you. The site reports that it has already 'claimed millions without charging a cent'. On average, it says it saves the average traveller $415 (297). British-American entrepreneur Browder initially created the DoNotPay robot to appeal parking tickets in the UK and it later launched in the U.S. Since its inception, it claims to have saved drivers more than $3 million (2.15 million) dollars. Browder created this technology when he was 18 years old, after receiving a parking ticket on a Saturday and experienced how time consuming the appeals process is. I realized there is a formulated process for appealing tickets, so I wrote a script that does the same thing and I started winning, Browder told the Daily Mail in 2016. I created this robot to help people with legal issues and make it a free service.' Browder launched DoNotPays flight and hotel price protection service on March 6. It seems that the Black Panther movie has done such a good job of immersing audiences in its world that many people think it's real. Two hotel booking sites have revealed that site searches for the word 'Wakanda' the name of the fictional African country the movie is set in have risen dramatically. Hotelscan.com reported that the number of people landing on its Wisconsin Wakanda Water Park page is up by 620 per cent and Hotels.com reported that searches for neighbouring Wakanda Park are up by 55 per cent year on year. Two hotel booking sites have revealed that site searches for the word 'Wakanda' the name of the fictional country the Black Panther movie is set in have risen dramatically A spokesperson for hotelscan.com commented: 'The fact we've seen such an increase in the number of site visits to the Wakanda Water Park destination page on our website since the launch of Black Panther suggests that, until people visit our website searching for trips, they're not aware it's a fictional destination. 'Either that, or people are more interested than ever in attending the Water Park, but we think that the movie has something to do with it!' Hotels.com, meanwhile, said it had spotted spikes in searches to other Wakanda namesakes around the world. It said searches for Wauconda, Illinois (pronounced identically to Wakanda), are up more than 25 per cent and Makanda, also in Illinois, are up over 40 per cent year on year. Hotelscan.com reported that the number of people landing on its page for Wisconsin Wakanda Water Park, pictured, is up by 620 per cent. Clearly, it's not an ultra-advanced location harbouring superheroes Pictured is a scene where the Black Panther fights his nemesis Further afield, Wakaya, in Fiji, are up over 235 per cent and Wakkanai in Japan is enjoying a more than 55 per cent year-on-year uplift. Isabelle Pinson, Vice President, EMEA, at Hotels.com brand, commented: 'Our hotel portfolio spans more than 200 counties and territories around the world but not yet Wakanda. We're looking into it. 'The film has touched the hearts and minds of millions of film fans around the world. 'It's a brilliant watch and we regularly see that pop culture inspires travel choices. We love that holidaymakers are seeking the Black Panther's homeland, from Wisconsin to Japan. Wakanda forever!' Hotelscan.com added that the most-searched for fictional locations on its site are Hawkins, Indiana (Stranger Things); Wakanda (Black Panther); Riverdale (Riverdale); San Junipero (Black Mirror) and Fortitude (Fortitude). A judge has refused to dismiss a drug possession charge against actress Rose McGowan after prosecutors said they have additional evidence to bring forward. McGowan's lawyers suggested the drugs may have been planted by agents hired by disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to discredit her for making sex assault accusations against him. She was charged with felony drug possession after authorities said cocaine was found in a wallet she left behind on a flight to Dulles International Airport in January 2017. Court: A judge has refused to dismiss a drug possession charge against actress Rose McGowan after prosecutors said they have additional evidence to bring forward McGowan's lawyer said in court papers that the drugs could have been planted before the wallet was found by a cleaning crew. More than five hours passed between the time McGowan left the plane and the wallet being found. At a hearing in Loudoun County General District Court, McGowan's lawyers argued for dismissal of the charges, saying that even if what prosecutors have alleged thus far is true, it is insufficient to sustain a conviction. In addition to the question of whether the drugs could have been planted during the time the wallet was unaccounted for, they have also argued that jurisdiction for a crime occurring on an airplane is only appropriate in federal court. Mugshot: She was charged with felony drug possession after authorities said cocaine was found in a wallet she left behind on a flight to Dulles International Airport in January 2017. However, prosecutor Rebecca Thatcher said she has evidence beyond what has been cited so far in the charging documents. Judge Deborah Welsh denied the motion to dismiss as premature. She said the issues are better addressed at a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 21, at which live testimony can be presented. Prosecutors are not the only ones seeking additional evidence. Defence attorneys are trying to subpoena information from Instagram about the owner of an account who sent a message to McGowan after her wallet went missing, and before any charges against her had been made public, saying: 'You left your wallet on your Saturday flight with your 2 bags of coke.' Defence attorneys have suggested the message may have been part of a harassment campaign by Weinstein. McGowan did not attend Monday's hearing. They tied the knot with three elaborate ceremonies in London, Florida and Slovenia last year. And Strictly Come Dancing stars Janette Manrara and Aljaz Skorjanec have just celebrated their summer nuptials with an idyllic honeymoon in Seychelles, where the pair flaunted their envy-inducing frames in a shoot with OK! Magazine. In an interview with the publication, the dance professionals gave an insight into their tropical getaway, and also revealed their plans of starting a family in the near future. Smitten: Janette Manrara and Aljaz Skorjanec have just celebrated their summer nuptials with an idyllic honeymoon in Seychelles, where the pair flaunted their envy-inducing frames in a shoot with OK! Magazine The So You Think You Can Dance star, 34, gushed over her picturesque holiday with the Slovenian hunk, 28. It gave us time to reconnect with each other and it also gave us a chance to reflect on our three weddings. We did a lot of reminiscing. It really was beautiful. In the sizzling hot snap, the brunette body flaunted her svelte figure in a skimpy orange two-piece, while Aljaz looked every inch the hunk in a pair of beach shorts. Loved-up: They tied the knot with three elaborate ceremonies in London, Florida and Slovenia last year (pictured August 2016) The pair went to share their desire to start planning for children: 'Were family people and we do eventually want to have a family. For us, family is everything.' Current issue: The latest edition of OK! magazine is out now 'But we are so happy with where our careers are at the moment that we want to enjoy it as much as we can.' 'Then a little further down the line we will get ready for a baby. There will definitely be a little Skorjanec running around at some point. The couple also discussed their thoughts on the infamous Strictly curse, where they explained that the splits were down to the individuals rather than the show itself. Aljaz and Janette's London celebration - which took place in July 2017 - was spread across three different locations a legal ceremony at Chelsea Old Town Hall, the wedding breakfast at Heron Towers Duck and Waffle before the party at Victorian Bath House in Bishopsgate. There was certainly no shortage of celebrity guests waiting to take a spin on the gold-mirrored dancefloor during the glitzy event, as Zoe Ball, Frankie and Wayne Bridge were in attendance. Aljaz proposed to Janette in August 2015, where he popped the question in the very same dance studio they met in five years prior. Marking their first Valentine's Day as husband and wife, Janette took to Instagram to share a touching tribute to her partner last month. Penned alongside a flashback snap of their big day, the Miami native wrote: 'Happy Valentines Day to my amazing husband & best friend @aljazskorjanec! Our 1st as husband & wife!' 'You light up my life & fill my heart & soul w/ so much love! Thank you for loving me always & unconditionally! Im definitely the luckiest woman in the world to have you...... #MyBucko #MyEverything.' They've been on the promotional trail for her new Disney blockbuster A Wrinkle In Time. And Reese Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey gave London a touch of Hollywood glamour as they headed to The Chiltern Firehouse after appearing on The One Show on Monday. Reese looked sensational in a curve-hugging teal dress with striking sleeve cutouts and a chic coat as she joined her co-star Oprah, 64, for the evening out in the British capital. A-list: Reese Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey gave London a touch of Hollywood glamour as they headed to The Chiltern Firehouse after appearing on The One Show on Monday The Legally Blonde star injected a pop of colour to the rainy evening in her bright design, wrapping up against the cold in a chic tweed checked jacket. Being careful not to slip on the stairs, Reese held onto a security guards hand as she delicately walked in stylish grey suede stiletto heels. Reese's trademark glossy blonde locks were kept in natural straight style with a classic middle parting, while she opted for a neutral make-up palette. Leaving the glitzy accessories at home with only a silver bracelet and dainty rings as a touch of sparkle. Rewarding herself: After a long day, Reese looked excited at the prospect at dining Feeling good: Despite the bitter climes, she looked in high spirits for the night time outing Showtime: Reese looked sensational in a curve-hugging teal dress as she exited The One Show Close friends: Reese joined her Wrinkle In Time co-stars on the BBC sofa, with the mega-talented trio each handed a margarita cocktail - a homage to their time together while filming Smiles: Being careful not to slip on the stairs, Reese held onto a security guards hand as she delicately walked in stylish grey suede stiletto heels Hold on: The Legally Blonde star injected a pop of colour to the rainy evening in her bright design, and wrapped up in a chic tweed checked jacket After the party: Reese jumped straight off the One Show sofa and out on the town with Oprah as they were soon spotted at swanky London hot spot The Chiltern Firehouse Radiant: Leaving the glitzy accessories at home, Reese she opted for a neutral make-up palette Reese joined her Wrinkle In Time co-stars on the BBC sofa, with the mega-talented trio each handed a margarita cocktail - a homage to their time together while filming the fantasy novel adaptation. All three women enjoyed their drinks before delving into the exciting news that their characters were being immortalised as Barbie dolls. 'I'm going to give it a special place in my house' TV icon Oprah revealed to hosts Matt Baker and Angellica Bell. 'I grew up as a young girl who couldnt afford Barbie dolls so to have a Barbie doll in the image of your character is really fun' she continued. Talented trio: All three women enjoyed their drinks before delving into the exciting news that their characters were being immortalised as Barbie dolls Lots of laughs: 'I'm going to give it a special place in my house' TV icon Oprah revealed to hosts Matt Baker and Angellica Bell Perfect pink: Mindy Kaling enjoyed a night off mum duty as she stepped out to the glam London haunt in a striking fuchsia coat Night out: Mindy strolled through the London streets in a pair of faux snake skin killer heels Southern belle: Reese couldn't stop smiling as she enjoyed a night out with the girls Beaming: The blonde beauty couldn't wipe the smile from her face Cruising off! Reese was seen making a getaway in an awaiting car Oprah - who rocked her signature smart style in a white blouse under a sparkling black waistcoat and skinny tie - got quite a shock when The Office star Mindy confessed that she had accidentally leaked the news that Mindy was expecting her first child last year. While trying to remain private about her impeding birth, Mindy excitedly told Reese and Oprah about her pregnancy after her growing bump started to show. Mindy gave birth to daughter Katherine in December, and while never officially announced her pregnancy herself, Oprah dropped her baby news without evening knowing it. Wrapping up: With the plunging temperatures, Reese made sure she was covered head to toe in her chic checked jacket Red carpet style: Reese looked every inch the screen queen in her sophisticated sartorial choices Satin style: Reese flashed the red interior of her jacket, which complemented her teal dress to perfection Oops! Oprah got quite a shock when The Office star Mindy confessed that she had accidentally leaked the news that Mindy was expecting her first child last year News to her! A confused Oprah appeared astounded at the revelation, replying: 'Did I know that was a trick question? Not until this moment!' Tie it up! Kicking back for the evening, Oprah rocked a smart skinny tie for her appearance Heading to the warm: Oprah appeared in good spirits as she headed out into the evening with her Wrinkle In Time co-stars Relaxed: Oprah opted for comfort in a pair of monochrome flatforms The Inside Out actress told the hosts: [Oprah] said in an interview "Oh Im so excited for Mindy and her baby" but what [the reporters did] is I think they tricked you and asked "Are you excited about Mindy's baby?"'. A confused Oprah appeared astounded at the revelation, replying: 'Did I know that was a trick question? Not until this moment!' Meanwhile, the talk-show host batted down presidential rumours once again as Matt Baker started to ask the long-running question. Top team: Reese Witherspoon also received praise for her dedication for female empowerment within the acting community, having started up her production company - Pacific Standard In the running? The talk-show host batted down presidential rumours once again as Matt Baker started to ask the long-running question. 'I don't want to ruin my life'! Oprah joked that while it was 'life affirming' that people believed she could run for president, she once again confirmed she 'won't be running' Making change: Reese's company produced Oscar-nominated features such as Wild and Gone Girl, and also produces the smash-hit HBO drama Big Little Lies After her awe-inspiring - and rather presidential - Golden Globes speech, Oprah had been at the centre of much speculation that she could consider running for office, but has consistently refused to budge on the issue. 'I will not be running [for president] its not happening' she continued. 'It feels very life affirming that I have lived my life in such a way that people have enough respect and trust and confidence in me that I could do that. 'But I dont want to ruin my life' Oprah joked, which caused much laughter amongst her co-stars. She knows style! Oprah wrapped up against the wintry evening in a chic black shawl with glittering accents for her night on the town with Reese Casual: The TV veteran went down a more cosy route for her ensemble, stepping out in a pair of monochrome sneakers with leather bow accents Jubilant: Oprah beamed as she walked to the celeb hot spot, with her raven tresses styled in glamorous curls Reese Witherspoon also received praise for her dedication for female empowerment within the acting community, having started up her production company - Pacific Standard - in 2000 in the hopes of giving more women the chance to have their voice heard. Her company produced Oscar-nominated features such as Wild and Gone Girl, and also produces the smash-hit HBO drama Big Little Lies Reese told the panel: 'The first three films got three Oscar nominations for women, which was really important to me. 'I just wanted to show that women are complex and have so many different dynamics and I was proud to be able to do something for someone else.' TV veteran: Looking right at home in front of the camera, Oprah rocked her signature sleek style in a white blouse and sharp black waist coat Kendall Jenner is one of the most sought-after models of her generation. And the cover girl showed just why while stepping out in a simple-yet-sultry look in Los Angeles Monday. Seen heading out from a photoshoot at a private studio, the 22-year-old model smoldered in a ribbed vest which was slashed in half to reveal her flat-as-can-be abs. Model form! Kendall Jennner demonstrated why she's one of the most sought after models of her generation, flaunting her fantastically flat abs as she was seen heading off from a photoshoot in Los Angles Monday Miss Jenner teamed her white crop with a striking silk shirt so smooth it practically shimmered. Distressed denim and white heeled boots added retro flair to the Kardashian half-sister's look. Kendall played up her natural features with a bit of smoky eyeshadow, pink lips and tidy brows. She pulled her raven locks back into a messy-chic ponytail, revealing a pair of safety-pin inspired earrings on her lobes. Abs-olute stunner! The 20-something model smoldered in a ribbed vest which was slashed in half to reveal her flat-as-can-be abs Shining star! Miss Jenner teamed her white crop with a striking silk shirt so smooth it practically shimmered Mean jeans: Distressed denim and white heeled boots added retro flair to the Kardashian half-sister's look Social star: Fans got a closer look at the starlet in a playful Instagram Fun with filters: The fun social post zoomed in on the star's lips and back again with the text 'crooked' written atop in pink Busy lady! Kendall had a jam-packed schedule the day earlier, heading from sister Khloe's luxe baby shower to the Revenge Body hostess's beau Tristan Thompson's birthday celebration later in the evening on Sunday Fans got a closer look at the starlet in a playful Instagram which zoomed in on her lips and back again with the text 'crooked' written atop in pink. Later on her Snapchat, the model shared another video that showed her angelic face surrounded by hearts. Another social media post showed the beauty sitting for hair and makeup. Glam squad: Another social media post showed the beauty sitting for hair and makeup Out and a pout: A team of hairdressers, makeup artists and other helpers surrounded Kendall while she sat pretty and pouted in the clip Kendall had a jam-packed schedule the day earlier, heading from sister Khloe's luxe baby shower to the Revenge Body hostess's beau Tristan Thompson's birthday celebration later in the evening on Sunday. At the party she was snapped with famous sisters Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian, as well as new mom Kylie, who was enjoying her first night on the town since giving birth to baby Stormi. Also in attendance at the party hosted by Amazon was Kardashian family friend Larsa Pippen, grandma MJ, Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star (and Paris' auntie) Kyle Richards, and Khloe's BFF Malika Haqq and her twin Khadijah. Heart eyes: Later on her Snapchat, the model shared another video that showed her angelic face surrounded by hearts What a beauty! Kendall played up her natural features with a bit of smoky eyeshadow, pink lips and tidy brows at the shoot Kendall looked surprisingly refreshed after her whirlwind day. After Tristan's party had turned down, the starlet was seen trying to make a discreet exit from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Beverly Hills during the wee hours of Monday. There, Jenner donned a sharp blazer, a vintage tee and stiletto boots. Girls night! At the party she was snapped with famous sisters Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian, as well as new mom Kylie, who was enjoying her first night on the town since giving birth to baby Stormi Padma Lakshmi's makeup collection with MAC Cosmetics released on Monday. The 47-year-old Top Chef host had a whirlwind day in NYC as she visited several media outlets to push her new product line. She arrived at AOL's Build Series in a military style jacket before changing into a sleeveless white knit tank top for her interview. Scroll for video... Boss babe! Padma Lakshmi's makeup collection with MAC Cosmetics released on Monday. She spent the day in NYC talking with several media outlets about the collaboration The Indian star was all smiles as she arrived to Build in a black fitted military jacket and a pair of cropped denim belted at the waist. She teamed her ensemble with patent leather ankle boots and a medium sized Hermes bag. The cookbook author later changed into a sleeveless knit sweater and white boots for her chat with AOL. Attention! The Top Chef host arrived at AOL's Build Series in a military style jacket Cool and creative! Lakshmi's MAC collaboration was heavily influenced by her Indian heritage. The collection includes lipstick, eye shadow, blush, and eyeliner Lakshmi's MAC collaboration was heavily influenced by her Indian heritage. 'From a very early age, I began to associate female bonding and femininity with two things: makeup for beauty and food for love,' she explained in her Build Series interview. 'Those things are very intertwined for me.' She talked of her grandmother making her own eyeliner from a plant root and plucking her mother's eyebrows at the mere age of nine to earn her allowance. 'I just wanted colors that were vibrant and saturated, that looked on my skin the way they looked in the pan,' she explained in her interview with AOL about creating makeup that looked good on every skin tone She chose to collaborate with MAC because they were one of the only companies that made makeup for her skin tone growing up. 'I remember every time I'd visit my family in India, I'd bring truckloads of makeup to them, but the colors would always be hit or miss,' she said. 'Most cosmetics are made by Caucasians for Caucasian skin.' So Padma set out to create a collection of 'inclusive' lipstick, eye shadow, blush, and eyeliner that would pop on anyone. 'I just wanted colors that were vibrant and saturated, that looked on my skin the way they looked in the pan,' she said. The debut of her MAC x Padma collaboration comes after three years of hard work and lifetime of love for makeup. Hard at work! Padma has been working on the collection for more than three years You can't tell The Bobby Brown Story without Whitney Houston And now BET has cast the role of the hitmaker's late ex-wife. Gabrielle Dennis, 36, who starred in TV series Rosewood, will play the iconic diva in the two-part miniseries starring Woody McClain, 29, as Bobby. Scroll down for video Playing the part: Rosewood's Gabrielle Dennis, left, at a Hollywood event in November, is set to play the late Whitney Houston, in Beverly Hills in 2008, in BET's The Bobby Brown Story It's set for a September premiere, according to Deadline Hollywood on Monday. Whitney and Bobby's turbulent marriage played out in the tabloids and on reality TV, and the film will showcase their successes and struggles during their difficult relationship. The couple was married from 1992 to 2007 and shared daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown. Whitney drowned in the bath at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 9, 2012, due to the 'effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use,' according to the coroners office. She was 48. Telling his tale: The Bobby Brown Story follows the 49-year-old's turbulent marriage to Whitney and his successful solo run It suits him: Woody McClain will reprise his role as the hitmaker in The Bobby Brown Story after playing the star in BET's The New Edition Story, which aired in January 2017 In a tragic coincidence. Bobbi Kristina also drowned in the bath due to drug intoxication at her home in Alpharetta, Georgia, in January . She was 22. Meanwhile, The New Edition Story, about Bobby's hitmaking group, broke BET ratings records when it aired in January 2017. The Bobby Brown Story picks up where that left off, following the celebrity's successful solo run. Happier times: Whitney and Bobby made a striking couple at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Hollywood in March 2001 before she drowned in the bath in 2012 aged 48 Tragic coincidence: The couple shared daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown who was found face down in her bath in January, 2015, and died in July the same year Woody is reprising his role as Bobby, 49, one of the genres original 'bad boys' whose life epitomizes the meaning of sex, drugs and rock n roll. His hits may have kept him at the top of the charts, but his antics kept him on the front page. Production on the new mini began this week in Atlanta, Georgia. Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash has obtained a temporary restraining order against a man he claims tried to enter his Los Angeles-area home uninvited, then put on an imposing display in his driveway. The 52-year-old musician said Friday in Pasadena Court that a man lied and told his girlfriend Meegan Hodges that they were friends and neighbors as he tried to attend a Super Bowl party Slash was at last month, TMZ reported. The man was identified as Kevin Patrick Coleman, according to The Blast. Legal move: Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, 52, on Friday obtained a temporary restraining order against a man he claims tried to enter his home uninvited Hodges did not allow Coleman to enter the premises, Slash told the court, at which point he repeatedly ringed the doorbell then smashed a security camera on the premises. Slash, whose real name is Saul Hudson, said Coleman attempted to enter his home when he tossed an invitation-only party two weeks after the Super Bowl, again saying that he was friends with the guitarist behind hits such as Patience, Paradise City and Sweet Child O' Mine. Coleman was not let into the home on that occasion, according to the outlet, at which point he menacingly revved the engine of a motorcycle he rode there on. Slash, who's asked the court to issue a restraining order that also covers Hodges and his two teenage sons, included security camera footage his home cameras picked up in his request for a restraining order, The Blast reported. Provisions: The temporary restraining also covers Slash's girlfriend Meegan Hodges, seen here with the rocker in 2016 in LA Cultural icon: The heavy metal star was seen onstage last October in NYC He's one in a number of prominent show business personalities in recent years to seek court intervention against alleged stalkers, as other notable names include Gwyneth Paltrow, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sandra Bullock and Kendall Jenner. Kris Mohandie, a forensic psychologist who once headed up the Los Angeles Police Department's Behavioral Sciences Unit, told CBS News last year that it's one of the flip-sides of fame. 'I hate to say that if you're a celebrity and you're famous it comes with the territory, but it does,' Mohandie said. 'The more people that are following you, the more fans you have, the greater the likelihood that there's going to be an unstable person in that midst.' Famous people who were tragically killed by obsessed fans in the past include John Lennon in 1980, My Sister Sam actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989, and The Voice's Christina Grimmie in 2016. She shot to fame for her wild antics on MTV series Geordie Shore. And Vicky Pattison proved she still knows how to have a good time, partying with her fiance John Noble and her I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Australia co-stars after her elimination. Taking to her Instagram Story this week, the 30-year-old offered fans a glimpse of the eventful night, which featured shots, risque comments, and scantily-clad men. Wild night! Taking to her Instagram Stories, Vicky Pattison (pictured) shared footage of her boozy night with her co-stars after being eliminated from the I'm A Celebrity Australia jungle A series of videos from the night - which also featured AFL star Josh Gibson and model Simone Holtznagel - saw the former I'm A Celebrity jungle-dwellers enjoying their newfound freedom. At one point, Vicky could be heard yelling lewd comments at a group of shirtless men wearing towels, including Josh and John. 'Lads, lads, lads, lads - now get your d**ks out!' she screamed, while fiance John flashed his behind. At one point, Vicky could be heard yelling lewd comments at a group of shirtless men in towels 'Lads, lads, lads, lads, now get your d**ks out!' Vicky could be heard screaming, while fiance John flashed his behind In another post, Vicky could be looking rather worse for wear as she declares in the caption: 'I'm drunk'. Slurring her words, she thanked I'm A Celebrity fans for voting for her, before Josh chimed in, asking: 'Why didn't you vote for me and not this Pommy geezer?' Elsewhere, a platter of shots was flaunted in front of the camera. Actor Peter Rowsthorn featured in another video, where the gang can be seen downing shots and playing drinking a games. 'I have the best jungle family ever,' the post was captioned. Get the party started! Vicky gushed over her co-stars as she filmed them downing shots and playing drinking games ' Why didn't you vote for me and not this Pommy geezer?' Josh (right), who was sitting next to Simone (left) questioned why Vicky got further in the competition than him Meanwhile, another telling post hinted that Simone and Josh could be dating - despite the pair's persistent denials. 'Legit my favourite couple ever,' Vicky wrote over footage of the model feeding the sports star soup. Whispers of a relationship began after the genetically-blessed pair struck up a cosy friendship in the jungle. Vicky was eliminated from I'm A Celebrity on Sunday, placing fourth. 'Legit my favourite couple ever': Vicky also hinted Josh and Simone are really dating He's the Married At First Sight star who has been accused of being a paid actor. And on Tuesday's Today Extra, goofy groom Troy Delmege did very little dispel the rumours, putting on a very bizarre and dramatic performance. The 34-year-old was seen chewing gum, throwing his head back in a theatrical fashion and flipping his hair while being quizzed by co-hosts David Campbell and Sonia Kruger. From chewing gum to throwing his head back in a dramatic fashion and flipping his hair: Troy Delmege's VERY bizarre interview after claims Married At First Sight star is a paid actor Sporting a purple dress shirt and trousers, Troy looked to be in an overly jovial mood. While chewing gum, the IT accounts manager answered questions with gusto, throwing his head back in dramatic fashion. Troy also appeared to be checking his reflection in the studio's cameras and on several occasions flailed his arms wildly. Animated: Sporting a purple dress shirt and trousers, the IT accounts manager looked to be in an overly jovial mood while being quizzed by co-hosts David Campbell and Sonia Kruger The new reality star appeared on the breakfast program to discuss his relationship with 'TV wife' Ashley Irvin. However talk centred mostly around his very flirtatious behaviour, particularly around more mature woman. 'You strike me as being the very flirtatious type,' Sonia probed Troy, while co-host David said of his penchant for hair: 'It's like a little college boy.' OTT: Troy threw his head back in a dramatic fashion and at times looked to be checking his reflection in the studio's cameras Troy responded in a defensive manner, firing back 'They're not connected. Flipping hair is not connected to being flirtatious.' 'It's more just a practical thing actually,' he added. As well as Troy's 'TV wife' Ashley Irvin's sister Summer, fans have speculated that the tooth brushing fanatic is in fact a paid actor. What is the go? The new reality star appeared on the breakfast program to discuss his relationship with 'TV wife' Ashley Irvin Summer penned a lengthy social media rant last month, accusing Troy of overplaying his goofy personality. '[Ashley,] you applied to go on a show and meet the man of your dreams, little did you know you got matched with someone who didn't even apply [when over 7000 did] and every time you actually wanted to have a genuine conversation that wasn't for the camera you got a cold shoulder,' she wrote. Meanwhile, Troy has vehemently denied rumours that he is an actor, recently telling 9Life's Talking Married: 'It's me from start to finish, as you will find out.' He is known for his colourful language on the airwaves. But it appears Kyle Sandilands' foul mouth is nothing compared to his younger girlfriend Imogen Anthony. On Tuesday's The Kyle and Jackie O Show, the 46-year-old revealed the fashion designer, 27, once called him a 'fat c***'. 'Stop crying, you fat c***!' On Tuesday, Kyle Sandilands (left) offered a glimpse of the shocking insults hurled at him by girlfriend Imogen Anthony (right) Kyle made the confession during an interview with controversial Married At First Sight star Charlene Perera. Charlene had been accused of hypocrisy for complaining about the husbands' chauvinism while also telling her own spouse Patrick Miller to 'man up'. Kyle reassured her that whatever she had said to Patrick on MAFS was nothing compared to what Imogen says to him at home. High-profile couple: Kyle (right) and Imogen (left) have been dating since 2012 He said: 'Don't worry, that's nothing to me. My missus called me (and said) "Stop crying you fat c***". 'So that's heaps worse than what you've said,' he added. Kyle and Imogen have been dating since 2012. The shock jock was previously married to Tamara Jaber. Villain: Kyle made the confession during an interview with Married At First Sight star Charlene Perera (pictured) who has been criticised for how she speaks to her on-screen husband Patrick Despite their sometimes colourful language, Kyle and Imogen are understood to be very happy together. In fact, the couple recently moved into a $3million Southern Highlands home together. The Kyle and Jackie O Show airs weekdays on KIIS 106.5 from 6am Mark Wahlberg found himself at the center of controversy last year when it was revealed he got paid hundreds of thousands of dollars more than his co-star Michelle Williams for reshoots of their movie All The Money In The World. As the #MeToo and Times Up movements dominated Hollywood heading into and through awards season, the pay disparity between the two stars garnered headlines around the world. On Sunday, though, a lawyer for the Times Up legal defense fund confirmed that Wahlberg had made good on his promise to donate his $1.5 million reshoot fee to the fund. Wrote the check: Mark Wahlberg has kept his promise and donated the $1.5 million he received for reshoots on the film All The Money In The World to the Times Up legal defense fund During a Q&A at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, attorney Nina Shaw was asked if the money had been received. 'Yes, Mark has written that check,' Shaw responded, according to Deadline.com. While the star of Ted and Daddy's Home was paid $1.5 million to reshoot scenes in the Ridley Scott film where Christopher Plummer replaced disgraced Kevin Spacey, Williams only got scale - $80 a day. It was made worse by the revelation that both stars share the same talent agency, William Morris Endeavor. Wahlberg ultimately announced he would give his reshoot pay day to the Times Up fund which represents victims of sexual harassment and abuse. Controversy: Wahlberg's co-star Michelle Williams was only paid $80 a day for the reshoots required after Ridley Scott fired Kevin Spacey and reshot his scenes with Christopher Plummer Got the money: Time's Up attorney Nina Shaw confirmed they'd received the actor's donation during a panel discussion at the SXSW Film Festival, saying: 'Yes, Mark has written that check' 'It was a huge embarrassment,' Shaw said at SXSW. 'And out of it the Times Up legal defense fund did very well.' Shaw also explained her theory of why there is so much gender pay disparity in the movie industry. 'Men often get paid more, not because theyre better actors, but theyre in stories where they drive the narrative,' she said. 'The reason they drive the narrative is theyre in stories that are picked by men.' When it comes to the ladies, former Bachelor Arie Luyedyk Jr seems to stick to one type. On Monday the racecar driver's fiance Lauren Burnham shared a photo of the pair looking loved up at the opening race of the IndyCar season in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Almost immediately, eagle-eyed observer Reality Steve noticed the photo's uncanny resemblance to a snapshot Arie took with ex-girlfriend Sydney Stempfley just last June 2017. Scroll down for video After Bachelor Arie Luyendyk Jr's fiance Lauren Burnham shared a sweet selfie of the couple enjoying a race Monday (left), blogger Reality Steve noticed the picture's uncanny resemblance to a shot the racecar driver took with ex Sydney Stempfley in June 2017 (right) The pics were more than similar enough to warrant a double-take. Both photos show the salt-and-pepper suitor on the right side of a smiling blonde and posed in front of a racecar, with both ladies clad in the same red Honda racing garb. Sydney captioned her photo, which was taken just months before Arie was announced as The Bachelor in September at Detroit's Belle Isle race track, writing: 'My actual ride or die.' In her photoset Lauren B called the race: 'One of the top 5 coolest things Ive ever done' adding: 'Thanks for the rides' to fiance Arie and famous racer Mario Andretti. Revving engines: Both photos show the salt-and-pepper suitor on the right side of a smiling blonde and posed in front of a racecar, with both ladies clad in the same red Honda racing garb Great day! In her photoset Lauren B called the race: 'One of the top 5 coolest things Ive ever done' adding: 'Thanks for the rides' to fiance Arie and famous racer Mario Andretti She also shared photos of the duo walking hand-in-hand while gazing at each-other adoringly and a solo shot of Lauren sitting on a vehicle with a giant grin. According to People, things between Stempfley and Luyedyk fizzled out in Summer of 2017, sometime after their pic was taken. When fans and series alums first suggested Arie as the next Bachelor before his official selection last September, Sydney who is a Cincinnati native that graduated from Miami University in 2016 took to Twitter to offer her two-cents. 'The show would be perfect for @ariejr up until it comes to choosing just one,' she wrote along with the tears-of-laughter emoji. Harsh truth: When fans and series alums first suggested Arie as Bachelor, Sydney tweeted: 'The show would be perfect for @ariejr up until it comes to choosing just one,' along with the tears-of-laughter emoji Stempfley's prediction was spot on. Arie earned the ire of Bachelor Nation after first proposing to finalist Becca Kufrin in what was supposed to be the show's final episode, only to break up with the 27-year-old Minnesotan on camera during the series' After The Rose special, so he could pursue his relationship with runner-up Burnham. Though heartbroken at first, Becca Kufrin has decided she's ready to take another shot at love as she's set to star in next season of The Bachelorette, premiering May 28 2018 on ABC. Vicky Pattison previously expressed regret over having sex with ex-fiance Ricci Guarnaccio on UK reality series Geordie Shore. But during a chat with Yahoo7 Be after her elimination from I'm A Celebrity on Sunday, the brunette admitted that her past behaviour has helped shape her. 'Everything I've done has made me the person I am now,' the 30-year-old said. Scroll down for video 'It's made me who I am': Geordie Shore's Vicky Pattison, 30, admitted that having had sex on TV with ex-fiance Ricci Guarnaccio [both pictured] helped 'shaped her' after expressing regret over the act 'There's no point in trying to change it because there's nothing I can do. Every decision I've made has brought me to the career path I'm on,' Vicky explained. The British socialite went on to say that all of her actions in the past, whether foolish or not, has led her to finding her now-fiance: 'Every personal decision I've made has brought me to John [Noble].' Vicky's comments come after an episode of I'm A Celebrity aired last month, that saw the reality star breaking down in tears. Character building: 'There's no point in trying to change it because there's nothing I can do. Every decision I've made has brought me to the career path I'm on,' the brunette explained While being interviewed by Steve Price as part of his Jungle Radio series, Vicky revealed she 'hated herself' for having had sex on TV series Geordie Shore. Steve asked Vicky: 'I know that you disappointed yourself that you had sex on television. How did that come about?' With tears welling in her eyes, Vicky nodded and said: 'I hated myself on Geordie Shore.' She continued: 'I hated the person that I ended up becoming and I have no one to blame but myself, and I don't try and put blame on anybody else.' Self-blame: While being interviewed by Steve Price on I'm A Celebrity last month, Vicky [pictured on Geordie Shore] revealed she 'hated herself' for having had sex on TV series Geordie Shore: 'I hated the person that I ended up becoming and I have no one to blame but myself' Vicky hinted that she felt pressured to act outrageously on camera to keep up with her wild castmates. 'You are under an awful lot of pressure to act a certain way - to constantly outdo the outrageousness that's happening around you,' she said. Vicky also revealed in the interview that her appearance on Geordie Shore had caused a difficult relationship with her mother. 'My mum never really forgave us, I don't think,' Vicky said. 'She was very disappointed, quite rightly.' Following her break-up from co-star and ex-fiance Ricci Guarnaccio, Vicky found love with businessman John Noble, who proposed in July last year. Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper pictured in a promotional shoot for Doctor Who in 2004 Christopher Eccleston has claimed the BBC blacklisted him and tried to ruin his career when he quit Doctor Who after one series. The 54-year-old actor said he was abandoned after leaving his role as the Time Lord in 2005, and his agent advised him to relocate to the US because the BBC regime was against him. Despite having since appeared in primetime dramas for the corporation, Eccleston told The Guardian: What happened around Doctor Who almost destroyed my career. I gave them a hit show and I left with dignity and then they put me on a blacklist. The actor, who will play Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company from today, added: I was abandoned, vilified in the tabloid press and blacklisted. I was told by my agent at the time, The BBC regime is against you. Youre going to have to get out of the country and wait for regime change. So I went away to America and I kept on working because thats what my parents instilled in me. Her ex Stephen Bear accused her of owing him money from their joint clothing business His and Hers. And now Charlotte Crosby, 27, has hit back at the reality star's claims and revealed that her lawyers are now involved. Celebrity Big Brother winner Stephen had taken to Instagram on Monday to make the incredible accusations and referred to the situation as 'b*****ks' during a fervent rant. Deny: Charlotte Crosby, 27, has hit back at her ex Stephen Bears claims that she owes him money and revealed that her lawyers are now involved A representative for Charlotte vehemently denied Stephen's claims to MailOnline and explained that the issue was now being dealt with by her legal team. Her rep told MailOnline: 'Stephen Bears libelous comments on Instagram today are totally false: there is no truth whatsoever in the allegation that Stephen is owed any money by Charlotte, her father or His and Hers Ltd. 'We cannot comment about the other companies that he says owe him money. This matter is now in the hands of our solicitors.' MailOnline have contacted Stephen Bear's rep for comment. The comments come after the Ex On The Beach star, who split from Charlotte in December, took to his social media platforms to blast his former flame and claimed she owed him money from their joint venture and two other companies. Claims: Celebrity Big Brother winner Stephen had taken to Instagram on Monday to make the incredible accusations and referred to the situation as 'b*****ks' during a fervent rant (Pictured in September 2017) In the Instagram clip, which he called the 'Monday Rant', the MTV star said: 'I'm owed a lot of money by three different people. 'The first is Rustlers: where's my 3,000 you owe me? It's been five months. Second one, Good For Nothing - you owe me 16,000! My contract isn't finished til April. Adding: 'The third one is for you Charlotte - listen. Reply back to the e-mails. I haven't received 1p from the business which I started with MY money. Tell your dad to reply to the f***ing e-mails, do you understand? 'Make sure it gets back to him, because what's going on at the minute, is b*****ks and it's embarrassing, do you understand? Because I've had enough now.' Accusations: The comments come after the Ex On The Beach star, who split from Charlotte in December, took to his social media platforms to blast his former flame and claimed she owed him money from their joint venture and two other companies Also countering his claims, Rustler told MailOnline: 'Last month we chose to cancel a campaign featuring Stephen Bear after several unsuitable images of Stephen feeding tigers at a temple in Thailand appeared on social media last month. 'He has been paid appropriately under the terms of our cancelled agreement with him, and no other payment is due.' Recently, The Sun Online reported that Charlotte was planning to completely cut ties with her ex Stephen by pulling out of their joint business. Charlotte is willing to risk thousands of pounds by removing herself from their brand, His And Hers Enterprise Limited, so she can 'move on' once and for all - amid claims she is now dating Joshua Ritchie. Charlotte and Bear set up their company in January 2016, which sells a range of personalised merchandise for couples, including jumpers, bags and phone cases. However, a source told the paper Charlotte is willing to cut ties with the brand altogether, as it reminds her too much of their turbulent romance. Walking away: Recently, The Sun Online reported that Charlotte was planning to completely cut ties with her ex Stephen by pulling out of their joint business (Pictured in August 2017) Moving on: Charlotte is willing to risk thousands of pounds by removing herself from their brand, His And Hers Enterprise Limited, so she can 'move on' once and for all - amid claims she is now dating Joshua Ritchie (Pictured together in April 2017) Meanwhile, Charlotte went solo for the celebrity event, but has already got tongues wagging that children could be on the cards very soon. Following her confession that she's in love with Ex On The Beach star Joshua in a now-deleted tweet, Charlotte posted that she is feeling more broody than ever. Tweeting on Wednesday, she wrote: 'So broody it's a joke,' following her own revelation that she wanted to become a mum before she was 30. Within seconds fans rushed to respond to the tweet, with one writing Charlotte would be an 'awesome mummy,' and another saying there could be a 'mini Josh soon.' She's the Manchester lass who won the hearts of Australians on The Bachelor. And Simone Ormesher will get a second chance at love on Bachelor In Paradise, which premieres Sunday March 25th on Network Ten. The bubbly Brit was unveiled as a surprise contestant in a trailer released on Monday, which also showed her kissing Jarrod Woodgate. Surprise! The Bachelor's Simone Ormesher will get a second chance at love on Bachelor In Paradise, which premieres Sunday March 25th on Network Ten In the trailer, 26-year-old Simone wears a frangipani flower in her hair as she cuddles up to vineyard manager Jarrod in a beachside cabana. The pair are seen gazing into each other's eyes before leaning in for a kiss. A romance between Jarrod and Keira will certainly have fans talking as he is believed to be engaged to another contestant, Keira Maguire. Watch out Keira! The bubbly Brit was unveiled as a surprise contestant in a trailer released on Monday, which also showed her kissing Jarrod Woodgate Love triangle? A romance between Jarrod and Keira will certainly have fans talking as he is believed to be engaged to another contestant, Keira Maguire However, Keira and Simone aren't the only blondes to have caught Jarrod's eye. In a previous trailer, the winemaker revealed he had taken a fancy to Ali Oetjen, who appeared on the first season of The Bachelor Australia. 'She's got the eyes, she's got the smile, just stupidly hot,' he said. Somebody's popular! Keira (pictured) and Simone aren't the only blondes to have caught Jarrod's eye, as he also takes a shine to Bachelor season one star Ali Oetjen It seems Jarrod has a 'type', with Simone, Keira and Ali all baring a resemblance to former Bachelorette Sophie Monk. Jarrod was left heartbroken when he was rejected by the former Bardot star during last year's season of the dating show. Simone previously appeared on Matty J's season of The Bachelor in 2017. He secretly married girlfriend Sarah-Jane Davies in an intimate ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall on Friday. And while keeping quiet about their nuptials, an elated Dave Berry was more than happy to give a glimpse of the wedding reception - sharing the adorable cake-cutting moment via his Instagram on Monday. After exchanging vows in front of family and friends, the 39-year-old radio host shared the sweet treat with his new wife at the private members' only The Ivy Club. 'Mr and Mrs Berry!' Radio host Dave shared an adorable wedding cake moment in the first look at his secret nuptials to long-term girlfriend Sarah-Jane Davies In the heartwarming clip, Dave lovingly fed Sarah a slice of their wedding cake, which boasted a rainbow-coloured centre and creamy icing top. The Absolute Radio host then turned towards his young niece to help her eat some of the sugary delicacy. Dave sweetly captioned the post: 'Mr & Mrs Berry + A cake loving niece' accompanied by a love heart emoji. The social media upload was the first glimpse of Dave's new wife Sarah and their nuptials, as the couple have been careful about keeping out of the public eye. Dig in! The Absolute Radio host then turned towards his young niece to help her eat some of the sugary treat Wedding bells: Dave sweetly captioned the post: 'Mr & Mrs Berry + A cake loving niece' accompanied by a love heart emoji Sarah - who looked radiant in her soft tulle wedding dress and flowing brunette locks - beamed as she was handed the cake by her husband, being careful to ensure no crumbs made it to her gown. Dave cut a dapper figure in sharp black tux and crisp white shirt and waistcoat. The TV personality proposed to the former talent manager during a romantic trip to Rome last year. Happy couple: The social media upload was the first glimpse of Dave's new wife Sarah and their nuptials, as the couple have been careful about keeping out of the public eye Speaking to the The Sun, Berry - who started dating his new wife a number of years ago but chose to keep their relationship out of the public eye - admitted he got down on one knee in the Italian capital as it was the 'perfect city to do it in'. 'I asked Sarah-Jane to marry me whilst in Rome, wed been travelling around the world for a few months and it was the perfect city to do it in,' he explained. 'We got hitched in Old Marylebone Town Hall followed by the most amazing family lunch.' I do: Dave Berry proposed to Sarah during a romantic trip to Rome Berry's marriage comes seven years after his split with former Sugababes star Heidi Range. Announcing the end of their eight-year relationship in December 2011, a spokesperson for the presenter said: 'Dave Berry announced today that his engagement to partner Heidi Range has been broken off. 'Mr Berry announced the news today although the couple agreed to separate in the Autumn. 'The split is amicable and no third parties are involved and he will make no further statement on the issue.' Romantic: The presenter exchanged vows with former talent manager Sarah-Jane in front of close friends and family at Old Marylebone Town Hall on Friday Heidi also took to her Twitter page to break the news, writing: 'Very sadly, after eight years together, myself and Dave decided to separate a few months ago. I wish him nothing but the best in life x' The pair had previously told OK! Magazine that they were planning a wedding in London in October 2011, with Heidi adding that she already had her eye on a designer dress. She told the magazine: 'I havent tried any yet but when I did a gig in Barbados with the Sugababes, Vera Wangs daughter came up to me and said, "My mum was at the gig and shed love to make you a wedding dress". I nearly passed out, Ive always dreamt of a Vera Wang wedding dress!' The former couple met in 2003 and on New Year's Eve 2009, Berry proposed while the couple were on holiday in India. Jane Rating: Being Blacker Rating: When wildlife film-maker Baron Hugo van Lawick wed pioneering chimpanzee conservationist Jane Goodall, the English rose he discovered in the African jungle, one headline told the tale: Me Hugo, You Jane. The couple fell in love in the early Sixties, at the chimp observation station she had set up in Gombe, Tanzania. On location for National Geographic magazine, Hugo shot more than 100 hours of footage, though his lens lingered longest on the girl who captivated him. Dame Jane Goodall (pictured) rewrote the way scientists perceive animals. She proved that wild chimpanzees make and use tools, and provided compelling evidence that their personalities are as diverse, and their emotions as deep Rediscovered in 2014, a dozen years after Hugos death, that film supplied almost all the material for Jane (National Geographic Channel), a superlative study of the woman herself and her work. Its no exaggeration to say that Dame Jane Goodall rewrote the way scientists perceive animals. She proved that wild chimpanzees make and use tools, and provided compelling evidence that their personalities are as diverse, and their emotions as deep, as our own. She supplied the voiceover for the documentary herself, evoking her own innocence when she first arrived in Gombe in 1960 to study chimps, with no degree or formal training, and only her mother for a companion. Suddenly I found I was living my childhood dream, she said, describing how nothing, not even the poisonous snakes, frightened her. I had this probably crazy feeling: nothings going to hurt me, Im meant to be here. Jane was the first naturalist to understand how chimps live in extended hierarchies, and to observe them raising young. The animals treated her as part of the group, even playing and letting her groom them. She began to call herself a strange white ape, and gave her friends decidedly Beatrix Potter-type names David Greybeard, Mr MacGregor, Flo and her babies, Fifi and Flint. Fiddle of the night A battered violin that had survived Auschwitz concentration camp looked beyond saving on The Repair Shop (BBC2). But when it was restored, the tune it played made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Advertisement Fascinating as their behaviour was to see, Jane was the star. The change in her features as she gradually fell for the man filming her was magical: the pensive, introverted young woman began to glow and sparkle when she felt Hugo watching her. His photography was breath- taking, and the Sixties film stock yielded colours that digital video simply cant reproduce. We saw Africa drenched in blues and greens, with yellow dust rising like burning smoke from the plains. The couples later film work was done on the Serengeti, in an era when the wilderness still teemed with life: elephants, wildebeest, cheetahs, giraffes, zebras and antelope numerous as ants. Jane was one of the first to see that this wild world was threatened, and has fought hardest to save it. Its frustrating that this magnificent programme was locked away on the National Geographic channel, which isnt automatically available on the Freeview menu. Being Blacker (BBC2) spent three years with fiftysomething Brixton character Steve Blacker Dread Martin, who divided his time between his reggae record shop and a scattered family By comparison, the BBCs big documentary was tawdry and sad, inspiring little hope for the future of multi-cultural Britain. Being Blacker (BBC2) spent three years with fiftysomething Brixton character Steve Blacker Dread Martin, who divided his time between his reggae record shop and a scattered family. He was amiable, much-liked, frequently stoned and infuriatingly irresponsible facing a prison sentence for money laundering, more or less (so he claimed) by accident. The BBCs big documentary was tawdry and sad, inspiring little hope for the future of multi-cultural Britain His best friend, a reformed bank robber, waxed indignant about societys failure to give him a well-paying job, now that he was going straight. This would have been comical, if not for the undercurrent of violence and tragedy. Blackers son was murdered in a gang war. We ended at a vigil for another dead youth. It all felt very bleak. While she was noted to be the cause of Millie Mackintosh's romance with Hugo Taylor coming to an end in 2012, she since appears to have been forgiven. And Rosie Fortescue, 28, appeared to be all about sugar and spice and all things nice as she put on a stylish display while attending the Godiva spring collection launch party in London on Monday night. The former Made In Chelsea star cut a stylish figure in a while asymmetrical off-shoulder top, which she teamed with ripped skinny jeans, as she joined Great British Bake Off champ Candice Brown, 33, at the confectionery-focused bash. Sweet like chocolate: Rosie Fortescue, left, and Candice Brown, right, stepped out in style for the Godiva spring collection launch party in London on Monday night Rosie's eye-catching top was decorated with red polka dots and boasted a layered and gathered feature at the front, while she stood tall in black patent booties. With her ombre locks resting on her shoulders in bold waves with a centre-parting, the reality-star-turned-jewellery-designer highlighted her looks with a flattering palette of makeup that included a deep red lipstick. Recent Dancing On Ice contestant Candice - who was the first to be voted off the show this year - wowed as she arrived at the gathering in a deeply plunging midnight blue shirt-sleeved dress, which she teamed with flat brown shoes. Stepping out in style: The former Made In Chelsea star cut a stylish figure in a while asymmetrical off-shoulder top, which she teamed with ripped skinny jeans In the creative zone: During the gathering, she was seen making her own bespoke Easter egg With her raven tresses styled in lustrous waves, the TV personality appeared to be very much in her element as she joined a host of well-heeled guests in creating their own bespoke luxury Easter eggs, which are set to be given away by Godiva. Late last year, it was reported that Rosie will act as bridesmaid for Millie Mackintosh's impending nuptials to Hugo Taylor. According to The Sun Online , the big day - which will be Millie's second marriage - is set to take place in June 2018 in a plush venue nestled in the Surrey countryside. The reality star-turned-designer will also have BFF Caggie Dunlop and TV presenter Zara Martin by her side as she walks up the aisle. Designer: Candice showed her flair of design as she showed off her elaborate chocolate egg Having a laugh: She laughed and chatted with fellow guests as she got to work on her design However an eyebrow has definitely been raised over her choice to have Made in Chelsea star Rosie with her, after she kissed Millie's fiance Hugo in 2012 - which caused them to split. Fans of the E4 show will remember the memorable moment fashionista Millie threw a drink in Hugo's face after she found out he had been seeing her BFF in secret during the second series. Speaking to the publication, a source said about their nuptials: 'Its Millies dream wedding and she cant wait for the big day. 'Shes been planning the day practically since the day Hugo proposed, and everyones really excited for her. Its going to be a beautiful wedding.' Turning heads: She wowed as she arrived at the gathering in a deeply plunging midnight blue shirt-sleeved dress, which she teamed with flat brown shoes Iced out: She was a contestant on this year's Dancing On Ice, but was the first to be voted off The couple confirmed their engagement to MailOnline in July a year after rekindling their romance, as speculation surrounded Millie sporting a new rock on her engagement finger in Greece. The news came 14 months after former Made In Chelsea star Millie's divorce was finalised with Professor Green, 33. They previously dated back in 2011 when they met on E4 reality show, Made In Chelsea. But the union was not to last and ended rather dramatically when Millie discovered Hugo had cheated on her with her friend, Rosie. At the time, Millie claimed she would always love Hugo, saying in an interview: 'I loved him - those feelings dont disappear but I just always have to remind myself why were not together.' Skill: Henry Holland was also among the guests who showed off their design skills at the bash Getting into it: The designer was seen getting into the spirit of things as he designed his egg 'I do think that, for the rest of my life, every time I see him, Ill get that feeling in my stomach. I dont think I could ever not get that butterfly feeling. Millie and Professor Green, real name Stephen Manderson, announced their split in February 2016 after just over four years together. In a statement released at the time, they said: 'It is a mutual decision, we still care deeply about each other and would like it to be known that it is on amicable terms and we wish each other well. Their two-and-a-half-year marriage was dissolved in just 30 seconds in May 2016. They were granted a decree nisi at Central London Family Court, with Millie citing 'unreasonable behaviour' as the reason for their split. The rapper has since moved on with model Fae Williams. Guidance: Godiva employees were on hand to ensure that the guests were on the right track Margot Robbie almost missed her flight out of LAX on Monday. The 27-year-old Australian, who sported a captain's hat and a pair of worn-in Levi jeans, was seen rushing through the terminal to make her outbound flight. She was accompanied by her business partner and friend Josey McNamara who kindly carried her luggage. Late for an important date! Margot Robbie almost missed her flight out of LAX on Monday as she was seen rushing through the terminal What a gent! She was accompanied by her business partner and friend Josey McNamara who kindly carried her luggage Margot teamed her captain's hat and boyfriend jeans with a green v-neck sweater and a long-line Wardrobe NYC black coat. On her feet were a pair of studded black boots and over her shoulder was a practical green backpack. Tied around the I, Tonya star's neck was a single scarf. Pick up the pace! The 27-year-old Australian sported a captain's hat and a pair of worn-in Levi jeans for her flight out of Los Angeles Comfy and cute! On her feet were a pair of studded black boots and over her shoulder was a practical green backpack Robbie recently announced her new role as brand ambassador for Chanel. The actress wore a stunning white couture gown by the French fashion house for the 90th Academy Awards. But unfortunately she did not walk away with the Oscar for Best Actress. Fashionable! Robbie recently announced her new role as brand ambassador for Chanel Goddess status! The actress wore a stunning white couture gown by the French fashion house for the 90th Academy Awards Margot has five feature films hitting the big screen in 2018, not including the highly anticipated Suicide Squad 2 premiering in 2019. In an interview with TODAY, she talked about having played such a vast variety of characters since the onset of her career. 'Every role I get to do as an actor changes me,' she said. 'But really the best part is getting to be someone that I'm not in everyday life. Whether that means Tonya Harding or Flopsy Rabbit [in the upcoming film Peter Rabbit]. 'Both are an adventure and both are a challenge, but also very liberating in different ways.' She's helped save the world, and indeed the galaxy, on several occasions on the big screen. But Natalie Portman's only priorities were grocery shopping and keeping her daughter entertained on Monday. The 36-year-old was spotted with one-year-old Amalia at Lassens in Los Feliz. Focused: Natalie Portman's only priorities were grocery shopping and keeping her daughter entertained on Monday The Oscar-winner was totally engrossed in her little girl, beaming as she lifted her from her shopping cart. Natalie dressed casual for the trip in Mother jeans and trainers, and a purple sweater over a white T-shirt. The tot meanwhile wore an adorable horse-themed onesie. Shopping trip: The 36-year-old was spotted with one-year-old Amalia at Lassens in Los Feliz Chilled: Natalie dressed casual for the trip in Mother jeans and trainers, and a purple sweater over a white T-shirt The Star Wars alum gave birth to her first girl just over a year ago, on February 22 2017. Benjamin Millepied are also parents to son Aleph, six. Besides her daughter's birthday, Natalie also celebrated last month the release of her latest sci-fi flick, Annihilation. Little dote: The Oscar-winner was totally engrossed in her little girl, beaming as she lifted her from her shopping cart Cute: The tot meanwhile wore an adorable horse-themed onesie In it she plays a scientist who risks everything to search for her husband lost within an eerie environmental disaster zone. The film was directed by Ex Machina auteur Alex Garland and is based from a best-selling book trilogy by authored Jeff VanderMeer. Actresses Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tuva Novotny also star in the film. Her name's been in the news amid an uncomfortable family spat. But on Monday, Pamela Anderson emerged in Las Vegas to make her first public appearance since news of the family fight broke last week, in which her 21-year-old son Brandon hit his father (and her ex-husband) Tommy Lee amidst a spat. The Baywatch alum, 50, wore a black gown with a plunging V-top to the convention, with her trademark blonde locks down and black high heels. Scroll below for video Out and about: Pamela Anderson, 50, was snapped in Las Vegas Monday making her first public appearance since her 21-year-old son Brandon hit his father (and her ex-husband) Tommy Lee amidst a family spat earlier this month The incident with the Motley Crue drummer last week made news after the 55-year-old drummer took to social media with a selfie of the busted, bloody lip he suffered after his son struck him amid an argument spurred by a social media post in which he spoke out against Pamela. 'My heart is broken,' wrote Lee, who's also father to a 20-year-old with the one-time Playboy Playmate named Dylan Jagger Lee. 'You can give your kids everything they could ever want in their entire lives and they can still turn against you. Good job Brandon! Great son!' Brandon went on to claim that he gave a drunken Lee the fat lip in self-defense, telling People, 'I'm devastated at the events of the last several days that have been a result of my father's alcoholism.' Pamela posted a blog on her website in which she said that her son hit Lee 'in the nose for all of us who he has hurt.' Backing her boy: Pamela last week blogged that her son hit the drummer 'in the nose for all of us who he has hurt' Stunning: The blonde beauty walked with style and swagger as she made her way to the podium 'Now Tommy feels humiliated - and is attempting to destroy his own son,' she said of Lee, who was convicted of felony spousal batter on her in 1998. 'This is the Devil - This is the disease of alcoholism.' She wrote that the Dr. Feelgood drummer positions himself 'consistently [as] the center of sadness, drama and confusion,' has been 'jealous of his [sons'] talent and beauty from the day they were born,' and is the walking 'definition of narcissist/sociopath.' Lee said that he would follow through with authorities to prosecute his son over the assault, according to TMZ. Stunning: The Baywatch beauty looked amazing in a tight black dress with black heels Outspoken: Pamela spoke out against the business model of ride-share services such a Uber and Lyft, dubbing them exploitative Argument: Anderson said that the ride-share business model is flawed for both riders and drivers A source close to Lee told TMZ of his thinking: 'You encourage what you tolerate, and he's not going to tolerate what Brandon did and that's why he wants the criminal case to keep moving along ... at least for now.' The mother-of-two was asked about the incident between her son and ex at the event but did not respond, according to TMZ. The Canadian beauty had appeared in Sin City for a convention in which she spoke out against the business model of ride-share services such as Uber and Lyft, the outlet reported. Anderson said that the business model is flawed for both sides in terms of the riders and drivers, who she said are exploited. Family squabble: Lee took to social media last week to show off his wounds after his run-in with his son Brandon Kanye West is in Jackson Hole, Wyoming cooking up some new music and it seems as if he has been joined by a new collaborator in Travis Scott. The 40-year-old rapper arrived at the snowy locale over the weekend with wife Kim Kardashian as it is where he has been working on his next project. On Monday the 25-year-old baby daddy of Kylie Jenner shared a snap on Instagram of himself all bundled up in the white wonderland leading many to believe they are working on music together. Never too far: Kanye West and Kim Kardashian were spotted in Jackson Hole, Wyoming over the weekend Work hard, play hard! New dad and boyfriend to Kylie Jenner, Travis Scott, confirmed his location in the snowy locale as he when he posted this photo on Instagram on Monday Kanye has been making frequent trips to Jackson Hole since his first one back in May where he spent two weeks recording at a remote studio. 'Kanye loves to escape to Wyoming to record his music because it is peaceful and he can lock up and really focus on getting tracks done,' a source told E News. According to the media outlet, several friends and even his personal trainer have joined Kanye in Jackson Hole. It seems like Travis and Kanye were not alone as Rapper King Louie and The Dream did the same. It's a party! Rapper King Louie and The Dream joined the rapper as well in the snowy locale Kim Kardashian West flew out to join her famous hubby on Saturday just after attending her sister Khloe Kardashian's baby shower in Los Angeles. And while the boys are hard at work, Kim Kardashian has been busy showing off the sweeping views from her mountaintop resort on social media. 'It's a quick visit for Kim, but she loves being at the resort to spend time with Kanye and get away from it all,' the source said. 'It's a good change of pace for her and some down time to relax.' Stuck in the studio: Kanye West is in Jackson Hole, Wyoming cooking up some new music with Travis Scott The source also added that Kanye is hoping to release new music 'very soon.' West released his last album, Life of Pablo, back in 2016. It surpassed 250 million streams on Tidal in a matter of 10 days and wound up being his seventh #1 album on Billboard's Top 200. Rest and relax: And while the boys are hard at work, Kim Kardashian has been busy showing off the sweeping views from her mountaintop resort on social media She's long been an advocate for healthy body image. And Robyn Lawley was certainly not shy while appearing on Today Extra on Tuesday, wearing nothing but a black racy bra. Speaking on the program, the Australian model discussed her current quest to find Australia's next curvy modelling superstar with Cosmopolitan magazine. Scroll for video 'We're all different and that's the beauty of life': Supermodel Robyn Lawley strips down to a racy black bra on Today Extra as she promotes healthy body image The 28-year-old discussed the importance of changing the model mould, revealing how when she first started out in the cut-throat industry, modelling agencies wouldn't consider any girl over a size eight or six. She further went on to explain that the national average of an Australian woman is size 14, three-to-five sizes above the perceived ideal model size. On working with Cosmo on the hunt for a new curvy model, the blonde bombshell shared: 'Girls feel more represented when they can see themselves. I don't want girls spending every second of their lives stressing about how they look and their shape. I want them to enjoy their lives and enjoy their shape, because we're all different and that's the beauty of life,' she added. Hot! Taking to Instagram to share a picture ahead of her appearance on the show, the model showed off her risque triple-strapped bra by Bras N Things Speaking about raising her three-year-old daughter Ripley, the six-foot-two model enforced the responsibility she feels to change the stereotypically associated model image and reinvent the way girls view themselves. 'I want my daughter to love her body and she's going to be curvy it's already set in stone, so I want to make sure she loves her body,' Robyn said of her daughter, who is on track to be six-foot-five. 'As long as you're feeling healthy and happy, that's all that should matter.' Pay it forward! Robyn's long been an advocate for healthy body image Taking to Instagram to share a picture ahead of her appearance on the show, the model showed off her risque triple-strapped bra by Bras N Things. Captioning the post, she wrote: 'I mean, this bra @Brasnthings comfy and cool. I love being home! Girls come see me and try out for @cosmoaustralia curvemodel serarch. I'll be in the @myer store this Friday in Brisbane and In Sydney this Saturday.' Reinforcing her self-love ethos, one fan wrote: 'Do you have to be curvy to attend?' To which the beauty responded: 'Hey hun, you should come regardless. @Bellamanagement is open to anyone and it would be nice to see all sizes.' She's one of the world's most popular musicians. But Iggy Azalea has taken time out from her busy touring schedule to talk with Hollywood Medium's Tyler Henry. Revealing that her intimate session with the celebrity psychic will air on his E! program later in the week, the Australian-born rapper took to Instagram on Tuesday to tell of their newfound friendship. Newfound friends: On Tuesday, Iggy took to Instagram to share a photo with Hollywood Medium Tyler Henry, revealing that she will appear on his E! show later in the week The 27-year-old shared a photo of herself cosied up with Tyler after they had recorded their session for the show. The conservatively-dressed star rocked a pair of high-waisted jeans teamed with a vintage printed T-shirt. The blonde beauty appeared comfortable with her new pal, wrapping her arm around a beaming Tyler. Popular musician: Australian-born Iggy is one of the most in-demand rappers in the world The 22-year-old clairvoyant is expected to help Iggy get in touch with friends and family who have passed on. 'Tyler!!!! I miss you, I hope you're good, I'm thinking of you & I can't wait for my episode of Hollywood Medium this Wednesday,' the musician captioned the photo. Seeming to hint that the pair will talk about a very special member of her family, she added: 'PS. My grandpa is going much better.' Iggy is known to be close to her grandfather, who once worked in television. I can't wait for my episode of Hollywood Medium this Wednesday': Iggy will sit down with Tyler in an episode set to air on Wednesday In 2014, she told The New York Daily News that he was the one who helped create her famous moniker. Born Amethyst Amelia Kelly, the star originally gave herself the stage name of 'Iggy', but it was her media-savvy grandfather who told her told add 'Azalea'. Meanwhile, Tyler has similarly sat down with a number of other A-list stars for the third season of Hollywood Medium. Megan Fox, Jim Parsons and Chrissy Metz have all recently taped segments for the show. She's the former Bachelorette star who's known for sharing much of her life on social media. And on Tuesday, Georgia Love used the platform to reveal she was in hospital undergoing surgery on her vocal cords. Taking to Instagram Stories, the usually bubbly 29-year-old was seen dressed in a blue hospital gown, writing: 'Time to get these sore vocal cords of mine sorted out.' Scroll down for video Is everything alright? On Tuesday, Georgia Love was rushed to hospital to undergo surgery for her vocal cords Georgia also tagged her location to be at Melbourne's Frankston Private Hospital. The image showed the beauty merely dressed in a disposable hospital gown with shoe-covers on her feet. Fixing the problem: 'Time to get these sore vocal cords of mine sorted out,' she captioned Ensuring that her fans knew her procedure was the real deal, the TV journalist captured her left wrist in the shot which had her full name and date of birth. And while Georgia was undergoing surgery, her boyfriend Lee Elliott took the opportunity to poke fun at her on social media. Taking to his Instagram Stories, the 36-year-old uploaded a series of Georgia's pictures, adding his own captions to them. Punny guy! While Georgia was undergoing surgery, her boyfriend Lee Elliott took the opportunity to poke fun at her on social media Cheeky! Taking to his Instagram Stories, the 36-year-old uploaded a series of Georgia's pictures, adding his own captions to them 'Waiting for @georgiealove to come out of recovery and flicking through her Instagram Story....' he wrote. The photo saw the side of Georgia's brunette locks with her hospital bed. Continuing on her series of pictures as she recovered post surgery, she shared her hospital lunch. 'I've got an inkling she might still be under the influence of anesthetic,' he added. Daily Mail has reached out to Georgia and Lee for further comment. After the Time's Up movement shook up Hollywood this past year, actor/filmmakers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are using their platform to make change. The Boston-bred duo announced they will include inclusion riders in all future deals made by their production company Pearl Street Films, according to Deadline. The announcement came via Pearl Street collaborator Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni's Twitter during South By Southwest in Austin, Texas on Monday. Contracting change: Monday Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's production company Pearl Street Films announced they would put inclusion riders in any and all upcoming contracts. The stars are seen in November 2016 at the premiere of Manchester By The Seas above Fanshen's tweet was in response to a post from Black Panther's Michael B Jordan, which read: 'In support of the women & men who are leading this fight, I will be adopting the Inclusion Rider' Hours after the Creed actor's post, Pearl Street's Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni retweeted the star. She added: '@michaelb4jordan Thank you for always supporting broader representation in the industry. On behalf of Pearl Street Films, Matt Damon, @BenAffleck, Jennifer Todd, Drew Vinton & I will be adopting the #InclusionRider for all of our projects moving forward.' The concept of inclusion riders was largely unknown before actress Frances McDormand's mention at the tail end of her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress during this year's Academy Awards. Tweet all about it: The announcement came via Pearl Street collaborator Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni's Twitter during South By Southwest in Austin, Texas on Monday, who was responding to an announcement made by Black Panther star Michael B Jordan Rider or wrong! The concept of inclusion riders was largely unknown before actress Frances McDormand's mention at the end of her Oscars acceptance speech, above The term, which left many viewers puzzles after the now two-time Academy Award winner left the stage without explanation, refers to: 'a contractual clause requiring racial and gender diversity when hiring at workplaces.' The clause could be leveraged as a tool for actors and filmmakers who want more diversity on set to require a certain amount of people of color and/or women be hired both on screen and behind the scenes. The phrase was coined by Dr Stacy Smith of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative of Californian university USC Annenberg in a 2016 TED talk she gave titled 'The data behind Hollywood's sexism'. It's possible Affleck and Damon were hoping Cox's announcement would earn them a bit of positive exposure after an uncomfortable few months for the gentleman. Need a boost? It's possible Affleck and Damon were hoping Cox's announcement would earn them a bit of positive exposure. Both men worked closely with disgraced exec Harvey Weinstein before his downfall. Affleck, Weinstein and Damon are seen in October 2016 above Hands off! Criticisms against Ben mounted after a keen Twitter user reminded the public about the time he groped actress Hilarie Burton on-air and in plain sight of cameras during a 2003 episode of TRL Both men worked closely with disgraced executive Harvey Weinstein before his downfall. Affleck first came under fire after making a statement trying distance himself from Weinstein. Criticisms against Ben mounted after a keen Twitter user reminded the public about the time he groped actress Hilarie Burton on-air and in plain sight of cameras during a 2003 episode of TRL. Burton later confirmed her memory of the incident in her own tweets and afterwards archived footage of the episode was found, appearing to show the situation happen in real time. She's never been shy to share precious snaps of her daughter on social media. And on Tuesday, Fifi Box posted another heartwarming snap of her four-year-old daughter Trixie Belle riding around the house in a pink skirt, pants and scooter to match. Fifi, who she shares Trixie with famed former Ironman Grant Kenny, captioned the post: 'Mum, I'll have a bath when I stop scootering... which is never!' Mission: dodge bath time! Australian TV presenter Fifi Box posted a precious snap of her daughter Trixie Belle, four, riding around the house in a pink skirt, pants and scooter to match Fans were quick to comment on Trixie's sassy quote, with one writing: 'A young lady with attitude!' Another wrote: 'Baths are so overrated!' On International Women's Day, the 40-year-old became emotional while reading aloud a open letter she wrote for her daughter. 'Dear Trix': On International Women's Day, radio personality Fifi Box (pictured) reflected on motherhood and the lessons she hopes to pass on to her four-year-old daughter Trixie During a ladies luncheon event with Kate Langbroek and Em Rusciano, Fifi explained that she hopes Trixie grows up to see beyond the superficial world of social media. 'Dear Trix,' she began. 'Please don't base your self-esteem on likes or views or social engagement. Instagram is fun to post photos, but not a validation of who you are. 'Put your best foot first in life, not just on Instagram, and surround yourself with friends who love you and are there for you. Don't focus on followers, on how many you do or do not have. 'Don't plump or distort your lips with artificial toxins because a Kardashian made it cool': Fifi explained that she hopes Trixie grows up to see beyond the superficial world of social media 'Please love your lips, just the way mummy made them. Don't plump or distort them with artificial toxins because a Kardashian made it cool every millimetre of you is perfect,' she continued. She went on to say: 'The people who love you are all you need. These are your people, they're your tribe and they're all that matters. And heading that tribe is your mum.' Finishing the heartfelt letter, Fifi brushed tears from her eyes and said: 'And even if you don't take any of this advice, I'll still love you. Because I didn't take any of this advice and it still all worked out for me because I got you.' Paris Jackson is never one to slink away from controversy. The daughter of the late Michael Jackson, 19, was snapped Monday grabbing dinner at the Los Angeles restaurant Craig's, a favorite of celebs, after she made headlines fending off criticism of her use of marijuana. The Gringo star went with a colorful vintage ensemble, wearing a multicolored coat with horizontal stripes over a red shirt with a graphic of a cat's face, blue jeans with flared bottoms and black Vans sneakers. Scroll below for video Out and about: Paris Jackson, 19, was snapped Monday grabbing dinner at the LA restaurant Craig's after she made headlines fending off criticism of her use of marijuana following a controversial social media post She wore a red and white trucker style hat and puffed on a tobacco cigarette outside of the venue. Paris, the sister of Prince, 21, and Blanket, 16, was embroiled in a minor kerfuffle after taking to social media Sunday with a clip in which she smoked a large marijuana cigarette. (It is legal for her to smoke recreational marijuana in her home state of California.) The social media post, which Paris enhanced with a fiery filter, provoked upset reactions pointing to Paris as a poor role model, and the behavior as something that would have embarrassed her late father, who himself died at 50 from a drug overdose infamously involving the anesthetic propofol. But Paris was having none of the lectures, as she answered back at her critics on social media. Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette: The daughter of the late Michael Jackson puffed on a tobacco cigarette outside the swanky restaurant Always in style: The fashionista stepped out in a casual ensemble highlighted by her multi-colored coat When someone referenced how upset the late King of Pop would have been, Paris wrote back, 'I think im doing pretty ok considering the circumstances.' She also brought up the merits of her drug of choice, citing how it's natural, as opposed to the lab-created pharmaceuticals prescribed by doctors that receive less social stigma. 'Try googling "narcotics" "big pharma" and then google "cbd" then get back to me, i'll be sitting here eating granola and watching scooby doo,' she said. She made a reference to CBD, the compound Cannabidiol, which is an active ingredient in cannabis scientists say does not have psychoactive impact on its users. 'I know of a few parents that actually rely on this amazing organic medicine to keep their children alive since the alternative pharmaceutical drugs that doctors were shoving down their throats was basically killing the poor little ones,' she said. 'But hey, to each his own.' Standing up: Jackson fended off detractors by noting the natural merits of marijuana and its components as opposed to pharmaceutical drugs Armed: Paris toyed around with a sword in a social media clip she posted Monday Because she got high: Some of Paris's followers looked down on her consumption of the drug, which is legal for recreational purposes in her home state of California Alec Baldwin confirmed during a chat show appearance on Monday that his impersonation of President Donald Trump is 'agony' to him and 'exhausting'. The 59-year-old actor was asked about his Trump impersonation while on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Fallon, 43, referenced an article earlier this month in The Hollywood Reporter in which Baldwin said 'it's like agony' doing the impersonation. Agony impersonaton: Alec Baldwin during a chat show appearance on Monday confirmed that his popular impersonation of Donald Trump is 'agony' 'It is agony,' Baldwin confirmed. The Beetlejuice star said that Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels asked him to impersonate Trump for three shows in the fall of 2016 during the presidential campaign. 'There's no way he's going to win,' Baldwin said they thought at the tie. The actor said he then brought back the impersonation for that whole season and a few this year. Extended duty: Baldwin, shown impersonating Trump in October 2016, didn't believe The Apprentice star would win the US presidency 'It gets exhausting after a while,' Baldwin admitted. Baldwin's impersonation of Trump that he first debuted in Octomber 2016 won him his third Primetime Emmy in 2017. Jimmy then rehashed the recent Twitter spat between Baldwin and Trump who ridiculed the actor's impersonation. Talk show: Jimmy Fallon asked Baldwin about his Twitter feud with President Trump 'It is kind of surreal, the President of the United States,' said Baldwin. The Cooler star then wondered about Trump's tweeting process. 'Does he have like alerts or does he sequester himself for just a period of tweeting? Fan favorites: Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton is shown with Baldwin in October 2016 on SNL 'Is he there as they say watching Fox & Friends in the morning, he's got like his triple order of bacon, he loves bacon, lots of bacon, and he's got his phone, and he's watching the news in his boxers and his bathroom and he's like tweeting, tweeting. 'Or does he get like alerts in the middle of a session with North Korean diplomats and they're talking about nuclear weapons and he's like,''Hold on a moment please. Alec Baldwin is a loser, loser'',' Baldwin said pretending to tweet. 'Does he tweet throughout the day or is it a bing thing like a camel, big long drink in the morning and then he goes on,' Baldwin added. Twitter feud: President Donald Trump went after Baldwin after he said impersonating him was 'agony' The actor was promoting his new Hulu series The Looming Tower that premiered last month on Hulu. The series is based on a book of the same name by Lawrence Wright that looked at the rise of Al-Qaeda and the events leading to the September 11 attacks. Baldwin portrays former CIA Director George Tenet in the series. They're Married At First Sight's golden couple who have become mired in scandal in the last couple of weeks. But things appear to be looking up for Telv Williams, 33, and his beauty therapist bride Sarah Roza, 38, with the two putting on a passionate display at Melbourne Airport on Monday. Despite Telv being plagued by a number of scandals, including one which saw him allegedly call Sarah 'crazy', the FIFO-worker looked overjoyed to be reunited with his sassy, outspoken bride. Scroll down for video Reunited! Married At First Sight's Telv Williams, 33, and Sarah Roza, 38, were spotted putting on a passionate display at Melbourne Airport on Monday First greeting Telv with a warm hand on the shoulder, things certainly appeared to heat-up quickly as the pair launched into a passionate embrace. Lapping-up the moment, Sarah was even seen closing her eyes as she felt Telv's arms around her, indicating things are still going well for the couple. For the romantic occasion, Sarah wore a busty bright-red dress dress which had decorative frills at the bottom which she paired with a rock 'n' roll style leather jacket. Happy couple? The pair were spotted looking very cosy at Melbourne Airport, with the TV golden couple spotted in a passionate embrace Going strong? The couple appeared to be laughing and joking with each other after meeting each other in the terminal, despite rumours they have split since filming the show Adding to the chic look, Sarah completed the outfit with a pair of black heels with her signature red hair worn out to cascade down her back. Looking casual after his flight, Telv wore a black t-shirt and maroon shorts, which he paired with a pair of thongs. Trouble started for the pair earlier this month when it was revealed that Telv had been involved in a violent altercation in his younger days. Happy to see her? The pair looked VERY cosy after meeting in the terminal with Sarah flaunting her ample bust in a low-cut red dress Scandal-less! The pair have braved a number of scandals this month, including one in which Telv allegedly called his TV bride 'crazy'. The FIFO-worker has since denied writing the offending e-mail Being charged with five offences over a November 20, 2002, fight in Portland, Victoria, when he was just 18. Court documents said Williams was charged with two counts of assault in company, and one each of assault by kicking, unlawful assault and affray. He pleaded guilty to one count of assault in company and received a 12-month good behaviour bond and a $200 fine - no conviction was recorded and the other charges were dropped. Things went from bad to worse, when video of Telv surfaced of him snorting an unidentified white powder off a stripper's derriere shortly after. Things going well then? Sarah appeared very loved-up when she spotted her groom in the terminal Then, Daily Mail Australia obtained a leaked email Telv had sent to a MAFS producer in which he referred to Sarah as 'crazy' and said that he had 'blocked her number'. Groom Telv, however, denied that he wrote the offending e-mail. Despite struggling to make it work in the show's final weeks, with Telv appearing to be getting cold feet over Sarah wanting to move in together too soon. We're in a good spot! Appearing on the TODAY show on Monday, Telv said the pair were 'pretty loved at the moment' The couple put on a united front on Monday, appearing on the TODAY Show, the pair claimed things were still going well for them off-screen. 'It's intense,' Sarah replied when host Georgie asked how the duo were holding up. 'Thank goodness Telv and I were not the villains.' Telv also weighed in on the public's view of them, adding: 'We're in a good spot, we're pretty loved at the moment.' Romantic! The FIFO-worker flew to Melbourne to meet his bride Home to Sarah? The pair have struggled to make things work lately on the show, with Telv getting cold feet about Sarah wanting to move too quickly There is just over a month to go until the Infinity War breaks out. And Disney released a course of mouth-watering new stills to whet fans appetites on Monday. The eight new images unite the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange, while giving the best look yet at their nemesis: Thanos. Avengers assembled: Disney released a course of mouth-watering new stills to whet fans appetites on Monday One shows what appears to be the moments before a showcase battle in Wakanda, with its king, Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther flanked by allies Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johanson) and the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). Behind them stand the Dora Milaje and some of the united clans, staring across a grassland at some unseen foe. The previously released trailer suggests Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Wong (Benedict Wong) are the first to encounter the invasion in New York; one still shows the foursome preparing to face the threat. Meanwhile Chris Hemsworth's now one-eyed Thor can be seen aboard a spacecraft with Rocket and Groot. Glove slap: The stills also show the antagonist wearing the Infinity Gauntlet he intends decorating with the six ridiculously-powered Infinity Stones Back on his feet: In another image Don Cheadle's Rhodey Rhodes AKA War Machine can be seen up and walking with the help of bionic leg braces; he was left almost crippled after a brawl in Civil War. Sticky: Tom Holland also makes an appearance, clinging to the side of a school bus , with his Spider-Man mask ready to pull down Strtegy meeting: Letitia Wright's Shuri can be seen chatting to Bruce Banner Tom Holland also makes an appearance, clinging to the side of a school bus , with his Spider-Man mask ready to pull down. In another image Don Cheadle's Rhodey Rhodes AKA War Machine can be seen up and walking with the help of bionic leg braces; he was left almost crippled after a brawl in Civil War. Things may get worse for him if the plot sticks closely to the comics, as he gets punched in half by Thanos. New friends: Meanwhile Chris Hemsworth's now one-eyed Thor can be seen aboard a spacecraft with Rocket and Groot NY: The previously released trailer suggests Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Wong (Benedict Wong) are the first to encounter the invasion in New York; one still shows the foursome preparing to face the threat Battle ready: One shows what appears to be the moments before a showcase battle in Wakanda, with its king, Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther The stills also show the antagonist wearing the Infinity Gauntlet he intends decorating with the six ridiculously-powered Infinity Stones. With his fist raised, it is impossible to see how many he has acquired. The final image shows Tom Hiddleston's Loki looking none to pleased; as always it remains to be seen which side he is fighting for. Avengers: Infinity War hits theatres on April 27, 2018. GAUTIER, Mississippi -- It's been said that nothing happens if you don't ask. It appears Gautier officials aren't afraid to ask. Mayor Phil Torjusen, City Manager Paula Yancey and councilman Rusty Anderson will travel to Washington, D.C., next week to meet with government officials in the hopes of securing millions in funding for local infrastructure projects. "We're going up there to talk about appropriations for infrastructure," Torjusen told The Mississippi Press. "We're getting close to the end of the appropriations cycle. I went up there once with a group from (Jackson County) a while back, but we're going back to reiterate our position -- to remind them what our needs are." The Gautier group will meet with representatives from the staffs of U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Steven Palazzo, as well as the Chief of Staff from Sen. Thad Cochran's office. Torjusen said the city is in need of upgrades to water infiltration and treatment systems, as well as for sewer systems in the Bemis Avenue area of the city. "We want to make sure our citizens have good, clean water at a fair price," he said, "and also to make sure that Bemis area gets taken care of. Sometimes in heavy rain we have raw sewage come up out of the pipes and into the ditches. We want that taken care of." But that's not the end of the city's wish list. Gautier officials are also eyeing funding for the long-planned town center, which would be located on 33 acres of city-owned property behind the former Singing River Mall property. "We want to develop that into a town commons area, which will help market our city," Torjusen said. The development would include considerable green space, a lake development with kayaking and an outdoor amphitheater. "But the primary thing we're really trying to hammer home is our infrastructure, our water and sewer," the mayor said. So how much will they ask for? "We'd be real happy and be able to accomplish those projects this year with about $15 to $20 million," Torjusen said. And what are the chances they'll get the funding they're seeking? "I think our chances are very good," he said. "Not only are we trying with the federal government, but we're working with the state legislature, as well. I think we've got a pretty good shot -- maybe not all of it, but a good piece of it." Torjusen noted the city has already issued a $10 million bond to at least get those projects started, "regardless." "But we're hoping to get those additional funds appropriated to make those bond dollars go a lot further." She's the former Biggest Loser contestant who frequently flaunts her famous curves on Instagram. And on Tuesday, Fiona Falkiner turned up the heat in a sizzling one piece as she enjoyed a sojourn to one of Byron Bay's most exclusive destinations, Wategos beach. The 35-year-old showcased her hourglass frame in a busty, lace-up, boho-chic one piece swimsuit. Scroll down for video Shore perfection! Fiona Falkiner flaunts her hourglass frame in busty cut-out swimsuit at exclusive beach in Byron Bay 'Afternoon dips at Wategos' she wrote alongside the sizzling snap. Fans caught a glimpse of the buxom blonde's voluminous assets thanks to the open criss-cross detailing on the front of her hippie-chic swimsuit. Her swimming costume also featured a sexy cut-out design which accentuated the blonde beauty's hourglass frame. Va va voom! The blonde bombshell is no stranger to sharing racy Instagram snaps Fiona made headlines last year after going public with her same-sex relationship with girlfriend Lara Creber. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in October, Fiona said she was 'happy' and that Lara is a 'big part' of the joy in her life. 'I am just focusing on my own happiness at the moment and Lara is a big part of that. She makes me happy and that is all that matters,' she offered. Lovebirds: Fiona made headlines last year after going public with her same-sex relationship with girlfriend Lara Creber The TV personality previously revealed that it is her first same-sex relationship and she is just focusing on what makes her feel good about herself. 'I'm at a place in my life where I'm just focusing on what makes me happy and not caring what other people think and focusing inwardly,' she told Cosmopolitan. 'And Lara was part of that journey. I was opening myself up to good people, to good experiences,' she added. She is one of the extensive members of the social-media loving Kardashian clan. And 16-month-old Dream Renee Kardashian was subject to the glare of the camera on Sunday as she was filmed by her beloved mum Blac Chyna learning to ride a duo of scooters - to incredibly sweet results. At such a young age, Dream's forray on to the two-wheeled device was extremely skilled as she tottered around while surrounded by a vast number of toys. Happy days: Dream Renee Kardashian was subject to the glare of the camera on Sunday as she was filmed by her beloved mum Blac Chyna learning to ride a duo of scooters - to incredibly sweet results Dream is Rob Kardashian's daughter by his 29-year-old ex-fiancee Blac, who also has a five-year-old son called King Cairo by the rapper Tyga, 27. In a bizarre twist, Tyga has also dated Rob's half-sister Kylie Jenner, who is now rumored to be pregnant at 20 by her current 25-year-old rapper beau Travis Scott. Often sharing sweet snaps with her 14.1million followers, on Sunday she posted the snap of her zooming around on one of her three scooters. Clad in a full Adidas tracksuit, possibly in a nod to her uncle Kanye West's collaboration with the sporting giant, Dream looked super cute with a matching ribbon in her hair. Scooting away: At such a young age, Dream's forray on to the two-wheeled device was extremely skilled as she tottered around while surrounded by a vast number of toys Happy days: Dream is Rob Kardashian's daughter by his 29-year-old ex-fiancee Blac, who also has a five-year-old son called King Cairo by the rapper Tyga, 27 Having split from Tyga in 2014, Chyna had been with her Rob & Chyna co-star off and on since early 2015, and she gave birth to Dream in November of 2016. Rob and Chyna split that December - Rob posting a Snapchat video of himself wandering miserably through their empty house - but reunited soon after. Last July saw their latest and most dramatic breakup, with Rob posting explicit photos of Chyna to Instagram during a rant that got his account removed. In short order, Chyna lawyered up with Gloria Allred's daughter Lisa Bloom and won a restraining order against Rob. Happy days: snap of her zooming around on one of her three scooters. Clad in a full Adidas tracksuit, possibly in a nod to her uncle Kanye West's collaboration with the sporting giant, she looked super cute with a matching ribbon in her hair Meanwhile, Rob chose for his attorney Robert Shapiro - who with Rob's father had been a member of O.J. Simpson's defense team during O.J.'s murder trial. The mother of Rob's child gave a press conference featuring Lisa, who has also co-starred in a press conference with Kathy Griffin, as well as one with Quantasia Sharpton, who claimed Usher exposed her to herpes. Though Chyna has accused Rob of abuse, TMZ reported last September that she let that allegation drop as part of a deal that got her $20,000 in child support a month. A day after reporting that child support figure, TMZ revealed Chyna was still gunning for a payout of at least $1 million by way of the revenge porn case. She hosted the iHeartRadio Awards the night before. So Hailey Baldwin took a well-deserved Monday night off to chill with her friends at Soho House. The 21-year-old put her model abs on display with a small off the shoulder cropped tee with low-waisted jeans. Top of the crops! Hailey Baldwin flashes her toned tummy in an off the shoulder tee and low-waisted jeans on Monday At one point Hailey's friend playfully got on the hood of her Porsche SUV to look like the star ran into her. The gang of friend burst into laughter and whipped out their phones to record the playful act. Hailey has been busy storming the catwalks in recent weeks for Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana and Zadig & Voltaire, but her love life has garnered much attention. In more recent months, Hailey was romantically linked to a number of other men, including Memphis Grizzlies player Chandler Parsons, model Cameron Dallas and musician Shawn Mendes, who she was seen holding hands with over Halloween. R&R: The model hosted the iHeartRadio Awards the night before, so took a well-deserved Monday night off to chill with her friends at Soho House She also famously dated Justin Beiber last year, and opened up after their split about how tough it can be to date someone as high-profile as the Canadian star. Speaking to Marie Claire for its May 'Fresh Faces 2016' issue, she said: 'I don't want attention out of dating somebody. 'Texts started coming through, crazy phone calls... it's hard to date somebody in this industry. You have to have really thick skin and be very strong. You have to focus on the person and nothing else.' The fashionista has been photographed for Vogue, Teen Vogue, Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar and has walked for top designers including Ralph Lauren, Moschino and Dolce & Gabbana. She also topped the Maxim magazine list of the most beautiful women in the world. Her father is the actor Stephen Baldwin and her uncle is 30 Rock and SNL star Alec Baldwin. The Block began filming its latest season at St Kilda's dilapidated Gatwick Hotel last month, after 'specialist forensic teams' made the 'house of horrors' safe for teams. And sneak peek footage has now surfaced of how the renovations have progressed over the past few weeks on the hit Nine series. Content uploaded to The Blockinator Blog revealed work on revamping the foyer had begun, and the addition of garage stackers and another level had occurred. Scroll down for video 'Theres six car parking spots for eight apartments!' Get sneak peek access of The Block's newest renovation site as teams transform St Kilda's infamous Gatwick Hotel A few posts showed the outside of the building blocked off to the public, with the post reading: 'scaffolding on the front and sides of the building being installed.' Another picture also showed an additional level being constructed on top of the historic hotel, bringing the property to four storeys. One notable discovery was that a machine was digging out space for garage door access to car parks. However, the blog added: 'So heres the part thats pretty surprising, theres six car parking spots for eight apartments!' Penthouse apartments: Another picture also showed an additional level being constructed on top of the historic hotel, bringing the property to four storeys 'Scaffolding on the front and sides of the building being installed': The front of the property had been bordered up from the public, while the blog suggested another entrance had been made for future tenants Ready to work! Many workers in high-visibility vests were seen around the property earlier this month, as well as The Block contestant cars The infamous building's history includes robberies, murders and rapes. Earlier this year, Channel Nine hired 'specialist forensic teams' to ensure St Kilda's dirty and dilapidated Gatwick Hotel was safe for contestants to enter. A Block insider told The Daily Telegraph in January: 'It was not a safe environment.' 'It was not a safe environment!' The Block producers found 389 syringes, graffiti and an ICE LAB in St Kildas 'house of horrors' as they call in team to clean infamous Gatwick Hotel for new season contestants Ready to renovate! Scotty Cam is due to host the next series, which is rumoured to have began filming this month The boarding house, which has seen a series of fatal drug overdoses over the years, was apparently cleaned of 389 syringes, with some found wedged under carpets and floorboards. The source claimed: 'Some rooms were immaculately maintained by elderly boarders and then right next door would be an ice lab.' 'There was graffiti sprayed on the walls and they had lifted up carpet to push needles through holes in the floorboards,' they added. That's serious! It's been revealed Channel Nine hired 'specialist forensic teams' to ensure St Kilda's dirty and dilapidated Gatwick Hotel was safe for contestants to enter 'They had lifted up carpet to push needles through holes in the floorboards': The boarding house, which has seen a series of fatal drug overdoses over the years, was apparently cleaned of 389 syringes, with some found wedged under carpets and floorboards Despite being one of most expensive suburbs, St Kilda has long battled drug use. Radio host Kate Langbroekhas called on Victorian government to clean up the streets of drug addicts this month after she was injured by a violent intruder. The comedian recalled the violent ordeal on the Today show. She said she and husband Peter were putting 'the little ones to bed' when their babysitter came back, banging on their door saying a man tried to get in her car. She claimed the man tried to break into her house when the pair went out to investigate. St Kilda has long had a history of rampant drug use and Langbroek told The Age that problems have only increased since the notorious Gatwick Hotel was shut down. Radio host Kate Langbroek (pictured) has described the moment a crazed man tried to break in to her family home where her four young children, aged between eight and 12, live Langbroek (pictured) suffered severe bruising after a 'crazed' person attempted to break into her family home last Friday evening St Kilda has long had a history of rampant drug use and Langbroek told The Age that problems have only increased since the notorious Gatwick Hotel was shut down Not only was The Block property cleaned of harmful and unsightly items, but a priest reportedly visited the former rooming house to bless 'haunted' rooms. According to The Herald Sun, Father Bob Maguire shared a poem in front of the Fitzroy Street address ahead of the January renovation. 'It does not matter if The Block builds the most beautiful apartments in the universe, the ancestors will be there, not to frighten anybody but they will be just there,' he explained. 'Make it safe by night and day': A priest has blessed St Kilda's infamous Gatwick hotel ahead of The Block's latest season which will see contestants renovate the HAUNTED rooms Blessing the former residents: Father Bob Maguire shared a poem in front of the Fitzroy Street address ahead of the January renovation 'Bless this house, O Lord we pray, make it safe by night and day,' he chanted. In 2017, Channel Nine attempted to buy the apartment block but mysteriously, after months of negotiations and reported purchase offers in excess of $14 million, the deal fell through. After Nine confirmed the boarding house had been secured for season 14, they began filming in February. Controversy: With a truly intriguing location and filming date locked in, season 14 is set to be the series' most controversial yet Just days ago, she was spotted getting hot and heavy with her co-star Orpheus Pledger while they filmed a romantic scene for Home And Away. And on Monday, Summer Bay newcomer Sam Frost, 28, showcased her acting prowess as she filmed a tense scene alongside actress Sarah Roberts at the show's Palm Beach set. Filming scenes for the long-running soap, the actresses appeared to be having a terse discussion with each other. Tense Times! Home and Away's Sam Frost and co-star Sarah Roberts appeared tense while filming scenes for the soap in Sydney's Palm Beach on Monday Sarah, who plays fellow newcomer Willow Harris, appeared to be grimacing with her hands firmly on her hips during the interaction. Sam, who plays Jasmine Delaney, also appeared annoyed and posed with her arms crossed while glaring into the distance. While things got heavy on-screen, the actresses showed a more light-hearted side between the takes, which both pictured smiling broadly, while standing amid tables and chairs at a beach-side cafe. Bit of biff? The actresses seemed to be filming an argument in some of the scenes Despite normally donning a bikini for the Summer Bay set, Sam wore a fitted floral dress which featured cold shoulder detailing, which flaunted her slender arms. Accessories wise, Sam carried a large brown tote bag emblazoned with a new age pattern and which featured leather handles. Her blonde hair was worn out and slightly curled. Different: Between takes the ladies seemed a lot warmer with each other The pair, who are both relative newcomer's to Summer Bay appeared relaxed in between filming, with the pair sharing a laugh with each other Meanwhile, Sarah was placed in active-wear, a red-and-white singlet and a pair of Lycra shorts. The Melbourne-born actress wearing her jet black hair up in a ponytail while carrying a large black tote of her own. On Monday, Sam revealed to TV Week that her character might end up in an on-screen romance with Mason Morgan, played by handsome Orpheus Pledger. Having a ball! On set, Sam appeared to having a good time in between takes 'Having been through similar experiences, Jasmine feels they have a great foundation of understanding and perspective,' Sam explained. This week on the show, nurse Jasmine and trainee doctor Mason have made considerable head-way with their relationship. The on-screen pair have bonded over their attempt to save the life of bad boy Dean, Patrick O'Conner. Jasmine or Sam? Sam has had a rocky start playing Jasmine Delaney on the long-running soap Last week, Sam and Orpheus gave onlookers a glimpse of what to expect from Summer Bay's newest medical team. Sam and her co-star, Orpheus Pledger were spotted enjoying a number of amicable moments as they filmed an upcoming scene for the iconic Australian TV series. In December 2017, Sam made her acting debut on the Channel Seven soap, which came in the form of a fatal car crash scene during last year's season finale. Something to smile about? The actress revealed earlier this week to TV Week that she might be getting in a relationship with hunky Orpheus Pledger on the show Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace made an emotional return home on Monday after a horrific armed robbery earlier this month. The former Big Brother star broke down in tears as she bravely headed home to collect some belongings. Aisleyne was left terrified as three armed robbers burst into her flat, demanding she hand over her jewellery, designer bags and cash - and even feared she might be raped. Scene of the crime: Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace made an emotional return home on Monday after a horrific armed robbery earlier this month The 39-year-old was seen leaving her home with an armful of belongings, while wiping away tears. Dressed in a low-cut black vest under a brown shirt and teamed with white leggings, Aisleyne spoke on her phone at one point as she loaded some keepsakes into her car. Before driving away the blonde broke down into tears again in the driver's seat. Trauma: Aisleyne was left terrified as three armed robbers burst into her flat earlier this month, demanding she hand over her jewellery and cash - and even feared she might be raped Aisleyne spoke about the ordeal to The Sun this month, revealing: 'I started screaming and three men barged into my corridor and crowded around me. They were asking for money and my watches. 'I was terrified and only wearing thin pyjamas so I thought they were going to rape me.' Aisleyne revealed the thieves eventually got spooked by her incessant screaming and fled the scene of the crime, leaving her shaken. Emotional visit: The former Big Brother star broke down in tears as she bravely headed home to collect some treasured belongings Tearful: Dressed in a low-cut black vest under a brown shirt and teamed with white leggings, Aisleyne loaded some keepsakes into her car Horrific: Aisleyne spoke about the ordeal to The Sun this month, revealing: 'I started screaming and three men barged into my corridor and crowded around me Support: Before driving away the blonde broke down into tears again in the driver's seat The star believes she was personally targeted by the robbers after boasting about her wealth on her social media account. One image shared with her 152,000 Instagram followers showed a sizable wad of cash, accompanied by the caption,'I take so much offence when 'men' on Instagram say I'm a gold digger. It's ALL MY OWN!' She then posed in diamond encrusted sunglasses with the money stuffed behind the lenses, adding the message, 'Sorry honey... can't see the haters!' Attack: The star believes she was personally targeted by the robbers after boasting about her wealth on her social media account Aisleyne regularly shares snaps of herself near her property - including one of herself posing on the bonnet of her Range Rover - images she now regrets putting into the public domain. Likening her ordeal to that of Kim Kardashian who was robbed at gunpoint in October 2015, she revealed: 'It must have been how Kim Kardashian felt when she was held at gun point in Paris two years ago at her hotel.' Aisleyne revealed she was going to be 'more careful' about what she posts online in future. Lucky escape: Aisleyne revealed the thieves eventually got spooked by her incessant screaming and fled the scene of the crime, leaving her shaken Moving on: Aisleyne has been staying elsewhere since the robbery but needed to collect some belongings A police spokesman confirmed: 'Police in Enfield are investigating an allegation of aggravated burglary after a group of men forced entry to a residential property. 'One of the men involved is suspected of being armed with a firearm. The incident took place at 23:25hrs on Monday, 5 March.' 'The victim was shaken but unharmed. No arrests have been made. Enquiries continue.' Similar experiences: Aisleyne likened her experience to Kim Kardashian's - when masked men broke into a private Paris residence in October 2015, leaving her bound and gagged as they escaped with $10million worth of jewellery 'Never a gold digger': One image shared with her 152,000 Instagram followers showed a sizable wad of cash, accompanied by the caption,'I take so much offence when 'men' on Instagram say I'm a gold digger. It's ALL MY OWN!' MailOnline has contacted Aisleyne's representatives for comment. The star has shared a number cryptic posts hinting at her distress of late, including an array of busty selfies complete with emotional captions. Alongside one melancholic image, she wrote: 'Take my soul because Im tired of trying. Take it all coz I done with crying. Empty my heart because Im tired of feeling. Take me away. Im done'. 'Can't see the haters': She then posed in diamond encrusted sunglasses with the money stuffed behind the lenses, adding the message, 'Sorry honey... can't see the haters!' Made In Chelsea suggested it was surely time for the brilliant minds of our age like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk to stop messing about with their own projects and apply themselves to solving the unfathomable mystery haunting its viewers: how do we explain E4s fascination with Alik Alfus and will his endless reappearances actually go on for eternity? OK, probably not but someones got to work out a way to stop him. The opening show of Season 15 was Aliks 45th episode what with the summer specials in the South of France, Los Angeles, and New York, and his return looks set to be the big saga of the series. 'I was in love with you and destroyed!' Alik Alfus cried to Louise Thompson. She complained about him 'bringing a s**tstorm' back into her life on Made In Chelsea's return Even Louise Thompson, Ryan The Ry-Man Rymanster (her current boyfriend), and Alik Alfus-Fonzarelli (her ex) didnt seem thrilled about the prospect. How are you feeling about seeing Louise and Ryan? Jamie asked the jealous American. Not great! said Alik, squinting even harder than usual to prove it. Louise, trying to sound as posh as the other gals, showed how selfless she was, maintaining: my main concer-urgh-urghn is to nort make things uncomfort-hable for Ryan-air-er. Walking away: Alik: I wasnt eavesdropping! I was walking away and you were speaking loudly so I turned back and I overheard you! - By eavesdropping The Ry-man meanwhile, like the true super hero he is, was calmness personified. Well calmer than he was at the party at the end of the last series, when Alfus provoked him into pumping himself up even more preposterously and trying to scratch his rivals eyes out. Ive moved on - mentally and emotionally, Ryan assured Louise. Talking about it now Im almost like: I couldnt give a f**k you know? We do know Ryan. We know exactly how you feel. Lets be men baby and get over it! Alik squealed excitedly - a good idea undoubtedly. He could start by not saying baby. Onwards and upwards: Ive moved on - mentally and emotionally, Ryan assured Louise. Talking about it now Im almost like: I couldnt give a f**k you know?' Nobody wants to be talking about that petty bulls**t again! Alik insisted (accurately), although he seemed happy to (incessantly), as someone who loved the sound of his own voice and thought he was cool and profound, like a cross between Gandhi and The Fonz. Thats the petty bulls**t HE started! Louise complained to Ryan, showing that the three of them viewed the events of Series 14 the way that we did. Of course that didnt mean that they werent going to produce it again. In fact BS was evident wherever Alik went. Old pals: Proudlock Proudlock Proudlock III for example greeted him: I cant believe youre here man! as if Alik had never returned before rather than virtually every season Proudlock Proudlock Proudlock III for example greeted him: I cant believe youre here man! as if Alik had never returned before rather than virtually every season. Proud mentioned that Ryan had bought Louise a promise ring a ring symbolising his promise that (one day) he would buy her another ring symbolising they were engaged and would be married (one day). Mind you, Louise wasnt exactly in a hurry to let him whisk her up the aisle. This is the year for getting a lot of money in the bank, she stressed, explaining the plan allocated six months for the engagement and a year of building to the wedding. And they say romance is dead I actual-lair dont haff the ring orn! Louise clarified. Because it doesnt fit orn henny of my fing-airs. How Ryan had managed this was incompetence bordering on genius. Tenuous: Ryan had bought Louise a promise ring a ring symbolising his promise that (one day) he would buy her another ring symbolising they were engaged and would be married (one day) A promise ring? snorted Alik. What is this? 5th Grade?! Nonetheless, he summed up his part in the contretemps (by prodding Ryan), declaring: Its just my way! Ive grown up a lot since then. I went out of my way to make amends with Louise! Because I once cared about Louise. Ditto. Ultimately I want to be friends with everybody! Being obnoxious was certainly an unusual way of going about it. The three of them eventually collided at Jamies pardy. Hey man! Ryan greeted Alik. Hello darling! Alik oozed, to Louise (presumably), remarking well this is a pleasant surprise! as if they hadnt rehearsed it 15 times. How are you guys doing?! he roared. Good man! Ryan bumbled, evidently trying to be cool by saying man a lot. Ever the victim, Alfus then embarked on a whining, rambling, speech, claiming hed heard Louise and Ryan blame him for being ENTIRELY responsible for the petty bulls***t in the last series. (Which they had and he was.) Taking a stand: You are whole-lair responsible for bringing this s**tstorm back into my life! she bridled So you were eavesdropping?! sneered Louise. No, hed read it in the script I wasnt eavesdropping! Alik objected. I was walking away and you were speaking loudly so I turned back and I overheard you. By eavesdropping From my perspective were all to blame, Alik concluded as if he were summing up the case for the prosecution at the Old Bailey. It was petty of me to poke, petty of him to be violent. And its petty of YOU Louise to continue to point fingers! Never mind this was what he was doing (literally). Louise wasnt having it (as is her wont). You are whole-lair responsible for bringing this s**tstorm back into my life! she bridled. Emotional: Unfortunately for her (and us), this only inspired more self-pity from Alik. He reminded her she had betrayed him with Ryan, whining: imagine what it must feel like for me to stand in front of the two of you!' Unfortunately for her (and us), this only inspired more self-pity from Alik. He reminded her she had betrayed him with Ryan, whining: imagine what it must feel like for me to stand in front of the two of you! It obvious-lair didnt bother you that much! countered Louise. Considering you chose to move back to London ph-where me and Ryan-air are both based. Even this (unusually) salient observation didnt deflate Aliks bluster and self-denial. What makes you feel London is SO SMALL that Im here for you?! he railed, brilliantly ignoring the fact that it wasnt compulsory for him to be in Made In Chelsea if he wanted to live in London. Of course I understand, said Louise, her resistance crumpling, before claiming: I have a lot of emotion. I have a lot of integrity. You can discuss this contention amongst yourselves - when you stop laughing. Playing dumb? Louises face was so vacant (as usual) it was hard to tell whether she was reflecting on the damning poetry of Aliks words because theyd hit home or thinking about the make-up she was going to buy I was madly in love with you! Alik reminded her. And actually destroyed. I adored you doll. So to hear you say it was 100 percent my fault for Gods sakes Somehow you sensed that, even after Aliks raging Shakespearean torment, Louise still wasnt really troubled by any of it. Her response for example was brilliantly characteristic, pouting: well it hasnt been easy for me. Louises face was so vacant (as usual) it was hard to tell whether she was reflecting on the damning poetry of Aliks words because theyd hit home or thinking about the make-up she was going to buy. Either way, she indicated there was nothing left of the conversation by conceding blankly Ill try and treat you with a bit more respect and then mumbling distantly: OK yah, I see it must have been a littleum Whatever. For once, she expressed it perfectly. They have both stepped away from the acting limelight in recent years, to care for their young children. And Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis certainly proved to be doting parents on Monday as they headed for lunch in LA with their daughter Wyatt, three, and son Dimitri, one. The actress, 34, was spotted sipping on a juice as she headed home from a Studio City eatery with her husband, 40, and their sweet kids. Happy family: Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis certainly proved to be doting parents on Monday as they headed for lunch in LA with their daughter Wyatt, three, and son Dimitri, one The Forgetting Sarah Marshall star cut a relaxed figure in loose-fitting jeans and a khaki jacket as she left the restaurant, leading sweet little girl by the hand. Meanwhile her husband was equally low-key in a checked shirt and cap as he carried Dimitri in his arms, and playfully stuck a tongue out at him - causing him to giggle. Clearly having enjoyed their lunch, Ashton and Mila both headed home with juices in hand, while the Punk'd host also left with a takeaway bag of goodies for the family to feast on later. Relaxed: The actress, 34, was spotted sipping on a juice as she headed home from a Studio City eatery with her husband, 40, and their sweet kids held tightly in hand The couple are doting parents to their young children, but Ashton recently revealed they would not be leaving their fortunes to their brood. Speaking to Dax Shepard on his new podcast last month, the actor explained they would not be setting up a trust fund for their kids, as they want them to learn the meaning of success and reward. He said: 'We'll end up giving our money away to charity. My kids are living a really privileged life and they don't even know it and they'll never know it. 'If my kids want to start a business and they have a good business plan, I'll invest in it,' Ashton explained, before adding on his hopes that Wyatt and Dimitri will be 'motivated to have what they had [growing up].' 'I want them to be motivated': The pair are doting parents to their kids, but Ashton recently revealed they would not be leaving their fortunes to them, to teach the 'value of hard work' Mila echoed this sentiment during a recent interview with Marie Claire, explaining of her goal as a role model: 'What I want my daughter to learn from me is the value of hard work.' Ashton and Mila first met on the set of That 70s Show, and shared their first kiss as their characters Jackie and Michael, when she was just 15. Their relationship blossomed into romance in 2012, and they went on to tie the knot in a stunning California ceremony three years later. Last year the pair revealed their relationship had started off casually - with both 'living' their movies Friends With Benefits and No Strings Attached - before it took them by surprise, and developed into something more serious. Mila explained on Sirius XM: 'We started dating with the idea we both were never going to get married. He had just got out of a marriage and I had gotten out of a relationship. We shook hands on it and life was great. 'But we were in agreement that it was just fun. And three months later, I was like, 'this isn't just fun anymore. Then a year later we wanted to get married. I think it took everyone by surprise.' The wizarding world of Harry Potter will return this year with the release of Fantastic Beasts 2, officially known as Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. In March 2018, a teaser showing the whole cast together and then a full trailer were released. Here is all the information about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald including its trailer, release date and cast. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is set to be released on November 16, 2018 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald trailer The trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was released on March 13. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald release date Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is set to be released in UK cinemas on November 16, 2018. It will be directed by David Yates, who also oversaw the first film. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald plot At the end of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the Auror Percival Graves, played by Colin Farrell, was actually revealed to be the Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. Once his real identity was discovered, Grindelwald was arrested and imprisoned by MACUSA. However, in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the eponymous villain has escaped prison and is going around recruiting followers to his evil cause. Grindelwalds villainy forces Albus Dumbledore to seek out Newt Scamander and ask him to help defeat the Dark wizard. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald cast Eddie Redmayne reprises his role as magizoologist Newt Scamander, while Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler and Alison Sudol also return as Tina Goldstein, Jacob Kowalski and Queenie Goldstein respectively. Ezra Miller also returns, despite appearing to have been destroyed at the end of the first film. Johnny Depp will return as Gellert Grindelwald, the Dark wizard who has a deep connection to Albus Dumbledore, played by Jude Law. Jude Law will play a young Albus Dumbledore, opposite Johnny Depp's Gellert Grindelwald New cast-members include Callum Turner, who plays Newts older brother Theseus, Zoe Kravitz who plays Leta Lestrange and Claudia Kim, whose mysterious character is known as a Maledictus: someone who suffers from a blood curse that turns them into a beast. The Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams is also down to appear in the film and Brontis Jodorowsky has been cast as Nicolas Flamel. Where is Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald set? The action of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is set to take place in New York, Paris and London, where we will see love and loyalties tested in this tumultuous time in the wizarding world. He's never been shy about expressing his admiration for bikini models on social media. So it was no surprise to see Shane Warne 'liking' an image of Married At First Sight villain Davina Rankin on Instagram on Tuesday. The image in question was uncharacteristically demure for the busty MAFS star, who usually shares photos of herself in skimpy bikinis and busty cocktail frocks. Back at it! Shane Warne has started 'liking' photos of Davina Rankin on Instagram again This isn't the first time that Warnie has been busted giving some online love to Davina. The raven-haired beauty posted a snap of herself enjoying some rest and relaxation with her gal pals at Byron Bay last week. She put on as leggy display in the snap wearing mini denim daisy dukes, which Shane, as well as former love interest Dean Wells, took a liking to by double tapping the post. Wine time! The image in question that Shane 'liked' was uncharacteristically demure for the busty MAFS star, who usually shares photos of herself in bikinis and busty cocktail frocks The raven-haired beauty posted a snap of herself enjoying some rest and relaxation with her gal pals at Byron Bay and putting on a leggy display She's chic: The King of Spin also liked her fashion outfit of the day post, where she showcased her slender physique in a pale pink jumpsuit by Alice McCall at the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival The Spin King also liked a photo of her showcasing her slender physique in a pale pink jumpsuit by Alice McCall at the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival. He also liked her video post introducing her foray into the Youtube world. While Shane has yet to leave comments on any of her snaps it's not the first time he has used the social media app to show his appreciation towards models and socialites. Former flames: Earlier in the year Shane 'liked' a raunchy video of his ex fiancee Elizabeth Hurley seductively dancing on a beach in a hot pink bikini On his mind: Upon seeing this, the undeniable king of spin felt compelled to let his former lover know he was thinking of her In fact, earlier this year Shane 'liked' a raunchy video of his ex fiancee Elizabeth Hurley seductively dancing on a beach in a hot pink bikini. Upon seeing this, the undeniable king of spin felt compelled to let his former lover know he was thinking of her. Shane and Liz were engaged from late 2011, but split in December 2013. Showing appreciation: He also 'liked' and left comments on the Instagram page of model Amy-Lee Dixon, who was dating former Married At First Sight star Nick Furphy He also 'liked' and left comments on the Instagram page of model Amy-Lee Dixon, previously dated former Married At First Sight star Nick Furphy. 'Better be careful what I write otherwise it will turn into another silly story !!! Hahahaha x' Shane wrote. Shane is also a doting dad to his three children who he shares with ex-wife Simone Callahan. We recently acquired a little book with strong ties to Cornish trade and smuggling in the 18th century. Money of England, reduced into money of Portugal was printed in the sea port of Falmouth, Cornwall, in 1787. It is a pocket-sized book of tables and calculations of the rates of exchange between Portugal and England, together with conversion tables for measures of cloth, wine and corn, and weights indispensable for the merchants and sailors involved in Falmouths lucrative trade network, clandestine or otherwise, wanting a fair price for their goods. Money of England, reduced into money of Portugal During the 18th century there was a thriving maritime trade between Lisbon and Falmouth, as described by Daniel Defoe in his Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain, 1724: "Falmouth is well built, has abundance of shipping belonging to it, is full of rich merchants, and has a flourishing and increasing trade. I say 'increasing,' because by the late setting up the English packets between this port and Lisbon, there is a new commerce between Portugal and this town carried on to a very great value. It is true, part of this trade was founded in a clandestine commerce carried on by the said packets at Lisbon, where, being the king's ships, and claiming the privilege of not being searched or visited by the Custom House officers, they found means to carry off great quantities of British manufactures, which they sold on board to the Portuguese merchants, and they conveyed them on shore, as it is supposed, without paying custom. But the Government there getting intelligence of it that trade has been effectually stopped. But the Falmouth merchants, having by this means gotten a taste of the Portuguese trade, have maintained it ever since in ships of their own. The Falmouth-Lisbon Packet Service described by Defoe started operation in 1689. It was an early postal service that carried mail on packet ships from country to country. There were other packet stations on the south and east coasts and, together, they ran important routes across the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and through Northern Europe. The packet crews furtively traded goods on their own account, duty-free, on the side, making the packet service risky but potentially lucrative work. Even when the government got wind of this practice and stamped it out, the smuggling continued using privately owned boats. Portuguese gold bars and coin were particular favourites, and often found their way up to London. This little pocket book would have been a handy guide for converting measures of smuggled goods, and calculating the exchange rate between currencies. Money of England, reduced into money of Portugal The last page has an advertisement for Elizabeth Elliot, bookseller, stationer and printer. Elizabeth was the widow of the printer Philip Elliot and, together, their business was responsible for ten out of the 24 early printed books with Falmouth imprints that survive today. Elizabeths shop sold an eclectic range of books in all languages and all manner of bindings; stationary/wares of all sorts; mathematical instruments; violins, German and common flutes, and fifes, music, music-books and music-paper; the late Sir John Hills medicines, by appointment of Lady Hill; Wash-Balls, lavender-water, eau de luce, &c. &c.. Elizabeth took over the shop in 1787 and printed this book of tables, an English grammar for young beginners, two sermons, a book of spiritual songs and a satirical poem about slavery. Money of England, reduced into money of Portugal Maddy Smith Curator, Printed Heritage Collections His stint hosting the Golden Globes was met with a mixed reaction in 2010 and again in 2016. And Ricky Gervais reflected why some of Hollywood's A-list didn't get his jokes, admitting that they weren't used to his blunt, British sense of humour. The comedian, 56, insisted there was no harm in teasing the 'richest, most beautiful people in the world' and said they shouldn't be off limits. Controversial: Ricky Gervais reflected why some of Hollywood's A-list didn't get his jokes, admitting that they weren't used to his blunt, British sense of humour Appearing on Tuesday's edition of Lorraine, Ricky explained: 'People are always going to be offended. 'I think they were taken aback by it in America, they're not used to the type of roasting we do here!' 'If you can't tease the richest, most beautiful people in the world, who can you tease? By the end they sort of got it and lightened up a little bit.' Ricky insisted that he's the first to poke fun of himself, saying, 'I'm often the butt of the joke'. Host with a difference: The star's stint hosting the Golden Globes was met with a mixed reaction in 2010 and again in 2016 Not bothered: Appearing on Tuesday's edition of Lorraine, Ricky explained: 'People are always going to be offended' In the hot seat: The Office star chatted to presenter Lorraine Kelly on the show Ricky insisted that he's the first to poke fun of himself, saying, 'I'm often the butt of the joke'. 'You should be able to make jokes about anything, but it depends what the joke is, he said.' 'I talk about my wife Jane and my family in [my one man] show as well.' Discussing fan favourite character David Brent from The Office, Ricky didn't rule out the idea of returning as the hapless manager one more time. Tongue-in-cheek: Ricky insisted that he's the first to poke fun of himself, saying, 'I'm often the butt of the joke' Roasting: The comedian, 56, insisted there was no harm in teasing the 'richest, most beautiful people in the world' and said they shouldn't be off limits He insisted: 'If you can't tease the richest, most beautiful people in the world, who can you tease? By the end they sort of got it and lightened up a little bit.' 'I don;t think I can do anything that big again, a series or a big film,' the star said. 'But I did really enjoy doing the gigs, what I might do is record one of the concerts David plays, just to put it all to bed. 'We're all like David Brent, we all want to be loved and make a fool of ourselves!' Ricky hit international headlines in 2010 for his controversial gags surrounding members of the Hollywood elite when hosting the Golden Globes, and again when he hosted in 2016. Sipping on a beer at the podium, the comedian said in 2010: 'I like a drink as much as the next man unless the next man is Mel Gibson,' making reference to Mel's drink driving conviction in 2006. Back for another round? Reflecting upon fan favourite character David Brent from The Office, Ricky didn't rule out the idea of returning as the hapless manager one more time He said: 'I did really enjoy doing the gigs, what i might do is record one of the concerts David plays, just to put it all to bed' Then in 2016, the pair shared the stage and traded barbs, with Mel visibly annoyed. As Mel took to the podium to present an award, Ricky interrupted and said: 'What the f*** does sugart**s even mean?' After being pulled over by a female police officer at the time of his DUI, the Braveheart actor had reportedly quipped: 'What do you think you're looking at, sugart**ts?' When Ricky signed off at the end of the show - in reference to Mel's offensive anti-Semitic comments in the past - he said: 'From myself and Mel Gibson, Shalom. Mel later told the Sydney Morning Herald: 'I remember after the last experience with Ricky, I wanted to strangle him'. Onstage clash: Mel Gibson said of Ricky's jokes at his expense, 'I remember after the last experience with Ricky, I wanted to strangle him' The Australian comedian was crowned the Queen of the Jungle during the grand finale of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! on Monday. But Fiona O'Loughlin appeared to avoid celebrations with her co-stars after her win, instead opting for a quiet meal and a hot bath. The 54-year-old has been open about her struggles with alcoholism, and told Now To Love her night 'was perfect'. Scroll down for video 'Thank God that part of my life is over!' Comedian and recovering alcoholic Fiona O'Loughlin avoided celebrations when crowned Queen of the Jungle on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! The publication asked if she found it hard being surrounded by the celebrities celebrating by drinking, but she said it didn't bother her. 'I'm in such a good place! I saw some stuff on Vicky's social media and thought, "Thank God that part of my life is over!"' Fiona said. Vicky had uploaded photos from the party and on Tuesday posted a picture saying: 'such a hungover puppy.' 'Thank God that part of my life is over!' Fiona claimed she looked at co-star Vicky's social media and was happy the celebrities were having fun, but was glad she wasn't drinking 'Good on them for having fun but happy that part of my life is over,' Fiona added. On the show, Fiona revealed that she had originally been cast for the show two years ago but had to drop out after 'screwing it all up and going on a bender'. Speaking candidly to her co-stars, she talked about a 2016 incident that left her in a coma with a seven per cent rate of survival. Candid: On Wednesday night's I'm A Celebrity....Get Me Out Of Here, Fiona O'Loughlin opened up about her struggles with alcoholism 'I had a dodgy heater in my apartment, it was leaking carbon monoxide,' she shared. Adding that her youngest daughter Mary kept complaining about the faulty heater, she said the last thing she remembered was going to the dentist. 'Apparently, they had given me painkillers for the tooth. They were all gone. I mean complete organ failure,' she added. Dark past: 'I don't remember anything. They thought it was a suicide attempt' 'I don't remember anything. They thought it was a suicide attempt.' And after waking up two-and-a-half weeks later, and still to this day having no recollection of the incident, Fiona vowed she would 'never drink again'. 'This disease is shrouded in shame,' she continued. Family: Fiona is a mother of five children (pictured: her two sons and three daughters) 'It is particularly shameful being a mother. When you're a chronic alcoholic like I am, there is only three endings. There is death, jail or institution. That is it.' Speaking to Woman's Day, the mother-of-five said she hoped her appearance on I'm A Celebrity would assist her on her path of long term sobriety. After her coma Fiona entered rehab for five months. She told her campmates she felt that being in the jungle and therefore disconnected from everything would help her. Past experience: After her coma Fiona entered rehab for five months. She told her campmates that being in the jungle and therefore disconnected from everything would help her Working through it: Although she had her last drink six months ago, Fiona told Confidential that alcohol will always be on her mind 'It's like re-calibrating your life, starting everything from scratch,' she explained. Although she had her last drink six months ago, Fiona told Confidential that alcohol will always be on her mind. 'I have an alcoholic mind, I will always have an alcoholic mind,' she confessed. 'Untreated addiction only has three endings, and that is death, jail and institution.' Fiona also revealed she suffered a 10-hour relapse mid-last year, that left her in a place she has vowed never to return to. 'It was the most horrific drink I've ever had because when you drink with knowledge and I had a full lot of knowledge,' she said. If you or anyone around you is struggling and/or seeking support for alcholism or substance abuse and addiction call Lifeline on13 11 14. She's The Bachelor Australia alum who was recently announced as a surprise contestant on Bachelor In Paradise. And a day after the shock announcement, Simone Ormesher showcased her well-endowed figure in a smoking low-cut top. On Tuesday the buxom Brit took to Instagram to flaunt her perky assets in a plunging T-shirt. Busting out! Simone Ormesher flaunted perky assets in plunging T-shirt on Wednesday after she was revealed as a surprise contestant on Bachelor In Paradise The former topless waitress teamed her bust-baring top with a black leather jacket and a frayed baker boy cap. She completed her biker-chic look by styling her golden locks into loose curls. In the Instagram snap, the blonde beauty was seen posing with an extra large latte at the establishment. Once more with feeling: Simone was revealed as a surprise contestant on Bachelor In Paradise, which premieres Sunday March 25th on Network Ten 'I swear all I do with my life is drink coffee,' she revealed to her 26,000 followers in the caption. On Monday , Simone made an appearance on a trailer for Bachelor In Paradise, which premieres Sunday March 25th on Network Ten. The bubbly Brit was unveiled as a surprise contestant in the trailer, which showed her kissing Jarrod Woodgate. Surprise! Simone will get a second chance at love on Bachelor In Paradise, which premieres Sunday March 25th on Network Ten In the trailer, 26-year-old Simone wears a frangipani flower in her hair as she cuddles up to vineyard manager Jarrod in a beachside cabana. The pair are seen gazing into each other's eyes before leaning in for a kiss. A romance between Jarrod and Keira will certainly have fans talking as he is believed to be engaged to another contestant, Keira Maguire. Watch out Keira! The bubbly Brit was unveiled as a surprise contestant in a trailer released on Monday, which also showed her kissing Jarrod Woodgate Love triangle? A romance between Jarrod and Keira will certainly have fans talking as he is believed to be engaged to another contestant, Keira Maguire However, Keira and Simone aren't the only blondes to have caught Jarrod's eye. In a previous trailer, the winemaker revealed he had taken a fancy to Ali Oetjen, who appeared on the first season of The Bachelor Australia. 'She's got the eyes, she's got the smile, just stupidly hot,' he said. Somebody's popular! Keira (pictured) and Simone aren't the only blondes to have caught Jarrod's eye, as he also takes a shine to Bachelor season one star Ali Oetjen It seems Jarrod has a 'type', with Simone, Keira and Ali all baring a resemblance to former Bachelorette Sophie Monk. Jarrod was left heartbroken when he was rejected by the former Bardot star during last year's season of the dating show. Simone previously appeared on Matty J's season of The Bachelor in 2017. She has showcased her famous curves in an array of sizzling holiday snaps from her trip so far. But Kelly Brook certainly saved the best for last on Tuesday, as she bid farewell to her idyllic holiday in Thailand with a seriously eye-popping Instagram post. The model, 38, set pulses racing in a plunging black lace-up swimsuit, as she seductively squeezed fruit for the camera in true pin-up style. Saving the bust til last! Kelly Brook bid farewell to her idyllic holiday in Thailand with a seriously eye-popping Instagram post on Tuesday Feeling fruity: The model, 38, set pulses racing in a plunging black lace-up swimsuit, as she seductively squeezed fruit for the camera in true pin-up style Kelly put on a titillating display in the one-piece, which plunged into a deep V at the chest to give a huge glimpse of her famous cleavage to all. Only making the look saucier, the swimsuit then laced up at the front and extended down into a corseted middle - drawing further attention to her bust and slim waist. Styling her hair into bouncy curls and sporting a classic red lip, Kelly more than maintained her pin-up status as she lifted her arms high into the air, and squeezed the juice out of a melon for the sizzling snap. Beach babe: Embarking on a shoot in the stunning location, Kelly later changed into a polka dot swimsuit complete with mesh striped waist, as she worked the camera Glamorous: Styling her hair into bouncy curls and sporting a classic red lip, Kelly more than maintained her pin-up status as she posed for the photo shoot Rear she is: She later smouldered in a red and white one-piece, which drew attention to her peachy derriere as she posed in the pool Kelly has been enjoying a luxury break at Phuket's Trisara Resort - but revealed her watermelon feast was her last meal on the island, before she returned home. She wrote to her followers in the caption: 'Time to Eat again! What an amazing trip!! Thanks so much @hofitgolanofficial for Hosting us at the Beautiful @trisararesort and @aniiiqa_ For Keeping us Stylish all Week!' The brunette has shared a number of sizzling snaps from her getaway - having recently confessed she felt more confident with her body than ever. 'I feel I look the best I have for a while': The brunette has shared a number of sizzling snaps from her getaway - having recently confessed she felt more confident with her body than ever Curves ahead: Revealing her boyfriend motivates her to exercise, she admitted she felt as happy with her body as she did in her youth, adding: 'I like being curvier, I think thats fun' Speaking to New! earlier this month, she said: 'I feel I look the best I have for a while and I did say to my boyfriend: "Oh my God, all the running has paid off!" 'I liked my body when I was younger and I do look at old pictures and wish for that body back! I like being curvier, I think thats fun, but I actually feel the same. 'Regardless of my weight, I always feel the same and I think thats quite important. Im a happy person! I dont really think about it too much if it wasnt for my boyfriend motivating me, Id probably be a lot bigger than I am!' Despite many women fantasising about having Kelly's voluptuous body, back in 2014 the model insisted she is far from perfect - but will always embrace her fantastic curves. Love is in the air: Kelly holidayed in Thailand with socialite pal Hofit Golan and her boyfriend Jeremy Parisi (above) Speaking to Cosmopolitan Body, Kelly admitted: 'Im not a super-skinny girl and I do love food. 'For me its not about doing 1,000 sit-ups before a photo shoot; its about feeling fresh Ive got rolls and boobs and I dont ever want to change.' Kelly holidayed in Thailand with socialite pal Hofit Golan and her boyfriend Jeremy Parisi. The model has been seeing Jeremy for nearly three years, having confirmed their romance during a loved-up break to Paris in April 2015. They were spotted enjoying a girls' night out at London's Chiltern Firehouse on Monday night. And there were no signs of sore heads when Reese Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey departed their London hotel on Tuesday morning, as the Hollywood duo got back to work promoting their latest Disney flick, A Wrinkle in Time. Once again showing off her sartorial prowess, Big Little Lies actress Reese sported a chic floral tea dress, which boasted a saucy cut-out across the decolletage. Fashionista: Reese Witherspoon sported yet another style hit when she departed her London hotel alongside A Wrinkle in Time co-star Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday afternoon The beauty paired her gorgeous blue frock with nude heels and recycled the smart plaid jacket she rocked the evening prior. Preened to perfection, Reese's blonde tresses were styled into glamorous loose waves, while her famous face was partially concealed beneath a pair of oversized shades. Her co-star Oprah looked equally sophisticated for her day of promo, pairing a beige shirt dress with an elegant, billowing cream coat. Leading ladies: The Hollywood stars have been hot on the promotional trail ahead of the release of their upcoming movie Stylish as ever: Big Little Lies actress Reese sported a chic floral tea dress, which boasted a saucy cut-out across the decolletage Her raven tresses were styled into a sleek ponytail, while the American TV host gave her ensemble a superstar edge with cat-eye sunglasses. The ladies have been hot on the promotional trail for their new movie and appeared on The One Show sofa with co-star Mindy Kaling on Monday evening, where they spoke about being turned into Barbie dolls and Oprah's accidental baby bombshell. The mega-talented trio were handed a margarita cocktail - a homage to their time together while filming the fantasy novel adaptation - upon their arrival on the BBC sofa. Finishing touches: Reese paired her gorgeous blue frock with nude heels and recycled the smart plaid jacket she rocked the evening prior Elegant: Oprah looked equally sophisticated for her day of promo, pairing a beige shirt dress with an elegant, billowing cream coat After delving into their drinks they spoke about the exciting news that their characters were being immortalised as Barbie dolls. 'I'm going to give it a special place in my house,' TV icon Oprah revealed to hosts Matt Baker and Angellica Bell. 'I grew up as a young girl who couldnt afford Barbie dolls so to have a Barbie doll in the image of your character is really fun,' she continued. Oprah also got quite the shock when The Office star Mindy confessed that she had accidentally leaked the news that Mindy was expecting her first child last year. Ready to go! The American TV host smiled and flashed a wave as she left her hotel Preened to perfection: Reese's blonde tresses were styled into glamorous loose waves, while her famous face was partially concealed beneath a pair of oversized shades While trying to remain private about her impeding birth, Mindy excitedly told Reese and Oprah about her pregnancy after her growing bump started to show. Mindy gave birth to daughter Katherine in December, and while never officially announced her pregnancy herself, Oprah dropped her baby news without evening knowing it. The Inside Out actress told the hosts: '[Oprah] said in an interview "Oh Im so excited for Mindy and her baby" but what [the reporters did] is I think they tricked you and asked "Are you excited about Mindy's baby?"'. Doing the rounds! The duo appeared on The One Show last night to discuss their new movie A confused Oprah appeared astounded at the revelation, replying: 'Did I know that was a trick question? Not until this moment!' Meanwhile, the talk-show host batted down presidential rumours once again as Matt Baker started to ask the long-running question. 'I will not be running [for president] its not happening' she continued. 'It feels very life affirming that I have lived my life in such a way that people have enough respect and trust and confidence in me that I could do that. 'But I dont want to ruin my life' Oprah joked, which caused much laughter amongst her co-stars. She once blasted the Australian media for always referencing her breakout role in Home and Away. And Melissa George proved she was worlds away from the popular soap as she set pulses racing in her new flick, The Butterfly Tree. The 41-year-old actress, who takes on the role of Evelyn, is seen stripping off to play a burlesque dancer in the drama. Scroll down for video Sexy: Melissa George proved she was worlds away from her one-time role on Home and Away as she set pulses racing in her new flick, The Butterfly Tree In the movie, which was released in Australia in November of last year, Melissa's character bewitches single dad Al (Ewen Leslie) and his teenage son Fin (Ed Oxenbould) with her zest for life. In the raunchy stills, Melissa is seen emerging in a lavish gold embellished bra as she works her sultry magic. Keeping in theme with the name of the movie, Melissa adds to the sexy element with an iridescent butterfly-inspired cape. The blonde bombshell then suddenly foregoes her bra, to highlight her busty cleavage. Racy: In the raunchy stills, Melissa is seen emerging in a lavish gold embellished bra as she works her sultry magic Wow: Keeping in theme with the name of the movie, Melissa adds to the sexy element with an iridescent butterfly-inspired cape She is seen continuing her sexy display in nothing but a pair of glittering nipple tassels for the alluring routine. In a Sun-Herald interview five years ago, Melissa blasted Australian media for constantly referring to her breakout role as Angel Brooks in Home and Away. She went as far as to say the sole focus on her early television career had caused her so much stress she was unlikely to ever live in Australia again. 'I don't need credibility from my country any more, I just need them all to be quiet. If they have nothing intelligent to say, please don't speak to me any more,' she stated. She's got front! The blonde bombshell then suddenly foregoes her bra, to highlight her busty cleavage She is seen continuing her sexy display in nothing but a pair of glittering nipple tassels for the alluring routine Role: In the movie, which was released in Australia in November of last year, Melissa's character bewitches single dad Al and his teenage son Fin with her zest for life 'I'd rather be having a croissant and a little espresso in Paris or walking my French bulldog in New York City,' she quipped. She did the interview after her Golden Globe nomination for American TV series 'In Treatment' and while dating her now ex-partner, French millionaire Jean-David Blanc. 'I've got to be honest. I'm not going to be a good Aussie any more. I'm going to speak out. I've just had it,' she told the newspaper at the time. Not happy: In a Sun-Herald interview five years ago, Melissa blasted Australian media for constantly referring to her breakout role as Angel Brooks in Home and Away They recently revealed they were an item by sharing a number of loved-up selfies. And Jessica Wright and Strictly hunk Giovanni Pernice were making their red carpet debut together on Tuesday at the TRIC Awards in London, arriving at the awards show arm-in-arm. The fomer TOWIE star sported a simple yet chic minidress with a thigh-skimming hemline as she cosied up to the professional ballroom dancer. It's official! Jessica Wright and Strictly hunk Giovanni Pernice made their red carpet debut as a couple on Tuesday at the TRIC Awards in London Jessica kept her look simple for the all-important occasion, setting off her attire with strappy heels and a two-tone handbag. The brunette beauty styled her dark hair in glossy curls and opted for a bronzed make-up look with a touch of highlighter to enhance her striking features. Dapper Giovanni looked handsome in his crisp grey suit as he proudly cuddled up to his new girlfriend. Admiring glance: Dapper Giovanni looked handsome in his crisp grey suit as he proudly cuddled up to his new girlfriend Chic: The fomer TOWIE star sported a simple yet chic minidress with a thigh-skimming hemline as she cosied up to the professional ballroom dancer The new couple, who have remained largely private about their romance until earlier this year were recently spotted enjoyed a cosy dinner date at Nobu restaurant in London. Jess posted the sweet snap to her stories, wearing a pretty black lace dress, while her man wore a smart jumper over a shirt. The couple finally confirmed months of dating rumours by posting a smitten social media snap on Valentine's Day. And it's the second public declaration of love they've made in a week as they also shared a throwback snap from New Year's Eve on Jessica's Instagram on Thursday. Is he her Mr Wright? Jess recently cosied up to Giovanni for another cosy social media snap during romantic dinner date Cute couple: The pair also shared a sweet snap in a throwback snap from New Year's Eve, posted to Jessica's Instagram account The beauty looked utterly besotted as she giggled away while Giovanni planted a tender kiss on her lips. Jessica captioned the shot: '#tbt #newyears'. The pair beamed with delight as they embraced each other to ring in the beginning of the year. Jessica and Giovanni - who previously dated his Strictly Come Dancing partner Georgia May Foote, 27 - are believed to have got together around December time. The passionate new image comes just hours after the Italian professional dancer paid tribute to the brunette beauty on Valentine's Day. Loved-up: The former TOWIE star, 32, and the Strictly Come Dancing professional, 27, confirmed months of romance rumours by posting a sweet snap on Valentine's Day The new couple looked closer than ever as they held hands for the black and white photograph. The fitness entrepreneur was dressed to impress in an eye-catching patterned attire while enhancing her God given good looks with heavy make-up. It seemed Giovanni and Jessica enjoyed a low-key romantic evening together for their first ever Valentine's as a couple. Excited about his new romance, he shared the kissing picture with his 149,000 Instagram followers and penned the caption, 'Buon San Valentino.' Moving quickly: The pair were first romantically linked in November when they were spotted on a cosy date by eagle-eyed onlookers The reality star shared a screen grab from the famous scene depicting unrequited love in Love Actually. In the flick, Andrew Lincoln's character Mark is in love with Juliet (Keira Knightley), who is married to his best friend Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Mark can be seen holding up a place card in the picture when he makes his love known to Juliet. Jessica wrote in the caption: 'Happy Valentines Day I hope someone makes you feel this special today #loveactually.' (sic) How impressive! Giovanni nearly lifted the Glitter Ball trophy when he reached the final with his celebrity dance partner Debbie McGee They were first romantically linked in December when they were spotted on a date by eagle-eyed onlookers. The lovebirds enjoyed a cosy drink at Soho House before they went onto watch West End production Dream Girls. An insider told The Sun: 'It was obvious to everyone it was a date. They were talking really closely, leaning into each other.' A close pal to Jess elaborated to the publication: 'They've been on a few dates, but it's early days. They met through her brother Mark's Strictly connections from when he was on the show and they're getting to know each other.' In recent months, Giovanni nearly lifted the Glitter Ball trophy when he reached the final with his celebrity dance partner Debbie McGee. Debbie was forced to laugh off claims after the dance partners were romantically linked during their time on the hit dancing show. Strictly skills: Jessica's brother Mark Wright made it to the Strictly finals back in 2014 when he was partnered up with professional dancer Karen Clifton The former ballet dancer told the Loose Women panel: 'Theyre totally ludicrous, we do have a special chemistry, hes a very special person to me, Im sure I am to him. We love each other to bits, but theres nothing more than a friendship there.' Jess and Giovanni were reportedly introduced to each other through the TOWIE star's brother Mark Wright, who made an appearance on Strictly Come Dancing. Jess's younger sibling made it to the Strictly finals back in 2014 when he was partnered up with professional dancer Karen Clifton. Although Giovanni didn't join the series until 2015, the Extra presenter is said to have kept in close touch with his Strictly family. Back in 2015, Jessica expressed a desire to follow Mark onto the show after he made it to the final during a season that was won by Caroline Flack. 'I love dancing, so that would be amazing. One day maybe,' she told The Radio Times. 'Mark got to the final, so who knows? [He] set the bar very high.' Jess divulged in an exclusive interview with the MailOnline that she had hit the dating market again with a new found confidence thanks to her fitness regime. In May 2017, she explained to MailOnline: 'I needed to do it for my own self confidence and own self loving. How can you expect someone to love you when you don't love yourself? 'There was definitely a time in my life when I was lacking in that area. Whereas now I feel like I am completely in control of myself and where I am. I am in a happy place. 'I'm dating a lot at the moment and while I'm not necessarily looking for love, if it comes around then great.' She's been enjoying a break from work to spend some time with family following her triumphant show at New York Fashion Week last month. But Victoria Beckham was back to business on Tuesday as she arrived in style capital Paris. The Spice Girl looked typically chic in one of her own designs as she strutted in the sunshine to the city's famed Ritz Hotel after taking the Eurostar from London to the Gare du Nord - where she drew a crowd. Springtime in Paris: Victoria Beckham was ultra chic in a camel-coloured shirt dress as she arrived at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on Tuesday morning Making the most of springtime in Paris, Victoria chose a flowing camel-coloured shirt dress for her business trip. The fitted number featured wraparound detail on the midsection, to highlight the mum of four's trim waist. A midi-length skirt showed off the star's choice of footwear - a pair of simple brown leather boots with a typically towering heel. Fashionable arrival: The Spice Girl looked typically chic in one of her own designs as she strutted in the sunshine She's in fashion: The fitted number featured wraparound detail on the midsection, to highlight the mum of four's trim waist Victoria accessorised with a chunky silver watch and her favourite sunnies, while adding a pop of colour with emerald green earrings. A sleek up-do and a leather bag tucked under her arm were the finishing touches. Victoria is back to her jet-set lifestyle after enjoying a few days with her family back home in the UK. VIP in the building: Victoria drew a crowd of excited onlookers as she arrived at Gare du Nord station in the city via Eurostar Say cheese: Fans grabbed their phones as Victoria dashed through arrivals, with her luggage being wheeled by a helpful minder Finishing touches: Victoria accessorised with a chunky silver watch and her favourite sunnies, while adding a pop of colour with emerald green earrings All aboard: Victoria made a graceful entrance into her waiting Mercedes outside the station Business chic: Victoria is back to her jet-set lifestyle after enjoying a few days with her family back home in the UK The famous family celebrated the birthday of Victoria's mother Jackie as well as Mother's Day over the weekend, with the star and her husband David sharing updates on social media. Even son Brooklyn Beckham jetted home for the reunion, as he continues to study photography at Parsons School of Design in New York. In perhaps the greatest Mother's Day gift of all, Brooklyn recently paid tribute to Victoria by having a heart emblazoned with the word 'Mum' tattooed on his bicep last month. Helping hand: A Ritz doorman was only too happy to walk Victoria to the door Coming through: Victoria stood out in her chic outfit as she strutted to the Parisian landmark Nice do: A sleek up-do and a leather bag tucked under her arm were the finishing touches City digs: Victoria checked into Paris' famed Ritz Hotel upon her arrival in one of her most-visited cities on the fashion circuit The last few years have seen her juggle her hectic schedule with her duties as a doting mother to her three children - daughter North, four, son Saint, two, and newborn Chicago. And Kim Kardashian, 37, has now divulged all in the April issue of ELLE about the process of welcoming her third child via gestational carrier on January 15, as well as her future plans for expanding her family. After confessing that she and husband Kanye West, 40, selected the sex of their third child, the reality star expressed that adding a fourth to their brood would prove tricky as she also needed to give her other half a healthy amount of attention. Kandid Konfessions: Kim Kardashian, 37, has divulged all about the process of welcoming her third child Chicago via gestational carrier, as well as future plans for expanding her family Kim stunned on the cover for the fashion bible, as well as the rest of the photoshoot, which saw her put focus on her famous curves and jaw-dropping features. Accompanying the spread was a candid interview which saw her expand on her motherhood duties after welcoming her third child, a girl named Chicago, via gestational carrier at the beginning of the year. While she whole-heartedly expressed her initial desire to carry her third child herself, Kim was warned off by doctors following her previous two difficult pregnancies. Opting for a gestational carrier, who she 'immediately trusted' Kim relayed the difficulties in the process, which also included selecting the sex of the baby via an embryo. 'The healthiest embryo was a girl': The reality star relayed the difficulties in the gestational carrier process, which also included selecting the sex of the baby via an embryo 'My time is spread thin': The reality star expressed that adding a fourth to their brood would prove tricky as she also needed to give her other half a healthy amount of attention 'Its a really tricky thing. "What sex do you put in?" I just said, "Which one is the healthiest? Pick the healthiest one," and that was a girl.' After coming to the decision alongside Kanye, the star's only other request was for her third child to be born in LA 'where all my babies were delivered, and for her to use my doctor.' Kim also touched upon her fantastic relationship with her gestational carrier who 'ate organically' and was therefore 'a good match for us'. However, knowing full well the needs of pregnancy, Kim admitted 'I straight-up told her, "Look, I ate doughnuts every single day. If you want doughnuts and ice cream, go for it. Do whatever you feel. Im not going to be picky like that. "' Trust: Kim also touched upon her fantastic relationship with her gestational carrier who 'ate organically' and was therefore 'a good match for us' 'My home and my heart feel full': With three happy and healthy children, Kim confessed her uncertainty over adding to her brood Love story: Kim and Kanye started dating in 2012 and wed in 2014 in a lavish ceremony in Italy With three happy and healthy children, Kim confessed her uncertainty over adding to her brood. 'My home and my heart feel really full right now, in the best way,' she happily confessed before revealing four children would be her absolute max. 'I dont think I could handle more than that. My time is spread really thin. And I think its important that in all couples, the mom gives the husband as much attention as the kids,' she admitted of Kanye. Kim and Kanye started dating in 2012 shortly after the end of her 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries. They wed in 2014 in a lavish ceremony in Italy. 'He taught me to have an opinion. I taught him to be calm': Kim proved that her marriage to Kanye was still going strong and that they are the right balance for each other Baby boom! Kim's half sister, Kylie Jenner, 20, welcomed baby girl Stormi last month, while sister Khloe Kardashian will have her first child soon And proving that her marriage to the rapper was going strong, following a slew of failed romances in the past, Kim revealed: 'Hes taught me to have more of an opinion. Ive taught him to be a bit more calm or cautious. Were a good balance. While Kim has no sold plans to have another child, her immediate family have been busy on the baby-making front. Her half sister, Kylie Jenner, 20, welcomed baby girl Stormi with beau Travis Scott last month following a secret pregnancy. Kim also celebrated her sister Khloe Kardashian's baby shower on Saturday in Los Angeles. They are the feisty blondes who clashed on The Bachelor last year. And on Tuesday, Florence Alexandra took a swipe at Leah Costa ahead of their appearance on Bachelor In Paradise on March 25. The Dutch beauty, 27, dug at Leah in a comment posted underneath a Bachelor In Paradise fan's post on Instagram, which read: 'Ffs (for fu** sake) I have to put up with Leah again.' Battle of the blondes! Florence Alexandra (L) has complained about 'putting up with' former rival and 'villain' Leah Costa (R) while filming Bachelor In Paradise The comment continued with, 'least I've got my favourites back on tv', tagging Tara Pavlovic, Florence, Davey Lloyd, Jake Ellis and Blake Colman. Florence responded directly to the user's comment about Leah: 'I know the feels honey.' Leah and Florence competed for the attention of Bachelor Matty J last year, and will both have a second chance at love on Bachelor In Paradise. 'I know the feels honey': Florence responded directly to the user's comment about Leah All's fair in love and war! Leah and Florence competed for the attention of Bachelor Matty J last year, and will both have a second chance at love on Bachelor In Paradise Leah rose to fame for her backstabbing and attention seeking antics on last year's series. But ahead of appearing on the upcoming spin-off, Leah says she has 'matured a lot' over the past year and her mean-girl persona will not be making a reappearance. Speaking to TV Week magazine, the 25-year-old said she'd done with public humiliation and only her inner nice-girl would be coming out to play. 'I've matured a lot': Leah, who rose to fame for her backstabbing and attention seeking antics on last year's series, claims she would be ditching her mean-girl persona on the show The cast photo also pictured notable names set to star on the show, including Michael Turnbull, Keira Maguire, Luke McLeod and Samuel Johnston. Missing from the snap were a number of the show's other reported stars, including Apollo Jackson and Sam Cochrane. Recent Bachelorette runner-up Jarrod Woodgate will also appear on the series, and is rumoured to hit up a romance with Keira. Bachelor In Paradise premieres on March 25 on Channel Ten UPDATED Ever since her rocky confirmation hearing, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has struggled to get her message across to educators and the public . And those problems arent going away more than a year into her tenure: She and her team have endured hours of harsh headlines and social media hits after she seemed to stumble in her highest-profile interview yet, with Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes Sunday night . The most-shared clip appears to be a roughly two-minute segment in which DeVos wasnt able to point to specific examples in her home state of Michigan in which injecting more competition through charter schools or vouchers had increased student achievement. (She said this had happened in pockets of the state, but didnt say which ones. Click here for a full transcript and video of the interview.) And DeVos told Stahl she hadnt intentionally visited low-performing schools to determine the cause of their problems. (Maybe I should, DeVos agreed when Stahl pressed her.) She also said that national school performance hasnt budged in decades, a point Stahl disputed. DeVos clarified to say she meant the United States isnt improving as fast as other countries. For DeVos critics, the interview confirmed that shes incompetent and doesnt care about schools, said Mark Hlavacik, an assistant professor of communication studies at the University of North Texas in Denton and the author of Assigning Blame: The Rhetoric of Education Reform. Thats a perception many of them have had since her confirmation hearing, in which she struggled to answer basic questions. On the other hand, if you think the media has been unfair to her, Stahls pointed questions might have supported that perception too, Hlavacik said. But he added, the show isnt easy on anyone. This what 60 Minutes does. You cant be shocked that youre going to get some challenging questions and [be asked] to defend your ground. Liz Hill, a spokeswoman for DeVos, said that 60 Minutes choose to air only highly edited clips of the interview. Its disappointing that instead of showing any of the lengthy and substantive policy discussion Secretary DeVos had with Ms. Stahl, 60 Minutes chose to air only highly edited clips on limited topics to perpetuate a false narrative about her work, Hill said. The interview seemed to have especially hurt DeVos with rank-and-file educators, who shes had a tough time winning over. Candy Banda, the director of school leadership for the Dallas Independent School District, said she found DeVos comments divisive. And she said they showed how removed the secretary is from what actually goes on in classrooms. Banda, who spoke about her personal views and not the districts, was particularly put off by DeVos comment about how the public funds students, not school buildings. Students and their schools, inherently go together, she said. Students fill school buildings, so they need to be funded and resourced, said Banda, who has spent 20 years in education and taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Shes also mystified that DeVos said she hadnt intentionally visited a low-performing school. Thats your job, Banda said of the secretary. You do it every day, and you do it with pride. If she really wants to know whats going on [in schools] go talk to teachers who give their heart, their soul their passion, their time, their effort to elevating our kids. DeVos sought to better explain her argument about the performance of the nations schools on Twitter. On Monday afternoon, she shared charts of National Assessment of Educational Progress scores from both Michigan and the nation, arguing that they proved her point that American students performance is stagnant. DeVos said that she shared these 4thgrade scores in math and reading with CBS, but that the network didnt show them. Heres what we shared with @60Minutes , which of course they didnt show you: Michigan, like much of the nation, isnt doing well enough to prepare students. Scores are stagnant. Students need more options, and we must rethink our approach to education. pic.twitter.com/GJ0kdI2GPE Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVosED) March 12, 2018 And she added this about Detroit schools. Also missing from @60Minutes : students at charter schools in Detroit are doing 2x better than their peers. The reforms are helping, but theres so much more to do. We must help all students be better prepared for strong futures. https://t.co/nZ8iqHhLBd pic.twitter.com/xoiegl2VF1 Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVosED) March 12, 2018 In a statement, Hill added that DeVos, has been very intentional about visiting and highlighting high performing, innovative schools across the country. Many of these high performing schools are traditional public schools that have challenged the status quo and dared to do something different on behalf of their students--many where teachers are empowered in the classroom to find what works best for students. Some of her supporters said they saw problems with the segment too. The interview appeared to selectively edited to fit a specific narrative without proper context, said Matt Frendewey, who helped lead communications work for DeVos at both the Education Department and at the American Federation for Children, the school choice advocacy organization she started. Frendewey said the secretary smoothly answered tough questions from NBCs Savannah Guthrie during a live spot on the Today show the morning after the 60 Minutes interview aired. When you contrast the two it raises the question of was the format situated to push a narrative that benefits the status quo, Frendewey said. He added that although Stahl has an impressive record, she isnt an education reporter and didnt appear to follow what the secretary was trying to say about the need to look for the educational situation that works best for individual students. Theres no way to know what 60 Minutes left out of the segment, agreed Pedro Noguera, a professor of education at the University of California, Los Angeles, who is linked to the progressive movement. But he didnt see any unfairness in the interview, which he called a trainwreck for the secretary. The questions they choose to include are crucial questions and not insignificant to her role, he said. They were not trick questions. The sort of rhetoric that DeVos continues to usethat she is focusing on individual students and not the educational systemsounds very different coming from someone who is leading that system than it did in DeVos previous roles as an advocate and outsider, Noguera added. Shes clearly at a loss for what her role is. She cant just be a critic of others policies, he said. She has to say what needs to be done. Shes now in a position to lead, and she cant do that. The timing of DeVos perceived stumble isnt great, Hlavacik said. Hours before the 60 Minutes interview aired, the White House gave DeVos a high-profile new assignment: Leading a task force on school safety aimed at developing policies in response to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month. Banda doesnt have confidence that DeVos is the woman for the job. I dont think she can solve any public school problems, given the lack of fundamental understanding of our day to day, Banda said. But she added that the secretary could surprise us. Well leave that door open. During Mondays press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked if DeVos would be the face of the administrations efforts on school safety. Sanders said the presidentnot DeVos would head up the administrations actions on the issue. Sanders said she wasnt sure Trump had watched the entire 60 Minutes interview. But she didnt defend DeVos performance. Its unclear what Trump thought of another recent DeVos comment. During the Today interview, Guthrie asked DeVos what she thought of the presidents contention that NBCs Chuck Todd, the moderator of Meet the Press, is a sleeping son of a bitch. DeVos said she would probably use different language myself, and I think we all have an opportunity and a responsibility to be examples to our kids. That should apply to the president, she added. Credit: 60 Minutes/CBS News Assistant Editor Andrew Ujifusa contributed to this report. Cant get enough of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos? Check out some of our best coverage: Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . She is one of the most glamorous The Real Housewives Of Sydney stars. And Krissy Marsh shared a stunning throwback snap to when she headed out for a low-key bike ride, in Shanghai, China during filming for the series. The Real Housewives Of Sydney star, 47, looked sensational as she showcased her envy-inducing curves in her skintight scarlet dress. Scroll down for video Lady in red: Real Housewives Of Sydney star Krissy Marsh, 47, showed off her envy-inducing curves in form-fitting dress as she shared Shanghai bike ride throwback on Tuesday For a classy look, the reality star plumped out her pout with lipstick in the same shade of deep crimson as her garment. Glamorous as ever, the television star framed her pretty features with her brunette locks which she styled in bouncy waves. The mother added to her height in studded sky-scraper high sandals, despite heading out on a bike. She penned on social media: 'Peddling into Wednesday; I can not wait to be back on my bike in #shanghai #onlyinshangers #rhos .' (sic) 'She is five souls wrapped into one': The Real Housewives Of Sydney star has reflected on her five miscarriages that led to the birth of her daughter Milana In recent weeks, Krissy reflected on her five miscarriages that led to the birth of her 'miracle' daughter Milana. The reality star shared a snap of the moment she held her baby in her arms, with her husband Johnny by her side in the delivery room. In a heartfelt post to honour Milana's 10th birthday, she wrote: 'We worked hard to get Milana after numerous miscarriages.' 'She is the kindest soul you will ever meet': Her heartfelt post touched a nerve with a number of her female fans who shared their own experience Proud parents: Meanwhile someone else posted a compliment, saying: 'She's one of a kind and such a credit to you and Johnny Happy birthday Milana.' 'Many people told us to give up however we persisted, she is five souls wrapped into one and the kindest soul you will ever meet,' she wrote. Krissy also added the hashtags: '#happybirthday#princess #kind #beautifulinsideandout#gift #number3 #rhos.' Aside from Milana, Krissy shares two sons Billy, 15, and Nicco, 13, with her businessman husband Johnny Marsh. The Sydney housewife has been busy preparing for her daughter's big day with dozens of presents and party bags for her many friends. She surprised the world by announcing her marriage to farmer turned chef Chris Fischer last month. But Amy Schumer, 36, has no intention of obtaining his surname, as she explained to her father Gordon Schumer on her Instagram Story recently. 'Im not Amy Fischer! Do you remember who Amy Fisher is? The Long Island Lolita. No, Im keeping my last name. Im keeping your last name,' she said during an Instagram story. 'I'm not Amy Fischer!': Amy Schumer surprised the world by announcing her marriage to farmer and chef Chris Fischer last month - but has no intention of obtaining his surname She was talking to her father Gordon. Colin Quinn, Schumer's fellow comedian who played her fictional father in Trainwreck, could be glimpsed ambling about in the background. Long Island resident Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot in the face by her husband Joey Buttafuoco's 17-year-old mistress Amy Fisher, in an infamous 1992 case. Mary Jo survived, though she retained paralysis in half her face and lost hearing in one ear. Meanwhile, Fisher went to jail until 1999, then became a porn star. 'The Long Island Lolita': 'Do you remember who Amy Fisher is?' Schumer reminded her father Gordon on her Instagram Story when the latter raised the subject On the go: Colin Quinn, Schumer's fellow comedian who played her fictional father in Trainwreck, could be glimpsed ambling about in the background Joey, 22 years Fisher's senior, went to jail for four months for statutory rape. Schumer made her marriage public on February 15 when she unexpectedly posted a wedding album to Instagram, captioning simply: 'Yup.' Jennifers Lawrence and Aniston, as well as Jake Gyllenhaal, Larry David and Schumer's fellow stand-up comic David Spade, attended, People reported. Background: Long Island resident Mary Jo Buttafuoco (left) was shot in the face by her husband Joey Buttafuoco's (center) 17-year-old mistress Amy Fisher (right) in 1992 case Her stylist Leesa Evans told People that Schumer's Monique Lhuillier wedding dress was 'the first (and only!) dress she tried on.' On Tuesday this week, Schumer uploaded a throwback photo with a caption wishing a 'Happy birthday to my real husband @common'. The snap showed her with the famous rapper, who turned 46 that day. Big reveal: Schumer made her marriage public on February 15 when she unexpectedly posted a wedding album to Instagram, captioning simply: 'Yup' Decisive: Her stylist Leesa Evans dished to People that Schumer's Monique Lhuillier wedding dress was 'the first (and only!) dress she tried on' Her beloved husband of 30 years, Paul Daniels passed away in March 2016 following a brain tumour. And Debbie McGee, 59, revealed she hopes to find a new suitor to share the rest of her life with. Appearing at the TRIC Awards at Grosvenor House in London on Tuesday, the beautiful blonde said: 'I hope I won't be on my own for the rest of my life. 'I hope I won't be alone for the rest of my life': Debbie McGee revealed her dream of finding a new love at the TRIC Awards at London's Grosvenor House on Tuesday Sad: Her beloved husband of 30 years, Paul Daniels (pictured) passed away in March 2016 following a brain tumour 'I don't think you should go looking for love. In the future I hope I find someone.' Debbie looked incredible as she arrived at the event, which has been celebrating achievements in television and radio, since 1931. She wore a fitted monochrome skirt suit which had a frill detail. Debbie continued: 'I don't think you should go looking for love. In the future I hope I find someone' - she looked incredible wearing a smart suit on the day Adding some height to her petite frame, she wore a pair of black high court shoes, taking off her sunglasses for her moment in the spotlight. Her platinum blonde locks were piled up in an elegant chignon and her make-up was expertly applied. The lovely lady also credits her stint on Strictly Come Dancing last year for helping her get back to herself. 'Strictly made me really love life,' she said. 'And to make the most of every day. 'I had so much celebrity support. Joan Collins sent a lovely message and I was so touched. I didn't know her before.' Debbie also touched upon her Strictly co-star Gemma Atkinson's romance with Gorka Marquez. She said: 'Working with them you could see there was a sparkle. I thought it was lovely.' The TRIC Awards saw Ant and Dec bag TV personality of the year when pitted against Holly Willoughby and Keith Lemon. I'm A Celebrity also won big for the Geordie duo, winning Best Entertainment show, against the likes of Strictly and The Voice. But This Morning did pick up the award for Best Daytime programme - and Emmerdale thrashed Corrie, EastEnders and Hollyoaks to win Best Soap. Putting her best foot forwards: Adding some height to her petite frame, Debbie wore a pair of black high court shoes, taking off her sunglasses for her moment in the spotlight She is the superwoman married to Hollywood hunk and the father of her three children Chris Hemsworth. And Elsa Pataky, 41, showed she was confident taking control of the reins when she enjoyed a horse ride in the sunset, in Australia. Shared on Instagram on Tuesday, the casually-clad actress can be seen sat erect on horseback as she charged through the countryside. She holds the reins in the marriage! Chris Hemsworth's wife Elsa Pataky charged through the countryside on horseback in the sunset via Instagram on Tuesday Hemsworth's wife held the reigns while she headed out to explore the leafy landscape in the early evening, escaping the blistering heat of the day. The Spanish born beauty showcased her slender figure in a form-fitting T-shirt and jeans, perfect for her low-key ride. Elsa swept her halo of golden locks underneath her helmet as she proved practical for her horseback ride. With the glamorous picture, Elsa penned in the caption: 'Beautiful sunsets!/ atardeceres!' Elsa is happily married to the Thor actor and the pair share three beautiful children: India Rose, aged five, as well as three-year-old twins Tristan and Sasha. Happy together: Elsa is happily married to the Thor actor and the pair share three beautiful children: India Rose, aged five, as well as three-year-old twins Tristan and Sasha 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. Although they have been married for seven years, the couple worked on their first movie together in 2016. Must be love: 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 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. '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. Seven cast members have been axed from the ITVBe show due to their 'boring' storylines. But Courtney Green, Chloe Meadows and Amber Turner made the final cut with TOWIE producers, putting on glamorous displays as they returned to filming in Barcelona on Tuesday for series 22 of the long-running reality show. The brunette beauty showed off a liberal amount of cleavage in a plunging lace bodysuit and tiny denim hotpants, showing off her legs in the skimpy shorts. Leading the way: Courtney Green was putting on glamorous displays as she returned to TOWIE filming in Barcelona on Tuesday for series 22 of the long-running reality show Battle of the blondes: Former rivals Chloe Meadows (left) and Amber Turner (right) were also spotted stepping out in the city Courtney added some extra height to her petite frame thanks to a pair of metallic, strappy heels, and covered up in a denim jacket. The petite beauty wore her long locks down loose and slung a quilted Chanel bag across one shoulder. Joining her for filming was her BFF Chloe Meadows, who was embracing a military themed look in green co-ords. She showed off a hint of midriff in a plunging blouse tied at the waist, which she matched with high-waisted trousers. Flirty frock: Amber showed off her long legs in a thigh-skimming minidress bearing an orange and rose print Skimpy: The brunette beauty showed off a liberal amount of cleavage in a plunging lace bodysuit and tiny denim hotpants, showing off her legs in the skimpy shorts Legs for days: Amber styled her long extensions in bouncy curls and carried a dusty pink bag Gorgeous in green: Chloe was embracing a military themed look in green coo-ords Making a statement: Courtney added some extra height to her petite frame thanks to a pair of metallic, strappy heels, and covered up in a denim jacket The blonde matched her black heels to the embroidery detailing on her ensemble and added a pop of colour thanks to an on-trend pastel clutch. Amber showed off her long legs in a thigh-skimming minidress bearing an orange and rose print. She styled her long extensions in bouncy curls and carried a dusty pink bag. Also spotted out and about around Barcelona were the boys - James 'Lockie' Lock, Tommy Mallett, Jon Clark and Liam Gatsby. Pretty in pastels: Also putting in a glamorous appearance in Spain was Yazmin Oukhellou Girl band on tour: The girls flashed dazzling smiles as they stepped out in style Kicking off the new series in style: TOWIE will be returning with a bang in Barcelona Terrific in tweed: Yasmin looked a little out of place in her smart, Chanel inspired ensemble The lads were larking about in yellow cars as they enjoyed a spot of sightseeing, stopping off every now and again to take selfies. Elsewhere, Lauren Pope was spotted putting on a glamorous display as she filmed for the show solo, stepping out in a slinky cold-shoulder dress. She completed her attire with an eye-catching red handbag and a pair of statement drop earrings. A number of familiar faces weren't seen filming since seven regulars, including Amber Dowding and Chris Clark, have been axed. Living it up: Also spotted out and about around Barcelona were the boys - James 'Lockie' Lock (front left), Tommy Mallett (front right), Jon Clark (back left) and Liam Gatsby (back right) Va-va-vroom! The lads were larking about in mini yellow cars as they enjoyed a spot of sightseeing, stopping off every now and again to take selfies Making the cut: Lockie and Gatsby have remained popular with TOWIE fans Serious shake up: Their outing comes after seven cast members were given the axe because their storylines were allegedly deemed 'boring' The pair - who recently moved in together - left the show alongside Mike Hassini, Jack Rigden, Jordan Brook, Maddie Hooper and Ruby Lacey last month, following claims that 'boring' characters have been chopped out of the line-up. The shock shake-up, confirmed by the channel on Thursday, also comes amid a format reshuffle which will see the ITVBe series aired just once a week instead of twice. A TOWIE spokesperson told MailOnline: 'There are a number of cast who have mutually agreed their time on the show has come to a natural end for now. 'We wish them well and look forward to another exciting year ahead for TOWIE.' Still going strong: Former Love Island star Jon (left) has remained on the ITVBe show despite his brother Chris Clark being cut Too happy? The fact that Chris and his girlfriend Amber Dowding are no longer involved in any romantic drama is said to be one of the reasons they've been axed An insider told The Sun : 'TOWIE is like a revolving door and producers are always on the lookout for new faces that can keep the show fresh' Amber and Chris both joined the series in 2016 and rekindled their relationship in April last year, following his short-lived fling with Jesy Nelson of Little Mix fame. The pair have gone from strength to strength and revealed they had officially moved in together in November. However, the fact that the pair are no longer involved in any romantic drama is said to be one of the reasons they've been axed. An insider told The Sun: 'TOWIE is like a revolving door and producers are always on the lookout for new faces that can keep the show fresh. The insider added: 'Chris and Amber have left the series as a couple whove just moved into an apartment together and often being in a happy relationship doesnt work for the show' Not making it: Jack and Jordan - who joined in 2017 - are said to have been liked by producers, but their scenes were overshadowed by other stars. Main men: The foursome have stood the test of time with fans over the last few series 'Chris and Amber have left the series as a couple whove just moved into an apartment together and often being in a happy relationship doesnt work for the show.' They added that Mikes stable relationship with girlfriend Zoe Hamilton was also the reason for his axing. He joined the show for a year in 2015 and returned in 2017. Meanwhile, Jack and Jordan - who joined in 2017 - are said to have been liked by producers, but their scenes were overshadowed by other stars. It was claimed that Maddie and Ruby - who both joined the show last year - didn't make the cut as they 'failed to resonate with viewers.' Narrow miss? It was recently claimed Jon had come close to getting the axe, after it was claimed that scenes he had filmed for the festive special were cut from the ITVBe show Missing out: When this year's Only Way Is Essexmas episode aired in December, explosive scenes between Jon and on-off girlfriend Lauren Pope didn't make it to the final edit The news comes following reports that Jon Clark had come close to getting the axe, after it was claimed that scenes he had filmed for the festive special were cut from the ITVBe show. When this year's Only Way Is Essexmas episode aired in December, explosive scenes between Jon and on-off girlfriend Lauren Pope didn't make it to the final edit. As part of the episode, the Essex crowd celebrated Christmas by travelling to Suffolk for Arg's 30th birthday party. The special episode concluded with James Argent declaring his love for former flame Gemma Collins. Going it alone: Elsewhere, Lauren Pope was spotted putting on a glamorous display as she filmed for the show solo Putting in an appearance: The model and DJ was stepping out in a slinky cold-shoulder dress Chic details: She completed her attire with an eye-catching red handbag and a pair of statement drop earrings Romantic drama: A permanent castmember since 2016, Jon's biggest storyline involved long-serving star Lauren Fuming: Jon blamed producers for manipulating his relationship for ratings on the ITVBe show 'Jon filmed with Lauren,' a source told MailOnline after the episode. 'However the producers were keen on the Gemma and Arg storyline as it had a happy ending!' On whether Jon's future with the show hangs in the balance, the insider continued: 'Jon is a well loved and valued member of the cast.' Ahead of the festive special, Jon had cryptically tweeted: 'Tonight @OnlyWayIsEssex Xmas special not everyone gets what they want for Xmas...' A permanent castmember since 2016, Jon's biggest storyline involved long-serving star Lauren. Quick change: Amber later reemerged in a chic, all-white ensemble Top of the crops: The blonde beauty teamed her button down skirt Daring to be different: Courtney changed into a pair of ruffled red trousers Buxom: Georgia Kousoulou flaunted her cleavage and flat stomach in a white crop top After a series of explosive rows on-screen, the duo called off their romance in October after he admitted he still had feelings for Love Island ex Chloe Crowhurst. However, Jon blamed producers for manipulating his relationship for ratings on the ITVBe show. Jon told The Star: 'I understand Lauren and my happiness is at the bottom of the list for what the TOWIE team want. 'They obviously want the drama and tears but I've said, so long as we are a team and stick together we will be OK.' New look: The star has bounced back after being trolled over her decision to get a nose job Sealed with a kiss: Lockie and Yasmin were keen to prove they're still one of the strongest couples in Essex Golden girl: Yasmin showed off her figure in a mustard coloured bodycon number The duo reportedly felt the wrath of producers for having off-screen romances when they claimed to be single. It was originally reported in November that castmembers - new and old - have forgotten that the premise of the show is reality. A source alleged that stars of the show have been living lavish lives and off screens, including having secret relationships, and forgetting to tell show bosses about what's going on in their lives. Still going strong: The pair proved their romance is still rock solid Smitten: Lockie couldn't peel his eyes away from his striking girlfriend Bond. James Bond. The line is one of the most immortal in cinematic history and well-known to film fans throughout the world. But who might utter it next? After Daniel Craig confirmed in 2017 that he will only reprise the iconic role one last time, speculation has swirled as to who his successor will be. Here are the latest odds from Coral as to who the next James Bond might be as well as a look at some outside contenders and the life and career of Daniel Craig. Actor Daniel Craig has portrayed the iconic James Bond 007 since Casino Royale in 2006 Tom Hardy Odds: 3/1 Actor Tom Hardy is seen as a natural choice for James Bond thanks to his dashing looks, build and impressive film resume that includes action films such as 2001s Black Hawk Down, 2012s The Dark Knight Rises and 2017s Dunkirk. Hardy also received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2015s The Revenant, attesting to his talent on the silver screen. James Norton Odds: 3/1 Could up-and-coming star James Norton be changing his surname to Bond anytime soon? Odd makers peg his chances as fairly high, perhaps not surprising considering his growing resume and numerous awards and nominations such a 2015 nomination for Best Supporting Actor by the British Academy Television Awards for his role in Happy Valley on BBC. He also boasts a growing a Hollywood filmography, including appearances in 2016s War and Peace and 2017s Flatliners. Jack Huston Odds: 6/1 The handsome Jack Huston could also be perfect as the next James Bond. The 35-year old actor made a name for himself after appearing in 2010s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse before being showered with accolades for his role in 2013s American Hustle. Hes also appeared in the 2016 remake of the classic Hollywood epic Ben-Hur. Aidan Turner Odds: 8/1 Up-and-coming star Aidan Turner has increasingly become a familiar face to film and TV fans, meaning that landing an iconic role like James Bond would be a natural next step for him. Turner has appeared in the 2015 adaptation of The Poldark Novels on BBC as well as in Peter Jacksons The Hobbit trilogy. Idris Elba Odds: 8/1 Rumors of Idris Elba being cast as the next James Bond have circulated for more than a year. The acclaimed actor and recipient of numerous BET Award, Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award nominations and wins would break ground as being the first person of color to play James Bond, a role thats traditionally only been held by white men. Given Hollywoods recent push to diversify, casting Elba as Bond would seem like a stroke of brilliance. In addition, Elba would also bring extensive experience to the role, having appeared in the Thor film series, 2013s Pacific Rim, 2015s Avengers: Age of Ultron and 2017s The Dark Tower. Elba could be out of the running, however, as it's recently emerged that his fiance doesn't want him to play Bond. Tom Hiddleston Odds: 12/1 The London-based actor would bring an impressive repertoire of film, TV and stage experience to the James Bond role. Hiddleston has appeared in a number of hit films in recent years, including 2011s Thor, 2012s The Avengers and 2017s Kong: Skull Island. Landing the role of James Bond would certainly cement his reputation as one of Hollywoods rising stars. Cillian Murphy Odds: 12/1 Cillian Murphy, a film and theater star fromIreland, is also seen as a serious possibility as the next James Bond. Murphy has won and been nominated for numerous accolades and has also appeared in a number of notable films over the years, including The Dark Knight trilogy, 2002s 28 Days Later and 2010s Inception. Given that Danny Doyle is slated to direct the next installment of the James Bond franchise and could helm the series after Craig's departure, Murphy could be a serious contender to play 007 in the future, given their history of working together in films like Sunshine and 28 Days Later. Daniel Kaluuya Odds: 12/1 Like Idris Elba, Daniel Kaluuya would make history as the first nonwhite actor to play James Bond. The Londoner is seen as an up-and-coming star in the film world, most recently appearing in the blockbuster Black Panther. He also boasts critical acclaim, having been nominated for an Academy Award, SAG Award, Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for his lead role in the 2017 film Get Out. Michael Fassbender Odds: 16/1 Its not too hard to picture acclaimed actor Michael Fassbender as the next James Bond either. The film and TV veteran has consistently received acclaim from critics and audiences alike and also boasts an impressive filmography that includes 2006s 300, 2011s X-Men: First Class, 2013s 12 Years a Slave and 2015s Steve Jobs. #michaelfassy #michaelfassbender A post shared by Michael Fassbender (@michaelfassy) on May 25, 2015 at 12:38am PDT Henry Cavill Odds: 20/1 Cavill has made no secret of his aspirations to be the next James Bond. The London-based actor would bring both critical acclaim and quite a bit of big budget film experience to the role, having appeared as Superman in 2013s Man of Steel and 2016s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He also plays a key role in the upcoming film Mission: Impossible Fallout, so its probably not too much of a stretch to picture him in yet another spy thriller like the James Bond franchise. Jamie Dornan Odds: 20/1 The Northern Ireland-based actor is another rising star in both TV and film and is also seen as another possibility to play Bond himself. Hes best-known for his role as Christian Grey in the popular Fifty Shades of Grey series. {#jamiedornan #teamdornan} A post shared by Jamie Dornan (@_jamie_dornan_) on Mar 6, 2018 at 8:20pm PST Jamie Bell Odds: 25/1 Jamie Bell could be a dark horse candidate to play James Bond. In 2016, Bell was reportedly in talks with producers to become the next James Bond. The veteran actor would bring an extensive resume to the role, having appeared in 2000s Billy Elliot, 2005s King Kong and 2015s Fantastic Four. Who else could play James Bond? Its not outside the realm of possibility that the next James Bond might not be a James at all. According to Coral, currents odds at a female version of the legendary character are currently pegged at 12/1. Star Wars actor John Boyega is also an outside possibility, currently pegged at 33/1 odds. Established star Ryan Gosling is another long-shot possibility, coming in at 50/1 odds per Coral. A few other possibilities include the following actors and their odds: Harry Styles at 50/1 odds Benedict Cumberbatch at 100/1 odds Orlando Bloom at 100/1 odds Christian Bale at 125/1 odds Gerard Butler at 125/1 odds Will Smith at 150/1 odds Ewan McGregor at 150/1 odds Who is Daniel Craig? Daniel Craig is an actor best-known as the current James Bond in the long-running franchise. Craig was born in Chester, UK on March 2, 1968. After graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London in 1991, he steadily built up his resume by appearing in films such as 1995s A Kid in King Arthurs Court, 2001s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and 2005s Munich. He made his debut as James Bond in 2006 in Casino Royale, succeeding Pierce Brosnan as the titular character. He has since starred as the iconic spy in 2008s Quantum of Solace, 2012s Skyfall and 2015s Spectre. Over the course of his career, Craig has won the 2013 Critics Choice Award for Best Actor for his role in Skyfall and has also been nominated for a BAFTA Award and Primetime Emmy Award. #danielcraig #jamesbond #007 A post shared by Daniel Craig (@danielcraigofficialfans) on Mar 12, 2018 at 9:00am PDT What is Daniel Craigs net worth? Per Celebrity Net Worth, Craigs net worth is believed to be approximately $95 million (68 million). He draws his wealth from his longtime success in the film business, particularly from his iconic James Bond roles in recent years. Nick Nolte cleans up well. The actor stepped out on a New York City red carpet on Tuesday to attend the 92nd Street Y presents Reel Pieces, which highlighted the career of the 77-year-old. The Hollywood icon donned a black coat with white trim over a blue shirt and black pants. He topped his outfit off with a black newsboy hat and brown shoes. Cleaning up: Nick Nolte swapped out his pajamas for a black coat and pants as he posed on a 92nd Street Y red carpet in New York City on Tuesday Comfort is key: The Hollywood icon is often seen with unruly hair and pajamas; pictured in February in Malibu The Academy Award nominated actor sported a bushy beard and kept his hair under his dark hat. On the carpet, the 6ft1in star posed alongside Annette Ingsdorf, who hosted the event in his honor. His two children, Brawley, 31, and Sophie, 10, were not pictured with the actor. Once named People's Sexiest Man Alive, Nolte has taken on a more disheveled appearance lately. Guest of honor: The event highlighted the actor's 40 film career and his recently released memoir The actor is often seen running errands wearing pajamas and flaunting unruly hair. In January, the icon revealed in a DailyMail.com exclusive that while filming The Prince Of Tides, his co-star and director Barbra Streisand fell in love with him and asked the actor to move in with her. The native Nebraskan achieved fame somewhat later in life, having landed and been nominated for his role in the ABC miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man when he was 35. Different look: The Prince Of Tides actor is often seen with unruly hair, but here his beard was nicely groomed He has since appeared in over 40 films including 1991's Cape Fear, 1997's Affliction, and 2011's Warrior. Nolte has recently released his long-awaited memoir: 'REBEL: My Life Outside the Lines.' The three-time Oscar nominee also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in November. He recently starred in the now-cancelled Epix comedy Graves. The first trailer for the highly anticipated Fantastic Beasts: The Crime of Grindelwald has been released. The second of five adventures - which has been penned by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling - follows on from the end of the first film, which was released back in 2016. Now the first trailer for the upcoming film has been released and fans finally get to see Jude Law portraying Hogwarts headteacher Albus Dumbledore in action. Wands at the ready! Eddie Redmayne prepares to take on Johnny Depp in the first trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crime of Grindelwald...as fans get a glimpse of Jude Law as Dumbledore Giving fans a touch of nostalgia with the sweeping landscape vistas of Hogwarts, the trailer kicks off with a glimpse of the iconic school which first graced the big screen in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone back in 2001 and was the main setting for the boy wizard during his adventures. However, the sequel - which is set years before The Boy Who Lives is even born - follows the Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald - played by a grizzled Johnny Depp - escaping from the Magical Congress of the United States of America. Now the wizard is gathering followers to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings. Unrecognisable: The sequel follows the Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald - played by a grizzled Johnny Depp - escaping from the Magical Congress of the United States of America First look: Now the first trailer for the upcoming film has been released and fans finally get to see Jude Law portraying Hogwarts headteacher Albus Dumbledore in action Young blood: The sneak peak gives the first full look of Jude Law playing a young Albus Dumbledore, who enlists the help of former Hogwarts student Newt Scamander The sneak peak gives the first full look of Jude Law playing a young Albus Dumbledore, who enlists the help of former Hogwarts student and Magizoologist Newt Scamander - portrayed by Eddie Redmayne - who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. The trailer shows Dumbledore talking to wizarding authorities about Newt and his mission, telling the group in a bid to keep his plan in motion: 'If you ever had the pleasure of teaching Newt, you would know that he is not a great follower of orders'. The film boasts a stunning array of spellbinding effects and dramatic magical battles, of course alongside the titular mythical creatures. Planning: Jude Law gives a rye smile as he talks to Newt Danger ahead: Magizoologist Newt Scamander - portrayed by Eddie Redmayne - who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead Magical: The film boasts a stunning array of spellbinding effects and dramatic magical battles, of course alongside the titular mythical creatures Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested even among friends and family. With spellbinding action aplenty, fans were quick to show their appreciation about the sequel, with many taking to Twitter to voice their excitement. One jubilant fan wrote: 'I was already super hyped for #FantasticBeasts but now it's on a whole new level', while another overjoyed viewer commented: 'My wand is so ready omg the trailer is amazing! It's going to be so hard to wait!' Getting R-Eddie: Eddie Redmayne reprises his role alongside Dan Fogler as Jacob Fowalski Incredible effects: Mythical creatures, including an underwater seaweed horse, run amok in the JK Rolling world Striking: Fans can look forward to Eddie mastering his magic skills The new film sees Redmayne and Depp reprising their respective roles alongside a number of other returning casts Katherine Waterston as Auror Tina Goldstein, Alison Sudol as Queenie and Dan Fogler as Jacob Fowalski. Ezra Miller is back as Credence, Zoe Kravitz will take on the role of Leta Lestrange and Callum Turner will play Newt's brother Theseus Scamander. The action of Fantastic Beasts is set to take place in New York, Paris and London, where we will see love and loyalties tested in this tumultuous time in the wizarding world. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is set to be released in UK cinemas on November 16, 2018. Old school: Giving fans a touch of nostalgia with the sweeping landscape vistas of Hogwarts, the trailer kicks off with a glimpse of the iconic school Mystical: The action of Fantastic Beasts is set to take place in New York , Paris and London , where we will see love and loyalties tested in this tumultuous time in the wizarding world Every relationship has its problems, but not everyone has the opportunity to solve them the Seven Year Switch way. The reality show, which has aired in Australia and America, takes four couples headed for certain demise and switches one partner from each pairing. For two weeks the swapped partners are free to live with a new spouse. Seven Year Switch has widely been viewed as a rule-free version of Wife Swap. Seven Year Switch is taking four United Kingdom couples to Thailand to fix their relationships The Seven Year Switch couples are permitted to share a bed if they so choose, but are neither encouraged nor required to do so. After some time apart in the tropical paradise they'll be calling home, the couples must come back together and decide whether to stay together or call it quits. Want to know where Seven Year Switch will take place? We've got you covered. What is Seven Year Switch? Seven Year Switch is a reality show similar to Wife Swap. Couples facing different issues send one partner to live with another person's spouse for 14 days. The goal is to show them their own flaws and help them to appreciate the person they're married to or make the decision to end it once and for all. The show doesn't set boundaries for the swapped couples, meaning they can share a bed if they'd like to during the experiment. Seven Year Switch first aired in America on FYI. After two seasons, it went off the air. I am SO hooked on that Seven Year Switch Australia programme on Channel 4.. Totally binge watching it. Irene (@andersaur) August 28, 2016 When is Seven Year Switch on Channel 4? Seven Year Switch airs at 9:15pm on Channel 4 on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Viewers can catch up online through Channel 4 On Demand. Where is Seven Year Switch filmed? Seven Year Switch is filmed in Ko Samui in Thailand, according to The Sun. The resort is the second largest island in the country. It lies in the Gulf of Thailand not far from the east coast of Kra Isthmus. Participants will stay in four luxury villas placed around the island. Seven Year Switch couples The Seven Year Switch couples are Tony and Gemma, Nikki and Simon, Tom and Rachel and Michelle and George. Gemma and Tony are childhood sweethearts who met at age 15. Tony's a hairdresser who called off his wedding to Gemma after realizing he had doubts. The pair now live in separate houses, leaving Gemma to look after their two kids alone. Seven year switch is just channel 4 ruining marriages for viewer entertainment. I love it brenda from IT (@gsg1578) September 9, 2016 Nikki and Simon have been married over four years. Simon's a former England Rugby player who met Nikki 11 years ago while she was working in the accounts department at the Bristol Shoguns Rugby Club. Their marriage is strained due to Simon's schedule. Gemma and Tony and Nikki and Simon swap spouses on Seven Year Switch. Is it wrong that I actually want gemma and Simon fall for each other #sevenyearswitch Sandra Watson (@SandraW52185471) March 6, 2018 Tom and Rachel met while attending university. They've been together for some time and Rachel's grown tired of Tom's lack of ambition. The couple have a daughter together and it's done nothing to push Tom to be anything other than a barman. Michelle and George met at a bar where George was working the bar. They have a young son called Leo, but their relationships in trouble because of George's chauvinistic views on gender roles. Michelle and George swap with Tom and Rachel. Sharon Stone came to the defense of her disgraced Disaster Artist director James Franco following his sexual harassment allegations unearthed in January. 'I'm absolutely appalled by this,' the 60-year-old Oscar nominee told Marc Maron's WTF podcast back on March 5. 'I don't know how the girlfriend [Violet Paley] can say she was offended he asked for a b*** job while they're dating. And now all of a sudden he's a bad guy. I worked with him, I know him. He's the loveliest, kindest, sweetest, elegant, nicest man, most kind friend, lovely professional.' Scroll down for video Taking sides: Sharon Stone came to the defense of her disgraced Disaster Artist director James Franco following his sexual harassment allegations unearthed in January The mother-of-three boys - whose first film was Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980) - also co-starred with the 39-year-old Oscar nominee in Lovelace (2013). Franco's Long Shrift actress Ally Sheedy posted since-deleted cryptic tweets before five more came forward in a January 11 Los Angeles Times expose. 'Look, in my life I pride myself on taking responsibly. I have to do that to maintain my well being. The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate,' the two-time Golden Globe winner - who wore a Time's Up pin at the ceremony - said on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert. 'But I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didnt have a voice for so long. So I don't want to shut them down in any way. If I have done something wrong. I will fix it. I have to.' The 60-year-old Oscar nominee told Marc Maron's WTF podcast back on March 5: 'I'm absolutely appalled by this' Stone said: 'I don't know how the girlfriend [Violet Paley] can say she was offended he asked for a b*** job while they're dating. And now all of a sudden he's a bad guy' Stone as agent Iris Burton (L): The mother-of-three boys said, 'I worked with him, I know him. He's the loveliest, kindest, sweetest, elegant, nicest man, most kind friend, lovely professional' Two projects: Sharon - whose first film was Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980) - also co-starred with the 39-year-old Oscar nominee in Lovelace (pictured in 2013) Sharon also stressed that she supports the #MeToo movement and Time's Up initiative since 'no one gave a s***' in the past. 'Well, I've seen it all. There isn't anything I haven't seen or experienced. I have found much of this behavior hideous and appalling and there was nowhere to go with it [at that time],' Stone continued. 'At this point, I have confronted a couple of the people [who harassed me in the past].' The Mosaic actress said due process is in order for these sort of career-ending allegations. 'Why is James Franco allowed in?' Franco's Long Shrift actress Ally Sheedy posted since- deleted cryptic tweets before five more came forward in a January 11 LA Times expose The two- time Golden Globe winner said on the Late Show: 'Look, in my life I pride myself on taking responsibly. I have to do that to maintain my well being. The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate...If I have done something wrong. I will fix it. I have to' 'I've seen it all': Sharon also stressed that she supports the #MeToo movement and Time's Up initiative since 'no one gave a s***' in the past (pictured January 28) 'There's a range of activities. And you can't charge somebody with a felony over a misdemeanor,' the amfAR ambassador noted. 'And there has to be a balance here where this has to be heard in a rational format. So this isn't just black and white. And it can't be that every man who doesn't know what the f*** he's doing in life is a criminal because a lot of men are just stupid.' Sharon - who's romancing 41-year-old Italian entrepreneur Angelo Boffa - recalls being on numerous dates with these sort of '50-year-old men.' 'You go out with them, they bring you home for a good-night kiss and they grab your hand and put it on their penis,' Stone said. Hitting US theaters March 30! The Golden Globe winner next plays aspiring fashion designer Senna Berges in the birthday-themed dramedy All I Wish with Tony Goldwyn (L) I don't think they're trying to sexually harass me, I think they're just incredibly stupid and awkward. Like, really? "That's your move? Please don't ever call me again, you're just too stupid to date. I don't think I should ruin your whole life over that but I just think youre incredibly stupid."' The Golden Globe winner next plays aspiring fashion designer Senna Berges in the birthday-themed dramedy All I Wish - hitting US theaters March 30 - with Tony Goldwyn and Ellen Burstyn. And prolific Franco has 15 acting projects and 10 producing/directing projects on the horizon, including the second season of HBO's The Deuce. To help create safer schools in the wake of a Florida school shooting last month, several Democratic senators want Congress to give more money to an Every Student Succeeds Act program in order to fund more counselors, trauma-informed classroom management, and mental-health services for schools. In a letter to top Senators on the Senate appropriations committee , which is led by Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, the Democrats said the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grantswhich are a part of Title IV in ESSAshould be funded at the highest possible level for fiscal 2018. They didnt specify what they thought would be appropriate funding, but right now, that grant program is authorized for $1.6 billion under ESSA. Its getting $400 million in current federal spending. While funding for school safety cannot replace meaningful, strong gun safety reforms, as our nation faces these crises, we must answer the call of parents, educators, and students to provide schools and educators with the resources they need to meet these challenges and keep their students safe and healthy, reads a portion of the letter, which was headlined by Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Bill Nelson of Florida. Title IV was designed by ESSAs authors to be a versatile grant program, since it can also support things like educational technology, the arts, and Advanced Placement course fees. Districts ultimately decide how to spend the money. President Donald Trump has sought to eliminate Title IV in his last two budget proposals, for fiscal 2018, which Congress has yet to finalize and in fiscal 2019. However, in their proposed education funding bills for fiscal 2018, the House sought a $100 million increase for the program up to $500 million, while the Senate sought a $50 million increase. In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., last month, the National School Boards Association and the National Association of Secondary School Principals have also pushed for Congress to boost Title IV funding. The Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant would provide support consistent with the administrations goals andwe strongly believeaccelerate communities toward those goals far more than an investment solely in physical security, NASSP said in a statement. Republicans in Congress seem more focused on the STOP School Violence Act, which could authorize up to $100 million more annually for school safety measures, depending on whether youre looking at the House or Senate version. Meanwhile, the head of the Senate education committee, Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, has proposed tweaking ESSA to encourage states to spend more on mental-health services and counseling under Title IIwhich funds professional development for educatorsas well as Title IV. Read the full letter below: Photo: Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., pictured when he was the mayor of Newark in 2013, was one of three Democratic senators to headline a letter to the Senate appropriations committee in early March asking for additional funding for school safety measures under the Every Student Succeeds Act. Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . As a busy actress, mom, entrepreneur and now podcast host, she has a hectic workload. But Gwyneth Paltrow still managed to look chic in a youthful outfit as she left a business meeting in Los Angeles on Monday. The 45-year-old Avengers star rocked a long sleeve white T-shirt emblazoned with the words 'GIRL' that looks like it could have been borrowed from her daughter Apple's closet. No sweat: A busy Gwyneth Paltrow managed to look relaxed in a casual ensemble as she left a business meeting in Los Angeles on Monday Trendsetter: The Shakespeare In Love star paired the statement garment with high waist green trousers and a cobalt blue Celine handbag The Shakespeare In Love star paired the statement garment with high-waist green trousers and a cobalt blue Celine handbag. Her straight blonde tresses were worn untied and with a center part. The Academy Award winning actress went makeup free for the day, allowing her naturally gorgeous features to shine through. Something she said? The mother-of-two shared a photo of herself with 64-year-old talk show queen Oprah to Instagram on Thursday The Se7en actress debuted her latest venture last Thursday: the Goop Podcast. An offshoot of the actress' lifestyle company, its first episode featured a Oprah as a guest. The mother-of-two shared a photo of herself with the 64-year-old talk show queen to Instagram on Thursday, showing the pair engaged in uproarious laughter. Gwyneth announced in January she is engaged to Glee producer Brad Falchuck, who also works on American Crime Story. He presented her with an engagement ring which she has been wearing ever since. In July 2016 she divorced Chris Martin, with whom she has two children: Apple, 13, and Moses, 11. Reese Witherspoon brought Hollywood glamour to London as the English capital welcomed the premiere of new film A Wrinkle In Time on Tuesday evening. The American actress commanded attention in a powder blue minidress as she made her way onto the red carpet ahead of its first official UK screening. With tasteful studded embellishments and stylishly peaked shoulders, the dress ensured Reece, 41, claimed the spotlight while posing for photos alongside her co-stars. Looking good: Reese Witherspoon brought Hollywood glamour to London as the English capital welcomed the premiere of new film A Wrinkle In Time on Tuesday evening Strappy silver heels completed the look, while a distinct lack of accessories underscored the effortlessly simple nature of her overall ensemble. The celebrated actress had good company on the night in the form of lookalike daughter Ava - the oldest of her two children with former husband Ryan Phillippe. Posing alongside her mother, the 18-year old looked equally stylish in a cinched black evening dress with distinctive red detailing. Side by side: The celebrated actress had good company on the night in the form of lookalike daughter Ava - the oldest of her two children with former husband Ryan Phillippe Striking: With her bobbed blonde hair mirroring her mother's own side-parted style, Ava proved to be an engaging sight Hard to miss: Ava sported a cinched black evening dress with distinctive red detailing for her appearance at the event on Tuesday evening With her bobbed blonde hair mirroring her mother's own side-parted style, Ava proved to be an engaging sight as she helped celebrate the launch of the new film. The pair were joined by Oprah Winfrey, Reese's co-star and constant companion during the furious promotional campaign that preceded Tuesday evening's premiere. Evidently in high spirits, the talk show queen, 64, greeted the actress with a warm hug as they reunited on the specially rolled blue carpet. Tasteful: Reece's dress included studded embellishments and stylishly peaked shoulders Pleased to meet you: The actress got a hug from co-tar Oprah Winfrey as they greeted each other on the red carpet Oprah caught the eye as she walked the blue carpet in a striking plaid a-symmetrical maxi skirt. She teamed her stylish check skirt with a fitted black blouse which featured a silver embellished neckline. The iconic TV host accessorised her striking look with a daring black leather kimono-inspired belt and sported an eye-catching ring. She wore her raven-coloured locks into a sleek ponytail while her specs framed her facial features with aplomb. She's a natural: Ava looked completely at home at the glamorous premiere on Tuesday evening Upbeat: Oprah had a warm smile for onlookers as she posed outside the BFI iMax My girl: Reese was clearly delighted to be joined by daughter Ava on Tuesday evening Elsewhere Nathalie Emmanuel made a bold statement of her own at the European premiere. The 29-year-old actress sported the t-shirt with the words: 'Strong women intimidate boys and excite men' as she attended the launch at London's BFI Southbank. Nathalie teamed her statement top with simple black velvet trousers and a wine-coloured coat, as she appeared to reference the Me Too movement with her dynamic look. There you go: Oprah signed autographs for waiting fans at the event In attendance: Denise Welch (L) and Fleur East (R) were on the guest list at London's BFI iMax Quality time: Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha was joined by husband Mark Adderley and children Kiki Adderley and Maddy Adderley Say cheese: A Wrinkle In Time director Ava DuVernay (L) and the film's young star Storm Reid (R) posed for photos before making their way inside Stars of the show: (L-R) Ava DuVernay, Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon The former Hollyoaks star seemed to be expressing her support for the movement which came about last year as a show of solidarity against sexual harassment and violence in the Hollywood film industry. Nathalie kept her dark hair styled in a mass of curls, teaming her look with thin gold hoops and metal-framed glasses. Also making a statement, Samantha Cameron, 46, looked stylish in a 340 blue midi dress as she joined A-list stars at the premiere for A Wrinkle In Time. I've got you: A tactile Oprah embraced young co-star Storm outside the BFI iMax Sassy in silk: Storm cut an elegant figure on the blue carpet on Tuesday evening Close: Oprah and Storm were inseparable as they posed for photos ahead of the screening All eyes on me: Camera bulbs flashed as the talk show queen made her way inside Over here! Meanwhile Oscar winner Reece commanded her own share of the spotlight Incoming: The actress draped an elegant black coat across her shoulders while making her way into the venue Make way: Mindy Kaling made sure her presence was felt on the blue carpet In fact, her choice of frock perfectly complemented the blue billboard behind her, as well as the blue carpet. Samantha finished off her elegant look with a pair of black suede heels and a simple gold pendant necklace, along with hooped earrings. Other stars to attend the event on Tuesday evening included Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha, who was joined by husband Maddy Adderley and their two children, actress and presenter Denise Welch, and X Factor star Fluer East. Samantha Cameron, 46, looked stylish in a 340 blue midi dress from her own brand Cefinn at the A Wrinkle in Time premiere The wife o former Prime Minister David Cameron finished off her elegant ensemble with a pair of black suede heels Greetings: The X Factor star Fleur was an engaging sight on Tuesday evening Making a statement: Game of Thrones actress Nathalie Emmanuel sported a distintive slogan T-shirt Good times: The actress took a break from filming the eighth season of th e hit HBO show to attend the event Directed by Ava DuVernay, A Wrinkle In Time transforms author Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 tale of science fiction, adolescent angst and imagination into a vision of black female empowerment. The film also marks the first time a woman of color has directed a Hollywood action movie with a budget bigger than $100 million, and with such a multi-racial cast. Oprah, Mindy Kaling and Reese play the three supernatural beings who help guide Meg Murry, a 13-year-old who loves physics, in a search for her missing father that involves saving the universe from impending evil. Greetings: Reese offered onlookers a cheerful wave There you go: The star spent time signing autographs and posing for selfies with fans Who's next? Reece was inundate with requests outside the BFI iMax My turn: Co-star Mindy Kaling also posed for selfies with fans There's a Storm coming: The film's leading lady also signed autographs for fans Sign your name: Director Ava also got in on the act on Thursday evening 'Look at what is at the center of this story. This beautiful young girl, who is a person of color, who goes on this incredible adventure to discover her father and then discovers the best of herself in the process,' Oprah, who plays the supernatural Mrs Which, told Press Association. DuVernay cast bi-racial actress Storm Reid - who was also in attendance on Tuesday evening - as teenager Meg and populated the film with actors of multiple ethnicities. 'Shouldn't everyone have a seat at the table? That's all we are saying here,' the director said. 'Mindy's south-east Asian, Deric McCabe - a little Filipino-American boy. African-American, biracial, black, Caucasian, let everyone be there, Latino. It's about time.' Already screening in the United States, A Wrinkle in Time is released across the UK from March 23. Here we go: The stars let their hair down as they united for the UK premiere So much fun: Oprah, Mindy and Reese shared a joke ahead of the official screening She became a household name for her iconic talk show which ran for almost 25 years. And Oprah Winfrey continued to dazzle her legion of fans as she arrived to the European premiere of her new flick A Wrinkle In Time at London's BFI IMAX on Tuesday. The 64-year-old talk show Queen, who plays the supernatural Mrs Which in the flick, appeared in jovial spirits as she walked the blue carpet in a striking tartan a-symmetrical maxi skirt by Brunello Cucinelli. Excited: Oprah Winfrey continued to dazzle her legion of fans as she arrived to the European premiere of her new flick A Wrinkle In Time at London's BFI IMAX on Tuesday Oprah teamed her stylish check skirt with a fitted black blouse which featured a silver embellished neckline. The iconic TV host accessorised her striking look with a daring black leather kimono-inspired belt also by Brunello Cucinelli and sported an eye-catching ring. Oprah wore her raven-coloured locks into a sleek ponytail while her specs framed her facial features with a plomb. Tartan clad: The 64-year-old talk show Queen, who plays the supernatural Mrs Which in the flick, appeared in jovial spirits as she walked the blue carpet in a striking tartan a-symmetrical maxi skirt by Brunello Cucinelli Beaming: She teamed her stylish check skirt with a fitted black blouse which featured a silver embellished neckline No time like the present: Director Ava DuVernay posed with Storm Reid, Oprah, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon on the carpet (Pictured L-R) All in the details: The iconic TV host accessorised her striking look with a daring black leather kimono-inspired belt also by Brunello Cucinelli and sported an eye-catching ring Camera ready: Oprah posed up a storm on the carpet Beaming: She peered over her shoulder smiling before making her way inside the venue Clearly thrilled for the cinematic event, Oprah excitedly hugged her co-stars Reese Witherspoon and Storm Reid on the carpet before heading into the venue. Directed by Ava DuVernay, A Wrinkle In Time transforms author Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 tale of science fiction, adolescent angst and imagination into a vision of black female empowerment. The film also marks the first time a woman of color has directed a Hollywood action movie with a budget bigger than $100 million, and with such a multi-racial cast. Signing off! Oprah happily signed a fan's artwork at the premiere Clap to it! The Golden Globe winner took the blue carpet in her stride Catching up: Clearly thrilled for the cinematic event, Oprah excitedly hugged her co-stars Reese Witherspoon, who donned a blue mini dress for the occasion Hugging it out: The pair were clearly thrilled to be walking the carpet together Oprah, Mindy Kaling and Reese play the three supernatural beings who help guide Meg Murry, a 13-year-old who loves physics, in a search for her missing father that involves saving the universe from impending evil. Oprah, who plays the supernatural Mrs Which, said: 'Look at what is at the center of this story. 'This beautiful young girl, who is a person of color, who goes on this incredible adventure to discover her father and then discovers the best of herself in the process.' All smiles: She posed for photos with her young co-star Storm Reid, 14 Support: Oprah wrapped her arms around her teenage co-star Helping hand: The pair gave an interview together before heading inside the cinema Having fun: Oprah held onto Reese's hand during the photocall Filmmaker Ava cast bi-racial actress Storm Reid as teenager Meg and populated the film with actors of multiple ethnicities. She shared: 'Shouldn't everyone have a seat at the table? That's all we are saying here. 'Mindy's south-east Asian, Deric McCabe - a little Filipino-American boy. African-American, biracial, black, Caucasian, let everyone be there, Latino. It's about time.' Fun-filled: The film stars posed together Having a blast: The ladies all beamed as they got their photo taken Joyous: Oprah teamed her look with a pair of drop diamond earrings Energy: The philanthropist had her co-stars laughing with her infectious energy Early reviews for A Wrinkle in Time have been mixed, and the movie is expected to bring in about $40 million on its opening weekend in North America, box-office analysts say. Black Panther took more than $190 million on its opening weekend. Movie critics praised the visual imagination of A Wrinkle in Time and its messages of diversity and empowerment. But Variety said the film was 'wildly uneven, weirdly suspenseless, and totally all over the place,' while the Los Angeles Times liked the 'sheer exuberance' of the movie but wished it was 'more focused, more disciplined.' A Wrinkle In Time hits cinemas nationwide on March 23rd. It's not unusual to hear of a dramatic death of a much-loved character in HBO's smash hit Game of Thrones. But as the number of episodes left in the series starts to dwindle, so do the number of characters left standing according to the Vice President of Drama at the network. At an INTV conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday, HBO's Francesca Orsi gave a suggestion that may cause worldwide fan upset - characters that survived until the last season will die 'one by one'. 'Tears just started falling': HBO bosses revealed that Game of Thrones actors broke down while remaining characters 'were killed off one by one' during the final table reads Francessca detailed how emotional the cast became during a 'powerful' table read, which none of the cast had read before. She said: 'None of the cast had received the scripts prior, and one by one they started to fall down to their deaths.' With each character dropping down, the cast were reportedly in tears trying to get through the last of the script, before a rapturous applause closed out the table read. Francesca continued: 'By the end, the last few words on the final script, the tears just started falling down. Then there was applause that lasted 15 minutes.' High emotions: With each character dropping down, the cast were reportedly in tears trying to get through the last of the script, before a rapturous applause closed out the table read During the TV conference. HBO execs also explained their plans post-Game Of Thrones, which includes a number of spin offs which will most likely get the same eye-watering budget the original show received in its first few seasons. Orsi told the panel that the network is planning 'three, four, five spinoffs' to continue the meteoric success of the original show, which would mark the first time HBO will revisit a show once it's over. She added: 'it feels like corporate malfeasance to not continue it. $50 million (per season) would never fly for what we are trying to do. We are going big.' Ready for more battles: HBO execs also explained their plans post-Game Of Thrones, which includes a number of spin offs As expected, secrecy has been airtight for the filming of the final season of Game of Thrones. A few details have slipped out, however. Arya Stark actress Maisie Williams recently revealed that shes been training extensively in sword fighting and stunt combat, sparking speculation that she could play a pivotal role in a major battle. New photos have also been revealed of Jon Snow in Kings Landing meeting with Cersei, leading to much speculation as to what the scene could entail. Perhaps most notably, recent footage has shown House Starks bastion of Winterfell beset by a conflagration. She has praised her mother Janelle for inspiring her to become one of Hollywood's biggest advocates for women's rights. And on Tuesday, actress Nicole Kidman paid tribute to her 'beautiful Mumma' in a birthday tribute. Taking to Instagram, the 50-year-old Academy Award-winner shared a throwback photo of Janelle in her younger years. Look familiar? Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, Nicole Kidman shared a throwback photo of her mother Janelle in her younger years 'Happy birthday to my beautiful Mumma,' Nicole wrote in the caption. 'You've loved me, guided me and taught me and I am so blessed to have you,' she added, before signing off with: 'Your devoted daughter'. In the black-and-white photo, Janelle looks youthful and striking while modelling a white dress and holding onto a toy koala. 'Happy birthday to my beautiful Mumma': After posting the birthday tribute, fans remarked how similar Nicole looked to her mother Support: Nicole and Janelle are pictured at the Golden Globe Awards in January 2004 And it wasn't long before fans remarked on the physical similarities between a young Janelle and the Big Little Lies star. 'Happy birthday to your mom, Nicole! Like mother like Daughter, you look just like her!' commented one follower. It's not the first time Nicole has acknowledged her mother's influence. During her Golden Globes acceptance speech earlier this year, Nicole took the opportunity to praise Janelle. 'My mumma was an advocate for the women's movement when I was growing up, and because of her I'm standing here,' she said. 'My achievements are her achievements. Antonia Kidman, my sister, and I say thank you Janelle Kidman for what you fought for so hard.' Janelle, who lives in Sydney, worked as a nursing instructor and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby, a non-profit lobby group founded in 1972. The Dubai tan was still evident as Lucy Mecklenburgh made a welcome appearance at a fashion party on behalf of online retailer Very on Tuesday evening. The former TOWIE star looked radiant as she joined a host of celebrity guests, shortly after returning from a sunshine break in the United Arab Emirates with boyfriend Ryan Thomas. Opting for a distinctly bohemian look on the night, Lucy, 26, commanded attention in a sweeping floor length dress decorated with striking floral embroidery. Bronzed: The Dubai tan was still evident as Lucy Mecklenburgh made a welcome appearance at a fashion party on behalf of online retailer Very on Tuesday evening A matching choker necklace added to the look, while a distinctive green clutch added an extra splash of colour. Accentuating her naturally pretty features with deft touches of make-up, Lucy was an engaging sight as she posed for photos shortly after arriving at the London event. Completing her look with a pair of large hoop earrings, the boutique owner was in high spirits as she mingled with guests including Georgia May Foote, Georgia Toffolo, Ollie Locke and Rosie Fortescue. Blooming lovely: Opting for a distinctly bohemian look on the night, Lucy, 26, commanded attention in a sweeping floor length dress decorated with striking floral embroidery In good company: Lucy was joined by guests including former Coronation Street star Georgia May Foot Lucy is back in the UK after spending some quality time with boyfriend Ryan, who has relocated to Australia for his new role on Neighbours. The couple first met on Bear Grylls' Celebrity Island, where they were in the midst of water shortages, extreme hunger and tropical storms. After developing a strong bond on the survival show, the pair continued their romance on home turf. In attendance: Georgia 'Toff' Toffolo also made an appearance at the Very fashion event on Tuesday evening They first set tongues wagging when they were seen sharing holiday photographs from the same location on Instagram, despite denying claims they were dating. They were later pictured kissing at London City Airport, and marked their first public outing as a couple at the Wimbledon men's semi-finals earlier in July. Lucy was even seen spending New Year's Eve with Ryan and his family, and was introduced to his eight-year-old daughter Scarlet, whom he shares with former flame Tina O'Brien, earlier this year. Ryan made his long-awaited Neighbours debut in an hour-long late-night special episode as English tourist Rafael Humphreys, a loner with dark secrets and a score to settle. Australia face the prospect of losing arguably their form player for the third Test against South Africa, with Mitch Marsh nursing a groin strain. Port Elizabeth proved an unhappy hunting ground for Marsh, who also endured a gastro bug and code-of-conduct charge for swearing at Kagiso Rabada after the paceman bowled him on Monday. Marsh was fined 20 per cent of his match fee and given one demerit point for "using language or gesture that is obscene, offensive or insulting". But it is the groin injury that will leave the West Australian racing the clock to prove his fitness for the clash that starts on Thursday week in Cape Town. Marsh's setback is minor but an obvious concern for the tourists, who suffered a six-wicket loss in the second Test. Peter Handscomb is the reserve batsman in the squad but selectors may opt to summon a like-for-like cover player for Marsh, such as Marcus Stoinis. Marsh's knock of 96 in the first Test set the platform for Australia's 118-run win, while his resistance late on day three of the second Test helped give Australia some hope of setting a more imposing target than their eventual 101. The 26-year-old has become Australia's middle-order rock since his Ashes recall, with David Warner the only Australian to have scored more runs than him in the current series. Marsh has also picked up three clutch wickets in the four-Test series. "He's got a bit of a groin strain, so he was struggling to move a little bit," Steve Smith said. "It's a good break between now and the next Test match and he's telling me he'll be fine, but we'll wait and see how things go." Smith suggested star pacemen Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are all in good shape and should be fit for the third Test. "All the quicks are going really well. I haven't heard (otherwise) today, but before today they were all feeling fine," he said. "Hopefully with a good 10-day break they can freshen up a little bit." Marsh was initially stationed at first slip on day four of the clash at St George's Park, the first pointer that all was not right. He put down a simple catch when South Africa were 0-7. "I was told at the break that he can actually run, so unfortunately he could've been out on the field," Smith said. "He still should've taken that catch, but everyone drops it every now and again. I've been pretty guilty myself in recent times." Germ detectors will be located at shopping centres and train stations across Sydney and NSW in an effort to scare people into getting their flu jab early. More than 650 people across the state died from influenza last year, prompting the new NSW government influenza strategy. The UV germ detectors will allow people to see how clean their hands are. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard on Tuesday said the government would spend $22.75 million on immunisation programs in 2017/18, including free flu shots for children up to five years old. A decision by the NSW government to prioritise redevelopment of Allianz Stadium in Sydney's east over ANZ Stadium at Olympic Park would be "a tragedy", a peak business group says. Western Sydney director of the Sydney Business Chamber David Borger said Premier Gladys Berejiklian must stay committed to her billion dollar promise to rebuild ANZ Stadium. Mr Borger said it would be a mistake for the premier to prioritise the rebuild of Allianz, as has been speculated, over the larger Homebush venue in the city's west. "What would be terrible, what would be a tragedy would be to see the eastern suburbs stadium prioritised over the one in the middle of Sydney," Mr Borger told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday. Malcolm Turnbull's efforts to better get to know the neighbours later this week won't be short of an awkward conversation or two. The prime minister is hosting leaders from the 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations at a special summit in Sydney which kicks off from Friday. The program has a busy agenda focused on business ties, counter-terrorism cooperation, smart cities and education links. Trade liberalisation and strategic issues such tensions in the South China Sea and enforcing sanctions on North Korea are also likely to be discussed. There will also be all the usual diplomatic trappings - elaborate banquets and family photos, sans silly shirts. But there could be some fireworks on the sidelines at bilateral meetings. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled for 33 years, is unlikely to take kindly to a human rights lecture. He's already threatened to beat up any protesting Cambodian ex-pats who burn his effigy at the summit. Ahead of a July election, Cambodia is on a spiral of authoritarianism following last year's ban on the main opposition party, the arrest of the opposition leader and forced the closure of an English-language newspaper. Former foreign minister Gareth Evans, an architect of a peace plan for Cambodia in the early 1990s, last week criticised Australia's limp response. "It's time for Cambodia's political leaders to be named, shamed, investigated and sanctioned by the international community," he said. Mr Turnbull's talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak may also prove prickly. Last week it was revealed Mr Turnbull's son Alex had turned whistleblower while working for Goldman Sachs in Singapore. The Wall Street bank's work with a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB, has been under the spotlight, and the US government alleges that billions of dollars earmarked for investments were diverted for the personal use of Malaysian elites including Mr Najib, a claim he denies. Mr Turnbull is also facing pressure to take Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to task over ethnic cleansing of Rohingya people in the troubled Rakhine state. More than 700,000 Rohingya people have poured across the border into Bangladesh refugee camps since last August following a military crackdown. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's has decided to skip the summit, in a move some analysts believe is designed to avoid international scrutiny over his "war on drugs" which has resulted in the extra-judicial killings of more than 12,000 people. It's expected to be smoother sailing when Mr Turnbull encounters leaders from Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia. Australia and Vietnam will sign a strategic partnership deal. Mr Turnbull will dine with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday night and the Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Friday. There had been hopes Canberra and Jakarta could finally seal the deal on a long overdue free trade pact at this summit, however, the two leaders will instead hail the progress of negotiations. Security in Sydney is expected to be beefed up with extra police powers to remove vehicles and intercept drones. The Council of Chief State School Officers has announced Carissa Moffat Miller as the groups new executive director, effective March 19. Miller currently serves as the interim executive director of CCSSO. Previously, she served as the groups deputy executive director for membership and outreach for five years. Shes also been a deputy superintendent in the Idaho education department. The group said she will be the first woman to lead the organization in its history. As a first-generation college graduate, I know how important education is to opening doors and providing opportunities. I remain deeply committed to ensuring every child, across background and income level, has the same opportunity to succeed and thrive, Miller said in a statement. She will take over for Chris Minnich, who announced last year that he would step down from his post as CCSSOs executive director. She appeared on an Education Week panel in 2016 to talk about the impact of Trumps election , and has also defended how states have handled the Common Core State Standards CCSSO oversaw the creation of those standards, along with the National Governors Association. (In the video above, Miller is seated third from the left.) Carissa is a proven leader who has strong experience at the state and national levels across K-12 and higher education. She is committed not only to the vision but to the work necessary to turn this vision into a reality, said Carey Wright, Mississippis state chief and the president of CCSSOs board, in a statement. Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . A crop duster pilot who was killed in central western NSW was involved in several unreported incidents in the lead up to the crash, Australia's aviation safety investigator has found. Don Blanch, aged in his 50s, was killed while spraying of crops on a property about 30km west of Narromine on the morning of November 21, 2016 when witnesses reported seeing the aircraft nosedive and crash into the ground. A report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, released on Tuesday, found the aircraft had no pre-crash defects and several previous incidents involving the pilot were not reported to management including an "aggressive" 180-degree turn that resulted in a possible stall. Former Queensland treasurer Curtis Pitt has been dragged into the saga surrounding Minister Mark Bailey's private email account. Mr Bailey has come under fire over the appointment of Mark Algie to a $60,000 board role just days after his CV was sent to the then energy minister's Yahoo account by Electrical Trades Union state secretary Peter Simpson. But Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Tuesday said she believed it was Mr Pitt, not Mr Bailey, who recommended Mr Algie for the job, as his CV was already on file with the Treasury Department. Bill Shorten concedes Labor is facing an uphill battle to retain the federal Melbourne seat of Batman, but is quick to point out there's already one "loser" in the race. ALP candidate Ged Kearney and the Greens' Alex Bhathal are the frontrunners in Saturday's by-election, for which the Liberal and Nationals parties did not field a contender. "The fact that (Malcolm) Turnbull chose not to run makes it harder for Labor to win, because there will be some Liberal voters who will just stay at home and won't allocate preferences ... there's already one loser," Mr Shorten told reporters on Tuesday. The Turnbull government has been accused of being spineless when it comes to calling out human rights abuses in Myanmar. The United Nations Human Rights Council examined the humanitarian crisis on Monday night and heard evidence the Myanmar government was pursuing a starvation policy to force Rohingya out of the troubled Rakhine state. More than 700,000 Rohingya people have poured across the border into Bangladesh refugee camps since last August following a military crackdown. Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee said the atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority "bear the hallmarks of genocide". The council was told elderly, people with disabilities, and young children have been burned alive in their homes and the military were involved in gang rapes. The US representative said her country was "appalled by the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya". Australia's official told the session the Turnbull government recognised the complex challenges Myanmar faces as it seeks to consolidate democratic reforms and to achieve peace and reconciliation. Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Centre spokesman Daniel Webb travelled to Geneva for the hearing and said it was disappointing Australia's language wasn't as tough as the US and UK. "Time and time again we see our government getting all mealy-mouthed about global humanitarian emergencies when the country in question has some connection with its own refugee policies," Mr Webb said, adding that about 200 Rohingya people were detained on Nauru and Manus Island. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is facing pressure to take Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to task when the pair meet on the sidelines of special leaders summit in Sydney this weekend. Meanwhile, Australia's military is continuing defence cooperation with Myanmar despite the United Kingdom and United States issuing a ban. Military assistance is worth almost $400,000 and involves training in humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, peacekeeping and English classes. New data showing the strongest business conditions in at least 21 years suggest further employment gains are ahead, resulting in an eventual lift in wages. The monthly National Australia Bank business survey released on Tuesday showed employment conditions at a record high, equating to jobs gains of about 27,000 per month. "The bottom line is that strong jobs growth will not be ending anytime soon, which is good news for getting the unemployment rate down," NAB group chief economist Alan Oster said. The latest ManpowerGroup employment outlook survey also posted the strongest hiring intentions in six years. Its managing director Richard Fischer said the strength of the employment outlook across the country continues to bode well for gains in household income over the coming year. This positive outlook was similarly reflected in a separate survey of manufacturers, which found exporters buoyed by a strong global backdrop and a relatively low Australian dollar. However, the latest Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Westpac industrial trends survey does note some moderation in new orders in the first months of 2018. ACCI boss James Pearson said the survey found manufacturers were expecting to pay higher wages over the coming period. "That adds to evidence which is starting to build now of a pick-up, gradual but nevertheless a pick-up in the pace of wages growth," he told reporters in Canberra. However, he was concerned that businesses are less optimistic about being able to remain profitable in the next six-to-12 months. "Businesses can't sustain wage growth unless they can sustain their profitability," he warned. He said the cost of energy remains a number one concern among businesses but he also urged the federal parliament to back the remainder of the government's company tax cut plan. Despite upbeat conditions, the NAB survey also showed business confidence eased slightly in February, which Mr Oster put down to the turbulence in international financial markets at the beginning of the month. At the same time, consumer confidence declined in the past week following last week's national accounts which showed the slowest quarter of economic growth in over a year. "Much of the commentary centred on the fact that living standards per person have gone nowhere over the past year, something that may have resonated with the personal experience of many people," ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank said. The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index declined 2.5 per cent, partially unwinding gains over the previous fortnight. A convoy of trucks have tooted their support through Perth's CBD for hundreds of protesters who marched on state parliament to save a regional residential college. WA Premier Mark McGowan has stood firm against calls to keep Moore Residential College open, saying it would cost about $9 million to upgrade facilities for fewer than 30 students. The college's head boy, 16-year-old Andy Penny, told ministers the government would keep the college open if they cared about educating all students regardless of race or where they came from. In the days before he was fatally stabbed in a botched drug deal a Gold Coast teen told his friend he had "just sliced someone with a Samurai sword." Michael Brack was allegedly murdered in November 2015 when a deal to sell Ryan John Howes 14 grams of cannabis for $160 went awry, the Brisbane Supreme Court heard. On Tuesday a jury were shown texts between Michael and his friend Reece Rowe, who is now a key witness in Howes' murder trial. "Just sliced someone with a samurai sword bro," Michael wrote about a week before his death. "Hahahahah what the duck you loose c*** where is it at," Mr Rowe responded. A few days later Mr Rowe suggested "Yeah lad lets actual bash someone who can scrap back we would have rawTd that crash junkie."(sic) Michael sent a message back saying " AHHahahah yes c*** i ended up breaking that c**** cheek bone on Saturday night."(sic) Later that day Mr Rowe said he had bashed people and wanted to "get loose" on the weekend, which was when Michael died. "Just went roid mode i was still singing hard and went bananas on the c**** with a fence pailing!"(sic) Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Rowe was accused of lying about Brack pulling a gun on his accused murderer before being stabbed. Under cross-examination from defence barrister John Griffin QC, Mr Rowe agreed he had lied to police about the drugs during his initial interview but came clean the next day. "I don't care if I got in trouble over (cannabis) over my mate dying," Mr Rowe said. Mr Rowe's girlfriend was also questioned about the gun and said while he owned one, he hadn't taken it to the deal scheduled with Howes. "It was in Reece's backpack ... in my bedroom just on the floor," Reality Marschke-Hand told the court The court has heard the deal went sour when Howes asked if he could be driven home to collect money owed for the drugs. Michael refused and, according to Mr Rowe's evidence, Howes then "flipped" and appeared to throw a punch, but he later learned the teen had been stabbed. Michael died as a result of a stab wound to the neck. Evidence that Howes heard "two clicks" of what he believed to be a gun during the altercation is expected in the trial. The trial continues. A middle-aged Australian man who fell ill on an international flight to Melbourne was infected with measles, potentially exposing scores of fellow passengers. Victoria's health department issued a warning for all the passengers on the AirAsia flight D7241 from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne on Wednesday morning, after an ailing traveller in his 40s was later diagnosed with measles. "We are working with airline officials to identify and contact passengers who shared the international flight," deputy chief health officer Brett Sutton said on Tuesday, adding that others people at baggage collection could also be at risk. Six-year-old Freyja Christiansen is finally heading home after she made medical history when robot technology saved her life Six-year-old Freyja Christiansen is finally heading home after she was told she only had 12 months to live and 37 surgeons across the world refused to use a complicated technology that could save her life. Freyja was battling a rare and aggressive cancer after she was diagnosed with clear-cell sarcoma in 2016 after specialists found two tumours positioned precariously close to a main artery at the base of her skull. The cancerous tumours on her neck and a large malignant mass at the back of her throat needed to be removed, but surgeons were cautious to operate on someone so young. Scroll down for video Freyja Christiansen, 6, was diagnosed with clear-cell sarcoma in 2016 and her tumour was thought to be inoperable. Now she is finally heading home after spending weeks in hospital Freyja was told she only had 12 months to live and 37 surgeons across the world refused to use a complicated technology that could save her life Surgeons Ben Dixon and Matthew Magarey at Melbourne's Epworth hospital used a 'da Vinci' robot (pictured) to successfully remove part of Freyja's tumour on February 28, 2018 Freyja had cancerous tumours on her neck and a large malignant mass at the back of her throat Freyja is believed to be the youngest of 40 cases ever recorded worldwide, and her cancer was not usually seen in someone so young. Her only hope was a complicated operation, using a robot called da Vinci to remove the tumours. Immunotherapy was used to reduce the size of the tumours but the little girl needed specific surgery to have the removed. Doctors had previously told the family the large tumour was inaccessible and surgery was too dangerous. Thirty-seven surgeons across the world refused to use the technology on Freyja. 'It was during a phone call to Boston Children's Hospital that the name of Melbourne cancer surgeon Ben Dixon came up,' Freyja's mother, Liz Christiansen said. 'It was a bit of a fluke really ... we were willing to fly anywhere in the world but the fact that we had the skills and the technology in Melbourne was amazing.' Six-year-old Freyja Christiansen is finally heading home after spending countless weeks in hospital battling a rare and aggressive cancer not usually seen in someone so young Dr Dixon had only used the machine on adults but agreed to take on Freyja's case. 'We knew that if Epworth (hospital) could not take the case, it would have been difficult for Freyja to have her condition managed surgically in Australia,' he said. Dr Dixon and fellow surgeon Matthew Magarey used the robot to successfully remove part of Freyja's tumour at the end of last month. The Australian-first robotic surgery was credited with the miracle tumour removal. Dr Dixon had only used the machine on adults but agreed to take on Freyja's case The rest of the tumours were removed after subsequent surgery on Wednesday. 'To say this is a huge success is an understatement,' Ms Christiansen said. 'We're not out of the woods just yet but everything that's happened, every breakthrough and every surgery has just been miracle after miracle.' Freyja will be discharged from hospital on Wednesday and is expected to continue immunotherapy in Melbourne or Sydney. 'We're not out of the woods just yet but everything that's happened, every breakthrough and every surgery has just been miracle after miracle,' Ms Christiansen said Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is not ruling out supporting economic sanctions against Russia over a "horrifying" nerve agent attack carried out on Britain soil. Australia is backing British calls for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after the attempted assassination of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury earlier this month. "We'll obviously consider appropriate responses as the facts come to light, in very close co-ordination with the United Kingdom and other partners," Ms Bishop told ABC radio on Tuesday. The federal government will also express its condemnation at a meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) at The Hague this week. The foreign minister has been receiving security and intelligence briefings since UK prime minister Theresa May confirmed a military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia was used in the attack. "It raises the obvious question ... who had access to such a nerve agent?" Ms Bishop said. "The action is horrifying. It shows a callous disregard, not only for the absolute international prohibition on the use of chemical weapons, but also for the possible lethal effects on others in the locality of its use." Australia supported "in the strongest possible terms" efforts to bring those responsible to justice. "Australia condemns the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere, under any circumstances," Ms Bishop said. "I believe the international community must demonstrate zero tolerance for, and a firm commitment to deter, any future acts of this nature." Skripal and his daughter Yulia have been in hospital in a critical condition since they were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on March 4. British Prime Minister Theresa May has said it is "highly likely" Russia was responsible for the attack and it has until Wednesday morning to provide a credible response or face retaliatory measures. President Donald Trump has selected Mark Schultz, a deputy commissioner of education in Nebraska, to serve as commissioner of the rehabilitation services administration at the U.S. Department of Education. The RSA helps people with disabilities and others who face barriers in the workforce. Schultz has over 35 years of experience working at the national, state, and local levels to provide services for people with disabilities, according to the White House. Hes served as the director of the Nebraska Assistive Technology Partnership and as a barrier free design specialist for the League of Human Dignity, a center for independent living. And he is a past president of the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation and a member of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Information Technology Steering Committee.(More here .) The Senate will need to confirm Schultzs nomination. Right now, there are at least five Education Department nominees awaiting Senate approval, including Frank Brogan, who has been selected as assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education; Jim Blew, who was chosen as assistant secretary of planning, evaluation, and policy analysis; Ken Marcus, who is up for assistant secretary of civil rights; Carlos Muniz , who has been picked as general counsel; and Mick Zais, who has been nominated as deputy secretary. Photo: Swikar Patel for Education Week Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . Australia intends to press its southeast Asian neighbours including Cambodia and Myanmar about serious human rights concerns when leaders gather in Sydney this weekend. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will be among senior ministers speaking with counterparts from the 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Australia is under pressure to publicly condemn the deaths and expulsion of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine State in recent months. "I would certainly be encouraging Aung San Suu Kyi to attend the summit so that we can raise directly with her the concerns that we have," Ms Bishop told ABC radio on Tuesday. "This is an opportunity for us to discuss issues of concern face-to-face and raise with the ASEAN leaders the value that Australia attaches to protecting and promoting human rights." Australia has provided humanitarian aid to help support hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people who have fled across the border into Bangladesh refugee camps following a military crackdown last August. Ms Bishop was also pressed on how Australia would deal with Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen, who has threatened those who protest against him at ASEAN with violence. "We want to engage all ASEAN members at the summit because it provides us with the best chance of influencing issues," the minister said. Ms Bishop said she would seek assurances about Australian filmmaker James Ricketson, who has been held in pre-trial detention since June last year, during bilateral talks with Cambodia. "Of course the matter will be raised ... the matter has already been raised with them and I will continue to pursue it," she said. Ahead of the summit, Ms Bishop hailed the role of international law in settling regional conflicts, in a speech considered a direct message to Beijing over rival claims the South China Sea. "Australia and our region - in fact, the globe - has been the beneficiary of the rules-based order," Ms Bishop said ahead of the speech. "Australia is making the quite self-evident case that it's in our interests, in the region's interests, that we need to stick to the rules. "It regulates behaviour between states, it regulates competition and rivalries, and gives opportunities for nations who feel aggrieved to have their grievances aired through international institutions." Beijing claims most of the South China Sea and has been building artificial islands within the crucial trade route, which is believed to contain large quantities of oil and natural gas. ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines all have rival claims in the sea, as does Taiwan. Australia has long maintained its neutrality on the dispute. Queensland has won the $5 billion contract to build a fleet of super tanks for the Australian Defence Force, guaranteeing jobs for the next 30 years. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to announce on Wednesday the successful bidder, Rheinmetall Defence Australia, will build 211 Boxer CRV tanks at Ipswich, with a future $15 billion deal also on the cards. Mr Turnbull says the tanks will be made by local workers using Australian steel, after Queensland pipped a rival bid by Victoria, News Corp Australia reports. An off-duty police officer has disarmed a knife-wielding man during an attempted carjacking of an elderly couple in Melbourne's southeast. An 82-year-old man was attempting to start his car at the local Frankston shops about 8pm on Tuesday when the officer witnessed a man armed with a knife threatening him and demanding he get out of the vehicle. When he approached, the man then pointed the knife at him and demanded his car keys. But the officer managed to disarm the thief in the subsequent scuffle. A 21-year-old South Dudley man was arrested and is expected to be interviewed in relation to attempted aggravated carjacking, attempted armed robbery and weapon offences. The officer received two minor lacerations to his hand in the incident, while the two victims, aged 82 and 67 years, both from Frankston were not injured. The new US Secretary of State is well-known to Australia and the government looks forward to working with him, Treasurer Scott Morrison says. Mr Morrison thanked Rex Tillerson for his service to the Australian relationship after his sacking by President Donald Trump, and said the decision to replace him with CIA director Mike Pompeo is a matter for the administration. "The incoming foreign secretary is well known to Australia. The foreign minister only met with him in September of last year. There is an existing relationship there," Mr Morrison told ABC radio on Wednesday. A man who had to be Tasered after he kicked a police officer in the head multiple times in north Queensland has been charged. Police were called to a domestic incident in a Townsville suburb at 5pm on Tuesday where they arrested the man. Police said the man kicked a male police officer as he tried to put him in a van before another officer Tasered him. A 42-year-old has been charged with one count of breach a domestic violence order and two counts of serious assault police and appear in the Townsville Magistrates Court on Wednesday. A Palestinian Civil Defence volunteer tries to free a Palestinian demonstrator from the grip of an Israeli soldier on March 12, 2018 in the West Bank town of Birzeit where clashes that injured 10 broke out during a protest by university students Ten Palestinians were injured Monday in clashes that erupted during a protest against an Israeli army raid last week on a university campus, a medical source said. Undercover Israeli soldiers raided the Birzeit University campus to arrest the head of the students' union Omar al-Kiswani, the university said. The incident sparked protests and the university distributed video of the incident. The Israeli army said security forces entered the university to arrest a student "suspected of terror acts", confirming they fired a warning shot during the clashes that broke out. It did not provide further details on his alleged activities. Kiswani is part of a student association affiliated with Islamist movement Hamas. Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi called the raid an attack on the "fundamental right to education". On Monday dozens of students from the university clashed with Israeli troops near the campus. Protesters burned tyres and threw stones, with Israeli soldiers firing tear gas and rubber bullets. A medic on the scene said 10 people had been transferred to hospital, including one hit in the face. An AFP correspondent saw two people injured in the head. A university official on the site, who declined to be named, said the protest was a "natural" reaction to the Israeli raid. A third explosion rattled the US city of Austin on Monday, injuring one person hours after police linked two deadly package bombings in the span of 10 days to the same attacker. Authorities did not immediately connect the earlier explosions to the third incident, but warned residents in the Texas state capital to avoid opening suspicious items left at their doorsteps. An earlier attack Monday morning killed a 17-year-old boy who brought a package into his home and opened it. An adult female living in the same home was injured. Another explosive package left on March 2 at the doorstep of another home in the city claimed the life of a 39-year-old man. "We do see similarities and believe that these cases are linked at this time. However, we don't know what the motive for these cases may be," Austin police chief Brian Manley told a news conference. Authorities also were investigating the likelihood of a hate crime, because all the victims were African American. They had found "no immediate indication" of terrorism, Manley said. The house in the early morning attack Monday sustained significant damage, according to Manley, who said investigators from several agencies would be combing through the property for clues. While he did not release details of what evidence was recovered, he said investigators knew the type of explosive device used. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms said a national response team would join Austin police in the investigation. Authorities were canvassing neighboring homes for any outdoor surveillance video, because they believe the packages were left overnight and not delivered through the mail. "I want the public to be aware and to be cautious," he said, urging residents to call police if they find suspicious packages at their doorsteps. US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster (L) arrives with US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley at the UN for a meeting with UN chief Antonio Guterres The United States on Monday urged the United Nations Security Council to maintain sanctions on North Korea until there is real progress toward scrapping Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. US National Security Advisor HR McMaster met with council ambassadors in New York, a few days after President Donald Trump agreed to a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "We are all agreed that we are optimistic about this opportunity," McMaster told reporters after the closed-door meeting at the US mission to the United Nations. "But we are determined to keep up the campaign of maximum pressure until we see words match with deeds, and real progress toward denuclearization." Trump agreed last week to a first face-to-face meeting with Kim, which could take place by the end of May, raising hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough after the two leaders spent months hurling insults and threats at each other. During the meeting with the ambassadors, McMaster pointed to three UN sanctions resolutions adopted by the council as key in the campaign to bring North Korea to the negotiating table, according to a council diplomat. McMaster said the council had shown "unity and resolve that has us now at the point where we may be able to pursue a diplomatic solution on the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." The Security Council has imposed tough economic sanctions aimed at choking off revenue to Pyongyang's military programs after Kim's regime carried out a sixth nuclear test and a series of advanced missile launches. The sanctions resolutions were unanimously adopted following negotiations with China, Pyongyang's ally. US Ambassador Nikki Haley singled out China for praise, saying Beijing had been "very helpful" in the push for sanctions, and also cited South Korea and Japan. The sanctions resolutions ban North Korean exports of commodities and severely restricted shipments of oil and fuel to the isolated state. Dutch Ambassador Karel van Oosterom, who chairs the council's North Korea sanctions committee, told reporters "we have to continue implementing the sanctions as they stand." A council diplomat said the US appeal to keep up sanctions pressure showed that Washington remained skeptical about prospects for a deal with Pyongyang on scrapping its nuclear program. McMaster said the Trump administration wanted to move quickly because of concerns that Pyongyang was steadily progressing toward major advancements in its military programs, said the diplomat, who asked not to be named. The national security adviser also met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured speaking in the United States in February, 2018, wants a "permanent exemption" from US tariffs on aluminum and steel From an aluminum smelter, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called US President Donald Trump on Monday to press for a permanent exclusion from US tariffs on aluminum and steel. It was their first conversation since Trump last week imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, raising trade tensions. Trudeau "emphasized that preserving (the two nations') mutually beneficial supply chains is critical to jobs and businesses on both sides of the border," according to a summary. The prime minister was touring an aluminum smelter in Alma, Quebec. He was to also visit three Canadian steel cities this week to reassure workers. His Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, will be in Washington on Tuesday and Thursday to "advance Canada's efforts to keep trade open, fair and barrier-free, to benefit people on both sides of the border," her ministry said in a statement. She is to meet US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Congressional leaders and others. Canada, the top supplier of steel and aluminum to the US market, has been temporarily exempted from the tariffs, along with Mexico. When Trump announced the 10 percent tariffs on aluminum and 25 percent on steel, he said Canada and Mexico could be exempted permanently if the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is successful. In the call with Trudeau, Trump "emphasized the importance of quickly concluding the ongoing NAFTA negotiations," the White House said. But both Mexico and Canada have rejected Trump's linkage of the levies to the ongoing NAFTA talks. "We will continue working toward securing a definite and permanent exemption from those tariffs," Trudeau said earlier. He said he and Trump also "welcomed and encouraged the progress being made on negotiation of the renewed North American Free Trade Agreement" and discussed an opioid crisis affecting both nations. Zen's latest cause goes to the heart of his beliefs about the Catholic Church and what it should represent Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen has earned a reputation as a fighter -- and the octogenarian's latest battle pits him against Vatican officials and Beijing over a deal he believes would devastate the Catholic Church. The former Bishop of Hong Kong is well-known in the city for his vocal opposition to political suppression and his support for democratic reform. But 86-year-old Zen's latest cause goes to the heart of his beliefs about the Catholic Church and what it should represent. It comes as the Vatican moves closer to a historic agreement with China over the major stumbling block of who ordains bishops -- a deal Zen fears would backfire against the underground Catholic Church in the mainland which is routinely persecuted by Chinese authorities. "For several decades the government has made it hard for them but they remained loyal to Rome and the pope. And now they're asked to surrender?" Zen said in an interview with AFP. "Some people in China might revolt." The former Bishop of Hong Kong is well-known in the city for his vocal opposition to political suppression and his support for democratic reform China's roughly 12 million Catholics are divided between a state-run association whose clergy are chosen by the government and an unofficial church which swears allegiance to the pope. The Chinese Communist Party is officially atheist and religious groups are tightly controlled by the state. Catholic and Protestant churches have been demolished in recent years and Christian clergy detained, as traditional Western congregations shrink. Beijing and the Vatican severed diplomatic relations in 1951 and although ties have improved as China's Catholic population grows, they have remained at odds over the designation of bishops. But a Vatican source told AFP last month that in a framework agreement still under negotiation with China seven state-appointed bishops would be recognised, although no time frame was specified. - 'Heartbreaking' - Zen has accused Vatican officials of "selling out" to China and was chastised by Vatican spokesman Greg Burke for "fostering confusion and controversy" with his remarks. Burke also denied Zen's allegation that the pope was not informed of actions he would not agree with. Zen, who had a private audience with the pope in January during which he raised the bishops issue, believes senior Vatican officials are pushing their own political agendas. Zen says he was driven to become more vocal about human rights after Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997 "The pope doesn't know the Chinese Communist Party, but these officials do. They are not ignorant," he says. Vatican number two Pietro Parolin was central to warming relations with the communist government of Vietnam and has spoken of the need for unity in the Catholic Church in China. But Zen is highly sceptical of any goodwill from Beijing, recalling how some unofficial clergy in the mainland have been jailed for decades and died in prison. He also cites his own experience teaching in state-run mainland seminaries for seven years. Bishops there were under close surveillance and "led by the nose", he says. "It was heartbreaking." - Chorus of discontent - Hong Kong has long served a critical role in supporting China's underground churches and many of the city's Catholics have joined the growing chorus against rapprochement between Beijing and the Vatican. Zen says he was driven to become more vocal about human rights after Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. Made a cardinal in 2006, Zen retired from his post as bishop three years later but still takes part in the city's pro-democracy protests, these days manning the donation box instead of marching After becoming Bishop of Hong Kong in 2002, he fiercely opposed the local pro-Beijing government's anti-subversion bill the following year, which was shelved after hundreds of thousands took to the streets in protest. "I speak up because I feel I have to, not because I like to," Zen says, occasionally banging the table and waving his arms for emphasis. He lives at the Salesian House of Studies, a training school for clergy, where he first arrived in 1948 at the age of 16 from his hometown in Shanghai. The complex perches on a hillside in eastern Hong Kong Island and Zen fondly remembers the old views of Victoria Harbour, before the surrounding land was reclaimed. Zen has long been sceptical of Beijing Made a cardinal in 2006, he retired from his post as bishop three years later but still takes part in the city's pro-democracy protests, these days manning the donation box instead of marching. A lung virus which led to his hospitalisation in 2016 seems not to have dented his energy or spirit. Zen says if the deal between the Vatican and Beijing is finally signed, he would have to accept it out of respect for the pope. But for now, he will continue to fight. "At a certain point they know it's impossible to eradicate religion," says Zen of China's communist government. "So they must control it if they cannot eradicate it." Homeless shelters, foster homes, juvenile detention centers, schools with high immigrant populationswe find our most vulnerable students in these places, as well as in school districts and classrooms across the country. In the special report Teaching Vulnerable Students, Education Week examines these students, their needs, and the challenges schools face in engaging them in learning. Among the biggest challenges in educating the 50,000 incarcerated students who live behind bars is finding and keeping good people to teach them. Recognizing that teachers need to be certified and trained not just on their content areas but also on the unique needs of youths who are in a juvenile justice setting is critical, said Kate Burdick, a staff attorney at the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center. Schools inside juvenile justice facilities compete with traditional districts to attract teachers over professional development and support. The Education Week Research Center analyzed how much time students actually spend learning in the classroom at U.S. correctional schools. In some places, its as little as 6 hours per week. For one school in the juvenile justice system, theres a focus on providing more training and support for teachers. The teachers at The Wyoming Girls School, located in the remote Bighorn Mountains in Sheridan, Wyo., are trained in trauma-informed care allowing them to connect and develop meaningful relationships with students, as reporter Sarah Sparks writes. More than 1.3 million students are classified as homeless, and of those students, 18 percent are classified as having disabilities. Reporter Christina Samuels explains how schools are working to overcome the particular challenges these students at the intersection of the McKinney-Vento Act, Every Student Succeeds Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are facing. Jordon Marshelle Barrett is one of the nearly 274,000 students who was in foster care in 2016. Moving around from different shelters and group homes caused the now-straight-A student to suffer academically. As the number of children in the foster-care system increases, organizations like Treehouse in Washington are working to improve foster students graduation rates. And reporter Corey Mitchell spoke with educators who are still struggling with how to best support immigrant students , as uncertainty remains around policies for undocumented youth. Mitchell explores how schools across the country, from Massachusetts to California, are utilizing community resources to help keep students safe and focused in the classroom. Check out the full report here . Image: Students practice handshake techniques as they learn about applying for jobs during an independent-living course at the school.Kristina Barker for Education Week The planned overhaul of China's ministries is the biggest in recent years China unveiled plans on Tuesday for the biggest shakeup of government in at least a decade, including the merger of its banking and insurance regulators to better handle financial risks as leaders look to address concerns over a growing debt pile. The sweeping changes were presented to the National Peoples Congress two days after President Xi Jinping tightened his grip on power with the legislatures approval of constitutional amendments abolishing presidential term limits and expanding the authority of the Communist Party over the countrys affairs. State Councilor Wang Yong told delegates of the parliamentary session underway in Beijing that the bureaucratic shuffle was needed to make government more effective and efficient. The reforms "eliminate systematic and institutional deficiencies that have prevented the market from carrying out a decisive role in resource allocation," Wang said. At the top of the reform list is the government's proposed change combining the insurance and banking regulators into one agency, according to the proposal introduced at the annual session of the rubber-stamp parliament. The new regulator will be capable of "holding the bottom line to prevent systematic financial risk", the parliament document says. The responsibilities of the two separate regulators currently overlap in some areas, leaving regulatory roles unclear, the document says. At the top of the reform list is the government's proposed change combining the insurance and banking regulators into one agency "China's whole regulatory system will change directions, from sector oversight to oversight of specific financial activities," said Betty Wang an economist at ANZ Bank. "It will promote coordination and information sharing between different regulators," she said. The two merged regulators will hand off duties such as proposing laws to the People's Bank of China in a sign that the central bank is beefing up its regulatory role. China is in the midst of a battle against financial risk, as credit in the world's second largest economy has exploded since the financial crisis a decade ago. Financial regulators have cracked down on major companies -- even taking over Anbang Insurance this year -- to get a handle on building risk and unwieldy debt that some analysts worry pose a serious threat to China's financial stability. - 'Revolutionary' reforms - Liu He, President Xi Jinping's top economic advisor, is overseeing that battle on financial risk and praised the reforms as "revolutionary" in an editorial published in the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily on Tuesday. "We should understand the necessity of promoting this deep transformation," Liu wrote of the reforms. Analysts applauded the moves. "The government is taking steps in the right direction for reining financial risks and debt deleveraging," Tao Dong, vice chairman for Greater China at Credit Suisse Private Banking in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg. China is also establishing a national market supervisory management bureau to ensure a "fair competition in the market". The new bureau will bring together a number of separate departments under one roof, regulating everything from businesses to quality supervision to food and drug safety, according to the document. The proposed changes put forth in the document are expected to be approved by the National People's Congress legislature, which ends its session next Tuesday. The draft also includes a new immigration bureau and changes to the tax system. In total, China will have 26 ministries and commissions when the changes are formally approved. Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, met South Korea's national security advisor Chung Eui-yong in Beijing on Monday Chinese President Xi Jinping hopes "smooth" talks between North Korea's leader and the presidents of the United States and South Korea can produce progress towards Pyongyang's denuclearisation, according to state media. Xi made the remarks during a meeting Monday with South Korea's national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, who was in Beijing to brief Chinese leaders about his meetings with Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump last week. Kim has agreed to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in late April in the Demilitarized Zone, while Trump and the North Korean leader could meet by the end of May. "We expect a smooth DPRK-ROK summit and DPRK-US dialogue," Xi said, using the acronyms for North Korea and South Korea, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Xi voiced hope that the talks will lead to "substantial progress" in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and toward the normalisation of relations between the countries involved. The peninsula faces "an important opportunity for easing tension" and all sides should be "patient and cautious", the Chinese leader said. Xi said China is willing to work with the international community to promote Beijing's "dual-track approach" along with "helpful proposals from all sides". China has called for a dual framework of committing to denuclearisation while establishing a peace mechanism. It has also proposed a "suspension-for-suspension" plan in which the United States, South Korea and Japan freeze military drills in return for North Korea halting its nuclear and missile tests. "As long as all parties can focus on the fundamental goal of denuclearisation, peace and stability, the Korean peninsula will finally usher in the spring, when ice will thaw and flowers will bloom," Xi said. For his part, Chung thanked Xi for his "big role" in the diplomatic process that led to the "very positive changes". Beijing has played a key role in implementing UN sanctions on the North, which are believed to have put immense pressure on the country's fragile economy. China is North Korea's only diplomatic ally and its most important trade partner. Still, some in China are afraid the country, which hosted failed six-nation talks on the nuclear issue a decade ago, could be cut out of negotiations on denuclearising the Korean peninsula. While Chung briefed Xi, South Korea sent the head of its National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon, to Japan to meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe, a hawk on North Korea who also has tense relations with the South's Moon, promised Tuesday to cooperate with Seoul as it embarks on the bilateral summit talks. He reiterated that Japan also felt passionate about resolving the issue of the abductions of its citizens by Pyongyang. North Korean agents kidnapped a number of ordinary Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, in order to train its spies in the Japanese language and culture. "With Japan, South Korea and the United States closely cooperating, I wish to put all my strength toward resolution of the nuclear issue, the missile issue and the abduction issue," Abe said. Jubilant activists said the verdict was a defence of democratic freedoms at a time when Beijing is ramping up pressure on Taiwan Taiwan's high court on Tuesday upheld the acquittal of anti-China activists who occupied the island's parliament in 2014, with the judge describing the protests as "an expression of democracy". Jubilant activists praised the decision which they said was a defence of democratic freedoms at a time when Beijing is ramping up pressure on the self-ruling island. China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and is pushing for reunification, with Beijing signalling a harder line towards what it regards as a renegade province. Thousands of people took to the streets in protest in March 2014 in what became known as the Sunflower Movement, with 200 people occupying the main chamber of parliament for three weeks. The rallies were triggered by a proposed cross-strait trade pact that critics said had been made in secret and would leave export-reliant Taiwan vulnerable to Chinese influence. "The defendants did not initiate attacks or cause bloody conflicts and it was an expression of democracy," judge Chang Huei-li told the court as she upheld last year's acquittal by a lower court. She said protesters were reacting to flaws in the legislative process and the failure of lawmakers to reflect public opinion. "Those who have power should listen to people's voices and promote their welfare," Chang said. Taipei's district court had ruled the protesters' actions reflected their right to civil disobedience, clearing them on charges of incitement and interfering with public functions. But state prosecutors appealed the decision, arguing a lack of legal precedent and consensus for using civil disobedience as a justification for breaking the law. Protest leader Huang Kuo-chang, now a lawmaker, said Tuesday's judgement reaffirmed Taiwan's freedoms. "When lawmakers do not carry out their duties properly the people can stand up and resist and their rights are protected," Huang said after the ruling. Sunflower leader Chen Wei-ting said Taiwan's transparent legal process was a message to China's President Xi Jinping, who was granted a lifetime mandate as leader Sunday. "I want to tell Xi Jinping that even if you can become an 'emperor' and have endless terms, Taiwan is a democratic country," said Chen. He contrasted freedoms in Taiwan with semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where activists have been jailed and political freedoms are increasingly under threat. "I hope our friends in Hong Kong who are in a difficult situation will not give up. Taiwan will alway stand with you," Chen said after the hearing. Fears over warming cross-strait ties contributed to the plummeting popularity of Ma Ying-jeou's Kuomintang government and its defeat in the 2016 presidential elections at the hands of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Relations have since turned rapidly frosty as Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen refuses to acknowledge the island is part of "one China". Days after taking office in May 2016, the DPP government dropped a separate lawsuit against 126 Sunflower protesters for trespassing on cabinet headquarters. A court spokesman said Tuesday's acquittals were final. Traditional Malaysian honey hunter Zaini Abdul Hamid fixes a ladder to harvest bee nests atop a giant tree in northern Malaysia On a moonless night deep in the Malaysian rainforest, two men perched precariously on high branches use a smoking torch to draw thousands of bees from a treetop hive, braving the angry swarm to collect their prized honey. The honey hunters, as they are known, are rag-tag groups of villagers who head to remote corners of the jungle every year in search of the rare nectar, hidden in towering tualang trees. "This is the real thing," said Abdul Samad Ahmad, 60, who has been harvesting honey in this way for more than 20 years. "There's a lot of nutrition in this honey. You can make it into medicine, for your cough or cold." Like New Zealand's manuka honey, also hailed for its supposed medicinal qualities, Malaysian tualang honey is expensive, fetching 150 ringgit ($38) a kilo -- a huge amount for people from poor, rural communities. A Malaysian honey-hunter squeezes wild honeycomb in the forests of northern Malaysia But the generations-old practice faces myriad threats, from environmental destruction and falling bee numbers to a lack of interest among the young. The die-hard hunters remain optimistic -- for them, there is no greater buzz than climbing trees 250 feet (75 metres) tall to gather honey made by bees gorged on sweet nectar from exotic jungle flowers. - 'Sting until your body is swollen' - The honey-collecting season in northern Malaysia's Greater Ulu Muda forest runs from February to April, when giant honey bees arrive from other parts of Asia to make their hives in the trees that stretch high above the rainforest canopy. On a recent trip, Abdul Samad and six others travelled far into the forest, boarding two small boats and sailing across a lake to reach a tualang. They nailed branches up its trunk a few feet apart to create a makeshift ladder, replacing old ones from the previous year. Traditional honey-hunter Abdul Samad Ahmad carries wood to make ladders for harvesting bee nests in the treetops As night fell, after layering up and donning thick jackets, the group lit vine roots twisted together to create a smoking torch. They clambered up the tree, hitting the torch against the trunk as they approached a hive. A flood of embers showered below, and a team member called out to the bees: "Come down, black sweet, come down." A swarm of bees rushed out, chasing the sparks of light -- granting the hunters precious moments to cut through the hive and fill a bucket with chunks of honeycomb. The men worked through the night, slowly moving around the tree's many hives and only stopping just before dawn, having collected 43 kilograms (94 pounds) of honey. The hunters were stung numerous times but continued working, insisting they are used to the pain. One of the group, Zaini Abdul Hamid, said he and his fellow hunters are not aware of any deaths resulting from the risky pastime, "but if you're in the wrong place, at the wrong time, the bees will sting you until your body is swollen". - Vanishing forests - Demand for tualang honey exceeds its limited supply, and the bounty is split equally among the group, who sell it in their village or to dealers from out of town. None of those on the recent expedition were younger than 45, with some in their 60s, and they said younger people from their villages have no interest in taking up honey-hunting. Streaks of burning embers fall as a traditional Malaysian honey-hunter raids bee nests on a moonless night "They're not brave," said Mohamad Khairi Mohamad Arshad, while Zaini lamented that the younger generation "prefer to play with their gadgets -- we asked them to come, but they're not interested". The hunters said it was common to see four to five groups from a single village harvesting from tualang trees in the 1960s, but these days there are far fewer. The number of bees in the Ulu Muda forest also appears to have fallen in recent years, with heavy logging regularly reported and some blaming the destruction of their natural habitat. The problem may also be global. Experts have long been sounding the alarm about declining honey bee populations worldwide, blaming climate change and disease as well as habitat destruction. The Malaysian honey-hunters perch precariously on high branches as they raid the hives No comprehensive studies have been done on bee populations in Ulu Muda, but Makhdzir Mardan, a bee expert from Universiti Putra Malaysia, said that on an expedition into the forest in 1983 he had spotted 128 hives on a tree, while now you could expect to find 40 at most. As they trekked deeper into the jungle, the honey hunters mourned the loss of the bees habitat, particularly the flowers they feed on. "The places where the bees look for food are disappearing," said Mohamad Khairi Mohamad Arshad, 50. "If there aren't a lot of flowers, then the bees will not come." US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's surprise Afghan visit is his third as Pentagon chief Elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghan government, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday, a potentially significant move that runs counter to the insurgents' long-term refusal to talk to Kabul. Mattis flew into the war-torn nation on an unannounced visit two weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban, Afghanistan's biggest militant group. The Taliban have so far given no formal response to Kabul's offer for negotiations, but have published a lengthy statement and an online commentary that analysts say are an oblique rejection of the proposal. But Mattis said some Taliban figures have expressed an interest in joining the discussions. "It may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop, that would be a bridge too far, but there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," Mattis said. The Pentagon chief's visit to the Afghan capital comes as US and Afghan forces ramp up air strikes against the Taliban as part of President Donald Trump's new strategy for the region, which Ghani called a "game changer" for the country. "It has forced every actor to re-examine their assumptions," Ghani said as he met with Mattis at Kabul's presidential palace. "Some of that re-examination is likely to lead to the intensification of conflict in the short term but the re-examination is what the people of Afghanistan have been (waiting for) for 40 years." Ghani's peace plan includes eventually recognising the Taliban as a political party. The group has said it is prepared to negotiate, but only with the United States and not with the Kabul government. - US looks to 'victory' - The Taliban last week described the Afghan government as "illegitimate" and its peace process efforts as "deceptive", in a statement calling for a boycott of an Islamic scholars' conference in Jakarta. "Right now we want the Afghans to lead and to provide the substance of the reconciliation effort," Mattis said. Brigadier General Michael Fenzel, planning director for NATO's mission in Afghanistan, said he had seen signals that some among the Taliban were willing to negotiate. The Taliban has said it is prepared to negotiate, but only with the US and not with the Kabul government "In each one of our areas, there are groups of 10 and 20 that are coming in, not wanting to be a part of the Taliban any longer," Fenzel told reporters. Thanks to the political process, Mattis said America was now looking towards victory in Afghanistan after more than 16 years of conflict. "What does that victory look like? It's a country whose own people and their own security forces handle law enforcement and any threats... certainly with international support for some years to come," he said. The US has renewed its focus on Afghanistan after years of drawdowns under former president Barack Obama and talk by top US generals of "not winning" and of a "stalemate" in the seemingly intractable conflict. "It's all working to achieve a political reconciliation, not a military victory," Mattis said. "The victory will be a political reconciliation." - Jump in attacks - As part of the so-called South Asia Strategy, Trump last year ordered the increased bombing of Taliban targets -- including drug-making labs and training camps. More than 3,000 additional US forces have also arrived in Afghanistan to boost the training and advising of local troops. Approximately 14,000 American forces are currently in Afghanistan, up from a low of about 8,500 when Obama left office. Mattis flew into the war-torn city two weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban Ghani's offer of peace talks comes as civilian casualties have soared in recent months, with the Taliban increasingly targeting towns and cities in response to Trump's aggressive military policy. The Taliban claimed 472 attacks in January alone, the Washington-based terrorism research group TRAC said -- an astonishing number given that the traditional fighting season does not usually start until freezing temperatures have subsided in the spring. Mattis said the jump in attacks on civilians was an indication that a pressured Taliban is unable to conduct broader, ground-taking operations. The Afghan security forces were able to stop some attacks, Mattis said, though he noted he wanted to see them shift to a more "offensive mindset" in the coming months. Mattis's surprise Afghan visit, his third as Pentagon chief, was kept under tight wraps after a security incident during his last trip in September, when insurgents shelled Kabul's airport hours after he arrived. Mattis also said he had seen some changes in Pakistan's behaviour since Trump blasted the country last year for harbouring the Taliban. "There are operations by the Pakistan military that are helping right now, ongoing as we speak," he said. The Chinese government has been waging a battle to clear its skies of smog that has cut life expectancy in some regions China appears to be "winning" its war on air pollution, making so much progress that life expectancy could rise by more than two years, according to a US university study. The Chinese government has been waging a battle to clear its skies of smog that has cut life expectancy in some regions and prompted its citizens to buy masks and air purifiers to protect themselves during peak pollution days. The University of Chicago says in its study released Monday that while the world's biggest polluter faces a long road to reach national and international air quality standards, the results "suggest the country is winning its war on pollution". Based on daily data from more than 200 monitors across China from 2013 to 2017, the analysis found that cities have cut levels of PM 2.5 -- the tiny airborne particles considered most harmful to health -- by an average of 32 percent in just four years. If sustained, such reductions would increase the life expectancy of the average Chinese citizen by 2.4 years relative to 2013. PM 2.5 can play a role in heart disease, stroke, and lung ailments such as emphysema and cancer. Another study published by the university last year had found that air pollution in northern China had cut life expectancy by three years compared with the south of the country. "We don't have a historical example of a country achieving such rapid reductions in air pollution. It's remarkable," Michael Greenstone the economist and director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago who conducted the studies, told AFP Tuesday. By contrast, it took the US a dozen years and a severe recession to attain similar improvements in air quality after it enacted its 1970 Clean Air Act, he noted. "What these last four years have demonstrated quite loudly is that things can change and they can change rapidly -- it just requires political will," he said. As public discontent mounted over the country's choking smog, China's ruling Communist Party made clean air a priority. In 2013, it launched an ambitious air pollution action plan that sought to slash PM 2.5 levels in key regions such as the northern Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin area and the Yangtze River Delta by up to a quarter. In 2014, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang declared "war" on pollution. Since then, teams of inspectors have been deployed across major cities in north China to ensure compliance with pollution standards. Highlighting the challenge facing the country, Beijing's skies were a dismal grey on Tuesday, as PM 2.5 levels soared to 270 micrograms per cubic cubic metre, more than 10 times the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization for a 24-hour period. - Social costs - But the capital and other places have made progress. Beijing cut PM 2.5 levels by 35 percent between 2013 and 2017, increasing lifespans of its 20 million residents by 3.3 years, the study found. Baoding, China's most polluted city as of 2015, cut pollution by 38 percent, adding 4.5 years of life. A University of Chicago study suggests China 'is winning its war on pollution' "China's not held up as a democratic regime, and yet here we have a clear example of the public demanding something and the government delivering it," said Greenstone. Yet the war on smog has come with social costs. To clear the skies, authorities ordered thousands of polluting factories to leave urban centres, displacing hundreds of thousands of migrants. They also designated "no-coal zones" that pushed more than three million households in the region around Beijing to abruptly switch over to gas or electric heating, often removing coal boilers before new systems were functional. In December, schools in Hebei province made headlines after pupils suffered frostbite from attending class outside. Delays to installations of the new electric heating systems meant it was slightly warmer in the weak winter sunshine than in the frigid classrooms. Greenstone said he hoped to see China move towards more market-based environmental regulations. He recommended measures such as setting up cap-and-trade markets for particulates and beefing up pollution taxes. Washington wants UN sanctions to remain in place despite agreement for a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump Singapore said Tuesday it was "working closely" with the United Nations after a leaked draft report said two local firms sold luxury items to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions. The UN report, cited by the BBC, alleges that the two Singaporean companies and other firms in Asia had been supplying luxury goods, including wine and spirits, to North Korea until as recently as July 2017, despite the sanctions aimed at forcing Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. Despite an agreement for a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Washington has called on the UN Security Council to maintain sanctions until there is real progress towards scrapping Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme. "We note the mention of certain Singapore individuals and entities in media reports citing the leaked report from the UN Panel of Experts. Singapore is working closely with the UN Panel on these cases," the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement sent to AFP on Tuesday. "Where there is credible information of offences committed by individuals or entities under Singapore law, the Singapore authorities will act expeditiously and undertake investigations." There was no immediate comment from Singapore's foreign ministry. MAS, Singapore's central bank and financial regulator, did not name the companies which the UN report said appear to have used the city's financial system to trade with North Korea. But MAS vowed to take "stern action" on local financial institutions violating the sanctions. Singapore in November last year suspended all trade ties with North Korea. "With the tightening of UN sanctions against the DPRK, MAS has stepped up its supervision of financial institutions to focus on the prohibited DPRK-related activities," MAS said, using North Korea's formal name. "MAS is making a series of onsite supervisory visits to banks that have been identified through intelligence received or through sweeps by MAS of suspicious transactions." The central bank said it and other relevant Singapore agencies have been in "close contact" with the UN and other foreign authorities to help enforce the sanctions. The six ScanEagle drones are the latest US military assistance to the Philippines The United States gave the Philippine air force its first surveillance drone system on Tuesday, as the two nations step up cooperation in the battle against jihadist militants. Washington has been boosting its backing for Philippine counter-terror efforts since supporters of the Islamic State group seized parts of the southern city of Marawi last year, sparking a deadly five-month battle. The unmanned aerial vehicle system, which includes six drones and is worth $13.2 million (10.7 million euros), is the latest US military assistance to Philippine troops. "Assets like the ScanEagle will significantly improve the (Philippine military's) ability to detect terrorist activities, piracy activities, territory encroachment," US Ambassador to Manila Sung Kim told reporters, referring to the drones. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the system, equipped with cameras and aircraft that can fly for 24 hours, would support operations against militants in the south. The southern region of Mindanao is home to several pro-IS groups, including those who attacked Marawi in May last year in fighting that claimed more than 1,100 lives and reduced large parts of the city to rubble. These new drones are to be used for reconnaissance missions in defence, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, Lorenzana said. "With a number of security issues confronting our country today, there is a need to upgrade our nation's armed forces," he added. President Rodrigo Duterte had sought to loosen the Philippines' 70-year alliance with the United States in favour of closer ties with China and Russia. His anger was partly driven by American criticism of his drug war, which has seen police kill thousands of people and prompted an International Criminal Court preliminary examination. Although relations have improved under US President Donald Trump, who has praised Duterte for his drug war, the Philippine leader has increasingly turned to Beijing and Moscow to boost one of Asia's weakest armed forces. Duterte last month cancelled a deal to buy helicopters from Canada after Ottawa ordered a review over human rights concerns. "Do not buy anymore from Canada and the US because there is always a condition attached," Duterte said at the time. A US embassy spokeswoman said Washington "is committed to the rule of law and respect for human rights, and we urge other governments to do the same". The surveillance system is aimed at bolstering counter-terrorism operations and disaster relief, she added. Red Crescent ambulances wait to evacuate the seriously ill and wounded from the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta at the Wafideen checkpoint into government-held territory on February 28, 2018 The Red Crescent prepared to evacuate people in desperate need of medical care from Syria's battered rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday, multiple sources said. The expected evacuations come in the fourth week of a blistering Russia-backed government assault on the last rebel bastion near Damascus. The rebel faction controlling Eastern Ghouta's main town of Douma and a military source said patients would be evacuated on Tuesday. "A group of critical medical cases will be evacuated with those accompanying them via the Wafideeen" checkpoint into government-held territory, the head of Jaish al-Islam's political office, Yasser Delwan, said. On Monday, the group announced an agreement "via the United Nations with Russia... for the evacuation of the wounded in several waves to be treated outside Ghouta". At the Wafideen checkpoint, an AFP reporter saw Syrian Arab Red Crescent ambulances on standby. The reporter saw the the UN humanitarian coordinator in Syria, Ali al-Zaatari, arrive. A military source at the checkpoint confirmed "an evacuation today of wounded and grave medical cases along with a number of civilians". But "no fighters will leave today", he added, without elaborating. On Monday, the United Nations said more than 1,000 people, mostly women and children, were in urgent need of medical evacuations from Eastern Ghouta. It said they included around 80 priority cases. More than 1,180 civilians have been killed since government forces launched an air and ground assault on the enclave on February 18, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Eastern Ghouta's 400,000 residents have been living under government siege since 2013, facing severe shortages of food and medicines shortages even before the latest assault. Philippine officials put the market value of the confiscated creatures at $192,000 Authorities seized on Tuesday hundreds of exotic pets smuggled into the Philippines, which is a regional hub in the illicit animal trade. The cache of some 300 creatures, which included squirrel-like sugar gliders, wallabies and a threatened species of cockatoo, was one of the nation's largest wildlife busts. "In terms of live animals, this was likely one of our biggest (captures)," government environment official Rogelio Demelletes told AFP. The cache of some 300 creatures was one of the nation's largest wildlife busts Four suspects were arrested in the raid that turned up animals native to Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The haul also included seven red birds of paradise and 26 Moluccan cockatoos, which wildlife monitor IUCN considers to be at high risk of extinction in the wild. Philippine officials put the market value of the confiscated creatures at $192,000, which is more than all the live wildlife seized by Manila last year. The Philippines is a regional hub in the illicit animal trade As the global convention on wildlife trade lists the Moluccan cockatoo as a species threatened with extinction, the suspects face up to 12 years in prison if convicted under the country's wildlife act. Despite the law, the Philippines has a burgeoning illegal trade in wildlife, increasingly transacted on social media platforms. Major Changes to Florida's Gun Laws With another deadly school shooting serving as the final straw, Florida lawmakers have made significant changes to their gun laws, despite fervent opposition from the NRA and a long history of permissive legislation. While the final bill signed by Florida governor Rick Scott does not include everything activists sought, such as an assault weapons ban, it does change the minimum age and waiting period for gun purchases, bans bump stocks, and affects both security and mental health services on school campuses. The new law, passed by a majority-Republican legislature, includes six major changes to Florida's gun laws: Raises Minimum Age and Implements Waiting Period Dubbed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act after the Parkland shooting, the law raises the minimum gun-purchasing age from 18 to 21 (the Parkland shooter was 19). It also mandates a three-day waiting period for most gun sales (previously, this only applied to handguns). The NRA argues the law violates the right to bear arms and unfairly prevents law-abiding citizens between 18 and 21 from purchasing guns. Bump Stocks Banned Made famous by the Las Vegas shooting which left 58 people dead and hundreds injured, bump stocks allow a semi-automatic gun to fire at a rate similar to that of a fully automatic weapon. The new law bans these devices. Even the NRA supports this prohibition. Armed School Employees On the flip side of this legislation, the law's guardian program allows some school employees to carry concealed handguns if their district participates in the program and they complete the requisite training. The NRA supports this idea, while teachers' unions and gun-control activists generally oppose it. Funding for Mental Health and School Security In addition to making it harder to purchase guns, Florida's new gun law includes funding for school districts to provide mental health services to its students, and makes it tougher for violent or mentally ill people to purchase or possess a gun. The funding is also intended to beef up the security measures on school campuses, including an increased presence of police officers. Related Resources: Members of the Hamas security forces inspect the crater left at the site of an explosion that targeted the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister during a visit to the Gaza Strip, on March 13, 2018 A bomb blast targeted Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah's convoy during a rare visit to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, leaving him unhurt but provoking outrage over what officials called an assassination attempt. The attack is likely to further increase tensions between Hamas -- which denied any involvement -- and president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah, with a reconciliation agreement between the two all but dead. Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj was also in the convoy but was not injured in the explosion, which occurred shortly after they entered the territory. At least six people were wounded, with none of their injuries believed to be life-threatening. A security source in Gaza said the convoy was also fired on by unknown gunmen at the time of the explosion, before Hamas security forces sealed off the area. After the attack, Hamdallah briefly appeared at the opening of a wastewater treatment facility in Gaza before cutting short his visit and returning to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where his government is based. "It was a very well-planned attempt. It was a roadside bomb about two metres into the ground," Hamdallah said at his office upon his return. A statement on official Palestinian media said Abbas considered it a "cowardly targeting" of Hamdallah's convoy and held Hamas responsible. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Radical Islamists opposed to Hamas also operate within the Gaza Strip and have regularly been behind unrest. The Hamas interior ministry said they had arrested three suspects and begun an investigation. - 'Same hands' - A statement from Hamas condemned the attack, saying it was done by the "same hands" responsible for the assassination of one senior Hamas figure, Mazen Faqha, and the attempted assassination of another last year. Hamas blamed the killing of Faqha on Israel. The second attack, an explosion targeting Hamas's head of security in Gaza, is widely believed to have been the work of radical Islamists. Hamas criticised Abbas's accusation, saying it "achieved the goals of the criminals." Another senior official, Tawfiq Abu Naim, said "whoever who did this only serves the (Israeli) occupation and is doing what the occupation demands." Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah (2nd-R), escorted by his bodyguards, is greeted by police forces of the Islamist Hamas movement upon his arrival in Gaza City on March 13, 2018 The explosion came a few hundred metres (yards) after Hamdallah's convoy crossed through the Palestinian Authority-run checkpoint into Hamas-controlled territory. Two cars with blown-out windows were being removed from the scene of the explosion shortly afterwards, an AFP correspondent reported. The visit came as reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party have faltered. Hamas seized Gaza from the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) in a 2007 near civil war and multiple attempts at reconciliation have since failed. Hamas and Fatah signed a deal in October that was supposed to see the Islamists hand back power in Gaza, but it has all but collapsed. While Hamas did hand over control of Gaza's borders to the PA, it maintains full control of the rest of Gaza, with its police force and armed wing still operating throughout the territory. The future of that armed wing, which has fought three wars with Israel since 2008, has proved one of the largest sticking points in implementing the reconciliation agreement. - 'Risks exploding' - Hamdallah's government is recognised by the international community, while Hamas is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States. The prime minister called for Hamas to allow his government to take control in Gaza. "We are talking about internal security -- the police and the civil defence," he said. "Without security there won't be a government." The UN envoy to the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, condemned the attack and said "Hamas has the responsibility to ensure that the government is able to carry out its work in the strip without fear of intimidation, harassment and violence." Mladenov has warned of the consequences of the desperate humanitarian suffering in the strip, saying in January that Gaza "risks exploding in our face again." A vehicle from Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah's convoy is carried away after it was hit by an explosion as he made a rare visit to Gaza on March 13, 2018 The White House is due to hold a conference on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza on Tuesday, but no Palestinian officials are expected to attend despite an invitation. The Palestinians were enraged by President Donald Trump's decision to break with longstanding US policy by recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital and have refused to meet with his peace envoys since. Israel has maintained a blockade of Gaza since 2007, which it says is necessary to isolate Hamas, while Egypt has also kept its border with the enclave largely closed. US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Twitter that "Palestinians in Gaza need a real government that will provide basic services -- not today's attack on PA officials trying to inaugurate a water treatment plant desperately needed in Gaza." Facebook has faced mounting pressure to snuff out inflammatory posts aimed at the Rohingya Facebook said Tuesday it is "seriously" fighting hate speech in Myanmar, following blistering criticism from UN officials who said the platform had morphed into a "beast" that helps spread vitriol against Rohingya Muslims. The social media giant has faced mounting pressure to snuff out inflammatory posts aimed at the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority that the UN says are victims of army-led ethnic cleansing. While the military campaign launched last August has been castigated abroad, it enjoys broad domestic support in a mainly Buddhist country where Islamophobia has been stewing for years. On Monday two UN officials tasked with looking into abuses in Myanmar took shots at Facebook as part of a UN Human Rights Council hearing. When asked whether the platform was good or bad for the emerging democracy, UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee told reporters it was both but had incited "a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities." "And I am afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast than what it was originally intended to be used in other parts of the world too," she added. Marzuki Darusman, chairman of a UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar, told the UN rights council that "hate speech and incitement to violence on social media is rampant, particularly on Facebook," according to a written statement of his remarks. Facebook has seen a meteoric rise in Myanmar, a fledgling democracy shaking off 50 years of brutal junta rule. But it has drawn criticism for a take-off that has coincided with a rise in ethnically-charged hate speech and violence, particularly in Rakhine state. Calls for action have grown louder since the Rohingya crisis erupted last year, sending some 700,000 of the minority fleeing across the border since August. In response to the UN criticism, a Facebook spokesperson on Tuesday defended the site's anti-hate speech strategy and said it had invested significantly in technology and local language expertise in Myanmar. "We take this incredibly seriously and have worked with experts in Myanmar for several years to develop safety resources and counter-speech campaigns," the spokesperson said. "Of course, there is always more we can do and we will continue to work with local experts to help keep our community safe." Myanmar's government has also accused Rohingya activists of spreading misinformation about the conflict online to garner global sympathy for their plight. In late January Facebook removed the page of popular anti-Rohingya monk Wirathu, and last year it regulated the use of the word "kalar" which is considered derogatory against Muslims. Analysts are mixed about what role the platform should play in regulating content. "There is a blurred line between freedom of speech and hate crime," said Lennon Chang, a lecturer in criminology in Monash University. Smoke billows on the horizon near the Syrian Kurdish city of Afrin From the bloody repression of peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime to foreign intervention, below are key dates in Syria's civil war as it enters its eighth year. The complex conflict has left more than 350,000 people dead, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while millions have been displaced and the country lies in ruins. - Revolt and repression - On March 15, 2011, unprecedented protests demand civil liberties and the release of political prisoners after four decades of repressive rule by the Assad family. Denouncing "an armed rebellion by Salafist groups", the regime represses demonstrations in Damascus and the southern city of Daraa but protests continue. In July, defecting army colonel Riad al-Assad sets up the Turkey-based rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA). Islamist groups join the revolt. - Air strikes, Hezbollah, Iran - In March 2012, regime forces take control of the rebel stronghold in third city Homs after a month of bombardment. Other bloody operations are carried out, notably in the central city of Hama, after massive anti-regime protests. In July, FSA fighters launch a battle for Damascus but the government holds firm. From 2013, regime helicopters and planes unleash crude barrel bombs on rebel zones. The same year, Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah says it is fighting alongside Syrian government forces. Iran also boosts its military support for longtime ally Assad. - Chemical weapons - In August 2013, Washington accuses the regime of killing more than 1,400 people with chemical weapons in rebel-held districts near Damascus. In September, the United States and Assad ally Russia agree a plan to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons, averting punitive US strikes against the regime. But forces on the ground, in particular from the regime, have been accused of using chemical weapons since. In April 2017, a sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun kills more than 80 people, prompting Washington to attack a regime air base. - Rise of the jihadists - In January 2014, hostilities between jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and rebel groups turn into an open war in the north. ISIL, the future Islamic State (IS) group, takes Raqa -- the first provincial capital to fall out of regime control -- from rebel forces. The jihadist offensive allows Damascus to justify its fight as a battle against "terrorism". - Coalition air strikes - In September 2014, a US-led coalition launches air strikes against IS in Syria. The strikes benefit Kurdish groups, which since 2013 have run autonomous administrations in Kurdish-majority areas and go on to oust IS from key areas. - Russia to Assad's aid - In September 2015, Russia launches air strikes in support of Assad's troops, who are on the back foot. Russian firepower helps turn the tables for the regime, which begins to retake rebel-held territory, including second city Aleppo in late December 2016. In January 2017, Russia and Iran, as backers of the Syrian regime, and Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, organise talks in Kazakhstan, between representatives of both sides. The process leads to the creation of four so-called "de-escalation zones", although sporadic fighting and bombardments continue. - Turkish offensive - In an added complication to the drawn-out conflict, Turkey launches an operation in January 2018 against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) which, with US support, played a key role in beating back IS. The militia controls the Afrin region on the border with Turkey, and Ankara is wary of Kurdish aspirations for autonomy, labelling the YPG a "terror group". - Blitz of Eastern Ghouta - On February 18, the Syrian regime launches a ferocious assault on the remaining rebel-held enclave near Damascus, Eastern Ghouta. In less than four weeks, the Russian-backed onslaught kills more than 1,220 civilians, a fifth of them children, according to the Observatory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures during a session at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on March 12, 2018 Israel's government reached a deal on Tuesday to avoid snap elections after days of speculation over the motives of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing possible indictment for corruption. The deal comes after some coalition partners had accused Netanyahu of wanting early elections to bolster his political standing ahead of his possible indictment for bribery in the coming months. Netanyahu repeatedly insisted that he wanted his right-wing coalition to last until the end of its term in November 2019. After the deal was announced on Tuesday night, Netanyahu told parliament that "I promised to do everything possible so that this government that has had magnificent success remain in place, and I kept my promise." Efforts to reach a compromise had intensified throughout the day. On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing coalition sources, reported that Netanyahu was working to resolve the crisis after estimating he could not garner enough votes to dissolve parliament. Netanyahu's legal woes were the focus of the coalition crisis throughout, with a range of politicians accusing him of allowing it to worsen to give him the option of forcing early polls. Polls suggest he could remain prime minister after fresh elections even with corruption investigations hanging over him. He had alternatively sought a guarantee from coalition members that they would remain in the government even if he is indicted, Israeli media have reported. But while Netanyahu's future dominated the conversation, the resolution of the crisis hinged on separate, more technical issues. Members of the coalition have been pushing for a number of votes to occur before the end of the week. The votes involve a budget for 2019 and legislation to exempt young ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from military conscription. The dispute centres on ultra-Orthodox parties having demanded that the conscription bill be passed before they agree to vote for the 2019 budget. At the same time, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon wants the budget approved before parliament's current session ends this week and had threatened to quit if it does not happen. Separately and perhaps equally as important, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman opposes the conscription bill and wants to see ultra-Orthodox men serve in the military like their secular counterparts. - 'Vote as one' - Compromise efforts sought to balance those divergent interests. The ultra-Orthodox parties agreed to support the budget if the conscription bill passes an initial parliament reading for now, with a final vote postponed until the summer session. Based on that compromise, parliament could give final approval to the budget and preliminary approval to the conscription bill this week. Regarding Lieberman's opposition to the conscription bill, a ministerial committee on Tuesday night agreed that members of the coalition could vote their conscience on it. Lieberman has stuck to his position of opposing the conscription bill throughout, but says he will not quit the government over it for now. He has signalled he could quit if the conscription bill is given final approval, but also held out the possibility of a compromise on that if a new bill is crafted with the input of the defence establishment. Lieberman vowed earlier Tuesday that his Yisrael Beitenu party would "vote as one against the bill" as it stands now. But, Lieberman said, "can elections still be prevented? Absolutely." Netanyahu, 68, could soon face charges in at least two separate corruption affairs, while investigations are continuing into two others. Three of his former associates have signed state witness deals with police. Police recommended his indictment for bribery in the first two cases in February and the attorney general is considering how to proceed, a process expected to take months. In one case, Netanyahu and his family are accused of accepting expensive gifts from wealthy supporters in exchange for financial benefits or favours. The other alleges he sought a secret deal with the publisher of a top-selling newspaper for favourable coverage. Netanyahu has been prime minister for a total of 12 years, from 1996 to 1999 and again since 2009. He is not legally required to step down if indicted -- only if he is convicted with all appeals exhausted. Bangladesh has a history of delivering death sentences in mass trials A Bangladesh court Tuesday sentenced dozens of men to death for the brazen daylight murder of a ruling party official in 2014, officials said. Ekramul Haque, the then Awami League leader in eastern Feni district, was dragged from his vehicle by a mob and hacked with machetes before being shot at point blank range. The 47-year-old was then placed back inside his vehicle, which was torched. A number of those travelling with the local party leader were injured in the brutal assault. Court inspector Nojibul Islam told AFP that a judge in Feni district Tuesday sentenced 39 men to death by hanging for the crime. Sixteen others were acquitted. "We will go to appeal in the higher court against the order," said defence lawyer Rana Das Gupta. Bangladesh has a history of delivering death sentences in mass trials. In November, a court upheld death sentences against 139 soldiers for the grisly murders of dozens of senior army officers in a 2009 mutiny. Last August, 10 Islamist militants were sentenced to death over a failed plot to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by detonating a bomb at one of her rallies. President Bidya Bhandari (C, pictured on a visit to India), Nepal's first female head of state, has won a second five-year term Nepal's lawmakers Tuesday elected President Bidya Bhandari for a second term, extending the tenure of the Himalayan nation's first female head of state for another five years. Bhandari took nearly two-thirds of the vote to retain her position as ceremonial head of state, the election commission confirmed. Bhandari, who was backed by the ruling Communist bloc, was widely expected to defeat her sole opponent. Her first five years in office have been largely uncontroversial. Critics say she has not done enough to advance women's rights in deeply patriarchal Nepal -- though her role is largely ceremonial. Late last year she signed into law a revamp of the country's ancient penal code, which criminalises the dowry system and bans an old Hindu practice that banishes woman from the home while menstruating. The 56-year-old took up politics in her teens, joining the fight to overturn the monarchy's centuries-long rule and later marrying a fellow communist, Madan Bhandari. It was after her husband's death in a mysterious car accident in 1993 that the mother of two became a prominent voice, riding a wave of sympathy to win a seat in parliament. As Nepal's political map was being redrawn after the end of the brutal Maoist insurgency in 2006 and overthrow of the king two years later, Bhandari campaigned hard to bring woman's voices to parliament. Lawmakers cast their ballots in a vote which handed President Bidya Bhandari a second term She was first elected president in 2015, shortly after Nepal's post-war constitution was passed, which carves out one-third of seats in parliament for woman and mandates that either the president or vice president must be a woman. Bhandari is not the only woman at the top of Nepal's government. House speaker Onsari Gharti Magar has presided over the often raucous parliament with an iron fist since 2015, the first woman to hold the position. Meanwhile, Sushila Karki served as the country's first female chief justice until her retirement in 2017, shocking her political backers when she took a tough stance on Nepal's endemic corruption. Bhandari is a close ally of the ruling Communist bloc that has a strong majority in parliament as well as six of the seven provincial assemblies. The Communists rode to a thumping victory late last year in local, provincial and national elections that capped Nepal's tumultuous 11 year transition from monarchy to federal democracy. Governments in West Africa have vowed to crack down on fake medicines -- a trade that weakens the effectiveness of antibiotics and malaria drugs A court in Benin on Tuesday jailed seven local pharmaceutical executives for four years on charges of selling illicit medicines after a trial that breaks new ground in West Africa's campaign against fake drugs. The seven were convicted of "the sale of falsified medicines, display, possession with a view to selling, commercialisation or sale of falsified medical substances." They work for wholesale pharmaceutical distribution companies, five of which -- GAPOB, Ubipharm, CAME, Ubephar and Promo Pharma -- dominate the sector in Benin. They were also fined 100 million CFA francs ($190,000, 150,000 euros), a lawyer for civil plaintiffs told AFP after the trial, describing the sum as "token." Two other defendants were given six-month terms. They were aides to an opposition MP, Atao Hinnouho, who has fled. A 10th defendant, the head of the Directorate for Pharmacies, Medications and Diagnostic Evaluation (DPMED) under the control of the ministry of health, was released. He had been accused of failing to prevent the drugs from being sold. Benin is fighting against its reputation for being the crossroads for trafficking in expired and counterfeit drugs in West Africa -- a business that has deeply alarmed health watchdogs. President Patrice Talon, elected in 2016, has vowed to crack down on the practice. Over the past year, dozens of people have been arrested and tonnes of fake medications seized. A 15-nation regional body, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has also announced an investigation into the business. Fake medicines are drugs that are bogus or below regulatory standards but often are outwardly indistinguishable from the genuine product. Taking them may do nothing to tackle an illness or -- in the case of antibiotics -- worsen the problem of microbial resistance. In 2015, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene estimated that 122,000 children under five died due to taking poor-quality antimalarial drugs in sub-Saharan Africa. Shahbaz Sharif (R) has taken charge of the ruling party after his brother Nawaz (L) was ousted from the premiership for graft last year The brother of ousted Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif formally took charge of the country's ruling party Tuesday, a day after being outmanoeuvred in elections for Senate chairman -- sparking accusations of foul play. The debacle at the Senate was the latest blow to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) following a string of court decisions targeting the party -- including the removal of Nawaz from the premiership for graft in July. Despite the loss at the Senate, newly minted PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif appeared upbeat during a rowdy party meeting in Islamabad, praising his brother's leadership ahead of general elections due later year. "Nobody including me can imagine taking the place of Nawaz Sharif," Shahbaz told a roaring crowd chanting party slogans. In late February, the party cleared the way for Shahbaz's promotion to head the PML-N, spurring renewed speculation that he would be its choice for prime minister if it prevailed at the polls. The younger Sharif, currently chief minister of powerful Punjab province, is seen as a political dealmaker, with many crediting him for successive by-election victories since his brother was ousted. But he faces steep challenges after the party's candidate lost in the race to lead the upper house just weeks after winning the largest number of seats in the Senate. The PML-N cried foul, following an unlikely alliance forged by the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Pakistan People's Party. Independent candidate Sadiq Sanjrani -- a relatively unknown figure -- secured 57 votes in the 104-seat house in the secret ballot, triggering veiled accusations that Pakistan's powerful security establishment had a hand in the outcome. "Being herded like sheep and goats, the nation has seen your real face today," tweeted Nawaz's daughter Maryam. The Sharif clan and their supporters have repeatedly denied allegations of corruption, suggesting Nawaz is the victim of a conspiracy driven by the military. Despite the court rulings against the PML-N, the party will likely remain a force at the polls after whipping its rivals in consecutive by-elections. Iranian political analyst Sadegh Zibakalam, sentenced to prison for propaganda against the regime, supports the government of President Hassan Rouhani, pictured here on February 11, 2018 A prominent Iranian political analyst close to reformists said Tuesday he had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for propaganda against the regime. Sadegh Zibakalam, a professor of political science at the University of Tehran who supports the government of President Hassan Rouhani, said he planned to appeal. In a video posted on Facebook, Zibakalam said that in addition to the jail term he had been ordered to refrain from all political and social media activity as well as writing in the press for two years. Zibakalam is known for his criticism of Iran's foreign policy, in particular its bitter rivalry with the United States and Israel. The judiciary-linked Mizan Online news agency had reported on Monday the start of Zibakalam's trial in a revolutionary court in Tehran. It said the academic was accused of giving interviews to foreign media deemed hostile by the authorities and of "attempting to call into question the Islamic republic". On March 7, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the same court had sentenced reformist former Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi to one year in prison for anti-regime propaganda. Karbaschi now heads a party that is part of a political coalition supporting Rouhani, a moderate who came to power in 2013 with the backing of reformists. Rouhani has faced criticism from conservatives over his efforts to rebuild relations with the West and ease civil liberties. A video screen grab purportedly showing the October 4, 2017, ambush of American and Nigerien soldiers in Niger Three police officers were killed in western Niger in a border region that has come under repeated attack from jihadists, the defence ministry said Tuesday. "On Monday at around 21:40 (2040 GMT) the police station at Goube was attacked by terrorists. We have three dead and an injured among our ranks," a statement said. Goube, located about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the capital Niamey, lies in a region that has suffered repeated attacks from jihadist incursions from neighbouring Mali. Local radio Saraounia said the encounter lasted about 30 minutes and the attackers fled after police reinforcements arrived. It said the assailants had probably fled to Mali. In attacks in this region last October, 12 Nigerien gendarmes were killed and four US troops and four Nigerien soldiers died in an ambush. Niger is a member of the so-called G5 Sahel group, also comprising Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Mauritania, which are building a joint military force to fight jihadism in the vast Saharan region. Looking at the world through the eyes of the Web US President Donald Trump has replaced Rex Tillerson as secretary of state with Mike Pompeo, who has led the CIA since January 2017 US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the departure of his top diplomat Rex Tillerson, to be succeeded by the current CIA chief Mike Pompeo. A senior US official said the president wanted to reshuffle his team ahead of talks with North Korea. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job!" Trump tweeted. "Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!" he added. The US president announced the appointment of Gina Haspel, a career intelligence officer, to head the Central Intelligence Agency -- the first woman tapped for the post. Trump praised Pompeo, a former US army officer and congressman who led the CIA for nearly 14 months, as "the right person for the job at this critical juncture." "He will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Trump added. The reshuffle comes days after the spectacular announcement of a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whose date and details have yet to be determined. Trump called for Pompeo to be swiftly confirmed in the role -- as his administration heads into the high-stakes talks. He had scant words of praise for Tillerson, who was traveling in Africa when Trump made the snap decision last week to accept an invitation to meet Kim. After the announcement, Tillerson suspended his schedule on grounds he was "unwell" and eventually cut short his trip to fly back to Washington. "I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service," Trump said. "A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well." The former Exxon CEO has had a rocky tenure as the top US diplomat, and had long been rumored to be about to be pushed out. Tillerson was repeatedly forced to deny he had fallen out with Trump -- vowing to remain in post despite a sensational report that he once dubbed the president a "moron." A respected figure in the oil business, the 65-year-old Texan's tenure at the State Department drew scorn from Trump's opponents, from former diplomats and from the Washington policy elite. During his time in post, he was faced with an extraordinary array of foreign policy challenges, from North Korean nuclear threats to Russian subversion to attacks on US diplomats in Cuba. But his efforts were often overshadowed by Trump's un-diplomatic style and his streams of taunting tweets stirring international tensions. No caption Mike Pompeo, named Tuesday to be US secretary of state, comes from a one-year stint leading the Central Intelligence Agency where he earned Donald Trump's trust delivering the president's daily national security briefings and by toeing Trump's line politically. Pompeo, who replaces Rex Tillerson, brings the discipline of a former standout at West Point, the prestigious US military academy, as well as the political wiles of a four-term member of the House of Representatives, where he served on the controversial Intelligence Committee. AS CIA director he cut a path into Trump's inner circle with ready praise of the president, personally delivering many of the Oval Office's crucial daily intelligence briefings. He echoes Trump's hard line against Iran and North Korea. But, currying the president's favor, Pompeo has also avoided directly contradicting Trump's insistence that Russia did not work to support his election in 2016 -- even though that is what the CIA concludes. "With Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process," Trump said Tuesday. - Meteoric career - Pompeo, 54, has had a meteoric career that leaned heavily on political opportunities that ultimately led him to Trump. Born and raised in southern California, he attended the US Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated top of his class in 1986, specializing in engineering. He served in the military for five years -- never in combat -- and then left to attend Harvard Law School. He later founded an engineering company in Wichita, Kansas, where financial backers included the conservative Koch brothers, oil industry billionaires and powerful movers and shakers in the Republican Party. The Kochs backed his successful first run for Congress in 2010, and energy-related legislation he promoted in his first years in the House of Representatives was seen as very friendly to them. He moved quickly onto the House Intelligence Committee, where, as overseer of the CIA and other agencies, he was privy to the country's deepest secrets. But he made his name on the special committee Republicans formed to investigate the 2012 killing of a US ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya. It made him a leading voice against Trump's political nemesis, Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state at the time was blamed by Republicans for the deaths. - Promoted a 'vicious' CIA - As director of the CIA, Pompeo has matched the tone of Trump's foreign policy pronouncements. "The CIA, to be successful, must be aggressive, vicious, unforgiving, relentless," he said. He joked about assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which raised fears of a return to the agency's penchant for backing assassinations of dictators not in US favor. He earned the president's trust in the daily national security briefings, where he has readily accommodated the president's aversion to reading long reports by having intelligence staff prepare simple graphic presentations of global risks and threats. When pressed in public, he has said he supports the January 2017 report by the country's top intelligence chiefs that concludes that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential race in an effort to help Trump defeat Clinton. Meanwhile, he has also stomached the president's ugly attacks on the CIA, calling their report on Russia meddling fake news and accusing them of political bias. Asian elephants, found in India and Southeast Asia, are listed as an endangered species Four heavily armed poachers who targeted wild elephants in Malaysia have been caught, officials said Tuesday, the second such arrest in less than two years. Wildlife officials said the gang caught near the town of Gerik in the northern Malaysian state of Perak was found with deer antlers and suspected tiger bones. A joint police and wildlife department investigation also led the agents to find an elephant shot dead by the poachers in a nearby forest with its tusks ripped out. "This crew is notorious. They hunt elephants," wildlife department chief Abdul Kadir Abdul Hashim told AFP. "There are maybe two more (poaching) groups (in the area). We are working together with the police on this." A police statement said weapons including rifles and homemade shotguns as well as animal snares were found after they arrested the gang. The elephant's tusks were not found, with a wildlife official believing that they were already sold. He added that the gang -- all locals -- were believed to have been operating since 2009, and were also active in the nearby state of Kelantan. The arrests come a year after a seven-man gang was arrested in Kelantan, with explosives, guns and parts of tusks seized. Elizabeth John, senior communications officer of wildlife trade watchdog Traffic Southeast Asia, hoped to see more busts like these in the future. "The seizure of high powered weapons clearly shows what wildlife and other authorities are up against," she said. There are believed to be some 1,200 wild Asian elephants in peninsular Malaysia, down from as many as 1,700 in 2011. Though endangered and protected by law, many of these pachyderms have been hunted for their ivory, which can fetch thousands of dollars on the black market. Rex Tillerson, in a file photo taken on November 30, 2017, was given no reason for his ouster as secretary of state, an aide says Outgoing US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did not speak to President Donald Trump before he was sacked Tuesday and has not been given a reason for his ouster, a top aide said. "The secretary did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted," Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein said. Tillerson arrived back in Washington before dawn on Tuesday after a tour of African countries and a few hours later Trump announced abruptly on Twitter that he was to be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo. "We wish Secretary-Designate Pompeo well," Goldstein -- who is undersecretary of state for public affairs and public diplomacy -- said, in a series of tweets from his official account. "The secretary had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues. He established and enjoyed relationships with his counterparts," he said. "The secretary will miss his colleagues at the Department of State and enjoyed working together with the Department of Defense in an uncommonly robust relationship," he added, in a nod to Tillerson's close working relationship with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. Andrew Brunson, who ran a church in the western city of Izmir, was detained by the Turkish authorities in October 2016 Turkish prosecutors have demanded a life sentence for an American pastor accused of being a member of the group blamed for the 2016 failed coup, in a case that has raised tensions with Washington, reports said Tuesday. Andrew Brunson, who ran a church in the western city of Izmir, was detained by the Turkish authorities in October 2016 and then remanded in custody. He is charged in the indictment with belonging to the leadership of the group of preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says masterminded the failed coup in 2016, the Dogan news agency said. Gulen, who is based in the US state of Pennsylvania and who Turkey wants to see extradited to face trial, denies the charges. The case of Brunson has become one of several sticking points in relations between Turkey and its NATO ally. It has been raised by President Donald Trump in talks with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan had in September 2017 controversially suggested the United States could exchange Gulen for Brunson, a suggestion that was brushed off by Washington. "They say 'give us the pastor'. You have a preacher (Gulen) there. Give him to us, and we will try (Brunson) and give him back," Erdogan said then. The evangelical pastor was initially detained along with his wife Norine although she was released in December 2016. Once the court accepts the indictment, a date for the trial will be set. The indictment, issued some one-and-a-half years after Brunson was first detained, highlights the severity of the case. But there have been cases where the release of an indictment, especially in a case involving a foreigner, can speed its resolution. German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel was released on February 16 after over a year in jail on the same day as prosectors issued an indictment charging him with terror propaganda. Despite hopes for a warming when Trump came to power, Turkey-US relations have soured badly over American support for Kurdish militia in Syria and the detention of two Turkish nationals working for US missions in Turkey. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August The UN's top official on preventing genocide said Tuesday efforts were made to "cleanse" the Rohingya and that returning the persecuted Muslim minority to Myanmar risked further atrocities against them. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August, crossing into Bangladesh with stories of murder, rape and arson at the hands of soldiers and Buddhist mobs in Rakhine state. Adama Dieng, who this past week visited Bangladesh's refugee camps and met officials, also urged the UN Security Council to hold Myanmar to account over the "international crimes". His remarks come a day after UN special rapporteur to Myanmar Yanghee Lee warned the violence against the Rohingya bears "the hallmarks of genocide". Myanmar has vehemently denied US and UN allegations of ethnic cleansing, insisting it was responding to attacks by Rohingya militants. "All the information I have received indicates that the intent of the perpetrators was to cleanse northern Rakhine state of their existence, possibly even to destroy the Rohingya," Dieng said in a statement Tuesday. If proven this "would constitute the crime of genocide", the special envoy added. Calls have been mounting for the creation of a UN-backed investigation to prepare criminal indictments over atrocities committed in Myanmar. Lee said investigators should be based out of Bangladesh and work for three years to "collect, consolidate, map, analyse and maintain evidence of human rights violations and abuses". Dieng said he was "perplexed" by Myanmar's denial of the litany of abuses against the Rohingya, and urged the UN to consider different options to hold authorities to account. "The world needs to show that it is not ready to tolerate such barbaric acts," he said. Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was last week stripped of a prestigious human rights award by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which accused her of doing little to halt the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed in November to begin repatriating Rohingya who volunteered to return to Rakhine, but the plan has stalled. Dieng said Myanmar had made "no genuine efforts" to ensure those who returned were guaranteed freedom and safety. "Under the present conditions, returning to Myanmar will put the Rohingya population at risk of further crimes," he said. Amnesty International this week said Myanmar was building security installations on top of razed Rohingya villages, casting further doubt on plans to repatriate hundreds of thousands of refugees. Rex Tillerson -- looking pensive at a news conference in Nigeria on March 12, 2018 -- learned he had been sacked as secretary of state on his return to Washington Donald Trump Tuesday sacked his top diplomat Rex Tillerson and named current CIA chief Mike Pompeo to succeed him, ending a rocky tenure by the Texas oilman who had frequently been at odds with the mercurial US president. A senior White House official said Trump wanted to reshuffle his team with a view to launching talks with North Korea, following last week's spectacular announcement he plans to meet Kim Jong Un. Trump thanked Tillerson "for his service," but had scant words of praise for the 65-year-old Texan, who had effectively been sidelined on the world stage and was long rumored to be on the way out. The outgoing secretary of state, who returned overnight from a trip to Africa, did not even speak to the president before his sacking was announced and was unaware of the reason for his sudden downfall, according to a top aide. That aide -- Steve Goldstein, the undersecretary for public affairs and public diplomacy -- was quickly sacked after his comments. No reason was given, but White House and State Department officials said Trump had made the decision. Before leaving on a trip to California, Trump spoke openly of his divergences with the former Exxon chief -- including over the Iran nuclear deal -- as he explained the rationale for the latest departure from his chaotic White House. Rex Tillerson, in a file photo taken on November 30, 2017, was given no reason for his ouster as secretary of state, an aide says "We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things," Trump told reporters. "When you look at the Iran deal, I thought it was terrible, he thought it was okay," Trump said. "So we were not really thinking the same." "I wish Rex a lot of good things," the president added. "I think he's going to be very happy. I think Rex will be much happier now." Announcing Tillerson's sacking in a tweet earlier Tuesday, Trump lavished praise on Pompeo, a former US army officer and congressman who led the CIA for nearly 14 months, saying he would do a "fantastic job!" "He will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Trump added, calling him "the right person for the job at this critical juncture" and urging his swift confirmation. His enthusiasm was echoed by the US envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley -- who tweeted her congratulations to her "friend" Pompeo. Democrats quickly pounced on the news. "There's a pattern and practice to dismiss anyone with whom this president has a policy difference, and that appears to be the case with Secretary Tillerson," senior Senator Dianne Feinstein said. Gina Haspel -- who has been nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CIA -- is a career officer who is controversial To succeed Pompeo at the Central Intelligence Agency, Trump nominated Gina Haspel, a controversial career intelligence officer who is the first woman tapped for the post. Haspel has been reported to have overseen a CIA "black site" in Thailand where Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded after the 9/11 attacks. Both Pompeo and Haspel require Senate confirmation to assume their new posts. A hearing for Pompeo is expected in April, Senate leaders said. - 'Every intention of remaining' - Tillerson had a tumultuous tenure at the State Department. He was repeatedly forced to deny he had fallen out with Trump -- vowing to remain in the post despite a sensational report that he once dubbed the president a "moron." US President Donald Trump is replacing Rex Tillerson as secretary of state with Mike Pompeo, who has led the CIA since January 2017 A respected figure in the oil business, his tenure drew scorn from Trump's opponents, from former diplomats and from the Washington policy elite. During his time in the post, he was faced with an extraordinary array of foreign policy challenges -- from North Korean nuclear threats, to Russian intervention in Ukraine, Syria and Western elections, to attacks on US diplomats in Cuba. But his efforts were often overshadowed by Trump's decidedly un-diplomatic style and his streams of taunting tweets that have stirred international tensions. Tillerson was thousands of miles away on a tour of African countries when Trump made the snap decision to meet Kim, and suspended his schedule on grounds he was "unwell" before cutting short his trip. In a cruel twist of fate, one of Trump's most public clashes with Tillerson came last October when the president tweeted that his top diplomat was "wasting his time" pursuing contacts with North Korea. Goldstein, in a statement, made clear Tillerson was caught off guard. "The secretary had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues. He established and enjoyed relationships with his counterparts," Goldstein said. "We wish Secretary-Designate Pompeo well," he added. Shortly thereafter, Goldstein himself was fired. Sri Lanka blocked Facebook after police warned that online hate speech was whipping up anti-Muslim anger Facebook will remain blocked in Sri Lanka until it agrees to take quicker action over incendiary material, authorities said Tuesday, after the social network was banned across the island during a week of violent riots. The block was imposed after police warned that online hate speech was whipping up anti-Muslim anger in last week's unrest, which saw mosques and Muslim businesses burned, mainly in central Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's government declared a state of emergency and deployed the army to the riot-plagued region to contain the crisis that left at least three people dead. Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando said Tuesday that the government wanted assurances Facebook could respond more rapidly in future if similar concerns were raised. "Facebook has told us that they lack the resources to review our complaints," he told reporters in Colombo. "They had a practical problem. They had only two resource persons" to review content in Sinhala, the language of Sri Lanka's majority ethnic group behind the violence. It was hoped an agreement with Facebook could be reached by Friday and the block preventing 6.2 million Sri Lankans from accessing the social network lifted, he added. Internet services were suspended entirely in Kandy, the worst-hit central district, for several days as authorities sought to disrupt riots, with mobs using social networks to coordinate attacks. Muslims make up 10 percent of Sri Lanka's 21 million people. Most are Sinhalese, a largely Buddhist ethnic group. Censorship and media oppression was used widely by strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse, who for a decade in power ordered local internet providers to block anti-government sentiment online. His successor President Maithripala Sirisena was elected in 2015 promising an end to draconian government restrictions, but some websites critical of the government were blocked even before the ban on Facebook. Gina Haspel was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CIA on March 13, 2018 Gina Haspel, nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CIA, is a black ops veteran who once ran a secret interrogation operation in Thailand accused of torturing detainees. If approved by the Senate, Haspel would be the first woman ever to run the Central Intelligence Agency. Despite a controversial past, her rise is not surprising -- she previously served as CIA deputy director and led worldwide undercover spying operations, a CIA mission that has gained renewed importance in recent years. Haspel, 61, joined the spy agency in 1985 and served as chief of station in several posts around the world. Rising through the ranks, she earned the job of deputy director of the National Clandestine Service, and was finally named to be service director in 2013. But she was quickly replaced after political questions were raised over her role in post-9/11 interrogation operations, which involved methods widely deemed to be torture, such as waterboarding. Her fortunes changed under Trump, who has expressed support for use of torture in interrogations. Mike Pompeo, then the new CIA chief, rejected protests over her background and made Haspel his number two. Her appointment earned the support of numerous former senior US intelligence officials. But the Senate Intelligence Committee's hearing to confirm her for the top CIA post could be rocky. One member, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, has already said he will oppose her nomination. "Ms Haspel's background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director," he said Tuesday. "If Ms Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of US intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from her past." - 'Secret Thailand prison' - Haspel's public reputation is based on her association with the "black site" prison run by the CIA in Thailand from 2002 for post-9/11 detainees. Media reports said she presided over the torture of key al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri who were interrogated and repeatedly waterboarded at the site. The CIA has always maintained that what it did was legal. "As has been well-documented, the former detention and interrogation program was authorized by President [George W] Bush six days after 9/11, reviewed and determined to be lawful by the Justice Department, and implemented by the CIA," the agency said last year in a statement. Haspel was later accused of the 2005 destruction of the CIA's videotapes of those sessions. Lawyers for Al-Qaeda detainees had sought the tapes for evidence in court cases. She was later cleared of wrongdoing -- officials said she had just followed orders in destroying the tapes. Torture has since been explicitly outlawed by the government, and despite Trump's endorsement of it, there have been no reports of the US intelligence agencies returning to the practice. - Russia, Korea, leaks - Under Haspel the CIA faces a number of challenges, foremost North Korea. The agency has been behind the curve in assessing what Kim Jong Un is up to, a particular challenge now that Kim has invited Trump for talks on possible denuclearization. The agency also is under constant pressure from Trump to assess Iran's compliance with its nuclear commitments; Trump has repeatedly attacked the nuclear deal and sought evidence to support ending it. Russia is another thorny problem for the new CIA director. She will be reporting to a president who has soft-pedalled the threat from Moscow and scorns intelligence that it interfered in the US elections. The CIA and other agencies also have struggled to deal with leaks of some of their crucial cyber spying tools and other data, often blamed on the sprawling intelligence contractor industry around Washington on which they increasingly depend. US President Donald Trump inspected border wall prototypes in San Diego -- during his first trip to California since taking office Donald Trump -- making his first trip to California as president -- warned Tuesday there would be "bedlam" without the controversial wall he wants to build on the border with Mexico, as he inspected several prototype barriers. The trip to the "Golden State" -- the most populous in the country and a Democratic stronghold -- was largely upstaged by his own announcement that he had sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. On the other side of the border, a small group of anti-Trump protesters vented their frustration, and announced plans to boycott US businesses over the frontier. "For the people who say 'no wall' -- if you didn't have walls over here, you wouldn't even have a country," Trump said near the border in San Diego. Trump repeated his insistence that law enforcement personnel should be able to see through the structure so that they could monitor criminal cartels that might be "two foot away" on the Mexican side. "Without a wall there would be bedlam, I imagine," he added. Trump inspected eight 30-foot high (nine-meter) models made of concrete and steel, erected side-by-side at Otay Mesa, an area in southern San Diego along the border with Tijuana, Mexico. Each prototype cost more than $300,000 and, according to some estimates, the complete wall could carry a $20 billion price tag. - 'Environmental catastrophe' - Congress has yet to approve the funding amid skepticism and Democratic opposition, but an administration official said the wall would save far more money than it cost. "Congress must fund the BORDER WALL," Trump tweeted after leaving the border. California has been at the forefront of resistance to the Republican leader's anti-immigration agenda and at odds with his stance on a number of other issues, from gun control to marijuana and the environment. Trump skewered California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, saying he'd done "a terrible job" of running a state where the taxes were "way out of whack" and criminals were allowed to roam free in sanctuary cities. He said he had seen estimates that the "intolerably high" illegal immigration costs came to $100 billion a year in terms of drugs, crime, education and social services. Before Trump's visit, demonstrators protested his migration policies on the Mexican side of the border in Tijuana The hulking prototypes can be seen from across the border in Tijuana, where residents are not overly impressed with the real estate tycoon, who launched his presidential campaign calling Mexicans "criminals" and "rapists." Ahead of the visit, a few dozen people gathered for a pro-Trump rally on the US side near the prototypes, while a similar number of the president's detractors came to the San Ysidro border post. "This is an environmental catastrophe, on top of a misallocation of government resources that could be used for health care or social services," Cody Petterson, president of the San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action, said of the wall. Demonstrators draped themselves in US flags and waved placards emblazoned with slogans such as "Humpty Trumpty will fall off his wall," "Resist unstable idiot," and "No hate in the Golden State." - 'You can get over it' - Among Trump's supporters, Kira Innis, 31, said she was backing Trump "because he doesn't give a good gosh darn about somebody's color, he cares about putting more green in their pocket." On the Mexican side, federal police had to persuade around 50 demonstrators not to burn a yellow-haired pinata in Trump's likeness. Demonstrators in Tijuana paraded with a pinata version of Trump -- which police persuaded them not to burn Pointing to one of the prototypes towering behind the corrugated metal border fence, Eladio Sanchez, 30, admitted that it might slow him down, but noted: "You can get over it anyway." The border with Mexico stretches nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) and about a third of it already has some type of barrier or wall. Trump's insistence that Mexico pay for the wall has soured relations and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto recently canceled plans to visit Washington amid continuing disagreement. "I have a great relationship with the president of Mexico, a great guy," Trump said, adding that "we're trying to work things out." Before leaving San Diego, a military port, the president congratulated troops at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station on the coalition's taking back "almost 100 percent" of the Islamic State group's captured territory in Syria and Iraq. "They never got hit like this. We took off the gloves. In one year we did more damage to ISIS than other administrations, a certain other administration, did in many years," he said. He didn't name which of his predecessors he was referring to, although the Islamist insurgency's most significant advances were made after 2013, during Barack Obama's second term. Trump is expected to wrap up his visit with an evening of fundraising in Beverly Hills to raise money for his 2020 re-election campaign. Posted 3/12/18 At long last, on Feb. 12, President Donald Trump unveiled his plan for revitalizing Americas infrastructure. The plan has some great news for rural areas, but significant questions remain about Morocco is the world's biggest producer of hashish Moroccan custom officials said Tuesday that they had seized 240 kilograms of hashish squeezed into orange juice cartons destined for export at the port city of Casablanca. Authorities said the stash was found after a check of the supposed shipment of fruit drink showed up some "discrepancies". After a search, bricks of cannabis resin totalling 240 kilograms (530 pounds) were found "carefully concealed inside cartons of orange juice from a local brand," said a statement by the customs authorities carried by local media. In a bid to outfox officials the smugglers had added sand to the shipment to make it weigh the same as a consignment of juice, it said. North African nation Morocco is the biggest producer of hashish in the world and one of the major exporters of cannabis resin, which is mainly shipped to Europe, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Some 50,000 hectares of agricultural land were used for the production of cannabis, mostly in the impoverished northern Rif region, statistics from 2015 said. Rex Tillerson had a rocky tenure at the US State Department, sidelined on the world stage by the mercurial president When President Donald Trump decided last year to hire Texas oilman Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state, the Washington foreign policy establishment thought it knew what to expect. After all, the then 64-year-old engineer had been chief executive of ExxonMobil, the US oil giant, and so close to Russia's Vladimir Putin that he had received a medal of friendship. He was expected to share Trump's affection for Moscow and hostility to the Paris climate change accord, and thought capable of cutting costs and streamlining his unwieldy department. The perfect Trump man, in other words, a player from the world of business brought in to shake up or smash the Washington bureaucracy and the international order under an "America First" banner. What Trump got, to his evident frustration, was a stubborn diplomat in a more orthodox conservative tradition, keen to reassure allies, work with the US military and hold Russia at arm's length. Tillerson was almost immediately drawn into conflict with the White House even as he attempted to staff his department. When he tried to enlist Republican veterans of previous State Departments, the White House barred all those suspected of having opposed Trump during his seizure of the party. But when Tillerson sought to promote from inside the department among career officials whose work he respected, that too was vetoed for fear "holdovers" from Barack Obama's administration would be disloyal. Now, a year on, the man who managed the world's biggest oil company has failed to staff his department, with more than 70 senior posts and ambassadorships unfilled. Tillerson, an Eagle Scout and former national president of the Boy Scouts movement, had a very different personal and moral persona to that of his flamboyant and unrestrained boss. Last week, he described his motivation for joining public service when he could have retired with several hundred million dollars and rode the range on his beloved Texas ranch. Before an audience at George Mason University, Tillerson described how when he was 18 he registered for the draft to fight in Vietnam but his number in the lottery system was 89 and the recruiters only got to 86. "And so I stayed in college, got a great education, got hired by a great company, had 41-and-a-half wonderful years," he said. "My father is a veteran, World War II, fought in the war in the Pacific. My uncle is a retired major in the Army, did three tours of duty in Vietnam," he said. "And as I reflected on things at that point, I said I hadn't really done anything yet. It's my time to serve, and that's why I'm doing it." But if his motives were admirable, his results were not what he hoped for. State Department employees were initially relieved not to have been placed under an inexperienced nationalist from the wilder shores of Trump's insurgent campaign, but were soon disappointed. - 'Hollowing out' - Tillerson spoke of respect and shared endeavor, but made it clear he intended to make good on the administration's plan to cut 30 percent or more from the department's budget. Even Republican lawmakers balked at such a hack and burn policy, and retiring diplomats fed a wave of stories lamenting a "hollowing out" of the prestigious agency. As Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson never really built up a bond with Donald Trump But while Tillerson's public championing of Trump's "America First" agenda cost him support from his own staff, he never really built up a bond with the commander-in-chief himself. Though never publicly disloyal, he made known his disapproval of Trump's sympathy for racist extremists after a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia turned deadly. And, surely most devastatingly for the thin-skinned Trump, Tillerson was reported to have referred to him as a "moron" after a national security meeting. Tillerson apologized, but never fully denied uttering the word. The secretary rode out months of reports his job was on the line. These became so common they were filed under the title "Rexit Rumors" by a diplomatic press corps that Tillerson never deigned to court. But the frustration was just under the surface. When Tillerson told reporters in China last year he had opened covert diplomatic channels to North Korea, Trump tweeted that he was "wasting his time." In February, when the secretary was in Mexico to discuss cooperating in the war on drugs, Trump accused Latin American leaders of corruption and laxity. On that trip, an aide to Tillerson let slip that Trump's comments were "not helpful" -- and White House officials began stirring the Rexit rumors once again. - Thin legacy - So Tuesday's decision was not a surprise, even if the timing was brutal and apparently made without warning. Tillerson will not leave much of a diplomatic legacy. The man who once negotiated a historic oil deal giving his US firm access to Russia's Arctic reserves left with US-Russia ties at a historic low, a day after slamming likely Russian involvement in a poison attack in Britain in his most blistering anti-Moscow statement to date. And the internationalist who argued with Trump that Washington should stand by allies in supporting the Iran nuclear deal steps down knowing his successor will probably tear it up. Talks with North Korea on nuclear disarmament will likely go ahead, but not because of Tillerson's patient back channel diplomacy. Instead, they may happen because of a gut instinct decision by Trump. US diplomats may be nervous about the plans of former CIA director and Trump confidant Mike Pompeo as he takes the State Department helm, but their taciturn outgoing boss will not be long mourned. Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, Tillerson joined ExxonMobil in 1975 as a young engineer fresh out of college, steadily rising through the ranks to become CEO in 2006. The silver-haired married father of four had been due to retire in March 2017, when he got Trump's call. Protestors clashed with anti-riot police in Conakry on Monday -- demonstrations against Guinean President Alpha Conde have unfolded almost daily since disputed elections on February 4 Police fired teargas at protesters from opposition parties in Guinea on Tuesday, while the ruling party of President Alpha Conde accused his opponents of seeking to destabilise the West African nation. The opposition Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) has been staging protests in the capital, Conakry, since losing February 4 local elections it says were rigged. "Until they give us our stolen votes, we won't leave the streets," UFDG leader and former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo told AFP. Young people erected barricades in the city, burned tyres and threw stones at police, who replied with teargas, an AFP correspondent saw. That followed protests on Monday which also saw students gather outside the presidential palace, chanting anti-Conde slogans and demanding an end to a separate school strike. The opposition "seeks to create anarchy to destabilise the government of Alpha Conde," said Amadou Damaro Camara, the head of the ruling Rally for the Guinean People in parliament. "What they couldn't get in court, they want to get in the street," Camara added, accusing the UFDG of having a "hidden agenda". The teachers' strike restarted on February 12 and has paralysed the education system. Near-daily protests by the opposition, teachers and disgruntled students have rocked Conakry over the last month. An opposition group, the Party of Hope for International Development, said Tuesday it wanted the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional body to send an intervention force to the country. More protests are expected Wednesday. President Donald Trump is eyeing conservative television personality Larry Kudlow to replace top economic advisor Gary Cohn President Donald Trump said Tuesday there's a "very good chance" he would name conservative television personality Larry Kudlow to replace top economic advisor Gary Cohn, who resigned last week following a battle over import tariffs. Like Cohn, Kudlow has a record of opposing import duties on steel and aluminum, but Trump said the TV pundit had "come around to believing in tariffs." "I'm looking at Larry Kudlow very strongly. I've known him a long time," Trump said at the White House as he prepared to depart for California to view prototypes of a border wall, long a centerpiece of his immigration policies. "Larry has been a friend of mine for a long time. He backed me very early in the campaign. I think he was one of my original backers. He's a very, very talented man. "I'm also speaking to many others. But I think Larry has a very good chance," Trump added. Under former President Ronald Reagan, Kudlow, 70, oversaw the White House Office of Management and Budget for five years. He also served as chief economist at the onetime investment bank Bear Stearns from 1987 to 1994. Kudlow joined the cable business news network CNBC in 2001, where he has since featured prominently as a commentator and host, with an exuberant style and bullish, pro-free trade views. Still, in 2007, on the eve of the global financial crisis, he told viewers there would be no recession in the United States. Two years ago, Kudlow supported Trump's bid for the White House, favoring the Republican's campaign pledges to build a wall and cut taxes. Married three times, Kudlow has acknowledged undergoing treatment for alcoholism and cocaine dependency in the 1990s. Republican Senator John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner in North Vietnam, said that Gina Haspel, the woman nominated to lead the CIA, would have to pledge to uphold a ban on torture if she is to be approved for the job (R-AZ) greets a group of Naval cadets after receiving the 2017 Liberty Medal from former Vice President Joe Biden (not shown) at the National Constitution Center on October 16, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images/AFPPHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 16: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) greets a group of Naval cadets after receiving the 2017 Liberty Medal from former Vice President Joe Biden (not shown) at the National Constitution Center on October 16, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images/AFP John McCain, the US senator subjected to brutal treatment as a prisoner in North Vietnam, questioned Tuesday the nomination of a CIA official once involved in torture to lead the spy agency. McCain said Gina Haspel, currently the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, must pledge "without reservation" to oppose the use of torture if she is to be approved as director. "The torture of detainees in US custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history," McCain said in a statement. "Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program during the confirmation process." President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Haspel, 61, to replace Mike Pompeo, who has been named to take over the State Department after the top US diplomat, Rex Tillerson, was fired. Haspel, who has had a long career in the CIA's clandestine service, ran the agency's "black box" interrogation cell in Thailand after the September 11 attacks. Two high-profile al-Qaeda detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, were subjected to waterboarding and other torture methods while they were held in the secret prison. McCain, a navy pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. Taken prisoner, his severe injuries weren't treated and he was repeatedly bound and beaten. Since then he has steadfastly opposed the use of torture by the US government. "In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, our government squandered precious moral authority in a futile effort to produce intelligence by means of torture," McCain said. "We are still dealing with the consequences of that desperately misguided decision." "Current US law is clear in banning enhanced interrogation techniques. Any nominee for director of the CIA must pledge without reservation to uphold this prohibition," he said. Red Crescent ambulances wait to evacuate the seriously ill and wounded from the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta at the Wafideen checkpoint into government-held territory on February 28, 2018 After a year-long wait, Syrian amputee Ratib Sheikh Bakri left the besieged Eastern Ghouta rebel enclave on Tuesday for medical treatment in Damascus that he hopes can save his second leg. He was among some 150 people bussed out of Ghouta in the first evacuation of civilians from the rebel-held zone since Syria's government began a fierce assault three weeks ago. The area's 400,000 residents have lived under a devastating siege for five years that has made food hard to access and left hospitals unable to cope. On Tuesday, civilians including wounded were bussed out of the rebel-held town of Douma -- Ghouta's largest -- by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and into government-held territory. After reaching the regime-held Wafideen checkpoint on the edge of the rebel enclave, 56-year-old Ratib burst into tears. His right leg had been amputated near his hip and he had awaited medical evacuation from Douma for a year and a half to seek treatment for the left. "I am coming to be treated in Damascus before my second leg goes too," he said, wiping his eye with a tissue. But his three daughters and two sons were still trapped inside Douma, under siege and bombardment. Ratib said the living conditions were "dire" in Ghouta, but that he now has access to better food. "They just brought me a falafel sandwich... I haven't smelt tahina for five years". - Saying goodbye - On Monday, the United Nations said more than 1,000 people, mostly women and children, were in urgent need of medical evacuations from Ghouta. The area has been facing a Russian-backed government offensive that has killed more than 1,100 people and wounded thousands more. It has split the enclave into three isolated opposition-held pockets. Jaish al-Islam, the rebel faction that holds Douma, said Monday it had negotiated a deal with government ally Russia and the UN to bring sick and wounded residents out of the town. Inside Douma on Tuesday morning, residents could be seen lugging duffel bags and suitcases to a group of waiting buses and ambulances. Red Crescent workers checked their names against a prepared list, as women and children waved goodbye to a crowd of male relatives who would remain in the town. An AFP correspondent there saw 30 sick and wounded among them, including Safaa, a mother with a liver condition, and her four children. A thin girl in a pink sweater looked out the window briefly with nervous, almond-shaped brown eyes, before other children clambered over her to bid farewell from the bus. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Tuesday's operation brought out 150 civilians from Douma. A Syrian military source on Tuesday gave a similar number, saying a total of 24 men, 44 women and 78 children were evacuated. The source said 10 sick people were among them. - 'Hell on earth' - Another military source had earlier told AFP "no fighters" would be evacuated as part of the convoy. At Wafideen, an AFP reporter saw crowds of evacuated people arriving to a makeshift collection point at a school. They were wearing multiple layers of winter coats, as if trying to pack as many clothes with them as possible. Fariza held her tiny grandson Mahrus in her lap, among dozens of others in the school courtyard. Wrapped in a grimy pink and blue blanket, the baby's eyes were bulging and his head malformed. A breathing tube snaked its way out of his nose. Mahrus suffered from meningitis, said Fariza, and was hoping to get medical treatment in Damascus. Mahrus's mother had not been able to leave with him. Some 125,000 children are trapped in Ghouta, many of them acutely malnourished, warned the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore on Tuesday. "Is it not tantamount to a monstrous indifference to the suffering of children that Security Council resolutions for ceasefires are flouted?" Gilmore asked. Abdo Tohmeh, 60, left his family behind in Douma to accompany his sick neighbour to the capital. "It was a miracle we left. It was hell on earth," he told AFP. JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon, who chairs the Business Rountable, says issues around trade need to be thought through with allies US business sentiment has soared after tax cuts, but the gains could be undone by restrictive trade policy in the Trump era, the Business Roundtable said Tuesday. Business Roundtable president Joshua Bolten warned that corporate confidence faces a "possible major headwind" from shifting trade policies and that a US exit from NAFTA would be a "disaster" for US companies. The lobbying group, which represents large US companies, released a quarterly business survey that showed surging expectations for hiring and capital investment after President Donald Trump signed massive US tax cuts into law in December. But the survey of chief executives, which came in at the highest-ever level in the index's 15-year history, was conducted in February prior to Trump's controversial decision to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Questions about trade dominated a brief conference call with reporters. "There are issues (around trade)," said JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon, who serves as chairman of the roundtable. "But the right way to go about that is to really think it through strategically with the allies and make sure we're doing the right thing and not doing these one-off things which tend to backfire." Bolten said the group was working to "scale back" the steel and aluminum tariffs and described other levies suggested by Trump administration officials in response to foreign tariffs on US goods as bad for business. "Predictability and consistency is absolutely crucial for all of our CEOs' planning," Bolten said. Bolten also expressed worry over the state of talks on the North America Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has sometimes said the US might quit. "We are strongly opposed to any direction in the negotiations that might result in US withdrawal from NAFTA, which would be a disaster not so much for the Mexicans and the Canadians, but for US businesses and exporters," he said. US President Donald Trump's tenure has been marked by a series of abrupt departures of top aides and advisors Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is the latest top official to leave a US administration where turnover has been inordinately high. Here are the senior members who have departed since Donald Trump became president on January 20, 2017: - National Security Advisor Michael Flynn - Michael Flynn, a retired general, entered the White House with a cloud over him -- he had been fired by Barack Obama as defense intelligence chief. Retired general Michael Flynn lasted just 22 days as Trump's national security advisor Flynn was also being investigated for his contacts with Russians and eventually pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Flynn lasted only 22 days as national security advisor. He was forced out on February 13, 2017 over concerns that he could be compromised by false statements he made over his contacts with Russian officials and his paid lobbying for Turkey during the campaign. - Chief of Staff Reince Priebus - Reince Priebus, the bland former chairman of the Republican National Committee, was supposed to manage the White House workflow and control the door to Trump's office. Reince Priebus was sacked as White House chief of staff in July and replaced by former Marine Corps general John Kelly But Priebus, who was never a member of Trump's inner circle, couldn't manage the tweeting president himself, and the West Wing sank into chaos. Priebus made his exit on July 31, to be replaced by retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, who has been credited with bringing a measure of discipline to the Oval Office. - Chief Strategist Steve Bannon - The architect of Trump's nationalist-populist campaign and his election victory, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was nicknamed the Prince of Darkness and the Shadow President. Former chief strategist Steve Bannon helped propel Trump to the White House but didn't last long in his administration His economic nationalism became the lynchpin of Trump policies, even as many of his other ideas were rebuffed by policy rivals. After Kelly arrived, Bannon's constant clashes with other advisors became untenable, as did his ties to the extreme right, which drew accusations that Trump fostered racists. Bannon left on August 18. - Top Economic Advisor Gary Cohn - Gary Cohn, a former president of investment bank Goldman Sachs, resigned as Trump's top economic advisor on March 6 in protest against the president's decision to levy global steel tariffs. Trump's top economic advisor Gary Cohn resigned to protest the president's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports A long-time Democrat, Cohn had always been an uneasy fit in an administration propelled to power by strident nationalism. Trump's decision to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports was the final straw for the former Wall Street banker. The first eruption of tensions with Trump came last year when Trump balked at condemning neo-Nazis and far-right extremists who had led a violent rally in Virginia in August. Cohn, who is Jewish, said he considered resigning. - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by Trump on March 13, ending a rocky tenure as the nation's top diplomat for the former chief executive of Exxon. Tillerson was frequently at odds with the mercurial president and Trump said that while he and Tillerson got along "quite well" they "disagreed on things," notably the Iran nuclear deal. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by Trump after a rocky tenure of less than 14 months During his brief stay at Foggy Bottom, Tillerson frequently found himself out of the loop and caught unawares by policy shifts announced in Trump tweets. A top aide said Tillerson did not speak to the president before his firing was announced and was not given a reason for his dismissal. The lawn outside the US Capitol in Washington is covered with 7,000 pairs of empty shoes to memorialize the 7,000 children killed by gun violence since the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting One month to the day after a 19-year-old shooter unleashed a hail of gunfire at a Florida high school, tens of thousands of American students will stage a school walkout in a politically charged tribute to the victims. The "National School Walkout" slated to begin Wednesday at 10:00 am (1400 GMT) will last 17 minutes -- one for each victim shot dead during the Valentine's Day massacre in Parkland. The event to honor those slain at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is also an act of protest against the firearms violence plaguing the United States, which has more than 30,000 gun-related deaths annually. Organizers come from the same group behind the Women's March, which in January 2017 saw millions of demonstrators take to the streets against Donald Trump's White House inauguration. Those launching calls for action, many under the hashtag #Enough, are urging measures including expanding the background check system for gun purchases and curbing sales of assault-style rifles. "Students and staff have the right to teach and learn in an environment free from the worry of being gunned down in their classrooms or on their way home from school," organizers wrote on their website. "We are not safe at school. We are not safe in our cities and towns. Congress must take meaningful action to keep us safe and pass federal gun reform legislation," the said, referring to "the public health crisis of gun violence." People demonstrate after the Florida school shooting to protest guns on the steps of the Broward County Federal courthouse The #Enough movement has also voiced resolute opposition to arming school staff members as a means of defense against future shootings. Some staunch defenders of gun access floated that proposition in the wake of the Florida bloodbath -- and just last week the southeastern state's governor signed into law a measure that would pave the way for such a system, which Trump also favors. Both the White House and Congress have shied away from putting forth major reforms on gun sales. The Parkland shooter used an AR-15 military-style rifle, a type now being targeted by activists, who are also against high-capacity magazines. Florida prosecutors announced their plans to seek the death penalty against the accused Florida gunman Nikolas Cruz, for 17 premeditated murders. The 19-year-old shooter is due to appear in court Wednesday to be formally charged. His lawyers have indicated he would accept to plead guilty in exchange for guarantees that he would not face capital punishment. - Disciplinary threat - Trump had momentarily signaled support for increasing restrictions, but now stands accused of bowing to the US gun lobby. A new policy statement emphasized the US president's motion to arm school personnel would make "sure our schools are safe and secure, just like our airports, stadiums and government buildings." It did not, however, mention new federal gun purchasing age limits or expanding firearms vetting. The US has seen a spate of fatal school shootings in recent years, as well as mass shootings in other public places. Some parents and teachers have said protesting around the sensitive issue could be particularly traumatic for America's youngest. To prepare for Wednesday's planned walkout, organizers fostered debate among students of various ages to discuss forms of expression like rallies and posters, as well as slogans. One Texas district warned that school authorities would slap any student who walked out with a three-day suspension. "We will discipline no matter if it is one, fifty, or five hundred students involved," said the Needville schools superintendent in a statement widely published on US media. "A school is a place to learn and grow educationally, emotionally and morally." "A disruption of the school will not be tolerated." Sarah Hinger of the American Civil Liberties Union -- an organization working to protect constitutional rights including the right to free speech -- called that stance a "missed educational oportunity." The superintendent of schools Broward County, the area where the Parkland shooting occurred, also described the walkouts as "teachable moments" and said they demonstrate students' right to freedom of expression. In another symbolic move, 7,000 pairs of shoes were placed in front of the US Capitol building in Washington to represent the children killed by firearms since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012 in Connecticut. Democrat Conor Lamb, battling for a congressional seat in culturally conservative southwestern Pennsylvania, has embraced a rare campaign tactic among members of his party: avoid heavy criticism of President Donald Trump Pennsylvania voters went to the polls Tuesday in a special election widely seen as a major test for President Donald Trump and a Republican Party fighting to maintain its control of the US Congress. Democrat Conor Lamb, a former federal prosecutor and US Marine officer, has run a surprisingly strong race against Republican state representative Rick Saccone as they battle to fill a vacant congressional seat for District 18, the working-class southwestern corner of the Keystone State. Turnout appeared to be high for a special election, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, citing poll workers. Trump, who won the district by more than 20 points in his 2016 presidential race, endorsed Saccone and made an 11th hour campaign stop with the candidate. But Lamb's unexpectedly strong performance in Trump country -- the race was considered a toss-up going into Tuesday -- underscored the challenges that Republicans face as they prepare to defend their majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives in November's all-important mid-term elections. The party occupying the Oval Office tends to lose seats in the first mid-terms after winning the presidency. With chaos swirling in the White House, Trump's approval rating under water, and a special prosecutor investigating potential collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia, Democrats are counting on a domino effect at the polls to send them back to power in Congress. Republican organizations have poured millions of dollars of outside money into the race in the hopes of dragging Saccone across the finish line and signalling that their position ahead of the mid-terms is not as precarious as Democrats suggest. In District 18, several of Trump's campaign promises have resonated with voters -- in particular, his call for restricting immigration, supporting gun rights, and bringing back jobs in the coal and steel industries. At a Monday rally at Blaine Hill fire department, Saccone took aim at Democrats, portraying them as having "a hatred for our president," "a hatred for our country," and "a hatred for God." But Lamb, who has played up his blue-collar roots and his support for organized labor, seems to have avoided alienating Trump supporters, and downplayed the idea that the Pennsylvania election is a referendum on the controversial commander in chief. The district's voters "overwhelmingly want me to work with the president," Lamb said after casting his ballot early Tuesday. - 'Grassroots energy' - Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone has US President Donald Trump's backing in a race that carries national implications as their party looks to maintain control of Congress Trump has described Saccone as "very strong on experience" while painting Lamb as "weak on crime" and border security. "The economy is raging, at an all time high, and is set to get even better. Jobs and wages up," Trump tweeted on Tuesday. "Vote for Rick Saccone and keep it going!" With Trump in Saccone's corner, Democratic former vice president Joe Biden, who was born in Pennsylvania, campaigned with Lamb in the district last week. "Something's changing out there," Biden tweeted late Monday. "You can feel the grassroots energy. And that'll beat big money every time." Lamb is endorsed by the main mineworkers and steelworkers unions in the region, whereas Saccone, 60, has had a tempestuous relationship with organized labor. The district's previous congressman, Republican Tim Murphy, resigned last year amid an adultery scandal. Polls were to close Tuesday at 8:00 pm (0000 GMT Wednesday). Yellowstone is rumbling again with swarm of over 200 tremors in less than two weeks Yellowstone National Park is one of Americas most treasured natural resources its incredible geysers, among other breathtaking features, drawing millions of visitors to the park every single year. But what a great many may not realize is that Yellowstone is actually a super volcano that will one day undergo a massive eruption and as of late, the terrain surrounding it has been rumbling up a storm in terms of earthquake activity. More than 200 earthquakes, in fact, were reported to have struck the area around Yellowstone between February 8 15, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). This high frequency of quakes in such a short period of time is unprecedented, raising fresh fears about the stability of the super volcanic land mass, which some experts believe is beginning to show signs of a potentially imminent eruption called the big one. The area seeing the most activity is located about eight miles northeast of West Yellowstone, Montana, though many of these relatively tiny quakes didnt even show up on the official seismometers. They were, however, picked up by other detection equipment, news of which quickly spread across the internet. Swarms typically have two ultimate causes: shifting at major tectonic plates; or movements of water, gas or magma under the surface, reports LiveScience.com. As the abundance of hot springs and mud pots reveals, Yellowstone has plenty of fluid and gas just beneath the grounds surface. Yellowstone is also in a region that is being stretched and pulled apart, according to the USGS. Natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions could happen at any moment. Stay informed and prepared by visiting Preparedness.news. An even bigger earthquake swarm occurred at Yellowstone last summer This wouldnt be the first time that Yellowstone has started moving in frequent, rapid succession. Last summer beginning in June, an earthquake swarm struck the Yellowstone area and didnt really stop until about three months later. The tally of tremors from that swarm event reportedly topped 2,400, which is even bigger than this most recent swarm. But people really shouldnt worry, according to Michael Poland, the scientist-in-charge at USGSs Yellowstone Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington. While increased seismic activity is normally something to pay attention to, Poland wants the public to be at ease, suggesting that this is not indicative of an imminent mega-quake. This is what Yellowstone does, he reportedly stated. This is Yellowstone being Yellowstone. It experiences swarms all the time. According to the National Park Service (NPS), the Yellowstone area is hit by anywhere between 1,000 and 3,000 quakes annually, and these oftentimes occur as cluster swarms like the one that recently occurred there. The biggest quake on record thus far is a 7.3-magnitude one that occurred back in 1959 at Hebgen Lake, a 15-mile-long, four-mile-wide fishing lake in Montana. This particular area, especially, is a hotbed of swarm seismicity, and it has been for quite a while, Poland adds, further attempting to diffuse the thought that Yellowstone is overdue for a massive quake-eruption. One of the potential explanations for why this area is so swarmy is that the whole crust in the area is still adjusting to the big earthquake in 1959. Still, theres no saying for sure what could happen, as Yellowstone is a highly unpredictable landscape where anything is possible. And even if there isnt a mega-quake anytime soon, theres always the possibility of another Hebgen Lake-type quake that could strike that area at any moment, which means people need to be prepared. When they do happen, theyre going to shake the region pretty severely, so people should be prepared for that, Poland says, noting that should the volcano itself blow, ash would quickly spread and devastate large swaths of the country. Sources for this article include: LiveScience.com NaturalNews.com Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss call for an independent regulatory body to oversee the digital money market Twins who made a fortune in cryptocurrency after settling a claim they came up the idea for Facebook on Tuesday pitched a plan to regulate the wild digital money market. A virtual currency policing body proposed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss was welcomed by US Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Brian Quintenz. "We believe adding an additional layer of oversight on virtual commodity cash markets, in the form of self-regulation, is important for consumer protection and to ensure the integrity of these markets," Cameron Winklevoss said in online post. The brothers, who established and operate Gemini bitcoin exchange in New York City, proposed an industry-sponsored virtual commodity association to establish and police cryptocurrency standards. The Winklevoss twins contended that the creation of an independent regulatory body is the "next logical step in the maturation of this market." The British government early this year called for global regulation of controversial virtual currency bitcoin, adding that the G20 would address the topic this month. Bitcoin is independent of governments and banks and uses blockchain technology, where encrypted digital coins are created by supercomputers. The virtual currency is not regulated by any central bank but is instead overseen by a community of users who try to guard against counterfeiting. Virtual currency exchanges have seen tremendous volatility, and have sparked concerns they can be used to launder money for criminal networks. Trading of digital currency in the US is regulated as a commodity, such as corn or oil. Quintenz congratulated the Winklevoss brothers for "their energetic leadership and thoughtful approach" to the idea of a regulatory body. "A virtual commodity SRO that has the most independence from its membership, the most diversity of views, and the strongest ability to discover, reveal, and punish wrongdoing will add the most integrity to these markets," Quintenz said in a statement. The Winklevoss twins are part of the story of Facebook's controversial genesis story. In 2008, a $65 million settlement was reached with three Harvard classmates -- twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra -- over their charges that Mark Zuckerberg had stolen the idea for Facebook from them. The conflict was at the heart of "The Social Network," the Oscar-winning film written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. Rex Tillerson's exit as US secretary of state followed months of speculation that he was about to be pushed out US President Donald Trump Tuesday announced he was firing Rex Tillerson, capping months of speculation the secretary of state was on the verge of being pushed out. Here is a roundup of the numerous points of friction between the pair during Tillerson's 14-month tenure -- on everything from North Korea to climate change: - Iran deal's future - Trump has blasted the 2015 Iran nuclear deal -- aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear program and a landmark achievement of his predecessor Barack Obama -- as the "worst deal ever negotiated." In January, he grudgingly signed sanctions waivers "for the last time" -- ensuring Washington will live up to its commitments for another 120 days. During that time, he wants Congress and European allies to come up with a new deal. Tillerson, however, had argued for Trump to stand by allies who retained support for the accord. "We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things," Trump told reporters after announcing Tillerson's exit. "When you look at the Iran deal, I thought it was terrible, he thought it was okay. I wanted to either break it or do something, he felt a little differently. So we were not really thinking the same." - To talk -- or not -- with Pyongyang - Following a day of talks with China's President Xi Jinping late last year, Tillerson said US officials were exploring channels of contact with Pyongyang amid sky-high tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile tests. But a day later, Trump bluntly dismissed Tillerson's efforts. "I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man," Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Last week, however, the world was stunned when Trump accepted an invitation to negotiate face-to-face with "Rocket Man" himself. When the announcement was made at the White House, Tillerson was thousands of miles away -- seeking to smooth over relations with African nations Trump had reportedly dismissed as "shitholes." - Sidelined, from the Mideast to Mexico - Tillerson was said to have repeatedly complained about a perceived invasion of his territory by Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner. Kushner was gifted the responsibility of brokering peace between Israel and the Palestininians by his father-in-law, along with a role in steering US-Mexico and US-China relations. Politico reported in February that a fuming Tillerson said there cannot be "four secretaries of state," referencing what he saw as intrusion by Kushner, UN ambassador Nikki Haley and national security adviser H.R. McMaster. - Clash on climate - In June 2017, Trump stunned the world by declaring his intention to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Missing from the audience during Trump's announcement, Tillerson was reportedly against the move. "It's important that the US maintains its seat at the table about how to address the threat of climate change, which does require a global response," the former CEO of oil giant ExxonMobil had said during his confirmation hearings. The day after Trump's decision, Tillerson insisted the United States remained committed to cutting carbon emissions, with or without the Paris pact. - And on white supremacy - Last August, when a young woman was killed in violence stemming from a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia Trump sparked an uproar by suggesting both sides were at fault. Soon afterward, Tillerson distanced himself from Trump's stance. "We represent the American people, their commitment to freedom and to equal treatment to people the world over, and that message has never changed," Tillerson said. "The president speaks for himself," he added. - Who's the smartest? - Fuelling talk of a serious falling out between the pair, Tillerson was reported late last year to have referred to Trump as a "moron" after a national security meeting a few months earlier. Tillerson never fully denied the claim, which prompted the president -- seemingly stung -- to challenge his top diplomat to an IQ test. "I think it's fake news," Trump said of Tillerson's reported insult. "But if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win." Press secretary Sarah Sanders defended the jibe and denied any rift, insisting Trump "made a joke, nothing more than that." Florida prosecutors say they intend to seek the death penalty against Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old charged with killing 17 people at a Florida high school on February 14 Prosecutors in Florida said Tuesday they will seek the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old who killed 17 people last month in a shooting rampage at his former high school. "The state intends to seek the death penalty against defendant Nikolas Jacob Cruz," the state attorney for Broward County, Michael Satz, said in a court filing on the eve of the next hearing in the case. The charges against Cruz -- 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder -- are to be read out in court on Wednesday. It was unclear whether Cruz would be present, a spokesman for the court told AFP. Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the south Florida city of Parkland on February 14 and opened fire at students and staff with an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon. He was later arrested and admitted under questioning to having carried out the attack. His lawyers have let it be known he is prepared to plead guilty if he is guaranteed not to receive a death sentence. A plea deal is still possible despite Tuesday's court filing. A trial date has yet to be set and would depend on Cruz being declared competent to stand trial. Tuesday's court filing said he must give notice at least 20 days before the trial of "intent to present expert testimony of mental mitigation." Satz, the Broward county prosecutor, is said to be convinced that the prosecution can show that Cruz's murders meet the standard for the death penalty. On Wednesday, tens of thousands of US students plan to observe 17 minutes of silence to mark the deaths exactly one month after the Parkland shooting, and to press lawmakers to enact a ban on AR-15-style weapons. Doctors and groups representing patients with rare diseases say the law would create false hope and would change nothing in reality Faced with certain death, what do patients have to lose by trying experimental drugs that have not been approved for the market? It could be a child with a rare form of muscular dystrophy. A young woman ravaged by colon cancer. Or a grandfather trapped in the slow decline of Lou Gehrig's disease. Drugs that are already on the market -- if they exist -- no longer work for them. They want to take part in a clinical trial but can't, either because they are too sick, too young, too old or too far away. It is this desperate population that lawmakers -- both Democrat and Republican in 38 of the 50 US states -- have been trying to help by adopting "right to try" laws for experimental treatments that may be given outside of clinical trials. The cause is so popular that President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have put all their weight behind it. The Senate has passed a measure on establishing a national "right to try" law, but the House of Representatives voted Tuesday not to move forward with its own version. Republican leaders in the lower chamber said they would try again -- and see the measure passed. Doctors and groups representing patients with rare diseases, however, say a law would create false hope and would change nothing in reality. Today, doctors can already ask pharmaceutical companies to give them an experimental drug for compassionate use, as long as it has passed the initial safety steps in clinical trials that show it is not toxic or life-threatening. It's unclear how many drug companies comply, but the US Food and Drug Administration approves such requests in 99 percent of cases, usually in a matter of days. Every year, about a thousand patients take advantage of this "expanded access" program offered by the FDA. "People have been helped, yes, but it is unusual," Arthur Caplan, director of medical ethics at New York University's School of Medicine, told AFP. "Most drugs fail in research," he said. - Pharma hesitant - The proposed law would not actually create a "right," since drug companies and research labs would remain the only ones to decide whether or not to share their treatments. The difference is that the FDA would no longer have authority to approve or deny, but would simply be notified, particularly in case of serious adverse events. "Pence, Trump talk about the right to try, but we already have the right to try," said Caplan. "What they're creating is a right to beg, but we already have that. People do ask companies all the time." The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) said they are opposed because "the legislation still creates an unnecessary, less-safe alternative pathway that will not increase access to investigational therapies for our patients," said Paul Melmeyer, NORD director of federal policy. Not to mention the fact that "a drug can make you die more miserably and can certainly make you die quicker," added Caplan. Opponents and backers of the idea do agree on one thing -- not enough is being done by companies that are in a position to help. Small laboratories, which drive therapeutic innovation, often don't have the means to manage individual requests for drugs in addition to their work in clinical trials. When it comes to big pharma, they often fear that the death of a patient, even a very sick one, would lead to bad headlines, or a crackdown on the drug by health authorities. The proposed law aims to encourage companies to participate by giving them legal immunity and stipulating that the FDA could not block any medication from the market if a patient outside a clinical trial dies trying it. "We're trying to give companies a level of clarity and certainty that they can help someone under the Right to Try program, and the FDA is not going to shut their trial down if that person dies," said Starlee Coleman, senior policy advisor at the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think-tank that has driven the "right to try" idea. She pointed out that the French system is more advanced than the US when it comes to exceptional uses of medications that are not yet on the market. According to the latest report from France's National Agency for Medication Safety (ANSM), nearly 20,000 patients took advantage of individual authorization in 2016 in France, more than 20 times that in the United States. Outgoing top diplomat Rex Tillerson is the latest senior official to leave a US administration where turnover has been inordinately high Donald Trump on Tuesday sacked his top diplomat Rex Tillerson and named current CIA chief Mike Pompeo to succeed him, ending a rocky tenure by the Texas oilman who had frequently been at odds with the mercurial US president. A senior White House official said Trump wanted to reshuffle his team with a view to launching talks with North Korea, following last week's spectacular announcement that he plans to meet Kim Jong Un by the end of May. While Trump thanked Tillerson "for his service," he was sparing in his praise of the 65-year-old former Exxon chief, long rumored to be on the way out. Before leaving on a trip to California, Trump spoke openly of their differences -- singling out the Iran nuclear deal -- as he explained the rationale for the latest departure from his chaotic White House. "We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things," Trump told reporters. "When you look at the Iran deal, I thought it was terrible, he thought it was okay." "I wish Rex a lot of good things," the president added. "I think Rex will be much happier now." The outgoing secretary of state, who returned overnight from a trip to Africa, did not address reports he only learned of his sacking when Trump tweeted the decision, saying only he had since spoken to the president. US President Donald Trump is replacing Rex Tillerson as secretary of state with Mike Pompeo, who has led the CIA since January 2017 In his farewell remarks Tuesday, he said Washington must do more to respond to Russia's "troubling behavior" -- one day after slamming Moscow for its alleged involvement in an attempted assassination using a nerve agent in Britain. Tillerson will pass authority at midnight to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan, remaining at the department for handover purposes until March 31. In announcing the reshuffle, Trump lavished praise on Pompeo, a former US army officer and congressman who led the CIA for nearly 14 months, calling him "the right person for the job at this critical juncture." "He will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Trump added. Gina Haspel -- who has been nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CIA -- is a career officer who is controversial But Democrats quickly pounced on the news. "There's a pattern and practice to dismiss anyone with whom this president has a policy difference, and that appears to be the case with Secretary Tillerson," Senator Dianne Feinstein said. To succeed Pompeo at the Central Intelligence Agency, Trump nominated Gina Haspel, a controversial career intelligence officer who is the first woman tapped for the post. Haspel has been reported to have overseen a CIA "black site" in Thailand where Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded after the 9/11 attacks. Both Pompeo and Haspel require Senate confirmation to assume their new posts. A hearing for Pompeo is expected in April. - 'Exceeded expectations' - Adding to the day's drama at the State Department, Steve Goldstein, the undersecretary for public affairs and public diplomacy, was also shown the door after issuing a statement supportive of Tillerson. Goldstein wrote that the secretary "had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues," indicating he was caught off guard by Trump's move. Within hours, Goldstein himself was fired. Tillerson's sacking caps a tumultuous tenure at the State Department. He was repeatedly forced to deny he had fallen out with Trump -- vowing to remain in post despite a sensational report that he once dubbed the president a "moron." Rex Tillerson A respected businessman, his tenure drew scorn from Trump's opponents and the Washington policy elite. During his time in the job, he was faced with an extraordinary array of foreign policy challenges -- from North Korean nuclear threats, to Russian intervention in Ukraine, Syria and Western elections, to attacks on US diplomats in Cuba. But his efforts were often overshadowed by Trump's decidedly un-diplomatic style and streams of taunting tweets that have stirred international tensions. Tillerson was thousands of miles away in Africa when Trump made the snap decision to meet Kim, suspending his schedule on grounds he was "unwell" before cutting short his trip. In a cruel twist of fate, one of Trump's most public clashes with Tillerson came when the president accused his top diplomat of "wasting his time" pursuing contacts with North Korea. But in his farewell comments, Tillerson talked up his achievements in the standoff -- suggesting the prospect of talks with Kim was made possible by the hard work of his State Department and allies. The pressure campaign on Pyongyang "exceeded the expectations of almost everyone," Tillerson said, noting it was he who had declared on his first trip to Asia as secretary that the "era of strategic patience is over." Gina Haspel has been nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CIA CIA director nominee Gina Haspel could face a tough confirmation battle after a number of lawmakers raised questions Tuesday about her past involvement in torture of detainees. A veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's black operations, Haspel, 61, was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the top US espionage body, after he named current CIA director Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state. Haspel is widely respected in the intelligence community as a disciplined, non-political field agent who took on hardship positions and unsavory jobs. From that she rose to manage the global clandestine network before becoming deputy director one year ago. But her history during the US "war on terror," overseeing interrogations in CIA black sites later exposed as torture, has already set back her career once and could stand in the way again. Several senior politicians said they would challenge her over torture, ensuring a likely heated debate when she goes up before the Senate Intelligence Committee for confirmation in the coming weeks. "The torture of detainees in US custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history," said Republican Senator John McCain, who himself was tortured as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. "Ms Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program during the confirmation process." "Ms Haspel's background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director," said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden. - 'Secret Thailand prison' - Haspel would be the first woman ever to run the CIA. She joined in 1985 and served as chief of station in several posts around the world. In 2013, she was named to head the National Clandestine Service. But she was quickly replaced after political questions were raised over her role in post-9/11 interrogations. She oversaw the CIA's black site prison in Thailand in 2002, where, according to numerous reports, key Al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were brutally interrogated, slammed against walls, and repeatedly waterboarded. She later was helped destroy videotapes taken of the detainee interrogations. The CIA has always maintained that what it did was legal, the interrogations authorized by president George W. Bush and ruled lawful at the time by the Justice Department. Torture has since been explicitly outlawed by the government, and despite Trump's endorsement of it, there have been no reports of the US intelligence agencies returning to the practice. Haspel is appreciated by many in the intelligence community, a number of whom said she will be a good change from the highly political Pompeo. "She is capable, smart, very experienced, well respected by the agency rank and file, and a great person, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Cipher Brief website. "I think it's much better to have intelligence professionals serving in senior intelligence positions." Former CIA Clandestine Service director John Bennett said she took on "some of the most demanding and least rewarding assignments in the War on Terror, not because she sought them out, but because she felt it was her duty." - Russia expertise - Besides her record on torture, Haspel will be pressed on the CIA's views of Russia, which Pompeo seemed to downplay in deference to Trump, who has labelled stories of Russian interference in the 2016 election "fake news." Having once served as deputy director of the CIA's Russia group, Haspel, her defenders say, knows her stuff. "Ms. Haspel 'grew up' in the CIA during the Cold War. She will have no illusions about the nature of the Russian state or the KGB-trained autocrat who runs it," said Bennett. Haspel is "a far cry from the current partisan director. She isn't one to play politics, won't be soft on Russia," said Nick Shapiro, former CIA deputy chief of staff. MOSCOW (AP) - Oleg Tabakov, a Russian actor and theater director who for decades was one of the most revered figures in Russia's theater and film communities, has died. He was 82. The Moscow Art Theater said Tabakov died Monday of an unspecified illness at a Moscow hospital. Tabakov led the theater for the last 18 years. Russian President Vladimir Putin has extended condolences to Tabakov's family. FILE In this file photo taken on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010, Artistic director of Moscow Art Theater, Oleg Tabakov, addresses the audience at a reception marking the 150-year anniversary of Anton Chekhov's birth in Moscow, Russia. Oleg Tabakov, a Russian actor and theater director who has been one of the most revered figures in the Russian theater community and film industries for decades, has died. He was 82. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File) Born in the Volga River city of Saratov, Tabakov joined the Sovremennik theater after graduating from a Moscow theater school in 1957. He performed in both classic and modern productions and also became widely popular as a film actor, starring in many Soviet films and lending his voice to cartoon characters. FILE In this file photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013, Moscow Academic theater artistic director and actor Oleg Tabakov attends a meeting of the Presidential Culture Council in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. Oleg Tabakov, a Russian actor and theater director who has been one of the most revered figures in the Russian theater community and film industries for decades, has died. He was 82. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File) FILE In this Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015 file photo artistic director of Moscow's Chekov Theater Oleg Tabakov, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, walk in the theater to open the Year of Literature in Moscow, Russia. Oleg Tabakov, a Russian actor and theater director who has been one of the most revered figures in the Russian theater community and film industries for decades, has died. He was 82. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File) CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) - Director Ava DuVernay is scheduled to be a guest at the 20th annual Ebertfest next month in Illinois. The University of Illinois said Monday that the Oscar-nominated director of "Selma" and "A Wrinkle in Time" will attend the film festival in Champaign honoring the late movie critic, Roger Ebert. She'll bring her film "The 13th," which was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary. FILE - In this March 4, 2018, file photo, Ava DuVernay arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. DuVernay is scheduled to be a guest at the 20th annual Ebertfest in Champaign, Ill. The University of Illinois said Monday, March 12, 2018, that the Oscar-nominated director of "Selma" and "A Wrinkle in Time" will attend the film festival, which honors the late Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File) The festival will open with a showing of the "The Fugitive" starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. The 1993 film's director, Andrew Davis, is a University of Illinois alumnus. He's also attending the festival. Ebert and his wife, Chaz Ebert, co-founded the event in collaboration with the university. Films are shown in downtown Champaign's Virginia Theatre. Festival organizers say more films and guests will be announced in the coming weeks. BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Colombia urgently needs international help as it struggles with a humanitarian "catastrophe" along its border caused by a flood of Venezuelan migrants driven from their homes by hunger, a senior U.N. official said Monday. David Beasley, director of the World Food Program, said the harrowing reports he heard from Venezuelan migrants makes raising awareness of the crisis an urgent priority. "This could turn into an absolute disaster in unprecedented proportions for the Western Hemisphere," Beasley said in an interview following a two-day visit to talk with migrants in the Colombian border city of Cucuta. In this Feb. 23, 2018 photo, Venezuelan citizens arrive to La Parada neighborhood of Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela. Aside from providing health care, border cities are also coping with an array of public safety issues, like a rise in prostitution and groups of men, women and children sleeping on the streets. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) "I asked, 'Why are you here?', and the answer people gave me was, 'We don't have any food.' And they said, 'Even if we had money, there's no food,'" Beasley recounted. "I don't think people around the world realize how bad the situation is and how much worse it could very well be." As hyperinflation and widespread shortages of food and medicine batter Venezuela, rising numbers of its people are joining in an exodus that has set off alarms across Latin America. Independent groups estimate as many as 3 million to 4 million Venezuelans have abandoned their homeland in recent years, with several hundred thousand departing in 2017 alone. Beasley, who discussed the crisis with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, said the ideal approach would have the United Nations and international agencies attack the problem by working inside Venezuela. But that is not an option for now, because Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly rejected offers of humanitarian aid as a veiled attempt by the U.S. and others to destabilize his socialist government amid calls by the opposition to oust him. Instead, Beasley is urging the U.S. and other nations to provide financial assistance to Colombia, where the bulk of the Venezuelan migrants are arriving. He said Colombia's government enjoys the confidence of the global community while Maduro's does not. Since the end of last year, the Rome-based World Food Program has helped feed almost 2,000 people in Colombia, working mainly with Roman Catholic charities. A more robust program is still in the works, but Beasley said it's likely to focus on pregnant women and children. He said it could include a range of approaches, ranging from cash payments to the delivery of commodities for feeding migrants. The World Food Program feeds 80 million people annually around the globe, about two-thirds of them in conflict zones. It has been present in Colombia for years, focused on feeding those displaced by the country's half-century guerrilla conflict that is now winding down. It is working with the government to help meet its goal of eradicating malnourishment by 2030. Venezuela's problems aren't being driven by armed conflict, but the crisis has the potential to get a lot worse, Beasely said. He noted the food emergency in Syria started off as a trickle but now demands U.N. assistance to help feed 6 million people a day in a country with a smaller population than Venezuela. "Colombia has made so much progress in the past many years with peace and the last thing it needs now is for all that success to be undone," said Beasley, a former governor of the U.S. state of South Carolina. "So I will be expressing to other nations the severity of this crisis and why they must come to help the Colombian people immediately." ___ Joshua Goodman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APjoshgoodman BENSON, Minn. (AP) - A sheriff says eight people have been injured in a crash involving a school van and a semitrailer in western Minnesota. Swift County Sheriff John Holtz says seven schoolchildren have been injured along with the woman who was driving the van they were in. He says all eight have been taken to hospitals but details about their injuries are not clear. He says the children are ages 8 to 16. Holtz says the man driving the semitrailer was evaluated at the scene and released. The crash occurred Monday afternoon about 10 miles west of Benson, Minnesota. The sheriff's office says the children were in a Hancock Public School transport van. KSTP-TV reported that Hancock Superintendent Loren Hacker says school officials are working with authorities to make sure the needs of the students and their families are addressed. The cause of the crash is being investigated. Siskin Childrens Institute announced Kim Leffew and Carrie Eaves as the co-chairs for the 2018 StyleWorks luncheon and fashion show. StyleWorks Fashion with Compassion supports Siskin Childrens Institutes programs that serve more than 2,600 children with special needs and their families annually. StyleWorks, will take place on Thursday, May 3, beginning at 11 a.m. at the Chattanooga Convention Center. This years event welcomes a new presenting sponsor, Dillards. Local models as well as current and former children of the Institute along with their families will showcase Dillards clothing and accessories in the StyleWorks runway fashion show, produced by Kim Coulter Style Makers. I cant express, in words, how honored I am to be the co-chair for Styleworks 2018," said Ms. Leffew. "In November 2011, our family of three entered the butterfly gates and never looked back. It is difficult for me to envision what 18 months to age six would have been like for our son Laik, and our family, without Siskin Childrens Institute. As Chattanoogans, the families in our city and surrounding areas are exponentially fortunate that we have a resource like Siskin Childrens Institute. StyleWorks gives the attendees a brief glance into the Institute. I invite everyone to come see the butterflies spread their wings on the fashion runway." Five families will be featured at this years event, both families with children currently enrolled in programs and those who got their start with the Institute and are flourishing as teens and adults. Guests will be inspired by their stories and their incredible accomplishments, all while enjoying a runway fashion show like no other, said officials. "I have been involved with the Institute for many years, and I have seen firsthand the positive impact that a specialized program can have on a child with special needs and their families," said Ms. Eaves. "My daughter got the best start in life thanks to Siskin, and I am so happy to share my story and support this mission." In addition to the fashion show, attendees will have the opportunity to shop at the pop-up Dillards store just before the luncheon and following the fashion show. Donations made at this years event will be used for a scholarship fund to provide opportunities for more children with special needs to attend the Siskin Early Learning Center. This years event will be dedicated to the memory of Amelia David Allen. For more information about StyleWorks 2018 or to purchase a ticket, visit siskin.org/styleworks. KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - "I say again, turn!" the air traffic controller called over the radio, his voice rising, as the flight from Bangladesh swerved low over the runway at Kathmandu's small airport. Seconds later, the plane crashed into a field beside the runway, erupting in flames and leaving 50 of the 71 people on board dead. That moment Monday appeared to result from minutes of confused chatter between the control tower and the pilot of the US-Bangla passenger plane, as they discussed which direction the pilot should use to land safely at the airport's single runway. Unidentified family members of a passenger of a US-Bangla Flight BS211 mourn as they wait to receive his body outside government hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. A plane crash at Nepal's main airport killed 49 of the 71 people on board, police said Tuesday as an investigation was ordered into the cause of the accident, which occurred after seeming confusion over landing instructions before the plane, flying low and erratically, struck the ground and erupted in flame. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) A separate radio conversation between the tower and at least one Nepali pilot reflected the sense of miscommunication. "They appear to be extremely disoriented," a man said in Nepali, watching as Flight BS211 made its approach, though it was not clear if the voice belonged to a pilot or the tower. "Looks like they are really confused," said another man. In the recording, posted by air traffic monitoring website liveatc.net, the pilot and the tower shifted back and forth about whether the pilot should approach the runway from the north or the south. Just before landing, the pilot asked, "Are we cleared to land?" Moments later, the controller came back on the air, his voice clearly anxious, and told the pilot, "I say again, turn!" Seconds after that, the controller ordered firetrucks onto the runway. The plane, which was heading from Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, to Kathmandu, was carrying 67 passengers and four crew members. Kathmandu officials and the airline laid the blame for the accident on each other. The airport's general manager told reporters Monday that the pilot did not follow the control tower's instructions and approached the runway from the wrong direction. "The airplane was not properly aligned with the runway. The tower repeatedly asked if the pilot was OK and the reply was 'Yes,'" said the general manager, Raj Kumar Chetri. But Imran Asif, CEO of US-Bangla Airlines, told reporters in Dhaka that "we cannot claim this definitely at the moment, but we are suspecting that the Kathmandu air traffic control tower might have misled our pilots to land on the wrong runway." After hearing the recording between the tower and the pilots, "we assumed that there was no negligence by our pilots," he said. He said the pilot, who initially survived the accident but succumbed to his injuries Tuesday, was a former air force officer. Capt. Abid Sultan had flown the Bombardier Q400 series aircraft for more than 1,700 hours and was also a flying instructor with the airline. Prior to the crash, the plane circled Tribhuvan International Airport twice as it waited for clearance to land, Mohammed Selim, the airline's manager in Kathmandu, told Dhaka-based Somoy TV. Police spokesman Manoj Neupane said Tuesday that 49 people were confirmed to have been killed and 22 injured. The injured were being treated in various hospitals in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. Autopsies on the dead were being performed at the Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital morgue, where some 200 relatives waited to hear about their loved ones. Dr. M.A. Ansari of the hospital's forensic department said positively identifying all the dead could take as long as a week because many of the bodies were badly burned. By late Tuesday morning, four bodies had been identified. Anita Bajacharya waited at the hospital with her parents and other relatives for details on her 23-year-old sister, a medical student who had just finished school in Bangladesh and was returning home on the flight. The sister, Asma Shakya, had called her mother from the airport, excited about returning home. Now her family sat outside a hospital waiting for her body to be identified. Relatives of the passengers from Bangladesh arrived in Kathmandu late Tuesday afternoon and were escorted to the hospital by airline officials. Nepal's government has ordered an investigation into the crash. However, Mohammed Kamrul Islam, a spokesman for US-Bangla Airlines, said the governments of both Nepal and Bangladesh need to "launch a fair investigation and find the reason behind the accident." According to the airline, the plane was carrying 32 passengers from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives. It did not provide the nationalities of the four crew members. US-Bangla operates Boeing 737-800 and smaller Bombardier Dash 8 planes, including the Q400, the model that crashed. The airline is based in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, and flies domestically and internationally. The parent company, part of US-Bangla Group, is also involved in real estate, education and agriculture. Kathmandu's airport has been the site of several deadly crashes. In September 2012, a Sita Air turboprop plane carrying trekkers to Mount Everest hit a bird and crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 19 people on board. ___ Associated Press journalists Niranjan Shrestha and Upendra Mansingh in Kathmandu and Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this report. Unidentified family members of a passenger of a plane crash console each other outside government hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. A plane crash at Nepal's main airport killed 49 of the 71 people on board, police said Tuesday as an investigation was ordered into the cause of the accident, which occurred after seeming confusion over landing instructions before the plane, flying low and erratically, struck the ground and erupted in flame. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) Nepalese rescuers work after a passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 12, 2018. The passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing dozens of people, officials said. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shreshta) Bangladesh's US-Bangla Airlines General Manager Md. Kamrul Islam talks to media at the airline office in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. A plane crash at Nepal's main airport killed 49 of the 71 people on board, police said Tuesday as an investigation was ordered into the cause of the accident, which occurred after seeming confusion over landing instructions before the plane, flying low and erratically, struck the ground and erupted in flames. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad) An unidentified family member of a passenger of a plane crash mourns as she waits to receive the body at the government hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. A plane crash at Nepal's main airport killed 49 of the 71 people on board, police said Tuesday as an investigation was ordered into the cause of the accident, which occurred after seeming confusion over landing instructions before the plane, flying low and erratically, struck the ground and erupted in flame. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) A Nepalese rescuer searches amid the debris after a passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 12, 2018. The passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing dozens of people, officials said. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shreshta) Nepalese rescuers work amid the debris after a passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 12, 2018. The passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing dozens of people, officials said. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shreshta) Family members of plane crash victims wail at a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 12, 2018. A plane carrying dozens of people from Bangladesh swerved erratically and flew dangerously low before crashing and erupting in flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing several people, officials and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Bikram Rai) Nepalese doctors attend to an unidentified man injured in a plane crash in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 12, 2018. A plane carrying dozens of people from Bangladesh swerved erratically and flew dangerously low before crashing and erupting in flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing several people, officials and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Bikram Rai) Nepalese onlookers gather after a passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 12, 2018. The passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing dozens of people, officials said. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shreshta) Nepalese rescuers attend to bodies of victims after a passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 12, 2018. The passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing dozens of people, officials said. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shreshta) US-Bangla Airlines staff work at the airline office in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, March 12, 2018. A passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing dozens of people, officials said. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad) A Nepalese rescue worker stands near the debris after a passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 12, 2018. The passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing dozens of people, officials said. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shreshta) Nepalese army soldiers use machinery to lift the debris after a passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 12, 2018. The passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing dozens of people, officials said. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shreshta) US-Bangla Airlines CEO Imran Asif talks to the media at the airline office in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, March 12, 2018. A passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing dozens of people, officials said. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad) Nepalese firemen spray water on the debris after a passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 12, 2018. The passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, killing dozens of people, officials said. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shreshta) When the children of U.S. service members sexually assault one another on a military base there often is no justice. That's because federal law governs civilians on many U.S. military installations, and federal prosecutors have little interest in pursuing juvenile sex assault cases. As a result, both victims seeking closure and young offenders needing treatment often receive neither, an Associated Press investigation found. One solution, known as "retrocession," offers some hope. In this Feb. 7, 2018, photo, a cross rests on a bench on the front porch of Leandra Mulla's home in Tabor City, N.C. As a high school freshman in 2014, Mulla told Army investigators her ex-boyfriend dragged her to a secluded area of their base in Germany and sexually assaulted her. Four years later, she still wonders what came of her report. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) ___ WHAT IS THAT? It's a legal process in which the Pentagon and a state's governor or legislature transfer jurisdiction over juvenile cases that occur on base to local authorities, who have the resources and experience to counsel victims and rehabilitate, or punish, young offenders. ___ IS THIS AN EFFECTIVE SOLUTION? Results are mixed. Since the start of 2007, Army criminal investigators at Kentucky's Fort Knox concluded that nine juvenile sex assault and rape cases were credible, AP found, and Hardin County court officials received eight felony criminal complaints. Army investigators at Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Tacoma, Washington, referred 14 cases to Pierce County, said Kevin Benton, the county's chief juvenile prosecutor. But no charges were filed, mostly because of insufficient evidence, he said. ___ ARE THERE OTHER ALTERNATIVES? Some bases have tried less formal fixes. At Camp Pendleton, the Marines' combat training base in Southern California, officials have been passing cases to San Diego County prosecutors for several years. "We're trying to accomplish justice," said Matt Brower, a deputy district attorney and a former military lawyer at Pendleton. However, without a formal transfer of jurisdiction, legal experts say, a defense attorney could have grounds to argue that prosecutors cannot pursue charges. ___ ARE THERE OTHER BARRIERS? Prosecutors who review civilian cases on base typically are military lawyers with little experience in civilian law. And they quickly learn that their Justice Department supervisors do not support them taking child sex offense cases, attorneys said. Money also plays a role. Scott Stevens, a prosecutor in rural Coryell County, Texas, could not afford to meet the county's needs and send all offenders from massive Fort Hood to secure juvenile sex offender treatment. "It would take maybe two or three of those to wipe out our entire placement budget for a year," Stevens explained. ___ SO WHAT'S THE ANSWER? Given inaction by the Defense and Justice departments, some experts have suggested a comprehensive legislative fix, such as funding a mandate that state and local officials handle juvenile crimes on base. Roger Haines was an assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego in the 1980s when he tried to get Congress to mandate that states share jurisdiction over civilian crimes on federal installations. Base commanders objected, and state officials worried they would inherit new problems, said Haines, a 29-year federal prosecutor who wrote a book about the issue. "The situation is so ridiculous," Haines said. "It's not an answer to simply say, 'We can't do anything.'" LONDON (AP) - Russia on Tuesday dismissed accusations of any involvement in the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter as "nonsense," saying it will only cooperate with a British investigation if it receives samples of the nerve agent believed to have been used. Police, meanwhile, said the investigation of who poisoned Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, will last many weeks and that they are not ready to identify any persons of interest in the inquiry. The father and daughter remain in critical condition in a Salisbury hospital. British Prime Minister Theresa May said Russia's involvement is "highly likely," and she gave the country a deadline of midnight Tuesday to explain its actions in the case. She is reviewing a range of economic and diplomatic measures in retaliation for the assault with what she identified as the military-grade nerve agent Novichok. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gestures during a meeting with South Korean head of National Security Chung Eui-yong at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) U.S. and European officials were quick to offer words of support for Britain, which will need the backing of its allies if any new sanctions are to have any impact. Her Downing Street office said she discussed the Salisbury incident with U.S. President Donald Trump, and that the U.S. was "with the U.K. all the way" in agreeing that Russia "must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used." They also agreed on the need for "consequences" for those who use "heinous weapons in flagrant violation of international norms," the White House said. Earlier, Trump had said: "It sounds to me that they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that his country's requests to see samples of the nerve agent have been turned down. He insisted that Russia is "not to blame" for the poisoning. "We have already made a statement to say this is nonsense," he said. "We have nothing to do with this." The Russian Embassy in London tweeted that it will not respond to the ultimatum without the samples. Russian officials and media have responded with a variety of accusations against Britain in recent days, including suggestions that it was seeking to influence Sunday's election, which President Vladimir Putin is expected to win easily. James Nixey, head of the Russia program at the Chatham House think-tank, said May's response must be more than symbolic. "Will actions meet with responses which have real-world effects?" he said. "Or are we going to have more fudge?" Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said financial sanctions would be keys to a strong response. "Given that the regime is built on money - it's effectively a flow of money from the Russian people to Putin and from Putin to his acolytes - money matters," he said. "We have enormous amounts of control of a lot of people's assets through various means, and I think it's important we exercise that," Tugendhat said. "If you get the right people and you freeze their assets, it can make a lot of difference." The cases of other Russians who have died under mysterious circumstances also are being raised. British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said police and the domestic security service will look into 14 deaths in Britain that might be linked to Russia. "In the weeks to come, I will want to satisfy myself that the allegations are nothing more than that," Rudd said. "The police and MI5 agree and will assist in that endeavor." BuzzFeed News reported in 2017 that 14 deaths in Britain and the U.S. dating to 2006 may have been linked to Russia. Among them are prominent Putin critics, including oligarch Boris Berezovsky and whistleblower Alexander Perepilichny. The chief of the world's chemical weapons watchdog also said that those responsible "must be held accountable." In a speech Tuesday to the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called him Monday evening to inform him of the results of investigations. "It is extremely worrying that chemical agents are still being used to harm people. Those found responsible for this use must be held accountable for their actions," he said. Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, was convicted of spying for Britain and then released in a spy swap. He had been living under his own name in Salisbury for eight years before the attack without attracting any public attention. Police are appealing to the public to come forward if they saw Skripal and his daughter driving in his red BMW in the early afternoon of March 4 in the city located 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of London. New counterterrorism chief Neil Basu, who referred to Skripal as a British subject and his daughter as a Russian national, also said Salisbury residents would see much police activity in the coming days and that they should not be alarmed. Some 38 people have been seen by medics in connection with the case. ___ Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka in London contributed. Senior National Co-ordinator Neil Basu speaks to the media outside New Scotland Yard in London, Tuesday, March 13, 2018.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein) Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Downing Street to attend parliament for the Chancellors Spring Statement, in London, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. May said on Monday that Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter had been poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) Police officers wear protective suits inside the fence of "Ashley Wood Recovery", a vehicle recovery business in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The use of Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter makes it "highly likely" that Russia was involved, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday. Novichok refers to a class of nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) Military forces work on a van in Winterslow, England, Monday, March 12, 2018, as investigations continue into the nerve-agent poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, in Salisbury, England, on Sunday March 4, 2018. British Prime Minister Theresa May is set to update lawmakers Monday on the nerve-agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street after Prime Minister Theresa May summoned people to a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) to be briefed on the latest intelligence on the nerve agent poisoning attack on Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, in London Monday March 12, 2018. Prime Minister Theresa May updated lawmakers on Monday on the nerve-agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP) Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks in the House of Commons in London, Monday, March 12, 2018. British Prime Minister Theresa May says her government has concluded it is "highly likely" Russia is responsible for the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter. May told British lawmakers on Monday that Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were exposed to a nerve agent known as Novichok (Novice), a weapon developed in the Soviet Union in the end of the Cold War. (PA via AP) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gestures during a meeting with South Korean head of National Security Chung Eui-yong at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) Daffodils are placed by a police cordon backdropped by a tent covering the area where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill following exposure to the Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) Police officers guard a cordon around a police tent covering a supermarket car park pay machine near the spot where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill following exposure to the Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The use of Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter makes it "highly likely" that Russia was involved, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday. Novichok refers to a class of nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) New counter-terror chief Neil Basu speaks to the media outside New Scotland Yard in London, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Basu offered more details on the movements of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia before they were attacked in the English town of Salisbury on March 4. He appealed to the public to come forward if they saw the pair that day. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) New counter-terror chief Neil Basu speaks to the media outside New Scotland Yard in London, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Basu offered more details on the movements of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia before they were attacked in the English town of Salisbury on March 4. He appealed to the public to come forward if they saw the pair that day. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) The British Union flag flies from the front of a car as British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow attends a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, leaves after a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, leaves after a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, leaves after a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, leaves after a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) Fire officers stand inside a cordon at the vehicle recovery business "Ashley Wood Recovery" in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The use of Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison former-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia makes it "highly likely" that Russia was involved, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday. Novichok refers to a class of nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. AP Photo/Matt Dunham) Police officers wear protective suits inside the fence of "Ashley Wood Recovery", a vehicle recovery business in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The use of Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter makes it "highly likely" that Russia was involved, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday. Novichok refers to a class of nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) VIENNA (AP) - A man tried to drag a police guard out of his car outside the Austrian parliament building on Tuesday and was arrested, Vienna police said. The incident took place shortly after 8 a.m. The 26-year-old suspect, an Afghan national who wasn't identified, spoke to the officer in his patrol car, then grabbed his clothes and tried to drag him out of the vehicle. The officer used pepper spray to deter the assailant, injuring him slightly. Police say the officer was unhurt, and no weapons were found on the suspect. The incident comes after a knife attack Sunday night on an Austrian soldier who was guarding the Iranian ambassador's residence in the Austrian capital. The attacker in that case, an Austrian national, was fatally shot. Senior national security official Michaela Kardeis said at a previously scheduled news conference that the residence assailant "clearly had sympathy for political Islam." The man's Vienna apartment was searched on Monday, when police said they had no information on his motives. Kardeis said she can't say anything more concrete until investigators have finished evaluating items such as a computer and cellphone that they seized. She added that she had taken care not to say that he was a jihadi or radicalized, "but that simply out of his interest in surfing - which has not yet been evaluated in detail - there is ... a certain sympathy." JABALIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) - The Latest on explosion striking Palestinian PM convoy in Gaza (all times local): 4 p.m. President Donald Trump's Mideast envoy has condemned the attack on Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah's convoy in Gaza. FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2017 file photo, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, center, waves to journalists as he arrives to head a Cabinet meeting, in Gaza City. On Tuesday March 13, 2018 an explosion struck the convoy of the Hamdallah during a rare visit to Gaza, in what his Fatah party called an assassination attempt it blamed on Gaza militants. Hamdallah was unharmed and went on to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project in the northern part of the strip. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File) In a Twitter post Tuesday, Jason Greenblatt says Hamas and other militant groups have brought Gaza "to the brink of collapse." "Attack on PA delegation opening water treatment plant is an attack on the welfare of the people of Gaza. Wishing a speedy recovery to the injured," Greenblatt said. Hamdallah was not harmed when the roadside bomb struck his convoy, and said it would not disrupt efforts to reconcile with Hamas, which seized Gaza from forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007. No one immediately claimed the attack. Hamas condemned the attack and vowed to launch an "urgent" investigation. ___ 3:50 p.m. The Palestinian prime minister says a blast that struck his convoy in Gaza will not disrupt attempts to reconcile with Hamas. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was making a rare visit to Gaza when the explosion went off Tuesday. Hamdallah was not hurt, but quickly returned to his base in the West Bank. He insisted "this incident won't stop us from our work in Gaza and won't stop us from the reconciliation." Hamas condemned the explosion, calling it a crime and an attempt to "hurt efforts to achieve unity and reconciliation." It promised an "urgent" investigation. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah and the Islamic militant group Hamas have been trying to reconcile since 2007, when Hamas seized control of Gaza. The takeover left the Palestinians with two rival governments, Hamas in Gaza and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority governing autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. ___ 12:20 p.m. The United Nations Mideast envoy has condemned the attack on Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah's convoy in Gaza. In a statement, Nickolay Mladenov called for a prompt investigation into what he called a "grave incident" so the perpetrators can be brought to justice. He says that until the "legitimate" Palestinian Authority takes power in Gaza, the Hamas militant group is responsible for enabling the internationally backed government to work without fear of intimidation, harassment and violence. Hamas seized power of Gaza in 2007, and repeated attempts to reconcile with the Palestinian Authority have failed or stalled. Mladenov says Tuesday's blast was carried out by people trying to undermine reconciliation and "destroy the chances for peace." ___ 11:50 a.m. The Hamas militant group has condemned the Gaza explosion that targeted the convoy of visiting Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. In a statement, Hamas called Tuesday's blast a "crime" and said it was an attempt to "hurt efforts to achieve unity and reconciliation." It promised an "urgent" investigation. Hamas has controlled Gaza since seizing it from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in 2007. Hamas condemned President Mahmoud Abbas for blaming it for the blast, and Abbas' security chief, Majed Farraj, said it was "too early" to say who was responsible. Hamdallah, who was not hurt, left Gaza and was headed back to the West Bank. ___ 10:55 a.m. An explosion has struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister during a rare visit to Gaza, sparking fears of an assassination attempt. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was unharmed Tuesday but his Palestinian Authority quickly accused Gaza militants of trying to kill him. Three of the vehicles in his convoy were damaged, their windows blown out. One had signs of blood on the door. Hamdallah, who operated in the West Bank, arrived in Hamas-run Gaza to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project. The World Bank, European Union and other European governments have paid nearly $75 million in funding. Hamas' takeover of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007 and the ensuing Israeli-Egyptian blockade, power shortages and conflicts delayed the opening of the project for four years. Security services personnel inspect the site of a Tuesday explosion that occurred as the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel, on the main road in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 13, 2018.The Fatah party of the prime minister called the explosion an assassination attempt and blamed Gaza militants. Hamdallah was unharmed and went on to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project in the northern part of the strip. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) A damaged vehicle is removed from the site of an explosion that occurred as the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel, on the main road in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 13, 2018.The Fatah party of the prime minister called the explosion an assassination attempt and blamed Gaza militants. Hamdallah was unharmed and went on to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project in the northern part of the strip. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Hamas security services personnel inspect the site of a Tuesday explosion that occurred as the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel, on the main road in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The Fatah party of the prime minister called the explosion an assassination attempt and blamed Gaza militants. Hamdallah was unharmed and went on to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project in the northern part of the strip. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Hamas security services personnel inspect the site of a Tuesday explosion that occurred as the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel, on the main road in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The Fatah party of the prime minister called the explosion an assassination attempt and blamed Gaza militants. Hamdallah was unharmed and went on to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project in the northern part of the strip. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Hamas security services look for forensic evidence at the site of a Tuesday explosion that occurred as the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel, on the main road in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The Fatah party of the prime minister called the explosion an assassination attempt and blamed Gaza militants. Hamdallah was unharmed and went on to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project in the northern part of the strip. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, second right, receives an honor guard on his arrival to the opening ceremony for a long-awaited sewage plant project east of Jebaliya, in the northern Gaza strip, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. An explosion occurred as the convoy of the prime minister entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel. The Fatah party of the prime minister called the explosion an assassination attempt and blamed Gaza militants. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, center left, is surrounded by body guards as he arrives for the opening ceremony of a long-awaited sewage plant project, east of Jebaliya, in the northern Gaza strip, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. An explosion occurred as the convoy of the prime minister entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel. The Fatah party of the prime minister called the explosion an assassination attempt and blamed Gaza militants. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, gives a speech during the opening ceremony for a long-awaited sewage plant project east of Jebaliya, in the northern Gaza strip, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. An explosion occurred as his convoy entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel. The Fatah party of the prime minister called the explosion an assassination attempt and blamed Gaza militants. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah waves to crowd as he arrives to his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. An explosion struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister on Tuesday as he was making a rare visit to Gaza, in what his Fatah party called an assassination attempt it blamed on Gaza militants. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi) Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, surrounded by body guards, gives a speech during the opening ceremony for a long-awaited sewage plant project east of Jebaliya, in the northern Gaza strip, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. An explosion occurred as the convoy of the prime minister entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel. The Fatah party of the prime minister called the explosion an assassination attempt and blamed Gaza militants. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Trump views designs for border wall while bashing California SAN DIEGO (AP) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday eagerly inspected eight towering prototypes for his long-sought wall at the U.S.-Mexico border and accused California of putting "the entire nation at risk" by refusing to take tough action against illegal immigration. Trump, making his first trip to California as president, said he preferred a fully concrete wall because it was the hardest to climb, but he noted that it needed to be see-through. He said the first thing he noticed on the drive to the border was the patched-up holes in part of the existing fence. "We have a lousy wall over here now, but at least it stops 90, 95 percent," Trump said. "When we put up the real wall, we're going to stop 99 percent. Maybe more than that." Trump's visit was greeted with peaceful protests by demonstrators both for and against his planned wall. The trip came amid an escalating battle between his administration and the liberal state, which has refused to help federal agents detain immigrants in the U.S. illegally. The president renewed his criticism of Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, saying Tuesday that he was presiding over sky-high tax rates and that the state's sanctuary policies "put the entire nation at risk." ___ Trump replaces Tillerson with Pompeo in dramatic shakeup WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump unceremoniously dumped Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday - by tweet - and picked CIA Director Mike Pompeo to take his place, abruptly ending Tillerson's turbulent tenure as America's top diplomat and escalating the administration's chaotic second-year shake-up. Tillerson was ousted barely four hours after he returned from an Africa mission and with no face-to-face conversation with the president, the latest casualty of an unruly White House that has seen multiple top officials depart in recent weeks. Citing the Iran nuclear deal and other issues, Trump said he and Tillerson were "not really thinking the same." "We disagreed on things," Trump told reporters at the White House - a diplomatic take on a fractious relationship that included reports that Tillerson had privately called the president a "moron." Appearing in the State Department briefing room for likely the last time, Tillerson's voice quavered as he described successes of his roughly one-year tenure: an economic pressure campaign on North Korea and a new Afghanistan plan. "I will now return to private life, private citizen, a proud American, proud of the opportunity I've had to serve my country." ___ Pompeo, a hawkish pick, could give State Department new life WASHINGTON (AP) - Mike Pompeo's hawkish instincts may seem at odds with traditional diplomatic norms. But after 14 demoralizing months of budget cuts and staffing reductions for the State Department, his conservative political bent and closeness to President Donald Trump could breathe new vigor into an agency all too often sidelined on many of the nation's most pressing national security matters under Rex Tillerson. Pompeo, the outgoing CIA chief, will bring a new, blunt-speaking style to the job of secretary of state, strikingly different from Tillerson's understated approach. Pompeo's arrival in Foggy Bottom also promises far more aggressive stances on Iran and North Korea, and he'll start with Trump's full confidence - something Tillerson never enjoyed. And while Tillerson was widely criticized for aloof management, the department may encounter the opposite in Pompeo. ___ Tillerson's firing the latest messy breakup for Trump WASHINGTON (AP) - The man who famously coined the reality TV mantra "You're fired!" has notched quite a record of awkward and messy breakups in his 14 months as president. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson via Twitter. It was hours later before the president picked up the phone to talk directly to his latest casualty. Despite his signature catchphrase, Trump often lets others in the White House do his dirty work or pushes out subordinates by tweet or through public shaming. Onetime chief of staff Reince Priebus learned he was being replaced by John Kelly last summer from Twitter. The president tweeted the news from Air Force One following a trip to New York - prompting the outgoing chief of staff to drive off in a black SUV, leaving the rest of the presidential motorcade behind in a driving rainstorm. Perhaps Trump's most consequential firing came last May, when he dismissed FBI Director James Comey. Rather than informing Comey in person or by phone, Trump sent his longtime bodyguard-turned-director of Oval Office operations Keith Schiller to the Justice Department to deliver a letter notifying the FBI head he was done. ___ 3 men arrested on gun charges suspected in mosque bombing CHICAGO (AP) - Federal authorities announced on Tuesday that three men from rural central Illinois have been arrested on gun charges and that they are suspects in the bombing of a Minnesota mosque and an attempted bombing of an Illinois abortion clinic. A statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Springfield says the men were arrested on charges of possession of a machine gun, but it later adds that the three men are suspects in the Aug. 5 explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and an attempted bombing of the Women's Health Practice in Champaign on Nov. 7. The statement identifies the suspects as Michael B. Hari, 47; Joe Morris, 22; Michael McWhorter, 29. All are from Clarence, a rural community 35 miles north (56 kilometers) of Champaign-Urbana. A fourth man also faces the gun charge, but he was not identified as a suspect bombing or attempted bombing. The Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington was bombed early on Aug. 5. No one was hurt in the explosion, which happened just before morning prayers on a Saturday. But the blast damaged the imam's office across the hall from the worship space. The mosque primarily serves Somalis in the Minneapolis area. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community outside of east Africa, with an estimated 57,000 people, according to the most recent census estimates. ___ Western PA special: A Trump embarrassment or close call? MT. LEBANON, Pa. (AP) - Working-class voters across western Pennsylvania on Tuesday are weighing in on a surprisingly tight congressional contest that has pitted the strength of President Donald Trump's grasp on blue-collar America against the energy and anger of the political left. The fight between Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone and Democrat Conor Lamb has drawn national attention as a bellwether for the midterm election in November. In a region Trump carried by 20 points, the White House has scrambled to rally voters behind Saccone, who cast himself as the president's "wingman," but has struggled at times to connect with the blue-collar coalition that fueled Trump's victory little more than a year ago. Democrat Conor Lamb, a 33-year old Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor, downplayed his opposition to the Republican president on Tuesday and insisted instead that the race hinged on local issues. "This didn't have much to do with President Trump," Lamb said after casting his vote in suburban Pittsburgh. ___ Turkish forces surround Kurdish town in northern Syria BEIRUT (AP) - Turkey said Tuesday its troops and allied Syrian fighters have encircled the Kurdish-held town of Afrin in northern Syria, putting hundreds of thousands of civilians under siege and marking a significant military advance in the seven-week operation. Turkey launched its assault on the border enclave on Jan. 20 to drive out Syrian Kurdish forces that it views as "terrorists" linked to Kurdish rebels fighting inside Turkey. The Turkish military said the siege of Afrin, the main town in the enclave of the same name, began Monday after the military took control of "critical areas." A passage out of Afrin remained partially open, and thousands of people have reportedly fled the town, heading toward nearby areas controlled by the Syrian government. Syria's Al-Ikhbariya TV showed cars, trucks and tractors loaded with civilians driving out of the town. Panic was spreading in the town as the Turkish forces approached, and some civilians came under fire when they tried to leave, according to residents and Syrian Kurdish officials. Azad Mohamed, a 32-year old resident, said his relatives were fired upon as they tried to escape Monday, forcing them to turn back. He said he can't decide whether to risk the journey out of Afrin with his two children or to remain in place. ___ Trump's CIA pick is career spymaster, oversaw secret prison WASHINGTON (AP) - Gina Haspel's colleagues describe her as a seasoned veteran who would lead the CIA with integrity. Human rights advocates see her as someone who supervised torture at a secret prison. President Donald Trump's pick to be the next - and first female - director of the clandestine agency has conflicting public reputations. If confirmed, the 61-year-old career spymaster will succeed Mike Pompeo, who is replacing ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Haspel didn't have to face a Senate confirmation hearing when she became deputy director of the agency in February 2017. To be director, she'll have to be confirmed by the Senate intelligence committee. That will likely mean questions about one of the darkest periods of the CIA's history. Haspel had a front-row seat to the CIA's use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects. Between 2003 and 2005, she oversaw a secret CIA prison in Thailand where terror suspects Abu Zubayadah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said. Waterboarding is a process that simulates drowning and is widely considered to be a form of torture. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, also helped carry out an order to destroy waterboarding videos. The order prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. ___ Zinke defends plan to raise park fees amid flap over travel WASHINGTON (AP) - Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke bristled Tuesday under questioning by Democrats about his travel spending as the Trump administration seeks deep cuts to conservation programs and fee increases at national parks. Zinke testified before a Senate committee about the agency's proposed $11.7 billion budget for 2019. He has proposed doubling entry fees during peak seasons at some of the nation's most popular national parks to help make up for an $11 billion backlog in needed maintenance. Meanwhile, he has proposed cutting royalty fees paid by energy companies to drill for oil and natural gas on public lands. The former Navy SEAL flashed with anger when the Energy and Natural Resources Committee's ranking Democrat pressed him on whether he could justify increasing access fees for working Americans when he has been spending taxpayer money on chartered airplane flights. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington asked Zinke if it was a mistake for him to spend $12,375 on a late-night trip in June from Las Vegas to his home state of Montana on a private jet. "Well, first, insults and innuendos are misleading. I never took a private jet anywhere," Zinke said, adding that all three flights he had taken on private planes as secretary were on aircraft driven by propellers, not jet engines. ___ AP: Pentagon often fails young sex assault victims on bases JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) - A decade after the Pentagon began confronting rape in the ranks, the U.S. military frequently fails to protect or provide justice to the children of service members when they are sexually assaulted by other children on base, an Associated Press investigation has found. Reports of assaults and rapes among kids on military bases often die on the desks of prosecutors, even when an attacker confesses. Other cases don't make it that far because criminal investigators shelve them, despite requirements they be pursued. The Pentagon does not know the scope of the problem and does little to track it. AP was able to document nearly 600 sex assault cases on base since 2007 through dozens of interviews and by piecing together records and data from the military's four main branches and school system. Sexual violence occurs anywhere children and teens gather on base - homes, schools, playgrounds, food courts, even a chapel bathroom. Many cases get lost in a dead zone of justice, with neither victim nor offender receiving help. "These are the children that we need to be protecting, the children of our heroes," said Heather Ryan, a former military investigator. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Qatar and the United Arab Emirates each extended a concession to an offshore oil field they share to a Japanese consortium on Tuesday despite a diplomatic crisis between the two of them tearing at the region. But even what should have been a routine transaction for the al-Bunduq offshore field in the Persian Gulf became yet another skirmish in the boycott of Qatar by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The al-Bunduq field, located some 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of Abu Dhabi and 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Doha, has been shared between the two governments since 1969, before they declared independence from the British. It began pumping oil in 1975 and produced over 13,000 barrels a day in 2012, the most recent numbers immediately available. The field produces oil for United Petroleum Development Co. Ltd., which is a Japanese company owned by Cosmo Energy Exploration & Production Co. Ltd., JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. and Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. Ltd. That oil is sold into the Japanese market and in other Asian countries. Extending the long-standing concession didn't appear to be in question. However, the ongoing boycott has seen the four Arab nations cut off land, sea and air routes to Qatar over a variety of allegations including Qatar backing extremists and maintaining too-close ties to Iran. Qatar, which has backed Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, has denied supporting extremists. It also shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran. On Tuesday, the state-run Qatar Petroleum announced the extension of the concession, saying it showed its "commitment to its international reputation as a trustworthy national oil company and a reliable energy provider at all times and under all conditions." Abu Dhabi oil officials later issued a statement of their own saying the renewal involved "no direct communication or engagement between the two states." "There is no commercial or trading relationship being established between the UAE and Qatar by the extension of this concession," the statement read. However, Qatar has not shut down its undersea natural gas pipeline running to the United Arab Emirates, a crucial power source for a desert nation that relies on desalination plants for water and air conditioners to cope with the scorching heat. MADRID (AP) - The European Court of Human Rights has sided with two Spaniards who set fire in public to a photograph of Spain's king and queen, saying their protest amounted to freedom of expression. The Strasbourg, France-based court ruled Tuesday that the 2007 protest by Enric Taulats and Jaume Capellera during the king's visit to Girona, in northeast Spain, was political, not personal, and involved a "permissible degree of provocation" to convey its message. They were initially sentenced in Spain to 15 months in prison for insulting the Crown, though that was later reduced to a fine. The pair took their case to the European court after losing appeals in Spain against the conviction. The Spanish Constitutional Court ruled their acts incited hatred and violence against the monarchy. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A passenger bus hit a truck and burst into flames in central Turkey on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people, including a number of children, an official said. The bus rammed into the truck that had broken down and stopped on a highway emergency lane in Corum province, the region's chief prosecutor Omer Faruk Yurdagul told reporters after inspecting the site. The state-run Anadolu Agency initially said 13 people were killed in the accident. Yurdagul said, however, that 11 charred bodies had been recovered so far, adding that the death toll could rise to 14. At least 21 others were injured in the crash and were taken to nearby hospitals, he said. Emine Gungor, who survived the crash along with her child, told Anadolu that most of the passengers were asleep at the time of the crash and were woken by the sound of an explosion. One of the passengers broke a window allowing some of the passengers to get out, she said. "Those who managed to get out survived," Anadolu quoted Gungor as saying. The bus, with 35 people on board, was traveling from the city of Tekirdag, near Istanbul, to the central Turkish city of Tokat. NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A company building a crude oil pipeline in Louisiana asked a federal appeals court Tuesday for an order that would allow it to immediately resume construction work in an environmentally fragile swamp. A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn't immediately rule after hearing arguments from attorneys for Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC and environmental groups opposed to the project. The company is seeking an emergency stay that would lift a court-ordered halt in pipeline construction in the Atchafalaya Basin. Company attorney Miguel Estrada said "time is of the essence" because water levels in the basin are rising due to the rainy reason. A permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requires the company to stop construction if river levels reach a certain height. FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2018, file photo, Scott Eustis, a community science director for the Gulf Restoration Network, speaks before a hearing in federal court in New Orleans. A company building a crude oil pipeline in Louisiana asked a federal appeals court Tuesday, March 13, 2018, for an order that would allow it to immediately resume construction work in an environmentally fragile swamp. A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn't immediately rule after hearing arguments from attorneys for Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC and environmental groups opposed to the project. (AP Photo/Michael Kunzelman, File) Estrada said the company could resume work for weeks before water levels reach that threshold and possibly remain above it for several months. "We're hoping we can make up the lost time," he added. In court filings, environmental groups' lawyers said water levels already have reached a level that makes it unlawful for the company to resume pipeline construction in the basin. After the hearing, however, Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman said the company can still do "a whole lot of damage" if the 5th Circuit lifts the stay and allows the company to resume clearing a path for the pipeline in most of the basin. "What they wouldn't be able to do is actually finish the pipeline because they're prohibited from digging under the levees in a couple other places," he added. "We're in flood season. They can't finish the project until the end of the year at the very best, so there's no reason to lift the injunction." On Feb. 23, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick sided with environmental groups and issued a preliminary injunction that suspended work in the basin until the groups' lawsuit is resolved. The judge concluded the Bayou Bridge pipeline project's irreversible environmental damage outweighs the economic harm that a delay brings to the company. And last Thursday, she refused to suspend her own ruling while the company appeals it. In court filings, company attorneys claim Dick's ruling "fails the basic requirements" for issuing such an order. Judge W. Eugene Davis of the 5th Circuit said he hasn't heard much opposition to the judge's finding that the project was causing permanent harm to the basin. "The real issue is whether the mitigation is appropriate," he added. The company argues the Corps adequately considered measures to mitigate damage and offset the project's impacts. Environmental groups say Dick correctly concluded that the Corps failed to adequately analyze and explain its decision to allow Bayou Bridge to mitigate the destruction of swampland by purchasing "mitigation credits" in an area 55 miles (88 kilometers) from the project site. The basin accounts for approximately 23 miles (37 kilometers) of the pipeline's 162-mile-long (261-kilometer) path from Lake Charles to St. James Parish. Dick's order only applies to the basin and doesn't prevent the company from working elsewhere along the route. Sierra Club and other environmental groups sued the Corps of Engineers in January, saying it violated the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws when it approved a permit for the project. Dick 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 is a joint venture of Houston-based Phillips 66 and Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the company whose construction of the Dakota Access pipeline provoked violent clashes between protesters and police in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017. The Bayou Bridge pipeline is the last link in a network connecting the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota with Louisiana refineries and export terminals. Tennessee Missionary Baptist and Educational Convention will host the Adjourned Session April 9-12. The event will be held at First Baptist Church, 290 East Winchester St. in Gallatin, Tn. where Rev. Derrick Jackson is the host pastor. Rev. Breonus Mitchell, Sr. will speak Monday at 7 p.m. Rev. Dr. Edward Parker, Jr. will speak Tuesday at 6:15 p.m. Rev. Dr. Harold Middlebrook, Sr. will speak Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. and Elder Dr. Joe Maddox, president, will speak Thursday at 6:15 p.m. For more information call 615-254-3115. BEIRUT (AP) - A Lebanese stage actor indicted on charges of collaborating with Israel and drug possession has been released on Tuesday, effectively clearing him of the charges, while the officer who built the case against him was ordered detained. Ziad Itani, a stage actor from a prominent Sunni family in Beirut who was arrested in November, told reporters after his release that his indictment was a "scandal" and responded in the affirmative when he was asked if he had been tortured into confessing. Lebanon and Israel are formally at war and collaborating with Israel can be punishable by death. "I am a theater person, people! Why should I be accused of the worst crime ever?" he said. A Lebanese stage actor Ziad Itani, who was indicted on charges of collaborating with Israel and drug possession, flashes the victory signs after he was released by Lebanese authorities, on his arrival to his house, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Itani was released on Tuesday and cleared of charges, while the officer who built the case against him was ordered detained. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) Itani's arrest and subsequent release were heavily covered by local media, amid a struggle among political rivals with links to the country's various and often competing security agencies. The case was withdrawn from one security agency and passed on to another after irregularities emerged earlier this month. Lebanon will hold its first parliamentary elections in a decade later this year, pitting prominent Sunni families in Beirut against political rivals. Itani was received at home to a hero's welcome. A large poster near his house showed a picture of him with a caption reading: "Beirut with you." Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a Sunni, hugged Itani after his release from prison, airing their meeting on his official Twitter account. Hariri said "mistakes happen" and were later corrected. Later, Interior Minister Nehad Machnouk visited Itani at his home in Beirut. The office of the chief military prosecutor released a statement Tuesday saying it had ordered Itani's release. It didn't say why the security officer, Lt. Col. Suzan Hobeiche, the former head of the anti-cybercrime unit, had been arrested. Local media reported that Hobeiche had fabricated the case against Itani based on his public social media profile and contacts. Hobeiche has been held for interrogation for days. A court decision is still required for the case to be closed and for Itani to be cleared of all charges. SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - Vice President Mike Pence is planning to attend one of the South's biggest street parties: Savannah, Georgia's St. Patrick's Day parade. City spokeswoman Michelle Gavin announced at a news conference Tuesday that Pence and members of his family will join Mayor Eddie DeLoach for the festivities on Saturday. No other details were immediately available. Irish immigrants and their descendants have been celebrating the March 17 holiday in Savannah since 1824. The parade has grown into Savannah's largest tourist attraction, making it one of the South's biggest street parties after Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Organizers say they expect 500,000 or more people to attend the parade district this weekend. Gavin said it will be an honor to have Pence "shine a national spotlight" on Savannah's parade. The former student charged with killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month will face the death penalty, prosecutors said Tuesday. Nikolas Cruz, 19, is scheduled for formal arraignment Wednesday on a 34-count indictment, including 17 first-degree murder charges. Cruz's attorneys have said he would plead guilty if the death penalty was not pursued in the Valentine's Day massacre. The office of Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz filed the formal notice of its intentions Tuesday. The action by prosecutors Tuesday does not necessarily mean a plea deal will not be reached. Prosecutors announced Tuesday plans to seek the death penalty in the murder trial of Nikolas Cruz (pictured above in court on February 19) The only other penalty option for Cruz is life in prison with no possibility of parole. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN FLORIDA Florida is one of 31 states where the death penalty is legal. Of these 31 states, Florida is among a handful that carry out the death penalty the most frequently. Texas has issued the most death sentences out of any state, with 548 executions in its history. Next comes Virginia, Oklahoma and then Florida - which has executed a total of 96 people. Florida's most recent execution took place last month. Eric Branch, 47, was killed by lethal injection for the 1993 rape and murder of a University of West Florida student, Susan Morris. In order to receive the death penalty in Florida, prosecutors must prove that the crime was committed with certain exacerbating factors, such as the victim being a law enforcement officer, a child or an elderly person - or the crime being 'especially heinous, atrocious or cruel'. Advertisement Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing Cruz, has said there were so many warning signs that Cruz was mentally unstable and potentially violent, and that the death penalty might be going too far. Finkelstein said Cruz would likely plead guilty if prosecutors opt not to seek the death penalty. 'Because that's what this case is about. Not, did he do it? Not, should he go free? Should he live or should he die,' Finkelstein told The Associated Press last month. Finklestein's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, a student who is credited with saving the lives of 20 students by attempting to close and lock a classroom door during the attack was improving at a hospital. Anthony Borges, 15, was shot five times. Weeks after being shot, he fell critically ill of an intestinal infection. After surgeries, his condition was upgraded to fair, his attorney and the hospital said. His intestinal area has been sealed off and he is breathing on his own after being taken off a ventilator, family attorney Alex Arreaza said. Borges' family has filed notice that they will sue Florida authorities to seek money to cover the cost of his recovery. Meanwhile, Anthony Borges, 15, a student who is credited with saving the lives of 20 students by attempting to close and lock a classroom door during the attack was improving at a hospital. Weeks after being shot, he fell critically ill of an intestinal infection NEW YORK (AP) - A U.S. citizen convicted of joining al-Qaida and participating in a failed 2009 suicide bombing at an American military base in Afghanistan has been ordered to serve 45 years in prison. Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh was sentenced Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court. Farekh's case drew extra attention because of reports that American officials had initially debated whether to try to kill him in a drone strike, a step almost never taken against U.S. citizens. President Barack Obama's administration ultimately decided to try for a capture and civilian prosecution instead. The Houston-born defendant was captured in Pakistan and brought to the U.S. in 2015. Farekh's lawyer, Sean Maher, had argued the forensic evidence was too weak to convict him, calling fingerprint experts' testimony "junk science." Most of the charges against Farekh stemmed from an attack at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost City, Afghanistan, on Jan. 19, 2009. The attackers drove two vehicles rigged with explosives. An initial blast injured several Afghans, including a pregnant woman, but a much larger bomb failed to go off, sparing the lives of American soldiers. The jury heard testimony about how forensic technicians in Afghanistan recovered 18 of Farekh's fingerprints on packing tape used to bind the detonators on the unexploded bomb. Farekh was convicted of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, conspiracy to bomb a government facility and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. During the trial, the jury heard testimony from Zarein Ahmedzay, one of three men convicted in a thwarted plot to bomb New York's subway system. Ahmedzay told jurors he was trained by an al-Qaida operative identified by prosecutors as a co-conspirator of Farekh's who traveled with him from Canada to Pakistan in 2007. MIAMI (AP) - The Latest on the Florida school shooting (all times local): 2:50 p.m. A Florida man whose son and daughter survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School says he doesn't care if the alleged shooter faces life in prison or the death penalty. Ira Jaffe said in a statement Tuesday that he can see both sides of the death penalty debate but that he doesn't think anyone should spend any more time thinking about Nikolas Cruz. He says Cruz will rot in hell no matter when it is that he arrives there. Jaffe's statement came after prosecutors said they intend to seek the death penalty for Cruz. The former Stoneman Douglas student is charged with 17 counts of murder. His attorneys have said he is willing to plead guilty if they take the death penalty off the table. ___ Florida voters may get a chance to decide whether or not they want to approve new gun control restrictions. While Gov. Rick Scott just signed a new gun bill into law, the state's Constitution Revision Commission may vote to place gun restrictions on this year's ballot. The commission has the power to ask voters to approve changes to the state's constitution. Tony Montalto's daughter was one of 17 killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in February. He asked commissioners at a public hearing Tuesday to act because the National Rifle Association has filed a lawsuit against the new law. The commission will consider proposals that call for raising the age of weapon purchases to 21, banning bump stocks, a ban on types of semi-automatic rifles and extending the waiting period for gun purchases. It is expected to take a final vote on its proposals over the next few weeks. ___ 1:50 p.m. A 15-year-old student is improving after falling critically ill from an intestinal infection weeks after being shot five times at his Florida school shooting. Broward Health spokeswoman Jennifer Smith said Tuesday that Anthony Borges' condition has now been upgraded to fair. He had been in critical condition. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student is credited with saving the lives of 20 students by attempting to close and lock a classroom door during the Feb. 14 attack where 17 people were killed in Parkland. The family's attorney says that after surgeries, his intestinal area has been sealed off. Alex Arreaza says the student is breathing on his own after being taken off a ventilator. Borges' family has filed notice that they will sue Florida authorities to seek money to cover the cost of his recovery. ___ 1:35 p.m. Florida prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz in the fatal shooting of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The office of Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz filed the formal notice Tuesday. The 19-year-old Cruz is scheduled for formal arraignment Wednesday on a 34-count indictment, including 17 first-degree murder charges. Cruz's attorneys have said he would plead guilty if the death penalty was not pursued in the Valentine's Day massacre. The action by prosecutors Tuesday does not necessarily mean a plea deal will not be reached. The only other penalty option for Cruz is life in prison with no possibility of parole. WASHINGTON (AP) - Gina Haspel's colleagues describe her as a seasoned veteran who would lead the CIA with integrity. Human rights advocates see her as someone who supervised torture at a secret prison. President Donald Trump's pick to be the next - and first female - director of the clandestine agency has conflicting public reputations. If confirmed, the 61-year-old career spymaster will succeed Mike Pompeo, who is replacing ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Haspel didn't have to face a Senate confirmation hearing when she became deputy director of the agency in February 2017. To be director, she'll have to be confirmed by the Senate intelligence committee. That will likely mean questions about one of the darkest periods of the CIA's history. This March 21, 2017, photo provided by the CIA, shows CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, has been chief of station at CIA outposts abroad. President Donald Trump tweeted March 13, 2018, that he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the new secretary of state and that he would nominate Haspel to replace him. She has extensive overseas experience, including several stints as chief of station at outposts abroad.(CIA via AP) Haspel had a front-row seat to the CIA's use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects. Between 2003 and 2005, she oversaw a secret CIA prison in Thailand where terror suspects Abu Zubayadah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said. Waterboarding is a process that simulates drowning and is widely considered to be a form of torture. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, also helped carry out an order to destroy waterboarding videos. The order prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Haspel must explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program. "Current U.S. law is clear in banning enhanced interrogation techniques," said McCain, who was beaten as a prisoner during the Vietnam War. "Any nominee for director of the CIA must pledge without reservation to uphold this prohibition." Former CIA Director John Brennan declined to say what Haspel's exact role was in the interrogation program, but told NBC that she has a "lot of integrity" and has tried to carry out her agency duties "when asked to do difficult things in challenging times." He said her activities during the interrogation program will be closely scrutinized during her confirmation hearing, but he predicted she would be confirmed. "Gina is a very competent professional who I think deserves the chance to take the seat," Brennan said. Sen. Richard Burr, the chairman of the Senate committee that will vote whether to confirm Haspel, said she has the "right skill set, experience and judgment" to lead the CIA. While he would face steep legal and legislative hurdles to do so, Trump has said that he would reintroduce waterboarding and "a lot worse." His position has angered human rights advocates and they opposed his decision to put Haspel at the helm of the CIA. "No one who had a hand in torturing individuals deserves to ever hold public office again, let alone lead an agency," Human Rights First's Raha Wala said Tuesday. "To allow someone who had a direct hand in this illegal, immoral and counterproductive program is to willingly forget our nation's dark history with torture." Haspel may have to overcome some challenges with key U.S. allies. After Haspel was named deputy CIA director, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights asked German prosecutors to issue a warrant for her arrest over her role in the interrogations. Federal prosecutors never issued the warrant because the case lacked a connection to Germany. But the rights group's allegations against Haspel remain part of a preliminary investigation that German authorities could revive at a later date if they receive evidence that any of the parties have links to Germany. Last year, Haspel's name came up during a civil lawsuit in Spokane, Washington, filed by three men who said they suffered waterboarding, beatings and sleep deprivation in the CIA interrogation program developed by former Spokane psychologists James E. Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. Lawyers for the psychologists wanted to interview Haspel and another CIA official involved in the program, but government lawyers told the federal judge in the case that the officials and documents were protected under the state secrets privilege and making them public would threaten national security. Haspel has been chief of station at CIA outposts abroad. In Washington, she has held several senior leadership positions, including deputy director of the National Clandestine Service. In her current post, she worked with Pompeo to manage intelligence collection, analysis, covert action, counterintelligence and cooperation with the CIA's foreign counterparts. In a brief statement, the former undercover officer said she was "humbled" by Trump's confidence in her to lead the agency. ___ Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report. MEXICO CITY (AP) - Three state police officers in Mexico's Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo face administrative charges after photos posted on social media showed policemen posing for pictures with topless bathers. The state government wouldn't specify what the officers did, but it said late Monday the three "engaged in poor execution of their duty" in "acts that distracted them from their mission of protecting people." According to local media, what distracted them were some topless female bathers on a beach in Cancun. The photos showed fully clothed and armed police officers embracing the women and posing for photos. The state has stepped up police presence at resorts following a bomb explosion on a ferry in the nearby resort of Playa del Carmen on Feb 21 that injured more than two dozen people. That bombing, and the discovery of another unexploded device aboard another boat on March 2, has led to heightened tensions along the coast. On Monday, the state government reported a false alarm, when a citizen called in a report about a suspicious object in the water near a cruise ship dock on the island of Cozumel. The state police checked and found it was an oceanographic measuring device. LONDON (AP) - Russia on Tuesday dismissed accusations of any involvement in the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter as "nonsense," saying it will only cooperate with a British investigation if it receives samples of the nerve agent believed to have been used. Police, meanwhile, said the investigation of who poisoned Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, will last many weeks and that they are not ready to identify any persons of interest in the inquiry. The father and daughter remain in critical condition in a Salisbury hospital. British Prime Minister Theresa May said Russia's involvement is "highly likely," and she gave the country a deadline of midnight Tuesday to explain its actions in the case. She is reviewing a range of economic and diplomatic measures in retaliation for the assault with what she identified as the military-grade nerve agent Novichok. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gestures during a meeting with South Korean head of National Security Chung Eui-yong at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) U.S. and European officials were quick to offer words of support for Britain, which will need the backing of its allies if any new sanctions are to have any impact. Her Downing Street office said she discussed the Salisbury incident with U.S. President Donald Trump, and that the U.S. was "with the U.K. all the way" in agreeing that Russia "must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used." They also agreed on the need for "consequences" for those who use "heinous weapons in flagrant violation of international norms," the White House said. Earlier, Trump had said: "It sounds to me that they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that his country's requests to see samples of the nerve agent have been turned down. He insisted that Russia is "not to blame" for the poisoning. "We have already made a statement to say this is nonsense," he said. "We have nothing to do with this." The Russian Embassy in London tweeted that it will not respond to the ultimatum without the samples. Russian officials and media have responded with a variety of accusations against Britain in recent days, including suggestions that it was seeking to influence Sunday's election, which President Vladimir Putin is expected to win easily. James Nixey, head of the Russia program at the Chatham House think-tank, said May's response must be more than symbolic. "Will actions meet with responses which have real-world effects?" he said. "Or are we going to have more fudge?" Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said financial sanctions would be keys to a strong response. "Given that the regime is built on money - it's effectively a flow of money from the Russian people to Putin and from Putin to his acolytes - money matters," he said. "We have enormous amounts of control of a lot of people's assets through various means, and I think it's important we exercise that," Tugendhat said. "If you get the right people and you freeze their assets, it can make a lot of difference." The cases of other Russians who have died under mysterious circumstances also are being raised. British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said police and the domestic security service will look into 14 deaths in Britain that might be linked to Russia. "In the weeks to come, I will want to satisfy myself that the allegations are nothing more than that," Rudd said. "The police and MI5 agree and will assist in that endeavor." BuzzFeed News reported in 2017 that 14 deaths in Britain and the U.S. dating to 2006 may have been linked to Russia. Among them are prominent Putin critics, including oligarch Boris Berezovsky and whistleblower Alexander Perepilichny. The chief of the world's chemical weapons watchdog also said that those responsible "must be held accountable." In a speech Tuesday to the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called him Monday evening to inform him of the results of investigations. "It is extremely worrying that chemical agents are still being used to harm people. Those found responsible for this use must be held accountable for their actions," he said. Johnson also spoke with his French and German counterparts and to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as Britain sought Tuesday to rally international support. A statement from his office said British officials would brief NATO's political decision-making arm, the North Atlantic Council, on Wednesday. Stoltenberg and Johnson "agreed that Russian actions repeatedly threaten the security of NATO partners - from the Baltics, Balkans, Ukraine and Georgia - and NATO must stand as an alliance to call out Putin's behavior," the statement said. Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, was convicted of spying for Britain and then released in a spy swap. He had been living under his own name in Salisbury for eight years before the attack without attracting any public attention. Police are appealing to the public to come forward if they saw Skripal and his daughter driving in his red BMW in the early afternoon of March 4 in the city located 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of London. New counterterrorism chief Neil Basu, who referred to Skripal as a British subject and his daughter as a Russian national, also said Salisbury residents would see much police activity in the coming days and that they should not be alarmed. Some 38 people have been seen by medics in connection with the case. ___ Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka in London contributed. Police officers wear protective suits inside the fence of "Ashley Wood Recovery", a vehicle recovery business in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The use of Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter makes it "highly likely" that Russia was involved, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday. Novichok refers to a class of nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) Senior National Co-ordinator Neil Basu speaks to the media outside New Scotland Yard in London, Tuesday, March 13, 2018.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein) Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Downing Street to attend parliament for the Chancellors Spring Statement, in London, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. May said on Monday that Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter had been poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street after Prime Minister Theresa May summoned people to a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) to be briefed on the latest intelligence on the nerve agent poisoning attack on Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, in London Monday March 12, 2018. Prime Minister Theresa May updated lawmakers on Monday on the nerve-agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP) Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks in the House of Commons in London, Monday, March 12, 2018. British Prime Minister Theresa May says her government has concluded it is "highly likely" Russia is responsible for the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter. May told British lawmakers on Monday that Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were exposed to a nerve agent known as Novichok (Novice), a weapon developed in the Soviet Union in the end of the Cold War. (PA via AP) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gestures during a meeting with South Korean head of National Security Chung Eui-yong at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) Daffodils are placed by a police cordon backdropped by a tent covering the area where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill following exposure to the Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) New counter-terror chief Neil Basu speaks to the media outside New Scotland Yard in London, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Basu offered more details on the movements of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia before they were attacked in the English town of Salisbury on March 4. He appealed to the public to come forward if they saw the pair that day. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) New counter-terror chief Neil Basu speaks to the media outside New Scotland Yard in London, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Basu offered more details on the movements of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia before they were attacked in the English town of Salisbury on March 4. He appealed to the public to come forward if they saw the pair that day. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) The British Union flag flies from the front of a car as British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow attends a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, leaves after a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, leaves after a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, leaves after a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, leaves after a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow,Tuesday March 13, 2018. Russia will only cooperate with Britain on the investigation into last week's poisoning of an ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used, Russia's foreign minister Lavrov said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) Fire officers stand inside a cordon at the vehicle recovery business "Ashley Wood Recovery" in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The use of Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison former-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia makes it "highly likely" that Russia was involved, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday. Novichok refers to a class of nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. AP Photo/Matt Dunham) Police officers wear protective suits inside the fence of "Ashley Wood Recovery", a vehicle recovery business in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The use of Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter makes it "highly likely" that Russia was involved, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday. Novichok refers to a class of nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) MT. LEBANON, Pa. (AP) - A razor's edge separated Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone early Wednesday in their closely watched special election in Pennsylvania, where a surprisingly strong bid by first-time candidate Lamb severely tested Donald Trump's sway in a GOP stronghold. Lamb claimed victory before exuberant supporters after midnight, though many absentee ballots were still to be counted in the contest that has drawn national attention as a bellwether for the midterm elections in November when the Republican Party's House and Senate majorities are at risk. Lamb, a Marine veteran, told his crowd that voters had directed him to "do your job" in Washington. "Mission accepted," he declared. Earlier, Saccone told his own supporters, "It's not over yet, we're going to fight all the way, all the way to the end, we'll never give up." Conor Lamb, the Democratic candidate for the March 13 special election in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District, center, celebrates with his supporters at his election night party in Canonsburg, Pa., early Wednesday, March 14, 2018. A razor's edge separated Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone early Wednesday in their closely watched special election in Pennsylvania, where a surprisingly strong bid by first-time candidate Lamb severely tested Donald Trump's sway in a GOP stronghold. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Regardless of the outcome - and a recount was possible - Lamb's showing in a district Trump won by 20 points in the presidential race was sure to stoke anxiety among Republicans nationwide and renewed enthusiasm among Democrats. After midnight with all precincts reporting, unofficial results had Lamb leading Republican state Rep. Saccone by fewer than 600 votes. More than 1,000 absentee ballots were still being tabulated as the count carried into Wednesday. In a race this close, either candidate's supporters can ask for a recount. However there are stiff requirements, including requiring three voters in the same precinct who can attest that error or fraud was committed. The stakes in the high-profile special election were more political than practical. The ultimate winner will face re-election in just eight months, and the congressional district as currently shaped will likely vanish next year thanks to a court-ordered redrawing of the state's district maps. Yet President Trump and his chief allies invested tremendous time and resources in keeping the seat in Republican hands, mindful the contest could be used to measure Trump's lasting appeal among white, working-class voters and Democrats' anti-Trump fervor. The White House scrambled to rally voters behind Saccone, who cast himself as the president's "wingman," but he struggled at times to connect with the blue-collar coalition that fueled Trump's victory little more than a year ago. Lamb, a 33-year old former federal prosecutor, asserted his independence from the Democratic Party, courted labor backing and focused on local issues. He studiously downplayed his opposition to the Republican president in the district where Trump's support has slipped by not plummeted. "This didn't have much to do with President Trump," Lamb said Tuesday after casting his vote in suburban Pittsburgh. The president has campaigned in the district twice and sent several tweets on Saccone's behalf. Other recent visitors include the vice president, the president's eldest son, the president's daughter and the president's chief counselor. Outside groups aligned with Republicans poured more than $10 million of dollars into the contest. For Democrats, a win would reverberate nationwide, while even a narrow loss would be viewed as a sign of increased Democratic enthusiasm just as the midterm season begins. Lamb's excited supporters included his middle school football and basketball coach, Joe DelSardo, who recalled him as "a leader from the beginning." The former coach described the district as having "a lot of suit-and-tie people and people who dig in the dirt." Lamb, he said, "can talk to all of them, and that's why he can win." Registered Republican Brett Gelb said he voted for Saccone, largely because the Republican candidate promised to support the president. "Saccone backs a lot of President Trump's plans for the country," said Gelb, a 48-year-old fire technician who lives in Mt. Lebanon. He added, "I do think Trump is doing a good job. I think he needs backup." Democrats must flip 24 GOP-held seats this fall to seize control of the House, and months ago few had counted on the district to be in play. The seat has been in Republican hands for the past 15 years. It was open now only because longtime Republican congressman Tim Murphy, who espoused strong anti-abortion views, resigned last fall amid revelations of an extramarital affair in which he urged his mistress to get an abortion. With polls showing a tight race for months, Saccone tried to persuade the GOP-leaning electorate that their choice was about "making America great again," as the president repeatedly says. Saccone, a 60-year-old Air Force veteran turned state lawmaker and college instructor, enjoyed enthusiastic backing from the social conservatives who've anchored his state career. He's been perhaps at his most animated when emphasizing his opposition to abortion rights. Yet Saccone struggled to raise money and stir the same passions that helped Trump on his way to the White House. The consistent fundraising deficit left him with limited resources to air the message he delivered one-on-one: His four decades of experience in the private sector, international business and now the Legislature should make voters' choice a no-brainer. Lamb, meanwhile, excited core Democrats and aimed for independents and moderate Republicans. "We worked really hard for it," Lamb said after voting. National Republican groups filled airwaves and social media with depictions of the first-time candidate as little more than a lemming for Nancy Pelosi - the Democratic House leader that Republicans love to hate. Lamb answered the criticism by saying he wouldn't support Pelosi as floor leader, much less as speaker if the Democrats should retake control of the House. He also said he opposes major new gun restrictions - though he backs expanded background checks - and declared himself personally opposed to abortion, despite his support for its legality. Besides bruising the president, a Lamb defeat also could shake Republican self-assurance that their new tax law can shield them from other political woes. Lamb embraced Democratic orthodoxy on the new GOP tax law, hammering it as a giveaway to corporations at the future expense of Social Security, Medicare and the nation's fiscal security. And he embraces unions, highlighting Saccone's anti-labor record at the statehouse, which was a notable deviation from the retiring Murphy's status as a union-friendly Republican. The AFL-CIO counts 87,000 voters from union households - around a fifth of the electorate. ___ Peoples reported from New York. ___ Follow Barrow and Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BillBarowAP and https://twitter.com/timelywriter . Conor Lamb, the Democratic candidate for the March 13 special election in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District celebrates with his supporters at his election night party in Canonsburg, Pa., early Wednesday, March 14, 2018. A razor's edge separated Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone early Wednesday in their closely watched special election in Pennsylvania, where a surprisingly strong bid by first-time candidate Lamb severely tested Donald Trump's sway in a GOP stronghold. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) John Henninger, left, and Eric Larson, right, of Cecil Township, Pa., watches early returns at the election night party of Conor Lamb, the Democratic candidate for the special election in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District, in Canonsburg, Pa., Tuesday, March 13, 2018. The Pennsylvania congressional race between Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone remains too close to call, with local elections officials still counting absentee ballots late Tuesday. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Republican Rick Saccone thanks supporters at the party watching the returns for a special election being held for the Pennsylvania 18th Congressional District vacated by Republican Tim Murphy, Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in McKeesport, Pa. A razor's edge separated Democrat Conor Lamb and Saccone Tuesday night in their closely watched special election in Pennsylvania, where a surprisingly strong bid by first-time candidate Lamb was testing Donald Trump's sway in a GOP stronghold. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) A supporter for Republican Rick Saccone checks his phone at the candidate's returns party just after the polls closed in a special election being held for the PA 18th Congressional District vacated by Republican Tim Murphy, Tuesday, March 13, 2018 in McKeesport, Pa. Saccone is running against Democrat Conor Lamb. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) The icing of a cake at the election returns party has an image of Republican Rick Saccone, right, and his wife Yong Saccone in the center at the ballroom of the Youghiogheny Country Club as a crowd awaits returns in the special election for the Pennsylvania 18th Congressional District seat vacated by Republican Tim Murphy, Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in McKeesport, Pa. Saccone is running against Democrat Conor Lamb. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) - Election officials in Sierra Leone say balloting to choose the country's next president is heading to a second round in two weeks. Samura Kamara, outgoing President Ernest Bai Koroma's pick as successor, will face off against Julius Maada Bio, who lost to Koroma in 2012. Bio took 43.3 percent to Kamara's 42.7 percent in the first round of voting last week, according to results released late Tuesday. The two emerged from a crowded field of 16 candidates. The winner of the March 27 runoff will be tasked with helping the country continue to rebuild after the devastating 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic. The capital also was battered by a deadly mudslide in August that claimed some 1,000 lives. A Tennessee Reconnect information session, hosted by Chattanooga State Community College, will be held Saturday, April 7, 10 a.m. at Union Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 1800 N. Chamberlain Ave. Chattanooga State seeks to locate and re-engage adults as a part of Tennessee's Drive to 55 campaign. It is looking for qualifying students to help in financing the education they desire right now. Those interested in going back to school are invited to attend this free information session. For more information call 698-0337. KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - An expert witness for Secretary of State Kris Kobach in a trial over Kansas' voter registration law said Tuesday that he couldn't support Kobach's claim that more than 3 million noncitizens voted in the 2016 presidential election. Jesse Richman, an associate professor of political science at Old Dominion, also endured intense questioning from Dale Ho, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, about Richman's estimate that up to 18,000 noncitizens voted in Kansas, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported. Richman has offered various estimates, ranging from 1,000 up to 18,000, based on surveys he conducted and Kobach has said the 18,000 estimate is the best available number to show the law is needed to address widespread voter fraud. The ACLU is challenging a 2013 Kansas law that requires documents proving citizenship when registering to vote, and the outcome of the trial could determine if thousands of Kansans will be allowed to vote. Richman said he based his estimates on surveys he's conducted, although he acknowledged under cross-examination that his work was not peer reviewed and that 200 political scientists signed a letter criticizing his work. In one survey, Richman and a graduate assistant flagged names on the list of suspended voters in Kansas that sounded foreign. When American Civil Liberties Union attorney Dale Ho asked if the name "Carlos Murguia" would be flagged, Richman said yes. Ho told him Murguia is a federal judge in the courthouse where the trial is occurring. Under questioning from Kobach, Richman said he concentrated on finding foreign-sounding names to avoid incorrect sampling of people from different demographics and that he was not drawing conclusions about people's nationality. Ho showed a video of Kobach being interviewed by reporters in November 2016. In the video, Kobach defended a survey that said 11.3 percent of noncitizens reported voting in the U.S., which would mean at least 3 million illegal votes out of the estimated 28 million noncitizens nationwide. After the video, Richman said his study doesn't support that claim, and he isn't aware of any research that does. Richman's tense exchanges with Ho continued a strained atmosphere in the six-day trial, which included several angry exchanges between U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson and Kobach's legal team. Richman and Kobach have disagreed with Robinson's decision to exclude estimates of the number of noncitizen voters in Kansas that were updated from the 127 names presented before the trial began. Robinson and Kobach's team also have clashed repeatedly on Kobach's efforts to introduce evidence that was not offered before the trial began. ___ Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com BERLIN (AP) - Berlin police said Tuesday they are investigating social media users who spread false information about the killing of a teenage girl in the German capital last week. The killing of 14-year-old Keira G. in her home sparked a flurry of posts by far-right groups and individuals alleging the crime had been committed by a migrant, and accusing the authorities of hiding the culprit's identity. Berlin police spokesman Winfrid Wenzel called the allegations of a cover-up "absurd," noting that police are forbidden from releasing information if it might endanger an investigation. Even after an arrest, suspects are entitled to privacy protection, especially if they are minors, Wenzel said. In this Monday, March 12, 2018 photo candles are laid down at the entrance of a sports hall in Berlin, Germany to honor the 14 years old Berlin student Keira who was killed on March 7, 2018. (Paul Zinken/dpa via AP) A 15-year-old German suspect in the March 7 slaying was arrested Sunday. Among the social media users facing scrutiny is Lutz Bachmann, the co-founder of German anti-Muslim group PEGIDA, who posted a picture of an innocent boy with the words "beast from the Caucasus ... Chechen Muslim and ex-refugee." Bachmann later deleted the post, but could face charges of incitement to hatred, a crime of which he was convicted in 2016. Allegations against refugees were also circulated by members of Alternative for Germany, a right-wing nationalist party that placed third in last year's election after a campaign that focused strongly on crimes committed by migrants. While rates of violent crime in Germany have increased since the influx of more than a million refugees began three years ago, experts say migrants are no more likely to commit crimes than their German peers. Several high-profile cases involving refugees have stoked anti-migrant sentiment, especially on social media, prompting officials to warn of the possibility of vigilante violence. "What happens on the internet after a murder such as this is truly terrifying," Wenzel told The Associated Press, noting that the spreading of rumors and false information put additional pressure on investigators. "We have never experienced a murder case being politically exploited in such a way." He said there were "certain parallels" to the so-called Lisa case, involving a 13-year-old girl of Russian origin who allegedly was kidnapped and raped by migrants in Berlin two years ago. Right-wing groups, Russian state media and the country's foreign minister condemned the alleged attack. German police later concluded the girl had run away and made up the kidnapping story. WICHITA, Kansas (AP) - A Kansas official has debunked a widely shared story that recently resurfaced on Facebook about a woman named Dorothy whose Oklahoma home supposedly flew nearly 130 miles before landing outside Wichita. Sedgwick County spokeswoman Kate Flavin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the story is not true. The story was published in 2015 by the World News Daily Report and recently circulated again on Facebook. It claimed a woman named Dorothy Williams and four members of her family were carried in their Tulsa, Oklahoma, mobile home over northern Colorado before landing on an unoccupied car in Kansas. "This is false; it did not happen," Flavin wrote in an email, noting the publication's website states the content is not true. The story claims no one was injured in the home's 4-hour-plus flight amid winds that reached speeds of more than 220 mph. The story is accompanied with photos of storm damaged properties. The website includes a disclaimer that states, in part, that, "All characters appearing in the articles in this website - even those based on real people - are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle." ___ This is part of The Associated Press' ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform. UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations received 138 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in 2017, some involving multiple perpetrators and victims and over 40 percent arising from its peacekeeping missions, a U.N. report said Tuesday. The United Nations has been in the spotlight for several years over allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially those based in Central African Republic and Congo. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the report that the 62 allegations against personnel deployed in 10 peacekeeping missions and one political mission was a decrease from the 104 allegations reported in 2016. Guterres said 75 allegations involved personnel from other U.N. bodies and their partners, including 25 allegations involving organizations implementing U.N. programs. This was an increase from 42 such allegations reported in 2016. One allegation of sexual violence was made against a member of a non-U.N. force operating under a U.N. Security Council mandate, "a substantial decrease from the 20 allegations reported in 2016," Guterres said. The U.N. chief said much remains to be done "to ensure the United Nations has its own house in order" and his "zero tolerance" policy for sexual misconduct becomes a reality. "No individual serving under the United Nations flag should be associated with sexual exploitation and abuse," he said. "Combating this scourge continues to be one of my key priorities for 2018, as is assisting and empowering those who have been scarred by these egregious acts." A year ago, Guterres announced a new strategy for tackling sexual abuse and exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers and staff and he said in the report it "is bearing fruit." "Nevertheless, incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse continue to occur, causing damage and distress to the people we have pledged to protect," Guterres said in the report to the U.N. General Assembly. The strategy, with prevention and accountability "at the core," called for a new focus on victims and banned alcohol and fraternization for troops. Guterres said that last year a "no excuses" card outlining the responsibilities and obligations of all U.N. personnel in preventing and reporting sexual exploitation and abuse was distributed in the U.N.'s six official languages as well as local languages to all U.N. staff that operate in the field. He cited the appointment last August of the first-ever victims' rights advocate and the deployment of advocates in the field. And he welcomed the tripling of contributions to a trust fund to support victims in 2017, to $1.89 million in December. Last September, Guterres held a high-level meeting and asked leaders from the U.N.'s 193 member states to sign a voluntary compact on preventing and addressing sexual exploitation and abuse. He said 86 countries have done so, and he urged others to follow suit. The secretary-general said last year's data showed that 41 of the 62 allegations against personnel in peacekeeping and political missions involved 101 military personnel, 10 involved 23 police personnel, and 11 involved 11 civilian personnel. There were a total of 130 victims - 21 girls and 109 women, he said. Guterres said 23 of the allegations were related to paternity claims, and another was awaiting the birth of a child. He said investigations into 20 allegations received in 2017 were completed with 14 substantiated and six unsubstantiated. The data showed a decrease in allegations involving the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic, from 52 in 2016 to 19 in 2017. But the number of allegations increased in the U.N. missions in Liberia and Haiti, which Guterres said "may be attributable to the outreach efforts towards local communities prior to the closure of those missions." Countries that contribute peacekeeping troops are responsible for taking action in cases where sexual exploitation and abuse is substantiated. Guterres stressed the importance of holding perpetrators accountable and providing adequate assistance and support to victims. SAN DIEGO (AP) - America's Cup star Jimmy Spithill is headed to the Italian syndicate Luna Rossa, leaving the future of Oracle Team USA in doubt. Luna Rossa, backed by the Prada fashion house, announced Tuesday that Spithill, an Australian, has rejoined the syndicate after 11 years away. He was helmsman in the 2007 challenger trials, when Luna Rossa reached the finals before losing to Emirates Team New Zealand. Spithill's signing with Luna Rossa, which is the Challenger of Record for the 2021 America's Cup, raises questions about whether Oracle Team USA's owner, tech billionaire Larry Ellison, is finished with the America's Cup. FILE - In this June 16, 2017, file photo, Oracle Team USA skipper and helmsman Jimmy Spithill stands alongside the America's Cup trophy, known as the "Auld Mug," before a news conference in Hamilton, Bermuda. Spithill, who skippered Oracle Team USA to two landmark victories in the America's Cup, has joined Italian syndicate Luna Rossa. Luna Rossa, backed by the Prada fashion house, announced the hiring Tuesday, March 13, 2018. It's not clear whether Oracle Team USA's owner, tech billionaire Larry Ellison, will continue on in the America's Cup. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File) Spithill skippered Oracle Team USA to consecutive landmark America's Cup victories. As a 30-year-old in 2010, Spithill became the youngest skipper to win the America's Cup when he steered Oracle Team USA to victory over a Swiss crew in a one-off showdown that was the result of a bitter court fight. In 2013, he led Oracle Team USA to one of the biggest comebacks in sports. After Oracle fell behind 8-1, he steered the American-based boat to eight straight victories against Emirates Team New Zealand on San Francisco Bay to retain the Auld Mug. His third go-round with Oracle ended with a lopsided loss to the Kiwis in June in Bermuda. Spithill wasn't available for comment Tuesday, and representatives of Oracle Team USA didn't return emails seeking comment. Ellison reportedly is interested in putting together a series that will be contested in the 50-foot catamarans used in the 2017 America's Cup. The 2021 America's Cup will be sailed in radical foiling monohulls. ___ Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/berniewilson FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2013, file photo, Jimmy Spithill, skipper of Oracle Team USA, answers a question during a press conference at the America's Cup sailing event in San Francisco. Jimmy Spithill, who skippered Oracle Team USA to two landmark victories in the America's Cup, has joined Italian syndicate Luna Rossa. Luna Rossa, backed by the Prada fashion house, announced the hiring Tuesday, March 13, 2018. It's not clear whether Oracle Team USA's owner, tech billionaire Larry Ellison, will continue on in the America's Cup. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File) FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Three men have been convicted in the fatal shooting of a Florida deputy in 2006. The Sun Sentinel reports that Eloyn Ingraham, Bernard Forbes and Andre Delancy were each convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder and other charges. Authorities say Ingraham was a passenger in a vehicle that Broward County Deputy Brian Tephford pulled over near an apartment complex in November 2006. Prosecutors say Ingraham used his cellphone to call Forbes and Delancy, who showed up and opened fire. Tephford was killed, and another deputy who responded as backup was injured. Ingraham, Forbes and Delancy are all eligible for the death penalty. A jury will determine their punishment later. ___ Information from: Sun Sentinel , http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld the bulk of Texas' crackdown on "sanctuary cities" in a victory for the Trump administration as part of its aggressive fight against measures seen as protecting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans allows Texas to enforce what critics call the toughest state-level immigration measure since Arizona passed what critics called a "Show Me Your Papers" law in 2010. The law allows police officers to ask people during routine stops whether they're in the U.S. legally and threatens sheriffs with jail time for not cooperating with federal immigration authorities. The ruling comes a week after the U.S. Justice Department - which had joined Texas in defending the law known as Senate Bill 4 - sued California over state laws aimed at protecting immigrants. "Dangerous criminals shouldn't be allowed back into our communities to possibly commit more crimes," Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in response to the decision. Leading the lawsuit were Texas' largest cities- including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin - in a state where the Hispanic population has grown at a pace three times that of white residents since 2010. Under the Texas law, local authorities who fail to honor federal requests to hold people jailed on offenses that aren't immigration related for possible deportation can be fined. Police chiefs, sheriffs and constables could also now face removal from office and even criminal charges for failing to comply with such federal "detainer" requests. Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said they were disappointed in the ruling and will closely monitor how the law is implemented. The only part of the Texas law removed by the court was a portion prohibiting local officials from "endorsing" policies that limit immigration enforcement. "This is the toughest state law in the country," he said. ___ Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber KT Tunstall is to be the first woman to lead New Yorks annual Tartan Day parade. The musician has been named Grand Marshal for the event, which marks its 20th anniversary next month. Tartan Week was set up to celebrate Scottish heritage in the US and the centre-piece parade has previously been led by actors including Sir Sean Connery, Alan Cumming and Brian Cox. Alan Cumming is among those to have previously led the New York parade (Debra.L.Rothenberg/PA) Tunstall said: Im delighted to participate in this twenty-year tradition and very proud to be the first female solo Grand Marshal. It is especially meaningful to step into this role with the movement for gender equality picking up great speed all over the world. Im always happy to celebrate my roots as a Scottish musician, and Ive never felt more empowered in my own career than I do now, its an exciting time. We are proud to announce Award-winning Scottish singer-songwriter @KTTUNSTALL as our first female Grand Marshal to lead the NYC Tartan Day Parade. pic.twitter.com/QTg7m7NVvh NYCTartanWeek (@nyctartanweek) March 12, 2018 This years parade will be held on April 7 with pipe bands from the US, Canada and Scotland performing on a march up Sixth Avenue. Organisers said the 2017 parade drew more than 3,500 participants and 30,000 spectators. An SNP MSP has lodged a formal complaint over shamed former minister Mark McDonalds return to Holyrood. James Dornan said the presence of his ex-party colleague would be a clear negation of the duty of care the Scottish Parliament has to its staff. Mr McDonald quit his ministerial role and the SNP after admitting inappropriate behaviour towards women. Mark McDonald (Andrew Milligan/PA) However he intends to sit as an independent MSP for Aberdeen Donside, and is due to return to the Parliament on Tuesday. In a letter to the Standards Committee, Mr Dornan said: In my view having Mr McDonald in the same workplace as his victims would be a clear negation of the duty of care that the Parliament has to all its members of staff. The SNP MSP for Glasgow Cathcart said action must be taken to ensure staff members safety and wellbeing. I look forward to your committee giving this matter speedy and serious consideration, and would appreciate a timely response on this pressing matter, he added. James Dornan (Scottish Parliament/PA) Pressure has been mounting on Mr McDonald to resign his seat after he quit his party and apologised last week. An internal investigation for the SNP into allegations made by three women identified persistent behaviour including inappropriate and unwanted text messages, unwanted attention and exploiting his position of power. The married father-of-two had already resigned as childcare minister when the allegations first emerged in November. First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon alongside several MSPs and MPs has urged him to leave Holyrood. Scottish Labours Rhoda Grant said his behaviour has clearly been unacceptable and he should stand down. Following today's revelations I have appealed to Mark McDonald to stand down as an MSP. Mark McDonalds behaviour has been unacceptable, as it would be in any workplace.https://t.co/vdIFMCaoyi pic.twitter.com/lk6bAudtlt Willie Rennie (@willie_rennie) March 12, 2018 However Mr McDonald has insisted his return is morally justified. He told Radio Scotlands Good Morning Scotland programme: Morally I can justify it because, as I have said, my approach to this has been to own the mistakes that I have made but to demonstrate that I have learned from them and that I am capable of changing as a result of those. I am asking people to afford me that opportunity, and I hope that people will do that. I accept that many relationships are going to have to be rebuilt some people will want nothing to do with me and I have to regretfully accept that, but there are some people who I think will want to offer me that opportunity to demonstrate that Ive learned from this and that Ive changed. A Scottish Parliament spokeswoman added: We can confirm that the Convener of the SPPA committee has received a letter from Mr Dornan. It will now be for the Committee to decide how its wishes to proceed when it meets on Thursday. The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry are set to host police officers, staff and volunteers honoured by the Metropolitan Police. Winners of the Met Excellence Awards will attend a reception at Kensington Palace hosted by the pair, who will congratulate them on their hard work and achievements. The seventh annual awards ceremony, held on Friday, celebrated the work of police officers in London. The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry will honour police officers at a reception (PA) Winners were chosen in 13 categories, including police officer of the year and investigation of the year. Officers, staff, volunteers and cadets from across the Met have been honoured at the annual Excellence Awards ceremony in London today https://t.co/EIShIZ41Bd pic.twitter.com/nGOZdl9wMb Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) March 9, 2018 Pc Keith Palmer was posthumously honoured at the ceremony for his heroic response during the Westminster terror attack. The officer, who was stabbed to death when he confronted attacker Khalid Masood outside the Houses of Parliament last March, was named the winner of the outstanding bravery of the year prize. Most of us cant not believe in God. Not at this point. Its just that we can come to believe, as CS Lewis did in the wake of his brides passing, the most dreadful things about Him. Sorrows churn our insides. Inexplicable losses and lives ripped away decimate us. Local traumas and national tragedies conspire with the drizzle of disappointment, chronic pain, or dismay of our waking hours to make us wonder, just how good our Lord is...and if he is even there. Or cares. During this 40 day wilderness season before Easter called Lent, we look in slow motion at Gods take on migraines, arthritis and the devastating fragility we encounter in our many sufferings. We see Gods take in the life of Jesus who was expert in offering fervent cries and tears to the One who could save him from death. And in our congregation, I have been sharing daily Lenten prayers Ive composed via email with those wanting to pay special attention to God in prayer together for this 40 day season. Today, I share one such prayer with you. Its scaffolding comes from a running dialogue with Christ that Augustine relays in his Confessions. And it is fitting, for such is precisely how prayer often works as anyone who ever gives it a whirl in earnest will come to discover. Prayer is rarely, neat and orderly, but is, instead, frequently like a meandering conversation, filled with shouts, cries, pleas, silences, and questions, just to mention a few of its robust elements. Im drawn to the urgency of it. Augustine knew that prayer is an urgent matter...and his demands, as Im sure theyve been for you at times, were fueled by a burning necessity--that God himself communicate to his very soul. Listen to him wrestle verbally with God in prayer: Oh! How shall I find rest in You? Who will send You into my heart to inebriate it, so that I may forget my woes, and embrace You my only good? What are You to me? Have compassion on me, that I may speak. What am I to You that You demand my love, and unless I give it You art angry, and threaten me with great sorrows? Is it, then, a light sorrow not to love You? Alas! Alas! Tell me of Your compassion, O Lord my God, what You are to me. Say unto my soul, I am your salvation. So speak that I may hear. Behold, Lord, the ears of my heart are before You; open them, and say unto my soul, I am your salvation. When I hear, may I run and lay hold on You. Hide not Your face from me. Let me die, lest I die, if only I may see Your face. I reckon we ourselves need no less than to hear again God tell us of His compassion. So lets begin afresh today. And remember, like Eugene Peterson has taught us, There are no experts in the company of Jesus. We are all beginners. As you pray (if you choose to pause a moment and give it a go) realize we approach, even with heaviness of heart, a God wholl draw near. Only it isnt a god of the philosophers concoction or of popular imagination. As poet Jane Kenyon grasped, it isnt a god like that, far away and aloof, at all: The God of curved space, the dry God, is not going to help us, but the son whose blood spattered the hem of his mother's robe. Its a graphic image. But important to remember with the wounds of our bleeding world and in the midst of our very own that we cry out to a Savior whose blood splattered the hem of his mothers robe. A PRAYER FOR A TUESDAY IN LENT 2018 Father of compassions that fail not, I want to be near to you this day. So I call to you. You, O Lord, are near to all who call on you... Be near to me this day. Let your tender regard, soft yet sturdy as it is, somehow overpower every rival voice bullying me around this morning. Tell me of Your compassion, O Lord my God, what You are to me....Say unto my soul, I am your salvation. So speak that I may hear. Behold, Lord, the ears of my heart are before You; open them, and say unto my soul, I am your salvation. Lord, all around me, injury multiplies and sorrows compound. Our own community has in it grieving, aching, empty, devastated people who are precious to you and to me. You are near to the broken-hearted. You save those crushed in spirit. Lord, I would be today like those friends who had to get their paralyzed friend to you so desperately, that when the crowd blocked their path to you, they dug a hole in the roof. I bring to you the injured, wounded, sorrowful, discouraged in my life by name....I have to get them to YOU. You can heal them. You can tell them of your compassion. You can convince them that You are their salvation. (Spend a few moments imagining that you are bringing friends, co-workers, neighbors, or anyone that is brought to mind, to Christ himself, so Christ may heal them, help them, and be the lifter of their heads with his compassionate nearness and healing touch...ask Him to act in their lives...) Lord, hear these prayers. Help these friends whom I bring to you. Surprise them with your nearness, your wonders, and your rescue. And as the Psalmist prayed (Psalm 143), today Lord: Answer me quickly, Lord; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. Let (this) morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Rescue me from my enemies, Lord, for I hide myself in you. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. As I go out to the demands, worries, troubles, and goodnesses that await today: please answer me and give me continued confidence to ask you for much, and please show me your face and introduce others to your compassionate self through my words and ways, and please bring me a full measure of your affirming affection... for to you O Lord, I lift up my soul. May Your voice, Your ways, and Your influence be supremely valuable to me. Father, Say unto my soul, I am your salvation. So speak that I may hear. Behold, Lord, the ears of my heart are before You; open them, and say unto my soul, I am your salvation. When I hear, may I run and lay hold of You. Amen ------ Contact Eric Youngblood, pastor of Rock Creek Fellowship on Lookout Mountain, at eric@rockcreekfellowship.org Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon are set to walk the red carpet in London for the European premiere of their film A Wrinkle In Time. Mindy Kaling and Storm Reid will also be at the event at BFI Imax, Waterloo, on Tuesday alongside director Ava DuVernay. Based on the book by Madeleine LEngle, the adventure follows a girl who sets off to find her missing father, aided by three celestial guides. Oprah Winfrey (PA) The teaser trailer for Disneys A Wrinkle in Time is here. Watch it now and see the film in theatres March 9, 2018. #WrinkleInTime pic.twitter.com/N3JELMnhdV A Wrinkle In Time (@WrinkleInTime) July 15, 2017 Disney is partnering with The Female Lead, a platform that celebrates womens stories and showcases the lesser-known successes of women, for the premiere event. There will be a panel discussion before the film chaired by Sunday Times Style editor and cultural Lorraine Candy with DuVernay, Winfrey, Witherspoon, Kalin and Reid, plus Edwina Dunn, the founder of The Female Lead. The discussion will focus on what younger generations will take from the film and addresses why role models and stories from women are so important to inspire other women. A Wrinkle In Time will be released in cinemas on March 23. Retailer French Connection has said it is very close to returning to profit, but continues to shut stores and said Britains battered high street would remain under pressure. The fashion chain saw annual pre-tax losses nearly halve to 2.3 million from 5.3 million the previous year as it axed loss-making stores and overhauled ranges. On an underlying basis, its operating losses narrowed to just 600,000, down from 3.7 million the previous year. Retailer French Connection has said it is `very close to returning to profit, but continues to shut stores (Nick Ansell/PA) Shares surged 16% after the results. Retail like-for-like sales grew 0.8% over the year to January 31 in a particularly challenging UK retail market a marked slowdown on the 4.4% rise seen the previous year. An 8.6% surge in wholesale revenues helped boost overall group sales, up 0.5% to 154 million. French Connection said there was unlikely to be any let-up in the tough trading hammering British retailers, but put faith in its ongoing turnaround plans and store overhaul to help it weather the storm. Chairman and chief executive Stephen Marks said: Our goal has been to return the group to profitability and I believe we are very close to achieving that aim, given the momentum that we are currently seeing within the business. While it is clear that the retail market in which we are operating in the UK is unlikely to improve in the near future, we have clear visibility on the benefits we will obtain from the ongoing portfolio rationalisation. The group also revealed it received an unwanted takeover approach from an unnamed US suitor last year, but said it did not lead to a formal offer despite months of talks. French Connection closed 11 stores and concessions over the last financial year and said it would continue to axe unprofitable sites, with an ultimate aim to have around 30 full-price stores by the end of next January. This is down from 65 full-price stores in 2013 and around 36 currently. Overall, the group has 116 stores and concessions and a further 212 franchised outlets down by 6.5% and 26% respectively over the past financial year. However, it opened its first new store in years in Manchester last November as part of its strategy to open bricks and mortar sites in appropriate locations that will trade profitably. Mr Marks, who launched the business 44 years ago and holds a 41% stake, has been leading an overhaul to revive French Connections fortunes after it struggled to compete with fast-fashion brands such as ASOS and Zara. Last year it came under heavy fire from investors, with activist investor Gatemore Capital Management calling for a break-up of the company and for Mr Marks to give up his double role as chairman and chief executive. The UK will come to regret its decision to leave the European Union, Brussels top official has claimed. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said things cannot remain as they are for the UK in its relationship with the EU after leaving the bloc. Addressing the European Parliament, Mr Juncker was cheered by Eurosceptic MEPs as he noted the UKs departure was due on March 29 2019. Jean-Claude Juncker has suggested the UK will regret Brexit (John Stillwell/PA) Responding to their applause, Mr Juncker said the time would come when you will regret your decision. President @JunckerEU and @MichelBarnier are in the #EPlenary to discuss the guidelines on the framework of future EU-UK relations #Brexit https://t.co/uOcKQTsv3Q European Commission (@EU_Commission) March 13, 2018 In a message to Theresa May who had hoped her Mansion House speech had provided further information on her plans Mr Juncker said the EU needed more clarity on how the UK sees its future relationship. And he insisted the EU was united over the issue of the Irish border, one of the main issues in the negotiation. Mr Juncker said cherry-picking is not going to be possible in the future trade relationship between the UK and EU. I would rather have preferred Britain not to have decided to leave the European Union, but anyone who leaves the European Union has to know, frankly, what this means, he said. If you decide to jettison, leave behind, the common agreements and rules, then you have to accept that things cannot remain as they are. The European Parliament plays a crucial role in the ongoing #Brexit negotiations. Watch our video to find out how and tune in for the plenary debate on EU-UK future relations today at 9am CET. pic.twitter.com/z0PDCGsXIh European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) March 13, 2018 Mr Juncker said the controversial backstop proposal for dealing with the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic translates faithfully the agreement reached between Mrs May and the EU in December. He said the EU was ready to work with the UK on its preferred option of the border issue being resolved in the future trade deal, or by other specific measures. But he added we need to receive concrete proposals from the UK first. Mr Juncker said: The 27 member states stand firm and united when it comes to Ireland. For us this is not an Irish issue, it is a European issue. But he was heckled by one MEP who shouted it is a British issue. The European Parliaments Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt also called for more details from the Prime Minister. He said: There was this Mansion House speech by Mrs May, but it was mainly repeating the red lines that we know already. The Prime Minister had said we cannot accept the rights of Canada and then the obligations of Norway but I dont think that we have ever presented that proposal to the UK side, Mr Verhofstadt said. I think the UK side have to understand that the opposite is also not possible you cannot have the rights of Norway and then the obligations of Canada. On #Brexit, its time to go beyond slogans & sound bites, from all sides. Thats what we do in this resolution. We present an architecture, a concept, a vision for the future, a plan that matches the red lines of the UK w/ the principles on which the EU has been built #EPlenary Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) March 13, 2018 Mr Verhofstadt said it was time to move beyond slogans and soundbites. He has put forward a motion to the European Parliament for an association agreement to deal with the future UK-EU relationship. But it insists on a binding interpretation role for the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and rejects UK efforts to cherry-pick single market access for particular sectors, such as the financial services industry. The Parsons Green bomber has told jurors he was never taken prisoner by Islamic State and had not had any contact with the terror group. Iraqi asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan arrived in Britain in October 2015 and went on to tell immigration officials he had been forced to train to kill by IS, the Old Bailey has heard. Then on September 15 last year, the 18-year-old media student planted 400g of homemade explosives and shrapnel on a District line Tube timed to go off when it reached the west London stop, the court has heard. Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Ahmed Hassan (Elizabeth Cook/PA) When he was picked up at the port of Dover the following morning, he told police he had made the bomb, which only partially exploded on the packed rush hour service. Giving evidence in his defence, Hassan told how he was born in Baghdad. His mother died when he was young and his taxi driver father was killed in an explosion in 2006, he said. So far as Im aware, I was told that he died in an explosion while he was working as a taxi driver. He used to go to work and come back evenings and then he did not come back. It was very difficult. I did not understand what was going on. I was in a state of confusion because of fighting, because of bombing. Hassan told jurors he moved to northern Iraq with his uncle and older brother, and from the age of 12 worked ferrying goods such as vegetables across the border with Iran. The defendant said he decided to leave Iraq because he wanted a better life. He said: I wanted studying, I wanted to learn English and there was so much pressure on me to keep on with my job. He smuggled himself to Britain by train and on a lorry at the age of 16, he said. Hassan, who was living with foster parents in Sunbury, Surrey, has denied attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion that was likely to endanger life. The teenager told jurors he made up a story about being kidnapped by IS to get leave to remain in Britain. Asked why, he said: Because I came from a wealthy, safe area in northern Iraq in Kurdistan and if I told the truth, my only reason to leave the country was to further my studies I felt I had to make up something strong. In the jungle in Calais, people used to talk about these things and make up stories. I never came across a refugee who said he would tell the truth when he arrived in the country. The UK will come to regret its decision to leave the European Union, Jean-Claude Juncker has suggested. European Commission president Mr Juncker said things cannot remain as they are for the UK in its relationship with the EU after leaving the bloc. Addressing the European Parliament, Mr Juncker was cheered by Eurosceptic MEPs as he noted the UKs departure was due on March 29 2019. Jean-Claude Juncker issued a stark warning to the UK over Brexit (Matt Cardy/PA) Responding to their applause, Mr Juncker said the time would come when you will regret your decision. But former Ukip leader Nigel Farage claimed the European Commission was seeking to bully the UK and suggested Theresa May should back a departure from the bloc without a transition deal. In a message to Mrs May ahead of next weeks European Council summit, Mr Juncker said the EU needed more clarity on how the UK sees its future relationship. Mr Juncker said cherry-picking is not going to be possible in the future trade relationship between the UK and EU. I would rather have preferred Britain not to have decided to leave the European Union, but anyone who leaves the European Union has to know, frankly, what this means, he said. If you decide to jettison, leave behind, the common agreements and rules, then you have to accept that things cannot remain as they are. The European Parliament plays a crucial role in the ongoing #Brexit negotiations. Watch our video to find out how and tune in for the plenary debate on EU-UK future relations today at 9am CET. pic.twitter.com/z0PDCGsXIh European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) March 13, 2018 Mr Juncker said the controversial backstop proposal for dealing with the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic translates faithfully the agreement reached between Mrs May and the EU in December. He said the EU was ready to work with the UK on its preferred option of the border issue being resolved in the future trade deal, or by other specific measures. But he added we need to receive concrete proposals from the UK first. Mr Juncker said: The 27 member states stand firm and united when it comes to Ireland. For us this is not an Irish issue, it is a European issue. But he was heckled by one MEP who shouted it is a British issue. Brussels chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Mrs Mays decision to leave the single market and customs union was closing doors to possible models of future co-operation. Mr Barnier added that it was a rather surprising idea to think the EU could accept convergence in some areas and at the same time open up the possibility for divergence when there is a comparative advantage to be had for the UK. Its time to face up to the hard facts, he said. The UK is choosing to leave the union, the single market and the customs union, we have noted that. Do they also want to distance themselves from our regulatory model, the one that we have constructed together with you and you with us for 44 years? He questioned whether that could result in the UK dumping products on EU markets by diverging from the blocs economic and social model after Brexit. The European Parliaments Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt also called for more details from the Prime Minister. He said: There was this Mansion House speech by Mrs May, but it was mainly repeating the red lines that we know already. On #Brexit, its time to go beyond slogans & sound bites, from all sides. Thats what we do in this resolution. We present an architecture, a concept, a vision for the future, a plan that matches the red lines of the UK w/ the principles on which the EU has been built #EPlenary Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) March 13, 2018 Mr Verhofstadt said it was time to move beyond slogans and soundbites. His European Parliament motion calls for an association agreement to deal with the future UK-EU relationship. But it insists on a binding interpretation role for the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and rejects UK efforts to cherry-pick single market access for particular sectors, such as the financial services industry. Theresa May should take @realDonaldTrump's lead and stand up to the unelected European Commission bullies at next week's EU summit. pic.twitter.com/1uRPsTCxCS Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) March 13, 2018 Mr Farage, a supporter of US President Donald Trump, said the UK should leave the EU without a transition deal and claimed a transatlantic trade deal could be struck in 48 hours. He said: Mrs May, we did not vote for a transition period, we voted to leave this organisation, we voted to leave the customs union, we voted to leave the single market. Please Mrs May, at this summit next week, do what Trump has done stand strong against the European Commission, against the unelected bullies. US defence secretary Jim Mattis believes victory in Afghanistan is still possible, though not necessarily on the battlefield but in facilitating a Taliban reconciliation with the countrys government. Mr Mattis was speaking shortly before arriving in Kabul, amid high security concerns, where he will meet President Ashraf Ghani and top US commanders. He said we do look towards a victory in Afghanistan. However, he added that it would not be a military victory but the victory will be a political reconciliation with the Taliban, which has achieved a stalemate in recent years and shown little interest in conceding to the Kabul government. Jim Mattis arrives in Kabul where he will meet Afghan president Ashraf Ghani and US commanders (AP Photo/Robert Burns) Mr Mattis, a retired marine general who commanded US troops in southern Afghanistan in the opening weeks of the war in 2001, said getting the Taliban to reconcile en masse may be a bridge too far. So the emphasis is on drawing in Taliban elements piecemeal. He described this approach as an effort to start peeling off those who are tired of fighting after more than 16 years of war. We know there is interest on the Taliban side, he said. He defined victory in Afghanistan as a political settlement between the Taliban and the government, and an Afghan military that is capable of securing the country largely on its own. At that point, he said, Afghanistan would not be a haven for attacks internationally as it was when al Qaida used the country as a launching pad for the attacks of September 11 2001. US intelligence officials are predicting the war will remain stalemated as the traditionally most intensive fighting season begins this spring. The visit is Mr Mattiss second since President Donald Trump announced last August that, despite his instinct to pull US troops out of Afghanistan, his administration would take a more aggressive approach to the conflict, now in its 17th year. As part of an effort to bolster Afghan fighting strength, the US in recent weeks sent an army group of about 800 soldiers, accompanied by several hundred support troops, to advise the Afghans closer to the front lines. The US also shifted A-10 attack planes and other aircraft from striking Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan as part of Mr Trumps new approach. These and other moves boosted the number of US troops in Afghanistan by at least 3,500 to a total of more than 14,000. Mr Mattis has said that the US goal is to enable Afghan forces to weaken the Taliban to the point where the Afghans can manage their own security. Put another way, the aim is to convince the insurgents they cannot win on the battlefield, thus driving them to reconcile with the Afghan government. The Parsons Green bomber has told jurors he lied to officials about being kidnapped by Islamic State because he wanted to study in Britain to become the new David Attenborough. Iraqi asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan arrived in October 2015 and went on to tell immigration officials he had been forced to train to kill by IS, the court has heard. Then on September 15 last year, the 18-year-old media student planted 400g of homemade explosives and shrapnel on a District Line tube timed to go off when it reached the west London stop, the Old Bailey has heard. When he was picked up at the port of Dover the following morning he told police he had made the bomb, which only partially exploded on the packed rush hour service. Giving evidence in his defence, Hassan told jurors he was never taken prisoner by IS. Tim Moloney QC, defending, asked: Were you ever mistreated by Isis? Hassan replied: No. I have never had any contact with Daesh at all. He told jurors he made up the story about being kidnapped by IS to get leave to remain in Britain. Asked why, he said: Because I came from a wealthy safe area in northern Iraq in Kurdistan and if I told the truth my only reason to leave the country was to further my studies I felt I had to make up something strong. In the jungle in Calais people used to talk about these things and make up stories. I never came across a refugee who said he would tell the truth when he arrived in the country. I wanted to go to university and my ultimate goal was to become a wildlife photographer like David Attenborough. Court sketch of Ahmed Hassan (Elizabeth Cook/PA) Hassan told how he was born in Baghdad in Iraq. His mother died when he was young and his taxi driver father was killed in an explosion in 2006, he said. So far as Im aware I was told that he died in an explosion while he was working as a taxi driver. He used to go to work and come back evenings and then he did not come back. It was very difficult. I did not understand what was going on. I was in a state of confusion because of fighting, because of bombing. Hassan moved to northern Iraq with his uncle and older brother and from the age of 12 worked ferrying goods like vegetables across the border with Iran. The defendant said he decided to leave Iraq because he wanted a better life. He said: I wanted studying, I wanted to learn English and there was so much pressure on me to keep on with my job. He smuggled himself to Britain by train and on a lorry at the age of 16, he said. After he began a course at Brooklands College in Weybridge, Hassan would snap pencils in class when he felt angry. He spent three days in hospital because he considered to commit suicide, he said. But Hassan told jurors he enjoyed studying photography when he was at Brooklands College in Weybridge. He said: I enjoyed being behind the camera rather than in front of the camera. The court was shown a series of pictures taken by Hassan, some of deer in Richmond Park, West London. As a secret sideline, Hassan said he sold mobile phones online making 100 a week. He said: I kept it secret because I was not allowed to make money. Hassan said it felt good to be nominated when he won student of the year in June 2017, adding he took the same title six years in a row in Iraq. He has continued his studies while in prison so his academic year is not wasted, he said. Hassan, who was living with foster parents in Sunbury, Surrey, has denied attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion that was likely to endanger life. President Trump has appeared to back the British Government in the row with Moscow over the Salisbury nerve gas attack, saying: It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all of the evidence they have. He was questioned after he sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just hours after Mr Tillerson strongly supported the UK. The President told reporters outside the White House: Theresa May is going to be speaking to me today. It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact. The President, who had initially avoided blaming the Kremlin over the assassination attempt against former double agent Sergei Skripal, had announced on Twitter that Mr Tillerson would be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo. The Washington Post reported that the decision was made on Friday and Mr Trump said he and Mr Tillerson, who had reportedly once called the President a moron, had been talking about this for a long time and had disagreed on issues like the Iran deal. But with the Trump camps links with Moscow facing continued scrutiny, the timing of the announcement prompted questions about the Presidents support for the UK in the row with Russia. The former chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Mike Gapes said it appeared that Mr Tillerson may have suspected he was about to be sacked at the time he made his statement backing the UK. It looks as though he used one of his last acts in post to do the right thing and say the right thing about the attempted murders in Salisbury, Mr Gapes told the Press Association. The news came as the international community rallied round Britain after the first use of this kind of weapons grade nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War. A huge police inquiry was launched after Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on March 4. They remain in a critical condition. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was part of the initial police response, is in a serious but stable condition. Head of counter-terrorism policing Neil Basu gives an update at Scotland Yard (Kirsty OConnor/PA) The UKs head of counter-terrorism policing Neil Basu said the investigation will take many weeks. Speaking at Scotland Yard, he explained that the investigators prime focus is how the poison was administered. He said Miss Skripal had flown to the UK the day before the attack and police are also are focusing on Mr Skripals red BMW and appealing for any witnesses who saw the pair in the car between 1pm and 1.45pm on the day of the poisoning to come forward. The episode has left Britains relations with Moscow, which were already under severe strain, at breaking point. On Monday, Prime Minister Theresa May set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for the Russians to provide a credible explanation as to why deadly Novichok was used on UK soil. Peter Wilson, the UK Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told fellow delegates: I did not expect to have to brief this Council on the first offensive use of a nerve agent of any sort on European territory since World War Two. The stark conclusion is that it is highly likely that Russia, a fellow State Party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), is implicated in chemical weapons use, whether by failure to control its own materials or by design. This attempted murder, using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British city, was not just a crime against the Skripals. It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the UK, which put the lives of innocent civilians at risk. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said if Russia failed to provide a convincing explanation the UK response would be announced on Wednesday. He added: Russia is a great country. It is a great pity therefore that the Russian regime seems to be moving in this dangerous and disruptive direction. The Government has a variety of counter-measures including economic, financial, and diplomatic moves. There has also been speculation about a potential covert cyber offensive against Russia in retaliation. Mrs May told the regular weekly meeting of Cabinet at 10 Downing Street that there was no doubt of the severity of what had taken place in Salisbury, which was a reckless, indiscriminate and despicable act. The PM confirmed that she will chair a meeting of the National Security Council on Wednesday to discuss the Russian response and will then inform the House of Commons of any measures to be taken. France, Germany and Mr Tillerson all gave their backing to the UK after the Government confirmed it was highly likely Russia was behind the assassination attempt. However Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the country was not to blame, and asked for access to samples of the poison. News agency Tass quoted Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying: It is a circus show in the British Parliament. The conclusion is obvious, its another political information campaign, based on a provocation. The idea to make a device which eventually ended up exploding on a Tube train last September was hatched during a summer of boredom and became a cry for attention, a court has heard. The object was never meant to explode or cause harm, but instead just burn, its maker Ahmed Hassan said. He told a jury he had tested it and taken steps to ensure it did not have deadly consequences. Before bringing the 400g bomb onto a District Line tube he tested 50g of TATP on a Coca Cola can on the kitchen table of his foster home in Surrey, he said. He told jurors: I heard a whoof and a very small heat, fire, for a fraction of a second. I was certain that it would not explode. It would just burn. He added shrapnel because he wanted it to look serious. Hassan told how he stayed awake all night on a sofa in the conservatory the night before the explosion, and had the device at his side when his foster father Ron Jones approached him to ask him why he was not sleeping. He became attracted last summer by the idea of becoming a fugitive, having spent hours watching action movies and documentaries, he said. On why he made the device he said: I think the main reason, I wasnt thinking as a normal person would do. I was very bored, very stressed, very confused and I watched lots of movies, action movies during that time. He added: It became kind of a fantasy in my head. I was thinking about it. Yes, that was it. I was watching documentaries as well, about fugitives and just the idea of being a fugitive got into my head. And I thought about it and that was it. Ahmed Hassan (Metropolitan Police/PA) Tim Moloney QC, representing Hassan, asked: Was that an attractive idea? The defendant answered: Very much so. The 18-year-old described the summer holidays as basically my enemy. He told the Old Bailey how he had been unable to sleep due to bad dreams, had had suicidal thoughts and admitted hurting himself in the past. He thought about making the device about four weeks before the incident, he said. An online search for explosives led him to come across TATP which was described as homemade and very easy. He looked up the chemicals to make it and watched YouTube videos demonstrating small amounts of it, some in front of small children, he said. Under cross-examination Hassan denied wanting to hurt or kill anyone, saying his fantasy was about being a fugitive and that he wanted attention. Insisting he never tried to blame anyone else, he said: I left evidence all over the place I left everything behind to suggest it was me. I actually was seeking them to find out it was me. The idea of killing someone had never crossed my mind at all, never in my life he added. Ofcom will consider whether a Kremlin-backed television channel should broadcast in the UK if Russian involvement is proven in the Salisbury nerve agent attack. The regulator said it had written to RT, formerly Russia Today, on Tuesday to explain that evidence of unlawful state interference would affect whether it was deemed fit and proper to hold a broadcasting licence. Theresa May faced repeated calls for the Government to take action against RT in the Commons on Monday, after telling MPs it was highly likely Russia was behind the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Theresa May has said it is `highly likely Russia was behind the attack (PA) Ofcom said in a statement: As the independent UK broadcasting regulator, Ofcom has an ongoing duty to be satisfied that broadcast licensees remain fit and proper to hold their licences. We have today written to ANO TV Novosti, holder of RTs UK broadcast licences, which is financed from the budget of the Russian Federation. This letter explained that, should the UK investigating authorities determine that there was an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the UK, we would consider this relevant to our ongoing duty to be satisfied that RT is fit and proper. The letter to RT said that we would carry out our independent fit and proper assessment on an expedited basis, and we would write to RT again shortly setting out details of our process. RT said it disagreed with Ofcoms position, adding it was conflating its role as a broadcasting regulator with matters of state. I have written to head of Ofcom, asking if it intends to withdraw broadcasting licence from Russia Today, Putins voice in Britain. We arent so weak as a country that we shd allow fascist lies and propaganda to pour out from the Kremlin while its agents murder on our streets Andrew Adonis (@Andrew_Adonis) March 13, 2018 MPs had voiced concern about the Russian news channel in the House of Commons, following a statement by Mrs May on the spy poisoning. Labour former minister Chris Bryant said: Can we just stop Russia Today just broadcasting its propaganda in this country? Labour MP Stephen Doughty added: On Russia Today, can I urge the Prime Minister to speak with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to look at reviewing Russia Todays broadcasting licence, and to speak to the House authorities about blocking their broadcasts in this building itself. Why should we be watching their propaganda in this Parliament? Mrs May replied: We will look at the response from the Russian state, but I will come to this House at the earliest opportunity to look at the range of measures which could be necessary. I think in relation to the House authorities, as you will be aware, that would not be a matter for me but the House authorities. Labour peer Lord Adonis also tweeted: I have written to head of Ofcom, asking if it intends to withdraw broadcasting licence from Russia Today, Putins voice in Britain. We arent so weak as a country that we shd allow fascist lies and propaganda to pour out from the Kremlin while its agents murder on our streets. RT said in a statement: We disagree with the position taken by Ofcom; our broadcasting has in no way changed this week, from any other week and continues to adhere to all standards. By linking RT to unrelated matters, Ofcom is conflating its role as a broadcasting regulator with matters of state. RT remains a valuable voice in the UK news landscape, covering vital yet neglected stories and voices, including those of the many MPs and other UK public figures who have been shut out of public discourse by the mainstream media. Ofcom said it would consider the implications for RTs broadcast licenses after Mrs May makes a further statement about the Salisbury attack on Wednesday. The Prime Minister has set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for the Russians to provide a credible explanation as to why deadly Novichok was used on UK soil. Nurses, social workers, licensed counselors and other mental health professionals seeking career opportunities in behavioral health are invited to attend an open house and job fair at Parkridge Valley Child and Adolescent campus on Thursday, March 22, from 3-7 p.m. Parkridge Valley recruiters look to fill 47 positions across the Parkridge Valley Behavioral Healthcare System, which includes Parkridge Valley Adult and Senior campus, Parkridge Valley Child and Adolescent campus, Parkridge Valley West campus, and Parkridge Valley Cleveland campus.We are excited to offer career opportunities to behavioral care nurses and support staff who want to make a difference in patients lives, said Melissa Arkin, CEO of Parkridge Valley Hospital.We encourage those with a behavioral healthcare background to think about where they want to go in their careers and come talk with us to find out how we can help them get there.Career opportunities are available immediately, and more are anticipated in the future due to planned growth of Parkridge Valley Hospital. Qualified applicants may also be eligible for sign-on bonuses, and same-day interviews and employment offers are possible, officials said.We feel our culture of care appeals to those nurses, social work professionals and techs who get career satisfaction from providing evidence-based, individualized and personal behavioral care in a close-knit family of like-minded professionals, Ms. Arkin said.The job fair will be held at the Parkridge Valley Child and Adolescent campus, 2200 Morris Hill Road in Chattanooga. Hors doeuvres and refreshments will be served. Attendees are encouraged to bring updated resumes to the event and RSVP to Cydney Brown at Cydney.Brown@HCAHealthcare.com. A winged dinosaur widely regarded as the first bird flew like a pheasant, scientists have discovered. The Jurassic dinobird Archaeopteryx flapped its wings but was not capable of long distance active flight. Nor could it glide and soar, like modern-day birds of prey. Instead, Archaeopteryx probably made short bursts of limited low-level flight to escape danger, scientists believe. Artists impression of Archaeopteryx in flight. (Jana Ruzickova/PA) Present day pheasants adopt the same strategy when they take to the air to avoid predators, or gun-waving humans. The new study, which involved using a powerful X-ray beam to probe fossil bones, also confirmed that 150 million years ago Archaeopteryx was an active flyer. It flapped its wings and properly flew rather than gliding from tree to tree. Scientists conducted the research at ESRF, the European Synchrotron facility in Grenoble, France. Here, electrons accelerated around a circular tunnel generate X-rays 100 billion times more powerful than those in hospitals. The X-rays can be employed to analyse the internal structure of numerous different materials, including fossils. A powerful X-ray beam was used to probe Archaeopteryx fossils. ( ESRF/Pascal Goetgheluck /PA For the new study, the ESRF X-ray beam was used to peer inside the bones of three Archaeopteryx specimens without damaging the valuable fossils. Lead researcher Dennis Voeten, from ESRF, said: We immediately noticed that the bone walls of Archaeopteryx were much thinner than those of earthbound dinosaurs but looked a lot like conventional bird bones. Data analysis furthermore demonstrated that the bones of Archaeopteryx plot closest to those of birds like pheasants that occasionally use active flight to cross barriers or dodge predators, but not to those of gliding and soaring forms such as many birds of prey and some seabirds that are optimised for enduring flight. Archaeopteryx which means ancient wing lived in the Late Jurassic period in what is now southern Germany. The first fossil skeleton of one of the creatures, known as the London Specimen, was unearthed in 1861 near Langenaltheim and is housed at Londons Natural History Museum. Similar in size to a magpie, it shared characteristics of Earth-bound dinosaurs and modern birds, including winged feathers, sharp teeth, three fingers with claws, and a long bony tail. However despite being thought of as the first bird, experts now view Archeopteryx as a flying dinosaur. Nor was it a direct ancestor of modern birds. Despite sharing a common dinosaur ancestor with birds, Archaeopteryx represents a dead end side branch on the evolutionary tree. Present day birds are generally believed to have evolved from a group of small meat-eating dinosaurs known as maniraptoran theropods. The study was published in Nature Communications. Three Court of Appeal judges in London are analysing the latest stage of an Anglo-Scottish legal battle between an aristocrat and his estranged wife. Charles Villiers and Emma Villiers, who are both in their 50s and lived together in Dumbarton before separating, are embroiled in a dispute about whether their arguments over money should be staged in an English or Scottish divorce court. An appeal court hearing began on Tuesday and is due to end on Wednesday. (Anthony Delvin/PA) Appeal judges Lady Justice King, Lord Justice David Richards and Lord Justice Moylan are not expected to deliver a ruling until later in the year. Mr Villiers says their marriage is being dissolved in Scotland and wants to know why a fight over money should be staged in England. A judge based in the Family Division of the High Court in London had initially considered the case. Mrs Justice Parker had ordered Mr Villiers to pay Mrs Villiers 2,500 a month maintenance pending a resolution of their money fight. She had rejected Mr Villiers jurisdictional challenges. Mr Villiers has mounted a challenge in the Court of Appeal, which Mrs Villiers is contesting. Barrister Michael Horton, who is leading Mr Villiers legal team, told judges that the couple had spent almost all their married life in Scotland after getting married in 1994. He said Mr Villiers stayed in the family home, Milton House, in Dumbarton, after the couple separated in 2012. Mrs Villiers came south to England, first living near Oxford then in London, and made a cash claim in the High Court in London. Mr Horton said Mrs Justice Parker had rejected Mr Villiers jurisdictional challenges. He said Mr Villiers wanted answers to a number of questions, including: Could a spouse whose marriage was being dissolved in Scotland move south and apply for a maintenance order which would have effect pending divorce? Could such an maintenance order continue to have effect after divorce? Why should a spouse who moved south get better alimony payments that a spouse who stayed in Scotland and asked a judge in Scotland to make decisions? Mr Horton said if Mrs Justice Parkers decision was allowed to stand, London could become the maintenance capital of the UK. Timothy Scott QC, who is representing Mrs Villiers, says the appeal should be dismissed. He told appeal judges: These cases are always about looking for litigation advantage on both sides. Mr and Mrs Villiers are listed on the website www.thepeerage.com. The website provides a genealogical survey of the peerage in Britain. Mr Horton told judges about financial difficulties following the breakdown of the couples marriage. He said Barclays had begun possession proceedings and Milton House had been repossessed in early 2015. Mr Villiers had been made bankrupt in November 2013 then discharged from bankruptcy in November 2014, he added. Britains fiscal watchdog has said the Government is set to miss its target and would not balance the books until 2027, despite handing the Chancellor a rosier economic outlook. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said Philip Hammonds objective of securing a balanced budget by 2025 was challenging due to the growing financial pressures from an ageing population. It said the Chancellor would miss the target by around two years if the deficit and public spending continued to fall at the same rate pencilled in for 2022/23. Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) chairman Robert Chote (PA) While such an outcome would be a blow to Mr Hammond, the prediction is brighter than the OBRs forecast in November when it said the public finances may not shift into the black until 2030/31. Speaking after the Spring Statement, OBR chairman Robert Chote said: (The Governments) fiscal objective is to bring the public finances to balance as soon as possible in the next parliament, and when that target was set that would have been 2025/26. This lies beyond our five-year forecast horizon so we cannot judge the prospect definitively, but it does look unlikely that the Government would achieve this on current policy settings, although it looks slightly less of a stretch than it did back in November. Our central forecast ends with the Government still running an overall budget deficit of 0.9% of GDP in 2022/23, down from 1.1% in November. If the deficit was to continue falling at the average rate expected beyond the Spending Review then it wouldnt disappear until 2027/28 2030/31 in November. Over this period there is likely to be upward pressure on spending from the ageing population and other cost pressures in the health service. The outlook puts a dampener to Mr Hammonds Spring Statement, which saw the OBR hike its outlook for economic growth and reveal lower Government borrowing figures thanks to a rosier performance from the global economy and tax receipts. Mr Hammond said borrowing was due to fall in every year of the forecast and would come in at 45.2 billion this year 4.7 billion lower than forecast in November. Economic growth for 2018 has been revised up from 1.4% to 1.5% and is then unchanged at 1.3% in 2019 and 2020, before picking up to 1.4% in 2021 and 1.5% in 2022. Actress Heather Locklear has been temporarily banned from possessing any guns after she allegedly threatened to shoot officers responding to a report of domestic violence at her home. A judge on Tuesday ruled the former Dynasty star, 56, could not hold any firearms as part of her bail conditions after she was charged with battering sheriffs officers. Outside court, Ventura County Sheriffs Office spokesman Sergeant Eric Buschow said the force is looking for a handgun registered to Locklear after she was arrested in her Thousand Oaks, California, home on the night of February 25. Heather Locklear faces up to five years in prison if found guilty (Ian West/PA) She said that if they (the officers) ever come back to the house that she would shoot them, he said. Locklear, also known for appearing in Melrose Place, faces up to five years in prison if found guilty, district attorney Thomas Dunlevy said. She was arrested on suspicion of injuring a partner but was not charged with any domestic violence offences. Instead, she was charged with four counts of battery on a sheriffs officer and one count of obstructing an officer. Overseeing the case at Ventura County Superior Court, commissioner Derek Malan agreed to Mr Dunlevys request to add the restriction to her bail conditions. Defence lawyer William Haney had argued: I dont think my client has had a gun for many decades. According to the Los Angeles Times, Mr Buschow previously described her behaviour with officers as extremely hostile and at one point she became combative. In 2008, she pleaded guilty to reckless driving after being arrested on suspicion of the more serious charge of driving under the influence of prescription drugs. Locklear, who was previously married to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and later Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, was released on a 20,000 dollar (14,385) bail. Her case was adjourned until April 13. The Irish Government has offered full support to the UKs efforts to bring those responsible for the Salisbury chemical attack to account. Deputy Premier and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said the attack, which saw a nerve agent used to poison a former double agent on UK soil, was a disturbing violation of international law. Ireland condemns this cowardly attack which has taken place on our neighbours soil, the Tanaiste said. Simon Coveney said the attack was a `disturbing violation of international law (Brian Lawless/PA) We stand in solidarity with our closest neighbour and friend in the face of a disturbing and shocking chemical nerve agent attack in U.K. pic.twitter.com/PbtblZOT3T Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) March 13, 2018 The use of chemical weapons, including the use of any toxic weapons, is unacceptable and abhorrent. He added: The incident in Salisbury represents a disturbing violation of international law and goes against norms which have long been established. Mr Coveney said Ireland (joins) many states in supporting the UKs efforts to ensure a thorough investigation so that the perpetrators of this crime can be held accountable. We offer our full support and solidarity to the UK and to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in their efforts to seek answers and take appropriate action for this indiscriminate and reckless act, he added. James Anderson will encourage a vibrant and opinionated England dressing-room as he continues his role as Joe Roots vice-captain. England announced on Tuesday that Anderson, Roots deputy in Ben Stokes absence for this winters Ashes, will take on the same responsibility for two Tests against New Zealand. Stokes was unavailable for the 4-0 defeat in Australia, while he waited to discover if he would be charged over a late-night fracas outside a Bristol bar last September. He is back in the ranks after indicating a not-guilty plea to a charge of affray at Bristol Magistrates Court last month but the day after Stokes trial date was set for August 6, a direct clash with next summers showpiece Lords Test against India, England announced Anderson will remain as vice-captain. The evergreen seamer insists the extra responsibility changes little about his demeanour because he embraces leadership duties in any case. Nonetheless, in his current guise, he hopes to hear more chirp from the youngsters in a quiet team. Asked if he enjoyed his experience in Australia, Anderson confirmed he did although standing in when Root was laid low by a nasty bug on the final day in Sydney was not necessarily top of his wish-list. Until that last day when he was ill, yes! he said, adding he will worry about stepping directly into Roots shoes again only if he has to. Ill cross that bridge if and when it happens. I know I can play it down a bit and say I didnt like it, but (I do like) that responsibility its the same as taking the new ball. It can encompass addressing press and broadcasters, of course, as well as fellow players. Englands James Anderson and Joe Root inspect the ball during day five of the Ashes Test (Jason OBrien/PA) I enjoy trying to help the team whether thats defending the lads in front of the cameras trying to fend off Geoffrey Boycott, whatever it might be, I enjoy each challenge that comes my way. Anderson, his long-time new-ball partner Stuart Broad and former captain Alastair Cook are all obvious go-to colleagues if Root needs support. Englands all-time leading wicket-taker added: I think when youve got a group of senior players like we have, its down to all of us to help this team progress and lead from the front. Thats what Ive done the last few years trying to lead the attack, do my job on the field and if I can do that I hope I can pull a few of the guys along with me. That includes several newer members of a team with significantly varying international experience. Its a group effort, a team, we need everybodys input and we need the younger guys to start chirping up a bit more. Thats what we want to do as a team get to a point where everyone has their say. Weve got an open and honest dressing-room. During the #NZvENG series @chriswoakes became the 4th player to score 1000 runs & take 100 wickets for England in ODIs! pic.twitter.com/UvjnWFeplG England Cricket (@englandcricket) March 11, 2018 Anderson confirms the current line-up is not always especially vocal. It probably is one of the quieter ones, he said. I think the Ashes wouldnt have helped in that respect, because thats as pressurised an environment (as) you can get. Weve got areas we need to improve and we know that. Honesty on that score is non-negotiable for Anderson because a strong New Zealand team will expose any weaknesses too. Its not a huge preparation period for us, he said. So weve got to do as best we can in the next week and get up to speed because its going to be just as tough as Australia was. Russia will refuse to meet Theresa Mays midnight deadline unless Britain agrees to send Moscow samples of the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal. The countrys embassy in the UK fired off a salvo of seven tweets in which it said Britain must comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention for a joint investigation and warned the threat of sanctions would meet with a response. It comes as President Donald Trump told Mrs May in a phone call the US is with the UK all the way, according to Downing Street. Mrs May said the Government had concluded it is highly likely Russia was responsible for the attack which left ex-spy Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia in a critical condition in hospital. 3/7 Moscow will not respond to Londons ultimatum until it receives samples of the chemical substance to which the UK investigators are referring. pic.twitter.com/B5CNtimcc3 Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) March 13, 2018 She demanded that Moscow account for how a Russian-produced nerve agent could have been deployed in Salisbury and vowed to set out measures Britain will adopt if no credible response is received by the end of Tuesday. Home Secretary Amber Rudd earlier said Russia had started responding but the embassy appeared to suggest this amounted to little more than informing the Foreign Office of its demands and reiterating it was not involved. Britains ambassador to Russia Laurie Bristow was summoned by Moscow and told by first deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov that the Kremlin strongly protested the accusations, the embassy said. Police said the probe could take several weeks as investigators carry out a painstaking operation to identify how the Novichok nerve agent was used to poison Mr Skripal on British soil. Counter-terror police chief Neil Basu said officers prime focus is to establish the method used to administer the chemical weapon. A huge police inquiry was launched after the former double agent, 66, and his daughter, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on March 4. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was part of the initial police response, was also taken ill. He is in a serious but stable condition. AC Neil Basu: "I would to share my thanks with the public for their patience and understanding. An investigation of this complexity and size will understandably take some considerable amount of time and the publics continued support is greatly assisting our investigation team." Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) March 13, 2018 Speaking at Scotland Yard, Mr Basu warned the public in the city they could expect to see more police activity, saying: In truth it may last many weeks. The Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner would not identify any potential suspect, saying: Its a painstaking operation to identify anyone of interest to this inquiry, and eliminate them or include them, but at this stage we are not declaring a person of interest or a suspect. Investigators are also focusing on Mr Skripals red BMW, registration number HD09 WAO, and appealing for any witnesses who saw the pair in the car between 1pm and 1.45pm on March 4 to come forward. Emergency personnel at the Ashley Wood Recovery Centre in Salisbury as the investigation into the suspected nerve agent attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal continues (Andrew Matthews/PA) Police have so far collected 380 exhibits and have been scouring hours of CCTV footage from across the city. Detailing the timeline leading up to the pair being taken ill, Mr Basu disclosed that Yulia had arrived at Heathrow Airport on a flight from Russia the day before. The senior officer referred to Mr Skripal as a British national and Yulia as a Russian citizen. He also revealed that a total of 38 people had been seen by medics in relation to the incident, of whom 34 had been assessed and discharged from hospital. Three people remain in hospital the Skripals and Mr Bailey. One other unnamed person is being monitored as an outpatient, but is not showing signs of exposure to the chemical weapon. As the clock ticked towards the midnight deadline: It emerged that police and MI5 are to look into allegations that a string of other deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia. Peter Wilson, the UKs permanent representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said the indiscriminate and reckless attack on the Skripals was the first offensive use of a nerve agent of any sort on European territory since the Second World War. The Government was weighing up Britains options should Russia not provide a satisfactory response with a cyber counter-strike said to be among the possible measures being considered, along with economic, financial and diplomatic action. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the country was not to blame, and asked for access to samples of the poison. France, Germany and former US secretary of state Rex Tillerson, speaking before he was sacked, all gave their backing to the UK. In a call to Mrs May, Mr Trump agreed the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers. (PA Graphics) The episode has left Britains relations with Moscow, which were already under severe strain, at breaking point. Counter-terrorism police are investigating the death of a man in south-west London amid reports that a Russian businessman who was a close friend of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky has been found dead. Scotland Yard said a man in his 60s was found at a home in Clarence Avenue, New Malden, on Monday and that the cause of his death is unexplained. An investigation is underway following the death of a man in his 60s at an address in #NewMalden #Kingston - the death currently being treated as unexplained. https://t.co/ODtXq9AL4f pic.twitter.com/Aleu7Ptc2x Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) March 13, 2018 The force said in a statement: At this stage the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had. There is no evidence to suggest a link to the incident in Salisbury. Russian media reported that Nikolai Glushkov, 69, the former deputy director of airline Aeroflot, had died. Police at the scene in New Malden (Yui Mok/PA) The businessman was outspoken after the death of his friend Berezovsky, telling the Guardian in 2013 he would never believe he took his own life. Mr Berezovsky, a friend of murdered spy Alexander Litvinenko and thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found hanged in the bathroom of his Berkshire home in 2013. An inquest recorded an open verdict. Police and MI5 are to look into allegations that a string of deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia, including the Berezovsky case. Britains international allies, led by the US, have responded with condemnation over the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. The UKs Nato allies rallied around Theresa May following her statement to MPs in which she said it was highly likely Russia was responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Mrs May was assured of the backing of the US, Germany and France in calls to President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, according to Downing Street readouts. Member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation have condemned the Salisbury attack (Justin Tallis/PA) Number 10 said: Chancellor Merkel condemned the attack and said she stood in full solidarity with the UK. While Mr Trump told Mrs May that the US was with the UK all the way, agreeing that the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used. FM @sigmargabriel talked to British FM @BorisJohnson regarding Sergej #Skripal: We condemn this attack with an illegal chemical weapon in the strongest terms. It would be a very serious matter if it was confirmed that Russia stands behind this incident. GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) March 13, 2018 And the Baltic states, which border Russia, also offered their support in the wake of the attack. Latvia said it was prepared to offer the required support and urged Nato and the EU to agree on action. A statement said: The Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns in the strongest terms the use of chemical weapons in Salisbury, the United Kingdom, on March 4. Those who planned and carried out the attack in the territory of a NATO member state must receive an appropriate and strong response. Latvia supports the UKs efforts of carrying out an investigation into the circumstances of the perpetrated crime. This incident confirms the necessity for stepping up the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention to prevent the use of chemical weapons. Latvia condemns the use of chemical weapons in the attack in Salisbury on 4 March @LVembassyUK @BaibaBraze @UKinLatvia @KeithShannonFCO @foreignoffice https://t.co/Nr1T6zqZWI Latvian MFA (@Latvian_MFA) March 13, 2018 Lithuania issued a statement which said: The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry expresses strong solidarity with the United Kingdom following an audacious criminal act the poisoning of a former military intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The Lithuanian MFA stresses that the use of a military-grade nerve agent within NATO territory represents an exceptional case, making it essential to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice immediately. We call for a joint NATO and EU response. Estonia condemns the chemical attack on the soil of the UK our close friend and ally. Estonia expresses its utmost support to the UK and places its trust in their investigation. Sven Mikser (@svenmikser) March 13, 2018 And Estonia said it was disturbed by the case and the state had every confidence in the investigation. Estonian foreign minister Sven Mikser said: This attack is a brutal violation of international law and order and demonstrates complete disregard for human life and suffering. Perpetrators of this heinous crime must be held accountable. We call for the full co-operation of the international community in this regard. We call on Russia to reassure the international community of its declaration of full destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile in October 2017 and that the integrity and effectiveness of non-proliferation regimes will be upheld. We offer our utmost support to our ally and friend the UK in its efforts to resolve the issue. President Donald Trump has inspected the prototypes for the big beautiful border wall he wants to build to separate the US from Mexico. The president, making his first trip to California as president, appeared engaged as he was briefed on eight border wall designs. He said he preferred a fully concrete wall because it was the hardest to climb, but he noted that it needed to be see-through. President Donald Trump reviews border wall prototypes (Evan Vucci/AP) President Trump said the first thing he noticed on the drive to view the prototypes was the patched-up holes in part of the existing fence at the border. We have a lousy wall over here now, but at least it stops 90, 95%, President Trump said. When we put up the real wall, were going to stop 99%. Maybe more than that. President Trumps visit was greeted with peaceful protests by demonstrators both for and against his planned wall. The trip also came amid an escalating battle between his administration and the liberal state, which has refused to help federal agents detain immigrants in the US illegally. The president said Tuesday that the states sanctuary policies put the entire nation at risk. His Justice Department sued California last week over a trio of the states immigration laws. Theyre the best friend of the criminal, President Trump said. Thats what exactly is happening. The criminals take refuge in these sanctuary cities and its very dangerous for our police and enforcement folks. Demonstrations were held at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego, the nations busiest border crossing, where protesters chanted, No ban! No wall! as honking cars and buses cheered them on. Protests were also held on the Mexican side, in Tijuana. President Trump was to be briefed on lessons learned from the construction of the prototypes built in San Diego last autumn. He was also to meet with border agents and officers to ask what they need, Homeland Security spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said. San Diegos Republican mayor criticised Mr Trumps planned short visit, saying the president will not get a full picture of the city. Kevin Faulconer said a popular cross-border airport terminal connecting San Diego and Tijuana shows that building bridges has worked wonders. This is a time to build bridges, not walls; to pull Americans together, not set us apart. pic.twitter.com/YXBPBcLiND Jerry Brown (@JerryBrownGov) March 7, 2018 Mr Faulconer, writing in The San Diego Union-Tribune, also said San Diego police work to protect everyone regardless of immigration status, an apparent dig at Mr Trumps push to target illegal immigration. Barcom, Inc. (Barcom), a provider of data collection automation solutions for warehouse and manufacturing markets, has named John Rewcastle owner and president of the company, effective immediately. Mr. Rewcastle was chief programmer and owner of Rewcastle Computer Services until 1991, when he joined Jim Ledbetter as co-owner and partner of Barcom. They began the business selling bar code applications and custom programming, as well as working with hardware manufacturers selling bar code scanners, printers and portable terminals. Their focus was on automation in factories; with emphasis in manufacturing, distribution and field service. As the company grew, Barcom developed expertise in RFID, fixed-mount scanning, factory automation, RF infrastructure and application solutions. They began the business selling bar code applications and custom programming, as well as working with hardware manufacturers selling bar code scanners, printers and portable terminals. Their focus was on automation in factories; with emphasis in manufacturing, distribution and field service. As the company grew, Barcom developed expertise in RFID, fixed-mount scanning, factory automation, RF infrastructure and application solutions. Earlier this year Mr. Ledbetter retired from his position as president after 27 years, selling his half of the business to Rewcastle. Although this is a bittersweet moment in the history of the company, it seemed like a natural transition for us, said Mr. Rewcastle. We will miss Jims knowledge and expertise on a day-to-day basis, but his legacy will carry on into the future of our organization. Barcom continues to provide bar code and RFID data collection hardware, as well the continued development of their own suite of transaction-based software called , which is an all-in-one software tool that automates bar code & RFID data collection functions, inventory management and data collection processes. Our business has always been about being customer centric, said Mr. Rewcastle. The future of the company will continue with this focus, with emphasis on technological innovations that further increase worker productivity and improve business processes. Part of Barcoms plans for the future include identifying new technologies, and the ways in which emerging technology can support the efforts of their customers. This includes Augmented Reality, Drones and GPS tracking in addition to their core business of bar coding. Edin Dzekos second-half strike proved enough to give Roma a 1-0 home win over 10-man Shakhtar Donetsk and book their place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League on away goals. The Ukrainians were defending a 2-1 lead from the first leg in Kharkiv, where they had come from behind. However, there was to be no repeat of their win over the Italians to reach the last eight in 2011 as Dzeko settled the tie when he converted Kevin Strootmans through-ball six minutes into the second half. Edin Dzeko, right, celebrates Romas winner (Riccardo Antimiani/AP/PA) With 11 minutes left, Shakhtar defender Ivan Ordets was shown a straight red card for a hauling down the Roma frontman and any hopes of a dramatic comeback at the Stadio Olimpico went with him. It was almost a nightmare start for Roma, though, when Alessandro Florenzi nodded a Shakhtar free-kick across the face of goal. When Roma did break down the left through defender Aleksandar Kolarov, Shakhtar keeper Andrei Pyatov was able to palm the ball away from Dzeko at the near post. There was another let-off for Roma on 33 minutes when Federico Fazio was robbed just inside his own half by Facundo Ferreyra, who raced into the penalty area but could only hack his shot wide as the Roma defender chased back. Roma, though, got themselves in the driving seat on 52 minutes. Strootman clipped a ball into the Shakhtar half and between the defenders. Dzeko needed no second invitation as he latched onto the pass before clipping a low shot through the legs of Pyatov at the edge of the penalty area. Dzeko then whipped a curling shot just wide from 18 yards as Roma looked to kill off the tie. On 79 minutes Shakhtar found themselves down to 10 men. Dzeko was again first to a through-ball, with Ordets dragging him down as the last man and shown a straight red card by the referee. As tempers flared, Ferreyra was cautioned. Shakhtar had a late chance to snatch victory after substitute Alan Patrick was fouled just outside the area, but the Brazilians free-kick hit the wall before, in stoppage time, Ismailys cross flew through the six-yard box. Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, the maverick of Sinhala cinema and theatre, has attempted to portray the reality of the state in every production. From Hansa Vilak to Bawa Duka, Bawa Karma and stage plays such as Eka Adipathi, Dhawala Beeshana and Makarakshaya have addressed issues from the 1980s riots to the dogma of Buddhism in Sri Lanka to other issues of national and political importance. If the perpetrators of previous riots and crimes were identified and punished, what happened in Digana would have never happened, said Bandaranayake in a candid interview with the DailyMirror. He recently directed Paradise in Tears a documentary film which portrays the historical evolution of the ethnic crisis in the country through its various phases. During the interview, Bandaranayake expressed his concerns over the manner in which the countrys rulers have treated people and how they have suffered as a result of ethnic violence, the role of artistes and how people should respond during incidents such as what happened in Kandy. There is no punishment for perpetrators People should refrain from promoting separatist agendas Violence should never be in the vocabulary of artistes Reconciliation shouldnt be on billboards Excerpts: Q : Do you think that the incidents in Kandy and Ampara were spontaneous reactions or a burst of a tension that developed over some time? Nothing happens spontaneously; there has to be a series of historical events that would lead to a situation like this. From our younger days we have known about attacks on Tamils. Shops were burnt down and the Tamil community was chased out from where they were. Alfred Duraiappah was assassinated after Sirimavo assumed power. When she visited Jaffna, Duraiappah garlanded her as a Sinhalese leader and it gave birth to a force that didnt like this welcome. This force eventually killed Duraiappah. As a result of ethnic tensions, the Tamil community wanted to live on their own, as a separate group, away from the rest of the communities. The separation thoughts of the Tamils were also fuelled by the riots which took place in the South. People such as Kumar Ponnambalam reiterated the fact that they were trying to separate because they were attacked during the 83 riots. This is a very important statement because nobody wants to be governed by an inefficient leadership. The entire country feels the same today as well. Leaders of this country dont think the way we would think. They come from nowhere and once they get elected they ignore the rest of the people. One fine example is the January 8 elections. The majority of the people thought that the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime can never be defeated. Both the elites and the public had this mind-set because the war ceased. When Mahinda put an end to the war, people knew he had given them a solution. But when people showed their gratitude, the MR regime thought they could do anything because they put an end to the war. Within this mind-set, he, his wife, siblings and children thought they would become that one force that would govern the state. As a result the murders, disappearances and corrupt practices they were involved in reflected badly on the state. It was at that point that the present regime got elected. We have to experience these consequences today because their perpetrators were never punished. Alfred Duraiappah was assassinated after Sirimavo assumed power. When she visited Jaffna, Duraiappah garlanded her as a Sinhalese leader and it gave birth to a force that didnt like this welcome Q : As someone who has extensively researched on politics and ethnic violence, where do you think the rulers of this country went wrong? Its the UNP that threatened the lives of the people to a greater extent. For instance, during which regime was the Jaffna library set on fire? If not for a bunch of mentally handicapped people who would burn down a library? But it so happened in July 1981. How did it happen? It wasnt only the Tamil community that utilized this library. The Sinhalese engineers and doctors used to travel from Colombo to Jaffna to refer these books and enhance their knowledge. There were close to 80,000 books which were destroyed. It could be considered as the most notorious crime that ever happened in Asia. It came in as a thundering blow to these people. This shows that the leaders in this country have stood against the people rather than work for them. So we have a history where we have experienced the repercussions of such actions. After the war concluded, what rights does the Tamil community have today? We always say that we fought a 30-year war, but thats not the fact. It was those people who fought; its not only about Prabhakaran. It wasnt only those people who suffered as a result of the war. People in those areas were attacked by the Sri Lanka Army, Indian Army and the LTTE. After the war these people lost their children and parents and there were widows and widowers. We cannot put the entire blame on the LTTE. How many lives would have been sacrificed during attacks carried out by the local tri-forces? Muslim people had to leave their hometowns because they wanted to live. The leaders cannot survive without cheating on the people. Ever since Independence, whoever who got elected to Parliament wanted to use the votes of the people to occupy their seats and then ignored the people. Not only that, back in the day people were interested in watching movies and stage plays produced by veterans. But today, these spheres are facing major drawbacks. Our people survived through disastrous events. For example how many young people were killed during the 71 riots? They werent born to die. The youth above 18 years of age joined hands with the JVP and were involved in the riots. Moving forward during 80s the July riots too shouldnt be forgotten because labourers suffered here. People left their jobs and committed suicide because they couldnt earn a living. This is the suffering that we have lived with. These sorrows have prompted people to form alliances against the rulers. We should be grateful to the people for having overthrown that one ruler and electing a new regime. The Muslim struggle was one of the biggest challenges this new regime faced. If the perpetrators of previous riots and crimes were identified and punished, what happened in Digana would have never happened. The bigger version of this incident happened in Dharga Town which was stopped in due course. People dont have any separatist thoughts, but a handful of people may have hidden agendas. Its after the Local Government Elections that these events took place. We saw how a PC members wife assaulted a man with a pistol in hand. This is the system that the country needs. They dont hit a Muslim person and in that case the Sinhalese community should stand up. This is just the beginning of a major disaster and all rulers should be responsible for these incidents. Then they put the blame on NGOs. The leaders cannot survive without cheating on the people. Ever since Independence, whoever who got elected to Parliament wanted to use the votes of the people to occupy their seats and then ignored the people Q : Dont you think that people from NGOs and other political groups aggravated the situation? Even I might be labelled as an NGO representative and people would say that we are funded with foreign money. We got involved in arts because we didnt want to be insulted as those representing NGOs. As artistes we love the people in this country and those who have watched our scripts know that we havent attempted to destroy this country. Those who have watched our scripts have faith in us. Each time the country experiences a tense situation, every artiste with a vision for a better future may liaise with another group. It could be with the JVP or any other leftist party and we dont see anything wrong with that. Their ideologies will protect the people rather than affect them. As groups, people are working in different places and all of them should work against this system. During the latter part of last year, we saw how Judge Ilancheliyan from Jaffna dropped to his feet and asked for forgiveness from the wife of the murdered security officer. That is reconciliation. Which media would highlight this incident? Can we see such incidents taking place elsewhere? The majority who speaks about reconciliation doesnt feel the way in which Ilancheliyan felt about that incident. Those who have feelings like Ilancheliyan should come forward to change this system. We should be grateful to the people for having overthrown that one ruler and electing a new regime. The Muslim struggle was one of the biggest challenges this new regime faced Q : Have you ever had an opportunity to discuss these matters with the political hierarchy or educated people in the country? Im not ready to discuss these matters today simply because I was in such a position for 30 years. Has anybody understood what reconciliation is all about? Reconciliation shouldnt be on billboards, it should be in the hearts of the people. No artiste in this world has promoted violence. They in fact paved the way towards unity and harmony. But sadly in Sri Lanka, artistes showered the war with their blessings. It was the artistes who taught how the war should continue. Violence shouldnt be in the vocabulary of any artiste. Therefore at this point people too have become exhausted. When a person is warned he should take care. But have our people thought about any warnings? They try to do something worse than what they have done. Even today, people still have a fear that Prabhakaran would return. The country doesnt need terrorism to solve this issue at all. I dont think people are wise. They are always in a garbage pit. But people should never give a hand to any force that would separate this state Q : How should people respond during situations such as what happened in Kandy? When a person wears a robe, we feel he is a follower of Buddhism. But even without a robe, a person could be kind and helpful. The Digana incident is one which shows where a group of hooligans tried to acquire the city of Kandy. We therefore warn the people to refrain from promoting separatist agendas. This incident proved how weak the countrys rulers are. It shows that the entire Government is on fire and each one of them fears losing his or her seat. I dont think people are wise. They are always in a garbage pit. But people should never give a hand to any force that would separate this state. Q : You highlighted a series of events that led to the ethnic crisis in the documentary Paradise in Tears. What similarities do you see when comparing those events with what happened recently? I watched a few clips from it recently. I finish the movie with the assassination of S.W.R.D Bandaranaike. As the director of this movie who did the entire narration, I was wondering why these Tamil leaders are not coming up with a riot. That will be the continuation of this movie anyway which we are currently working on. In the first part, Bandaranaike destroys the pact signed with federalists and at this point we think why he is not shot dead. Bandaranaike moved forward with the people and people had hopes in this pact. But he destroyed it because the clergy raised their voices. Therefore, in addition to ruling the country he is also keeping a relic casket on his head. He should choose either one; this is why he became less popular with the people. I believe that the rulers should ask people about how this country should be governed. During the latter part of last year, we saw how Judge Ilancheliyan from Jaffna dropped to his feet and asked for forgivenessfrom the wife of the murdered security officer. That is reconciliation Q : In moving forward, in which direction should we walk if we are serious about making Sri Lanka a peaceful and united country? This is where the problem lies. What could we do in future? We need to observe and understand how people live peacefully in other countries. The education system is absolutely distorted. We need to take several key steps in order to safeguard the future generation. The President himself would have to take these decisions and the people expect such a leader. If not, even the people would limp throughout their journey. Even without censoring the media, people know the intensity of the situation. Therefore the media too shouldnt join hands with groups who would aggravate the problem. Q : Are peace and unity, achievable goals in this country? Peace and unity should be in everyones heart. The Crime OIC of the Seeduwa Police was arrested today by the Bribery Commission while soliciting a bribe of Rs.25,000 from a businessman inside the Police. Bribery Commission Director (Investigations) SSP Priyantha Chandrasiri said the OIC, who is an Inspector of Police (IP), had asked for the bribe from the businessman to act in favour of him over a case. The arrested OIC was to be produced in the Colombo Chief Magistrates Court. (Darshana Sanjeewa) Allianz Lanka announced the launch of Allianz 3D Solera App, a revolutionary, mobile-based, assessment application that is set to transform Sri Lankas motor insurance landscape. Rewriting the rules of accident damage assessment, the Allianz 3D Solera App enables policyholders to carry out vehicle inspections by themselves in the unfortunate event of an accident. They simply need to photograph their vehicle using the app, mark the damaged area in its 3D garage and share the images with Allianz. Having completed this simple, 3 step process, they can immediately move the vehicle from the spot and continue with their day to day lives. Thus, it eliminates the need to wait for assessors to visit the accident site to evaluate the damage. Reviewing the images received, Allianz Lankas engineers assess the damage, compute the settlement amount and send an SMS update to the policyholder within 1 business day. The claims team then gets in touch with the policyholder on the following day to get additional details and check if he / she is okay with the offered amount. Once an agreement has been reached, the funds are transferred to the policyholders bank account on the next working day. Thus, the Allianz 3D Solera App helps policyholders save a considerable amount of time and effort. Streamlining the entire claims process, right from accident reporting to claims settlement, it has also made it completely paperless. At Allianz, we continue to harness the power of technology to offer greater convenience to our customers around the world. In line with this, we are delighted to dedicate the Allianz 3D Solera assessment mobile application to our customers in Sri Lanka, Mrs. Surekha Alles, Managing Director, Allianz Insurance Lanka. Doing away with the hassle of having to wait for assessors to visit the accident site, the app will enable policyholders to carry out their own vehicle inspections. We look forward to seeing policyholders avail the convenience offered by the app and its simple, 3 step, self-inspection process. Allianz Lanka policyholders can download and install the Allianz 3D Solera app for free directly from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store or from Allianz Lankas website. They can also download it through the SMS notification they receive at the time of making a claim with Allianzs call center. The insurer is initially piloting this service between 6a.m. to 6p.m., 7 days a week, to private motorcar owners alone. Allianz Insurance Lanka Ltd. and Allianz Life Insurance Lanka Ltd., known together as Allianz Lanka, are fully-owned subsidiaries of Allianz SE, Germany, a world leader in integrated financial services. Having started out as a Greenfield operation in 2005, it has emerged as one of the fastest growing insurance service providers in Sri Lanka. The company prides on supporting its clients business strategy by understanding their risk profile and needs, and providing individual solutions from its world class portfolio of products and services. Around the world, over 140,000 Allianz employees serve some 86.3 million retail and corporate customers in 70 countries, who place their trust on the knowledge, global presence, financial strength and solidity of Allianz to support them in their moment of truth. There is a potential threat of domestic terrorism of a new type. The excellent choice for Minister of Law and Order, Ranjith Madduma Bandara, and the Defence authorities under President Sirisena and Ruwan Wijewardene must coordinate to face this new, existential threat. It was on March 3rd, after Ampara but just before Teldeniya, that an impressive young Sri Lankan scholar, Dr. Sara Dissanayake, warned that the State had not recognized right-wing extremism and far right hate crimes as a national security threat (Why the Government Needs to Overcome the Fear of Labelling). She has proven spectacularly correct. Her analysis came a few weeks after security scholar Prof. Rohan Gunaratne accurately identified Sinhala Only as the beginning of the countrys slide into chronic cycles of conflict. I would take Dr. Dissanayakes lucid analysis to the next level: (I) Organized, armed, Far Right ethno-religious urban terrorism is a potential national security threat that must be preempted (II) The state security agencies themselves require inoculation against the ideological disease that is the constitutive element and growth medium of such terrorism. Firm, clear, enlightened leadership from the top brass and the officer corps is imperative. The STF, did not seem to have received a timely, clear and correct directive from its political authority The Anamaduwa arson came (coincidentally?) in the wake of a social media post featuring the photograph and name of a supposed army man (possibly a fake), recommending the use of small-unit hit and run attacks, rather than mobs! The Anamaduwa attack involved four motorcyclists! The bias in the coverage of the recent anti-Muslim riots in the global media is generating more Sinhala middle class outrage than the horrifying burning of dozens of mosques and the dispossession of thousands of our citizens. The imbalanced coverage could have been rectified by a clear and strong counter-opinion arising from within the Sri Lankan Buddhist clergy and Sinhala Buddhist society, not the usual belated banalities. What is socially imperative is a body of counter-opinion frontally opposed to the hate speech of those wanna-be Wirathus on video, such as the young monk threatening an old, grey-bearded Muslim street vendor seated on a mat in Welimada, and the demented homily of the bhikkhu calling himself Buddha Rakkitha Himi. The Islamophobic ideological discourse depicts the Muslims as recent immigrants if not invaders who do not know their place as outsiders in a Sinhala Buddhist country, and are conspiring to become the majority on the island. The Buddha Rakkitha Himi video contains the bloodcurdling allegation that we know that even Muslim children are indoctrinated into capturing this country someday. It goes onto justify the recent violence as a belated, legitimate response to Muslim behaviour, asserts that this is only the beginning, it is not over, and concludes with the threat that the smell of the blood of thirty years of war is still causing our nostrils to flare and that there may come a day when Muslims will not be able to live in this country anymore. This is radical political evil and can, someday, trigger a chain reaction of ethnic cleansing. If you dont stand up and be counted against such horrible incitement, tantamount to ethno-religious fascism, then you run the risk of that phenomenon being perceived by the world at large as receiving the sanction or warrant of your shared belief-system and community as a whole. Does the Western media, which is biased against Sri Lanka, accuse the long standing foe and target of the US, namely Cuba, of racist violence? Though rightwing US propagandists (especially in Miami) may dearly love to, it simply cannot be done as there is so much evidence to the contrary and so many from all over the world, including American scholars and filmmakers, ready to testify. Cuba holds the moral high ground as a society. Sri Lanka does not. Here in Sri Lanka, as in most parts of the global society in the post-Cold War period, from the Islamic through the Hindu to the Christian and Jewish, far right ethno-religious extremism is not only purveyed by sections of the clergy (every religion has mullahs or their equivalents) but also through places of worship and religious instruction (every religion has its madrassas or their equivalent). This is the network; the matrix-- and thus the impunity with which socially toxic hate speech is spouted, and the immunity from a state crackdown. It was President Musharraf who, in his autobiography, posed the essential question: how do parents, indeed how does a society, which spends a considerable amount of money ensuring that its children are tutored by well-qualified teachers, allow views on history, politics, economics, defence, foreign affairs, sociology, culture, civilization, to be purveyed to children and youth by religious clergy utterly unqualified to do so, and actually swallow and regurgitate their ill-informed, unfounded ideas including through the media? Something is happening in our society, has been happening for a few decades, and will probably not go away this side of a catastrophe. We have to avert that catastrophe. Rightwing ethno-religious extremism has to be contained, as it will lead to a war which the state, the economy and society cannot afford. Does the Western media, which is biased against Sri Lanka, accuse the long standing foe and target of the US, namely Cuba, of racist violence? One more war and we shall go the way of Cyprus or Yugoslavia. We are not Myanmar which has a powerful ally on its border. No one here can get away with what Wirathus ghastly movement has. Our island is vulnerably placed in geopolitical terms: so far from our friends and so close to our frenemies. Yugoslavia was finally ended because Kosovo came after and in spite ofpossibly because ofBosnia. Sri Lanka as a state cannot afford the triggering of a war with the Muslims in the same way that we skidded into a war with the Tamils who are far less numerous and economically endowed as a global community than the Muslims. If we get into another war, the world wont be on our side and well lose our oldest friends such as Pakistan. We wont survive another civil war as a single state, not least because well be pushing disaffected Muslims into the arms of the proto-secessionist Tamils and recreating the Tamil ultranationalists dream of a Tamil-speaking peoples (i.e. Tamils and Muslims) and a self-determination of and for the Tamil-speaking peoples. Sri Lanka wont be allowed to respond to a militant Muslim challenge should it arise, with monk-led Mahasona mobs, ex-Home Guard/CDF militias, and scorched earth tactics/ethnic cleansing. A South Asian Bosnia will not be countenanced. We wont survive another civil war as a single state, not least because well be pushing disaffected Muslims into the arms of the proto-secessionist Tamils It is his wartime experience (also as commander of Special Forces) and the existential imperative to avoid another war in which his soldiers would needlessly die, that made Army chief Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayakes remarks in Kandy and on national TV, my favorite public intervention during the entirety of the recent crisis. He spoke with cool Realism, self-assured professionalism, clarity, courage and tough determination. He is trying to avoid a new cycle of violence and war in which the robed Islamophobic ideologues and their constituency, the three wheeler generation which has not experienced war (in his words), fight Muslim militias and UN-mandated foreign troops down to the last Sinhala soldier. Two cheers for whats left of the Executive Presidency. The Prime Minister took over as Minister of Law and Order on February 28th, and his intimate familiarity with handling the Police and the STF in the late 1980s is known. Yet the Army commander admitted on TV that many of the affected families had complained of the inactivity of the Police and the STF, who in some cases had been onlookers. The STF, a superbly trained, officered and commanded paramilitary, did not seem to have received a timely, clear and correct directive from its political authority. It took President Sirisena, the Chief of Staff, the Army Chief and the military deployment to turn things around--for now. Sri Lanka's former permanent representative to the UN Tamara Kunanayakam said yesterday the attacks targeting a particular ethnic or religious group would only help justify Washingtons demand that universal jurisdiction or external intervention be applied to Sri Lanka through implementation of its 2015 Human Rights Council. Washington has been concerned that its resolution has been widely contested by the Sri Lankan people, including at the highest level of State. The return of the controversial US Peace Corps, a soft power weapon in Washingtons arsenal that had been expelled by the Government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike for spying for the CIA reflects Washingtons fears about the forthcoming General Elections and Presidential Elections, she said and added that the US Peace Corps had been expelled from a number of countries for spying for the CIA and other covert activities, meddling in local politics, and running drugs. She said the results of the local government election have made it all the more urgent for Washington to strengthen its allies in Government. The US Ambassadors Viceroy-like behaviour even before all the results of the local government elections were released to the public, rushing as he did to request the President not to replace the Prime Minister, demonstrated the extent to which Washington would be ready to go to maintain the status quo, she said and added that the anti-Muslim attacks provided just such an opportunity. Ms. Kunanayakam said the timing of the attacks to coincide with the sessions of the Human Rights Council, the arrival of the US Peace Corps, and the arrival of the UN under Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltmann, a former US Assistant Secretary of State, was not fortuitous. It gave the High Commissioner the opportunity to threaten Sri Lanka with universal jurisdiction if it fails to make progress in accountability and transitional justice. His choice of language is to target only the previous Government under Mahinda Rajapaksa, to strengthen Washingtons allies within the present regime, and to advance Washingtons project to gain international legitimacy for its unilateral interventions in the internal affairs of other States, she said. She said the attacks also helped advance Feltmans agenda, which was inseparable from the agenda of Washington. Feltman is a neoconservative hawk who has been involved in fomenting violence and the break-up of sovereign States into ethnic enclaves. Within the UN, he is also responsible for a team working on constitutional arrangements promoting federalism as a response to ethnic minority grievances, she said and added that describing the anti-Muslim clashes as a conflict between Buddhists and Muslims or between Sinhalese and Muslims only served such an agenda, a agenda that aims at dividing people on ethnic/religious lines, fomenting conflict between them, keeping them permanently divided and weak, ultimately permitting partition of their country and imposition of the infamous Kosovo-model. L-R: M. K.Krishani Sanjeewani Sample Operator, K.D.F.M. Shirani - Chief Designer, U.G. Thilini Madushika - Product development executive, W.A. Thanuja Dilrukshi - Production Supervisor, Mr. Sajeewa Ranasinghe Chief Executive Officer, A.M. Nilmini priyanka Kumari - Sample Operator, U.H. C. Monika Shanthi - Sample Operator, T.A.M. Thilini Kumudu Kumari - Trainee Designer, C. Nadeeka Priyadarshani Fonseka - Sample Operator DI, a leader in leather footwear in Sri Lanka, won several awards at the Design competition held concurrent to the Footwear and Leather Fair 2018 which concluded recently. The industrys premiere event, the Footwear and Leather Fair is organized by the Sri Lanka Footwear and Leather Products Manufacturers Association, in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Industrial Development Board of Ceylon and the Sri Lanka Export Development Board. It aims to showcase the products of the industry as well as give an opportunity to local customers to view and purchase latest designs of export quality footwear and leather products at reasonable prices. Around 230 stalls participated in this years Fair including delegates from India, Pakistan and China. DI came forward as the Gold Sponsor for the year 2018 in support of the development of the industry. Designing is one of the core elements in footwear and leather products. The design competition at the Footwear and Leather Fair is an initiative introduced in order to encourage local designers. One of the industry pioneers, DI, walked away with a Gold and 2 Bronze Awards along with several Merit Awards for their fashionable designs. W.A. Thanuja Dilrukshi won the Gold Award in the Ladies Category with Nilmini Priyanka Kumari and C.M. Shanthi were awarded Bronze for the Ladies Category and Leather Goods (Bags). The Merit Certificates were received by Thilini Madushika, Thilini Kumudu Kumari, Nadeeka Priyadarshani and Krishani Sanjeewani for Leather Goods (Bags) Category, Thilini Madushika, Thilini Kumudu Kumari and Nilmini Priyanka Kumari for the Gents Shoes Category and Thilini Kumudu Kumari for the Ladies Shoes Category. The evolving industry and the futuristic vision of Ceylon Leather Products, resulted in the DI brand transforming to cater to the emerging consumer aspirations, changing generational and retail dynamics. DI thus opened doors recently to a refreshing range of products in the forms of Ladies and Gents footwear, Childrens shoes, a variety of accessories and gift items capturing the latest trends and styles in fashion. Amidst these new offerings, the brand continues to enhance its core offering of leather-based products known for its quality and durability thus retaining its core segmental offering and traditional heritage ofseventy-nine years. The achievements of the designers at the Footwear and Leather Fair 2018 stands testimony to the promise the brand has made to facilitate the needs and aspirations of the modern customer. The countrys largest conglomerate, the John Keells group, has won a government tender for two land plots in the Muthurajawela sand fill area for the next 30 years to conduct logistics operators. The group subsidiary, John Keells Logistics (Pvt.) Ltd, won the tenders and the cabinet has approved the leasing of land to the company, the cabinet office said. The two land plots were some of the few remaining parcels in the 400-acre area, in which most of the other land plots have been demarcated for various purposes by the government after being developed by Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation. The John Keells group already has logistical operations in the area, with John Keells Warehousing (Pvt.) Ltd having the leasehold rights to a six-acre land in Muthurajawela. The area is attractive for its proximity to both the Colombo Port and Bandaranaike International Airport. John Keells Logistics operates and manages several modern multi-user warehousing complexes located within close proximities to the industrial zones, airport and Colombo Port. Parents' Union of Medical Students (PUMS) today made a complaint to the Bribery Commission stating that the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Higher Education Ministry had shied away from its responsibilities when enrolling students to South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM). Executive member of the Union Asoka Ranwala said both the UGC and the ministry had granted approval to students who did not meet the basic qualifications required for the study of medicine. In its complaint, the Association had urged the Commission to institute legal action against the UGC and the ministry, after conducting an impartial inquiry. Mr. Ranwala said due to the improper and corrupt mechanism followed when registering students to the SAITM, it was now difficult to resolve the controversy. At a press conference in Colombo, the Association questioned the move to sell the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital (NFTH). Union Secretary Wasantha Alwis said, though there were claims from the government of its acquisition of the NFTH, the newspapers carried an advertisement by Dr. Neville Fernando for the sale of the NFTH. He further said that the Association hopes to lodge a complaint next week with the Bribery Commission, as the Government has already pumped in funds of more than Rs. 3 billion per year. As such, he said the ownership of the hospital is questionable, and it would be a misuse of public funds if the government had not acquired it and was permitting Dr. Neville Fernando to sell the NFTH. (Thilanka Kanakarathna) Eminent Buddhist monk Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thera, in an interview with Daily Mirror, speaks about the current status of the country in the aftermath of violence in Kandy. The prelate said all the communities should be united to build the country. The excerpts of the interview: We, the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays and Burghers should be unified Govt. made a mockery of meanings of words such as reconciliation, good governance Leaders like MR should be more proactive I am ready to take leadership for it We should not leave addressing problems only in the hands of politicians Q : How do you view violence that erupted in the Kandy district? I look at it from a different perspective. Sri Lanka is under a huge, cultural,social and economic invasion from international elements. Economic invasion has been successful to a great extent. We are an agriculture society with a long cultural and civilization history. Unlike in other parts of the world, our agriculture is intertwined with spiritual development. There is an assault inflicted on our agricultural sector today. Fertilizer is not issued properly. Paddy lands are left to be barren. No proper pricing was done for the agrarian produce. There is a sinister move, hatched out strategically to destroy this culture. I dont know whether the government realizes this. The government voiced for organic agriculture. Today, rice is imported from the countries such as India. We never know agro-chemical contents accumulated in imported rice grains. This is one example. In our country, we have 57 traditional yam varieties which are edible - Ini Ala, kiri ala etc. Today, we consume mostly potatoes. A fast-food culture dominates the eating habits of people. It has caused health hazards such as juvenile obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure etc. Children are not properly advised on this. We have to be conscious about our health. I doubt whether successive governments are aware of this. We, as religious dignitaries are responsible for developing spirituality among the people. I must admit this is not done properly. If you compare Buddhism to a canoe, we have to get into it and paddle it on. Instead, we should not carry it on our heads. We have to absorb the essence of our religious teachings. Cultural invasion is acute today. We lived as families. All the members of the family used to sit together for dining. Today, it does not happen. One serves his/her food and sits glued to the TV. Therefore, to an extent, technological innovations have played negative role in our lives. We must fall in line with the trend, but should not be westernised. All our cultural values bear scientific factors. After attending a funeral, for example, we do not enter our houses without sprinkling some lime juice on our heads. That is to disinfect the germs which are settled in hair. Our parents used to keep basinful of water mixed with lime juice at our doorsteps for us to apply it on our hair before entering. We did not know the scientific basics behind this during our village life. Fertilizer is not issued properly. Paddy lands are left to be barren. No proper pricing was done for the agrarian produce. There is a sinister move, hatched out strategically to destroy this culture Q : Actually, what are the reasons for violence that erupted in Kandy? I went to Kandy. I think such violence was manipulated to destabilize the country. This is part of a conspiracy to infiltrate into this country through a different access. Regardless of addressing the needs of our people, those concerned live to satisfy the Western world. Amidst chaos, the government fulfils the whims of the West. Since the good governance came to power in 2015, they brought various legislations targeting the monks. The government introduced Bhikkhu Katikawak Bill. We protested against it and that was shelved. The government resorted to vilification of Bhikkhus. Afterwards, one Minister vilified me, but nothing happened to me finally. Then only I realized how affectionate our people were towards me. People taught a bitter lesson to that politician at the local government elections. Q : What should be done from your view to come out this crisis? The government started using certain terminologies such as reconciliation and good governance. These are beautiful words found in our vocabularies. Eventually, the government has made a mockery of such phrases. Only the government distorted their linguistic meanings. People feel repulsive to use these words. These words have been coined by the West. In the past, politicians coined the phrase Pious Society (Dharmista Samajaya). It was practised by some politicians who relate themselves to Buddhists. But, they never lived up to that reputation. Buddhism is nothing but enlightenment. We, as Buddhists, should get enlightened. In fact, we are enlightened enough, therefore, problems will not arise. I went to Kandy. I think such violence was manipulated to destabilize the country. This is part of a conspiracy to infiltrate into this country through a different access Q : What were your observations during your visit to the affected areas in Kandy? I asked the President to make his Ministers aware of what they utter. One Minister asked the Buddhists to apologize to the Muslims. We, as Buddhists, have done nothing to harm anyone. People live in peace and co-existence. Even lands belonging to Sri Dalada Maligawa are used by non-Buddhists. We never protested. There is no racism existing among us. However, the current crisis has been manipulated to introduce an Arab Spring here. I received a call from Eravur where Tamil youths stood guard to protect two shops owned by the Sinhalese. This is nothing but an international conspiracy to destabilize the country. Q : Do you believe whether this international conspiracy has been hatched with the connivance of the govt leaders? This government was installed by the West. I regret the plight of President Maithripala Sirisena. He hails from a Sinhala-Buddhist background and from a farming family. He is rooted in our culture. But was drawn in to this conspiracy. Q : You maintain close links with the President. Have you discussed this with him personally? I told him. He would be visiting me soon. Q : In your view, how can we bring about harmony among the communities? In the guise of attempting to bring about reconciliation, some people create enmity among communities. A minister, in a recent TV programme referred to a Muslim as brother and a Sinhalese as just a person. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksas party could win the local government elections riding on the nationalist sentiments of people. Whereas, he did not win on issues such as the cost of living etc. People had a belief that the proposed new Constitution would lead to divide the country. We, the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays and Burghers should be unified. Lets build the country in diversity. But, lets not become the cats paw of any politician. We have to work out a national action plan in consultation with each other. We can ask for their views on issues of their concern. The intelligentsia, representing all the communities, should sit together for talks. Yet, we have to leave out those so-called intellectuals aligned with NGOs. There are intellectuals working with me. I can invite them for such a dialogue. We have to find out the root causes for the problems. The current crisis has been engineered by the west. Q : According to your opinion, where would the current political situation be heading to? I think the leaders, such as MR should be more proactive than they are today. If this situation persists, the country would be plunged into further darkness. If he takes over, it would be difficult for him to resuscitate country. I stand by my position. I too can remain quiet till the government gets enmeshed in more and more chaos. At the end, it will be my country that suffers. In the event of a national calamity, we all should stand together. It happens in other countries. Q : Do you believe that President Sirisena and Mahinda Rajapaksa should forge ties now? They should spell out as to why they should get together. If they get together to divide the country, I will say no. If it is to protect the country, I will be for it. I agree if they tie up with each to protect the national assets of the country. I have put forward my conditions - protection of national sovereignty and national assets and the abrogation of the constitution-making process. Reconciliation and good governance are beautiful words found in our vocabularies. Eventually, the government has made a mockery of such phrases. Only the government distorted their linguistic meanings Q : What do you think of the next Presidential Election? I have made a statement. I am rallying Buddhist monks in view of it. We cannot continue to live with this plight. We have been suffering since the Independence. No government has given us anything. We who gained the Independence. But, it is like untethering a cattle head within its enclosure. The beast is untethered. It is still inside the enclosure, though. Our Independence is also like that. We still think inside the box in the colonial perspective. We need a thinking revolution. All the communities - the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and Malays should strive to build the country. I am ready to take the leadership for it. We should not leave the problems to be addressed by politicians. We suffer today because it was left for the mercy of the politicians. As a result, no community is happy today. Since 1948, we only served as doormats for politicians to come to power. Today, there is no one to take the responsibility for the bond scam. Who gave the character certificate to the person responsible? People should question about it and urge the leaders to get this person back to Sri Lanka. The country suffered a colossal loss. Who is going to bear it? Eventually, it is the poor masses who have to bear the brunt of it. Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park will present a two-hour, 2.5 mile hike focusing on modern and historical birding in Chickamauga Battlefield. This tour will begin on Saturday, March 31, at 7:30 a.m., at the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center, then caravan to the program site. In April 1895, Bradford Torrey reached Chattanooga in the midst of a rattling thunderstorm. Torreys primary mission while visiting was bird watching, and a few days after his initial introduction to the Scenic City, he stepping off a train at Lytle Station and into Chickamauga Battlefield. The following year, he published, which cataloged his time in the battlefield, including meeting Henry Boynton, one of the parks original proponents, visiting a family at the Kelly House, where he purchased some minie balls, and napping on Snodgrass Hill. In addition to learning about Torreys visit and some of the historical birds he encountered, NPS Volunteer Danny Gaddy will be along to point out birds that call Chickamauga Battlefield home today. Please remember to wear clothing appropriate for the weather, bring along water, and be sure to wear sturdy hiking shoes or boots. For more information about programs at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, contact the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at 706-866-9241, the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center at 423 821-7786, or visit the parks website at www.nps.gov/chch. The problem is that no one in the other political parties could come anywhere near Sarath Fonsekas achievements When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, dont adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. ~ Confucius Great devotion to the task at hand is a prerequisite for handling the Ministry of Law and Order. There was so much of hope that Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka would be appointed Minister of Law and Order. Such men with a sense of urgency and undeterred sense of results-orientation are few and far between. The issue with Fonseka is that no one in the other political parties could come anywhere near his achievements. Fonsekas capabilities are rotting away in a Ministry that has no portfolios. It is a travesty of national proportions. There was so much of hope, at least amongst the ordinary folks, that Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka would be appointed Minister of Law and Order. The logic behind such hope is quite legitimate and sound. Sarath Fonseka, when he was the Commander of Sri Lanka Army, delivered the goods. Fighting against one of the most dreaded terrorist armies in the world-the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE)-and its charismatic leader Prabhakaran, Sarath Fonseka not only exhibited raw gallantry and bravery, he displayed his acute knowledge about modern-day terrorist warfare and strategic battling on the field. He never sent his men and women where he couldnt go himself, a characteristic of a charismatic leader. He may be detested by the Tamil Diaspora. He is certainly feared by our politicians, amongst whom are the Rajapaksas, who were quite comfortable to give orders from their air-conditioned rooms in Colombo. Battlefield experience is a rare quality. Those who gather such experience, especially as battlefield commanders, are even rarer. That is why all over the world, those who excel as winning commanders end up capturing most lucrative civilian jobs in any administration. Whether its in the democratic West or any other administration in the Socialist world, Russia or China, such men and women end up occupying very commanding positions in the civilian management of governing affairs. As far as Sarath Fonseka is concerned, he seems to be in a unique position in that, he was dreaded by the Rajapaksas. The current leaders of the Government, whose original election pledge on election platforms was to expose the Rajapaksas and bring about law and order to a society so corrupt and placid, seem to be fearful of Fonsekas ability to just that- elimination of corruption and bringing a sense of sensibility and order. A totally different mindset is necessary in the present set of circumstances. A mind that is bold, a mind that is not scared and a one that is fundamentally results-oriented and unrelenting is the need of the hour. The recent ethnic violence and racial mayhem in the Kandy district cannot be disregarded as a minor clash between two clans. Minimizing a looming danger is a trait of a coward. For he or she thinks that such treatment would place him or her in a comfort zone within which they feel quite secure and safe. Such men and women do not dare. They dont venture outside the proverbial box, the comfort zone. The Government seems to be glued to that comfort zone. Sri Lankas post-Independence history has known only a very few leaders who dared to venture outside the box/comfort zone. Such men changed the course of the nations journey. Whether that change, of course, was for the good or bad is a different argument altogether. Future historians will pass judgment on them. Yet, such change of course, if initiated in a timely manner, by credible leaders whose daring and idealism was more precious to them than political expediency, could shape and define the character of a nation which would embrace such a character as an alternate personality. However, if this alternate personality of a nation is to be sustained for a calculable time of its journey, a great process of education and information, independent of political ideology, needs to take place. That process will not happen overnight nor would it occur as a matter of course. It needs to be deliberately engineered and monitored from a centre. That is precisely where a fully focused mind like that of Sarath Fonseka comes to play. Great devotion to the task at hand and unimpeachable commitment to the end-goal is a prerequisite for any candidate to be responsible for handling the Ministry of Law and Order. That dedication and commitment are not forthcoming from any personality in Parliament today except Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. Any person in my personal opinion, who could offer some competition in the sphere of commitment to a task and being focused, is Navin Dissanayake, the Minister of Plantation Industries and elder son of the late Gamini Dissanayake. Such men with a sense of urgency and undeterred sense of results-orientation are few and far between. It is even more so in post-Independent Sri Lanka. That is another tragic feature of our storied nations history. Reverting to the current context, the recent turmoil in the Kandy district and its assumption of racial tones coupled with the prelates of Maha Sangha being silent on the initial involvement of the likes of Galagodaaththe Gnanasara and other thugs in saffron robes, have aroused the appetite of tour global partners to warn their citizens to be more discerning when travelling to Sri Lanka. This consistent process of intended or unintended intervention into our internal affairs under the facade of human rights will continue. The dishonourable genocide committed in 1983 is still fresh in the human rights-activists world over. A totally different mindset is necessary in the present set of circumstances. A mind that is bold, a mind that is not scared and a one that is fundamentally results-oriented and unrelenting is the need of the hour. If Sarath Fonseka is that mind, why is everyone scared of him? A soldier who nearly sacrificed his life during the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE), a Presidential Candidate, who dared challenge the Rajapaksas in the 2009 Presidential Election, almost single-handedly with lukewarm assistance from the United National Party (UNP), cannot be discarded as an unwelcome guest? The problem lies there; the issue with Fonseka is that no one in the other political parties could come anywhere near his achievements. A singular sense of envy and fear has overwhelmed our Sinhalese politicians. One can understand the fear and dread that stems from the Rajapaksas for Sarath Fonseka, but the fear and jealousy others seem to have is unpardonable. Fonsekas capabilities are beyond question. As at now, he is rotting away in a Ministry that has no portfolios. It is a travesty of national proportions. The writer does not to intend to belittle Ranjith Madduama Bandara, who has just been sworn in as Minister of Law and Order. But to compare the two, Fonseka and Madduama Bandara is not fair, by both of them. The Government has failed miserably on the very platform that they were elected to office on. The unmitigated condition of bringing justice to those who played out the coffers of the Treasury and conducted crude and inhuman acts of violence and viciousness towards those who protested against their regime is still not fulfilled. It is that condition the majority of the country wanted satisfied. The majority of the people in the country know that Sarath Fonseka, more than anyone else in the current administration, is the person who is qualified to undertake that brutally honest task. Then why not ask him to do that? If the Rajapaksas come out clean after swift and justly concluded inquiries, then that is also alright. But dragging these inquiries without any end on the horizon only strengthens the Rajapaksas and weakens the Governments hand. On the other hand, a weakened hand at the beginning of the inquiries has further eroded the confidence of those who are eagerly looking forward to a rapid finish to the nagging questions that surround the last regime. Obviously, the untoward laziness, which was displayed by the Government-led inquiring officers and those who matter in the Department of Attorney General during the last two-and-half-years definitely was factored in by a sizeable majority of the voters in the Local Government elections and the results confirmed that. The context is very clear. It is as crisp and unambiguous as crystal. Within that vast yet well-defined context, rejection of Sarath Fonsekas name for the Ministry of Law and Order is unfathomable. Our politicians have not learnt to sacrifice their personal agendas for the good of the country. Nor have they learnt the fine art of negotiation- a craft that is essentially having a bind and abiding attachment to detach oneself from the immediate advance or retreat. Such nuanced politicking has lost its way. One can understand if those who reject Sarath Fonseka are uneducated nincompoops. But when such opposition stems from the educated quarters, it is quite evident that something more than a calculated gamble is at stake. Once again, it may be redundant to emphasize the significance of seeing the finality of the inquiries against the Rajapaksas and their cohorts. It may also be redundant to say that no one other than Sarath Fonseka in the current Government has the curriculum vitae to take over such a job and produce results. The erosion of Sinhalese Buddhist votes from the UNP is evident. Election after election has shown that an overdependence on the Tamils and Muslims might backfire to such an extent, the net UNP votes might reduce to an abysmal few. The increasing numbers of independent voters who are not attached to any political party yet matter most, when elections are held, would undoubtedly go away to the UNP and seek refuge elsewhere. The writer is not of the opinion that Prime Minister would like to share the inglorious distinction with President, of presiding over the disintegration of his party during his leadership. The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com Roshani Morias Executive Vice President of John Keells Holdings addressing the audience Serendib Flour Mills celebrated International Womens Day recently on 8th March 2018 under the theme 7 Star Women - Empowering you for Tomorrow to salute the remarkable contribution made by women towards society. Globally, International Womens Day is commemorated on 8th March to acknowledge the role women play in all spheres of life. As a responsible corporate citizen, Serendib Flour Mills too marked the event in a memorable manner by holding a forum at Jetwing Colombo Seven, where prominent women were invited to share their thoughts on the occasion of International Womens Day. The speakers at the event were Roshani Morias Executive Vice President of John Keells Holdings, who spoke about her experiences and challenges faced as a woman in the corporate world; Anoja Rajapathirana Founder of EASE Foundation, who shared her thoughts on her journey as a woman, a mother and a teacher; and Melissa Dharmadasa of Bakes by Bella, who elaborated on her rise to the top of the culinary sphere. The riveting sessions were followed by a panel discussion after which the floor was thrown open for questions from the audience. Anoja Rajapathirana Founder of EASE Foundation addressing the audience. Some of the key messages that emerged from the session were that women undoubtedly play multiple roles in todays complex society and that they have achieved many milestones in a multitude of spheres. The speakers reiterated the need for women everywhere to consider themselves equal to men, despite operating in a largely male-dominated society. Womens ability to multi task is their key strength and it should be appreciated in every realm they enter. The speakers urged women to be true to themselves and be proud of their identity and achievements, even though at times they have to work harder than men in order to prove their worth. The senior management of Serendib Flour Mills, staff and other invitees were present on the occasion. The event concluded by hailing the power of women. The Year 2018 also marks the 10th anniversary of Serendib Flour Mills and the company has exciting plans to make this year a memorable one. Melissa Dharmadasa - Owner of Bakes by Bella addressing the audience Serendib Flour Mills started commercial operations in 2008 and despite insurmountable challenges, achieved unparalleled success in the last three years, reflected in results. The company holds approximately 27% of the market share today and looking at further consolidating its position as an innovative and dominant player in the local wheat flour industry. (L-R) Melissa Dharmadasa - Owner of Bakes by Bella, Anoja Rajapathirana Founder of EASE Foundation, Roshani Morias Executive Vice President of John Keells Holdings. I have seen firsthand that agricultural science has enormous potential to increase the yields of small farmers and lift them out of hunger and poverty Bill Gates When the father of our nation D.S. Senanayake went ahead with his ambitious plans for farmers as Minister of Agriculture in the State Council of Ceylon, he was met with resistance by cynics. The naysayers attempted to discourage D.S. from promoting paddy cultivation insisting it was far cheaper to import rice than to invest on paddy here. However DS being the far wiser statesman and forward thinker went ahead with his plans renovating neglected irrigation systems and creating new ones assuring food security for the country in the decades to come. Unfortunately for us not everyone who ruled the country after DS shared his vision and concern for the paddy framer and during the past four decades or so saw a dwindling interest in their grievances. Hundreds of tanks remain overgrown with grass and trees and damaged and dried up canals have been now occupied by squatters. This has been the fate of even the engineering wonder the 87-km Yoda Ela or Jaya Ganga which carries excess water from Kala Wewa to Thissa Wewa in Anuradhapura. The precision of the incline in the canal still baffles even foreign engineers but this marvel of engineering is now inhabited by squatters due to neglect. Thus with no one to fix the perennial water problem, the future of a majority of the 1.2 million farmers in the country and nearly five million of their dependents is now poised on a precipice of uncertainty. The water shortage has resulted in an over dependence on imported rice thus jeopardizing the countrys food security in an unstable global economy. Right now the agriculture officers are advising farmers to cultivate maize onn 50% of their paddy lands to face-off the water shortage. Besides creating a greater demand for imported rice this practice will leave another problem for farmers as theres no such demand for maize in the country. Meanwhile, a couple of weeks back the media reported that a farmer in the Kovil Adi area in Thambalagamuwa division in the Trincomalee district has successfully experimented with rice seed variety BG 74-2. Till then it was grown only by the farmers in Polonnaruwa. The variety it is learned gives a rice yield of 150 bushels from ten acres and the farmer in Kovil Adi has shared his success story with others. While the farmer has carried out his own experiments on seed paddy theres very little patronage from successive governments on research despite rice being the countrys staple food. Even if a farmer manages to get a good harvest braving all the challenges still he is not assured of his income as the Paddy Marketing Board itself grapples with its own problems due to a shortage of storage capacity. For instance farmers in the drought-hit Kantale who finally managed to cultivate paddy after seven seasons were last month seen lamenting over the Paddy Marketing Boards refusal to buy their harvest citing various reasons. In such an eventuality the desperate farmers are forced to sell crops to the middle man at a cheaper price often incurring a big loss. It goes without saying that theres an urgent need to help start farmer co-operatives and groups and encourage them to engage in processing and marketing of rice as the governments seem to be losing interest in the matter. These farmer organizations should be provided with necessary skills and technology in areas like weed and insect management, nutrient management and post-harvest management. Empowering the farmers so that they would be in a position to bargain with any government is helpful as with the farmer community forms 25% of the countrys vote base. Last week saw some 85,000 farmers in the Indian state of Maharashtra walking 180 kms to Mumbai and getting their demands met by the state government. As for the water problem, in addition to rehabilitating tanks and canals, the government needs to have a blueprint on how its going to face the effects of climate change especially in the dry zone with agriculture being one of the most vulnerable sectors to be hit by the impending global catastrophe. Implementing the proposal for the River Basin Authority (RBA) to control and develop the countrys 103 river basins would be a good starting point. Agriculture, as Thomas Jefferson said, is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness. We cannot think of a secure future as an island nation with food security unless we take care of our farmer. Citizens in Kandy should show their displeasure over what politicians and others have done to create violence in places like Digana, Teldeniya and other areas. Citizens in Kandy had enough after the one hundred days of terror during the 1915 riots The incidents were created by a handful of disgruntled persons outside Kandy This false picture given would sent the word around that Kandy is not safe for tourists Friends around the globe, whom I know, were telephoning me. L.B. are you safe in Kandy they asked me. I said Yes. But, it did not strike me during those moments. There was a reason behind these inquiries. Later it dawned on me that these attacks in Digana and Teldeniya are termed as Kandy violence by the Kandy folk. But, none of these incidents occurred in Kandy. The incidents were created by a handful of disgruntled persons outside Kandy. After the first day of incidents the newspapers reported that there was mayhem in Digana and Teldeniya. But, all these incidents were associated with one word: Kandy. Soon people were assuming that people from Kandy were involved in these incidents. This false picture given would sent the word around that Kandy is not safe for tourists. Kandy is the centre of Buddhist activities, given that Gautama Buddhas tooth relic is housed at the Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth). Kandy is the place which attracts tourists, not Digana and Teldeniya. However these two towns come under the purview of Kandy District. My concerns are why the name Kandy was mentioned when no clash too place here. Then why blame Kandy citizens who had no hand in these incidents in Teldeniya, Digana and in surrounding areas? This situation has to be corrected, at least now Citizens in Kandy had enough after the one hundred days of terror during the 1915 riots. Given this history no one would dare to get involved in any such incident which would create a communal rift. Another incident that the Kandy people would not forget is the Walhagoda Devale incident. During this incident both the Sinhala and Muslim communities had to settle their grievances in a massive Court case. In this background the people of Kandy would never allow history to repeat. The citizens of Kandy had remained silent during this commotion and allowed everyone to blame them for the violence in which they played no role. Geographically Kandy is surrounded by The Mahaweli and there have been no ethnic hatred. Its a big question as to why others think that Kandy citizens are to blame for all this violence? Time and again when these incidents are highlighted and also when the Police Media Spokesman talks about the violence he mentions Kandy as the source where the mayhem begins from. The affected are clearly demarcated by rivers and bridges and it is superfluous that Kandy has come to the picture without even a stone thrown at a Muslim in this part of the Central Province. The Kandy people have lived in peace after 1915 and there is no doubt they would continue to do so for centuries. When the death occurred of driver M.G Kumarasinghe, in Teldeniya, the point of the so-called mayhem, initially no one knew to what communities the assailants and victim belonged to. It was days later that they found that the culprits were members of the Muslim community. The Muslims denounced them as members of their community when it was alleged the assailants were under the influence of liquor. The affected are clearly demarcated by rivers and bridges and it is superfluous that Kandy has come to the picture without even a stone thrown at a Muslim in this part of the Central Province Then why blame Kandy citizens who had no hand in these incidents in Teldeniya, Digana and in surrounding areas? This situation has to be corrected, at least now. Politicians can do better than repeatedly chanting the name Kandy! Folks of Kandy should be respected for finding a way to live in harmony with people belonging to different races and religions. De : Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi < mrs.biyufungchi02@gmail.com > Envoye le : Ve, 16 Fev 2018 17:41 Sujet : I am waiting for your information. My dear I thank you for your kind respond and your promise to help me to donate this fund to the charity and less privilege people as I instructed you in my previous mail, that the 50% of the total fund will be your own share for your well done job , and 50 % of the total fund, you will use it and donate to the charity people you know my situation here in the hospital as a victim of cancer is very difficult for me, and I will like you to send all your personal information as stated below through my mail so that I will know more about you, and to enable me to give you the contact of the bank where my late husband deposited the said fund ADB: adbbfa@africamail.com adb _foreign_remmdept@financier.com 1) Name 2 Phone 3) address 4) Country 5) status 6) age 7) occupation 8) picture Immediately I receive your personal informations correctly I will give you the contact of the bank so that the bank will effect the transfer immediately and, I will like you to send me your picture or your copy of identity card so that I will know more about you, remember I have already inform the bank about this transaction and I have some of my late husband documents that will enable the bank to transfer the fund in your account without further delay ,the statement of account and the death certificate of my late husband. I am waiting for your urgent if you are ready to assist me in this proposal, and I want you to promise me that you will not betray me once the fund is transfer in your account in your country, I attached my picture for you to know me and I am waiting for your own picture. Yours faithful sister in the Lord Mrs. Biyu so that they will start the procedure of the transfer in your country as I already instructed the bank manager about you as my foreign partner. Your personal information required is below. .1) Name2 Phone3) address4) Country5) status6) age7) occupation8) pictureImmediately I receive your personal informations correctly I will give you the contact of the bank so that the bank will effect the transfer immediately and, I will like you to send me your picture or your copy of identity card so that I will know more about you, remember I have already inform the bank about this transaction and I have some of my late husband documents that will enable the bank to transfer the fund in your account without further delay ,the statement of account and the death certificate of my late husband.I am waiting for your urgent if you are ready to assist me in this proposal, and I want you to promise me that you will not betray me once the fund is transfer in your account in your country, I attached my picture for you to know me and I am waiting for your own picture.Yours faithful sister in the LordMrs. Biyu De : Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi mrs.biyufungchi02@gmail.com Envoye le : Di, 25 Fev 2018 8:23 Sujet : Application for funds release to send My dear, I thank you for your response and your promise to help me to transfer this fund and to donate this fund to the charity as I instructed you in my previous mail, first of all remember we are talking about a big amount of money which is $5.5 million US dollars and I trust you that is why I contacted you on how to transfer the fund in your account to make useful of the fund as I instructed you, I ask for your personal informations so that I will know you well as I have introduced myself very well for you, Almighty God will bless you and your family for your promise and your effort to help me to fulfill my heart desire, as I already told you about my situation here in the hospital is very difficult for me, and I will like you to contact the bank immediately regard the transfer of the money in your account, and also will advice you to keep everything about this transaction confidential until you receive this fund in your account, because I don't want to loose my late husband fund in the hand of the bad people. I have already inform the bank about you as my foreign partner that want to assist me to transfer my late husband fund in his account. This is the contact of the bank below, you have to contact the bank immediately. . African Development Bank (ADB) Internet banking, Mr. FrankOuedraogo AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB)BURKINA FASO P.O.Box: 46175, Nord West ZoneAnnex, 01 OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO (226) 74312548 (226) 204771 09 Please don't forget to notify me immediately you contact the bank so that I will know the next step to follow and I thank you for your personal information you sent to me. Remember I have already informed the bank about you and you as my foreign partner you have to contact the bank immediately without more delay. This is what you will write to the bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . APPLICATION FOR FUNDS RELEASE I, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . from. . . . . . . . . . . . humbly hereby putting cla im over total funds of us$5.5millions deposited to your bank by late Dr Chi Thai from China. Mrs Biyu Fung Chi is the legal next of kin to inherit the funds and she's the wife of your deceased customer and I was appointed in proxy to act on her behalf over the transaction due to her present health condition in the hospital. Kindly acknowledge the receipt of this email. i will like you to take in consideration the below stated details to proceed for the transaction. Below the deceased account details : Account holder : Dr. Chi Thai AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB). Account Number: 2183001412 Bank swift code: NWBKGB2L Total Amount: us$5.5 millions Beneficiary: Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi Yours faithful, I am waiting for your kind respond regard this transfer My name :. . . De : ALLEN IBRAHIM mrallenibrahim236@gmail.com Envoye le : Me, 28 Fev 2018 8:40 Sujet : Kindly forward to me a copy of the letters you received Dear partner, I went for inquiry to the bank this morning, Dear partner,I went for inquiry to the bank this morning, adbbfa@africamail.com I have found out that the bank had finally contacted you.Kindly forward to me a copy of the letters you received from the bank adbbfa@africamail.com and mrs.biyufungchi02@gmail.com so that i will advise you on what to do to avoid mistake from your side. always be checking your mails Regards Mr. Allen Ibrahim De : Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi mrs.biyufungchi02@gmail.com Envoye le : Lu, 5 Mar 2018 9:38 Sujet : Contact the bank to proceed My dear I thank you for your kind respond, regards to your message, you don't need to make things to be complicate for us, you know my situation here and all you need is to follow my instruction to make sure everything will work successfully. I have already informed the bank about you as my foreign partner all you need is to copy the draft message below and send to the bank email addresses as to enable them to proceed. . Attention: African Development Bank (ADB). Director INTERNET banking, AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK BURKINA FASO (ADB) P.O Box 46175, NORTH WEST ZONE ANNEX, 01 OUAGA BURKINA FASO (226) 74312548 (+226) 204771 09 Ref. :Mr. FRANK OUDREOGO please don't forget to notify me immediately you contact the bank so that I will know the next step to follow and I thank you for your personal information you sent to me. Remember I have already informed the bank about you and you as my foreign partner you have to contact the bank immediately without more delay. mrs.biyufungchi02@gmail.com This is what you will write to the bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AN APPLICATION FOR FUNDS RELEASE I'm - - - - - - - from- - - - - - - Humbly hereby putting c laim over total funds of US$5.5 millions deposited to your bank by late Dr Chi Thai from China. Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi is the legal next of kin to inherit the funds and she's the wife of your deceased customer and I was appointed in proxy to act on her behalf over the transaction due to her present health condition in the hospital. kindly acknowledge the receipt of this email. i will like you to take in consideration the below stated details to proceed for the transaction. Below the deceased account details : Dr. Chi Thai AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB). Account Number: 2183001412 Bank swift code: NWBKGB2L Amount: US$5.5 millions, Beneficiary: Mrs Biyu Fung Chi I am waiting for your kind respond regard this transfer Yours faithfully, . . . . . . . . De : AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK adb-bf11@accountant.com Envoye le : Lu, 12 Mar 2018 20:08 Sujet : Requirements about the transfer. AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPT NORTH WEST ZNE ANNEX, 01 OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO ADB www.afdb.org TRANSFER REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION Sir, Madam I have been directed by the director ofStates Foreign Operation / Wire Transfer Actually, we have earlier been told about you by the lady Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi f or the claim of her late husband deposit with our bank. Late Dr. Chi Thaiis our late customer with sum substantial amount of money he deposit with us. Hence you have been really appointed as a trustee to represent the next of kin. However before our bank will transact any business concerning the transfer of the fund to your bank, we will like you to send the following documents immediately to our bank. . to write you in respect to the mail which we have received from Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi, mrs.biyufungchi02@gmail.com 1. A power of Attorney permitting you to claim and transfer the funds to your bank account on her behalf. Note this Power of Attorney must be endorse by a Burkinabe resident lawyer. 2. Death certificate of thel ate Dr. Chi Thai, h er husband deceased, confirming his death. 3. A statement of copy of account issued to l ate Dr. Chi Thai by our bank. 4. An affidavit of support from the Burkina Faso high court with her signature in it. 5.The name of your bank and your account number where your want this fund to be transfer . Note the above are compulsory, and are needed to protect ourinterest, yours and the next of kin after the transfer has been made.These shall also ensure that a smooth, quick and successful transfer of the fund is made. We promise to give our customers the best of our services. Should you have any question,please contact our Foreign Operational. Thanks for your understanding ADB Director, Dept.Foreign Remittance Africa Development Bank Mr. Mohammed Usman (Accounts Dept) adb-bf@accountant.com adb-bf11@accountant.com www.adbbfa@africamail.com + 226-74 31 25 48 AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AFDB) BF W e are neither just an off bank shore nor we are only on shore . . . . WE ARE BOTH; We touch base at every nook and cranny of the country. Is That why you ll always find an African Development Bank (AFDB) branch up North, down South, West and East. Record is amiable Our aaborne out of the bank's philosophy of clients satisfaction, we offer our clients the following services: Traditional Banking services, Corporate Finance Services, Telebanking Services, Visible & Invisible of publishing of publishing of publishing Transaction Services, Exports Desk Services and Public Sectors Services. We are totally devoted to you . . This transmission has been issued by AFDB Group '' AFDB '' for the information of the addressee only and should not be reproduced and / or distributed to other person any. to its completeness or accura De : Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi mrs.biyufungchi02@gmail.com Envoye le : Lu, 12 Mar 2018 20:13 Sujet : Questionnaire I am in contact with the bank with the anwers to all the questions and happy that everything is working successfully, below is what the bank required before the transaction. As soon as I receive a get a contact of a lawyer that will assist us I will update you 1. A power of Attorney Permitting you to claim and transfer the funds to your bank account on her behalf; Note This Power of Attorney must be endorse by a Burkinabe resident lawyer. 2. Death certificate of thel ate Dr. Chi Thai, husband deceased, confirming his death. 3. A statement of Copy of account issued to Late Dr Chi Thai by our bank. 4. An Affidavit of support from the Burkina Faso high court with her signature in it. 5. The name of your bank and your accountwhere your want this fund to be transfer . Note the above are compulsory, and are needed to protect ourinterest, yours and the next of kin after the transfer has been made.These shall also ensure that a smooth, quick and successful transfer of the fund is made. adb-bf@accountant.com adb-bf11@accountant.com , www.adbbfa@africamail.com Mrs Biyu mrs.biyufungchi02@gmail.com My dear De : AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK adb-bf11@accountant.com Envoye le : Ma, 20 Mar 2018 8:49 Sujet : TRANSFER REQUIREMENTS AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT NORTH WEST ZNE ANNEX, 01 OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO www.afdb.org adb-bf@accountant.com adb-bf11@accountant.com TRANSFER REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION Sir, Madam I have been directed by the director ofStates Foreign Operation / Wire Transfer to write you in respect to the mail which we have received from Mrs. Merion Fung Chi. Actually, we have earlier been told about you by the lady Mrs. Merion Fung Chi . For the claim of her late husband deposit with our bank. Late Dr Chi Thai is our late customer with sum substantial amount of money he deposit with us. Hence you have been really appointed as a trustee to represent the next of Kin. However before our bank will transact any business concerning the transfer of the fund to your bank, we will like you to send the followings documents immediately to our bank. 1. A power of Attorney Permitting you to claim and transfer the funds to your bank account on her behalf; Note This Power of Attorney must be endorse by a Burkina-be resident lawyer. 2. Death certificate of The Late Dr Chi Thai (Her Husband deceased) confirming his death. 3. A statement of copy of account issued to l ate Dr. Chi Thai by our bank. 4. An affidavit of support from the Burkina Faso high court with her signature in it. 5. The name of your bank and your account number where your want this fund to be transfer . Note the above are compulsory, and are needed to protect ourinterest, yours and the next of kin after the transfer has been made.These shall also ensure that a smooth, quick and successful transfer of the fund is made. Contact of your partnerMrs Merion Fung Chi : We promise to give our customers the best of our services.Should you have any question (s), please contact our Foreign Operational Thanks for your understanding ADB Director, Dept. States States States Foreign Remittance Africa Development Bank. Director : Mr. Mohammed Usman (for Accounts Dept) adb-bf@accountant.com adb-bf11@accountant.com + 226-74 31 25 48 AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AFDB) BF. W e are neither just an off bank shore nor we are only on shore . . . . WE ARE BOTH; We touch base at every nook and cranny of the country. Is That why you ll always find an African Development Bank (AFDB) branch up North, down South, West and East. Record is amiable Our aaborne out of the bank's philosophy of clients satisfaction, we offer our clients the following services: Traditional Banking services, Corporate Finance Services, Telebanking Services, Visible & Invisible of publishing of publishing of publishing Transaction Services, Exports Desk Services and Public Sectors Services. We are totally devoted to you . . This transmission has been issued by AFDB Group '' AFDB '' for the information of the addressee only and should not be reproduced and / or distributed to other person any. to its completeness or accura De : AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK < adb-bf11@accountant.com > Envoye le : Lu, 26 Mar 2018 10:14 Sujet : TRANSFER REQUIREMENTS AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT NORTH WEST ZNE ANNEX, 01 OUAGA BURKINA FASO BURKINA FASO ADB Date:26 -03-2018 ADB. Web Site . . . . . .www.afdb.org adb-bf@accountant.com adb-bf11@accountant.com TRANSFER REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION Sir, Madam I have been directed by the director of States States States Foreign Operation / Wire Transfer to write you in respect to the mail which we have received from Mrs. Biyu Fung chi Actually, we have earlier been told about you by the lady Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi . (For the claim of her late Husband deposit with our bank. Late Dr Chi Thai is our late customer with sum substantial amount of money he deposit with us. Hence you have been really appointed as a trustee to represent the next of Kin. However before our bank will transact any business concerning the transfer of the fund to your bank, we will like you to send the followings documents immediately to our bank. 1.A power of Attorney Permitting you to claim and transfer the funds to your bank account on her behalf; Note This Power of Attorney must be endorse by a Burkina-be resident lawyer. 2. Death certificate of The Late Dr Chi Thai (Her Husband deceased) confirming his death. 3.A statement of Copy of account issued to Late Dr Chi Thai by our bank. 4.An Affidavit of support from the Burkina Faso high court with her signature in it. 5.The name of your bank and your account number where your want this fund to be transfer . Note: The above are compulsory, and are needed to protect ourinterest, yours and the next of kin after the transfer has been made.These shall also ensure that a smooth, quick and successful transfer of the fund is made. We promise to give our customers the best of our services.Should you have any question (s), please contact our Foreign Operational Thanks for your understanding understanding : ADB Director, Dept. States States States Foreign Remittance Africa Development Bank. Director-Mr.Mohammed usman(For Accounts Dept) adb-bf@accountant.com , adb-bf11@accountant.com + 226-74 31 25 48 AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AFDB) BF. W e are neither just an off bank shore nor we are only on shore . . . . WE ARE BOTH; We touch base at every nook and cranny of the country. Is That why you ll always find an African Development Bank (AFDB) branch up North, down South, West and East. Record is amiable Our aaborne out of the bank's philosophy of clients satisfaction, we offer our clients the following services: Traditional Banking services, Corporate Finance Services, Telebanking Services, Visible & Invisible of publishing of publishing of publishing Transaction Services, Exports Desk Services and Public Sectors Services. We are totally devoted to you . . This transmission has been issued by AFDB Group '' AFDB '' for the information of the addressee only and should not be reproduced and / or distributed to other person any. to its completeness or accura De : Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi mrs.biyufungchi02@gmail.com Envoye le : Lu, 2 Avr 2018 10:33 Sujet : Contact the lawyer for the 2 remaining documents. . My dear How are you today and your family ? I thank you for all your effort to see that this proposal to help the charity and the poor will be successfully, and your promised to try all your possible best to see that nothing will stop this good proposal, God will bless you, I also receive email from the bank, regards the required documents before the transfer. I am very happy that everything is working successfully that soon the fund will be transfer in your account in your country, regards to those documents the bank required from us before the transfer, as I already informed you in my previous mail that I have some of my late husband's documents the Last statement of account of my late husband and his death certificate which I will attached to you. Please you have to keep it confidential for a security reason. I have the step (2) of the document the bank request the death certificate of my late husband,and the step (3) the statement of account of my late husband, which I will attached to you. And the only two documents we need now is the power of attorney which is the step (1) The power of attorney is the documents that will enable you to claim the fund and changing of the ownership of the fund in your name, and the power of attorney must be endorse by a Burkina-be resident lawyer as the bank instructed, (4) Affidavit of support and must be also endorsed by a Burkinabe resident lawyer, and now I have got the contact of the lawyer that will assist us to issue those documents through the help of the bank manager, please I will advice you to contact the lawyer immediately, so that he will help us to secure those required documents from the bank before the transfer. This is the contact of the lawyer name Barrister Edmond Coast barredmondchambers@outlo ok.com I have already informed the lawyer about you as my foreign partner that want to assist me to secure my late husband fund for a good purpose, I believe he will help us to secure those two remaining documents, which is the only thing that bank need from us before the transfer. I am waiting for your urgent respond and a good news that you have contact the lawyer so that he will help us to issue those required documents, you don't need to delay I want everything to happen fast. Your faithful Sister Mrs Biyu I have already informed the lawyer about you as my foreign partnerthat want to assist me to secure my late husband fund for a goodpurpose, I believe he will help us to secure those two remainingdocuments, which is the only thing that bank need from us before thetransfer.I am waiting for your urgent respond and a good news that you havecontact the lawyer so that he will help us to issue those requireddocuments, you don't need to delay I want everything to happen fast.Your faithful SisterMrs Biyu De : AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK adb-bf11@accountant.com Envoye le : Lu, 9 Avr 2018 12:20 Sujet : TRANSFER REQUIREMENTS AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT NORTH WEST ZNE ANNEX, 01 OUAGA BURKINA FASO BURKINA FASO 09-04-2018 www.afdb.org adb-bf@accountant.com adb-bf11@accountant.com TRANSFER REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION Sir, Madam I have been directed by the director of States States States Foreign Operation / Wire Transfer to write you in respect to the mail which we have received from Mrs. Biyu Fung chi Actually, we have earlier been told about you by the lady Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi . For the claim of her late husband deposit with our bank. late Dr Chi Thai is our late customer with sum substantial amount of money he deposit with us. Hence you have been really appointed as a trustee to represent the next of Kin. However before our bank will transact any business concerning the transfer of the fund to your bank, we will like you to send the followings documents immediately to our bank. 1.A power of Attorney Permitting you to claim and transfer the funds to your bank account on her behalf; Note This Power of Attorney must be endorse by a Burkina-be resident lawyer. 2. Death certificate of The Late Dr Chi Thai (Her Husband deceased) confirming his death. 3.A statement of Copy of account issued to Late Dr Chi Thai by our bank. 4.An Affidavit of support from the Burkina Faso high court with her signature in it. 5.The name of your bank and your account number where your want this fund to be transfer . Note the above are compulsory, and are needed to protect ourinterest, yours and the next of kin after the transfer has been made.These shall also ensure that a smooth, quick and successful transfer of the fund is made. We promise to give our customers the best of our services.Should you have any question (s), please contact our Foreign Operational Thanks for your understanding ADB Director, Dept. StatesForeign Remittance Africa Development Bank. Director-Mr.Mohammed usman(For Accounts Dept) www.afdb.org adb-bf@accountant.com adb-bf11@accountant.com + 226-74 31 25 48 AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AFDB) BF. W e are neither just an off bank shore nor we are only on shore . . . . WE ARE BOTH; We touch base at every nook and cranny of the country. Is That why you ll always find an African Development Bank (AFDB) branch up North, down South, West and East. Record is amiable Our aaborne out of the bank's philosophy of clients satisfaction, we offer our clients the following services: Traditional Banking services, Corporate Finance Services, Telebanking Services, Visible & Invisible of publishing of publishing of publishing Transaction Services, Exports Desk Services and Public Sectors Services. We are totally devoted to you . . This transmission has been issued by AFDB Group '' AFDB '' for the information of the addressee only and should not be reproduced and / or distributed to other person any. to its completeness or accura De : Mrs. Biyu Fung Chi mrs.biyufungchi02@gmail.com Envoye le : Lu, 9 Avr 2018 14:01 Sujet : Contactthem for the remaining documents How are you today and your family ? I thank you for all your efforts to see that this proposal to help the charity and the poor will be successfully, and your promised to try all your possible best to see that nothing will stop this good proposal, God will bless you, I also receive email from the bank, regards the required documents before the transfer : adb-bf11@accountant.com My dearHow are you today and your family ? I thank you for all your efforts tosee that this proposal to help the charity and the poor will besuccessfully, and your promised to try all your possible best to seethat nothing will stop this good proposal, God will bless you, I alsoreceive email from the bank, regards the required documents before thetransfer : adb-bf@accountant.com I am very happy that everything is working successfully that soon the fund will be transfer in your account in your country, regards to those documents the bank required from us before the transfer, as I already informed you in my previous mail that I have some of my late Husband's documents the Last statement of account of my late husband and his death certificate which I will attached to you. Please you have to keep it confidential for a security reason. I have the step (2) of the document the bank request the death certificate of my late husband, and the step (3)the statement of account of my late husband, which I will attached to you. And the only two documents we need now is the power of attorney which is the step (1) The power of attorney is the documents that will enable you to claim the fund and changing of the ownership of the fund in your name, and the power of attorney must be endorse by a Burkina-be resident lawyer as the bank instructed, (4) Affidavit of support and must be also endorsed by a Burkinabe resident lawyer, and now I have got the contact of the lawyer that will assist us to issue those documents through the help of the bank manager, please I will advice you to contact the lawyer immediately, so that he will help us to secure those required documents from the bank before the transfer. This is the contact of the lawyerBarrister Edmond Coast barredmondchambers@outlook.com I have already informed the lawyer about you as my foreign partner that want to assist me to secure my late husband fund for a good purpose, I believe he will help us to secure those two remaining documents, which is the only thing that bank need from us before the transfer. I am waiting for your urgent respond and a good news that you have contact the lawyer so that he will help us to issue those required documents, you don't need to delay I want everything to happen fast. Your faithful Sister Mrs Biyu I have already informed the lawyer about you as my foreign partnerthat want to assist me to secure my late husband fund for a goodpurpose, I believe he will help us to secure those two remainingdocuments, which is the only thing that bank need from us before thetransfer.I am waiting for your urgent respond and a good news that you havecontact the lawyer so that he will help us to issue those requireddocuments, you don't need to delay I want everything to happen fast.Your faithful SisterMrs Biyu If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more.... Emma Noonan, an 8th grade student at Skyuka Hall School, has been selected as one of Carson Scholar Fund's 2018 Carson Scholars. Ms. Noonan is one of 501 students from across the country to receive this honor and a $1,000 college scholarship and recognition package. Students selected maintain a GPA of 3.75 or higher, something that Ms. Noonan had. The scholarship is aimed at cultivating future leaders, who are academically talented and demonstrate kindness towards others. Ashley Moore, a teacher at Skyuka Hall, nominated Emma for her outstanding academic achievement and her strong work ethic. "Emma is a natural leader," said Mrs. Moore. "She is a kind-hearted intelligent young lady who has earned the respect of her teachers and peers by being a role model to other students at her school. Regardless of the challenges she may face, she never gives up. She is motivated to do her best, to give her all in every situation." As part of the application process Emma had to write an essay. "I wrote my essay from the heart," said Emma. "Being in a small school you can see that we are not all the same. We're not just different on the outside, but inside too. Some are more sensitive than others. Some brains can't comprehend things as fast. It has helped me to understand that being different is okay. I have learned how to truly be there for others and to help them grow too." Dr. Josh Yother, head of school at Skyuka Hall, said, We are very proud to have Emma represent our school. She truly represents all the qualities of a Carson Scholar a strong work ethic, high GPA and compassion and kindness towards others at school and in the wider community. We look forward to watching Emma grow into a future leader." Emma will be officially recognized at the Chattanooga/Atlanta Awards Banquet on April 29. North Georgia Realtor Jennifer Catlett of Crye-Leike Fort Oglethorpe has earned the Crye-Leike 2018 Rookie of the Year award for the Chattanooga region. To earn this award, Ms. Catlett was the number one agent in sales transactions for new Crye-Leike agents in 2017 within her region. As a rookie, this title may mean I am new to Crye-Leike, but I am not new to working hard and striving to be the best, said Ms. Catlett. I spent the year of 2017 perfecting my real estate business in all aspects of marketing, advertising, and social media, while constantly educating myself and upholding the standards of a confident and knowledgeable real estate professional. A Multi-Million Dollar Producer, she is licensed in both Georgia and Tennessee, and has been serving the real estate needs of home buyers and sellers in and around the Catoosa, Walker, Whitfield, and Hamilton counties. She is a member of both the National Association of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, and the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors. Honored at the companys annual meeting for the Chattanooga region, Ms. Catlett admits the excitement of achieving such success during her first year with Crye-Leike has been a rewarding experience. Working as a realtor is truly something I love to do, helping my clients and serving my community is what makes all of the hard work worth it, said Ms. Catlett. There is nothing else I would rather do and I am grateful for the opportunity to do so. For further information about real estate in and around North Georgia contact Ms. Catlett at 779-7501, or by email at jennifer.catlett@crye-leike.com. You may also check her out at Crye-Leikes Fort Oglethorpe branch office located at 69 Crye-Leike Dr. Or visit her website at https://jennifercatlett.crye-leike.com/. 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... China's latest lunar probe, the Chang'e-4, is expected to land on the far side of the Moon on the second half this year in what is to be the first soft landing on the dark side of the moon in the history of space flight, said Zhao Xiaojin, head of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. An illustration of Chang'e-4 working on the Moon. [Photo: stdaily.com] The project is divided into two stages. In the first half of the year, a relay satellite will be sent to the Earth-Moon Lagrange 2 point, which is 450,000 kilometers from the earth. It will transmit data collected by the rover and lander back to earth, explained Zhao Xiaojin on the sidelines of this year's CPPCC sessions. After the testing of the relay satellite, Chang'e-4 will start its journey in the second half of 2018 and land near Moon's South Pole's Aitken Basin. Chang'e-4 is a copy of Chang'e-3, but has a different landing method and working conditions. Its predecessor Chang'e-3, China's first lunar lander, has been operating on the moon for over two years. Meanwhile, Zhao Xiaojin has told the media on the sidelines of the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference that the Chang'e-5 mission is now scheduled for sometime in 2019. That mission will involve a lunar landing and return to earth. "We hope to start the construction of a lunar base around 2025 and send man onto the Moon around 2030," said Zhao. Posted Monday, March 12, 2018 10:30 am James D. Quinn, 80, of Knob Noster, passed away Sunday, March 11, 2018, at his home. He was born on Nov. 21, 1937, in St. Louis, the son of Kenneth and Annabelle (Vaughn) Quinn. Jim was a Vietnam veteran serving honorably in the United State Air Force for 30 years and retiring as a chief master sergeant from Whiteman Air Force Base. He continued to serve by managing the AmVets Post 143, which supports many programs for Knob Noster and surrounding communities. He enjoyed hanging out with his friends and following his Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Cardinals. Jim is survived by his loving fiancee, Kitty Wiggins, of Knob Noster; three sons, Michael (Jamie) Quinn of Riva, Md., and Dave Quinn and Rick Quinn, both of Jefferson City; and three stepchildren, Rick Wiggins (Tina Savage) of Knob Noster, Brenda (John) Carr of Oak Grove and David Wiggins of Santa Rosa, Fla. He is also survived by 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Kenneth Wayne Quinn. Graveside funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday, March 16, in Missouri Veterans Cemetery with full military honors. The family will receive friends from noon until 2 2p.m. on Friday at Sweeney-Phillips & Holdren Funeral Home in Warrensburg. Memorial contributions are suggested to AmVets Post 143 and can be left in care of the funeral home. (Paid Obituary) Forty-nine people were killed and 22 injured after a passenger plane of the US-Bangla Airlines crashed in course of landing at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Monday afternoon, government authorities said here. The incident took place due to the pilot's "missed approach," the authorities said. Nepalese army rescue team search on a debris of an airplane that crashed in Kathmandu using crane at Kathmandu, Nepal on Monday, March 12, 2018. [Photo: IC] General Manager of the TIA Rajkumar Chhetri told media here that the US-Bangla plane crashed in course of landing at the airport due to missed approach of the pilot at 2:15 p.m. local time (1130 GMT) Monday. Chhetri said that the Bangla aircraft carrying 71 persons including four crew members narrowly escaped from hitting the tail of Thai Airways plane parked at the airport. The UBG211 flight was en route to Kathmandu from Dhaka, Bangladesh. The ill-fated plane was said to have circled the airport twice before trying landing. Separate rescue teams of Nepal Police and Nepal Army were deployed to carry out rescue operations immediately after the crash. Dozens of firefighters and rescuers rushed to the crash site, and the flames were put out in a relatively short time. The TIA was temporarily closed for incoming and outgoing international flights following the accident. The injured are receiving treatment at local hospitals in the Capital. Officials said that the death toll may further increase. Nepalese doctors pull the stretcher of a survivor of US-Bangla plane crash for further treatment at Kathmandu Medical College Hospital at Kathmandu, Nepal on Monday, March 12, 2018. [Photo: IC] Of the total passengers onboard, 33 were from Nepal, 32 from Bangladesh, one from China and one from the Maldives, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. The authorities have recovered the dead bodies from the spot later in the day. The local authorities were also able to recover the black box of the airlines later on Monday. Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli spoke to his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina following the incident and expressed sorrow over the loss of lives, according to a statement issued by the prime minister's office here. Shortly after the incident, Prime Minister Oli along with ministers reached the spot and issued instructions to the government authorities to combat the emergency. While visiting the spot, the prime minister vowed to launch a probe into the incident. Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli arrives at hospital to check the condition of a survivor of US-Bangla plane crash at Kathmandu Medical College Hospital at Kathmandu, Nepal on Monday, March 12, 2018. [Photo: IC] Social media networks in Nepal were flooded with photographs immediately after the deadly plane crash in the capital city. In Kathmandu Medical College, known as KMC hospital where most of the injured or dead bodies were sent for treatment or placement, heartbroken relatives mourned the death of their loved ones with screams, tears and grief, giving a throbbing ambiance to the hospital. As soon as the US-Bangla Airlines flight crashed, at least 24 injured were taken to this hospital, which is the nearest one from the crash site, hospital officials said. Among those taken to KMC hospital, 8 were pronounced dead upon their arrival, including 3 Bangladeshis, three Nepali nationals and two with unidentified nationalities. The hospital remained tensed till night with the presence of media people, security personnel and even ordinary people, saddened by such a big incident in the country, which recently just formed the federal parliament and appointed new prime minister. Among those brought in KMC, four were referred to other hospitals while the remaining are undergoing treatment in ICU, surgery ward, ortho ward, plastic ward, among others. Prakash Bhattarai, administrative director at the KMC hospital, told Xinhua, "We have deployed a special medical team in all the wards where survivors are being treated. Some have shown progress while some are still under intensive care." According to authorities, other survivors are being treated in different hospitals like Norvic, Mediciti and Om. Rescue workers operate around the wreckage of the airplane at Kathmandu airport, Nepal, March 12, 2018. [Photo: VCG] Basanta Bohora, who survived the crash and is being treated in Norvic hospital, was quoted by local media as saying, "All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang afterwards. I was seated near the window and was able to break out of the window." This is the deadliest air crash at Nepal's only international airport after a Turkish Airlines flight crash-landed at the airport in March 2015 with no casualties. The air crash has been regarded as a big shot to the tourism industry of the Himalayan nation, which is still recovering after the deadly earthquake of 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people. The US-Bangla Airlines is a privately-owned Bangladeshi airline headquartered in Dhaka. There were altogether 71 people onboard the plane, including four Bangladeshi crew members, according to a statement released by the Bangladeshi ministry of foreign affairs late Monday night. Earlier, the bank had reduced the monthly average balance (MAB) requirement to Rs 3,000 from Rs 5,000 in metro cities. Mumbai: Facing backlash from its customers, the State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to substantially reduce charges for non-maintenance of average minimum balance in savings account. The charges for non-maintenance of average minimum balance (AMB) for customers in metro and urban centres have been reduced from a maximum of Rs 50 per month plus GST to Rs 15 per month plus GST. Similarly for semi-urban and rural centres the charges have been reduced from Rs 40 per cent plus GST to Rs 12 per month and Rs 10 per month plus GST respectively. We have reduced these charges taking into account the feedback and sentiments of our customers, said P.K. Gupta, MD, retail & digital banking, SBI adding that the move would benefit 25 crore customers. The bank also clarified that customers always have the option of converting the regular savings bank account to Basic Savings Bank Account (BSBD account), free of charge, in case they desires to avail basic savings bank facilities without being subject to maintenance of AMB. Between April 1 and November 2017, SBI had collected Rs 1,771 crore as penalty from customers who had failed to maintain the average monthly balance in their accounts. This was more than its September quarter profit of Rs 1,581.55 crore. Earlier, the bank had reduced the monthly average balance (MAB) requirement to Rs 3,000 from Rs 5,000 in metro cities. Meanwhile, an RTI query revealed that SBI has closed as many as 41.16 lakh savings accounts between April-January in the current fiscal year for not maintaining the average monthly balance. Last April, SBI had re-introduced the penal charges on non-maintenance of average monthly balance after a gap of five years. Later in October, it had revised down the charges. Due to provisions of penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance, the bank has closed 41.16 lakh savings bank accounts between April 1, 2017 and January 31, 2018, the bank replied to an RTI query filed by Chandra Shekhar Gaud. Even though the reply was furnished by the state-run lender on February 28, 2018, the bank today steeply reduced the penal charges on not maintaining the minimum balance. The reply was to a specific query on the number of accounts being closed after introduction of charges on non- maintenance of minimum balance from April 1, 2017. Indias favourite actor, Amitabh Bachchan, who is currently in Jodhpur to shoot for Thugs Of Hindostan, has fallen ill. A team of doctors were rushed from Mumbai to Jodhpur in a chartered plane to treat the actor on Tuesday morning. Prior to the medics arrival, around 5 AM on the same day, Amitabh posted about his health issues on his blog. I am getting my team of doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again I will rest and keep informed in process... (sic), the 75-year-olds message read. While the latest reports suggest that the Piku stars health has shown improvement, the doctors have strictly advised him to rest. In his blog post, the senior actor also wrote, the morning after the night that began yesterday... for work some people need to work for a living... and work hard.... (sic). Meanwhile, the sources close to the Bachchan family say all is well. Even Jaya Bachchan, who is in Delhi attending parliament heard about Mr Bs health setback on the news. She rang up Mr Bachchans man Friday to get to know the truth. Only when she was reassured about his health did she return to parliament. Abhishek is shooting in Punjab for Anurag Kashyaps Manmarziyan. He too confirms that all is well with his Paa, says the family friend. Director Vishal Bharadwaj recently revealed on social media that the ongoing shoot of his film Sapna Didi came to a grinding halt due to the health issues of both the protagonists, Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan. Now, a source reveals that the actress, found to be having a severe deficiency of Vitamin D-3, was advised bed rest. Says the source, Deepika has already taken one dose of D-3, but will continue to rest until the doctor gives her a green signal to begin work. She will have to finish the prescribed doses of Vitamin D-3 first. The source adds, Deepika is also undergoing physiotherapy regularly. That band on her shoulder is connected to her physio exercises, not to hide any tattoo as reported. Meanwhile, the actress, being ever the professional, has been busy reading scripts even on her time off and is looking for a role that is equal to or above the one she portrayed in her last film Padmaavat. She has rejected a few scripts as the character offered was not suitable. After playing the pivotal role of Padmavati, she is not only looking for a role which she can carry on her shoulders, but is also demanding an exorbitant pay package, adds the source. Sathyaraj as Katappa and Prabhas as Baahubali in the 'Baahubali' franchise. Mumbai: Katappa was one of the most pivotal characters in the Baahubali franchise, and was undoubtedly the second most popular character, more than Devasena, Bhallaladeva, Sivagami and Avathika, played by the stars. Why did Katappa kill Baahubali? was a perennial question dominating social media, with meme-makers going on an overdrive for almost two years before the second installment hit the theatres in April 2017. Also read: Twinkle Khanna goes gaga over Katappa, goofs up by mistaking his son for him The question perhaps drew crowds to the theatres for 'Baahubali: The Conclusion', making it earn more than Rs 1000 crores worldwide. We now know why Katappa killed Baahubali, but the formers popularity is intact and will be capitalised at the popular wax museum Madame Tussauds. Veteran actor Sathyarajs wax figure as the popular character will be unveiled at the museum in London. While Baahubali was in Telugu language, the actor is primarily known for his work in Tamil cinema and has become the first Tamil actor to get this honour. Also read: Not Katappa but Varun Dhawan 'kills' 'Baahubali' Prabhas this time His son Sibi Sathyaraj announced the news on Twitter and actors like Khushbu Sundar, Prasanna, Ramya Nambessan were among those who expressed their delight at the news. Yipppeeee...so proud to read this..gives me one more reason to visit my fave destination often..many congratulations to a man of little wants and the coolest man I have ever seen..#Satyaraj Sir @Sibi_Sathyaraj https://t.co/LmryvbVeId khushbusundar (@khushsundar) March 12, 2018 Ahw whatta tribute machi. So proud of him. My regards to him Prasanna (@Prasanna_actor) March 11, 2018 Incidentally, Prabhas wax statue has also been unveiled at the museum last year. Forget Mahishmati, the two are now a part of the same kingdom, though unfortunately at two separate locations as Prabhas' wax figure is at Bangkok. Be it its song getting performed at the NBA, or the magnum opus getting recognised by websites like Rotten Tomatoes, 'Baahubali' has once again showcased its worldwide appeal. RSPCA inspectors have no idea how the cat ended up stuck on the three posts. (Photo: Pixabay) In a bizarre case, a very lucky feline managed to use up three of its nine lives when it got impaled by three metal fence posts. The cat was spotted by shocked passersby, who found the helpless ginger cat stuck on top of the eight-foot tall railings. The RSPCA rushed to the sight in north west London to help the cat but needed help. Soon firefighters too dashed to the scene to use car-crash rescue machines to cut away the section of fence the cat was stuck on. The cat is now recovering from emergency surgery. RSPCA inspectors have no idea how the cat ended up stuck on the three posts. Speaking about it Deputy chief inspector Nicole Broster who attended the horrific scene, said, When I got there I was incredibly shocked - in all my years with the RSPCA I have never seen anything like it. This poor cat literally had two metal posts protruding through his body. Broster realised that trying to remove him from the railings himself was not a viable option and could have caused him eve more damage, so he called in the London Fire Brigade and asked them to attend with their specialist equipment in the hope they could cut the metal railings and we could get the cat a vet as quickly as possible. After the operation on Friday, the vet discovered the fence posts had narrowly missed the cat's vital organs, with one piercing his back leg and a second piercing his abdomen. Since the fence posts were removed, the cat has been recovering well. A 30-year-old woman hanged herself from the ceiling of her residence in Bhuvaneshwari Nagar in CK Achukattu police limits on Sunday night. Bengaluru: Dejected after husband allegedly suspected her of infidelity, a 30-year-old woman hanged herself from the ceiling of her residence in Bhuvaneshwari Nagar in CK Achukattu police limits on Sunday night. The deceased, Tulasi, who was from Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh, was allegedly depressed after her husband Vijay Kiran (35), who is from Prakasam district of Andhra, allegedly harassed her on suspicion that she had an affair with another man. Vijay, a software engineer with a reputed MNC, got married to Tulasi four years ago and shifted to Bengaluru. Of late, the couple fought frequently as Vijay started suspecting Tulasi of an affair. On Sunday too, the couple fought around 10.30 pm. Vijay told the police that he went out for a walk as he did not want to continue the fight. When he returned, he found the bedroom door locked from inside and Tulasi did not open the door even after he begged her for forgiveness. Later, when he peeped from under the door, he found a shadow on the floor. Vijay then broke open the door and found Tulasi hanging from the ceiling, the police said. Vijay rushed Tulasi to Yogananda Hospital in an auto, but doctors declared her brought dead. The case was reported at the CK Achukattu police station on Monday morning and the police went to the spot and detained Vijay after shifting the body to the nearby hospital for postmortem. "We are waiting for the postmortem report to ascertain the cause of death and establish the role of Vijay in Tulasi's death," the police said. Six months ago, the accused went to the victim's house and sexually assaulted her. On February 28, the accused again forcibly got into the woman's house, raped her and took Rs 55,000 and a gold top. Hyderabad: The Meerpet police arrested a man who allegedly raped a woman several times by blackmailing her. The accused Pandula Pawan Kumar, 27, of Old Malakpet, is a DJ by profession. LB Nagar DCP M. Venkateshwar Rao said, "The accused used to send messages like 'Hi, Good morning, and good afternoon' to the victim on phone. When the victim asked him about him, he would say that he texted her by mistake. He would then send the same messages again. This is how the two started talking to each other." Six months ago, the accused went to the victim's house and sexually assaulted her. On February 28, the accused again forcibly got into the woman's house, raped her and took Rs 55,000 and a gold top. He blackmailed her that he would reveal all to her husband if she did not keep quiet, the DCP said. The police seized one pair of gold ear rings weighing 5 gm from the accused. Kochi: The Ernakulam Rural Police on Monday seized high-quality green hashish oil worth nearly Rs two crore in the international market and arrested a 38-year old man having suspected links with international drug mafia. A special squad held Antony (38) alias Mattu Manoj, a resident of Kambilikandom in Idukki, after intercepting his bike at First Mile in Perumbavoor and found two kg hashish oil upon inspection of the bag he was carrying. He was under our observation for the past one month after we got specific information of him being a member of the racket. Even when he was caught, he was receiving calls from foreign countries. The seized drug is high quality one with a gram costing from 50 to 150 dollars in the international market, said Kochi Range Inspector General Vijay Sakare. The Operation Honeybomb was initiated as part of strengthening action against drug smuggling post seizure of 117 kg ganja at Perumbavoor four months ago. A mechanism was put in place to monitor hard core criminals and their activities. We got tip-off that a racket was active in selling hashish oil to rich clients in the Kochi city. A trap was laid to catch the gang members, said Baiju Paulose, Station Head Officer, Perumbavoor. The cops contacted the accused posing as cinefield workers through middlemen and asked for hashish oil. The gang supplied test pose which proved to be of high quality during inspection. Following this a bulk order was placed and the suspicious gang members were put under monitor. Finally the accused was arrested at 8 am when he was bringing the stuff from Idukki to Ernakulam, the officer said. Earlier in May 2017, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized hashish oil worth Rs five crore from a house at Adimali in Idukki. Protesting under the banner Bharatiya Kisan Union, scores of farmers reached Parliament Street and raised slogans in support of their demands. (Photo: ANI) New Delhi: A day after Maharashtra farmers had their demands approved from the state government, farmers from across the country gathered in Delhi on Tuesday and demanded loan waiver and implementation of Swaminathan Commission's recommendations. Protesting under the banner Bharatiya Kisan Union, scores of farmers reached Parliament Street and raised slogans in support of their demands. The protesting farmers even cautioned the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre to be ready to face consequences in 2019 general elections if their demands remain unfulfilled. "We are under debt and everyday farmers are committing suicide. We are here to tell the government to implement the Swaminathan Report and waive off loans, otherwise, they will face the consequences in 2019 polls," one of the farmers said. On Monday, nearly all the demands of Maharashtra farmers, who held a long march to Mumbai, were accepted by the Devendra Fadnavis-led government. Read: Maharashtra farmers call off protest, Fadnavis govt bows to most demands The farmers of the state had demanded unconditional waiver of loans and electricity bills; implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations; announcement of minimum support price for agriculture produce; and a pension scheme for farmers. The conspirators behind the murder of Gauri Lankesh were impressed by logistical support provided by KT Naveen Kumar in carrying out the gruesome murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh. (Photo: File) Bengaluru: Investigations have revealed that Hindu Yuva Sena leader KT Naveen Kumar, who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, was also tasked to kill writer-rationalist KS Bhagwan, a strident critic of practices and beliefs in the Hindu religious system, in Mysuru. The conspirators behind the murder of Gauri Lankesh were impressed by logistical support provided by Naveen Kumar in carrying out the gruesome killing. According to a report in The Indian Express, sources have claimed that KT Naveen Kumar was amid the process of procuring a gun to kill Bhagwan when he was arrested by the Bengaluru police for illegal possession of bullets on February 18. It is suspected that KT Naveen Kumar had conducted a survey at the house of Gauri Lankesh, procured a weapon and facilitated a shooting operation by a team that had already visited Karnataka. Read: Gauri Lankesh murder: Suspect KT Naveen Kumar arrested, sent to SIT custody Journalist and social activist Gauri Lankesh was murdered outside her house in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. On Monday, KT Naveen Kumar gave his consent to undergo narco-analysis test before a magistrates court in Bengaluru. The test is expected to help the investigating officers determine the extent of his role in the conspiracy, gather additional inputs and to verify statements given till now. Also read: SIT to conduct narco analysis test on Gauri Lankesh's murder accused MN Anucheth, Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), who is also the investigating officer in the SIT probing the Gauri Lankesh murder case, said, The alleged murder plot to kill writer-rationalist K S Bhagwan would now be pursued under sections of the Indian Penal Code for attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy case and not just an illegal arms case. The addition of these sections will implicate KT Naveen Kumar in the attempt to murder Bhagwan. Though Kumar has been granted bail in the Arms Act case, police will file a revision petition to consider the serious, new charges and reject bail, added Anucheth. A sealed copy of a voluntary statement provided by KT Naveen Kumar about his role in the two conspiracies was given to a magistrate before whom he was presented on March 2 in connection with Gauri Lankesh murder case. A delay of one week in arresting KT Naveen Kumar in February would have resulted in a murder attempt on Bhagwan, sources said. Some close aides who KT Naveen Kumar had involved in the conspiracy to murder Bhagwan have provided evidence during the investigation to indicate the stage of planning of the operation, such as a visit by some outsiders speaking a different language. According to police sources, investigations revealed that a weapon was to be delivered to KT Naveen Kumar, who had initially claimed that he was to procure a weapon from outside Karnataka, in the state through an arms and ammunition network that he had used for a few years. When KT Naveen Kumar was arrested in February, he was possessing 15 rounds of .32 calibre live cartridges which are the equivalent of 7.65 mm cartridges. Investigators believe that the plan to murder Bhagwan with a new weapon was likely to be an attempt to divert attention from the Gauri Lankesh case as probe had indicated that she was shot with a 7.65 mm country-made gun. The same weapon was used to kill Kannada literary researcher and scholar MM Kalburgi in August 2015 and leftist thinker Govind Pansare in February 2015. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Over 1,700 hectares of forest land in the state were burned down by 195 incidents of minor and major forest fires during this summer. Almost all fires, 99 percent of them, were man-made, some caused accidentally but most stoked purposefully. No human casualties have been reported. Nonetheless, in response to the Theni tragedy, the State Government has issued a ban on public entry into forest areas without permission. Senior forest officials, however, said that the years rate did not suggest a dramatic surge in forest fires when compared to previous years; last summer (between January and June) 2995 hectares of forest were brought down in 737 incidents. Forest Survey of India had identified 500 sq km of forest land in the state as highly prone to forest fires. Forest fires in the state are controlled mostly using members of vana samrakshana samithis. Each VSS, which normally has 15-20 members, will get Rs 1,000 for protecting one hectare of forest during a season. A VSS will have 300-500 hectares of forest under its jurisdiction. Therefore, after a season, a VSS will pocket Rs 3 to 5 lakh. WAYS TO TACKLE FIRES When a minor fire erupts, fire beaters (either large leafy branches or artificial rubber leaves) are used to beat the fire into submission. But beaters are too inadequate to deal with raging fires. For this, field workers will make a fireline around the burning forest. (A fireline, 5.2 metres wide, is created by clearing all that could be fuel for the fire - like dry leaves, twigs and the humus that had been formed by the deposition of all these organic substances around the flaming forest.) Multiple firelines create fragments of burning forests. When the fire reaches the border of each of these fragments, it abruptly does down for want of fuel. If the fire is too powerful, we also initiate a counterfire within the fragment. Fire masses moving in opposite directions clash and die down, Rajendra Babu, a field officer said. REVENGE SAGA Top forest officials admit that most incidents of forest fires have a retaliatory character. It can be done by a vengeful former forest watcher who had lost his job or an accused in a forest case, said Syam Mohanlal K. N., deputy conservator of forests (forest resources). Elephant dung, which is inflammable, is a popular tool used by those looking for revenge. They will insert a spark of fire inside the dung, usually in the form of a fuming cigarette stub, and throw it inside the forest. The fire will smoulder for two days and then will explode on the third, triggering a major forest fire," he said. The counterfire technique used by farmers who have plots bordering forest lands is the other major cause. To preempt forest fires from reaching their land, they sent out a line of fire towards the forest which when left uncontrolled can erupt into a major forest fire, Mr Babu said. The accidental sparks produced by trekkers and tourists, too, could stoke a fire. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday saluted the CRPF personnel, who were killed in a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district. (Photo: File) New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday saluted the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, who were killed in a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district. Nine personnel of the 212 Battalion of the CRPF were killed and one is severely injured in the IED blast, allegedly carried out by Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district earlier on Tuesday. Modi took to Twitter and said "India salutes the brave @crpfindia personnel who were martyred in the attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh. My thoughts are with the families and friends of the brave martyrs. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this hour of grief". (sic) Earlier on Monday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also expressed grief over the death of CRPF personnel while Congress president Rahul Gandhi termed the attack "tragic" and blamed "flawed policies" of the government for the incident. The incident took place when CRPF jawans were conducting an operation in a forest in the district when the blast took place, ripping apart their mine-protected vehicle (MPV). The Centre said it will take action against the people, hinting at former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan (R) and ex-finance minister P Chidambaram (L) at the time who relaxed gold import norms for private trading houses during the dying days of the UPA regime which resulted in a windfall of Rs 4,500 crore to 13 such entities in just six months. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Confirming Financial Chronicles campaign on the illicit and malafide use of the dubious 20:80 gold scheme which benefited a handful of start and premier trading houses even as there was a vacuum in government formation -- May 21, 2014 -- the Centre on Monday through a commerce ministry statement announced that none involved would be spared. The Centre said it will take action against the people, hinting at former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and ex-finance minister P Chidambaram at the time who relaxed gold import norms for private trading houses during the dying days of the UPA regime which resulted in a windfall of Rs 4,500 crore to 13 such entities in just six months. India Bullion and Jewellers Association president and trader Mohit Kamboj, who spoke to FC, had played whistle blower by writing innumerable letters to people in authority both in UPA and then NDA to finally secure the cancellation of the scheme in late November 2014. With Parliament paralysed over the PNB/Modi/Choksi swindle and the treasury benches in the line of an opposition fusillade, the government counter punched. The ruling party has accused Chidambaram of aiding jewellers Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi centrifuge in the country's biggest bank fiddle through an 80:20 gold import scheme. Read: Banking system fell apart under 'economist' Manmohan Singh: BJP Without naming any of the jewellers who may have benefited from the scheme, the government said in a statement that it had taken the bold step to scrap the scheme within months of coming to power to end all discrimination in the favour of private gold importers. It said the scheme had increased the shipments of gold into the country and put pressure on current account deficit in 2012-13. Also Read: Height of shamelessness: Ravi Shankar Prasad on P Chidambaram This resulted in placing of restrictions on imports including by way of higher customs duty. As FC has consistently been pointing out through its exposes, the 13 premier trading houses (PTH) and star trading houses (STH) were also allowed to import gold under 20:80 scheme, the statement said, referring to Chidambarams decision to allow even private traders to import under the scheme. These were in July/August 2013 modified into 20:30 scheme wherein only banks and PSUs like MMTC and STC were allowed to import gold if only a fifth of it is exported. The then finance minister approved the modified scheme on May 13, 2014, even though the model code of conduct was in place since March 5, 2014 with the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls, and the counting was due on May 16, 2014, said a statement by the commerce ministry. It said there was a shortage of gold for domestic use and a premium of between USD 100 and USD 150 per ounce (about Rs 2 lakh per kg) was being charged. Preferential access was given to cronies who made a fast buck by hoarding the gold and profiteering. Allowing private companies like PTHs and STHs to import gold provided these agencies an opportunity of windfall gain, as the benefit of the high premium on gold could now be availed of by these agencies, the government statement added. The statement referred to a CAG report (again highlighted by FC) that put gold imported by 13 trading houses during June 2014 to November 2014 at 282.77 tones, which means a windfall gain of about Rs 4,500 crore to these agencies during this period, assuming a premium of Rs 2 lakh per kg and 80 per cent of imported gold supplied to domestic market earning the premium. It further said: Even the export obligations were being met through export of plain jewellery, viz., bangles and chains, which were re-melted in offshore locations through front/ shell companies for the purpose of re-import. Stating that the increase in gold import had disproportionately benefited the STH/PTHs whose imports shot up by 320 per cent, the government said, This benefit stemmed from a de facto discrimination in their favour because of expanded 20:30 scheme privileged these STHs/PTHs. The government will definitely examine the circumstances as to why private parties PTHs/STHs were benefitted by being allowed to import gold under 20:80 scheme by the previous government when the government was in transition and will take necessary action against the persons involved. It went on to state that the advantage to the STHs/PTHs extended in May 2014 was unfair and the new government took a bold decision of ending the discrimination and liberalising the import and scrapped the 20:80 scheme altogether on November 28, 2014. On a written reply given in Parliament on August 13, 2014, the government said the reply to the question on institutionalisation of bullion trade was factual in nature stating various measures taken. The 20:80 scheme was one such measure. As can be seen from the reply, no view on the merit of the scheme or otherwise has been indicated. The allegation of justification for the scheme or allowing PTHs/STHs are completely erroneous. The review of the scheme by the government was undergoing and a decision to abolish it was taken in November 2014, it said. Speaking to reporters at the Dayanand Saraswati Ashram in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, Rajinikanth said, 'I have not announced my party. I don't want to talk anything about politics (now)... Still I have not become a full-time politician.' (Photo: Twitter | ANI) Rishikesh: After taking a political plunge on December 31, 2017, superstar Rajinikanth has set off for a two-week spiritual trip to the Himalayas. On Tuesday, the Thalaivar said he has still not become a full-time politician. Speaking to reporters at the Dayanand Saraswati Ashram in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, he said, "I have not announced my party. I don't want to talk anything about politics (now)... Still I have not become a full-time politician." He will be meditating at the ashram for a few days. The 67-year-old actor was replying to a question by reporters about actor-turned-politician and Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan's comments on Monday that he had not reacted on various political matters. According to Haasan, it was wrong to single out Rajinikanths silence on the Cauvery issue as he too has not reacted on various pressing matters. Kamal Haasan's statement came after a direct question on Rajinikanth's 'silence' on the Cauvery water sharing issue with Karnataka. Read: Not just Cauvery, Rajinikanth silent on several other issues: Kamal Haasan His maiden speech last week say Rajinikanth stating that his reason for joining politics stemmed from the political vacuum in Tamil Nadu that he would fill. Also Read: TN needs a leader, will fill political vacuum in state, says Rajinikanth Rajinikanth had announced he would launch a party and contest all 234 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu in the next elections due in 2021 on December 31, 2017. The actor said he would launch the party after elections were announced in the state, refusing to say whether he would contest the national election in 2019. He would take a call later, he said. Also Read: Time for change: Rajinikanth declares political debut, to contest TN polls Interestingly, both Haasan and Rajinikanth have seemingly timed their debuts to take advantage of a political vacuum in Tamil Nadu following former Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithas death and DMK boss M Karunanidhi's failing health with age. Rajinikanth has been known for his Himalaya trips for over a decade now and has arrived in Rishikesh after a short trip to Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh and a Shiva cave in Jammu. Rajinikanth clarified that his visit to the Himalayas was a spiritual one and had nothing to do with his starting a political party. "This is not the first time... I have come here (Rishikesh) many times. Spiritualism is to realise oneself," he said. Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday directed the four ministers of AP who had defected from the YSR Congress to explain under which authority they have been continuing in the Cabinet. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K. Vijaya Lakshmi issued notices to 18 MLAs of YSRC who joined the Telugu Desam along with four ministers C. Adinarayana Reddy, S. Krishna Ran-ga Rao, N. Amarnath Reddy and Bhuma Akhila Priya. The bench was dealing with the PIL by Mr A. Venkata Rambabu, former MLA seeking to disqualify 22 MLAs including four ministers for joining the ruling Telugu Desam without resigning from the YSRC. Mr C.V. Mohan Reddy, senior counsel appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the court could stra-ight away disqualify them in view of the legal positi-on that Para (2) of 10th Sch-edule of the Constitution that barred persons who have defected to continue as members of the legislature. Stating that several petitions were also moved earlier against the 22 MLAs and the four ministers but they had not been listed for hearing, the senior counsel told the bench that defected members were laughing at the court. Reacting to this, the bench said that currently there were 3.25 lakhs cases pending in the High Court and every month 5,000 cases were added and in this situation they were unable to do anything for the delay. The bench said, Every-one feels that his case is im-portant, in such a situation how can the court fix the priority, let the MLAs lau-gh. We can do nothing in this regard. Mr Mohan Reddy infor-med the court that they had complained to the Speaker of AP seeking to disqualify the defected members, but the Speaker had not even issued notices to the members. He said that he was unable to understand how the four members were enjoying ministerial posts when the defection was unconstitutional. The bench said, We will issue notices to the ministers and other respondent MLAs to seek their explanation. The bench issued notices to the four ministers and MLAs B. Rajasekhar Reddy, A. Chand Basha, G. Ravi Kumar, Jaleel Khan, P. David Raju, Jyothula Nehru, P. Sunil Kumar, V. Subba Rao, S.V. Mohan Re-ddy, T. Jayaramulu, P. Rama Rao, K. Sarveswara Rao, M. Ashok Reddy, K. Venkata Ramana, M. Mani Gandhi, G. Eswari and V. Rajeswari. The bench also issued notices to the law secretary of AP and secretary to AP Assembly and directed the MLAs, ministers and official respondents to file their counter affidavits within two weeks. Hyderabad: TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday urged the government to make video footage of incidents in the Legislative Assembly to bring the facts to light about whether Council Chairman K. Swamy Goud got injured or not. He said that Mr Gouds eye injury was a drama scripted by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and legislative affairs minister T. Harish Rao to send main Opposition Congress out of the Assembly and the Council for the entire Budget Session to cover up TRS governments failures on all fronts in four years. To hide the truth, the government did not provide the video footage to the Opposition parties or the Speaker and did not discuss the issue with the Opposition before initiating disciplinary action. If he really sustained an eye injury, how could he sit in the House till the Governor completed his speech and how could he escort the Governor from the House to accord a send off? After the Governor dispersed, the drama of eye injury was started by admitting him in the SD Eye Hospital, Mr Reddy said. Stating that the House is under CCTV surveillance, with cameras installed in six different angles, Mr Reddy said, The government released footage of just one camera which had no clarity over whether Mr Goud was hit by a headphone or not. Let them release the footage of all cameras to prove this. The Opposition BJP and the TD also condemned the dictatorial attitude of the government in expelling, suspending the MLAs and demanded to make a video footage for the public to know the truth. BJP floor leader G. Kishan Reddy said the TRS had been adopting dual standards on this issue. The CM has no objection over his daughter storming into the podium with placards in Parliament everyday but cant tolerate the Opposition here going to the podium to lodge a protest, he said. TD MLA R. Krishnaiah said, There is a procedure to be followed to initiate action against the members in the House. They should refer to the Ethics Committee first. No such norms were followed and the members were expelled, suspended unilaterally. Chennai: BJP state president Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan has expressed shock over her being enrolled in actor-politician Kamal Haasans Makkal Needhi Maiam party. She claimed she had received a message from MNM stating she has been enrolled in that party. Hitting out at the fledgling party launched by the veteran actor recently, Dr. Tamilisai said she received an e-mail from MNM enrolling her as a member, even as MNM claimed it has proof of a membership request from her website. I was shocked to get an e-mail a week ago which said I have become a member of his party (MNM). They have even sent membership number (TN TOF 92829), she told reporters here on Tuesday. The mail, Dr. Tamilisai said, landed in her mailbox when she was away in New Delhi. Hours after the BJP chiefs claim, MNM, in a tweet addressed its response to her in Tamil, saying it had proof of getting a request for membership registration from her website. MNM said it was only after the request that she was given a membership. Responding to her claim, MNM tweeted: Welcome to Makkal Needhi Maiam maam. We also have a photo, just like the one you released today. Just that we are blurring out your number. Dont want the world calling you to ask how you registered for MNM. In another tweet, the party said: By the way, we also have a deregistering option, just in case this has embarrassed you in front of your party. We wouldnt want that for you. But for the time being, Welcome to #MakkalNeedhiMaiam (Part-II). Taking a dig at the actors catchphrase: Neengalum Naanum Namanal, (when you and I become we) that pops up on MNM website, she said why are we going to become one with you.we will always be what we are. The MNM runs on lies. Its membership drive involves giving membership to all email ids they had with them, she said amidst peals of laughter from partymen. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) was the main organiser of the protests by Nashik farmers most of them adivasis living on the edge of forests. It is true that apart from highlighting the demands of these farmers, the CPI(M) is also looking to gain political momentum against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state and at the Centre in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The organisers claimed that there were 40,000 farmers who had marched to Mumbai, the state capital. The police estimated that the figure was between 15,000 and 20,000. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis seemed to have decided to talk to the representatives of the farmers 15 of them on Monday morning when he realised that the presence of the aggrieved farmers in such large numbers in Indias financial capital was hugely significant. He did not want to be caught on the wrong foot. And the talks lasted for around four hours, with the chief minister aided by other ministers. The outcome was positive, if not substantial, at least for the moment. He sought six months time to transfer the forest lands to farmers under the Forest Rights Act 2006. And he has agreed to waive the farm loans, including term loans, from 2001 instead of 2009 as decided in June. And he did a good thing by arranging special trains for the farmers to go home. It may appear that the farmers had won because some of their demands have been met, that the CPI(M) had won because it has successfully mobilised the farmers and posed a challenge to the party in power, and that the Fadnavis government has won too as it has successfully parried the political protest. Chief minister Fadnavis will also believe that he has earned some brownie points as well. In market jargon, it has turned out to be a win-win outcome for all concerned. In the long term, however, these perceived victories might turn out to be illusory. The state government may not be able to sort out the transfer of lands as smoothly as it would like to, the farmers on the ground are sure to come up against the same hurdles, or new ones could crop up. The CPI(M) may not have gained as much political traction as it might believe. It may have to do something again to keep up the momentum. As a matter of fact, CPI(M) politburo member Hanhan Mollah had indicated as much, saying that after the success with the farmers of Nashik, the party would organise a similar farmers convergence in New Delhi from all over the country. The country needs this kind of political mobilisation time and again because it is necessary for the different ruling parties to be under constant pressure. It may not be entirely right to draw the general conclusion that the unhappiness and discontent of the Nashik farmers is a symptom of the crisis in agriculture in the country and that it clearly points to the failure of Prime Minister Narendra Modis government at the Centre and of BJP governments in different states. It is a valid generalisation, and as generalisations go it is of little value. What is clear is that Mr Modi and the BJP will be facing a tough contest in 2019, and they cannot take victory for granted. It is possible that this will serve as a wakeup call for the BJP that it gets a clear indication of the challenge looming on the horizon. There are of course the more substantial questions of the issues at stake, stemming out of the Nashik farmers protest. These are long-term issues, with no easy answers. No government can solve the problem of distress arising out of the general condition of a failed or weak monsoon, the crash in prices of the agricultural produce. These are structural challenges and they have to be addressed at different levels, starting from the ground. It shows that grand promises are really empty promises, and that is the real danger that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Fadnavis and many of his fellow CMs face. Their self-belief that they wield a magic wand is but a delusion. The demand of the Opposition parties that these problems should be addressed and solved forthwith will remain a grand political tactic. What anyone refuses to ask is whether the farmers are being brought together at the local level to sit down and talk about their problems and the solutions they need to evolve. It is a good thing to mobilise angry farmers for political purposes, but it is not going to deliver solutions. And it is quite clear that political parties, whatever their ideologies, have not much to offer on this score. One of the hypocritical things of the political parties, in the government and in Opposition, about the need to implement the M.S. Swaminathan committee report smacks of mindless opportunism. The report has not been discussed critically in the public domain, and it is unrealistic to assume that the committee has all the answers to farmers problems and all that is needed to solve them is to implement it. This speaks of unforgiveable ignorance. The BJPs grand strategy of moving people away from agriculture has been one of the conspicuous failures of this government because the idea did not reckon with Indian reality. China might have succeeded in shifting people dependent on agriculture to demarcated urban areas, but that step had spawned its own set of problems. Mr Modi and his colleagues in the party will have to abandon rhetoric for a while, and think of realistic solutions with the help of experts. What we need is a comprehensive report on Indian agriculture. Some of the elements are already available in government reports done from time to time. There is a need to go back to them, and look at the issues with sober eyes. The Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra has done well to accept in writing the key demands of tens of thousands of poor farmers who marched on Mumbai over the past three days, carrying the red banner of the All India Kisan Sabha. But the bulk of those who arrived to protest in the big city were marginalised tribal folk who do some farming within forest areas or on the edges of forests. They labour under handicaps that our tribal communities in forest areas suffer from. This is an extra burden compared to that of normal farmers. It is, therefore, important that Maharashtras government demonstrates its sincerity in implementing the demands within the six-month framework that was agreed upon. It should face no difficulties in doing this as the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena, a coalition partner in the Fadnavis government, have expressed sympathy for the demand of the tribal farmers, who are in reality landless cultivators. The marchers came from areas around Nashik but their story is representative of poor tribal farmers across the country. They are not kisans or peasant proprietors in the ordinary sense, though some of their demands will overlap with those of ordinary peasants such as fixing of the minimum support price (MSP) according to the M.S. Swaminathan formula of 50 per cent above the cost of production and loan waiver. These demands have come to acquire urgency due to farm distress in India. But the structural demand of the tribal farmers is that the Forest Rights Act be implemented sincerely. Since this law was passed in 2006 to bring relief to forest and tribal communities, its implementation has left much to be desired. Under FRA, there are individual rights as well as community rights for the forest-dwelling tribal people. Individual rights come into play when those tilling forest land (whose owner is the government) for generations have to be given propriety rights under the FRA. (This had been the spirit of zamindari abolition laws, and other regulations to do with doing away of intermediaries in agriculture.) And this is what the poor farmers came to Mumbai to demand. In the final analysis, loan waivers arent the way to go, as they only burden the state. But if the state can help those who till the soil with water infrastructure by making canals, land improvement techniques, and help with insurance and loans for ongoing farming operations, besides affording a reasonable MSP, the farmer may not need continual loan waivers. In case of tribal people who farm within the forest or its edge, giving them property rights will also incentivise them to make land improvements themselves, saving the state resources relating to long-term subsidies. Agriculture is Indias biggest industry and its practitioners should be regarded with consideration rather than disdain. I was at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai a few days ago and heard Sonia Gandhi say that Dr Manmohan Singh was the most honest man she knew. That is also the popular perception. But honesty is not a black and white matter. There is a wide spectrum that stretches between honesty and truth. You can be honest without being truthful as Yudhishtra showed when he told Drona that Ashvathama was dead. This is not to compare Yudhishtra with Manmohan Singh, or vice versa. For a start, Yudhishtra was a warrior with a fine understanding of Dharma. Look at how he answered the Yaksha at the poisoned pool. To my mind what defined him was how at the end of the road of life he refused to ascend to heaven leaving the little dog, which accompanied him on his final and arduous, climb to the next world. I dont think MMS would have passed that test of loyalty. Some years ago I got a call from Bloomberg news service from Hong Kong, who were doing a story on then RBI governor Raghuram Rajan. After the usual initial questions such as what I think of him and his performance at the RBI, they had an interesting set of questions: (1) Do I think he is going to enter politics?; (2) Do I think he will join the government as finance minister? And (3) Do I think he was Prime Minister material? My answers were: (1) No; (2) Maybe; and (3) Maybe, if a 2004-type situation repeated itself with an alliance without an acceptable leader. In that case, his story will be very different from that of Manmohan Singh. He has a mind of his own and has shown the courage to stand his ground. In both of which MMS was hugely lacking. One time Dean Nelson, then the New Delhi correspondent of Londons Daily Telegraph, called me for a comment on the CBI special court naming Dr Manmohan Singh as an accused in what has come to be known as the Coalgate scam. He wanted to know whether I thought MMS was corrupt? And whether he deserved this at the fag end of a lifetime of achievement and distinguished public service? This was my comment then. People generally are shocked that MMS was accused of corruption. They didnt need Sonia Gandhis endorsement of MMS to make up their minds on him. Sonia Gandhi said: The former Prime Minister is known not only in our country but throughout the world as being a person of integrity and probity. Marching along with the somewhat less than august company of P. Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Veerappa Moily, Ambika Soni and Anand Sharma, she said: It is why we are here to offer our unstinted support, our solidarity. That imagery tells all. But what did I think? I did not think MMS was corrupt in the narrow sense of the term in that he did not seek illegal gratification for his actions. But this Coalgate matter was not as open and shut as that. First, there is the note that was put up by the coal secretary recommending that the leases be auctioned and given to the best bidders. This would have ensured transparency and would have substantially bolstered the public exchequer. The fact that the recent round of auctions earned the State a huge Rs 2.07 lakh crores only serves to substantiate this. The PM, who was also the coal minister, had endorsed this, but responding to pressures from within his government, party and the CMs of coal-producing states (including BJP-ruled states), reverted back to the old system of allocating mining rights. This clearly implies that he was aware that the system followed was iniquitous and bestowed huge profits to well-connected businessmen. This clearly exposes him to charges of willfully causing losses and breach of trust. I also told him that Dr Manmohan Singh was reaping the rewards due to a lifetime of pusillanimity and that he had cultivated the art of looking the other way when wrongdoing was happening. As it happened on the 2G matter, where the concerned minister willfully disobeyed him and the corrupt Congress leadership forced him to go along with it. I added that Dr Manmohan Singh might be able to mount a defence that lower coal prices were in the public interest as they enabled lower electricity prices and reduced power sector losses, and hence a huge outflow of government funds. While this may make a valid argument, the real problem would be in convincing a lower court judge given the complexity of the issue. The big question here is whether the people should directly benefit by lower electricity charges or whether the State should benefit by getting the highest prices on behalf of the people? When the 2G scam had surfaced thanks to the then CAGs report, I argued that the CAG had erred as auctioning would only mean that mobile phone users would have to pay higher charges, as the circle operators will have to do so to recover their considerably higher investment. The 4G circles have now been sold for Rs 93,000 crores, and once the payments become due, we can all expect higher voice and data charges. The relationship between circle costs and user charges are direct and easily apparent. But I also argued at that time that the coal lease allocations were dicey considering we had knowledge of what the lessees were doing. For instance, Anil Ambanis Reliance Power was merrily selling coal mined from its Sasan coal lease to customers at market prices and was raking in huge prices, whereas it was expressly given the lease for exclusive use in its Sasan power plant. The CBI is expected to file charges on this, but will the Narendra Modi government pursue a man who has described Mr Modi as a king among kings and as great as Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel? Will the Modi government prosecute a man who also bankrolls the BJP? Like 35,000 other customers, some eight years ago, this writer put all his savings in a flat in Noida. The place was called Wish Town, and was owned by Mr Manoj Gaurs Jaypee group. I said Jaypee group in general because no one I know seems quite clear about which company in the group fully owns what and when. Well, from these gullible middle class folk, Mr Gaur collected nearly Rs 25,000 crores. He is yet to build the flats. The case has finally landed in the Supreme Court, where the last four hearings have been put off for reasons that are not quite clear. In between, the court set up an amicus curiae, who in turn opened an online site where the gypped customers can state, after duly filling in the details, if they want possession or refund. This sounds like hope; except that no one is convinced. And for a reason, which I take to be a typically Indian one in nature: no one sets much store by any institution any longer. That includes the media, the judiciary, Parliament and the executive. If this newspaper did a survey among its readers of their trust quotient in institutions and compared the results with any previous periods, it would be a safe bet that primarily due to corruption and false promises, doubt stalks faith. This is likely to exact a heavy price for Indian democracy. It is a lack of faith in leaders and the establishment that often leads to riots and violence, and military rule. To get back to the specifics of the Jaypee swindle. The Rs 25,000 crores that Mr Gaurs company collected from taxpayers turned so many tills, that now no one is quite sure where it has disappeared. That there has been no forensic auditing into the company yet doesnt help either. To those who are familiar with Delhi and Noida (which though a part of the National Capital Region, is a part of Uttar Pradesh), land and power go hand in hand. A few years ago, when Ms Mayawati was in power in UP, insider reports of how much money changed hands between the building cartels and politicians is a matter of folklore. The expressway, built by the Gaurs, that links Noida to Agra, and the lands on either side of the road, were apportioned to a handful of families. The wheel turned, and the Yadavs came to power. The change in government did nothing to sway the grip of the families. They continued to invest in whatever they wanted; the consumers bank rolled them; the banks backed them without collateral; and political parties took their pound of flesh. For the 35,000-odd families, this has been a financial and emotional nightmare. Their money is gone, their life planning is in disarray; some continue to pay both EMI and rent; thousands of children face the prospect of whittled-down education as their parents investments have vanished without a trace; some families have split owing to the financial pressure; a few have died of stress. And all of it is happening for nearly a decade right in the courtyard of the Union government. And to think that in London, when Grenfell Tower caught fire in 2017, the government handed out a total of 202,000 to the 180 families directly affected by the disaster. In Noida, the administration has disowned all responsibility by maintaining a surreptitious silence. Last year, finance minister Arun Jaitley, also in charge of the very strategic department of company affairs (after all, business houses fund elections), instituted the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal), which decided that the Jaypee group could file for bankruptcy, which meant they had no liability to pay any aggrieved consumer till matters were resolved. Nor could anyone take the group to court till the issue of bankruptcy was decided at some far point in time. At this stage, some of the consumers filed a case in the Supreme Court against the NCLT order; and the court found the ruling wrong. Now the Consumers vs Jaypee case is dragging its way around the Supreme Court with the last four hearings cancelled. At the beginning of the hearing, an indignant court had asked the group to deposit Rs 2,000 crores as a kind of gesture of their good intentions. This was later reduced drastically. This writer, along with many others, have participated in several protest marches to draw the attention of the authorities to a monumental scam (in comparison, the Nirav Modi scam is less than half the size of the Jaypee ripoff), which can be only termed astounding in its protracted brazenness and general immunity from the law. Along with thousands of others, I have physically gone to the concerned police stations and filed criminal FIRs against Mr Gaur. No action would be forthcoming. The Enforcement Directorate has been appealed to. No action. Every article that comes against the company is countered by yet another false, placebo article defending the group. Every minister in the Union Cabinet is aware of the scam; but not one of them has spoken out. Weeks after the Gaurs filed for bankruptcy, frustrated consumers protested at the gates of the corporate office of the group, where a general body meeting was scheduled. The pauper-billionaires flew over the protesters in a private helicopter, entered through a back gate, and the general body meeting took place as if nothing was out of place. The late John Kenneth Galbraith had once described India decades ago as a functioning anarchy. Some half a century later, nothing seems to have changed. It is the direct experience of this rather exhausted writer how long can one fulminate and chastise against the system and its champions? along with his fellow-fools that just about every link in the political and legal chain, from top to bottom, is vulnerable to money. This includes the bureaucracy; specifically the Greater Noida Authority. To add to the grim, dark humour of the Noida joke, once in a while, an administrative novice like the present UP chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, will parachute himself into the middle of the battlefield and order, say, 50,000 homes to be built in three months, as he did towards the end of last year. These orders come off and on, and no one pays much attention to them, least of all Mr Adityanath himself. In a movie on the Wish Town tragedy, Mr Adityanaths exhortatory interventions would perhaps afford a twisted, comic relief. How sad then that not one of the 30,000 spectators is likely to laugh? This photo shows Broadcom CEO Hock Tan speaking while US President Donald Trump listens, in background, during an event at the White House in Washington, to announce the company is moving its global headquarters to the United States. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) President Donald Trump blocked Singapore chipmaker Broadcom from pursuing a hostile takeover of US rival Qualcomm, ruling the proposed combination would imperil national security. The decision, announced late Monday, abruptly ends Broadcoms four-month, $117 billion bid to buy Qualcomm a deal that would have been the largest ever completed in the technology industry. In a statement, Broadcom said it strongly disagrees that the acquisition raises any national-security concerns. Qualcomm did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trumps order gives Broadcom few options other than to drop its bid, said Macquarie Securities analyst Srinivas Pajjuri. Broadcom faced challenges almost from the start of its quest. Qualcomm quickly spurned its unsolicited suitor and continued to resist even after Broadcom raised its original offer from $103 billion. Broadcoms Singapore connections complicated matters, even though the company maintained its physical headquarters in Silicon Valley and virtually all of its shareholders are in the US. The Trump administration nevertheless baulked at the prospect of a prominent US chipmaker being owned by a foreign company, particularly at a time countries around the world are gearing up to build ultra-fast 5G mobile networks that could tip the balance of power in technology. Although its name isnt widely known outside the technology industry, Qualcomm is one of the worlds leading makers of the processors that power many smartphones and other mobile devices. Qualcomm also owns patents on key pieces of mobile technology that Apple and other manufacturers rely upon in their products. Qualcomm is fending off allegations of complaints filed by Apple and government regulators around the world that it has abused the power of its mobile patents to throttle competition and charge excessive royalties for its technology. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan had seized on Qualcomms legal headaches in his attempt to persuade the US government to keep the deal alive. Qualcomm faces a number of challenges that hamper its role in developing 5G, Tan wrote in a letter sent to US Congress last week. Unlike Qualcomm, Tan said, Broadcom financed its innovation through lawful practices. Trump decided to squelch Broadcoms bid on the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews foreign purchases of US entities. The decision didnt come as a surprise. Earlier this month, the committee branded the proposed deal a potential security risk that could hobble the USs ability to make the smooth and quick transition to 5G. In an attempt to ease those worries, Broadcom last week pledged to make the US a leader in the race to build 5G networks, saying it would create a $1.5 billion fund to support the effort if took control of Qualcomm. Broadcom also tried to curry favour by moving its legal headquarters from Singapore to the US within the next few weeks. Singapore became Broadcoms legal home two years ago after it was sold to Avago, a company that once was part of Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett-Packard. Broadcoms companys physical headquarters are already in San Jose, California about 450 miles from Qualcomms headquarters in San Diego. Trump hosted Broadcoms Tan in the White House last year when the executive announced the proposed move. Now that Broadcom has been shoved aside, Qualcomm will be under pressure to prevent its stock price from sinking while trying to complete its own proposed takeover a proposed $43 billion purchase of NXP Semiconductors. Now its on (Qualcomms) management to deliver on what they promised, Pajjuri said. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. US President Donald Trump removed Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. (Photo: AP) Washington: US President Donald Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday. Taking to Twitter the US President thanked outgoing Tillerson for his and said the new state secretary would do "a fantastic job". "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Rex Tillerson, a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was only appointed to the post just over a year ago. Tillerson had just returned from a shortened trip to Africa hours before Trumps announcement. Trump offered no explanation for the change. Donald Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. Pompeo will replace him at the State Department, and Gina Hapsel - the deputy director at the CIA - will succeed him at the CIA, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed. The president - who has long clashed will Tillerson, who he believes is "too establishment" in his thinking - felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said. 'We are at the beginning of a new momentum between France and India... I want to double the number of Indian students coming to France. If you choose France you gain access to francophonie, you gain access to Europe,' said messages from French President Emmanuel Macron's official Twitter account. (Photo: File) London: The UK government seemed rattled by the India visit of French President Emmanuel Macron with UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson clashing with him on social media over Indian students being lured by both nations. During an address in New Delhi on Saturday, the French President offered up France as the new gateway to Europe for Indian students against the backdrop of Britain's exit from the EU. "We are at the beginning of a new momentum between France and India... I want to double the number of Indian students coming to France. If you choose France you gain access to francophonie, you gain access to Europe," said messages from Macron's official Twitter account. Read: Aim to make France India's entry point to Europe: Emmanuel Macron In a direct reply, Johnson tweeted back: "We are proud too to have more than 14,000 Indian students coming to the UK in 2017 - up a quarter over last year - choosing the home of the greatest universities, including four of the global top ten." He concluded his message with the tag #EducationIsGreatInEnglish. The social media clash reflects the UK's obvious attempt to hold on to its attraction for international students post-Brexit. According to official estimates, overseas students contribute around 25 billion pounds a year to the UK economy and support about 200,000 jobs in the country. The number of Indian students choosing British universities has been on the decline in recent years due to a perceived unwelcome visa regime, though last year's figures came as some relief for the UK government. The number of study visas granted to Indians in 2017 amounted to 14,445, the second-largest after the Chinese. The figure marked a 28 per cent hike in student visas granted to Indians compared to the previous year. There are growing calls from universities for overseas students to be removed from the government's annual migration target for them to be able to attract larger numbers of what they believe are essentially temporary migrants who have a lot to offer the economy. "The treating of students as immigrants leads to negative perceptions in India of the UK's restrictive visa regime. There is no justification for seeking to reduce numbers of international students," said Lord Karan Bilimoria, Indian-origin entrepreneur and president of the UK Council for International Student Affairs. Macron, meanwhile, has been making a direct play for these temporary migrants along with clinching deals worth an estimated 13-billion euros between French and Indian companies during his India tour. He has been touting France as the "entry point to Europe" in a direct challenge to Britain, which until Brexit had pegged itself as the gateway to Europe for Indian companies. The recent visit of Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to Kathmandu has set in motion a process that could have far-reaching implications for India's position in South Asia and South Asian regional co-operation. Abbasi's visit was important for several reasons. For one, this was the first bilateral visit by a Pakistani premier to Nepal in 24 years. But more importantly, the visit came at a time when Nepal's relations with China are rapidly warming. Nepal's new Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is known to lean towards China. Indeed, he recently reaffirmed this by saying that his government would pursue close ties with China so as to gain greater leverage with India. Thus, the Abbasi-Oli meeting was not just one between two South Asian prime ministers but an interaction between two of India's neighbours that are close to China. This was a meeting of minds. The two leaders expressed support for getting China into the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC). They also discussed steps to "reinvigorate" SAARC, including the possibility of Islamabad hosting a summit. Pakistan was to host the SAARC summit in 2016 but India, angry with it for its role in the terror attack at Uri, boycotted it and also got other SAARC members to do so. Pakistan is now rallying support among SAARC's pro-China member-states to agree to attend a summit in Islamabad. Two years ago, India was successful in isolating Pakistan in SAARC on the question of its support to anti-India terrorism. That strategy is eroding now. China's influence among India's neighbours has grown to such an extent that India could find itself in a minority in SAARC. As things stand, Pakistan could count on support from Nepal and the Maldives for bringing China into SAARC and participating in a summit in Islamabad. China also wields immense influence over Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, and it now seems a matter of time before these SAARC members also move into China's orbit. Hitherto, South Asia has been an Indo-centric region and India was in effect the leader of SAARC. That appears to be changing. China's influence over South Asia is enormous and its entry into SAARC is a matter of when and not if. South Asia's participation in China's Belt and Road Initiative will increase China's influence in the region manifold. Is India ready for its fallout? Delhi needs a comprehensive strategy to win back old friends like Nepal and hold back others like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. India must refrain from acting like a big brother and a bully. It needs to act with sensitivity in responding to issues that impinge on their sovereignty. The meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would go as planned if Pyongyang sticks to the promises it made, particularly regarding missiles and nuclear test, the White House said on Monday. Last week, a South Korean delegation, led by its national security advisor, informed Trump that Kim Jong-un has invited him to a meeting. The invitation conveyed to orally, was accepted by Trump, a decision that took the world by surprise. "We fully expect that it (the meeting) will (take place). The offer was made and we've accepted. North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises and, if so, the meeting will go on as planned," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is continuing to prepare on a number of levels for the meeting. "Most of that is an inter-administration, interagency process and I'm not going to get ahead of any of the details of the where, the when, or any of that here today," she said, responding to a series of questions on the meeting between the two leaders. Sanders said that the maximum pressure campaign on North Korea is working. "We know that they have responded due to that, and they have pushed this message through the South Koreans to us. We have accepted their invitation on the three promises that they made, and are going to move forward in this process," she said. Meanwhile, in New York, US National Security Advisor HR McMaster and US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, briefed members of the UN Security Council on developments related to North Korea. During the meeting, McMaster and Haley urged the international community to maintain maximum pressure on the North Korean regime and asked Council members to devote the political will and resources necessary to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions to hold the regime accountable. "The announcement of a meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim is a historic opportunity that holds great potential for the world," Haley said. "While we can't say whether Kim's offer is genuine, we can say that this historic meeting would not have been possible without the international community's participation in the maximum pressure campaign, initiated by the Trump Administration, and a commitment to holding North Korea accountable through three strong UN sanctions resolutions in 2017, she said. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday that Japan wanted to see a resolution to the issue of past abductions of Japanese citizens from talks with North Korea and that North Korea must match its words with actions. Abe was meeting South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon to discuss upcoming talks with North Korea. US President Donald Trump has agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by the end of May. South Korean President Moon Jae also plans to hold a summit with Kim by the end of April. Justice Indermeet Kaur of the Delhi High Court on Tuesday recused herself from hearing the bail plea of Karti Chidambaram, arrested by the CBI in the INX Media corruption case. Justice Kaur, who did not give any reason for her recusal, said she would refer the matter to the Acting Chief Justice for assigning the bail plea to another bench for today itself. The bail plea was yesterday mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar and was listed for hearing today. Karti's parents P Chidambaram and Nalini Chidambaram, both senior advocates, were present in the courtroom. Karti had moved the high court seeking bail, hours after a court here sent him to judicial custody till March 24. A special court sent Karti to judicial custody on Monday in the INX Media corruption case and dismissed his plea that he be put in a separate cell in Tihar Jail in view of a threat perception. The court had also dismissed his appeal for an urgent hearing on his bail plea and the threat perception due to the fact that his father, as a Union minister in the previous UPA government, had handled several sensitive issues. The court had sent him to Tihar Jail after the CBI, in whose custody he was quizzed for 12 days in a row after his arrest on February 28 from Chennai, said he was no longer required for further custodial interrogation. The court said his bail plea would be heard on March 15 as scheduled. Karti was arrested by the CBI on his return from the United Kingdom in connection with an FIR lodged on May 15 last year. It alleged irregularities in a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to a media house, INX Media, for receiving funds of about Rs 305 crore from overseas in 2007 when his father was the Union finance minister. The CBI had initially alleged that Karti Chidambaram received Rs 10 lakh as a bribe for facilitating the FIPB clearance to INX Media. It, however, later revised the figure to USD 1 million (about Rs 6.50 crore at the current exchange rate and Rs 4.50 crore in 2007). The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered Karti's arrest, was based on a statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former director of INX Media (P) Ltd, who recorded it under Section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate on February 17. Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agrawal's entry into BJP coincides with the saffron party's move to thwart the united Opposition's plan to get a BSP nominee elected for the tenth Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh. The SP renominating actress-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan for the lone seat it can win instead of him and decision to support a BSP candidate along with Congress promoted Agrawal, who was once considered close to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, to switch sides. An angry Agrawal told reporters at BJP headquarters that his MLA son Nitin would vote for a BJP candidate, as the saffron party fielded Anil Agrawal, the Chairman of HRIT Group of Institutes in Ghaziabad who is considered close to the former Samajwadi Party leader, for a ninth spot. The expectation in the BJP camp, which does not have enough votes on its own to ensure the victory of a ninth candidate, is that Agrawal can wean away disgruntled elements in the SP to jump ship and embarrass the opposition. As per existing Assembly strength, BJP can win eight seats out of ten on its own while SP can win one. None can win the tenth seat but if SP, BSP, RLD and Congress come together, they can win. With BSP supporting its candidates in the Lok Sabha bypolls, the SP has returned the favours with Congress also joining it. BSP is supporting Congress candidate in Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sabha polls. With BJP needing just ten more votes for the Rajya Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP hopes that they could give a jolt to the nascent efforts to forge a unity among opposition parties by defeating BSP candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar. Agrawal did not hide his disappointment with SP chief Akhilesh, though he did not name him. While he complained that he was compared with a person who acts and dances in films but said he respects Mulayam Singh Yadav and Ramgopal Yadav and would never say anything against them. "In the name of alliance, SP is losing the plot. It was with Congress sometimes, with BSP sometimes. SP itself feels that it is nowhere now. SP won 2012 Assembly polls alone. Just see how it is being finished," he told reporters. He also made the right noises saying he was influenced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched a campaign to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) from India by 2025, five years ahead of a globally-set deadline. After inaugurating the Delhi End-TB Summit here, the prime minister launched the TB-free India Campaign to take the activities under the National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination forward in a mission mode for ending the epidemic by 2025. "A target has been set to end TB globally by 2030. I would like to announce that we have set an aim to eradicate it from India five years ahead by 2025," Modi said. He stressed on analysing the situation and changing the approach, saying that efforts to curb tuberculosis has not yielded successful results yet and said state governments have a major role to play in the elimination of TB from the country. He further said that front-line TB physicians and workers can make a major contribution in this direction. "State governments have a major role to play in the elimination of TB from India. I have written to all chief ministers to join this mission," Modi said, adding it would boost the spirit of cooperative federalism. He further said that TB was the most prevalent among communicable diseases in the country and the poor were the worst affected by it. Every step taken towards eradicating the disease is directly connected to their lives, he added. Leaders from across the globe have converged in the national capital for the summit, hosted by the Union Ministry of Health along with the WHO and the Stop TB Partnership. TB was responsible for 1.7 million deaths in 2016, despite most cases being curable while over 10 million people contract TB every year. The summit would set the stage for the September 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB, where for the first time, TB would be discussed in the UN General Assembly at the Heads of State level. Nine CRPF personnel were today killed after suspected Naxals blew up their mine-protected vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Sukma, around a year after a dozen jawans were killed in a similar ambush in the district. Officials said the incident took place around 12:30 PM along the Kistaram-Palodi road of the district when the troops of the 212th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were out on an operation. At least nine men have been killed, while two other jawans suffered injuries after the mine-protected vehicle was blown up by multiple improvised explosive devices (IEDs) concealed under the dirt track, a senior official said. The injured personnel are being airlifted to Raipur, they said. The rebels used a lot of explosives to blow up the vehicle, a state police official said. Soon after the incident, reinforcements were rushed to the spot, around 500 km from state capital Raipur, he said, adding further details were awaited. Officials added that the first encounter between the two sides took place at 8 am and later this contingent was targeted by the Maoists. Twelve personnel of the force were killed on March 11 last year in the Bheji area of the district and their arms looted when Naxals ambushed their patrol party. A few days later on April 24, twenty-five personnel of the paramilitary were killed in a similar ambush in Sukma. PTI TKP NES SKL SMN Scripture Completed in 49 Languages Last Year SWINDON, England, March 13, 2018 / First Translations: 2017 was a 'first' for 20 languages, spoken by over 14 million people. 7 communities received the very first full Bible in their language, 4 received their first New Testament and 9 communities received their first, or additional, portions of Scripture. New Translations: Languages change and develop over time. That is why Bible Societies are also committed to revising existing translations or providing new translations, when requested, giving new generations the chance to meaningfully engage with Scripture. In 2017, this resulted in 26 new translations and revisions, plus 9 study editions, with the potential to reach more than 566 million people. Reaching People with Visual Disabilities: In 2017, Bible Societies in 32 countries ran Braille projects to meet the Scripture needs of blind readers. Two languages received their first ever portions of Braille Scripture - Luganda (Uganda) and Khasi (India). A further four languages received additional Braille Scriptures - Oshikwanyama (Namibia), Kinyarwanda (Rwanda), Armenian (Armenia), German (2017 Luther Bible). Sign Language Scriptures for Deaf Communities: Bible Societies are currently involved in 26 active sign language projects, with 10 more in the planning and preparation stages. This work has the potential to impact 12.9 million Deaf people. 70 million Deaf people use sign languages as their 'first' or heart language. But only 10% of the more than 400 unique sign languages that exist have any Scripture, and those that do have very little. No sign language has the full Bible; American Sign Language comes closest, with the New Testament. Scripture Access Today: Each year United Bible Societies compiles data from Bible Societies and Looking Ahead: While great strides have been made in Bible translation, much work still lies ahead to provide some portion of Scripture to the 209 million with no Scripture at all in their language and to increase the amount of Scripture for the 1 billion people with only part of the Bible. United Bible Societies is working towards the day when everyone can access the full Bible in the language of their choice and is currently working on over 400 translation projects around the world. Commenting these figures, Michael Perreau, United Bible Societies Director General said: "The Bible for everyone. This is the mission that drives us forward in everything we do, and Bible translation plays a central role in that as we seek to serve churches of all denominations. What an encouragement to see the impact of this work in 2017 not just the numbers of translations completed but how lives are being changed, too." To download a PDF of this report, which is packed with case studies, graphics and includes an Appendix of languages published in 2017 click here: www.unitedbiblesocieties.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/GSAR-2017_UK_brochure_final_lowres_spreads.pdf. About the United Bible Societies: The United Bible Societies is a global network of Bible Societies working in more than 200 countries and territories across the world. Together, United Bible Societies members are the world's biggest translator, publisher and distributor of the Bible. Bible Societies are also active in areas such as HIV/AIDS prevention, trauma healing and literacy. United Bible Societies works with all Christian Churches and many international non-governmental organisations. Read more: *Data for first language speakers does not currently equal the current world population. Share Tweet Contact: Gunnar Magi, United Bible Societies , +372-503-4980SWINDON, England, March 13, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- In 2017, Bible Societies assisted in the completion of Scripture translations in 49 languages spoken by more than 580 million people.First Translations:2017 was a 'first' for 20 languages, spoken by over 14 million people. 7 communities received the very first full Bible in their language, 4 received their first New Testament and 9 communities received their first, or additional, portions of Scripture.New Translations:Languages change and develop over time. That is why Bible Societies are also committed to revising existing translations or providing new translations, when requested, giving new generations the chance to meaningfully engage with Scripture. In 2017, this resulted in 26 new translations and revisions, plus 9 study editions, with the potential to reach more than 566 million people.Reaching People with Visual Disabilities:In 2017, Bible Societies in 32 countries ran Braille projects to meet the Scripture needs of blind readers. Two languages received their first ever portions of Braille Scripture - Luganda (Uganda) and Khasi (India). A further four languages received additional Braille Scriptures - Oshikwanyama (Namibia), Kinyarwanda (Rwanda), Armenian (Armenia), German (2017 Luther Bible).Sign Language Scriptures for Deaf Communities:Bible Societies are currently involved in 26 active sign language projects, with 10 more in the planning and preparation stages. This work has the potential to impact 12.9 million Deaf people. 70 million Deaf people use sign languages as their 'first' or heart language. But only 10% of the more than 400 unique sign languages that exist have any Scripture, and those that do have very little. No sign language has the full Bible; American Sign Language comes closest, with the New Testament.Scripture Access Today:Each year United Bible Societies compiles data from Bible Societies and progress.Bible , to present the global status report of the Scripture access. At the end of 2017 there were 7,097 languages in the world spoken by over 7.6 billion people*. 674 languages, spoken by nearly 5.4 billion people, now have a complete Bible and a further 1,515 languages, spoken by 631 million people, have a New Testament. This leaves 406 million people with only some portions of Scripture, and a further 209 million people with no Scripture in their language.Looking Ahead:While great strides have been made in Bible translation, much work still lies ahead to provide some portion of Scripture to the 209 million with no Scripture at all in their language and to increase the amount of Scripture for the 1 billion people with only part of the Bible. United Bible Societies is working towards the day when everyone can access the full Bible in the language of their choice and is currently working on over 400 translation projects around the world.Commenting these figures, Michael Perreau, United Bible Societies Director General said: "The Bible for everyone. This is the mission that drives us forward in everything we do, and Bible translation plays a central role in that as we seek to serve churches of all denominations. What an encouragement to see the impact of this work in 2017 not just the numbers of translations completed but how lives are being changed, too."To download a PDF of this report, which is packed with case studies, graphics and includes an Appendix of languages published in 2017 click here:About the United Bible Societies:The United Bible Societies is a global network of Bible Societies working in more than 200 countries and territories across the world. Together, United Bible Societies members are the world's biggest translator, publisher and distributor of the Bible. Bible Societies are also active in areas such as HIV/AIDS prevention, trauma healing and literacy. United Bible Societies works with all Christian Churches and many international non-governmental organisations. Read more: www.unitedbiblesocieties.org *Data for first language speakers does not currently equal the current world population. The Shiv Sena on Tuesday demanded that President's rule be imposed in Goa in the wake of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's absence from the state. Last week, Parrikar has gone to the US for medical treatment. In the absence of Parrikar, the state has been left "headless" and no one has the authority to take decisions on key issues, like the impending crisis in the mining industry, the Sena's Goa spokesperson, Rakhi Prabhudesai Naik, said in a statement. The recent statement of Goa Forward Party (the BJP's ally) chief Vijai Sardesai that Goa is facing an Emergency-like situation is a true reflection of the state of things here, she said. "In the absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, the state is left headless, and deserves to be ruled by the President of India," she said. Naik said the state has been left headless at a time when it is facing closure of the mining industry and there is no one to speak for the interest of people dependent on it. The Supreme Court had last month quashed the second renewal of iron ore mining leases given to 88 companies in Goa in 2015. The apex court said it was giving time till March 15 to mining leaseholders, who have been granted a second renewal in violation of its previous directions, to manage their affairs. They are directed to stop all mining operations with effect from March 16, until fresh mining leases (not fresh renewals or other renewals) are granted and fresh environmental clearances are granted, the court said. Naik alleged that the people dependent on mining industry are only getting false promises and seeing the "melodrama" of delegations going to Delhi. "No solution has been provided to their problems and certainly, in the current situation, we can't expect a solution from the cabinet advisory committee which is the least bothered about people," she alleged. Before leaving Goa, Parrikar had formed a three-member cabinet advisory committee comprising Vijai Sardesai, Sudin Dhavalikar and Francis D'Souza to guide the state administration in his absence. Naik claimed that the committee has not even held a meeting to discuss the situation that may arise after the mines are closed. The Shiv Sena said the state needed President's rule so that at least the Centre could take over and provide some relief to people dependent on the mining industry. The Sena is an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra. It does not have any representation in the Goa Assembly. The Sri Lankan government is unlikely to extend the 10-day nationwide state of emergency imposed after communal riots erupted in Kandy district, as no fresh incidents of violence have been reported from anywhere in the country, the new Law and Order Minister has said. Communal violence broke out in the country's scenic district following the death of a man from the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority, resulting in the death of two persons and damage to several homes, businesses and mosques. President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a three-member commission to probe the communal clashes in Kandy. He had declared a nationwide state of emergency on March 6 and deployed the police and military to prevent escalation of violence after clashes between majority Sinhala Buddhists and minority Muslims erupted in other areas of the central riot-hit district. Ranjith Maddumabandara said he thinks it was not necessary to continue the state of emergency any further. "I had a discussion with the Inspector General of Police and senior police officers this morning to assess the current security situation in the country. "We are of the view that the country's security situation is normal right now and therefore, the extending of the 'state of emergency' which will expire on Thursday (March 15) will not be necessary," Maddumabandara was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror. He also said he discussed the possibility of lifting the temporary ban on social media, including Facebook, with the police. The government had restricted the use of social media, including Facebook, and social messaging app, Whatsapp after police claimed that they were being used to spread hatred against the minority community. "A decision in this regard would be taken soon but the final decision, however, will be taken on both issues after President returns from his official visit to Japan," the Minister said. Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando has also said that the restrictions on social media platforms including Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp and Imo will most probably be lifted within few days. "The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) was in discussion with the Facebook service provider about filtering social media," he was quoted as saying by the Daily News. In response to the government's ban, Facebook has said it is in contact with the Sri Lankan government and non-governmental organisations to support efforts to identify and remove hate speech from its platform. "We have clear rules against hate speech and incitement to violence and work hard to keep it off our platform. We are responding to the situation in Sri Lanka and are in contact with the government and non-governmental organisations to support efforts to identify and remove such content," the Facebook has said in an email to the CNBC. It said the ban in Sri Lanka came after several years in which critics have said Facebook and the government were not doing enough to prevent the spread of such harmful posts. Meanwhile, Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said that the situation in Kandy was calm and quiet. "Though the situation was normal, the police would not relax its guard in Kandy in particular," he said, adding that 3,000 police and 750 STF personnel had been deployed in the riot-hit district. "If the industrialist Vijay Sankeshwara joins Congress, I will welcome it. But allowing him into the party, or no; is left to the party," said Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddy, in Kalaburagi on Tuesday. He spoke to reporters after taking over as Chairman of the Hyderabad Karnataka Development Board. "Sankeshwara is a multi-faceted and well-respected entrepreneur. These days BJP has become very business-like. BJP's candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections MP Rajeev Chandrashekar had earlier made a poll pact with the JD(S). Now he has made a pact with the BJP," Rayareddy remarked. Centre's funds for H-K region "The Central government must sanction funds for Hyderabad-Karnataka (H-K) development also. We will ask for it. Because this is a backward region, the Constitution has been amended to provide for a 50% grant. It is the Centre's responsibility to provide development funds," Rayareddy stressed. Comprehensive development plan "We have been demanding resources from the beginning. But the Centre has not responded," said the H-K Development Board's former Chairman and Medical Education Minister Dr Sharanaprakash Patil. The minister continued by pointing out that under Article 371(J) of the Constitution, only Davanagere's Harappanahalli taluk has been included and the cabinet of ministers has denied the special status to Rona taluk's five villages. A comprehensive plan for the development of all taluks in the region for the next 10 years would be compiled and presented. Priorities like education, healthcare, human resource development will be included, and the cost estimated, the minister added. The Maharashtra government has accepted the opposition demand for a CID probe into the alleged irregularities by former CEO of Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) Vishwas Patil, the Assembly was told on Tuesday. The demand was made by former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan (Congress) during the Question Hour in the Lower House. Minister of State for Housing Ravindra Waikar said the government has accepted the demand. He said a committee headed by then SRA secretary Sitaram Kunte went through 137 suspicious cases and detected irregularities in 33 of them. The alleged irregularities were committed when Patil was the CEO of the SRA, a state-run agency tasked with implementing slum rehabilitation schemes, Waikar said. Patil has since retired. However, the Kunte committee's report later went missing, the minister said. Waikar said a file about Patil making his wife a partner in a real estate company to get two flats in a SRA scheme in suburban Juhu had also gone missing. A complaint in this regard was lodged with the Nirmal Nagar police station in November last year, the minister said. Chavan said this was a serious matter and sought a probe either by the ACB or the CID in the entire matter. Waikar said the CID will look into the alleged irregularities under Patil. The DGCA decision to ground certain A320 neo aircraft with faulty engines is "only for passenger safety", Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Tuesday and expressed hope that airlines would restore the flights as soon as possible. The aviation regulator's move has resulted in flight cancellations by IndiGo and GoAir as the two airlines have grounded 11 A320 neo aircraft following the directive. Against this backdrop, Prabhu said it is DGCA's prerogative and that safety is paramount. "This is only for passenger safety and airlines have also responded positively. They would like to restore the flights as soon as possible by making alternative arrangements. But we cannot play with any issue related to safety and safety is paramount," he told reporters on the sidelines of an event here. Prabhu took over the additional charge of Civil Aviation Ministry on Monday. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has grounded 11 A320 neo planes powered by a certain series of Pratt & Whitney engines following three incidents of mid-air engine failures in less than a month. A total of 14 A320 neo aircraft fitted with a specific series of engines -- 11 operated by IndiGo and 3 by GoAir -- have now been grounded. Three IndiGo planes were grounded last month. An ad hoc lecturer of a college in Kharkhoda district was shot dead today allegedly by a student, police said. The deceased, Rajesh Malik, was aged between 35 to 40 years of age, they said. Police said the youth, who was yet to be identified, was believed to be the student of the same college. The reason behind the killing of the lecturer was yet to be ascertained, they added. The youth fired three to four shots at the lecturer with a revolver in the college premises, police officials said adding that one of the bullets hit Malik in the chest. He succumbed to injuries later, they said. The accused fled the spot after firing shots at the lecturer, police said. Investigations were in progress, they said. Notably, a class 12 student had allegedly shot dead his school principal with his father's licensed revolver in Yamunanagar district in January this year. Tension gripped Manochahal village here today following a clash between two groups over the control of a local gurdwara which left about six people injured, police said on Tuesday Four hundred police personnel were deployed to bring the situation under control, they said. The incident took place when a group led by one Ranjodh Singh came to the gurdwara to take control of its management. However, a group of villagers, who were managing the gurudwara's affairs for three years, objected to it, leading to the clash, Tarn Taran Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Satpal Singh said. Angry villagers set Ranjodh Singh's vehicle on fire and held members of his group hostage in the gurdwara, police said. About six people were injured in the clash. Two of them had sustained gunshot wounds when shots were fired by the two groups, they said. Police said Ranjodh Singh's father had managed the gurdwara for 25 years, but after his death, the villagers took over. Two years ago, Ranjodh Singh raised the issue of gurdwara's management but he was given a piece of land as a compromise by the villagers. An investigation was underway in the case, they added. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today condemned the killings of nine CRPF personnel in a suspected Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh and described the incident as "deeply distressing". Singh was here to unveil a statue of martyr Udham Singh at Jallianwala Bagh. "Today's IED blast in Sukma, Chhattisgarh is deeply distressing. I bow to each and every security personnel who attained martyrdom while serving the nation. "My heartfelt condolences to the families of the personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans. I spoke to DG @crpfindia regarding the Sukma incident and asked him to leave for Chhattisgarh," he tweeted. Nine CRPF personnel were today killed after suspected Naxals blew up their mine-protected vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Sukma, around a year after a dozen jawans were killed in a similar ambush in the district. Two other jawans suffered injuries in the attack. Rajya Sabha witnessed another washout for the seventh day on Tuesday with ruling allies and Opposition continued their protest on various issues even as Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu remarked people were getting impatient with frequent disruptions. The House could function for a few minutes in both morning and afternoon sessions with Naidu and Deputy Chairman P J Kurien appealing to MPs to allow functioning of the House. Ruling ally TDP was protesting on special category status for Andhra Pradesh while DMK and AIADMK wanted setting up of Cauvery Management Group. Congress and Trinamool Congress wanted an adjournment motion to discuss the Rs 12,967.84 crore Punjab National Bank scam. Soon after the customary laying of papers was done in the morning session, Naidu appealed to MPs to allow functioning of the House because "people are being impatient and (adjournments and protests) show Parliament in poor light". He said the government was ready for discussion and he has allowed a short duration discussion on PNB scam, but this was not acceptable to the Opposition. However, raising a point of order, Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy said his notice under Rule 168 was in order and "if my motion is not accepted, the principle of natural justice will be denied". As MPs prepared to protest, Naidu adjourned the House. When the House re-assembled at 2 PM, the MPs rushed to the Well raising slogans and displaying placards. Kurien, who was in the Chair in the afternoon session, wanted to take up a calling attention motion on strategic storage of crude oil and petroleum products but the MPs continued to protest. "This is not fair. If this is the way MPs are behaving, I will adjourn the House. She (a TDP member) is showing a placard which is against the rule. This is misbehaviour. I don't agree with this," he said and adjourned the House. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah expressed confidence that the Congress will win all three seats in the upcoming Vidhana Sabha to Rajya Sabha elections. He added that the cabinet of ministers would meet to decide on the matter of granting separate religion tag to Lingayats on March 14. "Protest is the lifeblood of a democracy and religious heads have the freedom to hold independent opinions," the CM said. In a reply to a question, the CM clarified that appointment of staff to the Vidhana Sabha is not done by the government. "It is not the government's responsibility," he added. 'Mama' to Thousands of Children in Egypt to be Honored with the Charles W. Colson Award LA MIRADA, Calif., March 13, 2018 / Recipients of the Colson Award have chosen a life of serving God no matter what challenges they face or difficulties they have to overcome. "The committee wanted to honor 'Mama Maggie's' conviction and courage in caring for tens of thousands of children and their families in the slums and squatter areas of Egypt through her organization, Stephen's Children," said Corey. "She has made a remarkable contribution through her service to Coptic Christians struggling under heavy persecution and it's an honor to recognize her with this distinguished award." Since 1989, Gobran has dedicated her life to serving the poor and forgotten children in Egypt's garbage slums through her organization. She grew up in an upper-middle class family and eventually became a successful businesswoman and professor at the American University in Cairo. However, she gave up her career after she saw children were living in abject poverty and persecution and decided to serve them. Gobran's organization is dedicated to building relationships with the poorest and most vulnerable families in Cairo. She has built 97 community medical centers and schools in the garbage slums and serves over 40,000 children and their families. Everyday, the "Zabaleen" or garbage children are morally, educationally and spiritually equipped to serve the world for God through the ministry of Stephen's Children. Stephen's Children includes almost 2,000 home workers that teach Bible study, pray and bring food to families, risking their very lives to share the gospel in a 90 percent Muslim majority country that is hostile to Christians. Biola will be honoring Gobran at 2 p.m. during Biola's 89th annual Missions Conference a student-run 3-day conference on Biola's campus attended by the entire student body. The event will be streamed live at Biola University in consultation with the Colson family established the Charles W. Colson Conviction and Courage Award in 2014. Christian leader Chuck Colson lived a life of biblical conviction with the courage to advocate truth despite difficult circumstances. Biola honored the legacy of the late Colson by awarding him the inaugural award at the university's commencement in May 2014. Colson's son, Christian Colson, received the award on his father's behalf at the ceremonies. The award honors Colson's legacy and celebrates Christian leaders who live in the same fashion. To learn more about Stephen's Children, visit Share Tweet Contact: Brenda Velasco, Biola University , 562-777-4061LA MIRADA, Calif., March 13, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- Founder of Stephen's Children, a ministry in Cairo, Egypt, Maggie Gobran will be honored with the Charles W. Colson Courage and Conviction award from Biola University. Biola President Barry H. Corey will present the award to Gobran, who is affectionately known as "Mama Maggie" at Biola's 89th annual Missions Conference on Mar. 14, 2018.Recipients of the Colson Award have chosen a life of serving God no matter what challenges they face or difficulties they have to overcome."The committee wanted to honor 'Mama Maggie's' conviction and courage in caring for tens of thousands of children and their families in the slums and squatter areas of Egypt through her organization, Stephen's Children," said Corey. "She has made a remarkable contribution through her service to Coptic Christians struggling under heavy persecution and it's an honor to recognize her with this distinguished award."Since 1989, Gobran has dedicated her life to serving the poor and forgotten children in Egypt's garbage slums through her organization. She grew up in an upper-middle class family and eventually became a successful businesswoman and professor at the American University in Cairo. However, she gave up her career after she saw children were living in abject poverty and persecution and decided to serve them.Gobran's organization is dedicated to building relationships with the poorest and most vulnerable families in Cairo. She has built 97 community medical centers and schools in the garbage slums and serves over 40,000 children and their families. Everyday, the "Zabaleen" or garbage children are morally, educationally and spiritually equipped to serve the world for God through the ministry of Stephen's Children. Stephen's Children includes almost 2,000 home workers that teach Bible study, pray and bring food to families, risking their very lives to share the gospel in a 90 percent Muslim majority country that is hostile to Christians.Biola will be honoring Gobran at 2 p.m. during Biola's 89th annual Missions Conference a student-run 3-day conference on Biola's campus attended by the entire student body. The event will be streamed live at live.biola.edu . Following the presentation of the award, at 4:30 p.m., she will be speaking to students about her life and ministry.Biola University in consultation with the Colson family established the Charles W. Colson Conviction and Courage Award in 2014. Christian leader Chuck Colson lived a life of biblical conviction with the courage to advocate truth despite difficult circumstances. Biola honored the legacy of the late Colson by awarding him the inaugural award at the university's commencement in May 2014. Colson's son, Christian Colson, received the award on his father's behalf at the ceremonies. The award honors Colson's legacy and celebrates Christian leaders who live in the same fashion.To learn more about Stephen's Children, visit www.stephenschildren.org Revival in rural demand, increased infrastructure spending is likely to drive India's growth in the current year, even as increasing debt and trade protectionism could pose a challenge, said a Deloitte report. The 'Voice of Asia' report of Deloitte predicts a faster than expected growth for Indian economy against the backdrop of increasing crude oil prices and volatile market conditions. "The improvement in domestic conditions is a positive sign that growth is picking up and will continue to maintain strong momentum in 2018, retaining India's position as the 'fastest-growing large economy' in the world," a statement said. Showing signs of recovery, the Indian economy recorded a five-quarter high growth of 7.2 percent in the October-December period on a good showing by key sectors like agriculture, construction and manufacturing. The economy is expected to grow at 6.6 percent in the current fiscal ending March 31, as per official estimates, compared to 7.1 percent in 2016-17. "After a year of disruptions and growth slowdown, Indian economy is consolidating the gains from the recent reforms and is moving in the right direction. With a steady increase in FDI inflows and pick-up in growth in the Q3 of 2017, 2018 will expectedly remain a period of strong growth for India with a growth rate of around 6.8 - 6.9 percent," Deloitte India Partner and Lead Economist Anis Chakravarty said. The report said that the negative effect of major reforms like GST and demonetisation is wearing off now as there is high optimism in domestic demand in the form of consumption and revival in small-scale business activities, resulting in an increase in FDI flows into the country. Moreover, the government has made huge strides towards financial inclusion and pushing the expansion of digital India. India is steadily moving towards greater formalisation of the informal economy, it added. The report said that with an eye on infrastructure development, the government has given green light to a Rs 7 trillion infrastructure program in late 2017, with the aim to pave more than 80,000 km of roads by March 2022. The report further said that global economic growth is likely to move up further as more than 75 percent of the world economy is now enjoying an upswing, with forecasts anticipating global growth to rise to 3.6 percent in 2017 and 3.7 percent in 2018, from 3.2 percent in 2016. "As the global economy is in its heights after recovering from the shocks of 2008 crisis, India should take the benefit of this opportunity. India's ability to stave off the economic gales was helped by the fact that it is much less dependent than most countries on global flows of trade and capital. And therefore, the recovery in global economic conditions should help India boost its domestic growth," it added. With regard to challenges facing the Asian region, the report said there is a build-up of debt from the post-2008 financial crisis period of excess global liquidity. Besides, the spread of global protectionist sentiment is a concern for the Asian economies, it said. Facebook India will bring its global programmes to further strengthen its engagement with Indian startup ecosystem, said Facebook official on Monday. Facebook Asia & South Asia Strategic Product Partnerships Head Satyajeet Singh said Facebook strategy is well aligned with India's bubbling startup ecosystem. "We have already touched 100 startups as part of our startup programme like Code for the Next Billion and Design4India over the past two years. We are looking at active engagements with designer and developer communities for new products and solutions for our internal platforms and SMEs customers," he said. The California-based social network company expanded its global presence with portfolio of products like Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus VR. "Our engagement with Indian startup began two years back. Besides Developer Circles, Facebook's programmes like Facebook Start and SheLeadsTech are getting an overwhelming response from India," he said. Facebook is on a transitional journey with more focus on hardwares, including smart speaker devices and a model with interactive video-chat capabilities and Oculus with its AR/VR headset. The company is on an aggressive push for digitally sculpt 3D objects in its products. Recently, Facebook started LDN_LAB programme for startup in London to offer three 12-week courses throughout the year. Facebook is supporting more than 20 startups in areas like software, product development, data science and marketing. As part of its further engagement with Indian startup, the company announced opening up of Design4India Studio in Bengaluru. "Design4India is a Nasscom initiative built in partnership with Facebook, just over a year old and aims to augment the software product innovation ecosystem in India. The design studio helps startups and designers working in web, mobile, augmented reality and virtual reality platforms," he said. Besides access to UX design process, resources, user testing and AR/VR toolkits to enhance their products, the startups will get competitive advantage through live testing and help in rapid prototyping of new products and enable quicker GTM (Go to Market) strategies. "We are inspiring design thinking in India. We will be taking this pan-India initiative to tier 2 cities as well. Providing the power to build communities is Facebook's mission. We want to build the overall ecosystem in India," said Singh. He also pointed out that design is an integral part of innovation. "Several research data shows that design driven firms outpace others by over 200%. Design as an innovation activity is complementary to R&D as it renovates research into commercially viable products and services, and brings innovation closer to consumer needs," he said. Built at WeWork Koramangala, the Design Studio will be an interchangeable, flexible space aiming to harness a hybrid of concepts that will empower startups and product companies to better adapt to new business ecosystems while having a competitive edge with the help of professional mentor guidance, rapid prototyping and user testing. Buckling under widespread protests, especially by students, the Vasundhara Raje dispensation in Rajasthan today revoked its recent controversial order on implementing a dress code for government run colleges in the state. The chief minister said the Directorate of College Education had issued the order to introduce uniforms in government colleges based on suggestions by student representatives. It has been brought to my attention that many students are not happy with this decision. I have therefore asked that uniforms be made voluntary rather than compulsory, Raje tweeted. We are here to provide our girls with whatever they require to excel in their education, she said. On March 4, the BJP government in Rajasthan had announced a dress code in state-run colleges from the academic year 2018-19, drawing protests from students and opposition Congress which dubbed it as an attempt to saffronise institutions. The Commissionerate of College Education had then shot off a letter to principals of government colleges asking them to decide the colour of the dress for boys and girls and submit it by March 12. Dress code for boys included shirt, trousers, sweater (winters), shoes, socks and belt. For girls, it was salwar suit, dupatta, sweater or cardigan (winters), saree, shoes or sandals and socks. The dress code has to be implemented in government colleges from academic session 2018-19. Principals are directed to decide dress colour with senior faculty members, student union representatives and to submit it by March 12, the letter stated. The Congress said it would oppose the decision and alleged the government was pursuing RSS agenda. The government is working on the agenda of the RSS. They have changed school curriculum, distributed saffron cycles and are now bent on saffronising colleges. We will protest any such attempt, Congress chief whip in the state Assembly Govind Singh Dotasara had said. The government had, however, maintained that the decision was being taken on the students' demand. Dress code was a demand of the students who have complained that outsiders enter college premises. There should be clarity on the identity of students. We have left it on the colleges to decide on the dress colour. We have not imposed any particular colour, state Higher Education minister Kiran Maheshwari had said. The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has told Lok Sabha that there was no move to increase the tuition fee at central universities "at present." The ministry's clarification on the issue comes amid claims of various teachers associations that the new formula for implementation of the seventh Central Pay Commission (CPC) requiring the higher education institutions bear 30% of the expenditure on teachers salary from their own resources is bound to force them to pass the burden on students. This is one of the main issues that the teachers' bodies including Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) have been raising and holding protests against the implementation of the seventh CPC in country's higher education institutions since the Central government notified the funding pattern for it in November last year. The Centre revised the pay scales of teachers and other equivalent academic staff in the Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) and in the higher education institutions which come under the purview of the University Grants Commission (UGC). The government in its notification said the Centre will reimburse 50% of the additional expenditure to be incurred by the states in paying an increased salary to the university faculties and other staff under the seventh Central Pay Commission (CPC) recommendations. It stipulated for bearing 70% of total expenditure to be incurred in paying the revised salaries of the central government institutions. University and college teachers lodged a protest here on Monday under the banners of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations (AIFUCTO), Federation fo Central University Teachers Association and DUTA, pressing for 100% central assistance to both central and state universities among other demands. "There is no such move of fee hike at present in the central universities," Minister of State for HRD Satya Pal Singh told the Lok Sabha in reply to a written question on Monday. While extending the 7th CPC for non-teaching staff of the central universities which are not generating "adequate internal resources" to meet the additional financial impact, the extent of the government support "may be" more than 70% of the additional impact, "provided the nature and fund position of the central university concerned "so warrant." "Some protests have been made against the funding pattern. However, the instruction already provides that the institutions which are not in a position to meet either 30% or any lesser amount from their internal resources, the revised pay scales are allowed after adjusting the amount realized from internal resources," he also clarified. Exactly a year ago, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called for an "introspection" on what led to the killing of 12 CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh's Sukma despite Naxals suffering "unprecedented losses" in 2016. But, it seems nothing much have changed in the Naxal hotbed. Official figures showed that Naxal violence in Chhattisgarh is on the rise this year so far compared to corresponding period of previous years though the overall figure is on the decline. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), there were 61 incidents in Chhattisgarh this year till February 15 as against 53 during the same period last year. While 15 people were killed in Naxal violence this year, it was 17 in Chhattisgarh in 2017. Chhattisgarh also continues to be on the top of the list of Naxal-infested states. The attack on a mine-protected vehicle comes a year after a similar incident in Sukma when 12 CRPF personnel were ambushed. Making a statement in Lok Sabha on March 14, 2017, Singh then said, "there is a need for introspection on this incident. I have directed the Director General, CRPF to conduct a detailed enquiry into the incident so that the lapses that led to the incident can be identified which will reduce the possibility of a repetition of such incidents in the future." This time too, Singh has directed the CRPF chief to rush to the spot. He had then said, "sustained operations by the Security Forces ensured that South Bastar districts, considered to be the nucleus of LWE strength witnessed a considerable fall in violence in 2016 (252 incidents as against 326 in 2015)." In the latest budget, the government has earmarked Rs 1,344 crore for fighting Naxals across the country and reaching out to people in Maoist-infested districts with development projects. The bulk of the allocation goes to projects proposed by states in 35 worst Naxal-infested districts to tackle development issues. Another Rs 200 crore is allocated for Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme for paying ex gratia to families of those killed in the Naxal violence, insurance premium of police, training and operational requirements, compensation for surrendered Maoists, security-related infrastructure and other expenses of village defence committees. The scheme is expected to reduce Naxal violence and number of attacks on security personnel deployed in such areas. He said that Egypt would continue to support all processes aiming to achieve peace and stability in South Sudan. Last year, Egypt also hosted the talks of the Arusha Agreement on the reunification of South Sudan's ruling party (SPLM) and contributed to sponsoring these talks in cooperation with Uganda. In a separate meeting with Defence Minister Juuk, Shoukry listened to developments in the country's security situation and in ongoing efforts towards a political settlement, as part of Egypt's support for the stability of the country, Abu Zeid added. The Egyptian minister stressed that the relations between Juba and Cairo would not distract their relations with other partners in the region and the whole world. Kiir also explained, during the meeting, the work of the national dialogue steering committee and the various stages of the national dialogue aimed at achieving peace and stability in the country. South Sudan is well into its fifth year of fighting and the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions, shows no signs of ending. The South Sudan Minister in Office of President, Mr Mayiik Ayii Deng, said stability was crucial, particularly for his country whose development was lagging behind due to war. Earlier this year the United States imposed a unilateral arms embargo on South Sudan to encourage an end to the fighting and there is now a draft resolution for an global arms embargo that is to be voted upon by the United Nations. Also on Monday, the foreign minister met with South Sudanese Health Minister Riek Gai on the sidelines of the inauguration of a new kidney center donated by Egypt to a Juba hospital. This is the Egyptian foreign minister's first visit to South Sudan since 2015. Jeweller Nirav Modi and his group of companies got 1,213 fraudulent Letters of Undertakings between 2011 and 2017 from Punjab National Bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The list of LoU given by him, however, reveals that most of them were sanctioned in between 2014-2017. The last fraudulent LoU was issued on May 23, 2017. In a written reply to a question in the RS, Jaitley said that PNB head office received a report of suspicious outstanding of unauthorised transactions from circle office, Mumbai on January 23. Immediately an investigating team was constituted which gave its preliminary report on January 25. On January 29, the fraud was reported to the RBI and complaint lodged with CBI Mumbai. PNB informed the Department of Financial Services regarding the fraud on February 6. He said that between 2011 and 2017, at least 53 genuine LoUs were also issued to Nirav Modi Group. In an answer to another question, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said the RBI had issued two circulars to banks, related to security and operational controls in SWIFT environment, in August and November 2016. The RBI had issued instructions mandating banks to implement, within stipulated deadlines, prescribed measures for strengthening the SWIFT operating environment in banks. Days after telling police that he saw AAP MLAs assaulting Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's advisor V K Jain has resigned. The resignation comes as their relations had soured after the Delhi Police on February 22 told a court that Jain has admitted that he saw MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal "physically assaulting" Prakash at Kejriwal's residence. Official sources said Jain has cited personal reasons and family commitments as the reasons for quitting the job. He was appointed to the post in September 2017 soon after he retired as the CEO of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). After the controversial incident, Jain was not attending his office and had gone on a medical leave. Kejriwal-led AAP has been claiming that Prakash and others were cooking up the assault story to defame the city government. However, police informed the court that Jain had recorded the statement under Section 164 of the CrPC, which could be treated as evidence in court. Jain is claimed to have told police that he went to the washroom after reaching Kejriwal's official residence and when he came out, he saw the two MLAs assaulting the chief secretary. Thirteen people were killed and over a dozen injured after a bus fell into a gorge in Uttarakhand's Almora district on Tuesday, officials said. District Magistrate (DM) Eva Ashish Srivastava said the incident took place at Potam, 120 km away from the district headquarters. Thirteen people, including the driver, were killed when the bus fell into the gorge, Srivastava said. Over 12 people sustained injuries in the accident. Four of them were seriously injured and were referred to Ramnagar for treatment, the DM said. Prima face it seemed that the bus was speeding and the accident occurred when it tried to avoid hitting another vehicle, Srivastava said. The KPCC election committee is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Wednesday to discuss the selection of candidates for the elections. The committee, headed by state Congress president G Parameshwara, will look into reports submitted by the district-level observers. It will also sift through applications submitted by ticket aspirants from all 224 constituencies. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge, party leaders Oscar Fernandes, Veerappa Moily, K Rahman Khan and K H Muniyappa are part of the 43-member committee, which is scheduled to meet at a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Party sources said a majority of the sitting party MLAs may get the ticket and that the committee is likely to clear their names. It will also set up a panel of leaders to look into Assembly constituencies where there are more than two ticket aspirants. Subsequently, the AICC election committee will finalise the candidates based on the recommendations of the KPCC election committee. The first list of about 100 candidates is likely to be announced by the first week of April. The party issued a total of 2,650 applications to ticket aspirants till March 12, which was the last date. They include Science and Technology Minister M R Seetharam, former police officer BK Shivaram and his son Rakshit Shivaram and film producer Rockline Venkatesh. All of them have applied to contest from the Malleswaram constituency. So far, 1,570 aspirants have submitted the applications. Rahul's tour The much-touted launch of the Congress' election manifesto has been pushed to the first week of April. Till then, the party hopes to cash in on its president Rahul Gandhi's two-day tour of the coastal part of Karnataka starting March 20. Rahul will arrive in Karwar from Goa and head to Kaup in Dakshina Kannada district for a corner meeting. He will then go to Mangaluru for a public rally, with roadshows along the way. On March 21, he is slated to visit the Sringeri Sharada Peetham. He will hold road shows through Belur and Chikkamagaluru, before finally addressing a rally in Hassan. Rahul will return to Karnataka on March 24-25 to tour the Mysuru region. The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Kolkata said in its report that Kunduli rape victim's clothes did not bear any trace of semen, a senior police officer has said. The report submitted by the CFSL to the court is now available with the investigating officer, Superintendent of Police (crime branch) R B Panigrahi told reporters on Monday. "The CFSL forensic test revealed that the stains on the exhibits (clothes) yielded identical autosomal genetic profiles of female origin from one and the same female individual," Panigrahi said. The clothes were sent to the CFSL for re-examination following a controversy over a purported State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) draft report, which had indicated that the girl's undergarments bore semen marks. The draft report did not match with the SFSL's final report. Odisha DGP R P Sharma had ordered the crime branch to investigate the reported discrepancies in the two forensic reports. Police are still investigating the "apparent surfacing" of the SFSL's intermediate inter-division draft report, which was also reported by a section of media, the SP said. A 14-year-old Dalit girl of Kunduli area of Koraput district had claimed that she was gang-raped by "four men in uniforms" on October 10 last year near a jungle in Pottangi police station area of the district. The girl committed suicide on January 22. The state government had in February ordered for a court-monitored special investigation team probe into the incident. The government had also ordered a judicial probe. In an unprecedented move in the annals of the legislative history of Telangana (or the combined Andhra Pradesh), two Congress legislators were expelled from the Assembly, while 11 others suspended for the rest of the ongoing budget session. The action came after the unruly incidents in the House on Monday, in which the Legislative Council Chairman K Swamy Goud was injured. As soon as the House assembled for the day, Legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao moved a resolution seeking the expulsion of K Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar under the provisions of clause 3 of Article 194 of the Constitution of India and the suspension of 11 Congress members, including their floor leader K Jana Reddy, for the rest of the session, which was approved by a voice vote. The Congress Legislature Party has made it clear that the speaker has no locus standi to expel MLAs and said that they would move court for redressal. In protest, the party Congress MLAS will sit on a 48 hour-Dharna at Gandhi Bhavan, the party headquarters. Party workers have burnt effigies of the chief ministers in several district headquarters protesting the expulsions. K Jana Reddy, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, J Geetha Reddy, D K Aruna, Madhava Reddy, Ramamohan Reddy, Bhatti Vikramarka, Chinna Reddy, Vamsichand Reddy and Jeevan Reddy are among the suspended members. In a similar move, five congress MLCs, including Leader of Opposition Mohammad Ali Shabbir, were also suspended for the entire budget session for unruly behavior. The Telangana government, in a swift move, also informed the Election Commission about the expulsion of the two Opposition members and resulting vacancies. The two expelled MLAS were then asked to leave the House. The placard-wielding and slogan-shouting Opposition members on Monday had tried to disrupt Governor ESL Narsimhan's address to the joint sitting of the legislature on the opening day of the budget session. Amid the ruckus, headphones were hurled at the podium twice during the Governor's address. One of them hit the Legislative Council chairman resulting in an injury to his right eye. Justifying the expulsion, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said, "Though the decision was painful, it became necessary as the Opposition members came to the House already determined to create ruckus. Such unruly behaviour cannot be tolerated." However, BJP and Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) members urged the government to reconsider its decision on suspending the Leader of the Opposition Jana Reddy. However, the government refused to budge. There is an excellent chance that western Washington is going to be hit by a major lowland snow event. And yes, the mountains will be b... The government has no plans to curtail the ongoing Budget Session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said here on Tuesday even as he launched a strident attack on the Congress for disruptions in both the Houses of Parliament. "We want to run the Budget Session to the fullest extent even after completion of the financial business," Kumar told reporters here, dismissing speculation of an early end to the Budget Session which has not witnessed any substantive business since it re-convened on March 5. Both the Houses of Parliament witnessed repeated disruptions during the past seven days on issues ranging from the PNB scam, setting up of the Cauvery management board, special category status for Andhra Pradesh and increase in reservation quota for Telangana. Kumar hit out at the Congress, dubbing it the "prime mover" of the disruptions in Parliament, and accused it of going back on its word after agreeing to a debate on the PNB scam under a rule that does not entail voting. "After Rahul Gandhi's return from Italy, the Congress has changed its strategy. This is the reason we are witnessing disruptions in both the Houses of Parliament," the minister said. The Congress put the onus on the government to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament. Kumar said besides the financial business, the government was keen to get Parliament approval for the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, Payment of Gratuity Bill, the Medical Council of India Bill among others. Asked about government's plans to deal with disruptions by friendly political parties such as the TDP, AIADMK and the TRS, Kumar said they would withdraw their protests if they get to participate in the debate on the general budget. Trouble could mount for former Haryana Chief Minister B S Hooda with the state government on Tuesday saying it has recommended CBI probe into irregularities committed during the Congress regime in cases of land acquisition in Rohtak and Sonipat districts. The developments unfolded a day after the Supreme Court set aside the land acquisition process executed by the previous Congress government in Manesar in Haryana. "The injustice done to the farmers will be revealed by the investigation, Chief Minister Manohar Lal said during the zero hour of the budget session of the state Assembly here. The state government has already referred the investigation to the CBI in three cases - re-allotment of a plot to Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in Panchkula, industrial plot allotment in Panchkula and the Manesar land case - that took place during Hooda's regime. The apex court in its verdict on Monday, while setting aside land acquisition process put in place by the previous Congress government in Manesar, termed such activities as mala fide exercise of power and a clear case of misuse of power. "The apex court has also ordered to investigate the role of middlemen in land acquisition. Now everything will be revealed during the investigation," the CM said. The apex court had also ordered that decision on the Dhingra Commission report, set up to probe grant of land licences to some companies, be announced within two months so that pending issues could be cracked. The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday adopted a resolution strongly condemning the indifferent attitude of the Centre in fulfilling the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act, including special category status to the state. Making a no-holds-barred attack on the NDA government at the Centre, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu turned emotional and was in tears as he recalled the treatment meted out to him when he requested for a handhold. "When I asked for assistance to build a world-class capital , the Union finance minister heckled me, saying it was my 'dream city'. After the bifurcation, Andhra Pradesh was left with no capital city. Is it wrong to build a world-class capital? When it can give Rs 17,000 crore to a developed city like Bengaluru to build the metro rail, why can't it give the money for capital construction," he asked. The resolution said the Centre has to provide financial assistance to Amaravati, besides giving special category status as promised by the former prime minister, railway zone for Visakhapatnam, establishing Dugarajapatnam port, steel factory at Kadapa and petro-chemical complex at Kakinada and a special package for backward districts on the lines of Bundelkhand and Koraput-Kalahandi. "This House strongly condemns the callousness of the Centre in rescuing the state," the resolution said. In a sensational claim, D G Vanzara, a former IPS officer and an accused in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was secretly interrogated by the investigating officer. In his discharge application filed in the special CBI court here, Vanzara said Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat, was interrogated, but "such material was not placed on record of this case". This proves that "the entire material on record of this case is nothing but a false story", he said. "The fact also remains that the then chief minister and present Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also called by the investigating officer and interrogated. However, such material is not placed on record of this case," Vanzara said in his application. Special CBI judge J K Pandya issued a notice to the CBI, seeking its response by March 28 to Vanzara's plea seeking discharge. Vanzara also pleaded parity as a ground, since former in-charge DGP of Gujarat P P Pandey, a co-accused, was discharged by the same court three weeks ago. Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old from Mumbra near Mumbai, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged staged encounter with police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. The Gujarat police had claimed the four had links with terrorist organisations, and wanted to kill Modi. But a special investigating team set up by the Gujarat High Court concluded that it was a fake encounter. In a candid submission, Indian Army Vice Chief Lt Gen Sarath Chand has told Parliamentarians that the 2018-19 budget was a setback for the forces as the money sanctioned for capital purchase was not sufficient even to pay for ongoing projects, leaving barely anything for new procurement. "The budget of 2018-19 has dashed our hopes and most of what has been achieved has actually received a little setback," Lt Gen Chand said in his deposition before the Parliament Standing Committee on Defence that tabled its report in Parliament on Tuesday. Chand said the Army was allocated Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation, which is insufficient as Rs 29,033 crore is required to pay for 125 on-going purchases. In addition, there are emergency procurements, ammunition purchase for 10 days of intense war and other ordnance factory requirements. "There is an overall shortfall of around Rs 12,296 crore as far as capital is concerned," he said. Justice delayed Failing to pay in time, Chand reminded, might lead to "legal issues of not making payments in time", besides making the equipment unusable in the absence of timely servicing. The insufficient budget was given to the Army at a time when the Pakistan border has turned red hot with the two nations firing on each other regularly. On the eastern front, China is becoming increasingly assertive as seen during a 72-day face off at Doklam last year. Capital acquisition is not the only segment affected by the budget cut. On the infrastructure front, there is a shortfall of Rs 902 crore because of which development of roads near the China border and completion of Rohtang tunnel would be affected. In the wake of an audacious terrorist attack on an Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September 2016, the Defence Ministry delegated financial powers up to Rs 14,097 crore for immediate purchase of ammunition and other equipment to secure the military stations. "However, there is no separate allocation for this. So, this money is also to be found from the same Budget leaving us with no choice but to re-prioritise either to reduce our requirement as far as the security of military stations are concerned or to go slow on some other acquisition," Chand said. No take off Though the Army has identified 25 Make in India projects, none of them can take off for want of funds. As a result, nearly 68% of the equipment used by the Army is in the vintage category with just about 24% current and 8% state of the art. This is in sharp contrast to any modern force which should have one-third of its equipment in the vintage category, one-third in the current category and one-third in the state of the art category, he told the lawmakers. After being advised rest, Hillary also dropped her plan to visit the historic Mehrangarh fort on Tuesday evening. "We were informed by the hotel staff that Hillary will not be visiting the fort. She was supposed to visit the fort after 6.15 pm which was later cancelled," a staffer at Mehrangarh Museum told DH. Hillary, who reached Jodhpur on Tuesday afternoon, is on a three-day visit to Rajasthan. She arrived in Jodhpur at 2.30 pm from Pali in a chartered flight. She is accompanied by her personal staff. On Wednesday, she is scheduled to visit Salavas village to witness rug weaving. She will stay at Mihirgarh, a boutique hotel situated on the Jodhpur-Pali highway. Hillary who loves Rajasthan never misses to visit Jodhpur. During her last visit to the state in 2014, she was seen draped in colourful bhandej dupattas amidst rural women. Leaders of 19 Opposition parties attended a dinner hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday where anti-Narendra Modi alliance was the main course for discussions. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, RJD leaders Tejaswi Yadav and Misa Bharti, DMK leader Kanimozhi, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav and BSP leader S C Mishra were among the prominent leaders who attended the meeting. Congress President Rahul Gandhi was seen chatting with Pawar as Mallikarjun Kharge and Ahmed Patel looked on. Also present at the Congress camp were Ghulam Nabi Azad, A K Antony and Randeep Singh Surjewala. Among the notable absentees were West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, BSP supremo Mayawati and CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury. Mamata sent her representative Sudeep Bandyopadhyay, while Yechury sent polit bureau member Mohammad Salim to Sonia's dinner meeting. "This dinner should not be seen from the prism of politics, it was for friendship and better dialogue between parties," Randeep Singh Surjewala, chief Congress spokesperson, told reporters here. Last week, Sonia had asked Opposition leaders to sink differences at the local level and come together to defeat the Narendra Modi-led BJP. Third front The dinner meeting also comes against the backdrop of attempts by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to form a non-BJP, non-Congress third front, an initiative that has been welcomed by the Trinamool Congress and some other regional parties. A Congress leader said there is a lot of anxiety among regional outfits due to the muscle-flexing by the BJP in the aftermath of its electoral successes in the North-East, and that the initiative by Sonia would help in keeping the Opposition flock together. Sonia had admitted to pressures that various political parties, including the Congress, face when it came to working with like-minded parties. A novel lightweight filament for 3D printing developed by National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, in collaboration with New York University, US. Dr Mrityunjay Doddamani from Mechanical Department, NITK said syntactic foams are hollow particle filled lightweight polymer composites. These foams are extensively used for Naval applications like in marine underwater vehicles and submarines, an area of urgent need for India. Syntactic foams have enabled the deep dive capabilities of underwater vehicles such as Bluefin-21 used in the search of Malaysia Airline flight 370 and construction of James Cameroon's Deepsea Challenger submarine for the Mariana Trench dive. One of the major challenges in developing vehicles for deep sea exploration is the failure of materials at joints. 3D printing can completely eliminate the need for joining panels to construct these vehicles. However, developing a syntactic foam filament for 3D printing has been a major challenge for researchers. Syntactic foam filament As part of collaborative efforts between the teams, Dr Mrityunjay Doddamani of Mechanical Engineering department, NITK, and Prof Nikhil Gupta of Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, recently reported the development of a syntactic foam filament that can be used in commercial 3D printers for printing lightweight components. This filament is made from high-density polyethylene plastic (HDPE) filled with ceramic hollow particles. HDPE is an industrial plastic and can be used in making industrial grade components. The filament was used in off-the-shelf commercial printers successfully to print specimens. About the challenges faced by the researchers in this project, Dr Doddamani said: "Optimisation of parameters related to mixing of particles in polymer and extrusion of filament are crucial to ensure that particles do not break in the process." "Success of the mixing process without breaking particles was an important aspect in obtaining low density in the filament," added Dr Gupta. The low-density filaments can provide buoyant low-density structures needed for the underwater vehicles. Balu Patil, a PhD student in Advanced Manufacturing Lab, Mechanical Department, working with Dr Doddamani said, "Achieving close control over the filament diameter ensured that these filaments can be used in 3D printers without jamming the printer nozzles." NITK Director Prof K Uma Maheshwar Rao applauded the success of the team and said, "This work is crucial to develop the next generation of underwater vehicles for the nation." Prof S Narendranath, who is the head of the Mechanical Engineering department, NITK said, "Such projects can motivate the next generation to aim higher and develop cutting-edge technologies, that have industrial relevance. Future work of will focus on optimising the material properties for various applications such as designing syntactic foam with properties that are tailored for various depths of the ocean for use in underwater vehicles." The 'Great Canara Trails' will be opened for trekkers to walk down the untrodden paths in the pristine forests of the Western Ghats only if the Centre for Environment Education (CEE), Bengaluru, submits a positive report after a scientific study. The Forest department's ambitious project will be implemented only after receiving a 'sustenance' report from a third party, the CEE, informed Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PoFF) Punati Sridhar. The department decided at a recent meeting to ask the CEE to conduct a scientific study on the impact of allowing trekkers into the Western Ghats. "We will decide on the fate of the trail based on the findings of that report," he said. The Forest department is expecting the CEE to submit a report in three months. The third-party study aims at an impartial report on the impact of human carbon footprint in the hitherto out-of-access forests. Claimed to be the longest forest trail in India, it runs to almost 270 km, starting from Jog Falls in Shivamogga district to Castle Rock on the Goa border in Belagavi district. If opened for public, the trek will allow easy access to the people to mesmerising waterfalls such as Burude Jog, Unchalli Falls and Shivaganga Falls. But the project has been facing stiff resistance from environmentalists as they fear that human footprint in these forests would result in irreversible damage to the Myristica swamps in the Katlekan forests, which are among the most endangered forest eco-systems. Human access will also affect one of the last 'hiding grounds' of endangered species like lion-tailed macaques in the Malemane forests, they say. However, Forest officials are claiming that the entire trek route could be designed, keeping in mind the findings of the report. "The department is ready to leave out eco-sensitive areas," said Sridhar. After the environmentalists and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) raised objections, the Forest department redrew the 97 km trail route, away from the core area of the Kali tiger Reserve, but including its buffer zone. "We (forest department) will be the last persons to allow any damage to the forest area. But at the same time, we are also aware that conservation of forests cannot be done in isolation. We need people's participation and this nature-based tourism is being taken up to create awareness among the masses," he said and added that they expect only 'serious nature lovers' to trek 10 kilometres a day, which will be held under the supervision of a naturalist and guide. Forest department sources said the great Canara Trails would help control illegal trekking adventures that people undertake. Compared to the present jeep safari, which is not affordable by many, this would be cheaper and more eco-friendly. The department is claiming that they are not constructing any permanent structure at its 17 camps, but use only those forest roads which were used by village residents for long. Unlike previous years, the JD(S) candidates are a jubilant lot this time around. The regional party has not only been the first to announce the list of candidates, it has also equipped its contenders with campaign vehicles and materials, which is again, a first for the party. The party, which had announced LED campaign vehicles for each constituency, has finally begun dispatching the same. The party has already sent 100 vehicles to north Karnataka districts (mostly), where the JD(S)' presence is poor. The vehicles have been taken on rent for two months from two companies, based in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh. The vehicles were earlier used by political parties like Samajwadi Party and those under LDF/UDF during elections in those states. The vehicles, which have a 6x8 ft display screen, come with a speaker. They are being used for the 90-minute documentary on JD(S) chief ministerial candidate H D Kumaraswamy and his contributions - along with 10 to 12 songs specially composed for the campaign. While the party is spending around Rs 16,000 per vehicle per day as rental charges, the candidates have to shell out for the fuel. Sirsi candidate Shashi Bhushan V Hegde said that the vehicle was proving to be a better medium for him to reach out to the voters. The vehicle, which reached the constituency about 10 days ago, hogged a lot of attention during the Sirsi fair, said Hegde. "The Sirsi jatre (fair) came as a blessing. We just stationed the vehicle on the jatre premises which saw a big footfall. Without doing much, we reached out to thousands of people during those 10 days. The vehicle definitely puts the JD(S) candidates in an advantageous position. The videos are self-explanatory and the reach is vast. It's definitely made my job easier in reaching out to the electorate. Though the vehicle hasn't spanned huge distances, it has definitely attracted a lot of attention," he said. Yadgir candidate A C Kadloor is thrilled by the fact that he has ample time to canvass for votes. The LED vehicle, he said, was a big plus. The vehicle in Yadgir has already clocked 180 km. "What's special is that we don't have to share the vehicle - each candidate gets his own. We take the vehicle to the villages at 6 am and bring it back to Yadgir town by 6 pm. As people sleep late in the towns, the video is attracting a lot of attention," he said. The vehicle gives a mileage of around 7 km/litre of diesel. Aside from a driver, each vehicle has a video/audio operator. Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here. The police on Tuesday arrested two former Naxalites wanted in connection with the killing of policemen in Venkatammanahalli, 12 years ago. The arrested have been identified as Venkatammanahalli Pargi Rajanna (47) and R Achchammanahalli Kote Srinivas (55). On February 11, 2005, a group of Naxals attacked a police camp in Venkatammanahalli killing policemen. It is learnt that the above two were involved in the incident and had been hiding since then. They were working as labourers in Bengaluru and some parts of Andhra Pradesh. However, a team of police officials arrested he duo on Tuesday soon after they landed in the village. They were produced before a court in the evening. The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) has filed a police complaint against the staff of Bethel college for forging mark sheets. The college is located in Preeti Nagar, Laggere, North Bengaluru. The RGHUS filed the complaint at the Tilak Nagar police station, which has jurisdictional over the university's administrative office. The university's move is seen as a tit for tat after the college lodged a complaint against eight unidentified officials of the varsity, including three women, who had come for an inspection and made off with Rs 1 crore, besides college documents including students' mark sheets. Based on this complaint, the Nandini Layout police had registered an FIR against unknown people on March 7. Police investigations show it was a tussle between college and university officials over several issues. Police are certain that the eight people who inspected the college on March 7 were from the RGUHS. But it is a matter of investigation whether these officials stole money and other documents as alleged by the college. The complaint filed by the college states that eight people claiming to be the subordinates of the RGUHS vice-chancellor entered the college premises, inspected the classrooms and the CCTV footage before making off with nearly Rs 1 crore kept in a cupboard, besides a register which contained details of the tuition and mess fees of students. The RGUHS team also took away five hard disks, two pen drives, files and certificates of students, land documents. Angry residents beat up a 44-year-old lecturer after he was caught sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl in Kothanur, East Bengaluru, on Monday night. Mathew, of Kerala, has been living in a rented house in Kothanur for the past two years. He worked as a lecturer at a private college in Avalahalli. The girl is the daughter of a construction worker living next door to Mathew, a police officer said. When the girl was playing outside, Mathew lured her into his house with chocolates and began sexually assaulting her. Her screams brought the neighbours and her parents, who broke the door and caught the man red-handed. Locals then thrashed Mathew before turning him over to the Kothanur police who arrested him based on the parents' complaint and booked him under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He has been remanded in judicial custody. The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) would build the long-delayed Peripheral Ring Road in phases since it is unable to muster funds to implement the project in full. In the first phase, it would lay the 18-kilometre stretch between the existing Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) toll road junction on Tumakuru Road to the Kempegowda International Airport. Taking up the project in full would cost the BDA Rs 11,950 crore and the bulk of that amount - Rs 8,100 crore - would go towards acquiring 1,810 acres and 18.5 guntas of land. Despite holding several rounds of meetings with the investors, the agency found it harder to muster the sums needed for the full project. The Japanese agency JICA agreed to fund only the cost of constructing the road network. "Since we had difficulties getting Rs 8,100 crore for land acquisition, breaking up the project into phases made sense," a BDA official said, wishing anonymity. "We're working out the modalities of the first phase, which would cost us Rs 3,310 crore; Rs 2,000 crore from that would go for land acquisition." The signal-free stretch connecting the existing NICE Road will be tolled. The BDA assured the toll will be lower than that on NICE Road and on a par with NHAI charges. The BDA is finalising the files to begin discussions with JICA. "Since we're running into difficulties with land acquisition, we'll request them to release the money in parts. This shouldn't be a problem for them," the official said. The state government was optimistic about getting funds for the PRR under Bharat Mala, but Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari rejected it saying PRR was a state subject and the Centre was committing funds to the Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) and Bengaluru-Mysuru Road. The Special Purpose Vehicle set up by the state government also favoured taking up the PRR in phases since raising a Rs 3,000-crore loan from nationalised banks and Hudco would be easier. The proposal to commercialise land along the PRR has been shelved until 2031 since people forfeiting their land are not interested in the idea. Farmers are also not too keen on getting commercial land as compensation and are against the widening of the road's width from 75 metres to 100 metres. The High Court of Karnataka has ordered Air India to deposit Rs 5 lakh with it for failing to transport the wheelchair of a disabled passenger on a London-bound flight, which "greatly hassled" the traveller. Justice Vineet Kothari gave the orders while hearing a petition for compensation filed by Dr Rajalakshmi S J (30) and her mother Dr S Shobha. Dr Rajalakshmi is physically handicapped. The petitioner said her customised wheelchair went missing from the luggage and that the airport authorities in London refused her a wheelchair. She was made to sit on a bench without any support. When she approached the Air India staff, they informed her the wheelchair hadn't been sent from India in the first place and that it would arrive at 7 pm local time. The wheelchair did not, however, arrive until the next day, leading her to miss a flight to Scotland and causing her "heavy monetary losses and mental agony". Her travails didn't end there. She had to face a lot of difficulties as the travel agent didn't book rooms for her stay and she wasn't served any food. She was given a room which was not equipped for a person with a physical disability. What's more, the travel agent demanded a huge sum to carry her around in the wheelchair. She suffered a lot of health problems during her Europe trip due to the poor facilities and inadequate food provided by the travel agent. She was forced to return to India because of her worsening health. She approached the court seeking a refund of the money she paid to the travel agent and sought compensation for the medical expenses she incurred despite having travel insurance. She also urged the court to order the travel agent to get her luggage back from the hotel where she stayed in London. She wants Air India to refund her air ticket expenses and arrange for a trip from London to Switzerland. The petition will be heard again on April 3. Actor Amitabh Bachchan fell ill on Tuesday on the sets of the movie 'Thugs of Hindostan', for which he is currently shooting in Jodhpur. The 75-year-old actor announced his illness through his blog at 5 am. "I am getting my team of doctors in tomorrow (Tuesday) morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again .. I will rest and keep informed in process..", he wrote. Interestingly, a few minutes before posting the blog, the actor, who is regular on Twitter, tweeted: "...and just back from work...! Nothing can be achieved without hard work. the city Jodhpur sleeps...and so shall I in a while after connecting with the well wishers...love." After Bachchan's personal manager informed the Leelavati Hospital in Mumbai about his illness, a team of doctors reached Jodhpur on a chartered flight. With Jodhpur airport lacking parking space, the aircraft was sent to Udaipur and is presently stationed there. Renowned gastroenterologist Jayant Barv is treating Bachchan. As per the Twitter timeline and Bachchan's blog, the actor returned from shooting in the early hours of Tuesday before retiring to bed. Sources at Ajit Bhawan Palace, where the actor is staying, said it seems like fatigue. "Big B has been returning late from shooting. Doctors have said that he is stable and has been asked to drink plenty of water and juices," a hospital staff told DH. The shooting crew was scheduled to fly back on Tuesday evening but Bachchan has rescheduled his plans. Soon after the news of his illness broke, thousands of fans thronged Ajit Bhawan Palace. Earlier this week, Bachchan had shared pictures of the Mehrangarh Fort where he shot for the film and wrote an elaborate blog about his experience. Bachchan will be seen sharing the screen with actor Aamir Khan for the first time in Thugs of Hindostan. Slated for a Diwali release, the movie also stars Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh. Manila (CNN Philippines Life) The #MeToo movement went viral late last year, but the fear of sexual assault has defined the female experience for a very long time. 2017 finally saw the beginnings of a paradigm shift in how we treated and talked about harassment and assault. #MeToo was more than a trendy hashtag, it was an honest acknowledgment that we as a people are fundamentally broken. That the world we know was built on violence against women. That misogyny and rape culture are so interwoven into the fabric of our society, we cant just throw out a few bad apples we need to throw out the whole system. Local statistics paint a painful picture: three in five women have experienced sexual harassment; one woman is raped in the Philippines in every hour. With these numbers, its very likely that there are people in your social circles who are survivors, whether or not you know it. Part of the silence surrounding sexual assault is that we dont know how to react to someone who tells us that theyve been harassed, assaulted, or raped. Helping out a survivor starts with understanding exactly what they are struggling with. Multiple studies have proven that sexual trauma has the power to cause psychological harm. I couldnt sleep on my own bed for over a year. I also got agitated when people would touch me, Aly* shared. Many survivors report intense feelings of stress, guilt, terror, and shame after the experience, which can lead to long-term mental health problems like depression, anxiety, or even post-traumatic stress disorder. The female experience of assault and harassment can range from a catcall on the street to spousal rape. Regardless of what it is, its harmful to tell someone how they should feel. Sharing what happened can help alleviate some of the negative emotions and help them heal. Ive seen a very strong sense of relief come over them once theyre done sharing, says Kenneth Yu, the page administrator of Catcalled in the Philippines, a Facebook page dedicated to raising awareness about sexual assault and supporting survivors. Yu says that opening up helps them process whats happened to them and get advice on the next steps they can take, whether its legal action or personal recovery. Opening up in the age of social media is particularly powerful because survivors can form a community around their shared trauma. It took me a while to assert my presence as a rape victim, says Luna*, a writer and activist. When I realized that talking about it gave other women the courage to approach me and talk about their own experience for the first time, that was the dealbreaker. Being able to establish that small but safe place for us to talk about our shared experience with someone who understands and listens without judgment that is incredibly affirming. However, the decision to come out as a sexual assault survivor is not an easy one to make. Its always a difficult choice because talking about what happened to you can kind of bring up old pain or trauma. Not everyone is ready for that, says Luna. There is also a lot of stigma around being sexually assaulted. Victim-blaming is well and alive in the Philippines; just last month, morning talk show host Anthony Taberna came under fire for blaming a 19-year-old woman for her own gang rape. Its a very obvious example of how not to react to rape and assault, but even well-meaning people struggle with the appropriate way to deal with it. If someone does open up to you, here are a few dos and donts to keep in mind: Listen. Theyre just looking for someone who would listen to them, so that they wouldnt have to feel so alone or ashamed, says Marco Sumayao, co-founder of Deus Sex Machina, a comedy erotica performance group that promotes consent and sex-positivity. Dont judge. Its important to be careful about asking questions or making statements that hold them responsible for what happened. What were you wearing?, You shouldnt stay out late, or Did you do anything to provoke him? all point to the survivors behavior instead of the perpetrators. Remember: its never the victims fault. Believe and validate them. False allegations are rare, and its not your role or responsibility to judge their truthfulness. Many survivors dont even believe themselves at first, or experience gaslighting from their perpetrators or other people. I was in that moment trying to process or more like deny that it was rape because who would want to be raped in the first place, Luna says. Acknowledge what they said, and how difficult it is to go through it and talk about it. Dont minimize their experience. The female experience of assault and harassment can range from a catcall on the street to spousal rape. Regardless of what it is, its harmful to tell someone how they should feel. Dont tell them that its not a big deal and to move on, only they can decide that for themselves. Thank them for trusting you. Sumayao says, They're looking for someone they can trust, because someone else broke it in a terrible way. If they open up to you, it means that they trust you enough to be vulnerable around you, even if its scary for them to allow themselves to be vulnerable with someone. Dont force them to share details. Ask questions about how they feel, but avoid questions that force them to relive their painful experiences. This puts a lot of pressure on the survivor, makes them feel that they have to prove their trauma, and actually hinders them from healing. Elora* says, I had to talk to everyone who wanted to hear The Story. I never got the chance to actually sit down and process what happened Sana there could have been somebody who was there to tell people to back off. Let them decide what theyre ready to share with you. Offer support. Everybody has different coping mechanisms, so ask them how you can help. Some survivors might appreciate physical warmth and affection, while others might understandably recoil. Its best to ask first, and assure them that you will help in any way they need you to. Dont try to solve it. Its not your problem to fix. Discuss what their options are, but dont pressure them to do anything about it. If they came to you for support, they obviously value your input and advice, but what they do next is ultimately their decision to make. *** Survivors of assault, harassment, rape, and other kinds of sexual violence can get in touch with one of the following hotlines for help: Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) / (02) 931-8101 to 07; DSWD-NCR Ugnayan Pag-asa Crisis Intervention Center / (02) 734-8639/ 734-8654/ 734-8626 to 27; Philippine National Police (PNP) / 723-0401 to 20; PNP-Women and Children Protection Center (WCPC) / 410-3213; NBI-Violence Against Women and Children Desk (VAWCD) / 523-8231 to 38 / 525-6028. *Names have been changed to protect their privacy. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 12) Prosecutors of the Department of Justice (DOJ) have dropped charges against alleged drug lords operating in the Visayas, but officials clarified the decision can still be overturned. In a 41-page resolution made public on Monday, the Task Force on Anti-illegal Drugs under the DOJ recommended the dismissal of the police's complaint against alleged drug lords Kerwin Espinosa, Peter Lim, and more than 20 others. The document was signed on December 20, 2017 by assistant state prosecutors and approved by Acting Prosecutor General Jorge Catalan. "The dearth of complainant's evidence and (Marcelo) Adorco's unreliability as a witness thus constrain us to dismiss the present complaint against the respondents," the resolution read. Adorco is named as the sole witness in the complaint filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Major Crimes Investigation Unit (CIDG-MCIU). Adorco claimed to be a close confidante of the Espinosas after meeting Kerwin in prison in 2011, and said he had a notebook that contained the list of people who had illegal drug transactions with the Espinosas. However, the prosecutors said Adorco's testimonies were "rife with inconsistencies and contradictions," casting doubts on their truthfulness. The prosecutors enumerated nine contradictions in Adorco's statements on the details of the supposed drug transactions. In the complaint, the CIDG-MCIU charged the respondents with trading and distribution of dangerous drugs, which is punishable by life imprisonment under Section 5 of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act. The police said Espinosa conspired with several drug couriers and shabu suppliers Lim, Peter Co, and Lovely Impal, to sell and distribute drugs from Makati City to selected areas in the Central and Eastern Visayas regions. In July 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte named Co and Lim as among the country's topmost drug lords. Supposedly members of the Chinese triad, Co was operating in Metro Manila and Luzon, while Lim in the Visayas. READ: Duterte names country's topmost drug lords The Philippine National Police said it has filed a motion for reconsideration in a bid to overturn the prosecutors' decision. DOJ under fire The Palace expressed concern over the prosecutor's decision but said it expects Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre to review it. Aguirre also said the resolution is a "slight bump" in the drug war, but noted there are several avenues to review the case, which would be elevated to Aguirre's office for automatic review. Senators have criticized the Justice Department for its prosecutors' decision, noting that Espinosa himself had admitted involvement in the drug trade. READ: Dismissal of charges vs. Kerwin Espinosa, Peter Lim 'casts doubts' on drug war Espinosa told Senate hearings he gave millions of pesos in drug money to police officers, generals, and other government officials, including then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, in exchange for the protection of his illegal drug trade business. This is a claim De Lima has repeatedly denied. She has been detained without bail at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame since February 2017 over drug charges. Where is Kerwin, etc? Only some of the respondents in the case are in government custody. Espinosa has been held by authorities since November 2016 when he was arrested in Abu Dhabi over drug trafficking charges, and brought back to the Philippines. He was earlier detained in Camp Crame then transferred to the national headquarters of the National Bureau of Investigation after a court order. Impal, whom the police calls a "drug queen," surrendered to authorities in December 2016. PNP Chief Ronald dela Rosa said she admitted to being Espinosa's supplier. Lim, a Cebu-based businessman, did not show up at the preliminary hearing of his case, despite a subpoena. His lawyers attended the hearing on his behalf in August 2017. CNN Philippines' Pia Garcia contributed to this report. Subscriber content preview By JOSH LEDERMAN Associated Press ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia The sleek, green-and-white trains glide past the congested, ragged streets of Addis Ababa along the city's new light rail built and financed by China. The towering silver African Union headquarters here was built by China, too. So was the new ring road system around the city. And the new railway connecting landlocked Ethiopia to Djibouti. Across the Atlantic Ocean, America has noticed. . . . Subscriber content preview ATLANTA (AP) Standing beside a bipartisan group of legislators, a small group of Girl Scouts returned to the Georgia Capitol on Monday to once again ask lawmakers to get their founder's name affixed to a Savannah bridge that currently honors a white segregationist. They had also brought about 10,000 petitions signed in favor of their cause. Despite the presence of hundreds of scouts in the Capitol last month, efforts to remove former Gov. Eugene Talmadge's name from the bridge and replace it with that of Savannah native Juliette Gordon Low have stalled. . . . Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 13) Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre has ordered the creation of a new panel to review the decision of DOJ prosecutors to drop charges against alleged drug lords operating in the Visayas. "I ordered the creation of a new panel that will handle the review of the DOJ's resolution on Peter Lim's case. The panel will handle the MR (motion for reconsideration) filed by PNP (Philippine National Police)," he told CNN Philippines in a text message on Tuesday. Aguirre said this after state prosecutors cleared businessman Peter Lim, self-confessed drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa, and more than 20 others of a complaint filed by the police,citing lack of evidence READ: DOJ prosecutors drop charges vs. Kerwin Espinosa, Peter Lim The Justice chief also ordered the NBI to look into the possible wrongful exercise of authority or failure of Assistant State Prosecutors Michael John Humarang and Aristotle Reyes to carry out their duties. The move to clear the alleged drug lords of charges has been controversial, as some Senators have criticized the prosecutors' decision, noting Espinosa himself had admitted involvement in the drug trade. READ: Aguirre creates new panel to review drug charges vs Espinosa, Lim The three-man panel will include Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, Assistant State Prosecutor Ana Noreen Devanadera and Prosecution Attorney Herbert Calvin Abugan, Aguirre said. Acting Prosecutor General Jorge Catalan, who approved the document last December 2017, will not participate in the review. The review is based on an appeal filed by the police, which had filed a motion for reconsideration in a bid to overturn the prosecutors' decision. Aguirre had earlier said the resolution was a "slight bump" in the country's war on drugs, but noted there are possible avenues to review the case. The Palace, meanwhile, has also expressed concern over the prosecutors' decision. Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque assured the public on Tuesday the dismissal is "far from being final" and the Palace expects Aguirre to review the decision. In a tweet Tuesday evening, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque had also quoted President Rodrigo Duterte as saying he would invoke his "power of supervision and control," and will review the dismissal. The spokesman was tweeting during a joint command conference of the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police. "Pag- nakawala yan si Lim at Espinosa, sya (Aguirre) ang ipapalit ko," he also quoted the President as saying. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, however, later clarified this was said "in jest." Lim is a Cebu-based businessman who was included in Duterte's drug matrix. He has denied the allegations and vowed to help in the drug war. Espinosa, meanwhile, is a self-confessed drug dealer from Eastern Visayas. He is the son of slain Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa. In the wake of announcing her resignation as CEO of industry association FinTech Australia, Danielle Szetho has flagged her intentions to continue supporting and championing Australian fintech companies from Asia. Sarah Worboys, formerly of the Startup Victoria Female Founders committee, will step in as interim CEO for FinTech Australia, whose chair Stuart Stoyan thanked Szetho for her outstanding and dedicated efforts. He added: For the last 20 months, Danielle has been the heart and soul of Australias fintech community. Danielles energy and passion has been central to Australia developing into one of the worlds leading fintech ecosystems. The search is now on for a permanent replacement for Szetho, who in a statement released by FinTech Australia said it had been an honour and a privilege to have served Fintech Australia as its inaugural CEO for nearly two years. With the support of the board, our team and our incredible community, we have turned FinTech Australia from being little more than an ambitious idea to an industry association that has successfully driven the fintech agenda across the nation, resulting in real, positive change in areas such as Crowdfunding, Digital Currency regulation and Open Data, she said We started with 52 founding members today we have well over 200, with strong connections across a broad range of regulators and policy makers. Weve also built a strong international network to support our fintech communitys expansion and growth. I have enjoyed every minute Ive spent understanding our members challenges and arguing our case to government, and Im proud of what our tiny team has delivered to promote and connect the fintech community through our Intersekt fintech festival and the Finnie awards. In a post on LinkedIn, Szetho said that FinTech Australia, as a relatively new industry association, had been on the same startup journey as the founders it represented and had graduated[d] from scrappy startup to something resembling a well-oiled growth machine. She also revealed that the decision to step down as the CEO of Fintech Australia was a personal one. Catalysed by my partners study visa running out this month (sadly the new Temporary Skills Shortage visa skills list hasnt yet evolved to include Blockchain professionals and it really should), we discussed our options and have decided to take our next steps up toward Asia, she said. Through my work at FinTech Australia, it has become impossible for us to ignore the tremendous opportunity that exists for Aussie fintechs, investors and financial services players in the Asian region, both in terms of growth opportunities from increasing financial inclusion, and new emerging leap-frog mobile technologies. Our gold-standard regulatory framework stands Australia in excellent stead to take a regional leadership role, if we can move to take this opportunity quickly. I am very much hopeful for an opportunity to continue to put my skills, networks and experience to good use in supporting and championing our Australian fintech community from there, ideally from the investor side and after a lengthy holiday, of course. Here are the ten brands with the most loyal customers in 2017. A list compiled by US consultancy Brand Keys from 740 brands across 83 industries. Can you spot the attribute thats common to each? Amazon (retail) Google Apple (tablets) Netflix Apple (smartphones) Amazon (video streaming) Samsung Facebook Amazon (tablets) YouTube Yes, they are all in some way a technical product, but thats not it. They are all companies founded by someone who saw an unmet need in the world and sought to meet it. As opposed to companies that research what consumers want next and then pretend their company is best at providing it. Which, alarmingly, is how most brands operate today. When people like Jeff Bezos and Larry Page set out to bring their new thing into the world, they didnt care if people liked them. They just got on with it and said Just you watch. When Steve Jobs disagreed with his own board that Apple should keep making computers because thats what customers wanted, he reportedly shouted At Apple the customer doesnt get a vote!. Lee Byung-chul is perhaps the best example of all. He started Samsung in 1938 with a vision to help his fellow Koreans acquire the same technological tools and appliances that rich western countries had. To help them grow their businesses and live happier lives. In short, these founders set out to be respected by consumers for what they believed in, as opposed to simply trying to ingratiate themselves into our lives by researching our desires. They sought to have the authentic value of their innovations create genuine consumer desire, as opposed to the facade of brand image and marketing. Compare that approach to how we see most companies trying to win our brand loyalty. You only have to watch TV each night for all the evidence you need. Car brands show us what we like to do on weekends, thinking this will make us go Gosh, that SUV brand really understands me. I will buy their product. Food brands empathise with the busy life of a young mum, hoping this will cause female consumers to magically switch their brand preference. Fashion brands present short films on gender equality, hoping this will distract us from the poor stitching in their jeans. These companies adopt the strategies of a stalker who desperately wants to be our friend. Think about it: they find out what our job is, how much we earn, where we live, what we like to do, how we think, what our values are and mirror it, in the hope that we will like them. Ive had countless Chief Marketing Officers come to my company and say make us more likeable. Theyll sign off on six figure budgets for research to find out all they can about what consumers want. Then theyll sign off seven and eight figure budgets to communicate those messages to consumers in the form of ad campaigns and customer engagement and ambient stunts and social media blitzes. An estimated $716 billion will be spent globally this year doing just that. Which is just plain crazy. And heres why: Enduring profit is more likely if you retain the customers you attract. Attracting is expensive. Advertising. Discounts for customers. Sales incentives for staff. And so on. Retention builds your market share. Lowers cost per acquisition. Growth becomes organic through word of mouth and favorable media and online reviews. So if retention delivers better profits. And if retention comes from customers receiving authentic value from your brand via real world experience, not just the perception of value via marketing. And if authentic value comes from pursuing an authentic motive to improve things. Then you have to agree that seeking to be respected for what you believe in is a more profitable path for your business than seeking to be liked for what youve found out people want. You will always be able to attain good quarterly sales by sucking up to consumers. My question is: what then? Keep doing it and end up living and exhausted, stressed and morally compromised life? Or learn from the top ten most trusted brands and figure out what it is you genuinely believe, deep inside, that the world needs and build a business model around that? About the author Mike Edmonds is Founder and Chairman of Meerkats, a creative business solutions company in Perth, Western Australia. Meerkats has been named Campaign Briefs Agency Of The Year three times and won awards globally for its creativity and strategic thinking. Mike is also the author of Truth.Growth.Repeat. a jargon-free guide to achieving long-term business growth by putting your personal why at the core of everything you do. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 13) The dengue expert who warned against the negative implications of Dengvaxia said he was bothered to find out the Philippine government carried out the nationwide immunization program. Dr. Scott Halstead, a physician who has studied vaccines since 1957, faced the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for the first time on Tuesday to share his expertise on dengue vaccines for the investigation into the controversial Dengvaxia. Committee Chairperson Senator Richard Gordon asked Halstead if the implementation of the nationwide dengue immunization program during the Aquino administration, which put over 830,000 children at risk, was reckless. The dengue expert replied, "I was quite astonished and quite upset the mass immunization was going forward," he said during the 7th Senate hearing into Dengvaxia. He added, "If you've been vaccinated and you're hospitalized, something is very wrong - that's what I call serious adverse event." Halstead said he tried to forewarn the Philippine government before the immunization program took place in April 2016, but the program still went on. In a study published in medical journal "Vaccine" in March 2016, Halstead warned that Dengvaxia should not be administered to seronegative individuals or people who have not been infected with the dengue virus. He said Sanofi Pasteur recognized his early warning in 2016 when it issued a printed rebuttal, saying Halstead's study lacked basis. Sanofi's Asia Pacific head Thomas Triomphe was quick to defend the company saying it was already in March 2017 that Sanofi have found out about the risks of Dengvaxia. "We only found out in 2017 when taking the advice of many people because we work with everybody" Triomphe said. Halstead added the government should have first administered blood tests on the students before it carried out the mass vaccination program. Senator Gordon believes the government failed to exercise due diligence and that the proper authorities were remiss in their duty in providing the right information and setting the proper safeguards against Dengvaxia. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the DOH has been constantly campaigning for early detection of dengue symptoms. He also said he has a signed memorandum of agreement with medical groups committing they will not charge in excess of what government agency Philhealth will reimburse. Who's responsible for Dengvaxia mess? Gordon said he believes the government failed to exercise due diligence and that the proper authorities were remiss in their duty in providing the complete information and setting the proper safeguards against Dengvaxia. He said although Janette Garin was the Health Secretary who implemented the immunization program, former President Benigno Aquino III is ultimately responsible. "Garin might be commander-in-chief, but one that gives the signal the commander-in-chief who pushed the button the President of the Republic of the Philippines, because the President said so," the senator said. The committee is set to come out with a "hard-hitting" report soon. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 13) The government's war on drugs comes under fire yet again after the dismissal of charges against alleged drug lords. Senators on Tuesday questioned the government prosecutors' decision to drop the drug charges against self-confessed drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa, Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim, and several other suspects. "Ngayong pinalaya na ang drug lord na tumestigo at umamin sa kaniyang paglahok sa drug trade, may duda sa giyera kontra droga ng administrasyon," Senator Bam Aquino said in a statement Tuesday. [Translation: "Now that the drug lord who testified and admitted to his involvement in the drug trade has been cleared, there is doubt on the administration's war on drugs."] Senator Antonio Trillanes, one of the harshest critics of the Duterte administration, said this is "yet another proof that what Duterte unleashed upon us is a fake drug war." Senator Grace Poe meanwhile said she finds it perplexing that Espinosa "can be exonerated by the State," even after admitting to having an illegal drug trade business in the Eastern Visayas region. RELATED: Eastern Visayas drug trade thrives as ex-Espinosa members regroup police "It reflects the sloppiness of the police's investigation and case build up against these drug lords," Poe said. "Naghanap ba talaga ng ebidensya ang prosekyusyon (Did the prosecution really searched for evidence)?" She scored the prosecution for "lazily relying on (a) single witness," Marcelo Adorco. In its resolution, the Justice Department's panel of prosecutors cited the "dearth of evidence" and Adorco's inconsistent statements as basis for clearing the suspects. Adorco is named as the only witness in the complaint filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Major Crimes Investigation Unit (CIDG-MICU). He claimed to be a close confidante of the Espinosas after meeting Kerwin in prison in 2011, and said he had a notebook that contained the list of people who had illegal drug transactions with the Espinosas. Palace: Aguirre to review dismissal The Palace on Tuesday expressed concern over the dismissal, but said its expects the decision to be reviewed by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre. "We would like to assure the public that the dismissal is far from being final," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press briefing. "Inaasahan po namin na rerepasuhin ni Secretary Aguirre and dismissal na ito (We expect Secretary Aguirre to review this decision)," he added. Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte's order was to find and submit additional evidence if needed, adding that the government will not let a "big fish" be acquitted. Aguirre in a statement admitted the prosecution's decision was a "slight bump" in the drug war, but said government remains committed to the anti-drug campaign. "Under our present procedure in the DOJ, there are possible avenues to review this case, either by a motion for reconsideration, or ultimately, by way of automatic review by my office," he said. The Philippine National Police said it has filed a motion for reconsideration has been filed in relation to the prosecution's move. War vs. poor, critics? Aquino further noted that it is "grave injustice" that thousands of "poor" drug suspects were killed in police operations while the suspected drug lords are being cleared. "Sa pagpapalaya ng mga nahuling drug lord, klaro na ang tokhang ay para lamang sa mga mahihirap na Pilipino at hindi para sa may pera at koneksiyon," Aquino said. [Translation: "In letting the arrested drug lord go, it is clear that the Tokhang is only for the poor Filipinos and not for those who are rich and affluent."] Oplan Tokhang is the police's flagship anti-drug campaign. Around 4,000 suspects were killed in anti-drug operations since the start of the bloody drug war in July 2016, government data show. Human rights groups said there more than 13,000 killings in the drug war. The opposition Liberal Party (LP) meanwhile, questioned why Senator Leila de Lima remains in jail while Espinosa, one of the key witnesses against her, has been cleared. Malacanang however said De Lima's case is different, noting that the Supreme Court en banc Supreme Court en banc in October 2017 already denied De Lima's bid to nullify her arrest on drug charges. De Lima has been detained without bail at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame since February 2017 over drug charges. She denied all allegations, including Espinosa's claims he gave millions of pesos in drug money for her campaign in the 2016 senatorial polls. Self-confessed drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa: I gave 8M to De Lima's campaign; senator denies allegation Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 13) No tourists will be able to visit Boracay during a shutdown later this year, which may be set between June and September. Tourism Undersecretary Ricky Alegre on Tuesday said the date range was recommended by tour operators and hotels because it was the lean season. "We've seen the data [visits] really [go] down. In fact, it's less foreign tourists during that time," said Alegre. A more exact date is expected to be announced after the declaration of state of calamity in Boracay, which is scheduled to happen "before or after" Holy Week, or the last week of March. Related: Duterte to declare state of calamity in Boracay However, a shutdown for tourist bookings and hotels was "definite" and would push through, said Alegre. He, however, added the planned 60-day period is not enough. Officials are in talks with airlines and hotels to waive rebooking charges or provide refunds for those who wish to cancel or move their trips. The shutdown is intended for uninterrupted clean-up and rehabilitation efforts on the island. This follows an ultimatum set by President Rodrigo Duterte, who gave Cabinet and local officials six months to clean up what he called a "cesspool" or he would permanently close Boracay. Related: DILG: Six-month ultimatum on Boracay still stands "Within that six-month period, we hope to have a time where we can do it faster. We're hoping the stakeholders will understand this," said Alegre. The confirmation of the shutdown comes just ahead of an expected meeting of the inter-agency task force for Boracay on Thursday. The attendees include officials from the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources, Interior and Local Government, Justice, and Tourism. The meeting is expected to cover a new plan for the island, as planned by architect and urban planner Felino Palafox Jr. The new plan will address the sewage problem, as the undersecretary said only 47 percent of 1,900 business establishments were connected to the sewage treatment plan. As of March 2, the Interior Department said more than 800 establishments have committed violations since 2001. Alegre also disclosed that Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu wanted to demolish structures on forestlands and wetlands possibly including the mall. Related: DENR: 5 of 9 Boracay wetlands damaged; 4 to be reclaimed "He said in our meeting, we want to reclaim the forest land and the wetland," said Alegre. "If you are constructed on forest land, they will demolish you. If you are constructed on wet land, they will demolish you." He added they were looking to dismantle structures between roads and the beach water. "We're sorry, but if you're within that limit, you have to cut it. We'll have to take it out," said Alegre. "Besides, who gave the permit? Wala namang title iyon [Those don't have titles]." Alegre appealed to tourists, particularly local travelers, to set their sights on alternative destinations. "If you can rebook it to Bohol, Cebu, Siargao or Camiguin, why not? There's all these beaches from Bataan all the way to Pagudpud," said Alegre. The Tourism Department is already kickstarting clean-up efforts in El Nido and Coron in Palawan, as well as Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro. Watch The Source's full interview with Alegre here. With international donors, weve modernised water and wastewater services. Tajikistan , a mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia, is blessed by nature and awe-inspiring views. But since it gained independence in 1991, it has yet to enjoy sustainable growth. Across the country such basic urban services as sanitation, water and public transport have often been neglected and underfinanced. As recently as 2012 even access to safe drinking water was sporadic in some regions. In Khujand, the second biggest city, the apparatus for water distribution and wastewater collection systems dated back some six decades. Ive been working at this hospital since its very beginning and I was sorry to see it in such a bad condition because of lack of water for the patients, said Larisa Ivanonva Veretennikova, a nurse at the Khujand Regional Hospital. We lost hope for the situation to improve and I thought it would never revive again. Over time, the pumps and pipes have drastically deteriorated, leaving most of the citys households and buildings with water flowing only occasionally and often heavily contaminated, giving poor taste from corroded water tubes. This was particularly common in multi-storey buildings with weak pumping stations unable to feed water to higher floors. Water loss from pipe leakages was common too, making it difficult to monitor water consumption. Institutional weaknesses at the municipal level as well as inadequate funding to upgrade infrastructure worsened the situation. This all resulted in no access to drinkable or even sufficient quantities of water, with service interrupted for long periods. Sometimes water ran for only a few hours a day in the citys buildings. We had serious difficulties with water supply, remembered Ms Veretennikova . Sometimes there was sand in it and sometimes we even had to carry it in buckets from wherever we could find it so as to be able to do our daily tasks at the hospital. The EBRD is part of an international effort to fund the rehabilitation of water systems in Khujand, the second largest city in Tajikistan. More videos Gaining 24h access to water Ensuring 24-hour access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation and hygiene for households, businesses and public buildings in Tajikistan required international collaboration on multiple fronts: to improve policies, institutions and infrastructure. Due to the deficit in financing, the government turned to external aid, including the EBRD and its donors , to fill funding gaps, not only in funding but also in expertise. To improve water and wastewater infrastructure for all of the Khujands population, the Bank provided a total of US$ 6.55 million in loans to the Khujand Water Company and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) gave US$ 12.47 million in grants. The EBRD is investing in upgrading the municipal infrastructure as it is an important contribution to economic growth of the region, said Ayten Rustamova, EBRD Head of Office in Dushanbe. We see a real difference that this particular project has made to people living in Khujand and we are proud to be a part of it. The funding covered new pipes and water distribution networks, new domestic water meters, the replacement of deteriorated water and sewage pumps as well as development of new boreholes to increase the water supply capacity. Still to come during the next phase is the rehabilitation of the wastewater treatment plant. The physical infrastructure investments were also accompanied by improvements to soft infrastructure policies and legal systems. SECO also funded project design and implementation support work, while Finland paid for the citys Master Plan helping to analyse the citys water source, storage, delivery and its treatment. Norway also contributed donor funds for a programme aimed at finding the best ways to improve financial and operational performance of the company. In addition, the EBRDs Early Transition Countries (ETC) Fund * financed a corporate development plan to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Water Company and also stakeholder participation programme, allowing a platform for citizens input to be considered prior to making any decisions. As a result, a crucial balance was struck between pricing infrastructure services in such a way to meet the objectives of financial viability of the Khujand Water Company and at the same making them affordable. Together with the EBRD, Switzerland is proud to have supported Khujand municipality and Khujand Water Company. A key objective of the programme is to improve living conditions and economic opportunities through an improved water supply and sanitation. This includes safe and inclusive access to water and wastewater treatment as well as better hygiene, said Walburga Roos, Head of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Tajikistan. The new system has also minimized the risks of waterborne diseases from corroded pipes and illegal outdoor community taps. The quality of water has improved, and so has the supply. I think that in the nearest future we will observe significant decrease of the kidney diseases, said Kamolov Azamkhon Ibodulloevich, a doctor at the Khujand Regional Hospital. Water is life All those improvements turned out to be life-changing for 161,000 people in Khujand as well as 571 businesses and 230 state organisations, including schools and hospitals. Manija Ziyeboi, a student at Secondary School no 6 in Khujand, summed up the importance of safe water services: There is no life without water. We need it for cooking, drinking, laundry and if we drink dirty water, we can get sick. We need to use clean water in an efficient way because it is a foundation for our health. *Donors to the ETC Fund are: Canada , Finland , Germany, Ireland, Japan , Korea , Luxembourg , the Netherlands, Norway , Spain, Sweden , Switzerland, Taipei China and the United Kingdom . -------------- This year Switzerland celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Dushanbe. Within the framework of a comprehensive cooperation and development program, Switzerland has supported the people and the government of Tajikistan in reforming the health, water and natural resource management sectors, in increasing access to justice and in facilitating the countrys transition towards a market economy. Switzerland invests approximately 20 mln USD per year in projects implemented in all parts of Tajikistan. US$ 5 million to Cairo Amman Bank Palestine to boost small businesses The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is launching its first investment in the West Bank and Gaza: a US$ 5 million loan to Cairo Amman Bank Palestine that will increase access to finance for the economys micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The signing ceremony took place at the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) in Ramallah in the presence of the PMA Governor, His Excellency Azzam Shawwa; EBRD President, Sir Suma Chakrabarti; and Cairo Amman Bank Palestine Regional Manager, Joseph Nesnas. President Chakrabarti said: We are delighted to begin our operations in the West Bank and Gaza. Supporting small businesses through our first investment is highly symbolic. At the EBRD we believe that MSMEs are the backbone of the economy as they contribute to employment and economic growth. The EBRDs goal is to strengthen the private sector, building on an already-strong entrepreneurial tradition in the West Bank and Gaza, he added. His Excellency Governor Shawwa welcomed the signing of the agreement and said: "We thank the EBRD for its fast responses to fulfil the needs of the local economy through finance to the MSME sector, which makes up 95 per cent of the local economy. This contributes to the sustainability of this sector, creates further job opportunities, advances the development process, and enhances financial inclusion in Palestine." For his part, Mr Nesnas said: "We are proud to be the first partner of the EBRD in the launch of its first investment in Palestine. This investment will help us seriously and effectively contribute to the national economy by providing a credit line for MSMEs, a sector that constitutes the backbone of our national economy and plays a key role in the development process." A technical assistance package, financed by the EBRD West Bank and Gaza Trust Fund, will support Cairo Amman Bank Palestine to strengthen its skillsets and competitiveness in SME lending. The EBRD Board of Governors approved the engagement of the EBRD in the West Bank and Gaza in May 2017. Operating from the EBRDs office in Amman, the Bank will provide support for private sector competitiveness and innovation in the West Bank and Gaza, increasing access to finance for MSMEs, fostering a sustainable supply of energy and promoting private sector participation in energy efficiency and infrastructure. The EBRD was established in 1991 with the goal of supporting market economies and promoting the private sector. Having started in central and eastern Europe, today the Bank operates in 38 economies across three continents, from Morocco to Mongolia and from Estonia to Egypt. Bitcoin not the answer to a cashless society Opinion piece by Benoit Cure, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Chair of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), co-authored by Jacqueline Loh, chair of the BIS Markets Committee, published in the Financial Times on 13 March 2018 Next week, Group of 20 policymakers will discuss bitcoin and other blockchain-based digital tokens. Such cryptocurrencies are poor imitations of money. Almost nobody prices goods in bitcoin, few use them for payments, and, as a store of value, they are no better than gambling in a casino. Policymakers are rightly worried about consumer and investor abuses, as well as illicit use. Yet, while bitcoin and its cousins are something of a mirage, they might be an early sign of change, just as Palm Pilots paved the way for todays smartphones. Cash will not be king forever, even though it still rules in many parts of the world. New research from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) shows non-cash payments have roughly doubled in size, as a share of GDP, since the turn of the century. Some Nordic countries are already cutting back on cash. And the iGeneration is more likely to reach for a payment app than a purse. To their children, banknotes and coins may look like museum exhibits. These trends have sparked a discussion about whether central banks should issue their own digital coinage. A new report on central bank digital currencies (CBDC), released today by the two committees we chair at the BIS, sets the scene for this important debate. What is a CBDC? The answer goes to the heart of money and payments. Today, banknotes and coins are the only way consumers can access central bank money. The money in your bank account is actually provided by a commercial bank. Your bank promises to exchange that money for cash when you go to the ATM. But when you pay bills online or swipe your credit card, you are using commercial bank money. Under the current system, only financial institutions have direct access to digital central bank money via accounts at their national central bank. A consumer-oriented CBDC would extend that access to everyone. Although this might not seem like a big step to digitally-savvy consumers, it could have far-reaching ramifications for the role of money, the financial system and the economy. For example, a CBDC for all would challenge the current model of banks taking customer deposits and using that money to fund the lending that helps drive the economy. The consequences for bank business models and financial stability would need to be carefully parsed. More fundamentally, do we need a CBDC? Existing payment arrangements based on commercial money are already digitally provided and increasingly convenient, instantaneous and available 24/7. Nevertheless, if cash disappeared, there would be a stronger case to consider a CBDC. Otherwise, the public would be wholly dependent on commercial money, and trust in the currency, a key public good, would be reliant on the creditworthiness of commercial entities and on specific payment technologies. However, despite the growing popularity of electronic payments, the cashless society is not here yet. Demand for banknotes is still growing in many countries. If it were to come, a CBDC would have to be as convenient for consumers and businesses to use as the commercial equivalent. It would have to be hacker-proof. If we want to stop illegal use, it should not grant the same anonymity of cash to users. But giving central banks unprecedented amounts of information about individuals is equally controversial. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. In sum, thinking carefully about the future of money is timely in view of new technologies and increasing use of electronic payments. Still, it is not yet clear whether CBDCs for consumers and businesses are necessary or desirable. In other words, the jury is still out, and the answer will clearly differ country by country. Away from the public eye, change may also be happening and perhaps sooner. The BIS report canvasses a second, complementary, model of CBDCs aimed at financial institutions that would build on the blockchain technologies underlying bitcoin. Such tokenised forms of digital central bank money could potentially help streamline many of the cumbersome clearing and settlement processes that are currently needed to complete securities and foreign exchange trades. So far, however, central bank experiments with such forms of CBDCs have not shown conclusive benefits for wholesale payments and beyond, but technology and design are evolving quickly. Despite its many faults, bitcoin has put the spotlight on an old failing of our current system: cross-border retail payments. Such payments not only permit shoppers to easily buy goods online from overseas, but also allow foreign workers to send money home, supporting financial inclusion and development. However, these payment channels are generally much slower, less transparent and way more expensive than domestic ones. Improvements here are the best way of rising to the bitcoin challenge. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 13) Jover Laurio, the woman behind the Pinoy Ako Blog, filed a civil complaint against bloggers Rey Joseph Nieto and Allantroy Rogando "Sass" Sasot before the Makati Regional Trial Court on Tuesday. In Laurio's complaint, her legal counsel Juan Gregorio Ragrario said Nieto and Sasot violated the Data Privacy Act of 2012, along with some provisions of the Civil Code pertaining to breach of rights to privacy and free speech. Laurio, through the Pinoy Ako Blog, is a staunch supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration, while Nieto, who owns the Thinking Pinoy blog, and Sasot are vocal supporters of the President. The complaint stemmed from an October 2017 article posted on the Thinking Pinoy blog titled "#CocoyGate: Cocoy's Missing? Hey NBI Cybercrime, here's another name." It was co-written by Nieto and Sasot. According to the complaint, the two respondents "maliciously and with ill intent, collected, recorded, consolidated, and published, without authorization" Jover's name, credentials for her blog, and her law school. It added Nieto and Sasot also called on the National Bureau of Investigation to look into Laurio. The document said that the practice, also called doxing, "is typically done with malicious intent to intimidate, interrogate, blackmail, and control." It also stated the article resulted in Laurio receiving harassing and threatening messages both publicly and privately, prompting her to take a leave of absence both from law school and her work. "Nieto's and Sasot's acts of constantly harassing [Laurio] and encouraging and abetting similar behavior from others, is an act similar to vexing and humiliating another on account of personal conditions," the complaint stated. "There is a clear intent on the part of Nieto and Sasot to inflict emotional distress upon Jover." In a Facebook post, Sasot said "all the information that we got from Jover Laurio are available in the public domain. That it's a crime to publish what's publicly available is just idiotic." Laurio sought for a total of P2,150,000 in nominal, moral, and exemplary damages, along with the attorney's fees and complaint filing costs. Vietnam shrimp exports rise 22.3% in 2017; growth seen to continue in 2018 Vietnam's shrimp exports in 2017 achieved a remarkable growth of 22.3% in terms of value compared with 6.7% in 2016. Export value reached US$3.85 billion, according to finalised data cited by the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). In December alone, Vietnamese shrimp exports jumped 27.8% to $339.8 million over the same period in 2016. Exports to all major markets posted positive growths in 2017. The overall export increase last year reflected the efforts of made by enterprises to overcome challenges in the context of complicated market situation. The exchange rates of yen, euro and Chinese yuan against the USD also favored Vietnam's shrimp exports. Problems of some competing exporting countries should favor Vietnam's shrimp exports this year, said VASEP, citing Thailand's stoppage of imports of Indian shrimp, the EU's policy of inspecting 50% of Indian shrimp containers shipped to the 28-member bloc, as well as the risk of a ban by the EU. Thai and Indian shrimp production is also forecast to not increase this year due to disease and adverse weather. Shrimp output In terms of volume, the total output of shrimp in Vietnam in 2017 reached 723,800 tonnes, according to the Directorate of Fisheries. Of that, brackish water shrimp output reached 683,400 tonnes including 256,400 tonnes of black tiger shrimp and 427,000 tonnes of whiteleg shrimp. In 2017, Vietnam's shrimp exports to major markets grew impressively except the US, which has fallen to the fourth rank as a major market. The EU market has risen to become the largest Vietnamese shrimp exporter. Exports to the EU market was valued at over US$862.8 million, up 43.7% year-on-year. The Netherlands was the largest importer of Vietnam shrimp in the EU. Out of the three main buyers of Vietnam shrimp in the bloc (the Netherlands, the UK and Germany), sales to the Netherlands posted the highest growth of 71.6% ($224.2 million), followed by the UK and Germany with growths of 55.5% and 52.1%, respectively. Among the main importing markets, China saw the highest growth of 56.8% and value reached US$683.2 million. With this growth, China is expected to overtake Japan as the second-largest buyer of Vietnam shrimp in the first quarter of 2018. With the world price of shrimp remaining stable in the first two months of 2018, Vietnam's shrimp exports in the first quarter of 2018 are projected to increase 5%, VASEP said. New York (CNN) The pilot of a helicopter that went down in New York's East River Sunday is the sole survivor of the crash, after all five passengers died, authorities say. Three of the passengers had been taken to hospital with critical injuries after surviving the crash, but the New York City Fire Department confirmed their deaths early Monday. The sixth person on the helicopter, the pilot, was able to free himself and was rescued, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said earlier. He was taken to the hospital for observation. "One of the most difficult parts of the rescue were that five people were tightly harnessed," Nigro said. "People had to be cut out." Nigro and NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill spoke to reporters Sunday evening. In an audio recording of a mayday call to LaGuardia Airport, the pilot can be heard saying that the helicopter was experiencing engine failure. The Liberty Helicopters chopper had been chartered for a private photo shoot, authorities said. Liberty Helicopters Liberty Helicopters describes itself on its website as "the largest and most experienced helicopter sightseeing and charter service in New York City." The company has "a fleet of 10 state-of-the-art Airbus helicopters (formerly American Eurcopter)," according to the website. "We have been in business and flying safely for over 30 years," the website says. This is the company's third crash in 11 years, according to CNN affiliate WABC-TV. In August 2009, nine people were killed after a helicopter and a small, private plane crashed into each other over the Hudson river. Investigators said the helicopter was flying too high. Two years before that, in July 2007, a Liberty sightseeing chopper carrying eight people dropped into the Hudson river. An off-duty paramedic on board helped everyone escape, WABC reports. The Federal Aviation Administration said earlier Sunday on Twitter that the helicopter went down in the river near Roosevelt Island at 7 p.m. ET. The FAA identified it as a Eurocopter AS350. The helicopter was upside-down and submerged when emergency responders reached it, authorities said. Police said the chopper was in the water around 23rd Street and called for a barge with a crane to pull it out. Crash investigation The National Transportation Safety Board will determine probable cause of the incident, the FAA said. The NTSB said on Twitter that an investigation team would be arriving in New York Monday morning. When they begin their investigation, said Gary C. Robb, an aviation attorney based in Kansas City, Missouri, the NTSB will likely look at three things: the pilot's training, experience and immediate response during the crash; what, if anything, on the helicopter caused the crash; and what environmental factors may have contributed to the crash. Robb says the NTSB would then release a preliminary report, and a probable cause accident report would follow later detailing what happened during the crash. John J. Magers filmed the crash as it took place and posted the video on Twitter. He said he thought something was strange when he saw the helicopter flying low before it crashed into the East River, so he started shooting video. "I saw it coming down toward the water. Thought it was unusual, but didn't expect it to crash," Magers told CNN over Instagram. "My thoughts are with those killed." CNN's Amir Vera, Linh Tran, Liz Turrell, Rob Frehse, Brynn Gingras, Gabriella Milian, Kristina Sgueglia and Aaron Cooper contributed to the content of this report. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Five dead, pilot is sole survivor of helicopter crash in NYC's East River." By Reuter , Mar. 12, 2018 AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Two package bombs left outside homes in Austin, Texas, exploded on Monday, killing a teenager and injuring two women in attacks that police linked to a deadly blast earlier this month. The latest bombings came as the Texas capital hosted its annual South by Southwest music, technology and film festival downtown. The victims in all three cases were African-American or Hispanic, and police said they were examining the attacks as possible hate crimes. Read More: Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter "Like" Larry Elder on Facebook (CNN) A wealthy Turkish socialite and seven of her friends were killed on Sunday after the airplane carrying them home from her bachelorette party crashed in Iran, according to Turkish media reports and the head of the Turkish Red Crescent. All 11 people on board the flight from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Istanbul, Turkey were killed when the plane crashed in the southwestern Iranian city of Shahr-e Kord, the head of Iran's civil aviation office told the Iranian state-run news agency IRNA. Mina Basaran, the daughter of a Turkish billionaire, was named in a tweet as one of the passengers on the plane by Kerem Kinik, the president of the Turkish Red Crescent. The plane reportedly belonged to Turkish billionaire Huseyin Basaran, owner of Basaran Holding, which is well known for its work in energy, food and tourism, finance and construction sectors, according to Turkey's Milliyet newspaper. Mina Basaran was the eldest of his two children, and Mina Towers -- one of Istanbul's biggest construction projects -- was being handled by Basaran's company and was named after his daughter, CNN Turk reported. Mina Basaran had been expected to marry Murat Gezer on April 14 at Ciragan Sarayi, a five-star hotel in Istanbul, according to Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper. The socialite and her friends posted about their trip together on Instagram. The final photo on Mina Basaran's account showed the women at the One and Only Royal Mirage luxury hotel in Dubai, Turkish media reported. The Instagram account has since been closed. A statement by Turkey's Armed Forces confirmed that a plane had been sent to the crash site to help remove the wreckage, a Turkish army spokesperson told CNN. Turkey's state-run news agency Anadolu quoted a statement from the country's Ministry of Transport, in which it stated that the aircraft had crashed soon after making a call about an unspecified "technical failure." The plane vanished from radar at approximately 14.40 GMT Sunday, 70 minutes after it had taken off, Turkish media reported, citing the Turkish ministry of transport. The deputy governor of Iran's Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, where the plane crashed, said the plane's black box was found in the Helen Mountains in the Kiyar district, IRNA reported Monday. Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for the Iranian Emergency Managament Organization, said DNA tests would be required to identify the bodies, according to the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA). This story was first published on CNN.com, Mina Basaran: Turkish socialite killed in plane crash after bachelorette party." GRAETTINGER Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire (GTRA) is one of six Iowa school districts selected to participate in a case study as part of the evaluation of the Iowa Teacher Leadership and Compensation (TLC) system. The American Institutes for Research (AIR) is conducting these case studies to more closely examine TLC implementation and its impact on student achievement. The case study will also focus on strategies that districts, schools, and teacher leaders have used to successfully implement and leverage TLC to support teacher professional growth and instruction. AIR analyzed relative changes in mean student achievement following TLC implementation across Iowa districts, as well as district-level results of the 2017 AIR-administered statewide survey of teachers and administrators about TLC. Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire was identified as a case study site by AIR based on favorable data from these sources as well as from information gathered in interviews with key district staff in fall 2017. There is no compensation for the interview, but participants will have the benefit of being able to provide feedback and general lessons learned around their districts and school experience with the implementation of TLC. The successes and lessons learned from your district and that of the other sites will be used to inform the DE, AEAs, and other districts statewide about the different strategies and approaches that should be considered as they work to implement and support TLC programs. The Teacher Leadership approach at GTRA relies on a model from the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET). One of the services offered by NIET is the TAP System, a professional growth and support system for teachers. This model relies on the TAP rubric which is a set of clearly defined standards that promote best teaching practices and apply to all content areas. The model uses master and mentor teachers, and the districts TLC Team. Becky Masters and Marc Benedict are both master teachers at GTRA. Masters taught second grade in the district before moving into this position, and Benedict taught high school science. Their role as a master teacher is to observe, support, and assist their colleagues through activities including lesson demonstrations, modeling, team-teaching, and reflective feedback. Chris Olesen is in his second year teaching 9-12 social studies at GTRA, and he is also a graduate of the district. Olesen is a mentored teacher supported by Benedict. The duo has made plans to team teach a unit that combines geography and physical science. Marc pops in at least once a week to get a feel for whats happening so I think he has a good understanding of whats going on in the classroom, Olesen said. Its nice to have that ongoing feedback and support on an ongoing basis. Another level of coordination is the GTRA TLC team, which includes district administrators and teachers from all grade levels and content areas. This team meets monthly to identify, plan, study, review, and support teachers in their quest to support teaching and learning within the classroom. Mentor teachers Stef Kirk, Amy Sikora, Diane Benjamin, and Nicole Jungers continue to teach full-time, while also mentoring staff and helping with professional development. Our implementation has been unique with the sharing agreement between our two districts, said Andy Woiwood, superintendent. Its nice to have the same goals across all of the buildings, and this has opened communication at a leadership level across the district. Team members agreed that the focus is on building relationships and a culture of learning and improvement; a culture that allows teachers to ask questions and seek help. Individual growth plans are tied to the TAP rubric by answering two questions: how will this help students learn, and how will it help me improve? Built into the school calendar is professional learning time on Wednesdays which brings an opportunity for collaboration and insight across the curriculum. Typically, a teacher brings a lesson or unit that they would like to make more engaging and interactive, as well as digging deeper into the content. This offers input and ideas from different perspectives, such as PE, math, music, and technology integration, that strengthen the student learning experience. Students are also noticing a difference. They understand and appreciate the common teacher language and are able to see the changes in instruction. Students see us as learners, Benedict said. Im a 33-year veteran teacher and Im still growing, improving, and learning The emphasis on collaboration and connections has hit the high notes for music teacher Anne Sexe. Sexe would be considered a career teacher in the TAP system. Seeking to jazz up a unit on American composer and pianist George Gershwin, her fellow teachers pitched the idea of encouraging each student to choose how and what to share about Gershwin and the results were a show-stopper. This is helping me be a better teacher, Sexe said. This has given me a shot in the arm after 21 years of teaching. Im no longer isolated in my room all day so seeing other teachers and being able to be part of the group has been great. Editors Note: Due to the length of this article, it will publish in two parts. Please read part two in Thursdays Democrat. On Saturday, March 3, 2018 a legislative town hall meeting was held at the Iowa Welcome Center in Emmetsburg. Members of the surrounding communities were invited to asking questions of Iowa Congresswoman Megan Jones, Iowa Senator David Johnson, and U.S. Congressman Steve King. As this meeting was so close to the school shooting in Parkland, FL, mental health and gun issues dominated the meeting. Mike Hermansen of Emmetsburg stated that he was reading about the Eldora Boys Home in an article from the Des Moines Register. Reading through the article, there is a full-time psychologist, theres not a psychiatrist, Hermansen stated. The full-time psychologist, but hes not licensed, and thats okay in the boys home. And we talk about mental health, mental health, mental health, which is very important, but we dont have a licensed psychologist? Why is a license not required for that, and yet, you have to have a license to cut fingernails and toenails? Im not familiar with the situation that youre describing, but I think that you bring up a really important issue, Congresswoman Megan Jones responded. I sit on the Administrative Rules Committee and in that committee all of the professional licensure boards have to come to us with their proposed changes. I think a lot of us were surprised at the number of licensures we have in the state. And youre exactly right- you have to have a license for this, but not for this. Jones went on to state that a bill had been introduced last year regarding licensure, but it was a bill that failed very quickly. These licensure boards often arent responding to complaints correctly or quickly, and Jones believes that there is definitely room for change. One of the main arguments that people in the GOP have been saying, guns are not the problem- its people, its mental health. But something that, as a young person, Im very aware of is the lack of mental health funding in the state of Iowa, and really around the United States, its very stigmatized, Andrew Dunn of Spirit Lake said. What are you guys in favor of in terms of commonsense gun legislation? And what are you guys in favor of in terms of improving our mental health system? We passed a bill out of the house earlier this week on mental health reform and I think its a very positive step, Jones responded. Funding is the issue, of course, but I think next to education, mental health is going to be the biggest priority that we have when it comes to money this year. What this bill does, it creates these short-term access centers, because were having a lot of people that are either sitting in a hospital or sitting in a jail, and thats not the appropriate place for them. So if we can have these short-term access centers, its a more appropriate setting to get them back on their feet [] we need to address the issues that theyre having at that point-in-time rather than making them sit in jail. Jones proceeded to answer the second part of Dunns questions regarding guns, The governor said, I think very eloquently earlier this week that a holistic approach. So we need to look at school security, we need to look at our gun laws, we need to look at age restrictions. Because theres a lot of multifaceted approaches here, Jones stated. Ive watched this thing for a number of years going the wrong direction on mental health, U.S. Congressman Steve King began. One of the things that I just take us back to the [19]90s when Bill Clinton was president. They made an effort to get people out of the institutions and out onto the streets. One of the things that facilitated that were the pharmaceuticals that had been developed to help stabilize people who were otherwise unstable. King went on to discuss some information that he had received regarding the Cherokee Mental Health Institute. He knew of a person that worked as a psychiatrist at Cherokee. When this psychiatrist went to work there, the institute had 354 patients and 14 psychiatrists. Now, according to King, the institute only has one psychiatrist and roughly 36 patients. Ive been reading material over the last several years about mind-altering drugs that are being administered to people who turn out to be violent criminals, King continued. And so when I saw this thing unfold down in Parkland, Florida, one of the first things I did was we need to go back, and we need to review all of this, pretty much what Megan just said, from beginning to end. We need to examine everyone of these mass killings, especially in the schools, but everyone of these mass killers, and I want to know what were they on for drugs. King explained that in the last half of the decade, he has noticed pharmaceutical companies coming in and signing a non-disclosure agreement that gets a lid on it and goes in a timecapsule. So we dont know what all the facts are here with this. We do know that the shooter in Florida [] that he had bought 10 guns in the last year, King stated. He was going to use something for a gun. He was going to kill somebody. It looks like every system has failed along the way. King shared a story of his dinner with Captain Sully. He said that when there is an airplane disaster, the FAA throws blame out the window and proceeds to check every link in the chain. All of the weak links are fixed. Congressman Kings son looked up the history of school shootings. He found the first one in 1940, was a pistol in Pasendena and five people killed. The next one was all the way up til 1966, King explained. And that was the tower shooter [] that killed 17 people with a bolt action deer rifle. And then you go forward quite a ways, and maybe into the 80s, and now were seeing them about every year on average. So the frequency has gone up a lot. What does that sync with? Prayer in the public school in 1963. 1966 shooting in Texas. I dont know that you can equate those, but it makes me ask the question. Because is guilt, and is conscience, and is the pouring out of our faith in our public school system across America, is that a factor? Ill have to examine that and say I think so.' Rhonda Bakken age 57 of Ruthven died on Saturday, March 10th in her home near Ruthven. Visitation will be Wednesday, March 14th from 5-8pm at the gymnasium at the Ruthven-Ayrshire Community School in Ruthven. Service will be held Thursday, March 15th at 10:30am at the Lost Island Lutheran Churn near Ruthven. Burial will be at the Lost Island Lutheran Cemetery near Ruthven. Condolences can be left at www.martinmatticefuneralhome.com DAVENPORT- A Memorial Mass of Christian Burial for Robert J. Bob Hughes, 95, will be 10:30 a.m. next Monday, March 19, 2018 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Bettendorf. Inurnment will take place in Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Davenport. Visitation will be held from 1:00 until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 18 at the Halligan McCabe DeVries Funeral Home, downtown Davenport with a prayer service offered at 4:00 p.m. There will be additional visitation Monday from 9:30 a.m. until the time of the Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes. Bob passed away Friday, March 9, 2018 at the Kahl Home, Davenport, after an injury and brief illness. Robert Bob John Hughes was born April 3, 1922 in Emmetsburg, the youngest son of Bert Hughes and Kitty Foy Hughes, brothers of Thomas Hughes and Charles Hughes. The three brothers attended school in Emmetsburg, before attending the University of Iowa and graduating from the Pharmacy School, joining their father, Bert, as Pharmacists. While attending the University of Iowa he was Captain of the Memorial Union Dining Service. Bob initiated the Union Boy Newsletters sending letters to the Active Military members of the Iowa Union, round robin style, sharing much wanted news from home. Bob graduated from Iowa in 1944 as a Registered Pharmacist. After graduating, Bob entered the U.S. Navy attending Officer Training at Northwestern in Evanston Illinois. Ninety days later he was an officer! Robert joined the AKA93 Yancey a Transport ship in Oakland, California joining the fight in the Pacific. The Yancey was a part of the landings at Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945. The Yancey, an attack supply ship moved supplies, such as 16 inch shells for the Battleships, one of them being the Missouri. At the end of the war, Bobs ship, the Yancey, was part of the U.S. Fleet in Tokyo Bay at the surrender of the Japanese. Bob was honorably discharged in June 1946, joining his brother Tom as a Sales Rep for the Upjohn Company. In 1961, Bob was offered a chance to supervise the salesman in Iowa & Illinois. Bob said yes and the family moved to Bettendorf. Bobs career with Upjohn continued until his retirement in 1987 after 38 years with the company. While making a sales call at a doctors office in Chicago, the doctor was unable to meet with Bob, so he asked the office Nurse, Lois Murray, to accompany him to lunch in the doctors place. Lois accepted and this began their life long journey. Lois and Bob were married at St. Gertrude Catholic Church in Chicago on Feb. 7, 1948, on the 34th wedding anniversary of Lois parents, Edward Murray and Margaret Hogan Murray. After a honeymoon in New Orleans for Mardi Gras they settled down to married life living in Skokie, Illinois. They quickly outgrew their apartment after four children and moved to a house in Des Plaines, IL in 1952. Bob was devoted to his six children and their spouses, Jerry & Alice (Ward) Hughes, West Chicago, IL, Mary Ellen & Larry Smith, Cincinnati, OH, Kathy & R. Craig Kelley, Aledo, IL, Tom and Linda (Collentine) Hughes, Davenport, Dan & Cathy (Smith) Hughes, Davenport, Sally and Bill Petersen, Freeport, IL, 19 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren. Bob was preceded in death by his loving wife, Lois Murray Hughes, who passed away on Dec. 23, 2017. He is also preceded in death by daughter Mary Ellen Hughes Smith, son-in-law R. Craig Kelley and granddaughter Kim Kelley Wolfram. Bobs working life tells only a small part of his story. He was an active and devout Catholic. From 1961 to the present Bob and his family have been active members of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Bettendorf. He also has been a 3rd degree member of the Knights of Columbus since 1946. In Bobs retirement years he kept himself very busy as a lay minister at Lourdes starting and nurturing several activities including the Wellness Ministry and study groups for The Three Principles (Sydney Banks Mind, Consciousness & Thought). Perhaps Bobs greatest ministry and guidance was to his grandchildren and more recently to his great grandchildren. Bob wrote what he called his Grandpa Freebies, thoughts, lessons and stories from his life and experiences. Bob sent these to the grandchildren with the full support of his own children. Bobs long life gave him this opportunity to pass along his lessons to the next generations. One of his most cherished possessions is a book labelled Reverse Freebies; letters from the recipients of the Freebies, the grandchildren, telling their grandfather what the Freebies meant to them and now what they mean to their children. If you knew Bob, an appropriate way to remember him would be with a hug to someone you love. After all, you cant be a HUGhes without a HUG! Bob requested no flowers. Memorials can be made to: Community Foundation Great River Bend for the Robert J & Lois M. Hughes Scholarship. This will provide funding for a scholarship for University of Iowa Pharmacy School or St. Ambrose School of Nursing, or a contribution to Assumption High School or Lourdes Catholic School. Online condolences and remembrances may be expressed to the family by visiting Bobs obituary at www.hmdfuneralhome.com Civilians in Afrin were welcomed with flowers by FSA Turkey set up safe corridor for civilians to evacuate Afrin. Turkish Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army (FSA) had encircled Afrin city center as of March 12 within the scope of Operation Olive Branch to completely root out the PKK/YPG terrorists from the city. A humanitarian corridor was established in Syrias Afrin region, enabling civilians to leave the operation zone in a secure way. The safe corridor is set to ease civilians exit from the southern parts of the Afrin city center. Civilians run from terror organizations cruelty have succeeded to reach safe zones controlled by FSA. FSA fighters gave messages of peace by welcoming war wearies with flowers. Since the launch of the operation, Turkish troops and FSA fighters have liberated 212 locations, including five town centers, 175 villages, 37 strategic mountains and hills, and one YPG/PKK base. Heather Locklear is not charged with domestic violence as per her actions toward her boyfriend, but with battery instead for hurting responders in February. Locklear may have felt relieved that domestic violence charges have vanished but she shouldn't be complacent at all. This is because she is still facing numerous counts of battery for allegedly hurting the responders during the February incident. To be exact, she is facing four counts of misdemeanor battery for the responders and one for obstructing or resisting an authority. This stems from Locklear's arrest, after authorities received a call about a disturbance from an altercation between the Melrose Place star and her boyfriend, Chris Heisser, on Feb. 25. Police found the couple in their bedroom with the man holding down the actress, seemingly trying to restrain her. Heisser alleged that he was being hit by his partner and explained he did not hit Locklear. Locklear allegedly shouted at and kicked personnel who responded to the call. What Went Down Police reports stated how Locklear maltreated responding officers in her home in Thousand Oaks, California. One account narrated that the actress went to her room and started to close it when an officer placed his foot on the doorway. Locklear allegedly kicked the officer just to push his foot away, and it was allegedly too strong that she was able to close the door. The 56-year-old also lashed out at the officers, saying his kids deserve to die. Police later established that Heisser was actually battered by Locklear. Authorities noticed his nose was bleeding and that his chest was red. He also admitted Locklear hit him too many times for 20 to 30 minutes, although he was not sure of its count. Just last week, Locklear's home was searched for a firearm. This was because she threatened responding officers in February that she would shoot authorities that would come in her abode. Tumultuous Years Locklear had become restless in the eyes of the public, not for films or series, but for occasional squabbles prompting a visit from authorities. Eight years ago, she was charged after hitting a no-parking sign and then fleeing the scene. The incident was then traced to her car, a 2005 BMW. In 2011, Locklear and her then boyfriend, Jack Wagner, allegedly went into a heated argument that turned physical, which pave the way for a check from the Los Angeles Police Department. However, neither of them pressed charges. Charles Manson's grandson is now entitled to claim the body of the cult leader from the morgue four months after his death. Manson, who became known as one of America's most prolific serial killers, died in the hospital at the age of 83 in November after serving 46 years in prison. He was serving nine life sentences for the murder of actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969. Charles Manson's Remains To Be Given To Grandson After a prolonged battle over Manson's body that has been put on ice at the Bakersfield morgue since the cult leader's death, Alisa Knight, a commissioner at Kern County Superior Court, ruled on Monday, March 12, that Manson's body will be handed over to his grandson, Jason Freeman. "Freeman is hereby determined to be the surviving competent adult next of kin of the decedent. No sufficient probative evidence was provided to this court to refute Freeman's claim," Knight said in her ruling. Freeman, a former professional mixed martial arts fighter from Florida, is the son of Charles Manson Jr., who committed suicide in 1993. After Knight's ruling, Freeman says he intends that his grandfather's body will be cremated and his ashes will be scattered in a private ceremony. The 4-Month Battle Freeman was involved in a bizarre four-month battle over Manson's remains with two other people. These are Michael Brunner, who claimed he is Manson's biological son, and his prison pen pal Michael Channels, who collected and sold Manson's memorabilia. The latter filed what he claims was the notorious serial killer's only valid will that was filed in 2002. Although Knight found that there was enough evidence to prove that Brunner was Manson's son, he gave up his right as an heir after being adopted by his maternal grandparents. Channel's claims were also dismissed as the will presented by him in court failed to meet California's legal requirements. A fourth individual, a Los Angeles musician named Matthew Lentz, also came forward to side with Brunner claiming that he was also Manson's son. Lentz claimed that Manson fathered him during a Wisconsin orgy and was named as the sole beneficiary in a 2017 will that the cult leader apparently signed. However, since Lentz was adopted a week after he was born, he forfeited any relationship with his biological parents, according to Knight. While Knight's ruling settles the dispute over Manson's remains, what happens with his estate, including music royalties, and commercial rights to his writings, drawings, and other memorabilia is yet to be decided in a Los Angeles court later this week. Khloe Kardashian is officially releasing her Good Mama maternity collection. The new line is the latest addition to her Good American denim apparel. On Monday, March 12, the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star took to her Instagram to share a photo from her promo shoot. Kardashian also confirmed that Good Mama will officially launch on Thursday, March 15. The New Good Mama Line Khloe's fans probably remember that she first teased the line back in January when she posted videos on social media showing off the first prototypes. She mentioned that she actually began working on the denim pieces prior to finding out that she was pregnant. Now, it looks like she spoke into existence. The expecting mom gave her followers a sneak peek of the denim pieces that would be featured in the latest collection. One pair has black elastic on both pockets for stretch and the other has an elastic belly pouch that could be worn throughout a woman's pregnancy as she moves along further. As previously reported, Kardashian is set to welcome a baby girl with her boyfriend, Tristan Thompson. The reality star will reportedly give birth sometime in April. Although the first time mom is at the tail end of her pregnancy, she will still be able to sport the new line. She stated that she wants to start wearing jeans again. While in an appearance at The Ellen DeGeneres Show in January, Khloe told DeGeneres that she was trying to avoid wearing maternity clothes for as long as she could. However, she missed wearing jeans for the first few months. "I really miss wearing jeans during my pregnancy. I think you look so cute and chic, and there's only so many dresses and leggings I could wear every day," Khloe said. Khloe's Maternity Style Although Kardashian managed to refrain from wearing jeans throughout her pregnancy, it's safe to say she still slays and her maternity style is on point. In February, paparazzi caught the mother-to-be as she stepped out in a skin-tight black spandex jumpsuit. Kardashian was reportedly heading to lunch in Malibu, California with her mother, Kris Jenner, and Scott Disick. She completed the look with a loose fitting blazer and a black kitten heels that have fur across the toes. Then, while in Tokyo, Japan with her sisters Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, the Revenge Body star didn't let her 8-month baby bump stop her from wearing a sequin mini dress. The Good American designer paired the dress with a black duster and teal tassel earrings. Kardashian shared photos of the fabulous look on her Instagram account. "What's meant to be will always find its way," the reality star captioned the photo. The crew behind bringing the documentary Saving Snow to Iowa Lakes Community College and other area venues late last month continues its work on climate change. The group posted an op-ed, which was chosen by the national organization as op-ed of the week. You can read it as the guest editorial in the Estherville News on page 4. Co-facilitator Jane Shuttleworth said, Citizens Climate Lobby is about getting out of your comfort zone. With the snow on the ground and frosty temperatures, it seems like spring is still a long way off. According to the USA National Phenology Network, however, spring has sprung very early in some parts of the nation. According to the network, spring continues to arrive early in the West, Southwest, and mid-Atlantic, compared to a long-term average (1981-2010). Spring arrived late in the Southeast. St. Louis, Mo., is nine days early and Wichita, Kan., is six days early. The timing of leaf-out, migration, flowering and other seasonal phenomena in many species is closely tied to local weather conditions and broad climatic patterns. The Spring Index maps offered by USA-NPN shed light on plant and animal phenology, based on local weather and climate conditions. How do you know when spring has begun? Is it the appearance of the first tiny leaves on the trees, or the first crocus plants peeping through the snow? The Spring Leaf Index is a synthetic measure of these early season events in plants, based on recent temperature conditions. This model allows us to track the progression of spring onset across the country. The maps are located at usanpn.org/data/spring/ Climate change is affecting farming each day. One workshop detailing the ways to deal with this is in LeCenter, Minn. on Thursday with Gabe Brown, cover crop innovator. Brown has a TED talk about the regeneration of land from his perspective as a producer. Agriculture has been challenged. How do we feed 9 billion people by the year 2050? Brown asks in his talk. Other members of the larger CCL network are working on an op-ed about preventing farmer and rancher suicides. The final part of the meeting ends with a national video conference call. This month, the speaker was Joan Blades, co-founder of MoveOn.org. Long thought of as a strictly liberal political action group, MoveOn began in 1997 with a concept many Americans agreed upon: it was time to Move On from personal legal action against President Clinton and get on with the business of the nation. In 2006, Blades co-founded MomsRising.org, dedicated to bringing millions of people, who all share a common concern about the need to build a more family-friendly America, together as a non-partisan force. The latest project is Living Room Conversations, which seeks to bridge the political divide in the United States by encouraging people with differing views to come together for respectful discussions. There is even a dating service by which an individual can be matched to one with opposing viewpoints, with both parties interested in a conversation of finding common ground and perhaps even a solution. CCL was founded as a non-partisan effort to bring people from all political views together to find solutions to climate change. The Iowa Great Lakes Chapter has monthly meetings and several avenues to get involved. Press Release from Dr Christian Ehler MEP, Chair of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with the United States of America. As EU Co-Chair of the Transatlantic Legislators Dialogue with the US Congress, I note with considerable concern that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by US President Donald Trump earlier today. As the EUs closest and indispensable ally for many decades, we look to work together with the US in addressing the many challenges we currently face. Just over a year into this current administration, there is a great need for consistency in approach, worked out together as allies joined by common values, common interests and within common institutions. Recent actions by the administration to import unwarranted and non-WTO compliant tariffs and the US refusal to grant the necessary consensus for the appointment of new judges to the WTO Appellate Body mark a departure from the traditional US support for the global institutions and organisations which it founded, shaped, and used as a means of promoting American interests, and which have benefited us here in the EU at the same time. These actions are a cause of anxiety, since it gives ammunition to those who would argue that the current administration seeks to follow a tougher line with its traditional allies, while reaching out to traditional rivals. Secretary of State Tillerson has consistently sought to reassure EU allies of the US commitment to our long-standing close alliances. His departure removes one significant pillar of reassurance of ongoing US engagement and commitment. We trust his successor will step into the breach, and strive ceaselessly to strengthen our alliance in all its forms and institutions. Greetings,We are planning to relocate to France from the US in September. Right now we have health insurance through the Washington State exchange, a high deductible HSA eligible plan. We receive a fairly significant premium tax credit this year since the government removed subsidies to insurers.Since we are moving in September, we won't qualify for an exemption to continuous coverage (330 days out of the country)...and the international plan for the visa doesn't meet minimum coverage requirements. I did read on the healthcare.gov website, however, that a 2 month lapse in coverage is OK and you won't get fined. So...1) should we continue the ACA coverage through October 31 and cancel then? Or could we cancel October 1st (read that coverage on one day of the month makes the whole month count as covered?)?2) will our premium tax credits be affected since we will be out of the country then? Or are they only impacted when the 330 day rule is met? Without PTC our premiums exceed 1k month.3) will we be able to prorate the HSA contribution and the catch-up contribution through October 31 if we do this?Has anyone else dealt with this? Any and all advice appreciated.We plan to buy 3 months of IMG Patriot for the visa. The new visa application states that only the first 3 months are required now. Can anyone confirm this? Also, I want to buy the 2500 deductible plan (we have an HSA we can use for deductible if needed) to save money. While the old (2017) FAQ at the SFO consulate site said to buy 0 deductible, that language no longer appears on the website. Again, can anyone confirm or deny the acceptability of plans with deductibles?Thanks in advance. Hopefully I will be in a position to reciprocate someday. Hi all, I'm originally from NY and will be moving to NZ at the end of April. My job will have me in Upper Hutt and I was thinking of getting an apt in either Wellington or Lower Hutt. I will be there for a year so would like a furnished apt. Something walking distance to the train station would be ideal as I will be commuting to work. I'm coming as a single woman so clearly the safety of a neighborhood is important to me. Any recs on neighborhoods/buildings/general tips would be appreciated as I'm moving to NZ sight unseen () so it will be an adventure in the truest sense of the word. Also, what is the timing like for the apt rental process in NZ? I ask Bc I'm going to be using Air B&B when I first get there and am trying to figure out how long to keep a place through them. Is it feasible to think I can find a place my May 1st or May 15th? Thanks! Hello, I'm wondering if anyone can help/offer assistance to a catch 22 situation that my husband and I are experiencing? We have been looking into immigrating to NZ for about a year. After seeking assistance from an immigration agent, taking into account our age (early 30's) our best option to do this would be to apply for residency or working visa under skilled migrant. My husband is an electronic engineer. We've had his qualifications assessed and his qualification is recognised there. He is able to gain enough points but only with a job offer. My husband has been applying for jobs from the UK and although there has been a positive response to his qualifications employers ask where in the visa process we are and will not consider giving him a job until the visa process is started. We can't start this process with out the job offer and so the cycle continues. We are repeatedly told the best way to secure a job is to be in the Country & knock on doors & network etc We will be visiting again shortly to see friends and knock on doors and meet people/potential employers but we are only there for a few weeks before returning to the UK. If this visit is not a success in terms of trying to find employment then we will have to re-think. Any advice regarding the job offer/visa cycle or further help from anybody would be greatly appreciated as we don't appear to be getting anywhere. Many thanks. National Tourism Development Authority looks to strengthen the value of tourism to the local community Failte Ireland today launched a Visitor Experience Development Plan for the Connemara Coast and Aran Islands to encourage continued growth in visitor numbers to the region by extending the tourism season and spreading business across all parts of the region. Speaking today at the launch in Station House, Clifden, Co Galway, Miriam Kennedy, Head of the Wild Atlantic Way, said: Our Visitor Development Plans aim to identify the stand out features for an area and provide a framework to present the experiences and stories of that area in a way that tourists can easily understand. With tangible actions and a process for local businesses to become involved, this plan will encourage visitors to engage with the true essence and story of the Connemara Coast and Aran Islands, increasing dwell time and revenue without compromising the environment or culture of the region. Local consultation and input was central to the creation of the Visitor Experience Development Plan and a programme of consultations and workshops were held across the region from November 2016 to February 2017. This inclusive approach gave local stakeholders the opportunity to contribute to the plan and shape the visitor experiences that are unique to this area. Failte Ireland worked collaboratively with key stakeholders in the area including Galway County Council, National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) and Forum Connemara on the plan which will focus on a number of development projects. Commenting on the initiative, Eileen Mannion, Chairperson of Galway County Council said: While the Connemara Coast and the Aran Islands have already benefitted greatly from the Wild Atlantic Way, this new Visitor Development Plan will provide local tourism operators with the opportunity to further develop experiences that will inspire visitors to stay longer and spend more within the region. The Connemara Coast and the Aran Islands are renowned for their natural rugged beauty, rich folklore and stories and this plan identifies the key themes which local business can build on to better their offering. Follow us on Twitter @Failte_Ireland Jump to top Association members also recognized new lifetime and honourary members By Kate Ayers Staff Writer Farms.com The Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians Association Canadienne de Veterinaires Porcins (CASV-ACVP) elected a new president and vice-president at its annual meeting on Mar. 4. The association elected Dr. Jim Fairles as its new president, replacing Dr. Blaine Tully of Steinbach, Man. Fairles is the client services veterinarian at the Animal Health Laboratory at the University of Guelph in Ont., according to a CASV release yesterday. I am looking forward to being the president of the CASV-ACVP this year, Fairles said at the meeting in San Diego, Calif. I will do my best to serve the needs of our members and continue the good work of the previous president and directors. CASV members elected Dr. Christian Klopfenstein of Saint-Pie, Que. as vice-president. He is a faculty member at the University of Montreal and is a manager of sector health at the Centre de Developpment du porc du Quebec inc. Association members also approved a new lifetime and honourary membership class for those retired from active practice but who had a substantial influence on the swine veterinary medicine sector, the release said. Dr. Ernest Sanford of London, Ont. and Dr. Michael Sheridan of Steinbach, Man. were the first two recipients of a lifetime membership. Sanford writes the Herd Health section in the Better Pork magazine. In this department he provides Canadas pork producers with timely information about swine diseases. CASV-ACVP was established in 2003 to unite Canadian veterinarians who have a special interest in swine. Members include individuals in private practice, industry, academia and government. CASV was founded to provide a responsive and proactive voice for vets in Canadas swine industry. By Alejandro Plastina Despite farmers positive perceptions about cover crops and the availability of cost-share programs to incentivize their use, an Iowa State University study shows the return on investment may be the biggest hurdle to overcome for widespread adoption of the practice. In 2017, Iowa fields planted to cover crops grew to 760,000 acres, with less than half receiving federal or state cost share. But with millions of acres of crops, Iowa and other Midwestern states has yet to see widespread adoption of cover crops to reduce nitrates in water from crop fields and to conserve and build healthy soils. We have a substantial body of research that shows cover crops have positive long-term benefits for water quality, soil health and the environment, said Alejandro Plastina, assistant professor of economics and extension economist. Farmers also have positive perceptions about the value of cover crops and can take advantage of cost-share programs that incentivize their use. But its likely that the number of acres planted wont substantially scale up if the practice doesnt at least break-even in the short term, he added. In the study, Plastina and his colleagues calculated annual net returns to cover crop use by analyzing field data collected through focus groups conducted in Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota; an online survey with responses from 11 states; and a survey mailed to 1,250 farmers in Iowa. Through the survey and focus groups, conducted in partnership with the Practical Farmers of Iowa organization, the researchers compared each farmers costs and revenues from fields where they used cover crops and from fields without cover crops. Working with Plastina were Fernando Miguez, associate professor of agronomy; Fangge Liu and Wendiam Sawadgo, graduate students in economics; Guillermo Marcillo, graduate student in agronomy; and Sarah Carlson, the strategic initiatives director for Practical Farmers of Iowa. Using the survey results, the researchers developed partial budgets to evaluate changes in net returns resulting from using cover crops in corn or soybean production. Overall, the researchers found substantial variability in net returns, driven by the costs of planting and terminating cover crops, feed cost savings from grazing cover crops, cost-share program payments, and the difference in yields obtained in fields with and without cover crops. Cost-share payments are a critical incentive to support the practice of cover crops, Plastina said. But we found that for most farmers, these payments are insufficient to cover all costs associated with cover crops. What can help tilt the balance to a more positive net return? We found that farmers who grazed livestock on cover crops or harvested them for forage or biomass generated sufficient additional revenue or cost savings to result in overall positive returns, in addition to receiving cost-share payments, Plastina said. Promoting the use of cover crops for livestock grazing or forage would help a farmers bottom line. Anecdotally, farmers may find ways to reduce costs and increase revenues, but from our research we can affirm that is not what Iowa farmers are typically experiencing, he said. Also helpful, he added, would be developing improved guidelines to help farmers minimize yield drag on corn and soybeans while containing cover crop planting and termination costs. A less sustainable alternative, due to federal and state budget constraints, would be to consider public policies that provide more incentives to adopt cover crops, like more cost-share payments, subsidized seed, discounted crop insurance premiums or tax credits, Plastina said. Plastina admitted that partial budgets derived on survey data do not account for long-term soil and water quality benefits because no market value exists for soil health or water quality, and neither does a generally accepted method to value them. But this information still provides valuable insight for farmers and policy-makers. The calculated returns are based on real field data, not experimental plots, from row-crop farmers who manage acres with and without cover crops, he said. This information can be a useful benchmark for current and potential cover crop adopters. It also can serve as a reference for discussions on future agricultural and conservation policy. Plastina is developing a website on the economics of cover crops that will include tools for farmers and others to discern potential costs and benefits. The website will include a downloadable spreadsheet with several budget scenarios for cover crops and a simple web-based decision tool to generate estimated net returns to cover crops. He also continues to conduct research, including an evaluation of the effectiveness of cost-share programs in promoting adoption of cover crops. A paper on Plastinas study will be published by the Journal of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. The project was funded by the North Central Region of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NCR-SARE) and the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State. Clint Wardle, Westcoast Wool & Livestock's newly-appointed representative for Kojonup and the Great Southern. PASSION and drive, coupled with extensive industry experience, has given Clint Wardle solid grounding for his recent appointment as Westcoast Wool & Livestock representative for Kojonup and the Great Southern. Mr Wardle grew up on his familys sheep and cattle farm at Qualeup and he cant recall wanting to do anything else but work in agriculture. He completed his final years of high school at the WA College of Agriculture, Denmark and returned home to work on the family farm for four years. He then travelled to the United States, where he worked on a grain and cattle farm and in contract harvesting, travelling from Texas through to Canada. Returning home, he continued farming at Kojonup and established an agricultural contracting business servicing up to 200,000 head per year. In 2013, Mr Wardle, his wife Kylee and their three children sold the property and headed north for a sea change, where Mr Wardle managed a large cropping and livestock property for five years. The opportunity to become part of the Westcoast Wool & Livestock team arose and, being familiar with the area and the company, Mr Wardle jumped at the chance. I had dealt with Westcoast during my time as a farm manager and have always been impressed with the company, Mr Wardle said. Westcoast has a strong leadership group with good vision for how the company should position itself and operate in the competitive livestock marketing industry. While extensive industry experience and local knowledge has allowed him to hit the ground running, he is also well-supported by the wider Westcoast team. Mr Wardle said the Westcoast Katanning depot, which was also the only Australian Wool Testing Authority-accredited wool handling and testing facility in regional WA, provided a central base to expand and develop the livestock network in one of the States strongest livestock areas. Im looking forward to working alongside Reuben Small at Katanning to develop and expand on the exceptional work Rueben has done, he said. The Westcoast Wool & Livestock business, which is locally-owned and operated, has continued to strengthen, with wool receivals up another 12 per cent year-on-year and further significant growth in sheep and cattle numbers handled by the company. The continued success has been attributed to increasing synergy between the companys wool and livestock operations, providing benefits to growers, as well as its thorough approach with all clients. Mr Wardle said he believed livestock was a long-term game that required vision and he was proud to be working for a company with a clear vision for the future. He said it was a positive time to be involved in the industry and he is looking forward to working with producers to help them optimise their marketing returns. The sheep industry is providing producers with some promising returns and the strength of the wool market is undoubtedly providing real confidence for producers to expand and invest in their sheep operations, he said. For those producers who have maintained numbers, a sheep enterprise at present is very low risk, delivering strong gross margins per hectare to rival and complement any grain growing enterprise. Numbers will be the key for the industry to grow and develop. To support the processors and exporters that have been pushing hard and investing to develop and maintain markets, producers need to push-on with confidence and build numbers to grow the industry. 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. VENDORS and buyers celebrated the 30th birthday of the Gingin Bull Sale last week with prices reaching a high of $17,000 for a Black Tara Angus bull. The sale started from humble beginnings at the old Gingin Rodeo Yards in 1989 and has grown into one of the go-to multi-breed bull sales in the State. Last weeks anniversary sale was no different with buyers descending on the sales purpose-built yards at the Gingin Recreation Centre. The sale was again interfaced on AuctionsPlus this year and the top quality catalogue of 76 bulls representing five British and European beef breeds from nine vendors, drew widespread interest from across the State. When the sale got underway there were 47 buyers from Esperance to Geraldton registered and they bid strongly on the bulls that best suited their requirements. While some vendors enjoyed strong sales and clearances, selective buying later in the sale unfortunately saw a number of bulls overlooked which impacted the sales overall clearance and returns. Overall 51 bulls (67 per cent) sold under the Landmark and Elders hammers at an average of $7255 and a gross of $370,000, figures which were all back on last years record-breaking sale. This equated to 16 less bulls selling, with the clearance back 29pc compared to last year, while the average fell $432, resulting in the gross being reduced by $145,000. Last years sale saw 67 from 70 bulls (96pc) sell at auction for an average of $7687. Landmark auctioneer Tiny Holly said it was a sale of mixed results with the Angus bulls selling very well while some of the other breeds were more difficult to sell. The Angus offering was the buyers choice and once again were the flavour of the month and sold well, Mr Holly said. While the results for the Angus breed were back on last year, the line-up of Angus bulls sold in line with other Angus sales this year and there was certainly some good buying among the Angus line-up. Throughout the sale buyers were selective and certainly had a type in mind. Bulls with good figures sold well. They needed more than just the shop front, they had to have figures to back them up. Overall it was a buyers market compared to last years red hot sale. Elders auctioneer Don Morgan agreed saying while the Angus sold well, buyers were particularly selective on breed. There were some exceptionally good Limousin bulls that failed to attract a bid, Mr Morgan said. Its disappointing for the vendors when good cattle dont sell. The cattle market is still very good with manufacturing and young cattle selling well. Last week old bulls (approx 1000kg) sold to $2600 at the Muchea Livestock Centre so $1400 isnt a lot of change over for good young bulls at $4000. The sale got off to a flying start and it wasnt long before the days $17,000 top-price was set when the Kupsch familys Black Tara stud, Allanooka, walked its second bull into the ring. Mr Holly took an opening bid of $6000 on the powerful sire, Black Tara M28, and the price quickly rose and surpassed Mr Hollys opening call of $15,000. In the end it was Gary Buller, Monterey Angus and Murray Grey studs, Karridale, who landed the $17,000 winning bid after a bidding tussle with regular top-end buyer Trevor Kanny, Cherip Holdings, Walkaway. Mr Buller purchased Black Tara M28 (three quarter share and possession) in partnership with the Murray familys Tullibardine Angus stud, Albany. The 872kg, deep bull is AI-bred mid-March 2016 born son of USA sire S Chisum 6175 and out of an AI-bred GAR Yield Grade daughter Black Tara E3. It displayed a solid spread of EBVs with strong maternal data including being in the breeds top five per cent for days to calving (-7.6), top 15pc calving ease (DTRS), top 25pc mature cow weight (MCW) (+103) and milk (+17) along with growth in the top 10-15pc for all intervals, top 5pc carcase weight (CWT) (+77) and top 10pc scrotal (+2.8). Later in the sale the partnership also secured a Kapari bull for $7500. Kapari Malik M66 was born mid-April 2016 and is a son of Koojan Hills Equator F13. It ranked in the top 10pc for 600-day weight and MCW and top 15pc for 400-day weight. Mr Buller said both bulls were complete outcrosses for the Monterey and Tullibardine herds and were selected mainly for type. The Black Tara bull has great depth, length, softness and a terrific hindquarter, he said. Its well balanced with an excellent slick coat and while it had tidy enough figures, it was its type we were looking for. The Kapari bull again had good depth of body and softness, good spine and head, tidy tail set and sheath. It has a handy set of figures and high indexes and the Equator F13 sons in the sale were appealing. They were very even and bred true to type which gives us confidence going forward. p Angus Like other sales this year the Angus breed set the benchmark at the Gingin sale in terms of both average and clearance. In the run, four regular sale vendors combined to offer 50 bulls and with solid support 45 sold under the hammer to top the breed average stakes at $7578. While the average was well up on all the other breeds it was back on last years record sale where 46 from 48 Angus bulls offered, sold for an average of $8652. Interest in the Black Tara bulls went beyond the sales top price, with another nine bulls from the studs team of 11 offered finding new homes to see it finish with an average of $9350 - the best stud average recorded for the sale. Along with the sales $17,000 top price bull the Kupsch family sold another three bulls for $10,000 or more including its lead bull Black Tara M5 (AI) for $10,500 to the Grima family, KA & TB Grima, Mullewa. The 942kg AI-bred son of Connealy Final Product not only showed plenty of style and length in the ring it also ticked all the boxes when it came to its figures. It ranks in the top 5pc of the breed for 200 and 400-day weights (+57 and +101), CWT (+80) and retail beef yield (RBY) (+2.1) as well as top 10pc for 600-day weight (+127) and eye muscle (EMA) (+7.6). Matt Della Gola, Tonebridge Grazing, Tonebridge, made sure he didnt waste his trip up to Gingin, when he secured the deep, muscly Black Tara M41 (AI) for $10,000. The S Chisum son had a bodyweight of 952kg and is in the top 5pc for 200-day weight (+55) and top 10pc 400-day weight (+96). The final bull to make five figures in the Black Tara team was Black Tara M2 (AI) when it sold at $10,000 to the Kanny family, Cherip Holdings. The 892kg son of Connealy Final Product has top carcase figures including +2.2 rib fat (top 5pc),+8 EMA and +1.5 RBY (top 10pc) along with +1.3 rump fat (top 15pc). Buying with the assistance of Primaries Geraldton representative Nick Benson, Tebco Fishing, Dongara, secured two Black Tara Angus bulls. It paid $8000 for Black Tara M21 (AI) and $5000 for Black Tara M22 (AI), which are both sons of Connealy Final Product. M22 is in the top 5pc of the breed for EMA at +10. The Sudlow familys Kapari Angus stud, Northampton, was again the sales biggest individual vendor with a team of 27 bulls. Strong support for the States most northern-based Angus stud resulted in all 27 bulls being cleared under the hammer at an average of $7889 and to a top of $12,000, which was the second top price in the sale. The studs $12,000 top price was paid by return buyers Sue Forrester and Sefton Todd, Durawah Pastoral and Livestock Carriers, Chapman Valley, for Kapari Traction M16 (AI). M16, a late-March born AI-bred bull by JMB Traction 292, showed a top hindquarter to go with plenty of depth and muscling in the ring. Along with plenty of eye appeal, Traction M16 had the figures to back it up, ranking in the top 10pc for 400-day weight (+93) and EMA (+7.4), top 15pc for rump fat (+1.2) along with top 20pc 200-day weight (+49) and CWT (+68). Mr Todd said Traction M16 was the bull they really wanted and decided they would up what they were going to pay just before it entered the ring. I picked him out of the catalogue on his figures and when I saw him I knew he was the one, Mr Todd said. He just stood out to us, he is a good square bull and is well set up. In terms of his figures he has a low birthweight (+3.9), a good EMA, good rib and rump figures and he is also good for milk and docility. Our aim is to use him over our Angus and Santa Gertrudis cross heifers this season. Ms Forrester said this year they would mate 120 Angus and Santa Gertrudis cross cows and 56 heifers and their aim is to get to a pure Angus herd in the coming years. The next best price in the Kapari team was $11,000 and two bulls reached this level. The first bull from Kapari to sell for $11,000 was the studs team leader Kapari Traction M17 (AI) in lot 13. The JMB Traction 292 son, which showed off plenty of stretch, depth and muscling in the ring, was purchased by HJ & K Stokes & Sons Pty Ltd, Mingenew. Along with being easy on the eye Traction M17 didnt disappoint on the figure front either as it ranks in the top 5pc of the breed for 200, 400 and 600-day weights, milk and carcase weight. It has an Angus Breeding Index of +$142 and a domestic index of +$128, which are both in the top 5pc. The operation also secured another two Kapari bulls at $9500 and $6500 to finish with a team of three at an average of $9000. Return Kapari buyers the Alp family, RHG & BS Alp, Gingin, secured the second Kapari bull to make $11,000 when they had the final bid on Kapari Mavrick M22. Mavrick M22 is by Koojan Hills Equator F13 and has growth EBVs of +43, +84 and +110 for 200, 400 and 600-day weights which are all above the breed average. Another return buyer to bid up strongly on the Kapari team was Mt Samuel, Mingenew, which purchased three sires to a top of $10,000 and an average of $8333. The Mingenew operation paid $10,000 for an Ardrossan Justice J93 son, Kapari Justice M48 (AI). Justice M48 stood out with its carcase figures of +7.5 EMA which ranked it in the top 10pc of the breed along with positive fats of +2.4 rib and +2.8 rump which place it in the top 5pc. Rounding out the Kapari bulls to sell at five figures was the final bull offered by the stud, Kapari Malt M96, when it was knocked down to Cosgrove Farming Co, Mingenew. Malt M96 is by homebred sire Kapari Thunderbird K54 and is in the top 10pc for docility at +20. Cosgrove Farming also picked up a Te Mania Infinity 04 379 son, Kapari Infinity M47 (AI) for $8000. The volume buyer in the Kapari run securing six sires to a top of $8000 and an average of $6750 were the Vlahov family, TI & AM Vlahov, Geraldton, who join 500 breeders annually which are near pure Angus. Buyer Rodney Vlahov said the family had been buying from the stud for more than a decade and liked using Kapari bulls because they were suited to their environment and their progeny grew well in the northern conditions. We like the Angus breed because there are plenty of marketing opportunities for our calves from the domestic market through to the live export market, Mr Vlahov said. They really sell themselves and our calves are always in demand. Along with assistance from Kaparis Tony and Ian Sudlow in helping to improve their herd, Mr Vlahov said production specialist Dr Paul Wynhuston from Great Southern Veterinary Services, Mt Barker, had helped increased the production in their cattle herd. The Topham familys Cookalabi stud, Coomberdale, presented its usual team of 10 sires and sold seven under the hammer to a top of $5500 and an average of $4357. The studs $5500 top price was paid by McLarty Bros, Pinjarra, when it secured Cookalabi M50. The Ardcairnie J29 son was good in the fats ranking in the top 10pc of the breed with figures of +1.5 rib fat and +1.8 rump fat. M50 is also above breed average for 200, 400 and 600-day weights with EBVs of +49, +84 and +110, along with MCW (+94), CWT (+63) and EMA (+6.1). The Pinjarra operation also paid $7500 earlier in the sale for a Kapari bull. The next best price in the Cookalabi team was $5000 for Cookalabi M2 when it was knocked down to Mt Gerazim Farms, Dandaragan. M2 is sired by Cookalabi J50 and ranks in the top 10pc of the breed for docility (+22) and is above breed average for growth with EBVs of +46, +84 and +110 for 200, 400 and 600-day weights. The Dandaragan operation also paid $4000 for Cookalabi M54, an Ardcairnie H134 son, which ranks in the top 5pc of the breed for rib (+2.0) and rump (+2.1) fat. Also securing two bulls from the Cookalabi team both at $4000 was I & J Minty & Sons. The operation purchased a Koojan Hills Elevator J149 son and an Ardcairnie J29 son which both ranked in the top 5pc of the breed for docility. The Collard familys Warringah stud, Gingin, rounded out the Angus offering with a team of two bulls. They sold one at auction, Warringah Old Post M25, for $4000 to GA & PA Martin & Son, Badgingarra. Old Post M25 is by Diamond Tree Old Post G91 and is in the top 10pc for RBY at +1.6. p Limousin The Limousins were next up with a combined offering of 11 bulls from two regular vendors, Tara stud, Allanooka and Woronyne stud, Wongan Hills. Unfortunately it was tough going for the auctioneering team throughout this years Limousin offering. In complete contrast to last year where the breed received solid support resulting in a 100pc clearance of the bulls on offer, it wasnt until the second last Limousin bull entered the ring this year did buyers show any interest. In the end only two Limousin bulls sold from the offering of 11 at the $4000 reserve price. The two bulls that sold were both from the Kupsch familys Tara stud offering of six bulls and both were purchased by return buyer Lindsay Payne, Linsmau stud, Bullsbrook. Mr Payne purchased Tara M38 and Tara M51, which were both polled, apricot-coloured sons of Tara E016. M38 weighed 860kg and has growth figures of +17, +30 and +41 for 200, 400 and 600-day weights while the 850kg M51 has growth numbers of +24, +38 and +53 for 200, 400 and 600-day weights. Mr Payne runs 150 Shorthorn breeders and has been using Limousin bulls over his Shorthorns for eight years with great results. I get all apricot coloured calves and there is very little difference between the steer and heifers calves when it comes to their weights and muscle patterns, Mr Payne said. As a result I am getting extra dollars for my heifers and there are more buyers operating on them compared to when I was just selling pure Shorthorn calves. This selling season Mr Payne sold 100 Limousin-Shorthorn cross calves over six weeks through the Muchea Livestock Centre and on every occasion his calves topped the market. Mr Payne said he really liked Tara Limousin bulls because they were bomb proof. They are quiet bulls with great temperaments and are producing equally as quiet calves that are soft with plenty of muscling, he said. p Gelbvieh The WA College of Agriculture Morawas Mowag Gelbvieh stud this year offered up one May 2016-drop sire and it was quickly snapped up at $5500. Taking home Mowag Mufusa M502 at the $5500 price tag was the Grima family, KA & TB Grima, Mullewa. Buyer Kane Grima said it was the first time the family had purchased a Gelbvieh bull for their herd of 300 breeders which is made up of a range of breeds. We were looking for another breed to add in some more hybrid vigour to our herd and we also wanted a low birthweight bull as it will be used over Angus and Limousin cross heifers, Mr Grima said. Mufusa M502 is by JDPD Astro 407S and has EBVs of -2.4 birthweight as well as +12, +32 (top 5pc of the breed) and +28 for 200, 400 and 600-day weights. The Grima family background their calves before running them through a feedlot on the property. They are then sold at 14-15 months old out the feedlot to the best market at the time. p Murray Grey The Stickland familys Mungatta stud, Wongan Hills, was the only Murray Grey stud to offer bulls in the Murray Grey portion of the catalogue again this year and its offering consisted of a team of 12 bulls. Throughout the Mungatta run the auctioneering team did find the going hard and when the last bull left the ring only three had been sold under the hammer at an average of $5167. The top price in the Mungatta offering was $5500 paid by first-time buyer at the sale Peter Scott, Scott Grazing, East Chapman, for Mungatta Qandahar M44. The 816kg, late March 2016-drop bull is by Mungatta Nicholson J25 and ranks in the top 10pc of the breed for growth with EBVs of +32, +50 and +68 for 200, 400 and 600-day weights. Mr Scott said they were looking to inject some hybrid vigour into their Red Poll cow herd with the Murray Greys without compromising temperament and herd maintenance. He said the Red Polls are a gentle low maintenance breed that are easy on fences and gates without a lot of calving issues and hopes the Murray Greys will also fit this mould. The Scotts calve down their cows from May to June and sell their weaned calves to the local feeder market when they reach 280kg. The other two bulls to sell in the Mungatta line-up both made $5000. Consistent Mungatta buyers Mikkelsen & Wilson purchased a 814kg Monterey Elegant Lad E265 son, Mungatta Quaker M14, at $5000. Quaker M14 ranks in the top 1pc of the breed for 200 and 600-day weights with EBVs of +38 and +83 along with top 5pc for 400-day weight (+58) and top 10pc for CWT (+42) and EMA (+2.4). Mungatta Quark M28 was the third Mungatta sire to sell and it was purchased at $5000 by Coolup producers G & C White, who bought with the assistance of Landmark Harvey representative Ralph Mosca. The 750kg Quark M28 is also sired by Monterey Elegant Lad E265. Muresk student Elly Mckenney has gone from a shearing shed to a university degree after her father gave her some wise words. A PUSH in the right direction was all young gun Elly Mckenney, 21, needed to fall into the agricultural industry. Some people are lucky enough to be born into the industry and others stumble into it. Elly was one of those people who, at the age of 15, found herself working in a shearing shed and the start of her agriculture journey. Now she finds herself completing her third year in a Bachelor of Agricultural Business Management through Charles Sturt University at the Muresk Campus. Born in Albany in 1996, Elly moved with her parents to Frankland, where her father, who was originally from a sheep farm in Kojonup, was planting vineyards and her mother working as a rousabout. When Elly was two, her family moved north to Hooley station in the Pilbara, where they managed the station for a year. Continuing north, the Mckenney family found themselves in the Kimberleys, with Ellys mother working as a cook and her father at the tyre shop in Kununurra. By the age of three, Elly had moved from the bottom of WA to the very top of the State. I completed kindergarten to the first part of year seven at Kununurra District High School, and we left the Kimberleys when I was 11, Elly said. Kununurra to Busselton was a big move for Elly, starting at a new school, where she stayed for a short three months before their move to Geraldton. While in Busselton, Elly helped her uncles and mother on the family farm feeding calves before school. Elly went to Geraldton Grammar School for the second half of year seven and year eight before the financial downturn took her fathers job on the mines. In September 2009 they packed up again and moved to Lake Grace. By the age of 12 Elly had seen most of regional WA and was ready to settle in one place. Lake Grace is still the residing home of the Mckenney family with her parents running the local tyre shop. The Great Southern area has provided Elly with the experience and motivation she needed to be where she is today. After finishing year eight and nine at Lake Grace High School, in 2011 Elly went to boarding school at Great Southern Grammar, Albany. Dad said I came back to Lake Grace with an attitude problem, I didnt think I had one but dad was dead set I did because I wasnt interested in school, she said. He said if you arent going to pull your head in you can go working, and I spent the entire summer as a roustabout. Elly said she was 15 and into a shearing shed where it was a sink or swim, just deal with it situation. When Elly left school at 16 she never intended of going to university due to her dislike of formal education. The shearing shed was the first introduction to the agriculture industry and it ignited a flame in her that has progressed into a Bachelor of Agricultural Business Management. She spent a year in shearing sheds around the Lake Grace area, where she said she found it interesting how wool was affected by certain stages of its life. I realised I can be a rousabout my whole life, which is fine, in saying that I really couldnt progress anywhere, she said. When Elly came out of her teenage years she was looking for more purpose in life after her carefree attitude. Elly said she got to the point where she realised she needed to do something better with herself. I ended up with a job in town at Primaries and I lost the interest in shearing sheds the older I got, Elly said. She worked as the sales admin and store assistant with entry level jobs until she started to show interest in other opportunities. Getting herself around people in the industry, and learning about farming in depth was the first step in Ellys move to Muresk. Elly said Primaries was great because she had access to different stud information and the way they recorded things and the value of special traits. Primaries helped to train me in livestock and sent me on different courses to progress me to the next step, she said. The size of the company meant Elly had the opportunity to explore different areas in agriculture. It was then she realised she could work for 13 years and progress a little bit in the company, or she could get herself a degree and she could sell herself better as a professional in her field. I wanted the degree that tells me I can understand the law talk, I understand how farms work, I understand in depth what the producers and customers want, she said. Elly won a Primaries scholarship which helped to pay for two semesters of board at Muresk, which she said has helped financially as she started her third year last week. Its a great degree because it gives you a good starting block, with crops, pastures, animal science or whatever you want to branch into, she said. The opportunities to study breeding or you can get an agronomy traineeship from this in either horticulture, broadacre or forestry. On the first day at university Elly said she was definitely more interested in livestock and especially cattle, which she is still interested in, although she isnt sure if its now 100 per cent what she wants to do. She hopes to travel Australia after university and plans to use her experiences to work in different aspects of the industry including export, domestic and station work. Something that spun me out was my interest in horticulture agronomy, especially with horticulture being an industry that is screaming for people to build knowledge in depth, she said. Elly said she was interested in how people were heading into alternative farming practices, such as running two crops at the same time. I have never had to grow up on a farm that is three generations of cropping the same thing over and over again, she said. I grew up in an Ag area in the Kimberley, where they are still trying new things up there at the moment. Elly said she has never had more opportunities than she does now, whether she finds herself in business or agriculture. In 2013 Elly started showing dairy cattle which she still finds herself doing today. People asked me if I would help out as a handler and others were willing to help me find my feet, she said. In 2016 she went to the Angus Youth Roundup in Armadale, New South Wales, one of the biggest cattle camps in the southern hemisphere, where she was sponsored by the WA Angus Committee. Last year I was the leader for WA Youth Cattle Handlers Camp in the dairy section, after being an attendee for two years prior in the beef section, she said. Elly believes there is no industry more willing to help than people in agriculture and she is lucky to have found herself in such an accepting environment. Any time I ask a question, someone is always willing to help or at least try and point me in the right direction, which is why I love it, she said. Anti-corruption is and will remain firmly on the agenda, said UK Serious Fraud Office director David Green at a recent GoodCorporation business ethics debate at the House of Lords in London. Endorsing the Kofi Annan description of corruption as an insidious plague that undermines the rule of law and distorts the market, Green urged regulators to turn a deaf ear to pleas that bribes are the price for doing business in certain parts of the world. Bribery is not a necessary evil in the marketplace. Business must accept that there may be some jurisdictions in which business cannot be done. Green said. Active enforcement will continue to be a focus for the SFO, which has access to blockbuster funding from the UK Treasury to support major investigations. Businesses were urged to report any discovery of corrupt practices. Failure to do so would prevent access to a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA). UK DPAs are not some form of cosy agreement between the prosecuting and defense counsel, Green said. They must be argued before and approved by a judge. Damascene conversions will not be acceptable to the SFO; self-reporting is and will remain an essential precondition of a DPA. For UK-based companies, the Bribery Act has clearly had a significant impact, leading to a considerable investment in and improvement of the systems and processes to prevent corruption. Concerns raised by business representatives included that they feel over a barrel; required to report rather than being given the time to investigate internally to ascertain whether or not there is a case to answer. Guilty or innocent, once under investigation businesses are likely to see a negative impact on share price, so for many, reporting may not be considered in the companys best interests. There is also a concern that reporting will put the senior executive at risk of criminal prosecution. Despite the mitigation that DPAs offer, many legal teams will struggle to persuade a board to report and consequently put themselves at personal risk. It was suggested that extending DPAs to individuals could therefore have a significant impact on the willingness of companies to self-report. The significant efforts of the SFO to establish a clearer and more consistent framework for the prosecution of corruption were welcomed. This is evidently the direction of travel for the SFO and despite the challenges that implementing effective anti-corruption procedures may pose, their approach is likely to benefit those companies determined to stamp out corruption. _____ Gareth Thomas is a director of GoodCorporation. He leads the firms work in anti-corruption and data protection. Hes a graduate of the London School of Economics and has a PhD in economic geography from Kings College London. GoodCorporation offers a range of corporate responsibility assessments and consultancy services, covering ethical management practices, anti-bribery & corruption, code of conduct audits, due diligence of intermediaries, mystery customer reviews, ethics training and a range of additional corporate responsibility services. A couple who were filmed having sex on a beach in Thailand could face a prison sentence. Couple filmed having sex on beach Police have launched a hunt for the tourists who couldn't resist but get intimate on Dongtan Beach after a night of partying, the Metro newspaper reported. Although the identities of the couple are unknown, police believe they are of Western origin. In the video, the woman can be seen lying on her back while the man stands over her. Onlookers say that they couple had sex for around three minutes before people started shouting at them and they ran away down the beach. Police Colonel Apichai Krobpetch, superintendent at Pattaya police station, said: ''This happened in a public place where many tourists go to relax. ''The scene is in front of the Pattaya Marine Rescue Center. I do not know where the tourists come from but officers are pursuing them in order to protect the reputation of the area. ''Police will investigate this and prosecute the people involved. This is very negative for the area. ''We have spoken to many witnesses are we are pursuing the offenders. It is a crime to have sex in public like this and they will be punished.'' If the couple are caught, they could face a fine of 5,000 baht (115) and could even be sent to prison. Unusual skeletal remains with just three fingers and toes have been hinted at being aliens. Alien discovery The remains, found in Peru along with a nine-month-old baby, have been named Maria by a research team who reveal that their find is humanoid - having 23 chromosomes - but they suggest there are unhuman things about the remains. Professor Konstantin Korotkov, from the Russian National Research University, told Sputnik News: ''Each of the little mummies has two arms, two legs, a head, a pair of eyes and a mouth. ''Tomographic scans reveal their skeletons. ''The tissue has biological nature and their chemical composition indicates that they are humans. ''Their DNA features 23 pairs of chromosomes, just like we have. All the four of them are males, each with a Y-chromosome. ''They appear human but they are not. Their anatomic structure is different. They could be extra-terrestrials or bio robots. ''Maria and [baby] Vavita could have been representatives of a certain race which had possibly reached a stage of advancement much earlier than we did. ''Maybe thousands of years earlier.'' A couple have been ordered in court to choose a different name for their baby girl - or a judge will pick one for them. Baby named banned The pair in France wanted to name their daughter Liam, but the French Government took issue with them wanting to pick a traditionally masculine moniker for a girl. As reported by the Local, it's said authorities were worried the name ''would be likely to create a risk of gender confusion''. Meanwhile, the prosecutor added that it was ''contrary to the interest of the child and could harm her in her social relations'', and a judge was told to ban the parents from using the name. If they do not come up with an alternative, the judge will choose one for them - although the parents plan to fight the decision. France is notoriously strict on baby names, having banned the likes of Manhattan, Strawberry and Nutella in the past. Debbie McGee is ready to find love two years after losing her husband Paul Daniels. Debbie McGee The 59-year-old performer was left heartbroken after she lost her husband of 28 years in March 2016 following the TV magician's diagnosis with a brain tumor. Debbie won the hearts of the British public with her efforts on the last series of 'Strictly Come Dancing' with her professional partner Giovanni Pernice and now she's ready to open her heart to someone new who could embrace her age-defying "energy". Speaking to HELLO! magazine, she said: "I don't want to be on my own for the rest of my life. If someone asked me out I would consider it. I love male company, am full of energy and don't want to be stuck at home alone. Although I have male friends that take me out for lunches and dinners, I wouldn't describe them as dates. Nobody has actually asked me out yet, but when they do, I'll go. That's how I deal with life, by taking it as it comes." Debbie - who worked as Paul's on stage assistant - believes her late husband would be "proud" of the fact she hasn't let his death stand in the way of the opportunities life has presented to her since his passing. And the glamorous blonde insists work has helped her get over her grief from losing Paul at the age of 77. She explained: "If Paul could see me now he would be so proud and happy of me. I'm having the greatest time and feel like the luckiest person in the world." Revealing her determination and motivation to keep working, she added: "It's how I cope, it just gives me something to get up for and helps me not to think about who is no longer there and to focus on something different and new. When you're going through hard times, I've found that it's best to be thankful for what you've got and to tell yourself, 'I'm going to make the best of this day that I can.'" Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category FAIRFIELD (dpa-AFX) - General Electric Co. (GE) didn't pay a cash bonus for 2017 to its top executives at corporate headquarters, which it said was the first time in the company's 125-year history. The company said in a regulatory filing that its board withheld the 2017 bonuses and canceled some 2015 equity awards that executives would have partly received. It cited the conglomerate's struggles last year, which forced GE to slash its dividend, cut thousands of jobs and overhaul its leadership. John Flannery, who took over as CEO on August 1 with a $2 million annual salary, received $9 million in total compensation for 2017, including stock options and changes in values in his pension plan. Flannery earned $1.6 million in salary in 2016 when he was CEO of the GE Healthcare division. Former CEO Jeff Immelt received $8.1 million in total compensation last year, down from $21.3 million in 2016. Mr. Immelt, who led the company for 16 years and retired as chairman in October, didn't receive any severance payments. GE said it was changing its executive compensation program for 2018, eliminating a long-term cash incentive program and lowering the amount of cash salary paid to Mr. Flannery compared with Mr. Immelt. The company also is tying equity awards to total shareholder return. Bonuses for employees of each operating business will be funded based on segment performance, rather than overall company performance. The company disclosed on Monday that in February it awarded 800,000 performance share units to the new CEO that will vest in three years. It also awarded 200,000 performance share units to Jamie Miller, who took over as finance chief on Nov. 1. The shares underlying the equity awards were valued at $12 million and $3 million, respectively, based on where the stock was trading in February. The company said the grants were delayed from the fall to give the board more time to consider the appropriate performance metrics and targets. Over all, GE said it funded its corporate bonus pool at 24% of its plan last year. The only senior executive to receive a cash bonus for 2017 was David Joyce, the Cincinnati-based head of GE Aviation, which makes jet engines. Mr. Joyce received a cash bonus of $1.4 million and total compensation of $5.2 million in 2017, less than half of what he received the year before. Jeff Bornstein, who officially stepped aside as CFO on November 1, received $6.9 million in total compensation for 2017, excluding $7.7 million worth of restricted stock awards that he received earlier in the year but were canceled when he resigned. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Preview of Rail + Metro China 2018 SHANGHAI, March 13,2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The2018 Shanghai International Rail Transit Exhibition(Rail+Metro China 2018), which is produced by Shanghai Shentong Metro Group and Shanghai Intex Exhibition Co., Ltd., will be held attheShanghai New International Expo Center from November 7-9, 2018. I. Rail Transit Market in China Has Strong Breakthrough with Large Market Scale for Years By the end of December 2017, 33 cities in China had rail transit and the total mileage exceeded 4,500 miles. By the year 2020, the operating mileage of urban rail transit in China is expected to reach 7,700 miles. In terms of railways, the operating mileage of railways throughout the country has exceeded 120,000 miles; the operating mileage of high-speed railways has reached 25,000 miles, which tops the world. China's rail transit market will remain attractive to all the industrial participants globally in the foreseeable future. II. Four Major Development Trends Stand Out from Pursuing to Leading the World Urban rail transit in China has developed towards large-scale, networked structure, diversified systems, intellectualized equipment and independent technology in recent years. Mid-volume and diversified railway systems have been developed fast. A larger market has attracted more stakeholders such as BYD Group, Alibaba (Alipay), Baidu and Tencentto start to take part in the business. Cashless payment and face scan payment have been applied to various cities and have vastly changed people's payment patterns. III. Grasping Market Direction and Getting All that Railway CompaniesWant at Rail + Metro China 2018 Rail+Metro China is always dedicated to promptly conveying the most practical industry information and building an integrated trade platform. Over 200 exhibitors will attend the show, and 20,000 visitors are expected to participate in the show. CRRC Corporation, Bombardier Transportation Group, Alstom and BYD Group are showcasing the latest technologies and products. Shanghai International Railway and Rail Transit Conference will be held in conjunction. This year's conference will focus onhigh-speed railway, interurban railway, inner-city (suburb) railway, urban rail transit and 'the Belt and Road' initiative. Over 200 industry leaders and experts will participate in keynote speeches. 2018's show will hit a new high from every aspect and bring together all the industry's leading figures. For Media Inquiriesis Miss Annie Shi +86-21-6295-2073 shianan@shanghai-intex.com Sydney, Australia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 12, 2018) - Austral Gold Limited (ASX: AGD) (TSXV: AGLD) (the "Company") advises that effective 13 March 2018 the Company will change its Registered Office and Principal Place of Business to: Suite 2, Level 10 70 Phillip Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia About Austral Gold Austral Gold Limited is a growing precious metals mining, development and exploration company building a portfolio of quality assets in Chile and Argentina. The Company's flagship Guanaco mine in Chile is operated with the Amancaya mine with processing of ore from both mines at a new agitation leach plant at Guanaco. There is significant exploration upside at and around both operations, with a new vein discovery at Amancaya. The Company also owns 70% and is operator of the underground silver-gold Casposo mine in San Juan, Argentina. With an experienced local technical team and highly regarded major shareholder, Austral's goal is to continue to strengthen its asset base through acquisition and discovery. Austral Gold Limited is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV:AGLD), and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: AGD). For more information, please consult the company's website: www.australgold.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. For additional information please contact: Andrew Bursill Company Secretary Austral Gold Limited info@australgold.com.au Photos: Using the Creative Digital Space technology in collaborative learning Screen: Visualization of the activity process displayed on a dashboard Fujitsu Limited Public and Investor Relations Tel: +81-3-6252-2176 URL: www.fujitsu.com/global/news/contacts/ TOKYO, Mar 13, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - The Center for Advanced School Education and Evidence-Based Research (CASEER), an institution affiliated with the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Education and the Secondary School attached to the Faculty of Education, the University of Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced the launch of a joint field trial to visualize students' activities during active learning using Creative Digital Space User-Interface (UI) technology developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, which can digitalize an entire room. The trial will be conducted in classes at the Secondary School from April 10, 2018 through March 20, 2019.Creative Digital Space technology turns shared spaces, including walls and desks, into wholly interactive spaces, enabling participants to discuss and share on large screens materials carried in smart devices or notes taken on digital sticky notes. For this field trial, Fujitsu developed new technology to visualize data for activities conducted in the UI technology space, recording the flow of communication during group activities in the form of time lines based on information shared on smart devices and the creation and operation of digital notes, as well as the number of people involved. This will enable teachers to review their lessons as they can understand, based on the activity status of each individual student, the process that led to their final results.Through this field trial, CASEER and the Secondary School will develop new methods for cooperative learning, improving teaching quality. The Fujitsu Group will analyze data from this trial, including collected activity data, in order to develop technology to improve and invigorate in-person communication, delivering services that can be broadly used in educational or professional settings.http://www.acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_CreativeDigitalSpaceTechnology.jpgPhotos: Using the Creative Digital Space technology in collaborative learningBackgroundOn the front lines of education in recent years, as part of an effort to promote active learning in which students proactively express their own thoughts, classes have begun to incorporate collaborative learning, with groups working together on a problem. In collaborative learning, the process leading to the final result is also an important aspect of student evaluation. However, because the usual method uses tools such as paper, pencils, and blackboards, it has been difficult to capture the flow of the process that enabled the students to arrive at their final results.CASEER and the Secondary School attached to the Faculty of Education have been researching methods for collaborative learning since 2006, and focusing on the effectiveness of utilizing ICT, they have been conducting collaborative learning lessons in classrooms equipped with Creative Digital Space technology since fiscal 2017. Now, by visualizing the communication in collaborative learning, teachers will be able to grasp the student's individual actions and the entire process of the learning, which is expected to lead to the development of new methods for collaborative learning.Details of the Field Trial1. Trial PeriodPlanned for April 10, 2018 - March 20, 20192. Trial ClassesClasses with group work projects planned for third and fourth year students at the Secondary School3. ObjectiveThis trial aims to capture the process that led to the students' final results by visualizing the flow of communication between students, and between students and the teacher during collaborative learning. It will use this information to discover new methods for evaluating collaborative learning, such as the optimal number of students in a group, group composition that makes use of each student's characteristic, the ways classes are conducted, and training for teachers.4. About Creative Digital Space TechnologyMultiple sets of projectors and cameras will be deployed in a classroom, converting the entire space into a unified digital window system. Users can transmit information from smart devices they bring with them to the virtual screens projected onto desks and walls, and can take notes on digital sticky notes and share them between users. Moreover, using cameras to read the movements of digital pens, users can write on the virtual screens, and with a simple gesture, can send pictures projected onto a desk to a nearby wall.Now, Fujitsu has added activity data collection technology to existing spatial UI technical capabilities, where the contents and creation/operation history of digital notes, as well as the number of people involved in such activities are linked into a time line. This enables the user to visualize the flow of communication on a dashboard.5. Field Trial DetailsThe system will collect the information students look up on their smart devices, the notes they take in digital sticky notes, and the actions they take with such digital data during collaborative learning classes, and organize them into a time line. This will visualize such facts as who transmitted what sort of information and when, as well as how group members reacted in response.Teachers will use this data to review their lessons, looking at student actions during the lesson that led to good results, the appropriate team composition, and teaching directions, based on the records of communication between the teacher and students, with the goal of invigorating collaborative learning. In addition, the trial will analyze the collected data, and use it to develop technology to improve communication and evaluate its effectiveness.http://www.acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_VisualizationofActivityProcess.jpgScreen: Visualization of the activity process displayed on a dashboardFuture PlansCASEER and the Secondary School will develop new methods for collaborative learning using the insights gained in this trial.Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories will aggregate collaborative learning data from on-site in the school into the cloud, and use it to develop analysis technologies in order to increase activity on the ground. In addition, Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories will offer services that can be used in a variety of industries and fields, not just on the front lines of education, invigorating on-site communication.About Fujitsu LaboratoriesFounded in 1968 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. is one of the premier research centers in the world. With a global network of laboratories in Japan, China, the United States and Europe, the organization conducts a wide range of basic and applied research in the areas of Next-generation Services, Computer Servers, Networks, Electronic Devices and Advanced Materials. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/jp/group/labs/en/.About Fujitsu LtdFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 155,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.5 trillion yen (US$40 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.* Please see this press release, with images, at:http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/Source: Fujitsu LtdContact:Copyright 2018 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. LONDON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Avillion, a drug development company focused on the co-development and financing of pharmaceutical candidates from proof-of-concept through to regulatory approval, has signed a clinical co-development agreement with Pearl Therapeutics Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the AstraZeneca Plc group, to advance PT027 through a global clinical development programme for the treatment of asthma. PT027 is an investigational fixed dose combination of budesonide (an inhaled corticosteroid) and albuterol (a short-acting beta-2 agonist). Avillion will be responsible for developing PT027 through an extensive clinical development programme and will finance the programme through to regulatory approval. No financial terms are disclosed. Allison Jeynes-Ellis, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Avillion, said: "This new collaboration is another great example of how our innovative clinical development model and exceptional operational capabilities can be used to bolster the productivity of our partners' development pipeline. We have already demonstrated the success of our approach in our partnerships with Pfizer and Merck KGaA. We are looking forward to initiating this exciting clinical development programme for PT027 in asthma." About Avillion Avillion is a drug development company with an innovative business model focusing on the clinical co-development and regulatory approval of pharmaceutical products. Avillion offers a compelling opportunity to partner assets from post proof-of-concept through to regulatory approval globally and to accelerate their development and hence availability to patients. Avillion's objective is to enable its partners to continue to develop the drug candidates in their pipeline whilst maintaining quality data, and without increasing financial burden. Avillion can achieve this by incurring 100% of the clinical and regulatory risk, while advancing the development of these assets in return for milestone and royalty payments on the commercialisation of successfully developed products. To date, Avillion has entered into co-development agreements under both US and EU accounting principles (GAAP and IFRS). The company has advanced Pfizer's BOSULIF(bosutinib) successfully through Phase 3 trials and provided the clinical data used to gain accelerated US approval to expand its use in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia. Avillion is also undertakinga global clinical programme with Pearl Therapeutics (a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca) with PT027 in asthma and Phase 2 trials with Merck's anti IL-17 A/F Nanobodyin plaque psoriasis. Avillion was founded in 2012 and is backed by Abingworth, Clarus Ventures and Royalty Pharma. www.avillionllp.com "Avillion" is Bond Avillion 2 Development LP. Sosei Group ("Sosei" or the "Company"; TOKYO Mothers Index: 4565), the world leader in GPCR medicine design and development, announced that it has regained worldwide rights from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. ("Teva") to develop and commercialize lead candidate HTL0022562 and other novel small molecule CGRP antagonists for the treatment of migraine and other severe headaches. HTL0022562 is a novel, potent, and highly selective small molecule CGRP antagonist designed by Sosei's wholly-owned subsidiary Heptares Therapeutics ("Heptares") using its proprietary structure-based drug design platform. The candidate emerged from a rigorous selection process under the alliance with Teva based on its highly differentiated preclinical data. The first dosing in a Phase 1 clinical trial in healthy volunteers was expected in late 2018. Sosei will now undertake a detailed review of the programs and update the market later this year on the new expected timing for HTL0022562's entry into Phase 1 clinical trials following a formal handover from Teva. The termination of the 2015 licensing and drug discovery agreement between Heptares and Teva is a result of Teva's recent portfolio prioritization. All licensed rights relating to the CGRP antagonist programs will be returned to Sosei. As part of the reversion package, Sosei will also receive the full preclinical data set generated by Teva under the partnership. In regaining the worldwide development and commercialization rights there is no immediate or material financial impact to Sosei. Going forward, as a wholly-owned pipeline program, Sosei will be responsible for the costs associated with developing HTL0022562 or any other small molecule CGRP antagonists. "Heptares' technologies and know-how provided unique structural insights concerning the interaction between CGRP and its receptor, enabling the design of a portfolio of differentiated, potent and selective small molecule CGRP antagonist candidates. The joint project activities of both companies have led to the selection and progression through preclinical development of HTL0022562 as the preferred candidate," commented Dr. Malcolm Weir, Chief R&D Officer of Sosei. "Thanks to this excellent work by the combined teams under the alliance, and following the return of the assets, we are now well positioned to rapidly progress HTL0022562 into the clinic as part of our wholly-owned pipeline. HTL0022562 has very interesting and differentiated properties compared to other small molecule and antibody antagonists, and we look forward to continuing its development." "Sosei is extremely pleased to regain worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of HTL0022562 and the CGRP program," said Peter Bains, CEO of Sosei. "It provides Sosei with another high-quality preclinical candidate to add to our expanding wholly-owned development pipeline. With c.$280 million of cash on balance sheet1, we are well positioned to take this candidate forward and capture greater value for our shareholders." 1 As at 31 December 2017 Notes to Editors About CGRP Antagonists for Migraine and Other Severe Headaches Calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP) is released during migraine attacks and can trigger migraine in patients. CGRP is found in small to medium sized neurons in the trigeminal ganglion of the brain and mediates its activity through G protein-coupled receptors located throughout the body. Elevated levels of CGRP are found in people with migraine during an attack and blocking CGRP activity is a validated mechanism of action for relieving pain, and also for preventing migraine. About Migraine Approximately 36 million people in the United States and 8 million people in Japan suffer from migraine. Migraine is three times more common in women than in men and affects more than 10 percent of people worldwide. Migraine is defined as recurring attacks of moderate to severe headache pain, typically one-sided, throbbing and worse with activity. The International Headache Society defines chronic migraine as more than 15 headache days per month over a three-month period of which more than eight are migraine, in the absence of medication over use. Episodic migraine is the other migraine sub-type, which is defined as less than 15 headache days per month. During migraine, people can experience varying characteristics such as being very sensitive to light and sound, or experiencing nausea and vomiting. There is no absolute cure for migraine since its pathophysiology has yet to be fully understood. About Sosei Sosei is an international biopharmaceutical company focused on the design and development of new medicines originating from its proprietary GPCR-targeted StaR technology and structure-based drug design platform capabilities. The Company is advancing a broad and deep pipeline of partnered and wholly owned product candidates in multiple therapeutic areas, including CNS, cancer, metabolic diseases and other rare/specialty indications. The Company's leading clinical programs include a proprietary Phase 2 candidate for dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) in Japan, together with partnered candidates aimed at the symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's disease (with Allergan) and immuno-oncology approaches to treat cancer (with AstraZeneca). Sosei's additional partners and collaborators include Novartis, Teva, Pfizer, Daiichi-Sankyo, PeptiDream, Kymab and MorphoSys. The Company is headquartered in Japan with R&D facilities in the UK. Sosei is listed on the Mothers Index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4565). For more information, please visit http://www.sosei.com/en/. Forward-looking statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the discovery, development and commercialisation of products. Various risks may cause Sosei's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: adverse results in clinical development programs; failure to obtain patent protection for inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance partners to develop and commercialise products and services; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services resulting from development efforts; the requirement for substantial funding to conduct research and development and to expand commercialisation activities; and product initiatives by competitors. As a result of these factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313005648/en/ Contacts: Contact information Sosei Group Corporation Chris Cargill, +44 (0)7912 892 199 Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications ccargill@sosei.com or Sosei Group Corporation Harumi Banse, +81 3 5210 3399 Corporate Communications (Japan) hbanse@sosei.com or Citigate Dewe Rogerson (for International media) Mark Swallow David Dible, +44 (0)20 7638 9571 sosei@citigatedewerogerson.com MUMBAI, India, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of the Company, in the meeting held on March 13, 2018, have approved Interim Dividend of Rs. 21.20 per equity share i.e. 2120% on face value of Re .1/- per share for the Financial Year 2017-18. The record date for the purpose of payment of dividend is March 21, 2018. The total payout is Rs. 7,881 Crore, being the highest ever dividend payout by the Company in a financial year. This represents a dividend yield of c.7.20% based on the average share price of the company year to date. Further, the Board has also approved the Dividend @ 7.5% p.a. for Financial Year 2017-18 on Preference Shares of Rs. 3,010 Crore issued and allotted on April 28, 2017 pursuant to the Scheme of Arrangement between the shareholders and creditors of Vedanta Limited and Cairn India Limited ("Scheme").The record date for the purpose of payment of dividend to the preference shareholders is March 21, 2018. The total amount of Dividend Payout to both its equity and preference shareholders is Rs. 8,091 Crore. Vedanta Limited announced that the Board of Directors in their meeting held on March 13, 2018 approved the appointment of Mr. U.K. Sinha as a Non-Executive Independent Director with effect from close of business hours on March 13, 2018. Mr. Sinha who has earlier served as the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) from February 2011 to March 1, 2017 has been instrumental in bringing about key capital market reforms. Under his leadership, SEBI introduced significant regulatory amendments to the various acts enhancing corporate governance and disclosure norms. Prior to SEBI, he was the Chairman & MD of UTI Asset Management Company Pvt. Ltd. and has also worked for Department of Economic Affairs at Ministry of Finance. Speaking on the development, Mr. Navin Agarwal, Chairman Vedanta Limited, said, "We warmly welcome Mr. UK Sinha on the Board. Mr. Sinha is an architect of strong regulatory regime for India's capital markets. As a corporate with highest standards of corporate governance and ethics, we believe, this will be a befitting association." Mr. U.K. Sinha said "In the current environment, with greater emphasis on disclosure and governance for corporate India, I am glad to contribute to Vedanta Limited achieving greater levels in its corporate governance practices" Vedanta Limited is a diversified natural resources company, whose business primarily involves producing oil & gas, zinc - lead - silver, aluminium, copper, iron ore and commercial power. It has a portfolio of world-class, low-cost, scalable assets. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India. The company is in the Nifty 50 Index and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange. About Vedanta Limited Vedanta Limited is a diversified natural resources company, whose business primarily involves producing oil & gas, zinc - lead - silver, aluminium, copper, iron ore and commercial power. The company has a presence across India, South Africa and Namibia. Vedanta Ltd has a portfolio of world-class, low-cost, scalable assets that consistently generate strong profitability and have robust cash flows. The company holds industry-leading market shares across its core divisions. Vedanta Limited is the Indian subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, a London-listed company. Governance and Sustainable Development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety and environment and on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company is conferred with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) 'Sustainable Plus Platinum label', ranking among the top 10 most sustainable companies in India. To access the Vedanta Sustainable Development Report 2017, please visit http://sd.vedantaresources.com/SustainableDevelopment2016-17/ Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India. The company is in the Nifty 50 Index and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange. For more information please visit www.vedantalimited.com Vedanta Limited Vedanta, 75, Nehru Road, Vile Parle (East), Mumbai - 400 099 www.vedantalimited.com Registered Office: Regd. Office: 1st Floor, 'C' wing, Unit 103, Corporate Avenue, Atul Projects, Chakala, Andheri (East), Mumbai - 400 093 CIN: L13209MH1965PLC291394 Disclaimer This press release contains "forward-looking statements" - that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "should" or "will." Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different that those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements. For further information, please contact: Financial services company recognised as a premium sponsor of ChannelAdvisor's conference LONDON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --ChannelAdvisor Corporation (NYSE: ECOM), a leading provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions that enable retailers and branded manufacturers to increase global sales, today announced that Payoneer is a diamond sponsor of Catalyst Europe 2018. The annual conference, hosted by ChannelAdvisor, will be held in London on 9 May. Payoneer, a global financial services company, offers a payments platform that helps power businesses across 200 countries with their seamless cross-border payments platform. One of the key themes of Catalyst Europe 2018 is cross-border trade, and with Payoneer's fast, flexible, and low-cost global payment system, Payoneer is perfectly placed to share its learnings on selling globally. Payoneer will host a roundtable discussion on cross-border payments, offering insight and advice for sellers to get the most out of their businesses oversees endeavours and help ensure they are paid promptly and efficiently. Catalyst Europe is back in London for 2018, and the event will be hosted at Intercontinental at the O2 on 9 May 2018. See the full agenda and register at https://catalyst.channeladvisor.com/europe. For information about ChannelAdvisor, visit our blog, follow us on Twitter @ECOMemea, like us on Facebook and connect with us on LinkedIn. About ChannelAdvisor ChannelAdvisor (NYSE: ECOM) is a leading e-commerce cloud platform whose mission is to connect and optimize the world's commerce. For nearly two decades, ChannelAdvisor has helped retailers and branded manufacturers worldwide improve their online performance by expanding sales channels, connecting with consumers around the world, optimizing their operations for peak performance and providing actionable analytics to improve competitiveness. Thousands of customers depend on ChannelAdvisor to securely power their sales and optimize fulfillment on channels such as Amazon, eBay, Google, Facebook, Walmart and hundreds more. For more information, visit www.channeladvisor.com. Media Contact: Laura Lane laura.lane@channeladvisor.com 0203 014 2683 Logo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/557753/ChannelAdvisor_Logo.jpg FTSE 250 merchant bank Close Brothers posted a 6% jump in first-half adjusted operating profit on Tuesday thanks to a good performance across its businesses. In the six months to the end of January, adjusted operating profit rose to 142.3m from 134.2m in the same period a year ago, while adjusted basic earnings per share were up 7% to 71.2p. In the banking division, adjusted operating profit increased 5% to 128.5m, with a stable net interest margin of 8.2% and a low bad debt ratio of ... 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. WARWICK, England, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rural communities throughout the UK could be eligible to receive funding via the Calor Rural Community Fund from energy provider Calor. Established in 2017, the Fund aims to give off-grid communities the chance to gain funding for projects that will improve local life. Last year's winning projects included an inclusive swing for a community park, a new piano for a community choir, books for a rural school library and the installation of fibre broadband into an off-grid village. With a total fund of 50,000 and with 21 individual prize pots up for grabs, this year's Calor Rural Community Fund will be open for applications between 20th March and 30th April. Paul Blacklock, Calor's Head of Corporate Affairs, says: "As off-grid energy providers we are passionate about country living and the success of last year's scheme has shown us the tangible impact that the Calor Rural Community Fund has had on a number of rural communities. "This year we are offering funding for 21 different projects, with prize pots ranging from 1,000 up to 5,000. Past submissions have included funding for community centres, village halls and sporting venues, as well as initiatives to support local schoolchildren and the elderly. "Application is via our Calor website, which will open for entries on the 20th March 2018 for a period of six weeks. Accepted projects will be published online and we'll be encouraging communities to get on board by voting for their favourite, before we shortlist the finalists. "We're also pleased to announce that national community action groups, Business in the Community and Rural England will be joining our judging panel again in order to help us decide on the most worthy winners, assessing each project for its impact and reach, sustainability and of course, its originality." Entries open on the 20th March 2018, but rural communities interested in learning more can visit http://www.calor.co.uk/communityfund now to register their interest. Media outlets looking for accompanying images to this story, please visit http://resourcespace.edsonevers.net/?c=1947&k=0f64eb1932 About Calor Gas Calor is the UK's leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), bringing clean, efficient and modern energy to rural Britain. The company provides gas to some of the two million homes and 350,000 commercial premises located off the mains gas grid, distributed via the UK's largest LPG delivery fleet. Calor has continued to invest in its offering to ensure it provides the best service for its customers, including supply of LPG to homes and businesses and a wide range of products and appliances from boiler installations to portable heaters. Please visit http://www.calor.co.ukor call 0800 121 7827 for more information. For further press information please contact: Natalie Isherwood or Jane Woods Edson Evers Public Relations natalie.isherwood@edsonevers.com 120 Newport Road Stafford, ST16 1BY jane.woods@edsonevers.com +44(0)1785-255146 +44(0)7985-381332 Page Content At its meeting on Friday 9 March, the European Committee of the Regions Commission for Natural Resources (NAT) approved the draft opinion on the mid-term review of the EU Forest Strategy, drawn up by member of Lapinlahti municipal council Ossi Martikainen (FI/ALDE). It sets the goal of a socially and environmentally sustainable forest policy which supports economic growth and employment and safeguards the diversity of forest ecosystems. In the EU, responsibility for forest policy lies with the Member States, but decisions in areas such as the common agricultural policy, trade policy, energy policy and climate policy have an impact on forestry-related matters and it is therefore important to coordinate such policies at EU level. The current EU Forest Strategy was finalised in spring 2015 and the mid-term review of the strategy is due to be published by the European Commission in the autumn. The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is contributing to this process through the opinion being drawn up by Mr Martikainen. The CoR draft opinion states that, from the point of view of local and the various regional authorities, forests are an important element of economically, environmentally and socially sustainable development. Including the forest bioenergy sector, the forestry industry employs as many as four million people in the European Union and accounts for 7% of the EUs economic growth. These jobs are crucial to rural and sparsely populated regions but also boost economic growth in towns and cities. Local and regional authorities can play a significant role in promoting businesses' use of local timber resources and the transition to a bioeconomy. For example, the choice of construction materials, production of energy for the needs of communities and greater use of biofuels in public transport are useful tools which can contribute to a stronger economy and employment, Martikainen noted. In the view of the NAT commission, the review of the Forest Strategy should be aligned with the updating of the EUs bioeconomy strategy. In the common agricultural policy too, it is important to include tools that support the forest sector in rural areas, such as those for the prevention of deforestation, the renewal and management of forests, as well as the promotion of entrepreneurship and training in the sector, Martikainen emphasised. According to the opinion, the Commissions mid-term review should focus in particular on the multi-dimensional importance of forests in climate policy, in the implementation of the Paris Agreement objectives and in efforts to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The EUs trade and development policies should also support the environmentally and socially sustainable use of forests in developing countries. By pursuing a successful, long-term approach, up to 90% of Europes forests could be natural or close to natural, hosting a wide range of species. Investing in a sustainable forest economy will continue to ensure more sustainable and healthier forests, Martikainen explained. Martikainens opinion is due to be adopted at the CoR plenary session on 16-17 May. Contact: Lauri Ouvinen Tel. +32 22822063 lauri.ouvinen@cor.europa.eu Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has helped Air France KLM Martinair Cargo (AFKLMP Cargo) roll out a new software solution across its global cargo network as part of the company's digital transformation journey. The implementation of the Accenture Freight and Logistics Software (AFLS) platform is designed to help Air France KLM Martinair Cargo the dedicated air cargo business of the Air France KLM Group drive customer excellence and quality in the quote-to-book process. The AFLS solution integrates all the commercial functions (Booking, Offer, Pricing, Rating, Capacity Revenue Management, Flight Planning and Airway Bill Control) across Air France and KLM. AFLS is now the unified digital platform for AFKLMP Cargo bringing an end-to-end commercial focus to revenue management process and extending the value chain to the end customers. With the legacy systems decommissioned and replaced by the AFLS integrated Commercial Suite, Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo IT system capabilities have been enhanced to enable price integrity and consistency for the airline group's customers and partners. The AFLS Flight planning tool brings optimization focus for the short-term capacity management window. The AWB Control tool enables automatic and guided discrepancy resolution between the commercial order and the operational shipment, thereby preventing revenue leakage. "We are excited to have the Accenture Freight and Logistics Software live and in day-to-day use," said Wijnand de Groot, Vice President Customer Service at Air France KLM Martinair Cargo. "With Accenture's software, we are able to leverage the strength of our network to offer better solutions to our customers. The solution has simplified and transformed our system landscape, bringing tangible benefits on our transformation journey. Next to improving customer service and sales by our local offices, the software enables us to speed up innovation and offer new digital solutions." "The implementation of AFLS at Air France KLM Martinair Cargo is a key milestone in the carrier's digital transformation journey," said Ganesh Vaideeswaran, managing director, Accenture Freight and Logistics Software. "The simplification, transformation and integration of core systems and processes should enable AFKLMP Cargo to improve profitability and further enhance customer service. We look forward to a long and enduring partnership with Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo and will continue to leverage our market-leading innovation architecture and capabilities to help them accelerate their digital transformation." About Air France KLM Martinair Cargo Air France-KLM Group is a global airline with a strong European base. Main areas of business are passenger transport, cargo transport and aeronautical maintenance. Air France-KLM is the leading Group in terms of international traffic on departure from Europe. AIR FRANCE KLM MARTINAIR Cargo is a key player in the air cargo industry. Through the combined fleet of its three airlines, it transports a wide variety of goods to all corners of the globe. The carrier complements the extensive cargo belly capacity of its passenger fleet with the reasoned and flexible main deck capacity of its Boeing 747 Combis and full freighter aircraft. Through this flexible concept AFKLMP Cargo is able to offer a wide range of services and solutions to the market, providing seamless connections across the world. The two hubs, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, are ideally located (only 398 kilometers away from each other) to allow for flexibility in reaching the preferred final destination. More than ever, the airline is committed to quality and simplicity to match customer's shipping requirements. Special partnerships include China Southern Cargo, Delta Cargo, Jet Airways Cargo and Kenya Airways Cargo. Find out more on www.afklcargo.com Air France and KLM are members of the SkyTeam alliance which has 20-member airlines, offering customers access to a global network of over 16,320 daily flights to 1,052 destinations in 177 countries. About Accenture Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions underpinned by the world's largest delivery network Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 435,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313005271/en/ Contacts: Air France KLM Martinair Cargo Gerard A. Roelfzema, +316 53663029 gerard.roelfzema@klm.com or Accenture Anthony Hatter, +44 7810 756 138 anthony.hatter@accenture.com Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 13, 2018) - Stina Resources Ltd. (CSE: SQA) (OTCQB: STNUF) (FSE: 01X) ("Stina" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a non-brokered financing up to $10,000,000 principal amount secured convertible debentures ("Debentures"). The Debentures will mature on the second anniversary of the date of issuance and bear interest at a rate of 9.0% per annum, which shall accrue and be paid on the maturity date. Each Debenture shall be convertible into units ("Units") of the Company at a conversion price of $0.60 per Unit. Each Unit will be comprised of one common share (each, a "Common Share") of the Company and one-half of a Common Share purchase warrant, each whole warrant (each, a "Warrant") will be exercisable to purchase a Common Share at an exercise price of $1.00 for a period of three (3) years from the date of issuance. The Debentures will be secured by a general security interest over all the assets of the Company, and through guarantees and a general security interest from each of the Company's subsidiaries. Under the general security agreement, the Company will agree not to pledge, sell, lease or otherwise dispose of its assets, other than in the normal course, without prior written consent of the holders of the Debentures. The proceeds of the financing will be used to complete the acquisition of the assets of Gildemeister energy storage GmbH ("Gildemeister"), including its CellCube vanadium redox flow battery ("VRB"), and for working capital purposes. CellCube VRBs are used for a variety of industries including grid storage; micro-grids; and off-grid storage for solar and wind. Stina has also entered into an agreement to acquire Jet Power And Control Systems Ltd. ("Jet Power"), a North American leading-edge provider of custom and off-the-shelf electrical equipment and systems for heavy power users, pipeline companies, refineries, manufacturers, municipalities and infrastructure providers and equipment. Its key products include electrical switchgear, motor control switchers, and solar power inverters. Stina will acquire all of the outstanding securities of Jet Power in consideration of 6,000,000 Common Shares. Management of Stina anticipates that through the acquisition of Jet Power, Stina will be able to accelerate the sale of CellCube VRBs worldwide and offer complementary products and services. The grid connected storage market is expected to grow 44% annually with the market size reaching US $18 billion by 2024 (Navigant Research). Upon the Company completing its acquisition of the assets of Gildemeister and Jet Power, management believes it will be ideally positioned to capitalize on the demand for VRBs worldwide to help meet the world's rapidly growing energy storage needs. The Company further announces it is fully subscribed for a third tranche of its previously announced non-brokered private placement. Closing is expected to occur on March 15, 2018, through the issuance of 3,422,818 units of the Company at a price of $0.27 per Unit for gross proceeds of $924,161. Each unit shall consists of one Common Share and one-half of a Common Share purchase warrant, each whole Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at a price of CDN$0.45 per Common Share for a period of three (3) years from the date of issuance. For further information, please contact: Brian Stecyk, President & CEO, Director Stina Resources Ltd. Telephone: 1-800-882-3213 Email: info@stinaresources.com www.stinaresources.com This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts which address events, results, outcomes or developments that the Company expects to occur; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "aims", "potential", "goal", "objective", "prospective", and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "can", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements are discussed in this news release and the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis filed at www.sedar.com. Except as required by the securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the Company, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. JERUSALEM (dpa-AFX) - Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. (PLX) reported positive results from its phase II clinical trial of OPRX-106 for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. The company intends to release full results at a medical conference later in the year. OPRX-106 is a plant cell-expressed recombinant human tumor necrosis factor receptor II fused to an IgG1 Fc domain, in development for oral administration. The company said, when administered orally and while passing through the digestive tract, the plant cells function as a natural delivery vehicle, having the unique attribute of a cellulose cell wall which makes them resistant to degradation compared to proteins produced via mammalian cell expression. The company said OPRX-106 was safe and well tolerated with only mild to moderate adverse events, which were transient in nature. No anti-drug antibodies were detected. 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. LONDON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- - 10% rise in delegates from 2017 Master Investor Show - the annual conference for private investors - is anticipating record numbers for this year's event with more than 5,000 delegates registered, an increase of 10% on 2017. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653679/Master_Investor_Show.jpg ) Now in its 16th year, Master Investor Show is the 'Glastonbury Festival' ofretail investment forums and puts visitors together with public and private companies of varying sizes. This year's Master Investor Show takes place at the Business Design Centre in London on 17 March. Traditionally, Master Investor Show has attracted a certain profile of visitor. Nearly half the visitors surveyed[1] at the 2017 event were aged between 45-64, with the majority being male (84%). Only 13% were aged between 25-44. This year, the event is expected to see a younger and more diverse crowd. Amanda Taylor, Head of Business Development for Master Investor said: "It's great to see a more diverse demographic in ticket registrations and also amongst our exhibiting companies this year. We feel this shift reflects changing investor attitudes. Companies are engaging their audiences in more innovative ways than ever before and the result is a more inclusive environment for people to learn and grow as an investor." 40 guest speakers will speak across four stages. Main Stage presentations include: Mike Sangster , Senior Vice-President Investor Relations for Total S.A. 'The Future of Marijuana: Opportunities and Challenges' panel session. Participants include Nuuvera's Antonio Costanzo ; FastForward Innovations' Ed Mcdermott , Volteface's Steve Moore . Tom Stevenson , Investment Director for Personal Investing, Fidelity International. Budapest Stock Exchange; Central and Eastern Europe's second most liquid stock market. QuotedData; the award-winning sponsored research house. This year's event will see more public companies exhibiting, ranging in market size from 5 million to 100 billion. Visitors will be able to meet listed companies from the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France, Hungary, and Australia. The 115bn oil giant Total S.A. is one of the large cap exhibitors at the show and will be looking to add to its existing 400,000 retail investor base. James Hudson, Partnerships Manager at Master Investor added: "It is encouraging that large international companies like Total see the importance of interacting with retail investors. It's also a great testimonial for Master Investor and the quality of delegates that attend the event each year." For the second year running, Fidelity International is the headline sponsor of the event. Other sponsors include: London South East, Budapest Stock Exchange, QuotedData, Deutsche Borse Cash Market, KPMG, Connection Capital, InterQuest Group, Orient Capital, eToro, Edison and Investor Relations Society. Notes A survey of 172 delegates was conducted at the 2017 Master Investor Show About Master Investor Ltd. Master Investor Ltd. is an investment media and events company that delivers independent, financial commentary and analysis to UK private investors. The company operates the yearly Master Investor Show, an event introducing its 5000+ private investor audience to companies they can invest into. It offers its clients opportunities to generate leads to an audience with significant investable funds. http://www.masterinvestor.co.uk For more information, please contact: James Hudson - James.Hudson@masterinvestor.co.uk CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese yen dropped against its major rivals in the European session on Tuesday. The yen slipped to a weekly low of 113.17 against the franc, near 3-week low of 132.37 against the euro and near a 2-week low of 149.01 against the pound, from its early highs of 112.18, 131.11 and 147.77, respectively. The yen dropped to near 3-week lows of 78.59 versus the kiwi and 84.46 against the aussie, off its early high of 77.56 and a 4-day high of 83.63, respectively. The yen fell to near a 2-week low of 107.27 against the greenback, reversing from an early 4-day high of 106.25. The yen weakened to 83.44 against the loonie, from an early 4-day high of 82.74. If the yen drops further, it may find support around 110.0 against the greenback, 116.00 against the franc, 135.00 against the euro, 151.00 against the pound, 85.00 against the loonie, 80.00 versus the kiwi and 86.00 against the aussie. 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. LONDON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Flashbay, the world leader in customised Promotional Technology products is excited to attend its first ever B2B Marketing Expo at the Excel Centre in London. The show is taking place on the 21st and 22nd of March, and is Europe's biggest marketing event with over 700 exhibitors in attendance. Flashbay has also been shortlisted as a finalist for the 'Best Offline Marketer' prize at the 2018 B2B Marketing Expo Awards, beating hundreds of businesses on its first ever appearance at the expo. Flashbay is an internationally renowned company with offices spanning 5 countries and 4 continents. Their European Headquarters is based in Imperial Wharf, London and houses over 120 sales staff from across Europe. They have sold Branded USB Flash Drives, Power Banks, Headphone and Speaker products to a range of companies to date; from FTSE 100 multinationals to fast-growing start-ups, government organisations, schools and charities. Flashbay has served over 100,000 organisations to date. With some of the fastest lead times in the industry, thanks to a Flashbay owned manufacturing and production facility, they guarantee the highest quality promotional items coupled with unrivalled customer service and aftersales support. Flashbay's Global Events Manager Gareth Howill says, "The B2B Marketing Expo is one of the biggest marketing events in London. We look forward to representing Flashbay and meeting with prospective buyers from a range of industries. We are confident in our new and existing product ranges, and have worked hard to deliver the very best promotional technology items out there." CEO Steve Webster says, "The B2B Marketing Expo will be a great opportunity to meet with senior stakeholders from the world's largest businesses, but also engage with the many high-profile speakers at the event, many of whom are our existing clients. Part of Flashbay's success lies in its ability to adapt to what our customers want, and we are therefore very interested in hearing what various industry leaders are saying about where their businesses and markets are heading." Flashbay can be found at stand number 1123 and is the lead sponsor of Seminar Hall 18. The company will be providing complimentary sample packs to exhibit attendees. About Flashbay: Flashbay is the World's No.1 business-to-business (B2B) supplier of logo branded Promotional Technology products. From the smallest schools to the largest multinationals, we offer an attractive range of designs within our Memory, Power and Audio categories, offering unbeatable prices coupled with fast and efficient service. Our product lines include Flash Drives, Power Banks, Speakers, Headphones and a host of related technology products and accessories which allow our customers the unparalleled ability to promote their brands with confidence on the global stage. www.flashbay.com Contact: Natalie Murray n.murray@flashbay.com Regulatory News: Tikehau Capital (Paris:TKO), the pan-European alternative asset management and investment company, and SPRIM Ventures, a world-class global medical and scientific consultancy firm, today announced the initial closing of their first venture capital fund, TKS1, which will focus on early stage investments in med-tech and life science companies. Total committed capital for the fund as of its initial closing is US$50 million. This unique partnership combines Tikehau Capital's background in pioneering new initiatives and proven successful investment track record with SPRIM's domain expertise and experience in the healthcare industry. Administered out of Singapore and with investment sizes ranging between US$500,000 and US$5 million, TKS1 provides early stage capital to innovative companies offering solutions that move science forward in the health sector, contribute to the transition from intervention to prediction, diagnosis and monitoring while enabling life science companies globally to develop therapeutics faster and more economically. TKS1 has already seeded the following five companies ObvioHealth: the first 100% online and mobile app interface to execute clinical-compliant trials. As it removes the costly overhead of physical site visits and brings the trial directly to the mobile device of each subject, the digital platform allows faster and cheaper delivery of trials than traditional model. For more information, please visit www.obviohealth.com Fibronosticsa discovery platform developing non-invasive algorithm-based diagnostics to improve treatment outcomes, facilitate screening of specific diseases and help prognosis in various chronic conditions. Fibronostics is currently partnering Fitness First, one of the largest gym clubs in the world, to provide its members in Singapore with an access to one of its algorithm, HealthFACTR which spots risk levels for diabetes, heart disease, stroke and liver. For more information, please visit www.fibronostics.com Travecta TherapeuticsTravecta Therapeutics is a company that develops novel chemistry for delivery of therapies to the brain. Travecta is based on the research of Prof. David Silver derived from discoveries made at Duke-NUS Medical School and leverages a discovery platform to identify, simplify and categorize small molecules for enabling their transport across the blood-brain barrier. For more information, please visit www.travectatherapeutics.com BabynosticsBabynostics aims to address unmet health needs such as pre-term birth and cognitive developmental problems in infants by providing pregnant women with infant milk and high-end supplements. Babynostics develops Active Lipid Therapeutics enabled to cross the blood brain barrier and the blood retinal barrier by leveraging the MFSD2A a transporter for the essential omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid and Lysophospatidylcholine (LPC) lipids discovery licensed from Duke-NUS Medical School. Babynostics develops a series of lipid compounds targeting cognitive development in preterm infants as well as specific targeted conditions in ophthalmology. For more information, please visit www.babynostics.net Evid Science: Leveraging cutting edge research in artificial intelligence and machine learning, Evid Science is building the largest database of therapy evidence in the world to allows users to instantly compare therapy outcomes such as efficacy, safety and cost, all backed by the scientific literature. Access to this data unlock the evidence-based insights hiding in the medical literature to power deeper marketing insights, data-driven strategy, and optimized clinical trial protocols. For more information, please visit www.evidscience.com All the above companies but Evid Science are based in Singapore. About Tikehau Capital Tikehau Capital is an asset management and investment Group which manages 13.8bn of assets (as December 31st, 2017), with shareholders' equity of 2.3bn (based on H1 interim 2017 consolidated accounts). The Group invests in various asset classes (private debt, real-estate, private equity and liquid strategies), including through its asset management subsidiary Tikehau IM, on behalf of institutional and private investors. Controlled by its managers, alongside leading institutional partners, Tikehau Capital employs c. 200 staff in its Paris, London, Brussels, Madrid, Milan, Seoul and Singapore offices. Tikehau Capital is listed on Euronext Paris, compartment A (ISIN code: FR0013230612; Ticker: TKO.FP) Further information can be found at www.tikehaucapital.com About SPRIM Ventures SPRIM Ventures is the Singapore-based venture arm of SPRIM, a global innovation firm focused on healthcare. With a team of 600 professionals and 19 offices globally, our team transforms the newest opportunities and breakthroughs in health into business and marketing realities for companies and brands every day. SPRIM is a unique integrated service model combining consulting, agency and CRO. After 17 years in business, SPRIM offers its services to over 450 customers around the globe. Further information can be found at www.sprim.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313005757/en/ Contacts: Press Contacts: Tikehau Capital +33 1 40 06 18 40 Julien Sanson jsanson@tikehaucapital.com or UK: Image 7: 44 781 864 18 03 Leslie Jung ljung@image7.uk.com 'Micro-ized' High-Tech Yet Fashionable Jewelry Is Emerging OYSTER BAY, New York, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Apple Inc., known for its design sophistication, elegance, and component density, set a new standard with its iPhone X; it utilizes stacked printed circuit boards (PCBs), which is a first for smartphones. But wearable technology startup Motiv Inc. was forced to innovate to fit all of the advanced features of a fitness tracker, which is typically worn on the wrist as a watch-sized device, into a fashionable ring, announced the Teardowns service of ABI Research, a market-foresight advisory firm providing strategic guidance on the most compelling transformative technologies. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653702/ABI_Research_Motiv_Ring_Full_Device_Xrays.jpg The Motiv Ring, introduced late in 2017, is the smallest full-feature wearable that has been investigated by ABI Research's Teardowns service. Despite its diminutive size, the Motiv Ring is comparable to most full-feature and large-form fitness wearables because it contains 90 discrete components, including all the necessary electronics, such as a unique flexible PCB, ARM processor, accelerometer, Bluetooth connectivity, heart-rate monitor, and a novel curved battery that is formed to the curvature of the ring and lasts up to 70 hours. Prior ring-sized devices were passive, meaning there was no battery, and had little functionality; they were restricted to basic radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking. Putting a battery and all the essential fitness tracker electronics into the durable titanium ring as stylish as Motiv's gives this San Francisco startup a "one up" on Apple regarding component density and fashion. "ABI's Teardowns team was expecting to find a big, bulky ring when we decided to investigate the Motiv Ring," said Jim Mielke, ABI's vice president of Teardowns service. "But instead we found a very nice looking, lightweight ring that is nearly indistinguishable from any fashionable solid metal band; this is the start of the micro-ization of high-tech jewelry that is both extremely functional yet fashionable." For ABI's Teardowns results on the Motiv Ring, visit https://teardowns.abiresearch.com/teardowns/pe_motivteardown-ring-mr1012sl-0/features. ABI Research's Teardowns reports feature ultra-high-resolution imaging, pinpoint power measurements, detailed parts list with fully costed BOMs (bill of materials), block diagrams and x-rays. ABI Research performs the highest resolution imagery in the teardown industry, providing unprecedented competitive analysis on components, cost, and chip system functionality. About ABI Research ABI Research provides strategic guidance for visionaries needing market foresight on the most compelling transformative technologies, which reshape workforces, identify holes in a market, create new business models and drive new revenue streams. ABI's own research visionaries take stances early on those technologies, publishing groundbreaking studies often years ahead of other technology advisory firms. ABI analysts deliver their conclusions and recommendations in easily and quickly absorbed formats to ensure proper context. Our analysts strategically guide visionaries to take action now and inspire their business to realize a bigger picture. For more information about ABI Research's forecasting, consulting and teardown services, visionaries can contact us at +1.516.624.2500 in the Americas, +44.203.326.0140 in Europe, +65.6592.0290 in Asia-Pacific or visit www.abiresearch.com. Contact Info: Global Deborah Petrara Christopher Leary Tel: +1.516.624.2558 Tel: +1.516.624.2544 pr@abiresearch.com pr@abiresearch.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/276887/abi_research_logo.jpg Advancing Escalier's drug candidates through human proof-of-concept studies Forbion, one of the leading European life science venture capital firms, today announced that it led the $19 million Series B financing of Escalier Biosciences BV, a privately held biopharmaceutical company based in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Escalier Biosciences is developing both oral and topical RORyt drug candidates for psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases. The financing round was completed by existing investors, New Science Ventures and BioGeneration Ventures and will be used to advance Escalier's RORyt compounds through human proof-of-concept studies. The nuclear hormone receptor RORyt has emerged as the "master" regulator of Th17 cell differentiation and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-17A and IL-17F. Increased production of these cytokines has been linked to the pathophysiology of psoriasis. Small molecule inhibitors of RORyt have been shown to reduce production of IL-17 in immune cells and are promising therapies for psoriasis and other autoimmune conditions. Escalier expects its topical compound to enter the clinic in mid-2018. "Escalier's team has an impressive track record of developing novel compounds targeting diseases with significant unmet medical need," stated Marco Boorsma, General Partner at Forbion who will join Escalier's Board of Directors. "We are excited to participate in this financing with New Science Ventures and BioGeneration Ventures and in supporting Escalier's efforts to develop best-in-class drugs for the treatment of psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases." "RORyt is a validated target for psoriasis and other autoimmune disorders and our drug candidates have the potential to provide the desired efficacy and safety in psoriasis patients that is currently unavailable with other topical or oral drugs," said Raju Mohan, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Escalier and previously CEO of Forbion's portfolio company Akarna Therapeutics. "We are incredibly fortunate to have such a supportive syndicate of investors that share our passion in developing novel therapies for challenging targets, such as "RORyt." ends- Notes to Editors About Escalier Escalier Biosciences BV is a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapeutics that target RORyt for the treatment of psoriasis and other autoimmune disorders. Escalier's lead topical and oral drug candidates are currently in late stage preclinical studies. Escalier is registered in The Netherlands with offices in Nijmegen, The Netherlands and Encinitas, California. www.escalierbio.com About Psoriasis Psoriasis is a chronic, autoimmune disease that results in raised, red, scaly patches on the skin. It is estimated that 7.5 million Americans and 125 million people worldwide have psoriasis. Between 10-30% of people with psoriasis also develop psoriatic arthritis. Patients are categorized into mild, moderate or severe with the National Psoriasis Foundation. The majority of psoriasis patients are in the mild to moderate category. About Forbion Forbion Capital Partners is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands and Germany. Forbion invests in life sciences companies that are active in the pharmaceutical, as well as the medical device space. Forbion's investment team has built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with successful investments in over 50 companies. Forbion manages well over 800M across nine funds. Its investors include the EIF, through its European Recovery Programme (ERP), LfA and Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI) facilities and the KFW through the ERP Venture Capital Fondsfinanzierung facility. Forbion also operates a joint venture with BGV, the manager of seed and early stage funds focused on Benelux and Germany. www.forbion.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313005801/en/ Contacts: Escalier Biosciences Chris Krueger Chief Business Officer P: +1 858-945-2393 E: ckrueger@escalierbio.com or Forbion Marco Boorsma General Partner P: +31 654 98 25 87 E: marco.boorsma@forbion.com or Media: Instinctif Partners (on behalf of Forbion) Melanie Toyne Sewell Ashley Tapp P: +44 (0) 20 7457 2020 E: forbion@instinctif.com WEST CALDWELL, NJ and TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / March 13, 2018 / EastGate Biotech Corp. (OTC PINK: ETBI), a pharmaceutical company that focuses on innovative technological developments specifically in insulin drug delivery for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, is pleased to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Genluiching Mining Corporation (Genluiching) and AAH & International Associates (AAH), Incorporated. Within the scope of the MOU, both parties, located in the Philippines, intend to invest between PHP 100,000,000 - PHP 300,000,000 (approximately $2 million USD to $5.8 million USD) either in full or in tranches. Similar to the recently announce BuPharco Joint Venture, Genluiching and AAH will pay for all expenses related to financing as well as the clinical trials, however, ETBI is expected to be the lead manager of the JV. The purpose of the investment is to expedite the early filing and processing of the EastGate's insulin mouth rinse for the local Philippines Health Association. "After a successful meeting with our EastGate team, both Genluiching and AAH wanted to participate in what they believe is a project that could have significant impact in the Philippines," stated Anna Gluskin, CEO of EastGate Biotech Corp., who added, "While their core businesses are in gold mining and engineering, they are looking to diversify their investment portfolio to include humanitarian type projects that will help the Filipino population. Our drug development project in the Philippines is gaining serious traction. With two Joint Ventures in play and little overlap between them, we feel that this multiplies our chances of success. The people of the Philippines have welcomed us with open arms. Our corporate ambassador William Abajian has returned to the Philippines ahead of expectations to finish the finer points of the definitive agreements and develop new relationships." "We are very impressed by the humanitarian initiatives that these two groups have committed themselves to in this market," stated William Abajian, Global Business Development and Licensing for EastGate. "Genluiching and AAH have the foresight to correlate innovation and with humanitarian impact for the Philippines marketplace," added Abajian. "The diabetes crisis in the Philippines is taking a toll on the economy and workforce and something needs to be done about it," commented Jet Tupas, CEO of Genluiching Mining Corporation. He went on to say, "Over the years we have seen this disease slowly creep into our workforce and we cannot sit idly by. This is one of the best humanitarian projects we have seen recently. We are happy to invest in such a rewarding project and plan to follow the lead of EastGate." The MOU will allow for the parties to reserve the right to set up, register jointly, either a joint venture (JV) and/or holding company in order to oversee, manage and define each Party's roles and responsibilities, while also stipulating the shares of the investment portfolio to include humanitarian type projects that will benefit the Filipino population. The establishment of the JV or management holding company with the investment could be completed by this summer. About EastGate Biotech EastGate Biotech focuses on innovative technological developments and produces and distributes innovative drug compounds and healthy nutraceuticals that are based on natural therapies absorbed by the body. We utilize advanced nanotechnologies and alternative delivery systems that take difficult to deliver compounds and deliver them using our nanotechnology platform which ultimately increase the bioavailability to the body. Using our methods of delivery, provides healthy alternatives to conventional pharmaceuticals that all-too-often create dangerous side-effects and unexpected consequences for those trying to attain and maintain a healthy lifestyle. EastGate's wholly owned subsidiary Omni Surgery and Anti-Aging Centre is the first of many surgery centers to come under the Omni umbrella as we plan to roll up existing business under the Omni brand and expand our footprint globally. About Genluiching Mining Corp. Genluiching Mining Corporation is a mining and metal company based in Makati City, Philippines. The company is led by CEO Jet Tupas. About AAH & International Associates AAH & International Associates, led by Armando J. Honrada, is an engineering company based in Bacoor City, Philippines. Cautionary statement on forward-looking information All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained or incorporated by reference in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of certain securities laws, including the provisions for "safe harbour" under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as of the date of this news release. The words "anticipates", "plans", "expects", "indicate", "intend", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "focus", "guidance", "initiative", "model", "methodology", "outlook", "potential", "projected", "pursue", "strategy", "study", "targets", or "believes", or variations of or similar such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", or "should", "might", or "way forward", "will be taken", "will occur" or "will be achieved" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties and contingencies. The risks, estimates, models and assumptions contained or incorporated by reference in this release, include those identified from time to time in the reports filed by EastGate with the SEC, which should be considered together with any forward-looking statement. EastGate undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. CONTACT: Rose Perri 1-647-692-0652 Email: information@eastgatepharmaceuticals.com Website: www.EastGateBiotech.com SOURCE: EastGate Biotech Corp. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 13, 2018) - Southern Silver Exploration Corp. (TSXV: SSV) ("SSV") is pleased to announce that Fundamental Research Corp. ("FRC") - a Vancouver, Canada based investment research company, published an initial equity analyst research report on the Company. The research report dated March 2, 2018 entitled "Southern Silver Exploration Corp. (TSXV: SSV/FSE: SEG1 /OTCQB:SSVFF) - Initiating Coverage: Significant Resource Expansion in Durango, Mexico" was written and produced by FRC's Vice-President and Head of Research, Siddharth Rajeev, B.Tech, MBA, CFA, as an independent analysis of SSV's activities and progress. FRC's research department, headed by Sid Rajeev, has covered over 300 small and micro-cap companies and 150 exempt market/private issuers from a broad array of industries including Energy, Mining, Real Estate and Technology. Sid Rajeev regularly provides media commentary on the valuation of small cap stocks and industries he covers. He also manages the FRC list of Top Picks, which are the stocks under FRC's coverage in which, he has the highest conviction level. These picks have historically helped FRC to a high rating in various third-party analyst performance rankings. He is also co- author of two online courses including the very successful "Evaluation of Junior Mining Companies for Investment Purposes" which has evolved into classroom courses, seminars, and is in demand at investment conferences across North America. SSV has provided a link to the FRC report on its website www.southernsilverexploration.com and it is currently available to view, or to download, from FRC's website - www.researchfrc.com or upon written request from FRC: Analyst: Siddharth Rajeev Suite 308 - 1155 West Pender Street Vancouver, BC, Canada V6E 2P4 Telephone: 604-682-7050 Email: info@researchfrc.com Fundamental Research Corp. Since 2003, Fundamental Research Corp. has been providing the highest institutional quality equity research coverage on over 250 small and micro-cap public companies through its extensive distribution network. In 2009, it began issuing reports on exempt market securities and has since issued over 80 reports. Its research is being used by some of the largest institutional investors in the world who access it through channels such as Reuters, Capital IQ, the Globe and Mail, and by subscription. In 2010, Fundamental Research's Top Picks earned it the 3rd highest ranked analyst firm with a return of 20.75% overall and first position in the Basic Materials Sector with a return of 29.07% based on third-party ranking systems that track analysts globally. It continues to rank in the Top Ten in independent third party evaluations on its research, and has developed a reputation for producing high quality reports. Fundamental Research provides high-quality research and adheres to high ethical standards and a strong foundation of integrity. All reports on SSV prepared by analysts represent the views of such analysts and are not necessarily those of SSV. Although the Company has paid a fee to Fundamental Research Corporation to provide its independent research opinion (just as fees are paid to bond-rating agencies and auditors for their opinions), the Company is not responsible for the content, accuracy or timelines contained in an analyst's report and the fee was not dependent on the opinion provided. In addition, readers should be aware, and are cautioned, that opinions, estimates, or forecasts contained in research analyst reports are not subject to the requirements of Canadian National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects" and have not received any endorsement or approval by SSV. As such, SSV does not imply or in any way represent that any of the reports, opinions, estimates, or forecasts regarding SSV made by research analysts complies with NI 43-101 or represent the opinions or beliefs of SSV or its management or representatives. In addition to information filed by SSV as found on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), readers should only refer to the technical report(s) of SSV relating to its project prepared in accordance with NI 43-101. About Southern Silver Exploration Corp. Southern Silver Exploration Corp. is a precious metal exploration and development company with a focus on the discovery of world-class mineral deposits in north-central Mexico and the southern USA. Our specific emphasis is the Cerro Las Minitas silver-lead-zinc project located in the heart of Mexico's Faja de Plata, which hosts multiple world-class mineral deposits such as Penasquito, San Martin, Naica, Los Gatos and Pitarrilla. We have assembled a team of highly experienced technical, operational and transactional professionals to support our exploration efforts in developing, along with our partner, Electrum Global Holdings LP, the Cerro Las Minitas project into a premier, high-grade, silver-lead-zinc mine. The Company engages in the acquisition, exploration and development either directly or through joint-venture relationships in mineral properties in major jurisdictions. Our property portfolio also includes the Oro porphyry copper-gold project located in southern New Mexico, USA. The Oro property consists of patented land, State leases and BLM located mineral claims which cover a highly prospective quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration zone, interpreted to overlie an unexposed porphyry centre and distal sediment-hosted, oxide-gold target. On behalf of the Board of Directors "Lawrence Page" Lawrence Page, Q.C. President & Director, Southern Silver Exploration Corp. For further information, please visit Southern Silver's website at southernsilverexploration.com or contact us at 604.641.2759 or by email at ir@mnxltd.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. This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include the timing and receipt of government and regulatory approvals, and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Southern Silver Exploration Corp. does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 13, 2018) - Alliance Growers Corp. (CSE: ACG) (FSE: 1LA) (WKN: A2DFYX) ("Alliance Growers" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Business Development Services Agreement with Mr. Stuart Gray that also includes the provision of certain Public Relations Services. Mr. Gray has 22 plus years of experience in business and marketing. He has founded several media and promotional related companies and has provided consulting to over 100 public companies in the USA and Canada. Stuart's services have ranged from reverse mergers, marketing, branding, social media and financings. Stuart has provided consulting to several Marijuana-related Companies since 2014. Stuart was founder and CEO of Laguna Blends Inc. Laguna acquired Isodiol International Inc. (ISOL CSE, ISOLF OTCQB) in a combination of stock and cash. Laguna then did a company name change to Isodiol International Inc. Isodiol International Inc. is the market leader in pharmaceutical grade phytochemical compounds and the industry leader in the manufacturing and development of CBD consumer products. Commenting on the addition of Cannabis industry veteran Stuart Gray, Alliance Growers President and CEO, Dennis Petke stated, "It is a true honor to welcome a man of Stuart's stature to Alliance Growers. Having known and worked with Stuart for several years, I have first-hand knowledge of his passionate professionalism and tremendous successful experience in the cannabis industry and in marketing in general. He is adept at establishing long-lasting, business relationships built on integrity, trust, and win-win solutions. We have already begun to develop business opportunities that fit perfectly with the Alliance business model. We will be announcing those business developments in the coming weeks. We look forward to collaborating with Stuart and to leveraging his network and veteran cannabis experience to the benefit of all Alliance stakeholders". The Business Development contract totals $110,000 in cash as consideration for the Services over a six-month period with an expectation that Mr. Gray will continue working with Alliance beyond that time. In addition, Alliance Growers has closed a non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement") of up to 180,000 shares (the "Shares") at a price of $0.50 per Share, for gross proceeds of $90,000. All Shares issued pursuant to the placement will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of closing. About Alliance Growers Alliance Growers is a diversified cannabis company driven by the Company's 'Four Pillars' Organization Plan - Cannabis Botany Centre, Strategic ACMPR Investments, CBD Oil Supply and Distribution, and Research and Development. Alliance Growers has finalized its a new business partnership with WFS Pharmagreen Inc., to jointly develop and operate a 40,000-square foot facility to be the first of its kind in Western Canada to house a DNA Botany lab, extraction facility and Tissue Culture Plantlet Production facility to service the Cannabis market and agriculture market in general. The proposed Cannabis Botany Centre will grow Cannabis plantlets using proprietary tissue culture propagation, specifically the "Chibafreen Invitro Plant Production System", which assures consistent composition and purity of each plantlet for the growers. Alliance Growers has entered into an exclusive agreement to acquire a late stage licensed producer applicant, Biocannatech, to become a licensed producer under Health Canada's access to cannabis for medical purposes regulations ("ACMPR") in Quebec. Alliance Growers will supply financing and resources to build out the medical marijuana facility in preparation for the inspection required to obtain a growing license. Once Health Canada is satisfied with a successful crop, Alliance Growers will be granted its distribution license. This acquisition allows the Company an opportunity to become a licensed producer in the Province of Quebec and gain an in-road to provide tissue culture plantlets to all licensed producers in Quebec. Further, Alliance Growers has been negotiating to obtain other exclusive Canadian distribution agreements for certain proprietary products for support of the Cannabis growing industry in addition to possible partnerships with Licensed Producer Applicants at various stages in the Health Canada License process. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.alliancegrowers.com or the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. If you would like to be added to Alliance Growers' news distribution list, please send your email address to newsletter@alliancegrowers.com On behalf of the board of directors of ALLIANCE GROWERS CORP. "Dennis Petke" Dennis Petke President and CEO For more information contact: Dennis Petke Tel: 778-331-4266 DennisPetke@alliancegrowers.com Rob Grace Communications Consultant Tel: 778-998-5431 RobDGrace@gmail.com THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE. FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements or information. More particularly and without limitation, the news release contains forward-looking statements and information relating to Company's corporate strategy. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by management of the Company, including, without limitation, the Company's ability to carry out its business plan. Although management of 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 since no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of the Company relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to identify and complete additional suitable acquisitions to further the Company's growth as well as risks associated with the medical marijuana industry in general, such as operational risks in development and production delays or changes in plans with respect to development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of the capital markets; the uncertainty of receiving the required licenses, production, costs and expenses; health, safety and environmental risks; marketing and transportation; loss of markets; environmental risks; competition; incorrect assessment of the value of the potential market; ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources; failure to obtain required regulatory and other approvals and changes in legislation, including but not limited to tax laws and regulated regulations. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, timelines and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws or the Canadian Securities Exchange. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. WALDSHUT and GESEKE, Germany, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sedus has unveiled its vision for the future of manufacturing at its two factories in Germany, with a major programme of modernisation and construction to create new competence centres. The overall investment in the new facilities will exceed 20 million, with the main part of the budget focussed on new and refurbished administrative buildings as well as new manufacturing layouts in Dogern and Geseke. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653714/SedusDogern_Facade.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653715/Sedus_Dogern_interior_view.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653716/Sedus_Dogern_roof_terrace.jpg ) Work has already begun at the two sites in the Upper Rhine and in East Westphalia. At the Sedus plant in Dogern construction is underway on a state of the art new office complex which will become the new home for the sales and marketing team who are currently based at the headquarters building in nearby Waldshut. The building currently used by the development will then become a major, new experience center with a showroom and seminar facilities. The opening of the new space will take place by the end of the year. Meanwhile, at the Geseke site which is home to Sedus Systems GmbH, an additional floor will be added to the existing office building to create a new showroom space. All administrative spaces will be refurbished and employees will move in this year to enjoy the improved new facility. The new showrooms will become international centres of excellence for customers, in line with the current network of Sedus showrooms across Europe. The changes will have a profound effect on the business, according to Holger Jahnke, Spokesman of the Board. "The new, rebuilt and expanded buildings will create two attractive Sedus competence centres that are incomparable in the industry. They will become world class spaces for our own employees but also living examples of best practice for customers. There is no better way for us to confirm the thinking behind new products than for us to work with them ourselves, because we are just as focussed on the benefits of workplaces as our customers. "Anyone who works with Sedus understands the quality associated with a brand that is made in Germany and valued in more than 50 countries worldwide. We remain at the cutting edge of market developments and understand how to make workplaces future proof and protect the investment of clients. This requires an analysis of work processes and culture as well as an understanding of the identity and goals of each business. Only then are we able to design a tailor-made solution. This will also incorporate guidance for users, a full service offering, products and after sales guarantees. We call this complete package 'Sedus Future Proof' which encompasses professional consultancy, a full package of services and long-term product continuity, to ensure we provide a solution that meets present needs and is able to adapt to the future." Employees were fully engaged with the design of the new facilities, with people consulted in a series of workshops, in exactly the same way Sedus advises customers. According to Holger Jahnke: "With the new buildings, which are among the most modern office spaces in Germany, we prove our competence as an innovative office design and fit-out specialist. In order to achieve the best results with ideas that work in both theory and practice we engage expert designers for acoustics, climate control and lighting and a range of other specialists." At the same time as this programme of construction, a new layout will be realised at the plant in Dogern which will optimise the manufacturing process. According to Technical Director Daniel Kittner: "With the new production layout, we can increase productivity, which will in turn improve delivery times. Since we produce only on order and from a batch size of one, we offer millions of variants and respond directly to the individual needs of our international clients." Sedus Stoll Group closed the 2016 financial year with sales of over 188 million and employs around 900 people. Sedus press office Bruckenstrae 15, 79761 Waldshut, Tel. +49(0)7751-84-320, E-Mail: presse@sedus.de Sedus press agency Joachim Sparenberg, Dr.-Schworer-Str. 20, 79761 Waldshut Tel. +49(0)7741-8355003, Email: sparenberg-pr@web.de WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Shortly after agreeing to an unprecedented meeting with the leader of North Korea, President Donald Trump revealed Tuesday that he has fired the nation's top diplomat. Trump announced in a post on Twitter that he intends to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with current CIA Director Mike Pompeo. 'Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!' Trump tweeted. The tweet from Trump came shortly after a report from the Washington Post indicated the president's intention to oust Tillerson. A statement from Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein suggested that Tillerson was blindsided by the news. 'The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of the critical progress made in national security,' Goldstein said. 'The Secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason.' In later comments to reporters, Trump praised Tillerson for his service but also mentioned disagreements over the Iran nuclear agreement. Trump also said he did not discuss his decision to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with Tillerson, noting that the Secretary of State was out of the country at the time. The president also said that he plans to nominate Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo as the head of the agency. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Learning Tree International (OTCQX: LTRE) announced today that the company has reached Microsoft Gold partner status in the data platform competency area. This designation is awarded by Microsoft to partners who achieve the highest level of performance as a partner both in terms of training volume and technical expertise. Achieving Gold Training Partner status means that Microsoft has declared that the company has committed itself to the evolving suite of Microsoft technologies for the benefits of its clients. "Learning Tree and the Learning business group at Microsoft have forged a strong bond over the last year," said Brian Simms, Director of Strategic Initiatives for Learning Tree. "Our organizations have benefitted from the partnership, and we're always discussing new ways to use each other's strengths to grow our brand and expand our product offerings. Learning Tree has been known as a trusted training provider for decades, and we're honored to stand with Microsoft as a Gold partner as we prepare for the future of IT training." Sr. Regional Director of Worldwide Learning at Microsoft, Kyle Uphoff added, "We want to congratulate Learning Tree International for their attainment of Gold Learning Partner status. To do so in a years' time is an amazing accomplishment. Having partners like Learning Tree in our ecosystem is essential to achieving our goal of driving technology adoption and an affinity for Microsoft. We look forward to growing our partnership with Learning Tree as they leverage new capabilities to include Learning As A Service and other modalities that will continually modernize the learning experience for their global customers." Learning Tree initially partnered with Microsoft early in 2017 as part of a new partnership strategy designed to allow the company to offer an ever-evolving suite of blended learning training solutions to IT organizations, which features in-class, online, and on-demand training options. Through the partnership, Learning Tree now offers nearly 100 Microsoft official training courses taught by Learning Tree's MCT-certified expert instructors. Learning Tree instructors are put through a rigorous onboarding program to validate expertise, and all instructors are required to have real-world experience in their teaching subject. "As a recognized Microsoft Gold Learning Partner, Learning Tree is now even better positioned to respond to the needs of our commercial and government customers for their digital transformation and IT modernization projects," said Magnus Nylund, Chief Operating Officer for Learning Tree. "Through this partnership, we've been able to leverage Microsoft Official Courseware (MOC) with the real-world knowledge and expertise of Learning Tree's expert instructors. Receiving this endorsement from Microsoft makes Learning Tree more visible to the IT community as a training provider that can meet the rising demand for training in cloud technologies and Microsoft's lighthouse products like, Azure, SQL Server, and Office 365." "When we first became a Microsoft Learning Partner, we understood the influence it would have on our course and curriculum development, and we're ecstatic to be recognized by Microsoft," said Mr. Simms. "As the prevalence of Microsoft technologies like Azure grows in both public and private sectors, we believe this partnership will help Learning Tree's achieve its goal of serving as the #1 provider of IT and workforce solutions globally." For a list of courses, schedules, and to register for Learning Tree Microsoft MOC training, visit the www.LearningTree.com/Microsoft About Learning Tree International Learning Tree International is a trusted, global partner delivering mission-critical IT training and certifications, as well as the communication and critical thinking skills necessary to effectively deploy and deliver major IT initiatives, to 2.5+ million IT business professionals around the world. Today, Learning Tree offers an expanded training portfolio, including Agile, cyber security, cloud computing, program/project management, web development, operating systems, networking, leadership, and more. Attendees enjoy award-winning content that goes beyond the classroom with customized blended learning solutions featuring instructor-led, on-demand, and online training through Learning Tree AnyWare, a modern technology platform that delivers an immersive, virtual learning experience. We go beyond training with Workforce Optimization Solutions a modern approach that improves the adoption of skills and accelerates the implementation of technical and business processes required to improve IT service delivery. These services include: needs assessments, skill gaps analysis, blended delivery, and acceleration workshops delivered by our expert instructors working professionals with 15+ years of experience in the fields in which they teach. Connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ or YouTube Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements The statements contained herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements based on management's current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on Learning Tree. Such statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and are generally beyond the control of Learning Tree. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting Learning Tree will be the same as those anticipated. Learning Tree cautions readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, such forward-looking statements. Investors should not put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, since they are based on key assumptions about future risks and uncertainties. Some of these risks and uncertainties that could affect Learning Tree and its business include, but are not limited to the following: our ability to continue as a going concern; our ability to obtain additional liquidity in amounts and on terms acceptable to the Company; our ability to reverse our trend of declining year over year revenues and negative cash flows from operations, and to maintain sufficient liquidity; our ability to successfully implement our new strategies including achieving our cost reduction goals; competition; international operations, including currency fluctuations; attracting and retaining qualified personnel; intellectual property, including having to defend potential infringement claims; implementation of partnerships with third party providers of courses and or course material; efficient delivery and scheduling of Learning Tree's courses; technology development and new technology introduction; the timely development, introduction, and customer acceptance of our courses and other products; a majority of our outstanding common stock is beneficially owned by our chairman and his spouse; risks associated with maintaining cyber security; changing economic and market conditions; and adverse weather conditions, strikes, acts of war or terrorism and other external events. Learning Tree is not undertaking any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect future events, developments or changed circumstances. In order to help the reader assess the factors and risks in Learning Tree's business that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward looking statements, Learning Tree discusses in its 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K ("Form 10-K"), those risks in Item 1A, "Risk Factors", as well as in its other filings with the SEC. Please read the Form 10-K, including the Risk Factors included therein, which is filed with the SEC and available at the SEC's Internet site (http://www.sec.gov). View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313005915/en/ Contacts: Media: Learning Tree International Tricia Sacchetti, +1 703-925-5552 Vice President, Worldwide Marketing Tricia_Sacchetti@LearningTree.com WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU Foundation of Northern California said they have filed a lawsuit under Freedom of Information Act demanding Transportation Security Administration's search of electronics devices of domestic travelers. The Foundation said the Federal government's policy on searching digital devices remain shrouded in secrecy. The lawsuit demanded the details of the policies, procedures and protocols on search of laptops, mobile phones and other electronic devices. The lawsuit specifically seeks to know about the equipment used to search and extract data from devices. ACLU also wanted to know about the training imparted to officers for screenings and searches of electronic devices. Earlier in December 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California had submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for details of searches of electronic devices in domestic airlines. However, this request was withheld by the Transportation Security Administration. 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. MOUNTAIN VIEW (dpa-AFX) - Kitty Hawk, the California-based autonomous flying taxi company founded by Google co-founder and Alphabet CEO Larry Page, unveiled its commercial plane on Monday. The all-electric plane named 'Cora,' can take off like a helicopter and transition to flying like a plane, eliminating the need for a runway and creating the possibility of taking off from places like rooftops. Page had invested in two flying car start-ups in 2016. One of the companies was Kitty Hawk. Kitty Hawk noted that Cora is an air taxi that combines electric power, self-piloting software and vertical take-off. It is designed to carry two passengers. Cora can operate at an altitude between 500 feet and 3,000 feet above the ground. It has a range of about 62 miles, or 100 kilometers, and a speed of about 110 miles per hour, or 180 kilometers per hour. Kitty Hawk noted that as Cora's fans and propellers are electric, they can operate independently and an issue with one will have no effect on the others. It is also equipped with three independent flight-computers that will each calculate its location. Last year, Kitty Hawk had released a video showing another all-electric flying vehicle prototype called the 'Flyer' taking off and soaring over a lake. Kitty Hawk noted that Cora has an experimental airworthiness certificate from both the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority or CAA, and the United States Federal Aviation Administration or FAA. Kitty Hawk is working with the New Zealand to commercialize its air taxis. Zephyr Airworks is the operator of Kitty Hawk in New Zealand. 'New Zealand's Central Aviation Authority has the respect of the worldwide regulatory community. A people who embrace the future. And a dynamic economy that could serve as a springboard for Cora,' Kitty Hawk said. Ride-sharing company Uber has said it plans to launch its flying cars by 2020 in Los Angeles, Dallas and Dubai. 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. Parties will deploy the high revisit rate BlackSky constellation At the Satellite 2018 conference, The Space Alliance formed by Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67%, Leonardo 33%) and Telespazio (Leonardo 67%, Thales 33%) announced today it has officially taken a minority stake in Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries, having received all government approvals for the transaction. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313006026/en/ BlackSky's constellation of high-revisit smallsats (Photo: Business Wire) This investment is part of an overall fundraising effort of $150 million from several sources which include The Space Alliance, existing investors, and Mitsui Co., Ltd., one of the largest general trading companies in Japan. With this latest funding, Spaceflight Industries has raised more than $200 million in total capital. BlackSky, the geospatial intelligence company of Spaceflight Industries, is now fulfilling its vision to deploy a high revisit rate earth imaging constellation which, especially when combined with other space and terrestrial based sensors, will enable delivery of innovative global monitoring solutions and geospatial activity-based intelligence products and services. BlackSky's first four Global next-generation satellites are slated to launch in the next 12 months. This round of funding ensures production and launch of an additional 20 Global satellites which are planned to be in orbit by 2020. These smallsats will generate revenues that will enable the production and launch of the full 60-satellite constellation. In conjunction with the investment, Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries are creating a Seattle-based industrial joint venture (owned 50% by Spaceflight Industries and 50% by Thales Alenia Space) which will be responsible for manufacturing cost-effective, high-performance small satellites at scale, including the 20 satellites for the BlackSky constellation. The new company, named LeoStella LLC, will start operation this year. It will provide a unique capability for the U.S. market as well as the fast growing low earth orbit constellations. The executive team is being formed from both Spaceflight Industries and Thales Alenia Space, as well as other leading organizations. Finally, BlackSky and Telespazio have signed a joint cooperation and marketing agreement to distribute each other's products and services, as well as co-develop, brand, and market unique applications and services. Under the agreement, Telespazio will sell BlackSky products and services within Europe to key government customers. "This partnership reflects the 'new space' transformation strategy being implemented by Thales Alenia Space, with the aim of becoming a major manufacturer of small satellites for constellations featuring short revisit times, both in Europe and the United States," said Jean Loic Galle, president and CEO of Thales Alenia Space. "The LeoStella LLC Joint Venture, will combine the innovative and competitive design of the platform developed by Spaceflight Industries, with the industrial expertise developed by Thales Alenia Space for constellations such as Globalstar 2, Iridium NEXT and O3b, and will be able to offer a production capacity exceeding BlackSky's requirements." "This new and important agreement with Spaceflight Industries strengthens Telespazio's role as global operator in the greatly expanding sector of the Earth observation from space," stated Luigi Pasquali, Leonardo's coordinator of space activities and CEO of Telespazio. "The launch of new constellations of mini-satellites working alongside the main space systems will be one of the driving elements of the 'space economy' and will allow Telespazio to meet in an even more effective and profitable way the present and future needs of innovative services for citizens, institutions and companies." According to Jason Andrews, chairman and CEO of Spaceflight Industries, "This agreement with two leading players in the European space industry validates the BlackSky business model and reduces capital and execution risk for our high-revisit rate earth observation constellation. The LeoStella LLC Joint Venture with Thales Alenia Space represents a game changer for small and microsatellite production in the United States. Further, the partnership with Telespazio, and significant involvement of Mitsui Co., Ltd., accelerates our go-to-market strategy and creates win-win synergies for all parties." The Earth observation market is undergoing constant changes, with increasing requirements in terms of both high resolution and much shorter revisit times. Thales Alenia Space, Spaceflight Industries and Telespazio are combining their strengths to offer a constellation of small satellites that will be deployed in conjunction with a smart ground segment to offer services at very competitive prices by calling on massive and automated data/image processing. The result is a disruptive product, designed not only for traditional customers in the commercial observation market, but also to support the development of new vertical B2B markets, such as mining, energy, transport, finance, agriculture, manufacturing and environmental monitoring, and even B2C applications. About Thales Alenia Space Combining 40 years of experience and a unique diversity of expertise, talents and cultures, Thales Alenia Space architects design and deliver high technology solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Governments, institutions and companies rely on Thales Alenia Space to design, operate and deliver satellite-based systems that help them position and connect anyone or anything, everywhere, help observe our planet, help optimize the use of our planet's and our solar system's resources. Thales Alenia Space believes in space as humankind's new horizon, which will enable to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth. A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies' Space Alliance, which offers a complete range of services and solutions. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of about 2.6 billion euros in 2017 and has 7,980 employees in nine countries. www.thalesaleniaspace.com Follow Thales Alenia Space: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Google+ | Instagram About Telespazio Telespazio, a Leonardo and Thales 67/33 joint venture, is one of the world's leading operators in satellite services. Its activities range from the design and development of space systems to the management of launch services, from in-orbit satellite control to Earth observation, from integrated communications, satellite navigation and localisation services to scientific programmes. Telespazio plays a leading role in the reference markets harnessing technological experience acquired over the years. Since its establishment, the company has participated in major European space programmes such as Galileo, EGNOS, Copernicus and COSMO-SkyMed. In 2016, Telespazio generated sales of EUR 577 million while employing approximately 2,500 people in eight countries. Follow Telespazio: LinkedIn | YouTube | Twitter About Spaceflight Industries Dedicated to improving our planet and society from the high vantage point of space, Spaceflight Industries' distinct approach removes the complexities and high cost that once prohibited the majority of organizations from getting to space and observing our planet. Through its services Spaceflight and BlackSky, the company is enabling timely and affordable access to space while redefining how we observe our planet in real time across every spectrum. This combination of innovative satellite design, rideshare launch offerings, global communications networking, and a geospatial intelligence platform provide the insights that transform how we view ourselves and the planet on which we live. Founded in 1999, the Seattle-based company has a well-earned track record of success on a global scale. Visit www.spaceflightindustries.com for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313006026/en/ Contacts: Thales Alenia Space Sandrine Bielecki, +33 (0)4 92 92 70 94 sandrine.bielecki@thalesaleniaspace.com or Chrystelle Dugimont, +33 (0)4 92 92 74 06 chrystelle.dugimont@thalesaleniaspace.com or Cinzia Marcanio, +39 06 41512685 cinzia.marcanio@thalesaleniaspace.com or Telespazio Paolo Mazzetti, +39 335-6515994 paolo.mazzetti@telespazio.com or Spaceflight Industries Jodi Sorensen, 206-856-4202 jodis@spaceflightindustries.com Wefarm's peer-to-peer network connects over 660,000 small-scale farmers to vital agricultural information Wefarm, the world's largest farmer-to-farmer digital network, today announced that it has secured $5 million in additional seed funding, led by Silicon-Valley based True Ventures. Skype and Atomico Founder Niklas Zennstrom (angel investing in a personal capacity), WordPress Founder Matt Mullenweg, Blue Bottle Coffee CEO Bryan Meehan, and the Norrsken Foundation, have all joined the round, along with significant follow on investment from LocalGlobe and Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV). Wefarm is the world's first crowdsourced peer-to-peer network for offline communities. Over 500 million small-scale farmers produce over 70 percent of the world's food and spend over $400 billion on farm inputs and other services, annually. Yet, they are often ignored by the global markets, services and leaders creating solutions to agricultural problems. Wefarm is reversing that reality by placing the voices of these farmers back into the heart of global agriculture. Wefarm enables the world's small-scale farmers many of whom live in remote areas without access to the internet to connect with one another to solve problems, share ideas, and spread innovation. Wefarm solves a very simple problem for these farmers where to get help. With the world's population projected to grow from seven to nine billion by 2050 and climate change showing no signs of abatement, alleviating pressures on the global food supply chain is paramount. Through Wefarm, farmers can ask questions in their own language on anything related to agriculture, from battling a crop disease or an infestation of army worm, to best practices for growing cash crops such as maize, tomatoes, coffee and tea. Wefarm uses machine learning and the power of the crowd to source the very best content and knowledge from a network of over 660,000 farmers, even via SMS. Wefarm is currently operating in Kenya and Uganda with plans to expand into other areas of Eastern and Sub-Saharan Africa imminently. It has a user retention rate of 90 percent and more than 30 percent of farmers actively contribute their knowledge every month. "We believe farmers are often the best and most relevant source of information and experience for other farmers," said Kenny Ewan, Founder and CEO of Wefarm. "We're proud to have created a network that empowers the close to one million farmers who use our service, and we're excited to expand our reach and product capabilities this year." "Wefarm's mission is incredible, and we're ecstatic to support Kenny and his team," said Jon Callaghan, co-founder of True Ventures. "The company democratizes technology, promotes the fluidity of information across an entire segment of the food supply, and helps farmers become more productive. Wefarm is the kind of movement True was designed for, and we are excited to empower this business and mission for the world." Wefarm will use this round of funding to develop commercial product offerings and build a new set of features. One such feature, which aligns with Wefarm's belief in putting the farmer first, is Wefarm's Project Farmlog an interactive, "smart farming assistant" that works even on feature phones. It will use machine learning to intelligently support farmers both throughout the growing season and also with their livestock, based on the questions they have asked. "We invested in Wefarm because their innovative solution helps to achieve the United Nation's sustainable development goals," said Anna Ryott, Deputy CEO of the Norrsken Foundation. "It enables small farmers to become more efficient, thereby directly contributing to the eradication of hunger and poverty." Wefarm's data models will be able to track and predict keys issues, such as disease, ripening periods, shortages, drought, soil conditions, farm characteristics and many other vital supply chain issues. With this data, businesses can improve supply chain management and security, evaluate key trends and challenges, and increase sustainability and transparency. About Wefarm Wefarm, the world's largest farmer-to-farmer digital network, is a social enterprise that lets small-scale farmers connect with one another to solve problems, share ideas, and spread innovation. Utilising the latest machine learning technology, Wefarm's service works both online and over SMS. Knowledge shared on Wefarm can help farmers produce higher quality product, increase yields, gain insight into pricing, tackle the effects of climate change, source the best seeds, fertiliser, and loans, diversify agricultural interests, and more. Since its founding in 2015, Wefarm has been named one of Africa's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company and has won Google's Impact Challenge Award, TechCrunch's Europas Tech for Good Award, and the European Union Commission's Ideas from Europe prize, among others. The company is headquartered in London with offices in Nairobi and Kampala. For more information, visit http://wefarm.org, follow Wefarm on Twitter @wefarm and connect with Wefarm on Facebook or LinkedIn About True Ventures Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups. With capital under management in excess of $1.4 billion, True provides seed and Series A funding to the most talented entrepreneurs in today's fastest growing markets. The firm maintains a strong founder community and offers innovative educational opportunities to its portfolio, helping entrepreneurs achieve higher levels of success and impact. With more than 200 companies funded and multiple companies acquired, the current True portfolio has helped create over 8,500 jobs. To learn more about True Ventures, visit www.trueventures.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313006119/en/ Contacts: Wefarm Radha Ahlstrom-Vij +44(0)7584241132 Radha@wefarm.org WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump has suggested that conservative commentator Larry Kudlow is the front-runner to be named as his new top economic advisor. In remarks to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said Kudlow has a 'good chance' to be picked as the Director of the National Economic Council. Kudlow would replace Gary Cohn, who resigned as Trump's top economic advisor amid a dispute over the president's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. While Kudlow has been publicly critical of the tariffs, Trump said that the longtime CNBC senior contributor has 'come around' on the issue. 'We don't agree on everything, but in this case, I think that's good,' Trump said. 'I want to have different opinions. We agree on most. He now has come around to believing in tariffs as a negotiating point.' However, Trump said he is also speaking to others about the position, with a report from Reuters saying White House official Chris Liddell is also under consideration for the job, (Photo: Gage Skidmore) Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. - Industry's role in ensuring access to medicine is an imperative, not an afterthought - Patient engagement is a key driver to strengthen access BARCELONA, Spain, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --In a keynote address on patients' access to medicines at the eyeforpharma Barcelona summit,CSL Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Paul Perreault told fellow biotech industry leaders that access to life-saving medicines remains a global challenge that cannot be ignored. "Our role in ensuring patients have access to these medicines is an imperative, not an afterthought. As an industry, we must be a reliable and engaged partner in understanding and overcoming barriers to access," said Perreault. Global barriers to patient access include regulatory delays of approving new therapies, reimbursement challenges and supply disruptions. In addition, Perreault emphasized the importance of promoting early diagnosis and treatment of conditions to give patients the best opportunity to effectively manage their illnesses. "Patients have taught us that our industry can deliver innovative medicines to the market and prove their value, but without timely and accurate diagnoses, we've failed," he said. Perreault noted it may take years, multiple visits to different doctors, and several misdiagnoses before a person with a rare disease is accurately diagnosed. He encouraged industry to engage patients and patient advocacy groups that are most familiar with specific conditions in order to promote better awareness and education. CSL Behring closely collaborates with patient groups such as the European Haemophilia Consortium, International Patient Organization for Primary Immunodeficiencies, Hereditary Angioedema International, and the Jeffrey Modell Foundation, among others. "We're incredibly proud to have recently opened Africa's first Primary Immunodeficiency diagnostic and research network in partnership with the Jeffrey Modell Foundation, with whom we have collaborated for years in multiple parts of the world," said Perreault. Perreault shared lessons learned throughout his career to ensure patient access to life-saving therapies: To start conversations about unmet needs and the value of medicines early, and to listen closely. To put "boots on the ground" in different countries to help navigate local laws and regulations. To strengthen Patient Focus at all levels of the organization, in all functions. "Although CSL Behring has grown significantly, I never want us to lose connection with the people who rely on our medicines," said Perreault. "I tell our people that they should work every day like a patient's life depends on it because it usually does. I can't think of a better motivator." About CSL Behring CSL Behring is a global biotherapeutics leader driven by its promise to save lives. Focused on serving patients' needs by using the latest technologies, we develop and deliver innovative therapies that are used to treat coagulation disorders, primary immune deficiencies, hereditary angioedema, inherited respiratory disease, and neurological disorders. The company's products are also used in cardiac surgery, organ transplantation, burn treatment and to prevent hemolytic disease of the newborn. CSL Behring operates one of the world's largest plasma collection networks, CSL Plasma. The parent company, CSL Limited (ASX:CSL), headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, employs nearly 20,000 people, and delivers its life-saving therapies to people in more than 60 countries. For more information visitwww.CSLBehring.comand follow us onwww.Twitter.com/CSLBehring. Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/484089/CSL_Behring_Logo.jpg "Google-Maps" Approach Automatically Generates Readable, Informative, Accurate Service Schematics Focused On Problem Areas To Accelerate Vehicle Diagnosis Concept Engineering today announced the launch of E-engineTM, an online, reactive schematic visualization solution for use in automotive service centers. E-engine renders schematics of specific problem areas in automotive electrical systems based on Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC) generated by the vehicle itself or technician input, accelerating the repair operation dramatically. E-engine, produced from proven technology in the semiconductor design arena, is a powerful schematic rendering system that has been used by engineers to visualize complex electronic semiconductors consisting of hundreds of millions of transistors. Concept Engineering has now applied this approach to the automotive industry to enable focused, informative online documentation produced directly from design data that allows the rapid identification and repair of vehicle issues. "Live rendering apps such as Google Maps transformed the way we access and leverage information, allowing us to rapidly derive and focus on key details through a myriad of irrelevant data," noted Gerhard Angst, Chief Executive Officer of Concept Engineering. "We have applied this principle to automotive repair, greatly accelerating the diagnosis of vehicle defects in the same, revolutionary manner." Accelerating Automotive Repair Vehicle electronic systems have dramatically evolved over the last few years, and this will continue as autonomous driving and other advanced capabilities become commonplace. This changes the nature of automotive service, introducing complex electronic diagnosis into service centers. E-engine is designed to address this new need by accelerating the diagnosis of issues that can otherwise require hours to identify. The E-engine generated schematics are clear and easy to read, providing additional information as required, such as component detail, making automotive service efficient and easy. Schematics are derived from a database produced directly from the original development Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems eliminating translation errors and reducing authoring effort. This process also allows vehicle detail to be immediately updated in the case of design changes. The database contains information on vehicle variants and other design changes based on individual Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) for increased accuracy. The schematics are viewed on a web browser, allowing for the use of tablets or PCs for easy access with no installation overhead. E-engine Availability Concept Engineering's E-engine is available immediately and is already in use within multiple automotive and aerospace organizations. It will operate with standard web browsers on any personal computer, tablet or other mobile device. The technology is also available as visualization engine software libraries for the integration into Windows- or Linux-based diagnostic and repair tools. For pricing, please contact Concept Engineering. About Concept Engineering Concept Engineering is a privately-held company based in Freiburg, Germany, that provides visualization and debugging technology for electronic circuits and systems. The company's technology is used in multiple electronic industries including Electronic Design Automation (EDA), Automotive, Aerospace, and other sectors. It helps electronic design engineers and service technicians to easily understand, debug, optimize and document electronic designs. For more information visit www.concept.de. E-engine is a trademark of Concept Engineering GmbH. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313006272/en/ Contacts: Cayenne Communication Michelle Clancy, +1-415-682-4552 michelle.clancy@cayennecom.com or PrismaPR Bettina Lerchenmuller, +49-8106-24 72 33 bettina@prismapr.com Daily Bitcoin News UpdateAs of now, there are exactly three nations in the world that are tied in the first spot as the frontrunners in the Bitcoin race. Japan, the U.S., and South Korea are jointly leading the Bitcoin revolution. South Korea, in particular, has leaped onto the scene after China's ban pushed it into the background. This is the country expected to stimulate Bitcoin's next major growth spurt.The latest news is that South Korea's Internet giant, Kakao Corp (KRX:035720), is going to be integrating Bitcoin and a bunch of other cryptos across all of its Internet platforms. Consider Kakao to be the. 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. Ramdi Hamdallah has suffered a bomb attack on his convoy in his first visit to the Gaza strip in five months. Seven members of his personal guard were hurt in the explosion, although Hamdallah himself was unscathed. The PM was visiting a new sewage treatment plant financed with international aid funds. Majid Faraj, chief of intelligence services was also travelling with him on the convoy. Nevertheless, the main aim of their trip was to meet with officials from Hamas - whose military wing are ... 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. EUFN, the iShares MSCI Europe Financials ETF tracks the investment performance of an index composed of European equities in the financials sector. We consider EUFN a good way to gain exposure to the financial sector in Europe and it also provides a good overview of the sector in the region for analysis purposes. This article will provide our updated outlook for the European financial as we kickoff ... 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. Airsorted, a London, UK-based hosting management service, completed a 5m Series A funding round. Backers included Pi Labs, and Atami Capital. The company, which has previously raised 1.5m in seed funding, will use the capital to expand globally and further develop its automated technology including, smart scheduling, auto-communication with guests and its API integrated channel management. Led by James Jenkins-Yates, Founder & CEO, Airsorted provides hosts with a hosting platform that services guest bookings from notable travel websites including Airbnb, Expedia, Booking.com and HomeAway. The company provides a service handling the management of host properties from creating listings with professional photography, maintenance and restocking of household items, to liaising with guests. Most recently, the company launched in Paris, adding to its current roster of cities which encompasses London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Brighton, Bristol, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland. By the end of 2019, Airsorted aims to expand into 38 new cities across the world. It has 83 employees around the world. In addition to the the Series A round, the company has launched the pre-registration for its first crowdfunding campaign through Seedrs, looking to raise an additional 1m in funding. FinSMEs 13/03/2018 Digital2Go Media Networks, Inc. (D2GO), an Irvine, California-based consumer engagement and marketing intelligence company focused on mobile, raised 1.8 million XEM, equivalent to $1m USD, through the NEM blockchain community fund. The funds raised will be used to integrate D2GOs LocationCore platform on the NEM.io* Foundations blockchain. LocationCore is an existing product of D2GO that provides consumers mobile data and anonymous location information to businesses for engagement and marketing purposes. A number of businesses are already using the platform, including Incipio, AdParlor, Alamo Rental Car, and RCI (a division of Wyndham Resorts). Using the NEM blockchain technology, LocationCore will provide businesses the ability to record location-based impressions and securely compensate mobile app publishers and mobile device users for sharing their mobile data and anonymous location information. The 300 million XEM (equivalent to $130M USD) community fund is an initiative by NEM.io Foundation to promote development on the NEM blockchain. The fund is decided through community voting, with people posting the concept for their start-up or business on NEM community forums, which are then voted on by users. Successful companies are then presented to the NEM.io Foundation, which carries out due diligence before issuing the funding. Digital2Gos D2GO dMosaic platform provides advanced audience segment targeting, combined with data collection capabilities to enhance brand value through targeted mobile device engagement. Its LocationCore technology, built upon the NEM blockchain, aims to democratize the use of consumer mobile data and put the power back in the hands of the mobile consumer. The company, which also has offices in Melbourne, AU, and Mexico City, Mexico, has deployed its solutions to over 10,000 locations in the US and Latin America. *NEM.io Foundation Ltd. is a non-profit organization based in Singapore, set up to promote NEMs blockchain technology globally. FinSMEs 13/03/2018 Guest Post By Kaila Krayewski Now that were well into 2018, the annual landscape forecasts are becoming clearer. Though the Bitcoin crash was predicted by some, it was a shock to many, and experts are clamouring to give their predictions on whether the cryptocurrency is set to rise from the ashes or tumble into utter inexistence. Similarly, the social media tide is turning and many would argue not for the better. New rules, algorithm changes, and a steady stream of paid advertising are only a small taste of whats likely to come, with government regulations that could forever change your newsfeed looming. Lets dive in to what we have identified as the top five tech trends to look out for in 2018. 1. Social media algorithms are achangin (250) You may not have noticed it because the change happened over such a long period, but your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter newsfeeds look a heck of a lot different than they did this time last year. Its not so much about appearances its about the algorithms behind them. Instagram and Twitter both introduced algorithms that prioritised content either more tailored to user actions or based on the high amount of engagement it received, as opposed to prior, when content came up as it was rolled out. Facebook, in the meantime, made changes that were far less obvious, but possibly far more impactful. Did you know, for example, that the social network started prioritising posts with more reactions than likes in March 2017? And that it started rewarding faster-loading sites and demoting low-quality sites between May and August? And while algorithms were originally created to show us content that is tailored to what we like, making our social media experience more fulfilling (and, by proxy, more addictive), the ability of these social networks to so easily manipulate algorithms is also a bit scary. What happens if (and some would say when) governments start regulating our newsfeeds? After all, its already said to have happened with the alleged Russian interference in the US election, said to have been bribed with payments to Facebook in Russian roubles. Thats not all the rise of disposable content, inaugurated by Snapchat and quickly copied by Instagram, followed by Facebook, and now even Youtube has a similar product in its reels is changing the way we interact with the online world. This one-night-stand form of media consumption is on the rise, and we expect it to grow and develop even further in 2018. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, and brands and social networks are having to adapt accordingly. 2. Rise of augmented reality Youd better get used to the idea of augmented reality, or AR, because its probably going to be everywhere by the end of this year. Though everyone remembers their first encounter with AR most in the form of Pokemon Go they may have thought it was a flash in the pan. Newsflash: its not going anywhere, and if anything, its massively on the rise. Not looking forward to browsing through that boring museum tour? The BBC is launching an AR app that will allow users to view and explore artefacts virtually through their phone. So you may not be able to open up that sarcophagus (particularly with security guards and do not touch signs everywhere), but you can point your phone camera at it and check out what lies beneath. And thats pretty cool. Redecorating? Ikea now allows you to to see what that new sofa will look like inside your living room with the click of your mouse; all you have to do is upload a photo of your space and drag and drop your desired piece of furniture. 3. A whole new meaning to word-of-mouth Google reports that around 20 percent of searches are vocal at the moment. And with voice recognition software becoming increasingly sophisticated, its predicted that 50 percent of Google searches will be spoken, rather than typed, by 2020. The rise of voice assistants, ushered in by Siri and evolving into home pods like the Amazon Echo; though Googles home product actually scored best according to an analysis by Stone Temple. Its not surprising that voice technology is getting lots of attention, considering the average human can speak 150 words a minute, and only types around 40 on a mobile (that statistic drastically lowering with the increasing age of the individual, it would seem!). This move from fingers and thumb interactions towards more intuitive ways of engaging and conversing is likely to lead to some major transformations in communication in 2018. 4. Amazon: can you feel the jungle encroaching? The megalithic online shopping portal may be miles behind Facebook and Google in terms of revenue, but that could be changing. Amazons ad sales have been shown to be its fastest-growing revenue, and if the trend continues, it may not be long until the company catches up with the digital duopoly likes of Facebook and Google. Amazon is the fourth most-visited site in the US, and experts say that its continued growth is down to its impressively sophisticated customer journey (or customer sales/ retention funnel) that neither Facebook nor Google can compete with. This could be the engine that steamrolls it ahead of other sites. Of course, given the headstart that Google and Facebook have had in capturing a huge majority of web traffic and, as such, a huge portion of the global market, it may be far beyond the likes of 2018 that Amazon manages to catch up (if it ever does). 5. The Crash of the Cryptos Of course, one of the biggest surprises of 2018 has been the steep decline in the worth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This could be due to many reasons some say that its bureaucratic involvement (since the underlying technology behind blockchain and cryptocurrencies can be massively disruptive to states, banks, and other official institutions that are not normally open to change). Others are simply saying I told you so. Its no doubt that government involvement has had an effect on the crypto market: China banned ICOs and crypto trading, as did South Korea though trading is only banned for anonymous users there, while Japan has brought in licensing laws for crypto exchanges. Furthermore, under current US law, no federal agency has the authority to force cryptocurrency exchanges to register with the government, report transactions, or do anything, really. This poses a threat to securities officials, who report that ICOs have raised more than $4 billion USD, yet not one has registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Not one. Meanwhile, Bitcoin recently hit its lowest low since mid-November, dropping below the $6,000 USD mark. Many are calling this a market correction, but if thats what it is, its taking far longer to correct than most of these optimists (likely with plenty invested in the coin) expected. Bitcoins astronomical rise in late 2017 did seem almost too good to be true, and some are predicting another massive growth after February of this year, which could even surpass that of 2017. Whether it crashes and burns, or reaches the $50,000 USD to $100,000 USD mark that many experts are predicting by the end of 2018, remains to be seen, but this is certainly a market to watch very, very closely this year. WebForce 3, a Paris, France-based provider of digital skills training programs, raised 3m in funding. Backers included Odyssee Venture and Impact Partenaires. The company intends to use the capital to expand in France and internationally. Led by Olivier Brechard, WebForce3 is a computer school for students with difficult professional backgrounds (job seekers, dropouts, etc.), enabling them to access unfilled jobs identified by the company. The in-person and online training programs currently cover HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQ. The company plans to launch courses in cybersecurity, DevOps, Symfony, and VR/AR. FinSMEs 13/03/2018 Wefarm, a London, UK-based farmer-to-farmer digital network, secured $5m in additional seed funding. The round was led by True Ventures, with participation from Skype and Atomico Founder Niklas Zennstrom (angel investing in a personal capacity), WordPress Founder Matt Mullenweg, Blue Bottle Coffee CEO Bryan Meehan, the Norrsken Foundation, LocalGlobe and Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV). The company will use the funding to develop commercial product offerings and build a new set of features. Led by Kenny Ewan, Founder and CEO, Wefarm is a crowdsourced peer-to-peer network enabling offline, small-scale farmers to connect with one another to solve problems, share ideas, and spread innovation. Through Wefarm, farmers can ask questions in their own language on anything related to agriculture, from battling a crop disease or an infestation of army worm, to best practices for growing cash crops such as maize, tomatoes, coffee and tea. The company, which uses machine learning and the crowd to source content and knowledge from a network of over 660,000 farmers, even via SMS, is currently operating in Kenya and Uganda with plans to expand into other areas of Eastern and Sub-Saharan Africa imminently. One such feature is Project Farmlog an interactive, smart farming assistant that works even on feature phones. It will use machine learning to intelligently support farmers both throughout the growing season and also with their livestock, based on the questions they have asked. FinSMEs 13/03/2018 China accounted for 66 percent of India's total bulk drug imports in 2016-17 at Rs 12,254.97 crore, Parliament was informed on Monday New Delhi: China accounted for 66 percent of India's total bulk drug imports in 2016-17 at Rs 12,254.97 crore, Parliament was informed on Monday. Bulk drug import from the neighbouring nation stood at Rs 13,853 crore in 2015-16, accounting for 65.2 percent of the total import, Union minister Mansukh L Mandaviya said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. Citing data from DGCIS Kolkata, he said total bulk drug imports in 2016-17 stood at Rs 18,372.54 crore. "The imports are mainly done for economic consideration and there are various manufacturers who could substitute in case of interrupted supply from China," the minister said when asked if interrupted supply from the country could lead to drug shortage in India. Stating that various measures have been taken to reduce imports, Mandaviya said the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) on 7 February, 2018 approved a scheme for development of pharmaceutical industry under which one of the components is financing common facilities in bulk drug parks. "This would help in reducing cost of production and result in better availability of cheaper medicines for patients," he added. Moreover, in January 2016, the government had withdrawn exemption in customs duties which were earlier given to certain categories of bulk drugs to help domestic manufacturers, the minister said. "Further, the government has removed bottlenecks in environment clearance etc, which the manufacturers are facing, in order to boost domestic manufacturing of bulk drugs," Mandaviya, the minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers said. The number of wilful defaulters, who did not repay loans to public sector banks (PSBs) despite the capacity to do so, rose to 9,063 at the end of December 2017. New Delhi: Tightening the noose around wilful defaulters, the government has asked banks to 'name and shame' such borrowers by publishing their photographs and other details in newspapers. The finance ministry has written a letter to all state-run banks directing them to take board approvals for publication of photographs of such defaulters. Sources quoting advisory of the finance ministry said, Lending institutions shall formulate a policy with the approval of their board of directors which clearly set out the criteria for publication of photographs of wilful defaulters. The number of wilful defaulters, who did not repay loans to public sector banks (PSBs) despite the capacity to do so, rose to 9,063 at the end of December 2017. The amount involved for PSBs is reported as Rs 1,10,050 crore, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla had said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha Taking forward its fight against wilful defaulters, the government last week directed banks to seek passport details of borrowers taking loans of Rs 50 crore and more. Passport details will help banks to take timely action and inform the relevant authorities to prevent fraudsters from fleeing the country. "Next step in clean and responsible banking. Passport details must for loans above Rs 50 crore. Step to ensure quick response in case of fraud," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar had said. For all existing loans of over Rs 50 crore, banks have been asked to collect passport details of borrowers within 45 days, he added. Several big defaulters like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya and Jatin Mehta have fled the country putting the recovery mechanism in quandary. The government has tabled the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill after Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi allegedly defrauded state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs 12,700 crore and left the country and are refusing to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. The proposed fugitive law aims to impound and sell assets of Nirav Modi-type escapees with a view to quickly recover dues. It also will apply to defaulters who have an outstanding of Rs 100 crore or more and have escaped from the country. The Finance Ministry has also directed public sector banks (PSBs) to probe all NPA accounts of over Rs 50 crore for possible fraud and accordingly report the cases to CBI. Besides, the ministry had asked banks to monitor loans above Rs 250 crore and red flags whenever the original covenants of the loans are violated. This was spelt out as part of 6-point-reform measures announced. At least 2/3rd of the population dependent on agriculture can look at other avenues which will give them better fortunes, says an expert from the agri sector Was the long march of farmers from Nashik to Mumbai, traveling a grueling 180 km in the summer heat one of the last such that India will see for some time? Or will they be pulled out like a rabbit from a magic hat in time to be brought out during the next polls? There is nothing surprising about this pattern though. Experts say that kind of events will be a recurring phenomenon with no respite in the near future. Political parties, no matter how much they may want to avoid it, will be forced to play party politics by the Opposition and thus protect their vote banks. Let's take a look at the statistics: Seven state governments have so far announced Rs 1.10 lakh crore farm loan waivers while the UPA government in 2008 disbursed Rs 71,680 crore at the Centre. (See table) Farm loan waivers in India Announced on Centre/State govt Loan waiver amount in Rs crore Farmers benefited 29/02/2008 UPA govt 71,680 3 crore 28/07/2016 Tamil Nadu 7,760 20 lakh 04/04/2017 Uttar Pradesh 36,359 2.15 crore 08/06/2017 Madhya Pradesh 6,000 6 lakh 11/06/2017 Maharashtra 34,000 56 lakh 19/06/2017 Punjab 9,500 10.22 lakh 21/06/2017 Karnataka 8,165 22.28 lakh 12/02/2018 Rajasthan 8,000 22 lakh Total 109,784 Why is it that the farmers are looking for farm loan waivers repeatedly? What ails the sector? High dependence on agriculture: Primarily, too many people are dependent on agriculture instead of opting for other avenues. "What sense does it make to have 54.8 percent depended on agriculture?" asked an agri expert. At least two-thirds of the population dependent on agriculture can look at other avenues which will give them better fortunes, the expert said. Horticulture, dairy farming, goat herding, poultry, piggery are some of the other avenues that could be looked at. In Budget 2018, the government announced two separate funds with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to create infrastructure in fishery, aquaculture and animal husbandry sectors, Rs 2,000 crore as agri-market infrastructure fund and Rs 1,290 crore for the national bamboo mission. Among others, the facility of Kisan Credit Cards has been extended to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers to help them meet their working capital needs. Lack of fair pricing mechanism: The pricing factor is another thorn in the farmers' sides. If the government can provide right kind of remuneration for their crops, then this issue of loan waiver would not arise, said Anant Sardeshmukh, director general, and member of the Board of Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA). There are a lot of fluctuations in pricing and this is the basic deficit in the system, he says. With the absence of any real commodity market in the country, there is a huge market price volatility. For starters, the government could help by providing an encouraging support system. The government needs to provide 'right kind' of remuneration for crops, said Sardeshmukh. If a fair price was ensured to crops, then the glut seen with vegetable products such as onions and tomatoes grown in excess, for instance, would become part of history. The produce gets dumped on highways as the cost of production is higher than the price of the finished product. When a particular crop is seen to be doing well, like pulses for instance, then every farmer plants it and it results in a glut of the product in the market. But when pulses production goes up, inevitably prices crash and the farmer is the worse-off for it. Pune-based farmer Sopan Kanchan rued that, "Arhar dal was grown in abundance and we thought it would fetch us a bounty. Then the government went in for imports and ruined it for us. Now we dont even get Rs 40 for a kg of dal." The government has done its bit by trying to unshackle agriculture produce marketing committees (APMCs) which were the stranglehold of brokers. In 2017, the government proposed a model law on agricultural marketing to end the monopoly of traditional APMC mandis by allowing private players and others to establish wholesale markets. Some of the issues faced by farmers have been solved with reforms. "Earlier, farmers in Maharashtra would sell their produce to APMCs and were subject to manipulation of prices. States, for instance, have their own version of the APMC Act which determines the market structure such as who can buy and sell to whom besides what charges to be paid at each stage," said Sardeshmukh. In 2017, the Centre proposed a model law on agricultural marketing to end the monopoly of traditional APMC mandis by allowing private players and others to establish wholesale markets. But how much this has improved operational efficiency has to be seen yet, he says. Unscientific methods are still the norm: Another reason cited for bad crops is that farmers are following traditional methods of farming without factoring in climate change. So sugarcane, a water-guzzling crop, is planted in areas where rainfall and water is a scarcity. Farmers grow sugarcane in severely drought-affected areas like Marathwada which demands huge quantities of water for cultivation and crushing. Marathwada has around 75 to 80 of the states 205 sugar mills. According to estimates of the states agricultural commissionerate and the Maharashtra State Co-Operative Sugar Factories Federation, around 9 lakh hectares in the state has come under sugarcane cultivation against a lower acreage in the previous year at around 6.3 lakh hectares. There is no hard-headed analysis or rationality behind crop selection and cultivation with the consequence that farmers follow same cropping patterns for generations, points out Abhay Pethe, distinguished fellow, Observer Research Fellow (ORF), and senior resident, Department of Economics, Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy. "This suggests a lack of basic education, awareness, guidance, and prediction about what kind of crop will do well in a particular region," he said. The government needs to suggest crop strategy for Kharif and Rabi cultivation, for instance, which the large majority of farmers are unaware of. "The entire crop management system should be focussed on development. When the government tom-toms about Industry 4.0 and IOT (Internet of Things), blockchain technology among other things, why cant there be some survey done to enable the farmers to grow the crop which will reap benefits for them?" asks an agri expert. Some wonder if the farmer issue is as grave as is being pointed out. A dangerous argument nevertheless. But Pethe believes that there is a dash of 'romanticism' in the manner in which farmers are treated. "Why is 55 percent of people investing their time and energy in 12 percent of agriculture? Then we have emotions running riot when farmers commit suicides which largely has nothing to do with inadequate agriculture output but with debts taken for childrens education and marriage and for other reasons. Politicians will look bad if they ignore this social ill and then this vicious cycle starts all over again of loan waivers which helps neither the farmer nor the state exchequer, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off loan waiver with his announcement on 15 February in a campaign rally in Uttar Pradesh stating that if the BJP was voted to power in the state, it would waive crop loans. Since then, the Pandora box of loan waivers has opened and will be quite difficult to be clasped shut for some time in the near future or the next polls. (Data contribution by Kishor Kadam) Maharashtra is one of six states Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh that have announced farm debt waivers this fiscal The Maharashtra government has finally agreed to certain critical demands raised by protesting farmers, putting an end to the farmer agitation for now. A 12-member farmer delegation agreed to instantly call off their protest after Fadnavis government agreed to most of their demands, including the transfer of forest land to tribal farmers. But in all likelihood this truce may not last long. The reason is simple. The burden on the state exchequer on account of the farm loan waiver promise is much higher than what was originally estimated. The Fadnavis government will have to struggle to put together the resources needed to meet the additional burden. In June 2017, Fadnavis first announced a roughly Rs 34,000 crore loan waiver packager, after the Uttar Pradesh government announced a similar loan package. Of the promised sum, Fadnavis has managed to waive only about Rs 13,700 crore thus far. The roll out has been a mess as a Firstpost investigation revealed). The state had to raise about Rs 20,000 crore to meet the loan waiver demand leading to a higher fiscal deficit. In this context, one needs to wait to see if Fadnavis manages to fulfil commitments made this week. However, Maharashtra isnt the only state that has faced the burden of a farm loan waiver impacting its balance sheet. Maharashtra is one of six states Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Punjab, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh (MP) that have announced farm debt waivers in the ongoing financial year, which ends 31 March, 2018, following a spate of farmer suicides in these states. While farm loan waivers announced by the UP and the Punjab governments are part of their respective FY18 Budgets, those announced by Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Karnataka are outside their budgets. Ahead of state elections, due later this year, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, in February, announced a Rs 8,000 crore farm loan waiver package for small and marginal farmers in the desert state. In September 2017, the Uttar Pradesh government rolled out the first-phase of its loan waiver package, which is worth Rs 7,371 crore. According to the government, loans of over 11 lakh small and marginal farmers will be waived. This follows a promise made in April 2017, when the then newly elected BJP regime there said it will waive Rs 36,359 crore worth of crop loans of 21.5 million farmers. Elsewhere, the state government of Punjab, in June 2017, waived of crop loans of over a million small and marginal farmers, and the move is estimated to cost the state exchequer some Rs 10,000 crore. Meanwhile, Fadnavis announced a Rs 34,022 crore farm loan waiver in June 2017. The package is estimated to help 5.6 million farmers. Also in June 2017, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah announced a waiver of Rs 8,165 crore worth of crop loans, doled out by cooperative banks. His move is expected to benefit over 22 lakh farmers in the southern state Earlier in June, the Madhya Pradesh government announced a loan waiver package to cover some six lakh farmers with accumulated dues of around Rs 6,000 crore. The new disclosure takes PNBs overall exposure in the still unravelling fraud case to well over the $2 billion mark. Mumbai: The Punjab National Bank has told police that it has uncovered additional exposure of about Rs 942 crore ($145.2 million) in connection with a massive alleged fraud, according to a court filing seen by Reuters. In what has been dubbed as the biggest fraud in Indias banking history, PNB, the countrys second-biggest state-run lender, said last month it had been defrauded of about $2 billion or Rs 12,700 crore by two jewellery groups who raised credit from overseas banks based on fraudulent guarantees issued in collusion with rogue PNB staff. In a court filing on Tuesday, police said the Gitanjali group of companies controlled by jeweller Mehul Choksi allegedly defrauded PNB of Rs 708 crore ($109 million). PNB had previously pegged its exposure to the Gitanjali companies at Rs 613.8 crore. The new disclosure takes PNBs overall exposure in the still unravelling fraud case to well over the $2 billion mark. A lawyer for Gitanjali groups head, Mehul Choksi, said he was unaware of the new allegations and declined to comment. Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi, who is the other main accused in the case, have both denied any wrongdoing. PNB did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Without naming the Punjab National Bank, he said the scam has 'revealed the necessities and urgencies to improve the internal controls', The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said banking reforms like insolvency code and recapitalisation will be ineffective unless governance standards are improved. "Reforms like the IBC Code, bank recapitalisation have taken place. However, for a lasting impact, these efforts are not enough and should be accompanied by governance reforms particularly for public sector banks," the multilateral body's deputy managing director Tao Zhang said at an event at the NSE here this evening. There is a need to look at the "deeper issue" of governance at the banks, he told reporters later. Without naming the Punjab National Bank, he said the scam has "revealed the necessities and urgencies to improve the internal controls", which is crucial not only for improving banks but also "financial stability" Banks should continue working on improving their balance sheets on a priority basis, he said, stressing that the asset quality situation of the domestic banks has deteriorated compared to their peers elsewhere. He said the financial regulators in India should focus on monitoring and regulating services instead of only institutions. The Rs 12,700-crore PNB scam, allegedly perpetrated by diamond trader Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in collusion with a few officials of a branch of the state-run bank came to light last month, wherein the duo is alleged to have used a key loophole on the international trade finance front (SWIFT) to defraud the bank. The duo and thier officials allegedly got letters of undertaking from the Brady House branch of PNB without having the required securities and also proper trades records in place for many years. The Fund official also spoke about financial technology firms, saying capital invested in the over 1,500 firms in the country is expected to go up by 1.7 times by the turn of 2020. India should focus on rapidly developing the sector so that efficiencies get enhanced but also safeguard against risks and also fight misconduct, he added. Punjab National Bank will honour claims by peer banks who issued credit to jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi against guarantees given by PNB The Punjab National Bank (PNB) will honour claims by peer banks who issued credit to billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi against guarantees given by PNB, but the payments come with riders. PNB, the second-biggest Indian state-run lender, uncovered in January the alleged fraud in which certain bank officials were suspected of colluding with Modi and Choksi to issue fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) for their firms to raise loans from overseas branches of mostly Indian banks. Both Modi and Choksi have denied wrongdoing, and so have two key accused PNB employees in the case that has been dubbed as Indias largest ever bank fraud. The Economic Times, citing sources, said PNB has agreed to honour claims due by end-March but has mandated that peer banks will have to pay PNB if investigative authorities prove that there was malafide intent on the part of these banks. On Monday, it was reported that some 30 banks paid out funds based on letters of understandings (LoUs) issued by the Punjab National Bank (PNB) on behalf of billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi and their companies. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, headed by Congress member M Veerappa Moily, in a report, had said that "international branches of many Indian banks including State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank and some foreign banks, lent money to a particular entity or many entities or companies based on these alleged fraudulent guarantees." PNB did not immediately respond to requests for comment. About 60 billion rupees ($924.14 million) is due to these banks by end of March, The Economic Times said. State Bank of India and three other state-run banks, Union Bank of India, UCO Bank and Allahabad Bank, are among lenders who have extended credit based on the LoUs issued by PNB that were later found to be fraudulent. With inputs from Reuters The trouble is with the Airbus A320neo aircraft fitted with a particular series of Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines, found to cause vibrations. New Delhi: Indias aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), is often criticized for being tardy in decision making. However, in the case of the latest engine trouble with the Airbus A320neo aircraft, the regulator must be commended for taking swift decision to ground 14 jets belonging to two different airlines. Yes, this will lead to many flights either getting cancelled or clubbed, and cause significant inconvenience to passengers even as capacity expansion plans of IndiGo and GoAir are already impacted due to engine issues with this aircraft. Analysts at brokerage Edelweiss said in a note this morning that the grounding of 11 IndiGo aircraft by the DGCA will mean it cedes market share to rival SpiceJet as near term capacity addition plans will also suffer. The trouble is with the Airbus A320neo aircraft fitted with a particular series of Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines. Those with even one P&W engine featuring a seal, found to cause vibrations, are no longer allowed to fly. A Bloomberg report said unilateral action by the DGCA in grounding the aircraft is at odds with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the primary regulator for Airbus planes, which repeated its guidance that the jets are safe if they have a single affected turbine. The Indian move comes after three in-service shutdowns of aircraft with one PW1100 engine featuring the seal, two of which occurred in the past week. As a result of the aircraft on ground (AOG), IndiGo has cancelled 47 flights this morning from destinations such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Patna, Srinagar, Bhubaneswar, Amritsar, Srinagar and Guwahati. This is less than the number of flights initial estimates has suggested would be cancelled, at anywhere between 70-80 flights. But still, these cancellations will lead to some disruption for domestic air travelers, especially since the peak summer rush is just around the corner. At least four in 10 domestic flyers choose IndiGo so the disruption for this airline and its passengers will be more than for GoAir. Vistara, which also flies A320neos, has not been affected because its aircraft are not fitted with the affected P&W engines. The DGCA has, in a statement, squarely blamed P&W for the groundings, saying P&W in its latest communication has also not given any firm commitment as to when the issue on the engine post serial number 450 will be resolved and informed that all the affected engines will be replaced by early June 2018. There is no concrete proposal in place to address the issue. The regulator said three instances of in-flight shutdown of engines were seen recently: GoAir flight from Leh on 24 February, IndiGo flight from Mumbai on 5 March and then the IndiGo flight from Ahmedabad on 12 March. These prompted the DGCA to order the groundings. But P&W said: We are working closely with our customers to minimize disruption. The corrective action has been approved and we have already begun to deliver production engines with the upgraded configuration. We are working to mitigate the AOG situation by the end of the second quarter. While the groundings will affect IndiGo and GoAir passengers, the event will not impact IndiGos financials. In a note to clients, analysts at Edelweiss said this morning that the grounding of aircraft will have no near term impact on the airlines financials. The order impacts overall 9 A320 NEOs for IndiGo out of the total 32 delivered NEO planes. IndiGo is operating the remaining 23 A320 NEO planes. Even for the grounded planes, IndiGo is getting compensated from P&W. Therefore there is no impact on near-term profitability. But the groundings will delay IndiGos aggressive capacity addition plans. The airline had earlier placed a mega 430 aircraft order with Airbus, of which 150 planes were A320new fitted with P&W engines. P&W and Airbus have recently put fresh deliveries of all the NEO planes on hold till the resolution takes place. Delay in the resolution from P&W impacts IndiGos near-term capacity addition plans (Q4FY18 capacity growth guidance of 24 percent, FY19: 20 percent YoY) and therefore loss of market share to SpiceJet, these analysts said. In a note to clients, ICICI Direct said that as of December 2017, IndiGo had 118 A320ceos and 32 A320neos in operation. This means that roughly 7 percent of the airlines operating fleet has been affected by the current groundings. That the DGCA has been proactive in this matter is evident from the fact that safety regulators outside India have not asked airlines that fly aircraft with the same P&W faulty engine series to ground aircraft. As this piece says, almost one in three A320 neo aircraft fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines have been affected by glitches, worldwide. Only a particular engine series has been affected by the glitch some aircraft of IndiGo have both engines which fall under this series, some others have been fitted with only a single engine within the affected series. Ditto for Go Air. Though disruptive, the aircraft groundings due to engine trouble are not really the first instance of a new aircraft/engine series giving trouble to airlines. Whenever a new aircraft type is launched in the market, there are teething troubles and often, there are groundings of the aircraft before glitches are fixed by the manufacturers. One cannot forget the trouble Boeing faced with its Dreamliners, when battery issues ground the B787 fleet worldwide for a while in 2013. The aircraft were plagued by mishaps, raising concerns over the use of lithium-ion batteries. By then, the Boeing Company had sold about 850 of aircraft, with 50 deliveries done and the Dreamliners were operational in Japan, South America, Poland, Qatar and Ethiopia, besides India. The battery glitch was eventually fixed and the aircraft are flying now. Agarwal, who has courted controversies with his statements in the past as well, made the remarkson Monday in the presence of BJP leaders Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday condemned Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Agarwal's comment that the party had denied him a ticket to the Upper House for someone "who used to dance in films". Agarwal, who lost out to actor-politician Jaya Bachchan in the race for re-nomination to the Upper House, quit the Samajwadi Party and joined the BJP on Monday. In a tweet, Yadav said, "We condemn the BJP and Naresh Agarwal for his derogatory statement against Jaya Bachhan. This is an insult to every Indian woman and the film industry. If the BJP really respects women, then it should immediately take action against him. The women's commission should also look into it." Agarwal, who has courted controversies with his statements in the past as well, made the remarkson Monday in the presence of BJP leaders, including Union minister Piyush Goyal, at a press conference held at the party headquarters. "For someone who used to dance in films, act in films, I was denied a ticket (for the Rajya Sabha). I did not find it appropriate," he had said. The comment drew criticism from the most prominent woman face of the BJP, Union minister Sushma Swaraj, who said it was "unacceptable". BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also distanced the party from Agarwal's comment. Agarwal's term as a Rajya Sabha member comes to an end on 2 April. Jaya Bachchan has once again been nominated to the Upper House by the Samajwadi Party The annual India-China military exercise will resume, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said on Tuesday, noting that the relationship between the two countries which had turned 'sour' after the Doka La stand-off was now improving New Delhi: The annual India-China military exercise will resume, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said on Tuesday, noting that the relationship between the two countries which had turned "sour" after the Doka La stand-off was now improving. He said the military diplomacy with China worked and the border personnel meetings that had stopped post-Doka La stand-off have begun again. The "bonhomie" between the two forces was back, Rawat said. "The hand-in-hand exercise with China happens every year. Only in the last year, this exercise was shelved (due to simmering tensions over Doka La), but this exercise is back on the cards," he said in response to a question. The border personnel of India and China were locked in a 73-day stand-off last year in Doka La. The disengagement of forces took place in August last year, after hectic parleys between the two countries. "So the military diplomacy with China has worked and is moving forward and ensuring that there is a thaw in the relations...the relationship had turned sour but I think it is all getting over now," he added. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be visiting China next month and it is likely that the issue could come up for discussion. The high-ranking visits between the two sides continued after the Doka La face-off ended in August last year. In December, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited India to attend the RIC (Russia-India-China) Foreign Ministers meeting. He also held bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj. Last month, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale also made a trip to Beijing, where he held talks with Wang. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit China in June this year to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting. The Maharashtra Government has decided to withdraw cases against all accused involved in minor cases relating to the Bhima Koregaon violence. The Maharashtra government on Tuesday decided to withdraw minor cases against all accused in the violence that erupted during the statewide bandh called in the aftermath of the Bhima-Koregaon violence in January, according to media reports. #BREAKING -- Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis tells Assembly that government has decided to withdraw cases against all accused in Bhima-Koregaon violence | @vinivdvc with more details pic.twitter.com/BT4ZizwYmg News18 (@CNNnews18) March 13, 2018 According to CNN News18, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday informed the Maharashtra Assembly that the government will withdraw cases registered in the backdrop of violence which killed one youth in Bhima-Koregoan. However, only those involved in minor cases will be let off. In case of serious offences, the government formed a judicial committee that will decide if the cases need to be withdrawn or not. The government had appointed a two-member committee last month, under retired justice Jai Narayan Patel, to conduct the probe into the violence. One person was killed and several others were injured in the violence which erupted on 1 January, after right-wing outfits opposed the 200th-anniversary celebration of the Bhima-Koregaon battle, in which forces of the East India Company defeated Peshwa's army. Dalit leaders commemorate the British victory, as it is believed that soldiers from the Mahar community then considered untouchable were part of the East India Company's forces. This led to widespread Dalit protests across the state for two days. Police had later booked Hindu Ekta Aghadi leader Milind Ekbote and another pro-Hindutva leader, Sambhaji Bhide, at the Pune rural police station for allegedly inciting the anti-Dalit violence. Last month, the Bombay High Court had refused to grant any interim protection from arrest to Ekbote. The Supreme Court is set to hear his plea on 14 March. The government appointed judicial commission has been given four months to conduct a detailed probe and submit its report. With inputs from PTI Parliament session on Tuesday saw a repeat of Monday's commotion as proceedings in both Houses were stalled for the seventh day amid Opposition protests. The Budget Session of Parliament saw a repeat of Monday's commotion as proceedings in both Houses of Parliament Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were stalled for the seventh day with no let up in protests by Opposition parties. Proceedings in the Lok Sabha were disrupted once again on Tuesday morning amid continuing protests by the Opposition over the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and other issues, forcing Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to adjourn the House till 12 pm. The Rajya Sabha was also adjourned till 2 pm, minutes after it met for the day. Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the House after the Opposition insisted on a discussion on the Rs 12,600 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam under Rule 168, which Naidu rejected. Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy raised a point of order, saying that he had given a notice under Rule 168 for discussion on the PNB scam and had fulfilled all the conditions laid down in the rules but still his notice was rejected by the Chair. Roy said that this denial by the Chair went against the "principles of natural justice". Naidu said that he was ready to allow discussion on the issue under Rule 176. However, the Opposition persisted with its demand. Meanwhile, a few members stood up and moved towards the Chair's podium with placards. Naidu then adjourned the House. Minutes earlier, he had appealed to all the members of the Upper House of Parliament not to display placards and banners as it was against the rules. A similar situation was witnessed in the Lok Sabha as well. Members from different parties trooped near the Speaker's podium, raising slogans on different issues, including the banking irregularities. This is the seventh consecutive day of disruptions in the Lower House. Speaker Mahajan tried to take up the Question Hour, but in the din, the House was soon adjourned. YSRCP MPs hold protest in the Parliament premises over demand of Special Status to #AndhraPradesh . pic.twitter.com/qTwLSMBRbW ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2018 AIADMK MPs lodged their protest over the constitution of Cauvery Management Board, while YSRCP MPs were seen holding placards and shouting slogans and demanded special category status to Andhra Pradesh. AIADMK MPs protest in Parliament premises over constitution of #CauveryManagementBoard pic.twitter.com/HzoCgfUKjS ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2018 Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said that the BJP has issued a three-line whip to all the MPs: "We have included all important issues in the list of business. We have also issued a three-line whip to all our MPs. We request all the parties to let the Parliament function and discuss constructively," Kumar said. Slamming Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia, he said that it seems that they 'don't believe in democracy'. We request Congress & other parties to let House function. It seems Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi don't believe in democracy. They speak outside on democracy but don't practice it in Parliament. Congress doesn't have democracy in their genes: Ananth Kumar, Parliamentary Affairs Min pic.twitter.com/v8yix1M1PO ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2018 The second half of the Parliament Budget Session, which resumed on 5 March, has been a complete washout so far, with the government unable to push through any of its legislation. On Monday, the Aam Aadmi Party too joined the protests in Rajya Sabha, demanding an end to the sealing drive in Delhi. Amid the din in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla introduced The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018, that seeks to confiscate all assets of absconding fraudsters and loan defaulters for recovering dues from them. YSRCP MPs hold protest in the Parliament premises over demand of Special Status to #AndhraPradesh . pic.twitter.com/qTwLSMBRbW ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2018 The Bill was introduced in the backdrop protests over the nearly Rs 12,700 crore fraud at Punjab National Bank in which businessman Nirav Modi is allegedly involved. The proposed law will apply to defaulters who have an outstanding of Rs 100 crore or more and have escaped from the country. The minister also introduced the Chit Funds (Amendment) Bill 2018. Not much business has been carried out since the second leg of the Budget Session of Parliament began, with the noisy protests stalling proceedings every day, barring for one hour on 8 March when members participated in a discussion to mark the International Women's Day in the Upper House. The two houses have been witnessing bedlam since 5 March. The TDP, which remains a member of the ruling NDA though it has pulled out of the central government, is demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh. With inputs from agencies The BJP decided to boycott an all-party meet called by Kejriwal to find a solution to problems being faced by traders because of an ongoing sealing drive in Delhi New Delhi: The BJP on Monday decided to boycott an all-party meet called by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday to find a solution to problems being faced by traders because of an ongoing sealing drive in the city, even as the AAP slammed state BJP chief Manoj Tiwari for touring abroad at a time when city traders were facing problems. Delhi BJP general-secretary Ravinder Gupta said the party would not attend the meeting, adding that after the incident at the chief minister's residence on 30 January, where a delegation of saffron party was "misbehaved with", it was proved that the AAP does not believe in a "political dialogue". "It would have been better had the chief minister met the Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee and registered his protest for carrying out a sealing drive without any notice. "The government should appoint prominent lawyers as the chief minister has appointed for his personal litigation," BJP said in a letter to Kejriwal. In a statement, the party said, "the Delhi BJP feels there is no objective of such a meeting as the intentions of the government of Delhi are not clear on the matter." However, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken will attend the all party-meeting to be held at the chief minister's residence on Tuesday. Kejriwal had on Sunday written to Maken and Tiwari, inviting them for the meeting at his residence on Tuesday, saying, "We should rise above politics and come together to find a solution to the problems that have risen due to sealing." The Delhi BJP said Tiwari was abroad as part of a delegation accompanying President Ram Nath Kovind and would be back by 15 March. Taking a dig at Tiwari, senior AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj tweeted, "Whole Delhi desperately seeking solution for Sealing. Where is BJP Delhi chief and Member of Parliament?" Attacking the BJP-led Centre, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said, "The central government passed four ordinances to amend the Land Acquisition Act and took the same route to allow Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu after the Supreme Court ban. What prevents it from passing an ordinance or a bill to provide some relief to businessmen here?" In January, Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta had alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party leaders and workers "misbehaved" with members of a BJP delegation at Kejriwal's residence when they had gone there to discuss about relief to traders hit by the sealing drive. A case was registered in the matter and some AAP MLAs were booked. The sealing drive was undertaken by the municipal corporations of the national capital on the directions of a Supreme Court-appointed committee in December 2017. Under the drive, hundreds of commercial establishments have been sealed so far for non-payment of conversion charges and violation of the Delhi Master Plan. After DGCA cracked down on A320 neo planes using Pratt & Whitney engines, the engine manufacturer said the company is working towards minimising disruption On Tuesday, domestic airline IndiGo cancelled 47 flights after the country's aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), grounded eight of its A320neo planes with faulty Pratt & Whitney engines. The DGCA cracked the whip after an IndiGo flight bound for Lucknow returned to Ahmedabad within 40 minutes of take-off due to a mid-air engine failure on Monday. Citing safety of aircraft operations, A320neos fitted with PW1100 engines beyond ESN 450 have been grounded with immediate effect. Apart from IndiGo, three GoAir aircraft have also been grounded by the DGCA's ruling. "Both IndiGo and GoAir have been told not to refit these engines, which are spare with them in their inventory," the agency said in a release. Pratt & Whitney's turbulent past The current issue with the IndiGo flights pertains only to its A320neo aircraft fleet that are using Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines. Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace company that manufactures both military and civil aircraft engines. In a series of similar instances in recent months, A320neo aircraft across the world suffered identical engine failures and were forced to make emergency landings. Last month, Airbus said it had informed affected A320neo customers and operators of the problem, adding there are currently 113 Pratt & Whitney-powered A320 neo aircraft flying with 18 airlines. Pratt & Whitney said in a statement that the issue affected a "limited sub-population of engines", without elaborating. On 9 February, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had issued an emergency airworthiness directive for A320neo planes fitted with PW1100 engines having a particular serial number. The directive followed instances of the engines shutting down during flights and rejecting take-offs involving the A320neo family aircraft. On 13 February, the DGCA had said that it was monitoring engine glitches to ensure that safety is not compromised. Later that day, IndiGo said it had grounded three Airbus A320 neo aircraft with Pratt & Whitney engines due to glitches in both engines. On 21 February, Pratt & Whitney said it has come out with a revised configuration to address the latest problem in some of its engines powering A320neo planes. After Monday's emergency landing, Pratt & Whitney issued a statement saying the company is working towards minimising disruption. "The corrective action has been approved and we have already begun to deliver production engines with the upgraded configuration," the engine maker said, adding that it is working to mitigate the situation by the end of the second quarter, Livemint reported. About the A320neo A successor of the A320 family, the Airbus A320 neo is passenger aircraft that comprises four narrow-bodied aircraft variants: A318neo, A319neo, A320neo and A321neo. The term neo represents "new engine options", as airlines using any of the four variants have two options to choose from the CFM International LEAP-1A or the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines. Until March 2018, Airbus has delivered 242 A320neo aircraft to various airlines across the world, including IndiGo and GoAir in India, according to Moneycontrol. Out of the first 88 A320neo aircraft delivered in March 2018, 49 had Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines, while 39 had the CFM International LEAP-1A engines. Most of the initial 88 aircraft are operational and have clocked more than 57,600 flight hours over 142 routes, the report added. Operators currently using the A320neo have confirmed saving around 15 percent fuel-burn per seat. Indigo's luck with PW1100 engines Indigo is India's largest passenger airline, with a market share of 39.4 percent as of November 2017, and is also one of the largest operators of the A320neo variant. The airline had to replace Pratt & Whitney engines on its 32 A320 neo aircraft at least 69 times in the period May 2016-November 2017, according to reports. IndiGo said these were related to non-detection of chip, carbon seal lining or combustor chamber lining in Pratt & Whitney 1100 series engines. Indigo's boroscopic tests (which are used to test defects or imperfections in aircraft engines and gas turbines) detected these anomalies in 69 instances, Business Today reported. As per practice, the defective engines were replaced with other engines overnight. After the replacement, the defective engine is sent to the manufacturer and the planes continue to operate with the replaced engines, the report added. After Monday's emergency landing, an IndiGo spokesman told The Times of India, "IndiGo flight 6E 244 from Ahmedabad to Lucknow after take-off experienced technical glitch with its (number) 2 engine. The flight crew carried out actions as per SOP and landed back at Ahmedabad following precautionary measures. The matter is being investigated by IndiGo Flight Safety team and DGCA. At IndiGo the safety and security of customers, crew and the aircraft is the top priority and cannot be compromised at any time." After the DGCA order and cancellation of the scores of IndiGo flights, hundreds of passengers were left stranded at airports across the country. An aircraft, on average, operates seven to eight trips a day and considering that 11 aircraft have been grounded, the number of cancelled flights could soar quickly besides the leading to cascading delays. "Since the grounding is with immediate effect, it has sent our operations for a toss. The schedule and network are being reworked to accommodate the flights, which are to be operated by these planes," an airline official said. "The affected passengers would be accommodated on other flights on our network," IndiGo said in a statement. With inputs from PTI As Emmanuel Macron returns home after spending four days in India, it is worth noting the takeaways of a fruitful visit that contrasts sharply with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's disastrous tour of India. As Emmanuel Macron returns home after spending four days in India, it is worth noting the takeaways of a fruitful visit that contrasts sharply with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's disastrous tour of India. The French president avoided the familiar trappings of discovering India as a 'holiday destination' and focused instead on the business at hand. The end result was a clear roadmap for heightened Indo-French engagement over a range of areas from clean energy, education, trade, space, defence ties to maritime cooperation and geopolitics. As a bonus, an unequivocal message was sent to China that its power projection in Indian Ocean region and Asia Pacific won't go uncontested. Before heading to Indian shores, Macron had commented that age difference won't come in the way of his 'chemistry' with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It evidently wasn't a factor as both leaders added new dynamism to an old friendship. France had always had India's back. It was the first to recognize the anxieties that drove India to becoming a nuclear power in 1998, the first western nation to develop a strategic partnership with India and the only major power that battled against India's ostracisation and imposition of sanctions when western nations led by the US were lining up to haul New Delhi over the coals. In his column for The Indian Express, Carnegie India director C Raja Mohan writes, "until recently, it was Russia alone that made an unambiguous choice between India and Pakistan in favour of the former. As Russia reaches out to Pakistan, that special position now belongs to France. For example, Paris has foregone the opportunity to sell major weapons systems to Pakistan and has focused on a strong defence partnership with India." There could be debates on whether Indo-French ties have yet reached the strategic depth that marks India's partnership with the US or Russia but the trajectory of the relationship, the wide area of shared interests and the reciprocity that is evident in increasing areas of mutual cooperation make this partnership a crucial one for both nations and also for the primacy of democracy across the globe. China's rise and its floating of an alternative teleological construct for growth and development presents a particularly challenging time for democracy amid a global decline of representative government. In this context, India's partnership with France offers new possibilities to resist the radical changes in international system. Macron's visit made it clear that in France, India has a major Eurasian power in its corner that shares its values, political system, focus on clean energy and global vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific at a time of great geopolitical flux. India faces a number of daunting challenges, both internal and external, but none more so than the rise of China as it seeks to grow in the same neighborhood. That it must compete with a hegemonic nation for resources, power and influence within a challenging geographic and geo-economic space is a reality that India cannot escape. As Professor Mohan Malik writes in his book China and India: Great Power Rivals, "Both want to envelop neighbours with their economies. Both are competing for resources, foreign investment, trade, markets and increasingly, overseas bases. Both are intent on acquiring comprehensive national strength" and this competition is "unfolding in the middle of a perfect storm: resource scarcity, global economic rebalancing, geopolitical shifts, environmental degradation and transnational security threats" (Viva Books publication). India's challenge is made more daunting by the power deferential between two nations that is still widening. Pax Sinica is well on way to becoming a reality while Pax Indica still remains a concept. Given this reality, New Delhi has precious few tools at disposal to resist China's gravitational pull over nations in its own backyard. It cannot possibly match China in resources and influence given its own lack of capacity and need for infrastructure, so it must team up with partners to offer an alternative model for development and simultaneously raise political costs for China as it goes about building strategic assets and dual-use major infrastructure to project its power in the neighborhood and beyond. It is here that India's partnership with traditional powers such as Japan and France may prove crucial. While the partnership with Japan has already been put within a quadrilateral framework and is progressing robustly in economic and strategic spheres, ties with France remained stuck in a sphere of uncertainty. India would have noted with some concern Macron's endorsement of Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative during his visit to China in January this year. Having said that France was ready to partner with China and play a leading role in BRI, Macron also added a caveat that there is no space for expansionism in the garb of infrastructure development. "After all, the ancient Silk Roads were never only Chinese By definition, these roads can only be shared. If they are roads, they cannot be one-way These roads cannot be those of a new hegemony, which would transform those that they cross into vassals," Macron had said while addressing an audience in Xian, China. The need for balancing the interests of two Asian nations was reinforced in the joint vision statement that followed Modi's meeting with Macron. Though the term "Indo-Pacific" was absent (may have something to do with India's effort to reset ties with China) in the document, the references to free and open architecture in Indo-Pacific was clear, reinforced by France and India's inking of reciprocal logistics pact that will allow navies and defence forces of both nations to access each other's ports and facilities in Indian Ocean littoral, mirroring India's LEMOA pact with the US. This may act as a significant deterrence against China's machinations in Indo-Pacific given France's status as a major maritime power and its naval presence in strategic chokepoints. As C Raja Mohan and Darshana Baruah write in a Carnegie India paper, "France's military presence in Abu Dhabi and Djibouti gives it critical access to two major chokepoints, the Strait of Hormuz (connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea) and Bab-el-Mandeb (connecting the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea and the Suez Canal). France also has an extensive exclusive economic zone in the Mozambique Channel (generated by its scattered islands), expanding its reach and access to the eastern coast of Africa." The India-France joint vision statement also gives an interesting inkling into multilateralism that marks the bilateral tie. "In order to widen and deepen strategic naval cooperation, India and France will be open to inviting strategic partner countries in the region to participate in Indo-French exercises." This is an obvious message to China about the great power consolidation that may inevitably materalise as a reaction to Beijing's power projection but also to the US, that New Delhi won't restrict itself to 'quad' mechanism when it comes to exploring its options. The mention of Reunion Island is another interesting addition to the vision statement that immediately places France within the ambit of Indian Ocean region. "The two leaders recalled the close relations uniting India and the French department of Reunion Island, the fruit of a long-standing common history. They desire to develop them in economy, tourism, research, innovation, education, culture, defence and security," read the statement. In an interview to India Today just before leaving for India, Macron had insisted that France is India's partner not only through history but also geography. "We are part of this region through our geography. And a lot of people ignore that. But we are not just a European power. We are part of the Indian Ocean/ Pacific Ocean powers through the Reunion Island and an island in the Pacific and it's very important to me to be part of this partnership in terms of collective security." The effort to assist India in maintaining "liberty and sovereignty" of this region was clear and precise. If France's keenness to be a part of BRI is a reality, so is its effort to ensure that the key sea route and trade links remain free of coercion. Between these two stools, there is a lot of space for firming of bilateral ties. The NIA documents further state that some 50 Hurriyat leaders have been given a quota of recommending one seat each for MBBS admissions in Pakistan and 'top ten Hurriyat leaders have power to recommend more than one seat'. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which is probing the role of separatist leaders in Kashmir in fanning unrest in the Valley has named former chief minister and National Conference working president, Omar Abdullah, and some officials of Pakistani Embassy who met Hurriyat (G) leader, Devinder Singh Behal, in Kashmir. As part of the investigation, the NIA has prepared a disclosure statement of Behal who has informed the investigating agency that when he met Omar in 2013 he failed to address the concerns of Sikhs and Hindus and instead told them to meet Hurriyat (M) chairman, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, or Syed Ali Shah Geelani. He was earlier detained by NIA in the case of funding of separatist activities in Kashmir. Behal as the head of Jammu and Kashmir Social Peace Forum (JKSPF) is the constituent of Hurriyat (G) and is also its executive member. Behal whose family lives in Rajouri has been frequently travelling to Kashmir to meet Geelani at his Hyderpora residence. The NIA documents read that "in the year 2013 a delegation of Hindus and Sikhs from Pulwama district led by SGPC chairman, Avtar Singh Makkar, met the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, and briefed him about the problems faced by Hindus and Sikhs in the Valley, the CM bluntly told that he cant do anything and we should go to Mirwaiz and Geelani". The repeated attempts by Firstpost to reach out to the former chief minister for his reaction failed. Text messages on his phone also went unanswered. Omar's political secretary, Tanveer Sadiq, said that during his tenure as chief minister, Omar, may have met many delegations. He said that he cant comment further on what transpired in the meeting with Behal. NIA spokesman, Alok Mittal, said that the investigating agency will examine the records to find out "as to why was Omar named as part of the case". The NIA disclosure has been signed by its inspector, Vigyan Singh. The NIA officials confirmed that Singh was associated with the agency as an official to probe the cases related to "militancy". Behal remains associated with Geelani since September 2013 and has told the NIA that he has attended some 20 meetings of the Hurriyat in two and half years. Most of these meetings were held at Geelani's residence. He further added that these meetings were also attended by the local "trade unions, hotel unions, fruit and transport associations". Besides his meeting with Omar, NIA has also disclosed that Behal would frequently visit the Pakistani Embassy in New Delhi and also visited Pakistan. "In December 2012, I applied for tourist visa for Pakistan. Md Zulfikar was the first officer of Pakistan Embassy and he was known to me. In Jan 2013, I visited Pakistan (sic)," the disclosure read. Hurriyat (G) spokesman, Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar, said that Behal was attending the meetings of the separatist outfit and was also its executive member. The separatist leader also told the NIA that the Hurriyat leaders will recommend names of youths for MBBS and BDS training in Pakistani institutions. He also disclosed that he visited Pakistan and had raised the issue that the Muslim leaders of Kashmir were getting funding while as the non-Muslim leaders are being left out. Gulza, however, said that the allegations which are leveled by the NIA "were devoid of any basis". The NIA documents further state that some 50 Hurriyat leaders have been given a quota of recommending one seat each for MBBS admissions in Pakistan and "top ten Hurriyat leaders have power to recommend more than one seat". In the disclosures before the NIA, Behal stated that the separatist leaders were charging between Rs 17 to 25 lakh to issue recommendations for admissions in medical colleges in Pakistan. Gulzar said that Behals party continues to "be an important constituent of Hurriyat Conference". He, however, said that "We will look into the issue that how the disclosure statement of Behal accuses Hurriyat of raising money." The separatist leader however also said that after he raised with Geelani that he should be in a position to recommend candidates for some MBBS and BDS seats, his party was also given one seat each for MBBS and BDS in Pakistani institutions. NIA also revealed in the disclosure that besides Behal, some other Hurriyat leaders have close contacts with the officials in Pakistani Embassy and "they were actively involved in remitting the funds to the Hurriyat and other leaders in Kashmir for carrying out various anti-India activities such as the stone pelting". He also said that during his visit to Pakistan, he met many of the separatist leaders and has stated that the Hurriyat also sends a list of those having received pellet injuries and the stone-pelters along with their photographs to Pakistan to get the money. He has admitted that he send a list himself to a Pakistan based separatist leader on WhattsApp. About the lists that are being sent to Pakistan he said, "every list contains names ranging from 20 to 100 victims". Three BJP Goa MPs met the party's national president Amit Shah in the national capital on Tuesday and discussed the Supreme Court-imposed mining ban in the coastal state New Delhi: Three BJP Goa MPs met the party's national president Amit Shah in the national capital on Tuesday and discussed the Supreme Court-imposed mining ban in the coastal state which is slated to come into effect from Thursday. Speaking to IANS from Delhi, South Goa BJP MP Narendra Savoikar said that Shah had promised the MPs to study the matter after speaking to officials of all concerned government departments and arrive at a possible solution to the crisis. "Myself, Shripad Naik and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar spoke to our national president and apprised him of the situation arising from the Supreme Court-imposed ban on mining. He has promised to speak to officials from concerned departments and look at possible solutions," Savoikar said. In its order last month, the apex court ordered the stoppage of mining activity in 88 mining leases in Goa from Friday and has directed the state government to issue fresh leases, after completing the necessary environment-related formalities. The ban has triggered chaos in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as well as its ruling alliance parties Goa Forward and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party with several BJP legislators accusing both the coalition government and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre of not doing enough to come to the aid of more than one lakh people dependant on the mining industry who are likely to suffer from its temporary closure. The BJP, as well as the ruling coalition allies, have been demanding that instead of allotting fresh leases, the mining tracts should be allotted to the same mining companies who have been indicted in the Rs 35,000 crore illegal mining scam. A lecturer in Rajkiya College near Haryana's Sonipat was shot dead by a student inside the institute's premises on Tuesday A lecturer in Rajkiya College near Haryana's Sonipat was shot dead by a student inside the institute's premises on Tuesday, according to media reports. #BREAKING -- Lecturer shot inside Sonipat's Rajkiya college. The accused student is yet to be identified. @jyotik with more details. pic.twitter.com/QI48B2cLvj News18 (@CNNnews18) March 13, 2018 Media reports said that the suspect is yet to be identified. Haryana: A student shot at a lecturer in a college in Sonipat district's Kharkhoda; Student yet to be identified, police investigation on. ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2018 The incident occurred in the early hours of Tuesday when a student walked into the college's staff room and fired three bullets at the professor, CNN-News18 reported. The professor was then rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead. Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman was on Tuesday granted bail in the INX Media money laundering case by a special court, which said there were no specific allegation against him except that he aided former union minister P Chidambaram's son in committing the crime. New Delhi: Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman was on Tuesday granted bail in the INX Media money laundering case by a special court, which said there were no specific allegation against him except that he aided former union minister P Chidambaram's son in committing the crime. Special Judge Sunil Rana, while granting the relief to Bhaskararaman, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 16 February from a five-star hotel, observed that the "personal liberty is of precious value" and "bail cannot be withheld as a punishment". "Personal liberty is of precious value as per our Constitution and a person should be presumed to be innocent till he is proved guilty after facing trial and grant of bail is a rule and refusal of bail is an exception. The object of bail is to secure the attendance of accused in the trial and bail cannot be withheld as a punishment," the judge said. The court directed Bhaskararaman to furnish a personal bond of Rs two lakh and one surety of like amount and imposed conditions on the bail, including not to leave the country without permission and not to threaten any person acquainted with the facts of the case. It also asked the chartered accountant to cooperate in the investigation whenever required by the probe agency and surrender his passport to the investigating officer. "There is no specific allegation against the applicant except that he aided and assisted the main accused Karti P Chidambaram in the commission of crime. "Correctness or otherwise of the allegation as to whether accused had possessed proceeds of crime or in what manner the accused was connected with the same can only be looked into during the course of the trial," the bench said. Bhaskararaman had sought bail on the ground that he was not required for custodial interrogation and no purpose would be served by keeping him in custody. The CA was sent to jail on 26 February after his custodial interrogation by the ED. Karti's name had cropped up in the case relating to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board's (FIPB) approval granted in 2007 for receipt of funds by INX Media when his father and Congress leader P Chidambaram was the finance minister during the previous UPA regime. The court also said that the apprehension of the probe agency that accused may influence witnesses or tamper with evidence appeared to be unfounded. "Considering the facts and circumstances of the case... I am of the view that there is no hint or allegation that the applicant S Bhaskararaman is at a flight risk, nor is there any material to suggest that he will tamper with the evidence. Therefore he is no more required to be kept in judicial custody. In my opinion, he is entitled to bail with stringent conditions," the judge said in his order. The court also observed that except the cases involving punishment of death or imprisonment for life, judicial discretion should always be exercised by the court in favour of granting bail and unless there are exceptional circumstances. "There is no classification of the offences for grant of bail and there is no justification for classifying offences into different categories such as economic offence for refusal of grant of bail. Bail invariably be not refused simply because it involves serious economic offence and low does not permit such discrimination," it observed. The ED had earlier told the court that during the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Bhaskararaman had been assisting Karti to manage his "ill-gotten wealth" in India and abroad. It had alleged that INX Media had deliberately and in violation of the conditions of approval made a downstream investment of 26 percent in the capital of INX News Pvt Ltd without the 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 had alleged. The FIPB unit of the Finance Ministry had not only granted illegal approval but also misinformed the investigation wing of the Income Tax Department, it had alleged. Karti, the son of former Union minister P Chidambaram, had moved the high court seeking bail, hours after a court here sent him to judicial custody till 24 March. New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today sought response from the CBI on the bail plea of Karti Chidambaram, arrested by the CBI in the INX Media corruption case. Justice SP Garg told the CBI to file a status report before 16 March. The CBI, however, contended that the matter was not maintainable. During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Karti, informed the high court that he would withdraw the bail plea from the trial court. Earlier in the day, the matter was posted before Justice Indermeet Kaur who recused herself from the case and said she would refer the matter to the Acting Chief Justice for assigning the bail plea to another bench for today itself. The bail plea was yesterday mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar and listed for hearing on Tuesday. Karti, the son of former Union minister P Chidambaram, had moved the high court seeking bail, hours after a court here sent him to judicial custody till 24 March. Karti's parents P Chidambaram and Nalini Chidambaram, both senior advocates, were present in the courtroom. A special court had yesterday sent Karti to judicial custody in the INX Media corruption case and dismissed his plea that he be put in a separate cell in Tihar Jail in view of "threat perception". The court had also dismissed his appeal for an urgent hearing on his bail plea and the "threat perception" due to the fact that his father, as a Union minister in the previous UPA government, had handled several sensitive issues. The court had sent him to Tihar Jail after the CBI, in whose custody he was quizzed for 12 days in a row after his arrest on February 28 from Chennai, said he was no longer required for further custodial interrogation. The court said his bail plea would be heard on 15 March as scheduled. Karti was arrested by the CBI on his return from the United Kingdom in connection with an FIR lodged on 15 May last year. It alleged irregularities in a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to a media house, INX Media, for receiving funds of about Rs 305 crore from overseas in 2007 when his father was the Union finance minister. The CBI had initially alleged that Karti Chidambaram received Rs 10 lakh as a bribe for facilitating the FIPB clearance to INX Media. It, however, later revised the figure to USD 1 million (about Rs 6.50 crore at the current exchange rate and Rs 4.50 crore in 2007). The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered Karti's arrest, was based on a statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former director of INX Media (P) Ltd, who recorded it under Section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate on 17 February. ED moved the Surpreme Court against the Delhi High Court order which had granted interim protection from arrest by ED to Karti Chidambaram. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday moved the Surpreme Court against the Delhi High Court order which had granted interim protection from arrest by ED to Karti Chidambaram. Karti, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, was granted protection from arrest till 20 March in the INX Media money laundering case. CNN-News18 further reported that the apex court agreed to hear ED's plea on Thursday. The Delhi High Court in its order had also made it clear that in case the special court grants Karti bail in the CBI case which has registered a corruption case against him, the ED will not arrest him till the next hearing before it. The court had also issued a notice and sought a response of the Centre and the ED on Karti's plea challenging the issuance of summons and proceedings initiated against him in the money laundering case. Karti, on last Thursday, had moved the high court after the Supreme Court had allowed him to withdraw his writ petition against the ED summons with a liberty to take urgent redressal before the high court. Karti was arrested from the Chennai Airport on 28 February upon his return from the United Kingdom, in connection with an FIR that was registered on 15 May last year. Since his arrest, the businessman has been in CBI custody for questioning. The FIR 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 his father was the Union finance minister. Initially, the CBI had alleged that Karti Chidambaram received a bribe of Rs 10 lakh in order to facilitate the FIPB clearance to INX Media. The agency, however, later revised the figure to USD 1 million (about Rs 6.50 crore at the current exchange rate and Rs 4.50 crore in 2007). The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered Karti's arrest, was based on a statement by Indrani Mukerjea, former director of INX Media (P) Ltd, who recorded her statement under Section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate on 17 February. With inputs from PTI In a sensational claim, DG Vanzara, a former IPS officer and an accused in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was secretly interrogated by the investigating officer Ahmedabad: In a sensational claim, DG Vanzara, a former IPS officer and an accused in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was secretly interrogated by the investigating officer. In his discharge application filed in the special CBI court in Ahmedabad, Vanzara said Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat was interrogated, but "such material was not placed on the record of this case." This proves that "the entire material on record of this case is nothing but a false story", he said. "The fact also remains that the then chief minister and present Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi was also called by the IO and was interrogated. However, such material is not placed on the record of this case. "But the fact remains that it was the intention on part of the then investigating team, which included one Mr Satish Verma, IPS, was anyhow on mission so as to reach the then chief minister of the state and to rope him in as the accused in this case, and for that purpose the story of the whole charge sheet is concocted and created," Vanzara said in his application. "Therefore the entire material on record of this case is nothing but a false and got up the story, but is not the prosecutable evidence against the present applicant," said. The special CBI judge JK Pandya issued a notice to the CBI, seeking its response by 28 March to Vanzara's plea seeking discharge. Vanzara also pleaded parity as a ground, since former in-charge DGP of Gujarat PP Pandey, a co-accused, was discharged by the same court three weeks ago. Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old girl from Mumbra near Mumbai, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged staged encounter with police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. The Gujarat police had claimed the four had links with terrorist organisations and wanted to kill Modi. But a special investigating team set up by the Gujarat High Court concluded that it was a fake encounter. The HC then transferred the case to the CBI. IPS officer Satish Verma was part of the SIT, and also assisted the CBI in its probe later. In the first charge sheet filed in 2013, the CBI had named seven Gujarat police officers including IPS officers Pandey, Vanzara and GL Singhal for kidnapping, murder and conspiracy. The CBI also named four Intelligence Bureau officials, including IB's the then special director Rajinder Kumar and officer MS Sinha, in a supplementary charge sheet. The sanction for their prosecution from the Centre is still awaited. Vanzara, a former deputy inspector general of police, was last year discharged in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases. The Delhi High Court is set to hear former Union minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram's bail petition in connection with the INX Media corruption case on Tuesday The Delhi High Court is set to hear former Union minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram's bail petition in connection with the INX Media corruption case on Tuesday. The high court had on 10 March restrained the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from arresting Karti till 20 March. Karti had on Monday moved the high court seeking bail, hours after a Delhi court sent him to Tihar jail for 12-day judicial custody after rejecting his plea for early hearing of his bail application. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on Monday produced Karti in the Delhi court after his three-day police custody expired and sought 15-day judicial custody. Kartis counsel Dayan Krishan had moved a plea in a Delhi court seeking a separate jail cell on the grounds of "indisputable threat" to Karti's life in Tihar Jail since P Chidambaram had taken charge as a home minister "just after 26/11 Mumbai attacks and had several accused under MCOCA prosecuted." However, the CBI strongly refuted the suggestion, saying that "there was no threat to Karti" and he would be taken care of in accordance with jail rules. Special Judge Sunil Rana then dismissed Karti's plea, stating that he could not be treated differently from other accused solely on the basis of his own as well as his father's social status. Earlier, the former Union minister's son was remanded in CBI custody for three days after the agency claimed that it had recovered incriminating documents and CDs from the Chennai office of Advantage Strategic Pvt Ltd, a company that Karti has links with. Karti was arrested from the Chennai Airport on 28 February upon his return from the United Kingdom, in connection with an FIR that was registered on 15 May last year. Since his arrest, the businessman has been in CBI custody for questioning. The FIR 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 his father was the Union finance minister. Initially, according to a PTI report, the CBI had alleged that Karti Chidambaram received a bribe of Rs 10 lakh in order to facilitate the FIPB clearance to INX Media. The agency, however, later revised the figure to USD 1 million (about Rs 6.50 crore at the current exchange rate and Rs 4.50 crore in 2007). The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered Karti's arrest, was based on a statement by Indrani Mukerjea, former director of INX Media (P) Ltd, who recorded her statement under Section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate on 17 February. Meanwhile, the Madras High Court will hear a petition filed by Karti challenging the lookout notice issued against him by the CBI. On Monday, Gopal Subramaniam, representing Karti, had told the court that the CBI should not have arrested Karti at the Chennai airport, in compliance with a court condition. The agency should have obtained the leave of the high court before arresting Karti," he had said. The counsel had submitted that the CBI failed to mention the reasons for issuing such a circular. Denying the contention, Additional Solicitor General G Rajagopalan submitted that the high court, in its order, had not stated anything about his arrest while allowing him to travel abroad. Karti's failure to appear before the investigating officer despite the directions of the Supreme Court led to the issuance of a lookout notice, he said. With inputs from PTI Hadiya's 'hard-won victory' should not call for celebration as it is not something that the Judiciary aspires to do the bare minimum for women's rights. On 8 March, the Supreme Court set aside the Kerala High Court's judgment that annulled the marriage between Hadiya, a woman who had converted to Islam from Hinduism, and a Muslim man, Shafin Jahan a marriage that had triggered an enormous legal debate in the country. In doing so, the apex court restored Hadiya's freedoms and liberties, observing that "marriage and intimacy are the core of plurality in India". By recognising Hadiyas rights, the Supreme Court has upheld the Indian woman's right to choose, and through a long-winding legal process. But must we celebrate the obvious? Should we not be outraged that the Supreme Court waited until 8 March, International Women's Day, to state that the judgment from Kerala HC was outrageous and erroneous? Must we celebrate a judgment that does the bare minimum affirms that an adult woman has the right to choose her partner? The case was simple Hadiya, who was previously known as Akhila Ashokan, converted to Islam and subsequently married Shafin. Her father, KM Ashokan, filed a habeas corpus petition alleging that his daughter had been abducted and that she be returned to his protective custody. The intention of filing of a habeas corpus petition is to secure the liberty of those who were illegally confined by the police. A Division Bench of the Kerala HC, on 25 May last year, in a disturbing judgment, stated that Hadiyas marriage was a "sham" and sent her to her parents' custody. The Bench, consisting of Justice Surendra Mohan and Justice Abraham Mathew, made some very troubling judicial observations "a girl aged 24 years is weak and vulnerable, capable of being exploited in many ways" and "her marriage being the most important decision in her life, can also be taken only with the active involvement of her parents." Shafin, in a bid to challenge this decision, filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court, stating that their marriage was annulled without a legal basis. The Supreme Court Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud assumed a parens patriae jurisdiction, directed a National Institutional Agency (NIA) probe against Shafin, and declared Hadiya's father as her custodian. This was a series of bizarre orders by the highest court in the country, where legal principles and constitutional values were clouded by morality and prejudice. As the high court categorically affirmed that Hadiya was "weak and vulnerable" and had been exploited and "brainwashed" into making this decision, the Supreme Court did not put an end to conversations around "forced conversions" and "love-jihad". So, what was the Supreme Court's jurisprudence in the Hadiya case? Why did the Supreme Court expend all its energies into enabling the Kerala HC's problematic trajectory of a woman's fundamental freedoms? Most importantly, why was the Supreme Court deciding a matter on questions of fact, rather than questions of law? As the highest court of the country, the apex court's fundamental job is to apply relevant legal principles to a case and interpret the law. In fact, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who appeared on behalf of Shafin, stated very pertinent issues: "One, can in a habeas corpus petition, the high court suo motu proceed to nullify a marriage? And second, it a settled position of law that no third party can move any proceeding in any court in respect of marriage between two consenting adults." The Judiciary's approach to this case has, from the very beginning, been an infraction on gender equality. The high court's reluctance to recognise Hadiya as a person with rights, the Supreme Court's systematic deconstruction of Hadiyas human rights and its welfarist approach towards her all reek of misogyny and prejudice. More importantly, the Bench waited for a long time to hear Hadiya's statement, therefore, validating the Kerala HC's absurd observations that Hadiya, a girl in her 20s, did not have the mental capacity to know what she wanted. The Supreme Court kowtowed to conspiracy theories of "love-jihad" and terrorism and national security threats. There is also a tone of communal and religious prejudice in all the orders, leading up to the last one that restores Hadiya's freedoms. There was no question of law that the Supreme Court delves on; most of its orders throughout the judgment are based on morals. The only thing that the "jurisprudential conundrum" of Hadiya's case does is indicate how not to adjudicate a woman's rights case in 2018. There is, of course, a major issue with how the judicial processes were conducted in this case, that might rear its ugly head in the future. It exposed the pattern of protectionism that the Judiciary often uses while adjudicating women's rights cases. Moreover, the approach that the Supreme Court had, in this case, is blatantly against the human rights approach that our Constitution adheres to. This pattern treats women as objects that need to protected by the law and in turn, by the Judiciary. The Supreme Court assumed a parens patriae jurisdiction and directed that Hadiya go back to her father, as it assigned him her custodian. These are terrible precedents for women's rights adjudication in India. And this is what we need to combat, going forward. Hadiya's "hard-won victory" should not call for celebration because it is not something that the Judiciary aspires to do the bare minimum for women's human rights. Hadiya's case should not be considered our baseline on gender equality. It was regressive and should be regarded bad in law. The Judiciary should not pride itself on this judgment, and we should not applaud the court for doing its job. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis' handling of the farmers' protest in Mumbai should be viewed as a political victory for him and his party. When close to 30,000 farm workers and farmers decided to march to Mumbai with various demands, several political parties attempted to corner the state government, but chief minister Devendra Fadnavis' handling of the issue should be viewed as a political victory for him and his party. The government and protesting farmers were able to break the impasse after a three-hour-long meeting on Monday in which the government agreed to sincerely look into their requests while promising time-bound action into some of them. Fadnavis' deft handling of the situation was evident in his speech to the Maharashtra Assembly, a small video clip of which covers all the salient points: The march consisted primarily of landless labourers and tribal farmworkers with "a few" farmers. This seemingly innocuous introduction set the framework for the problem separately from what the Opposition and media were trying to portray. Throughout the day, the chief minister made a careful distinction between farmers and farm workers. Fadnavis made it clear that Girish Mahajan, representing the state government, had already met the leaders of the march even before it began and assured them that the government would be willing to listen to them irrespective of whether they march or not. But the leaders were insistent on marching, therefore the state government ensured adequate support for the protesters on the route, including medical assistance. This statement effectively neutralised the virtue signalling from media and Opposition about the insensitivity of the government in letting farmers march in the summer heat and put the responsibility of this on the leaders of the protest. The chief minister further reiterated that the route was designed and approved by the state government and praised the protesters for giving due consideration to the potential inconvenience caused to SSC students going for exams. The fact that the state representative, Mahajan, was with the protesters through the night further reinforced the impression of control and empathy. He informed the house that the main demand of the protesters was with respect to the land that had not been allotted to the landless labourers who could not even get a loan. By making this distinction, Fadnavis again set the context of this march away from the potentially contentious loan waiver issue. CM @Dev_Fadnavis in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Long March by Kisan Sabha pic.twitter.com/nMfCKE1h0g CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) March 12, 2018 After assuring the house of the state government's empathy towards protesters, Fadnavis held a closed-door meeting with the leaders of the protest. At the end of the meeting, an agreement was reached and the protesters agreed to call off the protest. In a press conference, Fadnavis appraised media of the salient points discussed and agreed upon: He began by reiterating the fact that this was primarily a protest by tribal land labourers and farm workers and "a few farmers". The main demand of the protesters was about forest lands either not allotted at all or allotment that fell short of eligibility criteria. The government made a very important decision about settling all litigation with respect to the same in a period of six months and has formed a special team for the same. Those farmers/farmworkers who have documentation made before 2005 will be given all land accrued to them legally. One should note the careful wording and realise that what the chief minister has essentially promised is good governance (settling legal disputes speedily) and adherence to the law. Fadnavis also mentioned that the protesters discussed problems related to irrigation, water scarcity and the need for river linking to solve the problems. The chief minister asserted that the water of the state shall remain in the state and that the government will take action for this. For the demand of additional 31 irrigation projects, Fadnavis promised a feasibility study and a decision after the study. With regards to the demand of increasing payouts for beneficiaries of Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Shravan Bal Yojana, the chief minister noted that those belonging to the divyang category (persons with disability) were already approved for such increase and the state would be open to considering a further increase for all and would soon take a decision. For cases pertaining to encroachment regularisation, Fadnavis told the press that he made the protesters aware of the decisions already taken by the government and is now constituting a special committee to look into the remaining cases. About the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Sanman Yojana (the farm loan waiver scheme), the chief minister clarified that as the previous waiver scheme had come in 2008, the present scheme included all beneficiaries from 2009 onwards. However, it was pointed out that some farmers who had missed out on 2008 scheme were in danger of being left out of both the schemes. The government would consider all such cases from 2001 to 2008 as eligible for the present waiver. About the demand to change the cut-off from June 2016 to June 2017, he remained firm and informed the protesters that it would not be fair on a large number of farmers who repaid the loan, however, the government would consider help for a few cases if needed. This was an important concession being sought by the protesters that could have had a cascading effect, and by sticking to his original cut-off, the state government won an important victory. Fadnavis was told that in a few cases, only one of the spouses was getting the loan waiver while the other was not. To this, he responded that a government resolution was already in place directing to consider husband-wife and minor children under the scheme up to Rs 1.5 lakh. He assured the protesters that the banks would once again be informed about this. Equally importantly, the chief minister informed about the formation of a special committee to look into difficulties in implementation of loan waiver and resolve them. About the minimum support price, Fadnavis informed the protesters about the working of the support price and accepted their demand of forming a Krushi Muly Ayog (farm produce price commission). The chief minister closed his press conference by informing that the protesters were happy with the solutions offered to them and had agreed to call off the protest. In a gesture of unprecedented goodwill, the state government and railways arranged special trains for the protesters to return to Nashik. The image of nearly 40,000 farmers in Maharashtra walking a distance of nearly 200 kilometres to be heard by their government has become an enduring one. As Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis concedes the patiently articulated demands of the so-called Long March led by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the curtains fall on an agitation for which we have felt so much and from which we have learned so little. Rarely is a protest, especially by groups governments address in a perfunctory gesture every five years, a test of the conscience. But the image of nearly 40,000 farmers frail but with the dignity of a struggle that even the robust would find impossible to replicate walking a distance of nearly 200 kilometres to be heard by their own elected representatives has become an enduring one, so spectral that even the apathetic have found it inescapable. Mainstream print and televised media, vociferously engaged in demonstrating the enigmatic art of drowning in a bathtub only days ago, may have preferred to look the other way. But its erasure has failed and in turn, revealed more about itself than those it chose to render invisible. The response of civil society, a creature as elusive as unglamorous, was contradictory and two-fold. In certain quarters, the agitation, however reasonable, was said to have surrendered its moral vantage in being led by a unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The farmers came of tenable grievances, but how could they, commentators asked, have carried red flags and by certain claims, representations of that tyrant Lenin whose statue the cadres of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allegedly desecrated in Tripura? In doing so, the farmers politicised the protest and invoked a political formation which has no place in democratic India. That this is a portentous argument needs little restatement the AIKS has a chequered history of peasant resistance that was only later subsumed by the rise of the left-wing in Indian nationalist politics. To say that it is the association with a political party that makes a protest political is to hold a very narrow frame of what politics can be. Affiliated or otherwise, the march is a political agitation whose methods and demands are both political and beyond the strictly electoral. The second reaction was more sympathetic, taking tragic delight in the proliferation of images of the protesting farmers, their weary bodies, their calloused hands, their bloodied and weathered feet, and their endurance of the sweltering sun and the vagaries of traversing a tremendous distance. In these formulations, the protest was made intelligible to middle-class progressive groups and consumed with a rapidity as encouraging as appalling. As the protest became a test of the conscience, questions of complicity were raised and it was in the proliferation of such images that civil society gave a tragic, haunting beauty to the protest and assuaged its political unease in the making of peasant grievance. Predictably, such a modality freezes distress, refusing to probe its origins, engage with its rhetoric, and interrogate its solutions. The march, quick as formulations were to compare it to Mao Tse Tungs, was certainly a farmers agitation, but farmer is a monolithic group only from the lens of urban arrogance. This was a protest that asked for loan waivers for the landed, but was predominantly a protest of the tribal and the landless asking for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006) in the face of acute agrarian distress. This would, if implemented, legally and productively transfer communal land, including the forests, to the most impoverished sectors in the countryside which have historically had no access to mechanisms and institutions of credit. It is a specific demand, but to its makers, it is the sole possibility of tiding over a much broader phenomenon of agrarian crisis which has spread like a lethal wave, particularly in the last decade. It has meant (among other things) unfair pricing policies, successive famines and droughts. In the backdrop of a government rapidly withdrawing from the domain of social welfare, it has also led to debilitating distress for the most vulnerable sections of contemporary India. 'Farmer' may not be a monolithic social grouping, but the agrarian crisis in India has had universal and universally debilitating implications. At its heart are the deflationary neoliberal economic reforms that India initiated with a flourish in its fable of a developing miracle. For the agrarian milieu, 'reform' meant a depression in rural incomes as production came to be geared towards primary exports to fulfil a 'balance' of trade whose balance is as historically skewed as violent. The corporate grabbing of peasant resources, the premise of the resistance of the march, and the opening of agrarian India to corporate farming are realities which configure this agitation they cannot be stifled by aphorisms of grief and tragedy. Tragedy is political, and so is the protest as it questions the trajectory of the Indian developmental state and the question of inclusion which its narration leaves stillborn. To paint the agitation in the guise of grief is to miss its rage and the many fundamental questions that it asks of us, and indeed, the Indian state. The revolution will not be televised, but there is virtue in asking, especially as the agitation ends and prepares to be forgotten, if it will be understood. WHY DONT YOU READ THESE? A 22-year-old Uber driver was arrested for allegedly abducting and sexually harassing a woman after she boarded his cab in neighbouring Haryana. New Delhi: A 22-year-old Uber driver was arrested for allegedly abducting and sexually harassing a woman after she boarded his cab in neighbouring Haryana, the police said on Monday. In a statement, the cab aggregator Uber said they have initiated action against the errant driver and are cooperating with the police in the investigation. On 9 March, a 29-year-old woman, who works with an advisor in an MNC, booked an Uber cab from Kundli in Haryana for her residence in Sector-3, Rohini, they said. When the cab arrived, she noticed that the vehicle had a white number plate instead of the commercial numberplate and also had tinted glasses, the police said. The woman grew suspicious of the driver as his face did not match with the image of the driver provided by Uber on the app, they said. The driver, who was allegedly drunk, took the vehicle along a secluded route in Narela. The woman alleged that he was making unwanted advances, the police said. The driver was taking a different route than the one she used to usually take for her home. When she tried to get out from the vehicle at a traffic signal, the driver locked the doors using central lock and threatened her, the police said. When the car slowed down at a CNG station near GTK depot, she took the opportunity to unlock the door and jumped out of the car. The driver absconded from the spot with his vehicle, they said. During investigation, the details of the vehicles and drivers were obtained from Uber and the cab was traced to Janti Kalan village in Sonipat, Haryana. A police team visited the village on the intervening night of 9 and 10 March and traced the vehicle in which a man was found lying in a drunken state, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Aslam Khan said. He was identified as Sanjeev alias Sanju, a resident of Gannaur, Haryana. He used to drive the vehicle even though he was not registered as the driver of the vehicle and did not have a driving licence. It was also found that that the vehicle did not have a commercial numberplate, the officer added. Police said it was found that the man, who was registered with the Uber as the vehicle's driver, had given his vehicle to Sanju to drive. The investigators are examining the other driver's culpability and have also sent a questionnaire to the cab aggregator firm in connection with the case. A reply is awaited, they said. An Uber spokesperson said that have removed the driver who allowed another man to drive his vehicle. "The drivers in the present incident have violated the terms of the agreement that Uber signs with its driver-partners. Such behaviour puts our riders and driver partners at risk and is not tolerated. "We immediately removed the driver partner's access to the app and will take strict action against him for letting an unregistered driver without a licence access his account and take trips via the app," the spokesperson said. He said the company is "ready to support law enforcement authorities with any information needed for their investigation". A plea was on Tuesday filed in the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe into the Centre's decision to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets from France New Delhi: A plea was on Tuesday filed in the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe into the Centre's decision to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets from France and disclosure of the cost involved in the deal before Parliament. The petition, which may come up for hearing during the week, alleged that it was the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to disclose the cost involved in the entire deal to Parliament and the citizens. "Direct the respondents (Centre and MoD) to disclose a consolidate transaction cost involved in procuring 36 Rafale fighter aircraft," the plea, filed by Congress leader Tehseen S Poonawalla, said. It also sought issuance of a direction against the Centre as to why the Cabinet's approval was not sought as part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) before signing the procurement deal with France on September 23, 2016. The plea claimed that the defence deal of procuring 36 Rafale fighters from Dassault was announced during the prime minister's state visit to France. "It was an attempt to put a sheen on prime minister's visit to Paris. This pronouncement was a premature announcement of the deal without going through the usual practice, the formal process and procedure which is otherwise involved in similar international covenants," it said. Rafale deal is a defence agreement signed between the governments of India and France to purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts in fly-away condition as a part of upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment. Rafale fighter aircraft is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) is manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. Indian Air Force had advanced a proposal to buy 126 fighter aircraft in August 2007 and floated a tender and an invitation was sent to various aviation companies to participate for the bidding process. The petition said that in 2012, the deal for 126 Rafale fighter aircrafts was proposed, and out of the total of 126 number, 18 Rafale fighter aircrafts were to be delivered by Dassault Aviation company in fly-away condition, the rest 108 Rafale fighter aircrafts were to be manufactured in India at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) which is an Indian public sector aerospace and defence unit, under a transfer of technology agreement. That the deal was nearly finalised by 2014 by the then UPA government, it said. "In April 2015, Narendra Modi made a state visit to France and during a state event the prime minister in Paris made an announcement to purchase 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts in fly-away condition and immediately within few days after the big announcement of procuring of 36 Rafale aircrafts. On 13 April 2015, the then defence minister made an announcement that the Rafale deal is 'effectively dead' and that India officially withdrew the 126-aircraft MMECA tender on 30 July 2015," it alleged. The plea said the MoD had withdrawn the 2007 tender which was for procurement of 126 Rafale fighter aircrafts, the deal announced for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft was all together a fresh procurement. The plea has also sought a direction to the Centre put on record the agreement signed between India and France on 23 September, 2016. Shobha Karandlaje, member of Parliament from the Udupi-Chickmagalur constituency representing the BJP, said that women must learn to protect themselves Shobha Karandlaje, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from the Udupi-Chickmagalur constituency, said on Tuesday that women must learn to protect themselves, while responding to Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik's acquittal in the 2009 Mangaluru pub attack case, according to reports. Karandlaje, BJP MP from Bengaluru mocks #2009 Mangalore pub victims, says will not condemn Pramod Muthalik instead women must learn to protect themselves. #GoonMuthalikFree pic.twitter.com/sgmlwu8mRa News18 (@CNNnews18) March 13, 2018 Refusing to condemn Muthalik, Karandlaje said, "Mangaluru is a very sensitive place and many untoward things are happening to women there. That is why we should be careful and take care of ourselves," adding that she was not speaking for or against anybody in particular. About the accused who were acquitted on Monday, Karandlaje said, "They were in jail for six years without any reason." In another related development, the Karnataka government is reportedly set to challenge the acquittal in a higher court. #JustIn -- Karnataka government is likely to challenge Pramod Muthalik's acquittal in the 2009 Mangalore pub attack case in the Karnataka HC. #GoonMuthalikFree pic.twitter.com/aqqlF8e4rX News18 (@CNNnews18) March 13, 2018 On Monday, Muthalik and all others accused in the 2009 pub attack in Karnataka's Mangaluru were acquitted due to lack of evidence. In the assault that was caught on camera, women at the pub were dragged by their hair, and manhandled by Sri Ram Sene activists, who accused them of "loose morals", an NDTV report said. In 2014, months ahead of the general election, Muthalik was recruited by the BJP and then disowned within five hours. Its embarrassed leadership at the Centre expressed surprise at the state unit's decision. Shashi Tharoor and Arnab Goswami will be stepping into the witness box on 10 May to depose in the defamation suit filed by the Congress leader against the journalist and his channel Republic TV Shashi Tharoor and Arnab Goswami will be stepping into the witness box on 10 May to depose in the defamation suit filed by the Congress leader against the journalist and his channel Republic TV. Tharoor had filed a civil defamation suit against Goswami and his channel seeking damages and compensation of Rs 2 crore for allegedly making defamatory remarks towards him while airing news relating to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. In his suit, Tharoor claimed the coverage was sensational and aimed at creating a non-existing controversy by maligning his public life and image. The Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram was referring to news reports broadcasted on Republic TV by Goswami between 8 and 11 May, 2017, saying the reports pertaining to the death of Pushkar were defamatory. The court has fixed the matter for 10 May for cross-examination of Tharoor by Goswami's counsel and sent it to the joint registrar to decide whether any defamatory statements were made or telecast by TV channel. Tharoor, through three different applications, had also sought a direction from the high court to restrain the TV channel from broadcasting any show related to his wife's death till the probe was completed by the Delhi Police. The judge had, however, refused to restrain Goswami and Republic TV from airing news or debates relating to the death of Tharoor's wife. It had, however, said the coverage has to be "tempered and balanced". The judge had, however, held that Tharoor had a "right to silence" under the Constitution and that "no person can be compelled to give testimony or answer questions which may incriminate him". Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five-star hotel in south Delhi on the night of 17 January, 2014. With inputs from agencies After the PNB fraud case, the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Bank Limited is under the scanner for allegedly sanctioning a Rs 60 crore loan to the tainted Simbhaoli Group company, which already has NPAs worth Rs 152 crore After the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Bank Limited is under the scanner of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the finance ministry for allegedly sanctioning a Rs 60 crore loan to the tainted Simbhaoli Group company, which already has non performing assets (NPAs) worth Rs 152 crore in the bank's books. The Hapur-based Simbhaoli Sugars Limited recently courted controversy for duping the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) of Rs 109 crore and is being investigated by the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the agencies registered a case on 22 February against the company, its chairman Gurmit Singh Mann, Gurpal Singh, son-in-law of Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, and unknown bank officials. Top central government officials said that the UP Cooperative Bank Limited, which had earlier sanctioned Rs 152 crore to Simbhaoli Sugars, was not able to recover the money and it had turned NPA in April 2017. But ignoring the huge bad debt, UP Cooperative Bank within 11 months issued another loan of Rs 60 crore to Simbhaoli Power Private Limited, a subsidiary company floated by Mann, who is facing a multi-agency probe for allegedly siphoning off the loan given by the OBC and diverting it for personal use. Firstpost has accessed the loan sanction documents signed by managing director Rabi Kant Singh to Simbhaoli Power Private Limited. Singh signed the sanction of short term Hypothecation cash credit limit of Rs 60 crore on February 8 2018. In his letter to Simbhaoli Power Private Limited, Singh said, "Kindly refer to your request letter dated 21 December, 2017, on the captioned matter. Keeping in view the sanction by the committee of management in its meeting held on 31 January, 2018, the short-term cash credit limit of Rs 60 crore for working capital requirement has been sanctioned to your company against the stock of new material used for production of power and power receivables from UPPCL for Calendar Year 2018." As far as terms and conditions are concerned, Simbhaoli had been offered a sweet deal. The letter said, "All credit facilities will be secured by personal guarantee of Gurmit Singh Mann, chairman, and Gursimran Mann, director. All facilities to be secured by hypothecation of book debts of the company as collateral security. The company has to repay 65 percent of maximum loan availed during the Calendar Year 2018 on or before 31 December, 2018. The company will ensure that the cash credit loan is utilised for the purpose for which it has been sanctioned. The sanction is subject to such other terms and conditions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or NABARD as may be in vogue or and may be prescribed by them from time to time." Some officials in the finance ministry said on condition of anonymity that the PMO has been requested for a CBI probe into UP Cooperative Bank's NPAs, as there are accusations that the managing director Singh has misused his position to benefit certain private companies, including Kesar Enterprises and Simbhaoli Sugars Limited. Shyam Bahadur Singh, convener of the BJP from Lucknow, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 1 March, has alleged, "Rabi Kant Singh conspired with Gurmit Singh Mann and sanctioned Rs 60 crore for Simbhaoli Power despite the fact that he has not been able to pay back Rs 152 crore that was given to Simbhaoli Sugars. It must be noted that the owner of these two companies: Simbhaoli Sugars and Simbhaoli Power is Gurmit Singh Mann, who is facing a CBI probe in a Rs 109 crore OBC fraud case. Similarly, another defaulter of UP Cooperative Bank Limted, Kesar Sugar Mills, has managed to convert its Rs 85 crore NPA into a long-term loan in connivance with the managing director." The gross NPA of the cooperative bank has gone up to Rs 389.79 crore in March 2017 from Rs 335.18 crore in 2016. Although the bank has claimed to have distributed Rs 2,041.53 crore in short-term crop loan in 2015-16 and Rs 1,067 crore to sugar mills to enable them to make payment to the farmers, the BJP's Lucknow unit has informed the prime minister that a majority of loans by the bank lack due diligence and were in violation of banking rules. The BJP convener has alleged that in a majority of loan cases, the contractual bank employees have become guarantors in connivance with top cooperative bank officials. The managing director of UP Cooperative Bank Limited, Rabi Kant Singh, admitted that Rs 152 crore given to Simbhaoli Sugars has turned NPA, but he rubbished the BJP's charges against him, claiming that the loan to Simbhaoli that turned NPA was sanctioned earlier, and that it has nothing to do with his tenure. "In fact I have decided not to give any loan to private companies. I am also taking action against erring officers. Simbhaoli NPA is an old case and it is being dealt accordingly," Ravi Kant Singh told Firstpost. When asked why he sanctioned a further Rs 60 crore to Simbhaoli owners in violation of rules, Singh feigned ignorance, saying he is not aware of any such loan. However, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), which supervises agricultural credit functions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), contradicted Singh's statement, saying it has written to the state government for a thorough probe. Chief general manager of NABARD, AK Panda, confirmed to Firstpost that the state's cooperative ministry is looking into the matter and that his department has completed the preliminary investigation. "After the investigation report is submitted, action will be taken by Registrar Cooperative Society as laid down by the rules. NABARD has done its job," Panda said. Ministers voice against rot At least two ministers from the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet have also written to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding a probe into alleged irregularities at the UP Cooperative Bank Limited. The first letter was from Suresh Kumar Khanna, minister for housing development and poverty alleviation, on 14 August, 2017. Khanna had alleged kickbacks in the recruitment of 53 assistant managers of the cooperative bank, and had asked for a thorough inquiry and transfer of managing director RK Singh. Subsequently, his colleague in the state Cabinet, Surya Pratap Shahi, Minister for Agriculture, wrote a letter to the chief minister on 21 December, 2017 exposing the rot. "The bank's Rs 220 crore is stuck with the sugar mills, and by March 2018, approximately Rs 140 crore is likely to turn NPA. The managing director has asked the Axis Bank and IDBI Bank to vacate their offices from the UP Cooperative Bank's headquarters, for which was earning it Rs 4 crore annually. Furthermore, it has been requested that Singh be removed from his position and a probe be ordered against him," agriculture minister Shahi wrote to Chief Minister Adityanath. What OBC told CBI The Oriental Bank of Commerce had sanctioned financial facility to Simbhaoli Sugars Limited in 2011 for financing sugarcane farmers. After approval of the scheme, the company supplied names of individual farmers along with details of their land holdings and cane supplied by them in the previous season to the erstwhile regional office of the Oriental Bank of Commerce at Meerut. For implementation of the scheme, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), dated 18 January, 2012, was executed between Simbhaoli Sugars and Oriental Bank of Commerce, whereby the company had undertaken the responsibility of distribution of materials like seed, fertilizers and other necessary equipments etc to the farmers. "Upon verification, it was further revealed that as per the tie up arrangement, disbursement of the loans were made through individual loan account of 5,762 farmers and the consolidated amount was credited to the Escrow (current) Account No 05371131001453 of the Simbhaoli Sugars Limited. The company thereafter transferred the funds from this current account to other accounts maintained by it with the State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and UCO Bank through RTGS. In this manner, the company has misappropriated money lent by our bank, and there is clear-cut diversion of funds," the bank stated in its complaint to the CBI. Jai Singh, a former office bearer of the UP Cooperative Bank Employees Association, told Firstpost that certain decisions of the managing director is in violation of the RBI's provision and the central government must order a high level probe. "The sugar mills have not returned the loan amount to the UP Cooperative Bank limited, and this year, the NPA would be much higher. Even the balance sheet is being fudged because the bank is losing a huge amount of money. It is surprising that OBC registered a CBI case for its NPA but the UP Cooperative Bank Limited, despite suffering more losses, has not done so. It is clear the management is trying to protect those who are responsible," Jai Singh said. However, when Firstpost tried to reach out to Simbhaoli for comment, they refused. Muslims aged between 65 and 69 years, who are fifth-time unsuccessful applicants for Haj pilgrimage, have a reason to rejoice as the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to accommodate 1,965 such people for travel to Mecca this year. New Delhi: Muslims aged between 65 and 69 years, who are fifth-time unsuccessful applicants for Haj pilgrimage, have a reason to rejoice as the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to accommodate 1,965 such people for travel to Mecca this year. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud also held that its order would also apply to the sixth time or more than sixth time unsuccessful applicants falling in the same age group. "We direct that the persons who come within the age group of 65 to 69 years and are not successful in going on pilgrimage even once, despite applying for fifth time or more, shall also be covered," the bench said. The order came after the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs informed the top court that a decision has been taken by the ministry to cover the pilgrims in the age group of 65 to 69 years, who are fifth-time applicants for Haj in 2018. The ministry also told the court that the Haj Committee of India will be advised to accommodate 1,965 individuals who are willing and meeting the criteria and the rest of the seats will be allocated to pilgrims from the general waiting list as per the standard procedure. "In view of the aforesaid, we are sure that 1,965 persons who are in the category of fifth-time applicants shall be extended the benefit of this decision and will be in a position to go on pilgrimage this year. "There can be no trace of doubt that the sixth time or more than sixth time applicants between the age group of 65 and 69 years and who have not been able to avail the opportunity to go on pilgrimage even once, shall also be given the same benefit of the Ministry's decision. We may hasten to add that the people who have crossed the age of 70 years, are, under the policy, entitled to benefit of separate exclusive quota," the bench said. The court then fixed the plea, challenging the Centre's policy on allocation of Haj seats, of the Kerala Haj Committee for final hearing on 10 July. The apex court had earlier asked the Centre to apprise it by Wed about the total allocation of Haj quota seats and the vacancies if any on a plea of the Kerala Haj Committee alleging that the policy to grant state-wise quota for Haj pilgrims was discriminatory. The Centre had said the Union of India had been allowed by the Saudi Arabian government to send 1.75 lakh Haj pilgrims every year and the Centre and the Central Haj Committee, in consultation with the state Haj panels, have devised a mechanism to distribute the quota on the basis of the Muslim population in each state. Out of 1.75 lakh Haj seats, 1.25 lakh seats are distributed by the state Haj committees while the remaining seats are given to private tour operators as per the policy decision, it had said. Earlier, the apex court, in an interim direction, had asked the Centre to file a statement with regard to the fifth time applicants who have crossed the age of 65 years and were below 70 years and have never been able to go for the Haj. The apex court, on 5 January, had issued the notice to the Centre on the Kerala Haj Committee's plea alleging that the policy to grant state-wise quota for Haj pilgrims was discriminatory. The Kerala Haj committee, in its plea, had referred to the example of Bihar and said it gets 12,000 Haj seats as against the total number of applicants of 6,900. In stark contrast, Kerala gets 6,000 seats against 95,000 applicants desirous to go for the pilgrimage, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the committee, had said. "As a result, every applicant in Bihar gets the opportunity to go for Haj. However, in Kerala, the situation is unpleasant," he had said, adding that there should be an all-India draw of lots to decide who will go on Haj. The Kerala Haj Committee alleged that the present quota system was discriminatory. Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, had justified the present quota policy saying it had been devised by the Central Haj Committee after considering the suggestions of 31 different state Haj committees. The Supreme court on Tuesday said that foreign law firms cannot set up offices in India but their lawyers could give legal advise on foreign laws New Delhi: The Supreme court on Tuesday said that foreign law firms cannot set up offices in India but their lawyers could give legal advise on foreign laws. However, the bench headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said that foreign lawyers could come to the country and participate in international commercial arbitration. Justice Goel, while pronouncing the judgement, said that even for the limited purposes they would be subject to the Bar Council of India's Code of Conduct. The court also said that BPO companies engaged in rendering legal services did not come within the ambit of the Advocate Act and thus they can operate in India. The court verdict came on pleas challenging judgements by the Bombay and Madras High Courts. Madras High court had said that foreign lawyers can fly in and fly out for tendering legal advice on foreign laws. Overruling a direction by her government to introduce uniforms in government colleges, Vasundhara Raje has directed that the uniforms will be voluntary. Overruling a direction by her government to introduce uniforms in government colleges, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje has directed that the uniforms will be voluntary. She cited the unhappiness of students as the reason for her decision. She also insisted that the government wants to provide girls with whatever they require in order to excel in their education. I have therefore asked that uniforms be made voluntary rather than compulsory. We are here to provide our girls with whatever they require in order to excel in their education. #GirlsFirst Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) March 13, 2018 Earlier in March, the state's BJP government implemented a dress code in state-run colleges from academic year 2018-19, drawing protest from the Congress which had dubbed it as an attempt to "saffronise" the institutions. The Department of College Education had sent a letter to the principals of government colleges asking them to decide the colour of the dress for boys and girls and submit it by 12 March. The dress code for boys included shirt, trousers, sweater (winters), shoes, socks and belt. For girls, it was salwar suit, dupatta, sweater or cardigan (winters), saree, shoes/sandals and socks. The dress code had to be implemented in government colleges from the 2018-19 academic session. The principals had been directed to decide dress colour with senior faculty members, student union representatives and had to submit it by 12 March, the letter had said. The Congress had said that it would oppose the decision and alleged that the government was pursuing RSS agenda. "The government is working on the agenda of the RSS. They have changed school curriculum, distributed saffron cycles and are now bent on saffronising colleges. We will protest any such attempt," Congress chief whip Govind Singh Dotasara had said outside the Rajasthan Assembly. However, the government had said that the decision was being taken on the students demands. "Dress code was a demand of the students who have complained that outsiders enter college premises. There should be clarity on the identity of students. We have left it on the colleges to decide on the dress colour. We have not imposed any particular colour," state higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari had said." With inputs from PTI Pramod Muthalik is an honourable man. His outfit, the Sri Ram Sene had no role to play in the attack on young women and men, who were at the 'Amnesia - The Lounge', a pub in Mangaluru in coastal Karnataka on 24 January, 2009. Pramod Muthalik is an honourable man. His outfit, the Sri Ram Sene had no role to play in the attack on young women and men, who were at the 'Amnesia - The Lounge', a pub in Mangaluru in coastal Karnataka on 24 January, 2009. This is the verdict of the Third Judicial Magistrate at the first class court in Mangaluru. He acquitted the 25 men charged with violence, citing lack of evidence. Clearly the prosecution failed miserably to establish team Muthalik's guilt, despite the availability of the shocking visuals of assault. Outside the court, Muthalik smugly claimed that it was "a victory of truth" and said he will file defamation cases against those who maligned his image. Mangaluru-based social activist Vidya Dinker says she is not surprised by the verdict which is both delayed and denied. "I am frustrated by it though. Mangaluru society is such that most people move out of the country in search of jobs so I am not sure how many of the eyewitnesses and victims actually turned up in court to depose during the trial. Nine years is such a long time to give a verdict in a case like this," says Dinker. Soon after the incident in 2009, the author had met Diana Edwards (name changed) in Mangaluru who escaped the assault by the skin of her teeth. "Those few seconds saved us from the assault. We had just finished our drinks and were leaving Amnesia, when we saw this huge group of 30 to 40 men entering, their body language clearly aggressive and intimidating. In a short while after we had left, we received phone calls from worried family members and friends, inquiring if we were at Amnesia. The news had spread like wildfire in Mangaluru," Diana had said. The Karnataka deputy convenor of the Sene, Prasad Attavar had claimed responsibility for the attack, stating the Sene was against women who violated traditional Indian values. The video of the brute assault went viral and gave Mangaluru a bad name. But not everyone was convinced that it was the angry Hindutva activist at work. Certainly not Santosh M Hangarki, the owner of Amnesia. The pub was just 26 days old when the incident took place and it lost its license soon after. His suspicion was that someone, most likely a business rival, had hired the men for a price to kill a new entrant into the business. The moral policing angle by a Hindutva group was just a cover for a hit job. "Some of the men, I learnt later, were students, some autorickshaw drivers, even electricians. Many of them were drunk when they arrived at Amnesia," Hangarki told me. Mangaluru is notorious for illegalities peddled in the garb of religion. The vigilante groups acquire a certain legitimacy when they associate with a so-called religious group, either right-wing or Islamic. The fringe groups are known to collect hafta regularly and many are in the business of providing security to commercial establishments. The Dakshina Kannada district is Karnataka's most communally polarised zone. Both right-wing outfits like the Bajrang Dal, Sri Ram Sene, Hindu Jagrana Vedike and the Islamic Popular Front of India (PFI) frequently cross swords to indulge in moral policing. Their favorite targets are young couples, with Hindu groups often beating up Muslim boys seen with Hindu girls, accusing them of love jihad. Hindu boys seen with Muslim girls are similarly frowned upon. There have been several incidents of moral policing, both major and minor, after the Amnesia episode. In the last three years, several activists belonging to both religions have been killed, with attempts made to give a communal colour to each murder. What does this acquittal mean for Mangaluru, coming as it does so close to the elections? In 2014, the Karnataka unit of the BJP had admitted Muthalik into the party. But following a media and public outrage, the central leadership of the BJP asked for the decision to be overturned within five hours. What this verdict does is give Team Muthalik a certain legitimacy and will embolden them to make their presence felt in Mangaluru. It also comes at a time when the coast is being polarised by the BJP, accusing the Congress of having cut a deal with the PFI and its political arm, the Social Democratic Party of India. The BJP calls Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah "Jihadi", hoping to gain brownie points by pitting the 'Hindu' BJP against the 'Muslim' Congress in the 20-odd Assembly seats in four coastal districts. But beyond the elections, it will make conservative families indulge in in-house moral policing. Having seen that the judiciary has been unable to punish the men who were caught assaulting on camera, the verdict will ensure Mangaluru's young are advised to stay out of harm's way. If the Karnataka government feels justice has been denied, it owes an immediate appeal in a higher court to the people of Mangaluru. The flip side possibly in this communally surcharged pre-election atmosphere is that it will be projected as an attempt to go after the Hindus. VK Jain, the adviser to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, has resigned citing personal reasons and family commitments. New Delhi: VK Jain, the adviser to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, has resigned citing personal reasons and family commitments, days after he was questioned by police in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, sources said on Tuesday. "Jain has resigned from the post of adviser to the Delhi chief minister citing personal reasons and family commitment," one of the sources told PTI. He has submitted his resignation letter in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) and sent a copy to the lieutenant governor, the source added. He was appointed to the post in September 2017, days after he had retired as the CEO of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). The board is chaired by Kejriwal. Jain had not been coming to the CMO since the incident and had gone on a week-long medical leave, the sources said. Prakash was allegedly assaulted by AAP MLAs during a meeting at the chief minister's residence in the evening of 19 February. The Delhi Police had last week told a court that during interrogation, Jain disclosed that AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan surrounded the chief secretary and saw them assaulting him at Kejriwal's residence. However, Jain had earlier said that he did not see anything as he had gone to the washroom at the time of the incident. The alleged assault on Prakash took place in the presence of Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia. In solidarity with Prakash, IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Services (DCS) officers have not been attending meetings with AAP ministers, and only maintaining written communication with them. The joint forum of the Delhi government employees has demanded action against Kejriwal and Sisodia in connection with the case. BJP general secretary Ram Madhav has described the CPM's decision to not contest an Assembly seat in Tripura due to alleged violence as a lame attempt to 'hide its defeat and its inability to reach out to people' New Delhi: BJP general secretary Ram Madhav has described the CPM's decision to not contest an Assembly seat in Tripura due to alleged violence as a lame attempt to "hide its defeat and its inability to reach out to people". Madhav, the BJP's pointsman for the northeast states, who is seen as the key architect for its win in Tripura and Nagaland, also dismissed the Left party's claim of violence in the state following the saffron party's emphatic win in the Assembly elections as nothing but an attempt to create a "victimhood syndrome". The state has been completely peaceful since the BJP government took charge, he said. "The CPM's candidate withdrawal and its claim that it was due to violence is all bogus. It's a lame excuse for its inability to reach out to the people anymore in Tripura. Its candidate had already decided that he will not contest. Now they are using this to create a kind of victimhood syndrome," Madhav told PTI. It is an attempt to hide their defeat, he said. Rejecting the CPM's allegations of rising violence in the state, Madhav said, "Our government came to power on 9 March. In the three days since, the state has been absolutely peaceful." BJP had fought the Tripura Assembly elections in alliance with the IPFT, a regional party, and their alliance won 43 out of 59 seats, ending the Left's 25-year-long rule. The Charilam (ST) Assembly seat, where election was cancelled following the death of the CPI (M) candidate, went to the polls today and the state's Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma is the BJP candidate from there. After drawing flak for his remarks disparaging actor-politician Jaya Bachchan as someone 'who used to dance in films', former Samajwadi Party leader, Naresh Agrawal, who defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday, expressed 'regret' over his comment. After drawing flak for his remarks disparaging actor-politician Jaya Bachchan as someone "who used to dance in films", former Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agrawal, who defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday, expressed "regret" over his comment. "I had said something which was given a different angle by the media. All I can say is that I didn't intend to hurt anyone. I express my regret, if it did hurt anyone. I take back my words," ANI quoted Agrawal as saying. On Monday, Agrawal, who lost out to Bachchan in the race for re-nomination to the Upper House, had quit the Samajwadi Party and joined the BJP. He said the Samajwadi Party had denied him the Rajya Sabha ticket in favour of someone who used to dance and act in films. His comment was seen as an attack on Jaya Bachchan. "For somebody who used to dance in films, act in films, I was denied a ticket (for Rajya Sabha). I did not find it appropriate," Agrawal had said while joining the BJP. He was flanked by several BJP leaders, including Union minister Piyush Goyal, who welcomed him into the party. The BJP had sought to distance itself from Agrawal's remarks, with party spokesperson Sambit Patra saying that the BJP respects people from all fields and welcomes them in to politics. A couple of hours later, senior BJP leader and its most prominent woman face Sushma Swaraj took to Twitter to criticise Agrawal's comments. "Naresh Agrawal has joined Bhartiya Janata Party. He is welcome. However, his comments regarding Jaya Bachhan ji are improper and unacceptable," the external affairs minister had tweeted. Union minister Smriti Zubin Irani had also appeared to criticise Agrawal over his remarks, saying when a woman's honour is challenged, "we stand as one in our condemnation irrespective of our politics". She had not, however, directly named Agrawal. "My case is in the court of law for 5 years now. But let my battle not be an excuse to humiliate other women. In fact, let it be a reminder for us that when a woman's honour is challenged we stand as one in our condemnation irrespective of our politics," she had said in a tweet. Her tweet was in response to another tweet which had referred to Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam's alleged derogatory comment aimed at her. She had filed a case against him. Agrawal, who was a part of Congress earlier, is not new to controversy. Last year, the BJP was up in arms over his comments in the Upper House mocking Hindu gods. His term as Rajya Sabha member ends on 2 April. The Samajwadi Party has once again nominated Bachchan to the Upper House. Agrawal had expressed his affection for Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his cousin Ram Gopal Yadav, saying he could never leave them. Apparently criticising Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, he added that it was losing strength in Uttar Pradesh due to the party's decision to ally with other parties. The politician had said that he was joining the BJP unconditionally, and asserted that his MLA son would support the saffron party in the Rajya Sabha elections in the state. He had expressed his admiration for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. With inputs from PTI The Shiv Sena demanded that President's Rule be imposed in Goa in the wake of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's absence from the state Panaji: The Shiv Sena on Tuesday demanded that President's Rule be imposed in Goa in the wake of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's absence from the state. Last week, Parrikar has gone to the US for medical treatment. In the absence of Parrikar, the state has been left "headless" and no one has the authority to take decisions on key issues, like the impending crisis in the mining industry, the Sena's Goa spokesperson, Rakhi Prabhudesai Naik, said in a statement. The recent statement of Goa Forward Party (the BJP's ally) chief Vijai Sardesai that Goa is facing an Emergency-like situation is a true reflection of the state of things here, she said. "In the absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, the state is left headless, and deserves to be ruled by the president of India," she said. Naik said the state has been left headless at a time when it is facing closure of the mining industry and there is no one to speak for the interest of people dependent on it. The Supreme Court had last month quashed the second renewal of iron ore mining leases given to 88 companies in Goa in 2015. The apex court said it was giving time till 15 March to mining leaseholders, who have been granted a second renewal in violation of its previous directions, to manage their affairs. They are directed to stop all mining operations with effect from 16 March, until fresh mining leases (not fresh renewals or other renewals) are granted and fresh environmental clearances are granted, the court said. Naik alleged that the people dependent on mining industry are only getting false promises and seeing the "melodrama" of delegations going to Delhi. "No solution has been provided to their problems and certainly, in the current situation, we can't expect a solution from the cabinet advisory committee which is the least bothered about people," she alleged. Before leaving Goa, Parrikar had formed a three-member cabinet advisory committee comprising Vijai Sardesai, Sudin Dhavalikar and Francis D'Souza to guide the state administration in his absence. Naik claimed that the committee has not even held a meeting to discuss the situation that may arise after the mines are closed. The Shiv Sena said the state needed President's Rule so that at least the Centre could take over and provide some relief to people dependent on the mining industry. The Sena is an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra. It does not have any representation in the Goa Assembly. The ruling Congress in Karnataka brought out a 'charge sheet' against the BJP ahead of the upcoming Assembly election in state. Bengaluru: In a counter-attack against the BJP ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, the ruling Congress in Karnataka on Tuesday brought out a 'charge sheet' against the saffron party under the title 'NAmage MOsa' (We have been cheated). In the charge sheet, the Congress accused its principal rival of 'betrayal' on 10 counts, the foremost being giving a Rajya Sabha ticket to businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who it said was an 'outsider', hailing from Kerala. "The BJP has repeatedly nominated non-Kannadigas as Rajya Sabha representatives from Karnataka, the latest being Chandrasekhar. Can they really represent Karnataka's best interests in Parliament? Aren't there people from Karnataka for BJP to choose from?" the party asked. Chandrasekhar, an independent Rajya Sabha member, joined the BJP on Monday, a day after the party nominated him to the Upper House of Parliament. The charge sheet also wanted to know why the Centre was not convening a meeting of chief ministers of the three riparian states, including Maharashtra, to resolve the Mahadayi water sharing row between Karnataka and Goa. It also questioned the Centre's "silence" on the Cauvery water row with Tamil Nadu. The Congress asked why the Indian Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) exams were not conducted in Kannada. The charge sheet comes amid the BJP's sustained attack on the Siddaramaiah government over various issues, including corruption, ahead of the Assembly elections expected to be held in the next few months. Addressing a farmers' rally at Davangere in January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had dubbed the Siddaramaiah government a "seedha rupaiya (money first) sarkar", a reference to corruption, and said it should not be allowed to continue "even for a minute". Taking exception to this, the state Congress has redefined NaMo (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) as 'NAmage MOsa' which means "we have been cheated" in Kannada and the charge sheet had been unveiled under this. The other points raised by the Congress in the charge sheet are allocation of lesser relief for 2017's drought, shifting of the CPRF Centre from Taralu in the state to Uttar Pradesh and an alleged imposition of Hindi. The Congress also sought to know why the BJP did not like the proposed Karnataka flag unveiled by the state government. It questioned the BJP-led central government why it gave the offset contract related to Rafale fighter jets to Anil Ambani's firm instead of the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautical Limited. Raising these questions, the Congress tweeted, "BJP has consistently acted against Karnataka's interests. This is a charge sheet with the ten most prominent betrayals by the BJP." Chief Minister Siddaramaiah retweeted it and wrote, "Will the Karnataka BJP leaders muster the courage to answer real issues that affect the Kannadigas? Will they respect our right to language, culture and water? Not likely. They are busy spreading rumours to polarise to win an election." Taking a jibe at Siddaramaiah, the Karnataka BJP tweeted, "Sir, we gave a rebuttal to all the charges in real time. You were probably sleeping. Looks like you woke up now. Drink a strong cup of coffee. It might stir you out of sleep and help you muster the courage to visit our timeline and read our replies." Making a strong pitch In Darjeeling for peace in the Hills, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee urged the Centre on Tuesday not to assist anyone bent on sundering the region into tiny bits for minor electoral gain. Making a strong pitch in Darjeeling for peace in the Hills, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee urged the Centre on Tuesday not to assist anyone bent on sundering the region into tiny bits for minor electoral gain. I want friendship... but wont allow Darjeeling (the Hills) to be reduced to bits, Mamata stated, obliquely cautioning Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung, who enjoys the support of the BJP. Turning to another section of the Hill leadership, she added: We have a duty to see that there should be no more violence. Banerjees flak was directed at both the Centre and Gurung, the latter being the chief architect of the demand for a separate state and against whom her administration slapped charges in connection with his alleged role in the violence in the region during last years June-September shutdown in support of Gorkhaland. It is with his support that the BJP hopes to retain the Darjeeling seat in the next parliamentary elections. Only two days ago the Hills were agog over an allegation by the police that Gurung had been preparing for insurgency to attain statehood and overseeing a clandestine armed training camp only a few kilometres from Darjeeling town. The recovery of a large cache of arms might have been viewed as a major breakthrough by security intelligence, but it also underlined the volatility in the local political environment despite the overall calm. Inaugurating the two-day Hill Business Summit the much-vaunted, first-ever meet in the hills of industrialists with the purpose of exploring investment opportunities in the region Mamata, in an unequivocal message to the local political leadership and the people of the region, said: You give us peace, we (her government) will give you prosperity. This is our commitment... For this somebody has to bell the cat; let me bell the cat. She also assured an initial investment of Rs 100 crore from her government for promotional development in Darjeeling and the rest of the north Bengal. Addressing the Hill leaders on the dais, some of whom have contradicting viewpoints on certain political issues, Mamata said: Please see that there should not be any more violence... Some political leader can gain (by indulging in it) but the Darjeeling people will not gain. If they had any problem she was open to discussions, she added. And, in a bid to rebuff her detractors, she said she would not be coming to seek votes. This followed an assurance from Binay Tamang, handpicked by her as chairman of the board of administrators for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) that Darjeeling and Kalimpong (districts) will be a strike-free zone and there will be no political disturbances in the Hills anymore. It had suffered enough in the past, Tamang pointed out. Underscoring the need to diversify the Hill economy beyond its main bulwark, tea and tourism, Mamata said that the youth of the region needed greater employment opportunities which can only come with more industries. I believe investment is ready but first we need to safeguard peace, Mamata asserted. There can be little doubt that the summit is as much an exercise to draw much-needed investment to bolster the Hill economy and an assertion of the control the ruling political dispensation purportedly propped up by the state government enjoys in a region where anxieties over its political future refuse to go away. The concerns linger despite the return of the usual signs of normality after months of unrest last year. The fractious Hill political leadership does not help matters. It is in such a situation that the optics of holding the conclave at a time when there appears to be a re-structuring of the local political space is hard to miss, no matter what might be the future business-related returns. Clearly, the imagery is designed to allay security concerns among prospective investors and to send the message that an atmosphere congenial to business has been restored in the Hills. It bears recalling that the summit was initially scheduled for the tail end of last year in the course of an on-going tourism festival following the realisation that not only would it not be able to draw a sufficient number of prospective investors, but also, and more importantly, the security situation was not adequately amenable to risk a visit by Mamata. The smouldering fires her visit stoked in June 2017 might have died down but, even then, a chance could not be taken. So the much-hyped industrialists meet had to wait. Until now. The question confronting industrialists who might be considering setting their sights on the Hills is this: How stable is the political situation in a region whose local economy has been at the receiving end because of intermittent strikes? (some of which are prolonged and punctuated by bouts of violence). Particularly so since the agitation to press for a separate state began in the mid-1980s. Often, state authorities, who view the movement largely through the security prism, have had to resort to robust methods to crackdown on the agitators; but the demand simmers, and the threat of disruptions refuses to go away. Haseeb Drabu was the PDP's pointsman who worked out the draft of the agenda of alliance with the BJP that brought the two parties to power in 2014. Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Haseeb Drabu, one of the architects of the PDP-BJP alliance in the state, was unceremoniously removed from the council of ministers by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti over his remarks that the Kashmir issue was not a political one. The chief minister shot off a letter to state Governor NN Vohra requesting him to drop Drabu from her council of ministers with immediate effect, PDP sources said. The Governor, after examining the letter, wrote back to the chief minister conveying his nod to her request to drop 57-year-old Drabu from her council, officials said. A BJP leader in New Delhi, however, termed Mufti's decision to sack her finance minister as a "setback" to the alliance as it could widen the gap between the two parties. Drabu, he said, was often the bridge between the Jammu and Kashmir government and the Centre over a host of issues. He recalled that Drabu played an important role in the formulation of the GST. However, a senior minister in PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir told Firstpost, "He never presented himself as our man in BJP, but BJP's man in PDP." Drabu was the PDP's point person who worked out the draft of the agenda of alliance with the BJP that brought the two ideologically different parties to power after the 2014 elections produced a hung Assembly. He was made finance minister of Jammu and Kashmir by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed when the alliance came to power. The agenda, which made the BJP agree to some controversial issues (including dialogue on internal and external levels) led late Mufti Sayeed, who died in office, to remark in his first press conference that "he (Drabu) has shown us a lot of dreams, let's see if those dreams are fulfilled." Those dreams, including the return of power projects under the control of NHPC to the state government and initiating talks with the Hurriyat leadership, were never fulfilled by the Centre. A section of party leadership had grown weary of Drabu, who at one point in time of his career, openly advocated secession. Many leaders of the PDP often complained to Mehbooba about the "arrogant" style and dealings of the finance minister, even with his own party workers. Yelling and insulting people who visited him with terse, dismissive remarks like "what do you know" had become the signature style of the former finance minister. An eminent economist, he was a former editor of Business Standard, and was known to be close to Mufti Sayeed. He took a plunge in politics in 2014 when he joined the PDP and successfully contested the Assembly elections from his home constituency Rajpora in south Kashmir's Pulwama district. He was the chairman and CEO of the Jammu & Kashmir Bank from 2005 to 2010, IANS reported. He was the economic adviser to the state during the PDP-Congress coalition that came to power after the 2002 elections. Drabu began his career as an economist in 1990 when he was appointed with the Perspective Planning Division of the Planning Commission. He was also a consultant to the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister and to the 10th Finance Commission. He also served as a consultant to the Asian Development Bank. He had earlier been caught up in controversy when in March 2014 JKLF leader Yaseen Malik, a militant-turned-separatist politician, said the economist was an adviser to his group in the early 1990s when it started an insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir. After Drabu's recent statement, Malik, came down heavily on him. Malik claimed Drabu used to talk to him for hours before joining mainstream and while 'praising JKLF's efforts for liberation of Jammu and Kashmir from illegal occupation of India', he presented ideas and concepts for it. In February, Drabu had said that 4.5 lakh employees of the state government were not doing any work and the government was paying them unnecessarily. I pay salaries amounting to Rs 22,000 crore to 4.5 lakh government employees, who do absolutely no work, Drabu said. In 2016, Drabus wife, Roohi Nazki, an entrepreneur, had taken to social media to express her outrage and angst over the killings and maiming of children", reported News18. Naki had said, children of Kashmir are being killed on street corners, by the forces, who pump pellets into their young bodies. On social media, Nazki had criticised the state government of which her husband was a part of and had asked Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti-led government to step down. With inputs from agencies The Narendra Modi government is killing democracy by orchestrating protests on various issues in the Parliament to avoid discussing the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, the Congress said New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government is killing democracy by orchestrating protests on various issues in the Parliament to avoid discussing the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, the Congress said on Tuesday. "All these are government-sponsored agitations that are meant to adjourn the Houses," said the party's leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge referring to issues like the constitutional amendment, the Telugu Desam Party's demand for special status to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu's call to set up the Cauvery Management Board. "They are finding excuses to avoid discussing the Nirav Modi and PNB scandal," he told reporters in New Delhi. Kharge said they have been wanting to take up the issue through an adjournment motion since the Parliament session began and despite giving daily notice and meeting the Speaker, the government has been rejecting their demand as it wants to keep the scam away from public eye. He said the government generally goes on passing the bills and demands even when the opposition leaders are agitating in front of the presiding officer's podium. But in last few days, it has been adjourning the houses within two minutes of protest by their alliance and supporting leaders including NDA ministers. "It's the job of Parliamentary affairs minister to run the House. Even the prime minister has remained silent," he said and added the government is defaming the opposition by blaming them for adjournments. Kharge said they had demands for discussion on six issues on social justice, farmers, railways, road and transport, health and family welfare, and youth affairs but were not given the time. "Suddenly at 2 am, I received an agenda saying guillotine will happen for all the six issues and other bills like supplementary bill, appropriation bill and finance bill. If all these have to be done on guillotine or voice vote, then why call the Parliament," he asked. "We wanted time for discussion but the government surely does not want that and is running away from it. This is an attempt to finish democracy," he added. Sources close to the Congress confirmed that Tuesday's dinner would signify the coming together of all Opposition parties who would take on the BJP inside and outside Parliament Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi will host leaders of 17 Opposition parties at her New Delhi residence on Tuesday, as the Congress moves ahead ambitiously to forge a united alliance to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) might. Sources close to the Congress confirmed that Tuesday's dinner could signify the coming together of all Opposition parties who would take on the BJP inside and outside Parliament. "It would not only be a dinner, but also showcase the strength of Opposition parties who would like to come together to form a front against the misrule of BJP," a senior leader said. The Congress leader said a missive was sent to West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee, but she is yet to confirm. TMC-Congress tie-up for Rajya Sabha polls Things do look good for an alliance with the Trinamool Congress (TMC), after the party accepted Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi's nomination for Rajya Sabha polls. West Bengal sends five candidates to the Upper House of Parliament, and Banerjee, it was earlier said, had prepared five TMC candidates' names for all seats. However, after Congress requested for a seat, with Sonia herself putting in a request, she accepted Singhvi's nomination. Banerjee's presence at the meeting will be critical, because the TMC brings with it 34 MPs, one of the biggest constituents of a possible Third Front. The TMC's tally in Lok Sabha is behind only the Congress' 44 MPs and AIADMK's 37 parliamentarians. However, what this does mean is that the Left parties, formerly an ally of the Congress, are now left in the cold. As reported by Firstpost in an earlier article, the Congress-TMC alliance can contribute up to 35-38 Lok Sabha seats, which gives it more heft as compared to a Congress-Left alliance. DMK, not AIADMK The AIADMK is unlikely to align forces with Sonia Gandhi, especially because the Congress is still allies with the DMK. And no amount of common hatred for BJP is enough to bring DMK and AIADMK together. The DMK has confirmed its presence at Tuesday's meeting, with MK Kanimozhi being deputed to attend the dinner. Interestingly, DMK working president MK Stalin spoke on the phone with Banerjee a couple of days ago and the topic of a joint front to counter the BJP was on the agenda. However, a report on The Times of India said that Stalin is likely to be preoccupied in Chennai and Kanimozhi will be the party's representative in Delhi. "Banerjee wanted the DMK to coordinate with other regional parties too. She feels comfortable working with the DMK. Banerjee suggested that all federal parties stay in touch and work cohesively as a bloc," a DMK leader was quoted as saying in the report. The report suggested further that Sonia's plan to invite Opposition parties may have come about following talks of a Third Front a non-BJP, non-Congress alliance of parties. The Congress may end up the bigger loser in case a Third Front does materialise, as it's running short of regional allies and numbers to take on the BJP's might. Who will lead the alliance And if getting a disparate set of parties with no common ground linking them other than an opposition to the BJP's brand of politics wasn't hard enough, it will be harder still to unite them on the issue of who will lead the alliance. The Congress, by virtue of being the oldest and most established party, will want for itself the honour of leading the alliance. However, this is unlikely to go down well with others, especially parties who have made their fortunes on a staunchly anti-Congress plank. Especially parties like Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress who had broken ties with the UPA publicly in 2012 is unlikely to go back to the fold unless she is offered the chance to lead the alliance. Or even the AIADMK, the largest non-BJP constituent of the Lok Sabha currently. Although not allied with either the BJP or the Congress, the AIADMK is in a position of such numerical strength that it's likely to demand it's fair share of the spoils. A period of churn Sonia Gandhi's efforts to unite parties who might appear not to have much common ground will cap off a period of great churn in Indian politics. Long-time BJP ally, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has pulled out of the government. And though it remains part of the NDA, continued delay in granting 'special status' to Andhra Pradesh may cause it to pull out of the alliance altogether. A report on India Today said the Congress is eyeing the TDP and has invited its leaders to be part of Tuesday's dinner and also to explore the possibility of being in an anti-BJP alliance with other like-minded parties. "TDP is miffed with the way BJP has treated them. We have extended invitations to them too. It is a step towards strengthening the fight against BJP and anyone who agrees with common minimum agenda of ours is welcome," a senior Congress leader said. Even in Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has called for the emergence of a Third Front. On the Telangana Rashtra Samiti's (TRS) 'Foundation Day' on 27 April, Rao is reportedly planning to announce the alliance, and is even planning to bring together other national leaders who are opposed to both Congress and BJP. The Congress would need the TRS to halt its plans of organising a Third Front, and if possible to align its fortunes with its own plans of forging an anti-BJP alliance. In Jharkhand, the Congress has already stitched together an alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) last week, with JMM president Hemant Soren agreeing to support Congress' candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls, while the Congress will lend a hand to JMM in the Lok Sabha and Jharkhand Assembly polls, both scheduled for 2019. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and most electorally critical state, has already witnessed an unprecedented coming together of bitter rivals Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for by-elections held this week. SP and BSP, who have traditionally been the two primary parties of Uttar Pradesh politics, were both left annihilated by the BJP juggernaut in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and also the 2017 Assembly polls. The BJP won 73 out of the state's 80 Lok Sabha seats, while the SP managed five. The BSP failed to even open its account. The one-sided victory was repeated three years later, when the BJP won 312 out of 403 Assembly seats, while the SP and BSP managed 47 and 19 respectively. It's fairly evident from these numbers that the two parties are facing a battle for their mere survival. The election winning machine that is the BJP has been so powerful in India's largest state that the two have been left with no option but to join hands. While it is only for the two by-elections thus far, success in them could lay down a template for the future. And if the Congress can join them, there could be the possibility of a 'Mahagathbandhan'-like grand alliance in the works. And it was one such 'Mahagathbandhan' comprising RJD, JD(U) and the Congress that dealt the last major defeat to the BJP, when it defeated the saffron party in Bihar in 2015. Can Sonia and Co. conjure up the numbers for another? With inputs from agencies Leaders of 20 opposition parties tonight got together at a dinner hosted by where possibilities of putting up a united front to defeat the BJP in the next general elections were discussed. New Delhi: Leaders of 20 Opposition parties got together at a dinner hosted by Sonia Gandhi where possibilities of putting up a united front to defeat the BJP in the next general elections were discussed. The move is being seen as an attempt to forge Opposition unity to defeat the BJP-led NDA. According to sources, leaders of NCP, RJD, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress, DMK and Left parties attended the dinner among others. The prominent leaders in attendance were NCP's Sharad Pawar, SP's Ram Gopal Yadav, BSP's Satish Chandra Misra and former chief ministers Omar Abdullah, Babulal Marandi, Hemant Soren and Jiten Ram Manjhi, besides JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav and RLD's Ajit Singh. The RJD was represented by both children of party chief Lalu Prasad -- former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti. The others present included TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CPI's D Raja and CPM's Mohammad Salim, DMK's Kanimozhi, AIUDF's Baddrauddin Ajmal and leaders of Kerala Congress, besides Kupender Reddy of the JD(S). Sonia, Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony and Randeep Surjewala were among the Congress leaders present. According to sources, leaders of Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party, which recently pulled out its ministers in the Modi government but continues to be a constituent of the NDA, the BJD, and the TRS were not invited. The BJD and the TRS rule Odisha and Telangana respectively. The dinner was hosted at the 10 Janpath residence where the leaders discussed the possibilities of all Opposition parties getting together on one platform to defeat the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, sources said. Sonia Gandhi had earlier called for Opposition unity, saying parties should set aside their minor differences to get together in the larger interest of keeping the BJP out of power. Congress communications incharge Randeep Surjewala said the dinner was not organised for politics, but for amity and friendship among Opposition parties. He claimed at a time when the government was not allowing Parliament to function, it was obvious that leaders of various parties, who wanted to raise issues in national interest, would get together to discuss the current political situation. "This dinner was not hosted for politics, but for amity and friendship. The intention is not political, but to hold discussions in family-like setting at a time when the nation is confronted with a number of issues and thousands of crores being taken out of the country," Surjewala told reporters after the dinner. He said Opposition leaders got together to discuss issues in national interest, create bonhomie in the Opposition and exchange views. He also accused the government of running away from a debate on key issues such as banking frauds. It seems that for Sonia Gandhi, the number of parties at her dinner table is more important than what they bring to the 'Opposition unity' move against BJP. It seems that for Congress' Sonia Gandhi, the number of parties represented at her dinner table is far more important than what substance they bring to the 'Opposition unity' movement against the BJP-led NDA, ahead of the 2019 General Elections. For nothing else can explain her decision to not invite parties that matter in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The two states taken together account for 42 MPs in Parliament. Right alliances in these very states could help swing fortunes in Congress' favour in 2019. While the Grand Old Party is boasting of the possible presence of representatives of 17 parties at Sonia's dinner, no political party of import in Andhra and Telangana Chandrababu Naidu's TDP, K Chandrashekhar Rao's TRS, Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress and Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM has been considered 'worth' an invite by the former party president. In 2004, it was Andhra Pradesh that had contributed the most in scripting a historic win for Congress and defeat for Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA. Out of the 42 seats available of the then united Andhra Pradesh, Congress on its own had won 29. With allies, which included TRS, it won 34 seats. The party, under the charismatic leadership of YS Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), further increased its tally in 2009 to 33 on its own, enabling the Congress-led UPA to return to power with an improved overall tally. Things changed for Congress in the state after YSR died in a chopper crash in September 2009 and then ahead of 2014, when Congress strategists went for a hurried bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to create the new state of Telangana. Telangana was a long-standing demand championed by TRS and the Congress under the leadership of Sonia thought that bifurcation would help boost its electoral prospects, which otherwise had dwindled. The manner in which the Manmohan Singh government chose to create Telangana out of united Andhra left people and parties in both the states complaining of marginalisation. The parliamentary poll results of 2014 proved that the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh made Sonia and Congress hated figures in both the states. The Congress scored zero in 25 seats of Andhra and could manage to win only two of 17 seats in Telangana. Things have not improved for the Congress since. In fact, a number of party leaders over the last four years have deserted to other parties in the two states. The list of invitees for Sonia's dinner shows that Congress leadership has not learnt its lessons, nor is it inclined to take a step forward to mend its ways. Why Sonia didn't invite Naidu is understandable to an extent though, the TDP has pulled out two of its ministers from the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, it continues to be a part of the NDA. The Congress looks up to Naidu as its prospective ally post-2019 elections, just as it was eyeing Nitish Kumar in Bihar as its prospective ally in 2013-14. But then, there is a difference. While Nitish was still part of the NDA and was running the coalition government with the BJP, the Congress had started sending overt feelers to him since 2012. Whereas, in Naidu's case, the Congress' prospective alliance with him and his party TDP is only in the minds of Congress leaders. Party president Rahul Gandhi's support for TDP's demand of special category status to Andhra Pradesh means nothing. Optics apart, the TDP realises follies of his promise for the Congress was the party in power when the state was bifurcated the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his statement had mentioned special category status to Andhra but was never mentioned in the Act. It is indeed difficult to understand why Sonia left out TRS, YSRCP and AIMIM. Let's take up the possible reasons one by one. Reddy's YSRCP has a huge support base in Andhra Pradesh and also in parts of Telangana. Reddy, the son of YSR, was essentially a Congressman and parted ways with Congress to form his own party when he thought the party his father nurtured in the state would not give him his due. Reddy though is sympathetic to Modi but is not part of the NDA. The Congress could have persuaded him to join hands with the party where his political DNA rests. Telangana chief minister and TRS chief Chandrashekhar has openly come out against Modi and the BJP. He is also an old ally of the Congress. In fact, in the UPA-I government, Manmohan had called him "a Yogi in politics". Perhaps the Congress is wary of the independent posturing Chandrashekhar is now trying to create by reigniting his proposal for a Third Front as an alternative to both BJP and Congress, and his desire to lead that prospective formulation. Yet another erstwhile Congress ally, Owaisi, has also not been invited. Owasi has a substantive following in Muslims in the state and amongst the younger Muslim community across the nation. But the Congress is perhaps wary of aligning with him again. It should be noted that at the recently held India Today conclave, Sonia had suggested that Rahul was visiting so many temples to dispel the notion that Congress was a "Muslim party". Interestingly, the Indian Union Muslim League has been invited but not Owaisi. This is perhaps because Owaisi evokes a much stronger response from the Hindu community, which is why Congress is wary of inviting him to the high table photo-op. The list of leaders and parties invited include one-member-MLA parties and a one or even zero-member-MP party; but, for wider public perception, the headcount makes an impression. Sonia's previous bid for Opposition unity or her 'lunch diplomacy' during last year's presidential and vice-presidential elections didn't have any lasting impact. In fact, while that so-called Opposition unity move was in motion, Nitish deserted the Sonia camp to rejoin the NDA. Since then, the Congress' alliance with the Samajwadi Party has fallen apart. Samajwadi Party realised that its alliance with Congress was detrimental to its electoral health and dumped the party in the recent in bypolls to two parliamentary constituencies to join hands with the BSP. The more important political reason for not inviting YSR Congress is that the Congress is not keen on sending wrong signals to Chandrababu as the party considers him to be a possible ally in 2019 or at least in the post-poll scenario. Contrary to the widespread expectations, in the state political circles, leaders of Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party, which recently pulled out its ministers from the Narendra Modi government but continues to be a constituent of the NDA has not been invited to the dinner being hosted by the UPA chairperson. Speaking to Firstpost, highly placed sources in the All India Congress Committee confirmed that neither TDP nor the YSR Congress was invited for the dinner which is believed to be the diplomatic move by Sonia Gandhi to form a broader coalition of political parties to take on the ruling BJP. Though the TDP ministers resigned from the NDA, they are still politically and technically part of the BJP-led NDA and any invitation to N Chandrababu Naidu would mean political impropriety. The Congress should not be seen as desperate to rally allies, the sources in AICC told Firstpost. However, the Congress leadership according to sources were keen on extending the invitation to TDP supremo. If he has formally quit the NDA, the Congress would have been more than happy to invite him whether or not Naidu would oblige. But, now that he is still with NDA, it is improper for the Congress to invite and if Chandrababu rejects the invitation, it would be a thorough embarrassment for the Congress. Thus, the signals emanating from the Congress camp are quite clear. The Congress seems to be considering Chandrababu as a prospective ally if in case the TDP finally leaves the NDA. This is precisely the reason why even the opposition YSR Congress was also not invited for the dinner as per the Congress sources though Jaganmohan Reddy is not an NDA ally. The Congress leaders are skeptical of Jaganmohan. His unconditional support to BJP nominees in presidential and vice-presidential elections despite not being an ally of the NDA strengthens such an understanding of YSR Congress. The Congress also feels that YSR Congress may not even be favourable for any friendly gestures from it as Jaganmohan fears vindictive action by Modi-Shah duo. Speaking to Firstpost YV Subba Reddy, member of Parliament and a close relative of YS Jagan said that the YSR Congress cannot have any friendship with Congress as it is the party responsible not only for the arbitrary bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh but also harassment of Jaganmohan while in power. But, the more important political reason for not inviting YSR Congress is that the Congress is not keen on sending wrong signals to Chandrababu as the party considers him to be a possible ally in 2019 or at least in the post-poll scenario. It is true that the TDP took birth as an anti-Congress political formation. But, the political situation has completely altered now. In fact, TDP supremo headed the United Front which was in power at the Centre with the Congress support, reminds a senior TDP leader close to Chandrababu. The Congress is not a principal contender for TDP either in Andhra Pradesh or in neighbouring Telangana. The TDP is a victim of TRS machinations in Telangana. Despite a section of the Telangana TDP leaders showing enthusiasm to ally with the ruling TRS, Chandrababu is yet to endorse the proposal. Any alliance in Telangana will be incumbent upon the imperatives of Andhra Pradesh politics. In Andhra Pradesh, the ruling TDP is locked in a bitter fight with the YSR Congress. The TDP won the 2014 elections with a slender margin of little over two percent votes. The estrangement with BJP would certainly mean a loss of votes for the TDP however small it may be. Thus the electoral arithmetic makes it indispensable for the TDP to look out for allies to compensate for the loss of BJP and any possible anti-incumbency. The Congress is no longer the principal adversary for the TDP. Pre-poll surveys reveal the growing support for the Congress in parliamentary polls though the people are not ready to pardon the grand old party in Assembly elections for arbitrary bifurcation of the state. This is precisely because of the Congress vocal support for special status demand and the BJP's blunt denial of the same. However, the only irritant in the possible tie-up between the TDP and the Congress is the bifurcation narrative actively promoted by Chandrababu himself. The TDP came to power in 2014 only by the political narrative that the Congress has done enormous injustice to the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh. Thus, the TDP leaders are still wary of any possible negative fallout of alliance with Congress in 2019. But, speaking to Firstpost a senior TDP leader told on condition of anonymity that the TDP allied with BJP in 2014 despite the saffron party instrumental in enacting bifurcation. The Congress and the BJP are to be equally blamed for the arbitrary bifurcation. The people of Andhra Pradesh endorsed TDP's alliance with BJP in 2014 as they felt that the new state needs hand-holding from the Centre. Similarly, the political narrative in 2019 would be not the arbitrary bifurcation but the political arrogance of BJP. The Modi government not only rejected the special status despite vociferously demanding the same while in opposition and was not serious in implementing the provisions and promises of bifurcation. The anti-BJP sentiment would be much stronger than the anti-Congress sentiment as the latter promised special status and has declared that it would accord such a status to Andhra Pradesh if voted to power at the Centre. The dinner diplomacy did not include any party from Andhra Pradesh. This only reveals the Congress intentions to ally with TDP rather than YSR Congress in 2019. The writer is former MLC in Telangana, former editor, The Hans India and Professor, Journalism, Osmania University. Even as Chandrababu Naidu is yet to quit NDA formally, a section of BJP leadership has started supporting YS Jaganmohan Reddy to precipitate TDP's exit. Even as Chandrababu Naidu is yet to quit NDA formally, a section of BJP leadership who had been opposed to the alliance with TDP right from the beginning has started supporting opponent YS Jaganmohan Reddy. This mind game of the BJP is aimed at precipitating TDP's exit from the NDA. Meanwhile, opposition YSR Congress, too, is targeting TDP for withdrawing ministers but not leaving the NDA. In fact, at one point, Naidu was in an indecisive mood on whether or not to pull out of the BJP-led NDA. But, he has been driven to the corner by Opposition leader Reddy, who called for an initiative from Naidu to move a no-confidence motion against the Modi government. Otherwise, the YSR Congress leader said that his party would do so and his MPs would even quit the Parliament on the special status demand. Thus, Naidu, who has been directing his MPs to protest in Parliament to exert pressure on the Modi government, has to revise and update his strategy to outsmart Reddy. He had no option except to withdraw his ministers from the NDA cabinet to accord a sort of legitimacy for the TDP's campaign on the injustice meted out to the state by the central government. However, Naidu chose not to immediately leave the NDA. Thus, he offered a window to the BJP to accommodate the concerns of its key ally. But, the Modi dispensation was unmoved by Naidu's political moves as it enjoys a comfortable majority in Parliament and has little or no stakes in Andhra Pradesh. Still, Naidu was not in any hurry to exit the NDA as he wishes to give an impression that TDP is trying its best to get the maximum from the central government. He has a bad reputation for joining and leaving alliances. Thus, the BJP leaders already started campaigning that the TDP is an unreliable ally and Naidu is known for political opportunism. In a bid to ensure that the BJP campaign against him does not gain credibility, Naidu was extra cautious on the question of his party's relationship with NDA as such even after withdrawing the ministers. But, everything did not go as per Naidu's script. His adversaries would not follow the timetable set by him. The state BJP clearly has two camps, one that supports Naidu and the other that has been critical of him right from the beginning. The alliance with TDP was always a contentious issue within the state BJP. Quite interestingly, the pro and anti-Naidu groups in state BJP have a clear caste dimension as well. State BJP leaders belonging to the powerful social formation, that is known to be loyal to TDP, were always enthusiastic in supporting Naidu. M Venkaiah Naidu was vehemently in favour of an alliance with TDP. The Andhra Pradesh BJP leaders openly (of course, not on record) allege that their party suffered due to Venkaiah's closeness with Naidu. Leaders like Kambhampati Hari Babu, Kamineni Srinivas were never critical of the TDP government. Even when they have to defend the BJP against the criticism of TDP, their comments were never caustic. In his farewell address, Srinivas even applauded Naidu as the real harbinger of development. Naidu also had full praise for the BJP ministers in his cabinet. This is the bonhomie a section of BJP leaders enjoys with TDP leadership even today. On the contrary, another section led by leaders like Somu Veerraju were always critical of the Naidu government. Notwithstanding the fact that the BJP is part of the cabinet, Veerraju had even called the Naidu government corrupt and incompetent. On the other hand, no BJP leaders from the state ever criticised Reddy, despite the political slugfest between the YSR Congress and its ally TDP. In the wake of changed political scenario, the anti-TDP group within the BJP has gained an upper hand. Not only are they now targeting Naidu in a much more virulent manner, they have even started talking sympathetically about Reddy. In a bid to further embarrass the TDP, the anti-Naidu group within the state BJP in informal political and media gatherings started stating that Reddy has better prospects in the 2019 elections. Meanwhile, Reddy extended unconditional support to BJP nominees in the presidential and vice-presidential elections much before the current developments. The YSR Congress was never critical of the controversial policies of the Modi government, like demonetisation, GST, cow vigilantism etc. YSR Congress MP and close associate of Reddy, Vijayasai Reddy, even praised the Union Budget despite the fact that it failed to address the state's interests. Reddy himself said that his party would ally with any party that accords a special status to Andhra Pradesh. As such, he has not ruled out any alliance with BJP. Thus, the unwritten understanding between the BJP and the YSR Congress that started showing much more discernible signs would only further precipitate TDP's exit from NDA. YSR Congress is making things worse for TDP by alleging that the party is demonstrating double standards by pulling out ministers without estranging the BJP. Thus, the TDP's exit seems to be imminent. Even if Naidu prefers to be cautious, both the Opposition YSR Congress and more so the anti-TDP section within the state BJP seems to be unwilling to accept the TDP's continuing presence in the NDA. Thus, the party's exit from NDA is all likely to trigger a fresh round of political realignment in Andhra Pradesh politics, at least in the post-poll scenario. BJP Tripura in-charge Sunil Deodhar said enrolment into the party would be restricted for the next six months to stop the influx of people with criminal antecedents. Pune: BJP Tripura in-charge Sunil Deodhar on Monday said enrolment into the party would be restricted for the next six months to stop the influx of people with criminal antecedents. He said the priorities of the newly-elected Biplab Kumar Deb government in Tripura would be law and order, creation of employment and building infrastructure. Deodhar told reporters, "Several Communist cadres have minted money through various government schemes. After the regime change, these activities would stop and since they cannot survive without power, they will try to join the BJP." "But since many of these cadres have criminal cases against them, the party will conduct a background check before admitting new members. Therefore we have decided not to give new membership for the next six months," he elaborated. Alleging that the Left Front government led by Manik Sarkar had failed, he said 67 percent of the people of the state were living below the poverty line. "Crime against women as well as overall crime is very high (in the state). The outgoing government shielded many scams and this had made people angry," he claimed. He also condemned the pulling down of statues of Communist heroes like Lenin and said such acts could not be supported. Taking a swipe at Sarkar's clean image, Deodhar said the former Tripura CM was neither poor and honest nor efficient. The government wants Parliament's budget session to run to its full schedule and transact maximum business, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said on Tuesday, seeking to end speculation that it may curtail the session. New Delhi: The government wants Parliament's budget session to run to its full schedule and transact maximum business, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said on Tuesday, seeking to end speculation that it may curtail the session. Asking all parties to let the house function, Kumar said the government wants to have "meaningful discussions". "There are no plans to curtail the session. We want to complete the session... There are so many bills such as Medical Council of India and the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act that we want passed in this session," Kumar told reporters. His remarks came after reports of opposition parties claiming that the government wants to curtail the session after transacting the financial business required for implementation of the Union Budget. The minister also labelled the Congress a "falling, failing and faltering organisation" and attacked it for not following parliamentary traditions and using Parliament as a mere platform to give speeches. Kumar added that Congress president Rahul Gandhi went abroad because he could not face defeat in the elections. "The party is splintering under him and such a party cannot hold any coalition," Kumar said, replying to a query on the Congress hosting a dinner for opposition leaders this evening. He termed the dinner a "futile exercise" and said the opposition would not gather any momentum from such an exercise. "The Congress is not only diminishing as a political entity but also disintegrating and this is harsh reality. There can't be any stable and coalition around such party," he said. In order to ensure a straight win in the Rajya Sabha elections from the state, a candidate has to get 37 first preference votes. Lucknow: Naresh Agarwal's entry into the BJP has lent an interesting twist to the Rajya Sabha battle in Uttar Pradesh, after the former Samajwadi Party heavyweight declared his MLA son will vote for the saffron party, a move that may upset the BSP candidate's applecart. Meanwhile, the nomination of Independent candidate Mahesh Chandra Sharma was rejected on Tuesday during scrutiny. The BSP, with 19 MLAs in the 403-member Assembly, is already short of 18 first preference votes and with Agarwal's son Nitin likely to vote for the BJP, the task will be all the more difficult for Mayawati's candidate Bhimrao Ambedkar. In order to ensure a straight win in the Rajya Sabha elections from the state, a candidate has to get 37 first preference votes. The BJP-led NDA has 324 MLAs, enough to clinch eight seats. The BJP, which has fielded 11 candidates for the state's 10 RS seats, will still be left with 18 surplus votes. Its Noorpur MLA died in a road accident recently. "The character of the BJP has been to indulge in horse trading, and in order to flaunt the clout of the BJP government in the ongoing Rajya Sabha elections, the ruling party has put up additional candidates to widen the gulf between the SP and BSP," SP MLC and spokesperson Sunil Singh Sajan told PTI. The SP and the BSP have reached an electoral understanding to back the candidate who is most capable of defeating the BJP. "The BJP will indulge in horse trading of MLAs to queer the pitch for the lone BSP candidate," Sajan said. UP BJP vice president JPS Rathore told PTI that the party was giving finishing touches to its strategy for the elections and the picture will be clear on March 15, the last day for withdrawal of candidature. Three additional candidates of the BJP and an indepenent jumped into the fray at the last moment. With the rejection of the independent candidate's nomination, 13 aspirants are left in the fray for 10 seats. The Samajwadi Party and BSP have fielded Jaya Bachchan and Bhimrao Ambedkar respectively. The BJP candidates in the electoral arena are Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav, GVL Narasimha Rao, Anil Kumar Agarwal, Salil Bishnoi and Vidyasagar Sonkar. Independent candidate Mahesh Chandra Sharma is also trying his luck. The Samajwadi Party has 47 MLAs in the House, and can transfer 10 surplus votes to the BSP, which has declared its support to the SP candidates in the bypolls for Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats vacated by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya. The seven votes of the Congress and one of RLD can help the BSP candidate reach the magic figure of 37 votes. In that scenario, the vote of Nitin Agarwal, the son of Naresh Agarwal, will be crucial. The country's most populous state sends 31 members to the 245-member Rajya Sabha, and the BJP, which won a massive victory in the 2017 Assembly elections, is yet to get a lion's share of these. With 83 members in the Upper House, the NDA is well short of a majority. The BJP has 58 Rajya Sabha MPs. During the 2012 biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha, the then ruling SP had bagged six seats. Like in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP hopes to gain from dissension in rival parties, it has fielded extra candidates in Maharashtra and Gujarat. In Maharashtra, where it can win three seats, it has put up four candidates, and in Gujarat, where the party can easily bag two, it has fielded three nominees. Reuters US President Donald Trump on Monday blocked semiconductor maker Broadcom Ltds proposed takeover of Qualcomm on grounds of national security, ending what would have been the technology industrys biggest deal ever. The presidential order to block Singapore-based Broadcoms $117 billion bid for San Diego-based Qualcomm reflected concerns about the United States ability to set the technology standards for the next generation of mobile cell phones in the competition with Chinese companies. San Diego-based Qualcomm has emerged as one of the biggest competitors to Chinas Huawei Technologies Co in the sector, making Qualcomm a prized asset. Qualcomm had earlier rebuffed Broadcoms $117 billion takeover bid, which was under investigation by the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a multi-agency panel led by the US Treasury Department that reviews the national security implications of acquisitions of US corporations by foreign companies. A source familiar with CFIUS thinking had said that, if the deal was completed, the US military was concerned that within 10 years,there would essentially be a dominant player in all of these technologies and thats essentially Huawei, and then the American carriers would have no choice. They would just have to buy Huawei (equipment). In a letter to the companies on March 5, CFIUS expressed concerns that Broadcom would not be willing to fund the research needed to maintain Qualcomms strong position on so-called 5G technology, a forthcoming standard for wireless data networks, leaving the US with nowhere but China to turn for such technology. CFIUS also said that Qualcomm has a number of military contracts with the US Department of Defense. Shares of Broadcom rose less than 1.0 percent to $264.10 in after hours trade while Qualcomm fell 4.3 percent to $60.14. Neither company responded immediately to a request for comment. The move by Trump to kill the deal comes only months after the US president himself announced Broadcoms decision to move its headquarters to the United States and called itone of the really great, great companies. This is the fifth time ever a US President has blocked a deal based on CFIUS objections and the second deal Trump has stopped since assuming office. The proposed takeover of Qualcomm by the Purchaser (Broadcom) is prohibited, and any substantially equivalent merger, acquisition, or takeover, whether effected directly or indirectly, is also prohibited, the presidential order released on Monday said. The order issued by the White House citedcredible evidence that led Trump to believe that Broadcom taking control of Qualcommmight take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States. Trumps move accelerated a decision that appeared likely after CFIUS told Broadcom in a letter on Sunday that its investigationso far confirmed the national security concerns. The US Treasury Department letter wasobviously a poison pill, Jim Lewis, a CFIUS expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said before the Trump order. He described the CFIUS communication to Broadcom asunprecedented. The semiconductor industry is racing to develop chips that power so-called 5G wireless technology, allowing the transmission of data at faster speeds. Broadcom had struggled to complete its proposed deal to buy Qualcomm which had cited several concerns including the price offered and potential antitrust hurdles. The presidential decision to block the deal cannot be appealed. However, it is not clear what rules Broadcom would have to follow if it goes ahead with announced plans to move its headquarters to the United States. tech2 News Staff Google India has made a number of announcements to improve the overall Maps experience in India. The company is aiming to improve the address search in the country by organising the location-related information while making it more accessible and relevant. The main problem that the company faces in India is with residential addresses, which do not follow a fixed format and may vary from region to region. The problem is not limited to the variation in the format as the sheer difference in the length of addresses can also throw the system off. In addition to this, a majority of addresses are hard to locate, especially those of people living in remote locations. Plus Codes To solve the issue of addresses, Google has introduced a new open sourced solution with the name Plus Codes. According to the company, Plus Codes is a more consistent and simple addressing system that works not just across India, but works globally as well. The Plus Codes system works by dividing the surface of the earth into small tiles or tile areas which a unique code assigned to each tile. The Plus Code address format has 6 characters followed by a local code. Anyone can generate, share or even search for any particular location using this format with the help of Google Maps. The Plus Code format is open source, making it much easier for any app that uses location data to make use of this more consistent addressing system. This system will make it easier for users to assign an easy, identifiable location for any complicated address. According to the Plus Codes websites, it will work as a street address for places that dont have a street name. This will make the location address more accurate and easier to decode, making the experience seamless. This will help delivery services, emergency services or even government agencies keep track of location-based programs. Other benefits pointed out by Google state that 'Plus Codes' is free of any licensing codes, that they will work regardless of whether user is online or offline, that the system independent of borders ensuring that it works in disputed territories, that they can be printed as a grid on paper and finally, that it's not limited to the internet or digital devices. Add missing address Google has also made the process of adding missing addresses much easier with the Add an Address feature where users can contribute to improving the Maps experience. To ensure that the addresses are accurate and not duplicated, Google will verify the added address and ensure that it is searchable in due course. Smart Address Search In addition to adding missing addresses, Google is also rolling out Smart Address Search starting today, where Google Maps will give the best estimate of the location of the address by making use of landmarks, businesses or any nearby locality that is added in the address. Smart Address Search will make use of all the information in the address and then provide options that can help the user find their destination. Something similar to what users to in the real world. Voice Navigation in six more languages Google has also added support for Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam so that the users who speak these languages can use these languages for navigation. Krish Vitaldevara, The Product Lead for Google Maps Next Billion Users (yes, that's his official job title) added, India continues to inspire us, and pushes us to reimagine what Maps can do for people. And we are just getting started as we continue to build features and expand our partnerships to make the Google Maps experience more comprehensive, accurate and reliable for our users. Asheeta Regidi Time and again, whenever a security allegation is made against the Aadhaar ecosystem, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) comes out with a standard response, the allegation in question is irrelevant to security, the Aadhaar system (read biometric database) is completely secure, and, in certain cases, an FIR against the reporter. The latest security allegations against Aadhaar are in the form of French researcher Robert Baptiste (going by the alias Elliot Alderson), who claims to have found 20,000 Aadhaar cards publicly online, within a span of 3 hours. The UIDAIs response to this (a statement on Twitter which is being assumed to be in response to Baptistes allegations) is extremely worrying, stating that first of all, people should share Aadhaar freely, and second of all, that disclosure of not only Aadhaar numbers, but also PAN numbers, bank account numbers and passport, poses no threat to the security of the systems of which they are a part (See Tweet number 7/n). It appears that as per the UIDAI, the only data worth protecting, is biometric data, and the only thing that constitutes a threat to the system, any system, is a large-scale technical breach. The UIDAIs statement- Aadhaar is not confidential The UIDAIs Twitter statement on Aadhaar numbers is that it is never to be treated as a confidential document. It is to be shared openly and freely, as and when required and asked for. Further, Aadhaar numbers, like PAN, passport and other details are ordinarily to be protected to ensure privacy. UIDAI has dismissed the reports as irresponsible which appeared in a section of social and other media on security of Aadhaar system being questioned on account of a few Aadhaar cards reportedly put on the internet by some unscrupulous elements. 1/n Aadhaar (@UIDAI) March 11, 2018 The remedy offered by the UIDAI for this is to sue the publisher of such details for civil damages for the infringement of privacy. Lastly, the statement says that the disclosure of numbers like PAN, Passport, Aadhaar and bank account numbers does not impact or threaten the security of the banking, income tax or passport system. Disclosure of Aadhaar, PAN, and bank account numbers is extremely harmful The UIDAI has always taken an extremely narrow stance on privacy, concerning itself only with biometric data. It has also betrayed an absolute lack of understanding of the risk that data disclosures pose to people in todays world of cybercrime. This was seen, for instance, with The Tribune story, after which the UIDAI made a statement that the demographic data disclosed, like name, date of birth, address, PIN, photo, phone number, and e-mails cannot be misused. The UIDAIs latest statement has now added Aadhaar, PAN, passport, and bank account numbers to this list of data, the disclosure of which is not harmful. Consider a simple method of cybercrime today- account recovery mechanisms. This may be of the income tax website or a banks website. Consider the data that is normally needed to recover a password- PAN number, account number, date of birth, e-mail, and so on. A password is needed, sent either to an e-mail or via OTP. To give one example, passwords to an e-mail account can quite easily be found in the dark net (See this report on how a persons e-mail account was hacked into within 36 hours using just their name). OTPs have been extracted from people, whether through fraudulent phone calls or through duplicating SIM cards. Consider this report where the victims bank account was emptied after obtaining a duplicate sim, obtained via a fraudulent phone call made under the pretext of Aadhaar- Sim linking. Reports have similarly arisen on scams which are said to be related to Aadhaar linked bank accounts, and Aadhaar based UPI apps. Aadhaar, PAN, bank account numbers are huge targets for cybercriminals Each of these examples uses a combination of data to gain access to these systems, data which, as per the UIDAI, cannot impact or harm the system. This data- peoples name, address, e-mail, mobile numbers, and their Aadhaar, PAN, bank account and passport numbers form their most crucial data and is the biggest target of cybercriminals. The UIDAI offers biometrics as a solution, but note that firstly, not one of these example uses biometric data, and secondly, biometric authentication has made biometrics the next biggest target of cybercriminals. Each new piece of data found on the internet adds to the umpteen databases on the darknet, leading to more and more detailed profiles of individuals. It is only a matter of time before biometrics are added to this, if they havent already been added. Moreover, cybercriminals and their techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The rate at which new means of scamming people arise far exceeds the rate at which the crimes are discovered and stopped. In such a situation, instead of treating this data with utmost confidentiality, the UIDAI has instead dismissed their value towards the security of various systems. UIDAI contradicts its own statement on Aadhaar number confidentiality The most surprising part of this statement is that the UIDAI has, in fact, contradicted its own statements and actions in the past with respect to protecting the Aadhaar number. Consider the Virtual ID system. Without going into the problems that the Virtual ID system in itself has, the whole purpose of Virtual ID is to protect the Aadhaar number; to prevent its disclosure. The UIDAI, has also, in the past, advised people to be very discreet with sharing their Aadhaar number. The same thing can also be seen looking at the Aadhaar Act and regulations themselves, where the publication of Aadhaar numbers is a punishable offence ( See Section 29 of the Aadhaar Act and Regulation 6 of the Aadhaar (Sharing of Information) Regulations). A threat to the system Further, a threat to the system, be it the Aadhaar system (not just the Aadhaar biometric database, but the Aadhaar ecosystem), the banking system or the income tax system, does not involve large-scale hacks only. Hacking even a single persons account is a huge vulnerability and a threat to the system. One simple reason is that a cybercriminal who succeeds in gaining access to one persons account through one method will definitely try the same method with other peoples accounts. As The Tribune story revealed, an Aadhaar number alone can also cause harm to the Aadhaar system, since that was all that was needed to extract a persons personal information. Even if the UIDAI has fixed this particular issue, more such vulnerabilities and loopholes will be found, again. UIDAI says sue for civil damages In the last part of its statement, the UIDAI suggests that peoples remedy for any data disclosed is to sue the publisher for civil damages for violation of privacy. The UIDAIs statement, however, does not mention if any effort was made on the UIDAIs part to investigate the reports (Baptistes or otherwise) before dismissing them as irresponsible. In the past, the UIDAI had similarly dismissed The Tribune story as misreporting, and then later went on to file the FIR. Peoples remedies under the law The Aadhaar Act, it must be remembered, authorizes only the UIDAI to act against violations of the Aadhaar Act, including such publications of Aadhaar numbers (See Section 47 of the Aadhaar Act). The people have been given no power to act against it, beyond filing a grievance. Thus, people have no remedy under the Aadhaar Act. Peoples remedies are those provided under the Information Technology Act. Section 43A of this Act grants damages by way of compensation. However, for this, a wrongful loss has to be proved. This can be difficult, particularly when the effects of a loss of data are often felt much later, by way of a cybercrime. In fact, when a cybercrime occurs, it is often difficult to find out where the data used for the crime was sourced from. Another option is Section 72A, but this only penalizes a deliberate disclosure of data, made with the intent to harm a person, and in breach of contract. The main issue with these remedies are, first of all, most people will not even know if their data was disclosed via such a publication. Secondly, even if they do know, most people will not be in a position to pursue a case in a court of law, unless the damage is significant. Add to this the UIDAIs statements that the disclosure of this data will not harm the system, and peoples incentive to act against such disclosures reduces further. UIDAIs responsibility to act against violations This is one of the reasons why the proposal of class action lawsuits under the Data Protection Framework is so welcome. With the inadequacy of current regulations, the solution, therefore, lies with penalizing the publisher and having the data removed. This power, however, lies only with the UIDAI, making its responsibility to act against such violations that much greater. Its reactions to reports, however, whether to the current allegations, The Tribune report, or the mAadhaar app flaw, however, in no way encourages such researchers to approach the UIDAI. Such statements can send a wrong signal The UIDAI has long since needed to take a much more responsible approach to privacy. Where the UIDAI should be advising people to treat such data with extreme caution, a statement like the current one can send a very wrong signal to the people. It needs to realize the cruciality of the data in its possession and work with the people to protect this data. Hopefully, the ongoing hearings in the Supreme Court will result in the required privacy obligations on the UIDAI, as well as greater rights to the people. tech2 News Staff After making a splash in the smartphone market in 2017, Xiaomi seems to have big plans for India in 2018. Apart from introducing three smart TV options in the Indian market, the company plans on launching at least six new smartphones, open a 100 Mi Homes and introduce more product categories in the country. Xiaomi recently crossed the $1 billion threshold in terms of revenue in the country and will be looking forward to double that figure in a few years. In an interview with LiveMint, Manu Kumar Jain, the Global Vice President and the head of Xiaomi's Indian operations stated that the company has invested in start-ups from the beginning of its journey in India and will continue to do so in the future. As of now, Xiaomi operates as many as 26 exclusive stores called Mi Homes and is continuing to build a network through its franchise retail partners. Talking about the company's product plans in the country, Jain said,"Our aim is to launch many more product categories in Indiawe already have 7-8 categories in India. We have phones, smart TVs, fitness bands, power banks, smart routers, smart air purifiers and few other smaller categories like t-shirts and backpacks and some smaller products like audio players." Talking about why we do not see Xiaomi launching all its products in India, despite India being its largest market outside China, Jain said, We have smart scooters, we have smart-cycles, smart water-purifiers, weighing scales, smart cookers, smart shoes, etc. People keep talking about these products and asking when we will launch them in India. We dont know at the moment whether those products will do well in India (firstly) and (secondly) even if we were to launch them for India, how would we customize them for Indian conditions?. As per a report back in November, Xiaomi's founder Lei Jun had stated that the company is looking to invest approximately $1 billion in as many as a 100 startups across the country, over a period of the next five years. In keeping with Jun's words, an optimistic Manu Jain said, "We really believe that India will become hugely digital in the next five years and we want to help promote that. We would want to increase the pace of investments to support these Indian companies. In India, we started with smaller investments...but if theres a need, we can do bigger ticket sizes." Based on Manu Jain's statements, we, therefore, see a small change in approach from Xiaomi that seems to be focusing on building a large range of product categories in order to reduce its reliance on smartphones alone. Since US president Donald Trump announced last week he was willing to meet North Korea's Kim Jong-un, speculation has mounted over where might be chosen to host the meet. Seoul: Since US president Donald Trump announced last week he was willing to meet North Korea's Kim Jong-un, speculation has mounted over where might be chosen to host the first-ever meeting between sitting leaders of the two countries. Kim has yet to publicly confirm his invitation to meet with Trump in a bid to defuse a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear programme, and officials in Seoul and Washington say the exact location and timing of any summit remain to be determined. But that hasn't stopped officials, analysts, and other observers from debating the pros and cons of possible summit sites, ranging from North Korea's capital city of Pyongyang, to the Joint Security Area (JSA) between the two Koreas, to farther afield in other areas of Asia or Europe. Here are a few of the top locations being discussed: Joint Security Area, Panmunjom One of the most likely sites being discussed is the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom that straddles the Military Demarcation Line between North and South Korea. It's the only spot along the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where North Korean troops stand face-to-face with South Korean and United Nations Command forces. "Places like Switzerland, Sweden or Jeju Island have been gaining a lot of attention, but we also view the JSA as a serious option," an official with South Koreas presidential Blue House said on Sunday. Some sceptics see the JSA as a symbol of the Korean War and continued tensions, rather than a place for a peace deal. However, it would allow Kim and Trump to meet without travelling far from either of their respective security forces or to be seen kowtowing in an"enemy" capital. Kim is scheduled to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the JSA in April for their first ever summit, and South Korean officials see it as a top contender for a Trump summit as well. "If North Korea and the US, who are the directly involved parties of the truce agreement, hold the summit at Panmunjom, it would hold the significant meaning of turning a symbol of division into one of peace," the Blue House official said. Jeju Island Another spot in South Korea that has been raised as an option is scenic Jeju Island, off the southern coast, easily accessed by either boat or airplane from the Korean peninsula. Kim Jong-un's father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, was known to be afraid of flying, but the younger Kim has been shown in official photos getting off airplanes and even"flying" a North Korean designed aircraft. "In Korea, I'm sticking with Jeju Island. Jeju has soul, born of tragedy, and beauty and nature," said Yonsei University Professor John Delury, who led a discussion of possible summit locations on Twitter. The island hosts an annual "peace and prosperity" forum in May designed to attract international leaders. "As the 'Island of Peace,' Jeju is the ideal place to hold the North Korea-US summit," Jeju's governor said in a statement. Europe Several spots in Europe, including Switzerland and Sweden, have been raised as possible neutral locations for a summit. Both countries have international reputations as mediators, and both played a role as members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission helping to regulate relations between the two Koreas after the 1953 armistice that paused - but did not officially end - the Korean War. As a child, Kim and his siblings attended an elite private school in Switzerland in the 1990s, according to former classmates there. However, Kim's time in the West is not an officially acknowledged part of his biography and analysts say he may want to avoid drawing attention to that period in socialist and impoverished North Korea. The Swiss foreign ministry has said the country is ready to facilitate talks between North Korea and the United States, and is in contact with both sides. "It is up to the parties involved to decide if, when and where the talks will be held," the ministry said in a statement. Sweden's prime minister told reporters on Saturday that the country stands ready to help "in any way." Sweden has held unofficial talks in the past, and North Koreas foreign minister is expected to visit soon, according to Swedish media. Asia A summit in Asia would be closer to home for the notoriously reclusive Kim, and cities including Beijing, Singapore, Hanoi, or even Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia have been raised as possibilities. Beijing is seen as one of Pyongyangs biggest backers, and has hosted a series of multilateral negotiations over North Korea held intermittently since 2003 and attended by China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. In recent years, however, relations between Pyongyang and Beijing have cooled, and analysts say Trump may not be keen on providing a major rival like China a chance to steal some of the limelight. Mongolias capital city, Ulaanbaatar, has been the site of past sensitive negotiations with North Koreans, maintains friendly relations with both sides, and has little in the way of political baggage. Its lack of pizzazz, however, may not provide the backdrop Trump is seeking for his riskiest diplomatic gambit. Pyongyang or Washington As far as is publicly known, Kim has not left North Korea since he came to power in 2011, meaning any trip outside the country might be problematic. Previous meetings between North Korean and American officials have taken place in Pyongyang, including a 2000 meeting between US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Kim's father and predecessor Kim Jong Il. Former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have also travelled to Pyongyang. However, Albright's trip in particular was criticised for appearing as an endorsement of a brutal and oppressive regime. Any summit in North Korea - even outside Pyongyang - is seen as a long-shot as any Trump visit would risk similarly unfavourable criticisms of the American president. Kim could face similar problems travelling to the United States, where no North Korean leader has visited, making many observers think a more neutral setting will need to be found. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. US President Donald Trump will hold talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next week, the White House said. Washington: US President Donald Trump will hold talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next week, the White House said. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said 32-year-old bin Salmanthe heir apparent to King Salmanwill visit the White House on 20 March. Sanders said Trump was looking forward to discussing how to strengthen ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia, as well as how to advance common security and economic priorities. Last month, a Saudi official was quoted by Reuters as saying that bin Salman was expected to travel to the United States from 19 March to the first week of April. The prince was expected to visit Washington, New York and Boston, a Saudi government source had told Reuters, adding that the details of the trip were yet to be finalized. Last year, Trump had visited Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as president. With inputs from AP and Reuters The meeting between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would go as planned if Pyongyang sticks to the promises it made, the White House said Washington: The meeting between US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would go as planned if Pyongyang sticks to the promises it made, particularly regarding missiles and nuclear test, the White House said on Monday. Last week, a South Korean delegation, led by its national security advisor, informed Trump that Kim has invited him for a meeting. The invitation, conveyed to orally, was accepted by Trump, a decision that took the world by surprise. "We fully expect that it (the meeting) will (take place). The offer was made and we've accepted. North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises and, if so, the meeting will go on as planned," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is continuing to prepare on a number of levels for the meeting. "Most of that is an inter-administration, interagency process and I'm not going to get ahead of any of the details of the where, the when, or any of that here today," she said, responding to a series of questions on the meeting between the two leaders. Sanders said that the maximum pressure campaign on North Korea is working. "We know that they have responded due to that, and they have pushed this message through the South Koreans to us. We have accepted their invitation on the three promises that they made, and were going to move forward in this process," she said. Meanwhile, in New York, US' national security advisor HR McMaster and US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, briefed members of the UN Security Council on developments related to North Korea. During the meeting, McMaster and Haley urged the international community to maintain maximum pressure on the North Korean regime and asked Council members to devote the political will and resources necessary to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions to hold the regime accountable. "The announcement of a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim is a historic opportunity that holds great potential for the world," Haley said. "While we can't say whether Kim's offer is genuine, we can say that this historic meeting would not have been possible without the international community's participation in the maximum pressure campaign, initiated by the Trump administration, and a commitment to holding North Korea accountable through three strong UN sanctions resolutions in 2017," she said. Milli Muslim League, JuD chief Hafiz Saeed's new political party, said it will launch its manifesto on 23 March. Lahore: Milli Muslim League (MML), JuD chief and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's new political party, on Tuesday said it will launch its manifesto on 23 March, following a Pakistani court's decision upholding its registration as a political party ahead of polls in 2018. Saeed, who has kept a low profile after the government has apparently taken over all the movable and immovable assets of his Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) and frozen their bank accounts in the country, is likely to unveil the manifesto of his party. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) last week set aside the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to reject the application of the MML for registration as a political party. The ECP will decide the fate of the MML after hearing it in the coming days. Earlier, the ECP had rejected MML's application to register it (as a political party) on the interior ministry's recommendation saying the "MML has links with banned militant outfits". In a statement issued on Tuesday, MML president Saifullah Khalid said after the court's decision there is no "legal hurdle" left in the way of its registration as a political party. "Now we will launch MML manifesto on 23 March on its first founding day," he said. Referring to the court verdict, Khalid termed it a victory of the "Pakistan ideology", saying the court has ordered that the MML be given a chance to play its role in national politics. About the forthcoming general election, the MML president said it has decided to field its candidates for all national and provincial Assembly seats in the polls. "The MML will select those candidates who can not only afford electioneering expenses but also enjoy personal vote bank in the constituencies," he said and added such candidates must believe in "supporting the Kashmiris' freedom struggle". Despite the Pakistani government's claims of having taken over all assets of the JuD and FIF and frozen their bank accounts in the country, Saeed and other leaders and activists of these banned organisations are still freely using its headquarters and offices. The government had initiated action against Saeed's organisations in pursuance of an ordinance issued by the president Mamnoon Hussain in February amending the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, and allowing the state to proscribe UN Security Council-listed organisations, some of which had been exempt from prosecution. The move had also come in the backdrop of a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental money-laundering watchdog, that put Pakistan on its 'grey' list due to the country's failure to control financing of terror groups. At the FATF meeting in Paris in February, Saeed and his "charities" were top on the list of the groups that the FATF wanted Pakistan to act against. The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a global terrorist. Saeed, who is accused of having masterminded the November 2008 Mumbai attack, was also placed on the terrorism black list by the UN in December 2008. The banned JuD head was released from house arrest in November, 2017 after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case. He had been under house arrest since January, 2017. Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said that while he welcomes any dialogue with North Korea regarding the country's denuclearization, the North must take real steps toward that goal. Tokya: Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe met with South Korea's intelligence chief on Tuesday, and said that while he welcomes any dialogue with North Korea regarding the country's denuclearisation, the North must take real steps toward that goal. "I believe it is extremely important that North Korea takes concrete actions to achieve what it has said," Abe said at the beginning of talks with South Korean intelligence chief Suh Hoon. US president Donald Trump has agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by May, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in is set to meet Kim in late April. Suh was in Tokyo to brief Japanese officials on developments. He was part of a South Korean delegation that met Kim in Pyongyang last week. Another senior member of the delegation has briefed Chinese officials in Beijing. "I think it was very meaningful that Workers Party of Korea chairman Kim Jong Un expressed his intentions toward denuclearization in his own words," Suh said. He said he hoped to convey Moon's message that cooperation between the two countries is crucial to push forward a move toward peace on the Korean Peninsula. On Monday, Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono, after meeting with Suh, credited recent changes in North Korea's position to increased pressure by the international community, and said the pressure must continue until the North fulfills its promises with concrete actions. In Beijing on Monday, South Korea's national security director, Chung Eui-yong, met with Chinese president Xi Jinping and praised his role in contributing to the recent positive changes on the Korean Peninsula. Xi told Chung the peninsula was "facing an important opportunity of mitigation and dialogue," according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. North Korea's foreign trade, more than 90 percent of which passes through China, has taken a hit since Beijing agreed to increasingly harsh UN Security Council resolutions aimed at pressuring the North into ceasing its nuclear and missile tests and rejoining denuclearization talks. Elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghan government, US defense secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday as he arrived in Kabul on an unannounced visit. Kabul: Elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghan government, US defense secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday as he arrived in Kabul on an unannounced visit. Mattis's remarks came as he flew into the war-torn city, weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban. The insurgents have so far given no formal response to Kabul's offer for negotiations. But Mattis said some insurgent leaders have expressed an interest in discussions. "It may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop, that would be a bridge too far, but there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," Mattis told reporters aboard a military jet. Ghani's peace plan includes eventually recognising the Taliban as a political party. The insurgent group has said it was prepared to negotiate, but only with the US and not with the Kabul government. "Right now we want the Afghans to lead and to provide the substance of the reconciliation effort," Mattis said. Thanks to the political process, Mattis said America is now looking towards victory in Afghanistan after more than 16 years of conflict. "What does that victory look like? It's a country whose own people and their own security forces handle law enforcement and any threats... certainly with international support for some years to come," he said. Mattis' talk of a victory comes amid renewed US focus on Afghanistan after years of drawdowns under former president Barack Obama and talk by top US generals of "not winning" and of a "stalemate" in the seemingly intractable conflict. "It's all working to achieve a political reconciliation, not a military victory," Mattis said. "The victory will be a political reconciliation." As part of the so-called South Asia Strategy, President Donald Trump last year ordered the increased bombing of Taliban targets including their drug-making labs and training camps and more than 3,000 additional US forces have arrived in Afghanistan to boost the training and advising of local troops. Approximately 14,000 American forces are now in Afghanistan, up from a low of about 8,500 when Obama left office. Ghani's offer of peace talks comes as civilian casualties have soared in recent months, with the Taliban increasingly targeting towns and cities in response to Trump's new and more aggressive US military policy. The Taliban, Afghanistan's biggest militant group, claimed 472 attacks in January alone, the Washington-based terrorism research group TRAC said an astonishing number given that the traditional fighting season doesn't usually start until freezing temperatures have subsided in the spring. 'I say again, turn!' the air traffic controller called over the radio, as the flight from Bangladesh swerved low over the runway at Kathmandu's airport. Kathmandu: "I say again, turn!" the air traffic controller called over the radio, his voice rising, as the flight from Bangladesh swerved low over the runway at Kathmandu's small airport. Seconds later, the plane crashed into a field beside the runway, erupting in flames and leaving 49 of the 71 people on board dead. That moment on Monday appeared to result from minutes of confused chatter between the control tower and the pilot of the US-Bangla passenger plane, as they discussed which direction the pilot should use to land safely at the airport's single runway. A separate radio conversation between the tower and at least one Nepali pilot reflected the sense of miscommunication. "They appear to be extremely disoriented," a man said in Nepali, watching as Flight BS211 made its approach, though it was not clear if the voice belonged to a pilot or the tower. "Looks like they are really confused," said another man. In the recording, posted by air traffic monitoring website liveatc.net, the pilot and the tower shifted back and forth about whether the pilot should approach the runway from the north or the south. Just before landing, the pilot asked, "Are we cleared to land?" Moments later, the controller came back on the air, his voice clearly anxious, and told the pilot, "I say again, turn!" Seconds after that, the controller ordered firetrucks onto the runway. The plane, which was heading from Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, to Kathmandu, was carrying 67 passengers and four crew members. Kathmandu officials and the airline laid the blame for the accident on each other. The airport's general manager told reporters on Monday that the pilot did not follow the control tower's instructions and approached the runway from the wrong direction. "The airplane was not properly aligned with the runway. The tower repeatedly asked if the pilot was OK and the reply was 'Yes,'" said the general manager, Raj Kumar Chetri. But Imran Asif, CEO of US-Bangla Airlines, told reporters in Dhaka that "we cannot claim this definitely at the moment, but we are suspecting that the Kathmandu air traffic control tower might have misled our pilots to land on the wrong runway." After hearing the recording between the tower and the pilots, "We assumed that there was no negligence by our pilots," he said. He said the pilot, who survived the accident, was a former air force officer. Captain Abid Sultan had flown the Bombardier Q400 series aircraft for more than 1,700 hours and was also a flying instructor with the airline. Prior to the crash, the plane circled Tribhuvan International Airport twice as it waited for clearance to land, Mohammed Selim, the airline's manager in Kathmandu, told Dhaka-based Somoy TV. Police spokesman Manoj Neupane said on Tuesday that 49 people were confirmed to have been killed and 22 injured. The injured were being treated in various hospitals in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. Autopsies on the dead were being performed at the Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital morgue, where some 200 relatives waited to hear about their loved ones. Dr MA Ansari of the hospital's forensic department said positively identifying all the dead could take as long as a week because many of the bodies were badly burned. By late Tuesday morning, four bodies had been identified. Anita Bajacharya waited at the hospital with her parents and other relatives for details on her 23-year-old sister, a medical student who had just finished school in Bangladesh and was returning home on the flight. The sister, Asma Shakya, had called her mother from the airport, excited about returning home. Now, her family sat outside a hospital waiting for her body to be identified. Nepal's government has ordered an investigation into the crash. US-Bangla spokesman Kamrul Islam said the plane was carrying 32 passengers from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives. He did not provide the nationalities of the four crew members. US-Bangla operates Boeing 737-800 and smaller Bombardier Dash 8 planes, including the Q400, the model that crashed. The airline is based in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, and flies domestically and internationally. The parent company, part of US-Bangla Group, is also involved in real estate, education and agriculture. Kathmandu's airport has been the site of several deadly crashes. In September 2012, a Sita Air turboprop plane carrying trekkers to Mount Everest hit a bird and crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 19 people on board. Working-class voters across western Pennsylvania on Tuesday are weighing in on a surprisingly tight congressional contest that has pit strength of President Donald Trump's grasp on blue-collar America against the energy and anger of the political left. The fight between Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone and Democrat Conor Lamb has drawn national attention as a bellwether for the midterm election in November. Working-class voters across western Pennsylvania on Tuesday are weighing in on a surprisingly tight congressional contest that has pit strength of President Donald Trump's grasp on blue-collar America against the energy and anger of the political left. The fight between Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone and Democrat Conor Lamb has drawn national attention as a bellwether for the midterm election in November. In a region President Donald Trump carried by 20 points, the White House has scrambled to rally voters behind Saccone, who cast himself as the president's "wingman," but has struggled at times to connect with the blue-collar coalition that fueled Trump's victory little more than a year ago. Democrat Conor Lamb, a 33-year old Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor, downplayed his opposition to the Republican president on Tuesday and insisted instead that the race hinged on local issues. "This didn't have much to do with President Trump," Lamb said after casting his vote in suburban Pittsburgh. Polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday's winner will face a re-election test in just eight months and a redistricting battle all-but ensures the district is likely to be redrawn by then. Despite the short-term stakes on Capitol Hill, the election has far greater political consequences as each party prepares for the November midterm elections. For the White House and its Republican allies, a Tuesday loss would represent both a profound embarrassment and major cause for concern in the broader push to defend its House and Senate majorities. The president has campaigned in the district twice and sent several tweets on Saccone's behalf. Other recent visitors include the vice president, the president's eldest son, the president's daughter and the president's chief counselor. Outside groups aligned with Republicans have also poured millions of dollars into the contest. For Democrats, a win would reverberate nationwide, while even a narrow loss would be viewed as a sign of increased Democratic enthusiasm just as the midterm season begins. Democratic voter Brian Konick supported Trump in 2016. On Tuesday he voted for Lamb. "He's a little more my style, a little more moderate," Konick, a 51-year-old Jefferson Hills resident, said of the Democratic candidate. Registered Republican Brett Gelb voted for Saccone, largely because the Republican candidate promised to support the president. "Saccone backs a lot of President Trump's plans for the country," said Gelb, a 48-year-old fire technician who lives in Mt. Lebanon. He added, "I do think Trump is doing a good job. I think he needs backup." Democrats must flip 24 GOP-held seats this fall to seize control of the House, and few counted on this Pittsburgh-area district to be in play. The seat has been in Republican hands for the last 15 years. It's open now only because longtime Republican congressman Tim Murphy, who espoused strong anti-abortion views, resigned last fall amid revelations of an extramarital affair in which he urged his mistress to get an abortion. After voting Tuesday in Allegheny County, Saccone downplayed the significance of the unusually close race. "The Democrats ... they're throwing everything they can at this race," he said. "There hasn't been an open seat for a long time." Besides bruising the president, a Lamb defeat also could shake Republican self-assurance that their new tax law can shield them from other political woes. With polls showing a tight race for months, Saccone has implored the GOP-leaning electorate that their choice is about "making America great again," just as the president says. The 60-year-old Air Force veteran turned state lawmaker and college instructor enjoys enthusiastic backing from social conservatives who've anchored his state career, and he's perhaps at his most animated when he touts his opposition to abortion rights. Yet Saccone struggled to raise money and stir the same passions that helped Trump sweep the industrial Midwest on his way to the White House. The consistent fundraising deficit has left him with limited resources to air the message he delivers one-on-one: His four decades of experience in the private sector, international business and now the legislature make voters' choice a no-brainer. Lamb, meanwhile, has excited core Democrats and aimed for independents and moderate Republicans. "We worked really hard for it," Lamb said after voting. He did it as national Republican groups filled airwaves and social media with depictions of the first-time candidate as little more than a lemming for Nancy Pelosi the California Democrat, House minority leader. Lamb answered the critique by saying he won't support Pelosi as floor leader, much less a return to the speaker's rostrum. He also says he opposes major new gun restrictions though he backs expanded background checks and declared himself personally opposed to abortion, despite his support for its legality. Lamb has largely avoided mentioning Trump, who remains generally popular in the district even if slightly diminished from his 2016 dominance. He pairs those tacks with Democratic Party orthodoxy on the new GOP tax law, hammering it as a giveaway to corporations at the certain future expense of Social Security, Medicare and the nation's fiscal security. And he embraces unions, highlighting Saccone's anti-labor record at the statehouse a noticeable deviation from Murphy's status as a union-friendly Republican. The AFL-CIO counts 87,000 votes from union households around a fifth of the electorate. In a final-hours message on Fox Business Network, Saccone said that he's ready and willing to help Trump. "He's getting beat up in Washington as you see, from the media, from the bureaucracy and from Hollywood," Saccone said. "He needs a good wingman." China's move to scrap term limits and allow Xi Jinping to serve as president indefinitely puts him on track to deal with the fates of Hong Kong and Taiwan. Beijing: China's move to scrap term limits and allow Xi Jinping to serve as president indefinitely puts him on track to deal with some of the country's weightiest long-term sovereignty challenges, especially the fates of Hong Kong and Taiwan. The question is, will Xi bet big on bold moves that could result in potentially disastrous consequences? Hong Kong offers a delicate initial test. Since passing from British to Chinese rule in 1997, the financial hub has operated as a "special administrative region," retaining its own legal and economic system and enjoying a considerable degree of autonomy from Beijing. That arrangement was supposed to last 50 years, until 2047, but calls for political reform in the city and what many see as Beijing tightening its controls and encroaching on freedoms there have created rising tensions. Earlier in March, a member of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee delivered a stern warning to Hong Kong delegates to China's rubber-stamp parliament over the central government's limits of tolerance. "Using the high degree of autonomy to reject, fight and erode the central government's comprehensive jurisdiction is absolutely not allowed," Zhao Leji told members of the National People's Congress, which passed a constitutional amendment on Sunday abolishing presidential term limits, opening the door for Xi to rule for as long as he wants. Hong Kong activists had already been set on edge by the disqualification of pro-democracy lawmakers from the city's Legislative Council and the apparent abduction by Chinese security forces of several men who published salacious tomes about China's leadership. Still, Hong Kong remains one of the world's freest economies and a window to the outside for the Chinese financial system, which operates under much tighter restrictions. The cosmopolitan city of six million, with its vibrant tourism, arts and education sectors, also remains a beacon to many aspiring Chinese. "I don't think bold action is necessary with respect to Hong Kong," said Michael Mazza of the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, DC. Xi is "already well along in the process of turning (Hong Kong) into just another Chinese city," he said. Self-governing Taiwan, however, is quite a different story, posing a direct challenge to the Communist Party's claim as the representative of all Chinese and guardian of Chinese sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. Since splitting from the mainland amid civil war in 1949, the former Japanese colony has evolved into a wealthy, vibrant democracy whose 23 million people take an increasingly dim view of any form of political integration with Beijing. By casting himself as a leader of historic standing, Xi has assumed the mantle of unifier and may regard failure in this regard as a stain on his reputation. In his most direct comments on the issue, he told a Taiwanese envoy in 2013 that a final resolution was required, and that what he regards as the "sacred mission" of unification "cannot be passed on from generation to generation." "Action on Taiwan is certainly possible. Unification is a key aspect of Xi Jinping's goal of 'national rejuvenation,' necessary for achieving the 'China Dream,'" Mazza said, referencing two of Xi's chief goals. Xi "may conclude that peaceful unification is not in the cards any time soon, leaving him to rely on coercion or outright force to achieve his goals," he said. Already, China over the past two years has been ratcheting up political, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan's independence-leaning president, Tsai Ing-wen. A military attack, however, could quickly draw in the US, which is legally bound to respond to threats against the island. Yet the risks of an attack on Taiwan remain prohibitively high, to the point of threatening regime stability in China, due in no small part to its embrace by the US and Japan, said Miles Yu Maochun, a China politics expert at the US Naval Academy. Hong Kong, meanwhile, remains too valuable to Beijing in its present form to risk upsetting, he said. Xi views Taiwan and Hong Kong as equally important to cementing his authority, said analyst Teng Biao, a visiting scholar at New York University's US-Asia Law Institute. "When he has strengthened his own power, he will show zero tolerance for Taiwan and Hong Kong independence, and even more threaten the use of force," Teng said. While it is broadly assumed that an increasingly dictatorial Xi will also grow more aggressive on the world stage, it's unclear how that will manifest itself. China says it is committed to seizing a group of uninhabited flyspeck islands in the East China Sea from Japan, but is also aware that such action would trigger the US-Japan security alliance. And despite President Donald Trump's "America first" policy and his withdrawal of the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Washington and its armed forces show no sign of giving up the West Pacific to China. While Xi's position appears unassailable, domestic political risks remain that may prompt him to take an even harder line at home and abroad, said Teng, who was detained by Xi's regime while working as a human rights lawyer. "When the Communist Party faces political, economic and ideological challenges, and given the fact that the party firmly refuses a democratisation, the only way seems to become more dictatorial and oppressive," Teng said. President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a three-member commission to probe the communal clashes in Kandy. Colombo: The Sri Lankan government is unlikely to extend the 10-day nationwide state of emergency imposed after communal riots erupted in Kandy district, as no fresh incidents of violence has been reported from anywhere in the country, the new Law and Order Minister has said. Communal violence broke out in the country's scenic district following the death of a man from the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority, resulting in the death of two persons and damage to several homes, businesses and mosques. President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a three-member commission to probe the communal clashes in Kandy. He had declared a nationwide state of emergency on 6 March and deployed the police and military to prevent escalation of violence after clashes between majority Sinhala Buddhists and minority Muslims erupted in other areas of the central riot-hit district. Ranjith Maddumabandara said he thinks it was not necessary to continue the state of emergency any further. "I had a discussion with the Inspector General of Police and senior police officers this morning to assess the current security situation in the country. "We are of the view that the country's security situation is normal right now and therefore, the extending of the 'State of Emergency' which will expire on Thursday (15 March) will not be necessary," Maddumabandara was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror. He also said he discussed the possibility of lifting the temporary ban on social media, including Facebook, with the police. The government had restricted the use of social media, including Facebook, and social messaging app, Whatsapp after police claimed that they were being used to spread hatred against the minority community. "A decision in this regard would be taken soon but the final decision, however, will be taken on both issues after President returns from his official visit to Japan," the Minister said. Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando has also said that the restrictions on social media platforms including Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp and Imo will most probably be lifted within few days. "The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) was in discussion with the Facebook service provider about filtering social media," he was quoted as saying by the Daily News. In response to the government's ban, Facebook has said it is in contact with the Sri Lankan government and non-governmental organisations to support efforts to identify and remove hate speech from its platform. "We have clear rules against hate speech and incitement to violence and work hard to keep it off our platform. We are responding to the situation in Sri Lanka and are in contact with the government and non-governmental organisations to support efforts to identify and remove such content," the Facebook has said in an email to the CNBC. It said the ban in Sri Lanka came after several years in which critics have said Facebook and the government were not doing enough to prevent the spread of such harmful posts. Meanwhile, Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said that the situation in Kandy was calm and quiet. "Though the situation was normal, but the police would not relax its guard in Kandy in particular," he said, addingh that 3,000 police and 750 STF personnel had been deployed in the riot-hit district. President Donald Trump is telling reporters that he made the decision to oust embattled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson 'by myself'. No surprises there, knives have been out between the two almost from Day One. Rex Tillerson's sacking has little to do with policy and much more to do with personal animosity over months of acrimonious exchanges. Trump seems to take special kind of pleasure in letting sacked bureaucrats get to know abut the indignity on telly or Twitter. Ditto with James Comey, former FBI chief. President Donald Trump is telling reporters that he made the decision to oust embattled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "by myself". No surprises there, knives have been out between the two almost from Day One. Rex Tillerson's sacking has little to do with policy and much more to do with personal animosity over months of acrimonious exchanges. Trump takes a special kind of pleasure in letting sacked bureaucrats get to know abut the indignity on telly or Twitter. Ditto with James Comey, former FBI chief, last summer. In the latest case, also consider Trump's need to zap the news cycle out of the Stormy Daniels storyline which he was simply unable to counter. Trump's need and skill at dominating the headlines with his custom tailored lines have always been central to his campaign, his Presidency so far and today's developments. After the Florida massacre, Trump sucked all the oxygen out of the Opposition with his plan to oppose the NRA, his tack follows the same pattern he adopted after the Access Hollywood tapes came out - Think "bigly", keep the message directionally correct with one "bigly" claim that makes the message remarkable. In sacking Tillerson, Trump has wiped the Stormy Daniels story out of the morning chat shows, her lawyer will be forced to come back with something juicier than the red meat of the Tillerson sacking - no break-up text, just a break-up tweet with Tillerson a deer in the headlights after a 4 am touch down in Washington D.C., just back from a hastily cut short Africa trip. Also, what does it mean when you break up on Twitter? It means there's no relationship here, the Secretary of State of the United States of America did not have the President's ear and the whole world knew about it for months now. On at least four occasions, America, its allies and onlookers could tell that the split between the two alpha males was just a matter of time. Now, with the Pompeo induction, Trump has military men all around him on all matters of state. Trump is adding that Tillerson will be "much happier now," code for the badly kept secret that the two men rarely saw eye to eye on any issue. Tillerson reportedly referred to Trump as a "moron" last year and Trump has hit back repeatedly on foreign policy, most recently in announcing the meeting with North Korean leader Kim hours after Tillerson said this was not on the horizon. Last year, Trump told Tillerson not to bother wasting his time" with North Korea diplomacy. Barely two days ago, the White House was at pains to explain how involved Tillerson has been in the entire North Korea diplomatic process. That's a White House that's been plunged into unparalleled turmoil trying to chin up. Bottom line is this - nothing matters more in the Trump system than complete loyalty. For everybody else, this below doodle is the typical life cycle: Trump says he and Tillerson had been "talking about this for a long time," and they had disagreed on issues like the Iran deal. White House sources are telling reporters that Trump wanted to hit refresh before the upcoming North Korea talks. Trump is now praising the energy and intellect of his incoming Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who has led the CIA. The President spoke to reporters at the White House shortly before departing for Joint Base Andrews for his trip to California. Meanwhile, as the shock sinks in across Washington D.C, a top State Department official says President Donald Trump never explained to ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson the reason why he was fired. The undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, Steve Goldstein, says Tillerson "had every intention of staying" in the job because he felt he was making critical progress in national security. Two White House officials said Tillerson was told he was out on Friday. The sources weren't authorized to speak publicly and demanded anonymity. But Goldstein says Tillerson "did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason." Pompeo is to be replaced at CIA by Gina Haspel, Pompeo's deputy at CIA. She would be the first woman in that role. Tillerson had just returned from a shortened trip to Africa hours before Trump's announcement. Trump offered no explanation for the change. We're hearing that Trump's chief of staff John Kelly gave Tillerson a "heads up" on the coming change. (With news wire inputs) Russian President Vladimir Putin faces a midnight deadline to explain to Britain how a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union was used to strike down a former Russian double agent who passed secrets to British intelligence London: Russian President Vladimir Putin faces a midnight deadline to explain to Britain how a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union was used to strike down a former Russian double agent who passed secrets to British intelligence. Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, have been in hospital in a critical condition since 4 March when they were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the southern English cathedral city of Salisbury. Prime Minister Theresa May said it washighly likely Moscow was to blame after Britain identified the substance as part of the Novichok group of nerve agents which were developed by the Soviet military during the 1970s and 1980s. It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia, May said. Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country. Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others. May gave Putin, who faces a presidential election on 18 March, until end of Tuesday to explain what happened or face what she said were much more extensive measures against the $1.5 trillion Russian economy. The Russian ambassador, Alexander Yakovenko, was summoned to the Foreign Office and given until the end of Tuesday to provide an explanation. Russia has denied any role in the attack on Skripal and his daughter. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States had full confidence in Britains assessment that Russia was likely responsible. US president Donald Trump has not yet publicly commented on the attack. Earlier, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the United States stood by Britain, calling it Americas closest ally, but she stopped short of blaming Russia for the attack. The European Union also said it would stand by Britain, which is due to leave the bloc in just over a years time. May spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron, who Downing Street said condemned the attack and offered his solidarity with Britain. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the use of any nerve agent was horrendous and completely unacceptable. Nerve Agent Russia said Mays allegations were politically motivated. It is a circus show in the British parliament, the TASS News Agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.The conclusion is obvious: Its another political information campaign, based on a provocation. May said Russia had shown a pattern of aggression including the annexation of Crimea and the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after drinking green tea laced with radioactive polonium-210. A British public inquiry found the killing of Litvinenko had probably been approved by Putin and carried out by two Russians, Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoy a former KGB bodyguard who later became a member of the Russian parliament. Both denied responsibility, as did Moscow. Putin, who took over as Kremlin chief from Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, has denied allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election and says the West has repeatedly tried to undermine Russian interests. Skripal betrayed dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence before his arrest in Moscow in 2004. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006, and in 2010 was given refuge in Britain after being exchanged for Russian spies. Since emerging from the John le Carre world of high espionage and betrayal, Skripal lived modestly in Salisbury and kept out of the spotlight until he was found unconscious on Sunday. Novichok agents are believed to be five to 10 times more lethal than the more commonly known VX and Sarin. They cause a slowing of the heart and restriction of the airways, leading to death by asphyxiation, University of Reading pharmacology professor Gary Stephens said. Russian state television said Skripal had been recruited by the British when working as Russias military attache in Spain and that he had handed over 20,000 pages of secret documents to MI6, Britains foreign spy service. A British policeman who was one of the first to attend to the stricken spy was also affected by the nerve agent. He is now conscious in a serious but stable condition, police said. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling himself 'a proud feminist' and says all men should support women's rights and gender equality. United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling himself "a proud feminist" and says all men should support women's rights and gender equality. His announcement was loudly applauded at Tuesday's opening of the annual two-week meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, a UN body that Guterres called "vital to end the stereotypes and discrimination that limit women's and girls' opportunities." He said changing "the unequal power dynamics" that underpin discrimination and violence against women is "the greatest human rights challenge of our time." He called that a goal "in everyone's interests." In Guterres' word: "Discrimination against women damages communities, organisations, companies, economies and societies. That is why all men should support women's rights and gender equality. And that is why I consider myself a proud feminist." Flouting demands for Syria ceasefires shows 'monstrous indifference' to the suffering of millions of children needing a respite from violence, a top UN rights official said Geneva: Flouting demands for Syria ceasefires shows a "monstrous indifference" to the suffering of millions of children needing a respite from violence, a top UN rights official said Tuesday. A resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council two weeks ago calling for a 30-day ceasefire across Syria has been broadly ignored, with attacks increasing on the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta. Kate Gilmore, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for immediate action to help children caught in the fighting. In an address to the UN Human Rights Council, she voiced particular concern for some 1,25,000 children trapped in Eastern Ghouta, "many acutely malnourished, most profoundly traumatised." "What is happening to those children is too graphic for our TV screens, but not graphic enough it seems to motivate those who can stop the senseless violence to do so," she said. "Is it not tantamount to a monstrous indifference to the suffering of children that Security Council resolutions for ceasefires are flouted?" she asked. More than 3,50,000 people have been killed in Syria's devastating seven-year conflict, according to fresh figures released from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Monday. Panos Moumtzis, the UN's top humanitarian official for Syria, said Tuesday that 2017 was "the deadliest year of the Syrian war for children." "Sadly, 2018 started really in a terrible way as well," he told reporters, adding that in the first two months of the year, "more than 1,000 children were either reported killed or injured through the violence in multiple locations." A full two-thirds of Syria's 8.4 million children need humanitarian assistance, while one million of them live in areas that are difficult to reach by aid convoys and 1,70,000 in besieged areas, according to UN figures. "The scope, the scale, the gravity of the crimes against the children of Syria are just shocking," Gilmore told reporters, lamenting that the international community had "failed by every known measure and that should shake us to the core of our humanity." Asked what hope there was the situation in Syria would improve, she answered with a shaking voice that "hope has long left." "This is a story no longer of hope. This is a story now of accountability and responsibility," she said. "Those responsible should know that we do not stand idly by, only wringing passive hands," she said, stressing that "those responsible for these war crimes and crimes against humanity are being identified, the chain of evidence is being preserved, dossiers are being built up for their prosecution." The crash of the US-Bangla Airlines flight BS211, that killed 49 people on Monday near Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal's capital city Kathmandu, raises questions that must be scrutinised and studied by the established investigation committee Kathmandu: The crash of the US-Bangla Airlines flight BS211, that killed 49 people on Monday near Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal's capital city Kathmandu, raises questions that must be scrutinised and studied by the established investigation committee. A passenger on the ill-fated flight, Annie Almun, says, "I remember the plane breaking into two. We saw a crack and my husband asked me to jump. I did so. My two-year-old daughter held onto my husband. I just want to know what happened to them." She is in the Kathmandu Medical Hospital and undergoing a surgery on her right hand. The names of her husband, well-known photographer from Bangladesh, FH Priok, and daughter, Tamarra, cannot be found on the treatment list issued at the press conference by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). Priok's brother and his wife, Mehadi Hasan and Shworna, who were on the same flight, have undergone operations and are out of danger. They, however, still are unconscious. The Director General (DG) of CAAN, Sanjiv Gautam, said the Nepal government has established an investigation committee under the chairmanship of a former DG and civil aviation secretary Yagya Prashad Gautam. Refusing to comment on the leaked radio transmission between the air traffic control and cockpit, Gautam said conclusions cannot be made without establishing all facts. "We will provide all the necessary information to the investigation committee and all employees will be interviewed by them." He said the plane had gone through all technical supervision, the crew was professional and the weather was quite good. It does not seem that the weather could be the reason here. However, all will be established by the investigation committee. We will advise the airline to compensate the family members of victims. We will advise the government of Nepal to provide all necessary assistance and medical treatment to the victims and their families, said Raj Kumar Chhetri, general manager of Tribhuvan International Airport. Shahreen Ahmad, 29, an academic supervisor at Scholastica School in Dhaka, was reaching Kathmandu for a holiday on the BS211 . They tried to land the first time and it did not work. Then they took a second round. I remember the right side of the plane tilting dangerously. And then there was a slam and the right wing went up in flames. I thought I was going to burn in that fire. But when I woke up, I was in my chair and firmly on the ground. There was a woman screaming for help behind me. I started to call for help as well. The fire brigades came really quickly and took us out. The rescuers have done a really good job. The rescue operation, undertaken by a total of 200 professionals, including from the army, police force and CAAN, was over at 5:30pm on Monday. The BS211 flight was carrying 33 Nepalese, 32 Bangladeshi nationals, one Maldivian, one Chinese passenger and 4 crew members. A total of 22 passengers have been rushed to hospitals around the city. The five admitted to Kathmandu Medical College And Teaching Hospital are in critical condition. They've suffered multiple fractures, haemorrhage and burns, said Dr Sangam Giri. The author is a Kathmandu-based journalist and a member of 101reporters.com, a network of grassroots reporters. Witnesses and survivors recounted horrific details of the Kathmandu plane crash which killed at least 49 people near Kathmandu airport. One of the worst air disasters in 30 years of Nepal's history claimed 49 lives out of 71 onboard on Monday. The plane coming from Bangladesh swerved erratically and flew dangerously low before crashing and erupting in flames Monday. US-Bangla Airlines flight BS211 from Dhaka to Kathmandu was carrying 67 passengers and four crew members. Witnesses and survivors recounted horrific details of the horrifying crash. A Reuters photographer said he could see bodies covered in cloth laid out near the tarmac of the airport. "All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang," one of the survivors, Basanta Bohora, told the Kathmandu Post daily. "I was seated near a window and was able to break out of the window." Another survivor, Sanam Shakya, who climbed out of a window of the smouldering plane, told AFP he didn't realise the aircraft was in trouble until it hit the ground. "The plane was going up down, right and left, up down...so I thought that was some air traffic only. But I came to know that the aircraft had a problem only when it forcibly landed," the 33-year-old said from a hospital bed. "The Nepali people were saying, Bachaau, bachaau, which means Save me, save me," The New York Times quoted army rescuer Balkrishna Upadhyay as saying. "The Bangladeshis were screaming out in English: Help me, please help me.'...It was horrible," Upadhyay further said. "It (the plane crash) sounded like a bomb went off," the report quoted Kailash Adhikari, a driver for a fuel company working at the airport, as saying. Adhikari also said that it took 15 minutes for firefighters to control the situation. Other crew members said that if the firefighters had arrived earlier, more people could have been saved. Desperate relatives searched for the names of their loved-ones on a list of casualties hung outside a hospital where most of the victims were taken. One woman collapsed in tears after checking the list. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "deeply anguished" by the plane crash. Deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to the plane crash in Kathmandu. My thoughts are with the families of the deceased and I pray that those injured recover at the earliest. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 12, 2018 External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday spoke to her Bangladeshi counterpart Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali and expressed deepest condolences over the loss of lives. EAM @SushmaSwaraj spoke to #BangladeshForeignMinister & expressed deepest condolences & sympathies for the loss of lives in the crash of #USBangla Airlines in #Kathmandu today. EAM offered any assistance required in Kathmandu, and shared thoughts and prayers for those injured. Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) March 12, 2018 Cause of the crash The chief executive officer of US-Bangla Airlines, Imran Asif, accused Kathmandus air traffic control for giving wrong signals, reported Reuters. But airport general manager Raj Kumar Chettri said the pilot disregarded their messages and came in from the wrong direction. Chettri said that moments after the plane received permission to land, the pilot said he wanted to go in a northern direction. Asked by the control tower if there was a problem, he replied in the negative. Chettri added that the plane "was not properly aligned with the runway." He said the tower repeatedly asked if the pilot was OK, and the reply was "yes." A recording of conversations between the pilot and air traffic controllers indicated confusion over which direction the plane should land. The plane was then seen making two rounds in a northeast direction, Chettri said. Traffic controllers again asked the pilot if things were OK, and he replied,Yes. The tower then told the pilot his alignment was not correct, but there was no reply, Chettri added. The plane should have come from the right direction, Chettri said, adding that it hit the airport fence, touched the ground and then caught fire. It was not immediately clear if the pilot had issued aMayday call, or distress signal. US-Bangla Airlines Asif, however, said that wrong signals might have led to the crash. A three-minute conversation between the pilot and the air traffic control before the landing indicated that they sent wrong signal to the pilot, he told reporters in Dhaka. With inputs from agencies Click here for photos of Nepal Plane Crash . , 2. . ... Working from home? Switch to the DIGITAL edition of CLICK HERE to signup now! Apple today inked a deal with Ito World to display nearest bike-sharing stations in Maps in over 175 cities across 36 countries. The feature is already live on Maps and will help you find the nearest station by typing bike sharing in the search bar or the name of the service. Ito World is very popular in leasing out licenses and normalize bike-sharing data to a bunch of companies earlier. With this move, it takes just one step for Apple to integrate support for hundreds of bike-sharing services. However, this isnt the first time Apple has integrated bike-sharing data, but this sure is the biggest improvement over existing data. For now, Apple doesnt share the number of available bikes or empty docks but might bring such functionality in the future update. The service will now give you the address, name and contact information for the service. A simple bike sharing search in any city lets you find the name of the service and the location of the closest station. Apple Maps supports Citi Bike in NYC, Ford GoBike in San Francisco, BIKETOWN in Portland, Santander Cycles in London, bicing in Barcelona, BIXI in Montreal, CityCycle in Brisbane, nextbike in Germany, Austria, Croatia, Switzerland, the U.K., and dozens of others. Apple Maps is slowly evolving in better competing against Google Maps, it currently supports airport and mall maps, lane guidance, public transit, EV charging stations and more. Source | Via As princess after princess rolled by in their Corvette chariots, a group of teenagers shouted words of encouragement. Youre a queen! Youre amazing! An idol! Cypress Lakes High School sophomores Alex Dongo, Ashley Pineros and Noah Shively attended the 2018 Fort Myers Beach Lions Shrimp Festival parade to cheer on a few of their friends, who were competing in the princess pageant. But during the parade, the three decided to shout words of glowing encouragement to all 13 entrants, even those they didnt know. We came to support female empowerment, Shively said. As the parade went on, the friends continued to support other floats, such as the young girls on the Bayshore Cloggers Dance Team, showering them with praise and encouragement. Saturday was filled with this kind of positive energy for the 60th annual Shrimp Festival. Its seen by many as an unofficial holiday on the beach, a time for friends to get together and celebrate while the air is filled with community spirit. Debbie Martin has lived in Fort Myers for 38 years, and had never been to the Shrimp Festival until this year. Her friend, Diana Byers, couldnt believe shed never attended. So she rustled up a group, including their other friends Caroline Pearman and Kathy Anderson, to get spots to sit during the parade. Dianas dragging me around to all these things, Martin said. Robert and Vivianne Papen have been coming to the Shrimp Festival for four years. The couple lives in Quebec, but times their three-month stay on Fort Myers Beach to be sure theyre here for the festivities. Every year we come for the parade, Vivianne Papen said. (I like) how its organized. Its simple, its joyful. There were 44 entries in the parade this year. The Papens celebrated outside the Sea Gypsy Inn, where owners Scott Safford and Jacki Liszak throw a parade watch party each year. The couple buys food and drinks out of their own pockets for anyone who wants to come and hang out, and accept donations which are given a local cause. This year, donations were given to the Beach Kids Foundation. It started when they first opened the hotel; they decided it would be a good way to meet the islanders and have an open house. Its grown since then to be an event that gives back, Safford said. This year, they raised $1,350 just from donations from their party attendees. Their friends and guests can sit and watch the parade, and buy raffle tickets to raise more funds. Its the event where all of our friends, locals, off-islanders, snowbirds and guests all get together on Fort Myers Beach, Safford said. Its almost like one big family reunion. We look forward to it every year! ** For more photos, please check our Facebook page! ** A 50-year-old Land Rover that starred in the new Hollywood film Peter Rabbit alongside Margot Robbie and James Corden is due to go under the hammer this month. The pastel green motor, which was used by villainous farmer Mr McGregor for scenes shot in the Lake District, has been given a 15,000 ($20,000) price tag. McGregor, played by Irish actor Domhall Gleeson, can be seen driving it into a warehouse in Windemere with Peter and the other rabbits clinging onto the bottom of it. The animated film of the classic Beatrix Potter books, which is released in the UK on March 16, sees James Corden and Margot Robbie star in voice-over roles for Peter Rabbit and Flopsy. One of just two Land Rovers used in the film, the 1969 Series IIA model has a 2250cc gasoline engine, which is said to be in "excellent" condition. It has a tan interior, the seats have been refurbished and its bodywork is also in near new condition. The Series IIA first hit the market in 1961, and achieved sales of around 60,000 units a year for most of the decade. This model was supplied for the film by the vendor, Action 99 Cars, and fitted with a false registration plate. It will go up for sale on March 21 with H&H Classics at the Imperial War Museum. READ MORE FROM THE SUN Three teens that were arrested this past weekend are suspected in the thefts of dozens of cars in and around tony Palm Beach County, Fla., home to President Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort. A joint task force made up officers from the Palm Beach County and Broward County sheriffs offices witnessed the trio, ages 16-17, attempting to steal three cars in the gated Saturnia community during a planned surveillance operation on Saturday, according to a police report. Authorities said the group has been tied to a string of 46 high-end auto thefts in East Boca Raton, Wellington, West Delray, and West Boca Raton, where Saturnia is located. The alleged thieves were seen breaking into a garage and unsuccessfully attempting to steal a Jaguar SUV, then moving on to a nearby Porsche Cayenne and BMW 5 Series that they also failed to steal. When police had the neighborhood locked down and moved in to apprehend the suspects, they made a run for it into the nearby Everglades. Working with aerial and K-9 units, task force personnel soon tracked the boys to a canal bank and took them into custody, along with the stolen car they had driven into the neighborhood. The three were booked on several charges, including burglary and grand theft auto, and being held at a juvenile assessment center as a joint investigation into the crimes continues, The Sun Sentinel reports. Their identities and hometowns have not been released. ARE YOU FOLLOWING FOX NEWS AUTOS ON FACEBOOK YET? CBS religious-based comedy Living Biblically returned for its third episode on Monday to tackle the age-old issue of loving thy neighbor, even if they're the absolute worst. Its a concept that Chip, like many, finds easy to do in theory, but hard to do in practice. The episode opens with Chip laying in bed with his wife, talking to her about the fact that shes carrying their child. Hes on his second week of living his life by the strict letter of the Bible and she is continuing to support him. In fact, shes so into what hes saying that she puts her book down and they pull the covers up. Unfortunately, theyre abruptly pulled from any romance by their neighbors techno music. The next day, Chip asks his God Squad, Father Gene and Rabbi Gil, what he should do. Rabbi Gil notes that this is one thing that most of the major religions can basically agree on - you have to love thy neighbor. Chip admits that he perhaps hasnt been the most friendly person to share an apartment building with, prompting his priest to note that the expression is a metaphor. Hes really got to love everyone on earth as if theyre his neighbor. this is especially true for the people who blast techno music, film concerts on their phone, lean on the subway pole, spoil movies or just generally arent fun to be around. Chip puts this into practice at work. After bonding with his deskmate Vince and asking him to be his new best friend, he gets cracking on his column about living by the Bible. However, for the second day in a row, Cheryl comes over and starts distracting him with details of her incredibly awkward date the night prior. He snaps and starts to yell at her. However, he catches himself and turns his anger into love, giving her a very uncomfortable hug which he thinks shoos her away. Unfortunately, in an hilarious twist, she returns a moment later with their boss who dresses Chip down about sexual harassment and being creepy. Armed with a new confidence in his biblical lifestyle, Chip notes that more people should be open to loving each other. He mentioned that his boss can be difficult to work with, but that she constantly dares him to be better at his job. She gets the hint and leaves him be, but he knows he now needs to chat with Cheryl about making her uncomfortable. She quickly softens and understands that he meant no harm, but she tells him that hes not the nicest person to be around either. He rolls his eyes, hes short-tempered and, apparently, has a bit of body odor in the summer. Thats when he realizes what we all know, but arent always able to practice - loving thy neighbor starts with being a good neighbor yourself. Armed with that knowledge, and a bit of encouragement from his wife, Chip understands that he cant simply pound on the walls, shout shut up, bribe or leave passive-aggressive notes to fix his issue with his neighbors. He needs to go next door to talk with them face-to-face. The techno music lowers and he seizes the opportunity. He knocks and a sweet elderly couple answers. First, let me start by saying you two are an inspiration, he says. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the upstairs neighbors, not the next door neighbors, are the problem. After a ten minute conversation, hes happy to go out to the bar and report to the God Squad that hes become a better neighbor to those around him. You cant control how much hate there is in the world. Its the world, it sucks, Rabbi Gil explains. But, you can control how much love you put into it. Thats power baby. Even Wonder Woman was terrified of reporting sexual harassment in Hollywood. Lynda Carter revealed that she suffered sexual harassment at the hands of an unnamed man, but that enough other women have come forward for him to be punished. [He violated] a lot of people, Carter, 66, told The Daily Beast in an interview released Monday, adding, Hes already being done in. Theres no advantage in piling on again. I believe every woman in the Bill Cosby case. Carter refused to comment on whether Cosby, 80, was her abuser, explaining, Theres nothing legally I could add to it, because I looked into it. Im just another face in the crowd. I wish I could, and if I could, I would. And I would talk about it. But it ends up being about me, and not about the people who can talk about it. I dont want it to be about me, its not about me. Its about him being a scumbag. Regardless of whether Cosby, who was accused of sexual assault by numerous women, was the scumbag who harassed Carter, he wasnt alone. There was a cameraman who drilled a hole in my dressing room wall on the Warner Brothers lot, she said. They caught him, fired him, and drummed him out of the business. I fended off my share, she said. And Ive been afraid. If a man tried something, I would say, Are you kidding me? She added that often men would laugh off their behavior so there was an element of deniability there. That, in addition to the fear of never working again, led Carter to never report any of the incidents aside from the alleged peeping Tom on the Warner lot. Who you are going to tell except your girlfriends and your circle of friends? Youd say or hear, Stay away from that guy. Watch out for this casting director. And so you would hear it from other people, other people would hear it from other people. Watch out for so and so. Thats how you protected yourself: through the grapevine, she said. When specifically asked about fear of being blacklisted, Carter replied, Yes, you wouldnt do it. Who are you going to tell, your agent? Whos going to believe you? No ones going to believe you. And when you did push back by saying, Are you kidding me? they would say, Yes, yes. But it was everywhere. Youd see girls being shaken in acting classes. Carter also noted of the women accusing President Trump of sexual harassment, I believe them too. Why would they lie? I believe the women. The #MeToo movement is happening not just with actresses but maids and caregivers, everywhere, she explained. I asked my husband if he was surprised by all the #MeToo stories. Yeah, Im surprised, he said. Ask any woman, theyre not surprised. Its been going on for years. Its not news to us [women], but it is news to you [men]. Weve been trying to tell you. Weve been trying to tell you for a long time and you havent listened. This article originally appeared in Page Six. ABC News star Joy Behar apologized for mocking Vice President Mike Pences Christian faith on Tuesday, ending a month of outcry stemming from remarks she made that have been called slander and anti-Christian bigotry. Pence appeared on Fox News Channel's Hannity Monday evening, urging Behar to apologize to tens of millions of Americans who were equally offended during the conversation and she obliged. I think Vice President Pence is right. I was raised to respect everyones religious faith and I fell short of that, Behar said on Tuesdays edition of The View. I sincerely apologize for what I said, Behar added. Behars controversial comments resulted in the Media Research Center launching a campaign to hold Behar accountable for spewing anti-Christian bigotry after she said that communicating with Jesus is a mental illness during a Feb. 13 episode of The View when discussing Pences faith. Pence reportedly told Behar she should apologize to Christians during a private phone call, but the vice president doubled down on Fox News and apparently The View co-host took notice. I give Joy Behar a lot of credit. She picked up the phone. She called me. She was very sincere, and she apologized and one of the things my faith teaches me is grace; forgive as you've been forgiven, Pence told Sean Hannity. I'm still encouraging her, to use the forum of that program or some other public forum, to apologize to tens of millions of Americans who were equally offended. The vice president concluded his answer by saying that he hoped Behar "and others on the airwaves will come to appreciate the meaning and, if I could say it, the joy that comes from faith and respect that." Behars call to Pence was undisclosed until Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked about the controversy during last weeks meeting with investors. What do you say to the tens of millions of Christians, and President Trump supporters, that your networks have so blatantly offended and ascribed hateful labels? shareholder Justin Danhof asked Iger directly at Thursday's meeting. Specifically, do you think, like Mrs. Hostin and Mrs. Behar, that the Christian faith is akin to a dangerous mental illness? Iger responded by saying, I dont know where I start. First of all, Joy Behar apologized to Vice President Pence directly. She made a call to him and apologized, which I thought was absolutely appropriate. Iger told the crowd he was glad to hear Behar apologized because he takes exception to what she said. ABC insiders said executives initially wanted to keep the call between Behar and Pence, but Iger mentioned it while defending his company. MRC President Brent Bozell issued a statement declaring that Behars private apology was not nearly enough and promised to continue his campaign against anti-Christian bigotry at the network. Bozells watchdog group is presently running a campaign on behalf of aggrieved Christians, urging that viewers contact View advertisers about Behars hateful, anti-Christian remarks. Upon learning of the apology, Bozell issued the following statement to Fox News: Our campaign against The View and Joy Behar has concluded. Even though it took a full month, Joy Behar did the right thing today to publicly apologize for her offensive remarks. I want to thank and congratulate the massive number of Americans who supported our effort and stood up to this anti-Christian bigotry with your calls, letters and messages. Over 43,000 phone calls were placed to ABC and their advertisers demanding an apology. This clearly has taken a toll on ABC and has left a black mark on advertisers Clorox, Gerber, Oreo and Home Advisor who were utterly silent in reply to the uproar from their Christian consumers. While our campaign is over, let it be made clear: we will not hesitate to come after any TV personality or media figure who engages in this type of anti-Christian bigotry. Nor will we spare any effort to denounce the sponsors of such hatred. Christians are fed up, and arent going to take it anymore. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee wrapped up its inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election on Monday without finding any evidence of collusion with the Trump campaign but viewers of evening newscasts would hardly know it. CBSs Evening News spent only 31 seconds on the story, ABCs World News Tonight covered the news for 27 seconds and NBCs Nightly News didnt even mention the news, according to the Media Research Center. The mainstream media has spent months agonizing over alleged collusion, but the big three broadcast networks dedicated a total of 58 seconds to the committees findings. It will be interesting to see if the Democrats on the House panel, who are expected to put out their own report, receive more airtime. MRC analyst Nicholas Fondacaro noted that ABCs White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl appeared almost irritated by the findings. These are the Republicans that control that committee the finding is hardly surprising, Karl said on ABCs newscast. Given how partisan that committee is, it's not going to have any impact on the overall debate over Russia. Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy called it sad on Tuesday morning when he learned about the lack of coverage on the big three networks, saying, Do the news! The story was covered extensively on cable news despite being virtually ignored on broadcast networks. We didn't find any evidence of collusion and I don't think [special counsel Robert Mueller] will either, Texas Republican Rep. Mike Conaway, who led the bipartisan investigation, said on Special Report. The committee's investigation was based on four topics: Russian active measures against the 2016 U.S. election, the U.S. government's response to the attack, links between Russians and the Trump and Clinton campaigns, and purported leaks of classified information. The report also noted that based on its investigation, which lasted more than a year, the committee disagreed with the intelligence communitys assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a supposed preference for then-candidate Donald Trump. We disagree with the Intelligence Communitys position that Putin favored Trump, Conaway told Fox News. He said he had no contact with the White House during the probe. Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report. Heather Locklear has been charged with several counts of battery against first responders who answered a domestic violence call at her Southern California home. The 56-year-old "Melrose Place" actress was charged Monday with four misdemeanor counts of battery on an officer or emergency personnel, and one misdemeanor count of resisting or obstructing an officer. Sheriff's officials said Locklear kicked, pushed and shouted at deputies who were answering a report that she had been violent with her boyfriend Feb. 26. No domestic violence charges have been filed. Locklear's representatives did not immediately reply to requests for comment. She's scheduled for arraignment Tuesday in Ventura County Superior Court. Defendants in misdemeanor cases generally do not have to appear in person if they are represented by an attorney. The actress allegedly told police officers their children deserveto die before threatening to shoot them in a profanity-filled rant during her arrest in late February, a Saturday report stated. The star's rant was detailed in a police report obtained by People. Locklear, who was arrested on Feb. 25, resisted as two police officers handcuffed her in her home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. She kicked one of the officers before the alleged rant. You f deserve your kids to die! You f deserve it! Locklear said, according to the police report. And when you find yourself in that position, think of me! Her threat to shoot police officers prompted authorities to search her home. Police obtained a search warrant, but did not find a gun that was registered in Locklears name at her residence. Locklear has struggled with substance abuse in the past and most recently had entered rehab last year. The Associated Press contributed to this report. In a major embarrassment for NBC anchor Lester Holt, ABC's World News Tonight soundly defeated Holts Nightly News in the ratings last week, scoring victories in both the desirable demographic of adults age 25-54 and in total viewers. NBC Nightly News has been the perennial ratings champ over the last two decades, but that lead is now gravely endangered following Holts disastrous trip to North Korea -- where he appeared to have been duped by regime propagandists -- and also following his controversial moderation of a presidential debate in the fall of 2016 where some critics said he behaved in an antagonistic fashion toward Donald Trump. Its a full scale fiasco. They're in panic mode, an NBC insider, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, told Fox News about executives at the network. ABCs World News Tonight beat NBCs Nightly News among the key demographic last week, snapping the Peacock Networks 89-week winning streak among adults age 25-54. ABCs World News Tonight averaged 9 million total viewers and 1.99 million in the demo, compared to 8.3 million total and 1.91 in the demo for NBC, according to TVNewser. NBCs demo loss is the latest setback for powerful NBC News boss Andy Lack, whose reign has been plagued with controversy in recent months. The NBC insider told Fox News that NBC News executives are scrambling to address the collapse of Nightly News and are even debating whether to beg NBCUniversal boss Steve Burke to restore disgraced host Brian Williams to the throne. Williams was fired from Nightly News in 2015 for embellishing stories about his war heroics. He has since been anchoring a late-night broadcast on sister network MSNBC. NBCs Nightly News also failed to show growth among total viewers last week and fell 4 percent in the demo compared to the same week last year, while World News Tonight grew its audience by 9 percent in viewers and 11 percent in the demo, according to TVNewser. The loss deepens the embarrassment stemming from the recent Nightly News historic loss to ABC among total viewers during an Olympics week -- the first such loss in more than 25 years. NBCs loss was unprecedented as the network paid nearly a billion dollars for U.S. broadcast rights to the 2018 Winter Games and typically sees a huge ratings bump for all its programs during the Olympics. One possible cause of the loss was that NBC News stumbled badly last month when it provided anemic coverage of the tragic Parkland massacre. Holt and all of NBC News stars -- except for Megyn Kelly -- were out of place in South Korea to promote Olympics programming when the shooting took place. But NBC did not send Kelly to front its coverage of the Florida tragedy, despite the fact that she had distinguished herself by covering the Sandy Hook killings when she worked at Fox News. Insiders were puzzled why Kelly -- who makes about $23 million a year -- was not sent to South Korea or to Florida. She remained at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, anchoring her 9 a.m. hour of Today." Holt has endured a somewhat rough 18 months since he moderated the first presidential debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton to much opprobrium. The Hill wrote that NBC News biggest star left the event bruised and partisan for appearing biased in favor of Clinton. When asked if Holts job was in danger, an NBC spokesperson provided the following comment: Not a single story youve written about the internal workings of NBC News has been accurate, and neither is this one." And while Holt was panned for his performance at the debate, many industry insiders blame executives for the majority of NBC News troubles, as opposed to solely pinning the blame on the famously hard-working Nightly News anchor. Lack and his top deputy, embattled NBC News President Noah Oppenheim, have yet to be transparent over why they spiked celebrity scion Ronan Farrows explosive reporting on Harvey Weinstein, which Farrow took to the New Yorker magazine. In various media appearances to promote his Weinstein reporting, Farrow took a series of jabs at NBC News for refusing to air his Weinstein reporting, implying that Lack and Oppenheim had maintained a veil of silence. Oppenheim -- who moonlights as a Hollywood screenwriter -- personally oversaw Holts controversial reporting trip to North Korea in February during which the duo was accused of being duped by regime propagandists. Holt anchored from a bustling ski resort that Western media had previously widely covered as being empty and deserted. Presumably, the dictatorial regime filled the resort for Holts standups, something the NBC star failed to note on his broadcast. Oppenheim was the senior executive on the ground in North Korea for the broadcast. Fox News reported that Lack, furious about the botched trip and a ballooning Megyn Kelly scandal back home, recalled Oppenheim early to New York. And the NBC News bosses have yet to explain why they sat on the now infamous Access Hollywood tape of Trump making lewd comments about women. The tape was eventually leaked to The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold, who is Oppenheim's friend from prestigious Harvard University, where the men were editors together at the storied Crimson student newspaper. Oppenheim is also close friends from Harvard with Hillary Clintons son in law, Marc Mezvinsky, and the men are believed to have participated in each others nuptial ceremonies. It remains unclear why NBC didnt publish the Access Hollywood" tape before it was leaked to Fahrenthold. The anti-Trump reporter was recently named a paid NBC News contributor. Furthermore, Lack has not been transparent about the events that led up to the sudden firing of his close friend, Matt Lauer, for sexual misconduct in November at the height of the #MeToo movement. NBCUniversal claims to be investigating internally to determine who knew what about Lauers pervy acts, but the company has not announced anything regarding its findings. NBCUniversal did not respond to a request for an update regarding the internal investigation. Richard Simmons was ordered to pay nearly $130,000 to the National Enquirer and Radar Online after the exercise guru sued the two media outlets for running a series of articles alleging he was transitioning to become a woman. Simmons, 69, was ordered by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gregory Keosian Friday to pay the media outlets attorneys fees and American Media, their publisher, the Los Angeles Times reported. MET OPERA FIRES JAMES LEVINE AFTER SEXUAL MISCONDUCT PROBE The defendants sought $220,000 in a motion filed in January that Simmons lawyers dubbed a billing fiesta. Simmons sued the media outlets in May for a series of articles that alleged the fitness guru was transitioning to become a woman. He claimed that, while he holds no personal ill-feelings toward the transgender community, the articles were false and defamatory to his character. Simmons lawyers argued that as a public figure, he has a legal right to not be portrayed as someone he is not. KID ROCK TO BE INDUCTED INTO WWE HALL OF FAME DURING WRESTLEMANIA WEEKEND However, Keosian ruled that alleging someone is transgender is not necessarily defamatory. Keosian dismissed Simmons case on Sept. 1, 2017. The Los Angeles Times reported that Simmons is appealing the dismissal motion. Tim McGraw flashed a big smile as he stepped out for the first time since he collapsed onstage during a concert in Dublin, Ireland over the weekend. The country star and his wife, Faith Hill, dressed casually as paparazzi snapped the famous couple outside of a hotel in London. PHOTO: TIM MCGRAW STEPS OUT AFTER SCARY INCIDENT McGraw collapsed onstage while performing his hit "Humble & Kind" on Sunday night. His rep told Fox News on Monday that McGraw was attended on site by local medical staff and he "will be fine." "Tim McGraw was suffering from dehydration in Dublin this evening at the C2C show," a rep for McGraw told us. "He and Faith thank everyone for their love and support and look forward to seeing their Irish fans again soon." McGraw was performing as part of the Country to Country festival in the U.K. and had performed Friday night in London and Saturday night in Glasgow as part of C2C, a three-day, three-city country music festival. The duo is scheduled to begin their 29-city Soul2Soul tour in the U.S. on May 31 in Richmond, Virginia. The Associated Press contributed to this report. When 68-year-old Sue Elcock ventured out on a deep-sea fishing trip to keep her son company, she probably wasnt expecting to reel in a 130-pound monster fish bigger than herself. During an early morning excursion while visiting her son Simon and his wife Michelle at their Perth, Australia home, Elcock told The Sun she felt a tug on her line and knew she caught a fair-sized fish. The petite Englishwoman said she was shocked at its sheer size as it emerged from the ocean off the coast of Lancelin. FISHERMEN PROMOTING 'NIGHTMARE' MONKFISH AS AFFORDABLE SEAFOOD After 40 minutes of reeling, her son and their fellow passengers hauled in a giant bass grouper measuring 5 feet, 4 inches long two inches bigger than Elcock herself, The Sun noted. I just couldnt believe the size of it when it reared its head out the water. It was the size of a sofa, Elcock said. Simon is an experienced sea angler and I have been out with him before when I have been visiting he and Michelle, she divulged of the catch, which she made with her 49-year-old sons electric reel. The biggest fish Ive caught before was a snapper about a foot long and when this one took the bait on the bottom the tug on the line didnt seem much. RETAILER FORCED TO PULL HUNTING-THEMED CHILDREN'S COSTUME FROM SHELVES AFTER BACKLASH FROM PARENTS Someone said you would need an awful lot of chips to go with a fish like that, Elcock joked of her find. But Ive helped cut him up and get all that fish into the freezer. Simon and Michelle will be enjoying fish barbies for months when Im long back in the U.K. Hosting his mother until the end of March, Simon, an aluminum mine worker, said hes thrilled for her. The photo of her holding the fish is one to treasure, he said. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Reel Force Charters, the charter company used in the unforgettable expedition, couldnt be prouder. How 68 year old Sue celebrates #internationalwomensday, they wrote on Facebook and Instagram, sharing a video of her awesome early morning find. Once in a lifetime catch Sue, great job, one Facebook fan commented. Shes a legend, another added. A boy from Texas with an extremely rare disorder was granted his lifelong dream. Dakin Lovelace, who is bound to a wheelchair, became the newest junior officer of the Fort Worth Police Department. "I wanted to be a cop since I was really little," the 10-year-old told KDFW. MASSACHUSETTS GIRL MAY BE AMONG FIRST-EVER TO RECEIVE GENE THERAPY FOR RARE DISEASE AFTER PARENTS PUSH FOR CURE Spinal Muscular Atrophy with Respiratory Distress (SMARD) is an incurable genetic disease that affects muscle control, breathing and causes muscle deformity. Some children with the disease die before their first birthday, according to the National Institute of Health. A group of police officers and family gathered to recognize Dakin for his bravery. During the proclamation ceremony, Fort Worth Police Assistant Chief Ed Kraus read, Dakin has shown true courage, strength and heart beyond his years and has demonstrated that he is a true hero." 4 OHIO SIBLINGS HAVE RARE, DEBILITATING DISORDER THAT HAS NO CURE The boy had his heart set on the Fort Worth squad and travelled three hours from Houston with his parents for the event. "People see policing as one side. This is really what policing is all about: making a difference in the community," said Sgt. Chris Britt. "It's not about arresting people and things like that. It's about reaching out to somebody like that, you know, somebody who might not have normally had this opportunity," Britt said. One lucky feline is blessed to have eight lives left after surviving a horrific impaling by two metal rails in London. Authorities continue to investigate whether the incident was accidental or intentional. SWNS reported that a male ginger-and-white cat was found by a shocked passerby painfully positioned and pierced by two eight-foot railings. The gruesome discovery took place in the wee hours of March 9 outside of an unidentified building in the Cricklewood neighborhood, a suburban area of northwest London. When the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) arrived to make the rescue, they had to call for backup. Deputy Chief Inspector Nicole Broster told the outlet that firefighters had to use car-crash rescue machinery to remove the section of the fence the cat was trapped on. WHY YOUR PETS FOOD BOWL COULD BE MAKING YOU SICK "When I got there I was incredibly shocked in all my years with the RSPCA I have never seen anything like it. This poor cat literally had two metal posts protruding through his body, Broster said. "I was amazed that this lovely affectionate boy was still alive and I knew I had to get him urgent help in order to give him the best chance of survival. I realized that trying to remove him from the railings myself was not a viable option and could have caused him even more damage. RESCUE DOG WAS RETURNED TO SHELTER FOR BEING TOO NICE Broster said that the emergency personnel transported the cat to the nearest veterinarian and held up the heavy railings as the vet prepared the cat for emergency surgery. After operating, the vet found that the fence post had narrowly missed the cats vital organs as one pole pierced his back leg and a second hit his abdomen, SWNS reported. The cat, which was not microchipped, is recovering well since surgery. "Its an absolute miracle that this cat is alive, and even better, its looking like he wont even have to have the damaged leg amputated," Broster said. "He is doing so well hes already up on his feet and walking which is astounding, I cant quite believe how lucky he is, she added. RSPCA inspectors have no idea how the cat ended up on the railing. According to the outlet, it may have slipped or jumped from a balcony from a nearby apartment building, but nothing is being ruled out. "He was so brave, continuously purring and nudging me whilst I comforted him despite his horrendous ordeal. The only time he ever cried was if I had to leave him to help with his treatment, Broster said. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! California, here he comes. President Trump was flying to California Tuesday, less than one week after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the federal government is suing the state for its defiance of federal immigration laws. The president is boldly taking on the Golden State on immigration and was planning to visit San Diego to inspect eight recently built prototypes of the wall he wants to build along the U.S. border with Mexico so he could pick the right one, he said. From Kate Steinles death at the hands of an illegal immigrant to elected officials alerting illegal immigrants to federal law enforcement plans to arrest them, the president has had no shortage of issues to tackle with this problem-child state. It is unlike anything weve ever seen. Or is it? It is no secret that President Trump has modeled himself after President Ronald Reagan at the national level some suggest he borrowed the campaign slogan, Make America Great Again from Reagan, who used a similar phrase, Lets make America great again, in his 1980 bid for president. Similarly, President Trump may now be looking to cut a Reaganesque path through the Golden State. To be sure, the president is battling the same deep state in the Golden State in the same way then-Gov. Reagan did in the 1960s. It is worth remembering that the actor-turned-politician at the time faced many challenges. After winning the governors race in 1966 against Democrat Pat Brown the father of current Gov. Jerry Brown Reagan felt it was his duty to uphold his campaign promise to restore order at Californias universities. After riots erupted at the University of California at Berkeley in 1969, Reagan used a heavy hand to return calm including calling in the National Guard. He was sharply criticized. However, once order was restored Reagan became a beloved figure. He went on to be re-elected as governor in 1970, and he did the unthinkable when he won the nations populous state when he ran for president in 1980. Could President Trump be aiming at carrying the state to win a second term in 2020? I believe so. For now, California could certainly use some tough love again. The states burgeoning population of illegal immigrants is taking a toll. More illegal immigrants reside in California than any other state. The cost of illegal immigration to California taxpayers is now a whopping $23 billion per year and growing. Additionally, President Trump was not wrong to call California a nest for criminals. According to the FBIs 2017 Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, 59 percent of 73 California cities saw an increase in crime in just the first half of last year. Sadly, some cities such as Sacramento experienced a stunning 61 percent increase in murder. Rest assured, President Trumps message of restoring law and order to California will not fall on deaf ears during his visit. California is still home to 4.8 million Republicans and 4.7 million more independents. Many of the independents may be Republicans but have simply chosen to decline to state their party preference at a time when being a Republican in California is considered tragically unhip. President Trumps super-charged rhetoric on immigration and his latest action to sue California may give Republicans in the state a much-needed shot in the arm. GOP candidates in this years gubernatorial race are now discussing a ballot initiative to place the repeal of the Sanctuary State law directly in front of the people, where it would have a decent chance of passage. The ballot box is one place where conservative measures stand a greater chance of passage than in the states Democratic-led Legislature. For example, during the last several years there have been surprising conservative victories in California including: the Proposition 8 battle over marriage; Proposition 1A in 2009 that defeated a $16 billion tax increase; and the defeat other proposed tax increases. Great things can happen when conservative voters in California are enthused, and President Trumps ability to utilize his bully pulpit would go a long way to rally them to engage in state politics once again. Whether by ballot measure or via the Trump administrations lawsuit itself, if the president succeeds in ending Californias Sanctuary State policy and restoring much-needed law and order, he could end up as beloved a figure as President Reagan, which he could then parlay into carrying California in 2020. Sure, it seems implausible now but then again thats what nearly everyone said about Donald Trumps longshot run for president in 2016 and Ronald Reagans run for governor and later president. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Several times recently, President Trump endorsed terminally ill patients right to try drugs not approved by the FDA: Patients with terminal conditions, terminal illness, should have access to experimental treatment immediately that could potentially save their lives, he said in the State of the Union speech. More than three dozen states and the U.S. Senate have passed laws aimed at providing easier access to experimental treatments that have undergone only the most minimal human testing, and the House will vote on a bill this week. The concept is a worthy one, but the congressional bills need modification before becoming law. The right to try website, operated by the libertarian Goldwater Institute, promotes allowing terminally ill Americans to try medicines that have passed Phase 1 of the FDA approval process and remain in clinical trials but are not yet on pharmacy shelves. . . [and] expands access to potentially life-saving treatments years before patients would normally be able to access them. But theres the rub: About three-quarters of drugs that pass Phase 1 will ultimately fail to be approved and never be accessible because they founder on the grounds of safety or lack of efficacy. And of those that do ultimately gain approval, often the use for which the FDA approves them will be very different from the expectations during Phase 1 testing. The right to try unapproved drugs has the potential to be compassionate and sound public policy, as well as an important statement about individuals free will, but as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. The most worrisome detail is that mostperhaps allof the proposals, including the one introduced last year by Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, would enable patients to request the drugs after only the most meager safety testing. But safety should be a concern even for terminally ill patients. Federal regulators are already implementing a version of right to try. From 2010-2015, the FDA approved more than 99 percent of applications for compassionate use applications, and since then has worked to simplify the process. Phase 1 testing under the aegis of FDA, often the first time a new drug has been administered to humans, amounts to practically no testing at all. Those trials are performed for a short time on a very small number of subjects, typically 20-80 (paid) healthy volunteers, who often do not provide a good representation of how the drug will affect terminal patients. Those studies are intended to determine what doses of the drug are tolerated (in healthy volunteers) without obvious adverse effects, such as sudden death, seizures, or rapid failure of organ systems. Efficacy testing occurs only in the later stages of drug development. Some people might say that terminal patients should be allowed to access these drugs because things cannot possibly get worse for people who are dying anyway. Not so. They can get worse. Adverse reactions can make the last days or weeks far more miserable if the drug causes a stroke, liver or kidney failure, neuralgia, or the agonizing Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a reaction to certain drugs marked by an excruciatingly painful rash that spreads and blisters. Moreover, appropriate dosing schedules, precautions and contraindications are typically discovered only during post-Phase 1 clinical trials, or even after a drug has been on the market. An example of the latter was the discovery last year that the drug Viberzi, which was approved in 2015 to treat inflammatory bowel disease, can cause a serious and painful condition called pancreatitis in patients who do not have a gallbladder. That drug had undergone extensive pre-approval testing on more than 2,600 patients during the pivotal clinical trials. A Wall Street Journal article on this subject elicited a number of angry responses to the assertion that although individuals right to make choices based on their own judgments about risk and benefit is important, [s]ociety also has a role in preventing desperation-driven coercion of patients and their exposure to unacceptable risks. One letter-writer to the Journal caviled that, society most certainly does not have a role in telling terminally ill patients that it knows better about analyzing risks and benefits and denying them choice. Another commenter offered, If a patient is terminal and legally competent, why should disapproval by you, or society, or fear of liability (which should be able to be neutralized) rob that patient of a humane, possibly life-extending option? They raise legitimate issues but ignore that society frequently intervenes to protect consumers from risks considered unreasonablefor example, by not affording them the freedom to experience the exhilaration of riding a motorcycle without a helmet. And in the pharmaceutical realm, the government polices and interdicts drugs bought via the internet from certain offshore pharmacies known to pose a significant risk because its products are often counterfeit, contaminated or otherwise substandard. Federal regulators are already implementing a version of right to try. From 2010-2015, the FDA approved more than 99 percent of applications for compassionate use applications, and since then has worked to simplify the process. Right to try is a compassionate and worthy concept, but it needs thought and refinement based on an understanding of the drug approval process and of physicians commitment to primum non nocere--first, do no harm. Thus, to invoke the right to try there should be some actual evidence of efficacy, beyond just speculation derived from computer simulations, cell culture or animal experiments. I suggest as an appropriate minimum threshold at least one Phase 2 trial (in which the drug has been administered to patients with the disease or symptom it is ultimately intended for) whose results provide a reasonable expectation of effectiveness. And, of course, the manufacturer of the medicine (most often a drug company, but sometimes a university research laboratory) should have to provide a statement that conveys the uncertainty about the likelihood of a positive response and of the known and possible side effects. We need to prevent well-intended treatments from being worse than the disease. As one of my medical school professors admonished us, there is a difference between patients actually living longer and interventions that make them so miserable that it just seems like longer. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! President Trump acted correctly and decisively Tuesday by removing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and announcing he will nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to become Americas top diplomat. And Gina Haspel, a career intelligence officer, is an excellent choice to replace Pompeo and become the first female director of the CIA. That the president made these announcements by tweet is all the rage in the media. But President Reagan removed Alexander Haig as secretary of state in 1982 with similar speed, replacing him with George Schultz. President Reagan did not tweet but neither did anyone else in the pre-Twitter age. Besides, there is more to this move than how it was announced, and thats worth examining. Why did President Trump fire Tillerson? As an assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush, and a White House staffer under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Reagan, my take is simple: President Trump sees dangerous waters ahead, and wants a seasoned captain to help him navigate these dicey straits, not a buttoned-down company man. With a nod to Rex Tillersons steady stewardship for just over a year, the president let him go for two reasons. First, Tillerson does not see the world as President Trump does, especially the complex array of opportunities for engagement associated with North Korea, Russia, China and Iran. And second, while Tillerson was a choice who was out of the box, he did not think out of the box. Pompeo represents the exact opposite. He is steeped in the intelligence, military and political sensitivities of North Korea, Russia, China and Iran as big decisions loom. The CIA director briefs President Trump regularly on all four of the above countries and the other most important national security issues. He is a former Army officer, a former member of Congress, and is highly sensitized to the domestic and international politics surrounding global issues. Pompeo is also as smart as they come and will be one of the most creative thinkers ever to hold the post of secretary of state. He graduated at the top of his class at West Point, graduated from Harvard Law School (where he as editor of the Law Review) and was a lawyer at a top firm before moving into politics. The presidents choice to become secretary of state is a perfect pilot for the rocky choke points of foreign policy that must be navigated. He will not let there be a misstep in the expected meeting between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un; count on him being there, and being crisp and quick to see around corners. And Pompeo will neither ostracize nor indulge Russia. He has never gotten any awards from Putin, which Tillerson received when he was chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil. Pompeo will be spring-loaded to help President Trump play trade cards with China to secure long-term security cooperation, and vice versa. He already gets along well with Secretary of Defense James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. And as go-no-go decisions lie ahead in abiding or abandoning the Iran nuclear deal, Pompeo will offer sage advice, either justifying bold moves or guiding the process in the direction the president wants. So replacing Tillerson with Pompeo is a sound move that will serve America well. Tillerson did his job methodically, but this is a good time for bringing another sort of captain up into the wheelhouse. America needs and the president needs a creative, off-the-charts-smart, multifaceted and intelligence-savvy leader over at the State Department someone with both political sensitivity and can-do management. That perfectly describes Mike Pompeo. So as pundits look back and mutter on how how it was done, dont bother focusing on that. The team at the State Department will be getting a star and the effect will be to make the presidents high-risk, high-reward game that much stronger. The only people who need to sit up straighter, and probably will without delay, are the leaders of North Korea, Russia, China and Iran. Pompeo knows their game, knows our president, knows these dangerous waters, and will be as good a pilot for our foreign policy as any secretary of state in a dozen years, or maybe three dozen. His selection was a good and timely choice. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Not since the Reagan administration has the Secretary of Interior received so much attention. Then Reagans interior secretary, James Watt, without the aid of a Twitter account, polarized the electorate saying there are liberals and Americans. That and other provocative statements led Time Magazine to include him in its list of the Top 10 Worst Cabinet Members. President Trumps Interior secretary Ryan Zinkes language may not be inflammatory enough to get him on the list, but his policies certainly have kept the agency that manages 700,000 square miles in the headlines. After locking horns with environmentalists and outdoor equipment suppliers over his recommendation to reduce two huge Utah national monuments from 3.2 million acres to 1.1 million acres, Zinke proposed reorganizing his department giving more authority to regional offices. His reasoning was that managers with their feet on the ground have the most knowledge of their resources in order to foster multiple use management, the mission of the Department of Interior. This decentralizaiton explains a lot of the pushback in Washington and from environmental groups who have had and want to maintain their power. Secretary Zinke is in good company with his proposed reorganization. In 1889, John Wesley Powell, the famous explorer of the Colorado River and the first European to float through the Grand Canyon, was asked to address the Montana Constitutional Convention. He suggested that the counties should be organized around drainage basins because people of the drainage basin are more interested than any other people in how the resources will be managed. When he added that the government of the United States should cede all of the lands of that drainage basin to the people who live in that basin, Powell was greeted with thunderous applause. Zinke has not gone quite as far as Powell suggested, but his reorganization is definitely aimed at putting more decision making power at the local level. Believing that the Department of Interior is mismanaging and squandering our assets through a layered bureaucracy, Zinke wants to move assets and decision making authority to the front lines, something western state and local officials have wanted since the Sage Brush Rebellion in the late 1970s. He hopes the reorganization will improve recreational access, simplify environmental reviews, and speed up the permitting process for everything from energy development to proactive steps for managing timber to reduce the threat of wildfires. Rather than expanding the bureaucracies that manage the one-third of the nations land owned by the federal government and forcing environmental regulations on those who bear the costs, the Trump administration seems to have an ear outside the Beltway. This reorganization proposal fits a pattern for natural resource and environmental management that is evolving under the Trump administration. Call it environmental federalism. In downsizing Utahs national monuments, Trump has called for local management to include Indian tribes, arguably the people with the biggest interest in preserving the regions antiquities. When President Obama created Bears Ears National Monument, he pledged management consultation with Native Americans. Trump, however, wants the Monument Management Plan to include one member each from the Hopi Nation, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah Ouray, and Zuni Tribe. By moving assets to the front lines Zinke means to shift a significant number of 70,000 bureaucrats in the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service from Washington, D.C., to locations where the agencies lands are located. Not surprisingly, agency employees are skeptical of the reorganization. As Sally Jewell, former Secretary of Interior under Obama, sees it, the reorganization is not as an attempt to streamline, but an attempt to downsize. Similarly, environmental groups headquartered in D.C., where they have had a stranglehold on western resource issues, dont want to see their power base move west. Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Clubs public lands program, called the reorganization a solution in search of a problem. The fear is that any movement of management to areas where people actually live on the land will favor multiple use as opposed to preservation. Sharon Buccino, senior director for lands at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, Virtually everything Secretary Zinke has done to date has been to advance fossil fuel interests above the stewardship of our public lands, preservation of wildlife and protection of clean air and water. Environmental federalism may be the conservation legacy of this administration. Rather than expanding the bureaucracies that manage the one-third of the nations land owned by the federal government and forcing environmental regulations on those who bear the costs, the Trump administration seems to have an ear outside the Beltway. In addition to downsizing national monuments and reorganizing land management agencies, President Trump has rolled back more than 60 executive order environmental regulations ranging from Obamas clean power plan to his delay of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Environmental federalism will not only inject more on-the-ground knowledge into land and environmental management, it could also reduce polarization by bringing opposing parties face-to-face in the coffee shops that are the heart of rural America. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! President Trumps announcement Tuesday that he has removed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and will nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to head the State Department will likely leave Pompeo spending most of his time in his new job dealing with three nations: North Korea, Syria and Iran. The easiest will be North Korea. The odds are microscopic that direct talks between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un will lead to an agreement for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. The proposed Trump-Kim meeting proves once again the enormous value that the possession of nuclear weapons and the rapid development of intercontinental ballistic missiles confers upon North Korea. Because of North Koreas nuclear weapons, an American president says he is willing to meet an Orwellian dictator of a small, bankrupt state. Kims hold on power has depended upon nuclear blackmail, criminality, proliferation, the confiscation of wages paid to indentured North Korean laborers in other countries, and Chinese support. Once Pompeo becomes secretary of state after his expected confirmation by the Senate, he will surely diminish the chances that President Trump might get carried away with the spotlight of a high-profile summit with Kim. With Pompeo, ideas define policy. Hes not an engagement-for-engagements-sake or an art of the deal kind of fellow. In fact, with Pompeo at the State Department, the odds of the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un even happening will likely decrease. The new secretary of state will pay close attention to the interconnectedness of the North Korean talks and the Iran nuclear deal, but not in the way that Secretary Tillerson appeared to do. The street wisdom among the foreign-policy set in Washington is that keeping the Iran nuclear deal in force is essential to diplomacy with North Korea. According to this view, Kim must see that the Trump administration is willing to maintain an agreement that has substantially rewarded Iran for its temporary nuclear restraint. Pompeo is likely to see this in reverse, concluding that the deeply flawed nuclear agreement with Iran approved by President Obama and five other nations is likely a prelude to the nuclearization of Iran. In Secretary Pompeo, the Europeans who want to see the Iran nuclear deal continued will find a more demanding counterpart than Tillerson. Pompeo will be less inclined to accept compromises that do not clearly resolve the defects of the nuclear deal with Iran. A prime defect Pompeo is likely to want to remove is the sunset clauses that leave the Iran free to develop a massive nuclear infrastructure in just 13 years. Pompeo is also likely to also oppose the commercial illogic of the Iran nuclear agreement, which enriches the Islamic clerics who rule the nation for their nuclear restraint and then allows them to use billions of dollars to underwrite their aggressive regional ambitions. In Syria, Pompeo will confront a U.S. policy that so far makes little sense. President Trump still appears determined to reduce the American military footprint, which will inevitably empower Iran and Russia in the Middle East. If the United States isnt withdrawing from Syria in 12 months, a date sometimes thrown out by senior officials, then the State Department will need to engage in a full-court press with Turkey, the Europeans, and Russia to work-out an agreement to ensure that, at minimum, the Tehran-Moscow axis is held in check in the Middle East. However much sleep Pompeo has been getting at the CIA, hes likely to get less when he moves to the State Department. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! When it comes to the fine art of diplomacy one thing trumps all else chemistry between the president and his secretary of state. President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson didnt have it. And so now Tillerson is out of a job. Beltway foreign policy experts might be flabbergasted that President Trump announced Tuesday that he has fired Tillerson and wants to replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. But it seems pretty clear that that the president and Tillerson never had the chemistry to make this marriage work in the first place. The president said Tuesday morning that he and Tillerson disagreed on too many issues to work well together. We were not really thinking the same, the president told reporters. Really, it was a different mind-set, a different thinking. Pompeo will need to be confirmed by the Senate to take over as secretary of state. Before heading the CIA he was a Republican member of Congress from Kansas. The president said he was naming Dr. Gina Haspel, Pompeos deputy at the CIA, to succeed him as the next director. The move to oust Tillerson makes sense. With the diplomatic storm that is coming, Trump needs the right team to guide him through some tough challenges ahead. In the next few months, the Trump administration has some pretty big national security challenges it must tackle. Most pressing of all: what to do about North Korea? In fact, according to a report by Fox News, the president decided to make this decision ahead of the expected upcoming summit between him and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. While it might be highly disruptive, making the move now makes sense. If Tillerson was against the potential summit, and President Trump felt that he and Tillerson did not have the needed working relationship to make sure the president was ready for what could be the ultimate of meetings, then this paring had to be terminated ASAP. President Trump simply cant walk into that summit, or even prep for it, without having not only top-tier people he can trust but also people he has good chemistry with. This might explain some of the reason needed to make the move and make it now. In the next few weeks, the Trump administration will be involved in a high-stakes poker game with North Korea that is highly reminiscent of the backroom dealing that took place during the Cold War or summitry that takes place with China and other great powers. The stakes could not be higher. Important questions will need to be decided. Where will this potential summit with North Korea take place? Who will accompany the president on the trip? What happens if North Korea makes demands like the removal of sanctions before the summit can take place? Will the administration ask for a roadmap of what North Korea will do to rid itself of its nuclear weapons program? Additional questions to be answered: What will the Trump administration and U.S. allies South Korea and Japan offer to North Korea if it is willing to denuclearize? Will the U.S. and its allies, for example, open diplomatic ties with the North? Sign a peace treaty? This most likely explains why Trump let Tillerson go. When you combine the countless number of questions and scenarios on the North Korea issue and compound that with issues like renegotiating NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), the Iran nuclear deal, what to do about Syria, and the always complex challenge of Russia President Trump needs a secretary of state he has confidence in. Since this was not the case, it was time for Tillerson to go. But what happens next is what matters. The Trump administration, to be generous, has had a large amount of churn. The president needs to move quickly to remove any other top official he feels needs to go. In fact, it appears that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster is next on the chopping block. And who knows what else is to come? The Justice Department has announced a series of actions that officials say will support President Trump's plan to prevent violence in schools, better enforce gun laws, support law enforcement, and strengthen the current firearms background check system. "No child should have to fear going to school or walking the streets of their neighborhood," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement released Monday. "Today I am directing the Department of Justice to take a number of new steps that will help make schools and the American people safer from the threat of gun violence." Among those steps, Sessions is calling on relevant federal agencies to verify within 45 days that they are in full compliance, or have a plan to become fully compliant, with existing law requiring agencies to report relevant records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or "NICS." The FBI maintains the NICS database, which came under scrutiny last fall when former U.S. Air Force airman Devin Kelley opened fire at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 people. It was later revealed that the Air Force had failed to report Kelley's history of domestic assault to the database., information that would have prevented him from purchasing a firearm. The DOJ is directing the FBI to identify local jurisdictions that are not reporting arrests to state repositories as well as jurisdictions that are not providing all of their records identifying those who would be prohibited from possessing firearms for mental health reasons. ag_memo_to_fbi by Fox News on Scribd Sessions has also ordered federal prosecutors to "swiftly and aggressively" prosecute "Lie-and-Try" cases. That term refers to people who are prohibited from possessing firearms -- and lie about that fact in order to deceive the federal background system. The DOJ also reiterated its Saturday announcement on bump stocks. "The Department of Justice is supporting President Trump's absolute commitment to ensuring the safety and security of every American by submitting to the Office of Management and Budget a proposed regulation to clarify that bump stock type devices are machine guns under federal law, which will effectively ban the manufacture, sale or possession of these devices." The department will also help state and local authorities hire more School Resource Officers. The COPS Hiring Program, a federal grant program, will help local communities hire more police officers and prioritize those who intend to use the grants for School Resource Officers. A federal judge in Boston Monday threw out a lawsuit by Massachusetts' attorney general that attempted to block the Trump administration's rules expanding exemptions from ObamaCare's birth control mandate. U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said Massachusetts lacked standing to sue and noted that "the record is uniquely obscure" regarding whether employers in the state would take advantage of the exemptions. In a statement, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said that she was disappointed in the decision but remained committed to ensuring "affordable and reliable reproductive health care for women." ObamaCare originally required most companies to cover birth control at no additional cost, though it included exemptions for religious organizations. The Trump administration's policy allows more categories of employers, including publicly traded companies, to claim religious or moral objections to contraception. In November, Massachusetts' Republican Gov. Charlie Baker signed a law requiring employer-sponsored health plans to cover birth control without co-pays. Gorton said that law undercut Healy's claim that the state would be injured by the rules and thus had standing to sue. Judges in California and Pennsylvania last year blocked the new birth control rules. Federal prosecutors said last month that they plan to appeal the California judges decision. The Justice Department had no immediate comment on Gorton's ruling. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from Reuters. Rumors of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedys potential retirement have reignited after Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller addressed a closed-door meeting of a legal society in Las Vegas on Friday. The senator can be heard in an audio recording of the meeting obtained by Politico, saying: I think Kennedys going to retire sometime early summer, giving (inaudible) an opportunity to put another Supreme Court justice in place. Longtime court watchers dismissed Hellers comment, noting he does not serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and does not personally know the media-shy Kennedy. Also suggesting that Kennedy has no imminent plans for retirement, he already has hired his clerks for the courts next session. In addition, the high court is one of the few places in Washington where secrets really are kept. Its really drilled into the new clerks as they start, that confidentiality is of the utmost importance, said Kerry Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network. Elizabeth Wydra of Constitutional Accountability Center adds: As they always say, those who talk, dont know ... and those who know, dont talk. So, at this point its all just speculation. Heller may have ulterior motives in feeding the Kennedy retirement rumor. Hes in a tight primary race against perennial Nevada Republican candidate Danny Tarkanian, and believes primary voters need an inspiring issue like a Supreme Court vacancy to turn out at the polls June 12. Its a great issue for the conservative base, Wydra said. Theyre very fired up at the prospects of getting another Supreme Court justice, perhaps like Justice Neil Gorsuch. If there is a Supreme Court retirement, it may not necessarily be the 81-year-old Kennedy. Justice Stephen Breyer is 79 years old, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg turns 85 on Friday. Its very easy to imagine this president having multiple nominees on the Supreme Court, and thats of course one of the most long-lasting impacts any president has, Severino said. As speculation builds about the Supreme Court, the Trump administration is moving quickly to fill 17 lifetime vacancies on the U.S. Courts of Appeal and another 121 District Court vacancies. It is in those courts where 99 percent of the nations federal-court decisions are made. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Monday evening that the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain last week "clearly came from Russia" and "certainly will trigger a response." Tillerson added that he did not know whether the Kremlin had knowledge of the March 4 attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. But he did say that the poison could not have originated anywhere else and was "only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties." He did not elaborate on what response might follow. "There is never a justification for this type of attack the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior," Tillerson said in a statement. "From Ukraine to Syria and now the U.K. Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens." Tillerson spoke hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons that Moscow was "highly likely" to blame for the attack in the southwestern city of Salisbury. Tillerson's statement said that he had "full confidence in the U.K.s investigation" and its assessment of Russian responsibility. May told lawmakers that unless her government received an explanation from Russia by end of Tuesday, Britain would consider the attack "an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom." "There can be no question of business as usual with Russia," she said, without saying what measures Britain might take. Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter remained in critical condition. A police detective who came in contact with them is in serious but stable condition. May said British scientists have determined that the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a class of nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. She said it was "highly likely" the substance came from Russia, and there were two possible explanations. "Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others," she said. May added that Russia must also "provide full and complete disclosure" of its Novichok program to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the oversight body for the international chemical weapons convention. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed May's allegations as a "circus show in in the British Parliament." The White House said the use of the nerve agent "is an outrage" but wasn't ready to say that Russia was responsible. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the poisoning "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible," adding that the U.S. stands by its ally. The Associated Press contributed to this report. President Donald Trump trumpeted the House Intelligence Committee's report that it found "no evidence of collusion, coordination or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians" in an all-caps Twitter post Monday night. "THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION," wrote Trump, reiterating the main finding from the panel's 150-page draft report. We didn't find any evidence of collusion and I don't think [special counsel Robert Mueller] will either, Texas Republican Rep. Mike Conaway, who led the bipartisan investigation, said on Special Report. "We have found no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians." House Intelligence Committee, Majority Staff The top Democrat on the committee, California Rep. Adam Schiff, responded to Trump with tweet saying that the panel's Republicans "lack the courage to stand up to a President of their own party when the national interest necessitates it." The committee's investigation was based on four topics: Russian active measures against the 2016 U.S. election, the U.S. government's response to the attack, links between Russians and the Trump and Clinton campaigns, and purported leaks of classified information. We believe we've got the information necessary to answer those for the American people, Conaway said. The report also noted that based on its investigation which lasted more than a year, the committee disagreed with the intelligence communitys assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a supposed preference for then-candidate Donald Trump. We disagree with the Intelligence Communitys position that Putin favored Trump, Conaway told Fox News. He said he had no contact with the White House during the probe. The majority staff on the committee is expected to send the draft report to the minority staff on Tuesday. Once the draft report is adopted by committee Democrats, the report will be submitted to the intelligence community for a declassification review, and following that process, it will be released to the public, officials said, though the timeline at this point is unknown. The reports completion will signify the closure of one chapter in the Committees robust oversight of the threat posed by Moscowwhich began well before the investigation and will continue thereafter, Conaway said. Schiff, however, fought back. While the Majority members of our committee have indicated for some time that they have been under great pressure to end the investigation, it is nonetheless another tragic milestone for this Congress, and represents yet another capitulation to the executive branch. By ending its oversight role in the only authorized investigation in the House, the Majority has placed the interests of protecting the President over protecting the country, and history will judge its actions harshly, the Democratic lawmaker said. The draft report included 40 other findings, including how Russians used social media to sow discord in 2015 and 2016, a lackluster pre-election response to Russian measures, how anti-Trump research made its way from Russian sources to the Clinton campaign, and problematic contacts between senior Intelligence Community officials and the media. The report also included more than 25 recommendations for Congress and the executive branch to improve election security, U.S. government response to cyberattacks, campaign finance transparency, and counterintelligence practices related to political campaigns and unauthorized disclosures. Campaign finance disclosures ought to be a little more wholesome, Conaway said on Special Report referring to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee's filing of payments for opposition research leading to the anti-Trump dossier as legal matters. The report's recommendations on handling leaks are serious, according to Conaway. Leaks of classified information are criminal," he said. Leaks can get people killed." A committee source told Fox News that the investigation portion of the probe was complete, meaning the committee would not interview any additional witnesses as part of its effort. Im sure [committee Democrats] will disagree with bringing the interview phase to a close, Conaway told Fox News. Im sure they will have specific folks they wanted to interview. Conaway said that the Republicans on the committee wanted to interview former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but said Schiff wanted to delay us. Once Manafort was indicted in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, the committee decided not to call him for an interview. Conaway also said that he did not anticipate pursuing contempt proceedings against former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon or any other witnesses who did not respond favorably to the committee's questioning. Conaway took over the probe when House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., stepped down in April 2017 after he was accused of making unauthorized disclosures of classified information, in violation of House Rules, law regulations, or other standards of conduct, according to the House Ethics Committee which investigated the allegations. Nunes supporters at the time said that it was a clever political trick by the Democrats. After more than a year, the Committee has finished its Russia investigation and will now work on completing our report, Nunes said in a statement Monday. Id like to thank Congressmen Trey Gowdy, Tom Rooney, and especially Mike Conaway for the excellent job theyve done leading this investigation. Id also like to recognize the hard work undertaken by our other Committee members as well as our staff. Once the Committees final report is issued, we hope our findings and recommendations will be useful for improving security and integrity for the 2018 midterm elections. When we began our investigation into what occurred leading up to the 2016 elections, our ultimate goal was to make timely recommendations for Congress, the executive branch and for states to improve election security in advance of the 2018 election. The clock is ticking, committee member Tom Rooney, R-Fla., said. Were now nine months out, and the threat of Russian interference has not diminished. Make no mistake: this is a close to just one chapter in the threat posed by Moscow which began well before the investigation but our work does not stop here, and this Committees oversight over Russian threats to the U.S. will continue. Republicans on the committee, though, have expanded their investigation of the Trump dossier, seeking answers from Obama administration officials, including a former staffer for Vice President Joe Biden. Nunes sent a questionnaire to the former Biden staffer, whose husband worked for Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier, seeking answers to when the administration was made aware of the dossier. Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report. The Pennsylvania crowd loved it when President Trump took a whack at Chuck Todd. But cursing out the moderator of "Meet the Press" was beneath the president. If Trump wants to challenge Todd over something he said or reported, he has every right to do that. I've just published a book arguing that the coverage of this president has been overwhelmingly negative in ways that fuels an erosion of trust in the mainstream media. At the same time, calling the NBC newsman a "sleeping son of a bitch" brings the presidency down to the level of playground taunts. (His longtime nickname for Todd is "Sleepy Eyes.") What does this do for the president other than rouse his supporters, who don't like or respect the media? They already love him. Such vulgarities do nothing to win over moderates or independents who are lukewarm toward Trump. What makes the crack particularly surprising is that Trump and Todd actually have an off-the-record relationship. As I report in my book "Media Madness," the president has had him to the White House for private meetings. These generally begin with Trump yelling at Chuck over something he or NBC did, and Chuck yelling back, before they settle down to a civil conversation. Todd, who deflected the rally attack with a sleepy joke, has been tough on the president, once saying that the White House "war on the media" is nothing less than "a war on the truth." But media people rallied around him after the SOB line. Tom Brokaw tweeted at Trump: "Really classy. Explain that to your children." Conservative radio host and MSNBC analyst Hugh Hewitt called Todd a "great reporter" and said Trump "only slams those he is afraid of. He should sit down w/ CT on camera, not sling insults." Anthony Scaramucci, the short-lived communications director, offered his former boss some advice in an interview with MSNBC's Kasie Hunt: "When he's tweeting at journalists, as an example, I would tell him, 'Hey, lets not do that.' I think we made a very big mistake early on in the administration when Steve Bannon declared war on the media. I thought that was a very bad idea." In an interview with Politico a day before the rally, Todd described how businessman Trump would phone him when he was first contemplating a White House run: "For a long time, he used to call me up and be upset because I wasn't taking the idea of him running for president seriously in 2011. And we would have these half-hour conversations regularly, and I would sit thereand I remember one time with Savannah Guthrie and I, we, literally put him on mute, going, 'Does he have other things to do but call?'" Since "The Apprentice" was running on NBC, Todd said, Trump once called him and said, "'Come on, were colleagues. I make you a lot of money.' I'm like, 'What?'" In that conversation with Politico's Susan Glasser, Todd said Trump has been "shooting from the hip," ignoring advisers while going "by his gut," and bashing the media while "begging for compliments" from them. On Sunday morning, Trump unloaded on New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who covered him for years in New York and probably knows him better than any other political journalist. Haberman co-authored a story saying Trump was in discussions with a lawyer about joining the White House to help with the Bob Mueller investigation. Trump tweeted that the "failing" NYT "purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy with my legal team." But the story didnt say that. It said that chief lawyer Ty Cobb has told people he expects to leave soon and Trump "has seesawed between expressing confidence in Mr. Cobbs claim that the inquiry will wrap up in relatively short order and that he will be exonerated, and sounding frustrated with his teams legal strategy." The president also tweeted that "the writer of the story, Maggie Haberman, a Hillary flunky, knows nothing about me and is not given access." Haberman responded with a tweeted "LOL," but the "no access" part is demonstrably untrue, given that she has interviewed the president a number of times. In fact, he called her a year ago to say he was pulling his original ObamaCare replacement bill. In a subsequent interview, Trump told Haberman in a light tone that she had been accused of being "Hillary Clinton's PR person." "Mostly by you," Haberman shot back. In yet another interview, the president caused a stir by telling Haberman and two colleagues that Jeff Sessions had been "very unfair" by signing on as attorney general and then recusing himself in the Russia probe. The bottom line is that Trump is entitled to bitch about his largely negative coverage. But calling journalists that word, or other choice expletives, hurts his stature more than theirs. A former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo was convicted on corruption charges Tuesday at a trial that further exposed the state capital's culture of backroom deal-making. A federal jury in Manhattan found Joseph Percoco guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and one count of soliciting bribes after deliberating for parts of three weeks. "Joseph Percoco was found guilty of taking over $300,000 in cash bribes by selling something priceless that was not his to sell the sacred obligation to honestly and faithfully serve the citizens of New York," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said. Jurors had informed the court twice that they were deadlocked in the case against Percoco and three businessmen accused of paying his family more than $300,000 in bribes, but U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni ordered them to keep deliberating and on Tuesday said she would accept a partial verdict. Percoco was acquitted of two extortion counts and one of the bribery charges he had faced. The jury also convicted one of the businessmen charged with paying the bribes, Steven Aiello, an executive at a Syracuse area development company, Cor Development. A second executive with the company, Joseph Gerardi, was acquitted on all counts. The jury said it couldn't reach a unanimous decision on a fourth defendant in the case, energy company executive Peter Galbraith Kelly. The verdict followed a multi-week trial that put a spotlight on the attempts of several private companies to gain influence with Cuomo, a Democrat who once likened Percoco to a brother. Cuomo was not accused of wrongdoing. Defense lawyers said the payments Percoco received, including $35,000 in cash and a $90,000-per-year job for his wife, were legitimate fees for consulting work performed at a time when he was out of state government. Prosecutors had urged a conviction, saying Percoco's communications with former close friend Todd Howe, a lobbyist, shows he participated in a bribery conspiracy. Howe, who pleaded guilty to numerous crimes after cooperating with prosecutors, became a focus of the trial when he admitted violating his deal with prosecutors by improperly trying to recover the cost of a night at a luxury Manhattan hotel from a credit card company. It led the government to have his bail revoked midway through his seven days on the witness stand. None of the defendants testified. President Trumps pick to head the CIA is a seasoned spymaster who has avoided the limelight during a 32-year career that has included stints running overseas black sites where dangerous terrorists were waterboarded. Gina Haspel, 61, was confirmed by the Senate on May 17, which means she can officially take command of the spy agency from Mike Pompeo, who Trump nominated as Secretary of State after firing Rex Tillerson. She has won praise from Washington insiders including Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director Michael Hayden, but faced tough questions on the Hill about her connection to sites where waterboarding took place. The controversial practice, which simulates drowning, has been likened to torture but supporters say it has helped extract valuable information from hardened terrorists. During the hearing, Haspel defended her past actions and refused to criticize her colleagues for their tactics at the time. She did, however, say the CIA under her watch would not resume such interrogation techniques. After 9/11 I stepped up. I was not on the sidelines, I was on the frontlines in the Cold War and I was on the frontlines in the fight against Al Qaeda, she said in response to a question from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. In the end, the Senate approved Haspel with a 54-45 vote. MORE THAN 50 INTEL, SECURITY OFFICIALS FROM BOTH PARTIES BACK GINA HASPEL AS CIA TURNS OVER FILES Haspel previously served as Pompeos deputy. In stepping in as the CIA's new chief, she becomes the agency's first-ever female director. I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, Haspel said in a statement. Here are 5 things to know about Trump's pick for CIA director. She has been with the CIA for more than 30 years Haspel joined the CIA in 1985. She is a career spymaster with "extensive overseas experience," serving as station chief -- a government official in charge of a post in a foreign country -- during most of her assignments, the CIA wrote in post online. After decades of service, Haspel was sworn in as the CIA's deputy director on Feb. 7, 2017, becoming the first woman to hold the position. "In this position, she assists the D/CIA in managing intelligence collection, analysis, covert action, counterintelligence, and liaison relationships with foreign services," the CIA explained. She ran the CIA's first overseas detention site Haspel reportedly ran the CIA's first overseas detention site in Thailand, where imprisoned militants were repeatedly waterboarded, The New York Times reported in February 2017. Like Pompeo, Trump says torture works and pledged his support for CIA-run "black site" prisons outside the U.S. "Were worried about waterboarding as our enemy, ISIS, is beheading people and burning people alive. Time for us to wake up," Trump tweeted in February 2015. Haspel briefly ran a secret CIA prison where accused terrorists Abu Zubayadah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded in 2002, according to former U.S. intelligence officials. "Zubayadah alone was waterboarded 83 times in a single month, had his head repeatedly slammed into walls and endured other harsh methods before interrogators decided he had no useful information to provide," The Times reported. She also helped carry out an order that the CIA destroy its waterboarding videos. That order prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. Trump praised Haspel for being "tough on terror" in a May 8 tweet. "Gina Haspel, my highly respected nominee to lead the CIA, is being praised for the fact that she has been, and alway (sic) will be, TOUGH ON TERROR! This is a woman who has been a leader wherever she has gone. The CIA wants her to lead them into Americas bright and glorious future!" the president tweeted. She is well respected by former intelligence officials Veteran intelligence officials praised Trump's decision to name Haspel deputy director in February 2017, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. It speaks well of him for picking a seasoned veteran of the agency who is widely and deeply respected by the workforce as well as those outside the agency, Clapper said at the time. She has also been a strong proponent for integration, not only within CIA, but across the intelligence community. TRUMP COMES TO HASPEL'S DEFENSE, SAYS DEMS 'WORRY' SHE'S 'TOO TOUGH ON TERROR' Michael Morell, who served as CIA acting director twice, called Haspel "widely respected," boasting that "she gets things done." He said he worked closely with Haspel for nearly seven years -- until his retirement from the agency in 2013. "She provides advice based on facts and analysis of facts ... She is calm under fire. She appreciates the work of all CIA officers analysts, scientists, and support specialists, as much as she appreciates operations officers," Morell said in an online statement. Michael Hayden, former CIA director, also called Haspel a "wonderful choice." "I am sure that she will be for Director Pompeo what Steve Kappes was for me --- a trusted friend, lieutenant and guide to the sometimes opaque corridors of American espionage," Hayden said. She has held several top positions in Washington In Washington, Haspel has held several top senior leadership positions, including deputy director of the National Clandestine Service and deputy director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action. She has won a handful of prestigious awards Haspel has received several prestigious awards, including the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism, the Donovan Award, the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal and the Presidential Rank Award, which recognizes individuals for "exceptional performance over an extended period of time," according to the CIA. Fox News' Adam Shaw, Frank Miles and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Republican Congressman Todd Rokita is calling on the House of Representatives to condemn anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, putting pressure on several House Democrats who have had ties to him. Rokita, of Indiana, introduced a resolution Tuesday condemning Farrakhan for promoting ideas that create animosity and anger toward Jewish Americans and the Jewish religion, and condemning "all manifestations of expressions of racism, anti-Semitism, and ethnic or religious intolerance. Rokitas resolution comes just weeks after Farrakhan gave a speech saying White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by Gods grace, has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew and Im here to say your time is up, your world is through. There is no place in our civil discourse for this clear anti-Semitism and hate for another group of human beings, Rokita said in a statement. I urge my House colleagues to join me in condemning Louis Farrakhans hateful and anti-Semitic attacks, while also reaffirming our nations commitment to our Jewish neighbors and our greatest ally, the nation of Israel. TOP DNC OFFICIAL DINED WITH LOUIS FARRAKHAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENT Several House Democrats have met with Farrakhanincluding Democratic National Committee Deputy Chair Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who attended a dinner with Farrkahn in 2013 hosted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Two other members of the Congressional Black CaucusReps. Andre Carson, D-Ind., and Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., also attended the dinner. Ellison also attended Farrakhans Million Man March in 1995, and even publicly defended the Nation of Islam leader. However more recently Ellison has attempted to distance himself from Farrakhan, especially during his run for DNC chair in 2016, writing an op-ed for The Washington Post, painting his relationship with Farrakhan as limited to the 1995 march. OUTRAGE OVER 'TERRIBLE' ATLANTIC APOLOGIST PIECE ON LOUIS FARRAKHAN Farrakhan then slammed Ellison, posting a video to Facebook saying Ellison and Carson visited him in 2015. The Congressional Black Caucus also has been tied to Farrakhan in recent monthsespecially with the surfacing of a photo taken in 2005, with then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., smiling alongside him. A Final Call photographer, according to the Daily Caller, said he kept the photo hidden for 13 years at the request of the Congressional Black Caucus in order to protect Obamas political career. Last week, the Republican Jewish Coalition called on seven Congressional Black Caucus members to resign amid their support for Farrakhan. The members called on to resign were the subject of a story in The Daily Caller, which reported a review of videos, photographs and other documents revealed the lawmakers have had ties to Farrakhan. They are Ellison, Reps. Maxine Waters of California, Danny Davis of Illinois, Al Green of Texas, Barbara Lee of California, Andre Carson of Indiana, and Gregory Meeks of New York. Last month Davis defended Farrakhan as an outstanding human being. I dont regard Louis Farrakhan as an aberration or anything, I regard him as an outstanding human being who commands a following of individuals who are learned and articulate and he plays a big role in the lives of thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people, Davis told the Daily Caller, and noted that it wouldnt be anything out of the ordinary for him to meet with Farrakhan. Farrakhans past extreme comments include praise for Adolf Hitler as a very great man, blaming Jews for the 9/11 attacks, and saying white people deserve to die. Rokitas resolution is similar to one passed in 1994when Democrats controlled the House. The resolution condemned a leader of the Nation of Islam, and passed with support from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. There has not yet been a vote scheduled on the resolution, but Rokitas office told Fox News that there has been interest from some Democrats to co-sponsor the measure once it is introduced. Rokitas office is hoping for bipartisan support. Fox News' Elizabeth Llorente contributed to this report. UCLA released a previously withheld video on Friday that shows students hissing and near-constant heckling toward Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during a moderated talk that quickly took an awkward turn. The university said in a statement that Mnuchin, who at first subsequently withdrew his approval for the video to be posted online, later gave consent for the video to be published. Audience members at UCLA hissed at Mnuchin nearly every time he spoke calling out the Trump administrations tax bill and the United States use of sanctions at times, prompting a joking response from the secretary while lashing out at others. I normally go speak to people who want to listen to me speak, Mnuchin cracked. You guys get to hiss at me. I dont get to hiss at you. At one point, the secretary asked an audience member who hissed at him for a little feedback, in which a man replied: I think youre bullst. If you think Ive got nothing to say, maybe you should just leave, responded Mnuchin. Another heckler was carted off by police after interrupting Mnuchin while he was talking about sanctions and denuclearizing North Korea, saying the U.S. is bullying the country. What youre doing is bullying North Korea who is developing nuclear weapons for deterrence purposes. And, this is what the U.S. does all over the world. Youre talking about being a beacon for hope and freedom and democracy thats bullst, a woman can be heard yelling before police intervened. Two other women in the audience were also escorted out of the auditorium after ignoring warnings to stop heckling. UCLAs initial decision to withhold the video at the request of Mnuchin drew backlash from activists. Several news organizations also filed public-records requests to release the video. This event took place at a public institution and the video was collected by a state body, David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, one of the groups that argued for the release, said in a statement Monday. Its troubling that the university initially caved to the request of a third party to withhold public records, and even more troubling that when they did eventually release the footage, they claimed to do so because they received consent from the Treasury Department. Snyder, who cited California law, said third parties should not have control over UCLA. Just two months ago, someone left a package addressed to Mnuchin from the American people that was filled with horse manure near his home in Los Angeles. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Hillary Clintons trip to India is evoking memories from her failed 2016 bid for president, as the Democrat makes headlines for blaming racism and misogyny for her loss while taking stumbles in front of the cameras. During her appearance in India over the weekend, Clinton claimed she lost the 2016 presidential race in part because white women didnt stand up to the men in their lives pressuring them to vote for Donald Trump. We do not do well with white men and we dont do well with married, white women, Clinton said at a conference in Mumbai, India. And part of that is an identification with the Republican Party, and a sort of ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should. Clinton had been asked why about 52 percent of white women voted for Trump, despite the Access Hollywood tape showing him using vulgar language in the days before the election. Interviewed on stage by India Today editor-in-chief Aroon Purie, Clinton accused Trump of running a backwards campaign that appealed to racists and misogynists. "I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product, Clinton said. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, 'Make America Great Again,' was looking backwards." She claimed Trumps message to voters was: You know, you didn't like black people getting rights, you don't like women, you know, getting jobs. You don't want, you know, to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are. HILLARY CLINTON'S 'BROKEN TOE' DERAILS BOOKS TOUR During the campaign, Clinton apologized for her "basket of deplorables" remark, where she argued Trumps supporters were driven racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic" beliefs. Meanwhile, The American Mirror published video online showing Clinton slipping twice as she fell down the stairs during her tour. Clintons health was a topic of conversation throughout the 2016 presidential election, after having public coughing spells and staggering during a health "episode" at a Sept. 11 memorial service in New York City. In October, Clinton fell down the stairs in London while on book tour and broke a toe. Fox News Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 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. Republicans hoping to expand their majority in the Senate need strong candidates on ballots in states President Trump easily won, like Missouri. Enter Josh Hawley. Tuesday was the first day of statewide campaigning for Missouris 38-year-old attorney general, seen by many analysts as the Republican Party's best bet to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat seeking a third term. The primary isnt until August, but President already coming to raise funds for Hawley on Wednesday, and is seen as a major asset in the effort to flip this seat. President Trump carried the state by 19 points, he knows something about the state and what he knows is this: That people are fed up with Washington, D.C. Hawley told FOX News on his campaign bus at a stop in Raytown on Tuesday morning. Hopefully, hell be here frequently. Hawley makes the case that McCaskills recent record makes her vulnerable in these midterms -- particularly votes against conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and tax reform, and a perceived closeness with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Shes voted against the interests of Missouri and with her party, with Chuck Schumer and the liberal line, and I tell you that is what Missourians dont want, Hawley said. And thats why shes going to lose. The early effort to campaign against dysfunction in Washington appears to extend to some congressional Republicans, too, since Hawley isnt in a hurry to embrace Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., if elected. Im not going to pledge my vote to anybody, Hawley said. Democrats seem to know theyve got a formidable opponent in Hawley, as liberal activists targeted his very first campaign stop with roughly a dozen protestors. Missouri has always been a battleground state. It seems like its been trending in one direction as of late, but we think that Claire McCaskill represents all of Missouri, Jackson County Democrats Executive Director Geoff Gerling told Fox News on Tuesday. Shes held 50 town halls in the last year alone, so were going to take it very seriously. Gerling is optimistic Missouris midterm in 2018 will not resemble the 2016 top-of-the-ticket matchup that had the Democratic candidate getting blown out, as he points to a down-ballot contest as a bellwether: the re-election of Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo, over former Secretary of State Jason Kander, a Democrat, by single-digits. Democrats are counting on controversy working in their favor. Missouris Republican Gov. Eric Greitens was recently indicted on felony invasion-of-privacy charges, and has not resigned. Eric Greitens is a person who has put himself first over party over citizens, Gerling told Fox News. Hawley is distancing himself from the scandal at the State Capitol. Its not good for the state, Hawley said. And that, as the attorney general of the state, thats what concerns me most. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort faces the very real possibility of a lifetime prison sentence, according to a federal court order reviewed by Fox News Tuesday. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, in an order made public Tuesday, wrote that Manafort poses a substantial flight risk because of his financial means and international connections to flee and remain at large. Specifically given the nature of the charges against the defendant and the apparent weight of the evidence against him, defendant faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison, Ellis wrote. Ellis, who is based in federal court in Alexandria at the Eastern District of Virginia, has been assigned Manaforts latest indictment brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Manafort pleaded not guilty last month to the superseding indictment, with its 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud. Manafort, who was first indicted in October as part of Muellers special counsel investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates in the 2016 presidential election, pleaded not guilty to both indictments. The court order released Tuesday details Manaforts conditions of release. Ellis ordered a $10 million unsecured bond and home confinement with GPS monitoring. Manafort, the well-known political operative with a long history of work in Republican circles, is also facing charges at U.S. District Court in Washington. He has been ordered to wear two GPS monitoring anklets, or braceletsone from each court house, and is confined to his house, with exceptions of medical emergencies, doctor appointments court dates, meetings with legal representation or religious worship. Manafort lives primarily in Alexandria, Virginia, but also has properties in Florida and New York. Manaforts ex-associate Rick Gates, who also worked for the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty last month to his October indictment, after initially pleading not guilty, which included conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign banks and financial accounts. Mueller also brought an additional superseding indictment against Gates, but after his guilty plea, the special counsel dismissed the additional charges. Gates has intimate knowledge of Manaforts political consulting work in Ukraine, as well as other events that have sparked the interest of federal investigators. Muellers move to drop the second round of charges against Gates indicates his cooperation with the special counsel team could be yielding good information, as it pursues charges against Manafort. Manafort blasted Gates guilty plea. Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled guilty today, I continue to maintain my innocence, Manafort said in a statement to Fox News last month. 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. Mike Pompeo was selected by the White House earlier this year to leave his post as CIA director and take over as secretary of state. He was confirmed in a 57 to 42 vote by the Senate on April 26 after facing a rocky Foreign Relations Committee vote. All Republicans present voted aye. Seven senators who caucus with the Democrats voted yes. Pompeo, is the first CIA director to lead the State Department. He replaces Rex Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil chief, as the nation's top diplomat. I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture, Trump said when he nominated Pompeo. He will continue our program of restoring Americas standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Trump sent Pompeo to North Korea over Easter weekend to meet with the rogue nations leader, Kim Jong Un, according to the White House. Trump said on social media a good relationship was formed during the meeting, and the two men reportedly discussed the release of three Americans being held in the Asian nation. Pompeo, 54, said he is deeply grateful to the president for the job and said he looks forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further Americas prosperity. During his Senate confirmation hearing on April 12, Pompeo confirmed for the first time publicly to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he has been interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating potential ties between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign and possible obstruction of justice issues. Read on for a look at the Trump administration's newest secretary of state. What is Pompeos background? Pompeo graduated first in his class at West Point, where he served with distinction in the U.S. Army, Trump said after promoting him. He is a former cavalry officer, who patrolled the Iron Curtain prior to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, according to his CIA biography. He served in the Army from 1986 to 1991. Pompeo later received a law degree from Harvard University in 1994. After college, Pompeo started Thayer Aerospace, an specialized machine firm that was reportedly backed by conservative mega-donors David and Charles Koch. Pompeo served as its chief executive officer for more than 10 years. The Wichita Business Journal heaped praise on Pompeo and Thayer for securing a $124 million contract with Vought Aircraft Industries in 2000. It said Thayer is a great example of the entrepreneurial spirit that drives the Wichita economy. Pompeo stepped aside from Thayer in 2006, according to the Wichita Business Journal. Pompeo would eventually become president of Sentry International, a company that sold equipment for oil fields and manufacturing. He is married with one son. What about his political career? As a Republican, Pompeo represented the 4th congressional district of Kansas from January 2011 to January 2017, when he was sworn in as CIA director. He was elected to Congress during the Tea Party movement. While in Congress, Pompeo was part of the contentious House Select Benghazi Committee, which probed the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya. The committee sharply criticized the Obama administration particularly former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for the handling of the attack and its aftermath. Pompeo called Clinton morally reprehensible. Additionally, Pompeo has often lambasted the Obama administrations nuclear deal with Iran, which granted Tehran sanctions relief for rolling back its nuclear weapons program. Pompeo was confirmed as the CIA director by the Senate with a 66 to 32 vote on January 23, 2017. Two Democrats, Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy both from Connecticut did not vote. Murphy's office said he opposed Pompeo leading the CIA but could not make it to the vote due to weather-related travel delays. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican who voted against Pompeo. He told Fox News at the time he was worried Pompeos desire for security will trump his defense of liberty. The White House announced its intention for Pompeo to take over as secretary of state on March 13. As Director of the CIA, Mike has earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community, Trump said. Fox News Chad Pergram, Zoe Szathmary, Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. The estimated $12 million-plus pouring into Pennsylvanias hotly-contested House race wont break a spending record, but it could be one of the priciest short-term investments in political history, considering the district could disappear within the next several months -- or days. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year struck down the boundaries of the state's 18th congressional district -- where voters decide Tuesday between Republican Rick Saccone or Democrat Conor Lamb saying the boundaries were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to benefit Republicans. The Democrat-controlled court has drawn a new map that puts Saccone and Lambs homes in separate districts. However, the matter is now in the hands of a three-judge federal panel, which is considering an appeal by Republican lawmakers. Lamb and Saccone could have a rematch in November in the new district or in the existing one -- left open last fall when eight-term GOP Rep. Tim Murphy resigned from Congress. Saccone, a four-term state legislator and military veteran, on Tuesday sounded singularly focused on winning Tuesday's race. Wake up and get out and vote, people, he said on Fox News Fox & Friends. The 33-year-old Lamb, a Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor, recently told Politico that the courts have yet to decide on the map issue, so well cross that bridge when we come to it. Saccone, 60, had a double-digit lead in early January. But the race has tightened in the closing weeks with tens of millions of dollars and marquee names like President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden coming to the southwestern Pennsylvania district to get their voters to the polls. Do me a favor, get out on Tuesday. Vote for Rick Saccone, and we can leave right now, Trump said immediately after greeting the crowd at a rally Saturday night outside Pittsburgh. Biden, a few days earlier, in race that has become a battle to win over white, blue-collar laborers, told a group of union workers: "You said you want your piece of the sidewalk. Hell, you own the sidewalk. Saccone on Tuesday downplayed Lambs late numbers. I dont pay much attention to polls, he told Fox News. When theres an open seat, Democrats always try to pour money into it. At least $12 million has already been spent on the race. But most of the money has, in fact, come from national groups allied with the GOP. They have spent nearly $8 million on advertising in the race, more than seven times the amount invested by national Democratic allies unaffiliated with the Lamb campaign. The Lamb campaign has raised roughly $3.9 million, compared to roughly $916,000 for Saccones camp, according the Center for Responsive Politics. Washington Democrats, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, have downplayed their investment in the race, as Republicans continue to argue that Lamb, if elected, would vote with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, despite what he might say. The most money spent on a special House race -- or any House race -- was $55 million last year in suburban Atlanta, in Democrats' failed effort to take a GOP-held seat. Lamb supports gun rights and tariffs on steel and aluminum. And he has clearly avoided a campaign based on attacking Trump, who remains popular in the district, especially in southwestern counties, home to the steel and coal industries. The problem is, they go to D.C. and the first thing they do is fall into lockstep with Nancy Pelosi and (Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer, Donald Trump Jr. said Tuesday, one day after campaigning for Saccone. The Trump voters have to get out and vote. They cant stay fat and happy. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone conceded the special election to Democrat Conor Lamb more than a week after the close election ended. Lamb, who had already declared victory in the race, revealed Saccones call in a tweet on March 21. Lamb offered congratulations to his opponent for a close, hard-fought race and said he wished him the best. Lamb won the seat by a margin of about 750 votes. Republicans considered seeking a recount request or a lawsuit to contest the result, even as vote-counting over the past week continued to pad Lamb's lead. But officials said those efforts have been dropped since Saccone conceded. Ahead of the election, Democrats had hoped to stir up enough enthusiasm especially among union members to increase voter turnout and change the party representing a district that has recently been red. The one fact that has remained the same this year whether Democrats have won or lost [recent special elections] is Democrats are doing better in terms of turnout and enthusiasm, Kevan Yenerall, a social sciences professor at Clarion University, told Fox News before the election. The congressional seat opened after Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, who in public was staunchly anti-abortion, resigned in 2017 amid reports that he asked his mistress to get an abortion when he believed she was pregnant. Here's a look at the candidates and what is unique about Pennsylvania's 18th district. Conor Lamb A Marine Corps captain, Conor Lamb, 33, said on his campaign website the biggest issues facing the 18th congressional district arent partisan. My only bias is the one they taught us in the Marines: a bias for action, Lamb said on his website. His congressional to-do list includes: battling the nations heroin epidemic, modern energy development and creating jobs. In Pennsylvania, Lamb already worked towards ending the growing heroin crisis; as an assistant U.S. attorney, Lamb worked to make the Justice Departments Pittsburgh office a national leader in the fight, according to his campaign website. Lamb has advocated for new leadership in the House and said he would not vote for Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as Minority Leader again a politically astute move that could garner him the support of more moderate or independent voters, said Yenerall. Most Democrats in the district may not dislike Pelosi, per se, but would like to shake up the status quo, Yenerall explained. He added that Lambs background as a veteran and U.S. attorney as well as his temperament does fit the district more so than other Democrats have. Lamb spoke out about gun control in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., high school massacre. He said he doesnt believe additional gun laws are needed to prevent mass shootings. "The broad agreement already is that we're not doing a good enough job keeping guns out of the hands of people with mental health conditions and with criminals," Lamb said at a campaign event. He told the Weekly Standard he would not have voted for legislation that would have prohibited abortions after 20 weeks, adding that he doesnt label himself as pro-life because its a political term. Former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned for Lamb a week ahead of the election, comparing the candidate to his late son Beau and praising him for his dedication to unions. Lamb will never ever stop, will never ever play a game, Biden said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Thats this guy. This guy gets it. Rick Saccone A longtime state representative, Rick Saccone, 60, is a conservative Republican who more embodies the policies of President Trump. Saccone is more known for his religious conservatism as opposed to Murphy, who is a more mainstream Republican, Robert Speel, an associate professor of political science at Pennsylvania State University in Erie, told Fox News. He was one of the lawmakers who championed Pennsylvanias Castle Doctrine, or stand your ground law, which allows law-abiding people to protect themselves, their families and others from intruders and attackers without fear of prosecution or civil action for acting in defense of themselves and others. Saccone also sponsored a bill that would require public school buildings to bear the motto In God We Trust. Additionally, he pushed for a National Fast Day in the state to mirror President Lincolns proclamation of a national day of humiliation, fasting and prayer. PARTY LEADERS SENDING BIG MONEY, TOP STARS TO RIGHT PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE RACE Saccone is a retired Air Force officer with vast experience in counter-terrorism efforts, including working on task forces for two Olympic Games, according to his campaign website. Ive got a resume that my opponent doesnt have, Saccone told Fox News. Trump often tweeted his support of Saccone, including ahead of a January visit to the Keystone state. Rick is a great guy. We need more Republicans to continue our already successful agenda, the president said. Trump again traveled to western Pennsylvania the weekend before the election, urging voters to elect Saccone to advance the White House agenda. We need our Congressman Saccone, Trump said. Aside from Trump, Saccone also received support from Vice President Mike Pence and Ivanka, the president's daughter and adviser. But not all Republicans were happy with Saccone, Politico reported just before the election. Strategists and national GOP officials described Saccone to the publication as deeply underwhelming as a candidate and complained about his fundraising ability. Saccone told Fox News the reported friction was nonsense peddled by his opponents. Saccone is married with two sons. He studied in Africa, visited 75 countries, authored multiple books on North Korea and earned a Ph.D. in international affairs. The district Pennsylvanias 18th congressional district is located in the western part of the state near Pittsburgh. It includes parts of Allegheny, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland Counties and is made up of many rural, blue-collar voters. There are actually more registered Democrats than Republicans in the district a result of strong organized labor in the area. Union workers are a key demographic for the special election, although Trump made inroads with the more than 80,000 members in the district with his candidacy, Yenerall said. But Saccones anti-union voting record in the state legislature ultimately hurt him. Due to redistricting in the state, both Lamb and Saccone are expected to run again later this year in what will now be separate districts. What shaped the election Bellwether election: Pennsylvanias 18th district overwhelmingly voted for Trump over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The election shaped up as the next test of Democrats enthusiasm and GOP resilience in the Trump era and an early indicator of whether a midterm wave could be coming later this year. Political activists are certainly looking at this race as an indicator of Pennsylvania and national trends, Speel said. Lambs win could spell major trouble for Republicans in similar districts across the country, Yenerall said ahead of the election. Both parties have a great deal at stake here. If a Democrat can win this type of district with the right type of candidate it would mean the Democrats would do better than expected in the midterms," he had predicted. Spending: This race was expensive. Lamb raised more than $3.3 million this year, compared to just $703,000 for Saccone, according to FEC records. Ending Spending Inc., a super PAC founded by billionaire Joe Ricketts, was the first to hit the airwaves with a $1 million ad buy in support of Saccone. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC tied to Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, announced earlier this year that it would open two field offices in the district with 50 full-time canvassers. In Lambs first television spot, he noted that he has refused corporate PAC money. Tim Murphy fallout: The reasoning behind Murphys decision to leave office could have an effect on voters, some politicos in the state warned ahead of election night. Itll be interesting to see if voters turn against the Republican Party, seeing them as hypocritical, Speel said. Lamb has already painted Republicans as the party of hypocrisy. When he was selected as the Democrats nominee, Lamb said he planned to expose Republicans public hypocrisy fully equal to the private hypocrisy of Tim Murphy, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in November. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is out as the nation's top diplomat. President Trump announced the news in a tweet on the morning of March 13. Mike Pompeo, the current director of the CIA, will take Tillerson's place as secretary of state, he said. Gina Haspel, the current CIA deputy director, will then take over Pompeo's role at the intelligence agency. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Trump tweeted. The news broke amid Tillersons contentious relationship with President Trump. In October 2017, NBC News reported that Tillerson allegedly called Trump a "moron," and considered resigning from his position during the summer amid disputes with the White House. And sources told Fox News late last year that Tillerson planned to step down from his position in January 2018, though he did not. Heres what you need to know about Tillerson's career as secretary of state. March 22, 2018 -- In a farewell speech to State Department employees, Tillerson highlighted values such as integrity, honesty, respect and accountability. Tillerson, who did not mention President Trump in his speech, also said that Washington, D.C. can be a very mean spirited town. But you don't have to choose to participate in that, he added. Each of us get to choose the person we want to be, and the way we want to be treated, and the way we will treat others. March 15, 2018 -- Fox News learned that Tillersons plan, as of now, is to stay at the department until March 22 and then return to Texas. He officially remains secretary of state through the 31st. March 13, 2018 -- In a tweet, Trump announced that Tillerson was out as secretary of state. He will be replaced by Pompeo, the current director of the CIA, Trump said. Dec. 4 - Dec. 8, 2017 -- Tillerson embarked on a trip to Europe, which included a number of activities, among them the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council in Vienna and meeting "senior French leaders" in Paris, the State Department said. Dec. 3, 2017 -- In an interview broadcast on "Fox News Sunday," national security adviser H.R. McMaster said he's "not aware of any plan at all" to replace Tillerson. "What I'm aware of is that the secretary of state is traveling today to advance and protect our interests, as is our secretary of defense," McMaster said. Dec. 1, 2017 -- Tillerson attended two meetings at the White House with Trump one with Libya's visiting prime minister and then a lunch with the president and Defense Secretary James Mattis. Before those meetings, Tillerson told reporters at the State Department that speculation he was on his way out was "laughable." "The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon - FAKE NEWS!" Trump tweeted that day. "Hes not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!" Nov. 30, 2017 -- Reports said that Tillerson was expected to step down in January. While meeting with the Crown Prince of Bahrain in the Oval Office Thursday, Trump was asked if he wants Tillerson "on the job." "He's here," Trump told reporters. "Rex is here." Nov. 4 - Nov. 16, 2017 -- Tillerson joined the president during his five-nation tour of Asia that included stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, the State Department said. Tillerson later visited Burma during his travels. Oct. 20 - 26, 2017 -- Tillerson took part in the first Coordination Council meeting with the Saudi and Iraqi governments in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the State Department said. His trip also included stops in Qatar, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, India and Switzerland. Oct. 4, 2017 -- It's reported that Tillerson allegedly called Trump a moron after a meeting with cabinet officials on July 20. The comments came after President Trump gave a controversial speech to the Boy Scouts of America in July. Tillerson, who served as the president of the organization from 2010-2012, was reportedly upset over the content of the speech and allegedly threatened to quit. Trump later labeled the report fake news. Later that day, Tillerson called a press conference to address the reports, but sidestepped questions about his moron comment. "I'm not gonna deal with petty stuff like that," Tillerson said at the time. "The places I come from, we don't deal with that kind of petty nonsense. It is intended to do nothing but divide people and I'm not gonna be part of this effort to divide this administration." He did reaffirm that he was not planning to resign, however. TILLERSON BLASTS REPORT OF RIFT WITH TRUMP Oct. 2, 2017 -- Trump appeared to publicly chide Tillerson on his handling of North Korea. At the time, the president said Tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with the rogue country over its missile and nuclear programs. Sep. 28 - Oct. 1, 2017 -- Tillerson visited China and spoke about topics like trade and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to the State Department. Sep. 19 - 22, 2017 -- Tillerson had meetings and events in New York. On the margins of the UN General Assembly, Secretary Tillerson met with a number of his counterparts to discuss a range of bilateral and global issues, the State Department said. Sep. 13 - 14, 2017 -- Tillerson went to London for meetings on North Korea and Libya that were hosted by the United Kingdom, the State Department said. Aug. 5 - 9, 2017 -- Tillerson went to several events including the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit Ministerial, in Manila, the State Department said. Tillerson later visited Thailand and Kuala Lumpur. July 5 - 13, 2017 - Tillerson accompanied Trump to Hamburg, Germany, before going to Ukraine and meeting President Petro Porosheno, the State Department said. Tillerson later made stops in Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, meeting officials in those countries. While in Germany, Tillerson was at Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-20. The President opened the meeting with President Putin by raising the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election, Tillerson later told reporters. They had a very robust and lengthy exchange on the subject. The President pressed President Putin on more than one occasion regarding Russian involvement. President Putin denied such involvement, as I think he has in the past. Tillerson said that Trump and Putin agreed, though, that this is a substantial hindrance in the ability of us to move the Russian-U.S. relationship forward. June 5 - 6, 2017 -- Tillerson visited Sydney, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand. May 19 - 25, 2017 -- Tillerson accompanied Trump on his trip to Riyadh, Jerusalem, Rome and Brussels. May 10 - 11, 2017 -- Tillerson traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska where he attended the 10th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting, an intergovernmental forum designed to address issues related to the Arctic region. Tillerson attended along with representatives from the eight Arctic States. April 28, 2017 -- Tillerson visited New York City to chair a special ministerial meeting of the United Nations Security Council. April 9 - 12, 2017 -- Tillerson traveled to Italy and Russia. In Lucca, Italy, he attended the G-7 Foreign Ministers Meeting. Later in Moscow, Tillerson met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other Russian officials to discuss Ukraine, counterterrorism efforts and bilateral relations, among other things. WHO IS REX TILLERSON? March 30 - 31, 2017 -- Tillerson traveled to Belgium and Turkey. He visited NATO in Brussels after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials about how to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq. March 15 - 19, 2017 -- The secretary of state traveled to Japan, China and the Republic of Korea. In each country, he met with senior officials to discuss the nuclear and missile threat from North Korea. He also reaffirmed the United States commitment to further broaden and enhance U.S. economic and security interests in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the State Department. Feb. 22 - 23, 2017 -- Tillerson traveled to Mexico City to talk border security, law enforcement cooperation and trade with the President of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto and other Mexican officials, according to the State Department. He was joined by John Kelly, who was then the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. Feb. 15 - 17, 2017 -- Tillerson traveled to Bonn, Germany to attend the G-20 Foreign Ministers Meeting, marking his first trip as secretary of state. Feb. 1, 2017 -- The Senate confirmed Tillersons role in a 56-43 vote. A swearing-in ceremony was held in the Oval Office. This is where you were meant to be, right here, today, at this crossroads in history, Trump told Tillerson. Jan. 11, 2017 -- During a Senate confirmation hearing, the former Exxon Mobil CEO was grilled mainly by Democrats on everything from climate change, to his business interests, to his stance on Russia and China. Dec. 13, 2016 -- Trump said he planned to nominate Tillerson for secretary of state, calling him one of the truly great business leaders of the world. Dec. 6, 2016 -- Tillerson met the president-elect, before meeting him again Dec. 10, the Washington Post reported. Fox News' Brooke Singman, Rich Edson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. The top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence blasted Republicans Tuesday for prematurely shutting down the panels Russia probe, saying the matter still requires investigation. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., released a 22-page status update from the committees minority staff to inform the American public about key lines of inquiry still requiring congressional investigation. The majority on the Intelligence Committee made the decision to prematurely shut down the Russia investigation, Schiff said Tuesday evening on Capitol Hill. That was a terrible disservice to the country and the American people. On Monday evening, Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, who led the bipartisan investigation on the committee, released the majority report on the investigation, stating that they found no evidence of collusion, coordination or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians. The committees investigation was based on four topics: Russian active measures against the 2016 U.S. election, the U.S. governments response to that attack, links between Russians and the Trump and Clinton campaigns, and purported leaks of classified information. TRUMP TOUTS HOUSE INTEL FINDINGS OF 'NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION' BETWEEN CAMPAIGN, RUSSIA Conaway said on Special Report Monday that the Republicans on the committee believed they had the information necessary to answer those for the American people. But Schiff Tuesday slammed Conaway, saying the majoritys report was incomplete, as Republicans on the committee were unwilling to obtain necessary information. There is significant evidence of collusion, Schiff said Tuesday, noting much of it was in the public domain, pointing to the meeting in June 2016 at Trump Tower with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and then-candidate Trumps campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his son Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner; as well as alleged conversations former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had during the transition. All of that bares the issue of collusion, Schiff said. And of course, one of the most important parts of an investigation is putting the pieces together. Schiff said the Democrats on the committee would continue to do our work, noting that there were still individuals that were willing to cooperate that they would like to interview. A source close to the majority staff on the committee told Fox News on Monday they were finished with the investigation portion of the probemeaning it would not interview any additional witnesses as part of its effort. But the Democratic status report outlines a partial list of key witnesses that Schiff says the majority refused to interview. On the list are: Former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former Trump campaign senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, former deputy national security adviser, then-ambassador to Singapore KT McFarland, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino, former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, Russian attorney at the Trump Tower meeting Natalia Veselnitskaya, among others. The decision to shut down the investigation before key witnesses could be interviewed and vital documentary evidence obtained will prevent us from fully discharging our duty to the House and to the American people, the status report reviewed by Fox News read. The Committee Minority will be issuing an interim report that lays out the facts that we know to date and identifies what significant investigative steps remain, especially with respect to the issues of collusion and obstruction of justice. The majority staff report released Monday was 25-pages long, outlining more than 25 recommendations for Congress and the executive branch to improve election security, U.S. government response to cyberattacks, campaign finance transparency, and counterintelligence practices related to political campaigns and unauthorized disclosures. Schiff said the American people could ultimately be presented with two reports on the investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates during the 2016 presidential election. This work is too important to leave undone, Schiff said. Fox News' Chad Pergram, Catherine Herridge and Bree Tracey contributed to this report. President Trump offered full backing Tuesday to the United Kingdom as it investigates the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter with a nerve agent, and called on Russia to provide unambiguous answers on the subject. Prime Minister Theresa May spoke with Trump about the incident, according to readouts from both the White House and 10 Downing Street, and reiterated that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripel in Salisbury. President Trump said the U.S. was with the U.K. all the way, agreeing that the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used, a Downing Street spokesperson said. The White House account of the call added that the two leaders agreed on the need for consequences for those who use these heinous weapons in flagrant violation of international norms." May told lawmakers in the House of Commons Monday that the pair were exposed to a nerve agent called Novichok and also said there that it was "highly likely" that Russia was responsible. This attempted murder using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town was not just a crime against the Skripals, it was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk, May said. The pair remain in critical condition following the March 4 attack in Salisbury. A police detective, Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who attended the scene was in stable but serious condition. Skripal was recruited to spy for the U.K. after working in Russian military intelligence before being imprisoned by the Russians. He was freed in 2010 as part of a spy swap. Russia has denied any involvement in the attack. Trump had backed May earlier in the day, speaking to reporters before his departure for California, saying it sounds like Russia is responsible for the attack. It sounds to me that it would be Russia based on the evidence they have. I don't know if they've come to a conclusion but she's calling me today, he said. It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact. Fox News' Serafin Gomez contributed to this report. President Donald Trump said he would confront dangerous sanctuary cities as he visited border wall prototypes in California Tuesday. The president viewed eight potential prototypes in San Diego that could deliver on his paramount campaign promise to build a great, big beautiful wall. If you didnt have walls over here, you wouldnt have a country, Trump said, acknowledging some of the existing border wall infrastructure. The state of California is begging us to build a wall. They dont talk about that. Trump blasted Californias Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown on his visit, saying that hes done a very poor job running California. Its out of control, Trump said, pointing to the mayor of Oakland, who issued a warning last month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could be conducting a raid in the area, saying that she felt it was her duty and moral obligation as mayor to give those families fair warning when that threat appears imminent. OAKLAND MAYOR WARNS OF IMPENDING ICE RAID, RAMPING UP SANCTUARY-CITY TENSION California has landed in Trumps political crosshairs when it comes to immigration -- it calls itself a sanctuary state, meaning local law enforcement officials do not comply with state or federal immigration laws. The state has filed 28 lawsuits against the administration. But Brown did not seem to be begging for a wall. The governor has said the state is at "war" with the Trump administration. And even penned a letter to Trump that read: You see, in California we are focusing on bridges, not walls. And thats more than just a figure of speech. California theyre the best friend of the criminal, Trump said Tuesday, saying the state is very dangerous for policy and law enforcement folks. On his visit, the president called on Congress to pass, in the upcoming omnibus bill, funding for the border wall, and approve a measure to prohibit grants from jurisdictions not complying with federal immigration law. TRUMP VISITS BORDER WALL PROTOTYPES IN CALIFORNIA AS STATE IS AT 'WAR' WITH ADMINISTRATION We are going to confront dangerous sanctuary cities, Trump said. I am calling on Congress to deliver a budget that protects our homeland and properly funds all of our law enforcement needs. He added: Sanctuary cities are protecting a horrible group of people in many cases. Criminals. What happened in Oakland was a disgrace to our nation. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen touted the president on his continued leadership. We will build this wall, so thank you for coming out today, Nielsen said. We look forward to breaking ground very soon and securing our country. Fox News' Kristin Brown, Jennifer Bowman and William Lajeunesse contributed to this report. President Trump on Tuesday will get a first-hand view of the border walls that were the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Trump will visit San Diego to inspect eight prototypes of the big, beautiful wall. But experts say Trump is literally walking into a political war zone with his visit. California Gov. Jerry Brown has said the state is at war with the Trump administration. On Monday, Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, told a large media gathering that the president "is not welcome here." He would be welcome as our president if he stopped his racism, if he stopped bidding people once and for all against each other, if he acted like a president, if he had a little decency, Vargas said. He has none of that so he's not welcome here. The president arrives in San Diego Tuesday morning and will spend 40 minutes examining the different design features before flying to a fundraiser in Beverly Hills. As he flew to California, Trump took aim at the states sanctuary policies, calling them illegal and unconstitutional. Californias sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk, he tweeted. Thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP! The relation between the administration and California is rocky, at best. Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won California by 4 million votes. The state has filed 28 lawsuits against the administration. A Republican has not been elected statewide since former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. Minorities outnumber whites and Democrats outnumber Republicans almost two-to-one. Building more walls is irresponsible. When our bridges are crumbling and our schools are falling apart, said Christopher Wilson, associate director of Alliance San Diego. We need infrastructure. We don't need walls. The irony: California is already almost entirely walled off from Mexico, construction that began under former President Bill Clinton and continued under President Barack Obama. Evaluation of the eight, 30-foot high prototypes are already underway. The U.S. Border Patrol has said it is not selecting one design but is taking features from each. Agents prefer the see-through bollard-style fence, topped with concrete and a rounded, anti-scaling feature. Trump wants to roll out 60 miles this year and 64 next year. Its not just so much illegal immigration as also the drugs that come across the border, the human and sex trafficking that come across the border, said Amy Sutton of San Diego Patriots. Theres many things that go along with this and we need to get a handle on it because its out of control here in Southern California. Trump is the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower to skip a visit to California his first year in office. Thousands of demonstrators are expected to meet him in San Diego and Los Angeles. Neither side is back down. In the last 24 hours, top federal and state officials have traded insults and accusations. It appears no statewide official will greet the president when he arrives. Unlike former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who despite disagreements over immigration met President Obama on the tarmac in 2012, Brown has not extended the same courtesy to Trump. Instead, Brown wrote a letter to Trump inviting him to visit the high-speed rail construction in Central Valley. You see, in California we are focusing on bridges, not walls, Brown said in his letter. And thats more than just a figure of speech. Several protests are planned on Tuesday. One group will erect a large sign opposing the border wall, and several protests are planned in Southern California. You promised us a bill of love. You told us that you stand with the immigrant community, said Ali Torabi of San Diego Border Dreamers. Everything you're doing is extremely harmful, wasteful and hateful." Those who welcome Trumps visit are also planning rallies of their own. Among those who will attend those rallies are parents whose children were killed by illegal immigrants. He speaks his mind. And hes not afraid of being not politically correct, Sutton said. And I am all for that. And I think thats how the middle class and the regular working peoplewe can relate to him. 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. President Trump is known for giving his political opponents and critics nicknames, especially on social media. Read on for a list of Trump's most iconic nicknames. Wacky Omarosa Omarosa Manigault-Newman lasted one year in the White House, and her departure has been anything from cordial. In particular, Manigault-Newman has been under fire from the Trump administration for secretly recording the chief of staff John Kelly in the Situation Room, raising national security concerns. She's since released some of the tapes. Trump, in a series of tweets, called Manigault-Newman "wacky" and a "lowlife." "Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said OK," Trump said. "People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard really bad things." "Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said great things about me - until she got fired!" Trump said. "While I know it's 'not presidential' to take on a lowlife like Omarosa, and while I would rather not be doing so, this is a modern day form of communication and I know the Fake News Media will be working overtime to make even Wacky Omarosa look legitimate as possible. Sorry!" he continued. Slippery James Comey Trump dubbed former FBI Director James Comey the "worst" in history while blasting his new tell-all book, "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership." In a series of tweets, Trump also nicknamed the former FBI chief "Slippery James Comey." Slippery James Comey, a man who always ends up badly and out of whack (he is not smart!), will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far! Trump tweeted. Trump fired Comey in May 2017, citing the ex-director's handling of the FBIs investigation into Hillary Clintons email practices. Trump also called Comey a slimeball and suggested the former FBI director deserved jail time for mishandling the Clinton email probe. Animal Assad In the aftermath of a suspected chemical attack in Syria, Trump blasted Syrian President Bashar Assad and warned that those responsible would pay a big price. Trump also nicknamed the Syrian president Animal Assad. Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world, Trump alleged in a tweet. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK! Trump also blamed former President Barack Obamas foreign policy decisions for Animal Assad. And in a later tweet, Trump warned Russia against shooting down any missiles the U.S. would fire at Syria in retaliation for the purported attack, saying the country shouldnt be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it! Little Rocket Man Trump has never really had kind things to say about North Korea leader Kim Jong Un referring to him on Twitter as a maniac a whack job" and "rocket man" which is a President Trump original," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News. Trump tried out the "rocket man" nickname at the 2017 United Nations General Assembly. He's also tried out the moniker on Twitter. "The Chinese Envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man. Hard to believe his people, and the military, put up with living in such horrible conditions. Russia and China condemned the launch," he tweeted. In addition, Trump has called the North Korean leader a "sick puppy." Lamb the Sham Ahead of a tight special House election in Pennsylvania, Trump visited the Keystone state to stump for Republican Rick Saccone and hit Democrat Conor Lamb. Trump accused Lamb of saying nice things in order to get elected in Trump country, but promised those at a rally that the Democrat is not going to vote for us if elected. And the president dubbed the 33-year-old Marine Lamb the Sham. Lamb the Sham. Lamb the Sham. He is trying to act like a Republican. He won't give me one vote, Trump said. Trump also said he is better looking than Lamb. Sloppy Steve Steve Bannon used to be in the presidents good graces, but the pair has had a very public falling out. Bannon, the former White House chief strategist and ex-Breitbart executive, was quoted in a blistering tell-all book, painting the presidents son in a negative light. Trump heavily rebuked Bannon in a public statement, saying Bannon lost his mind after he was fired from the White House. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books, Trump said. Ahead of the release of the controversial book by Michael Wolff, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Trump slammed both the author and Bannon on social media giving Bannon his nickname. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve, Trump warned. Trump reiterated the Sloppy Steve nickname in other tweets, including one which he praised the Mercer family wealthy conservative mega-donors for having dropped the leaker known as Sloppy Steve Bannon. Pocahontas The president reused one of his favorite nicknames for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., while he honored Navajo code talkers at the White House in November. At the event held to honor the Native Americans who used their native language during World Wars I and II to help the U.S. Trump mocked Warren as Pocahontas. Trump has often criticized Warren, specifically over her claim to be of Native American heritage. Shes got about as much Indian blood as I have. Her whole life was based on a fraud, Trump told The New York Times in May 2016. Warrens potential Native American heritage was first questioned during her 2012 Senate run. Trump also calls Warren goofy. Dicky Durbin Trump made waves when he referred to Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., as Dicky Durbin online. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our military, said Trump in a tweet. Durbin was part of a group of lawmakers who visited Trump at the White House in January to discuss immigration reform. After reports surfaced that Trump referred to certain nations as s---hole countries at the bilateral meeting, Durbin accused the president of saying things that were hate-filled, vile and racist. Trump has admitted to using tough language at the meeting but denied certain remarks attributed to him. Sneaky Dianne Feinstein A transcript of a Fusion GPS official's August interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee was unilaterally released by the committees ranking member, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. The release of the bombshell interview drew ire from some Republicans, including the president and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. In a tweet following the release, Trump blasted the 84-year-old senator and called her Sneaky Dianne Feinstein. The fact that Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, who has on numerous occasions stated that collusion between Trump/Russia has not been found, would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way, totally without authorization, is a disgrace, Trump tweeted. Must have tough Primary! Jeff Flakey Like Trump and Sen. Bob Corker, Trump and Republican Sen. Jeff Flake have been feuding for quite some time. In announcing his retirement from the Senate, Flake slammed both the Republican Party and Trump. Flake was also caught on a hot mic saying if the GOP becomes the party of Roy Moore and Donald Trump, were toast. That comment gave Trump the opportunity to dub the Arizona senator Jeff Flakey. Sen. Jeff Flake(y), who is unelectable in the Great State of Arizona (quit race, anemic polls) was caught (purposely) on mike saying bad things about your favorite President. Hell be a NO on tax cuts because his political career anyway is toast, Trump tweeted. Al 'Frankenstien' After Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., was accused of kissing and groping Los Angeles radio host Leeann Tweeden during a USO tour in 2006, Trump blasted the lawmaker on Twitter. "The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?" Trump wrote, including an apparent misspelling of "Frankenstein." "And to think that just last week he was lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women. Lesley Stahl tape?" Liddle' Bob Corker The feud between Trump and Sen. Bob Corker has been going on for some time, but the Tennessee senator finally got a nickname. The Failing [New York Times] set Liddle Bob Corker up by recording his conversation. Was made to sound a fool, and thats what I am dealing with! Trump tweeted on Oct. 10. Corker slammed Trump in an interview with the newspaper and said the president is so reckless that he might be on the path to World War III. A transcript from the interview revealed that Corker acknowledged the conversation was on the record. Wacky Congresswoman Wilson Trump and Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., became locked in a public feud involving a Gold Star family earning the Florida congresswoman her nickname. The Fake News is going crazy with wacky Congresswoman Wilson (D), who was SECRETELY on a very personal call, and gave a total lie on content! Trump tweeted. Wilson accused Trump of making insensitive remarks to the pregnant widow of one of the four American soldiers killed during an attack in Niger. The White House, including chief of staff John Kelly, has ardently defended the presidents comments. Jerry Moonbeam Brown Trump hasn't seen eye-to-eye with California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, throughout much of his time in office but the president was especially critical after Brown pardoned 56 convicted felons, including five ex-convicts facing deportation. Trump blasted the pardoning on Twitter, calling the governor Jerry Moonbeam Brown. Is this really what the great people of California want? Trump said. Trump cant take full credit for Browns nickname. The Moonbeam moniker was given to the governor first in the 1970s by a columnist who said Brown was garnering the "moonbeam vote," or the younger, more idealistic voters in his gubernatorial campaign, according to The New York Times. The nickname continued as Brown pressed for California's space programs. Crazy Joe Biden It all started when former Vice President Joe Biden addressed an anti-sexual assault rally in Florida and cited lewd comments Trump made about women in the infamous Access Hollywood tape more than a decade ago. Biden, who has crusaded against sexual assault and harassment, said, If we were in high school, Id take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him. A few days later, Trump lashed out on Twitter, nicknaming the former senator Crazy Joe Biden. Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault, Trump said on March 22. He doesnt know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Dont threaten people Joe! In the past, Trump has referred to Biden on social media as our not very bright vice president. Little Adam Schiff Trump accused Rep. Adam Schiff of leaking confidential information from closed committee hearings and called for him to be stopped. The president also referred to the Democrat from California as Little Adam Schiff. Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, Trump said in a tweet, comparing him to former FBI Director James Comey, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan. Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped! Schiff is the ranking minority member on the House Intelligence Committee which released a controversial memo that detailed alleged improper surveillance techniques used in the Russia investigation. Schiff was critical of the memos public release supported by Republicans calling it misleading and undermining of the probe. Crooked Hillary Throughout the presidential campaign, Trump would often hit his opponent, Hillary Clinton, with criticisms on social media. Trump gave her the nickname Crooked Hillary, usually when he mentioned her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state. The first time Trump tweeted about Crooked Hillary was in April 2016. Sometimes Trump switched it up and would call the former first lady Lyin Hillary. Wild Bill Clinton While criticizing former FBI Director James Comey's memoir, Trump referenced the now-infamous meeting between former President Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch on a Phoenix airport tarmac in June 2016. The meeting was questioned because the then-attorney general was leading the investigation into Hillary Clintons email scandal. Comey throws AG Lynch under the bus! Why cant we all find out what happened on the tarmac in the back of the plane with Wild Bill and Lynch? Trump said. Was she promised a Supreme Court seat, or AG, in order to lay off Hillary. No golf and grandkids talk (give us all a break)! Lynch has said she and Clinton discussed only innocuous things on the tarmac but acknowledged that her speaking to the former president raised concerns in peoples minds about whether or not there was going to be any impact on the email investigation. Cheatin Obama Trump praised his own approval ratings on social media while taking a jab at former President Barack Obama. The president said the honest polling of Rasmussen shows his approval rating at 50 percent, which is higher than Cheatin Obama at the same time in his Administration. The April 2 Rasmussen poll showed 50 percent of likely U.S. voters approved of Trump. However, 49 percent disapproved. Little Marco The rhetoric among the Republican presidential contenders hit a different kind of low as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio went after Trump for having small hands and Trump started to call the senator Little Marco. The two also discussed the size of Trumps hands and other things during a GOP debate in March 2016. Trump first tweeted the Little Marco nickname in February 2016. Lyin Ted Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Trump didnt start out as enemies during the 2016 campaign, but the two Republican contenders were soon at each others throats. Trump dubbed Cruz Lyin Ted when he went after him for his immigration policies in a campaign ad in March 2016. Low Energy Jeb Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also got a Trump nickname when he was a 2016 Republican presidential contender Low energy Jeb Bush. Despite the exclamation point in Bushs campaign logo, Trump started to use the nickname to criticize his opponent during the campaign. Trump told Business Insider that there wasnt a backstory to the nickname, he just seemed like a low energy person to Trump. 1 for 38 When Ohio Gov. John Kasich attempted to team up with Cruz during the Republican primary to deny Trump the partys nomination, Trump took to Twitter to dole out a new nickname. And Kasich became 1 for 38. Trump assigned Kasich the name because he won only one state in the primary and lost the others, Trump said in a statement in August 2016. Eventually Kasich would also be referred to as 1 for 42 by the eventual president. Crazy Bernie Sen. Bernie Sanders, the white-haired Independent socialist who became a progressive icon during the 2016 election, earned himself the nickname Crazy Bernie from Trump. Trump first tweeted about Crazy Bernie in May 2016 when he criticized Crooked Hillary for looking very bad against Sanders. Crying Chuck After Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, N.Y., criticized Trump for firing F.B.I. Director James Comey, Trump hit him right back with an original nickname. Cryin Chuck Schumer stated recently, I do not have confidence in him (James Comey) any longer. Then acts so indignant, he tweeted on May 9, 2017. Schumer shed some tears when he discussed Trumps immigration ban earlier in 2017. But Schumer wasnt crying after Trump agreed to the Democrats short-term debt-limit increase and Hurricane Harvey aid. Crazy Jim Acosta Trump had a surprising tweet of gratitude Tuesday morning for CNNs White House correspondent, Jim Acosta while also bestowing a nickname on his media adversary. Even Crazy Jim Acosta of Fake News CNN agrees: Trump World and WH sources dancing in end zone: Trump wins againSchumer and Dems cavedgambled and lost. Thank you for your honesty Jim! Trump tweeted. Trumps tweet referenced Acostas earlier social media post. The president and his administration has often slammed Acosta and CNN for coverage they deem unfair or fake news. Trump has also kicked Acosta out of the Oval Office. Sleepy Eyes Trump has thought NBC reporter Chuck Todd has looked sleepy long before the election or campaign. He first dubbed Todd sleepy in a 2001 tweet, but upgraded his nickname to Sleepy Eyes by 2012. And in 2018, at a campaign rally for a Republican congressional candidate, Trump slammed the NBC anchor as a son of a b-----. Trump mentioned a 1999 "Meet the Press" appearance when he discussed North Korea. Its 1999, Im on 'Meet the Press,' a show now headed by sleepy-eyes Chuck Todd, Trump said. Hes a sleeping son of a b----, Ill tell you. Dumb as a Rock Mika From writer Toure to National Review, Trump has called many things dumb as a rock. But Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBCs Morning Joe earned the nickname in July after she and Joe Scarborough criticized the president. Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses, he tweeted. Too bad! His attack on the news anchor continued, as he called her low I.Q. Crazy Mika and said she was bleeding badly from a face-lift when she came to Mar-a-Lago around New Years Eve. Psycho Joe In a Twitter rant about his dislike of MSNBCs Morning Joe program, Trump dubbed host Joe Scarborough Psycho Joe. Crazy Megyn Trumps comments about then-Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly were often criticized and deemed misogynistic by critics. During their feud, Trump took to calling Kelly Crazy Megyn. Little Jeff Zucker Trump criticized CNN in an April tweet and called its president Little Jeff Zucker. Check out the fact that you cant get a job at ratings challenged [CNN] unless you state that you are totally anti-Trump, the president alleged on social media. Little Jeff Zucker, whose job is in jeopardy, is not having much fun lately. They should clean up and strengthen CNN and get back to honest reporting. Fox News' Matt Richardson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of state, the White House announced on March 13 as he came back to the U.S. from a trip to Africa. Tillerson will be replaced as the nations top diplomat by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Rumors that Tillerson would be out as secretary of state have been circling for quite some time, and he was expected to step down from the position in January. Tillerson told reporters that his last day will be March 31. Until then, he will delegate all of his responsibilities to the deputy secretary of state. In leaving, Tillerson lamented that Washington, D.C., can be a "very mean-spirited town." He told the State Department employees that "personal integrity" is the "most valuable asset you posses." Heres a look at who Tillerson is and what he did before joining the ever-evolving Trump administration. Who is Rex Tillerson? Tillerson, 65, grew up in Texas and Oklahoma. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering. Tillerson is also known for his involvement with the Boy Scouts of America. He served as the organization's national president from 2010 to 2012. Following the oft-criticized speech Trump gave to the Boy Scouts in 2017, Tillerson reportedly threatened to resign from the State Department. What about his resume? Prior to becoming secretary of state, Tillerson did not have any experience in the public sector. Tillerson was the chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil until 2016. He served in that role starting in 2006, but he actually joined the company in 1975 as a production engineer, according to an archived version of his Exxon biography. What has he done as secretary of state? Tillersons tenure as secretary of state was fairly contentious with Trump. He reportedly called Trump a moron in front of other Cabinet officials in July 2017. Following reports of the remark, Tillerson gave an unusual personal address and reassured people he was not quitting. As secretary of state, Tillerson traveled extensively visiting Australia, Europe, Mexico and Africa, among other places. He assumed the position of secretary of state on Feb. 1. Tillersons ties to Russia have also been scrutinized a criticism that has plagued many Trump administration officials as investigators continue to look into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Tillerson was named vice president of Exxon Ventures (CIS) Inc., and president of Exxon Neftegas Limited in 1998. In those roles, Tillerson was tasked with overseeing Exxons holdings in Russia and the Caspian Sea, his Exxon biography stated. He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times before becoming secretary of state. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A monster-sized 330-pound fish was found washed up on the Australian shore last week. John and Riley Lindholm from the Australian state of Victoria were walking on Moore Park Beach in southern Queensland when they came across the strange looking fish, ABC News reported. John Lindholm, who has worked as a charter skipper most of his life, said he could not identify what type of fish it was. LOBZILLA? FEAR AS FISHERMAN FINDS GIANT CLAW FROM 'MONSTER' LOBSTER "I've seen a lot of fish, and a lot of big fish, but I've never seen anything like it," Lindholm told Australia's ABC News. "I thought it might have been a groper, but looking at the head shape it still may be a groper, but it just doesn't seem to fit with what other people up here have told me, he continued. He estimated the fish weighed about 330 to 375 pounds. It was a big, big fish, he said. Lindholm said the fishs size shocked him. I've seen whales wash up on the beach but the size of this and the kind of fish it was, it took my breath away," he said. PENGUINS HAVE SELFIE MOMENT IN ANTARTICA Lindholm said the fish did not appear to have been hit by a boat propeller and believes that it died naturally. "I just think it may have reached the end of its lifespan and basically expired," he said. Lindholm went back the next day to see the fish but it was gone. The Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol said it worked with experts from the Queensland Museum to try and identify the monster fish. The organization determined the fish appeared to be a Queensland groper. "How the fish came to be washed up on the beach and its cause of death also could not be determined," the Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol said. The organization said it is prohibited to catch and possess the groper because it is a protected species. "Cosmos" host and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently shot down the ideas of anyone who still thinks the Earth is flat. In a new YouTube video on the scientist's StarTalk channel, he used examples ranging from space observations to ancient Greek experiments in a conversation with stand-up comedian Chuck Nice. "So, tell me, Neil, is the Earth flat?" Nice said to open the conversation. "We have video from space of the rotating, spherical Earth. The Earth is round," was Tyson's laconic response. [Even a Kid Can Prove the Earth Is Round: Here's How] Satisfied, Nice joked, "Thank you for joining us on this episode," and pretended to wrap things up. But the co-hosts continued their conversation in a 9-minute video that is based on a chapter in Tyson's new book, "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" (W.W. Norton, 2017). The science argument "What's odd," Tyson continued, "is there are people who think that Earth is flat but recognize that the moon is round. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the sun are all spheres. But Earth is flat ... something doesn't square here." Tyson explained that because of the laws of physics and the way energy works, the universe "favors the sphere" when forming planets and other bodies. Sometimes, a sphere might be distorted because it's rotating very fast. But almost everything in the universe, he added, is spherical or almost spherical. Tyson did not address asteroids, which are small bodies of ice and rock and are irregularly shaped. It is widely recognized, however, that these asteroids have a gravity too low to pull their mass into a sphere. Worlds orbiting the sun that do have spherical bodies are sometimes called planets, but only if they meet certain criteria set by the International Astronomical Union. In the example of Pluto once considered a planet the IAU ruled in 2006 that the body is not big enough to clear debris from its path and therefore should be reclassified as a dwarf planet. That's a controversial definition, one that Pluto's New Horizons spacecraft team does not agree with. But for his part, Tyson (as shown in many other sources, such as this 2017 clip from "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ") really, really doesn't believe Pluto fits the definition of planethood. Tyson was similarly outspoken in the new StarTalk video. He said there are people in the U.S. who believe in a flat Earth for two reasons: the country protects free speech, and its educational system doesn't teach students to think critically about the evidence. There's even more evidence that the Earth is round, Tyson said. During lunar eclipses, the moon passes into the Earth's shadow and lies directly opposite to the sun. The shape of the Earth's shadow is always round in these eclipses. If Earth were a flat planet, at times, you would see a flat shadow on the moon. But that's never happened, Tyson added. The Earth must be a sphere, because that's the only thing that casts a perfect circle every time. Or think about a ship sailing toward the horizon, Tyson said it gradually disappears, because the Earth is curved. Or, he said, if he were to send co-host Nice on a journey around the Earth, Tyson could turn his chair 180 degrees and eventually see Nice arriving back where the comedian had started. (Nice quipped that would take him 150 years to accomplish the trip, because "I'm no Forrest Gump. It would take me that long to run the Earth.") Tyson further described an ancient experiment by the Greek Eratosthenes, who lived in Alexandria around 250 B.C. Eratosthenes noted that in an Egyptian city called Syene (near modern-day Aswan), you could see right to the bottom of a well at noon during the summer solstice. On the same day, you couldn't see to the bottom of a well in Alexandria. There are two possible explanations for that observation, Tyson added. The first is that the Earth is flat and has a small sun, close to the planet. The second is that the Earth is curved, with a sun further from the planet. But if you were to extend the argument to three wells, there's no way a flat Earth's geometry would fit the experiment's results, he added. So, what if people still believe the Earth is flat? "That's OK," Tyson quipped, "as long as you don't run NASA." Original article on Space.com. London Mayor Sadiq Khan shared death threats hes received on Twitter during a South by Southwest (SXSW) keynote speech in which he called for technology companies and governments to safeguard citizens from hate speech, disinformation and the tech-driven negative impact of globalization. During a time of what Khan called historic change and uncertainty, the tech sector as a whole must take a greater share of responsibility for curtailing hate speech and extremism, increasing the diversity of its own ranks and minimizing the negative effects of its products on communities. No business or industry should ever consider itself above the local rules or laws set by democratic processes, Khan, who is Londons first Muslim mayor, told a packed auditorium in Austin, Texas. SADIQ KHAN: 'DERELICTION OF DUTY' BY POLICYMAKERS FOR FAILING TO REGULATE BIG TECH Examples of the tweets that Khan read aloud include: Muslims have no dignity. I wish Sadiq Khan would just blow himself up like they all do. He might get his 12 virgins. I'd pay for someone to execute Sadiq Khan, funnily enough. Deport all muslims and make london white again, all problems will be gone During a sit-down the Huffington Post Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen after the speech, Khan said he didnt share the tweets to call attention to his own harassment, though he called it distressing. Companies and users alike have a responsibility to not only show solidarity with victims of harassment but also to take action. We know that there is technology that exists, algorithms that can be designed to spot this stuff, said Khan. This is not about depriving people of free speech, this is about inciting hatred, this is about things that divide our communities. However, the tech and business-friendly British mayor took aim at governments and fellow progressives for failing to alleviate the economic pain of communities left behind by globalizations reach as a wave of nationalistic populism continues to spread in Europe and the U.S. SXSW: SCIENTISTS TOUT 'PEN' TECHNOLOGY THAT DETECTS CANCER IN 20 SECONDS We have to train them up to have the skills for the jobs of tomorrow. Weve got to make sure that traditional sectors understand they have to innovate and we have to train up people, re-train people in traditional sectors, Khan said. The London mayor also took a veiled swipe at the Clinton brand of liberalism and at President Trump. This idea of triangulation, I think that was a mistake for progressives, said Khan. Rather than addressing peoples fears, individuals are playing on them to win elections. According to Khan, if you are unhappy about a lack of healthcare or poor housing options, its not the fault of immigrants but a failure of governments to invest in better healthcare, affordable housing and better schools. Weve got to explain that in a proper way. What we did in the last 10 to 30 years is assume that everyone would enjoy the fruits of globalization, Khan told Polgreen. A similar situation to what happened in Americas Rust Belt has played out in Great Britain, where many of the people who voted to leave the European Union did so out of a deep sense of disillusionment with the impact of globalization. In terms of the tech sector, Khan said he was hopeful that companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter will make the necessary adjustments moving forward. Unless they evolve and adapt and take steps, then dont be surprised if governments go down the German route, he added. This is a rush transcript from "Journal Editorial Report," March 10, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. DAVID ASMAN, FOX HOST: Welcome to the 'Journal Editorial Report'. I'm David Asman, in for Paul Gigot. In a week of breaking news, an extraordinary announcement from South Korea's national security adviser on Thursday night saying that President Trump would meet face to face with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un in the upcoming months. Just hours after his own secretary of state said the U.S. was, quote, 'a long way from direct talks, the president himself tweeted out, quote, 'Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean representatives, not just a freeze. Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned.' John Bolton is the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a Fox News contributor. John, good to see you. Let's go back just a couple of months to January when a president tweeted out, had another tweet about North Korea. He said, 'North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the nuclear button is on his desk at all times. Will someone from his depleted and food-starved regime please inform him that I, too, have a nuclear button but it is much bigger and more powerful than his, and my button works.' After that, Ambassador Bolton, we had this outcry from the media and the establishment saying, oh, my god, what has Trump done. We'll never have another meeting from the North Koreans. And, now we have this. Clearly, they were dead wrong. JOHN BOLTON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, exactly. This is diplomatic shock and awe. I think it's important to understand why Kim Jong-Un probably made that proposal and why President Trump accepted it, probably surprising Kim Jong-Un. I think it's not the sanctions. I think it's because North Korea knows how close it is to achieving the objective of delivering nuclear weapons to targets in the United States and they wanted to buy time. And they fear that if they don't buy time that Trump is serious about the use of military force. Because he said the only acceptable outcome is denuclearization. What Trump did by accepting the offer I think could well have thrown the North Korean play book into disarray. Kim Jong-Un is sitting there saying, where are the tabs here in the briefing book that explain what we do if he accepts it. So I think -- really, people want diplomacy. Now you're going to get it at the highest level. There's not going to be six months of arduous preparations or anything like that. In fact, I wouldn't wait until the end of May. I would have this meeting before the end of March. ASMAN: Yes. And it may happen soon. It could be in a week or two. But it does show, does it not, that the tough talk of this administration and the tough action alongside the tough talk actually work. BOLTON: Yes. I think nobody wants to see military force used here. But we don't have very many options after 25 years of talking have failed. And I think the North understands that President Trump -- again, he doesn't want to see military force but he's not afraid of it. You know, I just think this could be a very interesting discussion. The discussion I would have at this meeting is for the president to say, OK, what ports do we send our freighters to, what airports do we land or cargo planes at, and what's the logistics of loading your nuclear weapons program into the boats and planes so we can bring them to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where the Libyan nuclear weapons program is. ASMAN: Oh, yes. We remember where that ended up. Short of war, John, there is a lot that can be done. Of course, the sanctions are going to be stiffened. The president said the sanctions would remain in place until such time as there is an agreement with the North Koreans. But there's also boarding boats, for example, that are going to and coming from North Korea. Those actions will continue, correct? BOLTON: Yes. And I think that's important. I favor all sanctions on North Korea. But for those who think that sanctions are what's causing this effect to happen, pose this question: How much financial assistance and support has Iran been giving to North Korea before these recent sanctions, and how much assistance are they going to give after the sanctions. The fact is North Korea has dozens of ways of getting around the sanctions. ASMAN: Yes. BOLTON: They're the biggest con men in the world. And here's the key point. They're very close to getting across the nuclear delivery threshold. That's the key. They're not going to slow down now and talking isn't going to stop them. ASMAN: There's another advantage, though, to having talks is that we can keep an eye on the South Koreans. The South Koreans had been engaged in these one-on-one talks with the North Koreans. There are appeasers in the South Korean government that may give too much to the North Korean. At least this gives us a place at the table so we can monitor what they're doing. BOLTON: Yes. Donald Trump is not sponge cake, and it's not going to be the kind of conversation that I think some in South Korea want to have. But I've also got a proposal, David, for the location of the talks. I can tell you precisely what room it ought to be in. It ought to be in Geneva at the old League of Nations headquarters. The U.N. owns it now. And it ought to be in the conference room where Jim Baker and the Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister, met in January of 1991, and what then-President George W. Bush called going the last mile for peace. And after that meeting where Tariq Aziz, I think, for six hours, refused to talk about the invasion of Kuwait, wouldn't take a letter from Jim Baker from the president to Saddam Hussain. And I think Kim Jong-Un ought to sit in that room and look around and think about what happened when he stiffed a former U.S. president. ASMAN: John, I'm sure the White House is listening, and they'll take your instructions verbatim. Thank you very much, John Bolton -- BOLTON: Thank you. ASMAN: -- former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Let's bring in 'Wall Street Journal ' columnist and deputy editor, Dan Henninger and Columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady. Dan, what do you make of all of this? DAN HENNINGER, COLUMNIST & DEPUTY EDITOR: Well, I think John Bolton, he put his finger on it, to me, the most important element here, which is the North Koreans have an ICBM missile that can hit within U.S. mainland. Secondly, the main thing they have to do is fasten one of those nuclear warheads to the top of the missile in a way that can reenter the atmosphere. Most experts think they'll be able to do that within 12 to 24 months. Kim knows that. As John Bolton just said, I don't think these talks are going to have any effect on that. I do believe that Kim has initiated this talk with Donald Trump so that he releases the pressure off of the rest of the world on North Korea so that they can get to that point, between a year and two years. And once they have that missile, with the warhead fastened to the top of it, we're into an entirely new ball game, and talks aren't going to solve it at all. ASMAN: Mary, what about this is more than just about dialogue with North Korea. It's making sure that the South Koreans don't give away too much? MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY, COLUMNIST: I think Dan puts the zinger on it when he talks about -- and John Bolton did, too -- that they're not going to backtrack at this point. They want the missile and they want the bomb. And you know, for them, I think this is buying time. And Kim also gets something out of it, which is the propaganda value of him on the same plane as the U.S. president in an equal sort of picture in a photo that looks good for him. I mean, I understand why the president is going this direction, because, you know, as John Bolton said, we don't have many options available to us, but I don't see any reason for great optimism just because he agreed to this. ASMAN: No. But, Dan, it does give me certain confidence to know that it won't be just the South Koreans along with the North Koreans. We'll be at the table as well. Because the South Koreans are going to talk to the North Koreans no matter what we do. HENNINGER: That's true. The point here is that Trump has made this commitment. It's typical Trump behavior, make the commitment, details later. You're not going to go into any sort of negotiation like this, I would assume, without consulting with, say, the Japanese and even internally in the White House and the administration about what we might do in a conversation with Kim Jong-Un. None of that has happened. O'GRADY: And it's worth going back and looking at the number of times that North Korea has agreed to something and then violated it. ASMAN: One thing is nobody saw this coming. That's for sure When we come back, President Trump announcing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports over the objections of a lot of people in his own party. But with Friday's robust jobs reports, does it economic argument for tariffs still stand? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I'm defending America's national security by placing tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum. We'll have a 25 percent on foreign steel and a 10 percent tariff on foreign aluminum when the product comes across our borders. (END VIDEO CLIP) ASMAN: President Trump announcing new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on Thursday over the objections of a lot of people in his own party. The president signed a pair of proclamations imposing a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum, with several exemptions, including an immediate one for Canada and Mexico as NAFTA talks continue. But did Friday's extraordinary good jobs numbers cut into the president's argument that we need tariffs for jobs. We're back with Dan Henninger and Mary Anastasia O'Grady. 'Wall Street Journal 'Columnist Kim Strassel joins us. And assistant editorial page editor, James Freeman, also joins the panel. James, the huge job number on Friday. We haven't had a jobs number over 300,000 new jobs in over two years. Does that belie the argument that we need tariffs for jobs? JAMES FREEMAN, ASSISTANT EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR: It does. It says that the Trump tax cuts and deregulation initiative are working. We've had a lot of jobs reports where you say, on one hand other, on the other, this was good, not so good. ASMAN: Right. FREEMAN: This was really encouraging. Not just the big number. Not just the upward revisions to previous months. So there's a lot more job creation than we thought. But also, really, just you're seeing finally people come back into the workforce who got discouraged during the Obama years. So, yes, we don't need trade wars. The formula is working. ASMAN: Right. Right. And, Dan, the president has gone hot and cold on the whole issue of trade wars. But the bottom line is there were a lot of exemptions that came out when we finally announced it on Thursday. We had, first of all, Canada and Mexico, as I mentioned. There are exemptions for steel that's used to make defense products. And then he sort of, off the cuff, it seems, said that there would be exemptions for companies that manufacture in the United States, kind of appeasing those companies that were thinking of starting up new factories in the U.S. HENNINGER: Yes. It's very interesting, David. And the stock market I think is reacting to the exemptions. It ended up Friday--Thursday, I guess--at 90 points. ASMAN: Yes. HENNINGER: I was watching the market during the speech and while he was talking about security and jobs, two, three, something like that. Then he started talking about President William McKinley and the great Republican tariff. The market went down immediately about 15 points. (LAUGHTER) HENNINGER: And then when he started talking about the exemptions, it started going up and up and up. (CROSSTALK) HENNINGER: And I think the market is seeing it's going to be a long time before anyone has a new tariff imposed on them. ASMAN: Kim -- let me go to Mary first. Even if it's tariff light or extremely light because of all of the exemptions won't it have some economic effects? O'GRADY: It will. It will be an order of magnitude. The more the tariffs, the worse it will be. But going to the question about jobs, it's not a question of whether we need tariffs to save jobs. The point is tariffs will destroy jobs. We know that. They'll save some jobs in the steel industry, which, by the way, has mechanized and uses high-tech now, so uses a lot fewer employees than it did 20 years ago. And it will also destroy jobs for people who use steel, who need that imported steel. And that's even before any of the retaliation starts from other countries. ASMAN: Kim, the interesting thing is not only do his allies not like it, or a lot of them, but some of his supposed enemies seem to like it. And one is Elon Musk. He sent out a couple of tweets, one, 'I'm against import duties in general, but the current rules make things very difficult. It's like completing in an Olympic race wearing lead shoes. 'That's a nice little analogy.' Then he focused on his own industry. He said. 'An American car going into China pays 25 percent import duty but a Chinese car coming to the U.S. only pays 2.5 percent, a 10-fold difference.' What do you think? STRASSEL: Well, of course, he did because this is exactly Mary's point, that when you have tariffs, they go to special pleaders. And in the end, those tariffs may help the handful of special pleaders, but only at great damage to the rest of the economy. So President Trump would be wise not to be listening to those special pleaders--who, by the way, are the swamp, just saying-- (LAUGHTER) --but rather to the members of his own party, who have been pointing out to him that this is going to be damaging to the economy. And they're saying, look, have some faith in the tax cuts we just passed for you. A 40 percent cut for steel companies and other manufacturers is going to do far more help to the economy than a new tax on a vital commodity. ASMAN: By the way, James, speaking of the swamp, to have Wilbur Ross, a guy who used to buy distressed steel companies, come out and be the front man for this seems kind of like there's a conflict of interest there, no? FREEMAN: Yes, on tariffs and import restrictions, these are all swamp creatures. This is what happens when, instead of letting consenting adults trade freely, you have lobbyists in Washington saying let's protect this or that industry. Yes. Does anyone think that Wilbur Ross is a compelling champion on this score? I would say probably no, and the market said no, and that's why Trump backtracked. ASMAN: Dan, the president initially said this thing isn't going to spread. But as we see with Elon Musk and the other industries, thinking, maybe I could get a piece of this pie as well. There's a pile-on effect. Once you offer tariffs to one group, other groups jump in. HENNINGER: Well, you know, Trump has said many times free trade agreements have been a disaster for the United States. Now we're going to see the Trump model of trade negotiations. He did say that Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer would go out and negotiate individually with all of these countries in Europe, in Asia about their imports. This is going to take a long time to wind through all of those negotiations. He gave a 15-day deadline. We're going way beyond the deadline before we get to the point where we understand if, in fact, there are going to be tariffs. ASMAN: We've got to move on. When we come back, we turn from the economic to the Trump tariffs to the politics of it. The fallout inside the White House was swift, with a key adviser resigning. And on Capitol Hill, many are wondering if the move will help or hurt Republicans in the midterms. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: This is Gary Cohn's last meeting in the cabinet and of the cabinet, and he's been terrific. He may be a globalist, but I still like him. (LAUGHTER) He is seriously a globalist. There's no question. (LAUGHTER) He's going to go out and make another couple hundred million and then -- (LAUGHTER) Then he's going to maybe come back. (END VIDEO CLIP) ASMAN: Kind of a compliment, I guess. President Trump Thursday bidding farewell to his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn. Cohn, of course, announcing his resignation this week in the wake of the president's decision to impose tariffs and steel and aluminum imports, a move that put him on the losing side of a months-long battle with the administration. Kim, you had a terrific piece in 'the Wall Street Journal ' on Friday about what was going on inside the White House. It was a presidential promise on the campaign trail, no doubt, that he was going to impose tariffs of some kind. But it had been kept under wraps for over a year. What finally took the wraps off? STRASSEL: Well, look, what gets missed in this is just how much work had gone into getting to a plan. You've got a protectionist faction in the White House. You've got a free-market faction. They had finally met in an uneasy middle and they had a deliberate plan. On paper, it was supposed to start in January with the president's announcement on solar panels and washing machine. And then, there was going to be a very targeted action against China, because many people on both sides can agree that it's a bad actor on things like intellectual property. Instead, the process broke down. Wilbur Ross got in the president's ear -- (CROSSTALK) ASMAN: He's the commerce secretary. STRASSEL: He's the commerce secretary. And suddenly, the president is out there imposing steel tariffs, which had been designed to be held in reserve, by the way, on the entire world, not just China. And Gary Cohn was rightfully unhappy that after all of this work that had gone into it, that this was the president just completely throwing all of that overboard. ASMAN: Of course, James, Gary Cohn is a Democrat. Let's put that out front. He is a globalist. He does believe in a globalist economy. If you don't, you've kind of got your head in the sand. But at the same time, it was always a tough fit in the Trump administration, wasn't he? FREEMAN: Yes. I think it's disappointing that he's choosing this moment to leave. I actually don't think he was that necessary to the tax cutting. I think you already had a big coalition in Washington ready to do that. You had the Trump plan. You had lawmakers like Pat Toomey pushing it. Now where we need Gary Cohn is making the case for free trade, and I think he's leaving what I think is really the start of the battle. ASMAN: Mary, you have the president this weekend in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is steel country. If there's a state in the union that's in favor of these tariffs, it is Pennsylvania. But I'm wondering, outside of Pennsylvania, a lot of blue collar communities where they manufacture steel are going to have to pay more for it. How does it play out in the country? O'GRADY: I think he's betting on the steel producers being very concentrated in certain pockets in the country, and that's precisely where he's going this weekend, in an area of Pittsburgh that's steel country. The disadvantage that steel users have are they're going to be more dispersed, so they don't organize as well, they're not as much of a political force. The test will be whether manufacturers and users of steel can organize and push back against this. I would add one thing to what you were saying to James about the Democrats. What Donald Trump is doing is right out of Hillary Clinton's play book. My colleague, Bill McGurn, wrote about that in his column this week. Gary Cohn may be a Democrat who is a free trader, but that's the exception in the party, not the rule. So if Donald Trump is using this, he's basically trying to one-up what the Democrats are already saying, which is they also want more protection for their special interests in organized labor. ASMAN: But, Dan, of course, what he did is classic Trump. He sets the stage way out front, and then pulls back along the way during the negotiating process, which is why we end up with a set of tariffs that are nowhere near as tough as they started out as. HENNINGER: Yes and all decisions like this have political consequences. There's a couple here that Trump may not have anticipated. One, he could be delivering a political wedge between the United States and its allies, the countries affected by this, at a time, as we were just discussing. John Bolton was saying, we need their support with the Korean sanctions. Secondly, the fact is that within the steel manufacturing industry, there are 900,000 workers versus about 140,000 in steel producing. And a lot of these people are blue collar, they're Trump voters, they're in states like Wisconsin, Michigan. And if they get hurt by the tariffs as their employers are suggesting they might be, they, at the margin, could start turning away from Trump and the Republicans, and that's why they're so nervous about this. ASMAN: Kim, very quickly to you. Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross now think they're on top of the world, that they have the full control of the economic policy in the administration. My suspicion is that they've kind of topped right now, haven't thy? STRASSEL: Look, so much now depends on who Trump chooses to be a successor to Gary Cohn. If he puts Peter Navarro there, I think the country is in for some rough, rough economic times. But if he goes and he gets -- I don't know -- a Larry Kudlow, an Art Laffer, there's a chance to further walk back these particular tariffs, and, you know, it's going to offer some hope for those in the White House that are on the free-trade side -- they're very demoralized right now -- that it's worthwhile sticking with this administration and continuing the fight on the battle. ASMAN: All right. Still ahead, as the leaks keep come in the Mueller probe, Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he's considering a second special counsel. This one to investigate alleged FBI bias and surveillance abuses. So is that a good idea? Our panel weighs in, coming next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) DAVID ASMAN, FOX HOST: Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he's seriously considering the appointment of a second special counsel to look into FBI surveillance abuses during the presidential campaign. This after House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Oversight Chair Trey Gowdy sent a letter to the Justice Department this weekend. Here's what the attorney general told Shannon Bream on Wednesday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I have great respect for Mr. Gowdy and Chairman Goodlatte. And we're going to consider seriously their recommendations. I have appointed a person outside of Washington many years in the Department of Justice to look at all of the allegations that the House Judiciary Committee members sent to us. And we're conducting that investigation. I also am well aware that we have a responsibility to ensure the integrity of the FISA process. We're not afraid to look at that. (END VIDEO CLIP) ASMAN: We're back with Dan Henninger, Kim Strassel and James Freeman. Dan, there's a whole can of worms that you open if you start with a new special counsel. We've seen special counsels go far beyond their purview in the past. On the other hand, just an inspector general's report may not be enough to do what's necessary to get to the bottom of this. What do you do? DAN HENNINGER, COLUMNIST & DEPUTY EDITOR: David, consider the implications of what's being suggested here. We have a problem. The idea is that the Justice Department is inadequate to investigate it. That's the executive branch of government. And now you have Trey Gowdy and Representative Bob Goodlatte saying Congress is not able to do it, therefore, the legislative branch isn't able to do it. This is a failure of American political institutions. What is in between that? The idea that we've had so much polarization and leaking that you cannot get to the bottom of an issue like that speaks badly of our institutions. I think you should probably stick with the inspector general. ASMAN: Kim, we've got all kinds of failures in our institutions based on what happened in 2016. You have the problems with the FISA court, the problems with the FBI and the Justice Department that were filled with people that didn't want Donald Trump as president, no matter what they had to do to prevent that from happening. What is the very latest? Because a lot of the work is being done by people like you, by people in the media, as few as there are, we should add. KIM STRASSEL, WASHINGTON COLUMNIST: I would like to say that Congress has done as good a job as it possibly can. The problem has been, of course, is a Justice Department and an FBI that has fought tooth and nail. And this isn't necessarily A.G. Sessions' fault because he's somewhat stepped back from that process. But they've done everything they could to not come buy with congressional requests and continue to hide thing. Now the latest, which is interesting, is the House Intelligence Committee is looking into the other side of this, the Clinton campaign and the Obama administration's involvement in this so-called dossier, and whether or not they were engaged with political tricks with it. And it sent out several dozen letter to people in the Obama administration asking them what they knew and when they knew it. That will be the next step, finding out some on that. ASMAN: And of course, James, the mainstream media, with the exceptions like Kim Strassel, the mainstream media is scrupulously avoiding any of the discussion of whether there was collusion between the Hillary campaign and the Russians, vis-a-vis, Fusion GPS. JAMES FREEMAN, ASSISTANT EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR: Yes. I think we've got one special counsel too many already. You would think that the attorney general, charged with enforcing the laws under the Constitution, could tell us where us were our liberties abused, was the power used for purposes of spying for the party out of power. I don't understand why an attorney general cannot lead that inquiry and, if necessary, any charges that might come from it. ASMAN: Dan, we thought this was the sort of thing that Mr. Mueller was looking into. Instead, we have a spectacle this week of Sam Nunberg, a guy who apparently was appearing drunk on television shows all over the mainstream media, and this is a star witness that Mr. Mueller has to prove collusion that has -- again, there's not a shred of evidence yet --between the Trump administration and Russia. HENNINGER: David, this is what you get with special counsels. It's an inadequate vehicle for doing this. We went through a whole series of these in the 1980s. The Independent Counsel Law, it was a catastrophe. Congress ended the independent counsel. Doing the special prosecutors is just more of the same. They're going to nail somebody, no matter what. ASMAN: All right. Still ahead, the primary season kicking off in Texas. But despite early reports of a purple wave in the Lone Star State, Tuesday's results left a lot of Democrats singing the blues. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ASMAN: The 2018 primary season officially kicking off on Tuesday as voters in Texas headed to the polls. While the media hiking reports of a Democratic surge in early voting, hopes for turning the Lone Star State blue or at least purple didn't quite pan out. Former Bush senior advisor and Fox News contributor, Karl Rove, joining us from Austin with more. Boy, did they get that one wrong, Karl. KARL ROVE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. The early reports were focused on15 big counties in Texas and the Democrats outvoted the Republicans in those 15 big counties. But we got 254 counties and the state is not just Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso and their suburbs. We have Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene, Temple, Brian College Station. That's a big part of Texas. ASMAN: Yes. ROVE: And on the early vote alone, the Republicans were 804,000, the Democrats were 565,000. And then, on Election Day, even more Republicans turned out. And the final total was 1,543,000 for the Republicans to a 1,037,000 for the Democrats. ASMAN: Wow, 50 percent more Republican voters. (CROSSTALK) ASMAN: Now the GOP base, what this shows, at least in Texas, in real red states, is just as strong as ever. Am I wrong on that? ROVE: Yes, well, that's right. This is the biggest turnout ever in a midterm election for the Republicans. And what's interesting is, we had very few contested statewide elections. The Democrats had a high-profile race for the governor in their primary and a high-profile bid in the Senate. Look, you start to get into the numbers are there are real problems for the Democrats. They nominated the guy they expected to nominate for the Senate, Robert Francis Beto O'Rourke, of El Paso. ASMAN: Yes. ROVE: A congressman from out there. He came out there, spent $4.2 million and got 62 percent of the vote. However, the 38 percent of vote he didn't get went to Edward Kimbro, a retired postal service employee, who spent $785. ASMAN: Wow. ROVE: Not $785,000 -- $785. And -- ASMAN: That's very amusing. ROVE: And he got 15 percent. And a woman who spent zero, Zima Hernandez, got 27 percent of the vote. Between the two of them, they carried 103 out of the state's 254 counties. ASMAN: Well, you may be talking yourself out of a job, because what it shows it that a lot of this expensive political advice doesn't necessarily get you that far anymore. ROVE: Well, exactly. Take the one race where the Democrats outvoted the Republicans in a congressional primary, a seat held by a Republican, West Texas, district 23. It's traditionally big Democrat turnout. The Republican turnout was a record 5,000 more than their previous record. But still -- ASMAN: OK. ROVE: -- more Democrats turned out to vote. But the number-one guy they wanted to have run came in third, beaten by a guy who spent 24 grand to $500,000. I mean, it's a weird year in Texas. ASMAN: Well, this is, we're talking about an historically red state. Let's talk about an historically blue state that went for Trump that saw a lot of Democrats say we can get back into the blue corner like Pennsylvania. What's going on there? ROVE: Well, they've got a picture-perfect candidate. If you sent out to central casting and said we want a candidate, it would be Connor Lamb. (CROSSTALK) ASMAN: The Democratic candidate. ROVE: Yes, for the Democrats. Yes, young, attractive, aggressive, willing to say anything. ASMAN: Former Marine. ASMAN: Everybody sharing with money. Republican's is a 60-year old state -- long-time state representative. I think, at the end of the day, the district goes Republican. But it will go so because President Trump is putting his political reputation on the line by appearing for Rick Saccone on Saturday before the Tuesday election. ASMAN: OK. That's the former Marine we just saw a picture of. He's the Democratic candidate. He is a very attractive candidate. ROVE: Right. Connor Lamb. ASMAN: Let's talk about the Senate as a whole. Again, there's been a relook, even by some in the mainstream media. Nate Silver, for example, said that the talk about Democrats taking over the Senate was over hyped, that they went too far. What's the latest on that? ROVE: Well, the latest is, remember, you go back to 1914 when we began electing Senators on a popular basis, and never has the landscape been as favorable to the White House party in a midterm as this one. Of the 33 Senators up, 25 are Democrats, eight are Republican. And of the Democrats,10 are in states that Donald Trump carried. One of them in a state that he carried by nearly double digits. And five of them in states that he carried by between 18 and 42 points. And those five states, in particular -- the Republicans have gotten a great candidate in Missouri, a really great candidate in North Dakota. They have primaries in the remaining three, Montana, Indiana and West Virginia. But we have good candidate in all of them. And a new poll out by Axios showed that in all five of the states the Democrat is losing to the named Republican or to a generic Republican in the other four. ASMAN: Karl Rove, a very happy, positive, optimistic Karl Rove. Good to see you. ROVE: Cautiously optimistic and nervous as heck. ASMAN: Cautiously optimistic. All right, Karl -- ROVE: Nervous as heck. ASMAN: -- thank you very much. When we come back, Democrats are doubling down on their opposition of the GOP tax cuts and making it the centerpiece of their midterm campaign strategy. So is that smart politics? We'll ask our panel, coming next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This gigantic tax cut they just did has created such a gigantic hole in the deficit. If we do nothing in terms of cutting programs, if we just keep things as they are, Americas are going to go flat bankrupt over the next 10 years. Not a joke. This cost, this tax cut is not paid for. (END VIDEO CLIP) ASMAN: That was Joe Biden in Pennsylvania this week ahead of Tuesday's special House election there. The former vice president offering a glimpse of the Democrats' midterm campaign strategy running against the Republican tax cuts. Attack ads already are airing in some battleground states claiming that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act benefits just the wealthiest 1 percent, and that Republicans are going to slash Medicare and Social Security to help pay for it. We're back with Dan Henninger, Kim Strassel, Mary Anastasia O'Grady and James Freeman. Mary, tax cuts are bad. That's the message that we heard from Joe Biden. Even when the public disagrees. I mean the public is realizing because of their pocketbook that, in fact, tax cuts appear to be pretty good. But that's their line and they're sticking to it. MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY, COLUMNIST: They're also accompanying that with a lot of scare tactics about the size of the fiscal deficit. It's very interesting to see Joe Biden suddenly concerned about the fiscal deficit because we had eight years of a lot of spending by -- (CROSSTALK) ASMAN: Doubling the debt to $20 trillion. O'GRADY: Exactly. Yes. But the other thing is Joe Biden doesn't talk about growth. The only way to get out of the entitlement problem we have, which is the big cause of the deficit, is by growing faster. ASMAN: Yes. O'GRADY: I mean, you need entitlement reform, but you also need faster growth. And -- ASMAN: And we didn't grow fast at all during the Obama administration. O'GRADY: Yes. And we're getting that now with the tax cuts. ASMAN: Dan, Joe Biden, notwithstanding, even though we began the segment with him, and he wants to run in 2020, apparently, for president, but his party is moving to far to the left. Is there room for any middle ground at all among the Democrats? HENNINGER: Well, that's one of the big questions. The Democratic Party is dividing between economic populists and identity and gender populists. Gender populists tend to be on the coast. In the heartland, places like Pennsylvania, they're economic populists. This Pennsylvania '18 thing is really interesting. You've got possibly Donald Trump's opposition candidate, Joe Biden, campaigning for Connor Lamb. Trump himself is going down there this weekend. I think that had a lot to do with this tariff announcement that he made on Thursday. ASMAN: Right. HENNINGER: There's a big steel producing company down that. Man, if he loses, if Trump loses the Pennsylvania '18, it's going to be a much bigger even than it should be. ASMAN: Again, in Pennsylvania, James, we mentioned this with Karl Rove, they've got an attractive candidate, the Democrats do. Former Marine. He's not your typical Nancy Pelosi-kind of Democrat. But if you look at the platform, the Democrat platform, and it's essentially two things, hate Trump, and tax and spend. That's basically it, right? FREEMAN: Yes. Connor Lamb is presenting himself as moderate. I'm not sure he's all that moderate. But it's a different approach from the Sanders' wing of the party. But it is important because Republican members of the House -- and I assume this is true on the Democratic side as well -- they are looking at this as a barometer of how they're going to do. So if Democrats win, it is at least going to be a moral blow for Republicans as they try and hold the House. But I'm not sure it's really a perfect test for what happens this fall, just because, unlike traditional Republicans in that district, this is not a pro-union candidate. Maybe a fifth of the district is union households. This isn't exactly the test you would think. ASMAN: Kim, the spotlight this week in the Democrat/Republican fight has been on California and the sanctuary cities rule that they have there that has gone as far as you can go to the left with the Oakland mayor not only not agreeing to help ICE agents but going further and warning criminal aliens where and when the ICE agents were coming to arrest them. This set up the president calling out that woman -- we see there the Oakland mayor -- and saying, look, you're violating the law and we're going to get you. STRASSEL: This is another function of this party being driven left. This is not a good look to be activity against law and order. Many people in the country, obviously, have a lot of sympathy for DREAMers. They want to see action done there. But when it comes to the question of following the law, there does tend to be a lot more public support for some of the policies that President Trump espoused. This is another potential vulnerability for Democrats going into this election. Not necessarily in places like California, but it does resonate much more loudly in the places that they need to win, those battleground states, in November. ASMAN: Mary, it's just common sense. There's a common-sense element to this opposition to a lot of what the Democrats have been calling for. O'GRADY: Well, I think, you know, you saw Chuck Schumer talking about how the tax cuts are costing the country its infrastructure. That's an example of how the Democrats are really trying to look very mainstream and say, no, this isn't about some crazy redistribution of income. This is about, you know, America's infrastructure, building roads and bridges, and so forth. That's the tact they feel like they need to take because they do have to try to reclaim some of that center ground from Donald Trump. ASMAN: Yes. And we have very -- we only have 15 seconds. But another platform that they have is this guaranteed universal income. Do you think that's going to gain any traction at all, Dan? HENNINGER: Not when the economy is producing 300,000 jobs a month, David. That's the thing they can't overcome. ASMAN: All right. We have to take one more break. When we come back, 'Hits & Misses ' of the week. Stay tuned. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ASMAN: Time now for our 'Hits & Misses ' of the week. Kim, you have a very timely one. Go ahead. STRASSEL: David, the nation is trudging off to reset clocks this weekend for Daylight Savings Times, that biannual tradition that destroys our circadian rhythm for no good reason whatsoever. (LAUGHTER) So my hit goes to the Florida legislature which overwhelmingly passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which will put the state permanently on Daylight Savings Time. (CROSSTALK) STRASSEL: Now, it turns out, the feds have to approve this. But I say Make America Great Again and do it. (LAUGHTER) I don't care if it's Daylight Savings Time, I don't care if it's Standard, just put us on one, and allow us to rest in peace. ASMAN: James, you have an interesting one, not one that I would expect you would be in favor of. But, go ahead. FREEMAN: Well, I do like, where possible, laud Chicago community organizers. And right now, they have organized against Chicago's most famous community organizer of all time. The former president, Barack Obama, is encountering some unexpected resistance to his new Obama center. People are concerned it's going to mess up the neighborhood and he is building on top a national historic park. Go figure. ASMAN: OK. Mary, you have -- Cuba's in your purse, right now? O'GRADY: Yes. This is a miss for the geniuses who said all we have to do is open a U.S. embassy in Cuba and they will start behaving like civilized people. This week, a dissident group in Cuba was going to give an award to--it was going to be picked up by two former presidents from South America, Columbia and Bolivia. The Cuban government deported them when they arrived at the airport and denied a visa to the head of the OAS. ASMAN: Dan, you have a hit? HENNINGER: I'm going to give a hit to the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment for holding up the attempt by a foreign company to take over Qualcomm, one of our cutting-edge companies in mobile technology. The issue here is whether this takeover would cripple the U.S. in its competition with China in the area of technology. David, it would be nice to think our competition with China was just commercial. It's not. It's military and it's strategic. (CROSSTALK) ASMAN: Good stuff, everybody. Thank you very much. That's it for this week's show. Thanks to my panel and to all of you for watching. I'm David Asman. You can catch me weekdays on 'AFTER THE BELL ' on the Fox Business Network. Paul is back next week. We hope to see you then. Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," March 12, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. MIKE CONAWAY, R-TEXAS: We have interviewed all of the folks we need to. We've looked at some 300,000 documents, 73 interviews that we've done across the course of this thing, trying to answer the four questions that we set out for the committee to answer. Yes, the Russians tried to interfere with our election process. Yes, they had cyberattacks, active measures going on. We could find no evidence of collusion between either campaign and the Russians. We also have some recommendations, will have recommendations that speak to what we do with elections going forward. (END VIDEO CLIP) JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS: Texas Congressman Mike Conaway who was leading the Russia investigation at the House Intelligence Committee saying that his findings in a draft report, the final report to come, find no collusion between the Trump campaign or the Clinton campaign and Russia. Let's bring our panel in: Jonah Goldberg, senior editor at National Review; Mara Liasson, national political correspondent for National Public Radio, and Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at The Federalist. How important do you think this finding is, Jonah? JONAH GOLDBERG, NATIONAL REVIEW: I don't think it's that important. I think we kind of knew if there was real evidence of collusion we would have heard about it by now. There's been so much journalistic exploration of this, there have been so many committees, something would have leaked. I think in many ways that this is just simply going to be factored into the noise on both sides as Democrats are already coming out saying that it was called off early. I am sure Donald Trump is going to say this is proof that there was no collusion. ROBERTS: I am surprised it has taken this long. GOLDBERG: And so I think there are real, the whole ball game depends on what the Mueller investigation finds on way or the other, and I will still be surprised if they find collusion. ROBERTS: I asked Conaway this question, is there any reason to expect that Mueller could find something different than the committee found? MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: He might. But I think there are some important things in here. There are things both parties could applaud. Number one, there was interference. Number two, we are not doing enough to protect ourselves from the next round of it and election systems should be hardened against it. And this is a pattern of Russian attacks that have occurred. That is something that is widely held and it's a good place to start, collusion aside. MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, THE FEDERALIST: The House Intelligence Committee has actually been focused on Russia longer than most people. They were worried about Russia long before it became something in the headlines. So when this committee comes out with something about Russia, you should take it seriously. It is interesting they are talking about recommendations for what to do for elections. We have an election coming up this week. We've had elections recently. People need guidance on how to make sure that their election systems are properly taking care of. It's also worth, though, taking a step back and thinking about the larger narratives that we've seen here. We have been subjected to over a year of a Russia collusion theory that Trump was a traitor who was colluding with Russia. We have no evidence from this committee and they have been looking at it quite a lot. And then we also have this issue of the criminal leaks we have seen from all Obama officials and other highly placed intelligence officials. And they give some indication we will get a little bit of information. They are not in the best position to prosecute the criminal leaks that we have seen that we know exist because we read about them in the paper, but that's something that's going to need to continue to take place even as states and other groups start working on their electoral system. ROBERTS: By the way, no tweet from Donald Trump on this. The president hasn't yet weighed in. There were obviously complaints from Democrats, Jonah, that this got wrapped up too quickly. You will remember a little less than a year ago there was controversy over Devin Nunes who was the chairman who had an ethics complaint filed against him. He stepped aside to let Conaway take over, and he was cleared on the ethics investigation. The way that Conaway has comported himself, does it leave him less open to criticism that he possibly might've been? GOLDBERG: It might. We are in such a hyper-partisan moment that there's going to be criticism no matter on all sides. And look, I agree with Mollie that this should be taken seriously. But part of the problem here with the exception where it says that they broke with the intelligence community's assessment about the Russians wanting to have a preference for Trump. ROBERTS: They just thought they were generally sow chaos. GOLDBERG: I think they were until they thought could actually win and then they leaned that way. I don't think it was a big difference because when you actually look at what the tweets and social media were, they were more pathetic than overpowering. But almost all of this is the general Washington consensus at this point. HEMINGWAY: That's actually not true. We are still in the midst of this complete Russia hysteria. It is true that "Saturday Night Live" is making fun of the idea that there is big treasonous collusion, but we still have a special prosecutor dealing with all of this. GOLDBERG: How is any of that not true about this? What I'm saying is that everybody except the president of the United States has admitted and says that Russia messed with our elections, right? HEMINGWAY: But what is also being said is that Trump is a traitor. GOLDBERG: Yes, but that's not part of the consensus. That's not part of the Washington consensus. That's not even remotely part of the Washington consensus. HEMINGWAY: I think people should be on record, if they don't think it's true they should say that that's not true because that's actually what a lot of people have been hearing for over a year. GOLDBERG: That's fine, but that is no way a rebuttal of anything I said. LIASSON: There is a bigger national security issue that if you listen to the president, it's not important and it didn't happen. This says Russia intervened, they tried to sow discord, they are going to be at it again. That's pretty important. HEMINGWAY: But the reason why President Trump is talking about that is because people have used this story for partisan political ends. LIASSON: I don't know -- HEMINGWAY: I think that what most people see when they see the media coverage of this is that people have tried to use this to delegitimize the president, and this has been part of a pattern of behavior by intelligence officials and people in the media to create and a lot of angst over this story precisely to delegitimize him. GOLDBERG: But this fits the consensus of his consensus of his entire cabinet, of his entire national security establishment. ROBERTS: I'm going to call the buzzer on this one because we do want to get on to the school violence policy, the school safety policy that the White House came out with yesterday. Everything that he's been talking about except raising the age for buying a long gun. The president tweeting on age, "18 to 21 age limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting, states are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support to put it mildly." Mollie, is he backing down in the face of enormous opposition from the NRA? HEMINGWAY: Yes, and that's good. When he was speaking last week, he was saying that due process didn't matter for taking away people's guns. He was talking about age limits for young people for buying rifles. Those are not popular ideas and those are things he would get a lot of pushback on. ROBERTS: But these are things that were adopted in the state of Florida. LIASSON: Yes, and the state of Florida, which is a pretty pro-gun state. I think when you look at polls about the age limit, 87 percent, 72 percent, Rasmussen, which was the lowest poll I could find, had 67 percent supporting raising the age limit. This is the same age limit for handguns. So I think there's lots of public support. The president is right, there is not a lot of political support among Republicans in Congress. That's true. ROBERTS: Does it look like a cave, Jonah, because the NRA came out and very loudly was against this, advertisements? GOLDBERG: It depends on your level of hostility here. I don't think he necessarily caved because he says things in these meetings that he then then walks back all of the time. Bu tthe actual thing they are proposing, I think they all make sense, they are good. I think some of then, the Fix NICS thing, they are basically saying now we really mean it that government officials are supposed to uphold the law. LIASSON: Incentives to follow the law. GOLDBERG: Pathetic, but might as well. LIASSON: Yes, they're pathetic. And look, this is better than nothing and every Democrat will say the same thing. ROBERTS: Isn't it ironic. 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. The seven-year-old daughter of the woman whose French bulldog died after being forced into an overhead bin by a United Airlines flight attendant is speaking out, saying the United employee lied about what happened during the tragic flight. While we were flying, the dog started barking and barking and there was no flight attendants coming. We couldn't stand up because there was a lot of turbulence so we weren't allowed to," Sophia Ceballos, speaking on behalf of her mother, Catalina Robledo, told ABC 13. Ceballos said that attempts to inform the flight attendant of the severity of the situation during the four-hour flight from Houstons Bush Intercontinental Airport to New Yorks LaGuardia Airport were unsuccessful. MIRACLE CAT SURVIVES AFTER BEING IMPALED ON TWO METAL FENCE POSTS She said, 'Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was a dog. I thought it was a normal bag.' But we told her it was a dog, she's lying, the teary-eyed girl says in video footage obtained by the outlet. Despite bringing their pet aboard the aircraft in a TSA-compliant pet carrier that Robledo should have been able to keep underneath the seat in front of her, as per United's pet policy, a yet-unidentified United flight attendant allegedly forced the New York family to store Kokito in his carrier in an overhead bin for the duration of the flight. "She's like, 'He died, he died. Kokito, Kokito.' And he didn't wake up. She hit his chest so he could breathe, but he couldn't breathe," Ceballos said of her mothers forlorn reaction to realizing the dog had died, after landing. Though United has since claimed full responsibility for the tragic accident and has offered the family compensation, Robledo says the situation is not about money, ABC reported. Passenger Maggie Gremminger told The New York Times that Robledo was insistent that the dog carrier should stay by her side, to no avail. WHY YOUR PETS FOOD BOWL COULD BE MAKING YOU SICK The pet owner was very adamant that she did not want to put the pet carrier up above, Gremminger said. She was saying verbally, My dog is in here, no, this is my dog. The flight attendant, in response, really just continued to ask her to put it above because it was a hazard where it was, it was a safety emergency, someone could trip. Gremminger said that she and her fellow travelers were horrified to learn the animal had died later in the trip, according to People. A stranger offered to hold her newborn while she sat on the floor, there in the airplane aisle. She was holding her dog and rocking back and forth. Her daughter was also crying, she told the publication about the scene following the discovery. Gremminger further divulged that once Kokito was found dead, the flight attendant became "frazzled" and insisted she did not know there was a live animal in the carrier. I want to help this woman and her daughter. They lost their dog because of an @united flight attendant. My heart is broken, she wrote on Twitter, sharing a photo of the family. "She said, 'Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was a dog. I thought it was a normal bag.' But we told her it was a dog, she's lying. For their part, United's pet policy reads as follows: A pet traveling in cabin must be carried in an approved hard-sided or soft-sided kennel. The kennel must fit completely under the seat in front of the customer and remain there at all times. United Airlines spokeswoman Maggie Schmerin returned Fox News request for comment with the following statement: This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin. We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them, she said. We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again, Schmerin added. The cause of death is not yet known, but, while the overhead compartments are not airtight, lack of oxygen may have been a factor. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS According to a report from the Department of Transportation, United had the highest number of animal deaths and injuries among all U.S. airlines in 2017, with 18 animals killed and 13 injured while flying through the airlines PetSafe cargo program. The heartbreaking story comes weeks after United and Delta made headlines for tightening rules for flying with animals amid emotional support and service animal controversy. A Mexican drug smuggler tried bringing almost $4 million worth of liquid meth across one of the busiest ports of entry in the country Friday, according to Customs and Border Protection. The unidentified 37-year-old man from Sonora, Mexico, drove across the Paso del Norte in downtown El Paso, Texas, at around one in the afternoon. The smuggler drove through Juarez and onto the international bridge, hoping to bring the 164.5 pounds of liquid meth into the United States undetected. As the smuggler was waiting in line to cross the border, agents brought in drug-sniffing dog Joep to search cars. The K9 alerted agents to the smell of narcotics near his gas tank. After inspecting, agents found six five-gallon buckets filled with the drug. Smugglers spent considerable time and effort to conceal this liquid-meth load, said Beverly Good, CBP El Paso Port Director. This seizure proves again that smugglers will use any available space in a vehicle to hide their contraband. False compartments are a common method used to hide drugs, according to CBP. In addition to gas tanks, smugglers also try to use false compartments in the engine compartments and wheel wells. CBP agents use dogs, hand searches and x-ray machines to detect drugs hidden in those false compartments. The man was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations special agents to face charges associated with the failed smuggling attempt. You can have him. A California court on Monday ruled that the grandson of cult leader Charles Manson can retrieve the killer's remains that have been on ice in the Bakersfield morgue since he died in November. The ruling comes after a bizarre court battle over the killer's body. Kern County Superior Court Commissioner Alisa Knight eventually ruled that Jason Freeman can retrieve the remains. Manson, 83, had been hospitalized in Bakersfield while serving a life sentence for orchestrating the 1969 killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and eight others. Manson died of natural causes. His name synonymous to this day with unspeakable violence and depravity. Michele Hanisee, president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County, reacted to the death by quoting the late Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor who put Manson behind bars. Bugliosi said: "Manson was an evil, sophisticated con man with twisted and warped moral values." The fight over his corpse devolved into a circus of sorts with friends filing competing wills purportedly signed by the infamous inmate while kin began to come out of the woodwork to also stake a claim to the killer's body and an estate that could include lucrative rights to songs Manson wrote or to license his image and other material. The case in Kern County was brought by the coroner's office, which said it wanted to quickly resolve the matter because bodies were piling up at the morgue from the methamphetamine and opioid epidemics. Those who sought the body included Freeman, a man who said he was fathered by Manson, and a pen pal who was friends with Manson and has filed what he said was the cult leader's will. The three parties all tried to cast doubt on the authenticity of the competing claims. There were doubts over the legitimacy of the will filed by buddy Michael Channels. And there were questions about whether Michael Brunner was fathered by Manson and if he deserved to be deemed an heir because he was adopted. There were also questions raised about whether Freeman was really his grandson, though Knight's ruling determined him as "the surviving competent adult next of kin." Brunner's mother was an early member of the so-called Manson family and he was fathered by the cult leader, according to his birth certificate, though it misspelled Manson's middle name. Freeman, of Florida, is the son of the late Charles Manson Jr., who was the child of Manson and his first wife. Channels befriended Manson by writing him letters in prison and he later became a regular visitor and avid collector and trader of memorabilia given to him by Manson. The 2002 will he filed names him as the executor and sole beneficiary of the estate. Another purported son, Matthew Lentz, who claims he was fathered by Manson during a Wisconsin orgy, supported Brunner's petition. He is named as the sole beneficiary in a 2017 will that Manson apparently signed and sent to Ben Gurecki, another friend and memorabilia collector, who is named as executor. Most of the people vying for the body have said they would cremate it, though Freeman and Channels balked at that suggestion when Deputy Kern County Counsel Bryan Walters suggested having the coroner cremate the body and allowing the parties to continue their court fight over the ashes. Some adversaries have suggested others want to profit off the death by selling morbid photos of the corpse to tabloid publications. To prevent photos of the body from being leaked, the coroner's office stored Manson's remains under a pseudonym and only two employees were told its true identity, Walters said. The Associated Press contributed to this report ICE agents managed to interview an inmate in a San Francisco jail earlier this month, in what the sanctuary city's sheriff is calling a deliberate effort by the feds to find "weak points" in her department's pro-illegal immigrant policies and state laws. In a separate snafu, police said, ICE agents were granted an interview room with an inmate in another jail, but that inmate declined to speak with the agents. Jail officials apparently violated both departmental policy and California law by accomodating the agents, authorities said Monday. My staff made a mistake and I have to hold myself accountable, San Francisco Sheriff Vicki Hennessy told The San Francisco Chronicle. I apologize on behalf of the department. I feel embarrassed by it. Ive taken steps to make sure it never happens again. But Hennessy said federal immigration authorities, who arrested 232 in a sweeping Bay Area immigration crackdown just weeks ago, knew what they were doing. SESSIONS BLASTS 'RADICAL' MOVE BY CALIFORNIA TO BLOCK ICE RAIDS ICE was "testing our defenses and they found some weak points," Hennessy told the Chronicle. California state law mandates that inmates receive a consent form prior to interviewing with ICE agents, and San Francisco police policy goes a step further by banning ICE agents from having any access to inmates, the paper reported. "I feel embarrassed by it. I've taken steps to make sure it never happens again." SF Sheriff Vicki Hennessy Officials reportedly did not provide a consent form to the inmate they managed to interview. How sheriffs deputies are not aware of our sanctuary policies is quite frankly beyond me, city public defender Jeff Adachi told the Chronicle. Jail officials reportedly turned the ICE agents away when they attempted to return, according to local reports. News of the jailhouse episode comes amid a bitter legal and political feud between California and the federal government over immigration policy. On more than 200 occassions already this year, ICE has requested that California hold or surrender illegal immigrant inmates, the Chronicle reported. The state has not acted on any of these requests. Last week, the Justice Department announced it is suing California for impermissibly interfering with federal immigration authority, in violation of the Constitution's Supremacy Clause. California is using every power it has, and some it does not, to frustrate federal law enforcement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. So you can be sure Im going to use every power I have to stop them. A bus driver was killed and several other people were seriously injured Tuesday when a charter bus filled with high school students plunged into a 50-foot ravine in Alabama -- trapping dozens inside the mangled vehicle until rescuers could rappel down to free them. The bus was returning to Houston, Texas, after a school trip around 5:30 a.m. when it crashed into a highway median on Interstate 10 and plunged into Cowpen Creek in Baldwin County, Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack said in a news conference. The bus driver was pronounced dead at the scene. The bus was carrying around 45 people at the time, with about five of those being adults. "Then there was a loud, really huge crash that was presumably when the bus finally came to a stop," said Frances Dodson-Benson, whose 15-year-old son DeWayne Benson was on the bus. "There were students on top of students, the bags, it was just a disarray, a lot of commotion, a lot of panic." Chris Elliott, a Baldwin County commissioner, initially said there were "multiple injuries" in the crash. "The fire department and officers are having to rappel down into the area to get into it," Elliott said. More than a dozen fire departments from Alabama and Florida responded to the scene and worked to remove the trapped passengers Channelview High School band students who were at Disney World in Florida in the ravine. Several officers entered the ravine to pull students out of the wreckage, according to Mack. At least six helicopters were also used in the rescue efforts. Several people also had to be "cut out" of the wreckage. The passengers were taken to 10 different local hospitals. One person was in critical condition and five others were seriously injured. Others suffered minor injuries, though the exact number of injured wasn't immediately clear. The high school band posted a photo on its Facebook page with several members wearing Mickey Mouse ears outside of Disney World just hours before the crash. Its unclear what caused the bus to fall into the ravine. Another bus that was traveling with the vehicle was not involved in the crash and continued the drive to Texas. First Class Tours, the bus company, said in a statement it was pledging its "assistance in cooperating with local authorities in the investigation," according to WKRG. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he was "heartbroken" about the deadly bus crash. "Cecilia and I are heartbroken by the news of this tragic accident, and we offer our prayers to all these young Texans and their families," Abbott said. "I pray for a speedy recovery for those injured, and I am especially grateful for the heroic actions of the Alabama first responders that undoubtedly helped save lives today. Texas is prepared to offer any assistance necessary as we rally around the entire Channelview High School community during this difficult time." Interstate 10 was shut down in both directions after the incident. Police said the interstate will be closed for at least another two hours to remove the bus and investigate the incident. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The three package bombs left on Austin, Texas doorsteps in recent weeks were constructed with a "certain level of skill," the city's police chief said Tuesday, as the dragnet continued for the mysterious porch bomber whose devices have already killed two and severely injured two others. As residents in the Texas capital prepared to cautiously fetch their mail on Tuesday, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley again preached vigilance, and told "FOX & friends" that officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives worked into the night to collect evidence from the two most recent blasts. "What we do know is that the individual or individuals involved in this, these suspects, they do have a certain level of skill to be able to construct a device like this and then deliver that device to your target without having it explode, either during construction, or during delivery, does take a certain level of sophistication," Manley said. The first of Monday's explosions occurred around 6:44 a.m. when a 17-year-old male carried a package into his kitchen, where it exploded upon being opened, killing the teen and wounding a 40-year-old woman, both of them African-Americans. Hours later, and just minutes after officials finished a news conference on the first blast, authorities were called to the scene of another explosion also triggered by the opening of a package. The second blast wounded a 75-year-old Hispanic woman, who was taken to a hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries. Both of those explosions are thought to be linked to a March 2 blast that killed a black man. With all the victims of the blasts so far being minorities, investigators are looking into whether race is a factor. However, officials backed off initial suggestions that hate crimes could be a core cause. "We are not ruling anything out at this point," Manley said at a news conference. Monday's victims were not immediately identified, but police said previously the March 2 victim was 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House. AUSTIN POLICE REVEAL TIMELINE OF PACKAGE EXPLOSIONS, WARN RESIDENTS TO BE 'AWARE' OF SUSPICIOUS BOXES The investigation into what is motivating the bombings has also prompted warnings to residents to be on alert for any packages they don't recognize. Manley said as of 5 a.m. on Tuesday, Austin Police have received 150 calls about suspicious packages, none of which have turned out to be dangerous. Nolberto Mendoza, whose mother and father-in-law live next to the women hurt by the second explosion, told Fox News the situation was "overwhelming" "Its just scary to think that youre expecting something, you dont even know if its going to explode on you or if its your actual package," Mendoza said. Mendoza said the woman probably thought the package was medicine she gets delivered. "Why would they go and do that to them? It couldve been my house, couldve been our house," he said. "Theres at least like four or five kids there. Its a scary feeling." "It couldve been us. It couldve been a neighbor in front of us. This incident can happen to anybody." Dana Sanchez Neighbor Dana Sanchez told Fox News in Spanish through a translator she heard a loud noise and did not know what it was until police came knocking at her door. "It couldve been us. It couldve been a neighbor in front of us," she said. "This incident can happen to anybody." AUSTIN PACKAGE EXPLOSIONS LEAVE TEEN DEAD, WOMEN HURT AFTER THREE BLASTS IN 2 WEEKS Monday's first blast happened in Springdale Hills, a leafy neighborhood of houses mostly from the 1960s and 1970s. That was about 12 miles south of the home where the March 2 package bombing occurred. Monday's second explosion, meanwhile, occurred about 5 miles south of the day's first blast. Keith Reynolds who lives near the site of second blast told the Associated Press he heard what sounded like a propane explosion. He rushed outside and saw a cloud of hazy smoke and people running to help. "There was a horrible screaming. You knew that something terrible was happening," Reynolds said, adding that the victim's body was riddled with holes as emergency responders took her out of the house. There was nothing obvious linking the three areas where the bombs exploded, other than all were east of Interstate 35 that divides the city. The east side has historically been more heavily minority and less wealthy than Austin's west side, although that has changed as gentrification has raised home prices and rents everywhere. It is also less true on the city's northern outskirts, closer to where the first explosion occurred and where major firms like Dell, Apple and Samsung have sprawling complexes. "It's just a regular family neighborhood," Reynolds told the AP. "It's just a grandmother, you know what I mean? Like, why?" The attacks unfolded as tens of thousands of visitors arrived for the busiest days of the South By Southwest music festival. The gathering didn't appear related, but police urged tourists to be vigilant while warning residents to call authorities immediately if they receive unexpected parcel deliveries. "I do not see any link at this time," Manley told "FOX & friends." Fox News' Madeleine Rivera and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Authorities are still on the hunt for suspects in Austin, Texas, after a string of deadly package explosions rocked the city. The Austin Police Department, with the help of federal authorities, is now offering a $50,000 reward in addition to Gov. Greg Abbotts $15,000 to those with information leading to an arrest in the bombings. AUSTIN POLICE REVEAL TIMELINE OF PACKAGE EXPLOSIONS, WARN RESIDENTS TO BE 'AWARE' OF SUSPICIOUS BOXES Officials on Tuesday said Draylen Mason, 17, was killed Monday by an explosive that was left on his doorstep. His death comes less than two weeks after Anthony Stephan House, 39, was also killed after a device exploded on his front porch. A 75-year-old Hispanic woman who was wounded Monday after opening a package she found outside her home remains in life-threatening condition. The explosions are believed to be linked, according to investigators, and officials arent ruling out any possible motives. "We're not saying terrorism or hate is in play, but we certainly have to consider that, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said at a news conference Tuesday. AUSTIN PACKAGE EXPLOSIONS LEAVE TEEN DEAD, WOMEN HURT AFTER THREE BLASTS IN 2 WEEKS The bombings could be a hate crime, considering the victims are all black or Hispanic, or they could have been targeted for some other reason, considering two of the three families affected reportedly knew each other through activism in the local black community. "I don't believe in coincidences," said Nelson Linder, the president of the Austin NAACP, noting that Masons grandfather was friends with Houses stepfather. It still remains unclear if there is any connection to a third household where the 75-year-old woman was injured from a package explosion on Monday. The package explosives involved in the three incidents were not delivered by the U.S. Postal Service or any private carrier, but were left overnight on doorsteps. Federal law enforcement officials told Fox News the packages are made to look like mail. Police continue to warn any residents that find a suspicious package to call 911, and to send tips to Austin Crime Stoppers at (512) 472-8477 or Texas Crime Stoppers at 1-800-252-8477. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and FBI are assisting the Austin Police Department in its investigation. Fox News Travis Fedschun and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Austin police are reminding residents to remain "vigilant" after announcing a suspected "serial bomber," identified as a 24-year-old white male, died after a confrontation with police overnight Wednesday. Officials warn the suspect could have set up other explosive devices prior to his death. Over the past three weeks, a string of package deliveries left at least two people dead and several others injured after explosions rocked their homes. The first explosion unfolded on March 2, killing 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House after a "device" exploded on the front porch of his Austin home. The blast was investigated initially as a suspicious death, and later as a homicide. Ten days later, a similar incident was reported just 12 miles from House's home. A 17-year-old, identified as Draylen Mason, was killed and his mother was injured after a package exploded inside their home. Hours after the second explosion occurred, police reported a third blast, confirming that at least one elderly woman was injured. The night of March 18, around 8:30 p.m., a fourth explosion -- possibly triggered by a trip wire -- occurred. Two men in their 20s suffered non-life threatening injuries in the blast, including one who had nails in his leg, according to KVUE-TV. "If this explosion was the result of a bomb using trip wire technology, that is showing a different level of skill above that we were already concerned that this suspect or suspects may possess," Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told ABC's "Good Morning America" on March 19. Another device exploded early March 20 at a FedEx ground distribution facility in Schertz, Texas, injuring one person. Schertz Police Lt. Manny Casas told Fox San Antonio a medium-sized package, which was heading to Austin, was on the conveyor belt when it exploded. A female employee was treated for a possible sound injury and was released. All of the explosions are believed to be linked, according to investigators, and officials said they were not ruling out any possible motives. Here's a timeline (in Central Daylight Time) of the deadly package explosions shaking Austin -- and what police are advising residents as they continue to investigate the incidents. March 2 6:55 a.m. Austin police receive reports of an explosion and find a critically-injured House. The 39-year-old victim is then transported to nearby Round Rock Hospital. 7:48 a.m House is declared dead at the hospital nearly an hour later. Authorities announce House's death is being investigated as "suspicious." 10:45 a.m. The Austin Police Department holds a news conference in House's neighborhood. 10:50 a.m. Austin police say they've determined the device was inside a package, and are working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to reconstruct the item and learn who may have created it. Right now, we're trying to determine how did the package get there and who was the intended target? We do feel that this was targeted at somebody. We're still trying to figure out whether that was the individual who died or not, Assistant Chief Joseph Chacon with the Austin Police Department tells reporters at a news conference. Police say it is "an isolated incident and that there is no continuing threat to the community," adding that there is no reason to believe it is terror-related. Anytime we have a bomb go off like that and somebody dies, the first thing people think is terrorism. While we cannot completely rule it out at this point, we do not believe that terrorism is a motive in this death, said Chacon. House had also faced previous charges in Travis County, according to Fox 7. March 12 6:45 a.m. Austin Police received a call about an explosion in a neighborhood on the northwest side of the city after a 17-year-old resident found a package on the front step, brought it inside and opened it in the kitchen, where it exploded. 9:30 a.m. Authorities confirm a teenager is dead and a woman in her 40s is seriously injured after a package explodes at a home in Austin, marking the second such explosion in the city within two weeks. Police say the teen died at the scene, while the woman was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. The FBI offers to assist Austin police with the investigation. 10:45 a.m. The Austin Police Department holds a press briefing in the neighborhood where the second package bombing occurred. 10:50 a.m. Authorities say they believe the package bomb that killed the teenager and wounded the woman is linked to the deadly package sent to House's home earlier this month because they were both left on the front doorstep and not delivered by a mail service. Manley said the U.S. Postal Service does not have a record of delivering a package to the Austin home where the explosion occurred Monday. Police reclassify House's death as a "homicide investigation," instead of a "suspicious death," as the two incidents may be related. Manley says investigators hope to collect surveillance video and evidence from nearby homes to identify a suspect. "We're doing a canvas of the neighborhood right now," Manley says. 11:50 a.m. Another explosion is reported in the Montopolis neighborhood, located southeast of downtown Austin. The Austin Police Department confirms police are reponding to an "urgent" call. 12:08 p.m. Austin-Travis County EMS officials declare a "trauma alert," announcing they are transporting at least one patient to the hospital following a reported explosion. 12:16 p.m. Austin-Travis County EMS confirm in a tweet that a woman in her 70s has "serious, potentially life-threatening" injuries. A second woman from that address had an unrelated medical issue and was not taken to the hospital. 2:45 p.m. Police hold another press briefing to update reporters on a third blast in Austin. 2:50 p.m. Police identify the victim of the third bombing as a 75-year-old Hispanic woman, who is currently in "critical, but stable condition." Based on evidence gathered at the scene, police say they believe the third incident is related to the two previous ones involving package bombs. "We do not have a specific victimology ... at this point, we are willing to investigate any avenue that may be involved behind these attacks," Manley says. Manley says it's not yet clear whether these victims were "intended targets," but asks the community to be vigilant. "We are having innocent people getting hurt across the community," he adds. March 18 8:32 p.m. Austin police are dispatched to a southwest Austin neighborhood after reports of a "bomb hotshot" explosion. 9:16 p.m. Austin police confirm two males were injured after another explosion -- possibly triggered by a trip wire -- occurred in an Austin neighborhood known as Travis Country. 10:27 p.m. Police hold a news briefing to update residents on the latest explosion, which officials believe may be related to the three others. "Not only do not touch any packages or anything that looks like a package -- do not even go near it at this time," Manley warns. March 19 1:33 a.m. Austin police hold another news briefing, with Manley at the mic. "There have been reports in the media that this device was triggered by a trip wire, and we're here to say that's a possibility," Manley says. "So that changes things." Manley then asks community members to have an "extra level of vigilance." 4:05 a.m. Police ask residents in the Travis Country neighborhood to remain in their homes until the area has been properly cleared. 6:43 a.m. Emergency alerts are sent out to residents in Travis Country, asking them to stay in place until police clear their neighborhood of "any hazards." 10:00 a.m. During a morning press conference, Manley warns residents to look for "anything that looks out of place," including suspicious bags, backpacks or packages, especially if they notice a wire poking out. "We [are] not willing to classify this as terrorism, as hate, because we just don't know enough," Manley says. Manley says officials have noticed a change in the method this suspect is using, which reveals a "higher level of sophistication." However, Manley adds, there are "similarities" between all of the recent explosions. March 20 12:30 a.m. A device explodes at a FedEx ground distribution facility outside of San Antonio, injuring one person. The pacakage was apparently addressed to Austin and is likely linked to a string of bombings that have rocked the state's capital this month, federal officials said. 6:07 a.m. Officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) confirm they are at the scene of the explosion. March 21 4:57 a.m. The suspect in the bombings blew himself up during the early morning of March 21, Manley said at a news conference. Authorities had tracked down the suspect to a hotel parking lot in Round Rock, Texas about 20 miles north of Austin. The suspect drove away from authorities before the car stopped in a ditch on the side of the road, according to the police chief. When a SWAT team approached the vehicle, the suspect then detonated an explosive device inside of the car, he said. One officer suffered minor injuries in the blast, while a second officer fired his weapon, Manley said. Authorities identified the suspect as a 24-year-old white male. Officials did not say if he is from Austin or reveal a motive. ATF agent Fred Milanowski said it was hard to say if the suspect acted alone. Manley encouraged the community to be alert -- authorities arent sure of the suspects whereabouts before his death and he could have left behind more packages. 5:28 a.m. In a tweet, President Trump acknowledged the suspect had died and praised law enforcement officials for tracking him down. Great job by law enforcement and all concerned! Trump said. Police warn residents to beware of suspicious packages Federal law enforcement officials told Fox News the packages were made to look like mail. Police warned residents who found any suspicious packages to call 911, and to send tips to Austin Crime Stoppers at (512) 472-8477 or Texas Crime Stoppers at 1-800-252-8477. Fox News' Nicole Darrah, Travis Fedschun, Kaitlyn Schallhorn and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Authorities searching for the person of interest in the killing of a New York college student have trained their focus on Nicaragua after police say it was determined her ex-boyfriend took a flight to the Central America country hours after her death. Orlando E. Tercero, 22, was identified as the person of interest in the death of Haley Anderson, a senior at the State University of New York at Binghamton, police said, according to FOX40. Andersons body was found while police were responding to a request for a welfare check Friday afternoon. Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski told ABC News that cops believe Tercerowho has family in the country-- jumped on an 8:40 a.m. flight, four hours before her body was found on campus. Authorities are trying to determine if Tercero is a U.S. citizen, the ABC report said. Authorities are also trying to determine if he has dual citizenship. Theres a chance they may not extradite him, he told the network. Tercero, also a nursing student, previously had a romantic relationship with Anderson. The extent of their relationship was not disclosed. This incident and the circumstances of the death was not a random act or involving the conduct of a stranger, Binghamton police said in an earlier news release. Andersons cause of death was not released. The 22-year-old, who was expected to graduate in May, was described by friends as a very good girl. The car belonging to a woman who was found decapitated near a survivalist bunker loaded with guns and ammo in northwest Washington was found in California as authorities filed charges Monday against a "person of interest" in the case. The Island County Sheriffs Office said in a news release that Katherine Cunningham's Honda Civic was found abandoned on Interstate 5 in Yreka, Calif., roughly 560 miles away from where the 26-year-old's body was found on March 3. "The vehicle has been secured as evidence and will be transported back to Island County for processing in the next few days," the sheriff's office said. Authorities also announced that the Island County Prosecutors Office had filed against a "person of interest" in the case. Jacob Gonzales, 35, faces five counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and one count of motor vehicle theft, according to the prosecutor's office. A $1 million warrant has been issued for Gonzales's arrest, and authorities believe he may be headed to central or Southern California. "Gonzales is believed to be armed and we ask that the public not approach him," police said. Cunningham's remains were found on March 7 on the rural Camano Island, north of Seattle. Near the headless corpse, investigators discovered a bunker dug into a hillside containing supplies, guns and ammo. DECAPITATED BODY FOUND NEAR REMOTE AMMO-FILLED SURVIVALIST BUNKER IN WASHINGTON, POLICE SAY Autopsy findings determined the 26-year-old womans cause of death was homicidal violence with decapitation, according to the coroner's office. Officials believe she was killed several days before her body was found, and that she was "specifically targeted." "Near the victim, detectives located a bunker dug into the hillside which contained a cache of supplies, firearms and ammunition," the sheriff's office said. "These were seized as well." A woman who knows Gonzales and Cunningham told the Seattle Times they were dating and originally from California. The woman, who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity, said they lived in a trailer on Camano Island. Its just crazy, the woman told The Seattle Times. They were in my house, around my kids and I never thought he was capable of something like this. A former co-worker told KOMO News during a memorial service on Saturday that Cunningham worked at a senior citizen home, and that she was kind and gracious. "She was a certified nurse's aide, she took care of a lot of elderly people," Wanda Bailey said. Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report. A Washington woman who authorities say stabbed her boyfriend with a samurai sword after he fell asleep made a desperate 911 call just moments after the stabbing, The Oregonian reported Monday. "I just stabbed my boyfriend," Emily Javier reportedly told an emergency dispatcher. I think hes dead. You need to hurry. Alex Lovell was rushed to the hospital with multiple stab wounds. He is expected to survive, but it is unclear how much nerve and muscle damage he suffered or how many times he was stabbed, the report said. The paper reported that the March 3 phone call was dramatic. The dispatcher reportedly asked Javier where she stabbed him. Everywhere! Everywhere! Javier, who was sobbing, reportedly replied. "Where is the knife?" the dispatcher then asked. Javier said, I used a sword!" The dispatcher, throughout the call, asked the woman if she can aid her injured boyfriend, but reportedly she refused, saying "There's too much blood!" Javier, 30, had been plotting to kill the boyfriend for weeks after she found someone elses hair in the shower, sexually suggestive scratches on his back, and Tinder on his phone, police said. She allegedly purchased a samurai sword from a shopping mall and hid his phone on the day of the attack so he could not call for help. Authorities arrived shortly after the call and found the man with life-threatening injuries and bedroom walls splattered with blood, police said. I was trying to kill him," she allegedly told police. Javiers bail was set at $350,000; she is to be arraigned on March 13. Fox News Paulina Dedaj and the Associated Press contributed to this report. The New York college student who has now become the subject of an international manhunt after fleeing the country for Nicaragua late last week reportedly had an obsession with the female classmate who was found dead in his off-campus home. A student who identified herself as a close friend and roommate of Haley Anderson, whose body was discovered Friday near Binghamton University, said Orlando Tercero became fixated on her as they studied and hung out over a two-year period. They hooked up in the past, but to her, it was pretty platonic and she didnt want to have anything seriously, Mishela Topalli, 21, told TIME. That was actually a while ago, but he never got over his obsession of her. Anderson and Tercero, both 22, were students at the universitys Decker School of Nursing. Binghamton police on Monday named Tercero as a person of interest in Andersons death, which they are ruling a homicide, and said he left the U.S. on a Nicaragua-bound flight before her body was found at a home where he lived. We are trying to seek closure to Haleys family and obviously bring the person responsible to justice," Binghamton Police Lt. Cory Minor told Fox News on Tuesday. Investigators said Tercero previously had a relationship with Anderson and another friend told Fox News in a text message that he was her ex-boyfriend. We knew he had some fixation on her, for sure, Topalli said. Even his friends would say so. Topalli said she and her two roommates grew worried last week after Anderson stopped responding to messages on her phone. Days later, Anderson was found dead inside a home on a tree-lined block just minutes away from the universitys campus. The cause of death has not yet been revealed. I dont know why anyone would hurt Haley, Topalli told TIME. She was so alive. She was so bright, so energetic. Anytime she would come into the room, she would always cheer us up. Broome County District Attorney Steve Cornwell said Monday that his office wants to obtain an indictment against Tercero from a grand jury in connection with Andersons death, then file a warrant for his arrest. Cornwell added that the warrant would then be presented to the U.S. State Department in a bid to get them to pressure the Nicaraguan government to send Tercero back to U.S. soil. "When a life is taken, we will use all available legal procedures and resources to bring justice to the victim, her family, the defendant and our community," Cornwell said in a statement. Minor told Fox News on Tuesday that his department is still working to figure out if Tercero, a U.S. citizen who was born in Miami, has a Nicaraguan citizenship. Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said to ABC News a day earlier that Tercero has family in the Central American country but theres a chance they may not extradite him if he has citizenship status. A Facebook page viewed by Fox News purportedly belonging to Tercero, which has been taken down, had numerous posts expressing his fondness for Nicaragua. Zikuski told ABC News that police believe he left the U.S. Friday morning on an 8:40 a.m. flight out of New York Citys John F. Kennedy International Airport, about a 3.5-hour drive from the university. "We were a few hours behind him," Zikuski said. "Then we put two and two together quickly." Minor confirmed to Fox News that Anderson filed a police report back in September over an incident in which she blamed Tercero for damaging her car tires, but dropped it after he paid her back for the damage. Andersons friends told Binghamtons student newspaper that she had worked as a barista at a cafe in the university library and was set to begin a job at an emergency room on Long Island after graduation in May. She was the warmest person, Josephine Artin, a senior student who also identified herself as a roommate of Andersons, told the Pipe Dream. I didnt know anybody who didnt like her. Her laugh was contagious I would always be laughing just because she was laughing. As of Tuesday, Tercero's status with Binghamton University is unclear. The university told Fox News that it is looking into the matter. Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger described Anderson, a native of Westbury, as a beloved and vital member of the school. Today I had the opportunity to meet with members of Haleys immediate family and learn more about her as a daughter, sister and loyal friend, he said Monday in a statement. Haley was just months away from graduation, with a bright future ahead of her, and it is difficult to comprehend that she will no longer be with us. The Department of Homeland Security this week joined the desperate search for a Pennsylvania teenager and the 45-year-old man she disappeared with more than a week ago. Amy Yu, who turned 16 in December, was last seen in Allentown, Pa., a week ago and is believed to be with Kevin Esterly, the father of one of her friends and the man police say she had a secret relationship with. The search for Yu and Esterly entered its eighth day Tuesday. Allentown police said on Monday they believe the two are aware that authorities are searching for them. Esterly signed out Yu from Lehigh Valley Academy 10 times between Nov. 12 and Feb. 9 without her parents permission, authorities said. He was able to do this because the girl had altered her student records to list Esterly as her stepfather. Gary Hammer, of the Colonial Regional Police, told ABC news the girls mother arrived to pick her up on Feb. 9 and school workers said shed left with her stepfather. The shocked woman told them shes a single mother. The day of her disappearance, the teens mother Mul Luu told authorities she returned home to discover her daughters passport was missing, along with cash. Esterlys wife told authorities that he had withdrawn $4,000 from her bank account and taken personal documents. Yus younger brother told reporters his sister met Esterly at church several years ago. The family said they felt betrayed by Esterly, who they had previously invited over for dinner. Now, I think that hes a very bad guy and Amys not hanging out with the right person, he said, according to WFMZ. Authorities have said it doesnt appear the teenager was taken against her will, but there is a warrant out for Esterlys arrest. The two are suspected of traveling in Esterlys red Honda Accord, which has Pennsylvania plates. I want to tell her Amy, can you come back to me? I love you. I just hope you come back, Luu said on CBS This Morning. Anyone who sees the car, or either Amy Yu or Kevin Esterly, is encouraged to call Allentown police at 610-437-7753. When news of the Parkland school shooting first broke, it resonated with 17-year-old Naomi Giancola. A junior at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, New York some 1,200 miles away from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the Florida high school where a gunman murdered 17 students and faculty on Feb. 14 Giancola immediately thought the tragedy could have easily happened at her own school. It really hit home because Im in high school. That could have been my school, that could have been my friends, that could have been me that was shot or running away, Giancola told Fox News. So along with 16-year-old Madeline Paterna, Giancola arranged for her school to participate in the National School Walkout, a protest led by students demanding action against gun violence, on March 14 one month after the Parkland school shooting. It was really scary to think that could have been us, and I just wanted to do something because I dont want it to happen again," Giancola said. What is the National School Walkout? For at least 17 minutes at 10 a.m. across each time zone on March 14, students, school faculty and supporters around the world will walk out of their schools to honor those killed in the massacre at the Parkland high school earlier this year and to protest gun violence. Those participating are encouraged to wear orange the color used by many who support gun control. And some schools will even have featured speakers who are calling on Congress to pass gun control measures. Those at Midwood High will gather at a nearby park to have a moment of silence as the names of the 17 Parkland victims are read aloud. There will also be an opportunity for those to share a poem, song or words of encouragement. "All we want to do is honor these peoples lives." Naomi Giancola Its important for everyone to realize that although it is about guns and its political, its more to commemorate the lives lost, Giancola said. At this point all we want to do is honor these peoples lives. Paterna added that she wanted to speak out for all the people who died in the shooting. Us as students have to speak out about it and try to get our voices heard because I personally cant imagine losing 17 people that I know in a school community, Paterna told Fox News. Students at Midwood High School and Packer Collegiate Institute, also in Brooklyn, have expressed concern that a gunman could enter a school at any time. And those students have also lamented a lack of protection. As school shootings have become more common, if a shooter, God forbid, got into the school, theres really no protection for students, Sarah Desouza, a 17-year-old senior at Packer Collegiate, told Fox News. Her peer, Drew Myers, noted that the school has lockdown drills about three times a semester. And its in those drills that he said he feels helpless. Theres really nothing we can do if a shooter enters the building, he told Fox News. I find that the most chilling aspect of the whole thing: Theres really nothing you can do. Seeing school shootings happen over and over again just really drives home the point that it seems so easy for these people to commit these acts, and you feel helpless in the drills because theres nothing you can do, Myers said, adding that he does not support arming teachers, a proposal put forth by the White House. Who organized the walkout? Womens March Youth EMPOWER, the organizers of the March 14 demonstration, say the walkout is to protest Congress inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods. Students and staff have the right to teach and learn in an environment free from the worry of being gunned down in their classrooms or on their way home from school, the event page said. Cate Whitman, a 17-year-old student at New York Citys LaGuardia High School, partnered with the Womens March to help plan the walkout. She said she hopes the protest will shed light on the issue of gun violence in general. Im hoping it will bring more focus to the larger issue of gun violence as a whole because gun violence is something that affects people from all walks of life, all over the country, and disproportionately black and brown communities," Whitman told Fox News. These things happen all the time in tons of communities, and Im hoping that people start talking about it in an intersectional way. The Womens March has asked that all actions be inclusive & non-violent during the walkouts. How many schools are participating? More than 185,000 students are expected to participate in the walkout, according to the latest numbers provided by a Womens March spokesperson. And a map of participating schools on the events website shows the walkout has gone international with schools in Ireland, Israel and Mexico participating. Multiple colleges and universities have said they will not reject students who participate in the protests and walkouts, Reuters reported. Yale will NOT be rescinding anyones admission decision for participating in peaceful walkouts for this or other causes, regardless of any high schools disciplinary policy, Hannah Mendlowitz, the senior assistant director of admissions and director of recruitment for Yale University, said in a blog post. I, for one, will be cheering these students on from New Haven. Students at Packer Collegiate Institute, an independent college preparatory school in Brooklyn Heights, credited the survivors of the Parkland shooting for their own activism and involvement in the walkout. Myers said the survivors immediate advocacy, including meeting face-to-face with lawmakers and participating in town halls, was truly inspirational. Its really inspiring that theyre taking action especially after something so tragic happened, Desouza added. It makes me want to contribute any way I can. College students at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., also plan to participate in the walkout. Additionally, Students of Georgetown Inc. ("The Corp"), a student-run non-profit, will close its businesses for 17 minutes, Ricardo Mondolfi, a junior international politics major and chairman of "The Corp," told Fox News. But some students dont plan to participate in the walkout. Will Walker, a 16-year-old sophomore at Cadillac High School in Michigan, told HuffPost he will continue with his school work even if the teacher leaves the classroom. I dont think were going to solve anything by walking out of the classroom, Walker told HuffPost. I am in full support of stopping school shootings, but thats not what the people are going out there [for] Theyre trying to stop people from being able to have guns. How are non-students showing support? Congressional leaders and pastors are among those who will participate or show solidarity with students during the walkout. Pastor Toure Roberts of The Potters House plans to join students at East High School in Denver for a moment of silence. He is also dedicating a Palm Sunday service to hear from students and give them an opportunity to speak to law enforcement personnel, local politicians and public school officials. We want to encourage them and let them know we hear them. We dont want them to live in fear and literally be terrorized, Roberts told Fox News. We want [students] to know that they matter. Additionally, congressional Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California plan to gather in front of the Capitol to join students rallying for more gun control. MTV also plans to go dark for 17 minutes on March 14 at 10 am to pay tribute to the 17 lives lost in the Parkland shooting and honor young victims of gun violence, the station said in a statement to Fox News. Between March 14 and March 24, when the "March For Our Lives" rallies will be held, MTV also plans to change its logos across its platforms to orange. How do I know if my school is participating? To find out if your school is participating, plug in your zip code and check out the map on the Womens March website. Another nationwide school walkout is scheduled for April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. A spokesperson for this walkout confirmed to Fox News that it is not directly affiliated with the March event. And on March 24, "March for Our Lives" rallies are scheduled nationwide for demonstrators to protest gun violence. New York City wastewater treatment plants will reportedly stop sending trains filled with partially treated sewage to Alabama after Yellowhammer State residents complained about the horrific smell and sludge-driven health issues. The wastewater treatment plants six from New York City and one from New Jersey began dumping biosolids into the Big Sky Environmental, LLC landfill in Adamsville, Alabama, more than a year ago, according to AL.com. The state became a landing zone for New York City sewage as the state faces challenges to solve its waste problem. The Environmental Protection Agency said in 1988 that waste should not end up in the ocean. But the operation has left a sour taste among locals, who said the waste brought on disgusting smell and a slew of health concerns. On a hot day, the odor and flies are horrific, West Jefferson Mayor Charles Nix, who resides near the landfill, told The Guardian. Its better in winter time but if the wind blows in the wrong direction you get the smell. Its like dead, rotting animals." Nix said people were miserable being around the sewage. He added people would get sewage water splattered onto their vehicles when they drove too close. People in Walker county also reported fly infestations and a rotten stench. If you get close to the trucks the liquid would blow off on to your windshield and fill your car with a stink. It spilled out on to the road, Nix said. Edward Timbers, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection told AL.com the operation was being suspended to address local concerns after a slew of complaints. Its unclear if the operation was just temporarily stopped, or is gone for good. West Jefferson residents also filed a lawsuit against Big Sky for the sewage issue. I guess we are not even as good as the fish, down here in Alabama, Nix said. Every state should be responsible for its own waste. We dont want it dumped here. About 7 percent of New York City waste goes to the Alabama landfill, according to the Guardian. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The famed ghost tracks seen every so often on a New Jersey beach reappeared over the weekend after a noreaster hit the East Coast, washing away enough sand to reveal the rare piece of history. The tracks on Higbee Beach in Cape May County were discovered by residents walking along the beach during the weekend. The tracks reappear during low tide or when a storm hits the area. "It feels sort of like you came across buried treasure," Samantha Heely told NJ.com. The part that was uncovered this weekend appeared to be more intact than a segment seen last summer. Several nearby residents have flocked to the beach to get a snap of the tracks. "It was even better this time because I knew what I was looking at," Heely said. "I know some of their history, I know that this eerie thing happens every now and again and I know where to look." The ghost tracks are all that remains of a rail line that once served as support for sand mining and munitions testing facilities during World War I, according to NJ.com. They were often used throughout the early and mid-1900s to mine sand from the beach and ocean. The sand would then be used to create glass or cement. When the rail line was put out of use, the tides washed sand over the tracks. Its unclear if Tuesdays noreaster will uncover more of the historic ghost tracks -- or bury them even deeper. The last noreaster also uncovered a Revolutionary War-era ship on Short Sands Beach in Maine in early March. The Associated Press contributed to this report. At one point, it was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Two years after 49 people were massacred inside a crowded nightclub in Orlando, the wife of the gunman responsible was put on trial -- with families of the victims looking for justice. Omar Mateen opened fire with a Sig Saur semi-automatic rifle on June 12, 2016, killing dozens of people before he was fatally shot hours later by police. The trial of his widow, Noor Salman, was the only criminal prosecution for the incident. Testimony began on March 14. After deliberating for three days, the jury announced on March 30 that Salman was found not guilty of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization. In light of the verdict, here's what you need to know. What was she being accused of? Salman pleaded not guilty to charges of aiding and abetting Mateen's allegiance to the Islamic State. She was also charged with obstruction of justice, as FBI agents say she lied to them during questioning hours after the attack. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Mandolfo said Salman gave conflicting statements to FBI agents. In one conversation with authorities, before they informed her of any details of the attack, she said, "My husband is safe with guns." "No one ever told her about guns," Mandolfo said. FBI agents interviewed Salman three times after the attack. They said she was aware Mateen was planning to do something and that texts to her husband prove it. "She knew he was going to conduct the attack," federal prosecutor Roger Handberg told a judge during a hearing in Oakland on Jan. 17, 2017. One text recovered from Salmans phone reads, If ur mom calls say nimo invited you out and noor wants to stay home. Another reads, She asked where you were xoxo. Love you. Nimo, or Nemo, is the name of one of Mateens friends, whom defense attorneys said Mateen often used to cover his tracks when he went out to cheat on his wife. She shopped with her husband at Walmart the night before the attack when he bought five containers of ammunition, a source close to the investigation previously told Fox News. A law enforcement source also told Fox she had driven her husband to Pulse nightclub at least once before the deadly shooting. What was her defense? The family and Salmans lawyers denied she had anything to do with Mateens plot. In a November 2016 interview with The New York Times, Salman apologized for her husband's act and claimed she was unaware of his plan. "I don't condone what he has done," she told the newspaper. "I am very sorry for what has happened. He has hurt a lot of people." Defense attorneys described Salman as a simple woman with a low IQ, who was abused by her husband and was in constant fear for her life. Her attorneys also claimed she wasn't given proper Miranda warnings, which tell suspects they have a right to remain silent and have an attorney present, before she made statements. I knew when he left the house he was going to Orlando to attack the Pulse Night Club, Salman confirmed in a signed statement written by an FBI agent, according to documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel. Defense attorney Linda Moreno argued that this confession was coerced and, therefore, should not be admissible in court. "Noor Salman denied any knowledge of Omar Mateen's plans for hours," Moreno said, claiming agents told Salman that she could go to jail and not see her child. What about her family? FBI agents arrested Salman in January 2017 inside her California home, where she had been living with her young son, whom she shared with Mateen. The now 5-year-old boy, who lives with his maternal grandmother in California, has since learned about his father's act and hasn't had any contact with Mateen's side of the family, Susan Clary, spokeswoman for Salmans family, told the Orlando Sentinel. Salman reportedly calls the boy daily. "They talk about what he learned in his kindergarten class that day and what his favorite toys are," according to the Florida newspaper. What were the highlights of her trial? U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron, federal prosecutors and defense attorneys picked 12 jury members and six alternates on March 12. Opening statements started in federal court on March 14 in downtown Orlando. On the first day of the trial, jurors listened to a witness who hid under a dead body for three hours as shots were fired and an Orlando police detective who choked up on the stand. They also watched a video taken during the shooting by a survivor inside the club. Jurors watched graphic videos of the massacre the next day. Salman shielded her face as the videos and images were displayed on screen, the Orlando Sentinel reports. One video showed Mateen opening fire shooting people already lying motionless on the dance floor. He then walked toward the restroom where he began targeting people hiding in the bathroom stalls. On March 18, Salman's defense team filed a motion, asking the judge to ban the prosecution from using any damning statements the widow may have made to an FBI agent about Mateen's plan, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The next day, FBI Special Agent Ricardo Enriquez took the stand to reveal the statement Salman had given him the night he questioned her about the mass shooting. I am sorry for what happened, Enriquez read Salman's note, according to the Orlando Sentinel. I wish Id go back and tell his family and the police what he was going to do. Salman's defense attorneys argued those statements weren't accurate. On March 20, the mother of Mateen's friend, known only by the nickname "Nemo," testified in court. She discussed the pair's relationship, and told the court her son was working that night in Washington, D.C., and had not been with Mateen. Jurors got a deeper look into Mateen's past on March 21 as they searched through his browser history, which included ISIS propaganda and beheading videos. They also flipped through photos taken inside his Florida home. Final text messages between the couple were then read aloud in court. Salman texted Mateen twice during his hours-long standoff with police, asking, "Where are you?" Mateen responded, "You heard what happened." "????" Salman replied. "What happened?!" Salman texted. "I love you babe," Mateen wrote in his last text message at 4:29 a.m. "Habibi what happened?!" Salman wrote, using an Arabic term of endearment. "Your mom said that she said to come over and you never did." On March 22, jurors watched security footage of Salman standing by her husband's side -- with their young son close by -- as Mateen bought ammunition at Walmart. "I knew Omar was preparing for Jihad when he bought the rifle, was going to the range to shoot, was spending a lot of money and bought the ammunition, Salman said, according to a transcribed statement jurors were given earlier, the Orlando Sentinel reported. I saw these things as a green light for Omar to do an act of violence." On March 24, lawyers revealed that Mateen's dad was a secret FBI informant for more than a decade -- a revelation that led to immediate calls by the defense for a mistrial. "Seddique Mateen was a FBI confidential human source at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016, the defense lawyers, in a court document, quoted United States Attorney Sara Sweeney as saying in a letter. Salmans lawyers, who denied she had anything to do with the attack, added: Moreover, the defenses questioning of the Governments witnesses has also been hindered by the Governments actions. During the cross-examination of Shahla Mateenshe denied any knowledge of a relationship between Seddique Mateen and the FBI. This was either false and the Government knew it since Seddique Mateen had been working with the FBI for eleven years or Seddique Mateen had kept this information from his wife a situation ripe for cross-examination. U.S. District Judge Paul Byron rejected the defense's motion for a mistrial on March 26, saying it had little bearing on the trial. "This trial is not about Seddique Mateen. It's about Noor Salman," Byron said. Sweeney told the 12 jurors on March 28 that Mateen's initial target was not Pulse, but Disney Springs. The target of that terrorist attack was not the Pulse nightclub. ... The target of his attack was Disney, Sweeney argued during closing arguments, showing the jury photos of a baby stroller and doll she believed Mateen planned to use to hide his weapons and get into Disney, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Salman's defense lawyers said Sweeney's information didn't make the incident "any less tragic" and argued that it had nothing to do with his wife's knowledge of an attack. "It's a horrible, random, senseless killing by a monster. But it wasn't pre-planned," defense attorney Charles Swift said. "And if he didn't know, she couldn't know." Deliberations began following the closing arguments around 2 p.m. on March 28. On March 30, after deliberating for three days and 12 hours, the jury in Salman's case reached a not guilty verdict on all counts. The widow was found not guilty of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization. Fox News' Phil Keating and The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Russian Embassy took to Twitter Monday night with a string of snarky tweets dismissing alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The tweets were sent about an hour after Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee wrapped up an inquiry into the Russia probe, revealing they found "no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians." The embassy photoshopped images together to make it appear as if a helicopter was shining a searchlight on its building in Washington, D.C. What was American helicopter searching for at the Russian Embassy's premises yesterday night? the embassy tweeted, tagging the State Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and several other accounts. The embassy then asked if it was a 'strange' malfunction of navigation equipment the center of the U.S. capital? Or another desperate attempt to find traces of #RussianMeddling? A D.C. police spokesman told The Washington Post that a helicopter was dispatched at 10:19 p.m. Sunday north of the embassy and was responding to a potential robbery with a gun. The chopper circled the area for around 20 minutes before ending its investigation. The newspaper noted that the images posted by the embassy did not have dates and that police regularly patrol the city from above. "Anybody who lives in D.C. knows that," D.C. police spokesman Sean Hicksman told The Washington Post. TRUMP TOUTS HOUSE INTEL FINDINGS OF 'NO COLLUSION' The embassy continued its Twitter tirade by citing the words of Texas Republican Rep. Mike Conaway, who led the bipartisan investigation. All Russia investigations (not only in the US) are destined to end as @ConawayTX11 brilliantly concluded: only Tom Clancy could take this series of inadvertent contacts, meetings, whatever, and weave that into some sort of a spy thriller that could go out there#JackRyan," the tweet read. The hashtag #JackRyan refers to a Clancy book character. It also included Russian-language covers of the Clancy novels Rainbow Six and Debt of Honor. This isn't the first time the Russian Embassy has mocked the U.S. In a Fourth of July tweet in 2017, the embassy pointed out the origins of a Fourth music staple, explaining that it was actually written to commemorate one of Russia's victories during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. "Dear Americans, happy Independence Day! Learn more about Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, now a July Fourth tradition," the embassy wrote. In December 2016, the Russian Embassy in the U.K. responded to sanctions declared by President Obama in response to Moscow's U.S. election-related hacking. The embassy tweeted a picture of a "LAME" duck, since Obama had just weeks left in his presidency. Fox News' Brian Flood and The Associated Press contributed to this report. An Idaho middle school science teacher who reportedly fed a sick puppy to a snapping turtle in front of his students remained the subject of a police investigation Tuesday. The reported incident in Robert Croslands classroom allegedly happened after school hours on March 7 at Preston Junior High School, located roughly 300 miles east of Boise. Preston School District was made aware of a regrettable circumstance involving some of the biological specimens at Preston Jr. High, the district said in a statement. We emphasize that at no time was the safety of students or staff compromised. Police told FOX13 the dog was alive when it allegedly was presented as a meal for the turtle. "Were investigating the facts and turning it over to the prosecutor. Hes the one who will determine if the law has been broken," said Franklin County Sheriff David Fryar. The dog also had an illness at the time of its death, which originally was reported to police by a local animal activist after a teacher told her about the alleged incident, according to FOX13. "What I have learned in the last four days is disgusting. It is sick. It is sick," said Jill Parrish, the activist. As of Tuesday, Crosland has not been charged or placed on leave. While the district certainly does not condone individual actions that may violate district policy or reasonable expectations of behavior, we hope that any errors in judgment made by a teacher in this instance will not cause us to forget the years of care, effort, and passion the teacher has given to students in Preston School District, the district said in a letter sent home to parents Friday. This district also said the event occurred well after students had been dismissed and was not a part of any school directed program, but deputies that spoke to FOX13 said it happened in front of students. Crosland is popular amongst the schools student body and often has exotic animals in the classroom, former students told East Idaho News. They claimed he often fed guinea pigs to snakes and snapping turtles during lessons in class. He is a cool teacher who really brought science to life," one former student said. "I loved his class because he had turtles and snakes and other cool things." Preston Schools did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. Fox News Nicole Darrah contributed to this report. A local sheriff in Michigan apologized on Tuesday for accidentally leaving, in a middle school locker room, a gun that was later discovered by one of the students. Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main said he was devastated by his lack of accountability after a student at Shepherd Middle School found the firearm in the locker room bathroom. I have no excuse for my lack of responsibility with this matter, Main said in a statement on Tuesday. I have worked diligently my entire career to protect people, especially our youth. However, I have failed to do just that, and Im devastated with my lack of accountability in this matter. According to his statement, Main said he was using the schools facilities to change from regular clothes to his uniform because he had been there over the weekend for an event. He said he believed that his gun, which was his backup weapon, was in his bag when he left. Main praised the student who reported the firearm on Monday to an adult. Shepherd Police Chief Luke Sawyer told The Associated Press Tuesday that his department is investigating the incident and that the findings will be turned over to the Isabella County prosecutor's office. Prosecutors will decide if any charges are to be filed. Shepherd Schools Superintendent Claire Bunker told The Morning Sun that the incident was a mistake and that she was proud of the student for notifying someone. Sheriff Main is a great person and an asset to Isabella County, she said. He is human and he made a mistake. He takes full responsibility for the incident. Im extremely proud of the student who brought it to the attention of a staff member. In the 20 years of law enforcement service I have never left a weapon anywhere, Main said in his statement. I am prepared for the harsh criticism that will follow the release of this information. I understand clearly that I have a higher level of standard that must be met and quite frankly I let myself, my family and the community down. It remains unclear if Main will face disciplinary action. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Star-Spangled Banner is no longer banned at Stanford University. The California college last week reversed its controversial decision that would have banned the American flag on College Republicans apparel. We are glad that Stanford has made the right decision. The Stanford College Republicans are honored to have seen the support of patriots across the country for our organization," College Republicans' president John David Rice-Cameron told Fox News. "We are now more emboldened than ever to continue our efforts to promote liberty on Stanfords campus. After initially rejecting the College Republicans t-shirt design because the logo contained a portion of the American flag, a school official said Stanford decided to approve the apparel and is reconsidering its trademark policy. Stanford College Republicans is welcome to use the images of the U.S. flag reflected in the current design of its logos, university spokeswoman, Lisa Lapin, told Fox News. We now recognize that the specific policy was framed in an overly restrictive manner. COLLEGE STUDENT KICKED OUT OF CLASS FOR TELLING PROFESSOR THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS The Stanford College Republicans told Fox News the universitys original edict was ridiculous. The university pointed to its trademark guide as to the reason for the rejection. And though the guide doesnt include any references to flags, a university official said the policy was part of a broader policy intended to avoid associating the Stanford name/logo with specific political perspectives. STANFORD REJECTS COLLEGE REPUBLICANS PROPOSED LOGO BECAUSE IT SHOWS AMERICAN FLAG Stanford does not approve the use of the American (or other flag) on product also featuring our trademarks (including the Stanford name), Stanford Universitys trademark licensing associate, Kara Hegwood, wrote in an email to the College Republicans president last month. Hegwood initially wrote the university can approve red/white/blue themed product but cannot approve this design which features altered version of the flag in the background of the design, and within the initials for the organization name. Three Illinois men have been arrested and charged in connection with the August bombing of a mosque in a Minneapolis suburb, federal officials said Tuesday. The men -- identified as Michael B. Hari, 47; Joe Morris, 22; and Michael McWhorter, 29 -- also face charges of possession of a machine gun and are suspects in the attempted bombing of an Illinois abortion clinic this past November, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Springfield, Ill. A fourth man, 18-year-old Ellis Mack, also faces the gun charge, but he was not identified as a suspect bombing or attempted bombing. All four men are from Clarence, a rural community 35 miles north of Champaign-Urbana. The Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn., was bombed just before morning prayers on Aug. 5, causing extensive damage although no one was injured or killed. According to an affidavit obtained by Fox 9, McWhorter allegedly told an FBI agent during an interview that the three rented a pickup in Champaign and drove to Minnesota with a plan to bomb the mosque, according to a criminal complaint. He said they wanted to let Muslims know they are not welcome in the United States and "scare them out of the country," according notes taken by the FBI. It wasn't clear from the complaint why the men may have targeted a mosque so far from Illinois. Morris told one informant that Hari had promised to pay him and McWhorter $18,000 for participating in the mosque bombing, according to the complaint. The blast, which happened just before morning prayers on a Saturday, damaged the imam's office across the hall from the worship space. In announcing the charges against the men, interim U.S. Attorney Gregory Brooker described the bombing as a "tragedy for all Minnesotans." McWhorter also allegedly admitted that the three men tried to bomb the abortion clinic on Nov. 7, again renting a truck to carry out the attack. McWhorter described a PVC pipe bomb and said Morris broke a window and threw it in, where it failed to go off, according to the complaint. The complaint also said nothing about a possible motivation for the clinic attack. The complaint said a tip led authorities to investigate the men, with a person sending the Ford County sheriff photos of guns and bomb-making material inside Hari's parents' home, where Hari often stayed. The tipster eventually became one of two informants in the case, according to the complaint. Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim advocacy and civil liberties group Council on American-Islamic Relations, welcomed news of the arrests. "This is definitely a relief that this case is finally to conclusion and those assailants-slash-suspects are apprehended and no longer a threat to our community," Hussein told the Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday. The mosque primarily serves Somalis in the Minneapolis area. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community outside of east Africa, with an estimated 57,000 people, according to the most recent census estimates. Mohamed Omar, the center's executive director, said at the time that the mosque didn't receive any threats beforehand or claims of responsibility afterward. The FBI had offered a $30,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction in the bombing. Officials said at the time that witnesses saw someone throw something from a truck or van before the blast and saw a vehicle speed away afterward. Mosque leaders later released security video from inside the mosque that caught the moments before the explosion, and some smoke and flying debris. The video didn't show the blast itself. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from Fox9.com. Its long been said that dogs are a mans best friend due to their unwavering loyalty and one dog in Brazil is proving that his friendship is forever. More than four months after his owner was rushed to a hospital in Sao Paul, an unnamed dog continues to wait outside the Santa Casa de Novo Horizonte hospital the last place he saw his best friend. The dogs owner, a 59-year-old homeless man, was fatally stabbed in a local park, Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported. The pooch reportedly rushed to the hospital and has been waiting outside the entrance for his owner to return. 'PERSISTENT' PIT BULL DOG SAVES OWNERS FROM CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING Nearby resident Cristine Sardella, who was at the hospital last month, took pictures of the dog and posted them to Facebook, writing that humans have a lot to learn from animals. The dog, Sardella told The Dodo, seemed set on staying where he was, awaiting the return of his owner. "He would get up to let people pass by, very politely, and then lay right back down again," Sardella told the animal news website. "He was educated and tame." The dog reportedly lays outside the hospital's reception office on a rug, and stares inside. Occasionally, staff said, he'll leave in search of food and eventually come back. She said that after she posted of the dogs sad situation online two weeks ago, a local rescue brought the dog to a kennel in order to find him a new home, but the dog escaped. "He fled across the city," Sardella said. "He walked [almost two miles] and returned to the hospital." In the meantime, the dog is being taken care of by hospital staff and will even be vaccinated and seen by a veterinarian as one hospital staff member reportedly plans to adopt him. The hospitals director, Osvaldo Sobrinho, told The Dodo that an employee is waiting to give him a forever home when the proper time comes. He will have a very affectionate home with our employee, the director said. This Brazilian dog isn't the first to heartbreakingly wait for a reunion that will never come. A Japanese dog named Hachiko reportedly waited more than nine years near Shibuya Station in Tokyo for his owner, Hidesaburo Ueno, to come home from work at the University of Tokyo. Even after Ueno died, Hachiko still waited for his owner every afternoon until he himself died in 1935. A bronze statue of Hachiko was built at the station in 1934. Addressing the United Nations Security Council Monday, Nikki Haley, the United States ambassador to the world body, warned that the U.S. could act in the face of more chemical attacks. Haleys remarks to the Security Council came at a briefing on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2401 regarding the Syrian humanitarian ceasefire. Secretary General Antonio Guterres bluntly told the council that, there has been no cessation of hostilities. Haley reminded council members of the Trump administrations response against the Assad regime following its failure to act when it used sarin gas in a chemical attack against civilians in the town of Khan Shaykhun. That sarin gas attack by the Assad regime resulted in nearly 60 deaths of innocent civilians, including children. President Trump ordered a strike on an the Shayrat airbase. Dozens of Tomahawk missiles targeted that base. Haleys speech was the second senior voice from the Trump administration in a week where the topic of an administration response to Syrias continued use of chemical weapons was raised. Last Tuesday the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, told the Senate Armed Service Committee hearing a response was something that needs to be discussed. During Mondays Security Council meeting the U.S. ambassador also took aim at Russia. Haley said that the Russians had not kept its commitment for endorsing the resolution in which it negotiated the wording of the ceasefire, down to the commas and the periods. Haley noted that in the first four days following the ceasefire, the Russians had conducted some 20 bombing sorties in Damascus and Eastern Ghouta. Haley told members: This is no ceasefire. This is the Assad regime, Iran, and Russia continuing to wage war against their political opponents. And theres another reason we know the Syrians and Russians never intended to implement the ceasefire. Haley outlined a new draft resolution that if passed by the council would take place immediately. She said that it contained no loopholes for the Russians, Iran and Assad to hide from. Vassily Nebenzia, Russias ambassador to the Security Council, defended his countrys efforts to support the humanitarian ceasefire, blaming the disruption on terrorists who he said are breaking it: The suburbs of Damascus cannot remain a hotbed of terrorism. And it is continued attempts of terrorism to undermine the cessation of hostilities of the regime that is the reason why the highly tense situation in Syria continues. Britains Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jonathan Allen said the resolution had so far failed. He said, Our resolution was clear: ceasefire without delay, humanitarian access, medical evacuation. None have happened. Instead the truth is that the regime will continue to pound Eastern Ghouta until they have a complete military victory there. And that Russia will continue to protect its ally whatever the cost to the people of Syria and to its own reputation. At an informal meeting of the Security Council Monday afternoon hosted by the U.K., France, Poland and the Netherlands, members of the Syrian opposition discussed the implementation of the ceasefire. Hadi al-Bahra, a senior member of the main Syrian opposition, described to Security Council members what life was like for ordinary Syrians: Those that make it through one day alive must face the very real prospect of death the very following day. Al-Bahra, who is a senior member of the negotiating team for the Syrian opposition, likened the Assad regimes policies to that of an abuser who is never punished. He warned that Assad continues and escalates safe in the knowledge that his military strategy is his best option. He said the latest front where this is happening is Eastern Ghouta, and that with the support of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, Assads military solution is only reinforced. Nivin Hotary, a 38-year-old mother, via a video link from Eastern Ghouta, told the meeting what living under siege was like. Hotary said she has been forced to live in an underground silo that was moldy and had no water or proper toilets. She said they were not fit for humans to live in. Hotary said, I am forced to be here because the Assad-Russian forces are bombing us daily, even throughout the hours of the truce. Hotary urged the Security Council to act without delay for an immediate implementation of the ceasefire and an end of the siege, as every minute is an opportunity of more killing. An ex-Russian spy and his adult daughter were critically injured after they were poisoned by a nerve agent back in March and now Russia is paying for the attack. Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious March 4 on a bench in a shopping mall in Salisbury, about 90 miles west of London. The pair were released from the hospital two months later and moved to a private, secure location. On Aug. 8, the U.S. announced it was imposing sanctions on Russia for using a chemical weapon in violation of international law, though the Kremlin repeatedly denied involvement. Following a 15-day congressional notification period, the sanctions took effect on or around Aug. 22, according to a statement from the State Department. British Prime Minister Theresa May said days after the poisoning that it was highly likely Russia was responsible. And the U.S., Germany and France all appeared to back her. 2 RUSSIANS CHARGED OVER NOVICHOK POISONING OF EX-SPY, USED FAKE PERFUME BOTTLE, BRITISH OFFICIALS SAY Since the March attack, a British couple with no ties to Russia have also been poisoned by the substance in Salisbury. Dawn Sturgess, 44, died more than a week after authorities believe she was exposed to Novichok the military-grade nerve agent also used in an attempt to assasinate Skripal. Charlie Rowley, 45, was also exposed to the agent and remains in critical but stable condition. On Sept. 5, authorities in Britain charged two Russian men, identified as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter, as well as Sturgess. The nerve agent used to poison the Skripals was smuggled to Britain in a counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle and applied to the front door of their house, according to Metropolitan Police. Police believe the couple later found that same bottle, thus exposing them to the toxic nerve agent. Heres what we know about Skripal, and the incident that nearly killed him. His background as a spy Skripal served with Russias military intelligence, often known by its Russian-language acronym GRU, and retired in 1999. He then worked at the Foreign Ministry until 2003, and later became involved in business. Skripal was arrested in 2004 in Moscow and later confessed to having been recruited by British intelligence in 1995. He also said at the time that he provided information about GRU agents in Europe, receiving over $100,000 in return. WHAT'S THE GRU, RUSSIA'S MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AGENCY? 3 THINGS TO KNOW At the time of Skripals trial, the Russian media quoted the FSB domestic security agency as saying that the damage from his activities could be compared to harm inflicted by Oleg Penkovsky, a GRU colonel who spied for the United States and Britain. Penkovsky was executed in 1963. In 2006, Skripal was convicted on charges of spying for Britain and sentenced to 13 years. However, he later was pardoned and released from custody in July 2010 as part of a U.S.-Russian spy swap, which followed the exposure of a ring of Russian sleeper agents in the U.S. Skripals wife and son have both died in recent years. Prior to his wifes death, however, she reportedly told police she feared for her husbands life, the New York Daily News reported. How world leaders responded to the attack On March 15, world leaders said in a joint statement they "abhor" the attack against Skripal. "It is an assault on U.K. sovereignty and any such use by a State party is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law. It threatens the security of us all, the statement, signed by British Prime Minister Theresa May, President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, read. The leaders called on Russia to "live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security." May had given Russia until midnight on March 13 to respond to the charges. When Moscow failed to respond, May expelled 23 Russian diplomats from the U.K. They were given a week to pack their belongings and head back to Russia. This will be the single biggest expulsion for over 30 years and it will reflect the fact that this is not the first time the Russian state has acted against our country," May said at the time. The U.S. also ordered 60 Russian diplomats to leave and announced it would close the Russian consulate in Seattle. In response, Russia then said it would expel 60 U.S. diplomats and close the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg. Two dozen countries, including the U.S., ordered more than 150 Russian diplomats out within a one-week span in a show of solidarity with the U.K. How Russia reacted to the allegations On March 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would cooperate with the U.K. in an investigation of the poisonings, calling them a "tragedy." However, Putin said if the claims they were poisoned by the Soviet-designed nerve agent were true, the victims would've died instantly. "Russia does not have such [nerve] agents," Putin said, according to The Guardian. "We destroyed all our chemical weapons under the supervision of international organizations and we did it first, unlike some of our partners who promised to do it, but unfortunately did not keep their promises. Putin added that he thought "any sensible person would understand that it would be rubbish, drivel, nonsense, for Russia to embark on such an escapade on the eve of a presidential election." Putin's remarks came after Russia earlier retaliated against the U.K.: Moscow announced March 17 that it also would expel 23 British diplomats, among other diplomatic measures. Fox News' Travis Fedschun, Zoe Szathmary, Madeline Farber, Kathleen Joyce and The Associated Press contributed to this report. As the Iranian new year approaches, anti-regime protesters are taking to the streets in a show of force to the countrys Ayatollah, demanding greater freedoms like Internet access. The Fox News Investigative Unit, using the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp, interviewed two of the protest organizers from their home base in Iran. "We are like a wave -- we come back even stronger, and the Iranian people want regime change," one of the protesters said Tuesday. "There is no going back." Protest organizers say the time may be up for the regime of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini. They are encouraging Iranians to demonstrate in the streets this week in what they believe will be bigger protests than those that took place two months ago. The people Fox News spoke with say they are confident the opposition could win this time around and they think the regime may be realizing that, as well. "History is being made by young Iranians. . ." "Kavea," Iranian protester The organization behind the latest protests is The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), founded in 1981. It is considered the largest political opposition group in the country and, after a series of deadly protests spread to more than 140 cities over the course of December 2017 and January 2018, the NCRI and its constituent group, the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), are more motivated than ever to see the leadership of Iran ousted. The NCRI helped connect Fox News with two activists based in Iran, a 27-year-old woman going by the name "Mitra" and a 30-year-old man, "Kavea." "[These kinds of protests are] new in Iran," Kavea said. "History is being made by young Iranians... [but] I want to emphasize we see more types of people becoming involved. Former housewives, office workers. And for years the regime used to say the poor don't support the uprising, but now you can see the poor are in the streets." Women are another group playing an increasingly major role in these protests, according to Mitra. "We have more things to struggle for," she said. "Our nation, our humanity... our basic rights." She added that organizing, or even simply protesting as a woman comes with more of a risk. And that is no small thing, considering the reports that protesters are being tortured and their families threatened. Tuesday marks an ancient holiday known as the "Festival of Fire," an occasion that Khameini has publicly condemned -- and that protesters have seized upon to signify their distaste with the country's leadership. The holiday falls on the last Tuesday before the Iranian New Year, Nowruz (which literally means "new day"), and is marked by a tradition in which people jump over firecrackers -- and sometimes open flames. Nowruz will take place on March 21. And both Mitra and Kavea say this year's Nowruz holiday protests could represent a truly "new day" for their nation. Naturally, protests during this holiday have become a frequent occurrence, especially considering the Ayatollah's explicit condemnation of demonstrations. And after those deadly protests earlier this year, demonstrations that President Trump himself endorsed on Twitter, the regime is threatening to crack down once again. Cutting off access to the Internet, which is already restricted, is a frequent tactic employed by the regime during protests. The protesters are calling on the international community to put pressure on the regime for not only a free Internet, but freedom for their people. "Any trade with this regime, or business with them, ends in the hands of [the Ayatollah], and it will be used to kill and suppress us," Mitra said. While a free Internet is among their top demands, Kavea adds that these tactics of repression may no longer be effective. "Iran is a volcano, and it will erupt much sooner than you think." "Kavea," Iranian protester "The repression of the regime is a dead end," Kavea said. "When you see these numbers of protesters, the message is clear... Iran is a volcano, and it will erupt much sooner than you think." "I think Nowruz this year can be for us a victory," Mitra said. "Nowruz means 'a new day.' This year, we think we are getting close to a real Nowruz." Myanmar's government has rejected two reports presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council that concluded it committed extreme human rights violations, probably amounting to crimes under international law, in its repression of several minority groups. Government spokesman Zaw Htay said the reports presented Tuesday by the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar and Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee lacked credibility. The Fact-Finding Mission said it found evidence of human rights violations against the Kachin, Shan and Rohingya minorities "in all likelihood amounting to crimes under international law." Lee said violent sweeps by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state that prompted about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh "bear the hallmarks of genocide." The military-grade nerve agent that investigators believe was used to poison a former Russian spy and his adult daughter was identified as Novichok, a hard-to-detect Soviet-engineered killer that's nearly 8 times more potent than VX. Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter, 33-year-old Yulia, remained hospitalized and in critical condition Tuesday, more than a week after they were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury on March 4. British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday that Novichok was first developed by the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. RUSSIA 'HIGHLY LIKELY' BEHIND EX-RUSSIAN SPY POISONING, MAY SAYS Its name is roughly translated to newcomer, newbie or new boy" -- and it's considered among the most-deadly nerve agents ever made. According to the BBC, defense officials from the United States traveled to Uzbekistan in 1999 to help dismantle and decontaminate one of the former Soviet Unions largest chemical weapons testing facilities, a location a senior defector said had been used to produce and test small batches of Novichok. According to NPR, Novichok is made with organophosphates, commercially available chemicals that are used in fertilizers and pesticides. Gary Stephens, a pharmacology expert at the University of Reading told the BBC that Novichok is a more dangerous and sophisticated agent than sarin or VX and is harder to identify. Novichok is reportedly 5 to 8 times more toxic than VX, which is the chemical that was used to kill the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year. EX-RUSSIAN SPY SERGEI SKRIPAL ALLEGEDLY POISONED: WHAT TO KNOW Making the nerve agent harder to detect, it can be produced in liquid form or as an ultra-fine powder. This also makes it easier to transport and store. "One of the main reasons these agents are developed is because their component parts are not on the banned list," Stephens said. "It means the chemicals that are mixed to create it are much easier to deliver with no risk to the health of the courier." Like other nerve agents, Novichok attacks the nervous system, sending blocking messages to muscles. The effects of the poisoning on the human body can be almost immediate, with symptoms reported to appear as quickly as 30 seconds to three minutes following exposure. Symptoms include constricted pupils, convulsions, drooling, and in serious cases, coma, respiratory failure and possible death. The reason you die from these [chemicals] is very simple, Dr. Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, told LiveScience. If your muscles dont work, you cant breathe. And if you cant breathe you eventually die. EX-RUSSIAN SPY POISONING PROMPTS WARNING FOR HUNDREDS AFTER NERVE AGENT TRACES FOUND British officials issued what they said were precautionary warnings to the hundreds of people who have visited pubs and restaurants in the city of Salisbury since Skripal and his daughter were sickened last week. "We have now learned there has been some trace contamination by the nerve agent in both the Mill Pub and Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury," Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England said. "I am confident this has not harmed the health of anyone who was in the Mill pub or Zizzi's." The health agency added that any clothing should be washed in "an ordinary washing machine using your regular detergent at the temperature recommended for the clothing." It also said to "wipe personal items such as phones, handbags and other electronic items with cleansing or baby wipes and dispose of the wipes in the bin." Russia has insisted it is not to blame for the poisoning of one of its former spies on British soil. The countrys foreign minister said Moscow is willing to cooperate with the investigation if it receives samples of the nerve agent, and suggested London would be "better off" complying with its own international obligations "before putting forward ultimatums." Russian news agencies reported that the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned the British ambassador in Moscow over the poisoning. Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, was convicted of spying for Britain and then released in a spy swap. He had been living under his own name in the small city of Salisbury for eight years before the attack without attracting any public attention. Fox News' Travis Fedschun and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Three state police officers in Mexico's Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo face administrative charges after photos posted on social media showed policemen posing for pictures with topless bathers. The state government wouldn't say what specifically the officers did. It said late Monday the three "engaged in poor execution of their duty" in "acts that distracted them from their mission of protecting people." According to local media, what distracted them were some topless female bathers on a beach in Cancun. The photos showed fully clothed and armed police officers embracing the women and posing for photos. The state has stepped up police presence at resorts following a bomb explosion on a ferry in the nearby resort of Playa del Carmen on Feb 21 that injured more than two dozen people. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 A protest over infrastructure and insecurity turned into violent clashes with police Tuesday in Panama's second biggest city, which is home to a strategic port at the northern end of the Panama Canal. Demonstrators are angry over what they see as the slow pace of a project to revitalize Colon's collapsed sewer system, deficient water supply and crumbling housing. Ditches left open for protracted periods have regularly filled with dirty water and flooded streets, giving off a foul stench and making life more unpleasant in an already dilapidated city. A march called by a social and labor movement ended without incident in the city center. Protest leader Edgardo Voitier called on supporters to return to the streets Wednesday and announced that a general strike in Colon province would continue for another 24 hours. But splinter groups of protesters broke off and threw rocks at police, set at least one patrol car aflame, burned tires and looted some businesses. Riot officers responded with tear gas. There was no immediate word from authorities about injuries or arrests. Public transportation was paralyzed and stores were shuttered, though activity was normal at the canal, port facilities and the Colon Free Trade Zone. Government public works official Jorge Gonzalez asked Colon residents to be patient and said the revitalization project is more than 50 percent complete. "We are not applying makeup. We are rebuilding," Gonzalez said. Despite being a key commercial port, Colon has seen decades of neglect from a succession of governments in Panama City, leading to a protracted decline in the quality of infrastructure. President Juan Carlos Varela, who visited Colon after taking office in 2014 and promised people there a turnaround, has said his government is spending more than $1.2 billion on public and social works in the city. Residents of Colon "have been abused for many decades, and the current president promised them that he was going to improve their quality of life," said Marco Gandasegui, a sociologist at the University of Panama. "Nearly four years have gone by and not only has that promise become hollow, it has hurt the great majority (of people) with a project that openly cheated them." Protesters also demanded more attention be paid to combatting crime in the province, which has one of the highest homicide rates in Panama. Tuesday's protests were the most serious in Colon since violent demonstrations in 2012 against an initiative to sell off property in the free trade zone. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who made an unannounced visit to Kabul on Tuesday, told reporters that he believes victory is still possible and "we know there is interest" on the Taliban side to reconcile. In other words, it may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop, he said, according to Reuters. That may be a bridge too far to expect. But there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government. Mattis, a retired Marine general who commanded U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan in the opening weeks of the war in 2001, said getting the Taliban to reconcile en masse may be "a bridge too far." So the emphasis is on drawing in Taliban elements piecemeal. Weve had some groups of Taliban small groups who have either started to come over or expressed an interest in talking, Mattis said, according to Reuters. He described this approach as an effort to "start peeling off those who are tired of fighting," after more than 16 years of war. The country is still unsafe. The Associated Press reported that security concerns were so high that reporters traveling with Mattis were not allowed to publish stories until his party had moved from the Kabul airport to the U.S.-led military coalition's headquarters. That was the first such restriction on coverage of a Pentagon chief's visit in memory. Mattis said he would be meeting with President Ashraf Ghani and top U.S. commanders. In late February, Ghani called on the Taliban to take part in peace talks to "save the country," offering security and incentives such as passports to insurgents who are willing to join the negotiations. "We do look toward a victory in Afghanistan," he said, adding, "Not a military victory -- the victory will be a political reconciliation" with the Taliban, which has achieved a stalemate in recent years and shown little interest in conceding to the Kabul government." The visit is Mattis's second since President Donald Trump announced last August that, despite his instinct to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, his administration would take a more aggressive approach to the conflict, now in its 17th year. Trump, on Jan. 29, said that he sees no basis for peace talks as long as the Taliban are "killing people left and right." As part of an effort to bolster Afghan fighting strength, the U.S. in recent weeks sent an Army group of about 800 soldiers, accompanied by several hundred support troops, to advise the Afghans closer to the front lines. The U.S. also shifted A-10 attack planes and other aircraft from striking Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan as part of Trump's new approach. These and other moves boosted the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by at least 3,500 to a total of more than 14,000. Mattis has said that the U.S. goal is to enable Afghan forces to weaken the Taliban to the point where the Afghans can manage their own security. Put another way, the aim is to convince the insurgents they cannot win on the battlefield, thus driving them to reconcile with the Afghan government. The Taliban stance is that talks for a conflict-ending compromise must take place with Washington, not Kabul. The Associated Press contributed to this report Report all errors to DonSurber@GMail.com Oh, and if you see me driving my red 2010 Mustang GT convertible, please wave. Hi, I am a retired newspaperman. I wrote 3 books on Trump and the media . I live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 43 years, Lou Ann. I grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather. Tomorrow is election day in PA-18-- an election in a dismal district that will cease to exist immediately after the votes are counted. Whomever wins-- a shit Democrat (Conor Lamb) or a shit Republican (Rick Saccone)-- will have to run in a different district in November... and PA-18 is divided between a really red district for Saccone and a competitive district leaning blue either for Lamb or, hopefully, a better Democrat. Lamb is a Blue Dog who defines what it means to be a political coward. There's no enthusiasm for him and if he wins it will be only because voters hate Trump and want to let him know. I've been writing about that for weeks . Turns out, Republicans are as unhappy with Saccone as Democrats are with Lamb. Even Trumpanzee realizes how bad Saccone sucks . Trump thinks Saccone is is a terrible, "weak" candidate and Republican leaders have been bellyaching ever since it looked that Saccone could lose that "Lamb is a far superior candidate to Saccone and running a far better campaign. Lamb is running effectively as Republican Lite. He's pro-gun and says he personally opposes to abortion (though he supports abortion rights). The thing that most irks senior Republicans involved in the race: Saccone has been a lousy fundraiser. Lamb has outraised Saccone by a staggering margin-- nearly 500 percent... Should Saccone lose, Republicans will be quick to describe his loss as meaningless and will argue it's not a bellwether for November's elections. They'll say he was a terrible candidate and that his loss should be a wake-up call to other Republican candidates who may be getting lazy about their fundraising." [E]ither candidate would probably be able and competent when it comes to representing the 18th Congressional District. But we believe one of the two candidates would be better positioned to be the kind of moderate, conciliatory figure that is needed in this tempestuous moment in our political life, and that is Conor Lamb. And they like him for the very reasons most Democrats are unenthusiastic: he "has refrained from full-frontal attacks on Trump" and he backs fracking. Across the state, theoffers a more in-depth look at Lamb's shortcomings from a columnist who used to live in PA-18 and write for the same Washington, Will Bunch. He referred to Trump's imbecilic foray into the district Saturday as "a desperate, 11th-hour bid to prop up sagging GOP congressional candidate Rick Saccone and described Trump's speech as "racist and misogynistic, autocratic bordering on fascism," a "freestyle egomaniacal monologue." He worked there in the early '80s and he remembers "trying to figure out why schools were closed and public officials all vanished on December 1 (it was the first day of deer season!)." Some 35 years of additional oxidation later, its a place seemingly tailor-made for a candidate like Lamb-- smart, good-looking and with an impeccable resume that includes stints as an attorney for the Marines and a federal prosecutor. Handpicked for the special election by local Democratic bosses, which meant he didnt have to face a primary electorate that has been moving left, even in the Rust Belt, Lamb seems to bring everything youd want in Deer Hunter country. Except enthusiasm. Inquirer reporter that Lamb is not as far left as Id like. I was struck reading my colleague Jonathan Tamaris recent reporting from the district , where Democratic and middle-of-the-road voters seem truly energized about sending Trump a one-fingered salute. Conor Lamb? Meh. Wrote Tamari: Outside Lambs rally with Biden at Robert Morris University, several Democrats said they wished Lamb was closer to their views on guns, abortion, and wealth disparity. But even those who described themselves as liberal still wore Lamb campaign pins, saying he gave them the best shot to win here-- and send a message to Trump. Typical was voter Evelyn Harris, who told thereporter that Lamb is not as far left as Id like. These are the voters who deliver special elections, and they may do so on Tuesday because of antipathy for Trump, not because of any love for Lamb. And theres a lot for the Democratic base and voters on the left not to like about their special-election candidate. Although ostensibly pro-union, Lamb wont support a $15 living wage. His attacks on fellow Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are more than a tad awkward in this season of #MeToo politics. But then, Lamb goes out of his way to not mention that hes a Democrat, or discuss any policy at all other than hes for working people. While theres no dispute that Western Pennsylvania leans right on guns, Lambs passion for weaponry-- he filmed a campaign spot firing an AR-15-- is shameful in a political moment dominated by the Parkland massacre. Hours after a teen gunman mowed down 17 people in the corridors of that Florida high school, Lamb (who mildly supports stronger background checks and thus sits a tad left of his fellow gun zealot Saccone) said, I believe we have a pretty good law on the books. Since Parkland, Floridas NRA-backed Gov. Rick Scott has shown more gumption on guns than Lamb. Let that sink in. Sometimes firing an assault rifle for the camera isnt a mark of political courage but cowardice. That said, the Tea Party-backed Saccone, a Trump acolyte, would be measurably worse than Lamb. Still, one senses-- given rising rage toward Trump, his abusive governing style and his trail of broken promises-- that Democrats would vote for Being Theres slow-witted Chauncey Gardiner if they believed it would deliver a blow to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The numbers bear that out. In a slew of special elections since the start of 2017, Democrats have shown the greatest gains in areas that went for Trump-- regardless of the candidate. The thing is, a Lamb victory on Tuesday might give Democrats exactly the wrong lesson-- that all they need to do is fire a few rounds from their semi-automatic and mansplain Pelosi and they can buy a one-way ticket to Reagan National-- going into the wider 2018 midterms. What has really explained the rising fortunes of Democrats, including special-election wins in red states and gains in places like Virginia? A new study by two top political scientists has found one giant X-factor-- the surge in energy from mostly suburban women, especially in the 30-70 age bracket. The new upsurge is not centered in the progressive urban enclaves where most national pundits live; nor is it to be found among the grizzled men in coal country diners where journalists escape to get out of the bubble, write Lara Putnam and Theda Skocpol in the journal Democracy. Neither of those poles looks much like most of America anyway. About half the country lives in the suburbs, twice the number who live in either fully urban or rural settings. More than half of Americans are also women-- and of those, half are in their thirties to sixties. It is in this Middle America, and among these Middle Americans, that political developments since the November 2016 election have moved fastest and farthest. Putnam, who teaches not far from PA-18 at the University of Pittsburgh, adds that she has come to believe there is an epochal generation in the making: a cohort of Americans for whom life-cycle stage and personal trajectory collided with public events-- the election of Donald Trump; the Womens Marches and calls to action that followed-- in ways that changed life after life in very similar, and very consequential, directions. Needless to say, Conor Lamb, his AR-15, or other Democrats who wish to imitate him dont do a lot to move these voters. This isnt the only way forward; another new study published in the Times last weekend urged the Democrats to push to regain a few million young and mostly nonwhite Obama voters who failed to show up at the pols in 2016; that wouldnt mean so much in predominantly white PA-18, but it could sway key Senate races from Texas to Ohio. That, and tapping into the energy of angry, anti-Trump women. Playing for the God, guns and gold crowd that went ga-ga for Trump in 2016 seems a much lower priority-- especially when it might drive away the first two groups. In skeletal muscles, a single muscle fiber is made up of many muscle cells, but theyve all fused together and lost the barriers between them. All their DNA-storage compartments, known as nuclei, are bundled together. Campbell and Tapscott think that in people with FSHD, the DUX4 gene may spontaneously turn back on only in a few cells at a time, but because muscle-cell nuclei dont have walls between them, DUX4 could spread its way from nucleus to nucleus along the muscle fiber, wreaking havoc along the way. In other cell types, if DUX4 turns itself back on, that cell would just die without harming nearby cells. The environment is able to compensate for the loss of a single cell, Campbell said. Whereas in a muscle, youre affecting these large muscle fibers that maybe cant catch up. The MBD3L2 protein that their study identified seems to be at least partly responsible for turning DUX4 back on, and they wonder if that protein could be responsible for the spreading and the progressive nature of FSHD. Those are still big unknowns, Tapscott said. If the spreading from nucleus to nucleus is the basis of progression, then blocking the spreading by blocking MBD3L2 could slow down progression, he said. Campbell also found that the NuRD and CAF-1 protein clusters shut DUX4 off in embryonic cells; next they want to ask whether MBD3L2 is also involved in normal embryonic development in the same way it seems to be acting in FSHD muscle cells. Additionally, DUX4 was recently found to be involved in some rare types of leukemia and sarcoma, although its not clear if the gene is behaving in the same way in these cancers as it does in muscular dystrophy. Campbell and Tapscott are planning to address that question next. This study was their first foray into using the specific CRISPR technique, known as enChIP, and theyre excited to see what else they and their colleagues might discover with further similar studies. This approach worked, and we can go further with it, Tapscott said. We can now go deeper into this data and deeper into this approach, perhaps for some of these [mutations] in cancer as well. The National Institutes of Health, the FSH Society, Friends of FSH Research and Fred Hutch Reservoir Fund funded this study. 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. News GOP chair seeks restraining order against agitators Carl Gustafson A lawyer for Galveston County Republican Party Chairman Carl Gustafson on Monday asked a local district judge to issue a restraining order against members of the county party and to declare the actions of a dissident group within the party null and void. Friendswood attorney Alton Todd filed a third-party petition in Galvestons 56th District Court, asking the court to clear the air about whos in charge of the party. The filing was in response to a lawsuit filed in February by Moody Bank, which asked the court to decide who from the party was allowed access to bank accounts. Its the latest development in a monthslong internal party fight between Gustafson and a group of party precinct chairs who claim to have taken control of some party functions because they are dissatisfied with Gustafsons leadership. Todds filing asks the court to impose a restraining order against the group, which calls itself the steering committee, and to prevent its members from calling meetings, organizing party conventions, sending a list of delegates to the Republican Party of Texas or conducting any other business. The petition specifically names eight people as third-party defendants: Scott Apley, David Buckner, Janis Lowe, Alison Putnam, Kathy Rogers, Paula Smith, Deborah Winters-Chaney and Alicia Youngblood. All eight are part of group of precinct chairs that formed the steering committee. The filing was meant to preserve the integrity of the party, Todd said. This needs to get resolved, he said. Todd and Gustafsons argument is that the state election code outlines the powers of the party chairman and a bylaw change written by the steering committee was not legal. The filing goes on to accuse members of the steering committee of harming the party by sowing confusion with the bank, by claiming to have removed duly appointed party officers, by attempting to schedule party conventions in different places than ones approved by Gustafson and by posting signs advertising unapproved convention locations at polling places on Election Day last week. The restraining order is needed because state party officials have warned Gustafson that Galveston County delegates may not be recognized at the Republican Party of Texas convention in June if the county party cannot resolve its issues, Todd said. The harm is irreparable not only to the members of the County Executive Committee, but also to those delegates elected from the voting public, who will not be allowed to participate in their political partys conventions and electoral process, Todd wrote. The petition also asked that the court award damages and attorneys fees to Gustafson. Members of the steering committee named in the petition will be served and have 20 days to respond to the lawsuit, Todd said. The filing came less than a week after Gustafson handily won re-election as party chairman. He defeated former party vice-chairwoman Yolanda Waters, 12,588 votes to 8,235, a 20-point margin, according to complete but unofficial voting results. Lowe, one of the precinct chairs who has been featured prominently in both the Moody Bank lawsuit and Todds petition, lost her bid for re-election to a precinct chair position to Dave Smith by 54 votes. Buckner, Putnam and Youngblood all won re-election to their precinct chairs. Rogers and Winters Chaney will be in a runoff elections in May as they each try to retain their seats. The other precinct chairs that appear in the lawsuit were not on the ballot this year. Related Artur Sakunts: Presidents is just a headless horseman (video) A press conference on the topic "The dictatorship of the Prime Minister or responsible management?" is held at "Media Centre". "According to the new Constitution, the National Assembly has no new powers," said ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan. "The National Assembly will have no control over the state structures, it is under the authority of the Prime Minister," said the chairman of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia, Avetik Ishkhanyan. "Let them show me a parliamentary country where the power structures are subject to the Prime Minister. It's a monarchy that is passed from the President to the Prime Minister. " "This constitution is the base for the new March 1 events," said Artur Sakunts. "In such circumstances, the Government makes decisions without taking public opinion into consideration and applyies force against protesters. International treaties will be signed by the initiative of the Prime Minister, the President will be participating in the purely ceremonial process. " "It could be seen as the "queen" image of the "President of Armenia", the President is just a headless horseman," added Artur Sakunts. Let us remind that according to the Constitution adopted in 2015, after April 9, Armenia will move to a parliamentary system of government. Vice Speaker Sharmazanov: I am sure that sooner or later Artsakh will become CIS IPAs full member Eduard Sharmazanov, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, delivered welcoming remarks at the outgoing session of the CIS IPA Permanent Commission on Agrarian Policy, Natural Resources and Ecology on March 13. I welcome the participants of the outgoing session of the CIS IPA Permanent Commission on Agrarian Policy, Natural Resources and Ecology. The CIS Interparliamentary Assembly is a unique platform which for more than 25 years carries out an activity aimed at ensuring the cooperation of the parliaments of the CIS member states. Speaking about the key events of the CIS IPA activity of the past quarter century I first of all would like to stress the role and contribution of the CIS IPA in the preparation and strengthening of the protocol signed in May, 1994 in Bishkek which was followed by the signing of the trilateral termless ceasefire agreement between Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Dear colleagues, unfortunately today Azerbaijan ignores the trilateral ceasefire agreement signed by it. The vivid evidence of this is the 2016 April aggression by Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) which claimed hundreds of lives, also among the civilians. Dear colleagues, I am confident that sooner or later the Republic of Artsakh will become a full member of the CIA IPA having its contribution to the strengthening and development of the organization. The agenda of your Commission is full of issues which are of great interest to lawmakers and civil society representatives. I wish you effective discussions, productive contacts, an interesting debate and enjoying good time in our country, Sharmazanov said. Ahhhh, the naivety of some people. A tourist has come under fire after stripping down to her birthday suit and rubbing her body against Hin Ta Rock, a rock that unfortunately resembles a penis, on the Thailand island Koh Samui. Unfortunately for the tourist, the rock is incredibly sacred. Hin Ta - or Grandfather rock - according to local legend bears the spirit of an old man. Gagik Isaguryan: We must be prepared to be able to turn military exercises into concrete actions (video) In terms of military equipment and military potential, Russia is the number one in the world, Garnik Isagulyan, advisor to the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Artsakh in the Republic of Armenia, told journalists today. "In all of Putin's interviews, it is shown in what conditions was Russia before Putin, and what is status it has now during the pre-electoral period. Putin's messages are particularly noticeable by the fact that the Russian Federation is one of the most important poles in the world. " Speaking about the election campaign, Garnik Isagulyan said that that time he was technically able to achieve perfection. "After 1990's nobody doubted the fact that Russia would break apart, in fact, Putin did not accept a non-existent state, and in the 4th pre-election period, he shows that, at least, Russia is the number one state from the point of view of military." Garnik Isagulyan said that Armenia should have had a balanced policy both with the West and the East, but the ratio of forces should be carefully estimated. Speaking about the Azerbaijani military exercises, Garnik Isagulyan noted that that was not the first case when Azerbaijan violated all agreements, making large-scale military exercises. "We must be ready at any moment, with any encroachments and be able to give a stronger answer. We must be prepared to be able to turn military exercises into concrete actions. " Lebanon PM Hariri honors Armenian counterpart Karen Karapetyans visit with official dinner (video) Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri honored Armenian counterpart Karen Karapetyans visit with an official dinner in the evening of March 12 in Beirut. Armenias PM Karen Karapetyan delivered remarks, saying: Dear Mr. Prime Minister, Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to once again thank Mr. Hariri for the invitation to visit Lebanon and the warm reception. We all know that the Armenian-Lebanese relations and ties have always been unique, which is due to the historical friendly relations between our peoples. Certainly the Lebanese-Armenian community has key and appreciable role here with its peaceful and creative conduct. The experience of the past years only reaffirms that the Armenian-Lebanese partnership is harmonious in both bilateral and international arenas. We are only left with ensuring the continuation of joint efforts for the further deepening of this, and the protection of our mutual interests. We currently need to develop and strengthen the economic component of our bilateral relations even more. I am hopeful that the issues which weve discussed these days and the agreements which weve reached will be realized soon and will convey new momentum and quality to the deepening of the multifaceted partnership of the Armenian and Lebanese peoples. Following the tragic and unfortunate events unfolding in the region and directly next to Lebanon in the recent years, I would like to emphasize Armenias readiness to support its friend Lebanon and to express hope that the people of Lebanon, who bear wisdom of centuries and patriotic values, will withstand all challenges with honor and inherent unity, will maintain the balanced stance of the country and normal development course. Dear Mr. Prime Minister, I wish you good health and all the best, and I wish peace, stability and further economic prosperity to the people of Lebanon. Long live Lebanon and long live the Armenian-Lebanese friendship. Lebanons PM Saad Hariri said in his remarks: Dear Mr. Prime Minister, Dear friends, We host our respected guest, Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan and his delegation, with great honor this evening. First of all, I congratulate the election of the 4th President of Armenia in the beginning of this month. Last year we marked the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between independent Armenia and Lebanon, but the cultural and historic ties between the two countries have a history of more than 2000 years, from the days of Tigranes the Great. Currently Lebanon and Armenia have successful relations in various fields, especially in business. Academic exchange between universities also exists, and bilateral active partnership in cultural, arts and tourism areas is also carried out. The Lebanese-Armenian [community] plays a great role in the development of these relations, especially taking into account that they are considered active actors in both the Lebanese national life, business, industry, cultural , educational and arts sectors. Exchange of investments between the countries in also in an active phase, the latest results of which is the involvement of two Lebanese banks in Armenias financial system. Mr. Prime Minister and friends, The development of relations between the two countries was under the attention of martyred Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, and he became the first Lebanese high-level official to visit Armenia three times since 1997. I hope to continue his mission by always having the interests and friendly relations of the two peoples in mind. Thank you and once again I welcome your visit to the Lebanese Government. Long live the friendly relations of Lebanon and Armenia, long live Armenia and Lebanon. Turkish software continues to attack Armenian mobile phones (video) Despite warnings, users continue to download and use the Turkish "Get Contact" phone software. Doing so, they endanger not only their personal information, but their contacts. "This program is a great threat, because every person, by downloading it on his android and IOS phone, automatically retrieves his contacts from the "Get Contact" database. That is, if I'm not in the database, my friend or relative will automatically include my phone number. If you have a phone number, you can easily find the phone's IP code and wire the phone, take phone softwares, be it a picture, etc.," said security expert Vahan Azibekyan. On December 10, 2017, the Armenian Ministry of Justice has warned about the negative effects of this software, but after the warning, the downloads have not diminished. Some have started to download the software because of curiosity, some for having fun. "The girls, for example, write the number and say, oh, look, someone has registered me as "Cuties", let's know who he is. The boys want to know who is registered by their nicknames. They do not realize the seriousness of this project," Vahan Azibekyan said. The software is easy to download, and the phone number can also be removed, for which you need to access the appropriate site, but it is no longer possible to prevent the information leakage. "As the program was installed in the phone, the phone number has been fixed in their database. They will receive a message if you remove it. but the contact will still remain," said the expert. Some Armenian users, who are aware of the program's harmfulness, remove it from the phone, some find it is not dangerous, they are retaining only for interest. At the same time, not everybody knows how to remove their phone number from the "Get Contact" database. The program has been downloaded by more than 5 million people and has raised a great deal of dissatisfaction in many CIS and European countries. Measures are taken to prevent its spread. Particularly, they are banned in Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. BREAKING! US President, Donald Trump Sacks Secretary Of State Who Visits Nigeria felicilin at 13-03-2018 02:45 PM (3 years ago) (f) President Donald Trump has fired US Secretary of state, Rex Tillerson who visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa yesterday. President Donald Trump has fired US Secretary of state, Rex Tillerson who visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa yesterday. He will be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump announced in a tweet on Tuesday morning. The president did not provide any information on when the current secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, would step down. Of Pompeo, Trump said: He will do a fantastic job! In the tweet, Trump also announced Gina Haspel would become the first female director of the CIA, replacing Pompeo. Congratulations to all, Trump tweeted. He will be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump announced in a tweet on Tuesday morning.The president did not provide any information on when the current secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, would step down.Of Pompeo, Trump said:In the tweet, Trump also announced Gina Haspel would become the first female director of the CIA, replacing Pompeo.Trump tweeted. Post Reply Posted: at 13-03-2018 02:45 PM (3 years ago) | Hero cypanyahucha at 13-03-2018 02:55 PM (3 years ago) (m) I see Posted: at 13-03-2018 02:55 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac I see Reply nature7888 at 13-03-2018 04:17 PM (3 years ago) (m) Hmmm, this man ehnnn Posted: at 13-03-2018 04:17 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac Hmmm, this man ehnnn Reply fineboy77 at 13-03-2018 04:35 PM (3 years ago) (m) AmeriKKKA fast becoming a Monarchy What is the color beneath your skin? Posted: at 13-03-2018 04:35 PM (3 years ago) | Hero AmeriKKKA fast becoming a Monarchy Reply tonyigho at 13-03-2018 04:39 PM (3 years ago) (m) Maybe he not sign d visit to Nigeria Posted: at 13-03-2018 04:39 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac Maybe he not sign d visit to Nigeria Reply slimber at 13-03-2018 04:41 PM (3 years ago) (f) Is it a crime to visit Nigeria nah waaa for this Posted: at 13-03-2018 04:41 PM (3 years ago) | Hero Is it a crime to visit Nigeria nah waaa for this Reply willyking at 14-03-2018 03:11 AM (3 years ago) (m) Very good is visite to nigeria is not a good one donald truph may look stupid u can call him racist but he never support bad leader like buhari in any way to play their trickish politics when election is approaching like this, buhari plan wont work because donald truph is not a longer throath president weldone donald truph.. Posted: at 14-03-2018 03:11 AM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac Very good is visite to nigeria is not a good one donald truph may look stupid u can call him racist but he never support bad leader like buhari in any way to play their trickish politics when election is approaching like this, buhari plan wont work because donald truph is not a longer throath president weldone donald truph.. Reply Upbendel at 14-03-2018 03:54 AM (3 years ago) (m) Was he told not to visit Nigeria...? Posted: at 14-03-2018 03:54 AM (3 years ago) | Upcoming Was he told not to visit Nigeria...? Reply Haso112 at 14-03-2018 08:17 AM (3 years ago) (m) Quote from: willyking on 14-03-2018 03:11 AM Very good is visite to nigeria is not a good one donald truph may look stupid u can call him racist but he never support bad leader like buhari in any way to play their trickish politics when election is approaching like this, buhari plan wont work because donald truph is not a longer throath president weldone donald truph.. BY FAR THE DUMBEST COMMENT I'VE READ ON HERE SO FAR.... YOU ARE JUST PLAIN DUMB AND IT'S BEYOND COMPREHENSION...... Posted: at 14-03-2018 08:17 AM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac BY FAR THE DUMBEST COMMENT I'VE READ ON HERE SO FAR.... YOU ARE JUST PLAIN DUMB AND IT'S BEYOND COMPREHENSION...... Reply ruthie at 14-03-2018 08:23 AM (3 years ago) (f) Quote from: willyking on 14-03-2018 03:11 AM Very good is visite to nigeria is not a good one donald truph may look stupid u can call him racist but he never support bad leader like buhari in any way to play their trickish politics when election is approaching like this, buhari plan wont work because donald truph is not a longer throath president weldone donald truph.. dead brain sighted..Dude cannot even construct a sentence without grammatical errors..SMH Posted: at 14-03-2018 08:23 AM (3 years ago) | Hero dead brain sighted..Dude cannot even construct a sentence without grammatical errors..SMH Reply ruthie at 14-03-2018 10:57 AM (3 years ago) (f) Trump have sacked more people than his predecessors...i pity this fellow Posted: at 14-03-2018 10:57 AM (3 years ago) | Hero Trump have sacked more people than his predecessors...i pity this fellow Reply gogoman at 14-03-2018 11:08 AM (3 years ago) (m) dotard will always act like dotard Posted: at 14-03-2018 11:08 AM (3 years ago) | Addicted Hero dotard will always act like dotard Reply willyking at 14-03-2018 01:18 PM (3 years ago) (m) That what u get when u choose to shake and with shit hole president with is hands filled with curroption weldone donald trump.. Posted: at 14-03-2018 01:18 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac That what u get when u choose to shake and with shit hole president with is hands filled with curroption weldone donald trump.. Reply Newly appointed Malaysia Ambassador hands credentials Today, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Malaysia to the Republic of Armenia Datuk Mat Dris bin Haji Yaacob (residence in Moscow) presented his credentials to Serzh Sargsyan. Serzh Sargsyan congratulated the Ambassador on appointment and wished him every success in his activities. Noting that this year marks the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Armenia and Malaysia, Mr Sargsyan underscored that the deeply rooted historical affinities between our two peoples, which date as far back as to the 17th century, provide a solid basis for upgrading these warm ties of friendship to high-level interstate relations and effective cooperation in different spheres. Serzh Sargsyan made a point of establishing and expanding the legal framework between the two countries that will add momentum to the ongoing cooperation. The interlocutors hailed the effective cooperation between Armenia and Malaysia in international organizations. On behalf of the Republic of Armenia, Mr Sargsyan expressed readiness to step up interactions in that direction. Ambassador Datuk Mat Dris bin Haji Yaacob assured that he would spare no effort to build on the Armenian-Malaysian ties, promote close contacts and mutually beneficial cooperation. The Ambassador presented his views concerning the possibilities of developing cooperation in a number of spheres. Welcoming his ideas, the President of Armenia stressed that the Ambassadors practical stance inspires optimism that the bilateral relations will be activated in the near future. The news is only the latest in a long string of reports alleging continuing abuses against detainees at the facility. (AhlulBayt News Agency) - Online activists reported that an unspecified number of prisoners of conscience had their cells raided in Bahrains Jaw Prison earlier in the week. The news is only the latest in a long string of reports alleging continuing abuses against detainees at the facility. Activists have reported that the prisoners are being prevented from attending their trials, confined to their cells and regularly have their personal belongings confiscated. Detainees are also routinely denied access to desperately needed medical care and are punished for complaining or speaking out against the cruel practices. /257 A Christian teenager who was abducted by sex traffickers in India has opened up about her traumatic experience and God's healing presence in her life. As one of the few Christians in a predominantly Hindu region of India, Reena became accustomed to persecution at a young age, according to a new report from persecution watchdog Open Doors. "Nobody wanted to play with me because they were Hindus and I wasn't," Reena, now 19, recalled. "When I didn't take part in their rituals, they would scold me for it. After school, I just came home and entertained myself. My parents explained that persecution will come when you are a Christian. And I wasn't jealous of the Hindus because Jesus gave me joy inside." Because of their faith, her parents were forbidden to draw water from the village well: "They had to walk a few kilometers (about a mile) to get water from the river," Reena said. As a teenager, Reena went to school in a different village and lived in a youth hostel, free of persecution. But when the family's money ran out, Reena couldn't continue school and was forced to go to work, teaching school. There, the discrimination continued. After taking on a job as a teacher, the teen was told she would receive a salary of 1,500 rupees a month ($23.13), but received just 500 rupees ($7.71). When the school stopped paying her altogether, Renna found another teaching job. Shortly after she began working, the school's headmaster invited the teen to a teachers meeting where he offered her some Indian sweets. The following days, she said, were a "blur," as she was held unconscious and remembers nothing. Notes Open Doors: "That may be true, at least partially. More likely is that what happened to her was so terrible she doesn't want to share about the days she went missing. She is likely one of the millions of girls in India who are kidnapped and trafficked each year." At one point, Reena called her parents and told them she was being held "in a terrible place." However, police refused to investigate her disappearance. Eventually, the teen woke up in a train car and was able to escape. In the train station, the young girl - still in shock from all that she had survived - realized she was 14 hours away from her village. She recalled seeing police officers but being too weak to walk to them. Fortunately, she was able to call a friend to pick her up. "I was so confused," Reena said. "Apparently, I asked her and her parents not to call my parents." After a couple of days, Reena boarded a train and returned home where her parents met her and immediately took her to the hospital. Slowly, she began to realize what had happened to her and fell into a deep depression. At one point, she contemplated taking her own life. "I had all these questions," she said. "Why did this happen? And why did the villagers target me of all people?" With nowhere else to turn, the teen attended a Christian church service. As the pastor prayed, Reena said she began to feel her physical pain and depression lift. "I was really touched by God," she shared. "When I came home, I was overjoyed and shared what had happened with my Hindu friends. I wanted them to come to a similar church service and also experience God's healing power in their lives." Eventually, Reena found healing in the Psalms and Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to Him and eat with Him, and He with me." "I realized that if I opened the door of my heart, that Jesus would come in and dine with me," she said. "So I surrendered to Him. I came to know that it was Satan who wanted to destroy my life, but God loves me. My future is very bright. I will share the gospel with non-believers. I don't expect more problems." Almost 46 million people are enslaved worldwide - trafficked into brothels, forced into manual labor, victims of debt bondage or even born into servitude - according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index. India is ranked 11th on Open Door USA's World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most persecution. Notes the outlet: "Because Hindu radicals view Christians as outsiders, they are experiencing increased persecution. These radicals are intent on cleansing the nation of both Islam and Christianity and employ violence to this end. Usually, converts to Christianity experience the worst persecution and are constantly under pressure to return to Hinduism." Mississippi is poised to pass the nation's strictest abortion ban this week. It will outlaw the procedure -- with no exceptions for rape or incest -- at 15 weeks.Seventeen states have a 20-week abortion ban, but no other state has successfully enacted an abortion ban earlier than that."Mississippians are committed to protecting the lives of unborn children, and this law will be a major step in accomplishing that goal," said Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves after the Senate passed the measure last week. "I am committed to making Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child."The Jackson Womens Health Organization, the state's only clinic that performs abortions, already limits the procedure to 16 weeks, so a 15-week ban might not impact abortion access much. Womens reproductive health experts say the law's supporters may have instead intended to challenge abortion rights throughout the country.I think the real aim here is to instigate a legal challenge that would put abortion before the U.S. Supreme Court since abortion opponents are anticipating that in the next few years there will be a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court that will be more open to curtailing abortion rights, says Elizabeth Nash, state policy expert for the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.Diane Derzis, the owner of the Jackson Womens Health Organization, said she intends to sue as soon as the law goes into effect. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant's office said he will sign the bill into law this week,and it would take effect immediately.These laws have forced women to make two trips to Jackson to have a simple medical procedure done. They have to take off work, find gas money. Its a tough place if youre poor, Derzis toldMississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat,that he thinks the law will be tough to defend since federal courts have blocked a 12-week ban in Arkansas and a six-week ban in North Dakota. The constitutionality of an abortion ban before 20 weeks is in question largely because a fetus cannot survive outside the womb before that.Mississippi is one of six states with only one abortion provider. Advocates of abortion rights call these kind of laws TRAP laws, or targeted regulation of abortion providers. By placing more administrative burdens on abortion providers, it can eventually become too costly for them to keep their doors open.For example, the Texas law that required abortion clincs to meet hospital-like standards caused more than half of the clinics across the state to close. That law was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016.Although the new law will have no exceptions for rape or incest, it will waive the 15-week rule if the mother's life is in danger or if the fetus has health problems that would prevent it from surviving outside the womb.Democrats in the legislature offered an amendment that would have provided child care and health care to women who were unable to get an abortion after 15 weeks. It was rejected. Gov. Jim Justice announced Monday night that he had fired Education and the Arts Secretary Gayle Manchin, wife of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., after she sent out a news release in which she offered to "resign to remove any political pressure.""She was told that we accepted her resignation, she refused, and we terminated her," Justice said in the 7:51 p.m. news release. The Gazette-Mail received Gayle Manchin's news release late Monday afternoon."We have not made a decision yet on legislation [House Bill 4006] to reorganize the Department of the Education and the Arts," Justice said of a bill the West Virginia Legislature has passed. The legislation would actually eliminate that department and Manchin's position, sending the department's agencies elsewhere in state government."Earlier today, Secretary Manchin asked the chief of staff, Mike Hall, about how she should approach this," Justice said. "She was told by the chief of staff to do nothing based upon my public comments this morning, and that my decision to veto or sign this bill has not been made."Later in the day, she decided to defy the chief of staff's instructions and issued a press release. In her press release she offered to resign and remove any political cloud. If there weren't any earlier political cloud, now there surely is one. She was very critical, made it political, and put me in a very, very bad position."Gayle Manchin laughed at the "bad position" line when she was read the news release by a reporter Monday. She said she learned about her firing from someone who had called after seeing the news release.She said her earlier offer to resign was contingent on being able to "sit down and work out how we can resolve this in a responsible, compassionate way if he wanted to dissolve the Cabinet." She said if Justice instead wanted the department to continue, she was willing to resign to "protect the program."She said her directors were calling and, "people are scared to death," and that she had called Hall and told him she wanted to put out a news release basically saying what she eventually did say in her news release."I said I've not had a conversation with the governor since he interviewed me for this job and appointed me," she said. She said Hall told her he'd get back to her, but "two hours later, I said I'm just not going to do this. I'm not going to put my agencies and my programs through this, so I sent the press release."She said Justice general counsel Brian Abraham then called her to a meeting with Hall and deputy chief of staff Ann Urling, where she was told she was being asked to resign "because I had defied them.""I said I would not leave my programs in jeopardy," Manchin said. She said Abraham said they were still vetting the bill, but she said, "You should have already had it vetted.""If you were doing your job half as well as I'm doing my job, we wouldn't even have this conversation, because this bill should have never seen the light of day," she said. "You don't leave people in that kind of jeopardy and wondering from one day to the next is their grant going to be there for them."Six agency heads under the department secretary wrote a letter to Hall on Monday, urging him to come up with a transition plan.Manchin said the legislation is "reckless" and "politically motivated," and would not free up any significant money for the state.Despite concerns from the Department of Education and the Arts agency heads, the separate state Department of Education said Monday on Twitter that all the Education and the Arts programming would continue, if House Bill 4006 becomes law, without disruption or loss of funding.Some points of the letter seem to contradict the updates from the Department of Education, though.For instance, the agency heads requested that Justice issue an executive order locating funding for the West Virginia Commission for National Service in the Governor's Office. The program directs grants to all the state's AmeriCorps programs -- including Energy Express, which was a specific program of concern for legislators.The letter requests Justice designate a state spending unit to receive funds for the Lottery, federal and special-revenue accounts for the program. The letter states that the funds are currently in "shared accounts" and there is no plan to separate them."Without the above actions, all West Virginia AmeriCorps programs are at risk, including Energy Express," the letter states.Energy Express is a summer program designed to help students gain or maintain reading levels. It also provides meals to students from rural and poor communities when schools are not in session, according to the program's website.The following department heads signed on to the letter: Scott Finn, of the Educational Broadcasting Authority; Heather Foster, of Volunteer West Virginia; Karen Goff, of the West Virginia Library Commission; Randall Reid-Smith, of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History; Lorrie Smith, of the Center for Professional Development; and Marijane Waldron, of the Division of Rehabilitation Services.The Department of Education, in a series of posts on Twitter, held its position that Justice's signature on the bill would not imperil the Department of Education and the Arts' programming or funding.As the Legislature debated the bill, several of its Democratic critics said the bill was a political ploy targeting Gayle Manchin. Joe Manchin is running for re-election this year. Justice appointed Gayle Manchin when he was a Democrat, but he's since switched parties and become a Republican."In an obvious rush to score partisan points, the Republican state Legislature passed dangerous and destructive legislation to eliminate the Office of Education and the Arts on a mostly party-line vote," Gayle Manchin said. "This is a Cabinet post that reports directly to the governor and serves thousands across our state; it helps the disabled, provides summer programs for our children through federal funding, and many others that touch families all over West Virginia."The letter spells out several other potential problems with scrapping the Department of Education and the Arts, mostly centered around the potential loss of federal funding.For instance, for the Division of Rehabilitation Services, the federal government needs to approve an amended state plan designating a new state agency for its programs, which requires statewide public meetings and a public comment period.The DRS helps West Virginians with disabilities live and work independently, according to its website.Additionally, the Educational Broadcasting Authority, which oversees West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the "Mountain Stage" concert series and radio show, is in the midst of replacing its three TV transmitters, as is required by the Federal Communications Commission."Most of the money will come from the FCC's reimbursement account for the spectrum repack, but this will be a huge undertaking requiring many hours of technical assistance with purchasing issues -- assistance that is now provided by [the Office of the Secretary of Education]," the letter states.The department heads spelled out additional concerns regarding the Library Commission, the Center for Professional Development and the Division of Culture and History.While Gayle Manchin offered her resignation Monday, she brushed off the idea when asked by a reporter last week, saying it would lead to the same conclusion."It would put the same thing back in motion, there would be no cabinet secretary so they would just dissolve everything, so that really doesn't solve everything," she said. "If I just resign, they would say, 'We'll just dissolve the department,' and so, still, you're going to have the same thing."Justice has 15 days from the bill's March 10 vote to act on it. If he does not, it becomes law without his signature."As I have been saying for the last several days, we are continuing to examine this legislation, looking for cost savings, how to preserve and promote the arts and to make absolutely, positively certain that none of the programs or our citizens will be harmed in any way," Justice said in his news release. "And we will continue to do exactly that."I sincerely appreciate the years of service Secretary Manchin has given to the State of West Virginia.""Gayle Manchin chose to put the people of West Virginia ahead of politics and her cabinet position," State Democratic Party Chairwoman Belinda Biafore said in a news release distributed about two hours after Justice's. "She spoke out against a reckless Republican bill that will hurt children, seniors, veterans, West Virginians with disabilities, and disaster response training, and because she had the courage to speak out, Governor Justice removed the only woman serving in his cabinet.""It's a shame that Governor Justice, who said he didn't have a political bone in his body, has become such a hardcore partisan. Justice is now officially the ringleader of the Republican circus in Charleston," Biafore said. "Mrs. Manchin took the high road and tried to remove politics from the situation, but the Republicans showed their true colors by putting politics over the people. It's a sad day for West Virginia."Manchin spokesman Grant Herring said that the senator wouldn't be releasing a statement Monday night. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's one-time top adviser, Joseph Percoco, has been convicted of corruption charges by a Manhattan federal court jury on its eighth day of deliberations.In a mixed verdict, Percoco was convicted on three counts and acquitted of three counts. He faces up to 50 years in prison and will be sentenced on June 11.The verdict followed five weeks of testimony on charges that Percoco, 48, of South Salem, got over $300,000 in bribes set up by lobbyist Todd Howe, the star government witness, from co-defendants Peter Galbraith Kelly, an energy executive, and Steve Aiello and Joe Gerardi, Syracuse developers.Kelly allegedly had his company, Competitive Power Ventures, hire Percoco's wife for a $90,000-a-year "low show" job to get help on a Hudson Valley power plant and a pollution-credit pact with New Jersey. The Syracuse men allegedly paid $35,000 for Percoco to help cut red tape on state-funded projects, and push a raise for Aiello's son, who worked for Cuomo.Only days after several jurors asked to be excused and the foreman told U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni they couldn't agree on anything, the jury found Percoco guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and one count of soliciting bribes from the energy company. He was acquitted on two extortion counts and one soliciting bribes count.Jurors deadlocked on two counts involving Kelly. Aiello was convicted of a bribery conspiracy, but acquitted of paying bribes and of making false statements. Gerardi was acquitted on all chargesThe verdict followed a trial that shined a sometimes harsh spotlight on the Cuomo administration, and the governor must also steel himself for the June trial of a companion case focused on SUNY official Alain Kaloyeros and corruption in upstate development projects that could further complicate his re-election campaign.Percoco served as the governor's deputy executive secretary from 2011 to 2014, and again in 2015 after a break to run his re-election campaign. With ties dating back to Gov. Mario Cuomo, he was described as akin to a brother of Andrew Cuomo, his right-hand man and his chief political enforcer.Star federal witness Howe had ties of his own to the governor dating back 30 years. In addition to alleging corrupt dealings with Percoco as he sat just steps away from Cuomo's office, Howe described how he enjoyed cozy, favored access to several officials as a lobbyist and painted an unflattering picture of Cuomo losing his temper at one meeting to curry favor with a donor.The ex-lobbyist also told jurors about Cuomo's attendance at a fundraiser in a showroom full of Corvettes to raise $125,000 in untraceable contributions, while prosecutors offered evidence that Percoco exercised power and was allowed to use his state office near the governor even after quitting the government to run Cuomo's re-election campaign.At trial, Howe's testimony focused on the two different schemes for his clients to help Percoco get money -- or "ziti," as the two called it in emails -- to help with his finances, while Howe was able to ensure continuing retainers from his clients by using Percoco to get things done in Albany.Howe's credibility was the centerpiece of the case, as defense lawyers challenged the credibility of a witness who admitted that he had been a chronic deadbeat for much of his life who cheated countless creditors, embezzled nearly $1 million from his law firm, and had also been convicted of bank theft for kiting a check.His reliability was further wounded when his bail was revoked and he was jailed in the middle of his testimony, after appearing to admit on the witness stand to a previously unknown effort to defraud his credit card company. But he insisted he was a changed man, hoping to get leniency by telling the truth about old friend Percoco.In one scheme, Howe testified, Kelly hired Lisa Percoco to design and occasionally teach in an outreach energy education program for elementary students in return for Percoco's advocacy in Albany. Monthly $7,500 checks were routed to her through a consultant and Kelly kept her name out of any publicity relating to the program, company witnesses said.Prosecutors said the unusual arrangement was a sign of efforts to cover up the payments that reflected their corrupt nature. Percoco and Kelly said it was just a favor between two men who became friends after being introduced by Howe.In the other scheme, Howe, as the lobbyist for the Syracuse developers, paid Percoco $35,000, and Percoco allegedly helped free up state funds owed on one project and get them exempted from having to negotiate with unions on another.Gerardi and Aiello said Howe hired Percoco on his own without their knowledge, and they never entered into a corrupt quid-pro-quo deal. The San Francisco Sheriff's Department allowed federal immigration officers into one of its jails to interview an inmate, a violation of jail policy and California sanctuary law, department officials said Monday.Department policy broadly restricts cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, forbidding most communication with the agency and barring access to inmates, some of whom the government would like to detain for potential deportation.The goal of sanctuary policies, which conservatives and the Trump administration have called dangerous, is to convince undocumented immigrants that they can engage with local authorities without fear that their legal status will be an issue.But Thursday, sheriff's officials said, a pair of ICE officers entered separate San Francisco jails, requested to speak with two inmates, and were given access to interview rooms. While one inmate declined to speak with ICE, another inmate participated in the interview.The inmate who was interviewed had been informed by the Sheriff's Department that ICE was seeking to detain him upon his release from jail. But San Francisco's citywide sanctuary ordinance does not allow inmates to be turned over to ICE in most cases.In an interview Monday, Sheriff Vicki Hennessy said the department's policy had been in place before her 2015 election. She said it appeared ICE was "testing our defenses and they found some weak points." The incident is under investigation, she said."My staff made a mistake and I have to hold myself accountable," she said. "I apologize on behalf of the department. I feel embarrassed by it. I've taken steps to make sure it never happens again."It's not clear what was discussed in the interview, and the inmate was not identified. The incident came one week after a four-day ICE sweep in Northern California, which netted 232 arrests and was designed to counter sanctuary laws.The interview appeared to be a violation of California's Truth Act, which was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016, said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a professor and immigration expert at Santa Clara University School of Law.The law mandates that before any interview between ICE and a county jail inmate, a consent form be provided describing the reasoning for the interview, that the interview is voluntary and that an attorney can be present."Either what's happened here is a deliberate opposition to San Francisco's non-cooperation policy by sheriff's deputies, or ignorance of that policy," he said, "and ICE doing what it does, which is to attempt to take advantage of that ignorance."The Sheriff's Department did not provide the inmate with a consent form, officials said, because its policy doesn't allow ICE officers to have access at all.After learning of the interview, Hennessy reiterated the policy to leaders in the jail, and issued a department-wide bulletin on the matter, said Nancy Crowley, a department spokeswoman."Sheriff's Department watch commanders are communicating this directive at muster at each of three daily shifts for one week," Crowley said.Jeff Adachi, the city's public defender, said the man who was interviewed was a client of his office. He said the officers asked the man questions about his background and nationality and tried to get him to sign a form.The office is trying to figure out what the form was and determine whether the inmate signed it, Adachi said. He said the inmate does not read English or Spanish."How sheriff's deputies are not aware of our sanctuary policies is quite frankly beyond me," Adachi said.He said he informed Hennessy of the visit last week and was assured that the problem would be addressed.ICE sent 99 requests for San Francisco to hold or turn over undocumented inmates in 2016, and 469 requests in 2017, city records show. Already in 2018, the city has received 212 such requests. None has been honored.The ICE officers returned to a San Francisco jail on Monday and requested another inmate interview, Crowley said, but they were denied access after being informed of the department's policy."That's a good sign," Hennessy said. Governor's Program The Governors Official Program is comprised of a wide range of constitutional and legal duties and ceremonial and community engagements. Each year, the Governor hosts thousands of visitors to Government House to take part in investiture and award ceremonies, Open Days, receptions and meetings, and travels widely throughout Queensland to support the activities of Patron groups. View a chronological record of the Governors daily program below. Description GIS 13 March 2018: The first train, Light Rail Vehicle (LRV), Urbos 100 3rd generation LRVs, to be acquired by Metro Express Ltd will be delivered as from June 2019 and start operation on the Port-Louis/Rose Hill segment in September 2019. The Urbos 100 3rd generation LRVs form part of the innovative and high-quality trains, specifically designed by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) to offer the end user a unique traveling experience. The Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, made this announcement on 09 March 2018 at the unveiling ceremony of the mock-up train by CAF for the Metro Express Project in Port Louis. According to the Prime Minister, the Urbos 100 3rd generation trains of Metro Express will soon become the symbol of the ambition of the Mauritians to embrace a new era of modernity that will lead to new heights of progress and prosperity. He recalled his determination of endowing the population with the most modern infrastructure which, he added, will trigger new growth opportunities. Mr. Jugnauth expressed his conviction that building modern and appropriate infrastructure is one of the most powerful ways to promote equity in the society. As Mauritius celebrates its 5 0th anniversary of its independence, Government takes pride in its initiatives to build a new and smart Mauritius as legacy to future generations, he stated. As Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Steering Committee set up to oversee the implementation of the Metro Express Project, the Prime Minister gave his assurance that Mauritius has chosen the best alternative transport system that the country can afford. On this score, he stressed that the Metro Express must therefore be viewed in the broader perspective of Governments vision to transform the socio-economic fabric of Mauritius and lift up the quality of life for one and all and not just another mode of transport. He also ensured that he will personally see to it that the three imperatives set for the Metro Express project are strictly complied with, namely quality and security, timely implementation and no cost overrun. Quality, sophistication of the system and cost effectiveness emerged as the main messages as we braced ourselves to move towards implementation of the Metro Express Project, he stated. The Design and Construct contract of the Metro Express, was awarded to Larsen & Toubro on 31st July 2017 to the tune of Rs. 18.8 billion. On 28th September 2017, the foundation stone of the depot at Richelieu, the heart and nerve centre of Metro Express, was laid. Description GIS 13 March 2018: Over the past 50 years, Mauritius has laid the foundation of an inclusive and equitable nation where people of different religious and cultural beliefs live in unity. We should all join hands to promoting an environmentally sustainable society, which nurtures respect of elders, valorises the role of women, inculcates values to the youth and endorses a healthy way of living. This was the gist of the message to the Nation of the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, on 12 March 2018 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Independence Day and 26th anniversary of the Republic of Mauritius. The Prime Minister highlighted that Mauritius, for the past fifty years, has maintained its unity through the endorsement of values such as tolerance, peace and solidarity. The country as an independent nation is striving to provide the prerequisites through the various facilities put to the avail of the citizens as regards enhancing their quality of life. Health, social harmony and sustainable environment are key elements that should be consolidated to moulding a prosperous Mauritius, he added. As regards the elderly population, Prime Minister Jugnauth underscored that they should be treated with due respect for the valuable contribution in the struggle of the countrys accession to an independent nation. He called upon the elders to share their life experiences adding that they represent a key pillar of the society. Government, he stated, is providing various measures to cater for the needs of the elderly and also ensuring that they have access to good health care services and facilities. Speaking of the role of women, the Prime Minister emphasised that since independence, the country has witnessed major progress as regards women empowerment. He commended the contributions of women in all societal spheres from caring for the family, engaging in household chores to performing professionally. He urged the population to give due recognition to the Women for their involvement in the socio-economic development of the country. Referring to the youth, he underpinned that the youth has a huge duty towards the future development of the country adding that they should be instilled with values so as to become responsible citizens. With regard to social scourges that are negatively impacting the society, the youth should be cautioned on the need to make judicious choices for their individual progress, he underlined. The Prime Minister emphasised that Government, through various programmes, is determined to support the youth for the development of their competencies and capabilities. Regarding the Chagos Archipelago, Prime Minister Jugnauth reaffirmed the commitment of Government to ensure that the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Mauritius are fully safeguarded and added that it has always been the unequivocal stand of Mauritius that the Chagos Archipelago forms an integral part of the Mauritian territory. He reiterated that Mauritius, with the support and solidarity of other countries, will redouble its efforts in the pursuit of the sovereignty of Chagos Archipelago. On this memorable occasion, the Prime Minister also paid tribute to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, Sir Abdool Razack Mohamed and Sookdeo Bissoondoyal for their unflinching support to the Mauritian independence movement fifty years ago. Speaking at a press conference, cultural deputy of Irans Islamic propagation organization discussed about upcoming Itikaf ceremony in the country and the growing number of Itikaf performers. (AhlulBayt News Agency) - Speaking at a press conference, cultural deputy of Irans Islamic propagation organization discussed about upcoming Itikaf ceremony in the country and the growing number of Itikaf performers. Hujjat al-Islam Hussain Rouhani-nejad announced 770,000 people performed Itikaf this year and added, "Number of Itikaf performers this year saw a 21,000 people increase from the year before, but there were even more applicants, although there was not enough facilities to accept them in mosques, that means with enough facilities, number of Itikaf performers in Iran will raise to a million. The Shia cleric stated, About 70% of Itikaf participants this year were young people, of whom more than 60% were women." Hujjat al-Islam Rouhani-nejad further said that most of the Itikaf performers were educated and noted, This year, most of those who performed Itikaf were university and seminary students with a population of more than 244,000, and only 15,000 illiterate people attended Itikaf. Stating that next Itikaf ceremony will be held on March 31st until April 2nd, Hujjat al-Islam Rouhani-nejad asserted people can register for Itikaf in person or online. /257 Description GIS 13 March 2018: A Sales Exhibition for 100 Women Entrepreneurs, who are members of the National Women Entrepreneur Council (NWEC), was launched on Saturday 10 March 2018 at the Trianon Shopping Park by the Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare, Mrs Roubina Jadoo-Jaunbocus. The three-day event, an initiative of the NWEC, was organised in the context of International Womens Day 2018 and to mark the 50th Anniversary celebrations of Mauritiuss accession to Independence. The Sales Exhibition had as objective to enable Women Entrepreneurs market and sell their locally-made products. On this occasion, Minister Jadoo-Jaunbocus encouraged women entrepreneurs to continue on the path of perseverance and in enhancing their handcrafting skills. She assured that her Ministry will provide all the necessary support to enable Women Entrepreneurs display and market their products across supermarkets around the country. Moreover, the Minister announced that the number of Fairs organised by the NWEC will increase, with the possibility of holding four Fairs on a larger scale on a yearly basis. Sales Exhibition It also aimed at demonstrating the potential and know-how of Mauritian Women Entrepreneurs in the handicraft and textile sectors and in assisting in the growth, development and competitiveness of women-owned enterprises. Products displayed and on sale included: local snacks, cane juice, spices, Indian cakes and pastries, potted plants, pyrography engravings, jewellery, paintings, and ladies/childrens/mens wear. NWEC The NWEC, a parastatal body operating under the aegis of the Ministry of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare has been set up in 1999. It is the main organisation that provides support and assistance to both potential and existing women entrepreneurs in Mauritius. The NWEC aims at promoting entrepreneurship by inculcating the right business culture for women in Mauritius. (TNS) - After six months of chasing down and documenting the death and destruction Hurricane Irma left behind from the eastern Caribbean to the Carolinas, the National Hurricane Center released its report on Monday.It underscores the wide swath of damage left behind by the massive storm, which brought wind and storm surge to much of Florida last September.At least 129 deaths are attributed to the storm, either directly or indirectly. Irma's powerful storm surge, seas, winds and flooding were directly responsible for 44 deaths, concluded the team of three hurricane specialists who wrote the report, John Cangialosi, Andrew Latto and Robbie Berg. At least another 85 deaths were indirectly related to the storm.Irma left a wake of damage exceeding $53 billion. Damages in the United States were estimated at $50 billion, making Irma the fifth-costliest hurricane to strike the United States, after Katrina in 2005, Harvey in 2017, Maria in 2017 and Sandy in 2012."Wow," said Jim Judge, Volusia County Emergency Management Director, after hearing the totals compiled by the Hurricane Center's staff."It was a big storm, a record breaker for sure," Judge said. However, like emergency managers often do, he pointed out the storm could have been "a lot worse," if it had made landfall in a more urban area or at a higher intensity.Irma blew through Volusia and Flagler counties on Sept. 10 and 11, causing impacts to 7,407 properties and an estimated $451 million in damages.Irma made a total of seven landfalls after leaving the African coast as a tropical wave on Aug. 27.Where were those landfalls? Barbuda, St. Martin and Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, Little Inagua Island in the Bahamas, Cayo Romano, Cuba, Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys and Marco Island on the Southwest Florida coast. Barbuda took the full brunt of the storm, which destroyed 95 percent of its structures. Most Barbudans left for Antigua, with those who remained leaving when Hurricane Jose threatened. Their departure left the island uninhabited for the first time in 300 years, the Center's report states. Few residents had returned as of February.Where were the deaths in the United States? Of the seven direct hurricane-related deaths in the United States, four were in Florida, including two in Duval County, one in Manatee County and one in Broward County. Two deaths occurred in Georgia and one in South Carolina. Another 80 deaths in the state including Dorothy "Dee" Giddins, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Daytona Beach were considered indirectly related to Irma. Most of the deaths were attributed to generators, chainsaws and electrocutions. The report also noted the 14 deaths that occurred in a Broward County nursing home after the power failed.How strong was the storm at its peak? Winds of 155 knots, about 178.37 mph, for about 18 hours between Sept. 5 and Sept. 6, with a barometric pressure of 914 millibars.What were the peak winds reported? An unofficial gust of 199 mph on St. Barthelemy in the Leeward Islands was the highest reported. In Florida, a 141 mph gust was reported at the Naples Pier. Locally, a weather station at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University reported a wind gust of about 80.5 mph.What about the waves and storm surge? The Center estimates the surge was at least 8 feet above ground level on parts of the island of Barbuda and on parts of Big Pine Key. In Cuba, in the Ciego de Avila province, the sea rose up to 11.5 feet and penetrated the island at least a half mile inland. At Cayo Romano, where Irma made landfall, observed wave heights were 26 feet.Along the East Coast, storm surge was estimated at 3 to 5 feet from Cape Canaveral to South Carolina, but the report makes particular note of the "significant flooding" along the St. Johns River, thanks to a combination of storm surge and rainfall. Even though the surge was lower than that of Hurricane Matthew in October 2016, the timing of the storm at high tide caused water levels in Charleston to top the heights reported during Matthew.Where did the most rain fall? The Cuban Meteorological Institute reported 23.9 inches in Topes de Colante. In Florida, St. Lucie County reported 21.66 inches of rain between September 9 and 12. Locally, 11.82 inches of rainfall was reported in DeLand and 9.10 of rain was reported in Palm Coast.How many tornadoes were reported? 25, 21 of those in Florida and four in South Carolina. An EF-2 tornado touched down just south of Volusia County in Mims and just north of Flagler County in Crescent Beach.What about the Center's own statistics? A review of the forecast errors for track and intensity revealed the official track errors were roughly 30 to 40% lower than the previous 5-year average, however the Center also states that based on the models, Irma was more difficult to forecast for track and intensity than most storms.Between Sept. 5 and 11, the Center generated 98 million impressions on Twitter and more than 500 million page views. Just prior to Irma's landfall in Florida, the Hurricane Center reported 1 billion hits in one day.Wind speed, storm surge and rainfall reports in FloridaRead the entire report here: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL112017_Irma.pdf2018 The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, Fla.Visit The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, Fla. at www.news-journalonline.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. (TNS) Two package bombs that killed a teen and critically wounded an elderly woman in Austin, Texas, Monday might be related to another bombing that killed a man earlier in the month, authorities said.The chaos began when a package exploded at a home in the city's Windsor neighborhood at about 6:45 a.m., Austin police said.The package was brought inside the house, and it detonated as it was being opened, police said.The blast killed a 17-year-old boy, and sent a woman in her 40s to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told reporters earlier Monday.Police then received multiples calls after 11:50 a.m. about an explosion at a home in the Montopolis neighborhood.First responders, fire officials and police responded to the scene where they found an injured 75-year-old Hispanic woman.Similar to Monday's bombing and a March 2 explosion that killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House, the woman picked up a package that was left outside her home before it detonated, Manley said.The woman was hospitalized in critical but stable condition, and her injuries are life threatening.Authorities haven't released the victims' identities. Manley said it's unknown if the victims were intended targets.The two victims killed in separate explosions are African-Americans. Cops aren't ruling out whether the bombings were hate crimes.Manley urged residents to remain vigilant and to alert the police about suspicious packages delivered to their home."If you receive a package that you are not expecting or looks suspicious, DO NOT open it, call 911 immediately," the chief tweeted.The third package didn't come through the mail and someone possibly dropped it at the house overnight."We do not believe at all that this was a delivery that came through the postal service," Manley said. "So it was placed on the front door step."The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Postal Service are investigating the incidents.___(c)2018 New York Daily NewsVisit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Cellular pole locations Whats behind the surge in stand-alone poles? Will the poles fade into the background? (TNS) The next generation of blazing-fast cellular data speeds hasnt arrived yet, but the major wireless carriers are hard at work in Denver laying the groundwork.So far, Verizon has led the pack by planting its flag in dozens of spots, in the form of 30-foot poles topped with antennas that boost signal strength in a one- to two-block radius. Hundreds more, or perhaps thousands, are likely on the way, city officials say.The installations are turning heads though not always in a good way.Residents of The Riviera, a 36-unit condo building at 1175 Emerson St., protested last month after a Verizon contractor, with no apparent notice, installed a pole footsteps from the main entrance of their building, along with an in-ground access box for the antennas fiber connection. To some, the green pole marred the street view of the building, as though a permanently unused flag pole had been installed right out front.The general concern was just aesthetics, said Kevin Logan, the homeowners association president. They didnt pay attention to the fact that its the entrance to our building.A similar story is playing out across the country, as the carriers attempts to accommodate growing data needs and new technology clash with more traditional neighborhood concerns. (A recent New York Times headline: 5G Cell Service Is Coming. Who Decides Where It Goes? )In Denver, a Capitol Hill neighborhood group and a city councilman put pressure on the citys Department of Public Works, which confirmed it has asked Verizon to move the Riviera pole elsewhere.That stance followed Denvers recent adoption of more stringent rules for where newly permitted poles should be placed preferably closer to street corners, for starters and a requirement that the companies notify adjacent property owners before installation. In part, the city was responding to months of questions from surprised property owners and landlords.Fifty-two small cell poles, have already been installed by Verizon in the last year or so across some of the citys most densely populated neighborhoods, next to sidewalks, alleys and streets from Highland to downtown to Cheesman Park. AT&T and companies working for other carriers just recently started applying for permits.City Councilman Wayne New, who helped The Riviera residents, said Verizon launched its data expansion before neighborhood groups knew what was happening.I think its going to be a lot better now, he said, adding that city officials should have caught it earlier and alerted neighborhood groups. Its not that were against it. Five-G is coming, so weve got to help (the carriers). But weve got to make it work for all residents as well.Verizon has installed 30-foot poles topped by small cell antennas in more than 50 locations.With 175 more poles in the pipeline, the city says it anticipates Verizon and competing carriers will install hundreds , or even thousands, across the city in coming years. Several suburban cities also are preparing for forays by Verizon, AT&T and other carriers in places with high customer-data demands.Though New and some neighborhood advocates suggested Denver was slow to react, Public Works spokeswoman Nancy Kuhn said the new placement rules could serve as a model for other cities. From my perspective, she said, the team has done an excellent job creating a new program to respond to a proliferation in requests for small cell towers, developing requirements that are mindful and respectful of our residents and communities.New and neighborhood advocates from Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods have pushed the carriers to attach antennas to existing utility poles and traffic signals both owned by Xcel Energy as much as possible. New says theyve received no firm commitments. They also hope multiple carriers will share poles, a scenario that presents technological challenges that a Panasonic unit in Denver is attempting to solve An Xcel spokeswoman said the utility has allowed some carriers to use its power line poles since 2015, and its been talking with several about negotiating access to traffic signal poles in Denver. Verizon, for its part, says it hopes to reach an agreement soon.When and if there are no poles available to us, and we have to build a new pole to house a small cell, we make every effort to integrate it into the look and feel of a community, said Meagan Dorsch, Verizons market spokeswoman.Two major factors are driving the rise of small cell antennas: Carriers need to keep up with fast-growing mobile data use it has more than tripled nationwide between 2014 and 2016, according to an industry association , and is expected to surge even higher in coming years and are preparing to offer faster fifth-generation (5G) mobile broadband service. According to varying estimates , 5G will offer data speeds at least several times faster than current service, possibly by a factor of 10 or more.The carriers expect to roll out 5G in the next couple years, but the emerging technologys signals are more fragile and travel shorter distances than existing 4G and LTE signals. Networks long had relied on hulking cell towers that have become common in recent decades and were spaced farther apart.For now, the small cell antennas along with existing towers will help increase data signal saturation in densely populated areas as a kind of hub-and-spoke system.Verizon told the Federal Communications Commission recently that about 62 percent of its cell antenna installations last year were small cells rather than larger towers. It says it began installing small cells in 2013, and it applied for its first standalone poles in Denver in August 2016.But as the carriers have expanded from early placements of those small antennas on buildings to planting stand-alone poles, theyve been a step ahead of local governments. The industry has sent armies of lobbyists to state legislatures in recent years to ensure they could install the technology with minimal local interference.A year ago, wireless industry representatives testified in favor of Colorado House Bill 1193 , which won unanimous approval in the Senate and a nearly unanimous vote in the House.That new law extended existing protections for broadband providers to the wireless carriers as they install small cell networks. It requires reasonable access to public rights of way, stipulates that local governments must process applications within 90 days, allows each application to include batches of up to 10 sites and limits fees to about $200 a year per site.That is the annual fee charged by Denver, along with application fees of $3,100 for the first right-of-way permit application and $2,500 for applications after that.Rep. Alec Garnett, a Denver Democrat, cast one of just two votes against the House bill. Last week, he cited concerns about how many small cell antennas were likely to result and the allowance of batch applications. The law does allow for local governments to consider public health, safety and welfare in approving placements, but Garnett said there was a need for more discussion about community impact.Its like we put the industry before we put regulatory common sense, he said.Opinions about the poles vary even within the leadership of Capital Hill United Neighborhoods, the community group that helped The Riviera.Everyone is tied to their devices and their internet in the home, said Mark Cossin, CHUNs vice president of community engagement. To me, its a necessary change. When people look at the telephone poles and lines, weve forgotten. We dont see them. And yet theyre uglier than the cellphone towers that are providing new services.But count Shayne Brady, a CHUN zoning committee co-chair, as hopeful that the carriers install as few stand-alone poles as possible.This isnt the first set of towers, telecommunication antennas, satellites. Dont you think all these cities should have plans in place? she said. Everything had to be a reaction from the neighborhood groups.As of last week, Verizon had permits for 90 more poles that it hasnt installed, according to figures provided by Denver Public Works. Applications for another 85 potential locations are under review; most are for Verizon, but some are being sought by AT&T and companies representing Sprint and T-Mobile, as well as the communications company Zayo Group.Denvers new permit requirements , issued in mid-January, require the stand-alone poles to be at least 250 feet apart and preferably near intersections, within alleyways or near side-yard property lines, rather than right in front of homes or buildings. They cant be installed next to public parks or historic landmarks without approval.Kuhn said Public Works was reviewing Verizons permits for poles it hasnt yet installed to make sure they comply with the new location requirements. The city also plans to review the already-installed cell poles, she said, and will consider complaints from the public.New, the councilman, said he also planned to check out the finished antennas and report any problems to Public Works.Updated March 12, 2018 at 4:35 p.m. Because of incomplete information from a source, the story was changed to say that Denver Public Works has plans to review the placement of already-installed small cell poles based on recently adopted regulations. Other local communities pursuing broadband Lower cost for a public network? (TNS) Spokane may be dipping its toe into the high-speed internet industry.City lawmakers approved last month the creation of a working group to explore a publicly-owned municipal broadband network. City Councilman Breean Beggs, the sponsor of the plan, cautioned against an expectation that all citizens would soon be able to cut the cord with private internet companies. Instead he envisions a system where Spokane would lay the groundwork for other service providers. The councilman pointed to examples of cities in Idaho and elsewhere where public investments in fiber lines have led to lower prices for consumers.I do think its a public good, Beggs said. Theres a huge digital divide between the haves, and the have nots. I think were just now beginning to understand what can be accomplished with broadband.Eric Finch, the citys IT director, said the time was right to take stock of the citys existing network and determine where it might make sense for new access, while being cautious about stepping on the toes of private industry.Part of this is, we have to decide what were going to be when we grow up, Finch said.The creation of the working group follows efforts in 2015 by then-city councilmembers Michael Allen and Jon Snyder to explore the possibility of the service in Spokane. Their group met for about a month and a half and determined the city would need to commit to laying significant amounts of new fiber underground to make it viable, Allen said.Most of what we did have is kind of in the downtown area, he said. There is just not enough existing infrastructure.The city has been inching toward laying that infrastructure, with several examples some successful, others not to follow throughout the country.Cautionary tales, or signs of the future?Other communities have invested millions of dollars in the technology, with mixed results. While Chattanooga, Tennessee, has been held up as a shining example of a public broadband network, generating millions in tax revenue and creating thousands of new tech jobs in a former railroad town, others have proven to be cautionary tales.Provo, Utah, spent $39 million to build a network, then turned around in 2013 and sold it to Google for a dollar in an effort to escape loan debt that was projected to exceed revenue totals from the system.Beggs said he prefers an approach that doesnt saddle taxpayers with additional debt, pointing to the recent creation of a public network in Ammon, Idaho , as a potential model for Spokane. In that city of roughly 15,000 people outside Idaho Falls, planners extended fiber lines to sections of town that opted for hook up. The infrastructure is owned by the city, but different private companies compete to provide internet access directly to consumers.At this point, were not imagining this is a new city utility, Beggs said.The Ammon system probably makes the most sense for a city the size of Spokane, said Christoper Mitchell, director of the public network advocacy group the Community Broadband Networks Initiative.Spokane would probably want a model in which the system paid for itself, Mitchell said. Really thats the only way. Theyre not just going to raise taxes and build a network.Allens group recommended the city lay whats known as conduit, or the piping that can be filled with the fiber optics necessary to transmit high-speed signals, under streets the road department is tearing up anyway as part of routine maintenance.Thats what the citys done over the past decade, said Marlene Feist, director of strategic development for the public works and utilities department.Its not engrained in every project, but different departments have gotten better about asking, Youre doing 37th (Avenue), can you drop some fiber in there? Feist said.Crews have focused on extending fiber optic lines to areas of the city where theyll want connectivity in the future, including to the massive subterranean tanks being built around town to capture stormwater runoff, Feist said.Beggs said the intent was not a massive infrastructure investment, but to bring communities online as it becomes technically feasible to do so.At this point, its on such a small scale compared to other areas, Beggs said. Full connectivity might happen someday, but with the current status quo it will never happen.City officials could not produce a map of where piping and so-called dark fiber, or lines that havent yet been activated to transmit a signal, have been buried in town. Beggs said hed received word from the citys IT Department that 30 miles of such infrastructure exist in town, but neither Finch nor Feist could confirm that figure. Allen remembered seeing a map during their discussion three years ago.A publicly owned broadband network in Spokane wouldnt be unique to the region. The city of Cheney and public utility districts in Grant and Pend Oreille counties have already established systems with varying degrees of connectivity for individual residents.The Grant County Public Utility District provides high-speed connectivity to roughly 70 percent of county residents, said Christine Pratt, a spokeswoman for the utility. The districts commissioners recently elected to invest another $7 million to continue extending service to far-flung areas, she said.Just like probably any business, we tried to build out first to the area where we have the most takers, Pratt said. Over the years, weve continued to build out.Grant County has spent $256 million to build out its network. Full coverage of the final 30 percent of county residents is expected to cost up to an additional $76 million, Pratt said.Grant Countys system works similar to Ammons, because state law prevents public utility districts from selling internet services directly to the customer . Private companies use the publicly owned fiber optic network and compete with each other to provide internet service directly to retail customers. Expansion of the network has been funded by electric rate fees, a situation that wouldnt be possible in Spokane because electric services are provided by private companies, the largest being Avista Corp.The city of Cheney has also laid some fiber optic lines, with costs shared by Eastern Washington University, said Stepen Boorman, director of the citys Light Department. But the city hasnt taken the extra step of selling connectivity via retail or wholesale to consumers, despite rumblings in the early 2000s that was the direction Cheney was headed The city did look at it pretty hard at that, Boorman said. Right now, it kind of is what it is.The promise of competition for consumers attention, and an expected fall in the price of high-speed internet service, is fueling the current calls for Spokane to get into the broadband game. Users of the popular online message board website Reddit organized a meet-up to lobby members of the City Council to establish the working group, and celebrated its unanimous approval Feb. 26.The way I see it, we kind of have a market failure here in Spokane, said Mike McBride, a South Hill resident who put out the initial call online for people to lobby the council for the working group.Nathan Hinish is also pushing the City Council to pursue a publicly owned network. Hes worked on the board of Volunteers of America and said extending affordable high-speed internet would be key to helping those in poverty have access to job training and recruitment.I think the reason Im behind this so much, right now, is lets get some data behind our decision, Hinish said.There is research to suggest publicly owned networks drive down the cost of internet access. Researchers at Harvard University published a report in January that analyzed 27 communities comparing private service providers and publicly owned networks. In 23 of those communities, the public option was less expensive than private providers.But there are questions whether a major infrastructure investment would make sense right now, given that telecommunications companies are ramping up to provide the next generation of satellite internet whose speeds should compete with those of fiber-optic networks. The city already has an agreement to install so-called smart cell technology on public utility poles throughout town, and the city of Spokane Valley is prepping to do the same The (next generation) is going to open up broadband to more levels of competition, said Allen, the former councilman who originally looked into the network.And Michael Cathcart, executive director of the pro-business advocacy group Better Spokane, questioned whether city government was once again reaching too far into the free market.Theres a lot of market activities that are taking place that show this can sort of be a duplication of efforts, he said.But both Cathcart and Beggs agreed that promoting more low-cost entries into high-speed internet service should be a city goal.The thing is, right now, that fiber is just sitting there, Beggs said. Weve already paid for it, in the city, and were not leveraging it.The working group is scheduled to hold its first meetings this week, and Beggs said anyone interested in serving should contact his office at City Hall. A report from that group should be ready by June, Beggs said. 'Accurate and verifiable criminal data' 'Data breeds more data' (TNS) Florida will have the most transparent criminal justice system in the nation following new legislation aimed at improving data collection.The legislation establishes a framework for a new database that will track a defendant's experience at each step of the criminal justice system from arrest and bail proceedings to sentencing and compare those outcomes through a searchable website available to the public.Experts say the new online portal will help them identify problems in the system, setting the stage for future reforms, while helping to improve judicial and prosecutorial fairness. If successful, they expect other states to follow."It's a huge win because once it's fully operational, it will provide a treasure trove of information by which we can measure disparities in the system," said Carlos Martinez, the public defender for Miami-Dade. "This is a monumental undertaking, but it's critical. You can't change what you don't know."The bill inspired by the Herald-Tribune's 2016 investigation "Bias on the Bench" and its 2017 series "One War. Two Races" requires every Florida county to collect and report dozens of data elements, including information on pretrial release, defendant indigence and ethnicity, and what type of offenders are being convicted for new offenses.The state would maintain the new centralized databank, which will be updated weekly and published on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement website.If OK'd by Gov. Rick Scott, who can still veto the measure, the project will launch as a pilot in Florida's 6th Circuit Court in Pinellas and Pasco counties."It will make everyone's job in the system easier," said Derek Byrd, a prominent criminal defense attorney in Sarasota. "Trying to find this information before was like trying to find a needle in a haystack."A similar bill to reform data collection was first proposed last year by Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, who announced the measure on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in response to the Herald-Tribune's investigation into racial biases in sentencing.That reporting showed Florida courts are biased against blacks, sentencing minorities to far more prison time than white offenders who committed the same crimes and scored the same number of points on their criminal punishment scoresheets, which should indicate similar punishment.But the bill died in the Senate Judiciary Committee last year.The sweeping new data measure that cleared the Senate late Friday drew much more bipartisan support from lawmakers and criminal justice experts than the proposal a year earlier.House Speaker Richard Corcoran, a Republican from Land O'Lakes, said the data measure was "a game-changer." The Florida Smart Justice Alliance, a right-leaning and law enforcement-centric reform group, called it the "most important bill this session.""The ability to look at qualitative information about our criminal justice system will not only bring transparency, it will guide our future decision making," Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, a former prosecutor who championed the bill, said in a statement.Judges in Sarasota's 12th Circuit also supported the legislation as a way to create and analyze "quality, accurate, and verifiable criminal data.""We hope the collection of such data will assist the courts in eliminating racial disparity in the criminal court system," 12th Circuit Chief Judge Charles Williams said in a statement.Support from Williams was instrumental in getting the bill to pass this year, as were efforts from retired Jacksonville attorney A. Wellington Barlow, who traveled the state convincing judges of the need for better data. Measures for Justice, which will help implement the new data requirement, also was a force behind the bill's success.The measure requires court clerks to collect and relay data elements, including information on bail, sentencing and the defendant's personal characteristics age, race and gender. Court clerks, state attorneys, public defenders, jail operators and law enforcement administrators will each be responsible for collecting and disseminating certain data points."This is an outstanding development because there is no accountability," said Larry Eger, public defender for the 12th Circuit. "This is something that needed to be done."Justice system experts hope it will help alleviate many of the disparities uncovered by the Herald-Tribune."We have now gone from finger-pointing to problem-solving," said Deborrah Brodsky, director of Florida State University's Project on Accountable Justice.The 6th Circuit will partner with a national, nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that's embedded within the courts to help comply with the new requirements.Measures for Justice, whose mission is to bring county-level transparency to the criminal justice system from arrest to post-conviction, will be tasked with that responsibility.The organization has done similar work to publish data around the country, but Florida will become the first state to require this level of open data in the justice system, Measures for Justice Executive Director Amy Bach said."Nearly every institution in the private sector uses data to measure performance," Bach told the Herald-Tribune on Monday. "There's a huge data gap in the criminal justice system. The infrastructure is just not there."Measures for Justice does not lobby, but Bach said her organization met with lawmakers, educating them on the potential of what can be done with proper data analysis. She believes the organization's nonpartisan status and prior work helped draw support from sides of the political aisle."The data is a mess," Bach said. "There's no common language. There are no standard definitions. You're flying blind ... The whole point is if you start using data, data breeds more data. You can't do anything until you start using it, and this is a perfect example of that."But court officials expect some bumps in the process, especially when it comes to training clerks in 67 counties to enter the information into the new database with accuracy and consistency.Court officers also expect minor tweaks to come in the next few years that further address funding and review data elements initially left out of the effort. Among them, they would like to see more data on children prosecuted as adults and records from offices of criminal conflict and regional counsel, which represent defendants who have a conflict with the public defender's office."The data collection is a good foundational step," said Scott McCoy, senior policy counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center. "It's a predicate to more comprehensive criminal justice reform. What we know about how the system is operating in Florida is spotty. You increase data and transparency for the public, policymakers and the media."That allows us to see where the system is failing and hold prosecutors, judges and legislators accountable." (TNS) The use of bots to meddle in political elections. Algorithms that learn who people are and keep them coming back to social media platforms. The rise of autonomous vehicles and drones that could displace hundreds of thousands of workers.The "robot apocalypse" that some envisioned with the rise of artificial intelligence hasn't arrived, but machine learning systems are becoming part of Californians' everyday lives, tech experts told state lawmakers in Sacramento last week. As use of the technology becomes more widespread, so will the challenges for legislators who will have to grapple with how and when they should step in to protect people's personal data."AI might be over-hyped, but it is here to stay," said Olaf Groth, an international business professor at UC Berkeley. "We are indeed at the threshold, at the moment, between AI being a new development that promises significant growth in the economy, and AI also causing significant disruptions in society."The state Assembly hearing was the second this year to take on the issue of artificial intelligence. The committee's chair, Assemblyman Ed Chau (D-Arcadia), said he hoped it would be one of many to open a dialogue on a force already reshaping society. Members of the Little Hoover Commission, an independent state oversight agency that reviews government operations, held a similar discussion last month.AI is loosely defined as the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that traditionally require human intelligence. Courts use artificial intelligence to determine whether defendants are fit for release on bail, scientists are developing AI systems to match patients with treatment and at least one company is using AI to rethink how local stores deliver groceries.Representatives with tech companies Adobe and Postmates argued during Tuesday's hearing that lawmakers should not move too quickly on developing privacy regulations."The best thing we can do to make AI unbiased [and efficient] is to ensure [AI systems] can get trained on the broadest sets of data that are out there," said Dana Rao, vice president of intellectual property and litigation with Adobe.But tech privacy experts countered, saying users want more control over how their personal information is shared. Patients, for example, may agree to share their medical data with one AI developer, but might not want that business to release their information to their employers or health insurance companies.State lawmakers have started to tackle some of these issues. Legislation this year would require social companies to identify bots on their platforms. Other bills would fund independent research on the addictive qualities of social media, require manufacturers to install new security features on their internet-connect devices and force police to disclose all of their tech equipment, such as facial recognition software.Jonathan Feldman of the California Police Chiefs Assn. envisioned a scenario in which police will someday use AI to predict violent or criminal behavior, allowing officers to make better decisions on the job. But without better transparency laws, the public will have little knowledge of what these automated systems are collecting from everyday people and whether their predictions are accurate, said Matt Cagle, a technology lawyer with the ACLU of Northern California.Samantha Corbin, a tech privacy lobbyist who recently co-launched the We Said Enough App to report sexual harassment , argued there should be more state protections against data misuse across all fields."The level of information that can be aggregated, the degree of intimate knowledge that will be known about individuals this lifetime data is in many ways unprotected by outdated existing laws regarding privacy, security and even human research," she said. Irans Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami met and talked with Susanna Terstal in Tehran on Tuesday. (AhlulBayt News Agency) - In a meeting in Tehran with the Netherlands ambassador to Iran, Brigadier General Amir Hatami urged the Netherlands as a non-permanent member of UNSC to prevent Saudi Arabia from killing more innocent Yemenis. Irans Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami met and talked with Susanna Terstal in Tehran on Tuesday. In the meeting, Hatami referred to the long history of relations between Iran and the Netherlands and emphasized the interest of the Islamic Republic of Iran in developing defense relations with the European country. Brigadier General Hatami told the Netherlands ambassador that the instability in the region is partly due to the conditions in the region but a large part of it goes back to the interference of foreign powers. He further explained that the Americans have confessed to creating ISIS and they are now transferring it to the east. Referring to the fact that Iran only wants its missiles for defense purposes and it has not attacked any other countries, the defense minister also pointed out that Iran cannot protect itself against threats without its defensive capabilities, meanwhile, it respects the sovereignty and integral territories of other countries. He pointed to the appalling humanitarian situation in Yemen, and called on the Netherlands, as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council to prevent Saudi Arabia from killing more innocent Yemeni women and children. The defense minister also referred to US unfounded claim that Iran provided missiles to Yemen, saying while Yemen is under siege and medicine and food cannot get there, sending weapons and missiles to Yemen is by no means possible. Brigadier General Hatami added that the Americans and their allies claims regarding Irans involvement in sending arms to Yemen are aimed at diverting the public opinion from the crimes committed in Yemen. The Dutch ambassador, for her part, referred to the efforts to develop relations between Iran and the Netherlands, saying the Netherlands is interested in developing defense relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Susanna Terstal also stated that the Netherlands wants to establish peace and security throughout the world, and this issue is of great importance to its country's authorities, adding it has done a lot in that regard. /257 Eleven international oil & gas, energy, science & technology and automotive companies from Asia, North America and Europe have joined the Hydrogen Council. The newcomers almost double Council membership one year on from its launch. Launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in early 2017, the Hydrogen Council (earlier post) is a global CEO initiative to foster the role of hydrogen technologies in the global energy transition. The 13 founding members are Air Liquide, Alstom, Anglo American, BMW GROUP, Daimler, ENGIE, Honda, Hyundai, Kawasaki, Royal Dutch Shell, The Linde Group, Total and Toyota. 3M, Bosch, China Energy, Great Wall Motor, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation and Weichai, join as steering members alongside Hexagon Composites, Marubeni, McPhy, Nel Hydrogen and Royal Vopak at supporting level. The Hydrogen Council now covers all key markets with members across the value chain. In addition to their ongoing individual investments and projects, this year will see Council members join forces to drive change, accelerating the pace on a global scale. We are delighted to welcome such impressive growth and the strong CEO-level commitment to hydrogen this demonstrates. This is corporate leadership at scalemultinationals are walking the talk when it comes to building better solutions to address the Paris Agreement climate goals and hydrogen has become an integral part of our strategies. Dr. Woong-chul Yang, Co-Chair of the Hydrogen Council and Vice Chairman of Hyundai Motor Company Scenarios suggest that hydrogen technologies could contribute to meeting 18% of the worlds final energy demands, avoiding 6 Gt of CO 2 emissions, creating a market with revenues of US$2.5 trillion each year and providing 30 million jobs by mid-century. The Hydrogen Council has published two studies to date, How hydrogen empowers the energy transition (January 2017) exploring the role of hydrogen in the energy transition, including its potential, recent achievements, and challenges to its deployment and Hydrogen, scaling up (November 2017) presenting the first comprehensive vision of the long-term potential of hydrogen and a roadmap for deployment. Russias envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia has accused militant groups in Eastern Ghouta of using chlorine gas, while stressing that the Syrian government has every right to eradicate the terrorism hotbed near its capital. (AhlulBayt News Agency) - Russias envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia has accused militant groups in Eastern Ghouta of using chlorine gas, while stressing that the Syrian government has every right to eradicate the terrorism hotbed near its capital. Nebenzia has defended Syrias government and the ongoing anti-terrorism operation in Eastern Ghouta, asserting that it has every right to try and remove the threat to the safety of its citizens. According to information at our disposal, on March 5, Al-Nusra militants used chorine substance in Eastern Ghouta, which injured 30 civilians. All this is done to prepare the grounds for unilateral military actions against sovereign Syria, Nebenzia stated. The suburbs of Damascus cannot remain a hotbed of terrorism. And it is being used for continued attempts by terrorists to undermine the cessation of hostilities. The ongoing operation in the Damascus suburbs does not violate resolution 2401, which allows the continuation of the battle against terrorists, the diplomat stressed. The terrorists, unlike Moscow and Damascus, do, in fact, frequently attack hospitals and other civilian facilities, and the attacks are well-documented, he added. Since the resolution was passed, more than 100 people died from this and a considerably higher number were wounded. More than one hospitalwas shelled, Nebenzia said. These were true hospitals, genuine hospitals, not headquarters of fighters which they very frequently claim to be hospitals. The militants also are preventing the civilians from leaving the combat zone, raining mortar and sniper fire on them. They [militants] are constantly striking humanitarian corridors and checkpoints, including during the humanitarian pauses, Nebenzia stated. They intensified the use of tunnels in order to provoke the Syrian military and the exits of those tunnels are in the areas of public buildings, first and foremost mosques, hospitals and markets. The Russian diplomat pointed out that the conflict in Syria, and in Eastern Ghouta in particular, is used by western countries only to produce endless accusations against Russia, while doing nothing to improve the situation in Syria. Whats being done is a political issue, caused not that much by concerns about the humanitarian needs of the Syrians, Nebenzia said. The official has also cast a shadow of doubt on the figures on casualties in Syria provided by the UN, wondering about their sources and asking them to be more specific about them next time. The death of any number of civilians in an armed conflict is a tragedy, but our delegation has always been interested in the origin of the statistical data that is being used within the UN, Nebenzia explained. Russia, unlike many other countries, takes concrete steps to implement the resolution 2401, Nebeznya said, dismissing the claims, made by some diplomats, including US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley, that Moscow was somehow responcible for continued violence in Syria. We believe its important for everyone to understand: the resolution 2401 is not about an immediate secession of hostilities, which would be an utopia, its about the sides [of conflict] reaching a preliminary agreement on a stable de-escalation in all regions of Syria, not in Eastern Ghouta only. Its the only realistic way, and the resolution has a clear statement on this issue, which were trying to speed up, Russian diplomat stated. Haley, who was speaking earlier at the Security Council meeting, accused Russia and Syria of violating the resolution and of killing innocent civilians using the anti-terrorism loophole in the document. She also warned that the US might take unilateral actions if the Security Council fails to address the situation in Syria. The diplomat referred to last years attack on Syrias Shairat air field, in the aftermath of Khan Sheikhoun chemical incident, as an example of possible US actions /129 But is it? Photo: Brooks Kraft/Corbis via Getty Images What busy, non-agronomist person has time to memorize indigenous plants and growing seasons in their state? Probably not you, which is why if youre into buying farm-to-table, you probably rely on labels that seemingly vouch that your food was grown nearby. Sorry to burst your bubble, but those labels are often done through statewide buy local programs, and it turns out, theyre sort of a colossal scam. Reporters from USA Today spent four months analyzing every single one of these local ag-booster branding programs 45 in total. What their investigation found was that the programs are designed to be deceptive and virtually unregulated. For example, 18 of the programs allow producers to call something local even if no ingredients were sourced from the state. One particularly egregious case is Milos Tea Company, a company whose teas sold at Walmart and Target feature a Buy Alabamas Best label. The company is physically headquartered in the state, but its leaves come from South America and India. In Oklahoma, Snider Farms Peanut Barn sells jars of its Made in Oklahoma peanut butter for $5 or $6, but theyre full of Georgia and Virginia nuts, which came from a Texas distributor before being roasted and ground in Oklahoma. Utahs Park City Coffee Roaster carries the states Utahs Own label, and theres a zero percent chance that the actual coffee was grown in the Beehive State. In California, an agriculture powerhouse, the problem isnt lack of regulations, but rather enforcement. To be California Grown, a product needs at least 85 percent of its ingredients to be state-grown, which is pretty high, but the state doesnt allocate any of the $1.7 million budget to keeping its 15,000 agricultural producers honest. The worst offender, though, may be Texas. USA Today says that the only stipulation for its Go Texan program is that whoever wants the label has to pay between $100 and $5,000 every year. Among the proudly local producers are pest-control companies and liquor stores that sell alcohol distilled all over the world. The story adds that Texas has virtually no accountability or enforcement, as no application has ever been denied and no businesses have ever been disqualified. The good news is that some states actually do make an effort to ensure that their local foods truly are local. New York and New Jersey have some of the nations strictest rules, and actually make sure producers comply. The Jersey Fresh logo requires annual inspections to make sure food is grown in-state and either meets or exceeds USDA Grade 1 standards, while New Yorks new program, called State Grown & Certified, requires a food-safety certification on top of an environmental-management program done through the states Soil & Water Conservation Districts. Photo: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg via Getty Images Ever since Amazons purchase of Whole Foods, tensions have flared between the grocery giant and its vendors, as the chain attempts to replace its long-standing regional buying model with a more centralized system thats more efficient and cuts costs. Smaller suppliers complain that it pushes them aside (literally in some cases maybe youve noticed more Tropicana on the juice aisle). But the national brands dont sneak by scot-free either, and their griping has apparently been an additional headache for Whole Foods. The company has been aware for months that everybodys angry, and now CNBC reports that on March 19, Whole Foods will hold a vendors summit where they can air their grievances. Whole Foods reportedly notified them of the meeting last Saturday via email. CNBC says the tenor was peacemaking: to reassure the brands of relations after Whole Foods sale to Amazon. Amazon actually didnt initiate this switch to a more centralized purchasing system, but as the new boss, it certainly has the power to make it better. Thats what the summit aims to do, but vendors also tell CNBC that theyre upset by Whole Foods decision to offer limited communication about the situation until now. The world of grocery-store supply is complicated, but the vendors essentially have two main complaints about the new system. The first is over new fees that theyre being charged. In an email to suppliers a few months ago, Whole Foods said it plans to streamline things to ensure all our suppliers are supported and set up for success, then added: To successfully run this program, we need your financial support. Under the new system, anything store-related from handing out free samples to checking inventory now has to go through a Stamford, Connecticutbased retail-services firm called Daymon. (Whole Foods used to let suppliers handle this themselves, or hire someone else to do it.) Bigger brands, i.e., those that sell over $300,000 worth of goods per year, will have to discount their products by 3 to 5 percent to help subsidize the program. Then, regardless of size, every vendor has to pay fees if it wants Daymon to conduct in-store product demonstrations fees that smaller companies say they cant afford. The second complaint is that this setup hurts brands reach. It imperils the relationships many of them have with for-hire brokers who help ensure their products visibility, not just at Whole Foods but at grocery stores all over the country. (Brokers role will be filled by Daymon.) Also, if they want new products in stores, its now decided by Whole Foods corporate mother ship in Austin, rather than case by case in regional offices. Whole Foods hasnt explained why its doing any of this yet, but as CNBC points out, the switch means more data. By centralizing inventory management, Amazon will have control over every aspect of the grocery-selling process after items arrive in Whole Foods stores. Egypts Foreign Minister Pays Visit To S. Sudan To Strengthen Relations Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, on Monday held a meeting with Presidents Salva Kiir to strengthen bilateral ties and encourage the peace process in the country. Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry AP Photo/ Petros Karadjias] By Charles Kay JUBA, 12 March 2018 [Gurtong] Sameh Shoukry, arrived the country with with logistical support such as printers, computers and laptops to be given to the National Dialogue Steering Committee to assist in the smooth running of their activities. The Co-chair of the National Dialogue Steering Committee, Angello Beda, Egyptian Ambassador to South Sudan, Dr. Ahmed Bahaa Mahmoud were present during the reception of the office equipment. The National Dialogue Committee leadership weeks ago went to Egypt for a workshop facilitated by Cairo International for Conflict Resolution and Peace Keeping and Egyptian Agency partnership for development through the embassy. Minister Sameh Shoukry said Egypt has keenly followed the National Dialogue and has been supporting both materially and in building capacity believing that the current crisis can only be resolved through dialogue. Wide dialogues between all the participants can avoid military conflicts and regain unity. This can lead people to concentrate on development objectives, He Said. Shoukry added that Egypt will continue to empower South Sudan more so in the field of capacity building, provide agricultural and irrigation facilities and enhance the countrys abilities in education and in the medical fields. On his part, Angelo Beda applauded the Egyptian government for the unconditional and continuous support to the country. He said the office items will do a lot in documenting the activities and progress of the National Dialogue. Honorable Mary Bicensio Wani, Member of the National Dialogue Steering Committee said that the items received included, 50 laptops, 10 Printers, white board projectors, PA systems among others. We have data that was gathered by the subcommittees formed, these office equipments will help in documenting, analyzing and processing that data, said Bisensio. Meanwhile, Mayiik Ayii, minister in the office of the President said South Sudan appreciates the Egyptian government for their support. Egypt has welcomed thousands of our refugees and opened Universities and higher institutions for many of our students learning in Egypt. He explained. This is the Egyptian foreign minister's first visit to South Sudan since 2015. Former Governor Of Yei Welcomes Removal, Appeals For Peace The Ex-Governor of Yei River State, David Lokonga Moses has welcomed his removal by the President as the Governor for Yei River State some three weeks ago. By Daniel Friday Martin YEI, 13 March 2018 [Gurtong] Speaking at Emmanuel Cathedral last Sunday, David Lokonga said I was happy when I heard the news over the media that I have been removed as the Governor of Yei River State and to me as I consider it as a normal change in the government he said. He further said, In a special way I want to thank H.E president Salva Kiir for having trusted me with a responsibility to be the Governor for Yei River State for the last two years and four months and I have tried my best to lay the foundation for Yei River State and I will still serve the government in any capacity given to me he added. Lokonga welcomed his successor Emmanuel Adil Anthony saying he is ready to help the new Governor with technical advice so that that they all participate in ensuring that peace and stability returns to Yei River State. I will not rebel against the government like what other people are doing in other parts of the country where after being removed from office, you jump into the bush. I will not do that mistake because I am for peace and the people of Yei River State and South Sudan need peace and therefore I will cooperate with the new Governor in making Yei a better place for all of us he added. Lokonga called on the youth and the entire people of Yei River State to embrace peace, unite and rally behind to support Emmanuel Adil (Yei River State Governor) so that he can work hard to serve the people of Yei. Meanwhile, Bishop Hillary Luate Adeba of the Episcopal diocese of Yei appreciated the role played by the Ex-Governor in maintaining relative peace and stability in Yei River State amidst difficult times of political crisis that affected the State in 2016. I want to thank you David because you stood with us at those difficult days where insecurity and economic challenges were beyond control. Thank you so much for having maintained relative peace. As a church we will continue to work and support the new Governor Emmanuel Adil so that we all see Yei River State returns to its peaceful status Adeba added. Haiti - FLASH : Explosive situation in Pedernales, Haitians in fear Monday Pedernales, Dominicans angry following the killings by machetes by two former Haitian employees, of a Dominican couple who own a ranch in Le Quemao, both dead from their wounds https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23790-icihaiti-flash-temporary-closure-of-the-pedernales-border-market.html have issued an ultimatum to Haitians ending Tuesday, March 13 at 10:00 am to leave the province, threatening violent reprisals if they remain. The warning was issued Monday by a "guaguita" (vehicle equipped with a speaker) who has traveled the main streets of Pedernales. In addition, dozens of Dominicans demonstrated in front of the Office of the Prosecutor, demanding justice for these two murders while the alleged perpetrators are still at large. The Mayor of Pedernales, Luis Manuel Feliz, who had already made the decision to close Monday the binational market for security reasons https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23790-icihaiti-flash-temporary-closure-of-the-pedernales-border-market.html , asked for the intervention of President Danilo Medina and Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas, fearing that the threat from the community would be put into effect and become a bloodbath. Last minute : On the same day, Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado told the Dominican press, "To prevent violent incidents between Dominicans and Haitians, President Danilo Medina ordered the deployment of military troops to Pedernales" adding "the Government will not allow order and peace to be disturbed. An elite military force of 60 men from the Dominican army and 30 anti-riot agents from the Dominican National Police (PND) were sent to Pedernales. The Minister of Defense, General Ruben Dario Paulino Sem, said on Monday that the Specialized Corps of Border Border Security (CESFRONT) was also reinforced by the Dominican navy. As for the national police, it is identifying and seeking to arrest all Dominicans who incite the population to take revenge on the Haitians. See also : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23790-icihaiti-flash-temporary-closure-of-the-pedernales-border-market.html SL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Security : Customs Agents prohibited carrying weapons In the context of the customs strike which is at its 9th day and following the instructions given to the National Police of Haiti (PNH), Heidi Fortune, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, informs in a circular that "now, customs agents are not allowed to carry firearms; this, under any circumstances. In addition, instructions are given to the High Command of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the various customs posts of the Republic. This temporary measure is adopted in order to prevent any untoward incident likely to endanger public order." Recall that the tension increased a little more when on instruction of Jude Alix Patrick Solomon, the Minister of Economy and Finance has made arrangements to unload refrigerated products and products for assembly plants with the help from the PNH. "Saturday we made arrangements to allow customs officers who want to work to do so. PNH officers occupy customs entrances to prevent untimely disruptions to those who put pressure on employees who want to work," said Minister Salomon. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23791-haiti-politic-8th-day-of-strike-customs-agents-set-up-emergency-cells.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23753-haiti-flash-customs-agents-strike-manufactures-close-and-send-back-their-workers.html https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23734-icihaiti-strike-200-million-loss-of-revenue-per-day-for-the-state.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22349-haiti-politics-customs-officers-accept-a-truce.html HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Chile : LAW announces the resumption of its flights, the DGAC cancels them After the announcement of the temporary suspension of its flights https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23733-haiti-flash-law-airline-temporarily-suspends-its-flights-haiti-chile.html Chilean airline Latin American Wings (LAW) announced Sunday, March 11 in a statement that it will resume and gradually regularize its flights to Caracas (Venezuela), Port-au-Prince (Haiti) and Miami from Friday, March 16 2018. However, LAW had not finished with the problems, following its announcement, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation of Chile (DGAC) announced in a statement that it temporarily suspended the certificate of air operations from LAW. The DGCA indicates that this suspension is due to the fact that LAW, after canceling all its flights and initiating a reorganization process, has announced new destinations in its routes that have not been submitted or approved by the inspection body of civil aviation. Clarifying that this suspension will be maintained until LAW is in compliance with the requirements permanently and continuously, to perform the flight operations it intends to perform. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23733-haiti-flash-law-airline-temporarily-suspends-its-flights-haiti-chile.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23723-haiti-news-zapping.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23276-haiti-flash-nearly-105-000-haitians-arrived-in-chile-in-2017.html https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-22289-icihaiti-flash-chilean-airline-law-resumes-flights.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22252-haiti-flash-haiti-and-chile-very-close-to-a-diplomatic-incident.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21970-haiti-flash-equivalence-of-haitian-studies-in-chile.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21709-haiti-social-mass-arrival-of-haitian-migrants-chile-preoccupied.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20490-haiti-chile-president-bachelet-addresses-the-issue-of-illegal-haitians-in-her-country.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-18331-haiti-social-stampede-of-thousands-of-illegal-haitians-in-chile.html SL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Security : USA and IOM donate vehicles to PoliFront Monday, the U.S. Government and IOM donated five vehicles and other materials to the Haitian National Border Police (POLIFRONT) to support the government of Haiti's efforts to combat transnational crime and to increase security along its borders. Note that this is the second US donation to the PoliFront (motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23116-haiti-security-the-united-states-supports-the-new-border-police.html This ceremony was held at the POLIFRONT headquarters in Morne Casse in the presence of U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele Sison, the Inspector General of the Police, Joany Caneus, the Department Director of the police, Fritz Saint Fort, IOM Chief of Mission Fabien Sambussy, and personnel from the embassy's Office of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). Ambassador Sison was pleased to visit POLIFRONT https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23106-haiti-security-graduation-of-the-1st-promotion-of-the-border-police.html , and praised the IOM partnership in establishing the force. In her speech, she recognized the importance of this newly created police unit that will lead to more security and stability in the country. "The challenges against transnational crime, including human trafficking and other illegal traffic must be addressed if Haiti wants to secure its borders." Recall that via the INL, the US Government actively supports the training and professional development of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) to fight against transnational crime at the border. See also : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23727-icihaiti-canada-donation-of-vehicles-to-the-polifront.html https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23649-icihaiti-security-the-polifront-deploys-in-ouanaminthe.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23277-haiti-security-start-of-operations-of-the-new-border-police.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23116-haiti-security-the-united-states-supports-the-new-border-police.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23106-haiti-security-graduation-of-the-1st-promotion-of-the-border-police.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23026-haiti-news-zapping.html HL/ HaitiLibre White House studies permanent Jones Act waiver for Puerto Rico: sources Washington (Platts)--12 Mar 2018 (excerpts) The Trump White House is studying the feasibility of a permanent Jones Act waiver for Puerto Rico, according to multiple sources. A working group of Trump administration officials are studying the issue, but there is no clear time line for the study's release, according to administration sources. It is also unclear if the Trump administration would lift Jones Act requirements for Puerto Rico even if the study recommends doing so, sources said. "I don't think they'd be able to do it without legislation," according to one source familiar with the group's work. One issue the group is grappling with is how to justify a waiver for Puerto Rico while keeping Jones Act requirements for other US ports, such as Hawaii, sources said. One source said that, without finding a permanent waiver in the interest of national defense, the Trump administration appears unable to issue such a waiver without congressional support. (Hedgeweek) SS&C Technologies Holdings is to acquire CACEIS North America, the fund administration business of CACEIS based in Toronto and New York. The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018. To read this article: While vocational and general upper-secondary education is free in Finland, students and their families typically have to pay for textbooks and other class materials out of their own pockets. Student unions have voiced their delight with the fact that a citizens initiative for guaranteeing free access to upper-secondary education has received the 50,000 statements of support required to present it to the Finnish Parliament. The Union of Upper Secondary School Students in Finland has estimated that the cost of a general upper-secondary diploma can consequently creep up to 2,500 euros. The National Union of Vocational Students in Finland (Sakki) has revealed that the costs of vocational degrees vary from hundreds to thousands of euros depending on the field of study. Well over a quarter (29%) of general upper-secondary students and their families struggle to cover the costs of education, found a survey by the Finnish National Agency for Education (OPH). Costs are the reason for many to drop out of upper-secondary education, and this is what many upper-secondary students now want to change, says Alvar Euro, the chairperson of the Union of Upper Secondary School Students in Finland. Concerns have arisen especially for those students who are worse off, he adds. A lack of money should not seal off the education path for anyone. This is an important issue to us, and we hope it is such also to Members of Parliament. Jasmina Khabbal, the chairperson of Sakki, stresses that it is of utmost importance to ensure all young people have an equal opportunity to pursue upper-secondary qualifications and study for the vocation they want. We expect the Parliament to discuss the citizens initiative carefully and take action to guarantee a genuinely free and equal upper-secondary education, states Khabbal. The costs of upper-secondary education are perceived as a reason for why as many as 15 per cent of young people do not pursue post-basic education. The relatively high share is a concern especially due to its potential impact on the employment situation, as the employment rate for people with only a basic education degree is 43 per cent, according to the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK). Policy makers have proposed that the problem be addressed by either making upper-secondary education free or raising the school-leaving age to 18. The Labour Institute for Economic Research proposed last year that the feasibility and impact of free upper-secondary education be determined in a trial not dissimilar to the ongoing basic universal income trial. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Screen capture / www.kansalaisaloite.fi Source: Uusi Suomi The Finnish government faced a barrage of questions about its draft bill to increase the freedom of patients to choose their social and health care provider from opposition members during a plenary session in the Parliament on Thursday. Petteri Orpo (NCP), the Minister of Finance, has drawn amused jeers by declaring last week that the government will save Finland from a takeover by health care conglomerates. Sari Essayah, the chairperson of the Christian Democrats, expressed her reservations about how the reform bill could generate the targeted cost savings of three billion euros in the years to come. Orpo, in turn, pointed out that although public social and health care costs have doubled since the turn of the millennium, there have been no discernible improvements in the quality of social and health care services. People dont have access to health care centres, he stated. That was the main reason why we embarked on this reform process. The freedom of choice will be a way to make sure people get to see a doctor. Weve realised that if this reform isnt carried out, major health care conglomerates will take over Finland, added Orpo. The government will save Finland from these conglomerates. Thats quite the speech, exclaimed one Member of Parliament. The Parliament will discuss the bill to increase patients freedom of choice this week. 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Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. Learn more here *Cindy* 1) $10 Amazon Gift Card: Deb Gramie Burgess 2) The Cowboys: Dawn LeGros 3) Rescuing Her Heart: Cindy Klemm *Denise* Audio Codes for The Witness Tree: Marilyn Ridgway and Licha Hanley *Mary* 1) Audio code for The Damsel's Intent: Danielle Grandinetti Owen 2) Reader's Choice: Brenda Walters *Linda* 1) Gold Rush Bride Hannah: Lisa Turley and Jennifer Devon Hibdon 2) $5.00 Gift card to retailer of their choice (Kobo, B&N, AppleBooks, Amazon): Tami le Roux *Grand Prize*: Bonnie Yepsen Weinman *Blog Winners*: 1) Spies & Sweethearts: Sheila64 2) Bent Tree Bride: Roxanne Cruz 3) Rescuing Her Heart: Natalya Lakhno 4) The Debutante's Secret: Connie Porter Saunders GIVEAWAY RULES Winners must leave their email address and will be notified by email and the winners name will be announced in the days comments. No one under 18 can enter our giveaways. No purchase is necessary. All winners have one week to claim their prize. USA shipping only. Offer void where prohibited. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants. Modest in number yet extraordinarily influential, proponents of the better war narrative maintain that Gen. Creighton Abrams, who became the top commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam in June 1968, jettisoned the failing strategy of his predecessor, Gen. William Westmoreland, and achieved a military victory, only to have it squandered by feckless politicians in Washington. Withdrawal, the latest from esteemed Vietnam scholar Greg Daddis, nimbly addresses the better war narrative and the limits of American military strategy in the post-World War II era. According to better war theorists, Westmoreland was hopelessly wedded to conventional warfare and pursued a flawed attrition-based strategy predicated on big-unit search-and-destroy operations at the expense of pacification programs that brought improved security, economic development projects and social services to rural villages. Abrams supposedly reversed course after taking charge of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. Daddis, however, astutely observes that Westmoreland recognized the dual nature of the Communist threat and employed an approach that i ncluded both support for pacification and a strong military response to the enemys conventional forces. While Abrams embraced civic action programs as a means of pacifying the restive South Vietnamese countryside, the World War II tank commander did so with the understanding that security had to be established firstusing aggressive military force. Security remained at the core of Abes one-war approach, Daddis writes. Thus, despite better war claims that the new MACV commander approached the political-military problem in South Vietnam with a more restrained, even enlightened, outlook, the process of pacifying a war-torn country remained as violent as ever. Daddis, a retired Army colonel who served in the Iraq War and taught history at West Point, contends that there was far more strategic continuity between Westmoreland and Abrams than advocates of the better war theory are willing to admit. A thorough examination of the historical record supports that conclusion. Abrams, much like Westmoreland, believed that the U.S. military was uniquely qualified to provide the shield behind which pacification and an effective, grass-roots village government could succeed. Both men embraced large search-and-destroy operations to push enemy units away from the local population. The American-South Vietnamese Combined Campaign Plan for 1969, the first under Abrams at MACV, did not differ in any meaningful way from the 1968 strategy. Abrams acknowledged in March 1968 that when he assumed command in June he intended to avoid any implication of great change, new strategy. An argument can be made for a more optimistic interpretation of the war in the early 1970s because of the heavy losses that Communist forces had suffered. Yet, as Daddis makes abundantly clear, at no point did the allies win the war in Vietnam, contrary to the claims of the better war theorists. The North Vietnamese Army remained very much intact, and Viet Cong guerrillas continued to operate in the villages of South Vietnam. More important, the timetable for President Richard Nixons Vietnamization programdesigned to turn the war over to the South Vietnamese and expedite the final withdrawal of American forcesappeared overly ambitious. Withdrawal, though, is more than a sharp riposte to the better war narrative. Nixon, Daddis argues, hoped to fundamentally reshape American Cold War foreign policy, particularly with respect to China and the Soviet Union, but could not do so effectively without first extricating the United States from the war in Southeast Asia. Abrams, consequently, was obliged to fight a war Washington and the American public no longer seemed interested in winning. Brilliantly building on the success of Westmorelands War, Daddis Withdrawal is at once a superb re-examination of MACV in the later years of the war and a cautionary tale of what happens when military strategy and grand strategy do not coincide. In 1902 Brigadier General Jacob H. Smith was court-martialed for ordering American soldiers to kill thousands of Filipino civilians. COUNTERINSURGENCY OPERATIONS, BY THEIR VERY NATURE, OFTEN REQUIRE MILITARY PERSONNEL to operate in the midst of civilian populations. In such cases, the judicious and lawful use of military force becomes as important as direct combat. When lawful warfare gives way to criminal conduct, it is sometimes because individual soldiers step over the line, but at other times it results from unlawful orders from above. In terms of its ultimate outcome, the Philippine-American War of 18991902 has historically been regarded as the U.S. Armys most successful war of counterinsurgency. Still, it was marked by allegations of widespread killing of civilians, the torture of prisoners, and, on occasion, orders that flagrantly violated the laws of war. The most infamous incident of the war was the one that resulted in the Howling Wilderness court-martial of Brigadier General Jacob H. Smith, who was charged with ordering his troops to lay waste to the island of Samar in 1902. Smiths long military career was distinguished mostly by his penchant for embroiling himself in scandal and litigation. Originally an officer in a volunteer regiment during the Civil War, he obtained a commission in the Regular Army and embarked on what turned out to be one of the most checkered careers of any military officer of the era. In 1869 he gained a military appointment as a judge advocate, but it was quickly revoked after officials in the War Department learned that he had repeatedly perjured himself during an earlier investigation into his rampant wartime profiteering. Over the next 20 years Smith was court-martialed three timesfor reneging on gambling debts, for conduct unbecoming an officer, and for having made false statements. He had demonstrated bravery during the Spanish-American War, but he was unquestionably intemperate and utterly unreliable in positions of authority. The fact that he was entrusted with a position of great responsibility in the Philippines must register as one of the gravest blunders of the entire war, as the armys official history later noted. The blunder grew out of the archaic military tradition in which officers were promoted to flag rank based on seniority rather than merit to reward them with a higher pension on the eve of their retirement. When Smith was recommended for promotion to brigadier general in 1901, William Howard Taft, the head of the Second Philippine Commission (who would soon become governor-general of the Philippines and, later, president of the United States), endorsed the move with the comment that Smith had reached a time when promotion to a Brigadier Generalship would worthily end his services, for I believe it his intention to retire upon promotion. Things did not play out quite the way Taft expected. If Smith ever truly intended to retire on receiving his generals star, he changed his mind as soon as the new shoulder straps were on his uniform, declaring that he was staying in the service. Ordered to quell Filipino resistance on Samar after an American garrison was nearly wiped out at Balingiga, Smith immediately demonstrated the lack of restraint that would become his hallmark. I want no prisoners, he told Major Littleton W. T. Waller, the Marine Corps officer who was commanding operations in the field. I wish you to kill and burn. The more you kill and burn, the more you will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States.The interior of Samar must be made a howling wilderness. Waller asked for clarification of the order: What, exactly, was meant by all personscapable of bearing arms? Smith replied that, as far as he was concerned, any Filipino male over the age of 10 was capable of bearing arms and thus was a legitimate military targetregardless of whether he was hostile or armed. To his credit, Waller did not carry out the full homicidal lunacy of Smiths orders, though he did order the summary execution of 11 Filipino porters whom he believed were conspiring against his troops. Allegations that American troops were guilty of atrocities in the Philippines were already being trumpeted in anti-imperialist newspapers and echoed by members of Congress who opposed President Theodore Roosevelt and his administrations prosecution of the war. The War Departments initial inquiry into the matter had not satisfied the critics. Then came news of Wallers actions on Samar. Waller was arrested and charged with murder under the 58th Article of War. Waller, acting as his own attorney, argued that his order to execute the porters was an act of military retaliation authorized by General Orders No. 100, the legal code introduced into U.S. military law in 1863 and still in effect in 1902. Wallers easiest defense might have been to simply tell the court that he was acting in accordance with Smiths orders, but he refused to do sountil Smith appeared in court as a witness for the prosecution. Almost as soon as he took the stand, Smith perjured himself by saying that he had never given Waller any special instructions on the conduct of the campaign, and, further, that he had not ordered mass killing. Waller was therefore forced to call as witnesses three officers who testified that they, too, knew of Smiths howling wilderness orders. In light of that, the court acquitted Waller by a vote of 112. The focus of official retribution now turned to Smith. Though he was already complicit in perjury and in ordering the murder of civilians, he was arraigned only on a charge of conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline when he appeared before a court-martial in Manila. Offering a rather bizarre rationaleand this was entirely in characterSmith pleaded not guilty to the charge but also freely admitted that he had issued the very orders to Waller that he had earlier denied giving. Smith also claimed that General Orders No. 100 permitted the extreme tactics he had ordered on Samar, and he tried to draw a comparison between his campaign and Major General William Tecumseh Shermans March to the Sea during the Civil War. Smiths defense counsel, Colonel C. A. Woodruff, produced a long list of officers from Smiths command on Samar who testified that they had chosen to ignore the full scope of his kill and burn orders and had never deliberately targeted Filipino civilians. This defense stopped just short of arguing that Smith was such an incompetent commander that his subordinates could choose to disregard his orders as they wished. In his closing remarks, Woodruff argued that the only reason this gray haired, wounded, victorious general was being exposed to the indignity of a court-martial was because of an overwhelming or noisy public sentiment in the United States, based upon rumors for some unknown, and I believe, ignoble purposes. The officers of the court returned a guilty verdict against Smith but argued for a lenient sentence in view of the undisputed evidence that the accused did not mean everything that his unexplained language implied; that his subordinates did not gather such a meaning, and that the orders were never executed in such sense. President Roosevelt approved the verdict and the courts sentencing recommendation and ordered that Smith be immediately retired from servicea far lighter punishment than he deserved. True to form, Smith promptly contradicted everything his attorney had argued on his behalf, boasting to reporters that he meant every word of his notorious orders. After nearly 30 years in the army, Smith finally left the military and the public eye. Fading into obscurity, he died in San Diego in 1918 at age 77. Smiths case provides a stark example of the dangers of an obsolete military promotion system that allowed officers to remain in service even after their unfitness for command and their moral failings in positions of responsibility were demonstrated beyond doubt. It also underscores an essential fact of military law: that an officer is legally responsible for every order given. MHQ JOHN A. HAYMOND is the author of The Infamous Dakota War Trials of 1862: Revenge, Military Law, and the Judgment of History (McFarland & Company, 2016). His newest book, The American Soldier 18661916: The Enlisted Man and the U.S. Army in Transition, will be published by McFarland in early 2018. This article appears in the Spring 2018 issue (Vol. 30, No. 3) of MHQThe Quarterly Journal of Military History with the headline: Kill Orders Want to have the lavishly illustrated, premium-quality print edition of MHQ delivered directly to you four times a year? Subscribe now at special savings! Cork Airport has been voted through to the final round in an online competition to be named as a new route for German airline Eurowings. The live vote takes place on the Eurowings Facebook page tomorrow, Tuesday (13 March) from 2pm-3pm Irish time. Voting for Eurowings competition takes place today (Tuesday, 13 March) on Facebook from 2pm-3pm. The public is being urged to get behind Cork Airport by visiting www.facebook.com/eurowings during the 60 minute window and casting their vote. The most voted destination will be part of the 2018/19 winter schedule for Eurowings, which is a subsidiary of Lufthansa. Cork Airport, the countrys second busiest international airport after Dublin, topped the poll following a week-long European-wide public vote which began Tuesday, 6 March and closed yesterday, Monday, 12 March. Six European hubs competed, with the top three going on to the live final. Cork, the only Irish airport to be shortlisted in the competition, secured 33.3% of votes. Also in the final areKosice (Slovakia) after receiving 32% of votes and Friedrichshafen (Germany) with 12%. Speaking on the competition, Cork Airport Managing Director, Niall MacCarthy said: We are amazed at the support from the public. Over the past week, people have rallied to ensure Cork Airport made the final three and we are delighted to have topped the poll in round one. However, there is still more work to be done. We are now asking everyone to take part in the live vote, as a win will be a major boost to the region, and to Ireland as a whole. This will provide greater route choice for those flying from Cork Airport while also being of benefit to the economy through inbound tourism. To help secure a new route for the south of Ireland, go to www.facebook.com/eurowings today (Tuesday, 13 March) from 2pm to 3pm to vote. The genre-defying producer has released his first track in well over a year. Since he bid farewell to his MMOTHS moniker at the end of 2016, Jack Colleran seemed to have gone deep into hiding. But he is back producing music, and has recently shared his new song 'O + SOH', accompanied by a stunning video by Nic Hamilton. By J Colleran's own account his new tracks are connected to "non-existent or fictional places, where the music or the tracks themselves become or depict these unreal spaces". It is therefore no wonder that 'O + SOH' has something of an art installation with its slow, steady movement in sound and vision. It seems to depict life and death, light and shadow, earth and space, as well as the consistency and unity of opposites. J Colleran's new album is scheduled for summer 2018. Until then, find someplace quiet, pour yourself a hot drink, and take a look at 'O + SOH'. Yes, you read that right! "The Force" will be strong at this weekend's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Mark Hamill, who once memorably posed with a packet of Tayto crisps and then a packet of King to balance things out when he felt he'd upset certain people, will be the first International Guest of Honour at the St Patricks Day Festival in Dublin. "And I am delighted to return to the beautiful Emerald Isle to spend St. Patrick's Day with the people of Ireland at the Festival & meet your President! Also a rare opportunity to indulge in a mug of delicious green milk," Mark wrote on Twitter. Announcing the news, Minister for the Diaspora and International Development, Ciaran Cannon said: I am delighted that actor Mark Hamill, known in every corner of the globe for his role as Luke Skywalker in the phenomenally successful Star Wars franchise, is to appear in Dublins St Patricks Day Festival as International Guest of Honour." He added: I am especially delighted to learn that he is a distant son of the Irish diaspora, with links to both Kilkenny and Donegal. Mark Hamill has played another role too, for which all along the Wild Atlantic Way are deeply grateful, in promoting the now iconic route and Tourism Irelands Star Wars campaign and films with Mark Hamill praising of Irish hospitality have been seen by some 8m people around the world. The fact that an actor of such international renown would lend his name to the most important event in our national calendar is, I believe, both a tribute to the regard in which the Irish are held across the globe and also to how Irish heritage is of innate significance to people. It proves too that our national festival is a unifying force for the diaspora across the world, whether they are Irish born or of Irish ancestry. And I am delighted to return to the beautiful Emerald Isle to spend St. Patrick's Day with the people of Ireland at the Festival & meet your President! Also a rare opportunity to indulge in a mug of delicious green milk. ?? https://t.co/aePeuiQgDd Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) March 12, 2018 As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. Mount Greylock Students Prep for Wednesday Walkout, D.C. March WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. Mount Greylock Regional School junior Karen Magnusdottir McComish remembers how she felt the day the 26 people were gunned down in a Connecticut elementary school. She never expected to have the same feelings more than five years later when 17 people were killed at a Florida high school. "Just about everyone in high school right now was in elementary school during Sandy Hook," McComish said this week. "When I was in sixth grade, the only thing I knew about it was that it was scary. We didn't have a voice. People like Moms Demand Action became our voices. "All of us grew up in this time when there are school shootings and we have these drills to prepare. This has been a reality in our lives. Now, through social media and other avenues, we've been able to connect and have made a difference." McComish joined with classmate Sophie Jones, senior Maia Hirsch and sophomore Maddy Art to help organize a student walkout at the middle and high school for Wednesday on the one-month anniversary of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. "I'm inspired by the survivors of Parkland, the students there," McComish said. "This is something that unites us all. "The walkout is mainly meant to be a memorial. In order to honor the victims, you have to take action. This is to show that we're still thinking of them a month later." And for several dozen Mount Greylock students, those thoughts will carry them to Washington, D.C., for the March For Our Lives to call for national action to help address gun violence. The national march is largely being organized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who have built a movement on social media using the hashtag #NeverAgain . Numerous similar marches are being planned around the country. "When this march was announced, I knew I wanted to go down to Washington, D.C., but I realized a lot of other students probably wanted to go, too, and might not have the means," McComish said. "I was wondering if there was a way we could go down in solidarity together to be with one another." As of Monday, 53 people students and chaperones have signed up to ride on Mount Greylock's bus to the Washington march. The plan is to leave at 2 a.m. and roll back into town at about 2 a.m. on March 25. "We're going to be sleeping two nights on a bus, but I think it will be worth it," McComish said. "It will be a different experience than a lot of us have ever had. I think it will be amazing to do together." The students received organizational help from the local nonprofit Greylock Together to organize the bus trip, and a gofundme.com campaign was established to help defray the cost. The campaign started with a fund-raising goal of $500 on Feb. 24; as of Monday night, more than $3,300 had been raised. "That shows how much the community cares and how much they want to support us," McComish said. "Our community is very engaged and I know their support will show through their votes as well." But first there's Wednesday's walkout, which has the full backing of the school's administration. Although the Cold Spring Road (Route 7) campus lacks the public visibility of some other schools planning walkouts for Wednesday, the organizers of the Mount Greylock event plan to make it an educational event for their fellow students. In addition to a moment of silence, the 17-minute ceremony will feature biographical information about the 17 Parkland, Fla., victims and a history lesson on successful student activist movements of the past. "We've registered [Wednesday's walkout] on the national map, so hopefully Congress and people writing the laws in Washington and here in Massachusetts will see that this many schools are doing this," McComish said. "There's power in numbers. It's also a good platform for us to come together as students and realize we can make a difference." She is hoping that this time the adults follow the students' lead. "I remember [after Sandy Hook] thinking, 'people will listen and we'll be OK, and we'll be safe in our schools,' That was when I was in sixth grade," McComish said. "Now, I'm a junior high school and this is still something regularly happening. "We were thinking on Wednesday about reading a list of all the schools that have had a shooting since Sandy Hook, and we couldn't do it. The list was too long. It took 10 minutes to read." iciHaiti - Diplomacy : The American Ambassador on tour in the North Monday, U.S. Ambassador in Haiti Michele Jeanne Sison and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Haiti (CDC - Haiti) were welcomed by officials of the Hopital Sacre-Coeur de Milot, the largest private hospital and public health provider in the North Department, which thanks to the partnership between CDC / The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and CMMB (Catholic Medical Mission Board) provides services to thousands of patients in the North. The Ambassador visited Sacre-Coeur Hospital and her laboratory, which in addition to HIV / AIDS services also carries out tuberculosis tests. IH/ iciHaiti iciHaiti - Diphtheria : Emergency situation Sunday, the Ministry of Health launched a national immunization campaign against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough in 44 communes in 9 departments of Haiti. Nearly one million children between the ages of 1 and 6 will benefit from vaccination against diphtheria, a disease considered epidemic in the country due to the growing number of infections and deaths. Dr. Claude Surena, Member of the Cabinet of the Ministry, reiterated the importance of leading this crusade throughout the country "We are working on this campaign because there are many children who die affected by diphtheria in the country [ ...] We are really in an emergency situation, because it is an epidemic that has reappeared in the national clinical picture and it is necessary to control it and eradicate it " This campaign is divided into two stages because it is two doses of vaccine. The first stage started Sunday, March 11 will end in about a month with the beginning of the 2nd phase. In addition, this national operation will also make it possible to vaccinate infants against other preventable diseases such as tetanus and whooping cough. Recall that according to a World Bank report, only 68% of children under two years old in Haiti received three doses of immunization against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. S/ iciHaiti 1/3 of All Olim Backed by Christians The Fellowship | March 13, 2018 1/3 of All Olim Backed by Christians The Fellowship and our faithful Christian friends who make all of our important work possible have been in the news a bit lately. And now, The Forwards Haley Cohen takes another look at the bridges built between Christians and Jews, and the prophetic work that they help accomplish: Around one-third of all Jewish immigrants to Israel get backing from evangelical Christians, the Associated Press [reported] Thursday. After 2,000 years of oppression and persecution, today you have Christians who are helping Jews. This is an amazing thing, said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a group that raises money from evangelical Christians for Jewish causes. Of the more than 28,000 Jews who immigrated to Israel in 2017, at least 8,500 arrived with help from Christian donations Israeli charities raise millions of dollars from Christians around the world, and evangelical Christians make up 13 percent of all tourists to Israel, ABC News reported Gaza Assassination Attempt on PA PM The Fellowship | March 13, 2018 Embed from Getty Images Today, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority made a trip to the Gaza Strip which did not turn out as planned. The Times of Israels Khaled Abu Toameh reports that PM Rami Hamdallahs convoy was attacked by an explosion in an apparent assassination attempt that is being blamed on Hamas: Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah survived an apparent assassination attempt as a bomb went off next to his convoy as he visited the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, wounding several people, officials and Palestinian media reported. The PA said Hamdallah and PA General Intelligence Chief Majed Faraj, who was accompanying him, were unhurt. However, media reports said several bystanders were injured. Their condition was not immediately clear. PA civil affairs minister Hussein Al Sheikh said the Hamas group, which rules Gaza, would be held fully responsible for this murderous assassination attempt and warned that this was an unprecedented dangerous development that would have grave consequences for Hamas. Three of the vehicles in Hamdallahs convoy were damaged, their windows blown out. One had signs of blood on the door. Video from the scene showed a huge plume of back smoke rising into the air near the convoy. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Radical Islamists opposed to Hamas also operate within the Gaza Strip and have regularly been behind unrest there Imperial Valley News Center United States To Seek International Progress on Combating the Opioid Crisis at 61st UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs Vienna, Austria - Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs James A. Walsh will lead the U.S. delegation to the 61st UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), March 12-16, in Vienna, Austria. At the CND, the United States will push to secure international control of carfentanil, a particularly lethal fentanyl analogue that is contributing to thousands of deaths in the United States; and will also sponsor a resolution aimed at mobilizing a global response to the opioid crisis. The United States will bring attention to a growing drug trafficking threat by sponsoring a side event on New Methods of Synthetic Drug Trafficking. This event includes expert panel presentations on challenges and experiences related to synthetic drugs being trafficked through express consignment shipments and the mail. In addition to the Department of State, the U.S. delegation will include representatives from the Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration, and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Imperial Valley News Center 35 Members and Associates of Bloods Gang Plead Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy and Related Charges Charlotte, North Carolina - Thirty-five members and associates of the Nine Trey Gangsters set of the United Blood Nation (UBN) street gang, including a Godfather as well as other high-ranking leaders of the organization, have pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and related charges in North Carolina, including drug trafficking, wire fraud, firearm possession, and the use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and drug trafficking. Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray for the Western District of North Carolina, and Special Agent in Charge John Strong of the FBI Charlotte, North Carolina Field Division, made the announcement. The pleas announced today are part of an extensive investigation by a broad array of federal, state, and local law enforcement agenciesincluding the Criminal Divisions Organized Crime and Gang Sectionwhose goal has been to disrupt and dismantle the Nine Trey Gangsters, a dangerous set of the United Blood Nation street gang, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan. By targeting the high-ranking individuals who were directing the gangs activitiesfrom locations up and down the eastern United States, both within prisons and in our communitiestodays pleas constitute a substantial step towards the gangs eradication. When my office indicted 83 Bloods gang members and senior leaders, the goal was to deliver a major blow to this organized criminal enterprise responsible for raging turf wars, rampant drug distribution and bloody gang violence, said U.S. Attorney Murray. Weve made significant progress toward that goal but the work is far from over. Communities across Western North Carolina know firsthand the trail of violence and devastation gangs leave behind. We have a duty to protect the public from gang violence and to bring relief to neighborhoods afflicted by gang activity. Working with our law enforcement partners we will continue to combine our efforts and resources to keep our communities safe and to protect our children from violent street gangs. The assaults, the robberies, the drug deals, each and every crime committed by these ruthless gang members was a blow to the safety of our communities, said Special Agent in Charge Strong. The guilty pleas by these suspects are the next step in securing justice for every innocent person who was impacted by the violent actions of these gangs members. Omari Rosero, aka Uno B, 41, of Elmira, New York, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy. According to the factual basis of Roseros plea agreement, the Nine Trey Gangsters leadership proceeds in rank, from lowest to highest, from Scrap, 1-Star General through 5-Star General, Low, High, and, Godfather. During his plea, Omari Rosero admitted to holding the leadership rank of High, and to serving as an acting Godfather of the entire UBN gang. According to a recorded jail call, Omari Rosero admitted to being, together with Pedro Gutierrez, aka Magoo, and James Baxton, aka Frank White, the last ones that God put in power over the UBN. Rosero conducted gang business and participated in the distribution of gang dues while incarcerated in the New York State Department of Corrections. Porsha Talina Rosero, aka Lady Uno B, 35, of Syracuse, New York, pleaded guilty today to racketeering conspiracy. Rosero, who has a tattoo of Mrs. Uno B on her chest, referring to Omari Rosero, maintained a Facebook account through which private messages were sent from Omari Rosero to other Bloods leaders. According to the factual basis of her plea agreement, Porsha Rosero further admitted to participating in the distribution of gang dues, and to participating in a phone call during which Omari Rosero stated that a suspected cooperator would be faded straight up. In addition to Omari and Porsha Rosero, seven other defendants with high-ranking leadership positions have previously pleaded guilty in this investigation: Montraya Antwain Atkinson, aka Hardbody, 31, of Raleigh, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy. According to the factual basis of his plea agreement, Atkinson admitted to holding the leadership rank of High, and admitted to possessing marijuana and cocaine with intent to distribute, and to purchasing and selling powder cocaine; Adrian Nayron Coker, aka Gotti, 28, of Gastonia, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and three counts of possession with intent to distribute narcotics. According to the factual basis of his plea agreement, Coker admitted to holding the leadership rank of Low, and to possessing a stolen firearm and ammunition, despite having previously been convicted of a felony. Moreover, according to a court-approved wiretap, Coker was recorded discussing a potential murder of a rival gang member; Quincy Delone Haynes, aka Black Montana, 39, of Lawndale, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and three counts of trafficking cocaine. According to the factual basis of this plea agreement, Haynes admitted to holding the leadership rank of Low; Barrington Audley Lattibeaudiere, aka Bandana and Bobby Seale, 31, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to the factual basis of his plea agreement, Lattibeaudiere admitted to holding the leadership rank of High, and coordinating the transmission of hundreds of dollars of UBN gang dues to Gutierrez and Baxton. Lattibeaudiere further admitted to participating in a scheme to make and attempt to make over $64,000 in purchases using fraudulent credit and gift cards; Bianca Kiashie Harrison, aka Lady Gunz, 28, of Midway Park, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy. According to the factual basis of Harrisons plea agreement, Harrison admitted to holding the leadership rank of High, and to participating, at facilities within the New York Department of Corrections, in gang leadership meetings with alleged UBN Godfathers Gutierrez and Baxton; MyQuan Lamar Nelson, aka Dripz, 27, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and heroin trafficking, and according to the factual basis of his plea agreement admitted to holding the leadership rank of Low; and Tywlain Wilson, aka 5 Alive, 25, of Shelby, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, and firearm possession in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. According to the factual basis of his plea agreement, Wilson admitted to holding the leadership rank of Low. Furthermore, the following defendants have also pleaded guilty in this case: Destinee Danyell Blakeney, aka Lady Rude, 23, of Morven, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Brandon Khalil Covington, aka Blokka, 25, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and to possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking; Christopher Dentre Hamrick, aka Red Dot, 28, of Shelby, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; Anthony ONeil Harrison, aka Ant, 20, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Delonte Maurice Hicks, aka BBB Shooter and Black, 29, of Bennettsville, South Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Raheam Shumar Hopper, aka Bone, 24, of Shelby, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Muhammad John Jackson, aka Picasso, 33, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Terrence Thomas Johnsom, aka Sypher, 41, of Durham, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Joe Tarpeh Johnson, aka JR, Big Pusha, and Kutthroat, 26, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and to conspiracy to commit wire fraud; Latif Nakia Antoine Johnson, aka Billy Solo, 24, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Rashad Monte King, aka Billy Kilo Montana, 26, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; David Matthew Lowe, aka Gucci, 26, of Shelby, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Charles Kenyon Lytle, aka Kam, 40, of Concord, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; Brandon Theodore Manning, aka Billy B, 29, of Columbia, South Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Isaac Nabah McIntosh, aka Mac, 27, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; DAngelo DeMara McNeil, aka Dutch, 27, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Kolawole Olalekan Omotosho, aka Rugged Red, 19, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; James Brandin Pegues, 31, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Deshawn Deonta Peterkin, aka Proo, 29, of Wallace, South Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Austin Demontry Potts, aka Big Tek and B-Tek, 24, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Rashad Sattar, 20, of Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and to conspiracy to commit wire fraud; Anthony Bernard Smith, 25, aka Redd Lion, of Gastonia, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Isaiah Devon Stallworth, aka Zay and Juice, 25, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and to use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; Cedric Surratt, aka Hollywood, aka 5-Star, aka Lingo, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy; Lavon Christopher Turner, aka Hungry, 28, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and to conspiracy to commit wire fraud; and Jesse James Watkins, aka Showtime, 34, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy. According to admissions made in connection with the plea agreements, the UBN is a violent criminal street gang operating throughout the east coast of the United States since its inception as a prison gang in 1993. UBN members are often identified by their use of the color red, and can also often be identified by common tattoos or burn marks. Examples include: a three-circle pattern, usually burned onto the upper arm, known as a dog paw; the acronym M.O.B., which stands for Member of Bloods; the words damu, or eastside; the number five; the five-pointed star; and the five-pointed crown. UBN members have distinct hand signs and written codes, which are used to identify other members and rival gang members. The Nine Trey Gangster set of the UBN refer to themselves as Billies. Furthermore, the plea agreements note that the UBN is governed by a common set of 31 rules, known as The 31, which were originally written by the founders of the UBN. Members of the UBN are expected to conduct themselves and their illegal activity according to rules and regulations set by their leaders. Prominent among these is a requirement to pay monthly dues to the organization, often in the amounts of $31 or $93. A percentage of these funds are transferred to incarcerated UBN leadership in New York; these funds also are used locally to conduct gang business. UBN gang dues are derived from illegal activity performed by subordinate UBN members including narcotics trafficking, robberies, wire fraud, and bank fraud, among other forms of illegal racketeering activities. The convictions are the result of a joint effort by the FBI; the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department; the Shelby Police Department; the Cleveland County Sheriffs Office; the Gastonia Police Department; the North Carolina State Highway Patrol; the Mecklenburg County Sheriffs Office; the North Carolina Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice; the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles; the U.S. Federal Probation; the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command; and the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Office of Special Investigations. The case is being prosecuted by the Criminal Divisions Organized Crime and Gang Section and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of North Carolina. This prosecution is part of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). OCDETF is a joint federal, state, and local cooperative approach to combat drug trafficking and is the nations primary tool for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations, targeting national and regional level drug trafficking organizations, and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets. Los Angeles Dentist Charged in Health Care Fraud Scheme Los Angeles, California - A Los Angeles, California-based dentist was charged in an indictment unsealed on Monday for his alleged participation in a health care fraud and identity theft scheme. Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna of the Central District of California, Assistant Director in Charge Andrew W. Vale of the FBIs Washington, D.C. Field Office and Assistant Director in Charge Paul D. Delacourt of the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office made the announcement. Benjamin Rosenberg, D.D.S., 58, of Los Angeles, was charged with six counts of health care fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. Rosenberg was arrested yesterday morning and made his initial court appearance yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jean Rosenbluth of the Central District of California. The indictment alleges that Rosenberg billed various insurance companies, including Medicaid-funded Denti-Cal, for dental procedures that were never provided. Rosenberg allegedly billed the insurance companies by using patients identification without their permission. An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. This case was investigated by the FBIs Washington and Los Angeles Field Offices. Trial Attorney Emily Culbertson of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section is prosecuting the case. The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which is part of a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country. The Medicare Fraud Strike Force operates in nine locations nationwide. Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged over 3,500 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for over $12.5 billion. USS Carl Vinson Begins Bilateral Exercise with Japan South China Sea - The Carl Vinson Strike Group began a bilateral exercise with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), March 11, during a regularly scheduled deployment in the Western Pacific. Aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) are conducting combined operations with Japanese destroyer JS Ise (DDH 182) to enhance maritime interoperability between longstanding allies. "Strong maritime partnerships maintain security, stability and prosperity, which the Indo-Pacific region has enjoyed for more than 70 years," said Rear Adm. John Fuller, the strike group commander. "Collaborating with a close maritime partner promotes regional cooperation." As part of the exercise, four JMSDF liaison officers have embarked Carl Vinson to support combined operations. The operations will include formation steaming as well as anti-submarine and air-defense training. Ise will also conduct a replenishment-at-sea with Carl Vinson. The 646-foot Japanese destroyer displaces 18,000 tons and sails with three Y (60 K/J) helicopters. The ship's primary missions include anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasure, logistics, and search and rescue. The Carl Vinson Strike Group also includes Carrier Air Wing 2 and a compliment of more than 70 aircraft, Destroyer Squadron 1 and guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112). Michael Murphy conducted a passing exercise with the French frigate FNS Vendemiaire while operating in the Western Pacific and South China Sea in January and February. Sailors practiced communication and shiphandling techniques. The strike group completed a historic port visit to Vietnam, March 9, which marked the first time an aircraft carrier visited in more than 40 years. Movable Silicon Lenses Enable Neutrons to See New Range of Details Inside Objects Washington, DC - You cant see well without lenses that can focus, whether those lenses are in your eye or the microscope you peer through. An innovative new way to focus beams of neutrons might allow scientists to probe the interiors of opaque objects at a size range they were blind to previously, allowing them to explore the innards of objects from meteorites to cutting-edge manufactured materials without damaging them. The method, published today (link is external) in Physical Review Letters, could convert what historically has been a support tool for neutron science into a full-fledged scanning technique that could reveal details ranging in size from 1 nanometer up to 10 micrometers within larger objects. The approach provides this tool, known as neutron interferometry, with what are essentially its first movable lenses capable of zooming in and out on details in this size range a range that has been difficult to probe, even with other neutron scanning methods. More precisely, these lenses are silicon wafers acting as diffraction gratings, which take advantage of neutrons wavelike properties. The gratings split and redirect a neutron beam so that the waves bounce off an objects edges and then collide with one another, creating a visible moire interference pattern (link is external) representative of the object that is easy for experts to interpret. The method was developed by a team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Canadas University of Waterloo. According to NISTs Michael Huber, the approach could make neutron interferometry into one of the best exploratory tools in a material scientists kit. We can look at structure on lots of different levels and at different scales, said Huber, a physicist with NISTs Physical Measurement Laboratory who conducts experiments at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). It could complement other scanning techniques because its resolution is so good. It has a dramatic ability to focus, and we arent limited to looking at thin slices of material as with other methodswe can easily look inside a thick chunk of rock. Interferometry is a specialty in the world of neutron science. Before scientists can probe an objects interior with a neutron beam, they must first possess a few fundamental details about how the neutrons will bounce off the objects atomic structure. One of those details is a substances index of refraction, a number indicating how much it will bend the beam from the direction it is traveling. (Water bends light in a related fashionthats why your arm looks like it bends away when you dip it into a swimming pool.) Neutron interferometry is the best way to obtain that crucial measurement. Neutron interferometry also has potential for other uses in fundamental physics, such as accurately measuring the gravitational constant (link is external). Its sensitive enough to detect how an objects gravitational force can deflect neutrons, just as the Earth attracts a flying ball (and vice versa). But the neutron methods Achilles heel has been how slowly it works. To focus neutrons on a sample of material, an interferometer has needed a crystal carved to precise dimensions out of a single large block of expensive, top-quality silicon. (Other neutron techniques can make do with crystals of far lower quality.) Unfortunately, crystals that are good enough for interferometry also block out most of the neutrons that strike them, meaning it takes a long time for a beam to send enough neutrons past a sample to get an accurate index of refraction. Other tasks would take far longer. The neutron sources are already very weak, said Waterloos Dmitry Pushin. It would take a hundred years to get a good answer to fundamental questions such as the value of the gravitational constant. The new approach sidesteps these problems by using a trio of thin silicon gratings to focus the neutrons instead of a single costly crystal. Under a microscope, the flat surface of each grating looks like a comb with narrow, closely spaced teeth. Not only do the gratings allow the entire neutron beam to pass through themrather than the trickle of neutrons that get through the crystalthey have the pivotal advantage of being movable. You focus by moving the grating a fraction of a millimeter, Huber said. Its slight but not difficult. Demonstrated at the NIST Center for Neutron Research, the teams approach builds on a discovery initially made at NIH, where scientists were experimenting with applying the gratings to X-ray beams and noticed a moire pattern forming on their visual imager. The idea was first developed by our lab to capture the image of materials where X-rays travel at slightly different speeds than in the air, such as the human body itself, said Han Wen, senior investigator at NIHs National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Central to this idea is X-ray gratings, which were made with the highly specialized tools at the NIST Nanofab facility. Fortuitously, the NIST and Waterloo scientists met the NIH team members at a conference and struck up a collaboration, suspecting that the gratings would work just as well for neutrons as for X-rays. The NIH team brought the gratings back to NIST, where they were assembled into the neutron interferometer. After equally good results at the NCNR, Huber said only one thing stands in the way of their interferometer becoming a great tool for industry: They need a set of apertures of different widths the neutron beam will pass through before it hits the interferometer. Right now, they only have a single aperture at their disposal, and it limits their vision. We can see the full range of 1 nanometers to 10 micrometers now, but the image is kind of blurry because we dont get enough data, he said. Every different aperture gives us another data point, and with enough points we can start doing quantitative analysis of a materials microstructure. Were hoping that we can get a set of maybe a hundred made, which would enable us to get detailed quantitative information. The team has already scanned the interior of a block of granite that contains a mixture of four different minerals, and the scan shows the details of where each bit of mineral sits. Huber said the method would be good for non-invasive scans of porous objects like meteorites or manufactured materials, such as gels or foams, which are the basis of many consumer products. Were also hoping we can finally do that gravitational constant measurement, he said. We could put a big block of some heavy metal like tungsten nearby and see how it bends the beam. It would improve our understanding of the universe and wouldnt take longer than our lifetimes. Second Lady Karen Pences Visit to Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center Cincinnati, Ohio - Monday, Second Lady Karen Pence traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio where she visited Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center. Upon arrival, Mrs. Pence was greeted by Michael Fisher, President and CEO, and Jane Portman, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees. Then, Mrs. Pence proceeded to the Patient Tower where she met with families that have benefited from music and art therapy. Following the Second Ladys interaction with the families, she spoke with art therapy and music therapy staff. To learn more about the art therapy and music therapy programs at Cincinnati Childrens, visit https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/service/c/creative-arts-therapies About Art Therapy Second Lady Karen Pence champions art therapy and calls the initiative, Art Therapy: Healing with the HeART. Art therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship. Professional art therapists who are experts in human development, psychological, and counseling theories and techniques facilitate Art therapy. For more information about the art therapy profession, visit https://arttherapy.org/ . American Citizen Sentenced To 45 Years for Conspiring to Murder U.S. Nationals and Providing Material Support to Al-Qaeda New York - Muhanad Mahmoud al Farekh, 32, of Houston, was sentenced today to 45 years following his September 29, 2017 trial conviction of multiple offenses covering seven years of terrorist conduct, including conspiracy to murder American military personnel in Afghanistan, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, conspiracy to bomb a government facility and providing material support to al-Qaeda. Assistant Attorney General for the National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue for the Eastern District of New York, Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney, Jr. of the FBIs New York Field Office and Commissioner James P. ONeill of the NYPD announced the sentence issued by U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan. With the sentence handed down today, al Qaeda terrorist Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh is being held accountable for his crimes. Farekh an American citizen traveled overseas, joined al Qaeda, and conspired to kill Americans, including through an attack using explosive devices on a U.S. military installation in Afghanistan in 2009, said Assistant Attorney General Demers. Across the globe, the National Security Division will continue to relentlessly pursue and bring to justice those who seek to harm Americans, including our brave servicemen and women who risk their lives in defense of our nation. I applaud the efforts of the many agents, analysts, and prosecutors who are responsible for this successful result. Farekh, a citizen of this country, turned his back on America by joining al-Qaeda and trying to kill American soldiers in a bomb attack on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan. stated United States Attorney Donoghue. This case demonstrates that we will do everything in our power to ensure that those who seek to harm our country and our armed forces will be brought to justice. Mr. Donoghue extended his grateful appreciation to the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), which comprises a large number of federal, state, and local agencies from the region. Todays sentencing shows that justice prevails even when terrorist acts are committed in distant foreign locales yet impact American citizens and interests, stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney. The FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force remains dedicated to investigating and bringing terrorists to justice wherever they are. I would like to thank all of our partner agencies for their continued cooperation and dedication. As proven at trial, in March 2007, Farekh and two co-conspirators, all of whom were students at the University of Manitoba, departed Canada for Pakistan with the intention of fighting against American forces overseas. Before traveling overseas, Farekh and his co-conspirators watched video recordings encouraging violent jihad, listened to jihadist lectures by now-deceased al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader Anwar al-Awlaqi, and came to embrace a violent, extremist view of Islam. Farekh and his co-conspirators traveled to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, an area in the northern part of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan and is home to al-Qaedas base of operations, where they joined and received training from al-Qaeda. Taking advantage of his familiarity with the West, Farekh became a member of, and ultimately ascended to, a leadership role within al-Qaedas external operations group, which specialized in planning and executing attacks against the U.S. and its Western allies. In January 2009, Farekh helped to build a vehicle-borne, improvised explosive device (VBIED) that was used in an attack on Forward Operating Base Chapman (FOB Chapman), a U.S. military installation that served as the base for the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in Khost, Afghanistan. On January 19, 2009, two explosives-laden vehicles approached the fence line of FOB Chapman. At the gate, the first vehicle, a pickup-sized truck, exploded after its operator detonated the VBIED. The second vehicle, a truck that was carrying approximately 7,500 pounds of explosives, became stuck in the blast crater caused by the first explosion. The driver abandoned his vehicle without detonating the VBIED, and was shot and killed by local security personnel. The initial detonation of the first vehicle injured one U.S. serviceman and numerous Afghan nationals. Forensic technicians recovered 18 latent fingerprints that were determined to be a match to Farekh from adhesive packing tape used to bind together the explosive materials of the second, undetonated VBIED. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard M. Tucker, Douglas M. Pravda and Saritha Komatireddy of the Eastern District of New York, along with Trial Attorney Alicia Cook of the National Security Divisions Counterterrorism Section, are in charge of the prosecution. FTC Sending Refund Checks Totaling More Than $7.2 Million to Consumers Who Bought Deceptively Marketed Buy-One-Get-One-Free Products Washington, DC - The Federal Trade Commission is mailing 218,254 refund checks totaling more than $7.2 million to people who bought products deceptively marketed as buy-one-get-one-free, including Snuggies, the Magic Mesh Door, and other as-seen-on-TV type products. Consumers who bought products marketed by Allstar Marketing Group, LLC will receive checks averaging $33.14. In March 2015, the FTC alleged that since at least 1999, Allstar used direct marketing TV commercials to sell its products, many of which are familiar to consumers. While the products varied, Allstars pitch often was the samea buy-one-get-one-free offer that did not disclose all the costs. Because the ordering process was confusing, some customers also were charged for more products than they wanted. The court order settling the FTCs charges barred Allstar from engaging in the allegedly illegal conduct and imposed a monetary judgment of $7.5 million to provide refunds to injured consumers. The New York Office of Attorney General, which filed a parallel action against Allstar, has assisted with the refund planning process. Analytics, the refund administrator for this matter, will begin mailing refund checks today. Consumers should receive their refund checks this month, and they must be cashed within 60 days or they will become void. The FTC never requires consumers to pay money or provide information to cash refund checks. Consumers who have questions should call 1-877-982-1294. FTC law enforcement actions led to more than $6.4 billion in refunds for consumers in a one-year period between July 2016 and June 2017. To learn more about the FTCs refund program, including its Annual Report, visit www.ftc.gov/refunds . Secretary of State Tillerson's Meeting With Chadian President Idriss Deby Washington, DC - Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson met with Chadian President Idriss Deby today in NDjamena to affirm the United States strong partnership with Chad and close collaboration on regional security, counterterrorism, and refugees. The Secretary thanked President Deby for his leadership and recognized Chads contributions to regional security and stability including Chads participation in the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, the Multinational Joint Task Force, and the G5 Sahel Joint Force. The Secretary and President Deby discussed Chads border security challenges, and agreed on the importance of a political solution in Libya. They also reviewed constructive steps Chad has taken to meet the information-sharing and identity management requirements of Presidential Proclamation 9645 of September 24, 2017. The United States committed to continued cooperation with Chad on counterterrorism, regional stability, and other shared interests. The two also consulted on improving prospects for attracting American investment to Chad. Secretary Tillerson's Meeting With Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari Washington, DC - Secretary Tillerson met with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on March 12 in Abuja to strengthen the U.S. partnership with Nigeria. He recognized Nigeria's leadership in the Lake Chad Basin Multinational Joint Task Force which seeks to defeat Boko Haram and the ISIS affiliate in West Africa. The Secretary expressed concern about the recent attacks and abductions and agreed to expand counterterrorism cooperation to diminish the threats to U.S. and Nigerian interests. They reviewed plans for presidential elections in 2019, and considered opportunities to promote Nigeria's economic recovery, enhance trade, and increase investment. The Secretary encouraged political and economic reforms. He also urged full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions related to the DPRK. President Donald J. Trumps Call with Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom Washington, DC - President Donald J. Trump spoke today with Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom. They discussed the United Kingdoms investigation into the chemical weapon attack on a private citizen and his daughter on British soil. President Trump stated the United States stands in solidarity with its closest ally and is ready to provide any assistance the United Kingdom requests for its investigation. President Trump agreed with Prime Minister May that the Government of the Russian Federation must provide unambiguous answers regarding how this chemical weapon, developed in Russia, came to be used in the United Kingdom. The two leaders agreed on the need for consequences for those who use these heinous weapons in flagrant violation of international norms. First Redflow Thai-stack batteries ready for customers ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow battery with a battery stack made by Redflow factory in ThailandAustralian battery company Redflow Limited (ASX: RFX) has completed the first ZBM2 batteries using battery stacks made by its new Thailand factory, which are now ready for shipment to customers. The battery stack is the critical part of the Redflow ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow battery, with electrodes that charge the battery by depositing zinc on a membrane and discharge it by reversing that process. At Redflows Brisbane headquarters, the Thai-made battery stacks were installed on existing ZBM2 battery tank sets and connected to performance-testing equipment. After passing pre-delivery tests, these complete batteries are now scheduled for delivery to supply existing customer orders. Redflow will continue to assemble, test and deliver limited quantities of ZBM2 batteries with Thai-produced battery stacks until it starts end-to-end manufacturing and testing of complete batteries in Thailand by June. Redflow CEO Richard Aird said completing ZBM2 batteries with Thai-made battery stacks was an important milestone. Our first requirement of the new factory is quality components, which it is now producing in the electrode stack - the most complex and critical part of our product, he said. Our pre-delivery tests have confirmed that these complete batteries, using Thai-made stacks and existing battery tank sets, perform to standard, so we are now scheduling deliveries to start supplying outstanding back orders. For media assistance, call John Harris on +61 8 8431 4000 or email john@impress.com.au. About Redflow www.redflow.com Redflows unique zinc-bromine flow batteries are designed for stationary energy storage applications ranging from its ZCell residential battery to its scalable ZBM2 batteries for industrial, commercial, telecommunications and grid-scale deployment. Redflow Limited, a publicly-listed company (ASX: RFX), produces high energy density batteries that are sold, installed and maintained by an international network of system integrators. Redflow batteries offer unique advantages including 100 per cent depth of discharge, tolerance of ambient temperatures as hot as 50 degrees Celsius and sustained energy storage of 10 kilowatt-hours (kWh) throughout their operating life. Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Muellers pay jumped 40 per cent last year to more than 10m (8.9m) as the carmakers profits soared despite continued fallout from the emissions cheating scandal. The German company revealed on Tuesday that it paid its nine-strong board 50.3m in 2017 - 27 per cent more than the year before. Mr Mueller took over from Martin Winkelhorn as VW chief executive a week after the dieselgate scandal broke. Mr Mueller had previously headed up the groups Porsche division since 2010. He will receive a total of 10.3m for 2017, including share options and fringe benefits. The company has attracted fierce criticism in the past from activist investors who have said that VWs bosses should be punished for leading the firm while it cheated on diesel emissions tests. VW changed its executive pay policy after outrage over the 63.2m it awarded its top staff in 2016, even as the group recorded its worst ever annual net loss of 1.6bn. Under the old scheme, Mr Mueller would have been awarded 13.15m last year, Volkswagen said. Herbert Diess, head of VWs passenger car operations, received 5.2m last year, the groups annual report released on Tuesday shows. Mr Deiss took up his role on VWs board of executives in July 2015, having previously been head of development at BMW. It emerged in January that Volkswagen and BMW, along with fellow German car giant Daimler, paid for tests in 2014 during which humans and monkeys breathed in toxic diesel fumes. The experiments saw 10 monkeys locked into airtight containers and made to breathe the exhaust from a VW Beetle, according to the New York Times. Twenty-five healthy human beings also breathed the fumes. The tests were aimed at disproving allegations that diesel emissions, which have been linked to asthma, lung diseases and heart attacks, were harmful to health. Mr Mueller labelled the tests, which took place before he became chief executive, as "unethical and repulsive". The dieselgate scandal has cost VW tens of billions of dollars in fines, compensation and other settlement costs, mostly in the US. The company has refused to offer its European customers any financial compensation, arguing that cars with defeat devices can be fixed with a software tweak that doesnt affect their market value. VW rigged 11 million diesel cars to turn off pollution controls except when the cars were being tested. Around 8.5 million of those cars were sold in Europe. Despite the huge reputational damage inflicted on the companys brand, VW overtook Toyota last year to become the largest vehicle manufacturer in the world with revenues of 230.7bn in 2017. Across its 12 brands, which include Seat, Audi and Bentley, it sold 10.74 million cars and more than doubled its net profit to 11.4bn. The recently-ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, sounding exhausted after just returning from a five-country tour of Africa, mentioned the honesty of Americans and respect of government colleagues in an emotional speech but did not mention President Donald Trump at all. The former Exxon executive said earlier that he had spoken with the President hours after the firing, but numerous reports suggested he found out initially about losing his job via Mr Trumps morning tweet. Mr Tillerson is being replaced with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who will need to go through the Senate confirmation process. Recommended Donald Trump fires Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State Mr Trump told reporters in the wake of the announcement that he and Mr Pompeo shared similar thinking, while he had "disagreed with Mr Tillerson. He added that the former oil and gas CEO would be much happier out of office. The outgoing Cabinet member will hand over his duties effective immediately to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and will officially step down at midnight on 31 March. In the meantime, he will meet with State Department career and diplomatic staff to "ensure a smooth, orderly transition" for incoming nominee Mr Pompeo. Mr Tillerson addressed all his staff and that of Defence Secretary James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in saying they "all took the same oath of office" to "support and defend the Constitution" and "bear true faith and allegiance to the same". "We are bound together by that oath, here in Washington and at posts across the world," he said. Rex Tillerson fired: Trump has 'total confidence' in new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Mr Tillerson was effusive in his praise of career and diplomatic staff stationed around the globe, but particularly those in dangerous places; "the world needs selfless leaders like these," he said. He noted that these "extraordinarily dedicated" people learned their skills in the field, "on the front lines," not in academia or a think tank. He also said he appreciated their hard work to maintain "accountability" and showing "respect for one another" at all times. The "rewarding part of leadership" during Mr Tillerson's 14 months as the top US diplomat was "getting a few things done". He touted accomplishments in Afghanistan, America's longest war now in its 17th year and counting. He said it was the first time the Defence Department and US military were able to work hand-in-hand with a cohesive diplomatic strategy instead of "16 one-year strategies" to pressure talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. He also said he was proud that the US "exceeded expectations of everyone" on the campaign to pressure North Korea to denuclearise despite years of continued development in the face of United Nations and US sanctions. Mr Trump is set to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sometime in May 2018. Just hours before that announcement, however, Mr Tillerson had said that the US was a "long ways from negotiation". 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 He stressed again the idea that "nothing is possible without allies and partners". Despite what he perceived as successes, Mr Tillerson said "much work remains" on a number of issues like the bloody conflict in Syria and the "troubling words and actions on the part of the Russian government. Continuing on their current trajectory will lead to further isolation on their part...[which is] not in anyones interest". His sacking was announced just hours after his comments on Monday that the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the UK was a really egregious act that appears to have clearly come from Russia. He had called Russia "an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens". In the hours before his sacking, he also said Russia's alleged poisoning, in public, on foreign soil could certainly will trigger a response" from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). "I'll leave it at that," he said. Mr Pompeo has a different tone on Russia, more similar to Mr Trump. Though he assured Fox News viewers the same day as Mr Tillerson's comments that "we have a very good understanding of the Russian program and how to make sure that Americans continue to be kept safe from threats" he also said the US intelligence community had ruled that Russia had no impact on the 2016 US election when a January 2017 joint assessment said there was no conclusion on that as yet. The FBI and Congressional investigations into alleged collusion between Mr Trump's campaign team and Russian officials continue. Mr Tillerson only spoke for approximately ten minutes while the world waited for some acknowledgement of the President, but he closed out his speech thanking the American people for their "hard work and tax dollars" used to support the US government and praised their and State Department employee's "honesty". He said he will return to private life after his term in office officially ends. A British Army soldier was stockpiling daggers, machetes and Nazi memorabilia, while planning to create all-white strongholds ahead of a race war, a court has heard. Lance Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen is one of two soldiers accused of joining the neo-Nazi group National Action, which has been banned as a terrorist organisation. Birmingham Crown Court heard that the 33-year-old had obtained a crude version of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device and written a list of security kit. Counter-terror police who raided his accommodation at the Sennybridge Camp in Powys, in September, found the device alongside lists of weapons that needed to be achieved and a manifesto written by far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik. Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC told the jury: In a notebook recovered from the defendants address, he had drafted a document headed Extinction. From its content it appears to be the first edition of a magazine in which he referred to the extinction being the genocide being forced upon whites. Part of the notebook entry allegedly read: Be prepared to fight and die for your race in a possible last stand for our survival. Mr Atkinson said: The lists and indeed the substantial quantity of weaponry recovered from his address reveal and speak to his intention to stockpile weapons and other equipment in preparation for the race war that he spoke of. LCpl Vehvilainen, 33, is alleged to be a recruiter for National Action, bringing in 25-year-old Private Mark Barrett who was based at Kendrew Army Barracks in Rutland. The pair were arrested in coordinated raids alongside a 23-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons. Home Affairs Committee question Google over failure to remove National Action content The court heard that LCpl Vehvilainen answered his door to police, confirming his identity and telling his wife: Im being arrested for being a patriot. Machetes, daggers, knuckle-dusters, a crossbow, arrows, circuit boards and a hammer were found at the property, along with several Nazi flags, the jury was told. CDs of music related to the Third Reich were found in a car, while a search of another address linked to LCpl Vehvilainen led to the recovery of swastika-emblazoned bunting, the court heard. Not only were lists of weapons found, but there were stockpiles of weaponry which were recovered at the address, Mr Atkinson said. Those, the prosecution suggest, were Vehvilainen putting into effect his repeated call, quite literally a call to arms on the part of those who, like him, wanted to create a white-only society. Pte Barrett, who served alongside his co-defendant in the Royal Anglian Regiment, was detained at an army base in Cyprus on the same day. After Pte Barrett was brought back to the UK, his personal effects were found to include two National Action cards one labelled White Jihad and a homemade cardboard swastika was found in his accommodation area. 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. 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PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA The pair are alleged to be active members of the virulently racist group both before and after it was banned in December 2016. The 23-year-old defendant received an email from a National Action leader assuring them that the group was merely shedding one skin for another, adding: All genuinely revolutionary movements in the past have needed to exist partly underground. These are exciting times. The groups members were known for performing Hitler salutes at rallies, with prosecutors describing a campaign of virulently racist, antisemitic, and homophobic propaganda, through which it sought to stir up a violent race war against ethnic minorities and others it perceived as race traitors. National Action vocally supported the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, taking on a statement shouted by her killer in court as its slogan. LCpl Vehvilainen has denied two charges of stirring up racial hatred, and one count of possession of a terrorism manual. The other male is facing three counts of possession of a terrorism manual including a copy of Breiviks pamphlet and one count of distributing material likely to be useful to terrorists. The trial continues. Additional reporting by PA If Sergei and Yulia Skripal survive being poisoned by Novichok nerve agent, they may be left suffering illnesses that ruin their lives which may be the point of the attack, security experts have warned. The case of a Russian military scientist accidentally exposed to Novichok appears to show that even surviving the effects of the supertoxic nerve agent is horrific. Andrei Zheleznyakov was said to have been injected with an antidote almost immediately, but a friend said he still went from being a jovial, creative man to suffering chronic weakness, toxic hepatitis, epilepsy, severe depression and an inability to concentrate, before dying five years later. And The Independent has been told that the Salisbury nerve agent attack may have been part of a plan to leave a Mafia-style calling card showing anyone, anywhere in the world that if they betrayed or defied Russia, they wouldnt just get a bullet in the back of the head they would die horribly. Dr Patricia Lewis, research director for International Security at Chatham House, said whoever used a Novichok chemical against the Skripals would have known it would be traced back to Russia. She said British experts would have been able to detect minute trace elements proving the nerve agents country of origin, and would therefore have been able to rule out the possibility it was from stocks developed by other nations for the purposes of devising defences against it. The experts, she said, would not just have relied on the fact Russia was the country which developed Novichok. There are ways to detect and be much more sure about where it came from, said Dr Lewis, who served on the 2004-6 WMD Commission chaired by Dr Hans Blix. There are very high resolution analysis techniques that can track down trace elements, certain types of chemicals in the particular region where it has been made. Russia knows there are techniques to pinpoint where something came from, Dr Lewis added. Whoever did this would know this was traceable back to Russia. So why use such an obvious thing, leaving such an obvious trace? One possible reason, said Dr Lewis, could have been a desire to send a strong message. This clearly wasnt just a bullet to the head, she said. This was a communication along with the polonium attack [on Alexander Litvinenko] that this is going to be a horrible way to die. The communication is there to people who have, in their view, betrayed Russia. Its a very Mafia-type approach, by people who want to frighten. Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters The experience of Andrei Zheleznyakov appears to suggest the effects of Novichok can be horrific even if you survive. Mr Zheleznyakov is understood to have been a military chemist, testing the finished product as it was being developed in secret in Moscow. According to an account relayed by Vil Mirzayanov to David E Hoffman, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy, Zheleznyakov was exposed after a ventilation pipe broke at the secret facility in 1987. The pipe somehow broke, Hoffman wrote, And the poison leaked into the air. Zheleznyakov quickly sealed the leak, but it was too late. He felt the impact immediately myosis, the constriction of the pupil of the eye. I saw rings before my eyes red, orange, he later recalled. Bells were ringing inside my head. I choked. Add to this the feeling of fear as if something was about to happen at any moment. I sat down and told the guys: I think it has got me. They dragged me out of the room and took me to the chief. He looked at me and said, Have a cup of tea, everything will be fine. I drank the tea and immediately threw up. They took me to the medical unit, he added, where I was injected with an antidote. I felt a little better. The chief told me: Go home and lie down. Come back tomorrow. They assigned me an escort, and we walked past a few bus stops. We were already passing the church near Ilyich Square, when suddenly I saw the church lighting up and falling apart. I remember nothing else. Hoffman said Zheleznyakov was taken to a hospital where KGB agents made the doctors sign lifelong secrecy agreements, and told medics the military chemist was suffering from food poisoning after eating a dodgy sausage. Zheleznyakov, it seems, spent 18 days in intensive care but survived. His life, however, appears to have been ruined. Using information from Mirzayanov, who now lives in the US after revealing the existence of the Novichok programme in 1992, Hoffman wrote: At the end of the hospitalisation, he [Zheleznyakov] was given a pension and told to remain silent. Zheleznyakov suffered after-effects for a long time, including chronic weakness in his arms, toxic hepatitis, epilepsy, severe depression and an inability to concentrate. Zheleznyakov had been a jovial man and was known as a talented woodcarver, but the accident left him unable to work or be creative. He died five years after the accident. Major General Chip Chapman, the former head of counter terrorism at the Ministry of Defence, agreed it was likely that part of the motivation for using such a devastating weapon was to intimidate potential internal and external opponents of Vladimir Putins government. Mr Chapman said: The use of any chemical agent is a psychological thing, and this is a psychological message, not necessarily to Britain, but to those who are political opponents or potential traitors to the Russians in any country. It sends a message a lot wider than just to the UK audience. It is part of what the Russians are up to at the moment. Dr Lewis stressed she could only speculate about motive and the identity of whoever attacked the Skripals. She couldnt entirely rule out the possibility that rogue elements in the Russian establishment had acted without the approval of Vladimir Putins government, but she said such a freelance operation was unlikely. State-sponsored action, she said, was the more likely scenario. This stuff is very dangerous, said Dr Lewis. It would be highly guarded. The idea that somehow it was let out by rogue elements seems a bit of a stretch. The Russian government has accused Britain of engaging in hysterical propaganda in suggesting it might have had some link to the Salisbury poisoning. A man accused of trying to blow up a London Tube train, has denied his actions were to avenge his fathers death in Iraq. Ahmed Hassan, said prior to the attack he had been fantasising about becoming a fugitive after watching lots of action films. The 18-year-old is accused of planting the bomb on the District Line train, with the device timed to go off at Parsons Green station during the busy morning rush hour commute on 15 September 2017. The home-made explosive contained 400g of triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and was packed with shrapnel. It was placed in a bucket and left on the train inside a Lidl shopping bag. Mr Hassan told London's Old Bailey that he had only carried out the attack for attention after he developed a fugitive fantasy from watching action films during the summer holidays when he was bored. He claimed he had not meant for the device to completely explode and only wanted it to catch light. Prosecutor Alison Morgan suggested this was not the case and that he had wanted to cause maximum damage to ease his guilt at living in a safe haven, the country he blamed for his fathers death. Although the bomb only partially exploded, she said: "This is a very calculated act of anger, Mr Hassan. Something you planned for some time. You were given a safe haven to live in this country. You were given a home and an education and you felt guilty about that, didn't you? "You felt guilty that you had let down people in Iraq by coming here and accepting a safe haven in the country that you held responsible for your father's death." UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA Hassan denied it, saying he expressed anger about British involvement in Iraq so people would not see him as a "coward". He told jurors he did not blame anyone for his father's death in an explosion in 2006. The defendant refused to watch CCTV footage of a "huge fireball" engulfing the train, one stop after he got off, leaving the device in a bucket inside a Lidl bag. Asked if it was what he expected would happen, Hassan replied: "I knew it would make a fire as it did in the test." Hassan went on to express regret at what happened, saying: "I wish I could travel back in time and stop it at once but that's not possible. I'm very sorry but it can't be done." Asked what he was sorry about, he said: "The effect that it had on people. Because I myself have mental scars and I know how hard it is." He said he also felt bad for "people who have supported me in this country and cared about me". Earlier, the court heard how Hassan's mother died when he was young and his taxi driver father was killed in an explosion in Iraq in 2006. He said: "It was very difficult. I did not understand what was going on. I was in a state of confusion because of fighting, because of bombing." Aged 16, Hassan smuggled himself into Britain for a chance of a "better life" and to further his education. He lied to immigration officials saying he was kidnapped and trained to kill by Isis to support his asylum claim, he said. Hassan told jurors he enjoyed studying photography when he was at Brooklands College in Weybridge. He said: "I wanted to go to university and my ultimate goal was to become a wildlife photographer like David Attenborough." On why he decided to make a bomb in the summer of 2017, he told jurors: "I was very bored, very stressed, very confused and I watched lots of movies, action movies during that time. "It became kind of a fantasy in my head. I was thinking about it. Yes, that was it. I was watching documentaries as well, about fugitives and just the idea of being a fugitive got into my head. And I thought about it and that was it." Hassan claimed his homemade TATP went "whoof" but did not explode when he tested it on the kitchen table at his foster home, even though Ms Morgan said there was no sign of scorch marks. He had the device by his side when his foster father Ron Jones tried to find out why he was not sleeping, the night before the attack, the court heard. 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 Tim Moloney QC, defending, asked if he ever intended to hurt anyone, and Hassan replied: "The idea of killing another human being never crossed my mind at all, never in my life." Hassan told jurors he got "scared" after the bombing, and wanted to return to his home country. But Ms Morgan said he was "calm" as he disposed of his mobile phone, checked the headlines and changed his clothes en route to Dover, where he was picked up by police. The teenager, of Sunbury, Surrey, has denied attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion that was likely to endanger life. The trial continues. Press Association contributed to this report Police and MI5 are probing allegations of Russian state involvement in up to 14 deaths in the UK in the wake of the nerve agent attack on a former spy. Amber Rudd stressed that investigations and coroners inquests at the time did not discover evidence of foul play but the circumstances will now be looked at again. The Government was aware of allegations [of Russian state involvement], and takes seriously any suggestion that a foreign state has engaged in murder on UK soil, she said in a letter to Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Committee. My immediate priority and that of the police and other operational partners - is responding to the attempted murders in Salisbury, including decontamination, local reassurance and the criminal investigation itself. I do not want to distract from that focus. However, in the weeks to come, I will want to satisfy myself that the allegations are nothing more than that. Several MPs have raised the 14 deaths alleged to be suspicious by a Buzzfeed investigation published last year and demanded an inquiry. They include the exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, whistle-blower Alexander Perepilichnyy, the spy in the bag Gareth Williams and a British scientist stabbed to death after being involved in the Alexander Litvinenko case. No foul play was found in the deaths, and several were ruled to be suicide, but US intelligence agencies are said to view Mr Perepilichnyys death as an assassination. Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium at a London hotel in 2006 (Reuters) He had provided documents to prosecutors investigating alleged fraud by Russian officials and died while jogging in 2012. Police said at the time they had found no evidence Mr Perepilichnyys was poisoned and the inquest into his death will resume next month. Mr Berezovsky, a friend of Mr Litvinenko and vocal critic of Vladimir Putin, was found hanged in the bathroom of his Berkshire home in 2013. Police said a post-mortem showed no sign of a violent struggle, and an inquest recorded an open verdict after hearing conflicting evidence. Recommended The long history of Russian deaths under mysterious circumstances Ms Cooper welcomed the Home Secretarys decision to look at the cases and others where questions have been raised. Given the gravity of these issues, it is also right that the authorities should reassure us that they have looked at any further allegations or relevant evidence put forward in any other cases, the Labour MPs added. The Government must satisfy itself that the correct finding was reached in each case and the public need to know that relevant questions about wider Russia links have been investigated and answered. She called for the Government to look to the UN Security Council for statements and resolutions over the attack on Mr Skripal and ensure all states cooperate with the criminal inquiry. The Home Secretary said the committee will be informed of conclusions from the preliminary probe, which was made public after Theresa May named Russia as the likely culprit behind the attack in Salisbury. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty The Prime Minister said a relatively new form of nerve agent called Novichok was used against former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. She described the chemical weapon as military-grade and said it had been developed by Russia, adding: The Government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act. Ms May said the Russian Government has a record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations, including against defectors like Mr Skripal who are viewed as legitimate targets. Either this was a direct act by the Russian State against our country, or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others, she told MPs on Monday. Recommended Russia summons British ambassador over nerve agent attack allegations This attempted murder using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town was not just a crime against the Skripals. It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk, and we will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil. Lord Blair, who was Metropolitan Police Commissioner when Mr Litvinenko was assassinated in 2006, supported the call for a fresh inquiry into the historical deaths. Theyre all quite different and some of them have some very conflicting evidence, he told BBC Radio 4 on Friday. Its not the police shutting down things, theres a lot of stuff between the police and Crown Prosecution Service - youve got to have evidence. Sergei Lavrov said Russia was not to blame for the attack (EPA) The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Russia was not to blame for the attack in Salisbury and demanded access to samples of the nerve agent used. Following a meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee, Ms Rudd said the investigation involving detailed and painstaking work by more than 250 police officers was progressing well. "My priority is this incident, the investigation itself, so we get the information as quickly as possible, and also the safety and security of the people in the community, she added. "The Russians have started responding. The Prime Minister has been very clear that they have until midnight tonight to satisfy her requests. Until then we will wait and see what they have put forward. "I know that international allies have begun to rally their support and make comments publicly but at the moment what we are doing is awaiting the Russian response before stepping up and responding as the Prime Minister has said we will. France, Germany and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have given their backing to Britain's conclusion that Russia was behind the use of Novichok, and are believed to be discussing possible sanctions. Mr Tillersons statement was released less than 24 hours before he was fired by Donald Trump, who said he made the decision to oust him by myself and that they had differing opinions on policy areas including Iran. The President said he was due to speak to Ms May on the phone later, adding: It sounds to me like they believe it is Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact. As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with that, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be. The Prime Minister is to chair a National Security Council meeting to discuss the Kremlin's response on Wednesday, and will then inform the House of Commons over any measures to be taken. Ms May told the regular weekly meeting of Cabinet at 10 Downing Street that there was no doubt of the severity of what had taken place in Salisbury, which was a reckless, indiscriminate and despicable act. Her official spokesperson said there was "no requirement" to provide nerve agent samples to Russia under an international convention on chemical weapons. Mr Skripal and his daughter remain in a critical but stable condition in intensive care, while a police officer who was exposed while responding to the incident also remains in hospital in a serious condition. One of the Russian chemical weapons scientists who developed the Novichok nerve agent has warned that hundreds of people could be at risk for years following the attack in Salisbury. Vil Mirzayanov, who fled to the US two decades ago, claimed Sergei Skripal and his daughter would not recover from the poisoning. There is no cure, he told Sky News from his home in New Jersey. There are antidotes butthey will be invalid for whole life. Dr Mirzayanov said Novichok was so powerful that extremely small doses could remain a danger to public health for years, listing possible symptoms including headaches and loss of coordination. Its very bad because even the very small doses, very small, still they are very effective and then there will be consequences for years probably, he added. The former Soviet Union scientist said public health advice, including washing clothes and sealing belongings was not enough and confirmed that hundreds of people could be at risk. Asked whether he felt guilty for his part in developing Novichok, he added: I participated in this criminal enterprise, because of that Im probably the most fiery enemy of these chemical weapons. Its a weapon of mass murder. The warning came as the Government sought to reassure the public that the wider risk from the attack on 4 March remained low. Neil Basu provides Scotland Yard statement on Salisbury incident Public Health England (PHE) issued advice for people who visited The Mill pub and Zizzi restaurant, where Mr Skripal and his daughter ate and drank before falling ill, to wash their clothes and belongings, and seal off anything that cannot be manually cleaned. Neil Basu, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said 38 people had been seen by doctors in relation to the incident. He told a press conference that 34 of those patients had been assessed and discharged, with Mr Skripal, his daughter and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey remaining in hospital and one person being monitored as an outpatient. The officer said anyone known to have been in the same area as the victims has been directly contacted, adding: This is over a week later people are not presenting symptoms, we are not seeing them. Professor Paul Cosford, medical director and director of health protection at PHE said there was "no evidence to support the suggestion that short-term exposure to trace quantities" would affect people's health. The health effects of chemical exposures are generally related to the dose received," he added. "It is clear that this substance can have a serious immediate effect on those who have a significant dose. "In contrast, the general public who were in the Mill Pub or Zizzis restaurant could only have been exposed to extremely small traces, if any. There will have been a huge difference between the dose those requiring treatment received, and any received by the public." Life continued in Salisburys city centre, where shoppers have said they are getting on more or less as usual around police cordons. Mid-way through the afternoon key shopping streets remained busy and, were it not for a circling helicopter and a few extra police officers, a visitor might not realise anything was amiss. Kate Chivers, 22, did not believe Dr Mirzayanovs scenario was 100 per cent that it will happen. If it was that bad the police would have evacuated, she told The Independent. Everyone within the ring road would be asked to leave. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA 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 But, she admitted, it freaks me out. A local cleaner, who asked not to be named, said: It's very scary. The whole thing is quite frightening."I'm in town a lot, I work in town. If it is that what we're talking about is minute, pin-prick amounts and we wouldn't know immediately, that's scary. "Particularly if you don't get symptoms in the here and now. And would you for a minute think, 'that's because...', you might just think you're unwell for other reasons." She added: "What's worrying me even more than that is what's this going to do with our relationship with Russia? That's kind of scary. I hate that feeling that this has put us in conflict with Russia." Recommended Salisbury diners told to wash items after nerve agent traces found Gareth Hancock, a 17-year-old housekeeper at Wetherspoons opposite The Mill pub, said: I think it's mad that it's actually been used around innocent people who've done nothing wrong. "I was quite close to where he was on the Sunday. I walked just through The Maltings on my break to get some food. "It's quite a shock to think that you can come into contact with it that easily without knowing about it." Mr Basu said he could not comment on how the nerve agent was administered but vowed that police would leave no stone unturned in establishing the full circumstances of the attack He issued a new appeal for anyone who saw the pair in Mr Skripals car a red BMW in Salisbury between 1pm and 1.45pm on the day of the attack to call police. More than 250 police officers are currently working on the investigation, assessing 380 pieces of evidence and hours of CCTV footage. They have established that Ms Skripal had arrived at Heathrow Airport to visit her father on 3 March, and they arrived in the Sainsburys upper level car park in The Maltings at 1.40pm the following day. Theresa May: 'highly likely' Russia was responsible for poisoning of Sergei Skripal They went to The Mill pub before going to Zizzis for lunch, arriving at 2.20pm and leaving at 3.35pm. Mr Skripal and his daughter were caught on CCTV leaving the restaurant on foot minutes later, and emergency services received the first report from members of the public who saw them slumped on a bench at 4.15pm. Theresa May has named Russia as the likely culprit behind the attack, because of its development of Novichok and record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations, including against defectors like Mr Skripal who are viewed as legitimate targets. Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others, she told MPs on Monday. This attempted murder using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town was not just a crime against the Skripals. It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk, and we will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil. Peter Wilson, the UKs representative to the OPCW, told the watchdogs executive council session that in whichever scenario, Russia has failed, for many years to declare chemical weapons development programmes dating from the 1970s. All of us in this room should be aware: if the norm against chemical weapons use continues to be eroded, if we dont stand up to enforce the fundamental tenets of the Convention, what has happened in the United Kingdom could happen in any one of our countries, he added. Those who have used chemical weapons cannot be immune from the consequences of their actions. We must all do all that we can to bring perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks to justice, whoever they are, and wherever they may be. Following a meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee on Tuesday, Amber Rudd confirmed that police and MI5 are reviewing allegations of Russian state involvement in up to 14 deaths on British soil. My priority is this incident, the investigation itself, so we get the information as quickly as possible, and also the safety and security of the people in the community, the Home Secretary added. The Russian government has denied involvent and demanded to see samples of the nerve agent itself (Getty) "I know that international allies have begun to rally their support and make comments publicly but at the moment what we are doing is awaiting the Russian response before stepping up and responding as the Prime Minister has said we will." Boris Johnson said it was overwhelmingly likely that the Russian government had orchestrated the first use of nerve agents in Europe since the Second World War. Were giving Russia until midnight tonight to explain how it came to be that Novichok was used on the streets of Wiltshire, he added. If they can come up with a convincing explanation then obviously we will want to see full disclosure of that to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. If not, then clearly we will want to be announcing the UK response. The Russian government has denied involvement in the attack and said it will ignore the Prime Minister's midnight ultimatum unless it is given samples of the nerve agent used. Mr Skripal was jailed for treason by Russia in 2006, after working as a double agent for MI6 during his time as a colonel in the GRU military intelligence service. He was released early in 2010, following a high-profile spy swap, with Russian sleeper agents uncovered in the US and given refuge in the UK and British citizenship. Mr Skripal appeared to lead a quiet life in Salisbury but sources told The Independent he may have come to the attention of powerful enemies in Russia by freelancing for private intelligence firms run by former MI5, MI6 and GCHQ agents. They insisted he was not an active MI6 asset and was not viewed as being under threat. Ms Skripal, 33, lived with her parents in Salisbury before her mother died in 2012, when the death was recorded as endometrial cancer. According to her Facebook profile, she worked at a Holiday Inn in Southampton in 2014, before moving back to Moscow and working for PepsiCo Russia. A Russian man who was associated with a leading critic of Vladimir Putin has been found dead at his London home. Police said Nikolai Glushkovs death was being treated as unexplained and his family have been informed. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said its counter-terrorism command was leading the investigation as a precaution because of the associations that the man is believed to have had, but there was no immediate evidence of a link to the Salisbury nerve agent attack. Recommended Police to investigate potential Russian involvement in 14 UK deaths Officers were called by the London Ambulance Service at 10.46pm on Monday to reports of a man found dead at his home in Clarence Avenue, New Malden. A post-mortem examination will be held in due course, Scotland Yard said. The death is currently being treated as an unexplained. The 68-year-old was a close friend of exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was himself a friend of murdered spy Alexander Litvinenko. Mr Berezovsky was found hanged in the bathroom of his Berkshire home in 2013. Police said a post-mortem showed no sign of a violent struggle, and an inquest recorded an open verdict after hearing conflicting evidence. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2021 Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families PA UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk PA UK news in pictures 21 July 2021 A man walks past an artwork by Will Blood on the end of a property in Bedminster, Bristol, as the 75 murals project reaches the halfway point and various graffiti pieces are sprayed onto walls and buildings across the city over the Summer PA UK news in pictures 20 July 2021 People during morning prayer during Eid ul-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice, in Southall Park, Uxbridge, London PA At the time, Mr Glushkov said he believed his friend had been murdered, telling The Guardian: I don't believe Boris died of natural causes. Too many deaths [of Russian exiles] have been happening. Mr Berezovskys death is among up to 14 being reviewed by police and MI5 in light of the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. Friends of Mr Glushkov were posting news of his death on social media, while his lawyer confirmed his passing to Russia's Business FM radio station. He served a five-year term for money laundering and fraud in Russia, then fled the country after being handed a two year suspended-sentence for fraud in 2006. Last year, he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment and a million-Ruble fine in absentia for allegedly defrauding Aeroflot. Mr Glushkov worked as the First Deputy General Director for Russias flag carrier in the late 1990s, having worked for Mr Berezovskys LogoVAZ car company. His LinkedIn page listed him as a private consultant in financial services since 2011. The Home Office said it was aware of Mr Glushkov's death but would not comment on the ongoing police investigation. The Russian Embassy told The Independent "nobody had been in touch with the embassy regarding the death of Mr Glushkov". A Russian MP was cut off the air after he compared Britain's conduct to that of Adolf Hitler, as the UK accused Moscow of being responsible for the nerve agent attack on a former spy in Salisbury. Vitaly Milonov, from the United Russia party, accused the UK of being behind a "fantasy" operation involving the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. He described as "fake news" the claim from Theresa May that it was "highly likely" Russia was behind the attack, saying it was nothing to do with Moscow. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Milonov said: "My personal point of view [is] that Theresa May and her colleagues they have created a fake story because they need an explanation to British people and British business why they are going to perform some anti-British steps in favour of United States policy against Russia. "So, they had to make this fantasy. They had to kill, to try to kill, this poor pensioner, useless for us. "This is a drama for British TV. It's a behaviour of Hitler when he blamed someone in burning of Reichstag." He was then taken off the air after Sarah Montague, the show's host, asked: "So the UK Government is behaving like Hitler?" Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters Earlier, Mr Milonov had branded Mr Skripal a "useless fake agent". When he was asked how the nerve agent came to Britain, Mr Milonov said: "This poison is 50 years old, it's not modern stuff. You can take this poison from any laboratory in Ukraine or other fake countries that are happy to help you." The Russian MP compared the situation to being like a James Bond movie, saying: "You created such a horror about new Russia which is very dangerous. For us this guy is absolutely useless." His comments came after Russia's foreign minister told Ms May Moscow "is not to blame" for the military-grade nerve agent attack on Mr Skripal. Sergei Lavrov said Russia was willing to cooperate with the probe, but suggested the UK would be better off complying with its international obligations before putting forward ultimatums." Ms May said Russia has until the end of Tuesday to explain how the substance ended up in Britain. Officials said the Prime Minister was reviewing a range of economic and diplomatic measures in retaliation for the assault. A foster mother took her own life after struggling to cope with bedroom tax debts, an inquest has found. The body of Margaret Blenman, 48, was discovered by a fisherman near Brighton Marina, days after she was evicted from her home due to spiralling debts caused by the tax. She had threatened to kill herself following the eviction, having struggled with her rent after paying bedroom tax when her spare room for children she fostered became vacant. An inquest at Brighton and Hove Coroner's Court heard she had told housing officers on the day of her eviction they were lucky not to find a dead body, before she was pulled out the sea in Brighton two days later on 19 November last year. The court heard the foster carer was made to pay bedroom tax on the spare room in her two-bedroom home in Streatham Hill, London, while she was not looking after children. She had started to build up rent arrears in May 2014, due to the 14 per cent cut in her housing benefit, despite having discretionary housing payments. By 17 November 2017, her housing association had evicted her from the estate. Housing provider Optivo's head of area Jackie Pauley told the court: When housing officers and bailiffs arrived she said they were lucky to find her and not a dead body. "It isn't uncommon for people to say things like that. After that she was quite upset when officers entered with the bailiff. She said she didn't know how things had got that far." She added: She became incredibly calm and left. When the housing officers came back to the office they said something didn't feel right. They called her to ask her if she had managed to get to the council [for emergency housing] but there was no answer to their calls. The court heard following the encounter there were no more sightings of Ms Blenman, who had left the estate with a small suitcase, until her body was spotted by fisherman around 6.30am half a mile south of Brighton Marina on 19 November. The coastguard helicopter was called to locate her, before she was retrieved fully clothed and pronounced dead. She was only identified when officers traced her name from her Morrison's loyalty card on her key ring. Her family told the court she used to come to Brighton to clear her head, and had withdrawn from the family after they had expressed worry about her mood. She had also struggled with eczema and excessive sweating, and had once been issued with a not fit for work certificate, the court heard. Senior coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley recorded an open verdict, explaining she had very little information about Ms Blenman's time in Brighton upon which to base a conclusion. Speaking outside court, Ms Blenham's sister, named only as Wendy, said: Optivo need to make sure when they are evicting tenants their welfare is looked after, and if there are any concerns they ask questions. If they see these signs it would be nice if they spend a bit of time with them to see if they can support them emotionally. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA Paying tribute, her family described her as loving, caring and kind, adding that she loved reading and listening to music, but liked her own space. They said they were comforted Ms Blenman's final moments were in Brighton. Wendy added: My sister used to come here to find solace and peace in her head, so I think that's the reason why she decided to come here. It is a peaceful, nice place and now it is a special place for us as a family." Ms Blenman's family are appealing to hotels or guest houses who could help locate her suitcase or give any information about her time in Brighton in the days before her death. Additional reporting by agencies Canadian far-right activist Lauren Southern has been detained in Calais and banned from entering the UK. Ms Southern, who worked for far right Canadian site The Rebel Media, was held by Border Force in Coquelles on Monday. A Home Office spokesperson told The Independent: Border Force has the power to refuse entry to an individual if it is considered that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good. Ms Southern, who supported a seaborne mission seeking to hamper the rescue of refugees, claimed British authorities had told her she was officially banned from UK for racism after being detained. They just locked me out and said 'au revoir'... Officially banned from UK for 'racism'.. Doing fine though, all the cool people are being banned anyway, the ultra-conservative provocateur said on Twitter. Writing in a Facebook post on Saturday, Generation Identity, a British white supremacist group, said Austrian activist Martin Sellner and his American girlfriend Britanny Pettibone, who is a YouTuber and author, were detained by the British government. The far-right couple were refused entry at Luton Airport on Friday, also on grounds their presence was not conducive to the public good. Mr Sellner and Ms Pettibone were detained and subsequently removed from Britain on Sunday. 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. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2021 Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families PA UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk PA UK news in pictures 21 July 2021 A man walks past an artwork by Will Blood on the end of a property in Bedminster, Bristol, as the 75 murals project reaches the halfway point and various graffiti pieces are sprayed onto walls and buildings across the city over the Summer PA According to reports, Ms Southern was intending to meet Mr Sellner of the Generation Identity group and Ms Pettibone while in Britain. But in a video interview with former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, Mr Sellner said he had planned to appear at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park on Sunday. Ms Pettibone had allegedly also been planning to interview Mr Robinson - the far-right campaigner who announced he was leaving the EDL in 2013. Dr Joe Mulhall, a senior researcher for anti-racism campaign Hope not Hate, raised concerns about Ms Southern's activism. "Weve been watching Lauren Southern for some time, and she has gradually become more and more extreme in her outbursts and associations, he told The Independent in a statement. The decision to refuse her entry came after she distributed racist material in Luton on a recent visit to the UK. "In our State of Hate 2018 report released earlier this month, we warned that one of the major threats we would witness this year was the linking-up between Stephen Lennon (Tommy Robinson) with North American far-right alternative media personalities such as Southern and the far-right Generation Identity (GI) movement in Europe. This has seen an unholy alliance start to come together particularly over social media but also in the offline space. "This began with Southerns joining of the GI-sponsored Defend Europe mission in the Mediterranean, which HOPE not hate helped thwart but had attempted to impede NGO rescue ships saving lives at sea. Russia will not respond to Theresa May's midnight ultimatum over the poisoning of a former spy in Salisbury, the Russian foreign ministry has said, unless it is given samples of the nerve agent used in the attack. In a statement, the foreign ministry said British threats to punish Moscow over the poisoning would not go unanswered, and described the allegations of Russian involvement as a provocation. The UK Prime Minister had given Russia until midnight on Tuesday to explain why a Soviet-era nerve agent, produced in Russia, was used in the attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who remain in a serious condition in hospital. Ms May said the only two explanations for the finding were that the attack was ordered by the Kremlin, or that the Russian government had lost control of the military grade chemical weapon and let it fall into the hands of the perpetrators. Russia insists it had nothing to do with the attack and said it will ignore the ultimatum to explain itself until London both hands over samples of the Novichok agent used and begins to comply with its obligations under the Chemical Weapon Convention, which oversees joint investigations of such incidents. "Any threats to take 'sanctions' against Russia will not be left without a response," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "The British side should understand that." Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said earlier on Tuesday that his country "is not to blame" for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal. And Sergei Stepashin, Vladimir Putins predecessor as FSB director and Prime Minister, also called for British authorities to hand over evidence. We have the relevant agreements to investigate this together, he told the Interfax news agency. Mr Stepashin said British security services may have been complicit in the poisoning and were using it to undermine Russia ahead of Sundays presidential elections: It seems obvious to me that this might be the primitive work of English security services. Tell me who needs this traitor in Russia? There could be another reason apart from elections, he added: The World Cup is about to take start and the English hate us for the fact the competition is taking place in our country. Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters Earlier in the day, Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the Committee for Foreign Affairs in the Russian upper house described British allegations as maniacal. Britain was well versed in blaming all kinds of mortal sins on Russia, he wrote on Facebook. Russia is being asked to justify itself even without evidence, he said. In queen of courts of Britain, this degradation is complete: the total presumption of guilt, when the neither court and nor prosecutor are asked to prove the case, but the accused. Boris Johnson, the UK Foreign Secretary, said Britain was talking to its allies about the situation and that he was "encouraged by the willingness of our friends to show support and solidarity". Asked about the Salisbury attack, the US President Donald Trump told reporters outside the White House: "Well it sounds to me, I'm speaking to Theresa May today. It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all of the evidence they have. "I don't know if they've come to a conclusion, but she's calling me today." He added: "Theresa May is going to be speaking to me today. It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact." Mr Trump added: "As soon as we get the facts straight and we are going to be speaking with the British today, we're speaking with Theresa May today, and as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be. "But I have not spoken to her, I'll speak to her sometime today." Officials said Ms May was reviewing a range of economic and diplomatic measures in retaliation for the assault. The British government will have understood that the Kremlin was unlikely to respond to Ms Mays ultimatum positively. Many in Moscow are already bracing themselves for that they see as an inevitable tightening of sanctions. Ms May told her regular weekly Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street there was no doubt of the severity of what had taken place in Salisbury, which was a reckless, indiscriminate and despicable act. She confirmed she will chair a meeting of the National Security Council on Wednesday to discuss the Russian response and will then inform the House of commons of any measures to be taken. Responding to Mr Lavrovs complaint the UK had not provided samples of the nerve agent, Ms Mays official spokesman said: "The UK complies fully with all its obligations under the chemical weapons convention. "Under the chemical weapons convention states have the mechanism to consult, but there is no requirement to do so." Additional reporting by agencies Russia has summoned the British ambassador in Moscow after it was accused of carrying out a nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal, according to Russian news agencies. The foreign ministry was quoted as saying Laurie Bristow must visit the ministry later on Tuesday. However, a spokesman for the British embassy in Russia said Mr Bristow was not summoned but instead had a pre-planned meeting with Russia's deputy foreign minister, Vladimir Titov. It comes after the Russia's foreign minister told Theresa May it is not to blame for the attack in Salisbury. Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had demanded access to samples of the military-grade nerve agent. He said the British government had refused to provide access to materials and samples related to the case. On Monday, Theresa May told Parliament that Russia is "highly likely" to blame for poisoning Mr Skripal and his daughter with a military-grade nerve agent. The Prime Minister said Russia has until the end of Tuesday to explain how the substance ended up in Britain. Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters The police and MI5 will look into allegations of Russian state involvement in a string of deaths on UK soil, the Government announced. The announcement by the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, followed reports claiming US intelligence sources suspect as many as 14 people may have been assassinated in Britain by Russia's security services or mafia groups. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has revealed how strangers have labelled him a gay Muslim terrorist and wanted him killed. Some people have said he should be deported; another wished he would blow himself up. The Mayor highlighted some of the vicious abuse and threats he has received on Twitter in an effort to highlight racism and its effect on young people. He spoke out after a former Tory minister urged the Government to introduce a proper legal definition of Islamophobia following reports that anti-Islamic letters were posted across Britain at the weekend. West Yorkshire Police are investigating a possible hate crime after receiving a string of reports of letters advertising Punish a Muslim Day. Social-media users in London and Birmingham also reported receiving the letters. Mr Khan, a practising Muslim, read out a selection of the inflammatory tweets he has received to a business event in Texas in the US. Treason is still a crime punishable by death in this country. Your name will be at the top of that list, @Latino_Amante wrote to him last year. Then just two months ago, @SpeedwagonPRST wrote: Id pay for someone to execute Sadiq Khan. Last June @billwall69 tweeted: I say kill the Mayor of London and you will be rid of one Muslim Terrorist? Then last August, @MemAuSe wrote: Deport all Muslims and make London white again, all problems will be gone. The next month @warprivia tweeted: @sadiqkhan is just a gay muzzie terrorist. In 2016, @Emmanuel_Maris tweeted: Muslims have no dignity. I wish Sadiq Khan would blow himself up like they all do. He might get his 12 virgins. Mr Khan said: I could go on and on, but I wont. I dont read these out to be portrayed as a victim, or to ask for sympathy. But ask yourself this - what happens when young boys and girls from minority backgrounds see this kind of thing on their timelines or experience it themselves? Or someone thinking about becoming a politician? And what about young girls and women who are being driven from these platforms reversing our long fight for gender equality? Mr Khan, who was born in south London to a British Pakistani family, was given the Politician of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards in 2016. Anna Soubry, a former business minister, called for a legal definition of Islamophobia following the series of letters sent to Muslims at the weekend. This isn't really a hate crime. This is actually an act of blatant incitement to terrorism, said Ms Soubry. Victoria Atkins, minister for crime, safeguarding and vulnerability, condemned the letters as abhorrent. UK news in pictures Show all 49 1 /49 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA 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 Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi, asking an urgent question in the Commons, said the letter calling for an attack on Muslims on April 3 offered rewards of 10 points for verbal abuse, 50 points for throwing acid, 1,000 points for bombing a mosque and 2,500 points to nuke Mecca. Can I ask the minister if she can explain why no government minister in the last eight years has ever made a speech on the rise of anti-Muslim hatred, she asked. Ms Atkins said the Government had brought in new plans to tackle hate crime as well as investing millions of pounds to protect places of worship. The Government condemns the content of these letters as clearly abhorrent with no place in decent society, she said. In terms of the definition of Islamophobia, there are many definitions. The definition that is used by the Runnymede Trust tends to be the one that I think most people adhere to. We don't accept the need for a definitive one, but we do know that Islamophobia is clearly recognised and we have very effective monitoring of race hate crimes. Salisbury residents have described their anger at the use of a military-grade chemical weapon in the city, and expressed their frustration at the slow pace of guidance from the Government in the aftermath of the attack. Police cordons remain in place following the attack, in which former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the deadly Novichok nerve agent. A week after news of the attack first broke, Theresa May pointed the finger at the Kremlin, telling MPs that Russia had either sanctioned the attack or lost control of its weapons. Vince Maynard, 76, a former soldier from Barford St Martin, a village outside Salisbury, said Ms Mays announcement in the Commons had been a bit of a surprise they couldve come out a bit sooner. Police have said a total of 38 people had been treated for some degree of exposure to the nerve agent, but health authorities warned on Sunday that hundreds more should take precautions against prolonged exposure by washing their clothes, prompting concern at the response time. Mr Maynard expressed outrage at the use of the lethal poison in a public place. What about the people who were in that restaurant and used the table after those people? Were the ambulances used again? The contamination could have spread quite a long way. Any of us could have been poisoned, he added. Residents are trying to get on with life as normal in Salisbury: You just avoid the cordoned areas (Jon Sharman) Jean Davies, a former Salisbury resident in town to celebrate her birthday, said the attack on the Skripals was carried out with very little concern for bystanders that bit makes me angry. Theyve had very little thought, she added. The fact Mr Skripals daughter, 33, was also targeted further angered her, she said. Her husband Dave added: It just brings home the fact that there are baddies out there. A market trader who asked not to be named said of Public Health Englands warning: They took so long to say that. It was about a week on, they said to wash your clothes. He said he believed the drip feed of information had led to uncertainty about whether it was safe to come to the city and had kept people away, particularly older people. Those who lived some way outside Salisbury had visited his stall at a different market in Christchurch rather than come here, he added. Despite the air of concern, as Tuesday morning wound on and the sky brightened, the market began to fill up, with fruit and vegetable sellers serving a stream of people. A varied set of stalls included bric-a-brac, DVDs and video games, butchers trucks and a bakery. Almost the whole city centre is now open for business, and traffic pedestrian and motorised is flowing as usual. Reports of a city teeming with soldiers and police do not reflect reality, shoppers said. A few Metropolitan Police officers drafted up from London wandered through the market square and were thanked for their presence. Police officers drafted in from London have been thanked for their presence (Jon Sharman) One woman said she was getting on with life as normal: We were here on the Saturday the day before it happened, and we were here on the Tuesday. You just avoid it [the cordoned areas] ~ you dont want to tread anything about. But she added: I think its terrible that they can come over here and poison him. I dont like the idea of it. The trouble is you dont know whos about. A second stallholder said: Its awful, but its not surprising. Its the way the world is going at the moment. The world is a scary place. Residents said they were unsurprised Russias foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had dismissed the Prime Ministers accusation the Kremlin was behind the attack. Mr Lavrov said Russia was willing to cooperate with the UK investigation, but required evidence and documents that had not been provided. 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 The UK ambassador was also reportedly summoned in Moscow, as the hours ticked away to the deadline set by Ms May for the Kremlin to explain how Novichok came to be used on British soil. One woman, visiting Salisbury with her mother and young baby, told The Independent: At the end of the day theyre going to deny it was them. We dont know if it was or not. A man in Cafe Nero added: The reason theyre not going to accept responsibility, even if they were responsible, is because theyre then putting themselves in a difficult position. But, he admitted, it does disturb me. Brett Smith-Daniels, 21, busking in Salisbury with his younger brother Blake, said he thought Mr Skripal should have been afforded more protection. He said: For me its very sad that if he was helping our Government, its disgraceful that they werent protecting him. His daughter as well. Its tragic. A former government tsar on social integration is calling for a deadline by which everyone in Britain should be able to speak English, with the aim of improving integration. Dame Louise Casey said the English language needed a very significant boost and that the public would feel relief if ministers set a time limit on the target to heal rifts. She spoke out as the Government prepares to publish a new Integrated Communities Strategy, expected this Wednesday. The former head of the Governments Respect task force said: I dont care how weve got here, I dont care who cant speak English, I dont care whats going on but what I do know is that everybody of working age and of school age should be able to speak the language. And I think the public in particular would feel some relief. And I would be quite old-school about this and I would set a target that says By x date we want everybody in the country to be able to speak a common language. Those are the sorts of big, bold policies that I think we need in order to heal some of the rifts across Britain. Ms Casey, who became head of the national Anti-Social Behaviour Unit in 2003, launched a review in 2015 of community cohesion. Its findings were published in late 2016. More than a year later, the Government is poised to publish its strategy in response but there will be a further delay in implementing any action because there will be a consultation period. 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 The document is expected to say schools with pupils from a single cultural, racial or religious background are to be required to ensure they are taught pluralistic British values. Ms Casey told Radio 4s The Westminster Hour that the further delay was frustrating. She said ministers also needed to address social and economic splits in parts of the North, where we have a very significant white working-class population feeling incredibly alienated who do not have, frankly, hope. These people cant even say their children will grow up in a richer, better lives than they have themselves, she said. With the tides of immigration, migration and English language inequalities should be addressed, she added, and some of that was about equality for women, particularly those who were disadvantaged. You cant tiptoe around these issues, she warned. And she hit out at the growth of home schooling and of Sharia law. You cant trump the legal system of the country, she said. Mark Harper, a former immigration minister, said immigration rules had been changed to ensure people coming to Britain should have better English. Chinese university students have been putting up posters criticising their government for amending the constitution to allow Xi Jinping to stay in office as President indefinitely. The posters feature phrases such as not my President and I disagree written in both Chinese and English. They have been spotted at several Western universities outside of mainland China, including the UK, the US and Hong Kong. In the UK, they were posted at the London School of Economics and the University of Edinburgh. In a wide-ranging crackdown on online speech around the decision, China banned reference to George Orwells novels Animal Farm and 1984, and also the letter N. Other phrases blocked on Sina Weibo, Chinas equivalent of Twitter, included disagree and Xi Zedong, a combination of Mr Xis and Mao Zedongs names. The phrase not my President has been used during protests in the US against Donald Trump. The posters initially appeared in several universities across the US after a Twitter account, @StopXiJinping, posted links encouraging people to download the posters. Since then, the account has drawn attention to universities where the posters have been put up. Those behind the account, which has over 3,000 followers, told the BBC they were Chinese university students living abroad who wished to remain anonymous. In an interview with Newsweek, one of the organisers said: Back home if you express any dissent, your social media account will be deactivated, and the relevant discussions will be banned, so most people have become cynical about getting involved. Which is unfortunate because expressing your dissent ideas is a matter of dignity. However, free speech is protected in Western countries, which is where our campaign has lifted off. The organisers did not respond to The Independents request for comment. Chinas parliament passed the constitutional amendment to scrap a two-term limit and further strengthen the Communist Partys dominant role in politics. Only two no votes were cast, with three abstentions and one vote invalidated, among nearly 3,000 delegates. The Brexit transition period in which Britains relationship with the EU does not change should extend beyond the next UK general election so that we can see what the outcome of the vote is, a key figure in talks has said. Philippe Lamberts, a member of the European Parliaments exclusive Brexit steering group, told a press conference that nobody believed the period can be just 21 months as proposed by the EU commission. Mr Lambertss proposal comes after British negotiators hinted that they wanted a longer period in Brussels orbit than the end date of December 31 2020. The extension would change the dynamic of the Brexit debate because it would mean a new government elected in 2022 could make changes to Brexit or even cancel it without any disruption. Elmar Brok, another member of the steering group who is a member of the powerful European Peoples Party group, also hinted that the transitions length was not a done deal, describing its duration as however long it is while speaking in plenary. The Independent understands that the view that the transition should be longer is widely held in private among members of the steering group. Mr Lamberts, who was elected as a Belgian green MEP, told reporters: On the transition period I dont think anyone in this room believes that this transition can be just 21 months. I think we should be honest, its going to be a lot longer than that. The transition period should be as long as necessary. My position is it should go beyond the next general election in the UK so we can see what the outcome of that is. He also said that if the UK decided ultimately to stay in the single market and customs union, the country should get some kind of privileged channel of communication with the European Union institutions when it came to implementing new EU rules as sought by Labour. Having some kind of channel for the UK to express its concerns through the transition period and if it remains a member of the single market and customs union, I think that is normal that it would have some kind of privileged channel of communication with the European Union institutions, he said. Not to have decision, but to be able to raise its concerns and to pass on its suggestions. I think that would be the very least of things and it would not be a bad thing for the EU to propose that. The Brexit steering group consists of five senior MEPs from across the European Parliament and helps draw up the bodys policy on Brexit, under the aegis of chief coordinator Guy Verhofstadt, who is technically a sixth member of the group. 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 Eurosceptic Tory MPs have raised concerns about the transition period, describing the situation as making the UK a vassal state of the bloc because it would involve following EU rules without any say in shaping them. But Theresa May has said she wants a transition of around two years and UK negotiators have called for the length of the period offered by the EU to be reassessed. David Miliband has criticised Jeremy Corbyns Commons response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, saying he should be standing up for British citizens. The Labour leader sounded like President Trump in calling for dialogue with Vladimir Putin when the Russian double agent and his daughter had been left in mortal danger by the nerve-agent attack, Mr Miliband warned. What Jeremy Corbyn was saying was strangely like the kind of things that President Trump says about the need to engage in dialogue, to keep on talking to them, the former Labour Foreign Secretary said. No-one is saying that all contact is going to be cut off the question is whether or not there are actions as well as words. Because the truth is that it is only actions that shows the Russians we are serious. Asked if Mr Corbyn should have been stronger, Mr Miliband added: I think it is about standing up for our own citizens, frankly, because its British citizens. Two of them are in mortal danger now. Apparently, 500 of them could have been affected by this nerve gas. The criticism comes after Mr Corbyn came under fire for raising the issue of huge donations to the Tory Party by wealthy Russian expats moments after Theresa Mays statement blamed the Kremlin for the attack in Salisbury. The Labour leader faced shouts of shame and disgrace when he said: We're all familiar with the way huge fortunes, often acquired in the most dubious circumstances in Russia, sometimes connected with criminal elements, have ended up sheltering in London and trying to buy political influence in British party politics. Meddling in elections, as the Prime Minister put it, and there has been over 800,000 worth of donations to the Conservative Party from Russian oligarchs and their associates. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty Mr Corbyn added: We need to continue seeking a robust dialogue with Russia on all the issues dividing our countries, both domestic and international, rather than simply cutting off contact and simply letting tensions and divisions get worse, and potentially even more dangerous. Some Labour MPs joined Conservatives in criticising Mr Corbyn. One said the Labour leader did not understand the gravity of the threat which Russia poses to this nation. Speaking to BBC Radio 4s Today programme, Mr Miliband praised the Prime Ministers tone, in her Commons statement, giving Russia until midnight tonight to explain the nerve agent attack. But he warned that tough action would be difficult without international support, pointing to Mr Trumps reluctance to take on President Putin as a major obstacle. The biggest thing she has to do in the next two days is to rally her allies, he said of Ms Mays task. It is very significant and very worrying, frankly, that the White House has not felt able to point the finger at Russia in the last seven or eight days. And, I think that rallying the European allies, and, if possible, significant strands of American opinion, is absolutely key. Dominic Raab, the housing minister, said possible retaliation included measures targeted at individual human rights violators. A whole panoply of counter-measures including economic, financial and diplomatic, was being considered. The Irish Prime Minister has attacked a plan for people to register in advance to cross the border without checks after Brexit, which is being studied by Theresa May. Leo Varadkar dismissed the idea revealed by The Independent as he turned on senior UK Cabinet ministers for failing to visit the border in order to understand it better. Under the plan, anyone without clearance for fast track movement would have to use approved crossing points or would be considered to have entered the state irregularly. Recommended Plan to register in advance to cross Irish border studied by No 10 CCTV and cameras to track vehicle number plates would be needed at some crossing points - despite the Prime Ministers promise that the border will continue to have no physical infrastructure. Nevertheless, Ms May told MPs she has asked officials to look at it very carefully, adding: I believe it gives some very good proposals for solutions. The Independents story was raised with Mr Varadkar when he addressed an audience in Texas, part of a trip to the United States to celebrate St Patrick's Day. It is not a solution that we envisage, the Taoiseach said. He also seized on the fact David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, has not visited Northern Ireland since September 2016 while Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, has failed to make the trip at all since his appointment in July 2016. I can't see anything negative in a British Cabinet minister viewing the border, seeing what it looks like, Mr Varadkar said. 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 You can read as many briefing documents as you like, sometimes you need to see things with your own eyes." Oliver Robbins, the Prime Minister's chief Brexit negotiator, has also never visited the Irish border since taking on the role. In sharp contrast, Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, has made the trip and Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament's Brexit co-ordinator, visited Belfast in September. The Prime Minister has asked officials to study the Smart Border 2.0 report commissioned by a European Parliamentary committee as she scrambles for a solution to the border dilemma. In December, she agreed to full alignment of regulations across the entire UK if necessary to avoid the return of border posts and checks, which could become a magnet for terrorists. But she has been accused of reneging on that agreement, rejecting the EUs proposal of a a common regulatory area" across Ireland if other solutions to avoid a hard border fail. Instead, the Government has vowed to leave the EU customs union, putting its faith in technology to avoid checks while failing to rule out the return of cameras at the crossing. The Smart Border 2.0 study does propose a solution based on technology, but The Independent revealed it acknowledges the plan would still require: * Both physical and digital infrastructure with vehicles to be monitored using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) at unmanned border crossings. It states: CCTV will also be required at border crossings. * A Trusted Traveller Program under which people would pre-register for fast-track movement across the border, possibly using biometric passports or enhanced drivers licenses using radio frequency identification. * Free movement lanes at the busiest crossings to allow differentiation between those entitled or not to move under the CTA [Common Travel Area]. Non-qualifying individuals who did not cross at these specific border crossings would then be considered to have entered the state irregularly. The European Union has expressed its solidarity with the British people and government after the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter on British soil, apparently using a Russian-made nerve agent. Speaking in the European Parliament Frans Timmermans, the first vice president of the European Commission, said European countries and their leaders had a collective responsibility to help their ally. He suggested the issue should be put on the agenda at the European Council summit in Brussels next week, where leaders will also discuss Brexit talks. If nerve gas was actively used against civilians in one of our member states, I believe that the European Council should in clear terms express its full solidarity with the British people and the British government in addressing this issue, Mr Timmermans said. I believe it is of the utmost importance that those who are responsible for what has happened see very clearly that there is European solidarity, unequivocal, unwavering, and very strong so that those responsible are really punished for what they did. We cannot have nerve gas being used in our societies. This should be addressed by all of us and not just left to Prime Minister May and the British government. It is a collective European responsibility also under the OPCW [Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons] rules. Guy Verhofstadt, the Parliaments Brexit coordinator, added: Ms May has said this is an attack against Britain as a country and I think a common reaction against Britain at the next European Council and countermeasures to be decided by the EU. The UK Government has given Russia a midnight deadline to explain why a Russian-made nerve agent was used in the attack in Sailsbury on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal. The regular European Council meeting is scheduled for Thursday and Friday 22 and 23 of March. Other countries and international bodies have also issued statements of support to the UK. Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said Britain was a "highly valued ally" warned that the poisoning was "of great concern". Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Berlin stood in solidarity with the UK and that links to Russia would be a very serious matter. French president Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone to Theresa May and the two leaders agreed to tackle the wide pattern of aggressive Russian behaviour. Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary said: Ive been very encouraged so far by the strength of support that we are getting. A man has been taken to hospital as a precaution as police investigate two suspicious items found on the parliamentary estate. It comes less than 24 hours after two were taken to hospital in a separate situation involving a suspicious package found in Parliament. Police were called to the estate where MPs and their staff have their offices on Tuesday at 9.49am. It is understood there has been no evacuation but the affected area has been cordoned off. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: Specialist officers are on scene and the package is being assessed. The London Ambulance Service is on the scene. A man has been taken to hospital as a precaution." A second package at the same location is also being assessed, they added. A Parliamentary spokesperson told The Independent: The Met Police are currently investigating suspicious items of mail in Norman Shaw North. We cannot provide any more details at this stage. This is further to the two items investigated yesterday, both of which were found to be non-harmful. The Police are investigating the content of the letters to identify any potential links. On Monday the suspicious item not found to be hazardous was reportedly sent to the office of Mohammad Yasin, who was elected as the Labour MP for Bedford at the 2017 snap election. And in response to the incidents, parliamentary authorities have now emailed all staff to be on the alert for suspicious items of mail. At least one person has died after a charter bus carrying Texas high school students home from Disney World plunged into a ravine in Alabama. The bus careened into a 50-foot ravine in the early morning hours after driving into a highway median, sending numerous people to the hospital. Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack said at a news conference that about 45 people were on board and that the crash sent victims to approximately ten area hospitals. A major highway was shut down as first responders engaged in what Mr Mack called an all-out response, with some of them rappelling into the ravine to reach the crumpled wreckage of the bus lying on its side. Multiple helicopters assisted. This has been an extensive rescue operation, Mr Mack said. Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida said in a statement on its website that it had taken in 20 victims, four of them with serious injuries. 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 Students on board the bus belonged to a Texas high school band, a Channelview Independent School District spokesman told multiple news outlets. Helicopter lifted from Hudson river in New York after crash killing five passengers The company that operated the charter bus, First Class Tours, said in a statement that it was working with authorities. Our prayers are with the injured and their families at this time, the company said. The Belgian royal family were greeted with a German flag on the first day of their state visit to Canada. The mix-up occurred when an incorrect flag was placed on a tree planted by Belgiums Queen Fabiola in the grounds of Rideau Hall, the Ottawa-based official residence of the Canadian monarch, in 1977. Both flags have black, yellow and red bands, but on Belgiums flag they are vertical, while Germanys has them horizontal. "While we were preparing for the tree-planting ceremony in the grounds of Rideau Hall, it was brought to our attention that there was a mix-up with a small flag," Marie-Eve Letourneau, a spokesperson for Rideau Hall, told CBC. "We rectified the situation immediately, prior to their majesties' arrival at the tree planting." The error was spotted by Belgian journalist Wim Dehandschutter, who posted images of the mistake on social media. Didier Reynders, the Belgian Foreign Minister, said it was the mix-up was not a problem. They are the same colours so maybe that's the reason why, and we have very close relations with Germany so it's not a real problem," he told CBC. 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 Belgian King Philippe and his wife, Queen Mathilde, are being accompanied by ministers, business leaders and representatives from universities during their visit to Canada. They will visit a number of cities but do not have a scheduled visit with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The survivors of the last school shooting in the UK have penned a letter to the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a lone gunman killed 17 students and staff members in a shooting last month. The British survivors sent their letter on the 22nd anniversary of the school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland, where 16 first-grade students and one teacher were killed. They expressed sympathy for the students in Parkland, Florida, and urged them to keep up their fight for stricter gun control. We have watched and listened with tremendous admiration as you have spoken out for what you believe should happen now, they wrote. ...We want you to know that change can happen. The survivors also said they will light 17 candles on Tuesday in honour of those who died in Dunblane, and in remembrance of those who died in Parkland. The Dunblane and Parkland shootings bear striking similarities: Both were carried out by one man with a gun, and both resulted in 17 deaths. Both sparked outrage in their respective countries, as well as calls for gun safety reform. In Scotland, at least, those calls were effective: Just over a year after the shooting, the UK banned all private handguns completely. There has not been a single school shooting since. 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 Tuesdays letter organised by Mick North, the father of a 5-year-old victim and a prominent figure in the UK campaign to ban guns urges the Parkland students not to stop fighting for change. Continue to remind everyone of exactly what happened at your school and of the devastation caused by just one person with one legally-owned gun, the letter reads. Never let anyone forget. The Parkland students activism has already sparked some reforms, including the passage of a modest gun control bill in the Florida state legislature. The students have also met with President Donald Trump for a listening session in the White House, and organised two nationwide protests in favour of gun control. Father of Florida victim: 'We, as a country, failed our children' But the efforts have been stalled by resistance from the National Rifle Association a powerful pro-gun lobbying group and by Republicans like Mr Trump, who prefers arming teachers to placing restrictions on guns. In the letter, the Dunblane survivors pledge their support to the Parkland students' effort, no matter how long as it takes. We wish you more of that wisdom and strength for this toughest of tasks, one that will be so important in order to spare more of your fellow Americans from having to suffer the way you have, they write. Wherever you march, whenever you protest, however you campaign for a more sensible approach to gun ownership we will be there with you in spirit. US magazine National Geographic has admitted its coverage of people around the world used to be racist. The April edition of the magazine focuses on race and asked a historian to look at previous issues. University of Virginia associate professor John Edwin Mason said that until the 1970s the magazine had ignored non-white Americans, only depicting them as domestic staff or labourers. For much of its history National Geographic depicted the Western world as dynamic and rational, but Mr Mason said "the black and brown world was [shown to be] primitive and backwards and generally unchanging. One photo in particular, which was published in 1916, was highlighted for its offensive caption. It showed Australian Aborigines with the text "South Australian Blackfellows: These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings". Susan Goldberg, the editor of the magazine, said National Geographic had been responsible for using every type of cliche but it was time to own the story to move beyond it. "Let's confront today's shameful use of racism as a political strategy and prove we are better than this," Ms Goldberg wrote in an editorial. Culture news in pictures Show all 33 1 /33 Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! Libido!(London!) Chastity!" at a preview of the Turner Prize in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A technician wearing virtual reality glasses checks his installation in three British public telephone booths, set up outside the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty Culture news in pictures 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images Culture news in pictures 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA Culture news in pictures 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. The exhibition named 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Hieroglyphen' showing the complete collection of Berlin's Nationalgallerie works of the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and will run from 23 September 2016 until 26 February 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. The trade fair on photography, photokina, schowcases some 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and runs from 20 to 25 September. The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA Culture news in pictures 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu Culture news in pictures 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images Culture news in pictures 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images Culture news in pictures 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP Culture news in pictures 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA Culture news in pictures 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA Culture news in pictures 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 Culture news in pictures 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA Culture news in pictures 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS Culture news in pictures 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures The magazine was first published in 1888 and is published in 40 languages. Arguably its most famous cover was of the green-eyed Afghan girl which showed a child refugee in Pakistan. Donald Trump has fired Steve Goldstein, the State Department official who challenged his account of firing Rex Tillerson. The latest dismissal came in the midst of chaos in the White House after the President decided he would sack Mr Tillerson, who had served as his Secretary of State. Following that firing, Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein released a statement that appeared to contradict Mr Trump's account of the sacking. In it, he said that Mr Tillerson hadn't heard about being fired until the President sent a tweet announcing it. Mr Goldstein said the former Exxon Mobil CEO was "unaware of the reason" he was fired and "had had every intention of staying," feeling he was making progress on national security. "The secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling," Mr Goldstein said the statement. Now Mr Goldstein himself has been fired, apparently as a result of that statement, according to NBC. Rex Tillerson gives statement after being fired as Secretary of State 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 He was reportedly called up by the White House after Mr Tillerson's firing Tuesday and told that his services would no longer be needed. Mr Goldstein has served in the State Department for less three months after he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate last year. He is seen as a being loyal to Mr Tillerson, and frequently attended meetings at the White House in his capacity at the State Department. Mr Tillerson's firing or resignation had been rumoured about for months as reports of a fraught relationship between him and the President have surfaced. He had gotten himself into trouble with the White House repeatedly over the past year or so, and a rift between the two had reportedly gotten bigger over their preferred approaches to international diplomacy and priorities. Last year, for example, Mr Tillerson got himself into his boss' bad graces by saying Mr Trump's statements questioning Latin American countries' efforts to combat illicit drug trade were "not helpful". Mr Tillerson was visiting the region at the time, and felt that the President's comments were harming his ability to negotiate with those countries on the issue. Mr Tillerson is also said to have once called the President a "moron" in private, after a meeting with Mr Trump. Mr Tillerson later denied doing so, but the reports caught the attention of Mr Trump, who later joked that he would like to challenge his secretary of State to an IQ test. Mr Trump has said that he will nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to take over the State Department. Mr Pompeo could be confirmed by the Senate to take on that roll as soon as next month. Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, has met with King Salman of Saudi Arabia to discuss the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Washington Post columnist is rumoured to have died under interrogation in Riyadh and President Donald Trump has vowed to get to the bottom of the situation. With the eyes of the world on the former CIA director, who succeeded Rex Tillerson in March, you might be wondering more about him. Recommended Mike Pompeo visits Saudi Arabia to discuss Jamal Khashoggi case What did Mike Pompeo do before entering Trumps administration? Before serving as director of the CIA for 14 months, developing a close relationship with Mr Trump by delivering the daily intelligence briefing, Mr Pompeo was a three-time Republican Congressman, representing Kansas. As a member of the House of Representatives, Mr Pompeo defended the CIAs use of torture during former George W Bushs administration, saying: These men and women are not torturers, they are patriots... the programmes being used were within the law, within the Constitution. He also advocated for keeping the US prison housing several prisoners believed to be members of terrorist groups in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba open because closing it would potentially result in endless litigation and rights expanded well beyond those afforded to enemy combatants. The international law on the matter is murky as long as the US is technically at war despite US law dictating these prisoners deserve due process. The West Point graduate served as a member of the US Army in Germany and in the first Gulf War. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo waves to the media during a photo opportunity at the State Department (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty) (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) After graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr Pompeo worked as a lawyer for Koch Industries. The multi-billion dollar conglomerate is led by brothers Charles and David Koch, who have been fairly reliable financial and ideological supporters of Mr Trump and small-government views. Mr Pompeo received thousands in political contributions from the Kochs and employees while he was in office. Why was Mike Pompeo chosen to succeed Rex Tillerson at the State Department? Mr Trump referred to Mr Pompeo as having the same thought process as himself, implying his predecessor, Mr Tillerson, did not. Recently departed US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called the replacement a great decision at the time. Pompeo was the most political CIA director in memory, an administration official told Reuters upon his appointment, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Mike Pompeo after a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a trip to Pyongyang (Twitter) He dived into policy matters in a way that unnerved many professionals at the agency, the official added. Morale was taking a blow that was spreading from the analytical side, where some people feared he was tailoring some PDBs [Presidents Daily Briefs] to tell Trump what he wanted to hear rather than what the intelligence assessments were. Mr Pompeo is also on the same page regarding the Iran nuclear deal with the president. In October 2017, the president decided not to re-certify the historic deal, signed by Iran and six world powers a signature foreign policy achievement by predecessor President Barack Obama. It opened the door for harsher economic sanctions to be placed on the country, the mitigation of which was a key inducement for Iran to comply with the deal. Tehran had pledged to rein in its nuclear programme in return for some easing of those economic restrictions imposed on it by the US, the UN and the European Union. European allies, and even Mr Tillerson according to some reports, continued to urge the president to extend the sanctions relief in order to save the deal. Mr Trump will not hear that from the hawkish Mr Pompeo. I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorism, he had tweeted in November 2016, when he was under consideration for the CIA post. The other issue that puts Mr Trump and Mr Pompeo in the same sphere of thinking is on the general issue of terrorist groups. As a Congressman, he routinely criticised Mr Obama for not using the term radical Islamic terrorism when referring to groups like al-Qaeda or Isis. He has no problem framing terrorism, particularly in the Middle East, as a religion-based issue. Mike Pompeo with Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi in Beijing (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images) Mr Tillerson, however, lauded Mr Trump for leaving the term out of a speech in August 2016. Terrorism has manifested itself in many types of organisations. The president has charged us to develop policies and tactics both diplomatically and militarily to attack terrorism in its many forms, wherever it exists in the world, and wherever it might present a threat to the homeland or Americans anywhere. This means that we need to develop techniques that are global in their nature, he said in response to former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka saying the president should have used the term. Was Mr Pompeos appointment related to the FBI Russia investigation? Mr Tillersons dismissal to make way for Mike Pompeo followed quickly on from his saying the poisoning of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK was a really egregious act that appears to have clearly come from Russia. He had called the Kremlin an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens. In the hours before his sacking, Mr Tillerson also said Russias alleged poisoning, in public and on foreign soil, could certainly will trigger a response from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). 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 Long a critic of the presidents decision-making, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said he hoped Mr Pompeo would turn over a new leaf and toughen policies towards Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Americans should rest assured that we have a very good understanding of the Russian programme and how to make sure that Americans continue to be kept safe from threats from Vladimir Putin, Mr Pompeo told Fox News. While Rex Tillerson, a former Texas oil and gas executive, shied away from media coverage whenever it could be avoided, Mr Pompeo welcomed it. He has repeatedly, publicly and unequivocally defended the president during the ongoing FBI and Congressional investigations into possible collusion between Trump campaign team members and Russian officials. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events In January 2017, the US intelligence community issued a joint report that concluded it did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. In October 2017, Mr Pompeo said the opposite during an appearance at a think tank that the intelligence community that the intelligence community said Russia had no impact on the result of the election. While serving as CIA director, he catered to Mr Trumps political whims as well, taking a meeting at the Presidents request with a conspiracy theorist who believes Russias hack and release of Democratic National Committee emails last summer was instead an inside job, according to Vox. Donald Trump has announced he is replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, an abrupt end after months of speculation to a bumpy tenure for the former oil executive. I wish Rex a lot of good things, Mr Trump said. I think hes going to do I think hes going to be very happy. I think Rex will be much happier now. 1 February 2017: In a 56-43 vote, the Senate confirmed Mr Tillerson as Secretary of State. During his confirmation hearing, Mr Tillerson indicated that he could depart from Mr Trump on a range of issues. 28 April 2017: Mr Tillerson proposed cutting 2,300 jobs from the State Department and 26 per cent of its budget, in line with the Trump administrations budget proposal in March. Since taking office in January 2017, Mr Trump has indicated a preference for solving issues with military might rather than diplomacy. Recommended Donald Trump fires Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State 2 June 2017: Mr Trump announced he would withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, a controversial move that was criticised by several world leaders. Mr Tillerson pressed the President to remain in the agreement, which he had expressed his support for while serving as Exxons chief executive. June 2017: Mr Trump and Mr Tillerson appeared to diverge over a regional crisis involving Qatar. The Secretary of State called on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to ease their blockade of Qatar and urged all involved in the dispute to quickly resolve their differences. Mr Trump seemed to undercut Mr Tillerson shortly after, saying that the Saudi-led action against Qatar was hard but necessary. The President added he had been consulted in advance by nations that spoke to me about confronting Qatar, a country he said has been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. 25 July 2017: In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump questioned the Iran deal, and said it was easier to say that Iran was complying with its requirements under the agreement. Look, I have a lot of respect for Rex and his people, good relationship. Its easier to say they comply. Its a lot easier. But its the wrong thing. They dont comply. July 2017: Mr Tillerson reportedly threatened to resign from his post following Mr Trumps speech to the Boy Scouts of America. 2 August 2017: Mr Trump signed a bill imposing further sanctions on Russia for interfering in the 2016 election and its annexation of Crimea in Ukraine. Mr Trump called the law seriously flawed and Mr Tillerson said the legislation would hamper efforts to form a closer relationship with Moscow. 27 August 2017: Mr Tillerson said the US maintained its commitment equal treatment to people around the world after international criticism for the White Houses tepid response to violence at a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. When asked about the values of Mr Trump, Mr Tillerson said the President speaks for himself. 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 30 September 2017: Mr Tillerson said the US was in direct contact with North Korea, probing to see whether Pyongyang would be willing to engage in talks regarding the regimes nuclear weapons programme. 1 October 2017: But Mr Trump apparently wanted to pursue a different strategy, I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man, Mr. Trump said on Twitter, using a disparaging reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Save your energy Rex, well do what has to be done! 4 October 2017: In an impromptu press conference, Mr Tillerson said he would stay in the Trump administration as long as he is useful. He also declined to address a news report that he called Mr Trump a moron. A department spokesperson later said that the the Secretary does not use that type of language. 1 December 2017: Mr Tillerson is not leaving, the President tweeted, after US officials reportedly said the White House had a plan for CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him. 8 March 2018: While in Ethiopia, Mr Tillerson indicated the US was not ready for direct talks with North Korea, saying the first step was some kind of talks about talks. Later that day in Washington, it was announced that Mr Trump accepted an invitation to meet with North Koreas leader. 12 March 2018: Mr Tillerson said we have full confidence in the UKs assessment that Russia was likely responsible for a nerve agent attack against a former Russian spy in Salisbury last week. Mr Tillersons comments went further than the White Houses response, which stopped short of pinning blame on Moscow. 13 March 2018: Mr Trump fired Mr Tillerson. The outgoing top diplomat was not given an explanation for why he was being axed, an aide to Mr Tillerson said in a statement. Roger Stone, an informal adviser to President Donald Trump, reportedly had contact with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 US election. According to an unnamed source of the Washington Post, Mr Stone had a conversation with Mr Assange about emails Wikileaks had obtained that would torment Democrats like Hillary Clintons campaign manager John Podesta. Mr Stone noted the meeting Mr Nunberg said reportedly happened is provably false because he did not leave the country in 2016. The idea that I would meet with Assange undetected is ridiculous on its face, Mr Stone told the newspaper, though he had made similar public claims earlier in 2016. At a meeting of a Republican organisation in Florida in August 2016, Mr Stone proclaimed: I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation, but theres no telling what the October surprise may be. Later that month Mr Stone tweeted Trust me, it will soon [be] the Podestas time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary. The Atlantic had reported the pair had also exchanged private messages via Twitter in 2016 as well. Mr Nunberg made waves when he publicly said he would not to come testify in front of a grand jury in relation to the investigation into whether campaign team members colluded with Russian officials during the election. Trump adviser Roger Stone repeats wiretapping claims on Russia Today Mr Nunberg ultimately did cooperate with special prosecutor Robert Muellers subpoena, however, under threat of arrest. He told the grand jury about Mr Stones alleged meeting with Mr Assange. The conversation between Mr Assange and Mr Stone allegedly occurred before it became public that the Democratic National Committee email server had been attacked and Mr Podestas emails were released by Wikileaks. It was later confirmed by the US intelligence committee that a Russian entity was involved in the hacking. Mr Stone said, I wish him no ill will, but Sam can manically and persistently call you...I said, I think I will go to London for the weekend and meet with Julian Assange. It was a joke, a throwaway line to get him off the phone. Mr Assange, who has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for the past six years over fear he will be extradited and tried on rape charges in Sweden, also denied to the paper that he and Mr Stone met in 2016. He had spoken through his attorney, who could not reach Mr Assange for further comment on the matter recently. Wikileaks as an organisation has also denied any contact with Mr Stone as well. Mr Nunberg said he was happy to hear Mr Stone saying his comment to him was in jest, adding that no one connected to the president should be connected with Julian Assange. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the nerve agent used to poison a Russian ex-spy living in the UK clearly came from Russia, and promised the attack would trigger a response. Mr Tillerson said he did not know whether the Russian government had knowledge of the poisoning, which left former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in critical condition earlier this month. But he said the poison used is known to the US, and does not exist anywhere outside Russia. The substance, he added, is "only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties. "Those responsible both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it must face appropriately serious consequences, said Mr Tillerson, who spoke by phone with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday. He did not specify what these consequences would be. The comments echo those of British Prime Minister Theresa May, who said it was highly likely Russia carried out the attack. Ms May identified the poison as Novichok, a military grade nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Theresa May: 'highly likely' Russia was responsible for poisoning of Sergei Skripal We shall not tolerate such a brazen act to murder innocent civilians on our soil, the prime minister said. Russia has denied any involvement in the attack, and called Ms Mays comments a circus show. Mr Tillersons comments marked an escalation in the USs response to the attack. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had previously called the episode "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible," but refused to blame Russia. 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 Skripal previously worked with Russias military intelligence unit, and then with the countrys Foreign Ministry. He was arrested in Moscow in 2004 and confessed to having been recruited by British intelligence almost 10 years earlier. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006, but was later pardoned as part of a US-Russia spy swap. Mr Skipals 33-year-old daughter was thought to be one of his only living relatives, after his wife and son died. The attack took place in Salisbury, some 90m (154km) from London. Mr Skipal and his daughter were later found unconscious on a park bench. Almost two dozen people have already received medical treatment in connection with the attack, which authorities say may have contaminated up to 500. Ms May has given Russian President Vladimir Putin 24 hours to explain how the Russian position was used in the attack, threatening extensive measures if he did not come up with a credible explanation. Additional reporting by agencies Republican Rick Saccone has pledged to be Trumps wingman as voters head to the polls in a tight congressional race in Pennsylvania. The race outside of Pittsburgh has become surprisingly competitive, with both Democrats and Republicans pulling out all the stops in the district that Mr Trump won by 20 percentage points in 2016. Mr Saccone said hes not surprised the race against Democrat Conor Lamb is so close. Democrats are throwing everything they can at this race because its a rare open seat, the 60-year-old state lawmaker said. Despite being a political novice, the 33-year-old Lamb has far outpaced Mr Saccone in fundraising. Up until last year, the seat in the heart of steel country was occupied by former Republican Representative Tim Murphy, who resigned in October amid a sex scandal. But while the southwestern Pennsylvania district is Republican-leaning, Mr Saccone has struggled to win the same support that Mr Murphy managed during his 14-year career as a member of US Congress. Several senior administration officials, as well as Mr Trump and his eldest son Donald Trump Jr, have appeared with Mr Saccone on the campaign trail, attempting to fend off the threat from Mr Lamb. In an Election Day interview, Mr Saccone told Fox Business Network that the President is getting beat up in Washington by the media, bureaucrats and Hollywood. He needs a good wingman, the state lawmaker said. While Mr Saccone has tied himself to Mr Trump, Mr Lamb asserted that the race didnt have much to do with President Trump, according to the Associated Press. Appearing to recognise that Mr Trump still remains generally popular in the district, Mr Lamb has downplayed his opposition to the Republican president, insisting instead that the race hinges on local issues. The 33-year-old Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor has positioned himself as a moderate with an independent streak, unbeholden to establishment Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. While he has blasted the Republican tax law passed last year labelling it as a giveaway to corporations at the certain future expense of the USs fiscal security he has departed from members of his party on guns. He has said he doesnt support proposals by fellow Democrats to ban certain weapons, saying that Congress should emphasize enforcing existing regulations. 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 Saccone, meanwhile, supports Mr Trumps tax cuts and said he would fight for lower taxes, lower spending and fewer regulations on private businesses. He also opposes many of the federal governments recent gun-control proposals, including raising the age limit for purchasing certain types of guns from 18 to 21. The battle between Mr Saccone and Mr Lamb is being seen as a marker for the chances of both Republicans and Democrats in the midterms elections in November. Democrats are on a mission to recapture a majority in the House of Representatives later this year. Democrats must flip 24 Republican-held seats to take control of the lower chamber, and an upset in Pennsylvania on Tuesday will only embolden them as they look to win in places where the party has lost ground in recent decades. Inside the White House, aides have reportedly dismissed suggestions that the contest is a referendum on Mr Trumps presidency, according to the Washington Post. Along with holding a rally in the area over the weekend, Mr Trump has weighed in on Twitter, writing that Mr Saccone will be much better for steel and business. The Economy is raging, at an all time high, and is set to get even better, he tweeted. Jobs and wages up. Vote for Rick Saccone and keep it going! The president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, who once flirted with an alliance with Mr Trump, also weighed in on the race but on behalf of Mr Lamb. Mr Trumka told union voters that the Democratic candidate supported our agenda so now its time to ... support him. The labour vote is expected to a key factor in determining whether Mr Lamb can pull out a win over Mr Saccone. The AFL-CIO estimates the total union household vote in the district to be 87,000 about one-fifth of the registered electorate. The seats former occupant, Mr Murphy, had enjoyed union backing, but unions have now lined up behind the Mr Lamb as the candidate has highlighted his Republican opponents anti-labour record at the statehouse. Donald Trump has fired his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson without offering his outgoing chief diplomat an explanation in what is the latest indication of a White House in chaos as high-profile officials continue to exit the administration with little or no forewarning. The change comes at a delicate time for US diplomacy, with the President having just accepted an invitation to hold face-to-face talks with North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, about the nuclear threat posed by Pyongyang. There are suggestions that Mr Trump wanted to make the change before the North Korea talks, but it is unusual for such a big change to be made at such a key time. US foreign policy on Russia also remains an issue. The announcement of the firing was made a day after Mr Tillerson said we have full confidence in the UKs assessment that Russia was likely responsible for a nerve agent attack against a former Russian spy in Salisbury last week. Mr Tillersons comments went further than the White Houses initial response, which stopped short of pinning blame on Moscow. Mr Trump had suggested last week that more changes were coming at the White House, after economic advisor Gary Cohn resigned in the wake of disagreements with the President about his policy on trade tariffs. Mr Trump also lost his Communications Director Hope Hicks late last month after she resigned. Including Mr Tillerson, five people have been fired or resigned from the Trump White House in the last two weeks. The others are John McEntee, personal aide to the president, who was fired on Monday, but will join the Trump 2020 campaign, and Josh Raffel, a White house communications aide. Stunning Washington once again, Mr Trump made the declaration in an early morning message on Twitter that he was getting rid of Mr Tillerson and replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The current CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel will step up to take control of the agency. We got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things, Mr Trump told reporters moments later about his relationship with Mr Tillerson. He said he made the decision to replace Mr Tillerson by himself. Mr Trump said that Mr Tillerson had been talking about this for a long time but an official statement from a member of the State Department said that Mr Tillerson had not been informed by the President that he would be fired. Mr Trump said that he and Mr Pompeo thought along similar lines, although both he and Ms Haspel may face tough confirmation hearings, with Mr Pompeo having been criticised for claiming that waterboarding does not constitute torture and opposing the closure of Guantanamo Bay. Meanwhile Ms Haspel was previously involved with one of the CIAs black site prisons in Thailand where detainees were subjected to waterboarding and other harrowing interrogation measures that have been widely condemned as torture. Human rights organisations have been quick to condemn the move. A few hours after the announcement of his departure, an emotional Mr Tillerson confirmed he was handing his day-to day duties to his deputy John Sullivan and his tenure officially ends on 31 March. He said that Mr Trump had called him around noon about three hours after Mr Trumps tweet went out and that he had spoken to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. In the speech about his departure he did not thank Mr Trump once, but praised the honesty and respect shown by his State Department staff A source of disagreement between Mr Trump and Mr Tillerson was the Iran nuclear deal, the Obama-era agreement in which Iran agreed to restrict its nuclear programme for at least 10 years in exchange for the loosening of economic sanctions. When you look at the Iran deal, I think its terrible. I guess he thought it was OK, Mr Trump said. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently, so we were not really thinking the same. Mr Tillerson had just returned from a shortened trip to Africa hours before Mr Trumps announcement. According to the New York Times, Mr Tillerson was warned of what was coming from White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who called to tell him to cut his Africa trip short and advised him you may get a tweet according to the Associated Press. The White House said that Mr Kelly had made clear that Mr Trump had wanted Mr Tillerson to step aside. Mr Tillersons team said he was feeling unwell on Saturday. Later in the weekend, the State Department said he would shorten his tour by a day. I felt like, look, I just need to get back, Mr Tillerson told reporters on his plane home. In the initial announcement, Mr Trump and the White House focused on Mr Pompeo and the history Mr Trump was making by appointing the first female director of the CIA. An aide to Mr Tillerson, Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein, said Mr Trump never explained to Mr Tillerson why he was being dismissed, and that the top diplomat had wanted to remain in the job. Mr Trumps apparent failure to give Mr Tillerson a reason for why he was being axed creates uncertainty over the soundness of Mr Trumps decision-making process. A similar situation occurred in May, when the President fired his FBI director James Comey with little warning. In that case, Mr Comey is said to have found out about the Presidents decision when he looked at a TV while addressing employees at an FBI field office. The Secretary had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues, Mr Goldstein said in a statement about Mr Tillerson. He established and enjoyed relationships with his counterparts. He will miss his colleagues at the Department of State and enjoyed working together with the Department of Defense in an uncommonly robust relationship. Mr Goldstein continued: The Secretary did not speak to the President this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted. Mr Goldstein himself was also fired, likely as a result of his statement about Mr Tillerson and contradicting the Presidents message. He was reportedly called up by the White House after Mr Tillersons firing on Tuesday and told that his services would no longer be needed. A senior White House official told news outlets that Mr Trump asked Mr Tillerson to step down on Friday, but the President did want not to make the announcement while Mr Tillerson was on a trip to Africa. Mr Trump and administration officials were said to have been thinking about replacing Mr Tillerson for months. Last year, Vice President Mike Pence also reportedly had to persuade the top diplomat to stay with the administration after Mr Tillerson was reportedly unhappy with comments Mr Trump made in a speech to the Boy Scouts of America. But in October, the State Department organised an impromptu press briefing in which the Secretary of State denied reports that he wanted to resign. Mr Tillerson said he would stay in the Trump administration as long as he is useful. Meanwhile, critics condemned the way he led the State Department amid reports that Mr Trump has also been unsatisfied with Mr Tillersons leadership. The USs top diplomat was said to have called Mr Trump a moron a report that Mr Tillerson sought to play down. A department spokesperson later said that the the Secretary does not use that type of language. In December, Mr Tillerson said diplomacy is not that simple as the State Department closed out 2017 with no victories. Several top department posts and ambassadorships also continue to remain vacant. Dozens of countries do not currently have a Senate-confirmed US ambassador in place, including key US allies. The State Department is never short on foreign policy challenges, with conflicts regarding Russia, North Korea and the Middle East tending to dominate newspaper headlines. But since taking office in January 2017, Mr Trump has indicated a preference for solving issues with military might rather than diplomacy. The President has consistently proposed increases in defence spending while also suggesting slashes to the State Departments funds. The firing of Mr Tillerson will not lead to an improvement in strained ties with Germany, German Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Roth said. 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 The dismissal of Rex #Tillerson does not make anything better, Mr Roth said in a tweet. Joe Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation, told The Independent that this is a disaster for American diplomacy. For all his faults, Tillerson was a supporter of military restraint and negotiated solutions to our key security threat, Mr Cirincione said. He was a key ally of Defence Secretary Jim Mattis in supporting the nuclear deal with Iran and resisting the illusion of a military solution to the crisis with North Korea. He will now be replaced by an inexperienced hawk who opposed the Iran Deal in Congress. Congressman Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the President had chosen a horrible time to make such a drastic change to the State Department. The timing of this move Couldnt be worse. Less than a week after announcing a summit with Kim Jong Un the sort of engagement that will require a diplomatic full-court press the President has let the world know that hes throwing an already hollowed-out State Department into further disarray with a transition at the top, Mr Engel said. However much I may have disagreed with Secretary Tillerson, to push him out at this moment sends a terrible message to friends and adversaries over the world. Although Democrats said they were dismayed by the decision, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed at least a little optimism that the State Department tumult could be coming to an end. The instability of this administration in just about every area weakens America, Mr Schumer tweeted. If hes confirmed, we hope that Mr Pompeo will turn over a new leaf and will start toughening up our policies towards Russia and Putin. Donald Trumps administration has set a new record for censoring, withholding or saying it could not find records requested by citizens, journalists and researchers. An Associated Press (AP) analysis found those who asked for records under the Freedom of Information Act received censored files or nothing in 78 per cent of 823,222 requests a record over the past decade. The federal government also spent $40.6m (29.2m) in legal fees last year to defend its decision to withhold federal files. 'Keep America Great': Donald Trump announces new campaign slogan The calculations covered eight months under Mr Trump, giving the first hints of how his administration complies with FOIA requests. His administration said it found nothing 180,924 times when responding to requests, an increase of 18 per cent over the previous year. The number of times it said it would be illegal under US laws to release the requested information nearly doubled to 63,749. Many such requests probably involved files related to the US investigation into how Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election or about Mr Trumps personal or business tax returns, Kel McClanahan, a Washington lawyer who frequently sues the US government for records, told the AP. When it did turn over everything requested, the federal government censored documents in nearly two-thirds of cases. In cases where no records were provided, it said it could find no information related to the request a little over half of the time. 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 However, the analysis said it was impossible, based on the governments own accounting, to determine whether records had been requested which did not actually exist or whether federal employees did not search hard enough before giving up. The federal government turned over everything requested in around one in every five FOIA requests. The Trump administration said it received a record number of information requests last year. It said it was directing federal agencies to improve the number of requests they process. Mr Trump has abandoned some of the common conventions of presidential transparency, for example by declining to release his personal tax returns, or even disclose logs of official visitors to the White House. His administration released the figures ahead of Sunshine Week, when journalists and news organisations promote government transparency and the publics right to access information. Under the Freedom of Information Act, both citizens and foreigners can compel the US government to turn over copies of federal records for little or no cost. Those seeking information are supposed to have their requests fulfilled unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy, or expose business secrets or confidential decision-making in certain areas. Nine people have died after a group of nearly 40 trekkers were trapped by a forest fire in India. The group were descending through the Theni forest in the Kurangani district of Tamil Nadu, southern India, when they found themselves surrounded by flames. They strayed from the path and huddled in a narrow valley covered with tall lemon grass, which also caught fire. A rescue operation is said to have saved 20 people but efforts are still ongoing. India's defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Indian Air Force has been involved in the operation. Most of the trekkers are believed to be from from Coimbatore and Tirupur districts, many of them students. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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 A senior police officer, who is a part of the operation, said the Indian Air Force's helicopters are ready to rescue those trapped in the fire. According to the fire fighters, at least five among the rescued have suffered serious burn injuries. SWNS An ancient great sharks tooth has been stolen from a world heritage Site in Australia. The fossil, which was not available to be viewed by tourists, is believed to have come from the Megalodon species that died 2.6 million years ago. The tooth is approximately 8cm long and went missing from an undisclosed location in a national park in Western Australia. Authorities believe thieves intentionally targeted the tooth which is one of two Megalodon teeth located in the Unesco World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Coast. "The worst part is they took the better specimen, which was not so well known," spokesperson Arvid Hogstrom told the BBC. "Our staff had actually physically covered it up with natural features to make sure it was hidden." It is thought the tooth was removed using either a chisel or a hammer which would be a violation of conservation laws. 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 Megalodon could grow to 18 metres in length and was a whale-eating species. It weighed up 30 times more than great white sharks at approximately 100 tonnes. Russia says that "not a single British media outlet" will be able to work in the country if the UK shuts down Russia Today. Its foreign ministry made the threat amid suggestions from British regulator Ofcom that it could not renew the license of the state-funded TV channel. Ofcom's announcement came amid increasing tensions between the UK and Russia following the poisoning of a spy on British soil with a nerve agent. The warning came in a press conference in which a foreign ministry spokeswoman responded to recent tensions by saying "one should not threaten a nuclear power", according to state news organisation RIA. Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters "Not a single British media outlet will work in our country if they shut down Russia Today (RT)," the news agency cited Maria Zakharova as saying on state television. RT, or Russia Today, is a round-the-clock news network that is funded by Vladimir Putin's government. With tensions growing between London and Moscow over the attack on Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, some lawmakers have said RT should be blocked in Britain. Ofcom, which enforces the broadcasting code in Britain, has an ongoing duty to check that holders of licences are "fit and proper". It said on Tuesday any ruling that Russia had acted unlawfully against Britain over the poisoning would be taken into consideration when assessing the network. RT, which runs eight TV channels including RT UK broadcast from London, said it disagreed with the position taken by Ofcom. "Our broadcasting has in no way changed this week from any other week and continues to adhere to all standards," it said in a statement. "By linking RT to unrelated matters, Ofcom is conflating its role as a broadcasting regulator with matters of state." RT says it broadcasts news with an edge for viewers who want to "question more". Available in more than 100 countries, it says it covers stories overlooked by the mainstream media and provides alternative perspectives on current affairs, including giving a Russian viewpoint. Britain has given Putin until midnight on Tuesday to explain how a nerve agent developed by the former Soviet Union was used to strike down the father and daughter. May will brief parliament on the situation on Wednesday and Ofcom said it would consider the implications for RT's broadcast licences after that. In a letter to ANO TV Novosti, the holder of RT's UK broadcast licences, Ofcom said it would carry out an independent "fit and proper" assessment and would write to RT again shortly to set out the details of the process. "This letter explained that, should the UK investigating authorities determine that there was an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the UK, we would consider this relevant to our ongoing duty to be satisfied that RT is fit and proper," Ofcom said. Additional reporting by agencies On the evening of 28 June 2010 New Zealander Henry Frith, a business consultant, was approached by a stranger outside his apartment in Madrid, asking if he had a few minutes to chat. The man, who was British, stressed that he thought it was very important for Frith that he complied: You see, I have your life in my hands. The visitor went on to explain that there would be a big problem for Frith if he did not talk now. The man calmly continued that he worked for British intelligence and that he knew full well that Frith worked for Russian intelligence. He apologised for surprising him out of the blue, but explained that it was the only way to talk securely. The offer was simple and one that is age-old in the world of espionage: to be a double agent. Working with the UK would be an opportunity to make your life a lot better, the British officer assured. Frith repeatedly insisted that it had been a case of mistaken identity. He had nothing to do with spies and he was not Russian. He was born in Ecuador: his mother was Ecuadorian and his father from New Zealand. He specialised in socio-economic aspects of investment. The meeting ended with the British man saying he would keep in touch. Next morning Frith flew out of Madrid. He next surfaced in Moscow where Sergei Cherepanov, which was his real identity, was welcomed back by his colleagues in the SVR, the Russian foreign security service, and reunited with his wife Olga and son, Andrei. Two Russian diplomats based in Madrid, Anton Olegovich Simbirsky and Aleksandr Nikolayevich Samoshkin, were subsequently accused of running Cherepanov and expelled from Spain. The details of how Cherepanov was approached by Western intelligence, and the conversation which took place, came later from Spanish officials. The attempted recruitment had come a day after the FBI had arrested 10 Russian agents in Boston, New York and Washington. They were sleepers, so called illegals, who had been in the US since the 1990s pretending to be Americans. In June 2011, a former SVR officer, Colonel Alexandr Poteyev, who had like Sergei Skripal had served with the military in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion of the country, was sentenced to 25 years in absentia for betraying the Anna Chapman network and Cherepanov. There was huge publicity over the case, a lot of it focusing on the glamorous Anna Chapman, born Anna Vasilyevna Kushchyenk, a Russian citizen who had obtained British citizenship by marriage. She was later freed in a spy-swap under which a Russian military intelligence colonel who had become an agent for MI6 Skripal was freed and settled in England with his wife. He disappeared from view until, as we know, the extraordinary murder attempt on him and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in his adopted hometown of Salisbury. Last weekend Chapman, who is now a Kremlin poster girl, model and TV presenter, condemned Skripal on social media as a traitor. The Spanish connection runs through the Skripal story. British and Spanish security agencies have been in liaison since the poisoning in Salisbury, according to a number of sources. Officials from both countries, however, refused to comment on the matter. Skripal was posted to Madrid by Russian military intelligence, GRU, in 1993. Cherepanov was already there as Frith (using the name of a New Zealand child who had died young, a classic ploy to create a legend in spycraft) for three years. Skripal, according to reports, had met Cherepanov in Spain. Yet his name could not have been passed on to MI6 among those that Skripal supplied to his British handlers. If it had been then London would have informed Madrid of the spy. Alternatively, the British were told about Cherepanov, but did not pass on the information to their Spanish allies. There is a possibility that the two branches of Russian intelligence, SVR and GRU, were so much out of touch with each other that they were unaware of each others agents. But this means accepting not only that Skripal did not know Cherepanov, but was also unaware of the activities of the handlers Simbirksy and Samoshkin despite being based in the same embassy. Intelligence analysts are sceptical about this scenario, especially at a station like Madrid where there would not be that many undercover Kremlin operatives, unlike Washington or London or Paris. There were certainly marks of official embarrassment over what had happened; it took a long time for the details of the affair to emerge in Spain and Spanish security agencies to acknowledge that the spy had been at work. Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters A Russian documentary made with the help of the countrys intelligence services charted Skripals time in Spain. His turning by Western intelligence, it described, began with an agent with the Spanish intelligence service, calling himself Luis, befriending him. It was already known that Skripal was looking for opportunities to make money. Luis suggested that the two men start a private business, exporting Spanish wine to Russia. After a while more money was needed and Luis introduced the Russian colonel to an MI6 officer who would become his handler. From then on the Russian would supply information to the British in return for money. Cherepanov, meanwhile, continued with his double life in Madrid, running his company Frimor Consultores with a Spanish partner and carrying on spying for Moscow guided by Skripals diplomatic colleagues Simbirksy and Samoshkin. At the end of the Nineties Skripal returned to Moscow to work at GRU headquarters. He continued to supply information to MI6 in return for money which became a fairly consistent demand. At one point he sent an emergency message to London. There was consternation that the Russians may be closing in on him and there would be a need for extraction. Instead it transpired that Skripal was urgently demanding $10,000 (7,200): the money was sent to him. Skripal would often fly over from Moscow to collect his fees in Spain. However, he suffered from diabetes, and sometimes it would be his wife Lyudmila who would collect the money instead. Lyudmila had always maintained that she thought the money was from his private business activities. But did the Kremlin disbelieve her? Could that be the reason that she, too, may have been targeted, if indeed it transpires that her death was not due to natural causes, endometrial cancer? The end to Skripals life as a British spy came, as it had begun, in Spain when a Russian agent inside the Spanish intelligence service, Roberto Florez Garcia, discovered the military intelligence colonels double-life and told his bosses in the Kremlin. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Spanish court. Skripal was arrested outside his home in Moscow in December 2004 in front of state TV cameras. He was convicted two years later of treason after being charged with betraying dozens of his comrades to MI6 and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Others accused of being traitors in Russia had faced far worse fates: among them Oleg Penkovsky, a colonel in the GRU like Skripal, who was executed for spying for the British and the Americans, and Dmitri Polyakov, a major-general in the GRU, who also faced the firing squad. Moscow announced that one reason for the relatively lenient sentence was that Skripal had cooperated with the authorities. Aleksandr Poteyev, who had betrayed the Anna Chapman network, had fled to the US before his trial. Vladimir Putin declared that traitors would be hunted down: No matter what 30 pieces of silver these people received there, they will have a stake in their throat, I assure you. To hide their whole lives, not to have the opportunity to talk to their loved ones. You know a person who chooses such a fate will regret it a thousand times. The Russian Interfax news agency claimed in 2016 he had died in the US. There has been no confirmation of the death from the American authorities. The largest rebel group in besieged eastern Ghouta has vowed to keep fighting, even as the Syrian government pushes on with an assault that has captured more than half of the rebel enclave. Our revolutionary ideology does not allow us to sell the blood of the holy warriors who liberated Ghouta, Hamza Bayraqdar, the Army of Islams chief military spokesperson, said in a video posted online on Tuesday. We will stay in Ghouta and defend it. Boris Johnson suggests the UK could strike Syria in response to Assad's attack on eastern Ghouta The announcement comes as Syrian President Bashar al Assads forces advanced into the rebel district, capturing more than half of the territory of farms and towns that the opposition has held since 2012. Rebels have repeatedly denied they have been in talks which could see fighters and their families bussed to opposition-held Idlib province in the northwest as part of an amnesty deal similar to Aleppo and Daraya. A Russian-backed Syrian government assault on Ghouta launched last month has caused more than 1,000 deaths and injured more than 6,000 people, according to monitors and medical charities. The violence is some of the worst of Syrias seven-year-old conflict to date. The UN says up to 400,000 people remain in the besieged areas, including the town of Douma. 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 While appeals for all parties to adhere to a UN resolution demanding a ceasefire have fallen on deaf ears, for the first time on Tuesday a total of 35 people in need of urgent medical treatment and their chaperones were escorted out of the area safely. Deana Lynn, an American woman living in Douma with her husband, eight children and four children, told The Independent that her family and many others have been using basements to hide from shelling and bombing over the last few weeks. There were fewer fighter planes and strikes on the town on Tuesday, she said, probably as a result of the evacuations - but like many in the area she didnt know how long the arrangement would last. Even as she spoke the thud of an air strike she said was from a Russian plane could be heard in the background, ending the brief respite. A baby began to cry. Elsewhere in the Syrian capital, the military said it had seized a southern suburb after an evacuation deal which saw 1,000 people bussed to Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold, in the countrys northeast. The evacuees included some 300 militants from the extremist Ajnad al-Sham faction and their families. Ms Lynn says she hopes the US and international community can exert pressure on Moscow and Damascus so that her family could avoid a similar fate. Regardless, everyone in her family has a small bag ready in case they have to flee at short notice. Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Show all 8 1 /8 Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Sifting through plastic: the workshop uses plastic from bottles and other waste materials to produce liquid and gas fuels. The liquid is refined into gasoline, diesel and benzene fuels, which in turn are sold for domestic and commercial use Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Khodor, 20, at the workshop in the rebel-held and besieged neighbourhood of Douma, Damascus Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Back to basics: a man checks the heat of a pipe pouring with fuel Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Khodor, 20, must keep an eye on the burning plastic inside the workshop in Douma Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste A young man takes a container of the locally made fuel, which can be used for domestic heating and on farms and bakeries Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Abu Fahad on a rest break with his colleagues inside the workshop, where the air is heavy with toxic fumes Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Fuel drips into a container at the workshop. Most locals are glad of the family-run business, which has restored a degree of normality to the region Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Khodor extracts fuel from plastic in the workshop Reuters I dont want to leave eastern Ghouta. My children grew up here, its my home, this is the place they know. I think people in general they dont want to leave or become displaced. What would they do in Idlib? They would have to look for a home or theyd have to leave for Turkey or Europe. "We hope it wont happen to us I just hope well be safe." Evidence of the wave of young creatives opening coffee shops and concept stores that challenge Parisian traditions and some would say bringing rejuvenation to a city criticised for being staid and stuffy in recent years is all over Instagram of late. But between the matcha lattes and vegan bakes, businesses that have been doing the same thing for centuries can still be found. The citys oldest shops reveal their history from the art supplier who invented oil pastel for Picasso, to the patisserie that made pastries for Louis XV and let you take a piece of it home with you. Est 1887 Gustave Sennelier sold custom-made colours to painters including Cezanne from his art supplies shop directly across the Seine from the Louvre, and a few blocks from the citys most prestigious art school, the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts. His son Henri invented oil pastel for Picasso during his tenure, and the baton has now been passed to his grandson Dominique, whose painter daughter Sophie also works in the shop the fourth generation of her family to do so. Family run: Henri Sennelier invented oil pastel for Picasso (Lindsey Johnstone) Est 1820 This culinary equipment store has been keeping Parisian chefs and Cordon Bleu students (including Julia Child) in copper pans for almost 200 years. The shop was ideally located beside the citys main wholesale food market at Les Halles, but despite the fact the traders were moved out to suburban Rungis in 1969, E. Dehillerins cavern of floor-to-ceiling shelves festooned with every imaginable utensil has held firm. Julia Child got her cookware from this shop (Lindsey Johnstone) Est 1898 Recommended How to enjoy the ultimate road trip through France The oldest honey shop in Paris has been in business since 1898 and has been located at its current home on the Rue Vignon since 1905 as has the mosaic queen bee, surrounded by her workers, who greets you from the tiled floor when you step inside. The shop sells more than 40 types of honey from all over France and around the world from lavender to sunflower, eucalyptus to thyme as well as the honey made from its own hives on the rooftops of nearby department stores Printemps and Galeries Lafayette, Le Miel des Toits de Paris (honey from the roofs of Paris). Est 1745 In their own words: Maison Antoine didnt come down in the last shower. The founders of the oldest umbrella store in the city, Mr and Mrs Antoine, first set up shop at either end of the Pont Neuf, with the idea of renting umbrellas to those crossing the bridge. In 1760 their success saw them move to another strategic location at Palais Royal, a popular spot for a promenade, and they have been at the current premises around the corner on Avenue de lOpera since 1885. Est 1730 When Louis XV married Polish princess Marie Leszczynska, her personal pastry chef Nicolas Stohrer accompanied her to Paris and opened a shop on Rue Montorgueil, providing pastries to the French court and the public alike. Almost 300 years later the patisserie is still there, now the oldest in Paris, producing babas au rhum, salted caramel eclairs and pains au chocolat fit for a princess. By royal appointment: Stohrer was founded by a princesss pastry chef (Lindsey Johnstone) Est 1761 Pierre Jean Bernard opened a grocery store in 1761, which became a sweet shop when the second wife of his son-in-law Marie-Adelaide Bridault, la mere de famille took over the business in 1807. Stocking more than 1,200 French favourites from every region and every era, the company now has 12 branches across Paris, but the first shop in the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre is, of course, the most picturesque. With its original tiled floor, wooden counters and pendant lights, it was declared a historic monument in 1984. A la Mere de Famille was declared a historic monument (Lindsey Johnstone) Est 1700 The oldest bookshop in Paris, Delamain, first opened 318 years ago under the arcades of the Comedie-Francaise and moved to its current premises across the street in 1906, where it sells more than one million titles. Paris also has the oldest English language bookshop in continental Europe Librairie Galignani, which opened in 1801 and is currently run by the sixth generation of the Galignani family to do so. The familys history in publishing books is just as illustrious Simone Galignani opened a Venice publishing house in 1520 and was one of the first to use the Guttenberg mechanical printing press. The oldest bookshop in Paris has one million titles on sale (Lindsey Johnstone) Est 1838 The worlds first shirt shop, never mind the first in Paris; the word chemisier (shirtmaker) was actually coined to describe Charvet. Founded in 1838, it has been on Place Vendome since 1877, and at its current position there since 1982. Seven floors contain 6,000 fabrics, including 400 whites in 104 different shades. Founder Christofle Charvets father was wardrobe curator to Napoleon Bonaparte, and the list of those who have worn his sons shirts is no less impressive, including Zola, Baudelaire, Monet, Matisse, Oscar Wilde, Hemingway, Proust, Winston Churchill, JFK, Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent and, more recently, Barack Obama. Everyone from Oscar Wilde to Barack Obama has bought a shirt here (Lindsey Johnstone) Est 1831 A self-described Parisian cabinet of curiosity, Deyrolle was founded by passionate entomologist Jean-Baptiste Deyrolle, but insects are not the only creatures to be found inside this temple of taxidermy, where lions and tigers and bears (and zebras and emus and antelopes) greet you at every turn. For something a little easier than an elk to take home on the Eurostar, the vintage natural history posters reliably detailing everything from shells to snakes to sugar production make excellent souvenirs. Est 1947 The story of Repetto began when Italian shoemaker Rose Repetto made the perfect pair of pointe shoes for her son, legendary choreographer Roland Petit. After his friend Rudolf Nureyev requested a pair, dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet began flocking to Repettos workshop. She opened up shop properly in 1959 down the street from the Palais Garnier, home of the ballet company, and Repetto is today its official shoe supplier. If youre not planning to go en pointe any time soon, you can pick up a pair of ballet flats; Repetto created them for Brigitte Bardot in 1956 after the actress, who had trained in classical ballet, asked for a version of a ballet slipper she could wear in the street. As with Glastonbury tickets, so with the latest railcard: the prizes go to the quick and the lucky. The 26-30 Railcard, giving one-third off most train tickets for passengers born between 14 March 1987 and 13 March 1992, was launched nationwide on Tuesday morning. But the website for the digital discount card buckled under the strain, as many of the five million eligible Millennials competed for the 10,000 digital discount cards on offer. In a response to furious and frustrated potential customers on Twitter, National Railcards tweeted: We did not expect a response like this. Were trying really hard get everything up and working. One reaction was: Didnt expect a response like this?! 5 million people eligible. 10,000 available. Its not rocket science. David Sidebottom, passenger director at the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: The nationwide trial of the 26-30 Railcard should be welcome news for passengers facing stagnant or falling incomes but they will be extremely disappointed that they are unable to access the website. Beatrice Hubble tweeted: If the 26-30 railcard were available to everyone, no one would have kept throwing themselves at the website which would then have dealt with steady demand. Please roll out to all and save us all from a repeat of this time wasting morning. Very disappointing. A spokesperson for Rail Delivery Group, which represents the train companies and Network Rail said: Were sorry to those who have been unable to buy a trial 26-30 Railcard this morning. This is due to the exceptionally high volume of traffic on the 26-30 Railcard website. We are increasing the capacity on the website to better manage the high level of traffic. Railcards are still available to purchase and people should keep checking @_Railcards Twitter and Facebook pages for updates. In a bizarre twist, one of the leading train operators has launched a short term avocard, valid up to Tuesday 20 March. Virgin Trains, which runs from London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, said: With the avocard, youll get all the perks of the 26-30 Railcard. Simply present an avocado in place of the railcard at any Virgin Trains West Coast station to get a one-third off our fares. Passengers who want to take advantage of the discount must also produce proof of age at the ticket desk, and carry the fruit on the journey. The rail industry has limited the number of cards in order to assess the effects. The hope is that the 26-30 Railcard will increase the number of off-peak journeys taken, and boost overall revenue. But train operators are concerned that the age range may simply reduce their spending on trains. Also, there are fears that cheaper deals could increase crowding on rush-hour trains. A regional trial in East Anglia, also with 10,000 cards, has been taking place for two months. All those cards sold out swiftly. Rail industry insiders were furious when the long-planned trial of a 26-30 Railcard was presented by the Chancellor as his initiative in the November 2017 Budget. Budget 2017: Chancellor announces new millennial railcard and cut to long-haul flight duty Philip Hammond told Parliament: I can announce a new railcard for those aged 26 to 30, giving 4.5 million more young people a third off their rail fares. He gave no indication that it was a trial. The Red Book which gives details of Budget changes, said only: Further details will be announced in agreement with the industry and will be implemented from Spring 2018. At the time one senior figure said: Hammond has made a land grab for a rail industry initiative and pretended it was all his idea. There could be unintended consequences, which is what the trial was all about. Anger was directed at the Government, with G R Campbell-Shiel tweeting: We can all agree the 26-30 railcard rollout has been a shambles. The millennials lost the Conservatives the last election and this will worsen. It has already been trialled in E.A. I implore you to offer it to everyone. And Ellie Robinson tweeted: Big shout out to @_Railcards for promising 26-30 railcards then 180ing & calling it a limited trial. Ill see you all on the Megabus, pals. Helen Coffey, a journalist at The Independent, turns 31 on Wednesday. She appears to have no prospect of a solo railcard for another three decades, when she will qualify for a Senior Railcard. Ms Coffey said: I feel particularly invested in getting hold of the 26-30 railcard as this is my last shot but it seems maddeningly impossible to buy one. Ive been attempting through the website since 7am this morning, which has never been anywhere near letting me purchase a railcard. I then tried to buy over the phone, spending an hour and 10 minutes on hold. When I finally got through, I gave all my details only to be told it couldnt be put through the system and was advised to try the website. I give up! Iain Duncan Smith said Corbyn shouldnt Play politics over the poisoning by talking about Russia-linked donations to our governing party. The Tory backbenches roared shame and disgrace. Chris Leslie MP, prominent member of the dwindling New Labour Resistance to Corbyn declared it is "just not appropriate" to push "party political differences" when "our country is potentially under attack" in response to the Labour leaders comments in the Commons last night. Liberal commentators, New Labour holdouts and angry Tories all want politics kept out of the House of Commons when security matters are debated. But politics are key to how we respond to the Salisbury nerve gas attack. If the Russian government did back attempted murder on British soil, the UK needs to make a firm response. Far from being misjudged, Corbyn pointed to one of the most effective responses we can make. He pointed to what the Russians want from us, and what we can do about it. Broadly speaking, the Russian oligarchs made their money from the Wild East privatisations during the economic shock treatment of the 1990s. Putins rule rests on reining in those oligarchs, befriending some, imprisoning others. Being rich in Russia now means being friendly with Putin. The Russian leaders business friends like the UK: they want to trade and clean their money in the City, invest it in London property and send their kids to British public schools. They often want to keep open options to follow their money to the UK in case they fall out with Putin. Financial sanctions on Putin-friendly Russians, including seizing cash and assets in the UK could be a powerful weapon, but one that is regularly ruled out. This was made explicit in 2014 when deputy national security adviser Hugh Powell was photographed entering Number 10 with a document listing options for responses to Russias Ukraine invasion. Powells slip-up exposed UK policy would not jeopardise City cash. Powells document said Britain would Not support, for now, trade sanctions or close London's financial centre to Russians. Theresa May: 'highly likely' Russia was responsible for poisoning of Sergei Skripal City interests, the luxury property lobby and Russia-linked investors have a real interest in resisting sanctions powers. These groups are also among the Tories top funders. May will have to run against Tory donors interests to make a serious stand against Putin. Far from playing politics, Corbyn was pressing this precise point. After telling Parliament this was a deeply alarming attack which the whole House condemns Corby referred to huge fortunes, often acquired in the most dubious circumstances in Russia and sometimes connected with criminal elements, have ended up sheltering in London and trying to buy political influence in British party politics. Corbyn called on the government to introduce new financial sanctions powers. This isnt a vague gesture, it is a concrete call. Mays government are currently resisting Labours amendments to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill that could introduce the so-called Magnitsky powers. Sergei Magnitsky was an anti-corruption investigator who died after being assaulted in a Russian prison in 2009. In response, the US Magnitsky Act creates powerful sanctions powers. Labour want similar powers here. Corbyn was calling for specific powers, and pressuring May to introduce them. There is a good chance that the government will be forced to concede. While backbenchers like Chris Leslie or John Woodcock or Yvette Cooper make solemn and cross party noises, Corbyn has actually, by acting like an opposition, begun to shift policy. Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters The call to not play politics is particularly hypocritical given Conservative MPs, Ministers and the Tory press spent weeks playing politics with an absurd and entirely fake story about Corbyn-the-Czech-spy. They played that silly game up to the point one MP was forced into a humiliating public apology. By contrast Corbyn is shocking faint hearted pundits by calling for actual policy changes. There is a regular call to suspending politics for the sake of empty displays of unity, but it usually gets us into a bad place: the very worst foreign policy mistakes have been made when the front benches of both parties agreed to stand together in Pound Shop Churchill poses: the Commons voted for Invading Iraq and bombing Libya in the same spirit of non-partisan unity against external enemies: both decisions were vigorously backed by Chris Leslie and IDS. Both were opposed by Corbyn. Both interventions did nothing for security, instead spreading chaos and misery. Corbyn talking about actual politics inside the Houses of Parliament makes some of the political class feel uncomfortable. Because real political change is outside their comfort zone. But this is how change happens. In 1787, so the story goes, Grigory Potemkin, keen to impress the Russian Empress Catherine The Great, built a portable picturesque village on the banks of the River Dnieper. As the Empress cruised down the river, the village would be dismantled overnight and reassembled further along the route, to charm Catherine again the next day. There is dispute to this day about the veracity of the Potemkin Village tale, but this week theres little doubt Russia is heading into what we can describe as a Potemkin election a thin facade of democracy in which there can only be one winner: Vladimir Putin. After this election, Putin will be approaching a term as effective leader of Russia longer than Leonid Brezhnev. And much like the Brezhnev era, Putins regime relies on enemies in order to keep some sort of momentum and avoid stagnation. Putinism, such as it is, now has a take-on-all-comers approach, and is almost entirely driven by a vindictive streak. This is obvious in foreign policy, but equally so in Putins domestic assaults on dissent. The Presidents recent state of the nation address had a touch of the Bond villain about it, as the Putin outlined what he claimed were new Russian super weapons, capable of circumventing and penetrating any defence mechanism. The presentation came with a leitmotif: You havent listened to us before; you will have to now. Putin: Russia has 'unstoppable' supersonic nuclear missile that cannot be traced by Western defence systems According to Putin, after the USSR collapsed Russia lost 23.8 per cent of its territory, 48 per cent of its population, 39.4 per cent of its industry, and 44.6 per cent of its military. He added: It was not by chance that abroad, they said not USSR but Soviet Russia. Two days later, meeting his supporters at the huge Luzhniki arena to sing the national anthem with them, Putin dedicated a speech to his plans to make Russia brighter, and make the next decade full of bright victories. Thats pretty chilling if you think he believes that 14 now-independent states were actually part of Russia, not the USSR. No, Russia is not really having an election on 18 March. While there are no real opposition candidates, Putin is not campaigning either. But his regime is busy, internally no less than externally. A series of petty new laws have been enacted with the sole aim of making genuine, grassroots democratic action almost impossible. We at FIDH have counted 50 since Putin resumed his position as President in 2012. 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 Internally, Russians are discouraged from engaging with the outside world. As recently as 6 March, a Russian senate committee presented a report on the negative influence of the West on Russian youth. All of the West, in its totality, on all the youth. Meanwhile, civil servants from army officers to firemen have essentially been told they are unable to travel outside the country, cutting off millions of people from contact with the outside. Back in autumn, Russia issued a travel warning recommending that its citizens think twice before travelling abroad, saying the US was hunting for Russians to arrest around the world. The Foreign Ministry statement warned Russian citizens that when abroad, they face a serious threat of arrest by other countries at Washingtons request, after which they could be extradited to the United States. Considering these circumstances, we strongly insist that Russian citizens carefully weigh up all the risks when planning trips abroad, the Foreign Ministry said. But it is civil society activists and human rights defenders a section of society many democratic societies would be proud of who face the most pressure at home. State TV produces bizarre documentaries that present human rights defenders and independent media as corrupt and degenerate perverts and sell outs. At the same time, NGOs and civil society groups find it almost impossible to receive independent funding, and fight for their existence through dozens of specially designed laws to make their life impossible. In extreme cases, their headquarters are firebombed, or their leader arrested on ridiculous charges, as happened to the head office of Memorial in Chechnya recently. In the more absurd cases, the Russian authorities develop a sudden interest in workplace health and safety small NGOs have been known to be persecuted for having their wall not sufficiently fire-protected, or letting staff sit too close to computer screens. Putin is not an anachronism; hes a trendsetter. However flawed it might have been, post-Soviet Russia did have democratic functions. Those have now been effectively destroyed. Whats more, the view that the independent rule of law and democratic institutions will triumph is now increasingly unfashionable, as demagogues from Trump to Duterte seek to bypass the state or bend it to their will. Its no surprise their supporters look to Russia for inspiration. Sergei Skripal: What we know so far The worst thing the rest of the world can do is accept Putins stranglehold on Russia as normal, or as less dangerous than what Russia does outside its borders. The Kremlin knows this, which is why it spends so much money on propaganda that is not simply concerned with promoting the Russian view of the world, but also undermining the ideas of human rights and civil liberties; a world in which, when democracy is essentially meaningless, a Potemkin election is even better as the real thing. Dont fall for it. Sacha Koulaeva is director of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk at the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) The North Kingston School Committee showed support for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Subcommittee and board member Jen Lima amid debate regarding a proposal to recall Lima at their regularly-scheduled meeting Tuesday night. Debate regarding the DEI sub-committee dominated the majority of citizens comments during the meeting as some citizens expressed concern for the work the subcommittee is doing and the agenda proposed by its mission statement. The school committee voiced support for the subcommittees work and for Lima, who has become the focus of those opposing it. Lima is far from the only local or state politician facing backlash from constituents who have called for, or initiated, a recall less than a year after the 2020 election. Also Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom easily defeated a recall effort that cost taxpayers an estimated $300 million or more. Do you believe it should be more difficult for citizens to recall an elected official after an election? Why or why not? Let us know below and cast your vote in this week's poll. You voted: Indian American Ameya Pawar will serve as president and executive director of One Illinois. The site will seek to reclaim the voice of and unite the neighborhoods of Illinois. (Facebook photo) A Sikh American, who has not been named, was allegedly attacked at a gas station in Parsippany, New Jersey, by a young man who called him a terrorist and a Muslim, and told him to go back to your own country. When the Indian American victim tried to use his phone to take photos of the suspects license plate, he was allegedly punched. (representational image by Sikh Coalition photo/via Facebook) Farmers go on an indefinite hunger strike as they press for their demands in Bhubaneswar March 12, 2018. In Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that, following the Long March undertaken by farmers to press for demands, the government has agreed to meet most of their requests. (IANS photo) The Illusion of War Without Casualties Americas wars in the post-9/11 era have been characterized by relatively low U.S. casualties, but that does not mean that they are any less violent than previous wars, Nicolas J.S. Davies observes. By Nicolas J.S. Davies March 12, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Last Sundays Oscar Awards were interrupted by an incongruous propaganda exercise featuring a Native American actor and Vietnam vet, featuring a montage of clips from Hollywood war movies. The actor, Wes Studi, said that he fought for freedom in Vietnam. But anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of that war, including for instance the millions of viewers who watched Ken Burns Vietnam War documentary, knows that it was the Vietnamese who were fighting for freedom while Studi and his comrades were fighting, killing and dying, often bravely and for misguided reasons, to deny the people of Vietnam that freedom. Studi introduced the Hollywood movies he was showcasing, including American Sniper, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, with the words, Lets take a moment to pay tribute to these powerful films that shine a great spotlight on those who have fought for freedom around the world. To pretend to a worldwide TV audience in 2018 that the U.S. war machine is fighting for freedom in the countries it attacks or invades was an absurdity that could only add insult to injury for millions of survivors of U.S. coups, invasions, bombing campaigns and hostile military occupations all over the world. Wes Studis role in this Orwellian presentation made it even more incongruous, as his own Cherokee people are themselves survivors of American ethnic cleansing and forced displacement on the Trail of Tears from North Carolina, where they had lived for hundreds or maybe thousands of years, to Oklahoma where Studi was born. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Unlike the delegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention who broke out in chants of no more war at displays of militarism, the great and the good of Hollywood seemed nonplussed by this strange interlude. Few of them applauded it, but none protested either. From Dunkirk to Iraq and Syria Perhaps the aging white men who still run the Academy were driven to this exhibition of militarism by the fact that two of the films nominated for Oscars were war movies. But they were both films about the U.K. in the early years of the Second World War stories of British people resisting German aggression, not of Americans committing it. Like most cinematic paeans to the U.K.s finest hour, both these films are rooted in Winston Churchills own account of the Second World War and his role in it. Churchill was roundly sent packing by British voters in 1945, before the war was even over, as British troops and their families instead voted for the land fit for heroes promised by the Labour Party, a land where the rich would share the sacrifices of the poor, in peace as in war, with a National Health Service and social justice for all. Churchill reportedly consoled his cabinet at its final meeting, telling them, Never fear, gentlemen, history will be kind to us for I shall write it. And so he did, cementing his own place in history and drowning out more critical accounts of the U.K.s role in the war by serious historians like A.J.P. Taylor in the U.K. and D.F. Fleming in the U.S. If the Military Industrial Complex and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are trying to connect these Churchillian epics with Americas current wars, they should be careful what they wish for. Many people around the world need little prompting to identify the German Stukas and Heinkels bombing Dunkirk and London with the U.S. and allied F-16s bombing Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and the British troops huddled on the beach at Dunkirk with the destitute refugees stumbling ashore on Lesbos and Lampedusa. Externalizing the Violence of War In the past 16 years, the U.S. has invaded, occupied and dropped 200,000 bombs and missiles on seven countries, but it has lost only 6,939 American troops killed and 50,000 wounded in these wars. To put this in the context of U.S. military history, 58,000 U.S. troops were killed in Vietnam, 54,000 in Korea, 405,000 in the Second World War and 116,000 in the First World War. But low U.S. casualties do not mean that our current wars are less violent than previous wars. Our post-2001 wars have probably killed between 2 and 5 million people . The use of massive aerial and artillery bombardment has reduced cities like Fallujah, Ramadi, Sirte, Kobane, Mosul and Raqqa to rubble, and our wars have plunged entire societies into endless violence and chaos. But by bombing and firing from a distance with very powerful weapons, the U.S. has wreaked all this slaughter and destruction at an extraordinary low rate of U.S. casualties. The U.S.s technological war-making has not reduced the violence and horror of war, but it has externalized it, at least temporarily. But do these low casualty rates represent a kind of new normal that the U.S. can replicate whenever it attacks or invades other countries? Can it keep waging war around the world and remain so uniquely immune from the horrors it unleashes on others? Or are the low U.S. casualty rates in these wars against relatively weak military forces and lightly armed resistance fighters giving Americans a false picture of war, one that is enthusiastically embellished by Hollywood and the corporate media? Even when the U.S. was losing 900-1,000 troops killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan each year from 2004 to 2007, there was much more public debate and vocal opposition to war than there is now, but those were still historically very low casualty rates. U.S. military leaders are more realistic than their civilian counterparts. General Dunford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told Congress that the U.S. plan for war on North Korea is for a ground invasion of Korea , effectively a Second Korean War. The Pentagon must have an estimate of the number of U.S. troops who are likely to be killed and wounded under its plan, and Americans should insist that it makes that estimate public before U.S. leaders decide to launch such a war. The other country that the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia keep threatening to attack or invade is Iran. President Obama admitted from the outset that Iran was the ultimate strategic target of the CIAs proxy war in Syria. Israeli and Saudi leaders openly threaten war on Iran, but expect the U.S. to fight Iran on their behalf. American politicians play along with this dangerous game, which could get thousands of their constituents killed. This would flip the traditional U.S. doctrine of proxy war on its head, effectively turning the U.S. military into a proxy force fighting for the ill-defined interests of Israel and Saudi Arabia. Iran is nearly 4 times the size of Iraq, with more than double its population. It has a 500,000 strong military and its decades of independence and isolation from the West have forced it to develop its own weapons industry, supplemented by some advanced Russian and Chinese weapons. In an article about the prospect of a U.S. war on Iran , U.S. Army Major Danny Sjursen dismissed American politicians fears of Iran as alarmism and called his boss, Defense Secretary Mattis, obsessed with Iran. Sjursen believes that the fiercely nationalistic Iranians would mount a determined and effective resistance to foreign occupation, and concludes, Make no mistake, U.S.military occupation of the Islamic Republic would make the occupation of Iraq, for once, actually look like the cakewalk it was billed to be. Is This Americas Phony War? Invading North Korea or Iran could make the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan look in hindsight like the German invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland must have looked to German troops on the Eastern front a few years later. Only 18,000 German troops were killed in the invasion of Czechoslovakia and 16,000 in the invasion of Poland. But the larger war that they led to killed 7 million Germans and wounded 7 million more. After the deprivations of the First World War reduced Germany to a state of near starvation and drove the German Navy to mutiny, Adolf Hitler was determined, like Americas leaders today, to maintain an illusion of peace and prosperity on the home front. The newly conquered people of the thousand-year Reich could suffer, but not Germans in the homeland. Hitler succeeded in maintaining the standard of living in Germany at about its pre-war level for the first two years of the war, and even began cutting military spending in 1940 to boost the civilian economy. Germany only embraced a total war economy when its previously all-conquering forces hit a brick wall of resistance in the Soviet Union. Could Americans be living through a similar phony war, one miscalculation away from a similar shock at the brutal reality of the wars we have unleashed on the world? How would the American public react if far greater numbers of Americans were killed in Korea or Iran or Venezuela? Or even in Syria if the U.S. and its allies follow through on their plan to illegally occupy Syria east of the Euphrates? And where are our political leaders and jingoistic media leading us with their ever-escalating anti-Russian and anti-Chinese propaganda? How far will they take their nuclear brinksmanship ? Would American politicians even know before it was too late if they crossed a point of no return in their dismantling of Cold War nuclear treaties and escalating tensions with Russia and China? Obamas doctrine of covert and proxy war was a response to the public reaction to what were in fact historically low U.S. casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq. But Obama waged war on the quiet, not war on the cheap . Under cover of his dovish image, he successfully minimized the public reaction to his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, his proxy wars in Libya, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen, his global expansion of special operations and drone strikes and a massive bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria. How many Americans know that the bombing campaign Obama launched in Iraq and Syria in 2014 has been the heaviest U.S. bombing campaign anywhere in the world since Vietnam? Over 105,000 bombs and missiles , as well as indiscriminate U.S., French and Iraqi rockets and artillery , have blasted thousands of homes in Mosul, Raqqa, Fallujah, Ramadi and dozens of smaller towns and villages. As well as killing thousands of Islamic State fighters, they have probably killed at least 100,000 civilians , a systematic war crime that has passed almost without comment in the Western media. And It Is Late How will the American public react if Trump launches new wars against North Korea or Iran, and the U.S. casualty rate returns to a more historically normal level maybe 10,000 Americans killed each year, as during the peak years of the American War in Vietnam, or even 100,000 per year, as in U.S. combat in the Second World War? Or what if one of our many wars finally escalates into a nuclear war, with a higher U.S. casualty rate than any previous war in our history? In his classic 1994 book, Century of War, the late Gabriel Kolko presciently explained, Those who argue that war and preparation for it is not necessary to capitalisms existence or prosperity miss the point entirely: it simply has not functioned in any other way in the past and there is nothing in the present to warrant the assumption that the coming decades will be any different Kolko concluded, But there are no easy solutions to the problems of irresponsible, deluded leaders and the classes they represent, or the hesitation of people to reverse the worlds folly before they are themselves subjected to its grievous consequences. So much remains to be done and it is late. Americas deluded leaders know nothing of diplomacy beyond bullying and brinksmanship. As they brainwash themselves and the public with the illusion of war without casualties, they will keep killing, destroying and risking our future until we stop them or until they stop us and everything else. The critical question today is whether the American public can muster the political will to pull our country back from the brink of an even greater military disaster than the ones we have already unleashed on millions of our neighbors. Nicolas J S Davies is the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq. He also wrote the chapter on Obama at War in Grading the 44th President: a Report Card on Barack Obamas First Term as a Progressive Leader. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of Information Clearing House. ===== Join the Discussion Better Nukes for a Safer Planet By Dmitry Orlov March 12, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - A lot of people seem to have lost the thread when it comes to nuclear weapons. They think that nuclear weapons are like other weapons, and are designed to be used in war. But this is pure mental inertia. According to all the evidence available, nuclear weapons are anti-weapons, designed to prevent weapons, nuclear or otherwise, from being used. In essence, if used correctly, nuclear weapons are war suppression devices. Of course, if used incorrectly, they pose a grave risk to all life on Earth. There are other risks to all life on Earth as well, such as runaway global warming from unconstrained burning of hydrocarbons; perhaps we need to invent a weapon or two to prevent that as well. Some people feel that the mere existence of nuclear weapons guarantees that they will be used as various nuclear-armed countries find themselves financially, economically and politically in extremis. As proof of this, they trot out the dramaturgical principle of Chekhovs Gun. Anton Chekhov wrote: , , . , . [If you say in Act I that there is a gun hanging on the wall, then it is a must that in Act II or III it be fired. And if it wont be fired, it shouldnt have been hung there in the first place.] And if you point out that we are talking about military strategy and geopolitics, not theater, they then quote Shakespeares All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances and believe that it is QED. Now, I happen to agree wholeheartedly with Chekhov, when it comes to dramaturgy, and I agree with the Bard as well, provided we define the world as the world of theater, from which the worlds of geopolitics and nuclear physics are both dramatically different. Let me explain it in terms that a drama major would understand. If there is a nuclear bomb hanging on the wall in Act I, then, chances are, it will still be hanging on that wall during the final curtain call. In the meantime, no matter how many other weapons are present on stage during the play, you can be sure that none of them would be used. Or maybe they will be, but then the entire audience would be dead, in which case you should definitely ask for your money back because this was billed as a family-friendly show. Back in the real world, it is hard to argue that nukes havent been useful as deterrents against both conventional and nuclear war. When the Americans dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they only did this because they could do so with complete impunity. Had Japan, or an ally of Japan, possessed nuclear weapons at the time, these attacks would not have taken place. There is a considerable body of opinion that the Americans didnt nuke Japan in order to secure a victory (the Japanese would have surrendered regardless) but to send a message to Joseph Stalin. Stalin got the message, and Soviet scientists and engineers got cracking. There was an uncomfortable period, before the USSR successfully tested their first atomic bomb, when the Americans were seriously planning to destroy all major Soviet cities using a nuclear strike, but they set these plans aside because they calculated that they didnt have enough nukes at the time to keep the Red Army from conquering all of Western Europe in retaliation. But in August 29, 1949, when the USSR tested its first atomic bomb, these plans were set asidenot quite permanently, it would later turn outbecause even a singular nuclear detonation as a result of a Soviet response to an American first strike, wiping out, say, New York or Washington, would have been too high a price to pay for destroying Russia. Since thencontinuously except for a period between 2002 and two days agothe ability of nuclear weapons to deter military aggression has remained unquestioned. There were some challenges along the way, but they were dealt with. The Americans saw it fit to threaten the USSR by placing nuclear missiles in Turkey; in response, the USSR placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The Americans didnt think that was fair, and the result was the Cuban Missile Crisis. Eventually the Americans were prevailed upon to stand down in Turkey, and the Soviets stood down in Cuba. Another threat to the deterrent power of nuclear weapons was the development of anti-ballistic weapons that could shoot down nuclear-tipped missiles (just the ballistic ones; more on that later). But this was widely recognized to be a bad thing, and a major breakthrough came in 1972, when the USA and the USSR signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Over this entire period, the principle that kept the peace was Mutual Assured Destruction: neither side would provoke the other to the point of launching a nuclear strike, because such a move was guaranteed to be suicidal. The two sides were reduced to fighting a series of proxy wars in various countries around the world, which were so much the worse for it, but there was no danger of these proxy conflicts erupting into a full-scale nuclear conflagration. In the meantime, everybody tried to oppose nuclear proliferation, preventing more countries from obtaining access to nuclear weapons technologywith limited success. The cases where these efforts failed testify to the effective deterrent value of nuclear weapons. Saddam Hussein of Iraq didnt have any weapons of mass destruction and ended up hung. Muammar Qaddafi of Libya voluntarily gave up his nuclear program, and ended up tortured to death. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter But Pakistan managed to acquire nuclear weapons, and as a result its relations with its traditional nemesis India have become much more polite and cooperative, to the point that in June of 2017 both became full members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, along with China, Russia and other Eurasian nations. And then North Korea has made some breakthroughs with regard to nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles, and as a result of that the US has been reduced to posturing and futile threats against it while South Korea has expressed some newfound respect for its northern neighbor and is now seeking rapprochement. In 2002 the prospect of continued nuclear deterrence was set a major setback when the US pulled out of the ABM treaty. Russia protested this move, and promised an asymmetrical response. American officials ignored this protest, incorrectly thinking that Russia was finished as a nuclear power. Since then, the Americans spent prodigious amounts of moneywell into the trillions of dollarsbuilding a ballistic missile defense system. Their goal was simple: make it possible to launch a first strike on Russia, destroying much of its nuclear arsenal; then use the new American ABM systems to destroy whatever Russia does manage to launch in response. On February 2, 2018 the Americans decided that they were ready, and issued a Nuclear Posture Review in which they explicitly reserved the right to use nuclear weapons to prevent Russia from using its nuclear deterrent. And then, two days ago, all of that came to a happy end when Vladimir Putin gave a speech in which he unveiled several new weapons systems that completely negate the value of US missile defense shieldamong other things. That was the response the Russians promised to deliver when the US pulled out of the ABM treaty in 2002. Now, 16 years later, they are done. Russia has rearmed with new weapons that have rendered the ABM treaty entirely irrelevant. The ABM treaty was about ballistic missilesonce that are propelled by rockets that boost the missile to close to escape velocity. After that the missile follows a ballistic trajectoryjust like an artillery shell or a bullet. That makes its path easy to calculate and the missile easy to intercept. The US missile defense systems rely on the ability to see the missile on radar, calculate its position, direction and velocity, and to launch a missile in response in such a way that the two trajectories intersect. When they cross, the interceptor missile is detonated, knocking out the attacking missile. None of the new Russian weapons follow ballistic trajectories. The new Sarmat is an ICBM minus the Bit maneuvers throughout its flight path and can fly through the atmosphere rather than popping up above it. It has a short boost phase, making it difficult to intercept after launch. It has the range to fly arbitrary paths around the planetover the south pole, for instanceto reach any point on Earth. And it carries multiple maneuverable hypersonic nuclear-armed reentry vehicles which no existing or planned missile defense system can intercept. Among other new weapons unveiled two days ago was a nuclear-powered cruise missile which has virtually unlimited range and goes faster than Mach 10, and a nuclear-powered drone submarine which can descend to much larger depths than any existing submarine and moves faster than any existing vessel. There was also a mobile laser cannon in the show, of which very little is known, but they are likely to come in handy when it comes to frying military satellites. All of these are based on physical principles that have never been used before. All of these have passed testing and are going into production; one of them is already being used on active combat duty in the Russian armed forces. The Russians are now duly proud of their scientists, engineers and soldiers. Their country is safe again; Americans have been stopped in their tracks, their new Nuclear Posture now looking like a severe case of lordosis. This sort of pride is more important than it would seem. Advanced nuclear weapons systems are a bit like secondary sexual characteristics of animals: like the peacocks tail or the deers antlers or the lions mane, they are indicative of the health and vigor of a specimen that has plenty of spare energy to expend on showy accessories. In order to be able to field a hypersonic nuclear-powered cruise missile with unlimited range, a country has to have a healthy scientific community, lots of high-powered engineers, a highly trained professional military and a competent security establishment that can keep the whole thing secret, along with an industrial economy powerful and diverse enough to supply all of the necessary materials, processes and components with zero reliance on imports. Now that the arms race is over, this new confidence and competence can be turned to civilian purposes. So far, the Western reaction to Putins speech has closely followed the illogic of dreams which Sigmund Freud explained using the following joke: 1. I never borrowed a kettle from you 2. I returned it to you unbroken 3. It was already broken when I borrowed it from you. A more common example is a childs excuse for not having done her homework: I lost it; my dog ate it; I didnt know it was assigned. In this case, Western commentators have offered us the following: 1. There are no such weapons; Putin is bluffing 2. These weapons exist but they dont really work 3. These weapons work and this is the beginning of a new nuclear arms race Taking these one at a time: 1. Putin is not known to bluff; he is known for doing exactly what he says he will do. He announced that Russia will deliver an asymmetric response to the US pulling out of the ABM treaty; and now it has. 2. These weapons are a continuation of developments that already existed in the USSR 30 years ago but had been mothballed until 2002. What has changed since then was the development of new materials, which make it possible to build vehicles that fly at above Mach 10, with their skin heating up to 2000C, and, of course, dramatic improvements in microelectronics, communications and artificial intelligence. Putins statement that the new weapons systems are going into production is an order: they are going into production. 3. Most of Putins speech wasnt about military matters at all. It was about such things as pay increases, roads, hospitals and clinics, kindergartens, nurseries, boosting retirements, providing housing to young families, streamlining the regulation of small businesses, etc. That is the focus of the Russian government for the next six years: dramatically improving the standard of living of the population. The military problem has already been resolved, the arms race has been won, and Russias defense budget is being reduced, not increased. Another line of thought in the West was that Putin unveiled these new weapons, which have been in development for 16 years at least, as part of his reelection campaign (the vote is on March 18). This is absurd. Putin is assured of victory because the vast majority of Russians approve of his leadership. The elections have been about jockeying for a second place position between the Liberal Democrats, led by the old war horse Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and the Communists, who have nominated a non-communist oligarch businessman Pavel Grudinin, who has promptly disqualified himself by failing to disclose foreign bank accounts and other improprieties and now appears to have gone into hiding. Thus, the Communists, who were previously slated for second place, have burned themselves down and Zhirinovsky will probably come in second. If Americans dont like Putin, then they definitely wouldnt like Zhirinovsky. Putin is practical and ambivalent about our Western partners, as he likes to call them. Zhirinovsky, on the other hand, is rather revenge-minded, and seems to want to inflict pain on them. At the same time, there is now a committee, composed of very serious-looking men and women, who are charged with monitoring and thwarting American meddling in Russian politics. It seems unlikely that the CIA, the US State Department and the usual culprits will be able to get away with much in Russia. The age of color revolutions is over, and the regime change train has sailed all the way back to Washington, where Trump stands a chance of getting dethroned Ukrainian-style. Another way to look at the Western reaction to Russias new weapons is using Elizabeth Kubler-Rosss stages of grief. We already saw denial (Putin is bluffing; weapons don't work) and the start of anger (new arms race). We should expect a bit more anger before moving on to bargaining (you can have the Ukraine if you stop building Sarmat). Once the response comes back (You broke the Ukraine; you pay to get it fixed) we move on to depression (The Russians just dont love us any more!) and, finally, acceptance. Once the stage of acceptance is reached, here is what the Americans can usefully do in response to Russias new weapons systems. First of all, Americans can scrap their ABM systems because they are now useless. Russias Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had this to say about it: , , "" , , "". , "" . [What is being built in Poland and Romania, and in Alaska, and is planned in South Korea and Japanthis missile defense umbrellaturns out to be riddled with holes. I dont know why they should now buy this umbrella for so much money.] Secondly, Americans can scrap their aircraft carrier fleet. All its useful now for now is threatening defenseless nations, but there are much cheaper ways to threaten defenseless nations. If Americans are still planning to use them to dominate sea lanes and control world trade, then the existence of hypersonic cruise missiles with unlimited range and drone submarines that can lurk at great ocean depths for years make the worlds oceans off-limits for American navys battle groups in the event of any major (non-nuclear) escalation because now Russia can destroy them from an arbitrary distance without putting any of their assets or personnel at risk. Lastly, Americans can pull out of NATO, which has now been shown to be completely useless, dismantle their thousand military bases around the world, and repatriate the troops stationed there. Its not as if, in light of these new developments, American security guarantees are going to be worth much to anyone, and Americas allies will be quick to realize that. As far as Russian security guarantees, there is a lot on offer: unlike the US, which is increasingly seen as a rogue stateand an ineffectual and blundering one at thatRussia has been scrupulous in adhering to its international agreements and international law. In developing and deploying its new weapons systems, Russia has not violated any international agreements, treaties or laws. And Russia has no aggressive plans towards anyone except terrorists. As Putin put it during his speech, - . . [We are not planning to attack anyone or take over anywhere. We have everything we need.] I hope that the US doesnt plan to attack anyone either, because, given its recent history, this wont work. Threatening the whole planet and forcing it to use the US dollar in international trade (and destroying countries, such as Iraq and Libya, when they refuse); running huge trade deficits with virtually the entire world and forcing reserve banks around the world to buy up US government debt; leveraging that debt to run up colossal budget deficits (now around a trillion dollars a year); and robbing the entire planet by printing money and spending it on various corrupt schemesthat, my friends, has been Americas business plan since around the 1970s. And it is unraveling before our eyes. I have the audacity to hope that the dismantling of the American Empire will proceed as copacetically as the dismantling of the Soviet Empire did. (This is not to say that it wont be humiliating or impoverishing, or that it wont be accompanied by a huge increase in morbidity and mortality.) One of my greatest fears over the past decade was that Russia wouldnt take the US and NATO seriously enough and just try to wait them out. After all, what is there to really to fear from a nation that has over a 100 trillion dollars in unfunded entitlements, thats full of opioid addicts, with 100 million working-age people permanently out of work, with decrepit infrastructure and poisoned national politics? And as far as NATO, there is, of course, Germany, which is busy rewriting Deutschland, Deutschland, uber alles to be gender-neutral. What are they supposed to do next? March on Moscow under a rainbow banner and hope that the Russians die laughing? Oh, and theres also NATOs largest Eurasian asset, Turkey, which is currently busy slaughtering Americas Kurdish assets in Northern Syria. But simply waiting them out would have been a gamble, because in its death throes the American Empire could have lashed out in unpredictable ways. I am glad that Russia chose not to gamble with its national security. Now that the US has been safely checkmated using the new Russian weapons systems, I feel that the world is in a much better place. If you like peace, then it seems like your best option is to also like nukesthe best ones possible, ones against which no deterrent exists, and wielded by peaceful, law-abiding nations that have no evil designs on the rest of the planet. This article was originally published by " Club Orlov " - The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of Information Clearing House. ===== Join the Discussion March 12, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - A terrible fear is abroad in the land. The MSM has its thongs in a knot with dire warnings that our democracy is being attacked, subverted, betrayed. Between Putin and the Russians and Trump and his clowns the cry is that America teeters on the brink of losing our priceless, cherished democracy. Youre late, people. Lifetimes too late... Managing the Great Charade that supports the sanctified dogma that America is a democracy has been the first duty of the Capitalist engine that owns everything, from the Founders down to todays Imperial goats nest. That democracy never functions and never has, Plato predicted and history confirms. This, notwithstanding the spin of one of the mightiest social and political reactionaries of all time--Mr. Churchill--that democracy is the worst form of government known, except all others. Hey, it worked for him. Our own financial upper crust--1% of the 1%--have ingested, along with all our means of production, all organs of public information, and by relentless application have indelibly incised their holy writ in the public soul. The sadly ignorant public internalized their deception and nourishes itself, for want of any substantial sustenance, on this fatally poisonous fairy tale. Sham democracy makes inevitable rapid takeover and iron control of the state by its wealthiest, while the helpless, victim demos is cynically urged to validate its peonage by voting for an elite-vetted marionette. This, and not Exceptionalism, is the real American story. George Carlin said its called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. The current political bomb cyclone of idiocy and hysteria that has hit us is a direct result of the one positive thing to come from Trumps election: the rapid exposure and breakdown of the Deep States democracy charade. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The Deep State wizards and warriors who reign jointly in the vast, dark throneroom of American Capitalism have seen the moving finger writing and they know, where their hearts should be, that theyve lost their grip, so theyre circling the wagons around the National Security apparatus. Their current and only ploy strategically is to use the flagging mojo of the worthless Democratic Party to enlist its corps of lockstep liberals and progressives behind a crusade to rid our suckered country of Trump. An admirable goal; a consummation devoutly to be wished. Trump is the personification of putrid human rot and, in a sane nation, he could never have surfaced from the social cesspool. He is also beside the real point. Trump exists solely because the Deep State--the vicious cabal of Money Masters who own and run our country--has so flagrantly betrayed the citizenry it blathers of protecting that theyre not buying it any more. In the humiliating inadvertant striptease now baring the ugly body of that odious machine, two facts are clear: that the Deep State is the command and control center of both whoring parties, and that within that sinister Shogunate there is total unanimity on the indispensibility of Imperialist war. The fatuous, baseless Putin/Russia demonization sold to the Democrats vacuous herd has converted what was once a mild, timid resistance to Deep State repression--to the Patriot Act; to NSA spying on us; to FBI criminal villainy, and Justice Department sleaze--into zombie cheerleaders for perps of the illegal, unconstitutional crimes they historically opposed. Whats the big deal in trashing the Bill of Rights if itll shitcan Trump, right? Principles are to be rigidly adhered to when they work for you and only abandoned when they dont. In this radical conversion, Democrats have effectively taken over as the leading political edge of the Deep State. So, say they lose him. Doubtful, and impeachment wont play. Via Article 25, maybe? Enter, the unfinished gingerbread Christofascist. Will he suit Deep State puppeteers better? But, why bother? Unsupported, isolated, they have Trump where they want him already. They can keep banging on their noxious tar baby--hobbled and gelded, chained like an organ grinders monkey--while the pilots in the wheelhouse steer the course they choose. Sleepers awake. Forget losing the democracy you never had. What should horrify you to the depth of your soul is that the Deep State, though gut-punched, is aroused, and that monster, now without mask or makeup, is bound and determined to rule, and steer us all toward terminal disaster. March 13, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Mike Pompeo, Donald Trumps soon-to-be Secretary of State is a hard-line Republican who shares the president-elects pugnacious worldview and, like Trump, spent years as a businessman before becoming a politician. Pompeo, served three terms in the U.S. Congress from conservative Kansas, was a member of the House intelligence committee and has served as the director of the CIA since. During the 2016 presidential election Pompeo was an outspoken critic of former President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, Hillary Clinton's handling of the Benghazi attack and has said former National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is a traitor who deserves a death sentence. During an appearance on C-SPAN last February, Pompeo said Snowden should receive the death penalty for his actions. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter He should be brought back from Russia and given due process and I think the proper outcome would be that he would be given a death sentence, Pompeo said. As recently as last November, mere days after Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 elections, Pompeo declared on Twitter, with regards to the Iran nuclear deal, "I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism." As a lawmaker Pompeo supported restoring the National Security Agencys bulk collection of telephone metadata, a contentious terror-fighting tool Congress eliminated after Snowdens revelations. Its unclear if Pompeos views on using harsh interrogation techniques completely mirror those of Trump, who says: We should go tougher than waterboarding, which simulates drowning. US President Donald Trump has sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, replacing him with the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo. Thanking Mr Tillerson for his service on Twitter, Mr Trump said the new state secretary would do "a fantastic job". Mr Tillerson, a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was only appointed to the job just over a year ago. The president also nominated Gina Haspel to become the first woman director of the CIA. The Department of State said Mr Tillerson had not spoken to the president and was "unaware of the reason" for his firing. Under Secretary Steve Goldstein said: "The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security." Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Mr Trump said his differences with Mr Tillerson came down to personal "chemistry". "We got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things," said the president. "When you look at the Iran deal, I think it's terrible. I guess he thought it was OK. "I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently, so we were not really thinking the same. "With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well. "Rex is a very good man I like Rex a lot." By Moon Of Alabama March 13, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - U.S. President Donald Trump just fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - 12:44 PM - 13 Mar 2018 Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! According to the anti Russian propagandists (vid) Tillerson got the job because Trump loves Russia and Tillerson was in good standing with Putin. The same people now claim that Tillerson was fired from his job because Trump loves Russia and Tillerson was not in good standing with Putin. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Neither is correct. The plan to oust Tillerson and elevate Pompeo to State has been rumored and written about for several month. The plan was "developed by John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff". It had nothing to do with Russia. Tillerson never got traction as Secretary of State. Congress disliked him for cutting down some State Department programs. Trump overruled him publicly several times. There is some contradiction in the statements coming from the White House and the State Department. According to the Washington Post: Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. Last Friday Tillerson suddenly fell ill while traveling in Africa and canceled several scheduled events. But a statement by Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein contradicts the Friday claim: "The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of critical progress made in national security. [...] The Secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason. Tillerson knew he was fired but did not tell his staff? [UPDATE:] From the Associated Press White House correspondent: Zeke Miller @ZekeJMiller - 3:49 PM - 13 Mar 2018 WH official says chief of staff John Kelly called Tillerson Friday and again on Saturday. Both calls to Tillerson, the official says, warned that Trump was about to take imminent action if he did not step aside. When Tillerson didn't act, Trump fired him. [End-Update] With Tillerson leaving Secretary of Defense Mattis is losing an ally in the cabinet: [I]t starts with me having breakfast every week with Secretary of State Tillerson. And we talk two, three times a day, sometimes. We settle all of our issues between he and I, and then we walk together into the White House meetings. That way, State and Defense are together. Mattis sometimes calming influence over Trump on military issues will now become less effective. CIA head Pompeo, the new Secretary of State, is a neoconservative with a racist anti-Muslim attitude and a special hate for Iran which he compared to ISIS. That he will now become Secretary of State is a bad sign for the nuclear agreement with Iran. The Europeans especially should take note of that and should stop to look for a compromise with Trump on the issue. The deal is now dead. There is no chance that a compromise will happen. The new CIA director Gina Haspel is well known for actively directing and participating in the torture of prisoners at 'black sites': Beyond all that, she played a vital role in the destruction of interrogation videotapes that showed the torture of detainees both at the black site she ran and other secret agency locations. The concealment of those interrogation tapes, which violated multiple court orders as well as the demands of the 9/11 commission and the advice of White House lawyers, was condemned as obstruction by commission chairs Lee Hamilton and Thomas Keane. Haspel would be in jail if former president Barack Obama had not decided against prosecuting the CIA torture crimes. Both, Pompeo and Haspel, will need to be confirmed by Congress. Both will receive a significant number of 'yes'-votes from the Democratic side of the aisle. This article was originally published by " Moon Of Alabama March 13, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - President Donald Trumps nominee to run the Central Intelligence Agency oversaw the torture of terrorism suspects at a secret CIA prison in Thailand in 2002 and helped destroy videotapes documenting the brutality. Trumps decision to name Gina Haspel as the intelligence agencys first female director is likely to face fierce opposition from Democrats and civil-liberties groups. Haspel has been the agencys second-in-command since February 2017, when Trump appointed her. But unlike the deputy director, the CIA director must be confirmed by the Senate, where several influential Democrats have protested Haspel over her role in CIA torture while she was a clandestine agency officer. On June 7, the EU Center for Constitutional and Human Rights called on Germany to issue a warrant for her arrest over the torture allegations. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Haspel would replace CIA Director Mike Pompeo, whom Trump said he would nominate to become secretary of state, replacing the ousted Rex Tillerson. Haspel ran the first overseas detention site that the CIA created after the 9/11 attacks so it could interrogate suspects outside of the US, where laws prohibit torture. At the Thailand site that Haspel ran, CIA officers brutally interrogated suspected al-Qaida leader Abu Zubaydah. Interrogators slammed him against a wall repeatedly, poured water over his face until he started to suffocate and confined him for hours in a cramped box. Three years later, the CIA destroyed a videotape of the torture along with 91 other tapes documenting the agencys brutal interrogations in overseas black sites. Haspel drafted the order to destroy the tapes, according to a news report, though the CIA has said the ultimate decision to destroy that tapes was made by Haspels boss, Jose Rodriguez, who was head of the agencys clandestine service. When Trump named Haspel the agencys deputy director, Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich urged Trump to reconsider the appointment. Her background makes her unsuitable for the position, the senators wrote Trump. Both are members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and they urged the declassification of information about Haspel. On Tueday, Wyden said he would oppose both Haspel's and Pompeo's nominations. "Ms. Haspel's background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director," Wyden said in a statement. "Her nomination must include total transparency about this background." Republican Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, at the time called Haspel undoubtedly the right person for the job and said she had over the years impressed us with her dedication, forthrightness, and her deep commitment to the intelligence community. John Brennan, who was CIA director from 2013 to 2017, praised Haspel in an interview Tuesday on MSNBC, noting that the controversial interrogation program she oversaw in Thailand had been authorized by President George W. Bush and deemed lawful by the Justice Department. She has tremendous respect within the ranks. She was involved in a very very controversial program, and I know that the Senate confirmation process will look at that very closely, Brennan said. But Gina Haspel has a lot of integrity. She has tried to carry out her duties at the CIA to the best of her ability, even when the CIA was asked to do some very diff things in very challenging times. Trump said in a statement that Haspel would achieve a historic milestone as the first woman to serve as CIA director. Mike [Pompeo] and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect. Haspel, a CIA veteran with more than 30 years experience, served temporarily in 2013 as head of the agencys clandestine service. But her role in the clandestine torture program prompted Brennan to name another candidate to take the job permanently. US Seeks to Intentionally Prolong Syrian Bloodshed By Tony Cartalucci The consequences of America's depraved foreign policy is being blamed by Western special interests on the very victims it targeted. - Continue ====== Making Sense of the Russian 5th Generation Fighters in Syria By The Saker The risks of this deployment in Syria are very real and very serious. - ====== Putin Claims Strategic Parity, Respect By Ray McGovern We are greatly concerned by certain provisions of the revised Nuclear Posture Review, which envisages a nuclear response to conventional arms attacks and even to a cyber threat. - Continue ====== Why Putins Latest Weapons Claims Should Scare Us By Jonathan Marshall Be afraid, that armchair Cold Warriors in the United States will shamelessly exploit Putins speech to justify trillionsof dollars in needless spending. - Continue ====== The Xi Silk Road is Here to Stay By Pepe Escobar Xi, as well as Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has identified very clearly which way the wind is blowing. - Continue ====== Its Time For AIPAC To Register As A Foreign Agent By M.J. Rosenberg Lets see if presidents are still afraid to say what they think about the occupation and the denial of democratic rights to Palestinians.. - Continue ====== Legalizing Tyranny By Chris Hedges A million prisoners work for corporations in prison and are often paid under a dollar an hour. - Continue ====== 59 Turkish soldiers killed in Afrin, civilians displaced Turkey's warplanes are said to have killed at least 40 pro-Assad fighters in Syria's Afrin region Syria; One third of Syria's Ghouta enclave taken by government Syria: What the mainstream media isnt telling you about Eastern Ghouta Aid finally makes it into besieged rebel enclave in Syria Damascus Under Constant Shelling Which Western Media Ignores NGO Volunteer Syria: With its enemies diverted or fighting each other, Isis is making a swift and deadly comeback US Embassy in Turkey shut for unspecified security threat Fighting outside Yemeni capital kills 55, wounds dozens Yemeni retaliatory attacks left 45 Saudi soldiers dead in February: Report 6 IS militants killed in Iraq's Kirkuk Four policemen killed, injured in bomb attack in Iraq's Mosul Trump Mocks George W. Bush, Calls Iraq Invasion 'Single Worst Decision Ever Made' Saudi-led bloc behind failed coup in Qatar: Al Jazeera Sold out! Guatemala, in nod to Trump, moving embassy in Israel to Jerusalem Israeli media: Close Netanyahu aide turns state witness Bill Would Codify $38B In Defense Aid For Israel Israel Seeks US Ammunition, Support for Planned Attack on Lebanese Civilian Targets Watch: Hassan Nasrallah on the Oil and Gas Wars Raging in the Middle East: Video and transcript US Forces Struggle to Hold Territory in Somalia Excessive Force: ICE Shackled 92 Somalis for 40 Hours On a Failed Deportation Flight. That Was Just the Start of the Abuse. ISIS video shows desperate last stand of US soldiers killed in Niger ambush by jihadi militants Libyan gov't to form military force to secure southern Libya Kashmir: Thousands hit the streets after army killings North Korea's Kim Jong-un meets South Korean envoys Donald Trump Says North Korea "Called Up," Seeking Talks With US War criminal: Lindsey Graham: War with North Korea would be 'worth it' in the long run An attack on North Korea could start a US-China war -- Don't do it China warns to take necessary measures if US starts trade war Trump's tariff threat on European cars could spell big trouble for Germany Trump trade row: EU considers tax on Levi jean imports What will happen if USA freezes Russian dollar assets? : The Bank of Russia holds a third of its currency assets in the United States. Putin: Russia will 'never' extradite 13 nationals indicted by Mueller Moscow to Leave the ECHR: Pursuing a Russia First Policy Putins stunning revelations about new Russian weapons systems RAF sends all its spy planes to eastern Europe amid rising military tensions with Russia Critically ill man 'former Russian spy' : A man who is critically ill after being exposed to an unknown substance in Wiltshire is a Russian national convicted of spying for Britain, the BBC understands. Yanis Varoufakis: How Europes Band-Aid Ensures Greeces Bondage : All the happy talk about impending debt relief and a clean exit from Greeces third bailout obscures an uglier truth: the countrys debt bondage is being extended to 2060. Italy election: Populist Five Star and League vie for power Italy now poses an 'existential threat to the eurozone' analysts react to election Golden Visa programmes in Europe pose major corruption risk : How European countries are selling access to the Schengen visa-free travel area, and even EU citizenship, to foreign investors with little scrutiny, transparency or due diligence. Trump says Canada and Mexico will escape new tariffs only after NAFTA concessions In Top 10 US Exports For 2017, 3 Countries Keep Popping Up: China, Canada And Mexico US investigator probes possible UAE attempts to buy influence Kushner's Family Business Received Loans After White House Meetings Fates of Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner uncertain as roles reduced Jared Kushners swift rise and long, long fall Florida Senate rejects ban on assault weapons, votes to arm teachers President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday during a meeting with some stakeholders at the Government House in Makurdi, the Benue State capital said he is not aware that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, left Benue State for Nasarawa State after he was ordered to relocate to the state. Buhari was informed by the people of Benue that the IGP did not spend up to 24hrs in Benue. Nigerians everywhere are wondering why Mr President didnt do a follow up on his instructions to IGP Idris to relocate to Benue and stop the killings and what will happen now that he knows, his orders were defiled by the IGP. Femi Adesina, was earlier on Channels TV explaining to Nigerians why Buhari didnt know IGP Idris didnt move to Benue as ordered. According to him, the information that the IGP disobeyed the Presidents order to relocate to Benue only came yesterday, which before then was just a mere allegation. Mr Adesina whom Nigerians have crowned the king of comparison was quoted to have said, under GEJ 230 girls were kidnapped but under Buhari JUST 110 girls were kidnapped President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday during a meeting with some stakeholders at the Government House in Makurdi, the Benue State capital said he is not aware that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, left Benue State for Nasarawa State after he was ordered to relocate to the state. President Buhari had on January 9, ordered the Inspector General of Police to immediately move to Benue State to restore law and order and prevent further loss of lives and properties, due to attacks by herdsmen in Benue. Nigerians are however very unpleased with the statement saying Buhari has no grip of his government, a clear sign of incompetence. Many are of the opinion that the IG be fired at once. Here are some reactions from Nigerians below; All this plausible deniability is just classic. How can a president of a country claim not to be well informed of the whereabouts of his employees. Wehdon Sah. Kelvinbagwell (@kelvinbagwell02) March 12, 2018 The fact that Pres. Buhari has no control over his own I-G of Police speaks volumes.Two months after he directed him to move to Benue to ensure that the killings stopped he tells us that he just found out that the I-G was not even there for up to 24 hours! What a shameful mess! Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) March 12, 2018 Saying this mr President means u are not in charge of ur government. GEJ was voted out for the same reason sir. Ayonoadu Nafi B (@nafiayonoadu) March 12, 2018 U sent IGP after Fulani herdsmen while u sent buratai after IPOB and Zarzaky. Is this not hypocritical? Now u telling the world u never knew ur orders were floated. This clearly shows u are not fit to be president. Temitope (@bigtdool) March 12, 2018 Nawa ooo,this country,if a president cant say dzone day we would wake up to hear naija has been sold. Which way Nigeria? Joyce Christabel Bro (@bro_joyce) March 12, 2018 Is it not better that the country is privatized, maybe that would be the solution out of this present mess Chigozie Ofoedu (@chigozieofoedu) March 12, 2018 Okay, I, like a few Nigerians, may be willing to give the president the benefit of doubt. However, if I wake up tomorrow nd the IG is still the IG, then I will simply assume that the president is trying to fool Nigerians again. Adekunle Dalton-Oke (@aaadaltonoke) March 12, 2018 Just shows u have no clue of whats going on Mr President. In a civilised society d IGP would resign with immediate effect, but I am a dreamer. dipo Lawuyi (@dipo356) March 12, 2018 Wait! Nigerians we are now sure something happened to our president during his stay at London. #BringBack ourPresident dan_alheri (@folmi_yohanna) March 12, 2018 Controversial South African dancer, Zodwa Wabantu, who is popularly known for performing without underwear, was deported from Zambia on Saturday, on the grounds that her performance would undermine national values. Zodwa has been deported, her Zambian promoter Lucky Munakampe, confirmed the development, adding that she said she had flown out at 0520 GMT on a South African Airways flight. Zambian musician Karasa Karayo was scheduled to launch his album on 10th March 2018 and the promoter for the show Sunset Sound Production, had lined up Zodwa to perform. The organizers of the show said in a statement earlier this week that Zambias National Arts Council had rejected their application. (NAC) claimed that allowing Zodwa to perform in Zambia will be against the countrys national values adding that the application did not meet the three months period in which to apply for clearance. NAC further said Zodwas performance in Zambia would be against public interest. The Council stated that Zodwas performances were not in the public interest and undermined our national values, the statement said. National Guidance and Religious Affairs Minister, Godfridah Sumaili last week told state-run newspaper The Times of Zambia that Zodwa was not welcome in the country and was promoting immorality with her shows. Zodwa says that when she confirmed that she was not wearing underwear, she was deported, reports Independent Online. Zodwa said that she was not angry with Zambian authorities and hoped to return to the country soon. Leave them to fight, I will be back when they are ready to have me. There was so much fighting between them. I am just an entertainer who was invited to perform. I was stuck in the middle of it all. I would love to still perform in Zambia in the future. Earlier this week Zodwa told TshisaLIVE that she would go ahead with plans to perform in the country, despite suggestions that she would not be welcome by authorities over her decision to not wear underwear while performing. I think that people are just trying to sabotage me and the event. The underwear thing is my choice and I dont understand why people are so upset. There are Christians who do much worse things behind closed doors. She said that authorities were hoping to pray for her and cast out her demons while she was in the country. President Buhari had on January 9, ordered the Inspector General of Police to immediately move to Benue State to restore law and order and prevent further loss of lives and properties, due to attacks by herdsmen in Benue. However, on Monday during a meeting with some stakeholders at the Government House in Makurdi, the Benue State capital said, Buhari says, he is not aware that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, left Benue State for Nasarawa State after he was ordered to relocate to the state. Should Buhari fire the IGP or not??? This content is from: Premium At least three hedge funds were among the top shareholders of a biopharma company that was up by double-digits amid the markets meltdown. Vancouver, British Columbia - March 13, 2018 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) Alliance Growers Corp. (CSE: ACG) (FSE: 1LA) (WKN: A2DFYX) ("Alliance Growers" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Business Development Services Agreement with Mr. Stuart Gray that also includes the provision of certain Public Relations Services. Mr. Gray has 22 plus years of experience in business and marketing. He has founded several media and promotional related companies and has provided consulting to over 100 public companies in the USA and Canada. Stuart's services have ranged from reverse mergers, marketing, branding, social media and financings. Stuart has provided consulting to several Marijuana-related Companies since 2014. Stuart was founder and CEO of Laguna Blends Inc. Laguna acquired Isodiol International Inc. (ISOL CSE, ISOLF OTCQB) in a combination of stock and cash. Laguna then did a company name change to Isodiol International Inc. Isodiol International Inc. is the market leader in pharmaceutical grade phytochemical compounds and the industry leader in the manufacturing and development of CBD consumer products. Commenting on the addition of Cannabis industry veteran Stuart Gray, Alliance Growers President and CEO, Dennis Petke stated, "It is a true honor to welcome a man of Stuart's stature to Alliance Growers. Having known and worked with Stuart for several years, I have first-hand knowledge of his passionate professionalism and tremendous successful experience in the cannabis industry and in marketing in general. He is adept at establishing long-lasting, business relationships built on integrity, trust, and win-win solutions. We have already begun to develop business opportunities that fit perfectly with the Alliance business model. We will be announcing those business developments in the coming weeks. We look forward to collaborating with Stuart and to leveraging his network and veteran cannabis experience to the benefit of all Alliance stakeholders". The Business Development contract totals $110,000 in cash as consideration for the Services over a six-month period with an expectation that Mr. Gray will continue working with Alliance beyond that time. In addition, Alliance Growers has closed a non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement") of up to 180,000 shares (the "Shares") at a price of $0.50 per Share, for gross proceeds of $90,000. All Shares issued pursuant to the placement will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of closing. About Alliance Growers Alliance Growers is a diversified cannabis company driven by the Company's 'Four Pillars' Organization Plan Cannabis Botany Centre, Strategic ACMPR Investments, CBD Oil Supply and Distribution, and Research and Development. Alliance Growers has finalized its a new business partnership with WFS Pharmagreen Inc., to jointly develop and operate a 40,000-square foot facility to be the first of its kind in Western Canada to house a DNA Botany lab, extraction facility and Tissue Culture Plantlet Production facility to service the Cannabis market and agriculture market in general. The proposed Cannabis Botany Centre will grow Cannabis plantlets using proprietary tissue culture propagation, specifically the "Chibafreen Invitro Plant Production System", which assures consistent composition and purity of each plantlet for the growers. Alliance Growers has entered into an exclusive agreement to acquire a late stage licensed producer applicant, Biocannatech, to become a licensed producer under Health Canada's access to cannabis for medical purposes regulations ("ACMPR") in Quebec. Alliance Growers will supply financing and resources to build out the medical marijuana facility in preparation for the inspection required to obtain a growing license. Once Health Canada is satisfied with a successful crop, Alliance Growers will be granted its distribution license. This acquisition allows the Company an opportunity to become a licensed producer in the Province of Quebec and gain an in-road to provide tissue culture plantlets to all licensed producers in Quebec. Further, Alliance Growers has been negotiating to obtain other exclusive Canadian distribution agreements for certain proprietary products for support of the Cannabis growing industry in addition to possible partnerships with Licensed Producer Applicants at various stages in the Health Canada License process. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.alliancegrowers.com or the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. If you would like to be added to Alliance Growers' news distribution list, please send your email address to newsletter@alliancegrowers.com On behalf of the board of directors of ALLIANCE GROWERS CORP. "Dennis Petke" Dennis Petke President and CEO For more information contact: Dennis Petke Tel: 778-331-4266 DennisPetke@alliancegrowers.com Rob Grace Communications Consultant Tel: 778-998-5431 RobDGrace@gmail.com THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE. FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements or information. More particularly and without limitation, the news release contains forward-looking statements and information relating to Company's corporate strategy. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by management of the Company, including, without limitation, the Company's ability to carry out its business plan. Although management of 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 since no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of the Company relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to identify and complete additional suitable acquisitions to further the Company's growth as well as risks associated with the medical marijuana industry in general, such as operational risks in development and production delays or changes in plans with respect to development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of the capital markets; the uncertainty of receiving the required licenses, production, costs and expenses; health, safety and environmental risks; marketing and transportation; loss of markets; environmental risks; competition; incorrect assessment of the value of the potential market; ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources; failure to obtain required regulatory and other approvals and changes in legislation, including but not limited to tax laws and regulated regulations. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, timelines and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws or the Canadian Securities Exchange. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp Hampshire, UK - March 13, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) New data from Juniper Research has found that global business spend on cybersecurity solutions will grow by 33% over the next 4 years, reaching $134 billion annually by 2022. Juniper's new research, Cybersecurity: Mitigation Strategies for Financial Services, Operators, Enterprise & IoT 2018-2022, found that nearly 70% of 2022 spend would originate from medium-sized businesses, as cybercriminals target 'low-hanging fruit'. In the context of strategies for financial services, mobile operators, enterprise and IoT service providers, the research highlighted that stakeholders' digital transformation and IoT endeavours were key catalysts for increasing spend to defend assets from threats. For more market insights, download our free whitepaper: Cybersecurity ~ How can service providers save the bottom line? Cyberattacks: Not If, But When Juniper anticipates that the cumulative cost of data breaches between 2017 and 2022 will reach $8 trillion, with variable per-business losses depending on the nature and scale of the attack. Shipping company Maersk, for example, estimated the cost of NotPetya infecting its global network in 2017 at between $200 and $300 million. Juniper argued that, as a result, stakeholders must plan in terms of risk mitigation rather than prevention., It predicted that service providers in high-risk environments would be forced to restructure their networks to avoid potential compliance breaches, data theft or service outage. Research author Steffen Sorrell explained: "Once a single endpoint is breached, the big danger is lateral movement across the network. Layered networks, proper lifecycle management and user 'least privilege' approaches will prove key to containing serious breaches." Security Through Flexibility Meanwhile, the research found that securing the IoT, with 46 billion connected units anticipated in 2021, would require more forward-thinking. With devices 'in the field' for years at a time, adopting a cybersecurity strategy that is flexible enough to react to future demands would be essential. It highlighted the fact that cybercriminals' efforts soon render modern approaches less effective. For example, the Cerber family of ransomware has analysed how machine learning systems detect malware behaviour and applied evasion techniques as a result. Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary. Contact: sam.smith@juniperresearch.com www.juniperresearch.com More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp All people have the right to make fundamental decisions about their own bodies and health. Thats why we work with diverse local, regional and international partners toward the goal of reproductive justice: a world where all human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled. Here are villages that pass as valuable cultural assets, processions of hooded penitents, medieval music repertoires that retain strong feelings of belonging and profane duels that color the rural Easter since more than fifty years. Ceriana , a thousand-year-old village of enchanting charm, celebrates Holy Week through the rites handed down over the centuries thanks to the brotherhoods of the village. [Ceriana, credits Davide Papalini] Montalto Ligure is a romantic and "vertical" village that makes the most of space in dizzying axonometry. Here in the night between Thursday and Good Friday a group of men and boys, with the melancholy sound and eerie of a trumpet, accompanied by a drum and a big drum, sings lullabies in the streets of the old city until late at night. On the Holy Saturday in Montalto, the statues of paper mache representing the various stages of the Via Crucis are carried in procession with the great participation of the people. [Molini di Triora, credits Alessandro Vecchi] In the medieval complex of Glori, a hamlet of Molini di Triora, Maundy Thursday is celebrated, after the afternoon mass with a procession and "the graves" in the various churches and chapels of the country are visited, with "Passion" songs. The day ends with a traditional dinner based on "Frescioi " (vegetable pancakes) on the tables. At the foot of a steep spur from which it dominates Triora , on Good Friday in Molini di Triora, there is "Descent of Christ from the Cross" and a procession through the village streets, to wait for the exhibition, on Easter Sunday in the parish church, of the statue of the Risen Christ of the XIX century. [Badalucco, credits Davide Papalini] For Easter, in the village of Badalucco, ceramics and murals outdoor museum, one organizes the "Scotezzo", a kind of duel in which the participants challenge themselves with eggs; the duelist who keeps his egg intact until the end, wins. This Week in Review A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more. Courtesy Tina DuBrock(INDIANAPOLIS) -- Tina DuBrock has been a teacher for 15 years. After watching recent tragedies like the Florida school shooting that left 17 dead, DuBrock said she felt for the first time that she needed to do even more to build her students' mental well-being. DuBrock, a kindergarten teacher in Dyer, Indiana, had an idea to help students the best way she knows how, through books. She created a mental wellness in the classroom book wish list on Amazon with more than 80 books, all focused on helping kids develop emotionally. I really feel that if kids get social and emotional education early, we wont have as many negatives later, DuBrock told ABC News. Being in education, books have always been a nice way to start a conversation, to get to the grit of something. DuBrock added, It is my job to teach kids to love to read, to learn from it and to know that it gives them power, the power to learn something new or to go into a fantasy world and imagine. DuBrock shared her book wish list on Facebook, where she often posts if her classroom needs extra supplies and learning tools. I teach kindergarten in NW Indiana and my job is not just about academics as some may think, DuBrock wrote on Facebook. I shape children. I am their first step out of the home. I can make school a place they want to be and teach them that learning can be fun. I choose to do so. Within one hour of DuBrocks post, 50 books from the list had been purchased and donated to her elementary school. The school has since received 300 books and counting, from parents, strangers, book publishers and even authors themselves. Im so grateful for all the support and in awe that there are so many good people out there, said DuBrock, who has been sorting and organizing the books overtime. Its not just the book, its the kind words that are hitting us in the heart. DuBrock has also heard from teachers and librarians across the country who have adopted her wish list for their own schools. DuBrocks elementary school is even incorporating the ideas in the donated books -- kindness, inclusion, diversity, respect, friendships, coping, perseverance, emotions, for example -- into a superhero theme for students. Those are the superpowers theyll learn and theyll come up with their own superpower and how they can add to it, like making friends, DuBrock said. Out of all the books on the list, DuBrock said she has two books shed recommend to all parents and teachers to teach kids about feelings and mental health. "'Your Fantastic Elastic Brain: Stretch It, Shape It,' by JoAnn Deak, is a great book about not giving up," DuBrock said. "And 'Mind Bubbles,' by Heather Krantz, is great for exploring mindfulness with kids." Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. New Zealands Speaker of the House of Representatives Trevor Mallard presented a gift to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at their meeting in Auckland on March 13th. (Photo: VNA) PM Phuc and Speaker Mallard expressed their delight at the development of Vietnam - New Zealand relations in recent years, notably the two-way trade which is likely to hit USD1.7-2 billion in 2020. They agreed to soon upgrade the bilateral ties to the level of Strategic Partnership and held that the two nations must step up practical and specific measures to boost cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, tourism, aviation connectivity and people-to-people exchanges. The two leaders stressed the need for the two parliaments to increase the exchange of high-level visits and coordinate together in supervising the implementation of the two countries agreements. Mallard, who initiated the Vietnam - New Zealand educational agreement, said that New Zealand wants to attract more Vietnamese students to study in areas of its strength like information technology, biotechnology and hospitality. He expressed his admiration for Vietnams important achievements in socio-economic development and implementation of foreign policy in the recent past. The Speaker said he was pleased with the outcomes of the earlier talks between PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his NZ counterpart Jacinda Ardern, believing that these positive results would lay an important foundation for bilateral relations to develop more strongly in the coming time. PM Phuc conveyed Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngans invitation to Mallard to visit Vietnam at a convenient time. Meanwhile, Mallard reiterated his invitation to Ngan to pay a visit to New Zealand soon. After the meeting, PM Phuc and his entourage attended a banquet hosted by Speaker Mallard. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc is on an official visit to New Zealand from March 12th-14th. In the morning of March 13th, he was welcomed by New Zealands traditional Maori greeting and a 19-gun salute during an official ceremony chaired by New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern in Auckland city. Following the ceremony, PM Phuc and PM Ardern held talks. At the end of the talks, the PMs witnessed the signing of three important documents, including an agreement between Vietnams Ministry of Industry and Trade and New Zealands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on economic and trade cooperation; a deal between Vietnams Ministry of Industry and Trade and New Zealands Ministry of Primary Industries on cooperation in food safety and quality management; a strategic cooperation plan between Vietnams Ministry of Education and Training and New Zealand educational agency on education and training for 2018-2020./. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visits the Auckland University of Technology on March 12th (Photo: VNA) The activity was part of PM Phucs official visit to New Zealand from March 11th to 14th. The Vietnamese Government leader was welcomed at the AUT with the traditional Hongi greeting of local Maori people. After touring the AUT facilities, the PM talked to Vietnamese students in the university and representatives of the Vietnamese community. At the meeting, Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Viet Dung said most of Vietnamese people in the country have led a stable life and contributed to local development. Many Vietnamese are also among the students with the best academic results at the AUT. PM Phuc highly valued the Vietnamese Embassys efforts to promote the two countries cooperation and support Vietnamese people in New Zealand. He expressed his hope that the embassys staff and Vietnamese people in the country will make unceasing efforts in their work so as to improve themselves, support their families, and contribute to the homeland. He noted that there are nearly 6,000 Vietnamese students in New Zealand at present. The two countries have cooperated in many fields, especially hi-tech agriculture, but those activities are just in the initial stage and there remains huge potential for more cooperation. Aside from external relations, promoting trade partnership is also an important task that the embassy and Vietnamese people in New Zealand should pay attention to, he said, asking for the reinforcement of bilateral ties in the spheres that New Zealand is strong at such as green agriculture and infrastructure building. PM Phuc asked the embassy to bolster connections in education and training, expand tourism cooperation and further assist the Vietnamese community. The AUT has engaged in a number of joint training activities with Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city and Da Nang city of Vietnam. It plans to step up educational cooperation with the Southeast Asian nation with a hope that Vietnamese students in the AUT will be an important bridge helping to nurture the friendship and cooperation between the two countries./. FROM gentle strolls to an epic 66-mile challenge, the 2018 IW Walking Festival has officially launched with a new look website. The festival runs between April 28 and May 13, and is sponsored by Warner Leisure Hotels. It is one of the UKs biggest walking festivals, and the aim is to bring thousands more visitors to the Island outside the traditional peak season. This year there are more than 90 walks to take on. Among the new walks are two that celebrate the iconic IW Festival, celebrating its 50th anniversary. Visitors can take part in the Jimi Hendrix Afton Experience, an anecdotal guided walk to the site of the legendary 1970 IW Festival, or head to Wootton for a tour of the area, which saw Bob Dylan headline the 1969 festival. A Visit IW spokesperson said: "We're proud to put on the IW Walking Festival, and are delighted that we have secured sponsorship support from Warner Leisure Hotels. "It was highlighted by Wight BID levy payers as an important event in the IW's calendar and vital to bringing visitors during the traditional non-peak 'shoulder' season." Warner Leisure Hotels sales manager Joanne Forey, said: "The IW has so much to offer walkers, from its breath-taking coastal paths to forest trails, so we're excited to sponsor this year's walking festival." Tomorrow, (Saturday, March 17), as part of English Tourism Week, there will be a guided walk run by the IW Ramblers. The walk will cover part of the Warrior Trail. Island MP Bob Seely will be accompanying the walk that follows in the 'hoof prints' of the famous First World War horse Warrior, which was owned by his relative General Jack Seely. Mark Rowe, Countryfile Magazine's contributing editor, will lead a walk on the first day of the festival, followed by an evening talk at Quay Arts, Newport. The event has been organised by Discovery Travel, self-guided UK walking holiday specialist based on the Island. The final day will see thousands make the annual trek across the Island in aid of Earl Mountbatten Hospice for the iconic Walk The Wight, now in its 28th year. A new website published by Visit IW can be found at isleofwightwalkingfestival.co.uk. Walkers can reserve their walks online. 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 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. Cabinet Division Government of Pakistan CAA Jobs Latest Cabinet Division Management Posts Islamabad 2021 Director General DG are required For Civil Aviation Authority CAA Cabinet Division Government of Pakistan CAA in Islamabad. Candidate must be experience of 10 to 15 year. How to Apply on Cabinet Division Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Telephone: 051-9223451 Official Website: www.cabinet.gov.pk Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted. Data Entry Operators, AC Technicians Job opportunity Latest Kusb Enterprises Overseas Employment Promoters Data Entry Posts Malaysia 2021 Data Entry Operators, AC Technicians, Mechanical Technicians, Electricians, Diploma Holders and General Workers are required in Malaysia Throgh Kusb Enterprises Overseas Employment Promoters. How to Apply on Kusb Enterprises Overseas Employment Promoters Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted. Security Guards Job in Al Sraiya Security Services Latest Ahtamad Technical Trade Test Training Center Security Posts Qatar 2021 Security Guards having Matric to BA Education with be able to speak in english are required in Al Sraiya Security Services Qatar Famous Company Through Ahtamad Technical Trade Test Training Center. How to Apply on Ahtamad Technical Trade Test Training Center Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted. Today Periods of rain. High 69F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Tonight Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a half an inch. Tomorrow Thunderstorms. High 76F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. JURIST Guest Columnist Lauren A. Rousseau of the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School discusses the impact that the onslaught of litigation against the pharmaceutical industry could have on the opioid epidemic According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, over 63,600 people died of drug overdose in the United States in 2016 an average of 174 deaths per day. This was a 21% increase compared to 2015, and more than three times the number of such deaths in 1999. The annual number of overdose deaths has been steadily rising over the last fifteen years, leading many to refer to our current drug problem as an epidemic. And this epidemic has been driven largely by addiction to opioid drugs. In 2016, more than 42,000 overdose deaths, or 72%, were related to opioids, which includes prescription painkillers such as Vicodin, Lortab, Percocet, and OxyContin, as well as illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. In October 2017, President Trump formally declared our countrys drug problem a public health emergency. Much media attention has been given to the role pharmaceutical companies have played in creating the opioid epidemic. In the mid-1990s, the medical communitys conclusion that pain was undertreated converged with Purdue Pharmas introduction of its new, extended-release opioid drug OxyContin, setting the stage for a sea change in how opioids were used and prescribed. Prior to this, opioids had been viewed as dangerously addictive and were prescribed only under limited circumstances, but Purdue claimed that OxyContin was virtually non-addictive when prescribed for pain and aggressively marketed it for long-term use. Its marketing strategy was wildly successful; sales of OxyContin exploded from $45 million in 1996 to $3 billion in 2012. Other opioid drug manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon, with the result that opioid prescriptions in this country nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2010. By 2012, more than 259 million opioid prescriptions were written enough for every American adult to have his or her own bottle of pills. We are all now painfully aware that opioid drugs are extremely addictive. Opioid overdose deaths have risen in tandem with the increase in opioid prescriptions. Prescription pills also served as a gateway to heroin use. Heroin is a stronger and cheaper opioid, and once a person becomes addicted to prescription pills, cost and difficulty obtaining pills often drive the person to heroin. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, four out of five heroin users start with prescription pills. The drug epidemic has been extremely costly to our country, in terms of both human life and dollars. Over 500,000 people have lost their lives since 2000 due to drug overdose, and it is estimated that another 500,000 will die from this cause by 2027. The cost to our society, in terms of lost wages, productivity, and tax revenue, as well as increased spending on health care, social services, education, and criminal justice, is estimated to have exceeded $1 trillion from 2001 to 2017. Increasingly, state and local governments are looking to the pharmaceutical industry to cover these costs. Purdue Pharma has been repeatedly sued based on its misrepresentations concerning the addictive nature of its opioid drugs. The company pled guilty in 2007 to criminal charges of misbranding OxyContin with the intent to defraud and mislead the public, and paid $635 million in fees and fines. Other drug companies have also paid millions of dollars in civil penalties and fines in connection with their opioid drugs. In September 2017, the attorneys general of 41 states announced that they were banding together to investigate opioid manufacturers and distributors to determine their role in creating the opioid epidemic. And in the past year and a half, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed by cities, counties, and states in both state and federal courts against opioid drug manufacturers and distributors, alleging misleading marketing and failure to monitor, detect, investigate, and report suspicious orders of opioid drugs. In December 2017, 64 opioid lawsuits filed in federal courts in Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Washington, and West Virginia were consolidated by the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation and transferred to the Northern District of Ohio under Judge Dan Polster. Since then, the litigation has grown to include more than 250 lawsuits, and is known as the National Prescription Opiate Litigation, MDL #2804. Ohio was chosen as the venue because it has the second highest overdose death rate in the nation (second only to West Virginia), is geographically central and accessible to the parties, and is home to one of the largest wholesale drug distributors. The opioid litigation has been compared to the tobacco litigation of the 1990s, which resulted in the largest civil settlement in our nations history. In those cases, 46 state attorneys general claimed that the tobacco companies were liable for the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses. The settlement exceeded $200 billion, with the companies agreeing to make annual payments to the states to fund smoking prevention campaigns and other health programs. Unfortunately, much of that settlement money has been diverted by the states for purposes unrelated to smoking. The opioid litigation plaintiffs face challenges that the tobacco plaintiffs did not. In the tobacco cases, smokers werent misusing the products, but got sick anyway; with opioids, users who develop addiction inevitably take more of the drug than is prescribed, and often engage in criminal behavior such as doctor-shopping, forging prescriptions, or stealing pills. These behaviors make it harder to hold pharmaceutical companies liable for the consequences of opioid use. Historically, courts have laid blame for drug misuse on the individual user, not on pharmaceutical companies. Moreover, in the tobacco cases, the companies were marketing directly to consumers, making it easier to link tobacco use to the companies actions; with opioids, pharmaceutical companies directed their marketing campaigns at doctors, who then prescribed the drugs to their patients. The companies can point to doctors as an intervening cause, alleging that they overprescribed and should have recognized signs of addiction in their patients. Despite the challenges, it is clear that the pharmaceutical industry is facing significant potential liability. Judge Polster has indicated that he would like to see these cases resolved through settlement before trial. In February, he invited representatives of all the parties to begin settlement discussions, and included representatives of state court opioid lawsuits, the state attorneys general who banded together to investigate the industry, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and insurance companies. By all appearances, Judge Polster is working to craft a global resolution designed to turn the tide on the opioid crisis. However the lawsuits are resolved, they will surely have a positive impact on health policy and community attitudes towards addiction. The hundreds of filings publicly demonstrate the pervasiveness of the disease, showing that it hits all communities, all socioeconomic classes, and all ages and ethnicities. This helps to reduce the stigma associated with addiction that so often is a barrier to treatment and recovery. The lawsuits have shown a spotlight on the deceptive marketing practices of the pharmaceutical industry, to the benefit of both doctors and patients, many of whom will now take more care in how they deal with medications. The lawsuits also provide support for government regulation that is clearly needed to curb excessive prescribing by doctors, misleading marketing behaviors of pharmaceutical companies, and irresponsible drug distribution. In a possible harbinger of things to come, Purdue Pharma announced on February 10th that it will voluntarily stop marketing its opioid drugs to doctors. A large monetary settlement of these cases could make a significant difference in reversing the upward trend in overdose deaths and addiction. There is a serious shortage of treatment beds, facilities, and trained personnel to treat addiction, and funding could alleviate these problems. Money is also needed for prevention efforts in schools, education and awareness campaigns, health care reimbursement costs, addiction treatment in the jails, first responder training, and supplies of the overdose reversal drug naloxone. Taking a lesson from the failures of the tobacco settlement, any opioid litigation settlement should include provisions to ensure that states are using the money for its intended purpose, and not diverting it to other uses. Concern has been raised by some that the pendulum may swing too far, and that patients with legitimate pain may be denied needed medication. This is a legitimate issue. However, scientific studies have demonstrated that long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain is not as effective as once thought, and that non-opioid pain relievers can provide comparable relief. Furthermore, the liability and addiction issues surrounding opioid drugs are spurring research into alternative pain therapies that are safer and equally effective. In conclusion, the avalanche of lawsuits filed by cities, counties, and states against the pharmaceutical industry holds promise as a significant step forward in combatting the opioid epidemic. Lives literally hang in the balance as Judge Polster works with the parties to craft a settlement that could finally turn the tide on this scourge that is devastating our nation. Lauren A. Rousseau is a professor of law at Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School. She is President of the Northwest Wayne County Chapter of Families Against Narcotics, and has spoken and written extensively on the subject of addiction and the opioid epidemic. In 2016, she was honored as one of Michigan Lawyers Weeklys 2016 Women in the Law in recognition of the work she has done in the area of addiction treatment, education, and advocacy. Suggested citation: Lauren A. Rousseau, Lawsuits for the Opioid Epidemic, JURIST Academic Commentary, Mar. 12, 2018, http://jurist.org/forum/2018/03/Lauren-Rousseau-opioid-epidemic.php The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] on Tuesday held [decision, in French] that Spain violated Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights [text, PDF] when the country convicted two of its citizens, Enric Stern Taulats and Jaume Roura Capellera, for setting fire to photograph of the nations royal couple stating that the conviction amounted to an interference with their right to freedom of expression. Capellera and Taulats set fire during to an upside-down picture of Spains King Felipe and Queen Letizia during a public demonstration in 2007 while the King was on an official visit to Girona. Afterwards, both individuals were convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison for insulting the Crown. The judge subsequently made the imprisonment conditional on failure to pay to a 2,700 fine. Capellera and Taulats paid the fine but appealed the judgment all the way to Spains Constitutional Court which ruled against them [press release] concluding that the charges against them fell outside the scope of freedom of expression and freedom of opinion, given that the applicants had been guilty of incitement to hatred and violence against the King and the monarchy. The two individuals then filed a complaint with ECHR arguing that their conviction amounted to an unjustified interference with their right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the convention, and violation of freedom of thought, conscience and religion under Article 9 when read in conjunction with Article 10. Agreeing with Capellera and Taulatss position on Article 10 of the Convention, the ECHR stated [press release]: First of all, the applicants act had been part of a political, rather than personal, critique of the institution of monarchy in general, and in particular of the Kingdom of Spain as a nation. a denunciation of what the King represented as the Head and the symbol of the State apparatus and the forces which, according to the applicants, had occupied Catalonia which fell within the sphere of political criticism or dissidence and corresponded to the expression of rejection of the monarchy as an institution. freedom of expression extended to information and ideas that offended, shocked or disturbed: such were the demands of pluralism, tolerance and broad-mindedness, without which there was no democratic society. The ECHR also criticized the Constitutional Courts classification of Capellera and Taulatss act as one that could reasonably be construed as incitement to hatred or violence. Even though the act in question involved burning an image of the figurehead of the State, the ECHR stated this is not an act that should be construed as inciting anyone to commit acts of violence against the King and that an act of this type should be interpreted as the symbolic expression of dissatisfaction and protest. The ECHR particularly noted the imposition of a criminal penalty for this act as an interference with freedom of expression which had been neither proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued nor necessary in a democratic society. Having found a violation under Article 10 of the convention, the ECHR found it unnecessary to rule on the Article 9 claim and stated that Spain must pay Capellera and Taulats 11,700 (reimbursement for the 2,700 fine and litigation costs). A prosecutor has said that a Pennsylvania couple could be reunited with the 12-year-old daughter they are accused of waterboarding if a judge approves a tentative plea deal. Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier said the deal calls for guilty pleas from Malisa and Dion Stevens to child endangerment and sentences of seven years' probation that could eventually be reduced to five years. The couple would be reunited under supervision with their daughter. Authorities allege the girl was dragged into the Aliquippa home's basement, a wet towel was placed over her face and her chair was tilted backward as a bucket of cold water was poured onto her, preventing her from breathing. Defense attorneys said they hope the deal would result in the reunification of the couple with their daughter. UPDATE: ODOT reports that the crash has now been cleared, and the northbound fast lane has been reopened. The overturned pickup truck and a travel trailer that it was pulling were towed away, allowing ODOT to reopen the blocked lane. Oregon State Police will investigate the incident. GRANTS PASS, Ore. The northbound fast lane just south of Grants Pass has been blocked by a crash, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). The lane blockage is around milepost 53. An overturned travel trailer and pickup truck are awaiting tow, said ODOT. They expect congestion and delays. KLAMATH, Calif. The Yurok Tribe of the Klamath River basin in California has filed suit in federal court against 20 major pharmaceutical companies. The case alleges corrupt practices by drug companies which contributed to widespread misuse of opioid painkillers in communitiessuch as the tribe itself. According to the lawsuit, the 20 defendants violated a 1970 law known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The tribe claims that drug companies systematically concealed the dangers of opioid drugsengaging in false advertising, public nuisance, and unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent business practices. CDC Data on the Opioid Epidemic: The majority of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. involve an opioid66 percent. In 2016, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids was 5 times higher than in 1999. From 2000 to 2016, more than 600,000 people died from drug overdoses. On average, 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. CLICK HERE for more info from the CDC, including addiction/overdose prevention steps, and information on what patients prescribed opiates can do to reduce the possible risks. "It is clear that we as a nation have been sold a bill of goods as it relates to opiate painkillers. These drugs have caused so much unnecessary heartache as well as the untimely deaths of many Native American and non-Indian people. The companies that produce, marker and distribute them need to be held accountable," said Amy Cordalis, the Yurok Tribe's General Counsel. Cordalis is a member of the tribe herself. The defendants of the lawsuit include Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson, among other notable drug manufacturers and distributors. Humboldt and Del Norte counties in California were hit early and hard by opioid addiction, according to a statement from the tribe. The tribe has seen overdose rates and inquiries for addiction treatment skyrocket over the last decade. "There is not a single Yurok family that has not either directly or indirectly experienced the horrors of opiate addiction," said Cordalis. The Yurok Tribe is not alone in suing drug companies for the explosion in opiate addiction. Cities, counties, and municipalities across the country have filed individual lawsuits against drug companiesincluding New York City, the New York Times reports. Representatives of the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA), a national trade association representing pharmaceutical distributorsincluding AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson, all named in the lawsuitreached out to NewsWatch 12 with their take on the issue. "The misuse and abuse of prescription opioids is a complex public health challenge that requires a collaborative and systemic response that engages all stakeholders," said John Parker, Senior Vice President of HDA. "Given our role, the idea that distributors are responsible for the number of opioid prescriptions written defies common sense and lacks understanding of how the pharmaceutical supply chain actually works and is regulated." Medical distributors do not manufacture, prescribe, or drive demand in drugs, according to an HDA spokesperson. Moreover, the distribution of pharmaceuticals falls under the strict regulation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Only the DEA has the authority to set the annual production of controlled substances in the market. "Those bringing lawsuits would be better served addressing the root causes, rather than trying to redirect blame through litigation," said Parker. According to the HDA spokesperson, part of the answer may be greater communication and coordination with the DEA. This would support more rapid response against abuse and diversion of prescription drugs. In Oregon, both Governor Kate Brown and Representative Greg Walden (R-Hood River) have spearheaded efforts to combat the opioid crisis. Governor Brown championed House Bill 4143, which passed in the first week of March, 2018 to unanimous bipartisan support. The bill would requisition the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services to study barriers to effective treatment and recovery from substance use. HB 4143 now awaits only Governor Browns signature. Representative Walden led a hearing in Washington D.C. at the end of February, 2018, attempting to address means for combating the opioid crisis, primarily from a law enforcement standpoint. The Yurok Tribe made news recently after reacquiring lands around the Blue Creek Watershed, a vital salmon habitat within the Klamath River Basin. They are the largest federally recognized Indian tribe in California. (Article updated 3/14/18 with a response from the Healthcare Distribution Alliance) McLaren's Fernando Alonso dismissed the team's lack of running in winter testing, insisting the set-up work done by rival teams will mean nothing when everyone heads out on to the track in Australia. The Woking-based outfit suffered a difficult time in Barcelona as reliability issues put the team on the back foot last week and impacted its testing programmes. McLaren was the outfit with the lowest overall lap count in winter testing, although a last ditch effort by Alonso in the final 30 minutes of Friday's session enabled the Spaniard to clock in with the third fastest time overall. The two-time world champion who, like his team, is looking for a rebirth this year has discounted the impact of McLaren's limited mileage on its chances in Melbourne. "I think more or less the teams are now capable and ready to understand and prepared for the simulator work you will face in Australia," Alonso said. "Definitely the setup work that you do here in Barcelona means nothing so I am not worried to lose half a day because whatever setup optimisation you do here will mean nothing for Australia. "It will also not mean anything for May when you come here and it's 30 degrees." Alonso did lament however the team's deficit in terms of learning about Pirelli's wet weather tyres which could throw a spanner into everyone's works if rain shows up in the first few races. While there was no shortage of adverse conditions during the first week of pre-season testing, freezing temperatures prevented teams from undertaking any significant testing on the specific wet rubber. "I think the bad weather was a big factor, especially because we could not test the wet tyres," he said. "Normally they do some programmes for the races and some safety car starts and things like that. It was that cold that we could not develop the wet tyre either. "Hopefully that will not have any consequences on the first races if they are wet and the tyres behave." Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter Developers of this rental building at the corner of Harvey Avenue and Ethel Street received a 10-year holiday from municipal taxes. The City of Kelowna is considering extending the time such buildings must be kept as rental-only from 10 years to 25 years. Trainer Teresa Zurberg holds Angus, an English springer spaniel who is trained to detect the deadly bacterium Clostridium difficile. On Monday, Angus was at Kelowna General Hospital, where he found two reservoirs of the superbug. A military judge is expected to render a decision today in the case of a Halifax sailor accused of sexually assaulting a subordinate. Accused Master Seaman Daniel Cooper, right, arrives for his standing court martial case in Halifax on Tuesday Sept. 26, 2017. Cooper faces one charge of sexual assault, and one charge of ill treatment of a subordinate, arising out of incidents that allegedly occurred in November 2015 on board HMCS Athabaskan near Rota, Spain. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ted Pritchard Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne arrives at Legislative Assembly of Ontario in Toronto on Thursday Jan. 25, 2018. Ontario's premier is calling Doug Ford's comments on marijuana sales "reckless" after the Tory leader suggested legalized pot be sold in places other than government-run stores.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn A horse-drawn carriage is seen in Victoria on Thursday, March 24, 2016. Victoria councillors are considering tightening city regulations governing horse-drawn carriage tours as part of proposed wholesale changes to its animal control bylaw.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito FILE - In this Wednesday, March 7, 2018 file photo, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks during a meeting with Estonian Defense Minister Juri Luik at the Pentagon in Washington. Mattis on Sunday, March 11, 2018, warned the Syrian government not to use chemical weapons in its civil war and said the Trump administration has made it clear that it would be "very unwise" to use gas in attacks. Mattis said Russia, which intervened militarily in Syria to support the Assad government, could be complicit in the civilian casualties. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) United NationsSecretary-General Antonio Guterres (C) addresses the Security Council meeting on Syriasituation at the UN headquarters in New York, March 12, 2018. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday deplored the failure to implement a Security Council resolution that demands cease-fire in Syria. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, March 12 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday deplored the failure to implement a Security Council resolution that demands cease-fire in Syria. Reporting to the Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 2401, Guterres said there has been no cessation of hostilities in Syria. Though conflicts in some areas are diminishing in intensity, violence continues in Eastern Ghouta and beyond -- including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and in Damascus and its suburbs, he said. Particularly in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, airstrikes, shelling and ground offensives have intensified after the adoption of the resolution on Feb. 24, and claimed hundreds of civilian lives, the UN chief added. The resolution demands the enabling of "the safe, unimpeded and sustained" delivery of humanitarian aid and services across Syria for at least 30 days. "Despite some limited convoy deliveries, the provision of humanitarian aid and services has not been safe, unimpeded or sustained," reported Guterres. On the resolution's demand for medical evacuations of the critically sick and wounded, Guterrest said: "To our knowledge, not one critically sick or wounded person has yet been evacuated." Guterres reported "egregious violations, indiscriminate attacks, and a failure to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure" despite the resolution's demands for all parties to comply with their obligations under international law and international human rights law. "I am here to report on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2401... But I am keenly aware that I am doing so just as the bloodletting in Syria enters its eighth year," said the secretary-general. "I am deeply saddened by the immense loss and cascading suffering of the Syrian people. And I am deeply disappointed by all those who have, year after year, by action or inaction, by design or indifference, allowed this to happen." Despite all the difficulties, lack of trust, mutual suspicions and cold calculations, it should still be possible to implement Resolution 2401, he said. "We cannot give up for the sake of the Syrian people." "I appeal to all parties for the full implementation of Resolution 2401 throughout the whole of Syrian territory. The United Nations is ready to assist in any efforts to make that happen. "I call on all states with influence to exercise it in support of the efforts of the United Nations and the implementation of the resolution. "I hope this week's Astana ministerial meeting, which will gather the guarantors of de-escalation, will concretely restore de-escalation arrangements, and take real steps on detainees, abductees and missing persons." He underscored the urgency of seeing medical evacuations, civilian protection, and full, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access as soon as possible. 9 1 [ Editor: meng ] In this March 8, 2018, photo, Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, left, at the Capitol in Washington. Republicans on the House intelligence committee have completed a draft report concluding there was no collusion or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. The finding is sure to please the White House and enrage panel Democrats who have not yet seen the document. After a yearlong investigation, Conaway says the committee has finished doing witness interviews. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) In this Feb. 20, 2018, photo, signs supporting fair wages and treatment are displayed at a discussion about subminimum wage workers that depend on tips for their living in New York. Activists are invoking the #MeToo movement in the push for more states to adopt higher minimum wages for tipped workers. They say a wage structure that leaves workers dependent on tips often forces them to put up with harassing and abusive behavior from their customers or risk not being paid. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2008 file photo, adult film star Stormy Daniels arrives at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. CBS News President David Rhodes says that a "60 Minutes" interview with Daniels needs more journalistic work. Rhodes' statement at a conference in Israel Tuesday was the first time CBS publicly confirmed it had interviewed Daniels, who has alleged an extramarital affair with Donald Trump before he became president. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File) FILE- In this July 26, 2006, file photo, model Romilly Collins wears the black Givenchy dress made for actress Audrey Hepburn in the classic 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in central London. French couturier Hubert de Givenchy, a pioneer of ready-to-wear, has died at the age of 91. (AP Photo/Christopher Pledger, File) FILE - In this March 6, 2018, file photo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies during a hearing before the House Appropriations subcommittee on budget on Capitol Hill in Washington. UCLA has released video showing the near-constant heckling of Mnuchin during a Feb. 26, 2018, moderated talk about the economy. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, file) FILE - In a July 24, 2013 file photo, Heather Locklear arrives at the TNT 25th Anniversary Party at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Locklear has been charged with several counts of battery against first responders who answered a domestic violence call at her Southern California home. The 56-year-old AuMelrose PlaceAu actress was charged Monday, March 12, 2018, with four misdemeanor counts of battery on an officer or emergency personnel, and one misdemeanor count of resisting or obstructing an officer. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) Unidentified family members of a passenger of a plane crash console each other outside government hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, March 13, 2018. A plane crash at Nepal's main airport killed 49 of the 71 people on board, police said Tuesday as an investigation was ordered into the cause of the accident, which occurred after seeming confusion over landing instructions before the plane, flying low and erratically, struck the ground and erupted in flame. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) Gabby DiGiacomo, of Whitefield, Maine, slides down Congress Street in Portland, Maine, on a saucer during the latest winter storm, Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in Portland, Maine. With the exception of snowplows, the streets had very little traffic during the third major nor'easter in two weeks to slam the storm-battered Northeast. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) This undated photo provided by John Brandenburg shows a Sno-Cat co-owned by Brandenburg. Authorities in Colorado are looking for a man suspected of stealing the Sno-Cat fitted out to look like the "General Lee," the famous car featured in the classic television series "The Dukes of Hazzard." (John Brandenburg via AP) BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China will set up a new ministry to protect and manage the country's natural resources, according to a reform plan submitted to the national legislature on Tuesday. The plan on institutional restructuring of the State Council, or the cabinet, was tabled to the first session of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberation. Responsibilities of the new ministry will include overseeing the development and protection of China's natural resources, setting up and implementing a spatial planning system, and establishing a system for paid use of natural resources. The Ministry of Land and Resources and the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation will be dismantled. [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] A girl leans into the wind while taking pictures of the surf in Herring Cove outside Halifax as a storm surge warning was issued due to high winds on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese Do good to feel good It is easy to begin to feel in a bit of a slump when every time one turns on the news or listens to the... Spindle Items ..BACK TO SCHOOL SAFETY Schools often have very specific drop-off procedures for the school year. Make sure you know them for the safety of... Out of the Past 25 Years AgoSept. 18, 1996 Youve heard about lake-effect snow, well how about lake-effect rain? That was the culprit that dumped seven inches of rain... Crisis and opportunity I have long subscribed to the belief that in every crisis there is opportunity. I hope this is the case with our current governmental crisis... KATHMANDU, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A day after the deadly crash of the U.S.-Bangla Airlines at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister of Bangladesh A.K.M Shajahan Kamal arrived here on Tuesday. The Bangladeshi minister is here to take stock of Monday's deadly crash of the U.S.-Bangla Airlines plane that left 49 killed and 22 injured, a spokesman at Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bharat Raj Paudyal told Xinhua on Tuesday. The aircraft of Bangladesh's private U.S.-Bangla Airlines had crashed and burst into flames while landing at Nepal's international airport with 71 people onboard, 67 being passengers -- 32 from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives. Twenty-two people including 11 Nepali nationals had survived the crash, according to authorities. Raj Kumar Chettri, a general manager at the TIA, said that the deadliest crash took place due to the pilot's "missed approach." The UBG211 flight was en route to Kathmandu from Dhaka, Bangladesh. The ill-fated plane was said to have circled the airport twice before trying landing. The injured in the incident are receiving treatment in different hospitals in Kathmandu. [ Editor: Xueying ] PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A suspected burglar accused of exchanging gunfire with Portland police has been identified as a 26-year-old woman. The Portland Police Bureau says Sarah Michelle Brown was booked into jail over the weekend after being released from a hospital. She's charged with attempted murder, burglary, unlawful entry in a motor vehicle and unlawful use of a weapon. Officers responded to the Goose Hollow neighborhood early Thursday on a report of a burglary in progress. Police say there was an exchange of gunfire between the woman and officers. A SWAT team and crisis negotiators responded during an ensuing standoff that lasted more than three hours. Police say a handgun was seized as evidence. The incident remains under investigation and will be reviewed by a grand jury. SALEM, ORE. -- Governor Kate Brown proclaimed March 12th as Girl Scout Leadership Day in Oregon at the State Capitol building. Today is the 106th anniversary of the Girl Scouts in the U.S. On March 12th, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low assembled 18 girls from Savannah, Georgia for the first Girl Scout Meeting The Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington also honored Governor Brown by making her an honorary lifetime member. "The Girl Scouts empower generations of girls and women, showing you are never too young to get involved, make a difference, and have your voice heard," Gov. Brown said. "It's my hope that as women take on leadership roles in their communities, in the Capitol, and in service organizations like the Girl Scouts, that more girls grow up knowing that women can change the world." JUNCTION CITY, Ore. -- A Junction City man who is accused of sexually abusing his foster daughter has been arrested after fleeing the state. Joe Albert Raygosa was arrested in Lawton, Oklahoma on an Oregon warrant. He was brought back to Oregon on Sunday. He appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of sex abuse, rape, and unlawful penetration. Raygosa is accused of touching a 10-year-old child, forcing himself on her, taking nude photos of her, and showing her porn at his house in Junction City. A search warrant affidavit shows the child was in Raygosa's care from June 2016 to July 2017. Police said the abuse was reported after she moved to another foster home. Court documents show the child said "I feel brave" to herself after reporting the alleged abuse. READ MORE: Junction City man accused of sexually abusing foster child Raygosa was notified of the allegations in October of 2017. He agreed to hand over his cellphone but when police tried to contact him Raygosa didn't get back to them. Investigators went to his house in November but found it empty. Neighbors told them Raygosa left a few weeks earlier in a car full of bags. Raygosa will be back in court on April 16th. EUGENE, Ore. -- Students at Marist Catholic High School are taking a stand against bullying this week. The Marist student leadership group known as "RISE" is launching a week-long campaign called "Take a Stand-Lend a Hand." The campaign is designed to educate and raise awareness about the seriousness of bullying. Organizers said each day this week they will have a different anti-bullying activity for students. One student with the group told KEZI she wants those going through a tough time, to know they are not alone. "If you're a victim of bullying and feel like you're not enough, don't let it get to you, Liv Carlin. You are loved, you are not alone, there are people in your same situation, people care about you, you're not alone you can get through this." She said next year, their group plans on working with other schools in the area to implement similar programs. Public joint-stock company Ukrposhta has signed a bilateral agreement with the postal service of Azerbaijan on the creation of a special tariff for permanent dispatchers, Ukrposhta has said on its website. "The cost of consignment delivery of a parcel or a small package is reduced by 20-40% for legal entities if they sign agreements with Ukrposhta," the company said. According to Ukrposhta, Azerbaijan will be interesting for Ukrainian exporters, since this country has a significant purchasing power, large GDP per capita (according to the World Bank for 2016 was about $4,000). "The e-commerce market in Azerbaijan is quite promising, as it is still developing, and Ukrainian goods are in demand in this country. Azerbaijan actively trades with Ukraine and we see an annual growth of goods from Ukraine. Thus, the special tariff for Ukrainian entrepreneurs engaged in e-commerce will stimulate them to sell their goods to Azerbaijan," Deputy Director of the International Operations Department of Ukrposhta Yulia Pavlenko said. Along with Azerbaijan, Ukrposhta special tariffs are also in effect for dispatch to Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia, Lithuania and Latvia. Luhansk Regional Prosecutor's Office has opened a special pretrial investigation against three Ukrainian citizens involved in the activities of the "sixth separate motorized rifle Cossack regiment named after Matvei Platov" of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) terrorist organization for military opposition and obstruction to Ukrainian law enforcement officers in committing their official duties. According to the press service of the prosecutor's office, "the investigation established that the terrorists' associates have been participating in the illegal activities of the 'sixth separate motorized rifle Cossack regiment named after Matvei Platov' since January 2015 in the posts of the so-called 'commanders of howitzer and anti-aircraft artillery batteries' and 'commander of a motorized rifle battalion.'" The report notes that these structural units of the "LPR" terrorist organization carried out military opposition and obstruction in the performance of official duties by law enforcement officers of Ukraine and servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces involved in the holding of the anti-terrorist operation. "As a result of criminal actions by members of the terrorist organization, servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who served in Novoaidar and Popasna districts were injured or killed," the report says. The prosecutor's office opened a special pretrial investigation against militants, because they are hiding from criminal liability. Criminal proceedings were opened under Parts 2, 3, Article 258, Part 1, Article 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Militants face from seven to 15 years in prison or life imprisonment with confiscation of property. A pursuit reaching speeds of around 110 miles over three counties ended with a woman being stopped with a loaded rifle and drugs in her possession. Monica Christine Lynch, 45, of Liberty, Missouri, was stopped after stop sticks were deployed in Freeborn County after a pursuit began in Cerro Gordo County at 7:02 p.m. Monday and traveled through Worth County. The Cerro Gordo County Sheriffs Office says Lynch took off in a 2005 Dodge Ram after being pulled over on 300th St. (County Rd. B 20) in Cerro Gordo County. The truck turned north on Interstate-35 where it reached speeds of 110 miles per hour. While on I-35, authorities say Lynch threw items suspected to be methamphetamine and marijuana out the window. Lynch was apprehended when she drove off the roadway and was taken into custody without incident. Lynch is facing charges for felony eluding, possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana, littering and no drivers license. She is being held in the Freeborn County Jail and will eventually be extradited to Iowa for the warrants out of Cerro Gordo County. Deputies from Cerro Gordo County, Freeborn County, Worth County, the Iowa State Patrol, the Minnesota State Patrol all assisted in the pursuit. MASON CITY, Iowa A Manly man is pleading guilty in a crash that killed a Hampton woman. 60-year-old Paul Edward Wood entered guilty pleas Monday to homicide by vehicle by reckless driving, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of marijuana. Authorities say Wood was under the influence of both drugs when he drove across the center line of Highway 65 on November 25, 2016, and smashed head on into the vehicle driven by Griselda Tello. She suffered fatal injuries in the collision. Law enforcement says meth and pot were found in Woods vehicle and tests of his blood and urine came back positive for both drugs. A sentencing date has been scheduled for April 30. BYRON, Minn. Every student at Byron High School in the class of 2017 walked away with a diploma, allowing the district to hit a 100-percent graduation rate. Byron High School Principal Steven Willman said its a team effort between teachers, parents and students. It takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to make sure that we have the students to where they need to be to graduate, Willman said. Jennifer Green has been a teacher in the district for a decade. She said Byron is the best district shes taught at, and is proud of the schools newest achievement. I think it says we make sure every kid learns all the time, Green said. We make it very difficult for kids to not learn. Shes seen the school grow from a 94.1-percent graduation rate in 2015, nearly 97-percent in 2016 to a perfect 100 in 2017. Every kid wants to succeed, just some need more support in getting there, Green said, and we've just been really creative in how we support those kids so they can be successful. She said its important to pay attention to all students to keep them from slipping, and continue to make improvements. Always watching for those kids that might be slipping, that might be falling through the cracks and figure out what can we do to keep them on path, to keep them moving forward Green said. One report says Byron was one of 19 school districts in Minnesota to hit that perfect 100-percent four-year graduation rate in 2017. MASON CITY, Iowa- In an effort to give North Iowans a chance to meet several of the candidates running for governor, a local group has started a Pints and Politics event where candidates will be addressing potential voters. On Monday Dr. Andy McGuire made a stop to Mason City Brewing. She spoke to a nearly full house of people about several different topics including healthcare, mental health, substance abuse, water quality, and many more. She stated that it is hard to get work done when proposals like the tax reform bill would cut around a billion dollars from a $7.1 billion budget. The math doesn't add up, she said. I believe we don't have a revenue problem we have a priority problem. We are giving it away in tax give aways instead of putting it on the priorities of healthcare and people and education. 3/19 Jon Neiderbach 3/26 Cathy Glasson 4/9 Nate Boulton 4/16 Ross Wilburn 4/23 John Norris CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - Clear Lake School's Transportation Director Tony Laudner is about to replace a school bus from 1994 with one from 2018. It's not only expected to keep kids warmer, according to Laudner, but also help air quality. Clear Lake schools received award money from the EPA meant to replace buses or retrofit existing buses to reduce pollutants linked to old diesel buses like the one in Clear Lake. Perfectly honest, it was try to get an extra $20,000 to purchase a new bus but it is a good thing. Everyone is trying to do some odd ball things for the environment so it was two-fold for us, Laudner said. Clear Lake isn't the only local district to receive money, West Hancock School District did too. No schools or private sectors in our area from Minnesota received any. Klimkin calls on Crimean residents to neither vote or help organize presidential elections in Russia Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin calls on the residents of the occupied Crimea neither take part nor help in organizing the election of the Russian president. "I urge not to help the Russian occupation authorities organize these elections and take part in these elections. Now the FSB is calling and threatening relatives of those who do not want to go to the polls," Klimkin told journalists in Kyiv on Tuesday. He noted that residents of the occupied Crimea live in constant fear. "What we need to do is to achieve access by international organizations to the occupied Crimea," the minister said. According to Klimkin, it is necessary to maintain sanctions and increase international pressure on Russia. In addition, it is necessary to create an informal association of the "Friendship Group of Ukraine" for the de-occupation of Crimea. The presidential election in Russia will be held on March 18. KIMT News 3 - A food shaming bill Iowa lawmakers are trying to pass would impact schools all across the state. It would make sure no trays are dumped or kids are publicly shamed for not having money in their lunch accounts. Stephanie Hassebroek doesn't have kids in school quite yet, just daycare. When asked how she feels about kids in school getting food shamed for not having enough money for lunch I think that would be really embarrassing and probably really upsetting, Hassebroek said. Hassebroek says that never happened to her. No I don't, anything like that ever happening when I was a kid, Hassebroek said. You may recall this happening in Stewartville Minnesota last year, KIMT News 3 covered the issue when parents came forward complaining their children's meals were being dumped if no money was in their fund which led to the school changing its lunch policy. The Iowa House has approved a bill saying that food shaming will not be tolerated at any school. Sometimes it's not a lack of funds. You can just forget and that would be really unfair, Hassebroek said. This bill would also change how parents are told about free and reduced lunch programs. Currently parents in Iowa get notified to apply once a year. This bill would make it so if a parent finds themselves struggling financially during the school year they could still have a chance to apply. FLOYD, Iowa (AP) A northeast Iowa prosecutor says the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis man by officers was justified. Twenty-nine-year-old Jihad Merrick was killed the night of Jan. 17 alongside U.S. Highway 218 in Bremer County. Merrick's car was stopped for speeding after he'd been reported pointing a gun at his own head at a Floyd truck stop. Deputies say that after the stop he got in and out of his vehicle with a handgun to his head. Officers approached his car after he fired a shot inside it and then struggled to remove him. He was able to put the car in gear and accelerate. An officer fearful of being run over yelled for other officers to shoot, and two of them did. County Attorney Kasey Wedding said in a news release Tuesday the shooting was justified because of the threat Merrick posed. ROCHESTER, Minn. New security screening measures are in place at Rochester International Airport. The Transportation Security Administration says the new procedures were tested at 10 airports across the country over the past two years and will go into effect at all U.S. airports by late spring. Travelers will now have to put all electronic devices larger than a cell phone in bins for x-ray screening, similar to how laptops have been checked for several years. The one-quart bag air travelers have been using for liquids, gels, and aerosols must also now be placed in a bin by itself for x-ray screening. Travelers departing Rochester International Airport will notice a change in the screening procedures for their carry-on baggage, said Cliff Van Leuven, TSA Federal Security Director for Minnesota. The simple step of removing electronics larger than a cell phone from carry-ons will allow TSA officers to get a clear view on the x-ray screen of the electronics as well as a clearer and uncluttered view of the contents of the carry-on bag. These additional security steps will not apply to people being screened in the dedicated TSA Pre lane, which TSA now operates at the Rochester airport. Travelers are being asked to prepare for these new procedures by following a few simple steps: Organize the carry-on bag so electronics larger than a cell phone can be quickly and easily accessed when at the security checkpoint. Ensure the quart-size bag of liquids, gels and aerosols can also be accessed quickly and easily. Dont overstuff the carry-on bag. An uncluttered bag makes the screening process easier and quicker for passengers and TSA officers. Consider checking bags when feasible. Once screening is complete, be sure to put all electronics back in the carry-on bag. Double-check the bins to make sure nothing is left behind. ROCHESTER, Minn. An accused car thief is pleading not guilty. 25-year-old Cody James Krismer of Stockton is charged with theft of a motor vehicle, possession of stolen property, and obstructing the legal process. He was arrested September 26, 2017, when Olmsted County sheriffs deputies found him hiding in a tree line along Highway 63 Northeast. Deputies say they had to shoot Krismer with a taser to get him under control. His trial is now set for June 25. MASON CITY, Iowa A man accused of two robberies is going to prison for one. Police say 29-year-old Zachary Michael Russell of Mason City robbed someone after lying in wait for them in the early morning hours of November 27, 2017. He was charged with 2nd degree robbery for following the victim, punching them in the face, and then running off with the victims bag. A 1st degree robbery charge was also filed against Russell for a December 1, 2017, incident where police say he held a knife to someones throat and took their cell phone and money. Russell has now pleaded guilty to assault while participating in a felony for the November crime and charges have been dropped for the December robbery. Hes been ordered to spend five years in prison and pay $652 in restitution. MASON CITY, Iowa - A new report says that millennials are either not saving enough or saving at all for retirement. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, 66 percent of millennials, who are between the ages of 21 and 32, are not setting aside any money at all for retirement, while 33.9% are. In addition, there is a difference between races in saving: 82.9% of Latino Millennials are not saving any money for retirement, compared to 70.3% of Blacks, 67% of Asians, and 59.9% of Whites. Danielle Pace, branch manager at Clear Lake Bank & Trust's west Mason City branch, and an older millennial herself, says she isn't surprised by these findings. "Millennials have a higher rate of student loan debt than any other generation before us, so a lot of money is going towards that. I also think that millennials are typically the generation that are impulsive. They're saving money, but not necessarily for retirement," Pace says. Pace also believes that millennials' priorities are based on wants instead of needs. "They want to travel. They want to buy a house. They want to have a good career. They're saving for other shorter term goals instead of retirement, a long term goal," Pace adds. However, Scott Hegeston, a junior at NIACC and a younger millennial, says that regardless of status, it's important to save for retirement. "It's best to start saving as soon as you can because you're going to need it. And if something falls through or something happens, you're going to want some money to hang on to," Hegeston says. Millennials have stated in the report that the reasons for not saving are because of higher cost of living, not being able to meet minimum eligibility for a workplace retirement plan, and as mentioned previously, higher student debt. In addition, the report stated that millennials entered the workforce at a time of stagnant wages and high unemployment. SAN DIEGO (AP) President Donald Trump on Tuesday eagerly inspected prototypes on display in California for his "big beautiful border wall" amid peaceful protests but growing tensions between his administration and the state over immigration enforcement. Chanting "No ban! No wall!" demonstrators were cheered on by honking cars and buses at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego, the nation's busiest border crossing. Trump appeared engaged as he was briefed on eight towering prototypes, including one with blue steel on top. He said he liked a fully concrete wall because it was the hardest to climb, but he noted that it needs see-through capability. He said certain parts of California are desperate for a wall to break the flow of illegal immigration. "If you didn't have walls over here, you wouldn't even have a country," Trump said. The visit Trump's first to the state as president coincided with an escalating battle between his administration and the liberal state, which Democrat Hillary Clinton easily carried in the 2016 presidential election. California officials have defiantly refused to help federal agents detain and deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally, and the Justice Department sued the state last week over three of its immigration laws. After viewing the wall prototypes in an area of the border heavily cordoned off and far from the rallies on the U.S. side, Trump was then expected to address Marines in San Diego before attending a high-dollar fundraiser in Los Angeles, where he'll stay overnight. Protests were held on the Mexican side, too, in Tijuana. Semitrucks were parked in between the row of prototypes and the border, blocking the view from Mexico. Demonstrators said they planned to line up and greet people walking into the United States at the San Ysidro crossing to show Americans welcome immigrants. Jose Gonzalez, 21, stopped to snap a photo of the protesters holding signs, including one that read: "Wall off Putin!" in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has a seemingly close relationship with Trump. "I don't think it's really fair how he has the choice to separate us," said Gonzalez, a dual citizen who lives in Tijuana and crosses the border daily to work at a San Diego ramen restaurant. Army veteran Mark Prieto, 48, shook his head as he walked by the protest. "People are so narrow-minded," the Riverside firefighter said as the crowd chanted. "Finally we have someone who is putting America first." His wife, Corina Prieto, a nurse who has extended family in Mexico, agreed. Both voted for Trump. "I think he is doing a lot of good, like protecting our Border Patrol," she said. Trump was expected Tuesday to be briefed on lessons learned from the construction of the prototypes built in San Diego last fall. He also will meet with border agents and officers to ask what they need, Homeland Security spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said. The president also planned to talk about sanctuary cities, arguing that they are a major threat to public safety and national security, according to a senior administration official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about Trump's planned remarks and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. San Diego's Republican mayor criticized Trump's planned short visit, saying the president won't get a full picture of the city. Kevin Faulconer said a popular cross-border airport terminal connecting San Diego and Tijuana shows that "building bridges has worked wonders." Faulconer, writing in The San Diego Union-Tribune, also said San Diego police work to protect everyone regardless of immigration status, an apparent dig at Trump's push to target illegal immigration. Trump tweeted about California's immigration policies as he flew to the state aboard Air Force One. "California's sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk. Thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP!" he wrote. This isn't Trump's first visit to the border. He traveled to Laredo one of Texas' safest cities weeks after declaring his candidacy in June 2015. Trump told reporters then that he was putting himself "in great danger" by coming to the border. But, he said, "I have to do it. I love this country." ___ Associated Press writers Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, John Antczak in Los Angeles, Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Greg Bull in Tijuana, Mexico, and Darlene Superville and Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report. I saw interviews with Trumps head trade guy Peter Navarro and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, over the weekend. They are the two protectionists in the Administration. Nothing they said in defense of raising tariffs in their interviews made any sense. Here are their arguments: 1) The National Defense Argument "If we don't stop countries from dumping steel and crashing the price, we wont have a steel industry. And if we don't have a steel industry, we won't have a national defense". If it's all about defense, then I suggest we estimate what the market price of steel would be without foreign nations subsidizing it. Then, establish a subsidy for American steel companies sufficient to prevent them from going out of business. Then raise or lower that subsidy as the price of steel rises or falls. This would be paid for through the defense department budget. We will be spending 700 billion this year on defense. Much of that budget will be for purchases of the things we need for defense. Paying for steel is one of them. Paying our steel companies a higher price in order to insure a trusted supplier of steel, would be like a cost-plus business and would insure the best defense possible. It's the most direct way to target the problem -- which is to maintain American steel producers to insure an effective defense. This would take away the need for tariffs and yet still allow our consumers to benefit from the lower steel prices paid by foreign governments who subsidize our consumers. Allowing dumping is allowing our consumers to buy products at below market prices. Since we are all consumers, I say -- bring it on! 2) "If a country charges us a 50% tariff on a product, and we are charging zero on the same product, we're getting ripped off. We need reciprocal trade". What is being said is that if a nation charges their citizens a 50% tax, we should tax our citizens a 50% tax too! That would be reciprocal trade! (That'll teach 'em!) Tariffs on imports are taxes on the importing consumer. It makes no sense to tax ourselves to get even with governments that tax their citizens to subsidize us. 3) "Free trade must be fair trade. Fair trade is reciprocal trade"... meaning if they are protectionist we should be protectionist too. We should penalize our citizens and economy as much as they do. And how is that protection working out for them? If protectionism works why aren't they rich and why aren't we poor? Why since WW ll has America soared economically while most have stagnated. Why is Japan, the greatest industrialized protectionist nation in the world, in a 35 year recession while we went into a technological revolution with no recession from 1982 to 2007? Why is protectionist Europe running an unemployment rate almost triple that of the US? To advocate the use of force, (taxation of the consumer) to protect businesses from even unfair competition is still the use of force against the many. There are 3 states that produce most of the US's steel. In those states there are 140 thousand steel workers,and 40 times that many steel consumers. The idea of taking from the many and giving it to businesses, is called corporate welfare. It is also called crony capitalism. And it is also called "picking winners and losers". If Trump proceeds down this road, we will have an economic disaster. What he wants to do, however, may be meaningless in the bigger picture. It's only one shot in a war. But if he wants to actually bring on a trade war...batten down the hatches! Thankfully, that is unlikely since while he has the power over tariffs when it comes to national defense, it is Congress that has the power over all other trade decisions. The Wall St Journal called this move the biggest blunder of the Trump administration. And he did it on his own, without the normal White House process or verification. It was emotion that won over reason. Hopefully this huge backlash from economists and markets that know better, will persuade him to rethink this destructive move. The rebound in the markets indicate that this is a one-off event and will not have a significant economic effect. Almost every President in the past flirted with protectionism, especially steel protection. It did not work then, and it wont work now. Trump has at the last minute eliminated tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and Australia. He must of thought better of the case against tariffs for our major trading partners. However China is an exception. They are stealing intellectual property and violating several trade agreements with impunity. This is not just a trade dispute. This is theft and must be dealt with separately, and most likely will be. And finally, the last justification... 4) "We have trade deficits of 800 billion dollars." So what? We are sending them pieces of paper and getting their goods at bargain prices in return. We have a 4% unemployment rate and most of the exporting surplus nations, have an 8-10% unemployment rate. The only thing a trade surplus is good for is to buy foreign goods. But governments don't want their citizens to buy other nations goods, so they hoard the little pieces of paper and force their consumers to buy only those products that government approves, and at higher prices than they should have to. Yes, we have a huge trade deficits, but unlike budget deficits, trade deficits do not have to be paid back. They can only be used to buy foreign goods and invest in foreign economies. Solution: Thank the citizens of the world for the foreign aid that they are sending us, because that is what they are doing. Nine out of ten economists and businessmen know this. Eighty percent of the citizens of the world, however, agree with the protectionist argument even though they are the victims. It is education that will lead to a return to free trade. Taxing consumers and using force to take from one group, (consumers), and give to another group, (producers), will only lead to what we have now -- huge trade deficits in the import countries, and high unemployment and stagnation in the export countries. Protectionism doesn't work. For a simple, but academic article on the merits of free trade, see: Who's Protected By Protectionism - PaulNathan.biz The notion that if we raise our tariffs to the level of their tariffs which would level the playing field reminds me of an old story... A poor soul with a deformed hand walks into a church, walks down the aisle, falls to his knees and says "please God, make my hand like the other one", and poof, just like that he had two deformed hands. That's reciprocal trade. Allison Lampert MONTREAL (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised aluminum and steelworkers on Monday he would defend them against possible U.S. tariffs and called U.S. President Donald Trump to stress thatmutually beneficial cross-border supply chains should be preserved. Trump said last week he would impose import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent for aluminum, effective later this month, but exempted Canada after an intense lobbying campaign arranged by Ottawa. We are ready to take action whenever action is required ... we had your backs last week and we always will, Trudeau said after visiting a Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO.AX) (RIO.L) smelter in Alma, Quebec, his first stop on a tour this week of Canadas steel and aluminum regions. In a phone call from the smelter town, Trudeau thanked Trump for thespecial consideration extended to Canada on the tariffs, and emphasized the importance of preservingmutually beneficial supply chains to support jobs and businesses on both sides of the border, his office said. It was the second call in a week that Trudeau made to Trump on the tariffs issue. Canada, the biggest supplier of steel and aluminum to the United States, escaped Trumps import duties along with Mexico, but the two countries could still face duties if they fail to reach a deal with the Trump administration on modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trudeau said Canada had a lot more work to do and would press Washington to ensure the exemptions were permanent. Canada has said that tariffs would hurt both the United States and Canada. The Canadian government has vowed to retaliate if duties are imposed, but the prime minister did not answer directly when asked what measures it might take. Trudeau rejected calls by some Quebec union leaders to take a harder line in NAFTA talks and leave the table if Canada cannot get a better deal. We are negotiating the NAFTA accord in good faith and we will continue to do so, but I dont want the president to think he can bring tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum without there being consequences, he told Radio-Canada earlier in the day. Later this week, Trudeau is due to visit the Ontario steel city of Hamilton, where workers are on edge. Additional reporting by David Ljunggren and Leah Schnurr in Ottawa and Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump spoke on Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the steel and aluminum import tariffs Trump announced last week, the White House said. Trump also emphasized the importance of quickly concluding ongoing negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)to ensure the vitality of United States and North American manufacturing industries and to protect the economic and national security of the United States, the White House said in a statement. Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Sandra Maler 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. Militants have mounted three attacks on Ukrainian army positions in eastern Ukraine since Tuesday morning, as a result of which one Ukrainian soldier has been wounded, the press center of the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations has reported. "There have been three attacks on Ukrainian army positions since the beginning of the dayOne Ukrainian soldier has been wounded in action. He has been hospitalized. His condition is satisfactory," the press center said on Facebook in an evening update as of 18:00 on March 13. In particular, militants used grenade launchers and large-caliber machine guns to shell Ukrainian positions near the village of Luhanske in Donetsk region's Bakhmutsky district. In the Donetsk sector, they also used 82mm mortars, large-caliber machine guns and small arms to fire at Ukrainian army positions near the village of Pisky in Yasynuvatsky district. In addition, they used small arms to fire at the defenders of Butivka coal mine. TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his close ally, Finance Minister Taro Aso, faced growing pressure on Monday over a suspected cover-up of a cronyism scandal that has dogged the premier for more than a year. Copies of documents seen by Reuters showed that references to Abe, his wife and Aso were removed from finance ministry records of the discounted sale of state-owned land to a school operator with ties to Abes wife, Akie. Abe, now in his sixth year in office, has denied that he or his wife did favors for the school operator, Moritomo Gakuen, and has said he would resign if evidence was found that they had. Excised references seen by Reuters did not appear to show that Abe or his wife intervened directly in the deal. Suspicion of a cover-up could slash Abes ratings and dash his hopes for a third term as leader of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Victory in the LDP September leadership vote would put him on track to become Japans longest-serving premier. The doubts are also putting pressure on Aso to resign. It could shake confidence in the administration as a whole. I strongly feel responsibility as the head of administration, Abe told reporters after the finance ministry reported on the altered documents. I apologize to all of the people. Abe said he wanted Aso to make every effort to clarify all the facts and ensure such things do not happen again. Aso told a separate news conference that several officials at his ministrys division in charge of the sale were involved in altering the documents to make them conform with testimony in parliament by the then-head of the division. It has become clear that there was a cover-up and falsification, opposition Democratic Party leader Yuichiro Tamaki told reporters. He said Aso should resign and parliament hold hearings on the matter. The 77-year-old Aso, who is also deputy premier and whose backing is vital for Abe, apologized for his ministrys actions, but said that he had no intention of stepping down. The risk for Aso and Abe, experts said, is that the suspected cover-up does more damage than the land sale itself. The cover-up is now a bigger issue than the original incident, said Koichi Nakano, a professor at Sophia University. A finance ministry official said that 14 items had been altered in the documents after February last year - when the scandal broke - at the instruction of the ministrys financial division to match testimony in parliament. ASOS SURVIVAL? One such reference was to Akies visit to the school at the heart of the suspected scandal. Also removed was a reference to ties by Abe and Aso to a conservative lobby group, Nippon Kaigi. The records include a comment from Yasunori Kagoike, the former head of Moritomo Gakuen, citing Akie Abe as telling him:This is good land so please proceed. A kindergarten run by Moritomo Gakuen taught a nationalist curriculum in line with views espoused by Nippon Kaigi. At the very least, it seems that Asos chances of surviving as finance minister are diminishing rapidly, wrote Tobias Harris, vice president of consultancy Teneo Intelligence, in an email. He said there was nosmoking gun showing direct intervention by Abe or his wife. But Harris added:It now seems to be more a question of whether Abe can manage an orderly exit at the end of his term in September or whether hell resign hastily again - but I dont see how he can win a new mandate amidst the Abe fatigue that will surely grow after these revelations. A Sankei newspaper poll over the weekend said 71 percent of respondents said Aso should go. On Friday, National Tax Agency chief Nobuhisa Sagawa resigned over remarks in parliament last year about the case. Sagawa headed the ministry division that submitted the documents before he was tapped as tax agency chief in July, an appointment critics saw as a reward for his efforts to diffuse the issue with his statements to parliament last year. Some LDP members said politicians should not pass the buck to bureaucrats. It is inconceivable that the bureaucrats on the spot had such authority (to alter the documents), media quoted Shigeru Ishiba, an LDP lawmaker who has made no secret of his desire to challenge Abe in the party race, as saying on the weekend. Abe, 63, swept back to power in December 2012 promising to revive the economy and bolster Japans defense. It was a rare comeback for the conservative lawmaker, who quit abruptly in 2007 after a year in office marked by scandals in his cabinet, a deadlocked parliament and ill health. His ruling bloc won a two-thirdssuper majority in an October lower house poll, helped by opposition disarray. A March 9-11 survey by the Yomiuri newspaper showed support for Abes cabinet has now fallen to 48 percent, down six points from a month earlier. Non-support rose to 42 percent and 80 percent said that the matter had not been handled appropriately. LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose on Tuesday, after Libya said loadings of crude at a key port had been suspended, offseting an earlier dent to the price caused by evidence of the inexorable growth in U.S. oil output. All loadings at the Libyan oil export port of Zawiya, which exports crude from the 308,000-barrel per day El Sharara field, have stopped due to a strike, a Libyan website said. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were last up 11 cents on the day at $65.06 a barrel by 1017 GMT, up from an earlier low of $64.67, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were up 17 cents at $61.53 a barrel. Both crude benchmarks dropped by around 1 percent on Monday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said output from the shale basin would hit a new record high in April. Libyan oil loadings have been suspended, thats why the market is rallying at the moment, PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga said. Meanwhile, the EIA confirmed, or possibly made worse, what we already knew about U.S. shale output, which is relentlessly marching higher. U.S. crude production from major shale formations is expected to rise by 131,000 bpd in April from the previous month to a record 6.95 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report on Monday. Oil prices moved lower ... after (the) Energy Information Administration published a report that crude production from seven major U.S. shale plays is expected to see a climb, said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia/Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore. That expected increase would top the 105,000 bpd climb in March from the previous month, to what was then expected to be a record high of 6.82 million bpd, the EIA said. U.S. production is expected to rise above 11 million bpd by late 2018, taking the top spot from Russia, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Healthy demand and ongoing supply restraint by a group or producers led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia, however, have so far prevented further price falls. The average monthly increase (in shale output) in the eight months since September is 155,000 bpd. This would see shale oil production soar by 1.5 million bpd within a year enough to cover the total increase in global oil demand, Commerzbank said in a note. Thus OPEC has no scope to expand production from its current level. But in a sign that an early-year rally in crude oil may have fizzled out, money managers cut their combined net long positions in the six most important futures and options contracts linked to petroleum prices by 50 million barrels in the week to March 6. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was considering conservative commentator Larry Kudlowvery strongly to become his next top economic adviser. We dont agree on everything, but in this case, I think thats good. I want to have a divergent opinion, said Trump, noting he was also speaking with other candidates. I think Larry has a very good chance, Trump told reporters. Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama 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. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States still needed to sort out the facts behind the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England, that struck down a former spy, and would talk to British Prime Minister Theresa May later on Tuesday. Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, acknowledged that British authorities have accused Russia in the attack on the former Russian double agent who passed secrets to British intelligence, but said he still needed to talk to May before rendering a judgment. As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be, Trump said. It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia, and I would certainly take that finding as fact, he added. Britain has said the nerve agent used in the attack earlier this month was one developed by the Soviet Union, and that it was highly likely that Russia was to blame. Trumps comments were more equivocal than that of his then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who on Monday agreed with Britains assessment and said that those behind the crime must face serious consequences. On Tuesday, Trump fired Tillerson after a series of public rifts over policy on North Korea, Russia and Iran, replacing his chief diplomat with loyalist CIA Director Mike Pompeo. May has given Russian President Vladimir Putin until midnight on Tuesday to explain how the nerve agent came to be used in the attack on Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33. The pair were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center on March 4. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signaled on Tuesday that conservative commentator Larry Kudlow is the front-runner to become the top economic adviser at the White House, though he said he was also speaking with other candidates. Kudlow, 70, a long-time friend and early supporter of Trumps 2016 presidential campaign, would fill the vacancy at the National Economic Council created by the resignation of veteran Wall Street banker Gary Cohn. Cohn announced his resignation as NEC director last week in a move that was triggered by Trumps decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Kudlow has also publicly disagreed with the tariffs. But Trump said Kudlow hascome around to see the tariffs as a useful tool for renegotiating trade deals. We dont agree on everything, but in this case, I think thats good. I want to have a divergent opinion. We agree on most, Trump said. I think Larry has a very good chance, Trump told reporters. Kudlow was an economic adviser to former Republican President Ronald Reagan and spent time on Wall Street before becoming a recognized face on cable television. Chris Liddell, a White House official who is a former executive at Microsoft Corp and General Motors Co, is also under consideration for the job, a White House official said on Sunday. Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to Trump who pushed for the steel and aluminum tariffs, has also been touted as a candidate for the top economic job, though he has said he is not in the running. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will bring a tough message on illegal immigration to California on Tuesday, taking aim atsanctuary cities in his first visit in office to the heavily Democratic state that has served as a base of resistance to many of his policies. Aides said Trump would not shy away from his sharp focus on immigration during the trip. The Republican president will fly to San Diego on Tuesday morning and then head to the border region to review models of the type of wall he wants to serve as a protective barrier against illegal immigrants, drugs and smuggled weapons. The Trump administration has escalated its battle with so-called sanctuary cities that critics say protect illegal immigrants from deportation. Last week, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit accusing California of violating the U.S. Constitution and putting federal agents in danger by approving laws protecting illegal immigrants. California Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law last October that prevents police from inquiring about immigration status and curtails law enforcement cooperation with immigration officers. Brown, who accuses the Trump administration of waging war on Americas most populous state, has said the law was crafted with input and support from California police. In his public remarks on Tuesday, Trump is expected to renew his concern that Los Angeles, San Francisco and other major cities are providing protection for illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. Tom Homan, acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said in a conference call with reporters on Monday night that Brown, U.S. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and U.S. Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi were inflaming the situation by accusing federal agents of preying on immigrants. We dont arrest law-abiding people, Homan said.We arrest people who are in the country illegally and violate federal law. Pelosi had called an ICE raid in the San Francisco Bay area acowardly abuse of power After his San Diego stop, Trump will travel to Los Angeles to headline a political fundraiser in Beverly Hills. Trump won the presidency in November 2016 despite losing California badly to Democrat Hillary Clinton. A Republican Party official said the fundraiser would net $5 million from 90 people expected to attend the event, which will benefit both Trumps prospective 2020 re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee. On March 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump signed off on a decision to apply measures restricting the imports of steel and aluminium under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, in the form of increasing import levies. Accordingly, a number of steel and aluminium products imported to the US will be subject to a 25% tariff and a 10% tariff, respectively. The decision takes effect 15 days after the date on which it was signed. The MOIT continued to affirm its stance that steel and aluminium imports from Vietnam do not provide direct competition for US manufacturers. The volume of steel and aluminium imports from Vietnam only accounts for a negligible share of the USs total steel and aluminium import volume, so it cannot be a threat or a cause of damages to the steel and aluminium production industry of the US, the ministry said. It stated that the newly issued policy would directly impact US consumers and the US industries that use steel and aluminium products as input materials for their production. On the basis of the efforts to accelerate comprehensive partnership between the two countries over the past few years, the MOIT asked the US Government consider an exclusion for Vietnam-originated steel and aluminium imports to fall outside the application scope of restriction measures, as these products do not affect the US goal of ensuring national security. The MOIT will continue to closely follow developments in the case and consider all subsequent measures to protect the legitimate interests of businesses and promote the finely growing comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and the US. HerStory: A Special Womens History Reception and Celebration on March 22 Kattie Strickland made homemade biscuits for guards in the Secret City so that she could spend more time with her husband. Image courtesy of DOE . OAK RIDGE - As part of Womens History Month and the 75th Anniversary of Oak Ridge, there will be a special Manhattan Project event on Thursday, March 22 starting at 5:30 pm (ET) at the New Hope Visitor Center, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. During the event Manhattan Project National Historical Park will be presented with a biscuit pan secretly used by Mrs. Kattie Strickland during the Manhattan Project. The biscuit pan is an important cultural artifact for the park that can help provide context of the story of a woman who worked on the Manhattan Project. Each person had a unique story of why they found themselves working in the Secret City. For Kattie Strickland, an African-American woman from Alabama, going to the Secret City meant a better future for her family. She and her husband left their four children with her mother and sent money home every week. During the war Oak Ridge was segregated and African-American husbands and wives were not allowed to live together. Kattie asked construction workers to make her a biscuit pan from metal scraps. Cooking over a pot-bellied stove in her tent she leveraged her homemade biscuits to feed the guards who then allowed her spend more time with her husband. Although she faced unfair treatment Kattie Strickland persevered, providing opportunities for her family while contributing to one of the largest scientific undertakings in history. From janitor to homemaker to chemist, the women of the Manhattan Project worked hard and talked little. Photo courtesy of DOE. The event will also include the opening of HerStory: A Photography Exhibition of Women in the Secret City. From janitor to homemaker to chemist, the women of the Manhattan Project worked hard and talked little. During WWII, Oak Ridge was a government town of 70,000 workers; primarily women who lived in a camp-like environment of barbed wire, security checkpoints, and code words. Workers were fingerprinted, interviewed, assigned a job, and given a clearance badge. Housing was limited and cramped and often unheated. Food at the cafeterias was in short supply and lines were long. The HerStory photography exhibition and Mrs. Stricklands biscuit pan will be on display at the New Hope Visitor Center throughout the month of April and is sponsored by the Department of Energy, National Park Service and Explore Oak Ridge. The New Hope Visitor Center is located at 602 Scarboro Road, Oak Ridge, TN. Published March 12, 2018 Agriculture Department has new rule for goat identification NASHVILLE The Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) has a new rule requiring official identification for goats that are transported within the state. This change will create consistency with surrounding states and with the United States Department of Agricultures (USDA) Traceability and Scrapie rule, allowing for traceability and easier interstate movement of goats. TDA will be working with goat owners and industry stakeholders to gain compliance by July 1. This rule is for identification purposes only. There are no additional testing or reporting requirements related to scrapie. Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats. Although there is no evidence that scrapie poses a risk to human health, there is no cure or treatment for the disease in livestock at this time. Scrapie is a serious disease that must be eradicated, State Veterinarian Dr. Charlie Hatcher said. Having official identification for our goats in Tennessee will significantly improve the chances of accomplishing that goal. The most commonly used form of identification for goats is a scrapie tag. Tennessee sheep and goat producers can order this metal ear tag for free through the National Scrapie Eradication Program (NSEP) by calling the local USDA office at 615-781-5314. The NSEP has reduced the prevalence of scrapie in adult sheep sampled at slaughter by more than 99 percent. Sheep and goat producers who tag their livestock are critical to maintaining traceability and eliminating the last few cases in the United States. Producers are urged to enroll in the NSEP. The state veterinarian is responsible for monitoring for and preventing the spread of animal disease, as well as promoting animal health in Tennessee. More information about Tennessee sheep and goat identification requirements, as well as the National Scrapie Eradication Program, can be found at NASHVILLE The Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) has a new rule requiring official identification for goats that are transported within the state.This change will create consistency with surrounding states and with the United States Department of Agricultures (USDA) Traceability and Scrapie rule, allowing for traceability and easier interstate movement of goats. TDA will be working with goat owners and industry stakeholders to gain compliance by July 1.This rule is for identification purposes only. There are no additional testing or reporting requirements related to scrapie.Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats. Although there is no evidence that scrapie poses a risk to human health, there is no cure or treatment for the disease in livestock at this time.Scrapie is a serious disease that must be eradicated, State Veterinarian Dr. Charlie Hatcher said. Having official identification for our goats in Tennessee will significantly improve the chances of accomplishing that goal.The most commonly used form of identification for goats is a scrapie tag. Tennessee sheep and goat producers can order this metal ear tag for free through the National Scrapie Eradication Program (NSEP) by calling the local USDA office at 615-781-5314.The NSEP has reduced the prevalence of scrapie in adult sheep sampled at slaughter by more than 99 percent. Sheep and goat producers who tag their livestock are critical to maintaining traceability and eliminating the last few cases in the United States. Producers are urged to enroll in the NSEP.The state veterinarian is responsible for monitoring for and preventing the spread of animal disease, as well as promoting animal health in Tennessee. More information about Tennessee sheep and goat identification requirements, as well as the National Scrapie Eradication Program, can be found at here Published March 13, 2018 The event, which was attended by more than 300 businesses and investors from the two countries, was held in the framework of the Vietnamese PMs official visit to NZ from March 12-14. PM Phuc told the audience that Vietnams business environment has been significantly improved in recent years as seen in assessments made by the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. He also cited the latest survey of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in late February which showed that nearly 70% of Japanese firms operating in Vietnam have plans to expand business in the country. Furthermore, more than 62% of Japanese businesses claimed that doing business in Vietnam is profitable. According to the Business Climate Index released by the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) for the last quarter of 2017, 63% of businesses perceived Vietnams current business climate as good and very good while nearly 86% of enterprises claimed they want to maintain and expand investment in the Southeast Asian country. In February 2018, Nikkei announced that Vietnam scored 53.5 points in Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), the highest in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The PM also reported that Vietnams economic growth in the first quarter of 2018 was estimated at a record 7.41%. He affirmed that the Vietnamese Government will continue improving the business environment to attract more domestic and foreign investors and ensure their interests in accordance with Vietnamese regulations. He said when doing business in Vietnam, New Zealand firms can access not only a nearly 100 million strong market but also the 600-million strong ASEAN along with the vast neighbouring Chinese market through Vietnam. The PM expressed his hope that the two sides businesses will discuss specific cooperation opportunities at the forum, especially when the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CP TPP) has been signed with Vietnam and New Zealand as members. Minister of Agriculture, Biosecurity, Food Safety, and Rural Communities Damien OConnor said New Zealand wants to further deepen trade relations with Vietnam, adding that he hoped the forum will bring benefits for both sides. At the forum, PM Phuc answered questions raised by New Zealand businesses regarding Vietnams policies to better business environment and attract investment in infrastructure development. The PM also witnessed the signing of agreements on bilateral cooperation in the fields of agriculture and education, and between the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and New Zealand Business Council. A shipyard of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) is shown in this file photo. Policy banks have poured large amounts of public funds into the troubled shipbuilding industry. / Yonhap By Yoon Ja-young The failure of Sungdong Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering as well as other large manufacturers that received huge funding from state-owned banks is leading more to say policy banks should decrease involvement in corporate restructuring and take on new roles. The midsized shipbuilder has received 2.7 trillion won in funding and a 1.5 trillion won debt-to-equity conversion since 2010 under the restructuring program led by its main creditor Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank). The bank, however, recently concluded the shipbuilder should be placed into court receivership. As the biggest shareholder with a 67 percent stake, a huge loss is inevitable for the bank. Policy banks refer to banks under government ownership, operated for special policy purposes. Korea Development Bank (KDB) was founded in 1954 for the purpose of supplying and managing major industrial capital to help develop the country's industries and economy. The country also has Eximbank, established in 1976 to facilitate economic development and enhance economic cooperation with foreign countries, providing financial support for export and import transactions, overseas investment projects, and the development of overseas natural resources. Policy banks have provided financial support for large businesses that get into trouble to stabilize the financial market and minimize fallout in the industry. Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) are urged to shift support to SMEs. / Yonhap However, they often end up in failure. KDB has injected 13.3 trillion won in corporate restructuring since 2008, but it recovered only 31 percent of the funding. Jeong Dae-hee, a fellow at the Korea Development Institute (KDI), said the policy banks have not been effective in restructuring ailing conglomerates in recent years. They led to ineffective distribution of financial resources as they delayed workout programs on troubled companies by expanding financial support. Even the businesses put under workout programs avoided selling their assets or labor restructuring if these policy banks are their major creditors. The probability of asset sales decreased 42.5 percentage points if policy banks were the main creditors of businesses undergoing a workout program. The probability of labor restructuring dipped 52.7 percentage points. "By delaying restructuring or leading to smaller restructuring, policy banks can incur gigantic costs on the economy, both directly and indirectly," Jeong said. Overseas experts have also pointed to failures of state-owned banks, as they are geared toward rewarding political cronies with funding instead of profitability or the aggressive enforcement of loan repayment. Some refer to them as "loss-making machines." Jeong pointed out the current system leads to "rent-seeking behaviors" of many players, including the troubled company, policy banks themselves, other creditors and the government. For instance, the troubled company may use the financial support received from policy banks to bet on risky projects, only focusing on winning huge orders despite losses. Policy bank executives also abuse their power as the largest shareholder or main creditor for their own private gains. Other creditor banks will try to hand over their share of insolvent loans to policy banks, and the government will try to avoid responsibility for policy failure by directing all the blame to the policy banks. Experts thus say the private sector, including private equity funds and investment banks, should lead corporate restructuring. "There should be a shift from the current corporate restructuring system led by the government and banks," said Hyun Suk, a research fellow at Korea Capital Market Institute. While government intervention should be minimized for market-friendly restructuring, he added it would be better to set a private-public joint restructuring fund since current PEFs in the country can take only limited roles in restructuring large industries which requires trillions of won in funding and a long time until normalization. "In early stages of restructuring or beginning of a crisis, restructuring led by the government may be more effective as the government can make up for the market failure and take high risks. But the problem of government failure has emerged amid highly developed industrial structures and growing external and internal uncertainties." Jeong said policy banks' roles in corporate restructuring should be improved while supervision of policy banks also needs revision. He points out policy banks are necessary. "Private lenders have a tendency to provide loans at less-than-adequate levels, due to the problem of information asymmetry. They are especially reluctant to invest in projects that provide long-term positive externality that benefits people." He added provision of liquidity through policy banks can lessen the shock. "Since policy banks are deemed safer than ordinary banks, the provision of credit through policy banks to tackle a liquidity shortage may be both efficient and effective." KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull, third from left, attends a ministers' meeting on March 8 to strengthen industrial competitiveness. / Korea Times photo by Shin Sang-soon The building of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in central Seoul / Yonhap The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) is preparing for possible contact with its North Korean counterpart amid a mood of detente on the Korean Peninsula, sources said Tuesday. In a dramatic turnaround from icy relations, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is scheduled to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late April to discuss ways of promoting peace on the peninsula. U.S. President Donald Trump agreed last week to a summit with Kim by the end of May after the reclusive leader expressed his commitment to denuclearization. According to the sources, the KCCI is considering plans to push for indirect contact with the North Korean Chamber of Commerce through the International Chamber of Commerce or direct dialogue with the North Korean business body should the summits be held as agreed upon. The KCCI is slated to host a conference on the outlook of inter-Korean relations and future tasks in Seoul next week with local businessmen attending. It will mark the first time since June 2015 that the KCCI has held an event related to inter-Korean ties. The business organization also plans to step up the activity of a policy advisory group on economic cooperation between the two Koreas, while mulling the revival of the now defunct inter-Korean economic cooperation committee. KCCI Chairman Park Yong-maan has said the body will push for exchanges with its North Korean counterpart, presenting specific areas of cooperation, such as the certification of origin of North Korean products. The KCCI, however, said it will not rush to contact the North Korean businessmen as the prospect of inter-Korean ties remains murky and international sanctions on Pyongyang are in place. In a meeting with reporters in July last year, Park said, "The KCCI can activate the communication channel with (the North Korean body) at any moment, but it's not an issue that I can touch because a considerable number of its members are subject to the sanctions." The United Nations, the United States and other countries have imposed a series of sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests. The KCCI has not had any contact with the North Korean business body over the past 10 years, though they held direct and indirect contact during the South's liberal governments of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. Meanwhile, major companies in South Korea are taking a wait-and-see approach toward improving conditions on the Korean Peninsula without making any concrete moves for inter-Korean exchanges, according to the sources. (Yonhap) Rex Tillerson, left, and Mike Pompeo / Reuters By Jhoo Dong-chan U.S. President Donald Trump ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Tuesday, (local time) and nominated Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo as his replacement. According to a statement released by the White House, Tuesday, President Trump named Pompeo as the nation's top diplomat "I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State," said Trump. "As Director of the CIA, Mike has earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community. I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture." Gina Haspel, the deputy director of the CIA, will succeed Pompeo to become the agency's first female director. Pompeo said upon his nomination: "I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as secretary of state. His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America's prosperity." White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had asked Tillerson to step aside, replacing him with Pompeo, as Trump confirmed his decision on Twitter. "Thanks to Rex Tillerson for his service! Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job," he said in his twitter post. The White House added Trump wants to have new team in place ahead of upcoming talks with North Korea alongside various trade talks. Former President Lee Myung-bak speaks to reporters before entering the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in southern Seoul, Wednesday. / Joint Press Corps. By Jung Min-ho Former President Lee Myung-bak is being investigated at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office over allegations of corruption. Lee, 76, who is accused of playing a central role in many illegal activities during his five-year term. After arriving there at around 9:25 a.m., Lee said he was sorry for bringing concerns. "I stand here with a saddened heart and feel sorry for bringing concerns to the nation at the time when it faces major challenges," Lee said. "I want to spare words at this moment and I hope I will be the last former president to be brought to the prosecution." Lee, who was in office from 2009-2013, is suspected of receiving "black budgets" from the National Intelligence Service and misappropriating the money. One former aide, Kim Baek-joon, has already been indicted on this charge. But prosecutors suspect Kim only delivered the money to his boss, Lee. Lee is also accused of using DAS, an auto parts company, to collect and manage slush funds. He has denied any wrongdoing, calling the investigation politically motivated. He is the country's fifth president prosecutors will have questioned over corruption allegations. Last month, prosecutors sought a 30-year prison term for former President Park Geun-hye, his successor. Park was ousted last year amid an influence-peddling scandal and is standing trial on charges of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. By Park Ji-won Two minor liberal parties seek to form a joint parliamentary negotiating bloc to increase their negotiating power in the National Assembly. The Justice Party with six seats has accepted a proposal from the Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP) with 14 seats for the creation of a joint negotiating body. "There is a general consensus among party members that it is necessary to join forces with the PDP," Justice Party chief spokesperson Choo Hye-sun told reporters, Monday. Choo said the party will make a final decision by as early as Saturday after consulting party members. The PDP made an official proposal to the Justice Party last week for the formation of a joint negotiating body to bolster their voices in parliamentary negotiations ahead of the June 13 local elections, as well as over the revision of the Constitution. Justice Party floor leader Rep. Roh Hoe-chan supported the idea of joining forces with the PDP, saying ultra-conservative forces often disrupt the National Assembly even after the birth of a new liberal government thanks to the candlelit revolution. If the two parties form a joint negotiating bloc, it would become the fourth-largest in the 293-member National Assembly after the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the main opposition Liberty Korea Party and the center-right Bareun Mirae Party. The PDP was launched by 14 lawmakers who split from the People's Party in protest of a merger with the conservative Bareun Party. The Bareun Mirae Party was formed through the merger. The #MeToo campaign can be risky in Korea. / Yonhap By Jung Min-ho The United Nations has urged the Korean government to better protect sex-crime victims as they often face retaliatory legal action for speaking the truth. That issue has recently come into the spotlight here as the #MeToo movement gradually gains momentum. After reviewing Korea's record, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a U.N. watchdog, released a report Monday that called on the government to improve its system so victims can report cases without fear of prosecution. CEDAW said the risk of defamation charges deters victims from filing reports with the police. Sometimes the victims' sexual background is used as "evidence in judicial proceedings, which leads to secondary victimization and silencing of victims." Under Article 307 of the country's criminal law, a person who defames another person by disclosing a fact to the public could face two years in prison or a fine of up to 5 million won ($4,700). The libel law, which is different from that in most other developed countries, has proved to be a deterrent for victims of sexual crimes to speak out on the #MeToo campaign. There have been reports that some victims of sexual crimes were prosecuted after revealing their stories on social media. To solve the problem, Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea proposed a bill last week to ban prosecuting people for publicly revealing sex crimes. CEDAW also pointed out that sexual violence against women is prevalent in the nation's public institutions but few perpetrators end up being punished and removed. "Ensure stricter punishment of perpetrators of sexual violence in public institutions, including schools, universities and the military; take steps against the re-instatement of perpetrators in their professional functions," CEDAW said. "Establish an effective system of management and oversight for cases of sexual harassment in the workplace, in particular by small and medium-sized enterprises, with a focus on prevention." Over the past few years, the number of sexual harassment cases online has increased rapidly. CEDAW advised the government to come up with measures to prevent it, for example, by "enacting legislation that explicitly criminalizes such new forms of sexual violence against women." The watchdog also suggested penalizing online platform operators for failing to prevent sexual crimes while providing a means that makes such crimes possible. The greatest benefit is the pressure of reform "Vietnam will have a new market of 500 million people spread throughout the globe. A new market structure will open up for Vietnamese businesses. Trade opportunities will also open up investment opportunities. However, the matter is the quality of the strategy to approach and fulfil CPTPP commitments..." said Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics. This is not the first time that Thien has talked about this, nor is he the only one to raise the issue. The World Bank report on Economic and Distributional Impacts of CPTPP, released following the official signing of the agreement, states that CPTPP will bring direct economic benefits and stimulate domestic reforms. The trade pact is expected to jumpstart reforms in the areas of competition, services (including financial services, telecommunications, and temporary entry of service providers), customs, e-commerce, environment, government procurement, intellectual property, investment, labour standards, legal issues, market access for goods, rules of origin, non-tariff measures, and trade remedies, among others. Thien sees these reforms as a great opportunity, providing long-term optimism about the impacts of the CPTPP, saying that the "pressure on institutional changes and legal framework improvements in line with the standards of a transparent and modern market will open up opportunities for enterprises. The participation and confrontation with trade wars will also be a way to improve the competitiveness of both the economy and enterprises." Questions need immediate answers Business strategies after the signing of CPTPP must follow policy moves, putting the burden on state authorised agencies. It means that if the review and evaluation of the current legal system and law amendments are not immediately implemented, or are not aligned with the spirit of the CPTPP, the opportunities anticipated for Vietnamese businesses will remain at a research level. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, director of the WTO Centre under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) emphasised that for participation in the CPTPP playground or any other playground, Vietnamese businesses must adapt themselves to the business and policy environment in Vietnam. It is not groundless that economic experts and the business community are concerned about the responsibilities of state management agencies. In the VCCI's 2016 survey of the Ministerial Efficiency Index (MEI) on business law development and implementation in preparation for the signing of TPP, less than 50% of enterprises showed satisfaction in the performance of ministries. "We are looking forward to ministries and agencies to hastily review and evaluate the legal document system, which also requires the transparency and high responsibilities of ministries in this area, Trang said. Enterprises do not stand apart Despite the great dependence on the planned review and amendments of the legal document system, Vietnamese enterprises enjoy the support of an improved business environment thanks to the drastic actions of the government over the past two years. For the first time in many years, ministries and sectors have taken action to reduce business conditions, administrative procedures, and specialised inspection procedures applied for import and export goods. Initial results showed that 675 business conditions managed by the industry and trade sector were eliminated pursuant to a decision by the Prime Minister in early 2018. In addition, a series of specialised inspection procedures applied to the production and business of food were also removed according to the Decree No.15/2018/N-CP which replaced the Decree No.38/2015/N-CP. The outcomes were attributed to the significant contributions of associations of enterprises, who worked with state research agencies to analyse and propose adjustments to these procedures. The review and evaluation of policy and business-related laws are what enterprises are actually expecting from the state management agencies to make them conformable with CPTPP requirements. Trang said that the VCCI has planned to cooperate with business associations in carrying out an independent review of legal documents related to the implementation of the CPTPP in order to provide recommendations to authorised agencies on which will require the active involvement of enterprises and negotiating experts. It is obvious that the opportunities and challenges that the CPTPP can bring to the Vietnamese economy are not kept in the words of the commitments, and the realisation of opportunities is not in the recommendations, rather, they are both in the hands of enterprises and state management agencies. We have to change our minds according to the principle that reform and innovation are the internal demands of enterprises and the economy, while integration commitments only act as a catalyst for this process," Thien added. South Korean National Intelligence Service director Suh Hoon, left, speaks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a meeting in Tokyo, Tuesday. / Yonhap Liberty Korea Party Chairman Hong Joon-pyo, center, and floor leader Kim Sung-tae, left, hold signs supporting the #MeToo movement, along with female party members, March 6. / Yonhap By Choi Ha-young The #MeToo movement is sweeping the political community after hitting the art and culture scenes hard. But oddly enough, allegations are being raised only against liberal politicians. Is this because conservative politicians have higher ethical standards and are better behaved? The conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP) has stepped up a political offensive over a series of sexual misconduct claims against members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), including former South Chungcheong Governor An Hee-jung and Rep. Min Byung-doo. Observers and sources said there is an atmosphere within the conservative bloc that makes it difficult for its victims to make such issues public. Political analyst Choi Young-il said conservatives are already "immune to" sex scandals. "Before #MeToo was coined, conservatives monopolized sex crimes," Choi said. "On the other hand, liberal figures, mainly with backgrounds in anti-military dictatorship and pro-democracy struggles, have boasted a sense of ethics. For example, liberal ex-President Roh Moo-hyun killed himself over guilt about a bribery scandal, while conservative ex-presidents even boycott investigations though they allegedly took more bribes." A female party official who has worked for conservative parties for years said there are victims of sexual crimes in the conservative bloc, too, but they are afraid of crying foul. "I couldn't recommend my colleague to expose her case," she said on condition of anonymity. "First of all, the conservatives are not familiar with resolving problems through social movements. They tend to resort to systems, being skeptical about the effects of personal action. "Further, there are few options for conservative staffers to change jobs, if they choose to expose their cases after quitting the party. Other than parties and lawmakers' offices, we don't have enough career options, compared to the liberal bloc that has numerous civic organizations and advocates for whistleblowers." An "outdated" understanding of sexual crime is another hurdle for conservative victims to take issue with. Rep. Park Soon-ja, chief of the special committee in the LKP to counter sex crimes, indicated "minor sexual misconduct" is not problematic. "Compared to rape allegations raised in the DPK, LKP lawmakers merely touched women's bodies," the female lawmaker said. "As shown by Park's remark, conservative parties generally lack sensitivity for women and social minorities," the unnamed party official noted. This means young staffers do not have any senior officials to help them if they suffer sexual harassment. "Even if a victim takes the issue public, there's no guarantee they could resume a normal life." Yoon So-young, a women's rights activist based in South Gyeongsang Province, the conservatives' home turf, said the hierarchy in conservative parties is a fundamental factor that hampers individual actions. "Compared to other political groups, conservative parties feature a strong top-down system. Based on my experiences, female LKP members shun victims once the party headquarters orders them not to respond to such claims," Yoon said. Under these circumstances, LKP Chairman Hong Joon-pyo has politicized the movement as a measure to attack his liberal rivals. "I hope more leftist politicians are caught by the snowballing #MeToo campaign to reveal their hypocrisy," Hong said at the party's National Women's Conference, March 6. "Continuous #MeToo claims among the liberals are relevant to pro-North Korean leftists' wrong sexual habits that were prevalent in the 1980s." The LKP chief capitalized on the scandal surrounding ex-Governor An for his own political gain, during a Cheong Wa Dae visit March 7. As a greeting to presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok, Hong said: "Glad to see you not hit by the #MeToo movements. Rumors are rampant you orchestrated An's case." After his remarks came under fire for exploiting the victim, Hong said "It was a joke." Though it is lesser known, #MeToo claims have already taken place within the LKP. Former LKP Supreme Council member Ryu Yeo-hae has claimed Hong has harassed and insulted her. However, Hong dismissed the allegation saying, "You do not deserve to be harassed." Hong is not free from misogynistic remarks. In his biography published in 2005, Hong boasted of an experience in his college days of providing an animal stimulant his friend used in a rape attempt on a female student. It kicked up controversy last year when he was the presidential candidate of the LKP. Regarding the stir that haunted him during the presidential race last May, Hong claimed it was "fabricated" by the liberals, rather than admitting his wrongdoing. "I'm innocent," he said in front of female party members, March 6. President Moon Jae-in greets members of the taskforce under the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning that drew up a draft of the government's constitutional revision suggestions, before a lunch meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. Left is Jung Hae-gu, head of the commission. / Yonhap By Kim Rahn A constitutional revision has become a bone of contention between the government and opposition parties, as President Moon Jae-in seeks to submit the government's own version of a revision despite their protest. The President plans to do so with the aim of putting the revision to a referendum in tandem with the June 13 local elections, as related talks at the National Assembly are not making progress. But opposition parties are demanding the President leave the issue with the Assembly, claiming he is attempting to amend the Constitution according to his interest. A taskforce under the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning, which drew up the government's suggestions of the revision following Moon's order, reported its draft to the President, Tuesday. "Holding the referendum and local elections together was my campaign pledge; it is an opportunity that may not come again, and it's a way to save on taxes. If we miss this chance, it will be difficult for us to have one again during the 20th Assembly," Moon said in a meeting with the team members. The President denounced the opposition parties for not making progress on the revision talks but merely criticizing his attempts at putting together a draft. He called such criticism "irresponsible." "If the Assembly wants to lead a constitutional revision, it needs to put it into action, not just talk about it." Moon said he would keep urging the Assembly to come up with its own revision bill, but if the Assembly fails to do so, "I can't help exercising my right to submit the government-led bill." Cheong Wa Dae officials said Moon is likely to submit the revision bill around March 21, a time that would guarantee the Assembly 60 days of review according to the related law. The Assembly or president can submit a constitutional revision bill, and when the president does, the Assembly reviews it for up to 60 days and then votes on it. If at least two thirds of registered lawmakers agree to it, it will be put to a referendum. For a power restructuring, the draft suggests reducing the presidential term from the current five years to four and instead allowing a consecutive term. Even if the clause is changed in that way, Moon cannot seek a consecutive term as the new rule will start to be applied from the term of his successor. But it remains to be seen whether the government's final version will include this clause, which is getting the fiercest protest from opposition parties, especially the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP). It is possible for Moon to exclude the clause to increase the possibility of the bill's passage at the Assembly. The draft also proposes holding a runoff election for the president when no candidates gain a majority of the total votes. The idea reflects criticism that a candidate who does not gain majority public support is elected under the current simple majority system. According to the draft, the Assembly will recommend a candidate for prime minister and the president will appoint the person. Presidential power will be cut with the Assembly gaining larger rights in naming members of the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the National Election Commission, according to the draft. While the current Constitution doesn't have a clause about the nation's capital, a new clause will stipulate that the capital is decided according to the law, which will then allow the government to designate a city as an administrative capital or an economic capital. Previously the Constitutional Court ruled Seoul is the capital according to the "customary Constitution." Opposition parties protest The LKP has opposed holding the referendum and the local elections together, and even other opposition parties, which are okay with the June referendum, are against the President taking the initiative of the revision. With their opposition, the chance of the government bill to pass the parliamentary vote seems low, because the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) holds 121 out of 293 Assembly seats. "The President is submitting a revision bill while parliamentary talks are ongoing, and this is oppression to prevent constitutional revision by the Assembly that represents the people," Rep. Kim Sung-tae, floor leader of the LKP, said. Rep. Kim Dong-cheol, floor leader of the Bareun Mirae Party, also said, "The Cheong Wa Dae-led constitutional revision means the government regards the ruling party as a rubber stamp and ignores opposition parties." Justice Party Chairwoman Lee Jeong-mi asked Moon to reconsider the submission of the bill, saying it is likely to only aggravate the partisan conflicts and unlikely to pass the parliamentary vote. Proper handling of nuclear weapons key for NK's open-diplomacy drive By Lee Min-hyung North Korea may follow in similar footsteps of Vietnam in diplomacy if the regime's upcoming peace dialogue with the United States proceeds smoothly as planned, a North Korea expert said Tuesday. In 1995, Vietnam normalized its diplomatic relations with the U.S. after both sides agreed to end their severed ties of 20 years. Even if Vietnam is still a one-party communist state, the landmark event allowed the country to make a series of good moves in economic development and enhance its national image across the globe. Vietnam has, therefore, been cited as one of the most ideal and probable models of diplomatic success that the North can copy to normalize its worst-ever economic troubles. The single-party structure of Vietnam, which poses little leadership threat, is also in a similar direction to what North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pursues for a stronger grip on the regime. "North Korea is also seeking to maintain the current sole party system, while at the same time open up the regime for diplomacy on the international stage," said Paik Hak-soon, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at Sejong Institute. "But Pyongyang is expected to face a bumpy road ahead toward the drive due to the ongoing nuclear issues," he said. The remark came at a critical time when the North sent a rare message for peace with the U.S., with its leader Kim Jong-un promising to take steps for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump may hold a summit before the end of May, as the latter accepted Kim's proposal for holding peace talks amid thawing inter-Korean relations. The rare mood for peace between Washington and Pyongyang came as part of President Moon Jae-in's efforts to mediate talks between the two sides at this year's PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea. After Kim expressed his strong will for peace with Seoul earlier this year, President Moon has concentrated on enhancing not just inter-Korean relations, but ties between Washington and Pyongyang by mediating possible dialogue. "We need to take a wait-and-see approach regarding how Pyongyang handles the nuclear issues during the possibly upcoming dialogue with Washington," said the expert. "I would say now is the critical juncture where the North can take advantage of its negotiating cards with the U.S., after the regime's botched attempt for dialogue with Washington in 2013," he said. Since the third-generation dictator of the Kim dynasty inherited power in 2011, Kim sent two signals for dialogue and peace to the U.S.: one in the summer of 2013 and the other in 2018. The North offered to hold high-level talks with the U.S. in 2013 by showing its will for denuclearization. This ended up in failure, with the U.S. ignoring the offer and threatening to strike the regime with nuclear weapons, according to the expert. "But things are different this time, as Trump accepted the proposal from Kim and both sides are in a rosy mood for dialogue at least at the moment," Paik said. He said, unlike back in the early 2010s, the U.S. cannot ignore the North due to its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) that can strike the U.S. mainland. "At the moment, there is no way for the U.S. to block the regime's ICBMs were they launched at a normal angle," he said. To put an end to such a military conflict against Pyongyang, Washington has no choice but to continue holding dialogue and persuade the regime to give up its nuclear weapons for good, according to the expert. By Murdock O'Mooney Living and working in Korea as an American, I get asked all types of questions, mostly from my students. Why did I come to Korea, and do I like kimchi are most common. But some questions are harder to answer than others such as, "Why are there so many school shootings in the U.S.?" Instead of pretending I have all the answers, I simply tell my students what I know. I tell them that America is a big, diverse country with an equally diverse set of gun laws. Beyond this, there are a lot of firearms around, which makes access much easier than in other countries. According to a 2015 Washington Post article there were an estimated 357 million guns in circulation in the U.S. If this were true, that would mean there are 40 million more guns in the United States, than people. That's a lot of guns. So in a country inundated with guns, how can Americans prevent school shootings? President Trump and other conservative leaders have suggested arming teachers. However this idea that more guns, creates more safety, is deeply flawed. Statistics show a correlation between the presence of guns and an increase in gun violence, whether accidental or intentional. A 2015 study from Boston Children's Hospital reported that shootings were 6.8 times more likely in states that had the most guns, compared to states with the least guns. That means if you live in Hawaii (which has the lowest rate of gun violence in the U.S.) you have a 2.71 in 100,000 chance of dying from a gunshot, while in Alaska (which has the highest rate of gun violence) you have a 19.70 in 100,000 chance of death by firearm. By comparison, South Korea had just 3 gun deaths in all of 2012. Some years it has none. The study also reported that people with access to guns at home were twice as likely to be murdered by a gun, than those who did not. According to the statistics you are safer if you don't own a gun, than if you do. Australia, like America, used to have a lot of guns. But after the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996, in which 35 people were killed, the government passed stricter gun laws. For example, possession of an assault rifle in Australia can carry a $280,000 fine or 14 years in prison. The country also did a weapons buyback, which took 650,000 weapons off the streets. As a result Australia hasn't had a mass shooting since 1996. But American politics is much more corporatized than that of Australia. The nonpartisan Center for Responsible Politics estimates that the National Rifle Association (NRA) spent $54 million to secure republican control of Congress, and $30 million to help get Donald Trump elected in 2016. Considering this, most republican lawmakers don't support any gun laws that will cut into the profits of the weapons and ammo industry. As the U.S. Congress and White House are both controlled by republicans, getting stricter gun laws passed poses a challenge. And yet there is hope in the form of student protests and calls from lawmakers, senators, citizens, and gun owners, to pass stricter gun laws. Some owners of assault rifles have even turned them over to police, saying they don't want the weapon to hurt anyone. Overall, calling for American teachers to be armed is ridiculous. It shifts responsibility from lawmakers, to teachers, which is unfair and unwarranted. Teachers want to teach, not carry guns. And students want to be safe in school. One sure way to change gun laws is by electing officials who prioritize public safety, and are not in the pocket of the NRA. ) is a traveler and writer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. He teaches at Chosun University. Murdock O'Mooney ( murdockomooney@live.com By Edmund S. Phelps NEW YORK From the early 19th century to the early 20th century, Western countries attributed their economic growth to the discoveries of "scientists and navigators." A country needed only the "zeal" to develop "obvious" commercial applications, and build the facilities to meet demand for new products. Until recently, the Chinese believed the same thing. But now, Chinese businesspeople and entrepreneurs are increasingly showing not only the entrepreneurial drive to adapt to new opportunities, but also the desire and capacity to innovate for themselves, rather than simply copying what's already out there. Indeed, more and more Chinese companies are realizing that they must innovate in order to get and stay ahead in the global economy. Several companies notably Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent made breakthroughs, by offering digital-age infrastructure that facilitates innovative activity. And industrial firms have recently moved into robots and artificial intelligence. For its part, China's government is evidently supportive of Chinese businesses developing a capacity to produce indigenous innovations. It no doubt recognizes that such innovations are all the more valuable when innovation remains weak in the West, where growth in total factor productivity (TFP) has continued its long slowdown. In recent years, China's government has introduced initiatives aimed at increasing both entrepreneurship and innovation. It has shortened dramatically the process for forming a new company. It has built a vast number of schools, where Chinese children learn more about the world they will face. And it recently facilitated the entry of foreign experts to work on new projects in the business sector. The authorities have also recognized the importance of allowing more competition in the economy. Individuals should be freed up to start new companies, and existing companies should be freed up to enter new industries. Competition solves a lot of problems a point that is increasingly lost on the West. At the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Chinese officials discussed basic reforms that the government introduced two years ago to increase competition. Under the new policy, excess capacity now signals that supply should be allowed to contract and prompt redundant firms to exit the market. Of course, excess demand signals that supply should be allowed to increase, leading to the entry of new firms. The key insight is that when existing enterprises are protected from new market entrants bearing new ideas, the result will be less innovation and less "adaptation" to a changing world, to use Friedrich Hayek's term. Another argument can be made. In any modern economy, virtually every industry operates in the face of a largely unknowable future. The more companies an industry has thinking about a problem, the more likely a solution is to be found. A company that has been kept out of an industry might know something that all the companies in the industry do not. Or some unique experience may have furnished an individual with "personal knowledge" that is impossible to transmit to others who have not had the same experience. Whatever the case, society benefits through lower prices, more jobs, better products and services, and so forth when outsiders with something to add are free to do so. All of this was known to the great theorists of the 1920s and 1930s: Hayek, Frank Knight, and John Maynard Keynes. And now it is known to the Chinese, who understand that a country benefits when companies each with its own thinking and knowledge are free to compete. The West seems to have forgotten this. Since the 1930s, most Western governments have seen it as their duty to protect established enterprises from competition, even when it comes from new firms offering new adaptations or innovations. These protections, which come in myriad forms, have almost certainly discouraged many entrepreneurs from coming forward with new and better ideas. History is rife with evidence of the value of competition. In postwar Britain, into the 1970s, industries were controlled by exclusive clubs within the Confederation of British Industry, which barred new entrants. By the time Margaret Thatcher became prime minister in 1979, TFP had stagnated. But Thatcher put a stop to the confederation's anti-competitive practices, and Britain's TFP was growing again by the mid-1980s. We are now seeing something similar in China. By 2016, China's TFP growth rate had been slowing for a number of years. But since the reforms that year, it has been increasing. The West must address its great TFP slowdown, which has lasted since the late 1960s. Ending protection of incumbents from new entrants possessing ideas for new adaptions and innovations is a good place to start. Edmund S. Phelps, the 2006 Nobel laureate in economics, is director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University and the author of "Mass Flourishing." Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate ( www.project-syndicate.org ). Authorities should get tougher on hiring schemes Choe Heung-sik, the governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), offered to resign Monday amid allegations of his involvement in hiring irregularities. The top financial regulator vowed to confront his accusers in the morning but changed his mind to step down in the afternoon. That caused suspicion about "pressure from above," meaning Cheong Wa Dae. President Moon Jae-in has already vowed to initiate a harsh crackdown on the illegal employment of the children of politicians, bureaucrats, regulators and other influential figures, to appease the anger of young voters. Since the scandal broke Friday, Choe had maintained he did not violate any law, just recommended an applicant to a personnel manager of KEB Hana Bank, one of the big-five commercial banks in Korea, when he was serving as the present of KEB Hana Financial Group in 2013. In short, Choe maintained he just followed the institution's practice but did nothing to influence the recruitment process. Choe's self-defense is not wrong in principle. The FSS chief's excuse is unconvincing, however, given that the bank's recruitment staff could hardly disobey their boss's virtual request. Choe was right to leave office. The commercial bank is not free from criticism, either. The information about Choe's undesirable behavior five years ago had to have come from nowhere but the inner circle of the bank. KEB Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tai, who has recently been elected to serve his third consecutive term by the group's board of directors, was to get a formal endorsement at a general shareholders' meeting next Friday. The FSS had made it no secret that they oppose Kim's reappointment. Had Hana's management leaked the information with such an intention, the slugfest between regulators and the banking group could hardly be uglier. Hana ought to disclose the details of the recruitment process of the employee in question, who is the son of one of Choe's friends and is still working at the bank. Choe and the bank must tell everything they did and knew about the scandal instead of trying to cover it up. Law enforcement authorities should investigate both sides and bring charges against them if they are found to have been implicated in hiring irregularities. KAIST President Shin Sung-chul speaks during a press conference in Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of KAIST By Kang Seung-woo The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) unveiled its new vision, Monday, designed to help the school emerge as one of the top 10 world-leading universities by 2031. According to the state-run research institute, the new future plan titled "KAIST Vision 2031" is to become a global value-creative leading university with the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that will bring a paradigm shift across the board. To do this, KAIST proposed action plans in the fields of education, research and development (R&D), technology commercialization, globalization and future strategy. It also introduced the new KAIST spirit -- challenge, creativity and caring. This comes as KAIST stands at a critical juncture as a school that has emerged as a global top-tier university over the past half-century and is now facing growing challenges -- particularly from up-and-coming Chinese rivals that are financially backed by the government. "KAIST has joined the ranks of world-class universities over the past 50 years, but we also need to re-establish our vision and strategies to find measures to further develop the university," KAIST President Shin Sung-chul said in a press conference in Seoul. "These are focused on qualitative development rather than quantitative growth." Last year, KAIST -- established in 1971 -- ranked 41st in the QS World University Rankings, an annual publication of world university rankings by British education company Quacquarelli Symonds. It also ranked in sixth in 2016 and 2017 in Thomson Reuters' annual ranking of the World's Most Innovative Universities. Shin said the new vision is the outcome of a year-long effort from 140 people ranging from students, school officials and professors as well as outside specialists. "Since last April, a committee has been in operation under the direct control of the president," he said. Shin took office in March 2017. Five action plans The educational innovation will be about selecting talented individuals from various backgrounds and raising convergence leaders who can move across various academic disciplines with confidence and challenging spirits. "KAIST plans to recruit more students from regular high schools as well as female students," Shin said, adding that it plans to expand their respective portions into 35 percent and 30 percent by 2031. In addition, 30 percent of the total freshmen in 2031 will be foreign students, compared with the current ratio of 8.4 percent. To nurture the convergence leaders, KAIST plans to adopt the non-departmental education system in 2019, in which students are not required to choose majors or departments during all four years of their undergraduate studies. In order to improve R&D, Shin said KAIST will introduce the "Collaborative Research Lab" system to help retain academic success without interruption, and to improve the continuity of research. "By 2031, KAIST plans to establish more than 60 Collaborative Research Labs," Shin said. To accelerate convergence studies, the university will carry out eight flagship convergence research centers by 2026. To commercialize its research, it will separate the technology transfer office as an independent body by 2031, while making efforts to host startups inside the campus in Daejeon. For globalization, the president plans to create a Korean-English bilingual campus and set up an overseas campus by 2031. KAIST aims to secure a 1 trillion-won (940 million) budget by 2031, up from 860 billion won allocated for this year, Shin added. Shin, who previously headed the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, is KAIST's first alumni president. Previous presidents came from overseas, including Nobel Laureate Physicist Robert Laughlin. Toyota's hydrogen fuel-cell sedan the Mirai rolls out of the Motomachi plant in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. / Korea Times file By Ko Dong-hwan South Korea may have introduced the world's first mass-produced hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle a few years ago, but it is now behind Japan in introducing better domestic infrastructure for the cars, raising concerns more aggressive government investment is needed. While the two countries have been producing more of the eco-friendly cars to replace those running on gasoline and diesel, Japan has done more preliminary work than Korea to usher in the new era. South Korea once led the world's fuel-cell auto industry, with Hyundai Motor producing the Tuscan ix35 SUV in 2013, the first time a fuel-cell car was mass-produced. But while Korea has delayed preparing public infrastructure like refueling stations, Japan has been busy doing so. The Mirai and a fuel-cell recharging facility grab visitors' attention at the 2015 Washington Auto Show. / Korea Times file Japan's most notable efforts that differentiate it from South Korea are expanding local refueling stations the core infrastructure. Japan introduced JHyM on Mar. 5, a network of companies in the auto, energy and financial sectors cooperating to roll out the facilities. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has supported the measure, promising in April 2017 to build a safe supply network. Abe's big picture for the industry sees an increase in the number of fuel-cell cars from 1,800 to 40,000 in Japan by 2020 and enough refueling stations. The catchphrase in the promise was "the world's first hydrogen society." JHyM plans to build 80 hydrogen stations for fuel cell cars by 2021, the end of the first phase of the consortium's 10-year project period. The stations will be jointly designed by automakers and energy producers. Hyundai Motor's hydrogen fuel-cell car Nexo was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show 2018 in Las Vegas in January. / Korea Times file Kumho Tire's labor union urges the management to withdraw its plan to sell the tiremaker to a foreign enterprise, during a rally held in Gwangju, Friday. / Yonhap By Park Jae-hyuk Kumho Tire workers have decided to stage a strike to oppose a foreign acquisition of the financially troubled company, the nation's second-largest tiremaker's union said Tuesday. But the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has reiterated its support of the management and creditors' decision to sell the Korean company to China's Doublestar Tire. As a result, the conflict between the two sides will highly likely escalate. According to the union, 4,000 members, including 3,500 workers at the tiremaker's three factories in Gwangju, Gokseong County in South Jeolla Province and Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province as well as 500 irregular employees will hold a 24-hour walkout from 6:30 a.m. today to 6:30 a.m. Thursday. Last week, the union demanded creditors negotiate over withdrawing the Doublestar plan and the payment of overdue wages. It also demanded creditors answer it by noon Tuesday. Kumho's main creditor, the Korea Development Bank, rejected the demands Monday. "Considering Kumho Tire's financial condition, attracting foreign capital is the best way to stabilize its management," the state-run bank said in an official letter sent to the union. "We want the union to agree on a self-rescue plan and the attraction of foreign capital by the end of the month." The industry ministry also said a foreign acquisition was inevitable to maintain employment and normalize management. "A domestic company's acquisition of Kumho Tire is best, but no Korean company will consider buying a company with a liquidity crisis," a ministry official said during a meeting with the Party for Democracy and Peace, Tuesday. "Considering the impact on the industry, local economy and jobs, saving the company is better than liquidating it." In the meantime, Kumho Tire said Chairman Kim Jong-ho talked with two union leaders staging a sit-in protest on a transmitting tower near the company's Gwangju factory, Monday. "We must avoid court receivership which would deal a severe blow to both labor and management," the chairman told the leaders. "For this, please stop the protest and let us talk about practical measures to solve the problems." Kim also informed the union what he and creditors confirmed during a meeting with Doublestar Chairman Chai Yongsen in China last week. He said the Chinese businessman answered positively to his requests, including maintaining Kumho Tire's independent management, job security and Doublestar's investment in Korean factories. The Kumho Tire chief has claimed the acquisition is essential for the company's survival at this juncture despite the objections of the union. In a message sent to employees last week, he said the company "has no reasons to object" to the main creditor's plan to turn over the debt-ridden company to Doublestar. To avoid any massive layoffs and seek the company's long-term prosperity, the chairman said the tiremaker will ask creditors to sell it to a foreign company that is willing to agree to his requests and will not lay off workers. At the meeting, the delegates discussed the agenda and the contents of the documents that would be submitted to leaders, as well as arrangements related to the reception, logistics, and press for the summit. GMS cooperation was initiated by the ADB in 1992, encompassing Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, China, and Vietnam. It aims to promote and facilitate mutually beneficial economic cooperation among the participating countries, supporting the Greater Mekong Sub-region in becoming a rapidly growing and prosperous region. The GMS-6 will take place from March 29-31 in Hanoi, focusing on ten major fields, including transport, energy, environment, tourism, telecommunications, trade, investment, human resources development, agricultural and rural development, and urban development. Vietnam has actively participated in the GMS Economic Cooperation Programme since it was established in 1992, bringing about positive results on economic development and poverty alleviation, as well as contributing to enhancing regional economic integration. An international press conference on the GMS-6 and the 10th Summit of Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV) Development Triangle Area (CLV 10) will be held on March 15, under the chair of Deputy Foreign Minister Dang Dinh Quy. A Starbucks Coffee Korea employee demonstrates the company's Siren Order application in this file photo. The coffee shop chain has received 100,000 more mobile orders on average monthly after adding its big data service on its app. / Courtesy of Starbucks Coffee Korea By Park Jae-hyuk Starbucks Coffee Korea has received 100,000 more mobile orders on average monthly, since it added a big data-based recommendation service to its Siren Order application last November, the local unit of the U.S. coffeehouse said Sunday. Siren Order, an online-to-offline (O2O) app service which was launched in Korea in May 2014, enables customers to order and pay for food and coffee with their smartphones. According to the company, the upgraded app analyzes each individual customer's recent purchases, information about stores that they visited and temperatures, so as to recommend preferable drinks and foods to them. If customers run their Siren Order app, the app shows suggestions of food and drinks to buy such as "What you recently purchased," "Starbucks beverages that wake you up," and "How about a warm drink on cold days," depending on time and the weather. The app also offers preferable combinations of food and beverages to customers. When Starbucks releases new products, the app can recommend the best combinations to each individual within a few days. In particular, 37 percent of mobile orders have been made via the recommendation service, the company said. Starbucks Coffee Korea expects more customers will use the service when they make their orders. "The individualized recommendation service has its significance, given that it collects and analyzes big data to offer the most preferable products to our customers," Starbucks Coffee Korea's marketing and digital director Baek Ji-woong said. "The use of big data is at an early stage. We will continue to come up with improved individualized services, by using more diverse big data." This is not the first time that Starbucks Coffee Korea has adopted big data technology. The company has collected feedback from its customers to develop new beverages and foods. The specialized beverages and food exclusively available on Jeju Island could be made available to the wider public through the big data analysis. By Jung Min-ho The Philippines government will shut down Boracay, one of the nation's most popular islands for tourists, for 60 days for a clean-up, according to local media. Tourism Assistant Secretary Frederick Alegre told DZMM radio last week that he will make the announcement soon. The shutdown period has not yet been determined. But government officials are reportedly eyeing between June and September when the number of visitors is relatively low. As soon as the government finishes the shutdown plan, it will ask hotels, airlines and travel operators to stop receiving customers for the clean-up period. It also is considering the idea of, with tourists' consent, transferring their bookings to other nearby destinations. Meanwhile, top-ranking government officials are discussing how to tackle environmental problems that have been worsened over the past few years. This came after Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to shut down the island, calling it a "cesspool." Boracay is one of the most popular destinations for Korean tourists. According to the Korea Tourism Organization, 1.47 million Koreans visited the Philippines in 2016. Along with Cebu, Boracay is among the most preferred spots. According to the Philippines' Malay Municipal Tourism Office, 262,488 foreigners visited the island from January to February, up 29 percent from 203,167 during the same period last year. Chinese tourists topped the list with 120,973 arrivals, followed by Koreans with 88,662. Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Thunderstorms. High near 70F. S winds shifting to WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Rain likely. Low 51F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible. The following is the full text of the joint statement. JOINT STATEMENT ON ADVANCING THE COMPREHENSIVE PARTNERSHIP TOWARD THE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM AND NEW ZEALAND At the invitation of the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, His Excellency Nguyen Xuan Phuc, paid an official visit to New Zealand on March 12-14, 2018. An official welcome ceremony in honour of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc took place at Government House in Auckland on March 13, followed by official talks and an official lunch with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. On the same day, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called on Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, the Right Honourable Trevor Mallard. Earlier, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc gave remarks at the Vietnam New Zealand Business Forum and received a number of New Zealand senior business leaders. During this visit, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited University of Waikato and Plant and Food Research. Political cooperation The two sides noted recent exchanges of high-level visits, including the state visit to Vietnam by the Governor General of New Zealand, the His Excellency Lieutenant General the Right Honourable Sir Jerry Mateparae in August 2013; the official visit to New Zealand by the Prime Minister of Vietnam, His Excellency Nguyen Tan Dung in March 2015; the official visit to Vietnam by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Right Honourable John Key in November 2015; and the visit to Vietnam by the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern to attend the APEC Summit in November 2017. The two Leaders agreed to further intensify frequent high-level visits in both directions, as well as to maintain bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including the Joint Commission on Trade and Economics, Bilateral Defence Dialogue and Political Consultations, to exchange views on issues of mutual concern, such as climate change, regional architecture, consular services and cooperation on human rights issues, among others. Noting the positive momentum in the relationship since the establishment of the Comprehensive Partnership in 2009, the two Prime Ministers agreed to advance the Comprehensive Partnership and assigned relevant ministries and branches of both sides to actively and effectively realize the Plan of Action 2017-2020 as well as to expeditiously conclude talks and consultations by 2019 on a Strategic Partnership elevation in the near future as mutually agreed. Defence and security The two sides acknowledged the recent positive developments in bilateral defence cooperation such as the signing of the New Zealand-Vietnam Three Year Defence Cooperation Action Plan 2018-2021 and the Peacekeeping Operations Training and Cooperation Implementing Arrangement, as well as high-level defence visits in both directions. The two leaders also welcomed further broader security and defence cooperation, including in military industries and research, cyber security, anti-terrorism, countering drug-trafficking and money laundering, and illegal migration. Both sides agreed to discuss existing and other possible legal corridors for cooperation in these areas. Trade and investment The Prime Ministers noted that trade between the two countries is now at a historic high with two-way trade in goods and services reaching a record US$1.24 billion in 2017, representing a 32% increase over 2016 and a tripling of goods trade since 2009. The two Leaders expressed confidence that the target of US$1.7 billion in two-way trade could be reached by 2020 accordingly. They welcomed the signing of the Arrangement on Economic and Trade Cooperation on this occasion, and requested the early convening of the 6th meeting of the Joint Commission on Trade and Investment. Both sides committed to individual and joint actions to reduce barriers to bilateral trade, especially for agricultural products. The establishment of a dedicated Agricultural Counsellor in the New Zealand Embassy later this year was noted as an important step in this regard. The announcement of the Import Health Standard Export Plan for Rambutan and the signature of a Food Safety and Quality Management Cooperation Arrangement during the visit were further signs of positive cooperation. The Leaders noted that Customs cooperation and the proposed Customs joint work programme would also further facilitate trade between the two countries. The two Prime Ministers noted that investment between the two countries had yet to reach its potential. Both Leaders agreed to encourage investment, including in areas such as high-tech agriculture, green and renewable energy and infrastructure. Development cooperation The Prime Ministers welcomed the positive impact made by New Zealands development aid to Vietnam, highlighting flagship projects in dragon fruit commercialisation, safe vegetable production, dam safety, scholarships and English language training. Up to NZ$29 million would be invested by New Zealand in the three year period up to July 2018. The two Leaders committed to substantial cooperation in the years ahead, sharing New Zealand skills and technologies to make a practical difference in areas of Vietnamese priority such as agriculture, disaster risk management, knowledge and skills, and renewable energy; and to build stronger and lasting connections between the two countries government agencies, universities, research institutes, businesses and NGOs. The Prime Ministers agreed to an enhanced annual consultation mechanism on development cooperation led by the Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment and its New Zealand counterpart. On this occasion, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced two new projects, namely, a three-year partnership supporting Vietnamese farmers and food processors to modernise production, generate safer food and improve incomes (NZ$1.5million); and a pilot renewable energy project supporting the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam with the tools to develop the wholesale electricity market enabling greater efficiency and renewable energy uptake (NZ$0.5 million). The Leaders welcomed the newly signed Memorandum of Understanding between Plant and Food Research New Zealand and Generalexim of Vietnam to improve avocado production in Dak Nong province and a new project to reduce pre- and post-harvest loss through safely reducing rodent damage on rice crops between Landcare Research of New Zealand and Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Both projects were facilitated by New Zealands Government to Government Partnerships Office. Education and training The Prime Ministers noted that education and training cooperation between New Zealand and Vietnam is strong, expanding rapidly and is one of the pillars of both today's relationship and future Strategic Partnership. The two Leaders appreciated the signing of the renewed Strategic Engagement Plan on Education 2018-2020, and set the target to increase the number of Vietnamese students in New Zealand by 30% by 2020 facilitating further student exchanges, university-to-university joint programmes and other cooperation in both countries. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc welcomed the regular promotion and operation of the Working Holiday Scheme and expressed Vietnam's readiness to receive New Zealand citizens under this Scheme. Connectivity and people-to-people contacts The two Prime Ministers noted that tourism between both countries is growing rapidly with Vietnam visitors to New Zealand expanding by over 32% and New Zealand tourists to Vietnam by more than 19% in the last year, boosted by the establishment of direct flights by Air New Zealand between Auckland and Ho Chi Minh City in 2016. Both Leaders called for the expansion of air links and to further promote travel between the two countries. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern welcomed the inclusion of New Zealand in Vietnams e-visa programme as a very positive step streamlining entry for New Zealand tourists, following New Zealands implementation in 2016 of e-visas for Vietnam visitors. The two sides recognise the success of the Vietnamese community in New Zealand and highly value their contribution to the development of Vietnam and New Zealand as well as to the better promotion of bilateral relations. Regional and international cooperation Both countries continue to work closely in multilateral and regional forums, such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+) process, and the East Asia Summit (EAS), in order to enhance regional prosperity, address regional security challenges and enhance cooperation on issues of mutual interest. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reiterated New Zealands support for Vietnams candidature for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-21 term, and extended an offer to share advice and experience gained from New Zealands successful term in 2015-16 with Vietnam. New Zealand and Vietnam recognise the critical importance of deepening regional economic integration and supporting trade liberalisation across the Asia-Pacific region to ensure the prosperity of both countries. Both Leaders welcomed the signature of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on 8 March 2018 in Chile and reiterated their commitment to swift ratification and implementation of the agreement in the coming months. Both Leaders reaffirmed their interest in achieving a modern, comprehensive, high quality and mutually beneficial outcome in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement negotiations. The two sides agreed to continue cooperation to further fossil fuel subsidy reform. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern conveyed congratulations to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc for Vietnams successful hosting of APEC in 2017 and welcomed Vietnams offer to share its experience to support New Zealands preparations to host APEC in 2021. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc welcomed the growing cooperation between ASEAN and New Zealand, especially in areas which help ASEAN successfully build up the ASEAN Community. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reiterated New Zealand's strong support for ASEAN centrality in the evolving regional architecture. In the important year of 2020, when Vietnam alternatively chairs ASEAN, ASEAN and New Zealand will commemorate the 45th anniversary of establishing a Dialogue Partnership and the 5th anniversary of Strategic Partnership, and Vietnam welcomed any New Zealand initiatives to enrich these milestones. Both sides emphasised the importance of maintaining peace, security and stability in the East Sea through implementation of international legal obligations in good faith, respect for legal and diplomatic processes, peaceful resolution of disputes, and maintenance of freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Both Leaders encouraged the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea in its entirety as well as the swift conclusion of an effective and substantive Code of Conduct for the East Sea. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc expressed his gratitude to the Government and people of New Zealand for the warm hospitality extended to him and his delegation. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc extended an invitation for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to pay an official visit to Vietnam at a mutually convenient time. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also forwarded the invitation of President Tran Dai Quang for the Governor General of New Zealand, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Dame Patsy Reddy to pay a state visit to Vietnam at her convenience. Speaking at the meeting, PM Phuc applauded the staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in New Zealand for fulfilling their diplomatic tasks, fostering Vietnam New Zealand relations, and protecting and supporting OVs in the host country. He briefed participants on the socio-economic situation at home from the beginning of 2018, noting with pleasure that the country is developing robustly. He expressed his hope that the embassys staff and Vietnamese people in the country will make unceasing efforts in their work so as to improve themselves, support their families, and contribute to the homeland. Regarding Vietnam New Zealand relations, the Vietnamese Government leader stressed that cooperation activities between the two countries are still in the early stages and there is vast potential for more bilateral cooperation. He called for further cooperation in the fields that New Zealand holds advantages in, such as developing green agriculture and infrastructure, in order to achieve two-way trade of US$2 billion by 2020. He also requested the embassy to bolster bilateral cooperation in tourism, and education and training, while further assisting the Vietnamese community. He also encouraged OV students in New Zealand to promote Vietnams tradition of study and gain strong academic results while promoting solidarity and mutual support in the OV community in the host country. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc made the statement during his meetings with a selection of representatives from New Zealands milk companies in Auckland on March 13 as part of his current official visit to the country. During his reception for Lukas Paravicini, Chief executive of Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd the leading milk exporter in New Zealand, the PM affirmed that Vietnam applauds and appreciates the firms cooperation with its Vietnamese partners. He highlighted the strong development of Vietnams dairy and nutritional food market, saying that the country with a 93 million-strong market, is considered one of the most attractive market groups in the world. While talking about the broad opportunities brought by the newly-signed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), PM Phuc expressed his belief that Fonterra and other enterprises in New Zealand will fully exploit the chance to increase investment in Vietnam, towards expanding their market to other ASEAN member nations. The Vietnamese Government will both promote investment in developing the dairy sector, and create favourable conditions for enterprises to enhance production in the field, helping to generate more jobs and improve social welfare, he noted. For his part, Lukas Paravicini said his company is very interested in the Vietnamese market, adding that Fonterra has cooperated with many Vietnamese dairies. Fonterra pledged to further boost cooperation with Vietnamese enterprises, in order to develop its investments for production and business in the country, he stated. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets with Kim Willoughby, Director of Deosan Company and Victor Truong, Director of Richmond Company. (Photo: VGP) The same day, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc received Kim Willoughby, Director of Deosan Company; and Victor Truong, Director of Richmond Company. Expressing their pleasure at meeting the Vietnamese leader, the two firms representatives said they have worked with a number of Vietnamese partners with the intention of assisting Vietnamese firms in producing and processing dairy, and contributing to improving the capacity of Vietnams dairies. PM Phuc highly valued Deosans assistance to Vietnamese dairies, affirming that the Vietnamese Government always supports its business and cooperation with local firms, and that Vietnam encourages foreign companies operating in the field to expand their investments and level of production in the country. Vietnam is developing its dairy processing industry in a modern and comprehensive direction, aiming to improve its competitiveness for regional and global integration, he said. >>> PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc holds talks with PM Jacinda Ardern >>> Vietnam, New Zealand issue joint statement on advancing comprehensive partnership Speaking at a banquet hosted by his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern after their talks in Auckland on March 13, the Vietnamese PM conveyed his sincere thanks to the hosts warm welcome for him and the members of the Vietnamese delegation, saying that he was particularly impressed by the Maori welcoming dance at the official reception for the Vietnamese delegation earlier the same day. He said that in recent years, and now, under the leadership of PM Ardern, the highest growth rate of the OECD was achieved in New Zealand. Despite positive integration and development, the country has maintained its unique cultural identity, he added. Informing attendees at the event of the results of their talks, PM Phuc said that the two sides have been pleased to see that since the establishment of a comprehensive partnership in 2009, the Vietnam-New Zealand relationship has been fruitfully promoted, with increasing political trust resulting from high-level visits. The most recent being the very successful visit by PM Ardern to Vietnam for the APEC 2017 summit. After the talks, the two sides signed several important cooperation documents in areas in which they have advantages. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc expresses his belief that the two sides will soon reach their set goals with the effort and determination of the leaders and people of both countries. (Photo: VGP) In particular, the two sides have cooperated well in the negotiations and signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade pact, offering a great chance to develop economic cooperation and creating a premise for upgrading bilateral relations to a strategic partnership at the earliest opportunity, for the common interests of the two peoples. Regarding the Maori proverb on the values of cooperation, as held dear by the first inhabitants of the nation, the visiting PM believes that with the efforts and determination of the leaders and peoples of the two countries, the two sides will soon reach great goals, following the spirit of the Maori adage. Sharing the outlook of her guest, PM Ardern said that today's talks between the two leaders were a success. She said that diplomatic relations have been tightened, while bilateral trade reached a very high level of US$ 1.7 billion, particularly in processing and agriculture. In the field of tourism, the two sides also made considerable achievements, with growth up 32% over the previous year. Exchange activities not only occur in tourism but also between the people of both countries. PM Ardern said she saw many young Vietnamese come to New Zealand to study. With this momentum, the two sides will soon expand relations in many fields, she added, affirming that New Zealand considers Vietnam as an important strategic partner. The statement was made by Politburo member and Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh during his reception for a delegation from Myanmars Ministry of Border Affairs, led by Minister Ye Aung, in Hanoi on March 13. Deputy PM Binh appreciated the socio-economic achievements that Myanmar has made and believes that the national reconciliation and concord in the country would be successful in the near future. He highlighted the rapid development of the relationship between Vietnam and Myanmar, particularly the establishment of a comprehensive partnership on the occasion of Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trongs official visit to Myanmar in August 2017. For his part, Minister Ye Aung gave thanks to Deputy PM Truong Hoa Binh for his warm reception, affirming that the two countries have enhanced cooperation in numerous fields, including those of the economy, culture, defence, and security. During the working visit, his delegation gathered a lot of experience on ethnic affairs from the Vietnamese side, he added. The two-way trade between the two countries reached US$828.3 million in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 51%. Vietnam is the seventh largest foreign investor in Myanmar with 70 projects worth a total of nearly US$2 billion. Venice, March 13 - Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said Tuesday that the Catholic Church was ready to talk with everyone after Italy's general election, which failed to produce a clear winner. "I think it's possible to have dialogue with everyone and that is what the president of the (Italian bishops conference) CEI said too before the election results," Parolin said. "He said that there was the will on our side to talk to everyone and to talk about the things that we don't agree on, because it seems important for us for the dialogue to tackle questions that can be particularly difficult and complex". The two parties that made the most gains in the election, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the rightwing League, have called for a tougher line on migrants. Pope Francis has repeatedly called for migrants to be welcomed. >>> PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc holds talks with PM Jacinda Ardern During his visit to the Pacific Ocean country from March 12-14, the PM met with Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, Trevor Mallard late on March 13. Congratulating Trevor Mallard on his newly elected position, PM Phuc said that on the basis of the achievements made in recent years, New Zealand would continue to develop strongly and have a growing position in both the region and the world. The host shared his admiration for the important achievements by the Government and people of Vietnam in their socio-economic development and in the implementation of foreign policy. He expressed his delight at the outcome of talks between the Vietnamese PM and his New Zealand counterpart, saying that these positive results would be an important basis for furthering bilateral relations in the near future. Trevor Mallard recalled his good impression of Vietnam when he was Minister of Education in 2004, saying that he was the initiator of the Education Cooperation Agreement with Vietnam, bringing Vietnamese students, especially PhDs, into New Zealand. He said that New Zealand always wants to attract talented Vietnamese students to study in all industries in which New Zealand has strengths, such as IT, biotechnology, tourism, and hospitality. The two sides were pleased about the positive developments in bilateral relations over recent years, with positive two-way trade likely to reach US$1.7-2.5 billion by 2020. They agreed to upgrade the relationship to a strategic partnership level; saying that the two sides should continue to promote practical and specific measures in trade, investment, tourism, aviation connectivity, and people-to-people exchanges. They also agreed that the two legislative bodies should continue to increase the exchange of high-level visits, maintain cooperation and close coordination in regional and international parliamentary forums, and coordinate in monitoring cooperation agreements between the two countries, while promoting exchanges for a better mutual understanding and mutual trust between the two countrys MPs and peoples. On the occasion, PM Phuc conveyed an invitation from Vietnamese National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to the Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives to pay an official visit to Vietnam at an appropriate time. New Zealand Speaker Trevor Mallard also offered an invitation to National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to visit his country. After their meeting, New Zealand Speaker Trevor Mallard held a banquet for his guest. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc holds a telephone conversation with New Zealand Governor-General Patsy Reddy on March 13. (Photo: VGP) The same day, the Vietnamese PM had a phone talk with New Zealand Governor-General Patsy Reddy. PM Phuc highly appreciated New Zealand's effective support and assistance for Vietnam during its international and regional integration process. He informed the host of the good results of talks between the PMs of Vietnam and New Zealand. He expressed his satisfaction with the positive development of relations both in the bilateral framework and in regional and international forums, especially since the two sides agreed to upgrade their comprehensive partnership to a strategic level. The guest expressed his sincere thanks to New Zealand for supporting Vietnam in the successful organisation of the APEC Year 2017 and pledged to share Vietnams experiences when New Zealand host the APEC Year events in 2021. The New Zealand Governor-General, who is on her pre-scheduled working visit, highly praised the positive outcomes of talks between the two PMs this morning, which set out orientations for the two countries' relations in the coming time, with particular focus on elevating relations to new heights. She agreed that the two sides should focus on promoting educational cooperation, which is a common strength, to enhance the understanding of the two countries' cultures and people and promote people-to-people exchanges. On the occasion, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc conveyed Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang's invitation to the Governor-General of New Zealand for a visit to Vietnam at an appropriate time. Rome, March 13 - The Council of State on Tuesday rejected an appeal from the Abruzzo regional government and approved gas exploration and drilling in the Adriatic, from Emilia Romagna to Puglia. Abruzzo had appealed against the environment ministry and the Spectrum Geo LfD company. The decision was contained in a series of sentences published between February 28 and March 8, the Nuovo Quotidiano di Puglia local daily reported. Way back in 1970, as a 14-year-old aspiring writer, I was drafted by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro to be an usher for the Nebula Awards ceremony at the Hotel Claremont in Berkeley. At the evening presentation, I shuffled awkwardly around among the various writers I admired (Norman Spinrad, Harlan Ellison, Fritz Leiber, Vernor Vinge) until, after a Henny Youngman-like toastmaster monologue delivered by Robert Bloch, the short story category was announced. It featured nominees such as Gene Wolfes The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories, R.A. Laffertys Entire and Perfect Chrysolite, and Kate Wilhelms A Cold Dark Night With Snow stories that I had been admiring from afar over the past year of furious reading in original series anthologies such as Orbit, edited by Damon Knight. Most of these shortlisted writers were associated with the New Wave, a loosely-defined group of young writers (and ready-to-learn older ones, such as Ballard, Lafferty and Aldiss) who were happily experimenting with the form, style and content of traditional science fiction. In fact, they were so good at these experiments that it was often impossible to tell where one genre ended and another began or whether genre had any influence on the stories at all. Then the envelope was opened, and the winner announced for No Award, a blatant snub to the entire shortlist. After a pause, several dozen SFWA members stood and began to clap. The applause, continuing for several minutes, came as quite a shock to me. For the first time, I realized that many writers and readers didnt like this strange new fruit appearing in the branches of their familiar old trees stories that were literary, poetic and journeying far from the tales of interstellar battles and first-contact that had made the Golden Age so, well, golden. These people didnt want anything to change; what they wanted and often said they wanted was escape from the disturbing street-fought conflicts of their country into outer space tales of adventure and romance. (What they wanted, of course, was Star Wars, which came along several years later.) I also remember thinking that, after the dust of decades had settled, none of these applauding writers would ever be remembered as fondly as Kate Wilhelm, the best of the nominees they had snubbed that night. And 48 years later, I stand by that conviction. THE STORIES Unlike those who applauded, I grew up happily after the demise of the pulps. During those years of early reading, the old rough dinosaurs had made way for the only SF that I knew while growing up those stories and serial novels that appeared in the more literary, digest-sized monthlies such as Galaxy, Analog and Fantasy & Science Fiction. Along with the booming paperback market, there also came several innovative original series-anthologies: Harry Harrisons Nova, Robert Silverbergs New Dimensions, Michael Moorcocks New Worlds, Harlan Ellisons monumental Dangerous Visions project and, last but not least, Damon Knights biannual Orbit series, which featured striking lava-lampish cover designs by Richard Powers and a new generation of writers more interested in poetry, philosophy and human psychology than in warp-engines and orbital velocities. Amid this clamorous new crowd quietly came Kate Wilhelm, who steadily began producing some of the best short stories of her generation, and who never stopped producing them until she died March 8 at 89. Advertisement I can still remember the slow, soft impact of those early stories when I first read them in my damp basement bedroom in Daly City. In The Planners (1968 Nebula Award winner), a behavioral scientist absorbs the same intelligence-boosting substance being fed to his test-chimpanzees, suffering daydreams of authority and power. In The Infinity Box, a man finds his way telepathically into the mind of a young schizophrenic woman, eventually seducing her (and himself) in the process. A mother of three, in The Basement Room, cant keep up with her hectic schedule packing lunches and attending school board meetings and begins fantasizing about a new life under the floorboards. The great Wilhelm stories kept coming, year after year, in and out of the Orbit anthologies, and they were always haunting, hypnotic, incommensurable and strange. Although this last sounds a bit like The Yellow Wallpaper, Wilhelm ventured into more complicated speculations than those of Charlotte Perkins Gilman posing deep questions about the efficacy of science, the fugue-states of dreaming, the vast bland conformity of social life, and the ways that a desire for power infiltrates every human relationship especially between men and women. Wilhelm won her share of awards over the decades in 1977, a Hugo for Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang and a handful of best short story/novelette Nebulas. But she never achieved the popular or critical success of her major female contemporaries Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ and James Tiptree Jr. (a.k.a. Alice Sheldon) let alone that of the men who dominated the genre. This was because Wilhelms fiction couldnt be easily categorized or summarized; she explored people rather than ideas; and her style was like the style of many good writers so lucid, seamless and convincing that it seemed invisible. Two books by Kate Wilhelm (Richard Wilhelm ) Born in Toledo in 1928, Wilhelm might have gone on to live a desperately ordinary life: raised in Kentucky, she married young and had two children while her marriage fell apart. She was not born to SF in fact, her first published novel, written in the midnight hours while her family slept, was More Bitter Than Death (1962), a mystery (a genre she returned to late in life with two popular long-running series of crime novels). She once claimed that her decision to write SF was entirely serendipitous: I was a housewife with two young children, and Id been reading an anthology, and I put it down and said to myself, I can do that. And I wrote The Mile-Long Spaceship, and sold it. She went on to write stories for a number of magazines, including the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which continued to publish her best stories right up until a few months before her death. Selected for various best of the year anthologies, she was eventually introduced to the life of a full-time writer as well as to her second husband and first-best editor, Damon Knight. A WRITER FOR THE 60s As time proved, Wilhelm was not a writer for the 50s; she needed the convulsive 60s to help crack open the old generic constraints and give her room to breathe. If her best work had been published outside SF, she would have deserved comparison with the likes of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith and Joyce Carol Oates. But inside SF, her stories and novels often upset the expectations of the sorts of readers who attended conventions and dressed up like space pirates. Wilhelms SF concepts were so near-future that they often seemed to be waiting outside the front door; and her unobtrusive prose explored mundane people and neighborhoods that seemed to reside even closer, as in her 1971 novel Margaret and I, which narrates a womans mental breakdown from the viewpoint of a repressed alternate personality, or The Clewiston Test (1976) in which a woman is confined to bed by her husband and subjected to a bizarre pharmacological experiment. Wilhelm often used slightly-futuristic SF ideas to set up her stories, but what always drove her stories was the here-and-now. Wilhelm never quite fit into any of the genres she chose to briefly occupy SF, crime, mystery, domestic realism. But despite her relative obscurity in the world of serious literature, she was an intensely present woman in the lives of other writers; and she seemed happiest when other writers were around. With her husband, she helped organize some of the first Milford Workshops, an annual meeting of young and established writers that notably included the likes of Thomas M. Disch, Avram Davidson, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Theodore Sturgeon, Judith Merril and even a young Gustav Hasford (author of The Short-Timers, a.k.a. Stanley Kubricks Full Metal Jacket.) And when the Milford Workshops eventually developed into the Clarion workshops for young writers of fantasy and SF, Wilhelm and Knight were among the first (and most valued) instructors, teaching there every year from 1969 through the late 1990s. Over many decades, she taught and inspired more soon-to-be-major writers than could be recorded in a drawer-full of class registers, including Robert Crais, George Alec Effinger, Octavia Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Cory Doctorow, Jeff VanderMeer, Ted Chiang, Lucius Shepard Nicola Griffith the list could easily fill any one tribute and spill over into another. Good writers were constantly emerging from Wilhelms immediate vicinity. It was just the way she rolled. A BRIEF ENCOUNTER In the late 70s and early 80s, I lived in a block of apartments on Vendome Street in Los Angeles that resembled either a slightly more-disheveled version of the apartments in Mulholland Drive, or a slightly less-seedy version of any Bukowski novel ever written. Theodore Sturgeon had discovered the place, where he kept a tiny basement flat with a small, hobbit-sized front door and he had helped the novelist (and eventual television producer) J. Michael Reaves to acquire an apartment next door; then Michael found me an apartment next door to him, and so on and so forth. Soon the complex was inhabited by numerous former Clarionites, including Hasford and Richard Kadrey and wherever there were former Clarion students, Kate Wilhelm eventually appeared. One year, when she came through Los Angeles, several neighbors arranged an outdoor workshop with her in Griffith Park, and I begged to be taken along just to meet her. On the day of the workshop, I overslept or chickened out and for the rest of that day I felt lonely and despondent over the fact that I hadnt taken advantage of this opportunity to meet one of my favorite writers. Then, while I was struggling alone at the typewriter with yet another of my terrible stories, the grinding doorbell rang. It was Wilhelm, stopping by on her race to the airport simply to say hi. She was a handsome, white-haired woman without any of the usual hyper-protective oddnesses of a writer; we chatted briefly and shook hands; then she went off to her life and I was left alone to mine. It never felt like receiving a visitation from an important writer so much as simply encountering a generous fellow writer on my own doorstep. It felt like being part of a community that I hadnt even known was out there. Advertisement I barely knew Wilhelm personally, but I will always miss that brief smiling presence on my doorstep. And once you get a chance to read her remarkable stories, you will miss her too. Bradfields books include The History of Luminous Motion, Greetings From Earth: New and Collected Stories and Dazzle Resplendent: Adventures of a Misanthropic Dog. Just a few years ago it was said that Pacific Palisades tiny commercial center had the beaten-down aura of a Midwestern Main Street where the mom-and-pop shops have been driven out by Walmart only there was no Walmart. It was a little village with one or two streets of stores and restaurants, said actor Billy Crystal, who moved there with his family in 1979. Over the years it sort of faded and faded. The impression that the Palisades had been somehow left behind was always misleading, because it is home to some of the highest-priced residences in Southern California. Now, the tony Westside community is getting not only a new town center from shopping center mogul Rick Caruso but also online retailer Amazons second Los Angeles bricks-and-mortar bookstore. Caruso envisions the $200-million redevelopment known as Palisades Village as more of a walkable Main Street than a ritzy shopping center like his Grove or Americana at Brand developments. The 125,000-square-foot complex on Swarthmore Avenue bordering Sunset Boulevard will include a movie theater, community space, grocer and retail shops. There will also be eight apartment units. Advertisement Its a rare case of a developer remaking a hamlets main drag after it fell on hard times, which is a little hard to fathom given how seaside Pacific Palisades is one the most prosperous neighborhoods in Los Angeles, with a healthy dose of celebrities and a median income over $150,000. Among the casualties over the years was Village Books, which the community fought in vain to save. Resident Tom Hanks was among the fundraisers, autographing books and CDs in the rain for three hours in December 2013. The Village bookstore was so loved by the community, said Crystal, who acts as honorary mayor along with his wife, Janice. You could bring your child or go in for reading by authors who came by. They just couldnt compete anymore. Of course, one of the big reasons small bookstores have struggled for survival is because its hard to compete with Amazon, but the Seattle giant stands to open shop in the Palisades as a welcomed neighbor. People shop in the Amazon Books in New York City. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images ) The only other Amazon Books in Los Angeles is in the Westfield Century City shopping center. Amazon bookstores are typically far smaller than those of big chains such as Barnes & Noble, but offer selections based on perceived tastes in the area, customer ratings and popularity. Books are placed face-out on the shelves so each can communicate its own essence, according to an Amazon statement. A representative of Amazon Books, which is set to open with the rest of Palisades Village on Sept. 22, said the store would fit into the neighborhood. Advertisement We created Amazon Books to be a place where customers discover books and devices theyll love, said Cameron Janes, vice president of Amazon Books, who noted company data shows that Pacific Palisades is in an area that we know is full of readers. Crystal said he hopes Amazon will interact with the community and schools. I want to see more kids read instead of text and Instagram, he said. Rick Caruso, founder and chief executive of the company called Caruso, purchased the property in 2014, and received approval for the project two years later. With the addition of Amazon, Palisades Village is 80% leased, the developer said. The store is to open on Swarthmore Avenue. Advertisement Another long-gone community landmark, the Bay Theater, will be resurrected as an outpost of Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas, which operates upscale theaters in which viewers sit in reclining leather chairs and can have food and cocktails delivered by waiters during the show. There will be seven restaurants with bars in the Village, including in the theater, a noteworthy increase in potential libation from the old days when Pacific Palisades had only one place to get a drink. The developer said his goal is to create a range of options for people to dine at different price points and hang out in a quaint commercial district with the flavor of an old resort town. He started choosing tenants after holding public meetings to see what the neighbors wanted. Localism is a huge trend in retail right now, he said. People want something close to home that serves them. Advertisement Along with a bookstore and theater, locals unsurprisingly wanted ice cream, coffee, a bakery, beauty shop and groceries, all of which are coming. The Village will be far smaller than Rick Carusos major shopping centers including the Grove in Los Angeles and Americana at Brand in Glendale, but it will have about the same number of stores at 40 to 50. The difference is the scale is much, much smaller, he said. The Grove is about 18 acres and Palisades is about 3 acres. The Palisades Village project under construction at Sunset Boulevard and Swarthmore Avenue. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times ) Advertisement Like Carusos other retail centers, Palisades Village will have parking (in this case underground) and outdoor spaces for leisure. The comeback of the commercial heart would elevate the Palisades, said resident Drew Planting, a real estate developer who is not involved in Carusos project. If you look around Los Angeles, the successful neighborhoods and communities are the ones with a town center, he said, such as Larchmont Village, Old Pasadena and Abbot Kinney Boulevard. As the city gets more difficult to navigate from a traffic perspective, those neighborhoods get ever more valuable, said Planting, co-founder of GPI Cos. Youre not going to drive from Pasadena to Venice to eat dinner. Advertisement The risk for Rick Caruso and his tenants is that they will be heavily dependent on locals because Pacific Palisades is comparatively remote and previous businesses failed in part because they didnt have enough customers, Planting said. The challenge is that the Palisades is not the most densely populated spot in Los Angeles, he said. Its going to be incumbent on the community to support the center. Youve got to use it. roger.vincent@latimes.com Twitter: @rogervincent As the financial system teetered on the brink of meltdown in the fall of 2008, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan known for years as the Oracle admitted he had been blindsided by the housing crash and breakdown in the credit markets. This crisis has turned out to be much broader than anything I could have imagined, a chastened Greenspan testified before a House committee, which had summoned him to determine why one of the nations key financial regulators had failed to see the dangers in the explosive growth in subprime lending. Those stumbles by Greenspan, who had stepped down in 2006 after more than 18 years leading the central bank, and other Fed officials were a major reason Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank reform act. The 2010 law instituted new restrictions on the banking industry and financial markets and took away some of the Feds discretion. Now, less than a decade later, a Senate banking deregulation bill would restore some of the Feds regulatory flexibility something critics warn is dangerous and would increase the risk of another crisis. Advertisement Everyone should be justifiably scared about whats happening, said Phil Angelides, who chaired the federal commission that examined the causes of the financial crisis. At the end of 10 years of relative stability in the financial system and with an economy that is growing, why would we put ourselves at risk again? Some Senate Democrats are dubious that regulators appointed by President Trump will be tough enough on large banks to prevent another crisis despite promises from new Fed Chairman Jerome H. Powell that he would remain vigilant. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said shes not at all comfortable deferring regulatory decisions to Fed officials after she saw the flood of foreclosures in Nevada caused by subprime lending when she was a state official from 2007 to 2015. The question I had when I was attorney general was: Where was the Fed from the very beginning prior to 2007 when the housing market crash began? she said. They werent there. So now were going to trust them that theyre going to be there this time? The Senate legislation is focused on easing regulations on small and midsized banks. Many of the rules were put in place by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The bipartisan deregulation bill, which is expected to get Senate approval this week, would reduce the number of larger financial institutions that are mandated to face more intense scrutiny from the Fed under Dodd-Frank. The legislation would raise the threshold for so-called systemically important financial institutions, which face mandatory and rigorous annual stress tests and other heightened oversight, to $250 billion in assets from the current $50-billion level. Critics of the bill said that level is higher than it needs to be to ease burdens on midsized banks without adding to the risk of a future crisis. Advertisement The new level would provide significant relief for about two dozen large firms, such as Charles Schwab Corp., BB&T Corp. and Suntrust Banks Inc. The Federal Reserve would retain the ability to apply heightened oversight to those firms, but such supervision no longer would be mandated. Instead of requiring annual stress tests to determine a banks ability to withstand a severe economic downturn, for example, the bill would direct the Fed to conduct periodic tests for banks with more than $100 billion in assets but less than $250 billion. Who decides what periodically means the former investment bankers Donald Trump has nominated to lead the Fed and to head up the Feds supervisory work? said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Does that make you feel safe? Powell was an investment banker early in his career and later was a partner at a private equity firm. And the new Fed vice chairman in charge of bank oversight, Randal Quarles, worked as an investment manager and at a private equity firm. Advertisement Another change in the law actually takes away some discretion from the Fed but not in a good way, bill opponents said. Instead of stating that the Fed may tailor its rules for the largest banks those with more than $250 billion in assets the law would be changed to say the Fed shall tailor its rules. That one word change will allow the big banks to sue the Fed if they dont weaken the rules the way the banks want, Warren said. And that pressure on the Fed will lead to a systematic weakening of the rules for all the big banks. Powell was pressed at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on March 1 about whether lowering the threshold for tough regulation would hinder the Feds job. Is it accurate that this provision does not in any way restrict the Feds supervisory, regulatory and enforcement authorities to ensure the safety and soundness of financial institutions? asked committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the bills lead author. Advertisement Powell responded, Yes, sir. He later said Fed officials would feel comfortable about imposing tougher oversight on any bank with less than $250 billion in assets that they deemed needed it. But Sarah Bloom Raskin, who served on the Fed board from 2010 to 14 before becoming a top Treasury Department official in the Obama administration, called the Senate bills language giving the Fed the ability of regulators to maintain tough oversight legislative fools gold. My time serving as a Federal Reserve governor taught me that the Federal Reserve has never been inclined to act quickly and proactively when bank conditions begin to deteriorate but almost always waits until a crisis has peaked and the costs of remedy are already extremely high, Raskin wrote last month in a letter to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Advertisement Angelides, a former California state treasurer, said giving Fed regulators more flexibility made no sense given the findings of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Its 2011 report cited the Feds pivotal failure to stem the flow of toxic mortgages as a prime example of regulatory inaction that led to the crisis. As irresponsible lending, including predatory and fraudulent practices, became more prevalent, the Federal Reserve and other regulators and authorities heard warnings from many quarters, the commission said. Yet the Federal Reserve neglected its mission to ensure the safety and soundness of the nations banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers. In 1994, Congress gave the Fed the power to enact rules to protect consumers from unscrupulous mortgage lending. But the Fed waited until 2008 to adopt rules to prohibit unfair, abusive or deceptive lending practices long after the housing crash triggered the Great Recession. The long delay in taking action was a major reason that Dodd-Frank created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and shifted the Feds authority over mortgages to the new agency. Advertisement Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who helped lead the effort to pass the 2010 bill that bears his name, said he attributed the Feds subprime failures to Greenspans strong deregulatory views. The best law in the world is not self-enforcing. It depends on the regulators, Frank said. Its very hard to guard against a regulator not using their powers. Frank said hed be more worried about the Senate bills effect if Trump hadnt selected the well-respected Powell to lead the Fed. Although Frank believes Trump appointees will be less likely to use regulatory power in a precautionary way, he said Fed officials have learned from the 2008 crisis and predicted they would act quicker if they see problems developing. Advertisement Frank said he would not vote for the Senate bill, in part because he preferred the threshold for tough bank oversight only be increased to $125 billion. But he doesnt think that what he called the bills modest changes would significantly reduce financial stability. I do not regard it as the unraveling of Dodd-Frank if it passes, he said. jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera The opinion was delivered by Leonid Ivanovich Kalashnikov, member of the Presidium Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in Hanoi on March 13 at his meeting with Politburo member and Head of the Party Central Committees Commission for Economic Affairs Nguyen Van Binh. For his part, Politburo member Binh said the Party and Government of Vietnam prioritise consolidating the long-standing friendship and Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Russia, highly speaking of the progress the two nations made in economics and trade. He welcomed initiatives made by the Communist Party of Russian Federation to bolster the two countries cooperation in economics, trade and investment. On March 12, Kalashnikov met with Head of the Party Central Committees Commission for External Affairs Hoang Binh Quan during which the two sides discussed ways to boost the two parties relations in the coming years. They agreed that the parties need to further enhance cooperation, and increase information exchange and coordination at multilateral political party forums. On the same day, the Russian official was hosted by Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung, who is also Chairman of the Vietnam-Russia Inter-Governmental Committee for Economic-Commercial and Scientific-Technological Cooperation. Deputy PM Dung agreed with several proposals by the Communist Party of Russian Federation to effectively implement the Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) Free Trade Agreement which is expected to bring the two-way trade between the two nations to US$10 billion in 2020. During the visit, the Russian officials had a working session with officials from the State Bank of Vietnam, seeking to step up affiliations in finance-banking. Volkswagen AG secured $25 billion in battery supplies to underpin an aggressive push into electric cars in the coming years, putting pressure on Tesla Inc. as it struggles with production issues for the mainstream Model 3. The worlds largest carmaker will equip 16 factories to produce electric vehicles by the end of 2022, compared with three currently, Volkswagen said Tuesday in Berlin. The German automakers plans to build as many as 3 million of the cars a year by 2025 is backstopped by deals with suppliers including Samsung SDI Co., LG Chem Ltd. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. for batteries in Europe and China. With the powerpack deliveries secured for its two biggest markets, a deal for North America will follow shortly, Volkswagen said. In total, Volkswagen has said it plans to purchase about $60 billion in batteries as part of its electric-car push, which includes three new models in 2018 with dozens more following. Volkswagens battery plans compare to Teslas $17.5 billion worth of purchase obligations, primarily related to buying lithium-ion cells from Panasonic, according to a recent filing. Volkswagen called its battery tender one of the biggest purchasing initiatives in the auto industry. Advertisement Electric vehicles future relies on cobalt. Its often mined by children and is soaring in price As of next year, the 12-brand group will roll out a new battery-powered model virtually every month, Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said at Volkswagens annual press conference. This is how we intend to offer the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the world. Teslas Model 3 sedan is the linchpin of CEO Elon Musks plan to bring electric vehicles to the masses, but ramping up production has taken longer and been more challenging than originally anticipated. The Palo Alto, Calif., automaker is now targeting a weekly Model 3 production rate of 2,500 by the end of this month and 5,000 by the end of June. Diesel quandary Pressure has intensified on Volkswagen to overhaul its lineup. Its diesel-cheating scandal, which erupted in September 2015, sparked a backlash over the technology, including potential urban driving bans. Diesel is key to efforts to meet tighter environmental targets because of its fuel efficiency, even though it emits smog-causing nitrogen oxides. The German automaker reaffirmed its backing for the technology, with Mueller calling it part of the solution, even as Toyota Motor Corp. pulls diesel cars from its lineup in Europe, the main market for the vehicles. Volkswagen shares slipped 0.6% to 158.64 euros as of 2:39 p.m. in Frankfurt, reversing a gain earlier in the day and extending the stocks drop this year to 5.3%. As part of Volkswagens $25-billion push into electric cars, its setting up a standalone sub-brand for battery-powered vehicles. The first model with the I.D. nameplate will be the Neo hatchback that goes on sale in 2020. The Audi luxury marque is set to begin deliveries this year of the all-electric E-Tron SUV. Even with the battery-purchase deals, Volkswagens power-supply issues are still far from over. The company has struggled to secure sources of cobalt, a crucial component for modern batteries; it said that its working on ways to reduce the amount of the element needed for its electric cars, suggesting ongoing concerns even after setting up supplies for its initial electric-car rollout. Advertisement Manufacturing the powerpacks themselves is not in the cards. This is not one of our core competencies, said Mueller, who has faced pressure from employee representatives to invest in battery-cell production. Others can do it better than we can. Chinese producer CATL, which Mueller confirmed Tuesday as one of Volkswagens future battery providers, is considering a site in Europe for its first overseas plant, Chairman Zeng Yuqun said a week ago. Development spending Even with its push to ramp up electric-car production and avoid penalties from tighter environmental regulations, Volkswagen plans to rein in expenditures. Development spending declined 3.9% to about $16 billion in 2017, equivalent to 6.7% of sales. The company reiterated a target to lower that to 6% by 2020. Managing the technology shift requires an intense focus on maintaining profitability from Volkswagens current lineup. The manufacturer predicts an operating margin this year of between 6.5% and 7.5% of revenue, compared with 7.4% in 2017. Advertisement Naturally, we are looking to continue our operating business success in 2018, said Mueller. Not least because we must generate the revenue we will need for our enormous future investments. Just days after Sempra Energy wrapped up the largest acquisition in the companys history, Debra Reed announced Monday that she will be stepping down as president and chief executive of the San Diego company. Reed, 61, who has led Sempra since 2011, is one of the few women running a major corporation as well as one of the only women at the top of a major energy company. Shes had a tremendous career and she has been a trailblazer for women at the top of electric utilities in the United States, said Gary Ackerman, executive director of the Western Power Trading Forum, an organization based in Sacramento whose 90 members in the West buy and sell power. Sempras board of directors elected company finance chief Jeff Martin to assume Reeds CEO role and Joseph Householder, group president of infrastructure businesses, to take over as president. Advertisement Reed will retain her CEO and president duties until May 1 and will stay on until Dec. 1, serving as Sempra Energys executive chairman. She did not give a specific reason for her retirement but in a statement Monday morning alluded to having spent 40 years in the Sempra Energy family of companies. Late last week, Sempra completed the final steps to acquire Oncor, the largest utility in Texas, for $9.45 billion. The transaction greatly expands Sempras reach into one of the biggest energy markets in North America and, together with subsidiaries San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas, creates a utility holding company with the largest customer base in the U.S. Sempra also has assets in Mexico and South America and, along with international partners, is building a liquefied natural gas facility in Louisiana and has plans to build another in Port Arthur, Texas. Reed started with SoCalGas in 1978, shortly after graduating from USC with a degree in civil engineering. Within 10 years, she became the companys first female officer. Reed assisted in the $6.2-billion merger that created Sempra itself in 1998. Under Reed, Sempra Energys market value more than doubled, reaching nearly $29 billion. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Reeds salary in 2016 was $1.39 million and she received a $1.83-million bonus. With restricted stock that vested in 2016, Reeds compensation was $16.66 million. In 2015, the largest methane leak from a natural gas storage facility in U.S. history occurred at the Aliso Canyon site operated by SoCalGas. The leak led to the evacuation of thousands of residents in the Porter Ranch subdivision in Los Angeles County. In 2007, deadly wildfires broke out in San Diego County that killed two people, injured 40 firefighters and forced tens of thousands to seek shelter at Qualcomm Stadium. Investigations showed that the fires started when power lines ignited nearby brush. Advertisement The California Public Utilities Commission last November rejected a request from SDG&E to pass onto ratepayers $379 million in costs related to the fires, agreeing with a pair of administrative law judges at the commission who concluded SDG&E did not reasonably manage and operate its facilities. Nikolewski writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Toys R Us Inc. has missed payments to some suppliers in recent days as the U.S. division heads toward a likely liquidation, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The retailer, which filed for bankruptcy protection in September, has stopped making the payments without providing an explanation, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Some of the people said they cant get anyone at Toys R Us to respond to questions. The company, which faces a $5-billion debt load, also recently stopped negotiating settlements with vendors on money owned before it filed for bankruptcy, some of the people said. Toys R Us liquidation would leave a giant hole in the toy industry Advertisement A representative for the Wayne, N.J., company declined to comment. The bleak situation lends evidence to the notion that Toys R Us is moving toward winding down its U.S. operations for good. Bloomberg reported last week that the retailer was preparing for a liquidation of its U.S. business. The company has failed to find a buyer or reach a debt restructuring deal with lenders, leaving it with few options, people familiar with the situation said at the time. A hearing in Bankruptcy Court is scheduled to be held Thursday, after being delayed. The struggles of Toys R Us have taken a toll on the two largest toymakers, Hasbro Inc. and Mattel Inc. Shares of those companies fell last Friday after Bloomberg reported about the possible liquidation, then lost ground again Tuesday over concerns about missed vendor payments. Hasbro fell less than 1% to $89.73 as of 2:47 p.m. Eastern Time, and Mattel dropped 3% to $14.54. Unlike most people, Seal Beach resident Tom Hazelleaf took the time to read the contract when he recently received a new MasterCard. The card, issued by Capital One, includes the benefit of being compensated for losses you incur as a result of identity fraud, which the agreement declares clearly and seemingly definitively. But if you keep reading, you come to a lengthy series of exceptions that will not be covered. These include indirect or direct damages or losses of any nature. Waitaminnit. Losses you incur are covered, but not losses of any nature? Advertisement It seems to me theyre saying that if they dont want to pay you, they dont have to, Hazelleaf said. That seems to make their identity fraud reimbursement basically useless. This latest adventure in fine print comes as the Trump administration systematically rips apart the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, making it a watchdog in name only. The bureau is charged with managing the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, a.k.a. the Card Act, signed into law by former President Obama in 2009. The purpose of the Card Act is to establish fair and transparent practices relating to the extension of credit. Needless to say, the approach to credit card issuers under Trump is markedly different than it was under Obama. When the CFPB issued its first report on the effects of the Card Act in 2013, it credited the law with creating a market in which shopping for a credit card and comparing costs is far more straightforward than it was prior to enactment of the act. However, the agency still found a number of areas of concern requiring further scrutiny, including add-on products such as identity-theft protection, which CFPB said are frequently sold in a manner that harms consumers. A second report in 2015 reiterated concerns over practices that still create risks to consumers. The latest report the first under Trumps watch was released in December. It has no concerns about the credit card market. Advertisement Rather, it says the market shows significant innovation and, overall, theres a positive picture for consumers in the credit card market. Yes, kids: Banks are your friends! This is, of course, foolish. While the Card Act has helped make the market for plastic more transparent, I cant imagine any consumer thinking theres no need for vigilance. The problems from the earlier reports did not disappear overnight from the marketplace, said Linda Sherry, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group Consumer Action. This latest report is just willfully ignoring them. Advertisement A CFPB spokesman said the December report was just as thorough as past efforts. The contents of the report should not be used to infer a lack of concern regarding any unlawful conduct the bureau is authorized to address, he said. Be that as it may, things are different. Since Mick Mulvaney, who also serves as White House budget director, took over in November as interim chief, the order of the day has been to scale back regulatory oversight and enforcement as much as possible. Under Obama, the CFPBs top goal was to prevent financial harm to consumers while promoting good practices that benefit them. Advertisement Mulvaney rewrote that mission statement. The CFPBs main goal now is to ensure that all consumers have access to markets for consumer financial products and services. The White House also has called for slashing the bureaus budget by 23% and eliminating rules that unduly burden the financial industry. Not that banks are having a hard time making piles of money. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the U.S. banking industry would have pocketed a record $183.1 billion in profit last year if it wasnt for one-time charges related to the Republicans tax bill. As it stands, banks had to make do with profit of $164.8 billion. Advertisement Meanwhile, total household debt is at a record $13.15 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. Consumers were carrying a total of $834 billion in credit card balances as of the end of last year. The latest CFPB report notes that consumer credit card debt now exceeds its pre-recession peak, but it has nothing to say on potential hazards to borrowers, such as harm to credit scores through delinquencies and defaults. An air of detached blandness permeates the more than 350-page document, as if a government entity called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cant be bothered to interpret credit card data from a perspective of safeguarding consumers best interests. As for that amazing credit card that both reimburses and doesnt reimburse for identity-theft losses, it took Capital One a few days to come up with an explanation. Advertisement Amanda Landers, a spokeswoman, said that when the card agreement says people wont be reimbursed for indirect or direct damages or losses of any nature, what it means is that you wont be compensated for certain types of legal damages that may be awarded in civil actions. Then why doesnt it say that? Landers said Id need to take that up with MasterCard. Sarah Ely, a MasterCard spokeswoman, told me the policy does not include payment for damages, direct or indirect, that may be awarded as a result of any lawsuit. Advertisement But, again, thats not what it says. What it says is that cardholders wont be repaid for indirect or direct damages or losses of any nature. Theres no mention of lawsuits. If anything, the ambiguous language creates a huge loophole that, theoretically, would allow MasterCard or Cap One to ignore any losses it pleases which is exactly what worried Hazelleaf. Moreover, what kind of damages are we talking about? Advertisement Ely said cardholders may be covered for attorney fees or court costs associated with civil suits brought against the cardholder as a result of identity fraud, even though the contract says theres no coverage for an act of fraud, deceit, collusion, dishonesty or criminal act by you or any person acting in concert with you. That suggests coverage only in cases of mistaken identity, in which the fraud victim is left holding the bag for the I.D. thiefs mess. However, its hard to imagine any court making a cardholder financially accountable in such circumstances, so Im still scratching my head over what sort of damages MasterCard is worried about. If they mean legal defense costs, they should say legal defense costs. Ely finally thanked me for bringing this to the companys attention. She said MasterCard is actively working to clarify the terms in future iterations of the original cardholder details you referenced to help alleviate confusion. Advertisement A small thing perhaps, but with potentially large ramifications. Under other circumstances, this might have been the sort of thing the CFPB could have straightened out. But it sees no reason to worry. David Lazarus column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com. Giorgio Morandi's paintings of bottles, vases, cups and bowls never get old not only because the tabletop still-lifes feel inexhaustibly intimate, but because other artists keep renewing their relevance, looking to them and to Morandi's highly particular practice as impetus, stimulus and source. For invoking significance through the simple, Morandi (1890-1964) cannot be topped. Painters, printmakers and sculptors continue to answer the call that the Italian artists work issues. Photographers and filmmakers too. They shoot in his Bologna studio as acts of homage and inquiry. Catherine Wagner is the latest to address the phenomenon that is Morandi. Her photographs at Gallery Luisotti make brilliant conversation with his work. In the eight luminous prints (all 2015 or 2016), an object or constellation of objects from Morandi's studio appears as silhouetted, soft-edged shadow. Wagner photographed the arrangements using light filtered through colored gels that correspond to hues found in Morandi's paintings. Each floating, aluminum-mounted image presents as a luxurious chromatic soak, the figures mere densities within granular, atmospheric fields. One piece is all-over deep persimmon, another cool gray, and another dilute blood. In one, a creamy pale yellow, the vessels appear slightly italicized by Wagner's oblique angle of view. From left to right, each bowl and cup also grows more diffuse, as if they are leaning toward nothingness, toward release from the bonds of materiality. In this consortium of the definite and indefinite, Wagner has staged a delicious role reversal: photographs that hint and whisper, based on paintings that plainly assert. Catherine Wagner, "Morandi #007," 2015, archival pigment print, 37.5 inches by 50 inches Gallery Lusotti Also included in this intelligent and ravishing show are five small black-and-white prints from a 1976 series of "Greenhouse Abstractions." Shots of rippling, folded plastic sheeting, tightly framed and stripped of context, double as meditations on light, shadow and translucency. They hark back to early 20th century photographic abstraction and anticipate by a few years James Welling's topographic images of phyllo dough and aluminum foil. Catherine Wagner, "Greenhouse Abstraction III," 1976, gelatin silver print, 11 inches by 14 inches Gallery Lusotti Wagner's older and especially her newer work here speak to several aspects of Morandi's legacy: the rich interiority possible in images that remain faithful to external appearance; the expansiveness that even a narrow set of variables allows; the electric hum that can emanate from the most silent of pictures. The Bay Area photographer has long adopted a crisp, spare approach to investigate what constitutes culture. In her "Traces of Morandi," hard edges give way to the vaporous and quavering, and Wagner holds back on topological evidence to present instead a perceptual, conceptual proposition on the order of Plato's cave. Gallery Luisotti, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica. Through March 31; closed Sundays and Mondays. (310) 453-0043, www.galleryluisotti.com Catherine Wagner, "Morandi #278 (double)," 2016, archival pigment print, 22.5 inches by 30 inches Gallery Lusotti See all of our latest arts news and reviews at latimes.com/arts. Helen Molesworth, the chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art whose exhibitions have included the critically acclaimed 2017 Kerry James Marshall retrospective that was also a rare popular hit, has been fired, according to sources close to the museum. MOCA Director Philippe Vergne took the dramatic step on Monday, sources say. An email sent to MOCA trustees Monday afternoon and obtained by The Times announced that Molesworth is stepping down from the high-profile post, among the most coveted of its kind nationally, effective immediately. The implication was that Molesworth had resigned. No, artist and board member Catherine Opie said by phone when asked about the email wording. He fired her. Advertisement THE FOLLOW-UP: MOCA board still quiet about whether it stands by decision to fire curator Efforts to reach Molesworth were unsuccessful. MOCA responded to The Times requests for comment with a statement Tuesday afternoon that said: The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and Helen Molesworth have decided to part ways due to creative differences. MOCA is grateful to Helen Molesworth for her work over the past 3 and a half years as Chief Curator at the Museum. The statement also said Molesworth will continue to work with MOCA on her upcoming exhibition One Day at a Time: Manny Farber and Termite Art, scheduled to open in October 2018. Opie said she called Vergne after receiving the surprise message and was told that Molesworth had not written a letter of resignation but was terminated for undermining the museum. Opie was nonplussed. I think you have made a terrible mistake by firing her, she said she told Vergne. Molesworth joined the MOCA staff in 2014, moving to Los Angeles from the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Since then she has been responsible as lead curator for the museums two most critically admired shows Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, a blockbuster that saw galleries crowded with visitors during its run last spring, and Anna Maria Maiolino, a retrospective of the Brazilian artist that was a highlight of the citywide, Getty-sponsored initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA in the fall. Firing a chief curator is highly unusual. The post is responsible for setting the museums general artistic agenda, which had been adrift at MOCA following a lengthy period of fiscal and board turmoil marked by the 2008 departure of former director Jeremy Strick and the tumultuous four-year tenure of New York art dealer Jeffrey Deitch. For a museum of its size and international reputation, MOCA now has a small curatorial staff just one senior curator and three assistants, in addition to the chief curator. Typically, a director is charged with marshaling administrative support for the chief curators agenda, with backing from a board of trustees. Observers knowledgeable of MOCAs inner workings say that conflict had arisen between Vergne and Molesworth over the direction of the artistic program, with Vergne assuming curatorial duties less commonly the purview of a museum director. Vergne, himself a former chief curator at Minneapolis Walker Art Center, was lead curator for two large MOCA exhibitions Carl Andre: Sculpture as Place, 1958-2010 in 2017, a traveling show that he brought with him from his prior post as director of New Yorks DIA Art Foundation, and Doug Aitken: Electric Earth in 2016. Advertisement Last month the museum was embarrassed by the mishandling of plans for the 2018 MOCA gala honoring one of its artist board members, Mark Grotjahn. After the event was announced, Grotjahn withdrew his acceptance of the honor, citing rumblings of constituent concern about a lack of diversity among the museums three previous gala honorees, all of whom have been straight, white men. The gala was quietly shelved on Friday, according to a museum insider not authorized to discuss the matter, with $1.4 million in pledges set to be returned to donors. The dust-up reflected a similar distinction between Vergnes high-profile exhibitions for two white male artists and Molesworths for an African American male artist and a Latin American female artist. christopher.knight@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @KnightLAT UPDATES: 3:20 p.m.: This story has been updated with a statement from the Museum of Contemporary Art. Mika Brzezinski apologizes for homophobic insult of Pompeo By Tracy Brown Morning Joe co-hosts Mika Brzezinski, left, and Joe Scarborough. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski has apologized for referring to Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo as wannabe dictator President Trumps butt boy. During a segment discussing the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the MSNBC show Wednesday morning, Brzezinski questioned whether Pompeos comments were the words of a patriot. I understand that Donald Trump doesnt care. He doesnt care, said Brzezinski. But why doesnt Mike Pompeo care right now? Are the pathetic deflections that we just heard when he appeared on Fox & Friends, is that a patriot speaking? Or a wannabe dictators butt boy? Critics were quick to point out the homophobic nature of the insult, and Brzezinski promptly apologized on Twitter for her super bad choice of words. (While sometimes referring to a person eager to please for personal gain, a butt boy is also understood as a derogatory term for gay men.) I should have said water boy like for football teams or something like that, tweeted Brzezinski. So Sorry! And its not the first time Trumps critics have been called out for relying on homophobic jokes in their efforts to mock the president. Totally agree with you -SUPER BAD choice of words .. I should have said water boy... like for football teams or something like that.. apologize to @SenatorDurbin too! SO SORRY! https://t.co/zIqsGdK3Tk Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) December 12, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Baby, Its Cold Outside bites back as fans embrace embattled holiday song Fans are pushing back against the Baby, Its Cold Outside backlash, driving the song to surge in both sales and streaming. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) Baby, Its Cold Outside got a chilly reception on some airwaves earlier this year, but the seasonal favorite is heating up the charts, thanks to loyal fans who are pushing back against, well, the backlash. The tune has grown controversial in recent years, due to a changing cultural climate and conversations cropping up in the wake of #MeToo, prompting some radio stations to remove the song from airplay. But the tide appears to be turning for Baby, Its Cold Outside. On Monday, San Francisco-area radio station KOIT-FM (96.5) announced that it had returned the song to its rotation after a vast majority of listeners in an online poll voted to have it reinstated. KOITs listeners have spoken, and the overwhelming message is they do want to hear Baby, Its Cold Outside on our station, as they have throughout the years, KOIT program director Brian Figula said in Mondays statement. The radio station was one of several that had excised the song from their playlists, is now among those that reversed their original decision after fan outrage. And its not just on the radio where Baby is gaining ground. Billboards Holiday Digital Song Sales chart for the week of Dec. 15 feature three different versions of the song, with Dean Martins 1959 rendition at No. 2, Idina Menzel and Michael Bubles 2014 duet reentering the chart at No. 29, and Leon Redbone and Zooey Deschanels 2003 duet from the Elf soundtrack debuting at No. 41. As for radio stations, they remain dedicated to giving the audience what it wants. More than seven out of every ten listeners who responded said although some lyrics of the song may reflect a different era and a different sensibility than today, still they love the tradition and history of the song, and want to hear it as part of their holiday season, Figulas statement added. At KOIT, we always listen carefully when our listeners take time to comment. In this case, it was very obvious what they wanted us to do. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Selena series based on the life of the Tejano singer ordered at Netflix By Los Angeles Times Staff The late Tejano singer Selena was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2021 Grammys. (Photo by Rick Corrales) Netflix is ready to Bidi Bidi Bom Bom. The streaming platform has ordered a new scripted series about the life of famed Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla. Selena: The Series will follow the coming-of-age of a young Selena as her dreams of becoming a professional singer come to fruition, forcing her and her family to make life-changing personal and professional choices. The family of the late singer is involved with the project and will serve as executive producers. Moises Zamora (Star, American Crime) is attached to write and executive-produce the series, which hails from Campanario Entertainment. Selena will always have a lasting place in music history and we feel great responsibility to do justice to her memory. With this series, viewers will finally get the full history of Selena, our family, and the impact she has had on all of our lives, Suzette Quintanilla, Selenas sister, said in a statement. We are excited to partner with Campanario and Netflix to give fans a never-before-seen glimpse at our story and highlight why Selena will remain a legend for generations to come. Selena rose to fame in the late 80s and early 90s with hits like Bidi Bidi Bom Bom and Como La Flor. She was shot and killed in 1995 at the age of 25 by her former fan club manager. Her death came months before she was slated to release her first crossover English-language album, which featured the hit singles I Could Fall in Love and Dreaming of You. Jennifer Lopez famously played the singer in a 1997 biopic, which marked one of Lopezs early breakout roles. More recently, Selena served as the inspiration for a posthumous makeup line for MAC cosmetics that launched in 2016. There is no premiere date yet for the series. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Heres how to watch the SAG Award nominations on Wednesday By Nardine Saad Hump day might be a lot more enjoyable this week thanks to Awkwafina, Laverne Cox and the Screen Actors Guild. Cox (Orange Is the New Black and Bad Hair) and Awkwafina (Oceans 8 and Crazy Rich Asians) are teaming up to announce the nominations for the 25th SAG Awards on Wednesday and will hopefully enliven the typical awards-show announcements with their sass and comedic chops. The acting nominees will be revealed at 7 a.m. Pacific time at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The announcement being made on TNT, TBS and truTV will also be carried live on each outlets website and social media pages, as well as the SAG Awards site. Heres when and how to watch: Live on TNT, TBS and TruTV and their websites and social media pages tntdrama.com/sag-awards truTV.comsagawards.org TNTs Facebook, Twitter @TNTdrama and YouTube channel TBS Facebook, Twitter @tbsnetwork and YouTube channel The SAG Awards homepage Actresses Awkwafina, left, and Laverne Cox will announce the Screen Actors Guild Award nominees on Wednesday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris will introduce Awkwafina and Cox. Before that at 6:50 a.m. Pacific nominees in the the stunt ensemble categories will be announced by SAG Awards Committee chair JoBeth Williams and committee member Elizabeth McLaughlin during a live webcast on TNT and the SAG Awards websites. The 25th SAG Awards ceremony will be simulcast live on Jan. 27 at 5 p.m. Pacific on TNT and TBS and on the networks mobile and smart TV apps. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Hoda Kotb in tears after Kathie Lee Gifford announces Today exit By Nardine Saad Hoda Kotb, left, and Kathie Lee Gifford have co-anchored the Today show since 2008. (Nathan Congleton / NBC) Kathie Lee Giffords announcement that shes leaving NBCs Today show reduced her on-air BFF Hoda Kotb to a sea of tears on Tuesday, and their life preserver was the box of tissues that a prop master dropped from the ceiling. Kotb, who knew about Giffords departure before the live announcement, was still emotional afterward, telling her longtime co-host that she had changed her life. The minute you stepped into my life with both feet, everything changed, Kotb said through tears, prompting the tissue-box drop. You chose me and thats how it started, she added. I was thinking about everything good thats happened in my life has happened since you came. "Its bittersweet, as these things always are@kathielgifford announces she will be leaving TODAY on her 11th anniversary in April 2019. pic.twitter.com/YsHIq6c9ev TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 11, 2018 Kotb, who has become a fan favorite since co-hosting the freewheeling 10 a.m. hour of the program with Gifford since 2008, said Gifford hiring her enabled her to meet husband Joel Schiffman and adopt their daughter, Haley Joy Kotb. Gifford also invited Kotb to meet her family when she first joined the Today team. Everything happened. How does one person step in your life and change it like that? And you did that for me, Kotb said. Gifford, who will officially sign off the show in April, referred to Kotb as a beautiful Egyptian goddess and thanked their viewers for sticking with them from their disastrous early days as a nothing burger outside on the plaza. You start sharing life, and your friendship shows up on the air, Gifford said. We werent colleagues very long. We became friends and now were going to be friends for the rest of our lives. Im grateful to God for you, Gifford added. Gods used you in my life every bit as much as hes used me in yours, sweetie. Thats the way it goes. No crumbs on his table. Gifford has co-anchored Todays fourth hour with Kotb for the last decade and is retiring from the program to pursue other creative endeavors. I had a chance to work with a legend... not something many people get to say in their lifetime.. but thanks to you @KathieLGifford .... I get to xxxx https://t.co/sXGdwmq7vm Hoda Kotb (@hodakotb) December 11, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Times Person of the Year? Four journalists and a newspaper, guardians in the war on truth By Associated Press (Time magazine) Times Person of the Year recognition for 2018 is shining a collective spotlight on guardians in what the magazine calls the war on truth. The group is made up of four journalists and a newspaper that Time says are representatives of a broader fight by countless others around the world. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Carol Burnett to receive inaugural Golden Globe award for TV achievement Carol Burnett will need to clear some space on her crowded mantel: At next months Golden Globes ceremony, she will pick up yet another award honoring her long and distinguished career in television. The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced Tuesday morning that Burnett will receive the inaugural Carol Burnett Award, a new prize honoring lifetime achievement in television. The award was teased at last weeks nominations announcement for the Globes; its meant to be a bookend prize to the HFPAs Cecil B. DeMille Award for film achievement. A five-time Golden Globe winner, Burnett is also the most decorated honoree of all time in the TV category, according to the organization. For more than 50 years, comedy trailblazer Carol Burnett has been breaking barriers while making us laugh, HFPA President Meher Tatna said in a statement Tuesday. She was the first woman to host a variety sketch show, The Carol Burnett Show. She was also the first woman to win both the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and Kennedy Center Honors. And now we add another first to her running list: the first recipient and namesake of the new Golden Globe top honor for achievement in television, the Carol Burnett Award. Burnett, 85, will receive the award at the Golden Globes ceremony, which NBC will broadcast live from coast to coast on Jan. 6 from the Beverly Hilton hotel. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Andy Serkis revives Gollum as a Brexit-obsessed Theresa May By Tracy Brown As if British Prime Minister Theresa May werent in enough of a Brexit bind, now she has to deal with a biting Andy Serkis impersonation thats making the digital rounds. Literally biting because its Serkis via his immortal rendition of Gollum. The Lord of the Rings actor reprised a version of the One Ring-obsessed character in a new video posted by We Wants It. Much like the Gollum of the film series, Serkis May has her own fixation: the Brexit withdrawal agreement. Oh, Precious, our agreement, says a blue-suit clad Serkis. This is it. Our deal We takes back control: Money, borders, laws, blue passportses. But another May personality quickly rebuts: No. It hurts the people. Makes them poorer. The parody features the two sides of May arguing with herself and its somehow both hilarious and terrifying. One personality only cares about how much she wants the juicy and sweet deal, while the other recognizes that there are plenty of people opposed to the idea. They hates the deal, all of them hates it. They wants a peoples vote, Gollum/May says to herself. The Peoples Vote refers to the efforts of those in the U.K. calling for a public vote on whether Britain will leave or remain in the EU based on the terms of the final exit agreement. On Monday, the real May delayed the parliamentary vote for the Brexit plan because she feared it did not have enough support to pass. The vote had been scheduled for Tuesday. While May has defended the deal (that EU leaders have said is the only one on the table), it has been slammed by both Brexit-backers and remainers who oppose leaving the 28-nation bloc. As of now Britain is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29, 2019. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Sarah Hyland of Modern Family opens up about second kidney transplant By Nardine Saad Sarah Hyland (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) After her body rejected her first kidney transplant, Modern Family star Sarah Hyland underwent dialysis last year and had to have a second transplant, she revealed Monday in an interview. Recovery from that surgery has been relatively smooth, but the 28-year-old has contended with a spate of other medical issues that resulted in additional procedures. After the second transplant, she had surgery to mitigate her endometriosis and another to repair a hernia. The chronic illnesses have resulted in six surgeries in the past 16 months, she told Self magazine, where she opened up about her tumultuous medical journey. Im stable. Im thriving. Im super happy with life, the 28-year-old actress said. .@sarah_hyland was born with kidney dysplasia. She went into kidney failure, and needed a transplant. In 2012, her dad gave her one of his. What Hyland hasnt been ready to share until now is that in 2016, her body began to reject the donated kidney. https://t.co/iAw8rdXJ1z pic.twitter.com/rR0xqZPiGy SELF (@SELFmagazine) December 10, 2018 Hyland was born with kidney dysplasia, which causes the organs to grow debilitating cysts. She had a kidney transplant in 2012, with her father giving one of his kidneys to his daughter. But in October 2016, her body began rejecting the transplant and under the scrutiny of social media and the public eye Hylands weight dropped, her face swelled due to immunosuppressant drugs and fluid retention and her blood pressure spiked, damaging her vision, the mag said. The candid star said she began dialysis in February 2017 to filter her blood because her kidneys couldnt. However, the treatment fell short and the transplanted kidney had to come out. Doctors removed it that May, then in September of that year transplanted a kidney donated by her younger brother, Ian. I was very depressed, she told the magazine. When a family member gives you a second chance at life, and it fails, it almost feels like its your fault. Its not. But it does. Hyland felt completely helpless, she said, and for a long time contemplated suicide. I didnt want to fail my little brother like I failed my dad, she said. I had gone through [my whole life] of always being a burden, of always having to be looked after, having to be cared for. The thoughts subsided after she reached out to a friend, and she encouraged others to do the same. Its not shameful, she said. For anybody that wants to reach out to somebody but doesnt really know how because theyre too proud or they think that theyll be looked upon as weak, its not a shameful thing to say. Its not a shameful thing to share. Hyland said on Instagram on Monday that she shared her story so others might feel like theyre not alone. Hopefully those that are lucky enough not to experience this will learn about something new and take a moment to appreciate their health, she wrote. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement New Godzilla: King of the Monsters trailer features the titan fights youre craving When the first trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters was released in July, it delved deep into the lives of its human characters which was fine and was accompanied by Debussys Clair de Lune which was awesome and everyone seemed happy to see that the titular titan seemed to be doing OK for himself. It was arty and magnificent. But there wasnt any fighting. And there was barely any destruction. And if youre coming in here to sell me a Godzilla film, then by gosh, it had better be apocalyptic. Luckily, most of that appears to be rectified in the second trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which was released Monday morning. While the humans are still hanging out in the background, wringing their hands and staring in mute disbelief, far more of the footage is given over to the wrath of the titans. Heck, Godzilla even takes on King Ghidorah head-to-head(-to-head-to-head) and it looks amazing. See what it looks like when the world burns, but this time the old gods are to blame. Godzilla: King of the Monsters is scheduled to stomp its way into theaters May 31. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print New Stranger Things teaser reveals totally 80s episode titles By Nardine Saad Its summer 1985 and things are still pretty strange in Hawkins, Ind. Netflix on Sunday unveiled a teaser for Season 3 of Stranger Things, giving fans a list of eight episode titles to mine for clues about the sci-fi series new season. The new season will reunite viewers with Chief Hopper (David Harbour), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and their gang of middle-school outcasts, who find themselves at the center of the peculiar happenings in their small town. The streaming giant also confirmed a 2019 release for the new season, which will center on the already announced arrival of the Starcourt shopping mall, which makes the finale episode title all the more foreboding. (Check out that earlier teaser below.) Heres the title list: Suzie, Do you Copy? The Mall Rats The Case of the Missing Lifeguard The Sauna Test The Source The Birthday The Bite The Battle of Starcourt In March, Netflix announced that Priah Ferguson would return as Lucas Sinclairs (Caleb McLaughlin) younger sister Erica, and Maya Hawke was cast in the new role of Robin. Last week, the Emmy-winning show earned a Golden Globe nomination for dramatic television series and a supporting actor nod for Harbour, who in addition to playing the town sheriff is now Elevens adoptive father. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Americans, Gianni Versace and Dannemora lead Critics Choice TV nominees By Libby Hill The Broadcast Film Critics Assn. clearly has a thing for crime, with Mondays announcement of the TV nominees for the 24th annual Critics Choice Awards revealing lots of love for shows about skirting the law. The Americans, famous for its super sneaky Russian spies; The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story and its depiction of the murder and aftermath; and Escape at Dannemora, with its tale of a real life jailbreak, lead all television nominees with five mentions apiece. Gianni Versace and Dannemora are competing in limited series, with Americans in drama, but all four projects were buoyed by their performances, which got four nominations each. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print The Favourite and Black Panther lead film nominees for Critics Choice Awards By Libby Hill The Broadcast Film Critics Assn. announced its film nominees for the 24th Critics Choice Awards on Monday, with period black comedy The Favourite earning 14 nominations, just ahead of box office blockbuster Black Panther, which scored 12. Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz all garnered nominations for their performances in The Favourite, with Yorgos Lanthimos also nominated for direction and editing. Nipping at the heels of the two front runners are Damien Chazelles First Man with 10, Mary Poppins Returns, A Star is Born and Vice all nabbing nine nominations each and Roma with eight notices. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Times Person of the Year shortlist includes Meghan Markle, director Ryan Coogler, President Trump and separated families By Nardine Saad Actress-turned-duchess Meghan Markle is on Time magazines short list for 2018 Person of the Year. (Gareth Fuller / Associated Press) Actress-turned-duchess Meghan Markle and Black Panther director Ryan Coogler joined Donald Trump, separated families, Robert S. Mueller III and Christine Blasey Ford on Time magazines shortlist for the 2018 Person of the Year. Selected by the magazines editors since 1927, the title is bestowed on a person or people who most influenced the news and the world, for better or for worse, during the last year. On Monday, the magazine revealed the top 10 candidates on NBCs Today show, which will also name the titleholder on Tuesdays show. Markle and Coogler were the only entertainment figures represented during another contentious news year. Last year, the Silence Breakers who spoke out against sexual assault and misconduct earned the magazines cover spot. Heres the shortlist for @TIMEs Person of the Year #TIMEPOY pic.twitter.com/kHAmF8A3ut TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 10, 2018 Heres who made the shortlist this year: Donald Trump: The tweet-happy U.S. president was named the 2016 Person of the Year when he was president-elect. Last year, when he also made the shortlist, Trump tweeted he had passed on the nominal title, though Time disagreed Separated families: Despite weathering the fallout of putting a crying Honduran child who had not been separated from her family on its magazine cover earlier this year, Time still selected migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border as candidates for its Person of the Year, again highlighting the battle over immigration in the U.S. Vladimir Putin: The Russian president was named Person of the Year in 2007 and has continued to make headlines due to Russias alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, and his relationship with Trump. Which brings us to ... Robert Mueller: The special counsel appointed by the Justice Department, who has been investigating allegations of Russian meddling in the election and Trumps ties to Russia, has become a foil to the bombastic leader. Though the investigation has ensnared Trumps former personal attorney Michael Cohen, his former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and several others, Trump has repeatedly decried it as a witch hunt for evidence of collusion with Russia. Ryan Coogler: The Black Panther director and screenwriter turned a lesser-known superhero into a cultural phenomenon with his groundbreaking film, which became a critical darling and broke a bevy of box-office records while boasting a predominantly black cast. Christine Blasey Ford: The university professor who accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers brought the nation to a standstill with her emotional testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in September, throwing Kavanaughs shoo-in appointment into question for weeks. Jamal Khashoggi: The Saudi journalist was killed soon after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and his disappearance led to widespread criticism of the Arab nation, particularly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is believed to have ordered Khashoggis murder. March for Our Lives activists: The teenagers who survived the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., assembled to take on gun control and march on Washington, D.C., to speak out against gun violence. Moon Jae-in: The South Korean president, who helped host the Olympic Games this year, mounted a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, officially bringing about an end to the war between the two countries. Meghan Markle: The Suits actress who hails from California became the Duchess of Sussex when she married Britains Prince Harry in May, offering a fairy-tale reprieve from pressing conflicts around the world. In October, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child, who would be seventh in line to the British throne. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Saturday Night Live finds DeNiros Robert Mueller in Eric Trumps closet Robert De Niro and Alex Moffat on Saturday Night Live this week. (NBC) After a week full of new revelations from the Robert Mueller investigation, it was probably no surprise that Robert De Niro got the call to reprise his role as the special counsel for this weeks Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by Jason Mamoa with the musical guest Mumford and Sons. With the always-on news cycle of 2018, the cold open is typically a feast-or-famine affair that benefits from standout, vaguely surreal moments Kanye West in the White House, for example. With so much news this week surrounding the legal affairs of the presidents inner circle, SNL imagined the FBIs special counsel as the boogeyman in Eric Trumps closet. Dont be scared, its just me, De Niro assured him, your dads friend from work. Alex Moffat as a clueless Eric and Mikey Day as Don Jr. has been a solid pairing on Weekend Update, and they were natural choices given the news cycle. Still, the segment lacked the sort of standout snap that makes the cold open the usual talking point for the episode, apart from its closing exchange. People say youre the worst thing that happened to my dad, Moffats Eric Trump told De Niro. No, getting elected president was the worst thing to happen to your dad, he countered. Watch a clip below. "Its just me, Robert Mueller. Your dads friend from work." #SNL pic.twitter.com/xsLhnSg1oe Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) December 9, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Times Up congratulates Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu on Golden Globes nomination Constance Wu is nominated for her first Golden Globe award for Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Bros. ) Approaching the one-year anniversary of the movements birth, Times Up congratulated the women who earned 2019 Golden Globe nominations, including Crazy Rich Asians star and activist Constance Wu. We celebrate all of our sisters who were nominated for Golden Globe awards this year, including Constance Wu who became the first Asian woman to be nominated for best actress in more than 40 years, the organization said in a statement to The Times. (While few women of Asian descent been nominated for best actress in the awards 75-year history, Hailee Steinfeld, who is part Filipino, was nominated in 2017 for Edge of Seventeen.) As far as Asian Americans go, not Asian-Asians, there have been two others [in the comedy/musical category], Wu told The Times on Thursday morning, reacting to her nomination for Crazy Rich Asians, the first contemporary-set all-Asian studio film in 25 years. It is especially meaningful to receive a nomination for a leading role in an Asian American-centered story, Wu added. In its Globes nominations kudos, Times Up also called out the lack of female filmmakers among this years all-male directing nominees. We are thrilled to see some progress in the diversity of artists recognized, but, once again, the best director category lacks a single woman nominee, the statement read. The body of work directed by women this year deserves acknowledgement. The Times Up movement was first announced Jan. 1, unveiling an initiative to battle sexual harassment in industries including Hollywood, which included a legal defense fund to help underprivileged women. The movement called for supporters to wear all black to the glitzy 2018 Globes ceremony and speak out against harassment and gender inequality. As of Thursday, Wu was not yet sure if there will be a repeat of last years red carpet call to action or similar coordinated show of solidarity. I dont know if its going to be a clothing statement, but the solidarity and the sisterhood that we have is always there and is growing every day so it will 100% be there at the Golden Globes, she said. Maybe not in terms of wardrobe, but in terms of passion? For sure. Read the full Times Up statement below: Statement from TIMES UP on the 2019 Golden Globe Nominations We celebrate all of our sisters who were nominated for Golden Globe awards this year, including Constance Wu who became the first Asian woman to be nominated for best actress in more than 40 years. We are thrilled to see some progress in the diversity of artists recognized, but once again the best director category lacks a single woman nominee. The body of work directed by women this year deserves acknowledgement. While we greatly admire the excellent work honored yesterday, we are also reminded of the vast imbalances that still exist across our industry and many other industries, and remain committed to our collective work. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Kevin Hart shouldnt have stepped down from Oscars gig, GLAAD chief says: He should have stepped up By Christie DZurilla Comedian Kevin Hart decided not to host Februarys Academy Awards. (Willy Sanjuan / Associated Press) GLAAD would rather Kevin Hart hadnt quit as Oscars host, with its leader expressing disappointment Friday morning on social media and on CNN. Kevin Hart shouldnt have stepped down; he should have stepped up, tweeted Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the LGBTQ advocacy group. Harts apology to LGBTQ people is an important step forward, but he missed a real opportunity to use his platform and the Oscars stage to build unity and awareness. Ellis said the group would still welcome that conversation with the 39-year-old comic. Hart, who got the job only Tuesday, walked away Thursday night rather than cave to internet trolls for old anti-gay tweets that had resurfaced after he deleted them. He later did an about-face and offered an apology to those he had hurt, saying he was stepping down because he didnt want to distract from the awards themselves. We were hoping that this was going to turn into a teachable moment, Ellis told CNN on Friday morning. GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis on why she was hoping Kevin Hart wouldnt step down as Oscars host: We were hoping that this was going to turn into a teachable moment [and] to use the Oscar stage ... to help build unity and awareness. https://t.co/Kt5qT05hAA pic.twitter.com/PNijmSM2Vv New Day (@NewDay) December 7, 2018 Ellis said Hart could have become an ally of the community if he had faced it, explained he had evolved and was willing to lead moving forward. It wasnt the conclusion that I think everybody would have liked, Ellis said. The academy has yet to respond to Harts public exit or announce a replacement host. (But we have some ideas about who should get the gig.) We would still welcome that conversation with him. The Academy has recently made significant strides in featuring diverse talent onstage and they should now double down on that commitment as they look for a new host. Sarah Kate Ellis (@sarahkateellis) December 7, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Marvel drops Avengers 4' trailer, reveals title By Los Angeles Times Staff Chris Evans as Captain America. (Marvel Studios) The end is near. Or more precisely, the endgame. On Friday, Marvel Studios unveiled the official first trailer for the latest Avengers film. The clip also confirmed the title for the project, Avengers: Endgame, and an April 26 release. Endgame picks up where the events of Avengers: Infinity War, released in April, left off. The beginning of the trailer focuses largely on Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) in solitude before moving the focus to Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). The new footage also shows the return of Jeremy Renners Hawkeye, who did not appear in Infinity War. He was last seen in Captain America: Civil War. Watch the trailer below. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Justin Timberlake postpones Man of the Woods tour, citing bruised vocal cords By Nardine Saad Justin Timberlake. (Amy Harris / Invision/Associated Press) Justin Timberlake is sorry that the remainder of his Man of the Woods tour has now been postponed to next year while the singer recovers from bruised vocal cords, a problem that has dogged him since October. My vocal cords are healing but they are not all the way back to normal yet, so my doctors want me to continue to rest my voice, the 37-year-old wrote on Instagram Wednesday night. That means hell hold off on singing until next month. Im really sorry, Timberlake wrote. I want to be back on the stage and I am doing all I can to get there quickly. Live Nation, the producer of the tour, confirmed on Thursday that the tour would resume in January, and tickets for the originally scheduled shows will be honored at the 2019 events. Timberlake, whose tour accompanies his folksy fifth studio album, Man of the Woods, first canceled his Madison Square Garden show in New York in late October and had since postponed a slew of dates. (Though that didnt derail his silent interview on The Tonight Show to promote his memoir Hindsight shortly after.) The North American tour will now resume in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 4, according to Live Nation. Timberlakes Los Angeles stop at the Staples Center originally set for Nov. 27 is now slated for March 10, Live Nation said. Hes also been rescheduled to play the Honda Center in Anaheim on Feb. 22. Additional appearances in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Fresno and Oakland have also been pushed back to March, and tickets for the previously scheduled concerts are valid at the respective new dates in each city. Refunds are also available at point of purchase. (A full list of the rescheduled shows can be seen here.) Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Faye Dunaway returning to Broadway to play Katharine Hepburn in Tea at Five By Nardine Saad (Lionel Cironneau / Associated Press) Oscar winner Faye Dunaway is returning to Broadway to play four-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn. The Bonnie and Clyde star will embody the legendary actress with a devil-may-care personality in Matthew Lombardos Tea at Five, marking the shows Broadway debut and Dunaways return to the Great White Way after 35 years, producer Ben Feldman said in a statement on Thursday. Lombardo has created a new version of the one-woman-show, which took audiences to 1938 as Hepburn awaited word on the final casting for the role of Scarlett OHara to 1983, where they witness the sunset of her health and career. The new show will be directed by Tony Award nominee John Tillinger and will have a limited engagement in summer 2019. Additional information, including the complete creative team, dates and theater, will be announced early next year. Dunaway made her Broadway debut in 1961 with A Man for All Seasons and followed it up with appearances in After the Fall and The Changeling. However, her breakthrough happened off-Broadway when she appeared in Hogans Goat, which led to her casting in 1967s Bonnie and Clyde. (She later earned her Academy Award for the 1976 drama Network.) The 77-year-old actress last appeared on Broadway in 1982 in the original play The Curse of an Aching Heart. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Father John Misty rallies musician friends for wildfire benefit concert Father John Misty announced that he will host a benefit concert for victims of Californias recent wildfires. (Suzanne Cordeiro / AFP/Getty Images) Father John Misty, the singer, songwriter and occasional Chateau Marmont pianist, announced Thursday morning the California Wildfire Benefit Concert, an evening of music to benefit victims of the recent fires. Misty, the stage name of Josh Tillman, is teaming up with Los Angeles-based concert promoter Goldenvoice and has scrolled through his contacts for a coterie of special guests, including Haim, Mac DeMarco, Lucius, Tim Heidecker, Rostam, Jonathan Wilson, Rivers Cuomo and Weyes Blood, among others. Set for Dec. 18 at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in L.A., the night promises to be an intimate affair: an all-acoustic session of songs from some of the areas most accomplished songwriters, with a Steinway & Sons-donated piano to add some class. The benefit is the latest to raise money for those affected by the devastating fires. Over the weekend, Katy Perry, Gwen Stefani and Robin Thicke raised a reported $1 million as part of the One Love Malibu Benefit Concert. Last week, garage rocker Ty Segall and friends took over Zebulon in Frogtown to make money for those in need. Proceeds from Tillman & Co.s event will go to the Southern California Disaster Relief Fund, created by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles in partnership with United Way of Ventura County. In a statement Thursday morning, organizers explained that the fund is directed at low-income families whose lives and livelihoods are affected by the current wildfires in Southern California. Specifically, the fund focuses on longer-term support to help individuals and families in need to rebuild their lives. Bonus opportunity: Fans will be able to bid on front-row tickets to the concert through CharityBuzz. The high-bidder will also get a commemorative poster signed by participating artists and a room at the Ace Hotel. Tickets for the all-ages concert range from $59.50-$199.50 and go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print A Star Is Born: Peter Buck turns 62 today By Los Angeles Times Staff (Joe Pugliese / Los Angeles Times) Everyone I know has enough bad times and struggles in their lives to draw upon for a lifetime. Peter Buck, 1996 FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Lowdown on Hi-Fi Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg to co-host 2019 Golden Globes By Nardine Saad Andy Samberg, left, and Sandra Oh will co-host the 2019 Golden Globes. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times; Micha Theiner / Los Angeles Times) Killing Eve will meet Brooklyn Nine-Nine at the 76th Golden Globe Awards next month now that Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg have been announced as co-hosts of the annual show. They bring wit, charm and style to a room filled with the very best of film and television. Its sure to be another unforgettable fun-filled night, said NBC co-chairmen Paul Telegdy and George Cheeks in a statement on Wednesday. The party-like ceremony, hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. at the Beverly Hilton hotel, will honor the best in film and television and marks the official kickoff of the 2019 awards-show season. The three-hour telecast will air live, coast to coast, on NBC on Jan. 6 at 5 p.m. Pacific time. Golden Globes nominations preview: 5 things to watch for, including Mary Poppins Returns vs. Roma The nominees will be announced early Thursday across 25 categories 14 in film and 11 in television and the winners are voted on by members of the HFPA. Were excited to welcome Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg as co-hosts of Hollywoods Party of the Year, said HFPA President Meher Tatna in a statement. Both Golden Globe Award recipients have continually showcased their talents in film and television, and we cant wait see what their undeniable chemistry will bring to the Golden Globes stage. Oh, who famously starred as Dr. Cristina Yang on ABCs Greys Anatomy, won a 2006 Golden Globe for performance by an actress in a supporting role in a series, limited series or motion picture made for television; a Screen Actors Guild Award for the role and five Emmy nominations for supporting actress in a drama. Her role as an MI5 officer hunting down a female assassin on BBC Americas Killing Eve earned her another Emmy nomination earlier this year. As for Samberg, the Saturday Night Live alum won two Golden Globes in 2014 for his work on the cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which recently landed at NBC after being canceled on Fox. It wont be the first time for him to host a major awards show either: The comedian previously emceed the Primetime Emmy Awards as well as the Film Independent Spirit Awards. The duo take over hosting duties from recent hosts Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and Ricky Gervais. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Natalie Portman apologizes to Jessica Simpson for bikini-shaming her By Nardine Saad Actress Natalie Portman, left, in a recent interview alluded to a bikini photo of Jessica Simpson. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times, left; Evan Agostini / Invision/Associated Press, right)) Oscar winner Natalie Portman hears you, Jessica Simpson, and agrees that women should dress and behave however they like without judgment. Thats a different tune than the one Portman appeared to sing in a USA Today profile published on Tuesday one that prompted a lengthy statement from Simpson calling out Portman for shaming her, particularly amid the Times Up era that Portman helped usher in. Portman plays a pop star in the upcoming film Vox Lux, which explores the underbelly of the music industry, and in discussing the topic, she lauded Madonna but appeared to throw shade at Simpson and the industry that touted the virgin/vixen paradigms around the millennium. I remember being a teenager, and there was Jessica Simpson on the cover of a magazine saying Im a virgin while wearing a bikini, and I was confused. Like, I dont know what this is trying to tell me as a woman, as a girl, Portman, 37, told the publication. Simpson. 38, read those words Wednesday morning and, in a missive posted on Instagram and Twitter, said she was disappointed, but did not indicate what magazine cover Portman was referring to. As public figures, we both know our image is not totally in our control at all times, and that the industry we work in often tries to define us and box us in, the fashion designer wrote. However, I was taught to be myself and honor the different ways all women express themselves, which is why I believed then and I believe now that being sexy in a bikini and being proud of my body are not synonymous with having sex, Simpson added. Simpson, who made no secret of losing her virginity after she wed 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey in 2002, had said that shes always embraced being a role model to women by letting them know they can look and wear whatever they want and choose to have or not have sex whenever they want. The power lies within us as individuals, Simpson wrote. Addressing Simpson directly (and publicly) in the comments section of the post, Portman thanked her and said she she completely agrees with her. I only meant to say I was confused as a girl coming of age in the public eye around the same time by the medias mixed messages about how girls and women were supposed to behave, Portman wrote. The actress said she didnt mean to shame Simpson and is sorry for any hurt her words might have caused. I have nothing but respect for your talent and your voice that you use to encourage and empower women all over the globe, Portman said. UPDATE 2:21 p.m.: This story was updated with Portmans apology. This story was originally published at 11:52 a.m. pic.twitter.com/zBLuyF3a8p Jessica Simpson (@JessicaSimpson) December 5, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Surviving R. Kelly screening evacuated after anonymous threats By Christie DZurilla Singer R. Kelly. (Noam Galai / Getty Images) Phoned-in threats cleared the house at a screening of the Surviving R. Kelly documentary Tuesday night in New York City, leaving the singers ex-wife Drea Kelly more fired up than deterred. [S]everal anonymous threats were called in, Lifetime said in a statement to The Times. As a precaution, the network elected to evacuate the building. The incident was investigated and concern about a gunman in the house was determined to be unfounded, a New York Police Department spokeswoman told The Times. The R&B singer has been accused of abusive and controlling behavior toward women, especially younger ones, allegations R. Kelly has denied. Those allegations are detailed in the three-part documentary series. Tuesdays screening was attended by alleged victims Jerhonda Pace, Kitti Jones, Assante McGee, Lisa Van Allen and Lizzette Martinez, in addition to Drea Kelly. Also there were #MeToo activist Tarana Burke, radio host Angela Yee and former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson. Burke and Yee were to have been part of a panel with Lifetime executive producer Brie Miranda Bryant. They thought they were putting us out; they just put gasoline on a fire and now were just gonna burn longer and stronger. You actually helped us when it was meant to harm us [because] this did nothing but unite us even more, Drea Kelly told Rolling Stone. The incident lets me know were on the right track. Were causing people to listen. Were getting peoples attention and were getting attention from the one who thought that he was invincible and untouchable, she said. Surviving R. Kelly airs Jan. 3-5 on Lifetime. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Cardi B announces split from Offset a year after they wed By Nardine Saad Offset, left, and Cardi B arrive at the American Music Awards in October. (Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press) A little more than a year after they secretly wed, rappers Cardi B and Offset have split, according to Cardi B, who announced the break-up in an Instagram video on Tuesday night. Things just havent been working out between us for a long time. And its nobodys fault, its just like I guess, we grew out of love, the Okurr-trilling, I Like It rapper said. Were not together anymore. It might take time to get a divorce, but Im always gonna have a lot of love for him because he is my daughters father, she added. Cardi and Offset, a member of the rap trio Migos, secretly wed in Georgia in September 2017 before the arrival of their daughter, Kulture, whos now nearly 5 months old. Cardi, 26, real name Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar, said that they remain good friends and business partners who got a lot of love for each other. Offset, also 26, real name Kiari Kendrall Cephus, very publicly proposed to the Bodak Yellow MC in October and the two often discussed their plans for a blowout celebration. Then news of their actual marriage and marriage certificate leaked in June and the two welcomed their baby girl in July. Reps for Cardi and Offset did not immediately respond to additional requests for comment. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Kevin Hart to host the 2019 Academy Awards Kevin Hart will be hosting the Oscars next year. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) Stepping into what is often considered one of the most difficult and at times thankless gigs in Hollywood, Kevin Hart is set to host the 91st Academy Awards. The stand-up comedian and actor made the announcement himself Tuesday on Instagram, promising, I will be sure to make this years Oscars a special one. For years I have been asked if I would ever Host the Oscars and my answer was always the same, Hart wrote. I said that it would be the opportunity of a lifetime for me as a comedian and that it will happen when its suppose to. In tapping Hart, who has starred in box-office hits like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Central Intelligence and who boasts a massive social media following and large base of young fans, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is hoping to stem a steady decline in ratings for the telecast. In each of the past two years, under host Jimmy Kimmel, the ratings dipped, with Marchs show reaching a record-low audience of 26.5 million viewers. Facing perennial criticism over what many have decried as the sometimes tedious length of the Oscars, the academy has vowed that this coming years show, which is being produced by Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss, will not run over three hours. To trim the proceedings down, some awards will be given out during commercial breaks rather than live on air. In an ultimately fizzled gambit to bring in a wider audience for the all-important telecast, the academy earlier this year announced the creation of a new award recognizing outstanding achievement in popular film. But after weeks of blowback, the academys board of governors reversed itself and decided to shelve the idea, at least for the time being. Hart has previously served as emcee of the MTV Movie Awards along with his Central Intelligence co-star Dwayne Johnson. The Oscars will air on ABC on Sunday, Feb. 24. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 2018 AFI Awards honorees include Black Panther, Atlanta, Roma and The Americans By Sonaiya Kelley Viggo Mortensen, left, and Mahershala Ali star in Green Book, which is among the AFIs top 10 films of the year. (Universal Pictures / Asssociated Press) The American Film Institute announced 10 films and 10 television shows as honorees of the 2018 AFI Awards this morning. BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, Eighth Grade, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Favorite, First Reformed, Green Book, Mary Poppins Returns, A Quiet Place, and A Star Is Born were recognized as culturally and artistically significant films by the institute. Netflixs Roma, a Spanish-language film not eligible for the main list, was also recognized with an AFI Special Award which honors films outside the Institutes criteria for American film. On the television side, FXs The Americans, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Atlanta and Pose, HBOs Barry and Succession, AMCs Better Call Saul, Netflixs The Kominsky Method, Amazon Primes The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and NBCs This Is Us were all recognized. The AFI Awards will be presented at an annual private luncheon on Jan. 4, 2019, in Los Angeles. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Terry Crews, Danai Gurira, Leslie Mann and Christian Slater to announce Golden Globe nominees Terry Crews, left, Danai Gurira, Leslie Mann and Christian Slater will announce the Golden Globe nominees on Thursday morning. (Ricardo DeAratanha, left, Carolyn Cole, Michael Nagle, Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) There are four Hollywood stars who are guaranteed to be awake bright and early for this years Golden Globe Awards announcement, regardless of whether they have a nomination in the offing. Terry Crews, Danai Gurira, Leslie Mann and Christian Slater have been tasked with presenting the Golden Globe nominees at Thursdays annual news conference, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced Tuesday. The HFPA also said a major announcement regarding the Golden Globes schedule would be made prior to this years nominees. Joining Crews, Gurira, Mann and Slater will be newly minted Golden Globe Ambassador Isan Elba (also the daughter of actor Idris Elba), HFPA President Meher Tetna and Golden Globe executive producer Barry Adelman. The Golden Globe nominations announcement will take place on Thursday at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills. Live-stream coverage of the event begins at 5:05 a.m., with the first categories announced at 5:15 a.m. and a second and final group of categories revealed shortly thereafter. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement SNL star Pete Davidson says he wont give in to online bullying; Ariana Grande chimes in By Christie DZurilla Pete Davidson (Angela Weiss / AFP/Getty Images) Pete Davidson says no matter what you do to him, hes not going to kill himself. Wait, what? Yes, exactly what you just read. Online trolls cant bully him to death, he says. And he wonders why theyre getting away with such abusive behavior. Ive been getting online bullied and in public by people for 9 months. Ive spoken about BPD and being suicidal publicly only in the hopes that it will help bring awareness and help kids like myself who dont want to be on this earth, the Saturday Night Live actor said bluntly Monday on Instagram. I just want you guys to know. No matter how hard the internet or anyone tries to make me kill myself. I wont. The Saturday Night Live actor, who has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, was presumably referring to his break from pop star Ariana Grande. The two met in March and became an item toward the end of May, got engaged just weeks into the relationship and then split up in October. She has got around 137 million Instagram followers, some of whom have apparently been talking to or at Davidson online. He has no verified Twitter or Facebook accounts. He said he has kept his mouth shut about the online bullying to this point and hasnt mentioned any names nor does he drop any names in the post. Im trying to understand how when something happens to a guy the whole entire world just trashes him without any facts or frame of reference, Davidson wrote. Especially in todays climate where everyone loves to be offended and upset it truly is mind boggling. Pete Davidson just posted a touching note about mental health to his Instagram pic.twitter.com/nAudS7NdmU Alexis Benveniste (@apbenven) December 3, 2018 Davidsons missive comes on the heels of the new video for Grandes hit song thank u, next, whose title echoes a Twitter comment involving the actor. The singer put Davidsons statement and a comment of her own on her Instagram story around midnight, urging her many fans to change their behavior. [I] really dont endorse anything but forgiveness and positivity. i care deeply about pete and his health. im asking you to please be gentler with others, even on the internet, Grande said, in part. Later in the statement, she got a bit more specific. [P]lease let whatever point youre trying to make go. I will always have irrevocable love for him and if youve gotten any other impression from my recent work, you might have missed the point, she said. Heres Grandes statement in full: i know u already know this but i feel i need to remind my fans to please be gentler with others. i really dont endorse anything but forgiveness and positivity. i care deeply about pete and his health. im asking you to please be gentler with others, even on the internet. ive learned thru my own mistakes not to be reactive on socials so i do understand. but you truly dont know what anybody is experiencing ever. regardless of what they choose to display on social media or how they may appear in public. i can promise u that. so please let whatever point youre trying to make go. I will always have irrevocable love for him and if youve gotten any other impression from my recent work, you might have missed the point. Borderline personality disorder is marked by an ongoing pattern of varying moods, self-image and behavior, according to the National Institute of Mental Health website. Symptoms can often result in impulsive actions and relationship problems, with people experiencing intense episodes of anger, depression and anxiety that last for hours or days. People with BPD tend to experience things as all good or all bad, and according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the risk of self-harming behavior or suicide is an extreme risk. UPDATE Dec. 4, 10:18 a.m.: This post was updated with the statement from Grande. This post was originally published on Dec. 3 at 12:37 p.m. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Kanye West apologizes after being called out for his behavior at The Cher Show By Christie DZurilla Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West at the opening night of The Cher Show on Monday. (Evan Agostini / Associated Press) Kanye West really, really liked The Cher Shows opening night on Broadway. But at least one performer couldnt tell, cause Ye apparently was messing with his phone the whole time. Hey @kanyewest so cool that youre here at @TheCherShow!, cast member Jarrod Spector tweeted at the rapper shortly after things got rolling on Monday night. If you look up from your cell phone youll see were doing a show up here. Its opening night. Kind of a big deal for us. Thanks so much. West might as well have taken a flash photograph he was so busted. Hey @kanyewest so cool that youre here at @TheCherShow! If you look up from your cell phone youll see were doing a show up here. Its opening night. Kind of a big deal for us. Thanks so much. Jarrod Spector (@jarrodspector) December 4, 2018 West must actually read his mentions at least the ones that blow up because he replied with an apology a few hours later. And he apparently really did dig the show. The dynamics of Cher and Sonnys relationship made Kim and I grab each others hand and sing I got you babe, he wrote. Please pardon my lack of etiquette. We have so much appreciation for the energy you guys put into making this master piece. the dynamics of Cher and Sonnys relationship made Kim and I grab each others hand and sing I got you babe please pardon my lack of etiquette. We have so much appreciation for the energy you guys put into making this master piece. ye (@kanyewest) December 4, 2018 But West might not have behaved as awful as all that. A Kanye source told TMZ that the rapper loved the show so much he was actually taking notes on his phone. Still rude, but at least he didnt tweet that apology halfway through the show. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Red Bull Music Festival sets 2019 lineup, including Red Dead Redemption 2' live gig Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd in October. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times ) Liquid adrenaline manufacturer Red Bull has announced the lineup for the 2019 Red Bull Music Festival Los Angeles, which will focus nearly as much on sight as on sound. Most notably, the multi-event program will feature the first live performance of music from the blockbuster action-adventure game Red Dead Redemption 2. It will be the centerpiece of a festival that aims to explore how music intersects with gaming, film and photography. Attendees will experience live Red Dead Redemption 2 performances by composer Woody Jackson, Indonesian duo Senyawa and others featured in the game in whats billed as a reimagining of the score as a unique auditory installation. The festival, happening at various locations across multiple February dates, will also present the first U.S. stops on Swedish pop powerhouse Robyns upcoming North American tour. Hitting the States to promote her new album, Honey, Robyn will perform her first Los Angeles shows in eight years on Feb. 22 and 23 at the Hollywood Palladium. The festivals Feb. 7 opening event will aim a much-deserved spotlight on the performer San Cha. Shell be introducing a new original piece, according the notes, based around the telenovela programs of her childhood, and will feature artists from a range of L.A.s creative disciplines. On Valentines Day, the Tupelo, Miss., rap team Rae Sremmurd will host an event described in release notes as an eclectic show inspired by the golden age of Hollywood. Along with surprise guests, hosts Slim Jxmmi and Swae Lee will marry their hits with covers of iconic love songs of past and present, putting a contemporary slant on classic silver screen romance. The party will take place at the Reserve, which is in a historic bank vault in downtown Los Angeles. On Feb. 16, the skate, film and art collective Illegal Civilization will take over the Pink Motel in Sun Valley most visible these days as a setting in the Netflix show GLOW for a daylong installment called Illegal Civ Movie Motel. The group is headed by Mikey Alfred, best known for his work with Jonah Hill on Mid90s, and Alfred and his peers will entangle skating, film screenings and a swap meet with music performances by affiliates including Show Me the Body, Tierra Whack and Tommy Genesis. Throughout February the festival will take over the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Koreatown to present Center Channel, a film series with a mission to explore the most compelling intersections of sound and film. In conjunction with Los Angeles curators and tastemakers, programmers have scheduled not-yet-announced premieres, screenings, panels and live performances. Tickets for all events go on sale Wednesday at noon. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement New Captain Marvel trailer teases Carol Danvers backstory and cosmic fights By Tracy Brown The new trailer for Captain Marvel features a little something for everyone: additional details about the story, fight scenes in outer space and a cute cat. The second trailer for the Marvel Studios film debuted Monday night, and it sends a clear message that Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, is the hero everyone has been waiting for. At least according to Disney. While the first trailer hinted that Carol (played by Brie Larson) is trying to piece together what seems to be her forgotten past on Earth, this new promo provides more information about who she has become. Carol explains to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) that she is Kree, an alien race of noble warrior heroes. But then the trailer immediately reveals that wasnt always the case. It turns out that after somehow stumbling upon an injured and memory-less Carol, the Kree turned her into one of them. This gave her enhanced strength, a prolonged lifespan and various other superpowers. And these powers appear to be no joke. The trailer shows Captain Marvel handle everything from hand-to-hand combat against what appears to be an elderly woman (but is likely an enemy in disguise) to flying around in space while taking out spaceships with energy blasts she shoots from her hands. Looks like there is definitely hope for the remaining Avengers to save the universe following the events of Avengers: Infinity War after all. Captain Marvel is scheduled to hit theaters March 8, 2019. Check out the new poster and tune-in to @ESPNs Monday Night Football to see the brand new trailer for Marvel Studios #CaptainMarvel. pic.twitter.com/43EPkcTBET Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) December 3, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Queen announces Rhapsody Tour with Adam Lambert By Christie DZurilla Brian May, left, and Adam Lambert perform at the Forum in 2014. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) Bolstered by the success of the new biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen is going back on tour in North America next summer. And Adam Lambert will take the mic once again in place of the late Freddie Mercury, the band announced Monday. The Rhapsody Tour will take place from mid-July to late August 2019 and feature (in the bands words) 23 giant shows. Theyll play the Forum in Inglewood on July 19. Tickets go on sale Friday, with pre-sale codes sent to fan club members and QueenOnline.com subscribers on Tuesday. The soaring success of Bohemian Rhapsody the Freddie Mercury/Queen movie that is set to become the biggest-grossing music biopic of all time has proven that the publics love for Queen remains as strong as ever, the band said in a release. We are ready for America and raring to get back in the saddle, drummer Roger Taylor said in the statement, with lead guitarist Brian May adding: This is a great opportunity. Our last tour featured our most ambitious production ever and got us our best notices ever. So we decided to rip it apart and get even more ambitious! Lambert has been touring with the band since 2012 after sharing the stage with them during the 2009 American Idol finale. Completing the tour lineup are longtime collaborator Spike Edney on keyboards, Neil Fairclough on bass and Tyler Warren on percussion. See the full list of dates here. Were excited to announce Queen + @adamlambert will be debuting the brand new Rhapsody touring show across 23 North America dates July-August 2019. Read all the details here:https://t.co/rBI0jbxQRb Photographer: Bojan Hohnjec Miracle Productions LLP pic.twitter.com/s0LTa128Ey Queen (@QueenWillRock) December 3, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Halsey calls out Victorias Secret Fashion Show over trans exclusion By Christie DZurilla Halsey, left, performed at the 2018 Victorias Secret Fashion Show, recorded last month. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images) Halsey, who performed at the 2018 Victorias Secret Fashion Show that aired Sunday night on ABC, posted a lengthy note on social media at the same time regarding the shows perceived lack of trans inclusivity. I have adored the Victorias Secret Fashion Show since I was young. Performing this year alongside other amazing artists, and hardworking models/friends was supposed to be the best night of my year. However, after I filmed the performance some comments were made regarding the show that I simply cannot ignore, she wrote. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I have no tolerance for a lack of inclusivity. Especially not one motivated by stereotype, continued the 24-year-old singer, who is out as bisexual. She then directed followers to the GLSEN website and said she had made a big donation to the organization, which champions LGBTQ issues in K-12 education. The show featured 49 female models of various races and skin colors from at least 14 countries and six continents. However, a comment from a Victorias Secret executive in a Nov. 8 Vogue article which ran the same day the show was taped upset some transgender people and their allies, and appears to have sparked Halseys post. There was also discussion in the article about the absence of plus-size models on the VS catwalk. Its like, why doesnt your show do this? Shouldnt you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I dont think we should, Ed Razek, chief marketing officer for Victorias Secret owner, L Brands, told the magazine. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy. Its a 42-minute entertainment special. Thats what it is. It is the only one of its kind in the world, and any other fashion brand in the world would take it in a minute, including the competitors that are carping at us. And they carp at us because were the leader. @GLSEN - https://t.co/XdQMPro0KC pic.twitter.com/agOzSYREkX h (@halsey) December 3, 2018 Victorias Secret did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The quote was in the context of a larger discussion about criticism of the show on social media, which had ramped up ahead of the show. Halsey, for one, wasnt having it. If you are a trans person reading this, and these comments have made you feel alienated or invalidated please know that you have allies. We stand in solidarity, and complete and total acceptance is the only fantasy that I support, she said in her Sunday post. Also performing at the fashion show were Shawn Mendes, Rita Ora, the Chainsmokers, Bebe Rexha, Leela James, Kelsea Ballerini, and the Struts, most of whom posted generic social-media reminders to watch the show. None of them talked about trans exclusion. Rexha, however, had a bit more to say, and added a video of her performance Monday on Twitter so followers could see it in some cases, again. It has always been a big dream of mine to perform at @victoriassecret Fashion Show and its finally happening tomorrow!! So dont you miss it!!!, she posted Saturday on Instagram. Watch me strutting my curvy ass body unapologetically down that runway. I cant believe this happened. Dream come true. https://t.co/lHJMfI7OhM Bebe Rexha (@BebeRexha) December 3, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Kennedy Center Honors celebrate Cher, Wayne Shorter, Reba McEntire and Philip Glass plus the creators of Hamilton By Christie DZurilla Wayne Shorter, front left, Cher, Reba McEntire, Philip Glass; back, Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Andy Blankenbuehler, Alex Lacamoire. (Greg Allen / Associated Press) The Kennedy Center Honors, which once again were not attended by President Trump, included tributes Sunday night to the late former President George H.W. Bush, who died Friday at age 94. I think its appropriate to recognize the passing of a wonderful man who dedicated his life to service and who graciously attended this event many times during his administration, laughing, applauding, singing along and even shedding a tear from right up there in the presidential box, host Gloria Estefan said to kick off the evening at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington. She recalled being invited to the White House and how Bush literally spent 45 minutes patiently talking to my 8-year-old son about how government worked. Estefan was recognized last year; this year, the lifetime artistic-achievement honors went to jazz great Wayne Shorter, pop diva Cher, country star Reba McEntire and composer Philip Glass, with a unique award of distinction going to the team behind Hamilton: Andrew Blankenbuehler, Thomas Kail, Alex Lacamoire and star Lin-Manuel Miranda. Their names, like the other nominees, were first announced this summer. In recognizing Hamilton and its co-creators, Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter said in a statement at the time, the Kennedy Center is making an unprecedented statement about an unprecedented work a work that transcends cultural boundaries and tells Americas story in a powerful and contemporary way. On Sunday, comic Whoopi Goldberg introduced Cher and friend Cyndi Lauper sang If I Could Turn Back Time. Kelly Clarkson paid tribute to McEntire with a version of Fancy, the Bobbie Gentry song McEntire turned into a hit in 1990. Jason Moran, the Kennedy Centers artistic director for jazz, said Shorters sound over a six-decade career holds a special place in the galaxy, adding that he could safely say that somewhere in the galaxy right now, a band is playing one of his pieces. And previous award winner Paul Simon did the honors for Glass, whom he praised for never settling into one particular style, always developing and exploring. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, who also missed last years event after several honorees threatened a boycott, returned in the wee hours Sunday from the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. Though Bush attended most years and continued to do so after his presidency, he like other heads of state, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton missed a year due to major events. Trump is the first president to decline an invitation twice. You can watch the Kennedy Center Honors when they are broadcast on CBS on Dec. 26. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Grammy Awards nominations delayed over Bushs memorial services By Christie DZurilla (Julio Cortez / Associated Press) The Recording Academy said Monday morning it would delay its announcement of the 61st Grammy Award nominees to avoid competing with memorial services and public viewings for former President George H. W. Bush, who died Friday. The organization had planned to announce nominees early Wednesday morning but will now share nominees in select categories on Friday at 5:30 a.m. PST via CBS This Morning and Apple Music. A full nominations list across 84 categories will follow at 5:45 a.m. PST on Friday at Grammy.com the academys website as well as all of its social-media platforms. Nominations cover recordings released between Oct. 1, 2017, and Sept. 30, 2018. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print A Star Is Born: Lucy Liu turns 50 today By Los Angeles Times Staff (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) For me, I want to be the best person for the job not the best color for the job. That to me would be the most ideal thing. Lucy Liu, 2006 FROM THE ARCHIVES: Versatility in action Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Alec Baldwin, Ben Stiller open a Saturday Night Live that features a Kendrick cameo and a Robert Mueller holiday jingle Alec Baldwin and Ben Stiller open the Dec. 1 episode of Saturday Night Live. (NBC) After a few weeks off for some legal trouble involving a parking dispute, Alec Baldwin was back in the pursed-lip saddle as President Donald Trump this week on Saturday Night Live. Playing off the G20 summit in Argentina and recent revelations surrounding the Russia investigation, SNL found Baldwins Trump isolated and calling his Mikey Coco Puffs in attorney Michael Cohen, who was again played by Ben Stiller. Nostalgic for the late-night talks with Cohen and vacations to Moscow, the sketch found Trump sad to see his lawyer going to prison, and told him he was like a son to me. Then whyd you make me do such much illegal stuff? Stillers Cohen asked. Thats cause you were like a son to me, Baldwins Trump countered. The sketch went on to nod toward Baldwins troubles as Trump hung up and Baldwin said he hadnt been so mad since he flipped out over that parking space. Fred Armisen also appeared in the sketch as Saudi Arabias Mohammed bin Salman, Cecily Strong as Melania Trump and Kate McKinnon as a wild-eyed Rudy Giuliani. The Russia investigation received another callback at the end of the episode with McKinnon and Strong joined by Aidy Bryant, Leslie Jones, Melissa Villasenor, Heidi Gardner, and newest cast member Ego Nwodim for a performance of All I Want for Christmas Is You dedicated to Robert Mueller in the hopes of an indictment for the president. All they want for Christmas is you, Mueller #SNL pic.twitter.com/bYtpwM0moN Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) December 2, 2018 Still, thats unlikely to be the nights most talked about musical moment. Those honors likely go to Oxnard native Anderson .Paak, whose third album (which is named after his hometown) was released in November. .Paak performed Who R U along with his single Tints, which featured an assist from Kendrick Lamar, who performed a few verses next to .Paaks drum riser. It wasnt a recast of a Christmas song, but it made a strong impression nonetheless. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson make beautiful music together on Nothing Breaks Like a Heart Miley Cyrus brings the bling in the video for Nothing Breaks Like a Heart, a new collaboration with Mark Ronson. (Vevo) Its been a minute since Miley Cyrus released new music, but much like Los Angeles, the drought is over. Cyrus, in collaboration with British DJ and producer Mark Ronson, released Nothing Breaks Like a Heart on Thursday, the first single from Ronsons upcoming album, his first solo effort since 2015. Its the first new music from Cyrus in more than a year. Cyrus brings her huskiest growl to the tale of love gone wrong, singing, This world can hurt you, it cuts you deep and leaves a scar / Things fall apart, but nothing breaks like a heart. The accompanying video features Cyrus in a low-speed chase with a bevy of cop cars, smashing through walls as if she were a wrecking ball or the Kool-Aid Man. In the world outside, cultural references play out in disconnected fashion, as football players kneel and children visit a gun range, all while Cyrus looks on. Also, she goes to a strip club, so watch the video at your own risk. However, the video does end with a stunning sequence of a car wreck that features Cyrus still inside the vehicle singing, as gold and glass float through the air around her, in what appears to be an obvious homage to Julie Taymors gold dust bus crash in 2002s Frida. The video is worth watching for those stylish seconds alone. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Hugh Jackman is hitting the road and the Hollywood Bowl with 2019 world tour Hugh Jackman starred in The Greatest Showman last year and is now taking to the stage to see if he can match the hype. The Logan actor appeared on Today on Thursday to announce his 2019 world tour, The Man. The Music. The Show. The tour will feature Jackman performing hits from The Greatest Showman, Les Miserables and other stage and screen roles. Im on the back nine of my life right now, Jackman said on Today, explaining the impetus for the show, and this is about the best parts of the front nine. The tour launches with a 12-date European leg in May, beginning in Hamburg, Germany, and concluding with two shows in London. The U.S. tour begins June 18 in Houston and wraps up with two shows at the Hollywood Bowl on July 19 and 20. Fans of comic-book culture will notice that those Los Angeles dates coincide with San Diego Comic-Con, leaving Jackman either plenty of time for a jaunt south for a guest appearance at SDCC or a built-in excuse for the Wolverine actor to skip out altogether. Tickets for a handful of Jackmans tour dates go on sale Dec. 7 at 9 a.m. PST on HughJackmanTheShow.com. Tickets for the Hollywood Bowl appearances do not yet have an announced sale date. pic.twitter.com/iO5NLSDE8G Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) November 29, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Quentin Tarantino marries singer-model Daniella Pick in L.A. By Christie DZurilla Quentin Tarantino and Daniella Pick in 2016. (Jean-Philippe Ksiazek / AFP/Getty Images) Once upon a time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino married Daniella Pick, the Israeli singer-model hes been engaged to since last year. The two tied the knot in Los Angeles in an intimate ceremony, People reported exclusively Wednesday, ahead of a larger gathering that was planned for that night. Tarantino, 55, and Pick, 35, met in 2009 when he visited Israel to promote Inglourious Basterds, but they had been dating steadily only for about a year when he popped the question in summer 2017. Theyd been on and off before that. Its a first marriage for the director, who explained his take on marriage to GQ in 2009. When Im doing a movie, Im not doing anything else. Its all about the movie, he said. I dont have a wife. I dont have a kid. Nothing can get in my way. Im not saying that Ill never get married or have a kid before Im 60. But Ive made a choice, so far, to go on this road alone. Because this is my time. This is my time to make movies. Tarantino said at a conference in 2016 that he was going to retire after he had directed 10 movies. His Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is in post-production now, while an untitled Star Trek project looms. That latter one would be his 10th full-length effort. Just Married! Congrats Quentin Tarantino & Daniela Pick! Curtis Dahl / @people pic.twitter.com/uFBk94kvyS Quentin Tarantino Fan Club (@TarantinoFC) November 29, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement SpongeBob fan lobbies for Empire State Building to glow yellow to honor Stephen Hillenburg By Christie DZurilla A SpongeBob SquarePants balloon floats over Central Park West last week during the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Associated Press) A fan of the Nickelodeon show SpongeBob SquarePants has started an online petition asking that the Empire State Building be lit up in yellow to remember series creator Stephen Hillenburg, who died Monday of ALS at age 57. As Nickelodeon Studios is based in New York, I felt it fitting to ask the Big Apple to show its love for Stephen by embracing SpongeBobs classic yellow glow, fan Alison P. said in her petition on the Care2 website. She said she started the petition as a way to honor Hillenburg and also to drive awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative neurological condition also known as Lou Gehrigs disease. The petition had closed in on its 3,000-signature goal by early Wednesday afternoon. Stephen Hillenburg at the world premiere of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in 2015. (Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images) SpongeBob SquarePants has taught his audience not only about friendship but helped to drive awareness around the importance of ocean conservation, Alison P. said. It was Stephens genius that was able to invent a character who could connect with kids and adults to deliver such an important message in a fun and charming way. Though Hillenburg left the series in 2002 after about 60 episodes, it has continued on through 12 seasons so far and amassed a loyal fan base that includes both young and old. There have been two SpongeBob movies, with one more on tap for 2020. Hillenburg went public with his ALS diagnosis in March 2017. READ MORE: Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, dies at 57 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bobby Brown sues Whitney: Can I Be Me distributors, including Showtime and the BBC By Christie DZurilla Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown in 1997. (Rene Macura / Associated Press) Bobby Brown and the estate of Bobbi Kristina Brown are suing Showtime and other distributors of the unauthorized 2017 biopic Whitney: Can I Be Me, alleging the defendants used more than half an hour of old footage of both Browns, plus his other children, without permission. The suit, which seeks at least $2 million in damages, was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, where defendants Showtime, the BBC and Passion Pictures all have offices. The named defendants which also include Tracey Baker-Simmons, Wanda Shelley, B2 Entertainment and Simmons Shelley Entertainment, based in Atlanta are accused of distributing footage including some shot for the 2005 reality show Being Bobby Brown, thereby violating the Browns privacy rights in pursuit of financial gain. Though Brown was contacted by the filmmakers, the suit says, to be interviewed for Can I Be Me, he declined. A mention in the films credits suggests Browns production company OKd the use of the Being Bobby Brown footage, including footage of Bobbi Kristina Brown, but the complaint says no such permission was given. The footage was actually recorded prior to the divorce in 2007 between Brown and Houston. Brown never signed or executed a release for the material that appears in the film, the lawsuit says. The footage of Brown is approximately fifteen (15) years old. The Los Angeles Times review of Can I Be Me noted that some voices were absent from the film, which was co-directed by Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal. (Neither director is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.) Broomfield, for his part, was hampered by the fact that he was not able to interview key people in Houstons life, including ex-husband Bobby Brown, her closest friend Robyn Crawford, and Clive Davis, the Svengali who began her career, Times critic Kenneth Turan wrote. Showtime and the BBC declined to comment on Wednesday. And an email sent to Tracey Baker-Simmons was not immediately returned. Bobbi Kristina Brown died in July 2015 from undetermined causes. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Sundance 2019: Get an inside look at the feature film lineup and the festivals early trends By Los Angeles Times Staff People walk past the Egyptian Theatre, a landmark venue showing films during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Mindy Kaling. Alec Baldwin. Naomi Watts. Pete Davidson. Awkwafina. Emma Thompson. Shia LaBeouf . Those are just a few of the many names headed to Park City, Utah, in January for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. On Wednesday, the Sundance Institute unveiled the full lineup of feature films from all over the world set to premiere at the annual festival. To mark the official lineup reveal, festival director John Cooper and programming director Kim Yutani visited the Times video studio for a livestream discussion. Joined by Times film reporter and The Reel host Mark Olsen, the two offered their instant analysis on the lineup and what trends to watch for come January. Read our full report on the titles selected, and press play on the video below to watch a replay of the livestream. The 2019 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 24 to Feb. 3. For full coverage, make sure to bookmark latimes.com/entertainment and follow @latimesent on Twitter, @latimesent on Facebook and @latimes_entertainment on Instagram. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Mac Miller singles released posthumously on Spotify By Christie DZurilla Rapper Mac Miller died Sept. 7 of an accidental overdose. (Owen Sweeney / Associated Press) Spotify has released a couple of new tunes from the late rapper Mac Miller. A recording of his song Dunno and a cover of Billy Prestons 1974 hit Nothing From Nothing are part of a Spotify Singles playlist that came out Tuesday on the streaming platform. They were recorded live in New York City before Millers death on Sept. 7. Miller appears to get emotional about an ex-girlfriend perhaps Ariana Grande? in the wistful Dunno, from his 2018 album Swimming. And he puts a smoky, introspective spin on Nothing From Nothing. Listen to songs below. Miller, who was 26, died from an accidental overdose of alcohol, cocaine and fentanyl, the Los Angeles County coroners office concluded. The unexpected nature of his death left many strings untied, including a Halloween concert date at the Greek Theatre that became the peer-loaded tribute concert Mac Miller: A Celebration of Life. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Margaret Atwood announces Handmaids Tale sequel to be released in 2019 Margaret Atwood announced Wednesday that a sequel to her iconic 1985 novel, The Handmaids Tale, is coming next year. (Patrick T. Fallon / Los Angeles Times) In the surest sign yet that we are living in the age of reboots, revivals and sequels, Margaret Atwood announced Wednesday that a sequel to The Handmaids Tale, her prescient 1985 novel, is in the works. Titled The Testaments, the new novel is set 15 years after the protagonists final scene in The Handmaids Tale, and is narrated by three female characters. Atwood revealed the news in a tweet Wednesday morning and said the book is set to be published next year. The Handmaids Tale and its dystopian tale of life in Gilead, a patriarchal society overseen by fundamentalist zealots with a singular obsession with womens reproductive rights has seen renewed cultural significance in recent days. The books continued relevance is thanks in part to the high-profile Hulu adaptation, along with plenty of other contributing factors. Dear Readers: Everything youve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! Atwood wrote in her tweet. The other inspiration is the world weve been living in. Yes indeed to those who asked: Im writing a sequel to The #HandmaidsTale. #TheTestaments is set 15 years after Offreds final scene and is narrated by three female characters. It will be published in Sept 2019. More details: https://t.co/e1umh5FwpX pic.twitter.com/pePp0zpuif Margaret E. Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) November 28, 2018 I have published Margaret Atwoods work since 1976 her poetry, fiction and nonfiction, publisher Nan A. Talese said in a statement Wednesday. A manuscript from her is always a reason for joy. She writes wonderfully and has a mind like a steel trap. This new book is no exception. Beyond the timeline and the narrators, little else has been revealed about the sequel. The book is not, however, in any way connected to Hulus current adaptation. The Testaments is scheduled for release on Sept. 10, 2019, by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday with a first printing of 500,000 copies. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print A Star Is Born: Alfonso Cuaron turns 57 today By Los Angeles Times Staff (Anacleto Rapping / Los Angeles Times) I think it is vital for filmmakers to have their feet firmly planted in their countrys cultures. ... But the theme must be universal. Alfonso Cuaron, 2002 FROM THE ARCHIVES: A New Mexican Revolution Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Amanda Bynes makes triumphant return on cover of Paper magazine Actress Amanda Bynes, pictured in 2013, battled several problems that played out in public for a few years. (Neilson Barnard / Getty Images) Former child star turned cautionary tale Amanda Bynes has resurfaced on the cover of Paper magazine looking happy, healthy and ready for a comeback. Bynes broke through on Nickelodeons sketch comedy show All That before scoring a series of her own at age 13 with The Amanda Show. Her star continued to rise through the early 2000s with movie roles aplenty, including What a Girl Wants, Shes the Man and Hairspray. But eventually, Bynes said in a new sit-down interview with Paper, self-image issues fueled her burgeoning drug habit and led to her abandoning acting altogether. The actress recounted a moment on the set of Hall Pass, when, after seeing herself on a monitor, literally tripping out and thinking my arm looked so fat because it was in the foreground or whatever and I remember rushing off set and thinking, Oh, my god, I look so bad. According to Bynes, it was a combination of image issues and Adderall abuse that resulted in her eventually leaving Hall Pass. Shortly thereafter, she found herself in a similar situation while watching her performance in Easy A. Amanda Bynes on the cover of Paper magazines Break the Internet issue. (Danielle Levitt / Paper) I literally couldnt stand my appearance in that movie, and I didnt like my performance, she said. I was absolutely convinced I needed to stop acting after seeing it. Bynes is clear that any bad behavior in previous years was spurred by drug use and not by psychological issues, saying that once she quit acting, her days were filled with little beyond getting high and self-destructing online. Im really ashamed and embarrassed with the things I said. I cant turn back time, but if I could, I would, Bynes said. And Im so sorry to whoever I hurt and whoever I lied about because it truly eats away at me. It makes me feel so horrible and sick to my stomach and sad. Everything I worked my whole life to achieve, I kind of ruined it all through Twitter, she said. In the interview, Bynes also discusses her four years of sobriety and educational pursuit at Los Angeles Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, as well as her potential return to acting. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Aubrey Plaza to host 2019 Spirit Awards By Sonaiya Kelley Aubrey Plaza, a Spirit Award winner herself, will host the 2019 Spirit Awards ceremony. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) Film Independent announced on Tuesday that Aubrey Plaza will host the 2019 Spirit Awards. The search for a great Spirit Awards host is never easy, Film Independents president, Josh Welsh, said in a release. This year we said, Lets find someone funny, smart, a cinephile being a great actor wouldnt hurt and it would be an added bonus if theyve previously won a Spirit Award. Then we realized, Oh wait, thats Aubrey Plaza! I am truly honored and delighted to host the Spirit Awards this year, said Plaza in the release. It is a dream come true to host a show that celebrates my greatest loves: independent film, the people that make them possible and live television. Plaza starred opposite Elizabeth Olsen in last years Ingrid Goes West, which she also produced. As a producer, she received a Spirit Award for best first feature for that film. She currently stars in FXs Legion series, which is based on a Marvel comic of the same name. Season 3 of the show will premiere in 2019. She is also well known for her role on the Emmy-nominated series Parks and Recreation and will next appear in Lars Klevbergs Childs Play remake with Brian Tyree Henry, scheduled for release on June 21, 2019. The Spirit Awards are the primary fundraiser for Film Independents year-round programs. Nominees were announced on Nov. 16. Among this years best feature nominees are Eighth Grade, First Reformed, If Beale Street Could Talk, Leave No Trace and You Were Never Really Here. The 34th Independent Spirit Awards will broadcast live on IFC on Feb. 23, 2019. The ceremony will be held on the beach in Santa Monica. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bruce Springsteen teases Netflixs Springsteen on Broadway with a new trailer By Christie DZurilla One step up and two steps back? More like one door closing and another one opening. So it is with Bruce Springsteen, whos bringing Springsteen on Broadway to small screens the day after his autobiographical show closes following more than a year at New York Citys Walter Kerr Theatre. This is what Ive presented to you all these years as my long and noisy prayer, as my magic trick, Springsteen says to kick off the trailer released by Netflix on Tuesday, not quite three weeks ahead of the specials debut on the streaming service. Think of it as a two-hour reward for resisting the urge to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a ticket to the gig, which opened in October 2017. Heavy on serious theatricality, the trailer offers a low-key taste of the nearly solo show staged in a theater that seats fewer than a thousand which on most nights has included Springsteens wife, Patti Scialfa, on a couple of songs. Its a hybrid, but clearly not a Bruce concert. Far from it. Unlike his raucous arena shows, there are no massive singalongs by the crowd. It doesnt stretch to 3 or four hours, though its apparently grown longer with time. Its a coming-of-age story, and I want to show how this ones coming of age has to be earned, Springsteen told E The course is designed for French teachers at schools and cultural centres from 12 countries in Asia-Pacific including Vietnam, Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia. Running until March 16, the course will provide necessary professional knowledge and skills for the trainees. French Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City Vincent Floreani said this is the first time the course has been held in Vietnam as part of the activities celebrating the 45th founding anniversary of Vietnam-France diplomatic ties in 2018. The programme will make active contributions to improving the quality of French language teaching in the Asian-Pacific nations, he added. Over the past time, Vietnam has proved as an active member in implementing cooperation programmes and strategies of the Francophone community to promote multilingualism, protection and preservation of cultural identity in the context of globalisation. Recently, Vietnam was elected as Chair of the Group of Francophone Ambassadors (GAF) in Switzerland in 2018 during the 8th meeting of the group in Bern. The GAF groups more than 60 ambassadors from embassies of countries in Bern and permanent missions to the United Nations in Geneva who are members or observers of the International Organisation of Francophone (OIF). Craig Mack, the Long Island rapper who found fame on Diddys Bad Boy label, has died at 46, his producer confirmed to the New York Daily News. Mack, who was launched to hip-hop acclaim with the best-selling summer hit Flava in Ya Ear in 1994, died of heart failure at a hospital near his Walterboro, S.C., home Monday. God bless my friend. He was a good friend of mine, said Alvin Toney, who produced Macks albums Project: Funk Da World and Get Down Remix. Toney visited Mack last week at the Overcomer Ministry church in Walterboro to film a documentary about the retired rhymer and his decision to pass on fame for a life of deep religious conviction. Advertisement Nobody got to understand his story, Toney said. I wanted the world to know the talent he had. It was something I wanted people to enjoy, but it was cut short because he was very religious and wanted to go to church. Tony said Mack then told him that he had been ill for some time. He was prepared for whatever comes, to go home to the Lord, Toney said. He was prepared to do that. He wasnt scared. He was ready. Mack is survived by a wife and two adult children, Toney said. Macks death rocked the biggest names of New York hip-hop. Brooklyns DJ Scratch remembered Mack as the hardworking roadie who helped set up and break down his turntables on tours. I cannot believe this dude is gone, said DJ Scratch, the stage name for George Spivey. He just reached out a couple of weeks ago for me to speak on his documentary about his life. Rest In Peace Lil Bro, he wrote in an Instagram post. Like Mack, Just A Friend rapper Biz Markie got his start on Long Island. Advertisement R.I.P TO MY MAIN MAN CRAIG MACK ANOTHER GREAT ONE GONE, he wrote. Nicole Hensley writes for the New York Daily News. From the reopening of a Beverly Hills staple to a new bar in Los Feliz, heres whats happening in the Los Angeles food and drink world. Reboot: After closing last June for a $10 million redesign, Euro-Vietnamese restaurant Crustacean is back open in Beverly Hills. The restaurant, which originally opened in 1997, is known for chef-owner Helene Ans signature garlic noodles. The new Crustacean is actually two restaurants: The first, downstairs, has a new look and a new menu, which includes some of the dishes An is known for (those garlic noodles, the garlic roasted crab), along with a new prix-fixe tasting menu. The updated patio includes both indoor and outdoor seating along Santa Monica Boulevard and Bedford Drive. And the old dining room was turned into a bar. Upstairs is an invite-only, high-end restaurant called Da Lat Rose, featuring a menu by chef Tony Nguyen, who is also responsible for helming the kitchen downstairs. Da Lat Rose, named after the city in Southern Vietnam where An grew up, is scheduled to open in May. The An family, which includes Helene and her five daughters, also owns AnQi in Orange County, the original Crustacean in San Francisco, Tiato in Santa Monica and Than Long in San Francisco. 468 N. Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 205-8990, www.houseofan.com/crustaceanbh. For the record: An earlier version of this post said the upstairs Crustacean restaurant is Dat La Rose. The name is Da Lat Rose. Cold coffee: If the name Adam Fleischman doesnt ring a bell, his many restaurants might. Hes the restaurateur behind Umami Burger and PBJ.LA at Grand Central Market, and co-founder of the 800 Degrees Pizzeria restaurants. And now hes turned his attention to coffee. Fleischman will open Cold Cocked Coffee Co., a new coffee shop at the Platform 35 food hall in Koreatown on April 1. The shop will serve coffee and tea, with drinks such as Danish licorice-infused cru and matcha and soda. The shop will also serve pastries and gelato affogatos. 3500 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, www.coldcockedcoffee.com. A double cheeseburger from the pop-up Burgers Never Say Die. The team behind the pop-up is opening a permanent space in Silver Lake. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times ) Advertisement Secret burgers: Last year, a group of friends led by food enthusiast and home cook Shawn Nee (he works in television), started a burger pop-up on the side of a house in East Hollywood. They called it Burgers Never Say Die, a reference to the 80s movie The Goonies. The concept is simple: double smash cheeseburgers on a squishy bun with pickles, onion, ketchup and mustard. Just think of it as the best-ever version of a McDonalds double cheeseburger. It became an instant hit on Instagram, and followers (the ones lucky enough to get the home address) waited in line for hours for a burger on Sunday mornings. They sat at folding tables outfitted with rolls of paper towels and games of Connect 4. There were no fries, just Lays potato chips and bottles of Coke and Fanta. After the landlord shut the operation down a couple of weeks ago, Nee and his friends secured a location in Silver Lake, according to Eater.com. And its expected to open some time this summer. 2388 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles. House guest: Rose and Aram Serobian, the owners of the Home Restaurants in Los Feliz and Silver Lake, have opened the Guest House, a new bar and restaurant in Los Feliz. The restaurant is in a converted Craftsman-style house with a porch, a backyard and a working fireplace. Chef Ara Babakhanian is serving a menu of small plates featuring Southern-style sliders; Moroccan meatballs; Chilean blue mussels and shrimp saganaki. The cocktail program, which features locally-sourced ingredients, was created by mixologist Edwin Del Rosal. Highlights include the Navy Grog (rum from San Diego, ginger syrup made in L.A. and local Clementines); and the WD Swizzle (made with raisin-infused mezcal, agave nectar, lime, carrot and pineapple juice). The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 1750 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 660-9930, www.theguesthousela.com. Chef shuffle: Culina at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills has a new chef and a new menu. Luca Moriconi, who is from Lucca, Italy, has introduced a new menu of Florentine dishes. Some of the highlights include handmade pastas: risotto, pappardelle and gnocchi; braised veal shank with saffron polenta; and pan-seared ocean trout with lentils. Moriconi is also serving a Pronto Market lunch buffet available during the week that includes charcuterie, cheese, salad, dessert, fruit and your choice of protein for $35 per person. 300 S. Doheny Drive, Los Angeles, (310) 860-4000, www.culinarestaurant.com. The Pikey on Sunset Boulevard also has a new chef, and menu. Executive chef Jaison Burke (formerly of the restaurant at the Pearl Hotel in San Diego and the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa) has introduced a spring menu of deviled eggs; vegan hot artichoke dip; ale-steamed mussels; and Scottish salmon with fennel barigoule. The restaurants signature potted chicken liver; fish and chips; and burger are still available. 7617 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, www.thepikeyla.com. Jenn.Harris@latimes.com @Jenn_Harris_ News that a former Russian spy and his daughter were likely poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury has spread fears over possible secondary contamination and piqued curiosity about a toxic substance that is as mysterious as it is potentially lethal. Former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, are hospitalized in critical condition after what British authorities said was an attempted murder using a substance from a group of nerve agents known as Novichok, which in Russian means novice or newcomer. So what exactly is Novichok? The former Soviet Union invented Novichok agents and pioneered their manufacturing techniques, said Dan Kaszeta, an expert in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense with Strongpoint Security, a defense and security consultancy in London. Advertisement In a series of key takeaways posted on Twitter on Monday, Kaszeta said the agents were specifically developed to evade the West/NATOs detection capabilities and foil efforts to collect intelligence. Experts believe that Novichok, considered to be among the deadliest chemical agents, was manufactured specifically to kill people. The Soviets, and subsequently Russian authorities, went to great lengths to keep the program secret at a point when the USSR had already agreed in principle to chemical arms control, Kaszeta tweeted. The 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia was a signatory, aimed to eliminate the production, acquisition and stockpiling of chemical weapons, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Novichok class of agents were reportedly first developed in the 1980s and then refined to circumvent the international chemical weapons treaty, which restricts the development and possession of chemical weapons, according to ScienceDirect, a database of medical and scientific research. The treaty bans weapons on the basis of their chemical structure and Novichok, as a relatively new agent, was not subject to the treaty, according to ScienceDirect. Are nerve agents easy to make? Difficult but not impossible, says Victor Madeira, a senior fellow at the Institute for Statecraft headquartered in the United Kingdom. Nerve agents are rare, tightly controlled synthetic substances that do require specialized knowledge to manufacture, store and use safely, the Business Insider website quoted Madeira as saying. Andrea Sella, a chemistry professor at University College London, told the Guardian newspaper that the level of toxicity of nerve agents is such that they are only to be manufactured in specialized facilities. Advertisement They are not materials that can be made at home, she said. British Prime Minister Theresa May pointed the finger squarely at Russia, saying the nerve agent used to poison the ex-spy and his daughter in Salisbury was of a type developed by Russia. May said Russia has a long history of state-sponsored assassinations and British intelligence reports have established that it has produced Novichok and is capable of doing so again. The prime minister said because of the complexities of manufacturing and even handling Novichok, it was impossible not to conclude that the attack in Salisbury was either carried out by the Russians or that the Russians had lost control of its stockpile of nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others. Advertisement Shopkeepers in Salisbury, England, say business has slumped near the spot where a Russian ex-spy and his daughter were found unconscious on a park bench. (Gerry Penny / EPA/Shuttersock ) How can nerve agents, such as Novichok, enter the body? They are easily dispersed and can be absorbed through the skin, ingested and inhaled, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Kaszeta said at least one Novichok agent is a solid at normal temperatures and could be deployed as a dust or powder, allowing for slower absorption. And powder would be harder to detect with normal chemical warfare detection means. Advertisement Sophisticated and potentially deadly, Novichok is reported to be five to eights times more lethal than VX, the nerve agent reportedly used in the slaying of Kim Jong Uns half brother in Malaysia last year. Novichok acts rapidly, according to ScienceDirect, and those affected generally feel the full impact of its side effects within 30 seconds to two minutes It is unclear how and when the Skripals were exposed to the poison. They were reported to have visited a local restaurant and pub before being found slumped unconscious on a park bench. What are the symptoms and impact of exposure to nerve agents? Nerve agents are the most toxic of the known chemical warfare agents, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Advertisement The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons reported that a low dose of nerve agent could cause minor poisoning, with symptoms such as increased production of saliva, a running nose and a feeling of pressure on the chest. Additional warning signs include impaired night vision, headaches, fatigue, slurred speech, hallucinations and nausea. Exposure to a higher dose of nerve agent causes more dramatic and pronounced symptoms, the agency reported. These include difficulty in breathing leading to coughing; discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract causing cramps and vomiting; involuntary discharge of urine and defecation; running eyes; sweating; muscular weakness; and tremors or convulsions. Victims can lose consciousness and, in some cases, suffer a rapid collapse of body functions and die. Consequently, death caused by nerve agents is a kind of death by suffocation, the organization reported. Is there a chance of secondhand contamination? Advertisement The short answer is yes. Because of the versatility of the nerve agent it can be dispersed as an ultrafine powder, for instance it can cause secondary contamination. Though waited for days before issuing a public health warning, British authorities ultimately cautioned anyone who had visited the restaurant or pub where the ex-spy and his daughter had dined and drank to wash their clothes, wipe down their cellphones and jewelry and double-bag items for dry cleaning. Sam Peters, who lives outside the town center in Salisbury, was more puzzled than worried by the governments sluggish response to possible secondhand contamination. Why it took them so long to release that advice is really strange. Advertisement ann.simmons@latimes.com For more on global development news, see our Global Development Watch page, and follow me @AMSimmons1 on Twitter UPDATES: March 14, 12:19 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details on the suspected nerve agent and its toxicity. Advertisement This article was originally published on March 13 at 1:50 p.m. On Sunday, I stood at the end of a barren cul-de-sac overlooking a field on the U.S. side of the border, staring toward Mexico. President Trumps border wall prototypes were off in the distance, about a mile away. This area the ironically named Free Speech Zone was as close as the public can get to the prototypes. (If you are on the Mexican side of the border, however, you can get a lot closer.) In anticipation of protests, temporary signs were posted on street poles, prohibiting the possession of firearms, daggers, slingshots, sticks, bats, pepper spray and other implements of riots. The 30-foot-tall segments stood out, like Cadillacs stuck in the desert floor. One day, perhaps they will be a reminder of a particularly hysterical American political moment: Trumps Folly. The wall, which began as a bit of campaign trail hyperbole, is an act of hostility toward Mexico and a sop to Trumps base. You can argue all you like about the integrity of national borders, but the wall is the physical manifestation of the racism that Trump has so often expressed toward the Mexican people, who, through no fault of their own, are not Norwegian. Advertisement It is a waste of time, space and money. It also is an affront to the environment. Full coverage of Trumps visit to California I understand, though, that the wall is thrilling to people who think the country has suffered from illegal immigration, or feel that people who violate the rules should be punished, even as they put food on your table, build your houses and clean your homes. While I was peering at the prototypes, a few people pulled up next to me to check them out. Most, like an aerospace industry salesman named Don Johnson, approved. I think the wall should have happened 30 years ago, said Johnson, 52, who lives in Chula Vista. Im a fan of what Donald Trump is trying to do. We need to know who is in our country. Baron Partlow of Stop the Poop overlooking the border near Otay Mesa. (Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times ) Baron Partlow, 55, who had arrived with two friends, agreed. I really welcome President Trumps Make America Great Again platform, said Partlow, a loquacious industrial marine painter and environmental activist who lives in Nestor, a residential neighborhood 1.8 miles north of the border. Any way into the United States needs to be secured, especially in this day and age. I found these sorts of comments ironic. There is already a double fence separating this part of California from Mexico. Its 14 miles long, and runs from Otay Mesa into the Pacific Ocean. Its a scar on the land. Walls or fences like these create more problems than they solve. Last week, my colleague Cindy Carcamo wrote a story about a wall that was erected on the U.S.-Mexico border near the town of Jacumba Hot Springs as part of the Operation Gatekeeper border fortification and immigration crackdown of the 1990s. The man in charge of that operation, Mark Reed, now retired, told her that the wall had unintended consequences. Advertisement In decades past, seasonal workers had been able to cross back and forth with relative ease. But after President Reagan granted 2.7 million immigrants amnesty in exchange for tighter border security in 1986, the border became less porous and migrant workers were effectively locked inside the U.S. They smuggled their families in, laying the groundwork for later backlashes against illegal immigration. Instead of a single man making his way up, now you brought the whole family up and you stayed, Reed said. That didnt work out too well for us. Now we really created a mess. Thats right. Bigger wall, bigger mess. :: Advertisement Sewage is visible in San Ysidro near the U.S.-Mexico border. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times ) The problem with focusing on Trumps pipe dream of a wall is that real border problems that can actually be solved are being ignored. The Tijuana River, for instance, which crosses the international border before reaching the ocean on the U.S. side, is said to be one of the most polluted waterways in the world. Untreated sewage flows from Mexico into the river valley, fouling the estuary, beaches and surf all the way up to Imperial Beach. For a huge chunk of the year, the water is too polluted to swim in. As I chatted with Partlow, I learned that he is the founder of one of several environmental groups fighting to get the U.S. and Mexico to fix the mess. His group has the catchiest name: Stop the Poop. He took me into the Tijuana River Valley to show me how awful the problem is. Advertisement A few miles west of Otay Mesa, we visited Smugglers Gulch and Goat Canyon, just north of the border fence. Both are the site of catch basins that are fetid pools of muck. An expensive wastewater treatment plant was built on the U.S. side to handle Tijuana wastewater in the late 1990s, but the sewage spills have continued unabated. Partlow said he was not politically engaged until one particularly disgusting day in February 2017, when he went to the beach to bodysurf and was overcome by the smell of poop. I couldnt breathe, he said. Couldnt even get close to the water. A massive spill had sent 143 million gallons of raw sewage into the Tijuana River, which forced the closure of beaches from the border all the way up to Coronado. Last week, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against California, challenging the constitutionality of laws designed to protect immigrants. Advertisement A week earlier, a group of California officials sued the federal government. In their complaint, representatives from Imperial Beach, Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego allege the feds have violated the Clean Water Act by failing to take effective action against the water pollution that has ruined our states southernmost beaches. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the local Border Patrol union has also considered suing after some of its officers experienced respiratory problems and infections it blames on the toxic runoff. One former Border Patrol officer, Joshua Willey, said last week that hed nearly lost his arm in 2010 after contracting an infection caused by flesh-eating bacteria in the water off Coronado during a training exercise. Dont count on any intervention from Trump. Dealing with stinky sewage and toxic sludge may be critical to human health. It just doesnt excite his base. robin.abcarian@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @AbcarianLAT President Trump will arrive in San Diego County on Tuesday to survey the border wall prototypes he commissioned amid high security and expected protests. Any demonstrators will be confined to a dirt lot in Otay Mesa that the County Sheriffs Department has designated a temporary free speech zone. People are prohibited from carrying anything that could be used as a weapon, from slingshots and rocks to guns and knives. Glass containers are also banned. U.S. and Mexican authorities appeared to be collaborating closely on security measures for the presidents visit. Members of the U.S. Secret Service have been in Tijuana in recent days to help plan Tuesdays security operation, according to U.S. and Mexican sources. On Monday, members of U.S. and Mexican agencies gathered at the Federal Police command center near Tijuanas A.L. Rodriguez International Airport to make final arrangements. Advertisement Several groups are planning peaceful protests on the Mexican side, but a Federal Police official said they are not going to be allowed near the prototype area. Authorities in Tijuana said they were preparing to block off all access about 1 miles of the existing fence, and would close down the dirt road that runs along the fence. Trumps whirlwind tour is expected to only last a few hours, beginning with his arrival aboard Air Force One at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar at 11:30 a.m. PDT From there he will fly to Brown Field Municipal Airport, then head to the border prototypes on Otay Mesa. He has set aside about 45 minutes for the inspection, according to the White House. Then it is back to Miramar, where he is scheduled to give remarks at the Marine base at 2 p.m. In a briefing Monday, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump will address all five branches of the military. While California may not have he may not have won that state there is certainly a lot of support for this president, not just there but across the country, Sanders said. And he looks forward to being there and presenting a lot of the specific policies. The president will then depart for Los Angeles for a Republican fundraiser at a private home. The evening will include a roundtable with Republican National Committee supporters. The visit is mobilizing both supporters and critics. A pro-wall rally has been planned to greet Trump at the prototypes. And while some critics have organized rallies elsewhere to avoid a clash, counter-protesters are anticipated to make an appearance as well. Advertisement At Our Lady of Mount Carmel at noon in San Ysidro, elected officials will rally with interfaith leaders to urge protection of the states immigrant communities. Organizers of Womens March San Diego plan to be at the protest site with a large sign urging Trump to build bridges, not walls in anticipation that he will fly by helicopter to the prototype site. Meanwhile, San Diegans for Secure Borders are planning to show their support for Trump and the wall with conservative groups and speakers at Bristow Court in Otay Mesa. Security is sure to be tight, although it is unknown to what extent Trump might expose himself in examining the prototypes. Advertisement The eight prototypes represent a cornerstone of Trumps campaign promise to build a big, beautiful wall across the 2,000-mile Southwestern U.S. border. He called for the models in an early executive order, and they were built in September along a dusty section of land next to the actual border fence. The goal is to test different materials and designs for impenetrability, although there may not be one big winner. The Department of Homeland Security has said future border barrier designs will likely include a combination of ideas presented from various prototypes. The sections of wall, more imposing than the existing border barrier at 30 feet high, have undergone rigorous testing in the meantime at an undisclosed location. Trump has not yet received funding for the envisioned wall. His administration has requested $18 billion that would build about 300 miles of new barrier where none exist and would replace older sections of fencing. Advertisement On Monday Sanders stressed that the wall is something Trump is not going to back away from and will continue to push for. In Tijuana on Monday afternoon, Trumps impending visit brought much activity to the southern side of the corrugated border fence, lined with a dirt road that is littered with trash and the rusting bodies of abandoned cars. East of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, residents of the adjacent Rancho Escondido neighborhood continued with their daily routines, even as foreign and Mexican news teams arrived to solicit interviews, conduct stand-ups by the fence, and peek above it. Its not good, said Mauricio Villlegas, 37, glancing toward the fence and prototype walls as he passed through on his way to a job at a veterinary office. People are going to continue to pursue a better life. If they dont find it in their own country, theyre going to leave to find work elsewhere. Advertisement Dibble and Davis write for the San Diego Union-Tribune. The remains of cult leader Charles Manson were awarded to his grandson from Florida, court records show. Kern County Superior Court Commissioner Alisa R. Knight authorized coroners officials to release Mansons remains to Jason Freeman, according to the ruling issued Monday. The court orders that disposition of the remains are to be determined by Freeman who will also be responsible for the costs of burial and funeral expenses, the ruling said. Manson was the mastermind of the gory rampage that claimed the life of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others during two August nights in Los Angeles in 1969. The problematic prisoner with a swastika carved into his forehead generated a cult following during four decades of imprisonment. Advertisement We are delighted that the judge found in our favor, said attorney Alan Davis, who represented Freeman. He said his client plans on cremating Mansons remains and then spreading them privately. Three people claimed to be the rightful heir to Mansons estate: Freeman; Michael Brunner, who contends he is Mansons last surviving son; and Michael Channels, his longtime pen pal from Newhall. All three were fighting in court over Mansons body which has been in storage with the Kern County coroner since he died at 83 in a Bakersfield hospital Nov. 19. According to an attorney representing the Kern County coroner, Manson told guards at Corcoran prison that he had no surviving children and did not have a will. Channels, who said he had a will from Manson bequeathing everything to him, said on Facebook that he would respect the commissioners decision. I am not sad, I am not mad, I am at peace. I fought for the wishes of a guy who only I knew what his wishes were anyway, Channels wrote. I would like to think I would have still fought as hard even if that dude would have only been John Doe or even you, my friend. I am not as baffled in the decision of the California Court as some are, I guess because I live here and not a lot makes any sense here anyway. With Mondays order, the saga over Mansons death is half over. The same parties who were vying for his remains are also battling it out in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom for his estate and are due back in court Friday for the next hearing. An attorney for Brunner did not respond to a request for comment. Advertisement alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com Twitter: @AleneTchek UPDATES: 2:45 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from Jason Freemans attorney. Advertisement March 13, 1:55 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Michael Channels. This article was originally published March 12 at 6 p.m. The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote Tuesday on a motion that aims to impose stricter gun control laws in unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County. The proposal, authored by Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Mark Ridley-Thomas, asks the countys legal team to analyze the feasibility of ordinances that would ban .50-caliber handguns and impose additional restrictions on the sale of firearms to people younger than 21. It also asks the legal team to analyze challenges that might arise from ordinances that toughen safe storage requirements and impose zoning regulations preventing gun vendors from selling firearms near schools and daycare centers. Kuehl, building off the momentum of people who have called for stricter gun control legislation since 17 students and instructors were killed last month in a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., said its important to take every possible action to curb gun violence. Advertisement Weve had enough moments of silence, of praying for slain co-workers, school children and neighbors, Kuehl said in a statement. We want to prepare a comprehensive plan to ensure that every man, woman, and child in this county is free from violence. California, which has some of the strongest gun laws in the country, recently received an A from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violences gun law scorecard. But a report made in the wake of the 2015 San Bernardino terror attack and released to the supervisors in June 2017 found that other counties and cities across California have adopted gun control regulations stricter than L.A. County. The motion also seeks to address gun violence through a public health lens by creating a gun violence prevention program within the Department of Public Health. melissa.etehad@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Francisco resigned his post, disillusioned by what he called false claims spread by Trump administration officials after a four-day raid in Northern California last month, according to reports. I just couldnt bear the burden, continuing on as a representative of the agency and charged with upholding integrity, knowing that information was false, James Schwab told CNN. The story was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The controversy stems from the warning sent by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf before the raid, in which she urged immigrants in the country illegally to take precautions. Advertisement In a news release during the sweep, ICEs acting director, Thomas Homan, said that 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. Homan later appeared on Fox and Friends and blasted Schaafs alert, saying she helped an estimated 800 criminal aliens avoid capture. Schwab told CNN he thought that number was inflated. Its a false statement because we never pick up 100% of our targets. And to say theyre a type of dangerous criminal is also misleading, he said. When he raised his concerns to ICE leadership, Schwab said he was instructed to deflect to previous statements. Even though those previous statements did not clarify the wrong information. In a statement Tuesday, ICE walked back the remarks, saying its hard to know how many people avoided arrest due to Schaafs alert. Even one criminal alien on the street can put public safety at risk and as Director Homan stated, while we cant put a number on how many targets avoided arrest due to the mayors warning, it clearly had an impact, said ICE spokeswoman Liz Johnson. While we disagree with Mr. Schwab on this issue, we appreciate his service and wish him well. In an interview Tuesday, Schaaf said she was moved by Schwabs decision to stand aside. Advertisement I cant tell you how touched I was that the ICE spokesman resigned over this incident, over the fact that he was being told to misrepresent the truth as a government servant, as a public servant, Schaaf said. I really honor him for that decision, because we really have to continue to... reclaim the trust that our residents, I believe, are losing in the institution of both government and democracy. U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions repeated the claim at the 26th annual Law Enforcement Legislative Day last week, saying agents failed to make 800 arrests that they would have made if the mayor had not acted as she did. Those are 800 wanted aliens that are now at large in that community most are wanted criminals that ICE will now have to pursue with more difficulty in more dangerous situations, all because of one mayors irresponsible action, Sessions said. Last months sweep netted 232 arrests of people suspected of violating immigration laws. Of those, 115 had prior convictions for serious or violent crimes or significant or multiple misdemeanors. Advertisement Schwab called the mayors alert misguided and not responsible. I think she could have had other options, he said. But to blame her for 800 dangerous people out there is just false. Times staff writer Mark Barabak contributed to this report. alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @AleneTchek UPDATES: 11:35 a.m.: This story was updated with a quote from Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. 10:25 a.m.: This story was updated with a statement from ICE. Advertisement 10:50 p.m.: This story was updated to reflect the story was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. This story was originally published March 12 at 10:15 p.m. This is the second group of Vietnamese students to graduate from the Obninsk Institute for Nuclear Power Engineering, under the support programme from the State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM). Among graduates this year, 18 received red certificates for their excellent results. Speaking at the event, ROSATOMs General Director Alexey Likhachev appreciated the students at the Institute, expressing his hope that the graduates would continue their studies and research to enhance cooperation in the field of nuclear power between Vietnam and Russia. Minister-Counselor Lai Ngoc Doan speaking at the ceremony Minister-Counselor from the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia Lai Ngoc Doan congratulated the graduates, encouraging them to contribute to the countrys economic development in the near future. He affirmed that the students would be a bridge of friendship and cooperation between the two countries. The Minister-Counselor also gave sincere thanks to the lecturers at the Institute as well as for the support of ROSATOM Corporation. In 2017, 20 Vietnamese students graduated from the Institute with high results. An art performance by Vietnamese students A Monterey Park police officer was convicted Monday of sexually assaulting three women during traffic stops, a streak of misconduct in which prosecutors say he forced women to expose themselves and in two cases groped them. Israel Sanchez committed the string of assaults in the summer of 2014 against female drivers who were ages 19 to 28, prosecutors said. A jury in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom convicted Sanchez, 41, who is currently on unpaid administrative leave from the Monterey Park Police Department, of five counts of sexual battery by restraining, five counts of assault under the color of authority, three counts of false imprisonment by violence and one count of soliciting a bribe. (A spokeswoman for the district attorneys office said that the trial prosecutor argued that the defendant told one of his victims, If you do this for me, I wont tow your car.) During closing arguments, Sanchezs attorney, Michael Goldfeder, questioned the credibility of the victims, telling jurors they made up allegations to retaliate against his client, who previously had arrested one of the women on a drug charge. Advertisement Theres no untoward conduct taking place, he said. There are no crimes in this case. But L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Hyunah Suh told jurors that Sanchez had a habit of needlessly insisting on searching women during traffic stops and of using a specific word nice to describe their body parts. He also used his flashlight to ogle at women, Suh said. The prosecutor shot down the defenses claim that the women tried to frame Sanchez in a move of reprisal, telling jurors that the women were strangers. They all told similar stories, Suh said. These women are telling the truth. The investigation began, the prosecutor said, after one of the victims the daughter of a California Highway Patrol officer came forward. The other two women, Suh said, had to be tracked down. Before playing part of a video recording of Sanchez interacting with one of his victims, Suh told jurors the officer ought to have followed his own advice. Fate should have it, the officer says in the clip, that if youre doing bad things youre going to get caught. In court Monday, Sanchez sat with his hands pressed together and his head bowed. The courtroom quieted as the clerk read the verdict for the first charge: Guilty. Whimpers came from the audience, where members of Sanchezs family sat holding hands. As the clerk read the 13 remaining guilty counts, Sanchez sighed and rested his head on the table. He then swiveled in his chair and looked at his family. Im sorry, he mouthed. Moments later, the judge looked at Sanchez and said, He is remanded. As two bailiffs took Sanchez into custody, the former officer waved to this family. A woman wailed in the audience. Advertisement Sanchez, who faces up to 11 years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced April 24. Times staff writer Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report. marisa.gerber@latimes.com For more news from the Los Angeles County courts, follow me on Twitter: @marisagerber A 26-year-old man has been charged with killing an elderly man with a pickax and a transient with a knife, the Los Angeles County district attorneys office said Tuesday. Roy Antonio Davis is facing two counts of murder and one count of first-degree burglary with a person present, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Michelle Humphrey. Davis pleaded not guilty on Monday. The criminal complaint includes the special circumstance allegations of murder while engaged in the commission of a burglary and multiple murders. The charges include allegations that a pickax and a knife were used as deadly weapons. John Hautz, 88, was found dead in his Santa Monica apartment on Jan. 1, the prosecutor said. Officers found Hautz with multiple stab wounds, as well as a rope around his body, according to a Santa Monica Police Department news release. Advertisement The second victim, 28-year-old Kenneth Schmitt, was found stabbed to death Jan. 13 outside a nightclub in Hollywood. Davis faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged. A decision on whether to seek capital punishment will be determined at a later date, the district attorneys office said. brittny.mejia@latimes.com Twitter: @Brittny_Mejia A man accused of killing a Pomona police officer was charged with capital murder and could face the death penalty, the Los Angeles County district attorneys office said Tuesday. Isaias De Jesus Valencia, 38, was charged with one count of murder in the death of Greggory Casillas, with the special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer and murder for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest. Valencia also faces seven counts of attempted murder and one count each of fleeing a pursuing peace officers vehicle and possession of a firearm by a felon. On Friday, police received a call about a reckless driver, and when the suspect refused to stop, he led police on a chase that ended when he crashed into a parked car. The man then ran into an apartment building, where he fired at officers from behind the door of a unit, police said. Advertisement Casillas, a 30-year-old Upland father just six months on the job, was struck by gunfire and killed. The second officer was shot in the face as he tried to rescue Casillas, authorities said. He was released from a hospital and is recovering from his wounds. The shooting led to a standoff that ended about 15 hours later when Valencia was handcuffed and taken into custody by Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies. Before the shooting, Valencia had a history of arrests in the Pomona area, according to public records. Nearly three years ago, he was sent to state prison for illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition and discharging a gun in a school zone, as well as destruction of jail property, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation press secretary Vicky Waters. He was out on probation roughly a year later. Valencia had suffered from depression and drug addiction, according to Amos Young, an acquaintance who knew him through the Pomona church Kingdom of God Revelation Ministries. If convicted as charged, Valencia faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. A decision on whether to seek capital punishment will be made at a later date, the district attorneys office said. Valencia is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday. Times staff writer Emily Alpert Reyes contributed to this report. Advertisement brittny.mejia@latimes.com Twitter: @Brittny_Mejia UPDATES: Advertisement 11:25 a.m.: This post was updated with a D.A.s statement on whether or not the death penalty would be sought. This article was originally published at 11:20 a.m. Any hope that President Trumps first visit to California could soothe tensions between the White House and a state dead set on defying his administrations policies evaporated quickly early Tuesday. Of course, it happened via a tweet. Californias sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk, the president tweeted about 8:30 a.m., as he flew toward San Diego aboard Air Force One. Thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP! The salvo set the tone for the day, as Trump traveled to the Otay Mesa border crossing to inspect prototypes for one of his signature campaign promises: a southern border wall that is wildly unpopular among California voters, who soundly rejected the president in 2016. Although the White House said it was hopeful Trump would have an incredibly positive trip to the Golden State, the president followed up his potshot about Californias sanctuary state law with digs at Gov. Jerry Brown, the states finances and illegal immigration. The state of California is begging us to build walls in certain areas. They wont tell you that, he said at Otay Mesa, a comment most of the states elected officials and voters would probably disagree with. Advertisement The president landed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar shortly before 11:30 a.m. After driving past crowds of supporters and protesters near the Otay Mesa and San Ysidro border crossings, Trump traveled to Los Angeles for a Republican fundraiser in Beverly Park. Air Force One touched down in Los Angeles about 3:30 p.m., and Trump flew via helicopter to Santa Monica airport, where the observation deck was filled with onlookers. As Trumps motorcade drove along Mulholland Drive, snarling traffic, police officers stood in nearly every driveway. A sign on the street outside the $35,000-minimum fundraiser read: Absolutely no cellphones. About 100 people, including Trump supporters and critics, had gathered at the Beverly Gardens Park in what turned out to be more of a festival than a protest. Mariachis took the stage to sing Ritchie Valens La Bamba, while a group of people danced. Street vendors sold hot dogs and passing cars honked their horns. Among the crowd was Omar Mohamed, a Tanzanian immigrant who moved to Los Angeles from Ohio two days ago. Already, he said he feels at home. People in my community back in Ohio voted silently, so we were shocked when Trump became president, he said, as passing cars honked their horns. I used to brag to people while I traveled that I live in America because I was proud of President Obama, Mohamed said. I dont do that anymore. As Trump arrived in downtown L.A. late Tuesday, a few hundred protesters stood outside the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown Hotel. Tudor Popescu, 38, brought a projector and turned it toward a building across the street from the hotel. In bright letters, the screen projected: Oppose racism, oppose Trump. Advertisement Intense security on both sides of border for Trumps visit to wall prototypes Protests had been expected in both Los Angeles and San Diego, no surprise in a state where Trump has clashed with everyone from Brown to LaVar Ball. According to a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll conducted in November, 66% of voters here disapprove of Trumps performance as commander in chief. The hostile attitudes toward the president have simmered since the campaign trail, when the bombastic then-candidate pushed a conservative agenda at odds with the majority of the state. Protesters burned Trumps head in effigy on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall less than 24 hours after he defeated Hillary Clinton in the November 2016 presidential election, part of protests that rocked downtown L.A. and the Bay Area for several days. In recent weeks, campaign billboards for state Senate candidate Maria Elena Durazo have popped up around Los Angeles, emblazoned with the words Disobey Trump. Advertisement The distaste, of course, is a two-way street. Trump has repeatedly bashed the state, dismissing California as out of control during a 2017 interview, a comment he repeated Tuesday. This month, he called Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf a disgrace after she warned her residents about potential ICE raids. Just last week, U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions told police leaders in Sacramento the administration had filed suit to invalidate Californias sanctuary state law. Trump will be met by protesters from Beverly Hills to the border The last president to wait this long into his first term to visit the Golden State was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he crossed the country by train to reach the West Coast. Aside from an electorate that loathes him Clinton defeated Trump by more than 4 million votes here California also is home to a number of Trumps fiercest political detractors. Advertisement Brown accused the president of going to war with the state after Sessions announced the administration lawsuit last week. Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) and California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris also have emerged as significant foils to the president in Washington. Even former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who once walked Trumps path from celebrity to elected office, has been an outspoken critic. Some of the states Democrats were quick to rebuke Trump on the morning of his visit. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra mocked the border wall that the president plans to trumpet while in San Diego. Some people think that medieval walls might keep us safe in this country, Becerra told reporters in Los Angeles, adding that a wall might keep us safe from knights on horses. Rep. Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) told a crowd of protesters near the San Ysidro port of entry that Trump aint my president! Advertisement Hes violated the Constitution. He collided with Russia hes done all sorts of terrible things to women, Vargas shouted. Prison is where he ought to be! Many of the states Republicans also are staying away from the president, whose actions in office have become a campaign issue for many seeking reelection. Of more than a dozen GOP candidates The Times contacted, most said they had no plans to attend the presidents events. U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) was spotted near the border, however, and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) attended the presidents speech at Air Station Miramar. Near the border crossing, dozens of the presidents supporters gathered, waving American flags and chanting Build that wall! Some held signs deriding CNN as fake news or wore attire supporting the conspiracy website Infowars.com, while others called for Schaaf, the Oakland mayor, to be arrested. The crowd broke into a brief Lock her up chant, repurposing the refrain used against Hillary Clinton during the election. Carolyn Hays of Redlands said she took the day off work to support Trump. She wore a red Make America Great Again cap and held up a sign shaped like a picket fence that read, Secure our border. Advertisement I love our president. I want a border wall. Its time for action, not just talk, said Hays, who is involved with the Redlands Tea Party Patriots. She said people in the country illegally are bringing drugs and crime to California, and she contended the states leaders have prioritized immigrants over native-born Americans. I support our Constitution, and when the states do not follow the rules of the land, they should pay a price, she said. Any time illegals are protected and told to go hide and given every advantage to be protected, thats wrong. Gregory Brittain, an attorney who is also a member of the Redlands Tea Party Patriots, compared supporting Trump in California to being behind enemy lines. Advertisement There are so many people out there who think, Theres no one out there who thinks like I do, he said. I hope this sends a message: I can do this, too. Live updates: Trump visits California for the first time since 2016 A small fracas broke out at the pro-Trump event after a protester dropped a Mexican flag from a car. Another demonstrator grabbed it and began to rip it apart while another man, wearing a Trump hat and shirt, threatened to burn it. They burn our flag in our country; burn theirs in ours! another man shouted, as others encouraged him. Advertisement Eventually, some of the demonstrators managed to calm the man and told him burning the flag sent the wrong message. Around the same time, a group of demonstrators chanting, No ban! No wall! began to gather at an outlet mall near the San Ysidro border crossing. Judith Castro, 27, took the day off work as a teachers aide to protest Trumps visit. Castro said she captured the viral video last week of Border Patrol agents arresting a mother in National City in front of her daughters. Born and raised in San Diego, Castro said her parents were deported in 2006 and 2007 and now live in Tijuana. Advertisement Why are we allowing this here? she said. He is in power, and let me tell you something, the people give him that power. We need to take it back. At the port of entry, protesters welcomed people entering the country. Some smiled; others looked confused. Donald Trump is not going to deter you from entering this land, said Mohamed Elnakib of San Diego Action United, who helped organize the protest. Thank you for coming. Viva Mexicanos! They chanted that Border Patrol agents should be deported. Several agents stood around, with some recording footage of the event. Advertisement The presidents planned visit to Los Angeles had already snarled traffic downtown. The Los Angeles Police Department announced on Twitter that several streets in the area of the Wilshire Grand, where Trump is expected to stay Tuesday night, would be closed until 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Neither local police nor federal officials have confirmed where Trump will spend the night, but the Wilshire Grand announced to its tenants and workers that a VIP or high-security visitor was expected at the hotel on Tuesday, according to a memo obtained by The Times. Castro said Trumps tweet made clear that he serves only a certain segment of the American people, and she also took issue with the president calling people without legal status violent and dangerous criminal aliens. She said many immigrants in the country illegally actually support the deportation of people with serious criminal records, yet Trump has unfairly lumped them in with the immigrants accused of minor or nonviolent crimes that Californias sanctuary policies seek to protect. I understand hes the president of the United States, but his tweets put the whole nation at risk, Castro said. Queally reported from Los Angeles. Branson-Potts and Castillo reported from San Diego. Times staff writers Sarah Parvini in San Diego, Noah Bierman in Washington, John Myers in Sacramento, and Melissa Etehad and Alene Tchekmedyian in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Advertisement james.queally@latimes.com Twitter: @JamesQueallyLAT hailey.branson@latimes.com Twitter: @haileybranson Advertisement andrea.castillo@latimes.com Twitter: @andreamcastillo UPDATES: Advertisement 10:05 p.m.: This article was updated to reflect Trump arrived in downtown L.A. 7:35 p.m.: This article was updated with more details from the Beverly Gardens Park event. 6:20 p.m.: This article was updated with information from a protest in Beverly Hills. 5:10 p.m.: This article was updated with details of Trumps arrival in Los Angeles. Advertisement 3:35 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from demonstrators and details about potential protests and road closures in Los Angeles. 2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from the president and demonstrators in San Diego. 12:55 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from the president. 12:25 p.m.: This article was updated additional details about the presidents arrival. Advertisement 11:25 a.m.: This article was updated with the presidents landing. 10:35 a.m.: This article was updated with details from protests near the Otay Mesa and San Ysidro border crossings. 9 a.m.: This article was updated with a tweet from the president. 8 a.m.: This article was updated with information about the presidents departure from Washington. Advertisement This article was originally published at 7:10 a.m. Will Trumpjam replace Obamajam? A presidential visit to Southern California can strike fear into the heart of even the most traffic-hardened Angelenos, who know too well that detours and closures for a White House motorcade can turn rush hour into chaos on the Westside. Former President Obamas frequent visits to Southern California created traffic tie-ups so ugly they earned their own moniker. As President Trump prepares to make his first visit to California, a lack of details from federal officials on whether he will use a motorcade or a helicopter to travel across town has left commuters and officials uneasy as has the threat of rain in the forecast for Tuesday night. Advertisement Even before Trump arrived in Southern California, traffic in downtown was hit by street closures around the Wilshire Grand hotel, where the president might be spending the night. After a visit to San Diego to see prototypes for a border wall, Trump will arrive in Los Angeles at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. He is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in the Beverly Hills area, then head to downtown L.A. for the night. With enough advance warnings, presidential street closures are miserable, but manageable, residents say. But local officials have not received a plan from the Secret Service detailing what streets would need to be closed to accommodate a motorcade. Were waiting and wondering why it hasnt come through yet, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Luis Garcia said Monday afternoon. We usually have it by now. We wish it was already at our office so we could send it out. Before past presidential visits, the Secret Service has typically provided a list of potential street closures about two days in advance, then provided more specifics close to the time the president arrived, Garcia said. Secret Service spokesman Shawn Holtzclaw said in an email that any L.A. street closures will be released when deemed appropriate. He said that the Secret Service does not comment specifically or in general the means and methods of our protective operations. One of the ugliest Obamajams occurred in 2010, when Obama attended a fundraiser at the Hancock Park house of a Hollywood producer. His motorcades path through L.A. at rush hour sparked hours-long commutes. Palms resident Chris Bezenah spent more than three hours fighting his way through traffic to reach a meeting in Hancock Park, not far from the fundraiser. Since then, he said, hes been careful to look for information about road closures. Advertisement This time, its kind of a void, said Bezenah, who works in Marina del Rey. Its anyones guess right now whats going to happen. When Trumps plane lands at LAX, travelers should expect some brief road closures, lasting about 10 minutes, said Los Angeles Airport Police Officer Robert Pedregon. During most presidential visits, officers block off Sepulveda Boulevard between Imperial Highway and Lincoln Boulevard, Pedregon said. The Secret Service will share more detailed street closure plans with LAX officials Tuesday afternoon. Its just a real quick closure for the arrival and departure, Pedregon said. Most people wont even notice it. Advertisement laura.nelson@latimes.com For more transportation news, follow @laura_nelson on Twitter. UPDATES: 9:30 a.m.: This article was updated with road closures around Wilshire Grand in downtown Los Angeles. Advertisement This article was originally published at 4 a.m. An Irvine-based website known as the Craigslist of pot for linking consumers with marijuana providers is pushing back against allegations that it is violating state law, arguing that its a technology company and not a marijuana business. Last week, the state Bureau of Cannabis Control said it had sent 900 warning letters to marijuana shops suspected of operating without state licenses since Jan. 1 and recently sent a cease-and-desist notice to the marijuana-location service Weedmaps.com, warning it to stop advertising sellers that lack a permit or face civil or criminal penalties. It was the states first action against a marijuana advertiser. The website responded Monday, stating that, as a service site like Google, Craigslist or Yelp, it was not subject to the same laws as its advertisers. But it also struck a conciliatory tone. We note at the outset that Weedmaps is a technology company and an interactive computer service which is subject to certain federally preemptive protections...of the Communications Decency Act, the companys letter to Bureau of Cannabis Control chief Lori Ajax stated. Nonetheless, as a technology company that has serviced this industry for a decade and as a company which employs almost 300 California residents, we wish to work together as a partner with California to find a solution to the concerns you raise. Advertisement Mondays letter was Weedmaps first public response to the Bureau of Cannabis Controls allegation that the company was essentially aiding and abetting in violations of state cannabis laws by allowing unlicensed marijuana shops to advertise on its website. The companys president, Chris Beals, told The Times that he was surprised the state was going after Weedmaps since the states latest marijuana regulations only took effect Jan. 1. We were under the impression that the bureau would focus on getting people licensed before they moved on toward attempting enforcement, he said. A billboard advertising Weedmaps in Vernon in July 2017. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times ) The unexpected crackdown may be a result of Weedmaps success over the last decade coming into sharper focus as the legalization of recreational use of marijuanaand attempts to regulate the huge market come into force. Weedmaps has done a really good job of branding their name across the country. Its the Craigslist of pot, the Yelp of cannabis, said Lauren Mendelsohn, a Northern California attorney who specializes in cannabis regulatory compliance. Its been making its living, quite frankly, on illegal advertising, Mendelsohn asserted. She said the companys claim that its protected under federal statutes is questionable. Advertisement Since 2007, Weedmaps has pointed millions of visitors a month to an online localized marijuana storefront, offering delivery service and doctors able to provide a medical recommendation. Over the years local, state and federal authorities have used its listings to identify unlicensed marijuana businesses and ordered them to shutter. Some businesses dont list on the site to avoid detection. In a letter to the company dated Feb. 16, the Bureau of Cannabis Control accused Weedmaps of not posting its own marijuana license number or those of its advertisers online and also allowing unlicensed businesses to advertise. The company argues it is not a marijuana business subject to state regulations under the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act and is instead protected under federal laws as an interactive computer service. That many of the Weedmaps advertisements are for unlicensed marijuana businesses isnt a sign the site is flouting state regulations but a symptom of the states broken licensing process, Beals said. Advertisement Its almost a complete failure of county and local governments to enact any sort of legalization to provide pathways for licensed businesses, Beals said. He estimated that there are nine unlicensed marijuana providers for every one that is licensed in California and suggested competing interests have fostered a regulatory bottleneck thats providing a small number of businesses the lions share of the legal market. Licensed or not, theres simply too much money in the cannabis business for entrepreneurs to wait for the processes to catch up, Beals said. Cracking down on unlicensed businesses at this point in the fledgling legal market is a waste of state resources in the long run, he said. Scrubbing the internet of the reality of unlicensed operators that have created thousands of jobs over the last 20 years does nothing to fix the underlying issues, Weedmaps letter to the state said. It is simply opening a new face of regulatory Whack-a-mole when the ultimate cause is broken policy that provides no opportunity for thousands of business owners who just want a chance to get a license and enter the legal market. Advertisement California, Beals said, should look to other states with legalized marijuana for examples on better licensing processes. joseph.serna@latimes.com For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter. Opponents of President Trump plan numerous protests in several locations Tuesday as he makes his first trip to California since taking office, though officials said they are not sure how big the demonstrations will get. Trump will start his day at the border before coming to Los Angeles for a fundraiser in the evening. He will stay overnight in Los Angeles before departing early Wednesday morning. Los Angeles An Unwelcome Rally at Santa Monica Airport Park is set for 2 p.m. at Santa Monica Airport. Perhaps the biggest planned protest is set for the Beverly Hills area between 4 and 8 p.m. Tuesday by a Facebook group, Trump Not Welcome in LA. The LAPD is preparing for additional protests of various sizes on the Westside. Advertisement LAPD officials expect more, and plan to deploy officers wherever they pop up. The LAPD will be heavily deployed throughout the city to ensure the safe transport of the president and secure locations he will be visiting, the department said in a statement. The department will also be available to accommodate any residents who may feel a desire to exercise their 1st Amendment rights. One area the LAPD will be watching is downtown, which has been the site of numerous large protests since Trump took office. Its unclear where Trump will spend the night. But building officials with the Wilshire Grand Center, which is the tallest building in L.A. and highest west of the Mississippi River, sent an email last week to tenants telling them about a high-profile visitor coming to the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown Hotel in the building. The message, obtained by The Times, noted a VIP/high security visitor and said the hotels VIP guest would spark security measures including metal detectors in the hotel lobby. The security will have a significant impact in and around the building, officials wrote. San Diego At Our Lady of Mount Carmel at noon in San Ysidro, elected officials will rally with interfaith leaders to urge protection of the states immigrant communities. Organizers of Womens March San Diego plan to be at the protest site with a large sign urging Trump to build bridges, not walls in anticipation that he will fly by helicopter to the prototype site. Advertisement Meanwhile, San Diegans for Secure Borders are planning to show their support for Trump and the wall with conservative groups and speakers at Bristow Court in Otay Mesa. Tijuana Several groups are planning peaceful protests on the Mexican side, but a Federal Police official said they are not going to be allowed near the prototype area. Davis writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Law enforcement officials are bracing for multiple protests Tuesday as President Trump swings through Southern California, but the extent of demonstrations remains a wild card. Trump has a famously antagonistic relationship with California, clashing on issues such as immigration, climate change and womens rights. The state has become the epicenter of the resistance with several huge demonstrations since he took office. Authorities in San Diego and Los Angeles said they are not sure what to expect when Trump visits California for the first time in his presidency, but they are preparing for whatever comes. The LAPD will be heavily deployed throughout the city to ensure the safe transport of the president and secure locations he will be visiting, the department said in a statement. The Department will also be available to accommodate any residents who may feel a desire to exercise their First Amendment rights. Advertisement Law enforcement tactics Law enforcement will be dealing with several issues: security, crowd control and traffic control. We are prepared for anything, said Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Horace Frank, who oversees the counterterrorism and special operations bureau. Frank said though no permitted protests in the form of marches are planned, authorities do expect to see protesters and Trumps supporters out in numbers during the presidents visit. As with all presidential visits, Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell said his deputies will be involved in supporting the U.S. Secret Service and ensuring public safety. No formal protests are planned, McDonnell said, but he expects more spontaneous actions driven by social media. Police officials say they will enforce laws that require protesters to stay off the streets and private property, and will keep supporters and protesters from engaging in physical confrontations. In the past, large immigration marches and anti-Trump protests have seen clashes between supporters and opponents of the president. In the event of trouble, officers will be ready to deploy to potential protest hot spots but will aim to keep a low profile unless needed, officials said. Trumps plans Though details of the Trump visit remain cloaked in secrecy, he is scheduled to attend an evening fundraiser for his reelection campaign. Earlier in the day, Trump will inspect prototypes for a border wall, a key component of his campaign platform on immigration, in San Diego County. He also is expected to meet with military personnel. Though the fundraiser is described as taking place in Beverly Hills, police officials there on Friday said the president is not scheduled to visit the city. Often areas adjacent to Los Angeles are described as Beverly Hills because they use a Beverly Hills postal code. Several key Trump fundraisers who actively participated in his presidential campaign live in those areas. Advertisement Donors will contribute up to $250,000 each to Trumps reelection campaign and various Republican National Committee accounts to attend the Tuesday evening event at an undisclosed location in Beverly Hills. The fundraiser is being hosted by Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, national finance chairman Todd Ricketts and deputy national finance chairman Elliott Broidy. Some protests, but how many? LAPD officials said no one has taken out permits for formal marches to coincide with Trumps visit. At least one protest is planned in the Beverly Hills area between 4 and 8 p.m. Tuesday by a Facebook group, Trump Not Welcome in LA. The LAPD is preparing for additional protests of various sizes on the Westside. Advertisement I anticipate many more once his itinerary is known, said LAPD Deputy Chief Dennis Kato, who oversees the departments West Bureau. The political group Union del Barrios Los Angeles chapter is organizing the Beverly Hills protest. Ron Gochez, a political secretary with the chapter, said more than 1,000 people were following the Beverly Hills protest Facebook page even though he was still unclear about where the protest would take place. He cannot step foot in this state and not expect an organized response to denounce him, Gochez said. Advertisement Whether supporters or protesters see much of the presidential motorcade remains to be seen. Exactly how Trump plans to get to the fundraiser remains under wraps as is usual for the U.S. Secret Service. President Obama, who regularly made the trip to Hollywood fundraisers, drew criticism for repeatedly causing traffic jams on the citys Westside. On some occasions, Obama used a helicopter to travel to events. richard.winton@latimes.com Twitter: @LAcrimes UPDATES: Advertisement 8 a.m.: This article was updated with a statement from the LAPD. This article was originally published at 5 a.m. Civil rights lawyer Joaquin Avila, who fought discrimination in classrooms, workplaces and voting booths as a leader of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has died. He was 69. Avila died Friday of cancer at his Seattle home, the advocacy group said. Avila was a point man in the Latino civil rights battle and argued voting rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1996, he was awarded the MacArthur Foundation genius grant, one of several noted accolades for his work on the issue. Advertisement His son said Avila was a kind, compassionate person. If he saw someone in trouble he tried to do something about it, Joaquin Avila Jr. said in a statement. As a former president and general counsel of MALDEF, Avila was involved in multiple groundbreaking court victories that led to more Latinos working as electricians, firefighters and border guards, and allowed parents in the country illegally to enroll their children in public schools without paying tuition. In an Associated Press interview in 1983, Avila said he saw those successes as a measure of how the system can be changed by working within it. Were an instrument at the forefront of social change, he said at the time. Avila has also been credited as the chief architect of the California Voting Rights Act, a state law that allowed voters to challenge at-large election systems on the basis that they dilute the strength of minority voters. However, his work also prompted criticisms when Avila himself was handling dozens of cases against cities and school boards involving the issue. In 2003, he authored a UCLA law school study saying the state constitution should be amended so millions of noncitizen adults can vote in local elections. Advertisement Avila most recently was director of the National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative at Seattle University School of Law. The native of San Antonio had degrees from Yale University and Harvard Law School. He is survived by his wife, three children and a brother. Its bipartisan gun legislation centered on maturity and safety. But to some gun rights groups, most notably the National Rifle Assn., it can be defined by a single word: unconstitutional. Hours after Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Friday signed a measure that, among other things, raises the minimum age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21, the NRA filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of banning people under the age of 21 from buying firearms. The lawsuit comes as several states are exploring similar legislation in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a 19-year-old alleged gunman used an AR-15-style rifle to kill 17 people. Polls have shown overwhelming public support for such legislation, even as some have raised questions of whether its constitutional. On Monday, President Trump, in announcing his priorities for gun control, said he's watching court cases before he takes a position on the issue. Here are some questions and answers about the legal debate over age limits and guns. First, what is the NRA saying in its suit against the Florida law? At its core, the NRA argues that the law violates the 2nd and 14th Amendment rights of those between the ages of 18 and 21 who want to purchase a gun in the state. At 18 years of age, law-abiding citizens in this country are considered adults for almost all purposes and certainly for the purposes of the exercise of fundamental constitutional rights. At 18, citizens are eligible to serve in the military to fight and die by arms for the country, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. This blanket ban violates the fundamental rights of thousands of responsible, law-abiding Florida citizens. In addition, the complaint argues that the law also disproportionately violates the rights of young women. Females between the ages of 18 and 21 pose a relatively slight risk of perpetrating a school shooting such as the one that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, or, for that matter, a violent crime of any kind, the lawsuit says. Are there federal laws that address age limits and guns? Yes. Under federal law the Gun Control Act of 1968 a licensed dealer cannot sell a handgun to anyone under the age of 21. When it comes to long guns, the age limit is 18. For unlicensed dealers, which could be a neighbor or someone at gun show, the age limit drops to 18 for handguns. In addition, several states have passed laws that implement age restrictions. California, for example, requires that a person be 21 to buy a handgun and 18 to buy a rifle. Have these laws faced challenges? Absolutely primarily from the NRA. In the case of NRA vs. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2013 upheld the federal law that prohibits federally licensed firearm dealers from selling handguns to people under age 21. Similar to its lawsuit in Florida, the NRA argued the federal law violated the 2nd Amendment rights of citizens. The NRA then appealed to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. So is this settled law? Perhaps, say some. Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at UCLA, who has studied the 2nd Amendment extensively, said the NRA's lawsuit in response to Florida measure is largely symbolic. Federal courts have consistently upheld age-based restrictions on gun sales, Winkler said. The NRA is really just saving face with its members to say, 'Hey, we're going to challenge gun control laws no matter what.' However, others believe it's more complicated. Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University, said the issue should not be dismissed so easily. The state must show a rational basis for distinguishing between an 18-year and a 21-year-old. Driving is not an express right. Drinking is not an express right. Gun ownership is, Turley said. This is going to be a paradigm shift in 2nd Amendment litigation. While the focus has been on the limits on types of weapons, this will focus on the limits on those who can exercise the right. Are other states exploring similar laws? Yes. As Florida joins Hawaii and Illinois in banning gun sales to people under the age of 21, other states are weighing similar legislation. In California, where people have to be at least 21 to buy a handgun, lawmakers are considering legislation to raise the minimum age to legally purchase rifles and shotguns to 21. In Vermont, lawmakers recently advanced legislation that would raise the minimum age to buy a gun to 21. Republican Gov. Phil Scott has indicated he would sign the legislation if it makes it to his desk. Meanwhile, Tennesse Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, has said he supports raising the age limit to purchase firearms, although legislation in his state has not been introduced. It's just crazy to me that you can't buy a beer at 19, but you can buy an AR-15, Haslam said during an event at the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington last month following the shooting in South Florida. Where does the public stand? Mostly in support of age limits on gun sales. In a CNN/ SSRS poll conducted in late February, 71% said they supported raising the age limit to 21 to buy any sort of gun. Both Democrats and Republicans alike support regulations. Eighty-six percent of Democrats supported raising the age limit to 21, while 61% of Republicans were in favor. About 67% of independents expressed support. Other polls have shown similar views on the issue. Since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, several retailers, including Dick's Sporting Goods and Walmart, among the nation's biggest gun sellers, have announced they will no longer sell firearms to anyone younger than 21. Where have politicians been on the issue? Several Republicans, such Florida Gov. Scott, have joined Democrats and pushed back against the NRA and supported age limits on gun sales. I'm an NRA member, a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, and the 1st Amendment, and the entire Bill of Rights for that matter. I'm also a father, and a grandfather, and a governor, Scott said last month in announcing his support for raising the age limit. We all have a difficult task in front of us balancing our individual rights with our obvious need for public safety. Others, like Trump, have gone back and forth on the issue. It doesn't seem to make sense that you have to wait until you are 21 years old to get a pistol, but to get a gun like this maniac used in the school, you get that at 18, he told Fox News in an interview that aired Feb. 24. That doesn't make sense. On Monday, he had changed his tone. During the talks, Head of the Vietnamese Governments Committee for Religious Affairs Vu Chien Thang spoke highly of the two agencies past cooperation on religious affairs, saying that the two sides made achievements in the field through exchanges of delegations and mutual support in organising international religion-related events in each country. For his part, Cambodian Minister Him Chhem emphasised the need to promote the cooperation agreement by organising meetings on religion between border-sharing provinces. The increased cooperation on religious affairs will benefit the two countries peoples, helping them understand their traditions, culture, and customs, he added. Both host and guest shared experiences in state management on religious affairs and agreed to step up delegation exchange, cooperation in personnel training in religious work, supporting cooperation between the Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam and the Cambodian Buddhist Sangha. Prosecutors announced Tuesday they will seek the death penalty against the suspected gunman who killed 17 students and instructors at a South Florida high school last month, undermining a strategy from defense attorneys to avoid a trial that is certain to receive national attention. Broward County State Atty. Michael Satz filed the formal notice to seek the death penalty against Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and is being held without bond. Cruz, 19, is scheduled for formal arraignment Wednesday on a 34-count indictment, which includes the murder and attempted murder charges. Cruzs attorneys have said in recent weeks he would plead guilty if the death penalty was not pursued. Even so, Satz declined to take the death penalty off the table, listing seven aggravating factors in his offices decision to move forward with the death penalty. Those factors, Satz wrote in the filing, include Cruzs prior criminal record, the heinous, atrocious and cruel nature of the crime, and the cold, calculated and premeditated manner in which it was carried out. Advertisement A plea deal, however, could still be reached. Cruz is alleged to have carried out one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history on Feb. 14, methodically stalking the hallways of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and firing into classrooms. At a hearing last month, Cruzs attorney, Melissa McNeil, said he appeared to be fully aware of what is going on. But she said he had a troubled background and little personal support before the attack. In the weeks before the shooting, the FBI failed to investigate a tip about Cruz. On Jan. 5, a person close to Cruz contacted the FBI to report that the 19-year-old had posted disturbing messages on social media and had expressed a desire to kill, according to the agency. The FBI said proper protocols were not followed in looking into the teenager. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating procedures the FBI takes in fielding tips from callers. The announcement Tuesday is rare as most mass shooting cases do not go to trial, often because the subject commits suicide after carrying out a rampage. The most recent mass shooter to stand trial was James Holmes, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing 12 people at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater in July 2012. George Brauchler, district attorney for Colorados 18th Judicial District, made the decision to seek the death penalty against Holmes. He said the decision was made only after he spoke with victims of the massacre. Advertisement I had to take into consideration the victims. That was No. 1 for me. I had a whole mix of views from them from people wanting the death penalty to others being staunchly against it, Brauchler said. At the end of the day, I listened to the victims and made my decision. On Tuesday, the reaction here in Parkland was one of relief. Nick Varias, 21, a junior at Florida State University and a Stoneman Douglas alumni, said he was not surprised that prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against Cruz. I dont think theres any redemption for him at this point, he said as he stood outside his former high school gazing at a chain link fence festooned with balloons, ribbons and faded bouquets. How do you release someone like that back into society? Advertisement Clutching a bouquet of purple carnations, his friend Ashley Garrett, 21, a junior at the University of Central Florida who also graduated from the high school, said she felt the focus should be on the victims. While Garrett is not an advocate of the death penalty, she said, she struggled with cases like Cruzs. The victims are children, she said, shaking her head. Lee reported from Los Angeles and Jarvie reported from Parkland, Fla. kurtis.lee@latimes.com Advertisement UPDATES: 3:46 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from George Brauchler, district attorney for Colorados 18th Judicial District. 12:45 p.m.: This article was updated with reaction and additional details. This article was originally published at 11:10 a.m. Just last week, a particularly chaotic time at the White House, President Trump told reporters that he liked conflict. He said he enjoyed hearing disparate views before making decisions. But only to a point it seems. In Mike Pompeo, whom Trump nominated Tuesday to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of State, the president gets someone more attuned to his erratic style and flamboyant personality, and someone who may more readily agree with him than Tillerson did. That could help Pompeo operate as the nations top diplomat, since foreign governments are more likely to view him as speaking directly for Trump when it comes to North Korea, Iran, trade disputes and other foreign policy issues. Tillerson had credibility problems because he publicly disagreed with Trump on several major issues. Ive worked with Mike Pompeo now for quite some time, Trump said Tuesday, minutes after he announced Tillersons dismissal in a Twitter post. Tremendous energy, tremendous intellect, were always on the same wavelength. The relationship has been very good and thats what I need as secretary of State. Advertisement On policy, Pompeo is also likely to hew closer to Trumps views, although those can often be moving targets. More important, in addition to clearly enjoying Trumps confidence, he has deeply honed political skills that Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil CEO with no government experience, lacked including an ease at dealing with Congress and the press. The downside, however, is that Pompeo might be inclined to withhold information that challenges Trumps preconceived world view. As director of the CIA since the beginning of the Trump administration 14 months ago, Pompeo is the person who most frequently gives Trump his morning intelligence briefing. Trump is notoriously uninterested in details, so Pompeo has shortened the material and reportedly avoids critical issues such as Russian interference in U.S. interests, which might anger the boss. A lot of it has to do with personal chemistry, and he obviously has that, Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo, a New Jersey Republican who leads a House Intelligence subcommittee overseeing the CIA, said in an interview. LoBiondo also credited Pompeo with turning around the CIA, improving morale and making it more efficient. But Democratic lawmakers said failure to challenge Trump could be dangerous. Tillerson was often seen as a moderating force who could calm some of Trumps more rash positions. Theres a pattern and practice to dismiss anyone with whom this president has a policy difference, and that appears to be the case with Secretary Tillerson, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said. I regret to say this, but it appears any number of things can put you on the wrong side of President Trump, who appears to have very little patience with anyone who has a different point of view, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) was even tougher: Secretary Tillersons firing sets a profoundly disturbing precedent in which standing up for our allies against Russian aggression is grounds for a humiliating dismissal. Publicly however, Pompeo has not been shy about Russian meddling. He joined other top intelligence community officials in congressional testimony last month to warn that Moscow is mounting another campaign to intervene in upcoming U.S. elections. Advertisement A lawyer by profession, Pompeo, 54, represented Kansas in the U.S. House of Representatives for six years through 2016, graduated from West Point in 1986 and was an army officer who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He was born in Orange and raised in Santa Ana. Relations forged in his military and political careers have served him well in Washington, where he is liked by many colleagues. They note he is intelligent and hard-working, even when they disagree with him. Critics, however, say they are troubled by his failure to condemn torture during his CIA confirmation hearing, and journalists have unearthed old, since-deleted tweets that showed him speaking favorably about hackers who stole Democratic National Committee emails that painted some Democrats in a negative light. Advertisement He has opposed same-sex marriage, drawing criticism from the gay community, and on Tuesday the Council on American-Islamic Relations accused him of expressing anti-Muslim views and urged the Senate to reject his nomination. Pompeo is far more hawkish than Tillerson, and some experts said that could complicate already fraught dealings with countries such as North Korea. However, Daniel Russel, former assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs under the Obama administration, said Pompeos recent position as head of the CIA actually might be a boost. The job of spy chief is one [the North Koreans] fully understand and respect, Russel said, noting that South Koreas intelligence chief was one of two envoys sent to Pyongyang to explore talks. That may give Pompeo a certain advantage. Advertisement Speculation about Pompeo replacing Tillerson began late last year, though in recent weeks, Tillerson who once said he wasnt interested in the job as Americas top diplomat and hadnt met Trump before interviewing for the post seemed to have weathered the storm. He started to give more interviews to the press and appeared to have figured out how to handle Trump, sometimes delaying going to the president until the options were narrow enough on a particular issue that Trump would be forced to choose the one Tillerson preferred. But in the end, his oft-repeated lament that he didnt really understand how Washington worked proved all too true. Los Angeles Times staff writer Sarah D. Wire in Washington contributed to this report. Advertisement tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com Twitter: @TracyKWilkinson After 14 months of private tensions and public disputes, President Trump on Tuesday ousted his beleaguered secretary of State, replacing Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo in a major shake-up of his national security and foreign policy teams. Trump announced the reshuffle in a Twitter message about four hours after Tillerson cut short a weeklong trip to Africa and rushed back to Washington, arriving at 4 a.m. The two finally spoke by phone about noon after the White House and the State Department had issued conflicting versions of how and when Tillerson was fired. Highlighting the clash with the White House, the State Department said Tillerson had not planned to resign and was unaware of the reason for his dismissal. The official who issued the rebuttal, one of Tillersons top aides, was then fired by the White House for contradicting its version of events. In an emotional farewell in the State Department press room, Tillerson appeared somber and his voice quavered as he praised career diplomats and staff for their integrity and dedication, and thanked Defense Secretary James N. Mattis for a robust working partnership. Advertisement Tillerson notably did not thank Trump or mention him by name, although he said the administration had made progress with North Korea and Afghanistan. He said much work remains with Russia and China, adding a final barb: Nothing is possible without allies and partners, though. The nations top diplomat said he would remain at the job until March 31, but would designate authority for running the State Department to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan. He said he is committed to ensuring an orderly and smooth transition. Tillerson was blindsided last week when Trump abruptly decided to accept an invitation for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, an ambitious but risky diplomatic initiative that normally would involve immense State Department input. Tillerson also has opposed Trumps repeated vows to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear disarmament accord with Iran as early as mid-May unless it undergoes substantial revisions that Iran, and most U.S. allies, have rejected. Speaking to reporters before he flew to San Diego for his first visit to California as president, Trump said he and Tillerson disagreed on things, citing the Iran nuclear deal. So we were not thinking the same, Trump said. With Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process. The president said he wished Tillerson well. I actually got on well with Rex, but it was a different mind-set. Trump repeatedly praised Pompeo, saying weve had a very good chemistry right from the beginning. Advertisement Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018 Trump said he would nominate Gina Haspel, the CIAs deputy director, to replace Pompeo as head of the nations chief spy service. If confirmed by the Senate, she will be the first woman to lead the agency as it faces complex new military and digital threats from Russia, China and other rivals and adversaries. Haspel is likely to face tough questions during her Senate confirmation hearing about her role in one of the CIAs darkest periods, the harsh interrogation critics called it torture of suspected terrorists in black sites overseas after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Pompeo is expected to win easy confirmation in the Senate after hearings next month. The Senate confirmed him as CIA director by a vote of 66 to 32 last year. Advertisement A West Point graduate from Kansas who served in Congress from 2011 to 2017, Pompeo said he was deeply grateful to Trump and that he looked forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further Americas prosperity. Pompeo has savvy political skills that Tillerson lacks, said Michael Allen, who worked in the George W. Bush White House and advised the Trump transition. He can do media, he does the Hill, he does everything Tillerson didnt do, Allen said. Most of all, he has Trumps confidence. Trumps allies on Capitol Hill generally applauded the move, suggesting that Pompeo could help Trump deal with foreign policy challenges if only because it would be clear that he spoke for the president, when Tillerson often didnt. Advertisement As director of the CIA, Mike has made contacts throughout the world and has come up with aggressive policies to defend our homeland, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). No one understands the threat posed by North Korea and Iran better than he does. Pompeo often briefed Trump in person in the Oval Office on crucial intelligence issues, and in recent weeks played a pivotal role in brokering messages from South Korean officials about a possible meeting with the North Korean leader. A voice of moderation in an administration riven by chaos, Tillerson struggled to find common ground with Trump. He publicly challenged the president over his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, his denigration of the NATO military alliance, his failure to confront Russian operations overseas, and other major foreign policy issues. After Trump gave a harsh campaign-style speech to a Boy Scouts Jamboree in July, Tillerson reportedly called Trump a moron in a private meeting. Tillerson, a former national president of the Boy Scouts, later refused to deny the remark and it clearly incensed Trump. Advertisement Trump publicly mocked Tillerson in October for wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man, although the president ultimately seized the chance to meet with the North Korean leader but cut Tillerson out of the deliberations. Still, Tillersons firing was brusque even by Trumps standards. The White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, phoned Tillerson before dawn on Saturday in Nairobi, Kenya, and urged him to return to Washington as soon as possible, according to the White House. Trump announced Tillersons dismissal on Twitter barely four hours after he landed in Washington from Abuja, Nigeria. The two had not spoken directly at that point. Hours later, the White House also fired Steven Goldstein, whom Tillerson picked three months ago to serve as undersecretary of State for public affairs and diplomacy. Advertisement Goldstein had told reporters that Kelly had told Tillerson to expect a presidential tweet, not that he would be fired. That contradicted the White House version, which said Kelly had warned Tillerson he was being replaced. Tillerson is only the third U.S. secretary of State to be fired. The most recent was Alexander Haig, who was forced out in 1982 after his brash leadership caused problems with President Reagan. Tillersons taciturn style was the opposite of brash. But he clashed with Trump over several key policy issues. In addition to resisting Trumps effort to scrap the 2015 deal with Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions, he opposed Trumps decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to the divided city of Jerusalem. The plan has seemingly destroyed chances of a negotiated resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict for the short term. Advertisement And despite a record of high-stakes energy deals with Russian authorities in his former job as chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., Tillerson has voiced more public mistrust of Moscow than Trump has. On Monday, Tillerson again departed from the White House position denouncing Russia for a poison attack in Britain that targeted a former Russian spy, who has criticized President Vladimir Putin, and his daughter. More than 20 people, including first responders, were injured by the chemical agent. The attack clearly came from Russia and will trigger a response, Tillerson said. Earlier in the day, the White House had conspicuously declined to join British officials in blaming Russia for the attack. For much of his 14-month tenure, Tillerson traveled the world doing damage control, trying to placate allies in Europe and elsewhere who felt alienated or confused by Trumps erratic policy pronouncements and threats. His trip to Africa was partly to mollify governments offended by Trumps reported dismissal of immigrants from shithole countries. Advertisement Time after time, Tillerson had to explain to foreign allies what Trump has meant when he seemed to be insulting their countries. The presidents tweets dont define the policy, Tillerson said last month during a trip to Latin America, where Trumps policies have roiled relations. Even as he differed with Trump, Tillerson had few allies on Capitol Hill or among the diplomats and civil servants in the sprawling department he headed. Many in the foreign service saw him as aloof and distant as he pursued a plan to cut budgets, trim staff and reorganize the departments bureaucracy. His legacy in public service has few clear achievements. Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Tillerson leaves a hobbled State Department. The timing of this move also couldnt be worse, Engel said. Less than a week after announcing a summit with Kim Jong Un the sort of engagement that will require a diplomatic full-court press the president has let the world know that hes throwing an already hollowed-out State Department into further disarray with a transition at the top. However much I may have disagreed with Secretary Tillerson, to push him out at this moment sends a terrible message to friends and adversaries all over the world. Advertisement tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com Twitter: @TracyKWilkinson brian.bennett@latimes.com Twitter: @ByBrianBennett Advertisement UPDATES: 3:30 p.m. This article was updated with additional details and reaction. 1:25 p.m.: This article was updated with details of conflicting White House and State Department accounts. Advertisement 11:10 a.m.: This article was updated with firing of second State Department official 8:45 a.m.: This article was updated with reaction from lawmakers and others. 8:15 a.m.: This article was updated with reaction from lawmakers and others. 7:32 a.m.: This article was updated with State Department statement. Advertisement 7:05 a.m.: This article was updated with additional analysis and reaction to Tillersons dismissal. 6:15 a.m.: This article was updated with additional detail and reaction to the announcement. The article was originally published at 5:45 a.m. Rex Tillerson was the wrong person to run the U.S. State Department, and he has done deep damage to the organization most notably by proposing a controversial restructuring plan that would have shrunk the department, triggering the resignations of more than half the senior career diplomats, and failing to fill top vacancies (the White House shares much of that blame). But given Tillersons role as one of the few sane heads in the upper echelon of the Trump administration, it doesnt bode well for the country that the president canned him Tuesday morning in favor of Iran hawk and CIA chief Mike Pompeo. A president, obviously, deserves to have a secretary of State in whom he can feel confident and who tracks with his policy views. But its hard to imagine anyone other than a sycophant succeeding as secretary of State to a president whose undisciplined thinking and penchant for unilateral action regularly undermines the foreign policy establishment, where international credibility is predicated upon reliability. The reality is that no appointees serve this master well unless they are willing to tack with his inconsistencies. For all of his flaws, Tillerson has been a (slightly) moderating influence on a president who understands little of the world or the power of nuance in diplomacy. The frictions between President Trump and Tillerson centered on the formers nuttier moves, such as his withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, his taunting tweets over North Korea and his ill-considered drive to undo the Iran nuclear deal. If talks with North Korea actually bear fruit, Tillerson likely deserves some of the credit, although the administration is already saying the move was Trumps alone. But Tillersons defense of the Iran deal hasnt been enough to dissuade a president who still aims to undo it (as, apparently, does Pompeo). Advertisement So where do we go from here? Well, it will be up to the Senate to press Pompeo during his confirmation hearing on what guidance he would give the president on the Iran nuclear deal. (Trump lately has suggested that he might reinstitute sanctions unilaterally if European nations dont agree to a new deal putting new limits on Irans nuke program.) And Trump seems bent on a Mideast strategy of siding with Israel and the Saudis against Iran and its clients. Will Secretary of State Pompeo accelerate that policy? Would he be right or wrong to do so? And how does Pompeo view possible direct talks with North Korea? How can the U.S. hope to persuade Kim Jong Un to denuclearize if its simultaneously backing away from its nuclear deal with Iran? Pompeo also has defended the intelligence communitys appraisal of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, a conclusion that Trump has derided. (Trumps self-serving view of reality was reinforced Monday by a partisan and premature draft report from House Intelligence Committee Republicans, which concluded that there was no effort by Russia to aid Trump in 2016 and no collusion with the Trump campaign.) As the Mueller investigation continues, does that difference of opinion make Pompeos eventual dismissal inevitable? Stay tuned. The reality is that no appointees serve this master well unless they are willing to tack with his inconsistencies. One of the presidents more notable comments Tuesday was his observation that were getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want. That foreshadows more dismissals and disarray, but 15 months after the inauguration, the president who appointed the numerous top-level officials he has sacked or who have quit is talking as though hes just finishing up the transition work. Thats remarkably inept. Moving Pompeo to Foggy Bottom opens the top position at the CIA, and Trump said he will appoint Gina Haspel, whose long career at the agency includes many years of undercover work, a key role in the extreme rendition program and oversight of a black site in Thailand where terrorism suspects were tortured. Though the appointment of the first female head of the spy agency is laudable, senators must drill deeply into her views of that dark past, and whether she has repudiated those reprehensible practices or would resurrect them under a president who has admired waterboarding as an interrogation technique. Ultimately, we fear that the removal of Tillerson and the related deck-shuffling will do little to settle the most unsettled administration in memory. Trump entered the presidency uniquely unprepared for the job, and he has proved to be a slow or even truculently resistant learner of what it takes to lead the nation and to set the moral and diplomatic tone for much of the rest of the world. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook Tony Mendoza resigned from the California Senate last month rather than face expulsion by his colleagues after an independent investigation concluded that he most likely engaged in a pattern of sexual misconduct involving six women, four of whom worked in his office, over the course of a decade. The Senate was expected to take action on his case later that day. His resignation triggered a special election to fill the seat for the remaining time left in his term. That election is to be held on June 5, and guess who plans to run? Thats right. Tony Mendoza. The same man who skulked away from Sacramento just weeks ago rather than stand before his peers and make a case for why they should not kick him out of office is now asking voters to return him to the job for the remaining months of the term. It hardly seems possible, but democracy doesnt always make sense. Still, this much is clear: Its both unseemly and unfair of Mendoza to ask the people of his southeastern Los Angeles County district to join his quixotic and self-serving campaign to show up his former colleagues in the Senate. One of the chief arguments against his kooky plan is that even if he were to win, he would very likely find himself in the same tight spot facing expulsion that led to his resignation in the first place. Advertisement Mendoza, a Democrat from Artesia, has been defiant since the first allegation surfaced last year, strongly denying he did anything wrong. He refused to take a leave when the investigation began and only did so under threat of a suspension vote by the Senate. Mendoza filed a lawsuit claiming lack of due process after the Senate voted to extend his leave. Its both unseemly and unfair of Mendoza to ask the people of his southeastern Los Angeles County district to join his quixotic and self-serving campaign. Nor did Mendoza concede anything in his resignation letter. He said he was stepping down because he didnt think he could get justice from the Senate during an election year, adding that Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon wouldnt rest until he had Mendozas head on a platter to appease the #MeToo movement. Never mind that an independent investigation by two outside law firms interviewed 47 people and found that Mendoza, who is married, more likely than not made inappropriate advances on young women even after he was warned twice to stop doing so. The timing of Mendozas resignation in the last year of his Senate term means that there will be both a special election and a regular election for the 32nd Senate district on the same ballot on June 5. The winner of the special election will serve until the current term expires, and the winner of the regular election will take over on Dec. 3. Mendoza said in a statement Friday that he plans to run in both races. If he truly cared about the interests of his district, Mendoza would bow out of both races now and leave the field open for less compromised, less polarizing candidates. There are very few scenarios in which this doesnt end badly for the people of his district, and maybe even for Mendoza and his family. Does he really want to stir up more controversy about the advances he allegedly made on a 19-year-old intern as he fed her alcohol in a hotel suite during a trip to the party convention? And if Mendoza receives enough votes to return to the Senate without the support of his party (delegates at the state convention last month chose not to endorse him), what happens then? Perhaps Mendoza thinks that the national outrage over sexual harassment by men in power will have waned. Or maybe he believes that having the support of some of the voters in his district will inoculate him from any further punishment by the Senate. What seems most likely is that if Mendoza somehow claws his way back into Senate, those same colleagues would simply bring up the expulsion vote again, possibly triggering another costly special election. How does that help anyone? Advertisement He has lost sight of the fact that serving in the Legislature is about representing the interests of the people most effectively, not merely about soothing his own bruised ego or undoing the raw deal he seems to believe he got from his colleagues. Mendoza needs to let it go, and then go away. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook On Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman used a device known as a bump stock to convert his semiautomatic rifles into de facto machine guns, killing 58 people and wounding 441 more at an outdoor Las Vegas Strip concert venue. The widespread outrage over that massacre fueled calls for a federal ban on bump stocks and related devices, which have no purpose whatsoever other than to circumvent an existing federal ban on most automatic weapons. That political moment passed quickly, though. A month later, a former U.S. airman killed 26 people in a church in Sutherland Hills, Texas, using firearms that his criminal past should have barred him from owning the Air Force had failed to submit his domestic violence conviction to the federal database used in background checks for gun purchases. Again, there were calls for reform, but no real action beyond the introduction of a modest bill to incentivize better reporting. The grip of the gun lobby evidently matters far more in Washington than the voice of ordinary Americans. Then last month came the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, which left another 17 bodies in its wake. The rage and frustration felt by students who survived the massacre has turned into organizing, resulting in a nationwide school walkout planned for Wednesday as a sign of disgust and solidarity in demanding gun reform. Advertisement So finally, might there be some action? Sort of. Citing the need for students to be safe in schools, President Trump who had been securely in the NRAs holster initially put his weight behind some limited changes in gun laws. But by Monday he had backed away from most of them, opting instead for a Federal Commission on School Safety, just the kind of commission he disparaged at a political rally Saturday. He also suggested using federal money to help train local teachers and other school employees who volunteer to have a weapon at work, and said he would support the transition of military veterans and retired law enforcement into new careers in education, all in an effort to harden schools just like our airports, stadiums and government buildings. So the answer to school shootings which, as awful as they are, occur rarely is to make every school in the country a mini-fortress, with armed school personnel ready to open fire should something happen? It doesnt take much of an imagination to see looming disasters, from teachers making lethally wrong decisions to police rushing in and shooting the wrong armed person, and from students getting hold of the firearms to school employees themselves committing acts of violence. Adding firearms to schools seems like an extraordinarily shortsighted plan. Trump has embraced a couple of considerably better ideas. He said states should adopt laws that make it easier for law enforcement to take firearms from people deemed at risk of violence, as California has already done. And not long after the Las Vegas shooting, he directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to find a way to ban bump stocks and similar devices. They should be outlawed, but unfortunately, the ATF previously determined that federal law does not give it the authority to do so, so a new ban by the same agency would likely face a legal challenge from the NRA. Congress needs to solve this problem itself. But, well, that isnt about to happen, even on so flagrant a circumvention of the law as bump stocks. Thats the real outrage. Again. Although the conscience of the nation is shocked by these repeated scenes of slaughter, Congress is apparently unmoved. The grip of the gun lobby led by the National Rifle Assn. evidently matters far more in Washington than the voice of ordinary Americans, who have expressed overwhelming support for universal background checks and for bans on assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines that enable more people to be murdered faster. And if Congress fails to act, polls suggest voters would hold Republicans most responsible. So even facing that political landscape, the party that controls both houses of Congress and the White House cant see its way clear to take solid steps to resolve one of the nations most pressing public safety issues. Is it cowardice? Some blind loyalty to an out-of-the-mainstream vision of gun culture only about one in three U.S. households owns a gun concocted by the gun lobby? Its hard to say, and in the end the reason doesnt really matter. Its the failure that counts, and voters needs to make sure those who have failed are held to account. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook. Despite being part of an industry predicated on anticipating risk, American insurance companies seem distinctly muddled about climate change. In the investments and underwriting that insurers lavish on fossil fuel companies, they act like climate deniers, ignoring the overwhelming scientific evidence that the emissions they finance are producing a slow-motion cataclysm. Insurers know better. In fact, European insurance companies began sounding the climate change alarm as early as 1973, when Munich Re, the worlds largest re-insurer, published a report describing climatic processes such as, for example, the rising temperature of the earths atmosphere that makes glaciers and the polar caps recede and ocean temperatures rise. Since 2015, 15 large foreign insurers, including industry giants Allianz, AXA, Swiss Re and Zurich, have either divested or agreed to divest about $22 billion from coal companies, and three have stopped or limited coal underwriting. Insurers recklessness in supporting fossil fuels is dangerous not just for the planet but for the companies themselves. Advertisement No major U.S. companies have made similar moves, according to an online scorecard kept by Unfriend Coal, a coalition of environmental activists. Cynthia McHale, insurance director at the sustainability nonprofit Ceres, told me that climate change is such a charged topic in the U.S. that insurers here dont even like to use the phrase. But they incorporate climate change data into the computer risk analyses they draw upon to deny coverage or raise premiums for homeowners threatened by fires, floods and other climate-related disasters. Thats what has been happening, for example, in the 24 California counties deemed most at risk of wildfire. Thanks in part to drought and hotter temperatures brought on or exacerbated by climate change, fires in these predominantly mountainous regions have proliferated and intensified in recent years. A study of homeowner policies published in December by the state Department of Insurance showed a 15% rise in insurer-initiated non-renewals in a single year in those counties. Its a growing problem, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones told me. But none of this appears to have prompted major American insurers to reconsider their stake in fossil fuels. A Ceres study of insurance companies investments found that in 2014 the 40 largest U.S. insurers owned a higher proportion of oil and gas bonds than a typical bond index would. Three insurance groups Ameriprise, Lincoln National and Voya Financial held more than double the median concentration in the oil and gas sector. Insurers could play a crucial role in halting coal mining and coal burning. Coal-fired power plants are the leading global source of greenhouse gas emissions. Although some large coal companies might be able to self-insure if their mining operations lost coverage, others would be forced to close. And utilities would be forced to close some coal plants if insurance werent available. Insurers recklessness in supporting fossil fuels is dangerous not just for the planet but for the companies themselves. No doubt their investments are profitable now, but as the price of renewable energy drops it is already lower than coals cost and is close to rivaling natural gas fossil fuel businesses will lose some of their moneymaking allure. And as the worlds nations move, fitfully so far, to restrict the use of coal, oil and gas, the chance is growing that extractive companies will be forced to take losses on stranded assets. On the underwriting side, insurers could be on the hook for claims related to accelerating climate-related disasters, such as Californias fires last fall, and lawsuits that target fossil fuel companies as some of the worlds largest greenhouse-gas emitters. Michael Gerrard, of Columbia Universitys Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, points out that these companies have yet to pay a penny arising from litigation claiming climate change damage, but eight new lawsuits filed recently could change that. One of them, brought by California cities and based on public nuisance law, seeks to hold Exxon, BP and other oil companies accountable for flooding caused by sea level rise. Californians can take a small measure of solace from knowing that, as in many other climate battles, their state is in the lead in pressuring insurance companies to change their fossil fuel ways. Two years ago, Insurance Commissioner Jones required that large insurers doing business in California disclose their investments in oil, gas and coal, becoming the nations first insurance regulator to make such a demand. In response, one governor and 12 attorneys general, from such fossil-fuel producing states as Oklahoma and Texas, wrote a letter to Jones denouncing his move as misleading, alarmist, and fiscally irresponsible and threatening to sue. Since then, hundreds of insurance companies have provided the information now posted on the Department of Insurance website and no lawsuits have been filed. Advertisement The emergence of something as accurately predicted, voluminously documented and potentially catastrophic as climate change inevitably reflects the simultaneous failure of many institutions, from its perpetrators, notably fossil fuel industries, to a long list of abettors, including Congress and the Trump administration. Insurers like to think of themselves as cautious and controversy-averse, but theyre entangled in climate change whether they like it or not. Until they take action against it, they belong on the abettors list. Jacques Leslie is a contributing writer to Opinion. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook To the editor: Cost estimates for Californias high-speed train will continue to climb. (Cost for California bullet train system rises to $77.3 billion, March 9) The good news is that we need not finish the project. The money we have already spent is gone we cannot get it back. This should have no bearing on whether we should spend more. All that matters is what we can expect to achieve for the huge costs that remain. The train cannot operate without a subsidy, which Proposition 1A, passed in 2008, prohibits. Public resources are needed for much better projects. We should stop work on the train now, even if we must repay the $3 billion given to California by the U.S. Department of Transportation for the project. The sooner we stop spending, the less money we will squander, and the better off Californians will be. Advertisement James E. Moore II, Los Angeles The writer is director of USCs transportation engineering program. .. To the editor: The bullet train project reminds of how those of us who live in the west San Fernando Valley were sold on the Red Line subway. I was told that I would be able to commute from my home to downtown L.A. Instead, over the years I watched a rail line open between downtown and Culver City, which was later extended to Santa Monica. In the Valley, all we got was the Orange Line busway, which makes the trip to the North Hollywood station slower than I can drive there in my car. The bullet train is following the same course as the Red Line: Promises are being made that can never be kept. Miles Hodge, West Hills .. Advertisement To the editor: I went to Japan 35 years ago, and it was amazing to see the bullet trains as I had only read about them, but had never seen or ridden one. On my bullet train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto, I remember thinking to myself, The United States will have this very, very soon for routes from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and San Francisco, and from New York to Boston. Was I ever wrong! Steve Shaevel, Woodland Hills Advertisement Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook The seminar is organised under the framework of the Ha Long-Cat Ba Alliance Initiative Project, which is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Addressing the event, Jake Brunner, Acting Country Representative of IUCN Vietnam, said that the burgeoning tourism industry has contributed to preserving and promoting the cultural and natural heritage values and has contributed significantly to national economic development. However, in some coastal provinces, especially in neighboring areas and buffer zones of nature reserves and World Heritage sites, excessive tourism development is a cause for great concern, he added. The seminar is expected to offer journalists a chance to exchange directly with management, experts, and international organisations regarding the impacts of tourism development on the environment in general and the ecosystems in Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba in particular, as well as exploring solutions for sustainable tourism development in this area. In addition, the experts have proposed solutions for sustainable tourism development at natural heritage sites, plans to increase public awareness about the current state of the environment, and water quality in Ha Long bay - Cat Ba islands. Gina Haspel, President Trumps choice for new CIA director, would be the first woman to run the nations premier spy agency, but her confirmation hearings may focus more on her role in the agencys torture of terrorism suspects and the destruction of key evidence more than a decade ago. If confirmed by the Senate, Haspel would succeed Mike Pompeo, who Trump plans to nominate to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of State, in a reshuffle of his national security and foreign policy teams. For the record: This article states that Gina Haspel reportedly ran a secret prison in Thailand and that terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded there. Recent news reports have raised questions about whether Haspel was at the site at the time of Zubaydahs interrogation. There is no dispute that she subsequently oversaw the facility or that another detainee was waterboarded while she was in charge. At 61, Haspel is a veteran CIA operative who has deftly navigated challenging foreign assignments as well as the vast bureaucracy of agency headquarters in Langley, Va. She steadily rose to top positions in the male-dominated spy service during a career, mostly in the shadows, that began in 1985. Haspel served as CIA station chief in several overseas assignments, directing U.S. espionage in those countries or regions. She later served as deputy director of the CIA division responsible for clandestine operations, and was promoted to deputy director of the entire agency last year. Advertisement In a statement, Haspel said she was grateful and humbled by the opportunity to lead the CIA. I look forward to providing President Trump the outstanding intelligence support he has grown to expect during his first year in office, she said. Trump called Haspels nomination a historic milestone for the CIA. Gina Haspel has worked for the CIA for three decades. (CIA via Associated Press ) Haspel played a key role in the CIAs urgent response to the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia and a plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Most importantly, she was involved with controversial interrogation tactics under President George W. Bush that some at the CIA believed were necessary to prevent new strikes on American soil. The CIA began seizing terrorism suspects and shipping them to secret overseas prisons, where some were waterboarded, beaten, deprived of sleep and otherwise harshly interrogated in an effort to obtain information about Al Qaedas plans. Haspel reportedly ran one such black site in Thailand, an experience that critics cited Tuesday to oppose her nomination. She was at the center of the rendition, detention and interrogation program, said Laura Pitter, senior national security counsel at Human Rights Watch. Someone with that kind of history should not have been made deputy director, let alone head of an agency with this much power. One suspect at the prison, Abu Zubaydah, was waterboarded 83 times, a painful process that simulates drowning. Some CIA officers grew so concerned about Zubaydahs mistreatment that they reached the point of tears and choking up, according to a 2014 report from Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The extensive report concluded that the brutal CIA interrogations, which took place over several years, did not produce any actionable intelligence about impending or planned terrorist plots. Advertisement John Brennan, who headed the CIA under President Obama, vouched for Haspel in an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, calling her a very competent professional working at an agency that was asked to do some very difficult things in some very challenging times. Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent who helped interrogate Zubaydah in 2002, said Haspel should face questions in her confirmation hearing about her handling of detainee interrogations. Maybe she was following orders, Soufan said. But we cannot deny there are a lot of issues that need to be discussed. When Pompeo was facing confirmation as CIA director last year, he told senators he would refuse a presidential order to restart what the agency called its enhanced interrogation program. Advertisement The American people now deserve the same assurances from Gina Haspel, said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a vocal critic of the CIA program. McCain, a former Navy pilot, was repeatedly tortured during his 5 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. During the 2016 campaign, Trump voiced support for waterboarding and other harsh techniques that were discontinued and denounced after they came to light. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who led the Senate investigation into the CIA abuses, said, Its no secret Ive had concerns in the past about Haspels connection to the program. But, Feinstein added, to the best of my knowledge she has been a good deputy director, and I look forward to the opportunity to speak with her again. Advertisement Others were far more critical, pointing to Haspels role in destroying videotapes of the CIA interrogations at the secret prison in Thailand. In 2005, Haspel drafted a cable directing agency employees to feed the tapes into an industrial shredder, according to a memoir written by Jose Rodriguez Jr., who ran CIA covert operations at the time. Rodriguez, who was Haspels boss, wrote that he sent the cable. Her reprehensible actions should disqualify her from having the privilege of serving the American people in government ever again, but apparently this president believes they merit a promotion, said Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). Haspel will probably face a difficult balancing act when dealing with Trump, who has sharply criticized the nations intelligence agencies. Advertisement During the campaign, he mocked them for concluding wrongly that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, and during his transition, he compared U.S. intelligence agencies to Nazi Germany for allegedly leaking derogatory information about him. As one of his first official acts, he went to CIA headquarters in Langley and stood before a marble wall marked with scores of gold stars to commemorate operatives killed in the line of duty. Trump said little about their sacrifice, using the speech instead to make false claims about the size of his inauguration crowd. Trump also has publicly questioned the intelligence communitys judgment last year that Russian officials authorized meddling in the U.S. election in an effort aimed, in part, at helping him beat Hillary Clinton. Pompeo has backed that assessment as CIA chief, but previously falsely claimed that officials determined that Russian meddling had no impact on the outcome of the election. The declassified intelligence community report issued in January 2017 did not address that question one way or another. Advertisement Sen. Richard M. Burr (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he would support Haspels nomination and looked forward to holding the confirmation hearing. I know Gina personally, and she has the right skill set, experience and judgment to lead one of our nations most critical agencies, he said. chris.megerian@latimes.com Twitter: @chrismegerian Advertisement UPDATES: 2:40 p.m.: This article was updated with additional background on Haspel and reaction. 9:10 a.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Sen. Dianne Feinstein. This article was originally posted at 8:35 a.m. Allies balk at Trump administration bid to block Chinese firm from cutting-edge telecom markets By David S. Cloud Britain and Germany are balking at the Trump administrations call for a ban on equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, threatening a global U.S. campaign to thwart Chinas involvement in future mobile networks. Both countries are expected to limit Huawei and other Chinese companies from providing core components including routers. But other types of Chinese equipment for next-generation, high-speed communications could still be installed on British and German networks, officials and analysts say. The U.S. push to ban Huawei has provoked a global dispute in recent weeks, with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, publicly urging NATO allies in Europe to exclude the company and warning that the United States might limit its military presence in countries that did not do so. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Confucius Institutes: Do they improve U.S.-China ties or harbor spies? By Don Lee Hanging red lanterns welcome visitors to the University of Marylands Confucius Institute, the oldest of about 100 Chinese language and cultural centers that have popped up over the last 15 years on American campuses, subsidized by millions of dollars from Chinas central government. But last fall, when four U.S. Senate investigators walked into the Confucius offices in Maryland and spent hours questioning staff, they werent looking for an educational exchange. The committee has been seeking detailed information from the university about the program, including contracts, email exchanges and financial arrangements that school administrators have kept under wraps since it started in 2004. American colleges once viewed these jointly funded institutes as an economical way to expand their language offerings one that could also bring warmer ties with China and, importantly, an influx of Chinese international students paying full tuition. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Watch Live: White House holds surprise news briefing amid government shutdown Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement U.S. policy toward China shifts from engagement to confrontation By David S. Cloud For decades, China had no closer American friend than Dianne Feinstein. As San Francisco mayor in the 1970s, she forged a sister-city relationship with Shanghai, the first between American and Chinese communities. As U.S. senator, she dined with Chinese leaders at Mao Tse-tungs old Beijing residence. And in the 1990s, she championed a trade policy change that opened a floodgate of Western investment into China. Today the Democratic senator sees China as a growing threat, joining a broad array of Trump administration officials, national security strategists and business executives who once favored engagement with Beijing and now advocate a confrontational approach instead. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Mnuchins attempt to calm markets backfires as Trump takes another shot at the Federal Reserve By Jim Puzzanghera An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to calm plunging financial markets backfired Monday, further rattling investors with new fears about whether major U.S. banks have enough cash on top of worries about interest rates, political instability in Washington and a slowing global economy. Adding to the volatile mix was a fresh attack on the Federal Reserve by President Trump, who declared that the central bank was the U.S. economys only problem and that it didnt have a feel for the market. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who cant score because he has no touch -- he cant putt! Trump said on Twitter. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print He speaks to Democratic hearts. But is Beto ORourke a serious White House contender? By Mark Z. Barabak Hes a failed U.S. Senate candidate with an undistinguished congressional record who, for the moment, is a blazing-hot 2020 presidential prospect despite the fact that he may not run and faces long odds if he does. Beto ORourke suggests the will-he-or-wont-he speculation is something he himself cant quite fathom. I think thats a great question, he responded in a Dallas Morning News interview when asked whether his unsuccessful November Senate bid merited a promotion to the White House. I ask that question myself. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm, Elizabeth Dwoskin Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. (Associated Press) Months after President Trump took office, Russias disinformation teams trained their sites on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there. The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with radical Islamic groups. Such tactics exemplified how Russian teams ranged nimbly across social media platforms in a shrewd online influence operation aimed squarely at American voters. The effort started earlier than commonly understood and lasted longer while relying on the strengths of different sites to manipulate distinct slices of the electorate, according to a pair of comprehensive new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released Monday. Read more Timberg, Romm and Dwoskin report for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement President Trump announces Mick Mulvaney as acting White House chief of staff By Associated Press President Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John F. Kelly in the new year. I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print It aint over when its over: In Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere, losers seek to undermine election results By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Gavin Newsom has yet to become California governor, but already a candidate for state Republican Party chairman is promoting a recall effort. In Michigan and Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers have rushed through legislation to thwart their incoming Democratic governors and hamper others in the opposing party from doing the jobs voters chose them to do. In Congress, GOP leaders have echoed President Trump and sought to undermine the legitimacy of Democrats strong midterm performance, raising unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and political malfeasance. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print New CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger says she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera On her first full day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger said she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney, the controversial acting director whom she replaced in the powerful regulatory position. To underscore that point, the former White House aide said she would even reconsider a Mulvaney action that critics saw as a gratuitous jab at Democrats who championed the agencys creation: changing its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Kraningers declaration during a meeting with reporters Tuesday addressed one of the main criticisms of her selection. She is considered a protege of Mulvaney, her boss at the White House Office of Management and Budget who has executed a dramatic, industry-friendly shift at the watchdog agency. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trumps pick for chief of staff, Nick Ayers, out of running By Associated Press Nick Ayers, right, with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush on Dec. 3. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Associated Press) President Trumps top pick to replace John F. Kelly as chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill that role. Thats according to a White House official who is not authorized to discuss the personnel issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Ayers is Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff. The official says that Trump and Ayers could not agree on Ayers length of service. The father of young children, Ayers had agreed to serve in an interim capacity though the spring, but Trump wanted a two-year commitment. The official says that Ayers will instead assist the president from outside the administration. Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would be departing the White House around the end of the year. Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @VP, and my great colleagues for the honor to serve our Nation at The White House. I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause. #Georgia Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) December 9, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement U.S. hiring slows to 155,000 jobs, unemployment rate holds at 3.7% By Jim Puzzanghera Job growth slowed significantly in November but still was solid, indicating the economy remains in good shape but not expanding so quickly that it will lead to sharply higher interest rates. U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs last month, well below analyst expectations and a steep decline from Octobers strong 237,000 figure, the Labor Department reported Friday. Still, monthly job gains are averaging 206,000 this year, the best since 2015. Even the slower pace of 170,000 over the last three months is close to last years average of 182,000 and well above the amount needed to keep up with population growth. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump is expected to pick State Department spokeswoman for U.N. ambassador By Associated Press Heather Nauert at a briefing at the State Department on Aug. 9, 2017. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump is expected to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Two administration officials confirmed Trumps plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trumps announcement. Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year. Trump has been known to change course on staffing decisions in the past. Nauert was a reporter for Fox News Channel before she became State Department spokeswoman under former Secretary Rex Tillerson. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Senate confirms new consumer financial protection chief: Kathy Kraninger, protege of industry-friendly Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera The Senate, in a party-line vote Thursday, confirmed White House aide Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and experts predicted a continuation of the industry-friendly shift it has taken since President Trump installed an acting director last year. Kraninger is a protege of acting director and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency that was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and other abuses that led to it. Democrats and consumer advocates have denounced him for sharply departing from the aggressive watchdog role the bureau had pursued under its first director, Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, including scaling back enforcement and moving to reassess tough new rules on payday loans and narrow the definition of abusive practices by banks and other firms. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Shutdown postponed by two weeks under plan approved by Congress By Erik Wasson Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown at the Capitol on Tuesday, says President Trumps border wall is a waste of money. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Congress passed a two-week stopgap spending bill that will delay the chance of a partial government shutdown until Dec. 22 as lawmakers and President Donald Trump negotiate over his demands to pay for a wall on the southern border. The House and Senate passed the measure Thursday without dissent, and Trump has indicated hell sign the bill before the current shutdown deadline of midnight Friday. Negotiations were delayed by memorial services this week for former President George H.W. Bush. The temporary measure gives Democrats and Republicans more time to find a resolution to their biggest hurdle: funding a wall on the U.S. Mexico border wall. Trump says he wants $5 billion for parts of a concrete wall on the southern border and is willing to shut down the government if he doesnt get it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said Democrats will provide no more than $1.6 billion for border security, because the wall is a waste of money. The presidents demands for wall funding from Congress come after he said during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it. This week he said on Twitter that a $25 billion border wall would pay for itself in two months, without providing evidence. Most of the U.S. governments $1.2 trillion discretionary budget has been appropriated already by Congress for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Departments at a risk of a partial shutdown late this month include the departments of State, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security. Talks to resolve the differences have been on hold since a meeting among Trump, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California originally slated for Dec. 4 was postponed due to Bush memorial events. The three are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama told reporters the rest of the seven-bill spending package being negotiated is basically done. Shelby in recent weeks had tried to broker a compromise in which Trumps $5 billion request would be split over two years, but Schumer has rejected that. Some Democrats have been willing to trade border wall funding for deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Pelosi ruled out such a deal in remarks to reporters Thursday. The stopgap government funding measure also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized coverage for homes in flood-prone areas, to Dec. 21. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bipartisan Senate group wants to formally blame Saudi crown prince for journalists killing By Karoun Demirjian Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. (Associated Press) A bipartisan group of senators filed a resolution Wednesday condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directly challenging President Trump to do the same. This resolution -- without equivocation -- definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardizing our national security interests on multiple fronts, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the resolution. It will be up to Saudi Arabia as to how to deal with this matter. But it is up to the United States to firmly stand for who we are and what we believe. The resolution put forward by Graham and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who are expected to lead the Judiciary Committee together next year, comes just one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leading senators about the details of the agencys assessment that Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Senators emerged from that closed-door briefing furious not only with Saudi Arabia, but Trump as well for dismissing the heft of the CIAs findings. You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi, Graham said following the briefing, referring to Mohammed by his initials. He added that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who briefed senators last week, were at best being good soldiers and at worst were in the pocket of Saudi Arabia for presenting the evidence of Mohammeds involvement as inconclusive. The release of the resolution condemning Mohammed also comes as the Senate is preparing to move ahead with debate on a resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. Though the Yemen resolution does not directly address Khashoggis murder, its popularity is a sign of how strained the United States patience with Saudi Arabia is on multiple fronts, including its role in worsening the civilian cost of the war in Yemen, cited by the United Nations as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Last week, the Senate voted 63 to 37 to advance the Yemen resolution past an opening procedural hurdle. But Graham and Feinsteins resolution on the crown prince has the potential of drawing broader support, especially from Republicans, who are deeply divided about how fiercely to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggis killing. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and is seen as one of the more influential foreign policy voices in the GOP, did not vote for the Yemen resolution last week or sign on to a bipartisan measure last month to sanction Saudi officials and cease weapons transfers to the kingdom. But he is an original co-sponsor of the resolution condemning Mohammed over Khashoggis death. So is Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who represents the other end of the GOP spectrum in terms of recent Saudi-related votes and endorsements. Young was an initial co-sponsor of the bill Graham wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to sanction Saudi officials deemed responsible for Khashoggis killing and stop the sale of anything but exclusively defensive weapons to the kingdom until it ceased hostilities in Yemen. Young also voted to advance the Yemen resolution something Graham did as well, though Graham has signaled he will not be lending any similar support to the measure, fearing it may establish a precedent of invoking the War Powers Act too broadly. Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are listed as original co-sponsors of the resolution condemning Mohammed, which also urges Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Houthi rebels to end the Yemen war, work out a political solution to its standoff with Qatar and release political prisoners. But how much sway the resolution has probably comes down to how forcefully the administration decides to heed it -- and thus far, Trump has not shown any interest in condemning the crown prince the way the senators hope he will. Demirjian reports for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Los Angeles County offices and U.S. Postal Service closed Wednesday in honor of George H.W. Bush By Brian Park The Honor Guard carries the casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush following his funeral on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images) The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery Wednesday, which President Trump has declared a national day of mourning in honor of former President George H.W. Bush. All retail postal outlets will be closed, and package delivery will be limited. In Los Angeles, all nonessential county departments, offices and libraries will be closed for the day, L.A. County officials said. The Los Angeles County Library said no overdue fines will be assessed for books, and due dates will be moved forward one week. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offices also are closed Wednesday. The Sheriffs Department, Fire Department, clinics and hospitals will continue to operate, the county said. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinics are being operated with reduced staffing, and the department asked patients to confirm or reschedule any appointments. All county courts and the disaster recovery centers for the Woolsey fire in Malibu and Agoura Hills will remain open. Larger federal government operations will be closed Wednesday. To honor the life and legacy of President Bush, the Postal Service will observe the National Day of Mourning. Learn how Postal operations will be affected. https://t.co/Mffch7bPCh pic.twitter.com/vG46BsIOpm U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) December 4, 2018 L.A. County offices and libraries will be closed tomorrow (Dec 5) in observance of the #NationalDayOfMourning for President George H. W. Bush. The Countys Disaster Recovery Centers in Malibu & Agoura Hills will remain open from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Sv1J7GoJ7T Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) December 4, 2018 @LAPublicHealth offices will be closed tomorrow December 5 in observance of the national Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush. Essential Services including clinics and other services will remain open: https://t.co/tZGoGGHRlg pic.twitter.com/ypXsV6vlYY LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) December 4, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to skip 2020 White House race, sources say By Associated Press Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks during an interview in Boston on Dec. 15, 2014. (Elise Amendola / Associated Press) Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts will soon announce he wont launch a 2020 presidential campaign, according to three sources familiar with his plans. They did not say why the Democrat decided against a run. A formal announcement was delayed as the country observed a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, one source said. News of Patricks plans was first reported by Politico. Patrick, 62, served two terms as governor, from 2007 to 2015, was assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and since leaving the governors office has been a managing director for Bain Capital. Patrick traveled the country in support of Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election. Earlier this year, some of Patricks supporters and close advisors started the Reason to Believe political action committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020. Reason to Believe PAC had been holding meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states. While Patrick is opting against a 2020 run, dozens of Democrats are considering jumping in, including nearly a half-dozen members of the Senate, several House members, and other Massachusetts politicians. On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels and a vocal critic of President Trump, said in a statement that he would run. Patrick had previously expressed some concerns about breaking through if he sought the nomination, telling David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, that he wasnt sure he could stand out in such a large field. Its hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity, and Im none of those things and Im never going to be any of those things, Patrick said in a September interview with Axelrod. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Former Trump adviser Roger Stone invokes 5th Amendment right and wont testify before Senate Judiciary Committee By Associated Press Roger Stone in 2017. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, says he wont provide testimony or documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee. An attorney for Stone said in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees top Democrat, that Stone was invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to produce documents or appear for an interview. Stone has been entangled in investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about whether Trump aides had advance knowledge of Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. Stone has not been charged and has said he had no knowledge of the timing or specifics of WikiLeaks plans. In the letter to Feinstein, Stone said the committees requests were far too overbroad, far too overreaching and far too wide-ranging. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Watch live: Vice President Pence and lawmakers honor George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Capitol before he lies in state Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Rebuilding crumbling infrastructure has bipartisan support. But who gets to pay for it? By Jim Puzzanghera The grades for major U.S. infrastructure would give any parent indigestion if they were on a childs report card. Roads: D; bridges: C+; dams: D; ports: C+: railways: B; airports: D; schools: D+; public transit: D-. The nations overall grade: D+, which translates to being in fair to poor condition and mostly below standards with significant deterioration and a strong risk of failure, according to an evaluation last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump calls former lawyer Michael Cohen a weak person who is lying By Associated Press President Trump says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is lying to get a reduced sentence. The president is reacting to Cohens guilty plea Thursday to lying to Congress about work he did on a Trump real estate project in Russia. During a surprise court hearing, Cohen admitted to lying in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen in his guilty plea said he made the false statements to be consistent with Trumps political message. Cohens lawyer says he continues to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Mark Z. Barabak When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Sarah D. Wire When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Michael Cohen, President Trumps ex-lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia By Associated Press Michael Cohen, President Trumps former personal lawyer, pursued a Russian real estate project on candidate Trumps behalf well into the 2016 campaign, he said Thursday while pleading guilty to lying to Congress. Cohen had previously said that the project was abandoned in January 2016, but he now admits he continued to pursue a deal and says he updated Trump and members of his family about the negotiations, according to a new court document. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement James Comey says acting Atty. Gen. Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer By John Wagner Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker speaks at the Justice Department in Washington on Nov. 14. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) Former FBI Director James B. Comey apparently isnt too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trumps acting attorney general. Matthew Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. Comey was asked by WGBH News in Boston if he thinks Whitaker could derail the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker has spoken critically of the probe, and Trump as recently as Tuesday continues to call it a witch hunt. I think its a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry, Comey said. The institution is too strong, and [Whitaker], frankly, is not strong enough to have that kind of impact. He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he can see his future and knows that if he acted in an extralegal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons, and Im sure he doesnt want that, added Comey, who was fired by Trump last year and later wrote a book that portrays the president as an ego-driven congenital liar. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was Sessions chief of staff before being picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department. Trump has called Whitaker a very smart man. Earlier this year, Trump called Comey an untruthful slime ball. Wagner writes for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Interior Department watchdog clears Zinke in investigation of Utah national monument By Juliet Eilperin Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, third from the left, and Gov. Jerry Brown tour fire damage in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 14. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The Interior Departments Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump. In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinkes deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office found no evidence that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utahs Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel, who serves as executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District. Last December, Trump shrank the monument, first established by President Clinton in 1996, by 46% based on Zinkes recommendation. Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but now lies outside its boundaries. The new boundaries also would make it easier to construct the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which would deliver water to sites in Kane County that include Noels property. Earlier this year, the Interior Department had proposed selling off 120 acres of federal land from the former monument that lay adjacent to some of Noels land holdings, but later reversed the plan. We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOIs proposed revisions to the [monuments] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noels financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries, Kendall wrote. Neither the Interior Department nor the inspector generals office would release the actual investigative report. In the letter, Kendall writes that her office will provide the report to Congress no sooner than 31 days from Nov. 21, when it is provided it to Zinkes office. The Associated Press first reported the inspector generals conclusions Monday night, but did not provide details from the report itself. Noel emailed Zinke about the effort to alter Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to emails released by Interior under the Freedom of Informational Act. But those emails do not make references to Noels land holdings. Noel also pushed to rename a Utah highway in honor of Trump, but abandoned that effort in March after some of his fellow Republicans objected to the idea. Noel did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The inspector generals office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it. Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift welcomed the watchdogs conclusions. The report shows exactly what the secretarys office has known all along that the monument boundaries were adjusted in accordance with all rules, regulations and laws, she said in an email. This report is also the latest example of opponents and special interest groups ginning up fake and misleading stories, only to be proven false after expensive and time consuming inquiries by the IGs office. But Kendalls spokeswoman, Nancy DiPaolo, defended the inquiry, even though she said the report has not been publicly released and we will not be speaking specifically about the matter at this time. The OIG opens investigations based on credible allegations and reports our findings objectively and independently, DiPaolo added. Any time or resources spent investigating conduct or activity that may be a violation of law, regulation or policy is a service to the public, Congress and the Department. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that he still intended to investigate the way Zinke and his colleague redrew the boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante and another Utah national monument, Bears Ears, next year. I have great respect for the inspector general, and I accept these findings, but Secretary Zinke should have known the people he listened to while destroying our national monuments had disqualifying conflicts of interest, he said. Should I chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, the process he and President Trump used to destroy Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be front and center in our oversight and investigations efforts. We need to know why they ignored overwhelming public expressions of support for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, why they ignored Native American tribes throughout their decision-making, and why they removed protections on parcels of land with known mineral deposits. Eilperin and Rein report for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump advisor Larry Kudlow says China must do more to end trade war By Jim Puzzanghera Larry Kudlow, President Trumps top economic advisor, said Tuesday that Chinas response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers trade relationship has been extremely disappointing but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough. They have to do more. They must do more, Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina. I think the president is exactly right to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls, Kudlow said. Theyre so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Watch live: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a media briefing amid tensions at the border By Los Angeles Times Staff Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Democrat TJ Cox grabs lead over Republican David Valadao in nations last remaining undecided House race By Maya Sweedler Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the countrys sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide. Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the states recent voting history. On Monday, he pulled ahead by 438 votes after Kern County updated its results. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Former CIA director Michael Hayden hospitalized after suffering a stroke By Deanna Paul Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden testifies before a Senate committee in 2008. (Saul Loeb / Getty Images) Former CIA Director and retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, his family said Friday. He is receiving expert medical care for which the family is grateful, according to a statement issued by his namesake organization. The General and his family greatly appreciate the warm wishes and prayers of his friends, colleagues, and supporters. Hayden, 73, served as director of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He retired from the CIA in 2009. Hayden has been a vocal critic of Donald Trumps campaign and presidency. Earlier this year, after Trump decided to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Hayden was one of several former intelligence leaders who signed a statement in opposition. Criticizing the president for crossing a line, he quickly became one of the individuals whose security clearance Trump threatened to review. Deanna Paul writes for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump tells troops hes thankful for what hes done for the U.S. and rails against courts and migrants By Associated Press President Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump used his Thanksgiving Day call to troops deployed overseas to pat himself on the back and air grievances about the courts, trade and migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trumps call, made from his opulent private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., struck an unusually political tone as he spoke with members of all five branches of the military to wish them happy holidays. Its a disgrace, Trump said of judges who have blocked his attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration law, as he linked his efforts to secure the border with military missions overseas. Trump later threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines Mexico has lost control on its side. The call was a uniquely Trump blend of boasting, peppered questions and off-the-cuff observations as his comments veered from venting about slights to praising troops You really are our heroes, he said as club waiters worked to set Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him. It was yet another show of how Trump has dramatically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic policy and military matters and efforts to keep the troops clear of politics. You probably see over the news whats happening on our southern border, Trump told one Air Force brigadier general stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: I dont have to even ask you. I know what you want to do, you want to make sure that you know who were letting in. Later, Trump asked a U.S. Coast Guard commander about trade, which he noted was a very big subject for him personally. Weve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals, Trump told the commander, who sheepishly replied, Mr. President, from our perspective on the water we dont see any issues in terms of trade right now. And throughout, Trump congratulated himself, telling the officers that the country is doing exceptionally well on his watch. I hope that youll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well, he said. The nations doing well economically, better than anybody in the world. He later told reporters, Nobodys done more for the military than me. Indeed, asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, Trump cited his great family as well as himself. I made a tremendous difference in this country, he said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump contradicts CIA assessment that Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi killing By Josh Dawsey | Washington Post (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIAs assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had feelings but did not firmly place blame for the death. Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing. He denies it vehemently, Trump said. He said his own conclusion was that maybe he did, maybe he didnt. I hate the crime .... I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do, Trump said. Asked who should be held accountable for the death of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, Trump refused to place blame. Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place, the president said. He also seemed to suggest that all U.S. allies were guilty of the same behavior, declaring that if the others were held to the standard that critics have held Saudi Arabia to in recent days, we wouldnt be able to have anyone for an ally. Trumps remarks came after he held a conference call with U.S. military officers overseas, during which he repeatedly praised his administration and sought to draw the officers into discussions of domestic policy. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Former FBI Director James Comey gets subpoena from House Republicans By Bloomberg Former FBI Director James B. Comey said he has received a subpoena from House Republicans, according to a Twitter post on Thursday. Bloomberg News reported last week that Comey would be receiving a subpoena alongside former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch as part of continuing probes into their handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russian election meddling, according to a top House Democrat. Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. Im still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a closed door thing because Ive seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Lets have a hearing and invite everyone to see. James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018 Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Republican David Valadaos lead slips to 447 votes over Democrat TJ Cox in still-undecided Central Valley House race By Mark Z. Barabak Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), right, finds himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox. (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) On election night, it looked like Rep. David Valadao had survived a close shave and was destined to return to Washington for his fourth term. But on Wednesday, when Fresno County announced its latest vote totals, the Hanford Republican found himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox, with his lead in the Central Valley district shrunken to 447 votes. Thousands remain to be counted. Valadao, a repeated Democratic target, finished election night with a lead of nearly 4,440 votes. Cox, an engineer and a business owner who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, has steadily gained ground in the 21st Congressional District ever since. The trend is consistent with historic patterns showing Republicans in California tend to vote early and Democrats later, meaning their mail ballots continue to stream in past election day. Under California law, ballots postmarked up to midnight on Nov. 6 will be counted. Democrats have already picked up six House seats in California. They ousted Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Jeff Denham and won the seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. All six represented districts that backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016. Valadao was the seventh California Republican in a district Clinton won, though his previous successes he last won reelection by a 14-point margin suggested his ouster was a longer shot for Democrats. If Cox prevails, it would give Democrats a 40-seat gain nationwide, far more than the 23 seats needed to take control when Congress reconvenes in January. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump says no new punishments against Saudi Arabia in Jamal Khashoggi murder By Eli Stokols In this Oct. 25 photo, candles are lit in front of a photo of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Lefteris Pitarakis) President Trump made it clear on Tuesday that he does not intend to punish Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident killed by Saudi officials in Turkey in October. In a remarkable statement replete with exclamation points, Trump cast doubt on the CIAs reported conclusions that it has a high degree of confidence that the crown prince ordered Khashoggis murder and sent his closest allies to Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul to carry it out. Read MoreThis article has been updated with staff. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Sixteen House Democrats vow to oppose Nancy Pelosi as next speaker By Mike DeBonis | Washington Post House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Sixteen House Democrats said Monday that they will vote to deny Rep. Nancy Pelosi another stint as House speaker, a show of defiance that puts her opponents on the cusp of forcing a seismic leadership shake-up as their party prepares to take the majority. Their pledge to oppose Pelosi (D-San Francisco), both in an internal caucus election and a Jan. 3 floor vote, delivered in a letter sent to Democratic colleagues, comes as Pelosi has marshaled a legion of supporters on and off Capitol Hill to make her case. But her opponents said Monday they are convinced it is time to select a new leader. We are thankful to Leader Pelosi for her years of service to our Country and to our Caucus, they wrote. However, we also recognize that in this recent election, Democrats ran on and won on a message of change. Pelosi has expressed complete confidence that she will retake the speakers gavel in January eight years after she lost it following massive Republican gains in the 2010 midterms and 16 years after she was first elevated to the top Democratic leadership post in the House. Come on in, the waters fine, she said Friday about a potential leadership challenge. The signers might not be able to force Pelosi out themselves. The size of the Democratic majority remains in flux, but Democrats have already won 232 seats, according to the Associated Press, with five races still undecided. All those races have Republican incumbents, but the Democratic challenger is ahead in only one of them. If the leads hold in the uncalled races, Democrats would have won 233 seats, a 16-seat majority. That means Pelosi could lose as many as 15 Democratic votes when she stands for election as speaker on Jan. 3. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Democratic senators sue over Whitakers appointment as acting attorney general By Associated Press Acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker (Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images) Three Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to remove him. The suit, filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, argues that Whitakers appointment violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. Whitaker was chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and was elevated to the top job after Sessions was ousted by President Trump on Nov. 7. The Constitutions Appointments Clause requires that the Senate confirm all principal officials before they can serve in their office. The Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that said Whitakers appointment would not violate the clause because he is serving in an acting capacity. The opinion concluded that Whitaker, even without Senate confirmation, may serve in an acting capacity because he has been at the department for more than a year at a sufficiently senior pay level. President Trump is denying senators our constitutional obligation and opportunity to do our job: scrutinizing the nomination of our nations top law enforcement official, Blumenthal said in a statement. The reason is simple: Whitaker would never pass the advice and consent test. In selecting a so-called constitutional nobody and thwarting every senators constitutional duty, Trump leaves us no choice but to seek recourse through the courts. The lawsuit comes days after a Washington lawyer challenged Whitakers appointment in a pending Supreme Court case dealing with gun rights. The attorney, Thomas Goldstein, asked the high court to find that Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and replace him with Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein, the second-ranking Justice Department official, has been confirmed by the Senate and had been overseeing special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker is now overseeing the investigation. The Justice Department issued a statement Monday defending Whitakers appointment as lawful and said it comports with the Appointments Clause, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and legal precedent. There are over 160 instances in American history in which non-Senate confirmed persons performed, on a temporary basis, the duties of a Senate-confirmed position, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. To suggest otherwise is to ignore centuries of practice and precedent. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Gov. Rick Scott says Sen. Bill Nelson concedes Florida Senate race By Associated Press Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott speaks with his wife, Ann, by his side at an election watch party in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 7. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas Republican Gov. Rick Scott says incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called him to concede defeat in their extremely tight race. Scott issued a statement Sunday saying Nelson graciously conceded their Senate race shortly after the states recount ended. The final results show Scott defeated Nelson by just over 10,000 votes out of 8 million cast. Nelson is scheduled to release a videotaped statement later Sunday. The defeat ends Nelsons lengthy political career. The three-term incumbent was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. Before that he served six terms in the U.S. House and as state treasurer and insurance commissioner for six years. Scott spent more than $60 million of his own money on ads that portrayed Nelson as out-of-touch and ineffective. Nelson responded by questioning Scotts ethics and saying he would be under the sway of President Trump. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Orange County goes blue, as Democrats complete historic sweep of its seven congressional seats By Michael Finnegan Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim on Saturday in the last of Orange Countys undecided House races, giving Democrats a clean sweep of the states six most fiercely fought congressional contests and marking an epochal shift in a region long synonymous with political conservatism. With Cisneros victory, Democrats will constitute the entirety of Orange Countys seven-member congressional delegation, the first time since the 1930s that the birthplace of Richard Nixon, home of John Wayne and spiritual center of the Republican Party will have no GOP representative in the House. Sitting back in the 1960s, I would never have believed this would happen, said Stuart K. Spencer, a party strategist who spent more than half a century ushering Republicans, including President Reagan, into office. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Going, going ... with midterm wipeout, California Republican Party drifts closer to irrelevance By Michael Finnegan For a party in freefall the last two decades, California Republicans learned that its possible to plunge even further. The GOP not only lost every statewide office in the midterm election again, in blowout fashion but Democrats reestablished their supermajority in Sacramento, allowing them to legislate however they see fit After major defeats in Orange County and the Central Valley, two longtime strongholds, Republicans will have a significantly smaller footprint on Capitol Hill. (Democrats hold both Senate seats.) When the vote-counting is finished, the GOP may not even have enough lawmakers in Californias 53-member House delegation to field a nine-person softball team. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter says she will support Rep. Nancy Pelosi for speaker By Maya Sweedler Democratic Rep.-elect Katie Porter is congratulated by volunteers at her campaign headquarters in Irvine. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter said she plans to support Rep. Nancy Pelosis bid for speaker of the House and will make campaign finance reform her top priority when she enters the chamber in January. Im going to continue to have conversations, but so far I feel like Leader Pelosi is definitely making the things that were a priority to the families that elected me her priorities, including announcing her support for campaign finance reform and anti-corruption as HR1, Porter said in her first public appearance since being declared the winner in Californias 45th Congressional District on Thursday evening. It means a lot to me that she is a Californian. She understands our state, Porter added. When we talk about environmental protections, this is a person who understands as a Californian how fragile our environment is and whats at risk in things like drilling off our coasts. Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, defeated two-term Republican Rep. Mimi Walters. The 45th District, covering inland Orange County, has never been represented by a Democrat. Porter became the third Democrat to claim a Republican-held seat in Orange County, following the victories of Harley Rouda in the 48th District and Mike Levin in the 49th. A fourth, Gil Cisneros, is running slightly ahead of his Republican opponent in the race for the open seat in the 39th District, which extends into Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Porter attributed the massive political shift in the county, for decades a conservative stronghold, to increased levels of political engagement. Folks here care about education, they care about the environment, they believe climate change is real, they want healthcare that protects preexisting conditions, they want a tax system that doesnt punish California, they want our schools and places of worship to be safe from gun violence, she said. Those are the issues we campaigned on, and to the extent that Donald Trump and Mimi Walters were on the wrong side of those issues, the voters have made clear what direction they want us to go. Porter was flying back from the East Coast when her race was called, she said. She turned on her phone to find 167 text messages from friends and supporters. Among them was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was one of Porters teachers in law school and with whom she has remained close. The pair spoke via FaceTime this morning, she said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Bitter battle for Senate seat in Florida goes to hand recount By Associated Press Employees look through damaged ballots during a recount Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas acrimonious battle for the U.S. Senate headed Thursday to a legally required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by less than 13,000 votes. But the highly watched contest for governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum appeared to be over, with a machine recount showing DeSantis with a large enough advantage over Gillum to avoid a hand recount in that race. Gillum, who conceded the contest on election night only to retract his concession later, said in a statement that it is not over until every legally casted vote is counted. The recount so far has been fraught with problems. One large Democratic stronghold in South Florida was unable to finish its machine recount by the Thursday deadline due to machines breaking down. A federal judge rejected a request to extend the recount deadline. We gave a heroic effort, said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher. If the county had three or four more hours, it would have made the deadline to recount ballots in the Senate race, she said. Meanwhile, election officials in another urban county in the Tampa Bay area decided against turning in the results of their machine recount, which came up with 846 fewer votes than originally counted. Media in South Florida reported that Broward County finished its machine recount but missed the deadline by a few minutes. Counties were ordered last weekend to do a machine recount of three statewide races because the margins were so tight. The next stage is a manual review of ballots that were not counted by machines to see whether there is a way to figure out voter intent. Scott called on Nelson to end the recount battle. Its time for Nelson to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes which will yield the same result and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served, the governor said in a statement. The recount has triggered multiple lawsuits, many of them filed by Nelson and Democrats. The legal battles drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who slammed the state for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems. He also said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000. We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this, Walker said during a morning hearing. Walker vented his anger at state lawmakers and Palm Beach County officials, saying they should have made sure they had enough equipment in place to handle this kind of a recount. But he said he could not extend the recount deadline because he did not know when Palm Beach County would finish its work. This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile, Walker wrote in his ruling turning down the request from Democrats. It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark. The overarching problem was created by the Florida Legislature, which Walker said passed a recount law that appears to run afoul of the 2000 Bush vs. Gore decision by locking in procedures that do not allow for potential problems. A total of six election-related lawsuits are pending in federal court in Tallahassee as well at least one lawsuit filed in state court. Walker also ordered that voters be given until 5 p.m. Saturday to show a valid identification and fix their ballots if they have not been counted due to mismatched signatures. Republicans appealed the ruling, but an appeals court turned down the request. State officials testified that nearly 4,000 mailed-in ballots were set aside because local officials decided the signatures on the envelopes did not match the signatures on file. If those voters can prove their identity, their votes will be counted and included in final official returns due from each county by noon Sunday. Walker was asked by Democrats to require local officials to provide a list of people whose ballots were rejected. But the judge appointed by President Obama refused the request, calling it inappropriate. Under state law, a hand review is required with races that have a margin of 0.25 percentage points or less. A state website put the unofficial results showing Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.15 percentage points. The margin between DeSantis and Gillum was at 0.41 points. The margin between Scott and Nelson had not changed much in the last few days, conceded Marc Elias, an attorney working for Nelsons campaign. But he said that he expected the vote tally to shrink due to the hand recount and the ruling on signatures. The developments fueled frustrations among Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats want state officials to do whatever it takes to make sure every eligible vote is counted. Republicans, including President Trump, have argued without evidence that voter fraud threatens to steal races from the GOP. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Democrat Gil Cisneros pulls ahead of Republican Young Kim as more votes are tallied in Orange and San Bernardino counties By Michael Finnegan Congressional candidate Gil Cisneros (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Democrat Gil Cisneros pulled ahead of Republican Young Kim in one of Californias undecided congressional races Thursday, an ominous sign for a GOP already reeling from its loss of four House seats in the state. In updated vote counts released by the registrars for Orange and San Bernardino counties, Kim fell 941 votes behind Cisneros in the contest to succeed Republican Rep. Ed Royce in Californias 39th Congressional District. The 39th straddles Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties. In another unresolved House race, Democrat Katie Porter pulled further ahead of Republican incumbent Mimi Walters in the 45th District, which includes Mission Viejo, Tustin, Irvine, Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills. Porter, a consumer attorney and UC Irvine law professor, is now 6,203 votes ahead. The Nov. 6 midterm election has been devastating to Republicans in California. If Cisneros and Porter win, the party will have lost six of its 14 House seats in the state, essentially a wipeout in every contest that both parties spent heavily to win. The three Republicans already bounced from Congress are Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Steve Knight of Palmdale and Jeff Denham of Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley. Democrat Mike Levin won the seat of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista in the fourth district flipped so far. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Florida Senate race likely headed to second recount By Associated Press A Palm Beach County Sheriffs deputy walks past boxes of ballots before a recount on Nov. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee) Unofficial Florida election results show that the governors race seems to be settled after a machine recount but the U.S. Senate race is likely headed to a hand recount. Republican Ron DeSantis is virtually assured of winning the nationally watched governors race over Democrat Andrew Gillum. Florida finished a machine recount Thursday that showed Gillum without enough votes to force a manual recount. Unofficial results posted on a state website show the margin between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott is still thin enough to trigger a second review. State law requires a hand recount of races with a margin of 0.25 percentage point or less. Counties have until Sunday to inspect the ballots that did not record a vote when put through the machines. Those ballots are re-examined to see whether the voter skipped the race or marked the ballot in a way that the machines cannot read but can be deciphered. The election will be certified Tuesday. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Pelosi says she has the votes to become the next House speaker By John Wagner Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference in Washington on Nov. 14. (Susan Walsh) House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi insisted Thursday that she has the votes to become the chambers speaker despite solid opposition from more than a dozen Democrats who want fresh leadership when the party takes control next year. I have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the House, the San Francisco lawmaker told reporters. I happen to think at this point, Im the best person for that. A vote within the Democratic caucus is scheduled for Nov. 28. The full House votes on Jan. 3 to elect a new speaker. During her remarks, Pelosi touted the size of the Democratic victory in the midterms, which she called almost a tsunami. With a few races still to be decided, Democrats are poised to pick up close to 40 seats in the chamber. Pelosi called that the biggest victory for the Democrats since 1974, when the Watergate babies came in. Pelosis comments come as she faces solid opposition from at least 17 Democrats, setting the stage for a battle over who will ascend to one of the most powerful positions in Washington. After a campaign in which some Democrats prevailed in competitive districts by promising to oppose her, a coalition of incumbents and newly elected members has denied her a smooth path to the speakership. The defections, if they stand, would leave Pelosi, who has led the Democrats for more than 15 years, several votes short of the 218 she would need when the full House votes for speaker Jan. 3. However, no Democrat has stepped forward to run against her for a job she held from 2007 through 2010. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that shes being encouraged to stand for speaker if Pelosi doesnt have the votes. In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, she said she has been overwhelmed by the support from many of her colleagues for her possible entry into the race for House speaker. Over the last 12 hours, Ive been overwhelmed by the amount of support Ive received, Fudge said, adding that there are probably closer to 30" Democrats who have privately signaled that they are willing to oppose Pelosi. Things could change rapidly, Fudge said. Fudge, 66, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she is building a diverse coalition as she mulls a speaker run, talking with allies in the caucus, moderate Democrats and newly elected members. To this point, Pelosi has enjoyed the strong backing of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), one of its members, wrote a letter to colleagues praising her insight, fortitude and strategic thinking and urging support for her speakership bid. Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., an African American who is contemplating a 2020 presidential bid, also voiced support for Pelosi, praising her in a tweet as an architect of the recent midterm success. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a leader of the resistance to Pelosi, said during an interview on CNN on Thursday that Fudge is the kind of new leader that we need in this party. Shes in touch with middle America. She understands what the American people want. Shes a next-generation leader that people will look to and say, Thats the future of our party, thats the future of our country, and thats exactly the kind of leader that I want to see as our next speaker. Wagner reports for the Washington Post. The Posts Robert Costa, Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement GOP Rep. Jeff Denham concedes to Democrat Josh Harder in Central Valley race By Maya Sweedler Rep. Jeff Denham (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Republican Rep. Jeff Denham has conceded to Democrat Josh Harder in the race to represent Californias 10th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley. It has been an absolute honor to serve our community and represent the Central Valley in Congress over the past eight years, the 51-year-old congressman said. The enormity of the responsibility was never lost on me. My wife Sonia and I look forward to starting the next chapter of our lives. Harder said he had spoken with Denham and the two were committed to a productive transition. Denham, an Air Force veteran, previously represented the region in the state Senate for eight years and founded a company specializing in plastic packaging used in agriculture. While a member of Congress, he sat on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture committees. First-time candidate Harder was born and raised in the district. After graduating from Stanford University, he served as vice president of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Since moving back, he has been teaching at Modesto Junior College. Denhams House seat is one of four in California that Republicans lost in the Nov. 6 election, with two contests in Orange County still undecided as of Thursday morning. Jeff Denham called me this morning and we had a very productive conversation. I'm honored that I've been chosen to serve our community in Congress, and we're both looking forward to a productive transition that best serves the people of District 10. Josh Harder (@JoshHarder) November 14, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Democrat Katie Porter now nearly 3,800 votes ahead of GOP Rep. Mimi Walters By Maya Sweedler Rep. Mimi Walters thanks all of her supporters as she watches election results in Irvine on Nov. 7, 2018. (Alex Gallardo / Associated Press) Democrat Katie Porter opened a 3,797-vote lead Wednesday over Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange Countys 45th Congressional District. In the neighboring 39th, Democrat Gil Cisneros has nearly tied the race against Republican Young Kim. Cisneros now trails Kim by a razor-thin margin of 122 votes. The 39th District straddles Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties; Wednesdays updated ballot counts came from the latter two. There are more than 202,000 ballots left to count in Orange County, which includes parts of seven congressional districts. The 45th is entirely in inland Orange County. In California, the ballots counted first tend to lean Republican and those tallied later skew Democratic. In the Central Valleys 21st Congressional District, Democratic challenger TJ Cox has pulled within 2 percentage points of Rep. David Valadao, who is serving his third term. The Associated Press had projected a win for Valadao on election night, but his 4,839-vote advantage has shrunk to 2,090. Back in CA-21, Valadao (R) wins a batch of ballots from his stronghold in Kings Co., but by a considerably smaller margin (14 points) than his previous ~30-point margin in the county. We're moving to Lean R from Likely R; today a bit scary for Valadao.https://t.co/WqJVUVkqGW Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2018 A spokesman for Valadao told the Fresno Bee that the changes were expected and that [s]tatistically, David Valadao has won this race. Democrats in California have already flipped four House seats, defeating three Republican incumbents and claiming an open seat previously held by the GOP. Reps. Steve Knight of Palmdale, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Jeff Denham of Turlock have already lost their races, and retiring Rep. Darrell Issas San Diego County seat was claimed by Democrat Mike Levin. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump aide departs West Wing after rebuke from Melania Trump By Associated Press First Lady Melania Trump. (Alain Jocard / AFP-Getty Images) Deputy national security advisor Mira Ricardel is leaving the White House, one day after First Lady Melania Trumps office issued an extraordinary statement calling for her dismissal. No replacement was named. Aides said Ricardel clashed with the first ladys staff over her visit to Africa last month. Yet it is highly unusual for a first lady or her office to weigh in on personnel matters, especially the presidents national security staff. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Ricardel would have a new role in the administration. On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham, the first ladys spokeswoman, released a statement saying, It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House. President Trumps White House has set records for administration turnover. Ricardel was the third person to hold the post under Trump. An ally of national security advisor John Bolton, Ricardel began her service in the Trump administration as associate director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, then moved to the Commerce Department last year. Bolton brought her into the West Wing shortly after taking the job in April. He is traveling in Asia this week alongside Vice President Mike Pence. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Race for House Minority Leader is Kevin McCarthys to lose By Associated Press (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is running to take over next years shrunken caucus in closed-door elections that will set the tone for the new Congress. The race for minority leader is McCarthys to lose Wednesday. But the California Republican, who is an ally of President Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Jordan is a leader of the House Freedom Caucus. The two encountered questions and finger-pointing during a private meeting with lawmakers Tuesday night as the GOP sorted through the midterm defeat that put Democrats in the majority next year. Elections Wednesday will also determine party leadership in the Senate. Voting for the biggest race, Nancy Pelosis bid to return as the Democrats nominee for speaker, is later this month. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Melania Trump calls for the firing of deputy national security advisor By Justin Sink First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris on Nov. 11. (Alain Jocard / AFP/Getty Images ) First Lady Melania Trumps office said she wants Mira Ricardel, the deputy national security advisor, ousted from the White House. It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House, Trumps spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement in response to a question about reports the first lady had sought Ricardels removal. Ricardel is the top deputy to national security advisor John Bolton. She drew the first ladys wrath after threatening to withhold National Security Council resources during Melania Trumps trip to Africa last month unless Ricardel was included in her entourage, one person familiar with the matter said. Grishams statement comes as several media outlets have reported that President Trump is considering a broader shakeup of his administration, including ousting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Sink and Jacobs report for Bloomberg. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print CNN sues Trump over the suspension of Jim Acostas White House press credentials By Jim Puzzanghera CNN said Tuesday that it is suing President Trump and other administration officials over the decision to suspend the White House press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta after a conflict at a news conference last week. The suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates an ongoing battle between Trump and the cable news outlet that he frequently accuses of disseminating fake news for its aggressive coverage of him and his administration. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acostas 1st Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their 5th Amendment rights to due process, CNN said in a written statement. If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Maxine Waters to take aim at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank as new head of House Financial Services Committee By Jim Puzzanghera Rep. Maxine Waters plans to zero in on two big banks Wells Fargo & Co. and Deutsche Bank when she becomes head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. The Los Angeles congresswoman, now the committees top Democrat, is widely expected to gain the gavel after her party won control of the House in last weeks elections. While Waters has outlined a wide-ranging agenda, she said her focus on bank oversight will target two large institutions she has been tangling with for a while including one, Deutsche Bank, that spills into her bitter feud with President Trump. With Trump in the White House, I know that our fight for Americas consumers and investors will continue to be challenging. But I am more than up to that fight, Waters wrote in a letter last week to her Democratic colleagues on the committee that was obtained by The Times. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Heres how a controversial voting system will decide a congressional race in Maine By Kurtis Lee For the first time in U.S. history, a controversial voting system known as ranked choice is being used to decide a federal election. Its happening in Maine, which adopted the system in 2016. Rather than marking a single candidate, each voter ranks them all, assigning a first-place vote, a second-place vote and so on down the ballot. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print ACLU files suit to stop Trumps new asylum limits By Associated Press A group of Central American migrants march to the office of the U.N.'s humans rights body in Mexico City on Nov. 8. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge to President Trumps order denying asylum to migrants if they cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco and argues the new rules are against the law. Attorney Lee Gelernt said the regulations will put families in danger. The suit seeks to declare the regulations invalid and wants a judge to stop the rules from going into effect while the litigation is pending. The new rules were spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly moving north on foot, but officials say they will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally. Officials say about 70,000 people who enter the country illegally claim asylum. The order invoked the same national security powers Trump used to push through his travel ban. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump on new acting AG: I dont know Matt Whitaker By Associated Press President Trump talks with reporters before departing for France on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 9. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump is moving to distance himself from Matthew Whitaker as he faces criticism over his choice for acting attorney general. Trump told reporters Friday that I dont know Matt Whitaker and said he didnt speak with Whitaker about special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker has made public comments critical of Muellers investigation, and critics have called on Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the inquiry. Under former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the investigation was overseen by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Of the scrutiny Whitaker is facing, Trump said: Its a shame that no matter who I put in they go after. He also called Whitaker a very highly respected man. Whitaker was Sessions chief of staff before Trump made him Sessions interim replacement. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg out of hospital after fall By Associated Press The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is home after being released from the hospital. She had been admitted for treatment and observation after fracturing three ribs in a fall. The court said Ginsburg was released Friday. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg says she is doing well and working from home. The court had previously said the justice fell in her office at the court on Wednesday evening and went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gun-control activist Lucy McBath defeats GOP Rep. Karen Handel in Georgia By Associated Press Lucy McBath speaks during a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Nov. 2 at Morehouse College in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) Democratic gun-control activist Lucy McBath has defeated Republican Rep. Karen Handel of Georgia in a suburban congressional district long considered safe for the GOP. Handel had to seek reelection after winning her seat last year in a close special election race against Democrat Jon Ossoff. McBath became an advocate for stricter gun laws after her son, Jordan Davis, was fatally shot at a Florida gas station in 2012 by a man angry over loud music the teenager and his friends were playing in a car. McBaths margin of victory was narrow enough for Handel to have requested a recount. The Associated Press declared McBath the winner Thursday after Handel conceded. Handel conceded in a statement Thursday morning, stating that after reviewing all of the election data, its clear she came up a bit short in Tuesdays vote. Handel congratulated McBath, offering good thoughts and much prayer for the journey that lies ahead for her. McBath, who is African American, declared victory Wednesday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after fracturing 3 ribs in fall By Associated Press Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital. The court says the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. The court says the fall occurred Wednesday evening. Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print White House suspends press pass of CNNs Jim Acosta after heated exchange with Trump By Associated Press The White House on Wednesday suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference. They began sparring after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, Thats enough! and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern, calling it absolutely unacceptable. The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. Pardon me, maam, he told her. Acosta tweeted that Sanders statement that he put his hands on the aide was a lie. CNN said in a statement that the White House revoked Acostas press pass in retaliation for his challenging questions Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acostas actions. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporters colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history. Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Contrary to CNNs assertions there is no greater demonstration of the Presidents support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters... Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 As a result of todays incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice. Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Sanders provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better, CNN said. Jim Acosta has our full support. Journalists assigned to cover the White House apply for passes that allow them daily access to press areas in the West Wing. White House staffers decide whether journalists are eligible, though the Secret Service determines whether their applications are approved. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump spars with reporters at post-election news briefing, ordering several to sit down By Associated Press President Trump assails CNNs Jim Acosta at a White House news conference. President Trump sparred with reporters at his post-election news conference, ordering several to sit down and telling another hes a rude, terrible person. He told another reporter hes not a fan of yours, either. The presidents mood turned sour Wednesday after reporters pressed him on why he referred to a migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. on foot through Mexico as an invasion. Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric against the caravan in the final days of the midterm elections. Trump was also pressed on why his campaign aired an ad featuring a Mexican immigrant convicted of killing American police officers and linking the mans actions to the caravan. Several television networks pulled the ad after airing it or declined to air it at all. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Im living one hour at a time at this point By Christine Mai-Duc Republican congressional candidate Young Kim and gubernatorial candidate John Cox campaign in Rowland Heights. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Republican congressional candidate Young Kim greeted gubernatorial candidate John Coxs giant campaign bus, the words HELP IS ON THE WAY emblazoned across it, as it rolled into the parking lot outside her Rowland Heights field office. Standing beside Cox on Saturday, Kim predicted that a string of GOP victories Tuesday would start with voters repealing the gas tax hike. Can you imagine Gavin Newsom being our governor? Can you imagine Gil Cisneros being your representative? Kim asked the crowd, to loud boos and cries of Nooo! The former state assemblywoman who worked for retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) is vying for his seat with Democrat Gil Cisneros. She led the crowd in chants of Enough is enough! and, though short-lived, Drain the swamp! Ive served you in Sacramento and Ive seen dysfunction personally, Kim continued. We cannot continue that route. She urged her supporters to stay and help make phone calls or walk neighborhoods. Lets get out there the 72 hours is really critical. Its all going to come down to a few votes, it could be your vote, she said pointing to her left, then pivoting right, it could be your vote. So dont sit back and do nothing. Every night I go to sleep thinking, OK, how many more votes can I get or how many more people can I call tomorrow? Kim said. It can be physically exhausting but Im mentally, emotionally very energized. She listed off her events so far that day and the next one she was heading to. Thats just what I can remember, she said. Im living one hour at a time at this point. Kims campaign invited press to two of her events on Saturday. After she was whisked away to her next event a high tea fundraiser in Walnut, a couple dozen volunteers remained. John Freeman, a statewide field manager for the state Republican Party, tried to pump them up. This is the Super Bowl. Were not in an NFL stadium, were not getting paid millions of dollars, but you know what? Freeman said. Were walking on the field right now. This is that high-stakes-level game. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Its going to be tough out there Democratic candidate Katie Porter speaks to volunteers in Mission Viejo. Jon Bauman, Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na, is in the background. (Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times ) Judging from the cheers in the crowd, about half those assembled at Katie Porters campaign headquarters in Mission Viejo Sunday morning were old enough to remember 70s rock n roll star Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na. Jon Bauman, as Bowzer is known off stage, said it was her position on senior issues including retirement and social security that has him out supporting Porter over her opponent, incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. I want you to make sure every phone is called and every door is knocked, he told the crowd of about 80 volunteers. There has never been a more important election. Both Bauman and his nephew, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, were interrupted by yells from Trump supporters coming from an adjoining hillside. We love Trump, the voice cried out. We love him too, he makes great fodder, the younger Bauman retorted, before introducing Porter. Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and first-time candidate, acknowledged the uphill battle some of her canvassers might face in this more conservative end of the long-red Orange County district. I know its going to be tough out there, she said, motioning to the hillside. But she said the attacks meant the other side viewed her campaign as a significant threat. This election is going to be close, she said. If we dont fight all the way to the finish line, until 8 oclock on Tuesday, this could slip away. Bowzer then took to a keyboard piano to lead the crowd in a reworded rendition of the song Good Night Sweetheart: Good night, Mimi Walters, he crooned. A woman in a black tank top, jeans and flip flops holding a cup of coffee later joined the crowd with her two sons, 17 and 14, the younger one wearing a Trump 2016 T-shirt. She declined to give her name, saying she was concerned about being attacked, but said she lived up the hill and said she had been the one yelling. She said she was encouraging her sons to talk to people on both sides and make up their own minds. We need to have a government that runs the way government teachers are telling kids its supposed to be run, said the woman, a retired registered dental assistant who voted early for Mimi Walters. Referring to Democrats, she said: Theyve had control over all these years and Californias gone to crap. Among those canvassing was Stacie Campbell, 37, who was at the launch with her husband Jerome and three children, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. Campbell, a Mission Viejo resident who runs a business, had never canvassed or volunteered for campaigns before, and her husband is a French citizen and unable to vote. She said they had been talking to their children the older ones are 5 and 2 about the presidency and the government since Trumps election. Together, they worked on homemade Katie Porter lawn signs and put them up around town. This is the first time its felt like a big deal and there isnt a president up for election, she said. Because her city is a mix of conservatives and liberals her next-door neighbor is an NRA-supporting Republican she the race felt m Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, presides over the second meeting of the presidium of the first session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, capital of China, March 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The presidium of the first session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body, on Monday adopted a recommended name list of candidates for national committee new leadership. The list included nominees of the chairperson, vice chairpersons, secretary-general and standing committee members of the 13th CPPCC National Committee. A draft method of election was also adopted in principle at the second meeting of the presidium, which was presided over by Wang Yang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Participants deliberated a draft resolution on the work report of the Standing Committee of the 12th CPPCC National Committee, a draft resolution on an amendment to the CPPCC charter, and a draft political resolution on the first session of 13th CPPCC National Committee. It was decided at the meeting that the recommended name list and all the drafts would be submitted to CPPCC members for discussion and consultation. The CPPCC is an important organ for multiparty cooperation and political consultation led by the CPC. Its annual session this year, which opened on March 3, will run until March 15. The closely watched special congressional election in western Pennsylvania was at a virtual tie with almost all the votes counted Tuesday night a result that suggests deep trouble for Republicans in this falls midterm election. As the final ballots were tallied in a district that President Trump carried by a large margin in 2016, the tightness of the contest, regardless of the final winner, provided further indications that Republican campaign themes are proving insufficient to offset highly motivated Democratic voters. The Republican establishment and Trump himself poured substantial resources and energy into the race, seeking to avoid the embarrassment of losing a district in which Democrats havent been competitive for years. But despite being heavily outspent, and with limited help from the national party, the Democratic candidate, Conor Lamb, a former Marine and political neophyte, was narrowly leading his opponent, state lawmaker Rick Saccone. With all but some absentee and provisional ballots counted, Lamb led by about 600 votes, or 0.2%. Advertisement It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it. You did it, the 33-year-old candidate told cheering supporters. Republicans, however, had not conceded the race. We are still fighting the fight. Its not over yet, Saccone told his backers. A final count of the remaining ballots may not be complete until at least the end of the week, officials said, and given the tight margin, the losing campaign could request a recount. But even with the outcome unresolved, the results seem likely to energize Democrats and move activists in the party to rethink where they can compete. Democratic strategists generally believe the partys best chances to unseat Republicans this year are in suburban districts with large numbers of college-educated, white-collar voters who may have been turned off by Trump. But in Lamb, Democrats found a candidate who connected in a heavily blue-collar district deeply skeptical of the national Democratic Party. He staunchly backed the rights of gun owners, personally opposes abortion, and wants Nancy Pelosi out as House Democratic leader. The Pennsylvania election follows a pattern that has been evident for the last year: Even in elections that the presidents party has won, the trends have been troubling for Republicans. Democratic candidates have made surprisingly strong showings in some of the deepest-red territory in the country. In the immediate term, the outcome in the Pennsylvania race is largely symbolic. It will not change the balance of power in Congress, and the winners term will be short, lasting just through the end of the year. Advertisement Moreover, the district, Pennsylvanias 18th, is slated to be erased before the fall election. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ordered the redrawing of the states political boundaries, finding they were improperly designed to favor Republicans. Lamb and Saccone would each have to compete in a new district in November. Yet symbolic races can have concrete impacts: Republican operatives have feared that a loss in Pennsylvania would further propel a wave of retirements by GOP congressional incumbents, placing up for grabs even more seats and increasing the potential for Democrats to win control of one or both chambers of Congress. In a district filled with former steel and coal workers whose employment prospects and standard of living have diminished with globalization, the race predictably became a referendum on Trumps policies. Throughout the campaign, Saccone and his allies emphasized the tax cuts the president championed. They labored to paint Lamb as a loyalist to Pelosi (D-San Francisco), even after Lamb said publicly that he would not support keeping her in the leadership job. Trumps announcement that he would impose tariffs on imported steel seemed timed to propel Saccone forward. Advertisement But Saccone continued to sputter. GOP operatives complained privately that he was a lackluster candidate. Defeat, if it happened, would be more a reflection of his energy deficit and disconnect with voters than any broader concerns Trumps base has with how the Republicans are running Washington, they argued in the days leading up to the election. Unlike Trump, Saccone showed little affinity for the rank-and-file union workers who make up a big share of the districts electorate. He is a strident right to work proponent who has antagonized the same organized labor groups that had endorsed the Republican who vacated the House seat in October, Tim Murphy. Scandal forced Murphy to make an abrupt exit after texts surfaced showing the antiabortion crusader had encouraged a staffer with whom he was having an affair to seek an abortion. Abortion then went on to play big in the race to succeed him. Republicans tried to paint Lamb as an abortion rights zealot, but it proved a struggle. Lambs position on abortion and most other social issues, including guns, is not far to the left of Saccones. Advertisement As Saccone relied on national Republican groups to bail out his campaign and funnel millions of dollars into attacking his opponent, Lamb carefully avoided affiliations with the national Democrats who remain unpopular in the district. Working-class favorite Joe Biden was warmly welcomed to stump for Lamb. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other urban liberals kept their distance. Lamb was so wary of the party on so many issues that Trump joked while in Pennsylvania on Saturday that Lamb was pretending to be a Republican. As the campaign unfolded, however, Democrats were not complaining. They have been desperate to notch victories or even compete in Rust Belt regions like Pennsylvanias 18th Congressional District, where dismayed former factory and mine workers had abandoned the partys candidates in large numbers. Tuesdays results proved a Democrat could compete in such a district. Regardless of the final outcome, that message was as cheering for Democrats as it was ominous for Trump and his party. Advertisement evan.halper@latimes.com Twitter: @evanhalper UPDATES: 2:00 a.m. March 14: This article was updated with statements by both campaigns. Advertisement 8 p.m.: This article was updated with prospects for absentee and provisional ballots. 7:30 p.m.: This article was updated with near-final returns. 6:20 p.m.: This article was updated with early returns showing Lamb in the lead. This article was originally published at 2:59 a.m. March 13. President Trump saw just what he wanted to see on his first visit to California as president on Tuesday physical evidence of the big, beautiful wall separating the United States and Mexico that was the central promise of his campaign yet steered clear of the resistance to his presidency that has come to define the state. Standing amid cement-and-steel prototypes at the Mexican border, Trump had harsh words for the states Democratic officeholders who oppose the wall as well as his other anti-immigration policies. Protesters, including deported veterans on the Tijuana side, were kept mostly out of sight. The president accused Gov. Jerry Brown of doing a terrible job running the state, said residents would begin fleeing California to avoid its high taxes, vowed to beat the state in court and in Congress over its so-called immigrant sanctuary laws and insisted that he would build a new, bigger wall. For the people that say, No wall, if you didnt have walls over here, you wouldnt even have a country, Trump said, in a variation of one of his favorite lines. Advertisement The border wall is truly our first line of defense. The presidents overnight trip to California, coming later in his term than for any White House occupant since Franklin D. Roosevelt, was brief in duration but long on symbolism as Trump personally confronted the blue state he has clashed with most. The president did not mix with ordinary residents, let alone the many protesters at his San Diego and Los Angeles stops. He spoke to senior Border Patrol officials while inspecting the wall prototypes for about an hour, addressed service members at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and, finally, mingled with deep-pocketed donors at a $5-million campaign fundraiser in the Beverly Park home of Edward Glazer, co-chairman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The attention Trump wanted to bring to his signature immigration issue was overshadowed, as often happens with administration initiatives, by the presidents own actions in this case a new round of chaos within his leadership team after the abrupt firing Tuesday of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Trump called Tillerson as Air Force One was flying to California, hours after firing his secretary in a morning tweet. Trump appeared to relish his visit to the border wall prototypes, pointing eagerly to charts and graphics shown to him. Im a builder; what I do best is build, he later told the troops at Miramar. He spoke with border agents about his preference for see-through walls, talked about the ugly aesthetics of current barriers and insisted the new versions would block smugglers who have the skills of professional mountain climbers. The ones that work the best arent necessarily the most expensive, he said approvingly. The president has yet to secure from Congress the $25 billion he seeks to build a wall, and its not clear whether even that would be enough. One estimate put the cost as high as $100 billion. His campaign promise that Mexico would pay for the wall has been a nonstarter in that country. Advertisement 1 / 41 Ian Jameson with the group Pasadenans and Altadenans Against Police Violence, shouts at a Trump supporter in Beverly Gardens Park in Beverly Hills Tuesday evening. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles TImes) 2 / 41 Pro and anti-Trump denonstrators get into a verbal confrontation at Beverly Gardens Park in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, Mar. 13, 2018. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 41 Police wait at the entrance to the Intercontinental Hotel for the arrival of President Trump in downtown Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles TImes) 4 / 41 LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 13, 2018 - Protesters make their presence known at the corner of 7th and Figueroa Streets in front of the Intercontinental Hotel where President Trump is staying in downtown Los Angeles on March 13, 2018. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 41 Ve Magni of Los Angeles holds a protest sign during a rally at Beverly Gardens Park in Beverly Hills. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 41 Protesters gather at the Beverly Gardens Park in Beverly Hills, as President Trump attended a local fundraiser. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 41 A supporter of President Trump is confronted by anti-Trump demonstrators at Beverly Gardens Park in Beverly Hills. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 41 An anti-Trump demonstrator waves a flag during a rally at Beverly Gardens Park in Beverly Hills. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 41 President Trumps mortorcade passes by crowds on Ocean Park Blvd. in Santa Monica. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles TImes) 10 / 41 Protesters wait for President Trumps motorcade to pass by at the intersection of Ocean Park Blvd. and Centinela Ave. in Santa Monica. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles TImes) 11 / 41 President Donald Trump arrives in the rain at Los Angeles International Airport on March 13. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 41 John and Diana Turano of La Puente, wait in the rain hoping to get a glimpse of President Trump when he arrives at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles TImes) 13 / 41 Protesters at the Santa Monica airport observation deck awating the arrival of President Trump. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles TImes) 14 / 41 Security guards stand at the ready across the street from the Intercontinental Hotel where President Trump will spend the night in downtown Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles TImes) 15 / 41 Supporter Bianca Turano, 23, from La Puente, waits across the street from the Intercontinental Hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of the President Trump. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 41 President Trump speak to military personnel at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 17 / 41 President Trump speaks to military personnel at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 18 / 41 President Donald Trump speaks to military personnel at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. (MANDEL NGAN / AFP/Getty Images) 19 / 41 President Trump speaks to military personnel at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. (MANDEL NGAN / AFP/Getty Images) 20 / 41 President Trump inspects proposed border wall prototypes near San Diego on March 13. (MANDEL NGAN / AFP/Getty Images) 21 / 41 President Trump with a photo of the San Diego border area from the 90s and now. (MANDEL NGAN / AFP/Getty Images) 22 / 41 President Trump inspects proposed border wall prototypes near San Diego on March 13. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 23 / 41 President Trump and officials discuss proposed border wall prototypes near San Diego on March 13. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 24 / 41 President Trump asks questions about proposed border wall prototypes near San Diego on March 13. (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images) 25 / 41 President Trumps motorcade makes its way along the border where he inspected wall prototypes near San Diego on March 13. (MANDEL NGAN / AFP/Getty Images) 26 / 41 President Trump steps off Air Force One upon his arrival at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego on March 13. (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images) 27 / 41 Protesters against President Trump rally in Otay Mesa as the president tours border wall prototypes on March 13. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles TImes) 28 / 41 President Trump waves from Air Force One upon his arrival at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego on March 13. (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images) 29 / 41 Supporters of President Trump wave as his motorcade passes by near the border in San Diego. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 41 Adrian Asencio, 73, from Redlands, salutes as the National Anthem is played for a rally supporting President Trump a few miles away from the border wall prototypes near San Diego. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 41 Police use a bomb-sniffing dog to inspect a pinata that protesters brought to an anti-Trump rally in Tijuana on March 13. (Gregory Bull / Associated Press) 32 / 41 Anti-Trump protestors demonstrate on the Mexico side of the border before the arrival of President Trump. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 41 Angela and Tosh Ervin of Oceanside join supporters of President Trump at a rally near the border in San Diego. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 41 A Trump protestor hangs a banner on the Mexico side of the border. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 41 Kira Innis of Los Angeles yells out her support for President Trump at a rally lnear the broder in San Diego. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 41 A policeman looks through the fence on the Mexico side of the border as U.S. snipers observe near the wall prototypes. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 41 Protesters rally in Otay Mesa near where President Trumps motocade will be pass by. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 41 Protesters rally in Otay Mesa near where President Trumps motocade will pass by. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 41 Protesters rally in Otay Mesa near where President Trumps motocade will pass by. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 41 San Diego County Sheriffs stand in formation to separate protesters and counter protesters on in Otay Mesa. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 41 A journalist peers through a hole in the current border wall in Tijuana ahead of President Trumps visit to view border wall prototypes. (Gregory Bull / Associated Press) On Tuesday, Trump introduced a new argument unsubstantiated and contrary to various studies asserting that his proposed wall would more than pay for itself. It will save thousands and thousands of lives, save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars by reducing crime, drug flow, welfare fraud and burdens on schools and hospitals, he said. The wall will save hundreds of billions of dollars many, many times what its going to cost. Yet several studies have shown that immigrants, both legal and illegal, provide benefits for the economy because many work and pay taxes. Many in the country illegally do not take advantage of government services for fear they will be discovered and deported. Fact checkers have agreed that illegal immigrants add some cost to taxpayers but have called Trumps claim that the cost exceeds $100 billion mostly false. Advertisement Trump also insisted again Tuesday that California political leaders actually want walls, despite what they say publicly in opposition. The state of California is begging us to build walls in certain areas. They dont tell you that, he said. That was hardly the only shot he took at state leaders and their policies, especially the sanctuary laws that are the subject of a new administration lawsuit. He said the laws limiting local government cooperation with federal immigration enforcement officers are the best friend of the criminal the smugglers, the traffickers, the gang members. Theyre all taking refuge. Trumps comments came a day after the spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcements San Francisco office, James Schwab, announced he was resigning because of what he said were false claims by administration officials about the purported security threat from immigrants in the country illegally. Schwab said officials inflated the number of suspected criminals that they said eluded capture in recent California raids because of warnings from Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, whom Trump lambasted again in San Diego. Advertisement The president singled out Schaaf for criticism, as he has in recent days, but he reserved special criticism for Brown, even as he called him a nice guy. Gov. Brown does a very poor job running California, Trump said. They have the highest taxes in the United States. The place is totally out of control. You have sanctuary cities where you have criminals living. Noting that he owns property in the state, Trump said, The taxes are way, way out of whack, and people are going to start to move pretty soon. Brown tweeted in response to Trumps Twitter account: Thanks for the shout-out, @realDonaldTrump. But bridges are still better than walls. And California remains the 6th largest economy in the world and the most prosperous state in America. #Facts. Advertisement Trumps visit brought him to the home turf of the resistance movement against his presidency. Immigrant, labor and LGBTQ rights activists planned protests in multiple cities. A few dozen were near the wall site when he arrived, one holding a sign saying, No Wall, No Hate, No Trump. Protesters included some deported veterans of U.S. military service, who shouted from the Mexican side of the border, out of Trumps sight. We just want a few minutes with the president. Hes our commander-in-chief, said Hector Lopez, a former resident of Madera who said he served six years in the U.S. Army Reserve. Lopez said the veterans want Trump to give them legal status to return to the United States. Many Republican candidates kept their distance from Trump on Tuesday, given his low popularity in the state. Advertisement Rep. Darrell Issa, the Vista Republican who is not seeking reelection, was an exception. Greeting Trump at the Marine base, he gave the president a green baseball cap that said, Make the Hornet Great Again, a reference to the F/A-18 aircraft of that name, one of which was parked nearby. Fellow GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter of Alpine joined Trump while he examined wall prototypes. Democratic politicians in the state, meanwhile, issued denunciations of Trump. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a front-runner in the governors race, released an online animated video caricaturing the president and his immigration policies. One image showed Trumps Make America Great Again slogan reimagined as Make America White Again. Its official: Donald Trump finally worked up the nerve to visit California, bringing his fear-of-everything agenda with him, Newsom said in a voiceover. Lets get real. Donald Trumps border wall is a monument to idiocy. A 1,900-mile waste of taxpayer money that news flash is impossible to complete. The political action committee for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is considering a run for president, ran ads coinciding with Trumps arrival. In a fundraising email, Garcetti wrote, Theres one thing you need to know: California Republicans and Donald Trump are like peas in a pod. Advertisement Trump will leave California on Wednesday for events in St. Louis before returning to Washington. As a candidate, Trump boasted that he could become the first GOP presidential hopeful to win California in nearly three decades. He wound up losing to Hillary Clinton in the state by 4.3 million votes, leading to a loss in the nationwide popular vote that Trump often laments. In California, just 22% of voters approved of the job he was doing as president in a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll in November; 66% disapproved. In a state so large, that still leaves millions of people eager to see the president clash with Democrats, who control all the levers of political power. One Trump supporter held up a sign visible from the presidential motorcade: Keep calm and build the wall. Advertisement Times staff writers Seema Mehta in Los Angeles and John Myers in Sacramento contributed to this report. brian.bennett@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @ByBrianBennett noah.bierman@latimes.com Twitter: @noahbierman Advertisement UPDATES: 7:00 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details and for clarity. 5:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional, later developments and quotes. 2:50 p.m.: This article was updated with news of Trumps activities and remarks. Advertisement 11:40 a.m.: This article was updated with news about Trumps arrival. This article was originally published at 4:20 a.m. This is what it looks like when the president holds a fundraiser in a gated community Police are shutting down Mulholland in anticipation of the presidential motorcade moving. These officers are from San Pedro, including one who is practically my neighbor in Long Beach. pic.twitter.com/ynfXgGRabD Seema (@LATSeema) March 14, 2018 President Trump has left the Beverly Park mansion of Shari and Edward Glazer after spending several hours talking to Republican donors. The Glazer residence a brick home painted tan with a slate-colored roof sits at the end of a cul-de-sac. Beverly Park is a gated community east of the Beverly Glen neighborhood. Current and former residents include media magnates Sumner Redstone and Haim Saban and celebrities Denzel Washington, Sylvester Stallone, Gene Simmons and Rod Stewart. The community is part of Los Angeles but carries Beverly Hills 90210 ZIP Code. Donors who paid a minimum of $35,000 and up to $250,000 per ticket arrived at a staging area down the hill from the house in the early evening. They were brought up to the fundraiser in golf carts, passing a row of magnolia trees along the way. Edward Glazer is co-chairman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A large white tent could be seen in the backyard of the house, lined with tall trees. During the event, a faint smell of marijuana seemed to waft from a property a few doors down. Mulholland closed at Coldwater Canyon, traffic backed up for miles. pic.twitter.com/j3yubt0d23 Seema (@LATSeema) March 13, 2018 The fundraiser and its high-profile headliner prompted many street closures, and police shut down Mulholland Drive so that the Trump motorcade could swiftly leave the area. It also forced residents to change their daily routines. Valerie Price Simon, 55, had to park her car down the road and hike up Beverly Glen carrying her groceries (steaks and mozzarella). Steve Wazeji, 38, was late to relieve the nanny, who was watching his two-year-old daughter. Wazeji said he voted for Trump in 2016 because he believed the billionaire cant be bought. Asked about the fundraiser still underway where donors were ponying up as much as a quarter million dollars to spend time with the president, Wazeji paused and then said, If its for the RNC, its okay. Valerie Price Simon parked her car at temple and hiked up Beverly Glen carrying steaks and mozzarella only to find she couldnt make it home bc of Mulholland shutdown. Shes not pleased. We had the fire, and then we had the floods after the rains. Its a narrow little street. pic.twitter.com/NOYMB2VQjl Seema (@LATSeema) March 14, 2018 Steve Wazeji, a Trump supporter, is frustrated because he cant get home to relieve his nanny because of Mulholland shutdown. At least give us one way to get home, he said. pic.twitter.com/m5zJ0HgUVH Seema (@LATSeema) March 14, 2018 Simmons, the lead singer of KISS, offered a nuanced take on Trump disrupting his neighborhood as he sat down Tuesday evening for dinner with wife Shannon Tweed and other family members at an Italian restaurant in Beverly Glen. I have a very American point of view. Im totally supportive of anyone who wants to demonstrate thats the American way, he said. Whats being lost is civility and class. Were acting like animals on both sides of the aisle. Whether [Trump] is the president they voted for, he won in the Electoral College, Simmons added. If you dont like reality, vote and change it. Simmons, wearing trademark all-black with his long hair tied in a ponytail, demurred when asked who he voted for in the 2016 presidential election. Never ask a woman her age, and never ask anyone who they voted for, he said. He wasnt too worried about the street closures, saying, The police like me. Back at the fundraiser, expected to raise $5 million for Trumps reelection and the Republican National Committee, it was difficult to discern who was in attendance. Glazer, 48, is the son of the late billionaire Malcolm Glazer. In addition to the Bucs, his family owns the Manchester United soccer team. Glazer is also president of First Allied Corp., the familys real estate company. Glazer donated $98,000 to Trumps 2016 presidential campaign and $250,000 to his inauguration. But he has also supported Democrats. In 2016, he gave $5,400 to Hillary Clintons presidential campaign on the same day he donated $33,400 to the RNC. 10 p.m.: This post has been updated with additional details. With the opening of China's annual two sessions, People's Daily will launch a series of promotional videos called China in One Minute. Today's first episode is Moving at warp speed. In one minute, 33 babies are born. In one minute, 20 new families are started. In one minute, 26 people secure new jobs. In one minute, 35217 tourists travel. In one minute, 46,804G of mobile data is used. In one minute, 10.43 million yuan online retail sales are made. In one minute, couriers receive and deliver 76,000 parcels. In one minute, mobile transactions worth 379 million yuan are made. In one minute, riding shared bicycles reduces more than 13.2 tons of carbon emissions. In one minute, the Jiaolong submersible descends 50m at most. In one minute, a Fuxing bullet train travels 5,833m. In one minute, the Sunway Taihu Light supercomputer processes 7,500,000 trillion calculations. In one minute, 3.33 million yuan is invested in research. In one minute, 140000 square meters of forests are planted. In one minute, 475.6m rural roads are retreaded. In one minute, 55 vehicles are manufactured. In one minute, 1,176 tons of grain is produced. In one minute, goods worth 52.88 million yuan are traded. In one minute, 157 million yuan in GDP is created. China's achievements happen every minute. With decades of hard work, socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era. Forty years of reform and opening up contribute to a China Miracle. A new era, a new starting point. (Compiled by Li Lei, Han Xiaomeng) A deputy to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) casts her ballot on a draft amendment to the country's Constitution at the third plenary meeting of the first session of the 13th NPC in Beijing, capital of China, March 11, 2018. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin) Revisions to parts of China's Constitution is believed to be a key measure to further modernize China's system and capacity for governance. Chinese President Xi Jinping, when joining a panel discussion with deputies to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) from Guangdong province last Wednesday, said that he totally endorsed the draft constitutional amendment. Revising part of the Constitution is a major decision made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) from the overall and strategic height of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, stressed Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). It is also a major move to advance law-based governance and modernize China's system and capacity for governance, Xi added. Chinas current Constitution was adopted in 1982 and amended in 1988, 1993, 1999 and 2004. The current draft, proposed by the CPC Central Committee and adopted by the NPC Standing Committee in January, was submitted to the first session of 13th NPC for deliberation on March 5. The bill enshrines Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as a constitutional authority and a new guiding theory for the country. Xi Jinping thought was written into CPC Constitution at the 19th CPC National Congress held last October to realize a unified guiding theory for the whole Party. The amendment to the country's Constitution translates the Party's guiding ideology is a much needed move for the development of the Party and country, People's Daily said in a commentary adding that the decision would ensure high-level unity among the will of the Party and country as well as the aspiration of the people. A great unity in thinking is a precondition to guarantee a nation's creativity, cohesion and strong ability, while a country pursuing modernization has to uphold such scientific theory as guidance, the paper explained. "The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics," read the proposal. The addition, an important part of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, was included in the clauses on the fundamental system of the country. The CPC leadership is not only a basic guarantee for China to secure success in all the revolution, construction and reform fronts, but also a fundamental political principle for scientific socialism, professor Zhu Lingjun with Party School of the Central Committee of CPC said. The Party's leadership cannot be weakened, but only strengthened, he stressed, adding that the leading status of the CPC must be upheld whenever the fundamental law is revised. A deputy to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) from China's Yunnan province speaks during a panel discussion on the draft revision to China's Constitution, March 7, 2018. (Photo: Chen Bin, Peoples Daily) The revisions this time also covered CPC leadership, the president's term of office as well as supervisory commissions. These major institutional designs aim to improve the leadership system of the Party and the country and modernize the country's system and capacity for governance. The amended term of office can better keep a centralized and unified leadership of the Party, the country as well as the army, Peoples Daily praised the new changes in a commentary titled A major institutional arrangement to ensure Party and countrys long-term stability published on March 1. "Such a revision doesn't mean there will be a change in the retirement system of the Party and state leaders or a lifelong tenure for these officials," the paper said, adding that this institutional arrangement is conducive to optimizing the leadership system of the Party and the country. The NPC is the highest organ of state power in China. Its permanent body is the NPC Standing Committee. The NPC and its Standing Committee exercise the legislative power of the State. When a customer opens the well-worn door to Eric Muhammads barbershop in Inglewood, hell be looking to relax in the comfort and camaraderie of a neighborhood meeting place and maybe to take a little off the top or sides. If that visitor is among the close to 40% of African American men with high blood pressure, he might also get a little taken off the top of that vital health reading. For the record: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the two pharmacists who participated in this study as a black man and a white woman. New research suggests that shops like Muhammads A New You Barber and Beauty Salon might be just the place to rescue African American men from an epidemic that has ravaged their ranks: uncontrolled hypertension. The study found that when a group of African American men with untreated high blood pressure got a screening and a friendly nudge from their barber, as well as a visit to the shop from a pharmacist, close to two-thirds of the men brought their blood pressure into a healthy range. Advertisement Their systolic blood pressure the top-line number that measures the pressure in your vessels when the heart beats fell by an average of 27 points. In addition, their diastolic blood pressure the bottom number that measures pressure on the vessels walls between heart beats fell by an average of nearly 15 points. The 132 men who got a barbershop visit from a pharmacist were almost six times more likely to bring their blood pressure under control than were those who just got a barbers advice to eat better, exercise more and see a doctor. Fewer than 12% of the 171 men in the latter group brought their blood pressure under control. (Their average reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings were too small to be considered statistically significant.) The clinical trial was conducted from February 2015 to July 2017 in 52 black-owned barber shops across Los Angeles County. Two pharmacists specially trained to treat high blood pressure shuttled across a 450-square-mile area bringing advice and an array of medications to the studys participants. Bringing rigorous medicine directly to men in a barbershop, and making it so convenient for them, really made a difference, said Dr. Ronald G. Victor, who led the new study. We had hoped for maybe a seven-point difference between the two groups in their systolic blood pressure, the one that is considered a better predictor of heart attack and stroke risk, Victor said. But this was a really big difference the kind that could make an impact on a national level if the initiative were scaled up, he said. We were really ecstatic. The trial results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented Monday at the American College of Cardiologys annual meeting. Victor said that the inclusion of two pharmacists a white woman and a woman of color, each of whom turned in similar results was the secret special sauce that appeared to bring participants blood pressure in check. But skilled as these pharmacists were, Victor said they might not have gained the trust and influence they eventually enjoyed if they had not been welcomed into barbershops and introduced by their trusted proprietors. Advertisement I cant emphasize enough how much the barbers buy-in made all the difference, said Victor, the associate director of Cedars-Sinais Smidt Heart Institute. The African American shop owners who participated in the study had been in business an average of 17 to 18 years, and the men they enrolled had typically been coming to their shops for more than a decade, typically once every two weeks. Muhammad was among the first to sign on to the study. The proprietor of his shop for 18 years, Muhammad helped recruit nearly half of the other barbers who participated in the trial. At the busy corner of La Brea and Florence avenues, Muhammad presides over a refuge whose door is open whether youre a doctor or a gang member. For a lot of people, he said, just being here is a blessing. Muhammad said he has always considered himself a potential agent of health promotion. But it certainly surprised me for a doctor to come up with that idea, he said. Advertisement Victor said that his own hypertension had been diagnosed by a barber during a training session for an earlier version of this study in Texas. When Victor protested that he must have been momentarily tense while getting tested, the barber gently admonished him. If you cant relax in my barber chair, Doc, youve got a problem, the stylist told him. Now if youre gonna talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk. Close to 40% of African American men have high blood pressure, a higher rate than any other ethnic group. And about one-third of those men compared with 43% of white men and almost 50% of black women have brought their hypertension under control with medication. This exacts a breathtaking toll among African American men in terms of death and disability. Their high rates of heart attack and stroke largely explain the 3.4-year difference in the life expectancy between blacks and whites in the United States. Advertisement Victor was optimistic that barbershops could help close that gap. These are magical places, he said. Theyre a window into some of the most positive aspects of black mens social lives: loyalty, friendship, inclusiveness. There are dads bringing their sons in, customers who have come to the same place since they were children. These men were not in the clinic, thats for sure. In African American communities, we can map the places of black barbers right there alongside black ministers as agents of trust and authority, said Vassar College history professor Quincy T. Mills. Prospective patients might ordinarily view physicians and pharmacists with a suspicion borne of years of systemic abuses, Mills said. But in the familiar environment of their barbershop, I suspect the men were comforted that these interactions were happening in a crowd of people, giving them space to ask others, to push back. Advertisement Mills, the author of Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America, said that a mans health is not a subject that routinely comes up while he is in the chair. But a barbers position of leadership, his association with personal care and the connections he forges over time with his customers may allow him to stretch the bounds of what is permissible. That level of trust in the barber is the first critical piece here, he said. melissa.healy@latimes.com @LATMelissaHealy Advertisement MORE IN SCIENCE DIY or die: How an Australian outback nurse diagnosed his own heart attack and saved his life This is nanowood, a new invention that could greatly reduce humanitys carbon footprint On Twitter, fake news spreads faster and further than real news and bots arent to blame Its no secret that the United States spends far more on healthcare than the worlds other wealthy nations, yet we get far less bang for our bucks. By many measures, we Americans are in worse health than our global peers. Infant mortality here (at 5.8 deaths per 1,000 live births) is far above the average for a group of 11 rich countries that includes the U.S. (3.6 deaths per 1,000 live births). More than 70% of Americans are either overweight or obese; among all 11 countries, the average is 56%. And our life expectancy of 78.8 years is the lowest of any of the 11 countries, whose combined average is 81.7 years. How can this be when America spends 17.8% of its GDP on health nearly 55% more than the group as a whole? Newly available data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Commonwealth Fund help answer this perennial question. Researchers from Harvard University and the London School of Economics and Political Science combed through the data to see whether common perceptions about the U.S. health system were indeed true. They focused on how well we stacked up against 10 countries with high incomes, high health spending, and populations with similar demographic characteristics that have similar burdens of illness, they explained. The countries in this group were Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The results of the analysis were published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Heres a look at which items of conventional wisdom appear to be true and which are not supported by the data. Americans spend more on healthcare because they use more health services. False. Americans did rank at or near the top in several categories of healthcare utilization. For instance, they ranked first in coronary artery bypass graft surgeries (79 per 100,000 people; the average for all countries was 54 per 100,000) and total knee replacements (226 per 100,000 people; the average for all countries was 163 per 100,000). They also got the most CT scans (245 per 1,000 people; the average was 151 per 1,000) and the second-most MRIs (118 per 1,000 people; the average was 82 per 1,000). But overall healthcare use was relatively similar to other high-income nations, the researchers found. Even in the areas where the U.S. was at or near the top, this utilization did not appear to explain a large part of the higher spending in the U.S. Americans spend more on health care because they dont spend enough on social programs. False. Among all 11 countries, public spending on health amounted to 8.3% of GDP and the United States was just below that average. The U.K., Switzerland, Canada and Australia all spent even less. The difference was that public spending made up most of the health spending in the other 10 countries, but it accounted for less than half of total health spending here. In other words, the United States was the only country where the private sector outspent the public sector. Even when the researchers looked at other forms of public spending that might have downstream effects on health including education, unemployment benefits and pensions for senior citizens the U.S. was on the low side, but not by much. Americans spend more on healthcare because they have too many expensive specialists and not enough primary care doctors. False. Primary care doctors made up 43% of the physician workforce in the U.S., the same as the average for all 11 countries. Theres no sign that we have a glut of doctors in the U.S. The researchers tallied 2.6 physicians per 1,000 people here, compared with 3.3 physicians per 1,000 people in the 11 countries overall. The difference was that American doctors were paid far more than their international counterparts. For instance, a generalist who made $86,607 in Sweden or $108,564 in Australia earned $218,173 in the United States. (The average salary for generalists in all 11 countries was $133,723.) Likewise, a specialist who brought home $140,505 in Denmark or $153,180 in France made $316,000 here. (The average salary for specialists in all 11 countries was $182,657.) Nurses, too, were paid more in the U.S. ($74,160) than in the countries as a whole ($51,795). The researchers noted that the ratio of (cheaper) nurses to (more expensive) doctors was higher in the other 10 countries than it is here. Americans spend too much on healthcare because the fee-for-service system encourages doctors to order too many tests, procedures and check-ups. False. The OECD and Commonwealth Fund data did not back this up, the researchers said. Nor did they support the idea that defensive medicine that is, ordering services that are medically unnecessary in order to protect themselves against future lawsuits added substantially to the countrys overall healthcare bills. Americans spend too much on healthcare because prescription drugs are more expensive here. True. And its not even close. Overall, U.S. spending on pharmaceuticals was almost double the spending in comparison countries, the study authors wrote. They considered four drugs that are used to treat common conditions: Crestor (which lowers cholesterol), Lantus (a synthetic form of insulin), Advair (which can prevent an asthma attack or a flare-up of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and Humira (which treats rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases). All four medicines were more expensive in the U.S. than anywhere else. In three cases, the American price was more than twice as high as the next-highest price. Americans purchase the most generic drugs they account for 84% of all medications used in the U.S. But brand-name drugs add up to more than 70% of the countrys total medication bill. High drug prices have been viewed as critical to innovation, the authors noted. Whether innovation justifies high levels of spending is not clear. Americans spend too much on healthcare because our administrative costs are through the roof. True. The costs of planning, regulating, and managing health systems and services ate up 8% of total health spending in the U.S. For the sake of comparison, the average for all 11 countries was 3%. That might be related to our unique health insurance system, which depends on people being insured through their employers or by purchasing individual policies for themselves and their families. Overall, 55% of Americans had private insurance as their primary policy. Germany was a distant second, at 11%. In every other country in the study, the number was either 0% or the question of private-versus-public insurance was not applicable. The U.S. was also alone in having a voluntary enrollment system in all other countries, enrollment in a health plan was either compulsory or automatic. As a result, the percentage of people with health insurance in those countries ranged from 99.8% to 100%. In the U.S., its 90%. Americans spend too much on healthcare because healthcare is just more expensive. True. This is not a very satisfying conclusion, and there were big gaps in the data that prevented the study authors from being as specific about this as theyd have liked to be. But if Americans arent using more healthcare services than their counterparts, they must be paying more for the services theyre using. Head-to-head pricing data was only available for certain procedures, and it suggests this logic was correct. According to the International Federation of Health Plans, the average cost of a coronary artery bypass graft surgery in 2013 was $75,345 in the U.S. but only $36,509 in Switzerland and $15,742 in the Netherlands. Likewise, a CT scan cost $896 in the U.S. compared with $500 in Australia and $97 in Canada. Americans can bring their spending in line other countries by cutting back on wasteful healthcare use. False. Efforts targeting utilization alone are unlikely to reduce the gap in spending between the United States and other high-income countries, the study authors concluded. Instead, a more concerted effort to reduce prices and administrative costs is likely needed. Support our journalism Please consider subscribing today to support stories like this one. Get full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks. Already a subscriber? Your support makes our work possible. Thank you. karen.kaplan@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter @LATkarenkaplan and "like" Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook. MORE IN SCIENCE The U.S. healthcare system needs more skills for paying bills, study shows Take a little off the top: How visits to the barbershop helped reduce blood pressure in African American men This is 'nanowood,' a new invention that could greatly reduce humanity's carbon footprint A new organization has been created for Armenian young adults to network and access resources that will assist them on their career paths or help them choose a career. Its called Nerouj, which is a compound word that originated from the Armenian words Nerkin and ouj, meaning inner strength. Its mission is to lead Armenian young adults in reconnecting with the church through education, inner support and strengthening of their identity to keep the Armenian heritage alive and give purpose through inner spirituality and morality. Founded in November, the group held its first event in mid-February called The New Connect. It featured a panel discussion with area professionals followed by a question-and-answer period and then a breakout session that allowed members to network with each other as well as panel participants. The three-hour program was held at the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church in Burbank. Moderator was Brian Kabateck, a consumer attorney and founding and managing partner of Kabateck Brown Kellner LLP. The panelists were Glendale financial advisor Raffi H. Kendirjian, cardiologist Dr. Antreas Hindoyan, Jacqueline Chooljian, magistrate judge, Central District of California; songwriter/music producer Joe Khajadourian and Wendy Bendoni, chair of the fashion marketing department of Woodbury University. The organization wanted to create a platform for young professionals to come together and network with each other and pay it forward by mentoring the next generation of high school and college students and other emerging professionals who are still pondering a career choice, said Silvana Vartanian, Nerouj chair. Attendees ranged in age from 18 to 30. Its so important to make these connections at a younger age, Vartanian said. I have a great, diverse team of young professionals and college students and, through their feedback, they have been able to pinpoint exactly the best way to gather this group. Future events will be smaller focus groups centered around specific professions, lectures and casual mixers for networking. Our group name stands for inner strength in Armenian so this program is meant to bring forth their inner strength in mentoring, helping and being active participants within our community, she added. Other committee leaders are Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of North America; Father Khajag Shahbazian, event chair Deanna Nalbandian, and advisers Alice Chakrian and Rosette Kaloustian. Archbishop Derderian said he was inspired to see the youth of the diocese and this community so engaged in projects and missions that guide the well-being of the community. There is so much destruction in todays life and todays community, so to see this kind of event, it gives us hope, joy and inspiration, he said. I was amazed to witness the wisdom and leadership capability of our youth to organize such an event, he added. The archbishop marveled that the event drew close to 200 youth, and they actively participated. The panelists were superb, and moderator Brian Kabateck was amazing, he said. All of us have an inner strength. All we have to do is share it with one another. Gala benefits Family Promise homeless project Family Promise of the Verdugos has landed a most unusual prize for its upcoming fundraiser thats sure to attract collectors of Burbank TV history. A set of two original seats from NBCs Stage 1 the home of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson will definitely be the highlight of the live auction for the fourth annual gala titled Coming Up Roses on March 24 at the Rose Bowl Stadium. Proceeds will go to Family Promise programs to help homeless families regain their independence. Providence St. Joseph Medical Center will receive the Impact Award for its commitment to the homeless population in Burbank and surrounding areas. In addition, the Hands On, Hearts In Award will be presented to to Family Promise of the Verdugos founder Jenny Greene Smith. This award is given to an individual or organization that has made a significant impact on homelessness. There will be a dinner, silent auction and VIP tour of the stadium including the new 1922 Locker Room Museum. For tickets, visit www.FamilyPromiseVerdugos.org or call (818) 847-1547. JOYCE RUDOLPH can be reached at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com. Recently Costa Mesans For Responsible Government (CM4RG) invited me to be a guest speaker at a dinner, to provide them with a brief summary of what I think are important events I covered as I wrote hundreds of commentaries on these pages and on more than 3,400 posts on my blog, A Bubbling Cauldron, before I retired it last summer. Without humility, we spoke briefly about the awards the blog has won twice named the Best Blog in Orange County by OC Weekly and eight times being named to the DP 103 list. We also acknowledged the award presented by the three Costa Mesa city employees for our support of their efforts. We provided historical context about the Westside Improvers, a group of residents who, 15 years ago, were interested in improving that part of town by, basically, finding ways to reduce the number of Latinos on the Westside. Toward that end, the effective and efficient Job Center was closed and the Human Relations Committee was unceremoniously dumped. We reminded folks about Allan Mansoors first tour on the City Council and his role in making Latinos feel unwelcome by attempting to deputize every Costa Mesa police officer as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent and by becoming an honorary Minuteman. We spoke about the Benito Acosta event, where, during Mansoors watch as mayor, the Latino activist was dragged from City Council chambers by a half-dozen officers and arrested. That event was bogus and cost the city thousands of dollars in legal fees. We spoke of the seventh anniversary of the day, St. Patricks Day, when young Huy Pham leaped to his death from the roof of City Hall after he was informed he was to be given a layoff notice, along with more than 200 of his fellow employees. That date, and the weeks that followed, were dark times in our city. The mayor, Gary Monahan, refused to leave his bar to console grieving employees. Instead, he chose to remain there, celebrating the day and pouring beer for customers. That event, and the response by our leaders, drew unwelcome negative attention by the national news media. We gave our opinions about the change in the course of our city directed by a couple developer-friendly elected leaders and the negative impacts of decisions they made and policies and ordinances they fostered. We talked about two failed attempts to change our form of government to a charter city, and the quashed attempts to plow under large chunks of Fairview Park for playing fields. We addressed how that action and the now-infamous decomposed granite trail have caused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife folks to question our stewardship of that land. We discussed other blogs, some that were obviously created to compete with mine, which have come and gone, and how some social media sites I referred to them as anti-social sites have come to prominence lately with the same purpose. We had to speak about resident and far right-wing blogger Martin Millard and his negative influence in our city for decades, and how the Daily Pilot used to publish his opinions next to mine on the same page. And we spoke about his diminished influence in recent years. We spoke about many of the issues facing our city today. We talked about homelessness, the proliferation of rehab homes and the emergence of marijuana businesses in in the north part of the city a kind of circle of life thing. We addressed our understaffed police department and how it will take more, not fewer, cops to properly protect our city as the old challenges are compounded by new ones. We talked about the instability at the top of the CMPD. Since we moved to Costa Mesa in 1973, 10 men have held the position of chief of police some twice beginning with Roger Neth and Dave Snowden and right up to this date, where Rob Sharpnack leads the brave men and women of the department. We also spoke of the departure of experienced officers due to the work environment created by a couple elected leaders over the past decade and their ill-advised decision to abandon the ABLE helicopter program. We talked about the importance of the November election, where council members will begin to be elected by district and a directly elected mayor will be chosen by the voters for the first time in city history. We reminded folks how every single vote counts, refreshing memories about the close recent election results, where fewer than 50 votes decided a couple of races and significantly impacted the course of our city. We also spoke about the many positive things that exist in Costa Mesa, among them the Fish Fry, the Snoopy House, the concerts in the park and the tireless volunteers who serve on committees and commissions so important to our governance. We addressed the good works CM4RG does, serving the community by educating the populace about important issues like measures Y and AA during the last election. Im grateful to CM4RG for the opportunity to share my reminiscences of the past 15 years and hope it provided some perspective as they continue to try to move our city forward and away from the days of rancor and divisiveness. My blog remains open, but inactive, and can be visited by going to www.abubblingcauldron.com. Costa Mesa resident GEOFF WEST retired his longtime blog, A Bubbling Cauldron, in 2017. The Cabrini Literary Guilds 75th Diamond Jubilee was held in style at the Oakmont Country Club this past Saturday. A luncheon of short rib ravioli fed more than 100 hungry members and guests. The good humor and warmth in the room more than compensated for the rainy weather outside. Before the program started, the silent auction tables were the go-to place. Luncheon guests swarmed the 67 items on glowing display. A standout was a painting titled First Bloom Of Spring by Joan Sandon, former Cabrini president. Once the program started, current Cabrini President Marie Urrutia welcomed the audience and introduced event co-chairpersons Laurie Leask and Karen Swan. A swarm of commendations, including one by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, was topped off by a salute from the Glendale City Council. The commendation was presented to Urrutia by council member and former Mayor Paula Devine. After lunch, the star of the show turned out to be Maximo Marcuso, who bills himself The Tenor of the Americas. Cabrini member and Glendale resident Maureen Walsh discovered Marcuso and had him added to the program. His golden voice soared, his warm personality spread. He made many a fan as he danced with members of the audience. His aria from Puccinis Turandot received a standing ovation. Cabrini member and Glendale resident Scarlett Chachi is serenaded by tenor Maximo Marcuso. (Photo by Ruth Sowby Rands ) The afternoon came to an end as the silent action closed and drawing prizes were handed out to the lucky winners. Event proceeds will help fund Cabrinis several philanthropies, including Ascencias homeless shelter and the Glendale YWCAs shelter for women. Members of the Glendale Educational Foundation pulled out all the stops for Disco Diamonds its 11th annual gala dinner and dance at the Castaway restaurant. On March 2, close to 300 members and their guests packed the ballroom. The encouraged attire for the night was right out of the 1970s. John Travolta look-alikes from Saturday Night Fever pranced on the dance floor. Glendale Unified School Supt. Winfred Roberson Jr., normally hair-challenged, fit right in with an Afro wig. His wife, Yvette, wore big, white-framed sunglasses. Glendale Unified School District Supt. Winfred Roberson Jr. fits right into the 70s theme with an afro wig. His wife Yvette shows off her new eyewear. (Photo by Ruth Sowby Rands ) Others donned their version of the 1970s. Glendale Community College Supt./President David Viar wore black from top to bottom. His wife, Disco Diva Jane, went one better with a gold lame top. She wasnt too shy to strike a pose for photographers. Master of ceremonies, Vince Espinoza, kicked off the program by introducing Eric Hamilton, president of the educational foundation, He announced that $3 million has been raised by the foundation in the last 14 years. A portion of those funds will provide musical instruments for special needs students and robotics classes and computers for district elementary and high schools. Another $16,000 was awarded in teachers grants. Hamilton then introduced Afro-topped Supt. Roberson. He humorously announced, I havent had hair on my head since the 80s. He also thanked the Glendale Educational Foundation for being our partner. Next up on the program was Nayiri Nahabedian, president of the Glendale Unified school board. No one knows how to throw a party like the Glendale Educational Foundation, Nahabedian said. She introduced the other school board members present Greg Krikorian, vice president, Jennifer Freemon, clerk, as well as members Armina Gharpetian and Shant Sahakian. More dignitaries attending included Gharpetians husband, Glendale Mayor Vartan Gharpetian. City Council members present were Vrej Agajanian, Paula Devine and Ara Najarian. Besides Viar, Glendale Community College board of trustee members attending were Anthony Tartaglia and Yvette Vartanian Davis. Also present was interim Glendale Police Chief Carl Povilaitis. Glendale Community College Supt./President David Viar is a John Travolta look-alike in black. His wife Jane tries the hustle. (Photo by Ruth Sowby Rands ) Closing the program was the introduction of the Diamond Award honorees. They were all alums of Glendale schools. Awarded distinguished achievement in the arts was film producer Ralph Winter; achievement in science and technology was longtime Glendale educator Doug Dall; achievement in health and fitness was the late Phyllis Campbell, co-founder of the Campbell Center; awarded the Paragon Diamond Award for demonstrating innovation excellence were Ara Mahdessian and Vahe Kuzoyan, founders of Service Titan. Lastly, the Hope Diamond Award was given to Armen R. Panossian, managing director of Oaktree Capital Management. Congratulations must be given to Elsa Chagolla, executive director of the Glendale Educational Foundation, and Vrejh Hovsepian, event chairperson, for their hard work behind the scenes. RUTH SOWBY RANDS may be reached at ruthasowby@gmail.com. Authorities have identified one of the men suspected of trying to rob a jewelry store at the Glendale Galleria on Saturday. Kamal Key was detained by a mall security guard after two men entered Bhindi Jewelry around 2:45 p.m. and attempted to use mallets to smash open the stores display cases, according to Sgt. Dan Suttles, a spokesman for the Glendale Police Department. He said the guard fired two rounds from his pistol to deter the robbers. He was near the door and fired inward [toward the robbers], he said. One of the robbers fled from the store, while 20-year-old Key, a Los Angeles resident, was detained, according to Suttles. No injuries were reported, and the mall was briefly evacuated following the incident. Suttles said nothing was reported stolen from the store. An employee at one of the malls kiosks who declined to give his full name said he was on the other side of the mall when he started seeing people running toward the exits after the security guard fired his gun. All of a sudden I started seeing people running away, so I just started to run with them, he said. Everyone was pretty scared; I could see it on their faces. Shoppers took to social media to express their shock and fear over the incident. One Twitter user named Armina LaManna described it as mass panic, while another named Armen Karaoghlanian said it was the scariest thing Ive ever experienced. It was the most terrifying feeling ever, he said in a follow-up tweet. There was mass panic, and hundreds and hundreds of people running for their lives. Was there. Saw it. This tweet irresponsibly doesnt cover what actually happened on the ground. #GlendaleGalleria #Americana https://t.co/FM2ha0DP7I Armina LaManna (@ArminaLaManna) March 11, 2018 This was the scariest thing Ive ever experienced. We were at the Americana next to the Glendale Galleria watching a movie. We got out and were locked in because of an active shooter. The security at one point yelled out, Everybody get back! Armen Karaoghlanian (@armenlovesmary) March 10, 2018 The mall was eventually reopened around 3:30 p.m. In addition to the suspect in the store who ran away, Suttles said two other people are wanted in connection with the attempted robbery a lookout inside the mall and a getaway driver. All four of the suspects wore dark-colored, hooded jackets during the incident. The getaway vehicle is said to be a black Dodge Charger, according to Suttles. Anyone with information about the incident can contact Glendale police at (818) 548-4911. Anonymous tips can be given at (800) 222-8477. An unknown suspect from the attempted robbery at the Glendale Galleria was caught on a surveillance camera. (Courtesy of the Glendale Police Department ) andy.nguyen@latimes.com Twitter: @Andy_Truc It was a French-inspired theme for the Hillsides benefit held Feb. 24 at the Langham Huntington, Pasadena. The Southern California mental health and foster care charity raised $417,000 during its annual gala, La Nuit des Reves (The Night of Dreams). Some 350 guests enjoyed the event. Among the crowd were actors dressed like Marie Antoinette and King Louis XV. They caused quite a stir as they chatted with the formally dressed guests. The gala was co-chaired by longtime Hillsides supporters John Gong and Joan McCarthy, the latter a La Canada Flintridge resident. During the evening, McCarthy welcomed the crowd and stressed the importance of the event, which is Hillsides largest fundraiser of the year. Tonight and together, we will make dreams come true for the 14,000 deserving children, young adults and families of Hillsides, she said. The evening included a silent cocktail and dinner auction, live auction, and paddle auction. NBC4 Southern Californias weather forecaster Fritz Coleman, with his usual humorous patter, emceed the live auction. His skills led to the sales of packages such as a 12-day cruise for two on Holland America Line, a Paris Hotel Las Vegas getaway, tickets to Elton Johns Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, and a Barbara Poer Design Golden South Sea pearl gold ring surrounded by 64 diamonds. Some of the VIPs attending the gala were U.S. Rep. Judy Chu; the Rt. Rev. John H. Taylor, who gave the invocation before the dinner; media personality Dr. Drew Pinsky; John Mahon, percussionist and back-up vocalist for the Elton John Band; psychic medium Rebecca Fearing and comedian and author Heather McDonald. During the reception portion of the evening, Chu presented co-chairs McCarthy and Gong with certificates of congressional recognition. Christian Daly, assistant field deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, presented the co-chairs and Hillsides with County of Los Angeles commendations. During the gala program, Joseph M. Costa, president and chief executive officer of Hillsides, paid tribute to the woman who established the organizations first gala 33 years ago, Sylvia Bartlett. Bartlett, who was also a founding member of the Hillsides Guild, a support group of Hillsides, passed away unexpectedly in February. We are missing her dearly, said Costa. Another highlight of the evening was the guest speaker, Jasa Hawkins. Hawkins receives services from Hillsides Youth Moving on Program, which provides youth with affordable housing, workforce training and a Peer Resource Center where they can access a wide array of services and referrals. Hawkins detailed how the program helped find her a job at Starbucks and an apartment after four years of homelessness. Everyone at Youth Moving On brought so much positivity and healing to my life, she said. I now feel I have control in my life. I have a future. Hillsides, with its affiliate Bienvenidos, is dedicated to healing children and young adults, strengthening families and transforming communities through services and advocacy. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the agency serves 14,000 children and families in Southern California throughout more than 40 sites, including school-based mental health offices in Los Angeles, Pasadena and Baldwin Park. Foster care and adoptions services are offered in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. *** Also on Feb. 24, more than 100 La Canada Junior Womens Club members and guests enjoyed an evening with a Moroccan and Spanish-themed party at an historic Prohibition-era Flintridge estate that was the Pasadena Showcase House of Design in 2002, the former longtime home of Dr. Paul and Beverly Toffel. The home resembles a Spanish castle and includes a speakeasy-style bar that is hidden behind the wood panels in the study. The Spanish Colonial Revivalist estate was the perfect backdrop for the clubs party theme, An Enchanted Evening at the Villa. The Juniors Club, which will celebrate its 50th year in the community next year, began the evening with an exotic cocktail reception with passed hors doeuvres. Later, guests enjoyed a full buffet dinner catered by ETC Gourmet Kitchen in Montrose. Funds raised during the party, chaired by Jill Chapman, benefited Ronald McDonald House and Five Acres. The evening featured a silent auction, wine toss and dancing on the expansive, multilevel grounds of the estate. JANE NAPIER NEELY covers the La Canada Flintridge social scene. Email her at jnvalleysun@aol.com with news of your special event. National K-9 Veterans Day falls on March 13 because thats the date the U.S. Army K9 Corps was formed in 1942. The corps was created mostly as part of the World War II effort and started with dog experts who scoped out the roles dogs could be trained to do. Civilian trainers gave way as the Army took over with an expanded role for canines. The 200 dogs first envisioned grew into more than 10,400. Most were family pets shipped into national service, according to a story on FidoUniverse. Today, war dog memorials have sprung up across the country and around the globe. Here are four that honor mans best friend for battlefield bravery. Sgt. Stubby The mutt who was secretly taken to war with the 102nd Infantry, 26th Yankee Division performed heroically on World War I battlefields in France. Stubby is credited with locating lost soldiers in mud-filled trenches, rousing sleeping troops during a gas attack, and even catching a German spy, which earned him sergeant stripes, according to the Smithsonians National Museum of American History in Washington. Advertisement Stubby was injured too, catching shrapnel during a grenade attack and recovering at a Red Cross hospital. On the home front, he racked up two visits to the White House before he died in 1926. You can see him standing tall with a blanket that displays his medals for bravery at the museums exhibit The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. (Look for an animated feature coming out April 13 called Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero. ) Info: Smithsonians National Museum of American History, 1300 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington; (202) 633-1000 War Dog Memorial Small tiles carrying the names of war dogs and their handlers name are installed at the foot of War Dog Memorial at March Field Air Museum in Riverside. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times ) The War Dog Memorial in Riverside is dedicated to all trained dogs and their handlers who served the U.S. in battle. Sculptor Tom Schomberg, who made the Rocky statue in Philadelphia, created a column that shows an infantryman with a German shepherd at his side. It was dedicated in 2000. Visitors can have tiles inscribed with the names of dogs and handlers at the base of the memorial. Info: War Dog Memorial, March Field Air Museum, 22550 Van Buren Blvd., Riverside; (951) 902-5949 War Dog Memorial and Cemetery At the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Hartsdale, N.Y., a bronze shepherd with a Red Cross blanket stands atop a 10-foot-high granite monument that was dedicated in 1923. It was created to honor the 7,000 military dogs that served during World War I. It still stands today, with an inscription that reads in part: To mans most faithful friend for the valiant services rendered in the World War 1914-1918. Advertisement Info: Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, 75 N. Central Park Ave., Hartsdale; (800) 375-5234 The National War Dog Cemetery The U.S. Marine Corps War Dog Cemetery in Guam honors dogs that lost their lives in securing the island during a 1944 battle. The names of the 25 dogs that lost their lives are inscribed on the polished granite tablet topped with a bronze Doberman pinscher named Kurt, the first to lose his life in the battle. Always Faithful was created by Susan Bahary and dedicated in 1994 on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Guam. Castings of the monument can be found at many sites in the U.S., including the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog in St. Louis. Advertisement Info: U.S. Naval Base Guam travel@latimes.com Twitter: @latimestravel Colombias fragile peace deal was under pressure after candidates who have vowed to dismantle portions of the historic accord made strong showings in weekend congressional and presidential primary elections. Former president and now center-right Sen. Alvaro Uribe won the largest number of votes in his successful reelection bid while his partys presidential candidate, Ivan Duque, crushed other conservative contenders in the primary portion of the voting. Both have said the peace deal signed by the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, is too generous to the rebels, particularly justice provisions that set minimal terms for the most heinous of war crimes. Followers of Nobel Prize laureate and President Juan Manuel Santos and candidates of a rebel party fared poorly. The election marked the first time members of the rebel party had run for office. Advertisement Former Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro also scored big Sunday in his presidential primary. The former M-19 rebel is running as an outsider promising to shake up the political order. Petros strength at the polls is a clear sign of Colombian voters increasing disenchantment with old-style politics and a seemingly endless string of corruption scandals, said Bruce Bagley, a professor of international relations at the University of Miami. Leftist Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro is a former mayor of Bogota. (Leonardo Munoz / EPA/Shutterstock ) Uribe was president from 2002 to 2010 and remains a powerful presence on Colombias political scene, though he is ineligible for another term as president. Uribe founded and leads the Democratic Center faction, which after gains Sunday now has the most seats of any party in the Senate and the second most in the Chamber of Representatives. The left of center candidate Petro generally supports the peace agreement and has promised to advance social programs to reduce the nations social and economic imbalances. Uribe and Duque have accused him of favoring a Hugo Chavez brand of socialism while Petro has countered with accusations that Uribe sponsored right-wing paramilitary violence when he was president. Duque and Petro lead the polls ahead of the May 27 first round of presidential voting. The top two finishers will meet in a June 17 runoff. No candidate among the dozen expected to run is likely to get a big enough chunk of the votes 50% plus one to avoid a second round. Two other presidential candidates, Sergio Fajardo of the Green Alliance and German Vargas Lleras of Radical Change, were not on the ballots Sunday but still have a chance of making the June 17 runoff, Bagley said, depending on the alliances they forge and their campaigns effectiveness. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the balloting was the poor showing by candidates running under Santos U Party banner. Despite the sitting presidents international prestige for having been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, he is unpopular at home because of a sluggish economy and rising drug violence. His signature peace agreement was opposed by more than half the population in an October 2016 referendum. The Santos bloc lost seven seats in the Senate and 12 in the lower chamber, falling to fifth and fourth place, respectively. Advertisement Meanwhile, candidates of the FARC, the same initials as the rebel army but now standing as Spanish initials for the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, made a miserable showing at the polls. Its candidates attracted fewer than 90,000 votes, compared with 500,000 that Senate candidate and party spokesman Carlos Antonio Lozada set as a goal. Rebranded now as politicians, the former rebels have had difficulty escaping the long shadow left by a half century of killings, kidnappings and extortion, said political analyst Ariel Avila. He said many left-leaning voters chose other candidates they perceived as having better chances of winning. Terms of the peace deal signed in November 2016 guaranteed the disarmed FARC at least 10 congressional seats five in the Senate and five in the Chamber in the 2018 and 2022 congresses. The former insurgents insisted on fielding a slate of candidates this year to demonstrate the grass-roots support they believed they enjoyed. The FARCs campaign was also hurt by the withdrawal last week of presidential candidate Rodrigo Timoleon Londono, who suffered a heart attack and underwent emergency surgery. Advertisement Turnout was 49% of 35 million eligible voters. Colombias Defense Ministry declared it the most violence-free election in a half century, largely because FARC was now part of the political process and not an outside agitator. This is the first time in my life that I am voting and I am doing it for peace, said Senate candidate Pablo Catatumbo before casting his ballot on Sunday. He along with Lozada, Ivan Marquez, Victoria Sandino and Sandra Ramirez, who was the partner of late FARC founder Manuel Marulanda, will occupy the five Senate seats assigned to the former rebels by the peace deal. Kraul is a special correspondent Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah survived a roadside bombing Tuesday, after his convoy was hit by an explosive device as it passed the border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. At about 10 a.m., Hamdallah and Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj entered the Palestinian territory for a long-planned visit to inaugurate a wastewater treatment plant partly funded by the Palestinian Authority. The authority is led by Hamdallah and President Mahmoud Abbas. The visit also aimed to continue to revive stalled talks between Abbas ruling party and Hamas, the Islamist militia that rules Gaza. The talks have halted since a promising start in October. The device was initially thought to have been hurled from a passing motorcycle about 600 feet past the Erez-Beit Hanoun checkpoint. Advertisement Hamdallah and Faraj were not injured and appeared on live television shortly after the incident. Five people in the convoys last vehicle were slightly injured, according to Palestinian media. Abbas party, the West Bank-based Fatah, called it a terrorist attack and an attempted assassination for which it held Hamas responsible. This attack is an attempt to kill all reconciliation efforts, said Munir Jaghoub, director of Fatahs information department in the Office of Mobilization and Organization. It is a dangerous step aimed at spreading disorder and fighting among our people. Israeli and Palestinian observers said the attack may have been carried out by any of several independent militias challenging Hamas rule in Gaza. Jaghoub nonetheless held Hamas responsible, demanding Hamas expedite its investigation. The developments have proven that Hamas has completely failed in providing security in Gaza, just as it has failed in providing a decent life for our people in the Strip, he said. By Tuesday evening, however, tones shifted. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, following a conversation between Hamdallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the two agreed to blame Israel and its collaborators for the attack. Despite what happened we will continue to build our institutions and we will press on with the reconciliation efforts with the help of Egypt, Hamdallah said later in the day, calling on all factions to help sustain this critical phase for the Palestinian people. Advertisement Global reaction to the attack was swift. Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations Mideast envoy, said until the legitimate Palestinian Authority takes power in Gaza, Hamas is responsible for enabling the internationally backed government to work without fear of intimidation, harassment and violence, according to the Associated Press. This attack, once again, demonstrates that Hamas is profoundly unfit to govern Gaza, said White House envoy Jason Greenblatt in Washington. But we cannot be deterred, and the Palestinian Authority should not be deterred. Federica Mogherini, the European Unions foreign policy chief, echoed Jaghoubs sentiment that the attack was a deliberate attempt to undermine reconciliation between the divided Palestinian factions. Advertisement For the European Union it is clear: Those who work to exacerbate divisions through violence are working against the interest of the people of Gaza and of all Palestinians, she said. Tarnopolosky is a special correspondent. UPDATES: 12:35 p.m.: This article was updated with staff reporting. Advertisement This article originally published at 2:05 a.m. The Ngari Observatory (Photo from Qiaoxun.org) China is under smooth progress towards the world's highest altitude gravitational wave telescopes in Tibet Autonomous Region to detect the faintest echoes resonating from the universe, a project insider disclosed. The main part for the first stage of the "Ngari plan", which was launched by China in March 2017 to eyeball the Big Bang cosmic waves at Ngari, Tibet, is almost completed, Zhang Xinmin, chief scientist of the project said on the sidelines of the ongoing first session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The project will start operations in 2020 and observation results will arise in 2022, added Zhang, a senior researcher at the Institute of High Energy Physics in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). At the first stage of the two-phased project, a telescope code-named Ngari No.1 would be constructed at 5,250 meters above sea level to enable the first measurement of primordial gravitational waves in the northern hemisphere, according to the scientist. The first telescope is expected to be installed at the end of 2019 and operational in 2020, added Zhang, also a member of the 13th CPPCC National Committee. The second stage, according to him, involves a series of telescopes, code-named Ngari No. 2, to be located at an altitude of about 6,000 meters, to realize more accurate measurement of the waves. Chinese scientists are now working on design of the first telescope with a team of Stanford University, and they would cooperate more in the future, he said. The primordial gravitational waves, different from gravitational waves produced by motions and evolution of the heavenly bodies, were generated by the first tremors of the Big Bang. Detection of the primordial gravitational waves is of great significance to studying the origin and evolution of the universe, said Zhang. The Ngari Observatory (Photo from Jinan Daily) Ngari is considered as one of the world's four best places for astronomers to gaze into the faint echoes from the earliest days of the universe given its thin air, clear skies and minimal human activity. The other three spots to detect the tiny twists in cosmic light are Atacama Desert, Chile and Antarctica in the southern hemisphere, as well as Greenland in the northern hemisphere. The Ngari observatory, once constructed, will be the first of its kind in the northern hemisphere for China to carry out experiments regarding detection of primordial gravitational waves. By then, the Ngari observatory, alongside the existing South Pole Telescope and the facility in Chiles Atacama Desert, will cover both the northern and southern hemispheres. Both space exploration and ground-based research have been employed by China to gaze into the remote universe. The telescope in Ngari and FAST, a 500-meter aperture spherical radio telescope in southwest Chinas Guizhou province, dedicate to probing waves from ground-based research facilities, while the Taiji and Tianqin projects, proposed by CAS and Sun Yat-sen University respectively, focus on detection by launch of satellites. In 2013, Eric Rose opened the first American-owned law firm in Myanmar and invited 500 diplomats, politicians and business leaders to a luxury hotel to celebrate. The country had long been one of Asias most isolated economies, but a transition from military rule to democracy held the promise of major investment by U.S. companies and plenty of legal work to guide those transactions. That promise has been slow to materialize, and last month, after nearly five years, Rose handed off his clients, closed shop and let employees take home the office furniture. Roses departure was the latest sign of how Myanmar has lost its luster for U.S. investors, who say the military has relinquished little power and Aung San Suu Kyis democratically elected government has failed to loosen the grip that army generals and their cronies retain over key industries. Advertisement Regional countries with deeper ties to Myanmar have gobbled up most of the opportunities: Businesses from China have invested $5.7 billion and Thailand nearly $1 billion over the last four years, according to government statistics, while U.S. companies have officially spent just $133 million, although that does not include money funneled through branches in Singapore. The armys massacres of Rohingya Muslims, which have sent nearly 1 million refugees fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh since August, have added a severe reputational risk for Western companies, Rose said. The unfortunate reality is Americans arent coming, Rose, 63, said from his house in Washington. I just dont see light on the horizon. The independent Myanmar Times newspaper called the withdrawal of his firm, Herzfeld Rubin Meyer & Rose, a vote of no confidence in the economy. The nations growth rate slowed last year from 7.3% to 6.5% largely because of a decline in foreign investment, according to the World Bank. Eric was more bullish than anyone on Myanmar, said Murray Hiebert, a senior associate in the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Heres this 52-million-person economy that had been pretty closed off and now theres an opportunity. But it was getting clear, even early on, that this was going to be a tough place to do business. A high-rise apartment building is part of the post-sanctions construction boom in Yangon, Myanmars largest city. (Rommeo Gacad / AFP/Getty Images ) After ruling Myanmar, also known as Burma, for nearly half a century, the army in 2011 began democratic reforms that paved the way for Suu Kyi, the long-jailed opposition activist, to lead her party to victory in national elections four years later. The generals pledged to reduce state control of key industries and opened the economy to more foreign investment. Advertisement President Obama responded by lifting long-standing U.S. sanctions to ensure that the people of Burma see the rewards from a new way of doing business, and a new government. Many in Myanmar say the U.S. failed to live up to that promise. The Treasury Department still subjects financial institutions in Myanmar to extra reporting requirements under the Patriot Act, a demand that applies to only three other countries: Cuba, Iran and North Korea. The measures, which aim to fight money laundering and terrorism financing, entail so many additional costs and risks that most international banks that deal in dollars wont finance trade and investment in Myanmar, or allow U.S. companies to transfer profits back home. Rose said he and his U.S. partners did not take earnings out of Myanmar, instead using the money to train local attorneys and staff. Advertisement It wasnt supposed to be this difficult, especially for someone who built a career on shepherding Western companies to difficult places. Born in communist Romania, Rose was a self-described student radical who moved to the United States in the 1970s and earned his law degree. He returned to Romania two decades later to help establish the first American law firm after the Iron Curtain fell. He became a specialist in frontier economies, rough-and-tumble countries emerging from conflict, dictatorship and diplomatic isolation. Working for American Standard, the venerable maker of plumbing fixtures, he traveled to Bulgaria, where his local partners employed leather-jacketed bodyguards strapped with machine guns. In Vietnam, negotiating to open the first U.S. factory since the end of the Vietnam War, he schmoozed with a top Communist Party official over glasses of rice wine mixed with serpent blood. Advertisement I have done things in my life that may have been slightly crazy, Rose said. But I always believed in the purpose of what we were doing. I have done things in my life that may have been slightly crazy. But I always believed in the purpose of what we were doing. Eric Rose Rose began exploring a venture in Myanmar where he had helped American Standard sell sinks and faucets in the 1990s before U.S. sanctions were imposed when the military freed Suu Kyi from house arrest in 2010. With the New York firm of Herzfeld & Rubin as equal partners and a personal investment of $250,000, Rose set up shop in a tan-and-white condo building in Yangon, the commercial capital. He recruited senior Myanmar attorneys, including a former ethnic rebel, a lawyer who had defended Suu Kyi when she was a political prisoner and an advisor to the army-led party then ruling the country. Advertisement It was an exciting time, Rose recalled. A number of U.S. sanctions had been suspended, there was a new can-do attitude in both the Myanmar and foreign business communities. Myanmar was again on the move and we were the first American lawyers to try to help the country develop. The needs were immense. Myanmar had once been among the richest countries in Southeast Asia, but military rule had hollowed out its farm economy and education system. American companies saw opportunities in building roads, brewing beer, sourcing factory-made clothes, selling insurance and drilling for oil and natural gas. Employees work at the Shweyi Zabe garment factory in Yangon, Myanmar. Foreign investors see opportunities to develop Myanmars garment industry. (Ye Aung Thu / AFP/Getty Images ) From the start, the military-led government, unwilling to lose its monopolies in key industries, was slow to ease restrictions on foreign investment. Then the Treasury Department revised its sanctions rules, adding to the long list of Myanmar companies that U.S. companies couldnt partner with. Advertisement One of Roses clients, Holloman Corp., a Houston oil and gas company, abandoned Myanmar and a $2-million initial investment in 2015 after becoming frustrated with the pace of change to investment laws, he said. Optimism resurfaced the following year after Suu Kyis party took power and pledged to pump money into infrastructure and agriculture. But her government largely made up of aging former activists and political prisoners with little administrative experience failed to enact the changes that foreign companies wanted, including intellectual property protections and overhaul of a beleaguered court system. A long-awaited corporate reform law, which would allow foreign investors to own up to a 35% stake in Myanmar companies, passed in December 2017 but is still months away from being implemented. Almost none of what they pledged has happened in the last two years, Rose said. There have even been some steps backward. Advertisement Rose hosted dozens of small and midsize companies that were interested in Myanmar. But only about 1 in 6 established an office, he said. In December, the German consultancy Roland Berger released a survey of Myanmar executives that found only 49% expected the business climate to improve over the next 12 months, down from 73% a year earlier. Rohingya refugees carrying children cross the Naf river from Myanmar into Bangladesh in October 2017. (Fred Dufour / AFP/Getty Images ) The Rohingya crisis has clouded the investment picture further. The Trump administration has blacklisted the army general who it said commanded the offensive, and some in Congress are pushing for broader sanctions against Myanmars military. Advertisement A small group of shareholders in Chevron, which, along with Coca-Cola, is the largest U.S. company in Myanmar, has asked the oil giant to consider ending its involvement in a pipeline project and offshore gas fields because of the violence against the Rohingya. If the company rejects the request, shareholders could appeal the decision to the Securities and Exchange Commission. In recent months, according to Western officials briefed on the decisions, the European Union suspended talks on an investment agreement with Myanmar over human rights concerns, and representatives of the U.S. insurer MetLife, which had been scouting Myanmar since 2013, gave up on plans to sell life insurance there because the Myanmar government had delayed lifting limits on foreign investment in the sector. Some who dealt with Rose, who split his time between Yangon and Washington, said he didnt fully understand Myanmar and tended to alienate people with a style that could be abrasive. Others said his relatively small office, with local lawyers who were more accustomed to political cases, lost out to multinational firms that came in after him. Myanmar is a really a hard place, and sometimes the first-mover advantage isnt advantageous and you end up being the sacrificial lamb, said Erin Murphy, founder of Washington-based Inle Advisory Group, which advises investors in Myanmar. Advertisement Roses office shrank from 15 employees to six, and his investment evaporated. In February, the firm closed the Yangon office, calling it a necessary change of strategy in line with our priorities. Rose flew back to Washington, where he said he has new priorities of his own: his four grandchildren. I believe if you want to do something, you go in with both feet and stay as long as you possibly can, he said. In this case, it may have been a bridge too far. To read this article in Spanish click here Advertisement shashank.bengali@latimes.com Shashank Bengali is the South Asia correspondent for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @SBengali Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with his US counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of a Group of 20 (G20) summit, in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017. The two heads of state exchanged in-depth views on bilateral ties and global hot-spot issues. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) Head-of-state diplomacy conducted by Chinese President Xi Jinping has deepened the worlds understanding of China, enhanced Chinas profile and influence, and facilitated the solution to many global problems, Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Mar. 8, 2018. Head-of-state diplomacy as the highest form of state-to-state interaction plays a pivotal role and has irreplaceable strategic value, Wang told the press conference held on the sidelines of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress. Since 2012, President Xi has been the chief architect of Chinas distinctive major-country diplomacy, Wang said, adding that he was personally involved in the planning and conduct of head-of-state diplomacy, which by all accounts has been brilliant. To date, Xi has visited 57 countries in different parts of the world and received more than 110 foreign heads of state, the minister illustrated. The head-of-state diplomacy guarantees the stable strategic relations between China and the US, which has been proved by Xis meetings with his US counterparts at Annenberg Estate, the White House, Mar-a-Lago resort of the US and Yingtai, West Lake and the Palace Museum of China. Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Da Nang, Vietnam, Nov. 10, 2017. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Twenty-plus meetings between Chinese and Russian heads of state have also led to deeper strategic cooperation between the two countries. In addition, China has spared no effort in building a community of shared future in neighboring areas. With these efforts, China has provided the world with a new approach to state-to-state relations, one that features dialogue rather than confrontation, and seeks partnership rather than alliance. These important visits and meetings go a long way towards deepening the worlds understanding of China, enhancing Chinas profile and influence, and facilitating the solution to many global problems, Wang concluded. He added that President Xis leadership and charisma has earned him and his country many good friends among foreign leaders who represent a diverse range of cultures and social systems. In the year ahead, Xi will host four diplomatic events, the minister told the press, citing the four events as the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit, and the first China International Import Expo. Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) Apart from the four home-field diplomatic events, Xi will also attend the BRICS Summit in South Africa, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Papua New Guinea and the G20 Summit in Argentina, he added. President Xis personal diplomacy will make a positive and responsible contribution to the well-being of his people, the interests of China and the welfare of the world, Wang pointed out, concluding that it will write a whole new chapter of major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi answers questions on China's foreign policies and relations at a press conference on the sidelines of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, March 8, 2018. (Photo by Weng Qiyu from Peoples Daily Online) China will give wings to China-Africa cooperation to help it soar to greater heights by aligning the Belt and Road Initiative with development strategies of African countries, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised on March 8th, stressing that China will always attach particular importance to the needs and interests of African countries. Wang made the remarks at a press conference on Chinas foreign policies and relations held on the sidelines of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress last Thursday. He assured the profound and unbreakable friendship between China and Africa, quoting President Xi Jinping's statement that China and Africa are friends tested by adversity, and such friends must never be forgotten. No matter how the world may change or what others may say, the profound friendship between China and Africa will remain unbreakable, and China's promise of sincerity, real results, friendship and good faith will remain true, the minister added. As Africa's brother and partner, China will always attach particular importance to the needs and interests of African countries, he affirmed, stressing that Africa's concerns are China's concerns, and its priorities are China's priorities. A worker is assembling a bike at a factory based in Quzhou county, north Chinas Hebei province on Jan. 24, 2018. A total of 15 enterprises in the county have been granted the right to self-manage imports and exports. Their products have been sold to Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe. (Photo by Hu Gaolei from CFP) Africa faces the twin challenges of maintaining peace and security and of promoting development and revitalization, the minister said, vowing that China will, in response to its needs, step up mediation in regional flashpoints. China will also enhance cooperation with African countries on unconventional security threats such as terrorism, piracy and natural disaster, and help them build capacity for ensuring their own peace and security, he added. In our new endeavor to build a global community with a shared future, Africa is an indispensable partner. China welcomes our African brothers and sisters to continue their ride on China's fast train of development, Wang highlighted. When asked about his expectations on the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit to be hosted by China this year, he said that the summit scheduled for September will bring together Chinese and African leaders again, 12 years after their last gathering in Beijing. An inland container port constructed by China Communications Construction Company Limited in Nairobi, Kenya starts operation on Dec. 16, 2017. The port will help the Belt and Road Initiative reach the inland of Africa. (Photo by Peoples Daily) They will discuss China-Africa cooperation in the new era and focus on jointly advancing the Belt and Road Initiative and turning China and Africa into a community with a shared future, he expounded. By aligning the Belt and Road Initiative with the UN's 2030 Agenda, the AU's Agenda 2063 and the development strategies of individual African countries, we will give wings to China-Africa cooperation to help it soar to greater heights, Wang said. African students studying at Xinyu University, Jiangxi province dance for the elderly at a local nursing home, Oct. 28, 2017. (Photo by Zhou Liang from Peoples Daily Online) A 45-year-old Lowhill Township man and a 16-year-old Allentown girl, both reported missing on March 5, are together and aware they are being sought, city police report. Kevin Esterly, of the 3000 block of Highland Road, is charged with interference with the custody of children, according to Lehigh County district court records. Esterly -- who the Associated Press reported signed out Amy Yu from Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School in Hanover Township, Northampton County, 10 times between Nov. 13 and Feb. 9 -- was "prohibited from entering school grounds" after that, according to school CEO Susan Mauser. Police were to be notified if he returned to the school, she wrote in an email. Due to "student privacy constraints," Mauser said she couldn't disclose further information "about the student or the facts and circumstances surrounding the situation." But the school has been an active participant in the investigation, she said. "LVA has worked closely with the police and Amy's family since February 9, providing whatever information and assistance we can to them," Mauser said. Esterly, who is married and has children, was listed as Yu's stepfather on school records, according to the Morning Call, citing Colonial Regional police, who couldn't immediately be reached Tuesday morning. Easterly and Yu are in a "secretive relationship," according to published reports. Esterly and his wife Stacey got into a dispute on Feb. 10, which WFMZ reported was related to him not letting her see his Facebook page. They were both charged with summary harassment and the cases are pending in District Judge Tom Clair Creighton's court in Lowhill. Allentown police, working with local, state and federal authorities, have been "working diligently to locate both parties since March 6," according to the daily news release from Chief Glen Dorney. Yu is 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighs about 90 pounds, police said. She has black hair and brown eyes. Esterly is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 185 pounds, police said. They were believed to be in a red 1999 Honda Accord coupe with a Pennsylvania plate of KLT 0529, police said. The car may be parked in the Philadelphia area, police said. Anyone who knows where they are is asked to call 911, their local police department or the Allentown Police Communications Center at 610-437-7751. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The stalled, nearly $40 million Hotel Bethlehem expansion may be coming back to life. The hotel pulled its hotel and conference center renovation plans last December when the board tasked with overseeing the city's lucrative tax incentive zone didn't immediately approve the project. Publicly officials have been mum on the future of the project, expected to bring 70,000 new visitors downtown each year, but behind the scenes lawyers have been negotiating ever since the contentious meeting. On Thursday afternoon, the Bethlehem Revitalization and Improvement Authority is set to vote on a resolution adding the Hotel Bethlehem to the City Revitalization and Improvement Zone. Bethlehem Community and Economic Development Director Alicia Miller Karner said she thinks any roadblocks have been overcome. "It's always been an important project," Karner said. "The mayor's never wavered on his support ... This is just the logical next step after months of conversations between (the hotel's) attorney and the board solicitor." The designation will allow the hotel to leverage the taxes the zone collects towards paying down the construction loans needed to turn it into the Lehigh Valley's largest conference center. The hotel would double its meeting and events space, add 73 guest rooms and suites and build a 460-space parking garage financed by the hotel. The existing 100-spot parking deck would be razed and the new one built in its place with a four-story addition on top. The new building would connect to the third floor of the hotel via a skywalk. Hotel Bethlehem Managing Partner Bruce A. Haines called the scheduled meeting a positive step forward. He's hopeful the resolution adding the project to the CRIZ will pass. "If I have the support of the city, I will move forward and try to make it happen," Haines said of his expansion plans, which have been in limbo for a year. Mayor Bob Donchez said Monday he still strongly backs the hotel expansion and conference center and he hopes the CRIZ board heeds his recommendation. "I think it is a great project for the city and Main Street and I think it will be an asset to the community, not only to the city, but the Lehigh Valley as a whole," Donchez said. The hotel applied for inclusion in the CRIZ in November of 2016 when the city put a call out to developers to submit new projects for inclusion in the zone. New acreage was freed up after the Bethlehem Parking Authority asked to remove the CRIZ status from 1.3 acres of its land because its plans were no longer feasible. Donchez backed the hotel expansion and two other projects for inclusion into the almost 130-acre zone. But the hotel learned in December that the two already-approved projects ate up too much CRIZ acreage, leaving the hotel short. The parking authority has since taken steps to decertify the 1-acre Long Street surface parking lot, freeing up enough for the hotel expansion. The resolution the CRIZ authority board is set to vote on Thursday afternoon allocates 1.1 acres to the hotel's expansion, because it will be a job creator for the city and will benefit residents. It requires Hotel Bethlehem to obtain city land development approval for a project "substantially similar" to the one described in its application to the city, seemingly addressing concerns raised by some CRIZ board members. The resolution also formally spells out that the hotel has agreed to provide a minimum of 50 public parking spaces in its own garage on at least 300 days each year. The hotel will charge at or above the rate the city charges in its parking authority-owned garages. And it requires that, if owners sell Hotel Bethlehem to a new business entity, that the new owners have the funding to start and complete the project. For the expansion to make financial sense and tap into the full possibility of the CRIZ, Haines has said he plans to find a new equity investor in the hotel, which made CRIZ board member Joe Kelly nervous. The resolution gives the hotel two years to deliver on all of the terms outlined in the agreement. The provisions are meant to ensure a future new owner moves forward with the expansion, rather than sitting on the CRIZ designation, Karner said. Haines pulled the project in December when the authority board's five members indicated they were supportive of the project, but not ready to vote to approve it. Concerns were raised about parking and whether the project was doing enough to benefit the community. Board Chairman Jim Broughal could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. If the CRIZ board backs the resolution on Thursday, Haines said he is prepared to start looking for investors in the expansion project again. "If approved, we would be dusting off the project that's in the drawer," Haines said. "It went in the drawer in December." The approval delays do mean some of Haines' original potential investors have moved on to new projects. And now there is the added complication of the announced sale of the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem to Wind Creek Hospitality, an affiliate of the Alabama-based Poarch Band of Creek Indians, in the mix as well. "It is going to be a more difficult task that it was a year ago," Haines said, "But if I have the support of the city I am prepared to try to make this project happen. I'm going to give it a go." Donchez thinks the hotel expansion offers a great boost to the historic downtown, one that would be amplifed if the city gets the UNESCO World Heritage site designation it is seeking. "As a convention center, Hotel Bethlehem is a jewel and it would just be a great project for the city and Main Street," Donchez said. "And I certainly hope that they (BRIA) support it." If the authority board votes to add the hotel into the CRIZ, the hotel expansion's next hurdle is acquiring a piece of Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority-owned land for a new, one-way private drive away from its new parking garage. To alleviate Main Street traffic, the new deck is supposed to empty onto Old York Road, funneling traffic onto West Union Boulevard and Route 378. Then, the hotel will have to submit land development plans to the city planning commission. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. After Christopher Baj was served divorce papers, his wife testified she was relieved he was so calm. The situation would not stay that way, and Mia Darling-Baj described fleeing the house in terror after Baj allegedly fired a handgun three times at the bathroom door she was trying to keep closed. Their two sons were sleeping down the hall. Baj then allegedly holed up in their township home for almost eight hours until police took him into custody on Jan. 30. The two boys were able to escape unharmed. Christopher Baj, left, leaves his preliminary hearing March 13, 2018, on attempted homicide and related charges. Baj is being held in Northampton County Prison in lieu of $2 million bail. (Sarah Cassi| For lehighvalleylive.com) Baj, wearing a red prison jumpsuit and neon orange shoes and jacket, was in district court Tuesday for his preliminary hearing on attempted homicide and related charges stemming from the Jan. 30 incident. District Judge Patricia Broscious held all the charges, sending them to Northampton County Court. The 58-year-old Baj remains in county prison in lieu of $2 million bail. Defense attorney John Waldron said he may petition for a lower bail. Waldron argued his client wasn't trying to kill his wife and that he had ample opportunities to shoot her but didn't. The district judge said that would be left to a jury to decide. Darling-Baj said on Jan. 29 the couple, their two sons, a cousin and a friend of one of the boys was at the house in the 2200 block of Toursdale Drive in Bethlehem Township, near the Palmer Township line. The cousin was there because "Chris was usually nicer when other people were around," Darling-Baj testified. Baj was served the divorce papers about 6 p.m. "He seemed surprised," but was calm, his wife said. The couple talked until midnight; the cousin served as a type of moderator until she went to bed at about 10:30 p.m., but the pair continued talking after that. Darling-Baj said the couple went to the master bedroom together about midnight, and were still talking when Darling-Baj asked to stop because she was tired. The family was set to return to Poland the following day. "I felt relieved that everything was so calm," she said. At 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 30, Darling-Baj said she awoke to the sound of a baby gate slamming into a stair railing. She grabbed her phone and could see her husband standing in the bedroom doorway. Darling-Baj said she turned on the bathroom light and Baj, looking pale and with a blank expression on his face, walked into the bedroom and toward her, with the divorce papers in his outstretched hand, the wife testified. Darling-Baj said when she looked down at the papers, she saw a gun handle sticking out of his shorts waistband. Baj had multiple guns in the house, she said. "I reached for the gun. He smacked my hand. He grabbed the gun and he pointed it at my head," she said. Darling-Baj stepped into the master bedroom, closed the door and locked it, then called 911. She said her husband began throwing his body against the door, eventually firing three shots at the door. Darling-Baj was not shot, but said wood that splintered from the door burned the side of her hand. "The bullets just missed my hand," she said. "He didn't say anything." Darling-Baj said she opened the door, ran past her husband and was halfway down the stairs when she heard their oldest son say, "Daddy?" "My heart stopped. I heard Chris say, 'Get back to your room,'" she testified. "I thought if I tried to get the kids, he'll shoot us all." Darling-Baj ran outside and hid behind a neighbors car until police arrived. Police spoke with the cousin by phone and had her get out via a basement window. The boys, ages 4 and 7, were still inside the home. There were cameras in their rooms, and Darling-Baj had an app to watch the video and speak to the boys via a microphone. The boys were sleeping, and at 7 a.m., police told the oldest boy to get his younger brother and walk out of the house, which they did. Police tried for hours to communicate with Baj, eventually having a negotiator use a bullhorn. Investigator Anthony Stevens said Darling-Baj was hysterical and repeatedly yelled and screamed about getting her kids out of the house. Shortly before 11:30 a.m. that day police used an armored vehicle known as a Rook to force open the front door to Baj's home. Baj was seen in the house and he was taken into custody, Stevens said. Police found three bullet holes in the master bathroom door and three bullets in the bathroom. A loaded .38-caliber Taurus pistol was found above the fridge, Stevens testified. The gun had three spent casings inside, he said. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A 42-year-old former Pennsylvania constable from Carbon County pleaded guilty Monday to soliciting sex from women in exchange for overlooking warrants or giving them money to pay fines. George Bottomley Jr., of Palmerton, made the plea in county court to charges of promoting prostitution and obstructing justice, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office. He was facing seven counts of the prostitution charge, six counts of bribery, six counts of obstruction and one count of involuntary servitude, record show. He has been free on bail, records show. He could get jail time and a fine up to $65,000 at his May 25 sentencing, the attorney general's office said. Bottomley agreed not to seek public office for 10 years, the attorney general's office said. "Today's guilty plea follows an outrageous abuse of authority by an elected public official who violated the public's trust," Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a news release on Monday. "This defendant used his power and position to prey upon women to fulfill his own desires. To the women who were his victims, my message is clear: I hear you and he is being held accountable for his crimes." Most of Bottomley's crimes date to 2010, records show. He was arrested last April after an attorney general's office investigation. Bottomley "had contacted various female subjects who had warrants for arrest due to unpaid fines" and "offered to pay the fines in exchange for sexual favors," the attorney general's office charged in court papers. The constable, who was first elected in November 2009, was suspended Oct. 3, 2016, court papers say. The attorney general's office on Monday called him a former constable. Bottomley would seek out the women -- seven interactions are detailed in court papers -- and at first offer to help "in exchange for their help," authorities said. Phone calls and text messages would make "clearer" that he was seeking sex, the attorney general's office said. Bottomley's attorney Evan Hughes said the original charges were altered before the plea. "After careful consideration Mr. Bottomley has pleaded guilty to a modification of the original charges," Hughes said in a prepared statement. "While the initial indictment included vastly more serious charges that the defense did not feel were appropriate, Mr. Bottomley fully recognizes that during his time as a constable he crossed lines and he's incredibly sorry for that. "Mr. Bottomley has been in therapy to address these issues. I feel this is a very fair resolution for someone who has lived an otherwise law-abiding life and is an extremely hard-working person." Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Seventeen people were killed in a school shooting last month in Florida. But it's a different number that sticks with Samantha Lewis. Fourteen: the age of the youngest victims at Marjory Stonemason Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. That's Lewis' age. "It could happen to me," the Warren Hills Regional High School freshman said. "It could happen to anyone else." Lewis, along with peers at the Warren County high school, plan on joining students nationwide in a walkout at 10 a.m. Wednesday, one that will last 17 minutes -- one for each victim of the Parkland shooting -- before returning to class. They will get in trouble for it. It's against school policy for students to leave the building without authorization during the school day and could result in detention. The participating students accept that. "Our school is treating this like it's a normal day," Lewis said. "It's not." The organizers of Warren Hills' March 14 walkout are (from left) senior Lauren Walsh, sophomore Arianna Henry, junior Kallie Levitt, and freshman Samantha Lewis. The walkout There are more than 2,500 school walkouts planned across the country, including at least nine around the Lehigh Valley, according to WomensMarch.com. The protest is for "Congress' refusal to take action on the gun violence epidemic plaguing our schools and neighborhoods," the website says, promoting the hashtag #Enough. "We are not safe at school. We are not safe in our cities and towns," it says. "We want Congress to pay attention and take note: many of us will vote this November and many others will flood the polls in 2020." The Warren Hills student organizers say at least 160 students have signed up through an online campaign. "We think we've had a great turnout," said junior Kallie Levitt, though they are still hoping to reach more students who may not have seen the protest on social media. However, the website is clear in its information for organizers that while ideas cannot be subject to discipline, actions can. Warren Hills freshman Samantha Lewis wears a pin saying "We call BS." The concern In Warren Hills, a protest calling for an end to threats in schools may, ironically, run afoul of the school's student safety policies. "Students exiting the safety of our secured school buildings to participate in a nationally advertised event leaves our students vulnerable to outside threats and raises safety concerns," Warren Hills Superintendent Earl "Chip" Clymer said in a statement to lehighvalleylive.com, one that mirrors a letter posted to the district's website. Because of this, Clymer said, any student who leaves the building will be "addressed when they safely re-enter our building and will be subject to consequences." Protesters will get an after-school detention for leaving the building without permission, said sophomore Arianna Henry, another of the student organizers. That's not so bad after students initially feared a suspension, Henry said. "They can't punish us extra for protesting," she said. "Otherwise that would be a violation of our rights." Other area school districts share similar concerns, each handling it in their own way. For instance, Allentown schools will mark participating students as tardy or absent; Easton will not pursue disciplinary action but will have an increased police presence. As an alternative to the protest outside, Warren Hills is offering voluntary in-school assemblies at both the middle and high school. The protest organizers said they will not be deterred. "We are coming outside to prove a point," said senior Lauren Walsh. "And that point is we need stricter gun laws. ... Shootings like this can no longer occur." "I feel like we're a force to be reckoned with," Lewis added. Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Politics UAE-Botswana explore investment opportunities 13.03.2018 06:57:44 - Non-oil trade between UAE and the African countries touched AED 140.5 billion in 2016, at a growth rate of 16 per cent (live-PR.com) - The UAE- Botswana Business Forum held recently in Dubai, in the presence of H.E Vincent T. Seretse , Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Botswana and H.E Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Saleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade Affairs on behalf of H.E Engr. Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy. The forum was organized - The UAE- Botswana Business Forum held recently in Dubai, in the presence of H.E Vincent T. Seretse , Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Botswana and H.E Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Saleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade Affairs on behalf of H.E Engr. Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy. The forum was organized jointly by the Ministry of Economy, the Dubai Chamber and the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry of the Republic of Botswana, to discuss ties between the UAE and African countries and to further strengthen bilateral relations between UAE and Botswana by developing vital sectors like trade and investment. Also present at the event were H.E. Lesetedi Manyepedza Ambassador of Botswana to the UAE, Hassan Al Hashemi Vice President of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Mohammed Nasser Hamdan Al Zaabi, Director of the Trade Promotion Department at the Ministry of Economy, as well as over 200 officials, businessmen and investors from both countries. H.E Abdullah Al Saleh said on his speech on behalf H.E Al Mansoori, that bilateral ties between the UAE and Botswana were particularly robust, due to investments in key sectors. The UAE has strong commitment and trade ties with the African markets and we have active engagement with the region through our investments in key sectors. Trade volume between UAE and Africa totals around USD 35 billion and has been growing at a double-digit rate annually, he said. Non-oil trade exchange between UAE and the African countries touched AED 140.5 billion in 2016, at a growth rate of 16 per cent. he added. UAEs growth in Africa is visible in key sectors such as oil and gas, tourism, aviation and logistics with several national companies including ENOC, DP World, Air Arabia and Fly Dubai, to name a few established in key regional markets, H.E added. He affirmed that Botswana and the UAE need to bolster ties in key areas of cooperation, particularly in sectors where the both countries have already established investments in Africa such as agriculture, renewable energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and trade on precious metals, including diamonds, and pointed out that the high standards and regulations that the UAE has put in place for diamond trade provides a gateway for Botswana to bolster its international market. H.E said that this further boosts the importance of building a strategic partnership between Botswana and the UAE and taking a step closer to developing strong economic ties based on common interests in line with both countries sustainable development agenda, and added that the UAE is strategically positioned as an ideal investment hub for Africa and we its keen to advance this goal by providing the ideal investment platforms offering a liberal investment environment, state-of-the art infrastructure and seamless government procedures for doing business. On his part, H.E Vincent T. Seretse said that Botswana stands to learn a lot from the UAE, particularly in sustainable economic diversification, and he added that they wish to learn and emulate how the UAE has successfully diversified its economy by creating other thriving strategic sectors such as tourism, financial and business services, transport and logistics, as well as manufacturing, to name a few. H.E commended the firm resolve of the UAE to have 64 per cent of its GDP derive from non-oil reserves by the year 2030. There are a lot of areas where Botswana and the UAE can join hands for the mutual good. Given the negative trade balance in favor of Botswana, there is a lot of potential for the UAE to export more goods and services to Botswana. Currently, Botswana exports goods worth USD 708 million per annum to the United Arab Emirates, mostly diamonds; while the United Arab Emirates exports USD 21 million of diamonds and other consumables to Botswana. H.E Vincent added. He affirmed that over and above trade, setting up a production facility in Botswana provides access to multiple preferential trade arrangements, such as the SADC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement, the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU), and Southern African Development Community (SADC). As a country, Botswana is working every moment, to improve the business climate, he said, and added that they have in place the necessary regulatory framework in terms of policies, laws, and regulations that ensures security of investments and facilitates sustainable profitability and opportunities for business expansion. Dubai is an ideal partner for Botswana as a re-export hub with strong links across the Middle East, Asia and Europe. The emirate offers plenty of advantages to companies in Botswana, such as its world-class infrastructure, business friendly environment and attractive free zones. Mr.HassanAl Hashemi said. He stressed that Dubais non-oi trade with Botswana has nearly tripled in recent years to exceed USD 1 billion in the first nine months of 2017, and pointed out that pearls, precious and semi-precious stones and metals accounted for the largest share of bilateral trade. He added that there was plenty of scope to expand trade and investment ties between the UAE and Botswana in other key sectors such as tourism, agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing and ICT. The forum also included presentations and films on the economy of Botswana, its investment climate and business practices. The mining, diamond and gemstone sectors account for 20 per cent of the countys GDP, 18 per cent for trade, hospitality and restaurants, 14 per cent for financial and business services and 5 per cent for the manufacturing sector. A presentation was also given on the diamond sector, the main pillar of the Botswana economy, followed by an interactive session on oil sectors and cooperation in food products, especially beef, and tourism. jointly by the Ministry of Economy, the Dubai Chamber and the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry of the Republic of Botswana, to discuss ties between the UAE and African countries and to further strengthen bilateral relations between UAE and Botswana by developing vital sectors like trade and investment.Also present at the event were H.E. Lesetedi Manyepedza Ambassador of Botswana to the UAE, Hassan Al Hashemi Vice President of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Mohammed Nasser Hamdan Al Zaabi, Director of the Trade Promotion Department at the Ministry of Economy, as well as over 200 officials, businessmen and investors from both countries.H.E Abdullah Al Saleh said on his speech on behalf H.E Al Mansoori, that bilateral ties between the UAE and Botswana were particularly robust, due to investments in key sectors.The UAE has strong commitment and trade ties with the African markets and we have active engagement with the region through our investments in key sectors. Trade volume between UAE and Africa totals around USD 35 billion and has been growing at a double-digit rate annually, he said. Non-oil trade exchange between UAE and the African countries touched AED 140.5 billion in 2016, at a growth rate of 16 per cent. he added.UAEs growth in Africa is visible in key sectors such as oil and gas, tourism, aviation and logistics with several national companies including ENOC, DP World, Air Arabia and Fly Dubai, to name a few established in key regional markets, H.E added.He affirmed that Botswana and the UAE need to bolster ties in key areas of cooperation, particularly in sectors where the both countries have already established investments in Africa such as agriculture, renewable energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and trade on precious metals, including diamonds, and pointed out that the high standards and regulations that the UAE has put in place for diamond trade provides a gateway for Botswana to bolster its international market.H.E said that this further boosts the importance of building a strategic partnership between Botswana and the UAE and taking a step closer to developing strong economic ties based on common interests in line with both countries sustainable development agenda, and added that the UAE is strategically positioned as an ideal investment hub for Africa and we its keen to advance this goal by providing the ideal investment platforms offering a liberal investment environment, state-of-the art infrastructure and seamless government procedures for doing business.On his part, H.E Vincent T. Seretse said that Botswana stands to learn a lot from the UAE, particularly in sustainable economic diversification, and he added that they wish to learn and emulate how the UAE has successfully diversified its economy by creating other thriving strategic sectors such as tourism, financial and business services, transport and logistics, as well as manufacturing, to name a few. H.E commended the firm resolve of the UAE to have 64 per cent of its GDP derive from non-oil reserves by the year 2030.There are a lot of areas where Botswana and the UAE can join hands for the mutual good. Given the negative trade balance in favor of Botswana, there is a lot of potential for the UAE to export more goods and services to Botswana. Currently, Botswana exports goods worth USD 708 million per annum to the United Arab Emirates, mostly diamonds; while the United Arab Emirates exports USD 21 million of diamonds and other consumables to Botswana. H.E Vincent added.He affirmed that over and above trade, setting up a production facility in Botswana provides access to multiple preferential trade arrangements, such as the SADC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement, the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU), and Southern African Development Community (SADC). As a country, Botswana is working every moment, to improve the business climate, he said, and added that they have in place the necessary regulatory framework in terms of policies, laws, and regulations that ensures security of investments and facilitates sustainable profitability and opportunities for business expansion.Dubai is an ideal partner for Botswana as a re-export hub with strong links across the Middle East, Asia and Europe. The emirate offers plenty of advantages to companies in Botswana, such as its world-class infrastructure, business friendly environment and attractive free zones. Mr.HassanAl Hashemi said.He stressed that Dubais non-oi trade with Botswana has nearly tripled in recent years to exceed USD 1 billion in the first nine months of 2017, and pointed out that pearls, precious and semi-precious stones and metals accounted for the largest share of bilateral trade. He added that there was plenty of scope to expand trade and investment ties between the UAE and Botswana in other key sectors such as tourism, agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing and ICT.The forum also included presentations and films on the economy of Botswana, its investment climate and business practices. The mining, diamond and gemstone sectors account for 20 per cent of the countys GDP, 18 per cent for trade, hospitality and restaurants, 14 per cent for financial and business services and 5 per cent for the manufacturing sector. A presentation was also given on the diamond sector, the main pillar of the Botswana economy, followed by an interactive session on oil sectors and cooperation in food products, especially beef, and tourism. Contact information: Orient Planet PR & Marketing Communications P.O.Box. 500266, Dubai, UAE Contact Person: Eyad Zeidan Phone: 0097144562888 eMail: eMail Web: http://www.orientplanet.com Author: Pratik Karkera e-mail Web: http://www.orientplanet.com Phone: 0097144562888 13.03.2018 06:57:44 - 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. A severely disabled woman learns how to work online at an entrepreneurship and employment base specialized for the disabled in Neijiang, southwest Chinas Sichuan province, January 17, 2018. (Photo from CFP) A senior Chinese diplomat called on concerted efforts from all sides to build a community of shared future for mankind and to promote establishment of a fair, impartial, open and inclusive global human rights governance system in Geneva. Full enjoyment of human rights by all is a great ambition of human society and an important goal of building a community of shared future for mankind, a concept initiated by President Xi Jinping, said Yu Jianhua, Chinas Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva and Other International Organizations in Switzerland. China calls on all parties to work together for a new model of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation and a community of shared future for mankind, the diplomat added when speaking at the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council. He stressed the importance of development, security, cooperation and fairness in the improvement of global human rights governance system. The first South-South Human Rights Forum is convened in Beijing from December 7 to 8, 2017, during which more than 300 representatives from over 70 countries and international organizations discussed on human rights development in developing countries and the world at large. (Photo from china.org.cn) The people's interests are of overriding importance to the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government and their aspirations for a better life are what the Party and nation ultimately fight for, emphasized Yu, adding that all the fundamental rights of Chinese people are being better respected and guaranteed. China is always a builder and contributor to the international human rights governance, he stressed. The CPC drew up a blueprint of China's development at its 19th National Congress last October, Yu said, elaborating that the country has set 2020 as the target year to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eradicate poverty. According to the blueprint, China will basically realize socialist modernization by 2035, and develop itself into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the middle of this century. Poverty-stricken residents at Chenxiaozhai village, Anqing, central Chinas Anhui province, attended lesson to learn skills, April 12, 2017. China hits a record of lifting over 68 million people out of poverty in the past five years. (Photo from CFP) China will further advance its human rights undertakings and contribute even more to the progress of human society with these goals gradually achieved, said Yu. The 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council kicked off in Geneva on February 26 and is expected to close on March 23. A working group from Dongxiang District of Fuzhou, eastern Chinas Jiangxi province, visit a prison for law education and a questionnaire on legitimate rights, April 14, 2017. (Photo from CFP) Stock Market News Cairn Energy posts better-than-expected year-end net cash 13-03-2018 07:33 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 Close Brothers first-half operating profit up 6% 13-03-2018 07:40 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 Computacenter profit surges on strong German growth 13-03-2018 07:52 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 Fevertree profit jumps 64% amid growth across regions and channels 13-03-2018 09:16 Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk Stock Market News Greencore issues FY profits warning 13-03-2018 07:46 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 Just Group deputy chairman to step down in May 13-03-2018 07:58 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 Sector review: Food producers down as Glencore warns of UK softness 13-03-2018 18:13 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 Tennents and super-premium brands drive performance at C&C 13-03-2018 10:49 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 UK govt pays initial 36m to Hansteen for Midlands business park 13-03-2018 07:23 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 BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China will establish a ministry of ecological environment to enhance environmental protection, according to a reform plan submitted to the national legislature for deliberation on Tuesday. The new ministry will be responsible for the compiling and implementation of China's ecological environment policies, plans and standards, as well as ecological environment monitoring and law enforcement. It will also regulate pollution control and nuclear and radiation safety, and organize inspections of central authorities on environmental protection, according to the plan on institutional restructuring of the State Council, or the cabinet. The Ministry of Environmental Protection will be dismantled. BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China will set up a banking and insurance regulatory commission, according to a plan submitted to the national legislature on Tuesday. The commission is mainly responsible for supervising the banking and insurance industries, preventing and dissolving financial risks and protecting consumers' rights. The China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission will be dismantled, according to the plan on institutional restructuring of the State Council, submitted to the first session of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberations. BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China's national social security fund investment operator will no longer be administered by the State Council, but by the finance ministry, according to a plan submitted to the national legislature on Tuesday. The move aims to ensure the security and steady value preservation and appreciation of the country's social security fund, according to the plan on institutional restructuring of the State Council, or the cabinet, which was tabled to the first session of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberation. The National Council for Social Security Fund will be a fund investment operating agency without definite government administrative ranking, the plan said. New organs to be formed under China's cabinet BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The State Council, China's cabinet, submitted a plan on institutional restructuring to the first session of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberations on Tuesday. Besides 26 ministries and commissions, the plan proposed the formation of eight agencies that are subject to approval from a newly-formed State Council. According to the plan, the following are the proposed agencies: -- state market regulatory administration; -- state radio and television administration; -- China banking and insurance regulatory commission; -- state international development cooperation agency; -- state medical insurance administration; -- state grain and reserves administration; -- state immigration administration; -- state administration of forestry and grassland. In line with its commitment to the exploration and preservation of the oceans, Blancpain has supported the World Ocean Summit since its first edition in 2012. The 5th Summit took place from March 7th to 9th 2018 at the Riviera Maya in Mexico and marks the beginning of a new phase in the cooperation between the watch Manufacture and The Economist. This international conference is indeed taking on a new dimension this year with the launch of the World Ocean Initiative. Organized by The Economist, the World Ocean Summit has established itself over the past six years as the most influential multilateral forum for global governance of the oceans. It brings together more than 360 leaders from governments, companies, international organizations, NGOs and universities with the aim of discussing and suggesting solutions for a future in which sustainable development and blue economy are balanced. In 2018, the Summit is expanding into a wider and more ambitious World Ocean Initiative with an agenda focused on accelerated measures and tangible results on behalf of viable stewardship of the oceans. Within the framework of this new initiative, Blancpain and The Economist have set up The Protectors program. This is designed to support six individual projects which contribute in an innovative and significant manner to the objective of having 30% of the planets oceans classified into marine protected areas by 2030. Over a 24-month period, the public will have an opportunity to discover the work and achievements accomplished by six key figures through a series of short movies, discussion panels and an interactive digital campaign. This new program was presented at the opening of the World Ocean Summit with the screening of the documentary Ocean (Season 2), produced by The Economist Films with the exclusive support of Blancpain. Given its involvement in protecting the oceans , Blancpain is particularly delighted with the choice of Mexico as the host country for the Summit. In fact, an expedition supported by the brand encouraged the recent decision made by the Mexican government to create the largest marine protected area - 148,000 km2 - in North America, in the Revillagigedo Archipelago. An early announcement in London Blancpain On December 12th 2017, Blancpain and its President & CEO Marc A. Hayek hosted 230 guests at the Natural History Museum in London for an evening dedicated to the links between the Manufacture and the world of the sea. The event began with the announcement of a first year of support for the Museum in its role as a center for scientific research, as well as its ability to raise public awareness of the importance of sustainable management of the oceans and marine species. The second key intervention was led by underwater biologist and photographer Laurent Ballesta, who revealed the initial images and results of his fourth Gombessa expedition, a scientific, technical and artistic project that has been actively supported by Blancpain since 2012. His exceptional photographic work was in fact rewarded in 2017 by the London Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition (in the "Earth's Environments" category). Finally, to conclude the ceremony, Paul Rossi, President of The Economist Group Media Businesses, gave a preview of the enhancement of the partnership with Blancpain through the implementation in 2018 of the new World Ocean Initiative. http://films.economist.com/blancpain-ocean www.blancpain.com www.blancpain.tv To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant. Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry. Disclaimer Endrtimes does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article/video posted on this site. The information provided here is done so for personal edification; It's up to the reader to separate truth from error, and to examine everything (like the Bereans) from a Biblical perspective. Let the Holy Scriptures be you guide! - - - FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages/videos may contain copyrighted () material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, economic, DEMOCRACY, scientific, MORAL, ETHICAL, and SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes. 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 Lifestyle / Gastronomy The largest all-glass undersea restaurant in Maldives will turn into a venue to host what is being called the worlds first undersea yoga event. Mar 13, 2018 | By Andrea Sim Maldives trendiest undersea restaurant will turn into a perfect venue to host a major yoga event Set on an enchanting private island surrounded by a beautiful lagoon and long stretches of white sandy beach, the 5.8 Underwater Restaurant (19-feet beneath the lagoon) in Hurawalhi Maldives, offers both panoramic views of its tropical marine underworld, and inviting guests to enjoy what is said to be a world-class tasting menu and a selection of fine wines from its cellar. Other gastronomy experience in Hurawalhi includes dining options, such as Ala Carte Menu at the Coco Bar and Pool, In-Villa Dining (24 hour service) and Candlelight Beach Dinners and Chefs Table. In addition, the underwater restaurant will also turn into a yoga venue for privileged yogis. Organised by the Montreal-based yoga apparel company, it has previously held yoga events at prestigious landmarks around the world, such as the Eiffel Tower, Central Park in New York, The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and Montreals Olympic Stadium. The 5.8 Undersea Restaurant to serve as the picturesque milieu of serenity for participants to engage in yoga event, surely is the first-of-its-kind under the sea. Suitable for yogis of all levels, from beginner to intermediate and advanced, the classes will take place on March 17 at $120. What to expect: Vinyasa flow yoga class The goal of the vinyasa flow class will be to improve flexibility, boost muscle strength, power up the immune system and produce an inner calm. Conducted by yoga instructor Jessica Olie in a one-hour class, participants will engage in a unique session performing downward dogs and, perhaps, the fish or dolphin pose, surrounded by schools of colorful, tropical fish swimming in a liquid azure sky. However, if the Maldives is slightly out of reach, you might want to keep tabs on the Lole White Tour which organises yoga tours globally in unexpected places. Properties / Homes Cascading down a steep slope on the coast of Chile, the Ghat House is the ultimate bachelor pad for Tony Stark if he was looking for investment properties to own in South America Mar 13, 2018 | By Jonathan Ho Designed by architect Max Nunez and majestically landscaped by Alejandra Marambio, the Cachagua, Chile, Ghat House (previously known as House Z) is located on a mountain slope with a 25 inclination. The steep slope leading into the Pacific Ocean served as direct muse for Ghat House, its design, structure and room organization were determined by the topography. Max Nunez Ghat House in Cachagua, Chile is the South American home for Tony Stark types The inclined surface of the roof runs parallel to the natural slope of the site, supported by 15 pillars, each unique, and each softening up the harshness and brutalist concrete structure. The unusually proportioned, asymmetrical large staircase weaves in and out of Max Nunez Architects Ghat House, dominating both visually and as a physical feature. But truly, its the topography, defined by the slope which forces Max Nunez to organise the interior spaces of recently completed 340 m meter Ghat House according to the steepness of the slope, creating interior spaces of varying levels with different sizes and heights. Even the pillars of different sizes and shapes are constructed to support the interior levels with its own exacting structural needs. Individual geometries and shapes make each structural column and turns it into a heterogeneous feature in its own right, avoiding structural monotony in usual pillar support design. Ghat House uses its columns to frame the landscape, carefully cultivated by Alejandra Marambio, to amazing effect. Four lighter areas cladded in wood interfere with the surface of Max Nunezs Ghat House roof and the space below it. Three of areas volumes contain the private rooms, while the fourth, smaller in dimension, contains direct access to the roof. These volumes are located under, beside, and above the roof, like the dynamic staircase weaving in and out of the Cachagua Ghat House establish ambiguous relations between the private and public areas of the house. For more information: Max Nunez Architects A top UN rights expert warned Monday that the crackdown on Myanmar's Rohingya minority bears "the hallmarks of genocide" and insisted the government should be held accountable. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled northern Rakhine state to Bangladesh since Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown on insurgents six months ago amid accounts of arson, murder and rape at the hands of soldiers and vigilante mobs in the mainly Buddhist country. Myanmar has vehemently denied US and UN allegations of ethnic cleansing, insisting it was responding to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in late August. But on Monday, UN special rapporteur to Myanmar Yanghee Lee suggested that term was not strong enough. "I am becoming more convinced that crimes committed... bear the hallmarks of genocide, and call in the strongest terms for accountability," she told the UN Human Rights Council. The South Korean academic, who has been barred from visiting Myanmar, voiced alarm at "credible reports" of widespread indiscriminate killings, including by burning people alive. She pointed to "conservative estimates" that at least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the first month of violence alone. Lee echoed a call from UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein last week for the creation of a new international probe tasked with preparing criminal indictments over atrocities committed in Myanmar. She said the UN-backed investigation should be based out of Bangladesh. The quest for accountability "must be aimed at the individuals who gave the orders and carried out violations against individuals and entire ethnic and religious groups," Lee said. "The government leadership who did nothing to intervene, stop or condemn these acts must also be held accountable," she added. Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been the target of global vitriol for a perceived failure to stand up for the stateless minority. But she remains a heroine for most of her compatriots, who largely consider the Rohingya as unwanted illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. On Monday, Myanmar Ambassador Htin Lynn stressed to the rights council that Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was committed to human rights. "It is unreasonable to assert that our leadership, whose mission has human rights at its core, remains indifferent to the allegations of grave human rights violations," he said, insisting that the government was "ready to take action where there is clear evidence." He meanwhile slammed Lee for presenting "sweeping allegations and unverified information," and insisted "there is a clear need to replace her". Lee also called Monday for a "comprehensive review" of actions taken by the UN before, during and after the latest crackdowns on Rohingya in Myanmar. "The violence and suffering calls not just for accountability but also for self-reflection by the UN, and the question: Could we have prevented this?" she said. Her comments came after Amnesty International on Monday accused Myanmar of building security installations on top of razed Rohingya villages, casting doubt on plans to repatriate hundreds of thousands of refugees. Lee also warned of "extensive bulldozing of former Rohingya villages with huge redevelopment projects already underway in some areas". She pointed to a 2013 law that automatically gives the Myanmar government control over all burned or abandoned land. The head of a UN-backed fact-finding mission into violations in Myanmar, Marzuki Darusman, meanwhile told the council Monday that at least 319 villages had been burned since August. "We have seen unsettling photographs and satellite images of Rohingya villages flattened to the ground by bulldozers, erasing all remaining traces of the life and community that once was," he said. Short link: Are these things about your identity that youve always grown up knowing? No, I wasn't as fortunate as my sons are. I was not immersed in Te Ao Maori. I was raised in a predominantly Pakeha community in Ngamotu [New Plymouth] Taranaki, I went to an all-girls Catholic school and left at 15. We would visit nan and koro and whanau in Waiuku but I wasnt raised on the marae like others I know. I felt that was always missing in my life so I have made a conscious effort to trace those these ancestral trails in my adult life, especially for my sons. When did you remember having that turning point, when you thought, Ive got to go retrace? Ive always been quite a conscious soul but I really started awakening in my mid 20s, spiritually this void was present and this yearning to seek deeper trails started pulling at my pito [belly button]. What were some major moments that spoke to you and made you feel you were on the right track or feel in the right place? I was called by the tohora [whales]. They kept coming to me, a wairua spiritually in my dreams, synchronistically dream after dream. Different pods of whales, orca, paikea [humpback whales], even great white sharks, were coming to me in my dreams. Id be standing on the beach and they would call me, literally they would call me, they were singing to me in their whale song which vibrationally is one of the sounds of creation. I would walk into the water and swim out to them and I would hold onto their fins and they would take me with them in their pod out into the moana. I called my aunty up in Whangara on the East Coast in Tairawhiti and told her I needed to come and she welcomed us with open arms. Whangara Te Ara Paikea, the pathway of Paikea the whale rider, even though I dont whakapapa to that part of Aotearoa I knew I was being called there to be taught, and as soon as I got there the dreams stopped because I listened to the call of my tupuna. Turua and Manukura just weren't meant to be. The two kiwi, who have resided together at Pukaha Mount Bruce near Masterton since 2012, have parted ways after an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to have them breed together. Turua was released into the wild on Sunday. His aviary mate, Manukura, is well-known as she is a rare white kiwi, making her a popular attraction for visitors. The pair had an arranged marriage that didn't work, lead kiwi ranger at Mount Bruce, Jess Flamy, says. "Once the pair were introduced in the nocturnal house aviary, it is fair to say that Manukura was much more interested in Turua than he was in her," she said. "Turua remained what appeared to be happy and healthy, so the Pukaha rangers waited for him to come around to Manukura's advances." However, although Turua did show some inclinations, no mating took place and late last year he started to appear stressed and began losing weight. Once removed from Manukura, Turura started to thrive, so the decision was made to keep him away from her and he was released back into the Pukaha forest. "No matter how many kiwi you release back into the wild, you still feel like a parent sending your kids off into the big, wild world," Ms Flamy said. "I will be watching his progress with pride." All is not lost for Manukura, either, who has a potential new mate called Frickleton. Newshub. Egypt's public prosecutor has announced the launch of hotlines to receive complaints about "false news and rumors" published by media outlets and on social media websites with the aim of undermining national security. The public prosecutor's office said in a statement on Monday that it has set up mobile telephone numbers to receive complaints via SMS and the popular messaging application WhatsApp. The phone numbers cover all Egyptian governorates, according to the statement, which says the complaint should include the name of the complainant and their personal details. It said the move was aimed at combatting "premeditated false news aiming to undermine state security, terrorize citizens ... or damage the country's public interests." Last month, Egypt's public prosecutor tasked state prosecutors with taking legal action against media outlets and social-media websites found to be broadcasting false news, statements and rumors". The prosecutor said at the time that the decison came "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 order came a day after Egypts foreign press center called on Egyptian officials and prominent individuals to boycott the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) after a report on human rights it said involved "lies and allegations". Short link: UK broadcaster Sky has produced a promotional package for the upcoming Joseph Parker fight which depicts the Kiwi-Samoan as a fearsome Maori warrior. The advert for the pay-per-view of his title unification bout with Briton Anthony Joshua blends pictures of both fighters with classic New Zealand landscapes and a Maori chief, while using digital imaging to transpose Ta moko to Parker's face. "Devastating forces shake the earth beneath our feet," says the narrator in a dramatic monologue. "Frightening. No chance of retreat. Two beasts so ferocious they cannot be caged. "Worlds apart, choose a side. Prepare yourself for forces to collide." Parker heads to London this weekend from his camp in Las Vegas ahead of his April 1 (NZT) clash with Joshua. Newshub. Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry met on Tuesday with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, where they discussed boosting bilateral relations and issues relating to the Nile Basin, ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a statement. Shoukry delivered an invitation from Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi for Kenyatta to visit Egypt. El-Sisi stressed Egypt's keenness to boost relations between the two countries, and Kenyatta expressed his gratitude for Egypt's support during Kenya's recent political crisis. Kenya was Egypts number one trading partner in COMESA in 2017, when Egypt greatly increased trade with the country, exporting goods worth $170 million; a 30 percent increase from the previous year. The two officials also discussed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, and both stressed their commitment to working on achieving a consensus and ensuring the interests of all Nile Basin states in accordance with international law without harming any side. On Monday, Shoukry started a tour in Africa, where he first visited South Sudan and met President Salva Kiir and other top officials. During the meeting with Kenyatta, Shoukry invited the president to hold the seventh session of the Kenya-Egypt Joint Commission for Corporation soon in Cairo. Kenyatta said that he looks forward to working with his Egyptian counterpart during Egypt's leadership of the African Union (AU) next year. Shoukry's visit comes amid Egyptian efforts to seek support to secure the AU leadership position, as well as boost relations in several fields in the African continent, especially with Nile Basin states. In late January, El-Sisi met with the leaders of Sudan and Ethiopia in a tripartite summit in the Ethiopian capital to discuss differences over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. "People should be assured. None of [our three] countries Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia will be harmed," El-Sisi told reporters at the time. In 2013, Ethiopia started building the Grand Renaissance Dam on the main tributary to the River Nile in Egypt, which has caused tensions between the two countries. In 2014, Egypt and Ethiopia started negotiations on the dam's filling process, which Cairo is concerned could reduce its annual 55-billion cubic metres share of Nile water. Short link: Egypt's ministry of telecommunications and information technology has issued a clarification of statements made by communications minister Yasser El-Kady on Monday regarding the establishment of an "Egyptian Facebook" platform. At a counter-extremism workshop organized by the Egyptian Justice Ministry on Monday, the minister said that Egypt had taken steps toward facilitating the creation of a home-grown version of the social-media platform. El-Kady's apparent announcement of a state-backed social-media project was instantly hailed by some Egyptian members of parliament as an "excellent step to protect Egypt". However, the ministry's public relations head Mohamed Hanafy Khedr Mostafa said on Monday evening that the minister's statement had been misinterpreted, and that he was referring simply to the potential for young Egyptians to develop social-media platforms in cooperation with international partners within the private sector. Mostafa said the ministry has no plans to simulate international applications such as Facebook, although it is willing to support young Egyptian entrepreneurs in their efforts. "We have Egyptian youths who have been able to execute applications with global reach, with international corperations contacting them to buy such applications," Mostafa said in his press statement. Many of the young tech-savvy Egyptians behind such applications were graduates of the ministry's Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre and were able to work on applications of the same quality as Facebook and other commerical applications. El-Kady's comments on Monday were widely reported in Egyptian media, where he was quoted as saying that the "Egyptian Facebook" initiative was part of a wider plan to involve the country as a significant player in the global social-media field. El-Kady also said that Egypt should be an active player in social-media, rather than being the subject of other people's actions, as was usually the case. During the same workshop on Monday, the minister announced that a new cybercrime bill had been submitted to parliament, stirring debate among parliamentarians. Egypt leads the number of Arab Facebook users, according to statistics from 2017, with approximately 34.5 million active accounts, representing 23 percent of all Arab Facebook users. Short link: Although the youth movement that shook Iran in late December and late January has died down, nothing has been solved. It is evident that the movement merely anticipated a far deeper mood of anger and resentment, which has been building up for decades. On Sunday, three students from Tehran University were sentenced to a total of nine years of imprisonment for their role in the recent protest movement. Mohsen Haghshenas, Sina Rabii and Leila Hassanzadeh, and were sentenced to one, two and six years in prison for the crime of anti-regime propaganda. This sparked off a protest outside the gates of Tehrans prestigious Amir Kabir Polytechnic University. Hundreds of students gathered singing revolutionary songs and chanting Free the political prisoners, Free the political students and reading out a statement, which according to some reports had been circulating amongst the students for a few days. This video shows students of Amirkabir University of Technology while were protesting against heavy prison sentences issued by Islamic Revolution courts for arrested students. Minutes after that #Basij militias of #ran's Islamic regime attacked them. #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/o03bh9QwbQ Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) March 11, 2018 Boldly criticising all factions of the regime, including the liberal wing in government, the students statement read: While there are many claims that independence and academic freedom exist in the university, and the government pledges to create non-security atmosphere at the university, we now see that every criticism by the university students and staff faces most intense interference and attacks by the security institutions, and students...are dealt with severely and are under the most intense forms of attack... Today in #Tehran, students of Amirkabir University of Technology protested against heavy prison sentences issued by Islamic Revolution courts for arrested students. Then #ran's Islamic regime used its #Basij militias (carrying yellow flags) to suppress protesters. #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/NVkCFzN4HA Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) March 11, 2018 The protesters demanded the release of all students who had been rounded up during the previous months and the cancelling of the heavy sentences of those who have stood trial. Pro-regime forces immediately mobilised Basiji students (carrying yellow flags) to attack the crowd but they appeared ineffectual and, as can be seen from the videos, students passing by even started cursing at them, chanting Dishonorable!. #Basij militia who always being helped by #IRGC during their education in top #ran's universities have primary mission of suppressing student protests, an example is suppression of today protest of Amirkabir university students in #Tehran. pic.twitter.com/UNJu5CFwFI Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) March 11, 2018 In Tehrans University of Social Sciences the students plastered the university area with posters with similar demands as those in Amir Kabir University. Today the protest at the Tehran universities seems to have continued, although for now it has been confined to indoor areas. The students protest, however, is just one of a rising trickle of actions that have been taking place since January. The farmers of east Isfahan have have been protesting for more than three weeks due to the allocation of insufficient water for their crops and general use. Thanks to mismanagement and under-development, Iran is going through a serious water crisis due to the largest lakes and some of the most important rivers of the country drying out. One of these is the famous Zayandeh River, which flows through Isfahan and has been the lifesource of its agriculture. With the drying out of the river, the farmers affected have become increasingly desperate. The people of eastern Isfahan province have been demanding more allocated water for over a month. The video below appears to be from one of the early protests where people are chanting Dont be afraid, we we are all together: Starting off as small peaceful protests in the small town of Varzaneh, the movement has accelerated in particular after it clashed with security forces on Friday, 9 March. Below is a video of a very radical speech made by one of the farmers, in which he denounces the authorities and amongst other things says that a donkey could administer better than you guys and raises the slogan death to dishonorable authorities: Following the clashes, the protests moved further into Isfahan city itself, with crowds chanting slogans such as Today is a day of mourning, the lives of the farmers are [in a state of chaos and] hanging in the balance: Similar to the students, they also raised slogans of freeing of political prisoners chanting Imprisoned farmers must be freed: They also approached the bazar appealing to the bazaaris to join their just struggle: # pic.twitter.com/OldfKipagr (@workersonline1) March 11, 2018 The conditions of the Isfahan farmers are not isolated to Isfahan. The water crisis and general chronic misery and poverty have pushed the rural population to the edge. The same layers that used to be the social base of the regime have lost patience and are desperately looking for a way out. In Khuzestan in the South West of the country another struggle has been in the news recently, that of the Melli steel group, where 3500 metalworkers and hundreds of retired workers have been on strike since 18 February after not having received wages for three months. The workers have fought for their rights for several years, but the recent strike seems to be their most radical action yet. This video from 25 February shows the workers marching through Ahvaz chanting "if our problems are not solved, there will be an uprising in Ahvaz": Taking to the streets every single day since the beginning of the strike, they issued a statement yesterday calling for a new gathering. The statement outlines the struggle and explains that for 21 days the workers have been on peaceful strike and protest. And except for raising the slogan of an uprising, they have done nothing about this. But, the statement continues: [F]or more than two years we have [tried to deal] with [our] problems and have been everywhere and approached everyone. But our law abiding and honest approach has unfortunately been abused and led to us being seen as harmless workers whom they see as sloganeering for two hours Seeing the lack of any response by the bosses or by the authorities, the statement ends by saying: But the time for vain sloganeering and dragging out of time [is no longer enough]. It is time for action. What this means is not clear, but it is evident that this is the feeling of a rising layer of workers and poor throughout the country. The above protests are far from isolated. In the past months there have been countless protests and clashes throughout all provinces and involving all layers of the masses. In Tehran clashes between the authorities and the Gonabadi Dervish religious minority in February led to several arrests and at least three police casualties. The arrest of a teacher trade unionist, Mohammad Habibi , by plain clothes security forces on 3 March has led to protests amongst teachers throughout Iran who have boldly posted their pictures on social media demanding the freeing of Habibi: Yesterday, hundreds of Zamyad auto workers staged the second day of strike action, demanding unpaid back wages to be paid immediately: # pic.twitter.com/l41WGGSabn (@PanahGodneshin) March 11, 2018 Hafez tile and ceramic workers in Shiraz and Khorramabad railroad agency workers have also been protesting months of unpaid wages along with the traditionally militant Haft Tapeh sugar cane workers . In Rasht, a group of clearly lower class women who were victims of one of a dozen or so bank crashes last year were protesting today chanting You have no honour, if you are a man stand by your licence. This is a reference to licences given to regime insiders who have set up a wide network of financial institutions that have been functioning more or less as ponzi schemes. Having attracted the savings of millions of people, a series of these went bankrupt over the past two years. Thousands of people have lost everything, while the perpetrators are walking free. The placards of the protesters reveal the effect that the countless events like this have had on the consciousness of the working masses. It reads: In the country [where the justice of] Ali [rules] the thieves are free [while] those robbed are threatened, arrested, imprisoned and taken to court. This is the Justice of Ali. There are many more protests similar to the ones outlined above taking place every single day. According to officials of the national security council, the period of March-December of 2017 saw around 5000 protests throughout Iran. But this figure which was already an increase on previous years is sure to increase. The experience of the early January movement was a very important accelerant of this process. Not only did the movement reveal the general and national character of the dissatisfaction, but it also revealed the weakness of the regime. It was clear to all during the movement, that the regime was trying not to crack down too hard so as to avoid drawing in larger layers of the masses. Also, it also subsequently conceded a whole series of demands such as the removal of austerity measures from the new budget and an opening up in the democratic sphere and the tolerance of a certain level of protests. All of this added to the confidence of the masses who can feel the regime is weak and crisis ridden. Each new protest encourages new layers to come forward with their demands and complaints. Starting from defensive isolated struggles, however, these movements are immediately politicised and focused against the core of the clerical order. The regime is terrified of this development. In a revealing interview with the domestic daily Hamshahri , Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, had to admit that in spite of all the attempts of foreign and domestic political forces to gain influence over the protest movement in early January, none of them were successful, essentially because the protests had deep seated class roots. Sounding the alarm over the state of society, Rahmani Fazli said: We can look at two sets of causes [for the dissatisfaction in society] one is immediate and one is more distant. The immediate causes for the protests can be seen in the economic, social and political spheres and one spark is enough to light them afire . But [...] the problem is even deeper. Not only is the regime facing an immediate rebellion, but also a general decline and loss of legitimacy in the eyes of all layers of society. In particular, it is afraid of the core of the youth and working masses, which are from a generation that did not experience the 1979 Revolution and the demoralising defeats that followed. One wing of the ruling class is wary of the coming explosive social situation and is looking to reform from above to avoid revolution from below. In particular, they are looking to give minor symbolic democratic reforms to allow the masses to blow off some steam. In the interview, Rahmani Fazli said that the media should move ahead of social change in order to manage [this] change instead of following behind. That is, he is calling for a certain degree of loosening of restrictions on the press so as to use the influence of an independent press to divert the coming movement down democratic paths which would not fundamentally alter the power of the ruling class. In February, President Rouhani put the same idea more clearly, saying : The previous regime, which thought that its rule would be lifelong and its monarchy eternal, lost everything because it did not listen to the voices of criticism, advice, reformers, the clergy, elders and intellectuals. The previous regime did not listen to the voice of peoples protests and only listened to one voice, and that was the peoples revolution. For a government that only wants to hear the sound of revolution, it will be too late. Although it was left very vague, Rouhani has even proposed a referendum to determine the future of the regime. This has been echoed by a wide range of liberal political and cultural personalities. The liberal wing of the ruling class is warning the conservative wing: if we dont reform, there will be a revolution and we will lose everything. When a regime starts talking about reforms to avoid a revolution, as the French historian, Alex de Toqueville pointed out, it is often already too late. The conservative wing of the regime is aware of this. It is warily watching how each protest is radicalising and embolding other layers. But neither crackdowns nor reforms can restore stability in Iran because the contradictions run much deeper. They reflect the sclerotic and impotent state of Iranian capitalism and its capitalist class, which is tied up in the complex web of its own contradictions. It is is incapable of solving any of the fundamental problems faced by society. In the end, this is what lies behind the present crisis. SPRINGFIELD -- Since Baystate Health, Hartford HealthCare and Air Methods started flying a Life Star helicopter out of Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport in November, the service has flown 45 missions ferrying the most critical of patients to the emergency medical care they so urgently need. "Time is everything when a critically ill or injured patient needs the highest level of emergency care immediately, such as that available at our Level I trauma center, the only one in western Massachusetts," Dr. Gerald Beltran, chief of pre-hospital and disaster medicine at Baystate Medical Center, said in a news release. "Having a LIFE STAR helicopter based close by in Westfield puts their highly-trained and talented crew closer to those patients in need of their life-saving services when transportation time is an issue in reaching us." Springfield-based Baystate Health and Hartford HealthCare announced the service Tuesday. The hospitals plan to celebrate the new service with ceremonies this spring at the airport in Westfield, once the hangar and other space there is ready. Shawn Mawhiney, spokesman for Hartford HealthCare, and Baystate spokeswoman Shelly Hazlett on Tuesday provided up-to-date numbers for Life Star out of Westfield. Mawhiney said the cost of each flight varies according to a number of factors, including patients' insurance. Before the Westfield base, patients in the Pioneer Valley relied on Hartford HealthCare bases at MidState Medical Center in Meriden, Connecticut, Backus Hospital in Norwich, Connecticut, Hartford Hospital and in Albany, New York. Hartford HealthCare is responsible for the medical care while Air Methods is responsible for the flight operations and the aircraft, Mawhiney said. In August, Air Methods signed a $29,000-a-year lease with the Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport Commission, according to minutes for the commission. It's a three-year lease with the possibility of a one-year extension. The city is leasing Air Methods land at 89 Sgt. T.M. Dion Way near the state police barracks that it purchased from a lumber company in 2011 for $640,000. The purchase was covered by a 90 percent Federal Aviation Administration grant, 5 percent state funds and 5 percent city funds. Mawhiney said the station in Westfeild is staffed by nine medical crew members -- mix of nurses and paramedics -- and by four pilots and two mechanics. Air Methods is having the old lumber company building renovated into a facility that will include a briefing room, medical supply storage and bedrooms for the crew. Westfield-Barnes is also home to Barnes Air National Guard Base and the 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, to Blackhawk helicopters of the Massachusetts Army National Guard and to civilian aviation. WILLIAMSTOWN -- Williams College announced Tuesday that Maud S. Mandel, dean at Brown University and professor of history and Judaic studies there, will be its 18th president. She begins July 1. Mandel will take over for Protik (Tiku) Majumder, who served as interim president since Jan. 1. The most recent permanent president, Adam F. Falk, left Williams at the end of 2017 for the presidency of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Falk was paid $648,000 in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available. Mandel earned four-year degree from Oberlin College in 1989 and completed a doctorate at Michigan in 1998. She went to Brown as a visiting assistant professor in 1997 and joined the university's faculty permanently in 2001. She became professor of history and Judaic studies in 2014. "Maud embodies the values at our core and will provide exceptional leadership as we continue to pursue our shared aspirations for Williams," said Michael Eisenson, chairman of both the Williams Board of Trustees and the college's Presidential Search Committee in a news release. At Brown, Mandel has worked to get underrepresented students into the STEM fields of science,technology, engineering and math. She also helped open First-Generation College and Low-Income Student Center (FLi Center), the first center at any Ivy League school to be dedicated to first-generation students, according to the release. Mandel's husband, Steve Simon, and two children, Lev and Ava, will join her when she arrives at Williams College this summer, the college said. "I have always known that Williams was an extraordinary institution, and I've had the pleasure over the last few months as I've engaged in this process to really learn much more about why Williams occupies this spot," Mandel said in the prepared statement. "And it is in that process that I have become so deeply drawn to this opportunity. I am excited to lead this extraordinary campus into the next phase of its development." Williams has about 2,000 students, according to its website. Tuition is set at $55,140 for the 2018-2019 academic year. Two more teens were charged in connection with the January 14 beating and shooting death of a 17-year-old Dorchester youth, the Boston Globe reported. Prosecutors from the Suffolk District Attorney's Office said Malik Albert, 17, of Dorchester, and Rodney Gamble, also 17, from Lynn were arraigned on murder charges in Dorchester District Court Monday. Albert and Gamble join Richard Sheppard, 18, and 18-year-old Branden Singleton-Legget facing charges for what prosecutors said was an attack on 17-year-old Chad O'Connor, of Dorchester. O'Connor was jumped by a group on Kenwood Street in Dorchester, and was beaten and kicked by four men until one pulled a gun, prosecutors point to Sheppard, and shot O'Connor in the head. All four are being held without the right to bail pending a pretrial hearing. A 25-year-old Romanian national was sentenced to serve one year and a day in federal prison after he entered a guilty plea to charges he used a skimmer device to surreptitiously collect account and PIN numbers from ATM patrons and then laundering the funds he stole from accounts. Prosecutors said Ion Trifu and a dozen members of the Hornea Crew of Romanians attached electronic skimmers on ATM machines and stole account and PIN numbers, then used that data to steal funds from the accounts. ATMs in Amherst, Bellingham, Billerica, Braintree, Chicopee, Quincy, Southwick, Waltham, Weymouth and Whately were hit, as well as an ATM in Enfield, Conn. Still others were used in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, New York and New Hampshire. Trifu will face deportation at the completion of his sentence. Another member of the crew pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, conspiracy to use counterfeit access devices and aggravated identity theft. Nicusor Bonculrscu, 24, is the eight of 12 crew members to plead guilty. Sentencing has been set for June 7. Nicusor Bonculescu, 24, HOLYOKE -- Blame was a theme in a City Hall discussion Monday about financial problems. Former city auditor Joshua Pueschel, Chief Procurement Officer Lori Belanger, City Treasurer Sandra A. Smith and Mayor Alex B. Morse either had the finger of blame pointed at them, according to they themselves, or others, or they felt the need to speak up and mount a defense. The discussion came in a meeting of the City Council Finance Committee on a report from Daniel Sullivan of financial consultant CliftonLarsonAllen, of Lexington. Sullivan's firm recently completed a $19.1 million reconciliation in the previous fiscal year's ledger that showed all municipal cash is accounted for. The CliftonLarsonAllen report showed that for the city general ledger as of June 30, the cash balance was $94,331,970. That was less than the city treasurer's cashbook balance of $113,481,459, a difference of $19,149,489, the report said. The review found that the discrepancy was because of timing differences between the city treasurer and city auditor and "conceptual misunderstanding" of the processes required to record certain transactions on the general ledger, the report said. Ward 4 Councilor Jossie M. Valentin asked Sullivan to state, "in layman's terms," where the faults, errors and gaps had occurred. (see video above) Sullivan said at least part of the problem appeared to be lack of experience. When Valentin asked where there appeared to have been a lack of experience, Sullivan said, "General ledger. That would be the city auditor's office. That was the main issue." Valentin said such information was important in relation to the "scorching resignation letter" Pueschel released on Feb. 15 that indicated the city's financial problems were so bad perhaps the answer was financial receivership. A statement like Pueschel's will prompt some people to panic and overreact, she said to Sullivan. "So I appreciate you saying in layman's terms what the findings were and what one of the biggest problems was because I think people need to hear that and it needs to be in an open setting like this," Valentin said. Pueschel referred to receivership as he criticized how financial decisions were being made at City Hall. On Monday, Pueschel told councilors in an email he no longer felt receivership was necessary but that he raised the possibility of such a step "to open the eyes of the public and the council." Finance Committee member James M. Leahy said it was unfair to blame Pueschel, who was city auditor for less than a year, because some of the decisions preceded him. "I think putting all the blame on one person's shoulder isn't fair," Leahy said. Sullivan made clear that his firm's report was absent specific names of officials, referring only to the "city treasurer's office" and "the city auditor's office." "I wasn't doing that," Sullivan said. "I understand. Somebody said before that we should do this publicly and I just wanted to say (to) this one person, that there's been multiple people. I just wanted to make that clear," Leahy said. Finance Committee Chairman Joseph M. McGiverin said Pueschel was invited to participate in the meeting but said he was unable to because of other commitments. In response to a question from The Republican about his involvement in the financial issues getting some of the spotlight during Monday's meeting, Pueschel provided this statement by email: (Pueschel's statement refers to Bellamy H. Schmidt, the current acting city auditor, who also held that position before Pueschel became city auditor; MelansonHealth auditors and accountants of Greenfield; former city auditor Brian Smith; and former city treasurer Jon D. Lumbra.) "The errors in question have to do with the reconciling of the health insurance which has been discussed at length. This has been an issue for quite some time as referenced by both Bellamy and Melanson and Heath. The errors stemmed from prior to my arrival and continued for the two months of last fiscal year I was there as we were simply following what had been previously done. "Bellamy referenced tonight that this has been a problem since Brian Smith and Jon Lumbra had left. It is not so much a person or a department's fault as it is a process and sytem fault that is finally being addressed. "The other issues in the report we already knew about, as they are typical reconciling items. This is why the difference was $2.5 million and not $19 million when I discussed the issue with the council. The timing of posting warrants and the checks being cut is a monthly occurrence and part of the typical reconciliation process. The health insurance posting was the real issue we needed to reconcile in order to certify free cash." Belanger's comments apparently were made in response to remarks stated by Ordinance Committee Chairwoman Linda L. Vacon. Those remarks came during a meeting Feb. 27 in which councilors criticized department heads' use of a debit card for some purchses because they said such a method lacked controls. "I'm hearing and I've heard, from a purchasing standpoint, that some procurements laws may or may not have been broken," Belanger said. It would be "professional courtesy" for someone with such concerns to speak to her directly, she said. "I would like something specific so that I can review and certainly act on it," Belanger said. She abides by Massachusetts General Laws, seeks help when necessary and has ensured the debit card now is locked in the city Law Department, she said. "I am a very proud indivudal and so for anyone to think that I have less than clean hands is offensive to me and I will not sit here and take it," Belanger said. Vacon said that it was Belanger who said at the Ordinance Committee meeting that in order to get a debit-card purchase made, an individual would come to her office and make a verbal request. The money then would be withdrawn from a city account, Vacon said. But, purchasing regulations require an authorization and a signature on availability of funds before funds are withdrawn from a city account, said Vacon, who said that doing otherwise "is not in accordance with procurement regs." "That is what my comment is based on. It's in the public record. It's recorded and there was information provided at that public hearing that the regs require that the the documentation and signature of the approporiate people are required prior to the purchase and that these documents have to be written ... that's just basic procedural issues and that's what I'm speaking to," she said. Smith said if she needs help, she reaches out to a lawyer who specializes in borrowing, known as a bond counsel, or to MelansonHeath. "So I think as a group we're doing a pretty good job," Smith said. Morse said the hard work of city department heads includes a willingness to help the City Council when asked. He has supported councilors' calls for an audit of city finances, he said. "But I also, as Lori said, you know, will not stand for implications that any of our department heads are misappropriating funds at all. We all love the city of Holyoke, we work hard, we want what's best for the city," Morse said. CHICOPEE - A local student walkout to honor the 17 people killed in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida is expected to be part a mix of a memorial, a protest and a teach-in. Mainly students from Chicopee and Comprehensive high schools and Chicopee Academy are expected to participate in the 17-minute national walkout at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to honor the 14 students and three staff members killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Former student Nikolas Cruz has been arrested and charged with their deaths. In the aftermath, a former student Nikolas Cruz has been arrested and charged with their deaths. Students who survived the shooting have pushed for more gun control which has led to the national walkout. With local students showing interest in participating in the walkout, Superintendent Richard W. Rege Jr. said he has been meeting with Comprehensive High Principal Derek Morrison, Chicopee High Principal James Blain, Chicopee Academy Principal John Leonard as well as administrators from the middle and elementary schools to discuss how to balance student's right of expression with their safety. Administrators Monday also met with police to discuss their plan and the department has offered to provide extra officers if needed, Rege said. "The Chicopee Public School District will commit to balancing our students' right of expression with our duty to provide students a productive learning environment free from coercion, peer pressure and without obligation to conform to opposing views about the issues related to school violence," Rege wrote in a letter addressed to the public school community. When planning for the walkout, Rege said the protests had to be student led, include an educational component and be respectful of students who live in households that are against expanding gun control regulations. Because of safety concerns, students have been told not to congregate in front of buildings. Staff will monitor each outside door, which are typically locked, to allow students to come back inside quickly if there is a threat, he said. But due to the snow, Rege said the walkout may instead be an indoor event where students can instead hold the protest in a suitable spot such as the gymnasium which can hold large numbers of people. Principals at each school are handling the logistics at each school. Students who do not want to participate will be sent to another location which will be staffed by teachers, he said. At the high schools, students, mostly from student government or Pro Merito honor societies, have approached teachers or administrators and said they wanted to stage a walkout in keeping with the national movement, he said. "This had to be an organically student run activity. It couldn't be staff driven," he said. "It is about kids and they have a right to speak out, they are most affected by the shootings." After the 17-minute walkout, those who participated will then discuss the issues in student advisories, which are small groups of students of different ages who meet regularly with the same staff member at the two large high schools. The groups talk about social or academic issues and it gives each teen in the school a small group of peers and an adult to go to if they have a problem, Rege said. "I see this as a real-time civics lesson and they can feel powerful doing this," Rege said. He said he expects one of the discussions to be about mental health issues. "Whether you are pro gun or anti gun (control), there has not been enough money put into our mental health system," he said. In middle schools staff and advisors have worked with student leaders to help plan and supervise civic learning activities to happen in specific locations. Teachers have been told to avoid enlisting students who have not expressed interest and will continue regular classes with students who are not participating, he said. "In elementary school I am absolutely forbidding children from leaving the building for safety reasons," Rege said. Children who express interest in the protest will be given an age-appropriate activity in the classroom such as writing letters of condolences to the school in Florida, he said. At the small Chicopee Academy the students organizing the protest are planning to read the names and a short profile of each of the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to give everyone a sense of who they were, Principal John Leonard said. "It is a concern because it is a national event and we want to honor it and the students have a right to express themselves about this awful thing that has been going on but we want them to be extremely safe as well," Leonard said. Initial plans called for the students to gather outside for the walkout, but students may instead hold the event inside depending on the weather, he said. "It will be respectful and somber...after they will go back to reflect on it," he said. Shortly after the Parkland, Florida shooting, the school resource police officer assisted in speaking to students about safety issues during a meeting teachers had already planned with students about MCAS and other issues, he said. Like all city schools, Chicopee Academy also holds regular drills so students know what to do in the case of an emergency, he said. The principals at the other two high schools could not immediately be reached for comment. HOLYOKE -- Make sure the cash flow in and out of the municipal budget is reconciled every month and then the city won't need to be hiring financial consultants, a consultant said Monday at City Hall. "I think the city should do everything to resolve that before the end of the next month. I think if you adopt that policy and those procedures to be able to manage that policy, then you will never find yourself in that situation again," said Daniel Sullivan of CliftonLarsonAllen, of Lexington. "So keep it simple, keep it basic and make sure you don't go from one month to another not having cash reconciled," he said. Sullivan gave a report to the City Council Finance Committee about his firm's recent completion of a $19.1 million reconciliation in the previous fiscal year's ledger that showed all municipal cash is accounted for. "There was no fraud, there was no issues. It's just really based on accounting," Sullivan said. But the fact that the city needed to hire a consultant to make sure basic accounting principles are followed remains a concern, councilors said. "We shouldn't be paying for things that should have been taken care of from day one," council President Todd A. McGee said. "We all make mistakes, none of us are perfect, but I think when you see fundamental processes in every single department failing, there's a huge system failure going on," Ward 5 Councilor Linda L. Vacon said. Finance Committee member Peter R. Tallman said councilors as the public's elected representatives are trying to answer residents' questions about innuendos and rumors they hear related to financial problems. (see video above) "We're trying to get them the best answers," Tallman said. CliftonLarsonAllen began its review in December and its fee is $45,000, Sullivan said. Some issues remain to be addressed related to how transactions for health insurance deductions from employees' paychecks and health insurance payments are recorded, officials said. But the city should be able later this week to contact the Massachusetts Department of Revenue to get certification of the amount of free cash available for use in this fiscal year. That revenue source will allow for elimination of a $1.1 million budget deficit and then the setting of the new tax rate, which is three months late. Sullivan's meeting with the Finance Committee included an audience of current and former officials: Mayor Alex B. Morse, acting City Auditor Bellamy H. Schmidt, City Treasurer Sandra A. Smith, Chief Procurement Officer Lori Belanger, former city auditor Brian G. Smith, David A. Martins, former chief procurement officer, and Patrice M. Squillante and Tanya Campbell of MelansonHealth auditors and accountants of Greenfield. "I think this is the foundation of getting to a long term look at what we have to do," Finance Committee Chairman Joseph M. McGiverin said. The CliftonLarsonAllen report showed that for the city general ledger as of June 30, the cash balance was $94,331,970. That was less than the city treasurer's cashbook balance of $113,481,459, a difference of $19,149,489, the report said. The review found that the discrepancy was because of timing differences between the city treasurer and city auditor and "conceptual misunderstanding" of the processes required to record certain transactions on the general ledger, the report said. For example, the city auditor recorded warrant disbursements in Fiscal 2017 but the disbursements were made in Fiscal 2018. "These should have been classified on the general ledger as warrants payable as of June 30, 2017," the report said. A warrant disbursement is a written order instructing that a certain amount of money be paid at a certain time to a specific recipient. Also, payroll deductions and cash disbursements in relation to health insurance were handled incorrectly, the report said. "In the end, all cash variances were completely resolved and we assisted the city in recording correcting journal entries to the general ledger as of June 30, 2017," the report said. Sullivan said his firm reviewed every month from July 2016 to June 2017 and reconciled every transaction. "When it really came down to it, things were being recorded. I mean, it was working....it made something look a lot worse than it ever even was. This was a molehill into a mountain, relatively unnecessarily....It really came down to just a handful of transaction types that caused this," Sullivan said. With such issues outstanding, Finance Committee member Michael J. Sullivan asked several officials whether the city was in danger of being placed in receivership by the state of Massachusetts. Joshue Pueschel, the former city auditor, suggested receivership might be the proper fit for the city when he resigned Feb. 15 and criticized how financial decisions were being made. On Monday, Pueschel told councilors in an email he no longer felt receivership was necessary but that he raised the possibility of such a step to "to open the eyes of the public and the council." Daniel Sullivan said his firm was hired only to review the discrepancy between the the city treasurer's cashbook balance and the city general ledger. Receivership entails numerous and longstanding problems related to cash flow, revenue sources, meeting obligations, protections for the future, tax levy capacity and the presence of deficits over and over, he said. Squillante, of MelansonHealth, told the Finance Committee, "I certainly don't see you on the brink of receivership." The city is not liable for under- or over-paying any employees, Daniel Sullivan told Finance Committee member James M. Leahy. "Dan, are we missing any money?" McGiverin said. No, said Sullivan, who said all cash has been accounted for. "That question is from people on the street," McGiverin said. Ward 1 Councilor Gladys Lebron-Martinez asked if the review perhaps had found a surprise surplus of funds officials could aim at the deficit, but Sullivan said no. "I tried guys, I'm sorry," Lebron-Martinez said. The Telecommunications and Information Technology Committee in Egypt's Parliament began discussing on Tuesday a new government-drafted law aimed at combating cybercrimes which negatively affect the country's national security and internal stability. Head of the committee Nidal El-Saeed told reporters that the bill was jointly prepared by the ministries of justice and telecommunications and information technology. El-Saeed explained that in its first meeting on Tuesday, the committee had concluded debating ten articles of the new law. "The discussion was held in the presence of representatives from 19 ministries, particularly the ministries of interior, defence and telecommunications and information technology, because of the strategic importance of this bill," said El-Saeed. Kamal Amer, head of parliament's defence and national security committee and the former chief of Egypt's military intelligence, also told reporters that "the new bill will stand up to the growing dangers of extremist and militant Islamist movements using the internet and modern technology to carry out terrorist attacks," said Amer. "The internet has now become a major tool in recruiting extremists and launching terrorist and subversive attacks. The new bill gives powers to the interior ministry and other state institutions to track websites and social media which are involved in spreading terrorism through extremist, radical and militant ideologies," he added. Amer said the above draft law comes in tandem with other recent legislative measures that seek to fight all forms of terrorism and extremism. "It also comes to go in line with the army's comprehensive campaign against militant and terrorist groups in North Sinai," said Amer. The ten finalized articles in the new law deal with the definitions of some cyber expressions widely used such as "websites," "traffic data" and national security. El-Saeed said the committee has reached an agreement on how state institutions should be classified and defined as "national security institutions." He said the committee also discussed the definition of what is called a "digital directory," which will be used in tracking cyber and information technology crimes. Article two regulates the activities and obligations of internet service providers and how they should cooperate with national security authorities in giving all information on certain users suspected of spreading terrorist and extremist ideologies via the internet, he noted. "We discussed whether or not this article is in line with the constitution, which does not allow such practices because of its violation of personal freedoms," said El-Saeed. "Some committee members want the revelation of private statements of internet service customers should be allowed only upon a judicial order. But others insist that internet service providers should make all information available to national security institutions and investigation authorities," he explained. The committee chair indicated that it was agreed that investigation authorities will be authorized to shut down certain websites or links whenever this is technically possible and whenever there is a strong evidence the website is involved in spreading criminal activities that pose a threat to Egypt's economy and security. Article eight gives customers or service providers the right to appeal an investigation authority shutdown decision in the appropriate criminal court within seven days. Article nine states that Egypt's prosecutor-general will be authorized to place those highly suspected of cybercrimes on the travel ban list and on the arrival watch list. This decision can also be appealed before the court. Short link: SPRINGFIELD -- Hampden Superior Court Judge Tina S. Page has ruled law enforcement had the right to search two mailed packages containing a large amount of cocaine. Hiram Martinez, 32, Jose Polaco-Morales, 43, and Grisseli Soto, 39, all of Springfield, are all charged with trafficking cocaine in the amount of over 200 grams and conspiracy to violate the drug law. Attorneys James R. Goodhines, for Polaco-Morales, Daniel D. Kelly, for Soto, and Terrence M. Dunphy, for Martinez, argued in a January hearing before Page that U.S. Postal Service investigators and other law enforcement personnel had nothing but conjecture to think the two packages they took out of the mail for testing on Nov. 25, 2016, contained drugs. There are two other co-defendants -- Kimberly Spaeth-Barta and Eveliz Gonzalez -- but there were no motions to suppress filed in their cases. After the packages were opened and resealed by law enforcement, a postal inspector dressed as a mail carrier delivered them. Martinez accepted one at a Cannon Circle address and Spaeth-Barta accepted one at a South Branch Parkway address, investigators allege. Four kilograms of cocaine were seized in the two deliveries that day. Goodhines said he is appealing Page's ruling denying his motion to suppress the evidence. Page, in a February ruling, said U.S. Postal Inspector Jesse Nason "had reasonable suspicion to take the package to his (Springfield) office to perform a dog sniff." "Nason had previously been alerted to the 266 Canon Circle address by the East Longmeadow post master," Page wrote. Nason had testified at the January hearing that before the two packages were seized, 24 packages were sent from Puerto Rico to Spaeth-Barta and 16 to Martinez over the course of a year. Page wrote, "These packages were shipped priority mail from Puerto Rico, a known distribution point for narcotics." WESTFIELD - Following the announcement Monday that St. Mary's High School would close its doors this June, supporters of the Catholic school immediately began efforts to save it. Bob Wilcox, STMHS class of 1988, created the Facebok group Save Saint Mary's High School Monday night with the hope of bringing people together. Within an hour or two of the group's creation, there were 19 members. By Tuesday morning, there were nearly 250 members. Wilcox said he wanted to get the ball rolling after numerous parents and students implored the Rev. Frank Lawlor, St. Mary's pastor, to give them a chance to fight to keep the school open. The decision is for the high school only and does not impact the prekindergarten and elementary school. "A lot of times people say they want to organize and do something and nothing happens," Wilcox, of Westfield, said. "So, I started the Facebook group to see if there was interest." Alumni and parents of current students took to social media to spread the word of the closure and rally to keep St. Mary's High open. Wilcox said now that he knows there is interest in formally organizing, the next step is to meet. "I plan to call a meeting and get everyone together and identify where everyone's talents lie," he said. Lawlor informed a crowd of nearly 300 parents, students, faculty and alumni gathered at the school Monday night that "the die was cast." Although St. Mary's is a parish school, he said he and school board members met with Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, and the decision to close was made based on demographics. Officials said enrollment at St. Mary's High School has dropped over the last decade from 166 to 83. Lawlor said several times the decision to close was not about finances, however he said only nine students were preregistered for ninth grade next fall and the school would need 40 freshmen to keep the school going. Parents asked why they were not told sooner and questioned why there is no endowment, sparse advertising and little recruiting. One parent said she works in advertising and offered to help with marketing efforts and was never called. Others said they felt Lawlor did not do enough and had given up on the school. Wilcox said this year is his 30th high school graduation anniversary, but he has never been contacted for a contribution to his alma mater. "It's been 30 years and I have never received one piece of mail asking me to contribute," he said. Fellow alum Mark Butler also took to social media to help organize efforts and said he will work with Wilcox to have a united front. He said the school and its education model are worth preserving. "The quality of education was just incomparable to other schools I have experienced," said Butler, class of 2013. "I firmly believe that the St. Mary's education model is the key to understanding how we can improve education across the state. I have testified before PARCC/MCAS committees before, explaining why the St. Mary's model works -- 100% graduation rate, and I believe the number was 98% that end up going to college. That's unheard of." Wilcox has six children, including two currently enrolled at STMHS. "My oldest son graduated from Westfield Technical Academy, I have a junior and a sophomore at St. Mary's and my three younger girls are homeschooled but would have gone to St. Mary's High School," he said. If efforts to save the school fail, Wilcox isn't sure where his current high school children will go to complete their education. "Pope Francis is not an option," he said of the large Catholic high school in Springfield, where Lawlor repeatedly suggested students could go during the meeting Monday. "There is a non-denominational Christian school in Westfield, so my sophomore could go there, but my son who is a junior -- maybe Westfield High or homeschool." Wilcox said what's special about St. Mary's is the community. "Speaking as a parent, with everything that goes on in schools, especially the middle schools, with bullying, kids swearing and the things they hear, I don't want that," Wilcox said. "I don't want to shelter my kids, but there are things I want to teach them. And it's Catholic education -- it's a base for their entire lives" Butler agreed. "St. Mary's promotes strong teacher-student relationships in the classroom," he said. "As a student, you're not just a number. Your teacher knows you, and is able to spend more time assisting you, the individual. That relationship makes it so much easier for each individual to obtain a much greater understanding of the lesson." Wilcox said right now there are "short-order" efforts that must be made, including gauging whether or not their efforts would be considered by the bishop and make a difference. "The next step is to hold a meeting and have our own discussion session," he said. Some parents said they plan to attend upcoming "listening sessions" the bishop has already scheduled, including ones March 15 at Mary Mother of Hope Parish, Springfield, March 19 at St. Rose de Lima Parish, Chicopee, April 2 at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Holyoke and April 12 at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in West Springfield. WESTFIELD -- One hundred fifteen years after the first student graduated from St. Mary's High School, the last graduating class will receive diplomas in 2018. During a meeting Monday night attended by 300 parents, students, faculty and alumni, the Rev. Frank Lawlor, St. Mary's pastor, announced that the high school would close in June. Parents, students and faculty expressed anger and frustration throughout the nearly two-hour meeting. Some spoke through tears as they asked to keep fighting to keep their school open. "We believe in our school, we know we can do this but we have to be given the chance," said alumna and parent Erin Burke. Another parent asked, "Can we be given the opportunity to fight for our school?" "No," replied Lawlor. Lawlor said it was "a demographics and long-term decision." So far, just nine students are enrolled in ninth grade for the 2018-19 school year, said Lawlor, adding the school would need 40 freshmen to stay open in the fall. Despite that, Lawlor said several times that the decision to close was not financial, but added that "tuition does not cover costs." He said tuition is $8,200 but it costs about $12,000 per student to run the school. "The subsidies we give are to the tune of a couple hundred thousand dollars," said Lawlor. During the meeting, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield simultaneously released a press release announcing the closure. St. Mary's School Board President Erin Carrier told the crowd that she and fellow board member Joseph Flahive met with Bishop Mitchell Rozanski Feb. 13 and asked the diocese for $200,000 to reduce the financial loss for this year and asked for $100,000 for a transportation contract. Carrier said the answer was no. "It's a sin," Carrier said of the situation. She said the diocese gives a portion of money collected in churches each week to the Catholic Education Fund for schools in the region. Pope Francis High School in Springfield received more than $1 million last year. With just over 300 students in the school, that amounts to over $3,000 per student. Carrier said the diocese gives about $219,000 total to 2,600 students in 11 other Catholic schools across the diocese. That is approximately $84 per student. Carrier encouraged families not to give to the diocese if they want to support Catholic education. "If Catholics want to support their local Catholic charities, I implore them not to send funds to the diocese," she said. "Contact the school directly and ask them what projects are currently underway and how you can help. Send your money directly to the school with a letter that clearly states it can be used for student financial aid, for a special project or for general operating expenses." One parent asked what students were supposed to do next year, especially those who have been at St. Mary's their entire school career and may not meet the requirements for graduation in a public school. Another parent noted that application and financial aid deadlines to most private schools have already passed. Lawlor noted that Pope Francis has offered to accommodate St. Mary's students. Parents and students asked about recruiting efforts and marketing campaigns that would bring in more students, and several parents offered to help with these if given an opportunity. Lawlor said he could invite the bishop to meet with parents, but said "the die is cast." The closing is only for the high school and will not impact St. Mary's prekindergarten program and elementary school. The diocese is in the midst of a "comprehensive review" of its 12 remaining elementary schools, including St. Mary's. Rozanski in January formed a three-member panel earlier this year to explore options given declining enrollment across the diocese. "In so many Catholic dioceses ... shifting demographics and ever increasing financial challenges represent a dark cloud over our future," Rozanski said at the time. He added, "Rather than sit still and wait for those clouds to arrive, I think it best to undertake actions now which will help preserve Catholic education for future generations." Framingham police are asking for help finding a 15-year-old Holden boy who went missing on Saturday. Jacob Weiner left a program in Framingham on Saturday with two other boys and has been missing since, police said in a Facebook post. Weiner, who was last seen wearing a green/brown army jacket, a red sweatshirt and faded jeans. may have been spotted at the Natick Mall. He may be in Dorchester or the Boston area, police said. Anyone with information is asked to call Framingham police at (508) 872 1212. Correction: Weiner's age is 15, his father has told MassLive, not 14 as originally stated by police. Police have arrested a man who they say severely beat a woman following a minor car crash on I-93 in Methuen last week. Joseph Falero, 37, was arrested Monday in an apartment in Manchester, New Hampshire, by Massachusetts State Police troopers from the Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section and Manchester police. He has been charged with assault with intent to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and motor vehicle violations, according to a news release from State Police. The arrest stems from a March 6 crash on I-93 northbound, during which a 30-year-old woman was allegedly assaulted. Troopers found the woman covered in mud and snow with significant injuries and facial lacerations, State Police said. Authorities said the woman's car had been sideswiped by a Honda Civic operated by Falero. Both drivers got out of their cars after the crash. When the woman tried to report the crash, State Police said Falero began severely beating her, kicking her in the face, neck and back when she fell to the ground. The woman began to lose consciousness and Falero fled the scene before troopers arrived, according to authorities. His Honda Civic was later found abandoned in Manchester, and State Police identified Falero as the suspect. He was found and charged as a fugitive from justice. He will be held in New Hampshire until his rendition to Massachusetts to face prosecution. Nearly eight weeks after Massachusetts regulators chose Northern Pass Transmission as its preferred power line to carry Canadian hydropower to Bay State utilities, the project remains in limbo. On Monday the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee, which blocked the project on Feb. 1, declined to issue an immediate decision on an appeal by Eversource Energy. The committee said it would suspend its decision on a rehearing until it issues a written order on its initial rejection, a document due March 31. The problem for Eversource is that Massachusetts officials gave the project until March 27 to show progress in New Hampshire, or the transmission contract could go to Central Maine Power, which plans its own transmission line from the Canadian border. If the committee won't reconsider, Eversource could appeal Northern Pass to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. However, that could introduce another year of delay, with no guarantee of victory. Three Massachusetts utilities, in concert with Gov. Charlie Baker's Department of Energy Resources, last year solicited competitive bids for 9.45 gigawatt-hours of major clean energy imports. The committee in January chose Northern Pass and Hydro-Quebec for the lucrative contracts, rejecting four other transmission partnerships and dozens of renewable energy projects. Eversource at the time said it was two years ahead of its competitors in terms of permitting. Eversource has all federal and international permits lined up, but still needs the New Hampshire permit to move forward. Northern Pass had proposed to go into service by the end of 2020. Eversource on Monday said it understands New Hampshire's decision to suspend its decision pending a written order, and that its hopes the site evaluation committee "will evaluate the required statutory criteria, as well as thoroughly consider all of the conditions that could provide the basis for granting approval." Gov. Charlie Baker's 2016 Energy Diversity Act calls for competitive purchases of 9.45 gigawatt-hours of clean energy by 2020, as well as a separate offshore wind procurement. The Massachusetts Clean Energy RFP was launched to implement that law. The Northern Pass, first proposed in 2010, has drawn protests from host communities and New Hampshire residents. It has been fought by groups such as the Conservation Law Foundation, which said other New England transmission proposals would be less harmful to the environment. The Eversource line would go from the Canadian border to a substation at Deerfield, New Hampshire, where it would tie into the six-state bulk power grid. The line would be buried as it passes through the White Mountains. Attorney General Maura Healey said in January she will scrutinize the Baker administration's choice of Northern Pass in the Massachusetts Clean Energy RFP. "Our role is to ensure that this bid was selected based on a transparent, competitive and fair evaluation of all the proposals submitted," a Healey spokeswoman said. SPRINGFIELD - The two men had already pocketed $600 in cash from an armed robbery at a Springfield couple's apartment Friday afternoon, a prosecutor said. But before leaving, one suspect pointed a gun at the young mother and threatened to shoot her, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Prendergast told a judge Monday in Springfield District Court. Then he tried to "pull the earrings out of her ear even as she was holding her three-year-old child," the prosecutor added. Springfield police arrested Victor Awosika, 33, of Springfield, a few miles away, with cash, clothing and other items stolen from the home on Cedar Street, Prendergast said. A second suspect remains at large. Held over the weekend, Awosika pleaded not guilty Monday in Springfield District Court to ten charges, including four counts of home invasion and two counts of armed robbery. Minutes after the men fled the apartment, police began searching for a black Chrysler 300 with New Jersey plates, based on descriptions from the victims and a neighbor, the prosecutor said. When police pulled the Chrysler over near Interstate 291, Awosika was alone; both victims later identified him as the gunman, but said he was wearing a different shirt during the robbery, Prendergast said. The prosecutor asked Judge William Hadley to set bail at $50,000, citing the new charges and Awosika's 10-page criminal record. In addition convictions for distributing crack cocaine and other charges, Awosika is currently out on bail in a 2017 case, and on probation in a 2016 case, Prendergast said. He called for the judge to revoke the defendant's bail, effectively jailing him for 90 days. State probation officer Ramon Guzman, citing the new charges, also requested that Awosika be detained for a probation violation hearing in the 2016 case. Awosika has been on probation in four cases, and violated his probation in three of them, Guzman said. Defense lawyer Ivonne Vidal asked for $5,000 bail, and opposed revoking her client's release in the earlier cases. The two suspects in the alleged home invasion were described as black males in their 20s, both wearing black hoodies, with one being taller and skinnier than the other, Vidal said. Awosika is neither in his 20s nor skinny, Vidal pointed out. "There is a significant difference between the person described to police and the person standing here today," Vidal said. As for the vehicle, it is not unusual to see Chrysler 100s or cars with New Jersey plates in the area, Vidal said. She also raised the possibility that Awosika will provide a witness to vouch for his presence elsewhere at the time of the alleged robbery, Vidal said. A Springfield native, Awosika has a close family ties, as shown by his mother, brother and fiance coming to court Monday to support him, Vidal said. Before his arrest Friday, Awosika was employed and was scheduled to start a new job on Monday, the lawyer said. Hadley set bail at $50,000 and revoked the defendant's bail in the 2017 case. The judge also found probable cause that Awosika violated his probation in the 2016 case and ordered him held for a violation hearing. Awosika is due back in court on April 12 for a pretrial hearing in his latest case. WORCESTER -- Gerald Daniele, the lowest-hanging fruit in a 2016 indictment of local organized crime figures, was sentenced Monday to two years in prison for stalking a gambling debtor over a $3,700 loan. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Hillman's decision may send a signal to Daniele's co-defendants to buckle up. The remaining four defendants' federal sentencing guidelines are significantly higher, and the facts more sinister. Daniele, 53, of Longmeadow, pleaded guilty late last year to one count of extortion. He was arrested on Aug. 4, 2016, along with Ralph Santaniello and Giovanni "Johnny Cal" Calabrese, also of Longmeadow, Richard Valentini, of East Longmeadow, and Francesco "Frank" Depergola, of Springfield. State and federal investigators have characterized the men as playing varying roles in a new regime of the "Springfield Crew," an arm of the New York-based Genovese crime family, in the earlier part of this decade. The maneuverings of the crew played out in federal court in Springfield in December, when Valentini took his case to trial and was convicted of conspiracy and extortion. The other suspects all pleaded guilty under deals with prosecutors. Aside from Daniele, the other defendants were charged with shaking down Craig J. "C.J." Morel, owner of C.J.'s Towing Unlimited in Springfield, for $20,000 in 2013. Santaniello was the ringleader of a fledgling mafia administration, according to prosecutors, and led the charge in the Morel squeeze. "In 2015 this crew was still trying to assert itself," Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine Wagner told Hillman during Daniele's sentencing hearing Monday. "One of the more prominent members, Ralph Santaniello was trying to get made," the prosecutor told the judge, referring to a coveted "promotion" for a mafia associate -- usually reserved for top "earners" and the most violent among a street crew. Daniele's attorney, Michael Entin, was quick to distinguish his client from his co-defendants, arguing that while Daniele had a long history with them, he had distanced himself from the crew in recent years to focus on parenting. Entin said Daniele has debilitating diabetes and sole custody of a teenage son with autism. The attorney also characterized the other men charged with Daniele as childhood friends, not criminal associates. "To characterize him as a mob figure I think is erroneous. These men were his schoolmates," Entin said, arguing for a term of house arrest. The extortion charge Daniele pleaded guilty to relates to a loan he made in 2015 to a longtime friend, labeled "Victim Two" or "K.R." in court records. That man did not appear in court, nor did he submit a victim impact statement, which is fairly routine at sentencing hearings. Entin characterized the victim as a friend of Daniele for 30 years. Daniele admitted going to the man's place of work after he fell behind on payments, offering to "slug it out" if he couldn't pay. The threat was never realized, Entin said. For his part, Daniele was moved to tears while addressing Hillman, following a brief presentation from his sister, Carla Daniele, a Springfield police officer. "My son means everything to me. ... I'm afraid if I go away something bad will happen," Gerald Daniele told the judge. Wagner lobbied for a 27-month sentence. She conceded to Hilllman that Daniele may very well have been a lesser figure in the mob hierarchy than some of his co-defendants, but was still a cog in the wheel. The worker bees are the ones who help higher-ups earn more money from illicit rackets and gain more prestige, Wagner argued. "The folks at the top don't get those things without the folks at the bottom," she said. In the Morel shakedown, Santaniello and Calabrese went to the tow operator's property in Hampden in 2013 and demanded the $20,000 for "street taxes," arguing Morel had paid mob boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno $5 per tow before Bruno's murder in 2003. Morel's payments to the mob ceased shortly before then. Testifying for the prosecution in Valentini's trial, Morel told a jury that gangsters had been parasites for part of a decade, but he had gotten out from under their thumbs. Or so he thought. Santaniello and Calabrese came calling unexpectedly in late September of 2013, and threatened to behead Morel and bury him in his backyard if he didn't resume payments. Morel went to the police and agreed to chronicle on audio and video subsequent meetings with that pair, as well as Valentini and Depergola, over several weeks. Santaniello is scheduled to be sentenced March 20. The other defendants are due to be sentenced in the coming months. Police in Greenfield and Chicopee this weekend arrested and charged a driver with drunken driving after separate incidents where the driver narrowly missed driving into a police cruiser, police said. The two men, Jeffrey Wroblewski of Colrain, and Gary Brennan of Chicopee, were each arrested for operating while intoxicated and other motor vehicle violations. It was Wroblewski's 3rd OUI arrest and Brennan's second, according to Greenfield and Chicopee police officials. Wroblewski, 55, was arrested Saturday shortly before 7 p.m. on Country Club Road. Officer Michael McDowell was on patrol near the Greenfield County Club when an oncoming vehicle swerved across the center line and into his path, police said. McDowell had to veer to the right to avoid a collision, police said. McDowell turned his cruiser around and pursued the vehicle. When he pulled the car over and talked to Wroblewski, McDowell determined there was probable cause to arrest him for driving while under the influence of alcohol. He was booked at the Greenfield police station and then released on his own recognizance pending his arraignment in Greenfield District Court. Brennan, 55, was arrested Sunday just before 11 p.m. on Memorial Drive near James St. Officer Timothy Broduer and Sgt. Keith Lemay were conducting a traffic stop on Memorial Drive when Brennan swerved toward them, according to police spokesman Mike Wilk. Their cruiser was parked with its overhead lights operating, Wilk said. Brodeur was walking back to the cruiser when he saw a pickup coming toward him. Instead of moving to the left lane, as required by the state's Move Over law, the truck instead drifted to the right and very nearly struck Lemay's cruiser, Wilk said. Brodeur pursued the truck, and eventually pulled it over. He could detect the smell of alcohol when he spoke to Brennan, and he immediately stumbled when he was asked to get out the car. He was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, second offence, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, marked lanes violation, and failure to move over when approaching an emergency vehicle. He was booked at the Chicopee police station and released on $540 bail pending his arraignment. The Egyptian and French navies are conducting a joint military drill in the Red Sea, which is a continuation of military partnership and cooperation between the two countries, Egypt's Armed Forces spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said in a statement on Tuesday. The drill involves Egyptian and French Mistral helicopter carriers, frigates and missile corvettes. The training also includes drills using live ammunition, anti-terror operations and boosting maritime security. Part of the drill involved exercises on a French Mistral ship, which were attended by Egyptian naval Commander-in-Chief Ahmed Khaled. El-Refaie said the drill comes "in light of military cooperation with friend and brother countries, and an exchange of training expertise by the participating forces for two countries joined by long-time partnership and cooperation in various fields." Last February, the Egyptian and French navies carried out the joint exercise "Cleopatra 2018" in the Red Sea, which involved exercises that coincided with Egypt's counterterrorism Operation Sinai 2018. Short link: An 81-year-old woman was snared in a Worcester police drug bust Monday after investigators say she had a bottle of oxycodone pills tucked in her bra. The woman was one of seven people arrested when Vice Squad officers raided a Main Street apartment while executing a search warrant. Investigators went to 1038 Main St., Apt. 1-R, in order to find 35-year-old Ruben Melendez. Officers set up surveillance around the building and at 10:30 a.m. saw two men leave and get into Melendez' car. The men were later identified as Brian Rodriguez, 25, and Emmanuel Torres, 31, both of the same Main Street apartment. Vice Squad investigators followed the car as it went to the McDonalds parking lot on Main Street. Police say Torres was caught trying to hide something in the car's center console. "A search of the center console produced a cigar wrapper that contained 4 separate plastic bags that contained crack cocaine and an additional 17 small plastic baggies that contained heroin," police said. Both men were arrested. Torres allegedly had another eight small bags of crack cocaine on him. As officers arrested the two men at McDonald's, Vice Squad officers and Massachusetts State Police Drug Unit troopers entered the apartment. Melendez allegedly hid in his bed and refused to show his hands. An officer pulled out his Taser and eventually, Melendez gave himself up. Three more people were caught inside the apartment. They have been identified as Javier Mercado, 44, of the Main Street apartment, Brittany Drake, 27, of Worcester, and Frankie Galarza, 50, of Worcester. Police say they found $1,198 in cash, packaging materials, 14 separate plastic bags that contained heroin, six separate bags that contained crack cocaine, and 9 suboxone strips inside the apartment. Investigators then learned a vacant apartment inside the building was used by Galarza. The landlord gave the officers permission to search the vacant apartment. Two more plastic bags containing heroin were discovered, according to police. While searching the apartment two people knocked on the front door. Blanca Diez, 81, of Worcester and a 42-year-old man, were at the door. "The officer observed a large pill bottle protruding from Ms. Diez's bra area," police said. "The officer asked Ms. Diez if she could remove the pill bottle. Ms. Diez complied. The officer looked in the bottle and observed approximately 72 oxycodone pills inside." She was arrested on drug trafficking charges. Galarza, Melendez, Torres, Mercado, and Rodriguez were all arrested on various drug charges. Melendez also faces a resisting arrest charge. Drake was arrested on an existing warrant. UPDATE: All lanes have reopened on Interstate 290 eastbound in Worcester and the Massachusetts Turnpike westbound in Grafton and Millbury. ---------- Several crashes involving tractor-trailers have blocked traffic on stretches of highway in Central Massachusetts. The right lane of the Massachusetts Turnpike westbound is closed in Grafton at the 100 mile marker for a tractor-trailer rollover, State Police said. Just four miles away at the 96 mile marker in Millbury, two tractor trailers have jackknifed in the westbound lane of the Pike. In Hopkinton, another tractor trailer jackknifed on Interstate 495 northbound near Exit 21. State Police tweeted a photo showing the truck blocking a stretch of highway. All lanes are closed on Interstate 290 eastbound in Worcester near Exit 11 for another tractor-trailer that jackknifed. The crashes all happened just after 1:30 p.m. during Tuesday's nor'easter. At least three other tractor-trailer crashes happened earlier in the day. For the last many years of its 120-year history, St. Mary's of Westfield has represented a treasured holdover from a bygone era -- a school that welcomed children on their very first day of school and educated them throughout their entire elementary and secondary experience, before handing them their high school diplomas on graduation day. Sadly, that tradition will end in June. Hurt by a 50 percent enrollment drop in 10 years, the high school will close at the end of this academic year with the elementary school remaining open. Parents are reportedly outraged and their reaction is understandable. Some worry that St. Mary's students will not have enough transferable credits to graduate on time at a new school. Others point to inequities in support from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. According to St. Mary's school board president Erin Carrier, Pope Francis High of Springfield receives aid to the tune of more than $3,000 per student, while the other 11 Catholic schools in the diocese receive a paltry average of $84 per student. To Carrier and others, that proves parents and churchgoers across the diocese are being expected to support one school at the expense of all the others -- even those educating their own children. But on the other side of the issue is enrollment: St. Mary's High has fewer than 85 students and only nine signups for the 2018-19 freshman class. Bishop Mitchell Rozanski is supervising an ongoing, overall review of Catholic education in the diocese. Results are expected by the fall. Many parishioners throughout the region probably assumed that if another axe were to fall, it would not come until the report came out, which would have preserved the status quo for at least another year -- but that didn't happen, either. The state of parochial education in Western Massachusetts is causing headaches on many fronts. Even some devoted parishioners and parents say its eventual demise is inevitable as declining numbers of children, school populations and church membership are combined with greater school choices and ever-present tuition costs -- all pointing to a bleak future for Catholic schools. Some even say parochial education is no longer needed or hurts public education. But that ignores its several positive contributions. It offers families another viable alternative to traditional public, charter, secular private or home schooling, it provides a religious component that's still important to some families, and perhaps most of all, it has a proven track record of delivering quality education to students who enter adult life with a solid, balanced foundation. Bishop Rozanski said the purpose of the study is not to doom parochial education but to preserve it. Every time a church or school is closed, however, the resulting bitterness and anger among affected parishioners creates an adversarial relationship with the diocese -- at just the time the Catholic Church, here and elsewhere, is seeking to improve its image and restore credibility and popularity. One reason for the resentment is that nearly every closing is announced as a fait accompli, leaving parishioners or parents to ask or demand why they were not given a chance to save their school or church through their own efforts. That's what many St. Mary's parents are asking now, but church leadership's stance is that a diocese cannot be run by independent agencies, scattered throughout its midst -- and that moreover, that tumbling enrollment figures aren't pleasant but don't lie. The closing is heartbreaking news for the people of St. Mary's, whose plucky little school stood the test of time for more than a century. The broader message it delivers causes anxiety throughout parochial schools in the diocese, none of which are immune to the concerns. Bishop Rozanski says his goal is to preserve parochial education in challenging times. The closing of a venerable high school, even before the diocesan study comes out, shows how challenging that will be -- and that it won't come without cost. BOSTON -- Attorney General Maura Healey on Monday vowed to fight federal plans to open the Massachusetts coastline to offshore oil and gas drilling. "Massachusetts does not want drilling off our coast and I will fight this proposal to defend our state and our residents," said Healey in a statement. "Of all the bad environmental ideas the Trump administration has proposed, this one may take the cake." President Donald Trump and Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in January announced a plan to offer federal energy leases in most of the nation's offshore waters, including the North Atlantic planning region stretching from Maine to New Jersey. The BOEM proposes two such leases within the North Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf, starting in 2021 and 2023. Healey filed formal comments with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Friday. She argued that aside from the risk of oil spills, drilling would conflict with state and federal imperatives to reduce carbon emissions. She said the exploration and extraction is not needed to meet America's energy needs. Healey said she would consider a legal challenge if necessary. Healey said the proposal threatens "Massachusetts' $7.3 billion fishing industry, the 90,000 jobs that it supports and the state's 1,500 miles of coastline that is marked by destination beaches." Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and all 11 members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation recently wrote to the Department of the Interior to oppose the five-year ocean leasing plan. On Beacon Hill, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, has said that Massachusetts lawmakers will fight offshore drilling from both sides of the aisle. Healey, a Democrat, said she is joining forces with other attorneys general. Her office last week sent a letter to Washington along with her peers in Maryland, California, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington. Healey and five other attorneys general wrote to Zinke in January opposing separate plans to roll back drilling regulations put in place following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. The agency in 2016 estimated the North Atlantic area could yield around 4.6 billion barrels of oil, and 11.8 trillion cubic feet of gas. A portion of that could be "economically recoverable," depending upon market conditions. A judge ruled on Monday that the state of Massachusetts cannot sue the federal government for expanding a religious exemption to the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate. "While we are disappointed in this decision, we remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring affordable and reliable reproductive health care for women," Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. "Access to contraceptive coverage is a critical issue for the health, equality, and economic well-being of women and their families and we will continue to fight for these protections." Healey's office is considering whether to appeal the decision. Gregory Baylor, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed a court brief on behalf of a pro-life organization and a religious college in support of the Trump administration's rules, said in a statement, "All Americans should have the freedom to peacefully live and work consistently with their deeply held convictions without fear of government punishment. The (Health and Human Services) rules follow the Constitution, federal law, and legal precedents to protect freedom of religion and conscience." Healey sued top U.S. officials after President Donald Trump's administration expanded a religious exemption to the Affordable Care Act's requirement that contraceptive care be covered by insurance without co-pays. The government under Trump would allow employers to deny contraceptive coverage if they have a religious or moral objection. Healey argued that the exemptions violate the U.S. Constitution and were not done according to proper rule making procedures. But U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton ruled that Massachusetts lacks standing to bring the case, since the state did not prove that Massachusetts will suffer injury from the federal rules. Massachusetts passed its own law requiring employers to provide health insurance that covers contraceptives without co-pays. MassHealth also covers contraceptives. According to court filings, the state estimates, based on national statistics, that between 666 and 2,520 Massachusetts women could lose employer-sponsored contraceptive coverage under the federal rules, at a cost of approximately $584 a year. But the judge found that given Massachusetts' other laws, Massachusetts women are less likely than women in other states to be affected. He ruled that the state did not successfully prove that a significant number of Massachusetts women will lose coverage or that the burden of providing that coverage will fall to the state. Expanding passenger rail service between New Haven and Springfield is looking good. But expanding service from Boston to Springfield is far less certain, Gov. Charlie Baker said in a meeting with editors and reporters from The Republican/MassLive.com on Friday. Baker said he has been having "very positive" conversations with Connecticut officials about running trains along the north-south corridor from New Haven to Springfield and then to Greenfield. Baker said he expects to have an announcement by July on north-south rail. "I'm optimistic this is something we could turn into a pretty regular loop that would run with a reasonable amount of frequency," Baker said. The CTrail project, which would run regular rail service from New Haven to Springfield, is expected to start service in May. On east-west rail from Boston to Springfield, however, Baker said the future is less certain. "The goal is to do a full blown study on this, which involves a lot of elements," Baker said. Baker said the Department of Transportation expects to select a vendor to conduct the study in June, and a study would likely take 12 to 15 months. Baker said since the Springfield to Worcester to Boston line runs active freight service today, a separate line would probably have to be built for passenger rail. With President Donald Trump proposing a major infrastructure bill, there is the potential for a Springfield to Boston rail project to get federal funding. But overall, Baker sounded pessimistic about the idea. He said the Trump administration is proposing that the U.S. government pay 20 percent of a project's cost, a reversal from the historic policy, which has been for the U.S. government to pay 80 percent when it gives infrastructure grants. He said there are also "some pretty interesting rules" in Trump's proposal around what federal money could be spent on. Baker said he met with many Capitol Hill insiders while in Washington, D.C for a National Governors Association meeting, and he came away skeptical that Congress could get anything major done. "Many of us came away thinking that there's not a lot of agreement among those folks on much of anything," Baker said. "It's possible they could end up getting through the rest of the session without doing anything significant on infrastructure, which from everyone's point of view would be unfortunate." SPRINGFIELD -- Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said he has "full faith and confidence" in how the state's Department of Transportation handles taxpayer dollars in wake of criticism the agency has received for adding a $100,000 bathroom to its downtown Boston office. The governor told The Republican's editorial board last week that while he understands why some may be upset by MassDOT's decision to install the restroom, he believes it was needed and that the costs associated with the project seem on par with that type of construction. Baker further offered that state transportation officials have generally done everything in their power to ensure they're effectively and efficiently spending tax dollars. "I have full faith and confidence in the work that's being done by DOT and by the MBTA. They were supposed to have a $350 million deficit on the T's operating budget in the fiscal year that ends this year ... it's about $50 million and they took a ton of savings and invested in the capital program," he said. "And because they've been investing their savings in their capital program, their draw on the state budget overall has actually gone down by probably $100 million on the operating side over the past few years." Noting that the bathroom came as part of a larger renovation, the governor offered that "putting plumbing in the middle of an existing building where it doesn't exist is expensive." Baker, however, acknowledged that he's not an expert in renovation costs. "Whether it should've been $100,000 or something less, I don't know," he said. The governor, who said he believed the bathroom was installed, in part, because of the (MBTA) fiscal management control boards' hours-long meetings, offered that the agency, overall, has been saving Massachusetts money. "In the big picture, those folks have saved hundreds of millions of dollars on the state's operating budget on an annualized basis over the last few years - which has been spent on other stuff like education and environmental policy," he said. Baker said he's not going to judge whether the agency needed the bathroom, but added for the record: "I think they did." The governor said he would likely look at the project differently if he thought that "the T and the fiscal control management board wasn't doing everything they could to come up with a more effective and efficient way to spend tax dollars -- and this was just one more element in a series of really significant issues." "That would bother me a lot more," he said. "But, these folks negotiated the toughest and best contracts we've had with the unions of the T that we've seen in literally decades ... They dramatically reduced the operating deficit, which had a positive impact on the rest of the state's budget in a big way, and they've been very aggressive about the way they've dealt with the taxpayer dime." Baker's remarks came just days after he told WAAF's "The Hill-Man Morning Show" that he was not familiar with the MassDOT project, which WCVB-TV first reported about on Feb. 19. The new bathroom and a kitchenette are located near the boardroom used by MassDOT's board of directors and the MBTA's fiscal control board. Reports suggested that the new facility was built despite a public restroom already being located near the boardroom. MassDOT Secretary and CEO Stephanie Pollack said in a Feb. 26 statement that "while trying to meet the legitimate needs of our volunteer board members (the agency) should have been more careful to minimize the cost of the project." "In the future we will be more careful to ensure that necessary work in our building gets done for the lowest possible price," she reportedly added. After a woman tried to bring a peacock onto a plane, many believe it's officially time to ban so-called emotional support animals. The scientific basis for emotional support animals (ESA) is weak at best, and many argue ESAs undermine real service animals, which assist individuals with disabilities and are required to undergo rigorous and expensive training. But animal lovers say ESAs are legit, and they should be allowed to bring their furry friends on board. What do you think? PERSPECTIVES Emotional support animals have been at the center of some of the more ridiculous news stories this year. From a turkey to a duck in red boots to a peacock, it's become clear that the emotional support animal system that allows passengers to board planes with their pets has officially gone too far. Aside from being totally ridiculous, it is also very dangerous. Support pets have attacked passengers on planes time and time again. And since pets don't have to undergo any kind of formal training to become an emotional support animal, it seems inevitable that things will only get worse. David Leonhardt of The New York Times argues that, while flying pets may not be the most important issues of our time, it is endemic of "mass cheating" and selfishness in our culture. Individuals who travel with "emotional support" pets are abusing a law that was meant to protect people with actual disabilities who need service animals--which are required to undergo rigorous and expensive training. There is nothing noble about exploiting a loophole meant to help people with disabilities. The scientific basis for emotional support animals is virtually nonexistent. While the Air Carrier Access Act allows passengers to bring animals on board if they provide a letter from a mental health clinician or a doctor, the research on the effectiveness of emotional support pets is extremely weak. As Yale psychology researcher Molly Crossman puts it: "... the research on dogs is inconclusive. The research on emotional support peacocks and hamsters doesn't exist." So if the research is inconclusive, and people are clearly taking advantage of a loophole, why should we continue to allow emotional support animals? But defenders of emotional support animals argue there is research that suggests pets can help individuals with mental and emotional health problems. Even Crossman admits it's hard to quantify how much joy a pet brings someone. There's no evidence that emotional support animals are actually harmful to one's mental health, so if someone says they feel better when accompanied by their furry friend, who's to tell them no? The father of modern psychology Sigmund Freud famously used his dog for psychoanalysis and found the presence of his dog consistently lowered his blood pressure. Dogs, in particular, are also skilled at reading the emotional states of humans and can react accordingly when their owner is dealing with anxiety or other emotions they may be feeling on a plane. Doctors have been using support animals to help patients with PTSD, anxiety, and depression for years. Clearly, they are providing some benefit. According to the Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work, individuals saw an 82 percent reduction in symptoms of PTSD after just one week of having an emotional support animal. Sure, some people may be abusing the emotional support animal system, but those instances are few and far between. Thousands of support pets travel on planes every year, with few bad incidents. Is it really fair to punish and discount all support animals for the bad behavior of a few? Alexis Dent of Greatist writes about her own emotional support dog Giant and how he has helped her deal with her anxiety disorder. Dent believes emotional support animals aren't given the same respect as service animals because mental health is still not taken as seriously as physical disabilities in this country. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Digital, Inc. property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. State leaders are considering ways to condition increases in funding for regional transit authorities on steps to measure their performance. "We need to have some standards that they work with at the various levels they're at," said Senate President Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester. Anticipating flat state funding and rising expenses, the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority has proposed fare hikes and service cutbacks, including reducing routes around the University of Massachusetts Amherst when class is not in session and eliminating low-use routes in Easthampton, Ware, Palmer and Holyoke. The Worcester Regional Transit Authority said it is considering eliminating weekend service, reducing service on some weekday routes and eliminating some runs completely due to a funding shortfall. Regional transit authorities have historically complained of underfunding compared to the Boston-area MBTA. Gov. Charlie Baker, in his fiscal 2019 budget proposal, proposed giving the state's 15 regional transit authorities $80.4 million, the same amount they received in fiscal 2018. The RTAs got $82 million in fiscal 2017 and 2016. In a meeting with The Republican's editorial board Friday, Baker said the operating funds have been consistent in recent years, but the capital investment for building projects has increased. The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority recently got a nearly $60 million investment over three years for new facilities and buses. "The operating side number has been relatively constant, but big investments were made in physical and rolling infrastructure for a number of RTAs, including the PVTA, over the last few years," Baker said. Overall, Baker said capital support from the state to the RTAs went from $20 million in fiscal 2014 to $60 million in fiscal 2018. In their weekly meeting on Monday, legislative leaders and Baker heard a presentation on RTAs from Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack. Chandler, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said the RTAs "do need more funding." Chandler said she would like to see some way where performance is tied to funding "so that we have some way of holding all the RTAs to some kind of improvement standards." House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, said regional transit authorities are important to their local economies, but need to be run more efficiently. "We have to talk in terms of how we can make it more efficient in terms of getting the highest number of folks on each bus or whatever it may be in terms of transportation," DeLeo said. Baker, speaking to reporters Monday, said the state has been supportive of the RTAs. He stressed that the RTAs are not all the same. "They're in different places, they serve different kinds of populations, they have a different set of demands and expectations depending on which route you're talking about," Baker said. "They're in very different places financially and operationally with respect to what they're doing and how their budget works." Baker said the administration does not want a plan that just increases funding across the board according to a formula. "I think the right answer is to come up with a plan and a strategy that works for each of the RTAs, and it's going to be a different plan and different strategy depending on which one we're talking about," Baker said. Chandler agreed, saying, "This is not a cookie cutter." Earlier Monday, in a speech to the Worcester Chamber of Commerce, Chandler said the Worcester Regional Transit Authority is in "dire straits" due to a cut in state funding over the past several years. She criticized Baker for proposing to level fund the authority despite increasing fuel costs and health insurance. Despite reports that he was fired from his White House position on Monday, John McEntee, President Donald Trump's personal assistant, has been named a senior adviser for the Republican's 2020 re-election campaign, officials announced Tuesday. McEntee, who was among Trump's longest-serving aides, was reportedly ousted from the White House due to an unspecified security issue, senior administration officials told the Wall Street Journal. Shortly after, campaign officials announced they were bringing McEntee on to help oversee 2020 operations, along with Katrina Pierson, who served as the Republican presidential nominee's national spokeswoman in 2016. Officials said both McEntee and Pierson will begin their new positions as senior advisers in the coming days. Trump for President Campaign Manager Brad Parscale said he's "pleased to welcome back two outstanding members of our 2016 team." "We need the help of proven leaders such as Katrina and John to promote the President's growing portfolio of achievements across the country," he said in a statement. Michael Glassner, the campaign's chief operating officer, added that Pierson and McEntee will help Trump for President develop a winning strategy and contribute to its national engagement efforts ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections. "We're delighted to have them back on the team," he said. McEntee was reportedly escorted from the White House grounds Monday afternoon without being allowed to first collect his belongings or his jacket, officials told the Wall Street Journal. The reason behind McEntee's firing wasn't clear, but reportedly had to do with an issue in his background, according to the newspaper. Various White House officials have left the administration in recent weeks, as Chief of Staff John Kelly has cracked down on security clearance policy. News of McEntee's firing came amid Trump's announcement that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be replaced with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The Egyptian foreign ministry has said that a failed assassination attempt against Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was aimed at foiling reconciliation efforts between rival Palestinian factions, describing the attempt as a "brutal, terrorist" act. Earlier on Tuesday, an explosion targeted the PM near the northern Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun. Hamdallah was unharmed in the explosion, while six security guards were wounded and three vehicles were damaged in the blast. In October 2017, rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation deal brokered by Cairo after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of the Gaza Strip. However, continued disputes have stalled the implementation of the agreement. Egypt has vowed to continue with its mediation efforts until the Palestinians achieve unity. "Egypt will continue its tireless efforts to achieve reconciliation and enable the Palestinian brothers to manage their state affairs according to a unified and comprehensive vision that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people," the foreign ministry said in a statement. Hamas which condemned the attack and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority said they viewed the incident as an attempt to prevent the implementation of the unity deal. Short link: Bozeman is a rapidly growing city with a high quality of life in part due to the easy access to the outdoors, burgeoning tech industry, and cultural experiences it offers. XPrize contests are nothing if not examples of big picture thinking. Following multi-million dollar competitions to put private spacecraft on the moon, reimagine C02 and tackle illiteracy in the developing world, the organization has just announced a new initiative to accelerate the development of real-life robotic avatars, which could one day be used to carry out tasks like caregiving or disaster relief from miles away. Nick Lavars https://newatlas.com/xprize-ana-avatar-robots/53774/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=94b21ca6a5-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-94b21ca6a5-92465361 For a certain type of worker, Google sounds like paradise. The company offers on-site gyms, generous 401(k) matches, cafeteria trolleys stocked with chai tea and mango lassis, and even high-tech Japanese toilets. But its most attractive benefit may be the gift of personal autonomy. As one former Google employee tells it in an email posted on the economics blog Marginal Revolution, during the 10 years that he worked at the Silicon Valley giant, Google granted engineers nearly unlimited creative freedom. He writes: The official mantra was, "hire the smartest people and theyll figure out the right thing to do." People were generally allowed to sign up for any project that interested them (there was a database where engineers could literally add your name to a project that interested you) Almost anything would be considered as a new project unless it was considered to be "not ambitious enough." Theres no doubt that workers are happier when they have more autonomy. The trouble starts when they begin to mistake their individual happiness for the companys end goal. By Sarah Todd https://work.qz.com/1226761/a-former-google-engineer-explains-how-creative-freedom-can-turn-people-into-entitled-jerks/ Le ministre du Developpement Industriel a pris la parole sur la motion de Tania Diolle pour donner son avis au parlement sur le programme gouvernemental lu par le President de La Republique le 24 janvier 2020. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn The newly elected President of Zambia, H.E. Hakainde Hichilema, will address over 1000 global businesses and investors at Invest Africa (www.InvestAfrica.com)s flagship event, The Africa Debate (www.TheAfricaDebate.com), on 15th September. The virtual broadcast will see President Hichilema outline his plans to restore macro-economic stability to Zambia in conversation with the Chairman of Invest Africa, Rob Hersov. Hichilema was elected to Zambian presidency last month on the promise to tackle the countys debt problem and usher in a return to growth. Zambia has been hit hard by the pandemic, falling into its first recession since 1998 last year. In November 2020, the country became the first African nation to default on its sovereign debt since the start of the pandemic. The global shutdown came on the tails of a challenging few years which had seen growth slow to around 3% since 2015. In his inaugural address Hichilema stated that his governments focus over the next five years will be on restoring macroeconomic stability. He promised to grow [the Zambian] economy so that we can list more people out of poverty than ever before. Securing an IMF deal is high on the new Presidents list of priorities as he seeks to rebuild his nations financial credibility globally. He has appointed former IMF advisor, Situmbeko Musokotwane, as his finance minister, promising to balance the budget and tackle corruption. At The Africa Debate, President Hichilema will join a line up that includes senior representatives from the IMF, the African Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and Afreximbank as well as private investors Ninety One, Alterra Capital, Leapfrog Investments and Renaissance Capital (https://bit.ly/3yJnbTL). The online forum will provide the opportunity for Africas newest leader to introduce his policy platform to global investors and businesses. Securing private sector buy-in will be essential to the incoming governments promise to stimulate growth and create jobs for Zambias young population. Karen Taylor, CEO of Invest Africa said, We are delighted to welcome H.E. Hakainde Hichilema to The Africa Debate following his election to the Zambian presidency last month. The Africa Debate has a long history of hosting Heads of State from across the Continent and providing a platform for direct dialogue with international investors and multinational businesses. We look forward to receiving an update from President Hichilema on his governments priorities for the Zambian economy going forward. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn A top Syrian Kurdish official accused Turkey on Tuesday of settling Turkmen and Arab families in villages seized in the Turkish army's campaign in the Kurdish Afrin region. A senior Turkish official said the accusation was "absolutely false". Turkey launched a major offensive in the northwestern Syrian region in January, aiming to drive out the Kurdish YPG militia. Redur Xelil, the head of foreign relations in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a YPG-dominated militia alliance, said Turkey was conducting a policy of "demographic change" in the area. "The Turkish government is settling Turkmen and Arab families in the villages of Afrin that it occupied after forcing out its people and is distributing the belongings of the people of Afrin to the new settlers," he said in a written message to Reuters. The senior Turkish official said: "The claim that Arabs and Turkmen are being placed in Afrin is absolutely false ... A transfer of population to that region to change the demographic structure is out of the question." Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey and is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey. The United States regards the YPG as a valuable partner in the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Syria. Xelil added that Turkey's role in northern Syria was "laying the ground for ethnic conflicts and strife between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen". Short link: France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday warned Turkey that concerns over security "absolutely do not justify" the scale of its offensive in Syria. "Even if Turkey's concerns over the border are legitimate... this absolutely does not justify the action by Turkish troops deep inside the Afrin area," Le Drian told parliament. "In no circumstances does it justify military operations that put civilian populations in danger," he added, branding the situation in Afrin "critical". Turkey says its army and allied rebels have surrounded the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria, raising the prospect of another devastating siege in the seven-year conflict. Ankara launched its "Olive Branch" operation, aimed at ousting a Syrian Kurdish militia from Afrin, in January, escalating tensions with the United States and European NATO powers. Turkey regards the YPG militia as a terror group and a branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a deadly insurgency on Turkish soil for three decades. But the US-backed military coalition fighting the Islamic State group regards the YPG as a vital partner against the jihadists. Le Drian said battling IS remained France's key motivation for its military involvement in the region, where it is part of the US-led coalition. "It is a priority of national security and we fear that Turkey's action there will only weaken the pressure on Daesh's remaining resources in Syria," Le Drian said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. "We have a very longstanding relationship with the Kurds and we recognise the essential role they played in taking back Raqa," he said in reference to the former IS stronghold, recaptured in October. Short link: Related Syrian troops capture new areas in suburbs of Damascus Syria's army evacuated several hundred Islamist fighters from a small pocket they had held for years south of Damascus Tuesday and bussed them to the north of the country, a monitor said. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent confirmed the evacuation from the district of Qadam. AFP's correspondent in the northwestern province of Idlib, the last to largely escape government control, saw some of the estimated 300 fighters arrive. "An agreement reached in September 2017 between the regime and Islamist factions, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was implemented today," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. HTS is made up mostly of former members of Al-Qaeda's ex-affiliate in Syria. The other main group present in Qadam was Ajnad al-Sham. "At least 1,300 people, including fighters with their relatives, have been transferred," the Britain-based Observatory's head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said. Most of them went to Idlib, a province in Syria's northwest where many rebels evacuated in previous such deals have also washed up. An official from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in Damascus confirmed the organisation was involved in evacuation proceedings from Qadam but could not provide numbers. An AFP correspondent saw some of the fighters, their assault rifles strapped over their shoulders coming off buses in Qalaat al-Madiq, a town on the southern edge of Idlib province. Syria's government has managed to retake several areas around Damascus with a combination of evacuations and "reconciliation" deals that see rebelling towns brought back under regime control. Qadam itself has seen both: jihadists were evacuated from the town in 2016, and other rebels in the town agreed to join the ranks of the regime. The district is smaller than and not connected to Eastern Ghouta, an area east of the capital which is home to hundreds of thousands of civilians and rebels. The regime is waging a fierce air and ground offensive but also pursuing talks with armed groups still holding the rump of the rebel enclave. Civilians needing medical treatment were evacuated Tuesday for the first time since the assault was launched on February 18. The deal that saw the government reclaim Qadam could pave the way for further evacuations from small pockets that still escape the government. Among them are the Damascus neighbourhoods of Jobar, Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmuk, a Palestinian refugee camp that still shelters fighters from the Islamic State jihadist group. Short link: Turkey said Tuesday its army and allied rebels have surrounded the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria, raising the prospect of another devastating siege in the country's long conflict. Syria's war enters its eighth year this week with clashes raging on several fronts, including Afrin and the besieged rebel pockets of Eastern Ghouta, which saw their first medical evacuations of civilians on Tuesday. While attention in recent weeks has focused on a ferocious regime assault on Ghouta, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels have steadily advanced against the northern Kurdish enclave of Afrin. In a statement Tuesday, the Turkish military said it had completely encircled Afrin city, home to some 350,000 people and defended by a well-armed Syrian Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units (YPG). Birusk Hasakeh, a YPG spokesman inside Afrin, denied the city had been totally besieged but said the last route leading out of it was being shelled heavily. "If they do encircle the city, we will be ready for a long fight. We will resist," he told AFP. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish forces were within firing range of that route, which leads to a pair of regime-held towns -- essentially encircling Afrin and 90 villages to its west. The United Nations said Turkey's advance over the last 48 hours had "exacerbated" the humanitarian situation, with water and shelter in short supply. "In Afrin town and surrounding communities, the people's situation is concerning," said the UN's humanitarian coordination office (OCHA) on Tuesday. Sealing off Afrin city would be major for Turkey's "Olive Branch" operation, launched on January 20 and aimed at ousting the YPG, a vital partner for a US-backed coalition against the Islamic State group, but seen by Ankara as "terrorists". The assault has worried world powers, who fear it could detract from the fight against IS and was indiscriminately hurting civilians. "If Turkey's concerns over the border are legitimate... this absolutely does not justify the action by Turkish troops deep inside the Afrin area," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. It remains unclear what Turkey's next move will be, but it may lay siege to Afrin while allowing civilians out to avoid a high-casualty offensive. Abu Jaafar, a commander in the pro-Ankara forces waging Operation Olive Branch, said rebels were considering an "exit route" for civilians. "We will allow civilians... to leave so they will not be hurt in case (Kurdish) fighters hold out in the villages, neighbourhoods, or buildings inside Afrin," he said. Hundreds of civilians were seen fleeing Afrin on Monday, with cars piled high with personal belongings heading to regime-held areas further east. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have meanwhile been pressing an assault against Eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel stronghold near Damascus. Since February 18, Russian-backed regime forces have recaptured more than 60 percent of Ghouta, whittling down rebel territory to three isolated pockets. The UN Security Council passed a resolution last month calling for a 30-day truce to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations, but the ceasefire demand went unheeded. A five-year government siege has left hospitals too under-resourced to treat people properly and more than 1,000 people in Ghouta need to be bussed out for care, the UN has said. On Tuesday, around 150 civilians, some sick and wounded, were evacuated from Ghouta's largest town of Douma to regime-held territory. Douma resident Umm Imad al-Ayyubi told AFP she had been waiting for two years to be brought out of Douma for medical treatment. "I am sick and had heart surgery. I'm coming to Damascus for a follow-up," said the 65-year-old woman. Jaish al-Islam, which controls Douma, had earlier announced some "critical medical cases" would be evacuated. Nearly 1,200 civilians have been killed since the Ghouta assault was launched. On Tuesday, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore voiced concern for some 125,000 children trapped in Ghouta. "Is it not tantamount to a monstrous indifference to the suffering of children that Security Council resolutions for ceasefires are flouted?" Gilmore asked. More than 350,000 people have died since Syria's conflict broke out in 2011. With Russia's help, Assad has retaken most of the territory he had lost in the early years of the uprising. Syrian troops have repeatedly used siege tactics, sealing off rebel-held territory and pressing a military operation before securing an evacuation deal. Several hundred Islamist fighters evacuated the Qadam district south of Damascus on Tuesday under such an agreement. The government has reportedly been pursing negotiations to secure local truces or evacuations from Ghouta's three rebel-held pockets to secure the capital. On Tuesday, rebel fire from Ghouta killed one woman and wounded five other people in Damascus. Short link: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will cut short his first diplomatic trip to Africa on Monday to return to deal with urgent work in Washington, his spokesman said. The top US diplomat will now spend just a few hours in key ally Nigeria on Monday evening rather than the overnight visit originally planned. There was no immediate response from Abuja. "Due to demands in the Secretary's schedule, he is returning to the US one day early after concluding official meetings in Chad and Nigeria," Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein told reporters. Tillerson's week-long, five-country tour coincided with several urgent foreign policy developments, including Thursday's announcement that US President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The trip has also been plagued by ill health. Tillerson, 65, cancelled some events in Kenya on Saturday, saying he was feeling unwell. Tillerson travelled to Chad on Monday morning to meet President Idriss Deby, an important American ally whose military is battling al Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated groups in the Sahel region. He will then visit Nigeria before flying home later the same evening. Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer whose security forces are battling Boko Haram Islamist militants in the northeast. Short link: Elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghan government, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday as he arrived in Kabul on an unannounced visit. Mattis flew into the war-torn city two weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban. The insurgents have so far given no formal response to Kabul's offer for negotiations, but Mattis said some insurgent leaders have expressed an interest in the discussions. "It may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop, that would be a bridge too far, but there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," he told reporters aboard a military jet. Ghani's peace plan includes eventually recognising the Taliban as a political party. The insurgent group has said it is prepared to negotiate, but only with the United States and not with the Kabul government. The Taliban last week described the Afghan government as "illegitimate" and its peace process efforts as "deceptive", in a statement calling for a boycott of an Islamic scholars' conference in Jakarta. "Right now we want the Afghans to lead and to provide the substance of the reconciliation effort," Mattis said. Thanks to the political process, Mattis said America is now looking towards victory in Afghanistan after more than 16 years of conflict. "What does that victory look like? It's a country whose own people and their own security forces handle law enforcement and any threats... certainly with international support for some years to come," he said. The US has a renewed focus on Afghanistan after years of drawdowns under former president Barack Obama and talk by top US generals of "not winning" and of a "stalemate" in the seemingly intractable conflict. "It's all working to achieve a political reconciliation, not a military victory," Mattis said. "The victory will be a political reconciliation." As part of the so-called South Asia Strategy, President Donald Trump last year ordered the increased bombing of Taliban targets -- including drug-making labs and training camps. More than 3,000 additional US forces have also arrived in Afghanistan to boost the training and advising of local troops. Approximately 14,000 American forces are now in Afghanistan, up from a low of about 8,500 when Obama left office. Ghani's offer of peace talks comes as civilian casualties have soared in recent months, with the Taliban increasingly targeting towns and cities in response to Trump's new and more aggressive military policy. The Taliban, Afghanistan's biggest militant group, claimed 472 attacks in January alone, the Washington-based terrorism research group TRAC said -- an astonishing number given that the traditional fighting season does not usually start until freezing temperatures have subsided in the spring. Mattis said the jump in attacks on civilians was an indication that a pressured Taliban is unable to conduct broader, ground-taking operations. The Afghan security forces were able to stop some attacks, Mattis said, though he noted he wanted to see them shift to a more "offensive mindset" in the coming months. Mattis's surprise Afghan visit, his third as Pentagon chief, was kept under tight wraps after a security incident during his last trip in September, when insurgents shelled Kabul's airport hours after he arrived. Mattis also said he had seen some changes in Pakistan's behaviour since Trump blasted the country last year for harbouring the Taliban. "There are operations by the Pakistan military that are helping right now, ongoing as we speak," he said. Short link: President Donald Trump is telling reporters that he made the decision to oust Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "by myself." The president is adding that Tillerson will be "much happier now," and he appreciates his service. Trump says he and Tillerson had been "talking about this for a long time," and they had disagreed on issues like the Iran deal. Trump is praising the energy and intellect of his incoming Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who has led the CIA. The president spoke to reporters at the White House shortly before departing for Joint Base Andrews for his trip to California. Short link: Egypt's finance ministry will complete the state budgets automation and the creation of a Treasury Single Account at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) this month, Minister Amr El-Garhy told a delegation from MEDEF, the French Business Confederation, according to a ministry statement. The government will close sub-accounts of various administrative bodies at the CBE and replace them with the Treasury Single Account, which serves to consolidate and manage governments cash resources, hence minimising borrowing costs, according to the IMF's definition. This is part of the Government Fiscal Management Information System (GFMIS) to increase transparency of public finance and accounting and to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and the economy of public service delivery, according to e-finance, the company that manages the governments financial network. El-Garhy and the MEDEF delegation of French private sector business representatives discussed cooperation in the development of electronic systems within the states administrations as well as offering training on using such systems. Egypt is establishing a network to enable electronic payments and collections to and from the government, which is being built and operated by e-finance. E-payments include payroll for government employees and payments to contractors, and e-collections include taxes and customs. The new system includes cancelling paper cheques in government payments and collections, as of last December. The ministry also recently launched an automated service for filing tax returns. The budget automation is expected to cut expenditure by 10 percent, Minister El-Garhy said in August 2017. El-Garhy also noted at the meeting with MEDEF that the government is working on simplifying tax procedures and legislation for small and medium enterprises and microenterprises in a bid to integrate them within the formal economy. MEDEF works on spreading French know-how abroad and supporting trade, investments and technological innovation, according to MEDEFs website. The confederation recently launched the Digital Disruption Lab to promote the benefits of digitisation and establish partnerships with foreign ecosystems. El-Garhy and the MEDEF delegation also discussed cooperation in implementing the new health insurance system, which was launched in Port Said. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron discussed bilateral relations over the phone on Tuesday. France was the sixth biggest investor in Egypt in 2016, with 3.5 billion worth of investments, according to Egypt's State Information Service. Short link: Protest against Hydroelectric Power Plants in Svaneti By Levan Khutsishvili On March 4, representatives of all communities of Svaneti region gathered in the center of Mestia. They continue to protest against the construction of the Hydroelectric Power plant. According to the citizens, construction of 35 power plants are planned in Svaneti region and 7 of them will have Dam, as locals say it will destroy unique nature and historical heritage of Svaneti.NO to mega hydroelectric power plants! We will not let building of the Mestiachala hydroelectric power plant, as not any other power station, also we are against using the nontraditional methods in gold production. If they will not do researches, will not study possible influences of power plants on nature, if they will not discuss projects with local community, we will not let them implement projects stated Nargiz Niguriani, inhabitant of Svaneti region.At the meeting, citizens of Svaneti region developed a common petition and started collecting signatures in all local communities. According to the petition, local community prohibits all kinds of infrastructural projects, which can damage beautiful and unique nature of Svaneti. In addition, local community prohibits construction hydroelectric power plants and gold production, as it will harm material and non-material cultural and natural heritage of Svaneti, and because of this planned HPP projects, like: Nenskra, Mestiachala, Khudon and around 50 HPPs in Zemo Svaneti will not be implemented.Locals say the company misled them, as previous project of Mestiachala HPP was different.During the meeting we discussed the project, and HPP had to be smaller, but now you can see that diameter of pipes is 3 meters, instead of promised 1.40 meter. This construction will destroy Svaneti- stated, Shota Niguriani, inhabitant of Svaneti region.HPPs Mestiachala 1 and Mestiachala 2 is planned to start from December 2018, and expected accumulated power is 175 million kWh / h.Another HPP project that is also protested several times by locals is Nenskra, 280 MW hydroelectric power plant, implemented by "Nenskra Hydro", which was created in 2015 as a result of cooperation between the Korean Water Resources Corporation - K-Water and the "Partnership Fund". Project costs is $ 1.040 billion and 70% of this money will be loans, from Korea Exim Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Investment Bank (EIB), SACE and EBRD.On January 31, EBRD has approved a $ 214 million loan to "Nenskra Hydro", which is intended for the development and construction of the power plant, as well as the $ 15 million investment in "Nenskra Hydro" equity capital.According to the agreement, Georgia will buy electricity from company during 36 years before it will become the property of the country, tariff in 2020 will be 8.215 US cents per kilowatt, and the tariff will increase by 3% annually over the next 13 years. It turns out that during the 36 years, Government should pay $ 3.6 billion in total, when the project will cost only $ 1.040 billion.In addition, project is designed to construct a 130 m high dam on the Nenskra River 176 million/m? volume reservoir will create a 2.7 km? mirror surface area. On the river, Nakra will also be built 8.7 m high and 44.0 m long dam, which will change the direction of water towards the 12.5 km long and 3.5m diameter transit tunnel, which will connect Nenskra Nakra valleys.HPP projects in Svaneti region will cover large territories, several villages and valleys, for example, Nenskra HPP will affect 80 families, by covering their land with water, non-dwelling buildings, trees, crops and houses of some families. Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr signed on Tuesday five agreements worth EGP 5 billion (86.1 million Kuwaiti dinars) with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development Director-General Abdulwahab A. Al-Bader to fund development in Sinai, according to a statement by the ministry. The first agreement, worth 60 million Kuwaiti dinars, will fund a project to build a tunnel in Sharm El-Sheikh in a bid to develop the citys infrastructure and road network. Another agreement allocates 17.5 million Kuwaiti dinars to build a highway linking Sinai to other areas in Egypt. The project aims at facilitating transport to and from Sinai in order to encourage tourism and to encourage citizens to move from the Delta to Sinai. The fund is also providing Egypt with a grant worth 500,000 Kuwaiti dinars to support a project by the Cabinets Information and Decision Support Center to document the states economic reform programme. The fourth agreement is worth 100,000 Kuwaiti dinars and consists of a grant to fund feasibility studies to implement palm tree cultivation and a date manufacturing project in Egypt. The fifth agreement is an amendment to a project for the development of signals on the Banha-Zagazig-Ismailia-Port Said railway, to use a surplus of 7 million Kuwait dinars to develop trains and purchase 100 new tractors. The government is working on encouraging investments and establishing development projects with a social impact in Sinai, Minister Sahar Nasr said. The fund financed 45 projects in Egypt in electricity, transport, manufacturing, potable water and sanitation worth $2.8 billion to date, in addition to grants and technical support worth $13.5 million, the funds director-general said. Courtesy of Ryan Kelly Dozens of women and some men now carry a permanent symbol of support for survivors of sexual assault and abuse after a Saturday #MeToo tattoo fundraiser. More than $11,000 was raised by five tattoo shops in Washtenaw, Shiawassee and Livingston counties on March 10, said Carrie Metz-Caporusso, an Ann Arbor resident and tattoo artist at Lucky Monkey Tattoo Parlor, 3024 Packard St. Participants could opt for a 2-inch black rose outline for $50 with proceeds going to the Joyful Heart Foundation, chosen for its mission of supporting survivors of sexual abuse and its local connection with funding the testing of more than 11,000 rape kits found in a Detroit warehouse that sat for years without being processed. There were nine tattoo artists involved overall and lines out the door at places like Lucky Monkey, its sister shop in Whitmore Lake called Lovely Monkey Tattoo & Piercing and Ypsilanti's Depot Town Tattoo. Metz-Caporusso said she tattooed more than 50 people for over 12 hours at Lucky Monkey, mostly women accompanied by friends or their husbands or boyfriends but also at least one man who asked for the design. "It was very woman power kind of day," Metz-Caporusso said. "It was really nice to have that many ladies supporting each other." Don't Edit So awesome! Full house here too! Thank you! Posted by James Trunko on Saturday, March 10, 2018 Don't Edit Not everyone wanted some ink: one woman asked for a stencil of the design, Metz-Caporusso said, while others simply donated to the cause. One woman got three of the black roses tattooed. Metz-Caporusso spoke with The Ann Arbor News Monday and said while she was feeling exhausted, there was also some exhilaration after realizing what the fundraiser had accomplished when the total came to $11,670. "I was sobbing when I did the math, like 'I can't believe we broke 10 thousand dollars.'" she said. "Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine it." A survivor of sexual assault, Metz-Caporusso was inspired to start the fundraiser and now says the event could continue to help other causes near and dear to tattoo artists' hearts and involve more businesses across Michigan. "In years to come, I want to choose different foundations and causes and start doing it once a year," she said. "I think because it was so well-received, we could get even more shops and tattooers to do it and grow it bigger and bigger." Don't Edit She has the support of Dana Forrester, owner of Lucky Monkey and Lovely Monkey, who said she found a line of women waiting for her at the Whitmore Lake shop when it opened at noon on Saturday. Some of the women drove from Port Huron and Monroe County, Forrester said, which speaks to the significance of not only the tattoo but the overall fundraiser. It was just an idea, Metz-Caporusso said, but it became a powerful fundraiser because of the cause at its very heart. She advised others to think about how they can help those in their community and to give it a chance. "If you have an idea to help people, you can absolutely do it. It wasn't that hard and didn't take that much time," said Metz-Caporusso. "One little thought and you can make a huge change." Scroll through to see some of the images shared on social media following Saturday's tattoo fundraiser. Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit A boy shows off his Irish spirit on St. Patrick's Day in Muskegon. (MLive.com file) There will be no shortage of ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and Irish heritage in Muskegon on Saturday, March 17. Irish make up about 10-15 percent of Michigan's population, according to the History Channel. Between 1820-1930, nearly 4.5 million Irish immigrants arrived in United States. Today, more than 34.7 million Americans claim Irish ancestry -more than seven times the population of Ireland, according to the History Channel. With so many Irish descendants, it's no wonder 39 percent - 122 million - of Americans say they celebrate St. Patrick's Day, according to the History Channel. More than 80 percent of those who celebrate wear green, and 34 percent make a special meal. Don't Edit Tamie Wikzak takes a photo of her daughter Ryanne Wikzak with a statue that was dressed up for St. Patrick's Day Parade at Downtown in Muskegon on Saturday, March 18, 2017. Families and friends marched from Fourth Street to Jefferson Street with a handful of candies, despite patchy drizzle. (Youngrae Kim | MLive.com file) St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland who lived during the 400s, according to the History Channel. St. Patrick's Day began as a religious feast day, and has evolved into simplified celebrations of Irish culture that include music, food and lots of green - even in the beer and water. Celebrations in Muskegon include music, food, beer and spirits, and a parade. Don't Edit Emma Vanslyke, 5, left, dances with her friend Autumn Alderink, 4, during a song at the Seamus Kid Show at the 2011 Michigan Irish Music Festival. (Greg Lindstrom | MLive.com file) Muskegon Area District Library Uneven Ground will put on an Irish music show on Thursday, March 15, at the Norton Shores branch of the Muskegon Area District Library. The free show starts at 7 p.m. in the community room. The library is at 705 Seminole Road. Uneven Ground is a traditional four-piece Celtic band that takes listeners on a "unique musical journey." The band will present a blend of traditional pub songs, history and humor. Members are Courtney Hutson, fiddle, vocals; Dave Closz, guitar, vocals; Tim Staudacher, mandolin, guitar; Larry Halverson, whistle, flute and bodhran. MADL's St. Patrick's Day celebration will continue with holiday cookies from 10-11 a.m. on Saturday, March 17, at the Ravenna branch, 12278 Stafford St. Don't Edit People march on Clay Avenue during St. Patrick's Day Parade at Downtown in Muskegon on Saturday, March 18, 2017. Families and friends marched from Fourth Street to Jefferson Street with a handful of candies, despite patchy drizzle. (Youngrae Kim | MLive.com file) Michigan Irish Music Festival's St. Patrick's Day Party The Michigan Irish Music Festival will hold its annual St. Patrick's Day party at Bella's Marias Ristorante and Event Center, 513 W. Pontaluna Road, on Friday and Saturday, March 16-17. Musical acts will include headlining duo Jimmy Keane and Dennis Cahill, Keane is a star on the piano accordion and Cahill is considered one of the finest guitarists in traditional Irish music. Other highlights of the event include traditional Irish dance performances from the Ardan Academy of Irish Dance and a silent auction. Dinner will include McGovern's Catering corned beef and Irish fare, scones and soft pretzels from the Village Baker in Spring Lake and toasted cheese and meat ravioli from Teddy Spaghetti. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. both nights. Tickets are $8 at the door. Children 12 and under enter for free. The Michigan Irish Music Festival will return Sept. 13-16 at Heritage Landing downtown Muskegon. Don't Edit A boy waves an Irish flag at St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Muskegon Saturday, March 16, 2013. The parade, sponsored by Hennessey's, the Greater Muskegon Jaycees and the Muskegon County CVB, featured organizations, businesses and families showing off their Irish pride and handing out candy to spectators. (Ariana van den Akker | MLive.com file) Shamrock Shuffle 5K The Shamrock Shuffle 5K is about more than the run. Participants are encouraged to get festive, wear green, a kilt or dress up like a leprechaun for a chance to win prizes. However, the event will also be chip-timed. Prizes will go to: Overall top male and female finishers First, second and third in each age group First, second and third for the best costume The race benefits Run Muskegon's snow removal efforts that keep the Lakeshore Trail clear during the winter. All ages are welcome for this family-friendly event. Packet pick-up will be Friday, March 16, from 5-7 p.m. and Saturday, March 17, from 8-8:55 a.m. at Fricano Place. Cost to register is $20 or $15 each for a family of three or four. Don't Edit Don't Edit Dog owners march with their dogs on Clay Avenue during St. Patrick's Day Parade at Downtown in Muskegon on Saturday, March 18, 2017. Families and friends marched from Fourth Street to Jefferson Street with a handful of candies, despite patchy drizzle. (Youngrae Kim | MLive.com file) 7th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade and Party Here's the schedule: 11 a.m.: St. Patrick's Day Parade step-off from Fourth Street and Clay Avenue to travel four blocks down Clay to Hennessy's Pub & Whiskey Bar at the corner of Clay and Jefferson Street. 11:30 a.m. to noon: Free coffee and hot chocolate tent Noon: Irish Flag Raising with Irish American Society noon to 3 p.m.: Music by Dave McIntire and Scott Sheldon 3-8 p.m.: Music by Steeple Hill 8:30 p.m.: Music by Midnight Knotwork Celtic 9:30 p.m.: annual Costume Parade 10 p.m.: Crowd judging of costumes Families, organizations, fraternal groups, businesses, marching bands, churches and schools can march in the parade by donating non-perishable food items. To march in the seventh annual Muskegon St. Patrick's Day Parade, contact the Greater Muskegon Jaycees at parade@muskegonjaycees.org for a complete registration packet or pick up a packet from Visit Muskegon, 610 W. Western Ave. downtown Muskegon. Registration forms are also available at the Muskegon St. Patrick's Day Parade website. Don't Edit Belly dancers march on Clay Avenue during St. Patrick's Day Parade at Downtown in Muskegon on Saturday, March 18, 2017. Families and friends marched from Fourth Street to Jefferson Street with a handful of candies, despite patchy drizzle. (Youngrae Kim | MLive.com) St. Patrick's Day Scavenger Hunt Explore the Lakeshore Museum Center with a St. Patrick's Day-themed scavenger hunt from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, March 17. The open-house style program is free, and museum admission is free to county residents. Non-resident admission is $3. The museum is at 430 W. Clay Ave. downtown Muskegon. Don't Edit People give out candies as they marched on Clay Avenue during St. Patrick's Day Parade at Downtown in Muskegon on Saturday, March 18, 2017. Families and friends marched from Fourth Street to Jefferson Street with a handful of candies, despite patchy drizzle. (Youngrae Kim | MLive.com file) Traditional Irish Music Session Traditional Irish band Uneven Ground will play at Loutit District Library on St. Patrick's Day and the audience is invited to join in. Whether a beginner or an advanced session player, bring an Irish musical instrument - fiddle, bodhran, banjo, Uilleann pipes, tin whistle, Irish flute or Irish bouzouki to name a few - and join in the music making. The audience is also welcome to listen without joining in. The program runs 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, March 17, at the Loutit District Library, 407 Columbus Ave. in Grand Haven. ANN ARBOR, MI - City Administrator Howard Lazarus is getting an $8,600 salary increase, plus a $1,118 lump-sum bonus. The Ann Arbor City Council debated the pay raise before voting 8-3 to approve it Monday night, March 12. It amounts to a 4 percent boost in base salary for Lazarus, and it's his first raise since being hired as administrator in spring 2016. It increases Lazarus' annual base salary from $215,000 to $223,600, retroactive to Jan. 1. "I'm going to support this enthusiastically," said Council Member Chip Smith, D-5th Ward, who said Lazarus has brought a can-do attitude to city government that's been refreshing. He said Lazarus has set a different tone in the city administrator's office, taking a "we'll figure out how to fix that problem" approach. "I've been thrilled with Mr. Lazarus' performance, as have the folks in the community I've talked to about it, and I just want to thank him for what he's done so far," Smith said. "Running an organization with a $100 million general fund budget is inherently complex." Some of those opposed to the raise suggested the money the city is spending increasing the administrator's pay and creating a new assistant administrator position might be better spent fixing streets. The three council members opposed to the raise were Anne Bannister, Jack Eaton and Sumi Kailasapathy. The eight in favor of it were Mayor Christopher Taylor, Zachary Ackerman, Julie Grand, Graydon Krapohl, Jane Lumm, Chip Smith, Chuck Warpehoski and Kirk Westphal. Eaton, D-4th Ward, said Lazarus received a good evaluation indicating he's done an above-average job, but Eaton said he had concerns that Lazarus is making considerably more money than the city paid the city's last administrator while the city is about to hire an assistant administrator to work under him. The city is in the process of trying to hire an assistant administrator and the job is expected to pay between $140,000 and $170,000. Eaton said the money the city will be spending on administration between Lazarus and his assistant will be more than double what the city spent before. Steve Powers made $159,500 as city administrator before he left Ann Arbor for another job in 2015. Eaton said it seems the city is shifting focus from serving residents to staffing city hall and he finds that alarming. He said there are streets in his ward that need repaving. Smith argued it's "patently absurd" to suggest the extra money that's going to hire an assistant city administrator would make a meaningful difference if it instead went to street repairs. He said the City Council continues to expand its expectations of the city administrator's office and somebody has to do the work. Eaton said it's not just about one position. He said the city has added about $1 million worth of new positions in recent times. "And I can think of $1 million worth of road projects per year that I'd like to see done in my ward," he said. Lumm, an independent from the 2nd Ward, also raised concerns about the city's growing administrative overhead costs, though she still supported the raise for Lazarus. Bannister, D-1st Ward, also raised concerns about the city's staffing costs increasing and said residents don't want her to approve a raise for the administrator. She said they would rather have the money spent repairing city streets. Lazarus continues to be eligible for extra payment from the city each year equal to 15 percent of his salary, and that goes into a 401(a) plan. That now amounts to $33,540 on top of his base salary. Counting his base salary, bonus pay and 401(a) pay, his annual compensation is now more than $258,000. While not eligible for a pension from the city, Lazarus is to receive an annual contribution into a retiree health care reimbursement account, and the first year contribution is to be $2,500, according to contract language the council updated Monday night. After the debate over the raise, the council eventually voted unanimously to approve the updated contract. "The City Council believes providing equitable and sustainable compensation is critical to retaining employees that are essential to the city's ability to perform at levels expected by residents and taxpayers," states the council's approved resolution. "The city administrator is responsible for the executive management of the highly diverse operations of the city of Ann Arbor and provides leadership, vision, and direction to city departments, implements City Council policy, and works with City Council and administrative staff to craft strategic and financial planning objectives," it continues, describing the position as one of significant responsibility. "The city administrator has provided effective and engaged leadership to the city over the past 18 months in many areas, including sustaining and enhancing a vibrant, safe, and diverse community." Warpehoski, D-5th Ward, said he has appreciated the leadership Lazarus has brought to the city. He noted Lazarus, who did not get a raise last year, is getting a raise based on an 18-month performance evaluation. He said the city's non-union staff received two raises during that timeframe and Lazarus' 4 percent raise is in line with what others received. Warpehoski also cited statistics indicating the city has put more money toward streets. Taylor defended the city's creation of an assistant city administrator position, saying it's going to help the city. When the city was looking for a new city administrator a couple years ago, Taylor said, the city's search consultant identified the lack of an assistant city administrator as a unique and detrimental circumstance, saying it was debilitating for an organization with the size, complexity and service expectations of Ann Arbor's city government, which includes 700-plus city employees. Taylor said the search consultant believed it would be a disincentive in terms of attracting qualified administrator candidates. "I think going forward that our deputy coming onboard, whoever that person is, will do a great deal for the organization and enable us to continue to provide services to accelerate the provision of services that residents demand," Taylor said. Grand, D-3rd Ward, also argued having a more robust administration will help the city do a better job with city service delivery, including fixing streets. "Mr. Lazarus isn't asking for an assistant to take out his laundry and dry cleaning," she said. "He's asking for an assistant to help us run a more effective organization." Ackerman, D-3rd Ward, thanked Lazarus for his service to the community and said he deserves a raise. "This is a unique and, I'm sure, uncomfortable situation to be in to have your neighbors debating whether or not you should get a raise in line with your colleagues," he told the administrator. "I will be glad to support this," Ackerman said. City records obtained by The Ann Arbor News and MLive under the Freedom of Information Act show Lazarus was paid a total of $250,435 for his service as city administrator in calendar year 2017. Most of the extra $35,000-plus he received on top of his $215,000 base salary was in the form of a $32,250 matching contribution by the city toward the administrator's 401(a) plan. When Lazarus was first hired by the city in 2016, the council decided he would not be eligible for a city pension. Instead, the council agreed to have the city make contributions equal to 15 percent of his annual salary into a 401(a) plan, as long as Lazarus contributed 7.5 percent. The city's contributions to the 401(a) plan are currently 33 percent vested with Lazarus and will be 66 percent vested at the end of June 2018 and 100 percent vested at the end of June 2019. Lazarus also received $780 in payments from the city last year for cell phone expenses, city records show. A breakdown of his other payments from the city in 2017 shows $177,271 in regular pay, $21,190 in vacation pay, $413 in sick pay, $3,308 in personal leave pay, $9,510 in holiday pay and $3,308 in education pay, which added up to his base salary of $215,000. The city administrator is one of two direct reports to the City Council, the other being the city attorney. The council voted last week to give City Attorney Stephen Postema a 2.5 percent raise, boosting his base salary from $180,000 to $184,500, plus a one-time bonus payment of about $4,151. The raise approved for Lazarus at Monday's meeting was the first he has received since being hired as city administrator nearly two years ago. The council approved his initial contract in May 2016. Lazarus was public works director in Austin, Texas, before coming to Ann Arbor. He was one of two finalists for the Austin city manager job in December, but the Austin City Council chose to hire Minneapolis City Coordinator Spencer Cronk over Lazarus. The fact that Lazarus considered leaving the city for another job did not come up during Monday night's debate over his raise. ANN ARBOR, MI - The day after teenagers across the country plan to walk out of school on Wednesday, March 14, to protest gun violence, a group of Ann Arbor students plan to lead a community conversation on school safety. The student-led town hall meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Pioneer High School's Little Theater, 601 W. Stadium Blvd. Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent Jeanice Swift said on social media Monday that students from Ann Arbor's five high schools are involved, and she will consider the town hall meeting the kick-off to her "listen and learn" tour planned this spring to gather feedback from the community on the future of AAPS. The community meeting takes place on the heels of a National School Walkout on Wednesday, when some Washtenaw County students plan to walk out of school to call attention to what they consider inaction on the part of lawmakers in response to gun violence in schools. High school students, and possibly middle school students, are expected to participate. The walkout will start at 10 a.m. and last 17 minutes - in memory of the 17 people who were killed in the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Following the walkout, local student organizers have planned a rally at 11 a.m. at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti. "Through our young lives, we are taught that we are safe in school, and to some, school has often been the safety we cannot find elsewhere," states a press release on the school walkout from Washtenaw Youth Initiative, a group that includes representatives from a dozen Washtenaw County high schools. "But that is no longer true - and it has not been true for years. Between Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, and more tragedies than we can count, it is clear that our schools are not safe. And yet, our state and national governments have stood by as children are killed." Here's a look at how Washtenaw County schools are planning to respond to the National School Walkout: - Ann Arbor Public Schools plans to accommodate students who want to participate in the walkout to be out of class for about 45 minutes on Wednesday. School staff are expected to remain neutral in expressing their views on the walkout, and their role will be to supervise students and ensure safety, whether students decide to walk out or remain in class. AAPS is discouraging students from leaving campus to participate in the rally in Ypsilanti, and if students do want to leave school, they will need advance parental permission. - Chelsea School District is planning to have some staff members accompany high school and middle school students who plan to participate in the walkout, and teachers will remain in their classrooms with students who do not join the walkout. Students will need to follow school procedures if they plan to leave school grounds. - Dexter High School will restrict access to campus from 9:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. to accommodate the walkout, and students are expected to return to class within 30 minutes. - Lincoln High School has asked students who want to participate in the walkout to gather in a designated area in the school. Lincoln has a closed campus, so students would need to have parent permission to leave the building and they will be marked absent if they miss class. - Manchester Community Schools will respect the rights of students who want to participate in the walkout. Students are expected to return to class after the walkout, and they cannot leave campus without prior parental permission. - Milan Area Schools will maintain a safe and orderly environment during the walkout, with staff accompanying students who choose to participate and teachers staying in their classrooms with students who do not participate in the walkout. People will not be allowed to enter or exit student parking lots during the walkout, and students who want to leave school property for the rally will need to follow regular school protocols. Students will be responsible for making up any class work they miss during the walkout. - Washtenaw International High School staff will focus on keeping students safe and able to have their voices heard if they choose to participate in the walkout. Students should have parental permission to participate in the walkout and attend the rally, and staff recommended parents accompany their students to Riverside Park for the rally. Students who stay in class and Washtenaw International Middle Academy students will engage in discussions about school safety during the walkout. - Ypsilanti Community Schools supports students in participating in the walkout and rally. Students who are 17 or 18 years old can sign themselves out of school to go to the rally, and younger students will need parent permission to leave school. Students will not be marked absent from class if they leave to attend the rally. Saline Area Schools and Whitmore Lake Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment. ANN ARBOR, MI - The Science Coalition presented U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., with its Champion of Science Award on Monday, March 12, recognizing his commitment to funding research that keeps the U.S. and Michigan at the forefront of scientific and medical discovery and technological innovation. Peters is a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. While serving as ranking member of the Senate Science, Space and Competitiveness Subcommittee, Peters worked with Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., to craft an update to federal research and technology policy. Signed into law in 2017, the bipartisan bill known as the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, sought to maximize basic science research opportunities, reduce administrative burdens for researchers and encourage scientific entrepreneurship. The Champion of Science award was presented at the University of Michigan College of Engineering by Dean Alec D. Gallimore and Wayne State University Vice President for Government and Community Affairs Patrick Lindsey. "Senator Peters understands that science and engineering matter. They are at the core of research advances, technological breakthroughs and entrepreneurial successes that address the needs of millions of people throughout this state and across this nation every year," said Gallimore. "The University of Michigan and Michigan Engineering are committed to scientific and technological leadership that improves the quality of life for all of our citizens. We are pleased to collaborate with our colleagues from Wayne State in The Science Coalition's recognition of Senator Peters." Peters said the research conducted by universities in Michigan and across the country generate new technologies and advancements that will save lives and create jobs. "Federal investments in basic science research are the cornerstone of our nation's innovation economy, and I've been proud to champion stronger investments in research in the U.S. Senate," Peters said. "I am honored to be recognized by The Science Coalition, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University, and I look forward to continue working to maximize research opportunities and encourage scientific entrepreneurship for future generations." ANN ARBOR, MI - U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams will speak from personal family and professional experience on the issue of opioid addiction during an upcoming visit to the University of Michigan. In an event titled "Better Health Through Better Partnerships," Adams will speak in a fireside chat with with John Ayanian, director of the UM Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. The event takes place at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 22 in Robertson Auditorium of the Ross School of Business, 701 Tappan St., Ann Arbor. It is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required for both in-person attendance and online viewing. Adams took office in September after serving as the health commissioner of the state of Indiana and faculty member at the Indiana University School of Medicine. An anesthesiologist by training, he has spoken publicly of his own brother's struggle with substance use disorders and how addiction has impacted his life. In addition to his role as a public leader on important health issues, Adams oversees the operations of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which has approximately 6,500 uniformed health officers who serve in nearly 600 locations around the world. Joining Adams and Ayanian onstage are Joneigh Khaldun, director of the Detroit Health Department, and two UM professors who have led research and public policy efforts on opioids: Chad Brummett of the Michigan Opioid Prescribing and Engagement Network, and Rebecca Cunningham, director of the UM Injury Prevention Center and associate vice president for research for health sciences. Members of the audience will have a chance to ask Adams and the panelists questions. Twitter users can follow highlights, and contribute observations and questions using the hashtag #ihpi18. A reception follows the event. Shelby Township police arrested a 20-year-old man accused of sending multiple text messages threatening a mass shooting at Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights on Friday. Tyler Tindell was arrested following an investigation conducted Friday, March 9, and was charged with making a false terrorist threat, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Police found a gun during a search of his home. "At no time was the safety of anybody at Lakeside Mall in jeopardy; this, in large part, was because of the communication between all law enforcement agencies involved in this case," Shelby Township Deputy Chief Mark Coil said. After learning about the threats, the Sterling Heights Police Department responded to the mall and surrounding area to provide additional security. Macomb County's FBI Violent Crimes Task Force and Shelby Township police began working to locate Tindell, Shelby Township police say. Tindell was jailed over the weekend as he awaited arraignment. He was arraigned Monday and held on $150,000 bond. FLINT, MI -- To encourage advancement in clean energy technologies and products, the Michigan Agency for Energy awarded 100K Ideas a $125,000 grant on March 13. 100K Ideas is a non-profit associated with the Flint-based Ferris Wheel Innovation Center. The Center provides low-cost, confidential incubation and business development services to up and coming innovators. Innovators can contact 100K Ideas to discuss their needs and be provided with steps for advancing their clean energy ideas. The company will help them get their ideas from paper to product. "Our team of students from U of M Flint, Kettering, Mott Community College, College for Creative Studies and others are eager to assist existing companies and individuals alike in their quest to bring energy innovations to market," said David Ollila, president of 100K Ideas. Anne Armstrong Cusack, MAE's acting executive director, said 100K's track record for supporting small businesses has already been proven. The company has assisted over 90 clients in the span of four months. "The grant announced today will advance and bring to market clean energy products focused on energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, with special emphasis on achieving energy waste reduction in manufacturing," Armstrong Cusack said. "The program will spur innovation and grow jobs in Michigan's energy sector." The grant period for 100K Ideas runs through September 2019. FLINT, MI -- The first step to peace within a community can be as simple as being aware of the present moment and choosing an appropriate and compassionate response. This is the motto behind the Crim Fitness Foundation's mindfulness initiative, which supports Flint residents to develop resilience, manage stress and support peace through the daily practice of mindfulness at home, at school and in the community. With community education being its main focus, the Mindfulness Initiative will host "Peace Begins with Us: A Mindfulness Workshop," hosted by the Holistic Life Foundation from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on March 19. The event is being held at Flint's recently-renovated Capitol Theatre. "Mindfulness is the awareness of the present moment with kindness and compassion. Mindfulness can be practiced in many ways and isn't just meditation," said Sarah Sullivan, mindfulness program director for the Crim Fitness Foundation. "The greatest benefit of being mindful is having the ability to choose your response to the moment you're a part of. This allows us to make healthy mental and physical decision instead of immediately reacting to situations." Holistic Light Foundation. Baltimore Maryland. Photographed for Mindful Magazine Founders of Holistic Life Foundation Ali Smith, his brother Atman and Andre Gonzalez are sharing practical mindfulness strategies to anyone 12-years-old or older. Admission for the event is free to residents of Flint. The Holistic Life Foundation is a Baltimore, Maryland-based nonprofit organization committed to nurturing the wellness of children and adults in under-served communities. They do this through a comprehensive approach that helps children develop personal growth through yoga, mindfulness and self-care. The foundation has been operating in Baltimore for 15 years and has seen a significant decrease in suspensions, truancy and violence in schools they provide programming to, Sullivan said. "The event is open to people as young as 12-years-old because we want to engage the youth in Flint about being mindfulness," Sullivan said. "We believe teaching youth has the most impact on the community because often times they teach their family the lessons they've learned." The Crim Fitness Foundation started offering mindfulness programming in 2011 with a focus on serving youth and educators. The initiative was opened to residents in Flint in 2016 following during the water crisis. "The primary mitigating factors for lead exposure is physical activity, nutrition and mindfulness," said Gerry Myers, CEO of Crim Fitness Foundation. "Mindfulness has been suggested as a critical intervention that may help mitigate the impacts of lead poisoning." The Crim Mindfulness Initiative has engaged more than 18,297 children and community members through training, events and school-based learning. In 2016 the Mindfulness Initiative received $200,000 in funding from the Community Foundation of Greater Flint to provide mindfulness programming to 11 Flint Community Schools as well as training and in classroom support. The funding has also helped provide classrooms with evidence-based curricula in mindfulness from Yoga Ed. and online learning materials from Inner Explorer. Training for Flint teachers and individuals that want to be certified to teach yoga and for workshops that are free and open to the public are also supported by the grant. Programs operated under the Mindfulness Initiative include community yoga which is held the first Wednesday of each month and yoga at elementary schools which is held once a week for six weeks. Currently, the Crim Mindfulness Initiative is only capable of serving 6,000 of the 15,000 youth living in Flint. The initiative is heavily focused on reaching all the youth in Flint because of their exposure to the water crisis. "This form of decision making is helping students who've faced trauma such as the Flint Water Crisis," Sullivan said. "The prefrontal cortex of the brain affected by lead exposure is strengthened through mindfulness exercises." Sullivan said the overall health benefits of being mindful include reducing stress, high blood pressure and anxiety. "Being able to be aware at a deeper level allows us to respond to the moment make the following decisions appropriately and effectively," Sullivan said. FLINT, MI -- Two Mott Community College faculty members have been selected to receive the 2017 John and Suanne Roueche Excellence Award from the League for Innovation in the Community College, a consortium of nearly 500 community colleges and technical schools worldwide. Bob Rentschler, associate professor of photography, and Julie Steffey, professor of English, were nominated for the award by Dr. Amy Fugate, vice president for academic affairs at MCC, because of their contributions to teaching, leadership and learning at the college. "Bob Rentschler, of Fenton, has done an outstanding job of incorporating experiential learning into the Photography curriculum. The project with the most impact is the HELP Portrait Event, which gives MCC photography students real-world experience shooting, editing and printing portraits, as well as experience interacting with clients," said Dean of Fine Arts and Social Sciences Mary Cusack. Julie Steffey "Julie Steffey, of Fenton, has been a long time driving force in our developmental writing area," according to Dean of Humanities Patricia Bergh. "She has guided the development and refinement of the ACLT courses, which are a combination of developmental writing and reading that provides students with a faster means of reaching readiness for college-level coursework." The awards will be made during the League's Innovations Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, March 18-21, and include a cash pewter medallion and recognition at a special reception. Eric Robert Henriques. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A Grand Rapids woman who attempted to take the fall for her husband following a summer 2017 shooting was sentenced Monday, March 12. Rhiannon Henriques, 34, was credited for time already served in jail, and sentenced to six months of probation for charges of resisting, obstructing and/or assaulting a police officer, aggravated assault and brandishing a firearm in public. Kent County Circuit Judge George Quist cited Rhiannon Henriques' full-time employment and lack of prior felony convictions as reasons to believe she can continue to be a productive member of society. Monday's hearing came two weeks after Rhiannon Henriques' husband, Eric, was sentenced to at least eight years in prison for the June 6, 2017 shooting. He pleaded guilty to assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, and a second-offense felony firearms charge. Police determined that Eric Henriques, 49, shot his nephew over a financial disagreement at the couple's home in the 800 block of Ballard Street SE in Grand Rapids. Officers responded shortly before 7:30 p.m. to a report of shots fired outside a residence on Ballard Street SE. On scene they found a 45-year-old man who had been shot in the stomach. He suffered life-threatening injuries but survived. The victim told police that he and his brother went to their uncle's house on Ballard Street to discuss alleged threats made by Eric Henriques toward a female relative, according to a police report obtained by MLive/The Grand Rapids Press through a Freedom of Information Act request. All witness names were redacted in the report. The shooting victim identified Eric Henriques as the shooter, and told police he didn't expect his uncle to shoot him. He also said there were no weapons in the rental vehicle he arrived in -- a notion police confirmed with a search warrant. On scene, police arrested the couple without incident. Family members visiting the victim at the hospital told police that Eric Henriques was angry over financial matters stemming from the death of a family member in July. They shared text messages with police, which allegedly depicted Eric Henriques threatening to "blow (redacted)'s head off." The shooting victim's brother, who accompanied him to the Ballard Street home, said their uncle insisted they come to the residence to discuss the financial matter. But Rhiannon Henriques told police a different story. She agreed that there had been tension between the two parties, but said her husband was the one who received threatening messages from the out-of-state nephews. She said she was at the library when the threats were made, but came home and armed herself with her two handguns. She told police that it was her, not her husband, who shot at the two men. She said her husband told the men to leave, but she got nervous and fired three shots from her two pistols. Her story contradicted every witness statement, all of which identified the male half as the shooter. Rhiannon Henriques told police she returned her two guns to a safe in the residence. She gave officers the combination, and permission to collect the firearms, according to the police report. Both guns were located loaded, and with a round in the chamber. "My husband is not the man people like you and (Grand Rapids police) want him to be," Rhiannon Henriques told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press in an email. "He is an amazing father, superb husband, home owner, and hard worker." Neighbors told police they heard three to five gunshots. Those who witnessed the shooting said it was Eric Henriques who fired the shots. In February, Eric Henriques pleaded guilty to assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, and a second-offense felony firearm charge. As part of a plea deal, he had a more-serious charge of assault with intent to murder dismissed. The male Henriques had previously spent 22 years in prison from 1985 to 2007 for a conviction of armed robbery, first-degree criminal sexual conduct and felonious use of a firearm. He was jailed again three years after being freed for failure to properly register as a sex offender. Rhiannon Henriques pleaded no contest to her three charges, the most serious of which was punishable by up to a year in jail. Both defendants had 21 days after their sentencing to file an appeal. EAST GRAND RAPIDS, MI - After 12 years at the helm, East Grand Rapids Public Schools Superintendent Sara Shubel is retiring at the end of this school year. Shubel said she's had the professional and personal privilege of serving the district of 2,910 students, giving her full dedication to their students, educators, staff, families, community, and the 20 board members she's been privileged to work with during her tenure. "I am confident that East Grand Rapids Public Schools will remain rich in traditions while continuing to focus on the future,'' said Shubel, in a press release following the Monday, March 12, school board meeting. "I retire as superintendent knowing that this district will continue to thrive as it has for many years because of the exceptional teachers, staff, board, parents, and community that work in collaboration of behalf of our students.'' Although her retirement is near, Shubel said her dedication, commitment, and advocacy work on behalf of public education will not be coming to an end. "However, it is time for a new leader to continue building on what we have accomplished collaboratively in our district and I am looking forward to this new chapter in life," she said. School board president Natalie Bernecker said the board will immediately begin to search for a successor with a goal of filling the position by July 1, 2018. "Dr. Shubel has continued to move our school district forward to the highest level of accomplishment in public education," she said. "Dr. Shubel's visionary focus toward student success and her collaborative approach to engaging staff and administration, together with her ability to cultivate parent involvement and effective communication with the school community, have contributed to maintaining our tradition of excellence in education.'' About a third of Michigan public school students in the Class of 2017 tested as fully "college ready.'' EGR was among the 50 top-performing high schools, ranking 11th. Bernecker said Shubel's legacy of dedication to public education and providing an exceptional education while focused on developing the whole child will continue to be realized in the years to come. Prior to joining EGR, Shubel served the Ingham Intermediate School District for 15 years as director of school development services and as an organizational development specialist. She was previously an education consultant at the Michigan Department of Education. She received her Ph.D., her master's and bachelor's degrees in education from Michigan State University. LANSING, MI - There are close to 55,000 residents in Highland Park and Detroit who are under-represented at the state and federal levels. It was two resignations - one from former U.S. Rep. John Conyers and another from former state Sen. Bert Johnson, whose districts overlap - that put residents in a bind. Michigan Democrats are raising an alarm after Gov. Rick Snyder announced Monday that Johnson's seat, like Conyers', would not be filled until Nov. 6. It will be more than nine months that residents go unrepresented twice over. "My biggest concern was that there's an overlapping... people that are going to be without representation until November," said Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint. Johnson, a Highland Park Democrat, resigned after pleading guilty to a count of felony conspiracy to commit theft from a federally funded program. Originally accused of hiring a "ghost employee" to repay a personal debt, the plea agreement states Johnson hired Glynis Thornton as a community liaison. Johnson certified payroll for her when he "well-knew and agreed that she would not do sufficient work to justify the wages," the plea deal says. The election to replace him will coincide with existing elections on Aug. 7 and Nov. 6. Voters will vote on both who will serve the rest of Johnson's term, Nov. 6 through the end of the year, and who will represent the 2nd Senate District starting Jan. 1. 2019. What's unique is that that vacancy overlaps geographically with one from former U.S. Rep. John Conyers, who resigned in the wake of sexual harassment allegations he, through an attorney, denied. He resigned in early December and Snyder set the election for his seat on the same Aug. 7 primary and Nov. 6 general schedule, leave the district unrepresented for 11 months. Jonathan Kinloch, chair of the 13th Congressional District Democratic Party, said congressional staff are still helping constituents in the district with any problems they might have. But, he said, "There's no better representation than having a body in the legislature representing your interests." Ananich said staff members will be answering the phones in the vacant office left by Johnson, too, but constituents would lack the kind of personal advocate only somebody's senator could provide. "It puts a lot of burden on the other representatives to make sure that those questions and concerns get answered," Ananich said. Ananich spokesperson Rosie Jones said the district still has Michigan House of Representatives representation -- portions of the affected area fall into the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th House Districts. It's not the first time the Senate Democratic caucus has dealt with an empty seat. In the 4th Senate District, which abuts Johnson's former 2nd District, Detroit Democrat Virgil Smith resigned in April of 2016 following a May 2015 shooting incident and subsequent plea deal. Sen. Ian Conyers, D-Detroit, was elected for the remainder of Smith's term. When he took office in late 2016, he had to work through a backlog. The constituents had been unrepresented for close to nine months. "I jumped right in and we went back through constituent services, just to look at the history of the office... just got to work right away in terms of the backlog of constituent service issues," Conyers said. "Folks want to know that even the smaller things are getting dealt with, because everyone's concern is personal." Now he's looking to do it all again. He's running to replace his great uncle in the 13th Congressional District. So too are candidates John Conyers III, Godfrey Dillard Sr., Michael Gilmore, Ryan Hill, Shanelle Jackson, Brenda Jones, Rashida Tlaib, Kentiel White and William Wild. Snyder Spokeswoman Anna Heaton said the special election for Johnson's seat was placed where it was because of logistical challenges with meeting deadlines. "As late as we are in the year with this specific resignation, the local clerks would not have had time to turn around ballots based on any sooner filing deadlines - specifically ballots for absentee voters and military voters stationed overseas, but would have been up against tough deadlines for regular precinct polling as well," Heaton said. Ananich said he had talked with the governor and acknowledged the difficulties with overseas ballots. "I'm disappointed but I guess I understand," he said. JACKSON, MI - One of the longest serving mayors in city history is returning to city government - but in a new role. Marty Griffin was conditionally appointed as Jackson's new city treasurer after a round of public interviews on Monday, March 12, at Jackson City Hall. Griffin, 55, was Jackson's mayor from 1995 to 2006 and 2011-13 and represented the 64th District in the Michigan State House of Representatives from 2007-10. The Jackson City Council voted 4-2 in favor of his appointment - with Councilmen Craig Pappin and Freddie Dancy voting in opposition. Randy Wrozek had served as treasurer since 1982 before retiring on Jan. 19. Griffin fills out the remainder of Wrozek's elected term, to Nov. 30, 2019. "First and foremost, (I have to) get in and really learn the income tax processing side of it. They're in the thick of it right now, it's tax season," Griffin said. "That is the one part of the job that I do not know, processing income tax returns." His appointment is contingent on meeting all requirements in the city code of ordinances and personnel policy. Griffin's start date hasn't been determined, yet. While 10 people applied, only the four city residents interviewed with the council Monday. The city charter mandates elected officials - like the treasurer - to be city residents. The six non-city residents to apply were Michael Benner, Andrew Clark, John Schlinker, Brett Middlebrook, Christine Edwards-Montgomery and Julie Hill, per city records. Christine Alexander - a relative to the excused Councilman Jeromy Alexander - joined Sharon Pedersen, former Councilman Daniel Greer and Griffin in the interviews. "It appears Mr. Griffin did raise to the top of the list, with his knowledge of the operation of the city and the treasurer's position," Councilman Andrew Frounfelker said. "I'd say that Mr. Greer was right there, too." In his interview, Griffin spoke of the financial burden pension liabilities are causing to the city, as well as his plan to be tough on citizens who don't pay their taxes - which multiple council members said was part of their decision. "I don't know in the past that we've really gone after people who haven't paid timely or haven't paid at all," Griffin said. "I would certainly like to do that." While it's been more than four years since Griffin's worked with the city, he's maintained relationships with some of the employees. "I think more than anything, (I wanted to come back because of) the employees," Griffin said. "They really were looking for a sense of direction and a number of them asked me if I'd apply." Griffin's background Griffin graduated with a degree in communications and political science from the University of Michigan in 1984, according to his application. During that time and after graduation, he worked for U.S. Congressman Carl Pursell as a service representative. Of all the positions Griffin's held since, he said the case work and dealing with taxes in that job has best prepared him for the treasurer's role. Griffin was also a communication analyst in the Michigan House of Representatives for 12 years. Griffin's been a realtor in the Jackson area since 2001. He currently lists, markets and sells real estate for The Brokerage House Inc. He'll continue some of that work, at least at the start of his tenure as treasurer. "I've got a number of irons in the fire that I've got to complete," Griffin said. "This is only a 20-month commitment, (since) there's an election. I certainly plan on staying, but I've got to keep all of my options open for the future." One stipulation of the appointment from council is that Griffin runs for the position in 2019. Griffin will make $95,165.90 a year as treasurer - the same amount Wrozek made. Wrozek also made an additional $20,000 a year as city clerk, until the council removed him from the position in May 2017. Debating the questions While the 14 questions for the applicants were asked by City Council members, they were written by city staff members, based on generally accepted human resource standards, Mayor Derek Dobies said. A handful of the questions were more focused on testing the knowledge of the applicants about city and state government, rather than financially-based, a trio of council members said after the vote. The questions gave a leg up to candidates with city government experience, Frounfelker said. "I was upset with the questions," Dancy said. "I just think there should have been more questions about the treasurer - income tax, budgeting, things like that dealing with the treasurer." Questions included citing examples of Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act violations, the names of city pension boards, details about public acts restricting the use of investing public funds and past experience with a council-manager form of government. City Manager Patrick Burtch said the questions were intentionally challenging - with some focusing on topics the previous treasurer's office struggled with. JACKSON, MI - A longtime teacher has won a lawsuit saying Jackson Public Schools retaliated against her when she talked to police instead of letting school officials handle her claims she was allegedly assaulted in a classroom. After more than a week of trial proceedings before Circuit Judge John McBain, a jury on March 7, awarded Pennie Davis $388,485 in damages from her employer, Jackson Public Schools. The school district has 30 days to file an appeal. "Filing a lawsuit was an act of last resort," Davis's attorney Megan Bonanni said. "What the school was doing to her was wrong and the jury agreed they were wrong." The lawsuit argued JPS violated Michigan's Whistleblowers' Protection Act when it unlawfully retaliated against Davis for reporting she was assaulted by a Jackson High School student to the Jackson Police Department and Jackson Circuit Court, and obtaining a personal protection order against the student soon after. JPS declined to comment on the verdict, citing personnel matters and ongoing litigation. "Teaching is my world," Davis said. "The students are my kids. They are part of my identity and I've always wanted to see them do their best." Davis has been a JPS art teacher since 1986 and, until November 2015, was the curriculum chairwoman for the JPS art department. On Oct. 12, 2015, Davis got into an argument with a disruptive student in her class and told him to leave, according to the lawsuit. When she reached to retrieve the student's artwork, he hit or pushed her hand away, injuring Davis, the suit alleged. There was no visible injury to Davis's hand and multiple students told investigators they did not see the student hit Davis' hand, according to a police report of the incident. The report was forwarded to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office. It is unclear if charges were filed against he student as juvenile cases are sealed. Davis had her hand checked at an urgent care clinic where x-rays were taken and the hand wrapped with doctor's orders she keep it wrapped, records show. On Oct. 13, 2015, school officials asked Davis to remove the bandage so they could take a look at her hand, the lawsuit said. They did not ask about the student and became frustrated when she refused to remove the bandage, the suit claimed. Saying she still felt threatened by the student, Davis obtained a personal protection order from McBain stating the student could not be at her place of work, records show. The school removed the student from her class. But Davis had the PPO modified to prohibit the student from being in the same building as her, records show. Instead of moving the student, Davis was transferred to the Middle School at Parkside to teach sixth-grade art, an act she believed to be in retaliation to her contacting police and filing a PPO, according to court documents. "When she was rated a failing teacher, 32 days after being transferred, she knew something was amiss and sought legal action against the school," Bonanni said. Davis received a formal reprimand letter, Feb. 2, 2016, after it was alleged she threw a book at a sixth-grade student who was talking in class, records show. Though multiple students told officials they saw her throw the book at the student, Davis denied the allegation, stating the student told her "she was going to get her fired," records show. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 9, 2016. The school did not see its actions as retaliation as Davis was receiving the same salary and benefits she did while working at the high school, records show. "The school district simply complied with this court's order and sought to ensure that (Davis) felt safe and protected," attorneys representing JPS wrote in a motion to have the lawsuit dismissed a year ago. The school also argued, now that the student involved in the incident was no longer attending school, Davis could transfer back to the high school if she submitted an official request, records show. Davis has returned to teaching art at Jackson High. TEXAS TOWNSHIP, MI -- The two finalists for president of Kalamazoo Valley Community College interviewed Tuesday with the Board of Trustees as a months long process to replace retiring President Marilyn Schlack nears its end. Amy Fugate and Luther Marshall Washington each answered 15 questions from the board Tuesday, March 13 during separate interviews on topics ranging from how they manage a budget to what keeps them up at night. Trustees did not make a decision after the interviews, and it was unclear when they will meet next to discuss the candidates. The search, which began in September after Schlack announced she would retire once her successor is found, is the latest step in a nearly seven month long process that included public presentations from a pool of six candidates. Fugate, vice president for Academic Affairs at Mott Community College in Flint, was interviewed by the board first Tuesday, in front of an audience of about 40 people. She opened her 90-minute interview by discussing the changes coming to higher education nationwide, advances in technology, partnerships with high schools for dual-enrollment opportunities and the decreasing funding from the state. "It's exciting as we change, but the biggest challenge is keeping up with it," she said. Fugate answered questions on her experience partnering with the community and businesses, what she felt were her core values and how she plans to balance a budget. She said while working in Flint, she saw the General Motors industry leave, which left the college with a degree program that was no longer as relevant, prompting it to reach out to the community for new partnership opportunities. She said her core values include integrity and honesty, which she said were "fundamental to leadership." Fugate said honesty and integrity tie into her approach to financial transparency. The budget is a finite amount, she said, and "there is no hidden pot of gold." She said cutting budgets a percentage uniformly across the campus is the "easy approach" but the "worst" way to balance a budget. She also added that in order to keep faculty relevant in their industries, there must be funding available for professional development. As for what keeps her up at night, Fugate listed hardships in the lives of her colleagues and people's inability to have civil discourse, after first joking with the board that Tuesday's interview caused her to lose sleep. Both candidates talked extensively about their experience with fundraising and requesting grants. Both Fugate and Washington also listed their parents as inspirations behind their success. Fugate also added that the students she meets everyday inspire her. "They have overcome incredible obstacles to be where they are," she said. "It inspires me to see a community rebound, come back and believe in themselves." Washington, the current president of New River Community and Technical College in Beckley, West Virginia, said during his interview that his parents' blue-collar jobs and their work ethic inspire him every day. He said the changing conversations around the necessity for higher education "concern" him because as a first-generation college student, he wouldn't be interviewing to be KVCC's next president without his education. In answers to multiple questions, Washington placed an emphasis on innovation. He said he would hope to "continue the legacy" of Schlack but seek new and innovative ways to work alongside the community, increase economic development and create partnerships with businesses. He mentioned the changing technology and the threat of school violence as challenges facing KVCC, but added that proper training and preparation can help create a safer campus. Washington said his core values include respect and forgiveness and the key to successful fundraising in the community is "relationship building." He also talked about his experience creating a diverse and equitable campus where the college "celebrates each individual for where they come from." "Each one of us brings something special to the table," Washington said. As for balancing the budget, Washington said he looks for "unique" ways to supply student services, partnerships with the businesses, being innovative and "taking some risks while balancing that with being conservative." Fugate holds a Ph.D. in higher education policy and leadership from the University of Kansas. Washington has a Ph.D. in educational studies/specializations in educational leadership and higher education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. VICKSBURG, MI - Nearly six months have passed since the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office presented the Erik Cross murder cold case to the prosecutor's office, and family members are still waiting for action. Cross was 16 years old when he was found dead on a street near Vicksburg in 1983. His younger sister, Jackie Mitchell, announced March 13 she is requesting Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette step in and take the case. At a public event in Vicksburg Tuesday morning, Mitchell mailed a letter to Schuette and said she is hoping he will be able to bring long-awaited justice to her family. "We've been waiting more than 34 years and the time for justice has already passed," Mitchell said. Kalamazoo County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Scott Brower confirmed at the beginning of October the prosecutor's office had the case and it was under review. He would not say what charges were being sought or how many people might be involved. A request for comment from the prosecutor's office was not immediately returned Tuesday. Mitchell previously said she met with former Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas in early October, just before Matyas retired, and that he told her the sheriff's office had requested arrest warrants from the prosecutor. She said Matyas did not disclose names to her, but she assumed those being considered for charges were five people whose names have circulated as suspects. In her letter to Schuette, Mitchell wrote she has lost faith and confidence in the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office to take any action and she is unsure as to why the case has been stalled. The last six months of waiting for a response have been frustrating, she said. "We had our hopes raised in September and October of last year when we heard the sheriff's department was requesting five warrants on open murder," Mitchell said. "We assumed that the prosecutor's office would grant the requests, at least some of them, and arrest people." Detectives have said previously they've focused on a core group of four to five people believed to be either directly or indirectly involved with Cross' death but have lacked enough information to make an arrest. Cross was found by his father lying in the roadway near the family's home in the 5100 block of East Y Avenue early the morning of June 26, 1983. Authorities have said they believe he was deliberately struck by a vehicle. Matyas was in attendance Tuesday in Vicksburg and said he remembers when the call of a hit-and-run came in, which then turned into a murder investigation. He said he promised the Cross family before his retirement that he would not drop the case. "I was always going to stay with the family, I was always going to work with them, so we could get a final conclusion on this matter and I'm keeping my word," Matyas said. Mitchell said she has an obligation to her brother to bring justice and won't accept no for an answer. "There is enough evidence, that is not any way a question for me, it's a question of whether the evidence is ever going to see the courtroom," Mitchell said. A group of community members called, "Erik's Army" have helped to keep the hope of arrests and convictions alive for years, posting updates on social media and establishing the Justice for Erik Cross Facebook group. COMSTOCK TOWNSHIP, MI -- Michigan State Police are looking for a suspect who drove into a gas station building early Tuesday morning and fled the scene. The incident happened about 5 a.m. March 13 at the Speedway Gas Station at 208 River St. in Kalamazoo County's Comstock Township. Troopers were made of aware of the incident by Kalamazoo County Dispatch, according to a news release. Police said the driver is described as a light-skin black man with dreadlocks, a mustache and goatee. He was wearing Chicago Bulls sweatpants and is believed to be in his mid 20s. A passenger in the vehicle is described as a clean-shaven white man wearing a Bob Marley T-shirt. He is also believed to be in his mid 20s. The vehicle is described as a newer model white-colored jeep, possibly a Grand Cherokee. The vehicle has a Michigan Registration of DVZ1085. It was later seen at the intersection of Lake Street and Portage Street in Kalamazoo. Troopers are asking anyone with information on this investigation to contact the Michigan State Police Paw Paw Post at 269-657-5551. MASON COUNTY, MI - Two men have been charged with breaking into several cabins and stealing dozens of items, including TVs, appliances and propane tanks. Lee Hamilton Colby, 34, and Chad Fredrick Collins, 26, were arrested following an investigation by the Mason County Sheriff's Office. Both men are from the Mason County community of Fountain. Each man has been arraigned on eight separate charges, according to a news release from Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole. Deputies were summoned to a breaking and entering in the 6900 block of Lake Street in the Tallman Lake area of Branch Township the afternoon of Sunday, March 11. During their investigation, deputies discovered three additional break-ins of cabins in the area, according to the news release. They were able to follow foot tracks for about a half-mile to a residence where the two suspects were located, according to the news release. The execution of a search warrant resulted in the recovery of nearly 50 pieces of suspected stolen property, including TVs, power tools, propane tanks, yard tools and household appliances, the release states. Colby and Collins are each facing one count of first-degree home invasion while armed with a Ruger .22 rifle; four counts of second-degree home invasion involving larceny; two counts of felony firearm; one count of breaking and entering with intent to commit larceny; and one count of possession of burglary tools, specifically hand tools and pry bars. The cabins were located on East Lake Street, West Lake Street and East Oak Street. Colby was lodged in the Mason County Jail on a $50,000 cash or surety bond. Collins' bond was $35,000 cash or surety. MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - High school and college students in Muskegon County are taking a stand against gun violence in schools. Students and Mona Shores, Reeths-Puffer and North Muskegon are hoping their voices will be heard tomorrow, Wednesday, March 14, when they participate - in one way or another - in the national school walkout. Muskegon Community College will also hold a walkout. Walkouts at schools throughout the United States are planned for 10-10:17 a.m., honoring the 17 people who died in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14. The national event is organized by Women's March Youth Empower. Local schools registered on the website are Mona Shores, North Muskegon, Career Tech Center and Whitehall. North Muskegon, Mona Shores, Reeths-Puffer and Muskegon Community College reached out to MLive with information. Here's the schedule: 9:50 a.m.: North Muskegon, 1600 Mills Ave. 10 a.m.: Career Tech Center, 200 Harvey St. 10 a.m.: Whitehall, 3100 W. White Lake Drive 10 a.m.: Muskegon Community College, 221 Quarterline Road 11:10-11:45 a.m. and noon to 12:35 p.m.: Reeths-Puffer, 1545 N. Roberts Road 6:30 p.m.: West Michigan Unites at Mona Shores, 1121 Seminole Road North Muskegon students will walkout first, and they plan to do so with a purpose. Students are not only calling for stronger protections against gun violence, they're also holding a voter registration drive and a letter-writing campaign to fill U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga's, R-Zeeland, mailbox. "North Muskegon students will join millions of students across the United States on Wednesday to stand up to gun violence and to pressure policymakers to adopt gun reforms," a release states. Reeths-Puffer has scheduled its walkouts during its two lunch hours. The walkout was originally planned for 10-10:17 a.m. "Due to safety concerns, we are having two separate times for the protest that day," said student organizer Elijah Nichols. "We are hoping for a large turn out from the student body, and we really need our voices heard. After all, this is our lives at stake." Mona Shores students originally planned a walkout at 10 a.m. on Monday, March 12, to work around exam schedules. But the plan changed after talking with administration. Interim Superintendent Bill O'Brien addressed the change in a Facebook post on Friday, March 9. "It is important to note that no student will face disciplinary action as a result of participating in a peaceful, organized, and planned recognition event," the post reads, in part. "It is also important to note that no student will be encouraged or coerced into participating in an event. Staff in Mona Shores will not be organizing or participating in events during the school day. Teachers will continue to provide learning opportunities for their students as planned." Dear Sailor Parents and Community Supporters, Student safety is always at the forefront for Mona Shores Public Schools.... Posted by Mona Shores Public Schools on Friday, March 9, 2018 West Michigan Unites - the alternative to a student walkout - is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Sailor Center at Mona Shores High School. It will include student speakers, music, and education. "This is a student led event intended to honor the 17 lives lost in the Parkland shooting, raise awareness of America's gun violence issue and amplify students voices from around West Michigan," said Tim Schneider. Students from Mona Shores and other local schools will speak about how they are affected by gun violence and what they believe lawmakers should do about the problem, he said. T-shirts will be sold at the event as a fundraiser for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. MCC student organizers plan to hold up pictures of the Parkland victims and provide biographical information about them. They will also discuss school shooting statistics, according to a news release. The event is intended to send a message to U.S. Congress to "do more than just send thoughts and prayers." LARKIN TWP, MI -- A fire in Midland County destroyed a family barn and killed several pigs on Tuesday, March 13. Larkin Township firefighters responded to the scene of a barn fully engulfed in flames around 4 a.m. at 2562 N. Swede Rd. Larkin Township Fire Chief Robert Hammond said no people were injured in the fire but several pigs died in the incident. He said some alpacas were originally missing but were later discovered. Barn destroyed in Midland County. Hammond said the barn and a pick up truck located on the property was a "total loss." "Our guys with mutual aid, we saved a lot when it came to exposures and we did a pretty good job of that," Hammond said. Beaver Township Fire Department, Mills Township Fire Department, Midland Fire Department, Midland County Special Response Unit and Mid-Michigan EMS assisted with the fire. Hammond said the cause of the fire being investigated. SAGINAW, MI -- Michigan Senators, Ken Horn, R-Frankenmuth, and Margaret O'Brien, R-Portage, discussed a package of recently introduced bills that aim to combat sexual assault. Saginaw leaders joined the senators at a press conference held on Monday, March 12, at the Saginaw County Governmental Center. "This is about more than just about gymnasts, this is more than about athletes, this is about our young men and women across demographics," Horn said. "This isn't about zip codes. This isn't about how much a family makes. How much a family struggles. This is a very personal thing. It's a horrible thing for young children to have to live through and be very silent about." Senate bills 871-880 would update and expand numerous existing laws and also create new protections. The bills would update current law to allow prosecutors to bring charges of second-degree criminal sexual conduct against a minor at any time after the act occurs, while also allowing charges of third-degree CSC against a minor up to the survivor's 48 birthday, or within 30 years of an accuser being identified by DNA evidence. The bills would also allow victims of childhood sexual abuse to remain publicly anonymous when bringing a claim in the Michigan Court of Claims and eliminate the current time limit for filing a claim, according to a press release from Horn's office. O'Brien said the urgency of needing to protect sexual assault victims was amplified after seeing incidents involving U.S. gymnasts and Michigan State University. "This is just the first step in our fight for justice and for protecting Michigan's children. It won't be the last step," O'Brien said. She said she thinks the issue of sexual abuse has been largely unaddressed as a whole because of how difficult it is to discuss. Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Mark Gaertner said the legislation was a good move and referenced allegations of abuse involving the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw. "In light of current events here in Saginaw, it's a good thing. It allows every victim not to remain silent, " Gaertner said. "I like especially the statute of limitation changes that are going to be made so that victims at any time within a certain reason amount of time can come forward have their voice heard and have us try to seek justice for them." The package of bills are on the senate floor and expected to be voted on sometime this week, Horn said. By LATA NOTT Awarding a grade to a concept like press freedom might seem like an impossible task, but here at the First Amendment Center we give it our best shot. In April of last year, we began compiling quarterly First Amendment report cards, relying on a panel of 15 experts from across the political spectrum -- academics, activists, journalists and lawyers -- to evaluate the state of each of our core freedoms. In our latest report card , which came out in January, freedom of the press earned a C grade, making it the most delinquent of the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment (speech, press, religion, assembly and petition). This grade reflects the contentious relationship that the press has with the current presidential administration. In the past few months, President Trump has called for the firing of specific journalists, threatened to revoke NBC's Federal Communications Commission license and taken legal action against Buzzfeed, Fusion GPS, and "Fire and Fury" author Michael Wolff. "President Trump's attacks on the press took on a new level of toxicity," said Stephen Solomon, one of the panelists and a professor of First Amendment law at New York University. "The move from rhetoric to specific threats and lawsuits is a dangerous escalation." But the outlook for freedom of the press isn't entirely gloomy. Many of our panelists pointed out that despite these challenges, the press continues to fulfill its watchdog role and is engaged in more vigorous and effective reporting than ever before. Other panelists, like Brett Scharffs, professor of law at Brigham Young University, took an altogether different view of the conflict. "The Trump administration has presented an unprecedented challenge to the press, and the press has done a remarkable job of discrediting itself," he said. He said it's difficult to read a story from any press source without taking into account the outlet's perceived biases. "The problem is not that the press is not free," Scharffs said. "The press is free, but it has become much more difficult to trust." Whether or not the press has discredited itself, it's undeniable that the issue of trust in the media has loomed large this past year. The 2017 State of the First Amendment survey revealed that less than half of Americans believe the news media try to report the news without bias. (Interestingly, more than half of respondents expressed a preference for news that aligns with their own views, demonstrating that many Americans may not view "biased" news in a negative light). The specter of fake news also has affected the public's ability to believe what they read. About one-third reported a decrease in trust in news obtained from social media. If there's a silver lining to be found here, it might be that a recent follow-up survey revealed that Americans have been coping with this uncertain atmosphere by becoming savvier news consumers. About 30 percent of Americans engage with news every day of the week, and almost three out of four do something to verify the news they receive -- 72 percent of Americans said they check what they read by looking for additional information in other news sources. Virtually the same number said they also test the validity of what they have read or seen by talking with others. This is indeed good news for the news business, since the power of the press largely depends on the good judgment of the audience. ___ Nott is executive director of the First Amendment Center at the Newseum Institute in Washington, D.C. Follow her at https://twitter.com/LataNott President Donald Trump on Tuesday used Twitter to make the surprise announcement that he'd dumped Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and is replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Some media reports today said Tillerson was told he'd be leaving last Friday, but others reported he'd been blindsided by the news. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State," Trump tweeted. "He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Tillerson, a former CEO of Exxon Mobile, had a history of friction with Trump, according to the Associated Press. NBC news reported last October that Tillerson called the president a "moron." And while Tillerson didn't really deny that, he repeatedly said he had a good relationship with Trump, the AP said. Trump offered no explanation for the change. The firing came hours after Tillerson slapped out at Russia over the recent nerve-agent poisoning in the UK of a former Russian military intelligence officer and his daughter. British authorities are currently investigating how Sergei Skripal, described as a onetime double agent for Britain, and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned. Tillerson called it "a really egregious act" and it appears to have "clearly" come from Russia, according to NBC News. Earlier, the White House had stopped short of blaming Russia. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018 March 13, 2018 Trump Orders Rexit - Torture Woman To Head CIA - (Updated) U.S. President Donald Trump just fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - 12:44 PM - 13 Mar 2018 Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! According to the anti Russian propagandists (vid) Tillerson got the job because Trump loves Russia and Tillerson was in good standing with Putin. The same people now claim that Tillerson was fired from his job because Trump loves Russia and Tillerson was not in good standing with Putin. Neither is correct. The plan to oust Tillerson and elevate Pompeo to State has been rumored and written about for several month. The plan was "developed by John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff". It had nothing to do with Russia. Tillerson never got traction as Secretary of State. Congress disliked him for cutting down some State Department programs. Trump overruled him publicly several times. There is some contradiction in the statements coming from the White House and the State Department. According to the Washington Post: Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. Last Friday Tillerson suddenly fell ill while traveling in Africa and canceled several scheduled events. But a statement by Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein contradicts the Friday claim: "The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of critical progress made in national security. [...] The Secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason. Tillerson knew he was fired but did not tell his staff? [UPDATE:] From the Associated Press White House correspondent: Zeke Miller @ZekeJMiller - 3:49 PM - 13 Mar 2018 WH official says chief of staff John Kelly called Tillerson Friday and again on Saturday. Both calls to Tillerson, the official says, warned that Trump was about to take imminent action if he did not step aside. When Tillerson didn't act, Trump fired him. And shortly thereafter: NBC Politics @NBCPolitics - 4:22 PM - 13 Mar 2018 JUST IN: Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein is being fired for contradicting the account of Rex Tillersons dismissal, White House official tells @PeterAlexander Thus ends the 2018 insurrection at State. [End-Update] With Tillerson leaving Secretary of Defense Mattis is losing an ally in the cabinet: [I]t starts with me having breakfast every week with Secretary of State Tillerson. And we talk two, three times a day, sometimes. We settle all of our issues between he and I, and then we walk together into the White House meetings. That way, State and Defense are together. Mattis sometimes calming influence over Trump on military issues will now become less effective. CIA head Pompeo, the new Secretary of State, is a neoconservative with a racist anti-Muslim attitude and a special hate for Iran which he compared to ISIS. That he will now become Secretary of State is a bad sign for the nuclear agreement with Iran. The Europeans especially should take note of that and should stop to look for a compromise with Trump on the issue. The deal is now dead. There is no chance that a compromise will happen. The new CIA director Gina Haspel is well known for actively directing and participating in the torture of prisoners at 'black sites': Beyond all that, she played a vital role in the destruction of interrogation videotapes that showed the torture of detainees both at the black site she ran and other secret agency locations. The concealment of those interrogation tapes, which violated multiple court orders as well as the demands of the 9/11 commission and the advice of White House lawyers, was condemned as obstruction by commission chairs Lee Hamilton and Thomas Keane. Haspel would be in jail if former president Barack Obama had not decided against prosecuting the CIA torture crimes. Torturing prisoners is a war crime. Obstruction of courts and destruction of evidence are likewise crimes. Both, Pompeo and Haspel, will need to be confirmed by Congress. Both will receive a significant number of 'yes'-votes from the Democratic side of the aisle. Posted by b on March 13, 2018 at 15:01 UTC | Permalink Comments next page The latest episode of Married At First Sight Australia saw a couple subjected to a sex lesson later described as "creepy" and "awkward". Justin and Carly have struggled to find intimacy since their marriage, so sex therapist Trisha Stratford joined them in the bedroom. "I'm going to get you to touch... explore each other's bodies," she told them, watching as they did. "I want you just to start touching and find out the parts of your body that you like to be touched." When Trish was satisfied with their performance on a couch, she moved the couple into the bedroom and had them spoon each other, before instructing Carly to give Justin a massage. The couple obliged - in front of Trish and the cameras - but still weren't overcome with passion. "I think it's kind of awkward right now with you watching us, Trish," said Justin. Newshub. 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. In an environment in which active managers face fee and performance pressures from passive options, Capital Group, the parent of American Funds, remains as relevant as ever. That's the conclusion drawn from Morningstar's ongoing stewardship evaluation of Capital Group, which included a recent visit with firm leadership. This Fund Spy, the first of two, highlights some of Capital Group's key strengths, while also noting ways the firm could serve investors even better, including taking a closer look at its own capacity limits. The second installment will investigate the issue of capacity. A Competitive Equity Lineup With roots tracing to 1931, the firm has become the biggest active asset manager in the United States by delivering strong investment results over full market cycles, often because of its equity funds' resilience in downturns. Their early 2018 showing is in keeping with this long-held pattern. Indeed, when the S&P 500 dropped 10.1% in nine trading days between Jan. 29 and Feb. 8, each of the firm's seven domestic-equity funds lost less, ranging from 36 to 163 fewer basis points. Performance like that helps explain the lineup's competitive record over the past 20 years, a period that includes numerous corrections as well as the 2000-02 dot-com bear market, when most American Funds' offerings distinguished themselves, and the 2007-09 credit crisis, when the lineup had less success but still held up relatively well. We will maintain our $75 fair value estimate for Best Idea, narrow-moat Qualcomm, (QCOM) as well as our $255 fair value estimate for narrow-moat Broadcom, (AVGO) as a U.S. Presidential Order by Donald Trumps administration appears to have effectively blocked Broadcoms attempt to acquire Qualcomm, citing national security concerns. The order also rejected Broadcoms slate of independent directors to be nominated at Qualcomms annual shareholder meeting, while also ordering Qualcomm to move up the date of the meeting, which will now be held on March 23. We reiterate that our fair value estimate for Qualcomm continues to hinge on the firms standalone prospects, especially once the company closes its deal with NXP Semiconductor. On the Broadcom side, again, our fair value estimate is on a standalone basis. We continue to believe that the acquisition of Qualcomm at the revised bid price of $79 per share would be solidly accretive for the firm, but such upside no longer appears to be in the cards for Broadcom. We anticipate that Broadcom will remain on the hunt for semiconductor M&A which would allow the firm to capture chip businesses with leading market share positions and significant room to strip out costs and generate hefty accretion. We also note a Wall Street Journal report from Friday, suggesting that Intel may make a bid for Broadcom, in an attempt to squash a Broadcom-Qualcomm pairing. We were highly skeptical that such a deal would pass regulatory muster, either for an independent Broadcom or certainly for a combined Broadcom-Qualcomm entity. The executive order may have done the dirty work for Intel and it may no longer find a need to even entertain the thought of bidding for Broadcom going forward. Morningstar Premium Members gain exclusive access to our full analyst reports, including fair value estimates, bull and bear breakdowns, and risk analyses. Not a Premium Member? Get this and other reports immediately when you try Morningstar Premium free for 14 days. Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire [] 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. The Florida legislative session ended over the weekend with the passage of a nearly $88 billion budget. But local leaders are still frustrated by growing attempts from state lawmakers to take away their ability to govern. Winter Park, other cities angry about bills stripping home rule Say state legislature working in last 2 years to take power from local cities Cities say residents need to get involved Rarely do you see things get better with more government involved, so they want to insert themselves into the process," said Mayor Steve Leary of Winter Park. We have the truest sense of whats important to the residents of Winter Park. Leary said that several bills before the state legislature pre-empted home rule, or local governments decisions. In recent weeks, Winter Park officials sent a letter to residents, railing against the application of what they deemed one-size-fits-all statewide rules. The letter focused on bills allowing short-term rentals despite local ordinances against them, regulating local Community Redevelopment Agencies, and even telling cities what they can do with their trees. Weve spent tens of millions of dollars maintaining our canopy in Winter Park. To have someone at the state level say, now you have to follow rules everyone else has to follow, doesnt seem really justified," Leary said. He also bemoaned that the bill is allegedly born out of one legislator's frustrations about where he lives. Its a little bit scary, to be quite honest, that someone who has got a bone to pick with his local municipality would think about imposing statewide legislation," he said. If you talk to any of the state legislators, theyll tell you they hate when Washington gets involved in their business. And yet, this session and last session especially, under current leadership, it seems like its something theyve taken pride in doing to us. All three bills in Winter Park's letter died in the legislative session. But, its not just Winter Park crying foul. In Maitland, City Council just approved sending a letter to neighbors about home rule, reading, Who do you want making decisions about your neighborhood, about your community? The city called the same bills highlighted by Winter Park an assault on home rule. And one Orange County commissioner tried to fight a bill regarding state universities. People need to know whats really happening," said District 5 Commissioner Emily Bonilla. Bonilla said that she took issue with an amendment to HB 883, which stated that state universities need room to expand and areas within three miles around would be classified as urban not rural. In earlier versions, Orange Countys University of Central Florida would be potentially affected. In Gainesville, thats probably fine, but here we have the Econ River within that three-mile radius," said Bonilla. Bonilla knows all about that fight, joining east Orange County neighbors over the last two years to rally against their rural land seeing big developments. A lot of the people invested in here because they wanted a rural lifestyle, such as myself," she said. HB 883 also never made it out of the legislative. It included other provisions that would have regulated local governments. According to the commissioner, this is bigger than one amendment or bill. If people pay attention, they can call their elected officials and let them know how they feel. If they dont, these things get passed, and were affected," said Bonilla. Its about going on the record, saying 'hey, we elected you. We sent you to Tallahassee to represent us. Dont get lost in leadership, dont get lost in party, dont get lost in lobbyists,'" said Mayor Leary. We need to make sure all of our residents and constituents stay involved, stay aware of this and let their legislators know. News 13 spoke on the phone with a State Rep. Barbara Watson, a Democrat who sits on the Government Accountability Committee and saw amendment after amendment proposed relating to HB 883. I think when you take the ability for local governments... and give that power to legislators in Tallahassee, I think youre infringing on local governments ability to regulate their areas," she said. BERLIN Town officials are planning to meet during a special meeting to discuss the future of the police station. We want to meet with them to discuss a plan, said Sam Lomaglio, chair of the Board of Finance, Tuesday. Were open minded. Last month the board agreed to table a transfer of $30,000 from a previous school project to move forward on a study to upgrade the Berlin Police Departments holding cells. The Town Council previously agreed to the study. The cells currently have bars which have been reported by police to have been used in suicide attempts by prisoners. Its frustrating, said Mayor Mark Kaczynski Tuesday about the finance boards decision to delay the study. Its a liability issue. Members of the council and finance board will meet during a joint session at the end of the month to further discuss the cells as well as potential renovations of the current police station. At a recent council meeting, Kaczynski and the councilors questioned the role of the finance board with corporation counsel. A section in the charter deals with excess fund transfers as a responsibility of the finance board. Members of the council and board will discuss more at the joint meeting. Lomaglio said he wants to look at potential for a new police station to determine whether the new jail cells should move forward in the current space. If its five to six years down the road then yeah maybe we do need to do the cells, Lomaglio said. 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. The police chief and members of the police commission have since expressed the need for updates. They need to make a decision, said Bob Peters, chair of the police commission. Kaczynski said funds will be discussed at the meeting as the new jail cells are estimated to cost $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. The meeting is expected to be Thursday, March 29. More information will be available on the town website soon. akus@record-journal.com 203-317-2448 Twitter: @KusReporter PLAINVILLE Parents and students gave mixed responses Monday night to Plainville High Schools decision to allow students to participate in a walk-in Wednesday as part of the national walkout movement created after the Parkland shooting. They would like to walk inside the building rather than outside, said Maureen Brummett, Superintendent of Plainville Schools, about the students plan. During my conversation with parents today, I encouraged them to come to the board meeting today if they needed or required additional information. During the comments section of the meeting, parents spoke and expressed their concern to Brummett and the board on the upcoming event. Im here to discuss my displeasure in the board of education allowing our students in the school to take part in a politicized movement, said Gregg Karal, parent and president of the Plainville Rotary Club. By allowing students to participate in this, you are allowing them to participate in this politicized speech. A student organizer of the high school walk-in spoke in response to Karals concern. This is a measure of school safety, said Hannah Lennon, Plainville High School senior. We do have a right to walkout because we do not feel safe. She said while Connecticut has stricter gun laws than Florida, a change needs to be made. Sandy Hook has happened, Lennon said. There are things we cannot control or do anything about and this is something we can do something about. Another parents questioned the board and Brummett as to the criteria used to make the decision to hold a walk-in. Brummett said she discussed the event ahead of time with counsel and the board. The kids are doing this as a way to honor the 17 people who were killed and this is their way to do that, said Andrea Saunders, chair of the school board. The board is supporting the administrations decision to allow them to do that. Brummett said she would provide more detailed answers to the parents in an email if they wanted. She said teachers will not participate and other administrators will be supervising students who choose to take part in the walk-in tomorrow at 10 a.m. In response to the boards student liasons question on whether classes would be disrupted, Brummett said classes will go on as scheduled. In a letter to parents and students from the high school principal, access to the school will be limited during the event from 10 a.m., to 10:17 a.m. More information can be found on the school website. akus@record-journal.com 203-317-2448 Twitter: @KusReporter SOUTHINGTON The Town Council had high praise and a letter of support for a local developers plan to renovate the former school and Board of Education offices on Beecher Street. The letter could help Florian Properties, owned by Mat Florian, secure state grants to help fund a renovation of the historic school building at 49 Beecher St. into housing and offices. Justin French, property manager for Florian Properties, told the council Monday that the company was looking to preserve as many historic elements as possible. There is state money available for the work and part of the application requires a letter of support from town government. The cost to renovate the former school, built more than 100 years ago, complicated town efforts to sell the building to a developer. Councilors were pleased that Florian was going to preserve the building as part of a larger condominium development. We appreciate the effort to maintain the historical integrity of the building, said Chris Palmieri, council chairman and a Democrat. Often times people want to tear down and start from scratch. Palmieri said he was impressed with Florians restoration work on other prominent buildings, such as 98 Main St. and the former town offices in the Gura building that now house the Southington Community Cultural Arts. Its incredible, the work that you do, he said. The letter of support passed unanimously Monday night. Its a beautiful plan and I know its going to be a great addition to that neighborhood, said Victoria Triano, council minority leader and a Republican. After moving school district offices to the John Weichsel Municipal Center on North Main Street, the town put the Beecher Street building for sale in 2012. The property nearly sold for $220,000 well under the initial $400,000 asking price - to William Martin and Ralph Monti of Beecher St. LLC, who planned to renovate the building to include 38 reduced-rent senior housing apartments. Martin and Montis bid in 2013 narrowly edged out Florians offer of $200,000 to buy the building. Faced with strong neighborhood opposition to the project and conflict among councilors over the sale, however, the council backed away from the deal. In 2014, councilors supported the sale of the building to Florian for $200,000 with a stipulation that no more than 12 apartments be built in the former school. Florian received Planning and Zoning approval three years ago for a plan that includes renovating the school building into housing and adding two other residential buildings on Water and Beecher Streets, for a total of 22 condos. jbuchanan@record-journal.com 203-317-2230 Twitter: @JBuchananRJ Adding to its ever-growing portfolio and stern competition to its Qualcomm counterpart, Taiwanese chipmaker, Mediatek has announced a new gaming Chipset for the Helio G90 series. The Helio G95 SoC offers a 5% boost in GPU performance over the G90T though the rest of the feature set is identical to the latter. With the G95, MediaTek aims at closing the huge gap existing between the mid-range and flagship gaming smartphone segment and the first phone to use this processor could be the Tecno Camon 16 or Realme 7 with both due for official releases on September 3. The G90T ended up on phones like the Redmi Note 8 and Note 9 Pro and Realme 6 , so the odds are on we likely get to see more phones with the G95 chip launch in the final lap of the third quarter of the year. Heres everything the Mediatek Helio G95 has on offer Mediatek Helio G95 Features Essentially, it would be best to understand that the Helio G95 SoC is an overclocked G90T processor, in that it comes with an upgraded Mali-G76 GPU running at 900MHz. The G90T, on the other hand, is equipped with a Mali-G57 GPU thats running at 800MHz. Features like HyperEngine game technology, multi-camera support of upto 4 sensors and an APU (AI processing unit) are also very much welcome. The chip also supports upto HDR10+ enhancement quality in real-time. The G95 processor is manufactured using the 12nm fabrication process and has two Cortex-A76 cores running at 2.05GHz while the six power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores can run upto 2.0GHz. MediaTeks famed HyperEngine game technology is responsible for optimizing the gaming experience to provide the best connection speed, picture quality and ensures a smooth gameplay experience on budget devices. There are several customisation options that users can fine-tune further. Furthermore, Helio G95 chipset supports upto 10GB LPDDR4x RAM, UFS 2.1 storage, upto Full HD+ displays with 90Hz refresh rate and dual 4G SIM cards. Additionally, the chip can be paired with upto 64MP cameras with upto 4K UHD rerecording. The MediaTek Helio G95 will power many phones set to launch in September. The first of such as confirmed by Naijatechguy could be the Tecno Camon 16 set to launch on September 3 in India. The smartphone has been teased with stunning bezeles display, a 64MP camera unit with Samsungs GM1 or Sonys IMX686 sensor here which could all play into the hands of the new Helio G95 processor. NP Posted Sign up to receive the daily top stories from the National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. Email Address There was an error, please provide a valid email address. Sign Up By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300 Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again By PTI NEW DELHI: The annual India-China military exercise will resume, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said today, noting that the relationship between the two countries which had turned "sour" after the Doklam stand-off was now improving. He said the military diplomacy with China worked and the border personnel meetings that had stopped post Doklam stand-off have begun again. The "bonhomie" between the two forces was back, Rawat said. "The hand-in-hand exercise with China happens every year. Only in the last year, this exercise was shelved (due to simmering tensions over Doklam), but this exercise is back on the cards," he said in response to a question. The border personnel of India and China were locked in a 73-day stand-off last year in Doklam. The disengagement of forces took place in August last year, after hectic parleys between the two countries. "So the military diplomacy with China has worked and is moving forward and ensuring that there is a thaw in the relations the relationship had turned sour but I think it is all getting over now," he added. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be visiting China next month and it is likely that the issue could come up for discussion. WATCH: General Bipin Rawat lauds neighbour's military might, says Chinese have finally arrived The high-ranking visits between the two sides continued after the Doklam face-off ended in August last year. In December, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited India to attend the RIC (Russia India China) Foreign Ministers meeting. He also held bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj. Last month, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale also made a trip to Beijing, where he held talks with Wang. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit China in June this year to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting. By Online Desk HYDERABAD: Following an exclusive story reported by The New Indian Express about the security flaws in India Post's portals, the government-operated postal system responded, stating that the core system integrator of India Post is fixing those security flaws. India Post also confirmed that another layer of security has been added by restricting the access to the intended users only. Sir, Bugs noticed in DoP's non production domain https://t.co/rU60ja6IV3 are being fixed by our core system integrator. However another layer of security has been added by restricting the access to the intended users only. India Post (@IndiaPostOffice) March 13, 2018 On Sunday, The New Indian Express had reported on the security flaws in India Post's portals meant for official use have exposed bank account details of employees as well as a database of sensitive customer and vendor information to cyber attacks. The attacks were carried out using a flaw in Apache Struts. Apache Struts is a Java platform used by the Department of Posts to develop Java applications. The database was also found to contain a malicious file that was uploaded by hackers in 2017 with the intention of taking over India Post servers. As of Saturday, India Post was still actively trying to fix the issue. ALSO READ: ISRO computer had malware, couldve been hacked, say researchers This security flaw, referred to as Apache Struts Vulnerability (ASV) resulted in the data theft of over 200,000 credit card details of over 140 million US customers from the financial services firm Equifax in 2017. This loss could have been prevented by a simple update. India Post faces the same vulnerability as well as a few other cybersecurity flaws. However, when contacted by New Indian Express the organisation claimed there had been no data loss and downplayed the sensitivity of the data that was exposed to hackers. The security flaw was found in the domain https://digitization.indiapost.gov.in that contained a vulnerable Uniform Resource Locator (URL). "There was a Remote Code Execution (RCE) at India Post subdomain which is vulnerable to Apache Struts vulnerability," Robert Baptiste, a French security researcher, told Express over Direct Messages on Twitter. Baptiste had earlier exposed and helped resolve security vulnerabilities in the Telangana government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) beneficiaries website as well as in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). "I was not the first to exploit it. Someone has used it before. There were some malicious files created on their server. Someone has uploaded a shell on the India Post office server. They were created on April 13, 2017, and are still here," he added. Baptiste brought the issue to light on Twitter, as he has done regarding other Indian government sites in the past. On March 6 he tweeted : "Hi @IndiaPostOffice, can you contact me at DM or by mail? This is important," but said he received no response. On March 8, Express reached out to key officials at India Post. India Post then made contact with the ethical hacker three days after his tweet. The security flaw was actually detected by an Indian hacker first. This hacker, who spoke to Express on the condition of anonymity, said he had reached out to Baptiste fearing government backlash. "A few of my friends and myself have reported many bugs on government domains before but the response we got from them was very bad. A few of my friends got arrested just for reporting vulnerabilities. This is our present government standards," the Indian hacker told Express. "I gained access to the whole database and the files which consist of very sensitive data like bills, logins etc. The data which was on that server also consisted of logins, employee details, bills, customers information etc. If any outsiders upload a .php backdoor by exploiting this vulnerability they could modify all the user's payment data etc. Few banking details were there in it. The vulnerability allows the hacker to change even billing details that can result in huge financial losses for India Post. I thought to leak all the data if they didn't respond but instead reached out to Baptiste," he added. (With inputs from ENS) On March 12, 2018, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden's Name Day 2018 was celebrated at the courtyard of the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Prince Daniel and Princess Estelle attended Princess Victoria's Name Day celebrations. The celebrations began with a tribute concert by the Life Guards' Dragoon Music Corps, who performed the Swedish Armed Forces' Parade. Crown Princess Name Day is traditionally celebrated on March 12 every year. (Princess Victoria wore an Ida Sjostedt jules coat ) What did crime in Portsmouth look like this summer? Here's a breakdown Reporter Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk). Champaign, IL (61820) Today Cloudy skies with periods of rain late. Low 67F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Cloudy skies with periods of rain late. Low 67F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. 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). The Higher Education ministry cited as the complainant against University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Vice Chancellor Levy Nyagura standing trial for allegedly corruptly awarding former first lady Grace Mugabe a PhD has said it never lodged a query against the former Zanu PF Womens League boss. According to State papers, the permanent secretary in the Higher Education ministry one L Mudyiwa allegedly lodged a complaint against Nyagura, but the office denied making such a report in a letter addressed to Attorney General Prince Machaya. The ministry would like to register its complaint against Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc). The basis of the complaint is that, we note from court papers that Zacc has been citing the permanent secretary as the complainant in cases involving the UZ vice chancellor as the accused, read the letter. The ministry would like to state that it is not aware of the issues and neither was it involved in making any complaints to Zacc or being involved in investigations leading to the accused person being arraigned before the court for criminal abuse of officethe ministry is not involved in academic issues. The issue is purely academic and is the domain of the university through the council or senate. The ministry only provides administrative oversight to the university and is not qualified to comment, make a determination or give an opinion on whether what was done by the accused person was a criminal offence or not. According to the letter, that decision ought to have been made by the University Council and Senate as supreme organs on academic issues. The ministry would like you as our lawyer to set the record straight since this is an issue which is already before the court. The court papers are defective in as far as they cite the wrong person as representing the complainant. The ministry never complained and does not intend to complain, the letter reads. On such basis, Nyagura claims that there was no reasonable suspicion warranting his arrest and further demanded that the investigating officer be brought to court to explain why he has been placed on remand yet there is no evidence linking him to the offence. The investigating officer has also failed to acquire a warrant of search and seizure to look for documents that form the basis of the allegations pressed against Nyagura. The investigating officer must demonstrate the basis of the reasonable suspicion. The complainant is cited as permanent secretary of Higher Education ministry but has put it in writing that he is not the complainant and his ministry does not wish to be associated. Clearly, Zacc acted out of malice and brought the accused person to court, Nyaguras lawyer Lewis Uriri said. The State will respond to Uriris submissions today. According to State papers, sometime in 2011, Nyagura single-handedly accepted and approved Graces application to study for a PhD in Sociology without the knowledge of the Department Board and Faculty of Higher Degrees Committee. The court heard that Nyagura then appointed professors Claude Mararike and one Chaneta to supervise Graces thesis without the boards approval. It was alleged that Nyagura further usurped powers and appointed examiners to in violation of the University of Zimbabwe Act Chapter 25:16 and Ordinances 1998/99 volume 11 which gives that prerogative to the Senate Committee. Sometime in 2014, Nyagura allegedly led supervisors and examiners to Mugabes Mazowe Estate where the defence oral examination was purportedly done without knowledge and approval of the academic committee. According to State papers, the oral examination is supposed to be done at UZ premises. Daily News Vaccinated Foreigners Will Soon Have Access to the US (Newser) Two fertility clinics across the country from each other that experienced equipment failures on the same day have responded in the wake of the unlikely coincidence, the AP reports. University Hospitals officials in Cleveland said that that they are determined to help the patients who lost eggs and embryos an Ohio incident and that lawsuits filed by two couples will not affect an independent review. Dr. Carl Herbert, president of the Pacific Fertility Clinic in San Francisco, told ABC News in an interview released Monday that a senior embryologist noticed the nitrogen level in one tank was very low during a routine check of the tanks March 4. That embryologist, Herbert said, "immediately rectified" the problem by refilling the tank. The embryos, he said, were later transferred to a new tank. story continues below The clinic is sending letters to about 500 patients "that may have been involved in this tank," Herbert said. It has put in place more failsafe measures to prevent a repeat. Dr. Kevin Doody, lab director at the Center for Assisted Reproduction in Texas and past president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, told the AP that the nearly simultaneous storage failures are "beyond stunning" but appear to be "just a bad, bad, bad coincidence." "It's two black swan events happening in the same day," he said. "One of them causes the beehive to buzz. Two? We're all in shock," Nobody knows so far of any connection between the two failures, he said. The industry in the long run will end up being safer because there will be investigations and other facilities will examine their own backup measures and alarm systems, he said. (Read more fertility clinic stories.) (Newser) Republicans in the House of Representatives on Monday announced they've come to the opposite conclusion in their investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia as the intelligence community. Per CNN, the House Intelligence Committee has concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attempt to help President Trump win the election. The committee also announced they have finished conducting interviews in the investigation and plan to submit a report of their findings to their Democratic counterparts. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, told reporters Monday the year-long investigation "found no evidence that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it colluded with the Russians." story continues below Per the AP, the report specifically refutes the assessment made by the US intelligence community that Russian meddling in the campaign was intended to help Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. While still a draft, the report is sure to fuel criticism from Democrats who say Republicans on the committee have seen too few witnesses to come to a solid conclusion. Conaway, however, said the report would agree with the intelligence community in its assessment there was Russian meddling during the election, just not specifically to aid Trump. Democrats, meanwhile, will likely draft their own report to address what they believe were the stones left unturned by their Republican colleagues. (Read more Russia stories.) (Newser) As hundreds of thousands of people descend on Austin for the SXSW Festival, police have confirmed that they believe a serial bomber is on the loose. Interim Police Chief Brian Manley said Monday that evidence suggests that three package explosions that killed two people are related, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Manley said the bombs that killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House on March 2 and a 17-year-old boy on Monday arrived on doorsteps in "average-size" delivery boxes and exploded when the boxes were picked up or opened. Another bomb in east Austin on Monday injured a 75-year-old woman. A woman in her 40s was seriously injured by the bomb that killed the teenager. story continues below Authorities say they haven't ruled out the possibility of the bombings being hate crimes. The Washington Post reports that the two people killed are relatives of prominent African American families in Austin. House is the stepson of former pastor Freddie Dixon, who says he knows Norman Mason, grandfather of the teenager killed Monday. Mason is a dentist who mentors African American athletes at the University of Texas, Austin. "I don't know who theyve been targeting, but for sure, they went and got one of my best friends' grandson," Dixon says. "Somebody knew the connection." The woman injured by the second bomb Monday is Hispanic and police aren't sure if there is a connection between her and the other victims. SXSW organizers say they are "heartbroken" by the bombings and they are urging festival attendees to report anything suspicious, the AP reports. (Read more Austin stories.) (Newser) An explosion struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister Tuesday as he was making a rare visit to Gaza, in what his Fatah party called an assassination attempt it blamed on Gaza militants. The explosion went off shortly after the convoy entered Gaza through the Erez crossing with Israel. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was unharmed and went on to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project in the northern part of the strip. But Fatah quickly held Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers responsible for the "cowardly attack" on the convoy, further escalating tensions between the bitter rival factions, the AP reports. story continues below Three of the vehicles in Hamdallah's convoy were damaged, their windows blown out. One had signs of blood on the door. Hamdallah, who operates in the West Bank, arrived in Hamas-run Gaza to inaugurate the sewage plant and said there that the attack will "not deter from seeking to end the bitter split. We will still come to Gaza." The plant was envisioned in 2007 after overburdened sewage reservoirs collapsed, killing five villagers. The World Bank, European Union, and other European governments have paid nearly $75 million in funding. Hamas' takeover of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007 and the ensuing Israeli-Egyptian blockade and conflicts delayed the opening of the project for four years. (Read more Gaza stories.) (Newser) After celebrating House Republicans' verdict of no collusion between President Trump's campaign and Russia, officials at the Russian Embassy in Washington set about comparing investigations of "Russian meddling" to a search for UFOs. The embassy's Twitter account shared two overlapping photos Monday: one showing a helicopter in the sky with its search light on, the other showing the roof of the embassy building awash in light. "What was American helicopter searching for at the Russian Embassy's premises yesterday night?" the tweet read, per Sputnik. "'Strange' malfunction of navigation equipment in the center of the US capital? Or another desperate attempt to find traces of #RussianMeddling?" As if to point out the unbelievability of meddling in the 2016 election, the tweet finished with a UFO emoji. story continues below While it might've been simple trollinga Secret Service rep said he was unaware of any incident with a helicopterthe Washington Post reports DC police did dispatch a helicopter after 10pm Sunday while investigating a possible armed robbery. According to an officer, the helicopter scanned an area half a mile north of the embassy's entrance for about 20 minutes. Regardless of its complaint, the Russian Embassy doesn't actually seem that concerned with what a helicopter might've been doing nearby. An earlier tweet Monday said all investigations of Russian interference in the election would end just like the House probe, and quoted Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, a Republican, as saying, "only Tom Clancy could take this series of inadvertent contacts, meetings, whatever, and weave that into some sort of a spy thriller that could go out there." (Read more Russia stories.) (Newser) Scientists are sometimes tasked with saving animals from extinction. But in Florida, extinction, at least locally, is the goal. As part of a three-month project aimed at culling high numbers of invasive iguanas in the Sunshine State, researchers at the University of Florida are killing the animals with blunt force traumasmashing the reptiles' heads against hard objects, from rocks to vehiclesor a device that sends a metal bolt into the brain, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Research coordinator Jenny Ketterlin says both processes are more humane than decapitation without anesthesia, but others have doubts. One veterinarian says the animals should be sedated and euthanized while a resident who claims to have killed 100 iguanas with a pellet gun argues his method is less tortuous. story continues below Still, researchers contracted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission say destroying the brains of the reptiles while they sleep is the best option, and in keeping with anti-cruelty laws. Though traps and euthanasia are also used, researchers primarily search for the animals at night, pulling sleeping iguanas directly from trees. Those killed are weighed and measured before being discarded at a landfill, Ketterlin says. Some 300 iguanas, which first arrived in Florida as pets, have already met such a fate along a canal in Davie, per the Washington Post. Researchers also plan to offer tips about how to remove iguanas from yards, where they "feed on native plants and wildlife and dig into areas that may cause erosion," says an FWC rep. (It recently rained iguanas in Florida.) (Newser) Stormy Daniels's offer to return the $130,000 she received in a nondisclosure agreement about President Trump has led to a new wave of coverage of their alleged affair. In one new twist, authorities in Texas are investigating whether the notary public who authorized the 2016 agreement did so properly, reports the Dallas Morning News. Erica Jackson didn't sign or date the document, and "she notarized a blank signature line," says a fellow notary who first tweeted about the issue. Daniels' attorney says it's the missing signature of Trump (or of "David Dennison," his alleged alias in the deal) that's the real problem. It's not clear just how big of a deal the notary issue is (Jackson might lose her certification), but it's "the latest in a string of curiosities surrounding the murky deal," per the Morning News. Related: Frequent calls: Fashion photographer Keith Munyan, a friend of Daniels, tells the Daily Beast that Trump would call Daniels "all the time" back around 2006, and Munyan sometimes listened in on speakerphone. They had "very professional conversations" about her business goals, and Trump once offered Daniels a spot on the The Apprentice, says Munyan. He recalls that Daniels considered Trump a "very brilliant man," but he adds that Trump "can talk about nothing for hours." story continues below That 60 Minutes interview: Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, taped an interview with Anderson Cooper that Trump's legal team is reportedly trying to block from airing. However, CBS News chief David Rhodes says the reason it hasn't aired yet isn't because of any legal challenge ("I haven't seen such an injunction, and I can't imagine what the basis for that would be"), but because "there's still a lot of journalistic work to do," per Variety. Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, taped an interview with Anderson Cooper that Trump's legal team is reportedly trying to block from airing. However, CBS News chief David Rhodes says the reason it hasn't aired yet isn't because of any legal challenge ("I haven't seen such an injunction, and I can't imagine what the basis for that would be"), but because "there's still a lot of journalistic work to do," per Variety. Slim chance: An analysis at the Washington Post, drawing on the expertise of a defamation lawyer, asserts that Trump is "probably powerless" to keep the interview from airing. An analysis at the Washington Post, drawing on the expertise of a defamation lawyer, asserts that Trump is "probably powerless" to keep the interview from airing. Horses: A Rolling Stone profile on Clifford, aka Daniels, has a surprising nugget about her: She's a nationally ranked equestrian. A Rolling Stone profile on Clifford, aka Daniels, has a surprising nugget about her: She's a nationally ranked equestrian. The seriousness: The president's supporters say this is a meaningless, salacious witch hunt, but Matthew Yglesias at Vox writes that "it's time for Washington to stop tittering in embarrassment and recognize that there is a serious scandal here." One component of that: whether the payment to Daniels ran afoul of campaign finance laws. The president's supporters say this is a meaningless, salacious witch hunt, but Matthew Yglesias at Vox writes that "it's time for Washington to stop tittering in embarrassment and recognize that there is a serious scandal here." One component of that: whether the payment to Daniels ran afoul of campaign finance laws. The not-so-seriousness: Stephen Colbert has some thoughts and fears. (Read more Stormy Daniels stories.) (Newser) British Prime Minister Theresa May says the chemical used to poison Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his adult daughter in England was a Novichok nerve agent, tied to Russia not only through its name. Novichokmeaning "newcomer" in Russianis a class of chemical agents developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and '80s "specifically to get around treaties banning chemical weapons," reports NBC News. Only revealed to the wider world by a former Russian scientist in 1991, the agents aren't fully understood, but they're believed to be among the most deadly in existence, per CNN. Though there are "no known previous uses," per Reuters, one specific agent, A-230, is described as five to eight times as toxic as VX, a weapon of mass destruction used in the February 2017 assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. story continues below In powder and liquid form, Novichok agents produce effectsrespiratory failure and death by asphyxiation at worstas little as 30 seconds after inhalation or absorption through the skin, reports the BBC. They're also believed to cause more permanent injury and be more resistant to antidotes than other nerve agents. In addition, the agents are easier to handle and harder to detect, as most involve two not-as-toxic components that only become deadly when mixed. This makeup apparently allowed the Soviet Union to develop such agents even after committing to chemical arms control, experts say. May says it's "highly likely" Russia is responsible for the March 4 attack on 66-year-old Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter, who remain in critical condition. But Russia is denying involvement and refusing to explain the use of Novichok until samples of the agent are provided, the AP reports. (Read more Sergei Skripal stories.) (Newser) With his decision to move CIA chief Mike Pompeo into the post of secretary of state, President Trump made a little history. He also nominated Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo, thus setting her up to be the first woman to run the spy agency. The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, and it's a safe bet that critics will raise the issue of Haspel's links to the CIA's controversial waterboarding program. Haspel, as was reported last year during her confirmation process to become deputy CIA chief, once ran a secret CIA prison in Thailand where terror suspects such as Abu Zubaydah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded in 2002, reports the AP. In fact, Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times, per NPR, which also notes that Haspel is accused of destroying videotapes of the interrogations after Congress demanded they be preserved. story continues below The flip side of her resume is that Haspel joined the CIA in 1985 and made a name for herself in covert operations, reports USA Today. Trump called Haspel an "outstanding person," and Time notes that President Obama's national intelligence director, James Clapper, said last year that he was happy she'd been nominated for the No. 2 post and that Haspel was "widely and deeply respected by the workforce." Still, the waterboarding issue had already surfaced in the first hours after Trump's announcement. "No one who had a hand in torturing individuals deserves to ever hold public office again, let alone lead an agency," said Human Rights First's Raha Wala, per the AP. No word yet on when the Senate confirmation process will begin. (Zubaydah lost his left eye after his capture by the CIA, though how is unclear.) (Newser) A wrong-number text had doubly heartwarming results last week. It all started when a woman named Syd texted a picture of herself in a dress, apparently seeking advicebut not to the person she meant to send it to. Instead of just ignoring it or telling her she had the wrong number, though, the man who received the text sent back a picture of five of his kids smiling and giving thumbs-up signs, MSN reports. "I believe this message was intended for someone else," he wrote. "My wife isn't home, so I couldn't get her opinion, but the kids and I think you look stunning in your dress! You should definitely go with that one!" The text exchange went viral after a friend of Syd's posted it to Twitter. story continues below After it was revealed that Tony Wood of Missouri was the father who had sent the kind response, it was discovered that his wife wasn't home because she was with the couple's sixth child, Kaizler, at the hospital. The 6-year-old is battling leukemia, and after the text story went viral, people started donating to the family's GoFundMe campaign. As of this writing, it had raised nearly quadruple its $10,000 goal, and an update on the page thanks everyone for their support: "God continues to show us He is there for us and it is awesome to see His love move! ... Our needs to get back on our feet have been met! We can't thank you enough, but any further donations are unnecessary!" Tony Wood also tweeted a picture of Kaizler giving Syd his own thumbs-up. (Check out another heartwarming wrong-number story.) (Newser) A bus carrying Texas high school band members home from Disney World plunged into a ravine before dawn Tuesday in Alabama, killing the driver and injuring many passengers, authorities said. First responders used ropes to rappel down the 50-foot ravine in the middle of Interstate 10 to reach them, and then had to cut some of the victims free from the wreckage, said Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack, who confirmed the fatality. About 45 people were on board, and were brought to 10 hospitals in Alabama and Florida, either by helicopter or ambulance, the AP reports. The sheriff said it wasn't immediately clear what caused the bus to enter the grassy median, which abruptly ends at a steep embankment where the interstate passes over Cowpen Creek. story continues below The crash happened about 5:30am, crunching the bus and leaving the passengers exposed to chilly temperatures. Rescuers used every piece of equipment on every truck to reach them, Mack said: "This is what we call an all-out." Only hours before the crash, the band's Facebook page had been updated to show a large group posing outside Disney World. A second bus on the spring-break trip, driving ahead of the one that crashed, is continuing on to Texas, the sheriff said. The bus charter company, First Class Tours of Houston, pledged to help local authorities investigating the crash in a statement that offered prayers for injured and their families. (Read more bus crash stories.) (Newser) In 2015, James Schwab became the San Francisco rep for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He quit the position last week, saying he "didn't want to perpetuate misleading facts." The move comes in the wake of a four-day February sweep, which President Trump, Jeff Sessions, and ICE Director Thomas Homan publicly declared was stymied by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who on Feb. 24 warned the surprise operation was imminent; it began the next day. Per Sessions, ICE missed out on 800 arrests. Schwab took issue with that number, which he says was inflated, telling the San Francisco Chronicle that figure assumes ICE was going to "capture 100% of the target list," which just isn't realistic. story continues below "I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didn't agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit." Some 232 people were arrested in the sweep, which had targeted north of 1,000 people; NPR cites a Homeland Security official who said sweeps like these typically reel in about one-third of those on the list. That's not to say that Schwab was in favor of the mayor's move. "Personally I think her actions were misguided and not responsible. I think she could have had other options," he told CNN Monday. But Schaaf had praise for Schwab "for speaking the truth while under intense pressure to lie. Our democracy depends on public servants who act with integrity and hold transparency in the highest regard." (Read more Immigration and Customs Enforcement stories.) (Newser) Sometimes an eye roll is so much more than an eye roll. The South China Morning Post describes one delivered by one journalist to another as the "country's biggest political event of the year." The New York Times sees it as a "rare puncturing of the artifice" surrounding the ongoing National People's Congress. You can watch it in this clip. A reporter in red begins posing a long-winded softball question to a government minister, and a fellow reporter in blue can't contain her disdain as the question nears the 40-second mark. She turns and gives her colleague a withering look, followed by the eye roll, which was captured by national news broadcaster CCTV. It went viral quickly, spreading across Chinese social media until government censors began blocking searches. story continues below The Washington Post manages to identify the women. The reporter in red is Zhang Huijun of American Multimedia Television, which is based in California but affiliated with the state-owned CCTV. The woman in blue is Liang Xiangyi of Yicai Media, a financial news service, and her name soon became the most-censored term on social media site Weibo, per the Times. Despite the censorship, images riffing on the incident were proliferating. A translation of the boring-in-any-language question might help explain Liang's frustration. The transformation of the responsibility of supervision for state assets is a topic of universal concern," Zhang says. "Therefore, as the director of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, what new moves will you make in 2018?" And on and on. (Read more China stories.) (Newser) Students in Preson, Idaho, were reportedly subjected to a disturbing scene last week when a teacher allegedly fed a puppy to one of his reptiles as the children looked on. A local animal activist filed a police report after hearing about the after-school incident, in which Preston Junior High science teacher Robert Crosland allegedly fed a sick puppy to either a snake or a snapping turtle, Fox 13 reports. Per the Idaho Statesman, rumors are circulating on social media that the puppy was fed to the turtle, but those rumors have not been officially confirmed. The Franklin County Sheriff's Department and the school district are both investigating the incident; the sheriff says his department's findings will be turned over to the local prosecutor to "determine if the law has been broken." story continues below While the animal activist calls the incident "disgusting," "sick," and "violence," some students and parents have said they were not upset by the incident because the puppy was apparently "deformed" and "going to die anyway." They say Crosland was just trying to illustrate the "circle of life"; one parent calls him "the best science teacher Preston Junior High has." In a statement, the Preston School District calls the incident "regrettable" but assures parents it "occurred well after students had been dismissed and was not a part of any school directed program." The statement says steps will be taken to ensure such a thing doesn't happen again, but that "we hope that any errors in judgement made by a teacher in this instance will not cause us to forget the years of care, effort, and passion the teacher has given to students in Preston School District." (Read more strange stuff stories.) (Newser) The two Russians had fled to the UK, and now both are dead. Nikolai Glushkov, who was once business partners with Boris Berezovsky, was found dead in his London home Monday night. Counterterrorism police are investigating the unexplained death "as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had." The Telegraph calls Berezovsky, who opposed Putin and also died in unexplained circumstances in the UK in 2013, Putin's "arch enemy"; Glushkov and other friends insisted Putin ordered his murder. The paper calls Glushkov Berezovsky's "closest aide"; in the '90s he was a director at Berezovsky's car company as well as the state airline Aeroflot. Glushkov, variously reported as 68 or 69, left Russia for the UK, where he was ultimately granted political asylum, after Berezovsky fell out with Putin and left for the UK himself. story continues below After Berezovsky's exit, Glushkov was charged with money laundering and fraud and spent five years in jail. He left for the UK out of fear he'd be arrested again; he denied all the charges against him. The Guardian has much more on that period of his life. Glushkov's death comes eight days after the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, but authorities say there is no evidence the two incidents are connected. In the Skripal case, Reuters reports Britain gave Russia a deadline of midnight Tuesday to explain how a Russian nerve agent was used against him, but Russia has pledged not to do so until samples of the nerve agent are handed over. President Trump Tuesday expressed support for Britain, saying if the US "agrees" with the facts, "we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be." (Read more Boris Berezovsky stories.) ABC/Randy HolmesLamb of God has announced a quartet of headlining dates in between opening for Slayer on the thrash icons' upcoming final tour. The shows take place May 12 in Pomona, California, May 23 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, June 3 in Wallingford, Connecticut and June 11 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Visit Lamb-of-God.com for ticket info. Slayer's farewell tour kicks off May 10 in San Diego. Along with Lamb of God, Anthrax will also be an opener on the tour. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Sorry! This content is not available in your region Go to https://compeaus.com/# to see more. 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. Community Perspective 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. Letters to the editor 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. Jodhpur: Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan fell ill on the sets of 'Thugs of Hindostan' on Monday evening. The 75-year-old megastar on Tuesday said that doctors are fiddling around' with his body. The Shehenshah of Bollywood wrote on his blog, I am getting my team of Doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again. I will rest and keep informed in process," He also wrote, Ya .. so .. its 5 am .. the morning after the night that began yesterday .. for work .. some people need to work for a living .. and work hard. Its been rough .. but when ever did any be achieved without it .. there is struggle and disappointment and pain and sweat and tears .. then the expectation of all working out .. sometimes it does, most of the times not .. that not is the catalyst .. when they say not, it is the right impetus to say and deliver that it has been successful and achieved .., he ended. #Rajasthan: A team of doctors arrived in Jodhpur from Mumbai to attend to actor Amitabh Bachchan, who is in the area for a shoot. pic.twitter.com/fhXPLwOSkU ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2018 Amitabh last year had revealed that he was suffering from stiff neck and shoulder pain. Also read : Aamir Khan, Alia Bhatt take the PadMan challenge, pose with sanitary pad According to sources in Jodhpur, Amitabh was shooting late last night. Thugs of Hindostan is an adaptation of 1839 novel Confessions of a Thug. It co-stars Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, and Fatima Sana Shaikh. The movie is being directed by Dhoom fame Vijay Krishna Acharya. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Army has said it was reeling under severe fund crunch and struggling to even make emergency procurements when there was a real possibility of a two-front war and both China as well as Pakistan were carrying out modernisation of their defence forces in "full swing". The Army told a parliamentary panel that the funds allocated to it in the defence budget for the next fiscal is insufficient to deal with various security challenges facing the country including from a more assertive China along the northern border and from a hostile Pakistan on the western frontier. The Army's frustrations over inadequate allocations of funds in the defence budget figured in a report of the Standing Committee on Defence which was tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Speaking at a think tank, Army chief General Bipin Rawat talked about China's military might and said the country understood the importance of ramping up defence expenditure in sync with its economic prowess. Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Sarath Chand said inadequate allocation of funds will hit the Army's modernisation plan when Chinese military was competing to reach the level of the US. "The threat perception has been ever increasing. The last one year has seen various occurrences of external strife and internal dissidence. Just to highlight a few, we have the Doklam issue going on and China has become increasingly assertive," he said. Lt Gen Chand said, "We have seen more and more patrolling and transgressions. Activities in Tibet has also increased over a period of years whether it is the quantum of troops or whether it is the number of personnel undertaking the exercises and also the level of exercises." Referring to the situation along the western border, he said Pakistan has been increasing cross border firing to support the militants. He said 68 per cent of the Army's equipment is in the 'vintage category', adding fund crunch will also impact the serviceability of the existing equipment and may even affect payment of instalments for past purchases. Talking about the new procurement policy, delegation of financial powers to Vice Chief of Army and several other initiatives towards modernisation of the armed forces, Lt Gen Chand told the panel that "the Budget of 2018-19 has dashed our hopes and most of what has been achieved has actually received a little set back." He said, "Allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation is insufficient even to cater for committed payment of Rs 29,033 crore for 125 on-going schemes, emergency procurements," he said, adding "Committed liabilities of 2017 which will also get passed on to 2018 will further accentuate the situation." Also read: Pak violates cease fire along international border in J-K, 4 civilians injured Referring to the regional security scenario, Chand said the possibility of "two front" war is a reality and the country needs to pay attention to modernisation of the Army. The Army also informed the panel that it does not have adequate resources to even undertake the construction of strategic roads near the Sino-India border. The Vice Chief of Army Staff also referred to daring terror attacks on military installations in Uri, Pathankot, Nagrota and Sunjwan Cantt in Jammu and said the defence forces must get their dues. "Peace in the neighbourhood has also been slightly affected by the recent incidents in Maldives. Overall, we have a disturbed situation and all the more important is that the defence forces should get their due," he said. The Army informed the panel that it had identified 25 projects under the Make in India initiative but there was not adequate budget to support them. "As a result of which, many of these may end up foreclosed." On its part, the Parliamentary Standing Committee, headed by BJP MP B C Khanduri, also came down hard on the government for inadequate allocation of financial resources to the armed forces. "Keeping in view the increasing threat perception, which includes various occurrences of external strife and internal dissidence such as Doklam, increased external activities in Tibet over a year, rampant cross border firing, militant activities etc., the current budget is not supportive to the inevitable needs of the Army," the panel said. It also expressed concern, saying a whopping 68 per cent of the equipment of the Army is in the vintage category while just about 24 per cent is in the current state, and eight per cent in the state of the art category. The panel said it took a series of attacks and numerous casualties to delegate financial powers to the Vice Chief to spend Rs 14,097 crore for strengthening 'perimeter security'. "But for the attack, it's quite possible that funds for strengthening perimeter security may not have been sanctioned for quite some time to come," it said. It said while the defence ministry has delegated powers to the Vice Chief of the Army to spend a little over Rs 14,000 crore towards security related issues, there is no separate allocation made for it. "The committee opine that the security of the Nation is paramount and safety of those defending the country cannot be left in a state of abandonment. "The Forces must be capacitated in maintaining a robust and effective response mechanism to counter emerging threats," it said. The Parliamentary Standing Committee also came down hard on the government for delays in carrying out modernisation of the Indian Air Force and the Navy. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Thiruvananthapuram: Three months after Cyclone Ockhi ravaged Kerala coast, the state government on Tuesday warned fishermen not to venture into the seas for the next 48 hours as depression in the Arabian Sea has deepened further. According to MeT officials, a warning has been issued as the depression situated 390 kms south-west of Thiruvananthapuram has intensified further. The department has predicted heavy rainfall in next 73 hours. Heavy rains will be accompanied by winds with speeds of 60 kmph in south Kerala, said Thiruvananthapuram meteorological centre director S Sudevan. Warnings have been issued, especially in the south. We were informed about the intensifying depresion, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. He also added that they are in regular touch with all departments to prevent any untoward incidents. Meanwhile, the states chief secretary Paul Antony met senior officers of various departments to review preparations. We have asked all fishermen who have ventured into the sea to return, said Antony. He also added that they are coordinating with the Coast guards and Navy to monitor the situation in the sea. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Kolkata: A Kolkata school allegedly shamed and made 10 girls sign a confession letter that they were lesbians to bring the students on the right course. The incident surfaced after parents of the accused girls staged a protest against the school administration for shaming and forcing them to make confession of practicing homosexuality. The parents stormed the office of acting principal of the school and accused the authorities of Kamala Girls School for forcibly making the girls admit of practising homosexuality in written. However, the principal claimed that some students had complained about the 10 girls being indulged in lesbian activities. Also read : Should gay sex ban stay or go? Supreme Court asks 5 judges to decide On confronting they admitted it in writing and we further informed the guardians. They were called to officer to alert them about their wards activities, added the principal. However, agitating parents rubbished the principals claim and said, Holding hands doesn't count as homosexuality. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Mangaluru: A local court on Tuesday acquitted right-wing fringe outfit Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik and several others in the 2009 Mangaluru pub attack case for lack of evidence. Third Judicial Magistrate of First Class Court R Manjunath stated in his order, aThe accused are acquitted.a Over 30 Sri Ram Sene activists had allegedly barged into the pub on January 24, 2009, and assaulted some women and men, claiming they were violating traditional Indian values. The incident had generated national outrage after the video clip of the attack went viral. It depicted several men allegedly dragging women at the pub by their hair, slapping and roughing them up and accusing them of aloose moralsa. Counsel for the accused, Vinod, had earlier submitted before the magistrate that his clients were not present when the attack took place at the pub. He had also submitted that the police had falsely filed complaints against them. The petition was filed by one Rajshekhar, seeking punishment against the accused under several IPC sections, including rioting, house tress pass, dacoity, causing hurt, intentional insult with an intent to provoke breach of peace, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy. Also Read| Sukma attack Live: Naxals blow up anti-mine vehicle; nine CRPF troopers killed Vinod had also submitted that the victim, one of the allegedly assaulted women, did not visit the police station as a witness to establish the crime. Speaking to PTI over phone, Muthalik said aThrough this verdict, we have got justice. It is a victory of truth. It is also a fitting reply for those who had termed my activists as Talibanis.a aWe did not have any intention to beat up women, but we are against the bar and pub culture. It is because of our efforts that many illegal pubs and bars have been closed,a he said. The BJP, in 2014, months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, had inducted Muthalik, but within hours disowned him after the partyas central leadership expressed surprise at the decision of its Karnataka unit.A For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Nepalas first woman president, Bidhya Devi Bhandari, was re-elected as the countryas president for a second term in the office on Tuesday. Obligatory President Bhandari defeated the Nepali Congress leader Kumar Laxmi Rai with an extreme majority in the presidential elections conducted on Tuesday. The 56-year-old President won since her nomination was backed by the ruling Left of the CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) alliance, the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal, and other fringe parties alliance. Bhandarias first term as the President of Nepal started in 2015. The CPN-UML carries a total vote bank of 23,356 in the country, with 148 lawmakers in the Federal Parliament and 243 in the Provincial Assemblies, while the CPN (Maoist Centre) has 65 lawmakers in the Parliament and 108 in the Provincial Assemblies, which total the vote bank for 10,319. Also Read|A Sukma attack Live: Naxals blow up anti-mine vehicle; nine CRPF troopers killed The vote bank of the Nepali Congress accounts for 11,428, with 76 seats in the Parliament and 113 in the Provincial Assemblies. With the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and other fringe parties support, Bhandarias overall vote bank accounted for up to 26,921 in her re-election. An electoral college also voted in the Presidential elections, which included the members of Parliament and Provincial Assemblies.A For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Ottawa: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday accused China of flooding global markets with cheap steel, adding that Canada has already taken steps to prevent 'dumping' in this country. "We are very concerned about the actions taken by China and the dumping of steel and aluminum on the global market," Trudeau said following a tour of a steel and aluminum plant. His comments came amid rising trade tensions in the wake of a US decision to impose steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Canada, the top supplier of steel and aluminum to the US markets, has been temporarily exempted from the tariffs. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. London: British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday said it was 'highly likely' that Russia was behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter with a deadly 'military-grade' nerve agent last week, further deteriorating bilateral ties with Moscow. Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66 and his daughter Yulia, 33 were found collapsed after being poisoned last Sunday. Skripal and Yulia remain in a serious condition along with a police officer who came in contact with the same substance. In a statement before the House of Commons, May revealed that the UK's security forces have now confirmed that the poison used in the attack on Skripal was a "military-grade" nerve agent of the type developed by Russia. She described the incident in Salisbury last Sunday as a "reckless and despicable act", which will attract a "credible response" from the UK. "It is now clear that Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as Novichok'," May said in her statement. "Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by the world-leading experts, our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so," she said. Russia's record of conducting "state-sponsored assassinations and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations; the government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal, she said. She said Russia's ambassador in London had been summoned to explain whether it was "a direct action by the Russian state" or the result of it "losing control" of its stock of nerve agents. The British prime minister said Russia's response would be assessed in detail on Wednesday to determine further action. Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom," she said. "This attempted murder using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town was not just a crime against the Skripals. It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk," May said. "And we will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil," she added. In her Parliament statement, May made a specific reference to the use of radiological substances in the "barbaric assault" on Alexander Litvinenko another Russian spy murdered 11 years ago in London. Following Litvinenko's death, the UK had expelled Russian diplomats, suspended security cooperation, broke off bilateral plans on visas, froze the assets of the suspects and put them on international extradition lists. May told Parliament that those measures remain in place. We must now stand ready to take much more extensive measures, she added. In her hard-hitting statement against Russian aggression, May highlighted that during a recent State of the Union address, President Vladimir Putin showed video graphics of missile launches, flight trajectories and explosions, including the modelling of attacks on the US with a series of warheads impacting in Florida. The country's "illegal annexation" of Crimea was the first time since the Second World War that one sovereign nation has forcibly taken territory from another in Europe, she said. However, her statement reiterated that while the poisoning of the Skripals had caused considerable concern in the local community of Salisbury, the risk to public health remains low. Reacting sharply to May's comments, Russia said her statement was "a circus show in the British parliament". "The statement was part of an information and political campaign based on provocation," said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Colonel Skripal was convicted of treason in 2006 and jailed for 13 years for selling secrets to MI6, which had recruited him in the 1990s. The senior intelligence officer with Russian military intelligence GRU, was pardoned in a spy swap in 2010 and settled in Salisbury, Wiltshire. The attack on Skripal is being compared to former KGB agent Litvenenko's murder who ingested the rare and highly radioactive polonium 210 in London 11 years ago. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday sacked the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and instead replaced him with Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Mike Pompeo, while appointing Gina Haspel as the Director of CIA. The resignation, which was expected since last October, came as a biggest shake-up to the Trump administration. Reports of President Trump and Tillerson falling out were surfacing since some time. Tillerson, aged 65, left his position as the chief executive of Exxon Mobil to join the Trump administration. The major change of Tillersons resignation comes amidst delicate negotiations with North Korea, said White House officials. Trump had asked Tillerson on Friday to step aside as the Secretary of State, following which the diplomat cut short his trip Africa on Monday and returned to Washington to offer his resignation. On Tuesday, Trump took to Twitter to announce the news officially, and wrote, Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018 In a statement issued to the Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel, saying, I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State. Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle. Trump continued, Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo and she will be the CIAs first-ever female director, a historic milestone. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year and have developed a great mutual respect. Also Read: US applauds India on International Solar Alliance According to the White House reports, Trump and Tillerson had a long-time clash, and as per Trump, it was important to make the change, as he prepared for talks with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as the upcoming trade negotiations. Pompeo, in a statement, said, I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State. His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further Americas prosperity. Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honors of my life. Haspel, too, issued a statement saying, After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year. I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Gina Haspel will be the first woman to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States (US). Haspel is currently the deputy director at the CIA. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force on Monday released its latest promotional video, looking back on its accomplishments over the past five years. Named "Soaring into the Spring," the two-minute video clip features scenes from real combat training involving J-20 stealth fighters. It also includes training scenes of the J-16 fighters, H-6K bombers, and Y-20 heavy transport aircraft, all of which entered service over the past five years. On Feb. 28, the air force published a promotional clip and commemorative envelope for the country's latest J-16, a two-seat, dual-engine multi-role fighter with beyond-visual-range air-to-air and air-to-ship strike capabilities. It made its parade debut along with the J-20 stealth fighters in July. BAKU, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijan on Monday launched large-scale military exercises with up to 25,000 military personnel involved, the country's Defence ministry said. The drills, which are set to continue until Saturday, are being conducted in accordance with the plan approved by President, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev. The exercises involve up to 25,000 military personnel, 250 tanks and other armored vehicles, 1,000 missiles and artillery systems of different caliber, multiple launch rocket systems and mortars, up to 50 army and front-line aviation for various purposes. During the drills, the troops will carry out tasks to prevent the enemy from attacking, suppress the enemy with fire, restore defense along advantageous frontiers by inflicting counter strikes and conduct a large-scale counteroffensive operation. The military personnel will conduct exercises to operate troops and fire means, prevent various actions of the imaginary enemy in difficult conditions of mountain relief and electronic warfare environment. Live-fire exercises will be conducted with the use of new weapon systems at various training grounds. The exercises conducted by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in sovereign territories are in line with the provisions of Chapter V of the Vienna Document 2011 of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the foreign ministry said. Gen Ith Sarath briefs media yesterday. KT/Chor Sokunthea The Chinese government is picking up the majority of the tab for the joint military exercise between China and Cambodia from March 17 to 30 in Kampong Speu provinces Samroang Tong district. General Ith Sarath, deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, said yesterday that the joint military exercise would include 307 Cambodian troops and 216 Chinese troops. A total of 574 people, including other labour forces and translators, will join in the exercise. Gen Sarath said that Cambodia would be responsible for some of the costs, but would not say how much. The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army is paying for most of the expenses for the joint military exercise. They are paying for the bulk of it and we are supporting a little, he said. Gen Sarath said some topics of the exercise included road repairs, mine and UXO clearance, bridge construction, and resettlement of disaster victims. There would also be machine-gun fire from helicopters onto terrorist camps and the shooting of rockets and heavy artillery. He said China was bringing three helicopters, eight tanks and other vehicles and weapons to use in the joint military exercise while Cambodia had six helicopters, eight tanks and other vehicles. Gen Sarath noted that last year Cambodia cancelled joint military exercises with the United States and China because RCAF was busy with a campaign against drugs, and the commune elections. We are holding this exercise to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Cambodia and China, he said. There is no other reason. Gen Sarath added that Cambodia held joint military exercises with other countries such as Thailand and Vietnam. Defence Minister Tea Banh yesterday said at the National Defence University that the joint military exercise between Cambodia and China was not being held to threaten other countries or individuals, but only to exchange experiences and celebrate the anniversary of diplomatic relations. We join each other to improve the ability to exchange experiences, he said. It is not organised to threaten anyone. Gen Sarath said in a statement last week that Cambodia and China would hold a Counter Terrorism and Humanity Work exercise from March 15 to 30. Please all the people and all local level authorities be informed and dont be surprised to hear the sound of explosions and movement of military vehicles within the district, he said. To guarantee security during the military exercise, RCAF has asked the secretariat of civil aviation and local authorities to help disseminate information in order to prevent civilians from entering the exercise area and any planes or drones from flying over it. Soldiers assigned to the PLA Army's 75th Group Army are seen in an anti-terror training in late February before leaving for the Golden Dragon 2018 China-Cambodia joint anti-terrorism and humanitarian rescue training to be held in Cambodia from March 15 to 31, 2018. (jz.81.cn/Photo by Zhang Yiju) KUNMING, March 13 (ChinaMil) -- A total of 216 soldiers from the PLA Army's 75th Group Army under the Southern Theater Command departed Monday morning from Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan province for Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, to participate in a joint anti-terrorism training. The 17-day joint training between the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) dubbed Golden Dragon 2018 is to be held in Kampong Speu province of Cambodia from March 15 to 31with the theme of joint anti-terrorism and humanitarian rescue. The Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) will send 280 soldiers to the joint training. Together with the Chinese participating troops to Cambodia were more than 40 sets of equipment including infantry fighting vehicles, rotor unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and transport helicopters. The year of 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-Cambodia diplomatic relationships. The joint training, as an important activity in the exchange program between the Chinese and Cambodian militaries in this year, is of great significance for deepening state and military exchange and cooperation between the two countries. The participating troops from the two countries will have training of such professional subjects as anti-terror equipment operating, light weapons live-fire practice, unarmed wrestle, simulated airborne landing, penetrating maneuver, man hunting and searching. Soldiers assigned to the PLA Army's 75th Group Army are seen in an anti-terror training in late February before leaving for the Golden Dragon 2018 China-Cambodia joint anti-terrorism and humanitarian rescue training to be held in Cambodia from March 15 to 31, 2018. (jz.81.cn/Photo by Zhang Yiju) Judge Kim Yoon-ki of the Seoul Central District Court announced Friday that Coca-Cola Bottling would not be held responsible for the decayed teeth of Lee Chul-ho, the head of legal website Nasiyen.com, who made W1.2 billion off a damage suit against the multinational firm. Kim said the cause and effect relationship between Coca-Cola and decayed teeth was not proven. Lee has been drinking one to three 360 ml bottles of coke almost every day for thirty years and is now addicted to it. He insisted that he lost 11 teeth due to paradentitis resulting from coca-cola and finally sued the company. The judge noted in the decision statement, "Lee's paradentitis was produced from various causes which make it difficult to judge that Coca-Cola's acid elements and amount of sugar were responsible for the disease. Also, the amount of caffeine in Coca-cola is less than the amount in coffee or tea therefore, it is hard to say that symptoms of addiction appeared just by drinking it." In addition, the bench said, "This kind of proposal is not a subject of a civil suit," when Lee asked the company to add warning signs on its products saying, "If you drink Coca-Cola for a long period of time, it may damage the condition of your teeth." "I will make an appeal but the fact that Coca-Cola's danger is known to the public is valuable," claimed Lee. Coca-Cola Bottling Korea welcomed the decision, saying, "It confirmed that tooth diseases are related to managing teeth condition, not to simply drinking Coca-Cola." An investigation by the ministry showed that the school operator told officials that Akie Abe encouraged him to proceed with the land deal, and several conservative lawmakers had contacted the ministry about the school plan, but it was not clear whether they violated any law. It said one document originally noted that the school operator was involved with a powerful pro-Abe political lobby, Nippon Kaigi, of which Abe was vice chairman, but that comment had later been deleted. The altered documents relate to the 2016 sale of state land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen in Osaka at one-seventh of the appraised value with the alleged involvement of first lady Akie Abe, who supported the school's ultra-nationalistic education policy. Abe quickly apologized Monday on behalf of ministry officials but did not mention his wife or her suspected role in the scandal. "People are looking critically at the developments, and I take it seriously," he said, promising to pursue a thorough investigation into what caused the problem. Japan's Finance Ministry acknowledged Monday that it doctored documents in a widening scandal linked to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife that has rattled his government and caused its support ratings to slide. The scandal, which surfaced a year ago, has smoldered despite a major election victory by Abe in July as opposition lawmakers continued to scrutinize the case. It erupted again in recent weeks after a major newspaper reported that it found evidence the ministry had altered records after the scandal broke. Finance Minister Taro Aso said the investigation found 14 altered documents. The changes were made from February to April last year at the instruction of the Financial Bureau, the ministry department in charge of state property transactions, mostly at its regional unit in Osaka, Aso said. He said the documents were falsified to match explanations that an official in charge of the land deal, Nobuhisa Sagawa, provided to parliament in response to opposition lawmakers' questions. Sagawa later was promoted to National Tax Agency chief in what critics alleged was a reward for stonewalling the questioning. He resigned last Friday to take responsibility for his replies, and another official linked to the scandal reportedly killed himself. Sagawa also acknowledged destroying documents. Aso denied there had been any political pressure, but declined to disclose where the instructions came from and who was responsible. Abe said Aso will not step down. In a parliamentary hearing Monday, Finance Ministry officials confirmed that a reference to Akie Abe having recommended the land deal was deleted from a document after the scandal surfaced. Yasunori Kagoike, then head of Moritomo Gakuen, purchased the land to build an elementary school where Abe's wife briefly served as honorary principal. The Abes are known to have supported the school's nationalistic philosophy of education. A phrase calling the land deal "exceptional," as well as the names of several other influential lawmakers who were implicated but have denied involvement, were also deleted, the ministry said. Opposition lawmakers allege political pressure was involved in the land sale, but Abe has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Opposition leaders demanded that Abe's wife and Sagawa testify and threatened to boycott parliamentary sessions if they did not. Yukio Edano, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said the document doctoring by the ministry "shakes the foundation of Japan's democracy." The conservative Yomiuri newspaper and public broadcaster NHK both reported declines in support ratings for Abe's Cabinet in polls released Monday. Outside parliament Monday, dozens of protesters demanded the Cabinet's resignation. The All Progressives Congress, APC, has reacted to a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari blaming Inspector General of Police,... The All Progressives Congress, APC, has reacted to a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari blaming Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris for incessant killings in Benue. Buhari on his visit to Benue denied knowledge of IGP Idriss absence in the state, stating that he disobeyed his order . The statement sparked different reactions as Nigerians and politicians queried how a president of the country will not be aware of IG of Polices movements and decisions concerning serious matters. Governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose mocked Buharis absence of knowledge about happenings in Nigeria, describing the situation as unfortunate. However, responding, the APC said the President spoke from the heart and was sincere about issues in Benue. The partys National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi speaking to Punch said Buharis statement should not be misconstrued to mean the President was not in charge. Abdullahi said, What the President said with regard to the IG shows the level of sincerity of Mr. President. It takes a very honest and courageous man to say what the President said and I am sure the President is ready to deal with the situation arising from that. All Progressive Congress (APC), stalwart and former government of Abia state, Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, has challenged President Mohammadu Buhari to arrest and prosecute former President Olusegun Obasanjo to prove his seriousness in his anti-corruption war.Kalu threw the challenge at the quarterly public lecture series of National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) with the theme: Culture, Economy and good Governance: The Nigerian Experience held in Abuja.He said President Buhari should be bold enough to prove that he has gotten the gut expected of him to salvage Nigeria from bad governance by arresting former President Olusegun Obasanjo over alledged missing fund meant for power under his regime, insisting that unless Obasanjo is arrested, the administration will not be considered to be fighting corruption.My prosecution is political. Our accounts in Abia state were transparent under my watch. The US knows, the UK knows. I have been given a red carpet in these two countries. I have been given a red carpet in China. In fact, I am stronger in fighting corruption than President Buhari because he is not fighting it well. I have recovered peoples money and given them back. I am a creator of wealth at every level. If any court finds me to be corrupt , it should jail me. Corruption is the bane of this country.A corrupt judge and corrupt politician is worst than armed rubber. Nigerians should start electing presidents that have meaning and gut to take decisions.President Buhari has got some guts but he should arrest Obasanjo for us to know that corruption is working.Without arresting Obasanjo, he has not started fighting corruption because Obasanjo took away our $16million electricity money. So, unless he arrests Obasanjo, corruption is not being fought in Nigeria. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has chided President Muhammadu Buhari for saying that he was unaware that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, did not carry out his orders regarding the security situation in Benue State, adding that such admission shows that the President is running an incompetent and uncoordinated government.President Buhari with Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Senator George Akume and Rt Gen. Lawrence Onoja shortly after his Sympathy Visit to Benue over recent killings in the State on 12th Mar 2018.The party said President Buhari has irredeemably indicted himself for not knowing that the man tasked with the security of the nation failed to take orders from the Commander-in-Chief, stressing that such unpardonable gaffe is responsible for governments wrecking of the nations once robust economy as well as other woes that have befallen our nation in his almost three years in office.The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Tuesday, urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) and supporters of the President to take their minds off the Aso Villa ahead of 2019 elections now that their leader and sole candidate has practically admitted his incompetence to run an effective government as desired by Nigerians.Nigerians have completely lost hope in President Muhammadu Buhari and his incompetent administration. By stating that he was unaware that the IGP only spent 24 hours in Benue State, Mr. President has confirmed that he has not been effectively monitoring the handling of the security situation of our nation.For our party, the PDP, the expression of President Buhari has once again vindicated our position that our nation has been placed on autopilot cruise with a cabal pretending to be managing our affairs.Nigerians need to know: what exactly did President Buhari, as the Commander-in-Chief, do when he realized that the IGP did not carry out his orders? The fact is that there is no sense of remorse by the government as the President himself spent only two hours in Benue state without visiting the victims or even making any direct policy statement on those behind the killings and how to forestall future bloodletting. Rather, in the character of this government, Mr. President engaged in yet another blame game instead of facing issues, the statement read in part.The PDP further expressed worry over the continuous killings in Benue by suspected marauders, saying rather than unveil his plan to arrest the situation, President Buhari is thinking of the 2019 elections.Nigerians are miffed that while the wailings over these daily bloodletting are yet to abate, President Buhari is busy announcing his plans to return to Benue to seek for another round of votes. This shows clinically that Mr. President is truly not aware that Nigerians have since abandoned him in his state of unawareness.Nigerians can no longer bear with a government that cannot give directions to officials and monitor it through; a government that is so inept that it lacks the elementary proficiencies to initiate and implement effective policies and programmes for national cohesion and development; a government that lacks the basic skills to internationally engage and run a virile economy, the PDP added. The Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Uche Secondus has condemned President Muhammadu Buhari over his claim that the Inspector Ge... The Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Uche Secondus has condemned President Muhammadu Buhari over his claim that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris disobeyed him on the lingering crisis in Benue. President Buhari on Monday denied knowledge of days which the IGP spent in Benue State after he was ordered to relocate to the state. Addressing stakeholders at the Government House in Makurdi on Monday, the President said he was just learning of the alleged non-compliance by the IGP. He promised to engage the IGP for inquires upon his return to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. What I did was to call him and give him the directive. I didnt know he moved here (Benue State) and didnt spend and then moved to Nasarawa. Its only now that I am knowing that. But I know I dispatched him here, the President said. Reacting, the National Chairman of the PDP in a short statement to Punch said Buhari was not in charge of the All Progressives Congress government. According to him, Cabals were in charge and had hijacked government. He said, Buhari is not in charge of anything. He does not have genuine people around him. How can a President give a directive and it is ignored? Yet he did not know. How would he know when he surrounds himself with sycophants? MR. Olajide Omokore, an ally of former Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, yesterday, lost his bid to recover his property forfeited to the Federal Government by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, as his suit was struck out.Omokore had filed the suit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, seeking to secure the release of his property temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government by the order of the court.At the hearing in the matter, yesterday, Omokores lawyer, O. Achimiwu told the court that his client wants to discontinue the matter against the EFCC, though he did not state any reason for the discontinuance as there was no legal representation for EFCC.Consequently, the trial judge, Justice Mojisola Olatoregun struck out the case.Omokore had in an affidavit in support of the suit averred that the allegations levied against him and two companies, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited which he has vested interest by the EFCC are in relation to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited allegations of breach of specific terms of the contract agreement embodied in a Strategic Alliance Agreements, SAA, between the two companies and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited, NPDC, in respect of eight oil blocks.He stated that under the SAA the companies were obliged to render some services to the NPDC and also remit some monies accruing from the services to the Federal Government through the Petroleum company.It was averred that the contract agreement was on-going and being performed until it was alleged that the companies were in default of certain sums of remittances.Based on the differences and disagreement over remittances, parties were already in the process of agreeing on the terms of unremitted payment to resolve the issue, when EFCC waded into the matter and said it was investigating the contract agreement, which it claimed was contrary to the provisions under SAA for parties to go to arbitration to resolve their differences. President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday said he was not aware that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, ignored his instruction ... President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday said he was not aware that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, ignored his instruction to relocate to Benue State during the crisis in the state.He stated this at a meeting with stakeholders in Makurdi, during his visit to Benue State.Shortly after 73 persons were killed in January following clashes between farmers and herdsmen, Buhari had asked Idris to relocate to Benue.But during the meeting with stakeholders, Buhari was told that Idris did not spend up to 24 hours in the state.Buhari, who expressed shock, explained that he did the needful by ordering the IG to relocate to the state.But I did not know that the IG did not stay in the state. I am getting to know this at this meeting. I am quite surprised, he said.He, however, stated that the meeting was not the best place to expose the inefficiency of his appointee.Buhari told the meeting that he was doing his best to tackle insecurity in the land.He expressed the hope that farmers and herdsmen would continue to coexist in the state, urging residents to learn to live together peacefully.Buhari, however, denounced the insinuation that he abandoned the people of the state at their trying periods, saying, I have friends here; there is no way I can deliberately overlook what is happening here and other parts of the country.Let me appeal to our people to apply more restraints. The relationship between farmers and herders will continue; it behoves us to keep encouraging ourselves to live together peacefully.He said his administration had cut down on importation of rice by 90 per cent because many states of the federation were cultivating rice in large quantity.Buhari stated further that while he had taken note of what all stakeholders had said, he would not make any promise.Earlier, Ortom had intimated the President that the state had lost many lives after the mass burial of 73 victims of the New Year attack.Sixty-five more people have been killed after the mass burial of 73 persons; 26 more were killed in Okpokwu with over 5,000 displaced in Mbatoho community.As of now, 170,000 people live in IDP camps across the state. Sixty per cent of IDPs are school children who should be in school.Yesterday (Sunday), two police officers were killed in Guma. Our appeal is that the Federal Government should compensate the people who have been displaced.Ortom denied the report that the state government owned militia, saying, Ghana is the one that is known to own a militia and he has been declared wanted with N50m bounty placed on him.We hope the Ayem Akpatuma (an ongoing military operation in the state) can be upgraded from an exercise to an operation because the herdsmen have taken over the villages and our food has become feed for their cattle. If Ayem is upgraded, Ghana will be tracked down.Ortom also appealed to the President to order the immediate arrest and prosecution of leaders of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, who he accused of the killings.But the representative of the Miyetti Allah, Benue chapter, Shettima Mohammed, denied responsibility for the Benue attacks.He said the association was peace-loving unlike its public presentation by government officials.The Chairman, Benue State Traditional Council, Tor Tiv, Prof. Ayatse, appealed to the President to support the anti-open grazing law of the state.A second republic minister of steel, Paul Unongo, told the President to do something about the activities of killer herdsmen.If you dont do something now, you will discover that you will end up having a terrorist country. The governor is not your enemy. He is very competent and loyal to you.The state Chairman of the state Christian Association of Nigeria, Akpen Leva, demanded compensation to rebuild about 500 churches burnt during herdsmen attacks in the state.However, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, Buhari was reported to have told the stakeholders in Benue that he reprimanded the IG when the killings in Benue started.He was quoted to have said he did not do that in the open as many would desire because he was not in the habit of rebuking his appointees publicly.The President disclosed that he shared the IGPs security report on the Benue crisis with Senators George Akume and Barnabas Gemade from the state.He appealed to leaders of various groups in the state to convince their constituents that the Federal Government is doing its best to end the recurring attacks in various parts of the country, the statement read in part.While thanking God for the good rain, the successful efforts of the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, an indigene of Benue State, the President said his administration would continue to empower farmers with loans.Expressing delight that the agricultural policy of his administration had led to 90 per cent reduction in rice importation, he commended Ebonyi, Lagos, Kebbi, Jigawa and Benue states for doing extremely well. Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state, Tuesday, revealed that the state will conduct its local government election in the month of June, this year.Okorochas message came after about 8 years, without elected local government chairmen in the state, as released to newsmen in Owerri, by his Chief Pressure Secretary, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo.He said: Governor Rochas Okorocha has said that the State would Conduct the Local Government election in June, 2018 to elect Local Government Chairmen and Councillors.However, the governor requested, The State House of Assembly should tidy up the Local Government laws without delay for the June election.Commenting on the issue of endorsement of President Mohammadu Buhari and his son-in-law, Mr Uche Nwosu, he said: the endorsements given to President Buhari for 2019 in the State and that of Uche Nwosu for the governorship in the State stand, challenging those opposed to the endorsements to present their own aspirants or Candidates if they think they have better options.Okorocha promised that The APC Primary in Imo is going to be very transparent. It is going to be open. The world will be made to watch it. There will be no short-cut.Anybody who wins the Primary becomes the Candidate of the Party. And the whole noise about Uche Nwosu is because he is the best of all those talking about the governorship in the State at the moment.He insisted,I have no apologies endorsing President Buhari for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and no apologies accepting the endorsements of all the local governments of Imo State for Ugwumba Nwosu. The Russian military said it has conducted a successful test of a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile capable of sneaking through enemy defenses. A video posted by the Defense Ministry Sunday showed a MiG-31 fighter jet launching a Kinzhal (Dagger) missile during a training flight. The ministry said the missile, which carried a conventional warhead, hit a practice target at a firing range in southern Russia. President Vladimir Putin named Kinzhal this month among the new nuclear weapons he said would bolster Russia's military capability and render the U.S. missile defense useless. Protests, empty streets and distraught residents Benue State was in no holiday mood yesterday for the President. Protests, empty streets and distraught residents Benue State was in no holiday mood yesterday for the President.President Muhammadu Buharis visit was to condole with the people over killings by herdsmen and reassure them that the administration shared in their grief.The President met with leaders of thought, traditional rulers, stakeholders and government officials at the Peoples House, the Government House, before returning to Abuja.Family members of some of those killed in the New Years Day attacks in which 73 people died staged a peaceful protest in front of the meeting venue.The protesters, numbering about 50, carried placards, lamenting the killings and seeking an end to such savagery. Besides, they sought compensation for the families of the deceased.Security agents barred the protesters from going into the Government House. They were restricted to the Government House Roundabout where they held up their placards, singing mournful songs and calling attention. They were decked in black apparels.Some of the placards read: End the killings or resign, Buhari and Everyone is a Yusuf. Yusuf is Buharis son who had an accident while riding a power bike. He was flown overseas for treatment. He has since returned.Some of the placards carried photos of those killed.There was no crowd to receive the President in Makurdi, unlike when he visited the state to campaign in 2015.There was no public holiday. Markets and schools were not closed; pupils did not line the streets and no banners welcome him to the state, except the one hoisted by Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai.Most people went about their businesses, showing no interest in the presidential visit. Security agents took over empty streets.A resident, James Ogaba, said he had nothing to do with the Presidents visit, having lost three members of his family in the Agatu attacks by the herdsmen .Armed security personnel were deployed in strategic areas in Makurdi. Others were patrolling streets in armoured tanks and vehicles.Siren-blaring police patrol vans conveying security personnel in bullet proof vestments were patrolling the streets.Contrary to the itinerary released before the visit, the President did not go to Tor Tiv James Ayatses Makurdi residence. He also did not go to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp.During the interactive session at the Government House, the Tor Tiv urged the Federal Government to dualise federal roads in the state to reduce traffic gridlock.Elder statesman Paul Unongo urged the President to support the implementation of the anti-open grazing law.The law, which was enacted in July 2017, came into effect in November 2017 but its implementation has been controversial because herdsmen vowed to resist it.Unongo said: The Federal Government should insist that the law is implemented because it is the only way to end the clashes between farmers and herdsmen.President, Mzough U Tiv, a Tiv socio-political group, Mr Edward Ujege, called for compensation for victims of the attacks.Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi regretted that the response of the Federal Government was coming too late.Anagbe appealed to herdsmen to accept the anti-open grazing law to reduce clashes between them and farmers. The Senator representing Bayelsa East in the National Assembly, Ben Murray-Bruce, has revealed how he was resisted when he advocated for l... The Senator representing Bayelsa East in the National Assembly, Ben Murray-Bruce, has revealed how he was resisted when he advocated for lower wages. In a series of Tweets on Monday, Murray-Bruce said he told other senators that if Nigerian legislators earnedd higher than European legislators then Nigerian workers should be paid higher than European workers. The federal lawmaker said: From the first day I got to the Senate, I advocated for lower wages and allowances for public officials and a higher minimum wage for the Nigerian worker. I was resisted and made the personal decision to share my allowances with widows in my constituency. If we must pay our legislators higher than they pay European legislators then we must pay our workers higher than they pay European workers. Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, says he wonders if President Muhammadu Buhari really knows anything about happenings in the count... Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, says he wonders if President Muhammadu Buhari really knows anything about happenings in the country. Fayose said this while reacting to Buharis comment on Monday that he was not aware Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police, disobeyed his orders. Shortly after 73 persons were killed in January following clashes between farmers and herdsmen, Buhari asked Idris to relocate to Benue. But when he visited the state on Monday, the president was told that Idris did not spend up to 24 hours in the state. In a surprise, Buhari had said: Im not aware that the I-G did not spend 24 hours in the state as directed by me, I am getting to know in this meeting. Writing via his Twitter handle, Fayose wondered why the president is learning about the IGPs alleged disobedience two months after. He said the comment could mean the president is not aware of happenings around him, not to talk about Nigeria. Fayose wrote: What manner of a President will give order to the IGP on January 9, only to be telling Nigerians on March 12 (2 months after) that he never knew that the IGP disobeyed his order? Does this president really know anything about happenings around him, not to talk about Nigeria? What manner of a President will give order to the IGP on January 9, only to be telling Nigerians on March 12 (2 months after) that he never knew that the IGP disobeyed his order? Does this President really know anything about happenings around him, not to talk about Nigeria? Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) March 12, 2018 Senator representing Bauchi Central, Isah Misau, has lambasted President Muhammadu Buhari for seeking re-election in 2019. Senator representing Bauchi Central, Isah Misau, has lambasted President Muhammadu Buhari for seeking re-election in 2019. He said this during a committee meeting at the National Assembly. Misau berated the nations leader for not being proactive towards burning national issues. The lawmaker lamented that it took constant reminder by the Nigerian media and criticisms of the APC government before Buhari decided to visit states where killings have been recorded. His words: It is painful. We dont have hospitals, we dont have schools; nothing is working in the country and all of us are saying 2019. What is 2019? Are we sure we are going to reach 2019? its so bad. Things are happening. Leaders, you have to beg them before they go and see what is happening in places. Media have to make a lot of noise before leaders go there. What kind of a country is this? A former Pagans motorcycle gang leader says he is a confidential informant in a South Jersey murder-for-hire and drug distribution case, according to a story published by a Canadian news outlet. Andrew Glick, of Egg Harbor Township, told a reporter for The Toronto Star that he cooperated with the FBI and Atlantic County investigators in building their case against Dr. James Kauffman and several Pagans who were arrested in January. Kauffman and reputed Pagan Ferdinand Augello are charged in the murder of Kauffman's wife, April, who investigators say was killed after she learned her husband was running a prescription drug racket from his office and threatened to go to police. Kauffman committed suicide in jail in January, leaving Augello, 61, of Petersburg, as the only defendant still facing a murder rap. The other six defendants are charged with racketeering in connection with the drug racket. Glick, 53, who previously served as president of the Cape May County Pagans chapter, said he decided to cooperate when faced with the prospect of serving 40 years in prison on weapons and drug charges. He was arrested in early November on drug charges, but that arrest was never publicized with the others. The arresting officer listed on Glick's court documents is a member of the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office who was credited for his role as a lead investigator in the Kauffman case. Glick's charges don't include the weapons offenses he mentioned in his interview with the Star. Complaints signed against the Kauffman defendants in January reference Glick as a Pagans member and one of those solicited to kill April Kauffman. James Kauffman had grown inpatient with how long it was taking to find someone to handle the hit, Glick told the Star. "The doc kept complaining, 'Why is it taking so long?,'" Glick said. "I said, 'We're working on it. It's not like there is a store where we can go to hire hitmen to kill women.'" Augello allegedly solicited several Pagans to carry out the killing, before striking a deal with Francis Mulholland to carry out the deed in 2012. Mulholland, 46, of Lower Township, died of a drug overdose in 2013, prosecutors said. The affidavits of probable cause against Kauffman and his co-defendants reference a confidential informant, but it's not clear if these references are to Glick. In addition to prescription records that led authorities to several defendants charged with racketeering, a confidential informant "has had numerous recorded conversations with Ferdinand Augello and other individuals who have admitted to details of the enterprise, including prescription fraud and the murder of April Kauffman," according to an affidavit. A confidential informant also figured in an effort to have the doctor killed, prosecutors allege. Augello told the informant he feared the doctor would implicate him in the murder and drug scheme. Kauffman was arrested on weapons offenses last June after investigators armed with search warrants arrived at his office. Kauffman pulled a gun, leading to a 45-minute standoff. He was still jailed on weapons charges from the standoff when he was charged with murder. Between December 2017 and January, someone described in the affidavit as a co-conspirator told Augello that he "had individuals who would kill Kauffman at the Atlantic County Justice Facility." Augello allegedly told the co-conspirator to act on the plan. After learning of the alleged plot, authorities moved Kauffman to Hudson County, where he killed himself in late January. Augello remains in jail, while his co-defenants are free pending future hearings. Glick told the Star that he is now fearful for his safety. "I walk around and I look over my shoulder," he told the paper. "I don't go out a whole lot." He is currently free pending an April 19 pre-indictment conference in Atlantic County Efforts to reach Glick, his attorney and the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office for comment were unsuccessful Tuesday. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. A former North Bergen man was sent to prison Monday and must pay back the state for more than $317,000 in false unemployment and disability claims he filed over three years. Jose Crespo, 52, now of New Castle, Del., was sentenced to eight years in state prison, with three years of parole ineligibility, by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Peter E. Warshaw, Jr. The judge also ordered him to pay $317,736 in restitution. Crespo, who previously lived in Fort Lee, pleased guilty in April 2017 to one count of second-degree computer theft. His wife, Marilyn Crespo, 50, pleaded guilty to second-degree theft and was sentenced to the drug court program. If she fails to complete the program she will go to prison for 5 years, State Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said in a statement. A friend of the couple, Craig Mallone, 62, of Wilmington, Del., who received $12,825 in benefits, pleaded guilty to third-degree theft by deception and was sentenced to 364 days in jail and three years probation. The three were indicted in Oct. 2016 following a state investigation that uncovered two schemes that involved filing false government assistance claims between Dec. 2012 and Dec. 2015, authorities said. Investigators found Jose Crespo, with the help of Marilyn Crespo, filed 19 fraudulent Unemployment Insurance claims listing two employers that were actually shell companies set up in New Jersey by the Crespos. Eleven of the 19 claims used identities of current or former inmates in the Georgia state prison system and several others were in the names of Crespo's family members. They totaled $110,642. Crespo also allegedly filed 23 fraudulent Temporary Disability Insurance claims involving seven different employers -- all shell companies connected to the Crespos, including two of the companies used for the unemployment claims. Sixteen of the 23 claims were filed in the names of current or former Georgia prison inmates and the others were filed in the names of Crespo's family members. They totaled $207,094. The state Division of Criminal Justice's Specialized Crimes Bureau, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General investigated the schemes. "Prolific con artists like Crespo are a costly drain on the unemployment insurance trust fund, which is a vital safety net for hardworking New Jerseyans who lose their jobs through no fault of their own," said Attorney General Grewal. The State Labor Department's ongoing anti-fraud initiative has saved taxpayers $950 million to date, the state said. Crespo was already sentenced in January to three years in federal prison for a scheme in which he fraudulently collected over $1 million in tax refunds by falsely claiming tax credits for shell companies he created. Marilyn Crespo pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in connection with the same criminal scheme, which was uncovered and investigated by the Internal Revenue Service's Newark office, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey. An attorney for Crespo could not be reached immediately for comment. Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A 14-year-old South Jersey high school student was arrested over the weekend after he allegedly threatened a school shooting over social media, according to Evesham police. He is the third in less than a week to be accused of making shooting threats toward schools in Evesham Township. Evesham Township Police received a report that a Cherokee High School student had sent a social media message to his classmates claiming he had a gun and wanted to shoot a police officer. The message also advised students to wear certain colors so he would see them, and avoid shooting them, when he opened fire at the school, police said. Investigators identified the student and arrested him Saturday, according to police. The teen admitted to making the threat, police said. Further investigation revealed that the threat was not credible and the teen did not have access to weapons. He faces charges of making terroristic threats and causing false public alarm, police said. "We always take any kinds of threats against our schools very seriously," Chief Christopher Chew said in a statement released Tuesday. "I am proud of the students who reported these threatening messages to their parents who worked with our agency to uncover the source of the threats and make sure any potential danger to our police officers, students and school staff was immediately investigated." The teen is the second Cherokee High School student to be arrested this week. At the end of last week, police had arrested a 12-year-old middle school student and a 15-year-old high school student for threatening their campuses with Snapchat messages. A school administrator did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning. 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 Authorities are investigating a broad daylight shooting in Newark's South Clinton neighborhood that left one person dead Monday afternoon, investigators said. The male victim, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene after being found unresponsive at the intersection of East Peddie Street and Frelinghuysen Avenue, according to Essex County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Fennelly. In a statement, the prosecutor's office said Newark police officers had been dispatched to the intersection around 1:20 p.m. on a report of a shooting in progress. Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said the victim was a resident of a halfway house in the city, making him the fourth halfway house resident killed in the past three years. "Residential reentry centers are failing to provide the extensive supervision required to identify criminal activities among those residing in halfway houses. These facilities need to be more closely monitored," Ambrose said in a statement. "Some of these operations needlessly put our residents and others in our communities at serious risk. Only through the close scrutiny and assessment of halfway houses will we be able to assess their overall effectiveness and to determine whether the risks outweigh the benefits." The prosecutor's office said the victim's name will be withheld pending notification of his next of kin, and described the investigation as "active and ongoing." Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips You could almost imagine the collective yell of Newarkers everywhere proudly screaming "What is Newark!" as a clue for a game quiz show flashed before their blue TV screens. Newark schools made Jeopardy! It was a double jeopardy round and a clue for $1,600. "In 2017 this N.J. city regained local control over its schools & 55,000 students, taken over by the state in 1995," host Alex Trebek read on Monday night's show. Social media exploded with excitement. Woah! Interesting fact on tonights show of Jeopardy! a question was mentioned about the New Jersey Department of... Posted by Reginald Bledsoe on Monday, March 12, 2018 OMG! NEWARK WAS JUST AN ANSWER ON JEOPARDY! The clue was - "In 2017 this NJ city regained local control over it's public schools after 20 years for its 55,000 students". YES! NEWARK FORWARD!!! sistateacher (@sistateacher) March 13, 2018 After more than two decades under state control, governance of Newark schools was returned to its locally-elected School Board this year. Though the state takeover technically ended on Feb. 1, the state voted to return control in 2017. It was a proud moment for New Jersey's largest city, based on an even prouder moment for a school system finally under local control. "This appearance on Jeopardy is yet another example of how the city of Newark is on the move and increasingly in the national spotlight," Interim Superintendent of Newark Schools Robert Gregory said. "I was very excited to see Newark recognized on the show, not just because it is fun for those of us who know and love this city, but also because it is a testament to the hard work of this community, the city's civic leadership, and the many staff members and students across the district who worked so hard to return our schools to local control." And yes, one of the contestants supplied the proper question for Trebek's clue. "What is Newark," one of the contestants, Zach, said. Here is the video of Monday, March 12, 2018 Jeopardy! Season 34, Episode 131. Contestant Zach Dark, an investment analyst from Hoover, Alabama was asked about the 2017 return of Local Control of the Newark Public Schools by the New Jersey Department of Education. Mr. Dark answered the question correctly! Posted by Reginald Bledsoe on Monday, March 12, 2018 Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook. The European Union's foreign policy chief says the EU will extend a 1 billion-euro ($1.2 billion) loan to struggling Ukraine. Federica Mogherini, who was visiting the capital Kyiv on Monday, told reporters the loan should "support Ukraine's economic stability and structural reforms." Ukraine is trying to improve its economy after years of inefficiency and corruption under the previous president, Viktor Yanukovych, and has been hit hard by the separatist conflict in the east. BAYONNE -- The city will finally see its first mosque built on the east side of town. The Zoning Board, during a special meeting in the Bayonne High School auditorium Monday night, approved a mosque and community center proposed by the local nonprofit group Bayonne Muslims. The board had denied the proposal about a year ago, citing traffic and parking concerns. But after a federal lawsuit, open investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, and a potentially huge payout if taken to court, the city and board decided to settle. "I've tried to keep the focus on zoning, but it has gone far beyond that," said Mark Urban, chairman of the board. "It is now a financial issue ... My opinion has not changed on the application, but based on the legal counsel that has been given to this board, not to accept this agreement is going to cause an extreme financial burden to the taxpayers of this city." The approval brings closure to a controversial saga that saw years of zoning board postponements and delays, as well as protests among residents, some of whom remain opposed. "This is not fair to me or my neighbors," Melanie Flora said tonight, adding that the mosque's approval would impact her quality of life because the area would be "subjected to an influx of cars, people and noise coming into the neighborhood seven days a week. "To my Muslim friends here, I accept everybody for who they are," she said. "(But) I don't want to be discriminated against." The Zoning Board on March 6, 2017 -- after a burdensome, year-and-a-half long process -- denied the group's proposal for a mosque on property it had purchased in the summer of 2015. The group had been renting out the basement of the St. Henry's Church since 2008. That lease has since expired. Officials voted in favor 4-3, but the application needed a super majority so it failed to pass. Dissenting zoning board officials cited traffic and parking issues in their decisions, but a lawsuit filed two months later by the Bayonne Muslims claimed the board violated federal law because it based its vote on issues it was not legally permitted to consider. Shortly after, the U.S. Justice Department announced it had opened an investigation into the matter. An email seeking comment from the Justice Department was not immediately returned. The city opted to settle the suit for $400,000 in late January of this year. It was paid for through a joint insurance fund that the city makes regular payments to in exchange for coverage. The settlement payout is a windfall compared to similar litigation in the state: $3.25 million to settle a lawsuit in Bernards Township in August 2017 and $7.75 million to settle in Bridgewater in 2014. The city faced a particularly daunting legal battle, considering the lawsuit cited two similar approvals the zoning board made in 2011 and 2012 for houses of worship. In 2011, the zoning board granted a variance to the Virgin Mary and St. John Coptic Orthodox Church at 22 West 20th St. despite observing that the applicant did not satisfy any of the three requirements for a conditional use variance, according to the lawsuit. And in 2012, the board granted Iglesia Ni Cristo church at 280 Ave. E. a variance similar to the one the Bayonne Muslims sought, the lawsuit said. "Our lawyers came back and said, 'Listen, it would almost behoove you to settle this case and not take it to trial unless you're prepared to pay millions of dollars,'" Mayor Jimmy Davis said previously. "'And have your taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars.'" But many residents attending the meeting tonight were not fond of the city's decision to settle. "I do not believe our city should bend to the threat of a lawsuit," said Joseph Basile, a local pastor in town whose house was vandalized with graffiti after hanging signs in his window that read "Save Bayonne" and "Stop the Mosque." "You did act in good faith when you denied this application, please do not be bullied by a lawsuit," he added. Other arguments against the mosque's approval, made mostly by residents in the surrounding area of the property on East 24th Street, varied from the lack of parking, traffic congestion, safety of children walking in the streets, and a lack of crossing guards, among other things. They also pointed to new residential development in the area. Several residents also suggested there was a level of political collusion occurring between the zoning board and the city amid election season. But, nonetheless, the application was approved unanimously. The plaintiffs were represented by Adeel A. Mangi and Muhammad Faridi of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP in Manhattan, who also represented an Islamic society in the Bernards Township case. "We are very pleased to have received a unanimous approval from the Zoning Board and look forward to welcoming Bayonne residents of all faiths to the city's first mosque," Mangi said. The plaintiffs, Abdul Hameed Butt and Khaled Aly -- the president and vice president of the Bayonne Muslims, respectively -- asserted that the zoning board's denial of the proposed house of worship was influenced by "anti-Muslim community animus." The suit cites a number of examples, including residents protesting outside City Hall with signs reading "If the mosque comes, the mayor (goes)," and a 20-year-old resident arrested and charged after vandalizing the St. Henry's Church School with anti-Muslim graffiti. In particular, the lawsuit named Michael Alonso, now a trustee on the city Board of Education, who in June 2016 cited the Orlando night club massacre tragedy as reason to oppose the Muslim community center. "It's definitely not the right time, with everything that's happening recently and all over the world," he told ABC7. "We have ISIS. We have Christians being beheaded. We have the LGBT community being targeted. This is just not the right time..." Through his Republican group, Alonso also issued and circulated an advertisement throughout the city which encouraged readers to boycott businesses co-owned by Aly, including Yellow Cab and Judicke's Bakery. Despite all of this, the Muslim community expressed relief of the community center's approval. "All I ask for is a chance," said Ali Hassan, a resident of West 50th Street. "We're just here to worship in peace." Mutasim Hba, a resident who recently moved to Bayonne with his family from Jersey City, said that he and others in the community have continued to invest in the city. "I have a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old who are going to be heading to the Henry Harris School in the future... I need everyone here to understand that there are individuals who are investing big time in Bayonne," he said. "In order for this town to move forward and be a little more progressive, we have to be open to new development and new institutions." "We are investing in this city and I feel like enough is enough, he added. "We want to move forward and build a future for everybody." Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. A pair of Jersey City health clinics are moving into new offices at the City Hall Annex beginning Wednesday. The complex, located in the Hub at 360 Martin Luther King Drive, has not officially opened yet but will serve as the new home for the city's Preventative Medicine Clinic and Child Health Clinic. Starting Wednesday, hours of operation for both are 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Walk-ins will be welcomed, but the last appointments will be seen at 2:30 p.m. The city's Preventative Medicine Clinic, which is open to Jersey City residents, provides free testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Meanwhile, the Child Health Clinic provides immunization services to children who reside in Jersey City and are uninsured or under-insured from birth to 18 years of age. The health clinics are the city's first initiatives to move into the new $20 million building, which officials hope will help revitalize the surrounding neighborhood. Additional departments are scheduled to occupy new offices over the next few weeks, city spokeswoman Hannah Peterson said. NEWARK The sentencing for a former Jersey City cop caught up in a federal investigation of the police department's off-duty jobs program was postponed today after a "serious" incident that occurred last weekend left the judge overseeing the case worried about O'Leary's state of mind. Michael O'Leary, 35, was set to become the third ex-cop sentenced in the case, which has ensnared 11 officers total, including ex-Police Chief Phil Zacche. But the hearing was moved to Friday morning after U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez said he wanted to speak to a medical professional about the incident. "I want to make sure Mr. O'Leary's OK," Vazquez said during the 10-minute hearing in his third-floor federal courtroom in Newark. Vazquez did not elaborate on what happened over the weekend, and neither did O'Leary's attorney, John Lynch. Vazuqez said he learned about it today. "It was just an emotional issue," Lynch told The Jersey Journal. "The judge is just being cautious in making sure Mike is the right frame of mind. It's a stressful time." O'Leary has been out on bail since his Sept. 20 guilty plea. Vazquez decided today O'Leary can remain out on bail until Friday, though he must remain confined to his father's home except for going to work and meeting with his doctor. Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna told the judge he wanted O'Leary detained until Friday. Vazquez noted the prosecution's request but said he did not want to put O'Leary in Hudson County's jail. "I do not think that would be a good environment and could be doing a downward spiral for Mr. O'Leary, which would have the opposite effect of what I'm trying to achieve," Vazquez said, adding to O'Leary, "I want to make sure you're in a good state of mind." The judge's decision came after a roughly 90-minute period that saw Lynch and Khanna meet with Vazquez behind closed doors at least twice and Lynch repeatedly conferring with O'Leary and O'Leary's family in the hallway outside the courtroom. At one point, O'Leary returned to the courtroom and whispered something to a man seated with O'Leary's family. The man smiled and patted O'Leary on the back. O'Leary is facing five years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to paying nearly $40,000 in bribes to another police officer in exchange for getting paid to perform off-duty jobs he never worked. Pay records obtained by The Jersey Journal indicate O'Leary collected $144,336 for off-duty work between 2013 and 2016. In 2014, the first full year O'Leary admitted he participated in the scheme, he made $59,160 from off-duty jobs. His annual salary was $104,307. Mayor Steve Fulop has announced the city will eliminate the off-duty jobs program entirely because of the federal investigation. O'Leary, who has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, is facing five years in prison. The two officers who have been sentenced so far have received probation. Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. Editor's Note: Interested in the marijuana business industry? NJ Cannabis Insider is a new premium intelligence briefing that features exclusive weekly content geared toward entrepreneurs, lawyers and realtors. View a sample issue. A state lawmaker has unveiled a plan to legalize marijuana that would permit hundreds of dispensaries across New Jersey and would allow people to grow a small number of plants at home. Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Mercer, quietly introduced the bill last week after months of speculation about when it would drop and what it would contain. An earlier draft was set to be introduced by the end of January, but was delayed. The bill would legalize the possession and personal use of small amounts of marijuana, while creating both a commercial industry and a government body to regulate that industry. It would also allow New Jerseyans convicted of marijuana possession to apply to have their records expunged. Should the bill pass, New Jersey could see as many as 400 marijuana dispensaries spread across the state. It allows up to 10 dispensaries in each of the state's 40 legislative districts and calls for a minimum of two in each district. Under the bill, New Jersey would also license growers -- called producer-processors in the legislation -- and transporters, in addition to the retailers. The number of licenses for growers would be capped at 15 for the first two years before jumping to 25. The ceiling for transporter licenses would be set at 80. But the commercial cultivators wouldn't be the only ones allowed to grow marijuana. Those wanting to test their green thumbs would be able to grow up to six plants, with a maximum of three of those budding at any one time. Growing weed at home has been a controversial issue, as opponents say it contributes to the black market. Nicholas Gangemi, Gusciora's chief of staff, said home-grow is one of the issues where he expects pushback, adding that he thinks the bill "will go through a lot of refinement" as it navigates the Legislature. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, has not yet assigned the bill to a committee and Gangemi said he expects the chamber to be slow in taking up the bill. New Jersey's potential marijuana industry has been estimated to be worth around $1 billion per year and the state would get some revenue under Gusciora's bill. It sets a tax rate of 7 percent in the first two years before rising to 10 percent in years three and four, before escalating to 15 percent in the fifth year and beyond. If marijuana revenue is $1 billion, the state would earn $70 million in taxes in the first year, money that the bill stipulates would pay for enforcement of cannabis laws. Gusciora's tax rate is lower than one set forth in a state Senate bill re-introduced earlier this year by Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union. Scutari calls for a 25 percent tax on cannabis. Scutari's plan has several other key differences, including prohibiting home-grow. That bill is currently sitting in a Senate committee, awaiting action. Gangemi said Gusciora's team is now starting the process of working with Scutari to find common ground on the bills so they can move forward. "We're looking to work with Scutari's office," Gangemi said. "There's not a lot that can't be up for negotiation." Are you interested in the N.J. cannabis industry? Subscribe here for exclusive insider information from NJ Cannabis Insider Payton Guion may be reached at PGuion@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @PaytonGuion. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A 13-year-old student was arrested after scrawling threatening graffiti on the bathroom wall of a middle school in Piscataway, authorities said Monday. The Theodore Schor Middle School student was charged with creating a false public alarm, threats, criminal mischief and hindering apprehension on March 2, Piscataway police said. The threat didn't mention anything specific. "Any direct or indirect threat made, especially within the school community will be vigorously and thoroughly investigated by the police department as to the credibility and potential source," chief Scott Cartmell said in a statement. "We will not hesitate to act." The student was released to a parent after being charged. Police will continue to patrol schools in the coming days, officials said. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A northern New Jersey high school will be closed for several weeks to repair damage caused by a transformer fire that occurred during last week's nor'easter. Boonton school district officials say Wednesday's fire caused extensive smoke damage to the school, much more than initially believed. They say most of the building must be cleaned with specialized equipment, and some areas will take far longer to repair than other spots. After considering various alternatives for housing all students, the district has decided to use a split-session schedule at its elementary school. Boonton High School students will attend classes in the morning, while elementary school students will have their classes in the afternoon. A Jersey Shore man charged last year with attempting to aid the terrorist group ISIS pleaded guilty to the crime in federal court in Trenton Tuesday morning. Gregory Lepsky, 21, of Point Pleasant Borough, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization before U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp, in Trenton. A plea deal with prosecutors calls for him to spend 16 to 19 years in prison. He could have faced 20, officials said. Lepsky only answered basic yes and no questions during his court appearance. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney James Donnelly, a search of Lepsky's computer and other electronics uncovered his plan to build and detonate a bomb as part of his support for ISIS. During several social media conversations, Lepsky told others that he intended to fight on behalf of ISIS and that he would, if necessary, become a martyr by driving a "bunch of explosives" to where the "enemies" could be found and blowing himself up, Donnelly said in court. Authorities say Lepsky wanted to build a bomb from a pressure cooker, and detonate it in a populous part of New York City in order to kill as many people as possible. A search of Lepesky's internet history revealed that he had been researching ISIS and extremest groups throughout the month of January 2017. In one search Lepesky researched different knives seen ISIS beheading videos and then purchased a knife online. In another search Lepesky had read an article from an extremist magazine that contained step-by-step instructions for building a homemade bomb with a list of supplies to be used. The day of his arrest investigators found an empty pressure cooker in his home, wooden matches and a timing device, all of which he had ordered online, but the materials had not been fashioned into a bomb. Investigators also found several books on jihad and suicide bombings in Lepsky's home. Following his arrest last year, an incident in which he stabbed his family's dog, Lepsky was taken to a local hospital, where he told an employee, with police present, that his name was Allah Abdel Rochmad and that he was "working for ISIS." In several online posts, Lepsky pledged allegiance to ISIS and discussed traveling to Syria to fight with his "brothers," authorities said last year. Olivia Rizzo may be reached at orizzo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LivRizz. Find NJ.com on Facebook After the tax bill passed in Congress, workers throughout New Jersey waited earlier this year to see a bump, even if slight, in their paychecks. But as the last paychecks from the month of February rolled out, some questioned why their paychecks looked the same as always, prompting calls to accountants. "We definitely knew this was going to be a possibility," said Sean Smith, an accountant with New Jersey Society of CPAs. "I advised clients to take a closer look at those February paychecks. With a new law it is important to go in and double check to make sure everything is accurate." So, what happened? When the tax bill passed in December, the Treasury Department said that about 90 percent of Americans could expect more take-home pay as soon as February. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a guideline of Feb. 15 for employers to incorporate changes from the bill into their payroll systems. For some people in New Jersey, their paychecks in February were smaller than they anticipated. There are several explanations, tax experts said. The IRS updated its calculation tables, but in the rush an chaos of the bill passing, it did not update the W-4 tables. And that was a problem because the tax law changed the structure on which withholding allowances are based. It increased the standard deduction, got rid of personal exemptions and trimmed individual income tax rates. Companies estimate how much tax their employees owe based off the W-4s. Without clear guidance from the federal government, employers were left in the dark about how much to withhold, said tax experts. There was a lot of uncertainty about withholding in the early days after the bill passed, said Jay Soled, a professor at Rutgers specializing in taxation. There's a possibility that too much money was withheld for some people in February, he said. "But at the end of the day these are withholding payments not actual tax payments," Soled said. "It could be a little off and not matter at end of day. You just get more of a refund." At the same time, New Jersey Society of CPAs warned withholding too little could result in taxpayers seeing too much money in their paychecks, meaning they would have to pay it back at tax time or would receive a smaller refund. Will your taxes go up or down? Check out our tax bill calculator. https://t.co/SBEYprOZu0 The New York Times (@nytimes) December 21, 2017 There were also issues with smaller payroll companies implementing the Feb. 15 IRS deadline, said Sheila Reynertson, a tax expert at New Jersey Policy Perspective, a left-leaning think tank. "It is a complicated change," Reynertson said. "Larger employers with sophisticated software may have already rolled it out sufficiently. Others might be on the slower end or a third party was needed to make the adjustments." After the passing of the bill in December, some companies simply waited for more guidance on implementing the changes, Soled said. "No one does anything until they get the message from God and God in this case is the IRS," he said. "If companies wait a bit and don't do anything they can't be accused of doing something wrong." Reynertson said many workers in New Jersey were only expected to see a small bump in their paychecks -- so small that they might not notice if they do not look, she said. And now there is an easier way to determine how much taxpayers owe. The IRS finally released a 2018 W-4 this week and updated its withholding calculator to help taxpayers understand if they are withholding the right amount. Employees are not required to submit the new form or make any changes but tweaking withholdings could save certain taxpayers money each month. Erin Banco may be reached at ebanco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ErinBanco. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Gov. Phil Murphy will present his budget today, setting off a three-month scramble that will tell us a great deal about where New Jersey is headed in the post-Christie era. We know Murphy intends to raise taxes on the rich and increase spending on a slew of progressive programs. What we don't know is how he can make the math work, given the fiscal mess he inherited. The irony is this: Murphy can protect his progressive program only if he finds smart places to cut spending as well. For a progressive guy like him, that won't come naturally. The big ideas for spending cuts in New Jersey almost always come from conservatives, and they almost always propose cuts that trash the poor. Their favorite target is school funding for poor urban districts, which former Gov. Chris Christie proposed cutting by more than half, a move that would inevitably force massive teacher layoffs in places like Newark just as the district is turning around. It was cold-hearted stuff. The challenge for Murphy is to find spending cuts that are sensible and fair, to bring progressive sensibilities to the task. The most obvious target is health care costs. Most public workers get benefits that would qualify as "platinum" under Obamacare, according to a bipartisan commission appointed by Christie. Reducing that to "gold" level is a reasonable proposal that would yield enormous savings for state and local governments - about $2 billion a year in all. Murphy is close to the public worker unions and says he'll content himself with the much smaller savings that can be achieved through collective bargaining, with union consent. If so, then the burden is on him to offer more cuts of his own. Let's hope, most of all, that Murphy doesn't pretend that we can build the progressive New Jersey he seeks on the backs of millionaires alone. That is fake math, and it's not even close. Wall Street ranks New Jersey as the nation's second most desperate state, behind Illinois, thanks mostly to the exploding cost of benefits. Those costs absorbed 14 percent of the state budget in 2016 and will mushroom to 27 percent by the end of Murphy's first term without more reform. That increase amounts to about $6 billion a year -- in a budget that was $35 billion this year. For perspective, the millionaires' tax would raise just over $600 million a year. So, you'd need 10 times that amount just to cover the increase in benefit costs over that stretch. Can Murphy rise to this challenge? It's a long shot, but there is no doubt he understands the math. In 2005, he chaired a commission appointed by Gov. Richard Codey charged with examining the fiscal crisis. His main conclusion: New Jersey had to cut benefits for public workers. * * * Turn to taxes, and it's clear that conservatives need to break with their stale ideologies as well. They pretend we can solve this problem without raising any taxes, even though we followed that script for eight years under Gov. Chris Christie and it didn't work. The fiscal crisis lives, and key areas, like public schools and transit, have been starved of needed investment for years. Tax myths abound. It is simply not true, for example, that New Jersey has the highest state and local taxes in the nation, as Christie often claimed. We rank 11th in per capita taxes as a share of our income, and 5th as a flat dollar number. And our millionaires are doing just fine. Their numbers in New Jersey are rising, not falling. Forbes magazine recently listed the 10 states where millionaires face the highest income tax burden, and New Jersey did not make the list. Raising taxes on the rich is not about punishing success. It's about raising needed money from those best able to afford it. On taxes, too, it comes down to facing the math. More: Tom Moran columns Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does your TV still make a sound? Yes, it does. That should provide some insight into the recent spate of power outages here in New Jersey. Coincidentally enough, I happened to be in Puerto Rico reporting on the power outages from last year's Hurricane Maria at the same time the first of those two winter storms hit my home state. As I noted in my columns from Puerto Rico, the response to Maria both on the local and the federal levels left a lot to be desired. There are still a lot of islanders lacking power and water more than five months after the storm. But let us put this into perspective. Maria hit Puerto Rico with winds of up to 175 mph. That's going to cause major damage anywhere on Earth no matter what precautions are taken. But the two winter storms that hit New Jersey were not particularly strong. They would not have caused much damage at all except for trees that fell and took power lines with them. I love trees as much as the next guy. I make it a habit to go for runs in the woods. Not long after Hurricane Sandy I noticed an immense pine in one wildlife refuge where I run. It was creaking audibly even on days with no wind. I gave it a wide berth. When I went out there the other day, I saw that it had finally fallen. The only consequence was that it blocked the trail. Now imagine that tree was located next to a busy road in a densely populated place like Bergen County. Some downed trees where they belong - in the woods. No need to imagine. I saw the effects of fallen trees over and over Sunday when I took a tour of Bergen County with Assemblyman Bob Auth. He's the Republican who represents the part of the county that suffered the most serious power outages. We drove around the area with Upper Saddle River Mayor Joanne Minichetti and several other mayors. We visited a cul-de-sac in Upper Saddle River where about 20 houses were cut off when a tree took down a power line. The power line was still blocking the street five days after it fell. Three out-of-state tree crews were sitting in their trucks waiting for the power company to remove the wires so they could get to work. I talked to a resident of one of the homes that was still without power. He told me a tale of phoning the power company that was familiar to me from my own experiences after hurricanes Irene and Sandy. "You just get a voice recording. You just get generic stuff," said Tony Limina. "I reported it three times and it doesn't show up on their map." The map in question is available online at the website of the Orange and Rockland power company, which is based in nearby New York State. The mayors complained that the company was unresponsive to their pleas and those of homeowners. Many customers of Jersey-based JCP&L reported the same lack of attention. "One of the biggest frustrations was that we had streets that were completely blocked off," said Minichetti. "People could not get out and emergency services could not get in." The mayors commended Gov. Phil Murphy for announcing he will have the Board of Public Utilities investigate what went wrong. Obviously there needs to be a better system for responding to these outages. But the time is long overdue to discuss how to prevent them in the first place. In Puerto Rico, the power crews from the mainland I met complained that the Puerto Rican authority failed to trim trees that had grown into the power lines. But after I took a good look around Bergen County, I saw a lot more branches encroaching on power lines than I did on the island. After all, this is the state that spawned the poet who wrote the immortal lines "Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree." In Puerto Rico, God wisely sticks to native vegetation, which doesn't tend to grow that tall. But here in Jersey, man intercedes. He plants non-native trees that can grow to 80 feet right next to power lines. When the power companies try to trim these trees, they often come up against local shade tree commissions, said state Sen. Gerry Cardinale, a Republican who represents the district. "I went to the towns and I said, 'You gotta deal with these shade tree commissions and get them to be more reasonable - even if it may offend your aesthetic sense if you're a tree-hugger,'" Cardinale said. As the old saying goes, what goes up must come down. And it's going to keep coming down on power lines - until we do something about it. National security adviser Chung Eui-yong on Monday briefed Chinese leaders on his recent meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Chung met with President Xi Jinping, State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, demonstrating the importance Beijing places on developments. He also briefed Xi on his recent trip to Washington to arrange a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim. Xi praised Chung for achieving "positive results" and added that China "actively supports" improving relations between the two Koreas as well as dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea. "We look forward to the smooth [talks between the two Koreas] and dialogue between North Korea and the U.S.," Xi was quoted as saying. Xi told Chung that this would lead to a "thaw in ice and the arrival of spring" on the Korean Peninsula. Chung said Moon is hoping for a "continued active role by China" in engaging North Korea and invited Xi to Seoul. By Tom Deignan Ireland and England had been at war for centuries, but that did not prevent Irish immigrant Thomas Addis Emmet from befriending a famous resident of Bordentown, New Jersey - Thomas Paine, the celebrated British-born Revolutionary War figure. Emmet had lost his beloved brother, Robert, to the Irish-English conflict, which nearly cost Emmet his own life. As it is, Emmet spent years in British prisons. And yet, in the New World, in New Jersey and New York, Paine and Emmet were able to set Old-World differences aside -- and perhaps offer up a lesson for 21st Century America. This year's St. Patrick's Day parades are stepping off amidst a decidedly less-festive debate over the very thing that brought millions of Irish like Thomas Addis Emmet to the U.S -- immigration. President Trump continues to use the lyrics of a song called "The Snake" to suggest that immigrants are "vicious" and ungrateful. And just last month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services removed the phrase "America's promise as a nation of immigrants" from its mission statement, prompting critics to charge that the Trump administration is wiping away America's historic link to immigration. Part of what is driving today's immigration debate is an angry feeling that today's immigrants -- unlike yesterday's -- expect America to change for them. But guess what both Thomas Paine and Thomas Addis Emmet did when they came to America? They looked around and decided this place was far from perfect, and needed a whole lot of changing. Did they hate America? Of course not. In fact, they helped America fulfill its "promise as a nation of immigrants." Paine and Emmet had already been friends for some time when, in the early 1800s, Paine's health began to falter. Emmet, as executor of Paine's will, stepped up to help organize his friend's finances - which included persuading Paine to sell his New Jersey home, and use the money to obtain better medical care. Despite such compassion, Emmet was a highly controversial figure in the eyes of certain "patriotic" Americans. While still living in Ireland, Emmet played a key role in planning a 1798 rebellion against the British. He and other Irish rebels even persuaded France to assist in the rebellion. Many Irish rebels were sympathetic to the French Revolution of 1789. This scared the britches off of America's ruling class, the Federalist Party of the first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams. The infamous, Federalist-supported Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798 - which made it harder for immigrants to vote, and easier to deport them - were mainly aimed at political radicals or refugees from abroad (sound familiar?), especially Catholic ones, as the French and Irish tended to be. No surprise, then, that when Thomas Addis Emmet and his family thought about leaving Ireland for a fresh start in America, influential Federalists made it clear that an Irish rebel with ties to French revolutionaries was not welcome. Turning away such refugees had real consequences. When Robert Emmett was hanged by the British in 1803, Thomas looked back with anger. "The misfortunes which you brought upon the objects of your persecution are incalculable," Emmet said to his political opponents. Thomas Paine was also deeply sympathetic to the French Revolution. He ended up leaving the U.S., and got elected to public office in France. And though Paine eventually fell out of favor with French authorities, he remained so enamored of France that he launched an attack on none other than George Washington, declaring that the beloved general would never have won the Revolution without French assistance. And yet, Paine actually returned to America (third president Thomas Jefferson ushered in a new political environment) where he promptly launched fierce attacks on Christianity. God help any immigrants today who attack Christianity and George Washington. As for Thomas Addis Emmet, he was not quite as controversial as Paine. But he certainly challenged the American status quo. In particular, Emmet targeted so called "test oaths" which "effectively barred [Catholics] from holding public office," according to historian Terry Golway. In order to run for office in states such as New York, candidates had to swear an oath which "included language that essentially required Catholics to renounce their allegiance to the pope," Golway adds. Emmet was dismissed by many as an ungrateful foreigner (sound familiar?). But many ancestors of Irish Americans celebrating St. Patrick's Day were ultimately able to vote because of activists like Emmet. A final delicious irony: Just last year, the Republican-led Congress voted -- unanimously -- to name a Washington park after Thomas Addis Emmet's martyred brother, Robert. The bill ultimately stalled on its way to full passage, so will be taken up again. Nevertheless, for a Republican-dominated congress to honor a refugee with radical leanings is, to say the least, interesting. Then again, maybe no less interesting than an Irishman and Englishman becoming great friends in America. Whether or not there is still such "promise" in America, remains to be seen. Tom Deignan contributed to a chapter about Thomas Addis Emmet in the new book "Nine Irish Lives" (Algonquin). He lives in Woodbridge and writes regularly for The Star-Ledger. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. For decades, Gov. Brendan Byrne joked that he wanted to be buried in Hudson County "so that I can remain active in Democratic politics." On Friday, Byrne may get his wish. The famed Democrat, who served as the 47th Governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982, died on Jan. 4. Now, he's set to have at least some of his ashes interred -- at least temporarily -- at Healy's Tavern, a bar owned by the son of former Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, according to his widow. "Healy's tavern in March is the epicenter of all things Irish in Hudson," said former Gov. James McGreevey on Monday. "We thought that was an appropriate and, if not sacred, at least semi-hallowed ground." Tom Byrne, one of the governor's surviving sons, and his widow, Ruthi Byrne, said that they were discussing plans to also scatter some of his ashes at Brendan Byrne State Forest, which straddles Ocean and Burlington Counties, as well as at family homes in Mercer and Essex County. The Catholic Church, however, says the plan goes against doctrine. A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark on Monday voiced strong objections to having the former governor spend eternity on the top shelf of an Irish pub, much less Byrne's being divided from the rest of his cremains. "They're not supposed to be separating them," said archdiocese spokesman Jim Goodness. "The Vatican recently emphasized this. You don't just have it hanging on the mantle piece. You don't send him on a tour. We bury a body because at the Resurrection, a perfect body will rise." In October 2016, the Vatican issued new guidelines about cremation in which it warned that "it is not permitted to scatter the ashes of the faithful departed in the air, on land, at sea or in some other way." "The family wishes come first," though, said his son, adding the family was considering all options, including at the Brendan Byrne State Forest which straddles Ocean and Burlington counties. "If you asked him what his biggest accomplishment was, he'd say the Pinelands," said Ruthi Byrne. New Jersey and other states permit cremated remains to be scattered on private property with the permission of the property owner and on public property, "with the approval of the state, county or local agency in charge," according to the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association. To that end, in addition to Healy's Tavern, Tom and Ruthi Byrne added that they eventually hope to have some or all late governor's ashes also scattered at Liberty State Park -- also in Hudson County. A formal burial at St. John's Cemetery in Essex County, near the governor's hometown parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in West Orange is also under consideration, they said. The pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes declined to comment, referring questions about the governor's interring to the Archdiocese of Newark. Nevertheless, the Healy's memorial is proceeding apace. In an email shared with NJ Advance Media, McGreevey invited close friends of the Byrne family "to offer your prayers, Jameson, and Tullamore D.E.W." at Healy's on Friday at 4 p.m. "in accordance with the Governor's wishes." The owners of Healy's Tavern did not respond to calls. Ruthi Byrne, noted with some irony that Byrne "was not really a drinker" during their decades together. "I'd order a glass of wine, and he'd take a sip," she said. "He said if you were Irish, you couldn't drink. There was a lot of alcoholism in his family." Nevertheless, McGreevey noted that Byrne nevertheless "also enjoyed a great yarn, great music and Ireland." "I think he would find solace there," said McGreevey. "And he would appreciate the kerfuffle." Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Gov. Phil Murphy is set Tuesday to unveil a state budget proposal -- his first -- that will include more than $1.5 billion in new revenue from taxes and closing loopholes, including a small spike in New Jersey's sales tax, NJ Advance Media has learned. The extra revenue would also come from a proposed millionaires tax, closing tax loopholes used by corporations, and a plan to legalize marijuana, according to multiple sources briefed on the budget. The sources asked for anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak about the budget. Murphy, a Democrat, will introduce a $37.4 billion budget -- $2.7 billion higher than this year's $34.7 billion spending plan, according to the sources. Details of Murphy's inaugural budget began to emerge Tuesday morning, as the governor prepares to detail the plan in a 2 p.m. address. UPDATE: 10 things to know about Murphy budget's tax increases and spending SALES TAX Democrats who control the state Legislature struck a deal with then-Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, in 2016 to cut the sales tax in exchange for an increase in the state's tax on gasoline to fund an exhausted state Transportation Trust Fund. The sales tax decreased from 7 percent to 6.875 on Jan. 1, 2017, and to 6.625 this January. The tax cut was a win for Christie, who wanted a broad-based tax cut to coincide with the higher gas tax. It was a big hit to the state's pocketbook, estimated to cost the state $655 million a year by 2022. Murphy is expected to bring it back to 7 percent, the level it was before the agreement, according to the sources. MILLIONAIRES TAX Murphy is said to be counting on hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue from a tax hike on millionaires. Murphy has been a fervent supporter of the millionaires tax, even as legislative leaders in his own party are bailing. The proposed new tax rate -- 10.75 percent on income over $1 million -- is the backbone of his plan to remake New Jersey and underwrite such campaign promises as boosting funding to schools and making community college tuition free. His biggest challenge could come not from the Republican lawmakers who say this tax increase will push New Jerseyans to leave the state, but from state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a powerful Democrat who turned against the millionaires tax and proposed his own 3 percent surcharge on corporations. Sweeney cooled on the millionaires tax after GOP-led federal tax reform limited taxpayers' state and local tax deductions to $10,000. He said a millionaires tax would be "too much" to pile on the state's wealthiest residents. But Murphy's position hasn't changed. The governor says his administration needs to kick up some money to fill in the many gaps left by Christie's administration: gaps in school aid, transit funding and in support for safety net social programs. Middle-class residents have been left behind, Murphy has said, while the wealthy and corporations weren't expected to pay their fair share. RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA Details of Murphy's legal marijuana proposal remain unclear. But he has long sought to legalize the drug to raise tax revenue and cut the state's incarceration rate. The plan has faced opposition from many Democrats in the Legislature. With a recent report by NJ Cannabis Insider showing that it would fail in the state Senate if the vote were taken up today. Murphy's address is the starting point in the long march to the June 30 deadline when the budget must be signed into law. It's also the first test for Murphy, whose young administration has so far checked off some easy campaign promises through a series of administrative actions. Republicans are already criticizing the governor. State Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union, said in a statement Tuesday that Murphy is "taking New Jersey in the wrong direction." "This is going to force more middle-class New Jerseyans to flee the state," Bramnick said. "Now it is up to the majority in the Legislature to stop this plan. This is deja vu all over again." The state Senate and Assembly must approve a state budget before Murphy can sign it and can rework the governor's plan. But Murphy has the ability to line-item veto what the Legislature sends him. State Republican Party Chairman Doug Steinhardt said in a news conference before Murphy's speech Tuesday that the governor's proposals "perpetuate a chronic government misconception that we can tax and spend our way to solvency." "But we can't," Steinhardt added. "The problem isn't that New Jerseyans aren't taxed enough. The problem is that Trenton spends too much." NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report. Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook. Here is the full text, as prepared for delivery, of Gov. Phil Murphy's first state budget address, which he is delivering at the Statehouse in Trenton on Tuesday: I must begin by acknowledging the continued perseverance of the hundreds of thousands of residents impacted by the recent storms. Rest assured, we will not stop until every home is restored power, and we will get to the root of the problem. And, we thank the thousands of workers -- including those from out-of-state -- who have put in countless and tireless hours to fix downed wires. Eight weeks ago today, I pledged to be a different type of governor. I pledged to create a stronger and fairer New Jersey that measured success not by what we could do for the few, but by what we could accomplish for all nine million of our residents. I invited you to join me in this journey. And, today, I present to you my first budget. As promised, this is a budget that is balanced both fiscally and morally. Our Constitution requires the former, but our conscience demands the latter. This budget meets the standards by which we will build a stronger and fairer New Jersey that works for all of our residents. It will responsibly invest in our future to drive our economic growth and resurgence. It will ensure we meet our obligations fairly and honestly. And, it will protect our New Jersey values. It represents a sharp break from the direction we had been taken over the past eight years and turns our state's trajectory to one of opportunity and fairness for all. It's no secret that we face real challenges. But I am more confident than ever that we have what it takes to build a stronger, fairer New Jersey and offer every family in New Jersey their share of the American Dream. We will make decisions based on what's best for everyone, not just the powerful few. We will make decisions for the next generation, not the next election. We will make decisions based on evidence, not politics. If we do these things, New Jersey can lead our nation's economy in the creation of new businesses and good, family-supporting jobs. New Jersey can be where no one who works full time lives in poverty; where every child -- no matter what neighborhood they live in -- is guaranteed the education they need to succeed; where a college education is within reach of anyone willing to work for it; where hard work is rewarded, innovation is nurtured, communities are supported, and everyone pays their fair share; and, where opportunity, equal treatment, and justice are the rights of everyone. This is the New Jersey I am working for and that this budget is designed to support. In just eight weeks, we have already made important progress toward our goals. We began by naming a talented and diverse leadership team -- a Cabinet whose appointees, for the first time in New Jersey's 242-year history, are majority women. On our first day, we took action to support equal pay for women, and sent a clear message that the only things that should determine a worker's wages are her talents and responsibilities. That's just a start. I look forward to getting back together with all of you to make equal pay for equal work the law for every New Jersey woman and her family. We restored funding for women's health care and expanded access to family planning services for thousands of New Jersey women - after the previous administration had left women's health care on the chopping block. One person stood at the center of these efforts: Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg. I was so honored to have her, and so many others in this room, by my side for these historic signings. We did these together, and we will do so much more. We have begun the long effort to fix New Jersey Transit and restore sanity and dependability for hundreds of thousands of commuters. We installed strong, capable, and experienced leadership and began a comprehensive review of NJ Transit to uncover how farepayers' hard-earned dollars were spent -- or misspent. And we announced short-term efforts that are already alleviating overcrowding and headaches. We made investing in clean energy and combating climate change priorities. New Jersey will once again be a proud member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and we will join with our neighbors to protect the Delaware River, and the drinking water of millions of our residents, from the dangers of fracking. And, we have begun the work to make the winds off our shores a significant source of clean and renewable energy, as well as good-paying, new, union jobs. And, by the way, and as a general matter, we will rebuild this state on the shoulders of our union brothers and sisters. Eight years ago, Senate President Sweeney and Minority Leader Kean worked together to make New Jersey a leader in offshore wind energy production. This administration will see that through. And, I am confident that everyone here is on the same side -- the Jersey side -- on this: We will never let our Shore be threatened by oil drilling off our coast. We stood up for our consumers by defending net neutrality, and we promised those suffering from chronic and debilitating illnesses -- New Jerseyans fighting cancer, or our veterans suffering from PTSD -- that our medical marijuana program will support them. We took action to ensure as many people as possible have access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance, and directed our state agencies to educate more New Jerseyans on the options available to them under the Affordable Care Act. I look forward to working with all of you to fight against continued assaults from Washington. And, I look forward to partnering with you to make health care work for all residents. I know Speaker Coughlin is at the forefront of the effort, along with Senator Vitale, to close the out-of-network loophole, and I commit to getting this done. In the days following the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, I joined with three of my fellow governors -- Governor Cuomo of New York, Governor Malloy of Connecticut, and Governor Raimondo of Rhode Island -- to form States for Gun Safety, a partnership to combat gun violence and protect our own communities in the face of inexplicable and continued inaction from Washington. So far, two more states and Puerto Rico -- with more to come, I hope -- have joined us in saying, "Enough is enough." We are working closely with these states now to coordinate efforts to stop the trafficking of illegal firearms and to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. And once again, New Jersey is leading the charge. But more must be done. The day before Parkland, I attended a roundtable on gun violence in Cherry Hill with Majority Leader Greenwald. Lou, I look forward to working with you, and with everyone in this chamber, to pass and enact long-overdue gun safety bills -- including "red flag" legislation, reducing magazine ammunition capacity, and requiring background checks for private gun sales. We cannot ignore the scourge of gun violence in our own communities. Both Tammy and I have met families across our state who have lost loved ones to gun violence -- in fact, last year, Tammy visited some of those families at a church not far from the State House. We will act not just in the name of Parkland, but in the name of every neighborhood and every family. On these, and on all the critical issues New Jersey faces, we have been aggressive and we plan to stay aggressive, because our state and our people deserve a government that supports their values and their futures. This budget is a down payment on that future. It puts families ahead of the special interests and sound policy before soundbites. It reflects our shared priorities and has a sound strategy for economic opportunity that grows from the middle class out, not from the top down. This budget is based on realistic and achievable numbers, and it recognizes that we will not solve our deep challenges with more of the short-term gimmicks that have held us back, or by acting timidly and thinking small. We are climbing out of the deep hole that our state has been stuck in for too long, and which President Trump and some in Congress seem intent on pushing us back into. Putting together this budget required a ladder as much as it did a calculator. The people gave us a mandate to begin a new era of fiscal responsibility and accountability. They understand our challenges because they live them, and they know that we must invest in our state if we are to grow once again. They want real and workable solutions that come in complete thoughts and sentences, not bumper stickers. They get it. We must, too. Let's turn to the budget. First, this budget is realistic and responsible. This budget totals $37.4 billion and includes a projected surplus of $743 million. It meets our responsibilities for this year and leaves us on a stronger footing for the next. And, I am proud to say, this budget relies less on one-shots than any other in recent memory -- less than 1 percent of this budget is non-recurring revenues. I am also directing my Cabinet to do deep dives into their own departments and agencies to find operational efficiencies that can further improve our fiscal standing and the delivery of services. Everything in this budget is built around restoring New Jersey as the "good value for money" state we had been for decades. Whether you were born here, or moved here later in life, you knew New Jersey was never an inexpensive place. But you knew that by living here, or putting your business here, you had a better shot to make it than if you had gone anywhere else. But for eight years, costs increased while services declined - the opposite of providing value. Property taxes rose nearly 19 percent as public schools were underfunded by $9 billion. Fares for commuters went up 36 percent and customer service deteriorated as New Jersey Transit was effectively starved through draconian budget cuts. Our infrastructure continued to crumble from neglect, and the critical ARC Tunnel, which should have been opening this year, was cancelled. Not long ago, we proudly invested in education, in reliable mass transit, and in our communities - and we all benefited from the dividends. This budget makes those investments once again so we will reap those benefits once again, and it does so responsibly Second, it makes the critical investments we need for our future. This budget increases our current investment in public school classrooms by $341 million and begins a four-year phase-up to fully funding our public schools. Even with these investments, we know our current school funding formula, enacted in 2008, needs to be modernized, and I ask you to work with me to make these changes so we can reach this goal of full, fair funding by the 2021-2022 school year. Together, we can fulfill the promises made a decade ago while ensuring that our dollars are spent according to the needs of students and districts today. This budget starts New Jersey down a four-year path to expanding pre-K statewide. We will add an additional $57.6 million to build upon the $25 million in new funding the Legislature ensured for this current year for a total investment of nearly $83 million. Decades of studies tell us that pre-K builds a strong foundation for a child's educational future. We know it has profound effects on closing the achievement gap. We know it has positive benefits that continue even into adulthood -- that every dollar we put into pre-K pays us back many times over throughout that child's life. In 2008, the state made a promise to expand pre-K statewide. That promise to our next generation remains unfulfilled. This investment moves us closer to fulfilling it. Renewing New Jersey's leadership in the innovation economy starts in our public schools. We will invest in a Computer Science for All initiative to ensure that every high school will have a computer science program. And, by fostering partnerships among K-12 educators, college and university educators, and private-sector practitioners, we will grow innovative, STEM-focused high school programs that will prepare students for the jobs of the future. And for those who are willing to work toward a college degree, this budget invests in them, putting the dream of higher education within reach of more students and families. We will increase investment in our community colleges by $50 million, the first step in making community college tuition-free for all over the course of the next three years. From the new high school graduate to the adult returning to school for a new skill, we will make sure that cost is not a roadblock to a good, or better, job. We will increase funding to the Educational Opportunity Fund, and we will create 3,500 new Tuition Aid Grant awards for students at our four-year colleges and universities. And, to grow the innovation economy, we will establish a student-loan-forgiveness program that rewards those who graduate in a STEM field, get a job in a STEM field, and all the while stay in New Jersey. Think about this - when we have achieved these objectives, New Jersey will set a standard for the nation by providing free access to an education for everyone from pre-K to an Associate's Degree. But tomorrow's economy requires life-long learning. And so, we are investing in workforce development. To help our state's long-term unemployed, many of whom are older workers, we will inaugurate the New Jersey Career Network through the Department of Labor to provide them the tools they need to compete for jobs in the new economy. This program is based upon the New Start Career Network that Tammy and I were honored to found in partnership with the Heldrich Center at Rutgers University, and which has already helped many residents -- including many veterans -- get back to work. Third, this budget will drive New Jersey's economic growth and ensure that everyone can benefit from its progress. Each of us knows that New Jersey's future depends on the strength of our infrastructure. To help residents get to school or work, we will restore the funding that New Jersey Transit needs to once again be a reliable and respected service. The prior administration slashed NJ Transit funding by 90 percent, forcing the agency to pull from its long-term capital programs to pay daily expenses. And we know where that got us -- waiting for too many trains and buses that never came. This budget will nearly triple funding to NJ Transit -- an additional $242 million investment to get the agency back on its feet. Like so many of our challenges, fixing New Jersey Transit will not happen overnight, but we are sending a strong signal to our commuters that a better day, and better service, is coming. Yet, as we seek to make these investments, our task is made tougher by the fact that the prior administration gave away in excess of $8 billion in corporate tax credits. These massive giveaways - in many cases imprecisely directed -- will ultimately deprive us of the full revenues we desperately need to build a stronger and fairer economic future. We were told these tax breaks would nurse New Jersey back to health, and, yet, our economy still lags. Now, I have been clear that I do not oppose the concept of tax incentives on its face, but they must be distributed responsibly and as part of a broader package of incentives and investments that the state can make to better the climate for all businesses, not just a few favored actors. It needs to be done with precision and accountability, and in alignment with our future aims. This is one reason why I have directed the State Comptroller to undertake a comprehensive audit of our tax incentive programs. We need to see what we've actually gotten in return for our $8 billion. We need to know, what future investments have we missed? Let there be no doubt, I am excited about the prospect of Amazon coming to Newark, and I am committed to working with you, with Mayor Baraka, and the business community to make this happen. This would be a transformative moment for our state. It could spur billions of dollars in new investments in infrastructure, in communities, and in people. This isn't about just one company, but about rebuilding an entire economy. That broad thinking has been lacking. We have been giving out tax credits that amount to more than $160,000 per job created, with little to show in return. Even with these heralded gifts, our economic growth has trailed almost every other competitor state in the nation, in almost every category. We don't have to look very far to find a better example. We only need to look at Massachusetts, which awards tax incentives at an average of only $22,000 per job created. And, yet, they have grown jobs at a rate seven times greater than we have. How? Massachusetts, and our other competitor states, are providing businesses a better value for money, and with that value in-hand they are cleaning our clock. This isn't about taxes. It's about fiscal responsibility. And, it's about investments in education, workforce development, and infrastructure -- the things businesses need to succeed. We used to do that. We will again. Our current incentive programs expire in 2019. I invite you to join me, now, a full year in advance, to develop a new program and a new way that generates true investment in, and value throughout, our entire economy, and doesn't just rely on cash handouts. We can build a program that supports entrepreneurship and stimulates investment in incubators and the start-up economy. We must once again promote our talented residents, our infrastructure, our schools, our location, and our diversity - everything that makes New Jersey a world-class place for business. I know we can do this together. I know we can create a climate that is fair to middle-class taxpayers and small businesses, that strengthens our entrepreneurial spirit and gives residents renewed hope for a good job. By starting this process early, we can be thoughtful. We can see what has worked and what hasn't. Let us for once take a long view and have a solution in-hand far before this becomes yet another rush to the finish. And as we make New Jersey's economy stronger we will make it fairer for working families. This budget will also invest in our working families by increasing, over three years, the state Earned Income Tax Credit from 35 percent to 40 percent of the federal benefit. We know the EITC works. Now, it will provide even more relief for the New Jersey families who rely upon it for tax fairness. We must do more. Let's finish the job to raise our state's minimum wage and put us on a stable and predictable path to $15 an hour. We can no longer tolerate poverty-level wages, not in New Jersey, and not in 2018. While we may have our own opinions on the matter, we're going to do this based on fact. And the fact is that increasing the wage is not a social handout -- it's an economic stimulus. Raising the minimum wage will lead to stronger families, greater economic freedom, increased revenues, and decreased costs in the administration of programs for those in poverty, because working families should not earn poverty wages, and neither should veterans. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour will boost the incomes of 1.2 million New Jerseyans, and allow them to participate in the economy with dignity. After all, we know what hard-working families do when they have more money -- they spend it in the real economy. Maybe they will be able to take their family out to dinner. Maybe they'll be able to afford a summer afternoon on the boardwalk. Maybe, a single mother working two jobs to secure a future for her children can afford to work just one, and spend more time with her kids. Or, maybe, in a state with a poverty rate that is still more than 20 percent higher than it was in 2007, they'll be able to go home at night without fear of not being able to pay the bills, or the rent. We will also lead by example by preparing for a statewide increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, including an increase to $11 an hour in Fiscal 2019. In one of my first public events after my election, I was proud to stand with Senate President Sweeney, Speaker Coughlin, and Congressman Donald Norcross to pledge our support for a $15 an hour minimum wage. I thanked you both then for your leadership and I do so again, and I remain committed to working with you, and with all who similarly believe in fairness, throughout this spring to give New Jersey's working families the raise they deserve, and which they have earned. I am equally committed to working with you to enact paid sick leave protections for all New Jersey workers -- something 1.2 million New Jerseyans lack. I applaud Assemblywoman Lampitt for her leadership. A restaurant worker should not have to choose between getting a day's wages, or taking a day off from work to look after a sick family member. A childcare worker should not have to choose between a paycheck, or not giving the kids in her care the flu. A higher minimum wage, and earned sick leave are direct investments in fairness that will strengthen our working families. We are also proposing raising the state property tax deduction from its current limit of $10,000 to $15,000, an idea which has support from both Democrats and Republicans. I commend Senators Pennacchio and Van Drew, Leader Bramnick, and Assembly members Handlin and Bucco for moving this idea forward. In that vein, I also congratulate the Senate, under Senator Sarlo's leadership, for passing legislation that would allow municipalities to create charitable funds through which residents can make donations to offset their property tax liabilities, and therefore preserving more federal deductibility. To my friends in the Assembly, and to the Speaker, I know this remains a priority for you, as well. I look forward to signing this legislation. We're not asking for special treatment for New Jersey's property taxpayers -- we're simply asking to be given the same courtesies the IRS already gives taxpayers in 33 other states. Both of these -- increasing the property tax deduction and creating charitable funds -- are important steps to making New Jersey fairer. Our communities must remain affordable for the middle-class, where small businesses want to open, where young families can set their roots, where veterans are welcomed home, and where seniors can remain after retirement. Now, this budget ensures we honestly meet our obligations. To make these investments requires us to make the right choices to ensure fairness. For too long, middle-class and working families, college students, and seniors have borne the burden of a weak and unjust economy. They watched millionaires and big corporations do just fine while income inequality worsened. The average New Jersey family actually saw their incomes decline -- a truly remarkable and disheartening fact. We must embrace the immediacy of the problems before us by recognizing that we have a means to begin pulling ourselves back to fiscal responsibility and respectability, and to build a stronger and fairer future. We must remain mindful of the need to restore that "good value for money" equation. If we enact another budget like the one our administration inherited, our middle class will continue to be the ones shouldering the burden, while seeing little in return. Yes, a millionaire's tax is the right thing to do - and now is the time to do it. Let's be perfectly clear as to what it is we're talking about. This budget will not raise income taxes on a family earning $50,000 a year. Or, a family making $75,000 a year. Or, a family making $100,000 or $250,000 a year. Or, a family making $500,000 a year. There is no change on a family earning even $1,000,000 a year. We are standing for fairness and fiscal responsibility by asking those with taxable incomes in excess of $1 million to pay a little more. The irrefutable fact is that we have a thousand more millionaires today than we did at our pre-recession peak, and I'm sure none of them are here for the low taxes. They are here because we can offer an unmatched quality of life. We know the numbers, and they show the importance of our actions. This will raise approximately $765 million for the investments we must make in all our residents. And, we will work to close the unfair carried-interest loophole that benefits only billionaire hedge fund managers, and that will generate an additional $100 million. Just as we will do for our middle class and working families, we will extend this notion of fairness to our small businesses, as well. It is no secret that our state corporate tax law allows large companies with multi-state operations to park their New Jersey profits elsewhere to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. This is a huge write-off that small businesses can't get. This budget proposes a combined reporting requirement that will ensure fairness for our small businesses. Many other states already do this. It's time we did, too. These revenues will allow us to invest in our state's unmatched -- but underutilized -- assets. They will make New Jersey more -- not less -- competitive. They will make us fairer -- and stronger. So, too, will shouldering our responsibility to our public employees. For too long, our public workers have been blamed for every problem under the sun. Our pension crisis was decades in the making, and exacerbated by the failures of governors and legislatures of both parties over the years to pay the state's share. I do not have a magic wand capable of making everything whole again in one budget. But, I am committed to continuing to ramp up our payments until we get there -- in this budget, a total of $3.2 billion -- an all-time high. We will make this payment honestly and in good faith. And, we will work with our public-sector leaders on other ways to speed this process along. We will find savings within the pension system by divesting of hedge funds and reinvesting the money that would have been lost in exorbitant fees. We will find long-term health care savings that can be reinvested into pensions. This budget will also undo the unsound decisions of past years that were made more for politics than actual positive effect, and which further drained our ability to invest in New Jersey. This budget proposes resetting the state sales tax at an even seven percent. Let's be honest, the impact of the three-eighths of one percent sales tax decrease has been nearly imperceptible to the average family, but has directly impacted our ability to provide better services to, and greater future investment in, that family. These are the steps we must take if we are serious about getting our finances back on an even keel, if we are serious about ending the year-after-year haggling over how we meet our most basic obligations, and if we are serious about restoking New Jersey's competitive fires. I support the Senate President's initiative to undertake a bipartisan and comprehensive look at our entire tax code, and his acknowledgement that the Trump tax law has created huge windfalls. I do not believe that there is anyone in this chamber -- on either side of the aisle -- who does not share the commitment to doing things smarter and more efficiently. We can, and must, encourage more municipalities to pursue shared services, for example. And, to do that, I will soon be appointing a Shared Services "Czar" to lead this effort. But here is our inescapable reality -- we need this revenue to set things right. We cannot afford to remain stuck, uncompetitive, and unfair. This is the time for us to make our state stronger while we forge ahead with long-term solutions and investments that ensure fairness. The people of New Jersey are with us on the millionaire's tax, as they want us to restore the value they get out of the tax dollars they entrust to our care. Finally, this budget affirms New Jersey's values. We will create a new Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle-class and working families. I have heard too many stories of both young families overburdened by the escalating costs of child care and middle-aged couples who have taken on the responsibility of being the primary caretaker for an aging parent or even grandparent. This will give them greater peace of mind and a greater sense of fairness. We will live up to our promise of providing $7.5 million for women's health care. Cutting access to primary care, critical health screenings, and family planning services to tens of thousands wasn't fair and it certainly didn't make us stronger. We reversed this, and we will keep our word. And, we will substantially invest in both preventative and treatment programs that will combat an opioid epidemic that has ravaged communities across our state. This budget also provides $2 million to establish a new Gun Violence Research Center to be based at one of our state universities. Congress has refused to fund such necessary research for over two decades. It is now up to the states to lead. This investment will start this long-overdue process. When we formed States for Gun Safety, I recognized the critical need for the data-driven research we need to enact better public policy. Working together with our partner states, we're taking that approach. We must also make sure we are investing not just in individuals, but also in entire communities -- particularly our long-overlooked urban neighborhoods. We must recommit to opening the doors to economic opportunity for the thousands of young men and women -- especially young men and women of color -- jailed for non-violent drug-related offenses. Our current system has failed them, and put a mark on them that they will carry for their entire lives, preventing them from furthering their educations or getting jobs. It's the principal reason I advocate for legalizing adult-use marijuana. According to research, New Jersey spends upwards of $140 million per year adjudicating low-level marijuana possession offenses. And, marijuana-related arrest rates are tilted three-to-one against African-Americans, even though rates of marijuana use are similar among races. These resources must have a better use, whether to tackle the trafficking of illegal guns, provide stronger community policing, or to crack the back of our opioid epidemic, which was devastating our urban centers long before it made headlines. I greatly respect those in this chamber who have proposed decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, and I thank them for recognizing the importance of doing what's right and just for those who carry criminal records for past possession arrests. But decriminalization alone will not put the corner dealer out of business, it will not help us protect our kids, and it will not end the racial disparities we see. If these are our goals -- as they must be -- then the only sensible option is the careful legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana sales to adults. Legalization will allow us to reinvest directly in our communities -- especially the urban neighborhoods hardest hit by the misguided War on Drugs -- in their economic development, in health care and housing, child care and after-school programs, and other critical areas. These investments will pay dividends far greater than the cost of mass incarceration. I did not come to this overnight, myself. After all, we are the parents of four children under the age of 21. But from the standpoint of social justice, and from the standpoint of protecting our kids and lifting up our communities, I could not arrive at any other conclusion. I commend Senator Scutari, and Assemblymen Gusciora, Eustace, and Kennedy for their efforts to change this conversation. I thank Senate President Sweeney, too, for his support. I am committed to working with you to get this passed this year. This budget makes the case for New Jersey. For too long we've let others -- including our own leaders -- put us down. They've fed a national narrative that has both hurt our pride and dampened some of our prospects. No more. I am as optimistic as ever about our economic future. New Jersey is blessed with tremendous economic advantages -- among the most educated workforces in the world, a location 49 other states would gladly trade-in for, and top-tier public schools, colleges and universities, just to name a few. We could fill a book with all that we offer. But we must invest in our state and in this vision of a fairer and stronger New Jersey -- a vision rooted in a growing and thriving middle class, new businesses working at the cutting edges of innovation, and modern infrastructure -- or else we risk letting these advantages slip away. This budget will not let that happen. Restoring our leadership in innovation speaks to who we are. Restoring our leadership in infrastructure speaks to where we are. At the same time, we will stand up for the values which have long-defined us. For everyone who cares about commonsense gun safety laws, a 100-percent clean energy future, women's health care, the rights of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, or immigration policies that allow diverse and safe cities to flourish, the pull of New Jersey will become inescapable. Make no mistake, these values -- our New Jersey values -- resonate not just in living rooms, but in corporate board rooms. They are an untapped weapon for economic development which we will aggressively deploy. Our future rests in restoring the proper balance between financial value and our shared values. We cannot be a state that, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, "knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." This budget knows what we value most. We can be both pro-growth and progressive at the same time and with equal effectiveness. It is through these many efforts that we can, and will, build the stronger and fairer New Jersey we need for our future success. It will not be easy. But, as I said, I am an optimist. I see our glass as half-full, not half-empty. Our future is limitless if we commit to investing in our people and their future. The pride New Jerseyans take in our home state is infectious. But, that pride has also been tested over the past many years. This budget is what we need to prove to our people that we have their backs, and that we will invest in them. Good jobs. Great schools. Safer communities. A cleaner environment. Reliable mass transit. Fairer taxes. More justice. Less division. A commitment to a future filled with opportunity and optimism, where New Jersey leads the way. That's what a stronger and fairer New Jersey looks like. This budget is the vehicle to get us there. This is what New Jerseyans want to see. Let's prove to them that their government can be both responsive and responsible, and efficient and effective. Together, let us build a stronger and fairer New Jersey that works for all our families. Thank you, God bless you, and may God continue to bless the Great State of New Jersey and the United States of America. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Should doctors help terminally ill patients end their lives? That emotional issue has been revived in the state Legislature now that Phil Murphy has replaced Chris Christie as governor. After a lengthy and sometimes angry hearing in Trenton, an Assembly panel on Monday approved a bill that would allow terminally ill people to request medication from a doctor to end their lives. It cleared the Assembly Judiciary Committee by a 5-2 vote. The bill (A1504) was backed a group of nurses, physicians and family caregivers who insisted these patients deserve the chance to limit their suffering. It was opposed by other medical professionals and religious leaders, as well as people with physical disabilities, who warned that people facing the last months or weeks of their lives may be steered toward suicide by subtle family pressure, guilt over being a burden, and insurance companies' refusal to pay for complex and expensive care. Oregon physician Brian Callister said he has treated two patients for whom insurance companies balked at covering "life-saving procedures," and inquired whether the patients had considered availing themselves of the state's law to end their lives. "Between insurance companies wanting the cheapest way out with gross incentives, and family trying to push granny down the road, we have seen it," McAllister said. Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Burlington), the bill's sponsor, assured the committee the legislation contains "checks and balances," including a 15-day waiting period, a requirement two individuals must attest the patient is of sound mind and the authority for the doctor to refer the patient to a psychiatrist or psychologist to determine mental stability. "Should we deny people in New Jersey who want this option?" he asked. This is Burzichelli's third try to pass aid in dying legislation. The first two attempts were abandoned because Christie was sure to veto the bill. But with Murphy, a fellow Democrat, taking office in January, Burzichelli said he was hopeful. "I am confident we have the votes in the Assembly -- this is our third time here," Burzichelli said. "I also feel the makeup in the Senate is favorable to us now. I think we could get this to the governor's desk." Before the hearing, Burzichelli said he has spoken to Murphy's office about the bill but said he wouldn't feel comfortable discussing what was said. New Jersey would be the seventh state to permit people with terminal illnesses to take their own lives. Thirty-seven states have passed laws making the practice illegal, according to procon.org, an nonprofit, independent, nonpartisan website. The bill is named "Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act," a carefully-word title proponents say emphasizes that patients themselves administer the life-ending drugs a physician has prescribed. Opponents dismiss the wording as semantics, and wore small placards urging the committee to vote no on "assisted suicide." Parts of the bill were rewritten to deflect some of the past criticism, such as the accusation that terminally ill patients are not aware of other options like hospice or palliative care. According to the bill, "more than 90 percent of patients in Oregon... and between 72 percent and 86 percent of patients in Washington were enrolled in hospice care at the time of death, suggesting that those patients had availed themselves of available treatment and comfort care options available to them at the time they requested compassionate aid in dying." Monroe Laremore of Trenton, left, and Lindsay Tuman of West Milford, wait their turn to speak out against the "Aid in Dying the for Terminally Ill Act," at the Statehouse in Trenton Monday. (Susan K. Livio | NJ Advance Media) People may ask their physicians for life-ending medication only if they have received a terminal diagnosis, defined as an incurable, irreversible and medically confirmed disease that will end the person's life within six months. Burzichelli said the bill clearly states disabilities are not terminal illnesses, so those who believes disabled people are at risk "have been miscounseled." William Eames of Whippany noted the bill is missing involvement from clergy or religious leaders. "The majority of Americans would argue that a decision to purposefully end a life is as much a soul issue as a medical one," he said. "Humans did not create life." Penny Postel of Cherry Hill asked the committee to put aside individual religious beliefs, as she choked back tears describing the death of her 52-year-old son four years ago. "He was not afraid of death, he was afraid of dying," in particular the "agonizing pain" and his inability to take care of his most basic needs, like going to the bathroom. "He was suffering beyond anyone would want to see or endure. He died at home in my arms." "We are supposed to have a country free from religious scriptures," Postel said. Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook As thousands of New Jersey sat in the dark over the last week -- many for days -- Gov. Phil Murphy publicly vented his anger. He ordered an investigation into the way power companies prepared for and handled the back-to-back winter storms that sparked the outages. And he singled out Jersey Central Power & Light, the state's second-largest power provider and the one with the most affected customers. "I will not accept any of the company's excuses for why thousands of New Jerseyans continue to be without power," Murphy said in a statement Saturday afternoon. "I am prepared to use all the authority at my disposal to get power restored." On Monday, Murphy stressed: "We're gonna have to have a pretty tough postmortem. It took too long (to get power back), and it's unacceptable." But beyond this tough talk, what can Murphy actually do? Because four private companies -- JCP&L, PSEG, Orange & Rockland, and Atlantic City Electric -- provide power to the state's residents and businesses, it's up to them, and not the state government, to restore power, past and present government officials say. But the state Board of Public Utilities -- whose president and members are appointed by the governor -- regulates the companies and has the power to impose fines or have the companies follow certain guidelines for future storms. Plus, utility companies often must face the BPU for approval on rate hikes, and the clash with the governor could hurt their chances. Murphy said Thursday that it was "too early to speculate" what punishment the state could impose on the companies. He has already ordered the BPU to investigate "what went wrong" this time and what can be done in the future to better prepare for storms. The BPU announced Monday that the investigation has begun. The board said one focus will be reviewing whether the companies followed more than 1,000 protocols that were implemented in the wake of hurricanes Irene and Sandy. "You need to know what exactly has happened," said Upendra Chivukula, a former member of the state Assembly who is now a BPU commissioner. "Is there negligence? Is there lack of preparedness?" "If the orders are not followed, then there is a course of action," Chivukula added. Asked what those actions may be, Chivukula said: "The specifics have to be decided." The board will also hold five public hearings across the state, including three within JCP&L's service area. The hearings will be held in Atlantic, Bergen, Hunterdon, Morris, and Sussex counties. The full schedule will be available within the next few weeks, the BPU said. "I assure you, we are going to get to the bottom of this," BPU President Joseph Fiordaliso said in a statement. There were still about 4,000 without power as of Monday afternoon, and another storm was threatening to hit the state overnight. "It's finally getting in the right direction, but it's about time," Murphy said during a radio appearance on New Jersey 101.5-FM on Monday. This isn't the first time JCP&L provoked the ire of a New Jersey governor. Then-Gov. Chris Christie said the company would "have to answer" for a lagged response to power outages in the wake of Hurricane Irene in 2011. "We've been all over JCP&L for the last 48 hours," Christie said at the time. About a year later, this time in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, JCP&L got an earful from lawmakers after the company asked for a rate increase. The BPU in 2014 said the utility should cut its rates rather than raise them. The company last got a rate increase in 2017. Carl Golden, a former spokesman for Govs. Tom Kean and Christie Whitman, said a governor's options in forcing power to be restored "range from non-existent to zero." But Golden said he doesn't believe Murphy is simply posturing with his outrage. "When you have people out of power since March 2, there is a tendency to blame the power company," Golden said. "Then you say, 'Why can't government do something about this?'" "I think he's reacting to that by saying to people, 'Look, I'm on your side. I'm blaming the power company, too. And I'm going to do whatever I can to see to it that this doesn't happen again.'" Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. By Jonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Don't Edit President Donald Trump on Monday rolled out his proposals for responding to the mass shooting at a South Florida high school last month, which left 17 people dead. Despite threatening to take on the National Rifle Association over the issue of gun safety and polls showing two-thirds of U.S. voters wanting stricter gun laws, Trump's proposals omitted anything opposed by the powerful gun rights lobby. Instead, he called for putting more "good guys with guns" in schools by arming teachers, rather preventing bad guys from getting guns. Don't Edit President Donald Trump takes part in a listening session on gun violence with teachers and students at the White House last month following the Florida high school shooting. (Mandel Ngan | AFP/Getty Images) "Every student should be able to feel safe and secure at their school, and no parent should have to worry whether their child will come home at the end of the day," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the daily press briefing. "The president's primary focus is on pushing through things that we know have broad bipartisan support or things that we can do from an administrative perspective that we can do immediately," Sanders said. "But we haven't let go of some of those other things that we're going to continue to review and look at." Here's what Trump proposed: Don't Edit President Donald Trump addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference. (Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images) Arming teachers Trump has called for training and arming teachers and other school employees, calling it "a major deterrent" in a recent speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. The administration also plans to help military veterans and retired law enforcement officers enter the education field, providing schools with employees already trained in the use of weapons. Don't Edit Very strong improvement and strengthening of background checks will be fully backed by White House. Legislation moving forward. Bump Stocks will soon be out. Highly trained expert teachers will be allowed to conceal carry, subject to State Law. Armed guards OK, deterrent!....... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2018 If schools are mandated to be gun free zones, violence and danger are given an open invitation to enter. Almost all school shootings are in gun free zones. Cowards will only go where there is no deterrent! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2018 Don't Edit Don't Edit Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman speaks at a Capitol Hill press conference to oppose legislation overriding state laws on carrying concealed weapons. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. is in the background. (Jonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) "Arming teachers, school personnel and volunteers is dangerous, ill conceived, and does nothing to address our nation's problems making it clear that the president continues to ignore the pleas of students, teachers and parents made over the past several weeks," said Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., who helped organize the 2016 House Democratic sit-in to demand a vote on stronger gun laws. "If the administration, or the Republican-controlled Congress, were interested in actually protecting our schools, we would be debating legislation to strengthen background checks, increasing the firearm purchasing age to 21, and banning assault rifles," she said. "Stashing pistols in a teachers desks is not the solution the students and parents I represent are looking for quite frankly, its not a solution at all." Don't Edit A bump stock is attached to a semi-automatic rifle at the Gun Vault store and shooting range in South Jordan, Utah. (AP Photo | Rick Bowmer) Outlawing bump stocks Trump's Justice Department began writing a rule to ban bump stocks, the device that allows semiautomatic weapons to fire more quickly. "President Trump is absolutely committed to ensuring the safety and security of every American and he has directed us to propose a regulation addressing bump stocks, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. Don't Edit Mental health The administration called for expanding mental health programs, including those that could help find individuals who pose a threat to others. House Republicans earlier voted to prevent the government from preventing mentally ill veterans from buying guns unless a judge ruled that they were a danger to themselves or others. Don't Edit Forming a commission The president proposed a Federal Commission on School Safety, chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, to study other ways of stopping school shootings. Topics to be addressed include age requirements for buying certain weapons, rating systems for video games, violent entertainment, the impact of press coverage of mass shootings, medication for troubled youths, and addressing the best ways to improve security in schools, prevent violence and assess potential threats. DeVos told the Senate Health Committee during her confirmation hearing last year that schools might need guns "to protect from potential grizzlies." Don't Edit Background checks The plan calls for improving the background check database, including increasing the responsibility of federal agencies to report necessary information and offering states incentives to do the same. But Trump and congressional Republicans repealed a requirement that the Social Security Administration report to the database the names of those with mental illnesses who need representatives to handle their disability and supplemental benefit checks. And Trump's proposal is silent on whether to expand background checks to cover all purchases of weapons, including at gun shows and over the Internet. Don't Edit Don't Edit Attorney General Jeff Sessions addresses the California Peace Officers' Association in Sacramento, Calif. in March. (AP Photo | Rich Pedroncelli) U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday that he has informed governors and state attorneys general about the importance of supplying accurate information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. "We cannot allow an individual who is prohibited form possessing firearms to pass a background check simply because information was not made available," he said. He also told U.S. attorneys to make it a priority to prosecute individuals who lie on the forms they submit when they want to buy a gun. Don't Edit No more tough talk about the NRA At a February meeting with Congress members from both parties, Trump seemed to indicate that he would take on the National Rifle Association and push to raise the purchase age for assault-style weapons to 21. "Im a big fan of the NRA," he said. "These are great people. Great patriots. They love our country but that doesnt mean we have to agree on everything. It doesnt make sense that I have to wait till Im 21 to get a handgun but I can get this weapon at 18." Later, he told the lawmakers: "Some of you people are petrified of the NRA. You cant be petrified. They want to do whats right." But there's nothing in Trump's proposals about limiting access to weapons, except for asking his commission to look at raising the age at which someone can buy assault-style rifles. He explained on Twitter that there was "not much political support" for raising the purchase age to 21 from 18. Don't Edit National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. (AP Photo | Jacquelyn Martin) "The president still supports this," Sanders said. "That's why it's in his plan. And he is looking at and reviewing the best path forward to try to get it through." Most voters want such weapons banned entirely, as they were for 10 years until President George W. Bush and congressional Republicans let the prohibition expire. Two-thirds of U.S voters, 67 percent, supported restoring the ban, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. Just 29 percent were in opposition. The NRA spent $55 million on behalf of Trump and congressional Republicans, helping the GOP capture the White House and retain their congressional majorities. Don't Edit ....On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly). Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2018 Don't Edit More on the gun debate in Washington 7 things Americans are saying about gun control after Florida shooting Trump just bashed pro-gun control Democrats in speech to conservatives Booker on gun control: 'To not act is to be complicit' in deaths after Parkland shooting N.J. Republican just did a big switch on guns after Florida shooting Expanding gun background checks wins support of these 2 N.J. Republicans These House Republicans, including some from N.J., want improved gun background checks N.J. Democrat pushes to defy Trump and make it harder for mentally ill to buy guns Florida school shooting reignites gun control debate: How your lawmakers have voted Don't Edit Don't Edit Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Gov. Phil Murphy's proposed $37.4 billion state budget plows $242 million more into NJ Transit, but advocates said it was unclear if it would avoid a possible fare increase. Added funding for the agency's operations would be in addition to $141 million allocated in the fiscal year 2018 budget for a total of $383 million for NJ Transit operations in fiscal year 2019, according to budget documents released Tuesday. Murphy, a Democrat, announced the funding infusion during his first budget address Tuesday. In it, he echoed earlier pledges to tear down and rebuild the agency he once called a national disgrace." "To help residents get to school or work, we will restore the funding that New Jersey Transit needs to once again be a reliable and respected service," Murphy said. "This budget will nearly triple funding to NJ Transit, an additional $242 million investment to get the agency back on its feet." But Murphy said any progress will take time. "Like so many of our challenges, fixing New Jersey Transit will not happen overnight, but we are sending a strong signal to our commuters that a better day, and better service, is coming," he said. Transit advocates said the budget increase is a welcome step. The additional funding is needed to end NJ Transit's practice of using capital funds, intended for major projects and equipment purchases, to cover operating expenses and make up for shortfalls in state support instead, advocates said. "This is a powerful first step, It took years to get here and you don't turn something around in one year. It's a signal the governor understands the importance of mobility." said Tom Wright, Regional Plan Association executive director. "This is a substantial enough increase. I'd expect them to stave off any fare increarse in the short term." Others were more cautious about whether a fare increase can be avoided. "My sense is anything NJ Transit gets for operations could mitigate a fare increase," said David Peter Alan, Lackawanna Commuter Coalition chairman. "But it has been strapped for so long, I wouldn't count on not having one." He cited outstanding expenses such as millions of dollars still owed to Amtrak for rent and repair to the Northeast Corridor Line. Then-Executive Director Steven Santoro told lawmakers in January the agency could have a $15 million to $20 million shortfall in fiscal year 2019. "Until I see a statement from NJ Transit, I don't know where it will go," Alan said. "I hope they can avert a fare increase." Is that going towards new equipment? Will we see results such as less disabled buses? Less cancelled trains? Less delineator stops? Love the increased funding but if its not tied to results and is just going to line peoples pockets then its pointless. Well be watching. John Meway (@avianacrobat) March 13, 2018 Additional funding was called "a positive first step in the right direction," by Janna Chernetz, Tri-State Transportation Campaign New Jersey policy director. Another fare increase isn't a viable option, she said. "It's not a question of whether NJT can avoid a fare hike; NJT must avoid a fare hike," she said. "NJT riders already pay the highest fares in the nation and have seen five fare hikes since 2000. The agency can no longer look to riders to fill funding gaps." About 50 percent of NJ Transit's operating budget is funded by passenger revenue which Chernetz said is out of step with other transit agencies. But she and Alan agreed that a dedicated funding source is needed to prevent the agency from getting in a similar fiscal hole again. "NJT still needs a dedicated funding source for its operating budget as well as a plan in place to ween off of the unhealthy hefty capital to operating budget transfers that has starved the agency year after year," she said. "It will require an intensive effort among the Murphy administration, new agency leadership, and the legislature." Murphy mentioned the overall 36 percent in fare hikes that bus and train riders endured in 2010 and 2009 as service declined. Last year, candidate Murphy proposed what he called "multi-hundred-million-dollar proposal" to fix NJ Transit. He didn't rule out instituting a new tax as a dedicated funding source for the agency to avoid a fare increase. Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Cheong Wa Dae will this week start preparing for an inter-Korean summit scheduled for late April to hold working-level talks with North Korea to discuss the agenda, government officials said on Monday. Cheong Wa Dae has said the key point to be discussed will be denuclearization, but now that U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, President Moon Jae-in may be able to focus on other matters too. Government officials speculated that Moon will try to come up with ways to ease military tensions and promote economic cooperation. One possible suggestion could be to create a "peace zone" on the West Sea that was mooted by former President Roh Moon-hyun when he met then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2007. It envisions a special economic zone in the North's Haeju and a joint fishery zone around the Northern Limit Line, de facto maritime border. The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting 300 people who have made New Orleans New Orleans, featuring original artwork commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune with Where Y'Art gallery. Today: Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial. The icon: Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial. The legacy: In 1978, Dutch Morial made history, becoming the first black mayor of New Orleans. It was by no means his first "first," though. Armed with a razor-sharp mind, political determination and a willingness to go to the mat for his beliefs, he had also reset the bar as the first black graduate of LSU Law School; the first black assistant U.S. attorney in Louisiana; the state's first black legislator since Reconstruction; and the first black person elected to Louisiana's 4th Circuit Court of Appeal. As impressive as those credentials were, his ascension to the top job at City Hall sent an undeniable message that a new day had arrived in New Orleans -- and that Dutch Morial would be leading the charge. The artist: Maddie Stratton. The quote: "Many years ago, when I was a small boy, I daily passed a beautiful park near Elysian Fields Avenue. Children were always playing there in a kind of freedom that came to them naturally. But because of the laws of my childhood, I was allowed to do no more than look through the bars of the fence. I have never forgotten those bars. They stand forever in my memory as a symbol of a city divided against itself." -- Mayor Dutch Morial, in his first inaugural address, in 1978 Explore more of Maddie Stratton's work online at WhereYart.net and in person at the Where Y'Art gallery, 1901 Royal St. He was born Oct. 9, 1929, in New Orleans' 7 Source: The Times-Picayune archive More on 300 for 300: The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana filed a lawsuit Tuesday that challenges the city's right to restrict murals on private property. The particular mural in question is a South Liberty Street composition by artist Cashy D that is critical of President Donald Trump. The city wants it removed. The ACLU believes it's an expression of free speech. The mural appeared in November 2017. In large block letters, it spells out Mr. Trump's coarse comments about groping women that were recorded without his knowledge during the taping of a 2005 television program. In the mural, some of the most shocking language has been replaced with graffiti-style drawings. Cashy D painted the mural on the fence beside a warehouse, with permission of property owner Neal Morris. On Nov. 14 Morris received a citation from the Department of Safety and Permits that insisted the mural be removed by Nov. 22. "The penalty for failure to comply, the citation read, "is a maximum fine or jail time for each and every day the violation continues." The citation stipulated that Morris's property is "zoned residential and murals shall not be permitted in any residentially zoned historic district." Morris said that naturally the citation made him uneasy. "I didn't know what the city would do," he said. "But it's always a concern when facing the government, when you're one little person." Nonetheless, he decided to leave the mural in place. "I think art should be out there," he said. "I supported the act of (political) resistance." Morris said that the topic of the mural isn't really the heart of the issue. "This is about an artist's ability to paint on private property," Morris said. "It's not about taggers doing something without permission, or what the city decides to allow on its own property." Morris is Tulane University law school graduate, a New Orleans real estate developer, a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, and serves on the board of the Preservation Resource Center. He acknowledged that there are city ordinances governing murals, but he believes that they are applied so arbitrarily and inconsistently that they are impossible to follow. The regulation on the City of New Orleans website reads: "A permit is required to paint, alter, maintain, or relocate a public mural in the City of New Orleans. The City's regulations are designed to regulate the aesthetics of an area as to the size and design of murals in a given area. Depending on the details and location of your mural, you may need multiple permits." The fee to apply for a permit is $500. Cashy D's controversial Trump quote mural and the city's insistence that it be removed immediately made the news back in November. Within a day, Morris said, the ACLU got in touch to offer their assistance. "This mural is a constitutionally-protected form of free expression - a right guaranteed to every American by the First Amendment," Jane Johnson, the ACLU interim executive director, wrote in a public statement. "Forcing artists and their patrons to get permission from the government, pay exorbitant fees, and navigate an obscure bureaucratic process before they can express themselves on their own property is a totally unnecessary trampling of their First Amendment rights." The ACLU filed its lawsuit on Tuesday (March 13) that "asks the court to declare the mural-permit scheme unconstitutional and block the city from enforcing it," according to an ACLU statement. Johnson said the ACLU has also requested an injunction to prevent any enforcement action by the city, which would protect Morris. "We'll see if we can put the brakes on the enforcement ordinance," Johnson said. Meanwhile, Morris took action of his own. He asked Cashy D if the artist could somehow creatively mask the controversial mural. Cashy D created a canvas sheet repeatedly stenciled with the word "CENSORED" in various colors to cover the original painting. 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. One man is in jail and police are looking for three others in connection with a rape at a New Orleans hotel last year. Patrick Mooney, 25, was arrested March 6 and booked with first-degree rape, according to court records. Orleans Parish jail records show his bond was set at $50,000. Mooney is accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met at the Funky 544 Bar on Bourbon Street on Nov. 25, 2017. The victim told police she she went with Mooney to his hotel room, and at some point they started having sex, according to a warrant for Mooney's arrest. The woman said six or seven men entered the hotel room and took turns sexually assaulting her, according to the warrant. They also hit and slapped her, the warrant stated. She told police she could only remember bits and pieces of the incident because she had been drinking heavily, according to the warrant affidavit. The men eventually gave her a T-shirt and put her out of the room, according to the warrant. She said she sat and cried for awhile, and called a friend after a couple found her and offered to help, according to the warrant. NOPD Detective Claudia Bruce said in the affidavit that she interviewed the victim's friends, who said the victim left the group without their knowledge. The friends told Bruce they could not locate her for a couple of hours. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Bruce said in the warrant that she obtained surveillance video that showed the victim leaving the bar with a man. Bruce used the victim's phone to find her location and the hotel where the assault occurred, according to the warrant. The warrant says Bruce identified the eight subjects involved, and that Mooney admitted to having sexual contact with the victim, along with two to three other friends. Mooney said the victim was intoxicated, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. An NOPD spokesman said police are looking for three others in connection with the rape: David Campbell, Niall Carr and James Palmer. Police believe the men are in Texas. Mooney was extradited from Austin, Texas, court records show, and he has a drivers license from Dublin, Ireland. Court records show Mooney made his first court appearance Thursday (March 8), and list Gretna attorney Patrick Fanning as his lawyer. Fanning could not immediately be reached for comment. New Orleans police have asked anyone with additional information about this case to call Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact the New Orleans Police Department or call Crimestoppers anonymously at 504.821.1111 or 877.903.7867. DALLAS COUNTY, Ala. -- A Dallas County woman, one of three people charged in a shooting that left a 3-year-old boy hospitalized, is now being held on $1 million bond. The shooting happened about 7 p.m. Thursday in Selma. Police said the boy's mother was holding the child while standing outside a home on Marie Foster Drive when three people in a car reportedly fired shots in their direction. The boy was struck in the face.He was flown to UAB Hospital but is expected to survive. Cassandra Jones, a city schools' bus driver, went before Dallas County District Judge Bob Armstrong Monday. He set bond for her at $500,000 for attempted murder and $500,000 for shooting into an unoccupied building. Two other suspects, both 19, are wanted on the same charges - Kentravius Washington and Adrian Richardson. Washington is Jones' son. "She is lucky her bond isn't $10 million,'' Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson said after Monday's hearing. "There is no excuse anybody can give for shooting a 3-year-old." Here are picks from NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune's food team for eating and drinking events in the weeks ahead. WEDNESDAY (March 14) Kaizouku Izakaya pop-up The name means "pirate bar" in Japanese, and the pop-up at CBD Social (709 St. Charles Ave.) will serve Japanese bar snacks like spicy tofu, steamed pork buns and roasted yams with miso butter. 5 p.m.1 a.m. THURSDAY (March 15) Saartj: A Discussion of Race, Disparity and the Future Tunde Wey talks at Propeller (4035 Washington Ave.) about his pop-up restaurant experiment, where he suggested white customers pay more for food based on wealth disparities among races. A panel discussion will follow. Free. 5:458 p.m. Victory Is Served SoFAB (1504 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.) teams up with the National WWII Museum for a talk on how the war affected Louisiana's food industry. Free, but reservation required. 68 p.m. Visit natfab.org/events. Gnocchi class with Herbsaint chef Rebecca Wilcomb, chef de cuisine at Herbsaint and a 2017 James Beard Award winner, teaches a cooking class at the Second Harvest Community Kitchen (700 Edwards Ave.) on how to make gnocchi. The class, which benefits the food bank, includes a three-course meal. $50. 69 p.m. Visit no-hunger.org/events. Top Taco More than 40 restaurants gather at Woldenberg Park (1 Canal St.) to win the favor of the judges and the public with their taco creations. The ticket includes unlimited tacos and tequila drinks. Music by Otra, Muevelo, Los Po-Boy-Citos and The Iguanas. $69. Early entry and VIP tickets also available. 610 p.m. Visit www.toptaconola.com. FRIDAY (March 16) Meet Oxbow Brewing To celebrate the arrival in New Orleans of Maine's Oxbow Brewing, which specializes in Belgian-style farmhouse ales, the Avenue Pub (1732 St. Charles Ave.) will pour more than a dozen of the brewery's beers on tap and in bottles. Brewer Tim Adams and label artist Will Sears will attend. Starts at 5 p.m. Irish Famine Orphans Society food drive A new St. Patrick's Day marching group, one that dresses in 1860s working-class costumes and honors St. Margaret "Mother of Orphans" Haughery, will host a party and food drive at Margaret Place Park (1114 Prytania St.). Bring nonperishable food items to donate. All sales of Port Orleans beer benefits Second Harvest Food Bank. Afrodisiac NOLA food truck will set up at the party. 6:309:30 p.m. SUNDAY (March 18) Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Chili Cook-Off Bad Wolf Bar & Grill (2010 O'Connor St., Gretna) hosts a chili competition. No fee to enter. 26 p.m. Visit www.badwolfbar.com. Grow Dat dinner with Atchafalaya Chef Jacob Cureton of Atchafalaya cooks a dinner under the stars at City Park's Grow Dat Youth Farm (150 Zachary Taylor Drive). The dinner benefits the farm, which develops young leaders. $125. 59 p.m. Visit growdatyouthfarm.org/farmdinners. A Casual Wine Class SoFAB (1830 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) continues its series of low-key wine seminars with a class on chardonnay. $25 in advance; $30 at the door. 5:307 p.m. Visit natfab.org/events. Panama Gold Chef Adolfo Garcia goes back to his roots with a pop-up dinner of Panamanian cooking at La Boca (870 Tchoupitoulas St.). This three-course dinner focuses on the food and drinks from the Caribbean side of Panama. Cash only. $20; cocktails are $4. Only 50 people can be served and no reservations are accepted. Enter through La Boca's back entrance on St. Joseph Street. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. MARK YOUR CALENDAR March 23-24 Hogs for the Cause, the popular barbecue cookoff that benefits children with pediatric brain cancer, returns to the grounds outside the UNO Lakefront Arena. March 24-25 Bloody Mary Festival, featuring creative cocktails from New Orleans bars and restaurants, will be held at the Howlin' Wolf. April 12-15 French Quarter Festival takes over the city's oldest neighborhood with dozens of food vendors and music. Apr 27 May 6 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival returns to the Fair Grounds for two weekends, with dozens of food vendors as well as food demonstrations and music and art. April 30May 1 NOLA Crawfish Festival brings mudbugs to Central City BBQ in the days between Jazz Fest weekends. Know of a great food event? Let us know at foodevents@nola.com. National security adviser Chung Eui-yong visited China on Monday to brief Chinese President Xi Jinping and other high-ranking officials on his recent meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump. He told Xi that China is playing a major role of getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons, and Xi vowed to "strengthen communication channels" with South Korea to deal with the nuclear standoff. Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said, "China commits itself to the efforts of realizing denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, maintaining peace and stability and resolving things through dialogue and negotiation. The dramatic developments... seem to conform with efforts to bring the denuclearization drive for the Korean Peninsula back on track and also with the direction of the UN Security Council resolutions." But China's stance is a bit more complicated than those comments suggest. China does not want North Korea to acquire nuclear weapons, but it also does not want the regime to change. If it had to choose between the two, it would opt for propping up the regime. From that perspective, China must be feeling both relief and trepidation over the rapid developments in inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korean relations. When the inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korean summits were announced, some pundits said China must be worried about becoming marginalized. Beijing may also be worried about losing its close ties to its buffer state because it has taken a more active part in international sanctions against the North, while the U.S.' influence is increasing in the region. That raises fears that China could seek to ease the sanctions in order to maintain its influence on the North, and if that happens, efforts to get rid of North Korea's nuclear weapons will fail. China wants North Korea to halt its nuclear and missile tests but also South Korea and the U.S. to halt their annual military exercises. China may not even want a complete dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but simply to contain the situation before it gets worse. That is why China supports solutions like reducing the number of North Korean nuclear warheads and halting the development of long-range missiles, without pushing Pyongyang to completely scrap its nuclear program. That would be totally unacceptable for Seoul, but such a scenario is more than possible if Beijing worries about Washington and Pyongyang getting too close. South Korea needs to make sure that China does not try to undermine the push to a full scrapping of the North's nuclear program. Beijing must continue to back international sanctions if it wishes to end the nuclear standoff. It accounted for 91.3 percent of North Korea's trade in 2015 and 92.7 percent in 2016, so sanctions would be meaningless without it. North Korea only offered to sit down at the dialogue table because the international sanctions are biting and China finally got on board. Its trade with North Korea apparently fell to a fifth of the level in previous years. Trump said China played a big role in getting North Korea to sit down for talks, and he was not just being polite. International sanctions against North Korea must be maintained until the complete, verifiable and irreversible scrapping of North Korea's nuclear weapons program is achieved. Even if Kim is now willing to scrap his nuclear weapons, he may get other ideas if international sanctions show signs of slacking. He must not be allowed to be swayed by such temptations. A judge's order halting construction of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana should be lifted so work can resume, the company asked a federal appeals court in New Orleans on Tuesday. But a lawyer representing environmental groups opposed to the pipeline argued that federal construction permits should instead be revoked until proper studies are done to fully evaluate the project's impact on the Atchafalaya Basin. The company's attorney, Miguel Estrada, told a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal that a construction delay imposed by a federal judge in Baton Rouge was costing the company money. The company stood to lose $2.2 million for the first week of delay and up to $482,986 per day after that, according to an appeal written by Estrada. "Time is of the essence," he told the judges. U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick ordered a halt on construction of a portion of the 162-mile crude oil pipeline within the Atchafalaya Basin on Feb. 27 at the request of Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West, Gulf Restoration Network, Waterkeeper Alliance, and the Sierra Club and its Delta Chapter. Her injunction covers about 14 percent of the pipeline's length. In her decision, she wrote that in issuing a permit to the company the Army Corps of Engineers did not adequately consider the environmental impacts of building the pipeline through fragile cypress-tupelo swamp. About 22 million pounds of crawfish is commercially harvested from the basin annually, according to the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area website. The corps' permit requires the company to offset ecological damage. One way to do so is through "mitigation credits," which entails paying a private company to rebuild wetlands to replace the functions of the wetlands lost. The restored wetlands are referred to as "mitigation banks." But Dick's opinion said the corps did not explain why it allowed the company to offset ecological damage to swamp land in the Atchafalaya Basin with bottomland hardwood 55 miles away. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The three-judge panel that listened to the pipeline's company appeal Tuesday also appeared to have issues with that decision. "In the (environmental assessment) it goes on and on about the impact on the swamp that they're crossing without any explanation why bottomland hardwoods would mitigate that," said Judge W. Eugene Davis. There are no cypress-tupelo swamp mitigation banks available to offset the functions that would be damaged by the pipeline construction. Judge Edith Brown Clement asked the environmental groups' attorney, Jan Hasselman, what he would have the pipeline company do to move forward with construction. "The pipeline has to be finished at some point," Clement said. The corps' permit should be revoked until all of the environmental impacts are addressed, Hasselman said. Alternative routes and or mitigation could be considered by a more thorough study called an "environmental impact statement," which was not required before the initial permit was issued, he said. The study would likely add time to the permitting process. If Dick's temporary halt on construction was lifted, current high water levels within the Atchafalaya Basin would continue to limit what the pipeline company is able to do, Hasselman said. But the company could still cause ecological harm without identifying how it plans to mitigate that harm. "If they lift the injunction I think they can do a lot of damage in clearing the path," he said after the hearing. The three judges who heard the arguments did not say when they expected to make a decision on the appeal. A one-sentence decision could come later Tuesday or a written opinion could come within weeks, Hasselman said. The dramatic, fiery flaring event Saturday night (March 10) at the PBF Chalmette Refinery was the result of an accident at the facility during a "turnaround" maintenance project, and was not reported in advance to the state Department of Environmental Quality, state officials said Monday. DEQ is now investigating the cause of the incident, officials said. "No, we didn't know about the flare," said Mike Algero, administrator of DEQ's surveillance division. He said the agency was informed afterwards that the incident occurred when liquids got into the "header" of one of the flares, which tripped a compressor. The compressor trip then resulted in gases from all operating equipment on the facility being directed to a second flare at the plant, Algero said. That's when flames burst high in the air, prompting concerns from neighbors and even people across the river in Algiers that an explosion or major accident had occurred. Videos of the huge flare sprouted quickly on social media. Algero said the company had provided a courtesy notification to the department of the routine maintenance work, similar to a notice posted on the company's web site. That notice does say that flares might be seen as the work progressed. But Algero said the much larger flaring event was different from what the company had mentioned in that notice. Chalmette Refinery has informed DEQ that it will be submitting a report on the incident within seven days, as required by state law, which will describe how the incident occurred and estimate the amount of chemicals released. The nearest DEQ air pollution monitoring station to the refinery, which is just under a mile away in the Charlotte Vista neighborhood, did not detect any elevated levels of sulphur dioxide, methane or non-methane organic compounds between 11 p.m. Saturday through 10 a.m. Sunday. During that time, the prevailing winds were from the south to south southeast, which means the winds would have been blowing from the plant towards the monitor at that time. Elizabeth Ellison-Frost, the company's community relations manager, said in a written statement that the company is "aware of the community interest in the heavy flaring that occurred." The statement put the time of the flaring at around 11:15 p.m. Saturday. "As we are conducting a maintenance turnaround, one of our primary flares is currently out of service. During Saturday night's event, the flare that was in service safely combusted the hydrocarbon material," the statement said. "Third party community monitoring was performed during the flaring, and all results were below detectable readings." That monitoring was closer to the plant than the Chalmette Vista monitor and was performed by a third party industrial hygiene company, she said. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up She said the refinery has continued to operate since then. "At Chalmette Refinery, we take seriously our commitment to safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible operations," Ellison-Frost said. "We launched an investigation after the incident occurred, and have updated local officials and agencies. We are truly sorry for any concerns the flaring incident may have caused our neighbors." Third emission incident in six months This is the third time in the last six months that the company has reported air emission incidents to DEQ. On Jan. 25, the company reported a release of sulphur dioxide from a coker furnace on the site, but the company later determined that the amount of the gas released was not reportable under state law. On Oct. 22, heavy rains caused a loss of power that triggered the loss of all utilities on the plant site and the initiation of emergency shutdown procedures to put the refinery "in a safe park position," says a report in DEQ records. "As a result of the power loss and the non-routine line up, multiple unites had to route material to the flares as a safety measure to burn excess refinery gasses in a safe and environmentally responsible manner," said the company report submitted after the event to DEQ. More problems occurred when refinery operations restarted, resulting in the release of hydrogen sulfide and amine gases. In the aftermath of the Oct. 22 incident, one flare operated for 14 hours and a second operated for 41 hours, and the company estimated that nearly 33 tons of sulphur dioxide and 320 pounds of hydrogen sulfide were released to the atmosphere. Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, said this weekend's flaring incident is just the latest in a long line of accidents at the refinery that date back before PBF Energy acquired full ownership in 2015. Between 2005 and 2014, the environmental group said it documented 560 accidents that had been reported to federal and state facilities at the plant. At one point, Rolfes said, her organization forced DEQ to install three monitors closer to the plant's fenceline, but they were removed several years ago. "They do not monitor near the plant, then use results from miles away to give false assurances of safety," Rolfes said. She blames lax regulation by both DEQ and the federal Environmental Protection Agency for the continued accidents. The company entered into a settlement agreement with DEQ in February that ended a dozen enforcement actions dating back to 2006. Without admitting guilt, the company agreed to pay fines and enforcement costs to DEQ of $100,000, and to spend $641,000 on so-called "beneficial environmental projects." That included $341,000 to help St. Bernard Parish rebuild its lower water intake in the Mississippi River, $150,000 for the Bluebird Park redevelopment project, and $150,000 to the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation to plant cypress trees in the Caernarvon area. A new research initiative by the Water Institute of the Gulf will both develop solutions for living on Louisiana's ever-changing coast and potentially export those ideas to far away communities coping with frequent storms, flooding and rising seas. Called the "Resilience Lab," the initiative draws its initial funding from a $200,000 Greater New Orleans Foundation grant announced Tuesday (March 13). The New Orleans-based lab would "incubate" ideas and then craft best practices for wide use in and outside Louisiana, said the Water Institutes' Jeff Hebert, who will lead the lab. "This will bridge science and the communities most at risk," Hebert said at a press conference announcing the initiative. While the Netherlands has led the world in adapting to sea level rise, flooding and subsidence, Louisiana can serve a similar leadership role in the U.S., said John Davies, president of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, another supporter of the Water Institute. "San Francisco woke up to a brand new report that it's subsiding, and Miami is in a world of fright right now," Davies said. "It's an international challenge, and it's exciting that the science we generate here can provide solutions for us and other places." Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Hebert said the lab "has several ideas brewing," including a system to assess the success of coastal protection and restoration projects, and a series of recommendations for how to fund future projects. "We want to look at what it takes to transform a community beyond (the use) of federal grants," Hebert said. As federal funding opportunities wane, other options, including state, local and private dollars, may grow in importance, he said. The Water Institute's mission is to help south Louisiana communities prepare for the continued loss of the state's coastline and increased risk posed by storms and floods. The Resilience Lab will work in collaboration with Tulane University's ByWater Institute and Columbia University's Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes. Tristan Baurick covers Louisiana's coastal environment for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Email: tbaurick@nola.com * Twitter: @tristanbaurick * Facebook: Tristan Baurick and Louisiana Coastal Watch. Terminator star and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put the oil industry on notice that he will participate in a class action lawsuit charging that fossil fuel pollution is killing millions of people every year around the world through the effects of global warming. "We are going to go after them and we are going to be in there like an Alabama tick, that I can promise you," Schwarzenegger said. His comments came during an interview by Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico before about 1,000 participants in SXSW, the South by Southwest Conference, on Sunday for Dovere's OFF Message online podcast. "I don't think there's any difference than if you walk into a room and you know you're going to kill someone, it's first degree murder," he said. "I think it's the same thing with the oil companies. They know they're killing people and they continue doing the same thing over and over and selling it, so I think something needs to be done about it." Schwarzenegger also took several shots at President Donald Trump, including a joke about the plot of his next Terminator movie, which begins production in Europe in June. "The T-800 model that I play, he's traveling back in time to 2019 to get Trump out of prison," he joked. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up But during a more serious part of the interview, Schwarzenegger confirmed that he's planning on filing a lawsuit against the oil industry, although he declined to say when: "We don't want to signal or moves." Schwarzenegger said that like the tobacco industry's paying hundreds of billions of dollars after being found responsible for lying about the health effects of smoking, the oil industry has lied about what it has known about the effects of fossil fuel pollution. "People don't know that the oil companies knew from 1959 on, they did their own study and knew there would be global warming and climate change happening because of fossil fuels, and on top of it, it will be risky for people's lives," he said. "That it would kill people and give people cancer, and all of this, all of this stuff the oil companies knew and they kept hiding it from the people." "There's 7 to 9 million people dying every year because of pollution because of fossil fuels," he said. "It is absolutely irresponsible to know that your product is killing people and to not have a warning label on it like they do in tobacco. Every gas station should have a warning label on it, every car should have a warning label, every product that has fossil fuels in it should have a warning label on it," he said. A northern Alabama sheriff who bought a $740,000 home in Orange Beach last fall pocketed more than $750,000 in funds earmarked for the feeding of inmates at the Etowah County jail over the past three years, AL.com reported Tuesday (March 13). The four-bedroom house with an in-ground pool in an upscale section of the beach town was the second Orange Beach home to be bought by Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin and his wife, Karen, the report said. Entrekin reported on forms he filed with the Alabama Ethics Commission that he made "more than $250,000" each of the past three years via the inmate-feeding funds, AL.com reported. Entrekin told the website last month that he has a personal account that he refers to as his "Food Provision" fund. The money was allocated by federal, state and municipal governments to feed inmates in the Etowah County jail, but was not used for that purpose and was instead personally pocketed by Entrekin, the report said. Many Alabama sheriffs say the practice of keeping "excess" inmate-feeding funds for themselves is legal under a state law passed before World War II. In a number of counties, however, any money allocated to sheriffs for feeding inmates that is not used for that purpose is instead turned over to the county government, the story said. The Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee announced late Monday (March 12) that it is ending its yearlong investigation into Russian election interference after finding no evidence that Moscow colluded with Donald Trump's campaign or that the Kremlin favored Trump in the 2016 race. The committee found instances of "bad judgment" and some "inappropriate meetings" between members of the Trump campaign and Russians, but nothing that amounted to collusion, according to Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, who led the probe for Republicans. "The bottom line: The Russians did commit active measures against our election in '16, and we think they will do that in the future," Conaway said. But, "We disagree with the narrative that they were trying to help Trump." Democrats on the committee said they were caught unaware by the announcement, but they couldn't have been surprised by the conclusion. The Democratic minority has consistently criticized the Republican effort for failing to call certain witnesses and for failing to issues subpoenas to compel others to answer questions they avoided in closed-door hearings. California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, accused the GOP members of covering for the Republican president. "By ending its oversight role in the only authorized investigation in the House, the majority has placed the interests of protecting the president over protecting the country," he said. "And history will judge its actions harshly." Just in case anyone missed the gist of the committee's findings, President Trump took to Twitter to announce the outcome in an all-caps Tweet: "THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION." Despite Trump's typographical assertiveness and some Fox News captions announcing the "Case closed," that is more than a little premature. The Senate Intelligence Committee continues its investigation, which has been much more low key than the House approach, and it appears to also be actually bipartisan. Dealings on the House panel had become so contentious, the Wall Street Journal reported last month, that the Republicans planned to build a wall to separate their staff from the Democratic committee aides. Special Counsel Robert Mueller also continues his investigation, which already has resulted in several indictments of former Trump associates, including Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman. Mueller also has indicted three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens, accusing them of engaging in a widespread and coordinated effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. To be fair, none of the special counsel's case made public so far contradicts the House committee finding that no collusion occurred between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign. The Republican report does conflict with Mueller and intelligence reports that the Russians were working to disparage Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton while boosting Trump. The House panel concluded that Russia's goal was largely to "sow discord" throughout the election process and rather than looking to help Trump win, Moscow believed Clinton would be president and wanted to undermine her presidency, Rep. Conaway said. As for the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin and top Trump campaign aides, including Trump's son Donald Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner, Conaway said, "That meeting should never have taken place. But we can't find anything that leads us to a collusion string." The key here is to recognize the majority House Intelligence Committee report as a friendly and forgiving assessment of the Trump campaign's occasional intersection with the Russian effort to influence the vote. The Republicans may be right that there was no collusion and that the Kremlin was more interested in damaging Clinton than lifting up Trump. But the key here is that we are likely to get a much fuller picture from the Senate probe and certainly the Mueller investigation. We know that Trump was planning to dismiss Mueller last summer until White House counsel Donald McGahn threatened to resign if forced to carry out the order. It would be a terrible idea for Trump to use the House report as an excuse to go after the special counsel again. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein may have been sending that message in an interview Monday with USA Today. "The special counsel is not an unguided missile," Rosenstein told the newspaper. "I don't believe there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel." Trump needs to listen to Rosenstein, not the Republicans on a divided House committee. 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. Rick Saccone, the Republican candidate in the special election Tuesday (March 13) for Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District, sees Democratic voters as being energized by a hatred for President Donald Trump, a "hatred for our country" and even a "hatred for God." Half a world away in India, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton says the people who voted against her in 2016 were "looking backward," opposed to "black people getting rights" and women "getting jobs." And the women who cast ballots against her we just yielding to the "ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should." Talk about deplorable -- the candidates, I mean, not the voters. Saccone, who is described as a conservative Christian, is locked in a surprisingly tight race against Democrat Conor Lamb in a district that Trump won by 20 points. The president campaigned for Saccone, a state representative, Monday and Donald Trump Jr., remained at his side as he tried to close the deal with recent polls showing him trailing. "They say the other side is energized," Saccone said in a closing rally Monday night. "Let me tell you, they're energized for hate for our president. They have a hatred for our president. "I've talked to so many of these on the left, and they have a hatred for our president. I tell you, many of them have a hatred for our country. I'll tell you some more -- my wife and I saw it again today, they have a hatred for God." It's not hard to imagine that Saccone heard a lot of Democrats saying they "hate" the president. Their hatred for God and country would seem to be more a subjective judgment. Saccone did not explain how that hatred for God was manifested. Considering that most people either worship God or don't believe in him as opposed to expressing hatred, it seems most likely that some of those voters disagreed with Saccone's religious beliefs about God. Meanwhile, Clinton was in India promoting her book, "What Happened," going after Trump and his voters much as she did in her campaign and after her Electoral College loss. "And his whole campaign -- 'Make America Great Again' -- was looking backward," she said. "You know, you didn't like black people getting rights; you don't like women, you know, getting jobs; you don't want to, you know, see that Indian American succeeding more than you are -- you know, whatever your problem is, I'm gonna solve it." So, Clinton describes Trump voters as backward, bigoted, racist and misogynistic and the 52 percent of the white female voters who supported him as timid housewives cowed by the men in their lives. Whew. That is close to Clinton's description during the campaign of Trump voters as "a basket of deplorables," a remark she later regretted as a political strategy error, not as a statement offensive to people who voted for Trump. "I thought his behavior as we saw on the Access Hollywood tape was deplorable," Clinton said of Trump just after the election. "And there were a large number of people who didn't care. It did not matter to them. "I'm sorry I gave him a political gift of any kind, but I don't think that was determinative," she said. We seem to have gone beyond candidates graciously acknowledging "the voice of the people" to those who can't stand to hear from anyone who disagrees with them. 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. Little known watertown retains its charm From:Shine | 2018-03-13 01:29 A birds-eye view of Xinchang watertown and the canal that runs through it. ANCIENT watertowns are picturesque and favorite destinations for day trips. They are also prey to commercial tourism, which in some cases overwhelms their simple charm. Xinchang Town, a watertown located in the Pudong New Area, is trying to find a balance between retaining the captivating elements of the past and sharing them with visitors. The town traces its origins to the early Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), when it mined salt from the nearby sea flats. Now, after more than 1,000 years, Xinchang has the best-preserved group of historical buildings in Pudong, with some 30 percent of the districts cultural protected relics located here. Thats pretty impressive, considering how small the town is. Xinchang Street, a 2-kilometer cobblestone road, runs through the old town from north to south, and a canal cuts through it from east to west. Old buildings and alleyways lie along the road and waterway. Watertowns are natural magnets for artists, and thats one activity the town is trying to cultivate. Yu Jianrong moved his paper-art studio to a courtyard house a few weeks back. He is an artisan of some renown. He said he chose Xinchang as his new workshop site because he found the town calming when he needed quiet moments. The town is not too commercialized, nor is it so otherworldly that you feel like a hermit, he said in an alley studio that backs onto a small river. Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE Yu Jianrong stirs paper pulp. Yu, who moved his paper-art studio to a courtyard house in Xinchang, says he finds the town calming. Printmaking artist Cheng Liang and his wife Zhang Wenxiu came to Xinchang in 2009. Cheng said the couple was impressed by the authentic look of the southern Yangtze-style town. I used to enjoy walking on the cobblestone streets at dusk when I first came here, said Cheng. It brought me a sense of joy to see the local lifestyle. Yus and Chengs studios will open to the public on March 23. Town officials couldnt be more pleased. We plan to invite more artists to open workshops here, said Miao Fan, head of the Xinchangs development and managing company. Some of them are involved in cultural heritage projects. Miao said the idea is to attract tourists and still retain the slow tempo of the town. Paper art and printmaking arent traditional arts here, but they give the town diversity, said Miao. Xinchang does have a tradition rooted here Yueju Opera, the second popular opera form among more than 300 genres in China. A Yueju Opera Festival was held recently. The opera actors took to the stage in an historical courtyard complex built in early 20th century right beside the studios. The audience was dominated by locals who spent most of their lives in the town. Wang Feimiao, 80, a retired knitter, said local residents sometimes organize their own opera parties at a teahouse near the canal. Many scenes from director Ang Lees 2007 masterwork Lust, Caution were filmed there. It is said the teahouse once had another entrance that allowed people to enter directly from a boat on the canal. Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE Traditional Chinese-style carved beams are seen in one of the historical buildings in Xinchang. The town survived even though many of its beautiful sites were destroyed by war, said Wang. The town used to have nine stone bridges, but most of them were demolished during World War II. Located in the center of town is Xinchangs cultural museum, which used to be a silk shop owned by Zhang Yudao. Members of the Zhang family were committed communists during the war, and the silk shop was used for secret partisan meetings and for storage of munitions and medicines. Its a miracle that the town is so well preserved after the war, said Miao. Thats thanks to those who dedicated, even gave their lives to defend it. We have renovated more than 40 houses in the town. It has taken Xinchang five years to repair buildings, with some renovations still under way. Urban heritage protection expert Ruan Yisan said Xinchang is an excellent example of how Shanghai progressed into the modern age. The Xi Changsheng family compound sits on one side of the canal. Its architecture blends traditional Chinese carved beams and Western art-deco columns. The patriarch was once a wealthy businessman who owned an herbal medicine shop. An old man walking past told Shanghai Daily that Xis herbs won a gold medal at the Worlds Fair in Philadelphia in 1926. Whether the story is true or not cannot be verified, but the architecture of the ancestral home suggests that Xi absorbed much from Western culture. After retiring several years ago, Yu Guangping rented a flat in Xis compound. She doesnt live there all the time but rather uses the flat as a bolthole to escape from the hubbub of Shanghai now and then. Living in the concrete jungle, you sometimes need a change of vibes, said Yu. She has been renting the flat for two years and has become familiar with most of her neighbors. By contrast, Yu said she doesnt know the name of the family living next door to her apartment in Shanghai, even though she has been there more than 12 years. Liu Mingfei, a local grocer in Xinchang, said most visitors are from Shanghai. The town, he said, is small and wants to keep its tranquil lifestyle. On a Friday just past noon, I went to a restaurant famous for its tofu jelly. The owner told me all the jelly had been sold out. I know its a bit early, said the owner, who is surnamed Zhang, but I dont want to sacrifice quality for quantity. He said his family has been making tofu jelly for three generations. Only on weekends will I ask for help from neighbors to make more, he said. Two older Japanese tourists, Atsuko Nishiyama and Jun Iwabuchi, stopped at Lius grocery to buy 14 containers of Pechoin hand cream. The two older ladies said they had a free day from their organized tour and decided to embark on a small adventure. Despite the fact that they know little English, let alone Chinese, they said they found the town on Google. It is a total surprise that we stumbled onto this water town, said Nishiyama. As a tourist site, Xinchang is still emerging, said Miao. We will do our best to keep it as authentic as we can. One person was killed and multiple injuries were reported Tuesday morning (March 13) after a charter bus carrying high school band members crashed into a ravine on Interstate 10 near the Alabama-Florida line, according to media reports. The passengers are band members from Channelview High School in Texas, outside of Houston, according to WKRG. They were returning from a spring break trip to Disney. Video posted on Facebook showed a smashed bus crashed under a bridge. The bus' driver was the person who died, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Captain John Malone said at a press conference, according to AL.com. The agency is still investigating how the bus ended up in the ravine, where authorities believe the bus struck bridge supports, and how the driver died. -- Update: Students on the bus talk about the crash Numerous children were taken by helicopter to emergency rooms, and as of 8:15 a.m., one fatality had been reported. One of the injured passengers was in critical condition, according to AL.com, and five more people had serious injuries. The other injuries were not considered serious. Here's a live view via Pensacola TV station WEAR of response efforts at the crash scene: WEARTV.com reports there were about 50 people on the charter bus from Houston. The crash happened before dawn Tuesday in the westbound lanes near mile marker 57, which is between the exits for Foley and Pensacola. The TV station said first responders from Alabama and Florida were responding. Josh Torres said his 17-year-old sister, Bianca Torres, was sitting at the rear of the bus when the impact of the wreck tossed her forward several rows. She had pain in her legs and bruising but was otherwise unscathed, and taken to a hospital for evaluation, he told the Associated Press. "All that she remembers is that she felt a bump, then a crash and then the bus flipping onto its side," Torres said. DeWayne Benson, 15, was another passenger on the bus that crashed and was asleep just before it went into the ravine, he told an ABC station in Texas. "I woke up and the band director, who was not driving, he was at the front and he was screaming...I felt the bumps. And then I felt one huge bump and then everything just went black," said Benson, who told the station he was not injured. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Benson also said he heard "a lot of panicking and screaming. Some students were stuck under seats, some were on top of other students and there's a lot of panic to get people out, the station reported. Chris Elliott, a Baldwin County commissioner who helped out at the county emergency management center following the crash, said from the scene that first responders, "are having to rappel down into the area to get into it," AL.com reported. Seven to eight medevac helicopters were used to transport students to 10 different hospitals in the region, including University of South Alabama Hospital, according to our sister site AL.com. The last student was freed around 9 a.m., the story said. I-10 eastbound was closed near the crash site and traffic was being diverted at exit 49 to Highway 59. Only hours before the crash, the band's Facebook page had been updated to show a large group posing outside Disney World, where the band performed at a music festival on Saturday. Watch AL.com's video of Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack and District Attorney Robert Wilters speak about a bus crash, below. Family members looking to find out more information on the crash should call 251-972-6807. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Carlie Kollath Wells is a morning reporter at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Have an early-bird tip? Send it to her: cwells@nola.com or Twitter @carlie_kollath. A dog died Monday night (March 12) on a United Airlines flight after a flight attendant told its owner to stow it in an overhead bin in its carrier, multiple reports say. CNBC, The Houston Chronicle and The Huffington Post reported the incident after another passenger on the flight, Maggie Gremminger, posted about it on Twitter. In her tweets, Gremminger said a flight attendant on the Houston-to-New York flight "pushed" a female passenger to place her dog carrier in the overhead bin with the dog still inside. "At the end of the flight, the woman found her dog, deceased," Gremminger wrote. "She sat in the airplane aisle on the floor crying, and all of [the] surrounding passengers were utterly stunned." Another passenger, June Lara, told The Houston Chronicle the flight attendants "INSISTED that the puppy be locked up for three hours without any kind of airflow." The Chronicle reports the dog was 10 months old. CNBC reports United Airlines has since apologized for the incident, which it says it is investigating. The CNBC report says the airline is paying for a necropsy of the dog and refunding the dog owner's tickets. The Huffington Post reports a total of 18 pets died on United flights in 2017, the highest rate among U.S. airlines. The airline transported 138,178 pets total. Read the full reports from CNBC, The Houston Chronicle and The Huffington Post. 5 Kerala districts near 100% administration of COVID vaccine first dose to eligible: Veena George The minister said that the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to over 90 per cent of the people eligible for vaccination in Kerala. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Dallas Heard is not who I want representing us in the Oregon Senate Potential Melbourne Cup campaign for Kiwi mare It has been nearly a decade since Rich Hill Stud stallion Shocking won the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) and this year he could have a contender in the race in the form of his Group One-winning daughter Fanatic. The Lindsay Park-trained mare once again showed her class over two miles when winning the Gr.2 Adelaide Cup on Monday and her camp believes she is a genuine star over that distance. Sean Kiernan gives a thumbs up as he leads Fanatic and rider Michael Walker back to scale with son Jack Photo: Atkins Photography Bred and owned by Taranaki dairy farmer Sean Kiernan, the five-year-old mare will now be set for the Gr.1 Sydney Cup (3200m) next month before a possible campaign toward the Melbourne Cup in the spring. They (trainers David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig) are really keen to put her into the Sydney Cup while she is in good form, Kiernan said. They said she is a superstar over two miles so well keep going. The Melbourne Cup has always been the long range goal. She is an elite athlete over two miles. Kiernan flew over to Adelaide on Sunday morning to watch his mare compete in the Morphettville feature and was duly rewarded when she got the win, although there was a fair bit of anticipation leading into the race. David Hayes told me months ago she would win it and the plan came off, so I was very relieved, Kiernan said. He was also full of praise for expatriate New Zealand jockey Michael Walker, who sat off the speed throughout the race before keeping to the rail on the home turn to take the lead and run away from the field. The Darren Weir-trained Ormito was her only competition, challenging her to the wire to finish a long neck away in second with Poppiholla a further two lengths away in third. We said before the race she is carrying topweight so she needed an easy run if possible and that plan came off, Kiernan said. He now has a possible Melbourne Cup contender on his hands, a plan that has come together nicely since purchasing Fantatics dam Komplete Klass. Curraghmore supremo Gordon Cunningham bought her for me, Kiernan said. He had seen one of her foals at Bruce Sherwins place, Raffles Farms, and inquired what the mother was doing. She was on the way to the Gold Coast sales and we intercepted her in Sydney and bought her. She was in-foal to Keeper and we sold that one. I then bred her to Shocking wanting a staying horse. Fanatic was the resulting foal and she has impressed both Kiernan and Cunningham from an early age. She was always a nice type, she turned into the horse we always thought she would be physically, Kiernan said. She caught Gordons eye all the way through. Now as a five-year-old she has fully matured. A Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) winner for original trainers Graeme Sanders and Debbie Sweeney, Fanatic has gone on to mature into a quality staying horse, adding the Listed Sandown Cup (3200m) as well as the Adelaide Cup to her record. She will now be set for loftier targets and possibly a tilt at the most revered two-mile race in the world, the Melbourne Cup. NZ Racing Desk. The suspect with some of the suspects Police at Makerere University has arrested a 22-year old man for vandalising and stealing computer parts from the College of Computing and Information Sciences laboratory. The suspect identified as Daniel Ogwal was arrested after breaking into level four of the Block B building at the College of Computing and Information Sciences. Cadet ASP Jude Eliphaz Masingano, the OC operations at Makerere police station told URN that police officers who were guarding the premises heard cracking noise in the lab and alerted their superiors who reinforced the deployment. Ogwal was later arrested with computer parts comparable to 40 computer motherboards, and 25 RAM chips. He is currently being held at Makerere University police. "Around 3am coming to 4am is the time when policemen who were guarding there heard some weird noises in the lab - thats level 4 of ICT. And when we headed there, we happened to find there a one Ogwal Daniel who was opening CPUs and keeping computer parts. We observer him and deployed accordingly to make sure that there are no extra people to flee the arrest. At around 4am we managed to arrest this man with all his exhibits and the law will take its course and soon or later we shall crack down on the big group that is terrorising computer labs in Makerere," said Masingano. Interestingly Ogwal, who said was not a student of Makerere stays in room P-10 at the University Hall, one of the halls of residence for male students. Masingano equated the theft to an incident last month in which unidentified thugs broke into the offices of the Imam of Makerere University mosque and made off with two computers and Shs 60,000. The thugs had cut through the roof of the mosque to gain access to the offices. Four other computers were later recovered from the ceiling. Police suspect that Ogwal has knowledge on who stole at the mosque since they all were looking for computer motherboards. "When they broke through the mosque ceiling they just got a few computer parts, the motherboard and some chips which look like the RAMs to the computers. When you look at the exhibit recovered from this boy, they are the same things that were got from the mosqueWere yet to find out but according to the way we look at the situation he must have a been a student but due to too much retakes he must have dropped out but still stays in the hall of residence," said Masingano. The Rwandan minister of Foreign Affairs Louise Mushikiwabo has said that her government is saddened by the recent behaviour of its neighbour, Uganda over the treatment of Rwandan nationals. In a press briefing today, Tuesday, Mushikiwabo said Rwanda will not reciprocate illegal detentions, deportations and torture subjected to Rwandan nationals to Ugandan nationals living in Rwanda. Rwandan minister of Foreign Affairs Louise Mushikiwabo According to Kigali Today (KT Press), Rwanda will instead continue to engage the Ugandan authorities on how to resolve the issues at hand. We share a lot in common with Ugandans. We share the same blood. Rwandans cannot hurt Ugandans, Mushikiwabo is quoted as saying. Adding; "The problems between the two countries definitely affected the implementation of some regional projects. But there's continued diplomatic push to ensure they are realised....We hope that these problems will eventually pass and our ties normalise. There is a lot that bind us together." There has been rising tensions between the two East African countries since last year. The tensions even led to the closure of a Ugandan tabloid, Red Pepper in November 2017 after it reported that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, with the help of his brother Gen Salim Saleh were plotting to overthrow Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Both countries have since detained several of each other's citizens believed to be spies or crossed the borders illegally. On December 28 last year, 45 Rwandans were charged for terrorism before Mbarara Grade One magistrate Daphine Ayebale who remanded them to Mbarara Central Prison. The group had spent over two weeks at Nalufenya detention facility in Jinja following their arrest at Kikagati border point in Isingiro district. As the 45 were being arraigned before court, another group of five Rwandan nationals Freddy Turatsinze, Jessica Muhongerwa, Vanessa Gasaro, Dianne Kamikazi and Herbert Munyangaju was being deported. The families of the detained Rwandan nationals threatened to sue Ugandas Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen David Muhoozi over what they term as illegal detention. When Uganda Museveni sacked former police chief Gen Kale Kayihura a fortnight ago, it was suggested by some sections in government that one of the reasons was because Kayihura was spying for Rwandan government. A few days later while addressing the nation on International Women's Day, Museveni said police had been infiltrated by bean weevils, a statement some thought was in reference to Rwandan spies. Doug McGraw JetBlue Airways has promoted Doug McGraw to VP-corporate communications, and Elizabeth Windram to VP- marketing. For the past three years, McGraw has been the airlines director, corporate communications, leading external communications, reputation management, and operational crewmember communications. Before coming to JetBlue, he was senior VP and partner in the New York office of FleishmanHillard. In his new position, McGraw will oversee the companys communications strategy, including internal communications, media relations, reputation management, social media and financial communications. Windram has served as JetBlues director, brand and advertising for the past two years. She previously spent seven years at E&J Gallo Winery, where she led brands including Barefoot Wine & Bubbly. She will now lead JetBlues brand strategy, including advertising, content and social media, digital marketing, regional marketing, loyalty and product development. Larry Thomas Steinreich Communications Group, which serves the home furnishings industry, has hired Larry Thomas as content manager. Thomas joins the agency from Home Furnishings Business magazine, where he was senior business editor. Before that, he spent 27 years writing for Furniture Today, working in roles including news editor, business editor and bedding editor. Before becoming a trade journalist, he was a reporter for the Evansville Courier in Indiana. He will work from the firms High Point, NC office, reporting to VP Sheila Long-OMara, who leads the firms home furnishings practice. Anna Compton Ovation PR and Advertising has brought on Anna Compton as PR and social media strategist. Compton comes to Ovation from Pittsburgh-based Inspiring Lives magazine, where she headed social media campaigns for women-in-business award shows as well as proposal writing, scheduling and community outreach. In her new post, Compton will create social media strategies in collaboration with marketing, PR, digital, advertising campaigns, and support tactics that drive proactive media coverage. Ovation has offices in Hagerstown, MD; DC and California. Jennifer Mercer Donlin, Recano & Company, corporate restructuring firm, has named Jennifer Mercer VP and leader of its strategic communications group. Mercer joins Donlin Recano, an AST company, from Epiq, where she led its strategic communications group. She has also developed and managed critical communications programs for clients at such firms as Sitrick & Company, Hill & Knowlton and MWW Group as well as managing public relations for the CEO of Hitachi Data Systems. At Donlin, Mercer will work with internal corporate teams and company advisors to create strategies to communicate about business transactions. Shane Smith Vice co-founder and CEO Shane Smith is stepping down from the companys top role and handing over the reins to current A+E Networks president and CEO Nancy Dubuc. Smith will assume the role of executive chairman at Vice, focusing on strategic deals and content development. In her new job, Dubuc will still be involved with A+E, which jointly owns the Viceland channel with Vice Media. Until Dubucs successor at A+E is named, Abbe Raven, the companys chairman emeritus and former CEO, will serve as acting chair, overseeing the transition. Vice has been in the midst of an executive shakeup, mostly precipitated by sexual harassment claims against chief digital officer Mike Germano, who left the company following allegations against him, and president Andrew Creighton, who has been on leave while the companys board investigates a $135,000 settlement involving a former employees sexual harassment allegations. Apple has signed an agreement to acquire digital magazine subscription service Texture. The service, which has been dubbed the Netflix of magazines, gives users access to over 200 magazine titlesincluding People, Forbes, National Geographic, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and Rolling Stonefor one monthly subscription fee. It was launched in 2010 by Next Issue Media, which is currently owned by Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Rogers Media and KKR. In 2016, Texture was chosen by the App Store editorial team for the annual Best Of selections, which celebrate the most innovative apps and games for iOS users. We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users, said Eddy Cue, Apples senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. The Church of Scientology has launched its own television network, which went live on March 12. The network is available on AppleTV, Roku, Amazon Fire and Google Chromecast, with an app for the network available through either iTunes or Google Play. Programming on the network includes the shows Meet a Scientologist and L. Ron Hubbard: In His Own Words. The launch follows a wave of media scrutiny for the religion. Scientology and the Aftermath, an A&E series hosted by King of Queens actress Leah Remimi and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, a 2015 Peabody and Emmy-winning documentary, both take the churchs actions and philosophy to task. Its TIME for us to tell OUR story reads a tweet from ScientologyTV. The tweet includes a video telling prospective viewers, The only thing more interesting than what youve heardis what you havent. Lou Weiss Stock photography giant Shutterstock has appointed Lou Weiss to the role of chief marketing officer. Weiss succeeds Jeff Weiser, who had claimed the Shutterstock CMO title since early 2016. Weiss joins the New Yorkbased digital media company from home meal kit brand Plated, where he served as president and CMO. That company was acquired by grocery company Albertsons last year. He was previously EVP and chief marketing and merchandising officer at The Vitamin Shoppe, and prior to that, was president of yoga, fitness and wellness brand Gaiam Direct. Weiss will lead Shutterstocks global marketing operations and manage teams responsible for building customer demand, identifying new revenue opportunities and increasing brand awareness. 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On or about Feb. 22, Ashanti A. Conde left a residence in the Brush Prairie area with Michael A. Conley. The pair drove off in a silver 2002 Cadillac Seville -- a car later reported as stolen. That was the last time anyone reported seeing either Conde or Conley alive. Conde, 27, was reported as a missing person on Sunday. Conley, 51, was reported missing on Feb. 27. His remains were discovered Friday on a private road in rural Skamania County, above Dougan Falls and 21 miles northeast of city of Washougal. The Cadillac was found disabled in more than a foot of snow about three miles from Conley's body. Conley's body was taken to the Clark County Medical Examiner's office for a pending autopsy and toxicology report. Skamania County Undersheriff Pat Bond said there was no obvious indication of cause of death, but exposure to the snow and cold temperatures may have played a part. "It's happened before where people were stranded in the snow and tried to walk out," he said. In 2015, Conley faced charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree attempted murder, witness tampering and intimidating a witness. According to court records, the charges were later dropped. Conde is still missing. She is an African-American woman with green eyes and long, black hair. She is 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighs 145 pounds. Vancouver police said Conde is not a suspect in any criminal investigation at this time. Anyone with information about her whereabouts since Feb. 22 is encouraged to call the Vancouver Police Department or email Detective David Jensen directly at david.jensen@cityofvancouver.us. -- Samantha Swindler @editorswindler / 503-294-4031 sswindler@oregonian.com St. Patrick's Day is Saturday, and lots of celebrations will be taking place between now and then. That means it's time to start thinking of what you'll cook to celebrate your real or imagined Irish roots. Here are some standout recipes worth considering. Erin Kunkel Classic Corned Beef If you're like most Americans, you probably indulge in a platter of corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. For this recipe, cookbook author Kate McMillan encourages home cooks to cure their own brisket for the corned beef, which can take five days (or more). If you don't want to make corned beef from scratch, you're in luck, since most grocery stores will have corned beef briskets complete with spice packets. This recipe turns it into classic corned beef with cabbage and other vegetables. Recipe: Classic Corned Beef With Cabbage. Don't Edit Brent Wojahn, The Oregonian/OregonLive Another take on corned beef Meat guru Bruce Aidells offers his own spin on Irish Corned Beef with this recipe, which requires four days of brining to do it right. He pairs it with carrots, onions, parsnips, and -- of course -- cabbage. Recipe: Homemade Irish Corned Beef and Vegetables. Don't Edit Tara Fisher, Kyle Books Beet and Horseradish Cream Dollops of this Beet and Horseradish Cream are an essential addition to corned beef on St. Patrick's Day. It's also good on baked potatoes or served alongside pork chops or roast beef. Recipe: Beet and Horseradish Cream. Don't Edit Doug Beghtel, The Oregonian/OregonLive Tian of Crabmeat with Smoked Salmon Because it's an island, seafood looms large in a lot of Irish cooking. This dish, adapted from Mount Falcon Country House Hotel, is one way to honor that aspect of Irish cuisine. Recipe: Tian of Fresh Local Crabmeat with Smoked Salmon. Don't Edit Matthew Mead, The Associated Press Guinness Lamb Stew with Soda Bread Dumplings This dish is a St. Patrick's Day riff on chicken and dumplings, with beer-braised lamb topped with soda bread-style dumplings. Rich and comforting. Recipe: Guinness Lamb Stew with Walnut Irish Soda Bread Dumplings. Don't Edit Don't Edit Mitchell Beazley Cottage Pie This recipe comes from Irish chef Kevin Dundon, who puts modern touches into his version of classic shepherd's pie. If you are not a garlic fan, add some grated cheese or snipped chives to the mashed potato - or sometimes plain and simple buttery mash just hits the spot. Recipe: Roasted Garlic Cottage Pie. Don't Edit Thomas Boyd, The Oregonian/OregonLive Vegan Shepherd's Pie For a St. Patrick's celebration that's not meat-centric, it's hard to go wrong with Brian L. Patton's lentil and mushroom-filled Shepherd's Pie, which is topped with perfect mashed potatoes. Recipe: Vegan Shepherd's Pie. Don't Edit Jessica J. Trevino, Tribune News Service Beef and Guinness Pies Irish chef Clodagh McKenna adds a surprise ingredient to these savory pies -- chocolate! Although there's only a small amount used in the recipe, it complements the beef and mushrooms, and is the foundation for the silky sauce. Recipe: Beef and Guinness Pies with Chocolate. Don't Edit Nathan Hostler, Special to The Oregonian/OregonLive Guinness Beef Stew This St. Patrick's stew from Joan Harvey is infinitely adaptable, and gets its sauce's extra-rich taste from the Guinness. Root vegetables are a staple of Irish cooking and this stew is packed with them. It is twice as good the second day, and can be covered with a pie or biscuit crust to make a delicious pie, so doubling the recipe is wise. Recipe: Guinness Beef Stew. Don't Edit Matthew Mead, The Associated Press Beer-braised Cabbage This recipe offers a classic St. Patrick's Day combination: cabbage, beer and bacon. This would go very well with corned beef, but also with roasted chicken, salmon, a steak, or pretty much anything. Recipe: Simple Beer-braised Cabbage with Bacon. Don't Edit Don't Edit Nathan Hostler, The Oregonian/OregonLive Irish Wheaten Bread This version of Irish soda bread has been popular with readers since we first published it in 1995. It's from Mary Loughran, mother of former Foodday staff member Siobhan Loughran Taylor. Mother and daughter are both natives of Ireland. Recipe: Mary Loughran's Irish Wheaten Bread. Don't Edit Bruce Ely, The Oregonian/OregonLive Cabbage and Bacon Soup Irish chef Clodagh McKenna cooked this simple soup for hosts of the "Today" show when they visited Galway, Ireland. It can be served as a main dish -- with chunks of buttered bread -- or as a nice alternative to the boiled cabbage that's often served with corned beef. Recipe: Cabbage and Bacon Soup. Don't Edit Imen McDonnell, Roost Books Soda Farls Soda farls hail from Northern Ireland and are prepared on a griddle; it is made fresh in the morning, cooked until golden, and eaten immediately. Farls are delicious with butter and homemade jam or with savory foods such as smoked salmon, kippers, or thick dry-cured bacon. The soda bread quarters are slow cooked on a stovetop griddle or in a cast-iron pan for about 15-20 minutes on each side. Soda farls are perfect hot off the griddle, sliced down the middle, topped with butter, and slathered with jam or honey. Recipe: Soda Farls. Don't Edit Bruce Ely, The Oregonian/OregonLive Cabbage Gratin This country-style dish from vegetarian cookbook author Deborah Madison is delicate and delicious, and makes a perfect side dish for St. Patrick's Day. The cream and eggs give the dish a custard-like texture. Recipe: Cabbage Gratin. Don't Edit Nathan Hostler, Special to The Oregonian/OregonLive Irish-ish Levain Bread This Irish-style bread from Joan Harvey is good with butter and honey. Because she's never been to Ireland, she can't vouch that it's exactly what you'd taste in Cork, but it's delicious nevertheless. Recipe: Irish-ish Levain Bread. Don't Edit Don't Edit Bruce Ely, The Oregonian/OregonLive Stir-fried Cabbage Cabbage recipes seem to fall into one of two camps: Cooked to death, or not cooked at all. This easy vegan recipe from author Madhur Jaffrey comes somewhere in between, cooked long enough for the onions to caramelize, but not so long that the cabbage leaves don't have any body left. Recipe: Stir-fried Cabbage with Fennel Seeds. Don't Edit Matthew Mead, The Associated Press Champ Sara Moulton shares this buttery mashed potato dish, which is a relative of traditional colcannon, and has been served for centuries on St. Patrick's Day. It may well be the best mashed potatoes you'll ever have. Recipe: Champ. Don't Edit Tara Fisher, Kyle Books Guinness Cake This cake from Irish chef Clodagh McKenna can only be described as dark and majestic. The bitterness of the Guinness is balanced by the sugar and the vanilla icing adds a fluffy lightness to balance it perfectly. If you don't like stout, don't worry -- you will like this cake! Recipe: Guinness Cake. Don't Edit Theo Kiggins Guinness Chocolate Bundt Cake The flavors of Guinness and chocolate go well together, and in this elegant Bundt cake from Joan Harvey, they get an elegant dusting of powdered sugar, creating a showstopper finish to any St. Patrick's Day feast. Recipe: Guinness Chocolate Bundt Cake. Don't Edit Alicia Ross, Kitchen Scoop Maw Maw's Irish Potato Pie Most recipes named "Irish Potato Pies" are savory pies with vegetables and sometimes meat. But this pie from Kitchen Scoop's Alicia Ross is a cousin to Sweet Potato Pie -- sweet with sugar and spice, and makes a perfect finish for a hearty St. Patrick's Day meal. Recipe: Maw Maw's Irish Potato Pie. Don't Edit Don't Edit Mims Copeland, The Oregonian/OregonLive Guinness Pie The original inspiration for this Joan Harvey recipe was a French beer pie. She combined elements of several recipes with her own knowledge of custard pies, and it came out very, very good. Does anything like this really exist in Ireland? Who knows, but we love every rich, delicious bite. Recipe: Guinness Pie. Don't Edit Steve Legato, Running Press Irish Cream As an ice-cream topping or a coffee syrup, or served over the rocks, Irish cream never fails to turn the moment into a party. Rich, creamy and decadent, it's embarrassingly easy to make, and it packs a huge wallop in the "impress your friends" category. Recipe: Homemade Irish Cream. -- Grant Butler Detroit Lions defensive tackle Haloti Ngata is taking his talents to Philadelphia and intends to sign a one-year deal with the Eagles, according to a report. Former Lions DT Haloti Ngata intends to sign a one-year deal with Eagles, per @mortreport and me. Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 13, 2018 The former Oregon Ducks star will sign with the Eagles on Wednesday, the official start of the NFL's free agency period. Ngata, 34, spent the past three seasons with the Lions. Ngata signed with the Lions in 2015, and he was seen as the replacement to Ndamukong Suh, who had signed with the Miami Dolphins. Ngata played 32 games for Detroit, making 53 tackles with six sacks. However, he played in just five games before sustaining a season-ending elbow injury during the 2017 season. Ngata will join a crowded and formidable defensive line in Philadelphia. The Eagles acquired defensive end Michael Bennett in a trade with the Seattle Seahawks last week. The Eagles also have standouts such as Fletcher Cox and Chris Long. -- Geoffrey C. Arnold | @geoffreyCarnold A Portland man suffered severe injuries earlier this month after a driver deliberately ran into him in a parking lot in Lincoln City, according to police. Mohammad Fawad Mohammadi was in a car with his wife and young child in a Walgreens parking lot off U.S. 101 just before noon March 6, when according to eyewitness testimony from a probable cause affidavit, "a male driver in a gray car" rammed the driver's side of Mohammadi's car. When Mohammadi stepped out of his vehicle, the driver of the second car reversed and ran into Mohammadi's car again. According to both the affidavit and a GoFundMe campaign set up by one Mohammadi's coworkers, Mohammadi was hit by the car and pinned to the side of his own car. Then, the car backed up and hit Mohammadi's car a third time. "We do believe that this was an intentional act," Lincoln City Police Department spokesperson Lt. Jerry Palmer said over the phone Tuesday. In the affidavit, an officer described the scene: "When I arrived," the officer wrote, "I saw a man lying on the ground with a bloody mangled foot and paramedics treating him." "A woman was holding her toddler and crying," he added. Mohammadi's wife and child were not injured. Mohammadi was flown to a Portland trauma center where, according to the GoFundMe page, he has received two surgeries and was preparing for a third on Tuesday. "Currently," wrote Stephanie Ballard Agramonte, the creator of the campaign, "it appears that he is suffering from the crushed leg, broken hips, fractured spine and numerous facial injuries." According to the GoFundMe page, Mohammadi served as an interpreter in Afghanistan for four years before immigrating to the United States about three years ago. He works at a grocery in Lake Oswego. Perry G. Nicolopoulos, 68, of Puyallup, Washington, was arrested shortly after the incident north of Lincoln City on Highway 101 and charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants, according to a press release from Lincoln City Police. After an investigation, Nicolopoulos was arrested on additional charges in the incident involving Mohammadi, including attempted murder and assault. Perry Nicolopoulos Palmer said that so far, the investigation has not uncovered anything to lead officials to believe a hate crime has been committed. "We do not have a motive determination at this time," he said. "It appears that the victim was random," he added. "We find no connection between these two individuals." Palmer said Nicolopoulos does have a criminal history. The Pierce County Superior Court Clerk confirmed over the phone Tuesday that Nicolopoulos was charged with malicious mischief in 1995 and assault in 2001. He pleaded guilty to both charges. Nicolopoulos is currently lodged at the Lincoln County Jail on 14 charges. His bail is set at $1 million and a preliminary hearing for his case is set for Thursday at the Lincoln County Courthouse in Newport. As of Tuesday afternoon, the GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $19,000 for Mohammadi. GoFundMe spokesperson Katherine Cichy said over email Tuesday that the company is "working directly with the campaign organizer" and guarantees the funds will only be released to the family. "When a campaign is created on behalf of someone else," she said, "funds are collected by our payment processors, held, and then released only to the person named as the beneficiary." -- Lizzy Acker 503-221-8052 lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker The Oregon Food Bank Network is recalling some 22,000 pounds of chia seeds that may be contaminated with rodent droppings. The chia seeds were distributed in one-pound plastic bags by food banks and food pantries throughout Oregon and Clark County, Washington. All chia seeds distributed by the food bank network between November 1, 2017 and March 9, 2018 are included in the recall. A customer complaint about foreign material in the seeds prompted an investigation, which found product still in inventory at Oregon Food Bank contained rodent droppings. The seeds were donated to the food bank by Live Local Organic of Milwaukie. While no known illnesses have been associated with the seeds, use or consumption may present a health hazard to consumers. Seeds should be disposed of immediately. Consumers and can get additional information by contacting the food pantry where they received the product or from Oregon Food Bank's Facilities and Regulatory Compliance Manager Ryan Wist at 503-419-4160. -- The Oregonian UPDATE: Evacuation area reduced Officials asked as many as 4,000 Northeast Portland residents to immediately leave their homes Monday night because of heavy smoke and unhealthy particles in the air from a five-alarm fire sparked in the morning. Portlanders living in the area bordered from Northeast 60th Avenue to Northeast 76th Avenue, and Northeast Columbia Boulevard to Northeast Alberta Street, were advised to leave. An estimated 2,000 to 4,000 people live in the area. Dr. Paul Lewis, a county health officer, described the situation as "worse than a forest fire." "This is hazardous in ways that we can't exactly measure right now," he said. Smoke is still pouring out of an auto salvage yard at Northeast 75th Avenue and Killingsworth Street, where a fire was reported around 9:05 a.m., Portland Fire & Rescue Capt. Louisa Jones said during a press conference late Monday. At one point, black plumes of smoke could be seen for miles. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Here is the updated map for the #PDXFire expanded evacuation. We are recommending that you evacuate if you live between NE Alberta and Columbia, 60th and 76th. Its a life safety issue due to unhealthy air. #alert pic.twitter.com/6stgK22XmT Portland Fire&Rescue (@PDXFire) March 13, 2018 The flames spread to a nearby apartment building and duplex, destroying at least eight units, authorities said. No people were injured, but 16 cats and other pets have been killed. Fire crews are expected to remain at the scene Tuesday, as well as workers with the Environmental Protection Agency, which has been monitoring the air quality in the area. The fire has also been burning cars and tires, which can release asbestos, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other toxic chemicals, county officials said. The air quality could be particularly dangerous for young children, elderly people and anyone with underlying heart and lung conditions, according to Lewis. The Red Cross is operating an overnight shelter for displaced residents at 1415 SE 122nd Avenue. Food, water and animal services will be provided. Authorities said people who need help with transportation out of the area can call 503-823-2323. Anyone in need of shelter assistance is asked to call 211. Portland police officers will be working in the area to help people evacuate, said Sgt. Chris Burley, an agency spokesman. He urged residents to check in on neighbors who may have trouble getting out of their homes. -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com 503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey Darin Billerbeck Less than a week after activist investors placed new directors on Lattice Semiconductor's board, the Portland company said longtime chief executive Darin Billerbeck will retire. Billerbeck, 58, had run the company since 2010, moving Lattice from its roots in Hillsboro to new headquarters in downtown Portland. The company makes programmable computer chips, used in everything from smartphones and digital cameras to communications equipment. Lattice is Portland's biggest tech company but is relatively small by chip industry standards. It reported $386 million in revenue last year, down from $427 million the prior year. The company has lost money in each of the past three years, reporting a $71 million loss in 2017. Lattice's fortunes improved modestly under Billerbeck, but the company largely missed out on the broad run-up in tech stocks since the Great Recession. Lattice's share price rose 32 percent during Billerbeck's tenure; during the same period, an index of 30 other chip stocks (not including Lattice) rose nearly 240 percent. Lattice's shares fell 8 cents in early trading Tuesday to $6.40. Global attention focused on Lattice in 2016 and 2017 as Chinese-backed investors bid $1.3 billion for the company. The deal became a test of the U.S government's appetite for Chinese investment in the tech sector and President Donald Trump ultimately blocked the transaction, citing national security concerns. This winter, activist investors with Lion Point Capital acquired a 7 percent stake in the company and began agitating for a board shakeup. Last Wednesday, Lattice agreed to add three directors from Lion Point to its eight-member board. However, Lattice vice president Doug Hunter said Billerbeck's exit is unrelated to Lion Point's involvement. While Billerbeck had originally been planning to step down late next year, Hunter said that thinking changed recently as Lattice began to push into new networking technologies and embedded devices known as the Internet of Things. Hunter said Billerbeck and his family decided this was a natural time for a transition. "Darin's been working hard and traveling hard for the past 30 years," Hunter said. "We're just at a place where I think he said, I'm good and ready to move on." In a note to clients Tuesday, Susquehanna International Group analyst Christopher Rolland wrote that he suspects there's more to the story. "We can imagine that 'rebooting' Lattice, while simultaneously managing an activist investor, could be a challenging process and one in which Mr. Billerbeck was unwilling to accept," Rolland wrote. "This moment was as good as any to negotiate an exit and announce retirement." Despite the failed Chinese bid for Lattice, Rolland wrote that Lattice remains a good candidate for a buyout. Folding Lattice into a larger company could reduce expenses associated with being a small, publicly traded chip company and double its earnings power. Still, Rolland said Lattice is unlikely to attract a bid close to the $8.30 per share that Chinese investors had offered. Billerbeck will formally retire as CEO and member of the board on Friday, though he will remain an executive until the end of May. Lattice said it will pay him $1 million in severance, immediately vest 35,000 units of restricted stock and pay for up to a year of health care. Lattice named Chief Operating Officer Glen Hawk its interim CEO and said it will pay him an additional $15,000 a month while he remains in that role. Hawk lives in California and works at a Lattice office there, and Hunter said he will not move to Portland - but will likely be spending more time here. The Portland company said it hired a search firm, Egon Zehnder, to help find its new CEO. Hunter said that Lattice had recruited Hawk as a potential successor to Billerbeck, and that Hawk will be a candidate to take over the job in the long term. "The board said that they're committed to finding the best candidate they can," Hunter said, "and that would include internal and external candidates." Correction: This article has been corrected to indicate that Glen Hawk is Lattice's chief operating officer, not chief marketing officer. This article has been updated with additional comment. -- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699 John M. Vincent/The Oregonian By Jamie Hale | The Oregonian, OregonLive The Peter Iredale reached the northern Oregon coast early on a foggy fall morning, its hull full and bound for Portland. But it would never arrive at port, destined instead to become one of the most famous shipwrecks on the Pacific coast. It was just after 3 that morning in late October, 1906, when Captain H. Lawrence spotted the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. That was his signal to steer the 275-foot steel-hulled sailing ship toward land, where he would find a pilot schooner to guide them through the dangerous mouth of the Columbia River an area known to sailors as the Graveyard of the Pacific. The Peter Iredale arrived at the schooner's cruising grounds near the south jetty before dawn, but no schooner was there, the boat in port undergoing repairs. Within an hour a strong gale picked up, and Captain Lawrence called hands to try to bring the ship about and away from shore, but the wind and rising tide were too much. The ship struck shore near the jetty, the impact so great that three of its four masts snapped immediately. All crew walked away unharmed, but the ship didn't fare as well. Since there was little damage to the hull, the original plan was to tow the Peter Iredale back out to sea. But as crews waited weeks for favorable conditions, the ship leaned further on its side, becoming too deeply embedded in the sand to remove. The ship was sold for scrap, and what wasn't taken was left to rot away and rust on the beach. Captain Lawrence, cleared of any wrongdoing in the wreck, offered a final toast to his ship: "May God bless you, and may your bones bleach in the sands." Over the century since, the wreck of the Peter Iredale has become one of the most popular attractions on the Oregon coast, a prominent feature of what is now known as Fort Stevens State Park. Today, only a rusted skeleton of the steel hull remains, and looking through old photographs shows the incredible rate of its rapid deterioration. Digging through the Oregonian archives has revealed the story of the shipwreck that still haunts the coast an attraction that someday will be forever lost to the powerful force of the punishing Pacific. Don't Edit Read more: 8 shipwrecks that still haunt the Oregon coast Don't Edit Oregonian File Photo 1906 Don't Edit Oregonian File Photo 1957 Don't Edit Oregon State Archives 1959 Don't Edit Don't Edit Oregonian File Photo 1980 Don't Edit Oregonian File Photo 1983 Don't Edit Oregonian File Photo 1988 Don't Edit Oregonian File Photo 1999 Don't Edit AP Photo/The Daily Astorian, Lori Assa 2005 Don't Edit Don't Edit Terry Richard/The Oregonian 2007 Don't Edit Foster Church/The Oregonian 2010 Don't Edit Jamie Hale/The Oregonian 2018 Don't Edit Jamie Hale/The Oregonian NORTHWEST TRAVEL GUIDES Winter on the Oregon coast: Need one last winter trip to the coast? Here are 30 things to do, from chowder to spouting horns. Fort Stevens is a phenomenal state park: The expansive state park on the northern Oregon coast is one of the very best in the state. Oregon's best museums: Local museums are places to learn, but also to reflect on our communities, cultures and heritage. Don't Edit --Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB Don't Edit Roberts, Crenshaw head to run off About 10 percent of registered Republican voters showed up March 6 to choose the next contender for Texas Congressional District 2. Of 442,347 registered Republican voters, there were 46,140 votes cast in the race. Current Congressman Ted Poe announced his retirement several months ago, setting off a wild race between nine Republicans and four Democrats. State Rep. Kevin Roberts, R-Houston, will head to a runoff with retired Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw. This was one of the most surprising results of the recent election, due to the enormous efforts by candidate Kathaleen Wall. She spent approximately $6 million on her campaign, launched a massive television ad campaign, and overwhelmed mailboxes of voters touting the endorsements of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Yet she came in third, 145 votes shy of the runoff. There were nine running in the Republican primary but most of the skirmishes took place between these three and Kingwood businessman Rick Walker. Roberts came out in first place, with 15,236 votes, or 33.02 percent. Crenshaw was the dark horse of the race, as few expected the unknown and under-funded retired soldier to place high in the crowded field. Crenshaw is a passionate public speaker. In 2012, the now 33-year-old Crenshaw nearly lost his life when severely injured during an IED blast in Afghanistan; he was in a coma for almost a week. He survived, but wears an eye patch due to losing his right eye. Yet it was Crenshaw who came in second, with 12,644 votes, or 27.40 percent. Our achievement is truly a testament to the fact that every vote counts, and the effort of every supporter really matters. I am so grateful for the support we saw building up rapidly towards the election on March 6th. We are going to keep that momentum going by staying engaged with the community and spreading our message of good governance, conservative values, and true leadership in Congress, Crenshaw said. Walls was extremely close, in third place, with 12,499 votes, or 27.09 percent. She must have known Crenshaw was closing in as one of her last mailers before Election Day was an unexpected and unprecedented attack on him. He beat her by a slim 145 votes, or less than one-third of one percent (.31 percent) of the total vote. Walls did not respond to a request for comment. Walker, a favorite of many Kingwood voters, was way behind, with just 3,315 votes, or 7.18 percent. Walker had an aggressive battle with Wall during the campaign and took credit for her defeat. Shannon and I appreciate the hundreds of volunteers and supporters who helped us throughout this campaign. Strategically, our polling showed Kathaleen Wall exceeding 51 percent (avoiding a runoff), and us as No. 2, just before early voting began and as she hit me with the first of two attack ads. We made the decision to make sure Mrs. Wall didnt win the race outright as the primary objective, so we used the remainder of the race contrasting myself with Mrs. Wall. In the 10 days leading up to Election Day, we purchased 900 TV spots and radio ads, contrasting myself with Kathaleen Wall, which caused her polling to decline from over 50 to 27 percent. We were successful in this primary objective, but unsuccessful in moving on. I congratulate my friends, Kevin Roberts and Dan Crenshaw, on their success in picking up those voters and getting into the runoff. Shannon and I will be praying about who to support in the coming days. Both men are fantastic options, Walker said. Roberts ran on experience and his current status as an elected official. I am the only proven conservative with actual accomplishments, Roberts said. We need someone with legislative experience who can be a strong voice for the district and hit the ground running. Roberts, 51, is a married father of two children and has a bachelors degree from Texas Tech University. He works as the executive director of the Lanier Law Firm. Im honored and humbled that thousands of people across the 2nd Congressional District placed their trust and faith in me, propelling our campaign into the runoff, said Roberts. From the beginning, our campaign has been an effort that was supported by people working in their own neighborhoods and talking with their friends about how we need our next congressman to be a relentless, conservative advocate for their families. Whether that is taking on bureaucracies who are not serving our Hurricane Harvey victims or standing up for the rule of law to stop sanctuary city policies from threatening the safety of our communities, I will always be a voice that is focused on delivering solutions and making our district stronger, he said. The run-off election is set for Tuesday, May 22. Education nonprofit director Todd Litton, facing four challengers, won the Democratic primary for Texas 2nd Congressional District with 52.85 percent of the vote, a total of 15,113 votes. Litton will run against the winner of the Republican primary in the November elections. Gina Haspel, the Next CIA Director, Is a Nightmare By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 13, 2018 | With Rex Tillerson out, Mike Pompeo will move from the head of the CIA over to Secretary of State and his deputy at the CIA, Gina Haspel, will take over as the new CIA Chief. Shes a nightmare. Obama actually could have imprisoned her back in 2009. Haspel is a career intelligence officer, who spent much of her time undercover. But shes perhaps best known for torturing two terrorism suspects while overseeing a black site in Thailand in 2002, including waterboarding one of them 83 times in one month and slamming his head repeatedly. She only ceased torturing him once it was apparent he had no evidence to provide. Three years later, an order signed by her, asked that the videotaped evidence be destroyed. She had been subsequently blocked from a promotion at the CIA by Senate Democrats over her role in torture. Gina Haspel, demoted under Obama Administration for human rights violations, is Trump's appointment as CIA head. Dr. Robert Fortuna (@bob42156) March 13, 2018 When Obama was inaugurated in 2009, there was some question over whether she could be imprisoned for war crimes. If the Obama administration had operated under a different prosecutorial theory, Gina Haspel might be sitting in prison rather than preparing to become the next CIA director https://t.co/XhEzmLUdW4 pic.twitter.com/9VOyUflekq Michael Tracey (@mtracey) March 13, 2018 And now she is head of the CIA. Instead of an all-expense paid trip to The Hague, the person who oversaw the torture of two detainees is being promoted to CIA director. https://t.co/DJoQYFApvI (((Zach Heiden))) (@zlheiden) March 13, 2018 Mike Pompeo is no dream at the CIA, either. He wants to rip up the Iran deal, he has played down the Russians involvement in the 2016 election, and he is an advocate of regime change in North Korea. He was also a Benghazi freak, and he was a backer of Wikileaks: Here is the since-deleted tweet from Mike Pompeo on July 24, 2016 pushing stolen Democratic emails and Wikileaks. Pompeo was head of House Intelligence Commitee at the time. 3 days later, Trump called on Russia if youre listening to get Clintons email. pic.twitter.com/ZE5dLqrtI9 Dafna Linzer (@DafnaLinzer) March 13, 2018 And remember: Trump has a hawk who apparently jibes with his own thinking running the State Department now and fewer and fewer voices of moderation to keep him in check. This might be a very dangerous combination, especially with talks with North Korea impending. The fact that Rex Tillerson found out via Twitter that he got fired is incredibly funny, but Pompeo is an actual monster and its an indictment of America that new CIA director Gina Haspel isnt in jail right now. Denizcan James (@MrFilmkritik) March 13, 2018 Rex Tillerson Out at State the Day After Calling Out the Russians | Shia Labeouf Gets Yet Another Shot at Redemption Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba. British artist Anish Kapoor is famous for his glossy, high concept sculpture. His work, "Cloud Gate," which is colloquially known as "The Bean," has been a landmark of Chicago's Millennium Park since it was installed there in 2004. Last year, the National Rifle Association featured a stop motion clip of people walking past the sculpture in their vitriolic, conspiracy-filled video "The Clenched Fist of Truth," and Kapoor is not happy about it. Pairing up with the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, Kapoor just released an open letter criticizing the use of his work in the video, which depicts an unspecified liberal "them" as violent bullies and comparatively describes the NRA as "freedom's safest place." In his letter, Kapoor describes the video as "play[ing] to the basest and most primal impulses of paranoia, conflict and violence... in an effort to create a schism to justify its most regressive attitude." The misuse of Kapoor's work comes at an especially sensitive time, as recent shootings in Florida, Las Vegas, and Texas have left the nation traumatized and deeply suspicious of gun culture in the United States. Activists like high school students Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg have made headlines advocating for policy changes to prevent more shootings like the one they experienced at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School from happening again. Kapoor writes that it is "more urgent than ever that [the NRA] is held to account for its ongoing campaign of fear and hate in American society." He concludes by saying that the NRA's "vile and dishonest video" counters the sense of community, intimacy, and joy that The Bean stands for by giving "voice to xenophobic anxiety, and a further call to 'arm' the population against a fictional enemy." Read the entire statement here. Photo via Getty The prodigal son is showing no sign of returning to his lavish life in LA anytime soon, preferring instead to bundle up on a Wyoming mountaintop. Related | Kanye West: In His Own Words It was first reported early last year that Kanye West had removed himself from civilization to put an album together also, presumably, to take a much-needed time after his breakdown on stage in 2016. And it seems as though, after eating alone in Berlin, he prefers life on the mountain. May we present the evidence, allegedly courtesy of Kim Kardashian: Now, to give you an indication of what exactly West is cooking up, a host of the hottest rappers and producers in music have also descending upon Jackson, Wyoming, including: Kanye's sister-in-law's baby daddy, Travis Scott. Kid Cudi and Nas. Lil Tsunami. King Louie and The Dream. Pierre Bourne and A$AP Bari (the latter a very questionable choice). This is going to be an album for the ages. Image via Getty In a new Esquire cover story, Shia LaBeouf delved into his complex relationship with none other than Kanye West. Back in 2016, West went into one of his signature on-stage digressions, this time shouting out the Transformers star during the at a Sacramento show: "Shia LaBeouf, Kid Cudi feels a way. Give him a call." Addressing that incident, LaBeouf told Esquire, "I fucking love Kanye West." He says he tried to reach out after that show, but that Ye is "going through a lot. And I don't know where he's at or what he's doing." Related | Kanye West Isn't Leaving the Wyoming Mountains He then revealed that at one point, West obtained a ton of LaBeouf's clothes, of all things. West has openly admired the actor's closet before, rapping "I wish I dressed as fresh as Shia LaBeouf" on a "No More Parties in L.A." outtake, and apparently when the two met up to discuss an art collaboration, the rapper asked LaBeouf if he could take some of his clothes for a pop-up shop. "Around the same time, I took my mother to his concert," LaBeouf said. "She is, of course, obsessed with Kanye West. When I brought her backstage, he was a fucking sweetheart to her. And it just felt fair. So I'm like, 'Go for it, my guy. Take everything you want.' And he did. He took all my fucking clothes." The two have since lost touch. Last May, Yeezy was seen sporting a hat that looked exactly like one LaBeouf wears (or at least, used to). Kim says that the hat was gifted by LaBeouf, who can confirm at least this much: "The dude has a lot of my shit." Shia gave him the hat & its his favorite hat. There's a whole story behind it though. That hat is https://t.co/kNCoOXz6RT Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) June 5, 2017 Photos via Getty This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions With Apple set to launch its in-house designed wireless charging pad AirPower by the end of March, Taiwan suppliers are gearing up production of key components. While Taiwan makers have started to deliver small-volume shipments since mid-2017, their shipments are expected to dramatically rise with the imminent launch of AirPower devices. At the moment, Taiwan diode makers including Taiwan Semiconductor, Eris Technology, Lite-On Semiconductor, Panjit International, and HY Electronic are all mulling plans to expand their production capacities for bridge rectifiers to meet the ever-growing demand from both segments of wired fast chargers and wireless chargers. In fact, the sources continued, multiple terminal devices have incorporated the wired fast charging function, with the penetration rate for such function in PCs and notebooks expected to sure to 75% in 2018 from 50% in 2017. Supplies of Glass passivated package (GPP) bridge rectifiers that are needed to support Apple's AirPower will see shipment double in the first quarter of 2018 from a quarter earlier and rise further in the second quarter. . On another front, Taiwan MCU suppliers such as Nuvoton Technology, Holtek Semiconductor, and ENE Technology are also poised to embrace explosive market demand for wireless charger-dedicated MCUs, as they have kept receiving intensive inquiries from many customers, particularly from China. Earlier this month Patently Apple posted an IP report titled "Apple's AirPower Invention Surfaces for recharging iDevices now & Small appliances & Cars in the Future." 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. Earlier today Patently Apple posted a report titled "Singapore-based Broadcom will officially redomicile to the U.S. by April to keep their bid for Qualcomm alive." The report noted that Broadcom's $117 billion offer to buy California-based Qualcomm was being reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for potential national security threats. In a press release published earlier this morning, Broadcom stated that "In short, U.S. national security concerns are not a risk to closing, as Broadcom never plans to acquire Qualcomm before it completes redomiciliation." By mid-afternoon, there was shocking news for Broadcom. The Hill reported this afternoon that "President Trump on Monday blocked what would have been the biggest tech deal in history, saying the Singapore-based Broadcom's efforts at a hostile takeover of Qualcomm posed a threat to national security. The announcement came just hours after Broadcom CEO Hock Tan met with officials from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to make his case for the deal, according to a source familiar with the meeting. CFIUS had launched an investigation into the national security implications of the deal last week over concerns that it would hamper U.S. efforts to develop 5G wireless networks and other emerging technologies. CFIUS on Monday recommended that the president veto the deal. In an order released Monday night, President Trump said he'd been presented with "credible evidence" by CFIUS that the transaction could threaten U.S. security. In a letter to both companies' attorneys last week, the interagency panel said it was concerned that Broadcom's takeover would put at risk U.S. efforts to build next-generation wireless networks, thereby giving Chinese firms the opportunity to take the lead. "While the United States remains dominant in the standards-setting space currently, China would likely compete robustly to fill any void left by Qualcomm as a result of this hostile takeover," the letter reads. "Given well-known U.S. national security concerns about Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications companies, a shift to Chinese dominance in 5G would have substantial negative national security consequences for the United States." In another letter released before Monday's meeting, CFIUS said its national security concerns had been "confirmed" and hinted that it would recommend to the president that he block the deal. Broadcom in the past week has been aggressively pushing back on concerns that it has any plans to hamper Qualcomm's research and development investments. It announced a $1.5 billion innovation fund, promised to build out Qualcomm's work in 5G and assured Congress that it would not sell any assets to foreign entities. Trump's order comes just months after he stood alongside Tan in the White House as the Broadcom chief revealed that the company would be re-domiciling in the U.S. in what the administration touted at the time as a major jobs announcement. Broadcom made its unsolicited bid for Qualcomm a few days later. Broadcom has also tried to accelerate its plans to become a U.S. company in order alleviate concerns about the takeover's impact on national security. But none of the efforts seemed to be enough to placate CFIUS, which made an unprecedented intervention to halt Broadcom's takeover last week by ordering Qualcomm to postpone its shareholder meeting, at which Broadcom was expected to win a majority of the San Diego company's board of director seats." This afternoon Broadcom released a statement on the news: "Broadcom is reviewing the Order. Broadcom strongly disagrees that its proposed acquisition of Qualcomm raises any national security concerns." This evening, Republican Duncan Hunter went on the Fox News show "The Story with Martha MacCullum" to speak about the issue of Broadcom being a national security threat. The Story was also covered by Bloomberg as presented below. To be sure Broadcom was taken by surprise by the snap decision of CFIUS. On one hand President Trump welcomed Broadcom's decision to move their HQ back to the states and on the other hand says, sorry, we don't trust you with Qualcomm's technology. In the coming days or weeks after Broadcom's legal counsel has reviewed their options, we're bound to hear a more extensive response, so stay tuned. 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. Still moving forward with the manuscript: Overall, it can be said that the characteristic of the Middle Periods of Islamic history is political disintegration. Constantly shifting political boundaries made for instability and unceasing conflict. And the distinguishing mark of what Hodgson calls the Early Middle Period is, with the obvious exception of far-off Spain, Turkish domination. The Arabs had lost control of their own political destinysomething that would last for centuries and that has continued to rankle them well into our own time. A new ruling class had emerged, separated from the mass of the people and even from the learned classes by a different culture and different language. Many of the rulers of the Middle Period never really learned to speak Arabicmuch less to write it. The power of the amir (commander, prince) rested on something similar to medieval European feudalism.[1] Unlike the European system, however, the amir seldom, if ever, lived on his own land. Instead, he lived in the capital and siphoned off the revenues of the rural areas to the city. The amir was often totally separated from local life, not only ethnically and linguistically, but even geographically. He gained legitimacy not from popular consent, but from recognition by the caliph who, rather like todays queen of England, often had very little choice but to grant it. Despite this political disintegrationor even, as I would argue, because of itit is possible to consider the Early Middle Period the high point of Islamic civilization. The military commanders and princes of the small states competed one with another to attract the best poets and architects, knowing that the elegance of their courts and the quality of their architecture offered an important way to their glory and fame. And this competition did, indeed, call forth an astonishingly high quality of work. Furthermore, apart from the role of patron, the rulers of these small states concentrated on military and diplomatic matters, leaving most people throughout the Islamic world free to do and act as they pleased, so long as there was no threat to the rulers political control.[2] An international society established itself across the Islamic world precisely because the political sphere and political institutions were reduced to a minimum. This laissez faire attitude led, predictably enough, to commercial expansion, to great prosperity, and to trade in the most varied luxury goods, which passed unimpeded from China to Morocco. Art and architecture flourished. The majority of the population was Muslim by now, and Islam was central to all activities. This was a period of great scientists and poets. If the Early Middle Period saw the rebirth of Persian literature, elegant Arabic also reached new heights. It was also an era of famous philosophers like Avicenna and Averroes. [1] Arabic amir (often spelled emir) is pronounced a-MEER. [2] Jeanne Kirkpatricks distinction between authoritarian and totalitarian states is useful here: Totalitarian statessuch as those of the Communists, the German Nazis, and the Italian Fascistsmake a claim on every aspect of individual and social life. Art, literature, music, religion, the economy, all fields of human activity are subject to state interference. (The Church cannot function in such environments, until they at least begin to loosen up.) In authoritarian states, on the other hand, the ruler is inclined to let people do what they want, so long as they do not menace his rule. This is, by and large, the way things have shaped up in places like Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, and many Latin American states (where the Church, on the whole, functions quite well). The states of the Early Middle Period clearly fit into the authoritarian category. Controversial Idaho pastor Doug Wilson, who himself has a checkered past dealing with sex abusers in his church, has written a blog post about Rachael Denhollander, convicted gymnastics doctor Larry Nassars first accuser (Nassar was convicted of sexual abusing hundreds of gymnasts). Wilsons post goes in directions I would not have suspectednamely, most of Wilsons post is actually a screed against Boz Tchividjian, a grandson of Billy Graham and Liberty University professor who runs a sex abuse investigation and prevention resource ministry, Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment (GRACE). Wilson opens his blog post with this: When it comes to dealing with the carnage left by out-of-control lusts, our culture is having a hard time of it. I am speaking specifically of sexual abuse and its aftermath. So lets be clearWilson calls sexual abuse the carnage left by out-of-control lusts. This is precisely the problem. Sexual abuse is about power, not about out-of-control lusts. That Wilson views sexual abuse as simply out-of-control lusts, however, may help explain his history of justifying child sex abusers in his own churchand his insistence in letters he has written to judges in these cases that the perpetrators are cured and completely better now, and not at all a danger. Wilson has no idea how sexual abuse actually works. Many churches heal the wound lightly, saying that it is a spiritual matter, something to be taken care of internally. Victims are often told glibly to forgive, as though an all-better forgiveness for sexual assault came in a cardboard box, like Band-Aids do. At the same time, other Christians naively assume that the civil authorities have their act together on this, which they frequently do not. It is absolutely true that civil authorities dont always have their act togethermany rapists and sexual abusers are never convicted, whether due to lack of evidence or due to, well, other things. A judge described Natalie Greenfields rape, at age 14, by a man ten years her senior as a homeschool teenage love affair and sentenced her abuser to only four months in prison. But this isnt what Wilson is talking about, is it? We know thats not what Wilson is talking about because he wrote a letter to the judge claiming (falsely) that Natalies father had permitted the two to be in a courting relationship (he had not) and had invited Wight to move in with the family (Yes, Wight was living with Natalies family when the abuse occurred, but thats on Wilson. Wilson runs a college and a seminary, and does not provide dormitories for either; instead, he encourages families in his churches to put up his students as boarders). In his letter to the judge in the case, Wilson wrote that Wight was guilty for his crime no matter what circumstances actually set up the temptationhere again we get the idea that sexual abuse is the result of out-of-control lustsbut that I do not believe that this situation in any way paints Jamin as a sexual predator. Not a predator, just that out-of-control lusts thinghe had moved in with his 14-year-old girlfriend (in Wilsons false portrayal of the situation), how was he supposed to help himself? Its understandable, really. Lets see what happened to Wight after the judge sentenced him to only four months in prison, due in part to Wilsons portrayal of the situation: Mr. Wight spent four months in the North Idaho Correctional Institution in Cottonwood and was on probation for just under three years before requesting and receiving an early release. He was subsequently convicted of perjury for lying under oath at his probation release hearing by claiming that he had never violated the terms of his probation despite the fact that he began regularly breaking the alcohol prohibition term since shortly after his release from prison. Concurrent with the perjury case, Mr. Wight was also in court for and convicted of battering his wife, who subsequently divorced him. (Full battery and perjury a davits in reference section; together they paint quite the picture of a man with utter disregard for both everyone around him and for the law). After years of physical and emotional abuse (often in front of their children), Wights wife left him and divorced him. The abuse is described in an affidavit at the end of this document. This is what comes of Wilsons interpreting sexual abuse as out-of-control lusts and thus missing all of the warning signs that something was very wrongsomething that had nothing to do with mere sexual desire. But this sort of miscarriage of justiceWights short term for his abuse of Natalie Greenfieldis not what Wilson is referencing. Here is how Wilson discusses the civil authorities: Our cultural degradation really does create a dilemma for responsible believers who care about protecting victims. Remember we live in a time when our civil authorities have thrown their full support to homosexuals marrying, the bloody fruitlessness imposed by the abortionists bloody instruments, the selling of the pieces afterwards, boys transitioning to girls, and vice versa. The iniquitous muddle goes all the way up. We cannot assume we live in a time when sexual abusers can simply be handed over to righteous civil authorities. Our civil authorities have taken the lead in mandating various forms of sexual abuse. Our current civil establishment is a travesty. The thing is a royal mess. For all the horrors of Wilsons viewpoint herehis equation between sexual abuse and marriage equality, abortion, and trans rightsI really wish he was suggesting that sexual abusers are let go too often. At least then he would be recognizing a thing that actually occurs. But hes not. Have a look at what he says about the rules of evidence: I have been referring to the rules of evidence. By them I mean things like due process, the presumption of innocence, the right to confront your accuser, the requirement of two and three witnesses, hearing both sides before making a determination, and so forth. These principles are deeply embedded in our legal system, which in turn was Christian in its origins. They have been badly corroded in recent years, but they are still functional and still most necessary. But because they are deeply embedded in our legal system, they are part of the establishment. They are part of the way things are. This means they are an essential element in what feminists like to call the patriarchy. As far as the climate of the times is concerned, they are part of the oppression. So for a certain class of person, the principles of justice, the rules of evidence, are themselves sexual offenders, and should be put on a registry. Hes not suggesting that the civil authorities, by approving things he views as sexual abuse, such as marriage equality (?!), are willy nilly all about sexual abuse. Instead he seems to be suggesting the latterthat the civil authorities are too quick to convict sexual abusers without adequate evidence, without giving abusers the right to cross-examine their accusers, and so forth. And then theres the witness requirementsexual abuse is by its very nature typically hidden. You frequently will not have multiple witnesses. The core of Wilsons argument does not make sense. He says the the civil authorities have led the way in condoning various forms of sexual abusebut also, apparently, that the civil authorities are too quick to convict in other forms of sexual abuse. If that is his contention, why connect the two at all? What does civil authorities sanctioning of same-sex marriages have to do with their treatment of child sexual abuse cases? Wilson seems to be suggesting that the civil authorities are too easy on sexual abuse in some cases (marriage equality, apparently) and too hard on it in others. What connection is he actually drawing on between the two? And then Wilson adds this: We live in a time when it is possible for a sexual predator employed by a church to molest a bunch of kids, get caught, get quietly fired, and then set up shop down the road at another church. That does happen; it can happen. It happens in Roman Catholic churches and it happens in evangelical churches. We also live in a time when it is possible for a well-respected minister with a fine reputation to be forced to step down from his ministry because twenty-five years earlier some junior high kids were playing grabass at a church-sponsored youth camp. And the cabin counselor, barely out of high school himself, dealt with it by means of a brusque and inadequately-trained knock that off or Ill tell Smitty. In short, we live in a time when people do stupid things and we also live in a time when they do dark things. We have to deal with both idiots and orcs. I tried looking up the second case referenced herethe claim that a minister was forced to step down because he told junior high kids playing grabass at a church-sponsored youth camp to knock it offbut I couldnt find any such case. What exactly is grabass anyway? Is he talking about consensual sexual activity? Or is he talking about kids being harassed or molested by other kids? The fact that he doesnt see fit to differentiate makes me wonder if he can tell the difference. Let me know if any of you can find a reference to a pastor being let go in the situation described above, because I couldnt find any such thing. At this point I suspect that Wilson made it up whole cloth. The real problem with Wilsons postand I didnt even get into his claims that Boz Tchividjian is biased toward seeing sexual abuse where there is none, and shouldnt be trusted with an investigationis his posts effects on those reading it. What message does the pastor or evangelical layman glean from Wilsons post? They learn that the civil authorities should not be trusted to adequately handle sexual abuse cases. Such distrust of civil authorities in turn has two results: First, it will make the pastors and laypeople reading his post less likely to report sexual abuse to the civil authorities. Second, it will make the pastors and laypeople reading his post more likely to give individuals convicted of sexual abuse the benefit of the doubt. Neither of these are positive outcomes. I have a Patreon! Please support my writing! I have been meaning to blog about this topic ever since Hemant Mehta pointed out that there were young-earth creationists who were mocking flat-earthers for taking the Bible too literally. That hypocrisy continues, as Answers in Genesis just recently posted an article which says the following: Detractors of the Bible might point to passages like Isaiah 11:12, Revelation 7:1, and Revelation 20:8 to claim that the Bible teaches a flat earth. But the phrase, the four corners of the earth, must be interpreted within its context, and figurative language must be recognized. When the historical-grammatical approachis followed, the four corners of the earth is identified as a figure of speech describing the whole word using the cardinal directions (such as on a compass) from north and south to east and west. The passages are all within prophetic books, which are known for using poetic language. Interpreting the Bible literally doesnt mean ignoring figurative language of which the Bible is rich (e.g., 1 Samuel 2:8 and Psalm 75:3 poetically describe the earth as sitting on pillars that God founded). After all, if someone says the sun has set, we dont accuse him of not understanding that it is the earth that is spinning around the sun. It is not detractors from the Bible but honest readers who acknowledge that there is pre-scientific language in the Bible, which its authors and earliest readers would have assumed to be literally factual descriptions of the cosmos. Answers in Genesis turns people who read the Bible honestly into detractors by forcing one to choose between honesty and contextual reading on the one hand, and their definition of Christian faith and fidelity to the Bible on the other. As Karl Giberson writes, In convincing people that Noahs Flood was a historical event, Ham has done a great disservice to Christianity and thinking people in general. To preserve the historicity of Noahs story, almost all of contemporary science, biblical scholarship, and ancient history must be wrong. Randal Rauser reviewed Robin Parrys book on biblical cosmology and wrestled there with these issues as well. Heres an excerpt: Needless to say, the proper response is not to become more fundamentalist than the fundamentalists: a return to the three-tiered universe is not possible for those of us who are familiar with modern science. But then what is the alternative? How should we interpret this bizarre biblical world? Brad Kramer reviewed Kyle Greenwoods book on the same subject. Ben Stanhope has a knack for spotting when young-earth creationists are betraying their superficial acquaintance with and commitment to the Bible, whether in subtle or in blatantly obvious ways. This falls into the latter category, doesnt it? (Look at the background.) I came across this quote a while back and have been meaning to share it: When one carefully examines the argument, one discovers that the biblical view of creation is not being pitted against evolutionary theories, as is supposed. Rather, evolutionary theories are being juxtaposed with literalist theories of biblical interpretation. Even if evolution is only a scientific theory of interpretation posing as scientific fact, as the creationists argue, creationism is only a religious theory of biblical interpretation posing as biblical fact. And to add to the problem, it is a religious theory of biblical interpretation which is heavily influenced by modern scientific, historical and technological concerns. It is, therefore, essentially modernistic, even though attempting, and claiming, to be truly conservative. A genuine conservatism would, above all, seek to conserve the original conception and concern of the biblical materials-not measure and test it by contemporary canons. Conrad Hyers (then Professor and Chairman of the Department of Religion, Gustavus Adolphus College) in an article titled On Interpreting and Misinterpreting the Creation Texts in JASA 36 (September 1984): 142-148. I had also been meaning to share this thought: It is ironic that anti-science creationists want to focus on DNA as information in an effort to argue against evolution. The information in DNA is the strongest evidence for evolution! If you believe that DNA bears information, then you really must accept what that information communicates to us. And conversely, if you are unwilling to accept what the information tells us, then you are undermining your own case that the information in DNA means this or that. See also Dennis Venemas piece on the BioLogos website about information, DNA, and intelligent design, as well as Murillo Pagnotas piece on the use and abuse of information in biology. Joel Edmund Anderson blogs regularly about Ken Ham and his pseudo-museums, while Jim Kidder blogged about Andersons book, The Heresy of Ham: What Every Evangelical Needs to Know About the Creation-Evolution Controversy. Jim also blogged about what young-earth creationists say about evidence concerning ancient native American populations, and the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Ken Ham. See also the interview about the book on the Creation Museum by Susan and Bill Trollinger, Righting America at the Creation Museum. Libby Ann, another Patheos blogger, highlighted the ironic willingness of young-earth creationists to accept super-rapid evolution in order to bolster their overall antievolution stance. A while back, this chart circulated. It compares the amount of extrabiblical scientific information contradicting the cosmological language used in the Bible and the assumptions of its authors: Students in last years Bible and music class drew this song to my attention, which is intriguing in its combination of certain extrabiblical ideas (God having fun in creating, for instance) with elements of the ancient biblical cosmology that tend to be ignored or denied in the modern era (God placing the solid sky upon the peaks of the mountains): Hi folks! Im super excited to be returning to Minnesota this week! I love the folks in MN, and very happy to be returning for my third year of Paganicon. Im getting into town a wee bit early to do a book signing and workshop at Magus Books & Herbs on Wednesday, March 14th. Heres the event link. Im looking forward to seeing their new shop space! Heres the info: 6:00PM 6:45PM BOOK SIGNING Magus Books and Herbs is proud to host Laura Tempest Zakroff for an evening of books and magic. From 6:00 6:45, Laura will be signing copies of her books The Witches Cauldron and her most recently published title Sigil Witchery: A Witchs Guide to Crafting Magick Symbols. Copies of both books will be available for purchasing at the event. 7-9PM SIGILS IN MOTION WORKSHOP Ritual is a dynamic union of self and spirit, above and belowso why should it be static? Learn to incorporate movement into your ritual with focused intention and discover a much more powerful experience. Well look at the parts of various rituals from start to end, and how different sacred movements (gestures and dance steps) can be applied for groups, covens, as well as solitary practitioners. Held in the newly renovated Magus Books and Herbs Classroom Before March 1st: $40.00/After March 1st: $45.00 Tickets: https:// www.magusbooks.com/ Sigils-In-Motion/ productinfo/TEMPEST2/ Then theres the Paganicon Schedule. All weekend during normal vending hours, the Owlkeyme Arts booth will be open in the main vendor room (situated to the left along the wall when you walk in the room). Ill also have 4 pieces from my recent solo exhibition Embodied Sigils in the Art Show Room. Friday: 8:30pm Nathaniel and I will be joining S.J. Tucker during her Friday night concert. Then youll find me at the Llewellyn Hospitality Suite afterwards! Saturday: 10:30am Nathaniel will be playing a set, accompanied by S. J. Tucker 2:45pm Book Signing! Ill sign books! Preferably ones I have written! 4:15pm We Are Aradia Workshop & Ritual empowerment, education, and ritual Sunday: 9:30am Artists Eye & Witchs Heart watch an undercaffeinated and overtired Tempest lead a panel of artist folks on the intersection of art, spirituality, and magick. Seriously, it wont only be informative and interesting, itll be highly entertaining. 1pm The Art of Sigil Witchery its like my book, but with me in your face doing things! News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism. Paxton, IL (60957) Today A steady rain in the morning. Showers continuing in the afternoon. High 68F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Cloudy skies early with showers later at night. Low 54F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%. New book SOFREH: Take a journey in words and images through the culture of Persian celebration A one-of-a-kind book that examines Persian celebrations from their earliest incarnations to their present state Reaches out to Iranians worldwide, embracing and celebrating their cultural heritage Glossy full-color photographs capture the spirit of these ancient traditions in the modern day 03/12/18 SOFREH: The Art of Persian Celebration (published in 2017) facebook page | watch video 2 hardbound books in slipcase, 646 pages, 9.1 x 9.7 x 2.7 inches order from amazon SOFREH: The Art of Persian Celebration is a journey in words and images through the culture of Persian celebrations. Never before have the splendour and beauty of these ancient traditions been presented in such an intricate and novel fashion. Sofreh, Persian for spread, is the focal point of the celebrations. These two lavishly illustrated volumes devoted to compositions created for the Persian New Year and marriage ceremonies are beautifully presented and richly documented. The history and symbolism of ancient Persian customs are discussed. References to Persian poetry, literature, art and folklore stimulate the imagination, and the text is illuminated with exquisite details of old manuscripts, antique woven textiles and embroideries. At the heart of each volume is a diverse array of original and at times highly elaborate sofreh creations. In a contemporary interpretation of traditional practices, modern fabrics and refined antique textiles, creative floral designs, unconventional pieces of furniture, unexpected objects and containers are all brought together to make this work a feast for the eye. The concept of the project, the design and creation of the compositions, and the relevant essays are the work of Maryam Khosrowshahi, who has devoted much time and effort to the presentation of these culturally significant Persian ceremonies. The lucid historical essays are by Dr Willem Floor, an independent scholar who has written extensively about Iran. In the preface, the acclaimed Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli comments that Maryams sofreh creations ...have depth and movement; they are vibrant and dynamic..., and calls for a live exhibition of her works. Book One is about the Persian New Year (Nowruz), which is celebrated on the first day of Spring. Book Two has to do with the elaborate settings for Persian marriage ceremonies (Aqd), often spelled Aghd. The volumes are beautifully bound with natural cloth covers within a stylish slipcase. The book is designed by Anikst Design with additional design and consultancy provided by Liz Dixon, and published by ACC Art Books. An enduring gift, this elegantly packaged compact book will appeal to those interested in folklore, beauty, art and design. It will especially enchant Iranians, not least those in the diaspora, as well as communities in Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent where aspects of Persian culture still endure. The book is distributed by Ingram and available at bookstores, specialty art stores, as well as high profile institutions, like The Center for Iranian Studies at Columbia University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Freer and Sackler Library at the Smithsonian, and others. It can also be ordered from amazon. About the authors: Maryam Khosrowshahi Maryam Khosrowshahi is an art enthusiast, a collector and an avid floral designer. She has lived, worked and studied in Iran, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Switzerland, where she now works on the research and design of her personal projects. Dr Willem Floor Dr Willem Floor is an independent scholar specialising in the social and economic history of Iran, and is the author of more than 250 books and articles on a wide range of subjects. Parviz Tanavoli Parviz Tanavoli is an internationally recognised contemporary Iranian sculptor, artist, collector and author with a profound knowledge of the history and material culture of Iran. His work is represented in important public and private collections around the world. The Second Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Mrs Samira Bawumia, has pointed out that the struggle for gender equality will be meaningless, unless the girl child is empowered through education. She said access to education plays a crucial role in women empowerment and has therefore bemoaned the alarming figures of girls of school going age who are out of school, which could adversely impact on their future as adults. While we fight for greater rights and equality for women in all spheres of life, let us not forget that educating the girl child remains the bedrock of women empowerment. Every woman was once a girl, so an empowered girl makes for an empowered woman, Mrs. Bawumia stated at the Global Womens Empowerment event held in Philadelphia, US on Saturday, March 10, 2018. Her Excellency Mrs Samira Bawumia was speaking at the Global Women Empowerment Event in Philadelphia at the invitation of the US-Ghana Chamber of Commerce in recognition of her exemplary activism and advocacy in the areas of education and women empowerment. Mrs Bawumia through the Samira Empowerment and Humanitarian Projects has donated over 50,000 books to 17 Scholls across several regions in Ghana. She has also committed to provide an ultra modern literacy centre for the Kanda Cluster of Schools. The progress made in individual nations is commendable but the global picture leaves much to be desired. According to UNICEF, there are more than 1.1 billion girls in the world today. This is a significant number whose fate should not be left to chance. Without a deliberate effort and policy to help shape their future, the prospects for some of these girls are bleak, she warned. There are still 31 million girls of primary school age out of school. Of these, 17 million are expected never to enter school, according to UNESCO. Also, UNESCO estimates that there are 34 million female adolescents out of school while almost a quarter of young women aged 15-24 today numbering 116 million in developing countries have never completed primary school and so lack skills for work; and two-thirds of the 774 million illiterate people in the world are said to be females. Let us not take these numbers just as abstract figures. Unfortunately, these figures represent girls and women who bear the brunt of societys difficulties because they lack the basic skills and the springboard which education provides for their economic and social take offs, Mrs. Bawumia stated. She stressed on the need to prioritise girl child education now since that will have a ripple effect on national development. She said: Lack of education has a debilitating effect on women empowerment, maternal health, job opportunities, and exposes girls to gender based violence and forced marriages. To illustrate, UNICEF estimates that if all women had secondary education, there would be 49 per cent fewer child deaths. Again, according to UNICEF; if all women had secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia, child marriage would drop by 64 per cent. One of the greatest educationists in the history of Ghana, James Kwegyir Aggrey once said that if you educate a boy, you educate an individual but if you educate a girl, you educate a nation. Nearly a century after his death, all evidence still points to the fact that prioritizing girl child education, especially in the developing world, does not only empower the girl but it serves as a catalyst for the development of the entire nation. Mrs. Bawumia has therefore touted the Free Senior High School Education programme being spearheaded by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration, believing it will help break the shackles impeding the progress of women. For these reasons, it is imperative that as we champion the cause of women, we should endeavor to shape national policy such as access to education. This is because if the frontiers are opened, girls and women stand to benefit more. In many countries, education opportunities exist but because of poverty, girls are often sacrificed. Countries such as Ghana are making some progress in this regard. I am happy to say that the government of Ghana last year made education at the secondary level absolutely free for all children of school going age. This means the government pays for tuition, books, feeding, uniforms and boarding fees. Initiatives such as these are not gender biased but from the statistics, it is clear however, that girls would benefit immensely and the standard of living of women will be greatly enhanced in the long run, the Second Lady told her global audience. 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 A Ugandan MP who called on men to beat their wives has defended his comments to the BBC - revealing his wife had even doled out a slap in his direction on one occassion. As Africa Live reported earlier, Onesimus Twinamasiko found himself at the centre of controversy after suggesting that "as a man, you need to discipline your wife". The comments have not been well received in Uganda, where one in five women have been a victim of physical or sexual violence. Bit in an interview with BBC Focus on Africa, Mr Twinamasiko attempted to clarify his comments with reference to his own marriage, saying: "I don't mean beatings which cause injuries or death - but a slap - I would feel fine! Because it's calling me to order. We would sit down and sort it out. "I was slapped once by my wife and it was OK with me, because we sorted out our differences. I also slapped her once. She had wronged me." Source: BBC 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 Kenya's Red Cross is giving aid to people fleeing the Ethiopian border town of Moyale amidst an ongoing military operation, according to its Twitter account. We reported earlier how nine civilians were killed during an operation in the town on Saturday. As a result, the Ethiopian military has said it has suspended several soldiers and launched investigations. But it seems some residents have taken the decision to flee. The Red Cross said 2,000 people have arrived in Kenya so far. Moyale Mayor Aschalew Yohannes told DW Amharic some 50,000 civilians had crossed to Kenya. The Ethiopian News Agency said soldiers were deployed to Moyale town in the Oromia region to pursue Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) fighters who had crossed into Ethiopia from three locations. OLF is a secessionist group which the government has branded a terrorist organisation. Source: BBC 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 Open defecation costs the country approximately $79million annually, Mr. Raphael Godlove Ahenu, the Chief Executive Officer of Global Media Foundation (GLOEMF), a media advocacy non-governmental organisation said on Monday. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), on the sidelines of a community assessment on sanitation carried by GLOMEF in the Ada West District, Mr. Ahenu said poor sanitation which included open defecation, cost the nation $290million every year. The community assessment, according to Mr. Ahenu, was to enable the NGO to develop a community project to tackle poor sanitation and open defecation in the District. Mr. Ahenu indicated that despite the huge amount spent on sanitation, the country addressed only 15 per cent of its sanitation problems. Recently Ghana was ranked second in Africa after Sudan for open defecation, an indication that more than five million Ghanaians lacked household toilets. Mr. Ahenu called on the Ada West District Assembly to up measures and collaborate with key stakeholders such as religious bodies to address open defecation in the District, especially at Sege, the District capital. He expressed regret that sanitation situation in the District was not the best as it threatened the lives of people especially pregnant women and children. It is embarrassing and irritating to see people defecating openly, Mr. Ahenu said and called on the Ada District Assembly and the traditional authorities to be more proactive in addressing the problem. He said Ghana could achieve the universal access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation by 2030, if more investment was made in improving sanitation facilities. There was also the need to protect and restore water bodies, and related eco-systems such as wetlands and rivers to mitigate the impact of poor sanitation and open defecation. Mr. Ahenu said attitudinal and behavioural change were important in tackling poor sanitation, and stressed the need for strict enforcement of sanitation bye-laws and building regulations which demanded at least a toilet in every household. He said if huge budgetary commitment was not made into the sector, it would be extremely difficult for the Ministry of Sanitation to tackle the daunting sanitation challenge. 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 Upper West Regional Communications officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has appealed to President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to inform the region about the fate of the suspended regional minister, Mr Sulemana Alhassan. Mr Issah Kantagyere told journalists that it was unfortunate their Regional Minister was used as a scapegoat for the incessant brutal attacks by New Patriotic party (NPP) vigilante groups on innocent citizens. He said the group is noted to have attacked the partys own party people, government officials and vandalised public property across the country since NPP assumed power on 7th January, 2017 but no action was taken against the perpetrators. As responsible opposition, we are not enthused about the current state of the Upper West Region without a substantive Regional Minister, Mr Kantagyere said. He urged the President to impress on the ruling party leadership to deal decisively with hoodlums in the NPP without fear or favour saying it was sad that the security agencies and the President appeared helpless in protecting innocent, vulnerable and law abiding Ghanaians against the activities of the vigilante groups. As much as we agree with President Nana Akufo Addo, on the use of due process to address this self-inflicted menace, the suspension of our Regional Minister is seen as the use of a sledge hammer to kill a fly, he stated. Mr President, be reminded that, worse incidences of these attacks have taken place in the immediate past in other regions but not even a messenger was suspended and why Upper West Region, he quizzed. He alleged that the Presidents action demonstrated some Ghanaians were more Ghanaian than others and called for a conclusive decision on the issue as soon as possible to get the region on track for quicker development transformation. We cannot afford to be a suspended region, he said: We are convinced that the speed at which you have cleared your appointees of wrongdoing at the seat of government, the case of our regional minister will not be different. Were into the second year of NPP government, and all the eleven MDAs in the Upper West Region are anxiously waiting for their share of the one million dollars per Constituency per year. 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 Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has underlined the governments unswerving determination to build a society that works for everybody. He said they would go the extra mile to bring efficiency into the management of the nations resources to benefit the population. He was speaking at the 50th Maulid anniversary celebration of the Tijanniya Movement of Ghana in Kumasi. The event is held in the third month of the Islamic calendar to commemorate the birthday of Holy Prophet Muhammad. Dr. Bawumia gave the assurance that every part of the country would have their fair share of infrastructure development to make things better for the people. He indicated that creating job opportunities had been made an urgent national priority and was at the heart of the various interventions rolled out. He called for strong backing of the governments effort at transforming the economy to put the nation beyond aid. He reminded the Muslims about the need for tolerance and to live in total peace and harmony. It was important for all to get right with the law and avoid doing anything likely to undermine the peace. Dr. Bawumia announced that fares for this years Hajj would remain the same as that of last year. He added that they were working with the Hajj Board on that to maintain the fares. 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 A security analyst with the JatiKay Center for Human Security and Peace Building, Adib Saani has stated that the seat of government, Flagstaff House, is not any better a place that guarantees the safety of the President of the Republic of Ghana than his Nima residence is. The Analyst is recommending the use of Peduase Lodge to keep the President safe at all times. He was of the opinion that the security of the President goes beyond Nana Akufo-Addo himself, as it is about protecting and defending the sanctity and sovereignty of the Republic of Ghana for which petty partisanship should have no place in the discourse. The statement indicated: In security matters, there is customarily a security bubble around the Presidents Residence or when he is on the move. It is made up of three perimeters; police/military, secret service/national security operatives and the Presidential Protective Guards. There should be some level of distance of at least 300 meters east, west, north and south from the Presidents living or sleeping area. With the advancement in electronic crime, there are electronic devices that are able to snoop from hundreds of meters away. Mr Adib Saani said in the statement. The security analyst also said it is a cause for worry for him that the seat of government is disturbingly near the French Embassy and other private facilities thereby making the building vulnerable to prying. He said even though the Flagstaff House is unsafe, it was still a better option for the President than his Nima private residence, but that Peduase is the best security-wise. He said it is unwise to keep the President at his Nima Residence, considering its close proximity to human and vehicular traffic. Creating a text book bubble around the Nima Residence therefore would require we go beyond evicting the squatters but should include evicting occupants of all private and corporate properties around the vicinity stretching to the ring road. He said the Flagstaff House is as externally radiant and magnificent as it is a security nightmare upon risk assessment. For example, he said terrorism threat to the country is more alarming than we can comprehend Car bombs have become effective weapons for terrorists as they are an easy way to transport a large amount of explosives to the intended target. A car bomb also produces copious shrapnel, or flying debris, and secondary damage to bystanders and buildings. Recent Somalia car bomb that killed over 400 destroyed building as far as 500 meters away. The seat of Government is extremely and uncomfortably within close proximity to vehicular traffic without any form of measure to keep vehicles at a distance using roadblocks and checkpoints, Jersey barriers, concrete blocks or bollards, metal barriers, except to some extent, the entrance. He said. He made reference to the United States and the United Kingdom: Since 1991, the entrance to Downing Street for example, has been closed, preventing the general public from getting near Number 10. In Washington, D.C. the portion of Pennsylvania Avenue immediately in front of the White House is closed to traffic. Many fences have protected the house throughout the years, but in the mid-1990s it was expanded by an entire block to keep traffic further away. He justified his recommendation of the Peduase Lodge as the most secured location to keep the President. Aside the fact that the area is not densely populated, the hilly topography is an added advantage when it comes to defending it. The traffic security in front of the Lodge can be better managed with checkpoints, barriers and searches conducted, he explained. Source: ghanaweb.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 Parliament is set to question the Procurement Minister over claims Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) CEO failed to go through due process in the award of a GH28.8 million contract. Adwoa Sarfo and Stephen Amoah are to answer for the circumstances under which MASLOC purchased 1,800 second-hand vehicles from Germany for GH28.8 million According to Ashaiman legislator Ernest Norgbey, the contract which was awarded to a private firm, Dextro-Impex Company Limited, did not go through competitive bidding. He claims there was no grounds to have sole-sourced the contract and the award is illegal. Mr Norgbey also alleges that the Mr Amoah gave Dextro-Impex Company Limited a letter of comfort to allow them raise funds to execute the contract. At the time that these contracts were signed there was no board in place but the CEO took it upon himself to do all these things. We keep talking about sole sourcing and fighting corruption but if one CEO can take the decision to award a contract worth GH28.8 million, then there is every cause to worry, he said. According to him, even the Ghana Public Procurement Authority (PPA) cannot give approval to sole source such a contract. Under which condition or urgency are they going to authorize MASLOC to procure these cars when there are some conditions that ought to be met? he quizzed. Mr Norgbey said although Section 40 of the PPA Act allows for such a transaction to be okayed, the said contract does not qualify. According to him, the Act is against public officers procuring second-hand vehicles for any state entity. He believes MASLOC could have opened tender for prospective companies to bid for the supply. The Ashaiman MP said the CEO must answer why he supported a company which did not have the financial muscle to undertake such a contract which was worth so much money. It is total grounds for corruption. I dont need Martin Amidu [Special Prosecutor] to tell me this is grounds for corruption and this is what we are fighting about. Mr Norgbey said irrespective of whether the contract was executed or not, the fact that it was awarded shows something was not done right which must be investigated. The contract must be reversedGH28.8 can do something for Ghana and we cannot allow people to engage in such improper acts. The MP said on Wednesday, he will seek answers on the Floor of Parliament from Procurement Minister Adwoa Sarfo regarding which procurement method was used in awarding the contract. Although Mrs Sarfo has not commented on the allegations, last Friday in Parliament, she indicated her readiness to answer questions regarding the MASLOC contract. Source: myjoyonline.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 While no definitive connections have been proven between the unexpected and unusual firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and statements Tillerson just made about Russias attack on the UK, the timing between the two events and the subsequent firing of State Department spokesperson Steve Goldstein pose several important questions. Most important among them: Was Trump thinking of Russia when he fired Tillerson via Twitter? It wouldnt be the first time Trump had Russia in mind when firing a high-ranking official. Comey Shortly after firing FBI Director James Comey, Donald Trump made several attempts at obfuscating the real reasons behind the termination before admitting to Lester Holt in an interview that he had the FBI Russia investigation on his mind when he ordered Comeys firing. He said: Regardless of recommendation I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it. In fact, when I decided to just do it I said to myself, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story. Its an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. And the reason they should have won it is the electoral college is almost impossible for a Republican to win. The circumstances of both the Comey and Tillerson terminations cant be ignored, either. Just as Comey found out from a news broadcast hed been fired, Tillerson found out about his termination via Twitter. In both cases Trump couldnt bring himself to speak to either man personally. Both terminations were rushed, too. In both cases, almost no one knew the termination was about to happen. In remarks to press following the termination tweet, Trump confirmed it was his decision alone. I made that decision by myself. Rex wasnt, as you know, in this country, he said. Despite his attempt at portraying the severing of ties as amicable, State Department spokesperson Steve Goldstein released a statement on behalf of Tillerson contradicting the White House narrative. Confusion and Conflict In a statement released to press shortly after Trump fired Tillerson via Twitter, State Department spokesperson Steve Goldstein said: The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security. He will miss his colleagues at the the [sic] Department of State and the foreign ministers he has worked with throughout the world. The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling. We wish Secretary Designate Pompeo well. While brief, the statement packs a punch. The statement confirms Trump never spoke with Tillerson before firing him in addition to noting Tillerson thought he would continue serving as Secretary of State up until the moment Trump fired him. Perhaps more interestingly, this statement an unusual one for such a high-profile termination where departments dont often contradict the White House publicly and explicitly called the Trump narrative false. As Vox pointed out in their coverage of the termination and the subsequent statement: Tillerson, whose tenure in Foggy Bottom was widely seen among foreign policy experts as one of the worst (if not the worst) in modern history, still believed he was doing a good job at the time of his firing. Its still unclear why, exactly, the secretary of state was just fired at this particular moment in his spectacularly unimpressive tenure as Americas top diplomat. In the Trump administration, chaos is something of a norm. But this is shocking even when grading on that curve. While Trump didnt bother to offer the specific reasoning behind firing Tillerson, he did immediately fire State Department spokesperson Steve Goldstein for leaking the truth about the termination. From Russia With Love Much like the Comey firing, several theories already exist attempting to understand and parse the sudden and unexplained firing of Rex Tillerson. Among them are performance, loyalty, the time Tillerson allegedly called Trump a moron, and Tillersons recent statement calling out Russia for attacking private citizens in the UK. The truth may be a combination of those factors. In the statement addressing the Russian nerve gas attack, Tillerson said, We have full confidence in the UKs investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week. He added: There is never a justification for this type of attack the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. From Ukraine to Syria and now the UK Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens. The White House response to the attack outright refused to name Russia, even when pressed by reporters. CNN reported: The State Departments position on the attack appears be much stronger than the White Houses response. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called the attack reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible, but stopped short of blaming Russia. Weve been monitoring the incident closely, take it very seriously, Sanders said at Mondays news briefing. The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizens on UK soil is an outrage. The attack was reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation, and we extend our sympathy to the victims and their families, and our support to the UK government. We stand by our closest ally and the special relationship that we have. Pressed further on whether Russia was behind the act, Sanders said, Right now, we are standing with our UK ally. Thats a striking difference from Tillersons public remarks saying the attack clearly came from Russia and would certainly trigger a response. Tillerson wasnt always willing to point a finger at Russia; after all, he was the man who received the Order of Friendship award from Russia in 2013. Hes the former Exxon CEO that helped sign a historic oil deal with Russian oil company Rosneft. He was the obvious choice as Secretary of State for a president who wanted to secretly remove all Russian sanctions and develop a warmer relationship with Vladimir Putin than our European allies. That last point is critical given the language UK Prime Minister Theresa May used in describing the nerve agent attack. NATO It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia, UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced to lawmakers yesterday. She added, Either this was a direct action by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others. Giving Russia until tomorrow to respond to their accusation, May said, This attempted murder using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town was not just a crime against the Skripals. She added, It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk. The fact that she characterized the use of a nerve agent targeting an ex-spy and his daughter as an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom is crucial as it means the attack could be considered an attack on the UK itself something that could involve NATO should the situation escalate. Should Russia either fail to respond or should they brush off the accusation, May said the nerve agent attack would constitute an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom. Were this a singular incident, the language being used might seem hyperbolic. This incident is just the latest in a long lie of attacks on the UK though. Vox noted: The attack on Skripal isnt an isolated incident. Russia has a longstanding campaign to identify and kill Russian dissidents living in the UK. US intelligence links at least 14 deaths in the UK to Russia, including outspoken oligarchs and journalists. We know the Russians have an active program of killing people in the UK that they dont like, a British intelligence officer told Steven Hall, a former CIA official focused on Russia, according to BuzzFeed News. The Skripal case has already drawn comparisons to one of those murders: that of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy and defector to the UK. In 2006, two Russian agents put polonium-210 a highly radioactive chemical in Litvinenkos tea at a London hotel bar. It took weeks for Litvinenko to die, and he blamed Putin for orchestrating the attack. One of the assortment of responses being discussed is use of NATO to combat further Russian aggression. As he has already openly criticized NATO in the past, its unclear if Trump would meet its obligations to assist a fellow NATO member being attacked in this instance. He actually had to be goaded into agreeing to NATO charters Article 5 several weeks after refusing to do so during a speech at NATO headquarters least year. If faced with the prospect of having Article 5 invoked by the UK, would Trump live up to his promise? This is pertinent in light of the fact that hes still refusing to this day to enforce Russian sanctions handed down Congress. The prospect of having to punish Russia may have been at the top of Tillersons mind as he made remarks aligning more with May than Trump in laying blame for the attack. Loyalty Above all else, Trump values loyalty in his staff and cabinet. The nation has seen this repeatedly across several firings and threatened firings from James Comey to Rod Rosenstein. Tillersons departure from Trumps pro-Russia stance breaks with that loyalty, so it should be no surprise he took to Twitter to fire him without telling anyone. CNN pointed this out today too noting: Tillerson was far too independent, far too off the reservation for Trump. Even when defending Tillerson, Trumps insecurity about his secretary of states willingness to get in line was evident. The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon FAKE NEWS!, Trump tweeted in December. Hes not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again! I call the final shots. I mean. Trumps decision on Tillersons replacement CIA chief Mike Pompeo is also telling. Pompeo, a former Kansas congressman, has been a devoted ally to and for Trump since entering the administration. As the Washington Posts Aaron Blake smartly notes, Pompeo has been willing to carry Trumps water since coming into office most recently with his decision to meet with the peddler of a widely debunked conspiracy theory about the email hack of the Democratic National Committee. We are always on the same wavelength, Trump said of Pompeo before jetting off to California on Tuesday morning. Out goes someone Trump couldnt control. In comes someone he knows he can. Speaking to press today, Tillerson reiterated his warning about Russia. Russia must assess carefully as to how its actions are in the best interests of the Russian people and of the world more broadly, he said adding, continuing on their current trajectory is likely to lead to greater isolation on their part, a situation which is not in anyones interest. The contrast with Trumps words to the White House press corps this week is notable. Trump said, As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be. Just as he still refuses to believe Russia engaged in attacks on the 2016 election (as he still occasionally questions the accuracy of multiple global intelligence agency reports while refusing to allow those agencies to prepare for the 2018 election cycle), he appears ready to deny Russian culpability in yet another attack despite available evidence. The Atlantic aptly noted today: Britain and the United States share intelligence information fully, freely, and seamlessly. Its inconceivable that the U.S. government has not already seen all the information that Theresa May saw before she rose in the House of Commons to accuse Russia. If the U.S. government had a serious concern about the reliability of that information, it would have expressed that concern directly and privately to the U.K. government before May spoke. But the U.S. had no such concernthats why the now-fired secretary of state and the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom both endorsed Mays words. When Trump raises doubts about the facts, about American agreement with its British ally, about the accuracy of the British accusation against Russia, Trump is not expressing good-faith uncertainty about imperfect information. Trump is rejecting the consensus view of the U.K. and U.S. intelligence communities about an act of Russian aggressionand, if his past behavior is any indication, preparing the way for his own determination to do nothing. They added, It echoes the approach he took toward Russian intervention in the U.S. election to help elect him in 2016: Feign uncertainty about what is not uncertain in order to justify inaction. Something is definitely rotten in the state of Denmark, and anyone in the Trump administration who dares calls attention to it even those at the highest levels of the government keep finding themselves without government jobs. The 2016 election wasnt hacked by a 400 pound guy and the UK was not attacked by an unknown agent. Its far past time for Donald Trump to explain why he can never bring himself to call out and take action against Russian aggression. RELATED Peacock Panache readers: Tim Peacock is the Managing Editor and founder of Peacock Panache and has worked as a civil rights advocate for over twenty years. During that time hes worn several hats including leading on campus LGBTQ advocacy in the University of Missouri campus system, interning with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and volunteering at advocacy organizations. You can learn more about him at his personal website. Like this: Like Loading... Related We hope you enjoyed reading this article! If you would like to support our ongoing work, please consider buying us a cup of coffee. It's not much, but we don't do this for the money. We do, however, need caffeine to keep going some days!If you do donate, send us a message through our Contact Us page or via social media so we can thank you! The iconic 24-hour Sheetz stores with the red gas pumps, MTO signs and touch screens seem to be everywhere in southcentral Pennsylvania, but the company believes there's room for more. After adding 14 stores in southcentral Pennsylvania in the past five years, Sheetz has plans to open four new stores this year including three with "beer caves". There are also plans for at least one more store in the region as well. The Altoona-based company now has about 570 stores in six states, and is eyeing North Carolina as its largest growth area, but still likes to invest in familiar territory, where its brand is strongest, said Ryan Sheetz, assistant vice president of brand strategies. Sheetz has more than half of its stores in Pennsylvania, including more than 45 in the midstate. For the past five to 10 years, the Harrisburg area has been one of the company's priority markets, said Ryan Sheetz, one of about a dozen family members working full-time for the business "This area is a really great market for us," he said. The chain is opening stores this year in Cumberland, Lebanon, Lancaster and Adams County with a future store also planned for Dauphin County. The new stores follow two stores that opened last year, one opened at 1720 Harrisburg Pike in Middlesex Township, Cumberland County in September and another store at 7920 Linglestown Road in West Hanover Township, Dauphin County in June. Sheetz is opening about 30 stores a year and southcentral Pennsylvania remains a focus. But, it isn't the only convenience store in the area. The owner of Turkey Hill Minit Markets, The Kroger Co. recently announced it will sell its stores to a British company. One unknown in the market is the effect that sale will have on convenience stores in southcentral Pennsylvania. And while, the future of Turkey Hill might be unknown, another competitor, Rutter's is eyeing growth. The company announced last year, that its York County headquarters would be expanded for the third time in a decade. Rutter's is also opening new stores in the midstate. While Ryan Sheetz says Sheetz has a competitive lens, he says that competition isn't the deciding factor of where the company expands. But, he says, competition makes everyone better. "We do have a very competitive spirit," he said. When Rutter's announced its expansion last year, it said that changes in Pennsylvania laws to allow the sale of wine and beer were part of the reason. Ryan Sheetz says that the changes in the laws may not dramatically affect where it builds new stores, but, it does affect where it decides to remodel its stores. He noted that his company was the first in the state to offer beer in one of its convenience stores back in 2004. "We were the brand that pioneered that for the state," he said. At least three of the new stores coming to southcentral Pennsylvania this year will include a "beer cave". The following new stores are planned to open in May or June: A store in the Lititz area at 3205 Lititz Pike in Manheim Township will open in May. Another at 916 Allentown Blvd., near Grantville in East Hanover Township will open in June. Also in June will be the opening of a store in the New Oxford area, at 6100 York Road in Hamilton Township, Adams County. All three stores will be about 5,400 square feet, open 24 hours, will have inside and outside seating areas, and 10 to 12 gas pumps. All will also have "beer caves". The company focuses on consistency, Ryan Sheets said -- customers will always find gas pumps, convenience items and a food area in Sheetz locations. But the company is also looking to add other amenities when possible, such as a car wash, a drive-thru or a "beer cave". Sheetz to open a number of new midstate stores this year 4 Gallery: Sheetz to open a number of new midstate stores this year Sheetz is also planning to open a store in the Camp Hill area in September. The store will be located on the corners of Poplar Church Road and Erford Road in East Pennsboro Township. It will be a little bit larger at 6,000 square feet and it will include a drive-thru. Shoppers will also notice other things at this Sheetz as well. This Sheetz will have a new store design and the store's restaurant side and convenience side will be separated. Whatever features each store has, one remains of paramount importance, Ryan Sheets said: Food. "Our future is in food," he said. "That growth has been tremendous." The East Pennsboro Sheetz is being built on the former site of the Senate Plaza building, which will include 23,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a fast food restaurant, a casual sit-down facility, a hotel, and a five-story apartment building with underground parking. Each new Sheetz store will employ about 30 to 35 people. There are also plans to build a Sheetz on a relocated Sand Hill Road in Derry Township on a property that would include Hershey Pharmacy and space for eight other businesses at the former site of Don's Pier restaurant. That store is just a few miles away from a Sheetz store in Middletown Road in Derry Township that opened at the end of 2016. The 14 stores that Sheetz has opened in recent years in southcentral Pennsylvania are located in Dauphin, Cumberland, Lancaster, York and Adams counties. In Dauphin County, Sheetz opened stores in Lower Paxton, Lower Swatara, Swatara, West Hanover and Derry townships. In Cumberland County, Sheetz opened stores in Hampden, Lower Allen and Middlesex townships. In Lancaster County, Sheetz opened stores in Lancaster as well as West Hempfield, East Lampeter and Penn townships. In addition, Sheetz also opened a store in York Township as well as a store in Mount Joy Township, Adams County. --Business Buzz Good Tuesday Morning, Fellow Seekers. We'd like to take a moment to introduce you to Joe McGrath of Lafayette Hill, Montgomery County. A former Marine, McGrath opposes abortion-rights; is the father of two daughters, one of whom, Maura, has Down Syndrome; and he was on hand for a Capitol press conference on Monday afternoon for state House Republicans' latest run at limiting abortion rights for Pennsylvania women. Legislation sponsored by House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, would bar women from seeking, and obtaining, an abortion, based solely on a diagnosis of Down Syndrome. Right now, the state allows abortion up to the 24th week of pregnancy for any reason at all, save for those sought because of the gender of the unborn child. The new bill is part of a broader nationwide push by abortion foes, to limit a woman's right to choose. McGrath's a fan of the new ban-bill. He and his wife, Rita, never considered having an abortion when they found out about that their unborn child would be born with Down Syndrome. The suburban Philly couple are deeply Catholic and oppose abortion. It's what comes after that gets under McGrath's skin: Namely, ongoing Republican attempts to cut spending on Medicaid, which overwhelmingly serves the disabled and children. Cutting Medicaid, McGrath said, "is pro-greed, pro-malice and pro-death, not pro-life." And a handful of lawmakers at Monday's rally oppose bills that would help expectant mothers or provide increased state support for services for the disabled, a PennLive analysis shows. McGrath's daughter, who's now 19 years old, has "severe intellectual disabilities, autism, and other behavioral issues," and is entirely dependent on Medicaid for her health care, he said. Cutting Medicaid would have devastating consequences. But Republicans at the news conference Monday were silent on how they'd support parents like McGrath after birth. Their focus was on making sure Down Syndrome kids have a right to life. They did not address how the state would help parents handle taking care of them later. But that didn't keep GOP lawmakers from trying their darndest to tug at supporters' heart-strings on Monday. The first few steps of the vast staircase in the main Rotunda were lined with children living with Down Syndrome. Among the day's speakers was Karen Gaffney, who was born with Down Syndrome, but went on to become a champion swimmer. The heavy-handed symbolism, which abortion rights supporters dismiss as an attack on woman's right to choose dressed up as a disability rights bill, was hard to miss. What was missing, however, were disability rights advocates, who did not speak or appear at the rally -- as more than one veteran observer pointed out. The new bill comes just a few months after Turzai and other anti-choice legislators tried, and failed, to ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy; to ban a common second-trimester procedure, and tried to punish the doctors who performed them with a third-degree felony The new Down Syndrome bill would also punish doctors with a crime. In a co-sponsorshop memo, Turzai said nothing in the bill would bar a woman from "[obtaining] an abortion in cases of rape, incest or endangerment to the mother. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who's up for re-election this fall, vetoed the bill. All three of Wolf's would-be Republican 2018 challengers support it. One of them, Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York, was at Monday's newser to show support for this latest proposal, though he did not speak. The way McGrath figures it, if Turzai and his GOP colleagues are going to get up in front of the cameras and make happy noises about their commitment to the sanctity of every life, that support needs to extend past the end of the birth canal. "My whole point is that if you're pro-life, be for the whole life," he said. "Just being against abortion doesn't make you pro-life." And he's right. On Monday, Turzai bleated meaningfully, along with other GOP lawmakers, that "every human life is worth living and has dignity." But as we've pointed out previously, Turzai and his Republican colleagues have an appalling, post-birth track record. In fact, only a handful of the more than 70 House lawmakers, including Turzai, who supported that since-vetoed abortion ban, also attached their names to a pair of workplace accommodation bills that have been marooned in the House Labor & Industry Committee since last summer. In 2013, while he was still the House GOP floor leader, Turzai opted against running a Medicaid expansion bill, over concerns about its cost. A week or two later, the House stripped expansion language out of a Senate-approved bill, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported at the time. Turzai was among the Republicans who supported a more expensive and limited, private-option expansion plan, formulated by then Gov. Tom Corbett, that was supposed to be the state's alternative to the Medicaid expansion. In 2015, Wolf dismantled the plan and began moving the state onto the full expansion authorized under the Affordable Care Act. Long a fiscal hawk - and a vocal social conservative - Turzai as recently as last year proposed cutting the state's Medicaid contribution to balance the state's books. House Health Committee Chairwoman Kathy Rapp, R-Warren, a co-sponsor of Turzai's bill and chair of the House's pro-life caucus, was one of the rare exceptions. She is also a co-sponsor of those accommodation bills. In an interview after Monday's news conference, Rapp said upcoming budget negotiations would address spending on safety-net issues, adding that she "hopes we get to a point where there's coverage for everyone - perhaps in my lifetime." Rapp said she expects to report Turzai's bill out of her committee after a the House finishes a very long spring break that starts next week and runs until on April 9. But she doesn't expect to hold any public hearings on the legislation. Wagner, during a speech to the Pennsylvania Press Club last month, said the state needed to roll back the Medicaid expansion that had extended coverage to about 500,000 state residents. In an email, Wagner's campaign spokesman, Andrew Romeo, said the York County Republican would, if elected, seek a waiver allowing him to customize the program to the state's needs, allowing the state the flexibility to "provide more cost-effective healthcare" to more people. Such a move "would not harm children with Down syndrome," Romeo said, adding that "children represent 43 percent of all Medicaid enrollees, but they account for only 19 percent of Medicaid spending." McGrath wasn't buying it. "Won't cuts to safety-net programs lead to abortions - especially when parents have to decide when a child receives a pre-natal diagnosis?" he wrote in a statement he handed to some reporters covering Monday's rally. "When we ignore the needs of the vulnerable, we cheapen life and plant the seeds for abortion," he said, adding "Actions and votes have consquences." And in a year when Pennsylvania voters, particularly women, are angry and likely to exercise that anger at the ballot box, that ought to serve as a warning for Turzai and other Republicans as Democrats look to make inroads on Capitol Hill and in Harrisburg. But they'll probably ignore it anyway. The rest of the day's news starts now. Heading into today's for-all-the-marbles special election in the 18th Congressional District, a Monmouth University poll shows Democrat Conor Lamb with a 7-point lead, The Post-Gazette reports this morning. The Incline has your cheat-sheet for today's election. Warming up Monday's Coffee, a look at the top issues in the race. Dauphin County investigators interviewed state Rep. Tarah Toohil when she sought a PFA from a fellow lawmaker, PennLive's Charlie Thompson reports. He's baaacckkk ... former U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel, a Democrat, says he's running for Congress in a newly redrawn district in Montgomery County, The Associated Press reports. Another year, another bill that would let local cops use radar. A pair of bills in Harrisburg would limit the use of school buildings as polling places - as a security precaution, The Morning Call reports. Here's your #Harrisburg Instagram of the Day: WHYY-FM looks at the 'surprising truth' of racial gentrification in Philadelphia. What Goes On. 10 a.m., Media Center: Bipartisan lawmakers on mental health issues and how it affects school safety 11 a.m., Main Rotunda: Penn State Day in the Capitol, or, Tuesday. 1 p.m., Main Rotunda: Music Education Advocacy Day What Goes On (Nakedly Political Edition). 7:30 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Patty Kim 8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Mike Carroll 8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Jim Marshall 8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Emilio Vazquez 8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Mike Schlossberg 8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Aaron Bernstine 8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Bryan Barbin 5:30 p.m.: Reception for Rep. Justin Simmons 5:30 p.m.: Reception for Rep. Peter Schweyer 5:30 p.m.: Reception for Rep. Sue Helm 5:30 p.m.: Reception for Councilman Mark Squilla 5:30 p.m.: Reception for Pa. House candidate Kyle Mullins 5:30 p.m.: Reception for Rep. Margo Davidson Ride the circuit, and give at the max, and you'll part with a truly appalling $17,450 today. WolfWatch Gov. Tom Wolf heads to Erie for a 1 p.m. event where he'll talk with residents about 'economic opportunities' in the City by the Lake. Heavy Rotation. Here's something a little trance-y and a little dance-y to get this Tuesday morning going. And now you're up to date. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday. Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. Pompeo will replace him at the State Department, and Gina Hapsel - the deputy director at the CIA - will succeed him at the CIA, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed. In a statement issued to The Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel. "I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State," Trump said. "Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle." The president continued, "Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo and she will be the CIA's first-ever female director, a historic milestone. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect." Trump also had words of praise for Tillerson: "Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well." The president - who has long clashed will Tillerson, who he believes is "too establishment" in his thinking - felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said. "I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State," Pompeo said in a statement. "His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America's prosperity. Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honors of my life." Haspel in a statement also said she was excited for her promotion. "After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year," she said. "I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency." (c) 2018, The Washington Post * Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker A Camp Hill lawmaker says he is drafting a new bill that will allow local cops in Pennsylvania to use radar devices to catch speeders but prevent them from abusing them to generate cash. Currently, Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that bans municipal police, encompassing about 1,200 police departments, from using radar or laser-radar devices. That ban has spurred officers to enforce speed limits with less conventional devices over the years that have been criticized by some for accuracy issues. Police officials say Pennsylvania's ban dates back to 1961 and was rooted in concerns that it would lead to the rise of small-town speed traps. Police officials have repeatedly pushed to overturn that ban, but those efforts have been thwarted by lawmakers who still fear the devices will be abused. Now, Rep. Greg Rothman, R-Cumberland County, says a new bill that he is drafting is designed to assuage those concerns while still allowing municipal police to use radar. "Nobody likes getting a speeding ticket, but the reality is high traffic speeds are a huge cause of accidents and death," Rothman said. "We want to allow the police to use the best tools to keep people safe." To prevent police from abusing radar, Rothman says his bill will include the following provisions: Only full-time police who have completed an approved training course will be allowed to operate the devices. Officers will need to take a refresher course every three years. Officers must be in marked vehicles that are visible to the motoring public. Roads entering the community must be marked with "radar enforced" signs. Motorists can't be ticketed unless they exceed the speed limit by at least 10 mph. Motorists can't be prosecuted if the municipality is shown to be using radar to generate revenue. Generation of revenue is demonstrated if at least 1 percent of total revenue is derived from radar traffic fines. Enforcement can only be authorized after a municipality has passed an ordinance allowing its police department to use radar. Subsequently, radar use is only authorized after citizens have either complained about speeding in an area or police can demonstrate traffic safety concerns. Municipalities are banned from setting quotas that encourage officers to cite motorists. Annual reports from communities are to be made to PennDOT, and PennDOT is required to make an annual report to the Legislature. Perhaps most importantly, Rothman said, the bill will expire after six years unless renewed by the General Assembly. "It's a six-year pilot," Rothman said. "So if radar is being abused we won't renew it in six years." Rothman said he hopes the bill's text will be released as early as this week. He is currently seeking co-sponsors and said he has interest from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Rothman's proposed bill is something of a companion to another bill, SB251, that the Senate passed in November and has been sitting in the House Transportation Committee since. SB251 would allow police to use radar devices but lacks the additional provisions of Rothman's bill, including its six-year expiration date. Rothman, who sits on the House Transportation Committee, said that while he supports SB251 he doesn't believe it can pass the House without the additional provisions included in his own bill. "Sometimes we have to do things incrementally because we have to show that local police forces can use radar responsibly and that their use will contribute to public safety," Rothman said. Three separate federal juries have convicted Willie Tyler in the 1992 murder of Darlene Proctor, a Carlisle woman who was a police informant. Yet Tyler is now a free man, at least for the moment, because a U.S. judge concluded the feds had no legal grounds to prosecute him in the first place. Middle District Judge John E. Jones III agreed the evidence shows Tyler was involved in Proctor's slaying "in some capacity" to prevent her from testifying against his brother in a narcotics case. However, Jones also decided there is no proof her killing impeded any federal investigation because she was an informant only for local police. So, he found, the basis for filing the federal charges of witness tampering by murder and intimidation against Tyler was faulty and his convictions and life prison sentence must be voided. The U.S. Attorney's Office is not willing to let Jones' ruling stand. Federal prosecutors are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to overrule Jones, reinstate the convictions and send Tyler back to prison for the rest of his days. For the time being, Tyler, now 66, is living with a nephew in Aspers, a small town on the border of Cumberland and Adams counties, waiting to see if his freedom will last. He already has spent a quarter-century behind bars. U.S. Attorney David Freed didn't respond to a request for comment on the Tyler case this week. Tyler's case is convoluted. He was among several Carlisle residents, including his brother David, who were initially tried in Adams County Court in 1993 for the slaying of the 32-year-old Proctor. Proctor was gunned down in April 1992 in a remote part of Adams County the night before she was to testify as a prosecution witness in David Tyler's Cumberland County drug trafficking trial. Investigators said Proctor was stabbed and beaten, then shot twice with a shotgun. One shotgun blast blew off one of her breasts. The other shot, the fatal one, was to her head. Although the Adams County jury convicted David Tyler of Proctor's murder, it acquitted Willie Tyler of homicide and found him guilty of witness intimidation. In April 1996, after serving time in state prison on the intimidation conviction, Willie Tyler was charged with new federal counts of witness tampering by murder and witness tampering by intimidation. He was convicted by a federal jury and sentenced to the mandatory punishment of life in prison. Then he won his appeal and a new trial was ordered on grounds that prosecutors shouldn't have been allowed to use statements Tyler made to police after invoking his right to remain silent. Tyler was convicted on the second go-round in 2000, resentenced to life, appealed and again was granted another new trial in 2013. That third federal trial, over which Jones presided, ended with guilty verdicts this past July. Assistant Federal Public Defender Lori Ulrich challenged that most recent conviction, arguing the prosecution's evidence was shaky and that it was too far of a stretch of the law to have brought the federal criminal charges against Tyler for Proctor's murder. Ulrich's argument that the feds lacked legal justification to charge Tyler resonated with Jones. Ulrich contended federal prosecutors lacked justification for their charges because Proctor's death, and Tyler's actions around the time she was killed, did not affect any federal criminal investigation that was active at that time or which might have resulted from information Proctor could have supplied had she not been murdered. And, Ulrich claimed, witnesses prosecutors called during Tyler's repeated federal trials failed to pin Proctor's killing directly on her client. "No evidence puts Willie Tyler at the murder scene, only in a car somewhere in the vicinity," she wrote in asking Jones to issue the judgment of acquittal that voided Tyler's latest conviction. "No evidence supports a finding that Willie Tyler was involved in or knew about the killing, except perhaps that he learned about it shortly after the fact." Ulrich insisted prosecution claims that Tyler was involved in the murder plot are "purely speculative." Tyler himself has insisted that, while he drove his brother to the murder scene, he didn't know in advance that Proctor was to be killed and did not participate in her slaying. Prosecutor Chelsea Schinnour pushed back by citing witness testimony that she insisted showed Tyler was involved in formulating and executing the plot to kill Proctor to keep her from testifying against his brother. She cited one witness' claim that after the murder Tyler and another man had discussed how Proctor's slaying was "sloppy." "Through the collective testimony of the witnesses, the physical evidence...the government indisputably proved that Tyler and his accomplices injured, killed and forever silenced Proctor on April 21, 1992," Shinnour wrote in a brief opposing the judgment of acquittal. "This court should honor the jury's decision and let the conviction stand." She insisted the federal charges against Tyler are warranted because, while Proctor was working for local and state authorities, she might have been able to provide information to the feds as well regarding interstate drug trafficking by David Tyler. Schinnour cited testimony that Proctor began helping police after calling a drug hotline in December 1990 to voice concerns about narcotics trafficking in Carlisle. Proctor's work as an informant was continuing to expand when she was killed, the prosecutor said. She noted that Proctor already had told local investigators that David Tyler's drug network extended to New York and Jamaica, possibly laying the groundwork for a federal probe of David Tyler. That information undoubtedly would have been passed on to the DEA, Schinnour argued. "The government proved that it was more than reasonably likely that at least one of Proctor's future communications would have been to" federal investigators, she wrote. Federal adoption of narcotics probes that began with local police and their informants was "routine" at the time of Proctor's murder, Schinnour added. Jones found that the prosecution's evidence "was sufficient to support a finding that Willie was involved with Proctor's murder in some capacity." However, that doesn't mean Tyler's involvement rose to the level of a federal offense, he decided. Jones concluded the prosecution argument that Tyler participated in Proctor's killing to prevent her from passing on information that might later have been used by federal investigators "is far too speculative to withstand judicial review." "The government's interpretation stretches the law to the point of breaking," the judge wrote in the 40-page opinion accompanying his judgment of acquittal. No reasonable person could make the leap that Tyler helped kill Proctor because she might at some point have decided to provide information to the feds, Jones found. "By any measure, Willie's involvement in the senseless killing of Proctor is inexcusable," he concluded. "But a federal court is not a forum for the do-over of a failed state court prosecution." He compared the federal prosecution mounted after Tyler's acquittal on murder charges in the Adams County trial to Captain Ahab's futile pursuit of Moby Dick, the great white whale. "Our task is to end this narrative and do justice, joyless though it may be," Jones wrote. He rejected pleas by federal prosecutors to keep Tyler jailed until their appeal of his judgment of acquittal is decided. Tyler has every reason to try to disappear since he will go back to prison for life if the 3rd Circuit court reinstates his latest convictions, the U.S. attorneys argued. They also challenged the wisdom of allowing Tyler, who is afflicted with medical problems, to remain free in an area where several of the prosecution's witnesses in the Proctor case still live. "Despite generalized arguments and speculation by the government, we perceive no danger whatsoever to any person or the community at large as a result of (Tyler's) release," Jones countered. Tyler "has been a model inmate, and the serious health issues facing him will likely restrict his mobility." A military base in Kuwait is the new temporary home for a contingent of the Pennsylvania National Guard. The headquarters and headquarters battalion of the guard's 28th Infantry Division have taken over responsibility for Task Force Spartan at Camp Arifjan. The several hundred Keystone Staters relieved the 35th Infantry Division, a Kansas/Missouri-based unit that was overseas for the past nine months. The Pennsylvania guard contingent will provide headquarters services for about 10,000 soldiers on security duty in that part of the Middle East. Task Force Spartan is composed of regular Army, Army Reserve and Guard units. State Rep. Tarah Toohil met with Dauphin County investigators Monday, as her and another woman's allegations of violence by a Pennsylvania state House colleague continue to move from the workplace to the criminal realm. The two women initially filed their complaints against Rep. Nick Miccarelli, a Republican from Delaware County, with House Republican caucus leaders on Feb. 8, as potential violations of the caucus's workplace harassment rules. But many of the allegations contained therein, including accusations of date-rape, terroristic threats and other abuses, could clearly trigger criminal charges, so the information was referred to local prosecutors. Miccarelli has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and has rebuffed calls by Gov. Tom Wolf, House GOP leaders and others for his resignation. Toohil's interview with the Dauphin County district attorney's office was first reported Monday evening by The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Luzerne County Republican, who went public with her identity last week after filing for a protection-from-abuse order against Miccarelli, did not respond to interview requests from PennLive. The new development came as the Pennsylvania House of Representatives returned to session for the first time since the complaint against Miccarelli was publicly disclosed Feb, 28 in a joint report by The Inquirer and the weekly state government newspaper, The Caucus. To visitors, Monday mostly felt like business as usual at the Capitol - it helped that Miccarelli was absent. Miccarelli's spokesman told PennLive Sunday he won't be coming to the Capitol for session - when he and Toohil are by definition be together on the House floor - until final terms of the PFA Toohil seeks are set later this week. A hearing in that case is set for Thursday. But to regulars there is no forgetting what has to be considered one of the state's most high-profile dating violence cases. Toohil took the floor for the traditional 1 p.m. start of a new session week, escorted by a small House security detail. "In order for her to be able to conduct her business of representing her constituents we've asked our security team to kind of be her eyes and ears; to be watching out for other things... whatever those other things are," one top House staffer said. "I think it's important that we provide another layer of security for her," given the current situation. In her interview with The Inquirer, Toohil noted she does believe going public with her accusations against Miccarelli changed the dynamic of their long-time status as House colleagues. Both Miccarelli and Toohil acknowledge a relationship that apparently began on consensual terms. As that relationship evolved, however, Toohil said there were "terrible moments," including one 2012 incident in which she has alleged that Miccarelli allegedly brandished a gun, pointed it her head and threatened to kill them both. "My silence has always bought me my safety," The Inquirer reported Toohil as saying. "That's the best way to say it. As long as I was silent, I felt that I would be safe." In related developments, House Majority Leader David Reed, R-Indiana County, told PennLive he expects the House's internal investigation to be finalized this week. Reed said the findings will be shared with Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo's office, but he could not say what the next step in the House's internal process will be. "All options are on the table," Reed said. "We certainly believe it's in everybody's best interest for Rep. Miccarelli to resign. That's why we made that call a couple weeks ago now, and hopefully he will heed that call." Miccarelli's other accuser spoke to investigators last week. WILLIAMSPORT - A former board member of the non-profit corporation that owns the former Beta Theta Pi fraternity house at Penn State contends the death of Timothy Piazza was caused by the failure of 11 current members to discharge their fiduciary duties. Donald G. Abbey charges in a suit filed Monday in U.S. Middle District Court that AY Corporation board members failed to implement and enforce policies that would have prevented the alcohol-related hazing activities that resulted in the death. Defendants are 11 current board members and a member of AY Corp., who as leader of the special projects task force he alleges assisted with the fiduciary breaches. AY, a non-profit organization of consisting of fraternity members after they graduate, has since 1894 leased the house to the chapter and active members. Abbey, a California resident who was removed from the board in 2016, charges the defendants intentionally or recklessly: Enabled rampant underage drinking and alcohol-related hazing that among things resulted in Piazza's death. Interfered, refused to cooperate and tampered with evidence related to ongoing criminal investigation into the death. Wasted corporate assets by causing AY to unnecessarily spend substantial funds on lawyer fees to protect the personal rights and interests of one board member. Caused AY to operate the house in an unlawful manner and for an unlawful purpose. Caused AY to breach written contractual obligations to Abbey. Piazza, a sophomore, died Feb. 4, 2017, two days after being injured when he fell down stairs while intoxicated during alcohol-related hazing activities. AY and a number of fraternity members on May 9, 2017, were charged criminally in connection with the death. The corporation is headed to trial in Centre County on 146 counts. READ MORE: 'Beta is dead,' and 7 other eyebrow-raising comments from a Penn State fraternity lawsuit The tampering allegation in the suit targets one of the defendants, William F. Cassidy, a Pennsylvania resident who has been a board member since 2012. Cassidy is accused of directing certain chapter members to destroy or conceal evidence related Piazza's death. As the result of the FBI being able to restore deleted basement camera footage, additional fraternity members were charged. Following Piazza's death, Penn State initially withdrew its recognition of the chapter but on March 30, 2017, banned it from ever returning. Since AY was criminally charged, the corporation has paid approximately $137,000 in legal fees, the suit states. A portion of the fees were incurred out of concern Cassidy might be personally charged, Abbey contends. His suit takes issue with AY reopening the house last September and leasing it to its members and guests to raise money for its defense fund. Violation notices are accruing because AY is engaging activity without the required permit and for an unauthorized change of use, he points out. READ MORE: A year after fatal Penn State frat party, Piazza parents offer advice: 'it's not too late for your son' He also claims AY is selling beer and wine without a license by packaging the sale with fees for lodging and meals. The lawsuit points out in the early 2000s the chapter had a similar problem with alcohol abuse and hazing. To address it, the chapter was disbanded and all members evicted in the spring of 2009. It was AY's intention to recolonize the chapter and hire responsible adults to live in an alcohol-free house to monitor activities, Abbey said. After this was done, active members sought to do away the "dry" status, and the court complaint states some of the board member defendants championed that change. Abbey opposed allowing alcohol in the house and, despite his financial commitment to AY, he was replaced on the board on Sept. 13, 2016. In June 2009, Abbey agreed through a written agreement to loan AY more than $10 million to repair, improve, recolonize and operate the fraternity house. The agreement requires repayment within 60 days the chapter ceases to exist and the house no longer is utilized to house active members. Abbey has another suit in Centre County court claiming AY has breached the funding agreement by not repaying him. Abbey contends in his federal complaint that non-board member Frederick H. Johnson III is liable because he paid for and arranged for changes to the house to better serve its new use, is handling its day-to day operations and paid for alcohol that Abbey claims is being sold illegally. The suit seeks court orders: A woman whose son and neighbor rescued her from her burning home last month died over the weekend. Lotte Spandler died at a burn center in Philadelphia over the weekend in the company of her family, Swatara Township police said. The department issued condolences to Spandler's family in news release Monday afternoon. Spandler's home caught fire at around 7:35 a.m. Feb. 26 on the 100 block of Kelker Street. Her son, Robert Spandler, and her neighbor, Barry Garber, pulled her from the building before firefighters arrived. The fire was accidental, officials said. By Nick Field The unrelenting cascade of outrageous statements, actions and revelations from Donald Trump and his cohorts can at times be paralyzing. I can certainly relate. At this point, what can be said that hasn't been said already in a myriad of ways? The scandals are practically continual, to the point that if feels that one flows into the next while the whole phenomenon overwhelms the senses. Perhaps this is why, even after 14 months, the Democratic Party still has no idea how to attack the Trump administration. Sure, the Dems have a good chance to take the House and maybe even the Senate this fall but that has more to do with Trump's failures then their own actions. So far, I've yet to see a cogent plan from the opposition party to take advantage of the president's unpopularity. To my eyes, however, it's clear how Democrats should attack Trump and the Republican Congress. The answer is emphasize the through line between Donald Trump's personal corruption, his tax cuts for the wealthy and the unwillingness of the GOP Congressional majorities to be a check on the President. Plenty of ink has been (metaphorically) spilled over how to handle the Russia scandal, but surprisingly little has been written about Donald Trump using the White House to line his own pockets. The Trump hotel in Washington is now the hottest spot in the city as business interests and foreign dignitaries rack up bills to curry favor with the famously conceited Commander-in-Chief. These acts are so brazen that the Administration's flunkies openly traverse the lobby of the building looking for business. Then there's Mar-a-Lago. The Florida resort serves as Trump's self-styled Winter White House and weekend retreat. Of course we already provide one in the form of Camp David, but much like the White House, the grounds don't suit his gaunty tastes. The Secret Service is forced to spend millions of taxpayer dollars in transportation, as well as thousands to secure the grounds and finance Trump's lifestyle. The Donald is also selling access to the highest bidder. For example, membership fees and prices at Mar-a-Lago are skyrocketing. Political fundraisers are held at Trump properties, and the man who once bragged that he couldn't be bought now frequently dines with his party's largest donors. We haven't even gotten to the kids yet. Initially the president promised that the Trump Organization would be run by Don Jr. and Eric, and pledged that they'd be autonomous and disconnected from politics. Instead, Don Jr. is making fundraising appearances and scouting for opportunities in India while Eric's admitted that his father receives frequent reports about the family business. Finally, there's Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner. They both work in the White House, despite the fact that it is illegal for them to do so, and haven't fully divested themselves from either of their family businesses. In fact, we recently learned that after White House meetings with Kushner, several countries then made deals with his organization. These conflict of interests are so great that Jared and Ivanka can't secure full security clearances because of them To top it all off, the sole legislative achievement of the Trump Administration is a massive tax cut that is extraordinarily favors the nation's wealthiest and exacerbates the historic income inequality gap in America. Republican incumbent U.S. Reps. Ryan Costello, Brian Fitzpatrick and Keith Rothfus all voted for the tax bill and none of them have called out the President on his corruption. "My whole life I've been greedy, greedy, greedy," Donald Trump once stated during a GOP primary debate. "I've grabbed all the money I could get. I'm so greedy. But now I want to be greedy for the United States. I want to grab all that money. I'm going to be greedy for the United States." Well, he was half-right. The self-admitted plunderer has shown his true colors. His administration has overseen a massive redistribution of wealth to himself, his family and his already affluent cohorts. Every Democrat running this November should pledge to end this theft and castigate their Republican opponent for aiding and abetting it. The message is simple: It's time for Trump's free ride for the rich to stop and Democrats are the only ones who'll do it. Nick Field, the former managing editor of PoliticsPA, is an occasional PennLive Opinion contributor. He writes from Bucks County, Pa. Fariborz Ghadar As automation continues to enter into more aspects of daily life, consequences include the displacement of human workers. We've seen machines take over manufacturing jobs as more industries rely on technology. Now, the wave is heading toward America's trucking industry, as automation in vehicles potentially threatens anywhere from 80 to 100 percent of America's 1.6 million truck driving jobs, according to White House estimates. Fariborz Ghadar (PennLive file) Truck driving is the most common occupation in over half of the states in the country, giving a real urgency to the need to prepare for this disruption. With the right resources, it can be done. While automation could replace humans inside the trucks, human workers will still be needed for a variety of jobs involving the oversight, protection, and improvement of the technology in their vehicles. More funding given to education programs for truck drivers now will pay off in the future. Properly funded training offers new possibilities to these drivers and educates an entire sector of the American workforce with computer skills that could be easily translated to technology fields beyond vehicular automation. If we fail these drivers and the majority aren't able to retire or quickly find new work, this could lead to a large group of embittered, unemployed citizens. Thankfully, the automation of trucks doesn't have to have the same sudden negative side effects as manufacturing because there is still time to prepare the truck driving industry to make the transition. Required improvements to the technology and reluctance of the general public to accept automated vehicles gives truck drivers approximately until 2040 to develop new skill sets that would transition well with the automation of their trucks. As automated trucks are slowly introduced to everyday society, there will still need to be workers inside the trucks to monitor the truck and take control of the vehicle if something goes wrong with the software. These supervising roles will only be temporary though, giving truck drivers more time for their transition, but not permanent job stability. This is where we can look to jobs in information and computer sciences to be the answer. The software needed for these automated trucks will need to be properly trained and debugged before being introduced, and as the Executive Office of the President states in its 2016 report "Artificial Intelligence-Automation-Economy", machines are only as capable as the data behind them. Truck drivers trained to collect data on different routes, road conditions, and driving scenarios could transition from driving the wheel to programming the wheel itself. There will also be the need to protect the technology driving American goods, requiring new jobs in the realm of cybersecurity. Identifying these potential jobs is actually straightforward. The difficulty arises in the production of programs that will train truck drivers to learn computer programming languages and give them an adequate knowledge of computer engineering. While some truck drivers could seek individual education, to avoid leaving a mass of drivers without work would require a national push to give these drivers the skills to work with the technology replacing them. However, there can be no push without funds to support it. In "Artificial Intelligence-Automation-Economy", it was found that most OECD member countries besides the U.S. spend .6 percent of GDP on worker and labor related policies while the U.S. spends only .1 percent on such issues. If we are to squarely face the consequences of technological integration, we must allocate the resources that give a vital, diligent workforce a true pathway to success. Fariborz Ghadar is the William A. Schreyer Professor of Global Management, Policies and Planning and Director of the Center for Global Business Studies at Penn State's Smeal College of Business. The Philadelphia Eagles addressed needs at linebacker and on special teams Tuesday by agreeing to sign Corey Nelson to a one-year contract, according to ESPN's Josina Anderson and other reports. The move cannot become official until the new league year opens Wednesday at 4 p.m. Nelson, 25, missed the final 11 games of the 2017 season with a biceps injury, but he played in all 16 games during his first three seasons in the league, all with the Broncos. A seventh-round pick out of Oklahoma in 2014, Nelson carved out a role as Denver's top reserve inside linebacker and a key special teams contributor. The Denver Post's Nicki Jhabvala tweeted Tuesday that the Broncos matched the Eagles' offer to Nelson, but the four-year veteran opted to go to Philly seeking a large role in coordinator Jim Schwartz's 4-3 defense. That decision suggests that the Eagles are planning to give Nelson a legitimate chance to carve out more playing time. NFL.com's Mike Garafolo reported that Nelson's deal with the Eagles is worth $2.25 million. Philadelphia's leading tackler from 2017, linebacker Nigel Bradham, is a free agent who might be too expensive for the cash-strapped Super Bowl champions to keep. Nelson, because of his recent injury and limited role in Denver, arose as a cheap option to add depth in the face of Bradham's potential departure. Nelson could provide much-needed steadiness to the Eagles' linebacking corps, too. Jordan Hicks, despite playing well when on the field, fails to inspire confidence as a long-term linchpin of the defense because his October Achilles tear marked his second season-ending injury in three years. Mychal Kendricks requested a trade last offseason because of a lack of playing time. With the 6-foot-1, 226-pound Nelson in the fold, the Eagles have a young and capable linebacker, though not a proven starter. Nelson also brings special teams acumen, which the Eagles value, especially after losing a stalwart in that area when Trey Burton reportedly agreed to join the Bears. The Eagles, along with several other teams across the NFL, have made a flurry of moves Tuesday. More roster shuffling is expected to occur over the next few days as the Birds aim to piece together a group that can defend their first Super Bowl title. -- @AaronKazreports Loblaw Companies Ltd. and Imperial Oil Ltd. have signed a deal that will allow PC Optimum members to earn points at more than 1,800 Esso gas stations starting this summer. Gas price is shown at an Esso filling station in Montreal, Wednesday, April 12, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes FILE - In this Aug. 10, 2015 file photo, Ben Affleck, left, and Matt Damon attend the "Project Greenlight" premiere of "The Leisure Class" in Los Angeles. Damon, Ben Affleck and Paul Feig are jumping on the inclusion rider bandwagon following Frances McDormandAos Oscar acceptance speech. Franshen Cox DiGiovanni said late Monday on Twitter that Damon and AffleckAos production company Pearl Street Films would be adopting the inclusion rider in conjunction with USCAos Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. (Photo by Paul A. Hebert/Invision/AP, File) A home in Shaughnessy, an upscale neighbourhood in Vancouver is pictured, Tuesday, March, 13, 2018. The former owner of a mansion in Vancouver's exclusive Shaughnessy neighbourhood must repay a $300,000 deposit after the sale of the property fell through because she didn't tell the buyer about a suspected gang-related murder of her son-in-law at the front gate of the home.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward Joseph Delaney and his sister Tammy Delaney are seen in this undated handout photo. Nova Scotia's government has committed to finding homes in the community for two complainants in a human rights inquiry who have fought for years to move out of a psychiatric unit and other hospital-like settings. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Vince Calderhead *MANDATORY CREDIT* This March 21, 2017, photo provided by the CIA, shows CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, has been chief of station at CIA outposts abroad. President Donald Trump tweeted March 13, 2018, that he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the new secretary of state and that he would nominate Haspel to replace him. She has extensive overseas experience, including several stints as chief of station at outposts abroad.(CIA via AP) FILE - This file photo released Feb. 21, 2018 provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Ghouta Media Center, shows two Syrian children who were wounded during airstrikes and shelling by Syrian government forces, at a makeshift hospital, in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, Syria. After seven years of war in Syria, the United Nations has one thing to say: Stop the war on children. Of SyriaAos estimated 10 million children, 8.6 million are now in dire need of assistance. While the U.N. has verified about 2,500 children killed between 2014 and 2017, it says the actual numbers are much higher. (Ghouta Media Center via AP, File) 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 Guyana's Government Ministers visit Exxon's drillship By Kaieter News GEORGETOWN Petroleumworld 03 13 2018 Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and a team comprising Minister within the Ministry of Indigenous People's Affairs, Valerie Garrido-Lowe and ExxonMobil Country Manager, Rod Henson on Friday last toured the Stena Carron drillship. The visit was conducted by Captain Allan Matheson, who received high praise from the Minister, according to a Government statement. Minister Trotman expressed gratitude to Captain Matheson, noting the ship's efficient record of oil discoveries offshore Guyana. Not only have you made discoveries in a very timely and efficient manner, but they have been done without the loss of limb or life and the Government of Guyana and the people of Guyana wish to thank you and your crew. The report said that the Natural Resources Minister is confident that the high standards observed on the ship will transcend onshore as the captain and crew continue to work collaboratively with Exxon Mobil. To date, there have been seven oil discoveries off Guyana's shores and the rig is currently being used for the drilling of an appraisal well for the Liza 5, which is used to measure the scope of the previous discovery. Minister Trotman also wished the captain and crew well in future endeavours. I have no doubt that you will go on to greater things, both this vessel and you Sir, and we would like before you leave to pay homage to your service, the Minister said. Guyanese working onboard the Stena Carron shared their experiences. Brady Trim, who hails from Berbice said while his job is challenging, it is a wonderful experience being offshore. His colleague, 24-year-old, Ganesh Parmanand said, the standard of safety is the highest I've ever worked in and I advise young people out there to get certified and come out here. Another Guyanese crew member, Gavin Lutchman described his experience as a beautiful one, nice people, nice food, high standards. He too encouraged interested Guyanese to get themselves certified and apply for the vacant positions on board the ship. The Guyanese crew members were recruited by Guyanese oil and gas services company El Dorado Offshore (EDO), working in partnership with Trinidad and Tobago's Ramps Logistics. They underwent the mandatory Offshore Emergency Training as arranged by Stena Drilling before securing the positions of painter, steward, and Radio Room Administrative Operator. The Stena Carron is a Harsh Environment dynamically positioned DP Class 3 drillship,capable of drilling in water depths up to 10,000 ft. Guyana's Government takes oil revenue projections as gospel, while Exxon adds disclaimer Jagdeo By Kaieter News GEORGETOWN Petroleumworld 03 13 2018 Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo has highlighted that the government is talking up the oil and gas sector when even ExxonMobil is very careful about financial projections. At a press conference last Thursday, Jagdeo held up an advertisement ExxonMobil posted via social media that depicted a chart showing government's revenue earnings from phase one of oil production. ExxonMobil puts in a caution statement even on their own graph, yet our Government sells this as gospel, Jagdeo stated. In the fine print of the ExxonMobil ad, the company noted that crude prices used for the graph reflect the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s forecast as of February 26, 2016'. Further, ExxonMobil points out that the cash flow profiles depicted in the chart represent a scenario for illustrative purposes only, which may be very different to actual cash flows from future developments. The company urged that the figures be used with caution as ExxonMobil cannot make representations with respect to the information. The Opposition Leader noted that the Government has nothing else to sell about the oil and gas sector other than revenue earnings. They have one thing to sell remaining, that is the hope for a better future with oil money, so magically in 2020 our lives will be transformed. We will all be wealthy. We wouldn't have to work anymore, we will have free gas from the Government, and you wouldn't have homeless anymore. The streets will be paved with gold. That is the promise they are telling all their supporters. Wait until 2020 when everything will be transformed, Jagdeo pointed out. He noted that the reality of the numbers do not support such conclusions. For those who believe this wild promise of APNU [A Partnership for National Unity] they will be sorely disappointed in the future if they buy into this. It is not going to be a magical kingdom as they are making it to be with these numbers, Jagdeo noted. Government revenue from oil has to take into account cost recovery claims from ExxonMobil. Exxon has already submitted a bill of $460M covering its pre-discovery phase of operations in Guyana. Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin at a recent private sector forum pointed out that the Government is expected to earn US$300M in revenues in the first year. In contrast, the Government earned this amount from the gold sector over an eight-year period, which is described as chicken feed'. Jagdeo stated that the Minister ignored the contributions of the gold sector over the years that go beyond revenue earnings for Government. He did not look at the impact of the gold mining sector on the lives of perhaps one hundred thousand people; that it provides income for them, provides taxes outside of the royalties that Government collects and the linkages that the gold mining sector provides for Guyana and other sectors. All of those things were not factored into his presentation just to point out once again that all the Government thinks about is how much money it can collect in taxes, Jagdeo stated. Experts have made it clear that Guyana was robbed billions by accepting a 2% royalty when the coalition administration negotiated a new contract in 2016 with ExxonMobil and its partners. Some experts have pointed out that huge chunk of the earnings will go towards funding start up operations under cost recovery. There have been repeated calls for Government to renegotiate the contract for a fairer deal. The Government has resisted those calls and decided to stick with the current contract. Story from Kaieter News Kaieteurnewsonline.com 03 13 2018 Copyright 1999-2018 Petroleumworld or respective author or news agency. All rights reserved. We welcome the use of Petroleumworld (PW) stories by anyone provided it mentions Petroleumworld.com as the source. Other stories you have to get authorization by its authors. Internet web links to http://www.petroleumworld.com are appreciated. Petroleumworld welcomes your feedback and comments, share your thoughts on this article, your feedback is important to us! We invite all our readers to share with us their views and comments about this article. Write to editor@petroleumworld.com By using this link, you agree to allow PW to publish your comments on our letters page. Any question or suggestions, please write to: editor@petroleumworld.com Best Viewed with IE 5.01+ Windows NT 4.0, '95, '98,ME,XP, Vista, Windows 7,8,10 +/ 800x600 pixels Exxon practices oil spill response at Guyana's Splashmin's Fun Park By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell GEORGETOWN Petroleumworld 03 13 2018 The hostile and challenging environment in the Atlantic Ocean is radically different to the smooth surface of a man-made lake. Nevertheless, ExxonMobil has decided to carry out limited training for oil spill response at Splashmin's Fun Park on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway as opposed to the areas likely to be affected. That means that persons are being trained in an unrealistic environment far removed from the one they will actually have to operate in, should there ever be a need to respond to an oil spill. The Guyana Marine Conservation Society (GMCS), headed by Environmentalist, Annette Arjoon feels that Esso Exploration & Production Guyana Limited (EPGL) should be much more practical in carrying out its responsibilities as regards building capacity to respond to an oil spill. Arjoon said that she is aware that limited training has been done on a man-made lake. However, she said there is an urgent need to commence training with residents in Region One, namely Mabaruma, the Waini communities of Kachikamo, St John and Lower Waini and Shell Beach. Arjoon told Kaieteur News that while some preliminary oil spill response capacity building has taken place on the glasslike surface of the man-made lake at Splashmin's, the reality and harsh environment of the rugged coastline of Shell Beach is the polar opposite, with rough seas and waves that pitch around large fishing boats like matchsticks during some seasons. She said she has had two close calls, personally, despite the decades of experience of the boat captains at the time. As such, Arjoon said that GMCS is seeking the support of EPGL and the Government of Guyana to ensure that there is meaningful consultation, capacity building and deployment of fit for purpose assets in Region One. Arjoon noted that EPGL's oil spill model has indicated that Region One will be the most affected in the unfortunate event of an oil spill, which means that it is imperative that there be engagement with the relevant stakeholders in that Region to enable a capable response to any related contingency. While the training has been done with representatives of the agencies and some NGOs, it is essential to recognize that with the high attrition rate, there is no guarantee that most of the competencies may even be in country if and when needed. Hence training the residents in region one is much more practical, with regards to having the capacity in the area when needed. She said that the GMCS has found it very important to advocate for the prioritization of the awareness and education of the residents of Region One to the emerging oil and gas industry which has been inadequate so far. This will necessitate timely provision of relevant information on the oil and gas industry to these important stakeholders prior to them being engaged, as this is a prerequisite for any consultation to be meaningful. It will also require EPGL to engage the residents of Region One in the requisite capacity-building in oil-spill response and for this to be complimented by mobilization of fit-for-purpose oil-spill equipment and assets in the region. Arjoon said that the GMCS is well aware of the reality that noxious chemicals from the oil and gas industry are affecting the health of not only humans, but also the flora and fauna, and marine mammals, which all require a clean environment for their collective existence. Arjoon said that GMCS is conscious of the great need for preservation and protection of Guyana's pristine marine environment from the ever-present risk of the new and emerging oil and gas industry, especially the Shell Beach Protected Area, Guyana's only coastal protected area GMCS would like to be assured that EPGL and all other oil companies are committed to not only industry best practice but most importantly to also taking the appropriate measures in accordance with our national laws as well as all relevant International Conventions which the Government of Guyana has acceded to, Arjoon emphasised. The Guyana Marine Conservation Society is a non-governmental, charitable, non-profit-making body which conducts biodiversity surveys, research, alternative livelihood programmes and education and awareness. GMCS since its inception in 2000 has made appropriate conservation and environmental recommendations to governmental agencies, commercial entities and other organizations that may have an impact upon the integrity of the marine environment in Guyana. Trinidad's court set $150,000 bail for Baksh A&V Oi, & Gas boss on obstructing justice charge By Kevon Felmine PORT SPAIN Petroleumworld 03 13 201 Embattled A&V Oil and Gas Ltd CEO Hanif Nazim Baksh appeared in the San Fernando Magistrate's Court yesterday, charged with attempting to obstruct the course of justice. The matter is related to the alleged assault case involving Guardian Media Ltd's senior photographer Kristian De Silva on September 15 last year. Presiding in the San Fernando First Court yesterday, Senior Magistrate Cherril-Anne Antoine read the charge that on November 9, 2017, at Penal, Baksh, knowingly or reasonably believing Khusial Motiram was a potential witness in a criminal investigation into the assault of De Silva and the malicious damage of property belonging to De Silva, for which Baksh was a suspect, used threats to influence Motiram to give false evidence and withhold true evidence. Baksh was represented by former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC and former deputy chairman of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) Michael Rooplal. Baksh, the father of former government senator Allyson Baksh, was not called upon to plead as the charge was laid indictably. He was arrested on Thursday at his home along Nazim Avenue, San Francique, following an investigation by the Police Complaints Division. Following an identification parade at the San Fernando Police Station on Saturday, Ag ASP Joseph Chandool laid the charge. He was able to secure bail of $150,000 at the police station ahead of his appearance yesterday. Although Antoine granted that the bail continued, Baksh remained at the court for several hours seeking approval from the Clerk of the Peace. Baksh is jointly charged along with his son-law Cpl Billy Ramsundar, a police officer with 25 years service with the the assault on De Silva and malicious damage while outside A&V Oil and Gas Ltd at Nazim Avenue, San Francique. Hedge funds continue to go out from bullish oil positions: Kemp By John Kemp LONDON Petroleumworld 03 13 2018 Hedge funds have resumed liquidating their bullish long positions in crude oil and refined fuels amid more signs that the earlier rally in prices has fizzled out. Hedge funds and other money managers cut their combined net long position in the six most important futures and options contracts linked to petroleum prices by 50 million barrels in the week to March 6. The reduction largely reversed an increase of 68 million barrels the previous week, according to position records published by regulators and exchanges ( tmsnrt.rs/2DmlwXg ). Portfolio managers have now reduced their net long position in petroleum in five of the last six weeks by a total of 245 million barrels since Jan. 23. The most recent week saw a reduction in net length in NYMEX and ICE WTI (-17 million barrels), Brent (-5 million), U.S. gasoline (-10 million), U.S. heating oil (-5 million) and European gasoil (-13 million). Some of the froth has blown off the market in the last six weeks but the hedge fund community still has a very bullish bias towards oil prices. Fund managers hold a net long position in the six major petroleum contracts amounting to 1,239 million barrels of oil, a level of bullishness that had never been seen until four months ago. Long positions still outnumbered short positions by a ratio of 10:1, down from a peak of almost 12:1 in January, but again a level of bullishness that was unprecedented until this year. With so many long positions already established, and few remaining short positions to cover, oil prices have struggled to rise further in recent weeks. Instead the market has seen a slow but steady liquidation with existing longs cut by a total of almost 250 million barrels (15 percent) since Jan. 23. It remains uncertain whether this is merely a pause and the price rally will resume shortly, or whether it marks a temporary peak, with more liquidation and price falls to come. But the balance of risks remains tilted towards the downside in the short term given the huge number of long positions still hanging over the market. Colombia will restart talks with ELN rebels - Santos By Julia Symmes Cobb BOGOTA Petroleumworld 03 13 2018 Colombia and the Marxist ELN guerrilla group will restart peace talks in Ecuador, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday, after a six-week pause marked by deaths on both sides. Santos suspended talks in late January after the National Liberation Army (ELN) launched a series of bomb attacks that killed eight police officers and injured dozens, immediately following the end of the two sides' first-ever ceasefire. Since the bilateral ceasefire ended, there have been too many deaths on both sides, too many wounded, too many victims - this is what we must stop, Santos said in a televised address. And that can only be achieved by talking, he said, adding he hoped the two sides could agree to another ceasefire. Santos has said the halt to talks was a dilemma and hinted he could scrap them entirely, though he applauded the unilateral ceasefire held by the rebels during legislative elections. He acknowledges talks are unpopular and has slammed the group for its attacks on the armed forces. Santos did not specify a start date for the renewed talks, but said the government negotiators will travel back to Quito. Colombian forces have killed 34 rebels in fighting since the ceasefire ended on Jan. 9, while rebels have launched repeated attacks, killed 19 members of the armed forces and halted pumping of crude oil with bomb attacks. The ELN said in a statement it would answer Santos' call to return to negotiations and reiterated the desire for another bilateral ceasefire. We join President Santos' call to restart talks, with the conviction that it is better to have dialogue in the midst of a bilateral ceasefire. Talks with the former FARC rebel group, which signed a 2016 peace deal, were also fraught at times. Santos suspended talks when that group, now a political party, kidnapped a general. The peace deal failed in a referendum, but eventually passed through Congress. The ELN, founded by Roman Catholic priests in 1964, is considered more radical than the FARC and is less centralized. The group has sought peace with the government before but made little progress. Presidential elections in May could determine the fate of the talks. Left-wing candidates, including the Liberals' Humberto de la Calle, who was the government's head negotiator at the FARC talks, say negotiations are positive but not a panacea. Right-leaning candidates accuse Santos of failing to make a fair deal with the FARC - including by allowing ex-rebels to avoid jail sentences. Mexico's CCE business lobby told front-runner presidential candidate it must respect oil, airport contracts By Reuters MEXICO CITY Petroleumworld 03 13 2018 MEXICO CITY, March 12 (Reuters) - Mexico's powerful CCE business lobby on Monday urged the leftist front-runner for a July 1 presidential election to stop questioning major planks of the government's economic agenda lest it damage investment. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has led opinion polls by a wide margin for weeks, has gradually moderated his rhetoric and his leading advisers have sought to reassure investors that he will not be an economic liability as president. However, his threats to scrap a new Mexico City airport already under construction and review oil and gas exploration and production contracts issued under a 2013-14 energy reform still worry some investors. As we've said, you can't ask the private sector to take part in building a better country at the same time as undermining certainty and the rule of law as conditions for fostering investment, Juan Pablo Castanon, president of the CCE lobby, an umbrella group for business groups, said at an event in Mexico City. For this reason, we business folk demand guarantees that the contracts awarded under the energy reform and for the new airport will be respected, he added.In a country governed by the rule of law, contracts are honored, and cannot be subject to the will or interpretation of a sitting government. On Monday, Lopez Obrador said he still planned to scrap the new airport, but added he was not going to ignore contracts awarded and bonds issued for the project. We will respect construction contracts. Those that have those contracts don't have to worry, he said.We will respect the bonds ... we're going to solve the problem without affecting investments. Lopez Obrador's energy adviser has said that while publicly available versions of the energy contracts appear to be without problems, further investigation was needed to ensure corruption had not tainted the awarding process. The business community was also worried there were candidates and campaign teams already casting doubt on the validity of the electiondepending on who the winner is, Castanon said, without mentioning Lopez Obrador or his MORENA party. Castanon's comments follow a speech by Lopez Obrador last week, in which he stuck to promises to not build the airport at the current construction site and warned there could be protests if he lost by fraud. The former mayor of Mexico City, who was runner-up in the previous two elections, organized massive protests when he was narrowly beaten in 2006. Two polls published last week showed him with a lead of more than 13 percentage points over his nearest rival. (Reporting by Josue Gonzalez; Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Steve Orlofsky Oil majors' interest in Argentina offshore oil auctions tests free-market reforms Reuters/Marcos Brindicci Argentina's President Mauricio Macri waves as he arrives for the opening session of the 136th legislative term at the Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 1, 2018. By Luc Cohen BUENOS AIRES Petroleumworld 03 13 2018 Oil majors are evaluating bids for offshore exploration rights in Argentina, a major change in a country that sent Spanish energy giant Repsol ( REP.MC ) packing six years ago and has seen little offshore exploration for decades. To secure bids, Argentina will need to show it has moved beyond its historical fluctuations between free-market policies and left-wing populism and that it has made progress in lowering costs for energy firms. Oil companies including Shell and Statoil told Reuters they are looking at bidding in the auctions, to be held later this year, and a government official said Exxon and Chevron have also shown interest. The country faces fierce competition to attract the billions of dollars of investment needed to develop deepwater reserves. Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and neighboring Uruguay will all auction offshore blocks in 2018 after undertaking oil market reforms or revising contract terms to facilitate the entry of the world's top energy companies. For Big Oil, the potential access to Latin American energy reserves is unprecedented. In many countries now opening, including Argentina, resource nationalism has long barred their entry or limited opportunities. Six years ago, former populist President Cristina Fernandez expropriated Repsol's ( REP.MC ) stake in Argentina's state-owned oil company YPF SA ( YPFD.BA ). The move sent chills through both the energy industry and the entire private sector. Interviews with oil industry executives, consultants, geologists and officials point to optimism for Argentina's upcoming auctions and for President Mauricio Macri's government, which has sought private sector and U.S. government help in structuring the process. Growing confidence in the current government's policies - their focus on trying to create an environment that is attractive for investments - has been the big change, Shell's ( RDSa.L ) head of deepwater Wael Sawan told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry gathering in Houston.It's that focus that has created more interest by the sector to saywhy not, let's look at this.' The auction will be a test of company confidence in the longevity of Macri's reform agenda because it can take a decade between an initial investment in offshore exploration and the first production. Argentina will take bids for three offshore basins from July through November. Exploration rights for blocks in the 130,000-square km Argentina Basin, 90,000-square km Malvinas West Basin and 5,000 square kilometers in the Austral Basin are on offer. While little exploration has been done outside the Austral basin, YPF has identified 22 million barrels of oil equivalent for further investigation, upstream head Pablo Bizotto said at an event last Wednesday. There is a lot of interest from large companies - Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Daniel Redondo, the secretary for strategic energy planning in Argentina's Energy Ministry, told Reuters on the sidelines of a recent event. Consultancy Bain & Company, on a contract with the government to gauge interest, last year interviewed more than 60 companies, includingall the majors and independent explorers including Anadarko ( APC.N ) and Hunt Oil, said Diego Garcia, a Buenos Aires-based Bain partner. Colombia's Ecopetrol may bid in the auctions, its chief executive told Reuters. Norway's Statoil ( STL.OL ), which already has onshore drilling projects in Argentina, is partnering with YPF on offshore seismic studies and isconsidering future licensing rounds, a spokesman said. Huge areas of the Argentinian continental shelf will be available for bids from companies, executive vice president for exploration Tim Dodson said at an event in Buenos Aires last Wednesday.We have of course started our evaluations already. Chevron ( CVX.N ) and Exxon ( XOM.N ) declined to comment. Anadarko and Hunt did not respond to requests for comment. Firms likely won't decide whether to bid until the full terms of the auction are published. OPENING TO INDUSTRY Macri's government has enacted pro-market reforms across the economy. HisLet's Change' coalition swept to victory in midterm elections last October, taking advantage of divisions within the opposition Peronist movement, which is generally defined by strong defense of labor rights and national sovereignty. Macri is on course to become the first non-Peronist president to finish his term since Argentina's return to democracy in 1983. He's expected to stand for re-election starting in late 2019. The decision to hold offshore auctions comes as Argentina struggles to attract investment to its Vaca Muerta shale play, which is in a remote part of Argentina that lacks infrastructure to get oil and gas to consumers. Argentina is home to the world's No. 2 resources of shale gas and the fourth largest of shale oil, estimates the U.S. Energy Information Agency. Yet oil production peaked in 1998 and gas output topped out in 2004, according to Energy Ministry data. Investment in exploration has dried up since the country's 2001 financial crisis and the populist political response. Under the terms of a 2014 revision to Argentina's hydrocarbons law, which was well-received by industry, royalties paid to the national government will be 12 percent of the value of hydrocarbons extracted and companies would receive exploration rights for three years, with an option to extend for three years. Rights for each exploration block would be awarded to the company that pledges the most investment, as laid out in the law, Garcia said. Companies will be interested in studying something that has not been explored, said Daniel Gerold of G&G Energy Consultants in Buenos Aires, who said the regional competition was unlikely to be an obstacle for Argentina.I do not think the big players will have used up all their exploration capital in Mexico. SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE LONG AGO' The majors would likely be most interested in the large Argentina Basin, the least explored of the three on offer, Bain's Garcia said. By contrast, the Austral Basin just off the coast of Tierra del Fuego would be more of a gas play to serve the domestic market and could appeal to local players and Total, which already operates in the area, he said. The Malvinas West basin could be most appealing to exploration-focused independent oil firms, he said. Perth, Australia-based Searcher Seismic began analyzing existing data on Argentina's offshore formations in November 2016, smelling opportunity in an economic and political opening, and launched a full database for exploration companies in early February. This should have been done a long time ago in Argentina, Searcher director Odd Larsen said.But the politics and the finances unfortunately held Argentina back for a very long time. Atlantic City Electric wants to pass along $22.7 million in federal tax savings to customers, the latest utility to flow back its tax cut through lower rates. ACE said the cut would reduce a typical residential bill by $1.38 on April 1, increasing to $2.37 in monthly savings on July 1. The utility, which serves 550,000 customers in South Jersey including parts of Camden and Gloucester Counties, was responding to a Jan. 31 order by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to file new rates reflecting the tax impact that would go into effect on April 1. Public Service Electric & Gas Co., which has 2.2 million electric customers, in January filed a request to pass along $280 million in tax cuts, though the reduction was coupled with a rate-increase request that would result in a net 1 percent increase to customers. Unlike other corporations, which have announced plans to reinvest the Trump administration's tax cuts into operations or to reward employees or shareholders with bonuses, utilities with regulated rates are generally required to pass through changes in costs to customers. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in February launched a proceeding to seek comments from the public on how utilities should pass along the tax reduction immediately or as part of an eventual formal rate filing. The Office of Consumer Advocate, which represents residential ratepayers, argues that the tax reductions are "extraordinary and substantial" and should flow back to ratepayers immediately. Not all utility customers will see a benefit. Philadelphia Gas Works, along with other municipal utilities, do not pay federal taxes, so the tax cut will have no impact on PGW's 500,000 customers. Students at Parkway Center City Middle College listen to classmates talk about the national attention on mass shootings as the daily gun violence they live with goes unnoticed. Read more Zamir Brown made his way to the front of the school auditorium at the gentle urging of his teacher and classmate Dena Hill. "You got this," Hill encouraged from the front row. The students, mostly freshmen from Maureen Boland's English classes at Philadelphia's Parkway Center City Middle College, were taking turns reading their papers about the National School Walkout. On Wednesday, students from across the country will protest mass shootings like the Parkland, Fla., tragedy. Of course the Philly teens were supportive of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who were devastated when a shooter walked into their school on Valentine's Day and killed 17 of their classmates and teachers. How could they not be? The pain was more than familiar to them, as was the loss. Not one student who spoke inside the school at 13th and Brandywine had been spared the impact of gun violence. One by one they talked of friends whose funerals were reminders of how growing old can never be taken for granted in some of the city's neighborhoods, of fathers gunned down before their kids even learned how to say the word Dad. "My whole life I been afraid of the world around me," wrote Simone Akridge, 15. So they, better than most, knew how the Florida students felt. It's the attention the Florida students have gotten that felt unfamiliar and unjust when so little attention is paid to the gun violence that touches so many children in cities like Philadelphia. Brown, 14, standing nervously in front of the room with a red bandanna tied around his head and his book bag still on his back, took a deep breath before starting. He explained that if he did walk out and he wasn't planning on it he'd do it to bring attention to the black people who are shot in his city "every damn day." Black young men like himself and his friend, who were shot while walking to a store when he was 9. He struggled a little when he shared that he had been grazed by a bullet, but that his friend, who survived, had been shot twice. Nerves, sure. But the unease with which these students spoke was also rooted in complicated and bottled-up emotions that pitted their desire to stand in solidarity against gun violence with the knowledge that the daily slaughter in their neighborhoods is seen as normal, acceptable. Expected. Their anger and frustration were evident as they described how long they've gone without being heard and seen. "I want the same thing that those kids want," said Jordyn Williams, 15. "I'm not saying that those kids' lives didn't matter. I'm saying they aren't the ones being treated like nothing." After I left, I found my own words cracking under the same weight as I considered their pain and trauma. It broke my heart. But Boland, their teacher, said she's noticed something that should make us hopeful. Over the nearly two decades she has been a teacher, students often share their stories of gun violence. But this time she noticed something more: a search for solutions, and a realization that there is no one answer. For many, it means walking out of school Wednesday, no matter their reservations or resentments, deciding that every voice against gun violence should be heard. "We shouldn't watch kids in Florida fight for gun laws to be changed in their state while we witness from the shadows," wrote Kareema Chisolm, 15. After the students finished reading their essays, a few young women approached me. Hill, who had read her essay first and who had encouraged Brown and other classmates, spoke. If the mass shooting hadn't brought gun violence to the steps of the Florida school, she asked, would the Parkland teens be standing in solidarity with them over the violence they live with every day? It is a valid question I said I'd pose to the Parkland students as best as I could. And then she had a question for me: If I were Hill and her classmates, what would I do? I hesitated because I didn't want them to think I was criticizing anyone's decision not to walk out. However temporarily, I've opted out of calls to action when I thought the call wasn't sincere or reciprocal, or when I was just sick and tired of going unheard. But I told them that if I were in their shoes, I'd do it. I would walk in solidarity with the Parkland students. I would walk to call attention to the gun violence they live with that the world chooses not to see. Activism is complicated. It is imperfect and infuriating. It is unequal and unfair. But still, I would walk. Because despite all the talk these days about whether calls to action against sexism or racism or guns are a moment or a movement, a hashtag or history, sometimes it's better to claim your space in someone else's spotlight than to sit righteously in the dark. Elise Schiller's last photo with her daughter Giana, who died from a heroin overdose in a treatment center in 2014. She was 33. Read more Elise Schiller was hopeful Monday morning when she lined up to enter City Hall, ready to testify at a hearing on Philadelphia's opioid crisis. It was hope tinged, as everything is for Schiller, with grief. She would not have been standing in that line if Giana were alive. The last six years of Schiller's life have been a series of sorrows. The shock when Giana Natali, her youngest, a former Division I swimmer at Rutgers and a veterinary nurse, told her she had become addicted to opioids. The false hope from treatment programs that never seemed to stick. The anguish of Giana's death in 2014, of a heroin overdose at one of those treatment facilities. She was 33. And then the anger when Schiller and her husband delved into Giana's medical files and realized how badly she had been failed by the drug counselors who pushed outdated treatments instead of medication. But Schiller over the last few years has put that anger to action. The Germantown resident has become an advocate for better treatment and last year served on a committee for the city's opioid task force, where she found a committed group of people willing to educate themselves and others. That experience left her feeling hopeful. She carried it to City Hall with her testimony Monday. Then she walked into Room 400. None of the activists and advocates who'd lined up to testify got to speak. That's because most of the Council members there acted as if they were college freshmen who hadn't done last night's reading and were hoping the professor didn't notice. Everyone noticed. Shocking: ignorance from the greatest deliberative body on earth. "The absolute lack of knowledge and understanding on the part of some Council people is sort of astonishing," Schiller observed. Don't they have staffs? she wondered. They do. And whatever they've been up to, it hasn't involved a crash course on the epidemic that has killed nearly 3,000 people in Philadelphia in the last three years. Take Councilman Bobby Henon. At least 122 people died of overdoses in the Sixth District in the first nine months of 2017, and Henon spent his time on the floor asking entry-level questions about how detox works. This from a guy who fought a methadone clinic in his own district. "I don't claim to know what the best way to treat it is," he said of opioid addiction. Then there was Councilman Mark Squilla, whose district abuts Kensington and whose early support of safe injection sites gave way Monday to questions about the success rate of medication-assisted treatment, which is the gold-standard treatment for opioid-use disorder. He said he was "scared" people would be on medication forever. A city doctor had to come up and tell him that it's OK if people take medication for, you know, a disease. And then there was Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., who went on a long soliloquy about McDonald's. Some franchises in his district are considering closing, he said, because too many people in addiction are dropping in. In fairness, small business owners have faced challenges as a result of the opioid crisis. But in a city where 1,200 people died last year, an argument that boils down to "Won't someone think of the Hamburglar?" seems a bit off-key. To her credit, Councilwoman Helen Gym raised important concerns about the trauma of schoolchildren in Kensington. And Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez, who convened the hearing and whose district lost at least 287 last year almost the city's homicide rate grilled city officials with critical questions about funding and accountability for treatment programs, and the housing crisis. People need safe spaces to get well, she told me afterward. (I think that logic extends to supporting safe injection sites. She's not ready to accept that, she told me.) I don't agree with some of the councilwoman's positions. But she was on the front lines of this crisis before anyone else started paying attention. And she's far ahead of colleagues in districts that abut hers, whose constituents are likely using and dying and living on the streets in Kensington. Three years into the worst public health crisis in a century, and they treated the hearing as if it were Opioids 101. All throughout, Schiller jotted down notes for her own testimony, if she could ever get to the floor. All the things she wanted to correct the Council members on. "Do they want to solve this or what?" she thought. "Do they want to be in the lead on this?" She never got the mic. She sat in the gallery, with her picture of Giana, the one from high school graduation that she carries everywhere. She dropped her testimony on the pile with the others. I read it, later that day. I hope Council does, too. Superintendent William Hite gestures as he sits alongside school district CFO Uri Monson, left, during a school district hearing last year in City Hall. Read more "The perception is the Philadelphia School District is a money pit," I say, sitting in the district's boardroom at 440 North Broad. "No matter how much is poured into it, it's never enough, schools get closed, staff is laid off, and still the costs go up." Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. nods in agreement not with the statement, but that it's a widespread perception. Test scores, attendance, and graduation rates are up, he says. And they are, modestly. Some teachers and counselors have been rehired, and that's good, but I am in Jerry Maguire mode. I want the district to show me the money. The budget is $3 billion, two-thirds the size of the proposed $4.7 billion city budget with Mayor Kenney seeking a 6 percent increase in the real estate tax for the school district, which projects an almost $1 billion deficit over the next five years. Kenney also wants an 8.5 percent increase in the real estate transfer tax and slowing cuts to the wage tax. There are two issues here: Why can't the school district balance its books, and why can't the city figure out a way to better fund the district? To answer the first question, I ask Uri Monson, the school district's chief financial officer. Unlike other jurisdictions, our school district can't tax to raise money. It is given funding think of it as an "allowance" by the city, state, and federal governments. The feds provide less than 1 percent, the state offers 53 percent, and the city 46 percent. Pennsylvania's Constitution obligates the state to provide "a thorough and efficient" system of education, but what does that mean? The state is accused of stiffing the school district and is being sued. In a down economy, with tax revenue declining, taxes were raised four times during the Nutter years. The city also created what Hite calls "boutique taxes": the 10 percent tax on across-the-bar drinks, the $2-a-pack tax on cigarettes, and the beverage tax that's failed to produce predicted revenues. That's where the money comes from. Where does it go? Mostly to labor, Monson tells me, an astounding 84 percent of costs, which includes health care and pensions, which are ballooning, and over which the district has no control. Labor costs are rising even as the number of full-time employees has declined from 22,619 in 2010 to 18,058 now. Monson says the district's administrative expenses are 3.5 percent of the budget, contrasted with 7 percent to 9 percent for other large districts nationally. Then there's the cost associated with charter schools: $885 million the district has to spend on what amounts to a privately operated competing system. Six percent sounds like a big increase, but it's misleading. Philadelphia's current tax rate is 1.3998 percent of assessed valuation, with the schools getting 0.7681 and the city getting 0.6317. The proposed increase would push the tax to 1.4838, which works out to $95 a year for the typical Philadelphian. The Philadelphia tax rate is significantly lower than the rates in the rest of Pennsylvania which average 1.47 percent. I don't like taxes; nobody does. But I also don't like living in a city where low-quality schools drive people with children into the suburbs. Monson says that where he lives, in Lower Merion, residents expect annual increases of 3 percent to 4 percent. It's baked into the cake, but so are quality schools. Spending more doesn't always guarantee quality, but it usually does. If I don't want regressive so-called sin taxes, or taxes that unfairly target a single industry, I have to endorse something else. So I do, but instead of the 6 percent increase, I'd go for 7 percent, with the understanding that this mayor would ditch the beverage tax and swear off taxes for the rest of his term. Pull a George H.W. Bush: "Read my lips. No new taxes." The 7 percent increase would guarantee a reliable funding stream while Hite and Monson turn schools into something we can be proud of. While that is going on, Philadelphia can look for alternative sources of funding. I will explore those in my next column. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson waves goodbye after speaking at a news conference at the State Department. Read more Rex Tillerson's biggest mistake was that he didn't retire with dignity on his own terms before his boss unceremoniously sacked him and named CIA chief Mike Pompeo as his successor. The crude way it was done Tillerson only learned of his firing via a presidential tweet confirms that President Trump loves to reprise his role as star of The Apprentice. But, of course, the bigger issue is what the switch will mean for an erratic foreign policy at a time when Trump faces critical decisions about the Iran nuclear deal, Russian aggression, and a possible summit with North Korea's leader. Tillerson's close relationship with Defense Secretary James Mattis appeared to act as a brake on some of Trump's most bellicose instincts. The big question now: Has that brake been removed? Of course, the president often displayed disdain for his then-secretary of state, contradicting him and not consulting him on key decisions. Foreign governments understood that Tillerson didn't have the president's ear, and the secretary's exit was long expected. Not to mention that Tillerson had gone far toward wrecking his own department, working in isolation while failing to defend its budget or top staff, who have left in droves. But Tillerson persevered in presenting the president with differing opinions. "We disagreed on things," Trump said of the former oil executive. "With Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process." That "similar thought process" means former GOP congressman Pompeo will probably become a "yes man" to the president. Nowhere is that more worrying than on the nuclear agreement with Iran, at a time when the president is mulling whether to yank the United States out of the deal. On Tuesday, Trump cited Iran as an issue on which he differed sharply with Tillerson: "When you look at the Iran deal, I think it's terrible. I guess he [Tillerson] thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something." Tillerson repeatedly advised the president not to rip up the deal. In this, he was correct. Walking away from this pact, at a time when Trump is seeking a nuclear accord with North Korea, would be senseless. Leaving Iran free to resume nuclear development at a time when its behavior threatens Arab neighbors and Israel would be worse than senseless. All the more so when Trump has failed to develop any coherent policy toward Iranian advances in Syria and Lebanon. Abrogating the deal could put Israel on a certain path to war with a nuclear-armed Iran, dragging the United States along. Instead, Tillerson's State Department was leading talks with Britain, France, and Germany in an effort to forge a common front on pressing Iran to change the terms of the deal or forge a follow-on pact to end Iran's ballistic missile testing and make the limits on Iran's nuclear program permanent. Pompeo, on the other hand, declared just after the 2016 election: "I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism." His stance could confirm Trump's worst instincts on Iran. Then there is Russia. Tillerson was willing to call out Russia for election interference and other aggressive behavior. Just this week, he attributed the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain to Russia and said it would "certainly trigger a response." Pompeo has concurred that "Russians" [not Vladimir Putin] attempted to interfere in the 2016 election and will likely do so again in 2018. But he has consistently downplayed the importance of the attacks. "It's true, yeah, of course," he said, but added, "They've been at this a hell of a long time. And I don't think they have any intention of backing off." If Pompeo continues to display such diffidence about Russia's cyber attacks, he will bolster Trump's refusal to order a strong U.S. government response. And finally, North Korea. Tillerson long advocated back-channel diplomacy with Pyongyang and was publicly chastised by Trump for so doing. The one-on-one meeting with Kim Jong Un, even if it comes off, won't produce a magic deal, but will require long follow-up talks which Trump says he opposes. Moreover, Kim is not going to give up his nuclear program, so any deal would have to revolve around limiting his program and ending nuclear and missile testing a stronger version of the Iran deal. Both Trump and Pompeo insist this would be a nonstarter. So the arrival of Pompeo will likely bolster Trump's most hawkish instincts on Iran and North Korea as well as his strange reluctance to combat Russian machinations. And it will probably undercut Mattis' leavening influence. In the end, the only one to gain may be Tillerson himself, who was clearly unhappy in his post and seemed distraught in brief farewell remarks to journalists. "I think Rex will be much happier now," Trump said. In that, he may be correct. trubin@phillynews.com; @trudyrubin Temples new library will be named for Steve Charles, a member of the board of trustees, who donated $10 million to be used toward university libraries. Read more Temple University's new $170 million library will be named for a member of the board of trustees who donated $10 million, the university announced Tuesday. The gift from Steve Charles, a 1980 graduate who has been on the board since 2016, will be invested into an endowment, and its earnings will be used to add and retrain library staff, maintain the building, purchase collections, promote partnerships, and support technology, the university announced. The Charles Library name was approved at the board of trustees meeting on campus Tuesday afternoon. "Steve's gift is transformational in supporting Temple's goal of building a 21st Century library that will redefine campus life, sustain Charles Library at its optimal level and care for all of the valuable resources it will provide," board of trustees chair Patrick J. O'Connor said in a statement. Charles is cofounder of immixGroup Inc., which "helps technology companies do business with the government," according to its website. The firm, based in McLean, Va., was sold in 2015, but Charles serves as a consultant. The library, at the intersection of Liacouras and Polett Walks, is expected to become the anchor in the heart of the North Philadelphia campus. A sleek, block-long structure with a robotic text-retrieval system, the library is scheduled to open in May 2019. "Opportunity and innovation occur at the intersection of disciplines," Charles said in a statement. "I live by this idea, and the vision for the library embodies it as the place where students can collaborate in the latest ways." It was a time of deep unrest, with growing criticism of the nation's involvement overseas and concerns about discrimination at home. The University of Pennsylvania felt compelled to hold a series of campus-wide discussions and debates to try to help the nation and campus find a way through those thorny times. That was nearly 50 years ago, during the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. Now, Penn, seeing a nation equally in torment, confronted by a lack of trust in the age of "fake news," and sorely divided politically, will once again open its doors wide for only the second "teach-in" in the Ivy League university's history. The five-day series of more than 30 panels, lectures, exhibitions, and film screenings will cover topics including race, immigration, the future of technology, sexual harassment, and firearm violence. It begins Sunday and runs through Thursday. The sessions are free and open to the public, and are expected to draw hundreds of students and faculty. "We're in a pretty contentious period," said Wendell E. Pritchett, Penn's provost. "We're trying to figure out where we want to go as a country. Institutions of higher education are important places for that conversation to happen. We want to play a leadership role in that conversation." More than 100 faculty, staff, and students across the university's 12 schools were involved in planning the event, said Santosh S. Venkatesh, an electrical and systems engineering professor who chairs the university's faculty senate. More than a year in the planning, it's the largest campus-wide educational undertaking that Venkatesh can recall in his 31 years at Penn, and is bigger and longer than the first teach-in, March 4, 1969. "We haven't done anything like this in more than half a century, and nothing of this level," he said. The sessions will cross disciplines and schools, delve into the role of the academy, and explore "the production, dissemination, and use of knowledge," he said. "What goes on in the academy is viewed with great suspicion today," he said. "We need to begin a conversation to get to common ground. It seems entirely fitting that we attempt to create an engagement, or bridges, with the larger public." Venkatesh said he and others on the committee have reached out to city officials, legislators, and congressmen about attending the events, as well as schools around the city, Rotary Clubs, and other groups. He's not sure how many people will attend. There's no registration requirement, but those interested have been asked to click on a link on the website. So far, about 350 have done so, he said. Regular classes will remain in session, but the faculty senate is encouraging professors to have their students attend the events or attend as a class, he said. Ira Harkavy, a longtime Penn employee who is founding director of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, was a Penn student at the time of the first teach-in, called a "Day of Conscience." He said it followed a multi-day sit-in held by Penn students who were concerned about the role of research at Penn. Students wanted it to focus on "the betterment of human life" and the university's relationship with and responsibility to its surrounding neighborhood. About 1,200 students participated, Harkavy said. "It helped make students more conscious, more reflective about their own education, and what they wanted to do after they finished their education," he said. He's pleased with the university's decision to hold another one, especially its efforts to reach out to the community. "The most difficult problems can't be solved by universities alone," he said. "They require working with and learning from the community you're a part of." One of the first sessions will explore the teaching of race. "We wanted to kick this off with something contentious," Venkatesh said. Later will come a discussion on "vaccine denial," looking in part at allegations that vaccines are causing an uptick in autism and the threat posed by those concerns to the eradication of disease. With the nation still reeling from 17 shooting deaths at a high school in Florida and student protests planned over the next week, another session will focus on firearms. "We've already made a decision to live in a world with guns," Terry Richmond, a professor of nursing, said on a video promoting the teach-in on Penn's website. "Since we've done so, let's figure out how to do so more safely." But there are also some lighter sessions, like an "augmented reality scavenger hunt," a walk through time down Locust Walk, the main thoroughfare through campus, crafted by the biology department and School of Design, with robots along for the stroll, and a bioethics film festival exploring the promise and peril of technology. The teach-in will begin Sunday with a family-friendly "afternoon of learning and fun" at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. A student-led discussion on the purpose of a Penn education will help to wrap up the event. What could come out of the session is uncertain. Pritchett, the provost, said he anticipates new roles for students, a research agenda, and other initiatives. "We are under no illusion that we are going to solve any problems tomorrow or the day after," Venkatesh said. "These are large societal questions. It seems that not making an attempt was not permissible anymore. We have to try." For most people in the Philadelphia area, Wednesday's storm was an inconvenience: a wet, miserable day better spent inside. But for people in treatment for opioid addiction, severe weather or anything that keeps them from the medication they need to stave off painful withdrawal symptoms can become a life-or-death challenge. That's why housing staffers, outreach workers, and doctors across the city scrambled on Tuesday to prepare for the storm. Making sure patients could get to methadone clinics or pick up their suboxone prescriptions was paramount as the forecast worsened. Both medications are themselves opioids, carefully administered to help a patient gradually get out of addiction. Such medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, has been found in studies to offer patients the best chance at long-term recovery. "If you can't find suboxone somehow, you risk severe withdrawal," said Lara Weinstein, a professor at Thomas Jefferson University who prescribes suboxone to patients at Project HOME's Stephen Kline Wellness Center. Some patients, in desperation, might turn to heroin to fight withdrawal symptoms, she said. "And every time you go back to heroin, you risk overdosing," especially now that it's often impossible to know if a dose of heroin contains the far more potent fentanyl. So she and her staff spent Tuesday making contingency plans, such as getting some patients to the clinic early, prescribing others an extra dose to get through Wednesday's storm, or even sending a car to bring a patient to the clinic during the storm. "We have to do whatever it takes," she said. By noon Wednesday, she said, all her patients had been accounted for. After they've been in treatment for some time, patients on suboxone can get prescriptions for larger amounts of the drug a few days', a week's, a month's supply that require fewer visits to treatment clinics. But methadone, a similar but heavily regulated medication, requires patients to take the dose at a clinic under supervision every day. At Kensington Hospital, which hosts the only methadone clinic in the neighborhood, clinic workers said they had to close at 11 a.m. Wednesday, but had worked for the last few days to make sure all their patients got in before then. The scramble to accommodate patients, advocates say, underscores the need for more treatment options around the city, and easier access for patients in neighborhoods like Kensington where opioid use is most concentrated. But the storm's impact is harder still on addicted people living on the streets of Kensington. Though the city doubled its homeless outreach teams as the storm came in, many people in encampments under the Lehigh Avenue train bridges are reluctant to go to Center City shelters where they could be cut off from their drug supply and forced into immediate and dangerous withdrawal. There are only 40 shelter beds in the neighborhood itself, all usually full. The local needle exchange program, Prevention Point, is opening a respite center Wednesday night. Under the bridges, people living in the camps picked their way around deep puddles to accept care packages from outreach workers who pulled up to the curb. "Everything is so much harder" when the weather turns bad, said Mike Wrobel, 29, who spent Tuesday night on a sodden sheet at the end of the bridge. "It's harder to sleep at night. Everything gets soaking wet. Your hands are wet and cold. Your veins don't pop." Injecting heroin that morning with numb fingers, he said, he had missed a vein, potentially creating an abscess that could easily become infected. He said he and his girlfriend would be trying to seek drug treatment; the conditions under the bridge had been the last straw. Down the block, Josh, a 23-year-old who spends his nights working in a restaurant and his days under the Kensington Avenue bridge, said the weather had persuaded him, too, to seek a detox bed. "I've been out here a week or two," he said. "And I can't take it." Next to him, a woman named Julie, originally from Norristown, said she had spent the last few nights napping on a cardboard pallet inside a Christian ministry down the street. "There are a thousand abandoned places around here houses, warehouses. If the city could just open a few up," she said, "where we could sit and have a cup of coffee." The meteoric rise of the trendy electronic cigarette Juul has left school officials scrambling to educate parents and kids on its potential health risks. The sleek, digital-like design and tiny pods filled with flavored nicotine juice have caught on fast with underage teens, who can easily hide the tiny vapor puffs in their sleeves and charge the device on school laptops. The device resembles an electronic thumb drive, so one Montgomery County school district took the unusual step of banning all USB drives when officials became aware that some of the students were using their school-provided Chromebooks to charge the Juul products. "They do look very much like flash drives," said Deborah Wheeler, superintendent of the 4,100-student Upper Dublin School District. Wheeler said that real USB drives were not needed to store school materials, and that while only one student has been disciplined for possessing a Juul on school grounds, Wheeler believes there are more hiding at the middle and high schools. Juuls (pronounced "jewel") have also become a big hit on college campuses, said Frank T. Leone, director of comprehensive smoking treatment programs at Penn Medicine. "Young folks see using the Juul or Juuling as very different from using the electronic cigarettes or vaping," said Leone. "It has the extra panache of being digitally oriented." But Leone cautioned that using inhaled nicotine is like participating in an organic chemistry experiment. "Nicotine has its own set of risks," Leone said. Unintended consequence Juul Labs is a spinoff of Pax Labs, which was founded in 2007 by two Stanford University design graduates, James Monsees and Adam Bowen, both smokers, who were out to create an easy-to-use alternative to the tobacco cigarette. Their goal was to help smokers eliminate cigarettes, said Ashley Gould, chief administrative officer of the San Francisco-based company. A starter kit, which can be found in stores and online, sells for $49.99 and includes the rechargeable device and USB charger and four pods in various flavors, such as Fruit Medley or Creme Brulee. A four-pack of Mango or Cool Cucumber pods, which has about the same amount of nicotine as a smoker would get from a pack of cigarettes, costs $15.99. The success of the product appears to have taken the company by surprise. In just two years, Juul has amassed 46.8 percent of the U.S. electronic cigarette market, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. "Obviously, we think we created a very compelling device for adult smokers," Gould said. She said that while the Juul design was not meant to appeal to underage smokers, that has been an unintended consequence. "Youth are somehow getting a hold of our product, and yes, there is an appeal for it that we are against," said Gould. "We don't want them to use the product." At Vegas Vapes in Bryn Mawr, manager Justin Capps described the products, which took off in the region about a year ago, as "very, very" popular. Capps said it is not unusual to see parents with adult children both buying the product, he said. The legal age to purchase tobacco and vaping products is 18 in Pennsylvania and 21 in New Jersey, he said. A concerning product The electronic cigarettes have the ability to put nicotine, a highly addictive substance, into the brain, Leone said. When the chemicals are dragged across a heating element, they turn into a gas that is transferred by the lungs into the body, where they are eventually metabolized by the liver. Leone cautioned that not enough is known about what adverse effects that process will have, but that researchers do know that electronic cigarette use increases the risks of becoming a smoker. "Kids who are exposed to cigarette aerosol are two to three times as likely to go on and become smokers as adults," Leone said. And what's equally worrying is that parents are sometimes unaware Juul is for smokers. Dave Dobbins, COO of Truth Initiative, a national nonprofit anti-smoking group, recalled parents asking if they should buy their kids Juuls for Christmas. "There is some education work that needs to be done," he said. Parents should know that Juuling is prevalent in middle and high schools and that it delivers high levels of nicotine about 85 percent of that of a cigarette in an addictive way, Dobbins said. "This is a concerning product," said Dobbins. "It looks like more than just a fad." Social media is a window into the growing use of Juuls. In June, there were 10,000 Juul-related posts on Twitter. By December that number had climbed to 150,000, Dobbins said. Locally, a video of two Conestoga High School students that has made the rounds on social media, more for the use of racial slurs, also shows one of the girls using a Juul. In an email, officials at the Tredyffrin/Eastown School District in Chester County stated that using a Juul "would be considered a code of conduct violation, which would be enforced." Calls to local school districts, including Philadelphia, about Juuling on campus went largely unanswered though two Montgomery County districts acknowledged the use of the product in their schools. On Tuesday, wellness counselors in the Lower Merion School District sent a letter to middle and high school parents about the Juuling trend, suggesting parents talk "openly and honestly" with children about not only Juuling but also drugs and alcohol. "Based on conversations with Lower Merion School District students, we know Juuls are used here as well," the letter states. At Upper Dublin, the district is planning a presentation in the spring for parents and students by the drug-prevention group NOPE, Narcotics Overdose Prevention and Education. "They will be covering Juuling and vaping as part of a global presentation on opioids and all drug abuse," Wheeler said. Ivy Weingram, curator of the exhibit celebrating Leonard Bernstein, stands next to Bernsteins conductor suit made for him by Otto Perl. MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer Read more There are many Leonard Bernsteins to consider in "Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music," the thoughtful and exuberant exhibition opening Friday at the National Museum of American Jewish History. Tied to the 100th anniversary of the composer and conductor's birth (he died in 1990), the museum has pulled artifacts seemingly out of a hat to chart the course of America's most celebrated maestro, a wunderkind of music and publicity, an engine of showmanship and civic engagement, and a devotee of seizing the moment, whatever the moment might hold. Mention Lenny back in the day, and everyone knew who you were talking about. Lenny Bruce may have been fantastic, but there was only one Lenny. Here is Lenny's boyhood piano, here his conducting suit and baton, here his annotated Romeo and Juliet, used in creating West Side Story. Here is his father's scrapbook, meticulously maintained, open to the page where Samuel Bernstein affixed the program for his son's Carnegie Hall debut in 1943. Lenny's name is taped over Bruno Walter's the famed German conductor had suddenly become ill and Lenny subbed at the last minute, age 25. A star was born. Musical Lenny from the Jeremiah symphony to the score for Jerome Robbins' ballet Fancy Free and the Broadway hit On the Town were all completed when Lenny was in his early to mid-20s. A decade later, he was music director of the New York Philharmonic. What couldn't Lenny do? For one thing, he couldn't resolve the ruptures in American society and in the world at large, a source of high angst. But that didn't mean he wouldn't make the effort. For another, he couldn't control his sexual identity or how homosexuality was perceived in the wider world of the time, and it eventually led to his marital separation and an ocean of guilt. Racial and class divisions, anti-Semitism, the destruction wrought by World War Two, the bloody emergence of Israel, anti-communist witch-hunts, civil rights travesties, the Vietnam War all weighed on Lenny. Though these separate parts of his life are all manifest in the exhibition, they are not disentangled from one another. Musical Lenny is very much political Lenny and vice versa. Largely told through documents and artifacts, the exhibition contains a considerable amount of video of Lenny conducting, talking, traveling about Israel and Europe. There are sound stations for listening to Bernstein compositions; a wonderfully funny split-screen video that shows the influence of West Side Story through the decades, including renderings on Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons; video of a 1970 production of Mass, edgy with anti-Vietnam War zeitgeist. "Bernstein said the work he was always writing was about the search for a solution to the 20th-century crisis of faith," said Ivy Weingram, curator of the exhibition, which was organized by the museum and runs through Sept. 2. "We thought about what faith meant to Leonard Bernstein, given his own Jewish background, his own Jewish identity. We also thought about his faith in his fellow man, his faith in our government, our nation's leaders. If you apply that lens to his whole life, including his original compositions, but also his activism, the choices he made as a conductor what does that reveal about this man? "What does it tell us about his life that we may not have considered before?" The lens makes clear that Bernstein's music and his political and social interests were fused early on. At Harvard, he became deeply interested in African American influences on all modern American music, an interest he continued to pursue while attending the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. "He started to explore how and why there weren't more opportunities in the arts for African Americans, specifically in classical music and opera," said Weingram. "This was an idea he took with him as he became 'Leonard Bernstein' and sought out increased opportunities for African Americans and African American women in the arts, in serious music, classical music, on Broadway and in opera." On the Town, the Broadway hit Bernstein and Robbins put together in 1944, had a racially mixed cast and crew at the insistence of the creators. Everett Lee, a gifted African American conductor, directed the pit orchestra. "At the same time, while the United States was at war with Japan and 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned, they cast a Japanese American woman as the love interest of one of the sailors [in the show]," said Weingram. And, of course, there is West Side Story, score by Bernstein, choreography by Robbins, book by Arthur Laurents, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Perhaps the most famous Broadway musical (at least pre-Hamilton), West Side Story began as East Side Story pitting a Jewish gang against a Catholic gang. Bernstein realized that conflict was the conflict of an older generation. East became West, where the Puerto Rican Sharks battled the white Jets. On Bernstein's copy of Romeo and Juliet, he wrote that the story "was an out and out plea for racial tolerance." All of this liberal social focus aroused the displeasure of the establishment's anti-red cabal, including FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Lenny's passport was revoked, and he was forced to disavow the party in order to travel to La Scala. Eventually, the bureau produced a 700-plus-page file on Lenny, full of gossip and sexual innuendo, and made public in 1994. Visitors to the exhibition can browse a copy. Yet nothing seemed to stop Bernstein, not Tom Wolfe's scathing New York magazine "Radical Chic" take-down of a Bernstein cocktail fund-raiser for the Black Panthers. Not Hoover's 20 years of surveillance. Not criticism of Israel, where Lenny conducted relentlessly. Even the death of his wife after their separation ultimately added fuel to his exploration of the crisis of faith. He began pondering a never-completed opera on the Holocaust. Samuel Bernstein, interviewed in 1943 at the time of his son's Carnegie Hall debut, said, Lenny is "my contribution to an America that has done everything for me." Cars and pedestrians move slowly in Haddonfield during last weeks noreaster. Todays isnt nearly as bad. Read more The third nor'easter in less than two weeks delivered only a glancing blow to the Philadelphia region while on its way to pummeling of New England. Unlike the two previous storms, this one which dumped snow in parts of the south the mix of snow and rain had little impact outside of making highways wet and slippery before quickly moving out of the area. The forecast for the remainder of the day calls for mostly cloudy skies, with a high near 43. But it will feel colder as it will be breezy with northwest winds 14 to 20 mph, gusting up to 32 mph. It's a different situation in Boston, which was being hammered by a blizzard with up to a foot of snow expected. One impact here from the nor'easter was that 73 flights between Philadelphia International and airports in New England have been cancelled. That figure includes 30 flights to or from Boston. Amtrak also has canceled trains between New York City and Boston. South Korea's daily coronavirus cases increased to over 1,700 on Tuesday despite fewer tests over the weekend, adding to woes that infections could further increase after the Chuse... Angels paying tribute at the memorial for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 25, 2018, during an open house as parents and students returned to the school for the first time since 17 people were killed in a mass shooting at the school in Parkland on February 14. Read more The horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas has sparked a national conversation about how to keep our kids and schools safe. The outpouring of grief and loss from Florida strikes deep into every American heart. I think of my four daughters, two of whom are teachers, and my eight grandchildren. I worry about their safety. No parent should fear for their child, and no child should be afraid to go to school. While we debate what new laws may have prevented this tragedy, and as we examine what existing protocols were failed to be enforced, we can all agree that we must do more to protect our kids. That is why I recently called on the Trump Administration to incorporate schools as "critical infrastructure" under the guidance of the Department of Homeland Security. There are currently 16 categories of critical infrastructure, such as the energy sector and financial services sector, whose assets, systems, and networks are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would devastate our national security, economic well-being, and public health or safety. The federal government works with state and local partners, as well as private entities, to ensure the security and resilience of critical infrastructure sectors. But schools are not currently designated. Our kids are our greatest assets. It is embarrassing for me when I see the security provided to me in Washington, knowing parents across the country are dropping their children off at school in fear. You cannot walk into the Department of Education without going through security. Why shouldn't we protect our kids the same way we protect our politicians and bureaucrats? Designating schools as critical infrastructure would allow for the Secretary of Homeland Security to lead the way in bringing together local leaders, law enforcement, private organizations, and federal entities to provide support for schools in determining the best strategy to protect schools. This designation would pool America's expert capabilities to help local communities protect our children. Local school administrators and law enforcement would be provided resource support and flexibility to adopt the policies best suited for their schools. Options for hardened security choices, both infrastructure and armed security, whatever form that may take, would be presented for local school administrators, law enforcement, and parents to determine what they see as the most effective way to protect their children. Federal grants for school security must also be on the table. This week, Congress plans to also take up the STOP School Violence Act, authorizing funds for threat assessments and training to help students, teachers, school officials, and local law enforcement detect early warning signs of violence. As a cosponsor of that legislation, I am encouraged that the House is poised to act quickly to secure our schools. I have also urged the House Appropriations Committee fund the Secure Our Schools grant program with $150 million in the upcoming government funding bill. Led by a critical infrastructure designation, a comprehensive federal response will promote the best strategies to help protect kids at school, while distributing federal resources for security measures. Grieving families are searching for answers. Americans are mobilized. Elected officials have a duty to lead the way to solutions for these problems. This solution requires pragmatism, not idealism. We are going to continue to debate how best to stop gun violence in America. But the best way to protect our kids is to not allow killers into schools, no matter what kind of weapon they have. America must develop a plan so that our schools are the safest in the world. Designating schools as critical infrastructure is a first step in the right direction. Rep. Lou Barletta has served as the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district since 2011. This neighborhood, located in the 19146 zip code, experienced the highest number of home sales in the second quarter of 2016. Read more Anyone can take a look at real estate listings in Northern Liberties, Southwest Center City, and Point Breeze and get a sense that price points in those neighborhoods have made dramatic changes lately. A recent study at RENTCafe offers some hard data. Researchers say 19123 and 19146 are respectively the fourth and eighth most gentrified zip codes in the country. RENTCafe number crunchers calculated what they're calling a gentrification coefficient by examining changes on three fronts in 11,000 zip codes nationwide: median home values, median household incomes, and levels of higher education. After averaging the ranks in each of the three categories, they came up with a national list using data from the 2000 census and the 2016 American Community Survey. The 90014 zip code in Los Angeles demonstrated the most home value growth on the list (707 percent) as well as the biggest influx of folks with a college degree (an 857 percent increase), making it the most gentrified zip code in America by these calculations. The 19123 area, which includes the Northern Liberties, West Poplar and Callowhill neighborhoods, clocked a 203 percent increase in home values, 95 percent growth in household income, and a 230 percent increase in college-educated residents. In 19146, which includes the Southwest Center City, Point Breeze and Graduate Hospital neighborhoods, home values were up 404 percent, household incomes were up 51 percent, and college degrees were up 106 percent. East Coast cities dominated the top-20 list, with zip codes in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore making up most of the other entrants. WASHINGTON President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him as the nation's top diplomat, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate outreach such as possible talks with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday. Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled diplomat cut short a trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. Tension between Trump and Tillerson has simmered for many months, but the president and his top diplomat reached a breaking point over the last week, officials said. The reason for the latest rift was unclear, but Trump and Tillerson have often appeared at odds over policies such as the nuclear deal with Iran and the tone of U.S. diplomacy. A spokesman for Tillerson said the secretary of state "had every intention of staying" in his job and was "unaware of the reason" for his firing. >> READ MORE: Rex Tillerson replaced by Mike Pompeo: Reaction to Trump's move Tillerson cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. "I felt like, look, I just need to get back," he told reporters aboard his plane home. The White House, however, had told him the previous Friday he would be dismissed, according to two administration officials. The news was not conveyed in person by Trump. At the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the move had been considered for "a long time." "We disagreed on things the Iran deal," Trump told reporters. "So we were not thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process." Trump selected Gina Haspel the deputy director at the CIA to succeed Pompeo there. She would become the first woman to run the spy agency. Both would need to be confirmed by the Senate at a time when the closely divided chamber has stalled on confirming dozens of Trump nominees. In a statement issued to the Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel. "I am proud to nominate the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State," Trump said. "Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle." The president continued, "Gina Haspel, the deputy director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace director Pompeo, and she will be the CIA's first-ever female director, a historic milestone. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect." Trump also had words of praise for Tillerson: "Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last 14 months, and I wish him and his family well." A spokesman for Tillerson said the secretary of state has not spoken directly with Trump about the move. "The secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security and other areas," Steve Goldstein, undersecretary of public diplomacy for the State Department, said in a statement. "He will miss his colleagues greatly at the Department of State, and the foreign ministers he's worked with throughout the world," Goldstein continued. "The secretary did not speak to the president, and is unaware of the reason. He is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and believes strongly that public service is a noble calling." The president who has long clashed with Tillerson, who he believes is "too establishment" in his thinking felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for possible high-stakes talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said. "I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State," Pompeo said in a statement. "His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America's prosperity. Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honors of my life." Haspel in a statement also said she was excited for her promotion. "After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its deputy director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year," she said. "I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency." On the flight from Nigeria, Tillerson appeared to break with the White House in his assessment of the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain. He singled out Russia as responsible for the attack, echoing the finger-pointing of the British government. "It came from Russia," Tillerson said, according to the Associated Press. "I cannot understand why anyone would take such an action. But this is a substance that is known to us and does not exist widely." Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned the attack as "reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible," and expressed solidarity with Britain, but would not say whether the United States believes Russia was behind it. Tillerson was especially frustrated when Trump last Thursday unilaterally agreed to the meeting with Kim while Tillerson was traveling abroad in Africa, according to officials familiar with his thinking. Tillerson had long expressed interest in a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with North Korea, and was upset to have been left totally out of the loop when Trump decided to move forward, according to a White House official. Foggy Bottom was also acutely aware and chagrined that when Pompeo appeared on the television shows this past Sunday to explain the North Korea developments, he did not mention Tillerson. Pompeo long has been mentioned as Tillerson's most likely replacement. The former Republican lawmaker from Kansas developed a warm relationship with Trump as the CIA director, often delivering the President's daily brief to Trump in person, and racing over to the West Wing at a moment's notice to field the president's queries on a range of topics. Last November, the White House readied a plan to replace Tillerson with Pompeo, and Trump seriously considered making the move, but was convinced to keep the current team in place. Pompeo often is found in a host of meetings that do not necessarily deeply involve his agency, simply because Trump likes him, said one White House official. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was initially mentioned as a replacement for Pompeo, but Trump opted to promote from within by elevating Haspel. Tillerson's exit had been so widely expected that the rumors were given a nickname: Rexit. Speculation about his ouster has come in waves, including in October after NBC News reported that Tillerson had called Trump a "moron." Tillerson, 65, spent his career at ExxonMobil, climbing the ranks at the oil giant to become chief executive officer, where he cut deals across the Middle East and in Mexico. Having never worked in government before being named secretary of state, he struggled to adapt to Washington's ways and the administration's culture of backstabbing. Tillerson emerged as one of the strongest voices in the administration critical of Russia. For months, he has been saying Russia clearly meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, even as Trump shied away from any critical remarks. Trump seemed to resent pressure to stay the course on such issues as China's trade practices, the war in Afghanistan, and the Iran nuclear deal, those people said. Tillerson pushed Trump to preserve the Iran nuclear deal, at least for now, with a July pronouncement that Iran was meeting its end of the bargain. Trump said in a Wall Street Journal interview that he regretted making that determination and strongly suggested he would not go along with another such certification of compliance due in October. Although Tillerson supported the approach to the war in Afghanistan that Trump announced last week, he felt no need to frame U.S. goals in the same maximal terms as the commander in chief. Where Trump proclaimed on Aug. 21 that "our troops will fight to win," Tillerson laid out a much more modest agenda. The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey, John Hudson and Carol Morello contributed to this report. Stormy Daniels has offered to return money she received in exchange for keeping quiet about an affair with Donald Trump. Michael Smerconish (right) interviewed Daniels lawyer this week on CNN. Read more Stormy Daniels may beat Donald Trump in the court of public opinion, but in a court of law, I think David Dennison has the upper hand over Peggy Peterson. It's no slam dunk. The publicly available legal documents would make for a terrific final exam in a law-school contracts class. But I doubt many pundits opining about the dispute have taken the time to read them. Here are a few observations about Stephanie Clifford/Stormy Daniels/Peggy Peterson's complaint against Donald J. Trump/David Dennison/Essential Consultants LLC: Nothing boilerplate When practicing law full time, I saw many settlements with a lot more zeroes that were not as structured and thorough as what Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, negotiated with Daniels' former counsel. There is nothing boilerplate about the settlement agreement or its side letter. Timing matters That attention to detail and the fact that the agreement was executed just 11 days before Election Day, at a time when Cohen would presumably have been very busy with his most important client, make me wonder whether this document was created just for Daniels, or if it had been used by Cohen in the past. Hmm. The money The amount: $130,000. Not a huge sum. No wonder Daniels has seller's remorse now that Trump is president. My hunch is that she was as surprised as everyone else on Election Night at the outcome. This case between a (now) president and porn star would have had a lot more value if the pollsters and pundits had been more accurate. The signatures Daniels claims the contract she signed committing to silence in return for $130,000 is null and void because Trump never signed it. Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, told me on CNN last Saturday that Section 8.6 of the settlement agreement requires as much. Sounds compelling, except that Section 1.1 of the agreement identifies the parties as "EC, LLC" and/or David Dennison " Steven E. Young, a Los Angeles-based senior business lawyer, told me by email: "Regardless of the failure to get 'DD's' signature (and it was an either/or requirement on who signed for Trump), Ms. Clifford accepted the $130,000 payment and thus ratified the extremely well-drafted Confidential Settlement Agreement, with knowledge of that purported defect. It was neither a 'draft' nor a 'hush agreement' as characterized by Ms. Clifford's legal counsel in her court complaint. It was a finished document in final form, containing a well-drafted, valid and binding arbitration provision that I anticipate will be fully enforced by the judge assigned in the Los Angeles Superior Court." On CNN, I told Avenatti that regardless of the signature issue, the deal seemed to have the essential elements we were taught necessary back in law school: offer, acceptance, and consideration. He disagreed. If Daniels believed Trump's signature was essential, she could have said so at the time of the settlement and refused to accept his payment. No doubt that is why she is offering to return the money now. Whether Cohen accepts it remains to be seen. Under a "disgorgement" provision in Section 5.1.1, he stands to collect $1 million each time Daniels breaks the confidentiality she promised. Maybe that is why he claims to have taken the unheard-of step of paying the settlement from his own home equity loan. The property Throughout the agreement there is language that obligates Daniels to return certain property to Trump, if it exists. Section 3.1(C) for example requires the deliverance of " video images, still images, email messages, text messages, Instagram message )" When I asked Avenatti if his client had returned any of the like to Trump, he refused to answer. "I'm not going to answer that question, but here's what I'm going to say, Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen and others better be very, very careful relating to statements publicly as to whether this actually happened or not," he told me. His refusal raises the question: Is there a "blue dress" in this case? The response By filing a complaint for declaratory relief in the Superior Court for Los Angeles, Avenatti is seeking to end-run the result of what he referred to as a "bogus arbitration proceeding" against Daniels. Trump was not a participant to the arbitration, presumably because Cohen was able to convince the arbitrator that his participation was not necessary by virtue of the "and/or" language noted above. The arbitration was conducted by the Honorable Jacqueline A. Connor, a retired judge of the Superior Court of California. Trump will now have 30 days to respond after being served. His response will be interesting. Among his options will be: to contest the complaint by arguing to uphold the underlying agreement and arbitration decision; ignore the complaint and allow Daniels to obtain a declaratory judgment enabling her to speak; or take the position that the underlying agreement was negotiated without his knowledge or involvement but is nonetheless binding upon Daniels. The latter could necessitate some explaining by Cohen as to why he had not kept his client informed. Of course, none of this may matter if Daniels appears on 60 Minutes, is compelling, and prevails in the court of public opinion. At the University of Missouri, the whole student government election was called off, and will have to be rescheduled, over some of theracist, homophobic and ableist online comments three student politicians made years ago. Read more In 2012 and 2013, when she was 14 years old, Claire Jacobs seemed to think that "nigga" was a really cool word. "First boyfriend was a scrawny lil nigga," she tweeted, along with a photo of her also-white, also-gawky baby friend. Now, as a result of that and other, similar posts, she's been shamed out of the race for University of Missouri student body president, as have two other candidates for student leadership positions. In fact, the whole student government election was called off and will have to be rescheduled over some of the "racist" "homophobic," and "ableist" online comments the three made years ago. When they decided to run for campus office, a student journalist found and circulated the offensive tweets, and all three issued mortified, abject apologies. The chairman of the Board of Elections Commissioners said this "created issues and concerns about the legitimacy of them running," especially given the history of "marginalized communities around campus." The board suspended the election while it looked into potential infractions under the handbook, but found nothing regulating past behavior. Current Missouri Student Association president Nathan Willett, who returned my call to his faculty adviser, says he called the three candidates in and told them that they hadn't lived up to the high standards required of school leaders. Willett urged them to put the university first and think about whether staying in the race was really the right thing to do. "It was a learning experience," he said. But is the lesson that holding wrong ideas as a kid is disqualifying as a young adult and beyond? The school has referred the students' past comments to its civil rights and Title IX office. We parents warn our kids that they should be careful about what they post, because it might be held against them some day. But we didn't know that the online record of where they started out could be turned into a brickbat by their own peers. You'd think their fellow students would understand better than anyone that no one wants his test-run trying on of various personas to represent his grown-up, or at least growing-up self. Judging the posing postings of young teenagers so harshly is so counterproductive that one wishes there were one or two adults on the case in Columbia. If there were, they'd surely check the Maoist tendencies of those junior inquisitors who will one day look back on this chapter and wish they'd been a little more generous. Student journalist Brett Stover found that Blaine Thomas, who had been running for student body president, tweeted five years ago that, "Japanese pitchers shouldn't be allowed" because "they are on weird ass, oriental herbal shit." Four years ago, Thomas tweeted to a friend that she was "SO gay," and said that "All this talk about Michael Brown is pointless. White or Black, if you try to grab a cops gonna get shot Stop being so sensitive." Caius Gillen, who'd been running for vice president, tweeted two years ago, as a freshman, that he was "about to watch a black man swim for the first time. College truly is the best place for new experiences." The black friend he and some others had given his first swimming lesson that day wrote about that backstory this week. But just as Gillen's friend didn't know how to swim until someone taught him, Gillen didn't know better than to revert to stereotypes until someone taught him. It's to our shame that these ancient ideas about race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation endure. But if not knowing any better until we get out into the world and meet others unlike ourselves makes even teenagers irredeemable, then we might as well give up on America. Some students also sneered at the candidates' apologies. "Imagine Richard Nixon to the Washington Post: 'Watergate was who I was in the past,' " tweeted another student journalist, mocking Jacobs for saying she'd changed. But she isn't Nixon, and offensive tweets from children aren't a constitutional crisis. In fact, Jacobs made a lot more sense than her attackers did when she said that "today, I do not tolerate speech like this This is a lesson of allowing those around you to have room to learn and grow." That these students aren't being given that room is a disservice that I hope doesn't make them bitter. Especially as they can't help but notice that they're being held to a higher standard than our current commander in chief. Melinda Henneberger is an editorial writer and columnist for the Kansas City Star. @MelindaKCMO Wilmington Trust Co. headquarters on Rodney Square was an anchor of what is now the city's half-empty corporate headquarters district. March 12, 2018/ Joseph N. DiStefano, staff writer Read more Was the way Wilmington Trust Corp. counted bad loans a decade ago part of a multimillion-dollar fraud perpetrated by top executives to enrich themselves or was it just business as usual for American bankers? That was a central question in a Delaware courtroom Monday as federal prosecutors squared off against four former executives' defense lawyers in opening arguments of one of the few criminal trials to come out of the financial crisis that convulsed U.S. banking in the late 2000s. Wilmington Trust, founded by members of the du Pont family in 1901, was once the largest bank based in the Philadelphia region. But in 2010 it was forced to sell its assets, including branches across Delaware and Southeastern Pennsylvania and tax-shelter offices from London to Las Vegas, to Buffalo-based M&T Corp. at a steep discount after acknowledging it was carrying hundreds of millions of dollars in bad loans to developers. Last fall, the bank agreed to pay $60 million to shareholders to settle fraud charges in the case. A string of lower-ranking Wilmington Trust lending officers had earlier pleaded guilty to fraud charges in relation to questionable loans, and at least two are expected to testify against Robert V.A. Harra, the bank's former president; ex-chief financial officer David Gibson; former chief credit officer William North; and bank controller Kevyn Rakowski. The four "lied repeatedly about the bank's loan portfolio to investors, regulators, and the public," prosecutor Lesley Wolf told the jury in her opening arguments. "Banks and bankers enjoy the special privilege of taking care of other people's money" but with that privilege comes the legal obligation "to fully disclose the bank's books and records, and to tell the public what is going on with the bank, whether it is good news or bad news." The bank's leaders "instead chose to lie repeatedly" and hide "a growing wave of past-due commercial loans" that were three or more months behind, at the same time that they were selling new bank securities to investors who trusted their reports that the bank was in much better financial condition than it was, with few bad loans. The four are accused of fraud for lying to investors, the Federal Reserve, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in an attempt to cover up the losses so they could keep the bank going, while also collecting millions in yearly compensation. Defense lawyers have sought to make the accused's conduct sound like everyday banking practice, at least at the executive level. The case is entirely "about reporting" and the proper definition of what is a bad loan and what bankers do and don't have to report, argued Harra's lawyer, Michael Kelly, partner at McCarter & English LLP and a prominent Wilmington bar owner and political donor. "Everybody knew" that Wilmington Trust had been giving developers extra time for many years when they couldn't pay land and construction loans, Kelly added. "They did the same things they always did." Kelly noted that Harra, Gibson, and North reported to the one senior officer who hasn't been indicted, Ted Cecala, the bank's former chief executive officer and chairman. (Cecala has been represented by Colm Connolly, the former U.S. attorney in Wilmington, whom President Trump has nominated to serve as a federal judge.) Kelly noted that Cecala, during the period covered by the alleged conspiracy, was a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the same regional regulator to which he and his ex-colleagues are accused of lying. Kelly depicted this as a sign that regulators understood and approved of the conduct of Cecala's bank on his watch. Until the bank was near collapse, "nobody said, 'That's against the law, don't do this,' " Kelly said. "These people never intended to commit a crime. These people never even thought about a crime." Lawyers also sought to convince the jury that the bankers are hometown good guys, not greedy financiers. Character witnesses for Harra are to include a Catholic nonprofit leader and a Wilmington city councilwoman. "This case is not about the 'Wolf of Wall Street,' subprime mortgages, collateralized mortgages, or Lehman Bros.," the investment bank that failed in the late 2000s due to bad mortgage debt, Kelly told the jury. He projected signed loan agreements on a courtroom screen, arguing that they showed the bank had the power to extend the term of a late loan "at any time," so the bank was justified in not listing them with bad loans for investors or regulators to see. The judge told jurors the case could take weeks. A portrait of Salvatore DiNubile, 16, is among the flowers at a memorial in South Philadelphia October 25, 2017. The St. Josephs Prep student was fatally shot in the neighborhood. Caleer Miller, 16, was also killed in the shootings resulting from a dispute between two groups of teens. Read more The father of a St. Joseph's Preparatory School student who was fatally shot in South Philadelphia last fall was arrested Monday night and charged with threatening a friend of his son's accused killer, the latest in a series of contentious incidents resulting from that crime. Police did not identify the person whom Salvatore DiNubile is accused of confronting, but Frank Keel, a DiNubile family friend and spokesman, said the 44-year-old recognized him as a friend of Brandon Olivieri's. Olivieri, 16, is accused of fatally shooting DiNubile's son, a 16-year-old also named Salvatore, and 16-year-old Caleer Miller in October. A police summary of the incident involving the elder DiNubile said he screamed, "I'm going to kill you!" at the person before shoving him into a parked car on the 2500 block of Warnock Street on Feb. 20. It also said DiNubile grabbed the person's mailbox and smashed it into the front door of his family's home, according to police. No one was injured. Keel said DiNubile confronted the male only after he told DiNubile, "Get over it, everybody dies," then spit in his direction, which DiNubile took as a reference to his deceased son. Keel said he did not know the name of the person whom DiNubile is accused of threatening. Keel also declined to offer specifics on what happened during the confrontation, but said: "What father in his right mind wouldn't react in such a way when a punk like this makes that kind of disgraceful remark?" He said friends of Olivieri's had previously posted photos and videos on social media "almost gloating" over DiNubile's death. A series of combative confrontations have resulted from the killing of the younger DiNubile and Miller, a crime that received widespread attention and inspired hundreds of people to mourn their deaths. In the days after the homicide, Olivieri's family home was sprayed with bullets, and in December a key witness at his preliminary hearing turned hostile toward prosecutors and refused to answer their questions. Authorities have described the shooting as a social-media beef among feuding teens that turned deadly when Olivieri pulled out a gun at 12th and Ritner Streets on Oct. 24, 2017. DiNubile was on one side of the dispute, authorities have said, while Miller, Olivieri, and at least one other teen were on the other. At Olivieri's preliminary hearing, prosecutors said that Olivieri had pulled a gun to shoot DiNubile, and that Miller was accidentally shot during a scuffle. Olivieri's attorney has said his client denies the accusations. Keel said the most recent incident involving the elder DiNubile was sparked when he was overseeing contracting work at his South Philadelphia home, which he is trying to sell to move away from the crime scene. It was not immediately clear why DiNubile was not arrested until Monday. Court records show he was charged with terroristic threats, simple assault, and reckless endangerment. He was released on bail after being arraigned, the records said. Staff writer Jason Nark contributed to this article. A sign for Bethany Christian Services in Jenkintown. The organization is one of two foster care providers that dont work with LGBT people for religious reasons. JESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer. Read more Megan Paszko spent countless hours researching how to become a foster parent in Philadelphia. She compiled all the information organizations needed and mailed, emailed, faxed, and even hand-delivered applications. Months passed before anyone responded, and then Bethany Christian Services got back to her and said there was an orientation for interested foster parents that week. Paszko and her wife drove to Elkins Park. They were the first people to arrive. They'd also be the first to leave. "The trainer approached us, and she was really nice, but she told us, 'I just want to be upfront. This organization has never placed a child with a same-sex couple,'" Paszko said. "She told us she didn't want to waste two hours of our time." In a follow-up call with administrators, the couple were told that Bethany does not work with LGBTQ people because of the church's views on homosexuality. They were offered names of other agencies to try. "I just couldn't believe it," said Paszko. who lives with her wife in Brewerytown. "There are so many kids out there who need homes, you're really going to deny them a good one?" At the same time that the city's Department of Human Services is urgently calling for more foster parents, two of its foster care agencies, Bethany and Catholic Social Services, operate under policies that turn away LGBTQ people who come knocking. The organizations, which also offer adoption services, are likely violating city contract rules that forbid discrimination. Philadelphia's fair practices ordinance, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, is included in all city contracts, said Rue Landau, executive director of the Human Relations Commission "What a tragedy for the kids of Philadelphia," said Mary Catherine Roper, deputy legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania. "This agency is putting its own view on religion above the needs of its kids." Roper said the position could also be unconstitutional: "A government doesn't get to use a contractor to implement religious programs and when you start saying, 'We're running this as a religious program such that we won't take you because you don't fit our religious view,' then the city is paying for a religious program, and that's a problem under the First Amendment." DHS said it was unaware, until contacted by the Inquirer and Daily News, of the policies held by the two organizations. Bethany Christian Services has had a contract with the city since 1996 and Catholic Social Services since 1997. DHS spokeswoman Heather Keafer called both groups' stances "deeply concerning," given an ongoing push to recruit more LGBTQ people to become foster parents. "We actively recruit individuals that represent the diversity of our city, including diversity of sexual orientation, genders, race, religions, and communities to provide quality foster care to Philadelphia's most vulnerable children and youth," Keafer said. The city's Law Department is reviewing the issue while DHS works with the Human Relations Commission to investigate policies at both organizations, Keafer said. The department is also reviewing policies of all 26 foster care agencies it works with. The city will continue to recruit LGBTQ parents, including at an event March 22 at the William Way LGBT Community Center hosted by the Office of LGBT Affairs . Last year, Bethany Christian Services was reimbursed $1.3 million for operating foster homes for 170 children, representing 1.5 percent of the department's payments to foster care providers. Catholic Social Services was reimbursed $1.7 million in the same year for 266 children, representing 1.9 percent of the amount paid. Joe DiBenedetto, a spokesman for Bethany, said the organization places children with married couples made up of two parents of the opposite sex, or in some cases individuals. He said the organization does not believe it is in violation of any city ordinances. "This has been our practice throughout our nearly 75 years of operation and is based on our adherence to what we believe to be foundational Biblical principles," he said. Ken Gavin, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said Catholic Social Services wasn't aware of any recent inquiries from same-sex couples but confirmed that the organization would not work with interested LGBTQ people if approached. "Catholic Social Services is, at its core, an institution founded on faith-based principles," Gavin said. "The Catholic Church does not endorse same-sex unions, based upon deeply held religious beliefs and principles. As such, CSS would not be able to consider foster care placement within the context of a same-sex union." Gavin said that arrangement is a "well-established and long-known one in our relationship with DHS." Both organizations work with LGBTQ youth. That can send a mixed message to children and teens in their care, said Currey Cook, an attorney who heads Lambda Legal's Youth in Out-of-home Care Project. "How do you pretend you can simultaneously say we serve all youth and do a good job serving all youth while at the same time you're saying same-sex couples are not real parents, are not good parents?" Cook said. "LGBT youth who have faced so much isolation, stigma, prejudice in the system are left wondering, 'What's going to happen if I come out, and I'm being served by parents or an agency that basically says trans parents, LGBT people, aren't good parents?'" Cook said Pennsylvania could benefit from a more explicit nondiscrimination policy. Its state code prohibits discrimination against children based on sexual orientation but does not say anything specific about prospective foster or adoptive parents. A nationwide tension Similar conflicts have sprouted up across the country in recent years as states have legalized same-sex marriage. Before laws started changing, religious-conflicted organizations could avoid working with LGBTQ people by requiring foster parents to be legally married, Cook said. His organization sued the federal government and the Catholic Conference of Bishops last month after married lesbian professors were told they could not foster a refugee child through Catholic Charities of Fort Worth, Texas. A woman at the organization told them foster parents must "mirror the Holy Family," according to the suit. The ACLU sued the State of Michigan last year after two same-sex couples were turned down by Bethany Christian Services and Catholic Social Services there. Michigan is one of a growing number of states to pass laws explicitly allowing religious-based discrimination. Similar bills are percolating in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Pennsylvania has no such law but religious nonprofits often discriminate quietly, said Leslie Cooper, an attorney with the ACLU's national office, who is handling the Michigan case. Lawyers for Bethany and Catholic Social Services have defended their clients' stances in court documents by saying that requiring religious organizations to comply with nondiscrimination laws would force them to close, meaning fewer organizations to help kids in need. Cooper said a religious organization could always change its affiliation, which occurred in Illinois after a foster care agency associated with the Catholic Church broke off and rehired the same staff to operate independently. "The premise that there would be no one to do this work is just false," she said. Both the archdiocese and Bethany say they always direct interested LGBTQ parents to other agencies. Paszko and her wife are now working with Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Philadelphia to become certified foster parents, but the journey has not been easy. They started sending out requests for information to various agencies in July. Calls and emails went unanswered. An application Paszko hand-delivered was mailed back to her with no explanation. A home visit scheduled weeks ago was canceled unexpectedly. The couple took off from work to get background checks but upon arrival, learned the center no longer offered the screenings. They don't attribute all these roadblocks to discrimination but to a system ill-equipped to catch interested parents. "If you work and you actually have the financial means to help a kid, I feel like the system is not set up to help you do that," Paszko said. "There have just been so many stops along the way where I've just said, 'Ugh, this is not meant to be.'" Interested in fostering? Call 215-683-5709 or email fosteringphilly@phila.gov. Learn more at beta.phila.gov/fosteringphilly Anyone who believes they were discriminated against may contact the PCHR at 215-686-4670 or pchr@phila.gov. Meek Mills mother, Kathy Williams, and his attorney, Joe Tacopina, speak during a news conference before a panel about criminal justice reform at the University of Pennsylvanias Irvine Auditorium on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Read more Imprisoned Philly rapper Meek Mill's mother on Tuesday called on District Attorney Larry Krasner to "step in" and help her son. "I'm begging the DA Krasner," a tearful Kathy Williams said during a 15-minute news conference before the start of a criminal justice panel at the University of Pennsylvania's Irvine Auditorium. "Can you please help me out?" Williams, who took questions from reporters alongside Mill's attorney, Joe Tacopina, ripped into Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley, who sentenced Mill to two to four years in state prison in November after he repeatedly violated the terms of his parole. "I don't even understand how he's been on probation for that many years. It's like he murdered somebody," she said. "He has to beg to see his son. What kind of woman does that? Is she a mother? Do she have a mother?" Although it was the first public statement by Williams, it's not the first time her son's representatives have asked the District Attorney's Office to intervene in his case. Ben Waxman, spokesman for the office, declined to comment on the request Tuesday. A range of other celebrity supporters, including Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins and retired boxer Bernard Hopkins, also spoke in advance of the event, called "REFORM: Bringing Justice to Light." The New York-based social justice organization Gathering for Justice hosted the panel with groups from Drexel University, Temple University, and Penn. Originally charged in a drug and gun case at age 19, the 30-year-old Mill born Robert Rihmeek Williams has spent most of his adult life on probation under the authority of Brinkley, a favorite target of Mill and his defenders. The judge most recently hired a lawyer after repeated claims from Mill's legal team that she tried to extract personal favors from the rapper. "Every time she looks around, the people who she may think respect her are totally ashamed and embarrassed by what she's done to Meek Mill," the Rev. Al Sharpton said of Brinkley during the event. Sharpton had visited Mill at the state prison in Chester, where he has been incarcerated since November. During the panel, which included comments from criminal justice experts and social justice activists, Tacopina telephoned Mill in prison. Once the hundreds of attendees in the auditorium realized who was on the other end of the line on the speakerphone, the crowd erupted in applause. "I want to be a light for Philadelphia," the rapper said during the brief call. The increasingly bitter tangle between Brinkley and Mill's defense team took another twist last month when the Inquirer and Daily News uncovered evidence that Mill's arresting officer, Reggie Graham, was included on a list maintained by the District Attorney's Office of police whose credibility has been called into question, prompting prosecutors to avoid calling them to testify. A former police colleague later said Graham lied to put Mill behind bars. His case has attracted a who's who of celebrity supporters, including rapper Jay-Z, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, and various Eagles players. The Super Bowl champs even took the field in Minneapolis to Mill's "Dreams and Nightmares." The day after the Eagles' Super Bowl victory, "Dreams and Nightmares" was streamed 1.4 million times in the United States. "Throughout our playoff run, his music was bringing us inspiration and bringing us energy. And at the end of the day, we wanted to bring that support back to him," Jenkins told reporters before Tuesday's event. Staff writer Chris Palmer contributed to this article. Timothy Canfield stood trial this month on murder charges after allegedly killing another man with a compound bow and arrow after a fight outside the house where Canfield was living with his former fiance. Read more At an unusual murder trial in Camden County in which a former mechanic is accused of killing a man with a bow and arrow, three jurors were overheard discussing a puzzling piece of evidence. A bloody arrow was found in Timothy Canfield's pickup truck, but it did not contain the victim's DNA. The jurors' conversation, which took place despite a judge's admonitions not to discuss the evidence before the case concluded, led to a mistrial when State Superior Court Judge Richard Wells ended the proceedings, citing "juror misconduct." On Tuesday, prosecutors vowed to retry Canfield, 30, of Berlin Borough. He remains free after posting $400,000 bail. "The court found that juror conduct has poisoned the deliberative process, and the jury will not be able to continue fair deliberations," said Alex McVeigh, a spokeswoman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. She said no date had been set for the retrial. Canfield's attorney, Jeffrey Zucker, said Canfield was being cross-examined when a juror handed a note to the judge saying she had overheard other jurors discussing the case in the jury room during a lunch break. Canfield had testified that he shot the arrow in an attempt to scare away Kereti Paulsen, who had started a fistfight with someone in the backyard of the home Canfield shared with his girlfriend and her family. Paulsen, 25, of Cape May Courthouse, died of a single arrow wound to the stomach. Zucker said the arrow that killed him was never recovered. Camden County Assistant Prosecutor Lauren Pratter said that after Canfield killed Paulsen, he hid some of his arrows in an attic and concealed his bow in woods in Winslow Township, a neighboring town. Zucker said this was the first time in his 40 years of practicing law that he had a trial ended because of juror misconduct. The three jurors "were discussing one of the arrows that was found in his truck, but the blood wasn't a match with the victim," Zucker said. Canfield, he said, "told me it could have been months before that he could have shot a squirrel with it." Before Canfield's testimony, the judge dismissed the case against Canfield's wife, Ashley Dulin, who was charged with witness tampering and was standing trial with Canfield. Canfield's new trial could be months away, Zucker said, if anticipated new plea negotiations aren't successful. Enrique "Kiki" Silva started a new life for himself with a wife and children in Orlando, living within an hour of Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Earlier in life, Silva, now 74, had been convicted of drug charges in Camden in 1989 and sentenced to eight to 20 years behind bars. But in 1995, Silva escaped from a New Jersey state prison and vanished. Authorities never stopped hunting him during the 23 years he was on the run, looking for him throughout the country, including Florida and Puerto Rico, where they believed he had family, said Mike Schroeder, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in Trenton. When authorities got a tip that he was living with a woman in Orlando, the U.S. Marshals Service in New Jersey called Florida marshals. Law enforcement officers created a stakeout at the home Silva shared with his family and spotted a mature man with a full head of gray hair and a beard and mustache who matched Silva's 1989 mugshot with dark hair, a beard and mustache, and fewer facial lines. As they closed in, the man ran out the back door and into the arms of marshals. "It pays off when officers stay on top of these cases," Schroeder said Tuesday, a day after announcing the arrest. "They sat on it [the house] and struck gold." Silva remains in custody in Florida pending extradition to New Jersey. According to the Department of Corrections, Silva escaped on May 16, 1995, from the now-closed Riverfront State Prison in Camden as he was serving time on possession and distribution drug charges. Authorities said Silva walked away from a prison work detail. Schroeder said authorities followed numerous tips over the years, and recently circled back to those who may have information about where Silva was living. In February, they got the tip about Orlando. Schroeder said Silva was using his real name, had married, and had at least two daughters. He did not know whether Silva's wife knew he was a fugitive. At the time of Silva's arrest Thursday, no one else had been charged in helping him elude authorities, Schroeder said. Fugitives become more comfortable as time passes, he said, as illustrated by the fact that Silva was using his real name instead of an alias, as he had done in the past. That gave authorities an advantage in the search. "It was old-time detective work that led to his arrest," Schroeder said. As New Jersey Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin, back left, D-Woodbridge, N.J., and Senate President Steve Sweeney, back right, D-West Deptford, N.J., look on, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy addresses a gathering as he unveils his 2019 budget Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in the Assembly chamber of the Statehouse in Trenton, N.J. Some of the first-term Democratic governor's proposals are to raise the state sales tax and extend its reach, hike income taxes on the wealthy and legalize recreational marijuana. (AP Photo/Mel Evans) Read more In his first budget address Tuesday, Gov. Murphy proposed a tax on millionaires one of many proposals aimed at funding investments in pensions, schools, and transit. "Yes, a millionaire's tax is the right thing to do and now is the time to do it," the Democratic governor told legislators in Trenton. How much money would the tax raise? Murphy said raising the state income tax rate for residents who earn more than $1 million would bring in $765 million this calendar year. New Jersey residents would pay a new 10.75 percent marginal tax rate on any income above $1 million. The top tax rate is currently 8.97 percent, for income over $500,000. How many millionaires would pay the tax? The state Treasury Department said the tax would affect about 20,000 New Jersey residents and 19,000 nonresident New Jersey taxpayers. Who supports and opposes the tax? "The people of New Jersey are with us on the millionaire's tax, as they want us to restore the value they get out of the tax dollars they entrust to our care," Murphy said in his budget address. That claim and the concept of taxing millionaires is not new for Murphy. It was central to his campaign last year. But after Murphy was elected in November, Congress passed a new federal tax plan that will impact homeowners in New Jersey by capping deductions for state and local income taxes. The federal tax plan caused Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), to back off his support for a tax on millionaires which could throw into question the fate of Murphy's proposal. Sweeney has proposed an increase in the corporate income tax. Opponents of a tax on millionaires also say it would make the state less competitive and would deter high-earning individuals from living there. Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff, a former New Jersey state treasurer, criticized both Sweeney's and Murphy's approaches in a recent op-ed on NJ Spotlight. "As tax hikes, the two proposals nonetheless share a defining negative characteristic: In the special context of state tax policy, they are both notably more anticompetitive than many of the available alternatives," he wrote. Do other states have millionaires taxes? Several other states have taxes on millionaires. New York has a tax rate of 8.82 percent for single taxpayers who earn more than $1 million and married couples earning more than $2.1 million. California, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia also have higher income tax rates for incomes over $1 million. Pennsylvania doesn't; it imposes a flat 3.07 percent income-tax rate. What other tax changes did Murphy propose? A tax on millionaires is just one of Murphy's proposed tax changes and hikes. His proposals would amount to an additional $1.6 billion in tax revenue. They include increasing the sales tax, taxing recreational marijuana assuming the state legalizes it by 2019 and taxing transactions through Airbnb, Uber, and Lyft. Murphy also wants to close a loophole through which hedge funds pay relatively low capital gains taxes on their profits; he would tax their profits as income. A former political strategist for U.S. Rep. Bob Brady was targeted in a murder-for-hire plot to stop him from cooperating with an ongoing corruption probe in Arkansas and Missouri, federal authorities said. Prosecutors detailed the previously undisclosed scheme to silence Donald "D.A." Jones, 62, of Willingboro, in federal court filings late Monday in Missouri. They say Milton Russel "Rusty" Cranford, a prominent Arkansas lobbyist, tried to set up Jones' slaying earlier this year. Cranford, 56, was arrested last month in Bentonville, Ark., carrying a .45-caliber, derringer-style pistol and $17,700 in cash that authorities say he intended to pay to a contract killer. "He needs to go away," the lobbyist purportedly said in a caught-on-tape conversation with Jones' would-be killer. Miming a shooting motion with his hands, a transcript states, Cranford added: "He needs to be gone." Jones a fixture in the world of Philadelphia Democratic politics has developed a reputation over decades as an expert in get-out-the-vote efforts for local campaigns. Aside from Brady, his past clients include former City Controller Jonathan Saidel and Sheriff Jewell Williams. More recently, his status as a key FBI informant has pushed Jones back into public view. In December, he admitted that he had played a role in a scheme to cover up $90,000 that Brady's campaign paid in 2012 to persuade a Democratic primary challenger to drop out of the race. But it was Jones' cooperation in an unrelated investigation involving political work he did for a Springfield, Mo.-based substance-abuse nonprofit, Preferred Family Healthcare, that allegedly drew Cranford's ire. Days after pleading guilty in the Brady case, Jones told a federal judge in Missouri that he had been illegally paid nearly $1 million of the charity's money to lobby lawmakers in Washington. He also admitted to kicking back nearly a third of that sum to Cranford and a former Arkansas state representative. Cranford who had previously worked as an executive for Preferred Family and served as Jones' primary liaison with the charity worried that Jones might implicate him in the kickback scheme. So, according to court filings, he contacted a convicted felon with whom he was friendly in a bid to ensure Jones never got the chance. Their first conversation allegedly occurred just hours after Jones' Dec. 18 guilty plea in Springfield. Prosecutors did not name the would-be killer in their court filings Monday but described him as a man who had spent years in prison for violent crimes. Unfortunately for Cranford, the man had also become an FBI informant. He told agents about the lobbyist's alleged murder plot and agreed to record future conversations. Prosecutors shared transcripts of those recordings with a judge this week in a bid to keep Cranford imprisoned until his trial. They sketch a vivid portrait of a man at loose ends one with a penchant for hasty decisions, colorful language, and larger-than-life appetites for gambling, graft, and drugs. On the tapes, Cranford referenced his impending divorce, discussed his attempts to buy hydrocodone on the streets of Texarkana, Ark., and boasted of the role he says he played in securing the early release of a convicted murderer from prison last year. He worried that it might have been that latest feat that first drew the scrutiny of investigators. As he put it, they had to suspect that there was "no way that [he] could have accomplished all this st without being dirty." But the conversations between Cranford and the man he allegedly hoped to hire for murder always came back to Jones. Court documents describe a Jan. 9 meeting in which Cranford handed the unnamed FBI cooperator $500 as a down payment and offered to provide him with "the piece" to use for the murder. In subsequent talks, Cranford railed against Jones, referring to him as a "snitching motherfer" who had just "rolled on" Brady and "cut himself a deal" to do the same on others in Arkansas and Missouri. (Brady was not ultimately charged in connection with the investigation of his 2012 campaign.) Yet even as Cranford allegedly plotted Jones' murder, he seemed desperate to convince his contact that the political strategist could not connect him to any of the allegations at the heart of the Preferred Family Healthcare case. "Show me where I'm dirty," Cranford said, according to one transcript included in the Monday filing. "Yeah, have I paid a hell of a lot of politicians? I sure have over the years a stload of money. But I've wrote them all checks. If mothefers trying to buy somebody, they ain't going to write 'em a check for it." Armed with those recordings, FBI agents arrested Cranford on Feb. 21. He has remained in custody since then, accused, for now, only of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Preferred Family. Prosecutors have said that his alleged attempt to have Jones murdered remains under investigation and is likely to result in additional charges. A lawyer for Cranford, Nathan Garrett, adamantly denied the accusations Tuesday, calling them "untested and unreliable aspersions" and "mischaracterizations" from "highly questionable sources." Jones, who has kept a low profile since he began cooperating in the Preferred Family Healthcare and Brady cases, declined to comment through his lawyer. He is scheduled to be sentenced in both cases next month. Fox News host Shepard Smith accused President Trump of not telling the truth about widespread public support for certain gun-control measrues. Read more While the opinion side of Fox News often lines up behind President Trump, the news side has increasingly found itself calling out an administration that often plays loose with the facts. Take Shepard Smith, the longtime Fox News host and managing editor of the network's breaking-news division. In recent months, Smith has called out Trump for not condemning Russia, labeled a Republican memo released by the House Intelligence Committee a "weapon of partisan mass distraction" and blasted the president for "inaccurate" claims about Hillary Clinton. On Monday afternoon, Smith continued to go after the Trump administration, this time on guns. On Shepard Smith Reporting, the Fox News host called out White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for backing the president's contention that there's "not much political support" behind the idea of raising the age requirement on firearm purchases from 18 to 21. "That's not true. It's just not factually accurate," Smith said. "There is broad-based support for raising the gun age limit. The president said to the kids at Parkland, 'I'll go strong on this, I'll work on this age thing.' He came up to the general public and said to the Congress, 'The NRA has a lot of pressure on you, but not on me so much.' And then he met with the NRA." Since the massacre at a Florida high school last month that claimed the lives of 17 people, Smith has been outspoken about the need for change. "We're failing our children," he said following the shooting, after somberly listing the 25 fatal school shootings that have occurred in the United States since two students killed 13 of their classmates at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. >> READ MORE: To protest gun violence, students in Philly-area schools will walk out Wednesday Trump initially signaled he supported several comprehensive gun-control measures, including expanding background checks for weapons purchased at gun shows and online, and restricting gun sales for some young adults. He called out Republicans, like Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, and said they were "afraid of the NRA," and even suggested it may be time to revisit a ban on assault weapons that expired back in 2004. But after Trump met privately with the NRA last week, he reversed those positions and now favors a move to arm teachers and make modest improvements to the background-check system, an about-face Smith pointed out during his broadcast. "The percentage for support for a 21 gun-buying limit are astronomical by United States standards. It's above water in every constituent group. Republicans are for it. Democrats are for it. But the NRA isn't for it," Smith said. "The NRA gets to them, and that's that. You can like that or not like that, but that's the fact of what happened. That's exactly what happened." Watch: Pence accepts apology from The View cohost During an appearance on Fox News on Monday night, Vice President Pence told Sean Hannity he accepted an apology from The View cohost Joy Behar over comments she made about Christianity. "I give Joy Behar a lot of credit. She picked up the phone. She called me," Pence said. "She was very sincere, and she apologized and one of the things my faith teaches me is grace forgive as you've been forgiven." Behar, an outspoken critic of Trump and his administration, mocked Pence's Christian faith in a show last month and suggested his religious conviction made him mentally ill. "It's one thing to talk to Jesus. It's another thing when Jesus talks to you," Behar said as part of a discussion about comments made about Pence's religious fervor by former White House staffer Omaraosa Manigault Newman. "That's called mental illness, if I'm not correct, hearing voices." Behar addressed the controversy over her comments the next day on The View but fell short of a full apology, saying, "It was a joke." Pence told Hannity that, despite having accepted Behar's personal apology, he still felt she needed to apologize to all Christians on The View or from some other platform. "I did encourage her and I am still encouraging her to use the forum of that program or some other public forum to apologize to tens of millions of Americans who were equally offended by what she and people said," Pence said. Watch: CNBC personality could join the White House It appears Trump might have found his new economic adviser by flipping through the channels. Multiple outlets are reporting that Larry Kudlow, a longtime CNBC personality and an informal adviser to Trump on economic issues, is the president's top choice to replace National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, who announced that he would resign following the president's decision to enact tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. >> READ MORE: Pennsylvania farmers worried Trump tariff could hurt business >> READ MORE: America's last keg maker, American Keg Co. of Pottstown, may get tapped out by new tariffs CNBC host and Montgomery County native Jim Cramer, who hosted a show for years alongside Kudlow, was first to report on Monday that his former on-air partner was the leading contender to replace Cohn in Trump's administration. "I believe that the president thinks that the market would really like this," Cramer said. CNN Reliable Sources host Brian Selter wrote on Monday that Trump's interest in Kudlow once again shows the president's reliance on experts from the world of television, something he dubbed the "Trump-TV feedback loop." "When President Trump wants to make a change, he frequently consults the TV," Stelter wrote. "He gets policy ideas, talking points, and even personnel advice from conservative cable news shows." One interesting wrinkle, if Trump does indeed tap Kudlow as Cohn's replacement, is that the former CNBC host has been an outspoken critic of the tariffs the president is seeking to impose. In a column last week, Kudlow called the president's tariffs "tax hikes" and "a regressive tax on low-income families." Similar walkouts have already happened in cities like Pittsburgh, where high school students marched Feb. 21 to show support for Parkland, Fla., students. Read more More than 40 schools in Philadelphia and South Jersey have students planning to walk out of class Wednesday to protest mass shootings like the Parkland, Fla., tragedy. Not all of the schools are supporting their students in this action. But they should. It's a shame when children feel compelled to speak up because adults have failed them, but sometimes that's the only way to ignite groundbreaking change. Think of the children's marches in Birmingham, Ala., organized by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which brought the national attention he needed to fight segregation in the 1960s. The Valentine's Day slaying of 14 children and three adults by an apparently deranged former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School should have brought immediate and dramatic changes in America's gun laws. Instead, Congress and President Trump have discussed a variety of meager reforms without passing anything. No one should be surprised. If the 2012 massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., couldn't shake Congress out of its NRA-induced lethargy to pass stronger gun laws, perhaps nothing will. Not even another preventable travesty like Parkland. So, students are taking matters in their own hands, as best they can since most aren't old enough to vote the lawmakers sitting on their hands out of office. The 17-minute walkout, first proposed by two high school girls in Brooklyn, N.Y., will be their way of saying they have had enough. Adults need to do more than listen to their protest; they need to act. Their first action should be to follow the lead of Philadelphia Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. and make clear that no disciplinary action will be taken against students who walk out. "This can be a learning opportunity that helps our students apply lessons that they are learning in school," said Hite in a letter to parents and guardians. He also stressed that students participating in the demonstration should be respectful of students who don't. That's a very important point, especially in Philadelphia, where daily gun violence takes a huge toll without getting anything close to the attention that Parkland has received. "When something happens in the white community, the black community is expected to support them," Tatiana Amaya, a Mastery Charter School student told an Inquirer reporter. "The focus isn't 'What can we do to make black and brown kids feel safe in school?'" She's right; not enough attention is paid to the murders that touch the many more children and their families who live in neighborhoods held hostage to gun violence. But the walkout Wednesday isn't the culmination of the battle to get tougher gun laws; it's another beginning. And, unfortunately, many more beginnings may be needed before significant change occurs. That's OK. The children who marched and went to jail in Birmingham didn't see significant change for years. But when change came, they knew they had played a role in achieving it. So, too, will the students who walk out in protest Wednesday, if lawmakers in state legislatures across the country and Congress finally take some common-sense steps to reduce the too-easy access that allows mass murderers to get their hands on high-powered, rapid-fire weapons. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a January meeting with President Trump. Tillerson has been ousted from his role at the State Department and will be replaced by current CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Read more In the latest major staffing change to rock the White House, President Trump is replacing embattled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo. On Tuesday morning, a spokesman for the State Department issued an unusual statement, saying Tillerson "did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason" he was being replaced. Steve Goldstein, the undersecretary for public diplomacy, told CNN Global Affairs correspondent Elise Labott that Tillerson learned he was being replaced when he read a tweet sent by Trump Tuesday morning. After revealing Tillerson found out about his dismissal from Trump's tweet, the White House also fired Goldstein for contradicting the official account of the secretary of state's ouster. Goldstein confirmed he'd been fired to AFP diplomatic correspondent Dave Clark, adding, "I look forward to getting some rest." During a press conference at the State Department Tuesday afternoon, Tillerson said he received a call around noon from the president informing him he was being terminated, more than three hours after Trump's initial tweet. In a roughly 10-minute statement, a somewhat shaken Tillerson announced that he was delegating his responsibilities at the end of the workday to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, and that his tenure as secretary of state would officially end at midnight on March 31. Tillerson called for an orderly transition to nominee Pompeo and thanked all State Department employees, Americans and the military, but he notably did not thank Trump or praise his leadership. "What is most important is to ensure an orderly and smooth transition during a time that the country continues to face significant policy and national security challenges," Tillerson said. Discord between Tillerson and Trump has been festering for months, since NBC News reported in October that Tillerson had called Trump a "moron" during a Pentagon meeting last summer. "Trump was enraged after it leaked that he had called him a moron, and his frustration with him never subsided," CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins wrote on Twitter. "Their differences were irreconcilable." Despite months of rumors, Tillerson's sudden departure was a surprise to reporters traveling with the secretary of state home from a recent trip to Africa. "We got off the plane with Tillerson less than four hours ago," wrote Josh Lederman, who covers the State Department for the Associated Press. "There was zero indication on flight home that this was imminent." On the flight back to Washington from Nigeria Monday night, Tillerson spoke to reporters about Russia's alleged involvement in the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain, calling it "a really egregious act" that appears to have "clearly" come from Russia. "I've become extremely concerned about Russia," Tillerson told reporters. "We spent most of last year investing a lot into attempts to work together, to solve problems, to address differences. And quite frankly, after a year, we didn't get very far. Instead what we've seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive." Tillerson's remarks about Russia echoed comments made by British Prime Minister Theresa May, who said it was "highly likely" Russia was behind the poisoning. The fact that Tillerson took a harsher stance against Russia than the White House, just hours before his dismissal, wasn't lost on pundits Tuesday morning. "Tillerson getting fired the day after he publicly chastised Putin is pretty wild," wrote former Obama official and Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer. Just about 100 days ago, Trump himself denied that Tillerson was on his way out, calling reports of the secretary of state's departure "fake news." Here is a round-up of some initial reaction to Tillerson's ouster from former politicians, political pundits and reporters: David Frum, former speechwriter for George W. Bush: Jill Dougherty, former CNN Moscow bureau chief: Rich Lowry, National Review editor: Hadas Gold, CNN reporter: Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist (via Axios' Jonathan Swan): Tommy Vietor, former National Security Council spokesman: Mark Knoller, CBS News White House correspondent: Josh Marshall, editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo: Charles Schwab, founder of The Charles Schwab Corporation: A cameraman takes footage of the signs for the candidates Rick Saccone and Conor Lamb outside a polling place in Pennsylvanias 18th Congressional District, where a special election is being held. Read more The special election in the Western Pennsylvania's soon-to-disappear 18th Congressional District seen as a key litmus test of President Trump's support in an area he carried in 2016 has generated so much excitement , as well as confusion, that people who do not even live anywhere near there apparently would like to cast a vote. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Chris Potter reports that county election officials have been fielding complaints from voters who turned up at polling places only to find them closed. The reason: They do not live in the district. Election officials also fielded calls on Monday from out-of-district voters who wanted to know where to cast their ballots for either Republican Rick Saccone, a state representative, or Democrat Conor Lamb, a former federal prosecutor. The voters apparently didn't know they weren't part of the 18th District, or that no election was taking place in their district. >> READ MORE: In Western Pa. special election, Democrat Conor Lamb aims to shock Trump country Meanwhile, more than 200 miles away in York, State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said folks at his gym were asking where to vote. The Morning Call reports that some voters in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania thought they, too, could vote in the race. "Northampton County Registrar Dee Rumsey said her office received more than a dozen calls before noon from outraged voters demanding their Constitutional right to vote," the Morning Call reported. "Several media outlets, she said, had either erroneously reported the race between Democratic candidate Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone was statewide or didn't stress that it was limited to one district." The race for the district seat south of Pittsburgh has become the latest test of Democratic energy and backlash against Trump, drawing a wave of national media attention and a deluge of Washington spending. The political stakes are so high that the race reportedly played into Trump's decision to announce tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, in hopes of stirring enthusiasm among the voters who strongly backed his presidential campaign in a region long associated with coal and steel. Gov. Wolf giving his budget address at the state Capitol on Feb. 6. Read more PITTSBURGH Under a proposal put forth Monday by Gov. Wolf, public officials would be subject to a gift ban, new campaign finance limits would be enacted, lawmakers would need to provide receipts for reimbursements, and top state officials wouldn't be paid until a complete budget was passed every year. Wolf, a Democrat, unveiled his proposed reforms at a news conference at the Allegheny County Courthouse, along with Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. No legislators were in attendance and the governor said that he anticipated the proposals would face opposition. "This proposal will hold all public officials accountable to their constituents and make sure our citizens know exactly who's in charge in Harrisburg," he said. His "Citizens First" six-point ethics plan also called for broader provisions to discourage "pay to play," such as requiring disclosure of campaign contributions made by parties seeking state contracts. The governor also suggested additional transparency for legislators who have outside income, requiring disclosure of sources, type of work, and amount of income received. Currently, lawmakers must disclose sources of outside income above $1,300 annually, though they don't have to say how much they earn. They must also disclose certain expensive gifts, tickets, transportation and meals. The governor is proposing a gift ban. A number of similar proposals have been floated before, particularly in the wake of scandals or budget impasses such as not paying lawmakers while a budget remains unfinished but haven't gained traction. Wolf said this is the first time he's proposing the changes. He has already imposed a gift ban on the executive branch. Wolf, who is independently wealthy, donates his salary to charity. Republican officials criticized Wolf's proposals as election-year rhetoric and said not allowing legislators to take a salary during a budget stalemate would increase pressure on the legislature to agree to the governor's proposals. "Rather than treating a symptom, we would hope the governor would work to fix the problem and work with us to finish a budget on time," said Jennifer Kocher, spokeswoman for Senate Republicans. Good-government groups, such as Common Cause Pennsylvania and Committee of Seventy, said they were supportive of the proposals. "We are pleased to see any initiative to bring further transparency and accountability to the commonwealth, and encourage the governor and General Assembly to use this opportunity even in an election year to begin meaningful discussion of the reforms needed to reach a higher level of ethical standard in government," said a statement from the Committee of Seventy. According to press accounts, President Trumps nominee to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, was deeply involved in the Agencys torture program, though there are more questions than answers about exactly what her role was. News reports last year stated that Haspel was the chief of base at the CIAs first overseas prison (or black site) for terrorism suspects, in Thailand. Two terrorism suspects, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, were waterboarded, deprived of sleep, confined in coffin-sized boxes, and otherwise tortured at that prison. She later was involved in the destruction of the videotapes that documented prisoners torture. Those articles, the most detailed of which appeared in ProPublica, erroneously stated that Haspel was the chief of base at the prison during Zubaydahs torture, and thus was the only official at the site with the authority to stop Zubaydahs torture. But a more recent article by New York Times reporter Adam Goldman says that Haspel took charge of the prison in late October 2002, after Zubaydahs worst treatment had ended. According to Goldmans source, she did oversee Nashiris waterboarding in mid-November. ProPublica has retracted its story. There appears not to be any dispute about Haspels role in destroying video evidence from the Thai black site. In 2005, Haspel was the chief of staff for Jose Rodriguez, the head of the Agencys clandestine service. Rodriguez wrote in his memoirs about her involvement in his decision to order the destruction of the videotapes of Zubaydahs and Nashiris interrogation: My chief of staff drafted a cable approving the action that we had been trying to accomplish for so long. The cable left nothing to chance. It even told them how to get rid of the tapes. They were to use an industrial-strength shredder to do the deed.I took a deep breath of weary satisfaction and hit send. Former Acting and Deputy CIA Director Michael Morrell has since confirmed Haspels involvement in the tape destruction. It is not known what, if any, role Haspel played in the torture program during Zubaydahs interrogation, or between when the Thai black site was shut down and the tapes were destroyed. The full, classified Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) study on the CIA black site program almost certainly contains many more details about Haspels involvement (likely under a pseudonym rather than her real name). But it is unclear whether Senators will be able to ask about those detailsor even about the public reports regarding her involvement in torture and destruction of evidenceduring her confirmation hearing without being accused of disclosing classified information. When Haspel was promoted to deputy CIA director last year, Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote that [h]er background makes her unsuitable for the position, and requested declassification of information regarding her role in the CIA interrogation program. The deputy CIA director position is not Senate confirmed, though, and the CIA disregarded those requests. The Agency later invoked state secrets privilege to prevent Haspel from having to sit for a deposition about her role in the torture program in a civil suit. In a sworn declaration, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said that there has been public speculation about Haspels role, but the Agency could not officially acknowledge it or allow Haspel to answer questions about it without severely damaging national security. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said in response to Haspels nomination that Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIAs interrogation program during the confirmation process. Wyden also called for total transparency about Haspels role, and stated that [i]f Ms. Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of U.S. intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from her past. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who led SSCIs investigation into the torture program, has also called for declassification of the complete picture of Haspels involvement in the rendition and torture program a necessary part of the confirmation hearing, as has Heinrich. But the Chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr (R-NC), has said that he supports her confirmation without delay. Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) said that [m]embers have a lot of questions. They deserve to have those questions answered, in an open hearing setting. He added, the more transparency the better, but it is unclear whether he will demand it as a condition of his support. Warner and Burr have emphasized the bipartisan nature of their inquiry into Russian election meddling. If they support Haspels confirmation without thorough disclosure and questioning regarding her role in the black site program, it will be a bipartisan abdication. This post has been revised twice based on updates and corrections to the news articles it cited. Pomona, CA, Police Officer Greggory Casillas was fatally shot during his last field training shift before he could finally ride solo. During that Friday shift, a reckless driver led officers on a pursuit that ended with a crash. Casillas, 30, followed the driver into a Pomona apartment complex, where the man was barricaded in one of the units. As Casillas approached, he was struck by bullets fired from behind a door. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. Pomona, CA, Police Officer Greggory Casillas was fatally shot. (Photo: Pomona PD/Facebook) More than 300 mourners gathered outside Pomona police headquarters Sunday night for a candlelight vigil, where officers wore black mourning bands with the number "16" Casillas' badge number over their badges, reports the Los Angeles Times. "Losing Gregg has ripped a hole in the hearts of his family and members of this department," Pomona Police Chief Michael Olivieri said at the vigil. Colleagues remembered the 6-foot-4 Casillas as a gentle giant, a hard worker who loved to joke around with and motivate his co-workers. A father of two small children, he was just starting to build a family with his wife, they said. "It was his dream to be a police officer," said Dawn Coday, a senior records specialist with the department. "It was happening, his dream was just beginning." Isaias De Jesus Valencia, 39, has been charged with murder in connection with Casillas' death and the wounding of another officer who tried to rescue him, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Sunday, reports CNN. The man was also charged with attempted murder of other peace officers, the agency said in a statement. The grieving family of a fallen Maryland police officer received a generous gift from a local business who wanted to help ease the pain -- by paying the family's mortgage for a year. Cpl. Mujahid Ramazziddin (Photo: Prince George's County PD) Cpl. Mujahid Ramazziddin, a Prince Georges County police officer, was fatally shot while off duty as he was intervening in a domestic situation last month. The 14-year veteran was assisting a female neighbor "who was being threatened by her estranged husband" when the man killed Ramazziddin before fleeing the scene. Mike Tikoyan, who owns NT Auto Shop in Alexandria, Va., told FOX5DC he had been following the story during the past several weeks and wanted to help the family in any way he could. The police officers widow, Tammi Ramazziddin, said she was touched by Tikoyans gesture to help her and her family. The Asheville, NC, lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police was vandalized Monday. (Photo: WLOS Screen shot) "Black Lives Matter" was spray-painted in large letters on the exterior of the Asheville, NC, Fraternal Order of Police's lodge on Monday. A police spokesperson also says the windows of an FOP van in the parking lot were broken out, and someone cut the wires to surveillance cameras, WLOS TV reports. Despite the cut wires, there is still surveillance footage of the suspect. The person in the video appears to be white, and is wearing a hoodie. Judge Trudy White is right in the middle of the tragic death of 41-year old Zachary, LA, police officer Christopher Lawton Monday night. Lawtons alleged killer, 33-year-old Albert Franklin, has been the beneficiary of Whites well-established history of being lax with criminals, according to columnist Dan Fagan at the Baton Rouge Advocate. Franklin now sits in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, charged with first-degree murder of Lawton. Late Monday, East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said Lawton was killed while working undercover with another Zachary police officer searching for Franklin, who was wanted on active warrants for aggravated second-degree battery, felon in possession of a firearm and aggravated assault with a firearm. This is not the first time Franklin has apparently tried to kill someone. His extensive criminal history includes an arrest on counts of attempted second-degree murder. Zachary Police Chief David McDavid told WAFB-TV in December that Franklin had been a problem for the people of his city for quite some time. What especially angered McDavid is the soft treatment Franklin has received from White. In November, Franklin was pulled over in a traffic stop, and officers said they found drugs and a gun. He was charged with possession and distribution of manufactured Schedule I drugs, possession and distribution of Schedule II drugs, possession of a firearm with drugs, felon in possession of firearm, resisting an officer, possession of drug paraphernalia, improper lane usage, and failure to signal, according to WAFB. A commissioner originally set Franklins bond at $88,000. But the next day, White reduced Franklins bond to only $9,000. Franklin bonded out the next day, WAFB reported. Christopher Lawton was called a "double hero" by Zachary Police Chief David McDavid. He served as a reserve police officer and a full-time firefighter. (Photo: Zachary Fire Department) A Zachary, LA, reserve police officer, who is also a full-time firefighter, was killed after being run over by a U-Haul truck driven by a felony suspect Monday night, according to officials. The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office identified the victim as Christopher Lawton. Lawton was an unpaid reserve officer with the Zachary Police Department and deputy chief of the Zachary Fire Department. He and another Zachary police officer were working undercover to arrest a man accused of using an AR-15 to hit his girlfriend in the face when he was killed, said Zachary Police Chief David McDavid. The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office reports Albert Franklin, 33, and Ashley Chaney, 30, have been arrested. Deputies say Franklin will be charged with first degree murder, hit and run, damage to property, and as a fugitive from the Zachary Police Department. They added Chaney will be charged with obstruction of justice, KFVS reports. Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said Lawton and another officer were executing a felony warrant at the time. The two officers saw the suspect in the U-Haul and parked in the parking lot to observe him. They watched him for several minutes, then pulled up behind him and got out of their marked unit. Gautreaux said when the suspect saw them, he began to drive away. Lawton was reportedly on the passenger side of the truck and was pinned between the truck and a grocery cart return. Lawton joined the fire department in March 1996 as a volunteer and then became a full-time firefighter in March 1998, Kimble said. Kimble said almost exactly 22 years later in March 2018, his career tragically ended. He had been a deputy chief for the last few years and was an arson investigator, Kimble said. "In my book, he's a double hero," said Chief McDavid. "He served his community." Lawton became a reserve officer with the Zachary Police Department in 2008, where he worked part-time, unpaid for the last decade, McDavid said. However, McDavid said Lawton was a fully certified officer, who received the same training as full-time officers and was a trusted veteran of their force, the Advocate reports. 25 2021 - 200 , Cookies . cookies. EAU CLAIRE, Wis. Hoping to give back to the community that supports it and helps animals in need, the Eau Claire County Humane Association has opened the Community Pet Pantry. Inside the pantry housed in a shed on the shelters property people in need can find food for their cats, dogs and other pets, along with supplies, including cat litter. Recently, the pantry had rabbit cages along with rabbit and guinea pig food available, said Liz Berg, the associations kennel supervisor and foster coordinator. "I dont think a day goes by at the shelter where someone doesnt come in and donate food and supplies," Berg told the Leader-Telegram . "We cant always use it all, and knowing there is a need in the community, we wanted to do something to help." In addition, shelter staff also wanted to do something to honor Katherine Schneiders many years of service to the community. Schneider, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire psychologist emerita, launched the We All Love Our Pets program in 2006 in Eau Claire. Under the auspices of the humane association, the program furnished pet food and supplies to owners who, because of a combination of age and frailty, disability and low income, couldnt get out and shop for their beloved companion animals needs. "When you read about people giving their own meals to their animals, its sad," Schneider said in a 2013 interview. "I thought, We can do better than that. " The longtime animal lover started the program after reading an article in the November 2005 issue of Ladies Home Journal about a similar venture that provided pet food for Meals on Wheels clients with pets. The program ended in December; however, the humane association will continue to make monthly deliveries to Park Tower Apartments in Eau Claire, said Elise Bauer, the shelters executive director. The Community Pet Pantry opened Jan. 1, and people who need to visit it can do so anonymously from 9 a.m. to close daily, except on Mondays, when the pantry is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Berg said. Complete shelter hours are listed on the associations website. "Its there for the community, and we want them to use it," Bauer said. "But we ask that people take only what they need, so we can help others." In a post about the humane association in November, Schneider said she thought the pantry will meet the needs of many of the programs customers and others not in the program. Bauer agreed. "We regularly get calls from people looking for help," she said, noting the shelter used to send excess pet food and litter to the St. Francis Food Pantry. While the St. Francis pantry was created to assist hungry people, its officials also are willing to offer any donated pet food and cat litter to clients who need it. "The families definitely know that we receive (pet food) from time to time, and we are handing it out as soon as we get it," said Kristie Matthaei, St. Francis executive director, in December. If the Community Pet Pantry "can help someone feed and keep their pet, thats great," Berg said. The Dunn County Humane Society opened the Little Pet Food Pantry outside its shelter in mid-2017. "We dont want anyone to go hungry, not a person or an animal," said Josh Dalton, DCHS executive director, about a month after the pantry opened. The United States Attorney for Minnesota has just issued a press release disclosing the filing of charges against three Illinois men for the bombing the Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center (the mosque) in Bloomington, Minnesota. The press release identifies the three as Michael McWhorter, Joe Morris, and Michael Hari. They are alleged to have used an explosive device with the intent of damaging the center. Each of the three is identified as a resident of Clarence, Illinois. The Star Tribune story on the charges is posted here. The three are in custody in Urbana. Morris and Hari made their initial appearance on federal charges related to an attempted bombing in Champaign today at 3:00 p.m. in federal court in Urbana; McWhorters initial appearance in connection with the attempted Illinois bombing will take place later at an unspecified time. The affidavit filed in support of the Minnesota charges alleges that the three were responsible for a PVC pipe bomb that was thrown through a window of the Dar al-Farooq Center this past August 17. The press release discloses that law enforcement received information from a confidential source implicating the three in the mosque bombing on January 27 of this year. I take it from the press release that each is charged with one count of arson. Having watched the mosques security video of the explosion, I should add that the bomb could easily have injured those present at the time of the blast and it is lucky that no one was hurt. The press release concludes by noting that the investigation of the mosque case was led by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Julie E. Allyn and John F. Docherty. Allyn and Docherty were two of the three Assistant United States Attorneys who prosecuted the case of the Minnesota men that resulted in a slew of guilty pleas and guilty verdicts in 2016. Coincidentally, the mosque also figured in that case. Several of the defendants met there and hatched their plans to join ISIS at the mosque. The mosque has been the subject of a public relations bonanza by virtue of the bombing, but it is in my opinion a problematic part of the Twin Cities scene. We will be following this case closely. The Cultural Revolution continues, with one institution after another confessing to past crimes even when there are no Red Guards holding knives to their throats. Today it is National Geographic magazine: National Geographic acknowledged on Monday that it covered the world through a racist lens for generations, with its magazine portrayals of bare-breasted women and naive brown-skinned tribesmen as savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent. Actually, while I do remember some bare-breasted women, I dont recall National Geographic ever saying that brown-skinned tribesmen were savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent. Of course, one can argue that the magazine didnt feature the tribesmens accomplishmentssupercomputers, great literature, feats of engineering, biotechnologyas enthusiastically as it might have. National Geographic, which now reaches 30 million people around the world, was the way that many Americans first learned about the rest of the world, said professor Samir Husni, who heads the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippis journalism school. That is true. For a long time, National Geographic was the foremost means by which Americans learned about faraway places. It sparked an interest in foreign countries in millions of Americans. Its maps alone were an education. But in todays Jacobin climate, all of that must be thrown overboard amid a chorus of mea culpas. Why? As usual in such cases, it has something to do with money: The coverage wasnt right before because it was told from an elite, white American point of view, and I think it speaks to exactly why we needed a diversity of storytellers, [editor-in-chief Susan] Goldberg said. So we need photographers who are African-American and Native American because they are going to capture a different truth and maybe a more accurate story. Really? Why? Still, you cant make an omelette without breaking some eggs. If National Geographic gets rid of racism, its worth it, right? So what can we expect from the new National Geographic? We had to own our story to move beyond it, editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg told The Associated Press in an interview about the yellow-bordered magazines April issue, which is devoted to race. The old National Geographic no doubt had its faults, but I dont think it ever devoted an entire issue to race. Welcome to the 21st century Lefta non-racist obsession with race. Somehow, I dont think this will lead to a better magazine. Or to a better America. As John noted earlier this evening, the House Intelligence Committee has completed its investigation into Russias activities in connection with the 2016 election. The Committee says it found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. No one else has found any such evidence, either. Even anti-Trump reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn, both friends of Glenn Simpson, have none to offer in their new book Russian Roulette. As John also noted, the Committee went on to reject the conclusion, reached by the Intelligence Community, that Vladimir Putin was trying to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election. The House Committee, reviewing the same evidence, agreed that Russia interfered, but not that the purpose of the interference was to help Trump win. It seems clear that at least one of Putins purposes was to hurt our democracy by promoting chaos, dissension, and a general lack of faith in the electoral process. In this, Putin has succeeded. I dont think that anyone outside the Kremlin knows which candidate, if either, Putin wanted to win. We do know that some instances of Russias interference tilted towards Trump and/or against Clinton, while others tilted the other way. From what I gather, more of it fell in the first category than the second. Would this mean Putin favored Trump? No. Putin might well have devoted more effort to attacking Clinton because he thought she would win, and thus that he would get more bang for his destabilizing buck by discrediting her. Indeed, if Putin favored Trump, theres a good chance that zero percent of the Russian effort would have tilted towards Clinton and against Trump. In the end, the question of whom Putin favored is difficult to detach from ones view of the candidates. If you like Clinton, you probably will have a hard time believing Putin could have favored her. If you like Trump, you probably will have a hard time believing Putin could have favored him. I dont like either Clinton or Trump (though I favor Trump between the two). I think I can make a plausible case for Putin wanting Clinton to be president and a plausible case for him wanting Trump. What was his real preference? I have no clear idea. The Intelligence Committee probably doesnt either, which is why it was wise to reject the conclusion that Putin favored Trump. I agree with John that the ball is in the court of the committees Democrats. Its time for them to show us what, if anything, theyve got. Put up or (and this is just a fantasy) shut up. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to serve as Special Counsel investigating (to borrow the title of the Todd Rundgren album) something/anything. Rosensteins appointment of Mueller does not comply with the applicable Department of Justice regulations. Muellers appointment lacks a lawful charter. As Andrew McCarthy has repeatedly pointed out, this is (or should be) a problem. In the linked column, McCarthy reviewed Rosensteins remarks to Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday addressing the premise of Muellers investigation. McCarthy searched in vain for anything like a lawful predicate. In an interview with USA Today, Rosenstein touched on this issue: The special counsel is not an unguided missile. I dont believe there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel. Not an unguided missile is a metaphor couched in a double negative. Mueller is a guided missile. The implication may be that Rosenstein is his guide, or that Mueller has his conscience as his guide. We can only guess. I will not attempt to translate Rosensteins defense of the Mueller investigation into a justification that bears on the applicable regulations. I will only observe that Rosensteins remarks raise the issue again in a particularly troubling formulation. In a letter marking Pope Francis' fifth election anniversary, Polish President Andrzej Duda termed the pontiff an example of humbleness, benevolence and modesty for the whole world, but also of determination in his solidarity with those in most need. President Duda offered Pope Francis his best wishes. The Polish President underscored the pope's efforts in travelling to countries stricken by poverty and struggling with other dramatic problems. See also: Pope Francis starts five-day pilgrimage to Poland President's address at Pope Francis' welcome ceremony Pope Francis leads Mass at Jasna Gora shrine Pope Francis addresses the young at WYD's closing mass President Duda acknowledged Pope Francis' "courageous reiteration of the fact that dialogue and respect for the dignity and rights of every human being must be the foundation for building a just international order." The President of the Republic of Poland expressed satisfaction that Pope Francis had also found time to visit Poland during his five years as the pontiff. (PAP) BANGALORE, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- To discuss one of the most important issues at the rural level, BetterPlace, a venture-capital backed rural training enterprise, in collaboration with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, organised an interactive event themed 'The Journey of Rural Youth', where approximately 300 industry leaders, from across the country got an opportunity to discuss the challenges and solutions for improving the rural youth employment ecosystem. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653593/BetterPlace_Journey_of_Rural_Youth.jpg ) Shri Anantkumar Hegde, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship was the Chief Guest of the event. Other esteemed dignitaries like Shri Vineet Sehgal, CMO, Quikr; Shri Hari TN, HR Head, BigBasket; Shri Madan Padaki, Founder CEO, 1Bridge; Shri Pravin Agarwala, CEO & Co-Founder, BetterPlace, Shri Manish Kumar, CEO, NSDC discussed crucial topics for the rural ecosystem like 'Job Challenges for Bottom of the Pyramid Workforce', 'Advancing Skills for the Future', 'Entrepreneurship for Rural Youth', 'Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions for Rural Youth' and 'Roadmap of NSDC'. Chief Guest of the event, Shri Anantkumar Hegde, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said, "We have to take our nation forward in a new direction. All of us are busy in our own work but at the same time we are also ensuring that the dream of our Honourable Prime Minister gets fulfilled. This Ministry is just three and half years old and we need everyone's support to make our country a skilled nation. Government can create a platform where employments can be created. Industry has to build upon that platform. Together we can make our country great. We do skill gap analysis for various fields and for external factors but we do not analyse inside us. As we can find a raw diamond in a remote place, under the ground, which can be brought to cities and finish it to make a shining diamond, the same way, we can find raw talents in a village which can be skilled to make a shining diamond. But we cannot bring all the talents to cities so we need to arrange that the raw talents get nurtured in their own places and they get relevant employment there itself. While, designing the courses and platform of employment, we have to keep in mind that we cater to the skills which will be relevant for future as well. Government needs everyone's support to create this ecosystem which is future-ready." "We are here not just to give employment, we have to promote entrepreneurship. There is a misconception that if people who are not working with either government or any private company, they are unemployed. But if they are doing their own work for living, they are entrepreneurs, and they are not unemployed. We need to create entrepreneurship model which can help people start their own business and that can be done with very minimal amount. We need support from the entire ecosystem. Even if someone refuses to come along with us, we would take him along with us in the way to make India a skilled nation. We have signed agreements for skilling with more than 18 countries including Japan, Sweden, Germany, Singapore, United Kingdom, USA and Belarus among others. We shall send our youth to these countries where they will get training and come back with skills or may get job there as well. In order to meet high end skill, Government of India is setting up Indian Institute of Skills in every State. Along with these, we are encouraging States/private players to establish Skill Universities. Already 8 Skill Universities have been established in various States. In order to boost skilling activities, India International Centers for Skill are being established in association with industries and business houses. To sustain a vibrant skill ecosystem Indian Skill Development Service (ISDS) is being created by the Government of India on the pattern of IAS/IPS. Center of excellence in various fields are also being established. Already in aviation sector, in association with P3 the Aviation SSC with NSDC has established Center of Excellence in Bangalore. We shall do whatever needs to be done to make India the skill capital of world," he added. In a session, 'Roadmap of NSDC', stressing on the need for skill development Mr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC said, "India has entered a demographic window of opportunity and this opportunity is available for a limited period of time. It started from the year 2005 and will continue till 2050 and we have only this time period to transform completely and bring in the change. Labour and capital are the two components that constitute economy of any nation. When we skill someone we enhance an ability of a person and also his productivity increases and every incremental increase in the productivity will make a huge difference to this country. In this moment, if we do not invest in skills then it will be extremely detrimental for our future generations. Therefore, it is very important and critical for us to put in all our energies into it to make new and skilled India." "After doing a random sample survey of candidates who were trained under PMKVY 2 scheme, it was found that a three-months training has approximately made a difference of around 24 percent in the income of candidates post completion of their training. Also, a SSC certification increases the employability of a person three times. Hence, it is the need of the hour to channelize our resources effectively and make India the 'Skill Capital of the World'," added Mr. Kumar. The event was one-of-a-kind platform to discuss the challenges and solutions for job creation for the rural youth, and hear from the policy makers, visionaries and industry leaders for a Skilled Bharat. About BetterPlace Safety Solutions: BetterPlace Safety Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is a large scale technology platform focused on providing solutions and services for semi-urban and rural individuals. Saurabh Tandon [email protected] +91-8884108408 COO, BetterPlace Safety Solutions SOURCE BetterPlace Safety Solutions TORONTO, March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BMO Financial Group (TSX: BMO) (NYSE: BMO) today announced that it has filed its 2018 Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders and Management Proxy Circular with applicable securities regulators and has mailed it to common shareholders of Bank of Montreal. The document is available on the Bank's website at https://www.bmo.com/home/about/banking/investor-relations/annual-general-meeting, as well as on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. BMO's Annual Meeting of Shareholders will be held at the BMO Institute for Learning, in Toronto, on Thursday, April 5, 2018, at 9:30 a.m. EDT. The Management Proxy Circular contains key information for shareholders regarding the meeting and the items to be voted on, which are the election of directors, the appointment of auditors, and the advisory vote on the bank's approach to executive compensation, a detailed description of which is contained in the circular. BMO performed well against its performance goals in 2017 with reported net income up 16% and adjusted net income up 10%. The Bank's financial performance reflects good progress against our financial and strategic objectives and the benefits of our strong and diversified businesses. BMO's business is anchored by fundamentals that don't change stakeholders can count on the bank to always demonstrate principled behaviour that is guided by our values and allows us to do a better job running our business. Earlier this year, BMO was named to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI). The index measures gender equality across internal company statistics, employee policies, external community support and engagement, and gender-conscious product offerings. The bank has also been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the 2018 World's Most Ethical Companies. BMO is one of only two companies in Canada and one of only four banks worldwide to have been named to the list, underscoring the bank's commitment to values-based leadership and ethical business practices. About BMO Financial Group Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North America. With total assets of $728 billion as of January 31, 2018, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets. For Media Relations Enquiries: Paul Gammal, Toronto, [email protected], (416) 867-3996; For Investor Relations Enquiries: Jill Homenuk, Toronto, [email protected], (416) 867-4770; Christine Viau, Toronto, [email protected], (416) 867-6956; Internet: www.bmo.com Related Links http://www.bmo.com SOURCE BMO Financial Group NEW DELHI and AJMAN, United Arab Emirates, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DEEP AERO UTM technology platform is the first AI-driven, autonomous system to manage drone traffic DEEP AERO, a global leader in drone technology innovation, is building an AI-driven, autonomous, self-governing, intelligent drone/unmanned aircraft system (UAS) traffic management (UTM) platform on the Blockchain. It is designed to enable safe low-altitude civilian flights of manned and unmanned aircraft in the shared airspace. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653699/DEEP_AERO_Gurmeet_Singh.jpg ) The DEEP AERO UTM platform will harmonise integration between UTM systems globally and enable industry, including manufacturers, service providers, and end users to use drones safely and efficiently without disrupting the existing manned aviation system. "The use of unmanned aerial vehicles is increasing exponentially," says Mr. Gurmeet Singh, CEO of DEEP AERO. "We're heading towards a future in which millions of drones will fly billions of flights. At some point in the not-too-distant future, fleets of commercial drones are expected to swarm across the skies. Current airspace management and air traffic flow management systems don't have the capabilities to handle the type of operations relevant to drones. In addition, the anticipated traffic density of drones is far beyond the capabilities of current air traffic management systems." Drones are already being used in countries across the globe. Drones monitor illegal fishing off the coasts of Libya, Japan and the Galapagos Islands and patrol oil and gas pipelines in Angola, Nigeria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Archaeologists in Russia are using small unmanned systems with infrared cameras to construct a 3-D model of ancient burial mounds. In addition, researchers in Costa Rica have launched unmanned aerial vehicles into volcanic clouds to try to predict major eruptions. DEEP AERO is currently researching prototype technologies such as airspace design, dynamic geofencing, congestion management, terrain avoidance, route planning, re-routing, separation management, sequencing and spacing, and contingency management. DEEP AERO UTM includes universal drone registration standards, secure identification systems, tamper-proof flight data recorders, accurate and trustworthy 3D mapping data, dynamic weather information, and secure vehicle-to-vehicle communication. "In USA alone, over 626,000 hobbyists registered with U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as of December 31, 2016. FAA estimates that there are around 1.1 million units that can be identified as distinctly hobbyist or model aircraft. FAA forecasts that the hobbyist fleet will likely more than triple in size over the next 5 years, from 1.1 million units in 2016 to over 3.5 million units by 2021." Gurmeet Singh, CEO, DEEP AERO. About DEEP AERO DEEP AERO is a global leader in drone technology innovation and is building cutting-edge, AI-driven technology solutions on the Blockchain for the drone economy. DEEP AERO is headquartered in Ajman, UAE with significant presence in Southeast Asia. For more information, visit DEEPAERO.com. DEEP AERO's leadership team comprises of business leaders and experts in drone technology specialising in the industrial applications of drones. We are building an AI driven autonomous technology platform that will revolutionise the drone industry. We want to help individuals and organisations understand the revolutionary benefits of drone (UAV) technology, and gain the skills to implement drone (UAV) technology safely and effectively in their workplaces. Gurmeet Singh, CEO Mayank Jain, CFO Harsh Sharma, Vice President Ishmeet Singh, Advisor Sydney Ifergan, Advisor Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK9_x2t7TRc PR contact: Ishmeet Singh Email: [email protected] Media Contact: Gurjeet Kalsi [email protected] +91-7777056000 Brand Consultant-Digital Media Eonian Brand Ideas India SOURCE DEEP AERO With its strong overall performance, Airobotics innovative drone system is best positioned to meet customers' demands in numerous industries SANTA CLARA, California, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the Automated Drone industry, Frost & Sullivan recognized Airobotics with the 2018 Global New Product Innovation Award for its first-of-a-kind completely autonomous drone platform. "The Airobotics system is a unique drone platform that is completely automated from end to end: launching, gathering data, payload and battery switching, and docking," said Arjun Mehta, Research Analyst. Click here for the full multimedia experience of this release - http://bit.ly/2FuvNGV Israel-based Airobotics, founded in 2014, developed a unique fully automated drone platform. Its Optimus drone, which can survey and collect aerial data, includes integrated software for mission planning and data analytics. The drone platform features an automated, robotic Airbase docking station, which can swap out advanced, high-precision avionic sensors based on a customer's needs for a specific mission. When the battery level becomes low, the drone is programmed to return to the Airbase for a quick battery swap, and then automatically relaunch. This allows Airobotics drones to operate continually on critical missions in industries such as mining, oil & gas, energy and seaports. The innovative, swappable payload system helps users optimize missions, saving time and expense while increasing safety. Airobotics has chosen to lease its drone systems to customers rather than directly sell them, which alleviates concerns about capital expenditures and recurring maintenance and personnel costs, ensuring customers will always have access to the latest product upgrades. As a result of its leasing model, Airobotics takes on the liability for both the technology and the servicing and certification, relieving the customer of the burden of needing to be certified by an aviation authority. Airobotics deploys engineers at customer sites to set up system operations and flight paths, provide training, and obtain certifications, while providing around-the-clock customer support. "Frost & Sullivan recognizes the potential for Airobotics' innovative platform to become the benchmark of the commercial drone industry due to its end-to-end automation and application versatility," said Arjun Mehta, Research Analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "They have a first-mover advantage as competitors remain in the development stage, and have gained great momentum through rigorous product testing, certifications, field deployments and reliable service. The Airobotics system is best positioned to meet the inspection, surveillance, emergency response, surveying and mapping demands of customers in numerous industries." "We are honored to be recognized by Frost & Sullivan for our unique and advanced autonomous drone platform," said Ran Krauss, CEO and Co-Founder of Airobotics. "Our momentum drives tremendous growth into new geographies such as the US, Chile and New Caledonia, while we continue to make great progress with customers in Australia. We look forward to continue providing great value to industrial facilities this year while expanding into the emergency services sector to fulfill on the vision of smart, safe cities." Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this specific award to the company that has developed an innovative element in a product by leveraging leading-edge technologies. The award recognizes the value-added features/benefits of the product and the increased return on investment (ROI) it gives customers, which, in turn, raises customer acquisition and overall market penetration potential. 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 Airobotics Airobotics has developed a pilotless drone solution, the first of its kind in the global market. Airobotics provides an end-to-end, fully automatic solution for collecting aerial data and gaining invaluable insights. The industrial grade platform is available on-site and on-demand, enabling industrial facilities to access premium aerial data in a faster, safer, more efficient way. The team at Airobotics fuses expertise in aerospace hardware design, robust electronic systems, leading software engineering, and years of experience in commercial drone operations. This varied experience has allowed them to design a solution suited to address the needs of the world's most complex industrial environments. To learn more, visit: www.airoboticsdrones.com and follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter. 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 PORTLAND, Oregon and PUNE, India, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, "Medical Computer Carts Market by Type and End User: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023," the global medical computer carts market was valued at $355 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $1,078 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 17.3% from 2017 to 2023. In 2016, the ambulatory surgical centers segment accounted for about one-ninth share of the global market. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg ) Medical computer carts are devices utilized by the medical staff to check electronic health records and electronic medical records (EMRs), distribute drugs, and offer nursing education. These carts consist of features and workflow solutions to assist with daily tasks pertaining to patient safety and care. Increase in adoption of EMR systems & mobile carts and high requirement for mobile computer carts in critical surgical procedures are expected to supplement the market growth. However, the high cost of medical carts and low awareness regarding the potential benefits of these carts, especially in developing economies, may impede this growth. Conversely, surge in healthcare expenditure and increased set up of new specialized hospitals across the globe are expected to present profitable opportunities for market expansion. Request for Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2728 The integrated medical computer carts segment was the highest contributor in the market in 2016, as they are integrated with vivid touch screens, high performance processors, and mountable packaging with antimicrobial coatings. This incorporation thus increases the efficiency and cost of medical computer carts. On the other hand, powered medical computer carts are expected to register a significant growth rate during the forecast period. This is attributed to their large-scale utilization across medical settings, as they utilize a battery and provide accurate as well as immediate patient data within the EMR. The hospital segment dominated the global market, because the geriatric population most commonly prefers hospital treatments as all associated treatments can be performed under one roof. Moreover, of the highest number of surgical procedures is performed in hospitals, therefore driving the growth of the medical computer carts market. KEY FINDINGS OF THE STUDY The clinics segment is expected to be the fastest growing segment during the forecast period, and it accounted for one-third share of the total market in 2016. In terms of value, the U.S. dominated the North American medical computer carts market in 2016 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.8% from 2017 to 2023. Germany dominated the European medical computer carts market both in term of value and volume. dominated the European medical computer carts market both in term of value and volume. China is expected to be the fastest growing country in the Asia-Pacific region in the future. is expected to be the fastest growing country in the region in the future. In terms of volume, powered medical computer carts is growing at the fastest pace of CAGR 22.5% during the forecast period. For Purchase Enquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/2728 Asia-Pacific is expected to witness highest growth rate and is expected to continue this trend throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to high population density and rise in chronic diseases as well as infectious ailments across the highly populous countries such as India and China. For instance, the number of annual deaths accounted for 56 million individuals in 2015, and 70% of the global deaths in 2015 were due to incidence of non-communicable diseases such as Alzheimer's, ischemic heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, stroke, and other dementias. The key players operating in the global medical computer carts market are Ergotron, Inc., Capsa Solutions LLC, Enovate Medical, InterMetro (Emerson), Parity Medical, ITD GmBH, Advantech Co., Ltd, Compucaddy, Bytec Medical and Villard. Other players operating in the value chain are Lund Industries, Cura (First Healthcare), AFC Industries, Modern Solid Industrial, Nanjing Tianao, Rubbermaid, Higrade, Spark Medical, and Humanscale. Access KNOWLEDGE TREE (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/knowledgetree Knowledge tree is a cloud-based intelligence platform that offers more than 2,000 selective, off-the-shelf reports on niche markets to enable our clients gain deep insights on the latest trends, dynamic technologies, and emerging application areas. About Us Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: Shriram Dighe 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1855550-5975 [email protected] Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com SOURCE Allied Market Research Awards recognize outstanding supply chain achievements using HighJump's solutions MINNEAPOLIS and DALLAS, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- HighJump, a global provider of supply chain solutions, today announces the winners of its new customer innovation awards at its annual user conference, Elevate. Winners were chosen based on their progressive and innovative use of HighJump's solutions to evolve their operations to meet the increasingly complex demands of today's supply chain landscape. This industry is changing rapidly. Supply chain professionals must juggle new business models, stressed traditional logistics systems and deconsolidating networks to meet the expectations of today's consumers. Winners of the customer innovation awards integrated HighJump's solutions to make this possible, transforming their workflows and using creative thinking to achieve outstanding business benefits, putting them on a trajectory towards the supply chain of the future. The recipients for 2018 include: Convoy of Hope Stand-Out Business Benefits: The faith-based, humanitarian organization used HighJump Warehouse Edge to automate processes and expand the global reach of its feeding initiatives. This includes recovery efforts for Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. The faith-based, humanitarian organization used HighJump Warehouse Edge to automate processes and expand the global reach of its feeding initiatives. This includes recovery efforts for Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. Mr. Price Group - Compelling Transformation Story: HighJump Warehouse Advantage user and one of South Africa's largest fashion retailers enlisted HighJump professional services, iWMS and Fortna to move five trading divisions from two non-automated merchandise facilities to a single, largely automated facility in under four months. HighJump Warehouse Advantage user and one of largest fashion retailers enlisted HighJump professional services, iWMS and Fortna to move five trading divisions from two non-automated merchandise facilities to a single, largely automated facility in under four months. Parts Town - Thinking Outside of the Box: The fast-growing provider of genuine OEM restaurant parts used HighJump Warehouse Advantage to tap into automation and robotics with the addition of advanced goods-to-person technology AutoStore. The fast-growing provider of genuine OEM restaurant parts used HighJump Warehouse Advantage to tap into automation and robotics with the addition of advanced goods-to-person technology AutoStore. Angie's Transportation - Overcoming Adversity: After losing everything in one of the worst fires in the history of St. Louis, Missouri , the dry and refrigerated carrier used HighJump Transportation Management to get operations back up and running the next day. "HighJump cares about its customers like no one else in the industry," said Chad Collins, CEO of HighJump. "Formally recognizing members of the HighJump customer family with our new customer innovation awards exemplifies this, while showcasing our commitment to providing the tools and services that empower them to meet their business goals." HighJump Elevate is March 11 -14, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. In its 12th year, Elevate brings together more than 700 supply chain professionals from across the globe. Along with learning about the latest advances of HighJump's unique line of services, attendees are provided with networking and educational opportunities to accelerate their businesses. Further information on the awards, including a full list of finalists, is available here. About HighJump HighJump is a global provider of supply chain management software that streamlines the flow of inventory and information from supplier to store shelf. Named to the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list for 3 years running, HighJump employs more than 440 team members worldwide, and supports more than 4,000 customers in 66 countries, ranging from SME business to global enterprises. HighJump's functionally rich and highly adaptable end-to-end solutions help users achieve new levels of supply chain responsiveness, performance and profitability, from the warehouse to the storefront, from the desktop to the driver's cab. HighJump's suite of warehousing, manufacturing, transportation, distribution, mobile delivery and retail solutions allow users to seamlessly drive growth, customer satisfaction and revenue by delivering goods faster and more profitably. HighJump: supply chain accelerated. For more information, visit http://www.highjump.com. For more information, visit https://www.highjump.com. HighJump is a trademark of HighJump Software Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Media Contact Heather K. Smith HighJump 1-800-328-3271 x 2717 [email protected] Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653598/HighJump_logo_2_Logo.jpg Related Links http://www.highjump.com SOURCE HighJump According to a new market research report " Light Management System Market by Function (Dimming Control, Occupancy-Based, Schedule-Based, and Daylight Control), End-User (Smart Homes, Commercial, Industrial, and Municipal), Application, Type, and Region - Global Forecast to 2023 " , published by MarketsandMarkets, the global market is estimated USD 11.66 Billion in 2018 to USD 21.51 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 13.03%, during the forecast period. The increasing adoption of energy-efficient lighting automation systems is the major driver of the lighting management system market. The growing demand for building automation in North America and Europe make them potential growth markets for the providers of lighting management systems. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 75 Tables and 38 Figures spread through 146 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Light Management System Market" https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/light-management-systems-market-259944163.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report The commercial segment is expected to account for the largest share of the Light Management System Market during the forecast period. Light management systems are used widely in commercial set-ups such as corporate offices, healthcare facilities, retail complexes, hotels, restaurants, and educational institutes. Reducing energy consumption has become a major objective for organizations, governments, utilities, and other stakeholders. Controls and connectivity enable the personalization of lighting as well as allow users to reduce energy use, optimize spaces, and lower maintenance costs. Ask for PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=259944163 Increasing preference for dimming control management Dimming control management is used to reduce the energy consumption of light sources and, consequently, the intensity and output of those light sources. Compared to on-off switching controls, they can improve energy savings, better align lighting with human needs, and help extend the working life of light sources. North America: Expected to be the leading market for light management systems during the forecast period. In this report, the Light Management System Market has been analyzed with respect to 5 regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East & Africa. The North American market is expected to lead the Light Management System Market in 2018. The growing demand for building automation in Asia Pacific and North America make them potential growth markets for the providers of lighting management systems. Moreover, increasing smart city developments in different parts of the world will provide new opportunities during the forecast period. To enable an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, the report includes the profiles of some of the top players in the Light Management System Market. These players include GE (US), Philips Lighting (Netherlands), Eaton (Ireland), Zumtobel (Austria), and OSRAM (Germany). The leading players are trying to understand the markets in developing economies and are adopting various strategies to increase their market shares. Know more about the Light Management System Market https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/light-management-systems-market-259944163.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "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. Contact: Mr. Salgarkar MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Visit Our Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/energy-and-power Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets SOURCE MarketsandMarkets DELHI, India, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Earth Day Network India (EDN India), a part of the Earth Day Network Worldwide, headquartered in Washington D.C., USA, is honored to announce internationally renowned Grammy Award Winner & Conservationist Ricky Kej as its Ambassador. An ardent environmentalist and India's youngest Grammy winner, Ricky Kej has come onboard EDN India to support and be a musical voice in educating and mobilizing civil society to promote a healthy and sustainable environment. Karuna Singh, Regional Director South Asia, Earth Day Network said, "Earth is hurtling toward the tipping point as regards global warming and the resultant climate change, and there is an urgency to stymie that quickly. Prominent and strong voices like Ricky Kej is the need of the hour. Being a much-loved idol with a large following, he is in a position to connect quickly with thousands and thus help bring about in a short time, an awakening in them of the need to do something for the environment." Ricky Kej, on becoming the Ambassador of Earth Day Network India, said, "It is my absolute honor to be chosen as the Ambassador of such a reputed and accomplished environmentally conscious organization. The work that EDN has done over the past 5 decades is commendable. I am so enthused to combine our energies in our areas of expertise to ensure a planet that is greener, cleaner and less polluted not just for humans but for all species." "Artists have the power to change public perceptions Music does what speeches, lectures, demonstrations fail to accomplishMusic resonates deep into the consciousness of people. Being the Ambassador of EDN India will give me a platform to musically communicate the message of Environmental Consciousness to more people," added Ricky Kej. Grammy Award Winner and US Billboard #1 artist Ricky Kej is an internationally renowned Indian Music Composer, Conservationist and Professor. Ricky Kej composed and produced his latest album 'SHANTI SAMSARA', which was launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande in the presence of World Leaders at the United Nations COP21 Climate Change Conference in Paris. For Shanti Samsara, Ricky collaborated with over 500 musicians from over 40 countries coming together for Environmental Consciousness. He performed music from the album twice at the United Nations General Assembly and other prestigious venues worldwide. Ricky was recently awarded the UN "Global Humanitarian Artist" and is a professor at the Indian Institute of Science's prestigious National Institute of Advanced Studies. Earth Day Network grew out of the first Earth Day and launched a permanent India Program in 2010. Projects in India Focus On: Green Cities, Clean and Green Energy, Women and the Green Economy (WAGE), Earth Day, Environment Stewardship among Youth, Increasing the Green Cover, Go Organic. The global theme for Earth Day 2018 is 'End Plastic Pollution'. Learn more at https://www.earthday.org/about/earth-day-india/ CONTACT: Karuna A. Singh, Regional Director South Asia; Country Director, Earth Day Network India Email: [email protected] Telephone: 91-9831356476 SOURCE Earth Day Network MUMBAI, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 3 million+ daily Sodexo consumers can now use their Sodexo Meal Card to order food online via FreshMenu Sodexo, the 100% digital employee benefits company and market leader in India, today announced its partnership with Freshmenu.com. Freshmenu.com has become an instant favourite among the young working population, as their go-to neighbourhood food delivery option when they feel hungry at work. Sodexo on the other hand is the most widely-used meal benefit solution among the working population. This partnership will enable Sodexo Meal Card users to make quick payments while ordering online, further strengthening Sodexo's foothold in the online ordering space. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653042/Sodexo_Meal_Card.jpg ) (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653043/Sodexo_FreshMenu.jpg ) With good food delivered within 30 to 45 mins with an added benefit of an easy, secure payment option like Sodexo Meal Card, Sodexo consumers will have a greater choice to experiment with fresh and distinctive cuisine every day. Users will get upto 30% off on their first order with free shipping, along with Rs. 25/- cashback after delivery. This offer is valid up to 31st March, 2018. Stephane Michelin, CEO, Sodexo Benefits and Rewards, said, "We have seen a phenomenal response from our clients and consumers on recent partnerships for online food ordering & grocery shopping. With FreshMenu.com, our promise to improve the quality of life of the employees is only strengthened for the freshness and speed with which the food gets delivered at the doorstep. With this partnership, we hope to see more and more good food being ordered online via Sodexo Meal Cards during mealtimes at work." Rashmi Daga, CEO and Founder, FreshMenu, quoted, "We're always trying to make our interactions with our customers as easy as possible and payment options are a huge part of this interaction. We hope this partnership with Sodexo Meal Cards enables an even more convenient method of payment for meals that are ordered online. We've always challenged ourselves to ensure delivery of food to anywhere and in any format that our customer pleases, and this partnership will only enable us to do that even better." About Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services India The Sodexo group works towards improving the quality of daily life for employees, partners and customers across the world. Sodexo BRS, India's No.1 Digital Employee Motivation & Benefits Services provider is a partner to over 11,000+ HR Leaders. Our 100% tax-complaint Digital Employee Benefit Solutions are customized to meet specific needs of organizations and help them develop their best motivated workforce. Sodexo BRS offers a range of 100% Digital Employee Benefit Solutions. The meal benefit offerings include Meal Cards and Cafeteria Cards. The company's fully-digital Rewards & Recognition offerings include the Premium Pass range of solutions that include the Premium Pass Celebrations for festive gifting and Premium Pass rewards for ongoing Reward & Recognition programs. Sodexo reaches out to over 3 million daily consumers in India across 1,500+ cities nationally including tier 3 & tier 4 cities making it India's largest Digital Meal Benefit Network with over 100,000 unique points of acceptance. For more information regarding our services, please call our toll-free numbers - 1800-103-3030 / visit our website http://www.sodexobenefitsindia.com For media related queries, please write to [email protected] or call 022-4321-4321 About FreshMenu FreshMenu is a food company that serves freshly-made, chef-cooked meals in the most convenient packaging. Ever since its inception in Bengaluru, the company has expanded its services to Mumbai and the Delhi-NCR area. It pioneered the concept of app-based food delivery kitchens in the country. A team of about 1,500 - FreshMenu.com operates 36 kitchens (across the country) and runs its own delivery fleet to ensure a friction-less food ordering experience. Founded in 2014 by IIM Ahmedabad alumni, Rashmi Daga; FreshMenu was aimed at rescuing food-seekers from mundane meals. FreshMenu is on a constant quest to whip-up interesting food options in kitchens (spread across a city) that deliver freshly cooked food to customers. It received Series B funding in January 2016 of $16.5million led by Zodius and Lightspeed and had raised $5million in Series A round of funding in 2014 from Lightspeed. For more information, visit http://freshmenu.com . Media Contact: Sharon Batliwalla [email protected] +91-22-43214321 Sodexo SOURCE Sodexo According to a new market research report " Stem Cell Manufacturing Market by Product (HSCs, MSCs, iPSCs, ESCs, Instruments, Media, Consumables), Application (Research, Target Identification, Therapy (Autologous, Allogeneic), Cell Banks), End User (Pharma, Hospitals) - Global Forecast to 2023 " , published by MarketsandMarkets, the report studies the global Stem Cell Manufacturing Market over the forecast period of 2018 to 2023. The market is projected to reach USD 14.61 Billion by 2023 from USD 10.75 Billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 6.3%. Factors such as growing public-private investments and funding in stem cell-based research, rising public awareness regarding about the therapeutic potency of stem cell products, development of advanced genomic analysis techniques for quality control during stem cell manufacturing, technological advancements in stem cell manufacturing and preservation, and evolving regulatory frameworks for stem cell therapeutics in the US and Europe are driving the growth of the Stem Cell Manufacturing Market. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 69 tables and 33 figures spread through 169 pages and in-depth TOC on "Stem Cell Manufacturing Market" https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/stem-cell-manufacturing-market-70743403.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report Based on product, the stem cell lines segment is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period On the basis of product, the Stem Cell Manufacturing Market is categorized into four major categories, namely, culture media, consumables, instruments, and stem cell lines. In 2017, the culture media segment accounted for the largest share of the market. This can be attributed to the rising stem cell research and increasing demand for stem cell therapies. Based on application, the research applications segment accounted for the largest share of the Stem Cell Manufacturing Market in 2017 Based on application, the global Stem Cell Manufacturing Market is segmented into research applications, clinical applications, and cell and tissue banking. The research applications segment accounted for the largest share of the stem cell manufacturing in 2017. The growth in this segment is primarily attributed to the increasing focus on stem cell-based research, growing awareness about the therapeutic potency of stem cells, and public-private funding to support product development & commercialization. Ask for PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=70743403 By end user, cell and tissue banks are expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period On the basis of end user, the Stem Cell Manufacturing Market is segmented into pharmaceutical and biotech companies; hospital and surgical centers; academic institutes, research laboratories, and CROs; cell banks and tissue banks; and other end users. The pharmaceutical and biotech companies segment accounted for the largest share of the market in 2017. The large market share of this segment is primarily attributed to the rising public-private investments for stem cell-based research and ongoing patent expiry of branded drugs. North America dominated the Stem Cell Manufacturing Market in 2017 Geographically, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. North America accounted for the largest share of the market in 2017. The high intensity of stem cell research in the region, rising public-private funding and grants to support the clinical evaluation of stem cells for various applications, robust research infrastructure, and rising public awareness on the therapeutic potency of stem cells are driving the growth of the Stem Cell Manufacturing Market in North America. The major players in the Stem Cell Manufacturing Market include Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Merck Group (Germany), Becton, Dickinson and Company (US), Bio-Rad Laboratories (US), Miltenyi Biotec (Germany), Takara Bio Group (Japan), STEMCELL Technologies (Canada), Pharmicell (South Korea), Osiris Therapeutics (US), Anterogen (South Korea), Cellular Dynamics International (US), MEDIPOST (South Korea), Lonza Group (Switzerland), Holostem Terapie Avanzate (Italy), and Pluristem Therapeutics (Israel), among others. Know more about the Stem Cell Manufacturing Market: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/stem-cell-manufacturing-market-70743403.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "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. Contact: Mr. Salgarkar MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets SOURCE MarketsandMarkets "The merger draws on the cultural and technical strengths of both companies community spirit, commercial development, and ecological development. All our members will be integrated to our ucommune platform to enable more efficient and effective operations and better community synergy," says Dr. Mao Daqing. "Woo Space is a team that I have admired and followed closely. The 1990s-born CEO has deep insights into the needs of young people in the coworking space and keen on developing the potential of youths. The team's astute ability to identify good location and their knowledge of cross-border relationships within the E-commerce industry have inspired ucommune," says Dr.Mao. Wan Liushuo, founder and CEO of Woo Space says, "Ucommune has a wealth of cross-regional, large-scale operational and management experience, as well as diversified financial operation capability. Both parties will be fully committed to synergizing resources, management capabilities to maximise our market share and commercial performance in membership operations and brand building." Coworking space upgrading This strategic merger of the two strong players will drive further integration and upgrading of the industry in China. The post-merger strategy will focus on platform upgrading, integrating the membership system, enhancing exchanges and cooperation between the two companies in location and corporate service resources, as well as the standardization of community operation services, which will set the industry benchmark in the coworking sector. In recent years, coworking space sector has been growing at year-to-year rate of 30%. It is estimated that by 2019, the total operating area of coworking space in China will reach 51 million square meters. By 2030, 30% of office space will exist in the form of coworking spaces. In the next five years, the development of a platform and sharing economy will become an important part of promoting the growth of new economy. Member-oriented community service As the only Unicorn startup in the coworking sector in China, ucommune has built up a strong member community through incorporating artificial intelligence and big data to its proprietary IT platform. The O2O model in tandem with the China's mass entrepreneurship policy has considerably increased startup operation efficiency and revitalised latent commercial real estate spaces, contributing positively to building an active and synergistic online and offline community. Woo Space was established in 2015 and has been deeply rooted in Chinese community culture. The founding team members are all 1990s with elite academic backgrounds. They count Matrix China, Xinli Capital Group, Meihua Angel Investment and Qingshan Capital as their investors. At present, they have 23 locations in the country, covering a total area of 100,000 square meters, servicing 700+ enterprises. In early 2016, ucommune participated in the A-round financing of Woo Space through strategic equity investment. After the merger, both parties will leverage their complementary strengths to enhance the integration and engagement with newly jointed community, and to create value-adding services through the platform. The newly formed entity will work relentlessly to address the problems of the coworking industry, while forging new breakthroughs through tapping the community synergy and incorporating new technologies. The total number of members estimates to reach over 200,000 after the merger. Backed up renowned investors such as Sequoia Capital, Real-World Fund, Zhen Fund, Matrix China, Sinovation Ventures, Hongtai Fund, Noah Wealth and Wutong Acquisition Fund, Castle Peak Capital and others, the newly formed joint entity will tap the shared capital resources to unleash more commercial synergy and to pursue higher level of community engagement, as well as technological advancement. For further information please contact: Amanda Shi Helena Ma Executive partner, Ucommune Ucommune global PR Support Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Visit http://www.ucommune.cn to access more information about the facility, marketing programs, funding and mentor programs from the company. About UrWork (Beijing) Venture Investment Co., Ltd: Founded in 2015 by real-estate veteran Dr. Mao Daqing, Ucommune (formerly known as URwork) is a leading co-working space provider in China offering long-term leasing, hot desk and corporate-customization solutions and professional services across a broad spectrum for small-to-medium enterprises. Backed by renowned investors such as Sequoia Capital, Zhen Fund, Noah Wealth Management, Sinovation Ventures, Ucommune posts a valuation of U.S. $1.7 billion after C round and acquisition of Woo Space, as of March 2017 and has grown to cover over 120 locations in over 35 cities globally, including but limited to Singapore, New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Taiwan, Hongkong, Shanghai, servicing over 5,000 enterprises, 120,000 individual members in total. Ucommune is the largest and most recognised co-working space brand in mainland China. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653620/Ucommune_merger_wtih_Woo_space.jpg Related Links http://www.ucommune.cn SOURCE Ucommune agoda is one of the fastest growing online travel platforms offering a choice of 1.8 million properties to its guests around the world. Since entering China in 2015, agoda has become one of the primary choices of accommodation booking for Chinese tourists traveling overseas, and foreign tourists visiting China. Spencer Low, Managing Director, Greater China explains: "This partnership will offer alternatives to traditional hotels in China, and will benefit travelers who are looking for more distinctive options for their accommodation needs. Together Xiaozhu and agoda will provide easy access to listings that offer different benefits. One is the flexibility of staying together at a larger property when traveling as a group of friends or family, while another is more options for business travelers who crave the comforts of home. Additionally, these listings include a range of price points to cater for a variety of budgets. We are confident that the combination of Xiaozhu's rich knowledge of the China market and agoda's global OTA expertise will enhance consumers' experience of homestays." Chen Chi, co-founder and CEO of Xiaozhu, also commented this joining of forces as a win-win cooperation. agoda's worldwide success, especially its experience in Asian countries, will enhance Xiaozhu's globalization momentum. "As Chinese outbound and inbound tourism is growing rapidly, homestay platforms must be able to provide high-quality services to global consumers. To this end, Xiaozhu is accelerating cooperation with our industry partners", Chen explains. Since launching its overseas business in 2017, Xiaozhu now covers listings in over 100 overseas cities, with a particularly strong upward trend in booming homestay markets like Japan and Thailand. In the "2017-2018 China Sharing Economy Survey Report" released by Nanfang Daily, Nanfang+ APP and iMedia Research in February, Xiaozhu was ranked first in the competitiveness chart of house sharing industry. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653639/Xiaozhu.jpg SOURCE Xiaozhu.com DEERFIELD, Illinois, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc. Files Form 8-K Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT / NYSE Euronext: CATR) informs its stockholders that today, a Form 8-K was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") with respect to monthly retail statistics. Caterpillar files electronically with the SEC required reports on Form 8-K, Form 10-Q, Form 10-K and Form 11-K; proxy materials; ownership reports for insiders as required by Section 16(a) of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended; and registration statements on Forms S-3 and S-8, as necessary; and other forms or reports, as required. All of the forms and reports filed electronically with the SEC are available on the SEC Internet site (www.sec.gov). Caterpillar also maintains an Internet site (www.Caterpillar.com) and copies of its annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to these reports filed or furnished with the SEC are available free of charge through Caterpillar's Internet site (www.Caterpillar.com/secfilings) as soon as reasonably practicable after the relevant document has been filed with the SEC. CONTACT: Corrie Scott, Corporate Public Affairs, +1- 224-551-4133 This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire. SOURCE Caterpillar Inc. LONDON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NPL, the UK's National Measurement Institute (NMI), has today announced its CEO, Dr Peter Thompson, will lead a new national activity to engage UK industry in emerging quantum technologies; a potential multi-billion-pound industry for the UK. The activity will work with business leaders to foster the conditions for industry to invest in, and benefit from, quantum technologies; and ensure that any future government investment in this area is focussed on the biggest opportunities for the UK economy. Developments in this field promise to transform every industry, from the automotive sector to healthcare. Quantum technologies will make our computers more powerful, increase synchronisation in communications systems and dramatically improve our ability to uncover oil and gas sources. They will also provide sensors for driverless cars that work in all conditions, improve medical diagnosis and make utilities maintenance more efficient. Dr Thompson will work alongside government colleagues across Innovate UK and EPSRC and other stakeholders in the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme. The activity will aim to establish the challenges and opportunities within each industry sector that quantum technologies can tackle, and build a strong industry voice for the future. It will then work to create the optimum environment for public and private investment to turn these opportunities into reality. This approach will give UK businesses first access to disruptive quantum technologies to drive international trade and business growth. Dr Thompson will work closely with Sir Peter Knight FRS, Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London, and Chair of the Quantum Metrology Institute at NPL, who will be acting as interim Challenge Director for the government's Industrial Strategy challenge in quantum technology. This announcement follows hard on the heels of a 'breaking ground' ceremony for the construction of a new quantum facility on NPL's main site in Teddington; involving both Dr Thompson, and Sir Peter Knight. This facility will be a centre for industry engagement and will provide technical support for industrial uptake of quantum technologies. The new building will offer industry access to world-class capabilities and equipment to support and drive the development, testing and evaluation of new products based on quantum technologies. Housing new state-of-the-art laboratories, the centre is due for completion in early 2019, by construction company M+W's high-tech projects arm. Measurement is crucial to realising the benefits that quantum products can offer. It is vital in translating complex scientific advances into products with real world application. The centre will help to deliver a world-class underpinning measurement capability, providing a unique environment for industry to develop new quantum technologies. Dr Peter Thompson, CEO of NPL, said: "Quantum technologies hold enormous promise for a wide range of industry sectors - from healthcare to transport. The UK is ideally placed to emerge as a global leader in quantum technologies and there is a unique opportunity for industry to shape new developments to their needs and the market opportunities from the outset. That's why I'm working closely with colleagues at Innovate UK and EPSRC to call on business leaders across all sectors to work with us. Together we can ensure the world-class research and technology development being conducted by the UK's quantum hubs, their university partners, the wider academic community and the emerging quantum supply chain can deliver the maximum business and economic benefit." Rhys Lewis, Director of the NPL Quantum Metrology Institute, said: "The opening of the new facility here in Teddington will play a vital role in commercialising exciting new quantum products. It will bring quantum innovation to life in new ways, helping to showcase the latest advancements in quantum technologies, but also offering a world leading space for industry to develop, test and verify new breakthroughs." Alex Cloney, AprilSix Proof on behalf of NPL alex.cloney@aprilsisxproof.com +44(0)20-3141-2970 SOURCE NPL If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here New Delhi, March 7 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will not insist on Aadhaar-only identification for NEET and other all-India examinations. A five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, said this while referring to an earlier order by which the government had undertaken that it will not insist on Aadhaar-only identification till the top court decides on petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar. The court said that CBSE will upload the necessary information on their website so that students are not affected. Besides Chief Justice Misra, other judges on the constitution bench are Justice A.K. Sikri, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, Justic D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Ashok Bhushan. The court order came on a plea by a Gujarat resident Abid Ali Yusuf Bhai Patel who has challenged the CBSE circular mandating Aadhaar-only identity for those appearing for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) examination for undergraduate medical courses: MBBS and Bachelor of Dental Surgery. Abid Ali Yusuf Bhai Patel's niece is a NEET aspirant and the last date of filing the form is Friday (March 9). Besides Aadhaar, the candidates for NEET exams can furnish their passport, voter ID or driving licence, or ration card or give their bank account number as proof of identity. Explaining the rationale behind CBSE asking for identity for enrolment of students appearing for NEET or other all-India examination, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said it was to curb large-scale impersonation. However, the Attorney General said the students, who intended to register for NEET examination and any other all-India examination, need not necessarily produce the Aadhar number for the present. They may be asked to produce any alternative identification number, such as ration card, passport, voter ID, driving licence or bank account, AG said. The Unique Identification Authority of India told the bench that it has not asked the Central Board of Secondary Education to insist on Aadhaar for student aspiring to appear for under-graduate entrance examinations. The hearing saw Justice Chandrachud telling the Centre that the deadline on linking of Aadhaar with various schemes including bank accounts, Income Tax Returns concerned the entire financial system and people could not live in uncertainty over extension of deadline. "You cannot wait till March 27 to extend the deadline," Justice Chandrachud said suggesting that it can be done on March 14. At this, Justice Sikri said that since "his brother judge (Justice Chandrachud)" has unwittingly mentioned March 14, the extension of deadline would be done on that day only. Appearing for Congress Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh, who has challenged the introduction of the Aadhaar Bill, 2016 (now an Act), as Money Bill, senior counsel P. Chidambaram told the bench that Article 110 of the constitution defines a Money Bill and spells the category of legislations that can be introduced as Money Bill. Aadhaar Act, 2016, as it is commonly known as, is 'The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016. Chidambaram told the court that only those bills meeting the requirements specified under sub-clause (a) to (f) of clause (1) of Article 110 of the constitution can be introduced as Money Bill. He also referred to Article 110(1)(e) which says that any matter which is incidental to any of the matters specified in sub-clauses (a) to (f) too can be introduced as Money Bill. Telling the court that Aadhaar Bill does not meet the requirements specified under sub-clause (a) to (f) and is not incidental to them, Chidambaram said that Money Bill derogates the powers of Rajya Sabha to vote on it and can only make recommendation which Lok Sabha may or may not accept. Addressing the contention that Speaker's decision to allow a bill to be introduced as Money Bill could not be questioned in the courts, Chidambaram took the court through various provisions of the constitution to assert that the top court can always examine the correctness of a decision by the Speaker. Chidambaram will continue with his arguments on March 13. Jodhpur, March 8 : Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is smitten by the beauty of Meharangarh Fort, where he shot a sequence for his upcoming film "Thugs Of Hindostan". "The imposing and monumental Meharangarh Fort in Jodhpur. One of the largest in the country... intricate designing, impregnable structures and a fort that history states was never breached, ever. Its interiors so intricate, so artistically designed, housing within it several palaces... I wonder how they thought of the structure and how did they ever get to make something as imposing as this," Big B wrote on his blog. "I work here for the day. It's more filming for 'Thugs of Hindostan'. It's tough work, it's elaborate, it's a nightmare production issue, but it is accomplished with relative ease," he added. The majestic Mehrangarh Fort was also used for shooting of scenes for Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises". "Thugs of Hindostan", which also stars Aamir Khan, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Katrina Kaif, will release during Diwali 2018. The Yash Raj Films production is being helmed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, who directed Katrina and Aamir in "Dhoom: 3". It is an adaptation of the 1839 novel "Confessions of a Thug". Amitabh, 75, also has another film in his kitty -- "102 Not Out", which also stars veteran star Rishi Kapoor. The actors will be starring together after two decades. Beijing, March 8 : India's envoy to China, Gautam Bambawale, on Thursday met a top official of a Chinese think tank and candidly discussed bilateral ties and ways to enhance mutual exchanges. India-China relations, hit hard by a 73-day military stand-off at Doklam along their border, seem to be limping back to normal as both sides have been trying to have more talks. Bambawale had a candid discussion with Wu Hailong, President of Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, on bilateral ties and enhancing mutual exchanges, said an official. The ambassador has met several Chinese government officials and scholars of influential think tanks over the past few months. In the meetings, ways to increase mutual dialogue is understood have come up. Both sides have signalled their willingness to talk more. While high-level ministerial visits are expected in this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Summit in China in June. New Delhi, March 9 : The gross non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, in the Indian banking system amounted to Rs 8,40,958 crore in December, Parliament was told on Friday. Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla told the Lok Sabha in a written reply that industry accounted for largest portion of these NPAs, followed by the services and agriculture sectors. The gross NPAs of scheduled banks as on December 31, 2017 due to loans to industry were at Rs 6,09,222 crore, he said. The services sector followed, with bad loans of Rs 1,10,520 crore, while NPAs in agriculture and allied activities came to Rs 69,600 crore. Retail loans gone bad amounted to Rs 36,630 crore. State-run State Bank of India (SBI) accounted for the highest amount of gross NPAs at Rs 2,01,560 crore. Among others, Punjab National Bank (PNB) was at Rs 55,200 crore, IDBI Bank - Rs 44,542 crore, Bank of India - Rs 43,474 crore, Bank of Baroda - Rs 41,649 crore, Union Bank of India - Rs 38,047 crore, Canara Bank - Rs 37,794 crore and private lender ICICI Bank at Rs 33,849 crore. Among other public sector banks, Indian Overseas Bank bank had gross NPAs of Rs 31,724 crore, Central Bank of India - Rs 32,491 crore, UCO Bank - Rs 24,308 crore, Allahabad Bank - Rs 23,120 crore, Andhra Bank - Rs 21,599 crore and Corporation Bank - Rs 21,818 crore. The Minister also said there are 8,457 cases pending in the National Company Law Tribunal and 264 in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal as on December 31, 2017, through which banks are trying to recover their dues. The government has embarked on a two-pronged strategy on bad loans. On the one hand, it has brought in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) which provides for a six-month time-bound insolvency resolution process. On the other hand, it has approved a Rs 2.11 lakh crore recapitalisation plan for state-run banks. In June last year, the RBI referred 12 accounts, totalling about 25 per cent of the gross NPAs, for resolution under the IBC. San Francisco, March 10 : Intel Corporation is reportedly mulling a bid for semiconductor company Broadcom, a month after the latter's proposal to takeover rival Qualcomm was rejected. "Intel Corp. is considering a range of acquisition alternatives in reaction to Broadcom Ltd.'s hostile pursuit for Qualcomm Inc. that could include a bid for Broadcom," Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Broadcom has been aggressively pursuing its bid for Qualcomm that could pose much larger competition for Intel which is the de facto leader of processors for desktops and laptops. "Intel is watching the takeover battle closely and is eager for Broadcom to fail as the combined company would pose a serious competitive threat," the report added. This report comes at a time when Broadcom's attempt to buy Qualcomm is said to be in jeopardy as the US Treasury's Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) outlined concerns it had about the transaction. In letter addressed to both the company's lawyers, CFIUS listed issues, including Broadcom's reputation for cutting research spending, a concern Microsoft and Google shared. It also mentioned potential national security risks that could arise from exploiting or compromising Qualcomm's assets through arrangements with "third party foreign entities", according to CNBC. Qualcomm's board of directors unanimously rejected an acquisition proposal from rival Broadcom in February saying that they are turning down the latter's $121 billion bid. The multinational semiconductor company said that it was still undervalued at $121 billion after Broadcom make a revised offer to Qualcomm on February 6, up from the previously proposed deal price of $70 per share. Vienna, March 12 : A knife-wielding 26-year-old Austrian was shot dead outside the Iranian ambassador's residence here after he attacked a guard, police said. The assailant ambushed the lone guard on sentry duty late night and injured him on the arm, reports Xinhua news agency. The attacked died on the spot after the guard opened fire, the police added. The motive behind the attack remains unknown. Srinagar, March 12 : Authorities imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar on Monday to maintain law and order in the wake of the killing of three militants earlier in the day, police said. The militants including one from Srinagar were killed in a gunfight with the security forces in Anantnag district. Apprehending protests, the authorities imposed restrictions in areas under the jurisdictions of Soura and four other police station areas, the police said. All schools and colleges will also remain shut. Exams scheduled for Monday by the Kashmir University were postponed. The militants were identified as Eesa Fazli of Srinagar, Syed Owais and Sabzar Ahmad Sofi, both from Anantnag district. Before joining the militant ranks, Fazli was pursuing a B.Tech course in Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University in Rajouri district. New Delhi, March 12 : The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 2 p.m. on Monday after National Democratic Alliance constituent Telegu Desam Party and some opposition parties created ruckus in the House while pressing their demands. As soon as the listed papers were laid on the table of the House, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu, taking up Zero Hour, asked YSR Congress leader Vijay Sai Reddy to raise his issue. But within no time, the TDP members trooped near the Chairman's podium holding placards in support of their demand for special status to Andhra Pradesh. The Congress and the AIADMK members were also on their feet. The Congress has been demanding discussion over bank fraud cases, including the PNB scam, while the AIADMK has been pressing the Cauvery water issue. Naidu urged the agitated members to go back to their seats and allow the House to conduct the Zero Hour. "This is too much. I am allowing every issue to be raised and find no reason to disturb the proceedings. It's very bad and sending wrong message outside," Naidu said as he adjourned the House till 2 p.m. Earlier, Naidu expressed his anguish over the absence of some Ministers and laying down of papers by others without taking the Chair's consent. "Statements have to be made by the concerned Ministers only. I hope Parliamentary Affairs Minister will take note of it," he said. Hyderabad, March 12 : Congress MLAs on Monday tore up the copies of Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan's address to the joint session of Telangana Legislative Assembly and Council. Soon after the Governor began his address at 10 a.m., Congress members raised protests on the government's poor response to farmers' suicides and the crisis in the agriculture sector. They also displayed placards. Senior member Komatireddy Venkat Reddy was seen throwing his headphone towards the Governor. The headphone hit Legislative Council Chairman Swamy Goud in the eye and he was taken to the Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital here immediately after the House was adjourned. Ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) members took serious exception to the Congress member's 'rowdyism' in the House and demanded action against Venkat Reddy. However, Congress leader in the Council Mohammed Shabbir Ali came to the defence of Venkat Reddy. He said the marshals deployed by the government outnumbered the legislators. The Governor, meanwhile, continued his address unfazed by the protests by the Congress members. He listed out the irrigation projects, education reforms and the initiatives undertaken by the government for development of the state and welfare of the people. New Delhi, March 12 : The Lok Sabha was disrupted on Monday amid continued protests by the opposition over the PNB fraud case and other issues, forcing Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to first adjourn the House till noon, and later for the day. This was the sixth day in a row when the House, facing a stalemate, was forced to adjourn. The entire first week of the second part of the Budget Session, that started on March 5, was washed out without transacting any business. Within minutes after it met, members from various parties trooped near the Speaker's podium, raising slogans on different issues, including the banking irregularities. The Congress members were seen raising slogans demanding that Nirav Modi, the key accused in the Punjab National Bank fraud case, be brought back to India. The former National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Telegu Desam Party, meanwhile, demonstrated for special category status to Andhra Pradesh. The AIADMK pressed for the forming of the Cauvery Board. Mahajan tried to take up the Question Hour but in vain, as the din continued. She then adjourned the House till noon. When the House met again, the scene was the same, but several bills were introduced in the House amid the ruckus. As the protests continued unabated, the Speaker adjourned the House for the day. Thiruvananthapuram, March 12 : The Congress-led Opposition on Monday walked out of the Kerala Assembly, blaming the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government of not doing enough to revive the cashew industry. The opposition said 800 of 850 cashew factories were closed but Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan maintained that the government was working hard towards reviving the cashew industry. Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said the government should sanction a one-time assistance of Rs 10,000 to the cashew workers, who have no work since January. He also demanded free ration for them. "Most Kerala cashew factories are in dire straits... almost 800 factories in the private sector needs support from the government," he said. "You have now been in power for close to two years... why are you not taking over these factories. You should also impress upon the Centre for a special package," said Chennithala. Replying to an adjournment motion moved by former state minister and senior Congress leader Adoor Prakash, Vijayan said the factories were closed due to the non-availability of raw nuts. "We are working out arrangements with a group of African countries to ensure that we have uninterrupted availability of raw nuts from there," said Vijayan. He also observed that the newly formed Kerala Cashew Board was also working on programmes to increase the area under cashew cultivation and said the forest department would earmark 5,000 acres soon. However, Vijayan had no answer to the points raised by Prakash who said that, at present, all 40 factories in the government sector were closed while around 800 private factories were also closed due to non-availability of raw nuts. "Two lakh workers, of which 90 per cent are women, are in dire straits," said Prakash. Srinagar, March 12 : Clashes broke out Monday in Soura area of Srinagar as scores of youths marched to attend the funeral of Essa Fazili, one of the three militants killed in a gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district. Fazili, a B.Tech student, was shot dead along with two other militants by security forces earlier in the day. Fazili's father is the principal of a higher secondary school in Ganderbal district. Authorities had imposed restrictions in Soura and some other parts of the old city of Srinagar to maintain law and order. The youths, who marched towards the Ahmed Nagar home of Fazili in Soura to join the funeral, resorted to heavy stone pelting at the security forces, who used tear smoke shells to try disperse the protesters. A spontaneous strike was observed in the adjoining Ganderbal district, Srinagar's city centre Lal Chowk and other parts of Srinagar city against Fazili's killing. Authorities placed senior separatist leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq under house arrest and took Muhammad Yasin Malik of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front into preventive custody in Srinagar. All schools and colleges in Srinagar district were closed. All exams scheduled on Monday were postponed. Train services between Anantnag in south Kashmir and Baramulla in north Kashmir were also suspended. The Internet speed was slashed to prevent the spread of rumours. Imphal, March 12 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the Science Congress in the Manipur University (MU) campus on March 16, government sources said on Monday. An official told IANS that at least 5,000 delegates from all over the country will take part in the three-day congress which will be held for the first time in the state. Chief Minister N. Biren Singh visited the MU campus on Monday to inspect the preparations in progress. He said: "I have instructed all officials and contractors to speed up the construction works. Nothing should go wrong and everything should be ready at least one day ahead. "Out of 5,000 delegates, there are 2,000 scientists," he said. Police in and around Imphal city have been carrying out raids and search operations everyday. Certain villages and residential areas are cordoned off shortly after midnight and all people are checked and verified in the morning. Persons without proper identification documents are singled out for further verifications. A police officer said that some militants had been picked up from different parts of the state. However, no firearm has been seized. The police plans to round up the armed insurgents ahead of Modi's visit. N. Biren Singh has instructed the state and central forces to ensure law and order during the visit by the Prime minister. Additional police personnel and paramilitary forces have been deployed near the MU campus and hotels where the delegates shall stay during the congress. New Delhi, March 12 : Defence Minsiter Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday confirmed that she will be visiting neighbouring China soon, months after a period of tension where troops from the two nuclear-capable nations were involved in a standoff near the border in Sikkim sector. "Yes, it's going to be probably in late April," Sitharaman said in response to questions from media persons on the sidelines of a seminar here. She, however, added that the agenda is yet to be finalised. The Defence Ministry had last week denied that the Minister was going to visit China. China tried to build a road in a territory claimed by Bhutan in June last year, and was stopped by India, resulting in a 73-day standoff at the Sino-Indian border in Sikkim sector. The standoff started on June 16 and both sides announced disengagement on August 28. The standoff had led to tension between the two nuclear-armed nations, and during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in December, India had stressed that peace along the India-China border is a pre-requisite for strong bilateral relations. Wang had also admitted that the standoff had put a "severe" strain on bilateral ties. In December, Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese State Councillor and Member of Central Committee of Politburo of the Communist Party of China Yang Jiechi held the 20th Meeting of Special Representatives of India and China on border issues. The two sides later called the talks "positive and focused" and also agreed to seek "mutually acceptable resolutions of their differences with due respect for each other's sensitivities, concerns and aspirations". Jammu, March 12 : Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday decided to sack senior PDP leader and Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu from her Council of Ministers over his controversial remarks about the state. The Chief Minister sent a letter to Governor N.N. Vohra informing that she had decided to remove Drabu, sources close to Mehbooba Mufti told IANS. Drabu had sparked a storm by stating that Jammu and Kashmir was not a political problem or a conflict state. The Peoples Democratic Party had on Sunday asked Drabu to explain his position since the statement he made, at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi on March 9, was a negation of the stated position of the party. Both mainstream and separatist parties had criticised the PDP for Drabua's remarks asserting that the statement was proof of the "political sellout made by the party to remain in power". The PDP, however, on Sunday said that it recognises the state as a political issue and ever since its advent the party has relentlessly been pursuing its resolution through reconciliation and dialogue, both at internal and external levels. Interestingly, Drabu was the PDP's pointsman who worked out the draft of the agenda of alliance the BJP. It was after signing the agenda of alliance with the BJP that the PDP came to power after the 2014 assembly elections. New Delhi, March 12 : The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI's) SIT to expedite the probe into alleged extra-judicial killings and fake encounters by the army, Assam Rifles and police in Manipur. A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice U.U. Lalit asked the special investigation team (SIT) to first complete the ongoing probe in 13 cases of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The bench asked the SIT that after completing probe in NHRC cases, it should investigate other cases dealt by the judicial inquiries, cases in which high court had given its findings, cases dealt by a commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Santosh Hegde, matters relating to commissions of inquiry. The court also asked the Manipur government and its police to make available the records of these cases to the SIT. On February 12, the court had slammed the SIT for not properly probing alleged extra-judicial killings and asked why FIRs were lodged against the victims and not against officers. The court was hearing a PIL seeking a probe into as many as 1,528 cases of extra-judicial killings in Manipur. On July 14, 2017, the apex court had constituted the SIT comprising five CBI officers and ordered registration of FIRs and investigation into alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur. The court, which was hearing a PIL seeking probe into 1,528 alleged extra-judicial killings, had ordered registration of FIR in 81 cases including 32 probed by a Commission of Enquiry, 32 investigated by judicial authorities, 11 in which compensation was awarded and six probed by the commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde. The court now posted the matter for April 16. Lucknow, March 12 : Fourteen candidates, including 11 from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), field their nomination papers for the biennial polls to the Rajya Sabha, scheduled for March 23, officials said. While the BJP, based on its own strength in the state assembly, can easily send eight of its candidates to the upper House of the Parliament, it has fielded 11 candidates. The first to file the nomination papers was Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who flanked by state BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, Deputy Chief Ministers Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya, and other cabinet members of the state government submitted his set of nomination papers to the returning officer. BSP's Bhim Rao Ambedkar filed his nomination again on Monday while Mahesh Chandra Sharma of the Jan Sangh also filed his papers for the RS seat. Actress-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan has already filed her papers as the candidate of the Samajwadi Party (SP). Other BJP candidates who field their nomination papers on Monday include Ashok Bajpayi, Anil Jain, Kanta Kardam, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Harnath Singh Yadav, Sakaldeep Rajbhar and G.V.L. Narsimha Rao. Later, Anil Agarwal reached the state assembly premises as the ninth candidate of the BJP and filed his papers. In a surprise move later, BJP 's state general secretary Vidyasagar Sonkar and Salil Bishnoi also filed a set of papers. Though their names have not figured in the official list of the BJP, the move is being seen in political circles as a "Plan B' of the ruling party. The picture will be clearer on March 15, the day of withdrawal of nominations. While eight of the 11 names can easily cruise through, party insiders say, there is a "game plan that would be understood at the right time". On basis of its 324 members, including allies, in the state assembly, eight BJP candidates will sail through the finishing line easily and it would be surplus of 28 votes still. BJP strategists are hoping to win over some opposition legislators from the SP, BSP and the Congress, so that they can vote in their favor. Senior SP leader Naresh Agarwal, who joined the BJP earlier in the day, has also announced that his son Nitin Agarwal, sitting MLA from Hardoi, will be voting for BJP. The saffron camp is also eyeing the chunk of Independent legislators, some of whom have voted with it on some occasions in the past. Seven legislators of Congress are supporting Mayawati's candidate. Moscow, March 13 : Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Britain should get to the bottom of the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal before discussing the issue with Moscow. "Get to the bottom of things there, then we'll discuss this," Xinhua quoted Putin as saying. Skripal, 66, was sentenced in Russia in 2006 to 13 years in prison for cooperating with the British Secret Intelligence Service MI-6 and releasing names of Russian intelligence officers working undercover in Europe. In 2010, the former double agent was pardoned as part of a spy swap and then moved to Britain. Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center on March 5. They remain in a critical condition in hospital. Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the incident happened in Britain and it was not Russia's affair at all. On the same day, British Prime Minister Theresa May said it was "highly likely" that Russia was responsible for the poisoning of Skripal and Russian Ambassador to Britain had been summoned to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office over the case. United Nations, March 13 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday deplored the failure to implement a Security Council resolution that demands cease-fire in Syria. Reporting to the Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 2401, Guterres said there has been no cessation of hostilities in Syria. Though conflicts in some areas are diminishing in intensity, violence continues in Eastern Ghouta and beyond -- including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and in Damascus and its suburbs, Xinhua quoted him as saying. Particularly in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, airstrikes, shelling and ground offensives have intensified after the adoption of the resolution on February 24, and claimed hundreds of civilian lives, the UN chief added. The resolution demands the enabling of "the safe, unimpeded and sustained" delivery of humanitarian aid and services across Syria for at least 30 days. "Despite some limited convoy deliveries, the provision of humanitarian aid and services has not been safe, unimpeded or sustained," Guterres said. On the resolution's demand for medical evacuations of the critically sick and wounded, Guterrest said: "To our knowledge, not one critically sick or wounded person has yet been evacuated." Guterres reported "egregious violations, indiscriminate attacks, and a failure to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure" despite the resolution's demands for all parties to comply with their obligations under international law and international human rights law. "I am here to report on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2401... But I am keenly aware that I am doing so just as the bloodletting in Syria enters its eighth year," said the secretary-general. Despite all the difficulties, lack of trust, mutual suspicions and cold calculations, it should still be possible to implement Resolution 2401, he said. "We cannot give up for the sake of the Syrian people." "I appeal to all parties for the full implementation of Resolution 2401 throughout the whole of Syrian territory. The United Nations is ready to assist in any efforts to make that happen. "I call on all states with influence to exercise it in support of the efforts of the United Nations and the implementation of the resolution." He underscored the urgency of seeing medical evacuations, civilian protection, and full, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access as soon as possible. New Delhi : India is now into the fifth year of its unique experiment of legally binding companies to be socially responsible. This push by the government to solve the country's most challenging social problems was based on the idea that the corporate sector will come up with transformative solutions that will scale up impact across the country. As the development goals of the country are immense and everyone recognises that the challenges can only be overcome with the effort of every stakeholder in the ecosystem, many scholars viewed it as the right move by the government. The CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) sector has matured over the years, but no significant impact has been made in the development issues that India faces. There are many challenges that need to be addressed before CSR becomes a powerful force for change. Ministry of Corporate Affairs data reveals that out of 5,097 companies that filed annual reports until December 31, 2016, for the financial year 2015-16, only 3,118 had done some CSR expenditure. For the financial year 2014-15, 3,139 companies had spent 74 per cent of the prescribed CSR expenditure. Many of the companies made their CSR investments to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. The reasons stated by the companies for zero spendings include non-finalisation of location of the project, technical difficulties and organisational capacity to identify projects still in creation. Some of the companies even cited that their profile does not gel with the concept of CSR and they are not required to constitute a CSR committee. These findings provide two major insights about Indian businesses. First, while many of them are making efforts to address societal challenges, they lack strategic planning to identify the ideal projects for investment. The grants made by most of the companies have no long-term strategic thinking behind it. Second, most of the businesses still do not consider it their responsibility to invest in the advancement of communities around them. They fail to consider CSR as a holistic view of the impact that businesses have on society and the environment through their operations. Even if these companies make some investments in future, their behaviour suggests that there will be a lack of engagement. The lack of strategic planning, innovation and experimentation and the lack of engagement by businesses will not lead to high-impact results. It is important for businesses to understand the challenges faced by the citizens to make a meaningful impact. One way is to enable businesses to see new opportunities to solve public problems. They should get hold of a social issue that is at the core of their business and then use their resources and capabilities to address the problem in a way that will help not only society but will reap benefits for the company as well. This implies that they should focus on creating "shared value". The other route to tackle the social challenges that India is facing is that businesses start embracing strategic CSR and adopt strategies that will help move the needle towards urgent needs. Both these solutions require an in-depth analysis of the well-being of our country -- analysis that can bring out state-specific social challenges and areas of relative weaknesses. Such a tool can act as a useful guide for companies as to where and how they can best effect change by helping them identifying key focus areas for prioritisation and investments. Social progress is a concept that can enable businesses to harness their full potential to enhance well-being in society. Social progress views development beyond the concept of GDP. It focuses on capturing the real issues faced by the people. This is already helping businesses to improve people's lives in many other countries. In Brazil's Amazon, a detailed social and environmental diagnosis of 772 municipalities spurred Coca-Cola and Natura to conduct a community-needs survey based on the Index framework. This laid the foundation for a new development programme that was a collaboration between citizens, government, business, and civil society. The programme, guided by the social progress data, has improved water and sanitation infrastructure, providing 500 households with consistent sources of clean water for the first time. They also constructed new river piers to improve transportation during seasonal flooding and increase connectivity with neighboring communities. These improvements have been made possible because businesses in that region took responsibility for the well-being of society. Similarly, businesses in India can use the tool for their CSR action plans to determine areas in which they can allocate resources and improve the quality of life across communities. For instance, when it comes to nutrition and basic medical care, the Index shows that Madhya Pradesh performs the worst among all states. Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand follow closely. Therefore, FMCG companies can undertake targeted initiatives across this belt to tackle the perpetual problem of nutrition in India and companies in the pharmaceutical and medical sector can help improve the condition of basic medical services in these states. There exists immense scope for corporates to aid social progress in India and it does not even have to be forced down their throats. Merely making use of indices like the Social Progress Index to identify areas of social need that intersect with their line of business and contributing their two cents should suffice. It just might also make for a unique business opportunity for them. One only needs to look. (Amit Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at Amit.Kapoor@competitiveness.in and tweets @kautiliya. Manisha Kapoor, senior researcher, Institute for Competitiveness, has contributed to the article.) Hyderabad, March 13 : The Telangana Assembly Speaker on Tuesday disqualified two senior Congress legislators due to their unruly behaviour during Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan's address at the joint session the previous day. Speaker Madhusudhana Chary announced the disqualification of Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar. They stand expelled from the House for the rest of the period of the current Assembly which is the first since Telangana became a separate state in 2014 and the term will last till April-May next year. Eleven Congress members including floor leader K. Jana Reddy, were also placed under suspension for the current budget session that began on Monday. Venkat Reddy was seen throwing headphones at the Governor when he was addressing the joint session on Monday. The headphone hit Council Speaker Swamy Goud which led to an eye injury. While the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) fully supported the action against the Congress members, the Bharatiya Janata Party floor leader G. Kishen Reddy objected to the suspension of some members like K. Jana Reddy. Legislative Affairs Minister T. Harish Rao moved the motion for disqualification of the two Congress members under provisions of clause 3 of Article 194. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi strongly condemned the Congress members' behaviour in the Assembly. BJP floor leader G. Kishan Reddy felt the Speaker should have consulted all parties before moving the motion for suspending the 11 members. In the Legislative Council, six Congress members -- Shabbir Ali, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, Akula Lalitha, Damodar Reddy, P Sudhakar Reddy and Santosh -- were suspended for the current session. New Delhi, March 13 : Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday slammed Rajya Sabha member Naresh Agrawal, who started off his new innings in the BJP with a controversial remark by referring to actress and politician Jaya Bachchan as a "mere film dancer". "The statement he has given is very shameful. It needs to be condemned," the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader told reporters in the Parliament House complex here. The SAD is one of the oldest allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She said the remarks show Agrawal's mindset and hoped that Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu will take a call on it. "When an elected representative speaks such language, it shows his mindset. It sends a wrong message to the young generation," she said. Asked about action against Agrawal, Badal said: "He himself should feel ashamed. I have faith in Venkaiahji. He respects women a lot and will do the needful." External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also conveyed her disapproval of the remarks in a tweet. "Shri Naresh Agrawal has joined BJP. He is welcome. However, his comments regarding Jaya Bachchan ji are improper and unacceptable," she tweeted. On Monday, Agrawal said the Samajwadi Party had refused him a Rajya Sabha berth and gave it to a person just because she "could dance and act in the films". "My stature has been equated with that of a mere film actress. Just because she could dance and act in films, my candidature (to Rajya Sabha) has been sacrificed for her. I haven't taken it kindly." Agrawal's term in the Rajya Sabha is ending next month and he had expected a re-election to the upper House. But his hopes were dashed when the party chose Bachchan to be its candidate. Mumbai, March 13 : In a meeting with an Estonian government delegation, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries (RIL) Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday expressed his desire to collaborate with the country to develop better e-governance solutions for India. A statement from the company said Ambani envisaged to make lives better for millions in India by replicating innovative solutions offered by Estonia into the Indian context. The statement said that Ambani also expressed his interest in the "e-residency programme" of Estonia which will empower him with easy access to the entire European Union (EU) for his existing business while sitting in India. The e-Residency programme -- which offers startups access to a government-issued digital ID, thus enabling the opening of a global EU company fully online while working from anywhere in the world -- is the gateway to do business in Europe, said Ambani. "We believe your solutions are easily scalable to India. We wish to have a very close cooperation with your talent in Estonia," he added. The delegation from Estonia -- the country where 99 per cent of the public services are available online 24/7 -- comprised of Urve Palo, Minister of Entrepreneurship and IT, Viljar Lubi, Deputy Secretary General for Economic Development and Riho Kruuv, Ambassador of Estonia to India. New Delhi, March 13 : Beijing-based bike-sharing platform, Ofo on Tuesday said it has raised $866 million in its latest funding round led by the Alibaba Group. Other participants in the funding round were Haofeng Group, Tianhe Capital, Ant Financial and Junli Capital, ofo said in a statement. Commenting on the fresh fund flow, Dai Wei, founder and CEO of Ofo said: it has been "transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development," adding, "ofo will continue to put customers first and lead the bike-sharing industry with technological innovation and efficient operations." So far, Ofo has operations in over 250 cities across 21 countries with over 200 million users, the statement said. New Delhi, March 13 : Three BJP Goa MPs met the party's national president Amit Shah in the national capital on Tuesday and discussed the Supreme Court-imposed mining ban in the coastal state which is slated to come into effect from Thursday. Speaking to IANS from Delhi, South Goa BJP MP Narendra Savoikar said that Shah had promised the MPs to study the matter after speaking to officials of all concerned government departments and arrive at a possible solution to the crisis. "Myself, Shripad Naik and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar spoke to our national president and apprised him of the situation arising from the Supreme Court-imposed ban on mining. He has promised to speak to officials from concerned departments and look at possible solutions," Savoikar said. In its order last month, the apex court ordered the stoppage of mining activity in 88 mining leases in Goa from Friday and has directed the state government to issue fresh leases, after completing the necessary environment-related formalities. The ban has triggered chaos in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as well as its ruling alliance parties -- Goa Forward and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party -- with several BJP legislators accusing both the coalition government and the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre of not doing enough to come to the aid of more than one lakh people dependant on the mining industry who are likely to suffer from its temporary closure. The BJP as well as the ruling coalition allies have been demanding that instead of allotting fresh leases, the mining tracts should be allotted to the same mining companies who have been indicted in the Rs 35,000 crore illegal mining scam. New Delhi, March 13 : Business activities across Delhi came to a standstill as over seven lakh shops in 2,500 markets across the city shut on Tuesday to protest against the ongoing sealing drive by the three municipal corporations, a traders' body said. Traders also took out protest marches in various markets, including Connaught Place, Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazar, Chawri Bazar, Kamla Nagar, Karol Bagh and Kashmere Gate. Demonstrations were held at around 100 places across Delhi, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said in a statement. On March 28, a traders rally will be held at Ramlila Maidan here against the sealing drive which, the CAIT said, is in "utter violation" of The Municipal Corporation of Delhi Act, 1957. The business losses due to Tuesday's bandh were estimated at Rs 1,800 crore, with the revenue loss to government pegged at about Rs 150 crore, CAIT said. Calling an all-party meeting convened by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a "political stunt", the protesting traders adopted a resolution on Tuesday to demand that his government get passed a bill in the Assembly to stop the sealing drive. They also appealed to the central government to bring a law for a moratorium on the sealing. The sealing drive is being carried out by a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee against business establishments using residential properties for commercial purposes. The drive is being implemented by the three BJP-led municipal corporations in Delhi. The committee was set up by the Supreme Court in 2006. In 2012, the apex court asked the committee to halt the drive. But in December 2017 it ordered resumption of the drive. Beijing, March 13 : India's Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale on Tuesday met a top official of the Communist Party's key International Department and discussed ways to step up bilateral talks and visits. After the chill in their relationship following a 73-day military stand-off in the eastern sector of the border last year, both sides have been trying to mend fences. It is apparent from Bambawale's host of meetings with influential government think tanks in the past few months where the talks are largely understood to have revolved around repairing the damage to bilateral ties done by Doklam stand-off. The envoy met Guo Yezhou Vice-Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, an influential body responsible for shaping up Beijing's foreign policy. The Department has more say in formulating China's foreign policy than the Foreign Affairs Ministry. "They shared ideas for further strengthening bilateral exchanges and visits, following up on their first meeting on January 4," the Indian Embassy said here. India's Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced her visit to China in late April. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China in June to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Summit. Between Sitharaman and Modi, more visits and dialogues are expected between both sides. (Gaurav Sharma is the IANS correspondent in Beijing. He can be contacted at gaurav.s@ians.in) New Delhi, March 13 : The 31st edition of the Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW) has dropped the grand finale, but designers don't think it's a big deal. They are looking forward to the fresh approach and focussing on business at the fashion gala, which will begin on Wednesday here. About 100 designers will showcase their autumn-winter collections that will either show the power of handlooms or give an ode to digital revolution or will simply take you on a stroll down memory lane. But there will be no glittering grand finale. "For the last three years, we have been experimenting with a new model like trying with 25 designers," Sunil Sethi, President of the organising body Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), told IANS. So, he sees no harm in trying out a new format. "People are coming to see fashion designers and their creativity on the ramp, and not just the grand finale. We are okay to let it go and concentrate on other things like improving the technology at shows," he added. Designer Madhu Jain says it's "no big deal". "We are here for business. A fashion week is a great opportunity for brand building and meeting buyers and store owners," said the designer, who will present a line in biodegradable bamboo-silk ikat. David Abraham of Abraham & Thakore brand says the designers are looking at new ways of conducting the fashion week. "The general idea was that it would be a fresh approach. It will give every single day prominence rather than stressing on one," he said. Designer Wendell Rodricks thinks it is a good move too. "This is more in line with international fashion weeks. It is also less stress on the organiser to do a gala show and instead focus on the entire week. The same with the sponsor. "They can look at the improvement in quality and quantity of the fashion week as a whole to benefit the industry, designers and the sponsor value addition," said the veteran. Rina Dhaka, who was part of the grand finale last year, admits that the climax of the fashion week is exciting. "Everything is on a grander scale, but the economy has changed. It's a huge cost to the patron and with so many opportunities for fashion and its visibility on Instagram, YouTube, perhaps it is a good thing to give that a rest for the moment," she said. So, what will the fifth day of the gala be like? "The lounges and food courts will be open, the MSAs (main stage areas) will be working from 10.30 a.m. till the last show at 8 p.m. However, what will not be there would be the designer stalls because that day is strictly kept for the young graduating designers of Pearl Academy," said Sethi. Are there more changes? "You will see a lot of black and white dominance this time. This will be the decor. People who will bring in the colour will be our designers and their clothes, and the attendees," he said. But there is a lot more to look forward to. "We are opening the show with Pung cholom. Prathibha Prahlad has choreographed a special sequence using this dance form from Manipur," said Jain, who will emphasise on the need to move towards alternative fibre that consumes less water and is eco-friendly through her collection. Dhaka will present a "'jump out of the bed' and not a planned look" with actress Rhea Chakraborty as the showstopper. Abraham & Thakore will get the flavour of Delhi streets to the ramp. "Everybody says street wear but it never echoes our street. It's always about street of some other culture. So we thought of looking closer to our street instead of London, Paris or Moscow," said Abraham. Schulen Fernandes for Wendell Rodricks will present a collection that is sensual, elegant, refined, embellished and sparkling like a sea foam in brilliant sunshine. With minds delving into oriental artistic realms and physical experiences focussing on joyous holidays in the tropics, the Shivan & Narresh EdoMer Series dares a dream marrying dramatically opposite worlds with the language of design abstraction. The new series captures the 17th century Edo Art aesthetic and amalgamates it with elements from the Eden of the world - Seychelles, transforming it into a traveller's decadence. Designer Diksha Khanna's collection will celebrate the co-existence of the organic with the industrial. "For our show, we have created a digital backdrop to help our consumers and store buyers, understand our season story in a better manner. The idea is to make our consumers an integral part of our design journey, which has been seemlessly woven with the help of technology. I think putting up of the LED screens for the show is a brilliant idea," she said. (Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n@ians.in) New Delhi, March 13 : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the attack on CRPF troopers in Chhattisgarh that left nine paramilitary personnel dead reflected a deteriorating internal security situation under the Narendra Modi government. "The Maoist attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh in which 9 CRPF jawans lost their lives is tragic. It reflects a deteriorating internal security situation due to flawed policies," tweeted Gandhi. "My condolences to the families of those killed. To those who have been injured, I wish a speedy recovery," he added. At least nine CRPF personnel were killed and three others injured when Maoists blew up their anti-landmine vehicle in Sukma on Tuesday, said a senior Chhattisgarh Police official. The blast was followed by a heavy exchange of fire between the security forces and the rebels. The Congress also said that the attack exposed the hollow claims of Modi government in controlling Maoism, since it came in the same district where 26 CRPF personnel were killed by the ultra-left rebels last year. "That attack was the biggest one in the past seven years, but BJP government has not learnt any lesson," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, adding that the national security situation was "a direct consequence of Modi government's aimless, irresolute and inconsistent polices". "Modi had sold the 'national security' plank hard to attain power, but in the past four years, we have only witnessed a precarious security situation in the country," he said, claiming ceasefire violations on the border, cross-border infiltration, terror attacks on security installations and Maoist attacks had increased manifold. The party said there have been 23 major Maoist attacks after demonetisation, in which 97 security personnel and 121 civilians were killed. "In the last 14 years and 95 days, the Raman Singh-led BJP government in Chhattisgarh has miserably failed on this internal security front. Every time there is a Naxal (Maoist) attack, the Chief Minister promises some tough action, but nothing concrete has been done to stop these attacks. "BJP President Amit Shah, who had last year started the BJP expansion plan from (West Bengal's) Naxalbari, should have instead planned with the PM on how to tackle Maoism," said Surjwala. Kathmandu, March 13 : The death toll in the US-Bangla Airlines plane crash in Nepal climbed to 51 after two more people succumbed to injuries in hospital here on Tuesday as the Nepali government formed a probe panel to investigate the aviation disaster. The Nepali Home Ministry said in a press release that 22 Nepalis, 28 Bangladeshis and a Chinese passenger lost their lives in Monday's accident -- the worst in the Himalayan nation since a 1992 Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) crash that claimed 167 lives. The injured were receiving treatment at various hospitals in Nepal. There were 71 passengers, including four crew members on board when the ill-fated aircraft crashed on Monday while landing at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). Investigators retrieved the flight data recorder from the wreckage of the plane. The aircraft caught fire when it narrowly escaped hitting the tail of a Thai Airways plane parked along the runway. The ill-fated plane was said to have circled the airport twice before trying to land, the Kathmandu Post reported. According to preliminary findings, the 78-seater Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft crashed due to a communication error between the cockpit and the control tower. The airline and airport authorities blamed each other for the disaster. While the airline blamed air traffic control, the airport said the plane landed from the wrong direction due to pilot's "missed approach". Environment Minister Lal Babu Pandit told the media that a probe panel -- to be headed by former Secretary Yagya Prasad Gautam -- had been formed to investigate the aviation disaster. Meanwhile, relatives of the Bangladeshi victims of the plane crash arrived here to identify their kin. "One of our flights already reached Kathmandu with 46 relatives and family members of victims and officials. We are now working on bringing the bodies back home and ensuring medical treatment for injured victims," a spokesman for the US-Bangla Airlines, Kamrul Islam, said. Bangladesh's Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism A.K.M. Shahjahan Kamal and Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali were in Nepal taking stock of the situation. Two officials from Bangladesh's Ministry of Planning, who were travelling to Nepal for a regional symposium on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation in South Asia, were among the dead. Meanwhile, the Kathmandu-based Secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) conveyed condolences to the peoples and governments of Bangladesh and Nepal over the loss of lives in the horrific accident. Baghdad, March 13 : Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday lifted a ban on international flights to two airports in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. A statement by his office said Abadi signed a decree to lift the ban after receiving positive response from the Kurdish local authorities "to restore the federal authority in the two airports in accordance with the Constitution of Iraq". Abadi made the announcement during his meeting with the officers of the regional Interior Ministry who were working at the two airports, Xinhua news agency cited the statement as saying. He also said that a new security directorate will be established to protect the airports in the Kurdish region and it will be under command and control of the federal Interior Ministry. All the regional airports and border crossings will be linked directly to the main control system in Baghdad, similar to what is done in the other Iraqi airports and crossing, the statement said. The passports and national ID offices and the employees at the airports of Erbil and Sulaimaniyah will also be linked to the federal Interior Ministry, it added. Tensions rose between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum last September to approve the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas. The Iraqi government later imposed the flights ban on the Kurdish region as part of a package of punitive measures that also included blocking all the border crossings outside the federal control. The ban on international flights on the region's international airports of Erbil and Sulaimaniyah forced passengers to apply for an Iraqi visa to transit through Baghdad and Basra international airports to go or leave the Kurdish region. The independence of Kurdistan is opposed not only by the Iraqi central government, but also by other countries as it would threaten the territorial integrity of Iraq and undermine the fight against the terror group Islamic State. Iraq's neighbouring countries, especially Turkey, Iran and Syria, fear that the Iraqi Kurds' pursuit of independence threatens their own territorial integrity by inspiring the Kurdish population in those countries to seek independence. New Delhi, March 13 : The RBI had issued two circulars in 2016 to banks on strengthening the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system, the misuse of which was unveiled last month in the Rs 12,600 crore fraud on state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), Parliament was informed on Tuesday. Apart from diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, some PNB employees have been accused of misusing their access to the bank's SWIFT electronic messaging system used for overseas funds transfers. None of the 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. "Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has apprised that it had issued two circulars to banks in the months of August and November 2016, related to security and operational controls in the SWIFT environment," Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. "As per RBI inputs, compliance with RBI's instructions is the bank's responsibility and the Compliance Officer in the bank monitors the same." "The RBI monitors compliance to its instructions on an ongoing basis and during RBI inspections and, where necessary, enforcement action is also initiated," he said. After the unearthing of the PNB scam, an RBI notification last month said: "The risks arising from the potential malicious use of the SWIFT infrastructure has always been a component of their operational risk profile. RBI had, therefore, confidentially cautioned and alerted banks of such possible misuse." Noting that the RBI has instructed banks to "strengthen their SWIFT operating environment", Shukla said the central bank has also constituted an expert committee to look into factors "leading to increasing incidence of frauds in banks and the measures (including information technology interventions) needed to curb and prevent it, and the role and effectiveness of various types of audits conducted in banks in mitigating the incidence of such frauds". The RBI has taken other fraud-control measures like bringing out a framework for dealing with loan frauds above Rs 50 crore, creating an online Central Fraud Registry, issuing caution advices detailing names of fraudsters and their modus operandi and ordering banks to re-verify the title deeds for all credit exposures above Rs 5 crore. The central bank has also mandated commercial banks to put in place adequate audit and compliance mechanisms with bank board-level reporting through the audit committee of the board, the minister added. United Nations, March 13 : UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak is engaging himself in the negotiations for Security Council reform to move the long-stalled process forward, according to his spokesperson Brenden Varma. "The president engages as much as he can and as much as the member states allow him to and he will continue to do so," Varma told reporters on Monday when asked about the progress of the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN), as the reform process is known. Acknowledging that it "is a very difficult and contentious process," he said that "it is a member states-driven process and for the President's part, he will do what the member states allow him to do". He noted that Lajcak appointed Ambassadors Kaha Imnadze of Georgia and Lana Nusseibeh of United Arab Emirates "to take the process forward." "Negotiations are continuing and we have to really see what the members states come up with," he added. On Thursday, Lajcak met Imnadze and Nusseibeh. India, which seeks a permanent seat in the reformed Security Council, is heavily invested in the reform process. Lajcak rebooted the reform process in November, saying: "The time for trying is up; now is the time for action," and appointing Imnadze and Nusseibeh as IGN co-chairs. The negotiation process has been stalled for more than a decade with the 193 members of the UN unable to even agree on a negotiating document that would set the agenda and be the starting point for real negotiations on reforms. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in) New Delhi, March 13 : Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba has called Chief Secretaries of Assam and Mizoram for a meeting here next week to resolve the ongoing border dispute between the two states. The meeting will be held on March 20, following a letter written by Mizoram Chief Minister Pu Lal Thanhawla to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday seeking his intervention in the dispute. The dispute started on February 27-28 when Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), a Mizo international student body, was constructing a rest house at the disputed site at Bairabi, a reserved forest area, between Assam's Hailakandi in Assam and Mizoram's Kolasib district. The clashes then occurred on March 8 and 10 when a journalist was beaten up and a Mizo student injured in firing on a group by the Assam Police at Zopui, according to Mizoram. Assam Police however denied the charge and claimed that the protesters were only pushed back when they tried to intrude into their state. Assam government claims the area as its own, said Joint Secretary, North East, Satyendra Garg. Assam and Mizoram have a long-standing boundary dispute, and there had been tension in the Hailakandi-Kolasib region several times in the past too. Sonipat, March 13 : In the second incident of its kind since January in Haryana, a college lecturer was shot dead on the campus by an unidentified student in Sonipat district on Tuesday, police said. Victim Rajesh Malik, around 35 years of age, was working as an ad-hoc Lecturer in Kharkhoda. The identity of the assailant, who fled after committing the ghastly crime, was being ascertained by police. Eyewitnesses said the assailant fired 3-4 shots at the teacher, with one hitting him in the chest. Malik succumbed to the gunshot wound later. The reason behind the killing was not yet known, a police official in Sonipat said. In January, a Class 12 student of a private school in Yamunanagar town allegedly shot dead his school Principal with his father's licensed revolver. He was upset over his rustication from school. New Delhi, March 13 : The Narendra Modi government is killing democracy by orchestrating protests on various issues in the Parliament to avoid discussing the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, the Congress said on Tuesday. "All these are government-sponsored agitations that are meant to adjourn the Houses," said the party's leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge referring to issues like the constitutional amendment, the Telugu Desam Party's demand for special status to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu's call to set up the Cauvery Management Board. "They are finding excuses to avoid discussing the Nirav Modi and PNB scandal," he told reporters here. Kharge said they have been wanting to take up the issue through an adjournment motion since the Parliament session began and despite giving daily notice and meeting the Speaker, the government has been rejecting their demand as it wants to keep the scam away from public eye. He said the government generally goes on passing the bills and demands even when the opposition leaders are agitating in front of the presiding officer's podium. But in last few days, it has been adjourning the houses within two minutes of protest by their alliance and supporting leaders including NDA ministers. "It's the job of Parliamentary Affairs Minister to run the House. Even the Prime Minister has remained silent," he said and added the government is defaming the opposition by blaming them for adjournments. Kharge said they had demands for discussion on six issues on social justice, farmers, railways, road and transport, health and family welfare, and youth affairs but were not given the time. "Suddenly at 2 a.m., I received an agenda saying guillotine will happen for all the six issues and other bills like supplementary bill, appropriation bill and finance bill. If all these have to be done on guillotine or voice vote, then why call the Parliament," he asked. "We wanted time for discussion but the government surely does not want that and is running away from it. This is an attempt to finish democracy," he added. New Delhi, March 13 : HDFC Bank has disallowed its customers from buying Bitcoins, cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies through the bank's credit, debit and prepaid cards. In a circular to the HDFC Bank customers, it said: "You may be aware of the increasing global apprehensions regarding Bitcoins, cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies. The Reserve Bank of India has also cautioned the public regarding the potential economic, operational, legal and security related risks associated in dealing with such currencies." "To ensure our customer's security, we have decided to not permit usage of HDFC Bank Credit, Debit and Prepaid Cards towards purchase or trading of such Bitcoins, cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies, on merchants suspected to be dealing in crypto-currency or online foreign exchange trading or both," the circular added. Earlier in mid-February, Citi Bank had banned its customers from buying cryptocurrencies using credit and debit cards. It said in an email circular: "Given concerns, both globally and locally including from the Reserve Bank of India, cautioning members of the public regarding the potential economic, financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks associated in dealing with bitcoins, cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies, Citi India has decided to not permit usage of its credit and debit cards towards purchase or trading of such bitcoins, cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies." Chennai, March 13 : Antrix Corporation Ltd, the commercial arm of Indian space agency ISRO, on Tuesday clarified that it is the duty of its customers to get necessary permissions from national and international agencies. Its statement came in reaction to a news report about Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launching four American cubesats that didn't have necessary permission from the US government agencies with its rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on January 12 this year. "Cubesats namely SpaceBee-1, 2, 3 & 4 belonging to US start-up company called Swarm Technologies were launched on PSLV C-40 on January 12, 2018 under a commercial agreement with Space Flight, USA," Antrix said. It is reported that US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has denied authorisation for launch of these satellites due to their tiny size - less than 10 cms which makes it difficult to track in the Space Surveillance Network of US, said Antrix. It is also reported that FCC has withheld the launch of four more satellites of the same company through Rocket Lab, New Zealand. "As per commercial launch services agreement of Antrix, the customer shall be responsible for obtaining all permits, authorisations and notices of non-opposition from all national and international authorities who have jurisdiction over the Customer Spacecraft Mission," Antrix clarified. "Since this is an internal matter of US, Antrix has requested its US clients to cross check with the FCC for compliance of regulations before exporting future satellites to India," it added. India has launched several foreign satellites for a fee with its PSLV rocket. Washington, March 13 : US President Donald Trump on Tuesday sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, ending his short but tumultuous tenure as the nations chief diplomat. CIA Director Mike Pompeo will take over the top position. Trump took to Twitter to share the development, saying: "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel -- Deputy Director at the Central Intelligence Agency -- will succeed Pompeo, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed. Both she and Pompeo would need confirmation by the Senate to take their respective positions. "Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Trump tweeted. Tillerson found himself repeatedly at odds with Trump on a variety of key foreign policy issues. A senior administration official said the President made the decision to replace Tillerson in order to have a new team in place in advance of the upcoming summit and trade negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The President last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside and the embattled diplomat, who was touring Africa, cut short his trip on Monday to return to Washington. At the time, the State Department said he was not feeling well, the US media reported. Later, Tillerson diverged from the White House this week in saying that poison used on a former spy in the UK "came from Russia". The policy rift emerged sharply over North Korea when Trump tweeted in October that Tillerson was "wasting his time" trying to negotiate with Pyongyang to end its nuclear and missile programmes. Tillerson had also publicly distanced himself from the President's defiant response to violence at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year. The President on Tuesday thanked Tillerson for his service. He said Pompeo will do a "fantastic job" and "is the right person for the job at this critical juncture". The Army veteran and former Congressman will "continue our programme of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula", Trump said. "I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as Director of the CIA and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State," Pompeo said in a statement. "His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America's prosperity. Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honours of my life." Haspel in a statement also said she was excited for her promotion and said she was "grateful to President Trump for the opportunity". Lahore, March 13 : Punjab Chief Minister and younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif was elected unopposed the President of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz at a convention of the party's General Council on Tuesday. In his first address after officially taking the reins of the party, the younger Sharif said no one from the party can replace Nawaz Sharif -- the former Prime Minister who was ousted by the country's apex court last year. PML-N leaders held a grand general convention on Tuesday to welcome the new party president. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Nawaz Sharif and other bigwigs of PML-N were also part of the convention. Shehbaz Sharif took the stage and expressed his gratitude to Nawaz Sharif saying: "I have been selected as the President of the PML-N. It is an important but difficult task for me. I am aware of the responsibility that has been bestowed on me." "Nawaz was our Quaid today, tomorrow and forever," he added. He further said that he understands that this is not just PML-N's fortune but the entire nation's that they have Nawaz Sharif as their leader. Shehbaz said PML-N also "enjoys support from minorities, ensuring us national security". He confidently stated that "(Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief) Imran Khan and (former co-chairperson of Pakistan People's Party Asif Ali) Zardari combined cannot defeat Nawaz under any circumstance". He further added that "It is a huge opportunity for me that Nawaz has bestowed this challenge upon me. I am humbled and scared also but I will continue working hard with your blessings". New Delhi, March 13 : On a day when thousands of shops across the city were shut to protest against an ongoing sealing drive in the city, AAP and Congress said that an all-party delegation will meet a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee to find a solution to the drive. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken on Tuesday made separate statements on the issue after a meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other Delhi ministers at the CM's residence. The sealing drive -- being carried out by the three BJP-led city municipal corporations under the guidance of the Monitoring Committee -- has been launched against the business establishments using residential properties for commercial purposes and the ones which have not paid conversion charges. Addressing the media separately, Sisodia and Maken also attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not taking part in the meeting, despite an invitation from Kejriwal. "It's very sad that BJP did not come for the meeting but does politics on the issue," Sisodia said. He said that another meeting would be called on the issue of sealing if the BJP is willing to attend it. "The BJP can resolve the issue in a day if they want to." Sisodia also said that the BJP does not want to find a solution to the sealing drive. "BJP wants to make way for FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) through the sealing drive," Sisodia said and added that the drive is being done with the support of BJP. Both leaders said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress MPs will also raise the issue in Parliament. Maken said the Delhi government has not met the Monitoring Committee since the sealing drive began and added that Kejriwal has also agreed for a meeting with the parliamentary panel. Health Minister Satyendar Jain and Development Minister Gopal Rai were among others who attended the meeting on Tuesday afternoon. Later in the day, Congress President Rahul Gandhi attacked both AAP and BJP over the sealing drive. "Stop the drama of allegations and counter-allegations over sealing in Delhi. Due to BJP-AAP collusion and fake fights, traders are facing a lot of difficulties," the Congress President said in a tweet. He also said that both parties should work together to find a solution to the issue. Responding to Gandhi, Kejriwal asked him to raise the issue in Parliament and offered all support from AAP. Meanwhile, the protesting traders called the all-party meeting convened by Kejriwal a "political stunt" and they adopted a resolution to demand that the Kejriwal government pass a bill in the assembly to put an end to the drive. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said that over seven lakh shops in 2,500 markets across the city were shut on Tuesday. Traders also took out protest marches in various markets, including Connaught Place, Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazar, Chawri Bazar, Kamla Nagar, Karol Bagh and Kashmere Gate. On March 28, a traders' rally would be held at Ramlila Maidan here against the sealing drive which, the CAIT said, is in "utter violation" of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi Act, 1957. The business losses due to Tuesday's bandh were estimated at Rs 1,800 crore, with the revenue loss to government pegged at about Rs 150 crore, CAIT said. The Monitoring Committee was set up by the Supreme Court in 2006. In 2012, the apex court asked the committee to halt the drive. But, in December 2017, it ordered resumption of the drive. New Delhi, March 13 : A parliamentary panel on Tuesday rapped the government over repeated terror attacks on defence establishments and raised concern over their perimeter security, giving example of an attack on Sunjuwan Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir. In one of the seven reports tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Major General B.C. Khanduri (retd), asked the government to "go beyond ad-hoc measures". "The Committee are, however, perturbed to find that such incidences have become a recurring affair. The recent terror attack on Sunjuwan Army camp in Kashmir on February 10, wherein families of soldiers were targeted, is a fresh reminder that substantial efforts need to be made on part of the government. This is the latest in a series of attacks on military installations witnessed over the last few years," the report said. The panel said it is "particularly worrisome" that the terrorists are repeatedly being successful in infiltrating high-security military complexes. "The Sunjuwan attack exposes the vulnerabilities in 'perimeter security' and the scant progress made in improving the security protocols since the attack on the Pathankot Air Force station in January 2016. Following the Pathankot incident, there have been major attacks in Uri, Handwara, Nagrota, and Panzgam, all of which involved a substantial number of casualties." In a scathing comment, the committee said it took a series of attacks and numerous casualties to raise the brows and delegation of power for spending Rs 14,097 crore for strengthening perimeter security. "But for the attack, it's quite possible that funds for strengthening perimeter security may not have been sanctioned for quite some time to come," the panel said. Expressing unhappiness over the state of affairs, the panel said the Sunjuwan attack "underscores the need for speedy measures, which go beyond inquiries and policy announcements, so as to overhaul the security system". "The implementation needs to be broad-based, and go beyond ad-hoc measures," it said. The panel said that while the Defence Ministry had delegated powers to the Vice Chief of Army Staff to spend a little over Rs 14,000 crore towards security-related issues, there is no separate allocation made in this regard. The panel urged the government to consider creation of a separate head of account for installation or hiring of security-related equipment and technology, and said the provisions made in the 2018-19 Budget "do not reciprocate the seriousness required towards meeting perimeter security". "Therefore, the committee urge the Ministry of Defence to implement the afore-mentioned measures in order to strengthen the security of various military establishments across the country. The establishments include cantonment areas, institutions, living quarters etc belonging to the three defence services, viz. the Army, Navy and Air Force," the report said. Six soldiers and one civilian were killed in February when a group of terrorists attacked the Sunjwan military station during wee hours of March 10. Three terrorists were killed and arms, ammunition and other material seized from them revealed they owed allegiance to Jaish-e-Mohammad. New Delhi, March 13 : A total of 9,073 cases are under consideration in National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as on January 31, Parliament was told on Tuesday. These include 1,630 cases of merger and amalgamation, 2,511 cases of insolvency and 4,932 cases under other sections of the Companies Act, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs P.P. Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. "All efforts are being taken to dispose off the cases as per the time limits laid down in the Companies Act, 2013 and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016," he said. He added that electronic and information technology among other systems were being used extensively to ensure quick disposal of the cases. New York, March 13 : US President Donald Trump's decision to stall Singapore-based Broadcom from pursuing a takeover of San Diego-based Qualcomm has left many puzzled. Trump on Monday blocked Broadcom's bid for Qualcomm, saying it might "impair the national security" of the country. According to an editorial in The San Diego Union-Tribune, while Qualcomm's health is vital for San Diego's image and economy, big questions remain. "If the decision was prompted by Trump's deep skepticism about international trade and Fortress America instincts, that is less defensible and could haunt US companies in their international dealings," said the editorial. As the State Department website notes, the US and Singapore have long enjoyed "an expansive and enduring relationship based on mutual economic interests, robust security and defense cooperation". "When the president comes to San Diego on Tuesday, an explanation of his decision is needed - not just by residents but by nations that see themselves as US allies," the editorial read. According to the editorial, Trump's move will be cheered by the Qualcomm executives who opposed the bid and welcomed by the 13,000 local Qualcomm workers whose jobs may have been in jeopardy with a new owner. According to Broadcom, it is "reviewing" the order and "strongly disagrees" that its would-be acquisition poses national security risks. Qualcomm, however, said it will reconvene its annual stockholders meeting on March 23 to discuss the situation. According to the letter from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, the takeover would pose too great a security risk. "If Broadcom bought Qualcomm, CFIUS argued, it would likely cut costs at the American company and weaken its ability to compete against Chinese rivals like Huawei," Engadget reported, citing the letter. "That, in turn, would let China dominate 5G wireless and leave Americans vulnerable," it added. Trump's decision to stall the merger comes amid rumours that Intel is believed to be considering making a bid for Broadcom. Bengaluru, March 13 : A narcoanalysis test would be conducted on the man arrested in connection with the murder of Kannada journalist Gauri Lankesh six months ago here, an officer of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) said on Tuesday. "Though the court allowed us to conduct the narco test, or a lie-detector test, on K.T. Naveen Kumar on Monday, the date and place for the same have not been fixed yet," SIT Investigation Officer M.N. Anucheth told IANS here. Kumar, 37, was arrested by the SIT on March 9 and named as an accused in the Gauri Lankesh case. "Evidence collected from him so far confirms him as an accused," Anucheth said earlier. Kumar was taken into custody by the SIT on March 2 for questioning after he was booked by the Crime Branch on February 19 under the Arms Act for illegal possession of 15 bullets of a revolver. The accused hails from Birur town in Chikmagalur district, according to the police. The police hasn't given out any information about Kumar's affiliation with any organisation so far. Kumar had reportedly attended a few public gatherings of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), a Goa-based Hindu organisation affiliated to Sanatan Sanstha, another Hindu right-wing organisation from Goa. "He (Kumar) had attended a few public gatherings of HJS to spread religious awareness and had also organised one in Maddur (in Mandya district, about 80km southwest of Bengaluru) a few months ago," HJS spokesperson for Karnataka Mohan Gowda told IANS here. Gowda, however, asserted that Kumar was not a member or volunteer for HJS. "People interested in religious education take part in our activities but no memberships are offered in HJS or Sanatan Sanstha at all," Gowda said. Lankesh, 55, the Editor of "Lankesh Patrike", was shot dead outside her residence in the city's southwestern suburb by unidentified assailants on September 5 last year. Of the seven bullets fired at her, three hit Lankesh -- two in the chest and one in the forehead. New York, March 13 : President Donald Trump dumped his top diplomat Rex Tillerson on Tuesday citing "a different mindset," especially on Iran, and nominated Central Intelligence Agency chief Mike Pompeo to replace him as Secretary of State. Pompeo, becoming the Secretary of State, will firm up the hardline leadership in the foreign policy and national security establishment, where those with military experience will dominate. The change at the State Department is unlikely to have any impact on India as the influential national security establishment have signed off on Trump's elevation of India's role in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific region and the approaches to those regions in general. Although the announcement came abruptly in a tweet, Trump told reporters later: "Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time. "We got along, actually, quite well but we disagreed on things," he said. "When you look at the Iran deal, I think it's terrible, I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently." "With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process," Trump said. "I think it's going to go very well." Tillerson's ouster follows the resignation of Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, who resigned as the head of the National Economic Council this month. Cohn, a former investment banker, opposed Trump's policy of imposing taxes on steel and aluminum imports, highlighting the ideological splits in the administration between the hardliners and the pragmatists. Tillerson, a former oil executive, was long considered out of the policy loop made up of hardliners, and confirming it, Trump said they did not discuss his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the biggest foreign policy initiative of his administration so far. "No, I really didn't discuss it very much with him, honestly," Trump said. "I made that decision by myself. Rex wasn't, as you know, in this country. I made the North Korea decision with consultation from many people but I made that decision by myself." Tillerson was on a tour of Africa to make amends for Trump's reported statements denigrating the continent and cut short his trip and returned home. Illness was given last Friday as the official reason for his return. Despite the humiliating firing with a tweet and calling back from a diplomatic tour, Trump asserted: "I actually got along well with Rex but really it was a different mindset, a different thinking." Trump named Gina Haspel as the CIA Director, a historic appointment that puts a woman at the head of the intelligence agency for the first time. Pompeo and Haspel will have to be confirmed in their new posts by the Senate, a process during which the administration's security and foreign policies will be under scrutiny. Tillerson was upstaged by United Nations Permanent Representative Nikki Haley, a member of Trump's cabinet, on many of Trump's international priorities like Iran, North Korea, the Middle East and Afghanistan and Pakistan. The first Indian American cabinet official worked in concert with the national security establishment on these issues, sidelining Tillerson. On Monday, she visited the UN with National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to brief Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and members of the Security Council on Washington's initiative on Pyongyang, a job more likely to have been conducted by a Secretary of State in previous administrations. The former head of the oil giant Exxon Mobil, Tillerson, was picked for the nation's top diplomatic job by Trump last year to further US economic interests, an initial priority. However, the priorities have shifted with North Korea, Iran and the Middle East taking centre stage. Trump wants to junk the Iran nuclear deal, the capstone diplomatic achievement of his predecessor Barack Obama. He has reluctantly certified twice to Congress that Iran was complying with the terms of the nuclear agreement reached with it by the US along with the other Security Council Permanent Members and Germany in 2015. Washington's European allies - and China and Russia - stand behind the agreement. Although Washington acting unilaterally would end it, Washington would be isolated, a prospect Trump would not mind. In contrast to Iran and the Middle East -- where he upset the status quo by recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Trump -- has made a dramatic move on North Korea after months of vitriolic exchanges with Kim Jong Un, by agreeing to a summit. The foreign policy-national security establishment is now headed by people with military backgrounds. Pompeo was a cavalry officer before entering politics as a member of the Republican Party's right wing and getting elected to Congress. McMaster is also currently a Lieutenant General, although the National Security Adviser post is held usually by civilians. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis is a retired Marine Corps general. Trump's Chief of Staff John Kelly is a former general, and even Haley has a military connection through her husband Michael, an Army National Guard officer, who has served in Afghanistan. Haspel is a career CIA officer who was promoted to deputy CIA director last year. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in) Anjaw (Arunachal Pradesh), March 13 : Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig B.D. Mishra (retd) on Tuesday visited Hawai and Kibitho, which is among the remote security posts on the India-China border. He appealed to armed forces officers and men and others to motivate the youth from the region to join the Indian Army. Accompanied by his wife Neelam Mishra, the Governor met members of local communities and government officials and personnel of the Indo Tibetan Border Police and Army at both the locations. He complimented personnel of the armed forces for works aimed at the welfare of the local populace in addition to their prime duty of securing the Indian borders. Brigadier Mishra said the nation needs soldiers, particularly sons of the soil, for national defence and emphasised on the recruitment of local youths in the armed forces. "If we focus attention on our youths and harness and utilise their potential, we will be immensely contributing towards the prosperity of the nation," the Governor said while appreciating area people for emotional and other support to armed forces in performing their duty. "The government officials must work with responsibility, move forward with innovation, initiatives and take suo motu action to benefit the people," he said at a meeting at Hawai, the district headquarters of Anjaw district, which is also the easternmost district of India. The Governor emphasised that healthcare and education must be the topmost priority sectors for the government. Pointing at the war memorials, the Governor said there must be no memorials in the future. "For that, we have to secure every inch of our land and that can be done if we have home-grown soldiers," he said and urged local representatives, villagers and government officials to identify, motivate and facilitate local youths to join the Army. New Delhi, March 13 : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday asked Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir to visit Chhattisgarh and review the situation in the wake of killing of nine CRPF personnel in a Maoist attack in Sukma district. "Rajnath Singh has asked Ahir to reach Chhattisgarh tonight (Tuesday) and review the ground situation in the wake of the LWE attack in Sukma," a Home Ministry tweet said. At least nine Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed and two injured in Sukma earlier in the day, in one of the deadliest attacks by Maoist rebels on security forces this year. Maoists blew up an anti-landmine vehicle of the CRPF's 212 Battalion along the 5-km under-construction Kistaram-Palodi road by using over 50-kg Improvised Explosive Device around 12.30 p.m. when the CRPF personnel were on routine patrol and going towards a newly-opened post in Palodi in Kishtaram. The blast was followed by a heavy exchange of fire between security forces and Maoists in which the rebels also suffered casualties. Rajnath Singh termed the incident "deeply distressing" and asked CRPF Director General Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar to visit the spot. Lucknow, March 14 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced an assistance of Rs 25 lakh each to the families of three CRPF troopers hailing from the state, who were killed in a Maoist attack in Sukma, Chattisgarh. Of this, Rs 20 lakh would be given to the widows of the deceased Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and Rs 5 lakh to their parents, an official said on Tuesday. Extending his sympathies and condolences to the bereaved families, Adityanath also directed his ministers, in-charge of the districts from where these troopers hailed, to personally visit their families. In an attack in Sukma earlier on Tuesday, Manoj Singh of Ballia, Shobhit Kumar Sharma of Ghaziabad and Dharmendra Singh of Mau district were killed along with six other CRPF personnel. Custom Computer Specialists, announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Custom Computer Specialists to its 2018 Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list in the Elite 150 category. This annual list recognizes North American solution providers with cutting-edge approaches to delivering managed services. Their offerings help companies navigate the complex and ever-changing landscape of IT, improve operational efficiencies, and maximize their return on investment. In todays fast-paced business environments, MSPs play an important role in helping companies leverage new technologies without straining their budgets or losing focus on their core business. CRNs MSP 500 list shines a light on the most forward-thinking and innovative of these key organizations. The list is divided into three categories: the MSP Pioneer 250, recognizing companies with business models weighted toward managed services and largely focused on the SMB market; the MSP Elite 150, recognizing large, data center-focused MSPs with a strong mix of on-premises and off-premises services; and the Managed Security 100, recognizing MSPs focused primarily on off-premise, cloud-based security services. We are honored to be named in the Elite 150 category of CRNs 2018 Managed Service Provider 500 list. Im proud of all that my engineering team has accomplished this year, said Gregory Galdi, President and founder of Custom Computer Specialists. This recognition is due in no small part due to their hard work and our clients as they continue to trust us as their technology partner. Managed service providers have become integral to the success of businesses everywhere, both large and small, said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. Capable MSPs enable companies to take their cloud computing to the next level, streamline spending, effectively allocate limited resources and navigate the vast field of available technologies. The companies on CRNs 2018 MSP 500 list stand out for their innovative services, excellence in adapting to customers changing needs and demonstrated ability to help businesses get the most out of their IT investments. The MSP500 list was featured in the February 2018 issue of CRN and online at http://www.CRN.com/msp500. Follow Custom Computer Specialists: Twitter and Facebook Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook About Custom Computer Specialists Founded in 1979, Custom Computer Specialists helps Northeast public and private sector clients get maximum value from their IT investments. Customs unique combination of privately owned flexibility and extensive IT capability empowers it to architect client-centric solutions that deliver results. http://www.customtech.com About the Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. Copyright 2018. The Channel Company, LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. In 2014, the water crisis in Flint Michigan made the headlines daily. The Glenholme School, a special needs boarding and day school, responded with aid through its Fund a Fresh Future for Flint. Nearly four years later, as the crisis continues quietly away from the nightly news, it is no less critical. Glenholme honors its promise to maintain support for Flint and its families for as long as it takes. During the school year, all liquids including soups, soda and water, sold in The Commons the on-site, student-operated vocational cafe have a fundraising surcharge for the benefit of the Flint families affected by the water crises. Four times per year since 2014, the school has sent funds to the Foundation for Flint, which is synonymous with FlintKids.org. The most recent donation was made in January of 2018. In response to the schools recent donation, the Foundation for Flint staff member wrote a personal note to the school. She said, As an employee of the Foundation, Id like to thank The Glenholme School for their support! As the parent of a child who was exposed to lead in his drinking water, please accept my personal gratitude for your continued kindness. Collectively, the donated funds from Glenholme for FlintKids.org have surpassed $2,400 and the school aims to continue the endeavor until the restoration of a healthy water supply to the Flint community is complete. The families of Flint still have a long road to recovery. And every effort, no matter how big or how small, makes a difference. Everyone at Glenholme is proud to do their part. About The Glenholme School: Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health The Glenholme School is an independent, coeducational, special needs boarding and day school for young people with high functioning autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, OCD, Tourette, depression, anxiety, and various learning differences. The program provides a treatment milieu designed to build competence socially and academically. Our learning environment supports and enhances the ability for young people with special needs to succeed. Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health is a leading nonprofit behavioral health organization that supports many of the most vulnerable members of our society. For more information about The Glenholme School and its program, visit http://www.theglenholmeschool.org/. Mother Earth Products announced today that it will participate in the Virginia Food and Beverage Expo on Wednesday, March 21 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Sponsored by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), the trade show connects buyers representing grocery stores, restaurants and gift shops directly with Virginia specialty food and beverage products. Mother Earth Products will feature some of its most popular products such as freeze dried strawberries, blueberries, and grapes at this years show. We look forward to showcasing the versatility of our products for everyday life said Lauren Young, company vice president. Mother Earth Products is a leading distributor of natural and Non-GMO freeze-dried fruits and vegetables. The company was founded by the Young and Evans families and is based in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Mother Earth Products creates the highest quality freeze dried and dehydrated foods, which the company retails online to thousands of customers. For more information about Mother Earth Products, visit http://www.motherearthproducts.com, or find Mother Earth Products on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. With the theme The Best of the Best, this years Virginia Food and Beverage Expo celebrates the strong reputation and high quality of Virginia specialty food and beverage products. Hundreds of Virginia foods and beverages will be on display, allowing attendees an opportunity to meet one-on-one with producers, select new items, and place orders right on the show floor. Food and beverage buyers may register online at http://www.vaexpo.com. Registration is free and encouraged to save time at the show entrance. Members of the media who are interested in attending the Virginia Food and Beverage Expo are encouraged to register at http://www.vaexpo.com or contact Dawn Eischen in the VDACS Office of Communications. This event is not open to the public and no one under 18 will be admitted. Clients want to make sure that their brand is protected and Sales Focus makes sure this is a priority. I can reassure my clients that through our extensive recruiting, hiring and training process our recruiting team uses skill based profiling to find the right candidate", Tony Horwath, CEO Founded in 1998, Sales Focus Inc. (SFI) pioneered the sales outsourcing industry by deploying dedicated outsourced sales teams, across the US, which are recruited, trained and managed specifically to meet each clients revenue goals. For 20 years Sales Focus has been developing innovative sales solutions for companies of every size, Fortune 500 to early stage companies. Their commitment to their client is focused on immediate revenue generation, brand protection, sales intelligence and a reduced cost of sales. The new Recruiting initiative has reinforced the commitment to Brand Protection for our clients. Since the start of this industry many sales outsourcing companies have opened their doors and Tony Horwath, President/ CEO, has been asked repeatedly what makes his company stand out! Clients want to make sure that their brand is protected and Sales Focus makes sure this is a priority. I can reassure my clients that through our extensive recruiting, hiring and training process our recruiting team uses skill based profiling to find the right candidate. I always tell my clients that I want our sales people to feel as comfortable at our Christmas party as they would at yours. Although the highly qualified sales reps are hired, trained and managed by the Sales Focus management team, when they are out on the street they are 100% representing the client, making the recruiting process that much more important. Sales Focuss recruiting team has an extensive data base of qualified candidates that have experience in every industry. After the recruiting team pre-qualifies each candidate they go through several phone, and skype screens as well as an assessment test prior to being invited to an in-person interview. SFI focuses their effort on delivering clients top-tier talent with the specialized skills and experience to drive sales and make the program a success for all parties. They are so confident in their recruiting and training process that they guarantee every candidate they present fits the clients unique selling environment. Sales Focus represented our company for over 6 years, writing well over 5,000 contracts and not once did we have a situation of unprofessional sales behavior. We were very impressed with the quality of each sales representative and the training that they received prior to going out into the field. Initially, we were concerned about protecting our brand and having a qualified sales team representing our company but we were quickly reassured when our revenue started to soar. EVP, Energy Industry. When looking for a company to outsource our inside sales team our top concern was that we wanted a US based team. Most of the companies we talked to hired their inside sales reps off shore. We have found that there is little or no control over day to day activities and sales ethics. We were impressed that Sales Focuss inside sales office was based in their US headquarters with a management team on site. All of the candidates they hired to represent our company had a minimum 2-5 years of experience and were aligned with our core sales goals and expectations. CEO, IT Services Organization. Once the candidate makes it through the initial screening they are interviewed by the recruiting team, as well as the sales management team. Frequently the clients are involved in the final selection. Prior to an offer letter each candidate goes through an extensive background check and drug testing. Once the hiring is complete, the new employee moves right into the initial training process. All sales agents go through our extensive sales training, which includes input from our clients. The SFI Skills Training program includes, understanding the SFI Sales Culture, Sales Skills Training, Assessment Tests and hour of Role Playing. Sales Agents are not put in the field until they are prepared to represent our clients with the appropriate sales and product knowledge along with a high regard for sales ethics and professionalism, states CJ Minick, Director of HR. Although we are a fortune 500 company we struggled to build a SMB sales team across the US. Sales Focus was able to build a successful team of 40 sales agents across the US within 45 days. After three years the team was so successful that we were able to hire them internally. Senior Executive, Fortune 500 Company, Manufacturing Whether your company is small or large, inside sales or outside, feet on the street sales, Sales Focuss team has the ability to recruit a dedicated sales team and develop an innovative sales solution for your company. PresenceLearning Our students are excited to attend their online therapy sessions, said Luhr. We were concerned with students staying on task during sessions, but they are really engaged with the online SLPs. PresenceLearning, the leading telehealth network of live, online special education related service providers, recently named Norfolk Public Schools in Norfolk, NE as a winner of its 4th annual Awards of Excellence. The awards recognized 12 educational organizations nationwide for their outstanding organizational leadership, teamwork, and improved outcomes in helping students with special needs succeed. Norfolk Public Schools is a Class A school district in northeast Nebraska, serving approximately 4,300 K-12 students. When the district was short an SLP and was unable to fill the position for the 2016-17 school year, Mary Luhr, the districts Director of Special Services, decided to partner with PresenceLearning to provide online speech-language therapy services. Five online SLPs began working with approximately 55 students from two of Norfolks elementary schools that year. Our students are excited to attend their online therapy sessions, said Luhr. We were concerned with students staying on task during sessions, but they are really engaged with the online SLPs. Now in its second year of the program, the online SLPs conduct live, ongoing direct therapy services with approximately 80 students via PresenceLearnings secure online therapy platform. They tailor sessions to students language disorders and articulation needs outlined in their IEPs, and are able to incorporate students academic work and interests. Just like the districts onsite SLPs, the online SLPs participate in IEP planning, meet with district staff and students families to discuss student progress, and conduct assessments. The program attracted the interest of nearby districts experiencing therapist shortages, and Luhr shared Norfolk Public Schools experience and success with her colleagues. We have great communication with our staff, students families, and the online SLPs, and our Customer Success Manager is fantastic, said Luhr. She formally meets with us on a quarterly basis and she frequently touches base to make sure the program is running smoothly. The level of service we receive from PresenceLearning is amazing. The 12 PresenceLearning Awards of Excellence winners were selected based on positive student progress and engagement, strong organizational leadership, informed parental support, and standout partnership and collaboration during the 2016-17 school year. Each winner will receive a plaque and their story will be featured on PresenceLearnings website. The leaders and staff at these educational organizations, including Norfolk Public Schools, have shown remarkable commitment and vision by embracing a new way to serve students with special needs, said Clay Whitehead, CEO and co-founder of PresenceLearning. Their dedication enables students to make significant progress on their goals in a supportive environment and we are honored to recognize them for their leadership. About PresenceLearning PresenceLearning (http://www.presencelearning.com) is the leading telehealth network of providers of clinical services and assessments to educational organizations. The PresenceLearning care network has provided over one million sessions of live, online speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral interventions and mental health services, diagnostic services and assessments, and early childhood services for children with special needs. Dennis Behrman, SVP of Marketing [Dennis] brings an extensive knowledge of product marketing and go-to-market strategies as well as vast knowledge of the SaaS industry, ResMan property management software, recently named Industry Partner of the Year, is announcing the addition of Dennis Behrman as Senior Vice President of Marketing. Behrman comes to ResMan with a commitment to customer satisfaction and a passion for the creative and analytical aspects of B2B SaaS marketing. Behrman is responsible for implementing a corporate marketing strategy derived from ResMans progressive business objectives. He will direct and manage initiatives that drive revenue through brand management, direct and field marketing initiatives, sales enablement, and corporate communications. Additionally, Behrman will focus on campaigns that communicate the value of ResMans technology solutions to new and existing markets. His past experiences include nearly two decades building fraud prevention solutions for financial institutions and their customers and, most recently, leading marketing programs for two household names in the SaaS industry. Dennis served in key product and marketing leadership roles with Active Network, SiriusXM, ID Analytics, and Experian. Marketing is an essential piece of ResMans 2018 strategy, and having Dennis expertise as we continue to launch new products and grow our brand awareness will be highly critical. He brings an extensive knowledge of product marketing and go-to-market strategies as well as vast knowledge of the SaaS industry, says Elizabeth Francisco, President of ResMan. ResMan was founded by operators who have walked in the shoes of our customers. They knew that the software options available to them were far from ideal and set out to solve that problem. ResMan has a superior, best-of-breed product that is loved by its adopters and supported by a world-class team who is empowered and enthusiastic about our customers' success. These factors made the decision to join ResMan an easy one, Behrman states. Dennis earned his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Boston University Questrom School of Management. Dennis is an adoring husband and father of three. Outside of work, he is active in his community and enjoys volunteerism. About ResMan: ResMan is the fastest growing property management software solution in the multifamily industry. In an age of new ideas, ResMan prides itself on recruiting some of the brightest minds in the industry to deliver intuitive software and industry-leading customer experiences. Built on a single platform: ResMans Multifamily Solution Suite provides a highly intuitive solution to meet both operational and accounting needs for the multifamily owner/operator. The foundation of Multifamily Solutions Suite is the Essentials Platform which delivers the most robust core in the industry, providing easy-to-use automation tools that improve operational effectiveness and productivity for Conventional and Affordable Housing Property Management. Through dedicated and collaborative partnerships between ResMan and their integrated strategic partners, consumers can take advantage of best in class solutions with single sign-on and support from ResMans dedicated client services team. For more information, visit http://www.myresman.com Snapshot of the website. We are committed to delivering the most innovative products and solutions to our customers, said Greg Force, President and CEO of Tindall. This led us to develop a new website that is designed to clearly reflect that mindset, as well as the advantages of a partnership with Tindall. The new website serves as a thought starter for those interested in learning more about Tindalls expertise and capabilities. The site celebrates the diverse applications of precast, showcasing the companys best work in such markets as industrial, mixed use, education, parking, and utility products. Visitors can also access the latest news, customer testimonials, team information and career opportunities. We are committed to delivering the most innovative products and solutions to our customers, said Greg Force, President and CEO of Tindall. This led us to develop a new website that is designed to clearly reflect that mindset, as well as the advantages of a partnership with Tindall. The websites clean and uncluttered design emphasizes improved mobile functionality, while enhancing the capability to stay up-to-date on the latest products and precast innovations through refreshed content. New functionality allows visitors to connect directly with the most relevant Tindall team member for their project. The website goes live today. Explore Tindalls new website by visiting http://www.tindallcorp.com. Tindall Corporation Headquartered in Spartanburg, SC, Tindall Corporation is one of the largest precast concrete manufacturers in North America. With five production facilities located throughout the Mid-Atlantic to the South Central United States, Tindall provides engineering, manufacturing, shipping and installation solutions for precast, prestressed concrete systems and underground utility structures. Nancy Zhang, Coolpad Chief Intellectual Property Officer Our early investment in IP has led us to own over 10,000 patents already. As we continue to invest in innovation, including setting up a dedicated R&D center for artificial intelligence in Silicon Valley, were going to continue to secure more patents for our groundbreaking technologies Coolpad Group (HKG: 2369) today announces the appointment of Nancy Zhang as its first Global Chief Intellectual Property Officer. Previously Minister of Intellectual Property of Coolpad Group, Zhang will take up a global role to support Coolpads drive to increase innovation in mobile technologies, and defend patents from infringements. Based in Coolpads global headquarters in Shenzhen, China, Zhang will also spend more time in Coolpads U.S. offices as Coolpad increases its investment in the U.S with new offices and R&D teams. Our early investment in IP has led us to own over 10,000 patents already. As we continue to invest in innovation, including setting up a dedicated R&D center for artificial intelligence in Silicon Valley, were going to continue to secure more patents for our groundbreaking technologies, said Mr. Jiang Chao, CEO of Coolpad Group. But, with innovation comes more opportunities for other companies to take advantage of our inventions for their own use. The appointment of Nancy Zhang as our first Global Chief Intellectual Property Officer indicates how seriously we take defending our innovations. Coolpad has always heavily invested in new technologies, and Im particularly excited about the developments that we have and will make in 5G and artificial intelligence, said Zhang. As we continue to invest in R&D and new innovation, my role will be to ensure that we not only secure the necessary recognition of our technologies but also vigorously defend any infringement to our patents not only in our domestic markets, but also in the U.S. and all other countries that we operate in. Coolpad has invested heavily in innovation and its own intellectual property. To date, Coolpad has been awarded over 10,000 patents in the mobile handset space. Zhang has been in charge of setting up Coolpads intellectual property team, which has doubled in size in the past few years including the hiring of team members outside of China to increase the number of patent applications and awards in the U.S. and other countries. Under Zhangs direction, in 2015 Coolpad became the only enterprise in Shenzhen, China to be awarded a national intellectual property certification, The State Patent Award, which is the highest government Patent Award and the only government award recognized by the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO"). Coolpad has actually received this Award seven times, with two focused on Coolpads work in 5G. 5G technologies has been a priority for innovation and Coolpad has more than 800 patents submitted, with more than 300 authorized, while the company has been heavily involved in setting 5G standards with other industry leaders. Zhang will continue to lead Coolpads 5G Standard Patent Portfolio and work with Coolpad partners like Qualcomm and Ericsson to manage licensing of their patents for Coolpad technologies. Coolpad is a leading member of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) setting up the 5G standard and has contributed over 800 patents around 5G technology to the 3GPP. Coolpad is also one of the 5G technology leaders working on Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technologys National Science and Technology Major project to boost the development of the 5G industry. Zhang holds a Master of Engineering after graduating from South China University of Technology and maintains a patent attorney license. With ten years of corporate management experience in intellectual property management, Zhang is also Vice President of China Patent Protection Association, Vice President of Shenzhen Patent Association and Vice President of Shenzhen Copyright Association. For more information or interview with Coolpad executives, please contact: Maya Nimnicht coolpadus@hotwireglobal.com About Coolpad Group Coolpad is one of the top global mobile device brands focused on bringing affordable, reliable products with the best user experience to global consumers. We have been operating globally since 1993 and expanded into the U.S. market, headquartered in San Diego, California, in 2012 with strong product quality and clear value proposition. We believe that a consumer should never have to choose between quality and affordability, and pride ourselves on the ability to provide cost-efficient, powerful, and reliable mobile devices. We strive to bring a smart mobile ecosystem backed by artificial intelligence with value-packed technology in new categories, including wearables, IoT, AI, and accessories. Partnering with the team at Lighthouse now affords us the opportunity to make home security systems more attainable than ever for our customers, said Eyal Ronen, CEO and cofounder of Puls. Puls Technologies, Inc., the rapid-response services platform for smart devices, and Lighthouse, makers of the first-of-its-kind AI home camera, today announced a new partnership to deliver in-home installation services for the Lighthouse camera, bringing superior home awareness technology to consumers across the country. With the desire for home monitoring at an all time high and the need for better control over busy households, Lighthouse provides customers the most effortless way to connect and protect your family. Lighthouse combines proprietary 3D sensing, machine learning and natural language processing to monitor your home, detect important activity and notify you of events you specifically care about. Puls leverages its own unique AI to dispatch highly qualified technicians to users doorsteps quickly and conveniently, ensuring any new smart home products are properly set up for the best user experience. Partnering with the team at Lighthouse now affords us the opportunity to make home security systems more attainable than ever for our customers, said Eyal Ronen, CEO and cofounder of Puls. We are experiencing the rise of smart home integrations that help customers stay connected to their home and loved ones when they are away, bringing convenience and peace of mind to families. Were particularly excited about the innovative new features that Lighthouse brings to the home security market. Puls focus on providing a seamless and delightful user experience for their customers mirrors our own, said Jessica Gilmartin, CMO and General Manager of Lighthouse. Puls ability to provide a premium installation experience is a significant value-add to anyone purchasing our product. When customers purchase a Lighthouse camera, they can now tap into the Puls network of highly skilled, vetted technicians for a seamless setup. Technicians will be available for home installations starting in Houston, Dallas and Los Angeles from 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m., seven days a week. Service price is $69 for installation, Wi-Fi testing and optimization, including a full demo of the product and app. To schedule a Puls technician, visit https://puls.com/lighthouse. To learn more about Lighthouse and to purchase, visit https://light.house. About Puls Founded in 2015, Puls Technologies, Inc. (formerly CellSavers, Inc.) connects consumers with highly skilled technicians to install or repair smart technology devices anytime, anywhere. Providing services in more than 50 local markets, Puls leverages a proprietary technology platform to match customers with the right technician, managing the process from start to finish, in as little as 60 minutes. With thousands of 5-star reviews on Facebook and Yelp, Puls goes the extra mile for each customer and corporate partner to ensure exceptional service and guaranteed results. Puls is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in San Diego and Tel Aviv, and has raised $43 million in financing to date, with backing from Sequoia Capital, Temasek-backed Red Dot Capital Partners, Samsung NEXT, and Viola Ventures. Learn more at http://www.puls.com. About Lighthouse Lighthouse, an AI services company, was founded by CEO Alex Teichman, PhD, and CTO Hendrik Dahlkamp, who have deep roots in the self-driving community, and whose collective achievements include the creation of patented computer vision technology, the development of the vision system for Stanley - the first autonomous car to complete the DARPA Grand Challenge - and technology that became Google Street View. Lighthouse has raised $17 million in funding from Eclipse Ventures, Playground Global, SignalFire, Felicis Ventures and StartX. Lighthouse is headquartered in Palo Alto at Andy Rubin's Playground Global. Media Contacts Kristen Mondshein for Puls Puls(at)sourcecodecomms(dot)com Laurie Spindler-Jones for Lighthouse press(at)light(dot)house Were excited to have the opportunity to share our expertise at the Wind O&M Summit with professionals who are seeking better ways to minimize risk, assure data security, and continue their successful NERC compliance programs. Ann Broussard, Office of NERC Compliance Business Development Director. Certrec, a leading regulatory compliance provider for NERC compliance, announced today its participation as a sponsor in the 10th Annual Wind Operations Dallas 2018 to be held at the Westin Galleria in Dallas, Texas, from April 16-18. Currently, Certrec provides NERC compliance support on an ongoing basis to three U.S. wind fleets as well as fleets that include wind facilities. It also provides supplemental support to a U.S. wind fleets NERC team and is in discussions with several possible new wind clients. The dynamics of the wind industrynewly improved technologies, customized systems, talented individuals, unique corporate cultures, and a changing regulatory environmentcreate challenges for the best-run organization. As a result, many discover that a standardized approach to NERC compliance, using cookie-cutter templates, does not result in a successful NERC compliance program. Certrec Corporation is dedicated to regulatory compliance exclusively and has been its inception in 1988. Certrecs approach is key to its successful client programs and growing NERC practice. Certrec understands that an entity that is dedicated to compliance operates every day in compliance. Every day, they are audit ready, and this is accomplished through an effective Internal Controls Process with periodic self-evaluations of effectiveness, coupled with a robust, corrective-action process. Were excited to have the opportunity to share our expertise at the Wind O&M Summit with professionals who are seeking better ways to minimize risk, assure data security, and continue their successful NERC compliance programs. - Ann Broussard, Office of NERC Compliance Business Development Director. New Energy Update The wind energy market is changing at a rapid pace and, with fossil fuels at the whim of the tough commodities market, the growth of wind energy is only set to continue. As companies invest in or develop larger turbine fleets, they will be faced with an array of challenges that require careful and precise reactive and proactive measures. Compliance with codes and regulations is a key part and Im glad to have the experience of Certrec on board to assist the whole supply chain in managing critical NERC compliance programs. Kerr Jeferies, Project Director, New Energy Update. CERTREC Founded in 1988, Certrec is an engineering and technology-based organization that provides regulatory support services in the electric power industry. With more than 1000 cumulative years of direct industry experience (including wind, solar, nuclear, and fossil), Certrec has developed exceptional capabilities to support regulatory activities emanating from regulatory entities such as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and Regional Entities (NERC), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and other regulatory agencies. Certrec's Office of NERC Compliance (ONC), Office of Licensing and Compliance (OLC), Office of Assessment and Recovery (OAR), and Office of New Plant (ONP) services are used by utilities and entities across the United States to help manage the regulatory process to their advantage. NEW ENERGY UPDATE New Energy Update is a central information and networking platform for the Global wind, solar, tidal, and energy storage industry. We help business leaders interact, share cutting edge information and broker major contracts. Working closely with our community, our mission is to stay ahead of latest industry developments and tailor unique opportunities that encourage business growth. We do this through the creation of focused news, events and reports. Our customers consist of onshore and offshore wind power generators, investors, turbine manufactures and their value chains in development, construction, operations and maintenance. With our team of dedicated researchers, producers and business development managers we want to help our customers develop, expand and grow across the global wind energy sector. Dr. Anita Joy, associate professor and chair of the SIU SDMs Department of Growth, Development and Structure. I plan to focus on strategic planning as it relates to educational/curricular competency assessments. Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicines (SIU SDM) Dr. Anita Joy is the recipient of the 2018 American Dental Education Association/ADEAGies Foundation Education Fellowship. Joy is an associate professor and chair of the SIU SDMs Department of Growth, Development and Structure. She is an 8-year member of the SDM faculty, having joined in 2010 and began her interactions with the ADEA at that time. Being awarded this prestigious fellowship is an honor both personally and professionally, Joy said. I hope to be able to translate my experiences into practical policies and assessment protocols for the SDM. I plan to focus on strategic planning as it relates to educational/curricular competency assessments. The ADEA and ADEAGies Foundation annually provide the opportunity for a dental educator to become familiar with a broad range of timely issues facing dental education through a unique learning experience. Joy noted that change is constant in dental education. Educational improvements are vital and need to be part of the culture of any institution, because of the far-reaching effects they can have on the learner, the teacher, and in the case of the dental school, our patients, she said. The American Dental Education Association is a unique organization, whose primary focus is academic dentistry. I have used every opportunity to learn from, teach or share my experiences and network with dental educators from across the country. Joy will receive a stipend valued at $15,000 to pursue a cumulative 2-3 month fellowship at the ADEA office in Washington, D.C. She will accept the award at the 2018 ADEA Annual Session and Exhibition in Orlando on Monday, March 19 at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center. Dr. Joy is a valuable member of the School of Dental Medicine, both as a faculty member and an administrator, said SIU SDM Dean Bruce Rotter, DMD. She is always poised to take on additional responsibilities, continually improving herself, as well as the school. This recent award/fellowship is further evidence of her willingness and ability to develop and contribute. The ADEAs mission is to lead institutions and individuals in the dental education community to address contemporary issues influencing education, research and the delivery of oral healthcare for the overall health and safety of the public. As the only philanthropy dedicated solely to dental education, the mission of the ADEAGies Foundation is to enhance the oral health of the public by funding programs that support innovations in dental education, research, leadership and recognition. To achieve its mission, the foundation awards grants and annually hosts The William J. Gies Awards for Vision, Innovation and Achievement. The SIU School of Dental Medicine students manage approximately 35,000 patient visits each year at its patient clinics in Alton and East St. Louis. In addition, students offer oral health treatment, screenings and education to more than 10,000 people annually through a wide variety of off-campus community outreach events. These opportunities provide students the training they need to graduate and become highly skilled dentists. The School of Dental Medicine is a vital oral health care provider for residents of southern and central Illinois, and the St. Louis metropolitan region. -SIUE- Photo: Dr. Anita Joy, associate professor and chair of the SIU SDMs Department of Growth, Development and Structure, is the recipient of the 2018 American Dental Education Association/ADEAGies Foundation Education Fellowship. Doug McIlhagga SIUE Marketing & Communications Office: (618) 650-5600 Cell: (314) 402-8655 IHRSA Booth #4219 In Black Box you will utilize strength, agility, balance and speed in a larger than life virtual world where we are able to harness the nature that is brought out in video games - dedication, determination, and longevity - and turn it into real, physical workouts that challenge both mind and body. Black Box VR, a pioneer in virtual reality fitness, has been declared BEST STARTUP of CES 2018 for its innovative resistance-based experience. The award was presented in Las Vegas by Engadget, the Official Awards Partner of the International Consumer Electronics Show, and was hand-selected by their judges from an estimated total of over 900 startups at the conference. The team also opened the show as an official 2018 CES Innovation Award Honoree, and were present at the Sands Expo Hall debuting their system to the public for the first time. With plans to open their first boutique gym in San Francisco in late 2018, the Black Box VR studio has developed the worlds first fully automated cable resistance machine that integrates virtual reality hardware and original virtual eSport software powered by HTC Vive. Black Box VR users get an intense, time-dilated, custom workout while immersed in challenging, gamified and competitive virtual reality fitness experiences that redefine eSports into physically active vSports. This is Black Box VRs first time exhibiting at IHRSA. We couldnt be more excited to participate at such a prestigious and important conference. IHRSA has led the way for new technologies and customer-focused concepts in the fitness industry for decades. Bringing together the top trainers, gym owners, and fitness equipment manufacturers allows these revolutionary products to get to consumers more quickly, said Ryan DeLuca, CEO and Co-Founder of Black Box VR. Preston Lewis, Black Box VR Co-Founder, added We believe combining addictive gaming principles with immersive technologies and science-backed fitness experiences are going to drive the future of the health and fitness industry. Our demo will paint a picture of this future and, with thousands of fitness enthusiasts, IHRSA is the perfect place to show off the experience. For media inquiries, please contact pr(at)blackbox-vr(dot)com. For investment, partnership, or general inquiries, please contact hello(at)blackbox-vr(dot)com. For additional information, visit http://www.blackbox-vr.com, follow @BlackBox_VR on twitter, and be sure to like Black Box VR Fitness on Facebook. About Black Box VR: Founded by fitness fanatics and industry veterans Ryan DeLuca and Preston Lewis, the Black Box VR team spent years elevating Bodybuilding.com into the largest online supplement retailer in the world with nearly $500M in annual sales. With the collaboration of many talented individuals, they created some of the worlds most recognized supplement brands, developed chart-topping fitness mobile applications, were honored for their award-winning health and fitness campaigns, and created the worlds largest online fitness social network with over 3M members while always holding true to the mission of changing peoples lives. In 2016, Preston and Ryan decided to start their new venture, Black Box VR, with a mission to disrupt the fitness industry once again by creating innovative products and experiences that create lasting change in peoples lives. After trying virtual reality for the first time, Ryan and Preston knew they were experiencing a magically immersive technology that, if paired with resistance training, gaming principles and high intensity cardio, will be the winning combination for people trying to reach their health & fitness goals. Black Box VR is redefining fitness as we know it. In January of 2018, the team was awarded the honor of 'BEST STARTUP' of CES by Engadget, the Official Awards Partner of the International Consumer Electronics Show. Media Contact: Black Box VR 404 S 8th St Suite 200 Boise, ID 83702 pr(at)blackbox-vr(dot)com We are proud to partner with Antidote to help patients find and take part in research so that they can participate in driving the prevention, treatment and cure of liver disease. - Thomas F. Nealon III, Chief Executive Officer of the American Liver Foundation The American Liver Foundation (ALF), the nations largest patient advocacy organization for people with liver disease, announced today the launch of an online search tool to match liver disease patients with clinical trials that are appropriate for them. Powered by Antidote, a digital health company that connects patients with research, the tool allows visitors to search clinical trials through a widget on the ALF website. By connecting patients directly to research, ALF hopes to turn the tide of liver disease and expand the body of knowledge that contributes to better treatments and cures. In the last few years, we have continued to see a rise in the number of people affected by liver diseases, and the pharmaceutical industry has responded to this need with an influx of clinical trials, said Thomas F. Nealon III, Chief Executive Officer of the American Liver Foundation. We are proud to partner with Antidote to help patients find and take part in research so that they can participate in driving the prevention, treatment, and cure of liver disease. The search engine, Antidote Match, explores a patient's eligibility for every openly recruiting trial on ClinicalTrials.gov through the use of structured eligibility criteria and proprietary algorithms. Patients answer a series of short questions about their condition to obtain a list of study matches within their preferred area. They may opt to receive more information about study matches and are encouraged to work with their doctor to apply to a study site. Antidote serves all patient communities and organizations that believe that research volunteers can make a difference in finding new treatments, and ultimately cures, said Grace McElroy, Head of Partnerships at Antidote. We are pleased to announce this new collaboration and support for those affected by liver disease with potentially breakthrough research opportunities. Liver disease affects 30 million people in the United States, or one in 10 Americans, and this number is rising because of increasing rates of diabetes and obesity, among other factors.[1] Common liver diseases, some of which may result in liver transplantation, include forms of chronic hepatitis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), liver cancer, genetic conditions such as Wilsons disease, and diseases of the bile ducts, such as primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), and biliary atresia.[2] To learn more and search for a trial, please visit: https://www.liverfoundation.org/for-patients/resources/clinical-trials/. About the American Liver Foundation Founded in 1976, the American Liver Foundation (ALF) is the nations largest patient advocacy organization for people with liver disease. ALF reaches more than 2 million individuals each year with health information, education and support services via its national office, 16 U.S. divisions and an active online presence. Recognized as a trusted voice for liver disease patients, ALF also operates a national toll-free helpline (800-GO-LIVER), educates patients, policymakers and the public, and provides grants to early-career researchers to help find a cure for all liver diseases. ALF is celebrating more than 40 years of turning patients into survivors. For more information about ALF, please visit http://www.liverfoundation.org. About Antidote Antidote is a digital health company on a mission to accelerate the breakthroughs of new treatments by bridging the gap between medical research and the people who need it. In a world where 80 percent of medical trials are delayed or closed due to lack of participants,[3] Antidote uses cutting-edge technology to match the right patients with the right trials, helping medical researchers make faster progress, and offering new treatment options to patients. Antidote Match, the companys unique trial matching tool, currently powers clinical trial search for more than 250 patient communities and health toolsbringing clinical trial awareness, matching, and access to more than 15 million patients a month. Antidote was launched as TrialReach and is based in the US and UK. For more information, please visit http://www.antidote.me. Media Contact Andrea Fetchko Media Relations, on behalf of ALF afetchko(at)jpa(dot)com 202-591-4015 Lisa Conroy Director of Communications, Antidote lisa(at)antidote(dot)me (215) 872-2917 [1] American Liver Foundation (2017). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved from https://www.liverfoundation.org/for-patients/about-the-liver/the-progression-of-liver-disease/frequently-asked-questions/#1504366267416-f5db8a99-419f. [2] American Liver Foundation (2017). Liver Transplant. Retrieved from https://www.liverfoundation.org/for-patients/about-the-liver/the-progression-of-liver-disease/liver-transplant/#1503515052660-6acc17ba-93e6. [3] Hess, J. Web Based Recruitment. Retrieved from https://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/portfolios/web-based-patient-recruitment-white-paper/. # # # Carterra LSA The Carterra LSA is a game-changing platform for biotherapeutic development. Carterra Inc., an innovative label-free biosensor company, announced today that it has sold multiple units of its new, fully integrated, high throughput monoclonal antibody (mAb) screening and characterization instrument, the LSA. Initial customers include large pharmaceutical, biotech, CRO and academic institutions, with these sales coming immediately after the official launch of the instrument in December 2017. The Carterra LSA is a game-changing platform for biotherapeutic development, said Josh Eckman, CEO, Carterra. By reducing mAb screening work from months to days and by enabling high resolution information to be gathered on all candidates in parallel, the LSA will help our customers make better, faster decisions in their biotherapeutics discovery process. We are pleased with the endorsement that these initial sales provide for our platform and the rapid uptake by such a broad range of industry-leading groups which validates the market need for high throughput mAb characterization. Carterras LSA Array Surface Plasmon Resonance (Array SPR) instrument has been specifically designed to address the previously unmet need for high throughput, comprehensive screening and characterization of the large mAb libraries that are now standard in biotherapeutic discovery. The LSA integrates Carterras patented microfluidics with proven SPR real-time detection and industry leading software to deliver unique data and unparalleled functionality, with 100 times the throughput, in 10% of the time while requiring only 1% of the sample compared to existing instruments. This enhanced throughput enables LSA customers to expand their intellectual property (IP) coverage by gaining a more detailed understanding of the mAb epitope diversity within their libraries. Furthermore, by comprehensively screening all their mAbs, rather than testing a subset or triaging based on incomplete data, they reduce the risk of missing novel, high-value biotherapeutic candidates. We have shown through multiple peer-reviewed publications with our collaborators the critical importance of understanding the epitope diversity and kinetic properties of all the antibodies in a library, said Carterras CSO, Dr. Yasmina Abdiche. She added, You cannot predict or computationally design which antibody to select, so expanding the pool you choose from increases the chances of finding a therapeutically-fitting candidate. If you want the best candidates with the best IP coverage, you need to screen all the clones produced by your antibody library generation platform. That is what the LSA now enables antibody discovery groups to do. For further information, please contact: Julian Abery VP Marketing Carterra, Inc. P: 919-724-0946 E: jabery@carterra-bio.com About Carterra Inc. Carterra is the leading provider of innovative Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) based technology for monoclonal antibody (mAb) discovery and characterization. Carterras high throughput LSA Array SPR instrument combines patented microfluidics technology with real-time SPR, enabling single unattended runs for: >1,000 kinetic interactions; 384x384 epitope binning (150,000 interactions); >1,000 quantitation measurements; 384 epitope mapping. Combined with Carterras unique data analysis and visualization software, the platform delivers the highest throughput and data quality available for mAb characterization, while using minimal sample. info@carterra-bio.com https://carterra-bio.com/ Dr. Jeanne Huybrechts, Ed.D. Stratford School announces the appointment of Dr. Jeanne Huybrechts, Ed.D., as the Head of School for Stratford's first high school in Santa Clara, which will open in the Fall of 2019. Stratford School announces the appointment of Dr. Jeanne Huybrechts, Ed.D., as the Head of School for Stratfords first high school in Santa Clara, which will open in the Fall of 2019. Dr. Huybrechts will lead the development and design of Stratford Schools high school. Plans feature the creation of a rigorous and engaging college preparatory curriculum which will include traditional areas of study while highlighting real-world applications, notably in STEM and entrepreneurial fields, and renovations to the new campus designed to support learning goals for students. In a broader view, Dr. Huybrechts believes that the Stratford School curriculum will give students opportunities to develop their passions as well as discover new ones, engage within STEAM disciplines, and freely exchange ideas toward the goal of finding their own voices. For Stratford, high school is a natural extension of its advanced and intentionally balanced programs for students in preschool through eighth grade at more than 23 campuses located throughout California. We are proud and honored to have Dr. Huybrechts join the Stratford family, said Sherry Adams, founder of Stratford School. With her vast years of experience and successes in education, we truly believe that Dr. Huybrechts is skilled to lead Stratfords new high school and build upon our existing program to better guide our students at this level. With more than 30 years of experience in teaching and school leadership, Dr. Huybrechts commitment to high-quality education has been demonstrated in both private and public school settings. Prior to accepting the position as Head of School at Stratford School, Dr. Huybrechts served for 11 years as the Head of Harvard-Westlake School, where she spearheaded school improvements in STEM programs, global education, student wellness, and more. She has also served on the governing boards of several schools and nonprofit organizations. Dr. Huybrechts holds undergraduate degrees in both Chemistry and Political science and earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of California, Los Angeles. Stratford Schools new high school will be located at 2000 Lawrence Court, Santa Clara, California (formerly Saint Lawrence Academy High School). For more information on Stratford School, please visit http://www.stratfordschools.com/high-school. # # # About Stratford School Established in 1999, Stratford School is a leading independent private school, founded with a vision of creating a unique, multi-dimensional, educational foundation for children. Stratford offers an accelerated yet balanced curriculum from preschool through eighth grade, with an emphasis on the areas of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) and incorporates music, physical education, foreign language, and social skills development. Stratfords goal is to prepare and mentor students for admission to competitive high schools and colleges. All students are provided the necessary tools to excel and are encouraged to participate actively in leadership, community service, and extracurricular activities. Visit http://www.stratfordschools.com for more information. Newterra, Ltd. was recognized for overall business performance and sustained growth with the prestigious Canada's Best Managed Companies designation. The 2018 Best Managed program award winners are amongst the best-in-class of Canadian-owned and -managed companies with revenues over $15 million demonstrating strategy, capability, and commitment to achieving sustainable growth. Now in its 25th year, Canada's Best Managed Companies is one of the country's leading business awards programs recognizing Canadian-owned and -managed companies for innovative, world-class business practices. Every year, hundreds of entrepreneurial companies compete for this designation in a rigorous and independent process that evaluates the calibre of their management abilities and practices. Newterra is recognized for a track record of strategic growth, with a focus on establishing key infrastructure in water-stressed regions around the world. From an entrepreneurial standpoint, the company is well-known for investing in new technology to maintain its position as a leader in innovation in the water industry. Newterra continues its plans to expand with well-planned acquisitions - such as the recent purchase of Aeration Industries - to diversify the company's revenue mix and strengthen its growing industrial footprint. "Best Managed companies deserve recognition for their entrepreneurial approach to excelling in an uncertain economic climate. They truly bring out the best in Canadian business leadership," said Lorrie King, Partner, Deloitte and Co-Leader, Canada's Best Managed Companies program. Applicants are evaluated by an independent judging panel comprised of representatives from program sponsors in addition to special guest judges. 2018 Best Managed companies share commonalities that include a clear strategy and vision, investment in capability and commitment to talent. "This award means a lot to us on many fronts," said Newterra CEO Tom Vossman, "because it's recognition of the commitment and passion of the whole team. Every day, they put forth diligent effort, fresh ideas and excellence in order to bring practical solutions to the world's greatest water challenges. I'm honored to lead such a fine team and honored to accept this on their behalf." "CIBC proudly congratulates the 2018 winners of Canada's Best Managed Companies, who exemplify business excellence and success," says Dino Medves, Senior Vice President and Head, CIBC Commercial Banking. "This year's winners reinforce the significant impact that privately owned Canadian companies are making by pursuing innovation and maintaining a sharp focus on their clients." 2018 winners of the Canada's Best Managed Companies award will be honoured at the annual Canada's Best Managed Companies gala in Toronto on April 11, 2018. On the same date, the Best Managed symposium will address leading-edge business issues that are key to the success of today's business leaders. The Best Managed program is sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC, Canadian Business, Smith School of Business, TMX Group and MacKay CEO Forums. About Canada's Best Managed Companies Canada's Best Managed Companies continues to be the mark of excellence for Canadian-owned and -managed companies with revenues over $15 million. Every year since the launch of the program in 1993, hundreds of entrepreneurial companies have competed for this designation in a rigorous and independent process that evaluates their management skills and practices. The awards are granted on four levels: 1) Canada's Best Managed Companies new winner (one of the new winners selected each year); 2) Canada's Best Managed Companies winner (award recipients that have re-applied and successfully retained their Best Managed designation for two additional years, subject to annual operational and financial review); 3) Gold Standard winner (after three consecutive years of maintaining their Best Managed status, these winners have demonstrated their commitment to the program and successfully retained their award for 4-6 consecutive years); 4) Platinum Club member (winners that have maintained their Best Managed status for seven years or more). Program sponsors are Deloitte, CIBC, Canadian Business, Smith School of Business, TMX Group and MacKay CEO Forums. For further information, visit http://www.bestmanagedcompanies.ca. About Newterra (http://www.newterra.com) Newterra, Ltd. is recognized as a leader in designing, engineering, manufacturing and supporting modular treatment solutions for water, wastewater and groundwater. Since 1863, we've been helping clients in a wide range of industries and sectors operate more efficiently, sustainably and safely. For further information, please contact: bestmanagedcompanies(at)deloitte(dot)ca http://www.bestmanagedcompanies.ca Audiobook Available on 05/15/2018 I just consider myself very lucky, quite frankly, to be in the company of the drummers in this book. Doug Cosmo Clifford, Creedence Clearwater Revival A new book hitting shelves and kindles in April features exclusive interviews with the superstar drummers from the biggest bands in Rock and Metal, including Lars Ulrich of METALLICA, Joey Kramer of AEROSMITH, Tommy Lee of MOTLEY CRUE, Taylor Hawkins of the FOO FIGHTERS, Chad Smith of the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, Doug Cosmo Clifford of CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL, Tico Torres of BON JOVI, Matt Sorum of GUNS N ROSES/VELVET REVOLVER, Jimmy Chamberlin of THE SMASHING PUMPKINS, Kenny Aronoff of JOHN MELLENCAMP/JOHN FOGERTY, Stephen Perkins of JANES ADDICTION and Steve Smith of JOURNEY telling their stories to fans first hand and in-depth for the first time! In the pages of BEYOND THE BEATS: Rock & Rolls Greatest Drummers Speak! (Baker & Taylor, ISBN-10: 0983471657 ISBN-13: 978-0983471653), these legendary gods of thunder talk in detail to award-winning music biographer Jake Brown about who first put the sticks in their hands and sat them down behind the kit as kids all the way to their banging away behind the drums live playing before arenas and stadiums full of screaming fans. Along the way, the inspiration behind their most famous beats is broken down, from Lars Ulrich walking fans back through the epic break-down in One to what gave Joey Kramer the idea for Walk This Ways instantly addictive percussion introduction, Journeys Steve Smith on the studio creation of Dont Stop Believin, and Tico Torres recounting the glory day of Bon Jovi recording the legendary anthem Livin On a Prayer. Tommy Lee takes fans upside down inside his first-of-its-kind roller coaster drum set live, while Classic Rock fans are taken back to the 60s and inside the recording of Creedence Clearwater Revivals Proud Mary by Doug Cosmo Clifford; Kenny Aronoff talk about taking his shot at the big time, powering upHurts So Good for John Mellencamp in a 100 degree shack in Indiana back in 1981! A holy grail for rock and metal drummers of any generation, this book features the stories behind hundreds of their favorite beats, whether the reader is a fan streaming his favorite hits by each band while reading along to how they were created in the studio or a young drummer learning how to play each song by these superstar hitters. Beyond the Beats gives a real look behind the kit at the power and pain it takes to stay on top for decades. Excerpts include: "I cant even tell you how much time I spent with headphones on just wailing through my favorite stuff, because you can sit there and take lessons all day long and get technicallyschooled, but theres something really different about playing along and emulating some of your favorite drummers." Tommy Lee, Motley Crue "To me, playing live is like sports. When youre over 35, you move into a different league, and when youre over 45, youre a senior. Its not like if youre over 45, you get a pass, and you can start playing at a different level of intensity. Youve got to bring it the same every night!" -Lars Ulrich, Metallica "I think that less-is-more is probably, or should be, in my opinion, the golden rule for all drummers. In particular, the best example I can cite is John Bonham, because there were places where he didnt play, and those places that he didnt play if you listen throughout his catalog they really stand out for me. Instead of what the typical drummer would do, I think thats very important, and I think that a lot of drummers never realize that." -Joey Kramer, Aerosmith "My parents werent about to run out and buy little Johnny a drum set! They were very supportive, but at first, they were like a little wary to see where I was gonna go with this hitting thing, so my dad went to the garbage in the back of the local Baskin Robbins in the local town I lived in at the time, Birmingham, Michigan. He took a few thrown-out ice cream tubs and I used Lincoln Log kids toys for drum sticks. I started out with only the finest equipment at 6, 7 years old." -Chad Smith, Red Hot Chili Peppers "Its not a cliche, theres a real energy exchange and thats what I love about people air-drumming. Those moments are just as important as a guitar riff or vocal scream and so I really love that moment, its a full-circle moment. -Stephen Perkins, Jane's Addiction "When we were developing Dont Stop Believin, I started trying some of those ideas as a counter-point to what was going on melodically and rhythmically with the chords and guitar riffs, and basically I went home after some of our rehearsals, and worked out all of my more complex drum parts - that was my process. They really featured that drum beat in the mix, and I think its because its a pretty big signature part of the song." -Steve Smith, Journey "I was scared sh#tless playing Wembley Stadium, Im scared sh#tless every time man, because when you walk onto that stage and all those people are there,something about that place is like an optical illusion!Theres literally thousands of people at all times surrounding you, and its strange man, its a strange trip. Its hard not to let your adrenaline and all that other stuff kind of get ahold of you, and you generally dont play quite as well when youre too excited. Theres a fine line between having a lot of energy and being too excited." -Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters Hard Cover and Paperback have a publication date of March 13, 2018 and will be available on April 25th as an ebook from Baker & Taylor; BEYOND THE BEATS will also have an audiobook release by Blackstone Audio May 15, 2018 containing loads of bonus content, including exclusive audio excerpts from each of the drummers interviewed in the book. Yamaha will publish the book in Japan later this year. Follow updates on the books release and free bonus features at Twitter.com/BeyondtheBeats1. For Review/Interview-Exclusive Audio Excerpts/Radio Give-Away Requests, please contact Jo-Ann Geffen at jgeffen(at)jagpr(dot)com or (818) 905-5511. Visit https://www.downpour.com/beyond-the-beats?sp=210486 I highly recommend ProstaGenix as it is the only product that has been and continues to be successful for me. A truly wonderful product. ProstaGenix continues to get results for men all over America by effectively relieving prostate discomfort with its all-natural prostate supplement. To further demonstrate the effectiveness, customers who have tried ProstaGenix have rated the prostate supplement in the 98th percentile for overall value. Many men across the globe suffer from extensive discomfort due to the swelling of the prostate gland, which can result in uncontrollable urgency, constant bathroom visits, a weak urinary stream, or even diminish intimacy. Thats where ProstaGenix has saved the day for countless men who never seemed to find a solution until now. Based on feedback from testimonials, there is a huge success rate on the effectiveness of ProstaGenix. Hundreds of men have written positive reviews describing their experience and gratitude that they have finally found a product that works for them. Participants saw an 84 percent improvement in their prostate after 90 days of use and 99 percent ratings for long-term results. The proof is in the ratings, with men describing the supplement as a life-saver and life-changing. I highly recommend ProstaGenix as it is the only product that has been and continues to be successful for me. A truly wonderful product, said George Moore, after his second bottle of ProstaGenix. In addition to high ratings given by customers, ProstaGenix was named the Worlds Best Prostate Supplement in 2017 by organizations such as Prostatepillreport.com and National Health Federation, proving to be more effective than 157 products from 16 countries. The unique ingredients in ProstaGenix are what make the supplement stand out from competitors. Unlike the other formulas, ProstaGenix is all natural, containing ingredients like pomegranate, grape seed extract, and BetaRexin, the distinctive element that no other competitor has, imported from southwestern France. The company attributes the success of their product on the fact that they have worldwide exclusive rights to BetaRexin, the most effective ingredient in improving prostate health. Subsequently, no other product can really compete in effectiveness. ProstaGenix meets all FDA regulations and has no known contra indications with medications. The supplement has a history of safe use with no known side effects it is not a drug. Based on clinical data and customer use, the longer you take ProstaGenix, the more results are seen. Results have been seen within the first two weeks, but most men have reported a significant difference in the first 30-45 days. If no results are seen in 90 days, there is an iron-clad money-back guarantee. For more information, visit the ProstaGenix website or call 800-801-0294. Spartan Mosquito We might not have been able to get Eradicators to the people last September, so our goal now is to help in hurricane recovery by spurring the economy with the development of a new manufacturing facility. Spartan Mosquito has just set off on their first world tour, beginning on the island of Puerto Rico. Representatives of the company are exploring options for global manufacturing and distribution, and will spend some time helping special areas in need as they travel. When Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico last year, Spartan Mosquitos desire was to offer assistance, as they did for Texas and Florida in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, but they found themselves logistically unable. As one of the fastest growing companies in the US today (~22,000% growth in 2017), Spartan is now in a position to help the people of Puerto Rico. Jeremy Hirsch, President of Spartan Mosquito, traveled to Puerto Rico earlier this week to begin the process of considering the island for the companys first manufacturing facility outside of the continental US. The attractiveness of Puerto Rico as a manufacturing site for Spartan arose not only in reflection on last years tragedy, but also in watching the strength and character of the people of Puerto Rico as they worked to rebuild and recover, largely on their own. Hirsch reflects, We might not have been able to get Eradicators to the people last September, so our goal now is to help in hurricane recovery by spurring the economy with the development of a new manufacturing facility. While in Puerto Rico, Spartan Mosquito particularly enjoyed touring parts of the beautiful island. Well be back, Hirsch said, without a doubt, well be back to Puerto Rico. Spartan Mosquito, manufacturer of the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator, is located in Laurel, Mississippi. Spartan Mosquito Eradicators are an effective and long-lasting means of mosquito control -- a unique solution activated by simply adding warm water, shaking, and hanging in a shady spot outside that will provide up to 90 days of protection. Spartan can be found online at spartanmosquito.com or reached by phone at 844-625-2742. Combining a passion for listening with experience in the legal field, central Ohio native and Professional Mediator Rebecca Bickel is excited to launch Civil Dispute Resolution Services, LLC. The business offers mediation for individuals, couples, or businesses experiencing interpersonal, domestic or civil disputes. Bickel has invested most of her professional career in the legal arena as a paralegal, notary, and volunteer mediator for the courts. She received a Bachelor's Degree in Paralegal Studies from Virginia College and is a member of the Ohio Mediation Association, Association for Conflict Resolution, and the National Association for Community Mediation. Bickel has undergone extensive training and is currently undergoing certification through the Ohio Supreme Court. Civil Dispute Resolution Services, CDRS, offers mediation services in a variety of areas including the most common such as divorce, child custody, parental and spousal conflicts, conflicts with living situations, and elder care. Mediation is becoming more prevalent over traditional litigation because the reduced cost and flexibility it offers clients. The process of mediation is private, voluntary, and provides the opportunity for all parties involved to have more significant involvement in reaching a solution and more control over the outcome of the dispute. According to Bickel, "This is a great and cost-effective alternative to resolution when interpersonal, domestic, and/or civil disputes arise. Many times people think an issue like child custody, elder care, divorce, or almost any civil dispute means hiring an attorney and an expensive lengthy process. I'm here to let people know mediation can work, is affordable, takes less time than going through the court system, and can be enforceable by the courts." While Civil Dispute Resolution Services is based in Pickerington, the firm offers mediation locally as well as globally with its online capabilities. Individuals, couples, or businesses wanting to find out more about mediation services can contact, Civil Dispute Resolution Services at 614-753-2319 or visit equitableoutcomes.com. About Civil Dispute Resolution Services, LLC Based in Pickerington, Ohio, Civil Dispute Resolution Services is a provider of mediation services nationally and throughout the state of Ohio. Led by professional mediator, Rebecca Bickel, the firm facilitates a variety of interpersonal, domestic and civil matters including, divorce, custody, guardianship, elder care, pre-nuptials, parental and spousal disputes, and so much more. For more information visit their website at equitableoutcomes.com or on Facebook at Civil Dispute Resolution Services. Commercial Photography Services It makes it easier for companies looking for product photographers in Los Angeles to compare pricing and end results. If youre looking for a headshot photographer in Los Angeles, common rates are also provided. The Light Committee, a Los Angeles area commercial photography studio, is now providing photo packages for engagements, seniors, anniversaries and reunions, and holidays. In addition, other standard sessions for headshots and portraits have been updated. Common rates for these and other sessions are now available online. The new details can be easily found on The Light Committee website. It covers pricing and whats included in packages so its easier for anyone looking for commercial photographers to do comparisons. This includes booking fees, how many digital photos are included, how many prints are included, locations, and more. Some common product photography pricing rates are now also provide. It makes it easier for companies looking for product photographers in Los Angeles to compare pricing and end results. If youre looking for a headshot photographer in Los Angeles, common rates are also provided. Listing these rates are ideal for actors, business executives and others seeking headshots in the Los Angeles area. Corporate rates are also listed for businesses that need a photographer at their location. Finally, new portrait studio rates are provided. So, listed rates are helpful for comparing if youre looking for portrait photographers in Los Angeles for family portraits, senior portraits, an engagement portrait, or for a maternity photographer. Custom rates are also an option for all types of photography and listed rates are subject to change without notification. In addition to providing common photography rates online, The Light Committee also provides an updated photography portfolio. It includes recent photos for lifestyle photographer, model photographer, and product photographer sessions. It also includes recent headshot photographer examples done with actors, business executives and others. And, a portrait photographer portfolio is also provided. Those portfolios and others can be found here. About The Light Committee The Light Committee is a commercial photography studio located in La Crescenta-Montrose, serving businesses, actors and executives throughout locations such as Glendale, Pasadena, Los Angeles, and more. Commercial photography services include lifestyle photography, product photography, business photography, headshot photography, portrait photography, and more. Photographer Rafael Larin is available to conduct photo shoots at The Light Committee studio, locally on-location and worldwide. Businesses that have used The Light Committees photography include Getty Images, NBCUniversal, Walmart, and more. Learn more and see a photography portfolio at https://thelightcommittee.com/. Note: The Light Committee is a service mark of a California S Corporation. Whether noted or not, references to other certain words or names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. All multimedia produced is protected by U.S. Copyright Law. NucleusHealth today announced it has been named a recipient of Microsoft Corp.s 2018 Health Innovation Awards. The awards, which were announced at the 2018 HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada, recognize health organizations and their technology solution partners for using Microsofts intelligent health technologies in innovative ways that help engage patients, empower care teams, optimize clinical and operational effectiveness, and transform health. The 2018 winners are impacting the industry by creating breakthrough solutions that empower health and life sciences organizations, while meeting global, local and industry-specific compliance and security standards. NucleusHealth, the cloud-based medical image management and leading teleradiology company, was recognized for excellence in Empowering Care Teams with their image exchange platform, RadConnect, and in partnership with Mercy Health. RadConnect is an intuitive, secure and fast web-based medical image sharing solution built in Microsoft Azure. Originally designed to reduce costs, improve collaboration with referring physicians and engage patients, the pure web-based solution also enhances workflows to maximize employee productivity and patient satisfaction. By leveraging the power of Azure, NucleusHealth can transform the landscape of medical image transfer and accessibility to empower care teams and unleash new capabilities for the entire imaging ecosystem, allowing customers to take advantage of the flexibility and enterprise-grade reliability that Azure provides. Mercy Health was able to transition its hospitals from an antiquated CD burning system to an intuitive cloud-based solution. The new solution immediately provided cost and time savings along with increased patient satisfaction. Mercy Health can now provide accurate, speedy images to any clinician, on any web-enabled device, within and outside of their network and positively impact patients to ensure they receive the best care within seconds. NucleusHealth is honored to receive the Microsoft Health Innovation Award along with Mercy Health, said Chief Executive Officer Vishal Verma. This really speaks to the hard work and dedication of both teams to work together and improve patient care. It has always been our mission to help care givers connect, collaborate and deliver the best care possible through the use of innovative technology like Microsoft Azure, and it makes us all proud to see this in action at forward-thinking organizations like Mercy, said Verma. Since the implementation of the RadConnect platform from NucleusHealth in our 23 hospitals across Ohio and Kentucky, Mercy Health has been able to easily and quickly share images with over 70 hospitals and 150 ancillary offices. We're also leveraging the system capabilities to automate report sharing as a means to reduce faxing of results to ordering physicians. In addition, the full integration of RadConnect with our PACS environment has provided an unexpected business continuity benefit during downtime events, both planned or unplanned, because images are available within the RadConnect solution, said Matt Eversole, System Vice President and IT Chief Operating Officer for Mercy Health. We've been very impressed with NucleusHealth and their ability to respond to our needs. The implementation of their cloud solution was completed in less than 90 days, so realization of value was achieved very quickly. NucleusHealth continues to develop technology for the future, to provide solutions for today and tomorrows needs. The company recently launched their Nucleus.io image management platform that powers a complete suite of cloud-based imaging applications, each developed to optimize interactions with medical images end-to-end, including diagnostic reading, archiving, image sharing, and clinical viewing. Technology licensing opportunities for Nucleus.io include a web-scale platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) solutions, all which utilize patented streaming technology and client-side rendering techniques that solve for latency without loss of performance or image quality. The health industry is undergoing a Digital Transformation in which intelligent health technologies are helping organizations, communities and individuals improve care by helping them better understand and share information, said Chris Sakalosky, Vice President, U.S. Health & Life Sciences, Microsoft. This years Microsoft Health Innovation Award recipients are advancing the goals of improved patient engagement and care coordination through their pioneering use of Microsoft devices, platforms and cloud and AI services. Nominations were submitted by health providers, payers, pharmaceutical and life science organizations, and public and private health institutions across the world for applying Microsoft technology to create transformative and highly-effective innovations. An esteemed panel of industry experts selected this years winners based on how their innovation represents a forward-thinking development or implementation of a solution that is delivering groundbreaking results and producing better health outcomes for more people. Recipients will be highlighted on the the Microsoft in Health blog at http://www.Microsoft.com/Health. About NucleusHealth NucleusHealth is advancing patient care through innovation in cloud-based medical image management, facilitating a global image exchange accessible by patients, physicians and health care networks. The companys StatRad teleradiology service was founded in 1996 by radiologists for radiologists, and develops and implements forward-thinking solutions for radiology groups. For more information, call us at +1 (858) 251-3400, visit us at http://www.nucleushealth.io, or connect with us on Twitter or LinkedIn. About Mercy Health Mercy Health is the largest health system in Ohio and among the top five employers in the state, with more than 33,500 employees serving communities throughout Ohio and in Kentucky. Mercy Health provided care for patients more than 6.8 million times in 2017. The system includes assets of $6.8 billion and nearly 500 care facilities including 23 hospitals and 26 post-acute care facilities including senior living communities, hospice programs and home health agencies. Its clinically integrated network, coordinates more effective and efficient care for more than 200,000 patients, saving money for taxpayers through the Medicare Shared Savings Program. In keeping with its mission to extend the healing ministry of Jesus by improving the health of its communities, Mercy Health provides more than $1 million per day in community benefit services. Connect with Mercy Health on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram and Twitter (@mercy_health). My teams experience in providing value to the hospitality industry dates back almost 20 years, and we know its important for hotel owners to have a 360-degree view of their business. Thats what were able to do through our partnership with Aptech. Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., one of the leading hospitality accounting and business intelligence technology companies, announced a strategic partnership with Inova Payroll, a national payroll and human resources service provider. Aptech customers who select Inovas payroll and HCM technology will be able to view payroll expenses in Aptechs accounting systems, PVNG and Profitvue, and see labor information in Aptechs hospitality business intelligence application, Execuvue. This partnership brings a new level of convenience and expanded service to the customers of both our companies, said Farsheed Ferdowsi, Inova Payrolls founder, president, and CEO. My teams experience in providing value to the hospitality industry dates back almost 20 years, and we know its important for hotel owners to have a 360-degree view of their business. Thats what were able to do through our partnership with Aptech. Payroll and time and labor management are essential components of hotel operations and are key data points in property budgeting and forecasting. The quicker hotel operators can manage these functions and share that data with BI and accounting software the more profitably they can manage their business using timely information. Our clients tell us they need payroll and HR services that accommodate the unique requirements of the hospitality industry, said Cam Troutman, vice president of Aptech. I think our customers will appreciate Inovas industry experience and benefit from the automated flow of data between our systems in managing their businesses. Both companies started out as boutique, customer-centric businesses. Our companies also share a passion for providing a smooth customer experience that will benefit our mutual clients. About Aptech Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, hospitality business intelligence and planning ecosystem to the hospitality industry. All of its clients are companies like yours, which own or manage hotels. Its solutions help customers at both the corporate and property levels understand their financial and operational data for faster goal achievement. The company is renowned for introducing business intelligence into the hotel industry, and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider, as well as a Prophix Premier Business Partner. Incorporated in 1970, Aptechs state-of-the-art back office, true hospitality business intelligence and enterprise planning solutions are 100% hotel specific. Solutions include PVNG, Execuvue, and Targetvue. Clients comprise over 3,500 properties - including large chains, multiple-property management companies and single-site hotels. Execuvue is registered to Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information please visit http://www.aptech-inc.com. About Inova Payroll Combining a dedication to employer success with innovative service and technology, Inova Payroll provides smart payroll and HR solutions to employers across the United States. The companys services range from simple payroll for businesses with tens of employees to robust human capital management solutions for those with 1,000+ employees. In 2016 and 2017 Inova Payroll earned a spot on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies. Inova Payroll is headquartered in Nashville with six offices in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. For more company information, call 888-244-6106 or visit inovapayroll.com. George Jalil, 2018 MIAMI Chairman of the Board South Florida is one of the worlds top destinations for international investment, said George Jalil, a Miami broker and the 2018 MIAMI chairman of the board. The MIAMI Association of REALTORS (MIAMI) has increased its presence by 400 percent at the worlds largest commercial real estate conference, MIPIM. MIAMI Realtors will have exhibits promoting South Florida at MIPIM from March 13-16 in Cannes, France as part of the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) expanded U.S. pavilion. This year, MIAMI has significantly expanded the U.S. and MIAMI/South Florida presence by adding its own adjacent exhibit space. MIAMI has exhibited with NAR at MIPIM for four consecutive years to increase awareness of our South Florida and U.S. markets. MIAMI, which also features the markets of Broward, Jupiter and Martin County, will tout Miamis rise as a global city, work to attract more commercial and residential investment for South Florida and emphasize the advantages of doing business with MIAMI members. South Florida is one of the worlds top destinations for international investment, said George Jalil, a Miami broker and the 2018 MIAMI chairman of the board. We are looking forward to showcasing Miamis incredible live, work and play lifestyle and making more global connections at the worlds No. 1 business event. NAR hosts a U.S. pavilion to increase awareness of U.S. markets with commercial and luxury development potential. The NAR-USA pavilion is expanding in 2018 with an all-new look; associations who have committed as partners include Illinois, Missouri, Nevada, Arizona, Los Angeles, Rhode Island, Miami, Northern Virginia, Florida, San Antonio and Washington State. Five MIAMI leaders, a MIAMI member and three MIAMI executives will represent MIAMI at the MIPIM exhibit. Participating MIAMI leaders are: Jalil, Chairman of the Board-Elect Jose Maria Chepe Serrano of New Miami Realty Corp.; 2018 Commercial President Brian Sharpe of Sharpe Properties Group; Commercial President-Elect Jennifer Wollmann of EWM Realty International and 2018 Residential President Jorge L. Guerra, Jr. of Real Estate Sales Force. MIAMI member Brigitte Lina Lombari of Keller Williams will also participate. MIAMI Chief Executive Officer Teresa King Kinney, MIAMI Senior Vice President of Public Relations & International Lynda Fernandez and MIAMI Vice President of Government Affairs and City of Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez will also participate. MIAMI to Highlight Robust South Florida Real Estate Market Foreign buyers purchased $7.1 billion of South Florida residential properties last year, up from $6.2 billion a year ago, according to the 2017 Profile of International Home Buyers of MIAMI Association of REALTORS (MIAMI) Members conducted by MIAMI and NAR. MIAMI foreign buyers accounted for 29 percent of Floridas $24.2 billion of international dollar sales volume. MIAMI international buyers purchased 15,400 properties, a 41.3 percent increase from one year ago (10,900). Foreign buyers accounted for 35 percent of MIAMIs closed sales and 24 percent of Florida international sales. Florida is the top U.S. destination for foreign buyers (22 percent of all sales), according to NARs 2017 Profile of International Activity in U.S. Residential Real Estate. More than half of all international home sales in the entire state of Florida (53 percent) happen in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, according to the Florida Realtors 2017 Profile of International Residential Real Estate Activity in Florida. South Florida secures about 11 percent of all U.S. international home sales. In 2017, once again, the United States was ranked #1 for safe and secure opportunities for investments and as the best opportunity for capital appreciation by members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate. 100 Countries Represented at MIPIM More than 24,000 leading real estate executives from 100 countries will travel to Cannes for the four-day annual gathering. About 5,000 investors will be seeking opportunities. The event brings together investors, developers, architects, hotel groups, public authorities, city mayors and property associations from around the world. About the MIAMI Association of REALTORS The MIAMI Association of REALTORS was chartered by the National Association of Realtors in 1920 and is celebrating 98 years of service to Realtors, the buying and selling public, and the communities in South Florida. Comprised of six organizations, the Residential Association, the Realtors Commercial Alliance, the Broward Council, the Jupiter Tequesta Hobe Sound (JTHS-MIAMI) Council, the Young Professionals Network (YPN) Council and the award-winning International Council, it represents 47,000 real estate professionals in all aspects of real estate sales, marketing, and brokerage. It is the largest local Realtor association in the U.S., and has official partnerships with 169 international organizations worldwide. MIAMIs official website is http://www.MiamiRealtors.com ### Joel Porten, CSP, ARM, has been named Director of Strategic Initiatives at Alexander & Schmidt, one of the countrys leading Loss Control services providers. He joins the privately held, Maine-based firm after spending more than 25 years in technical, operations, and department leadership roles on the carrier side of the business. Porten started his Loss Control career at Liberty Mutual where he developed deep, first-hand, technical expertise. He then went on to serve AIG in a variety of management roles between 1995 and 2015, including large account service, and then leading Loss Control departments for AIG Programs, Lexington Insurance, and Global Small and Medium Enterprises. Porten capped his many years at AIG serving as Assistant Vice President, Loss Control Manager, where he leveraged the expertise of traditional Loss Control field staff, specialists, and new technologies to provide both physical and virtual risk management services. Most recently, Porten served as Vice President of Risk Control at Vela Insurance Services, a W.R. Berkley company, where he managed countrywide E&S Loss Control services for construction, manufacturing, and general casualty. Alexander & Schmidt serves many of the nations leading commercial Property & Casualty Insurance companies, as well as numerous Super-Regional and Regional carriers, along with many MGAs and Program Administrators. Helping Underwriters with their critical risk selection decisions and providing insights for risk control and risk improvement are the foundations of our business, said Jim Schmidt, Alexander & Schmidts President and CEO. Joel Porten adds his tremendous technical expertise and his significant management experience from the carrier side of the business to our team of outstanding Loss Control professionals, Schmidt continued. Porten got to know Alexander & Schmidt as one of their customers. Jim Schmidt and his professional team have demonstrated a tremendous commitment to high-quality Loss Control in the commercial Property & Casualty business, said Porten. I am very excited now to be helping the company expand its products and services for its current customers, and in new market segments, he added. Alexander & Schmidt is a national Loss Control services provider, working with Insurance carriers, MGAs, Brokers and Program Administrators. For more than 30 years, the company has provided independent, professional risk assessment and risk control expertise to its Insurance industry partners. With its national network of professional Loss Control Consultants and Field Representatives, the company serves all 50 states from its national headquarters in Yarmouth, Maine. Posted Tuesday, March 6, 2018 7:00 pm After more than a dozen years, Jefferson Community School (JCS) was facing the possible end of its existence before a number of its staff, students and supporters met Feb. 28. But thanks to donations made by Sharon Witter and Nickey Collier, and a still-developing reorganization plan by Craig Frick and Rita Hemsley, JCS has mapped out a tentative path toward a future, even if it wont have the Good Templars Hall building to serve as its home anymore. The private school was founded in 2005, but enrollment in its accredited program for grades 7-12 currently stands at 17 students, far fewer than the model of 33-37 students outlined by JCS board president Nat Jacob. He described JCSs declining enrollment as similar to those of local public schools, such as Port Townsend and Chimacum high schools. Speaking to the attendees at the Feb. 28 meeting, Jacob acknowledged that the school board knew there was a problem last fall, when it passed a budget that had a significant amount of red in it. However, the board believed it could compensate for those losses. Michelle Sandoval of Windermere Real Estate, mother of former JCS student Dakota Sandoval, proposed listing the 7,200-square-foot commercial property, located at 280 Quincy St., on the market for $1.2 million the following week. The proposal came after JCS board treasurer Charley Kanieski estimated the sale of the building would provide $500,000 in equity. He said that proceeds from the sale of the historic building, which dates back to 1870, would go toward a new educational model for JCS. Kanieski estimated that the potential seed money is $400,000, with JCS offering 10 percent loans to raise additional funds. Hemsley and Frick, the head and assistant head of the school respectively, plan to retain their existing full-time students, while also offering a mix-and-match menu of independent study classes, in part to appeal to what Hemsley sees as a growing contingent of homeschooled students. MOVE TO FORT WORDEN? The Fort Worden campus was among the sites proposed to replace the physical school building, although the hope was expressed that the buyer of the existing school building might agree to lease it back to JCS. Neither Witter nor Collier have children attending JCS, but they each pledged $10,000 during the Feb. 28 meeting. I was invited to the school six years ago, and the youngsters here impressed me so much, Witter said. Colliers son attends an out-of-state boarding school, but shed love to see him at JCS. Regardless of him, you have my support, Collier said. On March 2, JCS board president Stan Cummings told The Leader that, including what was donated on Feb. 28, JCS has $33,500 to put toward its $45,000 matching grant, plus $30,000 guaranteed in loans. Our need from March 1 to the end of the school year, June 30, is $120,000, Cummings said. That means we have $97,000 toward our goal, with $23,000 to go. We could secure that entire amount with either $11,500 in new donations or $23,000 in new loans. United Airlines has apologized after a passenger's dog died Monday evening during a flight from Houston to New York's LaGuardia Airport. Maggie Gremminger, who says she was a passenger on the flight, said the dog was traveling with a woman and her two children and was being kept in a TSA-approved dog carrier. But Gremminger said in a photo on Facebook that a flight attendant forced the dog's owner to put the carrier and its occupant in the overhead compartment. "Tonight I was on a plane where I witnessed a @united flight attendant instruct a passenger to place her dog carrier (with dog) in the overhead compartment," Gremminger said. "The passenger adamantly refused but the flight attendant went on with the instruction. "At the end of the flight the dog was found dead in the carrier. I am heart broken right now. I didn't question the flight attendant but I could have. I assumed there must be ventilation as surely the flight attendant wouldn't have instructed this otherwise I heard the dog barking a little and we didn't realize it was barking a cry for help." Gremminger told the travel blog One Mile at a Time: "By the end of the flight, the dog was dead. The woman was crying in the airplane aisle on the floor." In a statement to Business Insider, United Airlines apologized: "This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin. We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them. We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again." The airline declined to comment on its in-cabin pet stowage policy and whether the passengers were compensated for their loss. The 3 emerged the Overall Best Student, the first runner-up and the second runner-up of the 2017 WASSCE. They 3 won out of a total number of 1,880,666 candidates form all the five WAEC member countries. The 3 winners are Jochebed Adwoa Sutherland and Audrey Emefa Awuttey, both former students of Holy Child Senior High School, were the Overall Best and first runner-up the 2017 WASSCE respectively. Rachel Amaning Kwarteng, a former student of Aburi Girls, was the second runner-up. This is the sixth successive year Ghana is picking the award of the Overall Best candidates in the WASSCE Two of the winners have also participated the prestigious National Science Maths Quiz (NSMQ). On the Facebook wall of the NSMQ, it stated that we always enjoy sharing in the successes of our former contestants. Congratulations to these two amazing young ladies for this accomplishment! Well done ladies. The sky is definitely not your limit! All the three best students are currently students at the University of Ghana Medical School. Winning Prizes Jochebed Adwoa Sutherland who is the Overall Best WASSCE 2017 student wins $8,000 as prize money, a full scholarship from Universal Merchant Bank, and a laptop. The first runner-up Audrey Emefa Awuttey gets $600 as prize money from WAEC, GH15,000 from Bond Financial Services, and two laptops. READ ALSO: Police begins investigating the death of Ofori Panyin SHS student Meanwhile, Rachel Amaning Kwarteng who is the second runner-up won $500 from WAEC, GH5,000 from First Banc, and a laptop. All three, who were also tops in the Ghanaian contest, will be entitled to one year of free medical care. Subject winners 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! Reports suggest that James Kwarteng had all the necessary permit and was living in the Northern African country. However, the unexpected happened when he was captured by a group of armed Libyans and Koreans upon no provocation. He was kept in captivity for seven good days with neither food nor water. All he could drink during the entire seven days of captivity was the blood that oozed from his head when the captors crushed it with gun, according to Africanspotlight.com. James Kwarteng said the kidnappers seized all his belongings and further demanded money before he was released, failing which they would kill him. What apparently saved the poor man was the fact that he had saved GHs 25, 000 with her mother back in Ghana which she wired to the gang. The father of three, two of whom are in secondary school and the other in primary school, came back to realize the immoral and wicked conducts of his wife while he was away. According to reports, James legally married nurse, a devout Christian and the married man have so fallen in love that the latter has even planned to divorce his wife to marry her. David Papa Bondze-Mbir, a Ghanaian journalist who visited James Kwarteng recently to donate $500 towards his treatment at the hospital shared the sad story online. He said: "I've had plenty of chances to discern and brawl with questions about why some people can be so unkind to other people, even those they supposedly love. We are more ductile than wed like to believe. Because under the right conditions, anyone (Christian, Muslim, Non-believer, Single, Married, Male, Female etc.) is capable of almost any and everything. This presentation was part of the commemoration of ECGs 50th-anniversary celebration. READ ALSO: This blind man sells coconut for a living Eric Asante from the Accra Division of ECG said the recognition is to celebrate compliant businesses who settle their electricity bills on time. Corporate Relations Director of GGBL, Gabriel Opoku-Asare, who received the award, said GGBL has operated in Ghana for over 57 years, producing and distributing alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and our ambition is to be one of the best performing; most trusted and respected consumer Products Company in Ghana. This award is a testament to our commitment to be consistently compliant in our everyday operations. We are happy to be acknowledged by both the Ashanti South Business Unit and Accra West Divisions of ECG. Engineering and Asset Care Manager, Kaase Brewery, Saeed Abdul-Muumen added that as a leading manufacturer in Ghana, GGBL consumes a significant amount of energy. We have, however, instituted a number of initiatives to ensure our business, as well as employees, are consciously making prudent decisions to reduce our energy usage to guarantee the long-term supply of power in Ghana. The Triple Travel Trivia is a month-long shopper loyalty reward promotion jointly launched by West Hills Mall, Accra Mall and Achimota Mall in February and which offers three slots to three lucky shoppers and their partners for an all-expense-paid trip to sensational holiday destinations in Dubai, Mauritius and Cape Town. Entries for the promotion are scheduled to close at all three Malls on Wednesday, March 14. To win any of the three holiday slots, shoppers will have to spend a minimum of Ghc 300 at any shop or a number of shops at West Hills Mall, Accra Mall or Achimota Mall respectively to be entitled to an entry slip which will be filled out and dropped into an Entry Box for a final draw on March 19 to select shoppers for the final trivia game. The draw will be conducted by the National Gaming Commission. Yes. The clock has started ticking away and by 8:00pm Wednesday, none of the three malls can take anymore entries. But on Monday, March 19, the Gaming Commission will help us with a draw to select 10 finalists from each of the malls for the final trivia, said Michael Konadu, Marketing Manager at West Hills Mall where several hundreds of patrons relishing a sponsored vacation in Dubai have been shopping since the launch of the promotion last month. Trivia winners at Accra Mall and Achimota Mall will be headed for destinations in Mauritius and Cape Town respectively and three holiday slots have been pre-packaged to allow winners to travel with their partners, both of whom will be fully covered by the prize, comprising all-expense-paid flights, destination tours and accommodation, in addition to US$ 2,000 spending money for a stay of five days and four nights at the destination. READ ALSO: undefined Konadu explained that each of the three malls will host a separate final trivia game night on March 23, 24 and 25 respectively at which qualifying shoppers will compete for the chance to grab the three holiday prizes. Many shoppers are reported to be frantically practicing for the final trivia which, according to mall authorities, has been designed to be enjoyable and exciting for everybody and whose questions will be simple and mundane, relating mostly to the holiday destinations and a bit of current affairs. The two, Tanihu Azumah Donnick and Andrews Alimo Yorgakor, all aged 35 were arraigned on three counts of conspiracy to commit crime, human trafficking and preparing to operate small-scale mining without licence. According to the prosecution, they successfully recruited 47 Ghanaians between the ages of 18 and 58 years to send them to Guinea for their mining work. Prosecuting, ASP Isaac Mensah Appenteng told the court that about a month ago the two arrived in Ghana from Conakry where they operate small-scale mining without a licence. On March 1, 2018, at about 3:30 pm the 47 set sail in a canoe owned by the accused persons, from the Akplabanya beach in Ada in the Greater Accra Region en route to Guinea.READ ALSO: 13 out of 10 girls marry before 18 They had on them 28 pieces of Changfer engines, 47 pieces of water hoses, seven bundles of blankets, 32 pieces of water pumps and 32 pieces of pipe mining equipment. In 2012, staff of YEA previously known as the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) dragged former Executive Director Kobby Acheampong to the National Labour Commission accusing him of breaching their employment contracts signed. The staff said the Management of the authority who took over from convicted Abuga Pele in 2013, have declared their contracts null and void without explanation. In a petition to the Labour Commission, they said all efforts to retrieve their salaries have not yielded any positive result. During the court's ruling, however, a demand for their reinstatement was dismissed by the presiding judge, Justice Laurenda Owusu. YEA (GYEEDA) is a government program that provides temporal job opportunities to youths and also train them with employable skills. Scores of the mine workers hit the streets in red and black attires to protest against the management of Goldfields over the move. However, the demonstration turned bloody after the protestors clashed with the military, with seven of the workers being arrested in the process. The management of Goldfields is on the verge of laying off over 2,000 of its workers, having obtained a court ruling backing the decision. READ ALSO: undefined However, the mine workers have strongly kicked against the move, accusing management of Gold Fields of compelling them to sign letters of redundancy immediately after a court ruling. They subsequently decided to protest against the move, but ended up clashing with a joint police and military force who interrupted the demonstration. The military and armed police personnel, who were dispatched to the companys premises to restore calm, fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse the crowd. The actions of the security forces led to many casualties, with some of the protestors getting injured whiles seven others were arrested. They have hit a lot of our colleagues. One man has been hit in the head and as at now I dont know where he is, they took him away in a taxi, one of the protestors told Joy News. READ ALSO: undefined Meanwhile, the management of Goldfields says they invited the military to protect its employees against the protestors, who they described as a small minority. The suspect, Daniel Gyan, who lives in a cottage at Adonikrom in Enchi shot the girlfriend when he had a misunderstanding. A scuffle ensued between them and in the process the suspect shot the girlfriend, Emelia killing her instantly. He is currently in the grips of the Enchi District Police Command. The Enchi District Police Commander, Superintendent of Police Raymond Kofi Erzuah in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said the suspect hails from Aburi in the Eastern Region. He narrated that, on March 9, at about 2200 hours, one Prosper Bedzo of Adonikrom who was accompanied by the police night patrol team came to the police station and made a complaint that, at about 1930 hours a quarrel ensued between the deceased who is his neice and the boyfriend Daniel over money. He said the suspect became offended took his single barrel gun and shot Emelia and fled. READ ALSO: Police arrests two suspects for murdering a 5 year old boy in Kumasi He said those who witnessed the incident quickly went to Emelia's aid, rushed her to the hospital for treatment but she died on the way. Superintendent Erzuah explained that the police apprehended Daniel on that same day at Botchweykrom, which is about two miles from where he had allegedly committed the offence. He said the suspect has since been detained for further investigations. He said, the responsibility transcends Zoomlion therefore they cannot be solely blamed for what should be a collective responsibiliyty. "Government has a role to play, waste management companies including Zoomlion have their roles to play and the citizens also have a role to play." Okoe Vanderpuije's comments comes on the back of the criticism levelled against Zoomlion by the Minister of Sanitation, Koffi Adda, during a forum on sanitation in Accra last week. Adda had said, "Dr Agyapong [CEO of Zoomlion Ghana Limited and Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies], Im sorry to disappoint you herefinding solid waste everywhere I feel really disappointed and if you were to ask me why this thing is so, I will put the blame squarely on Zoomlion. Zoomlion, to me, is the cause of it. The project was begun four years ago with the aim of helping meet the pressing accommodation demands of Ghanas security services. However, it has now been completed and is ready for use by the Navy and other security services in the country. Dr. Bawumia said government is committed to ensuring that the security services are provided with the needed accommodation to be able to function properly. READ ALSO: undefined Delivering a speech following the unveiling of the 386-unit apartment on Monday, 12 March 2018, he said government will continue with efforts to provide the logistical needs of our men and women in uniform, including decent accommodation, in order to ensure their operational efficiency. He added that the NPP government has taken notice of the increasing housing deficit that has saddled the nations security services, especially the navy. According to him, government is working on finding solutions and will put in place measures to address the issue. READ ALSO: undefined Two Nigerian banks, First Bank of Nigeria and Guaranty Trust Bank have helped the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in freezing the numerous accounts of Ngozi Olojeme, ex-President Goodluck Jonathans former aide. Olojeme who runs thirty different bank accounts in the two banks, is being probed for alleged financial impropriety while she was the chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) from 2009 to 2015. The anti-graft commission had placed a post no debit order on 26 bank accounts in First Bank of Nigeria and another four bank accounts in Guaranty Trust Bank traced to Olojeme. She has about 26 accounts with First Bank and four at Guaranty Trust Bank. The accounts have been frozen pending investigations, a source in the anti-graft commission was quoted. The Nation further quotes the EFCC source as saying But our detectives discovered that she is the kind of person who does not keep huge money in these accounts. In some of these accounts, there were funds ranging from N20million to N30million, which were insignificant compared to slush funds traced to her. The Account Officer, who has made startling revelations was actually what our detectives termed clearing and forwarding for her. When we confronted her with our findings, she refused to admit committing any infractions while in office. She refused to admit having been confident that all the slush funds were withdrawn in cash. So far, she is ready to go through the rigours of trial. We are already seeking legal advice on whether or not she should be arraigned with other management staff of NSITF or be tried separately. The freezing of Olojemes 30 bank accounts is coming less than three months after the EFCC seized 36 properties traced to her. The former government official and other senior officials of the NSITF are in the eye of storm for allegedly diverting $48m (N68bn) under the guise of awarding contracts. Olojeme was also the deputy chairman, finance committee of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation in the 2015 presidential election. Meanwhile, the Federal High Court in Abuja under Justice A.I. Chikere has ruled that the orders are granted as prayed by EFCC to prevent Olojeme from selling the forefeited properties or using it to secure a loan. Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari and the countrys lawmakers have disagreed again over a national matter. And this time, the president has rejected the amendment to the Electoral Act by the lawmakers days after it was sent to him to approve. This is coming months after the electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission rolled out the electoral process ahead of 2019 general elections. While President Buharis reasons for the rejection of the amended Electoral act is yet to be revealed, the president has reportedly withheld assent to the bill, which was passed by both chambers of the National Assembly. The president was also reported to have communicated his decision to the federal legislature in two separate letters addressed to the Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara. Meanwhile, Aliyu Abdullahi, the spokesperson of the senate has confirmed the receipt of the letter from President Buhari. Abdullahi also noted that the letter has been read to members of the Nigerian senate on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Speaking to newsmen, Abdullahi said: If Im speaking on behalf of the senate and the senate has not discussed an issue, is it fair for me to speak on that? Yes the letter has been read and definitely this is not the first time letters coming from Mr. President would be read. Its just the same normal communication from Mr. President and all communication from Mr. President will definitely go through the same legislative processes. Which means we have received it now, its for us to look at it. The Peace Corps came, the same thing. All of it is going to receive attention and senators and members of House of Reps as the case may be will begin to look at it because its a document coming to the National Assembly. Remember if we pass a bill for third reading, as long as the House of Reps has a similar thing and theyve not concurred, we cant start talking about the next stage. 75-year-old Nigeria President, Muhammadu Buhari has finally accepted to negotiate with deadly terrorists, Boko Haram in exchange for the release of 110 schoolgirls abducted in Dapchi, Yobe State, Nigeria. The presidency said the president made this known to US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson during his brief visit and meeting with the Nigerian President on Monday, March 12, 2018. Nigeria prefers to have schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok and Dapchi back alive, and that is why it has chosen negotiation, rather than a military option, a statement issued by the presidents spokesman stated. Buhari explained to Tillerson, how his government plans to negotiate for the release of 110 girls abducted from a school in the northeastern town in February 2018, rather than use a military operation to free them by force. President Buhari added that Nigeria was working in concert with international organizations and negotiators, to ensure that the girls were released unharmed by their captors, the presidency statement said. President Buhari met and discussed the use of negotiations during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in Nigeria for the last stop in a week-long tour of African countries. The statement from the Presidency also said Buhari thanked the U.S. for assistance rendered in the fight against Boko Haram, noting that Nigerian forces are good but need assistance with training and equipment. The 110 schoolgirls kidnap is one of the largest that has created a global buzz since the Boko Haram abducted more than 270 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014. While some of the Chibok girls have been freed by the Nigerian government under the Buhari led administration after what security sources say were ransom payments, around 100 are still being held. With at least two factions of the Boko Haram existing in Nigeria - going by narrations of some girls that have escaped from the terrorists - Nigeria is grappling with an insurgency that has killed at least 20,000 people since 2009. The Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof Abubakar Rasheed announced the approval during a meeting with the Governor of Zamfara, Abdulaziz Yari state in Abuja. According to Mr. Rasheed, Zamfara State University will become the 47th state university in the country with effect from March 12. I write on behalf of NUC that with effect from Monday, March 12, the Zamfara State University is approved as the 47th state university and also 162 universities in Nigeria. Zamfara is the last state to establish a university. But the establishment is apt when you will have to key into the reform programme the NUC is having now and will be of benefit to you. The NUC is looking at how we can be more effective in our regulation of all universities in Nigeria. The NUC Secretary also said that JAMB, TETFund and NYSC had been notified of the establishment of the university. NUC approved six private universities in December, 2017 In December 2017, the NUC approved six private universities which include two medical universities, one Naval University in Delta state. The universities were Admiralty University in Ibusa, Delta state, owned by the Naval Holding Company, Spiritan University in Nneochi, Abia state and Precious Cornerstone University in Ibadan. Wabantu who was scheduled for a March 2018, performance in the country was asked to leave due to a negative image disturbing to the Christian nation. A special dancing skill is not the only thing that defines the entertaining woman - she has other interesting features. Here are seven things to know about the South African woman: 1. Has two different names: The dancer is popularly known as Zodwa Wabantu but is officially addressed as Rebecca Libram. The latter was mentioned in a response by the National Arts Council of Zambia concerning an application to have her perform in the country. The letter which was dated March 7, 2018, explained that the erotic performer will not get an opportunity to be present at the gig she had been scheduled for based on her sexual image. 2. Ran away from home at 16: Wabantu appeared to have had it coming in terms of her personality. Zalebs News mentioned this in a report describing the erotic dancer who is quite emphatic concerning a decision not to ever wear pants for a performance. 3. Has a 12 year old son: The entertainer seems to be handling quite easily the role of being an erotic dancer and a mother. Zaleb described her 12-year-old son as the reason for her determination to suceed. ALSO READ: Erotic dancer deported for not wearing underwear 4. Once worked as a Call Center Agent: Zodwa Wabantu has had her fair share of corporate dealings. Prior to her career as an erotic dancer, the 32-year-old reportedly worked as a Call Center Agent, a factor that motivated a move to Durban from Soweto, South Africa. 5. Wants to become a stripper: Wabantu's lifestyle has invited negative criticism from the public who named her as a stripper. This inspired the dancer to submit an actual application in 2017, in order to engage in the occupation on a professional level. 6. A former property agent: The controversial personality seems to have tried her hands on a number of businesses. One of such includes the role of a property agent involved in the leasing of houses to students in Durban. This happened on Monday, March 12, 2018, a day that saw the suspect, Lekan Adebisi, visit the St. Johns Primary School, Agodo, where the deceased go to study. Mubarak Kalesowo and Sunday Obituyi, the victims both 4 years old, were having lunch break before the assault, report says. The assailant, Adebisi, who has been widely certified as having a mental challenge, soon fled the scene following the attack. We got a report this afternoon (Monday) that a man, Lekan Adebisi, whom residents said was mentally-deranged, entered the premises of St. Johns Primary School, Agodo, in the Ogun Waterside Local Government Area and hacked two pupils, Mubarak Kalesowo, and Sunday Obituyi, to death. The incident happened while the pupils were on the school field during lunch break. As I speak to you, the Area Commander, Ogbere and the Ogbere and Abigi DPOs, are at the scene of the incident. We learnt that the assailant fled after wrecking the havoc, but our operatives are already on his trail. When he is eventually arrested, we will take him to psychiatric hospital to ascertain his mental health," says Abimbola Oyeyemi, the state's Police Public Relations Officer in a chat with Punch News. Man believed to be mentally deranged butchers pupils to death Gaji Adamu, a man suspected to be mentally unstable reportedly killed two pupils studying at the Jafi Primary School, located in the Kwaya Kusar town of Bornu state. The incident occurred on Thursday, November 30, 2017, according to a report compiled by the Daily Post News, stating that the alleged lunatic entered the educational facility with a machete. A teacher and a female pupil sustained injuries from the attack which unleashed the fury of a mob who descended on the subject, leaving him unconscious before he was transported to a hospital. The remains of the deceased, two boys, have been deposited at the Gombe General Hospital. ALSO READ: Deranged man murders father in Imo DSP Victor Isuku, the Police Public Relations Officer confirmed the report in a statement: The corpses and injured have been evacuated to Gombe general hospital for deposition and treatment of the victims." A statement released by state Coordinator, Mohammed Momoh, confirmed this. The rep who spoke to journalist on Monday, March 12, 2018, made a reference to the deceased recent posts on Facebook suggesting a bright mood. Momoh dismissed earlier claims stating that the late corps member had a headphone on prior to her death. He explained that Odili only had with her a "small phone". Many reports disclosed that the victim failed to respond to warnings given by observers who watched the train stroll down on her. The late corps member was posted to the 9th Brigade on March 6 and was given acceptance letter on March 8. She was said to be on her way to complete her documentation at Onigbongbo Local Government, when she was hit by a train, at the Ikeja Train Station. There is no way she could have committed suicide, considering what transpired less than 24 hours to her death. A search on her Facebook page, in the early hours of March 8 when she died, revealed that she uploaded 39 pictures, titled `happy mood`. There is nothing like committing suicide; it is equally erroneous for people to say that she was wearing a headphone when the incident happened. She was with her small phone and nothing like headphone or earpiece was found at the scene of the accident," the NYSC Coordinator mentioned in a report compiled by the Premium Times News. Family and friend in deep grief The loved ones of Odili, who died following injuries sustained in the train accident have been thrown into deep grief. She was reportedly crushed by the railway vehicle on Thursday, March 8, 2018. Loud sounds given as a warning by observers who watched the sad development occur had failed to alert her of an incoming train. ALSO READ: Phone addiction ends life of female NYSC member killed by train in Lagos This was reportedly as a result of a headphone plugged to the ear of the deceased. Nnekas death is something I still dont believe is real. How can she just die like that, somebody I still related with not too long before then? "I really cannot say much; her death is one of the most painful things to have happened around me,"Oma, a close friend of the victim told Punch News in a report. Her feelings though grave was however lesser to one expressed on Facebook by Jessica Odili, a relation of the deceased who completed a course in Home Economics at the Federal College of Education, Technical, Omoku, Rivers State. Like most personal activities, sex is usually done according to individual preferences and inclination. For the most part, though, most people alternate between regular, perfunctory sex and some form of acrobatics. Somehow though, for the past few hours, Nigerian users on the social media platform, Twitter have been discussing bondage and sadomasochism and its place in sex. While some of the tweets have expressed the kind of shock that makes you want to call home and tell them the world is on fire, other tweets have been a lot more accommodating. Some Nigerians have even come out to admit that they engage in BDSM. Others have shared guidelines on how to turn pain into a pleasurable experience. In the spirit of entrepreneurship and the provision of goods and services, a lot of twitter vendors have shown up advertising everything from chokers to whips and spandex pants for men. When did you people join bondage gang? All of this is very confusing because if youd asked us a week ago to put our finger to the pulse of BDSM in Nigeria, most people would say they couldnt feel anything. Talking about sex is still taboo to a degree in the majority of Nigerian society. It is a reflection of a society that is mostly conservative. While no one can say exactly what happens in other peoples bedrooms, (kitchens, bathrooms and other similar arenas), BDSM has, for the most part, been seen as an extremity that is reserved for countries where people have had enough to eat. So why has this often-maligned sexual practice, built on the idea of subservience and domination, become a trending topic in a country where we have not even gotten around the issue of consent in sexual intercourse? The simple truth is that BDSM, like many other sexual practices, has been going on for a while. The reason we havent ever come to understand how common it is is that we never talk about it. Its quite similar to how we did not really understand the problems with consent, satisfaction, manipulation and hyper-masculinity that we have normalised as part of sex until a few rape cases were publicised and many Nigerians found out theyd been having sex the wrong way. That explains why its present; but how did it become so mainstream? The answer is pop culture. One of the often overlooked effects of mass and social media is that alternative voices, practices and lifestyles that were suppressed in the past have taken advantage of its resources to finally express themselves. In the past, marijuana use was treated as a taboo straight of the devils war chest in Nigeria. However, the herb is now a tool and subject matter that is noticeable everywhere, from music to movies. Its no coincidence that drug use in Nigeria has proliferated considerably as a result. In recent times, BDSM has permeated our collective consciousness from music to talk shows, Instagram videos and to a much smaller extent, social media conversations. Western music has contributed the bulk of this influence. For the brief period in the 2000s where rock music gathered a considerable, if fleeting following among young people, fans were introduced to the spandex-wearing, handcuffed love stories in music videos. One major turning point was the release of Rihannas S&M, a song that, as the title suggests, was about BDSM. I remember how, as university students, many of my colleagues struggle to understand why Rihanna had joined bad gang and gone kinky. But they listened and watched still. Then, much later, came Fifty Shades of Grey. Say what you want about the quality of the movie and the lead actors inability to convey more emotion than a wet sheet of paper, Fifty Shades of Grey sold BDSM to Nigerians the way Bella Naija made us want to get married by spending money we dont have. Over 100 million copies of the original trilogy have been sold worldwide in 52 languages. The movie has attained even more success than the books. Time.com reported that the first official trailer for the film adaptation of Fifty Shades, released this past summer, was the most-watched trailer of 2014 it received over 100 million views. References to BDSM have become more subtle since then and made their way to the holy grail of Nigerian media; the television. Music videos have subtly imbued references to BDSM. The video for BurnaBoys RockYourBody is one of the more recent examples. The extent to which BDSM has permeated pop culture was made clear when it made its own guest appearance on one of the most popular shows around, Jenifas Diary. In a 2016 episode, . Its obvious we have come a long way since then, and theres no reason to be ashamed about it. What matters is that whoever swings that way ensures that they swing safely. Implied consent is also a foundation of BDSM so parties must build a relationship of understanding. Flour Mills of Nigeria is an Agribusiness company that has been feeding the nation and creating jobs since 1960. They are also one of the leading Animal feed manufacturers in Nigeria since 1968. FMN is also a logistics player when you consider the supply chain from the animal farm to the dining table. FMN has spent five years building a massive N50 billion sugar production facility in Mokwa, Niger state. Its called the Sunti Golden Sugar Estate (SGSE) and its a wholly owned subsidiary of Flour Mills of Nigeria. The sugar estate is over 17,000 hectares of farmland with a sugar mill that processes 4,500 metric tons of sugar cane per day. At full capacity, it will produce 100,000 tons of sugar annually from the facility. It will be commissioned on March 15. According to the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), consumption of sugar in Nigeria is about 1.5 million tons (2016 data) a year. Sadly, Nigeria only produces about 25,000 tons. The deficit of 1.475 million tons has to be covered by importation from other countries and that is a largely expensive. Last year, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria said we spend about $100 million a year importing sugar. So being able to get to a point where Nigeria is self-sufficient in sugar production would mean big savings in foreign exchange. Saving foreign exchange for Nigeria is one advantage, but a bigger advantage for Niger state is jobs for the locals. The farm at peak production will provide direct employment for about 10,000 people yearly, and impact up to 50,000 people indirectly, including 3,000 small-scale out growers who will be cultivating sugarcane to feed the mill. The estate is impacting the 28 local communities in the vicinity of the production facility in Mokwa; with them taking advantage of a new 30-kilometer road, plus expansive road networks that provide a variety of access routes to the homes of the indigenes. Drains, culverts, and flood-protection walls have also been constructed. The FMN Groups mantra, Feeding the Nation, Every day, is at the heart of the companys strategic decisions on what they produce, how and where factories are set up, the level of care that is put into products, and how they interact with host communities and the wider environment. The commissioning of the Sunti Golden Sugar Estate on March 15th will be the first step towards a collective dream of agricultural progress for all in Nigeria. Reuters reports that U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were sold at $61.18 a barrel at 0747 GMT, down 18 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their previous close. Brent crude futures--where Nigeria's oil is pegged--sold at $64.77 per barrel, down 18 cents, or 0.3 percent. Both crude benchmarks dropped by around 1 percent in their Monday sessions. Oil went above $60 a barrel in February and was as high as $67 per barrel in December of 2017 On January 25 however, oil was trading for $66 per barrel, meaning that this weeks decline has been long in coming. Supply glut Oil prices would have plunged even lower if OPEC and Russia hadnt placed a restraint on production to avoid a glut or oversupply. The United States Shale Oil production for countries like Nigeria where crude oil accounts for over 70 percent of government revenue and a chunk of GDP. U.S. Shale production is expected to rise above 11 million bpd by late 2018, taking the top spot from Russia, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Oil prices pulled back yesterday as basic fundamentals of oversupply continued to worry the markets, said Sukrit Vijayakar, director of energy consultancy Trifecta. Oil prices moved lower ... after (the) Energy Information Administration published a report that crude production from seven major U.S. shale plays is expected to see a climb, said Stephen Innes who is head of trading for Asia/Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore. I drafted the first-ever Domestic Violence Bill in Nigeria and engaged in the advocacy campaign for its passage into law in 12 states and at the National Assembly. Here is my story: In 2000, I travelled across Nigeria in a bid to lobby the Domestic Violence Bills passage into the law. It was during this travel I came across a young girl who told me a story about her abuse. I was touched by her story and this experience was what planted the first seed to start the first rape referral centre in Nigeria, Mirable Centre. With particular reference to funding for the Mirabel Centre, I got a call asking permission to give my phone number to someone from the British Council who was having series of meetings with civil society organizations on what activities on womens rights could be funded under the Justice for All Programme. After several meetings with a couple of consultants spanning 2 years, we finally signed the contract for the establishment of the Mirabel Centre. The British Council has had quite a huge impact on me. Sometime in 2003, the British Council sponsored me on a trip to Manchester to attend a seminar on Violence Against Women. It was on this trip that I paid a visit to St Marys Sexual Assault Referral Centre, a place where survivors could receive professional and timely support to overcome the trauma of rape and sexual assault. Having been confronted with this issue just before leaving for the trip, I was impressed and immediately made up my mind to open the centre. It is instructive that 10 years down the line, it was also the same British Council that provided the funding to establish the Mirabel Centre. Without this support, it would have been really difficult to establish the centre in 2013. As at December 2017, the centre had provided services to over 3100 clients from different parts of Lagos State. #KnowMoreDoMore The Justice For All programme supports Nigerian-led reform of the justice sector. The British Council works alongside counterparts from the entire justice community: the courts, the police, anti-corruption agencies and civil society, to help develop the capacity, accountability and responsiveness of the sector in delivering Justice For All Nigerians. For more details on our works in the society and how you can get involved, visit http://bit.ly/2HVWnGq Both men discussed bilateral relations between Nigeria and the United States; among other subjects of international importance. Heres a summary of what was discussed between Tillerson and Buhari 1. The fate of the kidnapped girls of Dapchi and Chibok was on the agenda. Buhari told the American diplomat that his administration prefers negotiating with terrorists as opposed to brute military force, in order to cut out civilian casualties. We are trying to be careful. It is better to get our daughters back alive, Buhari said. 2. Buhari told Tillerson that hell embark on a trip to Yobe where Boko Haram recently abducted 110 schoolgirls from their hostel. 3. Buhari also promised to visit States where gunmen have been wreaking havoc. 4. The president pledged free and fair polls in 2019. Buhari recalled that former American Secretary of State, John Kerry, had visited Nigeria before the 2015 polls, and he told the party in government then, and those of us in opposition, to behave ourselves, and we did. 5. The Nigerian president thanked America for its assistance in the fight against insurgency. He also pleaded for more assistance as Nigeria continues to battle the insurgents. Nigerian forces are good, but need assistance in the areas of training and equipment, Buhari pleaded. The Governor said this following the Presidents commentthat he did not know that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris did not obey his order. Buhari, while speaking to a select group of Benue indigenes during his 1 day official visit, said that he did not know that Idris did not spend up to 24 hours in the state before going to Nasarawa state. On January 8, 2018, the President ordered the Inspector General of Police to relocate to Benue state to prevent the escalation of the herdsmen-farmers crisis. ALSO READ: Buhari should have visited Benue when he visited Nasarawa Fayose mocks Buhari Speaking further on Buharis comment, the Ekiti state Governor also said What manner of a President will give order to the IGP on January 9, only to be telling Nigerians on March 12 (2 months after) that he never knew that the IGP disobeyed his order? Does this President really know anything about happenings around him, not to talk aboutNigeria? Meanwhile, the former Governor of Benue state, George Akume told Buhari, during his visit, that the Tiv people are angry with him. Akume also said that the Presidents body language towards the killings in Benue upset the Tivs. Moshood said that in August 2017, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Gombe, Kaduna, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Abia and Ogun commands were selected as the pilot Commands for the migration to the IPPIS platform for payment of monthly salary to police personnel. Moshood added that since then all challenges recorded by these commands were addressed and payments of Salaries have been without hitches. He said that to ensure prompt solution to all complaints that might arise, the command finance officers have been trained torespond to cases promptly. The spokesman said that the Force Budget Department had ensured that all the 42 Mechanised Salary Section (MSS) centres across the country appoint desk officers to receive complaints. He said that such complaints would be forwarded to the IPPIS at the Office of the Accountant General Of the Federation for prompt solution. He said that challenges such as under-payment, omission of names on payroll, non-payment and over-payment being experienced in payment of February salary have been taken up with the OAGF. Moshood said that no policeman protested in any state of the country over migration to IPPIS. The Nigeria Police Force is a disciplined organisation and will not allow any situation to degenerate into disturbance of public peace and breakdown of law and order anywhere in the country, he said. THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER In Benue, Buhari finds IGP Idris defied relocation order Two months after he directed Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris (IGP) to relocate to Benue State and stop killings by herdsmen, President Muhammadu Buhari discovered only yesterday that his order was not carried out. $12b trans-Saharan gas project to miss 2018 deadline The $12 billion Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline Project (TSGP), expected to help Nigeria achieve zero gas flaring by 2020, remains an illusion, 17 years after it was conceived. Ohanaeze accuses INEC of deliberately disenfranchising Igbo The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of using deliberate effort to disfranchise Igbo in the 2019 general elections. __________________________________________________ VANGUARD NEWSPAPER Benue: Im surprised IGP Idris disobeyed my directive Buhari President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday expressed shock that Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, disobeyed his directives to stay in Benue until the blood-letting between farmers and herdsmen was resolved. FG replies GENCOs, accuses them of blackmail, politicking Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, yesterday, said he was not afraid of going to the law court over allegations of preferential treatment offered two power generating companies. Convince your people were doing our best to stop attacks, Buhari tells Benue stakeholders President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to leaders of various groups in Benue State to convince their constituents that the Federal Government is doing its best to end the recurring attacks by armed herdsmen in various parts of the country. __________________________________________________ THE PUNCH NEWSPAPER Poll timetable: Dont be misguided, Senate warns INEC The Senate has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission against being misguided on the extent of the powers of the National Assembly in the amendment to the Electoral Act 2010. FG asks Lagos-Ibadan railway contractor to work day, night The Federal Government has advised the contractor handling the 150-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan railway project, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, to work day and night to avoid extending its delivery date beyond December this year. Viral video shows SARS men torture, strip artisan naked A viral video has shown that some operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Rivers State Police Command indeed brutalised a mechanic, Lucky Joseph, in the Choba Extension, Obio Akpor Local Government Area of the state. __________________________________________________ THISDAY NEWSPAPER Buhari in Benue, Asks Nigerians to Stop Escalating Herdsmen-Farmers Clashes In his first visit to Benue State since he assumed office almost three years ago, President Muhammadu Buhari Monday called on Nigerians to refrain from escalating the deadly clashes between farmers and herdsmen in Benue and other states in the country, even as he appealed to Nigerians to continue to be accommodative and live together in peace. Tillerson Pledges US Support for Quick Release of Dapchi, Chibok Girls The United States Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, arrived Abuja, Nigerias capital Monday, where he pledged the support of the U.S. in securing the quick release of the Dapchi and remaining Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists and expressed hope that a deal for their release would be struck soon. NEITI: NNPC Yet to Explain Missing Billions The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the agency tasked with cleaning up Nigerias murky oil industry, has said even though financial accountability has improved, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) still has not explained billions of dollars of missing revenue. __________________________________________________ BUSINESSDAY NEWSPAPER Lagos lying over new land use charge, say employers The people who feel where the shoe pinches have had their say on the new Lagos Land Use Charge (LUC) and it flatly contradicts claims made by the State government. NNPCs petrol subsidy claims mirrors 2011 fraudulent regime In more ways than one, it is looking like 2011 all over again for Nigeria. In 2011 fraudulent oil marketers were submitting invoices for petrol laded vessels that arrived but did not discharge products as they were diverted and sold outside Nigeria. Zenith Bank announces record profit of N203 billion Nigeria's parliament is peopled by former governors and geriatric politicians. Sanis revelation has dominated media chatter in Nigeria for a week now. According to the senator who went rogue, N13.5million is handed to every lawmaker monthly. Each senator is also entitled to N200million for constituency projects. There is also N750,000 due every senator in basic salary, monthly. Conscience Asked why he decided to lift the lid on senators pay, Sani told the BBC that the jumbo pay was pricking his conscience. I decided to bust it open. It was a moral issue", Sani told the BBC. The national assembly is one of the most non-transparent organs of government. It pricked my conscience and I decided to burst the bubble and open the national assembly to public scrutiny. If the expenses payment system was ended, then parliament would only be attractive to people who contribute ideas, he said. Nothing new The Nigerian senate reacted by saying Sanis disclosure was nothing new. The figure Senator Shehu Sani gave out about the running costs of the offices of Senators were contained in the various line items and expenditure heads of the budget of the National Assembly which has been made public, the Senate said in a statement, Sunday. Almost all holders of elective and appointive offices have running costs allocated to their offices and that cannot be said to be part of their salaries, the statement added. According to the former Governor, Obasanjo took away our $16million electricity money. Independent News also reports that Kalu said the arrest of OBJ will prove to Nigerians that Buhari is really fighting corruption. The former Governor said this while speaking at the quarterly public lecture series of National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO). He also said My prosecution is political. Our accounts in Abia state were transparent under my watch. The US knows, the UK knows. I have been given a red carpet in these two countries. I have been given a red carpet in China. In fact, I am stronger in fighting corruption than President Buhari because he is not fighting it well. I have recovered peoples money and given them back. I am a creator of wealth at every level. If any court finds me to be corrupt , it should jail me. Corruption is the bane of this country. A corrupt judge and corrupt politician is worst than armed robber. Nigerians should start electing presidents that have meaning and gut to take decisions. President Buhari has got some guts but he should arrest Obasanjo for us to know that corruption is working. Without arresting Obasanjo, he has not started fighting corruption because Obasanjo took away our $16million electricity money. So, unless he arrests Obasanjo, corruption is not being fought in Nigeria. Obasanjo fires Buhari You will recall that former President, Olusegun Obasanjo recently criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for his administration's handling of the fight against corruption. In withholding his assent, Buhari said the amended sequence of elections by the legislature will infringe on the constitutional role of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organize, undertake and supervise elections as enshrined in Section 15(A) of the third statue to the Constitution. The president also cited grounds upon which an election can be challenged by candidates and the national assemblys possible interference in local government elections as other reasons why he prefers to keep his ink dry. Real reason However, to really understand why the president withheld his assent, look no further than the sequence of elections. On Wednesday, February 14, 2018, the red chamber of the national assembly dissolved into a rowdy session as senators adopted the amended electoral act. Senator Suleiman Nazif who is Chairman of the senate committee on INEC, presented his report before Senate President Bukola Saraki. In that report were amendments to the order of the 2019 elections as unveiled by INEC in January. Saraki thereafter subjected the recommendations to a voice vote after a war of words with Senator Kabiru Gaya; as the atmosphere grew even more tense. Of course the ayes had it and the sequence of the 2019 elections was altered by the Senate after the House had passed a similar recommendation. The Senate session became rowdy and a few lawmakers engaged in shouting matches with their colleagues across the aisle. This essentially became a battle between Buhari's loyalists in the Senate and lawmakers who loathe the president. More than a dozen furious lawmakers staged a walkout from the chamber on the day What are the old and new sequence of elections? In INECs election timetable unveiled on January 9, 2018, the sequence of elections are as follows: a) Presidential and National Assembly elections (February 16, 2019) b) Governorship and State House of Assembly elections (March 2, 2019) INECs sequence has the election to choose a new president coming before all other elections However, in the amended version of the election timetable, the presidential election comes last. The senates sequence is as follows: a) National Assembly elections. (b) State Houses of Assembly and Governorship elections. (c) Presidential election. Why is the sequence of elections such a thing? Because theres something called the bandwagon effect during election season in Nigeria. When a president from a particular political party wins the popular vote, that party then goes on to sweep parliamentary and State elections. Its almost a given in these parts. Ask the PDP. Once Buhari won the 2015 election, the APC went on to win most governorship and parliamentary seats across the country. In the north of Nigeria, it was called APC SAK; which roughly translates to vote for APC everywhere, no matter which candidate is on the ballot. Many candidates became governors and senators off Buharis popularity, goodwill and instant name recognition. Besides, when a president is elected from a particular party, it is rule of thumb that parliamentary elections are skewed in favour of that party just to align with Aso Rock for pecuniary reasons. Votes are also rigged in favour of the party that has just produced the president. The sticking point The reason why the executive is not liking the national assemblys election sequence is because if other elections hold first and the presidents party is already losing seats in States and parliaments, it would be as good as Buharis fate being sealed before his own election. The presidency saw the national assemblys decision to alter the sequence of elections as another subterranean move to unseat Buhari in 2019. Senators would prefertheir own election to come first because a lot of them didnt quite like the insinuation that they became lawmakers off Buharis 2015 popularity. They would have preferred to contest the 2019 election on their own merit so they can beat their chests and say 'we didn't win because of Buhari'. They very much wanted the bragging rights from this whole thing. Hara-kiri If Buhari had assented to the bill, it would have meant using his own hand to kill himself, as they say in pidgin. It is called hara-kiri in Japanese folklore. The national assembly can still override the presidents veto, remember. This is in no way the end of the battle between the executive and the legislature on this subject. Expect lawmakers to also continue to play hardball with the executive on confirmation of nominees for presidential appointments and when it comes to consideration of other bills from the executive. Lawmakers would see Buharis refusal to assent to the election amendment bill as a bruising of their ego and an attempt to make them look bad before the people by the president. Pompeo, who replaces Rex Tillerson, brings the discipline of a former standout at West Point, the prestigious US military academy, as well as the political wiles of a four-term member of the House of Representatives, where he served on the controversial Intelligence Committee. He echoes Trump's hard line against Iran and North Korea. But, currying the president's favor, Pompeo has also avoided directly contradicting Trump's insistence that Russia did not work to support his election in 2016 -- even though that is what the CIA concludes. "With Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process," Trump said Tuesday. Meteoric career Pompeo, 54, has had a meteoric career that leaned heavily on political opportunities that ultimately led him to Trump. Born and raised in southern California, he attended the US Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated top of his class in 1986, specializing in engineering. He served in the military for five years -- never in combat -- and then left to attend Harvard Law School. He later founded an engineering company in Wichita, Kansas, where financial backers included the conservative Koch brothers, oil industry billionaires and powerful movers and shakers in the Republican Party. The Kochs backed his successful first run for Congress in 2010, and energy-related legislation he promoted in his first years in the House of Representatives was seen as very friendly to them. He moved quickly onto the House Intelligence Committee, where, as overseer of the CIA and other agencies, he was privy to the country's deepest secrets. But he made his name on the special committee Republicans formed to investigate the 2012 killing of a US ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya. It made him a leading voice against Trump's political nemesis, Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state at the time was blamed by Republicans for the deaths. Promoted a 'vicious' CIA As director of the CIA, Pompeo has matched the tone of Trump's foreign policy pronouncements. "The CIA, to be successful, must be aggressive, vicious, unforgiving, relentless," he said. He joked about assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which raised fears of a return to the agency's penchant for backing assassinations of dictators not in US favor. He earned the president's trust in the daily national security briefings, where he has readily accommodated the president's aversion to reading long reports by having intelligence staff prepare simple graphic presentations of global risks and threats. When pressed in public, he has said he supports the January 2017 report by the country's top intelligence chiefs that concludes that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential race in an effort to help Trump defeat Clinton. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Read Trumps tweet. Pulselive.co.ke has compiled six major changes that have so far been witnessed in Kenya. 1. Suspension of Peoples Assembly NASA chief strategist David Ndii on Monday announced the suspension of the Peoples Assembly. According to Ndii, the move was made in support of the unity process initiated by Kenyatta and Odinga. "We have accepted and we acknowledge that its better to reason together than alone. We are therefore suspending the people's assembly process," Ndii said in a press conference at Okoa Kenya offices. 2. Reinstatement of leaders' security detail On Monday the Government reinstated the security detail of NASA leaders which was withdrawn after the controversial swearing-in of Mr Odinga as the Peoples President. Confirming the information was National Assembly Minority Leader John Mbadi and Minority Whip Junet Mohamed. Wiper Party leader and NASA co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka was among the leaders affected by the security withdrawal. Reports also indicated that passports also belonging to NASA leaders that had been confiscated by the government will also be returned. 3. Jimi Wanjigis case withdrawn Businessman Jimi Wanjigi and his father Maina Wanjigi have been facing illegal firearm custody cases. However, after the Uhuru-Raila deal, it seems that the case will be withdrawn. Also Read: Drama as Jimi Wanjigi is cornered 4. Ruto supports Raila The secret meeting between Uhuru and Raila saw Deputy President William Ruto announce his support for the former Prime Minister after a protracted rivalry. Ruto declared that he supports the talks and called on other Opposition leaders to work with the Jubilee Government. After the meeting between the two leaders yesterday (Friday), it was clear that the chapter of political competition in the country is over. This is the time to work for the electorates and forget about politics and elections until 2022. This is the moment for our country to stand together and build the bridges of friendship, brotherhood and unity so as to take this country to another level, Ruto said. At the same time Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, who never sees eye-to-eye with President Kenyatta expressed his willingness to work with Jubilee Government. 5. NASA co-principals disagree with Raila For the first time, NASA co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka, Musali Midavadi and Moses Wetangula publicly expressed their displeasure in Mr Odinga. The three divulged that the former Prime Minister never consulted them and only learned about the meeting through the media. This morning, the 9th day of March, we through the media, a meeting between the President and Rt. Hon Raila Amolo Odinga While we have always advocated for dialogue as co-principals of the NASA coalition, we were not privy to the discussions at Harambee House, a statement signed by the three leaders read. 6. Mutahi Ngunyi agrees with Raila After three years filled with sharp criticism against Mr Odinga, political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi for the first time defended the Opposition leader. Prof Ngunyi stated: I have not defended Raila for three years now but today I have no choice. Those attacking him for meeting Uhuru are political vultures and we know them. They have hovered over Railas head waiting for him to die politically so that they can feed on his carcass. Quay County received more than $1 million from the latest New Mexico Legislative session for improvements to multiple agencies including the Quay County Detention Center, Tucumcari, Logan Senior Citizens Centers and Arch Hurley Conservancy District. I consider it a great privilege to advocate for important projects throughout northeastern New Mexico, said District 67 State Rep. Dennis Roch (R-Logan). This is why I was proud to support this legislation, which contains funding for so many of our areas local priorities. According to a release from Roch, Quay County will receive $325,000 of Capital Outlay funding from Severance Tax Bonds. House Bill 306, which passed both the House and Senate unanimously, initially proposed spending $179.8 million on local and statewide projects, including needed security upgrades at courthouses and public schools, as well as safety improvements at hazardous dams. The Quay County Detention Center will receive $225,000 that will be used for much needed building renovations, said Richard Primrose, Quay County Manager. Primrose said Quay County also received $50,000 for county road improvements. He said the money will help in facilitating improvements that have been much needed. The Arch Hurley Conservancy District will use the $50,000 in capital outlay funding for equipment purchases to help streamline the delivery of the irrigation waters to its members, said Franklin McCasland, District Manager. The largest amount of funding for Quay County entities comes from Senate Bill 94, that has more than $1.5 million in General Obligation Bonds funding slated for various projects. General obligation dollars are approved contingent on voters during hte November general election. The GOB funding of $150,000 will be used for the parking lot and side walk repairs at the Logan Senior Citizens Center, said Rosalie Rachor, interim Village Manager. Additional projects and agencies receiving money from the GOB funding include: $800,000 for renovations of Mesalands Community Colleges Building A $207,800 for improvements at Tucumcari Senior Citizen Center 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... Letters to the Editor 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? FRANCE: Transdev announced on March 12 that its train operating subsidiary CFTA had received a certificate of railway safety. This is a prerequisite for Transdev to enter the main line passenger market as a competitor to national railway SNCF. One half-century after beginning to return to the United States after serving their country in a valiantly-fought, controversial conflict in a distant land, Vietnam veterans, now in their maturing years, will finally receive the honor, recognition and thanks due them at Hospice of the North Coasts (HNCs) Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans March 30 celebration. Although many of these vets may not have received the warmest of welcomes upon their return decades ago, HNC is eager to make this event a very happy homecoming for them now. The heartfelt commemoration will take place from 10 a.m.-noon at the Veterans Association of North County (VANC), 1617 Mission Avenue, Oceanside, 92054. The event is free to Vietnam-era veterans and their families. Reservations are advisable, but not necessary. Sponsorship is available at several levels. Details and RSVPs are at www.hospicenorthcoast.org. Rantoul, IL (61866) Today A steady rain in the morning. Showers continuing in the afternoon. High 69F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch.. Tonight Overcast with showers at times. Low near 55F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Russian court to review $296 million lawsuit filed by The Royal Bank of Scotland flickr.com/Elliott Brown 10:52 13/03/2018 MOSCOW, March 13 (RAPSI) The Kursk Regional Commercial Court has resumed proceedings in the lawsuit filed by The Royal Bank of Scotland, which seeks to recover $296.6 million in debt from the Ivolga Center company, the court ruling reads. Hearings in the case are set for April 18. On January 26, 2016, proceedings in the case were put on hold. In May 2015, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court ruled to seize property of the Center and eight other defendants as part of the lawsuit. The companies were listed as guarantors in the contract signed between the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lavion Enterprises Ltd, a company registered at British Virgin Islands. In February 2016, the court recovered $296.6 million from the defendants. In November 2016, the Eighteenth Commercial Court of Appeals upheld the ruling to recover debt. In March 2017, the Ural District Commercial Court ruled to review the case once more. Ex-principal of Moscow school arrested for embezzling $492,000 RIA Novosti, Vitaly Belousov 18:00 13/03/2018 MOSCOW, March 13 (RAPSI) Russian law enforcement officers have arrested former principal of a Moscow school charged with embezzlement of over 28 million rubles (nearly $492,000) paid by pupils parents, the Investigative Committee has stated. According to investigators, the defendant abused his position from January 2007 till June 2010. Allegedly he suggested to relatives of the first-grade pupils to transfer money for the school needs to a non-profit foundation. However, in truth money was transferred as payment for their children to join the school. Later, the money was embezzled from a foundation and transferred to the ex-principals bank accounts. In 2011, law enforcement stopped unlawful activity of the schools ex-head but he managed to escape and was put on the international wanted list. Property details: Im selling my 5 acre plat of vacant land in the Tierra Grande community, Valencia County, Belen, NM. This truly is a beautiful piece of quiet Southwest scenery with spectacular mountain views! Tierra Grande is a little less than 10 miles from Belen, NM. My plat is on a dirt road, about 3/4 of a mile off the paved NM Highway 47 (Rio Communities Blvd). If you would like to take a look at it in person, youre welcome to drive to the property. The lat/long location is 3431'32.4"N 10637'59.4... Price: $ 999 Seller State of Residence: New Mexico State/Province: New Mexico City: Belen Zoning: Residential Type: Homesite, Lot Location: 990**, Greenacres, Washington You will be redirected to eBay Nearby Homesite, Lot Property details: Raw land in Nanawale Estates, .18 ac. Parcel number - 140861140000 Deed to transfer as a warranty deed.All buyers will do self diligence and research before buying/biding. Lot sits in Nanawale Estates Hoa is paid for full year(2018), $200.00 transfer fee to new buyer,99$ a year after this year..18 acer, very beautiful area, it is wooded, with young trees, and flowering ground plants. Being sold AS-IS and WHERE-IS No exchanges/refunds. Payments can be made with a cashiers check. Once ... Price: $ 4,000 Seller State of Residence: Florida State/Province: Hawaii City: Pahoa Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential/Agural Property Address: KAILUA ROAD Zip/Postal Code: 96778 Location: 347**, Clermont, Florida You will be redirected to eBay Nearby 96778 Property details: INVESTMENT PROPERTYDEMING, LUNA COUNTY, NEW MEXICOI own a nice 1 acre lot near Deming, New Mexico with close access to Interstate 10. This land is in an excellent location down the road from Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Tucson, Arizona is a 3-hour drive west on I-10. Local pick up for this sale is not necessary despite it saying so in the shipping instructions.TERMSI am selling the lot for $1,800 (monthly payments accepted). There is no minimum which must be met on the bid. The bid... Price: $ 75 Seller State of Residence: Illinois Zip/Postal Code: 88031 Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential State/Province: New Mexico Location: 798**, Sierra Blanca, Texas You will be redirected to eBay Nearby New Mexico Property details: 2.5 Acres of Rural Residential Vacant Land for Sale in Lucerne Valley, San Bernardino County, CA This 2.5 acre vacant land lot is located in sunny Southern California in San Bernardino County near the town of Lucerne Valley which is only 14 Miles from the property. The town of Victorville is only 40 miles from the property. Easy access through unpaved road, Highway 247 is only 2 miles from the property. Yearly taxes are low and there are NO HOA FEES. NO TIME LIMIT TO BUILD so you can hold onto t... Price: $ 1,295 Seller State of Residence: California Property Address: LUCERNE VALLEY State/Province: San Bernardino County, California City: Lucerne Valley Zip/Postal Code: 92356 Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential Location: , Lucerne Valley, San Bernardino County, Ca You will be redirected to eBay Nearby Residential Property details: Valley of Enchantment San Bernardino County CEDARPINES PARK NO RESERVE, NO MONTHLY PAYMENTS, HIGH BID OWNS LOT Nestled in the magnificent San Bernardino National Forest, surrounded by pine, cedar, and dogwood, an area described as the "Alps of Southern California", and known as "the best kept secret on the West Coast, is a stunningly beautiful, cozy and quaint mountain resort paradise called Lake Arrowhead. Our community features countless outdoor recreational activities such as hiking, backpack... Price: $ 891 State/Province: California Seller State of Residence: California Location: 928**, Orange, California You will be redirected to eBay Nearby California $5-billion worth of pharma exports would be in a tough place if tariffs are revised upwards. Trump signed two proclamations that levied 25% tariff on steel and 10% on aluminium. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com India is gearing up for a tough fight following Americas repeated threat of imposing a reciprocal tax on countries with which it has a trade deficit. We will oppose such a move on the basis of the principles involved, a senior commerce department official told Business Standard. The issue could possibly be taken up at the World Trade Organizations disputes settlement body as well, experts said. Last Friday, US President Donald Trump signed two proclamations that levied a 25 per cent tariff on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium imported from all countries except Canada, Mexico and Australia. While the exact details of the new order are not known, the contentious tariffs will come into effect in 15 days. While the US focused on China for the larger part of Trumps first year in office, India has been a target in the recent past. Trump voiced his disappointment against unfair treatment of American exports to the country even as India enjoys free access to the US market. Were going to be doing a reciprocal tax programme at some point, if China is going to charge us 25 per cent or if India is going to charge us 75 per cent. "If they are at 50, or they are at 75 or they are at 25, we are going to be at the same number, Trump said on Friday. Reciprocal tax is a new concept in the global trade rules. The US president may not have a clear idea about how reciprocity works at the WTO. Each country has some flexibility to change its customs duty as long as it does not break its larger commitments under the fixed bound rates, Abhijit Das, head of the Centre for WTO Studies, said. Under the norms of the WTO, which oversees global trade law for its 164 member nations, the bound tariff rate is the customs duty rate committed by a country to all other members under the most favoured nation principle, which prohibits discrimination in tariffs. Indias export exposure to the US in sectors such as diamond jewellery, pharmaceuticals and marine products remains far higher than steel and aluminium Pointing out that it is not known as of now whether the US move is within the bound rate, Das clarified that India has never raised its tariffs beyond the fixed bound rates, which are arrived at after lengthy trade negotiations and vary for every nation. Indias decision to raise import duties as announced in the last Budget was within the rates, according to Das. When a country raises a tariff to a higher level, those adversely affected can seek remedy through the dispute settlement body of the WTO. The US has single-handedly and consistently blocked the appointment of judges to the seven-member DSB. Currently, three members have retired and a fourth is set to retire soon, senior trade expert and Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Biswajit Dhar said. India had repeatedly raised this issue during the last ministerial conference of the WTO at Buenos Aires in Argentina, with Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu urging swift action to resolve the impasse. This is part of a larger plan to destabilise the WTO structure and force India and other nations to come into a bilateral agreement with the United States, Dhar added. India digging in for a fight While an official in the commerce department, quoted above, indicated a trade war was in the offing, till now the government has been in wait-and-watch mode. We will wait to see how they justify it, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia had said on Friday. She had pointed out no other WTO member had used the security exception argument as done by the US in raising duties on import of steel and aluminium. The US and China are among the 24 WTO members that have confirmed their presence at the mini-ministerial meeting called by India on March 20 to break the impasse on certain issues and prepare common ground to push the mandate of the WTO. India is worried that other nations may latch on to the US arguments to initiate a new set of discussions on setting bound rates, as had been done over the recent years with regards to the WTO. Exporters remain jittery Currently, no country singles out Indian imports for higher tariffs. Bangladesh has used it sometimes whereby they have different levels of tariffs for goods from India and China as opposed to everyone else but the US move is an exception as the WTO rules are clearly against it, FIEO Director-General Ajay Sahai said. The FIEO is discussing the matter with the government. For India, steel and aluminum exports to the US remain at barely 2 per cent of the outbound shipments of both products. Raw steel exports to the US stood at only $330 million and exports of finished steel products were $1.23 billion in 2016-17. The total exports of aluminium and aluminium products stood at $350 million. But the situation may go out of control if tariffs are raised across the board. Indias export exposure to the US in sectors such as diamond jewellery, pharmaceuticals and marine products remains far higher than steel and aluminium. The US alone consumes about 30 per cent of Indias annual jewellery exports and 40 per cent of shrimps and prawns. About 40 per cent of all pharma exports also end up stateside. The US is Indias largest export destination, with $42.21 billion worth of shipments sent to that country in 2016-17. Trump has not said anything about jewellery. "But any country-specific import duty levy or increase in the existing tax could be disastrous for Indias diamond jewellery exports, said Praveen Shankar Pandya, former chairman of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council. The $5-billion worth of pharma exports would be in a tough place if tariffs are revised upwards, as these are dependent on the manufacture of mostly generics and the sector earns almost 50 per cent of its revenues from exports. While exporters say it is unlikely that the Trump administration will act tough against them as the country requires cheap drugs, the industry will find it difficult to face higher tariffs if they are to be revised upwards. The pharma sector earns almost 50 per cent of its revenues from exports. Investors across age groups and risk appetite can invest in these schemes, experts tell Priyadarshini Maji and Tinesh Bhasin. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com When an investor wants to put money in equities for tax-savings, equity-linked savings scheme (ELSS) is an obvious choice. But rarely anyone thinks of retirement schemes from mutual funds. In this long-term instrument, too, investors get Section 80C, but they have a longer lock-in of five years. While they may appear to be similar to ELSS, fund houses say they serve two different purposes. "Retirement funds are for the long-term goal of preparing for one's retirement. ELSS is for wealth creation along with tax savings. Investors looking out for a dedicated investment avenue for their retirement savings should look at retirement funds, as they are created keeping both pre- and pose-post retirement needs," says a Tata Asset Management spokesperson. Some fund houses have different plans under the retirement funds to address different risk appetites and life stage of investors. Tata Asset Management and HDFC Mutual Fund have three -- Equity plan, debt-oriented hybrid fund and equity-oriented hybrid fund. Many financial planners have been using debt-oriented retirement funds for individuals who are either close to retirement or have already retired. "If a person is going to need the money after four, five years, we suggest debt-oriented retirement funds. Along with tax benefits at the stage of investment, they also don't let investor withdraw the fund. After three years, the tax is low as one gets indexation benefit," says Malhar Majumder, partner and consultant, Positive Vibes Consulting and Advisory. If an investor is in his thirties or forties, employee provident fund would be significant. If there's a shortfall in Section 80C and you can look at equity or equity-oriented retirement scheme if the goal of the savings is to create a retirement kitty. Investment advisors also say that those who don't like the 50 per cent equity cap in the national Pension Scheme can also look at retirement funds as an alternative. These funds are, however, not yet popular as retirement fund as a category is relatively new. Most funds don't even have a five-year track record. Only funds from UTI Mutual fund and Tata Mutual fund have been in existence for five years. But earlier, the government didn't offer tax benefit on these schemes until 2014. The lack of track record was one deterrent for investors earlier. But the performance of most these funds are at par with its other peers and they have also fared better than their benchmark. If you look at three-year returns from equity funds in retirement category, Reliance Retirement Fund and Tata Retirement Savings (progressive plan) have 10.68 per cent and 13.25 per cent returns respectively. When you compare this to average returns from multi-cap funds, which are at 11.09 per cent, and even ELSS -- at 10.97 per cent, the performance of retirement funds is at par with other options available to investors. "But these funds are also not popular because they charge an exit load until investors turn 60 to discourage people from exiting early," says Himanshu Srivastava Senior Research Analyst, Manager Research, Morningstar India. 'It was a 20-minute boat ride journey of about 500 metres, but it must have been a giant leap together for the two staunchly secular leaders, Modi and Macron,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra D Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron enjoy a boat ride on the Ganga in Varanasi, March 12, 2018. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters There is powerful symbolism in Prime Minister Modi accompanying French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Varanasi. It goes way beyond the obvious fact that the PM represents Varanasi in Parliament. What is little known in India is that Macron has a position on situating the Muslims in France within the four walls of the secular State which holds intriguing similarity to what passes for cultural nationalism (Hindutva) in India. One of the first moves by the French government after Macron's election was the legislation in October significantly expanding the State's powers to fight 'terrorism' -- arrest and detention of suspects without judicial oversight, home searches and house arrests with limited involvement of courts and so on -- which can be seen as an attempt to enshrine de facto discrimination against French Muslims. Muslims account for close to 9 percent of France's population. Macron has since disclosed that he is actually considering a profound reorganisation of the way in which Islam is funded and its preachers schooled in France -- effectively redefining the relations between Islam and the French State. In his own words, the priority will be to 'bring back what secularism is all about' in France. Macron argues that the ultimate aim of this process is the preservation of national cohesion in France while it also forms part of an effort to 'fight fundamentalism'. Macron claims that he hopes to 'better integrate' Islam in France with a view to 'place it in a more peaceful relationship with the State'. Therefore, it becomes necessary for the State to 'lay the groundwork for the entire reorganisation of Islam in France.' What does it involve? Details are sketchy as of now as Macron hasn't revealed fully what is on his mind, but from what is already known, two main templates of the proposed 'reorganisation' of Islam would be the financing of Islam and, secondly, the training of Imams in France (including the establishment of a new position of Grand Imam of France). Macron has spoken openly about reducing the influence of Arab countries on French Muslims, which, according to him, 'prevents French Islam from returning to modernity'. In practice, Macron hopes to put restrictions on the rich petrodollar States of the Middle East funding Muslim institutions in France. Of more fundamental consequence will be a move to institutionalise Islam by shifting Muslims to a law that regulates cultural associations, which are strictly under the financial control of the State. French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb is quoted as saying that the French government should intervene to create 'imams of the French Republic' to replace the 'imams of foreign countries'. In Collomb's words, 'I suggest stopping foreign financing of mosques and closing Salafist mosques. Any foreign imam who makes a speech contrary to the values of the Republic must be expelled.' Ironically, while targeting Muslims, the French State shows latitude to other religious denominations to maintain transnational relations, even getting financial support from abroad (such as the Mormon missionaries or the Catholic Church receiving help from the Vatican). Of course, France is only following the footsteps of some other European countries such as Italy, Austria or Germany, which too indulge in doublespeak on liberal values -- soft discourse to obfuscate hard policies. Austria, in particular, has one of the most authoritarian systems of institutionalising Islam. Macron insists with a straight face that 'the State should be neutral' in France. He has been extraordinarily successful in masquerading the realpolitik behind a cosmopolitan and liberal face. Unsurprisingly, he is President Trump's most favorite European interlocutor, with whom he has frequent phone conversations. By coincidence, Trump called Macron on the eve of his departure from Delhi with Modi to take a boat ride on Monday evening on the Ganga river from Varanasi's Assi ghat to the Dashashwamedh ghat, watching the episodes of Ramleela and recital of the Ramcharit Manas, while passing through Tulsi Ghat. Indeed, it was a small 20-minute boat ride journey of about 500 metres, but it must have been a giant leap together for the two staunchly secular leaders, Modi and Macron. V K Jain resigned as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's advisor on Tuesday, March 13. 'Imagine a situation where an upright officer refuses to carry out a chief minister's or a central minister's orders that he considers wrong.' 'Can he be summarily thrashed at a meeting at your residence, or in his own office?' 'If AAP legitimises political violence, there are many, many, tougher political leaders elsewhere to draw the wrong lessons,' warns Shekhar Gupta. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com Nobody has a doubt that the Aam Aadmi Party is made of street fighters. Most, including its critics, would agree that since the day they got elected in Delhi, humiliating Narendra D Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party at its peak by winning 67 seats out of the 70, the Centre has launched a cold war on it, not letting it function even in accordance with the limited powers Delhi's quasi statehood confers on them. There also isn't much doubt now that the state's chief secretary, a senior, soft-spoken and much-liked Indian Administrative Service officer (1986 batch) Anshu Prakash was manhandled at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's home late on the night of February 19. Elected state governments and civil servants often fight. Humiliation of civil servants, including the IAS and Indian Police Service, by chief ministers is also not new. Many also draw sadistic pleasure from it. Mayawati, as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, was the unchallenged transfer queen. She also takes pride in that power. In a Walk The Talk interview with me in 2005, she boasted about this. When she first met her mentor Kanshi Ram (who lay in a coma on the first floor of her Humayun Road home, where we were recording), she was preparing to compete for the IAS. Kanshi Ram told her not to bother and join politics with him instead. 'You want to become an IAS officer,' he said, 'I will make you somebody IAS officers will run around.' Kanshi Ram lived up to his promise. So did behenji in giving her officers the runaround. At one of her 2007 election meetings in Badaun, we heard her boast to her cheering crowd: 'Bureaucracy mere naam se thhar-thhar kaampti hai (the bureaucracy trembles at the very mention of my name).' She would toss them around so often that many stopped shifting their families to the places of their new postings. They'd just move to the circuit houses in the new place, avoid dislocating families and disrupting their children's education, as there was no way of knowing how soon they would be on the move again. Many escaped to central postings or other secondments. Similarly, of the rougher states I am more familiar with, Haryana did some of the same, especially under Bansi Lal and Om Parkash Chautala. There were frequent transfers and corruption cases, vigilance inquiries, and sidelining of the previous regime's favourites into what was locally called 'khudde-line' (I can't translate it, the closest is 'in the wilderness'). I can go on with many such examples, even specific cases of true, political bloody-mindedness. IMAGE: Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash. Photograph: PTI Photo I cannot, from the memory bank of nearly four decades in journalism, rustle up another case where a senior officer was beaten up, least of all a chief secretary and that too in his chief minister's house. I am not counting some cases of assassinations by mafiosi politicians, especially in old Bihar. That's a different category. The medical report and video evidence seen so far and the three-decade-old reputation of Anshu Prakash indicate that the assault did indeed take place. So that fact is not a point of debate. The chief minister's own aide V K Jain has asserted quite unequivocally that Prakash was manhandled. As the days have passed, the AAP's own spokesmen and leaders have shifted positions, from total denial to the more defiant: You will send police to the chief minister's house to investigate the allegation of a 'mere two slaps' while you do nothing to question Amit Shah for Judge Loya's 'murder'. You can choose to call it old whataboutery. I would say it is more like Constitutional insolence. Forget contrition, there isn't even a word of sympathy or solidarity for a human being in your service subjected to physical violence. On February 23, AAP's Uttam Nagar MLA Naresh Balyan was also reported as saying that such bureaucrats deserved to be thrashed for not doing their work. Arvind Kejriwal's AAP in Delhi and Narendra Modi's BJP at the Centre have been at war now for three years. It has manifested in different ways although most of the blows have been struck by the Centre. Successive lieutenant governors have squatted on the state government's decisions. Postings made and desired by the elected government have been changed or denied. The Central Bureau of Investigation has raided and charged the chief minister's key IAS officer Rajendra Kumar in a corruption case, which doesn't make too much sense. In any case, the amounts it talks about look trivial. The control of the anti-corruption branch, the department AAP coveted most of all, was taken away from them. The latest was the alacrity with which the Election Commission of India disqualified 20 AAP MLAs on the charge of holding dual offices and received the President's approval for it over the same weekend. This list, by no means exhaustive, tells us that so far much of the bureaucratic and procedural artillery fire has come from the Centre. The AAP has retaliated with verbal salvos, the most famous, or infamous, being Kejriwal's description of Modi as a 'liar and a psychopath'. The latest, physical violence, is an unprecedented turn. Anything we call unprecedented also sets a precedent. Will physical violence against civil servants now become a new norm? We do describe the AAP as a party of doughty street fighters, but if they legitimise political violence of this kind, there are many, many, tougher political leaders elsewhere to draw the wrong lessons. Imagine a situation where an upright officer refuses to carry out a chief minister's or a central minister's orders that he considers wrong. Can he be summarily thrashed at a meeting at your residence, or in his own office? One of the arguments we heard in this affair is, the chief secretary or bureaucrats do not have to face the 250,000 people denied their rations. Will political leaders then unleash the mobs on their officers? Will senior officers now need to take police protection while visiting their elected leaders' homes? Political leaderships and civil services have a delicate relationship. Fights do often break out over issues which may be procedural, principled, or personal. Good leaders know how to handle these. The leader of a state, even one with limited powers like Delhi, is the chief minister. It is for him to resolve these differences, to make sure things do not take an ugly turn, and, if need be, take the issue to higher Constitutional authorities. When that also fails, recourse to public protest or noise in the media (which the AAP is very good at) is available. But your chief secretary beaten up, even if given 'just two slaps' in your residence, is nothing to be proud of. In the introduction of my 2014 Anticipating India (HarperCollins) I had said that the trio of Narendra D Modi, Rahul Gandhi, and Arvind Kejriwal will lead a brilliant cast of characters in our politics that leaves no dull moment in our -- journalists' -- lives. I had also hoped that all three will change: Modi towards mainstream moderation, Gandhi by shedding public diffidence and risk avoidance, and, finally, Kejriwal towards a little establishmentarian calm. This incident tells us that I was completely wrong on that last expectation. By special arrangement with ThePrint It appears that the BJP government has succeeded in managing the communication of the PNB scam in a manner that its adverse impact on its electoral fortunes is largely contained, says A K Bhattacharya. Photograph: Jayanta Dey/Reuters On February 14, the Nirav Modi scam hit the nation. India's second largest state-controlled lender, Punjab National Bank, informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it had detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions pertaining to the letters of undertaking it had issued at an estimated value of over Rs 11,380 crore. The amount involved was later revised to Rs 12,703 crore as more such transactions came to light. Companies owned by billionaire Nirav Modi, a luxury diamond jewellery designer, and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, were alleged to have used these LoUs, obtained without any guarantee, to fund their businesses. Several days before these fraudulent transactions came to light and PNBs stock prices fell sharply, Modi and Choksi had left India. Even as law enforcement agencies began seizing assets belonging to them, it became clear that the Narendra Modi government was dealing with its biggest financial sector scam. Newspapers on February 15 front-paged this news with a display that reminded you of other major financial scams of yesteryear -- involving Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh. On February 18, elections were held in Tripura. In the fray were the Left Front, which was seeking re-election for the fifth time in a row, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which had allied with a local party by the name of Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura. Left Front was led by Manik Sarkar, who led Tripura as chief minister for about two decades and made a reputation for himself as a man of honesty and integrity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also left no stone unturned by campaigning hard in Tripura to defeat the Left Front. Almost 10 days later, assembly elections were held in two other north-eastern states -- Meghalaya and Nagaland. In these elections also, the BJP was seeking to establish its rule in the two states, mainly through alliances with regional parties. The results declared on March 3 showed that the BJP has overthrown the Left Front and its honest chief minister. In Nagaland, it switched over to a new regional party and formed an alliance that won the necessary number of seats to be part of the government. And in Meghalaya, it ensured that the Congress would not be able to form a government on its own and stitched together a post-poll alliance to stake claim to form a government. What does this mean for the time-honoured belief that financial scams can prove to be a liability for any political party seeking popular mandate in an election? Remember that corruption was one of the issues that the BJP used effectively to overthrow the Congress in the general elections in 2014. So, did the BJP manage to get away easily in spite of its government at the Centre being accused of having allowed the PNB scam and letting the accused leave the country? Here was a squeaky clean chief minister of a state seeking re-election for the fifth time. And the BJP, who was hoping to defeat him, had just been accused of having failed to prevent the PNB scam. It is possible that voters are discerning enough to differentiate between the responsibilities of a ruling party at the Centre with those of a party that hopes to form a government in a state. The issues in a state election are different, as indeed they were in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland. Voters there were more concerned about issues about regional autonomy, development or greater say in governance. A financial sector scam involving a state-controlled bank and the failure of the Union government or the regulator to prevent it may not have become an election issue. There is another explanation of why the link between a financial scam and outcomes in state elections has become tenuous. It appears that the BJP government has succeeded in managing the communication of the PNB scam in a manner that its adverse impact on its electoral fortunes is largely contained. The Congress or the Left Front, too, failed to drive home the electoral advantage from the PNB scam and they must examine what could have gone wrong. Simultaneously, the BJP government at the Centre also worked hard to devise a series of administrative responses to counter the negative impact of the PNB scam. While the law enforcement agencies were made to work overtime to initiate action against the offenders and seize the assets of those who may have run away from the country, the government decided to set up a new independent regulator for audit firms and frame new laws targeted at fugitive economic offenders. In many ways, the biggest relief for the BJP after the election results is that it succeeded in preventing the PNB scam from adversely impacting its electoral prospects in the three north-eastern states. Or has the link between scams and electoral outcomes become tenuous? 'This has always been a trend by the ruling party, that they give assurances but never fulfill it.' 'The BJP is known for it as it is their character.' 'They agree when the farmers' movement is on, but turn their backs when the farmers leave.' 'We have to keep a constant pressure on the government for our demands.' IMAGE: Thousands of farmers and Adivasis march on the J J flyover on Sunday-Monday morning night to reach the Azad Maidan in south Mumbai before daybreak. Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo Have the agitating farmers who thronged Mumbai over the weekend to press for their demands been sold a lemon? Even as the Maharashtra government announced that all the farmers' demands have been accepted, The Times of India reported that only two of their demands have been accepted; the government has for the first time given in writing that the other seven demands would be looked into by committees. Nevertheless, Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury announced that the farmers would withdraw their agitation. "When the government is giving something and at the same time we are tired, as a leader I must know when to stop," Ajit Nawale, general secretary, Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha, tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf. There are reports that the Maharashtra government has not accepted all your demands. No, this is not true. All our demands have been met and the Maharashtra government has given that in writing to us. I said this yesterday (on Monday, March 12), that the movement is not over, but we have crossed one hurdle. Which are the demands that the government has accepted? We have got a complete loan waiver. Earlier, the government had put many conditions to give a loan waiver. But now they have agreed to our demands. Implementation was a big problem. Now, the government has agreed to include members from our organisation in the committee to solve the loan waiver problem. And this will be looked into on a day-to-day basis. This will be done in 45 days. The farmers who had taken loans before 2009 were not included in the list. But after our meeting the government has agreed to include these farmers too. Even the farmers who took loans in 2016-2017 will be included in this list. Another demand the government agreed to was that it will consider individual farmers and not the family as a whole to waive off the loan. How many demands were there from your side? There were seven demands, and there are ups and downs in all demands. But I must say they have agreed to give some or other thing on all the demands. IMAGE: Farmers gather at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Monday, March 12, 2018. Photograph: Mitesh Bhuvad/PTI Photo There are doubts that like the previous government, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government too will not implement anything on the ground. This has always been a trend by the ruling party, that they give assurances but never fulfill it. The BJP is known for it as it is their character. They agree when the farmers' movement is on, but turn their backs when the farmers leave. But we have to keep a constant pressure on the government for our demands. We organised a farmers' strike earlier too and they agreed to some demands. And when we saw that many more demands were not met, we again went on a strike and got some more things from the government. We have to be alert all the time. When we struggle, we get strength. If they do not agree to our demands in practice, then we will fight again. Why is it being said that the BJP government has fooled the farmers again? I don't know why they say such things. I have been in farmers' agitations for the last 17 years and those who know about farmers issues are happy to get what they got yesterday (March 12, 2018). It is also said that the farmers gave up their protest too soon. The agitation fizzled out after just one meeting with government representatives. For seven days we walked. There were blisters on the farmers' feet. We too are human beings. Being a leader of this march, I have to keep these factors in mind. This is not the last fight. When the government is giving something and at the same time we are tired, as a leader I must know when to stop. We ate only dal-rice for seven days. We did not take breakfast or even tea. We took this march very peacefully and democratically. We did not want any violence. If the movement got violent it would get over very easily. You said you will come back after six months if your demands are not met. I said we have only crossed one hurdle. If there are more hurdles, then we will try to cross it after six months. Till the time farmers are not free from debt, this struggle will go on. We have to go step by step. IMAGE: An elderly woman is treated for blisters after walking 180 km under a blazing sun for seven days. Photograph: PTI Photo Will the government act on its promises on the Forest Rights Act and implementing the M S Swaminathan Commission report? They have agreed to act on the Forest Act. As far as the Swaminathan report implementation is concerned, the government will have to include the C2 + 50 formula. This A2 formula will not work. Have they agreed to the C2 + 50 formula after your long march? This is a central government issue. There is pressure on the central government from Maharashtra and now even from Rajasthan. Questions are being raised about who paid for the thousands of farmer caps and flags the farmers sported, and who gave you the money to organise such a huge march. Only people who do not know Communist ideology speak like this. One cap costs Rs 1.70 and I paid Rs 17,000 to make Rs 10,000 caps. I paid this money from my own account. And after we got the caps, we sold them for Rs 5 each. The difference of Rs 3.30 (profit) which we earned was used to buy the flags. The people who participated in the movement paid money from their own pockets. They paid Rs 5 to join the movement. From different villages people got utensils and rice. They made food and distributed to all farmers in the rally. If this was a sponsored rally, then people would not have walked when their feet were bleeding. When people feel from the heart and join a movement, they come to rallies by paying from their own pockets. IMAGE: Farmers wait on a railway platform to return to their villages after the Maharashtra government accepted their demands. Photograph: PTI Photo BJP MP Poonam Mahajan said your protest was propelled by 'urban Maoists'. I don't know what to say to those who do not know farmers' pain. Do they even know whether potato is grown above the ground or below the ground? How can I comment on such people's statements? If I do that, then I will devalue myself. In 2017 too, you were assured of a loan waiver, but did not get anything. No, it is not completely true. We got Rs 13,500 crore (Rs 135 billion) that year. That was not enough. We wanted more, therefore we went on strike again. So we got something. The government too gave into some of our demands. This struggle will continue in future if our demands are not met. V K Jain, the advisor to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has resigned citing personal reasons and family commitments, days after he was questioned by police in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, sources said on Tuesday. "Jain has resigned from the post of advisor to the Delhi chief minister citing personal reasons and family commitment," one of the sources told PTI. He has submitted his resignation letter in the chief minister's office and sent a copy to the lieutenant governor, the source added. He was appointed to the post in September last year, days after he had retired as the CEO of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board. The board is chaired by Kejriwal. Jain had not been coming to the CMO since the incident and had gone on a week-long medical leave, the sources said. Prakash was allegedly assaulted by Aam Aadmi Party MLAs during a meeting at the chief minister's residence in the evening of February 19. The Delhi Police had last week told a court that during interrogation, Jain disclosed that AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan surrounded the chief secretary and saw them assaulting him at Kejriwal's residence. However, Jain had earlier said that he did not see anything as he had gone to the washroom at the time of the incident. The alleged assault on Prakash took place in the presence of Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia. In solidarity with Prakash, IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Services officers have not been attending meetings with AAP ministers, and only maintaining written communication with them. The joint forum of the Delhi government employees has demanded action against Kejriwal and Sisodia in connection with the case. A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman, arrested in the INX Media money laundering case. Special judge Sunil Rana granted bail to Bhaskararaman, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on February 16 from a five-star hotel in the heart of the national capital. The court granted the relief to the CA and asked him to furnish a bail bond of Rs two lakh and a surety of like amount. It asked Bhaskararaman to cooperate in the investigation as and when required by the ED and asked him not to leave the country without its permission. Bhaskararaman had sought bail on the ground that he was not required for custodial interrogation and no purpose would be served by keeping him in custody. The CA was sent to jail on February 26 after his custodial interrogation by the ED. Karti's name had cropped up in the case relating to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board's approval granted in 2007 for receipt of funds by INX Media when his father and Congress leader P Chidambaram was the finance minister during the previous United Progressive Alliance regime. The ED's special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana had earlier told the court that during the course of investigation, it was revealed that Bhaskararaman had been assisting Karti to manage his ill-gotten wealth in India and abroad. He had alleged that INX Media had deliberately and in violation of the conditions of approval made a downstream investment of 26 per cent in the capital of INX News Pvt Ltd without the 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 had alleged. The FIPB unit of the Finance Ministry had not only granted illegal approval but also misinformed the investigation wing of the Income Tax Department, it had alleged. Leaders of 20 opposition parties got together on Tuesday at a dinner hosted by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi to explore the possibility of forging a broader unity among secular parties ahead of the 2019 general elections, an event the Congress said was meant to promote amity and friendship. IMAGE: Leaders of 20 opposition parties were invited to 10 Janpath, Sonia Gandhi's residence for dinner where possibilities of putting up a united front to defeat the BJP were discussed. Photograph: PTI Photo According to sources, leaders of Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazagham and Left parties attended the dinner among others. Prominent leaders in attendance were Nationalist Congress Partys Sharad Pawar, SPs Ram Gopal Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Partys Satish Chandra Mishra and former chief ministers Omar Abdullah, Babulal Marandi, Hemant Soren and Jitan Ram Manjhi, besides Janata Dal-Uniteds Sharad Yadav and RLDs Ajit Singh. The RJD was represented by two children of party chief Lalu Prasad -- former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti, a Rajya Sabha MP. The others present included TMCs Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Communist Party of Indias D Raja and Mohammad Salim, DMKs Kanimozhi, AIUDFs Baddrauddin Ajmal and leaders of Kerala Congress, besides Kupender Reddy of the Janata Dal-Secular. Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony and Randeep Surjewala were among the Congress leaders present. IMAGE: RJDs Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti leave after attending the dinner. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo Fabulous dinner tonight, hosted by UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi Ji. An opportunity for leaders from different political parties to meet and bond, informally, Rahul Gandhi tweeted after the dinner. Much political talk but much more important - tremendous positive energy, warmth and genuine affection, he wrote, and tagged a group photo of the attendees. According to sources, leaders of Andhra Pradeshs ruling Telugu Desam Party, which recently pulled out its ministers in the Modi government but continues to be a constituent of the NDA, the Biju Janata Dal, and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi were not invited. The BJD and the TRS rule Odisha and Telangana respectively. Tejashwi Yadav and Sharad Yadav later told reporters it was the first step towards a comprehensive alliance of the 2019 elections. Asked if there was a consensus on Rahul Gandhis leadership of the probable opposition alliance, Tejashwi said, The time has not yet come to decide on the prime ministerial candidate. While the NDA was breaking apart, opposition parties were getting together, he said apparently hinting at TDP pulling out of the Modi government. The dinner was hosted at Sonia Gandhis 10, Janpath residence where the leaders discussed the possibility of opposition parties getting together on one platform to defeat the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, sources said. IMAGE: NCP's Sharad Pawar with Congress president Rahul Gandhi during the dinner Photograph: @INCIndia/Twitter Sonia Gandhi had earlier called for opposition unity, saying parties should set aside their minor differences to come together in the larger interest of keeping the BJP out of power. Congress communications incharge Randeep Surjewala said the dinner was not organised for politics, but for amity and friendship among opposition parties. He claimed at a time when the government was not allowing Parliament to function, it was obvious that leaders of various parties, who wanted to raise issues in national interest, would get together to discuss the current political situation. This dinner was not hosted for politics, but for amity and friendship. The intention is not political, but to hold discussions in family-like setting at a time when the nation is confronted with a number of issues and thousands of crores being taken out of the country, Surjewala later told reporters. IMAGE: CPI's D Raja along with Manmohan Singh chat at Sonia's dinner party. Other notable Congress leaders present were Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony and Randeep Surjewala. Photograph: @INCIndia/Twitter He said opposition leaders got together to discuss issues in the national interest, create bonhomie in the opposition and exchange views. He also accused the government of running away from debate on key issues such as banking frauds. Though the Congress termed the dinner as a non-political event, it was loaded with political significance as it may set the tone for unity among secular parties to take on the BJP-led NDA in the 2019 general elections. Left and TMC leaders who were present said it was certainly a political dinner without political talks. IMAGE: DMK's Kanimozhi smiles as she listens in to a chat with Rahul Gandhi. Photograph: @INCIndia/Twitter It was a political dinner. But there were no political talks. It was a show of strength by the non-BJP parties, a Left leader said. It was a political dinner but there were no political talks. Sonia Gandhi asked me why Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal Chief Minister) didnt come. I told her it was because of her prior commitments, said TMC leader in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay. IMAGE: Leaders of Andhra Pradeshs ruling Telugu Desam Party, which recently pulled out its ministers in the Modi government but continues to be a constituent of the NDA, the Biju Janata Dal, and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi were not invited. Photograph: @INCIndia/Twitter Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, who has been nominated by United States President Donald Trump to be his next Secretary of State, is seen as an advocate of a tough policy on Pakistan. Trump, in a tweet, announced to fire Rex Tillerson as his top diplomat. Trump, said he personally decided to fire Tillerson, because of the differences he had with the former Exxon CEO on a range of issues. While he did not give a laundry list of such differences except for saying that they were not on the same page, his Af-Pak policy, in particularly the State Departments perceived soft approach to Pakistan was one of them, if the sources are to be believed. The State Department under Tillerson of late had been advocating for a softer approach on Pakistan in the months since Trump announced on January 1 to suspend all aid to Islamabad till the time it eliminates terrorist safe haven from within its territory. However, the Pentagon and the intelligence community, whose workforce are the prime victim of terrorism coming out of safe haven had been advocating from a tough approach on Pakistan. Tillersons successor Mike Pompeo who currently is the CIA Director, National Security Advisor Lt Gen H R McMaster and the Defence Secretary Jim Mattis were seen to be on the same page when it came to Afghanistan and Pakistan, which Trump Administration has evolved into a comprehensive South Asia Policy. India is a central aspect of this policy. Weeks before Trump announced his decision on Pakistan through a tweet on the wee hours of January 1, Pompeo had warned Pakistan. Appearing at the Regan Defence Forum at Simi Valley in California, in the first week of December, the CIA Director said if Pakistan does not act against terrorist safe havens in the country the US will. The Trump administration would deal with the situation if Pakistan turned down Washingtons request to destroy safe havens, he then said. In the absence of the Pakistanis achieving that, we are going to do everything we can to make sure that that safe haven no longer exists, Pompeo had said. Pompeo reiterated this a week after Trump announced to freeze security assistance to Pakistan. We see the Pakistanis continuing to provide safe harbour, havens inside of Pakistan for terrorists who present risks to the United States of America, Pompeo was quoted as saying by CBS. We are doing our best to inform the Pakistanis that this is no longer going to be acceptable. So this conditioned aid, we have given them a chance. If they fix this problem, we are happy to continue to engage with them and be their partner. But if they dont, we are going to protect America, Pompeo said. He was responding to questions on the decision of the Trump Administration to suspend approximately $2 billion in security assistance to Pakistan for its inability to take decisive actions against terrorist and militant groups operating from its soil. The president has made very clear that he needs Pakistan to cease being a safe haven for terrorists that threaten the United States of America, end, period, full stop, Pompeo said, reflecting on the stand taken by Trump. Trump told reporters that he and Pompeo are on the same page. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think its going to go very well, Trump said. Pompeo graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the US army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the US House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle. As Director of the CIA, Mike has earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community, Trump said. I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture. He will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, said the US president. Trump said his experience in the military, Congress, and as leader of the CIA have prepared him well for his new role. He urged the Senate for his swift confirmation. Top American Senators were quick to respond to Trump's call and promised a quick confirmation process for Pompeo. I had a very good conversation with Director Pompeo this morning and look forward to meeting with him soon. As I shared with the president, the committee will consider his nomination as expeditiously as possible, Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said. Senator Marco Rubio said Pompeo is an excellent choice. His experience as CIA Director, an army officer, and a congressman, and his proven leadership on national security matters give him unique qualifications to lead the State Department at this critical juncture. I will enthusiastically support his nomination and am hopeful he can be confirmed quickly, he said. Image: US President Trump said that he and Mike Pompeo are on the same page and have a similar thought process. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images The army also stated that allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation is insufficient. IMAGE: The army also said that it had identified 25 projects under the Make in India initiative but there was not adequate budget to support them. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters The army has said it was reeling under severe fund crunch and struggling to even make emergency procurements when it was dealing with an assertive China along the northern border after the Doklam face-off and increasing hostilities from Pakistan on the western frontier. The army told a parliamentary panel that the insufficient allocation to it in the defence budget was going to hit the armys modernisation at a time when Chinese military was competing to reach the level of the US and Pakistan bolstering capability of its forces. Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Sarath Chand said 68 per cent of the armys equipment is in the vintage category, adding fund crunch will also impact the serviceability of the existing equipment and may even affect payment of instalments for past purchases. The armys frustrations over inadequate allocations of funds in the defence budget for next fiscal figured in a report of the Standing Committee on Defence which was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Talking about the new procurement policy, delegation of financial powers to Vice Chief of Army and several other initiatives towards modernisation of the armed forces, Lt Gen Chand told the panel that the Budget of 2018-19 has dashed our hopes and most of what has been achieved has actually received a little set back. He said, Allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation is insufficient even to cater for committed payment of Rs 29,033 crore for 125 on-going schemes, emergency procurements, he said, adding Committed liabilities of 2017 which will also get passed on to 2018 will further accentuate the situation. Referring to the regional security scenario, Chand said the possibility of two front war is a reality and the country needs to pay attention to modernisation of the army. He said the Doklam issue was going on and China has become increasingly assertive. We have seen more and more patrolling and transgressions. Activities in Tibet has also increased over a period of years whether it is the quantum of troops or whether it is the number of personnel undertaking the exercises and also the level of exercises, he said. The army also informed the panel that it does not have adequate resources to even undertake the construction of strategic roads near the Sino-India border. The Vice Chief of Army Staff also referred to daring terror attacks on military installations in Uri, Pathankot, Nagrota and Sunjwan Cantonment in Jammu and said the defence forces must get their dues. Peace in the neighbourhood has also been slightly affected by the recent incidents in Maldives. Overall, we have a disturbed situation and all the more important is that the defence forces should get their due, he said. The army informed the panel that it had identified 25 projects under the Make in India initiative but there was not adequate budget to support them. As a result of which, many of these may end up foreclosed. On its part, the Parliamentary Standing Committee, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP B C Khanduri, also came down hard on the government for inadequate allocation of financial resources to the armed forces. Keeping in view the increasing threat perception, which includes various occurrences of external strife and internal dissidence such as Doklam, increased external activities in Tibet over a year, rampant cross border firing, militant activities etc, the current budget is not supportive to the inevitable needs of the army, the panel said. It also expressed concern, saying a whopping 68 per cent of the equipment of the army is in the vintage category while just about 24 per cent is in the current state, and eight per cent in the state of the art category. The panel said it took a series of attacks and numerous casualties to delegate financial powers to the Vice Chief to spend Rs 14,097 crore for strengthening perimeter security. But for the attack, its quite possible that funds for strengthening perimeter security may not have been sanctioned for quite some time to come, it said. It said while the defence ministry has delegated powers to the Vice Chief of the Army to spend a little over Rs 14,000 crore towards security related issues, there is no separate allocation made for it. The committee opine that the security of the Nation is paramount and safety of those defending the country cannot be left in a state of abandonment. The Forces must be capacitated in maintaining a robust and effective response mechanism to counter emerging threats, it said. The Parliamentary Standing Committee also came down hard on the government for delays in carrying out modernisation of the Indian Air Force and the Navy. After a series of public spats, United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired his beleaguered Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo. IMAGE: US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have had a series of spats on issues such as the US policy on North Korea, Russia and Iran. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Trump tweeted, in a surprise announcement. Trump also announced the appointment of Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to head the agency -- the first woman selected for the top post. Tillerson, who was travelling to Africa, had to return in midway citing the demands of work and the need to be in Washington for in-person meetings. The 65-year-old former Exxon Mobil chief executive and the president had strained relations and the two had differences over a host of issues including the US policy on North Korea, Russia and Iran. Later, Trump said he personally took the decision to fire Tillerson as he had differences with him on key issues. I made the decision (to fire him) by myself, Trump told reporters on the White House lawns, minutes before he boarded Marine One for Joint Base Andrews Air Force for flying on his maiden trip to California. IMAGE: The 65-year-old former Exxon Mobil chief executive was appointed as Secretary of State on February 1 last year. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Responding to questions, Trump said he had differences with Tillerson on key issues including Iran. Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time. We got along, actually, quite well but we disagreed on things. When you look at the Iran deal; I think its terrible, I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently, Trump said. So, we were not really thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think its going to go very well, he said. When asked if he talked with Tillerson on North Korea, he replied, No, I really didnt discuss it very much with him, honestly. I made that decision by myself. Rex wasnt, as you know, in this country. I made the North Korea decision with consultation from many people but I made that decision by myself. Tillerson, who had never previously held political office, was appointed as Secretary of State on February 1 last year. He was forced to convene a press conference in October last to deny reports that he was considering quitting, though he did not comment on a report that he had called Trump a moron after a meeting at the Pentagon. IMAGE: Tillerson's spokesperson said the Secretary of State is unaware of the reason for his removal. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Trump said he has worked with Pompeo now for quite some time. Tremendous energy, tremendous intellect, were always on the same wavelength. The relationship has been very good and thats what I need as secretary of state, he said. I am confident he (Pompeo) is the right person for the job at this critical juncture. He will continue our program of restoring Americas standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Trump said. His experience in the military, Congress, and as leader of the CIA have prepared him well for his new role and I urge his swift confirmation, the US president added. The position needs to be confirmed by the US Senate. I think Mike Pompeo will be a truly great secretary of state. I have total confidence in him, Trump said. Trump also thanked Tillerson for his service. The former oil chief forged multibillion-dollar deals with Russias state oil company, Rosneft, and was awarded the Order of Friendship by the Kremlin in 2013. Meanwhile, Tillersons spokesperson said the Secretary of State is unaware of the reason for his removal. The Secretary did not speak to the President this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein said. IMAGE: Mike Pompeo, the CIA director, will now become the Secretary of State, paving the way for Gina Haspel to be the new head of the CIA. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Responding to a question, Goldstein said Tillerson had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues. Trump also appointed Gina Haspel as the new CIA Director, terming her elevation as a historic milestone. Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! he tweeted. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect, Trump said. According at a senior White House official, the president wanted to make sure to have his new team in place in advance of the upcoming talks with North Korea and various ongoing trade negotiations. The official was responding to a question on the timing of Trumps announcement. Pompeo said he is deeply grateful to Trump for permitting him to serve as CIA Director and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State. His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further Americas prosperity, he said. Pompeo said if confirmed, he looks forward to guiding the worlds finest diplomatic corps in formulating and executing the Presidents foreign policy. Haspel has been an officer of the CIA for 30 years. She served as Pompeos deputy for the past year. I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the CIA, Haspel said. None of them who took to the dais at the Mumbai farmers' morcha spoke about the Forest Rights Act, lack of irrigation facilities, minimum support price, and under-employment among the tribals, issues dear to the agitationists, says Prasanna D Zore. IMAGE: On Monday, around 30,000 farmers from across Maharashtra converged on south Mumbai's Azad maidan to demand a complete loan waiver, implementation of Forest Rights Act and better irrigation facilities and employment. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters The sun was blazing down mercilessly on the sea of people gathered at Mumbais Azad maidan, mostly tribals from Maharashtras Nashik and Palghar districts. But the sun was not as merciless as the system they have been a part of for all their life. As the farmers sat in the heat, it seemed as if the swarm of politicians, who had swooped down on a captive audience, were making a mockery of their protests. Organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, almost 30,000 people, mostly tribals (though this was touted as a farmers agitation, the profile of the participants made it clear it wasnt so) marched on despite their blistered feet to get their voices heard by those who occupy the seat of power in Maharashtra. While cries of lal salam (red revolution) rent the air inside the makeshift pandal occasionally, politicians belonging to various hues kept peppering the naive crowd with their raucous speeches. However, all their talk fell on deaf ears. IMAGE: The farmers didn't care about the politicians who came in hordes to extend their support, and had only one concern: justice, and that someone finally hears their voice. Photograph: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com Depending on the political persuasion of the speaker everyone from Narendra Modi to other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and Nirav Modi were held responsible for the plight of the assembled masses, while Shivaji to Dr Ambedkar were hailed as saviours of the people gathered at the vast ground. However, none of these names raised any noise from the crowds. In fact, none of the gathered even knew who Nirav Modi was or what his Rs 12,000 crore (and counting) banking fraud was all about. All that these protesters were demanding was the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, more employment opportunities and irrigation facilities so that they could increase the output on their tiny farm land-holdings. IMAGE: The crowds that had gathered at Mumbai's Azad maidan didn't pay any heed to the leaders trying to push forward their own political agenda. Photograph: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com None of the politicians who took to the dais spoke about the Forest Rights Act, lack of irrigation facilities, minimum support price, and under-employment among the tribals or minimum wages, issues that could have connected them to the agitationists. In fact, this disconnect was all the more visible, and hence, that much more farcical, as there were two different pandals erected for the microphone-hungry to come and voice their drivel. This being the case, the ones with strong vocal chords naturally won the day. But what they could not win was the peoples heart, for they talked about pulling down the Modi and Fadnavis governments while all that the protesters wanted was fulfillment of their just demands. Little did the politicians who took to the stage care about the people who had marched from Nashik on foot; naturally, it was only right that neither did those sitting under the blazing sun care for the politicians tall claims. Nitish Kumar and his officials maintain that Bihar has one of the lowest crime rates in India. Bihar police crime data indicates otherwise. Satyavrat Mishra reports. IMAGE: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his Janata Durbar in Patna, April 2013. Photograph: Archana Masih/Rediff.com On February 12, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had just concluded his weekly Lok Samvad programme, where he interacts with people and takes their suggestions on policies, at his residence in Patna. As he fielded questions from journalists after the event, Kumar beamed with satisfaction while talking about the political scenario in the state. With Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party on his side and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad in jail, the road ahead looked smooth for his government. The expression on his face, however, changed when a journalist asked him about the recent spike in crime in the state. "Ah, you have asked a very important question," he replied mockingly. He argued that the National Crime Records Bureau data showed that Bihar had one of the lowest crime rates in the country and that there had been no deterioration in the law and order situation. "See the data, crime has declined. Only the reporting of criminal activities has increased," he said. Just 24 hours after Kumar declared all was well on the law and order front, a Janata Dal-United leader named Pankaj Kumar from the CM's home district, Nalanda, was found brutally murdered. Pankaj Kumar, who was the chairman of the Primary Agriculture Credit Society of Malama panchayat, was allegedly kidnapped on February 11 and later tortured to death. This wasn't a stray incident. On February 6, a seven-year-old girl was abducted in Gaya and her mutilated body was found near the district magistrate's residence the next day. The incident caused massive protests in the city. The mob went berserk and it took the police six hours to regain control. It all happened while the chief minister was in Gaya to review the development work in the district. The review meeting was supposed to take place at the collectorate, but the district administration was forced to organise it at the lounge of the Gaya airport given the tension in the city. Even as Kumar was mocking the journalist over his question about the state's deteriorating law and order situation, traders at the grain market in Bihta, 20 km west of Patna, were forced to shut their shops and lock themselves at home. The reason was a series of ransom calls to almost a dozen of them. The local police was found to be no match for tech-savvy criminals who made the calls using masking software. Top officials from Patna and 60 commandos were rushed to the area and asked to remain there until the situation normalised. After a series of raids, the police nabbed half a dozen criminals. The police have also launched an intensive drive against the criminals in Bihta, which is home to many educational institutions, including the Indian Institute of Technology-Patna. A mega industrial park and a number of factories have also come up in the region in recent years. However, this industrial suburb now runs the risk of turning into a hot bed for criminals and extortionists with reports of ransom calls coming from the region almost every day. The state capital, Patna, has also witnessed several high-profile kidnappings this year. Last month, a Class 9 student was abducted from the posh Patliputra Colony. The kidnappers had demanded Rs 1.5 crore from the student's father -- a high-profile trader. The police, however, acted swiftly and managed to rescue the boy within 12 hours. It was one of the few kidnappings reported this year. On January 17, a 14-year-old boy, Raunak Kumar, was kidnapped for ransom; the police found his body 48 hours later. On January 29, a seven-year-old boy was kidnapped, but rescued by the police hours later. The chief minister and his officials maintain that the state has one of the lowest crime rates in India. "According to the NCRB data (for 2015), the state is ranked at 22nd position in terms of number of crime per 100,000 people. We are much behind several states. No one can claim to completely eradicate crime, but we have obviously reined it in," the chief minister said. "However, at the same time, reporting of individual crimes has gone up. Now, I can't control what you write, can I?" asked Kumar. "We reported only 171.6 crimes per 1,00,000 population, while national average is 234.2. We are much behind in terms of the number of crimes. Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala are ahead of us in this regard, but they don't have to explain it. It is all about perception," said a senior police official. "A lot has been done in terms of the law and order situation in Bihar. Therefore, people are now demanding more," he added. However, the crime data maintained by the Bihar police indicates otherwise. In 2017, Bihar witnessed more than 24 per cent spike in cognisable offences -- crimes which can be investigated by the police without judicial oversight -- when compared to data from 2016. A total of 0.23 million criminal cases were filed by the state police last year, whereas 0.18 million cases were filed in 2016. Numbers show an uptick in criminal cases across the board. A total of 2,803 murder cases were reported last year, whereas 2,581 cases were registered in 2016. With a total of 1,198 cases of rape, Bihar witnessed an increase of 20 per cent in crimes against women. There was a spike of 22 per cent in kidnapping last year, compared to 2016. Last year, the state also witnessed an increase of 21.5 per cent in theft cases. Government officials claim that the numbers don't present the whole truth. "Since the prohibition, the number of cases has gone up. Therefore, you need to segregate the criminal cases and prohibition cases. There have been a lot of successes in terms of law and order in the state," Bihar Director General of Police P K Thakur said. "However, there is a lot to be done. As development has spread, criminal activities have also gone up. There is a need to increase police presence to counter it. We need to establish new police stations, outposts and pickets for this," Thakur added. Criminals, he said, have also changed their modus operandi and the area of operation. "Earlier, most of the criminals were localised. Today, many of them just cross the district, state or national border to avoid arrest," Thakur explained. "Their tools for communication have also changed. We have changed our style of functioning accordingly." "However, the police would always be procedural and therefore it would take some time to crack cases and make arrests. Still be assured, we would catch them." Not everyone agrees with the DGP. "There needs to be respect for rules. It can be maintained by a police force with high morale and self-confidence. This is what is lacking in Bihar. The situation can only be restored by infusing professionalism and transparency in the system," said former DGP D N Gautam. Other factors need to be taken into account when analysing kidnapping data. "Out of the total, 2,539 people fled home last year in connection with love affairs. Since their parents have registered a case of kidnapping, we are forced to mention them as kidnapping. In reality, they are not," said a senior police official. However, in several cases, it has been found that the police refused to file abduction complaints by parents of girls, saying that they must have eloped with their lovers. Amid all this, allegations and counter-allegations are flying thick and fast. RJD leaders allege the chief minister is so busy keeping his job that he has forgotten to do the job that he is meant to do. The ruling JD-U-BJP combine rubbishes these remarks, pointing to the RJD's own dismal record at preventing crime. For the parents of the seven-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in Gaya, meanwhile, the chief minister's claims have no meaning. 'Nobody is going to fight for my daughter. Nobody even cared to visit us. The police assured us that there would be speedy investigation and speedy trial, but no action has been taken so far,' the victim's father was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. 'Had I been an important person, the whole system would have supported me.' A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. (paulzimnisky.com) - Coming off of 2017, a year in which global diamond supply by volume increased by 11.7% year-over-year, supply is forecast to contract by 3.4% to 147M carats in 2018 (see appendix at bottom for itemized analysis by mine). Out of the world's top three diamond miners by volume, only De Beers is expected to increase production this year, while diamond output at Russia's ALROSA (MICEX: ALRS) and diversified-major Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) is estimated to decline, more than offsetting De Beers' increase. Combined, the three companies represent approximately 70% of global diamond supply by volume. World Diamond Council (WDC) acting president Stephane Fischler said although the Kimberley Process (KP) has managed to quell wars that were driven by the so-called blood diamonds, the threat of instability and conflict remains and their work is not over. He was speaking at a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) side event, co-hosted by the governments of Australia and Botswana, to discuss the KP and strategies to advance its ongoing contributions toward peace, security and sustainable development in diamond mining communities. This year marks the beginning of a crucial period for the KP, a two-year review and reform process led by the European Union Chairmanship and ending during next years Indian Chairmanship in 2019. This important KP review period gives us the opportunity to address contemporary challenges facing the diamond industry and implement reforms to protect the human rights, freedoms and development of people who depend on the diamond trade, he said. Also speaking during a panel discussion, Fischler reaffirmed industrys commitment to the KP, while also reinforcing areas for reform to ensure continued success. This included broadening the scope of the KP to increase the likelihood of safe and secure working conditions, fair labor practices and sustainable development in diamond communities, establish a permanent secretariat in a neutral country to strengthen long-term implementation of the organization. Let us not forget that the KP is a process for a reason a tripartite with many participants, diverse points of view and numerous priorities, he said. Even though only one group holds the power to enact change directly, we will not give up. Industry remains committed to working together with our partners to listen, discuss and reach consensus that drives positive change. I am especially encouraged by efforts of the Civil Society Coalition, now led and overwhelmingly represented by African-based NGOs, with whom we share a commitment to secure lasting change. Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished The Montana Pulse Crop Committee will meet at 8:30am on Tuesday, March 20th in Great Falls at the Hampton Inn (2301 14th Street SW.). The agenda for the meeting can be found here: http://agr.mt.gov/Portals/168/Documents/GrantsandLoans/PulseDevProgram/Pulse%20Advisory%20Committee%20Meetings/20180320_PulseCommAgnd.pdf The Montana Department of Agricultures mission is to protect producers and consumers, and to enhance and develop agriculture and allied industries. For more information on the Montana Department of Agriculture, visit agr.mt.gov. Gov. Doug Burgum has appointed 12 members to the North Dakota Rural Development Council, which he reconvened in December to support the development of rural communities across the state through collaboration between government and the nonprofit and private sectors. The appointed members are: - Daniel Stenberg of Watford City, McKenzie County economic development coordinator - Shawn Wenko of Williston, director of the Williston Economic Development Corp. - Megan Laudenschlager of Minot, executive director of Strengthen ND - Joyce Jt ShiningOne Side of Dunseith, an educator at Dunseith Public School - Dawn Keeley of Grafton, executive director of the Red River Regional Council - Janne Myrdal of Edinburg, a farmer and state senator - Lindsey Lipp of Casselton, associate scientist in process and product design at Aldevron - Luke Anderson of Forman, a farmer with Anderson Seed Farms Inc. - Gwendolyn Crawford of Kathryn, Lisbon auditor and economic development director - Jay Doan of McKenzie, a rancher with Black Leg Ranch - Antoinette Heier of Hazen, executive director of the Hazen Chamber of Commerce - Teran Doerr of Bowman, executive director of the Bowman County Development Corp. The North Dakota Rural Development Council is North Dakotas chapter of the National Rural Development Partnership Program, uniting the states private and nonprofit sectors with state, federal, local and tribal governments to strengthen rural America. The Council last met in 2014. The Council is charged with facilitating collaboration among governments and the private and nonprofit sectors in the planning and implementation of programs and policies that have an impact on rural areas of the state. Members also monitor, report and comment on policies and programs aimed at addressing the needs of rural areas of North Dakota. The North Dakota Department of Commerce is required to have a rural development office and a womens business development office. Commerce currently contracts with the nonprofit Center for Technology and Business to facilitate those two functions. The state Commerce Commissioner administers the rural development office and serves as an ex-officio member of the NDRDC. National Groundwater Awareness Week is an annual, weeklong observance established by the National Ground Water Association to highlight the responsible development, management, and use of water. Established in 1999, National Groundwater Awareness Week provides an opportunity for people to learn about the importance of groundwater and how the resource saves lives. This years theme of Test. Tend. Treat. was established to encourage a more holistic approach to sustain an adequate supply of quality water. Just as you check your furnace or smoke detector batteries seasonally, spring is a good season to have an annual water well checkup and sample your well water quality before the peak water use season begins, according to the National Ground Water Association (NGWA). For example, testing your water might prompt well inspection and maintenance, and water treatment can mitigate naturally occurring contamination revealed by the test. As part of the Test. Tend. Treat. theme, the Richland County Health Department and the Private Well Class are encouraging folks to test their well water through the Pledge to Test Campaign. Well owners are invited to pledge to submit a water sample for testing to a lab in their area by March 31, 2018. One Pledge to Test Campaign participant will be randomly selected to be reimbursed for the cost of testing the private well water at their residence, up to $200. The pledge form can be found at http://privatewellclass.org/pledge. You can get FREE sampling supplies from the Richland County Health Department. And if you volunteer to share your sample results with the Health Department, we can provide additional educational materials that are specific to your results as well as provide you with information regarding local maintenance and treatment resources. For additional information please contact the Health Department at 406-433-2207 or come visit us at 1201 West Holly, Suite 1 in Sidney. Doctors spend their lives helping and healing others, and in 1990, Congress passed and President George H. Bush signed a bill into law proclaiming March 30th as National Doctors Day. Celebration of this day has grown from simply expressing our gratitude to our physicians to using this day as an opportunity to share some positive messages for the medical profession. As part of National Doctors Day, the Foundation for Community Care invites you to recognize a special physician who cared for you or a loved one. Let your physician know how much they are appreciated - your words and support are the most powerful source of gratitude. In addition to the over 20 highly skilled physicians who are affiliated with Sidney Health Center, the Foundation is proud to support doctors who ensure quality care for all of Richland County, from dentists to optometrists. Please send your message of appreciation to the Foundation for Community Care at [email protected], or call the Foundation at (406) 488-2273. Community members may also make a contribution in honor of a physician at https://foundationforcommunitycare.org. Not only will the gift affirm the commitment of an exceptional doctor, it will also support the critical programs and lifesaving care provided every day at Sidney Health Center and across eastern Montana. Guest Opinion The U. S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the appeal from the federal district courts preliminary injunction against improvements to the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project on March 5, 2018 in Portland, Oregon. Video of the arguments is posted on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjFrJO_ei2A. Here are some first impressions of how the arguments went. Whenever I get the chance to go back through the video again, I might have some changed or additional impressions. A. All three judges knew the file. That is good B. Just like when I argued in the 9th circuit, questions from the court to the attorneys began immediately and questioning remained vigorous throughout the arguments. That is good. The questions give notice of where you need to make your case, and give you a chance to do it. In appellate arguments, a quiet court is not a friendly court. C. The most challenging questions to the government and the districts were answered well by their attorneys, except only on one question the second time the governments attorney spoke. It is pretty common for all attorneys to have at least one bad exchange in these kinds of arguments, so this is not a criticism of the attorney, nor does it signal defeat for our position. On the whole, we can be proud of the attorneys for our side. D. The questions to the plaintiffs attorney were excellent, and showed the value of the strategic stance the government and the districts took, which is to seek to improve conditions for the fish. That way there is no clash over the value of the fish. Any environmentalist sentiments of the court can as easily be satisfied by reversing the injunction as by affirming it. E. The court seems to be on to the fact that a harbored, non-acknowledged objective of the plaintiffs is to simply get rid of the irrigation project. F. One judge made the connection between cost of pumping and whether pumping is practicable. Then another judge chimed in and signaled serious doubt about the district courts reasoning on that point. After some back and forth with the plaintiffs attorney, finally the second judge said, at 27:25 or so in the video, I understand your argument, with inflection, posture, and gestures that indicated, And I dont agree with it, you did not make the sale. This was a good sign for us. G. At about 29:10 in the video, plaintiffs counsel calls the existing weir a dam, and then the court starts referring to it sometimes as a dam, which makes me wonder further about the possible impact of 33 Stat. 1045, which specifically authorizes dams on the Yellowstone River for the irrigation project. H. I dont think the court properly appreciated the purposes of the project element in the definition of what is and is not practicable. One of the judges kept talking over the top of the attorneys attempt to speak about that. It was element 3 or 4 in the attorneys explanation of what practicable means, and the judge seemed to get impatient after the first couple elements and interrupt just when the attorney tried to talk about purposes of the project. Hopefully this by itself will not defeat our position. I. The attorneys for the government and the districts did a good job of making a key point about the plaintiffs opposition to an improvement for the fish just because, in their view, it is not perfect or something else would be better. My impression is that all three judges caught that point. Time will tell, but this, combined with the point of the governments attorney that the district court failed to give the proper and legal deference to the agency on a matter within its expertise, could turn out to be the most important part of the argument. On the whole, I was encouraged by the way the arguments went and I want to be optimistic, but it often happens that the decision an appellate court makes is contrary to the way the argument seemed to go, so there no telling for sure what will happen. Guest Opinion On Wednesday night, March 7, I attended the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) meeting regarding the Yellowstone Disposal landfill, being proposed 4 miles southeast of Sidney and in close proximity to many family residences. During the Public Comment portion of the meeting I outlined my opposition to the project, in its proposed state, due to the many unanswered questions, the potential for harm it poses to our area and its location in relation to family residences. I said I didn't want Richland County to become a dumping ground for North Dakota waste. In the past few days I've spoken with Mayor Rick Norby and other concerned citizens about the issue. The general consensus from these talks is that we may see even more permits for landfills like this one to take North Dakota waste, unless there is legislation to protect Richland County and eastern Montana from becoming a dumping ground for oilfield waste that other states don't want. Based on the comments I've heard from concerned area citizens, if elected to the Montana House of Representatives on June 5th, I will look at legislation that will try to protect our area from becoming a dumping ground. I also understand the DEQ is in the process of developing rules for landfills and I will keep the pressure on them to get that done. The most disturbing comment I heard at the DEQ meeting was that all of the DEQ inspectors of landfills like this are based in Helena and that a landfill like this would only be checked twice a year. If DEQ is seriously going to consider approving this permit (which I think would be a dangerous mistake), I think the issues of the long distance from inspectors and infrequent inspections needs to be specifically addressed, preferably with local oversight, to ensure compliance. Union Pacific Union Pacific plans to invest $113 million into its Kansas network in 2018. The Class 1 says the investment will enhance safety, operating efficiency and support customer service. UPs planned investment includes $80 million for track maintenance and $8.6 million for bridge maintenance. The Class 1 says key projects planned this year include a $20 million investment in the rail line between Paola and Parsons to replace 42 miles of rail and a $12 million investment in the rail line between Minneola and Liberal to replace 26 miles of rail. This years planned $113 million capital expenditure is part of the companys $3.3 billion capital program and is in addition to the $421 million the company has invested in the state during the past five years. Our targeted investments support customers and enhance our efficiency to deliver the goods American businesses and families use daily, said Liisa Lawson Stark, Union Pacific assistant vice president Public Affairs, Northern Region. UP had previously announced plans to invest $127 million into its Arkansas network, $122.3 million into its California network and $450 million into its Texas network. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) has selected Atlanta transit executive Jeffrey A. Parker as the sole finalist in its search for a permanent general manager and CEO. MARTA said state law requires a 14-day waiting period before the transit authoritys Board of Directors can vote to confirm Parkers appointment and extend an official offer to him. The transit authority held nationwide search, carried out by Krauthamer & Associates, which singled out 18 candidates with experience in transportation and other business sectors. The MARTA Board of Directors selection committee also interviewed 11 of those candidates during the past few months. As we step into a new chapter as an agency, there was remarkable unanimity among the board that Jeffrey Parker is the right person to lead us over the road ahead, said MARTA Board of Directors Chairman Robert L. Ashe. Currently, Parker is serving as vice president at HNTB Corporation and leads the firms Atlanta office. Prior to his time at HNTB, Parker led the Connecticut Department of Transportation and was previously senior director of Transportation for MARTA. Parker has also managed transit operations in Boston, Mass. His background, his familiarity with Metro Atlanta, and his ability to plan and execute big projects make Mr. Parker the perfect fit for this agency, Daniels said. Parker succeeds former General Manager and CEO Keith Parkerto whom he has no relationwho departed from the transit authority in the fall of 2017 to serve as president of Goodwill of North Georgia. Fraport AG (FRA.DE, 0O1R.L,FPRUF.PK), the owner and operator of Germany's Frankfurt Airport or FRA, reported Tuesday that FRA served almost 4.4 million passengers in the month of February 2018, an increase of 8.5 percent year-on-year. The passenger increase in the month was driven mainly by intra-European routes which generated 13.2 percent growth. Cargo throughput -airfreight and airmail- at FRA grew 3.2 percent to 166,959 metric tons. Aircraft movements climbed 7.6 percent to 35,193 takeoffs and landings. European traffic, which grew 10.5 percent, was also the main growth driver in this category, the company noted. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights or MTOWs advanced 5.5 percent to about 2.2 million metric tons. Fraport's international airport portfolio delivered a strong performance in the the month. Ljubljana Airport in Slovenia's capital city recorded a 10.2 percent rise in traffic. Lima Airport in Peru welcomed 9.6 percent more passengers. The Twin Star airports of Varna and Burgas on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, combined, advanced by 62.2 percent. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News The value of Ripple, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, declined below $0.80 after a San Francisco state appeals court denied Ripple Labs Inc.'s request for a home-court hearing in its litigation against former partner R3 Holdco. Ripple, the San Francisco-based blockchain developer behind cryptocurrency XRP, is engaged in a legal dispute with software company R3 over ownership of 5 billion XRP that was once worth more than $16 billion. Bloomberg reported that a New York court will now probably be the sole decider in the litigation against R3, and that according to Ripple, it would face "irreparable injury" if it has to battle on R3's home turf in Manhattan. The litigation began in September last year after the partnership between both developers ended. Ripple had accused that R3 failed to meet partnership commitments, while R3 claimed that Ripple failed to honor an agreement to hand over 5 billion of its cryptocurrency XRP for less than a penny each. The New York-based R3 sued in Delaware and New York to force Ripple to honor the promise, while Ripple countersued in California claiming that it canceled the option agreement because R3 abused the partnership. After the Delaware turned down the case, the dispute is now prevailing only in R3's home base in Manhattan. Ripple, which sells blockchain-based payments software to financial institutions, is the majority owner of XRP. In September last year, when the companies sued each other, the stake in dispute was worth around $1.1 billion, but surge in the value of cryptocurrencies four months later had taken its price to around $16.6 billion. XRP, which was 22 cents in September, climbed to $3.84 in January. Ripple's price plunged since then, trading $0.83 before the news of litigation. It then further dropped $0.7760. Currently, Ripple is trading at $0.79, according to coinmarketcap. Ripple, which is not limited like Bitcoin with 21 million coins, can supply 100 billion XRP tokens. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Ripple, which is one of the top five cryptocurrencies, fell sharply on Tuesday after a court denied its request for a home-court hearing in a litigation against a former partner. China continues to talk tough on cryptocurrencies, though the country's central bank governor signaled favor for blockchain. In Finland, banks have blocked accounts of a popular crypto exchange over money laundering fears. Here is a wrap up of the main news from the cryptocurrency and blockchain space over the last 24 hours. Ripple Down As Court Denies Hearing Request The value of Ripple, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, declined below $0.80 after a San Francisco state appeals court denied Ripple Labs Inc.'s request for a home-court hearing in its litigation against former partner R3 Holdco. Ripple, the San Francisco-based blockchain developer behind cryptocurrency XRP, is engaged in a legal dispute with software company R3 over ownership of 5 billion XRP that was once worth more than $16 billion. Bloomberg reported that a New York court will now probably be the sole decider in the litigation against R3, and that according to Ripple, it would face "irreparable injury" if it has to battle on R3's home turf in Manhattan. China Still Tough On Cryptocurrencies, But Positive On Blockchain The apex bank in China continues to retain a tough stance on dealing with cryptocurrencies in China. People's Bank of China (PBoC) Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said the cryptocurrency market has become highly speculative and misleading for investors, according to reports. The central bank is "carefully watching bitcoin like financial products and strengthening consumer and investor protection and education." China is strictly against recognizing cryptocurrencies as legal tender. However, Zhou said "China recognizes that digital currency is inevitable and is likely to eventually replace paper money and coins. It is in no hurry to regulate cryptocurrencies." Finnish Banks Block Accounts Of Major Crypto Exchange Prasos OY Banks in Finland blocked bank accounts of major cryptocurrency exchange Prasos OY amid fears of aiding money laundering due to the anonymity associated with digital currencies, according to reports. Four of the five Finland banks it has accounts with have blocked transactions to Prasos customers who use it to convert their cryptocurrencies into euros. The issue of anonymity of cryptocurrency funds is against the European Union's (EU) anti-money laundering regulations, which have been recently amended to include digital currencies. Japan's Third Largest Electric Provider Explores Cryptocurrency Payments Chubu Electric Power, which is ranked third among Japan's electric utilities providers, is exploring cryptocurrencies as a payment option. The company has entered a proof-of-concept with a local startup Nayuta to explore making bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network, which promises scalable and instant Bitcoin/blockchain transactions, blockchain news website Coindesk reported Tuesday. Earlier this month, the Japanese daily Chunichi Shimbun reported that Chubu Electric was developing a mobile payment app for virtual currencies. The company started testing it in-house allowing employees to purchase coffee using cryptocurrencies. Binance Offers $250000 Bounty To Catch Hackers In the wake of last week's attempted hacking incident on Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange has announced a $250,000 Bounty for anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for the attack. The reward would be paid out in the exchange's native BNB token. "The first person to supply substantial information and evidence that leads to the legal arrest of the hackers, in any jurisdiction, will receive the equivalent of $250,000 USD in BNB. The exchange rate will be determined at time of transfer," Binance said in a blogpost. On March 7, a number of Binance accounts were phished, and attackers pumped the price of viacoin using them. Crypto Exchange Founder Grows 'Cryptomatoes' Utilizing Heat From Mining Kamil Brejcha, the co-founder of Czech cryptocurrency exchange Nakamoto X, announced the cultivation of "cryptomatoes", which are tomatoes grown using excess heat from cryptocurrency mining. In a Twitter post, Brejcha showed a photo of tomato plants growing in a greenhouse, noting that the first batch of cryptomatoes is ready to be harvested. According to him, the team developed a system called Cointainer, which is placed in the basement and the heat is blown into the greenhouses, which are around 5 acres. Goldman Sachs Notice To India-based Crypto Exchange For Trademark Violation Goldman Sachs has sent a legal notice to Indian cryptocurrency exchange Bitsachs over trademark and intellectual property infringement. Bitman Sachs LLP, registered in the western Indian city of Jaipur, has similarity in name to the New-York based Goldman Sachs. It operates a website called Bitsachs.com. In the notice, the banking giant accuses Bitman Sachs of "infringing mark," and accuses its website of "infringing domain." Current Prices As of 6.28 am ET Friday, Bitcoin was down 6.97 percent at $9,167.08 and Ethereum was lower by 4.57 percent at $700.71 on Coinbase. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Forex News Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra has stressed the need for drafting International Regulatory Framework to bring cross-border Cryptocurrency operations under unified control. Wopke Hoekstra made the call in a letter sent to the Dutch Parliament notifying it of the actions he plans to take for regulating cryptocurrency in the country. In a six-page letter, the Finance Minister apprised members of the Dutch Senate and House of Representatives about his concerns over the fast growth in cryptocurrencies. The current national supervision and regulatory framework are insufficient to deal with the challenges posed to the , according to him. A European and international approach is required given the transborder nature of the cryptomarket, he said. The minister plans to work with his European counterparts to develop an international regulatory framework for crypto markets, Germany, France and European Commission have called for discussion in the G20 context to see what can be done to strengthen and streamline current regulatory policies. Hoekstra made it clear that the Netherlands is ready to play a leading role in the European and international approach to cryptocurrency. It is estimated that the cryptocurrency market in the Netherlands is currently attracting more than 6 million people, and this number is going to increase in the coming days. He noted that the European nations have recognized that the safety of cryptocurrency deposits are not guaranteed. There are also risks of misusing cryptocurrencies for illegal activities like terrorism financing and money laundering. Hoekstra said that he hopes the European community will be able to bring about international regulations he described in his letter by the end of 2019. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Shortly after agreeing to an unprecedented meeting with the leader of North Korea, President Donald Trump revealed Tuesday that he has fired the nation's top diplomat. Trump announced in a post on Twitter that he intends to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with current CIA Director Mike Pompeo. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!" Trump tweeted. The tweet from Trump came shortly after a report from the Washington Post indicated the president's intention to oust Tillerson. A statement from Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein suggested that Tillerson was blindsided by the news. "The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of the critical progress made in national security," Goldstein said. "The Secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason." In later comments to reporters, Trump praised Tillerson for his service but also mentioned disagreements over the Iran nuclear agreement. Trump also said he did not discuss his decision to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with Tillerson, noting that the Secretary of State was out of the country at the time. The president also said that he plans to nominate Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo as the head of the agency. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Political News The White House has announced President Donald Trump's first trip to Latin America, 13 months after he assumed office. The President will travel to Peru and Colombia next month, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told a news conference Monday. He will attend the Summit of the Americas in Peruvian capital Lima, and will participate in a series of bilateral, multilateral, and cultural engagements. This travel highlights the President's resolve to deepen our historical ties with our partners in the region and our joint commitment to improve security and prosperity for the people of the Americas, Sanders told reporters. She also announced that on March 20, President Trump will welcome Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia to the White House. The President looks forward to discussing ways to strengthen ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and to advance our common security and economic priorities, she added. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Political News President Donald Trump has suggested that conservative commentator Larry Kudlow is the front-runner to be named as his new top economic advisor. In remarks to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said Kudlow has a "good chance" to be picked as the Director of the National Economic Council. Kudlow would replace Gary Cohn, who resigned as Trump's top economic advisor amid a dispute over the president's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. While Kudlow has been publicly critical of the tariffs, Trump said that the longtime CNBC senior contributor has "come around" on the issue. "We don't agree on everything, but in this case, I think that's good," Trump said. "I want to have different opinions. We agree on most. He now has come around to believing in tariffs as a negotiating point." However, Trump said he is also speaking to others about the position, with a report from Reuters saying White House official Chris Liddell is also under consideration for the job, (Photo: Gage Skidmore) For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Political News (Agencia CMA Latam) - The Brazilian competition regulator authorized Petrobras to sell a 25% stake in the Roncador field to Norway's Statoil for US$ 2.35 billion, plus additional contingent payments of up to US$ 550 million. The transaction nearly triples Statoil's production in Brazil. Roncador is the third largest field operated by Petrobras, with around 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in place and an expected remaining recoverable volume of more than 1 billion boe. In December 2017, when announcing the deal, Statoil said that is ambition is to increase the recovery factor by at least five percentage points, bringing the total remaining recoverable volumes to more than 1.5 billion boe. The transaction increases Statoil's equity production in Brazil by around 175%, to 110,000 boe per day from 40,000 boe per day. Petrobras retains operatorship and a 75% interest. 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. (Agencia CMA Latam) - The Peruvian Supreme Court approved an extradition request against former President Alejandro Toledo in an inquiry into an alleged US$ 20 million bribe paid by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. Toledo, who ruled Peru between 2001 and 2006 and currently lives in the United States, is being prosecuted for the crimes of undue influence, conspiracy, and money laundering. The extradition request complies with the principle of double incrimination because the facts attributed qualify as crimes in both Peru and the United States. According to the prosecution, Toledo received bribes from Odebrecht to ensure that it won the tender for the construction and concession of two stretches of a highway linking Peru and Brazil. 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. This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon! Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page? Solosolo Primary School is the latest recipient of grant funding from the government of Japan. The signing ceremony to secure $281,326 was signed yesterday at the Embassy between Ambassador Maugaoleatuolo Shinya Aoki and President of the Solosolo Primary School committee, Tufeao Fanolua. The grant was provided through the ongoing Japans Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project (G.G.P.) that will assist the school committee in an expansion and upgrade project for Solosolo Primary School. The project implementation consists of the construction of three new classrooms and carry out renovation works of the current school building. Such renovations include replacing the roof structure with its damaged and rusty roofing, complete reconstruction of the second floor walls, replacing all windows and its louvres with new ones and other necessary renovation works. The current two-storey school building of Solosolo is 24 years old and has not undergone any major repairs since 1993 hence, the school committee sought the assistance of Japans G.G.P. scheme in 2016. Ambassador Maugaoleatuolo reiterated in his speech the continuous assistance by his government through its G.G.P. programme that enables the implementation of development within communities at its grassroots level. He expressed his confidence that upon completion of the project, the children and students of Solosolo will access the best of resources and enjoy a safer and healthier learning environment. Japans G.G.P. programme is specifically designed to address human needs which includes basic education. Several government primary schools especially in the rural areas have benefitted from this scheme. The final two educational projects signing ceremonies are scheduled to take place today and will conclude Japans financial year of 2017-2018. Finding the right kind of job can be very stressful. That is the opinion of 19-year-old San Kuka of Aleisa, who said any kind of job needs to help a person cover all essential costs in their home. The Village Voice team met San while on his way home. I work at one of the lawn mower constructions company in Apia, and for now Im looking for other jobs to help my family, San said. Its just that what I earn is not enough. Nowadays it has been really hard dealing with the expensive cost of living and that is why Im looking for another job. I mean, its not enough to cover everything in my family, especially when Im the only one who provides for my family financially. For now, Im still looking for another job because I dont want to rely on others to take care of my parents and other siblings. San left school when he was in Year 12. We always have problems with money and thats why I left school without my parents knowledge, he said. So any kind of job will be fine. San also shared his working skills. I love working and I am a hard working person, he said. I am a friendly person and a fast learner as well. He added he was also hoping to get a job real soon so he could help his mother and father in supporting his family and church. Samoa is getting expensive and because we are also supporting our families and church, everything is basically money. Voters will cast their ballots in the next General Elections electronically removing the current time consuming manual voting process. But while electronic changes looms, some things will remain the same when Samoa return to the polls in 2021. For instance, the new electronic system will not replace the traditional voting practice mandating voters to turn up in person and cast their ballots. Electronic voting, (E-Voting) is not part of the project because voters will still be required to turn up in person at the voting booths to cast their ballots, reiterated Electoral Commissioner, Faimalomatumua Mathew Lemisio. Simply put, the electronic system overhaul in the pipeline is designed for a more effective system for voters to vote and for counting of voters electronically. However the Electoral Commissioner said that one of the components in the new electronic system will alleviate the long voters que to cast their ballots as witnessed in past elections. This will be made possible with an electronic fingerprint system that will immediately verify and confirm the voter to cast his or her ballot replacing the timely manual system which will ultimately eliminate the long line of voters. How it works, according to the Commissioner, is that a voters fingerprint is scanned and registered digitally and that information will accompany the voters choice of candidate on polling day. Electronic ballot boxes are another component of the project. The electronic ballot boxes will eliminate the manual counting of votes when the poll closes. Everything will be automated with votes tallied automatically as soon as its casted throughout Election Day. And when polling officially closes, the provisional or preliminary results should to be available almost immediately, the Electoral Commissioner explained. Faimalomatumua says that the new system will also tackle double voting with the electronic fingerprint able to detect on the spot attempts by voters to vote more than once. And he has also reassured the voters details and how he or she voted will be fully protected because the new electronic system provides security and confidentially. The new system is funded by a grant from the World Electoral Association in South Korea and costs $5.8 million tala in total. A team from Korea will arrive this month to begin the first phase which is to convert the electoral roll data base into the electronic system. The project is for three years with local staff to undergo capacity building training in Korea between now and the 2021 General Elections. Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi has given the thumbs up to the latest invention by the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (S.R.O.S.). The product is a whiskey made from talo, which S.R.O.S. plans to launch before the end of the year. With one of the first bottles given to Cabinet as a sample, the local whiskey has received a great review from Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi. This is great whiskey and its reaffirms S.R.O.S ingenuity to use our agricultural produce such as taro to process whiskey which is a bonus for taro farmers and growers, said Tuilaepa. I encourage S.R.O.S. to continue to deliver and come up with more added value products for exports and our local market and most importantly to use our local agricultural produces. Tuilaepa said his government has not been blinded by the strict overseas quarantine regulations. But he is confident that S.R.O.S is the local solution. Can I have some more (Samoa) whiskey? Thats a very catchy phrase you think? he said. And who knows, the possibilities for more liquor such as Samoan Rum using our own agricultural produce as main ingredients are endless. S.R.O.S. is targeting the international airport duty free as their initial export market. The technology to process whiskey utilizing local agricultural produce such as taro was developed a few years back but weve decided to commercialize the local whiskey as an export commodity, S.R.O.S. Chief Executive Officer, Seuseu Dr. Joseph Tauati, said. Our first trial run will be to slowly but surely gain a foothold in the international market through the airport duty free markets initially. Seuseus tentative plan is for S.R.O.S. to take the lead in developing the talo whiskey into a sustainable and viable export commodity for Samoa and down the line, the Organisation would be open up for partnerships with possible investors. S.R.O.Ss initiative is part and parcel of mandate as the principal and implementing agency to carry out scientific and technical research for the Government and to develop new technologies and products to benefit Samoas local industries, Government ministries, corporations, agencies and communities and in turn the national economy. In the meantime, Prime Minister Tuilaepa has challenged the business community to develop partnership with S.R.O.S. by investing in the new added value products. Government has done its part through S.R.O.S. by developing these products, he said. We now need private businesses to come in and commercialize the flour, the oil, the subsequent butter and margarine from local crop staples. There is a new British High Commissioner for Samoa. She is Laura Clarke, of Great Britain, who presented her credentials to the Head of State, His Highness Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, this morning. The High Commissioner is the UK governments representative in a Commonwealth nation. They are responsible for the direction and work of the High Commission and its Deputy High Commissions and/or Consulates, including political work, trade and investment, press and cultural relations, and visa and consular services. Ms. Clarke began her career as a House of Commons Group Coordinator at the All Party Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group from 2000-2001. In 2002 she was employed by the European Commission as a Trainee in the Turkey Team for Directorate General-Enlargement before becoming the Policy Officer at the Mental Capacity Bill team for the Department for Constitutional Affairs from 2004-2005. She remained in the Department for Constitutional Affairs as the Senior Policy Adviser in the Human Rights Division for EU and Council of Europe from 2005-2006; then she left to join the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to become the Team Leader for EU Justice and Home Affairs from 2006-2008; in 2010 she became the International Strategy Adviser on Yemen, Middle East and North America Directorate. Ms. Clarke was recently the Head of the South Asia Department and India Coordinator in 2015. Ms. Clarke is married to Toby Fisher with three children. Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi has admitted that he is getting old to remember exactly how much Samoa owes China. The 72-year-old Tuilaepa made the admission last week during a joint press conference with New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, in his office. The issue of aid and Chinas growing influence in the region had been discussed when Prime Minister Tuilaepa was asked how much Samoa owes China. Look, I am sorry I cannot give you that now, Prime Minister Tuilaepa responded. I am not the Minister of Finance anymore. And I am getting old. Pressed on the issue, Tuilaepa insisted that it is not the amount of the debt that matters. Rather it is the countrys capacity to pay the debt that is important. We first deduct the payment for our debts because in the debts you find the dignity of the leaders of this country infused in the debts, so we should never fail in our debts obligation, he explained. And after meeting the debt liability, what is left is to meet the current expenditure to ensure that the government never stops." You know in America sometimes they close down shop because they run out of money. Here we make damn sure that the government should never be short." And after deducting that, meeting our debts, we still have money to meet our ongoing obligations to ensure that the government works smoothly and we still had a huge balance of over $100million to pay for our development, because it is very important in developing your budget expenditure every year. The Prime Minister insisted that a country must always have enough to develop, because with development expenditure your G.D.P. is assured to go up not down. Prime Minister Tuilaepa went on to downplay concerns about Chinas growing influence in the region. He said everything in relation to Samoa is transparent. Now, I think this is something which many miss out on and that is the periodical consultations that we have with our donor partners, he said. We have these periodical consultations with India, with the United States, with Japan and with China. The next meeting in May will be the eighth time that the consultation with Japan will take place and I have attended all the eight." Two years ago we had consultations with India, we had it in Fiji, and then the following year we had it in New Delhi." And we also have five years consultations with China." You will recall I think it was an O.E.C.D. meeting that was held in Australia and after that meeting both President Xi and the Prime Minister of India invited all the leaders of the Pacific to meet them in Fiji. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping laid out their plans. It was in that meeting and all of you people were there, you know to hear the message from the President of China that they have earmarked for the next 5 years US$2billion for grants to the Pacific Islands and US$2billion for soft term loans." It means its all transparent, its all out in the open and you were all there to listen to these disclosures by China." So what we are following up are undertakings which were done in the open, nothing was hidden. So I think that should be quite clear. If you refer back two years ago to your news then you will find all those laid out in the open. The Prime Minister added that Samoa is only interested in what was promised to us and we are following up in connection with our own development. The President of the Land and Titles Court, Fepuleai Atilla Ropati, has had one more charge added to the list of charges he faces. An additional charge of causing grievous bodily harm (G.B.H.) has been added to the list of charges that include assault, being armed with a dangerous weapon and causing injury. The matter was called before District Court Judge, Alalatoa Rosella Papalii, yesterday. The President of the Land and Titles Court is accused of hitting a security officer (who works at the judiciary compound) on the head twice with a glass bottle during a party last year. Representing Fepulai is former Attorney General, Aumua Ming Leung Wai. The prosecutor is Rexona Titi of the Attorney Generals Office. Yesterday, Ms. Titi made an application to have the matter referred to the Supreme Court. She argued that the charge of grievous bodily harm falls under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. I appear for the prosecution your honour and I respectfully advise that there are currently four charges filed, she told the Court. And given that one of the charges is that of an attempt of grievous bodily harm, we respectfully seek if this matter could be transferred to the Supreme Court for mention on Monday 19, 2018, at 10am. Judge Alalatoa told the prosecution they couldve saved a lot of time if the matter was transferred directly to the Supreme Court. Ms. Titi, however, said that they already informed the Court officers when they first filed the charges. Yes, your honour, when we filed the charges, we instructed the officers to liaise with the Registrar if they can put it straight to the mention, but they told us to bring it here, said Ms. Titi. Judge Alalatoa then made her decision. Fepuleai there is an additional charge thats been brought before the Court this morning, and it falls under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, Judge Alalatoa said in addressing the Court. The District Court does not have the power to deal with this charge which is grievous bodily harm. So this is the reason your matter is being referred to the Supreme Court for continuation unless there is an order from up there to refer it back to the District Court. She then adjourned the matter to 26 March 2018, to be called in the Supreme Court criminal mention before Chief Justice, His Honour, Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu. Outside of Court, the media were waiting for Fepulai to come out; however he exited through the back to avoid his pictures being taken by the media. Last week, Fepulea'i took special leave pending criminal charges filed against him in Court. A plan by the Government to slash the salaries of doctors working at the hospital as part of the merge between the National Health Service (N.H.S.) and Ministry of Health (M.O.H.) does not sit well with the profession. Both the Samoa Medical Association (S.M.A.) as well as the Samoa Medical Council (S.M.C.) are alarmed by it. Contacted for a comment yesterday, the President of S.M.A., Lauano Dr. Herbert Peters, said they are aware about the plan. He said they are meeting with the Minister of Health, Tuitama Dr. Leao Tuitama, about the issue. That is why we are seeing the Minister today (yesterday), he said. We want to know whether it is true or not that there will be a reduction in the salaries of doctors. Although Lauano spoke to the Samoa Observer before the meeting, he indicated that their position is quite clear. Nobody wants to reduce their salary, he said. That is not right. It was not possible to get a comment from the Minister of Health yesterday. But another senior physician, Motuopua'a Dr. Aisoli Vaai, who is the Chairman of the Samoa Medical Council, also expressed his concerns. If it is true they are looking at reducing the salaries of doctors then that would be the wrong move, he said. For every hospital, there is a salary structure in terms of qualifications, longevity of service. That is really sad if that will happen. Motuopuaa added he was speaking as a doctor not as the Chairman of the Medical Council. The former Member of Parliament said this is one of the reasons Samoa continues to lose doctors, leading to a chronic shortage doctors at the hospital. That is why after graduating with postgraduate degrees, they move overseas, he said. I was the President of S.M.A. for several years and this is the same issue that I came across." In all other countries, the salaries for doctors are significant, because they save lives. That is what we do and that is a fact." In New Zealand and Australia, the doctors are the highest paid profession. That is why the doctors continue to move overseas and I see that trend over the years. If this will happen, it will only make it worse. Motuopuaa said the plan doesnt reflect well on the Government. This does not make any sense to any country that is supposed to be modern, he said. In this day and age, the world is moving forward yet we are moving backwards. That is not how you do things and that is not how doctors are supposed to be treated. It takes seven years for any doctor to get a doctorate degree, unlike other professions. In January, 2018, the National Health Service Amendment Bill 2018 was approved in final reading in Parliament. This is the first phase of the merger of the National Health Service (N.H.S.) and the Ministry of Health (M.O.H.), which has since been delayed. The opening reception for the Australia Future Unlimited Education Roadshow took place at the Taumeasina Island Resort on Tuesday. It was a chance for the representatives from Australian education institutions to meet and greet prospective students, as well as provide an occasion for local business individuals, and former Samoan alumni of Australian universities, to network and create links. The Head of State, His Highness Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualaavi II, spoke about his own experience as a former scholarship student studying at the Australia National University in the 1980s. As a Police inspector at the time, he took a 10-month administration course at the university, which was sponsored and funded by the Kelloggs Company. He eventually went on to study a degree in law at the Australia National University. It was an excellent experience for me to participate with the other students from Fiji, India, P.N.G. in pursuing administrative knowledge and skills under the guidance and supervision of the A.N.U. staff. I was then assigned the Police Officers administration course conducted by a federal police college in N.S.W. I am profoundly honoured to appear tonight as an alumnus of the Pacific Law programme at the Australia National University (A.N.U.) in Canberra. He spoke about the challenges of studying as a mature student and transitioning from Police office to legal studies. To acquire a degree from any Australian university or tertiary institution is a great step forward in any individuals life and the fulfillment of ones positive dreams. It was not easy for a policeman and a mature student like myself to pursue a legal degree. But I am proud to say I was able to open the doors to other members of the Police service in Samoa to take up the same challenge and succeed. I believe there are now other Police officers with legal qualifications. Furthermore, it was not easy for myself either, as the holder of a paramount title, to have undertaken the studies for a legal degree and to fulfill my obligations to my family and village from Australia during the tenure of my studies. Admissions and Recruitment Officer from Griffith University, Emily Haralampou said to the Samoa Observer she looked forward to the opportunity to create links with both the public and private sector in Samoa in order to provide programmes that provide capacity development for staff. Griffith University offers short courses in the South Pacific so its certainly a two-way street. Not only do students have the opportunity to come study in Australia, but the university would be happy to consider an option to come here to deliver short courses that may be in demand. We do have students from the South Pacific and I know there have been some great success stories for those students. So if we can grow on that success, I think both sides can benefit. It is the first time that a large co-ordinated approach of Australian universities has happened in Samoa. Yesterday an open session at Taumeasina Island Resort took place for prospective students and career advisors to have one on one consultation with the nine Australian university representatives. Members of the public should not be alarmed by the arrival of eight Samoan criminals who have been sent back from the United States of America. The deportees are scheduled to land at Faleolo International Airport on a chartered flight paid for by the United States of America today. Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Prime Minister and Cabinet, (M.P.M.C.), Agafili Shem Leo, who is also the Chief Immigration Officer, confirmed their arrival yesterday. They are convicted of assault, armed with a dangerous weapon. There are no convicted murderers, drug dealers or sex offenders among the crowd." Our Government, through our Embassy in New York, has been in discussion with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on the status and progress of returning Samoans who have been convicted of felony in the U.S. and we have been advised regularly." As of now, the information relayed to our office is that there are a total of eight deportees." And the Federal government is paying for all the expenses, including the landing fees at our airport." Usually people deported to Samoa come through commercial flights; however this time, the U.S. Government opted to charter a flight on their expense and we are not paying anything. Agafili told the Samoa Observer yesterday during the phone interview that accepting back Samoan nationals who are ordered to be removed from the United States is complicated. There were requirements posed to the U.S. Government for convicted deportees to submit the criminal records, medical report, their birth certificate and most importantly are the families of the deportees in Samoa prior to the grant allowing them back into the country." And so what we have been working on the past few months is informing the relatives of the deportees and the families with open arms welcomed back their family members." That was actually the most difficult part of the process - consulting with the families of the deportees." We informed the U.S. Government that we are a small country and we have to make sure that when these people are returned to Samoa, they will have families to return to. Agafili said these people have left Samoa a long time and that was why it was relatively important that upon their return to their families, they will be working with the Village Councils to assure they are productive members of society. Samoa Returnees Trust will be working with the deportees closely in terms of rehabilitation programmes to assure they will not repeat the same crimes, said Agafili. When they arrive in Samoa, they are free men because their crime was committed outside of the country." What we are currently looking at is the closely monitoring of the deportees while in their home countries." They are encouraged to join the Samoa Returnees Trust that offers programmes that will benefit them in the long run." America is not only the government that has sent back Samoan Nationals, but also New Zealand and Australia." In the meantime, we have the Transnational Crime Unit and the Police who have access to the deportees criminal record and they will closely monitor them." In the meantime, the public should not be alarmed, these people were all Samoan born and they are our people, said Agafili. He believes the benefit of having the deportees back to Samoa is that they will be working together with the Village Council, who will assist them by taking them back to their roots and giving them a chance to play a role with the untitled men of the village. That is the positive impact that is birthed from the relationship between the deportees and the Village Council." I have been informed by Chiefs in Savaii of other deportees who have become active members of society and remain law abiding citizens." While the Government plays its role in terms of assuring the deportees have families to go to, we also have laws in place in case a crime is committed by these people. Agafili reiterated the deportees are all Samoa Citizens by birth. That is why we insisted that if we dont see the birth certificate, we will not accept their return." Also these are our people, they are our blood and flesh and we cannot turn our backs on them." God works in mysterious ways and they have been given a second chance and we make sure there are rehabilitation programs in place for them to undergo to assure they will not go through the same path when they are reintroduced back into society, said the C.E.O. As one of just two Fortune 500 companies in San Diego, Qualcomm has evolved into an economic powerhouse. With a local payroll of 13,000 and the ripple effect of spending by those employees, the company contributes nearly $5 billion to the local economy. The following are some of the numbers that demonstrate the wireless technology giants huge financial presence in the county. Most were compiled by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. Qualcomms economic impact is $4.9 billion, the equivalent of 35 Comic-Cons. The companys local employment of 13,000 actually translates into more than 36,000 jobs when taking into account local spending by workers and the company. While Qualcomm will not divulge salaries, average annual pay for workers in technology is $114,000. Excluding military, government and public school districts, Qualcomm is fourth largest employer, behind UC San Diego, Sharp HealthCare and Scripps Health. Every dollar generated directly by Qualcomm results in a nearly $2 increase in regions GDP. Qualcomms 15 parcels of land at its Sorrento Mesa campus are valued at nearly $1.4 billion, generating a tax bill of $18.5 million, according to the county assessors office. Local and sales tax revenues generated by Qualcomm total more than $13 million. Qualcomms reach extends far beyond the local economy. Its investment has spawned novel innovations in robotics, unmanned systems and mobile health and inspired more than 3,300 students to pursue careers in the sciences and engineering through its Thinkabit Lab. Advertisement Qualcomm and its various entities have contributed $54 million to UC San Diego over the years, from the Jacobs School of Engineering and Qualcomm Institute to the Rady School of Management, according to the university. Globally, Qualcomm and the Qualcomm Foundation have given over $335 million to charity between 2000 and 2017. Qualcomm employees also have been generous, having given to more than 900 local organizations for a total of $22 million over the last four years, thanks to a generous company match program. Business lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-2251 Advertisement Twitter: @loriweisberg Equifax Inc. was publicly excoriated by senators last fall for its massive data breach. Now, the company and other credit reporting firms are in line to get some last-minute benefits in a banking deregulation bill that originally was designed to punish them by adding new consumer rights. The bipartisan Senate bill includes requirements that Equifax and the other credit reporting companies allow people to freeze and unfreeze their files for free and provide free credit monitoring for active-duty members of the military. Those provisions were in direct response to the outrage over a data breach revealed in September that the company says affected 147.9 million Americans. Consumer advocates generally support those changes. But as the bill nears final approval in the Senate this week, its main sponsor, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), has proposed an amendment with provisions that would offset some of the new requirements for Equifax and the other two major credit reporting companies, Experian and TransUnion. Advertisement Crapos amendment, which included numerous other revisions to the bill, passed a procedural hurdle in the Senate on Monday by a 66-30 vote. The amendment would prohibit active duty military from suing credit-reporting companies regarding any problems with the free credit monitoring. Chi Chi Wu, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, said that, if approved, the provision would be the first time federal law would prohibit a consumers right to sue regarding their credit reports. We think that would be a bad precedent, she said. Its especially a bad precedent given that this is a right being given to service-members. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a leading opponent of the legislation, said he could not understand the change to the bill. Americans are furious with Equifax, as they should be, but this amendment ... for reasons I cant fathom includes provisions designed to help Equifax, said He called free credit monitoring for service members a small gesture to the people who serve our country but was too much for Equifax and Republicans. In exchange for this token benefit, they demanded that consumers and service members give up their right to take Equifax to court, he said. So Equifax is willing to do a little bit for people, just a little bit, but damn it, you cant sue us then. Advertisement An Equifax spokeswoman said in a prepared statement that the company supported the free credit freezes but did not address the amendment providing immunity from lawsuits on credit monitoring. Equifax also could get another benefit in an arcane change to the bill designed to open competition for credit scores used for mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are under federal government conservatorship. Crapos amendment would insert a provision proposed last summer by Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) that would require the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie, to create a process to validate and approve new credit scoring models. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion jointly own VantageScore, a competitor to San Joses Fair Isaac Corp., the company behind the FICO score now used by Fannie and Freddie. Advertisement Consumer advocates have called for updated credit scoring models that are fairer to minorities. But they noted that FHFA in December issued a formal request for input on the agencys credit score requirements and the Senate bills proposed provision could upend that process. It appears to be an attempt to set up a better runway to help them take over the credit-scoring market, Mike Litt, consumer campaign director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said of the credit reporting companies. An FHFA spokeswoman declined to comment. Brown is suspicious of the last-minute change. Advertisement Instead of allowing FHFA to take the time it needs to get it right, this bill ignores that, and it sets up its own process, he said. I have my hunch, though, as to who is pushing for it. Guess who is one of the biggest beneficiaries of this change? Equifax, of course. Rachel Cohen, a spokeswoman for Warner, said the provision will encourage more innovators to update their credit scoring models or invest in alternative credit scoring models, which have the potential to make home ownership a reality for more qualified borrowers who lack access to traditional forms of credit. Scotts spokeswoman, Michele Exner, said a handful of Senate Democrats who opposed the banking bill are trying to use misleading claims to derail it, including singling out a provision that outside of this bill would be lauded as a bipartisan solution to helping minority families reach new opportunities. Warner has been an outspoken critic of Equifax. In January, he joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in proposing massive and mandatory fines for data breaches by credit reporting companies, starting at $100 for each consumer whose sensitive information is compromised. Advertisement Warner also is one of the main Democratic co-sponsors of Crapos deregulation bill, which backers say is intended to provide relief to small and midsized banks. Warner was among a bipartisan group on the Senate Banking Committee that drafted the bill and told reporters last week he was disappointed the bill wasnt tougher on Equifax. For example, he said he was unable to get Republicans to agree to include the data-breach fine proposal. Litt said the U.S. Public Interest Research Group supports free credit freezes for consumers, but hes not happy with the bill because of the other provisions. For all this talk about action after the Equifax breach, Congress hasnt done anything in six months but now is moving to make things worse, he said. jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera The rejection suffered by Broadcom on Monday is rare but dont be surprised if the company takes another shot at acquiring Qualcomm, said a Washington D.C. attorney and former Central Intelligence Agency officer. The announcement from President Donald Trump blocking the $117 billion bid for San Diego-based Qualcomm marked just the fifth time in nearly 30 years that a U.S. president halted the potential takeover of an American company on national security grounds. Something like this is extremely rare, said Guillermo Christensen, a cybersecurity expert and an attorney in Washington D.C. who has taken part in more than 20 CFIUS proceedings that are conducted under very secretive conditions. One of the least-known agencies in the federal government, CFIUS is made up of 14 federal departments and agencies and is chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury in this case, Steve Mnuchin. Advertisement Trumps decision came just barely a week after CFIUS decided to review the Broadcom bid. According to reports, a number of agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense, expressed their concerns about the potential deal to Mnuchin. Christensen said most deals before CFIUS are approved after some adjustments are made, but deals that run into trouble normally dont reach the bitter end. Usually, nobody takes the deals to the point where they get blocked, Christensen said. There are a lot of deals that are killed quietly by CFIUS because the parties agree to pull them back and not go through the public process. Is it because firms want to save face or they want to regroup and prepare for another attempt to make a deal? Both, Christensen said. The four previous times presidents rejected a deal all involved companies in China: In 1990, President George H.W. Bush ordered China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation to divest its stake in Mamco Manufacturing Company, an aerospace parts supplier based in the U.S. President Barack Obama in 2012 blocked a Delaware-based but Chinese-owned company named Ralls Corp. from owning four wind farms in Oregon near a Navy base in 2012. In 2016, Obama rejected a $723 million takeover bid of the American arm of a German microchip company by Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund LP. Last September, Trump nixed a $1.3 billion offer from a Chinese private equity firm to buy the Lattice Semiconductor Corp. after regulators objected that the firm had ties to Chinas national space program. CFIUS hearings are one of the governments most opaque. Christensen said companies want to guard their proprietary agreements and trade secrets while CFIUS members are reluctant to discuss issues with possible national security implications. Those records are highly confidential, Christensen said, and proceedings are immune from Freedom of Information Act requests.. Advertisement Despite Trumps order, Christensen said Broadcom may make another stab at Qualcomm. Broadcom has an office in San Jose but is based in a foreign country Singapore. CEO Hock Tan has promised to move all of the companys operations to the U.S. a process known as a re-domicile. You can always have Broadcom come back and make another bid for this company down the road, Christensen said. For example, if theyre really intent, they could go for the complete re-domicile in the U.S., 100 percent. If a company is entirely based in the U.S., it would be very difficult for CFIUS to claim it had jurisdiction to review the case, Christensen said. Advertisement The best way (for Broadcom) to deal with this is to say, we understand these concerns and we are going to work to mitigate them, Christensen said. We are going to work to deal with them. We dont take this personally. We understand why the U.S. is concerned about these things. We dont think were a problem but were going to work on it. And well do our best. And be real nice, Thats the best way out these problems. Advertisement Business rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, opposed the $117 billion takeover bid by Broadcom and earlier this month sent a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis urging the deal be blocked on national security grounds. (President Trump) did the right thing and he did it in good timing, which is important in these deals, Hunter told the Union-Tribune in a phone interview, citing the fact that Qualcomm has contracts with the government for military technology. Qualcomm is as integral to our U.S. military and the NSA (National Security Agency) as it is to our Apple phones just doing civilian calls. Thats how important this is to the country and San Diego. Youve got 17,000 jobs and all the jobs that rely on all those high paid, high end engineering jobs at Qualcomm The national security aspect of this cannot be overstated. Hunter said Broadcoms memorandum of understandings with Chinese companies made the potential acquisition particularly questionable. Advertisement The Chinese are stealing everything that we have right now. And they are stealing it from large companies and small- to medium-sized companies every day, Hunter said. Asked if the decision may make Trump more popular in San Diego, where Qualcomm and its 13,000 employees are based, Hunter said: Trumps going to put the American people first. Period. That shows on things like this. Prior to Mondays announcement, Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, called on the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United State (CFIUS), to review the Broadcom bid, saying it could weaken Qualcomms leadership in tech and give Chinese companies an edge in the pursuit of new advancements. Im glad the president blocked Broadcoms bid and Im grateful to the administration for acting quickly before Qualcomms annual meeting, Peters said in a statement. Im particularly glad Broadcoms proposed candidates are prohibited from running for election to Qualcomms board of directors. Infiltration of the Board posed a similar threat, and could have opened the U.S. to more security vulnerabilities though potential ties to the Chinese government or military. This sends a message to Broadcom and other foreign companies that this innovation is vital to national security. It also reinforces to Qualcomm that it is on the right path and it should continue innovating. Qualcomm is leading in the rollout of 5G technology across the nation and this takeover threatened San Diegos economy, jobs, and intellectual property in addition to our national security and telecommunications infrastructure. This order rightfully shields Qualcomm from a takeover, so the U.S. can continue to compete in the global technological space and San Diego can continue to lead in the deployment of revolutionary 5G technology. Advertisement Business rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski Qualcomm workers were cautiously optimistic about the future of the company Monday after President Donald Trump stopped a takeover attempt. A merger between the San Diego company and Singapore-based Broadcom would likely have meant a loss of local jobs, something workers said they were very aware of. Im happy about it, said a compliance worker leaving the office Monday night. I think there is a sense of relief from workers. He said he had worked at the company for five years but was not excited about future prospects at the computer chip maker. Advertisement I think there will still be layoffs, he said. Most employees leaving the office Monday night declined to speak with The San Diego Union-Tribune and the ones that did chose not to provice their names given the tenuous employment situation. One might expect a celebration after the Broadcom merger was blocked, but the mood was much more subdued as workers filed out of the San Diego headquarters. Even the closest bar to Qualcomms office, Karl Strauss Sorrento Mesa, seemed to be absent any celebrating workers. I dont think you could write a soap opera like this, said a worker getting in his car Monday night who said he had worked at Qualcomm for 24 years. He said he wasnt sure what the future would hold for the company. Unhappy? Happy? Whos to say, he said. I dont think there is any clear winner. Some newer employees seemed to be more relieved. Its good news, said a woman who said she had worked there for seven years. I think anytime there is a merger, there is a chance of redundancies. Advertisement Even hours after the presidents order was sent, some workers had still not heard the news. A man that said he worked in procurement for Qualcomm for two and a half years learned of the order from a Union-Tribune reporter. I think it should have been blocked, he said. Its a massive security risk. President Trump in his order cited national security threats as a reason to block the merger. Advertisement Business phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar ALSO Advertisement San Diegos new single-family homes are pricey, modern and in short supply Tijuana condo craze continues in to 2018 Last years housing market broke records President Trump won hearty approval even among some staunch San Diego Democrats Monday when he blocked Broadcoms hostile takeover of Qualcomm. The news was joyously received at the La Jolla home of Qualcomm co-founder and former CEO and board chairman Irwin Jacobs and his wife, Joan. We are celebrating, Irwin Jacobs said when reached shortly after 5 p.m. But we dont need Champagne to do it, he chuckled. There are a lot of happy people in San Diego and at Qualcomm right now. The employees are very happy. Advertisement He said Trumps decision didnt surprise him given the importance of Qualcomms ongoing research and development of 5G technology, plus the support it provides some government programs. While not elaborating on Qualcomms defense involvement, Jacobs said: There is work ongoing with the government that probably doesnt get talked about very much. The Committee for Foreign Investment in the U.S. or CFIUS had cited national security concerns when it delayed Qualcomms March 6 shareholder meeting so it could investigate those fears. Shareholders had been expected to approve a slate of Broadcom-backed director candidates a move that would have paved the way for the takeover. Jacobs said he didnt know how directly involved Trump was, but he did sign it (the order) and must have been briefed. This directive is final in the view of Qualcomms co-founder. It was pretty carefully stated in a way that indicated it would not be reversed, Jacobs said. Its the presidents decision, and thats it. None of the Broadcom-backed candidates can now become board members, Jacobs added. But it is possible that Broadcom could make another run at Qualcomm once it moves its headquarters to the U.S., some experts said. Advertisement As for a shakeup of current management, Jacobs, who has retired, noted that he is now on the outside but acknowledged that Qualcomm will have to provide strong leadership going forward, especially with regard to its financial situation. (Qualcomm has been criticized for not bolstering its stock price, thus making it an attractive takeover target). Various investment firms and some major shareholders expressed support of the takeover attempt, Jacobs explained, and its important to communicate a lot better with them so they understand the long-term goals of Qualcomm. The firm has invested years of research and development of its 5G technology and is on the verge of rolling out numerous innovations. Plus, only the approval of the Chinese government is needed to finalize its $44 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductor which will bring new customers and open a host of new directions in the automotive field and the so-called Internet of Things. Its very important to the San Diego community, our country and the administration that this type of forward-thinking is continued, Jacobs stressed. Advertisement Interviewed shortly after the presidents directive, Jacobs surmised that celebrations were going on full force at Qualcomm headquarters in Sorrento Valley. A lot of resources were diverted to handling a takeover attempt. Now they can get back to real business. Advertisement diane.bell@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1518 Twitter: @dianebellSD Advertisement Facebook: dianebell.news Heads up, Instagrammers: Wildly colorful unicorn milkshakes, cocoas and cakes are about to materialize in Del Mar. Orange Countys famed Creme & Sugar dessert shop has picked a strip-mall shop on Del Mar Heights Road as the location for its second store, which opens March 17 at noon. Ever since Cosmopolitan magazine spotlighted Creme & Sugar founder Joanna Czikallas off-menu unicorn desserts in December 2016, the Anaheim Hills shop has been a mecca for snap-happy social media enthusiasts. So just what is the Unicorn Milkshake? The $10, 24-ounce confection begins with several scoops of multicolored cotton candy ice cream hand-spun in a mixer and served in a tall Mason-style jar, topped with fresh whipped cream, hand-mixed candy sprinkles, fruity marshmallows, a unicorn horn lollipop, candy bracelet, a twist of rainbow-striped sour candy and a final dusting of edible gold glitter. Advertisement The sugary concoction is just one of dozens of technicolor concepts that have sprung from the creative mind of Czikalla, who has long been nicknamed Willy Wonka by her friends, said Andrew Yun, her business partner. The unicorn thing ties into Joannas personality. Shes very whimsical and loves bright colors, Yun said. People love unicorns because theyre mythical creatures that everyone is always looking for. Theyre elusive and special. Creme & Sugar founder Joanna Czikalla with one of her Unicorn cakes. (Creme & Sugar ) Yun, an attorney and restaurant industry veteran, said he went into business with Czikalla last year because of her creativity, not her famous shake. I wouldnt have partnered with her if it was just the unicorns because fads like that peak, Yun said. I did it because shes always coming up with new ideas and concepts. She did an entire Beauty & the Beast line and a mermaid theme, too. The ideas in her head are unbelievable. Czikalla has been a designer for years, but desserts only entered the picture in recent years. The Orange County native worked for a time at Disneyland and has sold her prints on Etsy since 2012. Creme & Sugar got its start several years ago when she and her dad started selling cold-brew coffees and shave ice at Orange County farmers markets. In late 2015, they moved the business into a small 30-seat strip mall coffee shop, but it struggled to find customers. One day when she was feeling particularly blue, Czikalla decided to comfort herself by making something sweet and colorful. The result was a bright pink cocoa made with white chocolate, red food dye, sprinkles and colored mini-marshmallows. She didnt even put her Unicorn Hot Chocolate on the menu, but word soon got out. Before long, the drink was popping up all over Instagram and Cosmo took note. Advertisement The Unicorn Hot Chocolate at Creme & Sugar, which opens its first San Diego County store on March 17 in Del Mar. (Creme & Sugar ) Virtually overnight Czikallas business quadrupled, with lines around the block and customers patiently waiting two to three hours for the labor-intensive beverage. Next came the Unicorn Milkshake, which quickly eclipsed the cocoa in popularity, a Unicorn Cake and much more. Last April, Rubab Ruby Suri joined Creme & Sugar as both the store manager and recipe refiner. Before joining the business, the Yorba Linda native spent seven years with JW Marriott in Dubai as a hotel pastry and Italian chef. She also ran her own custom cake business. Suri said first-time customers are happy to spend $10 on a shake and $7 on a cup of cocoa just for the experience. But what they come back for is quality. Advertisement Everyone wants to come in to take a picture, but when they drink it, we want them to enjoy it, Suri said. The store uses local suppliers for its premium ingredients: milk from Rockview Dairies in Downey, ice cream from Fosselmans in Alhambra and Bon Suisse in Poway and coffee from L.A.s Pasquini Coffee Co. Two of the ice creams are custom-made for Creme & Sugar, a lavender and honey variety and something called Cookie Monster, an electric blue ice cream mixed with Oreos, graham crackers and chocolate-chip cookie dough. The cakes also feature a buttercream frosting made from a Czikalla family recipe. Advertisement Joanna wants to recapture the feeling she got eating cakes as a kid, Suri said. She adds a lot of components to make it really soft and to give it a good mouthfeel. Theres a lot of love that goes into it. A slice of Unicorn cake at Creme & Sugar, which opens March 17 in Del Mar. (Pam Kragen/San Diego Union-Tribune ) Beyond unicorn sweets, theres the Harry Potter-inspired Butterbeer, a spiced butterscotch cocoa; Wonkas River, a shake filled with the various item seen in the chocolate river scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; the Mermaid float, with pina colada ice cream, blue raspberry kiwi soda and a sparkly mermaid tail; and a Smores Overload latte with whipped cream, liquid chocolate, house marshmallow sauce, graham crackers and a skewer of roasted marshmallows. Yun said Czikalla received numerous offers for a second location, including the Irvine Spectrum and a Las Vegas resort, but chose Del Mar because the location had the same homey neighborhood feel of the original shop. Decorated with antique furniture like the original, the local shop is managed by owner/operator Randy Rauser of Del Mar. Advertisement The Del Mar location will have its own unique touches, including a hand-painted mural inspired by the Del Mar Racetrack and a now-in-formulation Del Mar Bar (ice cream). On opening day, March 17, the shop will open at noon. The first 100 people in line will receive free T-shirts in collectible mason jars, free unicorn horns, free signature cocoa mugs and free treats. Creme & Sugar Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays. 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. On opening day, March 17, the shop will open at noon. Address: 2646 Del Mar Heights Road, San Diego Advertisement Online: cremeandsugar.com The Smores hot chocolate, one of several signature cocoas at Creme & Sugar, which opens March 17 in Del Mar. (Pam Kragen/San Diego Union-Tribune ) pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com. Twitter: @pamkragen Theres all sorts of political and personal intrigue coursing through King Charles III, Mike Bartletts boldly imaginative, blank-verse play about the near future in Great Britain. Prince Charles has ascended to the throne; Parliament is trying to muzzle the press, and is pressuring the new king to assent; and the mystical spirit of Princess Diana is putting dreams of royal glory in both Charles and his son Williams ear. All well and good, but the real intrigue here is: How in the name of great Shakespeares ghost did a modest community theater in Coronado land the San Diego premiere of this hot dramatic property? And the answer: A little bit of luck, and a whole lot of passionate pursuit of the work on the part of Tyler Richards Hewes, whos directing the play. Advertisement A longtime behind-the-scenes San Diego theater pro whos now a San Diego arts commissioner (and a financial adviser in his non-arts life), Hewes had been directing a few small shows around the county when a friend told him Coronado Playhouse was seeking projects for its new season. The London and New York reviews of King Charles III, which earned five Tony Award nominations in 2016 (including best play), had caught Hewes eye, as had a piece on the work in American Theatre magazine. And when he finally got his hands on a full copy of the play, I was just mesmerized, Hewes says. I tore through it in a couple of hours. I said, You know what, Im going to propose this, (although) I dont think theres a chance were going to get it. Lo and behold, the Coronado company did land the rights. Hewes speculates it was partly a matter of timing he had put in the request just as licensing of the play became available and partly due to the longer season-planning timelines of many bigger institutions in this theater-rich region. Things just lined up perfectly this moment in time that we happened to catch, he says. Leaving nothing to chance, the director then hit the theaters play-selection committee with a 40-slide PowerPoint presentation, and put together some 200 pages of dramaturgical background on King Charles III. Obviously, something worked. To Hewes, the effort was worthwhile because this was one of the best scripts Id ever read; it related so much to what is going on both in the U.S. and the U.K. Advertisement You see this story being told of how people choose their leadership, and the power of democracy, the power of the press, the defense of the press. You see all these really wonderful thoughts played out usually by people you wouldnt expect. Charles as the defender of the press its so interesting that Bartlett chooses him as the vehicle for that. And the way the prime minister makes the very salient case of, It doesnt matter what you believe about the (press) bill, after Charles decides to freeze out Parliament. Its about democracy. You cannot revoke the peoples voice. How that plays out is fantastically nuanced. Hewes adds that in the title role of Charles, the actor Richard Rivera breaks every convention of who you think Charles is. He comes out and speaks to the audience one on one. Advertisement The audience is his confidant, and Richard really plays with it. Its so exciting. King Charles III When: Opens March 23. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays (plus 2 p.m. March 31); 2 p.m. Sundays (no performance April 1). Through April 22. Where: Coronado Playhouse, 1835 Strand Way, Coronado Advertisement Tickets: $20-$27 Phone: (619) 435-4856 Online: coronadoplayhouse.com Advertisement jim.hebert@sduniontribune.com Advertisement Twitter: @jimhebert The Chargers and the largest minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers were honored Friday by the Red Cross Los Angeles for their support of the organizations humanitarian mission. Dr. Laurence E. Paul of Brentwood, whose family is the second-largest stakeholder in the Steelers, was named 2018 Humanitarian of the Year, and the Chargers were honored for their distinguished dedication and support of the American Red Cross. Paul, co-founder and managing principal of Laurel Crown Partners, has volunteered on behalf of the Red Cross for two decades and was a recent recipient of the Harriman Award for Distinguished Volunteer Service, the highest recognition for volunteer service in the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross serves a central role in disaster relief and blood supply in the Southern California region and nationally, Paul said. My affiliation with them on both fronts has been a profound, unique and deeply humbling experience. I am deeply grateful for this award and all that my Red Cross experience has provided to my family and me. Advertisement The organization also recognized the Spanos family, which owns the Chargers, for their generous contributions and assistance in times of crisis, including personal donations, and work by the team to raise money and encourage fans to join them in support of the Red Cross. Dean Spanos, the Chargers controlling owner and chairman of the board, said: Being selected for this recognition is humbling because you dont reach out to help others in time of crisis to be recognized; you help them because its the right thing to do. We come together when disaster strikes, and fortunately for us, time and time again, the American Red Cross has also been there to help us get back on our feet. sam.farmer@latimes.com Follow Sam Farmer on Twitter @LATimesfarmer President Donald Trump got a firsthand look Tuesday at the massive border wall prototypes that he commissioned in San Diego for the big, beautiful wall he wants to build along the Southwest border, favoring a mixture of see-through capability topped with rounded concrete or steel to make it impassable by climbers. That wall, they can get over very easily, Trump told a pool of reporters as he pointed to the existing fencing just yards away on Otay Mesa, patched in areas where crossers have made holes. These walls, he said, indicating the 30-foot tall prototypes towering over him, they cant. The president used his first trip to California as the nations leader to champion his plan for border security, insult the state for policies that are friendly to unauthorized immigrants and renew his call to Congress to fund a proposed $18 billion wall. The fervor over border issues and the general controversy that surrounds Trump mobilized hordes of supporters and critics throughout San Diego who either rallied along his motorcade route or gathered elsewhere to deliver impassioned speeches. Advertisement The turnout was mostly peaceful, save for shouted insults between opposing sides at the prototype site and a brief fracas over a Mexican flag that was torn and nearly burned. No arrests were reported. Trump capped his three-hour, 20-minute San Diego trip with remarks to military personnel representing all five branches at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. He was welcomed with cheering and applause. In his speech to the service members, he promised new military aircraft and pay raises, pledged to re-enter the space race including a trip to Mars lauded the successful fight against the Islamic State and reiterated his call for border security. By 2:40 p.m. he was wheels-up to Los Angeles, where he was hosted at the Beverly Park home of Tampa Bay Buccaneers co-chairman Edward Glazer. The fundraiser, costing up to $250,000 a plate, raised money for his 2020 re-election and for other Republican National Committee accounts. The relationship between Trump and California has become increasingly tense, and there was no indication of making friends on this trip. As he flew toward San Diego aboard Air Force One in the morning, he set the tone with a tweet denouncing the states so-called sanctuary policies. He landed at 11:23 a.m. at Miramar, saluted and shook hands with four Marine officials dressed in fatigues including Col. Jason Woodworth, commanding officer of MCAS then boarded Marine One for a quick chopper ride to Brown Field Municipal Airport in Otay Mesa. From there, his motorcade drove to the main event: the wall prototypes. Under the watchful eye of Secret Service agents and several Border Patrol agents some on horseback and in cowboy hats Trump walked along the stretch of life-sized wall models. He was accompanied by several officials, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Acting Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost and Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. San Diegos Chief Border Patrol Agent Rodney Scott led much of the tour and spoke about the enmasse crossings along the border in the 1990s before the existing fencing was erected. Advertisement Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and his former congressman father were also there to greet the president. 1 / 65 President Donald Trumps motorcade drives along the Mexico border on his way to tour the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 65 President Donald Trump tours the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. At right is Rodney Scott, Chief Patrol Agent of the San Diego Sector of the Border Patrol. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 65 President Donald Trump tours the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 65 Military Police keep watch near the Mexico border as President Donald Trump toured the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 65 President Donald Trump tours the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. At right is Rodney Scott, Chief Patrol Agent of the San Diego Sector of the Border Patrol. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 65 President Donald Trump makes a statement after taking a tour of the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 65 President Donald Trump makes a statement after taking a tour of the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 65 President Donald Trump makes a statement after taking a tour of the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 65 President Donald Trump tours the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 65 President Donald Trump makes a statement after taking a tour of the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 65 President Donald Trump tours the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 65 President Donald Trump tours the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 13 / 65 President Donald Trump tours the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. At right is Jim OLoughlin, site manager of the border walls. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 14 / 65 President Donald Trump leaves after touring the border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County on March 13, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 15 / 65 Arriving on board Air Force One, President Donald Trump landed at MCAS Miramar Tuesday morning before departing on board Marine One for the short flight to the U.S. Mexico border. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 16 / 65 Soon after President Trump boarded Marine One, a Marine march away from Marine One. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 17 / 65 Arriving on board Air Force One, President Donald Trump landed at MCAS Miramar Tuesday morning before departing on board Marine One for the short flight to the U.S. Mexico border. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 18 / 65 Heighten security for the arrival of President Donald Trump on board Air Force One at MCAS Miramar Tuesday morning. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 19 / 65 President Donald Trump arrived at MCAS Miramar Tuesday morning. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 20 / 65 Arriving on board Air Force One, President Donald Trump arrived at MCAS Miramar Tuesday morning before departing on Marine One for the short helicopter flight to the U.S. Mexico border, where he will tour the prototype border walls. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 21 / 65 Before departing for the border, Trump met with Col. Jason Woodworth Commanding officer MCAS Miramar, Sgt Maj. Michael Walton, Col Michael Borgschulte (Asst Wing Commander, 3rd MAW) and Sgt.Maj james Porterfield. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 22 / 65 Before departing Trump met with Col. Jason Woodworth Commanding officer MCAS Miramar, Sgt Maj. Michael Walton, Col Michael Borgschulte (Asst Wing Commander, 3rd MAW) and Sgt.Maj james Porterfield. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 23 / 65 President Donald Trump at MCAS Miramar boarded Marine One for the short flight to the U.S. Mexico border to tour the prototype border walls. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 24 / 65 President Donald Trump at MCAS Miramar boarded Marine One for the short flight to the U.S. Mexico border to tour the prototype border walls. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 25 / 65 President Donald Trump at MCAS Miramar boarded Marine One for the short flight to the U.S. Mexico border was accompanied by three Marine Ospreys. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 26 / 65 President Donald Trump at MCAS Miramar boarded Marine One for the short flight to the U.S. Mexico border was accompanied by three Marine Ospreys. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 27 / 65 President Donald Trump at MCAS Miramar boarded Marine One for the short flight to the U.S. Mexico border to tour the prototype border walls. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 28 / 65 Arriving on board Air Force One, President Donald Trump arrived at MCAS Miramar Tuesday morning before departing on Marine One for the short helicopter flight to the U.S. Mexico border, where he will tour the prototype border walls. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 29 / 65 New photographers and reporters covered the arrival of President Donald Trump on board Air Force One at MCAS Miramar Tuesday morning. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 30 / 65 A protester held up a sign expressing her beliefs as President Trumps motorcade passed by. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 31 / 65 President Trump and his motorcade arrived at Otay Mesa. John Gibbins 32 / 65 President Donald Trump arrived at MCAS Miramar Tuesday morning before departing for the short flight to the Brown Field. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 33 / 65 Air Force One lands at Miramar Air Station. Kate Morrissey 34 / 65 President Trump will speak to Marines later today before departing Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. (Hayne Palmour) 35 / 65 Helen Grohman-Collins drove from Orange County to take part in the demonstration on Tuesday at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in San Ysidro. (Cami Buckman) 36 / 65 Norma Chavez, Executive Director of ACLU San Diego, spoke clergy and community members that gathered at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church to protest President Trumps San Diego Visit on Tuesday. (Cami Buckman) 37 / 65 Protesters gathered at the corner of Enrico Fermi Blvd. and Via de la Amistad where President Trump entered the border fence area where the wall prototypes were located. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 38 / 65 President Trump supporter Joshua Swan, rear with red had, looks at a protester wrapped in a Mexican flag on his back and California Flag on his front at the corner of Enrico Fermi Blvd. and Via de la Amistad where President Trump entered the border fence area where the wall prototypes were located. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 39 / 65 Anti President Trump protester Joseph Ainsworth yelled across the street to President Trumps supporters while waiting for the President to be driven by. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 40 / 65 President Trump supporter Joshua Swan, left, with red had, and anti-trump protester Manny Aguilar discussed their positions on the President at the corner of Enrico Fermi Blvd. and Via de la Amistad where President Trump entered the border fence area where the wall prototypes were located. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 41 / 65 President Trump supporter Joshua Swan, left, with red had, and anti-trump protester Manny Aguilar discussed their positions on the President at the corner of Enrico Fermi Blvd. and Via de la Amistad where President Trump entered the border fence area where the wall prototypes were located. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 42 / 65 Protesters gathered at the corner of Enrico Fermi Blvd. and Via de la Amistad where President Trump entered the border fence area where the wall prototypes were located. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 43 / 65 A President Trump supporter wrapped in a flag waited on Via de la Amistad after Trumps motorcade had passed by in to the border fence area where the wall prototypes were located. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 44 / 65 San Diego Police chief David Nisleit talked with Michael Brackeny, left, and Derek Casady who were at the corner of Enrico Fermi Blvd. and Via de la Amistad to protest against President Trump and his policies. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 45 / 65 President Trump supporters looked through the fence at the free speech area towards the area of the border wall prototypes before the president arrived. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 46 / 65 Supporters of President Trump look over a fence on the Otay Mesa towards the border wall prototypes. John Gibbins (John Gibbins) 47 / 65 San Diego Police prepare for the arrival of President Trump at the Otay Mesa border. John Gibbins (John Gibbins) 48 / 65 Security being setup prior to the arrival of President Trump at the border wall prototypes. (Alejandro Tamayo / San Diego Union-Tribune) 49 / 65 Mexican Federal Police agent stands between the fence and the protesters. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune) 50 / 65 No wall, yes dreamers reads the sign held up by a protester in colonia Las Torres, Tijuana. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune) 51 / 65 Media and protesters gather around the area in colonia Las Torres, Tijuana. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune) 52 / 65 The scene Tuesday at the border wall in Tijuana. Sandra Dibble 53 / 65 Deported veterans Hector Lopez in the middle and Mario Rangel in the red hat come to protest in colonia Las Torres, Tijuana. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune) 54 / 65 With a F/A-18 Hornet behind him, President Donald Trump speaks to Marines at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 55 / 65 Protestors and media start on a flatbed truck to get a better view in colonia Las Torres, Tijuana. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune) 56 / 65 After visiting the border wall prototypes, President Donald Trump waves to Marines as he arrives at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 57 / 65 Marine One, with President Donald Trump on board, and other military aircraft fly to Brown Field so that Trump can view the border wall prototypes after arriving at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 58 / 65 Heavy security was present before President Trumps return to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar from Brown Field. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 59 / 65 Trump supporters wave American flags before President Trump arrives to speak. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 60 / 65 Marines and U.S. Coast Guard members cheer as they listen to President Donald Trump. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 61 / 65 President Donald Trump speaks to Marines at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 62 / 65 A Marine takes pictures as President Donald Trump speaks. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 63 / 65 President Donald Trump pumps his fist after speaking to Marines at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 64 / 65 With a F/A-18 Hornet behind him, President Donald Trump waves after speaking at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 65 / 65 President Donald Trump makes one final wave before getting into the vehicle next to him after speaking at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) Trump repeatedly called the existing fencing, made from old military landing mats, inferior and warned against the dangers of drugs that were pouring through in California. If you dont have a wall system, were not going to have a country, Trump said. Theres a lot of problems in Mexico, they have the cartels. Were fighting the cartels, were fighting them hard. Advertisement Trump called for the models in an early executive order as part of his plan to erect a wall along the 2,000-mile Southwest border. They were built in September along a dusty section of land some made of concrete, some of other materials dwarfing the actual border fence. The prototypes have been rigorously tested for climbing and breaching capabilities while also keeping Border Patrol safety in mind. Some thought Trump might pick a winner wall during his visit, but he didnt go that far. Even though Trump said he prefers the completely concrete versions of the wall, he said some see-through element is necessary. You could be two feet from a criminal cartel and not even know theyre there, he said. He added later: When we build we want to build the right thing. Advertisement Even though the prototypes were built here, whatever version is selected likely wont be built in California, but in Texas. Current projects slated for the California border have different designs. Trump urged Congress to fund the wall and prohibit grants to sanctuary jurisdictions that threaten the security of our country and the people of our country. His administration has requested $18 billion that would build about 300 miles of new barrier where none exist and would replace older sections of fencing. It will save thousands and thousands of lives, save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars by reducing crime, drug flow, welfare fraud and burdens on schools and hospitals, the president said. But he also reiterated a threat to hold off on any new California border infrastructure projects until the whole wall is funded. Advertisement Security at the prototypes was predictably tight. Large trailers were brought in to form a makeshift barrier between the prototypes and the actual border fence. Across the fence in Tijuana, Mexican Federal Police kept a small group of protesters and journalists about 100 yards away from the dirt road paralleling the border. The critics, including deported veterans and a few Americans who crossed for the day, hung banners on the southern side of the corrugated border fence and chanted No muro or No wall. The scene was more lively on the U.S. side. Lining Enrico Fermi Drive at the entrance to the prototype site, about 100 supporters and critics waved flags and banners, with many cheering as Trumps motorcade passed. They were being carefully guarded, and were far outnumbered, by a heavy law enforcement contingent on foot in riot gear, in cars and on motorcycles. Advertisement The crowd decided to largely forgo a fenced-in dirt lot a few blocks away that the Sheriffs Department had designated a temporary free speech zone. Law enforcement kept supporters and critics on separate sides of the street to avoid clashes, although that did not stop people from both camps hurling insults across the aisle. Trump lost the popular vote, shouted one critic. Guy with the Mexican flag, why arent you in Mexico? shouted a Trump supporter. You know where you are? Youre in the United States of America. Advertisement When one side said Love Trump, the other said Dump Trump. Then there was Randy Swan, who crossed over from the pro-Trump side to the anti-wall side. He wanted to talk to people instead of yell. The Bible says to love your neighbor as yourself. I may not agree with my neighbors here but I do love them, he said. Manny Aguilar, 57, an Army veteran, came from Los Angeles. He said spending tens of billions of dollars on a wall is wasteful and could be used for education or to help veterans. Advertisement Im here because I want Mr. Trump to know that not everyone from Mexico is a racist or criminal, Aguilar said. He added: Id like the money to be used for immigrants like myself. Ive seen veterans die while waiting more than two years for treatment. William Stanhope, of Eastlake, came to protest Trump, period, especially the presidents stance on climate change and foreign relations policies. This is beyond the wall, its about everything about Donald Trump, Stanhope said. Advertisement On the other side, Gary Jones brought along his 16-year-old daughter Jacqueline Jones to support Trump. I voted for him because he cant be bought, Jones said. Hes cleaning the swamp from people who get into Congress, get out and get rich. Hes already rich. Jacqueline said shes been called a racist for supporting Trump even though she is Latina. They get surprised when I say Im Latina. I have a Muslim friend who supports Trump, she said. Were breaking the stereotypes. Advertisement Others rallied elsewhere, including dozens of Trump critics who gathered at the San Ysidro Port of Entry to welcome border crossers with signs such as Immigrants they get the job done. Countering that message, about 300 to 400 Trump supporters assembled on an open lot at Bristow Court and Brittania Boulevard in Otay Mesa, near Brown Field, hoping the presidential motorcade would pass by them, but it did not. The boisterous San Diegans for Secure Borders crowd waved American flags and Trump flags anyway. Their 90-minute rally included speakers who opposed sanctuary state policies and featured relatives of people killed by unauthorized immigrants. About 400 to 500 people, including elected officials and interfaith leaders, gathered at Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in San Ysidro, where they urged protection of the states immigrant communities. Advertisement Other San Diego dignitaries weighed in on Trumps visit from afar. Mayor Kevin Faulconer welcomed Trump in a statement Tuesday morning, encouraging him to look at San Diego and its relationship with Mexico as a model of free trade and thriving cross-border economy. He will see firsthand how a major American city benefits from having not just a modern border crossing but also a working relationship with Mexico, Faulconer said. San Diego is living proof that a healthy economy, low unemployment rate and strong international ties are not mutually exclusive. Bishop Robert McElroy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego focused on the plight of immigrants. It is a sad day for our country when we trade the majestic, hope-filled symbolism of the Statue of Liberty for an ineffective and grotesque wall which both displays and inflames the ethnic and cultural divisions that have long been the underside of our national history, McElroy said in a statement. Our faith is in the God who is the Father of us all, and who urges us to see Jesus himself in the immigrants and refugees who seek safety and freedom. Advertisement Even Gov. Jerry Brown responded to Trumps barbs that he was doing a terrible job running the state of California. Thanks for the shout-out, @realDonaldTrump. But bridges are still better than walls. And California remains the 6th largest economy in the world and the most prosperous state in America. #Facts, Brown tweeted Tuesday. The courts will be forced to settle some of the contentions between the two. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice sued California over a set of so-called sanctuary state laws that limits cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Advertisement And California is among a group suing the Department of Homeland Security over the governments waiver of several environmental laws to speed along border wall projects in San Diego and Calexico including the prototype construction. The government won a major round in that battle two weeks ago. Union-Tribune staff writers Greg Moran, Gustavo Solis, Sandra Dibble, Peter Rowe and Kate Morrissey and The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report. Advertisement kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @kristinadavis Pasadena Police Chief Phillip Sanchez announced his retirement Monday from an agency that has been embroiled in controversy in recent months. In a statement, Sanchez said his decision to step down, effective April 18, after eight years at the helm took much deliberation and careful thought. Putting on the Pasadena police uniform every day has truly been a humbling experience, he said. I am proud of the progress we have made as an agency during my tenure. He cited the departments body-camera program and headway in bringing diversity to the agency to better reflect the community. Advertisement Sanchezs statement did not mention several recent controversies, including the federal investigation of a lieutenant who served as his adjutant and was indicted on charges of selling dozens of guns across Southern California without a license. Lt. Vasken Gourdikian, who formerly served as the department spokesman, faces four felony counts, including illegally possessing a short-barreled rifle and providing false statements while buying firearms, according to the indictment filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court. The department also came under fire last year after two Pasadena police officers were captured on video hitting a black motorist at an Altadena gas station, causing outrage in a community with a history of complaints about how law enforcement treats African American men. Videos captured by the police and a bystander show one officer repeatedly striking the unarmed motorist with a baton during the Nov. 9 incident. Another officer screams at the man to give up his hands and punches him at least five times before slamming his face into the asphalt. Eventually, the officers manage to handcuff the man behind his back. The motorist, Christopher Ballew, suffered a broken leg and has filed a claim for damages against the city of Pasadena, the Police Department and chief, and the two officers involved. alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @AleneTchek In an upper-level seminar on artificial intelligence, Occidental College professor Justin Li started a discussion outside the realm of a typical computer science class. Should a self-driving car, if unable to brake in time, be programmed to steer into a wall to avoid crashing into pedestrians perhaps killing a single person in the vehicle in order to save five on the street? One question led to another. Is it morally OK to choose five lives over one? How about 10? Who gets to make this decision anyway the programmer, the government, the person who can afford a self-driving car? Occidental established a computer science major this fall, one of numerous liberal arts colleges to do so in recent years. Theyve popped up at Reed College in Oregon and Whitman College in Washington state. Advertisement These schools better known for teaching history and philosophy are shaping their programs to draw on their strengths. They dont just focus on the vocational or on abstract algorithms. As artificial intelligence and automation increasingly enter everyday life, their courses push students to examine how modern technology both changes and challenges society. In Maine, Bates College started a multidisciplinary Digital and Computational Studies program, with aims including to interrogate the values and assumptions of a digitized world and increase understanding of the power and limitations of computers in solving problems. At Occidental, where a young Barack Obama discovered political science, teaching students how to code is the straightforward part, said Li, a cognitive science professor who led the design of the major. Classes also push them to grapple with the inequalities and philosophical dilemmas that technology is creating out in the world. Such social discussions are woven into every lesson. The goal is to make students consider the real-world implications of what they are doing that their code is not just abstract problem-solving but may have positive or negative impacts on real people, Li said. Stephanie Angulo, a junior, says its that sort of approach that drew her to Occidental rather than an engineering school. She hopes to break glass ceilings one day as a tech leader and wanted to study somewhere that would also teach her how to write better. You have to think about how you communicate your ideas or how you think about problems, said Angulo, who has interned at Facebook and is studying computer science and philosophy. My friends and I talk about these issues pretty much every day, whereas Ive noticed the people Ive worked with who are more engineering-focused dont tend to think about these questions as much. The broader way of looking at computer science also has the benefit of perhaps drawing new people in to help narrow techs much-discussed diversity and gender gaps, said Andrea Danyluk, a Williams College professor and member of the Liberal Arts Computer Science Consortium. We have the art major who needs to take a science course or a history student who discovers this is actually kind of cool, she said. As more multidisciplinary programs emerge, some in the field caution against taking too much focus away from the fundamentals of computer science. You need a very solid core, said Kim Bruce, who started the departments at Williams and at Pomona College. Advertisement At a computer science show and tell, student Yinbo Gao shows deGrasse Schrader a program he created to search for and identify sheet music for a particular song. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times ) A number of East Coast liberal arts colleges have long-standing traditional programs based in math and computation. But Occidental wanted its new major to break the mold. Our goal isnt to emulate Stanford or MIT in terms of engineers, President Jonathan Veitch said. Our goal is to graduate students who are versed in the ways in which technologys impacting their life socially, culturally as well as politically and to play some kind of thoughtful role in high tech. Choosing Li, whose field of expertise is multidisciplinary, to shape the major was a first step. Advertisement He looked at what other campuses were doing and found that many lacked classes that directly addressed ethics. He also noted the diversity issues. Across the nation, more than 80% of computer science majors are men. Of the 1,780 doctorates granted in the field in 2015, just 1% went to black students, 1.7% to Latinos and less than 19% to women, according to the Computing Research Assn. Starting a new department is a rare chance to tackle these issues from scratch, Li said. Occidentals major includes a more traditional track, a mathematics pathway and a CS + X option in which students are free to choose the X, whether it be integrating gender studies, economics or music. They can pursue projects about anything that interests them segregated housing, language patterns, whether theres racism in census data. Advertisement Kathryn Leonard, the departments chairwoman, who majored in English and math in college, encourages students to use their broad liberal arts educations to think about the role of humans in technology. If were the ones building the machine, then we have to be very careful about putting our own biases into the machine and, furthermore, putting in biases that we arent even aware of, she said. In order to have that kind of awareness, you need an exposure to a broad range of perspectives. Junior Chloe Zeller is double majoring in computer science and cognitive science and minoring in math. She was worried that computer science would be too hard, but says the way Occidental teaches the material helped her find ways to make it her own. Shes been studying gender bias and inequity in computer programs. Shes inspired by the diversity both of her classmates and of their interests. CS is situated in a lot of different places now. Its not just this discrete thing thats by itself in a little box, she said. In my very first class, there were a variety of math people, science people. I had a politics major in my class, a psych major. Advertisement That diversity helped draw in junior Luis Figueroa, who was intimidated because his high school in San Luis, Ariz., didnt have computer science. Now hes double majoring in it, along with math. Hes interned at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and hopes one day to return to his hometown to teach kids early in their education that computer science really can be connected to everything. At a recent computer science show and tell, dozens of students crowded around to see what the new major was all about. At one table, Allie Brenner described the neural network that she and a classmate had built to recognize and distinguish between tweets from President Trump and former President Obama. One challenge, she said, was teaching a computer to detect sarcasm which was key because Obama and Trump often have used similar words in different ways. The hardest part for us, we were actually joking about it the other day its no longer the coding thats intimidating, said Brenner, who is double majoring in computer science and psychology. Its the theory and the thought process behind it all. Advertisement rosanna.xia@latimes.com Follow @RosannaXia for more education news A federal jury on Friday found a San Diego stockbroker guilty of insider trading for using a tip to make an $83,000 profit as a result of the sale of a local biotech company six years ago. Paul Rampoldi, 50, was convicted of conspiracy to commit insider trading, wire fraud and money laundering in connection with the profits made from the $1.2 billion acquisition of Ardea Biosciences by pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca. On Monday, a client of Rampoldis who also had been charged in the federal case pleaded guilty to being involved in the illegal trade. William Blythe, whose trail was set to begin Monday, admitted in his plea agreement that the confidential information about the 2016 acquisition came from Michael Fefferman, Ardeas information technology director at the time. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, evidence presented during Rampoldis trial had indicated Fefferman learned Adrea planed to merge with AstraZeneca and knew the then-imminent acquisition would boost Ardeas stock price by a whooping 50 percent. Advertisement Before the merger was announced publicly, prosecutors said, Fefferman shared the confidential news with his brother-in-law, Chad Wiegand, a licensed stockbroker who worked for the National Planning Corp. Wiegand then shared the tip with a co-worker, Akis Eracleous, who passed it on to Rampoldi and Blythe. According to prosecutors, Eracleous, Rampoldi and Blythe agreed on a plan: Blythe would trade on the information and share the profits with the two other men. On the Friday afternoon before the merger was announced, Blythe purchased more than $5,400 in Ardea options. The following Monday, he sold the options for almost $89,000. Blythe later doled out the fraudulent proceeds to Eracleous and Rampoldi in cash to avoid leaving a paper trail, prosecutors said. He also gave $2,000 in cash to Wiegand for passing along the tip. After Forbes magazine reported on Blythes hefty earnings, the men involved in the trade realized an investigation was underway and began to work on a cover story to mislead the FBI and financial industry investigators, prosecutors said. Rampoldi and Blythe are scheduled to be sentenced in May. The jury in Rampoldis case deadlocked on two other counts he faced, and a hearing was scheduled for March 23 to determine if he will be retried on the two counts. Wiegand, Fefferman Eracleous previously pleaded guilty to charges they faced. Other information about the status of their cases was not immediately available. Advertisement Breaking News Advertisement Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com Phone: (619) 293-1876 Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez A 73-year-old San Diego doctor and seven other people face federal charges in connection with an alleged scheme to distribute highly addictive painkillers, the U.S. Attorneys Office said Monday. A federal complaint accuses Dr. Egisto Salerno of prescribing hydrocodone without a legitimate medical reason to individuals who allegedly were recruited to pose as patients. The powerful opioid is more commonly known by brand names such as Vicodin, Norco and Lortab. According to the complaint, the alleged scheme began no later than November 2014, when Stephen Toney and other defendants started to recruit individuals, many of whom were homeless, to visit Salernos office. Advertisement The complaint claims Salerno received a payment for each office visit, during which he allegedly performed a cursory physical exam or no exam at all before writing the prescriptions. The complaint also alleges Toney and other defendants arranged for the transportation of the recruited patients to Salernos office on El Cajon Boulevard, then to a pharmacy to pick up the prescribed drugs. After, the patients were paid to turn over the tablets to the defendants, then returned to or near their homes or homeless shelters, according to the complaint. In an attempt to justify the prescriptions, Salerno and two of his medical assistants allegedly falsified chart notes and medical records. The complaint claims the medical chart for an agent who went undercover includes notes in Salernos handwriting that documented a visit that never occurred. In some instances, the the prescriptions were written for patients who were dead or in jail. In one case, Salerno allegedly prescribed hydrocodone to a dead person five times after the death in 2015. Each defendant faces one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. In addition to Salerno and Toney, the other defendants are April Cervantes, 27; David Apple, 25; Amber Horne, 28; Lonnell Ligon, 55; Shalina Latson, 47; and LaJuan Smith, 38. The opioid crisis is ravaging families in San Diego and Imperial Counties and is part of a national epidemic, U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman said in a statement. We are and will continue to zealously prosecute and bring to justice those doctors, pharmacies, medical providers and others who are furthering this epidemic to line their own pockets. Advertisement Breaking News Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com Advertisement Phone: (619) 293-1876 Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez ABSTRACT Background: The application of invasive obstetric procedures has an end point of reducing the Caesarean section rate. The declining rate of use of these procedures is one of the reasons for increasing Caesarean section rates in our environment. Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the practice of operative vaginal deliveries among obstetricians practicing in Nigeria and to evaluate the reasons for non-use of these procedures. Methodology: It was a questionnaire based study. The questionnaires were administered to practitioners of Obstetrics in the various centres in Nigeria. Data was collated and analyzed with Epi-Info statistical software version 7.0 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, USA), and conclusions were drawn by means of descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 1200 questionnaire were distributed but 1104 were returned and used for analysis. This gave a response rate of 92%. The age distribution of the respondents showed that the 20 - 30 year age group had the least number of respondents 22 (2%) while 41 - 50 age group had the highest number of respondents 486 (4%). The majority of the respondents were males 839 (76%). In terms of duration of practice, 449 (40.7%) of the respondents had more than 6 years duration of practice while 256 (23.2) had practiced for less than 3 years. Tertiary centres had highest number of respondents 71.8%. The distribution of the respondents according to the geopolitical zones in Nigeria are; South-East (57.6%), South-South (19.6%), South West (11.4%), North-West (4.9%), North-East (3.8%), North-Central (2.7%). The practice of these procedures among respondents were: External cephalic version (68.0%), Symphysiotomy (41.7), Forceps delivery (68.8%), Destructive delivery (60.1%), Vaginal breech delivery (85.5%), Vacuum extraction (84.8%). Reasons for the non-use included: Risk of perinatal/maternal morbidity and mortality greater than benefit (25.7%), Lack of equipment (22.4%), Lack of skills (16.6%), Decline by patients (6.5%), Not in the departmental protocol (26.2%), Not evidence based (34.6%), Patient preferred Caesarean section (5.6%), Outdated (32.6%), fear of litigation (32.7%). The mean rate of caesarean section according to rates reported from different centres was 25.2% while the individual centre rates ranged from 2% to as high as 51%. Conclusion: There is a decline in the practice of operative obstetric procedures among obstetricians practicing in Nigeria. There is an urgent need to reverse this trend by increased training and re-training of manpower, provision of necessary equipment, more research to provide supportive evidence of need and inclusion in protocols. Keywords: Invasive Obstetric Procedures, Decline, Nigeria 1. Introduction Operative vaginal delivery is an age-long obstetric practice used to expedite delivery or avert recourse to caesarean delivery [1] . It is a vital component of basic emergency obstetric care worldwide and remains an integral part of the obstetricians duties. It may take the form of instrumental deliveries, employing obstetric forceps and vacuum extractor to shorten the second stage of labour or operative procedures like symphysiotomy or destructive operations performed to achieve vaginal delivery in dystocia with or without a living fetus [2] . The relevance of these procedures cannot be over emphasized in a resource constraint setting like ours where poverty, ignorance and obnoxious cultural practices have led to a very high morbid aversion for caesarean section among obstetric women [3] . It is not unusual for women with obvious indication for caesarean section to patronize quacks and traditional birth attendants in a bid to achieve vaginal delivery, which sometimes results in avoidable maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality [4] . Matter-of-fact, in some well selected patients, an indication for caesarean section might be amenable to operative vaginal delivery especially when the skill is available and/or the equipment is functional, a recourse to such alternative mode of delivery will reduce morbidity, cost and ultimately the increasing caesarean section rates prevalent in our obstetric practice [5] . There has been a declining trend in the use of operative vaginal deliveries in contemporary obstetric practice. Much of this decline can be attributed to fears of complications, litigation and lack of skills [6] [7] . Vacuum and forceps extraction is still fairly common although vacuum extraction is by far the more common procedure performed in developing countries [7] [8] . By the year 2000, forceps delivery had decreased to under half with much of the decline attributed to increasing preference for vacuum extraction or caesarean section when difficult vaginal delivery is anticipated [2] [9] [10] [11] . Although destructive operations and symphysiotomy are obsolete in developed countries, they remain relevant and lifesaving obstetric procedures in developing countries where obstetric practice is still rudimentary and the high aversion for caesarean section in this setting makes these procedures indispensable [12] [13] . One major reason for such high aversion for caesarean section there is failure to achieve vaginal delivery is often considered, albeit wrong, a reproductive failure of the parturient woman [14] . Recent trends show that the cesarean delivery rate has increased over the past decade (30.3% in the USA in 2005 and 21.3% in England in 2001) while the operative vaginal delivery rate has decreased globally, although both rates vary significantly around the world [13] [15] [16] [17] . Fears of potential neonatal and maternal safety have been the primary drivers of these trends, also few obstetricians who are proficient in using forceps are able to meet up with the ever increasing number of residents [18] . Professional liability due to birth injuries associated with not doing a timely cesarean section and complicated operative deliveries are common reasons for obstetric malpractice suits [19] [20] [21] . An operative vaginal delivery rate of 3.5% was reported in the United States as against a caesarean section rate of 32.8% [22] . Similar trend was also reported from similar studies elsewhere [23] [24] [25] . Both the American College and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists continue to support the use of both vacuum and forceps and strongly encourage residency programs to incorporate the teaching of these skills into their curricula [26] [27] . In view of the decline of this practice in modern obstetrics, there is a need for continued training and retraining, and proper patient selection in order to reduce the incidence of complications and litigation that may follow operative vaginal deliveries. This study aims to determine the determinants and deterrents to use of operative vaginal delivery procedures among obstetricians practicing in Nigeria and highlight their benefits in our obstetric practice where high maternal, perinatal morbidity and mortality following caesarean section remains an issue. 2. Material and Methods Background The Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) is the umbrella body to which registered Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in Nigeria belong. It was established in 1965 to regulate Obstetrics and Gynaecological practice in Nigeria. The annual general meeting and scientific conference of the society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria is an annual event that brings together the Obstetricians and Gynaecologists practicing in Nigeria. It is usually well attended where issues affecting the society are usually discussed. Members also showcase breakthroughs in their practices and present scientific articles which are usually published in the societys journal. This occasion provided an ideal avenue for a study of this nature. This study was a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that attended the 48th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) held in Asaba, Delta State, Southern Nigeria in November, 2014. The SOGON conference is an annual event usually held in the last week of the month of November every year. Study design This was a cross-sectional questionnaire based study; pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires were administered to obstetricians during the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetricians (SOGON) scientific conference in Asaba, Delta State of Nigeria. The questionnaire was pretested on 40 doctors in the department of obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki. These doctors had indicated their intention not to attend the conference and as such didnt participate in the final survey. The pilot study revealed areas of confusion and these were corrected in the final draft used for data collection. A total of 1200 questionnaires were administered to Obstetricians and Gynecologists and trainees that consented to participate in the study but 1104 questionnaires were correctly filled and returned, this gave a response rate of 92%. Information were obtained on age and length of practice, geo-political zone of practice, invasive procedures performed, reasons for performing or non performing of the procedures, Caesarean section rate in place of practice and what could be done to encourage the practice of operative vaginal deliveries. Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, before embarking on this study. Data analysis Data was collated and analyzed with Epi-Info statistical software version 7.0 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, USA), and conclusions were drawn by means of descriptive statistics. Limitation A major limitation of this study is problem of recall bias from the respondents. Also not all the obstetricians practicing in Nigeria attended this conference and as such the findings from this study may not truly represent the view of all the obstetricians in Nigeria. 3. Results A total of 1200 questionnaires were distributed and 1104 were correctly filled, returned and used for analysis. This gave a response rate of 92%. Table 1 shows the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents. The age distribution of the respondents showed that the 20 - 30 year age group had the least number of respondents 22 (2%) while 41 - 50 age group had the highest number of respondents 486 (4%). The majority of the respondents were males 839 (76%) while the females made up 24%. In terms of duration of practice, 449 (40.7%) of the respondents had more than 6 years duration of practice while 256 (23.2) had practiced for less than 3 years. Tertiary centres had highest number of respondents 71.8% while 10% of them were in private practice. Table 2 shows the distribution of the respondents according to the geopolitical zones in the country. South East 636 (57.6%), South South 216 (19.6%), South West 126 (11.4%), North West 54 (4.9%), North East 42 (3.8%), North Central 30 (2.7%). Table 3 shows the distribution of practice of operative vaginal deliveries among the respondents. External cephalic version (68.0%), symphysiotomy (41.7%), forceps delivery (68.8%), destructive delivery (60.1%), vaginal breech delivery (85.5%), Vacuum extraction (84.8%). Table 4 shows the reasons for non-use of some operative vaginal deliveries among the respondents. Risk of perinatal and maternal morbidity and mortality greater than benefit (25.7%), lack of equipment (22.4%), lack of skills (16.6%), decline by patients (6.5%), not in departmental protocol (26.2%), not evidence based (34.6%), patient preferred caesarean section (5.6%), outdated (32.6%), fear of litigation following complications 32.7%. Table 2. Distribution of respondents according to geopolitical zones in Nigeria. Table 3. Practice of operative vaginal deliveries among respondents. Table 4. Reasons for non-regular use of obstetric vaginal deliveries. 4. Discussion The age distribution of the respondents showed that 20 - 30 year age group had the least number of respondents 22 (2%) while 41 - 50 age group had the highest number, 486 (4%). The majority of the respondents were males 839 (76%) while the females made up 24%. In terms of duration of practice, 449 (40.7%) of the respondents had more than 6 years duration of practice while 256 (23.2) had practiced for less than 3 years. Tertiary centres had highest number of respondents 71.8%. This can easily be explained by the fact that in Nigeria, government is the highest employer of labour and majority of the tertiary health centres in Nigeria are government owned. The South East and South South geo-political regions respectively had the highest number of respondents 636 (57.6%) and 216 (19.6%). This may be as a result of proximity to the venue of the conference, Asaba. The Northwest, Northeast and North central regions had low representation because they are worst hit by the problem of terrorism and this has led to brain drain of alarming proportion [28] . Recent trends have shown increasingly predominance of vacuum extraction over forceps delivery [29] [30] [31] [32] . This was reflected in this study where 68.03% reported practicing forceps delivery as against 84.8% who report use of vacuum extraction. Interests were not comparable in symphysiotomy (41.67%) and destructive delivery (60.07%). Although symphysiotomy and destructive operations are potentially life-saving procedures but often reluctantly used in the western world where it is viewed as an outdated or second class obstetric intervention [29] . They may however be very useful in certain circumstances if done properly by trained hands and carries little morbility [30] . Also, the high aversion for caesarean section in our setting is sufficient reason why obstetricians practicing in developing countries should acquire these skills and apply them when indicated rather than resort to caesarean section in all cases of dystocia in labour [8] [14] . Furthermore, It is believed that for patients of low socio-economic status and poor health seeking behavior who present late in labour with features of obstruction, intra uterine sepsis and fetal death, destructive operation is still a good option that may obviate the need for caesarean section [33] [34] . The reasons for non-use of these procedures were mostly from reasons related to the practitioners and not the patient. Not evidence based (34.62%), procedures being outdated (32.60%) and fears of litigation in the event of complications (32.7%) were the three major reasons. Curiously only (6.52%) was attributed to decline by patients. Fears of litigation which was reported by 32.7% of the respondents may be sufficient reason to hesitate in the use of these procedures. A study of American obstetricians showed that 37.1% of the respondents performed caesarean sections out of fear of litigation [20] . Litigation for medical negligence is rapidly increasing especially in developing countries because people are becoming better educated and aware that in the event of negligence, they can seek and get redress in law courts [35] . The increasing Caesarean section rates may, among other things be attributed to aversion to use of these procedures. Some health institutions report caesarean section rates higher than 10% - 15% recommended by the WHO [36] . In developing countries, aversion for caesarean section can push some women with previous caesarean section and poor health seeking behavior to patronize unskilled birth attendants than re-present to the hospital [14] [37] . Ruptured uterus from such patronage has been reported as a major cause of obstetric haemorrhage, maternal and perinatal mortality especially with injudicious use of oxytocic [38] [39] [40] . 5. Conclusion In conclusion, there is an urgent need to reverse the declining trend of the use of operative vaginal delivery procedures by re-introducing them into modern obstetric curriculum, especially in resource constrained settings like ours. Capacity building, provision of necessary equipment, more research to provide supportive evidence of need and inclusion in protocols will go a long way in achieving this objective. Cite this paper Anozie, O.B., Osaheni, L.L., Onu, F.A., Onoh, R.C., Ogah, E.O., Eze, J.N., Mamah, J.E., Asiegbu, O.G. and Anozie, R.O. (2018) Declining Rate of Operative Vaginal Deliveries in Nigeria. Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 8, 175-184. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojog.2018.83021 References Several months after Rebecca Zahaus body was found bound and hanging at a Coronado mansion, a well-known forensic pathologist went on the Dr. Phil show to announce that while he couldnt say with certainty that the woman had been killed, his findings during a second autopsy raised serious questions about the death. That same pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht, was much more definitive while testifying in Zahaus wrongful death lawsuit on Monday. In my opinion, Rebecca Zahaus death was a homicide, he said in San Diego Superior Court. She was manually strangled and it was set up to look like a suicidal hanging. The Zahau family filed the lawsuit after sheriffs homicide investigators and the Medical Examiners Office ruled the bizarre, July 13, 2011 death a suicide. Advertisement Authorities suggested the 32-year-old surgical technician was deeply remorseful about being in charge at the mansion when her boyfriends son, 6-year-old Max Shacknai, fell from the second floor into the foyer. He died days later. The child was the son of pharmaceuticals millionaire Jonah Shacknai and his ex-wife Dina Shacknai. 1 / 16 Defendant Adam Shacknai sits at the defense table with his attorneys, Dan Webb and Krista M. Enns, as Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist is questioned on the witness stand by plaintiff attorney, Keith Greer about the injuries to Rebecca Zahau s head. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 16 Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist is questioned on the witness stand by plaintiff attorney, Keith Greer about the injuries to Rebecca Zahaus body and comes to the conclusion that he believes that Zahau was manually strangled then was setup to be a suicidal hanging. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 16 Defendant Adam Shacknai sits at the defense table as Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist is questioned on the witness stand by plaintiff attorney, Keith Greer about the injuries to Rebecca Zahaus head. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 16 Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist expert for the plaintiff spent the entire morning and afternoon testifying in civil trial for the wrongful death of Rebecca Zahau in San Diego Superior Court before Judge, Katherine Bacal. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 16 Defendant Adam Shacknai sits at the defense table as Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist is questioned on the witness stand by plaintiff attorney, Keith Greer about the injuries to Rebecca Zahaus head. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 16 Under cross examine by defense attorney, Dan Webb, Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist on the witness stand is questioned about if it was common to exhume a body for a second autopsy for the purpose of a television show. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 16 Defense attorney, Dan Webb cross examines Dr. Cyril Wecht on the witness stand if he had knowledge that the knots on the rope used on Rebecca Zahaus hands and feet had her DNA on the rope fibers. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 16 Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist is questioned on the witness stand by plaintiff attorney, Keith Greer. The civil trial for the wrongful death of Rebecca Zahau continued into day-seven in San Diego Superior Court. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 16 Dan Webb cross examines Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist on the witness stand about the two missing pages (pages 1 & 2) from his autopsy report. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 16 Under cross examine by defense attorney, Dan Webb, Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist on the witness stand becomes agitated when questioned about the two missing pages (pages 1 & 2) from his report. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 16 Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist is questioned on the witness stand by plaintiff attorney, Keith Greer about the injuries to Rebecca Zahaus body. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 16 Defendant Adam Shacknai sits in court as his attorney cross examines Dr. Cyril Wecht about the head injuries to Rebecca Zahau. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 13 / 16 Under cross examine by defense attorney, Dan Webb, Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist on the witness stand is questioned about the two missing pages (pages 1-2) from his autopsy report. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 14 / 16 Defense attorney, Dan Webb cross examines Dr. Cyril Wecht on the witness stand about the two missing pages (pages 1-2) from his autopsy report. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 15 / 16 Under cross examine by defense attorney, Dan Webb, Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist on the witness stand becomes agitated when questioned about the two missing pages (pages 1 & 2) from his report. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 16 / 16 On re-direct of his expert witness, Keith Greer points out on Dr. Cyril Wechts report where he wrote, At this point, I cannot say that Rebecca Zahaus death was a suicide, nor can I say that it was a homicide. What I can and will say is this case cries out for more investigation. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) Rebecca Zahaus family members have long contended that she, a woman of strong Christian faith, would never commit suicide. Instead, they allege Adam Shacknai Jonah Shacknais brother and the only other person at the house at the time struck Zahau on the head, strangled her and stripped her naked before tying her up and tossing her off a balcony with a noose around her neck. Shacknais attorney, Dan Webb, said in opening statements that no evidence connects his 54-year-old client to the death. Webb said investigators found none of Shacknais DNA on the ropes binding Zahau or on the bed legs where the noose was anchored. Wecht has been consulted in and appeared in media reports to discuss a number of high-profile deaths including that of JonBenet Ramsey, Danielle van Dam, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and President John F. Kennedy. He estimated hes done about 20,000 autopsies over the course of his career and supervised another 40,000. On Monday, the forensic pathologist said he was asked by a lawyer for the Zahau family to conduct a second autopsy on the body, which he agreed to and performed at a facility in Pittsburgh in October 2011. Advertisement Initially, Wecht determined that Zahaus cause of death was asphyxiation due to hanging, and her manner of death to be undetermined. When he went on the Dr. Phil show, he said he was strongly leaning toward the death being a homicide. But when asked to review those findings for the wrongful death suit, and after doing additional research, the pathologist took a stronger stance that Zahau had been killed. Wecht discussed several of his autopsy findings to support that conclusion. The first was the presence of four hemorrhages on the right side of Zahaus scalp. Wecht determined the injuries were caused by blunt force trauma suggesting Zahau may have been bludgeoned with a hard, possibly rounded object that could have led to her losing consciousness before her death. Advertisement Dr. Jonathan Lucas, the San Diego County deputy medical examiner who performed the initial autopsy, had previously called those wounds relatively minor, adding that they may have been caused by her head striking the building after she fell from the balcony. Wecht also said that a fractured band of cartilage in Zahaus neck wouldnt have been injured in a hanging death, but it could have been during strangulation. There were other injuries to the muscles and skin of Zahaus neck that also suggested someone used their hands to strangle her, he said. The pathologist also questioned how her neck remained unbroken, despite falling 9 feet from the balcony. If she had simply gone over the balcony railing with the body hurtling down, the force that would have been generated would have resulted in a fracture, Wecht said. Advertisement There were several other injuries, including a bruise between Zahaus ribcage that was indicative of blunt force trauma and possibly of a struggle. Webb, the defense attorney, spent hours cross-examining Wecht. He suggested on multiple occasions that if the pathologist had received more information from law enforcement investigators, like the fact that no one but Zahaus DNA was found on the ropes she was bound in, that he may have come to a different conclusion. He also questioned Wechts apparent departure from his previous autopsy findings. Webb continued questioning Wecht for the rest of the day Monday. Advertisement Advertisement Twitter: @LAWinkley (619) 293-1546 lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com Beaches as far north as the Hotel del Coronado have been closed following weekend showers that flushed sewage-polluted water through the Tijuana River and into the Pacific Ocean. The closures, which started Sunday, also include the shorelines of Border Field State Park, Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge, Imperial Beach and Silver Strand. Such impacts have increasingly infuriated South Bay residents in recent years as Tijuanas sewage infrastructure continues to buckle under the weight of the citys housing boom. Beaches as far north as the Hotel del Coronado have been closed following weekend showers that flushed sewage-polluted water through the Tijuana River and into the Pacific Ocean. Advertisement The closures, which started Sunday, also include the shorelines of Border Field State Park, Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge, Imperial Beach and Silver Strand. Such impacts have increasingly infuriated South Bay residents in recent years as Tijuanas sewage infrastructure continues to buckle under the weight of the citys housing boom. In addition to pathogens found in sewage including bacteria such as E. coli, vibrio and salmonella there are several viruses and intestinal parasites that can cause everything from diarrhea to meningitis to respiratory infections. Under dry conditions, pumps on the Tijuana River divert flows of sewage-tainted water from emptying into the river valley. However, according to federal authorities, the systems capacity is overwhelmed by nearly any rain event and requires shutting down to prevent damage. This month, the cities of Imperial Beach and Chula Vista, as well as the Port of San Diego filed a Clean Water Act lawsuit against the federal government in an attempt to force the funding of projects to divert and or treat the polluted water. The lawsuit alleges that the U.S. side of the International Boundary and Water Commission, or IBWC, hasnt taken sufficient steps to control sewage, industrial waste, pesticides and massive amounts of trash that regularly flow through the Tijuana River and into the Pacific Ocean. According to the complaint, sections of the Imperial Beach shoreline were closed for more than 160 days in both 2017 and 2016, as well as for more than 200 days in 2015 as the result of such contamination. IBWC authorities have countered that theyre actively pursuing binational solutions to limit the water pollution. The agency oversees water treaties with Mexico and facilitates infrastructure spending along the border. Advertisement Before the two countries spent hundreds of millions of dollars to construct treatment plants on both sides of the border two decades ago, up to 10 million gallons of raw sewage a day flowed down the Tijuana River and into San Diego County. Advertisement Twitter: @jemersmith Phone: (619) 293-2234 Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com After months of campaigning as a judge in a nod to a post she held 15 years ago, San Diego County supervisor candidate Bonnie Dumanis will be called something else on election ballots retired district attorney. While Dumanis has used the stately honorific since announcing her campaign in September, her consultant said that elections regulations would not allow her to refer to herself as judge on the ballot. She was a judge too long ago to mention it, but she served as district attorney for 14 years before stepping down in July. Were Republicans, we follow the rules, Dumanis consultant, Jason Roe, said by phone. Despite the regulations on ballot designations, Dumanis, a Republican from Little Italy, will still go by judge on the campaign trail, using the title she received from her nine years on the bench in San Diego, Roe said. Advertisement Friday was the deadline for candidates to file nomination papers for local and federal races, a process that not only puts name on the ballot, but their occupation as well. It might be the first and only chance for some candidates, particularly ones in down-ballot races, to make an impression with voters. Theres Freeman Michaels, a congressional candidate from the Green party listed as a retired computer geek. Michaels, from San Diego, is not to be confused with another candidate for the 52nd Congressional District, Republican John Horst, a cybersecurity engineer. Horst provided no commentary about any peculiar characters from his profession. The incumbent in that race, Rep. Scott Peters, is listed as a U.S. representative. School board races are filled with candidates who listed some sort of tie to the education system, and incumbents running for re-election all mentioned their office. Former Assemblyman Brian Jones, a Republican running for state Senate, lists himself as an appointed Santee councilman. Summer Stephan likewise is listed as the appointed district attorney. Stephan, a Republican, is running for a full term. The occupation listed alongside a candidates name can make or break a campaign, said Dan Rottenstreich, a consultant working for one of Dumanis opponents, Democrat Nathan Fletcher. Its the only thing that every voter sees, the candidates name and their ballot designation, Rottenstreich said. Fletcher is in a similar situation as Dumanis. He was a state assemblyman from 2008 to 2012 but but regulations bar him from including his prior political office on the ballot. Fletcher will be listed as educator/veterans advocate in reference to his work teaching at the University of California, San Diego, and his efforts to assist veterans who have been deported. Lori Saldana, also an Assembly member from 2004 to 2010, will appear as a community college teacher, a reference to her work teaching business information technology in the San Diego Community College system. Unlike Dumanis, Fletcher and Saldana havent campaigned on their work in past offices as Dumanis has with her experience as a judge. Advertisement Omar Passons, a lawyer and former executive at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation and a current board member for the San Diego Workforce Partnership, will appear as an attorney/youth advocate. Another Democrat, Ken Malbrough will, barring a formal objection, be listed as a retired fire chief. Malbrough was actually a deputy fire chief who served 31 years with the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. Campaign teams toil to find a ballot designation that tells a bit of their candidates story, passes through the wickets of election regulations, will survive a legal challenge and somehow manages to win-over voters, Rottenstreich said. There are a lot of technicalities to it, and its one of those things that campaigns do that isnt seen that much. But it can be incredibly helpful, he said. Advertisement Twitter: @jptstewart Advertisement joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1841 San Diego Supervisors have announced a plan to build new Live Well Center in southeastern San Diego in an effort to expand social services in the region. The building, which will break ground in spring 2020 and be completed a little over a year later, will host a new family resource center to help eligible people sign up for social services, child welfare services, public and behavioral health programs, probation-related programs and community meeting space. The bottom line about this project is about strengthening families and improving lives, said Nick Macchione, director of the countys Health and Human Services Agency. Details of the proposal, including $74 million in new construction, were unveiled at a news conference on Monday and the county Board of Supervisors will consider the project at its Tuesday meeting. Money will come from the countys general fund. Supervisors usually pay for construction projects with cash-on-hand rather than through bonds. Advertisement It will be the first Live Well Center in southeastern San Diego and could not only help people who live in that and surrounding community, but help create more affordable housing as well, Supervisor Ron Roberts said. It will be a wise investment if my colleagues join me tomorrow in voting to commit county resources to the project, said Roberts, from San Diego. The county will provide some of the social services itself and will also partner with the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation. About 330 county workers, in addition to employees with non-profit partners, will work at the new 80,000 square-foot facility at the intersection of Market Street and Euclid Avenue. The four-story project is expected to create 1,057 temporary construction jobs. Employees from three county offices will be moved into the new facility, freeing their old workplaces to be redeveloped into new homes, Roberts said. The Live Well Centers and their programs there are several around the county are intended to improve peoples overall well-being and financial security while improving their neighborhoods as well, Supervisor Greg Cox said. We realized that individuals werent going to prioritize their health if they were more concerned about the crime in their community and their personal safety and that addressing those needs had to be a part of the overall conversation when were talking about well-being, Cox said. Advertisement Twitter: @jptstewart joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1841 A 28-year-old man was stabbed and his 66-year-old companion was also wounded when they were attacked by a large group of suspected gang members under a Logan Heights bridge, police said today. It happened around 11:30 Monday night at the homeless encampment underneath the Interstate 5 overpass in the 1800 block of Commercial Street, San Diego police Officer John Buttle said. The victims were sitting under the bridge when they were approached by a group of10 men who told them to leave. The victims refused and a fight broke out, Buttle said. During the fight an unknown suspect stabbed the 28-year-old victim. Advertisement After the assailants fled, both the victims were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries sustained during the fight, Buttle said. Detectives from the San Diego Police Department gang unit were sent to investigate the attack. karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com 13 / 16 Soon after President Trump boarded Marine One, a Marine march away from Marine One. President Donald Trump arrived at MCAS Miramar Tuesday morning before departing on Marine One for the short flight to the U.S. Mexico border, where he will tour the prototype border walls. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) . , . , ... Assemblyman Todd Gloria wants the state auditor to examine the city and county response to the recent hepatitis A outbreak. Gloria said learning from mistakes will improve services in the future and could save lives. The request came in response to a weekend report in The San Diego Union-Tribune about a sidewalk power-spraying contract. Assemblyman Todd Gloria, the San Diego Democrat who served two terms on the City Council before being promoted by voters to state office, said he will ask state auditors to examine the local response to the deadly hepatitis A outbreak. Gloria made the announcement in a tweet Monday raising questions about a report this past weekend in The San Diego Union-Tribune about the citys decision to hire out-of-town workers to pressure-wash the sidewalks. This story is concerning, Gloria wrote to his 27,600 followers on Twitter. I will ask state auditors to review the regions hepatitis A response. Protecting the public health demands we understand what worked and what did not. Identifying lessons learned will save lives in the future. Hepatitis A killed 20 people and sickened almost 600 others last year, a health crisis that centered on the citys growing homeless population and spread because of lack of access to basic sanitation. The outbreak was first identified in March 2017, and a public health emergency was not declared until September. Advertisement City and county officials blamed each other for a lackadaisical response to the emergency, but by last fall portable toilets and sinks were set up throughout downtown San Diego and a host of other sites in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. New temporary homeless shelters opened as well. The Union-Tribune reported Sunday that San Diego city officials approved an emergency contract worth up to $1.3 million to pay for pressure-washing sidewalks. The city hired a firm based in Massachusetts and paid the company overtime to shuttle workers to and from Los Angeles. The city also paid $179 per diems as well as daily rates for routine equipment and utility trucks, according to documents obtained under the California Public Records Act. All told, the paper identified at least $99,000 in add-on costs. A number of local pressure-washing companies told the newspaper they would have liked an opportunity to compete for the work, and would not have charged for such extras. A city spokeswoman said San Diego welcomes any review that would come from the state auditor. Advertisement Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald President Donald Trump has come to San Diego to tour the border-wall prototypes that represent his misguided promise to build a big, beautiful wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. History tells us that walls dont work. They dont drive migration patterns and they dont deter people from attempting entry if they seek refuge and opportunity. They only serve to push desperate migrants, many of whom are women and children looking for protection, to go over, under or around, often endangering their lives. In addition, walls do nothing to stop opioids, nearly all of which come through our ports of entry with the help of corrupt border agents. Instead of walls, we need sound policies and responsible decision-making that includes proper data gathering, analysis, and consultation with affected border communities. If Trump paused to look at the data, he would see that unauthorized crossings are at a historic low with Border Patrol agents in this sector apprehending an average of about one person per agent per month. He would also see that the unauthorized crossers are largely refugees fleeing persecution and migrants escaping dire circumstances, which warrants a humanitarian response, not walls. RELATED: Advertisement San Diego DACA recipient says Trumps border wall wont stop immigration San Diegos smart border efforts deserve Trumps attention Trump needs to see cross-border region from local perspective Rep. Hunter: Trumps border wall visit shows hes serious about national security San Diego Mayor Faulconer to Trump: Theres more to our border than a wall Instead of helping, border walls are harming our communities. They are causing flooding, trapping pollution, bisecting private property, cutting wildlife off from water sources, endangering people, and disturbing sacred lands. Whats more, the president asserts the power to waive any and all local, state, and federal laws that would otherwise examine the impact of his so-called beautiful wall on our communities. Because of this, San Diego is one of 30 border cities, counties, and tribal governments that have passed resolutions rejecting the building of more walls. We should remember that the border wall does not stand alone. In the shadow of that wall exists a deportation force in our communities that is ripping families apart at a rate of about one family per hour per day in San Diego County. The heart-wrenching video of the Border Patrol tearing a mother from her children on the streets of National City is not only irresponsible policing, but also not who are are. We are better than this. As San Diegans, we should call Trumps visit what it is a political charade for a wall that is harmful, wasteful and irresponsible. We dont need archaic walls that move us backwards, we need investments in our communities that move us forward. #RevitalizeNotMilitarize Advertisement Guerrero is the executive director of Alliance San Diego and co-chair of the Southern Border Communities Coalition. We welcome President Donald Trump to the San Diego-Tijuana border region. Beyond NAFTA, DACA and sanctuary laws, there is a narrative rarely addressed in national media, let alone the Beltway. It is one that advances the idea of a smart border. We are a $230 billion economy of 5 million residents and 2 million employees. We represent 40 percent of the U.S. and Mexico southern border population and are the busiest land border crossing in our hemisphere, with 120,000 vehicles, 63,000 pedestrians and 7,000 trucks crossing back and forth every day. There are 600 world-class export manufacturing plants in Tijuana; $42 billion worth of goods are traded at Otay Mesa each year. Rather than building higher walls, we promote the coexistence of security and trade by using more sophisticated technologies to detect and interdict unauthorized entries and by reducing wait times at our ports to spur commerce and trade. RELATED: Advertisement San Diego DACA recipient says Trumps border wall wont stop immigration Trump needs to see cross-border region from local perspective Rep. Hunter: Trumps border wall visit shows hes serious about national security San Diego Mayor Faulconer to Trump: Theres more to our border than a wall San Diego should see Trumps visit for what it is a political charade Critical to our success is a smooth flow of upstanding people, authorized vehicles and legitimate cargo. Although our prosperity is significantly tied to border flows, border wait times have not kept pace with our growth. Traffic congestion and delays cost our binational economy an estimated $6 billion annually in gross output and 51,000 jobs. Our hemispheres busiest border crossing is dumb and slow when what is needed is a smart border. We have a management challenge. Historically, the changes we make to improve our crossings are haphazard and the infrequent ones that are well-planned (e.g., San Ysidro Port of Entrys $750 million modernization) can take many years to happen. Better planning and processes, smarter systems and more advanced technologies coupled with more robust private enterprise participation and better collaboration with Mexico are required. Coming from private enterprise, President Trump will appreciate two examples of how private money supports better flows at our border: CBX, the recently built privately owned cross-border pedestrian terminal and bridge that takes air travelers from the U.S to the Tijuana airport and back in 10 minutes over an 400-foot walkway, had nearly 2 million passengers last year. Baja Rail, a Baja California company, recently rehabilitated the Mexican portion of the old Spreckels railway and will soon do the same with the U.S. segment, giving our export manufacturing industry a new alternative for freight movement to the East Coast of the United States. Advertisement If anyone in the current administration knows our regions challenges and capabilities, it is Peter Navarro, a homegrown talent. We welcome working with him and the Trump administration to find better ways to improve our ports and the flow of legitimate travel and commerce while implementing the most effective security measures. There is no one better for a safe yet frictionless border than those who live here. Border residents knowledge and experiences of what actually works should drive national policy on secure and smart borders. Williams and Larroque are co-chairs, San Diego-Tijuana Smart Border Coalition; De La Fuente is executive director. This week San Diego shows solidarity with our immigrant community, shows love to our neighbors to the south and love for American values that include compassion, freedom, equality for all and family values. The purpose of President Donald Trumps visit is to see his prototypes for a wall. He is not here to engage the community and to ask how is it that we may revitalize our border community. Rather, the president is here to create even more fear and division. If he took a good look, he would know the wall is not needed, and if he listened carefully, he would know that we do not want it. Trumps wall will not stop immigration, it will only make it harder, more dangerous and more costly in terms of money and human life. As long as there are factors driving immigration such as economic conditions in the rest of the world, natural disasters and fear of persecution, migrants from all over the world will seek entry to the U.S. Trumps wall is but a symbol of hate and division that results in human tragedy, death and separation of families. It will not stop the smuggling of drugs nor deter human trafficking. Lets make it clear: Trumps wall will serve merely as a physical manifestation of fear and hate of our neighbors to the south. The president continues to attack the image of immigrants by painting us as criminals, in particular those of us that migrated from Mexico. RELATED: San Diegos smart border efforts deserve Trumps attention Advertisement Trump needs to see cross-border region from local perspective Rep. Hunter: Trumps border wall visit shows hes serious about national security San Diego Mayor Faulconer to Trump: Theres more to our border than a wall San Diego should see Trumps visit for what it is a political charade We already see targeted attacks by ICE and Border Patrol in our communities because Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the president are responding to Californias stance as a sanctuary state. As a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, I think his visit is an insult and is hurtful. The president created a crisis by rescinding the DACA program and is using that crisis as an opportunity to negotiate funding for his wall and to push his anti-immigration agenda. The president holds the lives of DACA recipients captive. Unfortunately, there are some activists unfamiliar with the terror created by this administration in our border communities who are so fearful for the future of DACA recipients that they have contemplated providing funding for the expensive wall. I hope that others, if not the president, hear our pleas from the border and understand how devastating it would be to add funding for a wall and more funding for DHS without accountability for human life. As an immigrant, I tend to see the silver lining even in the most difficult situations. Today, that silver lining is that San Diego stands together to resist the threats posed by this administration. Several different press conferences and rallies are scheduled in San Diego County in response to the presidents visit. One rally organized by DACA recipients will be in front of the County Administration Building at 5:30 pm. Tuesday. Each rally seems to have a unifying message: We do not want nor need Trumps wall. Garcia is an immigration attorney and DACA recipient. What will President Trump see when he touches down at Miramar Air base and flies over San Diego to view his wall prototypes in Otay Mesa? Will he see that growth in California the worlds 6th largest economy is fueled in large part by ambitious immigrants who have come here to start new businesses and to work in our agricultural fields, tourist venues and high tech manufacturing facilities? Will he grasp that despite being scarred by the existing border fence, the San Diego-Tijuana region is a cohesive metropolitan area, which has created a globally competitive regional economy by working together to maximize each others strengths? Will he notice that a few miles west of his costly prototypes private investors from both countries have together built a bridge the Cross-Border Xpress over the existing fence to securely bring business travelers and tourists into the U.S. from Tijuanas international airport? Advertisement RELATED: San Diego DACA recipient says Trumps border wall wont stop immigration San Diegos smart border efforts deserve Trumps attention Trump needs to see cross-border region from local perspective Rep. Hunter: Trumps border wall visit shows hes serious about national security San Diego Mayor Faulconer to Trump: Theres more to our border than a wall San Diego should see Trumps visit for what it is a political charade Will he realize he is flying over a shared watershed where issues of water quality, solid waste disposal, and storm water run-off cannot be solved by actions from one side of the artificial political division, but only through collaborative policies and investment? Advertisement Will he recognize that wildfires must be fought jointly, that earthquake preparedness requires involvement from stakeholders on both sides of the border, and that public health challenges will never be confined to one side of the border? Will he comprehend that fighting drug traffickers and cartel violence is a shared responsibility requiring coordinated law enforcement operations and intelligence sharing not finger pointing and insults? Will he appreciate that our world-renowned universities thrive because of our states diverse population and have spawned an unmatched culture of innovative research and development? Most importantly, will he see the tens of thousands of DACA recipients and other similarly situated young people working in our community, studying in our schools, and contributing to our military readiness? Will he understand the anxiety they and their families suffer as they await action by a distant Congress to remedy his ill thought out decision to abruptly end DACA? Will he recognize that our future economic strength depends on their continued contributions to our state and our nation? Advertisement Border residents look across the fence and see business partners and customers, friends and family members, and shared resources and challenges. Over 100,000 of us travel back and forth each day for school, work, shopping, and to visit the amazing restaurants and cultural venues on both sides of the border. Our connectedness is what makes us strong. Mr. President, please take a moment to see the border region through our eyes. Imagine what we could build together if we invest in bridges not walls. Moreno Ducheny is senior policy advisor at UC San Diegos Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies. She served in the California State Senate from 2002 to 2010 and the State Assembly from 1994 to 2000. President Donald Trump visiting San Diego and seeing firsthand the wall prototypes is vital towards building a border wall. For any effective chief executive, it is important to view for yourself what is working, which helps prioritize the problems you are trying to solve. Just as important, the presidents visit sends a critical message: Trump is serious about securing the U.S. border once and for all. Americas Southwest border with Mexico is roughly 2,000 miles long, divided into nine different sectors for which the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is responsible. Illegal immigration activity exploded during the first decade after President Reagans 1986 amnesty, making the entire border region a magnet for drug smuggling and human trafficking. Vast portions of these areas are no-man lands, varying from rocky-mountainous regions to vast desert landscapes where travel is dangerous. RELATED: San Diego DACA recipient says Trumps border wall wont stop immigration Advertisement San Diegos smart border efforts deserve Trumps attention Trump needs to see cross-border region from local perspective San Diego Mayor Faulconer to Trump: Theres more to our border than a wall San Diego should see Trumps visit for what it is a political charade In an effort to address this problem locally, former Rep. Duncan Hunter, my father, passed legislation authorizing and funding the construction of a 14-mile pilot fence project. Once completed, the San Diego border fence resulted in apprehensions in this sector falling 95 percent, from 100,000 to 5,000 persons per year. Other regions began to duplicate these efforts, achieving similar results. Apprehensions are down, not because building barriers are ineffective but exactly the opposite, because they work. I viewed the prototypes during a visit to the border a few weeks ago. There are eight total, ranging from cylindrical steel to thick slabs of concrete and, in some cases, a hybrid of both. The prototypes utilize different designs and styles and each will serve as an effective deterrent. When faced with this fencing, unauthorized immigrants naturally move toward areas that are easier to penetrate. It is for this reason Border Patrol has witnessed a larger flow of illegal activity ballooning toward areas outside of the fencing in the mountains, the desert and even into the ocean. The lesson is simple. In order to duplicate the success of the areas where fencing exists, we must construct more fencing. Trumps visit also sends an important message to several groups. To criminals, the president is signaling that we now have a chief executive who demonstrates border and national security as a top priority for his administration not just through words but with action as well. To our Border Patrol agents, the presidents visit demonstrates that they now have someone in the White House who has their back and is fully committed to providing them with the critical resources necessary to perform their jobs effectively. Advertisement To American citizens, Trump is fulfilling an important promise that he is serious about taking on this issue and solving it for the last time. There are many issues associated with the larger problem of reforming our broken immigration policy whether it be streamlining work visas, installing E-verify for employers, ending chain migration and a useless lottery system, all actions that I support. None, however, will make a difference if you do not start with securing the border. The president understands this and his visit affirms that gone are the days of giving speeches while casting a blind eye toward the plight of those forced to endure the criminal element that comes along with a porous border. The number one responsibility of the commander-in-chief is national security. Border security is national security. Hunter, R-Alpine, represents Californias 50th Congressional District When President Donald Trump lands in San Diego for his first trip to California since taking office, he will find a city with a tremendous story to tell on international trade, border infrastructure and public safety. The president is only expected to be here for a few hours. If he stayed longer, he would see that in San Diego a strong local economy and free trade arent a contradiction but a way of life. He would see firsthand how a major American city benefits from having not just a modern border crossing but also a working relationship with Mexico. San Diego is living proof that a healthy economy, low unemployment rate and strong international ties are not mutually exclusive. He would hear that San Diegos international ports of entry including the largest land border crossing in the world are an economic engine that thousands of businesses and residents rely on. From life sciences to manufacturing, San Diegos economy depends on federal policies that encourage the cross-border exchange of goods and ideas. Advertisement RELATED: San Diego DACA recipient says Trumps border wall wont stop immigration San Diegos smart border efforts deserve Trumps attention Trump needs to see cross-border region from local perspective Rep. Hunter: Trumps border wall visit shows hes serious about national security San Diego should see Trumps visit for what it is a political charade He would find that San Diegos longstanding approach to community policing has kept us one of the safest big cities in America. While the federal and state governments battle in court over immigration laws, San Diego is continuing with its balanced approach that has worked for years under both Democratic and Republican administrations. SDPD works to protect everyone regardless of their immigration status because trust between the community and law enforcement is key to stopping crime and keeping neighborhoods safe. If someone commits a crime, they will be held accountable whether or not they are a citizen. The president would see that building bridges has worked wonders for the San Diego-Tijuana megaregion. The Cross Border Xpress and improvements to the San Ysidro Port of Entry are making the flow of goods and services faster, easier and more efficient than ever. Advertisement There has never been a more important time for San Diego and Tijuana to champion international trade. The national debate over NAFTA will have profound effects for both cities. A good deal is when both sides benefit and, by that score, NAFTA has been a great deal, producing billions in economic impact as well as good-paying jobs and economic prosperity for Americans and Mexicans alike. That doesnt mean that we dont have legitimate areas where we must improve relations with Mexico. For example, we have serious work to do addressing the ongoing Tijuana River Valley sewage and waste spills affecting the San Diego regions environment and quality of life. But we can only make progress if we maintain an open dialogue focused on results. Too much of the national conversation about trade and the border comes from people who have not had the opportunity to step foot in border cities like San Diego. President Trumps visit to San Diego is brief, but the policies hes pursuing will have a huge impact on our region. I will continue to encourage his administration to look to San Diego as the premier example of how binational collaboration can result in fair trade and smart border investments that support American jobs and families. Advertisement Faulconer is mayor of San Diego. President Donald Trumps extraordinary decision Monday to block Singapore-based Broadcom from pursuing a hostile takeover of San Diego-based Qualcomm because he sees the deal as a threat to U.S. national security will be cheered by the Qualcomm executives who opposed the bid and welcomed by the 13,000 local Qualcomm workers whose jobs may have been in jeopardy with a new owner. Yet while Qualcomms health is vital for San Diegos image and economy, big questions remain. The president based his decision on credible evidence without an immediate explanation. Its defensible if his decision was based on a reasonable suspicion Qualcomms trailblazing research into 5G wireless technology might be transferred to Chinese tech companies that Broadcom has relationships with. Its also defensible if it was based on concerns that Broadcom was not fully cooperating with an investigation into the deal by federal regulators, as a U.S. Treasury Department letter suggests. But if the decision was prompted by Trumps deep skepticism about international trade and Fortress America instincts, that is less defensible and could haunt U.S. companies in their international dealings. As the State Department website notes, the United States and Singapore have long enjoyed an expansive and enduring relationship based on mutual economic interests, robust security and defense cooperation. When the president comes to San Diego on Tuesday, an explanation of his decision is needed not just by residents but by nations that see themselves as U.S. allies. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Advertisement Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Re Trump orders tariffs on steel and aluminum, despite warnings of unintended consequences (March 8): I believe in free trade, and nobody wants a trade war. But international trade has been anything but free. That war has been raging for decades and weve been losing. Is refusing to engage in the current unequal trade relations so crazy? If tariffs on unfair steel and aluminum competitors are a bad idea, how do we ensure U.S. manufacturers face exactly the same obstacles to entry into foreigners markets as they face entering ours? Rolla Rich Spring Valley Advertisement Why does no one talk about the elephant in the room with the new tariffs? The increase of coal production that is needed to make steel means more pollution, black lung (which we already see) and global warming all great problems. Michael Peariso Allied Gardens -- -- Related: Russia probe: Trump cleared of collusion by Republicans Trumps tariffs forge rare common ground in Pennsylvania steel country before special election Advertisement Trump fires White House assistant John McEntee, who promptly rejoins Trumps campaign -- -- The new steel tariffs is a good idea, except I dont see how the US can compete with China when the workers there probable get a few dollars a day when union steel workers in the US get from $30.00 to $60.00 an hour. Shipping costs is a big factor, but it has proven to be worth it in the past. So what is going to change, will the unions back down a little or will us consumers pay the difference? Advertisement Tom Fox San Diego Letters and commentary policy The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below. Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook. Dont use students as pawns in gun debate Re National School Walkout a chance to send Congress a message on gun laws (March 12): Reasonable people know that the rash of mass shootings is as much about culture, mental health, and governmental ineptitude as it is guns. Yet, the public schools we all pay for are pushing the use of our children as political pawns in anti-gun protests. School is supposed to be about education, not indoctrination, and our public schools ought not endorse such activities. If they insist, its their obligation to facilitate unbiased, comprehensive discussions about the causes of these tragedies, and as far as I can tell that hasnt happened. Many would be troubled if public schools endorsed and used our kids as pawns in pro-gun rallies, and rightly so. It is the responsibility of public schools to teach our children be open-minded critical-thinkers, not ideologs. If they cant do that, and evidence is they cant, they should remove themselves from social issues and stick to the three Rs plus tech. Advertisement James Isaacson San Carlos Nation needs to support kids on gun reform Karla Peterson is so right (Why the school walkout can be the lesson of a lifetime, March 13) writing The #NeverAgain young-people awakening did not come out of nowhere. It came after four mass shootings in less than two years, and it reflects a growing outrage that has turned yet another overlooked, chronically underestimated population into a force for change. She has articulated the problem and highlighted hope for a real solution in 40 words or less. The kids are on a roll, and we can get behind them or be flattened by them. Intelligent action will change the course of history in a positive way. Burying our heads in the sand is a losing proposition. Karen Binder San Diego Advertisement Related: National School Walkout: What it means to San Diego County schools and students Letters and commentary policy The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below. Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook. A day ahead of President Donald Trumps first trip to California since taking office, state leaders werent exactly rolling out the welcome mat for him. Trumps visit with a first stop in San Diego, where he is set to inspect the border wall prototypes, and a second in Los Angeles for a fundraiser is happening one week after his attorney general filed a lawsuit against three California laws that limit the states cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Among the first to formally acknowledge Trumps visit was Gov. Jerry Brown, who posted a letter to the president on Twitter, calling California a thriving state that welcomes immigrants. [O]ur prosperity is not built on isolation. Quite the opposite. California thrives because we welcome immigrants and innovators from across the globe, wrote Brown. The governor also invited the president to come aboard the states world-class train system under construction in reference to the $77.3 billion high-speed rail project. California Democrats also sent a message to the president on Monday using social media. The states Democratic Party created a video titled Welcome to California, and Democratic San Diego Assemblyman Todd Gloria shared the video on Twitter, noting that California is working and we are leading. Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, slammed Trumps wall, calling it a waste of tax dollars. That Trump has a lot of critics in California is hardly a surprise. So what about his supporters? Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, R-Huntington Beach, was one of the few Republicans who went on television on Monday to discuss the number of Trump supporters in California. Theres a lot of people who are going to be cheering their president for coming here and not only making America great again but trying to make California great again, Rohrbachersaid. Trump supporter and congressional candidate Antonio Sabato Jr. joined Rohrabacher in welcoming Trump to California. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, who was on Trumps transition team, has not said anything public about Trumps visit yet. Neither Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, or Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, had said anything public about it as well. Republican state Assemblyman Rocky Chavez told The Wall Street Journal that Trumps visit was just not my thing. A spokesperson for San Diego County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar said she did not have any plans for Trumps visit. Jim Brulte, the chairman of the California Republican Party, also told The Journal that the GOP wasnt planning any official activities around Trumps visit to California. Whether and which Republican leaders join Trump during his visit remains to be seen. Whats certain is that supporters and protesters will be hosting a number of rallies from as far south as Tijuana to as far north as Los Angeles. One protest group plans to erect a large sign to make it visible for Trump to see; another will be protesting closer to the border in Otay Mesa. In San Diego and Los Angeles, security is expected to be tight. The San Diego Sheriffs Department last week announced a temporary restriction area in Otay Mesa where the border wall prototypes stand. Los Angeles police are also anticipating a large number of people protesting or in support of Trump. We are prepared for anything, Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Horace Frank told the Los Angeles Times. In Beverly Hills where Trump is attending a fundraiser, police there warned people of major traffic jams. Get off work early, get home early, stay out of his way, Beverly Hills Police Department Sgt. Don Chase told Southern California Public Radio. Trump is expected in San Diego by 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, flying into Marines Corps Air Station Miramar en route to take a closer look at the border wall prototypes in Otay Mesa. He is also expected to visit Los Angeles later for a fundraiser. To follow updates on Trumps visit to San Diego, visit our website sandiegouniontribune.com for live updates. 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. San Diego is home to two Fortune 500 companies, which compose some of the biggest, most well known and most profitable businesses in America. Energy company Sempra, the parent of utility San Diego Gas & Electric is 280th on the list while chip maker Qualcomm is 119th. On Monday, President Donald Trump blocked Broadcom bid to take over the giant 33-year-old San Diego company. The acquisition would have left the eighth-largest city in the country with a single Fortune 500 company. Heres how San Diego stacks up now to other major cities in the U.S. Heres a look at Fortune 500 companies based in the 20 largest cities ranked by population. (Sources: Fortune.com; 2016 U.S. Census Bureau) Advertisement 1. New York City Population: 8.5 million Fortune 500 companies: 45 Top Fortune 500 companies in New York City: Verizon Communications, 14 (cell phone company); J.P. Morgan Chase, 21 (financial institution); Citigroup, 30 (financial institution); MetLife, 42 (insurance company); Pfizer, 54 (pharmaceutical company). 2. Los Angeles Population: 3.9 million Fortune 500 companies: 3 Top Fortune 500 companies in Los Angeles: AECOM, 161 (engineering and construction company); CBRE Group, 214 (real estate company); Reliance Steel & Aluminum, 320 (metal company). 3. Chicago Population: 2.7 million Fortune 500 companies: 9 Top Fortune 500 companies in Chicago: Boeing, 24 (aircraft manufacturer); Archer Daniels Midland, 45 (food company); United Continental Holdings, 83 (airline transportation company); Exelon, 89 (energy company); Conagra Brands, 197 (food company). 4. Houston Population: 2.3 million Fortune 500 companies: 5 Top Fortune 500 companies in Houston: Sysco, 57 (food distributor); Waste Management, 201 (waste management company); Group 1 Automotive, 261 (automotive retailer); CenterPoint Energy, 362 (energy company); Calpine, 400 (energy company). 5. Phoenix Population: 1.6 million Fortune 500 companies: 3 Top Fortune 500 companies in Phoenix: Avnet, 108 (electronics seller); Freeport-McMoRan, 175 (mining company); Republic Services, 299 (waste management company). 6. Philadelphia Population: 1.5 million Fortune 500 companies: 3 Top Fortune 500 companies in Philadelphia: Comcast, 31 (telecommunication company); Aramark, 192 (outsourcing service company); Crown Holdings, 333 (packaging company). 7. San Antonio Population: 1.4 million Fortune 500 companies: 5 Top Fortune 500 companies in San Antonio: Valero Energy, 37 (petroleum refining company); USAA, 102 (financial service company); Andeavor (formerly Tesoro), 117 (petroleum refining company); CST Brands, 306 (retailer); iHeartMedia, 426 (media company). 8. San Diego Population: 1.4 million Fortune 500 companies: 2 Top Fortune 500 companies in San Diego: Qualcomm, 119 (technology company); Sempra Energy, 280 (energy company). Advertisement 9. Dallas Population: 1.3 million Fortune 500 companies: 10 Top Fortune 500 companies in Dallas: AT&T, 9 (telecommunications company); Energy Transfer Equity, 79 (energy company); Tenet Healthcare, 134 (health care provider); Southwest Airlines, 138 (airline company); Texas Instruments, 206 (electronics company). 10. San Jose Population: 1 million Fortune 500 companies: 5 Top Fortune 500 companies in San Jose: Cisco Systems, 60 (communication technology company); PayPal Holdings, 264 (financial data company); eBay, 310 (e-commerce company); Sanmina, 414 (electronics and technology company); Adobe Systems, 443 (computer software company). 11. Austin Population: 947,890 Fortune 500 companies: 1 Top Fortune 500 companies in Austin: Whole Foods Market, 176 (food retailer). 12. Indianapolis Population: 855,164 Fortune 500 companies: 3 Top Fortune 500 companies in Indianapolis: Anthem, 29 (health care company); Eli Lilly, 132 (pharmaceutical company); Simon Property Group, 477 (real estate company). Advertisement 13. Jacksonville, Florida Population: 880,619 Fortune 500 companies: 3 Top Fortune 500 companies in Jacksonville: CSX, 257 (railroad company); Fidelity National Financial, 293 (financial institution); Fidelity National Information Services, 301 (financial data company). 14. San Francisco Population: 870,887 Fortune 500 companies: 6 Top Fortune 500 companies in San Francisco: McKesson, 5 (pharmaceutical distributor); Wells Fargo, 25 (financial institution); PG&E Corp., 157 (energy company); Gap, 178 (apparel company); salesforce.com, 326 (computer software company). 15. Columbus, Ohio Population: 860,090 Fortune 500 companies: 5 Top Fortune 500 companies in Columbus: Nationwide, 68 (insurance company); Cummins, 159 (industrial machinery company); American Electric Power, 167 (energy company); L Brands, 220 (retail company). 16. Fort Worth Population: 854,113 Fortune 500 companies: 1 Top Fortune 500 companies in Fort Worth: American Airlines Group, 67 (airline company). Advertisement 17. Charlotte Population: 842,051 Fortune 500 companies: 5 Top Fortune 500 companies in Charlotte: Bank of America Corp., 26 (financial institution); Duke Energy, 121 (energy company); Nucor, 169 (metal company); Sonic Automotive, 287 (automotive retailer); Sealed Air, 397 (packaging company). 18. El Paso Population: 683,080 Fortune 500 companies: 1 Top Fortune 500 companies in El Paso: Western Refining, 349 (petroleum refining company). 19. Detroit Population: 672,795 Fortune 500 companies: 3 Top Fortune 500 companies in Detroit: General Motors, 8 (automotive manufacturer); DTE Energy, 272 (energy company); Ally Financial, 286 (financial services company). 20. Memphis Population: 652,717 Fortune 500 companies: 3 Top Fortune 500 companies in Memphis: FedEx, 58 (delivery service company); International Paper, 133 (packaging company); AutoZone, 270 (automotive parts retailer). Advertisement Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @RunGomez Read The Conversation on Flipboard. ALSO Advertisement Meet CFIUS, the group that could stop Broadcom from buying Qualcomm What exactly does Qualcomm do? Heres what you should know about the San Diego company. If youre headed for Boston or New York on Tuesday out of Southern California airport, you should check your flight status. The FAA says that a blizzard has grounded most flights at Bostons Logan Airport, and bad weather is causing significant delays at New Yorks major airports. Click here to check the status of your flight 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. Weekly Newsletter The best of The Saturday Evening Post in your inbox! Join What does it take to create a museum from scratch, particularly when it hasnt been done before? As the colonies of the New World united to prepare for war against England, Charles Willson Peale established Americas first successful public museum in Philadelphia, in addition to being an artist, soldier, and naturalist. Peale was both a self-promoter and a deeply curious person, so he was always eager to see what he could learn from others, says Merrill Mason, director at American Philosophical Society (APS), which exhibited Curious Revolutionaries: The Peales of Philadelphia at the APS Museum in Philadelphia last year. Peale became a saddle makers apprentice early on in life, but he realized fairly quickly he needed to make more money and gain greater public recognition. While a saddle makers apprentice, he also did other odd jobs including sign painting, Mason says. He was skilled at this, and likely thought if he took some lessons, he could make more money doing portraits. Acting on this hunch, he traded a saddle for a few painting lessons. Subscribe and get unlimited access to our online magazine archive. Subscribe Today Eventually, Peale acquired a small following among prominent Marylanders, who funded Peales trip to London in 1767. It was on this trip that he met Benjamin Franklin. When in London, Peale called upon Benjamin Franklin without an introduction, Mason says. Peales sketchbook includes a light pencil drawing of Franklin with a young lady in his lap, a scene that he claimed to have observed while waiting to meet with Franklin. After returning to the American colonies in 1769, Peale created a studio in Annapolis, MD. He then began traveling around the eastern shore of Maryland and to Baltimore and Virginia, where he gained a following for his portraits. His involvement in revolutionary politics progressed after moving his family to Philadelphia. He enlisted in the continental army when the Revolutionary War broke out, fighting in the battles of Trenton and Princeton with his brother James, Mason says. Well-liked among officers, Peale rose to the captain rank in the Pennsylvania militia. Mason says, Peales involvement with politics and the revolution put him in contact with many of the leaders of the revolution, and his portraits of them would be the thing to gain him recognition as a key artistic and political figure. Near the wars official end, in 1782 just a year or so before both sides signed the Treaty of Paris he opened a portrait gallery in his home studio. He displayed his portraits of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton. Its here where he opened the first public museum called the Philadelphia Museum in 1786. We say the Philadelphia Museum was the nations first successful public museum, she says. The Charleston Museum predates the Philadelphia Museum (opened in 1773), but did not open to the public until 1824. The Swiss artist Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere opened a public natural history museum in Philadelphia in 1782, but the collection was sold soon after his death in 1784, so it did not make the same impact as the Philadelphia Museum. Nearly 10 years later, in 1794, the Philadelphia Museum moved to The American Philosophical Society, a scholarly organization founded by Benjamin Franklin and others. Peales museum was much more than a portrait gallery. As a follower of The Enlightenment, he believed there was much to be learned from the natural world. In 1801, on a trip funded by APS, he excavated two mastodons in upstate New York (he memorialized the scene some years later in a painting called The Exhumation of the Mastodon). Mason calls it his most famous contribution to science and the fledgling field of paleontology. Peale, his son Rembrandt, and Moses Williams, a Peale family slave at the time, reconstructed the fossilized mastodon. On Christmas Eve in 1801, the Peale family unveiled the completed project in APS Philosophical Hall. Charles Willson had established not only Americas first successful public museum, but its first natural history museum, Mason says. More than accumulated oddities, Peales collections were ordered, classified and labeled according to scientific principles. His Wonderful Works of Nature were classed and arranged by species, according to Linnaean principles of taxonomic order, for greater ease to the Curious. The following year, both Philosophical Hall and the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) housed the museums galleries. Silhouettes were a popular souvenir at the Philadelphia Museum, Mason says. They used a physiognotrace a device that traces the sitters profile and shrinks it down to miniature size. The tracing is then cut out of white paper and the outline attached to a black background. Williams became known for his silhouettes after the Peale family trained him on the instruments. The museum eventually transitioned to the State House entirely by 1810. Over the next few decades, the museum continued to exhibit natural history collections many of which were either bought by the Peale family or donated to the museum. The first donation a preserved paddlefish came from APS President Robert Patterson, who served on the Philadelphia Museums board of visitors, Mason says. Bird specimens were brought back from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which was partially funded by the APS. A jack of all trades, Peale had a fascination with technological advancement. Throughout his life, he tinkered with this and that; his family shared his enthusiasm. For instance, they patented efficient stoves, improved bicycle prototypes and even tested false teeth. At the museum, they introduced ceiling fans and gas lamps, she says. In their artistic and scientific pursuits, they used the camera lucida, experimented with pigments, and advanced the use of photography. Above all, the Peales embraced the Enlightenment ideal to expand mans universal knowledge while improving life on earth. The museum remained at the State House until 1827, the year of Peales death. Afterward, his sons moved the museum to another location nearby. Despite their best efforts, Peales children were unable to sustain the museum. Peales Museum and all of its collections were sold at auction between 1848 and 1854, Mason says. Many of the paintings were purchased by the city of Philadelphia, and today can be seen in the Second Bank building as part of Independence National Historic Park. The bulk of the natural and cultural collections were lost to catastrophic fires after they were sold to P.T. Barnum. The surviving natural collections are some of the earliest in the United States. Museums at Harvard, Philadelphias Academy of Natural Sciences, and APS have preserved a few of the remnants (some of which are reference specimens). Peales Museum was a novel idea that stuck, Mason says. As a repository of significant artworks, natural objects, and cultural artifacts aimed at amusing and educating the broad public, the Philadelphia Museum set the precedent for modern museums. Peales innovations such as tiered ticketing, yearly membership, advisory boards, and targeted programming are all recognizable in todays museums. The legacy of Peales democratic museum lives on, embedded in the museums we visit today. Petra CollinsMonday, Tyler, the Creator announced that he's canceling the South American leg of his international tour, but the reason given left many fans puzzled. He tweets, "hello, im not coming to south america as planned anymore, sucks, i will be there at some point tho, sorry, i know yall was really really looking forward to it, but uhhh...yeah sometimes a duck isnt a jean jacket...ill be out there one day, holla." Tyler attempted to clarify that message on Tuesday with another baffling tweet. He writes, "im really sorry im not coming to SA, like i said, im gonna come just not this week. but you should still go to the fest, check out someone you never heard, you never know what you'll find or who you'll meet. sometimes you gotta close the door to open the window... ." The "See You Again" artist was set to appear in Brazil, Chile and Argentina this week as part of Lollapalooza's South American festivals. According to his official website, Tyler, the Creator is still scheduled to continue his tour in April, stopping in several North American cities before heading to Europe. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Craig Upshall has been appointed to the role of sales director UK and Europe, while Edith Beaudoin has been appointed to the role of sales director North America with each responsible for growing the Aurora Expeditions' brand in their regions via existing and new sales channels, as well as innovative partner development strategies. The appointments signal the organisations ongoing commitment to the industry, as well as the need to service the increase in global demand for Auroras expedition product, the compnay said. It's new 104mtr ice class 1A expedition ship Greg Mortimer is due to enter service in 2019. Both will assume responsibility for maximising sales potential for its inaugural 2019/2020 polar season in their respective markets. Robert Halfpenny, md of Aurora Expeditions, said of the expansion: 'For more than 25 years weve been driven by a pioneering spirit, and weve always chosen the best people to help us do it. We warmly welcome Craig and Edith to our team and look forward to setting a new standard for expedition cruising globally while continuing to provide the authentic, small group adventures that we are known for.' Both commence their roles with the company in April 2018. Upshall joins the team with over twenty years of global experience in the travel and tourism industry. For the past seven years he was employed with Rocky Mountaineer as business manager for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa. Previously he worked with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and also held senior roles with Island Cruises and American Airlines. Beaudoin joins the team with ten years of international travel trade experience holding an array of sales roles in North America. Most recently, she spent the past year in Nicaragua assisting a not-for-profit organisation build tourism to Nicaragua and the surrounding area of Central America. The former SVP international sales, marketing and operations at Norwegian Cruise Line, signed on with the global travel technology specialist as SVP sales, based at the companys US headquarters in Miami. Riley is joined by three new US-based sales executives with cruise and leisure experience who will support Travelteks business development drive in North and South America, with more appointment announcements imminent. Under Rileys guidance, the companys Americas team will promote Travelteks dynamic travel and cruise packaging technology. This web-based technology enables agencies and tour operators to package and sell complex itineraries that include flights, hotels, tours, transfers, car rental, cruises, attractions tickets and more. 'Traveltek is well placed to capitalise on growing demand for technology solutions in the North and South American travel markets with its vast portfolio of advanced tools allowing agents, tour operators and cruise specialists to customise holiday packages according to their customers unique requirements,' Riley said. Besides his long association with NCL, Riley held senior positions across several continents with Thomas Cook, British Airways and Tourico Holidays. Before Traveltek, he was responsible for sales, operations, passenger services and marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa at NCL, as well as overseeing the companys UK headquarters in Southampton, its European offices in Wiesbaden and Malta and its international consumer marketing operation in Miami, covering Latin America, Asia and Australia. The three new business development managers joining Rileys team are Ivonne Turcios and Yenedi Perez, both to be based at Travelteks Miami office, and Clarice Bongolan, who will be responsible for driving US West Coast sales from the companys Los Angeles office. Bongolan is a former luxury travel adviser at Kontiki Tours in Los Angeles, Perez most recently worked for Cruise & Tours Center and Doral Travel and, before that, NCL in Miami, and Turcios was a new business development manager at Amadeus in Miami. Traveltek is growing its global footprint with other new regional offices recently established in the Middle East (Dubai) and Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore). Hans Lagerweij, former portfolio managing director, Adventure Travel Division for TUI Group and president and CEO of Quark Expeditions, is responsible for the day-to-day operation, while Victory founding president and CEO Bruce Nierenberg moved up to chairman and is focusing on company growth and product development. Examples are the recently announced all-inclusive cruise-land Yucatan program and Victory's strong growth plans in the Great Lakes and Cuba. Miami-based concessionaire Cruise Management International handles deck and engine/marine operations, and CMI Leisure manages hotel operations, so the main job of the president is to create the revenue necessary to run the company, Nierenberg said. Lagerweij, he added, brings 'lots of small ship/expedition ship experience and is a high-energy type. He has a solid sales and marketing background in travel and consumer products, which makes him a good fit for Victory.' For his part, Lagerweij saw Victory as an opportunity to join an 'excellent start-up in cruising,' adding: 'I like to develop companies, especially from a marketing and sales angle. With Victory Cruise Lines also being in private hands, this means I spend all of my time building, meeting with clients and working with the team, instead of spending long days with PowerPoints in corporate boardrooms.' What sealed the deal was seeing Victory's enthusiastic customer reviews. 'Great customer satisfaction and a unique niche in the Great Lakes that we can lead should give an excellent base to further build the company,' he said. Lagerweij's first priority is to expand distribution, starting with raising awareness of Victory within the travel agent channel. His main focus is North America, but he'll be following up some international interest as well. Among his goals is having Victory join at least one consortium in the next year. Part of raising Victory's profile with agents involves the active use of social media. One example is a recently launched Facebook (closed) group, Victory Cruise Lines Visionaries, for travel advisers. 'Just two weeks after launching, and without any promotion, we already have 53 members,' Lagerweij said. Another priority is to support the launch of Victory II, whose first cruise is July 27, from Montreal to Detroit, and the Yucatan product. According to Lagerweij, those who know the line are familiar with its Great Lakes program, so he needs to get the word out about Victory's one-of-a-kind Mexico itinerary and Cuba distinctions like two days and an overnight in every port. Victory's inaugural Cuba cruise, and its only one this season, is scheduled to depart Miami on April 20. Nierenberg called this an exciting time for Victory as the company is in the midst of doubling capacity on the Great Lakes within a very short period of time. 'We are committed to taking advantage of the unprecedented demand for our type of cruising and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence in particular,' he said. 'We are indeed fortunate to have Hans and his extensive experience and success to help lead Victory to growth and continued success.' There are very few technological obstacles to autonomous vessels, but commercial issues are still preventing investments. In addition there are also various legal challenges. Shipping is an extremely international business with vessels trading to various countries and continents. Uniformity of regulatory approach is typically achieved through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) where some of the main conventions practically cover the world's combined merchant fleet. The problem with such a comprehensive system is that it moves very slowly. With the process of regulating autonomous vessels just barely having started within the IMO, the outcome is years away. One of the legal issues facing autonomous vessels is the safe manning requirements applicable to merchant vessels. Several conventions (and charterparties) require that vessels shall be properly manned, something which is a challenge for an autonomous vessel designed to operate safely without any crew onboard. The parties are free to amend any contractual wording according to the technical reality, but the convention rules on manning are implemented and mandatorily imposed by the flag states. It could be argued that a vessel from a safety point of view is sufficiently manned with zero crew when designed for this purpose. However, all maritime conventions have been drafted on the basic assumption that vessels have crew onboard and it seems unlikely that flag states will push the boundaries here. Seaworthiness remains a crucial requirement in shipping found in a great number of contracts and legislation. In English case law it has been defined as that degree of fitness which an ordinary careful and prudent owner would require his vessel to have. It seems likely that technical developments will be factored into such a flexible standard, meaning that an autonomous vessel that complies with applicable rules would be considered seaworthy. Rules on navigation are on the other hand closely linked to the crew, for instance by imposing certain duties on the Master of a vessel. If there is no Master it is unclear how such duties can be discharged. It is unlikely that a duty simply will fall away under such circumstances and a more likely approach by flag states is that amendments will be required to place the duty on a different entity such as the owner, a designated person ashore or the vessel itself. We must assume that for many years to come unmanned autonomous vessels will be navigating alongside manned vessels. Collision avoidance regulations (COLREGS) must therefore apply equally to both kinds of vessels as the crew onboard a manned vessel must be able to predict what other vessels will do regardless of manning. From a technical point of view it is probably feasible to create algorithms that comply with COLREGS. A challenge, however, is that the COLREGS often also contain a human element, such as Rule 2(a) which has an overriding obligation to act as is required by the ordinary practice of seamen. This typically refers to what a reasonably competent mariner should do in a given situation It is in this regard noteworthy that many of the COLREGS rules refer to what the vessel, not the seafarer, should do in a given situation. Indeed, the 1910 Collision Convention Article 3 refers to the errors of the ship, not the crew. Although for instance good seamanship is a concept based on human decision making and actions, there is conceptually nothing preventing an unmanned vessel from complying with such requirements through its manoeuvring. Such an objective approach is in line with the spirit of COLREGS and may be the way forward for any necessary amendments. Another challenge is the great variety of maritime liability regimes. Some impose liability on the owner (or bareboat charterer) through actions of the crew, such as COLREGS, some impose strict liability on the registered owner (e.g. various pollution conventions), whereas others hold the ship liable in its own right (e.g. maritime liens). Liability regimes directed at either the vessel or the registered owner are likely to apply equally to manned and unmanned vessels. However, an autonomous vessel will create complications to any liability regime based on crew negligence. Can for instance a bareboat charterer be held liable for a collision of an autonomous vessel? Moreover, the introduction of new software and hardware enabling autonomous navigation of vessels is bound to cause new legal issues. Will for instance software suppliers risk becoming liable for navigation under COLREGS based on algorithms developed by them? The answers to these questions are far from clear, and much work remains before international solutions are in place given the slow pace of the IMO. By contrast, national legislators can move much faster as international conventions allow for national exemptions. In the Yara Birkeland project the Norwegian Maritime Authorities have publicly stated that they want Norway to be the first maritime nation deploying an autonomous vessel. Other nations are likely to follow suit, paving the way for local deployment of autonomous vessels before they make their way into international waters. As the commercial case for autonomous vessels is also strongest for coastal and inland waters vessels, disruption is likely to start locally and expand from there. The contracts awarded to its Jasa Merin unit, are for the provision of two Straight Supply Vessels with accommodation (SSV) to support ExxonMobils operations. The contracts, commencing in early and end March 2018 respectively, are for a primary duration of four months with an optional six-month extension. Press Release March 13, 2018 De Lima proposes stiff penalties vs crimes involving cryptocurrency Recognizing the risks involved in using virtual currencies, Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has filed a measure seeking to impose stiffer penalties for crimes involving cryptocurrencies, notably bitcoins. In filing Senate Bill (SB) No. 1694, De Lima said the criminal justice system must be prepared in case virtual currency like bitcoins--which is increasingly becoming popular--is used in unlawful activities. "With the emerging threats of its use in the commission of crimes, our penal laws must adapt with the changing times and our criminal justice system must come prepared in the event that this is used in illegal activities," she said. "Due to its anonymous or pseudonymous character, law enforcement agencies may encounter difficulty in tracing the user or owner of a virtual currency used in the commission of crimes, thereby necessitating a higher penalty for its use," she added. Virtual currency, defined by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as, "any type of digital unit that is used as a medium of exchange or a form of digitally stored value created by agreement within the community of virtual currency users." Based on a research conducted by Cambridge University, there are between 2.9 million and 5.8 million persons who are actively using virtual currency wallets. De Lima noted that illegal activities involving virtual currency include "estafa where unscrupulous individuals entice unsuspecting people to purchase fake bitcoins, sending a virtual currency as payment for child pornography, or a public officer agreeing to perform an act in consideration of payment in bitcoins (direct bribery)." "Since virtual currency resemble money, the possibilities are endless," she said, mindful that the risks involving the use of virtual currency may include money laundering and terrorist financing, among others. Under SB No. 1694, all crimes defined in the Republic Act No. 3815 or the Revised Penal Code (RPC), when committed through and with the use of virtual currency, will have a penalty that is one degree higher than what is provided for by the RPC. De Lima's measure also proposed that the gravity of the crime will be based on the value of the virtual currency in Philippine peso, as determined by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), at the time of the commission of the crime. In addition to the penalty imposed for the crime committed, the Senator from Bicol proposed that the government will have to confiscate the cryptocurrency used in the misconduct, unless it is a property of another person not liable for the unlawful act. At present, the legal status of virtual currencies varies from country to country, she added. In some jurisdictions such as Japan, the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy, the use and trading of virtual currencies are legal while countries such as China, South Korea, Bangladesh, and Bolivia have altogether banned the use of virtual currencies. Press Release March 13, 2018 Retail trade liberalization to propel FDI surge to greater heights - Gatchalian Encouraged by the country's record-setting foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in 2017, Senator Win Gatchalian on Tuesday stressed anew the need to remove legal restrictions that continue to hamper foreign investors seeking to pump money into the Philippine retail trade industry. "While the record-setting FDI numbers from 2017 are impressive, they pale in comparison to what we can achieve once we remove barriers to entry that discourage foreign players from investing more in the retail trade sector," said Gatchalian, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs. Yesterday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported a record-high $10 billion in FDI inflows during 2017, up 21.4 percent from the previous year. According to the data, one of the industries that drew significant investments was the retail trade sector. "This indicates a keen interest on the part of foreign investors in the domestic retail trade market. We need to take advantage of this bullish outlook by fostering a more competitive investment environment in this critical sector," the senator added. In line with this, Gatchalian said he would continue to champion the passage of Senate Bill No. 1639, which seeks to remove the existing equity and capitalization requirements provided by the Retail Trade Liberalization Law of 2000 (RA 8762). Currently, a 100-percent foreign-owned retail business can only operate in the country if it meets the minimum paid-up capital requirement of $2.5 million. To highlight the negative impact of this strict requirement on FDI growth, he pointed out that only 25 foreign retail firms have invested in the country's retail sector during the 18 years since the passage of RA 8762. "The harsh restrictions provided by the Retail Trade Liberalization Law have kept the Philippine retail trade sector from reaching its full potential in driving inclusive economic growth and stimulating job creation. That's why we need to pass Senate Bill 1639 - it will propel the country's FDI surge to greater heights and kick Philippine economic development into the next gear," Gatchalian said. Press Release March 13, 2018 HONTIVEROS TO DOH: LAUNCH BOTTOM-UP VACCINATION EDUCATION AS MEASLES CASES TRIPLE As a response to reports that the number of suspected measles cases tripled nationwide during the first month of the year, Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday urged the Department of Health (DOH) to intensify its vaccination education to the public. Hontiveros, who is the Vice-Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, also asked the DOH to immediately identify and address the gaps which led to the increasing number of measles cases in the country. "Is there a trend that the public is deferring from immunization? Is there growing public distrust in the government's national vaccination program? Was the tripling of the measles cases the result of an increasingly populated environment or was it due to lack of access to vaccines and/or information? Whatever the case may be, our health department must act swiftly and decisively," Hontiveros said. "Educational roadshow" Hontiveros said that the government must go on a "national educational roadshow" to educate the public about the positive effects of immunization and provide accurate information regarding vaccines. "Bottom-up education campaign" The Senator however said that due to the Dengvaxia issue, the health department should do a bottom-up educational campaign rather than the usual top-down approach. "More than ever, the government must engage the public in sober, intimate and grassroots conversations on how vaccines grealty help in preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Our doctors, nurses and barangay health workers play a crucial role in patiently explaining the details of the country's vaccination program, and in dispelling the public's doubts and fears," Hontiveros explained. "I believe that an effective vaccination education is one of the best ways to increase once again our vaccination rate and reduce the number of vaccine-preventable diseases," Hontiveros said. The DOH said that a total of 877 suspected measles cases were reported nationwide from Jan. 1 to Feb. 3, 2018. This is almost triple the number of cases reported during the same period last year. Most of the cases were from ARMM, Region 9, Region 11, Region 10 and Region 12. The age of the victims ranged from less than 1 month old to 65 years old. Press Release March 13, 2018 Koko seeks help of friends in the international community to improve PNP Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III on Tuesday called on friendly nations to offer training courses to the Philippine National Police (PNP) to help improve the competence of the national police force, specifically their crime-solving skills. Pimentel in particular is interested in securing assistance from "friendly" countries with highly-regarded police forces, such as the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and other members of the European Union. "The country continues to suffer from 'deaths under investigation' without seeing suspects arrested, charged, and sentenced in court. If the PNP cannot improve itself, it should consider outside assistance", said Pimentel. The Senate leader has previously called out the PNP for its inability to solve crimes and the involvement of its members in perpetrating crimes. Pimentel, who pushed for the passage of Joint Resolution No. 1, series of 2018, which increased the base pay of military, police, and uniformed personnel, is determined that the Filipino people get their money's worth in the form of improved service from the police. The Senate President said, "We increased the salaries of policemen. We approved funds for training police officers. We made sure the PNP budget is sufficient. We want to see the PNP deliver on its end of the bargain. Make us feel safe. Catch criminals. Solve crime." The Senate President, who sponsored the NBI Modernization Law, last year proposed a VFA-style agreement to help train the PNP. Pimentel reiterated his proposal for foreign assistance to the PNP after criticizing their performance in a statement, saying, "...Maybe we can bring in experts from truly professional police forces such as the Scotland Yard or the FBI to teach our policemen the basics of police work, respect for human rights, and how to obey the law." The Senate President, President Duterte's chief ally in the Senate, has been critical of the performance of the PNP, which he feels compromises the administration's war on drugs and crime. Press Release March 13, 2018 GRACE POE ON CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION TO REGULATE POLITICAL DYNASTIES That is still a good development and a positive step toward the right direction that would still be subject to further debates, discussion and possibly improvement to serve the purpose. This development, and hopefully coupled with the desired political party reforms, could serve as good foundation for any discussion on federalism. There should be an antidote to the practice of turning government into a family business. No clan should have an exclusive franchise on elective positions which are passed on like heirlooms. But simply banning political dynasties will not automatically result in a level playing field. There should be mechanisms that will truly build parties which are not subsidiaries of business, that will encourage non-career politicos, especially millennials, to serve in the government. A good political reform package must also address turncoatism, which has always been fashionable in politics. The dominance of political dynasties should be addressed by revisiting the qualifications of those who want to serve in the government. Through an anti-dynasty measure, we can push for a more meaningful political participation by making elective offices more inclusive. Instead of an outright prohibition, I am supportive of regulating members of political families from getting into power. An outright ban might prevent qualified people from serving in government. The challenge is in the mechanics of the regulation which should be ironclad and without loopholes that could be exploited by imaginative politicians. America's top military officer, Gen. Joseph Dunford, spoke with his Russian counterpart Gen. Valery Gerasimov, on Tuesday, the same day Gerasimov threatened to target US forces in Syria should they retaliate against the regime's use of chemical weapons. The call was first revealed by the Russian Ministry of Defense. "The conversation focused on issues of mutual concern, to include the situation in Syria. In accordance with past practice, both have agreed to keep the details of their conversation private," Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN. Ryder said the two men had last spoken on Jan. 20. Earlier on Tuesday, Gerasimov warned the US against any retaliatory strikes over Syria's chemical weapons use, claiming that anti-regime rebels were planning to stage a regime chemical weapons attack and saying any US strike against Damascus would threaten Russian troops. "The United States of America plan to accuse the Syrian government troops of using chemical weapons, demonstrate so-called 'evidence' of alleged numerous victims among civilians caused by actions of the Syrian government supported by the Russian leadership," Gerasimov told a meeting of Russian military officers convened to discuss the situation in Syria. "If lives of the Russian officers are threatened, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will retaliate against missile and launch systems," Gerasimov added. This has been a day of many serious happenings and disclosures. And here is yet one more Emphasis mine.This is very, very serious. It's honestly difficult for me to convey how profoundly upsetting this day has been for me, not only because of everything that has happened, but because it's so evident that many people with power and influence who should be taking it more seriously simply don't understand, or don't care, how serious it is.I suspect in the future we will look back at this day as one in which it was truly revealed, despite the endemic reluctance to see it, that the United States has been as deeply and disastrously compromised by Russia as any of us could have feared. It's a tipping point.We have derailed. I don't know how we are going to get back on track. Here's the 1-page summary of House Intel majority's final report on the Russia probe pic.twitter.com/NU4rd2vb5Z Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) March 12, 2018 Still twisting everything she says in the most bad-faith way possible. The media has truly learned NOTHING. https://t.co/YtOIqJxMRA Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) March 13, 2018 Last night, the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee abruptly concluded that there is no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign (and/or administration) and Russia, and further that there is no evidence to support the assessment of the U.S. intelligence community that Putin had interfered on Donald Trump's behalf, and then made public a one-page summary of their report before Democrats had even seen the report.So that's it for the House probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Just a wholesale rejection of the combined assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies , to say nothing of the refusal to acknowledge the collusion which has happened right out in the open Then, this morning, Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, justafter Tillerson warned that Russia's poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain would "certainly trigger a response."Trump will replace Tillerson at State with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who, in January , met in Washington with sanctioned Russian spies, including the head of Russia's foreign intelligence agency, possibly illegally, which he defended on the basis that he took the meeting "to keep Americans safe."That now looks an awful lot like a job interview , especially considering the recent report that Russia had intervened to prevent Mitt Romney from being selected as Secretary of State, asking instead for "Trump to appoint someone who would be prepared to lift Ukraine-related sanctions, and who would cooperate on security issues of interest to Russia, such as the conflict in Syria."They got Tillerson, upon whom Vladimir Putin bestowed the Russian Order of Friendship in 2013, which Putin " joked " in 2017 he regretted awarding to Tillerson, because "he seems to have fallen in with the wrong company and to be steering in the other direction."That was after Tillerson told Putin: "Mr. President, same man, different hat." And he was hardly tough on Russia as Secretary of State, but he was tougher than anyone else in the administration.So now he's out, Pompeo is in, and Pompeo will be replaced (provided she survives a confirmation hearing) by his second at the CIA, Gina Haspel, whose history at the agency includes having overseen "the torture of two terrorism suspects and later [taking] part in an order to destroy videotapes documenting their brutal interrogations at a secret prison in Thailand."A country in which, by coincidence (or not), Nastya Rybka, the Belarusian sex worker (with close ties to Oleg V. Deripaska, who in turn has close ties to Putin) who asserts to have information about Russia's election interference, is jailed. And when the FBI tried to meet with her , "the request was refused by Thai officials."And here we are. House Republicans declare that Trump is innocent of collusion, and the very next day he fires the Secretary of State and nominates as his replacement a man who doesn't seem to have the same qualms about indulging Russia.When your president and his party are owned by Russia, and they're the governing majority, your whole country is owned by Russia.I am gutted. This is everything I feared, predicted, screamed about, was mocked for saying. I and many other people, including the woman who should have been our president, who was capable of standing up to Putin and willing to do it.Meanwhile, this is something thefelt compelled to publishI would say we are doomed, but we are long past that. Some three-quarters of the chief financial officers of New Zealand public companies are either unaware of or not interested in emerging methods for extending reporting beyond traditional financial indicators, according to research by the McGuinness Institute. Conducted for the External Reporting Board, an independent Crown entity responsible for setting standards of corporate reporting in New Zealand, the research found that only 23 percent of the 92 CFOs who responded to the survey were using an externally developed EER reporting framework, and that the vast majority either did not know about or appeared to be "not interested" in them. EER stands for extended external reporting. The survey found that 84 percent of those who prepare corporate reports for external audiences were either unaware of or skipped the question asking whether they knew of the EER framework known as the Global Reporting Initiative, which seeks information on a far wider range of environmental, ethical and social indicators than traditional company financial accounts. Three other common EER frameworks also scored in the 80s and 90s for either being unknown or the question unanswered. The survey was sent last year to all NZX-listed companies and the Deloitte Top 200 New Zealand companies. A second survey was sent to a range of potential users of such reports, including investors, industry organisations, not-for-profit organisations, and universities, prompting 104 responses. Sharply divergent views emerged about the worth of such reporting, with some 10 percent of such report's potential users labelled 'EER sceptics', another 20 percent as 'pragmatic sceptics', 30 percent were 'EER supporters' and 40 percent were 'pragmatic supporters', the latter group seeing EER reporting as in the public interest, but needing to be balanced with private good. Pragmatic supporters believe "New Zealand is lagging behind international reporting practices; in particular companies are not reporting well on the wide range of risks they face" but are also wary of too much information being required and "the large number of different frameworks in the public arena". The smaller, sceptics group focused on the cost and practicality of EER reporting. "The people going down this track need a dose of reality, or is socialism the goal?" said one respondent. Another feared "another unnecessary layer of bureaucracy" if companies were required to report against a wider set of benchmarks, which could include health and safety performance, the gender split of a workforce, environmental compliance, company tax payments, cybersecurity breaches, and average payment terms. Significant gaps emerged between report preparers and users on the value of reporting on the so-called 'four capitals' - natural, human, economic, and social. On each, respectively, the percentage of preparers versus users favouring reporting was 56:87 (natural capital); 53:86 (human), 46:84 (economic); 42:75 (social). The chief executive of the XRB, Warren Allen, said the research was part of a drive to improve the quality of New Zealand companies' reporting, and that it "did not improve as rapidly as we had anticipated" between 2011 and 2017". "We are confident that if New Zealand as a nation desires better reporting, the change from 2018 to 2025 could position New Zealand as a world leader in EER, not only improving investment decisions but also reinforcing our clean green brand." Some 56 percent of those who prepare company reports thought they should receive independent assurance, against 76 percent among users. "Compliance cost would be an unnecessary cost and a barrier to completion," said a comment from one report preparer. However, if independent assurance for EER reports were made mandatory, both preparers and users put more faith (45 percent and 41 percent respectively) in the XRB as the body to set the requirements. Other options were the Financial Markets Authority, favoured by 20 percent of preparers and only 12 percent of users; legislation (18 percent vs 27 percent), and the NZX (11 percent support from both groups). The report quoted one independent assurer as saying that: "in my experience, company systems for reporting this information are not mature and they are more prone to error", with risks to "issues of balance" and "potential bias towards a more positive story". (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. 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Related News: Kathmandu Holdings Limited (NZX: KMD) FY21 Annual Results Announcement Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) Update on Demerger and Office Fund 21st September 2021 Morning Report Kiwi Property Group Limited (NZX: KPG) Gives Green Light to Build-to-Rent 20th September 2021 Morning Report General Capital Limited (NZX: GEN) Equifax Affirms General Finance BB- Rating 17th September 2021 Morning Report NZ Automotive Investments Limited (NZX: NZA) Proposed Sell Down by NZA Founder to Improve Liquidity 16th September 2021 Morning Report 15th September 2021 Morning Report Reserve Bank acting governor Grant Spencer says the government should consider a permanent structure for macro-prudential tools, which he attributes as helping the regulator meet its policy objectives. There are currently four instruments in the central bank's toolkit, including loan-to-value ratio restrictions. In a speech entitled 'Getting the best out of macro-prudential policy', Spencer told the Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand in Auckland, that he supports retaining the existing four and adding a debt-to-income or debt servicing instrument, which is currently under review. He stressed the speech was "my own views and are not a formal Reserve Bank position". Spencer said no matter what instruments are used, "I believe the upcoming review should consider a structure for macro-prudential instruments which allows them to be 'off' or 'on' through time, but where they remain established within banks reporting and compliance system." The government is carrying out a review of the Reserve Bank Act to ensure the current monetary policy framework is the most effective. Spencer said the instruments relate to risk metrics that the central bank expects lenders to monitor, whether or not they are subject to ceilings or floors. If they remained permanent, macro-prudential policy would adjust back to neutral or non-binding settings when no heightened risk is present and no policy constraint is intended, he said. Against that backdrop, banks would no longer need to add or remove the operational framework as policies are turned on but would just need to adjust the settings of existing policies. "The public would become increasingly familiar with the policies and the potential for changes to settings. Policy changes would become easier to implement and to communicate. In principle, macro-prudential policy would follow a more transparent and systematic process that looks more like our monetary policy process," he said. Spencer also said it makes sense to integrate the current memorandum of understanding on macro-prudential tools into the Reserve Bank Act. Guiding principles for macro-prudential in the MOU include the principle of supporting monetary policy where possible and being fully consistent with micro-prudential policy, he said. "The objective and guidance from the MOU should be lifted into the act and potentially enhanced, for example with the principle that macro-prudential policies should be applied uniformly across all banks." Spencer said the review should consider establishing a financial policy committee (FPC) for decisions relating to both micro and macro-prudential policy. The committee would need to be held accountable for its micro and macro-prudential decisions. "I would expect an FPC to have overlapping membership with the MPC (monetary policy committee), at least including the governor. However, it would likely include internal financial policy experts who do not sit on the MPC," he said. Spencer noted that external people could be included on the FPC, "although the complexity of the subject matter, the high volume of prudential decisions, and the need to avoid conflicts of interest would severely limit the number of viable candidates." He said he has been closely involved in the Reserve Banks development and implementation of macro-prudential policy and is keen to see macro-prudential policy continue to develop as a credible and sustainable policy over the longer term. Spencer said "macro-prudential rules have significantly improved the resilience of banks balance sheets to potential housing market shocks" and a debt-to-income instrument is a "natural complement" to the LVRs. "While we stated at the outset in 2013 that LVRs would be temporary, I believe there is a case to consider maintaining a policy infrastructure of this sort, with policies being adjusted through time between binding and non-binding settings," he said. The LVRs were first introduced as a temporary measure October 2013 due to growing risks in the housing market against a backdrop of swiftly rising prices and highly leveraged lending by banks. Further pressures - particularly in Auckland - led the RBNZ to refine the LVR policy in 2015 and again in late 2016. It recently began a staged easing of the process but Spencer said "we remain cautious in the face of ongoing housing shortages," adding they have been a "qualified success". According to Spencer, the share of outstanding mortgages with an LVR greater than 80 percent has steadily dropped as a result of the LVR policy, from 21 percent in September 2013 to 7 percent in December 2017. Recent Reserve Bank estimates suggest banks credit losses from a severe housing downturn could be reduced by around 20 percent, he said. Regarding other tools, Spencer said the counter cyclical capital buffer is likely to remain as part of the Basel 3 framework and is commonly used internationally, including as a signalling device. While it has not been used in New Zealand, it could be given closer consideration when the Reserve Bank comes to look at minimum capital ratios as part of its broader review of bank capital requirements. The core funding ratio is an existing (micro) prudential policy instrument, requiring banks to have at least 75 percent of their funding in 'core' instruments such as retail deposits. While not yet used as a macro-prudential tool, it could easily and usefully be activated in response to an increase in system-wide liquidity risk, he said. The sectoral capital ratio has not been used to date "but would seem a potentially useful additional buffer against increasing risk in a particular sector such as housing or dairy. " Spencer will be acting governor until the end of March when Adrian Orr takes the helm at the central bank. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Kathmandu Holdings Limited (NZX: KMD) FY21 Annual Results Announcement Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) Update on Demerger and Office Fund 21st September 2021 Morning Report Kiwi Property Group Limited (NZX: KPG) Gives Green Light to Build-to-Rent 20th September 2021 Morning Report General Capital Limited (NZX: GEN) Equifax Affirms General Finance BB- Rating 17th September 2021 Morning Report NZ Automotive Investments Limited (NZX: NZA) Proposed Sell Down by NZA Founder to Improve Liquidity 16th September 2021 Morning Report 15th September 2021 Morning Report New Zealand has provided rich pickings for Australia's largest ethical investment fund, producing some of its best investments, according to the Kiwi who has managed its local equities for the past decade. Wellington-born Andy Gracey has been portfolio manager for Australian Ethical Investment's flagship Australian Shares Fund since 2008. The fund screens out industries it deems negative, such as liquor firms, and will only invest in stocks deemed to be virtuous, such as renewable energy companies. Australian Ethical's superannuation fund was the fastest growing in terms of assets under management and membership in the latest KPMG 2017 Super Insights Report covering the 2016 year, and it says that growth continued last year. "If theres a good quality opportunity in New Zealand, we dont differentiate between Australian and New Zealand companies," said Gracey, who has been based in Australia since 2001. "We will come over to the New Zealand market and engage management and maybe buy the stock." Gracey said about 10 percent of his A$800 million Australian Shares Fund is invested in Kiwi firms, including some of its best investments, such as healthcare technology company Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, renewable energy companies Mercury NZ, Meridian Energy and Contact Energy, and technology companies Vista Group and Gentrack Group. "Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has been a long-term investment, probably one of our best investments in the whole portfolio, and a fantastically run company," said Gracey. "If I looked at investment performance over five years I would say Fisher & Paykel Healthcare is probably the number one performer in the portfolio, it is just a very well run business. It has consistently delivered circa 20 percent earnings growth and its a global business as well." The fund's holding in F&P Healthcare had reduced from its historical level due to the current valuation, with Reuters data showing that on the current stock price it is trading at a price to earnings ratio of 43, compared with a PE ratio of 18 for the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index. Gracey also singled out New Zealand's renewable energy generation and retail companies as important stocks in his portfolio. "In terms of really solid businesses, the gen-retailers are attractive," he said. "In terms of from a profitable, renewable energy-dominant product, there probably is more opportunity in New Zealand because in Australia, of any size, we have just got some wind generators. I think these businesses are more attractive, they are more vertically integrated, they have got a generation and a retail (arm), just more robust kind of business models." He noted Australian Ethical had historically invested in gas as a transitional fuel towards a renewable future but divested investments in gas and gas pipelines from 2012 after deciding it didn't need gas and wanted to encourage renewables. This prevents it from investing in Australia's gen-tailer equivalent Origin Energy. Gracey said an ethical fund tends to have an overweight position in healthcare on the basis of consumer happiness, and information technology on the grounds of efficiency, as well as holdings in core utilities, and won't invest in sectors it doesn't consider sustainable such as mining. "We have got an interesting combination of boring dividend paying utilities and also emerging and interesting healthcare and technology companies. "We have this ethical stream and that helps define the universe and then once that universe is defined we are really your typical investment team. We try and make as much money as we can within that screened universe," he said. "Once it gets to me I am all about investment returns and making sure that I have some conviction that its a solid investment. I dont really need people explaining the virtues of their company from an ethical perspective because thats a has-to-be anyway, I am really looking for a robust investment, something where I can see good returns for our investors. We are a pretty hard-headed investment team." Gracey said he would like to see more emerging healthcare and pharmaceutical companies in New Zealand that he could invest in but notes Australia's research and development cash rebate system is more lucrative and encourages early-stage companies to set up over the Tasman, and the ASX has more depth in the market for this type of investment. He is hopeful more software companies may emerge from New Zealand in the future following support from successive governments and an expanding broadband network. "Maybe the more interesting plays in New Zealand are technology," he said. "The beauty of software is you can be a little country in the southern hemisphere and you can be a global leader so I think New Zealand is probably ahead of the curve there in terms of encouraging software and technology. Gracey said ethical investment funds are expected to grow faster in the foreseeable future as people become more socially aware and want their superannuation to be invested in areas that they are comfortable with. The latest New Zealand Responsible Investment Benchmark Report published last year noted that consumer demand combined with media and political pressure had significantly shifted more of the investment industry towards a responsible investment approach with assets under management up 67 percent to $131.3 billion in 2016 from $78.7 billion in 2015. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Kathmandu Holdings Limited (NZX: KMD) FY21 Annual Results Announcement Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) Update on Demerger and Office Fund 21st September 2021 Morning Report Kiwi Property Group Limited (NZX: KPG) Gives Green Light to Build-to-Rent 20th September 2021 Morning Report General Capital Limited (NZX: GEN) Equifax Affirms General Finance BB- Rating 17th September 2021 Morning Report NZ Automotive Investments Limited (NZX: NZA) Proposed Sell Down by NZA Founder to Improve Liquidity 16th September 2021 Morning Report 15th September 2021 Morning Report Shares of Zespri Group will be halted for two days pending a vote on constitutional changes aimed at strengthening grower ownership and control of New Zealand's statutory kiwifruit exporter. Shareholders will vote at a special meeting in Mt Maunganui tomorrow on a series of resolutions that will impose a cap on the number of shares they can hold relative to trays of kiwifruit produced, and phase out dividends for non-producing shareholders over seven years. Existing growers who stop producing after tomorrow's vote would cease getting dividends after three years. The vote comes after shareholders in 2015 approved plans to strengthen grower control amid concerns about an increasing misalignment between producers and shareholders. The changes required an amendment to the Kiwifruit Export Regulations last year. Of Zespri's 120.7 million shares on issue, some 18.1 million are held by people no longer connected with the kiwifruit industry and a further 29 percent are held by producers at a ratio of below one share per tray, which Zespri deems "under-shared". At the other end of the spectrum, 8 percent of the shares are held by producers at a ratio of more than four shares per tray, known as "over-shared". Chair Peter McBride told shareholders last August that when Zespri was corporatised in 2000 all growers had a share in the business but over time that position had eroded. "Left unaddressed, the issue is a source of destabilisation to the future growth of the industry, because an increasing proportion of growers will not have a stake in Zespri as shareholders," he said. Zespri wants to aim for a ratio of one share for one tray produced but the new cap would set the limit at four shares per tray. Voting entitlements would be set at the lesser of one voting share per tray or the total number of shares the producer holds. The changes also take into account the rights of owners and lessees of kiwifruit orchards. A seventh resolution is aimed at helping address the misalignment of shares by giving Zespri the right to issue, buy back and distribute shares. The process, which won't be mandatory, will include one or more targeted share buybacks on terms to be determined by the board. It needs shareholder approval under the Companies Act because some of the actions are likely to constitute major transactions that fall outside its normal course of business. Zespri shares last traded at $7.70 on the Unlisted platform giving the company a market capitalisation of about $930 million. The stock will be halted on Wednesday and Thursday to allow Zespri to update its record of shareholdings.They began trading on Unlisted in early 2016 and have soared 340 percent since then. In October, Zespri raised its 2018 forecast for tray returns across all varieties, saying it expected its total fruit and service payment to be $1.39 billion in the year ending March 31, up from a previous forecast of $1.34 billion. That would match its payments for 2017 when it faced a steep increase in supply. ANZ Bank New Zealand economists said last month that the kiwifruit industry needed to manage its ambitious growth plans to ensure there are enough workers and packing plants and to be aware of rising input prices. Kiwifruit is New Zealand's fastest-growing horticultural export and the Ministry for Primary Industries is forecasting more growth in the next two years, with exports to reach $1.8 billion in 2019. Zespri is aiming for $4.5 billion of global sales by 2025. In the next five years, the monopoly export authority plans to release 3,750 hectares of licences for its more profitable, sweeter SunGold variety. In research from Craigs Investment Partners in December, analyst Chris Byrne said his forecasts are "slightly more conservative" than Zespri's because of risks including increased production from Chile, potentially aided by investment from China, and more output in the Northern Hemisphere. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Kathmandu Holdings Limited (NZX: KMD) FY21 Annual Results Announcement Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) Update on Demerger and Office Fund 21st September 2021 Morning Report Kiwi Property Group Limited (NZX: KPG) Gives Green Light to Build-to-Rent 20th September 2021 Morning Report General Capital Limited (NZX: GEN) Equifax Affirms General Finance BB- Rating 17th September 2021 Morning Report NZ Automotive Investments Limited (NZX: NZA) Proposed Sell Down by NZA Founder to Improve Liquidity 16th September 2021 Morning Report 15th September 2021 Morning Report The Financial Markets Authority was warned of potential issues at CBL Corp before the insurance services group went public in 2015 but dismissed the complaints from a businessman whose company was caught in a US probe over "fraudulent" insurance sales. The FMA didn't pursue Geoff Waterhouse's 2015 claim that CBL's prospectus contained "a blatant lie", one of many complaints about CBL he levelled to regulators, including the FMA and the Reserve Bank. The FMA felt the overall impression didn't mislead investors and due diligence was "sufficiently robust", emails between the regulator and complainant show. The Reserve Bank last month convinced the High Court to put the company's CBL Insurance unit into interim liquidation after the company breached the bank's orders by paying $55 million to overseas companies. Contractors Bonding Ltd, now CBL, signed a deferred prosecution agreement with the US state of Georgia in 2007 after being accused of selling fraudulent insurance. The deal, signed by chief executive Peter Harris and former executive Anthony Thomas, saw the Kiwi insurer pay US$750,000 in restitution and agree that CBL wouldn't do business in the US for 10 years in exchange for the state not bringing charges. That restriction terminated early in 2014. Harris had signed a statement of facts accepting CBL never bought Mark Solofa Insurance Company, which was licensed in American Samoa. However, CBL's 2015 product disclosure statement states CBL did acquire the American Samoan business and didn't accept it had breached insurance regulations, "but cooperated with the Georgia Insurance Department and ceased writing new business". Waterhouse, also known as Godfrey Waterhouse, was involved in the Georgia dispute through his company Phoenix Brokers and has been pursuing Harris and CBL through the courts and the media for more than a decade. The FMA considered Waterhouse's 2015 complaint, and a senior solicitor at the FMA responded that "at this present time the information provided to use by the issuer suggest that all proceedings are appropriately accounted for". "Our review has also shown that the due diligence processes of CBL appear sufficiently robust to give us confidence in these processes," the FMA solicitor said in 2015. "The overall impression conveyed by the PDS is that there were potential irregularities in the conduct of CBL in the US so any investor is on notice of these historical issues. "On that basis our current position is that we do not believe that there is sufficient evidence to determine that the disputed statements in the PDS are misleading and materially adverse from the point of view of an investor," the FMA solicitor said in an email. The FMA told BusinessDesk in an emailed statement that "directors are responsible for the content of a PDS" and it "does not sign off or approve" a PDS. "The FMA is currently investigating the conduct of CBL, including its directors and executive, to determine potential breaches of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, including breaches of continuous disclosure obligations, financial reporting requirements, and fair-dealing," it said. "We have the cooperation of the RBNZ, NZX Regulation and overseas regulators to assist in these matters." That investigation differs from the one raised by Waterhouse, with the NZX-listed insurer suspended from trading over its disclosure relating to the reserving adequacy for a French construction business. That attracted orders by the Reserve Bank and Central Bank of Ireland, and CBL appointed voluntary administrators last month in an effort to preserve value in the business. Yesterday, the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank Geoff Bascand said in an interview with Radio New Zealand that the bank had been taking steps to prevent something serious happening for "quite some time", but "unfortunately it escalated to this crescendo moment" when CBL breached the central bank's directions and it had no other option than to put the company into interim liquidation. The state of Georgia began its CBL investigation with Phoenix Brokers, owned by Geoff Waterhouse and his son Robert. CBL had entered into an agreement to underwrite taxi and limousine insurance sold by Phoenix in Georgia in 2000, but got in trouble in 2002 when local regulations changed because it wasn't licensed or domiciled in a US state or territory. CBL told Phoenix Brokers and National Program Management, another Georgia-based insurance broker, that it had a contract to buy Mark Solofa Insurance Company. However, CBL never received the shares and never paid the US$3 million price of the business to its owners, according to the statement of facts signed by Harris and Thomas. It continued underwriting insurance for Phoenix and National Program Management but didn't tell them that its agreement to purchase MSIC hadn't been settled. The state issued arrest warrants for both the Waterhouses for civil racketeering, on the basis that they were knowingly selling fraudulent policies, though those charges were later dropped and CBL was pursued. Waterhouse sued CBL in New Zealand, backed by litigation funder LPF Group, with CBL disputing their funding source all the way to the Supreme Court in 2013. The Supreme Court's judgment has become important case law on the court's role in regulating litigation funding in New Zealand, while the substantive case was settled out of court. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Kathmandu Holdings Limited (NZX: KMD) FY21 Annual Results Announcement Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) Update on Demerger and Office Fund 21st September 2021 Morning Report Kiwi Property Group Limited (NZX: KPG) Gives Green Light to Build-to-Rent 20th September 2021 Morning Report General Capital Limited (NZX: GEN) Equifax Affirms General Finance BB- Rating 17th September 2021 Morning Report NZ Automotive Investments Limited (NZX: NZA) Proposed Sell Down by NZA Founder to Improve Liquidity 16th September 2021 Morning Report 15th September 2021 Morning Report Electric vehicles recharging at home will start competing with households cooking dinner and watching TV, creating strain on existing electricity networks and forcing change to the way power is currently priced, say two new reports on the issue. Auckland-based network company Vector warns that the sheer volume of electricity required to recharge a car with a long-distance battery at a suburban location will place a strain on existing networks and force costly upgrades once EVs become popular. The strain is likely to be greatest in the early evening, when EV owners come home and plug in their cars to recharge, coinciding with the time of day when electricity demand peaks because households start cooking dinner, turning on heaters and lights, and using electrical devices. The other report, by Wellington firm Concept Consulting for network owners Powerco, Orion and Unison, suggests electricity pricing will need to change to encourage EV owners to charge cars after 9pm if unnecessary network upgrade costs to cope with the new peak load are to be avoided. Author Simon Coates estimates the cost at around $4 billion in net present value terms. Both reports also warn that the new generation of EVs, with larger batteries and far greater driving ranges, will take more than two days to fully charge from a standard wall socket. To avoid that, they predict demand will rise swiftly for fast-charging technology, which will place many times more load on local networks than socket-charging. Concept says any such costs should be borne by EV owners rather than all electricity users, and fears the "fantastic opportunity for New Zealand, both in terms of massive gains to the environment and delivering genuinely cheaper transport services" will be frustrated by current electricity supply arrangements. "With mass EV uptake just around the corner and greenhouse (gas) reduction targets getting ever-more urgent, there is a real-time imperative to resolving this issue", says Coates. More than 6,000 EVs are now on New Zealand roads, with registrations more than doubling in 2017. The previous government targeted 64,000 EVs by 2021 and the new administration is, if anything, more enthusiastic about encouraging EV ownership. Reducing transport emissions represents one of the country's few easy wins as it seeks to meet emissions reductions targets set for 2030. There is some hope. Concept says "these financial and environment costs are avoidable with smarter, more cost-effective electricity prices that encourage EV-owners to charge their vehicles smoothly overnight" and would use technology already embedded in the software of the vehicles themselves, allowing a system similar to, but more sophisticated than, hot water 'ripple control' to be deployed to manage network constraints caused by EVs. The Vector 'green paper' says "the potential network impacts of changing customer behaviour or battery technology are most pronounced at the street level". "This is where electricity networks have traditionally been sized according to the number of houses on a street, with little spare capacity. The local network was not designed for, or envisaged (sic), any significant uptake of EVs and the consequential demand for charging at home." That created a risk not only of higher electricity prices, but also of being unable to rely on charging an EV at home. However, use of smart metering, dynamic charging and carefully considering where to locate charging infrastructure also held out the prospect of benefits for EV owners, including being able to sell electricity from their car batteries back into the grid when market conditions favoured that. While the average light vehicle travels only 29 kilometres daily in New Zealand, EVs would theoretically only need a charge every three days or so, but 'range anxiety' and convenience were expected to make owners keen to keep their batteries topped up, the Vector paper says. 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Project details are under wraps but BloodyDisgusting.com -- a site covering "the latest news in horror films, video games, comics and music" -- writes: "'The Night' centers around three friends in 1982 and an eventful, adventure-filled night they experience in Staten Island, New York." Hmm. "Eventful?" This could get ugly. But hey, anything for showbiz, right? The role of "Anthony" has been filled and production crew are in search for someone to play his best friend, "Albie Lenza," according to ProjectCasting.com. The creative vision for Anthony: "A very average kid. Not a super nerd, but also not super cool. Anthony is living with his family on Staten Island in 1982. He's not the type to rock the boat or stand up for himself, but on this night, he embarks on a quest that pushes his boundaries and challenges him to be the strong and brave kid he has never been." Audition pointers for Albie: Production is looking for "a male actor, aged 14-18 -- Italian American." Hey! We have a few of those here. I think. Physically, Albie is squat, like "a human bulldog." He is "best friends with Anthony, and happily joins him on his quest." Albie and his family are Staten Island natives. All performers "should have a New York or East Coast feel. An authentic accent is a plus, but not required." To submit for these roles, email your photo, age and contact info to thenightNYcasting@gmail.com. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A tractor-trailer lost its tire, creating a traffic jam on the Goethals Bridge that extended to the New Jersey-bound side of the Staten Island Expressway late Tuesday morning. The truck was cleared from the span at 11:32 a.m., according to a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. An alert was issued about an hour earlier warning of delays due to the disabled truck on the span. NEW YORK CITY - A federal judge today denied a prosecutor's request to instruct a deadlocked jury that it can reach a "partial verdict" in the bribery and corruption case involving a former top Cuomo aide from Staten Island. U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni said she believed such an instruction would be "coercive." Defense attorneys told the judge they feared such directions could lead to "horse-trading" among jurors. Instead of voting their conscience on each of the 10 counts, jurors might negotiate their votes on a count-by-count basis, attorneys said. All the parties agreed a partial verdict - where the jury reaches a unanimous decision on some counts, but not all - is permissible. But the judge and defense attorneys did not share the prosecution's comfort with the proposed instruction. Caproni noted the jury never indicated it was headed toward a partial verdict. She didn't rule out instructing the jurors on a partial verdict if they asked about it at some point. Today marked the second time in less than a week that the jury sent a note to the judge saying it was deadlocked. Today's note came less than a-half hour after the jury began work. Both times, the judge instructed jurors to continue deliberating. She said she is unlikely to issue a third set of instructions if the jury says it's deadlocked again. The jury finished its deliberations today without reaching a verdict. The trial is in its eighth week. The jury has been deliberating about 36 hours over seven days. The complex case involves four defendants: Former governor's aide Joseph Percoco, Cor Development Co. executives Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, and power plant executive Peter Galbraith "Braith" Kelly Jr. Aiello and Gerardi are accused of paying $35,000 in bribes to Percoco. Separately, Kelly is accused of paying $287,000 in bribes to Percoco. While the recent mass shooting at a Florida high school has sparked a contentious national debate over gun control, the frenzied rhetoric has jettisoned the perpetrator, Nikolas Cruz, so far to the background that one would think his AR-15 rifle fired itself. Although Cruz was indicted last week on 17 counts of first-degree murder, the state attorney in Broward County has yet to announce whether he will seek the death penalty. Meanwhile, the 19-year-old remains behind bars where he receives reading material, family visits, and opportunities for regular exercise. His victims, on the other hand, have been stilled forever, their families consigned to a lifetime of unrelentingly heartbreak. While reasonable minds may differ as to whether Cruz, relatively young and obviously troubled, should be sentenced to death, justice demands that a jury be given that option. None of the arguments traditionally raised against capital punishment as an institution compel a contrary conclusion. Oft-heard concerns that an innocent person might be executed are certainly legitimate. As of December 21, 2017, the Innocence Project reports that 161 individuals, who had been on death row, were eventually released based on persuasive evidence of their actual innocence. These unsettling numbers support what common sense has long suggested. It's a virtual certainty that innocent people have, indeed, been put to death in the past. Nikolas Cruz, however, is not an innocent person, and prosecutors can establish that with mathematical-like precision. Respecting human life Death penalty opponents also claim that it renders society no better than the capital defendant in its disregard for the value of human life. It's a fallacious argument, however, because it ignores the gross distinction between society's due-process execution of a calculating murderer and his wanton execution of a blameless victim. Putting Cruz to death would constitute a resounding affirmation of the value of his victims' lives. So, too, would its motivating thesis: In a truly just society, the only just punishment for premeditated murder is the forfeiture of the perpetrator's own life. If, as its opponents claim, capital punishment is not a deterrent to murder, a likely factor is the extraordinary amount of time that elapses between the defendant's crime and his execution. A typical strategy of death-row inmates is to delay execution as long as possible, by every means possible, and then cite the lengthy passage of time -- that they themselves created -- as a reason why carrying out the death sentence would now be unjust. Late last month, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Madison v. Alabama, a case in which the defendant, who's been on death row for 30 years for murdering a police officer, claims he shouldn't be executed because he now has dementia and can't remember doing so. Capital defendants get away with these tactics because the legal system permits interminable applications for relief, under divergent legal theories, in both state and federal jurisdictions. The problem is significantly compounded by activist judges, from the Supreme Court's liberal wing on down, who weave their personal opposition to the death penalty into decisions designed to discourage its implementation. Staten Island case Staten Islander Ronell Wilson, twice sentenced to death for executing two New York City Police Detectives in 2003, is an example. A divided federal appellate court set aside the first sentence based on less than 60 words uttered during a prosecutor's summation. Then, last year, a second death sentence was set aside by U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, who concluded that Wilson suffered from an "intellectual disability" that manifested itself in "significant defects in adaptive reasoning." Garaufis conceded that most mental-health professionals would disagree with that conclusion, but deemed himself bound by the Supreme Court's 2014 ruling in Hall v. Florida, a 5-4 decision from the court's liberal wing joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy. Transcending these kinds of inevitable obstacles for prosecutors is the real possibility that the Supreme Court will eventually declare capital punishment unconstitutional across the board. While Donald Trump's presidency has lessened that possibility for the moment, there's a petition for review before the court right now, Hidalgo v. Arizona, seeking just such a sweeping declaration. Add to all this the millions of dollars required to prosecute a capital case, and it's understandable that many district attorneys are declining to do so. Even if Broward County prosecutors opt to seek the death penalty for Cruz, his age and chaotic background may well persuade jurors that it's not appropriate. Yet it's still a shot they must take. The guy is a mass murderer. He inflicted incalculable harm on his victims and their families, and shocked the conscience of an entire nation. It's eminently reasonable for government to put his own life in jeopardy as a consequence. Email Daniel Leddy at column@danielleddylaw.com. Follow him on Twitter @LegalHotShots. Cardinal Zen: The Hong Kong firebrand taking on Beijing Hong Kong, March 13 (AFP) Mar 13, 2018 Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen has earned a reputation as a fighter -- and the octogenarian's latest battle pits him against Vatican officials and Beijing over a deal he believes would devastate the Catholic Church. The former Bishop of Hong Kong is well-known in the city for his vocal opposition to political suppression and his support for democratic reform. But 86-year-old Zen's latest cause goes to the heart of his beliefs about the Catholic Church and what it should represent. It comes as the Vatican moves closer to a historic agreement with China over the major stumbling block of who ordains bishops -- a deal Zen fears would backfire against the underground Catholic Church in the mainland which is routinely persecuted by Chinese authorities. "For several decades the government has made it hard for them but they remained loyal to Rome and the pope. And now they're asked to surrender?" Zen said in an interview with AFP. "Some people in China might revolt." China's roughly 12 million Catholics are divided between a state-run association whose clergy are chosen by the government and an unofficial church which swears allegiance to the pope. The Chinese Communist Party is officially atheist and religious groups are tightly controlled by the state. Catholic and Protestant churches have been demolished in recent years and Christian clergy detained, as traditional Western congregations shrink. Beijing and the Vatican severed diplomatic relations in 1951 and although ties have improved as China's Catholic population grows, they have remained at odds over the designation of bishops. But a Vatican source told AFP last month that in a framework agreement still under negotiation with China seven state-appointed bishops would be recognised, although no time frame was specified. - 'Heartbreaking' - Zen has accused Vatican officials of "selling out" to China and was chastised by Vatican spokesman Greg Burke for "fostering confusion and controversy" with his remarks. Burke also denied Zen's allegation that the pope was not informed of actions he would not agree with. Zen, who had a private audience with the pope in January during which he raised the bishops issue, believes senior Vatican officials are pushing their own political agendas. "The pope doesn't know the Chinese Communist Party, but these officials do. They are not ignorant," he says. Vatican number two Pietro Parolin was central to warming relations with the communist government of Vietnam and has spoken of the need for unity in the Catholic Church in China. But Zen is highly sceptical of any goodwill from Beijing, recalling how some unofficial clergy in the mainland have been jailed for decades and died in prison. He also cites his own experience teaching in state-run mainland seminaries for seven years. Bishops there were under close surveillance and "led by the nose", he says. "It was heartbreaking." - Chorus of discontent - Hong Kong has long served a critical role in supporting China's underground churches and many of the city's Catholics have joined the growing chorus against rapprochement between Beijing and the Vatican. Zen says he was driven to become more vocal about human rights after Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. After becoming Bishop of Hong Kong in 2002, he fiercely opposed the local pro-Beijing government's anti-subversion bill the following year, which was shelved after hundreds of thousands took to the streets in protest. "I speak up because I feel I have to, not because I like to," Zen says, occasionally banging the table and waving his arms for emphasis. He lives at the Salesian House of Studies, a training school for clergy, where he first arrived in 1948 at the age of 16 from his hometown in Shanghai. The complex perches on a hillside in eastern Hong Kong Island and Zen fondly remembers the old views of Victoria Harbour, before the surrounding land was reclaimed. Made a cardinal in 2006, he retired from his post as bishop three years later but still takes part in the city's pro-democracy protests, these days manning the donation box instead of marching. A lung virus which led to his hospitalisation in 2016 seems not to have dented his energy or spirit. Zen says if the deal between the Vatican and Beijing is finally signed, he would have to accept it out of respect for the pope. But for now, he will continue to fight. "At a certain point they know it's impossible to eradicate religion," says Zen of China's communist government. "So they must control it if they cannot eradicate it." Taiwan high court upholds acquittal of 'Sunflower' activists Taipei, March 13 (AFP) Mar 13, 2018 Taiwan's high court on Tuesday upheld the acquittal of anti-China activists who occupied the island's parliament in 2014, with the judge describing the protests as "an expression of democracy". Jubilant activists praised the decision which they said was a defence of democratic freedoms at a time when Beijing is ramping up pressure on the self-ruling island. China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and is pushing for reunification, with Beijing signalling a harder line towards what it regards as a renegade province. Thousands of people took to the streets in protest in March 2014 in what became known as the Sunflower Movement, with 200 people occupying the main chamber of parliament for three weeks. The rallies were triggered by a proposed cross-strait trade pact that critics said had been made in secret and would leave export-reliant Taiwan vulnerable to Chinese influence. "The defendants did not initiate attacks or cause bloody conflicts and it was an expression of democracy," judge Chang Huei-li told the court as she upheld last year's acquittal by a lower court. She said protesters were reacting to flaws in the legislative process and the failure of lawmakers to reflect public opinion. "Those who have power should listen to people's voices and promote their welfare," Chang said. Taipei's district court had ruled the protesters' actions reflected their right to civil disobedience, clearing them on charges of incitement and interfering with public functions. But state prosecutors appealed the decision, arguing a lack of legal precedent and consensus for using civil disobedience as a justification for breaking the law. Protest leader Huang Kuo-chang, now a lawmaker, said Tuesday's judgement reaffirmed Taiwan's freedoms. "When lawmakers do not carry out their duties properly the people can stand up and resist and their rights are protected," Huang said after the ruling. Sunflower leader Chen Wei-ting said Taiwan's transparent legal process was a message to China's President Xi Jinping, who was granted a lifetime mandate as leader Sunday. "I want to tell Xi Jinping that even if you can become an 'emperor' and have endless terms, Taiwan is a democratic country," said Chen. He contrasted freedoms in Taiwan with semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where activists have been jailed and political freedoms are increasingly under threat. "I hope our friends in Hong Kong who are in a difficult situation will not give up. Taiwan will alway stand with you," Chen said after the hearing. Fears over warming cross-strait ties contributed to the plummeting popularity of Ma Ying-jeou's Kuomintang government and its defeat in the 2016 presidential elections at the hands of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Relations have since turned rapidly frosty as Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen refuses to acknowledge the island is part of "one China". Days after taking office in May 2016, the DPP government dropped a separate lawsuit against 126 Sunflower protesters for trespassing on cabinet headquarters. A court spokesman said Tuesday's acquittals were final. Austin Bay; In March 2017, Trump's foreign policy team of then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Vice President Mike Pence and the tweeter-in-chief himself began a coordinated attack on Kim Jong Un's unction regime, with the interim goals of disrupting Pyongyang's political and military plans, exposing the regime's grave weaknesses, psychologically rattling its leader, and determining if the plump brat was educable or merely a homicidal fat rat dead set on his own extermination. Team Trump's ultimate goal was to set conditions for achieving the long-range goal: denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. [...] In regards to China, Tillerson said, "No one issue defines the relationship between the U.S. and China. We will be talking about a broad range of issues when I'm in Beijing. But the threat of North Korea is imminent. And it has reached a level that we are very concerned about the consequences of North Korea being allowed to continue on this progress it's been making on the development of both weapons and delivery systems. And it's reached a very alarming state to us." Tillerson's statements were an explicit repudiation of the Obama-era policy as expressed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democrat presidential candidate in 2016: "The approach that our administration is taking is of strategic patience in close coordination with our six-party allies." Best Canadian Blog 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 About Kate Why this blog? Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked. This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio - "You don't speak for me." (goes to a private mailserver in Europe) I can't answer or use every tip, but all are appreciated! 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Juan Giner - INNOVATION International Media Consulting Group I got links from the Weekly Standard, Hot Air and Instapundit yesterday - but SDA was running at least equal to those in visitors clicking through to my blog. Jeff Dobbs "You may be a nasty right winger, but you're not nasty all the time!" Warren Kinsella "Go back to collecting your welfare livelihood."Michael E. Zilkowsky Intelliweather Seismic Map Comments Policy Read this Best Of SDA Hide The Decline The Bottle Genie (ClimateGate links) You Might Be A Liberal Uncrossing The Line Bob Fife: Knuckledragger A Modest Proposal (NP) Settled Science Series Y2Kyoto Series SDA: Reader Occupation Survey Brett Lamb Sheltered Workshop Flakes On A Plane All Your Weather Are Belong To Us Song Of The Sled The Raise A Flag Debacle (Now on Youtube!) (.mwv Video) Abuse Ruins Life Of Girl Trudeaupiate Kleptocrat Jeans Child Labour I Concede Small Dead Feminist Protein Hoser: THK Interview The Werewolf Extinction Dear Laura (VRWC) We Wait Blogging The Oscars Jackson Converts To Islam Just Shut The HELL Up Manipulating Condi Gay Equality Rights Pond Island:--- TelEm Group telecommunication services to residential and business customers were interrupted Monday afternoon following an unexpected failure of network equipment. At approximately 3.00 pm Monday afternoon, fixed voice and data services and some mobile services were affected by the equipment malfunction. Technicians and engineers quickly identified the problem and were able to restore all services two hours later. The company is continuing to monitor the situation and has meantime apologized to customers and the general public for inconvenience caused. Harbour View:--- On March 12, 2018, the Governor of Sint Maarten, His Excellency drs. E.B. Holiday received the report from the informateurs, Mrs. Dr. R.J.A. Arduin and Mr. J.J. Beaujon. The Governor thanked the informateurs for accepting and completing the assignment as planned. The findings of the report will be used as input for the process of the formation of a new government. The Governor is discussing the report with the political leaders of the parties which are elected to parliament. Following the completion of these discussions, the report will be made available to the public and a formateur will be appointed. US could block Broadcom's takeover of Qualcomm, officials warn San Francisco, March 12 (AFP) Mar 12, 2018 US officials are warning they could recommend against Singapore-based Broadcom's mega-acquisition of smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm on national security grounds. The Treasury Department has also found recent steps to speed up the move of Broadcom's headquarters to the United States violate a government order, according to a letter published Monday by The Wall Street Journal. The developments threw further doubt on the outcome of a high-stakes battle for control of a key player in the market for telecommunications products and services. A Treasury spokesman told AFP the agency had no comment. By speeding up its move to the United States, Broadcom appears to be trying to sidestep a national security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is chaired by the Treasury Department. Broadcom said Monday it expected to complete its move to the United States by April 3, ahead of a planned Qualcomm shareholder vote on the $117 billion deal -- meaning any national security concerns were moot. "Broadcom's proposal to acquire Qualcomm has always been premised on the completion of Broadcom's previously announced plan to redomicile," the company said Monday in a statement. "In short, US national security concerns are not a risk to closing, as Broadcom never plans to acquire Qualcomm before it completes redomiciliation." But in a letter dated Sunday, the Treasury Department said that on three separate occasions Broadcom had violated a CFIUS order by failing to give advance notice before taking actions such as filing takeover-related securities filings in the United States. The CFIUS investigation of the proposed acquisition so far has "confirmed" national security concerns earlier identified by US officials and, absent any change, the committee may refer the matter to President Donald Trump for a decision, according to the letter. Broadcom and CFIUS representatives were to meet in Washington on Monday. The Wall Street Journal also reported on Friday that US chip producer Intel was considering buying Broadcom, which has a current market value above $100 billion, in a bid to prevent the Qualcomm deal from proceeding and stave off a competitive threat. dg BROADCOM QUALCOMM Colombia's Santos orders resumption of talks with ELN rebels Bogota, March 12 (AFP) Mar 12, 2018 Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos ordered the resumption of peace talks with ELN rebels Monday, aiming to conclude an historic deal before leaving office in August, despite election gains for hardliners who reject his policies. Santos redoubled his commitment to the talks despite his ruling coalition losing ground in Sunday's legislative elections to a right-wing conservative bloc which rejects what it sees as appeasement. "I have instructed the head of the negotiating team, Gustavo Bell, to travel to Quito and reactivate the dialogue," the president said. The National Liberation Army, or ELN -- the South American country's last active rebel group -- welcomed the decision in a statement. Santos's announcement came in response to a unilateral ceasefire by the ELN for Sunday's legislative elections, seen as a test of the group's willingness to get back to negotiations. He said the parties would discuss a new, "broad and verifiable" ceasefire agreement that would prevent a resurgence of violence of the kind that forced the suspension of talks in January. "We will advance with prudence, firmness and perseverance until we agree on the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration of the ELN, that is, complete peace." Several rounds of talks had been held over the course of the previous year in the capital of neighboring Ecuador, but Santos suspended them following a series of attacks on police stations that left six people dead and dozens more wounded. Those attacks occurred after a 101-day bilateral ceasefire had expired on January 9, during a break in the talks. - 'Complete peace' - Santos has made no secret of his dream of "complete peace" in Colombia, having signed a peace deal in November 2016 with its biggest rebel group, the FARC. Its transition to a political party that contested Sunday's legislative elections is something of a triumph for the 66-year-old president, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016. But the major winners of the election, a coalition of right-wing forces centered around former president Alvaro Uribe's Centro Democratico party, have led opposition to the peace deal, and what they see as indulgent treatment of organizations involved in atrocious crimes. But "it is the only option that Santos has -- try to calm the conflict with the ELN, reduce confrontation with the army to a minimum," analyst Camilo Echandia of Externado University told AFP. "He does not want to go down in history as the president who made peace with the FARC, but who walked away from talks with the ELN." Santos is due to step down on August 7 after two terms. The FARC peace deal and ELN negotiations will top the agenda as the presidential election campaign gets underway. Both left and right-wing coalitions chose their candidates in primaries over the weekend. A hardliner from Uribe's party, Ivan Duque, won the right-wing party as is leading the opinion polls ahead of the May 27 first round. - Battlefield losses - During the suspension of talks, government forces had resumed operations against the ELN, killing 10 rebels on Tuesday in the group's biggest recent battlefield loss. The ELN has about 1,500 fighters. Even after a year of negotiations, the Quito talks have shown little sign of progress. Analysts say this is largely due to a government negotiating with a group lacking a vertical command structure and whose various units in the field have military autonomy. Events since the FARC ceasefire has given ammunition to Santos' critics, not least the general consensus that the ELN has taken over territory abandoned by the FARC and strengthened their hand. "It is very unlikely that the next government will agree to negotiate such an imprecise, general agenda, with so few possibilities of obtaining results," said Echandia. US urges UN to keep N. Korea sanctions until 'real progress' in talks United Nations, United States, March 13 (AFP) Mar 13, 2018 The United States on Monday urged the United Nations Security Council to maintain sanctions on North Korea until there is real progress toward scrapping Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. US National Security Advisor HR McMaster met with council ambassadors in New York, a few days after President Donald Trump agreed to a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "We are all agreed that we are optimistic about this opportunity," McMaster told reporters after the closed-door meeting at the US mission to the United Nations. "But we are determined to keep up the campaign of maximum pressure until we see words match with deeds, and real progress toward denuclearization." Trump agreed last week to a first face-to-face meeting with Kim, which could take place by the end of May, raising hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough after the two leaders spent months hurling insults and threats at each other. During the meeting with the ambassadors, McMaster pointed to three UN sanctions resolutions adopted by the council as key in the campaign to bring North Korea to the negotiating table, according to a council diplomat. McMaster said the council had shown "unity and resolve that has us now at the point where we may be able to pursue a diplomatic solution on the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." The Security Council has imposed tough economic sanctions aimed at choking off revenue to Pyongyang's military programs after Kim's regime carried out a sixth nuclear test and a series of advanced missile launches. The sanctions resolutions were unanimously adopted following negotiations with China, Pyongyang's ally. US Ambassador Nikki Haley singled out China for praise, saying Beijing had been "very helpful" in the push for sanctions, and also cited South Korea and Japan. The sanctions resolutions ban North Korean exports of commodities and severely restricted shipments of oil and fuel to the isolated state. Dutch Ambassador Karel van Oosterom, who chairs the council's North Korea sanctions committee, told reporters "we have to continue implementing the sanctions as they stand." A council diplomat said the US appeal to keep up sanctions pressure showed that Washington remained skeptical about prospects for a deal with Pyongyang on scrapping its nuclear program. McMaster said the Trump administration wanted to move quickly because of concerns that Pyongyang was steadily progressing toward major advancements in its military programs, said the diplomat, who asked not to be named. The national security adviser also met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Baghdad ends air blockade of Iraqi Kurdistan Baghdad, March 13 (AFP) Mar 13, 2018 Iraqi authorities said Tuesday they were lifting a nearly six-month air blockade imposed on Iraqi Kurdistan in response to its holding of an independence referendum. Federal authorities imposed the blockade in September after Iraqi Kurdistan voted overwhelmingly for independence in a non-binding referendum rejected as illegal by the central government. It was extended in December for two months and renewed in February for another possible three months. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a statement the airports of Kurdish regional capital Arbil and second city Sulaimaniyah would again be "open to international flights". The decision to lift the flight ban was made "after local Kurdish authorities accepted that central authorities retake control of the two airports," the statement said. The formal lifting of the blockade will take place in the next few days, Abadi's spokesman Saad al-Hadithi told AFP. "This will depend on how long it takes for employees of the central government to start working in the airports," he said. Iraqi Kurdish prime minister Nechirvan Barzani told a press conference shortly after the announcement that he "thanked Baghdad and Prime Minister Abadi because it is he who decided to reopen the airports". Since the flight ban went into force, all Kurdistan-bound international flights have been rerouted to Baghdad, which also imposed entry visas on foreigners wishing to visit the Kurdish region. The flight ban was part of a battery of penalties inflicted on the Kurds as Baghdad sought to nullify the poll, with federal forces also seizing disputed oil-rich regions. Baghdad demanded to take over passport control in airports in Kurdistan as well as customs issues. Arbil had already agreed to that and control of airport security was the last stumbling block, an official told AFP at the end of February when the blockade was extended for another three months. Abadi met with a Kurdish delegation on Tuesday, a senior Kurdish official confirmed to AFP on condition of anonymity, and the two sides agreed that the issues of security and passports would be entrusted to Baghdad. Baghdad and Arbil have been engaged in a political and territorial struggle since the September 25 independence referendum. Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces took control of the northern province of Kirkuk, home to key oilfields, in June 2014 after federal forces withdrew in the face of an offensive by the Islamic State group. Late last year, following the failed independence push, federal forces recaptured the oilfields, severing a key financial lifeline for the Kurds. This month the Iraqi parliament approved the 2018 budget in the absence of Kurdish lawmakers who boycotted the meeting to protest a cut in the amount allocated to their autonomous region. US gives Philippine air force first drones Manila, March 13 (AFP) Mar 13, 2018 The United States gave the Philippine air force its first surveillance drone system on Tuesday, as the two nations step up cooperation in the battle against jihadist militants. Washington has been boosting its backing for Philippine counter-terror efforts since supporters of the Islamic State group seized parts of the southern city of Marawi last year, sparking a deadly five-month battle. The unmanned aerial vehicle system, which includes six drones and is worth $13.2 million (10.7 million euros), is the latest US military assistance to Philippine troops. "Assets like the ScanEagle will significantly improve the (Philippine military's) ability to detect terrorist activities, piracy activities, territory encroachment," US Ambassador to Manila Sung Kim told reporters, referring to the drones. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the system, equipped with cameras and aircraft that can fly for 24 hours, would support operations against militants in the south. The southern region of Mindanao is home to several pro-IS groups, including those who attacked Marawi in May last year in fighting that claimed more than 1,100 lives and reduced large parts of the city to rubble. These new drones are to be used for reconnaissance missions in defence, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, Lorenzana said. "With a number of security issues confronting our country today, there is a need to upgrade our nation's armed forces," he added. President Rodrigo Duterte had sought to loosen the Philippines' 70-year alliance with the United States in favour of closer ties with China and Russia. His anger was partly driven by American criticism of his drug war, which has seen police kill thousands of people and prompted an International Criminal Court preliminary examination. Although relations have improved under US President Donald Trump, who has praised Duterte for his drug war, the Philippine leader has increasingly turned to Beijing and Moscow to boost one of Asia's weakest armed forces. Duterte last month cancelled a deal to buy helicopters from Canada after Ottawa ordered a review over human rights concerns. "Do not buy anymore from Canada and the US because there is always a condition attached," Duterte said at the time. A US embassy spokeswoman said Washington "is committed to the rule of law and respect for human rights, and we urge other governments to do the same". The surveillance system is aimed at bolstering counter-terrorism operations and disaster relief, she added. Saudi cabinet approves national atomic policy Riyadh, March 13 (AFP) Mar 13, 2018 Saudi Arabia's cabinet on Tuesday approved the national policy of its atomic energy programme, state media said, as the kingdom prepares to award contracts for its first nuclear power plants. The policy insists on limiting nuclear activities to peaceful purposes and calls for enhanced safety measures as well as the use of best practises for radioactive waste management, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, is seeking nuclear power to diversify its energy supply mix in order to free up oil to boost exports. The policy announcement comes ahead of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to the United States on March 19-22, which is likely to see efforts to reach a civilian nuclear cooperation accord with Washington. The kingdom has accelerated plans to build 16 nuclear reactors over the next two decades, officials and analysts say, at a cost of some $80 billion. Negotiations are underway with the United States for its agreement to export technology needed for their construction. Besides the US company Westinghouse, Russian, French, Chinese and South Korean firms have all been seeking the Saudi contracts. Some analysts have voiced concerns that Saudi Arabia seeks to use its atomic programme as a hedge against its arch-rival Iran, which signed a deal with the United States in 2015 to curb its own nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. Saudi Arabia, which insists its intentions are peaceful, has signed cooperation agreements with over a dozen countries in recent years to boost nuclear cooperation, including France, China and Russia. bur-ac/atm/dv Mattis in Kabul, says elements in Taliban open to peace talks Kabul, March 13 (AFP) Mar 13, 2018 Elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghan government, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday, a potentially significant move that runs counter to the insurgents' long-term refusal to talk to Kabul. Mattis flew into the war-torn nation on an unannounced visit two weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban, Afghanistan's biggest militant group. The Taliban have so far given no formal response to Kabul's offer for negotiations, but have published a lengthy statement and an online commentary that analysts say are an oblique rejection of the proposal. But Mattis said some Taliban figures have expressed an interest in joining the discussions. "It may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop, that would be a bridge too far, but there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," Mattis said. The Pentagon chief's visit to the Afghan capital comes as US and Afghan forces ramp up air strikes against the Taliban as part of President Donald Trump's new strategy for the region, which Ghani called a "game changer" for the country. "It has forced every actor to re-examine their assumptions," Ghani said as he met with Mattis at Kabul's presidential palace. "Some of that re-examination is likely to lead to the intensification of conflict in the short term but the re-examination is what the people of Afghanistan have been (waiting for) for 40 years." Ghani's peace plan includes eventually recognising the Taliban as a political party. The group has said it is prepared to negotiate, but only with the United States and not with the Kabul government. - US looks to 'victory' - The Taliban last week described the Afghan government as "illegitimate" and its peace process efforts as "deceptive", in a statement calling for a boycott of an Islamic scholars' conference in Jakarta. "Right now we want the Afghans to lead and to provide the substance of the reconciliation effort," Mattis said. Brigadier General Michael Fenzel, planning director for NATO's mission in Afghanistan, said he had seen signals that some among the Taliban were willing to negotiate. "In each one of our areas, there are groups of 10 and 20 that are coming in, not wanting to be a part of the Taliban any longer," Fenzel told reporters. Thanks to the political process, Mattis said America was now looking towards victory in Afghanistan after more than 16 years of conflict. "What does that victory look like? It's a country whose own people and their own security forces handle law enforcement and any threats... certainly with international support for some years to come," he said. The US has renewed its focus on Afghanistan after years of drawdowns under former president Barack Obama and talk by top US generals of "not winning" and of a "stalemate" in the seemingly intractable conflict. "It's all working to achieve a political reconciliation, not a military victory," Mattis said. "The victory will be a political reconciliation." - Jump in attacks - As part of the so-called South Asia Strategy, Trump last year ordered the increased bombing of Taliban targets -- including drug-making labs and training camps. More than 3,000 additional US forces have also arrived in Afghanistan to boost the training and advising of local troops. Approximately 14,000 American forces are currently in Afghanistan, up from a low of about 8,500 when Obama left office. Ghani's offer of peace talks comes as civilian casualties have soared in recent months, with the Taliban increasingly targeting towns and cities in response to Trump's aggressive military policy. The Taliban claimed 472 attacks in January alone, the Washington-based terrorism research group TRAC said -- an astonishing number given that the traditional fighting season does not usually start until freezing temperatures have subsided in the spring. Mattis said the jump in attacks on civilians was an indication that a pressured Taliban is unable to conduct broader, ground-taking operations. The Afghan security forces were able to stop some attacks, Mattis said, though he noted he wanted to see them shift to a more "offensive mindset" in the coming months. Mattis's surprise Afghan visit, his third as Pentagon chief, was kept under tight wraps after a security incident during his last trip in September, when insurgents shelled Kabul's airport hours after he arrived. Mattis also said he had seen some changes in Pakistan's behaviour since Trump blasted the country last year for harbouring the Taliban. "There are operations by the Pakistan military that are helping right now, ongoing as we speak," he said. Iraq PM security detail commander killed in armed clash Samarra, Iraq, March 13 (AFP) Mar 13, 2018 A general charged with ensuring security ahead of a visit by Iraq's prime minister was killed Tuesday in a shoot out with militia fighters, officials said. Special forces commander Sherif Ismail was heading back to Baghdad after preparing the ground for a trip planned for Wednesday by premier Haider al-Abadi to the conflict-ravaged Nineveh province. "Clashes broke out with fighters from Saraya al-Salam," a group loyal to prominent Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, a security source said, after a verbal altercation spiralled out of control. "The general was killed and three of his men were wounded," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. The prime minister's office confirmed the death of Ismail and blamed "shots from undisciplined fighters", without naming a group. Abadi had "ordered the immediate opening of an investigation", a statement said. The violence comes two months ahead of legislative elections in Iraq that Abadi is hoping will see him remain in charge after claiming victory against the Islamic State group at the end of last year. Commentators have previously mooted a potential alliance between Abadi and Sadr's parties at the vote. 'The Sale of Our Identity' C&A Family Member Discusses Firm's Uncertain Future They are one of Europe's richest families, and also extremely tight-lipped. With news of the company's potential sale, a member of the Brenninkmeijer family, which owns fashion retailer C&A, has come forward to address the rumors. Brussels, March 13, 2018 (SPS) the Frente POLISARIO has condemned the decision to host the 2018 Crans-Montana Forum in the Western Saharan city of Dakhla; illegally occupied by Morocco, in Press release issued by POLISARIO Representation to Europe POLISARIO stressed that the forum which will take place on March 15-20; and is a clear attempt to whitewash the brutal daily reality of Moroccos illegal occupation in Western Sahara. The promotional material for the forum describes Dakhla as part of the Kingdom of Morocco in contravention with International and EU law, reaffirming its preparedness to seek recourse in legal action if necessary when the sovereignty over Western Sahara is threatened or undermined. It has also urgeed Crans- Montana Forum to desist from holding its meetings in Western Sahara. It reminded that The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled unequivocally in December 2016 and January 2018 that Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco are two distinct and separate territories. It has also emphasized that the final declaration of the ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly, held 28 29 January 2018 in Addis Ababa, called for a boycott of the Crans Montana Forum meeting. The declaration reads The Assembly reiterates its repeated calls, in particular its declaration adopted at its 24th Ordinary Session held in Addis Ababa, from 30 to 31 January 2015, on the Crans - Montana Forum, a Switzerland-based organization, to desist from convening its meetings in the city of Dakhla, in Western Sahara and APPEALS to all Member States, African civil society organizations and other relevant actors to boycott the upcoming meeting scheduled to take place from 15 to 20 March 2018. Western Sahara remains the last colony in the African continent and it has been on the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories since 1963 when it was under Spanish colonial rule. Moroccos systematic human rights abuses in occupied Western Sahara, including torture and discriminate against Saharawis, are well documented by independent Human Rights organisations. The General Assembly has since consistently recognised the inalienable right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence.it should be recalled SPS 125/090 'Mama' to Thousands of Children in Egypt to be Honored with the Charles W. Colson Award Contact: Brenda Velasco, Biola University , 562-777-4061LA MIRADA, Calif., March 13, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- Founder of Stephen's Children, a ministry in Cairo, Egypt, Maggie Gobran will be honored with the Charles W. Colson Courage and Conviction award from Biola University. Biola President Barry H. Corey will present the award to Gobran, who is affectionately known as "Mama Maggie" at Biola's 89th annual Missions Conference on Mar. 14, 2018.Recipients of the Colson Award have chosen a life of serving God no matter what challenges they face or difficulties they have to overcome."The committee wanted to honor 'Mama Maggie's' conviction and courage in caring for tens of thousands of children and their families in the slums and squatter areas of Egypt through her organization, Stephen's Children," said Corey. "She has made a remarkable contribution through her service to Coptic Christians struggling under heavy persecution and it's an honor to recognize her with this distinguished award."Since 1989, Gobran has dedicated her life to serving the poor and forgotten children in Egypt's garbage slums through her organization. She grew up in an upper-middle class family and eventually became a successful businesswoman and professor at the American University in Cairo. However, she gave up her career after she saw children were living in abject poverty and persecution and decided to serve them.Gobran's organization is dedicated to building relationships with the poorest and most vulnerable families in Cairo. She has built 97 community medical centers and schools in the garbage slums and serves over 40,000 children and their families. Everyday, the "Zabaleen" or garbage children are morally, educationally and spiritually equipped to serve the world for God through the ministry of Stephen's Children. Stephen's Children includes almost 2,000 home workers that teach Bible study, pray and bring food to families, risking their very lives to share the gospel in a 90 percent Muslim majority country that is hostile to Christians.Biola will be honoring Gobran at 2 p.m. during Biola's 89th annual Missions Conference a student-run 3-day conference on Biola's campus attended by the entire student body. The event will be streamed live at live.biola.edu . Following the presentation of the award, at 4:30 p.m., she will be speaking to students about her life and ministry.Biola University in consultation with the Colson family established the Charles W. Colson Conviction and Courage Award in 2014. Christian leader Chuck Colson lived a life of biblical conviction with the courage to advocate truth despite difficult circumstances. Biola honored the legacy of the late Colson by awarding him the inaugural award at the university's commencement in May 2014. Colson's son, Christian Colson, received the award on his father's behalf at the ceremonies. The award honors Colson's legacy and celebrates Christian leaders who live in the same fashion.To learn more about Stephen's Children, visit www.stephenschildren.org TO VIEW MORE NEWS STORY, PLEASE CLICK ON NEWS TAB ON MAIN MENU BAR When Rabbi Ephraim Zimand of Traditional Congregation, along with his wife Esther, retires this summer, he will fulfill what he calls "a lifelong dream to settle in Israel" during his aliyah."My wife and I have been Zionist from when we were very young,... Lost in the hyper-politicized hullabaloo surrounding the Nunes Memorandum and the Steele Dossier was the striking statement by Secretary of Defense James Mattis that the U.S. has no evidence that the Syrian government used the banned nerve agent Sarin against its own people.This assertion flies in the face of the White House (NSC) Memorandum which was rapidly produced and declassified to justify an American Tomahawk missile strike against the Shayrat airbase in Syria.Mattis offered no temporal qualifications, which means that both the 2017 event in Khan Sheikhoun and the 2013 tragedy in Ghouta are unsolved cases in the eyes of the Defense Department and Defense Intelligence Agency.Mattis went on to acknowledge that aid groups and others had provided evidence and reports but stopped short of naming President Assad as the culprit.There were casualties from organophosphate poisoning in both cases; that much is certain. But America has accused Assad of direct responsibility for Sarin attacks and even blamed Russia for culpability in the Khan Sheikhoun tragedy.Now its own military boss has said on the record that we have no evidence to support this conclusion. In so doing, Mattis tacitly impugned the interventionists who were responsible for pushing the Assad is guilty narrative twice without sufficient supporting evidence, at least in the eyes of the Pentagon.This dissonance between the White House and the Department of Defense is especially troubling when viewed against the chorus of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) experts who have been questioning the (Obama and Trump) White House narratives concerning chemical weapons in Syria since practically the moment these Assad-ordered events occurred. Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. 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. CCTV footage has been released by Warwickshire Police this week taken from inside the jewellery store that was targeted by armed raiders. It shows the distinctive clothing of one of the men wanted over the raid. A REWARD has been offered this week for information about an armed robbery from a jewellers in January, during which 400,000 worth of items was stolen. Three masked men, wielding crowbars, targeted Hamlingtons Fine Jewellery in Market Place, Warwick, on Tuesday, 16th January, before speeding away from the scene in a dark grey Audi Q3. The shops insurers have confirmed that they have agreed to offer a conditional reward of up to 40,000, subject to information leading to the recovery of goods and reliant on a written recommendation from a senior police officer. A smaller reward may also be paid if there is only a partial recovery of the stock taken. Warwickshire Police have also issued their own new appeal for information about the robbery, and have released CCTV images of some of the suspects. Police staff investigator, Dom Kennedy, said: We have released the CCTV of two of the men we would like to speak to in connection with the robbery. Do you know these men or recognise their clothing? If so we would like to hear from you. Anyone who recognises the men or has any information on the robbery is urged to call 101 and quote incident number 270 of 16th January, 2018. Information can be passed on anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or via www.crimestoppers-uk.org At the time of the raid, the Herald reported how the robbers jumped over the counter and threatened to harm staff members unless they co-operated. No-one was injured in the raid but David Hamlington, who owns the business, said at the time the staff would be mentally scarred by the experience, adding: We wont be beaten by this, were down but were not out. Students speak with local professionals to learn about different careers as part of the DOT career training program sponsored by UNL Extension. Ninth grade students from across the region attended Nebraska Extension's Connecting the Dots Career Exploration Program at Sidney High School on March 5. Nearly 150 students spent the morning exploring their skills, learning to write a good resume and how to behave in an interview. In addition to Sidney High, students from Leyton High School, Kimball High School and Banner County High School participated in the simulation. After lunch, students had the opportunity to see how they can connect the dots from where they are in school now to where they want to be in the future. Before the event, students took a career assessment inventory that revealed clusters of jobs that they may be interested in pursuing. Students then began the career exploration event, pairing up with another student with similar career interests. Each pair visited with one of 16 different career area potential employers. These were business people from the community who volunteered their time. The event attempts to display paths to many careers, those that require college degrees and options for careers that do not require degrees. Employers counseled students to help find careers that fit their experiences and interests. If the student did not have the education or certification needed for the career selected they had to return to the education table and get the degree needed for their desired career. Then they could go back to the employer and investigate different careers in that area. The students had several opportunities to interact with the business professionals before completing that part of the event. CYNTHIA GILL / FOR THE SUN-TELEGRAPH Students learn how to make introductions and interact with others as part of a career training program sponsored by UNL Extension. The highlight of the day was the good advice and tips for success offered by the business representatives. Helping out at this year's event were Shannon Ankeny, Cabela's; Sonia Corne, manager of Hampton Inn; Lisa Laws; Sidney Regional Medical Center; Matt Gudahl, Sidney Regional Medical Center; Niki Rochlitz, Great Western Bank; Bill Struckmeyer, UNL High Plains Ag Lab; Suzy Ernest, KSID Radio; James Gill, Cabela's; Jon Leever, L&L Aviation; Shelly Gerk, South Platte NRD; Kristin Schmidt, Sidney Regional Medical Center; Becky Allard, Sidney Regional Medical Center; Emily Johnson, Sidney Regional Medical Center; Ron Gusman, Veteran's Office; Lisa Bickford, Office of Human Develpment; Adam Frerichs, Cheyenne County Sheriff's office; Lori Biesecker, Educational Service Unit 13; James Mendoza, National Guard; John Cattin, Jobs Corps; Tyler O'Daniel, Chadron State College; and Cole Honstead, Western Nebraska Community College. Local Extension officials offered thanks to Sidney High School for hosting, Nebraska Extension Educators, UNL and military representatives for making the program possible and for ESU 13, Farm Credit Services, and Points West Bank for their financial support of the program. Connecting the Dots facilitates growth and development of rural communities by increasing connections between youth and community leaders. Youth gain an understanding of the opportunities within their own communities and the importance of the choices they make in high school. For more information about 4-H, Extension or the Connecting the Dots program, contact Cynthia Gill at 308-254-3809 or [email protected] Liverpool, N.Y. -- Immediate Mailing Services Inc., an outsourcing and information technology company, says it will create 22 jobs over the next three years as it expands its operations in Liverpool. Company officials said Tuesday they plan to add 6,500 square feet to the company's headquarters at 245 Commerce Blvd. and renovate 7,000 square feet of production and office areas at the same location. In addition, they said the company will add 5,000 square feet to a 5,270-square-foot building the company purchased in January across the street at 220 Commerce Blvd. IMS employs 240 people, including 148 in Liverpool. The 22 jobs it expects to create in the next three years will bring its total in Liverpool to 170. "We're on an upward swing, and we very much want to stay in Liverpool," company President and Chief Operating Officer John Mashia Jr. told members of the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency on Tuesday. IMS has applied to the agency for $109,145 in tax exemptions for the expansion, which will cost $1.3 million. It is seeking a sales tax exemption worth $56,000 on construction materials, 10 years of property tax discounts worth a total of $43,395 and a mortgage tax exemption worth $9,750. It would have to pay a $14,310 project fee to the agency if the tax exemptions are approved. Founded in 1986 by W. Lee Vanderpool Jr., IMS provides printing and mailing services for companies, including producing and managing transactional documents such as bills, statements and checks. It also provides marketing services. Its clients include financial services, healthcare and insurance companies. Fifteen of the new jobs will pay from $14 to $17 an hour, according to the company's application. The others will be information technology, manager, administrative positions that pay salaries of $40,000 to $70,000, the company said. Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 Syracuse, NY -- Little was revealed this afternoon during brief opening statements in the murder trial of two men accused of a 2013 drive-by shooting. GaJuan Richardson, 21, and Landrous Hills, 25, are accused of shooting to death 19-year-old Mahleik Starling during the 1 a.m. Feb. 19, 2013 drive-by at South Salina and West Calthrop streets. Opening statements by a prosecutor and two defense lawyers took a total of 30 minutes -- an unusually short time for a murder trial. But one thing is clear: the prosecution's case relies on a drug addict who says she let Hills borrow her SUV the night of the murder in exchange for crack cocaine. Prosecutor Caleb Petzoldt told the jury that the woman -- who now lives in Florida -- will identify Hills as the man she went to for her drug fix. She loaned him her SUV overnight in exchange for the drugs. After Hills took possession of her green Ford Explorer, he is accused of participating in the murder later that night. The woman will say that she met up with Hills again at 3 a.m. for more drugs, Petzoldt said. During the incident itself, a passenger in Hills' car, Richardson, is accused of firing six shots in the span of four seconds, killing Starling. The Chevrolet Impala with the victim crashed into the green Ford SUV, Petzoldt said. Both vehicles, later examined by police, show collision damage consistent with the prosecution's theory of the crash, Petzoldt said. And there's green paint on the Impala, which Petzoldt said came from the green SUV. The woman who traded her SUV for drugs will testify that when Hills came back for the 3 a.m. drug exchange, he had two passengers, including Richardson, Petzoldt told the jury. But it wasn't until 19 days later, when Hills was arrested for an unrelated incident, did authorities say they found the murder weapon: a Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum revolver, Petzoldt said. Richardson's fingerprint was on the weapon, Petzoldt said. And the weapon is consistent with evidence found in the victim's Impala, Petzolt said. But defense lawyers Paul Carey and Ken Moynihan urged jurors not to take for granted the narrative laid out by the prosecution. Neither spoke specifically about their clients' defense, instead questioning the prosecution's witnesses. Moynihan reminded the jurors of the woman's drug issues and questioned if she could be a reliable witness while high. Not said today was why it took until 2016 to arrest both men for the 2013 murder. Both Richardson and Hills were in prison for unrelated crimes at the time of their arrests. No motivation was given for the homicide. And Petzoldt did not mention any eyewitnesses who will testify for the prosecution. Testimony will begin Wednesday morning. Both accused face up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted of murder. MARCELLUS, N.Y. -- Two men in a traveling criminal group have been arrested for burglarizing a Marcellus home and sheriff's deputies are looking for a third, the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office said. Juan Felipe Amezquita, 18, and Juan Sebastien Hoyos-Machado, 25, both of Colombia have been arrested and charged with second-degree burglary and third-degree grand larceny, deputies said. Police are still looking for a third man, Jorge Ivan Salgado, 46, of Miami, Florida, deputies said. He is also charged with second-degree burglary and third-degree larceny, deptuies said. The three are accused of burglarizing a residence on the 3200 block of Sevier Road and taking a large sum of money, deputies said. All three men were arrested in connection with an unrelated incident in the City of Macedonia Police Department in Ohio, deputies said. Salgado was released from the Geauga County Jail after satisfying his charges and has evaded police, deputies said. Amenzquita and Hoyos-Machado were transported to Onondaga County on March 5, were arraigned in Centralized Arraignment Court and are being held on $50,000 cash and $100,000 bond. Detectives identified the vehicle the three used to travel across state lines and commit burglaries while they traveled, deputies said. Third-degree larceny is typically applied when the value of the property stolen exceeds $3,000 but is less than $50,000. Deputies ask that anyone who has information or knows the whereabouts of Jorge Ivan Salgado call the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office Warrants Investigations Unit at 315-435-3032 or by sending a tip via the tip411 app. WATERTOWN, NY -- The nearly 100-year-old Crystal Restaurant, famed for its hot Tom & Jerry drinks during the holiday season, has closed, at least for now. Owners Peter and Libby Dephtereos say they were forced to shut down after the city of Watertown condemned two neglected apartments on the floors above the restaurant 87 Public Square in the heart of downtown Watertown. The restaurant itself is in good shape, and the owners hope to reopen it when the building issues are resolved. "We do not own the building that houses The Crystal Restaurant," the Crystal posted in a message to customers on Facebook. "The two apartments above the restaurant have been condemned due to destruction, disrepair, and neglect. As renters, we have no control over what transpires above us. We took every possible precaution and implemented every possible solution we could to protect our property and customers, to no avail. As a last resort, we decided to close to fully remedy the situation." The Crystal Restaurant opened in 1925 at 87 Public Square in downtown Watertown, N.Y. City inspectors condemned the two apartments last month after finding "signs of cockroaches, garbage and broken utilities," according to a report in the Watertown Times. There were also unauthorized tenants, the Times reported, who were "living in a kind of squalor," city code supervisor Shawn R. McWayne told The Times. The Crystal and its owners are "fine," McWayne told the Times, "because they took care of that area. The upstairs was not taken care of." The Crystal has been operated by the Dephtereos family since 1925. It served inexpensive and comforting diner food in a setting that includes a stand-up bar (no stools or seats), a pressed tin ceiling and ancient wooden booths. Peter Dephtereos, in the past, has attempted to buy the building, the Times reported. It is now owned by Ricky E. Frazier. The Crystal is known as one of the North Country bars that continue a tradition of serving the hot drink called the "Tom & Jerry" each holiday season, from Thanksgiving through New Year's. The Tom & Jerry, a relative of egg nog that dates to the early 1800s, , combines an egg batter and spices with rum and brandy. The batter is mixed in the kitchen then poured into antique dark blue punch bowl set on the bar. Bartenders mix the batter with the spirits at the bar and served them in small milk white mugs emblazoned with the name "Tom, & Jerry" and holidays images. Stopping in for a Tom & Jerry at the Crystal's stand-up bar during the holidays is a longstanding Watertown tradition, Libby Dephtereos told author Chuck D'Imperio for his book, "A Taste of Upstate New York." "When it (the punch bowl) comes out the bar, everybody cheers," she said. "It is nonstop and it is a madhouse in here. A fun madhouse." "We have been in business almost 100 years," the Crystal's Facebook post said. "The health and safety of our customers has always been of the utmost importance to us. We will continue to take any and all steps to rectify the problem and welcome you back to The Crystal you know and love." Serving Tom & Jerry's at the Crystal in Watertown: There is so much holiday cheer on Public Square this year Posted by The Crystal Restaurant on Thursday, December 12, 2013 Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook. VERONA, N.Y. -- An Oneida County man was under the influence of marijuana and not paying attention when he flipped his car onto its roof at a Thruway toll booth this weekend in Verona, state police Sgt. Michael Page said. Charles D. Whittier has a valid medical marijuana card, but Page said that card did not give him the legal right to drive his car while under the influence. Whittier, 54, of Greenway New London Road in the city of Rome, told Trooper James Drager that he smokes marijuana to help with a medical condition, according to a police statement. Whittier also told the trooper he was bending over and reaching for something in his gray Toyota Prius when he felt the car strike something, then flip over as he exited Interstate 90 West, Page said. That something, the sergeant said, was the left side of the Prius striking a concrete curb on the east side of the toll booth at Exit 33 (Verona-Rome-Oneida). "As he went through the toll booth, his car flips and spins in the air without striking anything or anyone," Page said. "It then slid 15 feet before coming to rest on its roof, facing north." The toll booth operator, shaken, called for help at 3:26 p.m. Page likened the crash to The Dukes of Hazzard, and said it was a "miracle" no one was badly hurt and somehow the car never touched the toll booth. "He totally (avoided) tragedy," Page said. Whittier had some cuts on his face and was taken to a local hospital. Trooper Drager, a trained drug recognition expert, smelled what he thought was marijuana on Whittier at the scene. At the hospital, the trooper completed drug testing that confirmed Whittier was under the influence of marijuana, Page said. Alcohol was not a factor, he said. Whittier was released from the hospital and brought to the state police barracks in Oneida. There, he was charged with felony driving while ability impaired by drugs, as well as failure to use a designated lane and speed not reasonable or prudent, traffic violations. Whittier also was accused of not paying a Thruway toll, troopers said. The DWAI-drugs charge is a felony because Whittier has a prior DWI-related conviction within the past 10 years. A family member came to pick up Whittier, who was released on an appearance ticket. He is scheduled to answer the charges at 5:30 p.m. March 20 in Verona Town Court. By Sarah Moses Buckshot and Samantha House When 17 people were gunned down last month in a Florida high school, students there and many across the nation made a demand: never again. Many Central New York students will join thousands across the country and walk out of classes at 10 a.m. Wednesday to mark the one-month anniversary of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Students will walk out for 17 minutes -- one minute for each person killed in the Florida shootings. EMPOWER, the youth branch of Women's March, organized the nationwide event called "ENOUGH: National School Walkout." The goals of the protest -- although debated and varied -- are to remember the Parkland victims and advocate for gun control laws. Where are walkouts planned in CNY? More than 2,800 walkouts have been scheduled with 14 protests expected to take place in Central New York, according to the group's website. Many of the events were created by students. EMPOWER has warned participants that the events are not necessarily school-sanctioned walkouts. For example, a walkout dubbed #NeverAgain@Nottingham at William Nottingham High School in Syracuse is listed on EMPOWER's protest map. But Michael Henesey, a district spokesman, said no walkouts have been planned in the Syracuse City School District. Here are the CNY schools with walkouts listed by EMPOWER: Moravia Central School in Moravia, Cayuga County Cortland Junior-Senior High in Cortland, Cortland County Oneida High School in Oneida, Madison County Donovan Middle School in Utica, Oneida County Cicero-North Syracuse High School in Cicero, Onondaga County Jamesville-DeWitt High School in DeWitt, Onondaga (scheduled for April 20) William Nottingham High School in Syracuse, Onondaga County Mynderse Academy in Seneca Falls, Seneca County Trumansburg Central School District in Trumansburg, Tompkins County Dryden High School in Dryden, Tompkins County New Roots Charter School in Ithaca, Tompkins County Ithaca High School in Ithaca, Tompkins County Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Service, Town of Ithaca, Tompkins County Newfield High School in Newfield, Tompkins County It is likely there will be protests at other schools in Central New York in addition to those listed by EMPOWER. School districts not supporting walkouts Some school districts are discouraging students from walking out by offering alternative ceremonies or moments of silence. The Baldwinsville Central School District does not encourage students to leave their buildings, Superintendent Matthew McDonald said in a message to parents. "Leaving a school building during school hours without permission is a violation of the district's code of conduct and poses a safety issue for students," McDonald said. "Students who leave a building without permission on March 14 will be subjected to the consequences outlined in the district's code of conduct." Building administrators at C.W. Baker High School, Durgee Junior High School and Ray Middle School have discussed the national walkout with their student leaders and have developed student-centered activities that they will conduct in the buildings to provide students with opportunities to express their solidarity and to remember the victims in a "safe, thoughtful and productive way," McDonald said. He was unable to be reached for comment. Students at Ray Middle School students may wear maroon, which is the school colors for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. At 7:35 a.m., there will be a moment of silence and during lunch periods, students can write encouraging messages on banners for the students in Florida. Students can also make cards in the library for Parkland students. Fayetteville-Manlius schools Superintendent Craig J. Tice said students are entitled to exercise their First Amendment rights, but the district is not sponsoring a walkout and students who decide to participate in the walkout will be in violation of the code of conduct. Tice, who was unable to be reached, told parents in a letter that any behavior that violates the code of conduct, such as skipping class or leaving campus, "may be subject to consequences." "That being said, the code of conduct affords school administrators wide discretion and latitude in deciding what consequences, if any, are merited for a particular infraction," Tice said. "By not sponsoring the walkout and adhering to the code of conduct, the district does not waive its right to enforce the behavioral expectations therein (should a student commit a more serious infraction during the walkout) during this and or future events." Tice said faculty and staff are not permitted to participate in the walkout. "While faculty and staff may hold strong opinions about a given topic, they are required to maintain neutrality during the school day," Tice said. Tice said the district is concerned for student safety and will have internal venues available for student use for those who wish to congregate indoors for whatever reason. Faculty and staff who are not teaching at the time will be assigned in advance to provide direct supervision of the students in both of these venues. Resource officers will be deployed as supervisors and the district has made contact with the town of Manlius Police to provide additional on-campus security, Tice said. School maintenance staff will restrict access to every school campus in order to limit vehicular traffic flow during the anticipated walkout, he said. Unlike the public school superintendents, many colleges and universities across the country have said they will not penalize high school students applying for admissions if they participate in the walkouts and are disciplined. Members of the Manlius Pebble Hill student body and faculty stand behind a signed banner that will be sent to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Leaders at the Manlius Pebble Hill School, a private school in DeWitt, are supporting students who have organized an optional, peaceful assembly in honor of the Florida shooting victims. Students will leave classrooms to gather outside under the flagpole for 17 minutes, according to a spokesperson for the school. Some students will hold signs that call for action to end gun violence, while others will prefer to observe 17 minutes of silence. "We hope that by planning our own walkout, that we will be remembering those who passed and take a stand for stricter gun regulations," said Charlie Mann, one of the student organizers. "While some may believe that remembrance and change do not go hand-in-hand, we believe that we must remember to inspire change in our society so that events like these never happen again." The walkout is not school-sponsored, but the administration is supporting the students. "We welcome their interest in expressing both their solidarity with and sympathy for Parkland students and their desire to influence the political process," said Head of School Jim Dunaway. "Our students are taking the lead in this, but we are emphasizing with them the importance of safety, civil discourse, and respect for students whether they participate or not." What are your plans? Are you a student, teacher or staff member at a CNY school? If you're participating in a walkout or a remembrance ceremony, Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard wants to hear from you. Please send photos and videos from Wednesday's memorials and walkouts to Samantha House at shouse@syracuse.com or Sarah Moses Buckshot at sbuckshot@syracuse.com. When sharing, please specify where the photos and videos were taken. 'Something needs to be done': Local high schoolers plan Syracuse March For Our Lives Karen Tumulty is a Washington Post columnist covering national politics. By Karen Tumulty | The Washington Post Don't let them push you around, Sen. Warren. Please keep your spit to yourself. Apparently, DNA tests are the new birth certificates. Because President Donald Trump continues his immature taunting of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., by referring to her as "Pocahontas," his potential 2020 Democratic rival is being asked to take a test to determine whether she is, in fact, descended from Native Americans, as her family lore says. "There are now so many commercial DNA heritage-tracking labs in business that they advertise on television," the Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, suggested in an editorial last week. "The going rate for one of the most popular tests is $99. All the senator needs to do is spit into a tube, wait a few weeks and get her answer. No matter if the test came up negative or positive, it would constitute a plus for Warren and her political hopes." Now, her unwillingness to take such a test is the talk of cable news. But why should she? While no credible evidence supports that old story her parents told her, there is also no indication that her shaky claim to Native American ancestry ever benefited her, either during her earlier career in academia or in politics. Warren handled it clumsily when the controversy erupted during her 2012 Senate campaign, but Massachusetts voters decided it did not matter. Now, there is but one reason it continues: Trump rarely misses an opportunity to take a dig at her, even doing it at a White House event honoring Navajo code talkers who were invaluable to the Marines during World War II. Haven't we been here before? Trump's political rise was fueled in part by the fact that he was willing to purvey corrosive conspiracy theories. After President Barack Obama produced his birth certificate in 2011, it took Trump another five years to say he accepted that Obama was "born in the United States, period." Now, Trump is going even lower, to pre-birtherism. Many of us grow up with stories that might not withstand some probing. In my own family's case, there was a memento, a black-and-white photo of my grandfather dressed up in a doughboy uniform. I had the impression -- I'm not really sure where it came from -- that he had been gassed in World War I. He never contradicted it. Only after he died, when I found my grandfather's military records, did I realize that he had not ever been overseas during the Great War. The spotlight that comes with public life often produces surprising revelations about long-accepted family histories. Bill Clinton was president before he discovered he had an older half-brother. It is possible Warren's family story is wrong; it is possible there's a kernel of truth that has gotten misplaced over time. But if so, it is ridiculous to turn such a common and understandable part of family life into a political attack. Warren, to her credit, addressed the issue with grace in an appearance last month before the National Congress of American Indians. "I get why some people think there's hay to be made here. You won't find my family members on any rolls, and I'm not enrolled in a tribe," she said. "I respect that distinction. I understand that tribal membership is determined by tribes -- and only by tribes." She added: "I'm here today to make a promise: Every time someone brings up my family's story, I'm going to use it to lift up the story of your families and your communities." And, in the end, standing up to a bully will tell us more about what Elizabeth Warren is made of than any DNA test ever could. Attacks, perceived bias erode trust in the press (Commentary) SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Protests over President Donald Trump's "big beautiful border wall" with Mexico are expected to mark his first visit to California as president on Tuesday amid growing tensions between his administration and the state over immigration enforcement. Trump will visit eight towering prototypes for the wall before addressing Marines, also in San Diego, and attending a fundraiser in Los Angeles. He'll be staying there overnight. "We're going to the wall. We're going out to the wall," Trump told reporters as he departed the White House. "We're going to be looking at the prototypes, which is very important for our country." Trump's visit comes amid a war of words and legal briefs over California's refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The Justice Department last week sued to block a trio of California laws designed to protect people living in the U.S. illegally. Attorney General Jeff Sessions followed up with a speech in Sacramento that was immediately denounced by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who said the Trump administration was "full of liars" and the lawsuit was akin to an "an act of war." A top federal immigration official lashed out at some of the state's Democratic elected leaders ahead of the visit. Thomas Homan, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's acting director, singled out Brown, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for their recent criticism of a spate of immigration arrests in the state and a federal lawsuit challenging state laws that limit cooperation on immigration. Homan said Pelosi's comments about federal agents terrorizing immigrant communities were "beyond the pale" and challenged Feinstein to change laws if she disagreed with how they are enforced. Trump tweeted about California's policy as he headed to the state. "California's sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk. Thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP!" he wrote. Protests are also planned across the border in Tijuana, Mexico, as Trump examines the 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) prototypes designed to fulfill his signature campaign promise. Trump has insisted Mexico pay for the wall. Mexico has adamantly refused to consider the idea. Organizers of opposing rallies were urging people to remain peaceful. The scene was quiet on both sides of the border Tuesday morning as Trump flew to San Diego. On the Mexican side, federal and state police stood by. Tractor-trailer trucks on the U.S. side blocked the view from Mexico of all but the tops of the wall prototypes. Immigrant activists, church leaders and elected officials held a news conference at the city's historic Chicano Park to call for demonstrations to show border communities do not support a wall. Standing in front of murals of Mexican revolutionaries and other Latin American icons, they chanted, "We reject your hate! We don't need your racist wall!" This isn't Trump's first visit to the border. He traveled to Laredo -- one of Texas' safest cities -- weeks after declaring his candidacy. Trump told reporters then that he was putting himself "in great danger" by coming to the border. But, he said, "I have to do it. I love this country." San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer -- who is not expected to meet with Trump during his visit -- did not support a 2017 city resolution formally opposing the border, but he also did not veto it. The mayor's office said Faulconer, a Republican, has been clear in his opposition to walls along the border, but he did not want to blacklist companies involved in the construction of the prototypes. "When some people look at the U.S.-Mexico border, they see division," Faulconer said in his State of the City address in 2017. "But here in San Diego, we view it much differently. Rather than allowing the border to divide us, we're building bridges that connect us." Jeff Schwilk, founder of San Diegans for Secure Borders, said the City Council's resolution does not reflect the views of many residents, who feel the border is not secure. He said his organization respects free speech and hopes Tuesday's rally will be safe for participants. "We absolutely want President Trump to feel welcome and to come inspect the prototypes so we can get the wall built," he said. Trump is expected Tuesday to be briefed on lessons learned from the construction of the prototypes built in San Diego last fall. He also will meet with border agents and officers to ask what they need, Homeland Security spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said. The president will not be swayed by California Republican lawmakers concerned the wall is a waste of money, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday. "The president campaigned on this, he talked about it extensively, and he's the president, and this is something that he is not going to back away from," she said. "It's something that he's going to continue to push for." California's governor on Monday invited Trump to also visit the state's high-speed rail construction projects. "You see, in California we are focusing on bridges, not walls," Brown said in a letter sent to Trump. NEW YORK CITY -- A lawyer for Syracuse businessman Steven Aiello is planning to appeal what he called a "confusing" and "coerced" verdict that determined his client was guilty on one charge. Aiello, a principal for the Syracuse-based firm Cor Development, was convicted of conspiring to defraud the public of "honest services" owed by former top governor's aide Joseph Percoco. Aiello's partner, Joseph Gerardi, was acquitted. Percoco got a split verdict: guilty of half the charges and not guilty of the other half. A mistrial was declared for the fourth defendant, energy executive Braith Kelly, after the jury was deadlocked on the charges against him. Aiello remains free on a $100,000 bond he posted after his arrest in September 2016. He was not taken into custody following the verdicts. Aiello lawyer Steve Coffey said he planned to ask U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni to overturn the verdict. He said he would appeal to the Second Circuit if his request was not granted. "We're disappointed obviously," Coffey said after the jury was released from court. "We've got a lot to talk about." Coffey's main concern: Aiello was acquitted of a charge accusing him of paying Percoco bribes, but he was found guilty of conspiring to commit honest services fraud, which included bribing Percoco. In other words, according to Coffey, bribery -- which Aiello was not guilty of -- was an "essential element" to the conspiracy charge. "On its face, it's confusing and inconsistent," he said. "You can't reconcile the two." Coffey said he felt Aiello had a strong chance of getting the verdict set aside. Coffey and other lawyers had an opportunity to meet with jurors to ask about their decision. He said jurors couldn't explain the apparent inconsistency. "They just kind of mumbled conspiracy," he said, noting he respected that the jury had a difficult task. "The verdict is confusing and I think it's wrong," he said. Aiello's face turned red as the verdict was delivered by the foreman in court around noon today. Tears streamed down his wife's and daughter's faces. His son Steve Jr., whose $10,000 raise in the governor's chambers was at issue in this case, held his face in one hand and shook his head from side-to-side after his father was convicted. The defendants and their families declined to comment through a spokesman. Coffey said Aiello was not happy but hopeful the verdict could be overturned. Coffey moved for a mistrial repeatedly during deliberations. He repeated his concerns about the jury's deliberations outside the Manhattan courthouse, saying he felt that continuing deliberations after the jury said it was deadlocked led to a "coerced" verdict. Coffey said he expected to file his motion to set aside the verdict within 30 days. Aiello's sentencing is scheduled for June 14. 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 BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) -- Police investigating the death of a New York nursing student say they want to question a man who flew to Nicaragua before her body was found. Authorities say Orlando E. Tercero is a U.S. citizen and fellow nursing student at Binghamton University, 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of New York City. Haley Anderson Murder: Person of Interest Orlando Tercero Believed to Have Fled to Nicaragua https://t.co/JiP3HQ8Kps pic.twitter.com/NxVcy4BuAB Rodolfo TIM BETA (@RodolfoLemoss) March 13, 2018 Tercero is a person of interest in the slaying of 22-year-old Haley Anderson, of Westbury, on Long Island. Police say Tercero had a previous relationship with her. Binghamton police found Anderson's body at an off-campus residence when they were called to check on her welfare on Friday. Her death was ruled a homicide, but police haven't said how or why she was killed. It can't be determined if Tercero has a lawyer to comment for him. NEW YORK CITY -- Former top governor's aide Joseph Percoco did not have much to say after he was convicted of three of the six counts he faced in the New York corruption trial. "I am disappointed," Percoco told a gaggle of reporters outside the Manhattan courthouse. He thanked his defense team, who flanked him as he exited court, as well as family and friends for standing by him. Percoco stood trial alongside Syracuse-based Cor Development principals Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, as well as energy executive Peter "Braith" Kelly. The Syracuse defendants were acquitted of most of the charges they faced. Aiello was convicted of conspiracy. A mistrial was declared for Kelly, on whose charges the jury could not come to an agreement. Percoco was convicted of conspiring to defraud the public of the "honest services" he owed it as a state official, through two separate schemes to benefit Cor and Kelly's energy company, Competitive Power Ventures, which was building a power plant in Hudson Valley. Percoco, the former deputy executive secretary to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was also convicted of soliciting bribes or gratuities from Kelly. The jury found Percoco not guilty of two extortion charges and a bribery charge in connection with the alleged Syracuse scheme. Lead Percoco attorney Barry Bohrer echoed Syracuse defense lawyers' comments, saying the verdict contained "inconsistencies." Bohrer said Percoco's legal team would be exploring an appeal or filing a motion to have the verdict set aside. "We are going to look at any and all options going forward," Bohrer said. Cuomo released a statement on the verdict, his first public comments on the case since Percoco's arrest. "While I am sad for Joe Percoco's young daughters who will have to deal with this pain, I echo the message of the verdict - there is no tolerance for any violation of the public trust," Cuomo said in the statement. Cuomo and Percoco have known each other for around 30 years. Witnesses said Percoco was like brother to the governor, and had a reputation as Cuomo's "right-hand man." Testimony at trial showed that Percoco spoke with Cuomo while his Westchester County house was raided by federal agents. Hearing about the investigation, Cuomo reacted "WHAT?!" according to testimony from early in the trial. Cuomo said in his statement on the verdict that the principles of integrity and public service are "paramount." "The verdict demonstrated that these ideals have been violated by someone I knew for a long time," Cuomo said. "That is personally painful; however, we must learn from what happened and put additional safeguards in place to secure the public trust. Anything less is unacceptable." Percoco's sentencing is scheduled for June 11. He faces up to 50 years in prison. 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 A junior high school science teacher in Idaho is accused of feeding a puppy dog to a snapping turtle in front of students, according to multiple reports. Robert Crosland allegedly fed the pooch to the reptile while students watched after class on Wednesday at Preston Junior High School in Preston, near the Utah border. According to East Idaho News, the dog was said to be disfigured and terminally ill, but it's unclear whether it was alive at the time of the incident. "What I have learned in the last four days is disgusting. It is sick. It is sick," animal rights activist Jill Parrish, who filed a police report against Crosland, told Salt Lake City TV station KSTU. "Allowing children to watch an innocent baby puppy scream because it is being fed to an animal. That is violence. That is not OK." A 7th grade student told KSTU that Crosland, a longtime educator, typically fed mice or birds to his exotic animals, including snakes, in tanks in the classroom. Former students described the teacher as well-liked. "He is a cool teacher who really brought science to life," one student told the East Idaho News. "I loved his class because he had turtles and snakes and other cool things." The school said in a statement that it was investigating the "regrettable circumstance involving some of the biological specimens at Preston Jr. High." "The event occurred well after students had been dismissed and was not part of any school-directed program," Preston School District Superintendent Marc Gee said. "We emphasize that at no time was the safety of students or staff compromised." Gee told the East Idaho News that Crosland has not been cited, charged or placed on leave as of Monday. "A part of any investigation includes determining the best course of action once the facts of the matter have been ascertained," Gee said. "This is not a situation that is easy, nor do we feel it is a measure that can be taken lightly." The Idaho Statesman reports Franklin County Sheriff Dave Fryar said details of the incident have been forwarded to the county prosecutor. "The prosecutor said, 'Until he decides, he considers it an open book,'" Fryar said. "He doesn't want us to do anything to hamper the investigation." Crosland has not commented publicly. In the spring of 2016, longtime political operative Roger Stone had a phone conversation that would later seem prophetic, according to the person on the other end of the line. Stone, an informal adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, said he had learned from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that his organization had obtained emails that would torment senior Democrats such as John Podesta, then campaign chairman for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The conversation occurred before it was publicly known that hackers had obtained the emails of Podesta and of the Democratic National Committee, documents which WikiLeaks released in late July and October. The U.S. intelligence community later concluded the hackers were working for Russia. The person, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing federal investigation into Russian campaign interference, is one of two Stone associates who say Stone claimed to have had contact with Assange in 2016. The second, former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg, said in an interview Monday that Stone told him that he had met with Assange - a conversation Nunberg said investigators for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III recently asked him to describe. Stone's possible connection to Assange has been under scrutiny since the 2016 campaign, when he made public claims that he was in contact with the London-based WikiLeaks founder. Since then, Stone has emphatically denied any communication with Assange or advance knowledge of the document dumps by WikiLeaks, which embarrassed Clinton allies and disrupted the 2016 campaign. WikiLeaks and Assange have also said they never communicated with Stone. Potential contacts with WikiLeaks have been probed by federal investigators examining whether allies of President Donald Trump coordinated with Russians seeking to tilt the 2016 race. The president has repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller's office, declined to comment. Stone, a longtime Trump friend, briefly worked for his presidential campaign in 2015 and then remained in his orbit as an adviser. In an interview Monday, he again denied that he had any advance notice about the hacked emails or any contact with Assange. He said he only recalled having one conversation with anyone in which he alluded to meeting the WikiLeaks founder - a comment he said he made as a joke to a long-winded Nunberg. "I wish him no ill will, but Sam can manically and persistently call you," Stone said, recalling that Nunberg had called him on a Friday to ask about his plans for the weekend. "I said, 'I think I will go to London for the weekend and meet with Julian Assange.' It was a joke, a throwaway line to get him off the phone. The idea that I would meet with Assange undetected is ridiculous on its face.''' Stone said he does not recall any similar conversation with anyone else. "The allegation that I met with Assange, or asked for a meeting or communicated with Assange is provably false," he said, adding that he did not leave the country in 2016. Through his attorney, Assange - who has been living in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London since 2012 - told The Post in January that he did not meet Stone in spring 2016. His attorney was unable to reach Assange Monday evening for further comment. WikiLeaks has denied any contact with the longtime Trump adviser. "WikiLeaks & Assange have repeatedly confirmed that they have never communicated with Stone," the organization tweeted in March 2017. Nunberg told The Post that the questions he was asked by Mueller's investigators indicated to him that the special counsel is examining statements Stone has made publicly about WikiLeaks. "Of course they have to investigate this," he said. "Roger made statements that could be problematic." He said he did not recall the exact date when Stone told him that he had met with Assange, adding that he did not take the comment as a joke at the time. He said he was glad to hear Stone told The Post that the remark was made in jest. "No one connected to the president should be connected with Julian Assange," he added. WikiLeaks has come under intense scrutiny from U.S. officials for its distribution of hacked materials. Last year, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said it was "time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: a nonstate, hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors, like Russia." In response, Assange said Pompeo had chosen "to declare war on free speech." During the 2016 race, the organization released hacked Democratic emails at two key junctures: a cache of DNC emails landed on the eve of the party's national nomination convention and a collection of Podesta emails appeared on the same day in October that The Post revealed a tape of Trump speaking about women in lewd terms. Stone publicly cheered on WikiLeaks during the race, at one point referring to Assange as "my hero." On Aug. 8, 2016, in an appearance at the Southwest Broward Republican Organization, Stone answered a question about what he believed would be the campaign's October surprise by saying: "I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation but there's no telling what the October surprise may be." He later said he had not meant that he had communicated with Assange directly. On Aug. 21, Stone tweeted that something grim was looming for Podesta. "Trust me, it will soon [be] the Podesta's time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary," he tweeted. On Oct. 3, he tweeted: "I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon #LockHerUp." "Payload coming. #Lockthemup," Stone tweeted on Oct. 5. Two days later, WikiLeaks published a cache of Podesta's hacked emails describing internal conflicts within the Clinton Foundation and excerpts of Clinton's speeches to Wall Street executives. The release came shortly after The Post revealed the existence of an "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump described grabbing women in the genitals. Stone also exchanged private Twitter messages with WikiLeaks that month. In one Oct. 13 exchange, he described himself as a defender of the organization and objected to its " strategy of attacking me," The Atlantic reported this year. WikiLeaks replied to Stone in a private message that "false claims of association" were being used by Democrats to undermine the group. Stone answered: "You need to figure out who your friends are." Assange and Stone said the messages prove he did not have any advance knowledge of WikiLeaks's plans. "A message telling Roger Stone to cease falsely suggesting contact with WikiLeaks is now the claimed proof that Roger Stone had contact with WikiLeaks - when it proves what I've said all along," Assange tweeted last month. Stone wrote recently on his website that "only in the current, highly charged atmosphere can a leaked document which is entirely exculpatory and proves that I was not collaborating with WikiLeaks, provoke an 'AHA' moment." In a September 2017 appearance before the House Intelligence Committee, Stone also vigorously denied he had any foreknowledge of what WikiLeaks would publish or of the hacking of Podesta's emails. "Such assertions are conjecture, supposition, projection, and allegations but none of them are facts," he wrote in a prepared opening statement. Stone told the committee that his Aug. 21 tweet was meant as a prediction that Podesta's business activities would come under scrutiny after Paul Manafort was forced to resign from the Trump campaign amid allegations about his work for a pro-Russian party in Ukraine. Stone acknowledged that some may label him a "dirty trickster," but he said he does not engage in illegal activities. "There is one 'trick' that is not in my bag," he told the committee, "and that is treason." Bridgeport, Conn. -- A teacher in Connecticut was arrested after she allegedly threatened to get a gun and have someone shoot the principal at her school. Sandra Aldave, 51, is a media specialist teacher at James J. Curiale School in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Police charged her Monday with second-degree threatening and breach of peace, according to the Connecticut Post. School officials suspended Aldave after her comments were reported to police last month, the Post said. She did not return the paper's calls seeking comment. She was released from custody after posting $500 bond. Aldave allegedly made her comments to other faculty members after she was told to take over another teacher's class, according to the Post. "For $5,000, I could get a gun and someone to take care of this," she allegedly said, according to the Post. "No, for only $3,000, I know someone with a gun." Another teacher suggested to Aldave that she was only joking, but police said she assured the other teacher that she was serious. Aldave has been teaching at the school for four years. Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-454-2112 America's opioid crisis worsens each year, but there might be more to it than meets the eye, particularly the factors behind opioid prescriptions and the doctors that give them out. According to an analysis by CNN and researchers from Harvard University, it appears manufacturers of opioids are paying physicians a great deal of money for prescribing opioids. More importantly, it seems that the more they prescribe, the better the payout. Manufacturers paid doctors six-figure sums for speaking, consulting, and other services in 2014 and 2015, as CNN reports. It raises ethical and legal concerns as the country's opioid epidemic shows no sign of calming down. Nearly half of the 811,000 doctors who gave Medicare patient prescriptions wrote at least one for opioids. Over 200,000 of those doctors received payouts from opioid manufacturers representing about 54 percent of the pool. The Opioid Crisis: More Prescriptions, More Money "Physicians who prescribed particularly large amounts of the drugs were the most likely to get paid," according to CNN. What's not clear is if bigger payouts lead to more prescriptions, or vice versa. Even still, Michael Barnett, an assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard, claims that it promotes the notion that prescribing more opioids creates value. Across the country, 46 people died each day from prescription opioid overdoses in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 1999 to 2015, over 183,000 lives have been claimed by this epidemic. The figures are astonishing, but so are the payouts doctors receive by prescribing more opioids. One such doctor even received an astounding $200,000 over three years from a manufacturer of a fentanyl drug, despite it having destroyed one of their patients' lives. John Kapoor, the founder of the company that makes that drug, was summoned to federal court in October 2017 for reportedly bribing doctors for increasing their prescriptions for opioid. Another doctor received over a million dollars in a two-year period. "Once I found out he was being paid, I thought, 'was it really in my best interest, or was it in his best interest?'" said Carey Ballou, in reference to the doctor. A Doctor's Role In The Opioid Crisis Concerns over opioid manufacturers paying doctors to prescribe their medicine made headlines last year via a study published in the American Journal of Public Health by researchers from Boston University. That study looked at the database of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2013 to 2015 and found that there were 375,266 payments made related to opioids, with 68,177 being paid a collective amount of over $46 million. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Researchers from Australia's RMIT University have shown for the first time how a rechargeable battery has the potential for more energy storage than the lithium-ion batteries that are currently available. The environmentally friendly, rechargeable proton battery could be used to power devices, vehicles, and homes in the future. Proton Rechargeable Battery The battery uses a carbon electrode to store hydrogen, in addition to a fuel cell, which is reversible, to generate electricity. The proton battery gets its environmental friendly tag as well as economic and energy edge from its use of protons from water and a carbon electrode. The proton batteries will be sustainable and cheap as well as help in meeting energy requirements in the future without causing further damage to an already-delicate environment, according to the researchers. "As the world moves towards inherently-variable renewable energy to reduce greenhouse emissions and tackle climate change, requirements for electrical energy storage will be gargantuan," said lead researcher Professor John Andrews. Andrews also added that proton battery is one of the many likely contributors that will meet the massive demand for storing energy. Using protons to power batteries has the ability to become more economical in comparison to the use of lithium ions, which are created from scarce resources. The primary source used in the proton battery created by RMIT is carbon. It is cheap and abundant in comparison to both lithium, which is required for lithium-ion batteries that can be recharged, and metal hydrogen-storage alloys. Proton batteries can be used for storing electricity from solar photovoltaic panels in households. They can also be used for medium-scale storage on electricity grids as well as to power electric vehicles after being modified and scaled up. How The Prototype Battery Functions The prototype blends the best features of electrical power based on battery and hydrogen fuel cells. The recent version of the proton battery combines a fuel cell, which is reversible, to add a rechargeable unit that is integrated with a carbon electrode for storing hydrogen in a solid state. The protons generated by reversible fuel cell water splitting during charging are carried via the cell membrane. They bond directly with the material for storage with the help of electrons that applied voltage supplies without creating hydrogen gas. The process is reversed in a supply mode, which is electric. The storage releases hydrogen atoms, and they get rid of an electron to transform into protons again, which then travel back via the cell membrane where they attach with electrons and oxygen to reform water. An important possible benefit of proton batteries over conventional hydrogen systems is that much higher efficiency is involved, which makes it similar to lithium-ion batteries. The loss factor linked to breaking up into protons and evolution of hydrogen gas is removed. The study paper was published in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Google is rumored to be rebranding Android Wear with a new name and logo as Wear OS, as the operating system occupies a stagnant market for wearable devices. Google has not confirmed the name change, and therefore has not provided an explanation for the speculated move. However, there are some theories on why the wearable operating system will be renamed as Wear OS. Android Wear To Become Wear OS The rumored name change was first spotted by a Redditor and posted on the AndroidWear subreddit. In an uploaded screenshot, it can be seen that the most recent Google Play Services beta update shows a new name and logo for Google's operating system for wearable devices when attempting to connect an Android Wear smartwatch. Instead of Android Wear, the operating system is being referred to as Wear OS. The new name comes with a stylized "W "as the logo, with lines and dots in the Google colors of blue, yellow, red, and green. XDA Developers further dug into the rumor by decompiling the Google Play Services beta APK. Looking through the code, several references to Wear OS were spotted, further contributing to the legitimacy of the pending name change. Why Wear OS? The lingering question, meanwhile, is why would Google drop the "Android" in the operating system's name and instead go for a more generic branding? The renaming of Android Wear to Wear OS follows the same direction that Google took when it rebranded Android Pay and combined it with Google Wallet to create Google Pay. Google is apparently looking to generalize its services by removing any associations with the Android mobile operating system. Rebranding Android Wear to Wear OS also eliminates the notion that Android-Wear powered devices are only available to Android smartphone owners, as Android Wear smartwatches work with iPhones. Google was referencing the Google Pay brand long before the renaming happened, so this does not mean that the switch to the Wear OS name is imminent. However, if Google will be making an announcement about it soon, it will likely be at the upcoming I/O developers' conference, where Google is also expected to be unveiling Android P. If Wear OS will indeed be unveiled at this year's I/O, Google may also be planning to announce major initiatives alongside the new name. Google will be looking to revive interest in its operating system for wearable devices, which has been outpaced in the wearables market by the Apple Watch and watchOS. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Mummies found in a tomb near the Nazca Lines in Peru early 2017 are back in the news. This new discovery made headlines because despite their humanoid appearance, they had three fingers and toes and elongated skulls. Websites such as Snopes are dismissive of the discovery. Maria The Mummy Tissue samples from the mummy named Maria show that it is not human. Russian geneticists from St. Petersburg tested the samples to determine the origin of the mummy. It was determined that the mummy dates back to the fifth century A.D. Despite having 23 chromosomes like humans, researchers have said that the mummy is not one of us. Researchers are also in the process of seeing the shape of the chromosomes and amino acids to see if they're similar to those of human beings. One difference in its structure to that of humans is its ribcage. It is keel-shaped in the upper area and made up of a handful of semicircular ribs. This shape helped researchers study its internal organs. In order to preserve Maria, cadmium chloride was used. It is a chemical that has an antibacterial effect. Russian scientists are working with Peruvian researchers in the hope of taking the mummy to St. Petersburg for further studies. Maria wasn't the only mummy that was studied by Russian scientists. After analyzing Maria, they studied the genome of a mummy named Vavita, which was nine months old. Researchers believe that this may be the child of the Maria mummy. Carbon dating of both mummies shows different results. One test had the mummies as 6,500 years old, while another test put them at about 4,000 years old. Evidence shows that the mummies are human, but researchers said that their anatomic structures are completely different from those of humans. Male mummies were also examined by the scientists. Those mummies are about 3 feet tall and also have three fingers with elongated skulls. They're also missing their nasal cavities and have no superciliary arches. Suspicious Findings These mummies were suggested to be alien beings by the website Gaia. It ran videos featuring the mummies showing various journalists talking about the possibility of the mummies being aliens. Anthropologists say that the reason that the mummies were found with elongated skulls was due to the practice of artificial cranial deformation, which was done to children. This was accomplished by binding children's heads in cloth, rope, or wooden boards. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NASA acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, will retire from his post starting April 30. Whether or not White House appointee Rep. Jim Bridenstine will be the next NASA administrator is still undetermined. This week, Lightfoot penned a memorandum letter addressed to NASA employees announcing his retirement. He did not give a specific reason for leaving NASA, but he said he wanted to spend more time with his family. Long Career At NASA Lightfoot, a rocket propulsion engineer and senior career civil servant started his term as the space agency's acting administrator on Jan. 20, 2017, under the Trump administration. He replaced former NASA administrator Charles Bolden who served under the Obama administration. Before becoming acting director, Lightfoot had been with the space agency for the past 29 years. "It is with bittersweet feelings that I am announcing I will be retiring from the agency on April. 30, 2018. I will work with the White House on a smooth transition to the new administrator," says Lightfoot. He joined NASA in 1989 where he worked at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as an engineer and program manager for the Atlas 5 rocket. He held several key administrative positions at NASA since 2002. He served as NASA's associate administrator since 2012 before his appointment as acting administrator. "The grit and determination you all demonstrate every day in achieving our missions of discovery and exploration are simply awe inspiring. I leave NASA blessed with a career full of memories of stunning missions, cherished friendships, and an incredible hope for what is yet to come," Lightfoot said in the memo. He held the acting director post for almost 14 months, longer than anyone in NASA's history. Challenge For The New Appointee President Trump's nominated NASA administrator is Rep. Jim Bridenstine. The Oklahoma representative's appointment advanced to the Senate Commerce Committee. After a nomination hearing last year, his appointment was stalled after opposition from two Florida Senators, Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio, who both opted for a "space professional" to lead NASA. Bridenstine did not reach the 50 votes needed for his confirmation. Bridenstine is a three-term congressman and a pilot in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Among his advocacies include more private sector involvement in space exploration and a return to the moon's surface by American astronauts. His nomination was re-submitted by the White House in January. The Senate full session has again yet to vote on his confirmation. Pressure On Senate To Name New Administrator Lightfoot's retirement is expected to put pressure on the Senate to appoint a new and deserving NASA head. The outgoing NASA acting administrator said a political appointee should lead NASA. "From my perspective, as the one sitting in that chair, it is always of value to have the person the president wants in this position," says Lightfoot in a hearing of the Science Committee's Subcommittee on Space. The space agency announced that Steve Jurczyk will serve as NASA's acting associate administrator. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Supervolcano Mount Toba erupted on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, about 74,000 years ago and caused catastrophic environmental calamity. Most Powerful Volcanic Eruption In The Past 2 Million Years Some scientists think that the eruption, the most powerful in the past 2 million years and the strongest since the human species emerged in Africa about 300,000 years ago, may have nearly caused the extinction of humans. Some research suggests that the eruption dimmed the sunlight, setting off a decades-long volcanic winter that damaged the ecosystems and deprived humans of food resources. Researchers of a new study, however, said that despite the devastating impact of the supervolcanic eruption, it was business as usual for some populations that survived. Hunter-Gatherers Thrived Through Supervolcano Eruption In their new study published in the journal Nature, Erich Fisher, from the Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins, reported that excavations at two archeological sites on the southern coast of South Africa turned up microscopic shards of volcanic glass from the explosion, which occurred about 5,500 miles away. The shards were discovered at a rockshelter called Pinnacle Point near Mossel Bay town, where people lived, slept, and cooked food, and at an open-air that sits 6 miles away where people created tools made of bones, wood, and stone. People inhabited the rockshelter 90,000 to 50,000 years ago. The researchers said that they did not find signs that the inhabitants abandoned the site at the time of the eruption. Digital models of the site also suggest that the hunter-gatherers who lived here thrived, and the Toba eruption did not seem to have significantly impacted their daily lives. "These models tell us a lot about how people lived at the site and how their activities changed through time," said Fisher. "What we found was that during and after the time of the Toba eruption people lived at the site continuously, and there was no evidence that it impacted their daily lives." Strategic Location Researchers think that the seaside location may have helped with the people's survival, as this could have provided them with refuge and marine food sources such as shellfish that were less sensitive than inland animals and plants when it comes to the environmental effects of the eruption. "Humans in this region thrived through the Toba event and the ensuing full glacial conditions, perhaps as a combined result of the uniquely rich resource base of the region and fully evolved modern human adaptation," the researchers wrote in their study. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. For the first time since epidemiologist Timothy Cunningham went mysteriously missing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has broken its silence, denying the police's claim that he was passed over for a job promotion. The 35-year-old researcher checked out of the office in the middle of the day on Feb. 12. He told his colleagues that he was feeling ill but they later found that he never came back home. Since that day, Cunningham has never been seen again. Without anyone knowing his whereabouts, several theories have floated regarding the scientist's disappearance. For instance, Cunningham allegedly told his next-door neighbors to erase his mobile number from their phones. The Truth About Cunningham's Promotion To set the records straight, Anne Schuchat, the federal agency's acting director, has issued an official statement on March 12 clarifying that the missing scientist actually received an early promotion. According to Schuchat, his promotion to commander became effective on July 1, 2017, and signifies his excellent performance in the U.S. Public Health Service both as an officer and employee. A report describes his responsibility as a detective of diseases, which include investigating hot spots for dangerous viruses such as Ebola and Zika. "We have not given up hope that he will soon be found. If Tim reads this message, we hope you come home soon," she states, asking those who have information about Cunningham to come forward to the CDC. Despite their conflicting claims, Schuchat also said that the federal agency is working closely with the police department. This revelation from the CDC comes after Cunningham's father Terell released images of his promotional ceremony just last week. They serve as evidence of the event that was held in July 2017. Other Investigations On Cunningham's Disappearance After not receiving any form of communication from his son for a couple of days, Terrell traveled from Maryland to Georgia. All he found was an empty house, as well as the epidemiologist's wallet, car, and pet dog. On Feb. 26, police investigators searched the woods around Cunningham's residence to find clues related to his disappearance but they weren't able to find any. Although they do not suspect any foul play involved, the authorities are open to all possibilities. His family has been putting up posters around the neighborhood and trying to spread the word of his disappearance with the help of the media. Terrell said that his son has a history of "being so responsible and dependable." That is why those who know him cannot believe that he would just simply run away. The missing scientist earned his degree at Morehouse College and went on to pursue further studies at Harvard. He lives alone. The Cunninghams are pleading to whoever has seen him call 911 or the Atlanta Police Department. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. We are barreling toward a future of automation. A great proportion of the six million US manufacturing jobs that have disappeared over the last few decades were lost as a direct result of automations slow absorption of physical labor and factory work. Now the pace is quickening and thanks to developments in artificial intelligence, automations reach is expanding, too. According to Elon Musk, self-driving cars will displace 15% of the worlds workforce. Musk warns that driverless cars are closer than they might appear. Increasingly, trading on the stock market is becoming automated. A staggering 70% of daily trading is done by software instead of humans, which has resulted in massive job losses for stockbrokers and traders. Quantitative analysts, investors who use complex mathematical models to assess the market, are being outclassed by artificial intelligence. AI-led hedge funds are beating out human-led quant firms by considerable margins. Cars and stocks wont be the only industries affected by automations expansion, either. Indeed, President Obama made mention of the AI issue during his farewell speech, stating, The next wave of economic dislocations wont come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes a lot of good middle-class jobs obsolete. In an MIT paper published this year by the well-regarded economists Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo, a pair previously optimistic about AIs effect on jobs, found verifiable reasons for alarm. As robots and other computer-assisted technologies take over tasks previously performed by labor, there is increasing concern about the future of jobs and wages, the paper reads. [W]e estimate large and robust negative effects of robots on employment and wages. Who is winning the race for jobs between robots and humans? Last year, two leading economists described a future in which humans come out ahead. But now theyve declared a different winner: the robots, writes Claire Cain Miller for The New York Times about the evidence for automations ill-effects in Acemoglu and Restrepos paper. Robots are to blame for up to 670,000 lost manufacturing jobs between 1990 and 2007, [the paper] concluded, and that number will rise because industrial robots are expected to quadruple. According to another paper, one published by Oxford in 2013, 47% of total US employment could be at risk. Others still contend that, while AI may displace workers in the short term, we can expect jobs to be created from the robots themselves. Self-serve gas pumps eliminated thousands of US jobs, but were quickly replaced by better-paying ones, for example. Workers were pushed into attaining higher education, swept into the middle class, or lost in poorer wages. Just as cranes replaced dockworkers but created related jobs for engineers and financiers, the theory goes, new technology has created new jobs for software developers and data analysts, Miller wrote about Acemoglu and Restrepos older, more optimistic paper. But, the paper touting automations potential to render new jobs wasnt based on real world data. While it is true that we have seen benefits arise from automation, there is no reason to expect this to be the rule in the future. As artificial intelligence grows more intelligent and automation gains new abilities, are we preparing for the inevitable economic shifts? According to the MIT Technology Review, the US government spends an abysmal .1% of its GDP on programs that assist people in workplace shifts like this -- an appallingly low number when compared to other developed countries -- and that percentage that has been dwindling for the last three decades. Automation has become an imminent threat to some. One that requires immediate solutions, most notably in the form of more robust social protections. A Universal Basic Income (UBI) has been supported by vocal Silicon Valley elites. The income would guarantee that poverty would not become an epidemic, regardless of the job market. There are no plans to implement an emergency infrastructure through the UBI on a federal level, however. We should not advance a policy that is premised on giving up on the possibility of workers remaining employed, a White House report published last year argues. Despite the fact that there have been examples of well-funded tech startups giving small stipends to families with reasonable success, resulting in more productivity and education among participants. Automation is looming over the workforce. Whether it will bring widespread negative or positive effects is yet to be seen. Little has been proposed to prepare the American workforce for the rise of AI and no protections for the poor or middle classes have been seriously considered on a federal level. What will become of the job market and the future of work itself remains shrouded in mystery. The future is drawing near, but we may not be drawing up solutions as fast as we should be. About the Author: Dr. Diane Schleier-Keller is a business strategist and finance columnist. She has 3 years of experience in M&A and has been traveling the world to help train entrepreneurs to succeed in their business. You may also connect with her on Twitter. Edited by Mandi Nowitz PNG quake toll rises above 100 as PM warns of long recovery Sydney, March 9 (AFP) Mar 09, 2018 The death toll from an earthquake that hit Papua New Guinea last month has topped 100 with thousands injured, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said Friday, warning it will take years for the region to recover. The Pacific nation's mountainous interior was struck by a 7.5-magnitude tremor on February 26, triggering landslides that blocked roads, caused power outages and cut off villages. Communities have also been rattled by strong aftershocks, sparking fears among disenchanted and suspicious residents that the shaking was somehow caused by oil and gas operations in the area. "Tragically, the Highlands earthquake has already claimed the lives of an estimated more than 100 Papua New Guineans, with many more still missing and thousands of people injured," O'Neill said. The premier has visited the devastated region and said his government and aid agencies were focused on delivering clean water, food and shelter to victims, and restoring electricity and communications. "There will be no quick fix, the damage from this disaster will take months and years to be repaired," he said. "The social damage to our communities is large, and this earthquake will be the source of sadness and sorrow for generations to come," the prime minister added, describing the plight of one woman who lost six relatives including children. "This is a story of tragedy and loss that is repeated in village after village throughout the disaster area." The remote Southern Highlands region is home to the impoverished country's biggest-ever development -- the US$19 billion PNG LNG project operated by US energy giant ExxonMobil. Traumatised villagers are suspicious of the plant's operators and fearful they might have been using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and destabilised the rock structure underneath, the Post-Courier reported this week. Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping large quantities of water and chemicals at high pressure deep into the Earth to fracture rock to stimulate the flow of natural gas or oil. "I don't want the project to resume its operation until the company is cleared of suspicion of any responsibility," Hela province's governor Philip Undialu told the newspaper. O'Neill said while there was no evidence that energy developments in the Southern Highlands and Hela provinces had anything to do with the quake, he had asked the Australian government to conduct an independent review. He told the Post-Courier that he went to Hela's capital Tari on Wednesday and "they wanted an independent review and report on what is happening". Canberra said in a statement to AFP that Geoscience Australia -- the government agency that monitors and analyses earthquakes -- would look into the causes of the tremor. "The Australian government, through Geoscience Australia, has agreed to the PNG government's request to provide advice on the scientific basis of the earthquake and seismic activity in the region," a foreign affairs spokeswoman said. ExxonMobil said Monday it expected its project to be offline for up to eight weeks to repair the quake-hit facilities. PNG's growth is heavily dependent on its natural resources, and O'Neill has said the shutdown of the plant would have a "huge impact on the economy". grk/mp/kaf 11 killed in minibus blaze in Guinea-Bissau Bissau, March 9 (AFP) Mar 09, 2018 Eleven people died when a minibus became trapped in a forest fire in rural Guinea-Bissau, police and doctors said on Friday. The accident happened on Thursday night, after the overcrowded vehicle left the village of Konkoli, near the capital Bissau, on an 80-kilometer (50-mile) trip to a market in Bissora. "The driver tried to go down a track in a forest which was on fire. There was no visibility because of the smoke and fire," a police official said. "(...) The passengers were trapped and died of suffocation." Police recovered nine bodies, and two people who were injured later died, the official said. Nine others are being treated for injuries. The toll was confirmed by sources at the local hospital. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. At this time of the year, farmers in Guinea-Bissau often set fire to harvest stubble to eliminate weeds, and the blaze can spread from fields to the bush. On January 5, a head-on collision west of Bissau between an overladen minibus and a truck hauling bricks left 18 dead and 14 injured. Hundreds trapped as flooding hits northern Albania Tirana, March 9 (AFP) Mar 09, 2018 The military has been deployed in northern Albania to help hundreds of people trapped by floods following heavy rainfall, authorities said on Friday. More than 9,230 hectares (22,800 acres) of agricultural land is underwater in the Shkodra region, including villages where the only means of transport is by boat, the defence ministry said. Army personnel are evacuating residents and securing food supplies in the affected areas, 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the capital, Tirana. The torrential rain in recent days has caused landslides damaging dozens of homes and flooding roads, said the transport ministry. The rain has also forced the Albanian authorities to release excess water from a hydroelectric plant, which has added to the flooding in northern areas of the country. Weather forecasters say the rain is likely to ease from Saturday. BAE Systems inks Saudi deal for 48 Typhoon jets London, March 9 (AFP) Mar 09, 2018 Britain has signed a multi-billion-pound preliminary order from Saudi Arabia for 48 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets, military equipment maker BAE Systems said on Friday. The lucrative deal was unveiled on the third and final day of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to Britain. BAE Systems added in a statement that the order would help Riyadh modernise its armed forces under the kingdom's 'Vision 2030' economic plan, while no financial details were given. Eurofighter was developed by a European consortium that also comprises Italy's Finmeccanica and Franco-German civilian planemaker Airbus. "The UK Government has signed a Memorandum of Intent with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to aim to finalise discussions for the purchase of 48 Typhoon Aircraft," BAE Systems said in a brief statement to the London Stock Exchange. "This is a positive step towards agreeing a contract for our valued partner. "We are committed to supporting the Kingdom as it modernises the Saudi Armed Forces and develops key industrial capabilities critical to the delivery of Vision 2030." The news comes after Qatar inked a deal late last year to buy 24 Typhoon jets for some $8.0 billion. Friday's blockbuster announcement follows long-running discussions with Saudi Arabia, which already has a total of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon planes in its fleet. The news also comes just two weeks after BAE posted sliding annual net profits -- but forecast improving defence budgets across its major markets. Late last year, however, BAE said it planned to axe 2,000 jobs, and had partky blamed weaker demand for Hawk and Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets. In reaction, BAE's share price jumped 2.17 percent to finish at 601.80 pence on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which ended 0.3 percent higher at 7,224.51 points on Friday. "BAE Systems ... enjoyed an afternoon boost after (the) news broke," noted CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson. He added that the news would "secure hundreds of jobs in the process". The deal confirmation followed intense speculation over the large aircraft order, which has been under discussion for many years according to media reports. The Eurofighter Typhoon -- a competitor to the Rafale jet manufactured by French arms maker Dassault -- has four major customers comprising Austria, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi. Back in April 2016, the Saudi government approved major reform plans dubbed "Vision 2030" that are aimed at diversifying the nation's oil-dependent economy. jbo-rfj/jh BAE SYSTEMS FINMECCANICA AIRBUS GROUP DASSAULT AVIATION Japan tsunami, nuclear tragedy remembered seven years on Tokyo, March 11 (AFP) Mar 11, 2018 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe led a sombre ceremony Sunday as Japan marked the seventh anniversary of a deadly earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that devastated its northeastern coast and left around 18,500 people dead or missing. The magnitude 9.0 quake -- which struck under the Pacific Ocean on March 11, 2011 -- and the resulting tsunami caused widespread damage and took the lives of thousands of people. The killer tsunami also swamped the emergency power supply at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, sending its reactors into meltdown as cooling systems failed in what was the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. Abe, lawmakers and family members who lost their loved ones in the disaster bowed their heads in silent prayer at a ceremony in Tokyo at 2:46 pm (0546 GMT) -- the exact moment the quake struck. Japanese private broadcasters also showed residents in the affected areas offering a moment of silence. "I offer my condolences to those who lost their beloved family members and friends," said Abe, dressed in formal mourning attire. Hideko Igarashi, one of the three residents from the disaster-hit region who spoke at the ceremony, said Japan should "never forget what we learned from the disaster". The 70-year-old woman from Fukushima was hit by tsunami waves right after she began preparing to leave the area with her husband and uncle. "I grabbed a pine tree but I was swamped by the tsunami... My husband got away from me and he shouted 'Hideko' three times," she said. Igarashi survived and was later rescued by an emergency team. "I wish I had told him to run away much earlier." Japan's ageing Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko did not attend the ceremony this year again, but were represented by their son Prince Akishino and his wife Princess Kiko. The total of dead or missing from the earthquake and the tsunami stood at 18,434 people, according to the National Police Agency. In addition, more than 3,600 people -- most of them from Fukushima -- died from causes such as illness and suicide linked to the aftermath of the tragedy, government data shows. More than 73,000 people still remain displaced, while no one is officially recorded as having died as a direct result of the nuclear catastrophe. The government lifted evacuation orders of some areas in Iitate village and the towns of Namie, Kawamata and Tomioka last spring, except for no-go zones with high radiation levels. Authorities are encouraging evacuees to return, but a government survey released earlier this month showed that about half the residents of Namie and Tomioka are not willing to return. Around 12,000 people who fled their homes for fear of radiation have filed dozens of lawsuits against the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the stricken nuclear plant. Taiwanese protesters rally for 'nuclear-free homeland' Taipei, March 11 (AFP) Mar 11, 2018 Hundreds gathered at an anti-nuclear rally in Taiwan on Sunday to demand the government keep its pledge to abolish the use of atomic energy by 2025. Waving placards reading "nuclear go zero," and "abolish nuclear, save Taiwan," protesters rallied outside the presidential office in Taipei on the same day as Japan marked the seventh anniversary of the Fukushima disaster. Protesters were worried by a recent decision by the cabinet-level Atomic Energy Council to allow state-owned energy company Taipower to restart a reactor at a facility near Taipei, pending parliament's final approval. The reactor has been offline since May 2016 after a glitch was found in its electrical system, which the company said has since been resolved. Anti-nuclear groups are now questioning whether President Tsai Ing-wen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will keep its promise to phase out nuclear energy. "It would be violating the spirit of creating a nuclear-free homeland by 2025 pledged by the DPP," said Tsui Shu-hsin of the prospect of restarting the reactor. Tsui is spokeswoman for Nuclear Go Zero Action Platform which organised the rally. Lawmaker Huang Kuo-chang, head of the opposition New Power Party, echoed the sentiment. "The government should move forward, not backwards and restarting the reactor would be a regression," he told reporters at the rally. Taiwan currently generates about one-fifth of its energy from three nuclear plants. Although concerns have grown over power supply sufficiency following massive power failures across the island in August last year, many in the island remain adamantly against nuclear energy. In 2014, authorities were forced to seal off a nearly-completed fourth nuclear plant after public opposition. Some at Sunday's rally wore sunflowers on their hats to symbolise clean energy. "I would rather the government restrict the use of electricity than relying on nuclear energy which is unsafe and generates a lot of waste," said 22-year-old college student Yao Hsing-yu. Taiwan started annual anti-nuclear rallies to commemorate Japan's nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011 when the Fukushima energy plant was hit by a tsunami following an earthquake, knocking out power to its cooling systems and sending reactors into meltdown. Taiwan, like Japan, is prone to frequent quakes as the island lies on a number of fault lines. Last month, 17 people were killed and nearly 300 injured when a 6.4 magnitude quake hit eastern Hualien, leaving almost 2,000 buildings damaged. "Nuclear facilities are unsafe as Taiwan has many earthquakes. The government needs to take the lead to actively develop alternative and green energy," said 40-year-old protester Fan De-lu. At least 16 dead as lightning strikes Rwanda church Kigali, March 11 (AFP) Mar 11, 2018 At least 16 people were killed and dozens more injured after lightning struck a Seventh-Day Adventist church in Rwanda, a local official said Sunday. Fourteen victims were killed on the spot as lightning hit the church in the Nyaruguru district in the Southern Province on Saturday, local mayor Habitegeko Francois told AFP over the phone. Two others died later from their injuries, he said. He added that 140 people involved in the incident had been rushed to hospital and district health centres, but that many had already been discharged. "Doctors say that only three of them are in critical condition but they are getting better," he said. According to the mayor, a similar accident took place on Friday when lightning struck a group of 18 students, killing one of them Aid reaching cut-off PNG villages devastated after big quake Sydney, March 12 (AFP) Mar 12, 2018 Aid is finally reaching remote communities cut-off by a major earthquake that hit Papua New Guinea's highlands two weeks ago as the relief chief on Monday described devastating scenes of buried homes and collapsed mountains. Rescue workers have had to grapple with landslides, blocked roads and downed power and communications to reach isolated villages after the 7.5-magnitude quake struck on February 26 in the Pacific nation's mountainous interior. More than 100 people were killed, many more remain missing and thousands were injured, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said, while survivors have had to endure strong aftershocks. He added late Sunday that food and water were being airlifted to remote areas via Australian Defence Force C130 aircraft and Chinook helicopters. "This is an unprecedented disaster affecting a vast area with many remote communities," the PNG leader said in a statement. The influx of supplies came as the nation's emergency controller, Bill Hamblin, who is leading the government's relief effort, described emotional scenes as aid workers flew above destroyed communities in the Southern and Hela provinces. "You can see mile after mile of ridges that have collapsed," Hamblin told PNG's Post-Courier newspaper. "Anybody or anything that was down the valley was taken away and in fact one valley we saw a village that was left with one tin shed and the rest were buried." Hamblin said 31 people were reportedly buried in the area, with only a few survivors left in that village. He spoke of the fear that would have gripped villagers living on top of ridges as mountains slid away, and of others at the bottom of slopes with "nowhere to run" as avalanches came down. "These things make you cry when you look at it but look we can't keep crying ... we have to get in and help the people survive as much as we can," he said. Hamblin said the relief team were being helped by logistics experts from the United Nations who had coordinated similar efforts in Africa and the Middle East. The region is a hub for oil and gas production, and the impoverished country's biggest-ever development -- the US$19 billion PNG LNG project operated by US energy giant ExxonMobil -- has been shut down for several weeks of repairs. NEW YORK, March 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against BRF S.A. (BRF or the Company) (NYSE:BRFS) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 18-cv-02213, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired BRF American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) between April 4, 2013 and March 2, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials. If you are a shareholder who purchased BRF ADRs between April 4, 2013 and March 2, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until May 11, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. [Click here to join this class action] BRF S.A. is a food processor and the worlds largest poultry exporter. Its portfolio includes established brands in Brazil and abroad, such as Sadia, Perdigao, Qualy, Chester, Perdix and Paty. The Company provides meat (poultry and pork), foods processed from meats, pizzas, pastas and frozen vegetables. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) BRF employees paid bribes to regulators and politicians to subvert inspections in order to conceal unsanitary practices at the Companys meatpacking plants; (ii) the foregoing conduct, when it came to light, would foreseeably subject the Company and its officers to heightened regulatory enforcement and/or prosecution; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, BRFs public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On March 17, 2017, news outlets reported that Brazilian federal police had raided the offices of BRF and dozens of other meatpackers following a two-year investigation into alleged bribery of regulators to subvert inspections of their plants. The probe, known as Operation Weak Flesh, had uncovered some 40 cases of meatpackers who had bribed inspectors and politicians to overlook unsanitary practices, such as processing rotten meat and running plants with traces of salmonella. According to media reports, police found evidence that the companies were tampering with packages to sell products that had already expired and that higher-than permitted levels of parts such as pig heads were mixed with sausages and cold cuts. Police arrested three BRF employees, as well as 20 public officials. On this news, BRFs ADR price fell $0.99, or 7.73%, to close at $11.81 on March 17, 2017. On February 23, 2018, the Company held an earnings conference call with investors and analysts to discuss the Q4 2017 earnings results. In the call, Chairman of the Board Abilio Diniz and CFO Lorival Luz discussed the impact of Operation Weak Flesh. On this news, BRFs ADR price fell $0.76, or 8.00%, to close at $8.73 on February 23, 2018. On March 5, 2018, Reuters reported that Brazilian federal police arrested BRFs former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pedro de Andrade Faria (Faria) on charges that he and other executives, including the Companys Vice President of Global Operations Helio dos Santos Junior, were aware that BRF committed fraud by trying to avoid food safety checks. According to the report, the police cited evidence that five laboratories accredited by the Agriculture Ministry colluded with the analysis department of BRF to falsify test results related to the safety of its industrial process. In a court ruling authorizing the arrests, Brazilian federal judge Andre Duszczak said Faria and other BRF officers sought to cover up claims of possible food contamination, as shown in certain laboratory tests, made by a former employee in a labor lawsuit. On this news, BRFs ADR price fell $1.83 or 19.42% to close at $7.59 on March 5, 2018. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com 888-476-6529 Ext. 9980 With the dust settled following the standoff between former Baton Rouge Police chief Carl Dabadie and Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, supporters are rallying around a familiar bill they hope could prevent such a clash in the future. State Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, has proposed House Bill 405, which would give the Baton Rouge mayor the discretion to hire and fire the city's four top police positions: the chief and three deputy chiefs. After campaigning to replace Dabadie, Broome was stymied upon taking office by state civil service laws, which protected the chief's position and required certain processes for recruiting a new chief, including a civil service examination. But now, months after Dabadie retired and new police chief Murphy Paul a career State Police trooper who won the support of both Broome and James has taken the helm of the city's law enforcement department, James said it's time to change the hurdles Broome faced. "For a city our size, for a department our size, I think we should be operating a tad bit differently than laws that have been in place for 20-plus years," James said. The bill would give the mayor the right to select, appoint, supervise and discharge applicants for the four positions, making them exempt from civil service protections and requirements. However, it would ensure an officer taking the chief or deputy chief role would not lose his or her rank by taking a top job, but the person would also not accumulate seniority in the position. Upon a chief or deputy chief's resignation or discharge unless for malfeasance the department is required to reemploy them at their former position, or one comparable. "This is not a knock to the current chief, I support him," James said. "But he's not going to be chief forever, but we're going to be at this place again." James, who has previously proposed a similar bill without success, hopes this year the proposal will gain traction, especially with Paul now in his role. "This year is not about the personalities, and it's not an ongoing dispute," James said. "We're at a much better place." James sat on the mayor's committee that helped select the new chief, and he said he believes the outdated civil service laws did limit their pool of candidates. He said this bill would help ensure that Baton Rouge can attain the "best and brightest in law enforcement." Even Paul, once he took the helm at the police department, has said he found the deputy chief civil service requirements to be roadblocks for appointing the leadership he wanted. Paul did appoint three provisional deputy chiefs after the mayor announced his appointment in late December. Paul appealed to the Municipal Fire and Civil Service Board in late February to eliminate the exam requirement for the deputy chiefs, arguing that training, education and experience would be more valuable than the exam for the three positions, which have never existed before in Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge deputy chief applications to reopen; no exam will be required The applications for the Baton Rouge Police Departments three deputy chief positions will reopen after the local civil service board agreed T The city-parish budget for the first time included funding for the three positions. There had only been one deputy chief in the past. 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 However, officers still have to apply to the deputy chief positions, and those applications are expected to be reviewed by the civil service board by the end of March. Paul declined through a spokesman to comment on this specific bill until doing more research. But Fabian Blache Jr., the executive director of the Louisiana Association of Chiefs of Police, said Paul has expressed his support to him. "It's to the advantage of the chiefs," Blache said. Baton Rouge Union of Police President C. Bryan Taylor said he's concerned about what this bill could mean for a police chief's independence over his or her expertise, or how it could make the job political. +5 Louisiana State Police veteran named as Baton Rouge's new police chief Louisiana State Police veteran Murphy Paul will take the helm of the Baton Rouge Police Department as the new chief, selected by Mayor-Preside "I am not confident that an elected politician, who has nothing to do with policing, should be making all of those decisions," Taylor said. "(It also) takes away his expertise or power. If he doesn't do exactly what he's told, he can be fired for any reason." But former New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas, who now teaches criminal justice at Loyola University New Orleans, said it's crucial for the mayor and chief to be on the same page. "After having done it for 14 years, the police chief and the mayor need to be of one mind when it comes to police service," Serpas said. "Its a better accountability system to the mayor, whos ultimately accountable to the voters." Taylor said he also doesn't understand why this bill addresses only Baton Rouge, when many other cities in the state have the chief positions in civil service. "Why are we picking on Baton Rouge?" Taylor said. "Why don't we look at other people. If it's good for the capital city, it should be good for every municipality." And while some cities are still like Baton Rouge in having civil service protections for police chiefs, many do not, like New Orleans, Hammond and Scott, said Robert S. Lawrence, the state examiner of the Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board. Serpas said the majority of large cities in the U.S. also have unclassified police chief positions. The local activist group Together Baton Rouge senior leader Gary Meise said their group will support the bill. "The issue really boils down to how it applies to a position like the chief of police," Meise said. "It's kind of a different creature than your typical police officer, fire department or state employee. It's a position that is ultimately appointed by the mayor. It's a position that has to be accountable directly to the public in a way that other positions are not." Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome could lose key staffers and City Hall might say goodbye to some of its longest-working employees if the East Baton Rouge Metro Council approves a proposal that aims to cut back on retirees returning to government service as part-time workers. Multiple Baton Rouge government department heads retired years ago, but have returned to work for the city-parish under a part-time designation through a policy called retire/rehire. The policy allows employees to return to work and be paid for 29 hours a week though many work more hours while also drawing retirement. Among those who are employed post-retirement in this way are Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer; Transportation and Roads Director Fred Raiford; Finance Director Marsha Hanlon; Parish Attorney Lea Anne Batson; Public Information Officer Dennis McCain; Retirement Administrator Jeffrey Yates; and Information Services Programming Supervisor Patrick Guidry. In BRPD retirement dispute, officials argue some OT should count toward benefits A fight between City Hall and the Municipal Police Employees Retirement System has called into question a distinction that Baton Rouge officia Metro Councilwoman Donna Collins-Lewis has proposed doing away with the policy for employees who earn more than around $49,000 annually, and instead requiring that those positions be held by full-time employees. If the part-time employees wanted to continue in the full-time jobs, they would have to forfeit drawing retirement. People should not be able to come back into a full-time position as a part-time employee, Collins-Lewis said. When I first started working on this ordinance, I had no idea all of these people were part-time. Broome is opposing the proposal. The mayor said she appreciates the passion from Collins-Lewis, a friend and political ally, but that the concerns about part-time retirees should be part of a deeper discussion about city-parish benefits. I am a firm believer that when people assume a job, you dont change the rules right in the middle of their job, Broome said in an interview Tuesday. I cant support the initiative as-is. I do think, though, her concerns have merit. And I do believe a broader conversation and research needs to take place around the exorbitant cost that we pay as a city [in retirement]. The city-parish is expected to spend $452 million this year on payments for both active employees and retirees through contributions to their benefits programs, like health care and retirement, according to the 2018 budget. And the city-parish contribution rate this year is 33 percent for the City-Parish Employees Retirement System. The ordinance Collins-Lewis has proposed would go into effect April 1, 2019, and require that retired employees either leave their jobs or return to full-time positions by then. It would not apply to Baton Rouge police officers and firefighters, who are covered by state civil service laws. If the ordinance passes, Broome said the city-parish would need to speed up its training process for people who could replace the likes of Raiford and Hanlon. She also mentioned the importance having expertise to oversee the implementation of a new financial system, which Hanlon and her staff have helped to usher in. The ordinance specifies that it would affect mayoral appointees, like Raiford and Hanlon, as well as council appointees like Batson. But Rhorers case is more unusual, because the Downtown Development District board appoints him to his position, though he is a city-parish employee. Baton Rouge still without contract to haul debris from condemned property East Baton Rouge remains without a contractor to haul off debris when a condemned building is knocked down. 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 Rhorer said he is concerned about the ordinance proposal, and that he hopes current employees will be grandfathered in. Rhorer earned $103,000 last year, according to the city-parishs salary database. He said his working part-time has helped save the DDD money. You get paid 29 hours, but I work 24/7, Rhorer said. Its a passion of mine and I think people know that. Ive worked many years for downtown property owners. The DDD board voted Tuesday morning to oppose the ordinance from Collins-Lewis. They also said they would ask the Metro Council to exempt people from the policy who are hired by outside boards and commissions, including Rhorer. Hanlon, who earned $98,500 last year, also questioned the policy at a Jan. 10 Metro Council meeting before the council delayed voting on it. Along with Hanlon and Assistant Finance Director Linda Hunt, multiple financial analysts, auditors and revenue analysts would be affected by the change. Baton Rouge road officials rethink how to move forward on infrastructure after failed tax proposal City-parish leaders are regrouping and considering how to improve roads after the Metro Council rejected a tax proposal by Mayor-President Sha One of Collins-Lewiss reasons for pushing the ordinance is because City Hall has no blanket policy about when people are allowed to return to part-time work and when others are not, the councilwoman said. Collins-Lewis said its not fair that some people can return to work part-time and prevent less experienced, full-time employees from growing and advancing into top positions. But Hanlon said that in the city-parish finance department, those who return have to step into lower positions so that they do not impede others from advancing in the department. Hanlon described the ordinance as devastating to the city-parish, saying the institutional knowledge from experienced employees has been especially important in the financial system implementation. "It has definitely caused a morale issue in my department, Hanlon said at the council meeting. Every day employees ask me, am I going to be able continue my work? I dont know what to tell them. Raiford, Batson and McCain all declined to comment for this article. Baton Rouge budget for 2018 approved, including money for police academies, jail diversion The Metro Council gave a thumbs up Tuesday to Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome's 2018 budget proposal, which includes money for a jail div Collins-Lewis said she is concerned that city-parish government has lost the ability to attract and retain new, talented employees because they do not see a path for advancement. People should be training people to take their place anyway, Collins-Lewis said. Nobodys irreplaceable. The Metro Council is expected to vote on the ordinance at their 4 p.m. meeting Wednesday at City Hall. Advocate Staff Writer Tim Boone contributed to this report. RICHMOND HILL, Ontario, March 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Laipac Technology Inc., a leading company in the development of Internet of Things (IoT) products and solutions, this week announced they will be hosting a LooK Watch Media Conference at their office headquarters located at 20 Mural Street, Unit 5, in Richmond Hill on Thursday, March 15th. Designed to look elegant and stylish like a classic mechanical watch, the LooK Watch features a large round touch screen, one of the highest resolutions available today, AMOLED Display, silver or 24k Gold Plating, elegant watch faces, and six color combinations. Durable in composition, the LooK Watch is also cold forged in 316L stainless steel, using sapphire glass and a protective bezel. The watch is dust proof, water proof, and carries one of the longest lasting batteries available. We are inviting Toronto media personnel to come to our office this week and demo the LooK Watch for themselves, said Diego Lai, Co-founder and CEO of Laipac Technology Inc. Providing an intimate look at our revolutionary watch product, we are excited to share its unique features, attributes, and hand-made designs with everyone in attendance. Embodying a high quality of digitization, the LooK Watch displays the most apps of any non-iOS watch for users, with a high-quality speaker and incomparable memory storage of 16GB. Laipaic recently wrapped up successful show in MWC Barcelona 2018, showcasing the watch to all interested brand advocates at the event. As a fitness, safety, communication, and all around resourceful smart watch today, we are passionate about sharing our innovation with all those who are interested. We welcome Toronto Medias to visit us, said Lai. About Laipac Technology Inc. Laipac Technology Inc. is a leading company in the development of Internet of Things (IoT) products and solutions, also providing excellent IoT platforms on LocationNow.com. Laipac Technology Inc. was founded in 1999 by two distinguished Canadian entrepreneurs, Maria C. Pacini and Diego Lai, who continuously strive for product improvements and new ideas with the purpose of bringing the best-innovated products to the market. Laipac Technology Inc. is currently exporting products and solutions to over 100 countries and has received numerous awards and nominations that recognize the excellent business achievements and visions for the future. For more information, or to sign up on their email list, visit: http://www.laipac.com/. Find Laipac Technology on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/01cffa77-b102-4748-9c96-644936adc180 A man from Baton Rouge and another from Gonzales were convicted by a federal court jury for their roles in a violent and large-scale drug trafficking organization that shipped drugs from Texas into Louisiana, U.S. Attorney Brandon Fremin announced Tuesday. Demitoris "Big Tachi" Alexander, 52, of Gonzales, and Colin Knox, 39, of Baton Rouge, were the last of 38 defendants convicted following an extensive investigation dubbed Operation Third World, in which more than three dozen defendants were indicted in 2015. Arrests of 38 people cap off federal investigation into alleged violent drug trafficking network Murder plots, using children to transport drugs, storing cocaine at a Baton Rouge day care center those are among the allegations in an indi Fremin said the probe dismantled the violent drug trafficking network, which used a now-defunct Baton Rouge day care center on Swan Avenue to stash drugs. Alexander led a large-scale cocaine distribution organization in Ascension Parish that obtained cocaine from Houston for distribution in Ascension, Baton Rouge and elsewhere, Fremin said. Knox's role in the organization was that of an enforcer, using violence and threats of violence to protect the organization, Fremin added. 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 Alexander and Knox face from 20 years to life in prison. Alexander's son, Tachi "Little Tachi" Williams, 31, of Gonzales, was sentenced to nine years in federal prison last year for his role in the drug trafficking network. +3 Ascension Parish murder suspect sentenced to 9 years in federal prison in drug case A Gonzales man with a pending murder charge in Ascension Parish was sentenced to nine years in federal prison Thursday for his role in a drug Alexander and Williams have pending murder charges in Ascension Parish stemming from a 2014 slaying. Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission Two people were arrested after a Zachary firefighter and part-time, volunteer police officer was run over by a vehicle and killed Monday night Students at schools throughout the U.S. as well as some in Louisiana are planning to hold a variety of protests as part of National School Walkout day Wednesday, though in the Baton Rouge area the vast majority will likely stop short of actually walking out of class during school hours. The idea of students simply walking out at 10 a.m. Wednesday and staying out for 17 minutes a minute for each life lost in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting Feb. 14 has not gone down well with school leaders at many high schools in Louisiana. Lafayette Parish school leaders initially announced they would not discipline students who decided to participate in the walkouts. The parish School Board, though, had other ideas. On March 7, the board voted that Lafayette public schools will hold a moment of silence Wednesday morning in lieu of protests. Students and staff can also wear blue shirts as a symbol of peace. Students at several East Baton Rouge Parish high schools have been working with their teachers and administrators to develop sanctioned in-school events that would allow students ways to express themselves without disrupting class time. In Ascension Parish, Dutchtown High School students are planning to wait until after school and take their protest off school grounds after administrators threatened disciplinary action against any of them who bolted class during school hours. Both school districts issued statements Monday on the issue. Principals are proactively creating opportunities for students to express their sentiments in a safe and productive way, said Taylor Gast, an East Baton Rouge Parish school spokeswoman. 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 Ascension Parish Superintendent David Alexander focused on preventing educational disruption, according to his statement. He urged parents to join us in encouraging your child to cooperate with their principals and teachers to ensure safety, order, and educational goals are not compromised on March 14th as well as any day while at school. If students want to protest beyond what their schools are comfortable with and not face potential disciplinary action then their parents need to check them out of school and protest off campus, the statements say. In Livingston Parish, principals at Denham Springs and Walker high schools did not say that they would discipline students who walk out of class, but neither are anticipating protests. Walker High principal Jason St. Pierre said his school held a See it, Say it, rally about school safety on Friday, serving as an outlet for students to express themselves on the issue. For us, I dont anticipate any issues, said St. Pierre, who would not say if there would be consequences for those students who do leave their classrooms. We wanted to give our kids a voice, and we wanted them to be safe, he 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 On Monday, Jane Johnson, interim executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, issued a letter, warning school administrators that students have the legal right to protest. Rather than focus on discipline, schools should regard National School Walkout day as an opportunity for a practical lesson in participatory democracy, according to the ACLU. During school hours, students have protection for political speech under our state and federal constitutions. Johnson acknowledged that schools can discipline student protesters if they have rules against missing class, students cannot be disciplined more harshly because they miss class to express a political view. She also said that its not legal to discipline students simply for wearing clothing, armbands, or other accessories that bear political viewpoints just because someone may disagree with that view. Angelina Contelli, a senior at Dutchtown High, said she became interested in holding a protest soon after the Parkland shooting. The issue became close to home on Feb. 19 when a former student living in another state made an alleged online threat to do harm to Dutchtown High. Contelli said many of her fellow students stayed home that day. She came that day, bringing a doorstop, to try to bar the door if someone tried to bust into her class. She said she soon felt absurd over feeling the need to bring that to school. I was sitting in class with a doorstop wondering why I even had do anything, Contelli said. She said that she and other students opted against a walkout after the schools principal and Ascension Parish Superintendent Alexander both reminded us that missing class will result in suspension and Saturday detentions. Instead, she and other students plan to walk out to the street and protest on the public right-of-way. We still feel like we wanted to do it in a way that our voices are heard, Contelli said. Annie Sheehan-Dean, a tenth-grader at Baton Rouge Magnet High School, said she too at first wanted to do a walkout like some other schools are planning. But she and a handful of students changed course after talking to Principal Nan McCann. Instead, they are organizing a sort of town hall at the school that will last 30 minutes with a mix of student speakers and outside adult speakers. The organizing has been tricky, she said. (The principal), she didnt want this to be a very political event, so we wanted a way to channel this movement, she said. But this is very political issue, gun control. Sheehan-Deen said shes also met with students at Lee and McKinley high schools organized similar school sanctioned events. She said she expects more students event in the future. Im incredibly passionate about this, she said. I also believe there needs to be reform in our nation. Caroline Grueskin also contributed to this story. The Louisiana Supreme Court sided with charter school backers Tuesday in a lawsuit that had threatened state aid for about 18,000 students. The funding method had been challenged by the Louisiana Association of Educators, one of the state's two teacher unions. The high court, in an 18-page ruling, reversed a 3-2 decision by the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal. The appeals court held last year that the funding was unconstitutional because the schools did not meet the legal definition of public schools. "While there is no definition of public elementary and secondary schools in the Constitution, our Legislature has expressed that charter schools are independent public schools," according to the Supreme Court ruling, written by Justice James T. Genovese, of Opelousas. The state's top court said critics of the funding "failed to carry their burden of proving clearly and convincingly" that allocating traditional school aid dollars to the schools was illegal. The case applies to 35 charter schools authorized by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education after unsuccessful efforts by non-profit groups to win authorization from local school boards. The state aid under fire accounts for up to 90 percent of dollars the schools get, officials said. Charter schools are public schools run by non-governmental boards. Report faults state oversight of charter schools The Louisiana Department of Education has failed to implement state-required academic guidelines for deciding whether charter school contracts About 80,000 students attend around 145 charter schools statewide. Louisiana has about 700,000 public school students. State Superintendent of Education John White told reporters the legal challenge was simply aimed at shutting off the flow of state dollars for the schools, and forcing parents and children to look elsewhere. "This lawsuit has always been about money, plain and simple," White said. "It was never about children." He added, "The plaintiffs were hoping that these schools would be driven out of existence. There is no other way to explain this lawsuit." Debbie Meaux, president of the LAE, said in a statement that she was disappointed in the decision. "This ruling solidifies the division of public schools into separate systems, creating greater inequities for our students," Meaux said. The ruling will prevent what could have been a major battle in the Legislature. If backers of charter schools had lost, they would have tried to remove about $70 million from the state school aid program to fund the schools under fire. That would have resurrected bitter arguments about the merits of the schools amid yet another state financial crisis and short tempers in the Legislature. The Iberville Parish School Board joined the LAE in the legal challenge, arguing that local tax dollars for traditional public schools were improperly diverted to the charter schools. The ruling was 5-2 with Justice John L. Weimer, of Thibodaux, concurring but spelling out different reasons for the majority decision. Others in the majority were Justice Genovese; Justice Greg Guidry, of Jefferson Parish; Justice Marcus Clark, of West Monroe and Justice Scott Crichton, of Shreveport. Dissenting were Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, of New Orleans and Justice Jeff Hughes, of Walker. The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Charter school backers, who had been waiting for a ruling for more than five months, were jubilant over the news. "I am so thrilled," said Caroline Roemer, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools. Echoing White, Roemer said the lawsuit "is not about children. This is not about quality of education. This comes down to nothing but money." In her dissent, Chief Justice Johnson disputed the majority's view that the schools meet the legal definition for public schools. "Historically, we have defined public schools as elementary and secondary schools operated and administered by a locally elected parish or city school board which provides free and open enrollment to every child in the school district," she wrote. Justice Hughes said MFP dollars, the state formula that determines funding for public schools, should not be used to finance these charter schools. "Short cuts around the Constitution, even for what may seem laudable or politically expedient, are inimical to democracy and are not cool," Hughes wrote. The president of the Louisiana chapter of PublicSchoolOptions.org praised the ruling. "Today's Supreme Court ruling was the right one, affirming the rights of parents to choose the educational option that works for their children," said Christin White-Kaiser, president of the group and the parent of a child who attends one of the schools. "This lawsuit from the union bosses was always about money and never about what was in the best interest of students," White-Kaiser said in a statement. White-Kaiser said last year that, in the event of an adverse court ruling, she would likely home school her daughter Mary Grace, a Jefferson Parish student who, like others, was caught in the middle of the legal challenge. The ruling ended a court fight that began in 2014. Backers of the schools won the first round when 19th Judicial District Court Judge Wilson Fields, of Baton Rouge, ruled in 2015 that the funding was legal. Judge refuses to stop state funding to charter schools The flow of state money to 33 charter schools authorized by Louisianas education board will continue, a Baton Rouge judge decided Friday, but The First Circuit Court of Appeal last year narrowly reversed that decision, putting the future of the schools in doubt. Periodically officials on both sides of case predicted a Supreme Court ruling was imminent, including a wide range of such predictions last October. School for students with dyslexia wins renewal despite failing marks Despite its F rating, the contract of a Baton Rouge charter school for students with dyslexia was extended three years Tuesday by Louisiana's The schools whose funding was under fire include Madison Preparatory Academy in Baton Rouge; International High School in New Orleans; Lycee Francais de la Nouvelle-Orleans in New Orleans; Louisiana Key Academy in Baton Rouge; Acadiana Renaissance Charter Academy in Lafayette; JCFA-East in Jefferson Parish and University View Academy in Baton Rouge. Meaux said attorneys for the LAE will meet to decide next steps. White said he is satisfied that the Supreme Court ruling ends the case. Gov. John Bel Edwards' office did not respond to a request for comment. Soft-on-crime Judge Trudy White is right in the middle of the tragic death of 41-year old Zachary police officer Christopher Lawton Monday night. Lawtons alleged killer, 33-year-old Albert Franklin, has been the beneficiary of Whites well-established history of being lax with criminals. Franklin now sits in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, charged with first-degree murder of Lawton. Late Monday, East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said Lawton was killed while working undercover with another Zachary police officer searching for Franklin, who was wanted on active warrants for aggravated second-degree battery, felon in possession of a firearm and aggravated assault with a firearm. This is not the first time Franklin has apparently tried to kill someone. His extensive criminal history include an arrest on counts of attempted second-degree murder. Zachary Police Chief David McDavid told WAFB-TV in December that Franklin had been a problem for the people of his city for quite some time. "We got numerous complaints on this individual in the area selling drugs in the area, cars coming and going out of his place," McDavid told WAFB. What especially angered McDavid is the soft treatment Franklin has received from White. In November, Franklin was pulled over in a traffic stop, and officers said they found drugs and a gun. He was charged with possession and distribution of manufactured Schedule I drugs, possession and distribution of Schedule II drugs, possession of a firearm with drugs, felon in possession of firearm, resisting an officer, possession of drug paraphernalia, improper lane usage, and failure to signal, according to WAFB. A commissioner originally set Franklins bond at $88,000. But the next day, White reduced Franklins bond to only $9,000. Franklin bonded out the next day, WAFB reported. Can't see the video below? Click here. +5 2 arrested after Zachary police officer killed in hit-and-run outside Baker Walmart Two people were arrested after a Zachary firefighter and part-time, volunteer police officer was run over by a vehicle and killed Monday night But whats really shocking is that just one month earlier, Franklin was arrested for possession of drugs and traffic charges. In that case, he appeared before White, and she set his bond at only $3,500. Franklins arrest in September was one of five for 2017. His chronic criminal ways are without dispute, and yet even after multiple arrests in 2017, and multiple appearances before White, she lowered his bail from $88,000 to only $9,000. She had to know Franklin would appear before her again. What could possibly justify her lowering his bail such a significant amount? "I just will ask Judge White, 'Why are you continuing to let this individual out? Why did you reduce his bond? Did you look at his criminal history and see all the charges he's had before? Did you read the probable cause and see the problems he's causing in the city limits of Zachary? McDavid told WAFB-TV in December. To say White has blood on her hands with the death of Christopher Lawton is not a stretch. Remember, Lawton was serving a search warrant on Franklin. During her election, White had to apologize after running a campaign commercial featuring a man in an orange prison jumpsuit who promoted her candidacy inside a courtroom. +9 'Double hero': Zachary reserve officer killed Monday mourned as leader, 'giver,' dedicated family man A Zachary firefighter and reserve police officer was killed Monday night after he was run over by a man he was trying to arrest, becoming the The man said, I'm down here at the 19th, but check this out, I ain't gonna be here that long 'cause Judge Trudy White is fixin' to send me back home. So if you want somebody to show you some love, vote for Trudy White on November the 4th. White was clearly selling herself to voters as a judge who will help criminals get back on the street earlier. And she has consistently lived up to that campaign promise. Tragically, Christopher Lawtons death comes at the hands of one of the violent career criminals with which White was so lenient. Last year, White mysteriously disappeared from the bench for three months. She suddenly reappeared in March, refusing to explain herself. The Louisiana Supreme Court appointed a replacement during her hiatus. It is well past time for the Louisiana Supreme Court and the Louisiana Bar Association to take action against White. She should be removed from the bench before another life is lost. Email Dan Fagan at faganshow@gmail.com. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp. (CSE:BOLT) (FRANKFURT:NXFE) (OTCQB:PCRCF) (the Company or Pacific Rim Cobalt) today announced commencement of a 2018 work program at its 100% controlled TNM Cobalt Project, Papua Province, Republic of Indonesia (TNM). Today marks the launch of the initial work program to be conducted by Pacific Rim Cobalt at TNM, and the first since historical operators conducted extensive studies in the 1970s and as again recently as 2011. The project encompasses 5000 hectares covering nine known cobalt-nickel prospects. A historical estimate*, not prepared in accordance with 43-101, indicates that mineralization is from surface and estimates potential mineralization of 37 million tonnes of 0.11% cobalt and 1.31% nickel at a 0.8% nickel cut-off grade. This information is based on a total of eight hundred and fifty-six (856) holes with average historic drilling to depths of 11-15 meters and twenty-six (26) test pits on five of the nine cobalt prospects located on the project. Historic data implies a potential for cobalt mineralization to over 25 meters in depth. For clarity, please review the note regarding these historical estimates further in this release. As an initial step to guide the 2018 workplan, the Company has begun detailed drone operated topographic and photographic surveys. The resulting data will provide control for exploration planned activities including geological mapping, sampling, test pitting and diamond drilling to confirm historically reported* cobalt-nickel bearing laterite zones. The project area has year-round access by road from the Sentani airport and is closely located to the administrative capital, Jayapura, which provides access to personnel and infrastructure. Additionally, the TNM Cobalt Project is directly situated on Pacific Coastal tidewater in direct shipping proximity to Asia, the worlds largest cobalt consumer. Mr. Ranjeet Sundher, Pacific Rim Cobalts President and CEO, notes, Like many business endeavours, location plays a key role in the success or failure of an enterprise. We believe that cost-effective oceangoing proximity to the largest cobalt markets in the world, combined with our strong in-country experience makes for a truly attractive business proposition. It appears that the battery raw material supply chain is becoming increasingly recognized as a great opportunity with significant growth potential. During 2018, diamond drilling and test pit excavations will be undertaken to delineate the lateral and vertical extent of cobalt and nickel mineralization within the project area. Sundher continues, during 2018 we also expect to commission metallurgical studies of laterite materials from the TNM project for test processing at a North American-based pilot processing facility. The studies are intended to guide development of best practice industrial scale processing methods for battery grade cobalt and nickel sulfates, both of which are critical inputs for the rapidly growing lithium-ion battery industry. The Company further advises it has an ongoing program to identify and evaluate other Indonesian cobalt opportunities in order to enhance its position in the sector and is carrying out due diligence on a number of projects which may offer a strategic fit. *Historical Estimate Pacific Rim Cobalt considers the cobalt and nickel tonnage and grade estimates contained herein to be historical estimates. The historical estimates are contained in the Summary Geologic Investigations, PT. Pacific Nikkel Indonesia 1969 1979 (Reynolds 1979). These historical estimates do not use categories that conform to current CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves as outlined in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and have not been redefined to conform to current CIM Definition Standards. These estimates were prepared in the 1980s prior to the adoption and implementation of NI 43-101. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources and Pacific Rim Cobalt is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources. More work, including but not limited to, drilling, will be required to conform the estimates to current CIM Definition Standards. Investors are cautioned that the historical estimates do not mean or imply that economic deposits exist on the Companys property. Efforts to obtain any additional information regarding relevant historical work is ongoing, although there are no assurances that this original data will be found. Pacific Rim Cobalt believes that the historical estimates are relevant to continuing exploration on the property. For more information please refer to our technical report, filed on SEDAR on December 8, 2017 and available under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com. Qualified Person Mr. Garry Clark, P. Geo., Independent Director of Pacific Rim Cobalt, is the qualified person as defined in NI 43-101, who has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content in this presentation. About Pacific Rim Cobalt ( CSE:BOLT) (FRANKFURT:NXFE) (OTCQB:PCRCF) Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp. is a Canadian publicly listed company currently focused on the development of cobalt projects within Indonesia. Its TNM cobalt project encompasses cobalt and nickel mineralization as well as excellent infrastructure for year-round development activities. The Company believes cobalt will be the next dominant investment trend related to the critical components of lithium-ion batteries. Cobalt is currently in a global supply deficit, has a vulnerable supply chain, and is part of an emerging sector with extraordinary potential. Pacific Rim believes that the quality of our assets and our proximity to markets give us the opportunity to be a leader in the cobalt development space. For more information, visit: www.pacificrimcobalt.com. CONTACT Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp. Ranjeet Sundher President and CEO (604) 922-8272 rsundher@pacificrimcobalt.com Steve Vanry CFO & Director (604) 922-8272 steve@vanrycap.com Sean Bromley Director & Investor Contact (778) 985-8934 sean@theparmargroup.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in both Pacific Rim Cobalts periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "potential", "should," and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. Information provided in this document is necessarily summarized and may not contain all available material information. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding future oriented events and other statements that are not facts. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management based on the business and markets in which Pacific Rim Cobalt operates, are inherently subject to significant operational, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Such forward-looking statements should therefore be construed in light of such factors. Although Pacific Rim Cobalt has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and Pacific Rim Cobalt disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law, and Pacific Rim Cobalt does not assume any liability for disclosure relating to any other company herein. Rep. Steve Scalise shares a laugh with his wife, Jennifer, before an induction ceremony into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame on Saturday, March 10, 2018, at the National WWII Museums U.S. Freedom Pavilion. Since its beginning in 1993, the Louisiana Political Museum & Hall of Fame has honored special individuals who have significantly impacted Louisiana politics. From Winnfield, LA political legends - the Long Family, to singing Gov. Jimmie Davis, and Louisiana's only four-time governor, Edwin Edwards, to recent political movers and shakers such as James Carville and Mary Landrieu. Each year a slate of honorees are celebrated for their unique contributions to the states political landscape. Inducted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday were Jay Dardenne, Quentin Dastugue, James Gill, Charles Lancaster Jr., Newell Normand, Dr. Alton Ochsner Sr., Rep. Steve Scalise and the Rev. Avery Alexander. New Orleans Advocate a.m. Feb. 13, 2018 Your local news roundup... Click here to sign up! Welcome to the inaugural edition of the New Orleans Advocate a.m., a daily roundup we're putting together of all the top local news of the day, combined with headlines from around the web. It's designed to give you a quick, comprehensive summary of what's going on in New Orleans, with links to the stories that have all the details. Please aim comments, complaints, tips at Advocate Deputy Editor Andrew Vanacore: avanacore@theadvocate.com You'll still need a prescription. But the state's pharmacy board is getting ready to hand out 10 medical marijuana pharmacy permits to providers around the state. In the New Orleans area, a company called Rx Greenhouse is applying to set up shop at an office building near the intersection of I-10 and Causeway Boulevard. The rash of threats against local schools continues. UNO had to cancel most classes Monday after a 20-year-old suspect Nicholas Heard allegedly made some threatening comments toward fellow students on campus. Since the massacre in Parkland, Florida, last month, area police have made more than a dozen arrests over school-related threats, whether because of copy-cat behavior or extra vigilance. Several campuses have been forced to cancel school while police investigate. And the NOPD is going to start training staff at public schools in New Orleans on how to respond during an active-shooter scenario. Just a week after lawmakers ended an unsuccessful attempt to patch up Louisiana's awful budget situation, they were back in the same room with one another Monday for the start of this year's regular legislative session. They didn't seem thrilled about it. One Republican said he was abandoning a committee chairmanship because he was so frustrated with the chamber's leadership, writes Elizabeth Crisp in Baton Rouge, while others circulated rumors of a of an effort to oust House Speaker Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia. And ironically lawmakers are actually barred by state law from addressing the state's most urgent problem, a budget shortfall of at least $600 million. Here's our rundown of what may actually happen during this session, including the first big push in decades to expand casino gambling in Louisiana. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up John Fortunato, one of the two candidates for sheriff in Jefferson Parish, said during a televised debate Sunday evening that he would back Parish President Mike Yenni for reelection in 2019. That's a risky stance. Yenni survived a recall effort last year after it came out that he had been sending sexually explicit text messages to a teenager. But most other elected officials in Jefferson have called for him to resign. And Fortunato, the former long-time spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, is in a tight race with incumbent Joe Lopinto, who said during Sunday's debate that he thought Yenni should step down. The latest poll puts them in a statistical tie. In a text message to Jim Mustian, Fortunato elaborated that he doesn't "condone what Mike Yenni said or did, but I also believe the administration is managing the parish well." When we called around about the guy who was just hired to run public schools in Jefferson, it was hard to find anyone who would say something negative about him. But luring away a well-regarded superintendent from DeSoto Parish is going to cost Jefferson's school board. On Tuesday, board members will take up a proposed contract for the new super that calls for an average annual salary of almost $270,000, plus a car and gas. That's about $60,000 more than his predecessor. (By the way, the school board in New Orleans is trying to get another $50 million out of FEMA for post-Katrina rebuilding.) Della Hasselle and Faimon Roberts get to the bottom a huge flare coming out of a Chalmette oil refinery over the weekend: Turns out the plant had some routine maintenance going on, along with an unexpected problem that shunted all of the plant's excess waste chemicals into a single flare. The company that owns the plant now has a week to report back with state environmental officials detailing the cause and any resulting emissions. From around the web Looks like President Trump won't go as far as some had hoped in pushing for new gun control measures. The porn star who says she was paid not to talk about an affair with the president is offering to give back the money. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee looking into Russian interference in last year's election say they haven't found any evidence Trump colluded with the Kremlin. But the U.K. says the Russians did poison a former spy on British soil. A string of bombings has killed two people in Austin. Also... A quick book recommendation: Former NYT reporter Isabel Wilkerson was in New Orleans this past weekend to talk about the Great Migration. Her book on the subject, "The Warmth of other Suns," is a masterpiece. *** The Advocate a.m. is compiled by Andrew Vanacore, deputy editor for the New Orleans Advocate. Get in touch with feedback, tips, complaints at avanacore@theadvocate.com. Your local news roundup... Click here to sign up! Rogers LaCazes hopes of freedom were dashed again Tuesday as the Louisiana Supreme Court denied his request for a new trial in the infamous 1995 triple murder at the Kim Anh restaurant. LaCaze, who was convicted along with New Orleans Police Officer Antoinette Frank, seemed to win a major victory in October when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered its counterpart in Louisiana to reconsider the case. Yet even with those marching orders, LaCazes attorneys could not convince the state Supreme Court that his trial was fatally flawed because Criminal District Court Judge Frank Marullo failed to disclose an investigation into whether Marullo ordered the release of a potential murder weapon to Frank before the killings. In a unanimous opinion by Justice John Weimer, the court said there was no evidence that Marullo concealed the investigation into the gun, or that his unusual role in the case favored one side over the other. U.S. Supreme Court hands Rogers LaCaze shot at new trial over infamous New Orleans massacre The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed former Louisiana death row inmate Rogers LaCaze a major victory in his bid for a new trial over the mo After carefully considering all the facts, we find the defendant has not shown that the circumstances created an unconstitutionally high risk of bias, the justices said. LaCazes lawyers immediately promised to appeal the decision, once again, to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rogers LaCaze was denied the basic principles of fairness and due process at his trial, and we remain hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will resolve this miscarriage of justice, lawyer Amir Ali, of the MacArthur Justice Center, said in an email. LaCaze, who was initially sentenced to death, is now serving life in prison. His lawyers have long cast doubt on his conviction in what was one of the most notorious crimes in 1990s New Orleans. Authorities said Frank, who was working a security detail at the restaurant, returned after dining there to commit an armed robbery. The bloody melee that followed claimed the life of fellow officer Ronald "Ronnie" Williams II and siblings Ha Vu and Cuong Vu. Frank then returned to the scene again as a responding officer, which prompted her identification by a survivor. She remains on death row for her role in the massacre. Franks arrest seemed to epitomize a period of Police Department corruption and brutality that would be matched only after Hurricane Katrina. Yet there were always disputes over whether LaCaze, who was believed to be Franks 18-year-old boyfriend, was really her accomplice. LaCazes lawyers suggested at his trial that Franks brother was the more likely suspect. +3 Too old to serve any longer, Orleans Judge Frank Marullo ponders storied past and unknown future Its a time of forced reflection for Judge Frank Marullo Jr., who was busy last week gathering notes and keepsakes stored on three floors of t Marullo presided over the trial months after the killings. However, the judge never told LaCazes defense attorneys about his unusual role in the Police Departments internal investigation into the killings. Just months before the restaurant attack, Frank had obtained a 9mm pistol the same type of gun later used to kill all three victims from the Police Departments gun vault. Another officer had obtained a property release form that appeared to carry Marullos signature. In an interview before he was allotted the murder case, Marullo denied to police investigators that he had signed the form. In 1998, Franks brother was arrested in northeastern Louisiana with a 9mm gun that matched the make and model of the Kim Anh restaurant murder weapon. Part of the serial number had been defaced, but what remained matched the gun from the property room. LaCazes attorneys appealed his conviction, arguing that Marullo should at least have disclosed his role in the gun investigation, and more likely should have recused himself from the case altogether. After the attorneys won an appeal to an ad hoc judge, the Louisiana Supreme Court denied LaCaze a new trial in December 2016, calling its decision final. The court said there was ample evidence from the trial that LaCaze was guilty and that the gun inquiry did not weigh directly on his guilt. Yet final was not final for LaCaze, who mounted another appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a one-paragraph opinion, the highest court in the land told the Louisiana Supreme Court to zoom in on Marullo's role in the trial in light of recent case law on judicial recusals. During oral arguments in January, Louisiana Supreme Court justices puzzled over what they were meant to do. LaCazes lawyers said their next step was clear: overturn his conviction and order a new trial. The objective facts in this record demonstrate that Judge Marullo, consciously or unconsciously, had a clear discomfort with public disclosure, Ali said. Ali suggested that the judge himself could have been a witness for the defense, because he had information that supported LaCazes testimony that Frank told him she got a gun from the police property room. +6 This brings back all my anger, says survivor of 1995 restaurant massacre after judge grants new trial in case For more than 20 years, Chau Vu has tried to move past the night that her sister, her brother and a cop who used to guard her familys Vietnam Ali said Marullo made an extremely fraught decision to preside over the case instead of handing it over to another judge. The justices said that while Marullo might have had sensitivities about his name being associated with the investigation, he had no concrete reason to worry about its outcome because he was not one of its targets. They also concluded that he could not have been called as a witness because he had no direct knowledge about the gun's actual release. "That Frank might have once possessed the 9mm gun that was used to kill Officer Williams and the Vu siblings does not overcome the evidence that showed (LaCaze) was the one who possessed the murder weapon when Officer Williams was shot," the state justices said. They continued that LaCaze's attorneys had failed "to show that Judge Marullos disputed role in the administrative release of a 9mm gun was objectively (and realistically) likely to cause bias for or against either party in this case." Thousands of students were told to stay home and others were warned not to leave their dorm rooms on Monday as police hunted for the latest person to threaten a mass shooting at an area school, this time at the sprawling University of New Orleans campus. Police quickly arrested a 20-year-old student from New Orleans, and classes resumed Monday evening. Yet the incident, which led to heightened patrols on campus, underscored the atmosphere of anxiety at educational institutions following the massacre at a Florida high school last month. Since the shooting at the Parkland school, Louisiana law enforcement officials have investigated 106 school threats and made 62 arrests, according to the FBI. The threat to UNO may have been the most disruptive so far, given its enrollment of 8,000 students and its status as an economic engine for the region. Benjamin Franklin High School, which is located on the universitys campus, was also closed Monday. How can you focus as a student when youre worried about getting shot? asked Kordell Antoine, a 20-year-old who lives in the Privateer Place Apartments on campus. The whole country is on edge. You cant take it as a joke anymore. University students learned about the latest alarming incident on Sunday night in an email from the school administration. Officials said Nicholas Heard had threatened about 5:30 p.m. to shoot several students. Heard, like about 2,000 other UNO students, lived on campus. The New Orleans Police Department quickly obtained a warrant for Heards arrest on a count of terrorizing, which carries a maximum 15-year sentence. However, he remained at large until his arrest at his family's residence in the 8400 block of Willow Street, in Carrollton, on Monday morning. In the meantime, students were told to remain in their dorm rooms, and police stepped up their presence on campus. Administrators also canceled all classes until 5 p.m. UNO police said in a statement that it was not worth jeopardizing the safety of the members of our university community. Kayla Mundy, a 22-year-old UNO senior from Dallas, said word about the threat quickly spread among students. She also got a message from her parents, who told her to stay inside. The news that Heard was the suspect surprised her. Weve seen him around campus, and we just wouldnt have figured that it would have been him, she said. Police said that officers and U.S. marshals arrested Heard without incident at the Willow Street residence. Further details about the allegations against him were not immediately available. Parking lots and buildings at UNO remained mostly vacant on Monday afternoon, but a sense of normalcy was returning to the campus. Mundy said she was not alarmed by the threat but was glad that authorities took quick action. Its crazy how now, we really have to pay attention to these things, she said. University President John Nicklow thanked students and faculty for their patience in an email to the school community. Whenever the welfare of our campus community is threatened, it can be stressful and worrisome for everyone involved, he said. In spite of that, I am enormously proud of the way our city and university community banded together during this difficult time. Please know that the safety of our students, employees and visitors is always paramount. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies promised to take swift action against any other threats to area schools. The FBI and Louisiana State Police said in a press release that they would show zero tolerance to school threats, which have multiplied at a rapid pace in recent weeks. The 62 individuals arrested for threats to Louisiana schools over the past month have ranged in age from 11 to 28, with most being under 18, according to the FBI. New Orleans police said Monday yet another area high school student had been arrested. A 14-year-old student at the ReNEW Dolores T. Aaron Academy in New Orleans East, who is accused of making a school shooting threat on Friday, was arrested the next day. The youth was being held at the Juvenile Justice Center on Monday on counts of terrorizing and disruption of the operation of a school. Family members of a teenager accused of leading officers on a high-speed car chase last week in Chalmette before he jumped into the Mississippi River and disappeared say they doubt the boy went into the water on his own. But St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann said he is confident his deputies had acted appropriately. He encouraged the family of 14-year-old Ja'Sean Williams to report their concerns to the FBI rather than simply speaking to the media about them. The sheriff said he has no video of his officers' interaction with Williams because the agency doesn't equip its deputies with body-worn cameras or its vehicles with dashboard cameras, citing concerns about costs and data storage. But he said the Sheriff's Office would continue exploring that possibility. Major police departments nationwide have adopted body-worn cameras and dashboard cams over the years, amid continuing national discussion about police accountability and public transparency. The New Orleans Police Department has both under a federal court order mandating scores of reforms at the department in the wake of an investigation that found widespread instances of officers using excessive force. But other agencies locally and beyond lack one or both of those types of devices. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, for instance, does not equip deputies with body-worn cameras. According to Pohlmann's office, deputies tried to pull Ja'Sean over near Paris Road and Casa Calvo Street about 2 a.m. Thursday as he was driving a silver Infiniti FX35 that had been stolen in New Orleans. With an unidentified 15-year-old boy riding in the car, Ja'Sean sped away, ran a red light at Paris and St. Bernard Highway, and drove onto the Chalmette ferry landing, where he crashed into a guardrail, the Sheriff's Office said. Both teens jumped out of the car. Deputies caught the older one quickly, but they said they last saw Ja'Sean in the river, on the east side of the landing. The Coast Guard said it had crews on a boat and helicopter search a 102-square-mile area of the river for any sign of Ja'Sean for a total of 21 hours between Thursday and Saturday before suspending the search. Ja'Sean had not been found as of Monday afternoon, but his family members presume he is dead. They also said they don't think he would have voluntarily jumped into the river, which is unusually high and fast at this time. Ja'Sean's mother, Sonya Williams, 38, of New Orleans said her son was afraid of the water because he couldnt swim. She said she talked to the other boy who was involved in the chase, and he said he had been roughhoused by the officers before being arrested. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The other teenager said he saw officers running behind Ja'Sean. The other teen believes he may have been shocked with a stun gun, picked up by his collar and hit against the window of a car, losing sight of Ja'Sean at that point, the mother said. Williams said she doesn't think the possibility that her son was forced into the river can be ruled out. I really think they beat him and they threw him in the water," Williams said of her son. My son couldnt swim. Hed had never jumped in that water. He was a scared 14-year-old boy he was a sweet child, and at the end of the day, he would never have jumped in that water. Williams noted the 15-year-old boy had a cut above his eye. The Sheriff's Office said that injury occurred when an airbag deployed in the car the boy was in. Pohlmann on Monday said he encouraged the 15-year-old boy, who bailed out from jail Saturday, to file an internal affairs complaint against the deputies who arrested him if he had been roughed up. "He should reach out to the FBI if he feels his civil rights were violated," Pohlmann said. The sheriff also said he would welcome federal scrutiny into his agency's handling of the case. In any event, those close to Ja'Sean were having difficulty accepting that Thursday's events culminated in his death. Meg Lally, who taught Ja'Sean at KIPP Believe College Prep, took to social media Saturday to express her shock, saying her former pupil had never been in trouble of this magnitude before. He was ... currently in the 8th grade, only a child, Lally said. He was kind, he was sweet, he was silly, and he was so very loved. The owner of the stolen car Ja'Sean was driving, Fox Rich, said he "literally had my heart ripped out my chest" when he heard of Ja'Sean's demise. Rich's post continued, "I can't even begin to tell you how much that pained me, to hear that the child had made that decision that rather than be captive, or rather than face responsibility for the actions he had done, he thought he would try to get away." The massive fireball that shot hundreds of feet into the air above Chalmette late Saturday night was caused by excess waste chemicals being shunted into a single flare, state officials said Monday. Over the weekend, as video of the dramatic flaring spread on social media, a company official with Chalmette Refining said it was planned, and that all appropriate agencies were notified ahead of time. On Monday, however, company spokeswoman Elizabeth Frost explained that the flare's size and intensity was due to an "unplanned event," or accident, that happened in the midst of routine maintenance. "It certainly wasn't anticipated," said Mike Algero, of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The company that owns Chalmette Refining, PBF Energy, has seven days to review the incident and send a report to the state regulatory agency. Officials with the company and St. Bernard Parish had warned residents days ahead of time that much of the refinery's units were shut down for a "turnaround," a period in which the refinery was scheduled to go through maintenance and upgrades. During the turnaround, some additional flaring was to be expected, officials said in a post on the refinery's website, shared with the local government's Facebook page. On Monday, the company said that the maintenance turnaround also caused one of the primary flares to be out of service. Algero added that some liquid found its way into another of the refinery's flares, one that was designed only to handle gas. That caused that flare to shut down, and all remaining materials were shunted into the one operational flare, causing the fireball. On Saturday night, as the flames shot into the air, Chalmette resident April Fenk sat about five blocks away in the parking lot of a Walgreens on Judge Perez Drive, filming the incident on her cell phone. In an interview, Fenk said she lives near the plant, and had seen the flames from Kenner and even on her way home, driving on the highway home from Slidell. As she got closer, she said she saw authorities and fire trucks blocking off the entrance of the plant at Paris road. "The smell was awful," she said. In a statement issued Monday, a company spokeswoman said company officials were "aware of the heavy flaring that occurred" after 11 p.m. Saturday night. But, Frost said, the flare "safely combusted the hydrocarbon material." She said the company is investigating the incident, but that nearby monitoring stations operated by third parties near the site showed below detectable readings of the hydrocarbon materials the flare was designed to burn off. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up According to state regulation, the company has seven days to present a report to the state detailing the causes and possible emissions from the flare. If the company is found to have committed any violations, they could face fines, or compliance orders, DEQ spokesman Greg Langley said. From 2005 until 2014, the Chalmette Refinery had 560 accidents, according to data provided by Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group. Environmental Protection Agency documents show one major violation of the Clean Air Act in 2012. In 2015, the refinery was sold by ExxonMobil and Petroleos de Venezuela SA to PBF Holding, a subsidiary of PBF Energy, according to a a story in the Oil & Gas Journal, an industry publication. The refinery operates at about 180,000 barrels per day, the story says, refining both light and heavy crude oils into gasoline and other products. This isn't the first time residents in southeast Louisiana have expressed concerns over flaring at nearby chemical companies and oil and gas refineries. Earlier this year, the EPA and Shell reached a proposed settlement over improper operation of flares at that company's Norco plant, resolving decades of allegations that the plant was violating the Clean Air Act. In February, a federal judge ordered the company to spend $10 million on pollution control equipment, plus a $350,000 fine. In that case, federal regulators accused the industry giant of failing to properly control their industrial flares to such a degree that officials allowed chemicals capable of causing cancer and other ailments to permeate the air around the plant. Wilma Subra, a scientist with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, said that residents had also been concerned about emissions and flaring at the refinery in Chalmette. She called Saturday's incident "unbelievable," adding that she was concerned about residents being exposed to volatile organic compounds that are "highly toxic." Some short-term health problems associated with VOCs include burning eyes, asthma attacks, skin irritation and even lung infections, she said. "It all depends on how much went up in the flare versus how much was destroyed and not released into the ambient air," Subra said. The International AIDS Society (IAS) announced on March 13 the selection of San Francisco and Oakland, California, as the joint location for the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020), the world's largest HIV/AIDS meeting. Every major national network of people living with HIV in the U.S., along with other organizations and individuals -- including myself -- have released a letter asking IAS to reconsider this decision. In the letter, we detail our strong opposition to hosting the conference in the U.S. in 2020: We refuse to stand by while those most affected by HIV within and outside of the U.S. are, at best, excluded and, at worst, put in harm's way by holding the conference in San Francisco. ... Hosting AIDS 2020 in the U.S. flies in the face of ample and undeniable evidence that the Trump administration's violation of human rights, targeting of vulnerable communities for harm, and exacerbating HIV-related stigma worldwide, coupled with drastic budget cuts, threatens the advancements we have made in the domestic and global epidemics. The signatories -- who invite additional individual and organizational endorsers -- note in the letter that not even the more HIV-community-friendly Obama administration was able to suspend or overturn permanent bans that blocked sex workers and people who use drugs -- two deeply HIV-affected populations worldwide --- from entering the U.S. for the 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012), which took place in Washington, D.C. "It is completely predictable that conditions for those seeking entry for AIDS 2020 will be demonstrably worse," the letter says. As a national network based in Oakland that served as a central host organization for AIDS 2012, we understand clearly both the opportunities and the challenges in bringing this conference to the Bay Area. We do not come to this position lightly or frivolously," Naina Khanna, the executive director of Positive Women's Network-USA (PWN-USA), told TheBody.com. "2020 is not the year for a US conference." PWN-USA is a signatory to the letter, as is Khanna herself. "We have lots of work to do here that would prepare us to welcome a future, more accessible international AIDS conference," Khanna said. "And that conference should be in the U.S. South, which bears the greatest burden of our domestic epidemic." In a press release lauding the announcement, San Francisco AIDS Foundation said that it co-led the committee that bid for the conference, alongside San Francisco Travel. The full letter appears below, including the names of all public signatories as of 3 p.m. ET on March 13. March 12, 2018 Dear International AIDS Society and Conference Coordinating Committee: As organizations and individuals committed to human rights, we write to inform you that, like many groups domestically and globally, we stand in strong opposition to holding the 2020 International AIDS Conference to San Francisco, as we understand will be announced tomorrow. Every single U.S.-based national network of people living with HIV supports this letter, along with many other organizations (see list attached). We urge you to reconsider this decision and delay any announcement, while alternative venues in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) can be identified. We detail the reasons for our strong opposition below. However, we cannot overemphasize this point: Under the policies and political climate of the current federal leadership in the United States, it is impossible to honor the five values of IAS by hosting AIDS 2020 in the U.S. at this time. We refuse to stand by while those most affected by HIV within and outside of the U.S. are, at best, excluded and, at worst, put in harm's way by holding the conference in San Francisco. As noted by over 200 signatories to a letter released at this month's CROI conference, "science shows us that we can defeat HIV, but not if we defy evidence." Hosting AIDS 2020 in the U.S. flies in the face of ample and undeniable evidence that the Trump administration's violation of human rights, targeting of vulnerable communities for harm, and exacerbating HIV-related stigma worldwide, coupled with drastic budget cuts, threatens the advancements we have made in the domestic and global epidemics. As members of frequently marginalized communities, we did not come to this position lightly. Having a conference on U.S. soil can appear to open up access and opportunity for greater participation by U.S.-based advocates. However, as described below, this is only true to a very limited extent. Because of safety and ethical concerns, it would necessarily exclude vulnerable communities and most people impacted by the HIV epidemic from around the globe, as well as many scientists, clinicians, researchers, public officials and providers. We anticipate that the U.S. political climate will only be worse in 2020, in the final months of a presidential election year that, like 2016, may well be marked by heightened violence, intentional promotion of stigma and the need to mobilize to protect our communities. We are gravely concerned about the ability of the most vulnerable communities globally impacted by HIV to participate in a U.S.-based conference in 2020. History shows that local, state or even federal officials cannot guarantee the human right for safe travel of marginalized groups. As you know, the 1998 conference was relocated from Boston to Amsterdam, due to U.S. travel restrictions on PLHIV. In 2010, President Obama lifted those restrictions for PLHIV, which allowed IAS to host AIDS 2012 in Washington, DC. However, despite significant advocacy, the Obama administration failed to lift the travel restrictions on sex workers and people who use drugs for AIDS 2012. Because sex workers could not get permission to enter the U.S., the Global Network of Sex Workers (NSWP) hosted a satellite conference in India during AIDS 2012 and the director of Desiree Alliance, a national sex workers rights organization in the U.S., chose to boycott the conference. Thus, one of the most marginalized communities affected by HIV was unable to participate in a global conference due to restrictions by the host country. This was, and is, unacceptable. It is completely predictable that conditions for those seeking entry for AIDS 2020 will be demonstrably worse. As advocates working on federal U.S. HIV policy, we believe it will be impossible to lift the travel restrictions on sex workers and people who use drugs during this administration, which has also recently added travel restrictions for people from Muslim-majority countries and some Latin American countries. Additional restrictions are likely forthcoming before July 2020. These restrictions cannot be lessened, waived or altered by state or local elected officials in California or any state. That is not how the U.S. government works. The U.S has become increasingly militarized in its approach to immigrants, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is specifically targeting California, due to its failure to comply with Trump administration policies on undocumented immigrants. In the last two weeks, 150 immigrants were detained and arrested in the San Francisco Bay Area alone. On March 7, 2018, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a federal lawsuit against California for attempts to provide sanctuary to immigrants. Deportations under the Trump administration have particularly targeted immigrants who use drugs, and the President has held up extra-judicial killings of people who use drugs as a good model to follow. Local authorities have little ability to protect against anti-immigrant or travel policies, regardless of their commitments and personal politics. The Bay Area, like everywhere else in the United States, is not safe at this time. In addition, the International AIDS Conference is prohibitively expensive (registration in 2018 ranges from $500 USD for low income countries to $1200 USD; the cost is likely to be higher in 2020), and scholarships are limited. Registration fees do not include accommodations. This is problematic because the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the U.S.' most expensive markets for housing, accommodations, and meals. It is at present in a literal housing crisis, with thousands sleeping on the streets and under freeways, even through the winter. There are few affordable hotel rooms or AirBnBs within an hours' commute of San Francisco. The availability of affordable room rentals is only projected to get worse over the next two years. Thus, participation in a Bay Area-based conference will be unaffordable and inaccessible for the vast majority of U.S. advocates who most need to attend. But the conference itself is just the culmination of a time-and-resource-intensive process. If San Francisco is selected as the location for AIDS 2020, much of US-based advocacy by communities of color and PLHIV for the next two years would necessarily become focused on opening access to the conference for our communities. We would need to target the conference organizing process itself, to ensure that content, representation, and leadership is relevant and meaningful to our communities. This was challenging and time-consuming during the preparations for AIDS 2012, under far more favorable political conditions. It would be a diversion of our scarce resources, ultimately harming, not helping, our work. Hosting AIDS 2020 is an uninvited imposition for most of the U.S. HIV community, given the multiple and urgent threats to safety, health, rights, and dignity we face. Advocates are fighting daily for our very survival: to protect the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid (upon which 44% of US PLHIV rely), sexual and reproductive rights, immigrant safety, rights of transgender people and members of LGB communities, global funding for the HIV and TB response, and facing a national opioid overdose epidemic that affects people living with HIV and HCV. IAS 2020, if held in the U.S., will only serve as a distraction during a critical period where the domestic HIV community needs to be laser focused on protecting what we have and advancing access to healthcare, the safety net, and human rights. We reject the fantasy that the benefits of possibly heightened U.S. media attention to HIV issues in July 2020 outweigh the burden that hosting the IAS conference in the U.S. imposes on advocates who are fighting year-round to elevate these issues. Further, the current Administration has openly demeaned and insulted people living with HIV and people from countries affected by the epidemic with such statements as "everyone from Haiti has AIDS" and naming African countries as "shitholes". It is irresponsible to suggest that the U.S. will be safe for people from other countries in 2020, especially those from the communities most affected by HIV. Traditionally, the conference rotated to distinctly different parts of the globe for reasons of equity in access and perspective. Consequently, an alternative location in Low and Middle Income Countries should be sought. Some have argued that the conference's presence in the Bay Area will increase investment in or focus on the Bay Area HIV community. We question whether increasing investment in the San Francisco Bay Area should really be the top global or even the top domestic priority, given the geographic distribution of the respective epidemics. Additionally, the Bay Area and its elected officials are far from useful political targets in 2020. California is already widely viewed as an outlier for federal government priorities. Based on our experience with AIDS 2012 in Washington, DC, we question whether there would be any positive lasting impact in the most vulnerable local communities - particularly for those who live in Oakland. Despite advocacy, organizing and significant fundraising to support access for U.S. PLHIV, the majority of U.S. PLHIV and low income communities who were able to participate in 2012 were relegated to solely attending the free part of the AIDS 2012 - the Global Village. Whether by design or not, some San Francisco organizations appear to have placed hosting a multi-million dollar conference above ensuring that the people who most stand to benefit from this conference, globally and domestically, can, in fact, participate and benefit. It is extremely disappointing that the IAS supported the bid. Perhaps IAS are unaware that among the fourteen biggest cities in the U.S., San Francisco has the lowest percentage of Black residents, although the greatest burden of the US epidemic lies in Black American communities. We understand that Oakland, where more people of color living with HIV reside, has been included, in part, as a means of "diversifying" the bid, but the historic divide between San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area has deepened further in recent years as San Francisco has aggressively gentrified. Further, it is our understanding that main conference activities will take place in San Francisco and Global Village activities are proposed to take place in Oakland, a minimum 20-minute car or public transit ride away. This is offensive and risks exacerbating and reinscribing existing race and class inequities, while presenting barriers for people who are differently-abled or unable to access transportation. If San Francisco organizations and advocates are keen to support the next International AIDS Conference, and to give meaningful attention to the racial and class disparities that allow some PLHIV to live long healthy lives while others die, we urge these organizations to commit the resources they have have mobilized for this bid to support a Global South city to host the conference. In solidarity with PLHIV, sex workers, people who use drugs, disenfranchised communities and citizens from all the countries President Trump has insulted or banned, we stand in strong opposition to the U.S. as a host country for AIDS 2020. We urge the U.S. HIV community, and all those working for justice across targeted and marginalized communities, to stand with us and demand the conference be removed from US soil and relocated. When travel restrictions have ended and the U.S.' record on human rights and immigrant safety has improved, we ask IAS to choose a location in the U.S. South as a potential host location, as it is the geographic region that bears our greatest burden of the epidemic domestically yet suffers from the most severe inequities in access and political will. Signed, Organizations: Advocates for Youth African and Black Diaspora Global Network on HIV and AIDS, Toronto, Canada AbeniOC AIDS Alabama ATHENA Initiative Arianna's Center Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) Colorado Organizations and Individuals Responding to HIV/AIDS (CORA) CounterNarrative Project Drug Policy Alliance Desiree Alliance Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF) Harm Reduction Action Center (HRAC) Harm Reduction Coalition HIPS HIV Education and Prevention Project of Alameda County HIV Modernization Movement - Indiana Hispanic Health Network HIV Justice Network HIVenas Abiertas Housing Works, Inc. International Community of Women Living with HIV- Global International Community of Women Living with HIV - North America Latino Commission on AIDS Latinos in the Deep South Minority AIDS Council of Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun Counties Mississippi Positive Network National Working Positive Coalition Positively Trans Positive Women's Network-USA Positive Women's Network-USA Colorado region Positive Women's Network-USA Dallas Fort Worth region Positive Women's Network-USA Greater Houston region Positive Women's Network-USA Louisiana region Positive Women's Network-USA South Carolina region Positive Women's Network-Rwanda PowerSource Tucson Project Prosper of Florida Red Umbrella Project Rise Above Counseling Services Sero Project SexWorkerFest SF Sisterlove, Inc. Southern AIDS Coalition Southerners on New Ground (SONG) Stroll SWOP Behind Bars SWOPUSA SWOP Orlando The Empowerment Program Thrive Alabama THRIVE SS Transgender a National Alliance (+TNA) Transgender Law Center Transitions Louisiana TransLatin@ Coalition Trans Masculine Advocacy Network Treatment Action Group (TAG) US People Living with HIV Caucus We Are Dancers What Works Association Women's Health in Women's Hands Community Health Centre, Toronto, Canada Woodhull Freedom Foundation Individuals: Alex Andrews Matilda Bickers Maxx Boykin Barb Cardell Jada Cardona Marco Castro-Bojorquez Philomene cyulinyana JD Davids Dr. Carrie Foote Olivia Ford Annette Gaudino Bryn Gay Bryan Heitz Kristen Hirsch Devin Hursey Solobia Hutchins Pat Kelly Naina Khanna Octavia Lewis, MPH Loris A Mattox Suraj Madoori Jesse Maley Mary Elizabeth Marr Tana Pradia Venita Ray Morey Riordan Andrew Spieldenner, PhD Lee Storrow Sean Strub Wangari Tharao, Toronto, Canada Laura Thomas Jenna Torres Meg Valleee Dafina M. Ward, JD Terri L. Wilder Erica Woodland Clinical Responses Observed in 67% of Patients and Clinical Remission Observed in 28% of Patients No Anti-Drug Antibodies Detected CARMIEL, Israel, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American:PLX) (TASE:PLX), announced today, positive results from the Companys phase II clinical trial of OPRX-106 for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. OPRX-106 is a plant cell-expressed recombinant human tumor necrosis factor receptor II fused to an IgG1 Fc domain (TNFRII-Fc), in development for oral administration. When administered orally and while passing through the digestive tract, the plant cells function as a natural delivery vehicle, having the unique attribute of a cellulose cell wall which makes them resistant to degradation compared to proteins produced via mammalian cell expression. The phase II clinical trial is a randomized, open label, 2-arm study of OPRX-106. A total of 24 patients with active mild to moderate ulcerative colitis were enrolled in the study. Patients were randomized to receive 2 mg or 8 mg of OPRX-106, administered orally, once daily, for 8 weeks. The average base line Mayo score was 7.1 for the 18 patients who completed the study with 89% of those patients having a Mayo score of between 6 and 9, which meets the criteria of moderate disease activity. The key efficacy endpoints of the study were met: 67% of patients experienced a clinical response; and 28% of patients experienced a clinical remission. Clinical response at week 8 is defined as a decrease in the Mayo score of at least 3 points and either a decrease in the sub-score for rectal bleeding of at least 1 point from baseline, or rectal bleeding sub-score of 0 or 1. Clinical remission at week 8 is defined as clinically symptom free, a Mayo score 2, with no individual sub-score exceeding 1 point after treatment. In addition, other key efficacy endpoints were also achieved: 72% of patients showed an improvement in rectal bleeding scores; 72% of patients demonstrated an improvement in fecal calprotectin; and 61% of patients showed improved Geboes score (a histopathological scoring for the assessment of disease activity in ulcerative colitis). The positive trend in efficacy was consistent in substantially all patients. This trend is demonstrated by 89% of the patients having showed an improvement in Mayo score, with an average decrease in Mayo score of 45%, or 3 points, or from 7.1 at baseline to 4.1, at week 8. In addition, the vast majority of patients also showed an improvement in at least one of the other efficacy parameters. No anti-drug antibodies were detected. OPRX-106 was safe and well tolerated with only mild to moderate adverse events, which were transient in nature. Headaches were the most common adverse event reported. We are very excited by these results, commented Moshe Manor, Protalixs President and Chief Executive Officer. They demonstrate efficacy and a lack of immunogenicity together with a favorable safety profile, which could potentially overcome one of the most challenging drawbacks of current ulcerative colitis therapies administered via injection and infusion. The data is very encouraging, suggesting that OPRX-106 could potentially address a large unmet medical need in the treatment of ulcerative colitis. OPRX-106 is delivered orally and is biologically active in the gut without triggering the formation of anti-drug antibodies. OPRX-106 has the potential to address the partial loss of response seen in anti-TNF alpha treatment, which is driven by the high presence of neutralizing antibodies, said Professor Yaron Ilan, Chairman of the Department of Medicine, and an expert in Gastroenterology, at The Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem. In addition, by being delivered orally, OPRX-106 could potentially avoid certain side effects, such as malignancies and opportunistic infections, which currently appear in the black box warning of the prescribing information for commercially-available anti-TNF alpha biologics. The Company intends to release full results at a medical conference later in the year. About Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. Protalix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of recombinant therapeutic proteins expressed through its proprietary plant cell-based expression system, ProCellEx. Protalixs unique expression system presents a proprietary method for developing recombinant proteins in a cost-effective, industrial-scale manner. Protalixs first product manufactured by ProCellEx, taliglucerase alfa, was approved for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2012 and, subsequently, by the regulatory authorities of other countries. Protalix has licensed to Pfizer Inc. the worldwide development and commercialization rights for taliglucerase alfa, excluding Brazil, where Protalix retains full rights. Protalixs development pipeline includes the following product candidates: pegunigalsidase alfa, a modified version of the recombinant human alpha-GAL-A protein for the treatment of Fabry disease; OPRX-106, an orally-delivered anti-inflammatory treatment; alidornase alfa for the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis; and others. Protalix has entered into an ex-United States partnership with Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. for the development and commercialization of pegunigalsidase alfa. Protalix maintains full rights to pegunigalsidase alfa in the United States. Forward-Looking Statements To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, all such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The terms anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, plan and intend and other words or phrases of similar import are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual future experience and results to differ materially from the statements made. These statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations as to such future outcomes. Drug discovery and development involve a high degree of risk. Factors that might cause material differences include, among others: failure or delay in the commencement or completion of our preclinical and clinical trials which may be caused by several factors, including: slower than expected rates of patient recruitment; unforeseen safety issues; determination of dosing issues; lack of effectiveness during clinical trials; inability to monitor patients adequately during or after treatment; inability or unwillingness of medical investigators and institutional review boards to follow our clinical protocols; and lack of sufficient funding to finance clinical trials; the risk that the results of the clinical trials of our product candidates will not support our claims of superiority, safety or efficacy, that our product candidates will not have the desired effects or will be associated with undesirable side effects or other unexpected characteristics; risks related to the amount and sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents; risks related to the amount of our future revenues, operations and expenditures; risks relating to our ability to make scheduled payments of the principal of, to pay interest on or to refinance our outstanding notes or any other indebtedness; our dependence on performance by third party providers of services and supplies, including without limitation, clinical trial services; the inherent risks and uncertainties in developing drug platforms and products of the type we are developing; the impact of development of competing therapies and/or technologies by other companies and institutions; potential product liability risks, and risks of securing adequate levels of product liability and other necessary insurance coverage; and other factors described in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The statements in this press release are valid only as of the date hereof and we disclaim any obligation to update this information, except as may be required by law. Investor Contact Marcy Nanus Solebury Trout Group 646-378-2927 mnanus@troutgroup.com Educated in New Hampshire and spending the first part of his career in the Northeast, Senior Data Scientist Terry Bandy now lives and works in California. Alongside creating his own company specializing in Data Science the Tufts University graduate has partnered with Elliot Massa to create the Data Science Summit which met regularly to discuss the latest developments in big data from 2002 to 2010. Currently working as a freelancer, Terry Bandy is a husband and father who is an experienced freelancer now based in San Francisco. How will data science change the marketing world as we know it? I was talking with a marketing executive the other day and he was saying he expects big data to become the major trend for the future of the industry in the coming years. However, data has driven marketing for decades in many ways, it's just now that we can pinpoint with accuracy the needs and requirements of individuals to tailor marketing trends directly to the individual. Recently, I've been working with retailers looking to use beacon technology in their physical store locations which will talk directly to the smartphone of a shopper as they are approaching a store in a mall or on Main Street to deliver coupons, special offers, and details of the latest products arriving in store. I believe this will be the next step for data science to deliver materials directly to a customer instead of the focus being on major national and international campaigns. When did you start working on business intelligence? I've always been interested in technology and the possibilities of the Internet for business and personal use which is why I switched my focus at the college from pre-med to computer sciences. In the early days, like most people in the industry, I focused on Web design but found myself drawn to business intelligence around the turn of the century when I moved to California and established the Data Science Summit. It's amazing to think I've been working with big data for almost two decades because this is a lifetime in the fast-moving technology industry. How do your interests in mathematics, data analysis and interpretation, and business help you in this career? To use big data properly you really have to have some understanding of math to assist in creating the algorithms needed to track each piece of information needed to assist my clients with their marketing needs. Analyzing data in the way my clients require means having an understanding of their business needs and how the business can be shaped by the use of big data. In terms of my own business intelligence, I'm an entrepreneur and former executive with a number of companies so I think I can give some solid feedback for my clients about how data can have an effect on marketing decisions but I wouldn't attempt to tell anybody how to run their business. I can only recommend and advise based on the data and in a smaller sense, my own business experience. Which current societal problems and issues are you tackling? Which one is the most interesting? In my opinion, it is important as a father and husband to develop some time with my family which includes picking up my kids and wife and heading out for a hike in the beautiful landscapes of Northern California. I love getting out in nature and have been giving my time and expertise to a number of groups looking to map the impact of changes in the climate on wildlife. As a keen wildlife photographer, I believe the impact of humans on the climate is one of the most important things we need to be concerned with as I have seen the changes taking place in the natural world first hand over the last few years. What is your advice to businesses who wants to use data science a part of the life sciences sales strategy? Trust the algorithms technology experts come up with. In the past, there have been times when myself and my team have come up with new ideas and algorithms only to have them ignored by our clients. When clients ask why Terry Bandy has delivered an algorithm or statistics built from data I usually look back to the initial requirements of the client and find what we have delivered is what was asked for in the first place. Speaking for myself, I can say I believe big data is the key to successful marketing in the future. For Immediate Release: March 13, 2018 BOISE, Idaho - Boise Cascade Company (Boise Cascade) (NYSE: BCC) announced an agreement to acquire Lumberman's Wholesale Distributors, a distributor of engineered wood products, commodity lumber items, and specialty building materials in Nashville, Tennessee. "We are very pleased to welcome the Lumberman's associates to Boise Cascade. They have been an excellent distributor for nearly 50 years," said Nick Stokes, Executive Vice President, Boise Cascade Building Materials Division. "This location will allow us to strengthen our nationwide presence and satisfy a growing demand for our products and services in the Tennessee Valley and Central Kentucky markets." "We are excited to join Boise Cascade," stated Garey Keltner, President, Lumberman's Wholesale. "We believe there is a strong cultural and strategic fit that will allow us to grow and continue to serve our customers." The acquisition is expected to be complete in the coming weeks. About Boise Cascade Boise Cascade is one of the largest producers of engineered wood products and plywood in North America and a leading U.S. wholesale distributor of building products. For more information, please visit our website at www.bc.com. This press release includes statements about our expectations of future operational and financial performance that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The accuracy of such statements is subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, but not limited to, prices for building products, the effect of general economic conditions, mortgage rates and availability, housing demand, housing vacancy rates, governmental regulations, unforeseen production disruptions, as well as natural disasters. These and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements are discussed in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to revise them in light of new information. Finally, we undertake no obligation to review or confirm analyst expectations or estimates that might be derived from this release. Investor contact: Wayne Rancourt, 208-384-6073 Media contact: Lisa Chapman, 208-384-6552 CHICAGO, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VelocityEHS, the global leader in cloud-based health, safety and environment (HSE) solutions, will join more than 150 health and safety leaders from around the world at the Verdantix 2018 HSE Summit Europe in London, UK. Roger Bottum, vice president of strategy at VelocityEHS, will deliver the keynote address at the summits annual HSE Innovation Awards Dinner. In his remarks, titled Innovation for All: Driving EHS Innovation at Scale, Bottom will be shining a light on accessible EHS innovations, which is of particular interest to Summit attendees who come from a wide range of industries to learn about best practices for selecting, implementing and getting value out of HSE software solutions. The event also provides attendees an opportunity to build connections with industry peers and to demo a broad array of HSE solutions, including the VelocityEHS platform, named a Leader in the Verdantix 2017 Green Quadrant Analysis. This is an exciting time to be in HSE. New software and other technological innovations are making it both possible and affordable to resolve many of the oldest and most challenging HSE issues, said Bottom. While a lot of attention is being given to advancements like drones and the Internet of Things (IoT), the most progress in HSE comes from putting easy-to-use HSE resources in the hands of frontline employees to simplify data collection, improve communication, and automate reporting. Tackling HSE basics with cloud solutions and mobile apps puts real time information in the hands of managers so they can make better decisions on the fly. Everybody wins. The VelocityEHS platform is known for its strong, out-of-the box functionality, quick and easy implementations, and robust mobile apps. In its Green Quadrant Analysis, Verdantix said, Companies looking for a smart-looking cloud-based solution and effective mobile functionality should shortlist VelocityEHS. Today, VelocityEHS software is used worldwide in a range of industries, most notably manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, healthcare, oil & gas, construction, education, municipalities, utilities, pharmaceuticals, transportation and retail. The user interface is translated into over 20 languages, and customers include both small and large firms from 50 to over 150,000+ employees, including most of the Fortune 1000. To learn more about how VelocityEHS is helping more than 13,000 customers worldwide from virtually every industry improve EHS&S performance, visit www.EHS.com . For more information about Verdantix and its industry-leading events, visit www.Verdantix.com. About VelocityEHS VelocityEHS is the leading global provider of cloud-based environment, health and safety (EHS) software. Its comprehensive software platform and innovative mobile applications, including its award-winning MSDSonline chemical inventory management solutions, aim to make enterprise-level EHS functionality accessible and affordable to businesses of all sizes, helping them solve complex compliance and regulatory challenges in simple ways. Today, more than 13,000 customers worldwide, from virtually every industry, trust VelocityEHS and its solutions to improve EHS performance. Recognized by the industrys top independent analysts, including leading scores in the Verdantix 2017 Green Quadrant Analysis and 2017 NAEM EHS & Sustainability Software Ratings Report, VelocityEHS helps customers reach their EHS goals faster with quick implementations, affordable solutions and unparalleled customer support. VelocityEHS is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois with locations in Canada, the UK and Australia. For more information, visit www.EHS.com. Media Contact Betsy Utley-Marin 312.881.2307 butleymarin@ehs.com ATLANTA, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (FHLBank Atlanta) announced today that 2018 funding for its Affordable Housing Program (AHP) will be available beginning June 1. Through a competitive application process, FHLBank Atlanta members and their community housing partners will be awarded up to $500,000 for individual AHP projects. The deadline for submitting applications is July 2, 2018. AHP Competitive provides a unique way for financial institutions to expand their customer base, achieve business development and community lending goals, and facilitate economic development, and is one of the largest sources of private funding available for affordable housing today. Funds awarded through the program can be used to help finance the acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of multifamily housing or single-family housing, and for either rental or ownership units. Since 1990, FHLBank Atlanta has awarded more than $734.9 million in AHP Competitive funds, helping finance more than 116,000 units of affordable housing. In 2017, FHLBank Atlanta awarded more than $20 million to assist in the financing of 3,108 affordable rental and homeownership units. Also beginning today, FHLBank Atlanta will be hosting a series of webinars designed to increase awareness of AHP Competitive and to help familiarize financial institutions with the AHP Competitive application process. Interested parties can visit the Banks events calendar to register for a webinar. All AHP Competitive applicants should work with an FHLBank Atlanta member financial institution to complete the application. Nonprofit, for-profit, and local government sponsors should review the AHP Implementation Plan for updates to application guidelines and requirements. Interested parties that need assistance in identifying an FHLBank Atlanta member financial institution to work with can contact the Banks Community Investment Services department at 1.800.536.9650, option 3, option 0. About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta FHLBank Atlanta offers competitively-priced financing, community development grants, and other banking services to help member financial institutions make affordable home mortgages and provide economic development credit to neighborhoods and communities. The Bank's membersits shareholders and customers-are commercial banks, credit unions, savings institutions, community development financial institutions, and insurance companies located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. FHLBank Atlanta is one of 11 district banks in the Federal Home Loan Bank System. Since 1990, the FHLBanks have awarded approximately $5.4 billion in Affordable Housing Program funds, assisting more than 827,000 households. For more information, visit our website at www.fhlbatl.com. CONTACT: Peter E. Garuccio Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta pgaruccio@fhlbatl.com 404.888.8143 FT. WORTH, Texas, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Victura Construction Group, Inc. (OTC PINK:VICT), a holding company focused on strategic acquisitions within the construction industry, announces that it has begun preliminary planning regarding the construction of green eco-friendly Self Sustaining Intentional Communities (SSIC) in Texas and Louisiana. We are looking forward to breaking ground on these projects as they will serve as models to construct more sustainable communities throughout our region which is prone to extreme weather occurrences, said VICT CEO Patrick Johnson. In a recent letter to CEOs of public companies, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, whose firm manages $6.3 trillion in assets, said that companies needed to demonstrate a strategy for long-term value creation and financial performance, and that understanding a company's effect on the world was a key component. "Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose," Fink wrote. "To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society. Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate," said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. Victura Construction Group entered into a teaming agreement with RA Management Group LLC in January 2018 that promotes constructing self-sustaining intentional communities and economic development in Louisiana, Texas, and other locations across the country and overseas. Through its relationships with the Federal and State Governments, the firm provides green eco-friendly, and sustainable residential & commercial design services. The firm has a strong desire to impact communities through smart, innovative and sustainable design and has site control at Greensburg Louisiana, and Orange, Texas locations, respectively. The New La 9th Two development is an 80 unit multifamily gated community in Greensburg, Louisiana that comprises of 6.37 acres. (See page 5 of presentation) The New La 9th Three development is a 48 unit multifamily gated community in Orange, Texas comprising of 3.90 acres. (See Pages 3-4 of presentation) Many cities in our country and around the world today are not sustainable based on older infrastructure and housing that is not conducive to harsh climates or areas that are predisposed to extreme weather events. These projects when completed, will create a viable alternative lifestyle in sustainable green buildings, renewable energy systems, independent clean water, co-op housing, employment, and organic farming, for supportive manufactured products, said Elder Jeffre Saint James, D.PSc, MBA, Managing Member of R.A. Management Group LLC About RA Management Group R.A. Management Group LLC, (RAMG) is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) that promotes green eco-friendly, self-sustaining intentional communities and economic development in Louisiana, Texas, and other locations across the country. Though we are a small business, we have experienced great success since opening in 2010. We know what it takes to overcome diversity, homelessness, and poverty. "Our goal is to show that people today can help each other with life's struggles," says its Managing Member, Elder Jeffre Saint James, D.PSc, MBA - Service Disabled Veteran US Army Cold War Veteran. The company can be found at: http://ramanagementgroupllc.biz/ About Victura Construction Group Victura Construction Group, Inc. (OTC:VICT), is a holding company focused on strategic acquisitions within the construction industry that service both residential and commercial sectors in new development and construction projects, restoration and rebuild following any covered loss or catastrophic event and materials supply opportunities within the industry. Victura operates with excellent business practices and management expertise, sound ethics, financial resources as applicable, and utilizes strategic industry relationships to help add to the success of any acquired company(s). The company can be found at www.victuraconstruction.com Safe Harbor Statement This release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E and/or 27E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 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 and the risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. 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, the company's ability to raise necessary financing, retention of key personnel, timely delivery of inventory from the company's suppliers, timely product development, product acceptance, and the impact of competitive services and products, in addition to general economic risks and uncertainties. Victura Construction Group, Inc. Patrick J. Johnson Chief Executive Officer 888.842.8872 pjohnson@victuraconstruction.com Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-ceo-larry-fink-just-sent-a-warning-to-ceos-everywhere-2018-1 AA Insurance has revealed the country's most stolen cars. Owners of Honda Torneos have the dubious honour of being the most targeted drivers, with the remaining in the number one spot since its debut on the list in 2010. The list compiled by AA Insurance's own claims data shows the Mazda Familia in second position, followed by the Mazda Demio. Thieves generally prefer older vehicles, the insurance company said, because they tend to have less sophisticated security features and are often easier to steal. Ninety-six percent of theft claims for models in the top 10 list were for cars manufactured more than 10 years ago and the average value of a stolen vehicle claim from the list is $3,940, according to AA's claims data. Top 10 Stolen Cars (Source: AA Insurance claims data 1 Jan 2016 - 31 Dec 2017) Only where Democracy and Aristocracy are harmonized and unified culturally can a nation really be healthy and advanced; its history becomes the awe of the world. Be it known to you that a son is born to me; but I thank the gods not much that they have given me him as that they have allowed him to be born in your in your time. For I hope that your care and insight will make him worthy of me and of his future kingdom... Phillip II Macedon in a letter to Aristotle, upon the birth of Alexander. A Grail legend recounts the story of the empty seat of stone at the Round Table. King Arthur told the young Perceval, who had left the forests of Germania and was new to the castle at Monsalvat, that the seat was reserved for the best knight in the world; yet Perceval, being proud, nonetheless sat upon it. As soon as he was seated, the stone split beneath him and cried with such anguish that it seemed to all who were there that the world would fall into the abyss. From the cry which the earth uttered there issued, the myth goes on to recount, a great darkness A more poignant allegory of the overwhelming power of the sacred in mens lives as expressed in secular mythology there is not. At the same time, this King Arthur/Parsifal legend is also a poignant statement of the profane in human affairs as relates to mans earthly social and political organization. For, at the time of the composition of the legendsvaguely the twelfth and thirteenth centuriesthere was taking place a transformation of belief systems of Western civilization, beautifully expounded on by Thomas Aquinas, in which the democratization of royalty and knighthood were at the center of this change. Concomitant to the development of chivalry was the belief in the value and dignity of the Individual regardless of whether he held land or weapons. The symbolism of the Round Table signified this estimation of the individuals value as it did a shift of power from its concentration in the person of the King, who normally sat at the head of any assembly and whose authority commanded the strict attention of his knights. Now, the physical transformation of the seating represented a psychological change and all those seated had equal weight and equal participation in matters concerning the realm. The Round Table was, in effect, a democratic systemthough a democracy of a supreme King and elite knights; it was an advancement of the belief system that everyone was important and equally worthyyet a democracy of superiors who never gave up their belief in the unspeakable profundity of the sacred. Here, like the goddess invoked by Parmenides who led men first through a journey into great myth such that they might in the end attain Reason, to understand the story of this most romantic chapter of bewitching Medieval history is to grasp the key rationale of what makes a democratic state genuinely viable. The corruption of democracy, in which the lowest common denominator is given the highest amount of cultural and political power, has been fundamentally the result of the eradication of aristocracythis latter defined not in a superficial social sense but as that which embodies the standard-setting conduct of the greatest institutions of civilization and the individuals who nobly personify them. It is a view that may be summed by another great figure of the Middle Ages, Richard Coeur de Lion, in a letter he wrote to his son, Konrad, People do not distinguish Kings and Caesars above other men because they are highly placed, but because they see farther and act better. He continued: As men stand equal to other men by their humanity, they are associated with them in life and have nothing to pride themselves on unless by virtue. Certainly, this is not a statement in favor of so-called class structure, but one in favor of the hierarchy of the human spirit as made manifest in accomplishment. It is why the genius of chivalric myth is that, while portraying characters who essentially make up otherworldly elites, these stories attract the popular mass because of the universality of the psychology portrayed; an identification with the myths truths about life to which all men may relate. This sense of the democratic-aristocratic is a timeless element in all great Western myth: It is said that even Heracles won his crown of heroism not by birth, not by having Zeus for a father, but by his human compassion and well-doing. But when a civilization eradicates this nature of spiritual hierarchy, there can be no real equalityno fraternal respect for the human person. Nihilism, not realism, is the price we have paid for abolishing our myths. Of modern myth, I am haunted by a passage in The New ClassI think it isa seminal work by the late Yugoslav writer Milovan Djilas and wartime resistance leader, who recounts a visit for the first time to Moscow as a freshly minted young communist and Partisan. Eager to meet representatives of his ideological homeland, Djilas is introduced to a Kremlin commissar, a former general, who is bemused at his guests eagerness. When he inquires of the commissar whether the latter thinks that the spread of Communism will finally bring peace, community and brotherhood to the human condition, the Russian laughs off the idea and Djilas is taken aback. Rather, the host explains, it will exacerbate hatred and violence among them. Perplexed, comrade Djilas asks why. The Russian explains: Now that there is no God, no King, no Lord upon whom the common man can blame for problems and men must look at themselves for the sources of their lifes ills as well as to their neighborswho are, according to doctrine, their very own selves, hence equally responsible for those illsthe contempt and detestation of one another will only worsen. The anecdote is, in many ways, a modern echo of the philosophy of Vico, the great eighteenth-century Italian philosopher, who said that the stages of world history had three categories: first the Gods, then the Heroes, then the Humans. Once a civilization dumps the gods, then rejects the heroes, one is left with the humans. Vico explains this transition, from the first to last stages, as the steady ascendancy of Reason over the Imagination, meaning that the history of human society has been that of a constant search to assert control over the unknown. So, at first, man looks to the gods for answers but then religion fails him. He looks then to his heroesthe great minds, the great actionsonly to see that philosophyour attempt to make sense of those minds and actionsconfounds him and the heroes come crashing down. Then, in his desperation, man tries to rely on common man, in the process inventing Ideology and thereby setting man against manthe heroes and gods having already been killed off long ago. This state of contemporary chaos brings us, once more, back to the foresight of the Middle Agesspecifically, De Monarchia, in which Dante wrote: All concord depends on unity existing in the wills; mankind at its best is a kind of concord. Therefore, for mankind to be at its best depends upon unity of wills, but this unity cannot exist unless there be on will, the mistress and regulator of all others unto unity. Nor can that one will exist unless there be one Prince over all. Of course, Nature is highly just in her injustices, ruthlessly but by necessity weeding out weak from strong, and posing to human society the unanswerable question: Should men govern or should men be ruled? The pulse and circulation of ideas driving the course of human history fundamentally has been the summary search for the king who is a philosopher and the philosopher suited to be king; the tragedies of this history stem from the perversion of these ideals and the errant attempts to secure them in religious and ideological form. In the conception of the High Middle Ages, the search for the perfect prince was something of an obsession; into the Renaissance, this abstract notion became highly concretized in the rise of Individualism during that timethis being the thematic study of Jacob Burckhardts classic The Civilization of Italy During the Renaissance (1860). The Quattrocento, by concentrating attention on the ethical problems of Princeship and thus on the personal characteristics of the top aristocrat, started a tendency which reached its culmination in Machiavellis proposition that the vital, determining factor in politics is the princes personality. The writings of the Quattrocento all spelled out the essential constituents of the princely life and belonged to the magnificentia, one of the most characteristic virtues of the prince. Introduced as well was the idea of majestas: the princely deportment, his outer bearing, the sound of his voice, his gestures, his way of speaking, his dress and table mannersthe whole of his life. The humanist scholar Leon Battisa Albert, the first Renaissance thinker to deal with a democratic conception of monarchy, wrote, Every historical event is purely and simply the consequence of the princes personality. Ferrante of Naples, Louis IX of France (St. Louis), Frederick II Hohenstaufen were all considered to be this embodiment of the perfect princea man self-willed, self-made, self-realized as a personality; in essence, a democratic conception of character and leadership. Indeed, this democratic conception of the role of the self-made, individual personality embodied in a King has classic origins. As Hegel wrote in an 1871 essay, The Philosophy of Aristotle: Aristotle found in Alexander another and a worthier pupil than Plato had found in Dionysius. Plato was occupied with a Republic, with the ideal of the State. With this subject before his mind he sought to find means for its realization; the individual was for him only the means and hence indifferent in other respects. With Aristotle, on the other hand, no such purpose was in view; he confined himself strictly to the individual before him and his aim was to develop and expand the individuality. Hegel goes on to say that Aristotles philosophical instruction is the elevation of the natural, peculiar greatness of his inborn talents to internal freedom and to perfect self-conscious independence as we see in his plans and deeds. Hegel adds: Alexander attained that perfect self-possession that alone gives infinite keenness of thought. It all makes for a nuanced definition of leadership as well. Just as Livy wrote, authority and power are two different thingsa subtle distinction, but an important one, for real leadership contains within it an elusive quality of stature that cannot be taught or learned but is rather a style of soul. Government, in turn, is the soul of a city, and, as British parliamentarians and American founders would state centuries later: Those who found a Commonwealth must themselves be noble. Only where Democracy and Aristocracy are harmonized and unified culturally can a nation really be healthy and advanced; its history becomes the awe of the world, and one class is not essentially superior to the other: Keep in mind, Aristotle wrote and Alexander only admired him. Machiavelli wrote and de Medici looked on patiently. Livy argued and sermonized and mythologized; Augustus Cesar did not censor him. Aristocracy needs Democracy and the many great thinkers it can produce, the common bond between the two sides being a common national Idea, a cause to which both belong. Walter Savage Landor, in his Imaginary Conversations with Great Men (1868), wrote about how both the Royalists and the Republicans in France fought for Greece during that countrys national liberation in the early 1800s, when there was still a concept of great men. There was never a question, in ancient days or modern, in which every people of Europe was perfectly agreed, until the Greek cause was agitated We want to see if History will ever have again such an influence on the minds of men that they are united by some sense of the idea of a country, this country, like the French Royalists and French Republicans once did about Greece. Aristocrats and democrats united in an ideaan idea of what is important to all men, in any country, at any time. This is the mentality that will save an entire civilization; one in which a countrythis countrymeans something particular to History and that there is a wayRoyalist or Republicanto live in cultural and political society that does justice to that meaning. It is not as if American history does not have some degree of this mix at its foundingto a point, we may say, and, lest we forget, one might take into consideration the fact four European noblemen surround the monument of Andrew Jackson, founder of modern American democracy, in Washington DC. Sympathy, if that is the correct word, with royalty was ingrained in this countrys founding mentalitysupport for the Revolution was not an across-the-board affair by any stretch. No taxation without representation is not an American idea, but an ancient British constitutional maxim and the leading English jurists at the time of the Revolution, including George Grenville, author and champion of the Stamp Act, did not dispute it. I would never lend my hand toward forging chains for America, lest, in so doing, I should forge them myself, Grenville is quoted in George Bancrofts magisterial History of the United States (1834-74) But the remonstrances of the American fail in great point of the colonies not being represented in Parliament, which is the common council of the whole empire, and as such is as capable of imposing internal taxes as impost duties, or taxes on inter-colonial trade or laws of navigation. Thus, the Loyalist position was not to deny the truth of the taxation-representation principle, only that most of them did deny that this principle was violated by the acts of Parliament laying taxation upon the colonies. This number of such like-minded individuals was not negligible. That like-mindedness was to be found in the colony of New York, particularly in the neighborhood of its chief city; there were many Tories in New Jersey, Delaware and in Maryland, yet the largest number lived in Pennsylvaniaa number so great that a prominent officer in the Revolutionary Army, Timothy Pickering, described it as enemies country. Indeed, as John Adams wrote in volume ten of his collected works: New York and Pennsylvania were so nearly dividedthat if New England on the one side and Virginia on the other had not kept them in awe, they would have joined the British. Of the New England colonies, Connecticut had the greatest number of Tories; next, in proportion to population, was the district afterwards known as the State of Vermont. Proceeding south, in North Carolina, the two parties were about evenly divided and in South Carolina, the Tories were the more numerous party. In Georgia, their majority was so great that, in 1781, they were preparing to detach that colony from the general movement of the rebellion and probably would have done so, had it not been for the defeat of General Cornwallis at Yorktown, the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War, in the latter part of the year. Thus, the Tories themselves always affirmed that could there have been a true and an unterrified vote, they would have had a great majority and that in their belief, key measures of the Revolution were the work of a well-constructed and powerful political machine, set up in each colony, in each county, in each town and operated with as much unscrupulousness as go into the operation of such machines in our time. John Adams, not one who had been inclined to give undue concessions to the enemy, stated in his writings that about one-third of the people of the thirteen States had been opposed to the measures of the Revolution in all its stages. This opinion was mentioned by him in a letter to his compatriot, Thomas McKean, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a member of every American Congress from that of 1765 to the close of the Revolution. You say, wrote McKean in reply, thatabout a third of the people of the colonies were against the Revolution. It required much reflection before I could fix my opinion on this subject, but on mature deliberation I conclude you are right and that more than a third of influential characters were against it. Out of approximately three million people, then, at least one million did not approve of the policy of carrying their political opposition to the point of rebellion and separation; certainly, title-seekers and opportunists existed within that number, but many were often preeminent citizens of good standing from the best colleges such as Harvard and Princeton. According to Adams and McKean, every third American whom one would have encountered in America between 1765 and 1783 was a Loyalist. All this is not to argue, directly or indirectly, that monarchy is suitable to this country, then or now, as it is not. Rather, it is to highlight the cast of mind shared by a good portion of the country at the time in valuing the independence of new States geographical and national character, while denying that to do so was incompatible with staying rooted in ones heritage or that ones heritage was a necessary impediment to that independence. And this, too, is a genuinely American sentiment. Well into modern times, the truly democratic American would view a Continental noble as one of his own strictly on the basis of individualismroots, heritage, independence, identity all being what a man himself willed them to be. One is reminded of the great story of concerning a visit of the future King of Spain, Alfonso XIII, to the newly opened Ford motor plant in Detroit in the 1930s. The Infante seemed to be in his right element, and he and Henry Ford tramped along, examining the cars in detail. The most American of all Americans was amazed and bewildered by the technical and practical knowledge which the Spanish prince displayed. If anyone could have told him then that only a few years later he and the Spanish prince would meet again as employer and employee, he would have discarded the idea as impossible. Yet so it happened. The fall of the monarchy in Spain brought Henry Ford in close contact with the exiled Infante, who in the early days of difficulty remembered what he had seen in Detroit and knew that the American motor magnate was always ready to employ men who will work. To be sure, in contemporary times, a man living in a democracy has a harder time abandoning the belief that he lives in a functioning, transparent system than some other man, living under a regime, who accepts the reality that his country and his life have been taken over by a thug. Under the dictatorship, the thug is at least visible, known. In a democracy of today the thugs form a natural, permissible elite because no one can distinguish them from the brutishness of the mass, which is how the elites want it and is what we call representation. Right and Left, whatever these might still be, come full circle to say basically one thing: that our mass-elite and elite-mass democracy has left us with a country that has ceased to be a nation. No unifying principle, no concord of wills, in Dantes formulation. We have lurched so far afield from the historical mission of this country that we are on the verge of rendering ourselves ahistorical. A great part of the problem is that the Debate of Ideas is no longer permitted. Oswald Spengler wrote that in the eighteenth century, Money conquered Blood for rule over the fate man and of his history. Great Britain freed currency, and from that point on, the definition of Western man would come to mean something else than what it had been for the seven hundred years preceding this event. The Intellectthe man-made created lifewas now to take over Nobilitythe nature-ordained life of man. The latter, once comprising the leading actors in history itself, would now be uprooted once and for all to make way for the world of Ideas. Today, however, the world of Ideas has itself been uprooted (and this, beginning with the idea of what it means to be noble), and for this reason fundamental questions are not, and cannot be, asked. Vico once wrote there are two kinds of wisdom: the poetic and philosophical. Lacking this wisdom, it is why we cannot get to the root of the questions we should be asking. Our culture, if we still may call it that, is no longer capable of either poetry or philosophy and, as such, is not aware that only poetry and philosophy can pose or answer them. Because we lack History, we lack modern identity; just as we lack robust democracy because there is no aristocracy to inspire it; no freedom of self-invention that compels ones vision to look up to the role models it seeks, rather than only side-to-side or, as is usually the case, at the sewer, the things so far beneath it. The King is dead, Long Live the King, goes the famous cry and such is the legacy of the brutal egalitarianism of our age, one that promised the common man he, too, could be a knight if only he first managed to kill off all the knights who came before him and all that went into and made them such. The stone seat at the Grail Castle remains empty; the wail of the abyss still wide and still wailing, and the great darkness engulfs once more. The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politicswe approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now. The featured image is a detail of The Apotheosis of Washington and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ary Hermawan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 08:23 1288 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c989fc4 1 Opinion #commentary,2019-presidential-election,democracy,Indonesian-politics,Jokowi,Prabowo-Subianto,anies-baswedan,Agus-Harimurti-Yudhoyono Free If you expect drama and suspense in the 2019 presidential election, as we had seen, for better or worse, in 2014, you would likely be disappointed. If it were a movie, the upcoming election would likely turn out to be a badly produced sequel of our last one with the same characters. And the plot would be much more predictable: it will end with Joko Jokowi Widodo getting a second term. Most political parties have embraced this defeatist, yet realistic, view. That is why more than half of the parties participating in the next legislative election have already placed their bets on Jokowi, who clearly has the best odds, while the rest are perhaps pondering whether challenging the incumbent is worth the fight. So the 2019 election is likely to be dull. That is because for most political parties, including the Presidents Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the 2019 election is merely a prelude to the real political battle of 2024, when Jokowi is barred from running again and the playing field is level for every contender. Their defeatist attitude is perfectly understandable. Heres why. The Constitutional Court has ruled that the next presidential and legislative elections should be held concurrently, while the House of Representatives has decided that the controversial presidential election threshold (that a party must control 20 percent of House seats or secure 25 percent of the popular vote to field a candidate) will remain intact. This means the General Election Commission will refer to the result of the 2014 legislative election to decide whether a party or an alliance of parties could nominate a candidate. That is boon for Jokowi, because it means the political setting for 2019 is more or less the same as the previous election, while the former Surakarta mayor has become stronger and is now way more prepared. The most probable scenario for 2019 is that Jokowi and Prabowo Subianto, backed by the Houses three largest parties, will have a rematch next year. If the race was too close to call in 2014, the next battle for the two political leaders is by far more predictable. The latest election surveys have shown that Jokowis electability hovers around 47 to 48 percent. Analysts say the numbers are not good enough, and Jokowi could lose the election, but his potential rivals are doing even worse. It is hard to fathom why the Gerindra Party insists on nominating Prabowo again, and even scoff at suggestions that the time is up for its candidate, who has fought for election since 2004. Prabowos electability is still below that of Jokowi, and most of the parties that backed him in 2014 have abandoned him. If he could not beat Jokowi in 2014 when the latter was practically a stranger in national politics and extremely vulnerable to smear campaigns, online and offline, what could possibly make him think he could beat Jokowi in 2019? Jokowi has done a lot to ensure his re-election. While the economy remains sluggish, and his infrastructure drive is marred by deadly accidents, Jokowi has successfully portrayed himself as a working president. He has also worked really hard to win support from Islamic groups and has drummed up a type of hyper nationalism to help him fend off the Islamists political attacks targeting his credentials as a Muslim leader. But his best defense is perhaps his success in ensuring that fake news and hoaxes can no longer dent his popularity. Not only has Jokowi made the campaign against fake news a national sport, he has also set up the legal and technological infrastructure to combat hoaxes and their spreaders. National Police chief Tito Karnavian, widely seen as Jokowis trusted ally, has been aggressive in cracking down on online hate mongers. The President has also set up a national cyber agency that would have access to the powerful censor machine that could swiftly detect and block any negative content on the web. There is no need for the President to abuse his power to win the race (though his rivals would certainly assume he already has). He only needs to let the police and around 50 personnel behind the censor machine work professionally to cripple his rivals ability to attack him online. With Jokowis standing stronger than ever, unsurprisingly all political parties, except for Gerindra, have formally or casually offered their best candidates to be Jokowis vice-presidential candidate, as it is broadly seen as the most strategic position for potential presidential contenders in 2024. This logic explains National Awakening Party chairman Muhaimin Iskandars cringe-worthy campaign as a vice-presidential candidate, which was launched months ago, even though, until now, it remains unclear who his presidential candidate is. For Muhaimin, the goal is not winning 2019, but setting the stage for 2024. That is also why an alliance between Jokowi and the Democratic Party is just hard to realize due to conflicting interests. Democratic Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wants his son, Agus Yudhoyono, to be Jokowis running mate. Megawati Soekarnoputri, Yudhoyonos political nemesis and Jokowis matriarch in PDI-P, will not easily give that position to Agus when her daughter, Puan Maharani, and close ally, Budi Gunawan, could be candidates. The idea of whoever runs with Jokowi could be president in 2024 is so widely held among politicians that even Jokowi has reportedly insisted on running with Vice President Jusuf Kalla (now 76 years old) again to ensure no potential presidential contender has the upper hand in 2024. Some politicians, including House speaker Bambang Soesatyo, have gone as far as toying with the controversial idea of having Jokowi as the sole candidate for 2019, offering a politically unthinkable proposal: pairing Jokowi and Prabowo, a scenario that Gerindra has flatly rejected. Yudhoyono, meanwhile, has floated the idea of fielding Agus as an alternative presidential candidate. But the party is aware that Agus has little chance of winning the election. Thus, its possible main goals would be to boost the partys electoral gain and, of course, give Agus more exposure before 2024. So far, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan is arguably the strongest candidate to challenge Jokowi. But who will support Anies? He is a non-partisan, freelance politician. And would Anies take the risk to challenge Jokowi now, and engage in a sectarian game of who is the most Muslim candidate with Jokowi? If I were Anies, I would rather take on Agus in 2024. The battle of the social media platforms continues as they all borrow and copy one anothers features. This time, its Snapchat who appears to be copying Instagram with a new tagging feature. The guys at Snapchat seem to be playing around with a new feature, not yet rolled out, which copies the tagging feature from Instagram. Well, why not? Not so long ago, Instagram copied Snapchat by introducing stories that can also be posted to Facebook profiles. This tagging feature isnt yet available to everyone, and its hard to know who has it and why. TechCrunch posted about Snaps latest experiment with explanatory screenshots taken by Matt Rappaport, who describes himself as an Actor-Comedian-Creator! on his Twitter account @nyactor. They also wrote, Snapchat now confirms to TechCrunch that Were testing this but refused to give more details. Read also: Snapchat redesign sparks backlash among some users Now, when taking a photo in the app, some users are able to use the @ symbol and then write another persons username to link them to the story. But as there is no dropdown menu for the moment, there isnt much help available if all you can remember is the other persons name rather than their Snapchat nickname, which could be completely different. If the person tagged also has this unofficial feature, then they will receive notifications. Those watching the photo or video can also click on the tag that will then direct them to the users profile. The new feature is possibly designed as a bonus for celebrities and influencers, in the hopes of attracting more followers and/or views to provide them with a stronger platform, which in turn would create greater competition for Instagram and YouTube. Its not yet known when, or if, this update will be rolled out, although the buzz around it does come at a good time for Snapchat, which has been receiving negative publicity, since recent in-app changes that provoked an online petition to revert back to the older version. A Chinese couple discovered how destiny can work in mysterious ways when the man recently discovered that he accidentally photobombed one of his wifes old pictures. Mr. Ye had been cleaning up a room in his mother-in-laws house back in March 4 when he found an old photo of his wife, reported Chengdu Business Daily via Daily Mail. In the photo, she was posing in front of the big red sculpture in the middle of May Fourth Square at Qingdao central business district. The couple from Chengdu found out that they had both visited the May Fourth Square in the seaside city of Qingdao at the exact same moment in July 2000. Photo is screengrabbed from MIAOPAI. (Inquirer/The Straits Times/-) As he kept looking at the old photo, he thought the boy in a blue T-shirt and black pants standing far behind and to the left of his wife seemed familiar, the report stated. When Mr. Ye got back home he dug up an old holiday photo of himself standing in front of the very same sculpture. Thats when he confirmed that it was indeed his 17-year-old self in his wifes old photograph. Read also: Couples make Valentine's Day deposit in 'Love Bank' I was looking at the picture where my wife was sitting in front of the May Four Square, theres also a man standing at far back. My reaction was: Oh wait, that was me! the report quoted Mr. Ye. The two photos were taken on July 28, 2000. Mr. Ye went to Qingdao at the time as part of a tour group while his wife Ms. Xue had been visiting her mother. The two would not meet until 2011 in Chengdou, where they were introduced through friends. A year later, they were married and visited May Fourth Square once again. Mr. Ye said he wants to visit May Fourth Square later on when their twin daughters get older. A mini exhibition of culinary and couture crafts has descended upon an unlikely section of the SCBD area of Jakarta, showcasing two of the best artists in both the culinary and fashion worlds. Hashida Project Evolution is a week-long exhibition running from March 10 to 17, held in SCBDs Lot 16 parking lot. Restaurant-launching company PT Kula Utama Loka Agra (Kula), the organizer, describes it as the first portacamp exhibition in Indonesia, geared mainly to the upscale crowd. One of the guest stars of the exhibition is prominent, award-winning sushi chef Kenjiro Hashida, who runs the premier sushi restaurant Hashida Sushi in Singapore. He previously worked alongside his sushi master father, Tokio Hashida, in their own Hashida Sushi restaurant in Tokyo. A pop-up version of Hashida Sushi will be available to the public inside a shipping container-sized building on a small corner of Lot 16. Customers will be greeted by Kenjiro Hashidas own unique sushi creations, presented under the omakase style, where the customer trusts the chef to choose the menu for them, giving the chef full freedom. The pop-up restaurant will only be able to hold seven people at a time, and comes at a price tag starting from Rp 4 million (US$290) for one omakase session for either lunch or dinner. Kenjiro Hashida (JP/Adeline Sunarjo) Kenjiro Hashida describes himself as a new-generation sushi chef, which means he is more willing to borrow food-preparation techniques from other cultures such as Spanish and French, while still retaining the authentic Japanese way of serving. A true omakase sushi chef from the start, he relishes both the preparation as well as the amount of interaction and knowledge sharing that an omakasesushi chef engages in with their customers. Like many acclaimed sushi chefs, Hashida was born and raised into the tradition by his sushi master father. For years since the age of 14, he honed the skills that come with being a sushi chef, starting from the basic techniques such as cleaning the equipment, moving on to rice preparation (considered the most important part of sushi) and then to careful knife skills. From a far: A view of the Hashida: Project Evolution exhibition, with a 'portacamp' concept, in Lot 16, SCBD. (JP/Adeline Sunarjo) After spending years working under his father at their restaurant in Tokyo, Hashida felt it was time for him to move on and run a restaurant himself. It was the 2011 earthquake that started to motivate him to bridge out abroad due to the lack of customers coming into his fathers Tokyo restaurant. I thought one day, I wouldnt like to spend the rest of my life in my fathers shadow, so I opted to go out of Japan to bring [my sushi] elsewhere, he said. After a brief stint making sushi in Shanghai, Hashida Sushi later opened its first, and so far only, outlet in Singapore back in 2013. There are plans to open another Hashida Sushi restaurant in San Francisco in the near future as well. Since opening in Singapore, he and his restaurant have won numerous awards, such as the 2017 Krug Champagne 1/18 Chef award, the 2016 World Gourmet Summit Best 20 Chefs, the Gourmet & Travel Annual G Awards in 2015 and the RAS Epicurean Star Awards in 2014. In style: Singaporean handbag designer Ethan Ko displays his designs. (JP/Adeline Sunarjo) As a complement to the Hashida Sushi pop-up restaurant, the exhibition area at Lot 16 parking lot will also house a small room with an exhibition by Singaporean handbag designer Ethan Koh. Some of Kohs most acclaimed handbags and designs are displayed and arranged, alongside an opportunity to sit a private showcase with the master crafter himself during the exhibition week. Kohs works mainly showcase crocodile, lizard and snakeskin material, and are primarily clutch-style bags. We are confident that this exhibition will be a great experience for those that love exclusive crafts, whether they be food or fashion, and we are honored to bring all of this to Jakarta firsthand, Kula director Pratama Yudokusumo said. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Argentina Lithium & Energy Corp. (TSX-V:LIT) (FSE:OAY2) (WKN:A0RK7E) (OTC:PNXLF) (Argentina Lithium or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has started the first drill program at its 100%-controlled Incahuasi Lithium Brine Project in Catamarca Province, Argentina. The program was originally scheduled to begin in early February but was delayed due to prolonged heavy rains. We are excited to have our drill program at Incahuasi underway, said Nikolaos Cacos, President and C.E.O. The program should proceed expeditiously and we are looking forward to the first ever drill results from this salar. The Incahuasi salar is situated within the Lithium Triangle of Argentina and Chile, and has characteristics prospective for lithium-rich brines. Initial sampling of near-surface brines returned up to 409mg/L lithium, and geophysical surveying indicates the potential for lithium-rich brines at depth. (See News Release dated November 6th 2017, filed on SEDAR). This initial program program includes 4 diamond drill holes to depths of approximately 400 metres. The holes are designed to test two highly conductive domains identified by a Vertical Electrical geophysical survey (VES), and interpreted as brine bodies, along 12 kilometres parallel to the long axis of the salar (see Figure 1: https://argentinalithium.com/assets/docs/JAN-30-Drilling.pdf ). The Incahuasi Lithium Project The Salar de Incahuasi is located in the northwest of Catamarca Province at approximately 3260 metres above sea level, in the southern half of the Lithium Triangle. Access to the Incahuasi salar is by gravel road, approximately 34 kilometres southwest from the town of Antofagasta de la Sierra. The salar is approximately 17 kilometres long north to south, and 2.5 kilometres wide, and divided into a north and south section. The geological environment at Incahuasi is similar to other salars in the Puna region where lithium and potash are found. The northern portion is flatter, partially covered with surface water, with crusts of halite and ulexite. The central part of the salar has a slightly lower altitude, causing surficial waters to converge in this area. The southern portion of the salar is covered by terrigenous sediments including sand, clays, halite and sodium-sulphates. The project currently consists of 13,711 hectares in seven properties covering 90% of the existing salar surface. These properties are wholly-owned by the Argentine subsidiary of the Company, with no royalties. Applications have been made for approximately 10,000 hectares of additional property, which will complete the coverage of the salar to the south and extend the Companys holdings to cover the entire basin to the north. Qualified Person The work program at the Incahuasi Project has been undertaken under the supervision of David Terry, Ph.D., P.Geo., a Director of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. The contents of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Dr. Terry. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Nikolaos Cacos _____________________________________ Nikolaos Cacos, President, CEO and Director For further information please contact: Corporate Communications Tel: 1-604-687-1828 Toll-Free: 1-800-901-0058 Email: info@argentinalithium.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 contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Readers are encouraged to refer to the Company's public disclosure documents for a more detailed discussion of factors that may impact expected future results. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. We advise U.S. investors that the SEC's mining guidelines strictly prohibit information of this type in documents filed with the SEC. U.S. investors are cautioned that mineral deposits on adjacent properties are not indicative of mineral deposits on our properties. Indonesian consumers have not recognized the benefits of artificial meat, data from UK-based research firm YouGov indicates. Lab-grown meat is perceived by many as the solution to meeting the rising demand for meat products. According to Business Insider, renowned figures and philanthropists, such as Bill Gates and Richard Branson, believe that relying more on artificial meat could benefit the environment, animal welfare and human health. However, despite the potential benefits, the public may not welcome such a change with open arms. YouGov gathered data from 1,002 respondents in Indonesia between Dec. 5 and 12 last year via its YouGov Omnibus research service. Its findings show that nearly two-thirds of consumers (62 percent) are worried about artificial meat and 39 percent are concerned that it could be dangerous. Forty-nine percent worry that the process is not natural. However, there are those who recognize the benefits of artificial meat. Thirty-six percent of respondents believe that the production of artificial meat could reduce the killing of animals, 34 percent believe it could lead to greater food security and 31 percent believe it could end world hunger. The study also reveals that women are less eager than men about eating the meat. Read also: Food consumption: What's wrong with eating meat? Indonesia is in line with other regions in the Asia-Pacific 33 percent of Indonesians would eat artificial meat, compared to the regional average of 32 percent. Moreover, Vietnamese consumers are the most likely to try artificial meat (52 percent), followed by Thai consumers (34 percent). Pioneers of artificial meat have been working hard to drive production costs down to make such products more accessible to consumers, said YouGov Omnibus head Jake Gammon in a press release. However, this research suggests that there is one final hurdle that manufacturers still need to tackle: consumer demand. Despite widespread exposure, consumers still appear skeptical about artificial meat. Unless they have their fears assuaged and are clearer on the potential benefits of such technology, it will be an uphill struggle for producers ahead. (wir/wen) Hubert de Givenchy, the aristocratic French fashion designer famous for the "little black dress" and styling Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy, has died aged 91, his partner said Monday. Givenchy set the template for ladylike chic in the 1950s and 1960s, dressing everyone from Princess Grace of Monaco to Jane Fonda. His longtime partner, the former haute couture designer Philippe Venet, announced his death through the Givenchy fashion house, saying he had died in his sleep on Saturday. "It is with huge sadness that we inform you that Hubert Taffin de Givenchy has died," it said in a statement to AFP. With his perfect manners and old-school charm, the tall and handsome count was the very acme of French elegance and refinement. But it was his 40-year friendship with his muse Hepburn, whom he met while she was making Billy Wilder's Oscar-winning comedy "Sabrina" in 1953, that helped make him a fashion legend. The narrow-collared suits and slim woollen dresses Givenchy designed for the gamine actress in "Funny Face" and "How to Steal a Million" made both of them style icons. Read also: Designer Waight Keller wows with Givenchy couture debut - Hepburn and Kennedy - The black sheath dress Givenchy created for the opening scenes of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was perhaps the most famous "little black dress" of all time -- even if fellow Coco Chanel is credited with inventing the garment. "His are the only clothes in which I am myself. He is far more than a couturier, he is a creator of personality," Hepburn once said of him. "To dress a woman is to make her beautiful," Givenchy once said. "In haute couture, we are cosmetic surgeons, erasing imperfections and refining the silhouette... for isn't a couturier a magician of sorts, who creates illusion and perhaps beauty itself?" Givenchy was one of the first big designers to use black models, and in 1986 used only black models for one collection. In the 1960s US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy adopted the Givenchy look for her White House years, sticking to a uniform of shift dresses, pillbox hats and low-heeled pumps. The red coat she wore on the campaign trail for the 1960 presidential election was a Givenchy copy. On a state visit to France the following year, she made a famously grand entrance in a Givenchy white silk faille dress at a dinner at the Palace of Versailles, looking as regal as any European monarch's consort. Read also: Burberry picks Riccardo Tisci as new creative officer - 'True gentleman' - "Hubert de Givenchy was a symbol of Parisian elegance for more than half a century... who revolutionized fashion," his label said Monday. Legendary Italian-born creator Valentino told AFP that he had tried to get a job with Givenchy when he was 17. "Unfortunately he did not hire me... but I kept admiring his vision, his perfection of cut and elegance. Like me he always respected the woman's body, never inflicting what was cool but only what was flattering." Another Italian fashion great, Giorgio Armani, described Givenchy as "the symbol of that exquisitely Parisian joie de vivre, that has the lightness of intelligence and the aristocratic elegance of couture." Givenchy's current British-born designer Clare Waight Keller said that its founder was "not only one of the most influential fashion figures of our time, whose legacy still influences modern-day dressing, but he also was one of the chicest, most charming men I have ever met. "The definition of a true gentleman that will stay with me forever," she said. Givenchy was forced to retire in October 1995 when his contract was not renewed by the giant LVMH group which had bought his house nearly eight years earlier. He was replaced by John Galliano, who was soon to leave for Dior, handing over to fellow Brit Alexander McQueen. With typical discretion, Givenchy made no comment, only that he had not been consulted about the appointments. Yet two decades on his restrained style still informs the way Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and older American and Chinese socialites dress. Givenchy's final couture show in July 1995 was an emotional moment, with his fellow couturiers Yves Saint Laurent, Paco Rabanne, Christian Lacroix and Valentino taking front-row seats in a packed salon in the opulent Grand Hotel at the Paris Opera. Givenchy took his bow on the catwalk in his atelier's smock, and with characteristic modesty brought on all his loyal "petites mains" seamstresses to share the applause. On a moonless night deep in the Malaysian rainforest, two men perched precariously on high branches use a smoking torch to draw thousands of bees from a treetop hive, braving the angry swarm to collect their prized honey. The honey hunters, as they are known, are rag-tag groups of villagers who head to remote corners of the jungle every year in search of the rare nectar, hidden in towering tualang trees. "This is the real thing," said Abdul Samad Ahmad, 60, who has been harvesting honey in this way for more than 20 years. "There's a lot of nutrition in this honey. You can make it into medicine, for your cough or cold." Like New Zealand's manuka honey, also hailed for its supposed medicinal qualities, Malaysian tualang honey is expensive, fetching 150 ringgit ($38) a kilo -- a huge amount for people from poor, rural communities. But the generations-old practice faces myriad threats, from environmental destruction and falling bee numbers to a lack of interest among the young. The die-hard hunters remain optimistic -- for them, there is no greater buzz than climbing trees 250 feet (75 metres) tall to gather honey made by bees gorged on sweet nectar from exotic jungle flowers. - 'Sting until your body is swollen' - The honey-collecting season in northern Malaysia's Greater Ulu Muda forest runs from February to April, when giant honey bees arrive from other parts of Asia to make their hives in the trees that stretch high above the rainforest canopy. On a recent trip, Abdul Samad and six others travelled far into the forest, boarding two small boats and sailing across a lake to reach a tualang. They nailed branches up its trunk a few feet apart to create a makeshift ladder, replacing old ones from the previous year. As night fell, after layering up and donning thick jackets, the group lit vine roots twisted together to create a smoking torch. They clambered up the tree, hitting the torch against the trunk as they approached a hive. A flood of embers showered below, and a team member called out to the bees: "Come down, black sweet, come down." A swarm of bees rushed out, chasing the sparks of light -- granting the hunters precious moments to cut through the hive and fill a bucket with chunks of honeycomb. The men worked through the night, slowly moving around the tree's many hives and only stopping just before dawn, having collected 43 kilograms (94 pounds) of honey. The hunters were stung numerous times but continued working, insisting they are used to the pain. One of the group, Zaini Abdul Hamid, said he and his fellow hunters are not aware of any deaths resulting from the risky pastime, "but if you're in the wrong place, at the wrong time, the bees will sting you until your body is swollen". Read also: Honey improves livelihood of former turtle egg hunters - Vanishing forests - Demand for tualang honey exceeds its limited supply, and the bounty is split equally among the group, who sell it in their village or to dealers from out of town. None of those on the recent expedition were younger than 45, with some in their 60s, and they said younger people from their villages have no interest in taking up honey-hunting. "They're not brave," said Mohamad Khairi Mohamad Arshad, while Zaini lamented that the younger generation "prefer to play with their gadgets -- we asked them to come, but they're not interested". The hunters said it was common to see four to five groups from a single village harvesting from tualang trees in the 1960s, but these days there are far fewer. The number of bees in the Ulu Muda forest also appears to have fallen in recent years, with heavy logging regularly reported and some blaming the destruction of their natural habitat. The problem may also be global. Experts have long been sounding the alarm about declining honey bee populations worldwide, blaming climate change and disease as well as habitat destruction. No comprehensive studies have been done on bee populations in Ulu Muda, but Makhdzir Mardan, a bee expert from Universiti Putra Malaysia, said that on an expedition into the forest in 1983 he had spotted 128 hives on a tree, while now you could expect to find 40 at most. As they trekked deeper into the jungle, the honey hunters mourned the loss of the bees habitat, particularly the flowers they feed on. "The places where the bees look for food are disappearing," said Mohamad Khairi Mohamad Arshad, 50. "If there aren't a lot of flowers, then the bees will not come." New York's Metropolitan Opera announced Monday it fired legendary conductor James Levine, for decades the face of its orchestra, after finding "credible evidence" that he sexually abused younger musicians. The leading US opera house had already suspended Levine in December after allegations first became public against him. Levine guided the Met's orchestra for 40 years as music director. The Met said it has "terminated its relationship" with Levine, who retired in 2016 amid failing health but until the scandal had remained a frequent presence as a conductor. "The investigation uncovered credible evidence that Mr. Levine had engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct both before and during the period when he worked at the Met," the opera house said in a statement. The three-month investigation concludes a spectacular fall from grace for a musician often hailed as one of the top US conductors of his generation. Fittingly perhaps, his final Met appearance was conducting Verdi's "Requiem" in December. The opera house said it was "committed to ensuring a safe, respectful and harassment-free workplace for its employees and artists." The Met, however, also absolved itself of blame after criticism that it could have acted before longstanding allegations about Levine made headlines amid the growing spotlight in the United States on sexual abuse by powerful men. "Any claims or rumors that members of the Met's management or its board of directors engaged in a coverup of information relating to these issues are completely unsubstantiated," it said. The Met, which like many major US music institutions has a constant challenge of shoring up its finances, has acted quickly to move past the taint of Levine. It has brought forward the appointment of Levine's successor, youthful French Canadian Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who will become music director with the upcoming season. Read also: Sexual misconduct claims: The fallout - Allegations of sex cult - Levine, 74, was said by younger musicians to have sexually abused them when they were vulnerable students and he was the charismatic visiting instructor, with most cases dating decades ago. In an investigative piece published this month by The Boston Globe, former students at the Cleveland Institute of Music described Levine as a cult-like figure who not only coerced them into sex but controlled their lives. Quoting former students, the newspaper said that Levine would pressure them to cut off ties with the outside world and pledge loyalty to him as he led meetings that involved everything from studying opera scenes to anonymous sex. "I thought it was sex for my improvement, sex to make things better," violinist Albin Ifsich, who was a 20-year-old student when he said the abuse took place in 1968, told the newspaper. "Obviously that's not what it was, but we were led to believe that." Levine's downfall began in December, when the New York Post reported on a 2016 police report in which a teenager alleged decades of abuse by the conductor starting when the victim was 15 at the Ravinia Music Festival near Chicago -- one of a number of classical institutions that has since cut ties with Levine. The conductor in an earlier statement called the allegations against him "unfounded," saying he was not an "oppressor or an aggressor." Levine is one of the most prominent musicians to see his career ended in the #MeToo era, initially triggered by the furor over alleged widespread abuse by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Other musicians who have quit or lost positions over alleged abuse include hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and Charles Dutoit, until recently the principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. But some in the music industry expect more cases to come out, seeing how rock culture in particular is so intertwined with sexual inhibition. Many Indonesians might not realize that sleeping disorders and mental health are intertwined. Triggered by hectic, unhealthy lifestyles, life pressures and excessive use of computers and mobile phones, insomnia was common in modern societies, experts at a recent forum argued. Stress and depression can cause trouble sleeping, while a lack of sleep also makes people more mentally vulnerable and emotionally reactive, clinical psychologist Aurora Lumbantoruan said on Monday during a discussion to commemorate World Sleep Day, which falls on March 16. People who suffer from insomnia have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. Some insomniacs also fall asleep without the restorative quality, meaning they still feel tired and sleepy even after a long sleep, she said. Read also: Learning about insomnia for a healthier, better life Some 28 million Indonesians, roughly 10 percent of the population, face trouble falling asleep, experts said during Mondays discussion, citing numerous studies by a variety of organizations. The issues discussed on Monday reflect the daily life of Monica Anggraini Dewi, a 27-year-old startup employee living in Bali, who has had trouble falling asleep for almost five years. Since graduating from university, I only have around two hours sleep every night, she told The Jakarta Post. Without enough sleep, I become moody and depressed the next day. Monica said anxiety and bad memories would plague her mind whenever she was ready to go to sleep, making her afraid of going to bed. During the day I appear like a cheerful girl and smile to everyone I meet. However, I still have bad thoughts in the back my mind, and all those bad thoughts come to me when Im alone in bed at night, she said, declining to describe her traumatic past. But Monica has opted not to seek professional help. To help her fall asleep, she instead started taking an over-the-counter medicine called Antimo, which contains dimenhydrinate and is used to treat motion sickness. I take a tablet of Antimo every night before sleeping. If in the middle of the night I wake up, I take another one. Otherwise, I wont be able to get the sleep I need, she said. In 2016, Monica started taking gym classes to help cut down on her medicine consumption. If I work out, I get tired and go straight to sleep. If I dont have time to go to the gym, I go back to Antimo, she said. Kadenza Indratmo, a 23-year-old civil servant in Jakarta, also suffers from stress-related insomnia. Often I stay awake until my alarm goes off. To help me function during the day after a sleepless night I have to take the time to have a little conversation with my friends at work. After meeting people I can get rid of my anxieties, she said. Unlike Monica, Kadenza has sought help from a psychologist to deal with her past. Another strategy she employs is meeting up with her friends regularly to help her stay cheerful, as loneliness triggers her sadness. If I dont hang out with my friends I have to drink alcohol to quiet my thoughts, she said. A 2016 study by Nurmiati Amir from the mental health department of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) found that recurring insomnia could lead people to resort to drug and alcohol abuse to help them fall asleep. Actors and comedians Tora Sudiro and Mieke Amalia were arrested in 2017 for possession of 30 tablets of Dumolid. The two said they had consumed the pills for a year to help them sleep. If sleep problems persist for more than two weeks, a person should seek professional help, Aurora said. She also advised insomniacs to keep a journal to gain control of their emotions, which would help them avoid resorting to alcohol and other substances. People, Aurora added, should also stop looking at computer and cellphone screens in the hours approaching bed time. Checking information updates forces our brains to stay awake, which makes it difficult to fall asleep, she said. (gis) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 08:00 1288 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c98935d 1 City Tanah-Abang,road-closure,instruction Free The controversial closure of Jl. Jatibaru Raya in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, which is now under dispute, was based on a gubernatorial instruction, an official has said. The Jakarta Legal Bureau's chief of development and environment legislation department, Okie Wibowo, said on Monday the instruction was issued on Feb. 6, and was the only legal document that regulated the Tanah Abang market area arrangement. The controversial road closure was implemented on Dec. 22, 2017. I have presented [to the police] Gubernatorial Instruction No. 17/2018 on the Tanah Abang arrangement, Okie told the press after police questioning at the Jakarta Police headquarters in South Jakarta as quoted by kompas.com. However, he said the police did not ask him about the allegations of violating the law, noting that the issue was the domain of the Jakarta Transportation Agency. Governor Anies Baswedan was reported to the police by the secretary-general of Cyber Indonesia, Jack Boyd Lapian, who accused Anies of violating the law to close Jl. Jatibaru Raya for street vendors. Other than Jack, the police so far had questioned his fellow activists, Muannas Alaidid and Aulia Fahmi, as witnesses, as well as Jakarta Transportation Agency representatives and several experts. (vla) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 16:00 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c99c446 1 Politics 212Rally,2019-presidential-election,2019-elections,Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,basuki-tjahaja-purnama,blasphemy Free The 212 rally alumni group has set up an independent committee that will select would-be-candidates for the 2019 presidential election to challenge President Joko Jokowi Widodos reelection bid. The committee's executive chairman, Yudi Syamhudi Sayuti, said the independent body would select the candidates using several criteria. We want to select a candidate that is strong enough to face Jokowi, he said as quoted by tempo.co on Monday. The alumni group comprises Islamic groups and activists that participated in street protests to call for the prosecution of then Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama for blasphemy in 2016. Yudi said the candidate must be a Muslim, a political figure or chairman of a political party not supporting Jokowi, a national-scale religious leader and a national leader or scholar. The final day of registration is May 20. The committee said it would select 40 people deemed suitable for the presidency. The six strongest candidates will be recommended to the 212 Alumni Presidium before going through the official nomination process. The selection method could help to avoid the development of a single axis of power that could hurt democracy in the country, Yudi said, adding that it would allow for the Indonesian people to participate in the decision-making process. We want them to get involved in making political decisions, he said. (sha/ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 20:54 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9af219 1 City child-abuse,Mother,parenting Free A mother, 60, allegedly spent some Rp 3 million (US$210) per night for staying in luxury hotels in Central and West Jakarta, where she reportedly abused her adopted children for 10 years. Jakarta Police general criminal department children and women abuse unit chief Adj. Comr. Hasiati Lawole said the widow and her five adopted children used to live in Twin Plaza Hotel in Slipi, West Jakarta, and also in Menara Peninsula Hotel nearby. And the last hotel is Le Meridien Hotel on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, since 2015, Hasiati said Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com. At Le Meridien Hotel, the mother occupied two hotel rooms in which the rate is Rp 1.5 million per room per day. Hasiati did not know the room rates of the other two hotels, but added that they were luxury hotels. She said from 2011 to 2014, the mother rented a home on Jl. Kramat Raya in Senen, Central Jakarta, but it was only used to keep her stuff. Currently, the police are still investigating the woman's source of funds to support her luxury life, which were at odds with her background. Her three children were taken abroad for holiday, while the other two stayed because documents related to their birth were not complete, so they couldn't be issued passports. All of them were homeschooled, and [the school fee] is not cheap, Hasiati said. Central Jakarta Police chief Roma Hutajulu said earlier the children were not sent to school. Last week, the police arrested the mother in a hotel room after one of her children ran away to his former nanny. The child told his former nanny that he and his four adopted siblings had endured abusive parenting. (wnd) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Dhaka, Bangladesh Tue, March 13, 2018 19:45 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9abbfe 2 World Bangladesh,capital-punishment,murder-case Free A Bangladesh court Tuesday sentenced dozens of men to death for the brazen daylight murder of a ruling party official in 2014, officials said. Ekramul Haque, the then Awami League leader in eastern Feni district, was dragged from his vehicle by a mob and hacked with machetes before being shot at point blank range. The 47-year-old was then placed back inside his vehicle, which was torched. A number of those travelling with the local party leader were injured in the brutal assault. Court inspector Nojibul Islam told AFP that a judge in Feni district Tuesday sentenced 39 men to death by hanging for the crime. Sixteen others were acquitted. "We will go to appeal in the higher court against the order," said defence lawyer Rana Das Gupta. Bangladesh has a history of delivering death sentences in mass trials. In November, a court upheld death sentences against 139 soldiers for the grisly murders of dozens of senior army officers in a 2009 mutiny. Last August, 10 Islamist militants were sentenced to death over a failed plot to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by detonating a bomb at one of her rallies. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 18:48 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9a7fc8 1 Politics third-axis,Agus-Harimurti-Yudhoyono,Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,2019-presidential-election,2019-elections,Susilo-Bambang-Yudhoyono,Democratic-party,PAN,PKB,Muhaimin-Iskandar,Zulkifli-Hasan Free To prevent the 2019 presidential race from being concentrated on only two figures incumbent President Joko Jokowi Widodo and Prabowo Subianto the Democratic Party is forming its own coalition with newcomer politician Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, son of former president and the partys chief patron Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as its central figure. Agus, 39, who has been widely praised as a talented young political figure, was officially introduced to the public at the partys national leadership meeting in Bogor, West Java, last week. The Democratic Party has approached the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the National Mandate Party (PAN), but the three parties have yet to make a final decision. Political expert Muhammad Qodari from Jakarta-based pollster Indo Barometer said it would be difficult to challenge Jokowi and Prabowo. The Democratic Party, which holds more House of Representatives seats than the PKB and PAN, only has Agus as a presidential hopeful. Experts have questioned whether PAN chairman Zulkifli Hasan or PKB chairman Muhaimin Iskandar will accept an Agus nomination given that they are much more experienced than him in politics. (Read also: Parties yet to decide on third alliance) Agus began his political career late in 2016, when he retired from his military career to contest in the Jakarta election. If Agus runs with Muhaimin, will Zulkifli accept that? Or if Agus runs with Zulkifli, whats left for Muhaimin? Qodari said. The Democratic Party, which requires help from the two parties to succeed, has only 61 seats at the House. The Election Law requires a party or coalition of political parties to secure a minimum of 112 House seats before nominating a presidential or vice presidential candidate. The Democratic Party will likely insist on nominating Agus, who is more electable than Muhaimin or Zulkifli, according to several surveys. However, such a move risks alienating the PKB and PAN. The PKB and PAN can just go to either Jokowi's or Prabowo's coalition, Qodari said. Speculation is rife that Yudhoyono might join forces with Jokowi's coalition, so long as Agus is Jokowis running mate. Political expert Emrus Sihombing of Pelita Harapan University said Agus was too young to be vice president. He is still too young to sit as vice president, just like how he retired too early from his military career, Emrus said. If Agus stepped ahead as a presidential or vice presidential candidate, it might irritate senior party members, Emrus said. Other senior members who have been in the party for a long time and started from the very beginning might be jealous, he said. (ebf) VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orla Mining Ltd. (TSX-V:OLA) (the Company or Orla) is pleased to announce that Mr. Etienne Morin will be joining the executive team at Orla as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Paul Robertson will step down as Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Morin will assume the role effective April 30, 2018. Following Mr. Morins appointment, Mr. Robertson will remain active with the Company in an advisory role. Marc Prefontaine, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented: On behalf of the Board of Directors, we would like to welcome Etienne to the Orla team. Etienne has extensive industry experience and market understanding, which will help guide the Company through the next phase of its development, and I look forward to working with him to execute on the Companys strategic initiatives. I would like to thank Paul Robertson for his dedication to this role since 2015, including his oversight of two significant acquisitions for Orla. Mr. Morin joins Orla from Goldcorp Inc. where he spent the last 11 years in various finance and operations roles, as well as acquiring significant capital markets experience in his roles as Director of Corporate Development and more recently heading the investor relations function. Mr. Morin holds a Bachelor of Arts in geology from Colgate University and a MBA from the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. About Orla Mining Ltd. Orla Mining owns two advanced stage open pit, heap leach style oxide gold projects in Panama and Mexico. Camino Rojo is an advanced gold and silver project covering over 200,000 hectares in Zacatecas State, Central Mexico. The project is 100% owned and has historical oxide reserves along with historical sulphide resources (which Goldcorp Inc. retains a back-in right on the sulphides). The Company believes it has exploration potential for additional oxide and sulphide mineral resources. Access and infrastructure are excellent with a paved highway and powerline nearby. A NI 43-101 Technical Report dated January 24, 2018, on Camino Rojo is available on SEDAR. The 100% owned Cerro Quema project in Panama includes a near-term gold production scenario and exploration upside. Cerro Quemas 14,800 Ha concession boasts paved road access, a supportive local population and private land ownership. The Cerro Quema project is currently in the last stage of the permitting process for a proposed open pit mine and gold heap leach operation. Please refer to the Cerro Quema Project - Pre-feasibility Study on the La Pava and Quemita Oxide Gold Deposits dated August 22, 2014, which is available on SEDAR. Forward-looking Statements This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian and United States securities legislation, including, without limitation, statements with respect to the expected timing for appointment of the Chief Financial Officer, the results of exploration and planned exploration programs, the potential for discovery of additional mineral resources and the Companys objectives and strategies. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts which address events, results, outcomes or developments that the Company expects to occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Companys management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements are discussed in this news release, including without limitation, assumptions that the Companys activities will be in accordance with the Companys public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained and that there will be no significant disruptions affecting the Company or its properties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements involve significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to: risks related to uncertainties inherent in the preparation of preliminary economic assessments, drill results and the estimation of mineral resources; and risks associated with executing the Companys objectives and strategies, including costs and expenses. Except as required by the securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the Company, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if managements beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. For further information, please contact: Marc Prefontaine President & Chief Executive Officer www.orlamining.com info@orlamining.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Beijing, China Tue, March 13, 2018 11:30 1288 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c99170a 2 World China,US,North-Korea,talks Free Chinese President Xi Jinping hopes "smooth" talks between North Korea's leader and the presidents of the United States and South Korea can produce progress towards Pyongyang's denuclearisation, according to state media. Xi made the remarks during a meeting Monday with South Korea's national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, who was in Beijing to brief Chinese leaders about his meetings with Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump last week. Kim has agreed to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the Demilitarized Zone in late April, while Trump and the North Korean leader could meet by the end of May. "We expect a smooth DPRK-ROK summit and DPRK-US dialogue," Xi said, using the acronyms for North Korea and South Korea, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Xi voiced hope that the talks will lead to "substantial progress" in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and toward the normalisation of relations between the countries involved. The peninsula faces "an important opportunity for easing tension" and called on all sides to be "patient and cautious", the Chinese leader said. Xi said China is willing to work with the international community to promote Beijing's "dual-track approach" along with "helpful proposals from all sides". China has called for a "dual-track" of committing to denuclearisation while establishing a peace mechanism. It has also proposed a "suspension-for-suspension" plan in which the United States, South Korea and Japan freeze military drills in return for North Korea halting its nuclear and missile tests. "As long as all parties can focus on the fundamental goal of denuclearisation, peace and stability, the Korean peninsula will finally usher in the spring, when ice will thaw and flowers will bloom," Xi said. For his part, Chung thanked Xi for his "big role" in the diplomatic process that led to the "very positive changes". Beijing has played a key role in implementing UN sanctions on the North, which are believed to have put immense pressure on the country's fragile economy. China is North Korea's only diplomatic ally and its most important trade partner. Still, some in China are afraid the country, which hosted failed six-nation talks on the nuclear issue a decade ago, could be cut out of negotiations on denuclearising the Korean peninsula. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 11:50 1288 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9925c8 4 Business bank,losing-fund,OJK,comments,bri,Kediri,East-Java Free The Financial Services Authority (OJK) has said that banks should compensate customers who lose money through the banks mistake. If it is proven to be because of a banks mistake, the bank has to reimburse the lost funds, said head of the OJK banking supervisory division Heru Kristiyana in Jakarta on Monday as reported by kompas.com. He was commenting on the losses suffered by a number of customers of state-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) in Ngadiluwih, Kediri regency, East Java. A number of BRI customers reported that money had been withdrawn from their accounts without permission. The amounts were between Rp 500,000 (US$35) and Rp 10 million. Elvina, one of the customers, said she learned that Rp 500,000 had been withdrawn from her account after receiving an SMS message from the bank. But I did not make the withdrawal, she said when visiting the BRI office. Another customer, Mujiyat, said he discovered that Rp 10 million had been withdrawn by an unknown man when he checked with the bank after he could not withdraw any money because he had surpassed his daily limit even though he had not made any withdrawal. He said he still had some Rp 50 million in the bank. Head of Kediri BRI branch Dadi Kusnadi said he had received the reports about the incidents and the bank was investigating. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rachmadea Aisyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 21:13 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9afbba 2 Business IMF,World-Bank,annual-meeting,bali Free The Indonesian government is going all-out as it prepares to host the upcoming IMF-World Bank annual meeting, which is set to take place in Bali this October. Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan told the press on Tuesday that among the measures the government would prepare for the convenience of meeting attendees were extra flights, high-speed internet coverage, security personnel and more than 60 holiday destinations. The measures include negotiating for extra business-class and executive-class seats on state carrier Garuda Indonesias flights, placing more than 12,000 military personnel and police officers on guard and readying 21 hotels to accommodate as many as 20,000 guests. "We will ensure everything is catered for," Luhut, who is also the head of the meetings' organizing committee, said. "We have also conducted studies to ensure that none of the Rp 800 billion (US$58.26 million) budget for the event goes to waste." Speaking at the press briefing, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said that infrastructure and financial technology (fintech) development would be among the main agendas of the meetings. Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo added that discussions on ways to ensure inclusive and sustainable global economic growth would also feature prominently in the event. -- JP/Dea Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 16:25 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c99e414 1 Business Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati,Taxpayer,incentives,rich Free Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has encouraged wealthy corporations and individuals to keep their wealth in Indonesia as their valuable contribution to the nation. If you have an excess of funds, please dont just put them abroad. Invest them in Indonesia and we will give you incentives, Sri Mulyani said in Jakarta on Tuesday during an award ceremony for the countrys biggest taxpayers in Jakarta on Tuesday. The incentives for those wealthy citizens who want to keep their money in Indonesia will be included in a regulation being prepared by the Finance Ministry, she added. During the event, the minister also expressed gratitude to the biggest taxpayers awardees for their great contribution to state revenue. In 2017, the large tax offices (LTO) regional representatives, designed for taxpayers with the large contributions, recorded Rp 361.84 trillion (US$26.34 billion) in tax revenue, or 27 percent of the total tax revenue. This year, the tax office targets Rp 432.37 trillion in tax revenue collected by the LTOs, or 30.33 percent of Rp 1.42 quadrillion total tax revenue. On Tuesday, the LTO regional headquarters delivered awards to 31 corporation and individual taxpayers who had paid the largest amounts of tax money. Among the awardees are Arifin Panigoro, Anthoni Salim, Chairul Tanjung, Erick Thohir, Edwin Soeryadjaya, James Tjahaja Riady, Raden Eddy Kusnadi Sariaatmadja and Sofjan Wanandi. Sri Mulyani said the event was the government's way of communicating with businesses to encourage them to become obedient taxpayers. (ami/bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ivany Atina Arbi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 18:45 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9a7502 1 City #parentalleaves,maleemployees,jakarta,administration Free The Jakarta administration revealed on Tuesday that it had granted paternity leave to male employees since last year, following the National Civil Service (BKN) Agencys Regulation No. 24/2017 about the procedures of granting leave to civil servants. Jakarta Employment Agency head Syamsudin Lologau said every male employee, whose wife was about to give birth, could take leave of up to one month, but the majority only take five days off. The regulation states that male employees can be granted leave by providing a statement letter from a healthcare service. BKN agency spokesman Mohammad Ridwan said paternity leave was part of the governments effort to promote gender equality by giving male employees a chance to take care of their families. The regulation also stipulates that paternity leave does not cut into annual leave. Male civil servants will still receive their monthly income, Ridwan said, as reported by Antara on Tuesday, adding that the income comprised both salary and allowances. Previously, there had not been any regulation on paternity leave in Indonesia, Ridwan acknowledged, adding that the 2003 Manpower Law only permitted male workers to take two days leave to accompany their wives when they gave birth. The same law also provides female workers with three months maternity leave. National Mandate Party (PAN) politician Hanafi Rais rides an electric becak (pedicab) to City Hall on Sunday to deliver it to Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan. After being charged for three hours, Hanafi said the electric becak could carry up to 250 kilograms and travel up to 40 kilometers.(JP/Adeline Sunarjo)(PAN) politician Hanafi Rais rides an electric becak (pedicab) to City Hall on Sunday to deliver it to Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan. After being charged for three hours, Hanafi said the electric becak could carry up to 250 kilograms and travel up to 40 kilometers.(JP/Adeline Sunarjo) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 17:25 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9a2e65 4 National civil-servants,paternity-leave,workers Free Male civil servants are now permitted to take up to one month paternity leave to support their wives as part of the government's effort to support gender equality. The details of the paternity leave were set out in a 2017 regulation issued by the National Civil Service Agency (BKN) on different types of leave. According to an announcement by the official State Secretary website on Monday, the 2017 regulation stipulates that male civil servants whose wives are set to give birth can be granted leave by providing a statement letter from the healthcare service. The paternity leave is granted for a maximum of one month, the regulation states. BKN agency spokesman Mihammad Ridwan said the paternity leave was part of the governments effort to promote gender equality by giving male employees a chance to take part in the familys care taking obligations. The regulation also stipulates that the paternity leave does not cut into annual leave. Male civil servants will also receive their monthly income, Ridwan said as reported by Antara on Tuesday adding that the income comprised both salary and allowances. There had previously not been any regulation on the details of paternity leave in Indonesia, Ridwan acknowledged, adding that the 2003 Manpower Law only permitted male workers to take two days leave to accompany their wives as they gave birth. The same law also provides female workers with three-months maternity leave. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar, Bali Tue, March 13, 2018 20:10 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9ad466 1 National Australian,Australian-citizen,drug-abuse,drug-addicts,DenpasarDistrictCourt,denpasar,bali Free Prosecutors have demanded the Denpasar District Courts judges to sentence Australian citizen Joshua James Baker, 32, to one year in prison after he was found guilty of abusing drugs. Speaking at the court on Tuesday, prosecutors said the defendants psychiatric condition had been thoroughly considered in demanding the sentence. Prosecutor Assri Susantina said Baker had been found guilty of abusing drugs under Article 127 of the 2009 Narcotics Law. He also violated Article 62 of the 1997 Psychotropic Law for illegally possessing psychotropics. Throughout the trial, no reason was found for the court to justify and forgive the defendants misdeeds, said Assri. Accused: Australian citizen Joshua James Baker attends his case hearing at the Denpasar District Court in Bali on March 13. (JP/Zul Trio Anggono) However, Assri said some factors could mitigate his sentence, including the fact that he could not communicate properly because of his mental illness. The defendant has suffered from severe depression with symptoms of psychotic [mental disorder] because of the use of psychoactive substances. He is also prone to drug addiction and now he is under the supervision of doctors, Assri said. Baker was arrested in October 2017 by Ngurah Rai International Airport custom and excise personnel upon his arrival at the airport from Bangkok. He was allegedly carrying 28.02 grams of tobacco mixed with marijuana and 37 diazepam pills. While in police custody, Baker escaped through the toilet ventilation shaft at the Bhayangkara Police Hospital in Denpasar when he was admitted to the facility for medical treatment. His escape ended 10 hours later after the police caught him at a luxury hotel in Canggu Beach area in North Kuta. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 17:31 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9a3421 1 Politics Democratic-party,Dems,Andi-Mallarangeng,Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,third-axis,2019-presidential-election,2019-elections,presidential-candidate Free The Democratic Party is giving serious consideration to approaching other political parties to form a third alliance to back an alternative presidential candidate. Demoratic Party politician Andi Mallarangeng, who is also the partys former advisory board secretary, said that forming a third alliance would be the best option for the 2019 presidential election because it would provide voters with another option to the two current contenders: incumbent President Joko Jokowi Widodo and Prabowo Subianto. It would be ideal if there was a third alliance, said Mallarangeng in a recent interview. He said the Democratic Party was currently strengthening its communications with other parties, in particular the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the National Mandate Party (PAN), which are both yet to declare their support for a presidential candidate. The Democratic Party, which is led by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, cannot stand alone in the 2019 election as it only controls 61 seats in the House of Representatives. Under the current Election Law a party or coalition must control a minimum of 112 House seats to nominate a candidate. The party is currently readying Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, the eldest son of Yudhoyono, to run as a presidential hopeful. The executives of the Democratic Party, PAN and PKB have held a meeting to discuss the formation of a coalition but no final decision has been reached as yet. PAN chairman Zulkifli Hasan indicated that it would be difficult to form a third alliance as there was no figure whose electability could beat that of Jokowi and Prabowo. Rationally, there will be two coalitions [Jokowi's and Prabowos]. If [we form] a third alliance then [we] would need a miracle, Zulkifli said. But the communication [with the Democrats and PKB] is still ongoing. Previously, many believed that PAN would form a coalition with Prabowos Gerindra Party and its ally, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), as they did for the West Java gubernatorial election and the second round of the Jakarta gubernatorial election, which was won by Anies Baswedan last year. We have the right to decide. Thats why we are still in communication with other parties, Zulkifli said. The PKB has also played down a third-alliance plan. The party has tended to adopt a "wait and see" to forming a coalition as it seeks to endorse its party chairman Muhaimin Iskandar as a vice presidential candidate. Recently, Muhaimin said the party was still waiting for input from the PKB and the clerics of Indonesias largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), before it made a decision. However, Muhaimin has shown signals that he still favors backing Jokowi. I am still comfortable with supporting Jokowi, with the PDI-P [Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle], Muhaimin said. I am confident Jokowi will choose me as his running mate. (ebf) WOODLAND, Calif., March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Warrior Trading, the largest online community of day traders, will be hosting their Inner Circle Conference at The Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, Fl. From March 11th-16th members of the Warrior Trading Inner Circle will attend sessions instructed by notable traders Ross Cameron and Mike Herman, as well as a panel of Warrior Trading elite traders. This opportunity allows traders to learn innovative trading strategies and grow their skills set. During the Inner Circle Trader Seminar, students will have an opportunity to work directly with me to refine their trading strategies, learn new trading techniques, and build a trading plan to employ over the next six months until our next Inner Circle Trader Seminar. Ross Cameron, CEO & Head Trader at Warrior Trading The tools that Warrior Trading brings to this seminar for us to implement have been amazing. Ive been able to learn and apply so much in such a short period of time. Graham B., Warrior Trading Inner Circle Trader Seminar Las Vegas Attendee Warrior Trading is proud to bring the Inner Circle Conference to The Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, Florida. This is an exclusive event extended only to members of the Warrior Trading Inner Circle and will be the largest to date. The Warrior Trading Inner Circle is comprised of the top 100 most elite traders throughout Warrior Tradings online network. Besides participating in event sessions members will be visiting Disney World as well. This event was previously held in New York City and Las Vegas. For more information please visit: www.warriortrading.com/inner-circle About Warrior Trading Warrior Trading is an online education company headquartered in Woodland, California. Launched in 2012 as an educational blog, it has now grown into the largest online community and network of day traders and provides educational resources, online courses, and seminars to educate members on stock trading strategies and techniques. WarriorTrading.com moved into its first office space in March 2017 and chose Woodland, CA because of the growing technology community in the area. The company has since employed 10 people in the area. The companys COO, Jeff Fortis, also cofounded the Woodland Technology Alliance to help build and support the technology ecosystem in Yolo County. Xiang Tak Warrior Trading PR@warriortrading.com (530) 717-0353 Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Winda A. Charmila (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 20:30 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9aef92 1 City LRT,work-accident,piped-natural-gas Free State-owned gas company Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) said it had been repairing a leaking gas pipe in East Jakarta on Tuesday afternoon, after a police line was removed from the scene of the accident. PGNs gas pipe, located under the road of Jl. MT Haryono in Cawang, began leaking after the operator of the light rapid transit (LRT) project connecting Cawang to Dukuh Atas in South Jakarta drilled into the ground and damaged the pipe. PGN corporate secretary Rachmat Hutama said the firm had coordinated with LRT contractor Adhi Karya, while PGN will focus on repairing the gas pipe as the police line had been removed on Tuesday afternoon. We estimate that the repair will be completed by March 14, Rachmat said. He added that customers affected by the accident who live in Bidara Cina low-cost apartments and Kalibata apartments have begun to receive gas again, which was temporarily stopped because of the accident. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 17:15 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9a2832 1 City hacking,hacker,website,extortion Free The Jakarta Police have arrested two men who allegedly hacked 600 local and international websites for data to use in a blackmail scheme, its spokesperson has said. Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said the two perpetrators forcefully gained access to private computers and networks to gather information and data to blackmail prospective victims. After the perpetrators obtained their victims' data, they used [the information] to threaten the victims that they would spread the data if [the victims] did not give them some money, Argo said Tuesday as quoted by tribunnews.com. The victims were then instructed to send money via PayPal or as Bitcoin. The two men are part of a group of six cybercriminals, each of which have a specific role in targeting victims. However, the police were only able to arrest two of the gang on Sunday in Surabaya, East Java. Argo added that the cyber-gang had been carrying out the scheme for a year and had amassed around Rp 200 million (US$14,500) in blackmail money. The police have seized a cell phone, several laptops and a modem in connection with the case. The perpetrators will be charged under the Money Laundering Law and the Electronic Information and Transactions Law. (wnd) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 14:11 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c997c1b 1 National Kazakhstan,UNSC-non-permanent-seat,UN,United-Nations,Security-Council,Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,Nursultan-Nazarbayev Free President Joko Jokowi Widodo has asked Kazakhstan to support Indonesias bid to secure a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the 2019-2020 period. The statement was conveyed by the President during his meeting with a delegation from Kazakhstan's senate, led by chairman Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who visited the State Palace on Tuesday. Tokayev met President Jokowi to convey an official invitation from Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev to participate in the Sixth Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Astana on Oct. 10. Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Body chief Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, who accompanied the President at the meeting, said Jokowi welcomed the invitation to attend the event, during which he is expected to deliver a speech as the leader of the worlds largest Muslim-majority country. Pak Jokowi also requested Kazakhstans support for Indonesia's candidacy for non-permanent membership of the UNSC, Nurhayati told journalists. She further said Jokowi asserted that Indonesia and Kazakhstan, as Muslim-majority countries, should continue to promote peaceful Islam and improve bilateral cooperation, including in efforts to push for the independence of Palestine. During the meeting, Tokayev expressed the hope that during the congress in Astana next October, Jokowi could make an official state visit, especially because this year marked the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. We regard Indonesia as one of our major partners in Asia [...] We have a lot of opportunities to boost cooperation between the two countries, both in the economic and political fields, Tokayev said. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) The Hague, Netherlands Tue, March 13, 2018 19:05 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9a8df5 2 World Russia,spy,Britain,poisoning Free The nerve agent poisoning of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain was "extremely worrying", a global chemical weapons watchdog said Tuesday. "The recent report that two people became seriously ill in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a result of exposure to a nerve agent is of serious concern," Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said in a statement. "It is extremely worrying that chemical agents are still being used to harm people. Those found responsible for this use must be held accountable for their actions." Uzumcu said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had called him on Monday evening to discuss the ongoing investigation into the attempted murder of Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. British Prime Minister Theresa May has alleged it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the attack. Moscow faces a midnight Tuesday deadline to tell London how a Russian-made nerve agent came to be used in the brazen poisoning, with May threatening "a full range of measures" in retaliation. Russia has denied the accusations, as the US, NATO and the European Union all backed Britain in the deepening diplomatic row. Founded in 1997, the OPCW based in The Hague oversees the application of the Chemical Weapons Convention aimed at ridding the world of toxic arms and preventing new ones being manufactured. So far 192 member nations have joined the OPCW. In the past two decades, the body has overseen the destruction of some 94 percent of the world's declared chemical weapons stockpiles. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 14:39 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c998c9f 1 City #Rusunawa,jakarta,rent,housing Free The Jakarta Public Housing Agency has recorded Rp 35.9 billion (US$2.6 million) in outstanding rent from the citys low-cost rental apartments (Rusunawa). The agencys head of public role development, Surahman, said on Monday the figure was an accumulation of unpaid rent from 24 apartments as of January this year. The overdue rent keeps increasing. If tenants pay their fees after the 20th of each month, they are categorized as overdue, which will incur additional fines, said Surahman, as quoted by kompas.com. The top three on the list are Rusunawa Marunda in North Jakarta and Rusunawa Pinus Elok and Rusunawa Pulo Gebang in East Jakarta. Out of the 2,604 tenants in Rusunawa Marunda, 2,096 have yet to pay rent totaling Rp 10.5 billion. Meanwhile, 578 tenants out of 800 in Rusunawa Pinus Elok owe a total of Rp 5.4 billion and in Rusunawa Pulo Gebang, 654 out of 720s owe Rp 4.2 billion. Several overdue tenants, who qualify for aid, receive full financial support from the Jakarta Muslim Charitable Donations Board. We are currently working on a gubernatorial regulation that will include support for veterans, the elderly and people with disabilities, said Surahman. (jlm) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ivany Atina Arbi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 15:29 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c99a4b7 1 City Sandiaga-Uno,land-subsidence,groundwater,jakarta Free Following the Jakarta administrations attempt to limit the use of groundwater to avoid land subsidence, Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno said he would switch to using pipe water at his private home. Sandiaga admitted on Tuesday that his private luxury property on Jl. Pulo Bangkeng in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, was sucking up groundwater. I want to stop the use of groundwater and switch to pipe water supplied by city-owned water company PAM Jaya, Sandiaga told journalists. The Jakarta administration has started an initiative recently to visit buildings that violated regulations on the use of groundwater. From March 12 to March 21, special teams comprising officials from, among others, the Spatial Land Agency, the Water Resource Agency and the Environment Agency will visit 80 buildings along Jl. MH Thamrin and Jl. Sudirman to check whether or not they violated the regulations. Gubernatorial Decree No. 38/2017 on groundwater tax collection stipulates that any institution of people using groundwater for basic household needs, agricultural and fisheries irrigation and worship should pay some amount of tax. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rachmadea Aisyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 17:44 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9a5127 1 Business Standard-and-Poor,rupiah,weakening,comments Free The Standard & Poor (S&P) Global Ratings agency has warned the government about allowing the rupiah to weaken further. While the rupiah is now hovering around Rp 13,700 against the United States dollar, it is important to prevent it from heading to the point where it becomes psychologically threatening for investors, said S&P lead analyst for Indonesia and Malaysia Xavier Jean in Jakarta on Tuesday. He stressed that the rupiah's depreciation toward Rp 15,000 per US dollar was the level to watch. Investors feel that Rp 15,000 is the psychological level beyond which they cannot continue operating, he added. S&P regional economist Vincent Conti, meanwhile, emphasized the importance of the government to introduce policies that could tackle the rupiah's depreciation, although it would not be surprising because of the Federal Reserves plan to increase the fund rate. Even if the rupiah is depreciating, we think that compared to its regional peers, its still stable and that shows investor confidence, said Conti. (bbn) Testing the endurance: BMW Group Indonesia vice president of corporate communications Jodie Otania (left) waves a flag while accompanied by Shell Indonesia retail director Wahyu Indrawanto during the launch of BMW Driving Experience with all-new BMW 5 Series at a Shell gas station in South Jakarta on Monday. The company is testing the endurance of its all-new BMW 5 series for a 900-kilometer drive from Jakarta through Cirebon in West Java and Semarang and Solo in Central Java to Surabaya in East Java. (JP/Adeline Sunarjo)(left) waves a flag while accompanied by Shell Indonesia retail director Wahyu Indrawanto during the launch of BMW Driving Experience with all-new BMW 5 Series at a Shell gas station in South Jakarta on Monday. The company is testing the endurance of its all-new BMW 5 series for a 900-kilometer drive from Jakarta through Cirebon in West Java and Semarang and Solo in Central Java to Surabaya in East Java. (JP/Adeline Sunarjo) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 17:50 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9a56c8 1 City Thamrin,suicide-bombings,witness Free A middleman to the alleged financier of the 2016 Thamrin suicide bombing said on Tuesday he was assigned by a man named Iwan Darmawan Muntho, alias Rois, to hand over US$30,000 for weapons smuggling. The middleman, Adi Jahidi, was a witness in a hearing against radical cleric Aman Abdurrahman, the alleged mastermind of the gun and bomb attack in Central Jakarta that killed eight people, including five terrorists. Adi told the South Jakarta District Court that he visited Rois at the latters cell in Nusakambangan high-security prison island in Central Java, where Rois assigned him to take money from someone and later on handed over the money to two other men, named Suryadi Mas'ud and Zainal Anshori, to smuggle weapons. Rois and Aman were imprisoned in Nusakambangan. I received the money from the unknown person in a mall in Serang [in Banten]. After making an appointment, I came to the mall. [The person] knocked on the window, shook hand with me and said This is the thing, Adi said according to kompas.com. The money was put in a plastic bag, and after receiving it, Adi said he directly left the mall. He further said he delivered $3,000 to Suryadi and $20,000 to Zainal. The rest of the money was delivered to the Philippines through Suryadi. Adi testified that he did not know that the money would be used for terrorism. He said he just realized the money would be used for such purposes during the police investigation. Adi also said Rois ordered him to take four ATM cards from the latters friend and bought 15 plane tickets to Syria. Aman, who is also a supporter of the Islamic State (IS) movement, is also facing another trial on the 2017 Kampung Melayu twin suicide bombings in East Jakarta. (cal) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Moses Ompusunggu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 14 2018 The upcoming revision to the Criminal Code (KUHP), which is currently being deliberated by the House of Representatives and the President Joko Jokowi Widodo administration, will not imperil civil liberties in the worlds third-largest democracy, a senior official has said. In an interview with The Jakarta Post on Monday, Enny Nurbaningsih, head of the administrations KUHP formulation team, said the bill was not aimed at meddling with individuals private lives or curtailing freedom of expression. But there are some articles that have to be included in the new KUHP to accommodate the needs of our heterogeneous society that holds values, said Enny, who is also the head of the Law and Human Rights Ministrys National Law Devel... Pompano Beach, FL, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioStem Technologies, Inc. (OTC: BSEM) (BioStem or the Company), a global life sciences corporation, providing innovative technologies with a focus in Pharmaceuticals and Regenerative Medicine, announced today the addition of Dr. Felix Amon, who will consult BSEM with Pharmaceutical Business Development. Dr. Felix Amon has two decades of product management, medical innovation and business development experience in healthcare and related industries, including three years as a Product Manager for Eli Lilly, 2 years as as the Austria Marketing and Sales Director for Merck (MSD) Europe, followed by leading the Ophthalmics business in Mercks ww Headquarter in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey where he managed Planning and Project Management for a $650 million business operating in 104 countries. He also completed the development of an European Sales and Marketing Campaign for BIOGENs Avonex and implemented the launch of Avonex in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Dr. Amon has an MBA (1987) from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and a PhD in Law (1985) from Linz Johannes Keppler University in Austria. BSEMs, COO, Andrew Van Vurst stated, The addition of Dr. Amon to our team is imperative in the Companies mission to discover, develop and market novel Pharmaceutical and Regenerative Medicine products. We look forward to leveraging his experience in the development of sales and marketing strategies for BioStem Technologies pharmaceutical portfolio. About BioStem Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK: BSEM): BioStem Technologies, Inc. is a global life sciences corporation, providing innovative technologies with a concentration in Pharmaceuticals and Regenerative Medicine. The Companys mission is to discover, develop and produce the most effective Pharmaceutical and Regenerative Medicine products in the world. The Company is comprised of a diverse group of scientists, physicians, and entrepreneurs who collaborate to create innovative products. These technologies improve the Quality of Life for our patients and, as a result, drive shareholder value. Forward-Looking Statements: Except for statements of historical fact, the matters discussed in this press release are forward looking and made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "future," "plan" or "planned," "expects," believe" or "projected." These forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that may cause actual results to differ materially from stated expectations. These risk factors include, among others, limited operating history, difficulty in developing, exploiting and protecting proprietary technologies, intense competition and additional risk factors, as discussed in reports filed by the Company with OTC Markets. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agencies) Jakarta Tue, March 13, 2018 12:49 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9952d9 2 SE Asia UN,genocide,Facebook,Myanmar Free United Nations investigators probing a possible genocide in Myanmar on Tuesday blamed social media giant Facebook for spreading hate speech that led to violence against the Rohingyas. Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said that social media, particularly Facebook, had played adetermining role in Myanmar. It has ... substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissention and conflict, if you will, within the public. Hate speech is certainly of course a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media, he said as quoted by Reuters news agency. A UN human rights envoy said last week that Myanmar is continuing its "ethnic cleansing" of the Rohingya with a "campaign of terror and forced starvation" in Rakhine state, six months after a military crackdown sparked a mass exodus of the Muslim minority. Last month, Facebook removed the page of a Myanmar monk once dubbed the "Buddhist Bin Laden" for his incendiary posts about Muslims, the company confirmed, as it faces pressure to clamp down on hate speech. Wirathu, a prominent face of Myanmar's Buddhist ultra-nationalist movement, had amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on the network, using it as a platform to attack Muslims, singling out the stateless Rohingya minority. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Manila, Philippines Tue, March 13, 2018 17:06 1287 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9a1ad7 2 SE Asia US,Philippines,drone,terrorism Free The United States gave the Philippine air force on Tuesday its first surveillance drone system, as the two nations step up cooperation in the battle against jihadist militants. Washington has been boosting its backing for Philippine counter-terror efforts since Islamic State supporters seized parts of the southern city of Marawi last year, sparking a deadly five-month battle. The unmanned aerial vehicle system worth $13.2 million, including six drones, turned over to Philippine troops was the latest US military assistance. "Assets like the ScanEagle will significantly improve the (Philippine military's) ability to detect terrorist activities, piracy activities, territory encroachment," US Ambassador to Manila Sung Kim told reporters, referring to the drones. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the system, equipped with cameras and aircraft that can fly for 24 hours, would support operations against militants in the south. The southern region of Mindanao is home to several pro-IS groups, including those that attacked Marawi in May last year in fighting that claimed more than 1,100 lives and reduced large parts of the city to rubble. These new drones are to be used for reconnaissance missions in defence, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, Lorenzana said. "With a number of security issues confronting our country today, there is a need to upgrade our nation's armed forces," Lorenzana said. President Rodrigo Duterte had sought to loosen the Philippines' 70-year alliance with the US in favour of closer ties with China and Russia. Another day, another reason to get annoyed at fellow journalists across the pond. King of all things fantasy and sci-fi, Lee Pace was forced to come out as a member of the queer community last week. The Hobbit franchise, spoke to W Magazine The actor, who is probably most famous for portraying the unforgettable Thranduil infranchise, spoke to in a piece published Wednesday, February 28 about his role in the Broadway revival of Angels in America, a production set during the AIDS crisis. When asked about his sexuality, Pace refused to label himself but rather explained, Ive dated men. Ive dated women. I dont know why anyone would care. Im an actor and I play roles. He also appeared to be taken aback, adding, To be honest, I dont know what to say I find your question intrusive. He uploaded a tweet thread last Monday about the interview, explaining the importance he places on privacy, but also the understanding the importance of living openly, being counted, and happily owning who I am. In a recent phone interview, I was asked questions that I wasnt expecting and found myself momentarily at a loss for the right words. My privacy is important to me, so I protect it. When interviewed by the media, I keep the focus on my work. Lee Pace (@leepace) March 5, 2018 Once you dig in a little bit, however, its easy to find that its far from the first outing rodeo of Brian Moylen, the reporter behind this interview. In 2012, Brian Moylan gleefully wrote about his outing of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, taking the classic reporter creed of reporting facts accurately towards the kind of invasive, disrespectful strategy that leads to shock and horror-style headlines, and to the generating of more clicks: Those are precisely the same reasons that fueled what I am happy to admit was my personal crusade to nudge Cooper slowly out of the closet, whether he wanted to come or not. Gee, I wonder why journalists are always in the bottom row of disliked professions. So, I feel like we have already been through this, but let me introduce to this groundbreaking concept: peoples romantic lives, and by extension, their sexualities (looking at non-straight ones, as those are the ones that can put you in danger), are their own flippin business. By another extension, celebrities choice to come out or not is contingent on their own decision, not on whether or not its good for the community. Yes, we need more proud, successful queer people to combat negative stereotypes. Yes, celebrities boast platforms which can enable messages of tolerance to reach a varied, massive, and oftentimes international audiences, and would generally be better protected from the worst of the inevitable backlash. That, however, should happen only with their own consent, and on their own schedule. What is also true is that we are living in a world where LGBT spaces are more visible than ever. Theres already work being done towards normalizing queer lifestyle (however you would like to define that) to western audiences: small things like a sub-par semi-journalistic websites using a stock image of two men holding hands, for example, might be a normal thing for British readership now, but not to the Bulgarian one (where Im from). Of course, the battle is far from over (my own, terrified-but-proud, yet quasi-out existence as an average bisexual woman is testament to that), but it shouldnt be fought by sacrificing the privacy of those who are not ready to share what shouldnt be headline news, but still is in 2018. Coming out is still a political act of activism (though we can all agree it shouldnt be), even in western public spaces where its generally more accepted. So look at queer activists, look at allies, look at celebrities who are out; no shortage of LGBT+ idols warrants bullying people into coming out. Although we have seen terrible outings of people in the British public sphere (looking at you, Daily Mail), as a person who has studied British media law, I can guarantee British press makes a better balancing act between privacy and freedom of speech than the American press, who are notoriously bad at respecting privacy. If we call for celebrities personal lives to be respected, that extends to queer celebrities decisions about making their sexuality public or not. This story in particular has a happy end: though Lee Pace called W Magazine out for asking intrusive questions, and later came out in a Twitter thread, a brief cursory glance of the replies reveals positive messages. Brian Moylan doesnt seem to have learnt his lesson, but sadly he works in an environment, which allows him to do that, and justify it with a seemingly noble cause. Lee Pace blocked me on Twitter, but I hear she's a member of the "queer community" now. Congrats! Brian Moylan (@BrianJMoylan) March 5, 2018 So, hey, Brian Moylan, I come from a country with a crappy LGBT rights track record and Im desperately in need of people to fight the stigma world-wide. But heres another thing we do in the queer community: we respect peoples decision to come out (or not) on their own terms and in their own time. Lifestyle Japanese man claims he slept just 30 minutes a day for 12 years The media quoted Hori, 36, as saying that what prompted him to this strange routine of sleeping was that he found that 16 hours were not enough to achieve everything he wanted to do in one day, and to enjoy his life. Mary Magdalene (2018) is a retelling of Jesus life story through the eyes of the forgotten apostle: Mary Magdalene, who is often wrongly cited to have been a prostitute. The incredibly versatile star of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and Carol (2015), Rooney Mara, plays the until-now-unsung heroine. Here's was she had to say on the timely nature of the film, and her approach to taking on the role. Don't forget to read our interviews with the director Garth Davis & writer Philippa Goslett, with Joaquin Phoenix himself, and with co-stars Chiwetel Ejiofor & Tahar Rahim too. When you first heard about the role of Mary Magdalene, was that daunting? My reaction was absolutely Oh my god, do I really want to do this? Garth sent me the email we were talking about doing this other project, and then he sent me an email, I think it just said How do you feel about Mary Magdalene? and I thought, ugh god. And then he flew to LA a few weeks later to talk to me about it, so I knew he was very serious. I was scared, I wasnt sure I wanted to take it on. i knew I wanted to work with him, and I knew he would make a beautiful film that was integral and authentic and truthful, but I was definitely really nervous to take it on. In the film we see a lot of Marys past - how much of that was based on fact? I had the image that most people have of Mary Magdalene, that she was the prostitute. So then I was shocked when I read the script to learn that that wasnt at all true. We dont really know anything, but we just piece together what we can from all these various different books and cannons and gospels. We know enough, like where she came from, and because we know where she came from we can gather that most people from there would have been fishermen. So that stuff is probably pretty based in truth. The writers spoke with a lot of historians and people who know their stuff pretty well. The picture that most people have of Mary isnt at all based in reality, so it was a huge undertaking to play someone that people think they know. And she is someone thats important to many people, but on the other hand it was slightly freeing because while were not reinventing her, we are for the first time telling her story as we see it to be true. That kind of took some of the pressure off a bit. What was your research process like going into this? To be honest, a lot of the research was done for me I got packets and packets from Garth of what it was like to live back then, and just so much of it felt like homework. I felt like I was back in grade school, and didnt want to read any of it! So than going to Israel was cool, because we got to learn a lot of that stuff first hand instead of having to read it in the textbooks. We didnt shoot in Israel, but me and Joaquin got to go right before we went and shot in Italy. They took us on a little field trip there. The gospel stuff - I really didnt want to go back and read them, because again it made me feel like I was back at Sunday school or something. And then it was really actually Joaquin, who would start talking about it. Because he was reading them pretty intensely and he would talk about it, and I couldnt believe it was from the bible, the things he was reading. So then I did start getting into it especially the Mary gospels. Theres really beautiful stuff in there. Really really amazing stuff in there. So it was really cool to get to go back and read a lot of those texts. This is such an incredibly timely film, which you couldnt have known when you were filming. The whole premise of centring a womans narrative in this male-dominated story - how did that speak to you in the process of making it? Exactly! And shes a woman whose story was tarnished by men, and kept silent by men. Its pretty remarkable. When we were filming, we knew it was an important and timely story, but we never could have known just how important and timely it would be. We were filming on the day of the election. I remember waking up that morning thinking Oh god, were making this feminist film and were going to have our first female president, isnt this fucking amazing! And all of us just going to work that day, and we couldnt believe it. And I think we were doing some scene that day, maybe it was the day Jesus was carrying the cross, so it was really intense, and it was cold, and everyone was just walking around like a zombie - no one could believe what was happening. I couldnt believe it then, and I still cant believe it. It feels like even though weve come so far from when this all took place thousands of years ago, we havent really come that far actually. And that became even more clear these past few months with everything thats come out. I think its a really important story and I think its going to be really meaningful to a lot of women, a lot of men, a lot of people who have felt marginalised. I think its going to be really important for a lot of young girls to see it. I think its going to be really inspiring for a lot of people - or at least thats what I hope. Do you feel that one has to be spiritual in order to enjoy the film? I dont consider myself religious, or part of any religion, though I was brought up Catholic and my family is largely Catholic. Religion is important to them and I respect that, and I respect it being important to other people. I do consider myself to be spiritual person, though, but I think that you dond need to be religious or spiritual to get something out of the film. Were there moments in the film where you thought Mary perceived things differently because she was a woman? I think that she probably does perceive things to be different because shes a woman. I think thats why she perceives his teachings and his message about the kingdom so vastly differently than all the other disciples. Because shes a woman, shes coming from a different place. Every decision is made for her, shes not allowed to have a voice or a life of her own, and Jesus comes a long and tells her that what shes feeling is important and is valid, and that she does get to make decisions for herself, and her life is her own. He tells her that what shes feeling is right and she should follow it, and I think thats the first time that anyones ever made her feel that way, and it opens this door. Especially during that time, to have a relationship with god or your faith, there was this hierarchy. You had to have your Rabbi, or these high priests, and in order to get closer to god you had to go through those people. Jesus comes along and he tells them, No you dont. Its within you. Everyone has equal access to it. You dont need these people. You dont need to go meditate on a mountain-top for five years to reach nirvana - you can reach it right now. Its within you. You dont need help from anyone but yourself. And so I think shes able to hear that differently because shes coming from a marginalised place and the other disciples dont have that experience. Its interesting that she says the men sound like soldiers at one point, and war is seen as a very masculine pursuit. But women have never been in a position of power like that, so we dont really know what we would do. I hope as a female that we would use our power differently, but we cant really say. And so I think its less of a gender thing than it is being in a position of power. There are miracles that happen in this film - did you have to rationalise them to yourself to be able to play the part? You know, its interesting, we talked a lot about it I think because Garth made such a pointed decision to make everyone in the story, including Jesus, much more human than weve ever seen them depicted. The way I rationalise it Im pretty new-age in my life, Im really into alternate medicine and all that kind of hokey stuff. And that was actually what partly helped me see Jesus in a new light for the first time. Like, if I was alive back then, he would have been one of those people that I follow now. So I just thought of him as a healer. And I think also, Mary is conflicted, she doesnt want to get married and have a normal life, she wants to follow her faith, and for those feelings which were not the norm, she was considered by her family to be possessed. Back during that time a lot of ailments were attributed to that there was a different way of reckoning things back then. And I think Jesus coming along part of the miracle and the healing is really just seeing people for the first time. He comes in and sees me, and he just says What is it you want out of life? and she says, To know God. And he looks at her and is the first person in her life to really see her, and to say, There are no demons here. Thats not a miracle, thats just seeing someone for who they are. Thats a lot of the healing that he did that he was really giving people a voice and seeing them. A lot of these people were lepers - no ones able to touch them or look at them, theyre totally ostracised. So I think part of the healing he did was just really seeing people. Mary Magdalene arrives in cinemas March 16th. Scott and Sid (2018) follows the story of Sid (Tom Blyth), an awkward teenager with a dysfunctional family, who needs to take care of his alcoholic mother while keeping up with his studies, which leaves him almost no time for friends or social life. One day he meets Scott (Richard Mason), the new student: a troubled foster child who has already been expelled from four schools. Both lonely and alienated, they become instant friends. But, while Sid wants to fit in and do well in school to be able to go to a good university, Scott is a dreamchaser. He wants to reach for the stars, and to him, school is just delaying the real thing. Eventually, both get involved in several businesses that lead them to success, but that also test their friendship and commitment. Scott and Sid is the story of two teenagers who dream of becoming filmmakers. But it is also the semi-biographical story of two teenagers that wanted to become filmmakers and that actually did. Scott Elliot and Sid Sadowskyj wrote, produced and directed Scott and Sid, a movie about the list of dreams they wrote when they were 16 and still in school. With Scott and Sid, their life-long dream has become true, but not without a lot of hard work, which has been perfectly portrayed in the film. Scott and Sid is not the typical teen story. It is about overcoming your circumstances, no matter how terrible they are, and fighting for what you want, even if society, your parents or the headmaster of your school are telling you not to. The message that it is trying to send is just wonderful, and even better when we know it is based on true events: theres no need to follow a conventional path. There are many other ways to achieve what you want, all of them as valid. The two main characters of the movie are really interesting. Sid is simply inspiring, as we get to see how he struggles to be a normal kid while having to take care of his alcoholic and abusive mother. Scott is also strong, but in a different way. He wants to leave his depressing life behind and see his dreams come true. He does not believe in doing what society tells you to do. He fights against the system to get his place in this world in his own way. At some points he is a bit annoying, especially when he gives Sid a hard time for wanting to fit in, but he is indeed a very fascinating character. Besides, both actors are great in their respective roles, and their chemistry on-screen is brilliant. Nevertheless, although the story is nice and charming, it's told too fast, not leaving the audience enough time to really get into what was happening before it changes to something else. Telling a story that lasts so many years in just one and a half hours is a risky business, and I dont think Elliot and Sadowskyi have managed to do it right. Maybe with a longer film they could have reached the depth necessary to make us feel like we know the characters, but after watching Scott and Sid, I didnt feel like I cared for any of them. Although the idea is good and the characters are well-developed, the film fails to have the spark that would make it great. In general, it's not the sort of movie you'd rewatch, and I probably won't remember it in a few months. Scott and Sid had the potential to be a wonderful film with a great story and message, but it ends up being just an entertaining drama without any emotional impact in the audience. A fine movie nontheless, but not a memorable one. The University and College Union (UCU) has rejected a deal offered by Universities UK (UUK) following opposition from its branches across the country. A post shared by Cameron Panting (@gnitnapnoremac) on Mar 13, 2018 at 6:42am PDT The proposed deal, which was provisionally accepted last night following six days of talks, included a three-year transition period in which members and employers would be expected to contribute more, with no guarantees going further forward. Members were also outraged by a clause in the deal which stated that the union would encourage staff to reschedule classes which had been affected by the strike. Telling us at the end of day 11 that we have to reschedule teaching, for free, is insulting. Disruption was the point. This undermines everything. @ucu @UM_UCU #ucustrike #NoCapitulation Silvi (@WingedBookWyrm) March 13, 2018 Following Monday nights announcement, academics and university staff took to Twitter to express their dismay at the proposals, using the hashtag #NoCapitulation. The hashtag continued to trend overnight and for most of Tuesday. Emergency branch meetings were held across the country in order for members to make their voices heard. The result was a resounding rejection of the proposal. In a statement UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt said: "Branches made it clear today that they wanted to reject the proposal. UCU's greatest strength is that we are run by and for our members and it is right that members always have the final say." The rejected proposal means that the strike will continue. The original wave of strikes is due to conclude on Friday 16th March. However, the union is now making plans for a second wave of strikes to target the examination season. A UUK spokesperson said: "It is hugely disappointing that students' education will be further disrupted through continued strike action. "We have listened to the concerns of university staff and offered to increase employer contributions to ensure that all members would receive meaningful defined benefits. "Our hope is that UCU can find a way to continue to engage constructively, in the interests of students and those staff who are keen to return to work." The talks and the strikes continue. Featured image courtesy of Robert Liow Our new magazine is here, and its chock full of goodness. Opening with our cover stars The Wombats, this issue also features our interview with Hollywood powerhouse Margot Robbie, where she talks female narratives, #MeToo and carving her own career in an industry notorious for its stereotyping. Were also advising on how ASMR can help out with mental health issues at university, reporting from a US college town thats fighting for gun reform, and letting you in on the life-affirming story of how shopping is working as therapy for recently freed Yazidi women and girls in Iraq. On a lighter note, our film and music teams have looked ahead to bring you the best new bands and the most exciting films that you should be looking out for over the next few months. In our travel section, were hitchhiking through Albania, exploring New York Citys most exciting new art hub, and putting our collective heads together to save the Great Barrier Reef. Here are all the campuses where youll find copies of the magazine. For those of you elsewhere, an online version will be uploaded soon watch this space... Birmingham Birmingham City City, University of London Coventry Durham Exeter Edinburgh Glasgow Kings College London Lancaster Leeds Leeds Beckett Lincoln Liverpool Liverpool John Moores LSE Manchester Manchester Met Newcastle Salford Sheffield Sheffield Hallam Southampton Southampton Solent Strathclyde UCL Warwick York Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. Please check our main navigation pages for other content: Home Page Talking The Dead Hand, creator-owned vs work-for-hire, and Freud. Source: Emerald City Comic Con Kyle Higgins is a Los Angeles-based writer and filmmaker. His work includes Nightwing, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, and the upcoming The Dead Hand with artist Stephen Mooney from Image Comics. The first issue is set to release April 11. Tim: For the uninitiated, what's the pitch on The Dead Hand? Kyle: The Dead Hand refers to an autonomous doomsday weapon that the Soviets talked about building but never actually did. They built a semi-autonomous system called Perimeter which was designed to guarantee a retaliatory strike on the US even with total decapitation of the Kremlin. We didn't learn about it until like 1993. My book is exploring that autonomous system that maybe they did build, right? It takes place in a small town called Mountainview that has a secret that dates back to the end of the Cold War and something called Operation Dead Hand. It also deals with six different characters which all have connections to the spy ring in one form or another. Some of them dating back to the Cold War, some of them being newer. It all focuses on this last mission of the Cold War, Operation Dead Hand. Once again, maybe putting the world in jeopardy. Tim: You've already made it in the industry as the writer of Power Rangers. Why come back to creator-owned? Kyle: Well, for that very reason. Creator-owned is where you get to build worlds and tell stories that are, as Grant Morrison likes to describe it "mainlining." It's straight from the writer to the page to the reader. The collaborative process of working with editors and licencors on something like Power Rangers scratches one type of itch. But building worlds from whole cloth and being the sole arbiter of characters' destinies is a different itch. Doing books at Image scratches that. I worked at DC for several years. I went and did C.O.W.L. at Image. Since then, I've tried to keep a foot in both worlds. I think in this current market as well, most writers do need to continue to do something like Power Rangers that's commercial and mainstream with recognizable characters, while also building their own brand and telling stories that are original. Tim: The Dead Hand seems to expand on themes from C.O.W.L., namely political drama. What keeps bringing you back to these themes? Kyle: I really like things that aren't black and white. I think if you look at C.O.W.L.. Hadrian's Wall, or when you see The Dead Hand that's probably the connective thematic tissue. Looking at legacies and characters who are generational is something that I've always been fascinated by. I love historical fiction. C.O.W.L., Hadrian's Wall, and The Dead Hand all have that in common. This one is definitely different from C.O.W.L. and Hadrian's Wall though. I've written it in more of, I don't want to say novelistic way. I'm using third-person narration that takes us in and out of different interludes. We can go off on different tangents. I've never tried something like this before so it's been fun. It also has a lot more action than the previous two Image series. As far as political intrigue, it's something that's very prominent in our lives right now. I don't why I keep coming back to it. I'll just be totally honest. I guess I'm interested in it. I'm interested in institutions that become more about self-preservation than about whatever cause they were originally started as a result of. There is something interesting about that. C.O.W.L. was kind of about the death of an American institution. At some point, it becomes more focused on itself than it does about its original initiative. I think that's something that bothers me in our day-to-day lives whether it be politics, corporations, or religion. I think anything that gets too big runs the risk of self-immolating. Tim: The Cold War is the backdrop for The Dead Hand. Will readers see much of Carter's time during the Cold War? Kyle: You'll see of it initially in the first arc. To understand why he is where he is and his dedication to his country and the greater good of the world. In order to understand that, you have to explore some of his time and some of his black ops work during the Cold War. I've been kind of describing this book as kind of a mash up of James Bond, John Le Carre, and Metal Gear Solid. It's definitely heightened spy fiction in that Bond and Metal Gear kind of way. But I think without spoiling too much, when you see the modern day you'll understand there's also avenues for some of the spy work, in addition to the end of the Cold War sequences. Tim: What's intriguing to you about the Cold War as a setting? Kyle: I've always been fascinated by dark mirrors, whether it be a dark mirror of a character or a dark mirror of a country. The Soviet Union was presented to us for so long as the dark, evil superpower. It's us, but evil. It's us, but red! It's actually much more complex than that. As I learned more and more about the Cold War and the happenings behind the scenes with our leaders as well as the Soviet Union leaders, it became a very fascinating era for me. Especially when you consider the way the Cold War developed out of an alliance between us and the Soviet Union in World War II. An alliance of necessity during World War II. That kind of "you're not sure who you can trust/high tension" backdrop was something that I've always found interesting. While it's presented as black and white, good and evil, it was not that at all. That kind of grey area is what I like to inhabit in all of my creator-owned works. I think that it's just a natural setting. As I talk through it right now, Freud wouldn't have a hard time diagnosing where my fascination for the Cold War comes from. Tim: What else do you have in the works? Kyle: I have Shattered Grid, which is a huge Power Rangers event, launching March 28. I have The Dead Hand. I have a few other creator-owned projects that aren't announced yet. I directed a film called Shadow Hours that's going to be dropping March 25. That's a really exciting one. I'm trying to do more directing and get back to my first love. That's one that I would definitely recommend people check out. It stars Tom Riley and Britt Lower, with a pretty awesome score by Bear McCreary. It's very much a psychological thriller/neo-noir. Tonally consistent with my other creator-owned works, but this time in live-action. Tim: Where can people find that? Kyle: That'll be announced soon. Eventually they can find it on theshadowhours.com but we have a partner that's going to be announcing the film in the very near future. [The Shadow Hours is debuting at Wondercon and will be online at ign.com Monday, March 26.) Southern Pines, NC (28387) Today Rain. High 76F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Rain. Thunderstorms possible...mainly late. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low around 70F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Newshub asked the District Health Board for infomations on misc items that were found up new Zealander's bums in 2017. The Morning Rumble discuss their findings above. Read the Newshub article below. Warning: This article contains graphic details An innocent plastic duck has come to a sticky end after an unfortunate journey into one New Zealander's rear end. Newshub put in an OIA request for all the items removed from Kiwis' anuses in 2017 - and the DHBs actually delivered it to us. The documents show over a dozen New Zealanders were hospitalised last year over their anal insertions, which can cause significant health issues and come with a health warning. The list of cavity calamities included a misplaced dildo, a piece of bath crayon - and one very unlucky plastic duck. At least 11 people were hospitalised around New Zealand after requiring items removed. The worst area was the Capital and Coast DHB's, which had five people needing care. But the colon carnage didn't stop there. The Bay of Plenty region showed off its wild side with another three accidents. Northland was in third place, showing off its creative side with a piece of bath crayon. "Experimentation with anal play is becoming increasingly popular because it stimulates a lot of sensitive nerve endings," says Adulttoymegastore spokesperson, product manager Emma Hewitt. "While it's a highly enjoyable sexual act, it's imperative that people take their safety seriously. Objects that are inserted too far into the rectum can potentially travel up into, and perforate, the bowel." New Zealand's worst rectum wreckers of 2017: Unspecified foreign body Dildo Lamb bone Ball Bottle cap Carrot Sex toy Plastic duck Piece of bath crayon Part of butt plug Impacted faeces Homemade sex toys were one of the main culprits, including one sacrificial carrot. "Household items that aren't specifically designed to be used for anal play shouldn't be used under any circumstances," Ms Hewitt told Newshub. "They can easily get lodged or lost inside your body, and the materials they're made from could also break apart while inside the body." But even if sex toys are used, Ms Hewitt warns Kiwis are putting themselves at risk of "lasting damage" when experimenting with the wrong kind during anal play. "It's important to use specially designed anal toys because people are putting their safety at risk if they don't," she advises. "Only buy anal toys that have a flared base or a retrieval cord. This is essential because it's the number one safety feature that prevents the toy from travelling too far into the rectum." But if the worst does happen and push comes to shove but nothing comes out, Ms Hewitt says it's important to seek urgent medical attention. "Go to your nearest Emergency Room immediately," she told Newshub. "If the handle has been lost, the object isn't likely to be able to come out naturally by trying to 'pass' it on the toilet. "Emergency staff have seen it all before, and accidents happen to the best of us. Don't hesitate to get help." Source: Newshub. The third storm in the last two weeks is producing heavy snow in New England on Tuesday. Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Partly cloudy skies in the morning will give way to cloudy skies during the afternoon. High 24C. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Cloudy. Low 17C. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. 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. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Sunday warned the Syrian government not to use chemical weapons in its civil war and said the Trump administration has made it clear that it would be very unwise to use gas in attacks. Mattis told reporters traveling with him to the Mideast that he was disturbed by reports of civilian casualties from bombings by Syrian President Bashar Assads forces. Right now were getting reports I dont have evidence that I can show you but Im aware of the reports of chlorine gas use, he said before arriving Sunday in Oman. The U.S. responded militarily last year to reported Syrian government use of sarin gas, and Mattis was asked whether the administration is now considering retaliating for chlorine gas use. Im not going to strictly define it. We have made it very clear that it would be very unwise to use gas as a weapon, Mattis said. He said the latest reports of Syrian government forces killing civilians in eastern Ghouta show that troops are at best indiscriminately attacking and at worst targeting hospitals. I dont know which it is, whether theyre incompetent or whether theyre committing illegal acts or both. In Washington, CIA director Mike Pompeo noted that President Donald Trump has said he will not tolerate chemical weapons attacks, but has not yet made a decision about the latest reports. In this case, the intelligence community is working diligently to verify what happened there, Pompeo said in an interview on CBS Face the Nation. Ive seen the pictures. Youve seen the pictures as well. We have a higher standard to make sure we understand precisely what took place, precisely who did it so that our response can meet the threat. Mattis said Russia, which intervened militarily in Syria to support the Assad government, could be complicit in the civilian casualties. Either Russia is incompetent or in cahoots with Assad, Mattis said. Theres an awful lot of reports about chlorine gas use or about symptoms that could be resulting from chlorine gas. Added Pompeo: The president asks me nearly every day what it is the intelligence community knows about the Syrian regimes use of chemical weapons and who else the Russians or the Iranians who might be responsible for them. On Sunday, the Russian military said 52 civilians have evacuated from besieged eastern Ghouta suburbs of Syrias capital, Damascus. Russia and the Syrian government have accused rebels of blocking civilians from fleeing the violence. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group says an indiscriminate campaign of government and Russian air strikes and shelling has killed some 1,100 civilians in rebel-held eastern Ghouta over the past three weeks. The U.N. estimates 400,000 civilians are trapped in the siege. Syrias deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad denied opposition charges that government forces used poisonous gas in their attacks on some suburbs of Damascus. Mekdad said at a news conference Saturday that insurgents groups in eastern Ghouta are preparing to fabricate more such attacks to blame the Syrian army. While in Oman, Mattis planned to meet with the countrys supreme ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, on Monday. Oman is a longtime security partner of the U.S., though some question whether it is facilitating, or turning a blind eye to, the movement of Iranian weapons to Yemen to aid Houthi rebels. Asked whether Oman is assisting Iran in this respect, Mattis said, Im not willing to say that. He said he expects to discuss Yemen with Qaboos. Oman has long-standing commercial and political ties to Iran, an Omani neighbor and U.S. nemesis. Oman, which borders Yemen on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has been ruled by the 77-year-old Qaboos since he took power from his father in a bloodless palace coup in 1970. After the 2011 Arab Spring, Qaboos is now the longest-serving Arab leader in the Middle East. While ostensibly a member of the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council, Oman has struck out on its own diplomatic path in the region. Oman was the site of secret talks between Iran and the U.S. that birthed Tehrans 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Oman also has negotiated to help release Western detainees in Iran, as well as Yemen, in recent years. Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Saturday that Omans role in the Persian Gulf is important to the U.S. at a time of sharp divisions among the Gulf Arab states, civil wars in Yemen and Syria, and growing Iranian influence in Iraq. The pattern in the Gulf is one of deep concern for the U.S., Cordesman said. Mattis said he also will visit Bahrain this week. It is home to the U.S. Navys 5th Fleet. (AP) Macedonia is holding a second day of commemorative events to mark the 75th anniversary of the deportation of almost all of the countrys Jewish population to a Nazi death camp. A total of 7,144 Jews from the capital, Skopje, and cities of Bitola and Stip were confined to ghettos in March 1943 before being deported to the Treblinka death camp in German-occupied Poland. Ninety-eight percent of them died there. On Monday, Prime Ministers Boyko Borissov of Bulgaria and Deniz Zvizdic of Bosnia joined a March of the Living rally in Skopje. Relatives of Holocaust victims traveled to Macedonia from Israel, Latin America and the United States. Macedonias parliament also convened for a special session dedicated to the Holocaust victims. (AP) Qatar government officials collected what they allege is damaging information on the United Arab Emirates influence on senior White House adviser Jared Kushner in secret meetings, but chose not to hand the evidence over to special counsel Robert Mueller, NBC News reported Monday. The Qatari officials decided against cooperating with Mueller for now, out of fear it would further strain the countrys relations with the White House, the individuals told NBC News. According to the NBC report, Qatar has information about a secret meeting in December 2016, a month before the U.S. presidential election, between UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Kushner, incoming national security advisor Michael Flynn and incoming chief strategist Steve Bannon at Trump Tower. A report earlier this month said Muellers team of investigators was looking into whether an adviser to the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates has influenced White House policymaking. The report said Muellers team was looking into a Lebanese-American businessman and adviser to the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, the crown prince of the UAE. That businessman, George Nader, visited the White House frequently last year, according to the report. Investigators are examining Naders role in the White Houses policymaking and asking about efforts by the Emirates to influence the Trump administration. A spokesman for Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell said the report was the mischief of unnamed sources conducting a misinformation campaign to mislead the news media. Mr. Kushners role in the campaign and transition was to be a point person for completely appropriate contacts from foreign officials, and he did not mix his or his former companys business in those contacts, the spokesman, Peter Mirijanian, said in a statement. Any claim otherwise is false. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) Last Thursday, 21 Adar, Israel Police arrested a female French tourist in Eilat after she unsuccessfully tried switching a fake for a bracelet valued at NIS 38,000. After measuring the bracelet on her wrist, she hid it in her body and returned an inexpensive knockoff to the clerk. Police were summoned, and the woman taken into custody. The original bracelet was returned to the store as well. The store owner explained this is not the first time such an incident occurred, stating one must be exceptionally vigilant. (YWN Israel Desk Jerusalem) Whether you've filled a self assessment tax return in before or not, the whole process can be somewhat bewildering. Tiny green question marks designed to explain what you're supposed to put in each box are usually less than helpful and leave me, at least, more confused than I was before I clicked. Getting it wrong however is not really an option, particularly given HMRC has really stepped up its assault on tax dodgers. If you fail to submit a tax return when you should, you'll be fined 100 off the bat and a further 10 for each following day up to a 90 day maximum of 900. > Will you get a tax cut in April? We reveal the figures by income level The deadline to file and pay your self-assessment tax return online is 31 January Not only are there additional penalties if you're even later, you'll be charged interest on any amount outstanding. Each year the deadline to get your self-assessment done online arrives on 31 January. We asked Tim Walford-Fitzgerald, private client partner at accountancy firm HW Fisher & Company, to talk us through everything you need to know. The basics To fill out your tax return online you first need to register at www.direct.gov.uk. In order to register, you will need several forms of identification such as your passport or driving licence numbers. Your National Insurance number will be required, as will your bank details. Walford-Fitzgerald: Income includes bank interest, rental income from a property you own, dividend income from shares and so on, as well as the amounts that you earn Once registered you will have to enter your personal details on the self-assessment form and then answer a series of questions in order to tailor your tax return to your personal circumstances. There is no skipping these questions. All of them have to be answered yes or no. From this point, the system will then generate your tax form. The more complex your finances, the more sections you will have to fill in. Income and expenses Before continuing you should have a very clear idea of what your total income is, and also any benefits you received through your employment. Your whole income includes bank interest, rental income from a property you own, dividend income from shares and so on, as well as the amounts that you earn. It is not only cash that needs to be included. Benefits in kind from your employer that you may need to declare include private medical insurance, a company car, accommodation provided by your employer, including lighting and heating, company shares, mileage or fuel allowances, among many more. Allowances and expenses are important as they offer you a chance to reduce your tax liability so you should make sure you claim all the tax relief you are entitled to. Youll also need to tell HMRC about the expenses you incurred through your work. This is particularly important as allowable expenses can be offset against (i.e reduce) your tax liability. The expenses you can claim for depend on whether you are self-employed or an employee. For employees, if you pay a subscription to belong to a professional organisation, you can claim tax relief on these payments. HMRC publishes a list online of permitted bodies whose annual subscriptions you can claim tax relief on. If your employer pays a mileage allowance below the rate allowed by HMRC you can claim the difference as tax relief. HMRCs rates are 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and then 25p per mile over 10,000 miles. Most expenses for which employees can claim tax relief must pass the test of being wholly, exclusively and necessarily for business purposes. So, if you use your personal mobile phone or your home broadband connection for work purposes, because you do not use either wholly, exclusively and necessarily for business purposes, you cant claim them as expenses. If you are self-employed you can claim for a much wider range of expenses including travel, subsistence, professional memberships and administration costs. Any personal element of those expenses needs to be excluded from your claim. You can pro-rata the use of your mobile phone and home broadband, so mobile phone bills can be split and you can claim a percentage of your broadband use as business expenses. Self-employed people can claim tax relief for software subscriptions, professional bookkeeping software or professional services fees such as lawyers or accountants fees. The whole breadth of expenses is massive and there are differences depending on whether you are employed or self-employed. HMRC publishes a business income manual online which, while reasonably technical, is fairly easy to navigate and which may prove helpful. There is an equivalent section for employees expenses. You can get some tax relief on the purchase of a new laptop or mobile phone Annual investment allowance If you are self-employed and buy equipment such as a new laptop, mobile phone or printer, you cant necessarily claim these as direct expenses. But you can claim tax relief on their purchase through the annual investment allowance (AIA). The AIA allows a business to invest up to 200,000 in fixed assets each year. So, using the AIA you could deduct the cost of a new printer from your tax bill so long as you claim in the year you buy the printer. The same goes for tradesmen who buy new tools for their work, or perhaps a new van. Cars are not included under the AIA unless they are Hackney carriages black cabs. For the most part, the AIA will cover the cost of anything you need to conduct your business. Foreign earnings People who move to Britain from overseas and earn some of their income from activities they carry out abroad need to declare such earnings. There is a grace period, which applies to overseas employed earnings and means you will generally not be liable for tax for the first two years. This is provided the money you earn from your overseas activities is not brought to the UK or used here indirectly, for example via a credit card. Ultimately, if you do earn some of your income from overseas activities it is probably best to seek professional advice. Property If you are a buy-to-let investor the income you earn from your property must be declared. But there are numerous expenses associated with the maintenance of the property that can be applied to the income to reduce your tax bill. If you employ a letting agent to manage the property, then their fees can be used as an expense against that income. Buy-to-let investors should also be aware that mortgage interest tax relief is being tapered away. The 2016/17 tax year was the last year in which mortgage interest tax relief stood at 100 per cent, so it would be wise to make the most of it while you still can. From this year, the tax relief will disappear at a rate of 25 per cent per year over the next four years before it is replaced with a new, less generous tax relief. Dividend tax If you own a significant number of shares from which you derive an income this must be declared. HMRC allows the first 5,000 earned from share dividends to be exempt from tax each year; a tax charge of at least 7.5 per cent applies on anything above this level, even if you only pay basic-rate tax. Capital gains tax Should you have made a significant gain from the sale of stocks, shares, land and property or a business this will need to be declared. But you have an allowance of 11,100 before tax is due on any capital gains you made. Child benefit charge This is section is only going to be relevant if you or your partner have earned more than 50,000 in the last tax year, have children and receive child benefit. If so, you will be liable to the higher income child benefit charge which reduces the amount of child benefit your family receives the more you earn over this threshold. One way to avoid the charge is to reduce your income through charitable donations to keep you below the 50,000 threshold. Are you earning more than 50,000 and liable to the higher income child benefit charge? Gift aid tax relief Charitable donations can be a useful way to reduce your tax liabilities. It's also possible to make a donation now and carry it back into the previous tax year. Gift aid donations can provide as much as 60 per cent tax relief. Pension income If you are retired and have sources of income other than your state and private pensions it is important to make sure you are paying the right amount of tax on your income. This doesnt include any part-time work you might do, but it does include dividend income from shares or rental income from a buy-to-let investment. In order to get this right, you will still need to declare your annual income from both the state and any private pensions you have. Student loans One of the final sections of the form relates to student loans. If you have a student loan you must declare it, but there is no tax relief on your student loan payments. Married couples tax relief A relatively minor, and little used, tax relief is one in which a husband and wife can transfer 10 per cent of their personal allowance to their spouse if their income in the last tax year was less than the personal allowance, they have been married for all or part of the previous tax year and their spouses income was less than 43,000. Sign off And thats it. You should now be ready to submit the form to HMRC. Remember there is plenty of help online and if you need to check details of something youre unsure of, you can save your progress on the form and come back to it later on. But dont leave it too late. If you miss the 31 January deadline you will be fined for late submission of your tax return - and dont forget to pay any tax due. Passive investing has become increasingly popular over the past 10 years, thanks to the lower costs that it offers - and overall returns that often end up comparable to active investing. While fund managers will tell you that their expertise can help beat the market, on average they don't and the difficulty of spotting who will succeed in advance has compelled more investors to take the passive investing route of just tracking an index. But while index funds might be a great option if you're tracking a very broad global index, or a well-researched market where it's hard for managers to gain an edge, such as big UK or US company shares, there's a big question mark over their value in trickier places such as emerging markets. Investing in emerging markets through an index-linked fund might not be that low risk Despite those concerns, over the past two years, investors have increasingly sought exposure to countries including China, India and South America by buying passive funds that track an index such as the MSCI emerging markets index, which covers large and mid cap companies in 24 emerging markets. Figures published earlier this year showed exchange-traded funds tracking emerging market assets now represent almost a fifth of total emerging market fund assets - up from over a tenth just two years ago. There is good reason for this. If you'd invested 1,000 in the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF five years ago, it would be worth just shy of 1,400 today, thanks to a 38 per cent total return. That falls short of the top performing active fund, Hermes Global Emerging Markets, which has racked up a 85.7 per cent gain over five years, but it is enough to beat 33 of the 67 emerging markets funds with a five-year track record, according to FE Trustnet data. Investing part of your portfolio in these funds might be good for diversification but there is a downside: emerging markets are typically less regulated and can be volatile and unpredictable. In an index fund you are fully exposed to any market falls. An example of how this could hit is that if, on the other hand, you'd invested mid-2015 and sold out a year later, you'd have lost around a fifth of your money after the market dived 20 per cent. The sharp drop in the MSCI emerging markets index in 2016 was largely down to China, which dominates the index along with South Korea, and it highlights why investing in emerging markets through an index-linked fund might not be quite as low risk as it might at first appear. Over five years the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF is up 38%, but there was a big dip for investors in 2016 What makes emerging market trackers riskier? Indices can be dominated by the largest companies within them. For example, HSBC makes up 7.6 per cent of the UK's FTSE 100. A large number of companies in the emerging market index are Chinese-listed state-owned enterprises and internet businesses with complicated ownership structures that offer foreign minority shareholders little or no legal protection. This state control can sometimes lead to poor outcomes for shareholders. For example, there are several Chinese companies involved in the country's One Belt and One Road policy. This has ambitious infrastructure and economic aims, hoping to better connect China with other parts of Asia, Europe, East Africa, the Middle East and Russia. Such global ambition requires unbounded amounts of capital, with estimates ranging from $4trillion to $8trillion. But while building and infrastructure development are able to consume such colossal amounts of money, it's less certain that the state-owned firms investing in them will produce a positive return on equity for shareholders. The table and map above shows how the MSCI Emerging Markets index is weighted to different countries Is there evidence for this? The state-owned Zhongda China Petrol, for example, recently completed an oil refinery in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. When built it could only run at 6 per cent capacity because it could not source enough oil. Even privately-owned companies listed in China present problems for investors. Chinese internet firms Tencent and Alibaba have delivered huge growth in recent years, but in spite of having no official influence over these companies, the Chinese government has legislated in such a way that foreign investors have no legal right to the companies' underlying assets. What would a fund manager do to manage this risk? Finegan : I want to avoid investing alongside any crooks Glen Finegan, head of global emerging markets equities at Janus Henderson Investors, has warned that parking your money in an index fund in emerging markets can be dangerous. 'In the global equity space there are a lot of very high quality companies with long track records where you can have a high degree of confidence that in many cases governance structures are there to protect you,' he says. 'The emerging market is something different. Many companies exist simply for society's enrichment or purchase of national service, and when you look at the index it's full of these types of companies. 'These companies may have big market caps but there's not necessarily any evidence that they exist to create wealth for foreign shareholders,' warns Finegan. 'As someone who thinks firstly about capital preservation I want to avoid investing alongside any crooks who might be investing in some of these companies. So we start bottom up and build all our portfolios from a blank sheet of paper.' Finegan's fund - Janus Henderson Emerging Markets Equity and International Opportunities - limits its exposure to China to between 4 and 5 per cent. It yields 1.4 per cent and has ongoing charges of 0.95 per cent. Over five years it is up 35.5 per cent. It is possible to buy country-specific ETFs, such as those investing in India. But investors must be aware that putting even a relatively small amount of their portfolio in, can skew them heavily towards it compared to the global market Do any trackers balance these risks? Choosing an actively-managed fund that avoids mimicking the index is one way to limit your exposure to state-owned enterprises, but these funds are typically more expensive than trackers and some investors want low-cost options. A couple of simple and broad market cap weighted emerging market index funds are the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF and the HSBC ETFS Emerging Markets ETF, or for those who prefer tracker funds, the iShares Emerging Markets Equity Index fund. Richard Flax, chief investment officer at Moneyfarm, explains that there are passive funds that take account of the issues raised by Finegan. A tool to find ETFs Exchange traded funds follow a set index but are traded on the stock market like shares. The wider choice of ETFs compared to tracker funds allows people to invest around the world cheaply and also in indices that target certain elements, such as dividend-paying firms IG's ETF screener tool lets you look for funds - and check up on their charges 'For those who dont want a simple market-cap weighted ETF, there are passive alternatives such as those focused on specific regions or sectors, socially-responsible or high dividend paying companies,' he says. 'Political and governance risks in specific countries and sectors are usually more relevant for emerging markets investing than in the US or UK even for companies that may not be directly state-controlled. 'This argues for the benefits of diversified exposure, such as through a low-cost ETF.' If you're looking for a tracker fund that invests in emerging markets but doesn't simply track the MSCI index by market cap, there are funds available. For example, the UBS MSCI EM Socially Responsible ETF uses a screen for the companies it invests in based on specific values such as religious beliefs, moral standards or ethical views. It has an annual management fee of 0.53 per cent. The iShares EM dividend ETF meanwhile tracks an index of those companies with higher paying dividends in emerging markets and has an annual management fee of 0.65 per cent. The iShares EM small cap ETF provides exposures to small public companies in emerging markets and charges an annual management fee of 0.69 per cent. There are also whole host of country specific ETFs that you can invest in, although you need to be aware that many emerging markets companies only make up a small chunk of the global market. The more you shift away from that weighting, the more you expose yourself to their fortunes. (Learn more about this in What's in a global ETF?) So, for example, while you might consider that putting 10 per cent of your portfolio into India does not skew you too much towards its fortunes, this matches the entire allocation to developed and emerging Asia in the global market iShares MSCI ACWI ETF, which holds about 1.2 per cent of the fund in India itself. Costs on more specific ETFs and trackers can be higher. Five funds for emerging markets Darius McDermott, managing director of Fund Calibre, picks five funds he believes offer promising returns from emerging markets. We think that emerging markets are a good long-term investment. They are still reasonably fair value compared with their own history and, if you compare with developed markets - which are on the pricey side right now - they definitely look cheap. It's all relative. The North Korea situation is a worry for Asia (all of us) so the uncertainty of how that will pan out is likely to have a short-term impact on their stock markets. But if that is resolved successfully, South Korea is actually looking good as an investment opportunity, as corporate governance is improving and the government is actively looking for positive change. South East Asia - and namely ASEAN countries - is also looking better now the dollar has fallen slightly. Frontier countries that are moving towards being emerging (or have just made the grade) like Bangladesh and Pakistan could also do well as they have momentum behind them. We're long-term fans of India and that view has not changed. It has great demographics, an entrepreneurial society and, with Modi in power, some political stability and power to make the changes needed to infrastructure and red tape. Latin American doesn't look so good. Venezuela has had a bad time, as has Brazil on the back of a second impeachment. Charlemagne Magna Emerging Market Dividend Yield: 3.4 per cent Ongoing charges: 1.43 per cent This fund offers exposure to emerging market companies that pay higher-than-average dividends often in niche areas, which may be overlooked by less well-resourced teams. A hidden gem among other better known emerging markets funds, it benefits from a strong team, an intuitive investment approach (focused on finding the best companies, rather than predicting market or economic trends), and the backing of a company with many years of specialist experience. RWC Global Emerging Markets Yield: 0 per cent Ongoing charges: 1.21 per cent This is a relatively new fund, launched in January 2016. But the 16-strong team has been together for a long time. Led by John Malloy and James Johnstone, they joined en masse from Everest Capital, when the company announced that it was shutting six of its seven funds, leaving its highly respected emerging- and frontier-markets team looking for a home. We like this fund as it ventures into the frontier market space too and the portfolio therefore looks very different. MI Somerset Emerging Market Dividend Yield: 2.1 per cent Ongoing charges: 1.14 per cent This is an emerging markets equity income fund run by a team that has been together for 15 years, with a good track record. The fund predominantly invests in large companies, but still manages to have quite a different make-up to its benchmark. Hermes Global Emerging Markets Yield: 0 per cent Ongoing charges: 1.17 per cent Run by the charismatic Gary Greenberg, this is another great fund that is more macro driven than the others we have listed. It relies on the manager getting his calls right, but he has done this pretty consistently over the years. He has a good, clear process and looks at environmental and social considerations as well as economic ones. Henderson Global Emerging Market Opportunities Yield: 1.4 per cent Ongoing charges: 0.95 per cent This fund has been run by Glen Finegan since 2015. He joined from the First State Stewart Global Emerging Markets teams one of the most successful in the industry so his credentials speak for themselves. A key part of his process is preserving capital, which can be very important when it comes to emerging market investments. Stephen Marks believes French Connection is close to returning to profits Fashion retailer French Connection is 'very close' to returning to profitable trading, despite posting annual losses for the sixth consecutive year. The upbeat assessment from the fashion chain followed a reduction in annual pre-tax losses by nearly 50 per cent from 2.3 million from 5.3 million, the previous year. Shares surged by 26.11 per cent during morning trading, up 8.8p per share, in response to the annual trading figures. Chairman and chief executive Stephen Marks responding to the trading figures said: 'Our goal has been to return the group to profitability and I believe we are very close to achieving that aim, given the momentum that we are currently seeing within the business. The chairman and CEO added: 'While it is clear that the retail market in which we are operating in the UK is unlikely to improve in the near future, we have clear visibility on the benefits we will obtain from the ongoing portfolio rationalisation.' French Connection pulled the shutters down on 11 stores and concessions over the last financial year and said it would continue to axe unprofitable sites. The fashion company's goal is to have around 30 full-price stores by the end of next January. Retail like-for-like sales grew by 0.8% over the year to January 31; a marked slowdown on the 4.4% rise seen the previous year. Also, its operating losses were slashed to 600,000, down from 3.7 million the previous year. An 8.6% surge in wholesale revenues helped boost overall group sales, up 0.5% to 154 million. French Connection has pulled the shutters down on 11 stores during the last financial year Last year the company faced severe criticism came from investors, with activist investor Gatemore Capital Management calling for a break-up of the company. Marks, who owns a 41 per cent stake in the company, was also urged to give up his roles as chairman and chief executive. The group has 116 stores and concessions and a further 212 franchised outlets; down by 6.5% and 26% respectively over the past financial year. French Connection opened its first new store in years in Manchester last November as part of its strategy to open bricks and mortar sites in 'appropriate locations' that will 'trade profitably'. French Connection, which made a name for itself selling FCUK branded clothes, has been struggling to fend off competition from fast-fashion rivals such as ASOS Plc, Forever 21 and Inditex's Zara. MANZINI We dont want that man at the negotiation table. This is the statement that led to public sector associations seething with anger after government called off their meeting over allowances and 2016 salary review appeals. This was after the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) Secretary General, Sibusiso Lushaba, who resigned from the Ministry of Health, had joined the meeting which was held on Thursday at the Ministry of Public Service conference room. The meeting kicked off well but about an hour later, the SWADNU secretary general joined the union leaders at the round table and suddenly, the government negotiation team (GNT) raised a concern that there was a technicality that it did not understand with the nurses union constitution. Thereafter, the GNT asked the other unions; Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) and Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP) to excuse the meeting for some few minutes, so they could sort the technicality in a bilateral meeting with SWADNU leadership. During the bilateral meeting, the GNT said it would not negotiate civil servants issues with someone who was not employed by government. However, the nurses union argued that even though Lushaba had resigned from government, he was still an executive member of the association as he was elected by the members to represent them is such meetings. Furthermore, the union argued that in previous years, the union was led by nurses who were not employed by government but they negotiated on behalf of the members. They made an example of an ex-executive member of the union who was employed by the Swaziland National Health Institution (SNHI), by saying they negotiated with government on behalf of the members. MANZINI After suspecting that his young lover was cheating on him, a 55-year-old man is alleged to have torched her rented flat, almost reducing everything inside into ashes. The flat situated at Sicelwini belonged to a 24-year-old student of the Southern Africa Nazarene University (SANU), Nondumiso Shongwe. Shongwe is said to have been involved in a love relationship with the suspect, Solomon Tindlela Dlamini, a Swazi working in the South African mines. Dlamini had been wanted by the police for the arson offence and was arrested while alighting from a bus at Siphofaneni over the weekend. He is alleged to have sprinkled petrol inside his lovers house and later burnt it. Items including SANU uniforms, a refrigerator, wardrobe, double bed, DVD player and clothing valued at E32 000, were burnt during the arson attack. Information gathered in statements recorded in court revealed that the man arrived at the complainants rented flat carrying a two-litre container said to have been filled with a liquid suspected to be petrol. Neighbours are said to have watched in disbelief as he allegedly broke the flats front window and doused the interior of the flat with the flammable liquid and set it alight. When he was satisfied that the place was burning, he went to the washing line and pulled off clothing he suspected belonged to his lover, including uniforms which belonged to other SANU students and threw everything inside, which also went up in flames. While burning up the place, his clothing caught fire as well and he got burnt. LOBAMBA - Not until the Principal Secretary, Anthony Masilela, and his senior officers are suspended. This is the message that spoiled the day for Minister of Home Affairs Princess Tsandzile as Members of Parliament refused to debate her ministrys annual performance report yesterday. The minister had just finished reading her preamble when MP Titus Thwala stood up and moved a motion that his colleagues should not even bother debating the report as the minister had failed to act on a resolution that was taken by Parliament to the effect that Masilela and two other senior officers should be suspended while investigations were launched regarding corruption allegations at the ministry. The resolution was taken after a report by a Parliament Select Committee, which was chaired by Thwala, revealed that there was corruption at the ministry, including illegal issuance of passports to illegal immigrants. The allegations against Masilela and his co-accused are yet to be verified. The importance of debating a performance report is that it paves way for the passing of a budget for that particular ministry. In moving the motion, Thwala said he had expected the minister to include the issue in her preamble, something which did not happen. Parliament explained and ordered that the PS, as the controlling officer, and the chief immigration officer, should be suspended. If the minister had challenges in taking that action, she should have come back and made Parliament aware, said Thwala. He stated that he was aware that the minister might have resolved to use what was known as silent democracy but that it gave another impression of her actions. LOBAMBA Its definitely war. This is the ongoing fued between the Prime Minister, Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini and Nkwene Member of Parliament (MP) Sikhumbuzo Dlamini. Although not mentioning names, the MP clearly stated that editors and journalists from both Swazi TV and Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Services (SBIS) would be in trouble because their bulldog was also leaving office. In vernacular he said, Uyahamba naye lobhova wabo. This was during the annual budget performance debate of the Ministry of Information, Communication and Techonology by the Portfolio Committee, which is chaired by Mangcongco MP Patrick Motsa. Directing his questions to minister Dumsani Ndlangamandla, the Nkwene MP asked if both the national broadcasters had editors and if the latter were tools for certain individuals to badmouth them (MPs). He said he was shocked when he turned on the radio one day, only to find that he was the topic of discussion in the news. Alibuyi ephalamende lilunga lase Nkwene, alinanhlonipho, said MP Sikhumbuzo as he quoted what had been stated by the PM at a certain police function. This can be loosely translated to mean that the people should not vote MP Sikhumbuzo back into Parliament because he was disrespectful. The MP said instead of the people from Cabinet eating the meat they had been invited to feast on the function, they decided to make him a topic for the news. He said he once heard the PM inform the officers in the judiciary that utohamba lobhova wenu (your bulldog will go). This was during the time when the Chief Justice was Michael Ramodibedi, who was later fired. The MP said he had the same message for the editors and journalists that they would be left out in the cold once their handler left office. He wondered if it was editorially correct to allow an individual to destroy politicians by using the media. Fortunately, I was not elected in Mbabane nor through the radio and this person may not achieve whatever his agenda is against me, said the MP. Donald Trump Tuesday sacked his top diplomat Rex Tillerson and named current CIA chief Mike Pompeo to succeed him, ending a rocky tenure by the Texas oilman who had been sidelined on the world stage by the mercurial president. The outgoing secretary of state, who returned before dawn from a trip to Africa, did not speak to the president before his sacking was announced and was unaware of the reason for his sudden downfall, according to a top aide. A senior White House official said the president wanted to reshuffle his team with a view to launching talks with North Korea, following last week\s spectacular announcement of a meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un. Trump had scant words of praise for Tillerson, who had long been rumored to be about to be pushed out. "A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well," Trump said, thanking Tillerson "for his service." But addressing reporters before leaving on a trip to California, Trump spoke openly of his disagreements with the former Exxon chief including over the Iran nuclear deal as he explained his decision to replace him. "We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things," Trump said. "When you look at the Iran deal, I thought it was terrible, he thought it was okay. I wanted to either break it or do something, he felt a little differently. So we were not really thinking the same." In announcing Tillerson\s sacking earlier Tuesday, Trump lavished praise on Pompeo, a former US army officer and congressman who led the CIA for nearly 14 months, saying he would do a "fantastic job!" "He will continue our program of restoring America\s standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Trump added, calling him "the right person for the job at this critical juncture." Trump called for Pompeo to be swiftly confirmed in the role as his administration heads into the high-stakes talks. To succeed Pompeo, the US president nominated Gina Haspel, a controversial career intelligence officer, to head the Central Intelligence Agency the first woman tapped for the post. Haspel has been reported to have overseen a CIA "black site" in Thailand where Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded after the 9/11 attacks. \Every intention fires remaining\ Tillerson has had a rocky tenure as the top US diplomat. He was repeatedly forced to deny he had fallen out with Trump vowing to remain in the post despite a sensational report that he once dubbed the president a "moron." A respected figure in the oil business, the 65-year-old Texan\s tenure at the State Department drew scorn from Trump\s opponents, from former diplomats and from the Washington policy elite. During his time in the post, he was faced with an extraordinary array of foreign policy challenges, from North Korean nuclear threats to Russian subversion to attacks on US diplomats in Cuba. But his efforts were often overshadowed by Trump\s un-diplomatic style and his streams of taunting tweets stirring international tensions. Tillerson was thousands of miles away on a tour of African countries when Trump made the snap decision to meet Kim, and had suspended his schedule on grounds he was "unwell" before cutting short his trip. Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein, in a statement, made clear that Tillerson was caught off guard by his ouster. "The secretary had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues. He established and enjoyed relationships with his counterparts," Goldstein said. "The secretary will miss his colleagues at the Department of State and enjoyed working together with the Department of Defense in an uncommonly robust relationship," he added, in a nod to Tillerson\s close working relationship with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. "We wish Secretary-Designate Pompeo well," added Goldstein. SOURCE: AFP Blog: Double Opt-In Not Necessarily Required for GDPR Compliance As businesses prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation to go into effect in the European Union, theres much discussion on how to comply with GDPR. Businesses obviously want to prepare themselves in an effort to avoid non-compliance fines. But, they dont want to needlessly back themselves into a corner in doing that. That said, a recent blog by Paul MacKenzie of Ember Group will probably come as good news. It indicates that double opt-in may not be required for those operating in a business-to-business capacity. He comes to this conclusion based what he says in the Queens Counsel interpretation obtained by marketing automation outfit CommuniGater. Before we get to the details on that, however, lets define what we mean by double opt-in. Moosend explains that Double opt-in is an opt-in setting whereby an individual, upon signing up, receives an email with a verification link. To confirm that is was actually them who entered their email address to the signup box, the individuals need to click that link. Subsequently, the individual is usually notified that they have joined the online community/newsletter, etc. OK, now lets return our attentions to the Queens Counsel and MacKenzie double opt-in and marketing email assessment. MacKenzie says that some businesses are wondering if they can email data where theres no provable double opt-in statement and still comply with GDPR. And he suggests a look at Article 6(1) of the GDPR may offer some guidance on that. It says that you must be able to justify sending a marketing email using lawful processing conditions. It also talks about processing for the legitimate interests pursued by the data controller. This indicates that consent not the only basis, he points out. GDPR, which aims to to standardize data protection regulations across the EU, goes into effect May 25. As Adjust notes, GDPR also addresses: The right to be forgotten: users can now request to have their data deleted The need to provide explicit consent: businesses now have to ask users to collect, use and process data Mandatory data breach notifications: if a data leak occurs, authorities and users must be notified within 72 hours Privacy by design: data protection is a vital consideration throughout a project lifecycle A Data Protection Officer: Large enterprises are now required to employ someone dedicated to managing data protection Edited by Mandi Nowitz [March 13, 2018] Infobip Bolsters Its OMNI-Channel Marketing Technology With Viber in Bulgaria SOFIA, Bulgaria, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global cloud communications company, Infobip, is expanding its wide client base for commercial campaigns in Bulgaria with Viber. By using Infobip's OMNI solution, businesses can choose the optimal communication channels for specific types of message including SMS, number or chat app messages, email, voice, and in-app push messages. Any eCommerce or brick-and-mortar store can easily promote their offers to as many as 900 million users and prospective customers in 193 countries worldwide. One of Southeast Europe's leading retailers, MyMall, has used Viber to directly communicate with their targeted customers in Bulgaria, notifying their customers about upcoming sales, offers, doorbusters, and seasonal campaigns. "MyMall is always looking to reach customers in new, tailored ways. Disseminating an alert about an item on sale, or a code promotion on Viber straight to our target through OMNI-channel marketing is a very direct, impactful way of getting our message across. We have not only enhanced our brand awareness and customer engagement, but also acquired new, loyal customers," said Datsko Datsev Key Account Manager at MyMall. The Infobip portal offers a user-friendly web interface helping any business to easily oranize its messaging campaigns. The portal provides detailed, real-time campaign reports including message delivery confirmation allowing the company to effectively monitor the progress of the campaign. "The Bulgarian retail market is expanding, advancing and maturing. As more eCommerce companies enter the market, it becomes even more important to stand out with efficient messaging. Infobip's OMNI solution and Viber's prevailing presence in Bulgaria enable the most fruitful integration of technologies, helping all businesses out there," said Silvio Kutic, President and CEO at Infobip. "Viber is all about bringing people together through personal connections, common passions, and interests and Bulgaria is a key market for Viber," said Cristina Constandache, VP Global Partnerships at Viber. "Using Infobip's OMNI solution creates a frictionless experience for both consumers and partners, and one where we see significant results especially in the e-commerce space." About Infobip Founded over a decade ago by two young developers, Infobip grew into an international business with offices on six continents offering proprietary, in-house developed messaging platform with the capacity to reach over six billion mobile devices connected to over 800 telecoms networks. Infobip innovates at the intersection of Internet and telecoms technologies, creating new ways and opportunities for businesses and their end users to interact over mobile devices. The company serves and partners with leading mobile operators, OTTs, banks, social networks, tech companies and aggregators. http://www.infobip.com About Rakuten Viber At Rakuten Viber, we connect people. No matter who they are, or where they are from. Our global user base has access to a range of features like one-on-one chats, video calls, group messaging, and updates and discussions with their favorite brands and celebrities. We ensure our users have a secure and free environment to share their emotions. Join Viber today and enjoy the world's best communication experience. Contact: Tina Loncaric Global Public Relations Director Infobip +385-99-4699-343 tina.loncaric@infobip.com Viber media inquiries: media@viber.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Resilience Capital Partners Again Named a Top 50 Middle-Market Private Equity Firm Resilience Capital Partners today announced that it has been named one of the Top 50 Middle Market Private Equity Firms for the second year in a row, the latest in a series of honors the firm has garnered as it has successfully transformed companies in the U.S. and globally. Resilience also completed one of its most active years ever in 2017, acquiring or establishing controlling investments in six companies, including three new platforms, with investments in businesses that have substantial operations on three continents. "Ranking among the Top 50 Middle Market Private Equity Firms for the second consecutive year shows that industry observers recognize our accomplishments in transforming and growing companies, making them more competitive and generating value for investors," said Steven H. Rosen, co-CEO of Resilience Capital Partners. "I want to thank our team members here at Resilience and our partners in our portfolio companies, whose hard work is the foundation of our success, as well as our global limited partners." Resilience was named one of the 2018 Top 50 Middle Market Private Equity Firms by Bauer Rock Media Group, publisher of M&A Chicago, SBIC Weekly and Dealmaker South, and Grady Campbell Inc. Among other honors during the year, Healthcare Business News ranked Resilience's purchase of Bayer's Multi Vendor Service business as one of the top five acquisitions of 2017. The honors come after a dynamic 2017. "During 2017, we invested in industries as different as medical device repair, digital and print marketing and packaging and labeling. We also invested in companies with operations not only in the U.S. butalso the United Kingdom, Mexico, Singapore, China, Thailand and Indonesia," said Bassem A. Mansour, the co-CEO of the Cleveland-based firm. "The growing breadth of industries in which we participate, and the increased diversity of geographies in which our portfolio companies operate, positions us to succeed in any type of economy." All of Resilience's investments during 2017 were funded through Resilience Fund IV, a $350 million fund. The companies in which Resilience invested during 2017 included: Lux Global Label (https://luxgloballabel.com), one of the world's foremost producers of high-quality labeling and packaging solutions; Lux Global was formed from the acquisition of certain assets of National Label Ohio Basic Minerals (www.ohiobasic.com), a provider of industrial gravel and silica sand products, primarily for environmental and industrial end markets Innovatus Imaging (www.innovatusimaging.com), formed through the acquisition of Bayer's Multi Vendor Service to create a provider of third-party medical device services Wetsco, a third-party ultrasound probe repair provider with numerous proprietary repair techniques and an add-on acquisition that will be part of Innovatus Imaging MD MedTech, a designer and manufacturer of specialty ultrasound products for the OEM, third-party repair and research markets and an add-on acquisition that will be part of Innovatus Imaging Leycol Printers (www.leycol.com), a provider of high-end offset and lithographic printing services to the financial and commercial print market; as an add-on acquisition, Leycol merged with the U.K. operations of Resilience portfolio company Diversified Global Graphics Group (https://dg3.com) About Resilience Capital Partners Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Resilience invests in niche-oriented manufacturing, value-added distribution and business service companies with sustainable market positions and a clear path to cash flow improvement. Resilience targets platform businesses with $25 million to $250 million in revenues across a broad range of industries where it can improve a company's operations, competitive positioning and profitability. Resilience manages approximately $600 million for its global investor base that includes pension funds, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, funds of funds and family offices. For more information, please visit www.resiliencecapital.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313005840/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 12, 2018] Penta Security to Launch Secure Biometrics-Enabled Cryptocurrency Wallet SEOUL, South Korea, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Penta Security, a Korean security provider specializing in web, IoT, and data security solutions and services, has announced a new line of cryptocurrency hardware wallets with enhanced security by way of secure key lifecycle, encryption, and authentication. Closed beta testing is due to finish in June of this year. In the midst of the wave of companies releasing cryptocurrency wallets to jump in on the cryptocurrency hype, Penta Security sought to differentiate itself by focusing on a vulnerability the current cryptocurrency environment doesn't quite address: key management. The majority of current cryptocurrency wallets store the key within the wallet to digitally sign transactions. While "hot" wallets are known in the industry to be more vulnerable to attacks because the keys are utilized in a connected environment, even "cold" wallets, which are touted to be more secure for safekeeping assets offline, can still be vulnerable to key theft during transactions if proper security measures are not in place. Most cryptocurrency wallet users believe that a cryptocurrency wallet stores and secures their cryptocurrency. However, the wallets in actuality store eys that authenticate the identity of the user. The bulk of cryptocurrency hacking incidents occur because of the mismanagement of keys. Consequently, the ideal and more secure practice would be one where the key would not have to leave the wallet when initiating a transaction and access to the device itself is protected by authentication. The new cryptocurrency wallets will address these needs and be available in two physical form factors, a card type and a device type. The device type will feature a display and be a stand-alone model embedded with all security features for a secure cryptocurrency environment. It will be capable of carrying out the entire cryptocurrency process from key generation to transaction. There will be several variations of the device in order to meet the differing demands of the users. The card type will feature advanced secure key storage and offer multiple authentication features such as one-time-password (OTP) to act as a two-factor authentication (2FA) device. It will work in conjunction with the company's wallet management mobile application to maintain authentication security throughout the key management and transaction process. Both card and device types will be compatible with the majority of cryptocurrencies on the market and have capabilities to support both Bluetooth and Near Field Communications (NFC) technologies. Syncing with smartphones and utilizing PIN authentication, as well as biometric authentication, the wallet will provide enhanced security to defend against cyber-physical threats. Chief Strategy Officer of Penta Security Systems, DS Kim stated, "The current representative symbol of the blockchain is cryptocurrency, but its potential vulnerabilities are dampening the future value of this technology." He continued regarding the new launch, "Penta Security's cryptocurrency wallet is a comprehensive solution designed by a company that has had decades of security experience and research. It's not only designed for cryptocurrency transactions, but also to meet current and future blockchain protocol security standards." About Penta Security Penta Security Systems Inc. is a leader in web, IoT, and data security solutions and services. With 20 years of IT security expertise in powering secured connections, Penta Security is the top cyber security vendor in Asia, as recognized by Frost & Sullivan, and APAC market share leader in the WAF industry. Driving innovations across encryption, authentication, and signature-free web application firewall detection technology, Penta Security's whole-system approach to security enables resilience in an era of hyper web integration and connectivity. For more information on Penta Security, visit www.pentasecurity.com. For partnership inquiries, email info@pentasecurity.com. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180312/2076357-1 SOURCE Penta Security Systems Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 12, 2018] AMP Capital Announces Entry into a Definitive Agreement to Purchase Everstream Everstream Solutions LLC ("Everstream"), a super-regional network service provider bringing fiber-based Ethernet, internet and data center solutions to businesses throughout the Midwest, announced today that its current investors-M/C Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, and its limited partners including investors advised by the Private Equity Group of J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners-have entered into a definitive agreement to sell Everstream to AMP Capital. Terms were not disclosed. "Our team is very thankful to M/C for the opportunity to partner with them and deliver an outstanding result to their investors," said Brett Lindsey, President and Chief Executive Officer, Everstream. M/C initially acquired Everstream from a non-profit in 2015 and has since supported the business in its accelerated organic growth strategy as well as its acquisitions of two major Michigan-based fiber network operators. "We are excited to join forces with AMP Capital," Lindsey continued. "With their support, Everstream looks forward to continued positive growth through acquisitions, greenfield network builds and organic growth in our existing markets." AMP Capital is a global investment manager headquartered in Australia with a growing international presence, including in North America. In the U.S., AMP Capital has offices in New York, Chicago and Irvine, California. Its U.S. infrastructure equity investments include Chicago's Millennium Garages, the largest underground parking system in the U.S., and ITS ConGlobal, a leading shipping and intermodal terminal operator. "Everstream will be our platform for the consolidation of telecom assets in North America and we are excited about the opportunity to invest in the U.S. telecom sector and grow the business," said Dylan Foo, Head of Americas Infrastructure Equity, AMP Capital. "We continually look for quality investments on behalf of our clients. Our focus remains on the middle market, which is where we see the greatest value and opportunity," Foo continued. "Communications infrastructure has become an essential service in the modern world, including Fiber, Wireless and Data Centers. AMP Capital has a strong global pedigree in this target sector, and we are pleased to secure our first North American Fiber asset." The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018 once necessary regulatory approvals are obtained. Everstream plans to utilize the investment from AMP Capial for acquisitions and to fund organic network growth and development. "M/C has been investing in the fiber industry for over three decades and has worked with Brett on three transactions in the last 15 years," said Gillis Cashman, Managing Partner, M/C Partners, and member of the Everstream Board of Directors. "We couldn't be happier with the outcome of this investment and for the Everstream team." Evercore and MVP Capital served as lead financial advisers to Everstream and M/C Partners in connection with the transaction. Choate, Hall & Stewart and Thompson Hine served as legal counsel to Everstream and M/C Partners. Goldman Sachs served as financial advisor to AMP Capital and White & Case served as legal counsel. About Everstream Everstream is a super-regional network service provider bringing fiber-based Ethernet, internet and data center solutions to businesses throughout the Midwest. We are the Business Fiber Network. We focus on delivering best-in-class network solutions while providing an unrivaled commitment to customer service. With more than 10,000 route miles and comprehensive data center connectivity at 100 Gigabit speed, we provide the fastest network in our service areas. Everstream's network allows businesses to operate a converged IP network capable of delivering robust voice, video, and data services at speeds from 10 Mbps to 100 Gbps. For more information, visit everstream.net. About AMP Capital AMP Capital is a specialist global investment manager with A$187.7 billion in funds under management as of December 31, 2017, and more than 250 investment professionals. AMP Capital has a heritage and strength in real estate and infrastructure, and specialist expertise in fixed income, equities and multi-asset solutions. It is a subsidiary of AMP Limited, which was established in 1849, and is one of Australia's largest retail and corporate pension providers. For more information, visit ampcapital.com.au. About M/C Partners M/C Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively on the communications, media and information technology sectors. The firm has invested over $2.2 billion of capital into over 130 companies in those sectors. Companies M/C has backed include Cavalier Telephone, Ensono, Everstream, Fusepoint, ICG Communications, Involta, Legendary Pictures, Lightower, MetroPCS, NuVox, Thrive and Zayo Group (News - Alert) . The firm has strong institutional backing from the nation's leading pension funds and endowments as well as a long track record of success. For more information, visit mcpartners.com. About J.P. Morgan Asset Management J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with assets under management of $1.7 trillion (as of December 31, 2017), is a global leader in investment management. J.P. Morgan Asset Management's clients include institutions, retail investors and high net worth individuals in every major market throughout the world. J.P. Morgan Asset Management offers global investment management in equities, fixed income, real estate, hedge funds, private equity and liquidity. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), the parent company of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, is a leading global asset management firm with assets of approximately $2.5 trillion (as of December 31, 2017) and operations worldwide. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at jpmorganchase.com. J.P. Morgan Asset Management is the marketing name for the asset management businesses of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates worldwide. About Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners Alternative Investment Partners Private Markets, an investment team within Morgan Stanley Investment Management, was established in 2000 and specializes in delivering unique and innovative private market solutions to a global client base. AIP Private Markets' built-for-purpose investment team draws on its deep understanding of private markets strategies formed over decades of investment experience and seeks to apply this expertise and insight to bring thoughtful, opportunistic and innovative solutions to clients. Morgan Stanley Investment Management, together with its investment advisory affiliates, has 608 investment professionals around the world and $482 billion in assets under management or supervision as of December 31, 2017. Morgan Stanley Investment Management strives to provide outstanding long-term investment performance, service and a comprehensive suite of investment management solutions to a diverse client base, which includes governments, institutions, corporations and individuals worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180312005997/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 12, 2018] Bovie Medical Corporation Announces Appointment of Craig A. Swandal to Board of Directors Bovie Medical Corporation (NYSEMKT:BVX) (the "Company"), a maker of medical devices and supplies and the developer of J-Plasma, a patented surgical product, today announced the appointment of Craig A. Swandal to the Company's Board of Directors, effective March 9, 2018. Mr. Swandal will also serve as a member of the Company's Audit Committee. "Mr. Swandal has a strong background in global manufacturing strategy and execution, as well as a track record in leading and advising companies in the medical technology sector," said Andrew Makrides, Chairman of the Company's Board of Directors. "On behalf of my fellow directors, I am pleased to welcome Craig Swandal to our Board and we look forward to leveraging his insights and expertise." Mr. Swandal joins Bovie Medical's Board with over 30 years of experience at public and privately-held medical technology and electronics manufacturing companies. He began his career in 1981 at Unisys (News - Alert) Corporation, a manufacturer of main frame computer systems, where he held a variety of manufacturing positions of increasing responsibility. In 1995 he joined Silent Knight, a manufacturer of industrial fire and security systems, as a Manufacturing Manager and was promoted to Vice President of Operations. In 2001, Mr. Swandal joined Gyrus, a manufacturer of surgical devices, where he was responsible for the company's manufacturing operations as Director of Operations and later Vice President of Operations. During his tenure, he improved manufacturing efficiencies by leading his manufacturing group through the implementation of lean and Six Sigma techniques. Following Gyrus's acquisition of ACMI in 2005, Mr. Swandal was promoted to Senior Vice President and was responsible for the global operations of the combined company, which included 12 facilities across 8 countries. He developed and executed Gyrus ACMI's strategy to consolidate its manufacturing, distribution, customer service and service and repair operations and was a member of the leadership team that successfully sold the company to Olympus Corporation for $2.2 billion in 2008. About Bovie Medical Corporation: Bovie Medical Corporation is a leading maker of medical devices and supplies as well as the developer of J-Plasma, a patented plasma-based surgical product for cutting, coagulation and ablation of soft tissue. J-Plasma utilizes a helium ionization process to produce a stable, focused beam of plasma that provides surgeons with greater precision, minimal invasiveness and an absence of conductive currents through the patient during surgery. The new J-Plasma handpieces with Cool-Coag technology deliver the precision of helium plasma energy, the power of traditional monopolar coagulation and the efficiency of plasma beam coagulation - enabling thin-layer ablation and dissection and fast coagulation with a single instrument, minimizing instrument exchange and allowing a surgeon to focus on their patient and their procedures. With Cool-Coag technology, the new J-Plasma handpieces can deliver three distinctly different energy modalities - further increasing the utility and versatility of the J-Plasma system. Bovie Medical Corporation is also a leader in the manufacture of a range of electrosurgical products and technologies, marketed through both private labels and the Company's own well-respected brands (Bovie, IDS and DERM) to distributors worldwide. The Company also leverages its expertise through original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreements with other medical device manufacturers. For further information about the Company's current and new products, please refer to the Investor Relations section of Bovie Medical Corporation at www.boviemed.com. Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements: Certain matters discussed in this release and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Federal securities laws. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Many of these factors are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and that could impact the Company and the statements contained in this release can be found in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including the Company's Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and subsequent Form 10-Q filings. For forward-looking statements in this release, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180312006019/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] FL INVESTOR ALERT: Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Announces Investigation on Behalf of Foot Locker, Inc. Investors Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces an investigation on behalf of Foot Locker, Inc. investors ("Foot Locker " or the "Company") (NYSE: FL) concerning the Company and its officers' possible violations of federal securities laws. On August 18, 2017, Foot Locker announced poor second quarter 2017 financial results, including a 6% decline in quarterly same-store sales year-over-year. In addition, Foot Locker disclosed that it would close approximately 130 stores, which was up from 100 it had previously stated it would close. Finally, on the Q2 2017 confrence call with investors and analysts, Foot Locker revealed that it expected weaker sales for the remainder of fiscal year 2017. On this news, shares of Foot Locker fell nearly 28%, to close $34.38 on August 18, 2017, thereby injuring investors. If you purchased Foot Locker securities, 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 Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020, by telephone at 215-638-4847, toll-free at 888-638-4847, or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com, or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com. 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/20180312006283/en/ [March 12, 2018] National Transportation Leader Discusses Autonomous Vehicle Technology at Congressional Hearing JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- President and CEO of Elite Transportation Services, Dane Grey, testified Monday at the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee Field Hearing, discussing transportation technology trends, the expansion of autonomous vehicle technology and access to investment capital for small businesses. Elite Transportation Services recently announced its expansion into the autonomous vehicle industry by becoming the exclusive provider of operational and technological support for Olli, an autonomous self-driving shuttle developed and owned by Local Motors of Arizona. "We recently announced the expansion into the autonomous vehicle industry by becoming the exclusive provider of operational support for Olli, an autonomous self-driving shuttle developed and owned by Local Motors of Arizona," Grey said during his prepared remarks. "Local Motors developed Olli in 2016 as a self-driving shuttle designed for sites using low-speed mass transit, such as airports, campuses, hospitals and municipalities. The shuttles, which will be operated by Elite Transportation Services, have a maximum speed of 25 mph and include speech recognition capabilities that allow the vehicles to talk to passengers. "From airports to university campuses, the future of autonomous vehicles will transform the way we think about mass transportation. Our company is preparing to offer expertise in transportation support and technology, making it easie for organizations and local communities to own and operate their own fleets of autonomous shuttles." U.S. Representative Al Lawson (FL-5) and U.S. Representative James Comer (KY-1) co-hosted the House Small Business Committee hearing on Monday at the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce in Jacksonville, Florida. The hearing, "Disparities in Access to Capital: What the Federal Government Is Doing to Increase Support for Minority-Owned Firms," allowed witnesses to discuss their business opportunities and challenges in today's economy while also highlighting their success stories. About Elite Transportation Services Elite Parking Services of America and its subsidiary, Elite Transportation Services, specializes in transportation and parking management services for municipalities, downtown urban markets, airports and hospitals across the United States. Founded in 2010 by CEO and President Dane Grey, the Elite companies are known for their focus on innovation in parking and transportation services, promoting a partnership model that focuses on the customer. To learn more, visit eliteparkingofamerica.com. Media Contact Chad McLeod 813-438-6657 chad@mcleodcommunications.com Related Images olli-by-local-motors-all-rights.jpg Olli by Local Motors. All rights reserved. u-s-house-small-business-committee.jpg U.S. House Small Business Committee Field Hearing elite-parking-services-of-america.jpg Elite Parking Services of America Logo dane-grey-headshot.jpg Dane Grey Headshot View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-transportation-leader-discusses-autonomous-vehicle-technology-at-congressional-hearing-300612712.html SOURCE Elite Transportation Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 12, 2018] Laipac to Host LooK Watch Media Conference on March 15, 2018 RICHMOND HILL, Ontario, March 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Laipac Technology Inc., a leading company in the development of Internet of Things (IoT) products and solutions, this week announced they will be hosting a LooK Watch Media Conference at their office headquarters located at 20 Mural Street, Unit 5, in Richmond Hill on Thursday, March 15th. LooK Watch Color Selections Designed to look elegant and stylish like a classic mechanical watch, the LooK Watch features a large round touch screen, one of the highest resolutions available today, AMOLED Display, silver or 24k Gold Plating, elegant watch faces, and six color combinations. Durable in composition, the LooK Watch is also cold forged in 316L stainless steel, using sapphire glass and a protective bezel. The watch is dust proof, water proof, and carries one of the longest lasting batteries available. We are inviting Toronto media personnel to come to our office his week and demo the LooK Watch for themselves, said Diego Lai, Co-founder and CEO of Laipac Technology Inc. Providing an intimate look at our revolutionary watch product, we are excited to share its unique features, attributes, and hand-made designs with everyone in attendance. Embodying a high quality of digitization, the LooK Watch displays the most apps of any non-iOS watch for users, with a high-quality speaker and incomparable memory storage of 16GB. Laipaic recently wrapped up successful show in MWC Barcelona 2018, showcasing the watch to all interested brand advocates at the event. As a fitness, safety, communication, and all around resourceful smart watch today, we are passionate about sharing our innovation with all those who are interested. We welcome Toronto Medias to visit us, said Lai. About Laipac Technology Inc. Laipac Technology Inc. is a leading company in the development of Internet of Things (IoT) products and solutions, also providing excellent IoT platforms on LocationNow.com. Laipac Technology Inc. was founded in 1999 by two distinguished Canadian entrepreneurs, Maria C. Pacini and Diego Lai, who continuously strive for product improvements and new ideas with the purpose of bringing the best-innovated products to the market. Laipac Technology Inc. is currently exporting products and solutions to over 100 countries and has received numerous awards and nominations that recognize the excellent business achievements and visions for the future. For more information, or to sign up on their email list, visit: http://www.laipac.com/. Find Laipac Technology on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Contact: Diego Lai Laipac Technology Inc. diego.lai@laipac.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/01cffa77-b102-4748-9c96-644936adc180 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Augmate and Salam Technologies Partner to Improve the Hajj and Umrah Experience with Blockchain Technology DUBAI and NEW YORK CITY, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wearable device management company Augmate today announced a partnership with Salam Technologies to improve the use of interconnected devices and blockchain technology for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims. Building on the success of the Salam mobile app and Augmates device management platform, the partners will collectively create integrated services that extend the use of each platform and offer these same services to other providers in the ecosystem. The use of Augmates unified device management platform will be extended to support existing wearable and mobile devices in the near term, and expand to additional sensors and IoT devices in the future. The Salam mobile app will seamlessly integrate into Augmate Connects device management interface to facilitate group and individual messaging, voice activation features, additional personal information control, payment services and more. This will accelerate the development cycle of Augmate Connects consumer platform, which will be available later this year. A blockchain and distributed ledger (DLT) version will follow in 2019 that extends the content management, interconnectivity and interoperability of devices. The Augmate partnership will add significant value to our commitment to making the complete process of Hajj and Umrah more safe, informed and connected, said Ali Dabaja, Founder and CEO of Salam Technologies. Much like the experience of visitors to Walt Disney World and Universal Parks, having wearable device that is connected to many other sensors and IoT devices creates opportunities for interacting, paying for goods and services and many other uses while making the experience safer and more efficient for all stakeholders. We recognize the technology requirements needed to support the projected 35-45 million visitors a year under the Kingdoms 2030 Plan, and wearable devices are a key component in achieving those goals. We look forward to adding our support for bringing this vision to reality, said Pete Wassell, CEO of Augmate. Augmate and Salam Technologies will be at the Blockchain Innovation and Investment Summit on March 19th in Dubai to further discuss opportunities with additional partners, media and other ecosystem participants. Augmate was originally founded in 2014 in New York City as a B2B enterprise company specializing in wearable devices, and was recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor in 2017. Investors include Tim Draper, William Hickey, UPS Ventures, Simon Property Group, Siemens Venture Capital, Rothenberg Ventures, and many others. For more information on Augmate and Augmate Connect, please visit www.augmate.io ABOUT AUGMATE CONNECT Augmate Connect is the first IoT device management platform using distributed ledger technology. The Augmate Connect Platform will be activated and utilized using tokens called MATEs (Machine Access Token Exchange). For more information, please visit: https://www.augmate.io/connect/ ABOUT SALAM TECHNOLOGIES Salam Technologies is the global leader in Hajj and Umrah mobile technology and guidance. The Salam mobile app has ranked in the top 10 in Apples Travel category in 59 countries and is available in 9 languages on both Android and iOS. For more information or to download visit: http://www.hajjnet.com/download MEDIA CONTACT: Augmate@transform.pr [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] 100 Indian CIOs to be Honoured at Trescon's Big CIO Show and Awards BANGALORE, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Industrial revolution 4.0 is at the top agenda Following the grand success of the Sixth edition, the prestigious Big CIO Show and Awards is set to return for a historic Seventh edition that will aim to catapult the importance of the IT sector in businesses of today and the revolutions in the technology industry. India's biggest CIO show will bring together next generation of IT leaders along with International tech experts on 14th - 15th March 2018 at The Leela Mumbai. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653609/Trescon_Logo.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653601/Big_CIO_Show_March_2018.jpg ) The show is in its seventh edition and is a premium, 'invite-only' event that will host thought leaders and industry spearheads under one roof. The event will highlight some of the path-breaking innovations by CIOs from diverse industries and honour them in a grand 'Awards Ceremony'. It is not only honouring the CIOs who have factored this change, but also provide a business-to-business platform for technology providers to showcase their innovations. The key discussions in the event will circle around technologies like Natural Language Processing (NLP), Robotics, Software Defined Everything (SDx), Data Security and Privacy, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reaity, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing. The event will also host panel discussions, debates, presentations and keynote addresses by some of the foremost names in the industry today over the course of two days. Some of the notable speakers include Danielle Di-Masi, Innovator, International Keynote Speaker, Media Commentator, The Interactions Lab PTY LTD; Dr. Satyam Priyadarshy, Chief Data Scientist, Halliburton, Senior Advisory Board Member, Trescon; Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, 5F World; Sanjay Prasad, CIO, TATA Power; Puneesh Lamba, Group CIO, CK Birla Group; Vipin Luthra, Associate Director of PepsiCo India; Viral Gandhi, Group CIO for Piramal Enterprises Ltd; Vipul Anand, Group CIO of Jindal Steel; amongst the many others attending the event. The event will also feature some of the best technology companies and emerging start-ups showcasing their innovations in future technologies. The show will bring some of the top IT leaders in the country under one roof to brainstorm and evoke discussions on future technologies that fall under industrial revolution 4.0 or more commonly known as IR4.0. Some of the technology providers presenting their solutions at the show include Aryaka, DigitalOcean, Avaya, Ameyo, Algorisys Technologies, Zendesk, Thales e-Security, WinMagic Data Security, Tufin, Team Computers, Embee, Locuz Enterprise Solutions Ltd, Symphony Summit IT Solutions Pvt Ltd, WebWerks Data Centres, Finesse IT Labs Private Limited, Just Dispose, AGL Digital & Flock. Media partners of the show include Free Press Journal, Dalal Street Investment Journal, CXO Today, Support Biz and Channel Times. Mohammed Saleem, Chief Executive Officer of Trescon said in an interview, "Big CIO Show has been our flagship Indian event during recent years - all thanks to the IT industry that has been making huge strides over the recent years. With the Seventh edition, we plan to initiate a dialogue on the concepts and ideologies that goes behind these future technologies and their feasibility factor amongst the top CIOs in India. The show will also feature the 'Big CIO 100 Awards', where one hundred of the smartest IT individuals and thought leaders in the country will be honoured and felicitated. We look forward to a very successful event." About Trescon: Trescon is a global business events and consulting firm that provides wide range of business services to a diversified client base that includes corporations, governments and individuals. Trescon is specialised in producing highly focused B2B events that connect businesses with opportunities through conferences, road shows, expos, demand generation, investor connect and consulting services. For more info, visit: Big CIO Show https://www.bigcioshow.com/ Media Contact : Krunal Makwana marketing@tresconglobal.com +91-955-888-8817 PR & MarCom Manager Trescon [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Ondot Systems Brings Mobile Card Controls to Asia Silicon Valley fintech company expands into Asia, enabling banks to empower consumers with payment cards control on mobile SINGAPORE, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Millions of users across 3,000 banks and credit unions globally work with Ondot Systems to manage their payment cards and spending. Today, Ondot has announced the availability of its Mobile Card Services solution in Singapore and across Asia, enabling banks in the region to give customers the control and security they seek over their credit and debit cards. Ondot's Mobile Card Services is a white-label solution that resides in the card issuer's data center, creating an interplay between the user, payment, and data in real-time. As a result, consumers can use mobile applications to control when, where, and how their payment cards are used; and card issuers can anticipate and create personalized cardholder journeys. Using Ondot's solution, banks typically experience a benefit of increased card usage by 23%, reduced fraud costs by 25%, and lower false declines by 16% -- achieving a return on investment in under a year. "We use our own personal experiences and needs as cardholders to drive the product innovation," said Rachna Ahlawat, Executive Vice President of Ondot Systems. "I travel a lot -- I want a solution that knows where I am so my card works around me, prompts me to customize my preferences, detects when I am back home, and helps me categorize transactions -- a personal assistant that anticipates my actions and solves a need. In addition, if I get a transaction alert for a purchase I did not attempt, I want to initiate a dispute instantly. This action usually shuts off the card inthe bank systems; but I don't want to be left without a payment card to use till I reach home. With Ondot's safe mode card controls, we can enable this capability -- converting an unpleasant event into a positive experience for the cardholder by combining security and convenience." Ondot product suite for consumers includes: Card Control: Preferences for card by location, merchant categories, transaction types, spend limits, and on/off switch -- for increased confidence in card usage. Preferences for card by location, merchant categories, transaction types, spend limits, and on/off switch -- for increased confidence in card usage. Card Connect: Guided self-service for all card management, such as transaction alerts, travel events, two-way fraud alerting, dispute initiation, reporting lost/stolen card, PIN reset, card activation -- for instant action on-the-go. Guided self-service for all card management, such as transaction alerts, travel events, two-way fraud alerting, dispute initiation, reporting lost/stolen card, PIN reset, card activation -- for instant action on-the-go. Card Assist: Contextual advice and messages based on location, preferences, and purchase history -- for security, engagement, and commerce. Contextual advice and messages based on location, preferences, and purchase history -- for security, engagement, and commerce. Fone Pay: Instant digital card issuance, provisioning card into phone wallets, virtual card number and dynamic CVV -- for secure online purchases while reducing payment friction. Ondot's administrative product suite for card issuers includes: Data Insight: Enhanced merchant and transaction details combining crowd-sourced data enrichment and user activity -- provides cleansed merchant information to improve monthly statements, fraud strategies, chargeback and merchant-level controls. Enhanced merchant and transaction details combining crowd-sourced data enrichment and user activity -- provides cleansed merchant information to improve monthly statements, fraud strategies, chargeback and merchant-level controls. Consumer Services Platform: Micro-services platform for rapid development and deployment of real-time consumer services on legacy systems. Ondot's consumer product suite integration into Mobile and Online Banking is available via API, SDK, HTML5, as well as bank-branded companion application or stand-alone application. "The payment landscape is evolving rapidly in emerging markets like ASEAN. Banks can provide a holistic experience to consumers and deliver new products and services over legacy systems in a cost-effective and timely manner using new micro-service platforms. Partners like Ondot enable banks to stay as innovation leaders while bringing in the best of fintech into banking," said Ian Guy Gillard, CIO of Bangkok Bank, the largest commercial bank in Thailand and one of the largest banks in Southeast Asia. Ondot is exhibiting and demonstrating its innovation at the inaugural Money20/20 Asia 2018. For more information, visit Ondot's booth at K32, at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre. About Ondot Systems Ondot enables card issuers to deliver premium card products by putting the consumer in control. Our team brings together experts from payments, analytics, mobile, and security industries who share a collective vision of transforming how consumers engage with their card issuers. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Ondot serves millions of end users over 3000 bank and credit union customers world over. To learn how Ondot is shaping the future of payments, visit www.ondotsystems.com. For media enquiries, please contact: Eugenia Siah / Elizabeth Joseph Email: ondot@ricecomms.com Mobile: +65-3157-5677 / +65-3157-5674 SOURCE Ondot Systems [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Brands and Not-for-Profits Reach New Heights in Customer Engagement with Personalized Video KITCHENER, Ontario, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In todays increasingly digital world, organizations are turning to rich online content to better engage their audience, build brand affinity and increase customer satisfaction. But with so much competing noise online, marketing and customer experience teams are looking for new ways to stand out and connect with their customers in a more personal way. Organizations including Amnesty International, Axonify, Quorum Software and YMCA are embracing personalized video powered by Vidyard to do just that: to create memorable customer experiences that double engagement, increase satisfaction and inspire customer action. Modern brands are embracing video as a way to tell better stories and connect with customers in more authentic ways. Personalized video, with its ability to bring the viewer right into the story, is now helping B2B, B2C and not-for-profit organizations truly stand out and connect on a more human level. "Video resonates with your customers and personalized video gives your brand a human touch at scale, writes Nick Barber, Analyst at Forrester Research, in a recent blog post1. A report that he co-wrote notes that customers dont like reading the mounds of information, so savvy companies use video to cut through the clutter and deliver a great experience.2 Not-for-Profits Boost Donor Engagement with Personalized Video Donors are the lifeblood of most not-for-profit organizations. Maintaining relationships and brand affinity with this community can be critical to the success of fundraising programs. Amnesty International Canada and the YMCA turned to personalized video to reconnect with their donors, to keep their brands top-of-mind and to showcase exactly how their contributions were having an impact. In late 2017, Amnesty International Canada wanted to send a year-end Thank You message to 25,000 monthly donors to share their appreciation for their ongoing support. They produced an engaging personalized video that included each donors own name throughout the story to really hit home how their contributions were impacting change. Thanks to their creative execution, this campaign saw an incredible 83.1% click-through rate with more than 75% of those who viewed the video watching all the way to the end. "All the feedback weve received validates that the video made them feel glad to be part of our work, that its a great reminder of how theyre helping, and that they feel proud to be part of it. We'll definitely be using personalized videos in future campaigns of this nature, says Erin Jones, Monthly Giving Coordinator of Amnesty International Canada. The YMCA partnered with Media One Creative, a leading producer of personalized video content, to create a heartfelt video that spread their message of support in a meaningful and humanized way. Donors received a powerful video that expressed the gratitude of theirbeneficiaries while inspiring them with examples of how their donations were having an impact on local communities. The campaign was a huge success, achieving a 76.4% click-through rate from their donors, well above industry norms, with more than 80% of viewers watching all the way to the end of the video. Making Business Personal with a Memorable Holiday Greeting What better time of year to spread some cheer than the year-end holiday season? Axonify and Quorum Software, two fast-growing B2B technology companies, recently turned to personalized video to stand out during the holiday season with a message their customers wouldnt soon forget. Axonify, a company that is changing the way organizations think about and deliver corporate learning, recently changed their own way of thinking about the holiday season. Rather than sending out the same old greeting card or email, they shared a personalized holiday video to celebrate their customers learning results from the previous year and to wish each of them a happy holiday. Known as Operation Red, the campaign garnered nearly double their average engagement rate for customer communications and the types of responses that most marketers dream of. Customers went out of their way to thank us for the personalized videos, even those at the executive level, with many claiming this was the best holiday message theyd ever received. This campaign was an astounding success for our team, says Carrie Cote, Senior Manager, Customer Marketing at Axonify. Quorum Software was looking for a new way to share a holiday greeting message that would come off as truly authentic and engaging rather than self-promotional. They knocked it out of the park with a creative personalized video that thanked their customers for their support while making them feel more connected to the real people they do business with every day. The success of this video was off the charts! Weve never seen this type of engagement before, says Aisha Ghuman, Director of Marketing and Field Enablement at Quorum. Our CTO dressed up as Santa and did a short office tour to introduce customers to our developers, sales reps and marketing team, and to showcase our company culture. It was a huge hit. Vidyard also shared an entertaining personalized video to surprise and delight their customers during the recent holiday season. Generating more than 10,000 views and responses like This is hands down one of my favorite emails ever and This might be the greatest present I receive all year, you guys are awesome, it was a great testament to the power of storytelling and personalization. Not only did customers respond with genuine appreciation, they used a re-gifting option to self-generate thousands of personalized versions to share with their own friends, family, colleagues and customers. For more details on the success of the organizations above and to see their personalized videos in action, check out https://www.vidyard.com/blog/wow-customers-with-personalized-video. To learn about other recent successes with personalized video for lead generation, event promotion, email marketing, student recruitment and more, refer to the resources below: Personalized Video Helps Businesses Drive Event Attendance, Recruit Students, Increase Open Rates by 1000%: https://www.vidyard.com/press-releases/personalized-video-helps-businesses-increase-email-open-rates-1000-percent/ Businesses See 500% Lift in Email Conversion with Personalized Video: https://www.vidyard.com/press-releases/businesses-see-500-lift-in-email-conversion-with-personalized-video-from-vidyard/ More Information: Try Personalized Video for Yourself: https://www.vidyard.com/platform/personalized-video/ Get Vidyards Personalized Video eBook: https://www.vidyard.com/resources/how-to-generate-leads-with-personalized-video/ About Vidyard Vidyard is the video platform for business that helps organizations drive more revenue through the use of online video. Going beyond video hosting and management, Vidyard helps businesses drive greater engagement in their video content, track the viewing activities of each individual viewer, and turn those views into action. Global leaders such as Honeywell, Lenovo, LinkedIn, Citibank and Sharp rely on Vidyard to power their video content strategies and turn viewers into customers. Media Contact: Sandy Pell, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, Vidyard press@vidyard.com _____________________ 1 Personalized Video Isnt A Gimmick Anymore, It Boosts Customer Service Experiences, March 2018 Forrester blog post 2 Personalized Video Creates Better Customer Service Experiences, March 2018 Forrester report A video accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3e4124a8-e557-4ad4-b9ae-bf78b0b977a0 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Boston's First Blockchain Community Launches Free Blockchain Training Boston's blockchain innovation hub GENESIS BLOCK, in collaboration with Bitcoin Market Journal and WeWork Boston, announced today the historic launch of Blockchain Lunch and Learn, a free educational series designed to explain the blockchain in "plain English" to local businesses, government officials, and the public. The first training session will be held Wednesday, March 14, with new sessions to follow every other week. "Our goal is to make blockchain user-friendly," explained John Hargrave, publisher of Bitcoin Market Journal, a website for blockchain investors. "Our training courses explain blockchain technology with simple examples that everyone can understand. You shouldn't need a Ph.D. to understand how to invest in bitcoin." The first training session will be taught by Hargrave and Michael Sullivan, CEO of blockchain real estate company Real Estate Chain. "Our training room holds 25 people," said Sullivan. "Over 250 people signed up. There is such incredible demand for learning about blockchain that we literally can't find enough space to hold everyone." To satisfy the demand, additional training sessions will be offered at: Blockchain West: March 26 in San Francisco Blockchain East: October 14 i New York Blockchain in Healthcare: August 14 in Washington, D.C. World Crypto Con: October 31 in Las Vegas https://www.bitcoinmarketjournal.com/training/ About Bitcoin Market Journal From our offices in the heart of Boston's historic district, our team of research analysts and journalists uncover the most promising new companies in the world of New Finance. We explain bitcoin and altcoins to investors in plain English, recommending the best and filtering out the rest. We are independent, transparent, and free from paid advertising. Follow us @BitcoinMktJrnl on Twitter (News - Alert) , or visit BitcoinMarketJournal.com to learn more. About Genesis Block Genesis Block is Boston's premiere blockchain coworking space, with over a dozen blockchain companies, entrepreneurs, and investors including blockchain consultancy Etheralabs, blockchain lab Level K, blockchain real estate firm Real Estate Chain, blockchain community organizers CoCreateX, and blockchain marketing firm Media Shower. We hold free meetups to educate the public on the use of blockchain in government, education, and investing. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313005531/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] ZINFI Hosts Asia 2018 Best Practice Symposium for Channel Management PLEASANTON, Calif., March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ZINFI Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of Unified Channel Management (UCM) solutions, today announced it will be hosting the Asia 2018 Best Practice Channel Symposium on March 16, 2018 in Singapore. ZINFI hosts channel symposium featuring a line-up of channel management experts to present best practices and share case studies in Singapore, on March 16, 2018. The symposium will offer several interactive presentations from channel management and marketing thought-leaders, representing some of the most innovative and successful Fortune 100 technology companies in the world. Speakers will share best practices, discuss real-world use cases ad success stories, and offer specific solutions to common channel pain points. The event, which includes a networking breakfast and lunch, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Equinox at Swissotel, The Stamford. Were really excited about the roster of speakers weve put together for this event, said Sugata Sanyal, CEO and founder of ZINFI. These are some of the most experienced and knowledgeable channel management professionals in the world. Weve also built in plenty of opportunities for participants to mingle, network and chat. It should be a great learning experience for everyone. The event will end with a Q&A session and wrap-up. For registration, please click here. For more information about ZINFIs Unified Channel Management Platform, please visit our website at www.zinfi.com. You can also follow ZINFI Technologies on LinkedIn and at the ZINFI Channel Marketing Best Practices blog. About ZINFI Technologies ZINFI Technologies, Inc. the leader in Unified Channel Management (UCM) innovation, enables vendors and their channel partners to achieve profitable growth predictably and rapidly on a worldwide level. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, USA and founded by channel veterans with extensive global channel management experience, we at ZINFI see an immense opportunity to build high-performing sales channels by deploying an easy-to-use, comprehensive and innovative state-of-the-art SaaS Unified Channel Management automation platform that streamlines and manages the entire partner lifecycle through three core state-of-the-art SaaS applicationspartner relationship management, channel marketing management and channel sales management. In 26 countries, these three core UCM SaaS applications are locally supported by ZINFIs global marketing services team members. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ffcc3ac6-1e6c-4ab6-839c-b02c4f9da7dc Media contact:? Melissa McNeil pr@zinfitech.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Protalix BioTherapeutics Announces Positive Results from Phase II Clinical Trial of OPRX-106 for the Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis Clinical Responses Observed in 67% of Patients and Clinical Remission Observed in 28% of Patients No Anti-Drug Antibodies Detected CARMIEL, Israel, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American:PLX) (TASE:PLX), announced today, positive results from the Companys phase II clinical trial of OPRX-106 for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. OPRX-106 is a plant cell-expressed recombinant human tumor necrosis factor receptor II fused to an IgG1 Fc domain (TNFRII-Fc), in development for oral administration. When administered orally and while passing through the digestive tract, the plant cells function as a natural delivery vehicle, having the unique attribute of a cellulose cell wall which makes them resistant to degradation compared to proteins produced via mammalian cell expression. The phase II clinical trial is a randomized, open label, 2-arm study of OPRX-106. A total of 24 patients with active mild to moderate ulcerative colitis were enrolled in the study. Patients were randomized to receive 2 mg or 8 mg of OPRX-106, administered orally, once daily, for 8 weeks. The average base line Mayo score was 7.1 for the 18 patients who completed the study with 89% of those patients having a Mayo score of between 6 and 9, which meets the criteria of moderate disease activity. The key efficacy endpoints of the study were met: 67% of patients experienced a clinical response; and 28% of patients experienced a clinical remission. Clinical response at week 8 is defined as a decrease in the Mayo score of at least 3 points and either a decrease in the sub-score for rectal bleeding of at least 1 point from baseline, or rectal bleeding sub-score of 0 or 1. Clinical remission at week 8 is defined as clinically symptom free, a Mayo score = 2, with no individual sub-score exceeding 1 point after treatment. In addition, other key efficacy endpoints were also achieved: 72% of patients showed an improvement in rectal bleeding scores; 72% of patients demonstrated an improvement in fecal calprotectin; and 61% of patients showed improved Geboes score (a histopathological scoring for the assessment of disease activity in ulcerative colitis). The positive trend in efficacy was consistent in substantially all patients. This trend is demonstrated by 89% of the patients having showed an improvement in Mayo score, with an average decrease in Mayo score of 45%, or 3 points, or from 7.1 at baseline to 4.1, at week 8. In addition, the vast majority of patients also showed an improvement in at least one of the other efficacy parameters. No anti-drug antibodies were detected. OPRX-106 was safe and well tolerated with only mild to moderate adverse events, which were trnsient in nature. Headaches were the most common adverse event reported. We are very excited by these results, commented Moshe Manor, Protalixs President and Chief Executive Officer. They demonstrate efficacy and a lack of immunogenicity together with a favorable safety profile, which could potentially overcome one of the most challenging drawbacks of current ulcerative colitis therapies administered via injection and infusion. The data is very encouraging, suggesting that OPRX-106 could potentially address a large unmet medical need in the treatment of ulcerative colitis. OPRX-106 is delivered orally and is biologically active in the gut without triggering the formation of anti-drug antibodies. OPRX-106 has the potential to address the partial loss of response seen in anti-TNF alpha treatment, which is driven by the high presence of neutralizing antibodies, said Professor Yaron Ilan, Chairman of the Department of Medicine, and an expert in Gastroenterology, at The Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem. In addition, by being delivered orally, OPRX-106 could potentially avoid certain side effects, such as malignancies and opportunistic infections, which currently appear in the black box warning of the prescribing information for commercially-available anti-TNF alpha biologics. The Company intends to release full results at a medical conference later in the year. About Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. Protalix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of recombinant therapeutic proteins expressed through its proprietary plant cell-based expression system, ProCellEx. Protalixs unique expression system presents a proprietary method for developing recombinant proteins in a cost-effective, industrial-scale manner. Protalixs first product manufactured by ProCellEx, taliglucerase alfa, was approved for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2012 and, subsequently, by the regulatory authorities of other countries. Protalix has licensed to Pfizer Inc. the worldwide development and commercialization rights for taliglucerase alfa, excluding Brazil, where Protalix retains full rights. Protalixs development pipeline includes the following product candidates: pegunigalsidase alfa, a modified version of the recombinant human alpha-GAL-A protein for the treatment of Fabry disease; OPRX-106, an orally-delivered anti-inflammatory treatment; alidornase alfa for the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis; and others. Protalix has entered into an ex-United States partnership with Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. for the development and commercialization of pegunigalsidase alfa. Protalix maintains full rights to pegunigalsidase alfa in the United States. Forward-Looking Statements To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, all such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The terms anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, plan and intend and other words or phrases of similar import are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual future experience and results to differ materially from the statements made. These statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations as to such future outcomes. Drug discovery and development involve a high degree of risk. Factors that might cause material differences include, among others: failure or delay in the commencement or completion of our preclinical and clinical trials which may be caused by several factors, including: slower than expected rates of patient recruitment; unforeseen safety issues; determination of dosing issues; lack of effectiveness during clinical trials; inability to monitor patients adequately during or after treatment; inability or unwillingness of medical investigators and institutional review boards to follow our clinical protocols; and lack of sufficient funding to finance clinical trials; the risk that the results of the clinical trials of our product candidates will not support our claims of superiority, safety or efficacy, that our product candidates will not have the desired effects or will be associated with undesirable side effects or other unexpected characteristics; risks related to the amount and sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents; risks related to the amount of our future revenues, operations and expenditures; risks relating to our ability to make scheduled payments of the principal of, to pay interest on or to refinance our outstanding notes or any other indebtedness; our dependence on performance by third party providers of services and supplies, including without limitation, clinical trial services; the inherent risks and uncertainties in developing drug platforms and products of the type we are developing; the impact of development of competing therapies and/or technologies by other companies and institutions; potential product liability risks, and risks of securing adequate levels of product liability and other necessary insurance coverage; and other factors described in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The statements in this press release are valid only as of the date hereof and we disclaim any obligation to update this information, except as may be required by law. Investor Contact Marcy Nanus Solebury Trout Group 646-378-2927 mnanus@troutgroup.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Seattle Business and Civic Leaders Gather to Inspire Girls, Discuss Why Math Matters DreamBox Learning will convene a panel of leading women in Seattle to encourage girls in developing their love for math. Panelists of "Math Matters: Unlocking the Future for Girls" will discuss how they use math in their daily lives in a variety of professions. The event aims to instill a sense of confidence around math in girls at a young age. At a time in history when women empowerment is top of mind, a strong foundation in math can pave the way for success in many careers. Girls and their parents and learning guardians from the greater Seattle area are invited to attend in person while audiences from across the world are invited to tune in on Facebook (News - Alert) Live. WHAT: DreamBox Learning is hosting "Math Matters: Unlocking the Future for Girls," a panel to encourage girls to use mathematics and show them how a strong foundation in math has helped accomplished women succeed. Leading women from Seattle-area organizations will discuss how a strong foundation in math can pave the way for success in many careers. The panel will also be broadcast via Facebook Live. WHEN: Tuesday, March 13, 2018 from 4:30-6:00 p.m. PT WHERE: Pacific Science Center, Laser Dome 200 2nd Ave N. Seattle, WA 98109 Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/DreamboxLearn/ WHO: Veronica Alicea-Galvan, Judge, King County Diana Birkett Rakow, Vice President, External Relations, Alaska Airlines Dawn Trudeau, Co-Owner, Storm Foundation Chairwoman, Seattle Storm Sherilyn Anderson, Chief Financial Officer, glassybaby Jessie Woolley-Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of DreamBox Learning About DreamBox Learning DreamBox Learning, founded in 2006 in Bellevue, Washington, is the only K-8 digital math program powered by students, built by and for educators, and independently proven to positively impact student achievement. DreamBox dynamically adapts and differentiates in real time based not only on students' answers, but also on how they solve problems. Along with actionable reporting and tools that empower differentiation for all learners, DreamBox gives teachers content-specific professional development and provides administrators with insights about how all students are progressing. The company's pioneering platform has won more than 40 top education and technology industry awards and is in use in all 50 states and throughout Canada. DreamBox is available for PC and iPad. For more information, visit http://www.dreambox.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313005144/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Alliance Data Ranks Among BenchmarkPortal's Top Contact Centers And Receives The "Center of Excellence" Certification For An Industry-leading 13th Time COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance Data's card services business, a provider of market-leading private label, co-brand, and business card programs, has received BenchmarkPortal's "Center of Excellence" certification for the 13th time http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-certification/call-center-certification, a record for the financial services/credit category, demonstrating Alliance Data's commitment to unsurpassed customer care for its brand partners and their cardmembers. "With more than 6,400 associates in our eight U.S.-based customer care centers who serve as an extension of our partners' brands through every interaction, Alliance Data takes enormous pride in the exceptional quality of service that we deliver to our cardmembers," said Sallie Komitor, chief services officer for Alliance Data's card services business. "These achievements, which stand out in the financial services and credit industry, are the result of focused training, innovative tools, and genuine compassion, and they demonstrate our commitment to creating positive customer experiences that foster a deeper relationship between the customer and the brand." BenchmarkPortal's "Center of Excellence" certification is presented to the top 10 percent of all customer care centers based on quality, cost, efficiency, effectiveness, and overall performance. This information is gathered from the world's largest database of objective and quantitative data and is then analyzed by researchers at BenchmarkPortal. BenchmarkPortal's Top Contact Centers Award, which is recognized as the premier contact center ranking, measures call centers onactual performance metrics of efficiency and effectiveness against the world's largest contact center database. These results, based on BenchmarkPortal's methodology, which monitors 41 unique metrics indicative of overall customer care center performance, demonstrate the importance Alliance Data places on a great customer experience. By continually investing in its associates and focusing on creating an environment of collaboration with its brand partners, Alliance Data continues to improve metrics and excel in key areas, including first call resolution, customer satisfaction, and the speed at which calls are answered. KEY RESULTS: High caller satisfaction: Customers calling into Alliance Data customer care centers experience a resolution with one call 3% more often than the industry average. Customers calling into Alliance Data customer care centers experience a resolution with one call 3% more often than the industry average. Best-in-class customer experience: Customers express a 7% higher level of satisfaction when calling into an Alliance Data customer care center and calls are answered 33% faster. "Alliance Data's contact center operation is among the best of its size in the industry. This award was granted on the basis of objective, metrics-driven performance. Alliance Data stood tall against its competitors according to the world's largest database of contact center metrics. This is not easy to do, and we congratulate them on their accomplishment," said Bruce Belfiore, chief executive officer of BenchmarkPortal. "Ranking in the Top Contact Centers Contest attests to the fact that Alliance Data's management and employees have successfully balanced efficiency and effectiveness in their operations." BenchmarkPortal began in 1995 and is an internationally recognized leader in the contact center industry, providing benchmarking, certification, training, consulting and industry reports, and maintains the world's largest call center metrics database. About Alliance Data's card services business Based in Columbus, Ohio, Alliance Data's card services business develops market-leading private label, co-brand, and business credit card programs for many of the world's most recognizable brands. Through our branded credit programs, we help build more profitable relationships between our partners and their cardmembers, and drive lasting loyalty. Using the industry's most comprehensive and predictive data set, advanced analytics, and broad-reaching capabilities, Alliance Data's card services business has been helping partners increase sales and provide greater value to their cardmembers since 1986. We are proud to be part of the Alliance Data enterprise (NYSE: ADS), an S&P 500 company headquartered in Plano, Texas. To learn more, visit KnowMoreSellMore.com, follow us on Twitter @Know_SellMore, and connect with us on LinkedIn at Alliance Data card services. About BenchmarkPortal BenchmarkPortal's activities began in 1995, and it is now a global leader in the contact center industry, providing benchmarking, certification, training, consulting and research. The BenchmarkPortal team of professionals has gained international recognition for its innovative approach to best practices for contact centers. BenchmarkPortal hosts the world's largest database of contact center metrics, which is constantly being refreshed with new data. BenchmarkPortal's mission is to provide contact center managers with the tools and information that will help them optimize their efficiency and effectiveness in their customer communications. For more information, please call 1-800-214-8929 or visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com. About "Center of Excellence" Certification Contact centers and their managers who wish to implement best practices and obtain world-class performance in their industry have a unique opportunity to certify their call centers. BenchmarkPortal's rigorous certification process has the advantage of referencing all performance goals to their best practice database of thousands of contact centers. Please follow the link to discover what the steps to certification are and how they will improve your center's performance. www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-certification. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alliance-data-ranks-among-benchmarkportals-top-contact-centers-and-receives-the-center-of-excellence-certification-for-an-industry-leading-13th-time-300612590.html SOURCE Alliance Data [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] EQUIIS and Just In Time Group Announce Partnership to Bring Secure Enterprise Communications to Sri Lanka ZURICH, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- EQUIIS Technologies Switzerland AG, a leader in secure mobile communications for the enterprise, is delighted to announce its strategic partnership with Just In Time Group (JIT), a wholly owned Sri Lankan flagship ICT systems and solutions company. JIT is a leading ICT Systems and Solutions Integrator and has been a strategic front-runner championing the concept of 'Integrated Solutions' in Sri Lanka's ICT sector. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653728/EQUIIS_Just_in_Time_Group.jpg ) Following on from EQUIIS' recent partnership with Mobility MEA and BlackBerry, this alliance with JIT once again reinforces the importance of secure communications and EQUIIS' position as market leader. With the JIT Group's extensive knowledge of targeting the Financial, Telecommunications, Government and Commercial sectors, this new partnership will allow EQUIIS to further develop relationships in new regions with a globally recognised partner. "EQUIIS is continuing to expand its reach with best of breed service providers and our new partnership with Just In Time Group is an important strategic milestone in this region. We are excited to introduce EQUIIS nto Sri Lanka with the assistance of JIT, enabling them to cater to the many security challenges within the region," said Derek Roga, CEO at EQUIIS Technologies Switzerland AG. "We have a strong pipeline and are very much looking forward to developing more opportunities in the near future which act as the starting point for a very successful year at EQUIIS." "EQUIIS is a very welcome addition to JIT. They bring with them a great understanding of technology on secure mobile communication. This partnership will strengthen our team further, and better enable us to provide cutting edge technology solutions to our customers. We are fortunate and pleased to have such a dynamic technology partner, such as EQUIIS, partner with us," said Piumika Ranasinghe - Head of Sales at JIT. To find out more about the EQUIIS and Just In Time Group Partnership, or for a free trial of the EQUIIS Secure Collaboration solution, contact our sales team on contact@equiis.com . About EQUIIS EQUIIS Technologies Switzerland AG was founded by a group of mobile and encryption entrepreneurs and pioneers with a shared history working with some of the world's largest enterprises and telecommunication operators. We share a vision of bringing to market a cohesive, purpose built end to end secure enterprise communications platform with proven encryption technologies. EQUIIS is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, for more information visit http://www.equiis.com. About Just In Time Group JIT is a veteran in the local ICT arena with a history spanning 21 years as a leading ICT Systems and Solutions Integrator to the country. JIT was recently listed in the latest edition of the APAC CIO Outlook magazine's Top 25 Govt. and Public Sector Technology Providers 2017. JIT was the only Sri Lankan company featured and recognised in the magazine's annual listing of the Top 25 Government and Public Sector Technology Providers for 2017. JIT's key strengths are focused on systems integration, software solutions, network and infrastructure, hardware, mobility, outsourcing IT professionals, professional services, information security services, maintenance and support services, etc. For more information visit http://www.jithpl.com. SOURCE EQUIIS [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] NSS Labs Initiates Group Test Coverage of the Endpoint Detection and Response Market AUSTIN, Texas, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NSS Labs, Inc., a global leader and trusted source for independent, fact-based cybersecurity guidance, today announced that it is expanding on its strong foundation of point-in-time testing and continuous security validation with the introduction of the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Group Test. As part of todays announcement, the company is also issuing a call for industry engagement for both enterprises and EDR vendors to help shape and evolve its upcoming EDR group test and accompanying methodology. EDR products provide enhanced detection, response, and forensic capabilities, but they do not provide the automated blocking capabilities offered by advanced endpoint protection (AEP) products. EDR products detect known threats in real time and for unknown threats, they enable effective incident response based on correlated actions, intelligence, or analytics. Their continuous monitoring and analysis capabilities allow them to cross-correlate data within an environment and assist in post-incident remediation. EDR products offer comprehensive end-to-end visibility into threats, allowing security professionals to discover, investigate, and respond to previously unidentified attacks across an enterprise. EDR products offer forensic insights that can accelerate incident response and address data gaps that often exist in endpoint protection technologies. For this reason, they focus less on how security controls were bypassed and more on a threats behavior and identification of potential data loss. The EDR market is evolving quickly as vendors work to secure endpoints against an equally fast-moving threat landscape. Industry analysts predict that the EDR market will grow to $1.5 billion by 2020 with a CAGR of 45.3%.1 According to an NSS Labs study, 93.6% of US enterprises currently deploy endpoint security products; of those, 18.4% currently deploy stand-alone EDR products. Enterprises are increasingly seeking endpoint security tools that focus on identifying adversaries objectives, surfacing their tactics, techniques, and procedures, and ultimately containing or remediating adversaries, said Jason Brvenik, Chief Technology Officer at NSS Labs. We believe that our EDR group test will provide valuable insights regarding the overall effectiveness and capabilities of the EDR products in the market today. We encourage and invite enterprises an vendors to collaborate with us regarding the use cases for EDR products and our test methodology to help highlight the strengths and differentiation within the market. NSS Labs has a long history in testing enterprise-class security products. NSS Labs rigorous, independent group tests offer independent analysis of the top security technologies used today by Global 2000 companies. They provide the industrys most comprehensive review of security effectiveness, performance, and total cost of ownership, which enterprises use to inform their decision-making. Enterprises rely on NSS Labs group tests for fact-based, empirical data which they can use to evolve their security architectures. Within the last 12 months, NSS Labs has released group test results for several categories of mature and evolving cybersecurity products. To learn more about our group tests, visit the NSS Labs website. Enterprises that wish to provide feedback regarding NSS Labs upcoming EDR Group Test and its associated test methodology can send feedback to enterprise_relations@nsslabs.com. Vendors can send feedback to vendor_relations@nsslabs.com. Additional Resources: Learn more about NSS Labs Security Product Testing Learn more about NSS Labs Test Policies Learn more about NSS Labs CAWS Continuous Security Validation Platform Follow NSS Labs on Twitter Follow NSS Labs on LinkedIn Browse the NSS Labs research library 1. Gartner Morphing EDR Market Grows to 1.5 Billion in 2020, March 2017 About NSS Labs, Inc. NSS Labs, Inc. is recognized globally as the most trusted source for independent, fact-based cybersecurity guidance. Our mission is to advance transparency and accountability within the cybersecurity industry. We empower enterprises by providing them with timely, relevant information on which to base their decisions. Our unmatched foundation in security testing, along with our extensive research and global threat analysis capabilities, provide the basis for our CAWS Continuous Security Validation Platform. CAWS measures the ongoing effectiveness of security controls, providing a real-time score card to help business leaders substantiate their security investments. Businesses can also leverage the threat data delivered by CAWS to strengthen their cyber risk posture and mitigate threats to their operating systems and applications. CISOs, Chief Security Architects, SOC and Threat Analysts, and information security professionals from many of the world's largest and most demanding enterprises rely on trusted insights from NSS Labs. For more information, visit www.nsslabs.com. Contact: Tom Resau W2 Communications Phone: +1 703-877-8103 tom@w2comm.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Reputation.com Introduces First Social Media Platform Optimized for Multi-location Brands Social Suite breaks up customer engagement silos, unifying social media management, online reviews and customer surveys in a single platform REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reputation.com, the leading Online Reputation Management (ORM) platform, today launched the Reputation.com Social Suite, the only social media management solution designed specifically for large, multi-location enterprises that integrates the entire span of customer engagement on the web, from online reviews and customer surveys to social listening and community management. Large enterprises struggle to meaningfully engage with customers in local communities across social media channels. Further, social media is typically isolated from customer survey and online review management applications. For the first time, Reputation.coms Social Suite provides a fully-integrated solution to capture customer feedback across all channels on the web, to help enterprises respond to pressing problems and act effectively before issues spiral into crisis. Social Suite enables businesses to: Listen and Respond: By monitoring more than 80 million websites as well as social activity across various social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+), Social Suite enables enterprises to easily capture feedback, respond in real-time and positively engage with social communities. By monitoring more than 80 million websites as well as social activity across various social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+), Social Suite enables enterprises to easily capture feedback, respond in real-time and positively engage with social communities. Collaborate: Headquarter and local teams can collaborate on publishing with simple workflows to ensure brand compliance and fast approvals, and package content into local, regional or interest-based campaigns. Headquarter and local teams can collaborate on publishing with simple workflows to ensure brand compliance and fast approvals, and package content into local, regional or interest-based campaigns. Publish: Enterprises can maximize the impact of their social content by publishing automatically at predefined times. Businesses can post locally engaging content via Reputation.coms frontline-friendly mobile app. Enterprises can maximize the impact of their social content by publishing automatically at predefined times. Businesses can post locally engaging content via Reputation.coms frontline-friendly mobile app. Analyze and Report: The solution provides actionable campaign insights by tracking engagement and reach, identifying the best-performing posts for boosting as paid posts. The solution provides actionable campaign insights by tracking engagement and reach, identifying the best-performing posts for boosting as paid posts. Improve Experience: Enterprises are better able to identify recurring operational issues that hamper customer satisfaction, and make operational improvements to improve experience and drive recurring business. The challenge with existing social media tools is that theyre not built for enterprises. They cant scale for many locations, and there is often a limited workflow for review and approvals, said Pascal Bensoussan, Chief Product Officer at Reputation.com. Reputation.coms new Social Suite provides a comprehensive and scalable solution tailor-made to meet local and centralized requirements. And its the only solution that integrates social media, customer surveys and review management into a single platform, giving enterprises a way to build and sustain a great reputation online and accelerate growth. To learn more, please visit https://www.reputation.com/solutions/social-suite/ About Reputation.com Reputation.com, Inc., based in Silicon Valley, pioneered Online Reputation Management (ORM) technology for the enterprise market in 2006. With its SaaS platform, businesses across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific gain actionable insights that help them make operational improvements, improve online reputation and drive revenue. Reputation.com technology has managed tens of millions of consumer reviews and interactions across hundreds of thousands of online points of presence for global companies spanning 77 industry verticals, including healthcare, retail, automotive, restaurants and others. Reputation.com is a World Economic Forum Global Growth Company and is funded by the same top-tier venture capital firms that backed Google, Facebook, Cisco and Microsoft. To learn more, visit www.reputation.com MEDIA CONTACT Katrina Cameron (619) 808-7078 Reputation@10fold.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Cloudflare Workers Opens Edge Computing to Everyone SAN FRANCISCO, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cloudflare, the leading Internet performance and security company, today announced the general availability of Cloudflare Workers, a new way for developers to deploy and execute their code directly at the edge of Cloudflares global network. Prior to Cloudflare Workers, there were two main places where developers could deploy code: front-end code running on an end users device, or back-end code running in a central data center. Both have their drawbacks. Code running on an end users device is difficult to update and is limited by power and bandwidth. Code running in a central data center can have substantial network latency and be subject to outages. Cloudflare Workers gives developers a third place to deploy their code close to their customers at the edge of Cloudflares ever-expanding global network bringing the power and flexibility of a cloud data center, and the redundancy of a massively distributed system, within milliseconds of virtually every Internet user. Prior to today, the only way to write code that ran at the edge of Cloudflares network was to be a Cloudflare employee. Cloudflare Workers opens the scale of our global network to any developer, explained Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. By bridging the front-end and back-end with a third place to develop code, were excited Cloudflare Workers will empower a new class of applications that were previously impossible. I cant wait to see what developers build. The benefits of Cloudflare Workers include: Programmable: Developers can deploy custom JavaScript code at the edge to intelligently respond to users on any browser or API client. Developers can deploy custom JavaScript code at the edge to intelligently respond to users on any browser or API client. Scalable: Cloudflare Workers runs across Cloudflares 127+ data centers and dynamically scales to meet the demands of any load. Cloudflare Workers runs across Cloudflares 127+ data centers and dynamically scales to meet the demands of any load. Fast: Cloudflares global network is within milliseconds of virtually every Internet user, allowing Cloudflare Workers to support latency-sensitive applications. Cloudflares global network is within milliseconds of virtually every Internet user, allowing Cloudflare Workers to support latency-sensitive applications. Resilient: A globally-distributed, serverless architecture ensures that Cloudflare Workers is not hamstrung by any single point of failure. A globally-distributed, serverless architecture ensures that Cloudflare Workers is not hamstrung by any single point of failure. Unconstrained: Support for complex computing tasks without worrying about end users bandwidth or battery burden. Support for complex computing tasks without worrying about end users bandwidth or battery burden. Affordable: Cloudflare Workers is priced at 50 per 1 million tasks, making its pricing easy to understand, globally consistent, predictable, andless expensive than centralized alternatives. Cloudflare Workers is priced at 50 per 1 million tasks, making its pricing easy to understand, globally consistent, predictable, andless expensive than centralized alternatives. Portable: Powered by JavaScript, the Internets most popular programming language, Cloudflare Workers supports the same code that many developers have already used for their front- and back-end applications. Powered by JavaScript, the Internets most popular programming language, Cloudflare Workers supports the same code that many developers have already used for their front- and back-end applications. Updatable: Developers can push updates to Cloudflare Workers and within seconds know their code has been deployed globally without having to wait for end users to update their apps or centralized cloud platforms that can take half an hour or more to deploy code. Developers can push updates to Cloudflare Workers and within seconds know their code has been deployed globally without having to wait for end users to update their apps or centralized cloud platforms that can take half an hour or more to deploy code. Backward Compatible: Legacy static configuration languages like Varnish Configuration Language (VCL) or Edge Side Includes (ESI) can be automatically converted to dynamic Cloudflare Workers. announced the Cloudflare Workers beta in September. Since then, customers in the beta have run billions of edge computing tasks using Cloudflare Workers. Cloudflare Workers saves us a great deal of time, said John Thompson, Senior System Administrator at MaxMind. Managing bot traffic without Workers would consume valuable development and server resources that are better spent elsewhere. At Postmates, customer trust is the most important thing, said Aabhas Sharma, Infrastructure Lead at Postmates. We needed a way to do a high volume of redirects without dedicating additional internal resources. Ultimately, Cloudflare Workers gave us a simpler way to build flexibility and fine-grained control into our systems at the edge for a more reliable and secure process. "Moving away from VCL and adopting Cloudflare Workers will allow us to do some creative routing that will let us deliver JavaScript to npm's millions of users even faster than we do now," said CJ Silverio, CTO of npm, Inc. "We will be building our next generation of services on Cloudflare's platform and we get to do it in JavaScript!" The uses cases for Cloudflare Workers are emerging across a variety of verticals: An adtech beta customer is using Workers to run real-time tests to determine which advertisement versions yield the best conversions. They have benefitted from higher conversions for their customers and increased revenue as a company, all while bringing previously high-priced ad optimization capabilities to a broader market. Another customer in media and publishing uses Workers to redirect language-specific readers to the German version of their site, providing a more personalized experience and an opportunity to build an optimized advertising base. An eCommerce customer uses Workers to identify the type of device users are connecting from so that they can optimally deliver images. This results in a better user experience and ultimately more purchases. A gaming company is now using Workers to perform authentication and redirects to their back-end infrastructure. Workers has transformed their operational and capex expenditures by eliminating additional server hardware that hosts NGINX, saving countless hours of engineering time. To learn more about Cloudflare Workers, please check out the resources below. Cloudflare Workers Product Page Cloudflare Workers Blog About Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc. (www.cloudflare.com / @cloudflare) is on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the worlds largest networks that powers more than 10 trillion requests per month, which is nearly 10 percent of all Internet requests for more than 2.5 billion people worldwide. Cloudflare protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare have all web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with each new site added. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer, named the Most Innovative Network & Internet Technology Company for two years running by the Wall Street Journal, and ranked among the world's 50 most innovative companies by Fast Company. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Cloudflare has offices in Austin, TX, Champaign, IL, New York, NY, Washington, DC, London, and Singapore. Contact: Daniella Vallurupalli Communications daniella@cloudflare.com press@cloudflare.com 650-483-4463 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Predictive Technology Group Announces Presentations of Clinical Research Relating to the Role of Genetics in Endometriosis at the Society for Reproductive Investigation Meeting SALT LAKE CITY, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Predictive Technology Group, Inc. (OTCPINK:PRED), a life-sciences technology company, today announces new clinical data relating to the role of genetics in the development of endometriosis. These data were featured in three presentations by its development partner Juneau Biosciences, LLC at the Society for Reproductive Investigations (SRI) 65th Annual Scientific Meeting. The meeting was held March 5-10, 2018 in San Diego. Predictive Technology Groups wholly owned subsidiary Predictive Therapeutics is developing novel therapeutics and proprietary gene-based non-invasive diagnostics for endometriosis. Predictive Technology Group, Inc. (OTCPINK: PRED), a life-sciences technology company, announces new clinical data relating to the role of genetics in the development of endometriosis. These data were featured in three presentations by its development partner Juneau Biosciences, LLC at the Society for Reproductive Investigations (SRI) 65th Annual Scientific Meeting. The meeting was held March 5-10, 2018 in San Diego, www.predictivetechnologygroup.com. Highlights of the presentations are as follows: Rare Synonymous Mutations Show Strong Association with Endometriosis. Juneau Biosciences Chief Science Officer Has Albertsen, Ph.D., in an oral presentation, presented an analysis of 1,077 study participants with surgically diagnosed endometriosis, indicating that low-frequency DNA variants may play a role in the genetic predisposition of this disease even when they do not change the amino acid building blocks for the encoded protein. A Family with over 200 Women with Confirmed Endometriosis Suggesting Autosomal Dominant Influence. Juneau Biosciences CEO Kenneth Ward, M.D. presented a poster highlighting the study of familial endometriosis using a unique genealogy database of 32 million ancestors of the present population of the western U.S. The study shows a high incidence of surgically proven endometriosis in the recent generations of a single family with endometriosis spanning 19 generations. Millions of women may carry the risk factor described in this study. Large Effect Mutations Found in Endometriosis Genes Implicated by GWAS. Dr. Ward also presented data providing the first comprehensive study of mutations in genes implicated by previous genome-wide associated studies (GWAS). The identified mutations are strong risk factors for developing endometriosis, distinct from the much weaker signals observed in GWAS. The discovery of mutations having large effects confirm a critical role for these genes in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. We understand that endometriosis runs in families, and the precise genetic mechanisms behind this disorder are now coming into focus, said Dr. Ward. Results from Juneaus studies are being assembled into genetic tests to more accurately diagnosis women with endometriosis symptoms, as well as predicting disease in women at high risk for developing this disorder. Each of these studies addresses the tremendous value of research in the role genetics play in endometriosis, said Bradley Robinson, President and CEO of Predictive Technology Group. We look forward to incorporating these valuable insights into the development of genetically based test and targeted therapies that can be employed at a much earlier stage to help mitigate the effects of this disorder. About the Society for Reproductive Investigations (SRI) Annual Meeting The SRI annual scientific meeting gathers leading scientists and clinical investigators to share cutting-edge information in reproductive sciences and womens health. The 65th Annual Meeting featured an exciting lineup of distinguished lecturers, 12 mini-symposia sessions, several new investigator events, career development sessions, and scientific oral and poster presentations. More information is available at http://www.sri-online.org/. About Predictive Technology Group, Inc. Predictive Technology Group , Inc. aims to revolutionize patient care through predictive data analytics, novel gene-based diagnostics and companion therapeutics through its wholly owned subsidiaries Predictive Therapeutics and Predictive Biotech. These subsidiaries are focuses on endometriosis, scoliosis, degenerative disc disease and regenerative tissue products. The subsidiaries use genetic and other information as cornerstones in the development of new diagnostics that assess a persons risk of illness and therapeutic products designed to identify, prevent and treat diseases more effectively. Additional information is at www.predictivetechnologygroup.com, www.predrx.com and www.predbiotech.com. Forward-Looking Statements To the extent any statements made in this release contain information that is not historical, these statements are essentially forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the difficulty of predicting FDA approvals, acceptance and demand for new vaccines and other pharmaceutical products, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development and launch, reliance on key strategic alliances, availability of raw materials, availability of additional intellectual property rights, availability of future financing sources, the regulatory environment, and other risks the Company may identify from time to time in the future. Contact: Investors LHA Investor Relations Jody Cain, 310-691-7100 jcain@lhai.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/903e3907-ff0d-4294-9209-3c2b044b5fce [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] OneTravel Data Shows Baby Boomers Are Embracing Adventure Travel NEW YORK, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OneTravel, a leading online travel agency, has released the top destinations Baby Boomers over the age of 60 are traveling to this spring. The booking data shows the top domestic and international destinations Boomers are jet-setting to, along with unique trends for this age group, and the average cost of plane tickets this spring. While Boomers continue to travel to more traditional vacation spots for retirees like Orlando, Florida and Cancun, Mexico, booking data shows they are getting more adventurous this year, by heading to up-and-coming destinations such as Thailand, Vietnam, Costa Rica, and Peru. European cities appear to be the most appealing international choice for Boomers with seven cities making it into the top 20 this year. Select European gateways have seen significant price decreases year over year which may be contributing to their increase in popularity. According to OneTravel's data, flights to Paris are 19% cheaper, flights to Dublin are 14% cheaper, and flights to Rome are 12% cheaper than in 2017.1 Domestically, Boomers continue to frequent warm weather destinations such as Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and California. Top 20 Most Popular Spring Break Destinations for Boomers in 20182 Domestic Destinations Average Airfare3 International Destinations Average Airfare3 Orlando, FL $276 Cancun, Mexico $443 New York, NY $265 Tel Aviv, Israel $1,034 Las Vegas, NV $276 Bangkok, Thailand $826 Ft. Lauderdale, FL $265 Barcelona, Spain $703 Houston, TX $289 London, England $748 Phoenix, AZ $330 Toronto, Canada $296 Chicago, IL $240 Mexico City, Mexico $357 Tampa, FL $288 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico $470 Washington, D.C. $268 San Jose del Cabo, Mexico $452 Los Angeles $271 Dublin, Ireland $741 Fort Myers, FL $339 Guadalajara, Mexico $356 Miami, FL $305 Oranjestad, Aruba $595 Denver, CO $256 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam $822 Honolulu, HI $694 Rome, Italy $822 San Francisco, CA $300 Amsterdam, Netherlands $759 San Diego, CA $307 Paris, France $665 New Orleans $337 Madrid, Spain $739 Dallas, TX $262 Vancouver, Canada $372 Boston, MA $262 Lima, Peru $652 Seattle, WA $304 San Jose, Costa Rica $517 About OneTravel OneTravel is a leading online travel agency that offers deals for savvy travelers seeking both quality and value. Launched in the mid-nineties, OneTravel is now recognized globally for providing one-stop shopping for all travel needs. Customers have access to millions of cheap flights including business class and first class airfares, hotel rooms, car rentals, and cheap vacation packages to top destinations around the world. Visit OneTravel's social media pages at www.facebook.com/onetravel and www.twitter.com/onetravel. For an on-the-go travel concierge experience, download OneTravel's app for Apple or Android ______________________________ 1 Based on average roundtrip airfare for tickets booked before 2/19/18 for travel 3/1/18 4/30/18 compared to the average roundtrip airfare during the same time period in 2017. 2 Based on passengers ages 61 80 booked for travel from 3/1/18 4/30/18. 3 Based on average roundtrip airfare for tickets booked before 2/19/18 for travel 3/1/18 4/30/18. Average airfare rounded to the nearest dollar. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/onetravel-data-shows-baby-boomers-are-embracing-adventure-travel-300613178.html SOURCE OneTravel [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Neura CEO Amit Hammer Joins Forbes Technology Council SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Neura (http://www.theneura.com), the leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform for personalization of digital experiences, announced that its CEO, Amit Hammer, has joined the Forbes Technology Council, a hand-selected, invitation-only community of world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Hammer is a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of business management and broad technical experience. Before joining Neura, he led several IoT connectivity businesses for Texas Instruments Inc. Hammer also served as an officer in the R&D department of the intelligence corps of the Israel Defense Forces. He holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and a M.Sc in Bio-Medical Engineering from Tel Aviv University. Im excited to join the team of Forbes Technology Council, said Neura CEO Amit Hammer. Contributing to Forbes will enable me to share valuable findings Neura has seen as a pioneer in leveraging AI to fuel personalization of digital experiences. I look forward to sharing how technology can affect critical KPIs. Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, says, We are honored to welcome Amit into the community. Our mission with Forbes Councils is to curate successful professionals from every industry, creating a vetted, social capital-driven network that helps every member make an even grater impact on the business world. About Neura Neura is a technology company that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enable mobile apps and Internet of Things (IoT) product companies to personalize and adapt to their customers preferences and needs by reaching them at precise, meaningful moments throughout their day. The result is increased engagement and growth, while reducing churn. The Neura AI platform utilizes its sophisticated hybrid AI engine, its mobile SDK, and a library of API calls to bring physical world intelligence into todays most innovative apps and IoT products. Founded in 2013, Neura is a privately held company backed by AXA Strategic Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Liberty Israel Venture and Lenovo Group. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and has its R&D operations in Herzliya, Israel. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, or find more information at www.theneura.com. About Forbes Councils Forbes partnered with the founders of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to launch Forbes Councils, invitation-only communities for world-class business professionals in a variety of industries. Members, who are hand-selected by each Councils community team, receive personalized introductions to each other based on their specific needs and gain access to a wide range of business benefits and services, including best-in-class concierge teams, personalized connections, peer-to-peer learning, a business services marketplace, and the opportunity to share thought leadership content on Forbes.com. For more information about Forbes Technology Council, visit https://forbestechcouncil.com/. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit http//:www.forbescouncils.com. Media Contact: Robert van Gool robert@theneura.com +1 415-505-2686 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Trent University Selects YuJa Enterprise Video Platform as Campus-Wide Video Platform SAN JOSE, Calif., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- YuJa Corporation formally announces a new partnership with Trent University to launch a campus-wide initiative with the YuJa Enterprise Video Platform as their solution for lecture capture, live streaming and video management. Following a competitive review and Request for Proposal (RFP) process, Trent selected YuJa to implement their cloud-hosted video solution. The solution will be hosted in a newly launched Canadian AWS instance to ensure compliance with Canada's stringent data sovereignty regulations. This regulation requires all data from public institutions on the cloud to be stored within Canada. "In order to ensure that we were offering our users the best possible video capture platform, IT undertook a competitive review of lecture capture solutions. As a result of that competition, we are pleased to announce that the YuJa Enterprise Video Platform will be replacing Panopto beginning May 1, 2018," said Tariq Al-idrissi, Trent University's Associate Vice President, IT in a formal announcement to Trent University's faculty and staff. The YuJa Enterprise Video Platform provide an ideal solution that integrates with the university's Blackboard instance and existing classroom infrastructure to support campus-wide educational initiatives centered on video and student engagement. "Our partnership with Trent University demonstrates how Canadian universities can effectively migrate away from expensive and inefficient on-premise video solutions to a more modern Canadian-hosted SaaS-based video solution," said Dr. Ajit Singh, President of YuJa Corporation. About YuJa YuJa Corporation powers enterprise video everywhere. Our Enterprise Video Platform empowers education enterprises of all sizes to deliver media-centric experiences including video recording, live streaming, media management, video conferencing, and immersive social learning & mobile apps. We have U.S. offices in sunny Silicon Valley, California and Canadian offices in both Waterloo and Toronto. We offer digital solutions for higher-ed, K-12, corporate, and government clients. About Trent University One of Canada's top universities, Trent University was founded on the ideal of interactive learning that's personal, purposeful and transformative. Consistently recognized nationally for leadership in teaching, research and student satisfaction, Trent attracts excellent students from across the country and around the world. Here, undergraduate and graduate students connect and collaborate with faculty, staff and their peers through diverse communities that span residential colleges, classrooms, disciplines, hands-on research, co-curricular and community-based activities. Across all disciplines, Trent brings critical, integrative thinking to life every day. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/trent-university-selects-yuja-enterprise-video-platform-as-campus-wide-video-platform-300613316.html SOURCE YuJa [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Joins Turnitin Board Arne Duncan, former United States Secretary of Education, has joined the Turnitin Board of Directors. Duncan, United States Secretary of Education from 2009 through December 2015, is currently the managing partner of education group Emerson Collective. Mr. Duncan brings considerable experience in large scale deployment and adoption of educational technology in K-12 and higher education. Click to Tweet. The Emerson (News - Alert) Collective believes that to affect change in education, companies must demonstrate three qualities: integrity, measurable impact, and scalable solutions. Turnitin delivers academic integrity and writing solutions to more than 30 million students across the world. Mr. Duncan will give the company additional insight and direction into how technology tools can drive significant change across districts, states, and college systems. "Turnitin is at the leading edge of leveraging machine learning technology and instructional best practices to guide educators and students through the digital age of authorship and academic integrity," said Mr. Duncan. "I look forward to the opportunity to work with Turnitin on scalable initiatives that support the core educational skills and promote student success in K-12, higher education, and beyond." "We are very pleased to add Arne as an advisor to Turnitin while we develop technology supports for education on an increasingly wider scale," said CEO Chris Caren. "Writing and academic integrity are essential components of foundational literacy skills, and Turnitin is committed to playing a broader role in building such skills across K-12 and higher education. Arne has a unique vision of how technology can be a supportive instructional tool and is an ideal advisor as we head in this direction." About Turnitin Turnitin is your partner in education with integrity. Turnitin's originality checking and authorship investigation services ensure academic integrity, promote critical thinking, and help students improve their authentic writing. Turnitin provides instructors with the tools to prevent plagiarism, engage students in the writing process, and provide personalized feedback. Turnitin is used by more than 30 million students at 15,000 institutions in 140 countries. Backed by Insight Venture Partners, GIC, Norwest Venture Partners, Lead Edge Capital and Georgian Partners, Turnitin is headquartered in Oakland, Calif., with international offices in Newcastle, U.K., Utrecht, Netherlands, Melbourne, Australia, Seoul, Korea and throughout Latin America. @Turnitin Press kit with images here. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313005057/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Injectable Medication Shortage is Affecting Terminally Ill Patients Up to 75% of dying patients experience pain requiring opioid analgesics when they enter the terminal phase. In response to the injectables shortage, a growing number of large hospice organizations and their pharmacists are adopting the rectal route of administration thanks to a nurse who invented a device (the Macy Catheter) to make rectal administration discreet, painless, and reliable. The injectable opioid shortage is forcing clinicians to look for alternate routes of medication administration. "The supply shortage of injectable opioids is putting pressure on pharmacists to find alternative routes, especially for our end-of-life patients," said Dr. Nate Hedrick, PharmD, Manager of Clinical Services, ProCare HospiceCare. The Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported that morphine, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), and fentanyl - staples of pain control and sedation in hospitals and hospices- are in short supply. "Pain management is of critical importance for patients facing serious or terminal illness. With supplies of injectable pain medications in short supply clinicians need an immediate alternative. I am pleased to see the Macy Catheter meeting this need in both the inpatient and home hospice settings," said Brad Macy, RN, BSN, CHPN, 2013 Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse of the Year and co-founder of Hospi Corporation. Wendy Schmitz, M.D., Vice President of Medical Services, Ohio's Hospice of Dayton, said "Based on my experience on our hospice inpatient unit, the Macy Catheter is faster than subcutaneous in controlling pain with opioids and I am able to control pain with less opioid dose adjustments. It is also very effective in most instances in quickly controlling terminal agitation and other symptoms. It saves nursing time and decreases medication cost and waste. I will never go back to my prior practice and will continue using the Macy Catheter." Patented and FDA cleared, the Macy Catheter provides access to the clinically proven rectal route of delivery. It is designed to make the rectal route a practical, painless and discreet alternative for those medications that can be prescribed per rectum. The Macy Catheter can be used in multiple settings, including in hospice and palliative care, skilled nursing facilities, and the emergency department. About Hospi Corporation Hospi Corporation developed the Macy Catheter to provide the best alternative for rapid administration of medication and fluids. The Macy Catheter improves patient care and nursing efficiency while decreasing the cost of care. For more information, visit MacyCatheter.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313006172/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Revolutionary Approach to GOTV Provides 25% Increase in Voters LOUISVILLE, Ky., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In 1980, the English new wave band The Buggles released their iconic song "Video Killed the Radio Star" in the height of the Cold War between the United States and Russia. The hit track celebrated the evolution of a newer technology over its obsolete predecessor. At a time when Russian hacking and political influence has us questioning how to get better informed Americans to the polls, a unique technology firm is turning politics on its head and everyone in the world of political campaigns is taking notice. A firm known as 'El Toro' out of Louisville, Kentucky is revolutionizing programmatic media through its patented approach of matching physical addresses to IP addresses, allowing clients to effectively target voters in their homes and on their devices where they live. While campaign hacks debate whether or not political television ads are dead, is this new technology the silver bullet to actually kill this campaign dinosaur? The results of this case study might certainly lead you to that conclusion. In this real-life scenario, the client was a municipal organization in a southwest Ohio county. The campaign, managed by the Ohio firm Burges & Burges Strategists, had identified a group of high fidelity voters who had a 72.77% likelihood to vote those who had voted in 2 or more of the last 4 similar elections and launched a get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaign aiding a ballot measure on behalf of Ohio's Montgomery County Health & Human Services. So dire was the need for a win, its very success would secure the continuation of numerous programs serving tens of thousands of citizens with developmental disabilities, homebound seniors, and children in foster care as well as helping the county fight infectious diseases and drug abuse. The County needed to increase their specifically targeted voter turnout for a ballot measure in order for voters to reauthorize a $55 million tax levy at a time when tax issues were historically unpopular. El Toro needed to heavily target the County's high-fidelity voters and influence them to vote in favor of the measure. El Toro's Approach Nearly 108,000 homes were identified as part of the voter segment. These voter homes were split into two groups: a control group which consisted of about 45,500 voters and a targeted group which was approximately 62, 500. The target group was delivered 2.2 million display and video advertisements during the four weeks leading up to election day. The control group did not receive any IP-targeted ads. Campaign Results The target group had an incredible 91% election turnout compared to the control group turnout of 73%. This 18-point, or 25% increase, in turnout was made possible by using precise digital political targeting. At a cost of less than $4 for each of the 11,500 incremental votes received, these results were 14.5-times more cost effective than the expected cost per incremental vote (Stratmann). "From my observation and study of these methods, delivering messages to voters with such razor-sharp precision and effectiveness has never been easier," said University of Louisville political science professor Jason Gainous, Ph.D. "El Toro might have possibly cracked the code." So successful was the campaign, Burges & Burges has submitted the GOTV strategy results to the American Association for Political Consultants (AAPC) for their 2018 annual Pollie Awards. "The dramatic influence in critical GOTV voter turnout was impressive," said Dorigen Cowling, Senior Consultant at Burges & Burges. "El Toro really bowled us over with their incredible results, and our client couldn't be happier with their success." So confident is El Toro about delivering similar results for other political and issue campaigns, they are offering a money-back guarantee for any GOTV campaign of over $100,000. If El Toro doesn't increase turnout among targeted voters by at least 5%, they'll give 50 percent of the total spend back to the campaign. That's confidence you can take to the bank or better yet, to the polls. About El Toro El Toro is revolutionizing programmatic media through its patented approach of matching physical addresses to IP addresses, allowing clients to effectively target consumers. The El Toro system is 100% cookie-free and its proprietary approach connects with real people at an unparalleled accuracy, eliminating ad fraud. With a 95% or greater confidence level, El Toro is the premier choice for digital advertising. Information on El Toro's money-back guarantee can be found at http://www.eltoro.com/political-guarantee-lander/. Contact: Kevin Borland (202) 320-2301 Kevin@MulloyBorland.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/revolutionary-approach-to-gotv-provides-25-increase-in-voters-300613391.html SOURCE El Toro [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Betty L. Smith, Community Service Leader and Founder of Chicago's South Side Help Center, Passes at 76 Mrs. Betty Louise Smith passed peacefully in her home after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease, on Tuesday evening, March 6, 2018. The home going will take place at the church where Smith spent many years in faithful service. Where: Chatham-Avalon Church of Christ, 8601 South State Street, Chicago, IL Dr. Daniel Harrison, Lead Minister When: Saturday, March 17, 2018 Wake: 10:00 AM Funeral: 11:00 AM-12:30 PM* Burial: 1:30 PM, Cedar Park Cemetery, 12740 South Halsted, Calumet Park, IL Repast: 2:30-3:30 PM, Chatham Avalon Church of Christ *Services will be shown Live at www.facebook.com/SouthSideHelpCenter Betty was born on February 5, 1942 in Sandhill, Mississippi to the late Dolly Mae Turnage and Sam Stewart. Her parents helped her embrace the value of education by enrolling her in Piney Wood's Junior College, an all-Black, no-nonsense, boarding school which is also considered to be an "academic oasis" in rural Mississippi. Upon graduation, Betty relocated to Chicago where she continued her education and earned a certification as respiratory technician/therapist and also went on to earn a certification in non-profit management from Roosevelt University. While in Chicago, Betty also met, and in 1963 married the man of her dreams, her loving husband, Vannish E. Smith. They remained a devoted married couple, active in social and civic affairs, world travel and dedicated community service, for 47 years until he departed this life in 2010. Together, Betty and Vannish nurtured and raised their two daughters Vanessa and Valerie. Betty guided the lives of her daughters educationally and in service to God and humankind and they both ultimately grew a passion for serving the community. As a respiratory therapist, Betty worked at various hospitals including Presbyterian-St. Luke (now Rush) Hospital. In 1987, while working at Ingalls's Hospital, Betty noticed that many Black men were men dying of HIV, and that they were being shunned by family, friends and even pastors. It was then that she founded South Side Help Center (SSHC), a not-for-profit community based organization, with the goal of educating the African-American religious community on HIV/AIDS in order to help negate the stigma and spread of the virus. Throughout the following years, her husband Vannish and other family members and friends worked with her to build the success and sustainability of SSHC. Her daughter Vanessa volunteered during her years in college and became a youth HIV peer- program leader and subsequently Chief Operating Officer. Betty's other daughter, Valerie also volunteered throughout her college years and even connected support of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, to the agency before going on to marry and work with various youth development programs until she passed in 1998 of breast cancer. Throughout her twenty-one years as executive director of SSHC, Betty was bestowed numerous prestigious accolades and awards, and featured in several publications, including the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, TRIBUNE, DEFENDER, WASHINGTON POST and ESSENCE MAGAZINE. Betty retired in 2008 and passed the executive director's torch to her daughter Vanessa. Even though she was battling Alzheimer's disease, Betty continued to do television interviews and make appearances in support of South Side Help Center, including being present in September 2017, for the celebration of its 30th Anniversary at the historic Parkway Ballroom. Betty has a reputation of strength, professionalism, diplomacy and uncompromising advocacy and is known as a woman who laughed heartily, but "took her coffee black. no sugar, no cream." She is also known as an adept storyteller, who could draw in a person's attention and support, with her sharp wit and mellow voice. Today, Betty's legacy, South Side Help Center, is the oldest African-American-led community based organization addressing HIV/AIDS in the Black community both in the city of Chicago, and State of Illinois. Beyond being a dedicated wife, mother, grandmother, and consummate civic leader and businesswoman, Betty was a sincere "giver." She gave of her time, essence and money in establishing the Valerie Smith-Reid Scholarship Fund (named in tribute to her daughter), which provided thousands of dollars in scholarships to high school seniors to help them with first year college expenses. Students from high schools all across the city of Chicago benefitted from the VSR Scholarship Fund. Betty enjoyed reading entry applications of youth where they expressed past accomplishments and their hopes and dreams for the future. Betty organized many fundraisers over more than a decade to benefit at-risk, African-American youth who wanted to continue their education beyond high school. Betty also loved her church! She enjoyed hearing the pastor teach and the choirs sing, and even further, she loved serving people in need. After her retirement, she spent many hours during the week volunteering in the Chicago Food Depository/Food Bank program at Chatham Avalon Church of Christ. There was no judgment, only the joy of serving as she would mingle with co-laborers at the church and happily bag and give away groceries. Betty is survived by her daughter Vanessa, her very special grandson Aaron, two great-grandchildren Aaron Jr. and Ariss; siblings Elex (Lileann), Willie Stewart, Pearl Stewart, Margie (Charles) Ross, Brenda Campbell (Walter) Jenkins; Jackson, MS; Hattie McGinty, Glen Burnie, MD; Linda (Lloyd) Robinson, Morgan City, LA; and Maryland Thompson, Baton Rouge, LA. and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and other family members and friends. She also leaves the cherished legacy of community service which she embodied and a challenge for others to--"Live Your Mission, Serve People and Strengthen Communities." ABOUT SOUTH SIDE HELP CENTER: For 30 years, South Side Help Center has provided critical services to help negate the incidence and impact of HIV/AIDS in Chicago's communities of color. Initially founded in 1987 by Betty Smith, this non-profit organization's initial goal was to educate the African-American religious community so it could be sensitive to the needs of people impacted by HIV/AIDS. SSHC's services have evolved to include HIV/AIDS outreach and direct care services and a comprehensive range of youth and capacity building programs to help people of all ages embrace a lifestyle of prevention against mental, physical and social ills by providing positive, healthy alternatives so that community residents can lead productive lives. In March, 2015, under the leadership of its current executive director, Vanessa Smith (daughter of Betty Smith), the agency to became an affiliate of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to over 800,000 individuals in more than 430 clinics across 38 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about the programs and services of SSHC visit www.southsidehelp.org, www.facebook.com/SouthSideHelpCenter and Twitter (News - Alert) @southsidehelp and Instagram: @southsidehelp. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313006393/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick to Testify at the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation's subcommittee hearing entitled, "Rebuilding Infrastructure in America: Investing in Next Generation Broadband" WILTON MANORS, Fla., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Gary Resnick, Mayor of Wilton Manors, Florida, has been invited to testify at the United States Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation's subcommittee hearing entitled, "Rebuilding Infrastructure in America: Investing in Next Generation Broadband" being held on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Appointed to the National League of Cities (NLC) 2018 leadership and board of directors, Mayor Resnick was also appointed to chair the 2018 Information Technology & Communications (ITC) Federal Advocacy Committee and serves on the Board Legislative Action Committee. "Ultimately, my goal is to ensure that cities, including our own Wilton Manors, are protected as expansions in communications and broadband systems are implemented," said Resnick. "It is important that cities maintain home rule authority to physically manage the construction of broadband in rights-of-way to minimize damage to other utilities and to protect the health, safety, and welfare of our residents. We certainly do not want broadband facilities installed in improper locations in front of homes and businesses, and at taxpayer expense." The subcommittee hearing will occur the same week that the NL is hosting its annual conference in Washington, D.C. The NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans. "I urge my fellow NLC members to join me in advocating for robust, ubiquitous affordable broadband throughout our country in a way that does not preempt cities' home rule authority or result in taxpayers subsidizing the private communications industry," said Resnick. "Ultimately, we can't allow the wireless industry to enjoy the benefits of a regulated utility with quick and taxpayer-subsidized access to public rights-of-way without satisfying consumer demands that come with it." Mayor Resnick has served on the Wilton Manors City Commission since 1998, is past president of the Broward League of Cities (BLC), currently chairs the BLC Legislative Advocacy Committee and serves on the boards of the BLC and Florida League of Cities. In 2017, the Florida League of Cities recognized Resnick with a Home Rule Hero Award. Mayor Resnick earned this prestigious award for his tireless efforts to advance the League's legislative agenda and help protect the Home Rule powers of Florida's cities during the 2017 regular legislative session. Mayor Resnick is a shareholder and practicing attorney with GrayRobinson Attorneys at Law and chair of the firm's communications broadband practice. About the City of Wilton Manors Wilton Manors was laid out in 1925 by Edward John "Ned" Willingham, a land developer from Georgia, as an upscale residential community. It was recognized as a Village in 1947 and incorporated as a City in 1953. Today, the City of Wilton Manors offers all the benefits of a big city from shopping, to hip restaurants and bars, a burgeoning arts community and tons of community events, yet still maintains a cozy, community feeling offering miles of natural waterways perfect for kayaking, paddle boarding and other outdoor activities. Recently named the "Second Gayest City" in the United States, the City of Wilton Manors celebrates a diverse population of approximately 12,000 residents. To learn more about the live, work and play opportunities in Wilton Manors, call (954) 390-2100 or visit www.wiltonmanors.com. CONTACT: Laurie Menekou (954) 732-0754 (or) lmenekou@conceptualpr.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wilton-manors-mayor-gary-resnick-to-testify-at-the-us-senate-commerce-science-and-transportations-subcommittee-hearing-entitled-rebuilding-infrastructure-in-america-investing-in-next-generation-broadband-300613184.html SOURCE Wilton Manors [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] Immunovaccine to Host Investor Event on April 10, 2018 in New York City HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immunovaccine Inc. (TSX:IMV) (OTCQX:IMMVF), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company, announced today that it will host an R&D Update and Investor Event for the investment community on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 in New York City. The event will feature an overview of Immunovaccines novel approach to targeted T cell therapy. Presentations by outside experts and Immunovaccine management will highlight the scientific background and key opinion leaders (KOL) perspectives on the companys novel mechanism of action and its clinical applications and potential benefits. Details for the event are as follows: Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2018 Time: 12:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. ET (registration to begin at 11:45 a.m. ET) Location: New York, NY The agenda will include: Introduction Fred Ors, Chief Executive Officer, Immunovaccine Defining a New Approach to Targeted T Cell Therapy Marianne Stanford, PhD, Vice President, Research, Immunovaccine Elucidating a Unique Mechanism of Action Using In Vivo MRI Tracking Kim Brewer, PhD, Assistant Professor Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Department of Physics & Atmospheric Science, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Testing Various Immune Modulators for Neoepitope-mediated Cancer Immunotherapy Pramod K. Srivastava, PhD, MD, Professor of Medicine and Immunology, Eversource Energy Chair in Experimental Oncology, Director, Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT T Cell Therapies for Cancer in Clinical Practice: Ae We on Target? If you are a member of the investment community and would like to attend, please send an email to tracy.sebastian@westwicke.com to receive additional information. A live broadcast of the event will be made available on the Investors section of the Immunovaccine website at http://ir.imvaccine.com. More information about how to access the webcast will be available closer to the event. About Immunovaccine Immunovaccine Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to making immunotherapy more effective, more broadly applicable, and more widely available to people facing cancer and infectious diseases. Immunovaccine develops T cell activating cancer immunotherapies and infectious disease vaccines based on DepoVax, the Companys patented platform that provides controlled and prolonged exposure of antigens and adjuvant to the immune system. Immunovaccine has advanced two T cell activation therapies for cancer through Phase 1 human clinical trials and is currently conducting a Phase 1b study with Incyte Company assessing lead cancer therapy, DPX-Survivac, as a combination therapy in ovarian cancer. The Company is also exploring additional applications of DepoVax, including DPX-RSV, an innovative vaccine candidate for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which has recently completed a Phase 1 clinical trial. Immunovaccine also has ongoing clinical projects to assess the potential of DepoVax to address malaria and the Zika virus. Connect at www.imvaccine.com. Immunovaccine Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information under applicable securities law. All information that addresses activities or developments that we expect to occur in the future is forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the date the statements are made. However, they should not be regarded as a representation that any of the plans will be achieved. Actual results may differ materially from those set forth in this press release due to risks affecting the Company, including access to capital, the successful completion of clinical trials and receipt of all regulatory approvals. Immunovaccine Inc. assumes no responsibility to update forward-looking statements in this press release except as required by law. Contacts for Immunovaccine: MEDIA Mike Beyer, Sam Brown Inc. T: (312) 961-2502 E: mikebeyer@sambrown.com INVESTOR RELATIONS Pierre Labbe, Chief Financial Officer T: (902) 492-1819 E: Plabbe@imvaccine.com Patti Bank, Managing Director, Westwicke Partners O: (415) 513-1284 T: (415) 515-4572 E: patti.bank@westwicke.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [March 13, 2018] BioStem Technologies Inc. Announces Engagement of Dr. Felix Amon for Pharmaceutical Business Development Pompano Beach, FL, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioStem Technologies, Inc. (OTC: BSEM) (BioStem or the Company), a global life sciences corporation, providing innovative technologies with a focus in Pharmaceuticals and Regenerative Medicine, announced today the addition of Dr. Felix Amon, who will consult BSEM with Pharmaceutical Business Development. Dr. Felix Amon has two decades of product management, medical innovation and business development experience in healthcare and related industries, including three years as a Product Manager for Eli Lilly, 2 years as as the Austria Marketing and Sales Director for Merck (MSD) Europe, followed by leading the Ophthalmics business in Mercks ww Headquarter in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey where he managed Planning and Project Management for a $650 million business operating in 104 countries. He also completed the development of an European Sales and Marketing Campaign for BIOGENs Avonex and implemented the launch of Avonex in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Dr. Amon has an MBA (1987) from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and a PhD in Law (1985) from Linz Johannes Keppler University in Austria. BSEMs, CO, Andrew Van Vurst stated, The addition of Dr. Amon to our team is imperative in the Companies mission to discover, develop and market novel Pharmaceutical and Regenerative Medicine products. We look forward to leveraging his experience in the development of sales and marketing strategies for BioStem Technologies pharmaceutical portfolio. About BioStem Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK: BSEM): BioStem Technologies, Inc. is a global life sciences corporation, providing innovative technologies with a concentration in Pharmaceuticals and Regenerative Medicine. The Companys mission is to discover, develop and produce the most effective Pharmaceutical and Regenerative Medicine products in the world. The Company is comprised of a diverse group of scientists, physicians, and entrepreneurs who collaborate to create innovative products. These technologies improve the Quality of Life for our patients and, as a result, drive shareholder value. Forward-Looking Statements: Except for statements of historical fact, the matters discussed in this press release are forward looking and made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "future," "plan" or "planned," "expects," believe" or "projected." These forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that may cause actual results to differ materially from stated expectations. These risk factors include, among others, limited operating history, difficulty in developing, exploiting and protecting proprietary technologies, intense competition and additional risk factors, as discussed in reports filed by the Company with OTC Markets. BioStem Technologies, Inc. Phone: 954-380-8342 Website: http://www.biostemtech.com Email: info@biostemtech.com Twitter: @Biostemtech Facebook: BioStem Technologies Investor Relations: Andrew Van Vurst info@biostemtech.com (954) 380-8342 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] I have three setups in the house. There is the TV in the living room which is a 24" SDTV from the mid-2000's hooked up to a PS2. There is a TV in one of the bedrooms which is a Vizio 720p LCD from 2007 (terrible viewing angles, washed out blacks, but it was still an impressive upgrade at the time) . The setup in my bedroom is the most advanced. I have a desktop which I built myself connected to both a Dell UltraSharp U2412Mb 24-Inch (1200p, 300 cd/m2) which is the main monitor, and a LG 27EA63V-P 27" IPS (1080p, 250 cd/m2), which functions both as a secondary monitor, and the display for my Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PS3. Now, I love the LG, the bezel is beautiful, and both movies and games look great on them, but the audio setup is a pain, I have to connect the sound from the consoles through the computer and back to the monitor, something I hadn't considered when contemplating the purchase, as visual is a little more important to me than audio. (So much so that I have a pair of 2W Cyber Acoustics speakers from a decade ago to go with this fine display.) Now, I'm considering to buy two or three TVs to upgrade the other rooms and to resolve this inconvenience. But my budget is only about $150 per TV. What should I buy for that? I am considering either the Samsung UN28H4000 28" (which has the Samsung branded asset of being able to play movies off a USB drive) or the TCL Roku 32S301 32". Both of these are 720p, though. People say "you can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at that size" but I can, in the sense that a 720p TV broadcast is very noticeably different than 1080p Blu-ray playback, and the 1080p from Netflix looks noticeably inferior to the higher bit rate Blu-ray as well. Do higher bit rates translate to 720p screens? Because I've really found bitrates to be a more relevant issue with HD content. And for games, well, I was thinking of playing games while lying in bed, and the monitor is not currently directed in front of the bed (you would think this would be the case, but my bedroom is small for all the stuff I have in it) so if I reorient the bed in front of the TV, would I do well to buy the 32 inch no matter what or should I hold out for an even bigger (1080p) TV? As it is, the monitor is oriented about 4 feet away when usually play games. Since many games are not even in 1080p, and the original Xbox One I have caps out at 900p or so, does it even matter? If youve ever wanted to make an animated show, but were deterred by the difficulty of animating 3D characters, you may want to look at Campfire Union's Flipside Studio, which makes creating animations for a show as easy as acting them out. With Flipside Studio, all you need is a VR headset and a little bit of creativity to make a cartoon. Consumer-grade virtual reality headsets have been around for nearly two years now, and arguably, the buzz around VR is beginning to wane in favor of the upcoming augmented reality tech thats creeping around the corner. However, were still scratching the surface of what VR can offer, and Campfire Union believes it has something special to offer with Flipside Studio. For the last two years, the VR industry has focused primarily on games, but weve seen several examples of productivity use cases. Oculus Medium allows you to sculpt 3D objects in VR like you would sculpt a real object. Googles Blocks enables you to create 3D objects in seconds. And both Unreal Engine and Unity 3D offer scene editors that enable you to build 3D environments around you. All these examples enable creators to do what they do best, in less time, and with less complexity. Campfire Unions Flipside Studio offers the same sort of advantages for creating 3D animations. The developer said that with Flipside, you could create one minute of animated content in about an hour, compared to one minute per week with traditional animation methods. Campfire Union is giving away Flipside Studio for free, but dont let the price convince you that Flipside isnt serious software. The developer pitched Flipside to Hollywood last year, and it said that at least one major network is interested in the platform, although it cant divulge which one. Campfire Union is also working with a handful of YouTube creators, including Bob Jennings (aka Liam The Leprechaun), who said that Flipside saved him an incredible amount of production time for a recent project. "Flipside helps me realize the kind of 3-D animation that would typically take days in a matter of minutes, said Jennings. I can come up with a concept in the morning and have a high quality animated YouTube video edited and published in a matter of hours. It's nothing short of revolutionary, and it's only just beginning." Flipside Studio is a full-featured TV studio that offers everything that you would want for live action filming, but for virtual reality. The software includes useful features like a virtual teleprompter to display the script for your actors, as well as preview screens to present information like a news reporter. Flipside also offers up to eight virtual cameras, so you can film several angles at once and edit them in post production or flip through on the fly. It also offers OBS Studio integration, so you can broadcast your production live through Twitch, Facebook, or YouTube. Flipside Studio includes several pre-built virtual sets so that you can get started right away, but the software also offers a set editor, so you can customize your set to fit the theme of your show. Flipside includes a handful of virtual characters to choose from, but you can import custom 3D models made with any character modeling application that can export in FBX format. You can also import .obj files to use as props for your set. Flipside Studio is compatible with Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive, but you get access to additional features if you have a Vive. Campfire Union said that Flipside Studio supports the Vive Trackers for additional mocap fidelity. The company uses Partel Langs Final IK SteamVR plugin to approximate leg and hip positions, but you can use HTCs Vive Trackers to physically track your hip and foot positions for more accurate body animations. Flipside Studio is available now through Valves Early Access program, but Campfire Union doesnt consider todays release as a launch. The company said the app is ready for use, but its not fully-feature yet. It plans to roll out an update next week that enables mixed reality recording so that you can use live people as actors in your production. The developer is also working to integrate Google Poly for importing props, and cross-platform multiplayer is just around the corner so that you can have multiple actors, but they wont need to use the same VR platform. Ultimately, Campfire Union plans to enable live studio recording, where you can have an audience of headset owners watching your performance. President Trump brought Broadcom's attempted hostile takeover of Qualcomm to a screeching halt Monday evening. Citing national security concerns, Trump signed an order blocking Broadcom's unsolicited $117 billion bid for Qualcomm, which would have been the largest merger in semiconductor history. Trump's move isn't unprecedented, but it is rare. Trump also blocked another attempted acquisition in September 2017 when he stopped the $1.3 billion takeover of U.S.-based Lattice Semiconductor by Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, which was backed by Chinese investment firms. At the time, it was only the fourth time in 27 years that a U.S. President had personally blocked a business takeover by a foreign company. Trump's Broadcom order is both immediate and permanent. Trump based the order on a recommendation from an ongoing review of the bid by the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which investigates the national security implications of transactions that transfer control of a U.S. business to a foreign entity. The committee was widely expected to eventually scuttle the proposed Qualcomm takeover due to objections from the Department of Defense. Broadcom's swashbuckling CEO Hock Tan is known for his acquisitions of LSI, PLX Technologies, Emulex, Broadcom, and Brocade. Tan promised in November 2017 to repatriate Broadcom to the United States from Singapore. That process was expected to finish next month. Broadcom's proposed move reportedly convinced the Treasury Department to support the Qualcomm purchase, but from the wording of the order, it appears that re-domiciling would not have an impact on Trump's decision. It will be interesting to see if Broadcom will complete the repatriation process. Many proposed mergers come to an end during CFIUS review, which often makes it clear to participants if the bid is unlikely to succeed (much like Chinese Unisplendours attempted investment in WD). Qualcomm now continues its own process of attempting to maneuver its ongoing $44 billion bid for NXP, another semiconductor vendor, through MOFCOM, which is China's rough equivalent to CFIUS. China's MOFCOM is also notorious for either blocking or meting out restrictive long-term measures on acquisitions. The CFIUS and MOFCOM maneuvers are often viewed as politically motivated. Given Trump's 25% steel tariffs aimed at China's steel industry, it's logical to expect heightened regulatory activity between the two countries in the future. Broadcom is also known for raising the prices of products after it purchases a company, such as its notorious price hikes on PCIe switches after the company cornered the market when it purchased PLX Technologies in 2014. Broadcom quadrupled the price of some switches overnight, which some have attributed to increased motherboard pricing and the slow uptake of NVMe storage devices in the data center. It's unclear if concerns about similar activities with Qualcomm's contracts with the U.S. military were a factor in Trump's decision. All of this is also great news for Intel, which was rumored to be considering a range of options if the Broadcom/Qualcomm takeover was successful. Those options reportedly included purchasing Broadcom, which might have been a necessary move to prevent the formation of a powerful new foe in both the mobile and data center segments. Trump's order comes amid Broadcom's attempt to install 15 new Qualcomm board members, all of whom are now blocked by the order from standing for election. Trump's order also states that "the Purchaser and Qualcomm shall immediately and permanently abandon the proposed takeover" and outlines several other requirements, as stated below: Upon review of a recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and consideration, as appropriate, of the factors set forth in the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, the President has made relevant findings and issued the following Order:ORDERREGARDING THE PROPOSED TAKEOVER OF QUALCOMM INCORPORATED BY BROADCOM LIMITEDBy the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 721 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (section 721), 50 U.S.C. 4565, it is hereby ordered as follows:Section 1. Findings. (a) There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that Broadcom Limited, a limited company organized under the laws of Singapore (Broadcom), along with its partners, subsidiaries, or affiliates, including Broadcom Corporation, a California corporation, and Broadcom Cayman L.P., a Cayman Islands limited partnership, and their partners, subsidiaries, or affiliates (together, the Purchaser), through exercising control of Qualcomm Incorporated (Qualcomm), a Delaware corporation, might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States; and(b) Provisions of law, other than section 721 and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), do not, in my judgment, provide adequate and appropriate authority for me to protect the national security in this matter.Sec. 2. Actions Ordered and Authorized. On the basis of the findings set forth in section 1 of this order, considering the factors described in subsection 721(f) of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as appropriate, and pursuant to my authority under applicable law, including section 721, I hereby order that:(a) The proposed takeover of Qualcomm by the Purchaser is prohibited, and any substantially equivalent merger, acquisition, or takeover, whether effected directly or indirectly, is also prohibited.(b) All 15 individuals listed as potential candidates on the Form of Blue Proxy Card filed by Broadcom and Broadcom Corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 20, 2018 (together, the Candidates), are hereby disqualified from standing for election as directors of Qualcomm. Qualcomm is prohibited from accepting the nomination of or votes for any of the Candidates.(c) The Purchaser shall uphold its proxy commitments to those Qualcomm stockholders who have returned their final proxies to the Purchaser, to the extent consistent with this order.(d) Qualcomm shall hold its annual stockholder meeting no later than 10 days following the written notice of the meeting provided to stockholders under Delaware General Corporation Law, Title 8, Chapter 1, Subchapter VII, section 222(b), and that notice shall be provided as soon as possible.(e) The Purchaser and Qualcomm shall immediately and permanently abandon the proposed takeover. Immediately upon completion of all steps necessary to terminate the proposed takeover of Qualcomm, the Purchaser and Qualcomm shall certify in writing to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that such termination has been effected in accordance with this order and that all steps necessary to fully and permanently abandon the proposed takeover of Qualcomm have been completed.(f) From the date of this order until the Purchaser and Qualcomm provide a certification of termination of the proposed takeover to CFIUS pursuant to subsection (e) of this section, the Purchaser and Qualcomm shall certify to CFIUS on a weekly basis that they are in compliance with this order and include a description of efforts to fully and permanently abandon the proposed takeover of Qualcomm and a timeline for projected completion of remaining actions.(g) Any transaction or other device entered into or employed for the purpose of, or with the effect of, avoiding or circumventing this order is prohibited.(h) If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstances, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of its other provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby. If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstances, is held to be invalid because of the lack of certain procedural requirements, the relevant executive branch officials shall implement those procedural requirements.(i) This order supersedes the Interim Order issued by CFIUS on March 4, 2018.(j) The Attorney General is authorized to take any steps necessary to enforce this order.Sec. 3. Reservation. I hereby reserve my authority to issue further orders with respect to the Purchaser and Qualcomm as shall in my judgment be necessary to protect the national security of the United States.Sec. 4. Publication and Transmittal. (a) This order shall be published in the Federal Register.(b) I hereby direct the Secretary of the Treasury to transmit a copy of this order to Qualcomm and Broadcom.DONALD J. TRUMPTHE WHITE HOUSE,March 12, 2018. What Happens When Teens 'Pick Up The Reins And Protest' Student activists have taken the lead on conversations about gun control after last month's school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Their calls to action have spurred youth demonstrations across the country, including here in Kansas City. How are teenagers organizing so effectively, and what should parents know about their own kids' interest in social activism? Local progressive radio listeners must attempt to determine if this is all media spin or the beginning of a movement . . . Meanwhile, local school complaints don't just focus on guns but lack of opportunity and stress . . . Read more: The Kansas City Police Department is investigating a fatal shooting Monday afternoon. That incident happened around 2:15 p.m. Monday near 35th and Prospect. When officers arrived, they found a shooting victim on the side of the road. That man was rushed to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later. Greitens likely won't campaign for Missouri Senate candidate Hawley CLOSE JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - Missouri Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley appears to be distancing himself from the state's embattled governor as he prepares to kick into full gear his campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. Hawley announced his candidacy in October, but so far he's been relatively absent from the campaign trail. The GOP contender for Senate and a campaign kick-off comes through Kansas City today but that's just a lame presser for d-bag "journalists" . . . Here's a gem that's hidden but far more fun . . . Behind the scenes GOP hateration continues as the rising star of the Missouri Republican party distances himself from the former solider under threat from a nasty "revenge pr0n" indictment. Take a peek: SPECIAL THANKS TO BAD-ASS TKC TIPSTERS WHO SHARE A LOCAL REFERENCE REVEALING KCMO SALES TAX CASH SPENDING!!! HINT: THERE'S A LOT OF PET PROJECTS AND NOT SO MUCH INFRASTRUCTURE ON THE LIST!!! "You might want to provide this link to a +5000 line pork barrel list of projects from KCMO. This what the city has spent the one cent sales on the last 10 years. You will see Starlight, fire stations, Ruskin High School, Swope Park geriatric, Streetlights, Streetcars, Debt service, Power & Light, Zoo Improvements, etc." "You would have thought real journalists in KC would be examining how KC has spent over $1 billion but they are usually just cheerleaders for city hall." City Hall is asking forand sales tax renewal come April but there's not a lot of deets on how they've spent the money so far.To wit . . .Here's the word . . .Money line . . .Take a look:You decide . . . non-apology Danny O'Neill: "Many of my friends are members of the Kansas City Police Department and other area police departments. My business offers discounts to area police officers. The Kansas City Police Department will collaborate with my business on a motorcycle safety rodeo later this year. Last summer I made a solo 8,000-mile motorcycle ride to the Arctic Circle to raise more than $25,000 for a KC charity to purchase adaptive bikes for kidsmy journey was safe, thanks in large part to police officer friends I consulted with prior to the trip and officers I met along the way." Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police President Brad Lemon says it was shared with him. "It was three months that he went and drove a $100,000 dollar car illegally," Lemon said, who was on his way back from Clinton Officer Christopher Ryan Morton's funeral. "I wouldn't even consider putting something so stupid online and talk about how ignorant I am that I'm driving my $100,000 car illegally." TKC TOLD YOU SO!!! THE NON-APOLOGY SPIN DIDN'T WORK AND POLICE REMAIN UNSATISFIED AFTER THE INSULT!!! O'Neill, who is out of town, issued a second apology and said he is personally meeting with the Fairway Police Department. I am deeply sorry for remarks made in a social media post about a police officer who issued me a well-deserved violation for expired tags. They dont reflect the great work these courageous men and women do to keep our community safe. I am personally meeting with the Fairway Police Department to apologize and will continue to support, in meaningful ways, Kansas City-area police departments and the officers who perform their invaluable service. Locally, and thanks to our, we hadAnd now local sources struggle to play nice with the tall & lanky KC biz dude . . .Here's athat's touted by MSM . . .Accordingly . . .Make no mistake, the Blue Lives Matter movement can make aimpact on a biz that is based on nothing more than beans and good vibes.And then . . .Meanwhile, a Starbucks is moving in across the street from one of Mr. O'Neill's signature stores and the "good guy image" this dude has portrayed is now kaput thanks to an arrogant episode that's proving harder for police & their supporters to forgive.Developing . . . Hempel, a leading global coatings company, launched a new and revolutionary one-coat interior paint - Topaz Brilliance at a gala event in Bahrain today (March 13). The new coating is expected to change the way Hempels product offerings are perceived in the decorative paint market, ushering in a new era in the evolution of the company and brand. The new environment-friendly product includes a palette of 56 colours inspired by the attractions of countries around the world as well as seven shades of white, all of which come in two different sheens. The paint range was launched at an exclusive event at The Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, which was attended by VIP guests, including major clients from across the Middle East. Hempel regional and group management present at the launch ceremony included Hempel Group vice president, Middle East-West Karsten Pedersen; decorative regional director of sales and marketing Ahmed Abdelaziz; regional brand manager Eman Baqer, and regional product manager Khaled Al Sayed. The event also saw the unveiling of Hempels new can design, with Topaz Brilliance being the product to launch the fresh look. Pedersen commented: At Hempel we always challenge the status quo and set new standards for the most advanced paint solutions. Topaz Brilliance comes as a testament to our continuous improvement journey, and we feel confident that our customers will recognise that Hempel has exceeded even the highest standards available in the market today. Abdelaziz added: We understand that our business is built on trust. We promise our customers trusted paint solutions and we have been delivering on that promise for more than 50 years in the Middle East. Today, the launch of Topaz Brilliance is the beginning of a new journey into interior paint excellence. Topaz Brilliance will re-establish Hempels position in the interior coatings market, he said. Al Sayed said the interior paint is a result of two years of research to develop a product in a wide colour choice and with unique features. The family-friendly, low VOC (volatile organic compounds), anti-bacterial and anti-microbial paint is easy to clean and is free of lead and other hazardous materials, he added. Bringing inspiration home is the concept behind Topaz Brilliances rich palette of colours, which is inspired by iconic locations around the world. More than 250 retail outlets have already placed orders to make the product available for their customers with many more set to be onboard soon. Hempel is a world-leading coatings supplier for the decorative, protective, marine, container and yacht markets. From wind turbines and bridges to hospitals, ships, power stations and homes, its coatings protect man-made structures from the corrosive forces of nature. Speaking to Gulf Construction on the sidelines of the event, Pedersen said while the company has about 30 to 40 per cent share of the marine and protective coatings market in the region, it also has a strong decorative portfolio with a wide colour choice but there is not much awareness of this fact. Today, we are here to make a noise about it, he said. Established in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1915, Hempel started supplying paint to the Middle East over 50 years ago. It has a state-of-the-art research and development (R&D) laboratory in Bahrain catering for the entire Middle East region. TradeArabia News Service Bahrain's labour fund Tamkeen and Ahli United Bank (AUB) have signed a BD40-million ($106.08 million) portfolio to provide subsidised financing to eligible medium and large-sized enterprises in Bahrain. The agreement was signed by Dr Ebrahim Mohammed Janahi, chief executive of Tamkeen, and Adel A El Labban, group chief executive officer and managing director of Ahli United Bank, said a statement. The subsidy is funded by Tamkeen under its Tamweel+ initiative, which offers Sharia-compliant financing with lower rates and flexible tenors for qualifying projects undertaken by medium and large-sized enterprises established in Bahrain, it said. Under the terms of the agreement, Tamkeen will reimburse 70 per cent of the annual nominal profit rate to enrolled firms, while AUBs Al Hilal Islamic Banking Services will allocate and manage a portfolio of BD40 million ($106.08 million) under this scheme and undertakes to process and evaluate all applications as per Tamweel+ and AUBs financing criteria, it added. Eligible enterprises can apply for BD1 million ($2.652 million) to BD2.5 million ($6.63 million) in financing for their expansion projects, with repayment tenors extending up to 10 years and grace periods of up to 2 years as agreed with the bank. The financing can be used to establish new projects or expand existing businesses to facilitate entering into new markets locally and regionally, said a statement. Dr Janahi said: We are delighted to have AUB join our Tamweel+ scheme, and we look forward to a long term partnership with this major financial institution with a solid track record in contributing to the growth of Bahrains businesses and economy. AUBs substantial involvement through this BD40 million portfolio for Bahraini enterprises will significantly broaden its reach to target businesses, he said. He added: We have developed Tamweel+ scheme as an initiative to enhance the capabilities of Bahraini enterprises and support their expansion and diversification to contribute to the national economy and prosperity in line with Bahrain Economic Vision 2030. El Labban said: Tamkeen is to be commended for successfully engaging with local businesses and leading the way in facilitating their access to much needed financial, technical and advisory support through innovative programmes. At AUB, we believe that the contribution of the private sector is critical to sustainable economic development, and we look forward to working closely with Tamkeen through the Tamweel+ programme to support the growth of this sector and to strengthen the resilience and job creation potential of the Bahraini economy, he added. TradeArabia News Service Senior officials from the UAE and Botswana recently discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral relations between the countries by developing vital sectors like trade and investment. Officials from the UAEs Ministry of Economy, Dubai Chamber and the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry of Botswana recently took part in the UAE-Botswana Business Forum was held in Dubai, UAE. Vincent T Seretse, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Botswana; and Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Saleh, undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade Affairs on behalf of Eng Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy, participated in the forum. Also present at the event were Lesetedi Manyepedza, Ambassador of Botswana to the UAE; Hassan Al Hashemi, vice president of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce; Mohammed Nasser Hamdan Al Zaabi, director of the Trade Promotion Department at the Ministry of Economy, as well as over 200 officials, businessmen and investors from both countries, it said. Al Saleh said on his speech on behalf Al Mansoori, that bilateral ties between the UAE and Botswana were particularly robust, due to investments in key sectors. He said: The UAE has strong commitment and trade ties with the African markets and we have active engagement with the region through our investments in key sectors. Trade volume between UAE and Africa totals around USD 35 billion and has been growing at a double-digit rate annually. Non-oil trade exchange between UAE and the African countries touched Dh140.5 billion ($38.25 billion) in 2016, at a growth rate of 16 per cent. he added. UAEs growth in Africa is visible in key sectors such as oil and gas, tourism, aviation and logistics with several national companies including Enoc, DP World, Air Arabia and Fly Dubai, to name a few established in key regional markets, Al Saled said. He affirmed that Botswana and the UAE need to bolster ties in key areas of cooperation, particularly in sectors where the both countries have already established investments in Africa such as agriculture, renewable energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and trade on precious metals, including diamonds, and pointed out that the high standards and regulations that the UAE has put in place for diamond trade provides a gateway for Botswana to bolster its international market. The official said that this further boosts the importance of building a strategic partnership between Botswana and the UAE and taking a step closer to developing strong economic ties based on common interests in line with both countries sustainable development agenda, and added that the UAE is strategically positioned as an ideal investment hub for Africa and we its keen to advance this goal by providing the ideal investment platforms offering a liberal investment environment, state-of-the art infrastructure and seamless government procedures for doing business. On his part, Seretse said that Botswana stands to learn a lot from the UAE, particularly in sustainable economic diversification, and he added that they wish to learn and emulate how the UAE has successfully diversified its economy by creating other thriving strategic sectors such as tourism, financial and business services, transport and logistics, as well as manufacturing, to name a few. He commended the firm resolve of the UAE to have 64 per cent of its GDP derive from non-oil reserves by the year 2030. Seretse continued: There are a lot of areas where Botswana and the UAE can join hands for the mutual good. Given the negative trade balance in favour of Botswana, there is a lot of potential for the UAE to export more goods and services to Botswana. Currently, Botswana exports goods worth $708 million per annum to the UAE, mostly diamonds; while the United Arab Emirates exports $21 million of diamonds and other consumables to Botswana. He affirmed that over and above trade, setting up a production facility in Botswana provides access to multiple preferential trade arrangements, such as the SADC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement, the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU), and Southern African Development Community (SADC). As a country, Botswana is working every moment, to improve the business climate, he said, and added that they have in place the necessary regulatory framework in terms of policies, laws, and regulations that ensures security of investments and facilitates sustainable profitability and opportunities for business expansion. Al Hashemi said: Dubai is an ideal partner for Botswana as a re-export hub with strong links across the Middle East, Asia and Europe. The emirate offers plenty of advantages to companies in Botswana, such as its world-class infrastructure, business friendly environment and attractive free zones. He stressed that Dubais non-oi trade with Botswana has nearly tripled in recent years to exceed $1 billion in the first nine months of 2017, and pointed out that pearls, precious and semi-precious stones and metals accounted for the largest share of bilateral trade. He added that there was plenty of scope to expand trade and investment ties between the UAE and Botswana in other key sectors such as tourism, agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing and ICT. The forum also included presentations and films on the economy of Botswana, its investment climate and business practices. The mining, diamond and gemstone sectors account for 20 per cent of the countys GDP, 18 per cent for trade, hospitality and restaurants, 14 per cent for financial and business services and 5 per cent for the manufacturing sector. A presentation was also given on the diamond sector, the main pillar of the Botswana economy, followed by an interactive session on oil sectors and cooperation in food products, especially beef, and tourism, it stated. TradeArabia News Service Saudi Arabia's Water & Electricity (WEC) has invited expressions of interest (EOI) for the development of an independent water and power project (IWPP) to be located at Jubail Industrial City on the Arabian Gulf coast. The plant (Jubail Phase 3) will be located adjacent to the existing units (Jubail Phase 1, Jubail Phase 2 and Jubail RO plants) in the Eastern Province of the kingdom. WEC will conduct a competitive process to select a developer or developer consortium for the development, financing, engineering, procurement, construction, implementation, operation and maintenance of the plant which will have a capacity of 1.17 million cu m/day of potable water consisting of 60 per cent reverse osmosis and 40 per cent thermal desalination technology, respectively, WEC said. The project will also include a 3,000 MW of power plant, together with associated infrastructure and facilities. The project company to be incorporated to develop the project will sell its entire power and desalinated water capacity and output to WEC under a power and water purchase agreement (PWPA). It will have the concession for 25 years. WECs obligations under the PWPA will be supported by a credit support agreement from the Government of Saudi Arabia, the statement said. The deadline for EOI is May 1, 2018. - TradeArabia News Service You can opt out of certain types of cookies (e.g. those used in social media sharing) by choosing "I do not accept". The website will still largely function well, but with slightly less functionality in places. To manage your cookie preferences in future, visit the "Cookie Statement" link at the bottom of any page. Ok everyone, you have to read this very short short story. Firstly because it is good, (check out the Bligh story within it too), but also because I'm ... 4 months ago Armenian Prime Minister arrived today in Beirut for a two-day official visit of Lebanon and was meet by Saad Hariri, the countrys prime minister. With a focus on drumming up foreign investment for Armenia, Karapetyan is quoted as saying that Lebanese companies can use Armenia as a springboard to enter much large markets. According to the Armenian governments website, Karapetyan noted Armenias membership in the Eurasian Economic Union and its border with Iran as incentives for foreign investment. Prime Minister Hariri underlined the importance of developing relations with Armenia and discussed cooperation in agriculture, information technologies, tourism and the cultural sector with his Armenian counterpart. Karapetyan also raised the idea of creating an Armenian-Lebanese investment fund to finance joint investment projects, adding that Armenia is willing to share its solar energy skills with Lebanon. Karapetyan also invited Hariri to visit Armenia, noting the important role the Lebanese Armenian community has played in fostering relations between Yerevan and Beirut. editorial@tribune.com Amritsar, March 13 Students, who appeared for the Class XII CBSE chemistry exam, termed it balanced. They said it was an in-depth question paper and easy one as compared to the physics exam. Most of the students seemed to be happy after coming out of examination halls. After the exam, they could be seen discussing the question paper with each other. The paper carried 26 questions, which were to be attempted in three hours. The students expressed joy over the content of the paper. The students said the questions came from the NCRET book. The paper carried questions from the NCRET text book. We had revised it many times and attempting the paper was a calk walk, said a student after coming out of a centre. Anuradha, a chemistry teacher from a local school, said, It was an in-depth paper. Students who have studied throughout the year must have been able to attempt it well. My students were happy after taking the examination. Nothing was out of the syllabus. It was an easier paper, said Ananya, a Class XII student. Most of them were confident of scoring 50 to 60 marks out of 70. An average student can score good marks after solving the question paper, said a teacher. Earlier, the students had said the English examination was lengthy while physics paper was a tough one. TNS On March 12, as part of his official visit to Lebanon, Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan attended a state dinner hosted by Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in his honor. Heres the official transcript of Karapetyans remarks: Honorable Mr. Prime Minister of the Republic of Lebanon, Dear Guests, I would like to once again thank Mr. Hariri for the invitation to pay an official visit to Lebanon, and the warm welcome shown to my delegation. We all know that the Armenian-Lebanese ties and relations have always been unique due to the deeply rooted friendly relations between our two peoples. Indeed, the Lebanese-Armenian community has played a central and highly valuable role with its peaceful and creative way of life. Our past experience comes to reaffirm the consistency of Armenian-Lebanese cooperation in bilateral and international arenas. All we need is to further deepen our bilateral cooperation and the joint efforts aimed at protecting our shared values. At present we need to build on the economic component of our relations. I am hopeful that the issues discussed and the agreements reached during my visit will be implemented to give new impetus to the deepening of multifaceted cooperation between the Armenian and Lebanese peoples. In the face of the recent tragic developments in the region, not far from Lebanon, I would like to emphasize Armenias readiness to support Lebanon, hoping that strong with centuries-old wisdom and patriotic values, the Lebanese people will respond to all challenges with dignity and cohesion, and will maintain the countrys balanced posture for the sake of development. Distinguished Mr. Prime Minister, I wish you good health and all the best, as well as peace, stability and economic prosperity - the people of Lebanon. Long live Lebanon! Long live Armenian-Lebanese friendship! Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said in his speech: Dear Mr. Prime Minister, Dear friends, Today, we welcome with great honor our esteemed guest Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan and his delegation. First of all, I congratulate you on the election of the fourth President of the Republic of Armenia earlier this month. Last year, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Lebanon, while the cultural and historical ties between our countries have more than 2,000 years of history since the days of Tigran the Great. At this stage, Lebanon and Armenia boast good relationships in different spheres, especially in business. There are academic exchanges between universities, as well as a lively bilateral cooperation in the spheres of culture, art and tourism. Lebanese Armenians play an important role in the development of these relations, especially given the fact that they are considered to be instrumental in public life - in labor relations, production, culture, education and arts. Our two countries are actively exchanging investments, which is evidenced by Lebanese banks involvement in the Armenias financial system. Mr. Prime Minister and friends, The development of relations between the two countries was in the focus of late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri as he became the first high-ranking Lebanese official to visit Armenia three times since 1997. I hope to continue his mission, always bearing in mind the two peoples interests and friendly relations. Thank you and once again I welcome your visit to the Office of Lebanese Prime Minister. Long live the friendly relations between Lebanon and Armenia! Long live Armenia and Lebanon! editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, March 12 High drama was witnessed at Dadu Majra Colony after unknown persons threw stones in the colony last night. Local residents said the miscreants threw stones, leaving a few residents injured. The police were informed about the incident, who reached the spot. The incident led to a protest by the residents, who blamed the police for the deteriorating law and order situation in the area. A woman said they were afraid of moving out at night as miscreants kept strolling in the area. Our children are also not safe and we avoid sending them outside the house during late hours, she said. An investigation has been initiated in this regard at the Maloya police station. Police sources said efforts were being made to identify the accused. On February 28, two miscreants had vandalised 18 vehicles parked at Dadu Majra Colony. Later, two youths were arrested in the case. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Mohali, March 12 Taking stringent steps to curb illegal mining in the district, the District Mining Officer has reiterated that the administration is taking all steps, including identifying spots to set up nakas to monitor the movement of trucks/tippers carrying sand and gravel. District Mining Officer Simarpreet Kaur Dhillon said, The spots identified for special check-points to check illegal mining include the crossing of the Banur-Tepla road and the Zirakpur-Patiala road, Mubarikpur Chowki, the crossing of the Ambala-Kala Amb road, the Lalru-Handesra road near the new grain market, Dera Bassi, and the T-point, Siswan, Majra village and at the T-point, Majri, Kharar. She said the department had received reports from block-level officers of some mining activity in Mubarikpur, Kakrali, Sanauli and Nagla, where land had been dug up by 6 to 7 ft. On March 5, the department had written to the District Food and Supplies Controller directing the officer against renewing the licences of brick-kiln owners in Mullanpur and Paroul village, who were purchasing sand from miners sans permit. Sources said certain villagers today turned up at the mining office after cases were registered against them for illegal mining, expressing ignorance about the mining. Villagers claim that land was leased to contractors through a verbal agreement and contractors are the culprit. However, we have proceeded as per law. If the land is being used for illegal quarrying, stringent measures against the land owners will be taken, said District Mining Officer. Cracking down against rampant mining in the district, 74 FIRs have been registered from April 2017 to February 28 this year. After a surprise check by a team comprising police officials, block-level area officers and the ADC, the police had registered three cases against 24 persons in Dera Bassi and in another case, they had booked 40 persons. Five JCB machines were impounded. One more case was registered in Mullanpur where a tipper loaded with sand was seized. To prevent illegal mining, it had also been proposed to install CCTV cameras at sensitive routes. Mohali SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal said, At Majri and Mullanpur, CCTV cameras have been installed and we are identifying more spots for it. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Mohali, March 12 The local police today arrested three youths on a charge of theft and recovered two motorcycles and seven mobile phones from their possession. The accused have been identified as Sagar Kumar, Saahil Chhabra and Bhinder, all aged between 19 and 22. The police said Sagar Kumar and Bhinder hailed from Muktsar Sahib while Saahil Chhabra was a native of Fazilka. The duty officer, ASI Lakhvir Singh, said the trio, riding a bike, was held at a check-point near Shahi Majra. They tried to evade arrest, but were nabbed after a brief chase, the police official said. Police sources said the accused worked with the DBA company in the Industrial Area and were staying in Sante Majra. The police said two motorcycles a TVS (PB 28 B 4764) and a Honda CB Unicorn (PB 65 AD 1820) were recovered from the accused. The recovered mobile phones were MI Note 4, Oppo A83, Micromax A190 (black), Panasonic P55, Samsung J2 (golden), Micromax 426 (black) and Samsung J7 (golden). The police said the mobile phones had been snatched from different places in Mohali. A police official said the accused would be produced in the court tomorrow and they would seek a remand. A case has been registered against the accused under Sections 379 B (theft) and 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the Indian Penal Code at the Phase I police station. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, March 12 High drama took place at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, today after an unknown patient at the medical emergency jumped from the first floor. The incident took place during the afternoon when the police brought the 25-year-old man, who was in an inebriated condition, to the hospital for a medical examination. The tipsy man went to the toilet and jumped from the window in a bid to escape. The incident led to commotion in the emergency area. According to the hospital authorities, the man suffered minor injuries and is under treatment. The identity of the man was not known yet as he was not carrying any wallet or mobile phone. Jayshree Sengupta Jayshree Sengupta Like a chameleon, President Trump is changing his economic policy frequently from when he took office. But the recent hike in customs duties on steel by 25 per cent and aluminium by 10 per cent go to show that he will not deviate much from his stand on America First and Buy American and Hire American slogan in the future. His views are largely determined by what the jobless blue-collared workers of Americas rust belt, who voted him to power, think of his policies. His recent tough stand on Indias service sectors temporary immigrants under H-1B visas is also aimed at protecting jobs in the service sector. The new visa norms will impact IT firms in India and their employees. The IT firm would have to prove that its H-1B employee at a third party worksite has specific and non-qualifying speculative assignments in speciality occupation. American companies will have to provide proof that they are unable to find American employees before hiring an Indian. They will have to provide specific details on workers responsibilities, including why they are required and where they will work. The Indian IT firms will have to provide detailed statements informing on the specialised duties the visa applicant will perform, and the duration of the job. The US wants to ensure that the H-1B visa holders are not earning less money than promised and that they are performing only speciality jobs. The new announcement empowers the US to issue H-1B visas to an employee for only the period he/she has work at third party worksite. Trumps action, however, is an acute form of the general attitude of developed countries towards the rest of the world and their aim is to protect local jobs from cheap migrant labour and save their industries from competition from low labour cost countries. But when India wants to protect jobs in its motorcycle industry, Trump is angry. He thinks India should behave like the US regarding imports and allow them to enter at low customs duties. He is threatening retaliation. Trump threatened China also with hike in duties during his election campaign and his new stance on steel will affect not only China, but also Canada and the EU. He raised duties on washing machines and solar panels in January and claimed that it created 200 jobs in Ohio. Trump has targeted countries with which the US has a trade deficit and India is one of them. India has a trade deficit with US of $24 billion. He wants India to buy more from the US and cover the deficit. India has resorted to customs duty hike on 45 products since the last Budget because it is afraid that neighbouring countries, mainly China, will swamp Indian markets with manufactured goods. Modi wants Apple IPhones to be made in India and shift away from China. But protectionism never succeeds and leads to retaliation. Even so, India has gone for it overtly though we were never a fully open economy. In the past, the EU has been trying hard to pry open Indias agricultural (dairy) and service market. It also wants India to open up the manufactured goods markets, asking for lower duties on imports of cars, auto parts, wines and spirits. The resistance from India has brought about a standstill in the EU-India BTIA (Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement). With Europe also, India has a trade surplus and the EU is the biggest trade partner of India in terms of the percentage of Indias total trade going to it at 13.5 per cent. But for the EU, India is not the biggest partner and ranks ninth. Its investments in India are more than from the US at 51.2 billion euros. Both these important trade partners EU and the US are not willing to give concessionary access to India as a developing country and are treating us as equals. India, too, regards itself in the league of big emerging powers and Mr Modi is fond of boasting how from a $2.8 trillion economy, India will soon be a $5 trillion economy and how in a few years India will be the third largest economy in the world. Such words are music to the ears of the US and EU who see India as their potential market where they can make huge profits. No wonder that they want more reforms from India and ask India to open up its agriculture, services and manufacturing sectors by lowering tariffs on imports. The EU is a reliable partner and being geographically nearer than the US, has been present in India in development efforts and skills training for decades. There are many ways in which EU programs can help India in education, science and technology and green energy. India should try to expedite the EU-India BTIA if it wants to move forward in enhancing competitiveness for tackling Chinese imports through R&D and technology transfer. It is better to bet on partnership with Europe when China is positioned to be the most important economic power in Asia. India needs FDI and the EU can come forward with more FDI if we agree to sign the BTIA. The question of providing investment guarantee is important and needs to be resolved otherwise EU investors will find alternative destinations to invest in Asia. India also needs data secure status from the EU for IT outsourcing in the face of problems with H-1B visas. For the EU, too, after President Xi Jinpings term is slated to be for life, much apprehension is surfacing about the kind of world order which China will promote. It has launched the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) which is both political and economic. To facilitate it, China has started a new grouping, 16+1, with 11 members of the EU and the rest from western Balkan collaborating with China. A Chinese company has bought 10 per cent stake in iconic Daimler recently and has made huge investments in other EU member states. The EU is now more circumspect about Chinas real motive in Europe which is not clearly visible to them right now. In such circumstances when the EU is getting hurt by US protectionism on steel and is suspicious of Chinese designs associated with the progress of BRI in Europe, it is the right time for India and the EU to get closer in order to enhance trade and investment for their own mutual benefit. Yogendra Yadav Yogendra Yadav When a troll recently called me Commi-dog, it alerted me to something deeper. The dog bit was easy to understand and overlook: BJP trolls were particularly jubilant and abusive that day, following the Tripura verdict. What set me thinking was his assumption that I must be a commie, a communist. I could put it down to illiteracy of the trolls produced by WhatsApp University. My only qualifications for being called a communist are studying in JNU, sporting a beard and occasionally carrying a jhola! Otherwise, all my life I have been a critic of communist theory and practice. As a student, I joined Samata Yuvjan Sabha, which was pitted against the communist SFI within JNU. Later, I worked with Samata Sangathan and Samajwadi Janparishad of the Gandhian-socialist stream, far from the communist Left parties. As an academic, I dissented from the dominant Marxist orthodoxy of the 1980s and 1990s. If anything, the CSDS, my academic home, was a favourite target of attack by Left intellectuals. Clearly, these trolls had no idea of all this. For them the world that I had inhabited did not exist. Their worldview was quite simple: Left=communist=socialist=Maoist=urban naxalite=Red=anyone who talks of the poor and revolution. Despite their evident ignorance, the trolls were hinting at something deeper. The meaning of Left has changed in our times. Today, there are two distinct meanings of Left. In the older meaning, Left referred to the communists who swore by the Marxist theory, who supported the USSR style state socialism and who identified with one of the many communist parties of India. The new meaning of the Left covers all those who stand for the idea of equality. This range stretches from the remainder of the communist Left to the Gandhian-ecologists and includes the socialists, Ambedkarites and feminists. All of them dont agree to this label; indeed, this is not a helpful description. But that is how the new world views them. The older Left is dead. The dramatic collapse of the 25-year-old CPM regime in Tripura only serves to highlight a longer process of decline and fall of the Indian communist parties. Since their containment in the 1970s, the Left influence was limited to Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura, besides, of course, JNU. The defeat of the Left Front in West Bengal in 2011 appears to have begun a terminal decline of the communist parties. Although they currently rule in Kerala, the ongoing intense factional war within the CPM does not help any chances of reversal of its terminal decline. As for the tiny band of non-parliamentary communists, the Maoists who continue to follow the fantasy of armed rebellion against the Indian state, it is on the verge of being finished by security forces. The death of the old Left was a foregone conclusion. The political and economic system of the USSR style Soviet socialism was bound to fail. Politically, the socialist democracy that it offered was for all practical purposes a dictatorship a dictatorship in the name of the people but a dictatorship of the party, and mostly a dictatorship of the person who controlled the party. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern European communist regimes was a decisive popular verdict against that form of government. Stalinist purges, the death of millions of farmers under him and the mass murders by Pol Pot are a standing reminder of authoritarian excesses in the name of communism. If the communist political system failed to recognise human quest for liberty, the communist economic system failed to understand the logic of market and the need for economic incentives. State ownership of means of production did produce some kind of equality, but by reducing the economy to lower equilibrium, killing entrepreneurship and innovation. The bureaucratic monstrosity created by state socialism is a standing reminder of why markets cannot be done away with. Besides, the record of these economies on environment and centralisation of decision making was dismal. Besides these global reasons, the communist Left in India was bound to fail for its simple inability to understand the Indian society. The Euro-centricity built into their theoretical prism ensured that they systematically misunderstood the society they were operating in. Their failure to understand the reality of caste as the core of inequality in our country is just one example. Another outcome of the same problem was their failure to read the nature and significance of the Indian National Movement. At a deeper plane, the communists failed to appreciate the universe of religion and traditions that shaped the cultural sensitivity of an ordinary Indian. While it would be wrong to call them anti-national and unfair to overlook the selfless sacrifice of thousands of communist activists, sadly their eventual failure was written into the very script that they brought to India. In its first meaning, the 20th century version of the communist Left is dead, and for good. But in its second, deeper, meaning, the Left continues to be relevant for the 21st century. In this deeper meaning, it stands for the idea of equality, for social justice, for democratic accountability, for ecological sustainability. It continues to be to the left of the dominant capitalist system, with its exploitation and injustice, but it becomes a quest for discovering newer ways of achieving this objective. In this sense, Left is not alien to India. In fact, the ideology of our Constitution is Left. yogendra.yadav@gmail.com Beant Singh Bedi Beant Singh Bedi Retired District & Sessions Judge Print media was afire on September 30, 2017, proclaiming that a complaint of rape had been lodged by a government employee against Sucha Singh Langah, a prominent leader of a political party and a member of the SGPC. In her complaint made to the SSP, Gurdaspur, the victim had alleged that Langah had raped her several times between 2009 and May 27, 2017. The victim had also given a video clipping made by her along with her complaint. This video became viral on social media. On October 5, 2017, the Akal Takht decided to excommunicate Langah. Moral sense of the public was outraged. However, an anti-climax was soon to come. A headline in The Tribune of March 1, 2018, reported that 'Langah 'rape victim' turns hostile .' The Times of India reported that 'Woman denies making rape allegations against Langah'. The Hindustan Times in a similar vein reported 'Victim backtracked in rape case.' These developments between September 29, 2017 and March 1, 2018, have again exposed the underbelly of our criminal justice delivery system. Classic was the Best Bakery case, though in the SLP, the Supreme Court was able to salvage justice. Questions raised by Langah case This is not intended to influence the outcome of the case. All the same, academically, the Langah case throws up a number of questions: Whether a police officer can with impunity implicate a person in a false criminal case? Whether a genuine prosecution witness can afford with impunity to turn hostile? What legal action, if any, is permissible in point above? And whether such action is taken in all cases? Finally, if the version of (alleged) hostile witness is correct, what legal action is permissible against the investigating officer(s) and whether this action is taken in all cases? What if the witness turns hostile? As Bentham said, witnesses are the eyes and ears of justice. What if the witnesses turn hostile? In the statute books, you may find the answer to the above questions. Section 154 Evidence Act authorises the court to permit the prosecution to cross-examine a hostile witness with a view to cornering him to elicit the truth. Then there are provisions in the Indian Penal Code for perjury to be used against a witness who has turned hostile. The police officer who has falsely implicated the accused in a criminal case may also be prosecuted. But the trial courts are too awfully overburdened to indulge in taking up and following the legal action against the hostile witnesses or the delinquent investigating officers. There may be rare exceptions which only prove the rule. As a result, justice suffers. Despite tall claims, the government has made no serious efforts to reform law on this dark segment of the criminal justice delivery system, though suggestions have been made from time to time to switch over to the continental system in the trial of criminal cases. Anglo-Saxon law vs continental system In our system of trial, the role of the presiding judge is almost passive. Generally, continental methods emphasise more strongly the value of utility. The state takes a more active part in the exploration of truth in criminal matters. Anglo-Saxon law (which we have inherited), on the other hand, emphasises more elaborate security and the accused has more elaborate safeguards, which not infrequently lead to the acquittal of obviously guilty persons. In the continental system, there is also an institution known as juge d'instruction in France and as Untersuchungsrichter in Germany. On the motion, either of the prosecutor or the accused, a judicial inquiry may be held in major cases in order to clarify the facts. In certain cases, it is compulsory. Such safeguards ensure that the guilty does not escape unpunished. In the continental system, once the charge is framed, the onus shifts to the accused to prove his innocence, while in our system of trial, the presumptions are in favour of the accused. Jurists acknowledge that the criminal trial in the continental system is not less fair than its Anglo-Saxon counterpart. On the whole, the continental system goes deeper in search of truth, making it very difficult for the accused to escape the consequences of the offence committed by him. While in our criminal trial system, it is much easier even for a guilty person to escape unpunished. This explains the low rate of conviction in Indian courts. On the whole, the continental criminal trial system is more justice-friendly and pragmatic. It is, perhaps, the appropriate stage for the nation to consider whether to switch over to the continental system of criminal trial so as to upgrade the quality of criminal justice delivery system. harinder@tribunemail.com The huge phalanx of protesting farmers has won over Mumbaikars with their self-discipline and compassion. Incredulous urbanites have watched a spectacle of exemplary fortitude as the salt of the earth the tribal, the landless and the marginal farmer braved the scorching sun and roofless nights as they silently walked hundreds of kilometres from their farmsteads to the states political and financial capital to seek their due. Social media has posted amazing pictures of a sea of farmers walking past populated areas at the break of dawn so as not to inconvenience children during exam time. CM Fadnavis was technically correct but came off looking insensitive and extremely condescending when he said the sea of agitating rural India was technically not farmers. Many of the feet are bare, calloused and bruised. This was not merely the tractor-crowd whose sole focus is personal aggrandisement in the form of debt waivers and high crop purchase prices. These sons of the soil seek not just immediate respite from farm distress, but also devolution of the rights-based promises made to rural India by successive ruling arrangements, especially the Forests Act and land rights to the tiller. Another principal communitarian demand relates to the apprehensions triggered by river interlinking projects. Rural India is not asking for the unattainable. It simply seeks an assurance against being left out or being made the victims of the New Delhis model of vikas. The massive Long March is not the only manifestation of rural Indias resentment over the short shrift given to its fears, suspicions and aspirations. From Tamil Nadu to Madhya Pradesh, people in villages are up in arms against a non-existent public delivery system and denial of a rights-based existence. The discipline displayed by the marchers exemplifies the legendary forbearance of the Indian peasantry. But it is being tested. Successive protests are gathering more and more adherents; the previous edition pales in comparison to the numbers who participated in the current march. The governments at the Centre and the states can ignore these storm clouds only at their peril. uttara@tribuneindia.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, March 11 Haryana Speaker suspended Indian National Lok Dal lawmakers for three days for disrupting the disrupting assembly proceedings, as row over leaked audio clips suggesting there was corruption in appointments to the Pehowa Municipal Committee (PMC). Haryana Assembly passed resolution that barred some INLD lawmakers until March 15, although it is unclear how many were suspended. Congress lawmakers meanwhile walked out of the proceedings on Tuesday. The House suspended INLD as well as Congress lawmakers on Tuesday for repeated disruption of the House. The row pertains to two audio clips circulating on social media that suggested that chairman of the son of Haryana Staff Selection Commission Chairman Bhushan Bharti on behalf of his father for making appointments to the PMC. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has ordered an inquiry into the allegations. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Chandigarh, March 13 In more trouble for former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said his government has decided to hand over to the Central Bureau of Investigation two more cases of land deals related to the previous Congress regime. Our government has decided to recommend a CBI probe into Uddar Gagan land case of Rohtak district and another case of controversial land deal in Sonepat that has come to notice recently, Khattar announced in the state Assembly. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Sources said the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) first said it was acquiring 850.88 acres of land in Sector 27-28, Rohtak, vide a notification issued on April 11, 2002, for residential/commercial purpose. However, the final notification of April 8, 2003, under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act was in respect of 441.11 acres. On March 21, 2005, a private builder, Uddar Gagan Properties Limited, submitted its applications to the Town and Country Planning Department for licences to develop a colony across 280 acres of the released land and the licence was granted. Details of the Sonepat land are, however, not immediately available. Khattar said the BJP government had already ordered a CBI probe into three cases related to the previous Congress government re-allotment of a plot to Associated Journals Limited in Panchkula, allotment of HUDA industrial plots in Panchkula and Manesar land case. TNS Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan met with Lebanese businessmen in Beirut today to promote Armenia as an attractive spot for investment. According to a press release in the Armenian governments website, Karapetyan met with delegations headed by EuroMena Funds co-founder Romen Mathieu and Future Group Concern President Fouad Makhzoumi Mathieu noted that the EuroMena Funds is keen to cooperate with Armenia in the fields of insurance, information technology, services and construction. Prime Minister Karapetyan presented Armenias current economic position, stressing that a 7.5% economic growth was recorded in 2017. The other macroeconomic indicators, too, were positive last year. Karen Karapetyan noted that it is now the right time to invest in Armenia which benefits from different preferential trade regimes. Welcoming the EuroMena Funds willingness to get involved in Armenia, the Premier expressed readiness on behalf of his government to discuss future steps in detail. Fouad M. Makhzoumi presented his companys activities in several countries around the globe. Karapetyan invited him to visit Armenia in order to get acquainted with our countrys opportunities, noting that the Armenian side is prepared to discuss the prospects of mutually beneficial cooperation. editorial@tribune.com Pradeep Sharma Tribune News Service Chandigarh, March 12 Novice Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was at the receiving end of wit and sarcasm of Congress MLAs during the Vidhan Sabha session here today. Congress MLAs Raghubir Kadian and Kuldeep Sharma took repeated digs at the Chief Minister, while BJP ministers and leaders remained mute spectators. During a discussion on alleged financial impropriety by the son of a senior government official and Khattars confidant, Kadian quipped: Teri rehbari ka sawaal hai (Your leadership is under question). Kadian dared Khattar to protect his upright and clean image, warning that any attempt to shield culprits would reflect poorly on him. Kuldeep Sharma, in his characteristic mischievous style, referred to Chief Minister as Dr Manohar Lal Khattar and said how Dr saab had treated the tallest BJP leader in the statean obvious reference to Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma. Ram Bilas had led the BJP to power in the 2014 Assembly elections, but Khattar was picked for the Chief Ministers post. Kuldeep Sharma asked the Chief Minister to come clean on the alleged corruption charges against a senior government functionary by ordering a free and fair probe. Caesars wife must be above suspicion, he said. editorial@tribune.com Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 13 Three days to go for the Congress plenary in Delhi, factionalism is holding up the crucial All-India Congress Committee memberslist from Haryana where leaders are working hard to accommodate respective loyalists. It is learnt that the initial list of the AICC members from Haryana, drawn up by the central party organisation, did not go down well with the Haryana Congress leaders who found it to be too representative of former state Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hoodas people. The state is likely to send around 37 AICC members (including the nominated members) to the Congress plenary scheduled for March 16 to March 18. The AICC members get to vote in the elections for the all powerful Congress Working Committee, if there are any. Also, they attend the plenary and get to participate in the vision document debates of the party. The Tribune has learnt that the preliminary list which the Congress general secretary in charge of the state finalised earlier, was not acceptable by state party chief Ashok Tanwar or Congress Legislature Party Leader Kiran Choudhry. Tanwar was in Delhi recently to flag his concerns around the list to Kamal Nath and submitted him the names of potential party delegates he thought deserved to be the AICC members. Choudhry has also sent her the list of delegates. After the Tanwar-Kamal Nath meeting, the earlier list is open to revision with Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Tanwar had earlier given a list of the AICC delegates to the Haryana Congress Returning Officer, but those names are yet to find a place a worry Tanwar brought to Kamal Naths notice. The AICC member list of many states is ready and is to be signed by both state Congress chiefs and CLP leaders. Hooda commands a considerable clout in the CLP on account of most MLAs owning allegiance to him. Even in the constitution of sub committees for the Congress plenary, Rahul Gandhi tried to balance all factions in the state. Hooda was chosen to head the important draft resolution sub committee on agriculture, jobs and poverty alleviation. Kumari Selja was made the convenor of the sub committee headed by former defence minister AK Antony. Kuldip Bishnoi and Capt Ajay Yadav were named special invitees to the plenary organising committee and Randeep Singh Surjewala was included in a couple of sub committees, including the one Hooda is heading. Congress plenary from March 16 It is learnt that the initial list of the AICC members from Haryana, drawn up by the central party organisation, did not go down well with the Haryana Congress leaders The state is likely to send around 37 AICC members (including the nominated members) to the Congress plenary scheduled for March 16 to March 18 editorial@tribune.com Naveen S Garewal Tribune News Service Chandigarh, March 12 Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today assured the Vidhan Sabha that an inquiry would be conducted in an impartial and fair manner into the two audios that had gone viral, alleging financial impropriety by Bharat Bhushan Bharti, Chairman of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC). The issue rocked the House during the Zero Hour when the Leader of Opposition Abhay Chautala pointed out that it had been alleged in the audio that Bhartis son took money on behalf of his father for ensuring appointments in the Pehowa municipal committee (MC). Just as the issue was raised, the Chief Minister got up and said he was aware that two audios were being circulated on social media and he had heard both. I will get an inquiry conducted into the authenticity and allegations in the audios, he said. But the opposition parties said they wanted a House inquiry not just by anyone, insisting that the Chief Minister disclose who would conduct the inquiry. Alleging sale of jobs, the opposition parties demanded that Bharti should be made to resign, an FIR lodged and then an inquiry conducted. The Chief Minister chose to ignore the demand. At this, Abhay demanded a CBI inquiry while the Congress said at least a House inquiry should be held by a team of legislators. Responding to various allegations, the Chief Minister got up a second time and assured the House that the inquiry would be impartial. Abhay alleged that the government was trying to shield the corrupt. To this, the Chief Minister said, The conspiracy will be unearthed. He advised the Opposition to hear both audios (the first containing allegations and the second a denial by the man alleging payoff). He said these days, anyone could say anything in the media, but if there was any aggrieved person, he should come forward and lodge a complaint. This led to opposition members shouting anti-government slogans. The Chief Minister said that the person in the first audio had, within 12 hours, alleged that he was drunk and made to say what he said, denying making any payment. Opposition parties said that it was strange that the Chief Minister had labelled the incident as a conspiracy even before inquiry had started, which showed the government siding with the corrupt. An adamant Chief Minister said action would be initiated after preliminary inquiry. The audio clip was allegedly a conversation between former minister Balbir Saini and Pehowa MC president Ashok Singla, in which the latter alleged that Bhartis son had taken Rs 45 lakh as bribe for getting him nominated and elected as president and Rs 10 lakh each for getting three members appointed to the committee. The INLD legislators alleged that the person who could take money for appointments must be sacked because he would not be above board in general recruitment. The Speaker was forced to adjourn the House when INLD and Congress legislators showed dissatisfaction over the Chief Ministers assurance. When the House resumed after a 20-minute adjournment, Opposition Benches continued to demand action rather than an assurance. They demanded to know which agency would conduct the inquiry, terming the Haryana Police as untrustworthy. As the House reassembled after the break, INLD members led by its Deputy Leader Jaswinder Sandhu, again demanded registration of an FIR into the case. As Sandhu continued to defy the Chair, Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar suspended Sandhu and asked marshals to remove his from the House. At this, all MLAs, led by Abhay, marched into the Well of the House, following which they were suspended for the day. Later, Congress members were suspended when they defied the Speaker. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Sonepat, March 13 Rajesh Malik, an Assistant Professor at Shaheed Dalbir Singh Government College, Kharkhoda, was shot dead in the college staff room, allegedly by college student Jagmel Singh, today. Police said the student, who fired three rounds, managed to escape. Malik, who hailed from Sardhana village, was residing in Sector 23, Sonepat. In his thirties, he is survived by his wife and two children. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) On the complaint of the victims brother-in-law Sitender, a case has been registered against Jagmel and a college woman staff member, Yogesh. The police said three persons Akash and Amit, who kept vigil when the crime was committed and the accuseds uncle Dinesh, whose licensed revolver was used have been arrested. Sitender said he had dropped Rajesh (his sisters husband) and Rajeshs daughter Lalita to the college in his car this morning. He was waiting for Lalita to return so that they could go to Delhi when he heard shots being fired and saw a youth coming out of the staff room. He claimed an employee told him that Yogesh was also involved in the murder. There had been reports of molestation and eve-teasing against Jagmel. In January, a Class XII Yamunanagar student had killed the school principal with his fathers revolver. OC editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, March 12 The Vidhan Sabha today passed the Haryana Private Universities (Amendment) Bill 2018, paving the way for setting up of an IILM university in Gurugram. A total of 21 private universities had already been set up under the Act and after the amendment, an IILM university in Gurugram would be the 22nd. The Vidhan Sabha passed six more Bills Haryana Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Adoption Bill 2018, Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas (Amendment) Bill 2018, Motor Vehicles (Haryana Amendment) Bill 2018, Haryana Civil Services (Executive Branch) and Allied Services and Other Services Common/ Combined Examination (Amendment) Bill 2018, Haryana Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill 2018 and Haryana Appropriation (No. 1) Bill 2018. The Haryana Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Adoption Bill would be applicable to all clinical establishments having more than 50 beds for providing quality health care. The Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas (Amendment) Bill was passed to allow grant of specified category of licences after following the bidding or auction process as an alternative to first-come-first-served policy after following a prescribed procedure in this regard. The Motor Vehicles (Haryana Amendment) Bill was passed so that state transport undertaking could operate on any route as stage carriage under any permit issued therefore to such undertaking any vehicle placed at the disposal and under the control of such undertaking by the owner of such vehicle under any arrangement entered into between such owner and the undertaking for the use of the said vehicle by the undertaking. The Haryana Civil Services (Executive Branch) and Allied Services and Other Services Common/ Combined Examination (Amendment) Bill was passed to include the post of Naib Tehsildar in Haryana Civil Services (Executive Branch) and Allied Services and Other Services Common/ Combined Examination Act, 2002. The Haryana Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill was passed to rationalise the rate of interest charged under the Haryana Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 2016, and to reduce the same from 1.5 per cent per month to 1 per cent per month, that is, 12 per cent per annum. The Haryana Appropriation (No.1) Bill was passed to provide for appropriation out of the consolidated fund of the state of the sums required to meet the supplementary grants made by the Assembly for expenditure for 2017-18. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Mandi, March 12 After 40-day struggle, the deadlock between Seraj Sangharsh Samiti and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur finally ended today with the amicable settlement of the dispute concerning the SDM office at Jenjehli through dialogue. The Chief Minister was on a two-day tour in his constituency, Seraj Assembly segment of Mandi district, on March 10 and 11. The CM appealed to the protesters to come together and have a dialogue to resolve the issue. Earlier, the Seraj Sangharash Samiti had threatened to gherao the Chief Minister and show him black flags during his visit to Seraj but after the appeal of the Chief Minister, the protesters relented. They cancelled their decision and decided to have a dialogue with the Chief Minister in Shimla. Talking to The Tribune, coordinator of Seraj Sangharsh Samiti Jagdish Reddi said, We met the Chief Minister in Shimla today and apprised him of the demand of the people, who were upset ever since the state government granted the subdivision status to Thunag and closed the SDM office at Janjehli, which was opened during the Congress regime. The Chief Minister assured us that a Subdivisional Magistrate will sit at Janjehi for 12 days and attend official work. Earlier, the state government had notified that the SDM would sit only for four days, he remarked. It is notable that after Himachal Pradesh High Courts direction, the state government had cancelled the notification of the previous government regarding opening of the SDM office at Janjehli and issued fresh notification, in which it shifted the SDM office at Thunag, which irked the residents of Janjehli and its nearby gram panchayats. Since then unrest was continuing in the region. People took to the streets of Janjehli staging protest against the state government. Members of Seraj Sangharsh Samiti were on a chain hunger strike for the last 20 days. CMs assurance The Chief Minister assured us that a Sub Divisional Magistrate will sit at Jenjehi for 12 days and attend official work. Earlier the state government had notified that the SDM will sit only for four days, he remarked. editorial@tribune.com Pratibha Chauhan Tribune News Service Shimla, January 12 Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mukesh Agnihotri today hit out at Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur for pushing the Hindutva agenda in his budget for the year 2018-19 which had no long-term vision as most scheme were the ones initiated by the previous Congress regime. Initiating a debate on the budget proposals for 2018-19 presented by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in the Vidhan Sabha on March 9, he said the Chief Minister had failed to present the blue print for the states development in the next five years. Being your first budget, not just we but the people of Himachal had a lot of expectations and you have disappointed everyone, he said. The Chief Minister retaliated to the allegations by the CLP leader that his regime was pushing the Hindutva agenda by stating that he was proud to make provision for taking care of cows and create Gau Sadans rather than purchase swanky cars from temple funds. I am surprised that the Congress has so many objections within just two months, including who should be posted in my office, which at least should be my prerogative, Thakur shot back. There is no mention of resource mobilisation in your budget and you have also chosen to remain silent about creation of jobs in the government sector, said Agnihotri. He added that the Chief Minister had himself admitted that the state would remain at the mercy of loans and Central funding. Regarding the poor financial health of the state, the CLP leader said it was Virbhadra Singh who as CM fulfilled the commitment of the enhanced salaries on the Punjab pattern made by the previous BJP regime. The manner in which your regime has already raised Rs 1,200 crore loan, this figure will touch Rs 60,000 in the next five years, he said. Agnihotri also lamented that despite CMs frequent Delhi trips, no financial assistance had been extended to the state. Your regime has not done anything to improve law and order with 13 murders, 50 rapes and 60 molestation cases taking place, he said. He warned that the Congress would not allow tinkering with Section 118 of Tenancy and Land Reform Act, which seemed the intent of the BJP regime. He warned that the Congress would not allow closure of health or educational institutions as this would lead to a Janjehli-like agitation. Most of the schemes you announced were started by Virbhadra while you have rechristened some to show as yours, said Agnihotri. He also warned against monopolization of the Volvo buses in Himachal by a Punjab leader as this would hit the youth and the state transport. Participating in the debate Rakesh Pathania said mining, forest and liquor mafia flourished during the Congress regime. editorial@tribune.com Kuldeep Chauhan Tribune News Service Shimla, March 13 The Chief Minister is set to launch the Mukhya Mantri Kshay Rog Yojana (MMKRY) on World Tuberculosis Day on March 24 to make Himachal TB-free by 2025. According to sources, the Revised National TB Control Programme will be renamed as the MMKRY to give it a focused thrust as Rs 2 crore has been earmarked for this scheme in the 2018 budget. Himachal is reporting about 14,000 new TB cases every year, while the detection rate remains 70 per cent and the cure rate is 85 per cent, revealed health officials. Health Minister Vipin Parmar, who attended the End TB summit by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in New Delhi today, which was opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the presence of Union Heath Minister JP Nadda , said at the summit that Himachal would launch the MMKRY on March 26. We will eradicate TB from Himachal by 2025 for which programme has been put in place, he added. As per the MMKRY, ASHA workers were being involved to collect sputum samples to make the detection rate 100 per cent. In detection and cure rates as per NITI Aayog report 2018, Himachal secured the first position in the TB patients registration, Parmar said. He said 16,000 patients had been registered during 2017-18. At present, 450 multi-drug resistant TB patients were being provided nutrition and were under treatment, Parmar said. To lower the death and rates and improve the detection and cure rates, modern TB labs at the IGMC, Shimla, and HP TBS, Dharampur, had been installed while 15 modern machines have been bought in all districts, he added. editorial@tribune.com Pratibha Chauhan Tribune News Service Shimla, March 13 The use of coal for running a steam engine by the Railways, especially for foreign tourists, is posing a threat to forests, with a major fire breaking out in pine forests under Anandpur panchayat near Shoghi yesterday. Villagers are up in arms against the use of coal by the Railways, which has become a cause for the outbreak of fire in the forests. Led by Mahender Kumar, pradhan of Anandpur, the villagers have made up their mind to lodge an FIR and take up the matter with the Railway Minister also. The sparks coming along with the steam and burning embers falling out caused a forest fire even in 2016 and yesterday again, a major fire broke out, said Mahender Kumar. The fire caused a lot of damage to the forest, wildlife and the grass that the villagers used as fodder. The steam engine runs occasionally on the UNESCO World Heritage Track between Kalka-Shimla. With the charges for it being quite high, it plies mostly for group of foreign tourists, who like to visit the erstwhile summer capital of the British. The Forest Department too has taken a serious note of the forest fire. We will issue a notice to the Railways and give it a weeks time to reply to it. We cannot allow any damage to the forest on account of callousness by anyone, said Amit Sharma, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO). The villagers rued that the fire caused pollution with thick smoke coming out for days together. We are not opposing the running of the steam engine but the Railways must take some precaution to ensure that it does not result in a forest fire, said Mahender Kumar. He said the Railways should clear the area adjacent to the track to remove the highly inflammable dry pine needles before the steam engine was to be run. He also felt that a water tanker could be used to spray water immediately after the engine moved to ensure that fire did not erupt. There were several villages in the vicinity of the track. We will pass a resolution to seek the intervention of the Railway Minister and the state government so that necessary steps can be taken to avert forest fire, said a local Ashok Sharma. editorial@tribune.com Suhail A Shah Anantnag, March 12 Three militants, two of them former engineering students and another suspected to be a resident of Hyderabad, were killed in an encounter with security forces in the wee hours of Monday in the Hakoora area of Anantnag district, some 70 km south of Srinagar city. The militants are suspected to be linked to a local unit of the Islamic State even as the police said they were investigating the previous claims made by the global militant group based in Iraq and Syria. Two of the slain militants have been identified as Syed Owais of Kokernag in Anantnag district and Eisa Fazili, a resident of Soura in Srinagar. The identity of the third militant is being ascertained, said Inspector General of Police SP Pani. While the police maintained that the identity of the third militant was being ascertained, unverified claims on the social media identified him as a resident of Hyderabad. It identified him as Abu Zarr al-Hindi, alias Sultan al-Hyderabad. According to the police, the militants were traced to Badasgam village of the Hakoora area in Anantnag district about midnight on Sunday. Hakoora is located some 10 km from Anantnag town. There were specific inputs regarding the movement of these militants, a senior police official from Anantnag said. The official said the militants who were hiding in a house sensed trouble as a cordon was being laid and tried to escape by firing. The fire was retaliated triggering an encounter, resulting in the killing of the three militants in an open paddy field, the official said. Local sources said there was intense firing sometime after midnight and then again at 2 am after a lull. No one ventured outside as the firing continued. In the morning, we got to know that the militants had been killed in a nearby paddy field, a source said. Bodies of the two local militants were handed over to their families after medico-legal formalities. A complete shutdown was observed in Srinagar and Anantnag districts as the news of the killings spread and the mobile Internet speed was curtailed and train services were suspended by the authorities. Thousands, meanwhile, reached Soura in Srinagar and Vailoo village in the Kokernag area to participate in the funerals of Fazili and Owais. Intense clashes erupted in Vailoo when security forces used tearsmoke shells to disperse the mourners. The clashes continued for the better part of the day. Both local militants Owais and Fazili had pursued B-Technology from Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University in Rajouri district, but had left the course midway. Shutdown observed A complete shutdown was observed in Srinagar and Anantnag districts on Monday as the news of the killings spread and the mobile Internet speed was curtailed and train services were suspended by the authorities. by Vlad Lavrov and Eva Kubaniova As soon as journalists published the last investigation of their murdered colleague, Slovak reporter Jan Kuciak, they immediately focused on another important issue: Why was he killed? And how did his killers know that he was working on a story about them? The first answer was straightforward. Kuciak and his fiancee were murdered in their home in late February by one or more professional hitmen. Police and his colleagues believe that this can only be because of a story he was working on or had worked on. Journalists and police have a number of suspects, and the investigation is ongoing. The second question was far more problematic, and the probable answer is disturbing: The person or people who ordered Kuciaks killing may have learned he was working on a story about them as a result of leaks by public officials. These may have come, his colleagues believe, as a result of his freedom of information requests one of the most valuable tools reporters have. Kuciak worked at Aktuality.sk, the leading news portal in Slovakia. In cooperation with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), he was investigating whether and to what extent one of the worlds richest and most brutal Italian crime syndicates, the Ndrangheta, had infiltrated into his country. He was following leads that hinted EU tax money may have ended up in the Ndranghetas hands through agricultural subsidies Brussels gave to Slovakia. He also found a number of troubling links between Slovak officials at various levels, especially in the ruling SMER party, and Italian families with ties to the Calabrian mafia. He also was looking at corruption issues involving other state agencies. Kuciak obtained much of his information for all of these stories through freedom of information (FOI) requests. In fact, at the age of 27, he was considered one of his countrys most prolific and experienced reporters when it came to filing such requests. He was also experienced with mining public databases in Slovakia. The basic function of freedom of information laws (FOI or access to information laws), which exist in most EU countries, is to ensure that citizens are informed about the doings of their government. This is considered vital to the functioning of a democratic society. But in order for journalists to make use of these laws, they often have to identify themselves to the government offices they are seeking information from. Kuciaks editor, Marek Vagovic, who heads the investigative department at Aktuality.sk, says that Jan was generally very good about handling sensitive information. I know how safely he worked, he told OCCRP. All his drafts, notes and evidence were encrypted. Thats why I think the information was leaked by the police, prosecutors, courts, or office workers he sent information requests to, stating his personal details, such as his home address, Vagovic said. To make it worse, when filing the requests, Kuciak tended to include a lot of background details about the stories he was working on. He believed this would increase the chances of getting the information he was seeking. In Vagovics view, this might have made it even easier for the killers. The institutions that Jan was approaching could see from his FOI requests what he was interested in and moreover, what else he knew. They could deduce it and share it with the subject, he said. Kuciak filed dozens of FOI requests related to his last investigation with various state agencies such as land registries, agricultural agencies, prosecutors, and courts. He is known to have provided his name and home address on some of the requests, filing them in his own name as an individual, rather than from his company, which would have allowed him to leave his name off. OCCRP has approached some of the agencies Jan had requested information from, namely Slovakias Agricultural Paying Agency, which handles the EU subsidies, the public prosecutors office in Trebisov, east of Bratislava, the regional court in Bratislava, and SEPAS, the Slovak energy agency. All denied sharing information about journalists request with the subjects. However, though an OCCRP reporter only asked about general rules and procedures, most of the respondents immediately asked whether the questions were related to the Kuciak case. If so, they noted, they had nothing to do with it. These denials do not convince Vagovic or other lawyers OCCRP talked to. They say that in the eastern part of Slovakia everything is unbelievably interlinked, Vagovic said. A Larger Problem Kuciak is not the only person in Slovakia whose personal information may have been leaked to the subject of an investigation. Those who use the law say targets of a FOI request have been known to find out about it. Boris Stancl, a lawyer based in Bratislava, says one of his FOI requests was shared with the person he has asking about and another had an even more unusual conclusion. After filing a FOI request, Stancl called the agency asking if they had received it. At the end of the call the agency actually asked him whether the information will be used in favor, or against the subject, an influential official. When Stancl replied against, the agency official seemed relieved. OK, good luck, and Im sending you all the required info, Stancl recalls. Reporters say its a general problem in Europe and neighboring countries. Several OCCRP partners have received calls from the people they were investigating or from officials discouraging them from continuing their search for information. For example, as a matter of course, Serbias Anti-Corruption Agency informs the subject of an investigation that a request for their information has been received and asks them to consent to giving out that information. According to Stevan Dojcinovic, the editor of KRIK (an OCCRP partner), the countrys business and land registries have leaked information to investigation subjects, compromising not only investigations but also the safety of the journalists. Likewise, in Montenegro, OCCRP partner MANS was investigating the development of hotels in protected areas around the coastal city of Perast when they received a call from a person of interest asking why they were looking into his business dealings. He had obtained their information from the Ministry of Culture, which notified him that a request involving him had been filed. In another instance, MANS investigators filed public record requests on individuals linked to cigarette smuggling. They then received calls from those individuals, who had gotten their personal information from the institutions where the requests were filed. Even in EU countries, there are instances of personal data having been leaked to potentially dangerous individuals. During an investigation by the Investigative Reporting Project in Italy (IRPI) on waste smuggling, reporters received intimidating phone calls from smugglers insisting they stop nosing around their business. The smugglers had been given journalists phone numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and personal ID numbers by the offices where the information requests were made. In Italy, individuals have a right to appeal a decision to provide information that had been requested about them, though the offices can overrule it and provide the information anyway. However, if the public body is lax with data protection rules, by this stage the subjects of the investigation may already have journalists sensitive personal information. Providing this information is wrong, say experts. Forcing those who request information to fully identify themselves undermines this fundamental right and clearly can put investigative journalists lives in danger, said Helen Darbishire, the founder and executive director of Access Info Europe, a freedom of information watchdog. read more editorial@tribune.com Sumit Hakhoo Tribune News Service Jammu, March 13 With mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir leaving no stone unturned to give space to separatists and pro-Pakistan sentiment within their ranks, Jammu people are watching these developments with abject dejection. Their concerns are genuine. Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu was sacked by the PDP over a speech in New Delhi, in which he mentioned, Kashmir is not a political issue. On the other hand, no action was taken against National Conference MLA Mohammad Akbar Lone for raising pro-Pakistan slogans in the Legislative Assembly when security forces were battling terrorists at the Sunjuwan camp. This has exposed the PDP and the entire administrative machinery in the state. Kashmir is a political issue and it is Pakistans stand as well. When Drabu went against that stand, he was sacked. The episode of Akbar Lone in the Assembly raising slogans in favour of Pakistan exposed the NC, as it defended him, said Ankur Sharma, an advocate and a prominent Jammu resident fighting for the rights of minorities and militancy victims. Cutting across religious divide, the mayhem created by Pakistan-supported militancy has destroyed the state tourism sector, scared the investors and displaced lakhs of people. They are witnessing with dismay the political narrative in which elected representatives who take oath of allegiance to India openly express their sympathy for stone throwers and militants in the Assembly and ignore the sacrifices of those fighting for the nation. Those who stood for nation are feeling let down and sad about the present situation and the role of parties. The treatment meted out to Drabu is a reminder that mainstream parties are strengthening and encouraging separatism, said Mohiudin Shabnam, president, J&K Political Migrants Front. Arshia Malik, a New Delhi-based writer and blogger, says, Liberal sections that are against militancy dont get much space and they in turn feel threatened by mainstream parties. harinder@tribunemail.com Majid Jahangir Tribune News Service Srinagar, March 12 Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti today dropped Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu from her ministry for his controversial remark that Kashmir was not a political issue. Credited with forging the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) alliance with the BJP in 2015 after exhaustive parleys with BJP general secretary Ram Madhav that lasted two months, Drabu had raised a storm over his Kashmir remark at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi on March 9. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Under fire from the Opposition as well as separatists, the PDP had yesterday issued a show-cause notice to Drabu, asking him to retract the remark. Not satisfied with his response, the party decided to take action. Subsequently, the CM recommended to the Governor that he be dropped from the Cabinet. The Governor accepted the recommendation, PDP chief spokesman Rafi Ahmed Mir told The Tribune. The notice, issued by PDP disciplinary committee chief Abdul Rehman Veeri, read: The statement attributed to you on the nature of problem of Jammu and Kashmir has been reported in newspapers for the last two days in which you are reported to have said that J&K is not a political problem but involves only social issues. As you are aware, this contradicts the very belief and core agenda of the party... Your statement has the potential of creating a serious dent in the image and credibility of the party. Therefore, you are advised to explain as to why the statement detrimental to party interests was made. Drabu did not respond to phone calls for his response. A section of powerful PDP leaders had been reportedly gunning for Drabu. Believed to be close to the BJP leadership in Delhi, his next move could be crucial. It is not yet clear as to who will replace Drabu as Finance Minister. Setback to ties: BJP New Delhi: The BJP termed CM Mehbooba Muftis decision to sack Haseeb Drabu a setback to the PDP-BJP alliance and said it would widen the gap between the allies. A top BJP leader praised Drabus role in coordination between the two parties and said he was often the bridge between the J&K Government and the Centre over a host of issues. PTI editorial@tribune.com Jammu, March 12 Five people were injured today in a clash between the PDP and BJP workers during an agitation in Rajouri for a separate Nowshera district in J&K. The BJP and PDP are allies in the Mebooba Mufti government. Five people were reportedly injured in an assault by some people in Nowshera belt (Rajouri district), a senior police officer said. Sarpanches Bhadur Singh and Sukhdev Singh, Chhotu Ram Choudhary, Narinder Kumar, alias Mangu, and Om Parkash were injured, he said, adding that they were referred to the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in Jammu after treatment at Rajouri. The police have registered a case and the matter is being investigated, the officer said. BJP MLA Ravinder Raina in a statement alleged that the PDP workers had assaulted his party leaders in Nowshera and critically injured them. The incident took place during a peaceful procession. PDP leader Om Prakesh Choudhary assaulted Bhawani Mandal president Badhur Singh and BJP district chief Narinder Kumar, Raina said. PTI editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Jammu, March 12 Daily earners working in the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department have warned to suspend work from March 15 if the state government continues to delay their regularisation process as promised by the PDP-BJP coalition government. Daily earners, who run all critical services, including distribution process, have accused the government of adopting a non-serious approach towards employees of the PHE Department. They said the employees were working under pressure to meet the requirements of people. In 2014 and 2015, a month-long strike had greatly affected the drinking water supply in the city, affecting 15 lakh people. The government had to supply water from tankers to meet the demand. No department promotion committee meeting has been conducted despite repeated requests made to the Chief Engineer, PHE Department, Jammu. If our demands are not addressed by March 15, we will start an agitation, said Subash Verma, provincial general secretary, PHE Workers Welfare Association. Verma, who chaired a meeting held here today, expressed dismay over the fact that even permanent employees dont get salaries on time. Both permanent employees and daily earners of the department are not getting salaries on time. The Akhnoor PHE division has not released the salary for January, Verma said. The association alleged that successive state governments had ignored the daily wagers who were engaged by the department for operating the water distribution network in the state. Though the BJP-PDP coalition government had announced that the regularisation process will be implemented in a phased manner, it is yet to achieve any notable progress, said Kulbushan Nanda, a daily earner. There are more than 20,000 daily earners working in the Jammu division alone. shalender@tribune.com Gauri Chhabra March 10 and 11, 2018 gave aspiring and budding entrepreneurs an opportunity to connect and collaborate as the best and brightest minds came together and brainstormed on how to fuel their business growth. The conference at IIT, Mumbai brought together the best of entrepreneurs, innovators, venture capitalists, business model creators, consultants, policy-makers, academicians, and business practitioners to present and discuss innovation and success under the aegis of entrepreneurship for Small and Medium Businesses. Over the past decade or so, in the dilemma between joining family-owned businesses and higher studies, the scales have been tipping towards entrepreneurship and joining family-owned businesses. Let us explore the genesis and the reason why: The genesis Today, family-owned businesses account for two-thirds of the worlds businesses and generate most of the worlds economic output, employment and wealth. In many regions of the world, family companies dominate the economy. Family-controlled firms now make up 19 per cent of the companies in the Fortune Global 500, states The Economist. In India alone, 67 per cent businesses are family run. McKinsey forecasts, that by 2025,there will be more than 15,000 companies worldwide with at least $1 billion in annual revenues, of which 37 per cent will be emerging-market family firms. Thus there is a demand for Family Business Management Programmes whether you are in a successful family business or you are into a business facing challenges and trying to bring about a changeover. A course in Family Business Management that helps students understand how to capitalise on the strengths, navigate the challenges, and guard against the weaknesses of the companies and the families that own them. Are these mutually exclusive? If this makes you think that family business management programmes are incompatible to entrepreneurship because they are for students who are in family businesses that are usually tradition-bound, multi- generational, let me tell you, we need to blur the lines here. The family businesses need to be more entrepreneurial. They need to pass on the entrepreneurial mindset and capabilities to create new streams of wealth across many generations not just pass the business on from one generation to the next. We need to come up with the concept of family entrepreneurship. When a leadership transition occurs in a family business, the new generation of leadership should be careful to maintain and build on the networks and knowledge of the former leaders, while expanding their own networks. This will insure that the business can continue to be entrepreneurial into the future. And when they do, the distinction between Entrepreneurship and Family Business Management studies would begin to blur. Making the right choice In the world of family business, entrepreneurs we celebrate are usually founders of companies. If you wish to be a founder of a company, start your new venture and learn how to navigate, go in for an MBA in entrepreneurship. However, if you wish to join your family business then you are supposed to take care of and grow the founders vision. And in this case an MBA in Entrepreneurship would be more helpful. Therefore, it is imperative that you make the right and informed choice Family Business Management programme vs MBA in Entrepreneurship MBA in Family Business Management and in entrepreneurship both prepare you for setting up and gearing your own business. However, there is a subtle difference. Unlike MBA in Entrepreneurship which prepares students for a setting up a business, the Family Business Management programme is targeted at sustaining, scaling and growing existing businesses. The content and pedagogy includes concepts of entrepreneurship, business sustainability, market trends, which thereby lead to portfolio expansion and business growth. The programme would help you evaluate the state of your family businesses and gear you towards accelerating your business to the next level. Where to study Institutes for Entrepreneurial Management: ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Manpriya Singh Its hard not to get carried away, cut to the chase and straightaway pop up, so how to look like Miss India? More of a secret desire, less of a question, but above all an apt, self-explanatory and resonating title of Sathya Sarans latest bookHow To Look Like Miss India. As a former editor of a magazine that organizes Miss India contests, it is only fair that she was requested to do the book; to share the interesting trivia, the backstage goings-on and a peep into the world of beauty pageants. The book is not about how to be Miss India, it is about how to look like Miss India, she makes the crucial distinction during a short stay in Chandigarh while on her way to Kangra recently. Apart from an insightful peep into what makes a Miss India look the way she does, the book is a practical guide that brings in inputs from experts like Wendell Rodricks, Ambika Pillai, Dr Jamuna Pai, Mickey Contractor and many others. The book also tackles the issues of self-image, confidence, which are all very important to look good, she shares, somewhere admitting that how, We felt at some point we were guilty of promoting the impossible and stereotypical standards of beauty. She adds, Thats why the book talks about how to have toned bodies irrespective of your size, how to have good skin irrespective of your colour. It is common knowledge how girls across the country have fallen victims to achieve a certain size. Even the chaperons were badly hit, shares the story of one of the women she happened to know, who would rush to the bathroom after every meal. Whats holding women back? We might have graduated from womens rights to more encompassing women empowerment, but what the women of today are battling the most is the progression itself. We are battling the fact that we have progressed. For some reason, men believe that womens development is not good for them. They think its me versus you, whereas its always us. A word on the Miss Indias There you goso what are they like? As a person and in real life? She understands the interest and the inquisitiveness that surrounds the women who have especially made a mark in international beauty pageants. Sushmita Sen: She will connect with you instantly and has the quality of making you feel like you are the most important person in her life at that time. Even if she sees you after a year, shell remember your name. Aishwarya Rai: A very bright woman. She knows her subject. She was signed up for the Longines brand within seconds by virtue of how she talks and how she conducts herself, and not just on the basis of her looks. Lara Dutta: She is a very balanced person, always in control of the situation. I was at her home once when her daughter had just come back from school; she was tending to so many things at the same time effortlessly. In the pipeline Coming up is an anthology on marriage, Knot For Keeps, which she has edited. Its modern marriage discussed by 14 different and prominent writers. And then theres the writers conclave, which is quite close to her heart. It is called The Spaces Between WordsThe Unfestival. manpriya@tribunemail.com editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Ludhiana, March 13 Norwegian Ambassador to India, Nils Ragnar Kamsvag, accompanied by Erlend Draget, second secretary, and Undis V Singh, advisor, visited the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today and discussed areas of collaboration with the senior university officials. In his remarks, the Norwegian envoy promised greater focus on issues such as research and development, renewable energy, environmental policy, polar affairs and marine issues. While pointing out that Norway was one of the major investors in India, Kamsvag said he looked forward to cooperation in the area of sustainable growth and in this regard, PAU could a play a vital role. He also applauded the efforts of the university in sensitising farmers towards cost-effective alternatives for stubble burning, while hoping that farmers cooperate by making best use of technologies developed. Referring to the famous Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, the Ambassador remarked that Indias contribution in the seed bank had been immense. While replying to the diplomats question on policy priorities for increasing farmers income in the state, RS Sidhu, registrar, PAU, highlighted that the market price for crops other than wheat and rice needs to be substantially increased along with an assured market for the same, in addition to setting up of processing industry for high-value crops and increased funding for agricultural research at the national level. Sidhu also shared collaborative research and HR-exchange programmes as areas of mutual cooperation and agricultural growth among two countries. The team later visited the crop demonstrations of the department of plant breeding. Earlier, SS Kukal, dean, College of Agriculture, welcomed the dignitaries and Navtej Singh Bains gave an overview of PAUs research activities. Shiv Sethi Shiv Sethi Empowerment is simply a matter of mind. It is, to a larger extent, our state of mind that empowers or disempowers us. In my college library, every day I meet such a symbol of empowerment who, defying all odds, betrays a sense of indomitable courage and dauntless spirit. At age 25, Mandeep Kaur has lent a new meaning and dignity to the concept of empowerment. She has not allowed her crippled body to be an impediment in her career growth. Her gentle demeanour instantly gravitated me towards her from the very first day she joined the college. Without the slightest trace of grimace on her face, she told me that the lower portion of her body was lifeless from birth. She cannot walk, but crawls. With her remarkable zest for life, Mandeep does not consider her situation a congenital flaw. Her story of relentless struggle has become an ever-flowing fountain of inspiration. She lost her mother in her tender years, intensifying her misery. Despite her fathers reluctance to send her to school, she resolved to slouch her way to the village school with her head held high. The treatment meted out to her was not one of compassion. On many occasions, she was reduced to the level of a laughing stock by her classmates, who would call her names. Not bogged down by insensitive remarks, she exemplified an inimitable sense of forbearance. After qualifying her matriculation examination, Mandeeps father refused to let her study further and go to college. She planted the mighty Angad-like foot of her strong spirit on the ground and persuaded her father to send her to college. Eventually, he gave in to her steely resolve. She was now ready to face what would come her way in college with her dogged determination. In no manner could she be called disabled, as she was excellently differently-abled. Defeating the vicissitudes of a crippled body frame, this paragon of empowerment did her major in the course of library science with distinction. Her decision to find a job after higher studies failed to cut ice with her family. They were sure that no one would give her a job due to her handicap. But fortitude of this real-life hero made her win this battle too, and she secured the job of an assistant librarian in one of the best colleges of India. After her arrival in the college library, Mandeep introduced a host of innovative changes in its working. Her eyes lit up with more hope for her future. She stands tall in her spirits when the principal and the management of the institute proudly proclaim in various staff meetings that this lady of charisma and indefatigable zest did not get the job on humanitarian grounds; she rightly deserves this position. Hearing oodles of admiration coming her way, my friend Mandeep feels humbled and exudes a beatific smile through her mute lips. harinder@tribunemail.com New Delhi, March 12 Aviation regulator DGCA today grounded 11 A320 neo aircraft powered by a certain series of Pratt & Whitney engines following instances of engine failures during flights. Of these, eight are operated by IndiGo and three by GoAir. The decision came hours after an A320 neo aircraft of IndiGo suffered engine failure mid-air and made an emergency landing at Ahmedabad airport. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Citing safety of aircraft operations, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said A320 neos fitted with PW1100 engines beyond ESN 450 have been grounded with immediate effect. Both IndiGo and GoAir have been told not to refit these engines, which are spare with them in their inventory, the DGCA said. The regulator would be in touch with the stakeholders and review the situation in due course and when the issue is addressed by European regulator EASA and P&W, it added. On February 9, EASA had issued an emergency airworthiness directive for A320 neo planes fitted with PW1100 engines having a particular serial number. The directive followed instances of the engines shutdown during flights and rejected take-offs involving the A320 neo family aircraft. On February 13, DGCA had said it was monitoring engine glitches to ensure that safety was not compromised. PTI vinaymishra188@gmail.com Mumbai, March 13 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today barred banks from issuing guarantees in the form of letters of undertaking (LoU) as it clamped down on the import financing route used by fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi for allegedly committing Indias biggest bank fraud. The Central bank also banned with immediate effect issuance of letters of comfort, which, like LoUs, are used by importers to fund their overseas purchases. However, letters of credit and bank guarantees will continue upon meeting certain conditions, the RBI said in a statement. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Companies belonging to Modi and Choksi allegedly colluded with employees of Punjab National Banks Brady House branch in Mumbai to obtain fraudulent LoUs, without providing any margin money as security. They did not have any pre-approved credit limit either. These firms raised short-term credit from overseas branches of other Indian banks based on these LoUs. The fraud, which began in March 2011, is now estimated to have crossed $2 billion (Rs 13,000 crore). On a review of the extant guidelines, it has been decided to discontinue the practice of issuance of LoUs/ LoCs for trade credits for imports into India by commercial banks with immediate effect, the RBI said. Letters of credit and bank guarantees for trade credits for imports into India may continue to be issued subject to compliance with (certain) provisions. The change in regulations may hit import- dependent businesses and trade that are often reliant on LoUs to get bank guarantees. PTI FM: 1,213 fraud guarantees given New Delhi: Fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi obtained his first fraudulent guarantee from PNBs Brady House branch in Mumbai on March 10, 2011, and managed to get 1,212 more such guarantees over the next 74 months, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, March 13 VK Jain, the adviser to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has resigned citing personal reasons and family commitments, days after he was questioned by police in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, sources said on Tuesday. Jain has resigned from the post of adviser to the Delhi chief minister citing personal reasons and family commitment, one of the sources told PTI. He has submitted his resignation letter in the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) and sent a copy to the lieutenant governor, the source added. He was appointed to the post in September last year, days after he had retired as the CEO of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). The board is chaired by Kejriwal. Jain had not been coming to the CMO since the incident and had gone on a week-long medical leave, sources said. Prakash was allegedly assaulted by AAP MLAs during a meeting at the chief ministers residence on the evening of February 19. Delhi Police had last week told a court that during interrogation, Jain disclosed that AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan surrounded the chief secretary and saw them assaulting him at Kejriwals residence. However, Jain had earlier said that he did not see anything as he had gone to the washroom at the time of the incident. The alleged assault on Prakash took place in the presence of Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia. In solidarity with Prakash, IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Services (DCS) officers have not been attending meetings with AAP ministers, and only maintaining written communication with them. The joint forum of the Delhi government employees has demanded action against Kejriwal and Sisodia in connection with the case. PTI amansharma@tribunemail.com Ravi S.Singh Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 13 Farmers held a 'Kisan Panchayat' under the aegis of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) on Tuesday here to press for acceptance of their demands and subsequently their delegation met Vice President Venkaiah Naidu. The well-attended panchayat, presided over by BKU president Naresh Tikait, passed a resolution asking government to accept their list charter of 15 demands. Bulk of the gathering was from Haryana, Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Addressing the panchayat, Tikait cautioned that the farmers will escalate their agitation across the country if the government did not accept the demands and ameliorate their condition. He alleged the present government was apathetic to farmers and more attuned to money bags. Farmers across the country are reeling under hardships and committing suicide on account of debt burden and lack of prices to their produce, Tikait said. He alleged that the electoral promises made during the 2014 elections to fix MSP (minimum support price) ensuring profit margin, 50 per cent more than cost inputs as per recommendation of Swaminathan Commission recommendation have not been fulfilled. Besides remunerative MSP computed on C2+50 formula and complete waiver of farmer debt, the other demands include MSP of all crops, long term interest free loans for agriculture and ban on GM crops. Punjab general secretary of BKU, HS Lakowal, who was part of the delegation which met Naidu, said the latter assured to forward their memorandum to the Centre. During the 30 minute-meeting, Naidu empathised with farmers' concerns. Meanwhile, stepping up pressure on the government, the BKU asked its units to organised demonstrations at all districts headquarters on March 27. harinder@tribunemail.com New Delhi, March 12 The Supreme Court today set a deadline of six months for CBI and ED to complete the probe in the 2G spectrum allocation cases and the alleged irregularities in FIPB approval to the Aircel-Maxis deal in which former finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram have been questioned by the agencies. The issue of FIPB clearance in the the Aircel-Maxis deal had surfaced during the probe into the 2G spectrum related cases. The top court said it is very unfortunate that investigation in the 2G cases has not been completed yet and "people of this country cannot be kept in dark in a serious and sensitive case like this. A Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha, who were annoyed by the delay in completion of probe in the 2G spectrum cases, which started in 2010, said it will "haul every officer involved the case if investigation is not completed within next six months. Why is there so much delay in completing the investigation in the 2G spectrum and ancilliary cases. Investigation was ordered by this court in 2010 and since then several orders have been passed but nothing has happened so far. Tell us, how much investigation is pending and why have you not been able to complete the probe yet, the Bench said. The apex court questioned the Centre "whether there was any invisible hand" which was delaying the investigation of the case and directed that investigation in all aspects has to be completed in the cases by next six months. This a very serious and sensitive case. You book everybody responsible in the case and investigation has to be completed in all aspects, the Bench said. Attorney General K K Venuopal said that in the main 2G spectrum case involving the former telecom minister, the special court has acquitted all the accused and similarly in other related cases, the accused were either acquitted or discharged. PTI uttara@tribuneindia.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 13 Foreign lawyers and law firms cannot open offices in India, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. A Bench of Justice AK Goel and Justice UU Lalit however allowed foreign lawyers to "fly in and fly out" to advise their clients on foreign law on a temporary and casual basis. Earlier, the Madras High Court had in its 2012 verdict allowed the concept of fly in and fly out with regard to foreign lawyers and law firms. But it was challenged before the top court. The apex court also permitted foreign lawyers to appear in international commercial arbitration subject to relevant rules applicable and directed Bar Council of India and the Centre to frame rules for the purpose. BCIwhich regulates legal profession in the countryhad on January 10 told the Supreme Court that foreign lawyers and law firms cant be allowed to practise in the country unless they subjected themselves to Indian regulations. On behalf of the BCI, senior Advocate CU Singh had attacked the Madras High Court's verdict. While holding that foreign lawyers or law firms could not practise law in India either on the litigation or non-litigation side unless they fulfilled conditions of the Advocates Act, 1961 and BCI Rules, the Madras High Court had said there was no bar on them either in the Advocates Act or the BCI Rules to visit India for a temporary period on a fly in, fly out basis, for giving legal advice on foreign law to their clients in India. The Madras High Court had also held foreign lawyers could not be debarred from coming to India and conducting arbitration proceedings in disputes involving international commercial arbitration. However, BCI had contended the exceptions carved out by the Madras High Court went against Section 29 of the Advocates Act, which defined practice the profession of law. Fly in and fly out goes against 29 of the Act," the BCI said. The BCI has been demanding reciprocity with the countries that want their lawyers to be allowed law practice in India. BCI had drawn the top courts attention to the 2009 judgment of the Bombay High Court, which held that the RBI was not right in allowing foreign law firms to open liaison offices in India. Foreign law firms could carry on their liaison activities in India only in accordance with the Advocates Act, it had said. The central government had said that either the BCI should frame rules or the government could exercise its powers under the Act. Contending that Fly in, fly out by foreign lawyers didnt amount to practice, senior advocate Arvind Datar on in January told the Supreme Court they could not be barred from coming to India and conducting international commercial arbitration. Appearing for certain UK-based law firms, Datar had told the Bench that only court practice of lawyers would fall within the ambit of the Advocates Act, 1961. My argument is fly in and fly out will not amount to practice. International Commercial arbitration involves a party who is not Indian and law that may be foreign law. Indian lawyers and retired judge regularly go abroad to Dubai, UK, etc. to appear for arbitrations without getting enrolled as lawyers in those countries, he contended. Datar had contended that that Section 33 of the Advocates Act permitted a person other than an advocate under the Act, to practise law in certain situations. He had defended the Madras High Courts verdict that allowed the concept of fly in and fly out with regard to foreign lawyers and law firms. The Law Commission in its 266th report had supported entry of foreign lawyers and law firms. monicakchauhan@gmail.com Beijing, March 13 Indian Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale on Tuesday held talks with a top official of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) ahead of high-level visits, including that of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to Beijing next month. Bambawale met with Guo Yezhou, the Vice-Minister of International Department of CPC, the Indian Embassy here said. CPC's international department is placed higher than the Foreign Ministry in China's state hierarchy. This is the second meeting between the two since January. They shared ideas for further strengthening bilateral exchanges and visits, following up on their first meeting, a brief press note from the Indian Embassy here said today. This is also the first meeting between the Indian and the Chinese side after Chinese parliament, the National People's Congress, in a historic move on March 11 abolished the two-term limit for President Xi Jinping, paving the way for him to continue to be in power beyond 2023 and perhaps for life. The move was expected to have huge impact on both China's internal and external relations, especially with neighbours like India in the backdrop of last year's 73-day long Dokalam standoff. Bambawale's meeting with Guo came in the backdrop of Sitharaman's announcement that she would visit China next month, though she gave no details. Officials on both sides say that her visit would send a strong signal to the international community about the positive traction of the Sino-Indian ties, setting aside last year's bilateral tensions over a host of issues including the Dokalam standoff. Her visit was expected to be followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Chinese city Qingdao in June this year to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Top Chinese leaders too were expected to visit India this year. The SCO summit preparations included the Foreign Ministers' meeting besides a flurry of meetings of top officials from various ministries of the member countries. As the two countries made efforts to reset the ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the media here last week that India and China should shed suspicion and manage differences by meeting halfway. "The Chinese dragon and Indian Elephant must not fight each other but dance with each other," he said. The External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi welcomed Wang's comments saying that India is willing to work with China to develop relations based on commonalities, while dealing with differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each other's interests. PTI editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 12 A special court today sent Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, to judicial custody for 13 days in INX Media corruption case. The court also dismissed his plea to provide him a separate cell in Tihar Jail due to his threat perception. The court dismissed his appeal for an urgent hearing on his bail plea as also his threat perception as his father P Chidambaram who, as a union minister in the previous UPA government, had handled several sensitive issues. Karti was produced on expiry of his three-day police remand before special judge Sunil Rana who sent him to Tihar Jail, after the CBI, in whose custody he was quizzed continuously for 12 days since his arrest on February 28 from Chennai, said he was no longer required for further custodial interrogation. In view of the fact that no more police custody of the accused is sought by CBI, accused Karti Chidambaram is remanded to judicial custody. He be produced on March 24, the special judge said. The court, which refused Kartis plea for a separate cell in the jail in view of threat perception as during his fathers tenure as Union Home Minister several terrorists were kept in Tihar jail, said the social status of the Chidambaram family cannot be ignored but he cannot be treated differently from the other accused persons. The apprehension raised by the senior counsel for accused cannot be ignored keeping in view the social status of the accused and his family, more specifically, his father, who is a former union minister. However, only keeping in view the fact of social status of the accused and his father, he cannot be treated different from other accused persons and cannot be allowed to be kept in a separate prison. However, lock up in-charge and jail superintendent are directed to provide and ensure proper security and safety to the accused during judicial custody, as per rules, the court said. The court allowed Karti to carry spectacles and medicines as per prescription subject to examination and approval by the jail doctor, but denied his request to carry toiletries, books, clothes and home food. It also said his bail plea would be heard on March 15 as scheduled. harinder@tribunemail.com New Delhi, March 12 The Supreme Court today issued a notice to the Bar Council of India (BCI) on a BJP leaders plea seeking to debar MPs and MLAs from practising as advocates. Ashwani Kumar Upadhyaya, a Delhi BJP leader and advocate, contended it was against the spirit of BCI rules that required advocates not to be engaged in any fulltime trade, business, occupation or profession as it would amount to conflict of interest. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Issuing notice to the BCI, which regulates legal profession and education in India, a Bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra said it wanted to know the perception of the rules and posted the matter for April 23. It is estimated that over 500 legislators practise as lawyers. TNS vinaymishra188@gmail.com New Delhi, March 13 The crucial Finance Bill for 2018-19 could not be taken up in the Lok Sabha today as unabated noisy protests took toll of the proceedings for the seventh consecutive day. The Lok Sabha, which was scheduled to take up the Finance Bill 2018-19 and the Appropriation bills for FY 2017-18 and 2018-19 today, was first adjourned till noon following uproar by members of the Opposition and NDA allies such as the TDP and then for the day after the listed papers were laid. Cut motions on demands for grants of the ministries of railways, agriculture and farmers welfare and social justice and empowerment were also listed on the business agenda of the Lower House today, which could not be taken up. The Question Hour and the Zero Hour were washed out as scores of members from the TDP, Congress, AIADMK, TRS and Trinamool Congress trooped into the Well, forcing Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to first adjourn the proceedings for about 50 minutes soon after it had assembled for the day. When the House reassembled at noon, the protests continued and no legislative business could be carried out. Members of YSR Congress and TDP, which quit the Central government last week but remains part of the ruling NDA, were demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh. While the Congress and the Trinamool Congress raised the issue of Rs 12,700 crore fraud in Punjab National Bank, the TRS sought increased reservation quota and AIADMK wanted the government to set up Cauvery management board. Members from the Left parties were seen standing at their seats, holding some photographs. But the issue they wanted to raise could not be ascertained in the melee. As the bedlam continued, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings for the day after the tabling of the listed papers. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, March 13 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched a campaign to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) from India by 2025, five years ahead of a globally set deadline. After inaugurating the Delhi End-TB Summit here, the Prime Minister launched the TB-free India Campaign to take the activities under the National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination forward in a mission mode for ending the epidemic by 2025. A target has been set to end TB globally by 2030. I would like to announce that we have set aim to eradicate it from India five years ahead by 2025, Modi said. He stressed on analysing the situation and changing the approach, saying efforts to curb tuberculosis had not yield successful results yet and that state governments had a major role to play in elimination of TB from the country. He said frontline TB physicians and workers could make a major contribution in this direction. State governments have a major role to play in elimination of TB from India. I have written to all chief ministers to join this mission, Modi said, adding it would boost the spirit of cooperative federalism. He said TB is the most prevalent among communicable diseases in the country and the poor were worst affected by it. Every step taken towards eradicating the disease is directly connected to their lives, he added. Leaders from across the globe have converged on the national capital for the summit, hosted by the Union Ministry of Health along with the WHO and the Stop TB Partnership. TB was responsible for 1.7 million deaths in 2016, despite most cases being curable while over 10 million people contract TB every year. The summit would set the stage for the September 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB, where for the first time, TB would be discussed in the UN General Assembly at the Heads of State level. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, March 13 The Supreme Court will hear the EDs plea challenging the Delhi High Court order granting interim protection to Karti Chidambaram, son of Congress leader P Chidambaram, in a money laundering case related to the INX Media corruption matter on March 15. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud on Tuesday considered the Enforcement Directorates submission for urgent hearing of its appeal and said it would be heard on Thursday. Advocate Rajat Nair, appearing for the probe agency, mentioned the EDs appeal for urgent hearing. On March 9, the Delhi High Court gave Karti a breather in a money laundering case and restrained the ED from arresting him till March 20. A CBI court on Monday sent Karti to judicial custody till March 24. The court also refused his plea for urgent hearing on his bail plea which was already listed for March 15. Following the high court order, he cannot be arrested by the ED if the CBI court grants him bail on March 15. Karti has approached the high court to strike down the powers of arrest of the ED under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as unconstitutional and in violation of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which deal with the rights of people for equality before law and protection of personal liberty. The plea sought quashing of the enforcement case information report (ECIR) and probe by the ED for the offences under the PMLA. It sought quashing of the probe by the ED, alleging that it was contrary to the procedure established by law and violates Kartis fundamental rights. The ED had registered a case against Karti and others in May last year. It had registered an ECIR, the EDs equivalent of an FIR, against the accused named in the CBI complaint. These accused included Karti, INX Media and its directors, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea. PTI I am person who is uncompromisingly black and unapologetically gay. Deal with it. I am person who is uncompromisingly black and unapologetically gay. Deal with it. Alvin McEwen Published by BANG Showbiz English Michael K. Williams, Cecily Tyson, and Ed Asner were among those remembered during the Primetime Emmy Awards annual In M... Dear Readers, Stonewall Gazette is being placed on an indefinite hiatus due to my health. I have stage four peritoneal cancer. Life's journey can be a roug... Sam Kestenbaum @ The New York Times: Life After Proclaiming a Trump Re-election as Divinely Ordained. Oliver Willis @ The American Independent: GOP candi... Fox News might want to have their White House correspondent, Peter Doocy, examined by a mental health expert. He keeps displaying signs of masochism or oth... The Hollywood Reporter reports: The first full trailer for the upcoming Tom Hanks sci-fi movie Finch has been released by Apple TV+. Finch formerly tit... uttara@tribuneindia.com Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 13 Congress strategists are working overtime to ensure the success of the dinner party to be hosted by Sonia Gandhi for Opposition leaders at her residence on Tuesday evening. Invitations have gone out to around 18 leadersTMC president Mamata Banerjee, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati, DMKs M Stalin, JMMs Hemant Soren and Babu Lal Marandi, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha Prajatantrik chief Babulal Marandi, NCs Farooq and Omar Abdullah, CPMs Sitaram Yechury, CPIs D Raja and RSPs NK Premchandran, as well as leaders of IUML, Kerala Congress and RLD. Congress sources said the TDP, still being part of the NDA, has not been invited. The party is significant to forge Opposition unity in the face of growing electoral threats from the BJP that recently expanded its footprint in the northeast also. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi said in a recent public statement that all like-minded parties should come together and sink their differences to defeat the BJP. She also said the Congress won't let the BJP return to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. It remains to be seen how strongly her message resonates with the Opposition considering new emerging equations where the Congress is finding itself out of conversations like in party ruled Karnataka, where Mayawatis BSP announced a pre poll tie up with JDS. The question is whether Congress is still seen as the leader of a potential non-NDA front for 2019 Lok Sabha polls or whether new patterns could emerge. amansharma@tribunemail.com United Nations, March 13 UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has expressed strong concern over continued violence and hostilities in Syria, saying the Arab country is "bleeding inside and out". He called for full implementation of a UN resolution for a ceasefire in the strife-torn nation. "I am deeply saddened by the immense loss and cascading suffering of the Syrian people. And I am deeply disappointed by all those who have, year after year, by action or inaction, by design or indifference, allowed this to happenSyria is bleeding inside and out," the UN chief said. He made the remarks yesterday while briefing the 15-member UN Security Council on the implementation of Security Council resolution 2401 unanimously adopted last month. Along with a 30-day ceasefire, the resolution calls for delivering aid, evacuating the sick and wounded, lifting sieges, accelerating humanitarian mine action, and protecting civilians and infrastructure. According to UN data, the conflict has produced more than 5.6 million Syrian refugees and 6.1 million internally displaced people, with more than 13 million people inside the country requiring humanitarian assistance, including nearly six million children. "Let me highlight just one stark fact on this grimmest of anniversaries: In 2017, more children were killed in Syria than during any other year since the war began," he said. However, violence continues in Eastern Ghouta and beyond, including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and into Damascus and its suburbs, Guterres said, warning that in Eastern Ghouta, airstrikes, shelling and ground offensives have even intensified and claimed many hundreds of civilian lives, some even saying more than 1,000 were killed. Guterres said none of the Council's directives have been implemented: the provision of humanitarian aid and services has not been safe, unimpeded or sustained; no sieges have been lifted and not one critically sick or wounded person has yet been evacuated. "I appeal to all parties for the full implementation of resolution 2401 throughout the whole of Syrian territory. The United Nations is ready to assist in any efforts to make that happen," the UN Chief said, calling on all states "with influence" to exercise it in support of the efforts of the United Nations and the implementation of the resolution. "We are obviously far from 'safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid' as demanded in resolution 2401 as well as other relevant Security Council resolutions. And so the humanitarian and human rights situation is becoming more desperate by the day," he said. Guterres added that all parties involved should be reminded that even efforts to combat terrorist groups identified by the Council do not supersede these humanitarian obligations. He noted, however, that in some areas, like Deir ez-Zour and Douma, the conflict is diminishing in intensity. A ceasefire between the government and Jaish al Islam forces in Douma is largely holding, he said, noting that their meeting took place yesterday and today, and there has been progress on civilian evacuations and humanitarian aid. Guterres' oral report detailed latest efforts of his Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to bring about a political solution to the conflict and UN activities to address the humanitarian crisis. "On Thursday, this conflict will enter its eighth year. I refuse to lose my hope to see Syria rising from the ashes," he said. - PTI vinaymishra188@gmail.com Shahira Naim Tribune News Service Lucknow, March 13 The BJP has evidently nominated a ninth candidate for the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh to upset the applecart of Samajwadi Party-BSP electoral understanding that poses a threat to the saffron party. For the 10 vacancies arising in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has nominated nine candidates, while SP can safely send one candidate, the spare votes of SP and Congress was to facilitate the entry of BSP candidate Bhimrao Ambedkar. This mutual give and take was the basis of Mayawati extending support to the two SP candidates for the Lok Sabha bypolls in Phulpur and Gorakhpur. The new social engineering bringing the OBC, Dalits and Muslims on one platform had visibly made BJP nervous. If this new effort had worked on the ground or not will become clear on Wednesday when the result of the two bypolls is declared. However, sources point out that BJP did not want to take any chances and decided to nip this new found understanding in its bud by throwing a spanner in the works by nominating a 9th candidate diminishing the chances of victory of the lone BSP candidate dependent on the spare votes of SP and Congress. BJP wants papers of Cong candidate rejected Gandhinagar: The BJP is demanding a probe into alleged irregularities in the nomination forms submitted by Congress candidate Naran Rathwa, a former Union minister. This despite the fact that the returning officer validated all nomination forms on Tuesday. State BJP chief Jitu Vaghani claimed an inquiry by his party had revealed that the Parliament Secretariat in Delhi issued Rathwa the no dues certificate around 3.30 pm on Monday, half-an-hour after the deadline for submitting the forms by 3 pm. This makes it clear that the no dues certificate attached by Rathwa with his nomination forms was a fake and therefore his nomination should be rejected, Vaghani said. OC editorial@tribune.com Parvesh Sharma Tribune News Service Sangrur, March 12 After finding the Labour Department office of Sunam repeatedly locked, AAP MLA Aman Arora along with the some affected labourers today threatened to go on an indefinite dharna if the authorities failed to begin work at the office. Area labourers alleged they had been making repeated rounds of the office in Sunam city for the verification their passbooks issued by the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board to avail benefits of various social welfare schemes. I along with other area labourers have been making rounds of the office but it is always closed. This is happening for the past many days, alleged Jasvir, a labourer. Some women, who came from Bashera village, also complained about the office being locked for the past more than five months. Aman Arora said some days back, he checked from local labour officer Neha Gupta about the reasons of closure of the office and she said that it opened only on Friday and Monday. Its Monday today but when I checked, the office was again locked. How can the authorities close the office? I will start a dharna along with other labourers if the government fails to take appropriate action, Arora said. Labour officer Neha Gupta did not respond to the call. editorial@tribune.com Praful Chander Nagpal Fazilka, March 12 The district administration has recommended action against the contractors of two quarries in Fazilka district for allegedly violating digging norms. The Deputy Commissioners office shot off a letter to Director Industries, Punjab, today to take stern action against the contractors of quarries at Sukhera Bodla and Mohar Singh Wala villages in Fazilka district. Deputy Commissioner Isha Kalia said that during the inspection of the quarries, it has come to the notice of the officials that the contractors had dug the quarries much deeper than the stipulated depth of 10 ft approved by the government. The excavation of sand from these quarries had also been stopped till further directions. The licence of quarry-II situated in Rana village had been cancelled two months ago following irregularities, said the DC. The Deputy Commissioner held a meeting of senior officers, including Nodal Officer-cum-Additional Deputy Commissioner Ranbir Singh Mudhal; SSP Fazilka Ketan Baliram Patil and officials of the Industries Department on the issue. The DC has directed the officials concerned and contractors of the legal quarries to install CCTV cameras to prevent any illegal activities there. An information board will also be installed at the quarry site mentioning the area, khasra number and approved depth etc on the board. The administration has also decided to install cameras on link roads to identify the vehicles carrying the sand. An official of the government department will visit every quarry daily at 5 pm to prevent digging after the allowed time. Excavation is not allowed from 5 pm to 7 am. CCTV cameras to be installed The DC has directed the officials concerned and contractors of the legal quarries to install CCTV cameras to prevent any illegal activities there. The administration has also decided to install cameras on link roads to identify the vehicles carrying the sand. . editorial@tribune.com Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service Chandigarh, March 12 All jail inmates are equal, but some are more equal than others in Punjab and Haryana when it comes to payment of compensation in case of unnatural or custodial deaths. The anomaly surfaced before the Punjab and Haryana High Court during the hearing of a court on its own motion or suo motu case on unnatural deaths. Taking cognisance of inconsistencies in payment, a Division Bench of the High Court has called for details of the compensation paid, the cause of death and the reasons for paying different amounts. The suo motu proceedings against the Union of India and other respondents by the High Court have its genesis in a Supreme Court judgment rendered in the case of Re-inhuman Conditions in 1,382 Prisons. In its judgment dated September 15, 2017, the apex court had asked the Chief Justices of all High Courts across India to register a suo motu public interest petition. The effort was to identify the kin of prisoners, who admittedly died an unnatural death, as revealed by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), during 2012 and 2015 and thereafter. The apex court had further directed the award of suitable compensation, unless adequate relief had already been awarded. As the matter came up for resumed hearing before the Division Bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal, senior advocate Reeta Kohli referred to replies filed by Haryana and Punjab. Appearing before the Bench as amicus curiae (friend of the court), Kohli said reasons had not been given for the release of different amounts of compensation in various cases. The Bench directed: Let a detailed affidavit be filed, giving the particulars of the cause of death, the amount of compensation paid and the reasons for paying different amounts. The Bench also asked the Union Territory of Chandigarh to file details of unnatural/custodial deaths which have taken place and the amount of compensation. It was also asked to spell out the reasons for awarding different compensation, if any. Issuing a slew of directions aimed at jail reforms, the Supreme Court had also directed the state governments, in conjunction with the State Legal Services Authority, the National and State Police Academy and the Bureau of Police Research and Development, to conduct training and sensitisation programmes for senior police officials in all prisons on their functions, duties and responsibilities as also the rights and duties of prisoners. Court seeks details from states, UT editorial@tribune.com Gagan K Teja Tribune News Service Patiala, March 12 The Punjabi University authorities have decided to give only half pay to its employees for February following a financial crisis. The university will also be making tax deductions from the half salary, which means that the employees will be left with hardly any amount to meet their monthly expenses. This is for the first time in the history of the university that the employees will be paid their salary in parts and that, too, when the university gets its monthly share of government grant that is about Rs 7.34 crore. The total bill of salaries of its employees and pension of the retired staff comes out to be about Rs 27.5 crore. Of this, the university has disbursed the salaries and pensions to its Class C employees, which come out to be only about Rs 3.5 crore. However, the university is yet to pay Rs 24 crore to its employees, but they dont have enough money for the same. The employees and pensioners are annoyed with the decision claiming that it would be difficult for them to run their households. One of the senior professors said, My half salary comes out to be Rs 90,000. However, my income tax is Rs 40,000. Rs 20,000 will be deducted for my PF contribution and I have taken a loan, the instalment of which is Rs 20,000. How am I supposed to run my family in Rs 10,000? University Registrar Manjit Singh Nijjer, when contacted, expressed helplessness in the issue claiming that the university did not have sufficient money and could not release the full salaries. Punjabi University Vice-Chancellor Prof BS Ghuman, when contacted, said the university had taken the decision keeping in mind the interests of the employees only as they did not have enough money to pay the salaries. Rather than postponing the release of their salaries, we have decided to pay them in parts. This is the best we can do with the existing resources, he added. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Bathinda, March 12 The state government is launching a Drug Abuse Prevention Officers (DAPO) programme, a multi-pronged module to fight drug abuse, rehabilitate addicts and motivate vulnerable youngsters to stay away from drugs. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh will launch the programme from Khatkar Kalan on March 23 wherein he will administer oath to all DAPOs. The IG, Special Task Force (STF), Balkar Singh Sidhu, said this while presiding over a meeting of DCs and SSPs of Bathinda, Mansa, Sri Muktsar Sahib and Faridkot. He said the main motive of the drive was to have nasha mukt mohallas in the vicinity. The work on enrolling volunteers for the programme had already begun in various districts. He said to implement the programme effectively by reaching the grass-roots level, district mission teams would be constituted. DCs, SSPs, civil surgeons and other district officers would be the part of the team. The same module of teams would be constituted at the subdivision and village level too. He said anyone could contribute towards the eradication of drugs by being eyes and ears of the government by becoming a DAPO. All the DAPOs would be imparted training and issued identity cards. harinder@tribunemail.com Jupinderjit Singh Tribune News Service Chandigarh, March 12 Hounded by the police for several years following the brutal murder of his Canada-born wife Jaswinder Kaur Jassi by contract killers in June 2000, Sukhwinder Singh Mithu has finally got justice. The Commission of Inquiry into false cases set up by the Capt Amarinder Singh government has ordered action under Section 182 of the CrPC against the police officials concerned. It has also ordered that they pay compensation, to be decided by the government, for harassing him. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Jassi was killed by contract killers allegedly hired by her mother Malkiat Kaur and uncle Surjit Singh Badesha on June 8, 2000. The two are yet to be extradited to face trial here. Of the 14 contract killers, three are serving a life term. Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice BS Mehndiratta, in their orders issued today, said: We are of the considered view that the complainant (Mithu, a resident of Kaunke Khosa in Jagraon) has been unnecessarily harassed. Adequate compensation should be paid to him and recovered from the police officials. Also, proceedings under Section 182 of CrPC should be initiated against the police officials who have lodged false cases against him. Mithu, 41, while moving the commission, had said: The persons who got my wife killed got me booked in a false case of rape in 2004. I was acquitted in April 2008. These persons have been trying hard to pay me off a large sum for withdrawing the charges against her parents. They have tried to intimidate me with false cases. rchopra@tribunemail.com Amritsar, March 13 Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday unveiled a 10-ft-tall statue of freedom fighter Sardar Udham Singh at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. The initiative was undertaken by NGO International Sarab Kamboj Sabha, which had been demanding the installation of the statue for four decades. The marble statue of Udham Singh, in a portrait of taking a pledge to avenge the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, was installed on Monday at the main entrance. The statue is said to be prepared in Rajasthan at a cost of Rs 10 lakh. It was March 13, 1940 when Udham Singh killed Michael O Dwyer (at Caxton Hall in London) to avenge the infamous massacre on April 13, 1919. The Central government has already announced a slew of programmes to commemorate the centenary of the massacre next year. A statue of the martyr in a charging position while holding a pistol is installed outside the Hall Gate in the city but the long-pending demand to install another one at the iconic Bagh was fulfilled on Tuesday. IANS editorial@tribune.com Parvesh Sharma Tribune News Service Lehragaga, March 12 Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal today said his partys core committee had decided to boycott the two panels formed by the Congress government to probe sacrilege incidents and alleged fake cases during the SAD-BJP rule since both were headed by Congress men. He said they wanted investigation into the sacrilege cases by a sitting Supreme Court judge. Sukhbir and other senior leaders today addressed a poll khol rally in Lehragaga. He alleged that the registration of false cases against SAD workers had increased since the formation of the Congress government. We are preparing a list of officers who are working at the behest of Congress leaders and registering false cases against Akalis. They will have to pay a big price after the formation of our government, he said. He alleged that the CMwas lying to Punjabis by claiming that 1.6 lakh youth had been given jobs in the last one year, while the truth was that the government was taking credit for campus placements. Party MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and former minister Parminder Dhindsa rued that all development works in Lehragaga had been stopped by the Congress government. Former minister Bikram Majithia said the government gave only one job in the last one year, that too to former Chief Minister Beant Singhs grandson. ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM GS Paul Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 13 Exactly 78 years after Shaheed Udham Singh gunned down Michael ODwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab when the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh unveiled the martyrs statue at the entrance to the memorial here today. Condemning the vandalisation of statues of dignitaries across the country, Rajnath said state governments had been directed to initiate stern action against the culprits. Ideological differences dont permit anyone to show intolerance by way of damaging statues of those who contributed to nation-building. It was never a part of Indian culture and tradition. It would not be tolerated, he said. He stated that the statue was an initiative of the International Sarav Kamboj Samaj to pay homage to Shaheed Udham Singh, who belonged to the Kamboj community. Highlighting the Centre Governments plans to improve infrastructure at Jallianwala Bagh, he said the centenary of the massacre would be observed by the entire nation for at least a year. Cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot read out Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singhs congratulatory message on the installation of the statue. Endorsing the demand of Haryana minister Karan Dev Kamboj, he said efforts would be made to set up a Chair named after Shaheed Udham Singh at Guru Nanak Dev University. Others present included Union Minister of State Vijay Sampla, legislator Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik and local MP Gurjeet Aujla. Rs 50,000 GST levied International Sarav Kamboj Samaj president Shinder Pal Singh said the fibre-glass statue, made by a Mohali-based firm, had cost Rs 3.5 lakh, including Rs 50,000 as GST. He said the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Trust had promised to take charge of its maintenance. In Jalandhar, Congress leader Himanshu Pathak questioned Centres double standards on exempting items under the GST regime. The Centre has exempted prasadam at Tirupati temple from tax on a request by the Andhra Pradesh Government. But why has langar served at the Golden Temple not been exempted from GST? he asked while addressing the media. SGPC hands over memo to home minister Home Minister Rajnath Singh paid obeisance at the Golden Temple on Tuesday. SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal honoured him with siropa, a shawl and a golden model of the shrine. Longowal handed over a memorandum to Rajnath, demanding GST waiver on langar purchases, early release of Sikh political prisoners, the return of manuscripts and holy books of the Sikh Reference Library that were taken into possession by the Army during Operation Bluestar and minority status and job reservation for Jammu and Kashmir Sikhs. The SGPC also demanded that steps be initiated to open the corridor between Dera Baba Nanak and Kartarpur Sahib (Pakistan) ahead of Guru Nanaks 550th birth anniversary in 2019. Rajnath promised to look into the issues. editorial@tribune.com Archit Watts Tribune News Service Muktsar, March 12 Students of Class X faced a harrowing time on Day One of the annual examinations today as wrong timings were mentioned on the admit cards issued to them by the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB). The exam was scheduled to be held from 10 am to 1:15 pm, but the admit cards read: 2 to 5:15 pm. When some students did not turn up at the exam centre at DAV Senior Secondary School here, the authorities asked the school concerned to look into the matter. Later, students were called to the centre. However, the teachers on exam duty asked them to bring fresh admit cards mentioning the right timings. Then, the management of Sant Kabir Public High School at Rahurianwali village downloaded admit cards sent anew by the PSEB, following which the students were allowed to appear in the exam. Savita Aggarwal, Principal, Sant Kabir Public High School, said, Seven students of our school had to face this problem. Malkit Singh, District Education Officer (DEO), said, I am not aware of this incident. There were six-seven students appearing in the Class X exam in the open category at the centre at Government Girls Senior Secondary School here whose roll numbers were not issued by the PSEB. But when I got a call from the high-ups, these students were issued roll numbers and allowed to appear in the exam. They were given extra time too. Sukhjinder Singh and Baljitv Singh, parents of the examinees, said, We came to know around 10:20 am that the exam had started. We rushed our children to the centre. Their examination started after a delay of nearly an hour, but they were not given extra time. Day 1: 14 booked for impersonation Tarn Taran: In a case of impersonation on the first day of Class X exams, 14 students have been booked under Sections 419, 420 and 120B of the IPC by the local city police. Seven students who were appearing in the exam in place of other students at the local Sant Singh Sukha Singh Modern High School have been arrested by the police when the students on behalf of whom the students appeared in the exam were found absent. The exams are being held by the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB). The matter came to light during the surprise visit of a team of administrative officials led by Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal, Deputy Commissioner, when the paper of English was going on. oc laxmi@tribune.com Washington, March 13 The US has made it clear that the meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would happen only if Pyongyang sticks to the promises over its missiles and nuclear programme. Last week, a South Korean delegation, led by its national security advisor, had conveyed Kims invitation to Trump for a meeting. The invitation was accepted by Trump, taking the world by surprise. The North Korean leader reportedly expressed a commitment to denuclearisation. We fully expect that it (the meeting) will (take place). The offer was made and weve accepted. North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises and, if so, the meeting will go on as planned, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. Most of that is an inter-administration, interagency process and Im not going to get ahead of any of the details of where, when, or any of that here today, she said, responding to a series of questions on the meeting between the two leaders. Sanders said the maximum pressure campaign on North Korea is working. Meanwhile, US National Security Advisor HR McMaster and US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, briefed members of the UN Security Council on developments related to North Korea. During the meeting, McMaster and Haley urged the international community to maintain maximum pressure on the North Korean regime. While we cant say whether Kims offer is genuine, we can say that this historic meeting would not have been possible without the international communitys participation in the maximum pressure campaign, initiated by the Trump Administration, and a commitment to hold North Korea accountable through three strong UN sanctions resolutions in 2017, Haley said. PTI laxmi@tribune.com Dhaka, March 13 A court in southeastern Bangladesh today sentenced 39 activists of the ruling Awami League to death for brutally killing a fellow local level party leader four years ago. Ekramul Haque, the upazila Awami League president, was hacked, shot and burnt alive by miscreants inside his car in broad daylight in Feni towns Academy area on May 20, 2014. The court handed down the death penalty to 39 people in this single case, a prosecutor said. All the convicts were local leaders and activists of Awami League, he added. He said the district judges court, however, acquitted 16 people, one being a local leader of the main Opposition BNP, though initially he appeared to be the prime accused in the case. Haques brother Rezaul Haque Jasim had filed the murder case accusing BNP leader Minar and 30-35 unidentified people for the deadly attack. A total of 44 arrests were made over the years and 15 of them confessed in court. PTI vermaajay1968@gmail.com Tokyo, March 12 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his close ally, Finance Minister Taro Aso, faced growing pressure on Monday over a suspected cover-up of a cronyism scandal that has dogged the premier for more than a year. Copies of documents seen by Reuters showed that references to Abe, his wife and Aso were removed from finance ministry records of the discounted sale of state-owned land to a school operator with ties to Abes wife, Akie. Abe, now in his sixth year in office, has denied that he or his wife did favours for the school operator, Moritomo Gakuen, and has said he would resign if evidence was found that they had. Excised references seen by Reuters did not appear to show that Abe or his wife intervened directly in the deal. Suspicion of a cover-up could slash Abes ratings and dash his hopes for a third term as leader of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Victory in the LDP September leadership vote would put him on track to become Japans longest-serving premier. The doubts are also putting pressure on Aso to resign. It could shake confidence in the administration as a whole. I strongly feel responsibility as the head of administration, Abe told reporters after the finance ministry reported on the altered documents. I apologise to all of the people. Abe said he wanted Aso to make every effort to clarify all the facts and ensure such things do not happen again. Aso told a separate news conference that several officials at his ministrys division in charge of the sale were involved in altering the documents to make them conform with testimony in Parliament by the then-head of the division. It has become clear that there was a cover-up and falsification, opposition Democratic Party leader Yuichiro Tamaki told reporters. He said Aso should resign and Parliament hold hearings on the matter. The 77-year-old Aso, who is also deputy premier and whose backing is vital for Abe, apologised for his ministrys actions, but said that he had no intention of stepping down. The risk for Aso and Abe, experts said, is that the suspected cover-up does more damage than the land sale itself. The cover-up is now a bigger issue than the original incident, said Koichi Nakano, a professor at Sophia University. A finance ministry official said that 14 items had been altered in the documents after February last year, when the scandal broke, at the instruction of the ministrys financial division to match testimony in Parliament. One such reference was to Akies visit to the school at the heart of the suspected scandal. Also removed was a reference to ties by Abe and Aso to a conservative lobby group, Nippon Kaigi. The records include a comment from Yasunori Kagoike, the former head of Moritomo Gakuen, citing Akie Abe as telling him: This is good land so please proceed. Reuters Cronyism scandal Questions about the sale of land, sold at a huge discount that officials said was for clean-up costs, have dogged PM Abe since it became public last year. Abe has denied that he or his wife did any favours for the school operator, Moritomo Gakuen, which promotes a nationalist education curriculum. Abe has said he would resign if evidence were found that they had. Why do these alterations matter? Before-and-after versions of the documents, seen by Reuters, do not appear to amount to a smoking gun showing direct intervention in the land sale by either Abe or his wife, Akie. The changes include the removal of a reference to a visit to the school by Abes wife and to ties that Abe and Finance Minister Taro Aso had to a conservative lobby group, Nippon Kaigi, both well-known facts. If the scandal blows up, with evidence emerging that Abe was indeed involved, or his reasonably strong public approval rates plunge, he could eventually resign, though it is too early to predict that now What happens to Aso? Finance Minister Taro Aso (R) said he would not resign, but pressure on him to step down is likely to grow, at least to take responsibility for poor oversight of his ministry.Abe is expected to try to keep Aso, who doubles as deputy premier, in his important finance post. But the arrest of any officials over the alteration of the public documents would worsen Asos position and make it even harder to stay on. Already public anger is growing. A Sankei newspaper poll over the weekend said 71% of respondents said Aso should go. What are broader implications? Some financial market players worry about the impact on Abenomics policies of hyper-easy monetary policy, fiscal spending and structural reform. Possible Abe successors including former foreign minister Fumio Kishida, as well as Ishiba, have spoken about the need to fix Japans ballooning debt with fiscal consolidation. A bigger concern is that the scandal could kickoff a period of political instability. Abe is now in his sixth year in office, rare longevity in a country which saw a string of revolving-door leaders before he took office. Japan also faces the security worry of North Koreas missile and nuclear threat. On the trade front, it must deal with US President Donald Trumps protectionist policies. gspannu7@gmail.com Kathmandu, March 13 Nepals first woman President Bidya Devi Bhandari was on Tuesday re-elected for a second term in office with an overwhelming majority. Incumbent President Bhandari, the Left alliances candidate, was elected with more than a two-thirds majority as she defeated her Nepali Congress (NC) rival Kumari Laxmi Rai in the presidential election. Bhandari secured 39,275 votes while the NCs Rai garnered 11,730 votes, Election Commission spokesperson Nawaraj Dhakal said. Bhandari, 56, won since her nomination was backed by the ruling Left alliance of the CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre), the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and other fringe parties. She became Nepals first woman president in 2015. Bhandari was elected twice in parliamentary elections in 1994 and 1999. With 148 lawmakers in the Federal Parliament and 243 in Provincial Assemblies, the CPN-UML commands a total vote of 23,356. CPN (Maoist Centre) has 65 lawmakers in parliament and 108 in provincial assemblies, which account for 10,319 votes. The Nepali Congress, which has 76 seats in parliament and 113 in provincial assemblies, has a total vote of 11,428. With Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and other fringe parties also deciding to support Bhandari, she was virtually assured of getting the minimum 26,921 votes needed for her re-election. An electoral college, including members of parliament and provincial assemblies, will vote in the election. PTI laxmi@tribune.com Islamabad, March 13 Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has invited Pakistan to participate in the Chabahar port project that connects India to Afghanistan, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, a leading Pakistani daily reported on Tuesday. The move may be seen as Zarifs bid to allay concerns here over the Indian involvement in the Iranian port, Dawn online reported. The Iranian minister also, meanwhile, extended the invitation to China. We offered to participate in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). We have also offered Pakistan and China to participate in Chahbahar, Zarif, who is on a three-day visit to Pakistan, said while delivering a lecture at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) on Monday, according to the daily. India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a trilateral agreement in 2016 to jointly develop the Chabahar port, opening a new strategic transit route between the three nations and other Central Asian nations, bypassing Pakistan. In November 2017 India delivered first wheat consignment to Afghanistan through the Chabahar port. Zarif had earlier held bilateral talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Asif and addressed a trade conference. The visiting Foreign Minister is being accompanied by a large trade delegation from Iran. He also said that Gwadar port and Chabahar port needed to be linked through sea and land routes for development. We are taking measures to do that and there is an open invitation to Pakistan to participate in that, Zarif said. He also said that the Chabahar port project was not meant to encircle Pakistan ... strangulate anybody. IANS vermaajay1968@gmail.com Kathmandu, March 12 Basanta Bohora, a Nepalese and one of the few passengers to escape with injuries in the deadly plane crash here today, said he is lucky to be alive. At least 50 people were killed when a Bangladeshi plane crashed and burst into flames while landing at Kathmandu airport. Officials said there were 71 people on board the US-Bangla Airlines plane coming from Dhaka. Bohora, an employee of Raswita International Travels and Tours, recalled that the take-off was normal from Dhaka but when the plane approached the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) for landing in Kathmandu, the aircraft began to behave strangely. There were 16 Nepalese from various travel agencies onboard the airplane, he was quoted as saying by Kathmandu Post. All the 16 had gone to Bangladesh for training, he said. All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang afterwards, he said. I was seated near the window and was able to break out of the window, he said. I have received injuries in the head and legs but I am fortunate that I survived the ordeal, he said. He is currently being treated at Thapathali-based Norvic Hospital. I have no recollection after I got out of the plane. I just remember that someone took me to Sinamangal hospital and from there my friends brought me to Norvic, he added. PTI vinaymishra188@gmail.com Washington, March 13 US President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson today after a series of public rifts over issues including North Korea and Russia, replacing his chief diplomat with loyalist CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The biggest shakeup of Trumps Cabinet since he took office more than a year ago, which the President announced on Twitter, comes as the administration prepares for an unprecedented meeting with the leader of North Korea. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Trump tapped the CIAs deputy director, Gina Haspel, to replace Pompeo the first woman so chosen, the President tweeted. Tillersons departure caps months of tension between Trump and the 65-year-old former Exxon Mobil chief executive. On Monday, Tillerson blamed Russia for the poisoning in England of a former Russian double agent and his daughter. Earlier, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders refrained from saying Moscow was responsible. Tillerson was reported to have privately called Trump a moron in July after the President suggested a 10-fold increase in the US nuclear arsenal. Tillerson declined to directly address whether he had made the comment, although a State Department spokeswoman later issued a denial. A senior White House official said Trump asked Tillerson to step down on Friday but did not want to make it public while he was on a trip. The official said Trump works well with Pompeo, a former Republican Congressman from Kansas, and wanted him in place before the US Presidents planned talks with Kim Jong Un. Tillerson had no diplomatic or political experience before becoming Secretary of State. He appeared out of the loop when Trump announced he would meet Kim. Reuters uttara@tribuneindia.com Washington, March 13 The US has made it clear that the meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would happen only if Pyongyang sticks to the promises over its missiles and nuclear programme. Last week, a South Korean delegation, led by its national security advisor, had conveyed Kim's invitation to Trump for a meeting. The invitation was accepted by Trump, taking the world by surprise. The North Korean leader reportedly expressed a commitment to denuclearisation. Trump had said that Kim had also promised not to conduct missile tests till the meeting. We fully expect that it (the meeting) will (take place). The offer was made and weve accepted. North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises and, if so, the meeting will go on as planned, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is continuing to prepare on a number of levels for the meeting. Most of that is an inter-administration, interagency process and I'm not going to get ahead of any of the details of the where, the when, or any of that here today, she said, responding to a series of questions on the meeting between the two leaders. Sanders said that the maximum pressure campaign on North Korea is working. "We know that they have responded due to that, and they have pushed this message through the South Koreans to us. We have accepted their invitation on the three promises that they made, and were going to move forward in this process," she said. Meanwhile, US National Security Advisor HR McMaster and US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, briefed members of the UN Security Council on developments related to North Korea. During the meeting, McMaster and Haley urged the international community to maintain pressure on the North Korean regime and asked Council members to devote the political will and resources necessary to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions to hold the regime accountable. "The announcement of a meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim is a historic opportunity that holds great potential for the world," Haley said. "While we can't say whether Kim's offer is genuine, we can say that this historic meeting would not have been possible without the international community's participation in the maximum pressure campaign, initiated by the Trump Administration, and a commitment to holding North Korea accountable through three strong UN sanctions resolutions in 2017, she said. PTI As prepared for delivery. At a time of much upheaval in the world it is a distinct pleasure to meet here today to acknowledge Liberias impressive progress and discuss the path forward as the country enters the next phase of its development. While the era of peacekeeping will come to a successful close at the end of this month, long-term success demands sustained focus. Liberias partners cannot afford not to invest in Liberias future. There are far too many examples of reversal of peace and development at moments such as this to ignore the risks, as we all heard last week from the Secretary-General during his remarks to the General Assembly on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace. Our support to sustainable development going forward must focus carefully on issues that will secure the peace. The people of Liberia have already taken the first step in sustaining peace through a successful election and a seamless transition. They have demonstrated resilience and readiness for democratic progress and a resolve to move forward on a path of development. Liberias endowment of national resource constitutes an important opportunity if well-managed to promote the aspirations of the people. While the recent achievements deserve to be celebrated the road ahead for Liberia is marked by challenges. The country faces significant economic constraints brought about by the global slump in commodity prices, a narrowing fiscal space and a slow recovery from the Ebola crisis. Challenges concerning national reconciliation, human rights, rule of law, marginalization of the periphery and basic governance capacity also remains. The outcome of the election shows that the people of Liberia stands behind a pro-poor vision founded on a decentralized, people-centered approach seeking to narrow the gap between rich and poor and fight corruption. The formulation of the National Development Agenda for 2018-2024 offers a great opportunity to build on the Presidents vision and fully incorporate the SDGs with an emphasis on education, health, gender equality and an inclusive economy focusing on jobs especially for women and youth as well as address the key elements of the Liberia Peacebuilding Plan. The UN Country Team of course remains in Liberia after UNMILs departure and will spearhead the Secretary-Generals concept of a new generation of Country Teams tailored to national priorities and ensuring continued availability of UN expertise to the country in critical areas. It will naturally be a reduced UN footprint compared to the peacekeeping era but the Secretary-General has requested a strengthened Resident Coordinators Office and the establishment of a Multi-Partner Trust Fund for Liberia to ensure our strong, coherent and coordinated support to the countrys efforts in implementing its vision and achieving the SDGs which will ultimately lead to sustained peace for the people of Liberia. While the MPTF will initially be based on the United Nations Development Assistance Framework and informed by the priorities of the peacebuilding plan, it will ultimately be one of the principle mechanisms in implementing the next national development plan and achieving the SDGs. The MPTF will ensure that strategic seed funding for priorities is available for both government institutions and UN Agencies. that not only includes sustained financial support but also ensures a coordinated and coherent approach to achieving peace. We cannot expect the government of Liberia to meet the broad and demanding challenges they face without our continued support. In this regard I would like to thank the Peacebuilding Configuration for their continued support to the government of Liberia and the United Nation during the transition period. The new Government will continue requiring the direct support from the Peacebuilding Configuration and all international partners. The Liberia Moment on 23 of March presents an important opportunity for the Government, the PBC, and development partners to jointly kickstart the formulation of a Framework of Engagement, that will define the collaboration between the Government of Liberia, the UN and the international community in meeting their obligations with respect to sustaining peace agenda and meeting the SDGs. Venezuelans wait outside the Federal Police office in the Brazilian border city of Pacaraima. The office is responsible for receiving Venezuelans seeking asylum or special permits to stay in Brazil. UNHCR/Reynesson Damasceno In light of the continuing outflow of Venezuelans to neighbouring countries and beyond, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has released new guidance for governments to address the situation of persons in need of international protection and humanitarian assistance. As a result of the complex political and socio-economic developments in Venezuela, a country that has traditionally been host to thousands of refugees, the number of people compelled to leave their homes continues to increase. The movements are taking place for a variety of reasons, including insecurity and violence, lack of food, medicine or access to essential social services as well as loss of income. While not all Venezuelans leaving are prompted to do so for refugee-related reasons, it is becoming increasingly clear that, while all may not be refugees, a significant number are in need of international protection. There has been a 2,000% increase in the number of Venezuelan nationals seeking asylum worldwide since 2014, principally in the Americas during the last year. Although over 94,000 Venezuelans have been able to access refugee procedures in other countries in 2017, many more of those in need of protection opt for other legal stay arrangements, that may be faster to obtain and provide the right to work, access to health and education. Yet, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans remain without any documentation or permission to stay legally in asylum countries. This makes them particularly vulnerable to exploitation, trafficking, violence, sexual abuse, discrimination and xenophobia. Within this context, UNHCRs guidance note encourages States to ensure Venezuelans have access to territory and refugee procedures. In addition, UNHCR welcomes and calls on governments to adopt pragmatic protection-oriented responses for the Venezuelan people, such as alternative legal stay arrangements, including visas or temporary residence permits, as well as other regularization programmes, which guarantee access to the basic rights of health care, education, family unity, freedom of movement, shelter and the right to work. UNHCR applauds countries in Latin America that have introduced such arrangements, and hopes that costs and requirements are eased, where necessary to ensure accessibility. In view of the situation in Venezuela, it is crucial that people are not deported or forcibly returned there. Latin America has some of the worlds most progressive refugee arrangements such as the Cartagena Declaration of 1984, which is built on the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and embodies a wider refugee definition. UNHCR considers that the broad circumstances leading to the outflow of Venezuelan nationals would fall within the spirit of the Cartagena Declaration. While Governments in the region have been generous in their response, host communities receiving Venezuelans have come under increased strain and urgently need immediate and robust support, to promote peaceful coexistence and prevent manifestations of discrimination and xenophobia. UNHCR is working with Governments to address the protection and basic needs of the outflow. Consequently, UNHCR has developed a regional response plan that covers 8 countries and the Caribbean sub-region. In particular, UNHCR seeks to strengthen national asylum and other international protection processes and step up its activities to foster a comprehensive, predictable and harmonized response to the plight of Venezuelans. UNHCR will work towards these objectives, and in particular access to protection, in cooperation with all levels of government, other stakeholders, including other UN Agencies, most notably IOM, international organizations, civil society and the private sector, as well as facilitate the participation of Venezuelans and host communities. UNHCRs initial financial requirements for the implementation of the regional response for the Venezuela Situation amount to USD46 million. For more information on this topic, please contact: Name: Ayman Gharaibeh, 53, from Jordan. Job title: UNHCRs Representative to Yemen, based in Sanaa. Years at UNHCR: 25, working in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bosnia and at headquarters in Geneva. Why did you become an aid worker? I was working at a bank in Amman, Jordan, back in 1990 when one day I got a call from a friend of mine who works for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), offering me a job. Saddam Hussein, who was then the President of Iraq, had invaded Kuwait and ICRC was tasked with emptying Kuwait of third-country nationals mainly Indians and Bangladeshis. I was 25 years old in a job that I didnt find personally fulfilling and, with the recklessness of youth, a one-month contract in the middle of the desert just sounded more interesting than working at a bank. I didnt really know what I was getting myself into, but I have always had that interest in understanding the world in a completely different context than you would learn about in history books, and it turned out to be a fantastic experience. This job has placed me at pivotal moments in world history and has taken me across the globe. So ultimately, it has enabled me to combine my interest in understanding the world with service to humanity. Then UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres tours the Douma registration and food distribution centre in Damascus, Syria, with Ayman Gharaibeh in June, 2010. UNHCR/Bassam Diab UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie speaks with UNHCR staff members Ayman Gharaibeh and Patrick Mansour at Ras Djir, on the Tunisia-Libya border, in February 2011. UNHCR/Jason Tanner Portrait of UNHCR's Representative in Yemen, Ayman Gharaibeh. UNHCR What is the most rewarding or challenging thing about your job? The Yemen crisis has been unfolding for the past three years and it continues to unravel. UNHCRs role has gone from being a small operation working with refugees from Somalia to responding to a major internal displacement crisis affecting 2 million people. Hear from our UNHCRYemen chief @AymanGharaibeh on the ground in Maqbanah, Taizz, ensuring assistance is getting to where it is most needed. pic.twitter.com/bXEyahImUQ UNHCR Yemen (@UNHCRYemen) April 3, 2017 In just one day, Sanaa can get 62 air strikes. We can have 5,000 cholera cases per day. You are up against such a challenge and you begin to question yourself what are we doing here? But that completely changes when you are closer to the people and see youre actually making a difference in their lives. We often say that what humanitarianism and humanitarians are doing is saving lives. But I dont think that gives credit to the people we are serving. Refugees have survived because they know how to survive people are saved by their own resilience, thats how Yemen survives today. What was your best day at work? Its very hard to pick one particular day out of 25 years, but the best days are when I come face-to-face with the people that this organization serves. Thats what really gives you the motivation you are dealing with strong, resilient people who are not giving up, so why should you give up? "Parents want to look into their kids eyes and see some hope in the future." Resilience doesnt have a home it exists in every country. The resilience of the Bosnians during the war there is no less than the resilience of the Tamils in northern Sri Lanka. Parents want to look into their kids eyes and see some hope in the future. This is the complex part of my job and thats the uniqueness of the UNHCR mandate because youre dealing with people. What was your worst day? What I really dislike about this job are really the moments when you need to leave either when you finish your assignment and have to move on, or are evacuated because of extremely hostile conditions. Some of the hardest moments were when I had to leave in Aden in 1994; Herat, Afghanistan, in 1996; and Syria in 2012. When the Douma reception centre near Damascus came under fire in 2012, Ayman Gharaibeh was preparing to leave Syria after serving five years in the country managing the influx of Iraqi refugees. UNHCR/Syria Red Crescent Syria was especially difficult. I was there for five years setting up our operation to deal with the Iraqi refugee crisis but then the country started to descend into the quagmire that we all knew was coming and I had to leave. Coming from the region and speaking Arabic, I was particularly close to our national staff and my departure weighed heavily on my conscience and on the psyche of our staff. "You leave with almost a sense of guilt, fear and betrayal." They asked me, "Do you have to leave us now when we ourselves are in a time of need? Whats going to happen to us once you leave?" Leaving behind the very same people whose safety you are concerned about is one of the hardest things. It is an inevitable part of our job as we have to move on but you leave with almost a sense of guilt, fear and betrayal. The ones who stay behind just want to know whether there is any hope, and when a lot of the causes for issues that we are responding to are beyond us, hope is not always something you can give people. The UN Refugee Agency works in 130 countries helping men, women and children driven from their homes by wars and persecution. Our headquarters are in Geneva, but most of our staff are based in the field, helping refugees. This profile is part of a series highlighting our staff and their work. Sukma, Mar 13 (UNI) Nine Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed and two others critically injured on Tuesday when an anti-landmine vehicle was blown up in a powerful landmine blast by Naxalites in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-affected Sukma district. About 100 armed extremists were said to have carried out the attack at around 1000 hrs when they set off an Improvised Explosive Device blast and opened indiscriminate fire on a road opening party of CRPF in the forested Pallodi village under Kistaram police station area. The CRPF team was on a search operation. Chief Minister Raman Singh said it was an act of cowardice on the part of the Naxalites who had become frustrated due to developmental works in the tribal-dominated Sukma district. Bodies of all the nine martyrs, who included one Assistant Sub-Inspector, one head constable and seven constables of the 212th battalion of CRPF, had been recovered. Injured constables--Madan Kumar and Rajesh Kumar--had been airlifted to Jagdalpur for treatment, Special Director General (Naxal Operation) DM Awasthi told reporters at Raipur. All the victims were travelling in the anti-landmine vehicle when the Naxals triggered the IED blast, he added. Mr Awasthi said although the Intelligence Bureau had sounded an alert in the Bastar region, there was no security lapse on the part of the road opening party of the CRPF. In another encounter, one Naxal was gunned down by CRPF personnel in Bijapur district on Tuesday, he added. Top police officials had, meanwhile, reached the spot of the ambush--which was only 3 km away from the CRPF's Pallodi camp--and a massive joint search and combing operation was underway in the area by security forces. According to reports, the rebels looted arms and ammunition of the security force after the ambush. UNI SS RP1752 (March 13, 2018) UTSA has received recognition by yet another source for helping students navigate the financial costs of college. A new study by LendEDU has named UTSA one of the top colleges in the Southwestern United States with the least student loan debt per borrower. The LendEDU report was assembled after analyzing more than 500 colleges and universities in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. UTSA is ranked No. 21 among public institutions in Texas, No. 28 overall in the state and No. 49 in the Southwest region for the least student loan debt per borrower. The average debt per graduate was calculated by compiling the total debt at each university, divided by the number of bachelor degree recipients at each particular university. The average amount of student loan debt per graduate was then weighted by the number of graduates who had student debt to find the average debt per student loan borrower. According to the LendEDU study, 64 percent of UTSA students graduate with debt at an average of $26,763. By contrast, 68 percent of 2015 bachelor degree recipients in the U.S. graduated with student loan debt at an average of $30,100 per borrower, according to The Institute for College Access & Success. UTSA offers financial aid, grants and scholarships to make college affordable for its students, including merit-based, general and departmental scholarships, which do not have to be paid back. Approximately 70 percent of UTSA undergraduates receive financial aid including grants, scholarships, loans and/or work-study funds. UTSA has many resources to make the process to apply for assistance easier for current and prospective students. They are encouraged to contact the UTSA One Stop Enrollment Center to learn about opportunities, ask questions and get help. Earning a college degree is an invaluable investment, said Lisa Blazer, UTSA senior associate vice president for student affairs. We want to give UTSA students every opportunity to achieve their academic goals, free from a lot of debt as they enter the workforce. We are honored that LendEDU recognized UTSA for its efforts to support student success through financial aid. Pope Benedict wanted to give a contribution, very significant as always, to the interior spiritual unity of the two pontificates. Thus Msgr Dario Edoardo Vigano characterizes the letter sent to him by the Pope Emeritus. Regarding the magisterium of Pope Francis, Benedict writes that there is interior unity between his pontificate and that of Pope Francis, his successor. Pope Benedicts letter was presented by its recipient, Msgr Dario Edoardo Vigano, during a press conference presenting The Theology of Pope Francis, a series of 11 books written by 11 different authors, and published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The news conference was held in Sala Marconi in the headquarters of Vatican Media. Pope Benedict applauds publication of the series I applaud this initiative, writes Pope Benedict. It contradicts the foolish prejudice of those who see Pope Francis as someone who lacks a particular theological and philosophical formation, while I would have been solely a theorist of theology with little understanding of the concrete lives of todays Christian. Pope Francis has profound theological formation The Pope Emeritus writes that he is grateful to have received the set of 11 books edited by Roberto Repole, President of the Italian Theological Association. Pope Benedict XVI adds that these volumes reasonably demonstrate that Pope Francis is a man with profound philosophical and theological formation and are helpful to see the interior continuity between the two pontificates, even with all the differences in style and temperament. Language editions in the works During the event, Br Giulio Cesareo, OFM, the recently-appointed head of Libreria Editrice Vaticana, explained that contracts have already been signed for the English, Spanish, French, Portughese, Polish and Romanian editions of the series, and that further negotiations are in process with publishers throughout the world. A new report from Save the Children highlights the worsening humanitarian crisis, while the nuncio in Damascus appeals for support to provide health care to most needy families By Philippa Hitchen As the Syrian civil war enters its eighth year this week, the humanitarian agency Save the Children has issued a new report urging the international community to push for an immediate end to the conflict. In the report, published on Monday, Save the Children, describes the "apocalyptic" bombing campaign in Eastern Ghouta that has targeted homes, schools, hospitals and other medical facilities, forcing thousands of families to live in underground shelters. "For hundreds of thousands of children in Syria, this is the worst point of the conflict so far," the report says. Millions of children malnourished Of Syria's estimated 10 million children, the U.N. says 8.6 million are now in dire need of assistance, with over half of them displaced or living as refugees. Many face the daily hazards of land mines, even in areas where the conflict has died down. Most suffer from malnutrition, preventable illnesses and severe stress, living in fear of their lives. While casualty figures vary, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented over 19,000 children killed since the conflict began in March 2011. Calls for cease-fires have been ignored, with dozens of civilians dying every day, according to recent statistics. Listen and download our report In an attempt to respond to the most urgent needs of the people in Syria, the Vaticans representative Cardinal Mario Zenari on Tuesday called for financial and practical support for three Church-run hospitals in Damascus and Aleppo. Damascus and Aleppo 'Open Hospitals' Speaking at a press conference, the nuncio noted that Syrias health system has been destroyed and that two thirds of its medical personnel has been killed or fled the country. Last year the cardinal launched a project called Open hospitals, seeking to provide basic health services for the poorest sectors of the largely Muslim population. Pope Francis' urgent appeals for peace The nuncio recalled Popes Francis many pleas and practical initiatives on behalf of the Syrian people over the past five years. Those include a first day of prayer and fasting for peace in 2013, a 2016 letter to President Bashar al-Assad, as well as many urgent appeals for an end to the conflict. Binh Duong remains a magnet to domestic and foreign investors Yesterday, Binh Duong held a ceremony to grant investment certificate for investors in the locality. They include 16 foreign-invested companies with the total investment capital of $372 million and two domestic companies with the investment capital of $45 million. Also at the ceremony, Far Eastern Group inked a land lease agreement with Becamex IDC on their project expansion in Bau Bang Industrial Park. Far Eastern Group chose Binh Duong province as an ideal investment location, especially Bau Bang Industrial Park which is invested by Becamex IDC, to expand its investment on an area of 120 hectares. According to Tran Thanh Liem, Chairman of the Binh Duong Peoples Committee, the most outstanding achievement in the first two months of 2018 was investment attraction. Within the first two months, the total investment capital reached VND10.3 trillion ($453.7 million) and $435 million for domestic and foreign investment, respectively. Until now, the whole province has 31,548 domestic enterprises carrying a total registered capital of VND247.5 trillion ($10.8 billion) and 3,075 foreign-invested projects with a total capital of $29.013 billion. Binh Duong is currently ranked second nationwide in terms of foreign direct investment attraction, following Ho Chi Minh City. Within the framework of the ceremony, Binh Duong also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with World Technopolis Association (WTA) to host the 2018 World Technopolis Association Event. The event is expected to take place in October alongside with The 11th WTA General Assembly & Hi-Tech Fair and the 2018 Global Innovation Forum. The event is part of the provinces efforts to develop Binh Duong into a smart city. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada already has "significant barriers" to prevent low-cost steel and aluminum from being dumped in this country, and is prepared to work with Washington AFP/PUNIT PARANJPE "We are very concerned about the actions taken by China and the dumping of steel and aluminum on the global market," Trudeau said following a tour of an aluminium plant in Quebec. His comments came amid rising global trade tensions in the wake of a US decision to impose steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Canada, the top supplier of steel and aluminium to the US market, and Mexico have been temporarily exempted from the tariffs until trilateral continental trade talks conclude. Trudeau, who is expected to travel to three other Canadian steel cities to reassure workers in the coming days, said Canada already has "significant barriers" in place to prevent low-cost steel and aluminum from being dumped there, and is prepared to work with Washington to "do even more." "There is a global overcapacity issue and we are very pleased to work with our allies and friends to continue to counter that problem," he said. When Trump announced last week 10 per cent tariffs on aluminium and 25 per cent on steel, he said Canada and Mexico could be exempted permanently if the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is successful. But both Mexico and Canada rejected Trump's linkage of the levies to the ongoing NAFTA talks. Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland termed the two things "separate issues," while Mexico's economy ministry said "the negotiation of the NAFTA should not be subject to conditions outside the process." "We will continue working toward securing a definite and permanent exemption from those tariffs," Trudeau said. China is Canada's second-largest trading partner after the United States. Trudeau's dumping accusations against Beijing, which echoed Trump's own message, come after exploratory talks with China failed to advance to Canada-China free trade negotiations. Instead, Ottawa signed onto the 11-nation Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which excludes both China and the United States, and entered into talks last week to join a South American trading bloc as part of a concerted push to diversify its trading relationships. A Canada-EU free trade accord, meanwhile, entered into force last September. As part of its customer appreciation efforts, CapitaLand Vietnam organised this seminar for the third consecutive year after its previous Feng Shui seminars in 2016 and 2017 received positive feedback from homebuyers. CapitaLand Vietnam held seminar on Feng Shui and astrology 2018 Dato Joey Yap was also the Feng Shui consultant for Feliz en Vista and D1MENSION, CapitaLand Vietnams residential projects in Ho Chi Minh City, and will also help out with CapitaLands upcoming residential project in District 4. According to Chen Lian Pang, CEO of CapitaLand Vietnam, the firm recognises the role Feng Shui plays when customers purchase residential projects, as it represents the relationship between people and their living environment. Feng Shui and architecture are intertwined with shared basic principles. By inviting internationally acclaimed Feng Shui Consultant Dato Joey Yap to host the seminar, we hope to spread knowledge on the Vietnamese market about the practical benefits of Feng Shui in residential projects. Joey Yap is an internationally recognised Classical Feng Shui consultant, speaker, and architect of the modern learning systems for Feng Shui and Chinese Metaphysics studies. He is the bestselling author of over 167 books, many of which have topped bestseller lists all over Asia. Dato Joey Yap is committed to the use of technology in disseminating knowledge of Classical Feng Shui and Chinese Metaphysics to a global audience. Every year Dato Joey Yap conducts his 'Feng Shui and Astrology' seminar to a crowd of more than 30,000 people at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, touring Malaysia and the world. He also takes this annual seminar on a world tour to Melbourne, Singapore, Frankfurt, San Francisco, New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, and beyond. In this seminar in Vietnam, DatoJoey Yap shared with the Vietnamese audience the techniques and methods he uses to help thousands around the world. According to Stephen Wyatt, country director of JLL Vietnam, the development of condotels depends heavily on the demand for accommodation by tourists. Hence, an increase in this demand will have positive impacts on this product type. Condotel business sees high potential on tourist growth According to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, international visitors to Vietnam in 2017 reached nearly 13 million, up 29.1 per cent year-on-year. The tourism market is still focusing on several major tourist destinations such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Danang, Nha Trang, and Phu Quoc. Table 1: Visitor arrivals to Vietnam's major tourism hotspots Categories Vietnam Danang Nha Trang Phu Quoc International visitors (million) 12,9 2,3 2,0 0,3 Domestic visitors (million) 74,0 4,3 3,4 2,6 International visitors growth (%, year) 29,1% 36,8% 68,9% 19,1% Source: Vietnam National Administration of Tourism In addition, according to the Tourism Law 2017 approved by the National Assembly, tourism is designated to become a key economic sector in the future which will create momentum for hospitality real estate thanks to supporting policies and investment incentives, said Wyatt. He added that holding regional and international conferences helps to promote the tourism industry. For instance, APEC 2017 in Danang has facilitated the city to improve its tourism infrastructure as well as attract the attention of visitors and investors from around the world. This event is considered an important turning point and a powerful lever for the future tourism development of the city. 2018 is expected to be another exciting year for the hospitality real estate sector as investors introduce their projects to capture increasing tourism in the coming time. Condotel has grown in most of the key tourism destinations in Vietnam. However, large markets such as Danang and Nha Trang still have a lot of potential for tourism development in general and hospitality real estate in particular. With the aforementioned potential for tourism development, it is necessary for both developers and investors to carefully consider factors such as service quality, business strategy, as well as guaranteed yield programmes in order to adapt to the continuously developing market, increasing customer expectations, and tightening legal framework. Whether there is oversupply in the condotel market will depend on the development of tourism in future. At the moment, tourism is a very promising sector thanks to government support commitments, Wyatt said. Getting in touch with the inner world, the self, and the outer world at the same time. China's President Xi Jinping has met Donald Trump and spoken to him several times in the last year, but is not known ever to have met Kim Jong Un AFP/Nicolas ASFOURI Beijing, which chaired failed international talks on North Korea that collapsed a decade ago, has long seen itself as central to the negotiations to end Pyongyang's nuclear programme. But when US President Donald Trump agreed last week to hold a historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a yet-to-be-decided day and place, China was nowhere to be seen. Chinese President Xi Jinping has not even met Kim since the young North Korean autocrat took power following his father's death in 2011. While China remains North Korea's only ally and main economic lifeline, relations between the two neighbours have soured as Xi, under pressure from Trump, has backed a slew of UN sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile tests. In a Friday phone call with Trump, Xi praised the US leader's "positive" move, saying he hoped the US and North Korea would start talking as soon as possible and that China was devoted to solving the nuclear issue through dialogue. But not everyone was so happy: China's top-selling nationalist tabloid the Global Times dashed out an editorial aimed at soothing the jangled nerves of Chinese patriots afraid that the country would be sidelined by a Trump-Kim love-in. "Chinese people should stay calm and remain poised, and avoid the mentality that China is being marginalised," it said. "China's prime interest on the Korean peninsula is its denuclearisation and peace, both of which are more important than China's relations with North and South Korea and power politics." NUCLEAR FEARS Trump's surprise agreement to meet Kim appears to have shocked many in China, who wonder if the Asian giant -- which is increasingly trying to put itself at the centre of global diplomacy -- has been cut out of the loop by Pyongyang. "Given that parts of Trump's own national security team were not informed of this major change in policy, I'm doubtful that President Trump informed the Chinese, and definitely not with any significant lead time," said Oriana Skylar Mastro, an expert on China, North Korea relations at Georgetown University and the American Enterprise Institute. While Washington is happy to use China to squeeze North Korea economically, it is not as interested in involving Beijing in the more delicate work of negotiations. "The Trump administration sees China as primarily an obstacle to the peaceful resolution of the DPRK nuclear issue and not so much as a critical diplomatic interlocutor," Skylar Mastro said. It is natural that Beijing would have reservations about what a Kim-Trump meeting could mean for its own interests in the region, said Zhang Liangui, a professor of the International Strategic Academy of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. "As a neighbour, if North Korea continues to develop nuclear weapons, China could be the biggest casualty," he told AFP: "so you could say, China is the most important party involved." Those concerns came sharply into focus when North Korea literally shook China with an underground nuclear test that produced an earthquake felt over the border. Beijing also worries that Kim's weapons could trigger an arms race in the region, leading its historical rival Japan and perhaps even South Korea to seek nuclear weapons. SIX PARTIES While China has long pushed for US-North Korean dialogue, it always saw it as a first step towards returning to the long-dormant Six-Party Talks, which grouped China, the US, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas. North Korea abruptly quit the international forum in 2009. "Beijing would be most comfortable to play the mediating role," said Wenran Jiang, senior fellow at the Institute of Asian Research of the University of British Columbia. China "still believes" that all six parties must be part of the denuclearisation process, he said. Xi and his "very experienced foreign policy team seem to have displayed a high level of confidence that China is too big and too important to be left out of the negotiations." "They are waiting patiently for the right opportunity and they are quite certain relevant parties will knock on China's door soon." Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, said China may offer to host the Trump-Kim meeting, which would "at least increase the possibility that they will be heard." "The Chinese traditionally have always worried about the US and North Korea cutting a deal at their expense," she said, adding that "people in the US have always laughed at those concerns." Jardines Matheson investing around $1.5 billion into these four companies Jardines Matheson Holdings Limited is a British conglomerate incorporated in Bermuda with its primary listing on the Singapore Exchange. The firms revenue was estimated at over $70 billion in 2017. It has been present in Vietnam for over 20 years in a variety of fields and sectors. Jardines Matheson is holding 10 per cent of Vinamilks charter capital, 25 per cent of Thaco, over 23 per cent of REE, as well as various stakes in other real estate and construction companies. At the meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue on March 12, Henry Keswich, chairman of Jardines Matheson, applauded Vietnams to comprehensive economic results achieved in 2017 and the successful deals to sell state capital in enterprises and attract qualified foreign investors. He also expressed interest in the equitisation and divestment activities at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and wanted to further participate in this sector. DPM Hue said there are many co-operation opportunities between firms of the two countries, and there will be even more in the time coming. He also suggested Jardines Matheson to further develop in the sectors of milk products, automobiles, machinery, construction, real estate, as well as finance and insurance. Additionally, the group could expand investment and participate in restructuring SOEs and credit institutions in Vietnam, which are two of the five major economic restructuring initiatives. Thereby, the government has issued a list of SOEs to divest and equitise by 2020. According to plan, the state will only hold capital in security-defense companies and special public services firms. Currently, Vietnam is also working to handle weak banks to achieve the balanced development of credit and non-credit services. The Vietnamese government commits to ensuring macroeconomic stability and creating a favourable business environment in line with international standards and practices. The capital-securities, labour market, science-technology applications, and land policies also being developed to support businesses. Moreover, Vietnam is member of more than ten regional and global free trade agreements. Lotte Card acquired all the shares of Techcom Finance The deals value has yet to be disclosed, however, previously, South Korean newswire The Investor estimated that the deal could be valued at VND1.7 trillion ($74.67 million). Lotte Cards purchase is considered a move to break into the $26.55-billion consumer finance market, which has been showing signs of rapid development. Previously, in September 2017, the two parties signed a stock purchase agreement for the deal. Techcom Finance, formerly known as Vietnam Chemical Finance Joint Stock Company before the 2015 acquisition by Techcombank, carries a charter capital of VND600 billion ($26.5 million). According to the bank's report, in 2017, Techcom Finance earned VND28.7 billion ($1.26 million) in revenue and VND22.5 billion ($998,538) in pre-tax profit. Lotte Card was established in 2002 and offers credit cards, facility leasing, and financial services. The company, through its subsidiaries, also opens travel agency, insurance agency, and telemarketing services. Lotte Cards purchase is considered a move to break into the $26.55-billion consumer finance market, which has been showing signs of rapid development. Entering Vietnam, Lotte Card will join a vibrant consumer finance market with an annual growth of 30-40 per cent, while the credit card rate is still very low. StoxPlus reports that the Vietnamese consumer finance market is the most attractive in the region, with high growth potential and profit margins. At present, the sector is dominated by FE Credit (VPBank), Home Credit, and HDSaison. In 2016, Home Credit earned VND1.23 trillion ($54.03 million) in profit, FE Credit VND2 trillion ($87.8 million), and the two remaining companies (Home Credit and HDSaigon) earned hundreds of billions of dongs in profit. Along with Lotte Card, numerous domestic and foreign investors are actively seeking to enter the consumer finance market through M&A deals. According to the latest movement, in January this year, Shinhan Financial Group announced that subsidiary Shinhan Card completed the acquisition of Prudential Vietnam Finance Company Ltd. In addition, two other Japanese investors are also negotiating to purchase 49 per cent of the stakes in two different Vietnamese financial institutions. Military Bank has launched its consumer lending brand Mcredit with the support of its Japanese counterpart Shinsei Bank. At the end of last year, Shinsei Bank purchased a 49-per-cent stake in Mcredit, the consumer finance arm of Military Bank. Afterwards, MCredit was renamed MB Shinsei Consumer Finance Limited Liability Company. MobiFone and AVG agreed to cancel the deal without any compensation AVG's shareholders and the leaders of MobiFone have approved cancelling the deal of transferring 95 per cent of the company shares to MobiFone at a meeting on March 12. Thereby, MobiFone and AVG agreed to cancel the transfer of 344.66 million shares, returning to each other what they received according to the contract, which is seen as the unique aquisition case in Vietnam. The total value of the deal is VND8.889 trillion ($392 million). According to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), AVGs shareholders who sold the shares will have to return the money to MobiFone, along with interest and related costs. They will commit to do their utmost to minimise the damages from the cancelled deal. Thereby, MobiFone will receive much more than they paid to AVG's shareholders. AVGs representative Pham Nhat Vu agreed not to claim compensation for cancelling the transaction. There are several reasons to cancel the contract. First, MobiFone did not operate and develop the business in line with the plan and missed many opportunities to exploit AVGs full potential. There are several reasons to cancel the contract. First, MobiFone did not operate and develop the business in line with the plan and missed many opportunities to exploit AVGs full potential. Second, since the contract took effect, MobiFone has only paid 95 per cent of the total value. After the deadline of the next payment, MobiFone has not paid the remaining amount, although AVG continued sending requests. Moreover, since the authorities started an inspection of this contract, the business and operations of AVG have been facing many difficulties and the companys reputation has been affected. Both AVG and MobiFone confirmed that the cancellation aims to maintain the reputation of both sides. At the meeting, the leader of MobiFone explained that the inspection has affected the payment for AVG. He added that there are many difficulties while operating and doing business at AVG, and MobiFone could not focus on developing AVG at the moment. Regarding the valuation of shares, Pham Nhat Vu said that AVG is a valuable asset. Before it was sold to MobiFone, he intended selling it to partners from Russia and South Korea at an even higher price. This morning, on March 13, Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan informed Government Inspector General Le Minh Khai of the new developments between AVG and MobiFone. Earlier, on March 8, the Secretariat of the Communist Party Central Committee issued a document on inspecting MobiFones acquisition of 95 per cent of the shares in AVG. The Secretariat said this is a really serious and complicated case that required comprehensive inspection and drew public attention. Mobifone to offload stakes in two banks State-owned mobile network operator Mobifone will offload its holding of 38.95 million shares in two joint stock commercial banks next month. MobiFone to pilot 4G, MobiTV services from July The MobiFone Telecommunications Corporation (MobiFone), the second biggest mobile operator in terms of subscribers, is set to start piloting its 4G and MobiTV services on ... MobiFone takes a dip in PayTV market On January 7, deputy general director of MobiFone Nguyen Manh Hung verified the acquisition of Audio Visual Global JSC (AVG), the owner of An Vien ... Property sales in Industry 4.0 era Tech on every step of the way Trying to sell a property of some 40 square metres in Vinh Hung, Hanoi, a seller named Hoang often visits Facebook and other online property trading platforms to check out the prices of properties of the same size. His online activities have in fact been collected by software developers and he is considered a target for pop-up ads and email marketing. Hoang has been seeing the ads of properties that he once browsed through or those in similar price and size ranges in the neighbouring areas that are of concern to him. Most people like Hoang are rather surprised about these new types of marketing and advertising. They do not even know how these ad companies or real estate agencies get their phone numbers. It turns out that this is just a new trend of accessing potential customers among property developers and distributorsthe beginning of Industry 4.0 in the property sector. Given the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), software programmers and Internet providers can collect data from users to form a big data warehouse, scrutinising the trends of Internet usage, online shopping, and products of interest. In a bid to reach target customers in a rather competitive market, mortgage brokers that are sensitive enough have launched their marketing campaigns on social media platforms, such as Facebook or Zalo, or through professional online advertising channels like Google AdSense. Many mortgage brokers even purchase customer data, which may include not only the customers contacts but also their relationships, habits, and demands. Nguyen Quoc Anh, deputy general director of Dai Viet Group, the operator of online property trading platform batdongsan.com.vn, noted that with the development of technology, the online trading of properties has gained popularity due to its convenience and cost savings. Property Technology, or PropTech, is the new generation of technology that helps transform the housing market through three main arms, comprising property information, property transaction, and property management. Through PropTech, developers will be able to manage their property trading and transactions completely online, targeting the tech-savvy younger generation. In the past two years alone, data from batdongsan.com.vn shows that some 52 per cent of homebuyers were in the 25-34 age bracket. This age group grew up with technology, social media, and integrated economies. They are highly adaptable and always willing to share facilities with one another. As a result, they are very fond of PropTech that helps them check information, compare the prices and products, calculate loans, and find financial solutions that fit them best. What is more, it reduces the risks of buying and selling houses, particularly when making the purchase through an agency. Procedures for housing transactions are also carried out online to save time. Professionalism needed According to Pham Thanh Hung, vice president of CEN Group, the opportunity to tap into the real estate market through disruptive technologies is huge, yet many PropTech startups have ended in failure. A reason for this is that they are often followers and thus cannot make predictions. That being said, if they had started off with a PropTech app back during 2013-2014, right before the housing market begun to warm up, they would have been far more successful. Yet there have been a number of startups that develop property-related technologies. With large-scale marketing campaigns and customer networks, they have been reasonably successful. However, there were difficulties along the way. User behaviour is one of them when many Internet or smartphone users are still new or rather unfamiliar with the PropTech apps or the application of disruptive technologies in real estate. Mortgage brokers, at the same time, do not fully understand the apps themselves and so cannot apply the advanced technology in their property sales. In addition, technology cannot replace the human factor, in this case, the professional mortgage brokers. Should mortgage apps be developed and welcomed by users, real estate agents may no longer find work, as sellers and buyers could contact each other through the apps. But a property buyer still needs a professional service provider to advise him on a purchase and whether the prices are reasonable. Especially, the related legal procedures require professional assistance. Last but not least, in property dealings, creditability is the most important thing. If an app fails to build trust amongst mortgage brokers, buyers, and sellers, it is destined to fail. This has in fact happened to some e-commerce businesses that forged information and at the end lost customers trust. According to Hung, the application of technology is an indispensable trend in online property trading. While it cannot completely replace human agents, it is a new breeze of change promising to revolutionise the real estate sector to usher in the era of Industry 4.0. Adopting disruptive technologies is the new real estate trend, and it is a costly game to play as tech changes are unpredictable. The more startups or businesses join the race of advanced technology, the fiercer the competition will be, helping drive it towards professionalism. The ultimate beneficiaries will be homebuyers. Workers at a solid waste treatment plant in Tam Diep city in Ninh Binh province sort organic waste to produce micro-organic fertilisers This is among the breakthrough regulations on building salary scales and payrolls the ministry has proposed to amend and supplement the governments Decree No.49 issued in 2013. The current pay gap of at least five per cent between every wage rate has affected salary policy, structure of salary scales and payroll of enterprises, and is unsuitable with market mechanisms. According to the ministry, the current pay gap of at least five per cent between every wage rate has affected salary policy, structure of salary scales and payroll of enterprises, and is unsuitable with market mechanisms. It has forced many businesses to build their salary scales based on seniority in order to create the stipulated gap. Businesses had to pay high salaries and high social insurance premiums usually two or three times higher for senior labourers who performed the same jobs as junior ones. As a result, many businesses sought to fire senior workers to recruit new ones. Under the draft decree, the ministry has proposed two options to replace the current regulation. In the first option, the regulation of five per cent pay gap at every wage rate would be discarded. Enterprises and their trade unions would discuss to determine payments for labourers based on their performances and job titles. The pay gap between wage rates must encourage labourers to improve their professional and technical skills, accumulate experience and develop their talents. This option would increase the autonomy for enterprises but labourers benefits would be at risk. In the second option, the pay gap would be defined and reduced from 5 per cent to 3 per cent. Based on it, the state would be able to create the lowest rate to ensure the benefits of labourers. However, enterprises would be restricted in building their salary scales and payroll. The ministry said that under the current labour market conditions and the capacity of trade unions, there should be a road map to implement the options. It also recommended the second option. The draft decree has received opinions from experts and enterprises. Bui Sy Loi, deputy chairman of the National Assemblys Social Affairs Committee, supported the draft decree, saying to Nong Thon Ngay Nay (Countryside Today) newspaper that salaries had been considered barriers that hindered the development of each labourer and enterprise. Those with good performance were paid the same as others because of salary calculation according to seniority. Nguyen Xuan Duong, chairman of the Hung Yen Business Association and chairman of Hung Yen Garment Corporationsaid that regulations on reducing the pay gap below 5 per cent or even eliminating it would create conditions for enterprises to self-regulate the design of salary scales. This meant that enterprises would use wage funds to increase wages for hard-working labourers with high productivity instead of increasing the wages for all labourers. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, employment specialist, had different point of view. She said there were positions that should be compensated according to seniority, such as policy makers, as junior labourers have little experience. Vu Quang Tho, head of the Workers Trade Unions, said that the salary of workers was too low. Each time the pay rises, their salary could increase only a few tens of thousands of dongnot even enough for employees to buy a pack of candy. With the new pay gap of three per cent, labourers lives would be very hard, he said. Pham Minh Huan, former deputy minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that in fact, many companies were facing financial burdens under the current regulation. Basic salaries have been increasing, so the payment following seniority would be higher year by year while the work productivity will not improve much. Huan said the draft decree did not aim at removing the salary calculation based on seniority. In discussing the option proposed by the ministry, he said that the second option would be a good choice because it would improve negotiation capacity between labourers and employers, which is currently low. A photo taken by Vietnamese photographer Tran Tuan Viet depicts the traditional incense-making craft in Quang Phu Cau commune, Ung Hoa district, Hanoi city. This picture enters the final of the Smithsonian photo contest - Photo: Courtesy of Tran Tuan Viet The photo by Tran Tuan Viet, evoking the image of the traditional incense-making craft in Quang Phu Cau commune, Ung Hoa district, Hanoi city, draws the attention of the jury panel. Meanwhile. photographer Thong Huu used his camera to describe the scene of a breakfast at a flea market in the northern region to promote Vietnams cultural diversity to foreign viewers. The last photo titled Umbrellas Market, captured by Thanh Tran in Ho Chi Minh City, has also secured a ticket to the final of the competition thanks to depicting a colorful market in the early morning impressed by the image of umbrellas. The three photos are among the 60 finalists which are calling for readers to vote for their most favorite entries in the final round of the contest whose results will be announced on March 27. This years photo contest has received 48,000 entries from amateur and professional photographers from 155 countries and territories. Since its inception in 2003, the photo contest has served as a playground for photographers and those with great passion for photography, urging them to capture picturesque landscapes and unique cultural traits inherent in daily lives around the world. Grounds for green development Do Ngoc Diep In order to answer this question, it is necessary to look back at the history of the development of buildings from thousands of years ago. In the early days, when energy remained scarce, all the construction and operation of housing were carried out manually, posing little impact on the surrounding environment. However, moving to the industrial era (1880-1970), the myriad breakthroughs in science and technology allowed people to build high-rise buildings with more amenities. Due to the heavy emphasis on improving the functionality and facility of these buildings, construction works had underestimated climate adaptability and were heavily reliant on fossil energy sourcesa cheap and huge energy source at the time. Moreover, the unrestrained exploitation of fossil fuels by cities during this period also lead to unprecedented pollution. Since the early 1970s, architects and environmentalists have started embracing green buildings. On the first Earth Day held in April 1970, the concept of green buildings was officially publicised. However, it was not until 1973, when the global oil crisis took place, that the efforts to build green buildings really began. In the US, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) formed a Committee on Energy that broke into two schools of thought. One group looked towards passive solutions such as reflective roofing materials and environmentally beneficial siting to achieve energy savings, while the other concentrated more on technological solutions such as the use of triple-glazed windows. In the wake of the oil crisis, green buildings received little attention, but there were still a number of key architects who continued to advocate and promote the concept. A couple of notable buildings constructed during the seventies which utilised green design concepts are The Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters in England, which utilised a grass roof, day-lighted atrium, and mirrored windows, as well as the Gregory Bateson Building in California, which used energy-sensitive photovoltaic (solar) cells, under-floor rockstore cooling systems, and area climate control devices. Besides reducing reliance on major fossil fuel powerhouses, the utilisation of this energy source also exerts significantly positive impacts on the environment. In particular, it helps tackle climate change challenges, which have raised concerns among governments, and thus encourages them to be more active in the development of green buildings. In 1990, the UKs Building Research Establishment (BRE) introduced BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). This is considered the first green building rating system in the world. In the US, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) was founded in 1993 and in the same year US President Bill Clinton launched the Greening the White House programme with solutions to improve energy efficient in the building and other government facilities. A leader of the regional wave of green development, Singapore already had 3,000 green buildings in 2017 (Photo: Marina Bay Sands) Vietnams greener future Although green buildings have become a worldwide trend a few decades ago, in Vietnam, they appeared about a decade ago and have only started garnering real interest in the past three years. This was when the awareness of green living started to grow and became more visible. In 2007, some American factories investing in Vietnam employed the standards of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system to comply with the parent companies policies. Also around this time, the Vietnam Green Building Council (VGBC), a non-governmental organisation supporting the development of green buildings in Vietnam, was officially established. With the active support of foreign and local experts and organisations, VGBC has researched and launched the LOTUS green building rating system. It consists of all the criteria set by the biggest rating systems in the world adjusted to conditions in Vietnam. During this period, the Green Mark system was introduced by Singaporean investors to a number of investment projects in Vietnam. Then, several Vietnamese organisations, including the Vietnam Association of Architects and the Vietnam Association of Construction Environment, have set their own criteria. Most recently, in April 2015, International Finance Corporation (IFC), the financial arm of the World Bank Group, officially announced a green building certification system for emerging markets, EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies). IFCs new report Creating Markets for Climate Business predicts that along with the strong growth momentum of the Asian construction market, the presence of green trends, standards, and technologies will bring tremendous opportunities to widen the market for green buildings. In East Asia alone, the total investment demand for green buildings may reach $3 trillion by 2025, $726 billion of which will go for commercial buildings and $2.4 trillion for housing projects. To date, there have been nearly 100 registered works nationwide and more than half of them have achieved prestigious green building certifications. In addition, green criteria have become an integral part of architectural-planning competitions or architectural awards. However, the implementation of green construction criteria in Vietnam is still lagging behind other countries in the region, such as Singapore or Malaysia. In the five countries of Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos, there are more than 300 green buildings in totala modest number compared to other developed countries in the region, such as Singapore with 3,000 green buildings alone (June 2017). As it is fully voluntary and non-compulsory, the motivation for green buildings in Vietnam largely comes from a sense of social responsibility and the need to reduce the operating costs of businesses. It also raises awareness and draws attention from local firms such as Tien Phat Corporation, Nam Long Group or Capital House, as well as foreign companies like Citra Westlake City Development Co., Ltd., Big C, Intel or Coca-Cola, just to name a few. Sadly, a large number of investors and developers in the country do not understand the issue of initial investment costs or the benefits that green buildings can yield. Many investors think that in order to achieve the green credentials for a certification, the projects investment cost will have to increase by 20-30 per cent. In fact, experience in green construction in Vietnam and other countries in the region show that the cost of investment increases by no more than 5 per cent. In addition, if architects bring out green ideas right from the beginning to create a green living environment and improve the efficiency of energy, water, and materials usage, the construction of green buildings without additional investment is absolutely feasible. Another barrier to green buildings lies in the attitude of Vietnamese homebuyers, who often consider price as a determining factor when choosing a residential or investment product. Meanwhile, a couple of factors that have long-term effects on the health and well-being of most communities, like the quality of construction, work efficiency, environment-friendliness and sustainability, do not receive much attention. Dreams come true The desire to develop green buildings, in combination with the determination to act, will bring us green buildings of real value. For green buildings to grow and flourish, the associated values must be shared by the whole society, instead of relying on the limited support of some pioneering investors and experts. Once the whole society joins, green buildings will be quickly replicated and become a model for green communities and green cities, thus bringing great economic and spiritual value to the residential community. Given the current state of the real estate market in Vietnam, the expansion of green buildings is no longer impossible, as advanced countries with similar natural conditions and development experience have been helping us to perfect green technologies and practices. Just like the LED bulbsa product that only a few years drew doubts over its quality and price. Now, it has a firm foothold in the market with higher quality, diversified styles, and ever-decreasing prices. The cost of green technologies will also decrease as the scale of output increases. In addition, thanks to the pioneering investors who have built several green buildings over the past years, the market has accumulated a lot of experience in deploying green criteria on different types of construction works while at the same time building a team of experts with the capability to operate green buildings. With a rather solid foundation, what is lacking is a small impact to foster market development. This force can be generated by the government through the implementation of policies that recognise the importance and encourage the construction of green buildings to bring real benefits to the whole society as well as the environment. However, longer-term motivation must come from the consumers themselves. When consumers are aware of the benefits and incentives that green buildings can bring to themselves and their families, the need for green buildings will be created. At that time, the market will grow further to develop green buildings with higher quality and satisfy the increasingly arduous demands of customers. The largest-ever investment promotion conference will take place in Vinh Long this month The event will feature the strong presence of more than 750 delegates including government leaders, and representatives of diverse management agencies, sectors, international organisations, leaders of several localities, domestic and foreign investors. Notably, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will attend the event and deliver keynote speech. According to Vinh Long Peoples Committee Standing Deputy Chairman Le Quang Trung, the conference aims to increase exposure of the provinces potential, investment opportunities, and support policies to attract investors with a view to maximising local potential and advantages. The event also serves as a platform to connect investors and international organisations with local leaders and relevant management agencies, as well as present priority investment fields and projects to investors. Through the event, Vinh Long expects to make the most of the opportunity to draw capable investors who have the capacity to translate the provinces potential into actual benefits, from there pushing up social and economic development and ensuring successful implementation of the targets set in the 10th provincial Party Committee Resolution, 2015-2020 tenure, said Trung. On the occasion, six commercial banks will sign credit funding contracts with 12 businesses for the implementation of several large-scale projects to propel provincial development. Truong Dang Vinh Phuc, director of Vinh Long Department of Planning and Investment unveiled that at the conference, the province will grant investment proposals to seven investment projects valued at nearly VND2.9 trillion ($131.8 million) in total registered capital, provide investment certificates to eight other projects capitalized more than VND2.3 trillion ($104.5 million) and sign memoranda of understanding for 10 projects worth around VND7.23 trillion ($328.9 million). In addition, at the event four provinces of Vinh Long, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh and Tien Giang will sign a deal to promote the eastern coastal sub-region cooperation which will cover cooperation in agri-product consumption, investment promotion, infrastructure and human resources development, and environmental resources management sharing. On the occasion, six commercial banks will sign credit funding contracts with 12 businesses for the implementation of several large-scale projects to propel provincial development. Diverse activities will take place on the sidelines of the conference, including a trade fair to present achievements the province has scored in agriculture, industry and trade with about 900-1,000 booths, a ceremony where Binh Minh town will be praised for having fulfilled the tasks on building new countryside model and receive a recognition decision and the launching ceremony of Vinh Long General Hospital. Visa (NYSE: V) has announced a worldwide, comprehensive look at travel and tourism in 2018. The Visa Global Travel Intentions (GTI) Study findings highlight various parts of the travellers journey, surveying respondents from Vietnam as well as around the world. The study found travellers around the world over are taking shorter and more frequent trips, motivated by the need to bond with family and loved onesyet worries about the loss/theft of cash at their destination remain. Vietnamese travellers, in particular, are found to take the most shorts trips with 74 per cent of those being in four nights or less. According to Sean Preston, Visa country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, as the Vietnamese economy grows and an increasing number of citizens join the ranks of the global middle and upper classes, more people are going to take an interest in traveling the world. This is reflected in the results of our survey, with people taking more trips and spending more, while technology is giving travellers the ability to take trip planning and booking into their own hands. We have also seen really positive developments in card usage, with Vietnamese travellers relying heavily on their credit and debit cards for booking hotels, flights, and activities before embarking on their trips, said Preston. As the desire to travel continues to grow, the GTI Study, a comprehensive study of travellers from 27 countries, found motivations to travel have blurred, with consumers citing a combination of achievement and reward as a key motivator. Among the top 5 motivations, reward-based motivations include bonding with family and friends and to unplug, while achievement-based motivations include experiencing new cultures and visiting exotic destinations. Six in ten travellers globally (63 per cent) describe themselves as wanting a combination of both throughout their travels, while seven in ten Vietnamese travellers (72 per cent) fall into this category. The study also showed a range of positive trends amongst Vietnamese travellers. Some of the key findings from the Vietnam report include trips getting shorter while more trips are on an international basis, and travelers intend to pay more on their trips with frequent use of their bank and credit cards. Accordingly, the average time spent abroad during the last trips is found to be four nights for Vietnamese travelers, much lower than the APAC average of seven nights. And on average, the local travelers are expected to take nearly five trips abroad in the next twp years or so, up from 3.5 trips overseas found in the past two years. Most visited countries among the local vacationers, meanwhile, include Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Singapore, with the US emerging in the top five destinations. Vietnamese expected to travel more beyond Asia and spend more On their next trip, the travelers expect to spend a median amount of $1,100 per tripup from a median amount of $880 on their last trip. With more cards to be used during their trips, 74 per cent of travellers employ credit or debit cards while booking their trips, and while at their destination, many do use cards, but the majority of travellers prefer to carry cash in foreign currency. Theresa May says 'highly likely' Russia is responsible for spy's poisoning When Emmanuel Macron began his campaign for the Presidency of the French Republic, he knew nothing about international relations. His mentor, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the head of the General Inspectorate of Finances (a corps of 300 senior civil servants), made sure he was given an accelerated course of training. Frances prestige had been considerably depleted by its two former Presidents, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande. The position of France was now perceived as inconsistent due to its absence of priority and its innumerable changes of direction. This was the reason Macron began his mandate by meeting as many heads of state and government as possible, demonstrating that France was repositioning itself as a mediating power, capable of talking to anyone. After having shaken hands and distributed dinner invitations, however, he had to give a content to his policy. Jean-Pierre Jouyet [1] proposed that France remain in the Atlantist camp, gambling on the US Democrats who, in his opinion, should soon be back in the White House, perhaps even before the elections of 2020. When the British were leaving the European Union, France confirmed its close alliance with London while maintaining its relationship with Berlin. The Union had to be recentred on the governance of the Euro. It would put an end to free exchange with partners who did not respect it, and would create huge enterprises on the Internet capable of rivalising with those of the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon). It should also develop a common defence against terrorism. With its allies, it would engage in the struggle against the Russian influence. Finally, France would pursue its military action in Sahel and the Levant. In September 2017, Jean-Pierre Jouyet was nominated as French ambassador to London. In January 2018, France and the United Kingdom relaunched their diplomatic and military cooperation [2]. Still in January, the two states formed a secret authority, the Little Group , to reprise the Franco-British colonisation of the Levant [3]. This policy, which has never been discussed in public, not only ignores the History of France, but also the German demand to play a more important international political role. Indeed, seventy years after its defeat, the fourth economy in the world is still limited to a secondary role [4]. Concerning the Arab world, President Macron an ENA alumnus (Ecole Nationale dAdministration) and ex-collaborator with Rothschild & Co - adopted the point of view of his two consultants on the subject. They were the Franco-Tunisian Hakim El Karoui (another ex-Rothschild & Co) for the Maghreb, and ex-ambassador to Damascus Michel Duclos another ENA alumnus for the Levant. El Karoui is not a product of Republican integration, but of the transnational haute bourgeoisie. He alternates a Republican attitude on the international plane, with another, communitarian, on the interior. Duclos is an authentic neo-conservative, trained in the USA under George W. Bush by Jean-David Levitte [5]. El Karoui has still not understood that the Muslim Brotherhood is an instrument of the British MI6, just as Duclos has still not understood that London has not yet digested the Sykes-Picot-Sazonov agreements which caused the loss of half of its empire in the Middle East [6]. Consequently, the two men see no problem with the new entente cordiale with Theresa May. We may already note certain incoherences in this policy. In application of the decisions of the Little Group , France has re-adopted the habit of President Hollandes team of relaying to the UNO the positions of its employees in the Syrian opposition (those who pay allegiance to the flag of the French mandate in Syria [7]). But times have changed. The letter by the current President of the Syrian Negotiation Committee, Nasr al-Hariri, transmitted to the Security Council in the name of France, insults not only Syria, but also Russia [8]. It accuses one of the two major military powers in the world [9] of perpetrating crimes against Humanity, which contravenes the mediating position of a permanent member of the Council. While Moscow preferred to ignore this slip of the tongue, Damascus replied angrily [10]. Finally, the policy of Emmanuel Macron is almost the same as that of Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, even though, because of the presence of Donald Trump in the White House, it relies more on the United Kingdom than the United States. The Elysee pursues the idea of an economic recovery for its multinationals not in France but in its erstwhile colonial Empire. These are the same choices as those made by the Socialist Guy Mollet, one of the founders of the Bilderberg Group [11]. In 1956, the President of the French Council allied himself with London and Tel-Aviv in order to conserve Frances shares in the Suez Canal, which had been nationalised by President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Mollet proposed to his British counterpart, Anthony Eden, that France join the Commonwealth and pay allegiance to the Crown, and that the French people adopt the same civil status as the population of Northern Ireland [12]. This project for the abandon of the Republic and the integration of France into the United Kingdom under the authority of Queen Elizabeth II was never discuissed publicly. Never mind the ideal of equal rights exposed in 1789 and the rejection of colonialism expressed by the French People when they were faced with the aborted coup detat of 1961 [13] in the eyes of Power, foreign policy has nothing to do with democracy. On March 10, 2018 at 9:30 pm (Washington time), General Jim Mattis was interviewed by reporters on the plane that was taking him to Oman. Even before questions were asked, the US Secretary of Defense commented on President Putins statements to Russian parliamentarians [1]. According to General Mattis, these statements by Putin would be only part of the rhetoric of the presidential election campaign. The weapons described by Vladimir Putin would not be operational for a long time, so could not change the military balance in the present time [2]. In reply, the Russian Federation proceeded the next day to make a successful shot of Kinzhal missile. The US press reports both events, but changes the chronology, suggesting that General Mattis commented on the firing of the hypersonic missile and not that Russia denied him. The President Putins speech on the State of the Nation [1], dedicated to domestic and international issues, aroused little political-media interest and some ironic remarks in Italy. Yet it should be listened to with great attention. Avoiding diplomatic roundabout expressions, Putin lays his cards on the table. He denounces the fact that in the past 15 years the United States fueled the nuclear arms race, trying to acquire a strategic advantage over Russia. This is confirmed by the Federation of American Scientists: through revolutionary technologies, the US has tripled the destructive capability of their nuclear attack ballistic missiles. At the same time - Putin underlines - the US withdrew from the ABM Treaty and deployed a global system of "missile defense" to neutralize the Russian ability to retaliate against a nuclear first strike. In the wake of NATOs expansion to the East, they installed missile sites in Romania and Poland, while other launching systems (not only of interceptor missiles but also of attack missiles) are on 18 warships dislocated in areas close to the Russian territory. Russia had many times warned the United States and European NATO member states that reciprocal measures would be taken in response to the deployment of the US global missile defense system. Russia has many times warned the United States and European NATO member states that, in response to this deployment, it would have taken counter-measures. "But no one was listening to us, so listen now," warned Putin. He then passes to the language of force, the only one evidently understood in Washington. After recalling that after the fall of the USSR, 44.6% of its military potential and that the US and its allies were convinced that it would no longer be able to rebuild it, Putin shows up, on two large screens, the new types of strategic weapons developed by Russia: A cruise missile launched from the air armed with a nuclear warhead, with practically unlimited range being powered by nuclear energy, an unpredictable course and the ability to penetrate through any anti-missile defense. Kinzhal and Avangard missiles with hypersonic speed (over 10 times that of sound). The 200-ton Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile on a mobile platform, with a range of 18,000 km, armed with more than 10 nuclear warheads maneuvering at hypersonic speed to escape interceptor missiles. A submarine drone faster than a torpedo that, powered by nuclear energy, covers intercontinental distances at great depths, hitting coastal ports and fortifications with a large-scale nuclear warhead. Putin reveals the characteristics of these weapons because he knows that the United States is developing similar weapons and wants to warn them that Russia is now at their level or at a higher level. This confirms that the nuclear arms race takes place not on quantity but, increasingly, on the quality of weapons, that is on the type of vectors and on the offensive capabilities of nuclear warheads. At the same time, it confirms the growing danger we are running, because of U.S. nuclear weapons and strategic stations, such as the MUOS and the JTAGS in Sicily, deployed on our territory. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, denounces that "non-nuclear European NATO member states, in grave violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, are trained by the U.S. in the use of tactical nuclear weapons against Russia". The warning is clear, for Italy too. But none of the main parties took note of this, erasing any reference to NATO and nuclear weapons from the electoral campaign, with a sort of tacit agreement. As if this had nothing to do with our future and our life itself. During the first half of March, two major war exercises are underway - one in the Mediterranean off the coast of Sicily, the other in Israel - both led and supported by USA/NATO commands and bases in Italy. At the Dynamic Manta 2018 - a submarine war exercise, supported by the Sigonella and Augusta bases and the port of Catania in Sicily - naval forces from the United States, Canada, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Greece and Turkey participate with 5,000 men, surface ships, sub-marines, airplanes and helicopters. The exercise is led by the NATO Command headquartered in Lago Patria (JFC Naples), under the command of US Admiral James Foggo. Appointed by the Pentagon as his predecessors, at the same time he commands the U.S. Naval Forces Europe and U.S. Naval Forces Africa, whose headquarters are in Naples Capodichino. The purpose of the Dynamic Manta 2018 is explained by Admiral Foggo: the United States is fighting the "Fourth Battle of the Atlantic", after those of the two World Wars and the Cold War. It is fought against "increasingly sophisticated Russian submarines that threaten the sea lines of communication between the United States and Europe". The Admiral accuses Russia of conducting "an increasingly aggressive military activity", citing as an example the Russian fighters flying over US ships. However, he does not say that these warships operate in the Baltic and Black Sea near the Russian territory. At the same time the US Global Hawk drones, taking off from Sigonella, fly two or three times a week along the Russian coasts on the Black Sea. Wearing the NATO captains hat, Admiral Foggo prepares Allied naval forces in Italy against Russia. Wearing the US captains hat, he sends the Sixth Fleet from Italy to Juniper Cobra 2018, a US-Israeli joint operation mainly directed against Iran. From the base of Gaeta, Mount Whitney, the flagship of the Sixth Fleet, arrived in Haifa, accompanied by the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima. The Mount Whitney is a floating headquarters, connected to the global command and control network of the Pentagon also through the MUOS station of Niscemi. The Juniper Cobra 2018 - which involves 2,500 US soldiers and as many Israelis - began on March 4, while Premier Netanyahu, meeting with President Trump, claimed that Iran "has not renounced its nuclear ambitions" (not saying it is Israel the only nuclear power in the Middle East) and concluded "Iran must be stopped, this is our common job". The exercise simulates the Israeli response to the simultaneous launch of missiles from Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Gaza. The real scenario may instead be that of a missile launch falsely attributed to the Lebanese Hezbollah allied with Iran, as a pretext to attack Lebanon by targeting Iran. Just 72 hours later - US and Israeli officials declare - US forces would arrive from Europe (in particular from bases in Italy) to join the Israeli forces in the war. The presence at Juniper Cobra of General Scaparrotti, head of the European Command of the United States, confirms this plan, which he defined at a meeting with the Israeli general staff on 11 March. Since Scaparrotti is also the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (a position that always belongs to a US general), the plan foresees a NATO participation, above all Italian, to support Israel in a large-scale war in the Middle East. Minister for Equality attends UN Commission on the Status of Women The Minister for Equality, the Hon Samantha Sacramento MP is this week once again attending the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The CSW is the most prominent entity on womens issues and takes the lead in coordinating and promoting the UNs work on economic and social issues for womens empowerment and is instrumental in promoting gender equality. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world will be attending the session. The Minister is attending with the UK delegation of MPs and will be accompanied by Ms Karina Khubchand, Crown Counsel at the Ministry of Equality. A full programme of meetings and activities is scheduled. Craig Mack. Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage I hope the subject dont turn you away / But the whole hip-hop generation need to pray Craig Mack, 1994 Its sort of stunning to watch how Diddys Bad Boy roster seeks absolution, isnt it? Loon put out his self-titled album on the label in 2003; five years later, hed converted to Islam and moved to Egypt. In 2010, G. Dep walked into a police precinct and confessed to murder in what had been a 17-year-old cold case. Also in 2010, after serving eight years in prison, Shyne traveled to Jerusalem and converted to Orthodox Judaism. And, of course, you have Mase, who left music in 1999, when he was near the height of his commercial powers, to become a pastor in Atlanta. All of those stories bend toward a particular, mythic arc, but none were quite as strange or opaque as the journey of Bad Boys forgotten first success story, rapper Craig Mack. Mack died of heart failure on Monday at a hospital near his home in Walterboro, South Carolina. He was 46 years old, like too many middle-aged hip-hop luminaries of his era Phife Dawg, Sean Price, Mobb Deeps Prodigy, Combat Jack recently lost to illness. In recent years, Mack had become the subject of considerable rumor and innuendo within hip-hop, especially after video footage surfaced that showed him at a controversial church its often described as a cult known as Overcomer Ministry, giving testimony and even delivering new rhymes to the congregation. The bearded man who drapes his arm over Macks shoulder in that video (or, in another, deeply uncomfortable one, repeatedly calls him boy) is Ralph Gordon Stair, the churchs leader who has been repeatedly accused of sexual abuse. But that is not how the rap world will remember Mack. After some early efforts in the late 80s, he was tapped by a then-unknown producer, Sean Combs, to be among the first artists signed to his new venture, Bad Boy Records. In 1994, Macks Flava in Ya Ear became the labels first single. An album, Project: Funk da World, followed in September of that year, and revealed a rapper who had honed his songwriting to adapt to the menacing, the thoughtful, the lighthearted, and more. Macks low voice was full and authoritative; even years later, when he reemerged in Walterboro to repurpose his own beats in service of his new calling, the vocals were unmistakable. They also revealed a stylistic durability that fans never got to test in the new century: While the cadences he used on that new song diverged from the dominant rap trends since the 2010s, he found a pocket that made musical, intuitive sense. He opted out, but never aged out. Unfortunately, the understated New Jersey native was seldom the marquee player, even in his prime. Project: Funk da World was released exactly seven days after the Notorious B.I.G.s Ready to Die; while that might have seemed at the time like a shrewd bit of piggyback marketing by Bad Boy, Bigs album was such a thunderous arrival that it not only drowned out Mack, but many of the higher-profile (and, with historys perspective, more highly regarded) albums that came in its wake. That power struggle played out in microcosm on the Flava in Ya Ear remix. That version went on to become one of the iconic hip-hop singles of the 90s: It announced Big as a star, secured LL Cool Js endorsement, and unleashed a deliriously animated Busta Rhymes. Even the videos opening shot, which catches Combs tapping two glass bottles together, has been subsumed into rap canon. In the minds of many listeners especially those too young to remember the context or know it only from the Jennifer Lopez remake, to whom LL, Busta, Puffy, and Big are superstars and Mack a relic the songs headliner was rendered an afterthought. But heard today, thats not what the song reveals at all. Macks growl is tucked neatly into the second verse, as fearless and full of swagger as any of his peers. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images So it looks like Michael B. Jordan gets at least a little credit for all future projects made by Ben Affleck and Matt Damons production company Pearl Street Films. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, the Black Panther star is the proponent of inclusion riders that Pearl Streets head of strategic outreach Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni retweeted on Twitter when announcing that the company would be following in the footsteps of Jordans own production company Outlier Society. On behalf of Pearl Street Films, Matt Damon, @BenAffleck, Jennifer Todd, Drew Vinton & I will be adopting the #InclusionRider for all of our projects moving forward, DiGiovanni tweeted on Monday night. Famously hyped by Frances McDormand during her acceptance speech at the Oscars this year, inclusion riders, an agreement put in place to maintain racial and gender diversity both in front of and behind the camera, can be practical tool to fight inequality in Hollywood. The director of USC Annenbergs Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative Stacy Smith reportedly coined the term inclusion rider back in 2014, so technically, she also gets a hats off for Damon and Afflecks upcoming movies too. Good Girls Borderline Season 1 Episode 3 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * * Photo: NBC/Jace Downs/NBC It seems were crossing the border into recapping Good Girls at just the right time thankfully not with butts full of cocaine. A series about three good women breaking bad to take some much needed control over their lives is an exciting concept, and Good Girls is still figuring out how to strike the balance between dark subject material and the buddy-crime comedy its striving to be. Whats most special about the show, of course, is its three lead actors who can switch between the euphoric high of success and the crushing weight of reality with nothing more than a furrowed brow or twitching left eye, and with this third episode, everything is clicking into place. In Borderline, the high stakes finally meet witty execution in a more sustainable balance. This is a tricky tone to nail: In one moment, theyre toasting with fruity margaritas to a crime well committed, and in the very next instant, Beth is reckoning with what it means to go back to her normal life, and Ruby is suddenly recalling, Wait. I shot a man. It is perhaps the joke-for-joke funniest episode yet, but its also the one where the women begin taking accountability for their own bad-girl behavior, and how it will never stop affecting their lives. Their pasts may have been defined by men who made bad choices on their behalves, but their futures and our futures with them will be defined by the choices that they make. And this week, Beth, Annie, and Ruby are making some choices. Whether they be good, bad, or absolutely insane (looking at you and your sweater set, Beth!). The episode opens with all three women drumming their fingers on their ever-present colorful mugs of coffee while Beth tells them that Rio will forgive their debts if do some mystery act across the Canadian border for him. Annie is confident theyll be putting drugs in their butts unless theyre transporting guns, which at least cant be put up their butts, she says. Thats when Beths youngest comes in to tell Mama she had a bad dream, because these women are, of course, all mamas. Its why they shouldnt be doing something like this, and why they have to do this. While they plan their caper, its on with normal life, where Annie is preparing for the home-visit from CPS that will play into the custody battle for Sadie, and Ruby is in church with her adorable family. Her husband Stan wants to give praise today: He knows the church has been praying for their daughters health, and indeed, a miracle came in the form of an anonymous donation to Sarahs health fund. Praise be to well, Ruby, who really wants Stan to stop talking about their miracle in public. But while shes tugging him down, a woman across the aisle stands up, saying she didnt want a lot of attention, I just couldnt stand to see your little girl so sick. Rubys eyes bug out of her head as this Sheila gives a lingering hug to her very grateful husband. All three women are pretty sure they dont want to get heroin in their car cushions, so they plot to borrow a car from Deans dealership before setting out. Once in a sensible (and stolen) Jeep SUV, they try to stay calm as Beth drives them through border patrol. But when Ruby admits that she brought Stans unloaded gun, Beth finally loses it, questioning what happens if they get caught. Annie tells her its not like they have a choice, and Beth responds, Theres always a choice. Of course, its not a choice any of them are willing to make. Beth begs Ruby and Annie to tell her to turn around, but no one says anything, which is a choice all its own. Its a pivotal moment for these characters: Outside circumstances may have led Beth, Annie, and Ruby to this point at border patrol, but its their own choice to move forward into the great Canadian unknown. Still think its drugs? Beth asks as they pull up to a craft store. Worse scrapbooking, says Annie, correctly. But Mike, the man theyre supposed to be meeting in the back, wont give Beth the packages, and he wont give them to Annie either. So its time for Ruby, certainly the least crime-oriented of the three, to step up to the plate. She marches up to him in her sensible jacket, with her unloaded gun, greets Mike by name and immediately and unintentionally shoots him in the foot. Mike relents amid a trio of profuse apologies (and Rubys panic-wheezing), quickly telling them where the packages are. They hightail it back to the border with Annie assuring Ruby, Hes about to get the best free care socialized medicine can buy! And theyre about to get sent to the search-and-seizure lane to double-check the ten boxes of crafting supplies in their trunk. The tension is high as the boxes are cut open and drug dogs sniff at them, but ultimately, the women are sent on their merry way. They quickly pull over to investigate the boxes themselves, because they cant believe its really just wrapping paper in there But it is: roll after roll of snowman wrapping paper with counterfeit $100 bills printed on the back. The ladies pull up to a comically shady warehouse to make the drop to Rio. The car is unloaded and they get a peek at the full operation of what goes into verifying millions of counterfeit bills, but when Beth tries to speak to Rio, she gets nowhere. Hes busy running his operation, not interested in giving her reassurance that theyre off the hook. Beth turns around to leave, but suddenly stops Rio isnt the only one in charge of an operation around here. She marches back up to him, levels him with a stare, and tells him shes going to need to hear him say it. Were good, he tells her. Oh, but they are so not. As the ladies celebrate their completed task with the aforementioned margaritas, Dean calls Beth to tell her that cops are at his dealership because a car was stolen. The women decide to just ditch it somewhere, right at the moment the dashboard shows the Bluetooth syncing to Annies phone. She tries to disconnect it, but Bluetooth truly is the STD of technology, and theres no getting her name off the cars smart screen. It is a perfect comedic beat when Annie attempts to answer her phone in the next scene, only to have it pick up inside the car that all three women are watching sink into a lake. How awful then, that it leads to Annie realizing shes late for her home-visit. She rushes back to find that Sadie has cleaned the apartment and prepared refreshments for the social worker, and theyre somehow able to make a good impression. Until, that is, Sadie throws her hand up to stop the social worker from going inside Annies room where shes stuffed everything to clean up in her moms absence. Thats when both women see that Sadie has cut her finger badly, and Annie had no idea. The social worker is appalled at how long Sadie must have been left alone, saying shell have to report this. In Good Girls, bullets will likely never hit vital organs and our leads might not ever have to put drugs in any unsavory crevices, but the personal stakes for their bad choices are there (and they are adorable in bow ties). As much as we like Annie, and as cool of a kid as Sadie is, Annie simply cant leave her alone to transport counterfeit money without consequences. Later, after theyve been to the hospital, Annie apologizes to Sadie and tries to explain that she was doing something really important. Sadie asks her mom sadly, Whats more important than me? That theme of choosing your own path rings out clear as a bell once more when Stan comes over to Beths house to ask her to stay together. Given their financial situation, he just doesnt think they have much of a choice. Theres always a choice, Beth tells him. And this time, she doesnt beg anyone else to make it for her. She drives over to Rios warehouse and knocks on the door, but inside, the whole operation has been wiped clean. She could leave without trace. It could really all be over. Until Beth takes off her pearl necklace and drapes it over the doorknob. You know the tradition is Jordans over a phone line, right? Rio teases her later, after he receives her signature message. I dont think Im wrong to say that theres chemistry between these two. But Beth isnt falling for Rio; shes seduced by the opportunity for a new life, one that shes thrilled to have a knack for. So, whatd you want to talk to me about? Rio asks. Beth opens her mouth cut to credits. A Few Loose Ends As much as I cannot stand Boomer, Im glad to see that hes still around. Annies Dick Pic Trick trick was a Band-Aid to that problem, not a solution, and Im relieved to see the series treating it as such. Another Band-Aid, but a highly entertaining one: Ruby standing up at church to thank Sheila for being so generous to their family. Thank you for the money. And for offering to drive our kids home from school, and to do the groceries at Whole Foods! Because this woman only shops organic. Its a fun, empowering moment for Ruby, even if her beloved husband is none the wiser to the web his wife is caught up in. I dont know, Im just saying words Ive heard before! Annie, talking about wiping the Jeeps hard drive. All the kicky caper music is great in this episode, especially Gin Wigmores Written In the Water as Beth makes her final decision to go in deeper with Rio. Jon Snow doesnt come cheap. Photo: HBO One HBO executive is getting candid about the hits the networks budget is set to take in the coming year. Speaking on a panel in Jerusalem, HBO drama chief Francesca Orsi said that from a budget standpoint going into season two of Big Little Lies without any options in place weve been um short of raped. Since HBO didnt plan for a second season, reports have said that stars Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman were able to negotiate significant raises based on competing salaries at rival networks (particularly Witherspoons big paychecks at Apple), as have the rest of the women in the cast. HBO programming president Casey Bloys added, As a show goes on they get more expensive and as shows get more ambitious they will get more expensive. More money doesnt always equal better but in some cases the scope of ideas do require it. The execs also noted that HBO is facing a budget conundrum with Game of Thrones, if it decides to green-light any of the five planned spinoffs. If we do take off on one of these Game of Thrones spinoffs, where do we start? We cant obviously start with the budget of season eight but would it be a Game of Thrones season three budget? Orsi said. Still, Bloys noted that it would be corporate malfeasance not to extend the franchise. Heading into the original series final half (which has reportedly ballooned to over $15 million per episode), both execs say to prepare yourselves for plenty of bloodshed. Per Deadline, Orsi and Bloys said they attended the sweat-drenched table read in Northern Ireland for the final episodes, and vaguely teased that many of the characters will die. Update, 3 p.m. ET: Orsi has issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter walking back her use of the word raped. Obviously, I am embarrassed by my poor choice of words. We are extremely proud of Big Little Lies and excited for the second season, she says. She also confirmed to THR that the BLL cast had to sign new deals to return. We just cant get enough. Photo: Chris Jackson/Chris Jackson/Getty Images Good news from the preferred side of the pond: Youll no longer have to Google British Royal Family Gossip 2018 to satisfy your Anglophile desires! ABC will be airing a new, two-night television special in August called The Story of the Royals, which will examine Americans ongoing fascination with all things royal. (We can save you 120 minutes and say: accents and pretty crowns.) As you can likely guess, the special is primarily motivated by the upcoming spring wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, which will make Markle the first American to join the British royal family since Wallis Simpson married an abdicated Edward VIII in 1937. But besides that, expect an examination into the general line of succession following Queen Elizabeth II, as well the birth of Kate Middleton and Prince Williams third child, whos expected to be born next month. Consider this the chaser to the shot of Lifetimes impending Markle-Harry drama. Shia LaBeouf. Photo: Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images When Shia LaBeouf was arrested in Georgia last summer, he lashed out at the local cops. Footage released by TMZ at the time shows LaBeouf bragging about his millionaire lawyers, singling out a black officer, and saying a white officers wife watches porn about licking a black dick. He also called female officers bitch and whore. LaBeouf apologized shortly after, but revisited the arrest in a new Esquire profile. Hes sober now, and says he conducted two months of practice interviews with his therapist to prepare for the magazines feature. What went on in Georgia was mortifying. White privilege and desperation and disaster It came from a place of self-centered delusion It was me trying to absolve myself of guilt for getting arrested. And finally, I fucked up. LaBeouf was arrested as he filmed The Peanut Butter Falcon, a movie about a developmentally disabled man who leaves a nursing home to become a professional wrestler. When the movies star, an actor with Down syndrome named Zachary Gottsagen, confronted LaBeouf about the arrest, he says it changed his life. To hear him say that he was disappointed in me probably changed the course of my life, LaBeouf says. Cause I was still fighting. I was still on my Look how fast they released the videos! They dont release these! Just on my defense-mechanism-fear garbage. And you cant do that to him. He keeps it one thousand with you, and that shit doesnt even make sense to him. Zack cant not shoot straight, and bless him for it, cause in that moment, I needed a straight shooter who I couldnt argue with. LaBeouf says his offscreen conduct made him a liability in Hollywood, and that it has become difficult for him to book new roles, despite being hailed as the Best Actor for the Buck in the late aughts. Photo-Illustration: Maya Robinson/Vulture This spring, theater is going big at least in terms of spectacle, length, and expense. The Broadway productions lining up like 747s to land before the April 26 cutoff for Tonys qualification include two massive two-part shows from London (Angels in America and Harry Potter), two revivals of classic musicals (Carousel and My Fair Lady), and two musical adaptations of pop-culture-defining movies about dangerous blondes (Mean Girls and Frozen). Between those behemoths, Broadways also offering up an array of plays (stacked with A-list casts, as has become the habit), while a few Off Broadway offerings opening amid the spring chaos might offer a bit of a respite. Below, find a guide to a few of the upcoming shows were both bracing for and excited about. Broadway Frozen St. James Theatre Previews start February 22; opens March 22. As anyone who has been near a young child in the last decade might expect, Let It Go sung by Caissie Levys ice queen Elsa, in this case forms the center of Disneys latest theatrical venture, but theres still plenty going on elsewhere. Songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez have written a dozen new songs for the show, and the plots been expanded and reworked; the trolls (RIP) are now mysterious Hidden Folk. Angels in America Neil Simon Theatre Previews start February 23; opens March 25. Londons National Theatres production of Tony Kushners seminal two-part epic heads back to America with Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, and Denise Gough (recently in People, Places & Things) and neon direction from War Horses Marianne Elliott. Lee Pace, meanwhile, fills in for Russell Tovey as Joe Pitt. Sure, its more than 20 years after the play first premiered, but were still living in a world defined by Roy Cohn. Lobby Hero Helen Hayes Theatre Previews start March 1; opens March 26. Second Stages new Broadway venue, committed to producing work from living American playwrights, is opening by bringing Kenneth Lonergans play about security guards in over their heads to Broadway for the first time. The cast includes Michael Cera, Bel Powley, Brian Tyree Henry, and Chris Evans, taking refuge from all his superhero duties. Three Tall Women John Golden Theatre Previews start March 1; opens March 29. Glenda Jackson, Laurie Metcalf, and Alison Pill tackle Edward Albees scathing play about three women at different stages of their lives (who are all somewhat stand-ins for his own mother), directed by Joe Mantello. The creative team alone is the selling point. Mean Girls August Wilson Theatre Previews start March 12; opens April 8. Tina Fey revisits her 2004 high-school comedy with the help of her husband Jeff Richmond, who provides the music, and director Casey Nicholaw (of campy delights like The Book of Mormon and The Drowsy Chaperone). In Feys updated book, the mean girls have iPhones now, but they still wear pink on Wednesdays and deliver all the other quotes the movie embedded in popular culture in 2004. The question now is whether it all still feels grool. Carousel Imperial Theatre Previews start February 28; opens April 12. This revival of Rodgers and Hammersteins classic musical seems to come at the wrong moment, given its willingness to forgive a man who hits his wife. But its a major work nonetheless, and a creative team led by director Jack OBrien has plenty to dig into. Throw in an all-star cast that includes Jessie Mueller, Joshua Henry, Lindsay Mendez, and Renee Fleming trying her hand at musical theater, and youve got a real intriguing clambake on your hands. My Fair Lady Vivian Beaumont Theater Previews start March 15; opens April 19. Lauren Ambrose, best known as Claire from Six Feet Under, isnt the first name that comes to mind when you think of Eliza Doolittle especially since this is her first Broadway musical but shes got the support of director Bartlett Sher, who recently pulled off revivals of lumbering standards The King and I and South Pacific and previously tried to stage Funny Girl with Ambrose before the funding fell through. Could it all come together this time in time for the ascot opening day? Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 and 2 Lyric Theatre Previews start March 16; opens April 22. J.K. Rowlings big, shiny, two-part Harry Potter sequel apparates from overseas with nearly all of its West End cast intact. Therell be lots of stage magic as the play sends the next generation of young witches and wizards to Hogwarts, while Harry, Ron, and Hermione settle into middle age. Given how well the show sold in London, you might need a Time Turner to go back and get tickets for this. Saint Joan Samuel J. Friedman Theatre Previews start April 3; opens April 25. Condola Rashad, whos already racked up three Tony nominations (most recently for standing up to Laurie Metcalf in A Dolls House, Part 2) and always seems to be one of the most fascinating presences in whatever shes in, plays the French martyr in George Bernard Shaws tragedy of conflicting ideologies. The Iceman Cometh Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre Previews start March 22; opens April 26. An epic portion of Denzel Washington comes to you via this Eugene ONeill revival directed by George C. Wolfe. Expect several hours of crushing despair exquisitely acted, crushing despair, that is. Off Broadway Miss You Like Hell Public Theater Previews start March 20; opens April 10. Quiara Alegria Hudes, who wrote the book for In the Heights, imagines a cross-country road trip shared between a 16-year-old and her mother (Daphne Rubin-Vega), an undocumented immigrant at risk of deportation. With music from Erin McKeown, this looks to be a heartening and tear-jerking experience. Mlimas Tale Public Theater Performances March 27May 20. Lynn Nottage, last on Broadway with the Pulitzer Prizewinning Sweat, which also started off at the Public, traces the international ivory trade through the life of a single elephant named Mlima. Tony nominee Sahr Ngaujah somehow plays the elephant. Light Shining in Buckinghamshire New York Theatre Workshop Performances April 18May 27. Rachel Chavkin, recently on Broadway with Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, stages another sweeping period epic with Caryl Churchills drama set in 1647 amid the English civil war. For whatever reason, the question of whether a fractured rebellion can build a new, stable society out of chaos feels especially relevant right now. King Lear BAM Performances April 7April 29. Olivier winner Antony Sher plays the aging king in the Royal Shakespeare Companys production, now coming to a nation all too familiar with unstable men in power. Yerma Park Avenue Armory Performances March 23April 21. Billie Piper won an Olivier Award for Best Actress in Simon Stones updated look at Federico Garcia Lorcas play, which also won Best Revival. Playing an infertile woman obsessed with motherhood, Pipers now a blogger, performing in an enclosed glass space for the audience. The Alienist Psychopathia Sexualis Season 1 Episode 8 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * * Photo: Kata Vermes/Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc. The Alienist is finally cooking with gas! As our heroes get closer to the truth, weve seen them get kidnapped, beaten up, and dressed down. Maybe it was inevitable that one of them would come to mortal harm. At the very least, this isnt a show where happiness ever lasts long, so when Psychopathia Sexualis opens on Mary cheerfully going about her chores and Kreizler staring dreamily out the window, alarm bells should be going off. Floating on that post-hookup high, even Kreizlers usual needling has changed. Though he hassles Moore (sporting two black eyes following his scrap with Connor) about not visiting his former fiancee as they set off to find Bunzl, he follows it up with the classic first-crush move of asking what its like to be in love. I could devote the entire rest of this recap to Moores answer, but Ill spare you except to say that its quite sweet. Mercifully, Kreizler doesnt tease him about it, though they do start arguing about how the heart works, with Kreizler insisting that its just a muscle. Typical. Kreizlers poking around at the government hospital and Moores investigation at the Bureau of Indian Affairs reveal that Bunzl has died, but their trip hasnt been for naught. Moore discovers records of the murder of a minister and his wife in New Paltz, attributed to marauding Native Americans out of what seems like administrative laziness, and Kreizler discovers notes about a soldier named John Beecham, born in New Paltz, who comes closest to fitting the criteria they have for their suspect. Its a break in the case, if not in the tangle of their personal lives, but its also offset by misfortune: The two of them are being followed. In the second prong of the investigation, Howard turns her disappointment at being left behind into action. After Moore tells her about the incident with the Dury family in New Paltz, she sets off for the town herself. When she arrives, shes quick to note the lovely Shawangunk Mountains, which her appointed escort encourages her to climb, saying that theres no reason she shouldnt just because shes a girl. Its an instant bonding moment between the two, and it almost made me wish the show was about the two of them solving crimes together instead of the three-hander it is. Though theyre from different backgrounds and in different lines of work, theyre kindred spirits. They both have a sense of independence, and theyre both no bullshit. When the local sheriff tells Howard what happened to the Durys that the minister and his wife were butchered, their older son Adam spared, and their younger son Japheth kidnapped its the woman who tells Howard not to believe what he says. The Isaacsons, as the last prong of the trident, have gone to speak to the captain who relieved Beecham of his duty. The trip there sees them dealing with their own emotional mishegoss: Lucius has discovered that Marcuss sweetheart already has a baby, and Marcus seems to be in denial, telling Lucius that he doesnt have any feelings for her, which is the kind of thing you cant say in a conversation about your love life because itll sound like youre lying even if youre not. (Though, lets be real: If youre having the conversation at all, you definitely are.) They keep fighting when Marcus takes snapshots of Sitting Bulls grave, with Lucius arguing that its disrespectful of the dead. Theyre soon confronted with worse, as Captain Miller tells them that, during the Haymarket riots, he found Beecham repeatedly stabbing the corpse of a young boy. And thats not the least of it: Beecham was naked, and, to quote Miller, stiff as a flag pole. The rest of what Kreizler and Moore find also points to Beecham as the murderer and not quite the man hes said he is. Everything that Adam says about Japheth fits with what theyve been looking for: Their mother was domineering and cruel, especially to Japheth, and Japheth suffered sexual assault at the hands of a farmhand who was found dead at around the same time that their parents were killed, with his throat cut and his eyes missing. The farmhands name? George Beecham. In other words, the soldier John Beecham and the missing boy Japheth Dury are one and the same. As they head back with this new piece of the puzzle, the shadow thats been tailing them finally takes action, shooting their driver and sending their carriage careening off of a bridge. Luckily, both of them survive the crash, though Kreizlers leg is wounded in the fall. In his initial panic, he asks Moore to deliver a message for him. Moore, ever the optimist, tells him hes overreacting. Its only once theyre safely away from the scene that he questions Kreizler, asking if the object of his affection knows how he feels, and if his feelings are reciprocated. When Kreizler says yes (and given how something seems to have happened between Kreizler and Howard), Moore immediately jumps to the conclusion that he means Sara. He takes it about as graciously as anyone can when they think their crush has hooked up with their best friend, saying that at least hell be able to say that he introduced them, which is enough for Kreizler to get whats going on and clear up the confusion. To Kreizlers credit, he knows that the relationship between him and Mary is somewhat inappropriate given that she initially came into his care as a child. But the heart wants what it wants (or so he says), and he admires her for her warmth and courage, qualities he tells Moore that he doesnt think he has. Its perhaps the only time that Kreizler has admitted to his own shortcomings without prompting and without any frustration, which only makes this weeks big loss all the more upsetting. Neither the police nor high society are happy with the way the case is going, even though suspicion has shifted from the Van Bergens. J.P. Morgan puts the squeeze on Roosevelt to scuttle Kreizlers investigation, but Roosevelts a strong man. Unfortunately, Connor isnt. He folds like wet paper under Byrness command to make sure that the police solve the case before Kreizler does or rather, to swoop in and vulture the results if necessary. He goes to Kreizlers house to try to put him off the investigation, but the doctor isnt home. When his men try to subdue Cyrus and Mary, she manages to break free, attacking Connor with a knife. Connor overpowers her, throwing her off of the balcony. And just like that, shes gone. Its an awfully disappointing loss, not least because shes one of very few characters of color on the show (and one of basically two female characters), but also because, given how relatively little her character was explored, it seems like shes being fridged for the sake of Kreizlers emotional development. Doubtless, her death will be hanging over Kreizlers head when it comes time to choose between his own integrity and fully submitting to the process hes created while trying to catch the killer. Lets just hope its the former. Claire Foy. Photo: Robert Viglasky / Netflix She may literally be playing the queen in The Crown, but Claire Foy is still suffering from the societal problems of us plebeians. As revealed in a panel discussion about the series, one of The Crowns producers, Suzanne Mackie, admitted Matt Smith was paid a higher salary as Prince Philip than Foys Queen Elizabeth II for their two seasons of work. The reasoning at the time, Mackie explained, boiled down to prominence: Matt Smith was an international figure due to his leading work on Doctor Who, while Foy was relatively unknown to viewers outside the constraints of the United Kingdom. Going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen, Mackie clarified, signifying Olivia Colman will be getting the biggest payday when season three begins filming. (If youre curious about specifics, Foy was reportedly paid $40,000 per episode.) This new knowledge of Foys pay disparity comes at a time when many women in the TV industry are coming forward to express disgust at being paid less than their male cohorts. For instance, at the end of 2017, E! News popular host Catt Sadler said she chose to leave the network over a massive gender pay gap between her and her male co-host. Similarly, a year prior, Shameless Emmy Rossum demanded that Showtime pay her equally to her male co-star William H. Macy, a demand that was eventually accepted. Authorities are asking for information after another theft occurred at the intersection of Mooresville Rd. and Highway 72 mini-storage in Athens. According to Limestone County authorities the theft occurred on Saturday Mar. 10. Limestone County Sheriff's Office Limestone County Sheriff's Office A white Chevrolet 2500HD extended cab truck, driven by a white male entered the fenced storage lot. The driver unsuccessfully attempted to take one trailer, then drove to the back and took an enclosed trailer full of lawn equipment, said authorities. Anyone with any information is asked to call Limestone County Sheriff's Office at 256-232-0111. (CNN) -- At least one person was killed when a bus carrying Houston-area band students drove into a 50-foot ravine in Baldwin County, Alabama, on Tuesday morning, Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack said. The crash and rescue effort closed down Interstate 10 in both directions near the Florida state line. "The bus came to rest on one side down in the ravine. Those had to either be brought up by ropes or rappelling individuals from the fire department during the rescue operation. Some were carried out by either deputies or other law enforcement," the sheriff said, explaining the depth of the ravine complicated rescue efforts. Mack did not identify the person killed but said several injured people were taken to 10 hospitals in Baldwin County, the Alabama cities of Mobile, Daphne and Fairhope, and Pensacola, Florida. He estimated there were about 45 people on the bus. Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola received 18 of the patients, according to its website. Six or seven Medevac helicopters transported patients to hospitals, the sheriff said. One patient remains critical, he said, and five are in serious condition. The rest of the injured, including a Baldwin County deputy hurt during the extrication process, suffered minor wounds, he said. A video of the crash showed a bus on its side in a grassy aqueduct as rescuers with flashlights scoured the area. Firefighters looked down from a bridge, a line of emergency vehicles lining the road leading up to the bridge. The bus' front axle appeared separated from the vehicle and at least two doors to luggage compartments had been ripped off the side. The roof of the bus also appeared damaged. The bus was traveling west, carrying the students home from Central Florida when it drove into the median on Interstate 10 and then into the ravine at Cowpen Creek, about 5:30 a.m. (6:30 a.m. ET), Mack said. The creek runs through the ravine, and there is water in the creek, but the bus did not land in the water, said Baldwin County Sheriff's Maj. Anthony Lowery. The last victim was extricated from the crash shortly before 9 a.m. (10 a.m. ET), Mack said. "The next thing we needed to do was get blankets up here. Of course they were cold. It was 40 degrees this morning." Mark Kramer, a spokesman for Channelview Independent School District in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, said, "A charter bus transporting Channelview High School band students was involved in an accident on Interstate 10 in Alabama early this morning. At this time, details are limited." First Class Tours, which operated the bus, said in a statement that the bus was carrying students home from Orlando, Florida, and the company is cooperating with investigators. "Our prayers are with the injured and their families at this time," the statement said. Baldwin County runs up the eastern edge of Mobile. Bay Minette is its county seat. The-CNN-Wire & 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Lawyers are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block the execution of an Alabama inmate who they say was mentally ill when he moved to fire his lawyers and drop his appeals. Attorneys wrote in the Monday court filing that Michael Eggers is severely mentally ill and wrongly believes he is the subject of a government conspiracy involving thousands of participants. Eggers is scheduled to be executed Thursday for the 2000 choking death of Bennie Francis Murray, his boss at a traveling carnival concession business. Eggers had asked to drop his appeals and fire his appointed lawyers. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December upheld a district court ruling that Eggers was competent to make that decision. The appeal to the Supreme Court was made without his consent. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) 3/12/2018 8:07:31 PM (GMT -5:00) WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump says he and ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "disagreed on things." Trump cites their divergent opinions on the Iran nuclear deal. Iran agreed before Trump took office to curb its nuclear program in exchange for the easing of economic sanctions. The president regularly criticizes the agreement as a bad deal and has repeatedly threatened to end it. Trump spoke Tuesday of his desire to break the deal, but notes that Tillerson "felt a little bit differently, so we were not really thinking the same." Trump announced Tuesday that he has fired Tillerson and is replacing him with Mike Pompeo, currently the CIA director. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018 Trump says he and Pompeo have a "very, very similar thought process." ___ 9:55 a.m. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is hailing Mike Pompeo as a "great decision" for next secretary of state. Haley, who had her own contentious relationship with ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, congratulated Pompeo in a tweet and called him her "friend." She wrote: "Great decision by the President." Over months of speculation about Tillerson's future, Haley had been rumored as one possible successor. ___ 9:25 a.m. President Donald Trump is telling reporters that he made the decision to oust Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "by myself." The president is adding that Tillerson will be "much happier now," and he appreciates his service. Trump says he and Tillerson had been "talking about this for a long time," and they had disagreed on issues like the Iran deal. Trump is praising the energy and intellect of his incoming Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who has led the CIA. The president spoke to reporters at the White House shortly before departing for Joint Base Andrews for his trip to California. ___ 9:20 a.m. A top State Department official says President Donald Trump never explained to ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson the reason why he was fired. The undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, Steve Goldstein, says Tillerson "had every intention of staying" in the job because he felt he was making critical progress in national security. Two White House officials said Tillerson was told he was out on Friday. The sources weren't authorized to speak publicly and demanded anonymity. But Goldstein says Tillerson "did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason." Goldstein says Tillerson will miss his colleagues at the State Department and the foreign ministers he worked with. Trump named Mike Pompeo, who had been CIA director, as his new secretary. Goldstein said, "We wish Secretary Pompeo well." --Contributed by AP writers Zeke Miller, Matthew Lee and Ken Thomas ___ 9 a.m. Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of state. President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday morning that he's naming CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson. Pompeo is to be replaced at CIA by Gina Haspel, Pompeo's deputy at CIA. She would be the first woman in that role. Tillerson had just returned from a shortened trip to Africa hours before Trump's announcement. Trump offered no explanation for the change. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) The Novichok toxin left a police officer with serious injuries. Patrons of the bar and restaurant the Skripals had visited on the day of the attack were warned to wash their clothes as a precaution. This was a chemical weapons attack on British soil. While there is yet no smoking gun, it is hard to see how anyone but the Kremlin, or a group very close to it, had motive and opportunity. There may be a grey area: perhaps corrupt private interests, perhaps former Russian security officers, seeking to carry out the perceived wishes of Putin. Military personnel continue their investigations into the Skripal poisoning case in Salisbury. Credit:PA/AP But it is unlikely Russia would admit to even this, especially just a week before its presidential election. It is more likely to reopen its MH17 playbook: deploying misinformation, false-flag conspiracy theories and mock-outrage denials through official channels, compliant media and the web of social media bots, blogs, trolls and sympathisers that spread confusion and division online. Perhaps anticipating this, May told Russia to deliver a response by end of Tuesday. On Wednesday her government will consider that response. And if she finds it not credible, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the UK and take action. After Alexander Litvinenkos killing in 2006, with a radioactive poison that left a trail across hotel rooms, streets and plane seats, Britain expelled diplomats and Russian secret service officers from the UK. Alexander Litvinenko in his hospital bed before his death. Credit:Reuters/File They clearly had little deterrence value. May has promised much more extensive measures this time. Assuming Russia - or circumstances - dont convince her to reconsider, what are her options? One is same again, but more. More diplomats, more expulsions, a more rigorous gutting of intelligence agencies FSB and GRU's operations on British soil, perhaps withdrawing the broadcasting licence of the propaganda-heavy Russian channel RT. Russian state-owned television station RT logo is seen at the window of the company's office in Moscow. Credit:AP But given the level of Mays rhetoric, and the anger inside and outside Westminster, this would likely be seen as an anticlimax. Then there is NATO. Mays language in Parliament was carefully worded and does not quite mirror the treaty, which talks of an armed attack. However her words do invoke the United Nations charter on self defence, and Britain would naturally turn to its allies to implement this. In her speech, May mentioned the alliance, the UKs commitment to collective defence and security through NATO and its military presence in Estonia near Russias borders. NATO could respond more aggressively towards Russian provocations such as incursions in European airspace or cyber attacks on European institutions a policy which could encourage a more aggressive Russian response and allowing Putin to stoke nationalistic pride and fear at home. And it is not even clear if NATO's big dog, the United States, would support this. In its initial response to Mays speech the White House declined to blame Russia for the attack, saying right now, we are standing with our UK allies hardly a reassuring line. Then there are sanctions. Coincidentally, the EU on Monday renewed asset freezes and travel restrictions imposed in 2014 in response to Russias military involvement in Eastern Ukraine. But any further sanctions would require unanimous agreement of all EU member states. There are obvious Putin sympathisers at the head of some European countries: Hungarys Viktor Orban the most prominent. And elsewhere, Germanys Angela Merkel hopes to repair relations with Russia, and Frances Emmanuel Macron also favours engagement over confrontation. The new Italian government will likely include pro-Russian elements. It will be a tough sell. The EU isn't exactly overflowing with love for Britain right now. Which leaves the UK with unilateral financial and visa weapons. There are 450 Russian millionaires in London, a significant number of them beneficiaries of Russias kleptocratic recent history. Transparency International says the UK has routinely been the choice destination for Russians with suspicious wealth to move: almost half a billion pounds worth of Russian money was spent on UK property in 2017 alone, much of it in Londons ritziest inner postcodes. A bill before Parliament right now would enable officials to refuse entry to the UK to anyone known to have been involved in human rights abuses. The government has opposed it until now: it may change its mind, if it could be put to anti-Russian use. And in January Unexplained Wealth Orders came into force a new investigative power that allows the seizure of suspected corrupt assets. Transparency International wants police to slap an UWO on flats 138A and 138B, 4 Whitehall Court, London estimated value 11.44 million ($20m). The owner of this luxury address: the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Igor Shuvalov. Theres nothing like hitting politicians in their hip pocket to make them pay attention. Nitrogen fertiliser is converted into nitrous oxide by soil microbes, creating a stable greenhouse gas that can reach the stratosphere, where the ozone layer protects the earth from most of the sun's UV radiation," she said. "However, once in the stratosphere, nitrous oxide is broken down by high energy radiation from the sun to become reactive nitrogen, which can deplete ozone." Dr Murphy said that last century, concerns about ozone depletion centred on "chlorine chemistry" (CFCs) because of the massive hole over the poles. "Now its nitrous oxide, which almost stopped the Concord from flying because they were worried about reactive nitrogen in the stratosphere." The ozone layer above Antarctica, with dark blue gradient indicating depleted ozone levels. Credit:NASA's Earth Observatory Nitrous oxide damage to ozone is ubiquitous, whereas damage from CFCs creates a hole during extreme weather years over the Antarctic, Dr Murphy said. Nitrous oxide was identified as the most damaging substance to the ozone layer in the 21st century by a 2009 study published in Science. That study also suggested one of the best ways to address the problem was to give insurance to Indian farmers. "In India, particularly, theyre putting in 10 times more nitrogen fertiliser on their crops than they need to because if a crop fails they may starve," Dr Murphy said. "Insurance could pick up the loss." Robin Schofield, director of Melbourne University's environmental science hub, said UV in Australia should be trending downwards because factors such as surface ozone, which is contained in smog, is on the rise and there is evidence of a recovery of stratospheric ozone. The UV Index and skin cancer The UV index relates to the intensity of sunburn-producing UV radiation. Sun protection is recommended when the UV Index is above 3 in clear sky conditions. The higher the number, the more severe. 11+ = Extreme. Avoid sun exposure between 10am and 4pm due to extreme risk of harm. 8-10 = Very High. Unprotected skin and eyes may be damaged and can burn quickly. 6-7 = High. Protection against skin and eye damage is needed. Reduce time in the sun between 10am and 4pm. 3-5 = Moderate. Stay in the shade near midday when the sun is strongest. Moderate risk of harm. 1-2 = Low. There is a low danger from the sun's UV rays for the average person. Note: UV intensity can nearly double with reflection from snow or reflective surfaces such as water, sand and concrete. Sydney's monthly average maximum UV index Credit:Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency Heather Walker, Cancer Council Australia's skin cancer committee chair, said UV is the most common cause of skin cancer but the council has not seen any evidence of a trend of more extreme or high UV days. "Queensland is the skin cancer capital of Australia and they get more UV all year round," Ms Walker said. Skin cancer rates continue to rise but look like they may be stabilising over the next few years in all age groups except for the under 40s." The continued high rate of skin cancer in Australia is partly due to the ageing population, because cancer is a disease of ageing, Ms Walker said. Brisbane average monthly maximum UV index. Credit:Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency Mr Bowen revealed a different calculation, however, by telling the ABC on Tuesday night that the effects would be smaller. When youre looking at the number of complete pensioners who might have any impact at all, youre looking at about 10 per cent of part-pensioners and at most 1 per cent of full pensioners, Mr Bowen said. Asked how many people that meant, he said: Around 200,000 for part-pensioners and about 14,000 for full pensioners. Mr Bowen fended off questions about the average earnings of those who would lose cash refunds, noting that many in retirement had low taxable incomes but substantial super fund balances. The bulk will be paid by people with very large balances in their self-managed super funds, he said. The impact will also be felt by hundreds of thousands of Australians who have funded their own retirement, sparking fury from those who manage their own superannuation funds. It fails the test of fairness because it will benefit taxpayers on higher incomes at the expense of those on lower incomes, said Michael Lorrimer, the managing director of the Self Managed Super Fund Owners Alliance. A central claim in the dispute is that retirees with higher incomes, for instance from property investments, would see no change while those on lower incomes would lose the cash refunds they rely on for their household budgets. National Seniors Australia chief advocate Ian Henschke said this could amount to $4000 for a retiree with a share portfolio who counts on betting a cash refund under dividend imputation rules. That may not sound like a lot to some people but it could be 10 per cent of that persons income, he said. Its still a long way until the next election and there is still an opportunity for Labor to look at the unintended consequences here. We believe the policy needs to be reconsidered. Labors calculations show that about 1.2 million taxpayers will lose cash refunds and this includes 200,000 self-managed super funds, arguing the biggest benefits go to wealthier Australians. The Labor policy document claims that some self-managed super funds collect cash refunds of $2.5 million because they invest heavily in Australian shares that qualify for franking credits under dividend imputation rules. The rules offer tax credits on dividends on the grounds that companies have already paid tax on the profits they distribute to shareholders, a system that prevents the income being taxed twice. While many taxpayers with higher taxable incomes use the franking credits to reduce their tax bill, those who rely heavily on dividends such as retirees end up with a tax credit that is paid to them as a cash refund from the Australian Tax Office. Mr Shorten has made it clear that Labor will keep the dividend imputation scheme and will restrict its changes to cancel the cash refunds, arguing this will only hurt 8 per cent of the countrys 14 million taxpayers. The vast bulk of the dividend imputation scheme that were talking about reforming goes to the top end of town, he said. The reality is that 50 per cent of all of the funds that come out of the budget and cash bonuses to people go to the top 10 per cent of [self-managed super funds]. In fact, Labors policy document says the 50 per cent figure refers only to amounts paid to super funds not the total $5.6 billion paid out each year in cash refunds for franking credits. Labor is yet to say how much of the $5.6 billion goes to individual Australians who are self-funded retirees or relying on the part-pension. The managing director of the financial advisory division at Dixon Advisory, Nerida Cole, said the people with very substantial super fund balances would have enough taxable income to claim the franking credits without seeing any change because of the cancellation of cash refunds. We think this has some long-term negative implications and were concerned Labor hasnt thought through the ability of retirees to handle the impact, she said. Some retirees may need to draw down their capital more quickly and therefore rely more on the Age Pension. Any impact on the numbers qualifying for the Age Pension would be a second round effect on the budget that could increase budget expenses. Ms Cole estimated that an individual in retirement with $100,000 in Commonwealth Bank shares and no other taxable income would be $2500 worse off each year through the loss of the cash refund. The head of the government's financial system inquiry, David Murry, noted the cash refunds had a negative effect on the budget balance but expressed caution about the Labor policy's impact on super funds. "What you want is for people to have choice in how they invest in super, so there should be legal and tax neutrality across all sorts of funds," he told Fairfax Media. Treasurer Scott Morrison accused Mr Shorten and Mr Bowen of theft because they were cancelling a cash refund that reflected tax already paid. The point today is simply this: Labor wants to steal your tax refund. Thats what this is. Its a tax refund for tax that has already been paid, he said. Its fair that the government doesnt keep tax that youve overpaid. Its fair that we give that back absolutely fair that we give that back. "I always find beauty in things that are odd and imperfect - they are much more interesting" these word come from designer Marc Jacobs, the man who counts Sofia Coppolla among his dearest friends and muses. When I met up with another beauty titan, Annie Ford Danielson, Benefit's Global Beauty Authority, to ask her what would be rating on the beauty radar in 2018 she referenced Jacobs. "A lot of models and brand representatives in the US are being chosen based on really unique characteristics," Danielson said. "There is a strong backlash against trying to transform yourself into something that you are not." Credit:AP "There is a whole new wave of imperfections being [seen as] the new perfect. Marc Jacobs just did it in his advertising campaign. Whatever you see in high fashion always has a trickle down effect." Model of the moment Adwoa Aboah is the new face of Marc Jacobs Beauty. She runs a female-empowered website called Gurls Talk and is contributing editor to British Vogue. Having worked with Jacobs a great deal, she recently has modelled Jacobs's latest lip product (a crayon and liquid lipstick combination) with her distinctive brow-less look and a gold tooth nugget. A small Queensland town is fighting for the return of a family of Sri Lankan asylum seekers after the couple and their locally born children were taken into detention in Melbourne. Nadesalingam and Priya with their two children. Credit:Tamil Refugee Council More than 12,000 people have signed a change.org petition, created by a Biloela resident, after border force officials detained the mother, father and their two daughters last week. It's understood Nadesalingam and Priya, both Tamils, came to Australia separately by boat in 2012 and 2013 following Sri Lanka's civil war, and settled in Biloela on a bridging visa, which expired last Monday. "They have lived here for over three years and are a caring, hardworking family," petition creator Angela Fredericks wrote. The 84-year-old man arrived in the emergency room with complaints that weren't uncommon for a patient his age. He had reported feeling unsteady over the past several months, culminating in repeated falls in recent weeks. In the three days leading up to his hospital visit, his left arm and leg had noticeably weakened. A scan of the man's skull shows the air pocket (the black space) where part of his brain should be. Still, there were no red flags in the man's medical history. He didn't smoke. He rarely drank. A blood test detected nothing abnormal. "There was no confusion, facial weakness, visual or speech disturbance," doctors stated in a summary of the man's case published February 27 in the medical journal BMJ Case Reports. Over the years, the CIA has dramatically increased the number of women in its ranks, with the agency reporting that the percentage of women at the agency was just under 50 per cent, including full and part-time employees. Women have also played major roles in two key moments in the agency's history: they led the team that identified Aldrich Ames as one of the agency's most notorious Russian moles; and they also dominated the group known as Alec Station that had been established in the years before the September 11 terrorist attacks to track Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda operatives. Haspel, a 33-year veteran of the agency, is reportedly well-liked among CIA lifers. But she has also been condemned for her involvement in running a secret 'black site' prison where detainees were waterboarded and subjected to other forms of torture. Women spies have long captured the public's imagination. They've had starring roles in Hollywood dramas, most notably Zero Dark Thirty, about the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, and Showtime's Homeland, which stars an on-again, off-again CIA officer played by actress Clare Danes. The CIA's female trailblazers Here are some of the women who paved the way for Haspel. Virginia Hall, 'The Limping Lady': The Maryland-born spy was known as 'The Limping Lady' because she relied on a prosthetic limb after losing her left leg in a hunting accident. Loading Loading She worked for the OSS behind enemy lines in France to help foment the resistance against the Nazis. But she was being hunted by Gestapo chief, Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie, who went by his own moniker, 'The Butcher of Lyon.' Barbie once reportedly told his underlings, "I'd give anything to lay my hands on that Canadian b--." With her life in danger, Hall finally fled France by trekking over the snow-covered mountains into Spain. She used her good leg as a snowplough and dragged the seven-pound wooden leg she'd nicknamed "Cuthbert" behind her, according to Judith Pearson's 2005 biography of Hall, The Wolves at the Door. After the war, Hall joined the CIA, and last year the agency named a training facility after her. Elizabeth McIntosh, legendary OSS operative: Originally a journalist in Hawaii who witnessed the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, McIntosh known as "Betty" spoke fluent Japanese and worked as a propaganda specialist across Asia during World War II. After the OSS, she went on to work for the CIA, but she always kept mum in interviews about her work there. When she turned 100 in 2015, then-CIA director John Brennan held a celebration for her. Three months later, she passed away. Sandy Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille, Russian mole hunters: These two women led the hunt for a Russian mole inside Langley who had been passing along some of the agency's biggest secrets the names of Russian informants to the KGB. The mole turned out to be Aldrich Ames. London: It is highly likely that Russia poisoned former double agent Sergei Skripal with a military-grade nerve agent, British Prime Minister Theresa May says and she has given the Kremlin 24 hours to rebut the claim before she takes extensive measures in response. Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom, May said. Though she did not outline what her response would be, Mays words suggest she would invoke NATOs principle of collective defence, in which an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all. "This attempted murder using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town was not just a crime against the Skripals," May said. New York: Florida prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz, the former student accused of murdering 17 people in a shooting spree last month at a Parkland high school. Michael Satz, the state attorney for Broward County, has filed a notice with Judge Elizabeth Scherer of his office's intent to seek the death sentence, ahead of a court hearing on Wednesday. The notice cited multiple reasons under Florida law for the death penalty including the charges that Cruz "knowingly created a great risk of death" to many people, the shooting was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel," and it was committed in a "cold, calculated and premeditated manner." The accused Nikolas Cruz could face the death penalty over the Florida school shootings last February. Credit:AP Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for the attack on February 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which 14 students and three staff died. A San Francisco fertility clinic says thousands of frozen eggs and embryos may have been damaged after a liquid nitrogen failure in a storage tank. Dr. Carl Herbert, president of Pacific Fertility Clinic, told the Washington Post Sunday that officials had informed some 400 patients of the failure, which occurred March 4. According to the Post, the clinic also sent out emails explaining what had happened to two other groups -- roughly 100 patients who had tissue in both the problematic tank and another tank, and another, much larger group whose stored eggs and embryos weren't affected. Herbert told the newspaper his discussions with patients were emotional. "Anger is a big part of the phone call," he said. "Our goal is to provide all the patients we see with some kind of a family. We need to think: If this tissue doesn't work, what are the next steps, and have you not feel defeated." Herbert says the clinic's staff thawed a few eggs and found they remain viable. He says they haven't checked any of the embryos. Clinic spokesman Alden Romney told the Post the eggs and embryos from the troubled tank represent as much as 15 percent of the total stored at the facility. It's the second such failure at a U.S. clinic in a matter of days. Last week, an Ohio hospital said more than 2,000 frozen eggs and embryos may have been damaged due to a refrigerator malfunction. CBS Cleveland affiliate WOIO-TV reports that a class action suit was being filed by one couple involved against University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. The lawsuit was being instituted on behalf of Amber and Elliot Ash, a husband and wife who had an embryo stored at the facility. University Hospitals issued a statement Sunday saying, "We understand why some people might feel compelled to take this step. Any lawsuits being filed will have no bearing on the independent review being conducted or our determination to help patients who have suffered this loss." The couple is represented by DiCello Levitt & Casey, a law firm that's been involved in numerous recent high-profile class action lawsuits ranging from ones against Volkswagen to Equifax. On Sunday, the Pacific Fertility Clinic released a statement to CBS San Fancisco saying, "A single piece of equipment in our cryo-storage laboratory lost liquid nitrogen for a brief period of time. We do know that there is viable tissue from that tank. The rest of the tanks were not affected. The equipment was immediately retired, the vast majority of the eggs and embryos in the lab were unaffected, and the facility is operating securely." "As soon as the issue was discovered, our most senior embryologists took immediate action to transfer those tissues from the affected equipment to a new piece of equipment. We have brought in independent experts and are conducting a full investigation." "We are truly sorry this happened and for the anxiety that this will surely cause." Herbert told the Post, "This was a terrible incident, but I was reassured that . . . [staff] did everything anybody could ever want to do." by Luis Pablo de la Horra Henry Hazlitt discussed, dissected, and debunked 22 economic sophisms in his classic work 'Economics in One Lesson.' This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article. In any academic discipline, one can find two types of experts: those who are incapable of explaining complex ideas in a simple manner; and those capable of making the difficult look easy. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the death Henry Hazlitt, one of the few economists who belongs to the second group. Born in Philadelphia in 1894, Hazlitt developed his career as a journalist in the most influential newspapers and magazines of the country, starting at The Wall Street Journal as a typographer in 1914. During the 1920s, he wrote for several printed media outlets, including The New York Evening Post and The Nation, of which he was appointed literary director. Hazlitt pointed out that short-sighted economic policies aimed at satisfying the claims of particular groups end up reducing the welfare of the majority. In 1934, Hazlitt became the chief editorial writer of The New York Times, where he gained a reputation for writing about economics and finance from a free-market perspective. His outspoken opposition to the Bretton Woods Agreement had him fired after 12 successful years at the most important newspaper of the Big Apple. Yet he continued to be dedicated to his passion for writing until his death in 1993. Despite his lack of formal academic training, Hazlitt showed a deep interest in the field of economics, which led him to write several books on the topic. In 1946, he published one of the best introductory texts on economics ever written: Economics in One Lesson. Following the steps of the 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat, Hazlitt pointed out that short-sighted economic policies aimed at satisfying the claims of particular groups inevitably end up reducing the welfare of the majority of the population. In his own words, The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. Economics in One Lesson is a magnificent rebuttal of popular economic fallacies deeply embedded in the political discourse of his time. By means of a very accessible language aimed at the general public, Hazlitt discusses, dissects, and debunks 22 economic sophisms like the idea that technological advances destroy employment or the myth that price ceilings are beneficial for consumers. All fallacies examined in Economics in One Lesson are still present in todays political debate. Yet there are some that are especially relevant for their implications on the long-term welfare of societies. Here are three of them: 1. The Protectionist Fallacy Since at least Adam Smith, it is a well-known fact that free trade is one of the keys to prosperity. Yet the case for tariffs keeps coming back like a bad penny. In a few pages, Hazlitt provides a concise and yet comprehensive account of the detrimental effects of tariffs on real wages, consumers, and productivity. According to Hazlitt, this fallacy stems from looking merely at the short-term benefits of tariffs for specific groups disregarding their long-term impact on the economy as a whole. 2. The Minimum Wage Fallacy The myth that lower classes benefit from minimum wage laws is another belief firmly rooted in the collective imagination of the public. Nothing could be further from the truth. When the government passes a law forbidding employers from paying workers less than, say, $15 per hour, all workers whose marginal productivity doesnt reach that number will be condemned to unemployment. As put by Hazlitt, You cannot make a man worth a given amount by making it illegal for anyone to offer him anything less. You merely deprive him of the right to earn the amount that his abilities and situation would permit him to earn. 3. Labor Unions Raise Wages and the Standard of Living Another widely-spread fallacy has to do with the role of labor unions in determining real wages. According to the conventional view, labor unions play an essential role in settling the overall level of wages in an economy. In other words, most workers would be underpaid if unions didnt exist. It is true that labor unions can push wages above productivity in a particular industry in the short term. The ideas of Henry Hazlitt should be vindicated as a means of fighting the basic economic fallacies of our time. However, the increase in labor costs will be likely passed to consumers in the form of higher prices, which will end up reducing the volume of profits of the industry as a whole. This, in turn, will result in lower wages and, ultimately, unemployment. Thus, labor unions cannot affect the wage level in the long term. For Hazlitt, the fallacy resides in overlooking the only source of long-term increases in real wages: developments in labor productivity as a result of the accumulation of capital and the enormous technological advance made possible by it. In a time when protectionism and minimum wage laws are on the front line of the political arena, the ideas of Henry Hazlitt should be vindicated as a means of fighting the basic economic fallacies of our time, which unfortunately have barely changed since the publication of Economics in One Lesson. Hazlitt taught us that, in economics, intuition is misleading and reasoning beyond the obvious is the only way to gain a deep understanding of the long-term consequences of economic policies. Reprinted from Intellectual Takeout. Luis Pablo de la Horra holds a Bachelors in English and a Masters in Finance. He writes for FEE, the Institute of Economic Affairs and Speakfreely.today. Register now for 'Out of the Darkness' Community Walk in October Loading... White words on black walls: a ring of names, places and dates run around the room like a watermark, like limescale. They're not all familiar, but you know exactly what they represent: Trevon Johnson, 17, Miami; Sandra Bland, 28, Texas; Freddie Gray, 25, Baltimore. These are America's dead, the young black men and women killed by police over decades. The most recent are stark, others have faded to grey. The number of them is astounding. It turns the theatre into a crypt. It's fitting. Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm's family drama asks us to reflect on the right response to the realities of racism in America today: police shootings, alt-right trolls and all manner of ingrained structural inequalities. It pits rage against resignation, rising up against getting on, and Chisholm's all too aware that there's no single right answer. The issue's intractable; the play's almost unbearable. Br'er Cotton sits three generations side-by-side. Fourteen year-old Ruffrino swaggers downstairs in Black Panther-style beret. In his backpack, lighter fluid and a handaxe to "wake up the zombies" at school with a protest. His grandfather Matthew (Trevor A Toussaint), huddled in his beige dressing gown, takes a more sanguine approach: "I just think each generation ought to do a little bit better than the one before." But what counts as progress when black men are still being shot in the streets? Ruffrino's mother Nadine (his estranged father's in jail) cleans the houses of white families for minimum wage still a maid, albeit paid. She snatches quiet moments on the job to study for a nursing diploma, but her betterment is born out of uphill struggle. Sam Cooke's velvety voice bleeds out of her headphones: "A Change Is Gonna Come." Br'er Cotton is nothing if not sceptical: "If so," it demands, "when?" Throughout, the past bubbles up like backwash: retro revolutionaries, slave soldiers, cotton plants climbing the walls. Jemima Robinson's surrealist design tangles a tree up in rope, tying today's shootings to the lynchings of old. But it's also an acutely contemporary play that swerves off into virtual worlds. Ruffrino spends his days playing an online shooter that's both riddled with racist trolls hunting down black players and a safe space to swap ideas about race and resistance. It cuts to the core of a generation's entrenched attitude why Ruffrino sees his grandfather as spineless; why he "f**king hates white people"; why he wants a fairer, freer world now. But Chisholm's too careful to let that go uncritiqued. Without ever letting white America off the hook, he counters Ruffrino's absolutism with two extraordinary encounters: Nadine's kindly employer, a white police officer, and Ruffrino's online playmate Caged_Bird99, a disabled white woman with whom he finds a kind of kinship. It adds up to an intricate consideration of the complexities of present-tense race relations, but Roy Alexander Weise's production ensures it's always fully-felt. Michael Ajao is superb as the hot-headed, soft-hearted teenage revolutionary, his swagger suggesting an air of adopted certainty, while Kiza Deen, quietly heartbreaking as his mother, is beautifully matched by Alexander Campbell's caring cop. But it's the force of argument that really affects. This damning indictment of rising racism is never less than sympathetic, recognising that keeping your head down is no more a failure than rising up is a responsibility. Either way though, the problem persists. Br'er Cotton runs at Theatre503 until 31 March. VIDEO Irish PM has announced a new scholarship programme which will allow Choctaw Native American students to study in Ireland.The Irish PM made the announcement during his official visit to the Choctaw reservation in Oklahoma today.He officially thanked the Choctaw Nation, whose ancestors provided relief to Ireland during the Great Famine, saying Irish and Chochtaw people have a sacred bond binding us together.In March 1847, the Choctaw community of Oklahoma collected some $170 equivalent to several thousands of dollars today and sent it to famine-ravaged Ireland.Mr Varadkar, who is the first Taoiseach to visit the Choctaws, thanked the community for the support they provided to the Irish people despite their own horrific hardships.Back in the nineteenth century, when the Irish people were oppressed, abused, neglected and degraded by our colonial master, at our lowest, your spirit of generosity was at its highest, Mr Varadkar said.You showed compassion to a starving people, who were dying in their hundreds of thousands, or about to embark on our own Trail of Tears across the Atlantic Ocean to seek a new life in Canada or the United States.He added: A few years ago, on a visit to Ireland, a representative of the Choctaw Nation called your support for us a sacred memory. It is that and more. It is a sacred bond, which has joined our peoples together for all time. 'United by hope'Announcing the new scholarship scheme, the Taoiseach said: "Our people also share a commitment to education as the single best means of building a better life for our children."So, I am delighted to announce today a new scholarship programme, a partnership between the Government of Ireland and the Choctaw Nation, for Choctaw students to study in Ireland."This is an opportunity for us to learn from you and from your culture, and you from ours, in a sharing of knowledge that will enrich both our peoples.The first scholarship under the Irish Governments new programme will commence in 2019.Mr Varadkar added: "Our ancestors were joined together in a time of tragedy; our descendants will be united by a spirit of hope." PROPOSED "BALFOUR PARKWAY" MAPS AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING NOW ON DISPLAY IN THE MAIN COUNTY LIBRAR CONSTRUCTION NOT UNTIL 2027 Balfour Parkway Project Maps Available for Public Viewing The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has started preliminary work on the project known as the Balfour Parkway. At the March 5, 2018 Henderson County Board of Commissioners meeting, it was requested that the maps of the areas potentially affected by this project be displayed locally for all Henderson County citizens to view. The maps are now on display at the Main Library, 301 N. Washington Street, Hendersonville, North Carolina near the Information Desk. You may also view the maps on the Henderson County website at www.hendersoncountync.org under Items of Current Interest on the main page, click on Balfour Parkway Project. For more information, contact Jennifer Fuller, North Carolina Department of Transportation, 1582 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1582, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Kristina Miller, PE-RK&K, 900 Ridgefield Drive, Suite 350, Raleigh, North Carolina 27609, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER RICK WOOD: "WE CAN'T WAIT AND STUDY THIS...AND THEN TAKE SOME ACTION." SHERIFF CHARLIE MCDONALD TOLD THE SCHOOL BOARD MONDAY NIGHT HE WILL ANNOUNCE MORE PLANS FOR LOCAL SCHOOL SAFETY LATER THIS WEEK School safety, especially after recent threats at West High and Rugby Middle schools, was the main concern at Monday night's Henderson Coiunhty school board meeting. During the meeting, county school's John Bryant outlined what the district has done, and what they plan to do, to address school safety. Safety advisory committees are being established district-wide at individual schools, comprised of parents, students, emergency personnel and district and school leaders, to review and make recommendations for school safety. Superintendent Bo Caldwell will also establish a schedule for district community meetings to discuss school safety. Caldwell plans to host a town hall-style meeting at each of the high schools. County school's technology staff members have been developing an online school safety reporting app. The see it, report it app will deal with any number of issues that might be of concern in the school environment, from safety risks to an individual in crisis to bullying. The app will be accessible by anyone and reports can be submitted anonymously. Mental health first-aid and emergency procedures and student in crisis support strategies will also be prioritized for professional development for school system staff. School officials are also preparing their annual budget requests for the Henderson County Board of Commissioners in May. They plan to research and prioritize capital improvements to increase safety for school facilities and classrooms. At their meeting last week, the county commissioners indicated they plan to provide resources needed to protect students and schools. Caldwell said they are working with the county to provide more student resource officers at the schools, as well as more social workers for mental health issues. Schools, in coordination with law enforcement, will continue conducting emergency-response drills and notifying the community when such drills are taking place. Local public school's leadership have assessed and reaffirmed current safety school system practices. This means making sure classroom doors are being locked and closed, ensuring the buzz door systems at the middle and elementary schools are being used correctly, and supervision and emergency procedures are followed. Administrators have met with school resource deputies and Sheriff Charles McDonald to discuss enhancing safety practices and consider future school safety recommendations. Caldwell, McDonald and County Manager Steve Wyatt have met to discuss countywide coordination of school safety efforts. Monday night's meeting was the first School Board meeting since the Florida shooting and the recent school threats in Henderson County. And according to the Hendersonville Times-News, school safety was the most talked about subject.. Five people spoke during public comment period, offering their thoughts of school safety. NEW AIRPORT PARKING GARAGE WAS OFFICIALLY OPENED WEDNESDAY MORNING IT'S BEEN IN USE FOR A WHILE, BUT THE OPENING WAS "OFFICIAL" WEDNESDAY MORNING Asheville Regional Airport officially celebrateD the opening of its new 5-story parking garage Wednesday morning The Asheville and Henderson County Chambers of Commerce joined airport officials, the project consultants and contractors, airport staff and members of the community to commemorate this historic milestone in our region's airport's growth. "Utilization of our region's airport has exceeded projections four years in a row, and the need for additional parking had to be prioritized sooner than our master plan indicated," said Lew Bleiweis, A.A.E., AVL Executive Director. "We are proud of the end result, and pleased to now offer ample parking for our customers that is convenient, covered and an easy walk to the terminal." The airport director told WHKP's Tippy Creswell that there's room in front of the terminal for yet another parking garage when its needed in the future, and that could come in the next 15 years. Airport spokeswoman Tina Kinsey pointexd out the airport has seen record growth for the last four years and the $20 million-plus parking garage of symbolic of that growth. Bob Williford of the Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce told WHKP News Wednesday morning that the airport is critical to the economy of the whole region, and he congratulated the airport on its growth and success. The parking garage offers 1,100 public parking spaces, and several hundred spaces on the lowest level designated as the rental car ready return lot. The garage augments 700 long-term surface lot spaces, and approximately 100 short-term surface lot spaces. The $22 million parking garage project took one year to complete, and has a unique architectural appearance featuring 3-story metal perforated walls that depict almost photographic images of the Blue Ridge Mountains. One of only a handful of such structures in the United States, the metal panels that make up the imagery are also functional, allowing airflow and protection from the elements inside the garage. The primary consultant on the project was Delta Airport Consultants, with structural design by Walker Consultants, architectural design by Gresham, Smith and Partners, the contractor was local company American South General Contractors, and utilities by Vaughn & Melton, also a local firm. Asheville Regional Airport is served by five airlines: Allegiant, American, Delta, Elite and United. For more information, visit flyavl.com. Embed from Getty Images An Egyptian journalist has drawn ire from all quarters after calling for Mohamed Salah to shave his beard off. Salah Montaser spilled his brain rubbish out in a column in the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper on Sunday, demanding the Liverpool star rid himself of his beard because he looks like a terrorist. According to Montaser, Salahs facial vegetation puts him in the same basket as extremists and terrorists, some of whom also have beards. You simply cant fault the logic. Of course, it wasnt long until the scorn came raining in on Montaser, with droves of fans deriding the writer for attempting to impinge on Salahs personal freedom on such hopelessly flimsy pretences. With 33 goals in 42 appearances for the Reds this season, we doubt Salah could care less. Oki Data Australia unveiled its new, enlarged print solutions product demonstration centre, set up at its Australian headquarters in Macquarie Park, Sydney. Launched by Alex Kawamura, managing director, Oki Data Australia and New Zealand the demonstration centre comes six years after the previous, though smaller, centre was opened. Antonio Leone, ANZ marketing manager, Oki Data said, Compared to our previous centre, we not only have our full range of Pro series graphic arts printers on display, we also have our high-end multifunction copier, our TerioStar multifunction mono, wide format and two ColorPainter wide format printer models in display. The centre enables us to organise demonstrations more efficiently as well as being able to leverage key personnel within the OKI team as required. We also hold reserves of media and consumables to accommodate end-user print sample requirements. It also allows the demonstration of products to be an accompaniment or element of other channel and end user engagement activity including introductions to OKI, dealer briefings and training. Alex Kawamura, managing director, Oki Data Australia and New Zealand Alex Kawamura, managing director for Oki Data Australia and New Zealand, said, This investment marks a further chapter in our ongoing commitment to our Australian channel partners and customers. The new demonstration facility will enable us to provide world-class demonstration facilities while fostering stronger, more dynamic and mutually beneficial relationships with channel partners and end users. Seeing our products run in our live operating environment will be a powerful education tool. Oki believes that the centre reinforces its commitment to innovation, channel partners and customer experience, and is fully integrated within the companys newly refurbished Australia head office, reflecting best practices for continuous innovation and learning. The facility will also serve as a centre of excellence for OKI to train and demonstrate product to resellers as well as customers. OKI Data Australia has over 100 authorised channel partners in Australia providing sales and support capabilities. The Oki Data Australia demonstration centre is located at Level 1, 67 Epping Road, Macquarie Park, Sydney. OKI Data Australia www.oki.com/au iStock/Thinkstock(MOBILE, Ala.) -- At least one person is dead and "multiple" others are injured after a bus carrying high school band students from the Houston area crashed on an Alabama interstate Tuesday morning, authorities said. At 5:33 a.m., the tour bus, headed west on Interstate 10, careened toward the median and ended up in a 50-foot ravine, Lt. Joe Piggott of the Alabama Highway Patrol said in a statement. Baldwin County Sheriff Mack said emergency units were dispatched to evacuate and extricate the passengers. Some were carried out by police deputies, others were brought to the surface by firefighters who rappeled down the ravine. About 45 people were on the bus at the time of crash, Mack said. The crash was in the dark of night, and we are down in a ravine next to a creek," Mack said, so "it was a large scale effort. Dewayne Benson, 15, was on one of two buses traveling home from Walt Disney World, according to his sister, Sydney Benson. He was asleep until the band director started screaming," Sydney Benson, 19, told ABC News. She said her brother called the family from a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, and does not seem to be injured. Injured passengers were taken to hospitals in Baldwin County as well as Sacred Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, Piggott said. The students are from Channelview High School, said Mark Kramer, spokesman for the Channelview Independent School District. "At this time, details are limited," Kramer said in a statement. "We are in contact with law enforcement in Alabama trying to obtain further information." Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are headed to the accident. This story is developing. Please check back for more updates. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. China The PrimeAsia China tannery celebrated its 20 th anniversary on March 13 with a celebration at its site in Huang Jiang, Dongguang in Southern China. Over its 20-year history, PrimeAsia China has produced over 1.5 billion sq ft of leather for the footwear upper, leather goods and accessories segments. Full access to this article is limited to International Leather Maker Subscribers How to Subscribe Subscribing is EASY, you can do it online. Once we receive payment and approve your subscription we will send you a password allowing you online access to additional content like this article. Williamson, WV (25661) Today Steady light rain in the morning. Showers continuing in the afternoon. High 74F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Partly cloudy in the evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers after midnight. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%. By Jina Belcher Ground zero for federal efforts to boost communities reeling from the downturn[Read More] WiGBits Headline News Would you like to receive our WiGBits? Signup today! WiG Entertainment News Would you like to receive our WiG Entertainment News? Signup today! Digital Issue Would you like to receive our Digital Issue? Signup today! As protests continue to erupt in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and across the world in outrage against the horrific shooting of Jacob Bla Read more Targeted talent empowered by BPSA sponsorship Over 60 Wits students are able to pursue their ambitions due to sponsorship by the BPSA Education Foundation. The scholarship recipients are graduates of the Targeting Talent Programme (TTP), a long-term Wits flagship programme which prepares academically talented high school learners who wish to study Science, Engineering, and Commerce at university. The Foundation has supported the scholarship programme at Wits since 2015. The BPSA Education Foundation nurtures talented high school learners by sponsoring their tertiary studies and developing their employment and entrepreneurial skills. At an orientation session for the scholarship recipients held on 2 February 2017, Wits Dean of Students, Professor Puleng Lenka-Bula said: You are among the very few people who have been bequeathed with this opportunity. Many people aspire to come, and may not have the cognitive abilities or the intellectual capabilities, to come to university. So the responsibility and the onus to do as best as you can is very important, because a lot more people would have loved to be sitting where you are sitting but are unable to. Aspire to excellence so you can be a resourceful citizen of the world. BPSA Trustee and award- winning journalist and presenter, Rhulani Baloyi advised the students to stay focused, as their excellent matric results would not determine their stay in the University and successful completion of their studies. You need to learn a new way of studying, a new way of committing yourself, a new way of doing things, said Baloyi, a Wits alumna. Wits University is a very good place, she said, where students learn great life lessons. This is where our role in society is shaped. Besides your books, you are going to learn to accept people who think differently from you. You are going to learn that the world is not about South Africa, the world is not about Africa, but the world goes even beyond the planets that we live in. So you must open up your ears to hear, allow yourselves to read. Read as much as you can and allow yourself to receive information that you never thought you would come across. Motukuane Mokoena, Chief Executive of the BPSA Education Foundation said at the event that the percentage of TTP graduates who matriculated with a bachelors pass had increased. According to Mokoena, 98% percent of the TTP graduates received a bachelors pass in the matric results in 2017 and high quality results have been maintained through the years. It has never dropped below 90% since I have been involved with the programme. This says something about how the programme selects talent that it is indeed successful in selecting the right potential, said Mokoena. He added that 91% of the first- year students BPSA funded in 2017 had progressed to second-year in 2018. BPSA scholarship recipient, Nelson Sithole expressed his gratitude to BPSA. Sithole, who is currently pursuing an honours degree in Finance, shared his experience with new first-year students: The challenges are there, it is all about how you deal with them. Do the best that you can do because that is the only thing that you can do. I believe we all have the capacity to achieve. Use all the structures in the University. University is quite challenging, I wont lie, but with the right mind-set and right structures, you can conquer as well. Sithole worked at BPSA during the December holidays and described the experience as enriching and valuable for his career. Now I dont only have mentors in academia, but also in the industry, he said. The BPSA scholarship covers tuition, accommodation, books, laptops (introduced in 2018) for the first and second- year students, and a living allowance. A school district in Preston, Idaho is investigating an incident that took place at Preston Junior High last week. Deputies say a science teacher, Robert Crosland, fed a live puppy to one of his reptiles in front of students. Local animal activist, Jill Parrish, is the one who filed the police report. "What I have learned in the last four days is disgusting. It is sick. It is sick," said Parrish. Parrish says a teacher told her that last week after school, Mr. Crosland fed a live puppy, who was reportedly sick, to one of his reptiles. He has a snake and a snapping turtle. Apparently, it all happened in front of students. "Allowing children to watch an innocent baby puppy scream because it is being fed to an animal. That is violence. That is not okay," says Parrish. Este Hull is a 7th-grade student at Preston Junior High. "I've only heard him feed like mice or birds to his animals...I feel a little bit better that it was a puppy that was going to die, not just a healthy puppy," says Hull. It's a sentiment echoed by parents, Annette Salvesen and Julie Johnson. "If it was a deformed puppy that was going to die anyway, Cros[land] is very much circle of life," says Salveson. "He's the best science teacher Preston Junior High has," said Johnson. Franklin County Sheriff, David Fryar, says the department is looking into it. "We're investigating the facts and turning it over to the prosecutor. He's the one who will determine if the law has been broken," says Fryar. Preston School District Superintendent, Mark Gee, says Mr. Crossland is still employed at Preston Junior High and while the incident is under investigation, he's not been placed on administrative leave. Even if the puppy was going to die, Parrish doesn't think this was the way to do it. "There's a lot of humane things you can do. Feeding a live animal to a reptile is not humane and it's not okay," said Parrish. However, other parents say it's just a hands-on way to teach the circle of life. "If you're not fine with it, leave the room," says Salvesen. Idaho's Preston School District sent Fox 13 this statement: On March 7, 2018 Preston School District was made aware of a regrettable circumstance involving some of the biological specimens at Preston Jr. High. The event occurred well after students had been dismissed and was not a part of any school directed program. We emphasize that at no time was the safety of students or staff compromised. District administration was made aware of the issue soon after it occurred and immediately began the process of investigation and taking steps to ensure that this type of action could not be repeated. A part of any investigation includes determining the best course of action once the facts of the matter have been ascertained. This is not a situation that is easy, nor do we feel it is a measure that can be taken lightly. As such we ask for patience while appropriate measures are determined and carried out. Additional details cannot be shared at this time as the local law enforcement agency is in the process of gathering information. While the district certainly does not condone individual actions that may violate district policy or reasonable expectations of behavior, we hope that any errors in judgement made by a teacher in this instance will not cause us to forget the years of care, effort, and passion the teacher has given to students in Preston School District. Four months after the former executive director and CEO of the United Way of the Valley and Greater Utica Area resigned, a replacement has been appointed. Erin Gutierrez Matt has been appointed as the new executive director and CEO of the local United Way by the organizations Board of Directors. Gutierrez Matt recently worked in advertising sales for Twitter and Oracle for six-and-a-half years, and prior to that she worked in banking operations. Shes a graduate of Boston College and The Slade School of Fine Art in London. Gutierrez Matt now lives in New Hartford with her husband and three children. "I look forward to joining United Ways extensive team of staff, donors, partners and board to continue the great, impactful work being done to better this community. Together, we will achieve new heights," Gutierrez Matt said in a news release. In November, former United Way Executive Director and CEO Brenda Episcopo resigned from the position to serve as president and CEO of the United Way of New York State. Former Boilermaker Road Race President Tim Reed has been serving as interim executive director of the local United Way since January. Gutierrez Matt will begin her new role on March 21. NEW YORK (AP) - A former top-aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been convicted of accepting bribes. A jury delivered a verdict Tuesday in the trial of Joseph Percoco after deliberating for parts of three weeks. It convicted Percoco on two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and one count of soliciting bribes. Jurors informed the court twice that they were deadlocked in the case against Percoco and three businessmen accused of bribing him. U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni told the jury to keep deliberating. Percoco was a longtime friend of the governor and the manager of his 2014 re-election campaign. Defense lawyers said the payments were legitimate fees for consulting work performed when Percoco was out of state government. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) NEW HARTFORD The Oneida County Sheriffs Office will be hosting a correction officer job fair at Sangertown Square mall this week. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, members of the Sheriffs Office will be in the center court of Sangertown Square to talk with members of the public about a career in corrections. You can stop by to learn about job specifications, requirements, benefits and the hiring process. For those who would like to immediately apply for one of the vacant correction officer positions, applications will be available. There are both full- and part-time positions available, but benefits are only for full-time employees. The starting salary for full-time Oneida County correction officers after basic training is $40,348, with benefits and a New York State 25-year retirement plan. Candidates must meet the following qualifications to be an Oneida County correction officer: - Honest - At least 18 years old - Oneida County resident - High school graduate/GED - Valid NYS drivers license - Physically fit - Of good moral character - Free of felony convictions - Good communication skills - Maintain a high work ethic - Motivated - Desire to serve FRANKFORT, Ind. (WLFI) -- Linda Decker, 69, is starting a 45-year prison sentence for the murder of her great aunt, Betty Wann. On Monday, a judge in Clinton County accepted Decker's plea agreement. In the agreement, prosecutors accepted a minumum sentence of 45 years. The advisory sentence for this charge is 55. The murder happened in September of 2016 at Wann's home on South Third Street in Frankfort. An autospy showed Wann died from sharp, blunt force injuries to her head, face, chest and neck. A trail of blood led police from the victim's home to Decker's washing machine and then to a couch where she slept next door. Police say Decker told them she must have done it after they found scratches on her body, bloody clothes, gloves and other DNA evidence linking her to Wann's death. Police found a ledger showing Decker owed Wann thousands of dollars. Decker is also a beneficiary in Wann's will. She's required to serve at least 75 percent of the 45 year prison sentence. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) Is President Donald Trump on his way to a Nobel Peace Prize? Congressman Luke Messer thinks so. Messer said President Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize if North Korea disarms its nuclear capability. "The only reason North Korea is now coming to the table to possibly negotiate is because of the strong posture President Trump has taken toward North Korea," said Messer. Messer said President Barack Obama won one in 2009 for quote, "Basically being a little more than an attractive candidate for President of the United States." But he said President Trump has created the potential for what would be a meaningful step toward peace for the whole world. W&M Law School unveils portrait of first African-American graduate A legacy lives on: Edwadine Travis Whitehead, President Taylor Reveley and Dean Davison M. Douglas started off the 2018 African-American Law Alumni Celebration with the unveiling of the portrait of Edward Augustus Travis B.C.L. '54, the first African-American graduate of William & Mary Law School. Photo by David F. Morrill Photo - of - Hide Caption Feb. 23 was a special day at William & Mary Law School, signaling the beginning of the second African-American Law Alumni Celebration. It was also the day Edward Augustus Travis B.C.L.54, the law schools first African-American graduate, returned to campus in the form of a portrait by artist Connie Desaulniers. On hand to do the unveiling honors were Travis daughter, Edwadine Travis Whitehead; William & Mary President Taylor Reveley; and Law School Dean Davison M. Douglas. Today is a day that we have been looking forward to for a very long time for many different reasons, Douglas said. Before a few years ago, we didnt know about Edward Travis. Douglas recounted how he was reading a dissertation and was intrigued by a reference to a black law student who graduated from William & Mary in 1954. Not only would that would make Travis the first African-American to graduate from W&M Law School by 18 years, but also the first to graduate from William & Mary. So Douglas set out to discover who he was. Travis was born in 1911 and attended high school at St. Pauls in Lawrenceville, Virginia. He then attended Hampton Institute and graduated from Florida A&M University in 1940. In 1951, he was living in Hampton, Virginia, when he entered law school, after which he became a teacher at Carver High School and a member of the Newport News Teachers Association and Dochiki Civic and Social Club. Travis died in November 1960 in Newport News, Virginia. During the ceremony, Barbara L. Johnson 84, a member of the William & Mary Board of Visitors and co-chair of the African-American Law Alumni Celebration, told the crowd that the unveiling was more than just about a portrait in a frame; she recognized the occasion as a very big deal. Edward Travis was one of those hidden figures in African-American history who has now come to light in a very powerful way, Johnson said. He is an unsung hero we will now recognize and who will be spotlighted in the history of the Marshall-Wythe Law School, as it says in the [William & Mary] Charter, for all times coming. Johnson described Travis as a life-long educator and a successful businessman who forged a legacy rooted on service and as a builder of other peoples lives. As the only African-American law student in the early, segregated 1950s, he was not allowed to live on campus and had no support group to make him feel welcome. Still, he persisted. As we have turned to the past, what are the lessons we can learn? Johnson asked. Vision, courage, perseverance and building a legacy of being rooted in service thats his legacy. Harold R. (Bob) Wise Jr., a nephew of Travis, remembered his uncle as a true family man who cared for and loved his wife, Aunt Pearly, and daughter Dean. That love also extended to those around him; his door was always open. Wise said that words such as loving, selfless, nurturing, thoughtful and compassionate perfectly described his uncle. It is only fitting that William & Mary, which is committed to inclusive excellence and building on the core values of diversity as defined in your statement on diversity, recognized one of its own with this portrait, which will have its legacy live on forever, Wise said. After the unveiling, Connie Desaulniers shared that although she has done other portraits for the Law School, this one brought out a lot of emotional feeling. Desaulniers mentioned how her references were limited to three old photos, one of which was a photocopy lacking detail and shades of gray. To get more visual information, Desaulniers sought out Traviss daughter. She was able to paint a portrait with her memories, and I would never have been able to do that without speaking with her, Desaulniers said. Her most vivid memory was that he was patient and kind, and she sat on his lap while he graded papers. Taking a good, long look at the portrait, Barbara Johnson recognized more than just a kindly face that will take up residence at W&M Law School. We thank you, Edward Augustus Travis, for your vision, for your courage, for your perseverance, and for your legacy of service, Johnson said. We stand on your shoulders. Zena Howard's work honors African-American history, culture The finished product The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened on the National Mall on September 24, 2016. It was the culmination of an eight-year project whose senior manager was Zena Howard. Howard came to campus recently to address COLL 300 classes and various other groups about her work. Photo by Alan Karchmer, National Museum of African American History and Culture Photo - of - Hide Caption During more than 25 years as an architect, Zena Howards portfolio has included the Durham County Human Services Complex, the International Civil Rights Center and Museum and Brooklyn Village, all in North Carolina, as well as the Anacostia and Tenley-Friendship libraries in Washington, D.C. and the Motown Museum in Detroit, Michigan. But as she arrived in the nations capital shortly after President Barack Obamas inauguration in 2008, Howard, who works for the firm of Perkins+Will and is a member of its Global Diversity and Inclusion Committee, was acutely aware she was about to experience something new and extraordinary. Seated at a table were representatives from four architectural firms: Freelon, Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup the Fabs, as they came to call themselves. They had combined forces to win an international contest for the right to design the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall, three blocks south of the White House. British architect David Adjaye would serve as lead architect. Phillip Freelon would be the lead designer. Howard, a LEED accredited professional and member of the National Organization of Minority Architects, was the senior project manager. She recently told students in Coordinator of African American Studies and Professor of English & Africana Studies Hermine Pinsons class that her responsibilities consumed the next eight years of her life. I lived this project basically, she told the William & Mary students. Howard was on campus recently as one of this semesters COLL 300 visitors, visiting classes and giving a public lecture, Sustainability, Our Built Environment, and Our Culture, on Feb. 28. COLL 300 classes, part of the universitys College Curriculum, typically taken by third-year undergraduates, focuses on topics that are intended to broaden the way that students see themselves in the world. Each semester centers on a theme, and three visitors are invited to campus to support that theme. The spring 2018 COLL 300 theme is sustainability. In addition to Howard, this semesters visitors include Vandana Shiva, a physicist with the University of Punjab, and RDK (Doug) Herman, the creator of a web-based indigenous-geography project for the American Pacific. Howard pointed to the Anacostia library as an example of her new version of sustainability. The area of Washington is rich in history, although with residents who are predominantly low-income and underserved. I could have a vision of creating something thats a beautiful aesthetic. Or I can create something thats really grounded in the values and the history of the community that the building serves. One of the key definitions of sustainability to me has taken on a broader meaning. When we as designers walk away, the community sustains that building. When I come back they are using the building in ways I couldnt have imagined. At the Anacostia library, what we realized is that it was important for them to celebrate the children. So, Howard said, the building was designed to put the childrens section in the front, thus showcasing its importance to the community. Meanwhile, the National Museum of African American History and Culture project had 31 consultants that Howard dealt with, including the Smithsonian Institution, several federal agencies and stakeholders who wanted to contribute millions of dollars but wanted something in return, she said. About $270 million, half the total cost of the building, was raised privately. Howard said it took years of negotiations and compromise for all parties to be satisfied with what they walked away with and for the architects to remain true to their vision. It took three years just to get to the groundbreaking, and the museum didnt open until September 2016. We were commissioned to do a museum, a building, on our National Mall, she said. First of all, very rarely do you put a building on any of our national treasures. So you cannot be arbitrary about it. It's got to be grounded in something thats beyond our ambition as architects. No one brought pen and paper to that first meeting. Rather, they sat and discussed the images in life that provoked them to think about certain things germane to this project. One was the photo from the National Mall of people celebrating, their arms raised high over their heads. A universal symbol for happiness, Howard said. For Howard, among other elements, it was the manner in which porches were used in African-American homes in the South. When I was growing up, everything happened on the porch, said Howard. I had to sit on the porch and shuck corn. I had to sit on the porch to get my hair done. I played jacks on the porch. Cards. Everything was done on the porch. So from Southern African-American tradition we were inspired by that. The main entrance to the museum is described as a welcoming porch, which has architectural roots in Africa and the Caribbean in addition to the South. Adjaye contributed perhaps the key piece of the museum puzzle. It was a Yoruban carytid, a traditional West African column with a corona at the top. Adjaye has said that to him it represented a story that moved from one continent, where people were taken, along with their cultures, and used as labor, then contributed toward making another country and new cultures. Howard said the corona is where African people often stored their most prized possessions to protect them. The notion of lifting something above visitors heads intrigued her and the group. It formed the basis for the buildings inverted triple pyramid form. One could actually enter below and have the corona form above their head, she said. The elements that make up the museum are actually in a box, shrouded in a corona form that moves around. Thats how we wound up with this corona form of museum where light dabbles in and fills the space. Finally, the museum is wrapped in an ornamental bronze-colored metal lattice, which pays homage to the intricate ironwork done by enslaved African-Americans mostly in the Deep South. The journey to get the museum built began long before Howard and the other architects won the contest. Black Civil War veterans advocated for a national African-American history museum in the early 1900s. Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) introduced legislation to fund the museum every year for 15 years, but it was defeated every time. Arguments were made that it would be too costly and that not enough people would visit to make it worthwhile. But within its first four months, more than 1 million people had visited. It remains one of the most difficult tickets to get among Washington museums. It really is a beautiful sort of amalgam of West African sensibilities and southern American sensibilities, Howard said. China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page Russia brings Chinese funding into uranium mining 13 March 2018 Share Russia has opened its uranium mining industry to foreign investment with an agreement signed yesterday between the Russia-China Investment Fund for Regional Development (RCIF), ARMZ Uranium Holding, and Priargunsky Industrial Mining and Chemical Union (PIMCU). ARMZ and PIMCU are subsidiaries of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom. Zhdanova launching the start of construction at Mine No. 6 (Image: Rosatom) The three parties to the agreement will work on a uranium mining project, valued at RUB18.5 billion (USD325 million), in Priargunsky District, which is in the Zabaikalsky Region of Siberia. Mine No. 6 has reported total reserves of 38,000 tonnes of uranium, which is 35% of PIMCU's reserves. The project foresees an annual capacity of 850,000 tonnes of uranium ore. Russia plans to bring the mine into operation in 2023. "Both sides consider the project as the first step in widening cooperation," Russian presidential adviser Sergey Glazyev said, according to Sputnik. "I think that the enterprise is a breakthrough for creating mechanisms for joint investments in general." PIMCU will own 51% of the new venture, while ARMZ will own the remaining 49%. Most of the project will be financed by China National Nuclear Corporation, which Russia media say is planning to invest RUB16.1 billion, while the Fund will invest RUB2.5 billion. PIMCU, of which ARMZ owns 85%, has six underground mines in the Zabaikalsky Region - most of them operating - to supply low-grade ore to a central mill near Krasnokamensk, which is the second biggest city in the Zabaikalsky Territory. Development of Mine No. 6 started in 2009 for stage 1 production from 2015 to reach full capacity in 2019, but this was put on hold in 2013. In March 2015, ARMZ said it hoped to find co-investors in the project. The following month, Rosatom's Investment Committee decided to finance the development to about $500 million over 2016 to 2022. In August 2016, ARMZ said funding of RUB27 billion was expected, to enable 2022 commissioning. PIMCU is focused on development of Mine No. 6, the production cost of which is USD90/kgU, to reach 1800 tU/yr. Construction launched Rosatom announced today that construction work had started at Mine No.6, which was marked at a ceremony attended by company and government officials. Natalya Zhdanova, governor of the Zabaikalsky Territory, said Krasnokamensk and PIMCU are "entering a new era of development". She said: "For the city to live and prosper every year, the miners of Krasnokamensk every hour of every day make an enormous contribution to the development of the Russian nuclear industry. Today we are witnessing an historic event - the launch of the project for which we have fought steadily and whose construction is supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin." She added that the history of the mine started many years ago, but the time of Perestroika meant such new projects could not be undertaken. The total area of the construction site is 3510 square metres and work is being performed by Atomspetsstroy LLC, Rosatom said. The main step-down substation of the mine, which will provide electricity to the site, is to be completed before the end of this year, it added. PIMCU will then build surface mine buildings, perform mining and capital works and the technical refitting of the hydrometallurgical plant. The first stage of the mine will be put into operation in 2023, it said. At the third stage, in 2024-2025, the mining and capital works will have been completed and the facility will then reach its design capacity. ARMZ said last month that the mineable reserves of the Argunskoye and Zherlovskoye Deposits of the Streltsovskoye ore field are about 40,000 tonnes of uranium, that the average content of the strategic metal therein is higher than in other existing mines, which "guarantees a competitive production cost". First project Establishment of the RCIF was announced during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow in July last year. The Mine No. 6 agreement - the RCIF's first project - was signed in Moscow yesterday by the ARMZ Director General Vladimir Verkhovtsev, RCIF Chairman Wang Feng and PIMCU Deputy General Director for economics and finance Denis Mikhailov. At the signing ceremony, Wang Feng said: "It is very important that the fund's first project is connected with nuclear energy. You could say both countries made the political decision that the first project would be Mine No. 6." He added: "We will do everything necessary to ensure that this project is successfully completed." Nikolay Spassky, Rosatom's deputy director general for international activities, said Russia's cooperation with China in the peaceful use of nuclear energy is unique, since it has no similarly extensive arrangement with any other country. "We are building nuclear power plants together, we are cooperating on scientific breakthroughs, we are working on the nuclear fuel cycle," he said, adding that a new chapter was now opening in the history of their cooperation. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Email Sign Up For Our Free Weekly Newsletter Sign Up Free | The WPJ Weekly Newsletter Relevant real estate news. Actionable market intelligence. Right to your inbox every week. Go Thank you for your interest! You will now be receiving our Weekly Real Estate Newsletter. Real Estate Listings Showcase According to the latest research from global property adviser Knight Frank, European commercial property investment hit 231.8 billion in 2017 after 80.7 billion was transacted in Q4, resulting in an 8.4 per cent increase on last year.The continued flow of capital from Greater China into the Central London office market helped the UK regain its position as Europe's most active market from Germany, which had edged ahead in the first half of the year. Following a slow start to the year, investment in the UK accelerated in the last half of the year, bringing annual volumes to 59.3 billion. German investment volume of 50.9 billion was a ten-year high, and the country was the leading destination for US capital entering Europe in 2017.The France investment market had an extremely slow start to the year, but it recovered in Q4, when more capital was invested than in the three previous quarters combined. This was partly due to a revival in investor confidence following political uncertainty earlier in the year. The market was dominated by local investors who accounted for more than 70 per cent of transaction volumes.Chris Bell, Managing Director, Europe, Knight Frank commented, "The European real estate markets once again showed their durability and robustness with an 8.4 per cent increase in investment in 2017. Along with the strength of the UK, Germany and France, the stand-out markets in 2017 were the Netherlands and Finland, both of which had record years, on the back of large inflows of cross-border investment. While North American and European investors were the main sources of capital in these two markets, there was also increased investment from Asian investors, who are showing growing interest in a broadening range of European markets.""The logistics and industrial sector had an outstanding 2017, with investment volumes rising 42 per cent year-on-year to a record 38.9 billion, or 17 per cent of the total commercial market. Volumes in this sector were boosted by CIC's purchase of Logicor for over 12 billion and GLP's acquisition of Gazeley for 2.4 billion. As well as demonstrating the strength of demand for logistics property, these deals are also indicative of the appetite for platform and portfolio deals from investors seeking to deploy large volumes of capital into real estate."Despite already being at record low levels across much of Europe, further yield compression was recorded in Q4 in markets including Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt and Milan. As a result, the Knight Frank European Weighted Average Prime Office Yield hardened by seven basis points to a new low of 4.20 per cent.Q4 was a stellar quarter for a number of European office occupier markets, with take-up in Dublin, Madrid, Munich and Prague increasing by well over 50 per cent year-on-year. For 2017 as a whole, aggregate take-up in the major European markets monitored by Knight Frank was up by 9 per cent compared with 2016.On the back of strong demand and tightening availability, European rental growth gathered momentum in Q4. Markets such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Madrid and Paris all recorded increases in prime office rents, pushing the Knight Frank European Prime Office Rental Index up by 1.5 per cent during the quarter. Animal activists want action to be taken against a teacher who was accused of being cruel to an animal. The teacher in Idaho is under investigation after he allowed his students to watch him feed a live puppy to a reptile to teach them about the circle of life. According to animal activist Jill Parrish, who filed the police complaint against the teacher, Robert Crosland fed a live puppy to one of his reptiles in front of students. Parrish said that Crosland has reptiles at school and he gave students extra credit for bringing animals such as birds and mice to feed them. This time, Parrish believes the teacher went too far when she fed a sick puppy to a turtle in front of 12 and 13-year-old students. Allowing children to watch an innocent baby puppy scream because it is being fed to an animal. That is violence. That is not okay, Parrish said. However, not everyone agrees. Some parents and students came to the teachers defense. They said that the puppy was deformed and going to die anyway, and that it is very much the circle of life. Preston School District Superintendent Mark Gee said that Crosland was not placed on leave and he will continue to teach while the incident is being investigated. The Preston School District said that while the district does not condone individual actions they hope that any errors in judgment made by a teacher in this instance will not cause us to forget the years of care, effort, and passion the teacher has given to students in the Preston School District. Residents and businesses across Wrexham encouraged to switch lights off for Earth Hour This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Mar 13th, 2018 Residents, businesses and organisations across Wrexham County Borough are being encouraged to take part in Earth Hour and switch off their lights for an hour later this month. The annual event, which is the worlds largest demonstration of support for action on climate change, will take place at 8:30pm on Saturday 24th March. Each year, millions of people around the world come together to call for action to protect our planet. The celebration has grown each year spreading round the world with over 178 countries now taking part. At 8:30pm on March 24th people across the world will switch off their lights for one hour and join forces with landmarks across the globe such as the Senedd in Cardiff and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Wrexham Council are encouraging their staff to get involved in the event, along with inviting residents to do similar and switch their lights out for an hour on March 24th to show their support to the cause. Businesses can also get involved and if they cant take part as an organisation they could encourage their employees to do their bit on the night. Cllr David A Bithell, Lead Member for the Environment and Transport, said: We are very proud to support WWFs Earth Hour as we recognise that we have a big role to play in tackling climate change. Were encouraging as many staff and residents as possible to turn off their lights on 24 March. This year we have been asked to Make a Promise and I hope to announce very shortly what our promise will be. Everyone from individuals and community groups, to schools and businesses can sign up to Earth Hour by visiting the Earth Hour website and then switching off their lights at 8.30 pm on Saturday 24 March. Around the world, capitalist governments are working with Facebook, Google and other giant companies to censor the internet and block the spread of socialism. In late April 2017, Google announced the implementation of new search algorithms which heavily censored access to the World Socialist Web Site and other left wing, anti-war and progressive websites. Similar measures have since been introduced by Facebook and Twitter. The WSWS has taken the lead in exposing this conspiracy to censor the Internet. A key former water plant operator for the city of Flint, Michigan recently gave pretrial testimony that city and state officials pushed through the water supply switch, which resulted in at least a dozen fatalities and poisoning up to 100,000 othersknowing that the treatment facilities were woefully inadequate. In two days of courtroom questioning in late February, Michael Glasgow, a water quality supervisor for Flint, reiterated that his early 2014 email warnings about plant operational deficiencies were uniformly ignored at multiple levels of government in the days leading up to the switch. Glasgows testimony was part of the concluding preliminary hearings for the prosecution of top Michigan state health official Nick Lyon. The former head of the states top public health agency, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), is charged with involuntary manslaughter, stemming from the official cover-up of the outbreak of Legionnaires disease between 2014-2015, which resulted in at least 12 confirmed deaths and 80 illnesses. Lyon is one of 15 state officials who were charged in 2016 by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette with crimes related to the poisoning of the water supply in Flint. None have gone to trial yet, many are preparing to accept plea agreements for lesser charges, and several key officials involved, such as Republican Governor Rick Snyder and Democratic State Treasurer Andy Dillon, have yet to face any charges. Glasgow was one of the lower-level officials of the 15 charged with crimes, for tampering with evidence related to filing of altered reports on lead levels. Glasgow has maintained that he was ordered to tamper with reports from leading Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) officials above him. He accepted a plea agreement in exchange for his testimony against Lyon. On April 26, 2014, Flint officials switched the citys water supply from treated water from Lake Huron, long supplied by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, to the untreated water from the polluted Flint River. Nine days before the switch Glasgow wrote officialsincluding now-fired Office of Drinking Water (ODW) director Liane Shekter-Smith, ODW coordinator Stephen Busch, water engineer Michael Prysby, and drinking water specialist Patrick Cookthat the citys long-mothballed water plant was not prepared for the switch and he requested more time for training and preparations. Glasgow cited numerous problems, including ozone and clarifying equipment that were not functioning properly, the inability to use phosphates to coat the citys pipes and prevent them from leaching unsafe chemicals, and new staff that had little background in water treatment. I have people above me making plans to distribute water ASAP Glasgow wrote to the DEQ on April 17, 2014. If water is distributed from this plant in the next couple of weeks, it will be against my directions. I need time to adequately train additional staff and to update our monitoring plans before I will feel we are ready. I will reiterate this to management above me, but they seem to have their own agenda. In courtroom hearings, Glasgow reiterated this position, and confirmed that he was getting pressure to proceed from state-appointed Emergency Financial Manager Darnell Earleys office. He told prosecutors that no one in city management responded to his concerns, so he tried going a level up to the DEQ but faced the same indifference. He told city and state management the plant would need at least double the current staff, and would have to conduct 24-hour-a-day monitoring of samples to ensure proper water treatment but was forced to proceed with what he described as an ill-prepared skeleton crew. He testified that no DEQ officials came to inspect the plant before the switch, a common operational expectation. I think the city was rushing to meet a deadline to turn the plant on I voiced [my concerns] to my management in the city. And when they didnt seem to listen, I had to contact a couple of DEQ staff [Prysby and Busch] via email about my concerns. He continued, After a week of not a response, I figured this was really happening, now there was nothing I could do to stop the plant from operation. I said my piece, to no avail, to many different entities and left it at that and tried to focus on getting the plant ready to run. Glasgow also testified that his staff began noticing a sharp uptick in complaints from residents after the water switch before the poisonous lead-levels were discovered. Two water boil warnings were issued in August-September of 2014 after discovering fecal coliform bacteria, but the DEQ never came to inspect the plant nor instruct officials to stop running the plant. The testimony of Glasgow came a few days after John OBrien, division director of the Genesee County Drain Commission, confirmed that Earley and other city officials ignored his warnings that the water treatment plant should not be put into service at all after 50 years of disuse. The preliminary hearings continue to expose the basic truth that a massive social crime was perpetrated against the population of Flint, carried out by both political parties and significant sections of the corporate and financial elite. The switch to the Flint River was part of a scheme to build a new pipeline, under the control of the so-called Karegnondi Water Authority, to enrich private contractors and wealthy bondholders. Nearly four years on, Flint workers and youth still face a public health disaster, which has impacted every facet of life in the economically depressed former General Motors manufacturing center. Tens of thousands of lead-leached pipes have yet to be removed from the citys infrastructure and replaced. Badly needed comprehensive medical care has not been provided for nearly 9,000 children who have likely been permanently harmed by the developmental effects of lead poisoning, to say nothing of the health of 90,000 adults. Recent reports from the MDEQ indicate that there may have even been a spike in lead levels at elementary schools in the past two months. Emerging reports have surfaced that reveal that the city has already quietly started to shut off water from residents who owe outstanding payments on water bills. The state of Michigan is also currently in deliberations to end its funding of bottled water for the residents. Even before Angela Merkel and her cabinet are sworn in on Wednesday, Horst Seehofer (Christian Social Union, CSU) has reaffirmed the reactionary character of the new government. In Bild am Sonntag, the designated interior and homeland minister presented a master plan for more consistent deportations and announced mass surveillance and other police state measures. The aggressive tone and far-reaching plans make clear that the grand coalition is preparing for the brutal repression of any opposition to its policy of militarism and social cuts. Seehofers plans for the mass deportation of refugees go far beyond what is already stated in the coalition agreement. Asked by Bild how he wanted to change the situation, in that only 24,000 of the more than 200,000 migrants ordered to leave were deported in 2017, the CSU chairman announced a concerted plan of mass deportations. Immediately after assuming office, I will get together with all employees and the subordinate authorities to develop a master plan for faster asylum procedures and more consistent deportations, Seehofer said, adding, The number of repatriations has to be increased significantly. A fundamental tightening up of laws would be necessary for these plans, he said. The majority of the 200,000 migrants obliged to leave the country are people whose continued residence is permitted for legal or humanitarian reasons, and whose deportation is therefore prohibited by law. According to the government, at the end of 2016, about half of those obliged to leave the country were not refugees or asylum seekers, but rather people whose visas had expired or whose marriages to German citizens had ended. Of the remainder, according to ProAsyl 2017, only one thirdi.e., about 30,000 peoplewere not permitted to remain, that is, they had to leave the country urgently. This comes very close to 24,000, the number of those actually expelled. If Seehofer is calling for a significant increase in deportations, it means he is planning nothing less than deporting en masse refugees who have a temporary right to remain or even residence status, in many cases because they are in danger in their home country. The Bavarian state government led by Seehofer already leads the federal states for deportations to Afghanistan this year. Legal obstacles are systematically eliminated by, for example, indiscriminately classifying and deporting refugees who cannot immediately present all their papers as stubborn identity deniers. This will now be massively expanded. In addition, Seehofer announced that the decision in the coalition agreement to create internment camps for refugees would be implemented within a few months. That must not take a year or more, the minister said. In such camps, refugees are kept penned in until the decision on their asylum application has been reached. They are excluded from society and deprived of fundamental rights. These brutal measures against the weakest in society are an attack on all workers. If people are interned and deported without being accused of anything, this sets a precedent that goes against the fundamental democratic rights of all. Seehofer is leaving no doubt about that. He wants to establish a strong state throughout Germany, as it exists in Bavaria. To this end, he wants to set up effective video surveillance at all hot spots throughout Germany, which amounts to the systematic monitoring of the entire population. He also announced the hiring of 7,500 new federal police officers and a zero-tolerance policy. Such a zero-tolerance strategy means a massive increase in police stops and a crackdown on trivial offences. It was made famous by New Yorks right-wing mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who created the structures of a police state in the metropolis. Seehofers vow to create Bavarian conditions throughout Germany is a serious warning in this regard. Under his rule, in July of last year, Bavaria passed the most far-reaching security law in German history. Among other things, it includes the possibility of detaining suspects indefinitely. People who have not committed any crime can be imprisoned for life at the discretion of a judge; it is enough that there is a concrete likelihood of a crime resulting from the persons behaviour. This is nothing less than the protective custody introduced by the Nazis in 1933, to which tens of thousands of leaders of the workers movement fell victim within a few months. The decision to make Seehofer interior minister and to expand his department, among other things, including the word homeland ( Heimat ) in its title, was, from the beginning, a deliberate decision of the grand coalition. The CSU leader is known as a hardliner in domestic and refugee politics and is seeking to create a police state that is without precedent in German history. The interview in Bild makes clear how quickly and aggressively he will implement this policy. Seehofers far-reaching plans illustrate the character of the grand coalition. The two parties that lost the last election and have no democratic legitimacy are forming a coalition that will pursue an extremely right-wing programme of rearmament, militarism and social cuts. Under conditions where this meets widespread rejection in the working class, the government is strengthening the police, abrogating democratic rights and attacking the weakest in society to suppress any resistance. Even before UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that Russia was highly likely to have been responsible for the supposed nerve poison attack on the former double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell had declared that Labour MPs should boycott RT, Russias state broadcaster. Amid a climate of state-sponsored anti-Russia hysteria, McDonnell used his appearance on Sundays Andrew Marr Show on the BBC to urge sweeping anti-Russia measures. The statements of McDonnellparty leader Jeremy Corbyns top allysought to position Labour to the right of the Conservatives on Russia-baiting, signalling the embrace of the fake news and Russian interference narratives being used to crack down on free speech and prepare for war against Russia. Marr pointed to suggestions in Sundays press that the Magnitsky Act (adopted by the US in 2012, and more recently by Canada and Estonia) imposing sanctions and asset seizures on Russians deemed guilty of corruption and human rights abuses, should be applied in Britain. He asked McDonnell, Do you agree with that? McDonnell replied, The Labour Party moved amendments to the current money laundering bill only a week ago to introduce the Magnitsky clause. At that stage the Conservative Party opposed our amendments. We hope now that theyll enable us to bring those amendments back at report stage of the bill so that we can have effective action. While acknowledging there was not yet proof of Russian state involvement in last weeks attack on Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, Marr rushed to declare, One very clear thing you could do is stop appearing on Russia Today [RT], which has been described by one of your own ministers as a Kremlin propaganda vehicle. I think thats right now, and thats what Ill be doing, McDonnell replied. While he had, appeared on [RT] in the past what were seeing from Russia Today at times goes beyond objective journalism. So, this is a change in direction, asked Marr. Peter ODowd, your deputy, was on Russia Today only yesterday. Youre going to be encouraging the rest of your colleagues to follow your lead? Yes, I am, because Ive been looking overnight at whats happening in terms of changes in coverage on Russian television in particular, and I think that we have to step back now. I can understand why people have (appeared on RT) up until now because we have treated it like every other television station. There had been examples of RT aligning itself to Vladimir Putins regime, McDonnell said. The Financial Times described McDonnells statements as a sign of growing hawkishness on Russia. Once again, the Corbynites have adopted policy positions associated with the pro-war majority that dominates the Parliamentary Labour Party. In October, Labours Deputy Leader Tom Watson, one of the chief coup-plotters against Corbyn, called on Ofcom to investigate RT for breaching the principles of impartiality and editorial independence that are set out in Ofcoms broadcasting code. Watsons letter to Ofcom followed a series of RT-sponsored billboard advertisements lampooning the ongoing campaign over Russian hacking and interference in domestic politics: Missed the train? Lost a vote? Blame it on us! Another billboard read: Watch RT and find out who we are planning to hack next. RTs billboard campaign, straplined, Question More, was pitched to significant sections of the public who regard the witch-hunt against the Russian broadcaster with scepticism and ridicule. They dont need to be told, by John McDonnell or anyone else, that RT represents the interests of the Russian state. But large numbers have tuned in to RT as a means of circumventing the raw pro-war propaganda of the BBC and other news outlets in the UK and United States, and to hear anti-establishment commentators who have been censored. McDonnells denunciations of RT are a warning to the working class: behind all the rhetoric about governing for the many, not the few, a Corbyn Labour government is lining up with the preparations for war against Russia and would implement a regime of state censorship against RT and any other news sites deemed a threat to the interests of British imperialism. In November, the US branded RT a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a measure which the World Socialist Web Site explained was aimed at delegitimizing RT as a news source, intimidating its journalists and guests, and setting the precedent for taking similar actions against other news outlets. The campaign against RT and fake news has been used as the pretext to enforce a reign of censorship against left-wing, socialist and anti-war websites. Following the introduction of new search algorithms last April, whose stated aim was the boosting of trusted news sources, traffic to the World Socialist Web Site via Googles search engine fell by 74 percent. While McDonnell denounces RT for breaching standards of objective journalism, he is more than happy to support the BBCs lurid and wholly unsubstantiated accusations against Moscow. His attack on RT is rank hypocrisy. The BBC, CNN and Murdochs Sky News have all promoted blanket lies to justify regime change and brutal wars of aggression that have claimed more than one million lives in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen. On the Daily Politics show, which followed Marrs own programme, presenter Sarah Smith described the attack on Skripal as a sinister plot that has shocked the country with the finger of suspicion pointing firmly at Russia, adding that theres even been a suggestion this could come up at the next NATO summit in Brusselsbecause an attack on one member of NATO is an attack on all, and we could be looking at some kind of co-ordinated response from our international allies. McDonnells call for a boycott against RT underscores the bogus claims made by the myriad of pseudo-left outfits that Labour under Corbyn and McDonnell could be refashioned into a vehicle that defended the interests of working people. As the Socialist Equality Party warned in December 2015: No one can seriously propose that this partywhich, in its politics and organisation and the social composition of its apparatus, is Tory in all but namecan be transformed into an instrument of working class struggle. The British Labour Party did not begin with Blair. It is a bourgeois party of more than a centurys standing and a tried and tested instrument of British imperialism and its state machine. Whether led by Clement Attlee, James Callaghan or Jeremy Corbyn, its essence remains unaltered. The fight against the growing danger of a third world war means the development of an anti-war movement in the working class on a socialist and internationalist programme, independent of and in direct opposition to the pro-war programme of the Labour Party and its pseudo-left backers. Anti-Muslim violence initiated by extremist Sinhala-Buddhist groups in the Teldeniya-Digana area of Kandy began on the evening of March 4 and continued for about four days. The death of a Sinhalese lorry driver, following an assault by four Muslims men, was seized on by right-wing Sinhala-Buddhist formations to unleash their attacks. Police lifted a curfew on Sunday but social tensions in the Kandy area remain. Police and military personnel are conducting intermittent patrols of Kandy town and the affected area with soldiers stationed at some locations. According to the police, almost 7,000 security officers, including 3,250 from the army and air force, have been deployed. Over 220 people have been arrested161 from the Kandy area and 69 from outside the district. When World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) reporters visited Teldeniya-Digana a few days ago, the damage done by the violence was clearly visible. Houses and shops had been attacked and burnt down, and residents expressed fear, despair and outrage over the vicious destruction suddenly unleashed against them. According to those interviewed by the WSWS, the violent rampage was initiated by the fascistic Mahasohon Balakaya (MBGreatest Demon) and Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) formations. Mahasohon Balakaya, which was established a few years ago, has a public office in Digana. Both organisations, which claim to be protecting the Sinhala race and Buddhism, are infamous for targeted attacks on Muslims. Sri Lankan police have arrested MB leader Amith Weerasinghe and several other associates on suspicion of directing the violent rampage. One resident explained to the WSWS: Mahasohon Balakaya is mainly responsible for the incident. It made a video three years ago in which one of its leaders, Amith Weerasinghe, claimed there was not a single Sinhala shop in Digana. He declared that Digana had become a Muslim country. One youth told WSWS reporters: It is not the Sinhala-Buddhist civilians in the area that attacked us. The arson and destruction was carried out by extremist groups. In Kengalla [an affected village] alone, around 25 shops and 50 houses were destroyed. Even the mosque was damaged. There was fire everywhere and the area was filled with black smoke. Our Sinhala neighbours helped us like brothers, he continued. It is they who protected us. They were very sad for what happened During Vesak [the main Buddhist festival] we also participate organising Dansal [alms giving]. We dont condone those four who killed the driver but why are we, the innocent attacked? Another resident explained that the extremist thugs, mainly young boys and girls, came into the area on motor cycles and that a lorry was also used for transport. Petrol bombs, metal and wooden bars and stones were used in the attack. While much of the destruction was recorded on CCTV, most of the thugs masked their faces with cloth and the police allowed the violence to occur. The resident also demanded to know what the ruling United National Party (UNP)-Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) government was doing and referred to the governments deployment of police against university students protesting the privatisation of education. They can block kilometres-long protest marches using barricades and teargas, but dont do anything against several hundred thugs. The thugs can come and attack and then just go away The politicians in Kandy were sleeping. They did not do anything. The resident expressed sadness over the death of the lorry driver. He was a very good person and very friendly towards Muslim people. M. Saheed said, The attackers wanted us to be provoked and to retaliate so that they can say we are ISIS. But we are peace-loving people and the majority of Sinhala people are with us. They are helping us, providing food and rooms for shelter and temporary accommodation. Rizvi, who works in Kuwait, was anxious about the safety of his family and returned to Sri Lanka last week. Every day I speak to my family and I contacted them in the morning, at around 10.30, one day after the attacks began. My wife said that there is no problem but then I learnt that there had been trouble in the area two hours later. Rizvi called again but no one answered and he began crying in the shop where he was working in Kuwait. I eventually found out that my wife and two children, together with her sister-in-law and her two daughters, aged 8 and 2, were hiding in the bushes. They hid there for around three hours and were very scared, he said. A Sinhala woman saw them and took them to her house even though her husband and daughter had gone to work. She was alone but courageously took them inside, gave them tea and food, closed all the doors and protected them. The terrifying situation facing Rizvis wife and children was typical of what happened to many Muslim people in the area. WSWS reporters also spoke with Muslim residents in Digana. According to residents, the thugs brought an empty coffin and initiated their attack from a section of Digana known as New Town. A Buddhist monk was among the 500 perpetrators. One group drove to Kengalla and another attacked Muslim businesses and houses in the Digana area. Residents have accused police commandos of supporting the thugs. Mohamed said, This is a side road from Digana and we didnt think they would come here so we didnt even have time to hide. There were thousands of rupees worth of cigarettes and telephone re-charge cards, among other items, destroyed. The fridge and the TV were also damaged. Numbers of Digana residents have left their homes and temporarily moved to other locations. Fatima Bibi said: We were living in peace with Sinhala civilians and they were very friendly with us. We dont care what happened to the four [who attacked the Sinhala driver] but why were we attacked? Our son just started a small business and his office was attacked. The front door was broken. My daughter and her baby were at home at that time but they then hid in a safer place. Scared that their small daughter would cry, they closed her mouth with a piece of cloth. These communalist attacks are not aberrations but follow a definite pattern. Fascistic organisations like Bodu Bala Sena, Sinhala Ravaya and Mahasohon Balakaya were promoted by President Mahinda Rajapakse when in power and have been appeased and nurtured by the current government. On Saturday, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, along with his Sinhala and Muslim cabinet ministers, visited the destroyed and vandalised areas. He promised compensation for those affected and then presided over a meeting of ministers and various government bureaucrats. The meeting was told that 465 houses, shops and vehicles had been damaged86 fully destroyed, 196 partially and 182 minimalin the anti-Muslim pogrom. Wickremesinghe feigned concern, declared that the violence was a challenge to tourism, an indication of where his real interests lie, and urged the Buddhist hierarchy to educate the people about unity and co-existence. Wickremesinghes comments are dripping with cynicism and hypocrisy. No amount of commissions or political appeals will eliminate the root cause of the ongoing extremist violence. The Buddhist hierarchy and successive governments have promoted anti-Tamil and anti-Muslim chauvinism in order to divide and derail the working class and defend the power and privileges of the Sri Lankan ruling elite. The encouragement of these reactionary forces by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government and the Rajapakse-led opposition is in direct response to the deepening economic and political crisis of Sri Lankan capitalism. British Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons that Russia was highly likely to be responsible for deploying a military grade nerve agent against double agent Sergei Skripal, which she declared an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom. Mays speech followed a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss Britains response to the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, just over a week ago. It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as Novichok, May claimed. Her speech follows a wave of anti-Russia hysteria unleashed by the media, political and military establishment, including the mobilisation of 180 military personnel in the cathedral city of Salisbury. May did not provide a shred of evidence to support her claims that Russia had developed the chemical agent used in Salisbury. She simply asserted that because Russia can produce such a chemical, and because of Russias record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations; and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinationsthe government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal. May said, there are therefore only two plausible explanations for what happened in Salisbury on the 4 March. Either this was a direct act by the Russian State against our country. Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had summoned the Russian Ambassador to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and asked him to explain which of these two possibilities it is The government has imposed a 24-hour ultimatum, ending midnight today, for the Russian Federation to provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The May governments reckless actions are dragging the UK to the brink of war with Russia. She framed her stance as a response to a well-established pattern of Russian State aggression throughout Europe and in the Middle East. Russias illegal annexation of Crimea was the first time since the Second World War that one sovereign nation has forcibly taken territory from another in Europe, she declared. She accused Russia of foment[ing] conflict in the Donbas, of repeatedly violat[ing] the national airspace of several European countries and of a sustained campaign of cyber espionage and disruption including meddling in elections and hacking the Danish Ministry of Defence and the Bundestag, among many others. During his recent State of the Union address, May continued, President Putin showed video graphics of missile launches, flight trajectories and explosions, including the modelling of attacks on the United States with a series of warheads impacting in Florida. She told the House that on Wednesday her government would consider in detail the response from the Russian State. Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom. And I will come back to this House and set out the full range of measures that we will take in response. Just hours before Mays speech, Rear Admiral Alex Burton, former commander of the UKs Maritime Forces, who also commanded NATOs high readiness naval forces, said Britain was threatened with losing its status as a credible military power. Citing the threat from Russia, he called for a major boost in military spending to at least 2.5 percent of GDPan extra 7.7 billion a year. The dangers posed are underscored by statements from Russias embassy in London, which accused the British government of playing a very dangerous game, which bears the risk of more serious long-term consequences for our relations. Mays remarks will have been drafted in the closest collaboration with powerful sections of the military and political establishment in the United States, centred on the Democratic Party, who have been pushing for a confrontation with Russia against a degree of resistance from the Trump administration. In response, last week US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told a Senate armed services committee hearing he had not seen evidence of Russia trying to meddle in the 2018 midterm elections, but that it is highly likely Moscow will try to do so. He expected the US Treasury to announce sanctions on Russia as soon as this week. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made a similar announcement, insisting that Trump is fully supportive of the actions. Yesterday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked repeatedly about the Salisbury incident at a press conference in Washington DC. She refused to say whether the US agreed with Mays attribution of Russian responsibility and did not mention Russia by name. Clearly dissatisfied, the journalist questioned whether the US was pointing the finger at the Putin government, with Sanders replying, I think theyre still working through even some of the details of that, and were going to continue to work with the UK. That same day, the European Union said it had extended sanctions against Russia, imposed following Russias annexation of Crimea, for another six months. Responding to May, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the whole house condemned the deeply alarming attack in Salisbury and that a full account was needed from Russian authorities. He urged May to introduce tougher sanctions on Russian oligarchs hiding their money in the UK, noting that there has been over 800,000 worth of donations to the Conservative party from Russian oligarchs and their associates. Whereas he issued no challenge to Mays warmongering accusations, Corbyn cautioned the government, We need to continue seeking a robust dialogue with Russia on all the issues dividing our countries, both domestic and internationalrather than simply cutting off contact and simply letting tensions and divisions get worse, and potentially more dangerous. His diplomatic caveat met with cries of shame! and disgrace! from the Tories and was too much for the warmongers in his own party. A procession of Labour MPs, including Yvette Cooper, Chris Leslie and John Woodcock, joined with the Tories to demand a united response, echoing Tory Iain Duncan Smith who had condemned appeasers while denouncing Corbyn for playing party politics. Ex-Labour shadow chancellor Chris Leslie insisted it is just not appropriate to take party political differences when our country is potentially under attack. His colleague Mike Gapes insisted that all MPs must stand together, as he branded the Salisbury poisoning an act of terrorism. Former Labour chief secretary to the treasury Liam Byrne said, The Prime Minister should know that if by Wednesday she concludes we are indeed embattled, shell find both unity and resolve across this House in facing down a common threat. Former shadow transport minister John Woodcock, who has previously stated he could not support Corbyn as prime minister, suggested that the Labour leader in Number 10 would threaten the UKs national security. The level of resilience voiced by the Prime Minister in the chamber today has been many years in coming but it is hugely welcome, he said. Indeed, it would put our national security at significant risk if we were led by anyone who did not understand the gravity of the threat which Russia poses to this nation. Stephen Doughty, Labour MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, stated, Can I urge the prime minister to speak with the secretary of state for culture, media and sport to look at reviewing Russia Todays [RTs] broadcasting licence. And to speak to the House authorities about blocking their broadcasts in this building itself. Former Labour minister Chris Bryant, MP for the Rhondda, demanded: Can we just stop Russia Today just broadcasting its propaganda in this country? New data reveals the relentless attack on disabled benefit claimants in the last decade. The study found that more than 900,000 Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) claimants, who reported a disability, have been financially sanctioned since May 2010. Also sanctioned were 110,000 claimants of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), a benefit paid to someone who is sick, and placed in the work related activity group (WRAG). A further 140,000 sanctions were applied, but later cancelled. A sanction is applied to someones benefit when a claimant is deemed not to have met part of the stated conditionality for claiming that benefit. This can include missing an appointment, or not applying for enough jobs in a given time scale. According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) own estimates, the state spends up to 50 million a year applying sanctions, and 200 million a year monitoring whether claimants meet the conditions for receiving payments. In 2015, the DWP withheld 132 million from claimants in the form of sanctions. The report was a collaboration between Ben Baumberg Geiger, senior lecturer at the University of Kent, and the Demos think tank. The four-year study included polling 2,000 members of the public, front line assessors, as well as desk research and interviews with experts across nine countries. It found that unemployed disabled people were up to 53 percent more likely to be given a sanction than other claimants. It concluded that conditionality has little or no effect on improving employment chances for disabled people. The government intends to push a million more disabled people back into work over the next decade, leading to many being treated unfairly and burdened with enormous hardship. It has consistently defended the system of sanctions as a way of encouraging people to find work, and falsely claims the public supports the idea of sanctions. Despite decades of government-led media hysteria denouncing welfare scroungers, the public is more concerned that disabled people are being unfairly denied benefits. More, 45 percent versus 22 percent, thought it was more important to support benefit claimants than to root out fraud, and those who did support sanctions felt that they should be weaker than those the government uses at present. Mark Atkinson, chief executive at the Scope charity, said, Punitive sanctions can be extremely harmful to disabled people, who already face the financial penalty of higher living costs. There is no clear evidence that cutting disabled peoples benefits supports them to get into, and stay in work. Conditionality and sanctions are increasingly being linked to deteriorating physical and mental health in claimants with disabilities. Many are left worrying how they will survive once sanctioned, and in some tragic cases, this has led to death. Jodey Whiting, a 42-year-old disabled mother of nine children from Teesside, died last year after taking her own life when her benefits were stopped. When concerns were raised, police broke into her home, where she was found dead with a suicide note. Whiting was a shop worker before ill health forced her to retire. She had problems with ongoing pain, leading to her having to take up to 23 tablets a day, including the powerful painkiller morphine. She had been plagued by physical and mental health problems throughout her life, including a brain cyst and a curved spine. At times, this meant she could barely make it through the front door. As part of meeting conditionality for ESA, Whiting was expected to attend the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). Under the sanctions system, if a claimant does not attend, benefits stop. Jodey had missed a routine ESA assessment, as she had not seen the letter informing her that she had to attend the meeting and was therefore unaware of the assessment. Following her death, Whitings family received another letter from the DWP confirming the benefit cut, despite the family having already told staff at the DWP that she had died. At the inquest, the family charged the DWPs actions were the trigger that led to Whiting taking a fatal drug overdose. The inquest heard she had overdosed before, but the extreme stress inflicted by the DWP pushed her over the edge. Grieving mother, Joy Dove, spoke out after her death, saying, I blame the DWP for her death. They have blood on their hands over my Jodey. DWP officials are being rewarded with bonus payments for meeting sanctioning targets. At a time when many welfare claimants are being sanctioned, struggling to pay for food and having to resort to the use of food banks, payroll data published by the DWP showed that the department paid out performance-related bonuses to staff totalling 41.3 million. These included payments of 5.3 million on in-month bonuses and 36 million in end of year bonuses. 240 senior DWP officials pocketed a total of 760,000. Sanctions are now used much more frequently against welfare claimants across the board, with the severity of sanctions increasing. According to Dr. David Webster at the University of Glasgow, around 350,000 people a year are currently facing sanctions. This is expected to rocket with the introduction of the Universal Credit (UC) system nationally as one million more people in low-paid work will be on the radar for benefit sanctions. The amounts of money people lose through sanctions are actually larger than the amounts of money people get fined in the magistrates courts, Webster told the BBC. An example of the extreme harshness of the sanctions regime was cited by a report on the BBCs Victoria Derbyshire show. Garreth Forrest, from Preston, normally receives a benefits allowance of just 705 a month. For an offense he disputes, he was sanctioned with his benefit slashed by 503. The sanction may last four months, and he was left with just over 200 a month, making it impossible to cover all his outgoings, including rent, utilities and food. Under UC, conditionality is being applied to groups that were once exempt, including the disabled and lone parents. Figures released by the DWP revealed that: The percentage of Universal Credit (UC) claimants with a drop in payment due to a sanction was 4.7 percent. From August to October 2017, 38 percent of all UC decisions resulted in a sanction. 73 percent of UC decisions to apply a sanction in August to October 2017 occurred due to failure to attend or participate in a Work-Focused Interview. Demos became one of the most influential New Labour think tanks under Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. The 1997-2010 Blair/Gordon Brown government adopted a work first and work for all approach that included the monitoring of JSA claimants job searches, backed up by benefit sanctions in cases of non-compliance. In 2008, Labour introduced ESA to replace Incapacity Benefit. ESA contains the Work Capability Assessment medicala critical instrument used by successive governments for removing people from welfare entitlement. The Geiger/Demos research is not aimed at ending the inhumane and hated system WCA, but at refurbishing it and tailoring it more towards the requirements of the economy. They propose the government overhaul the WCA descriptors, so that they transparently reflect the British labour market They recommend that government could collect data on the functional requirements of British jobsi.e., the specific capabilities that people need to be able to do each job. Written by David Tranter and Steven McGregor, filmed and directed by Warwick Thornton Samson and Delilah (2009), Warwick Thorntons first dramatic feature, announced the arrival of a talented filmmaker, committed to exposing some of the realities of the lives of Aboriginal Australians. The critically acclaimed work about two indigenous teenagers revealed to global audiences the unemployment, poverty and substance abuse facing thousands of young Aborigines. Sweet Country, Thorntons follow-up feature, is an equally important film. This one uncovers ugly truths about the countrys colonial past that the establishment has sought to sweep under the carpet. As Thornton told the Sydney Morning Herald: A lot of our history was written by colonisers who wanted to put themselves in a favourable light. A lot of it is a lie. Now were starting to write down our history with our version of events. Sweet Country is set in central Australia in 1929, and loosely based on a true story. It takes its title from a description given by a local police officer, Sergeant Fletcher (Bryan Brown) to then unsettled Aboriginal tribal lands: Some sweet country out there. Cattle country. Sweet Country The brief reference hints at the driving force of the dispossessionthe drive for property and capitalist profitsthe underlying cause of all the horrors imposed on the indigenous population over the past two centuries. Occupation and colonisation of Australia by Britain were part of the spread of capitalism across the globe. Private ownership of land and its exclusive use for profit are the product of capitalism; these concepts are entirely alien to Aboriginal society. The expansion of the pastoral industry throughout the continent required the forced removal of the indigenous population from tribal land, so it could be used exclusively for sheep, beef, wheat and other agricultural products. The Aboriginal people, who had inhabited the continent for tens of thousands of years, were cleared from the land, like trees or wild animals, and by any means available. This is the context of Sweet Country, a place where most of the indigenous population has been forced from their land and compelled to work in virtual slave-like conditions for the new settlers. The principal landowner in Sweet Country is Mick Kennedy (Thomas M. Wright), a sadistic man who submits his Aboriginal workers to a barrage of verbal and physical abuse. Kennedy is no anomaly. His undisguised contempt for his workers is typical of the cruel treatment unleashed by most of the settlers in the film against the indigenous population. The one exception is Christian missionary Fred Smith (Sam Neill), who believes We are all equal in the eyes of the Lord and behaves accordingly toward Aboriginal stockman Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris) and wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey-Furber), who live and work on his property. The missionary even encourages Sam to call him by his first name rather than boss, which does not go down well with the other landowners. World War I veteran Harry March (Ewen Leslie) arrives in the district and runs a nearby cattle property. March is so mentally broken by three years on the Western Front that he drinks himself into oblivion every night. He prevails upon Smith, against his better judgement, to do the Christian thing and allow him to borrow Sam for a day or two to help with some work on his property. Sam takes Lizzie with him to the veterans homestead but is soon sent far away to muster cattle. While he is gone March rapes Lizzie and threatens to kill her if she tells her husband. Sam and Lizzie return to the missionarys farm. March subsequently persuades Kennedy to lend him two of his workersArchie (Gibson John) and 14-year-old boy Philomac (a role shared by twins Tremayne and Trevon Doolan). Philomac notices the former soldiers watch during the trip to Marchs homestead and when they arrive he tries to steal it. March catches and beats the child, and then chains him up like a dog. That night Philomac frees himself and runs away. The next morning March orders Archie to find the boy and they track him to the missionarys homestead. The still raging March thinks Philomac is hiding inside, fixes a bayonet to his gun and demands he be handed over. The missionary, however, is away and Sams attempts to defuse the situation only inflame March, who opens fire on the house. Sam kills March in self-defence and with Lizzie they flee the scene. Police Sergeant Fletcher, also a WWI veteran, leads a posse in pursuit. Aware that Fletcher is hell bent on avenging Marchs death. Missionary Fred Smith tags along, hoping to prevent another murder. Posse in pursuit of Sam Kelly While they are on the run, Lizzie discovers she is pregnant and is forced to reveal that she was raped. Ultimately, for the sake of Lizzies health, Sam returns to town and gives himself up. His trial, held in a makeshift outdoor courtroom in front of the local pub, is the climax of the film. The great strength of Sweet Country is the historically accurate universe it creates, and the complex situation facing the poverty-stricken, dispossessed indigenous population, who recognise that their society is being destroyed but see no way of dealing with the brutal justice dished out by the new social order. The film is uncomfortable to watchsickening at timesprecisely because it does not shy away from this reality. In 1929, Aborigines had no basic democratic rightsthey were not citizens and had no right to vote. Many lived under curfew and needed written permission to work, marry or travel. Aboriginal workers were ruthlessly exploited. Most were not paid wages, but given tobacco, flour, sugar, tea or other basic items instead. Central Australia, in fact, was a final frontier of an undeclared war to clear the indigenous population from what the pastoral industry regarded as sweet country. The bitter conflict continued well into the twentieth century. The infamous and last officially sanctioned massacres in central Australia occurred in 1928 at Coniston Station, almost 400 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs. For more than two months, shooting parties murdered more than 100 Aboriginal men, women and children. A court of inquiry said the slaughter, which was carried out in revenge for the death of a local white man, was justified. The onslaught against Aboriginesvia shootings, poisonings and through the ravages of diseasesaw the indigenous population, estimated to be somewhere between 315,000 and 750,000 in the late 18th century, shrink to just 31,000 by 1911. This catastrophe, and even the prospect of total extermination, as had been believed to have happened in Tasmania, was justified with claims that the Aborigines were an inferior race, destined to give way to a superior one, and eventually to die out. In 1930, J.T. Beckett, former Inspector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory, declared that the end is in sight, and the next generation will grieve over the extermination of the Australian [Aborigine], as the past generation shed crocodile tears over the annihilation of the Tasmanian. Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris) Most of the settlers in Sweet Country treat the indigenous workers little better than animalsHarry March refers to Sam as black stock. But it is to the filmmakers credit that these attitudes, which were commonplace at the time, are not attributed to some eternal human failing. They show, particularly through the characters of Fred Smith and Judge Taylor, who presides over Sams trial, that they are the product of definite social conditions. It is also important that Thornton portrays something of the traumatic and dehumanising impact of WWI on figures like March, and, to some extent, Sergeant Fletcher. March has been completely shattered by the war. Thornton is a gifted director of photography with a strong visual aesthetic. Having grown up in the MacDonnell Ranges, where most of the film was shot, he has an intimate knowledge of the region and its stark and arresting beauty. By restricting the camera to a human point of viewthere are no birds-eye view shotsand using the natural sound of this environment as the films soundtrack, the film immerses the audience in the landscape. As Thornton noted in one interview: You can listen to the country when youre in the cinema it feels like youre standing next to that person in the film. Thats the connection Im trying to create. The performances of the indigenous cast, none of whom had any film acting experience, are commendable. They benefit from Thorntons decision to have them communicate with little or no dialogue. Hamilton Morris, in particular, brings a real sense of dignity and integrity to the enigmatic role of Sam. The settlers, who are more dependent on the sometimes clunky dialogue to express themselves, are less convincing and often two-dimensional. A number of reasons account for this, not least that the film was made on a shoestring and shot in just 22 days. Sweet Country no doubt would have had a better script if the filmmakers had been able to spend more time refining it, rehearsing and shooting. This is a densely plotted film, which spends the vast majority of screen time driving the narrative forward. What scant time this leaves for character development is spread too thinly across a large ensemble cast. Unfortunately, we have too little opportunity to get to know any of themSam includedin any depth. Perhaps the maxim less is more should have been applied. Notwithstanding these criticisms, Sweet Country is a sincere and significant work. Hopefully, Thorntons decision to examine the historical foundations of the plight facing indigenous Australians today will encourage other filmmakers to probe and dramatise them. The author also recommends: Samson and Delilah: A searing portrait of life for Central Australian Aboriginal youth [14 May 2009] WABASH VALLEY (WTHI) - This Wednesday, students across the nation are expected to walk out of class for 17 minutes. Organizers of the walkout say it is to honor the 17 people killed at Stoneman Douglas High School last month. NORTHEAST SCHOOL LETTER TO PARENTS Dear NESC Family, The recent tragic event at a Florida high school has sparked a national outcry for school violence to end. Several scheduled national, student protests against school violence have been organized. The first protest or demonstration is scheduled for this Wednesday. The protest calls for students to walkout of school at 10:00. The walkout is a call to Congress to pass legislation to keep us safe from gun violence at out (SIC) schools, on our streets and in our homes and places of worship. The National School Walkout will last 17 minutes to honor the 17 students and staff memebers (SIC) killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018. The Northeast School Corporaiton (SIC) agrees and supports this message. One life lost at school is one life too many. However, we do not support the walking out of school. Therefore, on Wednesday, March 14th, at 10 AM, middle school and high school students will have the opportunity to gather and "walk-in" to their gym to safely and peacefully express their solidarity for this movement. The North Central High School Peer Leaders and the Northeast Middle School Student Council will be leading these demonstrations at their respective shools (SIC). Your middle school and/or high school child is welcome to participate if they would like or they may remain in their classroom. No one participating in the school sanctioned demonstration in the gym will be counted absent from class. Once the demonstration is over, we will return to class and continue through the day. School counselors and support personnel will be on site to talk to students afterwards if there are any concerns. The Northeast School Corporation, school board, administration, faculty and staff supports and appreciates these student groups for leading this demonstration. If you any questions, please contact your child's school principal. Thank you, Mark Baker, NESC Supt. Many students in the Wabash Valley are planning to do the same thing. Dr. Mark Baker, the superintendent of the Northeast School Corporation sent a letter home to parents saying he is in full support of Florida and the shooting victims. He added the district will not support a walkout. Instead, students will be able to walk to their school's gym to peacefully protest if they choose. After the protest, the school day will resume as normal. Other local school districts are offering similar options. News 10 has learned several students are not in favor of plans like these across the Wabash Valley. We spoke with several of those students and will have their side on Tuesday. Built by Oceanco to an Andrew Winch design, and with Azure Naval Architects engineering, the yacht Equanimity was delivered to her owner in June 2014. Undoubtedly, he enjoyed her. The yacht can accommodate 26 guests in 9 staterooms and has a crew of 28. Equanimitys features include a spa and beach club, a beauty salon, a gym, a sauna, a Turkish bath and a large pool. The interior has some oriental inspired themes, lush with bamboo and gold. The identity of the owner is a bit of an imponderable. According to one source, Do Won Chang is the lucky fellow, while other experts says that Malaysian billionaire Jho Low is the owner. Whatever (or whoever), the owner has Chinese roots -- which could mean either man, but was confirmed as Low in a 2017 USA court case. Jho Low is an interesting man, with interesting ancestors. His grandfather, Meng Tak, settled in Thailand in the early 1960s, and accumulated great riches as a mining and liquor-distillery entrepreneur. Most of this was invested in real estate. Low's father was Sri Larry Low Hock Peng (known as Larry Low). He carried on under the name of Strategic Resources Global,also dabbling profitably in the stock market, holding stakes in the Frencken Group, among others. It seems he also had excellent connections in Malaysia, because the King accorded him the honor of Commander of the Order of Loyalty to the Crown of Malaysia, something the government of Malaysia may be regretting, right now. Jho Low himself is the co-founder and CEO of Jynwel Capital Ltd., an international investment and advistory firm based in Hong Kong. Through this body, the family has invested heavily in the US, owning shares, in EMI, Myla Lingerie, and the Park Lane Hotel in New York. Deputy Minister for Communications and Multimedia Jailani Johari said, as quoted by the Malay language Sinar Harian daily, that following the seizure in Bali of luxury yacht Equanimity believed to be owned by businessman Low Taek Jho, the foreign media has been spreading fake news to tarnish Datuk Seri Najib's name ahead of the upcoming general election. The warning came as the Malaysian government is preparing legislation to strengthen punishments to whom it deem to be spreading "fake news". "The ministry has identified several news portals that are trying to revive the 1MDB issue following the seizure of the Equanimity. Among those portals are The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and the latest, MSNBC," Datuk Seri was quoted Jailani as saying on Sunday (March 11) by Sinar Harian. "While the government is trying to combat fake news here, these issues are brought up by sources from outside the country," he added. "We believe that these efforts are by certain quarters who have a political agenda and are trying to damage the prime minister's good name" ahead of the 14th general election. His ministry is monitoring the matter through the country's Internet regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, and advised these news outlets to stop publishing such "fake news". The 1MDB fund is at the centre of billion-dollar money-laundering probes in at least six countries, including the Unied States, Switzerland and Singapore. The US Justice Department alleges in civil lawsuits that US$4.5 billion (S$5.93 billion) was stolen from 1MDB - which was set up by Mr Najib - in a campaign of fraud and money-laundering. Mr Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing. The suits list US$1.7 billion in assets allegedly bought with the stolen funds, which US officials are seeking to recover. Those assets include the 90m yacht Equanimity which US officials said was purchased by Malaysian financier Mr Low, also known as Jho Low, an unofficial adviser to 1MDB. The boat was seized by Indonesian authorities in Bali two weeks ago at the request of US investigators. handed over to the FBI on Thursday (March 8). The yacht wason Thursday (March 8). Malaysia's police chief said there is no link between Mr Low and 1MDB. A spokesman for Mr Low has said the yacht's seizure was part of the DOJ's "pattern of global overreach - all based on entirely unsupported claims of wrongdoing" in the 1MDB case. The Malaysian goverment is meanwhile preparing legislation proposing that those who spread "fake news" be punishable with fines of up to RM500,000 (S$159,000) and 10 years in jail. This is 10 times the limit for transmitting data deemed "offensive" and a possible "annoyance", a clause which has already been criticised for stifling free speech. All very mysterious. Maybe it will all be explained, one day, but, in the meantime, it seems that there is a lovely yacht coming up for sale. It is billed as the 50th biggest luxury yacht in the world, but is now number one in terms of controversy.She is certainly impressive.From these heights the family fortunes have abruptly plummeted. Last year, US authorities filed a criminal case against Jho Low, claiming that he had transferred one billion greenbacks from the Malaysian authorities to a private account. Allegedly, a strategic investment and development company owned by the government of Malaysia, called 1MDB, formed a joint venture with a Saudi oil company, PetroSaudi International, for this illicit shifting around of funds. The money went into a Swiss bank account held in the name of Good Star Ltd., which was owned by Low.With this money, he bought:A Bombardier 5000 private jetA Van Gogh paintingTwo paintings by MonetTwo paintings by Picasso (one of which he gave to Leonardo Dicaprio for his birthday)A penthouse in the Walker Tower in New YorkA Laurel mansion in Beverly HillsThe Quentas townhouse in LondonA penthouse in Stratton Street, LondonA 22-carat pink diamond necklaceAnd the yachtOh dear. Flaunting such wealth can be a big mistake, as important people start asking where it came from ... and why.Last month, as thelay quietly in Benoa Bay, Bali, Indonesian police marched and board and seized her, at the request of the US and Malaysia.You can read all about it in Old Salt Blog As Rick Spilman points out, 1MDB was set up by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, and it would only be natural if he and his government were panicking.According to the Singapore Straits Times , they are calling it FAKE NEWS, and are issuing stern warnings. (WWSB) - Authorities say at least two people were shot at a business on Monday, March 12. The incident happened at Bliss Enterprises of Plant City, about 40 minutes from Tampa, in the afternoon. Bliss is a builder of varying styles of barns, according to the company website. Copyright 2018 WWSB via Raycom News Network. All rights reserved. Pay description "Earn your full potential for what you are worth and what you so rightly deserve. Have your own business working remotely with a phone, a laptop and a good internet connection. You choose your" TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Havana man has been arrested, accused of stealing an antique car from a Tallahassee home and selling it to a junkyard for $150. According to court documents, Austin Clay Brackin was arrested by Gadsden County deputies on Monday. Documents say the Leon County Sheriff's Office was alerted about the stolen vehicle on Feb. 23. The owner said that when she returned to her home in the 2900 block of Livingston Road that night, her antique, light blue 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air was gone from her yard. The owner told police that she posted pictures of the car on Facebook in an attempt to find the vehicle. The tactic worked, and she was soon contacted by a friend who said he saw the car at a junkyard across the street from Pic n Pull on Woodville Highway. When the car owner spoke with the owner of the business the next day, he showed the victim where her vehicle was and told her that he had bought it from 'Clay Brackin' the night before. The car matched the description of the missing vehicle, with "Heavy Chevy" and flames etched into the front windshield and skulls with Confederate flags etched into the rear door windows. The business owner said that due to the condition of the car, he paid Brackin $150 for it. He told investigators he knew Brackin well because he had bought vehicles from him in the past. The owner said Brackin contacted him the day prior and offered to sell him several vehicles but only ended up selling him one. After being picked out of a photo lineup by a witness on March 5, a warrant was issued for Brackin's arrest on Friday. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Over the past two weeks, a law enforcement member of the Tallahassee Police Department and Leon County Sheriff's Office have been accused of sexual assault. In both cases, the victim complied with what the offender wanted and then reported the assault after. However, the way Florida law defines consent can make getting justice more difficult for some victims. Florida law defines consent as, "Intelligent, knowing and voluntary consent, and does not include coerced submission." Essentially, if you talk an unwilling person into saying "yes," that's not consent. Former Tallahassee Police Officer Vincent Crump is accused of assaulting a woman during a traffic stop. Court documents say the victim believed Crump was in a position of control and authority over her. Former Leon County Deputy Jarrett Broughton is accused of forcing a woman to expose herself during a ride along. Tallahassee attorney Mutaqee Akbar says proving coerced consent can be difficult in sexual battery cases. "We can't get into a person's head and say [if] that person was scared or being influenced by that law enforcement's authority," said Akbar. "I think it does make it difficult for the state to prove a lot of times." However, Akbar said the law works the other say too. "It also puts people through [the] agony of getting charged with something serious just because somebody says that consent wasn't voluntary," said Akbar. Consent also becomes an issue when drinking or drugs are involved. As spring break gets underway, Akbar has some advice: "If it's questionable, don't do it." "You have to be in a situation where you know that that person is doing it because they want to be with you, instead of submitting to your authority," said Akbar. "It's a long road ahead if that person makes allegations against you the next day." Crump is charged with three counts of sexual battery by a law enforcement officer. Broughton is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Thousands of teachers and students may be victims of a Leon County Schools data breach, according to school officials. Florida Virtual School (FLVS) learned about a possible breach on Feb. 12 and contacted Leon County Schools, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Upon receiving the news, LCS immediately launched an internal investigation. LCS says the data breach involves certain staff and student personal information from 2013. The investigation by FLVS, while ongoing, estimates that approximately 368,000 students were potentially impacted by the incident. The security incident also included the personal information of approximately 1,867 teachers. Additionally, FLVS has indicated that other student and teacher records may have been compromised from May 2016 to February 2018. "Through the efforts of forensic experts, a FLVS misconfigured server was identified as the source of some of this compromised information. The data on this server was from a 2013 partnership between Leon County Schools and UCompass, subsequently purchased by FLVS. From this 2013 partnership, it was identified that some current and former teachers social security numbers were compromised. LCS has notified those affected current and former employees through traditional mail. While the FBI and FDLE investigations are ongoing, LCS has initiated personal identity protection, inclusive of credit monitoring, immediately for these affected parties." Leon County Schools is in the process of directly notifying affected teachers and students. Although the investigations are on-going, they believe the scope of the breach may be substantial. FLVS says the security incident may also affect a limited number of Leon County Schools teachers, where the teachers name, Social Security number, date of birth, address, phone number, cell phone number, emergency contact, spouses name, personal email address, work email address, and certain demographic information, may have been accessed by unauthorized persons. "We are taking this matter very seriously," LCS school officials wrote in a press release. "We want to assure you that the privacy and security of the information in our care is one of our highest priorities." As a precaution, FLVS is offering potentially impacted students one year of identity protection services through Experian, a leading identity monitoring services company, at no cost. The offer is available to students whose information was in the FLVS database from May 2, 2016 to February 12, 2018. Qualifying students or their parents can learn more and if impacted by the incident, can sign up for identity protection services at this website www.experianidworks.com/FLVS or by calling Experian at (888) 829-6553 and referencing engagement number DB05741. VALDOSTA, Ga. (WTXL) - Police have arrested a man accused of stabbing a 53-year-old Valdosta man to death over the weekend. Around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, the Valdosta Police Department says they were called to a home in the 2500 block of Forrestwood Drive. When they arrived, they found Emmitt Dennis, 53, unresponsive inside the home. He was pronounced dead on scene by paramedics. The Lowdnes County Coroner found what appeared to be a stab wound on Dennis' torso. Through an investigation, police learned that Dennis had gotten into a fight with someone he knew. An autopsy was done on the body the next day. Medical examiners quickly determined that the stab wound caused Dennis' death and ruled the death as a homicide. Through further investigation, VPD was able to identify the man suspected in the homicide as 40-year-old Elijah Arnold. Detectives then met with the Magistrates Judge of Lowndes County and obtained arrest warrants for Arnold for: Murder (FELONY) Aggravated Assault (FELONY) Possession of Knife During a Commission of a Felony (FELONY) Arnold turned himself in to detectives on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. VALDOSTA, Ga. (WTXL) - Students are catching a financial break as the U.S. Department of Education makes attending college more affordable. Valdosta State University director of financial aid Doug Tanner says, students are now eligible for summer Pell Grants. Traditionally, Pell Grants would only cover fall and spring semesters, splitting the one lump sum between the two terms. Tanner says, students who struggle to pay for programs all year around will have it a little bit easier now the extra aid is available. The summer Pell Grant is available for students who meet the six credit requirement and have filled out their FASFA for the 2018 school year. WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Wakulla County Schools and the Florida Department of Health are working together to keep kids safe, not just from the bullies on the playground, but also from those online. The Florida Department of Health and Wakulla County School Board are presenting a series of in-school discussions about cyberbullying. Assistant state attorney Brian Miller began a two-day workshop series aimed at teaching children how to prevent cyberbullying and how to keep themselves from becoming victims. The assistant state attorney presented two assemblies at Wakulla High School. Monday, he spoke at both Wakulla Middle School and Wakulla Institute, and led individual class discussions to inform students about Florida law as pertains to internet crimes. "We're seeing more and more with the prevalence of social media whether it's on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat or any type of social media account where people are saying things or posting images or posting video that also is incorporated within the stalking and cyberstalking statutes," said Miller. According to Florida statutes, stalking, including cyberstalking, is categorized as a first degree misdemeanor and can land offenders with 11 months and 29 days in jail. "The most frequently asked question I get is about what if I get whether its a photo or a video of somebody else I didn't solicit. What do I do a lot of kids are afraid to come forward because they don't want to get in trouble for having that photo themselves. Which is why I want to talk to them," said Miller. "Look, if you are doing the right thing, coming forward and stopping the crime or doing the right thing protecting somebody, else we want to encourage that." The educational series continues Tuesday at River Springs Elementary with additional speakers from the Department of Health. WEEKI WACHEE, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a Florida woman faces animal cruelty charges after several dead dogs were removed from her abandoned home. The Tampa Bay Times reports that 35-year-old Lauren Wendy Kopp was arrested Saturday on four counts of animal cruelty. The Hernando County Sheriffs Office says deputies went to the Weeki Wachee home last Tuesday and then returned Wednesday to remove multiple carcasses. Sheriffs spokeswoman Denise Molone says it isnt clear how many because they were in the advanced stages of decomposition. Witnesses say the house had appeared abandoned since Hurricane Irma hit the state last September. Kopps attorney has said she was not involved in the dogs deaths. The attorney says Kopp, who is free on $8,000 bail, moved in with her boyfriend last fall and let someone else stay at the house. FAIRBURN, GA (WSB/CNN) A husband-to-be is having difficulty fulfilling the dying wish of his bedridden fiancee because officials wont give him a marriage license if she doesnt appear in person. Aubri Gillilans dying wish is to marry the father of her four children, a 4-year-old daughter and triplets. "I've got four little babies with him, and there's nothing more that I want than to get married to him, Gillilan said. The kids keep asking when their daddy is going to marry their mommy, Gillilans fiance Andrew Hendrickson says. "I don't know what to tell them. I told them that Daddy's working on it, Hendrickson said. But while Hendrickson has been working to marry Gillilan, the two arent having much luck. Gillian has a rare form of malignant melanoma that keeps her bedridden and in a lot of pain. When Hendrickson went to get a marriage license, he was told Gillilan had to be there too. "I told them she was under hospice care, that she was bedridden. She wasn't able to come, Hendrickson said. Officials refused to give him a license. "Let me get married. There isn't no reason why I shouldn't be able to, Gillilan said. Fulton County Probate Judge Pinkie Toomer said by phone that its difficult to send a worker to someones home because of security issues, but shes looking into what can be done. Gillilan says the marriage license would mean the world to her. "This is the best thing I can have. There's no way for me to walk down the aisle, she said. Hendrickson says hes tried neighboring counties, and theyve all told him the same thing. He even offered to let Gillilan appear via Skype, but they still said no. Copyright 2018 WSB via CNN. All rights reserved. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 01:39:53|Editor: Mengjiao Liu Video Player Close WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- After the shock early exit from the the BNP Paribas Open, former world number one Novak Djokovic admitted he felt like he was playing his first match on tour on Monday. "For me it felt like first match I ever played on the tour," Djokovic was quoted by the ATP official website as saying on Monday. "Very weird. I mean, I just completely lost rhythm, everything. Just struggled also a little bit with the health the last couple of weeks." "I was grateful to be out on the court after surgery that quickly. But at the same time, I just didn't feel good at all." Following surgery on the right elbow that hampered his efforts at the Australian Open earlier this season, the 30-year-old Serbian made a quicker-than-anticipated return to the ATP World Tour in Indian Wells with an disappointing loss to Japanese player Taro Daniel on Sunday. "Obviously having only played a couple of matches in nine months, you're still, in a way, battling inside of your mind whether you're fit or not," said the Serbian, a five-times champion here. "And even though you don't have pain, you're still thinking about it, because it's been something that I have been feeling and dragging for over two years." In spite of the loss, the former world number one was able to take away some positives. "I was not even supposed to be here because of the surgery that was only five, six weeks ago. But I recovered very quickly, and I got myself ready. "I'm just happy that I managed to recover that quickly after surgery and just get out on the court," he added. MOGADISHU, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Two United Nations agencies and Somalia's Health Ministry on Monday launched a campaign to immunize over 4.7 million children aged from six months to 10 years against measles in the drought-hit Horn of African nation. The nationwide campaign, being carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), national and local health authorities, aims to protect millions of children against the potentially deadly effects of measles. Ghulam Popal, WHO representative in Somalia, said the campaign will intensify efforts to improve immunity against measles and reach unvaccinated children. "As we saw last year when partners responded to a major cholera outbreak, with the right interventions, WHO and health authorities are confident that similar success may be seen in controlling this measles outbreak," Popal said in a joint statement issued in Mogadishu. This week, the UN agencies said, the campaign targets 2.7 million children in the southern and central states, along with 1.1 million children in Somaliland. The vaccinations will be available at health centers and temporary vaccination sites. Puntland implemented its campaign in January when over 933,000 children were vaccinated. According to the agencies, more than 2,800 cases of suspected measles have been reported since the start of the year, with the most affected regions including Bay, Banadir and Mudug. In 2017, there were more than 23,000 suspected cases of measles -- six times as many as in 2016 -- with the vast majority (83 percent) affecting children under 10. "In early 2017, WHO, UNICEF and partners, together with national health authorities, vaccinated nearly 600,000 children aged six months to five years for measles in hard-to-reach and hotspot areas across Somalia," the UN agencies said. Steven Lauwerier, UNICEF Somalia representative, said more than 1.2 million children are projected to be at risk of acute malnutrition in the next 12 months. "These children are nine times more likely to die of killer diseases such as measles and acute watery diarrhea/cholera than healthy children," Lauwerier said. More than two years of severe drought has led to widespread child malnutrition, mass displacement, and a lack of access to clean water and sanitation, creating ideal conditions for infectious disease outbreaks. "The situation is especially critical for millions of under-vaccinated, weak and vulnerable children who are susceptible to contracting infectious diseases," Lauwerier said. BERLIN, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The former German SS man Oskar Groening, known as the "accountant of Auschwitz", is said to be dead before his four-year prison term ever started, the German media, Spiegel Online, reported on Monday, quoting a spokesman for the public prosecutors' office in Hannover. Groening died on Friday at the age of 96, said the Spiegel Online. The district court of Lueneburg, in 2015, sentenced Groening to four years' imprisonment for aiding murder during the Holocaust. In December 2017, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany decided that Groening was liable and his punishment must begin. His appeals based on health reasons were dismissed by several courts. Groening was a German SS member who was stationed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. His responsibilities included counting and sorting the money taken from prisoners, and he was in charge of the personal property of arriving prisoners. More than 40 years later, he decided to make his activities at Auschwitz public. The recorded accounts he provided to the BBC contributed to the decision and ability to prosecute him. Police chief Brian Manley speaks during a news conference near the scene where a woman was injured in a package bomb explosion in Austin, Texas, U.S., March 12, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS) HOUSTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Police in the U.S. city of Austin, Texas, said on Monday that they believed that three package bombings over the past 10 days were "related." Two separate explosions occurred Monday in Austin, capital of the state of Texas, killing a teenager and wounding two women. According to local police, a bomb detonated in Austin early Monday morning after a teenager brought a package left on the front porch into the kitchen and opened it. The explosion killed the 17-year-old boy and injured a woman in her 40s. Another blast occurred about five hours later at a home about 8 km southeast of the first explosion. Emergency personnel said they transported a female in her 70s to a medical center with potentially life threatening injuries. It was the third such incident this month in Austin. A package blast rocked another Austin home on March 2, killing a man. Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said Monday all three explosions seemed to be "related" but they were not ruling anything out in the investigation. Of the three explosions, two of them happened in the early morning hours. Both packages were left on the front doorstep and were not delivered by a U.S. mail service, police said. "We are looking at these incidents as being related based on similarities that we have seen in the initial evidence that we have on hand here today, compared to what we found on the scene of the explosion that took place a week back," Brian Manley said at a news conference. Police officers and emergency vehicles block the road after a bomb explosions in Austin, Texas, U.S., March 12, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS) Following the explosions, local police warned the community to be aware of any unexpected packages. Instead of opening the package, police suggested that people should call 911. The two explosions that left two dead are now being investigated as homicides. In the awake of the explosions, Texas governor's office is offering a reward of up to 15,000 U.S. dollars for any information that leads to the arrest or identification of those involved. Local police is urging the community to come forward with any information. Briefed by the Texas Department of Public Safety of the explosions, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has offered whatever resources necessary to assist authorities in the investigation. "I want to assure all Texans, and especially those in Austin, that local, state and federal law enforcement officials are working diligently to find those responsible for these heinous crimes. As the investigation continues, the State of Texas will provide any resources necessary to ensure the safety of our citizens, and quickly bring those guilty to justice," said Abbott. Source:Xinhua| 2018-03-13 07:56:35|Editor: Mengjie Video Player Close Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, presides over the first meeting of executive chairpersons of the presidium of the first session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, capital of China, March 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 08:30:00|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close Indian farmers shout slogans along with General Secretary of the Communist Party of India Sitaram Yechury (C, Front) during a rally in Mumbai, India, March 12, 2018. India's Mumbai turned into a sea of red as nearly 50,000 farmers waving red flags gathered in the financial capital after walking on foot for more than 180 km from Nashik city to demand land rights, loan waivers and fair prices for their crops. (Xinhua) ISLAMABAD, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and his Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Asif have expressed concerns over growing presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan and its implications for regional security, a statement by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said Monday. The two foreign ministers, who held officials talks in Islamabad, underlined the need for further cooperation against trans-national terrorist groups, the foreign ministry said, adding that the two strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and appreciated increased bilateral cooperation in border security. The two foreign ministers also supported political resolution of Afghan conflict for durable peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region, it said. They also exchanged views on important developments on regional and international peace and security. The two sides agreed to continue engagements for enhancing economic cooperation including bilateral trade, investment and commercial interaction to promote shared prosperity. They underlined that as two brotherly neighboring countries, the two sides should deepen connectivity between the two sister ports of Gwadar in Pakistan and Chahbahar in Iran to benefit from their complementarities. The Iranian foreign minister also met Pakistani parliamentary speaker Ayaz Sadiq and the army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and discussed cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries as well as the defense cooperation. by Raheela Nazir ISLAMABAD, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Tahmina Fatima works as a human resources manager in a large multinational pharmaceutical company in Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad. Despite a number of challenges inside and outside the workplace, she likes her job. "The company I work for gave me the strength to be tough and independent and I am perfectly capable of handling my own finances, shopping, travel, wardrobe and everything else. I stand on my own two feet and I am not dependent on anyone," Fatima told Xinhua. She further said that "my workplace is dominated by men like most other organizations. There are men who do not like to be subordinate to women and sometimes they do not take me seriously. I have to be very strict with them because of the prevailing male culture in our country." Fatima is among the millions of hard working and dedicated women valiantly contributing to the growing economy of Pakistan, but still women in the country are mostly confined to the inner boundaries of household and the duties of keeping the house in order. Labor force data from the Pakistan bureau of statistics and the World Bank suggested that the labor force participation of women in Pakistan as a percentage of the total women's workforce and percentage of total countries' workforce is below par when compared to international standard and developed countries. According to the latest statistics of the World Bank, the average value of Pakistan's female labor force participation rate from 1990 to 2017 was 18.43 percent, hitting a minimum of 12.5 percent in 1995 and a maximum of 24.93 percent in 2017. Professor Syed Abdul Siraj, chairman of the Mass Communication department at the Allama Iqbal Open University, said that in Pakistan, women work primarily at home or are associated with the informal sector which is mostly agricultural work in rural areas, which is considered as their cultural duty and part of their gender specific role, which largely remains unpaid and isn't considered as contributing to the nation's economy. "Although women play an active role in Pakistan's economy, their contribution has been grossly underreported in some censuses and surveys," Siraj said, adding that Pakistan has a significant number of females in judiciary, education, medical, military, business, politics and other important fields of life. However, successful female entrepreneurs in Pakistan admit that the discrimination against their gender is still high, which is responsible for such a low participation of women in the workforce. Sidra Batool, a young entrepreneur who is the co-founder of one of the best shoe selling companies in Pakistan, told Xinhua that most of the women in Pakistan work informally and are viciously exploited. They get less pay than men for doing the same job and are not respected or facilitated. Rural working women particularly suffer more than urban female workers. Women in Pakistan comprise half of the population, yet they constitute one-fourth of the total labor-force, Batool lamented, adding that "there is a need to be realistic and be aware of the barriers that women face at almost every stage of their life, such as a lack of equal education opportunities and technical skills, limited mobility, lack of safe and affordable transport, and vulnerability to sexual harassment in public spaces and in the workplace." Batool believed that the Pakistani government should introduce laws to increase women's participation in the workforce and remove barriers to women's access to businesses and all kinds of work to earn and own their share in the country's growing economy. Pakistan's employment and equal employment opportunities laws are well established. The constitution of Pakistan specifically mentions human working conditions and equal employment opportunities regardless of sex and banning gender discrimination in employment related decisions, said an official from the government. The recent economic growth and serious efforts by the government to empower women have improved women's status within and outside homes. Now, greater numbers of women are getting education and opting for the employment of their choice. Fatima, while packing her things to leave for home, said, "My family has been very supportive. In my opinion, every woman should work despite social and cultural barriers. If women in our society come out of their homes and see the professional world, they will get to know much more about life and themselves. Also, with this, they will be able to provide a helping hand to their families and support in running their homes." "As a society, we need to help women to thrive because when women thrive, the whole of society benefits and as we have just recently celebrated the International Women's Day. Let us advocate for freedom to work for all Pakistani women," she added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 10:21:55|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close RIO DE JANEIRO, March 12 (Xinhua) -- World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo on Monday warned of the potential "domino effect" of proposed U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. Azevedo, who was in Brazil to attend the upcoming World Economic Forum for Latin America, said "this escalation, which I say has a domino effect, is an escalation that is tough to reverse." "Once you enter the path of reciprocal reprisals, you know when it begins, you know how it begins, but you don't know how or when you will be able to stop the process," Azevedo told reporters. The Brazilian-born WTO chief met with Brazilian President Michel Temer in Brasilia to discuss the U.S. decision to slap steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. U.S. President Donald Trump last week formally signed proclamations to impose a 25-percent tariff on imported steel and a 10-percent tariff on aluminum, causing mounting dissent among business groups and trading partners around the world. Brazil, the second-largest exporter of steel to the United States, joined the protest against the protectionist measure. "Unilateral" announcements like those made by Trump tend to spark counter measures, said Azevedo. "This process of action and reaction lead, sometimes, to trade wars that are not in anyone's interest, where there are only losers, since there are no winners in a trade war," he warned. WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday issued an order blocking Singapore-based chip maker Broadcom Limited's proposed purchase of its U.S. rival Qualcomm, citing national security concerns. "There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that Broadcom" by exercising control of Qualcomm "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States," Trump said in the order released by the White House. "The proposed takeover of Qualcomm by the purchaser is prohibited, and any substantially equivalent merger, acquisition, or takeover, whether effected directly or indirectly, is also prohibited," said the president. Trump's order came after an investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a multi-agency panel that reviews foreign purchases of U.S. companies on the grounds of national security. In a letter to lawyers for the two companies on March 5, CFIUS had expressed its concern that Broadcom might reduce research and development at Qualcomm, which would weaken the company's strength of developing the next generation of wireless technology. "Reduction in Qualcomm's long-term technological competitiveness and influence in standard settings would significantly impact U.S. national security," said the letter. In order to reduce U.S. national security concerns, Broadcom has decided to move its headquarters to the United States from Singapore by April. If Broadcom relocates its headquarters before the review is over,CFIUS could potentially lose its jurisdiction over the deal, according to local media. However, in another letter to the two companies on Sunday, CFIUS said the investigation "is expected to close soon." The agency also claimed that Broadcom had violated the government's previous order at least three times, including taking action toward relocating to the United States without giving five business days' notice to CFIUS as required. The order also came days after the Trump administration invoked a rarely-used national security statute to justify tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, a move highly criticized around the world. It is the latest sign that the Trump administration is playing the national security card as a protectionist tool to protect American industry from foreign competition. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 10:21:55|Editor: Mengjie Video Player Close BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China will establish a ministry of ecological environment to enhance environmental protection, according to a reform plan submitted to the national legislature for deliberation on Tuesday. The new ministry will be responsible for the compiling and implementation of China's ecological environment policies, plans and standards, as well as ecological environment monitoring and law enforcement. It will also regulate pollution control and nuclear and radiation safety, and organize inspections of central authorities on environmental protection, according to the plan on institutional restructuring of the State Council, or the cabinet. The Ministry of Environmental Protection will be dismantled. WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee said Monday that the panel has found no evidence of alleged collusion between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia during the 2016 U.S. elections. The Republicans who dominate the panel are closing down the probe, with no plans for more interviews with witnesses. The panel in the process of preparing a roughly 150-page final report, said Republican house lawmaker Mike Conaway on Monday. "We found no evidence of collusion," he told reporters. "We couldn't establish the same conclusion that the CIA did that they specifically wanted to help Trump." "We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings - but only Tom Clancy could take this series of inadvertent contacts, meetings, whatever, and weave that into some sort of a spy thriller that could go out there," he said, referring to the American novelist. A draft of the final report will be delivered to Democratic committee members for review on Tuesday, local media reported. It is expected that Democrats may make "extensive changes" to the Republican-drafted report and likely issue their own version. The House Intelligence Committee has reviewed more than 300,000 documents and interviewed 73 witnesses since launching the investigation in January 2017. The witnesses include former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, the president's eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner. TRIPOLI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The delegation of the European Union (EU) to Libya has announced a new program worth 50 million euros (61.96 million U.S. dollars) to support Libyan cities most affected by illegal immigration flows. "Formulated jointly by the European Commission and Italy, the program will be launched by the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa to support local governance and to improve services for vulnerable populations, including migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees and host communities," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement on Tuesday. The program will be implemented in coordination with the Libyan UN-backed government, taking into account the needs of local population as well as those of migrants and vulnerable groups in order to foster better inclusion and stability, the statement said. "The EU will continue to stay at the side of Libyans and of all the people in need," said Mogherini. The EU has committed 237 million euros (293.67 million dollars) to address challenges in Libya via the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. Libya is a preferred point of departure for illegal immigrants wanting to cross the Mediterranean towards European shores, due to the state of insecurity and chaos that followed the 2011 uprising. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 10:21:56|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday unveiled a massive cabinet reshuffle plan to make the government better-structured, more efficient, and service-oriented. The institutional reform plan of the State Council will be submitted to the on-going first session of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberations. There will be 26 ministries and commissions of the State Council after the reshuffle, according to a document on the plan available to media. Among the new entities are a ministry of natural resources, a ministry of veterans affairs, and a ministry of emergency management. There will be also new administrations under the State Council, such as an international development cooperation agency, and a state immigration administration. Compared with the current setup, the number of ministerial-level entities is reduced by eight and that of vice-ministerial-level entities by seven, according to the document. The reform, which aims to push forward the institutional restructuring in key areas, will strengthen the government's functions on economic management, market supervision, social management, public service, and ecological and environmental protection, it says. Related: Proposed list of ministries, commissions of China's cabinet after reform HAVANA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- More than 7.3 million Cubans voted in the parliamentary elections held Sunday, which marks the start of a historic generational change in Cuba's leadership. At a press conference Monday, Alina Balseiro, president of the National Electoral Commission (CEN), said 82.9 percent of the registered voters headed to polls and 605 lawmakers would be elected for the next five years. "It was an intense voting day in which our people reaffirmed the principles of the Cuban electoral system ... " Balseiro told reporters, adding that the vote was a "triumph of the Cuban people." According to official data, 53.22 percent of the legislative body are women, 13.22 percent are young people under 35 years old and 40.50 percent are blacks. The elected lawmakers will meet on April 19 in Havana to vote for the 31 members of the Council of State, including its president, first vice president, five vice presidents, secretary and other members. Raul Castro, the current president of the Council of State, who temporarily replaced his late brother Fidel Castro in 2006 and assumed office in 2008, has reiterated that he will step down after a decade in power. Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is the current first vice president of the State Council, is expected to be Castro's successor. Diaz-Canel voted Sunday in his home province of Villa Clara, central Cuba. Analysts believe that the election of Diaz-Canel, a 57-year-old engineer, would not bring about major changes in Cuba, because he has defended political continuity and the maintaining of the socialist model in the Caribbean island nation. Sorry, this news has been deleted. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 11:22:09|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday unveiled a massive cabinet reshuffle plan to make the government better-structured, more efficient, and service-oriented. The institutional reform plan of the State Council was submitted to the on-going first session of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberations. State Councilor Wang Yong briefed the lawmakers on the plan. There will be 26 ministries and commissions of the State Council after the reshuffle. Among the new entities are a ministry of natural resources, a ministry of veterans affairs, and a ministry of emergency management. There will also be new administrations, such as an international development cooperation agency, a state immigration administration, and a banking and insurance regulatory commission. Compared with the current setup of cabinet administrations, the number of ministerial-level entities is reduced by eight and that of vice-ministerial-level entities by seven. Wang said the reform, focusing on institutional restructuring in key areas, will strengthen the government's functions on economic management, market supervision, social management, public service, and ecological and environmental protection. "It focuses on the needs of development and meets the people's expectations," Wang said, adding that the restructuring forms part of a broader plan by the Communist Party of China to deepen the reform of the Party and state institutions. He said the cabinet reshuffle deals with the institutional obstacles to help the market play a decisive role in resource allocation. The reshuffle will also help China build a modern economy with high quality growth. Related: Proposed list of ministries, commissions of China's cabinet after reform SYDNEY, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Police in Sydney will be given the power to remove vehicles and stop drones flying in the vicinity of the ASEAN-Australia summit this weekend. New South Wales State Police Minister Troy Grant explained on local radio Tuesday that the decision was made "because of the terror level threat." "The visible presence will be a lot higher than what people normally expect on their weekend," he said. Although the minister did not discuss specific details of their operations this weekend or what has prompted the security concerns, it's understood that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's official residence at Kirribilli House will also be under strict security protocols due to the heightened threat level. The weekend conference, which will include the leaders from the Southeast Asian region, will to discuss ways to strengthen ties with Australia. Top of the agenda for the high-profile meeting will be counter-terrorism, regional security and economic policy on trade. OTTAWA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday held a telephone call with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss issues including the North American steel and aluminum industries and ongoing renegotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trudeau made the call from Alma, Quebec where he was touring an aluminum smelter, according to a release by Trudeau's office. "The Prime Minister acknowledged and supported the special consideration extended to Canada in the context of steel and aluminum tariffs that the President announced last week, and emphasized that preserving our mutually beneficial supply chains is critical to jobs and businesses on both sides of the border," said the release. Trump signed an order last Thursday to slap a 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum with exemptions for Canada and Mexico. Noting that the three countries are still proceeding with NAFTA renegotiations, the Canadian media said Trump has used the exemption as a tactic to try to put more pressure on Canada and Mexico. "The leaders also welcomed and encouraged the progress being made on negotiation of the renewed North American Free Trade Agreement," the release said. Canada and the United States share the world's longest secure border, with approximately 400,000 people, and goods and services worth 2.5 billion U.S.dollars crossing daily. Canada is the largest market for the United States, with 283 billion U.S. dollars worth of goods exported to Canada in 2017. CANBERRA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) on Tuesday proposed to close a tax "loophole" to save 59 billion Australian dollars (46 billion U.S. dollars) over the next 10 years. Bill Shorten, ALP Leader, on Tuesday announced that if he leads the government, he will abolish cash refunds which are worth an average of 5,000 Australian dollars (3,935 U.S. dollars) a year to taxpayers who own shares and claim tax credits on dividends. The measure will target the wealthy as Shorten continues to try to appeal to Australia's working class ahead of the 2019 federal election. "Every dollar that slips through these loopholes is a dollar that cannot be invested in the Australian people and their potential," Shorten told reporters on Tuesday. Australia is "the only" member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with "a fully refundable dividend imputation credit system." Incumbent Treasurer Scott Morrison criticized the plan, accusing Shorten of wanting to "steal" money from pensioners and retirees who invest in the stock market. He said that the system was designed so that shareholders did not pay tax twice in the form of their dividend earnings and on the tax of the companies they invested in. "(Labor) are not dealing with loopholes here, what they're doing is creating them," Morrison told News Corp Australia on Tuesday. "It is unfair to steal someone's tax refund, I wouldn't do it on your tax refund as a normal income tax payer and I'm not going to do it for pensioners and retirees who are simply making smart decisions in an environment like this where they can get a better return on buying shares. Earlier on Tuesday, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann labelled Shorten "shifty" for claiming the proposal was not a tax increase. "It is a 59 billion AUD tax hike, whatever way you look at this, this is an increase in tax, Labor can come forward with this proposal but they shouldn't try and dress it up as something it isn't," Cormann told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio. WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senator Jeff Flake on Monday introduced a bill to nullify President Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, warning they would hurt the U.S. economy if implemented. "These tariffs will do just what tariffs have always done and lead to job losses and will stymie economic growth," Flake said on the Senate floor, adding: "We in Congress simply can't be complicit as this administration courts economic disaster in this fashion." "I urge my colleagues to join me in exercising our constitutional oversight to invalidate these irresponsible tariffs," he said, warning that "we risk reversing those gains that we have made" if the United States enters a trade war. Trump announced last week that the United States would slap a 25-percent tariff on imported steel and a 10-percent tariff on imported aluminum, which would take effect in 15 days. The move has sparked widespread criticism and opposition among congressional Republicans, business groups and trading partners. However, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said Monday that there's little chance the Republican-controlled Congress will pass legislation to block Trump's tariffs on aluminum and steel. He expected lawmakers who support free trade to keep lobbying the administration to add more exemptions. TOKYO, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks were essentially flat Tuesday morning owing to investor caution about U.S. tariff hikes and Japanese politics following a renewed influence-peddling scandal involving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 34.58 points, or 0.16 percent, from Monday to 21,789.45. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, fell 1.48 points, or 0.08 percent, at 1,739.82. Oil and coal product, mining and iron and steel-linked issues comprised those declined the most by the morning break. PHNOM PENH, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen on Tuesday renewed his call for the people to vote for the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) in the upcoming national election, saying that supporting the CPP was to defend peace, stability and development. "The election will be held on July 29, 2018, and I hope that the people will continue to cast their ballots for the Cambodian People's Party," he said in a speech during the inauguration ceremony of a 4-km stretch of National Road No.1 in east of Phnom Penh. The 65-year-old prime minister said that only the CPP could maintain the country's hard-won peace, and that "there is no peace, there is no development." Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985 and brought full peace to the war-torn country in 1998, reiterated that he would stay in power for at least another 10 years. The CPP is expected to win a sweeping victory in the upcoming election since the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved by the Supreme Court on Nov. 16 last year and its 118 senior members had been banned from politics for five years. The dissolution of the CNRP came after its leader Kem Sokha was arrested on Sept. 3 last year and charged with treason for conspiring with a foreign power in an attempt to overthrow the government. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 12:27:26|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close SANTIAGO, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Chilean Finance Minister Felipe Larrain announced Monday a tax reform to simplify the national tax assessment system on the first day in office of the new government. Larrain said they have been discussing the reform for some time to make the tax system more user-friendly to the public, and details of the agreement will be revealed later. The announcement released on Sebastian Pinera's first day of his second non-consecutive term as president and Larrain was also his finance minister during his first term from 2010 to 2014. "We are in a period of tightness, as unquestionably," said the minister, adding that the fiscal situation is different from eight or four years ago since levels of public debt has doubled. "What is needed is to begin certain austerity measures, and then see how to reassign resources." The economic authority said the country's accounts were suffering from a structural fiscal deficit of 2.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), not 1.7 percent as stated by the former government in January. Former President Michelle Bachelet, who was the president of Chile from 2014 to 2018, had began a tax reform which sought to raise taxes on the rich in order to finance other reforms. "If we have to tighten our belts, those of us who work in the public sector will do so," said Larrain. Despite the scenario revealed by the minister, the central bank's survey on economic expectations raised growth predictions for 2018 from 3.2 to 3.5 percent, and to 4 percent in 2019. WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government on Monday warned of a possible "response" to the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain, as the White House and the State Department lashed out at Russia amid hostility over the issue. White House Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a news briefing that the attack was "reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible." Noting that the United States has been monitoring the incident closely and taking it "very seriously," Sanders said the use of a highly lethal chemical nerve agent against British citizens on British soil is "an outrage." "We stand by our closest ally and the special relationship that we have," she referred to the British government, adding that the United States is ready "if we can be of any assistance to them." Also on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the poisoning "came from Russia." Tillerson told the media on his way back from Nigeria to Washington that although he did not know whether the Russian government knew the poisoning, the tragedy could not have originated anywhere else, as the substance was "only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties." Noting that the poisoning was "a really egregious act" that was "almost beyond comprehension," Tillerson said that after a year of trying, "we didn't get very far" in the efforts to narrow down differences with Russia. The U.S. top diplomat added "it certainly will trigger a response" if the Russian government is proved behind the incident. Later on the day, Tillerson issued a statement saying that he spoke with his British counterpart Boris Johnson in the morning. "We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack," he said. "There is never a justification for this type of attack ... and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior." He also accused Moscow of being "an irresponsible force of instability" in issues of Ukraine, Syria and now Britain, warning that those who are responsible "must face appropriately serious consequences." The statements of the White House and the State Department came on the heels of an announcement made by British Prime Minister Theresa May, who on Monday also pointed her finger at Russia over the developing "poisoning attack" row. Claiming that Moscow was "highly likely" responsible for the attack, May told the parliament that Russia's ambassador in London had been summoned to explain whether it was "a direct action by the Russian state" or the result of it "losing control" of its stock of nerve agents. May said the attack, targeting Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in London on March 4, involved a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. Her comments came after Skripal and his daughter, who remain in a critical but stable condition, had been found slumped on a bench in London. On Monday, the Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russian involvement in the incident. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also said May's statement about the alleged Russian trace in the attack was a "circus." "The conclusion is obvious: it is another informational and political campaign based on a provocation," Zakharova was quoted by Russian media outlet Sputnik as saying. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 12:57:31|Editor: pengying Video Player Close WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The White House said on Monday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit the White House on March 20. The visit comes amid lingering diplomatic confrontations among the Gulf nations and reports that Saudi Arabia is in talks with the United States to buy its nuclear reactors. In a statement, the White House said that U.S. President Donald Trump "looks forward to discussing ways to strengthen ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia and to advance our common security and economic priorities." Trump on Feb. 27 spoke with bin Salman over phone, when the two sides vowed to further enhance bilateral partnership on security and economic front. Thanking the crown prince for boosting the Gulf Cooperation Council (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 United Arab Emirates (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." The Trump administration has reportedly been pursuing a deal to sell nuclear reactors to the Middle East nation. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert only said in a press briefing that "Saudi Arabia has expressed an interest in possible U.S. supply of nuclear equipment and material." In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday of a possible nuclear arms race in the Middle East. "Many countries in the Middle East are saying that they are also allowed to enrich uranium if Iran is allowed to do so; therefore, the way to prevent this danger, the nuclearization of the Middle East, is to either thoroughly correct the agreement or abrogate it," he said, reportedly referring to Riyadh. ULAN BATOR, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Mongolian Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku to boost bilateral ties, the Mongolian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. The pair discussed issues including cooperation opportunities under the Belt and Road Initiative, according to a release by the ministry. Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road 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. During the meeting, Tsogtbaatar said that Mongolia is willing to increase cooperation with Azerbaijan in such fields as trade and economy, culture, education, science and sport, the release said. He invited Azerbaijan to join the multilateral agreement on the establishment of a think tank for landlocked developing countries in Ulan Bator, and also invited Mammadyarov to attend the opening ceremony of the center in June. Mongolia and Azerbaijan established diplomatic ties on April 16, 1992. KABUL, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis paid an unannounced visit to Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, a local television channel 1TV reported. The Pentagon chief, according to the media outlet, would meet Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani to exchange views on matters relating to mutual interests, including the war on terror and the peace process in Afghanistan. Mattis will also meet the commanders of U.S. and the allied troops in Afghanistan. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 14:32:46|Editor: pengying Video Player Close LHASA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region hired 700,000 people to protect the environment in 2017, according to the regional environmental protection department. The jobs, mainly as wildlife and forest rangers in natural reserves, were given to former farmers and herders. Each employee receives an annual salary of 3,000 yuan (around 474 U.S. dollars). Tashi Phuntsok, 36, is a wildlife ranger. With a motorbike and a telescope, he patrols Siling Lake, a large plateau lake, to help protect endangered bird species. "Protecting wildlife is protecting our homeland," said Tashi Phuntsok. Over the past five years, Tibet has spent a total of 25.4 billion yuan to compensate local residents who protect the plateau's forests, meadows, and wetlands. Tibet has 47 nature reserves covering more than 413,000 square kilometers, accounting for about 34 percent of the region's total land area. SEOUL, March 13 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoy on Tuesday met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo to explain the result of his visit to Pyongyang and Washington last week, the Blue House of South Korea said. Suh Hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), had a meeting with Abe for about an hour in Tokyo, accompanied by Nam Gwan-pyo, second deputy director of the Blue House's National Security Office. Suh met with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) last week in Pyongyang where Kim agreed to hold a summit meeting with President Moon in late April in the truce village of Panmunjom. Suh and Chung Eui-yong, top security adviser for Moon, brought Kim's message to Washington where the special envoys met with U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump accepted Kim's willingness to hold a DPRK-U.S. summit, saying he would meet with Kim by May to achieve a permanent denuclearization. During the meeting with Suh, Abe said the DPRK would not use this opportunity as a chance to buy time as it has to face big negotiations, the inter-Korean and U.S.-DPRK summits, the Blue House said. Abe expressed his gratitude to Moon for sending special envoys to Japan to explain the result of visits to Pyongyang and Washington. He also paid respect to the leadership of Moon for bringing positive changes to the inter-Korean relations and the denuclearization process. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday met with Chung, special envoy of President Moon, in Beijing to hear the briefing on the South Korean envoys' visit to Pyongyang and Washington. CANBERRA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Former Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr called for the nation to cut its immigration rate in half on Monday night. Carr, who served as Premier of New South Wales (NSW) from 1995 to 2005 and Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2013, said that the growing pains associated with Australia's population boom could be eased if migration was reduced. "Immigration is our character, 37 percent of the population of Sydney was born overseas. We celebrate it, but even those people, those born overseas are still asking whether we can achieve the same benefits at a less dramatic pace," he said on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Q&A on Monday night. "74 percent of Australians think there is enough of us already. "I think politicians and business leaders ought to be acknowledging that it has finally sunk in -- I thought it was a lonely voice for the long time." Carr, who famously declared that "Sydney was full" during his time as Premier of NSW, went on to say that Australia's skilled migrant system, whereby priority was given to potential migrants who could fill a need in the local workforce, had failed. His comments came several weeks after former Prime Minister Tony Abott made headlines by suggesting in a speech that the annual immigration intake be reduced from 190,000 to 110,000, a suggestion that was shot down by his successor as Prime Minister and political rival Malcolm Turnbull. Despite drawing criticism, Abbott wrote on social media ahead of the Q&A on Monday night "that more supply means downward pressure on prices and more demand means upward pressure." "Very high immigration means stagnant wages and unaffordable housing. That's why the numbers need to be scaled back now. We shouldn't be afraid of the debate," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 15:02:52|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close CHICAGO, March 12 (Xinhua) -- China is winning its war on pollution after four years of struggle, a U.S. study said on Monday. Concentrations of fine particulates in Chinese cities have decreased by an average rate of 32 percent since 2014, according to a research done by professors at the University of Chicago. Data from nearly 250 Chinese official monitor agencies was analyzed with positive findings. "The data is in-China is winning its war against pollution," said Michael Greenstone who conducted the analysis and works as director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). New data released by Chinese government in March showed that the number of "severely polluted" days in Beijing dropped to 23 in 2017, compared with 58 in 2013. Across the country, the average density of PM 2.5 in 338 cities was 43 micrograms per cubic meter, falling 6.5 percent year on year. The eight-page report suggested that Chinese people would enjoy significant improvement of their health conditions, or life span extended by months or years. "In the 204 prefectures for which we have data, which cover nearly 70 percent of the total population, residents can expect to live on average 2.4 year longer relative to 2013 if the recent reductions in pollution are sustained," said the report. While praising China's "significant gains in achieving its air quality goals," the report expected more longer-term plans and market approaches like taxes and cap-and-trade markets. Based on action plans made by Chinese governments at all levels, the war on pollution was fought as plants reduced emissions, fossil-fuel based power generation converted to renewable energy, cities restricted cars on roads and the planting of additional greenery. China also reduced its iron- and steel-making capacity, shut down coal mines as well since the State Council launched a national air pollution control campaign in 2013. China is working on a new three-year plan to continue controlling air pollution, while a goal was set for cities at the prefecture level and above to experience about 292 clear air days each year by 2020. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 15:12:56|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close by Maria Spiliopoulou ATHENS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Greece has taken great interest in the ongoing deliberations at the annual session of China's National People's Congress (NPC), as the decisions made in Beijing this March will have a deep global impact, a Greek member of parliament (MP) told Xinhua in a written interview recently. "The National People's Congress is one of China's key institutional pillars. Its work contributes decisively to China's social and economic progress and of course it has a very important international impact," said Anastasios Kourakis, first deputy speaker of the Hellenic parliament. "Its composition, with universal representativeness from all over China, and its important institutional responsibilities make this institution central not only for the country itself, but also for the global governance system. In this context, the international impact of the National People's Congress is deep," he stressed. In the Greek parliament, MPs have often expressed their particular interest in visiting the NPC and exchanging views with their Chinese colleagues, Kourakis said. The amendments to China's Constitution, such as listing supervisory commissions as a state organ, are one of the main topics for this year's NPC session, Kourakis said. "The creation of new institutions that improve the functioning and efficiency of the administration are always positive steps. Particularly in the field of institutional control, the creation of effective mechanisms can contribute decisively to the success of the policies implemented," he said. Asked what has impressed him most in China's development in the last several years and its contribution to the development of the world, Kourakis referred to China's dynamic entry into the global high-tech products market. The rapid development is also felt in Greece, where China's smart products and applications are among the most popular choices for Greek consumers, he noted. According to the Greek lawmaker, visitors of the 2017 Thessaloniki International Fair, Greece's largest annual commercial exhibition, got a glimpse of advanced Chinese technology applications last September. In this context, China has offered significant contributions to global technological development, Kourakis said. As the friendship between Greece and China has flourished in recent years, Kourakis highlighted the significant role of the two countries' parliaments in maintaining cordial ties. Parliamentary diplomacy is a pillar for the development of international relations, and Greece and China have worked methodically in this field, he said. Greek MPs got the chance to interact with different political and state institutions of China last year, while the Hellenic parliament has received numerous Chinese delegations in past years, Kourakis told Xinhua. "Continuous exchanges and cooperation in a wide range of policy areas have created a solid basis not only for common development, but also for the deepening of the very strong feelings between the two peoples," Kourakis said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 15:22:57|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close NANJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese firm on Tuesday rolled off China's largest shield tunneling machine for export, which is destined for Bangladesh to assist with a river tunneling project. The export of the machine produced by Tianhe Mechanical Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd. based in east China's Jiangsu Province will break the monopoly of ultra-large tunneling equipment by developed countries in the exports, according to Zhou Jun, chief engineer with the Chinese firm. The machine with a diameter of 12.12 meters weighs 2,200 tonnes. It will be used for opening a 3,500-meter road tunnel under Karnaphuli River. "The tunnel construction has been a dream for Bangladesh people, as we want to develop Chittagong Port as good as China's Shanghai," said Kabir Ahmed, chief engineer of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority. The upcoming tunnel is expected to shorten the ride between Chittagong Airport to a planned industrial park, from 4 hours to 20 minutes. by Raul Menchaca MATANZAS, Cuba, March 12 (Xinhua) -- More than a picturesque repository of 19th-century pharmacology, the antique French apothecary Triolet revives early memories for thousands of Cubans who until not long ago came here seeking remedy for their ailments. Located in the heart of the western city of Matanzas, the well-preserved apothecary today houses the Pharmaceutical Museum with more than half a million compounds, as well as vintage tools and devices. "This is an exceptional place ... the world's only French apothecary dating from the end of the 19th century that remains original and complete," according to Marcia Brito, who has been running the museum for 36 years. Brito has got a degree in biology and been here for four decades to research the formulas contained in 55-volume pharmacopoeia in the drugstore. These documents are relevant because they indicate the number of prescriptions and the doctors who formulated them, said Brito. Preserved in pristine shape, the building boasts all its original wood furniture and decoration, hand carved by the Catalonian carpenter Juan Flores. In addition to featuring beautiful colonial architecture, the pharmacy holds some 800,000 labels, hundreds of thousands of original medicines and a huge collection of French porcelain dating from even before its foundation. The pharmacy was founded by doctors Juan Fermin Figueroa and Ernesto Triolet Teliebre on Jan. 1, 1882, two friends who later became relatives after Triolet married Fermin's sister Maria Justa. After Maria Justa died, Triolet married Figueroa's daughter Dona Maria de los Dolores, who was the first Cuban woman to get a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 1886. Triolet radically changed the concept of apothecaries, which until then were modest warehouses with demijohns full of chemicals and syrups for medicinal preparations, and patented compounds from the emerging American and French pharmaceutical laboratories. The drugstore quickly accepted and clients were impressed by its distillers, ovens, stills, scales and retorts. Simple contraptions were considered the very latest instruments of their time. Drawers containing envelopes of medicinal herbs and the first ampules for serums are among the original items that displayed at Triolet. Before becoming a museum in 1964, Triolet offered salves and cures to the resident, so the building holds their early memories as well as historic relics from the early days of pharmacology. Hundreds of people visit Triolet each day to admire the precious woods, marble and antique porcelain, declared a National Monument in 2007, partly because it is emblematic of late 19th-century neoclassical architecture. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 16:13:06|Editor: Jiaxin Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Six soldiers were killed on Tuesday in a suicide car bombing near a security center of the newly-recruited Yemeni troops in the southern port city of Aden, local police said. A source of the Interior Ministry in Aden confirmed to Xinhua that the explosion was caused by a suicide car bombing near a security center in Aden's neighborhood of Mansourah. Another police official said that a suicide bomber driving an explosive-laden car blew it up next to a building used to store food and meals for the Yemeni forces in Aden. Forces backed by the United Arab Emirates were sent to the area after the explosion and a search operation was launched. Witnesses told Xinhua that the suicide bomber killed himself on the spot and an exchange of gunfire was heard in the area. A number of ambulances rushed to the bombing site to send the injured people to nearby hospitals. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing yet. Both the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch and the Islamic State (IS) group have carried out several terror attacks in Aden. Aden is considered as Yemen's temporary capital and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has based itself there since 2015. During the past two years, the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and other terrorist groups including the IS have had an active presence in Yemen's southern part. The impoverished Arab country has been mired in a civil war since the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014. Saudi Arabia led an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels forced him into exile. The United Nations has listed Yemen as the country of world's number one humanitarian crisis, with 7 million Yemenis on the brink of famine and cholera causing more than 2,000 deaths. ANKARA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A bus crashed into a parked truck Tuesday morning in Turkey's northern province of Corum, killing at least 13 people and injuring 20 others. The accident occurred in the Osmancik district of Corum province around 6 a.m. local time (4 a.m. GMT), Daily Sabah reported. The exact number of passengers on the bus has not been officially announced as the authorities are still trying to identify the victims. A large number of ambulances, fire brigades and gendarmerie teams were dispatched to the scene. The wounded were taken to hospitals nearby for medical treatment, the report said. Visitors ride bicycles along the field of flowers in Ranyi Township of Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, March 11, 2018. Rural tourism has been stressed as a crucial part of China's strategies of rural vitalization. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing) CHICAGO, March 12 (Xinhua) -- China is winning its war on pollution after four years of struggle, a U.S. study said on Monday. Concentrations of fine particulates in Chinese cities have decreased by an average rate of 32 percent since 2014, according to a research done by professors at the University of Chicago. Data from nearly 250 Chinese official monitor agencies was analyzed with positive findings. "The data is in-China is winning its war against pollution," said Michael Greenstone who conducted the analysis and works as director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). Workers clean the surface of the Qiandaohu Lake in Chun'an County of east China's Zhejiang Province Aug. 16, 2017. The lake, a famous scenic spot, is under stricter protection now as the local government issued a zero emission policy according to which garbage disposal, residents' waste water and vehicle emission are under tighter control. (Xinhua/Xu Yu) New data released by Chinese government in March showed that the number of "severely polluted" days in Beijing dropped to 23 in 2017, compared with 58 in 2013. Across the country, the average density of PM 2.5 in 338 cities was 43 micrograms per cubic meter, falling 6.5 percent year on year. The eight-page report suggested that Chinese people would enjoy significant improvement of their health conditions, or life span extended by months or years. "In the 204 prefectures for which we have data, which cover nearly 70 percent of the total population, residents can expect to live on average 2.4 year longer relative to 2013 if the recent reductions in pollution are sustained," said the report. While praising China's "significant gains in achieving its air quality goals," the report expected more longer-term plans and market approaches like taxes and cap-and-trade markets. The combo photo taken on Dec. 21 (up) and Dec. 22, 2016 (down) shows the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, capital of China. Beijing lifted a red alert for air pollution on Wednesday night as cold air dispersed the smog that affected the city for days. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng) Based on action plans made by Chinese governments at all levels, the war on pollution was fought as plants reduced emissions, fossil-fuel based power generation converted to renewable energy, cities restricted cars on roads and the planting of additional greenery. China also reduced its iron- and steel-making capacity, shut down coal mines as well since the State Council launched a national air pollution control campaign in 2013. China is working on a new three-year plan to continue controlling air pollution, while a goal was set for cities at the prefecture level and above to experience about 292 clear air days each year by 2020. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 17:13:22|Editor: Jiaxin Video Player Close DAMASCUS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of civilians started evacuating from the rebel-held areas in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday, state news agency SANA reported. The civilians, including people with medical conditions, reached the government-controlled Wafidin area in northeast of Damascus through a humanitarian corridor set up between Wafidin and the rebel-held Douma district in Eastern Ghouta. It is the first massive evacuation of civilians from the area since the corridor was established 14 days ago after a Russian-backed humanitarian pause went into force. Namibian wild horses. (Photo from Namibia Wild Horses Foundation) WINDHOEK, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Recent rains in drought-prone Namibia have brought relief to the almost extinct wild horses in the south of the country, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism said on Monday. "The condition of the horses had improved as the vegetation in the area where they reside had improved," said the minitry's spokesman, Romeo Muyunda. "We are still busy monitoring the situation, but at the moment we are pleased to announce that the horses are flourishing," Muyunda said. Last year, the situation was so dire that the ministry set in motion a plan to relocate the horses after several environmental groups expressed concern over their survival. The wild horses' population declined from 168 in 1984 to 86 in 2017, including 51 stallions and 35 mares. The horses have been roaming the area for more than 100 years, even before the Namib Naukluft Park Desert was declared a national park. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 17:43:31|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai (1st R) and guests pose for photos with the new KLIA Ekspres train at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, on March 13, 2018. China's CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co. Ltd (CRRC Changchun) and Malaysia's Express Rail Link (ERL) unveiled the new train that will be used for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport rail link service on Tuesday, concluding a deal signed in 2014 in which ERL agreed to buy six trains from CRRC Changchun. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei) SEPANG, Malaysia, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China's CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co. Ltd (CRRC Changchun) and Malaysia's Express Rail Link (ERL) unveiled the new train that will be used for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport rail link service on Tuesday, concluding a deal signed in 2014 in which ERL agreed to buy six trains from CRRC Changchun. With the launch of the new trains, ERL's total capacity will be increased by 50 percent, said Mohd Nadzmin Mohd Salleh, executive chairman of ERL. Train departures will also be improved during morning and evening peak hours from the current 20-minute intervals to 15 minutes. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai, who drove the new train for a small section, said cooperation between ERL and CRRC have shown how national boundaries can be transcended to serve the needs of Malaysians. "We hope that other companies will look to this partnership as an example of cooperative relationships that can transform lives for the better," he said. Liow added that with the new trains, ERL is targeting a growth in its ridership of five percent this year, from 23,900 per day in last year. Liow also highlighted China's massive achievements in building the world's largest high speed rail network, saying that Malaysia is also moving into high gear by building more railway lines, including the high speed rail connecting Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. "Hopefully we can complete by the year 2026, this first high speed rail line will connect Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, later they will connect from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok and to China using high speed rail. That will be the future," he said. Each of the 6 trains has 4 cars and can operate at a cruising speed of 160 kilometers per hour. According to a press release, the trains have more seats onboard, longer seats pitch and higher ceiling. It also has 15 percent more air-conditioning capacity. An Zhongyi, general manager of CRRC Changchun, expressed his hope that the train delivery can help usher in more cooperation with local partners and suppliers. KATHMANDU, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Nepalese government on Tuesday formed a probe panel to investigate the cause of Monday's deadly Bangladeshi airliner crash at the Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport. The panel, formed under the leadership of Former Secretary of the Nepali government Yagya Prasad Gautam, will initiate the investigation as early as possible, Environment Minister Lal Babu Pandit told media here on Tuesday. Forty nine people were killed and 22 injured on Monday afternoon after a passenger plane of the U.S.-Bangla Airlines crashed in course of landing at TIA, the only international airport of Nepal. The deadliest crash took place due to the pilot's "missed approach," the authorities said. The UBG211 flight was en route to Kathmandu from Dhaka, Bangladesh. The aircraft, with 71 people onboard including four crew members, caught fire when it narrowly escaped from hitting the tail of a Thai Airways plane parked at the airport. The ill-fated plane was said to have circled the airport twice before trying landing. Of the total passengers onboard, 33 were from Nepal, 32 from Bangladesh, one from China and one from the Maldives, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. The injured in the incident are receiving treatment in different hospitals in Kathmandu. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 17:58:36|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close A damaged vehicle of the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah is seen after an explosion in Gaza Strip on March 13, 2018. An explosive went off Tuesday morning near the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minster Rami Hamdallah who was paying a visit to Gaza, Palestinian sources said. The blast occurred shortly after the convoy entered Gaza, but no injuries were reported, said the sources. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar) GAZA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- An explosive went off Tuesday morning near the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minster Rami Hamdallah who was paying a visit to Gaza, Palestinian sources said. The blast occurred shortly after the convoy entered Gaza, but no injuries were reported, said the sources. Hamdallah, accompanied by Palestinian Intelligence Chief Majid Faraj, visited Gaza, controlled by the Islamic Hamas movement, to overlook the opening of a desalination plant there. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' spokesperson, held Hamas responsible for the attack. "The attack on the Prime Minister's convoy is an attack on the unity of the Palestinian people," he said. Hussein Al-Shaikh, member of Abbas' Fatah party, said in a press statement that "the grave criminal act is an unprecedented act and will have grave consequences." Hamas-run Interior Ministry's spokesperson Iyad Al-Bozom said the convoy went on to reach its destination safely after the explosion and an investigation had been launched into the incident. The attack could adversely affect the ongoing process of reconciliation between Hamas and the Fatah, which was brokered by Egypt. Hamas has been controlling Gaza Strip since 2007 after ousting forces loyal to Abbas. NEW YORK, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. scholar on Sunday pointed out the fundamental challenges lying ahead of the coming face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). "The chances that this opening, as unprecedented as it is, will lead to a final resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis are slim," Patricia Kim said in a published analysis on Washington Post. "To lay down its nuclear weapons, Kim must be genuinely convinced that the United States will not harm his regime. This won't be easy, given Washington's track record of taking out dictators, most recently in Iraq and Libya," she said. The DPRK will also face struggles to prove its trustworthiness, given a track record of violating deal after deal in the past, added Kim, a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank and publisher. The DPRK is most likely expecting the United States to refrain from imposing additional sanctions or engaging in other punitive measures during negotiations, while Washington's position at the time was that the sanctions were justified, said the scholar. On Tuesday, when news broke that the DPRK was willing to talk, the U.S. State Department announced new sanctions on the Asian country after formally determining it used chemical weapons last year to assassinate Kim Jong Un's half brother, Kim Jong Nam, she added. The scholar further noted that talks could go nowhere if Washington and Pyongyang have wildly different end goals for the negotiations, featuring with the gap between the U.S. willingness to sign a peace agreement in exchange for the denuclearization and the DPRK's request for the termination of the U.S. alliance with South Korea and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula. ADDIS ABABA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A bus fell off a cliff leaving 38 people dead in Ethiopia's northern Amhara regional state, a regional bureau said on Tuesday. The accident occurred on Sunday in Legambo district, South Wollo zone of Amhara, involving a bus carrying 48 people that was travelling from Mekane Selam city to Dessie city, said a statement from Legambo district government communication affairs office. Ten other passengers who were injured are receiving treatment in nearby health stations. Despite Ethiopia having a low car ownership, deadly traffic accidents are common in the country with blames put on bad roads, flawed driving license issuance system and lax enforcement of road safety rules. Traffic accidents during the Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2016/17 that ended on July 8, 2017 led to the deaths of 4,500 people, according to Ethiopia Federal Transport Authority. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 18:23:50|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close The fourth plenary meeting of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers Tuesday heard a draft supervision law and a reshuffle plan on the State Council, or the cabinet, at the ongoing national legislative session. Chinese leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng attended the fourth plenary meeting of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC). NPC deputies adopted a decision on special committees of the 13th NPC, a voting method for their chairpersons, vice chairpersons and members, as well as a list of chairpersons, vice chairpersons and members of the NPC Constitution and Law Committee and the NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 18:28:53|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang (Photo source: fmprc.gov.cn) BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday reiterated China's stance on the current situation on the Korean Peninsula. There is an opportunity to return to negotiations over the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, spokesperson Lu Kang said, calling for encouragement and support. Lu said the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have expressed their willingness to have direct dialogue. China firmly adheres to the goal of denuclearization, peace, and stability on the Korean Peninsula, as well as supporting dialogue and negotiation to resolve issues, Lu told a regular press briefing. China will continue its role in encouraging the concerned parties to use dialogue to achieve peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, Lu said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 18:33:54|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close BAGHDAD, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday lifted a ban on international flights to two airports in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. A statement by his office said that Abadi signed a decree to lift the ban after receiving positive response from the Kurdish local authorities "to restore the federal authority in the two airports in accordance with the Constitution of Iraq." Abadi made the announcement during his meeting with the officers of the regional Interior Ministry who are working at the two airports, the statement said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 18:33:55|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close JERUSALEM, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Sirens wailed throughout Israel on Tuesday as a military exercise was conducted nationwide to evaluate the country's war preparedness. The drill, dubbed "Solid Stand," is led by the military's Home Front Command. In the drill, which simulates a scenario in which Israel is attacked by missiles, sirens went throughout the country and alerts were broadcast on television, radio and online channels, as well as in special devices for hearing-impaired people. Israeli citizens were asked to go to protected shelters in their workplaces, homes, or schools. The drill is part of a larger exercise of the military's general staff to enhance its ability to respond to emergencies, which began on Sunday. The exercise is designed to enhance the military headquarters' response to a variety of emergencies and warfare scenarios, with an aim to improve the readiness and operational communication among the commands, the Israeli army said in a statement Sunday. KATHMANDU, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A day after the deadly crash of the U.S.-Bangla Airlines at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister of Bangladesh A.K.M Shajahan Kamal arrived here on Tuesday. The Bangladeshi minister is here to take stock of Monday's deadly crash of the U.S.-Bangla Airlines plane that left 49 killed and 22 injured, a spokesman at Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bharat Raj Paudyal told Xinhua on Tuesday. The aircraft of Bangladesh's private U.S.-Bangla Airlines had crashed and burst into flames while landing at Nepal's international airport with 71 people onboard, 67 being passengers -- 32 from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives. Twenty-two people including 11 Nepali nationals had survived the crash, according to authorities. Raj Kumar Chettri, a general manager at the TIA, said that the deadliest crash took place due to the pilot's "missed approach." The UBG211 flight was en route to Kathmandu from Dhaka, Bangladesh. The ill-fated plane was said to have circled the airport twice before trying landing. The injured in the incident are receiving treatment in different hospitals in Kathmandu. KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's industrial production index (IPI) in January went up 3 percent year-on-year, far below analysts' forecasts. According to Malaysian Statistics Department data Tuesday, the manufacturing sector output for the month increased by 4.8 percent year-on-year, slowdown from 5.3 percent in December 2017. Meanwhile, the mining sector and electricity output grew 1.5 percent and 4.3 percent respectively. The major sub-sectors for manufacturing that posted growth in January were food, beverage and tobacco products (14.4 percent); petroleum products, chemicals, rubber and plastic (2.1 percent) and electrical and electronic equipment products (4 percent). As for the mining sector, the growth was supported by the increases in crude oil index and natural gas index which were up 1.8 percent and 1.5 percent respectively. Nomura Global Research said in a note Tuesday, despite a favorable base effect from the lunar new-year holiday effect, the IPI growth was well below expectations when compared with consensus and Nomura forecasts of 6.8 percent and 7 percent respectively. The main drag for IPI was manufacturing industrial output, which was contrasted with trade data that showed a jump in manufactured export volume growth in January, according to the research house. "Overall, this supports our forecast for gross domestic product growth to moderate to a still-solid 5.5 percent in 2018 from 5.9 percent in 2017. This should further reduce the need for more rate hikes and we continue to expect Malaysian Central Bank to leave its policy rate unchanged for the rest of the year," it said. Nomura opined that the window for further rate hikes is closing as it expects the general election to be called in late April or early May, and fiscal tightening in the second half. Despite the below-expected IPI growth, MIDF Research remains optimistic on Malaysia's IPI performance this year and projects it to grow at 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent during the first half. "The encouraging trend of IPI growth in 2017 is expected to continue for 2018 given that robust external trade performance continues and gradual increase in commodity price will boost up industrial activity in Malaysia," it said. The Malaysian research house also expects spill-over effects from the United States tax cuts that will drive up global trade activities this year. "Hence, based on solid uptrend in trade activities and further steady domestic consumption, we expect industrial production growth to hit 4.3 percent in 2018," it added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 18:54:02|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close GUANGZHOU, March 13 (Xinhua) -- As a hearing on a securities fraud case was about to open in the intermediate people's court of Guangzhou in south China, the plaintiff's attorney, Ye Fapan, was accompanying his pregnant wife in their hometown in Anhui Province, over 1,000 km away. However, the lawyer did not miss the hearing. He opened a mini-program embedded in messaging app WeChat, named "Guangzhou Micro Court," on his mobile phone and completed an identification process. Seconds later, his face appeared on the LED screen in the courtroom. This was the first time the court allowed an attorney to join a proceeding via mobile internet. Some 753 million Chinese have access to mobile internet services, which transform their lives in almost every aspect, including public services and legal practices. The court is working to make its services smarter, aimed at enhancing transparency, fairness, and efficiency, according to Zhang Chunhe, vice president of the court. "China will speed up the construction of smart courts," Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said while delivering a work report of the Supreme People's Court at the first session of the 13th National People's Congress on Friday. Courts will better use artificial intelligence, voice recognition, big data, and other digital technology to improve trials and social governance, Zhou said. The "Guangzhou Micro Court" mini-program, which was launched in November, integrates the functions of apps rolled out in 2016 for lawyers, the public, and law enforcers. The mini-program has logged more than 300,000 clicks. Lawyer Li Ping said the mini-program supports case filing, record reading, and payment. She has used it for more than a month. "I previously used a trolley to carry all the documents to the court for case filing. But now, I can use my mobile phone to scan and upload the documentary evidence, and file cases easily with a click," Li said. "Also, I don't need to make appointments to read records or queue to make payments at the bank anymore. All this can be done on my phone." The mini-program helps not only lawyers, but also the public. Chen Ruibiao, a Guangzhou resident, was involved in a complicated property dispute. He followed his case on the mini-program. "I made many calls to ask about the progress of my case. I understand that the judges are too busy to answer my questions in detail every time," Chen said. "So it's a huge relief that I can now follow the case myself." According to the Guangzhou court, 80 percent of the inquiries it receives concern case progress. Now, over 1,500 such inquiries are made daily through the mini-program. Judges at the court perform collegiate bench discussions, judgement writing, and evidence collection on an app, which has a multiparty video call system and is supported by voice recognition and artificial intelligence technology. Last year, the court accepted more than 50,000 cases, up over 11 percent, and each judge settled 233 cases on average, up 50 percent. The growth partly resulted from the help of mobile technology. Similar practices have also been adopted in courts in cities such as Beijing and Hangzhou. In August, China's first court specializing in internet-related cases opened in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, with the cases tried online. By registering on court's website, plaintiffs can file lawsuits and pay legal costs. They and defendants can have their disputes handled without being present at court and at a much lower cost. Source Xinhua| 2018-03-13 19:27:56|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Local police investigate at the scene of accident in Da Lat, Lam Dong province of Vietnam, on March 13, 2018. A fire at an old villa complex in Vietnam's central highlands Da Lat city, Lam Dong province killed five people, including a couple and their two children, the provincial police said on Tuesday. (Xinhua/VNA) Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 19:19:06|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close BAGHDAD, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday lifted a ban on international flights to two airports in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. A statement by his office said that Abadi signed a decree to lift the ban after receiving positive response from the Kurdish local authorities "to restore the federal authority in the two airports in accordance with the Constitution of Iraq." Abadi made the announcement during his meeting with the officers of the regional Interior Ministry who are working at the two airports, the statement said. Abadi also said that a new security directorate will be established to protect the airports in the Kurdish region, and it will be under command and control of the federal Interior Ministry. All the regional airports and border crossings will be linked directly to the main control system in Baghdad, similar to what is done in the other Iraqi airports and crossing, the statement said. The passports and national ID offices and the employees at the airports of Erbil and Sulaimaniyah will also be linked to the federal Interior Ministry, it added. In September 2017, the Iraqi federal government imposed the flights ban on the Kurdish region as part of a package of punitive measures that also included blocking all the border crossings outside the federal control. The ban on international flights on the region's international airports of Erbil and Sulaimaniyah forced passengers to apply for an Iraqi visa to transit through Baghdad and Basra international airports to go or leave the Kurdish region. Tensions rose between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum later last September to approve the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas. The independence of Kurdistan is opposed not only by the Iraqi central government, but also by other countries as it would threaten the territorial integrity of Iraq and undermine the fight against the terror group Islamic State. Iraq's neighboring countries, especially Turkey, Iran and Syria, fear that the Iraqi Kurds' pursuit of independence threatens their own territorial integrity by inspiring the Kurdish population in those countries to seek independence. MOSCOW, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Russia is ready to strike back if U.S. forces in Syria put the lives of Russian servicemen there under threat, Russian General Staff Chief General Valery Gerasimov said Tuesday. "In the event of a threat to the lives of our servicemen, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will retaliate against both missiles and carriers which will use them," Gerasimov said in a conference call shown by Russia 24 TV channel. He said the Russian General Staff had reliable information that militants were preparing a provocation in the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus, staging the use of chemical weapons against civilians by the Syrian government forces. According to Gerasimov, a large number of women, children and old people were brought to the area from other regions to play the "role of victims" of the chemical attack, as well as film crews with satellite video broadcasting equipment. After the provocation, the United States plans to accuse Syrian government troops of using chemical weapons and to carry out a missile and bomb strike on the government districts of Damascus, Gerasimov said. "At the same time, Russian military advisers, representatives of the Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties and military police are in the offices and facilities of the Syrian Defense Ministry in Damascus," he said. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Monday the United States was willing to take military action to end the Syrian bombing of civilians if the UN was unable to do so. "When the international community consistently fails to act, there are times when states are compelled to take their own action," Haley told the UN Security Council. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 19:44:10|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close An evacuated couple sit in a temporary shelter in Wafidin area, northeast of Damascus, capital of Syria, on March 13, 2018. A total of 146 civilians on Tuesday left the rebel-held areas in Syrian capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani) DAMASCUS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A total of 146 civilians on Tuesday left the rebel-held areas in Syrian capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside. The civilians, including people with medical conditions and children, reached the government-controlled Wafidin area in northeast of Damascus through a humanitarian corridor set up between Wafidin and the rebel-held Douma district in Eastern Ghouta. A military source told Xinhua that among the civilians who left the area included 44 women, 24 men and 87 children. It is the first major civilian convoy to leave that area since the corridor was set up 14 days ago for the evacuation of civilians after a Russian-backed humanitarian pause went into force. The civilians were taken to a temporary shelter at a school in the Wafidin area and the children were vaccinated immediately. A Xinhua reporter at the site saw children with skin disses at the shelter. The government has for long called for the evacuation of civilians from Eastern Ghouta, accusing the rebels of hindering the process. More groups of civilians are expected to be evacuated in the coming days. Eastern Ghouta, a 105-square-km agricultural region consisting of several towns, poses the last threat to the capital due to its proximity to the government-controlled neighborhoods in east of Damascus which often come under rebel mortar attacks. Four major rebel groups are currently positioned inside Eastern Ghouta, namely the Islam Army, Failaq al-Rahman, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Levant Liberation Committee, known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. UN humanitarian agencies have sounded alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation for 400,000 people in that region. Activists said over 1,000 people have been killed since late last month by the heavy bombardment and military conflict in Eastern Ghouta. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 19:49:11|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close NAIROBI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) said late Monday that it has received about 2,000 Ethiopian asylum seekers in the northern border town of Moyale following their displacement in a shootout at the common frontier. The Ethiopian government forces on Saturday "mistakenly" killed nine civilians near the Kenyan border town of Moyale after mistaking the Ethiopians for members of the banned Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) who were attempting to sneak into the country, reported Daily Nation, Kenya's highest circulation newspaper. The KRCS said the displaced persons are hosted in four centers. "The KRCS immediately released family kits (tarpaulins, kitchen sets, Mosquito nets, bar soaps, thermal blankets and jerrycans), which were distributed among the displaced families," the agency said in a statement. It said the asylum seekers began streaming in on Saturday night, most of whom were women and children. Kenya's Eastern Region police commander Moses Ombati said on Monday that security has been beefed up in the area with other government agencies being involved in screening the arriving Ethiopians. "We are on the ground to ensure things are okay," Ombati said, noting that security has been reinforced on the side of Kenya in Moyale town to deal with the arriving refugees. He said that they were accommodated at local schools with hopes that the situation will calm down. They were provided with food and other services at local centers. "We hope things can cool down before the situation worsens. Many people have arrived but we have sought help from other agencies to deal with it," said Ombati. The report said the five Ethiopian soldiers involved in the shootout have been arrested. The fleeing civilians said a military unit had been deployed to Moyale to intercept anti-government elements belonging to the OLF. According to Daily Nation, the Ethiopian military mistakenly opened fire and killed civilians, which prompted the exodus from the Ethiopian side. Those who crossed the border to Kenya told Kenyan security agents that electricity had been cut off in the town which forced the residents to flee into Kenya in fear of more attacks. Ethiopia is currently under a state of emergency due to protests after the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. Women and children are among the first major group of Syrian civilians evacuated from the rebel-held areas in the war-torn Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Syrian capital Damascus, on March 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Hummam Sheikh Ali) DAMASCUS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A total of 146 civilians on Tuesday left the rebel-held areas in Syrian capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside. The civilians, including people with medical conditions and children, reached the government-controlled Wafidin area in northeast of Damascus through a humanitarian corridor set up between Wafidin and the rebel-held Douma district in Eastern Ghouta. A military source told Xinhua that among the civilians who left the area included 44 women, 24 men and 87 children. It is the first major civilian convoy to leave that area since the corridor was set up 14 days ago for the evacuation of civilians after a Russian-backed humanitarian pause went into force. The civilians were taken to a temporary shelter at a school in the Wafidin area and the children were vaccinated immediately. A Xinhua reporter at the site saw children with skin disses at the shelter. The government has for long called for the evacuation of civilians from Eastern Ghouta, accusing the rebels of hindering the process. More groups of civilians are expected to be evacuated in the coming days. Eastern Ghouta, a 105-square-km agricultural region consisting of several towns, poses the last threat to the capital due to its proximity to the government-controlled neighborhoods in east of Damascus which often come under rebel mortar attacks. Four major rebel groups are currently positioned inside Eastern Ghouta, namely the Islam Army, Failaq al-Rahman, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Levant Liberation Committee, known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 20:36:27|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Local students feed an Asian elephant with fruits during an elephant buffet marking the Thai National Elephant Day in Ayutthaya, Thailand, March 13, 2018. Thailand observed its annual National Elephant Day on Tuesday with various activities to raise public awareness of the conservation of elephants and their habitats. (Xinhua/Rachen Sageamsak) Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 19:59:14|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close HONG KONG, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The food safety authority of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) announced Tuesday the suspension of poultry meat import from areas of the United States, France and Mexico. The Center for Food Safety (CFS) of the HKSAR government's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said that the import suspension was ordered in view of notifications from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) about an outbreak of low pathogenic H7N1 avian influenza in Hopkins County, State of Texas in the United States (US), an outbreak of low pathogenic H5N3 avian influenza in Finistere Department in France, and outbreaks of highly pathogenic H7N3 avian influenza in Guanajuato State and Queretaro State of Mexico. The CFS has instructed the trade to suspend the import of poultry meat and products, including poultry eggs, from the above areas with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong, it said. Hong Kong last year imported about 290,000 tons of chilled and frozen poultry meat and 580 million poultry eggs from the United States and 14,000 tons of chilled and frozen poultry meat and 7.6 million poultry eggs from France, according to a CFS spokesman. Hong Kong has currently established a protocol with Mexico for import of poultry meat but not for poultry eggs. Hong Kong imported 100 tons of frozen poultry meat from Mexico last year, the spokesman said. "The CFS has contacted the U.S., French and Mexican authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE on avian influenza outbreaks. Appropriate actions will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesman said. BRUSSELS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- European Union member states agreed on Tuesday to automatically exchange tax planning schemes through a centralized database, starting mid-2020. The decision to clamp down on tax avoidance, first proposed by the European Commission in June 2017, was taken by EU economic and financial affairs ministers at their morning meeting in Brussels, according to a Commission press release. New transparency rules target intermediaries - such as tax advisers, accountants, banks and lawyers - who design and promote tax planning schemes for their clients. Once in force, tax intermediaries who provide their clients with complex cross-border financial schemes that could help avoid tax will be obliged to report these structures to their tax authorities. In turn, EU member states will exchange this information with each other, further increasing scrutiny. Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, said in future "tax administrations will then have access to the information they need to put an end to the aggressive tax planning schemes eroding their tax bases. " EU member states also agreed to implement effective and dissuasive penalties for those companies that do not comply with the transparency measures, a deterrent for those that encourage or facilitate tax abuse. The new reporting requirements will enter into force on July 1, 2020, with member states obliged to exchange information every three months after that. The first exchange will take place by Oct. 31, 2020. NEW DELHI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- At least nine paramilitary troopers of India's Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed and two others wounded Tuesday after Naxals targeted their vehicle with a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) in central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, officials said. The mine proof vehicle (MPV) carrying CRPF personnel was blown up after it was hit by an IED blast at Kistaram area in Sukma district, about 395 km south of Raipur, the capital city of Chhattisgarh. "Nine CRPF men were killed and two others wounded in today's unfortunate attack," D M Awasthi, special director general of police, anti-Naxal operations told the media. "The wounded have been airlifted to Raipur and soon we are going to airlift the bodies of slain CRPF personnel." Awasthi said a patrolling party of the paramilitary was going from Kistaram to Palodi in an anti-landmine vehicle when it was targeted by Naxals by triggering an IED laden in the area. The wounded CRPF personnel were evacuated to Raipur in helicopter and admitted at a super speciality hospital. Following the attack, officials said huge contingents of paramilitary and police were rushed to the spot to take on Naxals. Photographs from the spot show the MPV flipped over due to the impact of blast and belongings of slain CRPF men scattered on the ground. India's home minister has described the attack as "distressing" and expressed sorrow over the killing of CRPF personnel. "Today's IED blast in Sukma, Chhattisgarh is deeply distressing. I bow to each and every security personnel who attained martyrdom while serving the nation," Singh wrote on Twitter. Officials said Singh has directed director general of CRPF to rush to Chhattisgarh. Reports pouring in from Chhattisgarh said a gunfight broke out in the area during morning between specially trained COBRA force and Naxals and the vehicle that was targeted was a reinforcement rushing to the area. COBRA force of CRPF proficient in guerrilla tactics and jungle warfare is trained to tackle the Naxalist insurgency in India. The attack came 11 days after 10 Naxals were killed in a forest area located on an inter-state border between Telangana and Chhattisgarh by joint contingents of police. Last year in April, 25 paramilitary personnel were killed in a deadly Naxalite attack in the district. Prior to that in March, another attack left 12 CRPF personnel dead. BISHKEK, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A border guard in Kyrgyzstan was killed in an accidental firing on Tuesday, the State Border Service said. The incident occurred in a military unit deployed in the Ala-Bukinsky District of the Jalal-Abad region in southern Kyrgyzstan. The agency said the victim was shot when another soldier handled weapons carelessly in the 2030 military unit. An investigation is being conducted. BISHKEK, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen people, including four children, were hospitalized after a mass botulism food poisoning outbreak in southern Kyrgyzstan, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. It said three of them are in a serious condition. An epidemiological investigation has been conducted and all patients have received the anti-botulinum serum. The first case of food poisoning in the city of Uzgen in the Osh region was reported on March 11. According to preliminary data, the poisoning occurred due to eating homemade canned vegetable salad. A month earlier, 17 people in southern Kyrgyzstan were hospitalized for the same reason. Two of the seven children affected died in that outbreak. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 20:24:24|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close NAIROBI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China's railway technology is beneficial to boosting integration, trade and industrialization in Africa, said Minister of Territorial Management and Major Projects of the Republic of Congo Jean-Jacque Bouya. The minister, who visited Kenya as part of a benchmarking tour on the success of China-funded Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway (SGR), said Beijing has emerged as a significant partner in Africa's quest to modernize transport infrastructure. "We can strengthen China-Africa cooperation and discuss implementation of infrastructure projects that can boost connectivity in line with the Belt and Road Initiative," Bouya told Xinhua in a recent interview. On Sunday, Bouya rode on the SGR passenger train and later took an inspection tour of the new berth at the port of Mombasa developed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). Bouya noted that the SGR passenger and cargo services have improved connectivity, boosted cross-border trade, revived the manufacturing sector, and created jobs. "The SGR is a good project that will act like a belt to connect this region and the continent. It has also given jobs to youth and realigns with our leaders' vision to enhance connectivity and integration," the minister said. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the SGR passenger train dubbed Madaraka Express on May 31, 2017. According to SGR's contractor and operator, the CRBC, about one million passengers have since been ferried by Madaraka Express between Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa. Bouya said the successful launch of the 480 km SGR in Kenya has inspired other African countries to follow suit. "What is important is for African countries to have similar projects like the SGR because it will boost our economies," Bouya said, adding that infrastructure development is the embodiment of win-win cooperation between China and African countries. He praised the launch of SGR cargo service for reducing the cost of transporting goods from Mombasa to Kenya's hinterland, hence stimulating commerce in the country. "The cargo train has brought economic benefits. It has reduced the cost of transporting a container by half. It is good for economic development of Kenya and Africa," said Bouya. He said that the Republic of Congo, a mineral-rich country in central Africa, is ready to engage China as it embarks on modernizing key infrastructure like railways and ports. "In Congo-Brazzaville, we have a maritime port and an old railway. If we build a new railway network, we will reduce the cost of transport and boost industrialization," Bouya said. "We plan to develop this project soon and discuss the best approach with the CRBC," he added. Bouya said the Republic of Congo, which has a population of 5 million people, intends to harness a commodities boom to modernize key economic sectors like manufacturing. PYONGYANG, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has urged the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to reconsider, on humanitarian grounds, its decision to close its grants to the country, the state-run media reported Tuesday. Mark Edington, head of the fund's grant management, said in a letter that it is closing its grants to the DPRK by June 30, citing the "unique operating environment" there. Kim Hyong Hun, the DPRK's vice minister of public health, sent a letter to the fund on Saturday, expressing surprise over the agency's decision, which was announced last month, the Korean Central News Agency said. The vice minister said the decision could not be seen as anything else but "the outcome of the pressure of some hostile forces," adding that the decision was made without any prior discussion with other international agencies operating in the DPRK. The agency's decision was timed with the U.S. announcement of keeping "maximum pressure" on the DPRK, Kim said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 20:39:30|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close DUBAI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) denied granting any concession to Qatar over the operation of a shared offshore oil field, local media reported Tuesday. Media reports said Qatar Petroleum signed a deal with Abu Dhabi to operate the Bunduq oil field that is shared between the two nations. An official source from the UAE Supreme Petroleum Council was quoted by the state news agency WAM as saying that the Bunduq field, due to its geographical location, is shared between the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and Qatar. "It has been operated via a concession with a Japanese consortium for over four decades. This concession was recently extended by each government respectively to the Japanese consortium with no direct communication between the two states," said the source. "There is no commercial or trading relations established between the UAE and Qatar in the extension of this concession," the source added. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and home to approximately 7 percent of the world's known oil reserves. The UAE, together with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt, has severed diplomatic ties with Qatar since last June and imposed a political and economic boycott on the tiny oil-rich Gulf nation, citing Doha's interference in their internal affairs and supporting terrorism. Qatar has strongly denied the charges, while rejecting a list of tough demands put forward by the quartet as conditions for restoring ties. The demands included Qatar's stopping the alleged funding of terrorism, shutting down Qatari state-owned TV channel Al Jazeera, and downgrading its relations with Iran. KIEV, March 13 (Xinhua) -- One soldier was killed and seven others suffered burns in a fire at a key Ukrainian army facility in the southern Mykolayiv region Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said. The blaze spread in a military tent at the Shyroky Lan training field around 4 a.m. local time (0200 GMT), killing one serviceman on the spot and causing seven to sustain burns. All the injured troops have been hospitalized. According to preliminary probe, the fire was caused due to negligence while heating the tent. Further investigation is underway. The Shyroky Lan facility is one of the venues of the Sea Breeze international military exercises, which have been held in Ukraine annually since 1997. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 20:49:31|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close NIAMEY, March 13 (Xinhua) - At least three gendarmes were killed and another wounded on Monday night in an attack by armed men near Niger's capital of Niamey, local media reported on Tuesday. The attack occurred in Goube, a rural commune in Karma, some 40 km from Niamey, private radio ANFANI said. Latest reports say the attackers have been neutralized by police. Government authorities have not yet commented on the reported attack. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 21:17:09|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close Photo taken on March 13, 2018 shows the scene of a plenary meeting of deputies from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at the first session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China. The meeting was opened to media. (Xinhua/Liu Jinhai) Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 21:24:37|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China's listed iron and steel producers have posted strong profits for 2017 as the country's production capacity cuts reduced outdated supply and led to rising steel prices. In an annual report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange Monday, Xinjiang Bayi Iron and Steel Co. said its net profit surged more than 30 times last year to 1.17 billion yuan (about 185 million U.S. dollars). Its operating revenue rose 69.44 percent to 16.76 billion yuan. The company also plans to double the number of shares owned by all shareholders using its capital reserves, which will involve no change in the total market value of shares as the share price will be halved. The Shanghai Stock Exchange soon sent an inquiry letter to Bayi, asking it questions about the reasons for and sustainability of the rapid profit growth, the feasibility of the share doubling plan and the risks associated with its current share price and price earning ratio. The company reported losses of more than 2 billion yuan in both 2014 and 2015, and shook off losses in 2016 with a net profit of 37 million yuan. As profitability improved, the company's share price surged more than 105 percent in 2017 and more than 10 percent so far this year. The company on Tuesday announced that trading of its shares will be suspended as it prepares to respond to the inquiry. Trading will resume after it files its answer with the Shanghai bourse. A similar inquiry was made to Hunan Valin Steel, which had been under "special treatment" (ST) starting in May 2017 due to losses in previous years. Valin made 4.12 billion yuan in net profit in 2017, one of the largest among listed steel companies. This was a sharp contrast with a loss of over 1 billion yuan in 2016 and nearly 3 billion yuan in 2015. The report was also questioned by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, but after responding to the questions, the company was moved off the ST list last week. The improved performance in both companies showed the positive outcomes for the steel sector from China's capacity cut efforts. By last Wednesday, 11 steel companies that had released their annual reports made total profits of 20.13 billion yuan last year, in contrast with a loss of 1.25 billion yuan in 2016, data showed. Cutting overcapacity in bloated sectors like steel and coal has been high on the government work agenda in recent years as production gluts ate into corporate profits and dragged economic growth. In the past two years, China cut steel production capacity by about 115 million tonnes as part of the country's supply-side structural reform. Lowered capacity meant less supply and allowed the sector to focus more on raising the quality of products instead of engaging in price wars. In the reply to the Shenzhen bourse, Valin said that it made a series of reforms in recent years, including lowering costs, adjusting its production line and putting its automobile steel plate subsidiary into production. The government's capacity-cutting efforts improved the demand-supply relations and raised corporate profitability, Valin said. Thanks to the measures, the proportion of steel capacity being used rose to 84.7 percent of total capacity in 2017, up from 66.99 percent in 2015. Data from the National Development and Reform Commission showed that the composite index for China's steel product prices surged 24.09 percent year on year to 124.05 points in December 2017. China will cut ineffective steel capacity of 30 million tonnes this year, according to this year's government work report delivered last week. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 21:34:39|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close Photo taken on March 13, 2018 shows the site of the suicide attack in Aden, Yemen. Islamic State (IS) in Yemen on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on a security center and a military kitchen in Yemen's southern port city of Aden. In the deadly attack in the neighborhood of Mansourah, six soldiers were killed and more than 30 others injured while they were gathering to receive their lunch meals, according to local sources. (Xinhua/Murad) ADEN, Yemen, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Islamic State (IS) in Yemen on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on a security center and a military kitchen in Yemen's southern port city of Aden. In the deadly attack in the neighborhood of Mansourah, six soldiers were killed and more than 30 others injured while they were gathering to receive their lunch meals, according to local sources. IS media arm A'maq published a statement on Twitter claiming responsibility for the attack. The IS statement did not mention further details about the purpose of the attack or identities of those who conducted the incident. Earlier in the day, Yemeni police confirmed to Xinhua that a suicide bomber riding an explosive-laden car blew it up next to a building used to store food and meals for the Yemeni forces in Aden, causing damage. The southern port city of Aden is considered as Yemen's temporary capital and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government based itself there since 2015. During the past two years, the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and other terrorist groups including the IS had an active presence in Yemen's southern part. The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014. Saudi Arabia led an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Houthi rebels forced him into exile. The United Nations has listed Yemen as the nation of world's number one humanitarian crisis, with 7 million Yemenis on the brink of famine and cholera causing more than 2,000 deaths. Photo taken on Jan. 10, 2018 shows the eight border wall prototypes between Mexico and the U.S., Tijuana, Mexico. (Xinhua/Xu Rui) SAN DIEGO, the United States, March 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump will inspect the controversial border wall construction on Tuesday in the state of California, amid an intensifying feud with the country's most populous state. Trump is the first president since Dwight Eisenhower to skip a visit to California during the first year in office. He is expected to address the military after inspecting eight prototypes of his long-promised border wall. The prototypes, made of concrete, steel and other materials, have been built in Otay Mesa in southern San Diego on the U.S.-Mexico border. All of them are 30 feet (9.1 meters) high and 30 feet (9.1 meters) long. Wall construction began in September last year, which sparked dispute between Washington and California over immigration polices. The prototypes have been tested for months, as part of the evaluation process. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not chosen a winning design amid unwavering uncertainties about the funding and the plan for the entire wall. The Trump administration is seeking 18 billion U.S. dollars for the construction of the border wall for the next 10 years to add 316 miles (509 km) of new barriers and replace old fencing along 407 miles (566 km). File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump addresses a press conference with visiting Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven (not in the photo) at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, March 6, 2018. (Xinhua/Ting Shen) Trump has repeatedly pushed Mexico to pay for it in ways that has enraged the U.S. neighbor. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto called off his first visit to Washington after clashing with Trump in a phone conversation over the border wall funding last month. Public access to the prototypes-displaying area has been restricted since months ago, but they are visible from factories and neighborhood across the border in Tijuana city in Mexico. Though Trump has floated the idea of picking a design personally, the Department of Homeland Security has said that it does not anticipate a single prototype will be selected. A spokesman for the department said that the samples are expected to "inform future border wall design standards." File photo taken on Feb. 15, 2016 shows migrant people reuniting with their beloved at the border between Mexico and the United States in Anapra, Chihuahua state, Mexico. (Xinhua/Guillermo Arias) Trump's visit to California comes at a time when his administration and the Golden State are feuding over immigration enforcement. Last week, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state, its governor, and its attorney general, accusing them of violating the U.S. Constitution by passing three state statues that "obstruct or otherwise conflict with, or discriminate against, federal immigration enforcement laws." California's laws, which critics say are "sanctuary city" statutes, limit the cooperation that residents and officials can or must provide to the federal government on issues of immigration enforcement. "The State of California is sheltering dangerous criminals in a brazen and lawless attack on our constitutional system of government," Trump said in his weekly address. Democratic Governor of California Jerry Brown compared the legal move to "an act of war" with the Trump administration but he still invited Trump to visit the Central Valley where construction has begun on a proposed bullet train designed to operate between San Francisco and Los Angeles. "In California we are focusing on bridges, not walls," Brown wrote in an open letter to Trump on Monday. But they have no plan to meet on Tuesday. Besides the border wall, California has unleashed fierce attacks at the federal government for its stances on climate change and offshore drilling. The state's attorney general has filed over 20 lawsuits against the Trump administration. California, America's most populous state and the world's sixth-largest economy by itself, is largely a Democratic stronghold. Trump lost it to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by more than 4 million votes in the 2016 presidential election. Activists and community groups hold a rally to condemn the visit of U.S. President Donald Trump to California ahead of his visit to view border wall prototypes in San Diego, California, U.S., March 12, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS) On Monday, protesters held several rallies in San Diego, denouncing the border wall and Trump's hard-line immigration policies. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 21:44:42|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo speaks at a press conference in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, on March 13, 2018. Rwanda's foreign minister said Tuesday the country has confidence that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will be adopted by "a significant number" of member states of the African Union (AU). (Xinhua/Cyril Ndegeya) KIGALI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda's foreign minister said Tuesday the country has confidence that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will be adopted by "a significant number" of member states of the African Union (AU). So far 26 heads of state and other heads of government have confirmed their participation on AU's extraordinary summit on the AfCFTA scheduled to be held in Kigali from March 17 to 21, Louise Mushikiwabo said at a press conference in the capital city of Rwanda. According to the AU, it is expected that the leaders of Africa's 55 countries will sign an agreement that will launch the AfCFTA at the Kigali meeting. The AfCFTA will make Africa the largest free trade area created since the formation of the World Trade Organization, according to the pan-African bloc. Mushikiwabo, also the government spokesperson, said the AU reform "is on and irreversible." There have been some reluctance on the part of some countries but the progress is happening, she said. Rwandan President Paul Kagame took over the chairmanship of the AU during the 30th AU summit in January to lead the supervision of the implementation of AU institutional reforms. In 2016, African leaders decided that institutional reforms of AU were urgent given the role the AU is expected to play in achieving Africa's Agenda 2063 vision of inclusive economic growth and development. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 21:54:44|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close ANKARA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Turkish military said Tuesday its army and allied Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces have encircled Syrian Kurdish-held city of Afrin, achieving a significant advance during its eight-week-long operation. In a written statement released by Turkish General Staff on Tuesday, the military said it had controlled some important areas surrounding the city of Afrin, home to some 350,000 people and defended by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). On Monday, Turkish army and FSA fighters advanced from different directions towards the Afrin city center, and the military announced only 1.5 km away from the city. Thousands of civilians started to flee Afrin on Monday as they feared the deadly battles in the city, heading towards nearby areas controlled by the Syrian government. Since the launch of the operation, a total of 3,393 terrorists have been "neutralized" during the operation, the Turkish military announced on Tuesday. Moreover, Turkish military and the FSA have controlled 1,100 square km of land in Afrin, seizing 197 locations including five town centers, 159 villages, 33 strategic hills and one base of Kurdish militants, Anadolu agency reported Monday. On Jan. 20, Turkey launched "Operation Olive Branch" to clear YPG militants from Afrin. The YPG is regarded by Turkey as the Syrian affiliate of the the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist organization listed by Turkey, the United States and European Union. LONDON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Britain's national debt has seen its first sustained fall for 17 years, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said Tuesday in his spring economic statement to the House of Commons. Hammond told MPs the debt forecast is nearly 1 percent lower than it was last November, and will peak at 85.6 percent of GDP in the current financial year, reducing each year and reaching 77.9 percent in 2022-23. The chancellor said forecast economic growth by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for 2018 has been revised up from 1.4 percent to 1.5 percent and is then unchanged at 1.3 percent in 2019 and 2020, before picking up and reaching 1.5 percent in 2022. Hammond said borrowing is having its first sustained fall in debt in 17 years and the deficit is 108 billion pounds (151 billion U.S. dollars) lower than it was in 2010, adding: "there is "light at the end of the tunnel on austerity". He said the British economy has grown every year since 2010 with the manufacturing sector enjoying its best winning streak in 50 years. Hammond announced that London would receive an additional 2.4 billion U.S. dollars to deliver 26,000 affordable homes in the capital, taking the total number to more than 116,000 by the end of 2021/22. He concludes his statement saying: "Our economy will remain outward looking, confident and ready to compete with the best in the world." John McDonnell, the main opposition Labour shadow chancellor, responds by saying Hammond's complacency is astounding. McDonnell said public services in Britain face a crisis never seen before, accusing the chancellor of ignoring the doctors, the nurses and emergency services. "This crisis could turn into a catastrophe," warns McDonnell. "Wages in real terms are lower than they were in 2010 and are still falling, leaving 11 million families in Britain worse off," added McDonnell. The Spring Statement gives an update on the overall health of the economy and OBR forecasts A spokesman for the Treasury said: "The forecasts show the British economy continues to grow, continues to create jobs and continues to beat expectations. The economy has grown for five consecutive years, and exceeded expectations in 2017.The OBR has increased their forecast for growth this year." JUBA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- South Sudanese women were on Tuesday encouraged to push for more representation to influence the upcoming third round of peace revival talks in Ethiopia. Deputy information minister Lily Albino said women have borne the brunt of the war in the country and should actively participate and be heard during resumption of the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) mid-March mediated by the regional bloc IGAD in Ethiopia. "Women are demanding 50-percent representation at the high-level revitalization Forum from the previous 25 percent under the 2015 peace agreement," she said during the opening of the training for women on peace by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). She added that they are also demanding 35-percent representation at the national dialogue conference. According to UNMISS spokesperson Francesca Mold, the event will enable the over 150 participants to learn about the ongoing peace process and discuss ways to advance it. Participants are expected to include women lawmakers from the Transitional Legislative Assembly (TLA), women academics and leaders from civil society as well as representatives of UNMISS' Gender Unit. UNMISS said proposals from the conference are expected to inform the position of women in the ongoing peace process. "I hope that women will be able to take their position and express that position in one unified voice so that they will able to have solid outcome in this High-Level Revitalization Forum by engaging closely with government, civil society and mediators," said Kasumi Nishigaya, UNMISS Chief of Section and Gender Advisor. South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013, after political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar led to fighting mostly between 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. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 22:09:50|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close File photo taken on May 3, 2017 shows Rex Tillerson delivering a speech to State Department employees in Washington D.C., capital of the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday on his Twitter that Rex Tillerson will no longer serve as Secretary of State, and he will be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan) WASHINGTON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that he was replacing his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, chief of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job!" Trump tweeted, adding that Gina Haspel, Pompeo's deputy, would be the new director of the CIA as "the first woman so chosen." The abrupt announcement came as Tillerson had just wrapped up his visit to Africa. File photo taken on Oct. 24, 2017 shows Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attending the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh. (Xinhua/AFP) WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The White House said on Monday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit the White House on March 20. The visit comes amid lingering diplomatic confrontations among the Gulf nations and reports that Saudi Arabia is in talks with the United States to buy its nuclear reactors. In a statement, the White House said that U.S. President Donald Trump "looks forward to discussing ways to strengthen ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia and to advance our common security and economic priorities." Trump on Feb. 27 spoke with bin Salman over phone, when the two sides vowed to further enhance bilateral partnership on security and economic front. Thanking the crown prince for boosting the Gulf Cooperation Council (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 United Arab Emirates (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." U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint press conference with visiting Romanian President Klaus Iohannis (not in the picture) at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on June 9, 2017. During the press conference, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Qatar of funding terrorism "at a very high level," urging the Gulf Arab country to stop the funding. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) The Trump administration has reportedly been pursuing a deal to sell nuclear reactors to the Middle East nation. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert only said in a press briefing that "Saudi Arabia has expressed an interest in possible U.S. supply of nuclear equipment and material." In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday of a possible nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press during the exhibition "3000 years of history: Jews in Jerusalem" at the United Nations headquarters in New York, March 8, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) TEHRAN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Iran exported 236,000 tons of wheat worth 84 million U.S. dollars during the past 10 months until Jan. 20, Financial Tribune reported on Tuesday. The exports showed a 724-percent growth in value compared with the similar period last year, Abdolmehdi Bakhshandeh, deputy agriculture minister, was quoted as saying. Iran has been self sufficient in wheat production for two years now and only imports wheat for export purposes after processing it into flour. "The country recently agreed to buy the grain from Russia and Kazakhstan. Total shipments may reach as much as one million tons a year over the next five years," Kaveh Zargaran, Chairman of the Agriculture Committee of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, said. Iran has been encouraging flour exports targeting more sales to Iraq and Afghanistan. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 22:24:52|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close BAGHDAD, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi President Fuad Masoum on Tuesday rejected a bill for the country's 2018 federal budget, which the Iraqi parliament endorsed earlier, over constitutional, legal and financial violations, threatening to paralyze the federal government ahead of the country's parliamentary elections slated for May 12. A statement by Masoum's office said in a statement that the president returned the bill to the Council of Representatives (parliament) to re-examine the draft budget for constitutional, legal and financial violations. Masoum, the Kurdish Iraqi president, pointed out that there are about 31 points in the bill that intersect with the current legislations, according to the statement. "The return of the budget came after legal and financial experts and advisers studied and scrutinized the draft budget in detail to specify the most important constitutional, legal and financial violations of some of the articles or items that need to be addressed before ratification," the statement said. On March 3, the Iraqi parliament endorsed a bill for the country's 2018 federal budget with about 77 billion U.S. dollars and a deficit of about 10 billion dollars, after months of heated debate among the political blocs over multiple controversial items, including the 17-percent allocation from the national budget for the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. The government has rejected the regular 17-percent allocation for the Kurdish region, but decided to allocate a share for each of the three regional Kurdish provinces according to their population, the budget showed. The Kurds, however, are not willing to accept anything less than a 17-percent share, saying there has not been a census in Iraq since 1987. The 58-article budget was based on an average oil price of 46 dollars per barrel and export of 3.888 million barrels of crude oil per day (bpd), including 250,000 bpd exported from the Kurdish region. According to Iraqi law, the annual budget must be approved by the Iraqi presidency following the parliamentary approval. MOSCOW, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Russia, while denying any involvement in the poisoning of a former Russian spy, is ready to cooperate with Britain in the investigation of the incident in accordance with international law, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. "Russia is innocent and Russia is ready to cooperate in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention if the United Kingdom condescends to honoring its international legal obligations related to the mentioned document," Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow. Former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, a Russian citizen, were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in the district of Salisbury, England, on March 5. They remain in critical condition in hospital, according to reports. British Prime minister Theresa May said in a statement to the House of Commons Monday that evidence showed Skripal had been targeted by a "military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia." She has demanded an explanation from Moscow by Tuesday. Skripal, 66, was sentenced in Russia in 2006 to 13 years in prison for cooperating with the British Secret Intelligence Service and releasing names of Russian intelligence officers working undercover in Europe. In 2010, the former double agent was pardoned as part of a spy swap and then moved to Britain. Lavrov said both Russia and Britain are parties to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. Following the news of the poisoning, Russia, in accordance with the convention, sent a request to the British authorities to obtain a specimen of the substance used and to be granted access to the investigation, but did not receive a reply, Lavrov said. "If those procedures that are envisaged in the convention are fulfilled, I assure you that the Russian Federation will fulfill its obligations and respond to the corresponding request within the period prescribed for the preparation of the response," Lavrov said. Also on Tuesday, Russian Federation Council Chair Valentina Matviyenko called the allegations that Russia was involved in the poisoning "a provocation against Russia" and an attempt to accuse Russia groundlessly. NAIROBI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to seek modern housing technology from China to bridge housing deficit currently standing at 1.85 million units, an official said Tuesday. Oliver Okello, director of state-owned Kenya Building Research Centre (KBRC), told Xinhua that over the past decades, China has distinguished itself as a global leader in the construction sector. "We are therefore seeking to partner with Chinese building research institutes so that we can borrow and benchmark Kenya's construction sector with the best in the world," Okello said on the sidelines of the launch of the Kenya Building Research Centre Strategic Plan (2017-2022). Hailing the professionalism of the Chinese construction industry, the KBRC director noted that "Chinese contractors have transformed Kenya's infrastructural and construction sector in short span." Okello said one main reason behind Kenya's housing deficit is lack of affordability. "Basically, most of the materials used in construction are imported and this drives up the cost of houses," he added. Okello said once they identify a Chinese research partner they will be able to transfer the latest building technology to the Kenyan real estate sector. "They have been able to develop construction technology that uses less cement resulting in lower costs of buildings which can then be passed on to consumers," he said. NAIROBI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to promote construction of green buildings in order to enhance sustainability in the construction industry, a senior government official said on Tuesday. James Macharia, Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development, told journalists in Nairobi that to support the use of green housing initiatives, the Kenyan government has embarked on the provision of enabling environment through development of policies and regulatory frameworks. "The Built Environment Bill 2017 and the Housing Bill 2017 when enacted will go a long way in ensuring safety and environmental sustainability in the building industry," Macharia said during the launch of the Kenya Building Research Centre Strategic Plan (2017-2022). He said green houses are ideal for the country as they use minimum water and energy resources. Macharia noted that the housing sector is responsible for a significant portion of the green house gas emissions in Kenya. In addition, Macharia noted that the widespread adoption of a green construction industry will enable Kenya to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals as well as the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, which recognizes the crucial role the building and construction sectors play in climate change mitigation and adaptation processes. He noted that the government is keen to provide incentives for the private sector to uptake green buildings given that the construction industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy. According to the ministry, the uptake of green houses is low due to the perception that they are very costly. "The truth is that green buildings are cheaper in the long run because they have lower maintenance costs," Macharia said. ADDIS ABABA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia said Tuesday 7.88 million people need emergency food aid and that climate change has been a special challenge for the country's food security. "Ethiopia's geographical location and its diverse agro-ecology makes it vulnerable to climate-induced disaster mainly to drought and floods," said Mitiku Kassa, commissioner of the National Disaster Risk Management Commission. The commission, which launched its Humanitarian and Disaster Resilience Plan for 2018 on Tuesday, estimates that Ethiopia needs 1.44 billion U.S. dollars for emergency food, shelter and health-related needs of 7.88 million people. United Nations Resident Coordinator Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie called for early action and early disbursement of funds to ensure that the food crisis is solved swiftly. WASHINGTON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he was replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job!" Trump tweeted, adding that Gina Haspel, Pompeo's deputy, would be the new director of the CIA as "the first woman so chosen." The nomination has yet to be approved by Congress, although it is highly unlikely to be vetoed. Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted that the replacement was a "great decision by the president." She also congratulated Pompeo on the new nomination, calling him a "friend". The abrupt announcement came as Tillerson had just wrapped up his visit to Africa. It also came on the heels of Trump's ground-breaking statement last week that he had accepted the invitation of Kim Jong Un, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), for a meeting. Tillerson, former chief executive of the U.S. oil and gas company Exxon, assumed office on Feb. 1, 2017. He underwent a rocky term as a newcomer diplomat due to his divergence from Trump on issues like multilateralism and America's withdrawal from multilateral treaties and organizations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 22:44:56|Editor: Mengjie Video Player Close SHENYANG, March 13 (Xinhua) -- If not for her journal, Li Xiaohan would not know what a fulfilling year she has just had. "I exercised 227 times, saw 64 movies, wrote 63 diary entries and read 57 books last year," she said while browsing her decorated notebook. "The numbers mean nothing, but my journal helps me recall my feelings while doing these things. It helps me learn more about myself," she said. Li, 23, lives in Beijing and has been using journals for more than two years. Every day she makes notes on her life and elaborately decorates the notebook, no matter how busy she is. "By writing, drawing, and recording every day, I can set a clearer goal for my life," Li said. A popular trend around the world, journals have attracted new users among young Chinese over the past decade. Unlike a traditional formatted diary, a journal is a usually a blank notebook where users keep brief records of their daily life - their to-do lists, long-term plans, or travel notes during a memorable journey. In addition to handwritten notes, journalers often put energy into expressing their creativity on the page. They decorate with stickers, whimsical drawings, and washi tape, decorative colored tape that takes its name from a type of Japanese paper, creating a journal that expresses their individuality. Zhou Li, a high school teacher in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, spends thousands of yuan on stationary every year. She has even attended a journaling training session and flies to Japan to buy specific washi tape. In the course, Zhou learned how to select a good notebook and pens, as well as how to create useful layouts and make simple and clear notes. Zhou now owns thousands of rolls of tape and several hundred planners, more than enough to last her a lifetime, but her collection continues to expand day by day. It is not only girls who are obsessed with journals. Gao Shan, a young advertising student at Minzu University of China, is also addicted to his journal. The little notebook is like a small storage device, housing his flashes of genius and quirky ideas. On Sina Weibo, China's twitter-like microblogging site, the journal hashtag has drawn over 130,000 followers. On other social media websites like douban.com and duitang.com, journal-related groups are also very active. Yu Jisheng, a Hainan resident, was early to realize the market potential for journals in China. By buying tape and pens from Japan and reselling them on Taobao, Yu and many of his fellow sellers have made sizeable profits. An imported notebook can sell at 200 to 300 yuan (31 to 47 U.S. dollars) on Taobao, and one store can easily sell 100 notebooks a month. Some limited editions sell for thousands of yuan. "Journal-related stationary is expensive," said Shi Hongjun from Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province. "Ordinary tape is usually just one yuan, but washi tape for journals costs at least 12 yuan. I spend thousands of yuan on journal-related supplies every year," she said. "The prevalence of journals shows the young generation in China have a rich spiritual world and strong aesthetic tastes," said Zhao Huiying, associate professor at Liaoning Normal University. "Journal addicts have their own communities to share information, which have naturally become a marketing platform to drive up the consumption of journal-related products among youth," said Zhao. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 22:44:56|Editor: yan Video Player Close BEIRUT, March 13 (Xinhua) -- After the Cabinet approved the draft state budget for 2018, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Tuesday that "the most important process of managing the state's finances has been achieved." "With the budget approved with adjustment of revenues and expenditures, along with reduction of deficit, the most important process of managing the state's finances has been achieved," said Aoun. On Monday, the Cabinet approved the state budget and sent it to the Parliament for ratification. Budgets of ministries have been slashed by 20 percent. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the "budget includes reforms and incentives for all sectors and it will achieve a surplus in all ministries." Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 22:44:56|Editor: yan Video Player Close BEIRUT, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A Beirut nightclub on Tuesday was shut down by the interior ministry after video footage taken at the club showing half-naked dancers circulated on social media, the media office of Interior Minister Nouhad Mashnouq said. Mashnouq ordered the nightclub to be closed after a video showing half-naked women dancing was posted on social media, the statement said. The video has circulated over the weekend and drew sharp criticism on social media. The name of the club was not revealed. RIGA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Latvian ministers on Tuesday appointed Dace Peleka as acting head of the State Revenue Service after the tax authority's director general Ilze Cirule died suddenly last weekend, local media reported. After a meeting with the Revenue Service's officials on Monday, Latvian Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola said she would recommend appointing Peleka, director of the Revenue Service's Tax Administration, as the tax authority's acting head. The minister underlined that the State Revenue Service would carry on its work as usual and the passing of Cirule is not expected to cause any disruption. The finance minister plans to meet with representatives of the State Chancellery to discuss organizing a competition to pick a new head for the Revenue Service. Peleka temporary acted as the Revenue Service's director general already in 2016 after Inara Petersone resigned as Latvia's top tax official. Cirule suddenly died aged 54 last Saturday. Police representative Ieva Sietniece told lsm.lv public media website that Cirule was found dead on Saturday at her home. Although no signs of violence were found, a forensic examination has been ordered to determine the exact cause of the death. School bus carrying dozens plunges into ravine in U.S. state of Alabama, death feared Source: Xinhua 2018-03-13 22:54:57 WASHINGTON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A school bus with dozens of students on board Tuesday plunged into a ravine in the U.S. state of Alabama, causing a number of injuries, including possible death, local authorities said. Editor: yan Related News Back to Top Military personnel wearing protective coveralls work to remove a vehicle as part of the ongoing investigation in connection with the major incident sparked after a man and a woman were apparently poisoned in a nerve agent attack a week ago on March 12, 2018 near Middle Winterslow. (Xinhua/AFP) WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government on Monday warned of a possible "response" to the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain, as the White House and the State Department lashed out at Russia amid hostility over the issue. White House Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a news briefing that the attack was "reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible." Photo taken on March 8, 2018 shows the exteriority of White House in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Ting Shen) Noting that the United States has been monitoring the incident closely and taking it "very seriously," Sanders said the use of a highly lethal chemical nerve agent against British citizens on British soil is "an outrage." "We stand by our closest ally and the special relationship that we have," she referred to the British government, adding that the United States is ready "if we can be of any assistance to them." Also on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the poisoning "came from Russia." Tillerson told the media on his way back from Nigeria to Washington that although he did not know whether the Russian government knew the poisoning, the tragedy could not have originated anywhere else, as the substance was "only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties." Noting that the poisoning was "a really egregious act" that was "almost beyond comprehension," Tillerson said that after a year of trying, "we didn't get very far" in the efforts to narrow down differences with Russia. The U.S. top diplomat added "it certainly will trigger a response" if the Russian government is proved behind the incident. Later on the day, Tillerson issued a statement saying that he spoke with his British counterpart Boris Johnson in the morning. "We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack," he said. "There is never a justification for this type of attack ... and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior." He also accused Moscow of being "an irresponsible force of instability" in issues of Ukraine, Syria and now Britain, warning that those who are responsible "must face appropriately serious consequences." The statements of the White House and the State Department came on the heels of an announcement made by British Prime Minister Theresa May, who on Monday also pointed her finger at Russia over the developing "poisoning attack" row. File Photo: British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street for Prime Minster's Questions at the House of Commons, in London, Britain, on Jan. 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Tim Ireland) Claiming that Moscow was "highly likely" responsible for the attack, May told the parliament that Russia's ambassador in London had been summoned to explain whether it was "a direct action by the Russian state" or the result of it "losing control" of its stock of nerve agents. May said the attack, targeting Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in London on March 4, involved a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. Her comments came after Skripal and his daughter, who remain in a critical but stable condition, had been found slumped on a bench in London. On Monday, the Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russian involvement in the incident. A Russian flag flies in front of a ruby star atop one of the Kremlin's towers in downtown Moscow on March 13, 2018. (Xinhua/AFP) Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also said May's statement about the alleged Russian trace in the attack was a "circus." "The conclusion is obvious: it is another informational and political campaign based on a provocation," Zakharova was quoted by Russian media outlet Sputnik as saying. by Shristi Kafle KATHMANDU, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Monday was an ill-fated day for Nepal's aviation as the US-Bangla aircraft, with 71 people on board, crashed while landing at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). The Home Ministry confirmed that the death toll reached 51, dead bodies being sent for postmortems, while the injured were receiving treatment at different hospitals in Kathmandu. Though the exact cause of the crash will come only after the reports of investigation by the government-formed panel, survivors said they knew something was wrong before the crash happened. "While we were about to land in Kathmandu airport, we already had a feeling that there is something wrong ... we were shocked and thought that it's our last day on earth," Keshav Pandey, a survivor told Xinhua from the Intensive Care Unit in Nepal Mediciti hospital. Pandey recalled that the aircraft touched the ground with a loud noise and then he was unconscious for the next few minutes. "Getting the front seat near emergency exit turned out to be a boon for my new life," he shared in a dismal tone. The survivor said that they were hovering above airport area for a few minutes before the plane actually landed. "I was thrown away on the ground and felt my one leg has been disabled. I saw the smoke at the back so I was trying to put my whole energy to get out of the site. I could not think much then. Then, I saw a few security officers, who helped me to reach hospital." Though Pandey was immediately taken to Kathmandu Medical College Hospital, he was referred to Nepal Mediciti in the same evening. He is one of the survivors who is not in critical condition. Pandey, 48, is a popular tourism entrepreneur of Nepal based in the country's third popular tourist destination Chitwan. He had travelled to Bangladesh on Friday to attend a three-day event upon the invitation of US-Bangla Company. Though their team comprised 14 members in total, two had returned home on Sunday while the remaining 12 were on the same ill-fated flight. He recalled that even in the flight they were discussing about how Nepal's tourism, which has been sluggish after the earthquake of 2015, can be promoted in the international market. However in a flash, he shared that their world became upside down. Pandey has injuries in his right knee and ribs, and other scratches; he has been receiving specialized treatment under experienced professionals. Dr. Sishir Lakhe, head of Orthopedics and Surgery Department at Nepal Mediciti hospital, told Xinhua that the major problem has been seen in Pandey's right knee, which has fractures which will be operated soon, while his rib bone has been broken and has some minor injuries. "But there is no serious issue." Pandey, a husband and father of two young daughters, feels that he is fortunate to be alive. However, time and again, he recalled about the departed friends with whom he had shared the happy moments in the last few days in Bangladesh. At the same time, he could not stop tears for those young students, who were getting back home after completing their examination. "I am blessed to be alive. But I am equally in pain for losing my friends from tourism fraternity and the young future doctors who had so much of dreams," he told Xinhua with tears in his eyes. With a survival almost like miracle, he still expressed hope that he could get well soon and contribute to the Himalayan country's tourism. STRASBOURG, March 13 (Xinhua) -- If the European Union (EU) and Britain are to reach an understanding on their future relationship, London should provide more clarity on its view about it, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, told the European Parliament here Tuesday. "As the clock ticks down with one year to go, it is now time to translate speeches into treaties, to turn commitments into agreements, broad suggestions and wishes on the future relationship into specific workable conditions," he said in what can be seen as a rebuke to the speech of British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier in the month. In her Mansion House speech on March 2, May said it was time to face the "hard facts" of Brexit. She admitted that access between Britain and EU markets would be reduced, given that the EU's stance on the freedom of movement and other criteria for single market access were not aligned with British needs. Many saw the speech as a clarification of London's position on the future EU-Britain relationship, but Juncker's Wednesday statements indicate that speeches will not take the place of signed agreements. "Even though in the last fourteen months there has been a succession of speeches outlining the UK view on the future of our relations, we still need more concrete and more operational proposals," said Monika Panayotova on Tuesday, representing the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU. "There was this Mansion House speech by Mrs. May, but mainly repeating the red lines that we've already known for two years," said Guy Verhofstadt, representative of the European Parliament for Brexit, "the problem is today we don't have a proposal from the UK side on the future relationship. It's still lacking," he said. Meanwhile, EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told the European Parliament in stronger terms that May was not facing the "hard facts" herself: "Clearly you can't have the status of a third country and ask for the advantages of partnership," he said Tuesday. The somewhat escalated wrangling between the EU and Britain came after the bloc published its draft negotiating guidelines last week, which firmly refused what has been called "British cherry-picking" of privileges and responsibilities of membership in the Union. "It should come as no surprise that the only remaining possible model is a free trade agreement," European Council President Donald Tusk said in his statement upon publishing the guidelines, refusing much of the vision that May had shared in her Manson speech. London's response to the guidelines was cold in turn, with British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond calling them "very tough" on Wednesday, claiming that Britain would refuse any final trade agreement that did not include financial services. May and EU27 leaders is set to hold a new round Brexit negotiation on March 22 and 23, with hopes for the consolidation of a transition deal immediately following March 29, 2019, when Britain will become a third country. SOFIA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The first edition of Sofia Startup Expo, an exhibition for innovative startup companies in Bulgaria, kicked off here on Tuesday, showcasing some technical miracles. The expo brought together more than 50 companies, investors and institutions. Wearable device with a smart camera designed to assist visually impaired people, vehicle collision avoidance system, as well as alarm system with wireless magnetic sensors communicating via encrypted channels, are some of the technical miracles shown at the two-day event held under the motto "Give Wings to Your Ideas." "We have gone a long way in a relatively short time, and today we can definitely say that Bulgaria already has a startup community and a developing startup ecosystem, and today's event is another proof of this," Alexander Manolev,deputy minister of economy, said at the opening ceremony. Bulgarian state supported startup companies, Manolev said, adding that investment funds established with European Union (EU) funding and national resources have already invested over 20 million euros (24.6 million U.S. dollars) in 180 start-ups in the country. Meanwhile, 82 contracts with start-ups worth more than 15 million euros under the EU's Operational Program "Innovation and Competitiveness" were in the process of being implemented, Manolev said. A number of new funding opportunities totaling more than 100 million euros are forthcoming, he added. (1 euro = 1.24 U.S. dollars) WASHINGTON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and dozens of others were injured in a bus accident in the state of Alabama, local authorities confirmed Tuesday. The incident took place Tuesday morning in Baldwin County. The bus carrying dozens of high school students went off the road on Interstate 10 and plunged into a ravine. Baldwin County Sheriff's office confirmed that one person had died and the injured had been taken to nearby hospitals. The bus was reportedly carrying the students back to Texas after a visit to Disney World in Florida. ROME, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A total of 12 people were arrested on Tuesday in an operation against clans linked to a top fugitive mafia boss in Sicily, Italian media reported. Anti-mafia prosecutors in Palermo targeted people suspected to be close associates of Matteo Messina Denaro, currently considered the most powerful figure within the Sicilian mob, and on the run since 1993, according to Ansa news agency. All those arrested were variously charged with mafia association, extortion, aiding and abetting mafia businesses, and illegal ownership of assets. The operation followed a probe launched in 2014 against mafia families in Vita and Salemi, two towns in the province of Trapani, west Sicily, from where Messina Denaro also came. A share of these clans' profits "would have been used to sustain fugitive boss Matteo Messina Denaro" during all of his flight, judicial authorities said in a statement. Their illegal businesses were especially focused in the sectors of innovative agriculture and food service, investigators added. At least three agribusiness firms, including all of production assets, were also seized in the operation, which was carried out by some 100 officers of Italy's military Carabinieri police. A renowned entrepreneur in the wind power industry in Sicily, Vito Nicastri, was among the 12 people arrested on Tuesday, Ansa reported. The man has long been suspected of providing key support to the run of Messina Denaro -- following accusations by mobster-turned informants -- and his assets have been subjected to preventive seizures in the past. Matteo Messina Denaro, 55, is considered the last major leading figure of the Sicilian mob, or Cosa Nostra, since after the death of Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore Riina in 2016 and 2017, respectively. He is wanted for a long series of crimes, including dozens of killings and major attacks in Italian cities in the early 1990s, and has received several convictions, including life imprisonment. He is listed among the world's most wanted fugitives, according to the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol). Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-13 23:45:11|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the press before departing the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 13, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he was replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). (Xinhua/Ting Shen) WASHINGTON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he was replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Trump tweeted that Pompeo "will do a fantastic job," adding that Gina Haspel, Pompeo's deputy, will become the new director of the CIA as "the first woman so chosen." Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted that the replacement was a "great decision by the President." She also congratulated Pompeo on the new nomination, calling him a "friend." According to a statement offered by White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders, Trump said Pompeo, who "graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. army" and praised him for having served in the House of Representatives "with a proven record of working across the aisle." "I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture," Trump said. "He will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." He also urged Pompeo's "swift confirmation", saying his experience in the military, Congress and as leader of the CIA has "prepared him well for his new role." Trump added that the nomination of Haspel to replace Pompeo was "a historic milestone." Thanking Tillerson for his services, Trump noted that "a great deal has been accomplished" over Tillerson's 14-month term. "I wish him and his family well," he said. Pompeo said in a statement that he is "deeply grateful" for the nomination. "If confirmed, I look forward to guiding the world's finest diplomatic corps in formulating and executing the President's foreign policy," he said, vowing to work to ensure that "our nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free." The abrupt replacement came as Tillerson had just wrapped up his visit to Africa. It also came on the heels of Trump's ground-breaking statement last week that he had accepted the invitation of Kim Jong Un, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), for a meeting. Pompeo's nomination has yet to be approved by the U.S. Congress although it highly unlikely to be vetoed. Tillerson, former chief executive of the U.S. oil and gas company Exxon, assumed office on Feb. 1, 2017. He underwent a rocky term as a newcomer diplomat due to his divergence from Trump on issues like multilateralism and America's withdrawal from multilateral treaties and organizations. Haspel, a veteran intelligence officer, joined the CIA in 1985 and has served multiple overseas posts in her career. She was reportedly known to pursue harsh interrogation measures, including waterboarding, against alleged terrorists. When asked by CBS News whether Haspel would sanction more "black sites" after taking the reins, a CIA spokesperson said "this appointment is simply about putting in place the best person for the job." WINDHOEK, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's health minister Bernard Haufiku said Tuesday one case of listeriosis had been detected in the country. Haufiku told the National Assembly in Windhoek that the case was detected in Tsumeb, a north-central town. The patient, Haufiku said, is a 41-year-old man who fell sick after eating a Vienna sausage bought from a butchery in the town. According to Haufiku, the patient was transferred to a Windhoek hospital where he was still admitted as of Tuesday. Namibia has been on the edge after listeriosis broke out in South Africa where it has so far killed more than 180 people. BERLIN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Germany has continued to experience a longer-term decline in immigration since the height of the "refugee crisis" in 2015, official figures published on Tuesday by the Federal Statistical Office confirmed. According to the Wiesbaden-based government statisticians, net immigration (the balance of the number of immigrants and emigrants) peaked at 1.14 million in 2015 before falling to circa 500,000 in 2016 and 450,000 in 2017. The Federal Statistical Office noted that a trend reversal had first became apparent in 2016 when the total number of immigrants (European Union citizens, regular Third-Country-Nationals and asylum seekers) fell by 13 percent to 1.86 million in 2016. The closure of the so-called "Balkan route" had contributed to this development by lowering the number of new asylum seekers in Germany. A decline in net migration was reflected in falling numbers of arriving Syrian (298,000 in 2015 vs. 146,000 in 2017), Afghan (80,000 in 2015 vs. 56,000 in 2017), and Iraqi citizens (60,000 in 2015 vs. 48,000 in 2017). During the period, EU citizens accounted for 51 percent of total immigration while nationals from European countries which are not part of the bloc made up nine percent of the total. By contrast, only five percent were citizens of African states. MOSCOW, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Russia will take proportional measures against British media if Britain imposes restrictions on Russia's state-owned news channel RT, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin warned on Tuesday. He made the remarks amid the ongoing tension simmering between Russia and Britain over the spy poisoning incident. "There are no reasons here to discuss the issue of persecuting our Russian media in Britain ... but if officials of the British authorities follow this path, we will certainly consider mirrored responses. And we will definitely do so," Volodin told reporters here. Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, a Russian citizen, were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in the district of Salisbury, England, on March 5. They remain in critical condition in hospital, according to reports. British Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement to the House of Commons Monday that evidence showed Skripal had been targeted by a "military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia." She has demanded an explanation from Moscow by Tuesday. Moscow, for its part, has dismissed May's claims that Russia could be behind Skripal's poisoning as "groundless and unreasonable." However, after May's speech, some British media had discussed the possible measures Britain might take over the poisoning. One possibility is that a number of Russian media outlets, including RT, could be stripped of their license in Britain, according to reports. The Duma might prepare a special statement in connection with Britain's accusations, Volodin said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 00:10:15|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close File photo taken on May 3, 2017 shows Rex Tillerson delivering a speech to State Department employees in Washington D.C., capital of the United States. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan) WASHINGTON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Amid mounting uncertainties over U.S. foreign policy, President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Mike Pompeo. TILLERSON SACKED Trump tweeted that Pompeo "will do a fantastic job," adding that Gina Haspel, Pompeo's deputy, will become the new CIA chief as "the first woman so chosen." Later, Trump told media in the White House before going to California that Pompeo has "tremendous energy, tremendous intellect." "We're always on the same wavelength," he said. "The relationship has been very good and that's what I need as Secretary of State ... I think Mike Pompeo will be a truly great Secretary of State." He also noted that he and Tillerson "have been talking about this for a long time." "We disagreed on things ... we were not thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process," he said. "I very much appreciate his (Tillerson's) commitment and his service and I wish him well. He's a good man," said Trump. "I actually got along well with Rex but really it was a different mindset, a different thinking." An aide of Tillerson responded by saying that Trump did not explain to Tillerson why he was fired, and Tillerson had wanted to stay on. In a statement, Pompeo said he is "deeply grateful" for the new nomination. "If confirmed, I look forward to guiding the world's finest diplomatic corps in formulating and executing the President's foreign policy," he said, vowing to work to ensure that "our nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free." WASHINGTON SHOCKED Trump's decision, first reported by The Washington Post, shocked Washington, since Tillerson had just wrapped up his visit to Africa. It also came on the heels of Trump's ground-breaking statement last week that he had accepted the invitation from the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Un, for a meeting. However, Tillerson ouster was not a total surprise for Washington, where rumors of his sacking had emerged after he was reported to have called Trump a "moron" at a meeting last year. Trump later challenged him to an IQ test, prompting further speculations. Tillerson, who assumed office on Feb.1, 2017, underwent a rocky term due to his profound divergence from Trump over multiple issues including the U.S. withdrawal from multilateral treaties and organizations. Tillerson's departure was welcomed by the Trump administration. Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted that the replacement was a "great decision by the President." She also congratulated Pompeo on the new nomination, calling him a "friend." The nomination has yet to be approved by the U.S. Congress, although it is highly unlikely to be vetoed. A statement offered by White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said Pompeo's experience in the military, Congress, and as leader of the CIA has "prepared him well for his new role." UNCERTAINTIES AHEAD Tillerson's sudden sacking has sparked worries over the Trump administration's future foreign policies, with critics predicting they would be more self-centered and reckless. Trump told reporters that the Iran nuclear deal was part of the reason for sacking Tillerson. "I think it's terrible. I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently," he said. Speaking of the future meeting with the DPRK top leader, Trump said he "really didn't discuss it very much" with Tillerson. "I made that decision by myself," he said. On his "America First" ambition, Trump said Pompeo "will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." The remarks have sparked worries. The Washington Post warned that Pompeo would be more obedient to Trump's will compared with Tillerson. "Pompeo has done nothing but talk about how we need to take the gloves off," Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard Kennedy School, was quoted as saying. "There's no reason to believe he would change his views if you put him in charge of the State Department." The New York Times commented that Pompeo's hard-edge views "might reinforce, rather than restrain, Mr. Trump's instincts." "That could further stiffen American policy toward Iran, where Mr.Tillerson, along with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, urged Mr. Trump not to scrap the nuclear deal negotiated by President Barack Obama," the newspaper said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 00:20:17|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nayhan (L) attends a press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman, Jordan on March 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Mohammed Abu Ghosh) AMMAN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday urged intensified efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state solution, state-run Petra news agency reported. The call was made by Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi and his UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in their meeting in the capital Amman. Peace talks should lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state at the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, they noted. The two ministers warned against continued unilateral Israeli measures that undermine the two-state solution and seek to impose new realities, especially in the disputed holy city Jerusalem. On the issue of Syria, the two sides agreed that there was no military solution to the crisis and called for more efforts to reach a political solution that preserves the unity and territorial integrity of the country. They underlined the need for the immediate implementation of the UN decision on the cease-fire in Syria's Eastern Ghouta. Discussions also covered the presence of mass Syrian refugees in Jordan and resulting pressure on the kingdom. For his part, Al Nahyan highlighted Jordan's key role in regional stability, saying his country is interested in increasing cooperation with Jordan in various areas. Also in the day, King Abdullah II of Jordan met with the UAE official and discussed bilateral ties and latest developments in the region. NICOSIA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A survey ship sailed into a Cypriot port to start preparatory work for an ExxonMobil-Qatar Petroleum natural gas exploratory drilling in Cyprus' exclusive economic Zone (EEZ), Cyrpus' Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkkotrypis said on Tuesday. "The ship will carry out an archaeological survey to make sure that no antiquities are located in the area of the drilling," Lakkotrypis told state radio. A second ship will follow to make an environmental survey immediately afterwards. Both surveys are needed for issuing the license of the actual drilling, scheduled for October. "These surveys were made in the past without attracting any attention, but this time they obtained significance because of Turkey's military action which prevented ENI's drilling in block 3," Lakkotrypis said. He added that ENI's failed attempt as a result of Turkey's action "was a bad development" but the drilling was only postponed. Cyprus' Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides is scheduled to meet his Italian counterpart later this week in Rome, presumably to talk on the issue. The U.S. navy has sent five warships to join the Sixth Fleet in military maneuvers in the region of the drilling, but the U.S. State Department said the presence of the warships there is unrelated to the ExxonMobil operation. Lakkotrypis also confirmed a report that Royal Dutch Shell is negotiating with both Cyprus and Israel to purchase 10 billion cubic meters of gas worth 25 billion dollars over the next ten years. "They are interested both in the gas of the (Cypriot) Aphrodite field and the (Israeli) Leviathan field," Lakkotrypis said. He added that Cyprus is close to an agreement to provide natural gas to one of two liquefaction plants in Egypt, but he said he did not want to specify whether it is the one at Idku or the Damietta plant. The Aphrodite field was discovered by Texas based Noble energy and is estimated to contain between 4.5 to 6 trillion cubic feet of gas. Lakkotrypis refused to comment on a report that Noble Energy wanted to reduce the Cyprus government's share in the revenue before concluding the deal. "I can only say that we have difficulties with the prices," he said. ENI discovered another gas field in Cyprus' EEZ in January, which it said has an estimated capacity of between 6.5 to 8 trillion cubic feet of gas. ABUJA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian police on Tuesday confirmed 25 people were killed in an attack on Dundu, a community in the central state of Plateau. Plateau police spokesman Terna Tyopev told reporters that the attackers invaded the community late Monday. Two persons were severely wounded and several houses razed during the gunmen's invasion of the community, Tyopev said. He said the police had launched an investigation to apprehend the suspects. Plateau State is situated in Nigeria's middle belt where the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian-majority south meet. On March 7, 2010, members of local Muslim and Christian communities fought each other in revenge for previous killings. The state has witnessed some bomb blasts and constant rifts between Berom and Fulani herdsmen, with many, especially women and children, murdered in cold blood. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 00:35:20|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close Evariste Ndayishimiye, Secretary General of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), speaks at a press conference in Bujumbura, capital of Burundi, on March 13, 2018. The Burundian ruling party, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), has elevated President Pierre Nkurunziza to "visionary" for his outstanding achievements, the party said in a press conference on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Evrard Ngendakumana) BUJUMBURA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Burundian ruling party, the National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), has elevated President Pierre Nkurunziza to "visionary" for his outstanding achievements, the party said in a press conference on Tuesday. "Considering immense achievements of President Pierre Nkurunziza, the value of his ideas, his teachings, his pieces of advice and his actions, the Central Committee of the CNDD-FDD found in him an excellent charismatic leader and decided to elevate him to the title of visionary of the party," said Evariste Ndayishimiye, Secretary General CNDD-FDD, in Bujumbura, capital city of Burundi. The decision to elevate Nkurunziza to the "visionary" title was taken by the CNDD-FDD Central Committee which held a two day meeting last weekend in the Burundian northern province of Ngozi, said Ndayishimiye. Nkurunziza is serving as the president of the elders council of the ruling party. Nkurunziza's ideas should be respected "all the time" because they are constructive, he said, adding that citizens have been voting for the ruling party because of his ideas. "His ideas are unforgettable. That's why we chose him as our visionary," he added. He, however, indicated that elevating Nkurunziza to the visionary title within the CNDD-FDD is separated with the preparation of the ruling party to the forthcoming constitutional referendum due in May and the east African country's 2020 general elections. "In our party, we promote democracy. We will later designate candidates to the elections," said the secretary general. Nkurunziza was elected president of Burundi by the east African country's parliament in 2005. He was re-elected in a universal suffrage in 2010 and in 2015. In December 2017, the National Independent Electoral Commission said the referendum of the east African country's constitution will be held in May. The draft constitution extends the presidential term from five years provided in the 2005 constitution to seven years and allows the president to serve two consecutive terms. The daft constitution doesn't ban Nkurunziza to run again in 2020. PARIS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- French police on Tuesday conducted a raid in the southeastern French city of Isere, arresting five people on alleged links with terrorist cell, according to local media report. Those arrested -- four men and a woman -- were suspected of recruiting jihadists to join insurgents in Syria and Iraq in 2014 and 2015, the daily newspaper Le Parisien said. Some detainees were believed to collect money to finance jihadists' stay in the zone of war, it added. Aged between 18 and 53 years, they were placed into custody. France has become a major target of frequent terrorist attacks following its military operations in Syria, Iraq and the Sahel region. A wave of attacks, claimed by the Islamic State, had broken several times the calm in France with the bloodiest was at Paris where a series of explosives and shootings left 130 victims three on Nov. 2015. On October 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron signed anti-terrorism law which he said was necessary to muscle security at home to combat high terrorism menace. The bill enshrines emergency security rules into ordinary law, allowing police to have more power to search, arrest without judge approval and restrict people movements and gathering. JAKARTA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- An Indonesian official on Tuesday called on Indonesian business community to seize the opportunity of China International Import Expo (CIIE) to explore the Chinese market. Arlinda Imbang Jaya, director general for national export development at Indonesia's Trade Ministry, made the call at an event held here to promote the CIIE. 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 later this year. The expo, which will include exhibitions and forums, provides a platform for trade and services, and offers opportunities for closer international cooperation. Arlinda Imbang Jaya said the Indonesian government attaches high importance to the CIIE. At the event, an official from China's Ministry of Commerce expressed hope that Indonesian businesses will make full use of the platform offered by the CIIE to showcase their products and technology. Organized by China's Ministry of Commerce and Indonesia's Trade Ministry, the event was attended by nearly 100 people from economic and trade sectors of the two countries. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 01:20:30|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday appointed Elliott Harris of Trinidad and Tobago as assistant secretary-general for economic development and chief economist in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Harris will succeed Lenni Montiel of Venezuela. Harris brings over 25 years of international experience in the fields of international economics and development policy analysis, coupled with knowledge of the UN system, multilateral and inter-agency coordination processes, said the press office of Guterres in a statement. Harris has extensive experience in the design of macroeconomic policies and its application as a central instrument for the reduction of poverty and for resilient and sustained economic development. His work in the field of economics also focuses on the macroeconomic linkages with global social and environmental policies, said the statement. Since 2015, Harris has served as UN assistant secretary-general and head of the New York office of the United Nations Environment Programme. Before joining the UN system, he had a longtime career in the International Monetary Fund. Russian Tupolev Tu-22 long-range strategic bombers conduct an air strike at an unknown location in Syria, in this still image taken from video footage released by Russia's Defence Ministry on November 18, 2015. MOSCOW, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Russia is ready to strike back if U.S. forces in Syria put the lives of Russian servicemen there under threat, Russian General Staff Chief General Valery Gerasimov said Tuesday. "In the event of a threat to the lives of our servicemen, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will retaliate against both missiles and carriers which will use them," Gerasimov said in a conference call shown by Russia 24 TV channel. He said the Russian General Staff had reliable information that militants were preparing a provocation in the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus, staging the use of chemical weapons against civilians by the Syrian government forces. According to Gerasimov, a large number of women, children and old people were brought to the area from other regions to play the "role of victims" of the chemical attack, as well as film crews with satellite video broadcasting equipment. After the provocation, the United States plans to accuse Syrian government troops of using chemical weapons and to carry out a missile and bomb strike on the government districts of Damascus, Gerasimov said. "At the same time, Russian military advisers, representatives of the Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties and military police are in the offices and facilities of the Syrian Defense Ministry in Damascus," he said. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Monday the United States was willing to take military action to end the Syrian bombing of civilians if the UN was unable to do so. "When the international community consistently fails to act, there are times when states are compelled to take their own action," Haley told the UN Security Council. YEREVAN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Ara Babloyan has nominated former justice minister Hrayr Tovmasyan as chairman of the country's Constitutional Court, said a statement issued by the Armenian parliament on Tuesday. Hrayr Tovmasyan, 47, who served as Armenia's Minister of Justice from 2010 to 2013, is widely viewed as the chief architect of recent constitutional amendments that have paved the way for Armenia to turn into a parliamentary republic. The transition from the semi-presidential system of governance will be complete on April 9 when President-Elect Armen Sarkissian will assume the office of the president. If Tovamsyan is elected before April 9, he will take the office according to the Constitution amended in 2005, which means he will be the chairman of the Constitutional Court until he becomes 65 years old. Otherwise, he will be elected for a 6-year period according to the new Constitution adopted in 2015. Tovmasyan was an ardent supporter of the ruling Republican Party, the membership in which he had to recently give up in order to sit on the bench of the Constitutional Court of Armenia. TIRANA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced Tuesday a decision to merge the country's 13 agriculture directorates into regional agencies in a bid to enhance performance of these structures. The agencies have been conceptualized as four in charge of agricultural legislation and four regional agencies in charge of veterinary services and plants protection, Rama said. Calling the current directorates as outdated structures, Rama told reporters from the city of Elbasan that this system would be succeeded by 4 plus 4 regional agencies. "This process of reformation is intended to consolidate the agency for rural agricultural development and better organize the service of agriculture counseling. We create a real instrument in the hands of those in need for agricultural counseling," Rama said. Rama expressed his confidence that these agencies will bring in an added value and a process that will improve food safety on a constant basis. According to him, Albanian government was firm in its stand to guarantee the entirety of the food chain that represents a vital sector for Albania, a potential, yet untapped resource in the socio-economic development of the country. The Albanian government has gradually increased its support to agricultural sector, considering the latter as a sector with a untapped potential to country's economy. Only a few weeks ago, Rama announced the new funding scheme for the farmers, allocating a fund of over 20 million U.S. dollars in the form of subsidies to be given to farmers across the country. Such support comes at a time when the exports of Albanian agriculture products have seen a double-digit growth in the last few years, mainly exported towards European Union markets. ADDIS ABABA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The government of China on Tuesday provided 6 million U.S. dollars financial support to the United Nations World Food Program's (WFP) emergency response in Ethiopia that targets drought-hit and refugee populations in Ethiopia. The latest financial support is the fourth round emergency aid provided by the Chinese government as the East African country embarked on assisting millions of drought-affected people and hundreds of thousands of refugees from its neighboring countries. Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, Tan Jian, said the financial donation was made in a bid to show China's solidarity as Ethiopia strives to mitigate the refugee influx from neighboring countries. "We appreciate Ethiopia's effort in taking refugees as a responsible country," Tan said, adding that "the international community should not be bystanders and China is not." "China has come forward to demonstrate our solidarity with the Ethiopian people. A friend in need is a friend indeed," Tan added. An estimated 7.9 million people in Ethiopia are currently in need of emergency food assistance, while Ethiopia also hosts more than 900,000 refugees, mainly from Eritrea, South Sudan, Somalia, and Sudan. Mitiku Kassa, Commissioner of Ethiopia National Disaster Risk Management Commission, said that the support is "an indication of solidarity from the Chinese government and people to Ethiopia." "As long as we are living with adverse effects of climate change, we need more support from China, not only in the humanitarian intervention part but also in resilience building, especially in the livestock, agriculture, education, water and sanitation and other sectors," Kassa added. With the 6 million U.S. dollars support from China, WFP has planned to support 350,000 people living either in refugee camps or in drought-affected communities for two months with over 4,000 metric tons of rice and 800 tons of vegetable oil, it was noted. Samir Wanmali, WFP's Acting Country Director in Ethiopia, also called it a "very generous support from China." "China is a very important partner for the Ethiopian government and it's also a very important partner for WFP," he said. "We are very proud to be part of a partnership that is a bigger partnership between the two very important countries in the world." WFP and the UN refugee agency UNHCR have recently appealed for 80 million U.S. dollars to provide food assistance for refugees located in Ethiopia, saying that the amount of food that refugees receive was cut by 20 percent last year below the 2,100 kilo calories per day required to sustain the average person. NAIROBI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- About 5,000 Ethiopians have fled into Kenya to seek refuge in the northern border town of Moyale, the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) said on Tuesday. The KRCS said the number of Ethiopians entering Moyale continues to increase. "Currently, the refugee status of these individuals is yet to be determined. Once this determination is made, then hopefully there can be a proper setting of camps if need be," KRCS Secretary General Abba Gullet said in a statement. "At the moment, most are integrated with the host community, relatives and friends," Gullet said. According to the humanitarian agency, about 5,000 Ethiopians had arrived in Moyale, the majority being women and children. Gullet said registration is ongoing in all the concentration areas in Moyale town, and in Sololo area more Ethiopians continue to stream into Moyale. "With the onset of the long rains, we may have serious challenges, especially issues of health, sanitation and water," he said. "We hope and pray that a solution is found." The Ethiopian government said its forces killed nine civilians near Moyale on Saturday after mistaking them for members of the banned Oromo Liberation Front, who were attempting to sneak into the country. Kenya's Eastern regional police commander Moses Ombati said security has been heightened in the area. "We have deployed more police officers to ensure law and order is maintained and also ensure their safety," Ombati said by phone. ADDIS ABABA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The UN World Food Program (WFP) and Ethiopia have hailed China's humanitarian support to drought-affected people and refugees in the East African country. This came on Tuesday during a ceremony organized for the handover of China's fourth round humanitarian donation to Ethiopia at WFP office in the country's capital Addis Ababa. The latest humanitarian contribution of China, which amounts to 6 million U.S. dollars, will be used to assist refugees and drought-affected people in Ethiopia. In four rounds through bilateral and multilateral channels, China has so far provided an emergency aid to Ethiopia totaling roughly 36.6 million U.S. dollars, making China the third largest food aid contributor in the country. In his remarks during the ceremony, Samir Wanmali, WFP Acting Country Director in Ethiopia, stated that the world has entered an era where Asia and Africa have become much more important players, and China is an important partner of WFP and Ethiopia. The WFP and UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) last week appealed for 80 million dollars to provide food assistance to refugees in Ethiopia. Speaking to reporters, in particular, the WFP Acting Country Director has commended China for its swift response after a call here by WFP and UNHCR last week for humanitarian support from the international community. "China is very important partner for Ethiopian government and very important for WFP; and we are very proud to be part of a partnership, a bigger partnership between two very important countries in the world," he said. "We believe our partnership with both the governments of Ethiopia and China is not only relevant to the humanitarian but moving ahead working on disaster risk management; working on development issues; we stand ready to support the Ethiopian government and to make sure it achieves its objectives and visions for the future," he added. Urging all international partners to show solidarity as the Chinese have with Ethiopia, the Acting Director said, "I hope other donors and partners will take the Chinese example as a lead and step forward to support the Ethiopian government in this current time." Speaking on his part, Mitiku Kassa, Ethiopia's Commissioner for National Disaster Risk Management, has commended China for its support to the efforts of drought response in Ethiopia. "I would like to thank the people and government of China for your (Chinese) four round support to Ethiopia over the last years for the drought response that we are working together," he said, "Your contribution is so immense. It is not forgettable by the government of Ethiopia and the people of Ethiopia." "I believe that China and Ethiopia are working together for their mutual interests and benefits. So, our foreign policy creates conducive and fertile environment to cooperate in a number of areas, be it development in a number of projects, and investment sectors as well as humanitarian area," he said. The commissioner has expressed belief that the existing collaboration spirit between Ethiopia and China would continue in the future in a more strengthened manner. Since 2015, Ethiopia has been suffering from the worst El-Nino induced drought in the past half century, Tan Jian, Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, said, adding that it also hosts the second largest number of refugees in Africa, resulting from large influx of refugees to the country due to instability and conflicts in its neighboring countries. The ambassador said the contribution from his country is a testimony of China's solidarity with Ethiopia. "China is a member of the international community and is ready and willing to extend our support within our ability; our support is in the framework of the south-south cooperation. China is not a developed country, but China has been very active in contacting those countries in suffer of natural disasters," he said. Noting that China's assistance to Ethiopia is a grant aid without preconditions under the south-south cooperation, the ambassador said, "I wish to highlight this point, given the recent allegations and accusations that China's approach in Africa has aggravated Africa's debt burden." The ambassador has also expressed China's commitment to support countries like Ethiopia to enable them to address such problem in a sustainable manner. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 02:20:54|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close A Syrian soldier walks toward an armored vehicle in the town of Aftaris in Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside, Syria, on March 12, 2018. Syrian army captured on Monday the town of Aftaris in Eastern Ghouta, the latest town to be retaken by the army during the wide-scale offensive in that area, state news agency SANA said. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani) DAMASCUS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- After being trapped in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus for six years, civilians who managed to evacuate the rebel-held areas could finally breathe a sigh of relief. In every war, the civilians seem to be those suffering most and the scars left are so deep that their lives are full of sorrowful memories. For the civilians leaving rebel-held areas in Eastern Ghouta, what they could hardly forget is the tough living conditions in their hometowns where they suffer from the lack of medicine and food amid the ongoing military showdown. A total of 146 civilians, 44 women, 24 men and 78 children, left rebel-held areas in Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday after long days of waiting to move to safe places. The civilians, mainly people with medical conditions and children, reached the government-controlled Wafidin area in the northeast of Damascus through a humanitarian corridor set up between Wafidin and the adjacent rebel-held Douma district in Eastern Ghouta. Those civilians are from different parts of Eastern Ghouta but gathered in Douma before crossing into Wafidin. It is the first major civilian convoy to leave the area since the corridor was set up 14 days ago for the evacuation of civilians after a Russian-backed humanitarian pause went into force. The civilians were taken to a temporary shelter at a school in the Wafidin area, where the children were vaccinated immediately. At the temporary shelter, where civilians were waiting for their documents to be processed and to get medical checkups, some infants were seen receiving medicine drips through their noses. The facial expressions of the grownups were a mix of confusion and exhaustion as it's their first time to leave Eastern Ghouta to a place where they are promised to be well-treated. Noura Rayyes was sitting with her brother and sister, waiting for their mother to finish her medical examination at an ambulance outside. She told Xinhua that they were happy to get out of Ghouta because her mother needs emergency surgery but there is no medical help in Eastern Ghouta. "The situation of my mother has become very bad and we couldn't treat her inside Ghouta with the lack of medication, not to mention the soaring prices and the lack of everything else," Noura said. Samya Jaber, another evacuee who managed to leave Eastern Ghouta with her father and three children, said she was desperate to have her critically ill father get access to medication. "Our situation was very bad inside, with no food or any life necessities. Thankfully we registered our names and were evacuated by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. The people here are treating us well but we still have families inside who couldn't leave," she said. Sitting next to his daughter and son, Jamal Hashem pointed to the head of his daughter which was wrapped in a bandage, saying most of the evacuees on Tuesday were either in need of medical help or accompanying relatives and family members who need medical care. "The civilians inside Eastern Ghouta wish to leave that area because of the hard living conditions, soaring prices as well as fear and panic," he said. The evacuation of civilians from Ghouta came a day after the Islam Army, the major rebel group in the Eastern Ghouta, announced a deal with Russia over the evacuation of the wounded from the area. The rebel group said in a statement that an agreement has been reached with Russians to allow the UN to evacuate wounded people out of Eastern Ghouta for medical treatment. The evacuation will take place in batches, it added. "The agreement comes as a result of the government siege on areas in Eastern Ghouta, with the lack of medication and "targeting of medical facilities," the statement claimed. The Islam Army is a Saudi-backed rebel group mainly positioned in the Douma district in northern Eastern Ghouta. The situation in Eastern Ghouta has flared up since late February following a wide-scale military operation by the Syrian army to dislodge al-Qaida-linked groups from the area. On Sunday, the Syrian army split Eastern Ghouta into three parts, by tightening the siege on Douma in the north, the city of Harasta in the west and other towns and villages south of the region. Eastern Ghouta, a 105-square-km agricultural region consisting of several towns and farmlands, constitutes the last threat to Damascus given its proximity to government-controlled neighbourhoods east of the capital and continuing mortar attacks on residential areas there. Four major rebel groups are currently positioned inside Eastern Ghouta, namely the Islam Army, Failaq al-Rahman, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Levant Liberation Committee, known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. The UN humanitarian agencies have sounded the alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation for 400,000 people in Eastern Ghouta, where activists said around 1,000 have been killed since a military showdown between rebels and the government late February. BRATISLAVA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Slovak police arrested Italian entrepreneur Antonino Vadala suspected of connection with the Calabrian Mafia in Michalovce in eastern Slovakia on Tuesday. A court in Venice had issued an European arrest warrant for him, Slovak prosecutor general's office spokesperson Andrea Predajnova said. The move was a result of cooperation between the prosecutor general and EU juridical cooperation agency Eurojust, following the murders of the investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova. "An Italian court has asked for the extradition of Vadala to Italy in connection with a drugs-related crime committed by an organized criminal group with transnational activities. The entire action was carried out in the utmost secrecy to prevent an information leak and possible misconduct," said Predajnova. Vadala was also arrested shortly after the murders of Kuciak and Kusnirova but released one day later. Kuciak's final, unfinished article focused on the activities of Italian nationals allegedly linked to the Calabrian mafia in Slovakia. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 02:25:56|Editor: yan Video Player Close CAIRO, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Egypt strongly condemned on Tuesday the failed attempt to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamadallah in the Gaza Strip, which left six injured. In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said such terrorist acts are meant to hinder achieving the Palestinian national reconciliation, stressing they will always fail. Earlier in the day, a bomb went off near the convoy of Hamdallah during a rare visit to the Israeli blockaded territory. Six of Hamdallah's bodyguards were slightly injured and three cars were damaged in the attack. "Egypt will keep exerting efforts to achieve reconciliation and empower the Palestinians run their affairs according to a unified vision to achieve the aspirations of the Palestinian people," it said. Last October, Egypt mediated a reconciliation deal between Islamic Hamas movement which rules Gaza, and Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to heal their decade-long rift. Under the deal, Hamas, which rules Gaza since its routed forces loyal to Abbas in 2007, should have fully handed over power to Hamdallah's Ramallah-based consensus government in December. However, the ongoing differences between the two sides have forced a delay of the implementation of the reconciliation deal until further notice. A senior Egyptian security delegation has been in Gaza for several weeks holding talks between the two sides to bridge the gaps and resolve the outstanding issues that block the implementation of the reconciliation deal. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 02:30:56|Editor: yan Video Player Close BERLIN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Borussia Dortmund have prematurely extended the contract with Lukasz Piszczek, the eight-time German champions confirmed in a statement via the club's official homepage on Tuesday. The Poland international has put pen to paper on a new contract, which will keep him with the "BVB" until June 2020. "We are glad that after Marco Reus, we were able to bind with Lukasz Piszczek another player on the long term. He is an institution on our right wing. It is not without reason that we lost none of the 31 Bundesliga games when Piszczu was there," Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said. Piszczek joined Dortmund in the summer 2010 from Hertha Berlin and established himself as one of the cornerstones in the defence. Since his arrival, he made 196 appearances and provided 14 goals. "Although I am not a Dortmund native, this club and these fans have grown to my heart over the years. I feel for years as a real Borusse and never felt the desire to leave the BVB. I would like to end my career here," the 32-year-old defender said. Since playing for the "Black-and-Yellows" he clinched the Bundesliga title 2010-2011 and the German domestic double in 2011-2012. Borussia Dortmund sit currently on 3rd place of the standings. They clash with newly promoted Hannover at the 27th round in Bundesliga on Sunday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 02:35:59|Editor: yan Video Player Close RAMALLAH, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said Tuesday that the Gaza bombing that targeted his convoy will not refrain his government's efforts to retain full empowerment in all sectors. He also demanded Islamic Hamas movement to hand over all powers to the national unity government. Hamdallah's statement came upon his arrival to his West Bank office in Ramallah, following his quick visit to Gaza to attend opening ceremony of the Gaza desalination water plant. "We demand Hamas to hand over what we've asked it to hand over, particularly the internal security. There will be no real presence of the government without handling the internal security," said Hamdallah to reporters in front of his Ramallah office. "This incident will not stop us from our work in Gaza Strip and will not stop us from the national reconciliation," he added. The Palestinians on Tuesday have largely condemned blowing up a roadside bomb as the convoy of vehicles of Prime Minister of the Palestinian consensus government Rami Hamdallah and chief of security intelligence service Majid Faraj passed by in northern Gaza Strip. Hamdallah and Faraj arrived on Tuesday morning from the West Bank city of Ramallah to the Gaza Strip through Erez crossing point on the borders between northern Gaza Strip and Israel. As soon as the convoy of the two senior officials crossed the checkpoint and drove a couple of kilometres into the coastal enclave, just near the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, a roadside bomb had suddenly exploded right after the convoy of some 20 vehicles and cars already passed by. U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the press before departing the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Ting Shen) WASHINGTON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Amid mounting uncertainties over U.S. foreign policy, President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Mike Pompeo. TILLERSON SACKED Trump tweeted that Pompeo "will do a fantastic job," adding that Gina Haspel, Pompeo's deputy, will become the new CIA chief as "the first woman so chosen." Trump tweets on replacing Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo. Later, Trump told media in the White House before going to California that Pompeo has "tremendous energy, tremendous intellect." "We're always on the same wavelength," he said. "The relationship has been very good and that's what I need as Secretary of State ... I think Mike Pompeo will be a truly great Secretary of State." He also noted that he and Tillerson "have been talking about this for a long time." File photo taken on May 3, 2017 shows Rex Tillerson delivering a speech to State Department employees in Washington D.C., capital of the United States. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan) "We disagreed on things ... we were not thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process," he said. "I very much appreciate his (Tillerson's) commitment and his service and I wish him well. He's a good man," said Trump. "I actually got along well with Rex but really it was a different mindset, a different thinking." An aide of Tillerson responded by saying that Trump did not explain to Tillerson why he was fired, and Tillerson had wanted to stay on. In a statement, Pompeo said he is "deeply grateful" for the new nomination. "If confirmed, I look forward to guiding the world's finest diplomatic corps in formulating and executing the President's foreign policy," he said, vowing to work to ensure that "our nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free." WASHINGTON SHOCKED Trump's decision, first reported by The Washington Post, shocked Washington, since Tillerson had just wrapped up his visit to Africa. It also came on the heels of Trump's ground-breaking statement last week that he had accepted the invitation from the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Un, for a meeting. However, Tillerson ouster was not a total surprise for Washington, where rumors of his sacking had emerged after he was reported to have called Trump a "moron" at a meeting last year. Trump later challenged him to an IQ test, prompting further speculations. Tillerson, who assumed office on Feb.1, 2017, underwent a rocky term due to his profound divergence from Trump over multiple issues including the U.S. withdrawal from multilateral treaties and organizations. Tillerson's departure was welcomed by the Trump administration. Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted that the replacement was a "great decision by the President." She also congratulated Pompeo on the new nomination, calling him a "friend." The nomination has yet to be approved by the U.S. Congress, although it is highly unlikely to be vetoed. A statement offered by White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said Pompeo's experience in the military, Congress, and as leader of the CIA has "prepared him well for his new role." UNCERTAINTIES AHEAD Tillerson's sudden sacking has sparked worries over the Trump administration's future foreign policies, with critics predicting they would be more self-centered and reckless. Trump told reporters that the Iran nuclear deal was part of the reason for sacking Tillerson. "I think it's terrible. I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently," he said. Speaking of the future meeting with the DPRK top leader, Trump said he "really didn't discuss it very much" with Tillerson. "I made that decision by myself," he said. Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), speaks during the Second Plenum of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK, Oct. 7, 2017. (Xinhua/KCNA) On his "America First" ambition, Trump said Pompeo "will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." The remarks have sparked worries. The Washington Post warned that Pompeo would be more obedient to Trump's will compared with Tillerson. "Pompeo has done nothing but talk about how we need to take the gloves off," Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard Kennedy School, was quoted as saying. "There's no reason to believe he would change his views if you put him in charge of the State Department." The New York Times commented that Pompeo's hard-edge views "might reinforce, rather than restrain, Mr. Trump's instincts." "That could further stiffen American policy toward Iran, where Mr.Tillerson, along with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, urged Mr. Trump not to scrap the nuclear deal negotiated by President Barack Obama," the newspaper said. WASHINGTON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Local authorities confirmed Tuesday that one person was killed, and dozens more injured in a school-chartered bus accident in the U.S. state of Alabama. The incident took place in Baldwin County, near the state of Florida, where a bus carrying dozens of students went off road on the Interstate 10 and plunged in into a 35 feet (10.6 meters) ravine. Baldwin County Sheriff's office confirmed that the driver of the bus has died and the injured students, one of which in critical condition and five in serious condition, have been taken to nearby hospitals. The bus was reportedly carrying a group of students back to Channelview High School near Houston, Texas after their visit to Disney World in Florida. According to first responders, the bus, carrying 45 people, veered off road before crossing a bridge and crashed down the ravine. The company offering the bus service was First Class Tours, a Houston-based company that runs 58 buses and employs 94 drivers. According to data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the company has been inspected 276 times and has been given 20 violation warnings. The company has saw four crashes in the past two years, causing one fatality. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration said between 2006 and 2015 there have been 1,172 "school transportation related" crashes, leading to 1,313 deaths. ZAGREB, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A landslide in central Croatia has caused severe damage to a dozen houses, Croatian national television (HRT) reported on Tuesday. Although, as HRT informed, people were jumping out of windows and running from the hoses caught by the landslide, no one was seriously injured. Some houses were completely destroyed in minutes. The accident in Hrvatska Kostajnica, Croatian city near Bosnian border, happened just when Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and some government's ministers were inspecting the damage in the region that was hit by a flood. They were attending a crisis emergency session when the landslide accident happened. The prime minister was stunned by the accident that he described as a "movie scene". "A part of the hill slope collapsed, but fortunately there were no casualties. The cause of the landslide is heavy snowmelt," Prime Minister Plenkovic told reporters at the scene. Croatia was hit by extreme snowy weather and sub-zero temperatures in the past month. During the last few days, a sudden change of weather and high temperatures have turned snow into floods. Croatian army and emergency crews were sent in the areas that are most exposed to floods. LAGOS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Security has been beefed up in central north Nigeria's Kaduna state border with neighboring Plateau following fresh attack by suspected herdsmen on Tuesday which left 25 people dead in Bassa area of the state. Governor of Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai, on Tuesday directed that security agencies in the state to collaborate with their colleagues to forestall spill over to the state. He said it was unfortunate that certain elements in the border communities succumbed to the tragic cycle of attack and reprisal. The governor also directed security agencies to work hand in hand with their Plateau State counterparts to ensure that those that killed are arrested and brought to justice. Plateau police spokesman Terna Tyopev on Tuesday told reporters in Jos that 25 people were killed in an attack on Dundu, a community in the state. Plateau State is situated in Nigeria's middle belt where the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian-majority south meet. On March 7, 2010, members of local Muslim and Christian communities fought each other in revenge for previous killings. The state has witnessed some bomb blasts and constant rifts between Berom and Fulani herdsmen, with many, especially women and children, murdered in cold blood. LONDON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has told British Prime Minister Theresa May that his administration backs Britain "all the way" over the ex-Russian-spy poisoning case, a Downing Street spokesperson said Tuesday. May had concluded that it was "highly likely" Russia was to blame for the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southern English town of Salisbury. The spokesperson said in a statement that May spoke to Trump earlier Tuesday afternoon to update him on the investigation into the Salisbury incident and set out the conclusion reached by the British government that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack. "President Trump said the U.S. was with the UK all the way, agreeing that the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used," the spokesperson said. The White House also released a statement earlier Tuesday, saying that Trump stated the United States stands in solidarity with "its closest ally" and is ready to provide any assistance the United Kingdom requests for its investigation. "President Trump agreed with Prime Minister May that the Government of the Russian Federation must provide unambiguous answers regarding how this chemical weapon, developed in Russia, came to be used in the United Kingdom. "The two leaders agreed on the need for consequences for those who use these heinous weapons in flagrant violation of international norms," said the White House statement. A Downing Street spokesman said May has also called French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier to update them of the investigation, both Macron and Merkel have condemned the attack and offered their solidarity with Britain. Former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, a Russian citizen, were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in the district of Salisbury, England, on March 5. They remain in critical condition in hospital, according to British media reports. Earlier on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia, while denying any involvement in the poisoning case, was ready to cooperate with Britain in the investigation of the incident in accordance with international law, "Russia is innocent and Russia is ready to cooperate in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention if the United Kingdom condescends to honoring its international legal obligations related to the mentioned document," Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 03:16:12|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos (1st L, Front) and his Portuguese counterpart Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (2nd R, Front) review the guard of honor during an welcome ceremony in Athens, Greece, on March 13, 2018. Greece can count on Portugal's support to tackle common challenges, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told Greek political leaders on Tuesday during his official visit in Athens. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) ATHENS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Greece can count on Portugal's support to tackle common challenges, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told Greek political leaders on Tuesday during his official visit in Athens. "Greece will fully meet the obligations it has undertaken... We are confident that our partners will do their part to ensure that Greek debt becomes manageable," his Greek counterpart Prokopis Pavlopoulos said while welcoming de Sousa at the presidential mansion. The Portuguese leader responded that the Greek people can count on Portugal's support and expressed his admiration for their efforts during the past eight years of the debt crisis. "I know that this is a historic moment for Greece. You can count on Portugal, "he repeated during a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, referring to Greece's upcoming exit from the bailout programs this summer. "Portugal is a positive example for us, because it managed to leave behind this adventure of the program earlier, and this acts as a precedent that I believe is binding for creditors so that they handle similar problems in the same way," the Greek prime minister said. "We will be done with the program this August and we already see a big difference in the economic figures. We hope that we can bring a change also to the social indexes and to people's sense of the real economy as well, exactly as happened in Portugal," Tsipras added. JOHANNESBURG, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Independent Police Investigating Directorate (IPID) on Tuesday arrested a municipal police officer and five civilians for murder, kidnapping and assault with intent to cause grievously bodily harm in Johannesburg. The six are linked to the assault and murder of a person who was suspected of house breaking and theft. On February 28, 2018 the house of one of the suspects was broken into and a plasma television stolen. On March 1, the community met and apprehended 4 people suspected of housebreaking. Moses Dlamini, spokesperson of the IPID said the crowd interrogated and tortured the four. He said, "Other housebreaking suspects were assaulted and one had boiling water poured on him. The deceased was admitted at the Far East hospital and he died on March 2, 2018." Dlamini said one of those who were tortured by the crowd said a municipal police Constable attached to the VIP protection was part of the crowd that assaulted them. It is said the Constable discharged the firearm in the direction of the now deceased. The six whose age ranges from 21 to 44 years were arrested by the IPID investigators on Tuesday. The six will appear in court soon. IPID investigates complaints against the police. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 03:36:16|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close Libyan UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj (R) meets with the UK Ambassador to Libya Frank Baker (L) in Tripoli, Libya, on March 13, 2018. The Libyan Ministry of Health in cooperation with the UK and the World Health Organization (WHO) launched on Tuesday a two-year project to develop healthcare centers in Libya. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia) TRIPOLI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan Ministry of Health in cooperation with the UK and the World Health Organization (WHO) launched on Tuesday a two-year project to develop healthcare centers in Libya. The project was launched during a ceremony at the headquarters of the Ministry of Health in the Libyan capital Tripoli, with presence of the UN special envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, and British Ambassador to Libya, Frank Baker. The project aims to develop healthcare centers throughout Libya to support and improve the quality of Libyan medical services. The first phase of the project targets 6 medical centers in a number of Libyan cities, and will later include more centers in the country. It also aims to provide training for more than 300 Libyan physicians, 600 nurses, and about 150 healthcare administrators. "The ambitious project aims to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Health to effectively plan and implement healthcare service programs," said Omar Al-Tahir Bashir, Minister of Health. It will also strengthen community support for health programs and participate in the medical care system at the level of local communities, which desperately need such important and vital projects, he added. Bashir thanked the UK and WHO for "supporting the health sector, especially in improving the level of services in medical centers throughout the country." The security and economic crisis in Libya negatively affected the healthcare sector. Public hospitals and medical centers in Libya have repeatedly called for support due to lack of medical supplies and staff. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 03:46:17|Editor: yan Video Player Close CAIRO, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian and French navies have started a joint drill in the Red Sea, the Egyptian Armed Forces said Tuesday. The exercises, scheduled to last several days, come within the framework of partnership and military cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries, a military statement said. A number of Egypt's naval units, including the Mistral helicopter carrier, frigates and rocket launchers, participated in the naval drill, along with several French military boats and frigates, it added. The joint drill aims to boost the maritime security and strengthen the combat efficiency of the naval forces of the two countries, in order to get ready for any joint missions under any circumstances, according to the statement. The recent years have witnessed increasing military ties between Cairo and Paris. In October 2015, Egypt and France signed a contract worth one billion U.S. dollars on the purchase of two French Mistral warships, which were delivered to Egypt in June and September 2016. Last July, the Egyptian armed forces received two Rafale fighter jets from France as the fourth batch of a deal worth more than 5.2 billion euros (6.1 billion dollars), which was inked in February 2015. The number of Rafale warplanes delivered to Egypt has so far grown to 11 out of a total of 24 stated in the deal. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 03:46:18|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close Shoes representing the children killed in school shootings since Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 are seen on the lawn in front of the Capitol in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 13, 2018. An activist group on Tuesday placed 7,000 pairs of shoes on the lawn in front of U.S. Congress, in protest against lawmakers' inaction in face of frequent school shootings in the country. (Xinhua/Yang Chenglin) WASHINGTON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- An activist group on Tuesday placed 7,000 pairs of shoes on the lawn in front of U.S. Congress, in protest against lawmakers' inaction in face of frequent school shootings in the country. The shoes represent every child who was killed in school shootings since Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, according to the group Avaaz. "Avaaz will bring the heartbreak of gun violence to Congress' doorstep," it said in a statement, adding that guns kill over 1,300 kids a year in the United States. The shoes, which came from family members of victims, celebrities and citizens across the country, were placed early Tuesday morning and are expected to stay until late afternoon, the group said. The shoes, including sandals, boots, dance shoes, sneakers, high heels, were placed in neat rows, creating a temporary monument for the deceased. The protest was the latest movement from activists groups to call on lawmakers to take steps to curb rampant shooting incidents in U.S. schools. A 19-year-old with a semi-automatic rifle killed 17 people at a high school in Florida on Feb. 14, sparking rage among parents, students and educators. The Trump administration has directed that tighter background checks, better mental health care and tougher security at schools be implemented, proposing arming school staff to protect students. But the idea has drew condemnation from educators, who said schools will be less safe, not more, with more guns around. President Donald Trump's support for raising the minimum age to buy guns was called into question Monday, but the White House said a commission headed by the Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would form a report and make recommendations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 03:51:19|Editor: yan Video Player Close TEHRAN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian court on Tuesday sentenced former Vice President Hamid Baghaei to 15 years in prison, local media reported. Baghaei, who served as vice president for executive affairs under the administration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was found guilty of financial corruption. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 430 billion rials, an equivalent of 8.96 million U.S. dollars. SAN DIEGO, the United States, March 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump arrived at San Diego, a southern California city located along the border with Mexico, on Tuesday morning to inspect eight prototypes of border wall that he promised to construct in presidential election in 2016. It's Trump's first visit to California as president. He is also the first president since Dwight Eisenhower, who served as president from 1953 to 1961, to skip a visit to California during the first year in office. His visit is expected to be met by both demonstrators and supporters. Local groups have announced that they will organize anti-Trump rallies as the president examines the eight 30-foot-tall border wall prototypes. At least 200 people rallied and marched in downtown San Diego Monday afternoon in protest of Trump's policies. Some held signs read "build bridges, not walls,""No ban, no wall,""No human is illegal" and so on. LONDON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A nerve agent, called Novichok that has led to a former Russian spy and his daughter fighting for their lives in Britain, had not been used in Europe since World War II, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Tuesday. Sergei Skripal, aged 66 and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia Skripal, a Russian citizen, remain in a critical condition in hospital after being exposed to the nerve agent in the southern England city of Salisbury on March 4. Hundreds of officers continued Tuesday to work around the clock gathering evidence to identify those responsible for the attempted murders of the pair, in what anti-terror cops in London described as a targeted attack. Johnson issued a statement Tuesday through the Foreign Office in London in which he described what happened in Salisbury in Wiltshire County as a "brazen attempt to murder innocent people on British soil. "It's overwhelmingly likely, or highly likely that the Russian state was involved," said Johnson. A statement from the Russian Embassy said the British Ambassador to Russia, Laurence Bristow, was summoned Tuesday to the Russian Foreign Ministry, where First Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov strongly protested the evidence-free accusations by British authorities of Russia's alleged involvement in the poisoning case. "It was stated that the actions of the UK authorities are a clear provocation and that the Russian Federation was not involved in the incident that took place in Salisbury on March 4, 2018," the statement added. It continued: "From the Russian side, it was emphasised that Moscow will not respond to London's ultimatum until it receives samples of the chemical substance to which the UK investigators are referring and until the UK demonstrates compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention that stipulates a joint investigation into the incident, for which Moscow is ready. "Without that, there can be no sense in any statements from London. The incident appears to be yet another crooked attempt by the UK authorities to discredit Russia. Any threat to take 'punitive' measures against Russia will meet with a response. The British side should be aware of that." In his statement, Johnson added: "We've given the Russians until midnight to explain how the Novichok could have come to be on the streets of Britain. We cannot exclude that they have an explanation and we will want a full disclosure to the chemical weapons watchdog in the Hague. If not, there is a package of measures that we would use." Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to make an announcement to MPs in the House of Commons on Wednesday in which she may announce any proposed sanctions or measures against Russia. Ambassador Alexander Shulgin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to OPCW, made a statement about the Salisbury incident to OPCW's executive council Tuesday describing Britain's unfounded accusations of Russian involvement as "absolutely unacceptable". Shulgin said: "Our British colleagues should recall that Russia and the United Kingdom are members of the OPCW which is one of the most successful and effective disarmament and non-proliferation mechanisms. "We call upon them to abandon the language of ultimatums and threats and return to the legal framework of the chemical convention, which makes it possible to resolve this kind of situation," Shulgin said. FREETOWN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A presidential runoff will be held in Sierra Leone on March 27, between the top two runners since none of the candidates obtained at least 55 percent of the ballot in the first round, Sierra Leone's National Electoral Commission (NEC) said on Tuesday. According to the results released by the NEC, Samura Kamara, the candidate of the ruling All People's Congress(APC), obtained 1,082,748 votes, or 42.7 percent of the total valid votes cast, while his challenger, Julius Maada Bio of the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) obtained 1,097,482 votes, or 43.3 percent. Sierra Leone's general election started on March 7. Sixteen registered political parties including the ruling APC and the main opposition SLPP participated in the election. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 04:11:22|Editor: yan Video Player Close BAGHDAD, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A senior officer from a force tasked with protecting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was shot dead on Tuesday in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, a provincial security source said. Brig. Gen. Sharif Ismail, commander of a Baghdad-based special brigade protecting Abadi, was killed when militiamen of Saraya al-Salam, or Peace Companies militia, opened fire on their convoy at a checkpoint manned by the militiamen in north of the city of Samarra, the source from Samarra Operations Command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. One of Ismail's two bodyguards also died, the source added. Saraya al-Salam is a militia group loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The incident reportedly came shortly after a quarrel between Ismail's bodyguards and another group of Saraya al-Salam militiamen at a previous checkpoint in Samarra, some 120 km north of the capital Baghdad, the source said. The senior officer was heading to Iraq's northern province of Nineveh for security measures there, hours before a planned visit of Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, to the province. Sadr's militia is a reformation of the previous militia Mahdi Army, which he led during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the subsequent sectarian strife after 2003. On June 10, 2014, the group launched a blitzkrieg and seized large swathes of territories in predominantly Sunni provinces in northern and western Iraq, and later announced the formation of "Peace Companies" to protect Shiite shrines from Islamic State militants. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 04:21:24|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close Illegal immigrants are seen rescued by Libyan coast guards in Tripoli, Libya, on March 13, 2018. Libyan coast guard patrols on Tuesday rescued 119 illegal immigrants in western Libya in two separate operations, a navy spokesman said. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia) TRIPOLI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Libyan coast guard patrols on Tuesday rescued 119 illegal immigrants in western Libya in two separate operations, a navy spokesman said. "The first operation was carried out by a coast guard patrol, rescuing 98 illegal immigrants on a broken rubber boat amid turbulent sea," Ayob Qassem, navy spokesman, told Xinhua. "The operation was carried out 21 miles off Abu-Kammash town (near the Tunisian border), in conditions that almost caused the boat of the immigrants to sink," Qassem said. The second operation rescued 21 migrants off the coast of the city of Sabratha, some 75 km west of the capital Tripoli. The rescued immigrants include Bangladeshis and Egyptians, Qassem added. The navy spokesman said the rescued migrants were taken to Tripoli naval base and then handed over to the anti-illegal immigration department of Tajura in eastern Tripoli. More than 600 migrants have been rescued by the Libyan navy since the beginning of March, according to the anti-illegal immigration department. Libya has become the preferred departure point for illegal immigrants hoping to cross the Mediterranean into Europe, because of insecurity and chaos in the North African country following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Improved weather conditions have increased the flow of migrant boats from Libya towards Europe, particularly off the country's western coast. BERLIN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday condemned in strongest terms the toxin attack in Salisbury in a phone call with her British counterpart Theresa May. According to a statement from German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert, Merkel said she took the British government's assessment of the issue of Russian responsibility for the attack extremely seriously. It is up to Russia to respond swiftly to legitimate questions from the British government and to call for full and prompt disclosure of the relevant chemical weapons program to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OVCW), said Merkel. Merkel and May agreed to stay in close contact and to discuss together with the allies and European partners in an appropriate manner, the statement said. The phone call between the two heads of governments came as a former Russia spy and his daughter in London on March 4 were targeted with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. The two remain in a critical condition in hospital. May on Monday pointed her finger at Russia over a developing "poisoning attack" row, claiming that her government had concluded it was "highly likely" that Moscow was responsible for the attack. On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia, while denying any involvement in the poisoning case, was ready to cooperate with Britain in the investigation of the incident in accordance with international law. "Russia is innocent and Russia is ready to cooperate in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention if the United Kingdom condescends to honoring its international legal obligations related to the mentioned document," Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 04:41:29|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will travel to Rome for a conference in support of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said his spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday. The conference on Thursday is intended to support a collective international response to the agency's funding deficit of nearly half a billion U.S. dollars as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump's sudden steep cut in his country's contribution. The UN agency, officially known as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), is a relief and human development aid body for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. It currently helps about 5.3 million people in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria as well as West Bank and Gaza. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock is releasing 30 million dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund to urgently support Palestine refugees through UNRWA, said the UN spokesman. An exceptional grant of 15 million dollars will enable UNRWA to avoid disruption of life-saving food assistance to vulnerable refugees in the occupied Palestinian territory, where over 2.5 million people are currently in dire need of humanitarian assistance, he said. Donors are encouraged to step up urgently and increase their support for humanitarian action in the occupied Palestinian territory and the region and for UNRWA as a major humanitarian aid provider, said the spokesman. While in Rome, Guterres will co-chair a ministerial meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon. He will emphasize the importance of supporting the people and state institutions of Lebanon, said Dujarric. HELSINKI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Four talking robots are to be used in preschool and early elementary classrooms in Tampere, southwest Finland, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported on Tuesday. Three of them are owl-like robots. Produced by the Finnish company AI Robots, they will be used to assist in mathematics lessons. The fourth is a human-like robot for language practice made by another Finnish company Utelias. The City of Tampere has acquired the robots to support everyday teaching. All of the robots will be tested in the real situation in classrooms, said Yle. The first mathematics robot arrived in Tampere last Friday and will be tested at the Sorila preschool, and the other math robots and the language robot called "Elias" will be placed at three other schools in the city in the near future. The tests in Tampere are aimed to examine children's experiences and interactions with robots, according to Marika Korpinurmi, project manager at the city of Tampere. "We are, of course, also interested in how these robots could improve the quality of teaching," Korpinurmi was quoted as saying. The testing of the robots is part of the digital program called Smart Tampere, which is an initiative to improve everyday life in the city with digital solutions. RABAT, March 13 (Xinhua) -- the Moroccan authorities decided on Tuesday to ban demonstrations in the restive eastern province of Jerada, which has been protesting since last December. The eastern province has witnessed a wave of protests since last December after the death of three miners while they were digging in abandoned mines. The protesters called for justice for the dead and demanded job opportunities and "economic alternatives." "The Interior Ministry stressed its right to enforce the law in the city of Jerada by banning illegal demonstrations on public roads and responding firmly to irresponsible acts and behaviors, with a view to preserving security and protecting the interests of citizens," the Moroccan ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The ministry said that despite efforts to address the problems raised in the province of Jerada, some parties persist in undermining these efforts by trying to exploit the legitimate demands expressed and inciting the population to protest without any respect for established laws, which disrupts normal life in the region. In its efforts to address the problems raised in the province of Jerada, the government has showed a positive interaction with all social and economic demands expressed by all local stakeholders, the statement said. It added that dialogue with them has led to the operational and concrete measures in several priority sectors. The mentioned measures were announced by the Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani during the visit he paid to the region last February accompanied by a large ministerial delegation. They include the withdrawal of licenses for mineral explorations that fail to respect legal requirements as well as setting up of Jerada Industrial Zone, after the investigation into the mining exploitations in the region is completed. Jerada had been growing during flourishing mining activities since 1920s, but it suffered a major blow in late 1990s after state-owned coal mines that employed thousands of local people were forced to close down due to rising digging costs and declining coal prices. However, many local residents have continued illegal mining in the abandoned mines. HELSINKI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The ridesharing and transport service provider Uber will resume operation in Finland in the upcoming summer, Finnish media reported on Tuesday. Uber Finland, the local branch of the company, suspended its operation in Finland in summer 2017, as the company decided to await new legislation that would release the strictly regulated taxi businesses. The new Traffic Services Act, which allows ridesharing businesses in Finland, will come into force in July 2018. This means that players such as Uber will be able to start offering their services lawfully, said Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat. Joel Jarvinen, the country manager of Uber in Finland, told the daily that Uber's operation will be similar to the past, and it does not intend to limit who is eligible to drive. "Anyone who fulfills the conditions can start to drive. We do not set minimum hours or constraints on driving volumes," Jarvinen was quoted as saying. However, taxi drivers will be required to take a driving test in the future. Details of the licensing process still remain unclear, but are due to be announced by the end of this month, according to the daily. Uber began its operations in Finland in November 2014. During the two and a half years of its operation, the company had been plagued with confrontations with the Finnish taxi cab legislation. The company was the target of police investigations. In April 2016, two drivers were ordered to turn in their earnings to the state due to not having valid taxi permits. In June 2017, the Helsinki district court ordered 250,000 euros of the personal assets of the country director to be confiscated. An appeal court overturned the ruling in December 2017. However, a criminal investigation into possible violations by Uber is still ongoing. BANJUL, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Business routine in The Gambia has been shifting rapidly amid a fast growing "digital economy" that enables people to access their needs more quickly. "Although technology have been existing in the country for a reasonably long time, particularly in the areas of internet and telecommunications, little was expected by most Gambians that business will be improved by technology so soon," Gambian businesswoman Fatou Njie told Xinhua. She said the interventions of digital economy are being seen in business sectors such as energy (electricity cash power), money transfers through mobile phones, online marketing and shopping. Ansumana Sanneh, the director of country's Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA), said recently that many consumers have started taking advantage of digital economy and e-commerce services to save time and energy. "Nowadays, online shopping is catching on, replacing the day to day routine people had, such as driving to the local supermarkets or queuing at banks," he said. He said that all major commercial banks in the country provide e-banking services while two mobile operators namely Africell and Qcell also offer mobile money transfer services. According to him, the energy sector alone through digital payment saved over D150 million (3.2 million U.S. dollars) in 2017 just for electricity. Sanneh said mobile companies also allow Gambians abroad to purchase cash power through money transfer systems for family use back home. A research conducted by PURA recently indicated that the usage of mobile internet continues to register impressive growth -- the subscription has tremendously increased by 64 percent in 2015 from over 700,000 subscriptions to about 1.2 million subscriptions. Meanwhile, in the banking sector, the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) is becoming a dominant force in the industry. It was introduced in the Gambian banking system a few years ago. It helps the customers of the commercial banks to do their transactions at any time with less queuing. A secondary school teacher, Musa Sowe, after withdrawing money through his ATM Card at one of the local banks at Westfield on Sunday, was satisfied with the positive change the machine has brought about. "I started using ATM Card few months ago, it is convenient and easy. Sometimes, I come to withdraw money even at late night. It helps me a lot in an emergency situation when I cannot wait for the working hours," he said. Momodou Sabally, The Gambia's former director of budget, said mobile telephone and modern ICT like internet connectivity has become vital to business. He said The Gambia again leapt to the forefront by joining the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) consortium, thereby granting modern internet access to individuals and businesses at home. "This development has greatly aided e-commerce in the country. Practically every business has an online presence and this has impacted on the speed and efficiency of service delivery," he said. He added that the banking sector has become closer to their customers through e-banking services like customer email alerts about bank balances and real time transactions on their accounts. "This is in addition to the Central Bank of the Gambia's introduction of the ICT-based clearing system called Real Time Gross Settlements (RTGS). At least one bank (Ecobank) has introduced an App for use by their customers," he said. Sabally noted that small businesses have now started receiving online orders, citing Myfarm, an SME, that takes orders through its website and delivers agricultural products to the doorsteps of clients. He said the cost of internet in the country remains too high for the users, one of the challenges confronting the digital economy in the Gambia, "Lowering of charges coupled with faster internet speed could further transform businesses in The Gambia and therefore unleash greater economic growth since the Gambian economy is largely service-based with the service sectors accounting for more than half of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)," he said. Although the new Gambian government has yet to make any major announcements with regard to e-commerce in country, many expect e-governance initiatives to become available online under the new government. PARIS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told his British counterpart Boris Johnson on Tuesday that France had "full confidence" in Britain rapidly establishing the truth in the saga of the former Russian spy and his daughter being poisoned. During a phone conversation, Le Drian denounced the attack, which involved a military-grade nerve agent against former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia earlier this month. "We have full confidence in the British investigation so that responsibilities can be established quickly," the French minister said, adding France stood against "impunity of those who resort to or develop toxic agents. On March 4, Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in a shopping center. They remain in a critical but stable condition. British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday said it was "highly likely" that Skripal had been targeted by a "military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia". She gave Moscow until midnight on Tuesday to explain the spy poisoning incident. In Russia, Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the country's involvement in the attack. BUCHAREST, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday reiterated the need to increase NATO-EU cooperation. Iohannis made the remarks in his meeting with defense ministers and heads of ministerial delegations from the nine member states on NATO's eastern flank, under the Bucharest 9 (B9) initiative format. According to the Romanian president, steps to strengthen the role of the European Union (EU) in the field of defense must take place in complementarity with NATO, so as to avoid "unnecessary duplication". The president said his country remains a "credible ally who maintains its commitments in the spirit of the goal of equitable sharing of responsibilities", both in terms of allocating 2 percent of Romania's GDP for defense spending, as well as the national contribution to missions and operations. He also stressed the need for decisions to be adopted at the upcoming EU summit in Brussels to ensure the unity, coherence and consolidation of allied measures on the Eastern Front as part of NATO's deterrence and defense posture. Launched at the initiative of Romania and Poland in 2014, B9 consists of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. MOSCOW, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Russia consistently supports steps toward lowering the tensions on the Korean Peninsula and abandoning confrontational rhetoric, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. "Russia consistently favors steps toward lowering the tensions, switching from confrontational rhetoric to specific ways of looking for commonly acceptable settlement methods," Lavrov said at a meeting with visiting South Korean special presidential envoy Chung Eui-yong on Tuesday. Lavrov stressed that Russia welcomes Seoul's desire to build a broad front of participants in the settlement process on the Korean Peninsula. Chung Eui-yong, for his part, asked Moscow to support all processes which Seoul thinks could lead to the resolution of the crisis on the Peninsula, in particular, the planned meetings between the leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and South Korea, and the U.S.-DPRK summit meeting. Earlier this month, Chung Eui-yong visited Pyongyang and Washington, helping to arrange summit meetings between DPRK and South Korea leaders as well as between the U.S. and DPRK leaders in the following months. ROME, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The leader of the Five Star Movement (M5S) on Tuesday ruled out to form a coalition government involving all parties, following inconclusive elections in the country earlier this month. "We do not consider any hypothesis of an institutional government, or all-party government," M5S leader Luigi Di Maio told reporters. "By choosing the M5S, Italians in fact voted a candidate prime minister, a cabinet team, a political program, and the financial plan to cover that program," he added. At parliamentary elections held on March 4, anti-establishment M5S was the most voted single party with over 32 percent, behind a center-right coalition at 37 percent altogether. However, the vote resulted in a hung parliament, where neither the Five Star nor the center-right bloc would hold the necessary majority to govern alone. A public debate over possible alliances among rival parties kicked off soon after the vote, and political talks brokered by the Italian president would begin after the parliament's first session on March 23. So far, there was no clear sign of a possible solution to the current gridlock. Di Maio, 31, made clear he was ready to hold the prime minister office, as it was clearly proposed by his party in the campaign. The M5S was also "unwilling to deceive the popular mandate", and would not accept to take part in the next government if not by heading it. Nonetheless, he appealed to the other parties to come forward and start a focused discussion with the M5S on specific measures and policies for the next government's agenda. "We are ready to dialogue in order to bring the Five Star Movement into the government," Di Maio told reporters at the Foreign Press Association in the Italian capital. In terms of stability of Italy's public finances and its future relationship with the European Union (EU), the leader of the populist movement used conciliatory tones. "It must be very clear our measures on economy would always be devoted to (ensure) the stability of the country and the quality of life of Italians," Di Maio said. He stressed the M5S was ready to outline its economic policy in the government "in dialogue with Brussels, and not against Brussels." Yet, he suggested all EU member states would be ready to reconsider the limit of 3 percent imposed by Brussels on national deficit-to-GDP ratios. "It seems to me that everyone at this point agrees that limit should be overcome or reviewed," Di Maio said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 05:31:45|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close Photo taken on March 13, 2018 shows the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on combating terrorism in Khartoum, Sudan. The MoU was signed by Sudan National Anti-terrorism Authority and the Spain-based International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), a group selected by the EU to carry out its program for supporting the rule of law and combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa and Yemen. (Xinhua/Mohamed Khidir) KHARTOUM, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Sudan and the European Union signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on combating terrorism on Tuesday. The MoU was signed by Sudan National Anti-terrorism Authority and the Spain-based International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), a group selected by the EU to carry out its program for supporting the rule of law and combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa and Yemen. It aims to exchange experiences and tighten enforcement of Sudan's laws concerning terrorism, extremism and violence. Sudanese Undersecretary of Foreign Abdul-Ghani al-Naeem, highlighted Sudan's support for fighting all forms of terrorism and extremism. "Sudan has endorsed the most important legal tools regarding combating terrorism and harmonizing its local legislations accordingly," al-Naeem said. Meanwhile, Pedro Flores, director general of FIIAPP, also underlined important role of Sudan in combating terrorism. "Sudan is not only an effective member in the field of combating terrorism but is also part of the international strategy for confronting this phenomenon," Flores said. MOGADISHU, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The African Union top envy in Somalia on Tuesday called on regional states in Somalia to intensify the war against terrorist group al-Shabab. Francisco Madeira, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia who held talks with President of HirShabelle state Mohamed Abdi Waare on the security transition plan by the regional peacekeeping force, stressed the need to speed up Somalia stabilization process. "We discussed the details of the transition and saw where the transition needs to be strengthened, what we think regional forces can contribute and the importance of regional forces in securing these Main Supply Routes (MSRs) side-by-side with AMISOM and with the Somali national security forces," he said in a statement released after the meeting in Mogadishu. Madeira, who is also the head of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), said he was familiar with the challenges that faced HirShabelle, the youngest of Somalia's five federal states. The AU envoy said the peacekeeping force would work closely with the regional state to bring stability by setting up governance structures in areas AMISOM had liberated. He said there is need to bring in other components of stabilization like institutions of governance, administrators and the civil affairs officers, humanitarian agencies and police as well as other law and order institutions to help stabilize the state. The meeting came in the wake of an attack by al-Shabab militants on an AMISOM convoy escorting civilian trucks carrying humanitarian supplies from Mogadishu to Jowhar early March. Speaking during the meeting, President Waare praised the role the AU mission had played in liberating parts of HirShabelle and regretted the attack on AMISOM soldiers. "AMISOM is important to us in our daily lives, helping us to tackle these challenges in HirShabelle," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 05:36:48|Editor: yan Video Player Close KHARTOUM, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has decided to offer an equivalent of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars to Sudan's central bank amid the shortage of foreign reserves in the African country, official SUNA news agency reported Tuesday. "The UAE government has decided to support the Bank of Sudan by depositing 5 million dirhams, an equivalent of 1.4 million U.S. dollars," SUNA cited a statement by the UAE government as saying. According to the statement, the overall UAE investments and funds in Sudan amount to an estimated 28 million dirhams. Early in the month, an economic crisis erupted in Sudan after a series of government measures backfired by causing hikes in basic commodity prices and depreciation of local currency. ABUJA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian health authorities on Tuesday confirmed three more deaths from Lassa fever, a disease endemic in several west African countries. The deaths were recorded from Ekiti, a state in the southwestern region of Nigeria, local officials said. Ekiti Commissioner for Health Rotimi Ojo said five new cases were being investigated, adding there was still no cause for alarm in the state as the government was taking proactive steps in its surveillance activities. One week ago, the Nigerian government summoned an emergency meeting in Abuja to discuss measures to tackle Lassa fever outbreak. A total of 113 Lassa fever deaths have been confirmed by Nigerian authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) since the beginning of the year. The acute viral hemorrhagic fever has been reported in at least 18 states since the first case was detected on Jan. 1. Last week, Health Minister Isaac Adewole said Nigeria will check the spread of Lassa fever across the country with a vaccine. Humans usually become infected with the Lassa virus from exposure to urine or feces of infected mastomys rats. Other than common preventive measures such as washing hands regularly, the WHO has also recommended keeping cats. West African countries Ghana, Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone also reported cases of Lassa fever in the past month. LONDON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) confirmed Tuesday that the director at Edinburgh Zoo responsible for leading its panda breeding program has quit his job. RZSS said in a brief statement that Iain Valentine, the zoo's director of animals, conservation and education, has moved on from the society to pursue new interests. "Iain played a key role in the society's contribution to the worldwide panda conservation program over many years, including research and science," a spokeswoman at the zoo said. Confirmation of Valentine's departure came after RZSS announced that Edinburgh Zoo has suspended its giant panda breeding program for at least a year. In its statement the zoo said: "We will not attempt to breed our giant pandas this year because we want to further assess the incredibly complex and unpredictable breeding process. "This pause, which is supported by our giant panda team and other key specialists, will allow us further time to consider the scientific data, our own experiences and those of colleagues around the world, including the latest thinking on giant panda accommodation." A zoo spokesperson said it was hoped Tian Tian will have a cub in the future, adding: "and we will be thrilled if this happens". "Even without breeding success as yet, RZSS is playing a crucial role in safeguarding this magnificent species by helping fund conservation projects in China alongside international partners. These projects are critical, with fewer than two thousand giant pandas in the wild," said the zoo's statement. In the meantime the zoo said the pause will also enable some enhancements to be made to the giant panda enclosure which would not have been practical either during or between breeding seasons. The Guardian newspaper quoted one source Tuesday saying Valentine had complained that military jets taking part in the Edinburgh's military tattoo would fly over the zoo during August, at a crucial moment in the panda's pregnancy, just as she was close to birth. The newspaper described Valentine's resignation as a blow to the zoo. "He had been the architect of the RZSS decision to bid for a breeding pair of giant pandas, first proposing it in 2008," said the newspaper's report. Tian Tian and her mate Yang Guang arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in December 2011 on a 10-year loan. Despite a few hopeful signs that Tian Tian would produce an offspring in Scotland, there has so far been no cubs. LISBON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A compensation fund of 500,000 euros (619,628 U.S. dollars) is being established in the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal, to entice local fishermen to abandon the profession, local government announced on Tuesday. "The intention is to enable people who want to get out of the trade to do so with dignity," said Vasco Cordeiro, president of the regional government of the Azores. Cordeiro, as reported by the Portuguese Lusa News Agency, was speaking at the Regional Council for Fishing in Horta, a town on the island of Faial, one of nine islands that make up the Azores mid-Atlantic archipelago. The pay-off initiative is part of a government package designed to tackle problems in an industry deemed to be excessively staffed and too traditional in its methods. According to a survey jointly produced by local fishing associations and independent partners, around 550 boats, some 60 percent of the entire fishing fleet of the Azores, are less than 9 meters in length and roughly 25 years old. Such boats are only fit for small-scale fishing, forcing fishermen to revisit nearby waters where stocks are low. Ideally, the government would like the owners of these boats to transfer their energies to a different activity. The survey also pointed to a mismanagement of resources with too many fishermen concentrated on certain islands and not enough stationed on others. Local government wishes to address this anomaly while introducing new employment models. As things stand, fishing contracts tend to be informal and incomes too dependent on captured quantities. There are likewise proposals to overhaul the management of fishing stocks, with revised quotas and improved vigilance. "When we talk about sustainability in the fishing sector, we cannot only talk about environmental sustainability, we cannot only talk about economic sustainability, we have to also talk about social sustainability," Cordeiro said. The Regional Council for Fishing will now consider the government's proposals and report back once a form of consensus is agreed. KIGALI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Refugee protests that led to deaths in Western Rwanda in February are caused by different purpose, Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said Tuesday. The refugees were not only protesting the reduced food rations, some also wanted to return to home country or to be resettled in Europe and America while maintaining Rwandan citizenship, Mushikiwabo said at a press conference in Kigali, capital of Rwanda. Some of youth refugees who acted violently in the protests have Rwandan citizenship, which is against the law by having refugee status while maintaining Rwandan citizenship, she said. The minister, who is also the government spokesperson, urged all refugees in Rwanda to respect the law. At least five refugees were killed during the protests after they left the Kiziba refugee camp hosting refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. PRAGUE, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Czech Constitutional Court, the country's top court, on Tuesday decided to postpone the extradition of the alleged Russian hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin. The court ruled that Nikulin cannot be extradited for prosecution in the United States or Russia at present. In May of 2017, Prague Municipal Court ruled that Nikulin, who was detained in a Prague hotel in October 2016, can be sent to both the U.S. and Russia for trial. The U.S. and Russia officially requested the Czech Republic extradite Nikulin the day after he was detained. The postponement will continue until Czech Constitutional Court judges decide on a last-ditch complaint filed by Nikulin. The 30-year-old Nikulin was arrested by Czech police in a hotel in Prague in October 2016 based on an international arrest warrant issued by the U.S. According to the U.S. investigators, Nikulin used the Internet to hack computers of the LinkedIn professional network in March 2012, gaining user passwords with the aim to either sell the stolen data or use it for unauthorized access to further computers and accounts. Russia issued an arrest warrant for Nikulin's online theft of finances amounting to 3,450 U.S. dollars in 2009. Nikulin has said he prefers being extradited to Russia where he is facing a lesser punishment. But he denies the allegation that he is a hacker, arguing that it is only based on the claims of U.S. Federal Bureau of Intelligence agents. The U.S. had asked the Czech Foreign Ministry for Nikulin's extradition on November 16, 2016. Later after that, Russian also officially asked Czech Justice Ministry for Nikulin's extradition with a request issued on November 16, 2016, and based on an arrest warrant from November 10, 2016. Czech Justice Ministry spokesman Jakub Riman said that the Ministry respects the Constitutional Court's decision. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 06:21:57|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close A man (C) protests near the border wall prototypes in San Diego, the United States, on March 13, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday inspected prototypes for his long-promised wall along the border with Mexico in a tour that drew both supporters and protesters. (Xinhua/Li Ying) SAN DIEGO, the United States, March 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday inspected prototypes for his long-promised wall along the border with Mexico in a tour that drew both supporters and protesters. "If you don't have a wall system here, we're not gonna have a country," Trump warned while touring the eight prototypes of the wall he promised to build to keep out illegal immigrants near San Diego in the state of California. His inspection of the prototypes made of concrete, steel and other materials marks his first visit to California since assuming office. He is also the first president since Dwight Eisenhower to skip a visit to California during the first year in office. Since the construction work began in September, dispute between the White House and California, a Democratic stronghold that is at the forefront of resistance to his anti-immigration policy, has been fueling. The president Tuesday showed his preference to the border wall that he promised to build in the 2016 presidential election, saying the wall should can be "see-through" and tall enough so that illegal immigration can not climb over. "You have to have see-through," Trump said when he checked the prototypes, which are 30 feet (9.1 meters) high and 30 feet (9.1 meters) long. "You have to know what's on the other side of the wall." Trump described some people who illegally cross the border "like professional mountain climbers." "They're incredible climbers. They can't climb some of these walls." he said, adding "Some of them they can. Those are the walls we're not using." Trump urged Congress at the prototype construction site to fund his long-promised border wall, which will cost 18 billion U.S. dollars according to the 10-year-period construction plan. He claimed that the Mexican government will pay for the wall earlier and changed his words now that the wall will pay for itself since it will stop crimes from the other side. "The border wall is truly our first line of defense," Trump said. "It will save thousands of lives, save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by reducing crime, drug flow, welfare fraud and burdens on schools and hospitals." "According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the $18 billion wall will pay for itself by curbing the importation of crime, drugs and illegal immigrants who tend to go on the federal dole..." he tweeted Tuesday morning. However, many many local residents refused to follow the president's logic. Kathleen Rooney, a local retiree living in San Diego, told Xinhua Tuesday that she doesn't think it's a good idea to build the wall between the United States and Mexico, which she said are good neighbors that "really rely on each other a lot." "There's a tremendous amount of money that would be involved to build the wall and maintain and guard it," said Rooney. "Economically, it's really a poor decision." Holding a banner that reads "We are all immigrants," Rooney was among dozens of protesters in downtown San Diego against Trump's harsh stances on immigration. One of the rally's organizers, Rosi Escamilla, told Xinhua that she's concerned that the wall would be environmental harmful and cause more cultural division. At least 200 people rallied and marched in downtown San Diego Monday in protest of Trump's policies. Some held signs read "build bridges, not walls,""No ban, no wall," and "No human is illegal." "The wall shouldn't exist," said a protestor, Jude Santos, noting that the president with low approval ratings is only to get more support for his presidency. "Mexico people are just looking for jobs to be able to feed their families. None of Americans wants to do those jobs with low salary," she added. HELSINKI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini recalled on Tuesday the international contribution of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, hours after the latter was sacked by U.S. President Donald Trump. Interviewed on national television Yle on Tuesday evening, Soini recalled Tillerson's role when the chairmanship of the Arctic Council was transferred from the United States to Finland last May at a meeting in Alaska. Soini noted that Tillerson had been constructive in helping to formulate the declaration given and to get it accepted. Soini described Tillerson as a moderate long time business leader. Soini added that the policies of great powers do not depend on individuals alone, but on long term choices of line. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump announced to replace Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The nomination was waiting for the confirmation of the Senate. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 06:26:59|Editor: yan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Israel's parliament voted Wednesday in favor a controversial bill to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from military service, ending a political crisis threatened to prompt early elections. The parliament, or the Knesset, voted 59-38 in favor of the bill in preliminary reading. The bill still needs to be approved in three more readings before it becomes a law. The vote was held after the government reached a compromise deal, giving coalition members freedom to vote as they want on the contested bill that would give ultra-Orthodox seminary students exemption from military conscription. The deal followed days in which a political crisis loomed as the coalition partners could not agree on the new legislation. The ultra-Orthodox parties demanded the bill would be approved as a condition for voting in favor of the state's budget. On the other hand, the ultra-nationalist secularist party of Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel Our Home") refused such exemptions, charging all citizens should "share the burden." Following the freedom of vote agreed in the deal, Yisrael Beytenu lawmakers voted against the bill. Some of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition partners accused him of stoking the crisis in order to force snap elections that would help him survive corruption investigations. The police have already recommended indicting Netanyahu in two bribery cases, but the attorney general is still reviewing the evidence to decide whether to charge Netanyahu. Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-14 06:37:02|Editor: yan Video Player Close KUWAIT CITY, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese folk art show was staged in Kuwait City on Tuesday, receiving warm applause from the local audience. The art show entitled "Splendid China," which was co-organized by the Chinese Embassy to Kuwait and the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) of Kuwait, was presented by the Sichuan Vocational College of Art of China. The performance included Chinese traditional dances, magic and Bian Lian, a traditional Chinese dramatic art in which performers keep changing their colorful masks on the face. Zhu Xi, director of cultural office of the Chinese Embassy to Kuwait, expressed his hope that the show will promote exchanges and mutual understanding between the two countries. "I hope more Chinese arts groups will come to Kuwait to present traditional Chinese art. We will also make our efforts to invite the Kuwaiti arts groups to China to promote cultural exchanges," Zhu said. Aysha Adnan al Mahmoud, director of the Department of Culture of NCCAL, told Xinhua that Sichuan Vocational College of Art of China is the only foreign troupe invited to the ongoing 29th Future Generations Festival in Kuwait. "We want to give a nice chance for Kuwaitis to learn about Chinese arts and culture," Mahmoud said. Sfawy Fatima, a Kuwaiti girl who rushed to take pictures with Chinese performers after the show, expressed her love for the Chinese art. "It is the first time I found the charm of the traditional Chinese folk art. I wish I could go to China to see more of it," she said. SAN DIEGO, the United States, March 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump triggered a new verbal battle with the western state of California while saying "I think the governor of California is doing a terrible job of running the state of California." During his first visit to California on Tuesday since he was sworn into the White House last January, Trump slammed California Governor Jerry Brown's tax policy, asserting that the state has the highest rate in the country." The taxes are way, way out of whack and people are going to start to move pretty soon, Trump said. However, result from Public Policy Institute of California's January poll showed that in the state, Brown enjoyed 56 percent approval rate with only 29 disapproval, while Trump has one of the poorest performance in history by 26 percent approvla to 71 percent disapproval rate. Brown has been critical of the president throughout the first year in his tenure, including regularly faulting the plan to build a wall along the border with Mexico. Both Trump and Brown exchanged fires on this issue even before Air Force One landed in California. Trump tweeting Tuesday morning: "California's sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk." "Thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP!" it added. However, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra mocked Trump's trip earlier and responded to Trump's remarks very quickly. One day before Trump's visit to California, Brown, who was reportedly having no plan to meet the president during his visit, offered an invitation Monday. "After you've examined your wall prototypes on the border, I invite you to head north to the Central Valley - the heart of California," Brown said in a letter released publicly. "You see, in California we are focusing on bridges, not walls. And that's more than just a figure of speech." This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company. As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism. We hope you are equally as excited as us. This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers. Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited. In the meanwhile, here are some of our most popular posts and categories to keep you busy. Happy shootin' my friends! Buying Guides: Firearms Firearm Accessories Ammunition Gun Safes Scopes & Optics Hunting Air Rifles Best AR-15 Best AR 15 Scope Best Hunting Rifle Best Gun Safe Best AK 47 Best AR 10 Best Glock Triggers Best Glock Best Home Defense Shotgun Latest News Washington, DC - Scientists uncovered a high-resolution map of the wiring inside the mouse brains thirst center. With these blueprints, they could trick mice into becoming light or heavy water drinkers. Moreover, they discovered a quenching circuit that knew when to tell the brain, Stop, the body has had enough. Supported, in part, by the NIHs Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Technologies (BRAIN) Initiative, the results may also provide a glimpse into the rules that govern how the brains circuits work. Bodily fluids are maintained by a delicate and tightly regulated balance of thirst and satiety. We genetically mapped out the neuronal circuits that tell the body when to drink, said Yuki Oka, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, and senior author of the study published in Nature His group studied the circuits of the lamina terminalis, the thirst center located deep inside the brain. For decades, scientists have knownthat three groups of neurons in this area cooperated to control drinking, and they even had clues as to which type of neurons did so. But no one had a genetically defined circuit diagram for how they did it. Nor did they completely understand how the cells tell the body to stop drinking well before the stomach fully absorbs water and other fluids. Using genes designed to help scientists dissect brain circuits, the researchers of this study found that opposing lines of communications running through an area of the lamina terminalis called the median preoptic nucleus (MnPO) may be critical players. One line was essentially responsible for telling the mice to drink while the other line told them when to stop. Both seemed to work in sequential order, relaying drinking or quenching messages from one neuron to another. Use of the mapping tools was supported by NIHs BRAINInitiative. A goal of the BRAIN Initiative is to arm scientists with 21st century tools so they can fully understand how the healthy and diseased brain works at a level never seen before, said Dr. Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D., director of the NIHs National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This study is a good example of how, after only a few years, the publics investment in the BRAIN Initiative is paying off and helping researchers solve some of the mysteries of the brain. Drinking Circuit Previously, Dr. Oka and his colleagues had shown that activation of neurons in an area of the lamina terminalis called the subfornical organ (SFO) may trigger drinking in response to dehydration. The neurons could be identified by the fact that they send excitatory, or stimulating, signals to other cells and were marked by genes called ETV1 and nitric oxide synthase (NOS). In this study, his team found that drinking may happen when the same type of neurons in the MnPO relay drink messages from the subfornical organ NOS neurons out of the lamina terminalis to other parts of the brain. In agreement with other studies, injections of viruses loaded with tracing genes showed that NOS neurons in the SFO were directly connected to the same type of neurons in the MnPO and another area called the vascular organ of lamina terminalis (OVLT). Moreover, injections of optogenetic genes, which allow researchers to turn neurons on and off with light, helped the researchers show that the activation of NOS neurons in the SFO triggered the firing of their partners in the MnPO and OVLT. Although activation of NOS neurons in any of the three areas triggered drinking in mice, further experiments suggested that the thirst impulse required the presence of NOS neurons from the median preoptic nucleus. Genetically killing those neurons prevented the researchers from inducing drinking when they activated NOS neurons in the SFO and greatly reduced the chance they could induce drinking by stimulating neurons in the OVLT. Our results support the idea that the lamina terminalis funnels drink signals out to the rest of the brain via neurons in the median preoptic nucleus, said Dr. Oka. Furthermore, our results suggest that connections between NOS neurons in the subfornical organ and the median preoptic nucleus form the main circuit that drives drinking. Quenching Circuit In a separate set of experiments, Dr. Okas team showed that mice may stop drinking when a different type of neuron in the median preoptic nucleus sends inhibitory, or quieting, signals to NOS neurons in the subfornical organ. The neurons were marked by a gene called glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP1R). The researchers almost completely prevented dehydrated mice from drinking when they activated the GLP1R neurons in the median preoptic nucleus. In contrast, when the researchers genetically silenced the neurons, the dehydrated mice drank a saline solution more than normal. Tracing experiments and electrical recordings confirmed that these neurons sent inhibitory signals to NOS neurons in the subfornical organ via their axons, the part of the neuron that traditionally sends messages to others. Finally, Dr. Okas team investigated how the GLP1R neurons in the median preoptic nucleus knew when to stop drinking. Their results showed that the neurons fired only when the mice drank fluids, including saline, sugar water, and oil, but not when the mice licked a dry water spout or ate a watery gel. This suggested that both the ingestion of fluids and the act of gulping were required to activate the neurons. Our results shed light on a new aspect of appetite regulation. It appears that the act of drinking itself sends satiety signals to the brain and these neurons act like fluid flow-meters that tell the brain when the body has had enough to drink, said Dr. Oka. This circuit may be the reason why the brain knows to stop drinking well before the gut has fully absorbed all the water the animal drinks. In the future, Dr. Oka plans to continue using genetic tools to dissect other circuits that are involved with drinking and thirst including those that appear to connect to the median preoptic nucleus neurons described in this study. p> This study was supported by the NIHs BRAIN Initiative (NS099717); Startup funds from the President and Provost of CalTech and the Biology and Biological Engineering Division; the Searle Scholars Program; the Mallinckrodt Foundation; the Okawa Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the Klingenstein-Simons Foundation; the Della Martin Fellowship. The NIHs Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. It is managed by 10 institutes whose missions and current research portfolios complement the goals of the BRAIN Initiative: NCCIH, NEI, NIA, NIAAA, NIBIB, NICHD, NIDA, NIDCD, NIMH, and NINDS. NINDS is the nations leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease. Latest News Washington, DC - Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer named the next Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in honor of Marine Corps Vietnam veteran and Navy Cross recipient Lance Cpl. Patrick Gallagher. In 1966, Gallagher, who immigrated from Ballyhaunis, Ireland in 1962, joined the Marine Corps where he served in H-Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division during Operation Hastings in the Republic of Vietnam. "Lance Corporal Gallagher is an American hero. His exemplary service in defense of our nation and his strength and sacrifice leaves an example for all servicemen and women to emulate," said Spencer. "His legacy will live on in the future USS Gallagher and his heroic actions will continue to inspire future Sailors and Marines." Gallagher was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions on July 18, 1966, when he selflessly threw his body on an incoming grenade, shielding his fellow Marines. He quickly pitched the grenade to a nearby river where it safely exploded out of harm's way, without injury to himself or others. Gallagher was killed in action one year later in DaLoc near De Nang on March 30, 1967. He is one of only 30 known Irish citizens to have died in the Vietnam conflict. Arleigh-Burke class destroyers conduct a variety of operations from peacetime presence and crisis response to sea control and power projection. The future USS Gallagher (DDG 127) will be capable of fighting air, surface and subsurface battles simultaneously, and will contain a combination of offensive and defensive weapon systems designed to support maritime warfare, including integrated air and missile defense and vertical launch capabilities. The ship will be constructed at Bath Iron Works, a division of General Dynamics in Maine. The ship will be 509 feet long, have a beam length of 59 feet and be capable of operating at speeds in excess of 30 knots. Latest News Washington, DC - President Donald J. Trump spoke today with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada regarding the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum that the President announced last week. President Trump emphasized the importance of quickly concluding the ongoing NAFTA negotiations to ensure the vitality of United States and North American manufacturing industries and to protect the economic and national security of the United States. Yuma News Yuma, Arizona - City of Yuma Mayor Douglas J. Nicholls will host an Economic Development Regional Summit aimed to strengthen cross-border partnerships and boost communication between leaders in the mega-region. The Summit includes communities from Arizona, Baja California, California and Sonora. Details are included below: The Summit stems from an original meeting of more than a dozen binational region mayors that took place in Mexicali, Baja California, on September 27, 2017, hosted by Mexicali Mayor Gustavo Sanchez Vasquez. At that Summit, the leaders discussed possible ways to continue collaborative efforts on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Mayor Nicholls' Summit on March 15 aims to continue that dialogue and cross-border collaboration with a focus on economic development. Coun Perez reiterates warning to barangay leaders involved in drugs 07 Aug 2017 Hits:37 Comments(0) Liga ng mga Barangay President, Councilor Jerry Perez yesterday reiterated his warning to all barangay officials from using or selling drugs. Perez said he is closely monitoring the activities of all the barangay officials and vowed sanctions against erring leaders. Aqui gane na mio barangay ya quita ya iyo na puesto cunel dos barangay leaders quien mas temprano ya sale positivo na... Patna: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP RK Sinha from Bihar on Monday said prohibition has failed in the state and called for a review of the much-hyped policy, which is currently in effect in the state. The BJP is a ruling ally of Nitish Kumar-led government in the state. Sinha, a Rajya Sabha member of BJP said in chaste Hindi: "Sharabbandi ke lagu karne ke tarikon par purnvichar ki avashyakta hai (There`s a need to review the way prohibition policy has been imposed)." Speaking in Sasaram, the district headquarters of Rohtas, he said that Nitish Kumar`s intention behind implementing prohibition in the state was good and society had also benefited, but loopholes in its implementation had provided an opportunity to liquor mafia and officials to mint money. Sinha said that there was a need for reform in the implementation of prohibition policy in the state. "Prohibition has hit hard tourism sector and hotel business in the state. Big companies and MNCs are hosting their meetings and other functions in neighbouring West Bengal." It is first time that the ally of ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has raised questions over prohibition in Bihar, after the party joined hands with Nitish Kumar and formed the government in July last year. More than 1.29 lakh persons have been arrested for violating the prohibition imposed by the Nitish government in Bihar about two years ago. Of all the sins perpetrated by the political class against private enterprise in this century, the most conspicuous and insidious has been mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR). Since sin always has consequences, mandatory CSR has also resulted in making regulation heavier and nastier. This has just augmented the burden of compliances for India Inc. "The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is sending out notices seeking details of how and on what CSR funds are being disbursed, say people familiar with the issue, adding officials want to check if corporate social work is actually happening," said a report on Saturday. The Companies Act, 2013, stipulates that the companies with net worth of Rs 500 crore or more, turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more, or net profit of Rs 5 crore or more shall be required to spend 2 per cent of their three-year average profits to help society in such causes as healthcare, education, poverty alleviation, environment, and rural development. The stipulation is morally reprehensible, logically repugnant, and economically wasteful. Making CSR mandatory is morally reprehensible because it tends to colonize the conscience of businesspersons. It is something that even the cruellest tyrants did not do; they terrorized and chained their subjects, tortured their bodies, and slaughtered millions. Some Muslim rulers even forcibly converted the infidels under their control, but even they didn't try to control the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of their subjects. This is the most conspicuous and insidious feature of the measure that India Inc has to suffer. Since time immemorial, it is philosophers, thinkers, writers, religious leaders, saints, etc., who have shaped the conscience and ethics of peoples, communities, cultures, and civilizations all over the world. They have preached virtue, righteous conduct, charity, et al; they have taught, lectured, sermonized, even harangued their followers to stick to what they regarded as the right path. But they have always persuaded rather than coerced the people. This is how various faiths, belief and value systems, and moral imperatives have evolved. But it is in India, and that too in the 21st century, that something as evil as state-enforced philanthropy has come into being. For this is what mandatory CSR spending amounts to. India is the only country in the world where this monstrosity has surfaced. In a way, compulsory CSR desecrates philanthropy, a noble human instinct. Over 25 centuries ago, a prince gave all the luxuries in order to redeem his fellow men and women. This is how Siddhartha Gautam became Lord Buddha. The command came from his heart, not from his father, the king (who actually was not happy with his son's renunciation). Similarly, innumerable Europeans forsook their comfortable lives to serve humanity as Christian missionaries in Africa and Asia-against without any government order. Not long ago, millions of youngsters embraced that socialism or communism (mistakenly) believing that this would end misery in the world. In rich countries, tycoons donate huge amounts to set up foundations and charities. Indian business houses too have been working to make the country a better place. Therefore, there is no reason that our government should compel big business to become philanthropic. The report quoted Arun Nanda, former executive director at the Mahindra Group who switched tracks in 2010 to focus on the social sector. According to him, CSR has to come from the heart, not from government diktat: "If you look not just at Mahindra & Mahindra's work but also at what the Tata Trusts have been doing, it started much before CSR became obligatory. If it is in your DNA, it is done with the right intent and the purpose is met." But our political masters want to ignore this simple truth. In this context, it is worth remembering Kahlil Gibran's famous poem, The Prophet. Gibran's protagonist told the people of Orphalese, "Your children are not your children," and enlightened them how children "are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself." Our rulers tell the captains of Indian industry, "Your conscience is not your conscience," and then go on making CSR an essential requirement. Mandatory CSR is also logically repugnant because if the state welfarism, it should be carrying it out itself; it can't shirt its responsibility to businessmen. It is like a man marrying and having children-and expecting somebody else to take care of his family. Further, it is economically wasteful, for it leads to more compliances which result in the unnecessary allocation of a company's time, money, and energy into an activity that doesn't add a penny to the bottom line. As it is, compliances are numerous and onerous; businesspersons, especially in the small and medium sector, are grumbling about them. Now the authorities will also be breathing down the neck of industrialists for not having spent or not having properly spent money on CSR. In a nutshell, compulsory CSR is not only ethically repugnant but also this flies in the face of Make in India programme. And it surely is not a measure that would enhance the ease of doing business. (Ravi Shanker Kapoor is a journalist and author. He has spent around 25 years in the media. As a freelance journalist, Kapoor has written for a number of leading publications. He has written four books on Indian politics and its associated institutions.) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.) New Delhi: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who fell sick while shooting for Yash Raj Films' 'Thugs Of Hindostan' in Jodhpur is currently recovering well, reports suggest. In the midst of all this, social media is fluttering with another bit of latest scoop coming from the film sets. Amitabh Bachchan's look apparently has been leaked online and the picture that has gone viral on social media will leave your jaws wide open. One of the fan clubs shared it on Instagram. Check it out: Thugs of Hindostan features Aamir Khan in the lead role besides Bachchan senior. Fatima Sana Shaikh and Katrina Kaif play female leads in the period drama by Yash Raj Films. The venture is helmed by 'Dhoom 3' helmer Vijay Krishna Acharya. The film is reportedly based on Philip Meadows Taylor's 1839 novel Confessions of a Thug and the film is set to be released on Diwali this year. No official word has been made by the makers about the leaked look of Amitabh Bachchan so far. Earlier, several pictures of Aamir, Fatima and Katrina shooting a song too had gone viral. The film is high on the buzz word, and any news about the film is making the fans go crazy! Mumbai: Irrfan Khan-starrer "Blackmail" will release as per schedule, the makers have announced after meeting the actor. Irrfan, 51, recently announced that he was fighting a rare disease in a Twitter post. Bhushan Kumar and Abhinay Deo met Irrfan, whose ill health had led to speculation about his upcoming projects. According to the filmmakers, Irrfan told them to go ahead with the planned release of the film. "I recently met Irrfan and even though he is battling his health, he was very excited about the initial response to the trailer and songs of 'Blackmail' and was very keen that we released the film in the best possible way on April 6 as scheduled. We are all praying for him and I am confident that he will sit with us and watch the film on April 6." "Our prayers are with Irrfan and his family. We are hopeful that he will recover from his illness. As per his wish, we will release Blackmail on April 6 in the best possible manner," Kumar added. Besides Irrfan, the film features Kirti Kulhari, Divya Dutta, Arunoday Singh, Omi Vaidya and Pradhuman Singh. The film is produced by T-Series and RDP Motion Pictures. RAIPUR: At least nine Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed and six injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast by suspected Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Tuesday. Combing ops were underway in the morning when a CRPF vehicle was targetted by Naxals using IED. We've reports of eight to ten casualties and wounded said DM Awasthi, Special DG, Anti Naxal Operations. Additional forces have been deployed to carry rescue operations. No further firing has happened. The Maoists blew up their mine-protected vehicle (MPV), an official told news agency PTI. Out of the six injured, four are in a critical condition. A lot of explosives were used to blow up the MPV, the official said. The blast took place a team of CRPF's 212th battalion was patrolling in a forest in Kistaram area of Sukma, located around 500 kms from Raipur city, informed a paramilitary official. "Eight paramilitary personnel, belonging to the 212th battalion, were killed in the blast," he said. The security men were conducting an area-domination operation in the forest of Kistaram when the Maoists blew up the CRPF's mine-protected vehicle, he said. Soon after the incident, reinforcement was rushed to the spot, he said. With agency inputs New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday expressed his condolences to the families of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. He also said that the Sukma incident was 'deeply distressing'. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans. I spoke to DG @crpfindia regarding the Sukma incident and asked him to leave for Chhattisgarh. Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) March 13, 2018 Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh too tweeted: Deeply anguished by the demise of our Jawans in the Sukma IED blast. Deepest condolences to the families of the brave martyrs and constant prayers for those injured. I am overwhelmed with grief on this loss. Dr Raman Singh (@drramansingh) March 13, 2018 Nine CRPF personnel were killed after suspected Naxals blew up their mine-protected vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Sukma, around a year after a dozen jawans were killed in a similar ambush in the district. ASI RKS Tomar, constable Ajay Kumar Yadav, constable Manoranjan Lanka, constable Jitendra Singh, constable Shobhit Sharma, constable Manoj Singh, constable Dharmendra Singh, constable Chandra HS and head constable Lakshman lost their lives in the blast. We salute our martyrs who made the supreme sacrifice on this day. Your brave deeds continue to inspire generations. #BharatKeVeer pic.twitter.com/V7LWZFLQcn CRPF (@crpfindia) March 13, 2018 Officials said the incident took place around 12:30 pm along the Kistaram-Palodi road of the district when the troops of the 212th battalion of the CRPF were out on an operation. The Naxals used a lot of explosives to blow up the vehicle, a state police official said, PTI reported. Twelve personnel of the force were killed on March 11, 2017, in the Bheji area of the district and their arms looted, when Naxals ambushed their patrol party. A few days later on April 24, 2017, twenty-five personnel of the paramilitary were killed in a similar ambush in Sukma. (With PTI inputs) Coimbatore: State-run Bank of India has recovered Rs 7,000 crore worth Standby Letters of Credit in the last two months and the balance of Rs.2,000 crore would be recovered in another two months, a top bank official said on Monday. This recovery will substantially improve the Bank's balance sheet, Bank of India Executive Director N Damodharan told reporters here. The bank has embarked on a plan, following restrictions from RBI on it under the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework. The bank is aiming to bring down its net NPA ratio substantially, to below six percent, he said. Asked about credit growth, he said it has grown 22 percent in the first nine months of 2017-18. Stating that the bank has not tightened its norms for providing loans to MSMEs in the wake of the recent frauds in the banking sector, Damodharan said about 85 percent of the accounts have been linked with Aadhaar. To a specific question on the recent incidents of frauds in the banks, he said "there are multiple checks and balances. We have a robust audit system in place." New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday approached the Election Commission demanding that the nomination of Congress leader Naranbhai Rathwa for the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat be quashed because of several irregularities in his form. A delegation of senior party leaders, including Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Piyush Goyal, went to the Commission tonight, seeking action against Rathwa and PK Valera, a Congress-backed independent candidate. Naqvi said they have demanded that the Congress candidate's nomination be quashed. ?He has hidden several information, including those regarding criminal cases against him. He has also not submitted due no-objection certificates,? he said. Goyal said the BJP delegation informed the EC about ?irregularities? in nomination forms of Rathwa and also Valera. The BJP's complaint ahead of the biennial polls to the Upper House on March 23 marks yet another instance of its all out attack on the opposition party over a Rajya Sabha election as it had earlier targeted its senior leader Ahmed Patel during polls last year. Both the BJP and the Congress had then approached the EC a number of times. Patel had won in a hard-fought battle. The BJP's complaint today followed its whip Suresh Angadi's complaint to the Lok Sabha Speaker, alleging ?gross irregularities? in granting several no objection certificates given to Rathwa. In a letter seeking an investigation, Angadi said he was given seven NOCs within 40-50 minutes yesterday and wondered if any verification was carried out. Sources said the Speaker's office has ordered an enquiry into the matter. Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani said a no-dues certificate was issued to Rathwa at 3.30 PM yesterday by the Lok Sabha secretariat, an hour after he filed his nomination papers along with a "fake certificate". "We objected to the papers submitted by Rathwa during the scrutiny process of Rajya Sabha forms. Rathwa had served as a central minister and the no-dues certificate he submitted was a fake one," alleged Vaghani. However, the Congress dismissed the allegations as baseless and claimed that the returning officer accepted Rathwa's nomination papers after scrutiny today. "The objections raised by the BJP during the scrutiny process of our Rajya Sabha candidates lack substance. The RO over-ruled the BJP's objections to approve Rathwa's candidature," said Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil. A total of seven candidates have filed nomination papers for four seats falling vacant from the state for March 23 Rajya Sabha elections. The BJP has fielded Union ministers Purshottam Rupala, Mansukh Mandavia, and former MLA Kiritsinh Rana, while the Congress nominated Amiben Yagnik and Naran Rathwa. The Congress also extended support to independent candidate PK Valera, who is a Congress general secretary in the state unit. Extending support to Valera is seen as a tactical move of the Congress to save its second seat in case there is any threat to Rathwa's candidature. In the 182-member House, the ruling BJP has 99 MLAs while the opposition Congress 77. Both the parties are in a position to send two candidates each to the Rajya Sabha, as the minimum number of votes required per candidate is 37. A quick glance at the top news of the day: 1. Army chief dispels 'myth' on defence expenditure being used only for military Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said that it is a myth that the entire defence expenditure is utilised only for maintaining military. "Is entire defence expenditure being utilised only for maintaining military? This is a myth I wish to dispel," said the Army chief during a media interaction. Read full report 2. How Pakistan shelters Dawood Ibrahim, Farooq Takla reveals in a Zee News Exclusive India's repeated charge that Pakistan has been providing shelter to terrorist and D-Company boss Dawood Ibrahim was vindicated when close aide Farooq Takla - arrested from Delhi airport last week - revealed to investigation agencies the details of his residence, safehouse, and his security contingent which is managed by Pakistan Rangers. Read full report 3. Jaya Bachchan snubs Naresh Agrawal over 'film wali' remark, says 'I am a stubborn lady' Actor-politician and Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan on Tuesday refused to comment on the remarks against her by BJP leader Naresh Agrawal. "I am a stubborn lady, I will not answer," she said while talking to media persons. Read full report 4. SC extends Aadhaar linking with bank accounts, mobile phones indefinitely till final judgement The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the linking of Aadhaar cards with bank accounts and mobile phones will not be mandatory until the apex court delivers the final judgment. The five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said that the government cannot insist for mandatory Aadhaar. Read full report 5. Nine CRPF jawans killed by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma; Rajnath calls it 'deeply distressing' Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday expressed his condolences to the families of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. He also said that the Sukma incident was 'deeply distressing'. Read full report 6. Donald Trump sacks Rex Tillerson, appoints CIA chief Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State US President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed Rex Tillerson from the post of secretary of state. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!," he said. Read full report Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said that it is a myth that the entire defence expenditure is utilised only for maintaining military. Is entire defence expenditure being utilised only for maintaining military? This is a myth I wish to dispel, said the Army chief during a media interaction. General Rawat added that almost 35 per cent of the budget allocation for the defence sector is utilised for the purpose of nation building. Among examples he mentioned development of infrastructure in border areas. When we develop infrastructure on our borders, we are connecting the people who live in far areas with mainland. This helps in uniting the nation, said General Rawat. The Army chief also had a message for Pakistan, saying India has the option of going to the next level if the neighbour raises the threshold any higher, referring to repeated incidents of ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC). Should they raise the threshold any higher, we have the option of going to the next level. Pakistan is just ensuring that they dont raise the threshold. The people sitting across the border line are suffering more damage than what we are suffering, said General Rawat. He added, We have made sure that they also face the same brunt. When they find that they have had enough, then we will be able to call for a ceasefire on our terms. We do not want a ceasefire to be called on Pakistan's terms. During the same media interaction, Rawat acknowledged the military might of China, saying Chinese have finally arrived. The Army chief pointed that China ensured rise of its military power along with its economic prowess. Chinese have finally arrived. I can say that. They did not forget that military power should rise simultaneously with economy, said General Rawat. He further acknowledged that China stands strong today in the world order, challenging the might of the US. According to the Army chief, countries across the world have started looking up to India after the rise of China. He said, As China has risen, countries have started looking up to India to see whether we can also become a nation that can balance the rise of China. NEW DELHI: The adjudicating authority of the PMLA on Tuesday confirmed Rs 1.16 crore assets attached by the Enforcement Directorate in the name of former union minister's son Karti Chidambaram and a firm allegedly linked to him in the Aircel Maxis case and alleged that they were involved in money laundering. The central probe agency had provisionally attached fixed deposits and bank balances in the name of Karti and a firm "indirectly controlled" by him in September last year. "Adjudicating authority of PMLA confirms attachment of assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of Karti Chidambaram and Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd in Aircel Maxis case," the central probe agency said in a statement. The assets have been called as that involved in money laundering and the ED will soon seize them, agency sources said. The ED, as part of the provisional order issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act last year, had attached Rs 1.16 crore worth assets "of Karti in the form of fixed deposits and balance in saving bank account to the tune of Rs 90 lakh approximately." It had also attached another Rs 26 lakh fixed deposits in the name of the firm Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL) under the provisions of the anti-money laundering law. This firm is allegedly linked to Karti and the Enforcement Directorate had said it was "controlled" by him through another person. The ED had also alleged that Karti had "disposed" of a property in Gurgaon and had "closed certain bank accounts and attempted to close other bank accounts in order to frustrate the process of attachment" under the PMLA. The agency is probing the Aircel-Maxis deal, as part of the 2G spectrum allocation case, after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR in the case. The FIPB clearance given in this case is under the agency's scanner. The accused can appeal against this order, issued by the authority, before the Appellate Tribunal of the Act. Meanwhile, Karti is in the judicial custody till March 24 in the alleged INX Media bribery case. On Monday, Delhi's Patiala House Court extended his judicial custody, while dismissing his plea for early hearing of his bail application. He was arrested on his return from the United Kingdom in connection with the FIR lodged on May 15 last year. It alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds of about Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father was Union finance minister. The CBI had initially alleged that Karti Chidambaram received Rs 10 lakh as bribe for facilitating Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media. It, however, later revised the figure to USD 1 million (about Rs 6.50 crore at the current exchange rate and Rs 4.50 crore in 2007). The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered Karti Chidambaram's arrest, was based on the statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former co-director of INX Media (P) Ltd, who recorded it under section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate on February 17. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: Pandamonium broke out in the Telangana Legislative Council on Monday after a Congres member hurled a mike at Chairman K Swamy Goud - injuring his right eye. Congress' Komatireddy Venkat Reddy hurled the mike in an attempt to disrupt Governor ESL Narasimhan's joint address to the Telangana State Legislature. Goud, who was sitting beside Narasimhan, was struck on his right eye and was immediately rushed to Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital for a full checkup and possible treatment. Doctors have kept him under observation for 24 hours. Deputy Speaker M. Padma Devender Reddy, after visiting Swamy Goud in hospital, said, "It was an unexpected thing, what happened in the assembly. I just checked the condition of Swamy Goud. His right eye is completely swollen and the dressing has been done to his eye. Doctors asked to admit him in hospital for observation of his condition. We haven`t filed any complaint against this". The incident came for strong condemnation from legislators cutting across party lines and Reddy was first suspended and then expelled from the Assembly. (With ANI inputs) NEW DELHI: Foreign lawyers and law firms cannot practice or open offices in India, the Supreme Court has held. The top court upheld the judgements by the Madras High Court in 2012 and the Bombay High Court in 2009 that foreign lawyers may only offer advice on foreign laws on a 'fly-in-fly-out' basis. The Supreme Court also directed the Bar Council of India (BCI) to frame the rules to govern the role that lawyers from other countries can be involved in legal matters in India, reported news agency ANI. Counsels for the BCI, arguing against allowing foreign lawyers from practicing in India, pointed to similar limitation being placed in other countries. They cited an American case in which it was deemed an unauthorised practice of the law for a Mexican lawyer in New York to advice on divorce proceedings in Mexico under Mexican law, legal news portal Live Law reported. The ruling came from a bench of Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit, who held that foreign law firms and advocates would also not be allowed to take place in negotiations or arbitration proceedings, and would have to rely on Indian partners to take such processes forward. Earlier, Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh had told the court that the Centre supports the entry of foreign firms in the Indian legal sector. He had said that foreign lawyers should be allowed to come to India if Indian lawyers wanted the privilege of doing so in other countries. The Bombay High Court, in its 2009 judgement, had held that while foreign law firms could not practice in India, foreign individuals may do so after getting registered in India. The Madras High Court had built on this in its 2012 ruling that foreign lawyers and firms could only advice Indian companies or individuals on a 'fly-in-fly-out' basis, which effectively barred them from not just practice but also taking part in arbitrations and negotiations. (With inputs from ANI) Ghaziabad: At least three persons died and several others admitted to a local hospital after they drank alcohol which was reportedly poisoned. The incident took place late Monday night in Ghaziabad's Khora locality. Local media reports suggest that several people complained of acute pain a night after consuming spurious alcohol called Party Special and Crazy Romeo. They were rushed to the hospital where three - Ashok, Avinash and Sandip - were declared dead. Even as others admitted are receiving treatment, locals in the area have trained their guns on the administration and blame a nexus between police officials and local hooch makers for the tragedy. Many say this is not the first instance when people consuming alcohol have died in their area but police officials have failed to nab culprits responsible for manufacturing and supplying the bottles. Police officials reached the locality early Tuesday morning and while they have denied the charges, maintain that a thorough investigation will take place. A search operation to seize bottles of Party Special has also been launched - many reportedly being recovered from local houses here. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall between Tuesday and Thursday (March 13 and March 15) in coastal areas of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and in Lakshadweep. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has advised fishermen in the region to exercise caution as the sea is expected to be extremely rough. The IMD has said that a depression over sourth-east Arabian Sea from Monday has moved to Equatorial Indian Ocean and is adjoining Sri Lanka and Maldives. While it is not expected to move further north, the depression is likely to cause very heavy rainfall in southern districts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The sea during this time will be 'rough to very rough' around the area as well as in Lakshadweep. Fishermen are also advised not to venture into sea along & off #Kerala coast, #Lakshadweep area and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea during 13th -15 th March 2018.(1/7) Source:IMD NDMA India (@ndmaindia) March 13, 2018 Locals too have been advised to exercise caution and brace for heavy rainfall. NEW DELHI: Former TV anchor and producer Suhaib Ilyasi on Tuesday approached Delhi High Court and challenged the trial court order which sentenced him to life imprisonment for murdering his wife. On December 20, a city court had sentenced the ex-TV anchor-producer to life imprisonment for the same. Ilyasi, the former television presenter of once popular criminal hunt show 'India's Most Wanted', was earlier convicted by the Karkardooma court in connection with the death of his wife, Anju Ilyasi, way back in the year 2000. The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge S K Malhotra. Suhaib was found guilty on the charge of murder under the Indian Penal Code. Suhaib Ilyasi had been under scanner over his suspicious role in the murder of his wife for nearly seventeen years. While deciding two separate pleas of Ilyasi and his mother-in-law, Rukma Singh, Justice Indermeet Kaur said, "The prima facie material collected by the prosecution justifies the framing of additional charge under Section 302 (murder) of IPC. The revision petition is disposed of with a direction to the trial court to frame an additional charge under Section 302 of IPC." Ilyasi's mother-in-law Rukma Singh had sought inclusion of the additional charge of murder against him for her daughter's death on January 11, 2000. Section 302 of Indian Penal Code entails death penalty as the maximum punishment. Ilyasi was earlier charged under milder sections 304B (dowry death) of IPC and had moved the court against a decision of the police to form a fresh medical panel to ascertain the nature of his wife's death. He had alleged that the formation of the medical board was illegal as it was being done after filing of a chargesheet and framing of charges for the offence of dowry death. On January 11, 2000, Anju was rushed from Suhaib's east Delhi house to a hospital with fatal stab wounds. Ilyasi, who had shot into limelight after hosting a TV crime show 'India's Most Wanted', was arrested on March 28, 2000. Later, charges were framed against him in the case after his sister-in-law and mother-in-law alleged that he used to torture Anju for dowry. NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court on Tuesday granted bail to Karti Chidambram's Chartered Accountant S Bhaskararaman in alleged INX Media bribery case. Bhaskararaman was in jail in a case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and had moved the court for anticipatory bail in the corruption case. On Monday, Delhi's Patiala House Court extended Karti's judicial custody till March 24 in the corruption case, while dismissing his plea for early hearing of his bail application. Shortly after the development, junior Chidambaram moved Delhi High Court seeking bail. Special judge Sunil Rana had pronounced the order after the CBI said that he was not required for custodial interrogation. On his plea seeking separate cell and protection in Tihar Jail, the court said the jail manual would be followed. Karti was produced before special judge on expiry of his three-day police custody. He has already spent 12 days in police custody since his arrest on February 28 from Chennai airport. He was arrested on his return from the United Kingdom in connection with the FIR lodged on May 15 last year. It alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds of about Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father was Union finance minister. The CBI had initially alleged that Karti Chidambaram received Rs 10 lakh as bribe for facilitating Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media. It, however, later revised the figure to USD 1 million (about Rs 6.50 crore at the current exchange rate and Rs 4.50 crore in 2007). The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered Karti Chidambaram's arrest, was based on the statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former co-director of INX Media (P) Ltd, who recorded it under section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate on February 17. NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Central Bureau of Investigation on Karti Chidambaram's bail plea. The court asked the investigating agency to revert within two days. The next hearing of the case will be on March 16. On Monday, Karti, son of former union minister P Chidambaram, had moved Delhi High Court seeking bail in the alleged INX Media bribery case. Earlier in the same day, Delhi's Patiala House Court extended the judicial custody of junior Chidambaram till March 24. while dismissing his plea for early hearing of his bail application. Special judge Sunil Rana had pronounced the order after the CBI said that he was not required for custodial interrogation. On his plea seeking separate cell and protection in Tihar Jail, the court said the jail manual would be followed. Karti was produced before special judge on expiry of his three-day police custody. He has already spent 12 days in police custody since his arrest on February 28 from Chennai airport. He was arrested on his return from the United Kingdom in connection with the FIR lodged on May 15 last year. It alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds of about Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father was Union finance minister. The CBI had initially alleged that Karti Chidambaram received Rs 10 lakh as bribe for facilitating Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media. It, however, later revised the figure to USD 1 million (about Rs 6.50 crore at the current exchange rate and Rs 4.50 crore in 2007). The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered Karti Chidambaram's arrest, was based on the statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former co-director of INX Media (P) Ltd, who recorded it under section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate on February 17. New Delhi: Actor-politician and Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan on Tuesday refused to comment on the remarks against her by BJP leader Naresh Agrawal. "I am a stubborn lady, I will not answer," she said while talking to media persons. Meanwhile, facing a backlash for belittling Jaya, Agrawal on Tuesday offered his regrets but said his comments were twisted by the media. "My intention was not to hurt anybody's sentiments. I regret if my comment has hurt somebody's feelings and withdraw my words," he said on Tuesday. Agrawal, who lost out to Bachchan in the race for re-nomination to the Upper House and on Monday had quit the Samajwadi Party to join the BJP, had said at a press conference that the SP denied him the RS ticket and gave it to somebody who used to dance and act in films. His comments invited strong criticism from BJP leaders, including Sushma Swaraj, who said they were "improper and unacceptable". Shri Naresh Agarwal has joined Bhartiya Janata Party. He is welcome. However, his comments regarding Jaya Bachhan ji are improper and unacceptable. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) March 12, 2018 Another BJP leader and Haryana Minister Anil Vij, too said, "What Naresh Agarwal has said is condemnable. He has not got over the culture of his previous party. He will take some time to adapt to our party's culture.' Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday also slammed Agrawal. "The statement he has given is very shameful. It needs to be condemned," the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader told reporters in the Parliament House complex in the national capital. The SAD is one of the oldest allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party. On the other hand, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday condemned Agrawal's comment and said in a tweet, "We condemn the BJP and Naresh Agrawal for his derogatory statement against Jaya Bachchan. This is an insult to every Indian woman and the film industry. If the BJP really respects women, then it should immediately take action against him. The women's commission should also look into it." . . . . Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) March 13, 2018 Agrawal, who has courted controversies with his statements in the past as well, had made the remarks in the presence of BJP leaders, including Union minister Piyush Goyal, at a press conference held at the party headquarters. "For someone who used to dance in films, act in films, I was denied a ticket (for the Rajya Sabha). I did not find it appropriate," he had said. Agrawal's term as a Rajya Sabha member comes to an end on April 2, 2018. Jaya Bachchan has once again been nominated to the Upper House by the SP. (With PTI and ANI inputs) New Delhi: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday hosted a dinner for Opposition leaders, amid talk of forging a broader front against the BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2019 General Elections. Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party's Ramgopal Yadav, BSP's Satish Mishra, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha's Babulal Marandi, DMK's Kanimozhi, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, AIUDF's Badruddin Ajmal, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, Hindustani Awam Morcha's Jitan Ram Manjhi, Communist Party of India's D Raja and National Conference's Omar Abdullah were among those who attended the dinner hosted at 10, Janpath. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other senior party leaders like Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge were also present on the occasion. Commenting on it, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "Dinner hosted by Sonia ji for Opposition parties should not be seen from the prism of politics, it was for friendship and better dialogue between parties." UPA Chairperson Smt Sonia Gandhi hosted a dinner for opposition leaders today. Former PM Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Rahul Gandhi also joined her for dinner. pic.twitter.com/VKTCyMQmDg Congress (@INCIndia) March 13, 2018 Leaders from a cross section of parties registered their presence at the dinner. pic.twitter.com/u3McC9TUer Congress (@INCIndia) March 13, 2018 Opposition leaders interacting at the dinner hosted by Smt. Sonia Gandhi today. pic.twitter.com/QdqzNZeTMZ Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 13, 2018 Leaders of Opposition Parties with UPA Chairperson, Smt. Sonia Gandhi; Congress President, Sh. Rahul Gandhi & Former PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh at dinner at 10, Janpath today. pic.twitter.com/1hi4LNRHMd Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 13, 2018 On the other hand, Rahul said, "Fabulous dinner... an opportunity for leaders from different political parties to meet and bond, informally... tremendous positive energy, warmth and genuine affection." Fabulous dinner tonight, hosted by UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi Ji. An opportunity for leaders from different political parties to meet and bond, informally. Much political talk but much more important - tremendous positive energy, warmth and genuine affection. pic.twitter.com/IxaAm7UPoI Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 13, 2018 Manjhi recently quit the NDA and joined forces with Lalu Prasad's RJD, which is an ally of the Congress. Sonia had invited DMK working president MK Stalin for dinner, but a party leader had earlier said that he would not be able to attend as the Assembly session in Tamil Nadu was beginning from March 15. "Yes, he (Stalin) has been invited, but since the assembly session in Tamil Nadu is starting March 15, he may not be able to come. Kanimozhi will be attending the dinner," TKS Elangovan had told IANS. And RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is currently lodged in a jail in Ranchi in connection with two fodder scam cases. Sonia has called for Opposition unity and has said that parties should set aside their minor differences to get together in the larger interest of keeping the BJP out of power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "It is difficult for all the parties, including the Congress, because while we can get together at the national level, on some issues we are opponents at the ground level. So, there is a lot of pressure from all the parties, from my party, from the party of another leader. For instance, in West Bengal and many other states, it is a difficult task," she had on March 9, 2018, at an event in the national capital. "But if all of us think of the larger picture, if we really think and care for the country, then we should not think about local differences which really deal with state politics," Sonia had added. "We try to have regular meetings with like-minded parties to see if we can work together. We have worked together in the past. In Parliament, especially in the Rajya Sabha, there is a certain amount of coordination. I do that," she had further said. At the same time, Sonia, 71, had alleged that the country was being led by "regressive vision" and had asked if India was really a "giant black hole" before May 2014 and had marched to progress only after BJP came to power at the Centre, PTI reported. She had also alleged that the country, the society and its freedom are now all under systematic and sustained threat and that there was "rewriting of history, falsifying facts and fanning prejudice and bigotry". "'Acche Din' will soon be 'India Shining'," she had said in reference to UPA's win despite BJP's 2004 slogan of 'India Shining'. (With Agency inputs) Here are the latest headlines: 1. State-of-the-art VVIP planes for India's President, PM expected by 2020 While Air India One will obviously get the best in aircraft security features, the new planes for India's VVIPs will now also be able to fly non-stop to the United States. Read more 2. 40,000 railway employees plan march to Parliament for better wages The union assured that no rail services will be disrupted. Read more 3. IndiGo cancels 47 flights after DGCA grounds planes with faulty engines The flights that have been cancelled are from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Patna, Srinagar, Bhubaneswar, Amritsar, Srinagar and Guwahati, among others. Read more 4. All-party meet at Arvind Kejriwal's residence to discuss ceiling drive in Delhi Close to seven lakh shops are likely to remain shut in Delhi as traders demand an end to the ceiling drive in the city. Read more 5. Akhilesh slams former friend Naresh Agrawal for his 'filmy' jibe at Jaya Bachchan Senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani also lashed out at Agrawal over the comment. Read more 6. Man spends Rs 9.1 crore on UK websites using SBI card with Rs 13,000 limit: CBI It came to the notice that balance in prepaid card system has been altered fraudulently for authorisation of three foreign travel cards belonging to a single individual. Read more 7. Donkey bomb: Animal with bomb strapped to its back injures 2 Afghan policemen Barbaric practice could prove deadly as it can catch security forces unawares. Read more NEW DELHI: Nearly 40,000 to 50,000 people, members of various Railway unions, are holding a protest march to Parliament in the national capital on Tuesday. The unions are demanding the withdrawal of the National Pension System (NPS) and improvement of minimum wages. The unions are also demanding a hike in minimum pay to Rs 26,000 from the current Rs 18,000. "Under the NPS, the defined minimum pension or family pension is no more guaranteed for those employees who came in government service on or after 2004, although they are regularly contributing 10 per cent of their wages every month towards this scheme," said Shiv Gopal Mishra, general secretary of All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF) at a press conference. Railwaymen from all across the country are participating in the protest. However, the union assured that no rail services will be disrupted and select few employees will continue to man the services. We have given instructions that no trains will be stopped or delayed because of our march. However, there will be a lot of absentees. Most of those affected are youngsters and they are very upset and angry," said Mishra. In February 2016, the AIRF had conducted a secret ballot for its members to decide the future course of action if its demands weren't met. Ninety-five per cent of the 9,00,000 railwaymen who voted supported a strike. These employees included railway men from across the country, including 17 zones and seven production units of the Indian Railways. Mishra said while social security to retired government employees was achieved after a prolonged struggle, it was virtually withdrawn with the introduction of the NPS from January 2004. The demand to scrap the NPS was one of the main demands made by the central government employees last year. A three-member committee of ministers headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh was formed to discuss the grievances but there was no progress. "There is anger and anguish not just among railwaymen, but also among bureaucrats, over this. We have been assured again and again that our demands will be met, but nothing has happened so far. If they do not relent, then we will have to stick together and the next step could well be disruptive," Mishra said. In 1974, railway employees demanding a wage increase staged a strike that crippled life in the country for almost three weeks. With agency inputs Congress president Rahul Gandhi has called the dinner hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for leaders of opposition parties fabulous. Tremendous positive energy, warmth and genuine affection, tweeted the Congress chief along with a photograph of all the leaders who attended the dinner. The Gandhi scion shared a photograph of his interaction with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Khadge. Another picture he shared was one with DMK leader Kanimozhi. Fabulous dinner tonight, hosted by UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi Ji. An opportunity for leaders from different political parties to meet and bond, informally. Much political talk but much more important - tremendous positive energy, warmth and genuine affection, said Rahul Gandhi. Fabulous dinner tonight, hosted by UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi Ji. An opportunity for leaders from different political parties to meet and bond, informally. Much political talk but much more important - tremendous positive energy, warmth and genuine affection. pic.twitter.com/IxaAm7UPoI Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 13, 2018 Among those present in the dinner were NCP chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, DMKs Kanimozhi and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav. Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who recently quit the JDU-BJP alliance in Bihar, also was part of the dinner. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh was also part of the dinner. Samajwadi Party's Ramgopal Yadav, BSP's Satish Mishra, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha's Babulal Marandi, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, AIUDF's Badruddin Ajmal and Communist Party of India's D Raja were also among those who attended the dinner hosted at 10, Janpath. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "Dinner hosted by Sonia ji for Opposition parties should not be seen from the prism of politics, it was for friendship and better dialogue between parties." Sonia had invited DMK working president MK Stalin for dinner, but he had earlier responded that he would not be able to attend as the Assembly session in Tamil Nadu was beginning from March 15. Sonia had recently called for Opposition unity saying parties should set aside their minor differences to get together in the larger interest of keeping the BJP out of power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "It is difficult for all the parties, including the Congress, because while we can get together at the national level, on some issues we are opponents at the ground level. So, there is a lot of pressure from all the parties, from my party, from the party of another leader. For instance, in West Bengal and many other states, it is a difficult task," she had on March 9, 2018, said at an event in the national capital. New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday condemned the attack by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma in which nine CRPF jawans lost their lives. He also said that it reflected "deteriorating internal security situation due to flawed policies." The Maoist attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh in which 9 CRPF jawans lost their lives is tragic. It reflects a deteriorating internal security situation due to flawed policies. My condolences to the families of those killed. To those who have been injured, I wish a speedy recovery. Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 13, 2018 Nine CRPF personnel were killed after suspected Naxals blew up their mine-protected vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Sukma, around a year after a dozen jawans were killed in a similar ambush in the district. We salute our martyrs who made the supreme sacrifice on this day. Your brave deeds continue to inspire generations. #BharatKeVeer pic.twitter.com/V7LWZFLQcn CRPF (@crpfindia) March 13, 2018 Officials said the incident took place around 12:30 pm along the Kistaram-Palodi road of the district when the troops of the 212th battalion of the CRPF were out on an operation. The Naxals used a lot of explosives to blow up the vehicle, a state police official said, PTI reported. Twelve personnel of the force were killed on March 11, 2017, in the Bheji area of the district and their arms looted, when Naxals ambushed their patrol party. A few days later on April 24, 2017, twenty-five personnel of the paramilitary were killed in a similar ambush in Sukma. Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday condemned the killings of nine CRPF personnel and described the incident as "deeply distressing". "Today's IED blast in Sukma, Chhattisgarh is deeply distressing. I bow to each and every security personnel who attained martyrdom while serving the nation. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans," he tweeted. (With Agency inputs) NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the linking of Aadhaar cards with bank accounts and mobile phones will not be mandatory until the apex court delivers the final judgment. The five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said that the government cannot insist for mandatory Aadhaar. The top court has been hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the validity of the Unique Identification number. The order indefinitely extends the deadline of March 31 to link the 12-digit Unique Identification number. Aadhaar will, however, be required for social schemes, the SC said. On December 15, 2017, the apex court had extended till March 31, 2018, the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services and welfare schemes. Earlier senior advocate Shyam Divan, who had led the arguments challenging Aadhaar and its enabling Act, said that the deadline of March 31 be extended as it was highly unlikely that the hearing in the case challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act will be concluded. "The deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services and welfare schemes is March 31. This will have all India ramification as various institution would have to adjust themselves accordingly," Divan had said. Justice Chandrachud said even if the court reserved its verdict on March 20, 2018, the banks and other institution would have only 10 days left, which might be difficult. The bench then called the Attorney General for assistance in the issue. At the fag end of the day's hearing, Venugopal appeared before the bench and made the statement about the possibility of extension of the deadline. Senior advocate Arvind Datar, who argued against the Aadhaar scheme, said it violated the fundamental rights of citizens. In February this year, former Karnataka High Court judge Justice KS Puttaswamy had told the apex court that several deaths had reportedly taken place due to starvation on account of glitches in the Aadhaar-based public distribution system and the court must consider granting them compensation. He had urged the bench to consider granting compensation to those who had suffered on the ground of exclusion due to Aadhaar, particularly the kin of the starvation death victims. The top court had also observed that the alleged defect of citizens' biometric details under the Aadhaar scheme being collected without any law could be cured by subsequently bringing a statute. It had said that the Centre came out with the law in 2016 to negate the objection that it was collecting data since 2009 without any authorisation, but the issue which needed consideration was what would happen if the data collected earlier, had been compromised. New Delhi: Air India One is expected to be fully upgraded, customised and put into service by 2020. This after senior government officials said that new planes - Boeing 777s - for the President, Vice-President and Prime Minister are receiving the upgrades as per schedule. Air India inducted three Boeing 777s in February and March of 2017 and these are now being retrofitted with features, conveniences and security systems which are mandatory for flying the top three top-ranking political figures in the country. Two of the three 777s are being upgraded with a VIP enclosure, press conference room and a patient transport unit for medical emergencies. The aircraft will also have WiFi on board and would be equipped with top-notch anti-missile systems, radar-dodging mechanics and other security features. However, the biggest difference between the new 777s and the Boeing 747s which are currently in service to transport VVIPs is that the new planes can fly non-stop to the United States - mitigating the need for refuelling halts. Cutting-edge communication systems, in-flight kitchen and a personal room for the VVIP is also expected. Powering the plane are two GE90-115BL engines - considered the most powerful of all aircraft engines in the world. A senior government official also revealed that the government will buy these planes from Air India once they are completely upgraded and deemed ready for service. NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed his condolences to the families of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. He said that India salutes the brave CRPF personnel. He took to Twitter and said, "India salutes the brave CRPF personnel who were martyred in the attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh. My thoughts are with the families and friends of the brave martyrs. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this hour of grief." India salutes the brave @crpfindia personnel who were martyred in the attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh. My thoughts are with the families and friends of the brave martyrs. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this hour of grief. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 13, 2018 Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh too expressed his condolences and termed the Sukma incident 'deeply distressing'. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans. I spoke to DG @crpfindia regarding the Sukma incident and asked him to leave for Chhattisgarh. Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) March 13, 2018 Nine CRPF personnel were killed after suspected Naxals blew up their mine-protected vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Sukma, around a year after a dozen jawans were killed in a similar ambush in the district. ASI RKS Tomar, constable Ajay Kumar Yadav, constable Manoranjan Lanka, constable Jitendra Singh, constable Shobhit Sharma, constable Manoj Singh, constable Dharmendra Singh, constable Chandra HS and head constable Lakshman lost their lives in the blast. Officials said the incident took place around 12:30 pm along the Kistaram-Palodi road of the district when the troops of the 212th battalion of the CRPF were out on an operation. The Naxals used a lot of explosives to blow up the vehicle, a state police official said. Twelve personnel of the force were killed on March 11, 2017, in the Bheji area of the district and their arms looted, when Naxals ambushed their patrol party. A few days later on April 24, 2017, twenty-five personnel of the paramilitary were killed in a similar ambush in Sukma. NEW DELHI: Nine Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were on Tuesday killed and six others were injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district. ASI RKS Tomar, constable Ajay Kumar Yadav, constable Manoranjan Lanka, constable Jitendra Singh, constable Shobhit Sharma, constable Manoj Singh, constable Dharmendra Singh, constable Chandra HS and head constable Lakshman lost their lives in the blast. Officials said the incident took place around 12:30 pm along the Kistaram-Palodi road of the district when the troops of the 212th battalion of the CRPF were out on an operation. The Naxals used a lot of explosives to blow up the vehicle, a state police official said. Following the tragedy, political leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh took to Twitter and expressed their condolences to the families of the jawans who lost their lives. PM Modi: India salutes the brave CRPF personnel who were martyred in the attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh. My thoughts are with the families and friends of the brave martyrs. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this hour of grief. India salutes the brave @crpfindia personnel who were martyred in the attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh. My thoughts are with the families and friends of the brave martyrs. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this hour of grief. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 13, 2018 Rajnath Singh: Today's IED blast in Sukma, Chhattisgarh is deeply distressing. I bow to each and every security personnel who attained martyrdom while serving the nation. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans. I spoke to DG @crpfindia regarding the Sukma incident and asked him to leave for Chhattisgarh. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans. I spoke to DG @crpfindia regarding the Sukma incident and asked him to leave for Chhattisgarh. Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) March 13, 2018 Rahul Gandhi: The Maoist attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh in which 9 CRPF jawans lost their lives is tragic. It reflects a deteriorating internal security situation due to flawed policies. My condolences to the families of those killed. To those who have been injured, I wish a speedy recovery. The Maoist attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh in which 9 CRPF jawans lost their lives is tragic. It reflects a deteriorating internal security situation due to flawed policies. My condolences to the families of those killed. To those who have been injured, I wish a speedy recovery. Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 13, 2018 Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh: Deeply anguished by the demise of our Jawans in the Sukma IED blast. Deepest condolences to the families of the brave martyrs and constant prayers for those injured. I am overwhelmed with grief on this loss. Deeply anguished by the demise of our Jawans in the Sukma IED blast. Deepest condolences to the families of the brave martyrs and constant prayers for those injured. I am overwhelmed with grief on this loss. Dr Raman Singh (@drramansingh) March 13, 2018 Twelve personnel of the force were killed on March 11, 2017, in the Bheji area of the district and their arms looted, when Naxals ambushed their patrol party. A few days later on April 24, 2017, twenty-five personnel of the paramilitary were killed in a similar ambush in Sukma. New Delhi: VK Jain, the advisor to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, has resigned citing personal reasons and family commitments, days after he was questioned by police in connection with the alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash, sources said on Tuesday. "Jain has resigned from the post of advisor to the Delhi chief minister citing personal reasons and family commitment," one of the sources told. He has submitted his resignation letter in the chief minister's office (CMO) and sent a copy to the lieutenant governor, the source added. He was appointed to the post in September last year, days after he had retired as the CEO of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). The board is chaired by Kejriwal. Jain had not been coming to the CMO since the incident and had gone on a week-long medical leave, the sources said. Prakash was allegedly assaulted by AAP MLAs during a meeting at the chief minister's residence in the evening of February 19. The Delhi Police had last week told a court that during interrogation, Jain disclosed that AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan surrounded the chief secretary and saw them assaulting him at Kejriwal's residence. However, Jain had earlier said that he did not see anything as he had gone to the washroom at the time of the incident. The alleged assault on Prakash took place in the presence of Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia. In solidarity with Prakash, IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Services (DCS) officers have not been attending meetings with AAP ministers, and only maintaining written communication with them. The joint forum of the Delhi government employees has demanded action against Kejriwal and Sisodia in connection with the case. Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today refused to grant any interim relief to actors Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor on an FIR filed against them and some other film personalities in 2015 for allegedly using obscene and abusive language during the comedy event 'AIB Knockout'. A bench of justices R M Savant and Sarang Kotwal directed the actors' lawyer to first serve a copy of their plea to one of the complainants in the case, activist Santosh Dundkar. The actors had urged the court to direct, by way of an interim relief, the Pune and Mumbai police to refrain from taking any coercive action against them. The bench, however, said it will consider the prayer only after the complainant was provided a copy of the petition, and scheduled the matter for further hearing on April 3. On December 20, 2014, Singh and Kapoor, along with 10 other celebrities, including Karan Johar, Deepika Padukone, and members of the AIB team, had performed at a charity event in Worli area here. The video of the event was uploaded on YouTube a year later and it went viral. In February 2015, Dundkar filed a complaint with the chief metropolitan magistrate of Gurgaon court, alleging that the show was "vulgar, obscene...Pornographic." The court then ordered that an FIR be registered against all the 10 people. Soon after, another FIR was registered against all 10 of them in Pune following a complaint by a local alleging obscenity during the event. Singh and Kapoor approached the high court earlier this year after they received summons from the Pune police, directing them to visit the police station for questioning and recording their statements. They claimed in their plea that the FIRs against them bore an ulterior motive. They also alleged that the FIRs were filed with a "mischievous" and mala fide intent, and sought that the same be quashed. Later, another bench of the Bombay High Court had granted an interim relief to Padukone, Johar, and the AIB members and directed both the Mumbai and Pune police not to take any coercive action against them until further orders. New Delhi: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who has been shooting for Yash Raj Films' 'Thugs Of Hindostan' in Jodhpur has reportedly fallen ill and a team of doctors from Mumbai have rushed to reach him immediately. In his latest blog, the megastar mentioned about his ill health and how his doctors will soon join him in Jodhpur for a regular check-up. Here's the excerpt from his blog: I am getting my team of doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again .. i will rest and keep informed in process. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL BLOG Reports suggest that due to change of weather, the megastar's health has taken a back seat and the unit of 'Thugs Of Hindostan' is worried about the same. The team of doctors was rushed to Jodhpur by a charter plane. According to sources, Amitabh Bachchan's health has shown improvement. The team of doctors has advised Big B to take ample rest. Sources suggest doctors will check his health again in the evening. Reportedly, doctors will be giving a final call on whether Amitabh Bachchan will be brought to Mumbai or will he stay in Jodhpur in the evening. Till then, the charter plane will remain in Jodhpur. The doctor treating Big B is a renowned gastroenterologist Jayant Barve. Amitabh Bachchan is currently in his hotel room in Jodhpur and media is not allowed in the vicinity. Aamir Khan and other cast and crew members of Thugs of Hindostan are also in Jodhpur for the shoot of the film at the historic Mehrangarh Fort. The team of doctors clicked at the airport: 'Thugs Of Hindostan' is helmed by 'Dhoom 3' director Vijay Acharya Krishna and stars Aamir Khan in the lead role. The film also features Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh besides Bachchan senior in a pivotal part. This is the first time that Big B and Aamir Khan have joined forces for a project. Get well soon, Mr Bachchan! New Delhi- Actor Amitabh Bachchan's health left all his fans worried. The actor who was shooting in Jodhpur for 'Thugs of Hindostan' fell ill on the set. Following which, a team of doctors flew down from Mumbai to treat him. Meanwhile, his fans in Amitabh's birthplace Allahabad performed prayers for the good health of their favorite actor, reports ANI #Allahabad: Fans of Amitabh Bachchan perform prayers for his good health. pic.twitter.com/VaROHMdL0d ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 13, 2018 His wife Jaya Bachchan told the media at Parliament House in Delhi: "Amitji is fine. He has pain in the back and neck... The costumes are very heavy, so there's some pain. Otherwise, he is fine." Big B took to his blog to update people about his health on Tuesday morning, he wrote that his team of doctors will be arriving in Rajasthan to "fiddle around" with his "body". Big B assured his fans and followers that he will post medical updates on his blog. "I am getting my team of Doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again .. I will rest and keep informed in the process," Big B wrote on his blog early morning. Last month, Big B was admitted to Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre in Mumbai after he complained of pain in his lower back, a hospital source was quoted in a PTI report. Bachchan, however, was discharged soon after his treatment.The reports reveal that Big B visits Lilavati Hospital every month for a body check-up. Other than Amitabh Bachchan, the film stars Aamir Khan, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles. The film is slated to release on Diwali this year. New Delhi: Brazilian brand Melissa, famed for its "fashionable shoes", opened doors to its first ever flagship store at the DLF Promenade Mall here with Bollywood fashionista Vaani Kapoor adding glamour to the event. The international brand with presence in over 96 countries including key fashion cities such as New York, London, and Hong Kong has finally opened its doors in India. The new 1,454 square foot retail space is the Brazilian eco-friendly label's first exclusive business outlet in India. "The new Melissa flagship store gives us the opportunity to tap into the Indian retail space with a new and innovative fashion product. We are a one of a kind brand, dealing in eco-friendly 100 percent recyclable shoes, made of specially-developed Melflex plastic," said Ruchi Sally, Managing Director, ENVIABLY ME INDIA Pvt. Ltd, the exclusive franchisee of Melissa in India. Looking ahead, Melissa would soon launch additional stores in New Delhi and Mumbai later this year, she said, adding that store locations are an important aspect for Melissa and the brand would be very selective in choosing the right locations for opening new stores. "I think people are already excited about it because India is no more a country where people are not well traveled. Most of the people are already traveled. We might be new to the India market but for the fans of Melissa who are there in India, it's not new," Ruchi told IANS. International design brand Vivienne Westwood, one of the champions of fashion sustainability, has been collaborating with the brand since 2008. The brand also collaborates with Karl Lagerfeld, Jean Paul Gaultier and many more. The store will stock styles from Melissa's core womenas collection, a range for baby girls as well as its collaborations with designers. New Delhi: Laksh of central government employees waiting eagerly for the implementation of pay hike as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission may finally see some good news coming in the month of April. As per reports central government employees will soon see a Rs 3000 rise in their minimum pay scale, increasing the minimum basic pay from Rs 18,000 to Rs 21,000 starting next month. Minimum pay scale of Rs 21,000 has been predicted for quite some time now, although the employees believe this hike will bring no positive impact on their financial position. When the 7th Pay Commission was approved by the Union Cabinet last year, the minimum basic pay was increased from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000 whereas the maximum pay increased to Rs 2.5 lakhs with a fitment factor of 2.57 times. However, the employees were demanding that the minimum basic pay be increased to Rs 26,000 with a fitment factor of 3.68 times. The Union Cabinet had in June approved recommendations of the CPC with 34 modifications. 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, government employees have been demanding hike the fitment formula 3.68 times of basic pay of 6th pay commission. The central government employees unions have also been demanding for hiking minimum pay of Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000. They have also demanded that fitment factor be raised from 2.57 times to 3.68 times. New Delhi: Earth has witnessed a number of close shaves with asteroids many of which have missed our planet by just a tiny distance. However, there is always a minute chance of these stray space rocks hitting Earth and a backup plan is certainly required in case it does happen. NASA dutifully has that covered and plans to deal with potential asteroid impacts through HAMMER a spacecraft being built by the space agency that will smash any harmful looking asteroids out of the sky before they have a chance to hit the planet. HAMMER stands for Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response and is a joint venture between NASA, the US National Security Administration and a weapons lab from the US Energy Department. According to the Mirror, there are two ways the system could prevent an asteroid from slamming into Earth. Firstly, it would hit an asteroid to knock it off course and miss our planet. The second, and infinitely more dangerous, is that HAMMER would detonate an on-board nuclear warhead to splinter or destroy it altogether. Besides being a backup plan, another reason behind the development of 'HAMMER' is asteroid Bennu, which NASA is monitoring. Bennu can be seen every six years from Earth but in 2135 it is expected to pass between us and the Moon. That could tweak its orbit and set it on a direct course for our planet and experts fear that a drastic change like this may result in mass destruction. NASA has also ploughed cash into a pioneering project aimed at working out how to hijack asteroids and turn them into controllable spaceships, the Mirror report said. Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced an assistance of Rs 25 lakh each to the families of three CRPF troopers hailing from the state, who were killed in a Maoist attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh. Of this, Rs 20 lakh would be given to the widows of the deceased Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and Rs 5 lakh to their parents, an official said on Tuesday. Extending his sympathies and condolences to the bereaved families, Adityanath also directed his ministers, in-charge of the districts from where these troopers hailed, to personally visit their families. In an attack in Sukma earlier on Tuesday, Manoj Singh of Ballia, Shobhit Kumar Sharma of Ghaziabad and Dharmendra Singh of Mau district were killed along with six other CRPF personnel. We have heard of human bombs and car bombs and truck bombs, but the Taliban is expanding its bomb delivery systems in Afghanistan. It is now using the humble donkey to courier bombs over to security forces. On Monday, two policemen were injured in a 'donkey bomb' attack in Kunar province, on the border with Pakistan. The donkey had been loaded with explosives and set on a path towards a security check post. However, the animal was blown up using a remote control when it was intercepted by two policemen on patrol. "The armed opposition terrorists adjusted explosive device on a donkey and were attempting to detonated it next to a police checkpoint in Sayed Khil area of Sarkano district today morning, but police patrol at nearby stopped the donkey and the militants nearby detonated it with remote control injuring two local police personnel," provincial police chief Haqnawaz Haqyar said, reported Chinese news agency Xinhua. The Taliban is yet to comment on the attack, which is part of a rising wave of violence against government forces and establishments. Donkey bombs are not an innovation, however cruel. They have been used on at least two occasions before in Afghanistan - once in 2009 and another in 2014. The 2009 attack had been foiled when an alert security guard noticed some men running away after sending the donkey running towards his security post. The poor animal had to be stopped with a gunshot. Animal-borne attacks can be deadly, since they tend to catch security forces unawares. They have been regularly used against Israeli forces and establishments in the strife-torn Gaza Strip, where security personnel tend to be on razor's edge on the lookout for any human who approaches them suspiciously. The donkey attack in Afghanistan could also be used to ratchet up the paranoia in the minds of Afghan security forces. Along with posts being stormed by terrorists and car bombs going off and suicide bombers, they now also have to be on the constant lookout for even donkeys that could be walking their way. Kabul: Elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghan government, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday as he arrived in Kabul on an unannounced visit. Mattis`s remarks came as he flew into the war-torn city, weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban. The insurgents have so far given no formal response to Kabul`s offer for negotiations. But Mattis said some insurgent leaders have expressed an interest in discussions. "It may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop, that would be a bridge too far, but there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," Mattis told reporters aboard a military jet. Ghani`s peace plan includes eventually recognising the Taliban as a political party. The insurgent group has said it was prepared to negotiate, but only with the US and not with the Kabul government. "Right now we want the Afghans to lead and to provide the substance of the reconciliation effort," Mattis said. Thanks to the political process, Mattis said America is now looking towards victory in Afghanistan after more than 16 years of conflict. "What does that victory look like? It`s a country whose own people and their own security forces handle law enforcement and any threats... certainly with international support for some years to come," he said. Mattis`s talk of a victory comes amid renewed US focus on Afghanistan after years of drawdowns under former president Barack Obama and talk by top US generals of "not winning" and of a "stalemate" in the seemingly intractable conflict. "It`s all working to achieve a political reconciliation, not a military victory," Mattis said. "The victory will be a political reconciliation." As part of the so-called South Asia Strategy, President Donald Trump last year ordered the increased bombing of Taliban targets - including their drug-making labs and training camps -- and more than 3,000 additional US forces have arrived in Afghanistan to boost the training and advising of local troops. Approximately 14,000 American forces are now in Afghanistan, up from a low of about 8,500 when Obama left office. Ghani`s offer of peace talks comes as civilian casualties have soared in recent months, with the Taliban increasingly targeting towns and cities in response to Trump`s new and more aggressive US military policy. The Taliban, Afghanistan`s biggest militant group, claimed 472 attacks in January alone, the Washington-based terrorism research group TRAC said - an astonishing number given that the traditional fighting season doesn`t usually start until freezing temperatures have subsided in the spring. Iran has invited Pakistan to become a part of the Chabahar project, Pakistani media have reported. The move would likely put pressure on the Pakistani policy making apparatus, since it would have to weigh involvement in a project that would make it part of a corridor that undercuts its geographical advantage and offers to cut down on India's strategic advantage, against the setback it could deal to its own ambitions over the nearby Gwadar Port. The offer came from Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who is presently on a three-day visit to Pakistan, the Dawn newspaper reported. Iran's offer may also be seen as a move to placate Pakistan's deep misgivings over India's long-standing involvement in the Chabahar Port project. The Chabahar Port has given India access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. These were regions where it had become unviable for India to interact with since most connectivity options ran through Pakistan, with whom India has perpetually strained relations. In November 2017, India successfully delivered an aid shipment of wheat to Afghanistan through the Chabahar Port. "We offered to participate in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). We have also offered Pakistan and China to participate in Chabahar," Zarif said, according to Pakistani media. He also repeated Iran's commitment that it would not allow India to carry out any activities against Pakistan. To underline this, he pointed to Pakistan's relations with Saudi Arabia, Iran's single major foreign policy irritant in its neighbourhood. "Our relations with India, just like Pakistan's relations with Saudi Arabia, are not against Pakistan as we understand Pakistan's relations with Saudi Arabia are not against Iran," he said. This is hardly the first connectivity project that Iran has tried to work out with Pakistan on board. After years of trying to make the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline a reality, Iran and India had given up on Pakistan. The Chabahar Port, which was developed jointly by India and Iran, was aimed at linking the two countries without having to rely on Pakistan. Russia is not bluffing about the new missile capabilities that its President Vladimir Putin revealed on March 1, a top official has said. The announcement comes a day after Russia's Defence Ministry released a video of a test of a missile called the Kinzhal, or dagger. Russia's Deputy Defence Minister Yuriy Borisov declared that Russia is in the testing phase of a number of missiles that would render most missile defence systems useless. "This is not a bluff, but a reality," he said to Russian defence news outlet Krasnaya Zvezda. He was specifically referring to a hypersonic vehicle that is referred to either as Avangard or as Objekt 4202. It is being designed as a glide vehicle that can withstand the high levels of heat caused by re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. The system would likely be launched by the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), referred to by NATO as the Satan 2, to the edge of the atmosphere, from where it will use a re-entry system called the boost-glide, or skip re-entry. A hypersonic boost-glide system is different from a regular ICBM-launched warhead since it would allow a high-degree of manoeuvrability and lower detection, meaning it may not be intercepted by existing missile shield technologies. "The practical tests have proved viability of the chosen concept. I'll tell you more - we already have a contract for serial production of the system," Borisov said, according to Russian government mouthpiece RT. He was also quoted as saying that the major stumbling block for the development of the Avangard system was the development of the heat shields that can withstand the 2000 degree Celsius heat that is generated at the surface of the vehicle on re-entry into the atmosphere. Russia is no stranger to the kind of re-entry that the Avangard would have to go through. The skip re-entry has been used by both the US and Russia for the return of space shuttles. But the key difference is that while it is used to reduce the speed of re-entry for space shuttles, it serves a different purpose for warheads. Russian President Vladimir Putin had said in a two-hour speech on March 1 that his country is on the cusp of inducting missile systems that would be 'invincible'. He had revealed six different weapons systems on this front, many of which sounded too futuristic to be true. The revelation had sparked off speculation over what the capabilities of these weapons would be and even whether or not they really could exist. Washington/Seoul:The White House said on Monday it fully expects an unprecedented meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to take place, if North Korea sticks to its promises, even though Pyongyang has yet to comment publicly on the possibility of a summit. A South Korean delegation that visited North Korea last week said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed a wish to meet Trump and South Korea`s president to discuss denuclearisation. North Korean media has reported the South Korean visit, but no details of the talks. Asked if the North Korean silence meant there was a chance the meeting between Trump and Kim would not take place, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: We fully expect that it will. The offer was made and weve accepted. North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises and if so the meeting will go on as planned. We are continuing to prepare on a number of levels," she told a regular briefing.Earlier, South Korea said North Korea`s silence on summits with both the United States and South Korea was probably due to caution in preparing for the meetings, while U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington expected to hear directly from Pyongyang. "We have not seen nor received an official response from the North Korean regime regarding the North Korea-U.S. summit," said Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman for South Korea`s Unification ministry. "I feel they`re approaching this matter with caution and they need time to organise their stance." Tillerson said several steps would be necessary to agree the location and scope of the talks. "It`s very early stages. We`ve not heard anything directly back from North Korea but we expect to hear something directly from them," he said during a visit to Nigeria. Tillerson, who has cut short his first trip to Africa as secretary of state to return to Washington on Tuesday, a day ahead of schedule, did not elaborate. In an unexpected move last week, Trump agreed to hold a first-ever meeting with Kim, which South Korea said would take place by the end of May after a North-South summit in April. News of possible talks has been a dramatic turnaround from fears of war over North Korea`s development of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States. Trump made the announcement after the head of a South Korean delegation that met Kim last week said the North Korean leader had committed to denuclearisation and pledged to refrain from nuclear and missile tests. Asked in a Fox News interview due to air on Monday evening whether there was a real possibility of North Korea denuclearizing, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said: "We`ll see, as the president often says." But Pence called Kim`s offers to cease missile and nuclear testing while not objecting to U.S.-South Korean military exercises "a remarkable step forward" and a result of Trump`s tough approach. "He`s marshalled unprecedented economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime in North Korea and this breakthrough - and we hope it is a breakthrough - is a result of the strong leadership the president has provided on the world stage," Pence said. Kim and South Korean president Moon Jae-in will meet at the truce village of Panmunjom straddling the Korean border, but a venue for the North Korea-US summit has yet to be decided. CHINA URGES PATIENCE The South Korean officials who met Kim travelled to Washington last week to relay his message and visited China on Monday to brief President Xi Jinping, who urged patience. South Korea`s National Security Office chief, Chung Eui-yong, who led the delegation to Pyongyang, will head to Russia on Tuesday, while spy agency chief Suh Hoon met Japan`s foreign minister in Tokyo, where he is to speak with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday. In Beijing on Monday, Xi told Chung there was an important opportunity for talks. "At the same time, all sides must exercise patience and be attentive, and show political wisdom, to appropriately face and dispel any problems and interference to resuming the talks process," state media cited Xi as saying. Xi said China looked forward to smooth talks between the two Koreas and between the United States and North Korea and substantive progress in the denuclearisation process and normalisation of ties. Tensions eased as the Koreas held talks against the backdrop of the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month but Japan has expressed scepticism and warned that "talks for the sake of talks" would be unacceptable. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said after talks with Suh Hoon that Tokyo and Seoul agreed that maximum pressure must be maintained on North Korea until it takes concrete action to address concerns about its weapons programmes. Kono declined to say what that action should be, but South Korea`s presidential Blue House quoted him as saying that the breakthrough on talks with North Korea was a near "miracle". In Geneva, the U.N. investigator on North Korea told the world body`s Human Rights Council that any progress in the nuclear and security dialogue must be accompanied by talks on human rights violations, including political prison camps. "Let me urge the DPRK to consolidate this rapprochement with a parallel opening to human rights review," said Tomas Ojea Quintana, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea. North Korea`s state media has lauded the thaw in relations with South Korea. It has continued to warn the United States and Japan against war-mongering but its rhetoric has been tame compared with threats exchanged at the height of tensions last year. Read the original text at 112.ua. Judging by the situation in the financial sector, Ukraines place is somewhere between the laggards and the developing countries. On the one hand, the number of non-cash transactions is growing rapidly in the country. Banks and ATMs cover all major cities, small towns, and even small settlements. In some places, there is a shortage of payment terminals, but this is an instrument for fighting for the cashless economy. On the other hand, although Ukrainian banks, in contrast to European banks, are more friendly to the customers in terms of services, the cost of services, and sometimes the product portfolio, they do not cover a number of critical needs and are accessible not for everyone. Moreover, these needs are not met by the other companies that have access to the end users. I mean, telecom, logistics, retail, technology companies. They just have a good chance to occupy this niche. Apart from them, fintech companies are also possible to make it. Ukraine is certainly not the only country in the world where more than half of the population is outside the banking system. To change the situation, it is worth paying attention to other countries where this problem is successfully coped. The most successful examples are China and India, where in just a few years, thanks to the development of technology, a billion people have obtained access to the financial services. In Ukraine, there are about 80-100 fintech companies. Not all of them are public, some are engaged in projects in the field of brokers and crypto-currencies, and this direction does not yet have state regulation. The main part is payments (31.6%), the credit sector is also developed (14%), but also a large percentage of companies invest in technology and infrastructure (19.3%). 60% of the fintech startups appeared in the country after 2015. According to Rostyslav Duke, the head of the direction of electronic financial services (USAID project "Transformation of the financial sector"), four factors contributed to this. First, it is human capital. In Ukraine, the financial sector is, in fact, a bank one, and during the crisis, the banking sector in the country has greatly shrunk, there was a reduction in specialists who subsequently created their own business. 70% of the founders of fintech startups are from the banking sector, 23% from business and 7% from IT (as the world practice shows, the latter often create fintech startups). The second factor is the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the country. It has its own needs, which banks just do not solve. The third is the globalization and digitalization of the financial sphere. This is a global trend, from which Ukraine cannot stand aside. And, finally, the fourth factor is the liberalization of the legislation, which is happening recently. The National Bank removes unnecessary restrictions. In the near future, the service MobileID should be launched in the country; it will allow for the identification of users remotely. The specificity and advantage of the Ukrainian fintech industry are that, due to difficulties with attracting investments, almost half of the projects (45%) live on their own money. Experts estimate the capitalization of the industry at $ 100 million. The growth potential for the next year is four times if the situation develops in the same way, and even if Ukrainian fiintech startups oriented to the local market can scale and enter the markets of other countries. "This is a half-billion business, and there is a lot of opportunities for growth. But there is no linearity in the economies of tomorrow. Now Uber capitalization is $ 40 billion, and this is a company that has no profit. Ukrainian start-ups are profitable, they need to learn how to scale. Our domestic market includes 40 million users," says Rostyslav Duke. Now the financial sector in Ukraine has a number of problems. World experience shows that the people from the remote places face the problems with access to the Internet, so agency banking can become a solution. "Brazil was the first country to use the services of agents, third parties, which made financial services available to people, another example is India, where the population can also access financial services through the agents. In Ukraine, in my opinion, this function could take over the mail," John Owens explains. As for the infrastructure for accepting payments, instead of using such an expensive solution as payment terminals, Ukraine should use QR codes for small and medium-sized businesses to accept the payments. In addition to simplicity and convenience, the start-ups have one more advantage: they have a different order of expenses. Accordingly, the cost of their services can be significantly lower, which is important for a price-sensitive audience. "Look at PayPal, it allows people to transfer money with a small commission, instead of using old and expensive WesternUnion," said John Owens, Senior Advisor on Electronic Financial Services, "Transformation of the Financial Sector," USAID project. The price factor plays an important role for small and medium-sized businesses. Often, if it wants to stay in the legal field, it still cannot afford to keep a lawyer, an accountant, a back office. Rostyslav Duke gives an example of the American service Square. It provides its customers with a device for accepting card payments that connect to the smartphone, as well as an application that deals with accounting, tax accounting and so on. In fact, this service is enough for the work of a small store. The store needs to pay a small commission, but there is no need to spend money on an accountant. Seeing the business's progress, such a service can provide loans, which would be cheaper than taking a loan from a bank. Another example is chat rooms that can help pay for services or money transfers. In Ukraine, instant messengers are popular; those used in our country have the support of the chatbots. As John Owens said, although Ukraine is not a consumer of this service, many developers of chatbots are from our country. The developing countries of Africa and Asia, which do not have developed banking infrastructure, often face a problem with the security of cash storage, mobile purses have been gaining popularity for several years now. In these places, there are not so many smartphones users, but mobile wallets work on simpler devices too. They can be replenished at special points of sale, through agents, or through operators. With their help, you can transfer funds, pay for purchases and services. The most popular mobile wallet in these regions at the moment - M-Pesa - belongs to Vodafone. At the end of January 2018, the Ukrainian government adopted Digital Digest 2020, a document that describes many vectors of the country's technological development. The digital economy is at the head of all the future transformations. Despite the fact that there are less than two years left until 2020, the interlocutors of the editorial office positively assess our prospects for digital transformation, since Ukraine already sees someone else's experience and can make a big step forward. This tranche and the rest of the sum will be administered by the World Bank The governments of Canada and Sweden have assigned first two million U.S. dollars for restoration of infrastructure of Donbas. The Ministry for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons reported that on Tuesday afternoon. According to the Ministry, the money will be administered by the World Bank; it is supposed to cover the funding of priority projects, related to restoring and developing peace in Ukraine's eastern regions. This is foreseen in the National Strategy of Integration of IDPs and Long-Term Decision Making until 2020. Previously, Ukraine's deputy minister of occupied territories Georgiy Tuka reported that the actual amount of damage to Donbas infrastructure cannot be estimated. On the other hand, Luhansk Regional State Administration reported that since April 2014, Donbas has taken damage to the amount over 500,000 U.S. dollars. Open source The tax rate is being raised from 2% to 5%, while the zero taxation of dividends and royalty payments are being abolished. Such are the main changes in the Convention between Ukraine and the Kingdom of the Netherlands on double taxation avoidance and prevention of tax evasion regarding income tax and property tax that are specified in the protocol, Interfax-Ukraine reports. The document was signed on Monday in the Netherlands by the Ukrainian Finance Minister Olexandr Danyliuk and the State Secretary for the Finance Ministry of the Netherlands Menno Snel, the Ukrainian institution has informed. Our next step is for the Ukrainian Parliament to ratify the protocol, - Ukraines Minister of Finance Olexandr Danyliuk wrote on his Facebook page. According to the press release published by the Ministry of Finance, the protocol introduces taxation of dividends at the rate of 5%, if the real owner of the dividends is the company owning at least 20% of the capital of the corporation paying the dividends, and taxation at the 15% rate in all other cases. Royalty taxation shall be set at 5% and 10%. Other changes include the expansion of the parties capability to exchange taxation data. The Ministry of Finance reminds that the draft protocol was prepared during the talks in Hague in April 2016, and its provisions fully comply with the OECD Model Convention and the OECD newest standards pertaining to the prevention of taxable base erosion and profit shifting. The Ukrainian institution expects the changes to allow the prevention of tax evasion with a simultaneous easing of pressure on law-abiding taxpayers and to minimize taxation discrimination. Apart from that, the protocol provides for the creation of mechanisms to facilitate the cooperation between the Ukrainian and the Dutch tax authorities through setting procedures of cooperation on controversial issues. Also, the president belies that the US froze all meetings with the Polish governance due to the scandalous law Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland admitted that the law on Institute of National Remembrance was adopted in bad time but nobody can influence the Polish legislation as Polske Radio reported. It is not right that the amendment to the law on Institute of National Remembrance was made on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day and election campaign in Israel, Duda said. He also claimed that the legislation of Poland is its private issue and nobody can dictate us what to do. We demand respect to the historical truth, including the correct terminology. I will not allow denigrating the good name of Poland, Duda said. Also, the President of Poland belies that the US froze all meetings with the Polish governance due to the scandalous law. It would be strange if our relations with the US deteriorated only due to one law, he added. As we reported the law on Institute of National Remembrance of Poland that extends the authorities of the establishment in the investigation of the crimes committed against the Poles came into force in Poland on March 1. They stipulate criminal responsibility for denial of the Volyn Massacre of the 1940s and forbid the propaganda of the 'Banderite ideology'. It also provides the criminal penalty for public accusations of Poland of crimes during Holocaust, of helping Nazi Germany, of military crimes or crimes against humanity. The bill forbids to use the combination of words Polish death camp when describing concentration camps that were on the territory of Poland. Any citizen of the country, including foreigners that breached the law will have to pay a fine or imprisoned for up to three years. It is crucial to get the EU's statement about non-recognition of the vote slated for March 18, Ukrainian leader says Open source G7 members should not recognize the upcoming Russian presidential election in the occupied Crimea. Ukraine's leader Petro Poroshenko said that during the meeting with G7 ambassadors in Kyiv. 'It would be critically important for us to get the statement about condemnation and misrecognition of Russian presidential election in Crimea', he said. Poroshenko thanked the EU member countries for their firm stance in this regard. As is known, the Russian presidential election will be held on March 18, 2018. The Russian Central Election Committee registered eight candidates, including the incumbent leader Vladimir Putin, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of Yabloko ('Apple') Party Grigoriy Yavlinski and famous blogger Kseniya Sobchak. Natalya Kaplan and lawyer Dmytro Dinze retract the information about Ukrainian political prisoner allegedly preparing the petition - in case it would be necessary to release him Ukrainian movie maker Oleg Sentsov is not going to sign petition for pardon - even if that's necessary for his exchange and release from Russian jail. Natalya Kaplan, his sister said that on the air of Radio NV. Kaplan spoke to lawyer Dmytro Dinze who retracted the piece on information about Ukrainian political prisoner allegedly preparing the petition - in case it would be necessary to release and exchange him. According to Kaplan, Sentsov 'will not act like this'. Previously, the media spread the statement by Dinze, which said that Sentsov was as ready to write a petition for a pardon if it is necessary for the exchange. There will be no other option, probably. All political prisoners, including Savchenko passed through this procedure. There are only two ways: to go and write or to stay imprisoned, Dinze had said. According to him, Sentsov expects the exchange but does not thinks it will take place any time soon. If he is exchanged then probably, a few persons will be exchanged for him, the lawyer noted. 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. US Secretary of State added that the poison could not have originated anywhere else and was "only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties" US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he fully trusted the UK investigation and accused Russia of involvement in the poisoning of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal. This is reported by Fox News. Rex Tillerson said the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain last week "clearly came from Russia" and "certainly will trigger a response." He added that he did not know whether the Kremlin had knowledge of the March 4 attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. But he did say that the poison could not have originated anywhere else and was "only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties." He did not elaborate on what response might follow. "There is never a justification for this type of attack the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior," Tillerson said. "From Ukraine to Syria and now the U.K. Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens." Tillerson spoke hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons that Moscow was "highly likely" to blame for the attack in the southwestern city of Salisbury. Tillerson's statement said that he had "full confidence in the U.K.s investigation" and its assessment of Russian responsibility. As it was reported earlier Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said that Russia is likely to be involved in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer. She said that in the Parliament. According to her, Skripal was poisoned by a military neuroparalytic substance, made by Russia. She believes that it was either Russias direct action or Moscow lost grip of its chemical weapon. May said, that Boris Johnson, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, on March 12 called Russian ambassador for an explanation of how the substance appeared in Salisbury and was used against former Russian military intelligence officer. London expects Russias respond till the evening of March 13. Sentsov expects the exchange but thinks that it will not take place soon Oleh Sentsov, the illegally convicted in Russia Ukrainian director is ready to write a petition for a pardon if it is necessary for the exchange. Dmytro Dinze, the advocate of Sentsov claimed this to Crimea.Realii. There will be no other variant, probably. All political prisoners, including Savchenko passed through this procedure. There are only two ways: to go and write or to stay imprisoned, he said. According to him, Sentsov expects the exchange but thinks that it will not take place soon. If he is exchanged then probably, a few persons will be exchanged for him, the lawyer noted. He also added that Sentsov was discussed in Russia at all levels of the law enforcement bodies to not make a quick decision on his release. Also, the lawyer spoke about the detention facility where the director is kept. He lives separately. He does not contact anybody. He writes the plots, creates, and refuses from the work. He is not interested in the work, as he says, for the regime. He works for himself and waits when he will be released. According to him, the Ukrainian was offered to work at the film production company or kitchen. However, he refused from the cooperation with the administration. There are 30-40 people in the common barrack where Sentsov lives. He has quite good relations with the detained, he does not come into conflict, and there are no claims to him. He has an access to the radio, TV and library. At the same time, he stands against the visit of his mother and children. He is afraid that they will worry. The advocate noted that if somebody wants to help, they can send money, clothes, and products to his sister. 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 is planned to open the pooling stations for Russias presidential election in four cities of Ukraine, annexed Crimea Open source The Foreign Ministry of Russia responded to the statement of the Ukrainian nationalists with the intention to disrupt the holding of the election of the president of Russia in Ukraine on March 18. The ministry urged Ukraine to provide the security during the voting. We demand the unconditional insurance of the security of the Embassy of Russia in Kyiv, Russian General Consulates in Kharkiv, Odesa and Lviv from the authorities of Ukraine to prevent the occurrence of any obstacles to their full-fledged functioning and free visitation by the citizens of Russia, the message said. Russias Foreign Ministry also urged the international community to influence official Kyiv in this issue and put the responsibility on Ukraine for the consequences of the possible provocative actions. Russian side will follow closely the situation around the diplomatic establishments of Russia and Russian citizens during the election. We count that Kyiv will assume all necessary measures for the timely prevention of the possible provocations, the statement claimed. Earlier the representatives of the nationalist parties such as Svoboda, Right Sector and National Corps promised to block Russian presidential elections in Ukraine on March 18, 2018. Political parties intend to block polling stations and form corridor of shame for voters Russian citizens. The election of the president of Russia will take place on March 18, 2018. The Central Election Commission registered eight candidates, including Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Ksenia Sobchak and Grigory Yavlinsky. The Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv questioned Olena Zaitseva, the partaker of the deadly car accident that took place in the downtown of Kharkiv on October 18 as the correspondent of 112 Ukraine reported. Firstly, she apologized to the suffered and relatives of the perished once more and said that she is ready to pay the penalty, she pleads guilty and she will help the suffered in the future when she will be released. She does not remember almost anything from this accident and she was in shock but according to her, she saw the car of Dronov, signaled to him but did not brake for some reasons. Zaitseva also said that her speed was about 80 km/hour at the moment of the accident, the correspondent said. Hennady Dronov, the second driver also apologized to the suffered but refused to testify until all witnesses are questioned. The correspondent added that the next court session will take place on March 21. As we reported earlier Lexus ran over a group of pedestrians in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, on Wednesday evening. Alyona Zaitseva who drove the car violated the road traffic, crashing into Volkswagen Touareg driven by Gennady Dronov which threw her car towards the pavement. Both drivers survived, but Lexus ran over eleven passing by people. Five pedestrians received lethal injuries; another six were taken to a hospital with injuries of various degrees of severity. Zaitseva was detained for two months without a right for bailment. The court revoked her driver license and arrested both cars that participated in the accident. The prosecution stated that Zaitseva used opiates not long before the tragedy occurred. According to the information of the defense, the suspect took the sedatives. The version of Zaitseva defense is that the driver of the Touareg is guilty as he moved on the yellow traffic light. The defense of Gennady Dronov denies the accusation and claims that the driver of the Touareg moved on the green traffic light. Dronov was the witness in this case but the police claimed that his status can change. Later, the court refused to recognize Dronov sustained. Gennady Dronov was served with charge papers on November 2. The Court arrested Gennady Dronov for 42 days without the right to bail on November 8. It was established on December 6 that Zaitseva used substances containing codeine. On February 7, the court prolonged the arrest of two suspects in the car crash that killed six people - Olena Zaitseva and Hennadiy Dronov for two months without a right for bail. Open source General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine confirmed suspension of investigation of Mikheil Saakashvili case. This was reported by the speaker of General Prosecutor's Office Andriy Lysenko on Facebook. According to him, on 6 March, the General Prosecutor's Office sent a request to the Netherlands to provide international legal assistance for carrying out procedural and investigative actions with Saakashvili. "Thus, this criminal proceeding was suspended on the basis of Article 280 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, in order to limit procedural terms of the pre-trial investigation until receiving results of international legal assistance," Lysenko explained. He added that the pre-trial investigation of criminal case against Mikheil Saakashvili's associate Severion Dangadze continues. As it was reported earlier supporters of the ex-president of Georgia and the former governor of the Odesa region came to the house of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko on February 24 and announced an indefinite picket. This time, the reason for the protest was not the events around their leader. People demanded the release of Saakashvili's associate Severion Dangadze. The head of the Kyiv regional branch of the Saakashvili's political party Severion Dangadze was arrested last December on suspicion of high treason and cooperation with an organized criminal group. In particular, the prosecutor's office believes that the protests organized by Saakashvili under the building of the Verkhovna Rada were financed by the comrades-in-arms of former president Viktor Yanukovych. These conclusions were made on the basis of the audio recordings of Dangadze's talks with Kurchenko's confidant. The MP promises to come for the questioning after this Nadiya Savchenko, the MP of Ukraine called by the SBU for the questioning on the case against Volodymyr Ruban, the leader of Center of POW Release, demands to hand her notice for questioning personally as she reported on Facebook. In the case of the intention to hold the investigative activities with my involvement, I ask to hand me the call for the questioning on the witness stand in the SBU personally and then I will come for the questioning in three-day-term established by a law, she said. The MP noted that she did not get the official notice on the call for the questioning and the mass media are not the official and reliable source of the information. Savchenko emphasized that she will be in the planned work trip to the European Parliament in Strasbourg where the EU parliamentarian session takes place from March 12 until March 16. According to her, she officially reported on this trip to the first department of the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada so the SBU could get the information in the parliament. Savchenko is called for the questioning on March 13 and 15. Earlier Yury Lutsenko, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine claimed that Savchenko was called for a questioning on March 13 on the case against Volodymyr Ruban. Later the spokeswoman of Savchenko reported that Savchenko did not get any notice or invitation for the questioning in the SBU and will pay the official visit to the PACE. Volodymyr Ariev, the Chairman of Ukrainian delegation in the PACE noted that she was absent on the session of the assembly. The notice for the questioning in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) of the MP Nadiya Savchenko was passed over to the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada. Ruban was detained on March 8 at the Ukrainian checkpoint at the demarcation line of Donbas Conflict zone. It is stated that Ruban is suspected in the illegal handling of arms, preparation of a crime and terrorist action. Later the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv arrested Volodymyr Ruban, the Leader of Center of POW Release 'Officer Corps' for 60 days without a right to the bail. The summons for questioning in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) of the people's deputy Nadiya Savchenko were passed over to the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada. This was reported by the Security Service on Facebook. "On March 12, 2018, a letter was sent to the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as well as summons for 11.00 am on March 13 and 11.00 am on March 15, 2018," the message said. As it was reported earlier Nadiya Savchenko, the non-affiliated MP of Ukraine did not get any notice or invitation for the questioning in the SBU and will pay the official visit to the PACE. Tatiana Protorchenko, the spokeswoman of Savchenko reported on Facebook. Earlier Yuriy Lutsenko, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine claimed that Savchenko was called for a questioning on March 13 on the case against Volodymyr Ruban. Ruban was detained on March 8 at the Ukrainian checkpoint at the demarcation line of Donbas Conflict zone. It is stated that Ruban is suspected in the illegal handling of arms, preparation of a crime and terrorist action. The criminal proceeding is opened and the official investigation assigned Seven soldiers were hospitalized due to the fire at the proving ground Shyroky Lan in Mykhailivka village, Mykolaiv region, the military in the serious condition got 25% of burns. Khrystyna Vdovychenko, the press officer of the 92nd Independent Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported to 112.ua. The soldiers who suffered in the result of the fire at the proving ground Shyroky Lan are in the hospital, one of them in the serious condition and got 25% of burns, Vdovychenko claimed. According to her, the fire occurred due to the violation of the safety rules by the fault of the soldiers who were in the tent. Vdovychenko claims that there were no circuits or other technical reasons as earlier the check of the fire safety took place in the tent camp and the violations were not found. The criminal proceeding is opened due to the fire at the proving ground Shyroky Lan as Andry Lysenko, the spokesperson of the Prosecutor General Office of Ukraine reported on Facebook. Due to the fact of the destruction of the military assets that led to the serious consequences, the criminal proceeding is opened. The procedural control of the criminal proceeding is held by the Military Prosecution of the Mykolaiv garrison of South region of Ukraine, Lysenko reported. Also, the official investigation is assigned due to the death of the soldier as the Ukrainian Ground reported on Facebook. The fire took place at the night at the 235th multi-service proving ground in Mykolaiv region due to the violation of the safety rules, one tent burned in the tent camp in the result of this, the message said. There is no threat to the lives of the suffered soldiers. As we reported one military serviceman was killed, seven were injured in the fire at Shyroky Lan proving ground in Mykolaiv region at night on March 13. One of the tents inflamed where the stove was used. One military serviceman was killed, seven were injured in the fire at Shyroky Lan polygon in Mykolaiv region on Tuesday night. This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine with reference to the press officer of the 92nd Independent Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Khrystyna Vdovychenko. "At the 235th combined-arms polygon a fire occurred as a result of violation of safety rules when using the stove at night. One soldier got fatal injuries, seven people received burns of varying degrees of severity," Vdovychenko said. At the same time, volunteer Yury Mysiagin on Facebook says that one of the residential military tents was caught on fire. As it was reported earlier, another incident happened at Shyroky Lan polygon in 2017. A serviceman of the 79th separate air assault brigade of the air-transported troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine died during the drills on the Shyroky Lan polygon in Mykolaiv, Southern Ukraine, on July 10. Ruslan Shpynda, a sergeant of the 79th separate air assault brigade of the air-transported troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine died during the field firing exercise on the Shyroky Lan polygon in Mykolaiv in the result of the violation of safety measures. The State Aviation Service of Ukraine since 2015 imposed over 193 million dollars of fines on more than 40 Russian airlines that flew to the annexed Crimea. This was stated by the State Aviation Service of Ukraine in the commentary to Unian agency. "Companies-violators are subject to financial sanctions for violations in the field of civil aviation regarding breaching the rules and procedures of use of Ukraine's airspace in the form of fines for each violation in the amount of 5,273 dollars," the State Aviation Service said. It is noted that the fines are imposed in accordance with the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine of September 2, 2015. The department added that several thousand fines have already been imposed and for their extraction the State Aviation Service applies to Ukrainian courts. The consideration of the claims will further allow appeals to international courts. Among the violators are Aeroflot, Ural Airlines, Saratov Airlines, UTair, Nordavia, Globus, Red Wings, Yamal, Siberia and others. After the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, the State Aviation Service of Ukraine decided to ban all flights over the Crimean peninsula. Later, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) officially confirmed the control of Ukrainian aviation authorities over the Crimean airspace. As it was reported earlier Ukraine has issued more 5 thousand orders for violating its ban for carrying out flights to the annexed Crimea. The Russian airline companies were fined for more than 28 million dollars. It was reported on Octoer 27, 2016. More than 1 thousand criminal cases against Russian Aeroflot were initiated. The carrier performed daily flights from Sochi to Simferopol. Andryi Parubyi said, that the Act is an important step, towards Ukraines integration in NATO Andriy Parubiy, the spokesperson of the Verkhovna Rada, said that he expects NATOs assessment of national security bill of Ukraine at the briefing of Coordination Board session on March 12 broadcasted by 112 Ukraine. All of these innovations are implemented in NATO states and they are quite effective. This Bill is being examined by the Committee in terms of security and defense. The Committee hasnt made a decision yet. As Parliaments Chairman, I expect NATOs assessment, including NATO representatives in Ukraine to consider Committees professional opinion and NATOs proposals, as the Act is an important step, towards Ukraines integration in NATO in particular, Parubiy said. He noted that after the decision is made by the Committee, he will initiate the documents presentation in Verkhovna Radas agenda. Earlier, Petro Poroshenko put into force Ukraines Security and Defense Councils decision concerning the national security bill presentation in Verkhovna Rada on February 5. Later, the national security bill was presented in Verkhovna Rada. Your Dazzling Brain: The Symphony of Sleep 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!) 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!) Some of us are thoroughly in touch with our own emotions. Some of us clearly struggle through emotions daily. For Sallie Scheufler 's MFA thesis, she created A Good Cry. Through a series of performative videos and sculptural installations, Sallie brings her knowledge and discovery of the human struggle to life for people of all ages to explore and enjoy. CFA Downtown hosts this beautiful and moving exhibit, which opened on March 12 , and concludes on March 23 , running from 11am to 6pm . Whether wearing a bleeding heart on your sleeve or bottling it all up until the breaking point hits, this display of sadness, euphoria and the gamut of human feels, offers a chance to see exactly what this accomplished artist wants to convey about the nature of tears and crying behavior. This installation is free to the public. (Mayo Lua de Frenchie) Performative videos and sculptural installations, the exhibition questions and scrutinizes the the nature of crying behavior. A GOOD CRY is inspired by, and made of tears. Through a series of performative videos and sculptural installations, the exhibition questions and scrutinizes the the nature of crying behavior. A GOOD CRY is Sallie Scheufler's MFA Thesis Show!! ---------- Sallie Scheufler currently resides in Albuquerque, where she is pursuing her MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico. Raised in the Sonoran Desert, she received her BFA from Arizona State University in 2012. Scheufler is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily with image-based media. She has exhibited work in galleries like the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, Eye Lounge in Phoenix, 516 ARTS in Albuquerque, and the University of New Mexico Art Museum. Scheufler's practice is concerned with how humans communicate, the performance of gender, intimacy, her knowledge of her own body, the informative coming-of-age years, the complexities of unhealthy and healthy relationships, the questioning and formation of identity, growing old, the scientific and cultural ignorance of female sexuality. A GOOD CRY is inspired by, and made of tears. Through a series of performative videos and sculptural installations, the exhibition questions and scrutinizes the the nature of crying behavior. A GOOD CRY is Sallie Scheufler's MFA Thesis Show!! ---------- Sallie Scheufler currently resides in Albuquerque, where she is pursuing her MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico. Raised in the Sonoran Desert, she received her BFA from Arizona State University in 2012. Scheufler is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily with image-based media. She has exhibited work in galleries like the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, Eye Lounge in Phoenix, 516 ARTS in Albuquerque, and the University of New Mexico Art Museum. Scheufler's practice is concerned with how humans communicate, the performance of gender, intimacy, her knowledge of her own body, the informative coming-of-age years, the complexities of unhealthy and healthy relationships, the questioning and formation of identity, growing old, the scientific and cultural ignorance of female sexuality. The African Development Bank has expanded its flagship publication, the African Economic Outlook, with five regional reports. The regional economic studies were released in Tunis (North Africa), Abidjan (West and Central Africa), Nairobi (Eastern Africa) and Pretoria (Southern Africa). Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire Following the successful launch of the 2018 edition of its flagship African Economic Outlook, the African Development Bank will on Monday, March 12, 2018 launch the regional versions of the Report. This is the first time in the African Economic Outlook's 15-year history that an economic outlook report for each one of the Bank's 5 regions in Africa has been prepared to complement the main report. The Regional Economic Outlook Report for Central Africa - a premiere The Central Africa regional economic outlook covers issues peculiar to the region. "The African Economic Outlook is a flagship Bank publication. It is highly regarded by policy makers, researchers and experts because of its strong analytical contents and its practical recommendations on how to handle critical development issues. It also provides an economic snapshot of all 54 African countries. By introducing a regional focus for the first time, we are leveraging our expertise to add more granularity and policy relevance to this publication," said Celestin Monga, Chief Economist and Vice-President responsible for economic governance and knowledge management. "By introducing a regional focus for the first time, we are leveraging our expertise to give this publication greater depth of analysis and relevance." Better prospects after previous modest performance The Central Africa region, which comprises eight countries, recorded 0.9% growth in real GDP in 2017. These modest figures are higher than the 0.1% recorded in 2016. Even so, the region is in last place on the continent in comparison with the 3.6% recorded for Africa as a whole and with the economic performance of the other four regions: East Africa, North Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa. The low growth by Central Africa can be largely explained by low prices of the raw materials on which some countries of the region are highly dependent on and the recurrent security threats in others. Prospects for 2018 and 2019 are more encouraging, fueled by a rise in global commodity prices and increased domestic demand. According to the Bank's projections, real GDP growth in Central Africa is projected to reach 2.4% in 2018 and 3% in 2019. Other favourable factors include sound macroeconomic management and a more favourable institutional environment. Report to be launched on March 12 in Abidjan "The African Economic Outlook is the result of extensive research including data collection, analysis, and projections. The Bank's economists have redoubled their efforts to produce the regional economic reports, which further enrich the knowledge products of the Bank," said Abebe Shimeles, Acting Director, Macroeconomic Forecasting and Research. The Bank's regional economic outlook report for Central Africa will be presented to the public on March 12, 2018 at 2.00 PM at the Bank's Head Office in Abidjan at the same time as the report for West Africa. The official launch will be led by Mr. Celestin Monga, the Bank's Vice President and Chief Economist and Abebe Shimeles, Acting Director, Macroeconomic Forecasting and Research. Ousmane Dore, Director General for Central Africa, will chair the event, while Herve Lohoues, Lead Economist for the region, will also be on the presentation panel. Representatives of the Cote d'Ivoire Government, ambassadors of the countries in Central Africa, representatives of the private sector, partner organizations, and the civil society and the press are invited to the launch event. The economic outlook reports for each of the Bank's 5 regions in Africa will be presented to the public simultaneously. The report is embargoed until March 12, 2018. Lilongwe Malawi's land stakeholders have agreed to ensure land governance issues are mainstreamed in the Malawi's National Agriculture Investment Plan. Convened by the Africa Land Policy Centre (ALPC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development and Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, the stakeholders discussed priority issues and identified roles and responsibilities for ensuring that key issues in the NAIP are tackled effectively. They further identified and agreed on the capacity building needs which may be required to implement the Plan. With funding from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), the workshop is part of a series of validation exercises conducted in 6 countries participating in a pilot project being implemented by the ALPC to support member states in mainstreaming land governance issues in the national agriculture programmes. The countries are Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Madagascar, Cote d' Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Malawi, the workshop was organized by the Africa Land Policy Center (ALPC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development and Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development. In his remarks, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Mr. Charles Msosa reiterated the Malawi Government's continued commitment towards effective implementation of the AU Declaration on Land. He informed the stakeholders that the government through Parliament passed all the land related laws, following which his ministry has "put in place the necessary infrastructure such as the development and approval of the subsidiary legislations for Customary Land Act and establishment of a Land Policy Reform Implementation Unit", whose roles is to oversee the implementation of the land reform implementation process in the country. "Our meeting today signifies the continued collaboration between the Government of Malawi and the African Union Land Policy Initiative," he said. For her part, Joan Kagwanja Coordinator of the Arica Land Policy Centre expressed appreciation to the Government of Malawi for its commitment towards the implementation of the AU Agenda on Land as stipulated in the AU Declaration and Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa. She thanked the two Ministries for their collaborating on making sure that land governance issues are mainstreamed in the NAIP. She reiterated the ALPC's continued commitment to support the implementation of the national land reform process. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach both experienced a strong February for containerized cargo throughput, particularly imports, as shippers scurried to get their goods moved from Asia before Chinese New Year began Feb. 16. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach both increased container throughput in February 2018 from 12 months earlier, the Southern California ports each revealed Tuesday. The sharp increase can be attributed to Chinese New Year, also referred to as Lunar New Year, falling later this year. The Chinese New Year began Feb. 16 this year, compared to Jan. 28 last year. Shippers tend to typically move cargo ahead of the holiday, since many factories in China and other Asian nations shut down for a week or more. In addition, container carriers commonly blank voyages around Chinese New Year because of reduced demand for transport. We expect a lull in March as East Asian nations celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday, and then a rebound in April, Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero said. In February, the Port of Los Angeles processed 725,059 TEUs, up 15.9 percent year-over-year. Compared to last February at the Port of Los Angeles: Loaded imports increased 28.1 percent to 383,089 TEUs; Loaded exports increased 1.4 percent to 157,591 TEUs; And empty containers increased 7.8 percent to 184,378 TEUs. Meanwhile, the Port of Long Beach processed 661,790 TEUs in February, up 32.8 percent year-over-year. Compared to last February at the Port of Long Beach: Loaded imports increased 37 percent to 342,247 TEUs; Loaded exports increased 9.3 percent to 130,916 TEUs; And empty containers increased 46.5 percent to 188,628 TEUs. Up the Pacific coast at the Port of Oakland, loaded imports reached 73,666 TEUs during the month, loaded exports stood at 73,905 TEUs and empty containers totaled 40,604 TEUs. The Port of Oakland is called by more container services than the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to BlueWater Reportings Port Dashboard tool, but all transpacific services calling Oakland call either Los Angeles or Long Beach first, meaning more cargo is discharged at those ports from Asia instead of Oakland. However, Port of Oakland CEO Chris Lytle revealed during his annual state of the port speech in January that the port is working to become the first port of call for some cargo ships traveling from Asia. Right now, we have about 28 transpacific strings of vessels that call Oakland, Lytle said during his speech. All 28 make a first stop in LA or Long Beach thats not good for us. YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri honored Armenian counterpart Karen Karapetyans visit with an official dinner in the evening of March 12 in Beirut. Armenias PM Karen Karapetyan delivered remarks, saying: Dear Mr. Prime Minister, Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to once again thank Mr. Hariri for the invitation to visit Lebanon and the warm reception. We all know that the Armenian-Lebanese relations and ties have always been unique, which is due to the historical friendly relations between our peoples. Certainly the Lebanese-Armenian community has key and appreciable role here with its peaceful and creative conduct. The experience of the past years only reaffirms that the Armenian-Lebanese partnership is harmonious in both bilateral and international arenas. We are only left with ensuring the continuation of joint efforts for the further deepening of this, and the protection of our mutual interests. We currently need to develop and strengthen the economic component of our bilateral relations even more. I am hopeful that the issues which weve discussed these days and the agreements which weve reached will be realized soon and will convey new momentum and quality to the deepening of the multifaceted partnership of the Armenian and Lebanese peoples. Following the tragic and unfortunate events unfolding in the region and directly next to Lebanon in the recent years, I would like to emphasize Armenias readiness to support its friend Lebanon and to express hope that the people of Lebanon, who bear wisdom of centuries and patriotic values, will withstand all challenges with honor and inherent unity, will maintain the balanced stance of the country and normal development course. Dear Mr. Prime Minister, I wish you good health and all the best, and I wish peace, stability and further economic prosperity to the people of Lebanon. Long live Lebanon and long live the Armenian-Lebanese friendship. Lebanons PM Saad Hariri said in his remarks: Dear Mr. Prime Minister, Dear friends, We host our respected guest, Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan and his delegation, with great honor this evening. First of all, I congratulate the election of the 4th President of Armenia in the beginning of this month. Last year we marked the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between independent Armenia and Lebanon, but the cultural and historic ties between the two countries have a history of more than 2000 years, from the days of Tigranes the Great. Currently Lebanon and Armenia have successful relations in various fields, especially in business. Academic exchange between universities also exists, and bilateral active partnership in cultural, arts and tourism areas is also carried out. The Lebanese-Armenian [community] plays a great role in the development of these relations, especially taking into account that they are considered active actors in both the Lebanese national life, business, industry, cultural , educational and arts sectors. Exchange of investments between the countries in also in an active phase, the latest results of which is the involvement of two Lebanese banks in Armenias financial system. Mr. Prime Minister and friends, The development of relations between the two countries was under the attention of martyred Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, and he became the first Lebanese high-level official to visit Armenia three times since 1997. I hope to continue his mission by always having the interests and friendly relations of the two peoples in mind. Thank you and once again I welcome your visit to the Lebanese Government. Long live the friendly relations of Lebanon and Armenia, long live Armenia and Lebanon. English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. U.S. House of Representatives Democrats urged President Donald Trump to impose new sanctions on Russia, Reuters reports. At least 137 of the Democrats in the House signed a letter strongly urging Trump to adhere to a law he signed last summer imposing sanctions on those who do business with Russias military and intelligence sectors. We strongly urge you to reverse course, follow the letter and spirit of the law, and demonstrate that the security of our country and integrity of elections are sacrosanct, the letter said. English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan on March 13 met with a group of businessmen in Beirut within the frames of his official visit to Lebanon, the government told Armenpress. During the meeting the opportunities on implementing investment programs in Armenia were discussed. The EuroMena Funds delegation members led by companys co-founder Romen Mathieu presented the companys activity directions, experience and said the company is interested in cooperation in the fields of insurance, IT, service and construction. PM Karapetyan introduced Armenias current economic situation, stating that a 7.5% economic growth was recorded in the country in 2017, and there were also positive results in terms of other macro-economic indicators. In this sense, the PM said, its a good time to make investments in Armenia given the countrys opportunities to use different privileged trade regimes. The PM welcomed The EuroMena Funds desire to carry out activity in Armenia and on behalf of the Armenian government expressed readiness to thoroughly discuss the future steps. The Armenian PM also met with President of Future Group Fouad M. Makhzoumi during which the investment cooperation opportunities were discussed. Fouad M. Makhzoumi introduced his companys activity in a number of countries. Karen Karapetyan invited Fouad M. Makhzoumi to Armenia to get acquainted with the countrys opportunities and stated that the Armenian side is ready to discuss the opportunities of mutually beneficial partnership. The EuroMena Fund, L.P. specializes in high growth mid-market private companies. The fund typically invests in banking and insurance; maintenance and services; pharmaceutical, healthcare services, chemicals, and cosmetics; production of food and beverages; and retail and consumer products. It mainly invests in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries and the Mediterranean countries. Future Group was established in 1981 and over the past decades has evolved from a regional concern to a truly global entity. Headquartered in Dubai with offices in London and New York and business hubs worldwide, Future Group today is a holding company that oversees 30 privately held companies across four core sectors spanning five continents. English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan Jesse and Mike adding interesting stuff to our blog in our spare time, so pardon the miscellany and lack of any organization. If you need to email about something (not hood ornaments) that isn't relevant to the comment section, e mail me at jbohjkl@yahoo.com, which will be responded to pretty fast on weekdays Images used IAW Title 17 U.S. Code 107 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107 This is under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license.See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode YEREVAN, MARCHH 13, ARMENPRESS. The US military has curbed combat operations flying out of Incirlik air base in Turkey and permanent cutbacks are under consideration, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Official sources told the Wall Street Journal that the move is a result of tense relations between the countries. In January, for instance, a squadron of A-10 Thunderbolt IIs were shifted from Incirlik to Afghanistan. Incirlik Air Base still retains refueling planes, F-22 Raptors and F-15 Eagles. According to a US military official, cutting presence in Turkey is under consideration for quite some time now. The tension in relations between the US and Turkey began as Ankara became concerned over the American assistance to Kurdish fighters in Syria. English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Ambassador to Austria Arman Kirakosyan on March 9 met with newly-appointed head of Austria-Armenia parliamentary friendship group Gudrun Kugler in the parliament, the Armenian foreign ministry told Armenpress. During the meeting Gudrun Kugler said the Austrian parliament attaches great importance to the development of relations with Armenia and the Armenian Parliament which is linked with the significant contribution of the Armenian people in Austria, as well as with the high level of mutual relations between Armenia and Austria, as well as the EU. Ambassador Kirakosyan briefly presented Armenias domestic and foreign policy priorities, the process of political reforms, economic development, efforts on settling the Karabakh conflict, as well as touched upon several regional issues. At the end of the meeting the sides outlined the cooperation format of the upcoming years and highlighted the importance of mutual visits of friendship groups, as well as support of the parliaments to joint projects. English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Turkey has issued a formal complaint to Germany regarding the recent attacks on Turkish mosques in the country, Cumhurriyet reports. Deputy PM of Turkey Bekir Bozdag said the German Ambassador has been summoned to the foreign ministry and given the official complaint. We are saying to the German government that whoever the criminals are, it is the responsibility of this country, the government, to arrest them and hold accountable in the court, he said. A few days ago Turkish mosques in several cities of Germany came under attacks. The assailants threw Molotov cocktails on the buildings and destroyed the windows. Several suspects had been detained. It is believed that the attacks are in protest of Turkeys intervention in Afrin, Syria. English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. UN Goodwill Ambassador, Yazidi human rights advocate Nadia Murad called on Turkey to stop the attacks in Syrias Afrin that so far have killed over 200 civilians, The Region reports. Today, I received information that the area of Afrin inhabited by Kurds, Yazidis and Christians is under siege from all sides. There is only one road through which people can leave the city. 200 civilians have been killed, including 3 Yazidi children. Shrines and religious sites have been destroyed or forcibly converted into mosques. Peoples homes are being looted and minorities are being shamed by extremist militias, she said in a statement. She said many of these actions are war crimes and should be documented. This horror is reminiscent of the initial actions of ISIS in Iraq. Medical and healthcare services are urgently needed. This situation foreshadows "ethnic cleansing" and genocide, Nadia Murad stressed. She appealed to the UN, EU to demand that all sides respect the rights of civilians and work toward a ceasefire. Now is the time to heal wounds, avoid further escalations and return to normality for people in Iraq and Syria, she concluded. In January 2018, the Turkish military began an operation in the Kurdish-majority Afrin Canton and the Tel Rifaat Area of Shahba Canton in Northern Syria. Turkey code-named the operation as Operation Olive Branch. In the pretext of fighting terror, Turkey is actually targeting the Kurdish population. English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Investigators have retrieved the flight data recorder from the wreckage of a Bangladeshi airliner that crashed, killing at least 49 aboard, including the crew, when it attempted to land in Nepals capital, Reuters reports. The airline and airport authorities in Kathmandu have blamed each other in the aftermath the disaster. The flight data recorder has been recovered, we have kept it safely, said Raj Kumar Chettri, the airports general manager, adding that an investigation had begun into the cause of the crash. The Bombardier Q400 series aircraft was carrying 71 people from the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka when it tried to land in conditions of visibility that weather officials said exceeded 6 km (4 miles), with clouds at one end of the runway and a light tailwind of six to seven knots. Canadian plane maker Bombardier said it was sending an air safety investigator and a field service representative to the site. English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Eduard Sharmazanov Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, delivered welcoming remarks at the outgoing session of the CIS IPA Permanent Commission on Agrarian Policy, Natural Resources and Ecology on March 3, reports Armenpress. I welcome the participants of the outgoing session of the CIS IPA Permanent Commission on Agrarian Policy, Natural Resources and Ecology. The CIS Interparliamentary Assembly is a unique platform which for more than 25 years carries out an activity aimed at ensuring the cooperation of the parliaments of the CIS member states. Speaking about the key events of the CIS IPA activity of the past quarter century I first of all would like to stress the role and contribution of the CIS IPA in the preparation and strengthening of the protocol signed in May, 1994 in Bishkek which was followed by the signing of the trilateral termless ceasefire agreement between Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Dear colleagues, unfortunately today Azerbaijan ignores the trilateral ceasefire agreement signed by it. The vivid evidence of this is the 2016 April aggression by Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) which claimed hundreds of lives, also among the civilians. Dear colleagues, I am confident that sooner or later the Republic of Artsakh will become a full member of the CIA IPA having its contribution to the strengthening and development of the organization. The agenda of your Commission is full of issues which are of great interest to lawmakers and civil society representatives. I wish you effective discussions, productive contacts, an interesting debate and enjoying good time in our country, Sharmazanov said. English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Moscow is ready to respond if lives of the Russian servicemen are endangered, including by strikes on Damascus, head of Russia's military General Staff Valery Gerasimov said, RT reports. There are many Russian advisers, representatives of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and [Russian] servicemen in Damascus and at Syrian defense facilities, Gerasimov stated. In case lives of Russian military personnel are put in danger, the Russian Armed Forces will respond with certain measure to both missiles and lauchers which are delivering these projectiles. Russian MoD also says it has information that militants in Syria are planning to stage chemical attacks against civilians under the guise of the Syrian government. According to Gerasimov, they have already sent civilians in Eastern Ghouta who will play victims of chemical attacks. Following the chemical attack, the US will accuse the Syrian government of targeting Eastern Ghouta. Whats more, according to Gerasimov, it will come up with the evidence of mass killings of Syrian civilians at the hands of Damascus and Russia, 'which supports the Syrian government.' In response, Washington will strike the government quarters of Damascus, the general has alleged. English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. American adult film star Stormy Daniels is offering to give back the $130,000 she was paid for her silence so she can speak freely about US President Donald Trump and release any text messages, photos and videos she might have, NBC News reported. The actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, made the offer Monday in a letter to Trump's private attorney Michael Cohen, who brokered a nondisclosure agreement with her shortly before the 2016 presidential election of the United States. The letter says the money would be wired to an account designated by Trump by Friday. In return, Clifford would be allowed to "speak openly and freely about her prior relationship with the president and the attempts to silence her and use and publish and text messages, photos and videos relating to the president that she may have in her possession, all without fear of retribution or legal liability," the letter says. In a lawsuit filed last week, Clifford said she had an "intimate" relationship with Trump in 2006 and 2007 and struck a deal a decade later to keep quiet about it. However, she contends, the pact is void because Trump never signed the agreement. The White House denies Trump had an affair with Clifford. English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. With the military exercises launched on March 12, Azerbaijan is clearly violating the 2011 OSCE Vienna document in terms of equipment involved, Armenian foreign ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said on Twitter. Azerbaijan clearly violates the requirements of paragraph 40.1.1 of Chapter V (Prior Notification of Certain Military Activities (CMA)) of the OSCE Vienna Document 11 in terms of the number of troops and military equipment involved, Balayan said. Earlier the foreign ministry spokesman said Azerbaijan has violated OSCE commitments by failing to notify member countries about its military exercises. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ordered the drills to take place March 12-17. According to local media 25,000 troops, 250 tanks and other armored vehicles, 1000 artillery units and other equipment are employed. According to subparagraph 40.1.1 of chapter 5 of the Vienna Document 2011, military exercises are subject to notification if they include: A minimum of 9000 people, including support troops, A minimum of 250 tanks, A minimum of 500 armored vehicles, A minimum of 250 artillery weapons, mortars and reactive systems of volley fire (100mm and above). English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on March 13 sent a congratulatory letter to His Holiness Pope Francis on the 5th anniversary of his election wishing him health and achievements in all initiatives, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. From the very start your Pontifical mission aims at establishing justice in the world and dialogue between the conflicting sides. I also want to note with a great pleasure that it has also been distinguished by a great attention towards the Armenian people, reads the congratulatory letter. President Sargsyan also warmly remembered his meetings with Pope Francis in the Holy See and Armenia. English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Konstantin Kosachev, Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly, sees a necessity to exchange views on deepening the Armenian-Russian mutual partnership in general integration processes, reports Armenpress. During the joint session with the Armenian parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs in Yerevan, Konstantin Kosachev said the Eurasian Economic Union is one of the most interesting and dynamically developing structures that requires the daily attention and creative energy of the parliamentarians. Although now the Eurasian Economic Union doesnt have a parliamentary structure, I think this is also a topic on exchanging views, he said. Konstantin Kosachev expressed confidence that Armenia and Russia have many common topics on the activities at different international parliamentary structures they are involved in. If Im not mistaken, at the moment there are seven such structures the Interparliamentary Union, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, PACE, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, the CIS and CSTO Interparliamentary Assemblies. I am confident there are topics to be discussed at each of these structures. If we are able to somehow make our stances closer, that will be not only for the benefit of our delegations, parliaments and peoples, but also for other international structures that need to move forward, the Russian official said. The joint session of the Armenian parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly has kicked off in the Armenian parliament. The session will continue until March 14. English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. The participants of the outgoing session of the CIS IPA Permanent Commission on Agrarian Policy, Natural Resources and Ecology visited the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on March 13, the Armenian parliament told Armenpress. The delegation members were accompanied by Armenian MP Vahe Enfiajyan. The guests laid flowers at the Eternal Flame and paid tribute to the memory of the innocent victims with a moment of silence. Thereafter they visited the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, got acquainted with the documents and exhibits on the Genocide. Alexander Vaynberg, member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly, said he had Armenian friends while serving in the Soviet army who told him about the Armenian Genocide. I was surprised that they were so young but well aware of their own history and were in great pain. I think all countries of the world, but first of all Turkey should recognize the Genocide of the Armenian people. I hope it will never repeat, he said. English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Ara Babloyan on March 13 received the delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly led by Chairman of the Committee Konstantin Kosachev, the Parliament told Armenpress. Welcoming the guests Speaker Babloyan expressed confidence that the delegations visit will contribute to deepening the Armenian-Russian inter-state and inter-parliamentary cooperation. According to Ara Babloyan, the relations of the two countries are based on centuries-old friendship and firm historical ties. The Parliament Speaker said the cooperation between the parliaments plays a unique role in the agenda of the Armenian-Russian inter-state relations. In this regard he highly appreciated the joint sessions of the Armenian parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly which serves a platform for the dialogue between the legislators of the two countries and enables to discuss a wide range of issues of bilateral interest. Speaker Babloyan also attached importance to the cooperation in international parliamentary organizations. In his turn Konstantin Kosachev thanked for the reception and said Armenia is an exclusive ally for Russia. He introduced the Speaker on the issues discussed at the joint session and said the session agenda covers issues relating to the security, strategic partnership and inter-parliamentary cooperation of the two countries. Mr. Kosachev also highlighted the role of the parliamentary diplomacy and mutually beneficial partnership in international structures, stating that Russia and Armenia are included in nearly 7 Assemblies, and according to him, this is not a coincidence as the talk is about common interests. The Russian official expressed hope that the issues discussed at the joint sessions will soon be solved. At the end of the meeting the officials also discussed a number of issues relating to the parliamentary cooperation. English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Armenias finance minister Vardan Aramyan on March 13 received IMF Dutch Sub-Group Executive Director Anthony De Lannoy, the ministry told Armenpress. During the meeting the Armenian minister highly appreciated the long-term productive cooperation with the International Monetary Fund highlighting its role in different reforms conducted in Armenia. In particular, the minister highlighted the IMFs technical support to reforms on revising fiscal rules and tax policy last year. The minister expressed readiness to continue making efforts aimed at further deepening the cooperation with the Fund with a confidence that it will contribute to increasing the effectiveness of Armenias economy and conducting an effective fiscal policy. English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, 13 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 13 March, USD exchange rate down by 0.21 drams to 480.51 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.41 drams to 592.37 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.02 drams to 8.44 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.82 drams to 667.00 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price down by 31.32 drams to 20379.22 drams. Silver price down by 0.57 drams to 254.21 drams. Platinum price up by 132.64 drams to 14799.91 drams. YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. In the sidelines of the official visit to Lebanon Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan had a working lunch with the Chairman of the Central Bank of Lebanon Riad Salame. The Executive Directors of Lebanons major banks were also invited. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Government of Armenia, Premier Karapetyan presented to his Lebanese colleagues the economic situation of Armenia and the investment atmosphere, as well as the indexes recorded last year and the opportunities to enter other markets through Armenia. During the lunch the sides exchanged ideas over deepening bilateral business ties and cooperation in the banking sector. The Prime Minister of Armenia is scheduled to visit Haigazian University and Zmar Monastery on March 13. He will also meet with the representatives of the Armenian organizations in Lebanon. English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues Co-Chair Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues Co-Vice Chair Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Congressman Jim Costa (D-CA) issued statements in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Azerbaijans anti-Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku, ARMENPRESS was informed from the official website of the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly). Invited by the Armenian Caucus leadership, a delegation from Artakh (Nagorno Karabakh), led by President Bako Sahakyan, are in Washington, D.C. for a week-long working visit, where they will be able to meet and speak with Members of Congress regarding strengthening the U.S.-Artsakh relationship. Rep. Pallone said on the House floor: On February 27, 1988, up to 200 Armenian civilians living in the city of Sumgait in Azerbaijan were indiscriminately killed, raped, maimed, and even burned alive for no reason other than their ethnicity. This senseless violence was instigated by hostile, anti-Armenian rhetoric from Azerbaijani citizens and officials against these innocent individuals. For three decades, Azerbaijan has taken steps to cover up these crimes against humanity and dismiss the atrocities at Sumgait. Even more disturbing is that perpetrators of these events and similar violent attacks have since been lauded as national heroes. He added: I will continue to work with my colleagues on the Congressional Armenian Issues Caucus to remember the victims of the pogroms at Sumgait and to condemn all acts of violence against people who are targeted simply because of their existence. I hope my colleagues will join me in rejecting violent rhetoric and intimidation by renewing our commitment to achieving a collective and lasting peace. Beginning in Sumgait in 1988, and spreading to the cities of Kirovabad in 1989 and Baku in 1990, armed mobs of Azerbaijani citizens took to the streets targeting Armenian residences and destroying Armenian-owned businesses while Azerbaijan security services stood by. The Sumgait pogrom was widely reported and roundly condemned, but the violence was never contained. Increasingly, anti-Armenian forces acted with impunity and the pogroms spread across Azerbaijan, leading to the military campaigns of the late 1980s to 1994 to deport the Armenians of Artsakh, until a cease-fire agreement was signed by Azerbaijan, Artsakh, and Armenia. Since then, the cease-fire agreement has been violated on a daily basis, and in April 2016 Azerbaijan resumed full-scale warfare for four days before it was prevailed upon to halt its aggression. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the pogrom against the Armenian residents of the town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan. On February 27 1988, and for three days following, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians. The violence left hundreds of Armenian civilians dead and injured, women and girls were raped, and some victims were burned alive. Thousands were forced to flee their homes, leaving behind their belonging, Rep. Schiff informed his colleagues on the House floor. The pogroms came about as the result of years of vicious, racist anti-Armenian propaganda by Azerbaijani authorities, dehumanizing Armenians. Azerbaijan authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities in Sumgait to this day, and denying the government role in instigating the killings. Indeed, even today, racist propaganda against Armenia and Armenians is prevalent in Azerbaijan, he continued. On February 28, Rep. Costa stated: This week marks the 30th anniversary of the pogroms against people of Armenian descent in Sumgait, Azerbaijan. Yet, the violence and hatred of the pogroms failed in suppressing the Armenian people. Their dedication to self-determination burned on, and their refusal to sacrifice their freedom inspired democratic movements across the Soviet Union. To the thousands of Armenian Americans living in our San Joaquin Valley and to Armenian people living throughout the world, l stand with you. We must continue to advocate for the protection of human rights and democratic freedoms, for the Armenian people, and for all. This year also marks the 30th anniversary of Artsakhs Liberation Movement that was sparked in 1988 by the spreading threat of the pogroms. Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Co-Vice Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) provided remarks to commemorate this anniversary and congratulate the people of Artsakh. On behalf of the Armenian American community, I thank the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues for its leadership and principled stand in sending a strong message of support for Armenians in Artsakh in the face of Azeri aggression, stated Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. Artsakh President and his delegation has arrived in Washington, D.C. upon invitation by Armenian Caucus Leaders to discuss issues about strengthening Artsakh-USA relations. English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili and President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi have sent a congratulatory message to Armen Sarkissian on the occasion of being elected the President of Armenia, ARMENPRESS was informed from Armen Sarkissians office. President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvilis message runs as follows, I want to heartily congratulate you on the occasion of being elected President of the Republic of Armenia and to wish you success in your mission. I am happy for the bilateral relations between Georgia and Armenia have significantly developed in the recent period and have fostered the interactions between our friendly peoples. I am convinced that our friendly relations that developed throughout centuries will further develop for the benefit of our peoples. President of Czech Republic Milos Zemans message runs as follows, Armenia is a traditionally important partner and ally for the Czech Republic. Thank to the numerous meetings of the representatives of the ministries and the parliaments, the regular sessions of the Czech-Armenian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation and high level mutual visits we have recorded in the recent months and years strengthening of bilateral dialogue. I personally remember with gratitude my last state visit to Armenia in June 2016. Armenia is an important partner also in multilateral platforms. Thank to the new agreement we can further expand the partnership between Armenia and the EU. There are prospects for partnership also in the sidelines of the Eastern Partnership (one of the initiators of which is the Czech Republic). We consider it a promising and extremely useful format for developing relations with our closest partners of our neighborhood. English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan held a consultation on March 13 to sum up the works done during the year since the founding of the Military Insurance Fund, the achievements and the goals of the fund, taking into account the fact that initially this initiative was highly appreciated, all works should be conducted with maximum transparency and presented to the public. In addition to the members of the Foundation Council, the Director of the Foundation, the Chairman of the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, the relevant officials of the presidential staff and the Ministry of Defense took part in the consultation. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Armenian Presidents Office, Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan reported to the participants of the meeting about the financial performance of the Military Insurance Fund during the reporting period, about the fund's reimbursements, donations and other activities. After listening to the reports, the members of the Council presented their assessments and opinions on the results of the Fund's activities over the past year. The President considered the work of the fund a very good example of effective cooperation between the private and public sectors in the field of security, stressing that military insurance, in his opinion, is closely related to security. English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian who is in Stockholm on an official visit met with Swedish Foreign Minister Margot WallStrom on March 13, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia. Greeting the guest, the Foreign Minister of Sweden noted that she highlights the development of expanded cooperation with Armenia both on bilateral and multilateral formats. Thanking for the invitation and warm reception, Minister Nalbandian hoped that new agreements will be reached in the sidelines of his visit aimed at further deepening and expanding the Armenian-Swedish relations. Edward Nalbandian and Margot WallStrom recorded with satisfaction that since the establishment of diplomatic relations firm and friendly relations have been established between the two states. The Armenian and Swedish FM discussed a broad scope of issues of bilateral agenda. They exchanged views on deepening cooperation in the spheres of trade and economy, science and education, culture, environment, renewable energy, information technologies. The sides highlighted Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement and noted that it will give new impetus to the mutually beneficial cooperation. Edward Nalbandian presented to Margot WallStrom the preparatory works of the Francophonie summit to be held in Yerevan in October and the business forum to take place in the sidelines of the summit. The FMs discussed the steps to prevent genocides and crimes against humanity and in this context referred to the initiatives of Armenia and Sweden. Edward Nalbandian presented Margot WallStrom with the book telling about the humanitarian activities of Swedish missioner Alma Johansson during the years of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian FM presented to his Swedish counterpart the joint efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair countries aimed at an exclusively peaceful settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict. English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan CYBERSPACEPassion4TV, the company behind TV channel Passion XXX and a sister company of Payserve's IMC, this week launched an erotic app. Owners of smart TVs can now download the Passion XXX app on their Samsung, Humax and Hisense TV's, giving them access to more than 13,000 porn videos. And new videos are added every day, totaling over 20 new movies every week, in various genres. Besides the videos on demand, members can also watch the Passion XXX 24/7 TV channel, which has been featured in premium packages of cable companies all over the world for more than 10 years now. Passion XXX offers a mix of videos in 11 different themes, provided by over 30 studios worldwide such as Club Sweethearts, Submissed, Pornstar Classics and many more. Since PassionXXX is one of the few adult apps available on SmartTVs right now, the team behind the app tried to make sure it would offer something for everyone. Besides traditional hardcore content, the app also includes content from studios Daring and SinfulXXX, making it more attaractive for couples and women. For anyone who's interested in "something else," there are at least 1,000 fetish videos to watch. To use the app, smart-TV owners can go to the App Store on their TV, search for the word "passion" to find the app, download it and then follow the steps indicated. In addition to using it on SmartTVs alone, the app also works on other devices via PassionXXX.com. Passion4TV expects to launch on other TV brands soon. DatingPartner, serving the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) dating space and with a 15-year track record, has announced that its roster of profitable and applicable white labels will be extended with powerful features to increase chances for high conversion rates. After working in the dating segment for way over a decade, our expertise has really grown with each year on how to enable our partners to get the big bucks, a company spokesperson said. DatingPartner (part of TrafficPartner.com) delivers white labels that are not only easy to installwere basically talking about 10 minutes herebut even moreso unique due to their 'Money Machine Features.' These will ultimately lead to insane user values and traffic monetization. Our member areas are furthermore full of monetizing functions, greatly satisfying live webcams, premiums services and upsells. Conversions will also be driven by databases consisting of real and native users. On top, theres a wide range, allowing for casual, mainstream and highly demanded dating niches. Meanwhile, own brands and domains can easily be added. The white labels are fully responsive and ready to be explored on all devices. Some of the highlights of the DatingPartner white labeling also include: Fully individualized and available for your brand/domain within one day Wider ranged focus with casual, mainstream and all highly demanded niches Member areas with monetizing features, satisfying live webcams, premium services and upsells Existing texts can be used SEO relevance confirmed Our intelligent lead-cascading technology is especially noteworthy, the spokesperson stated. Besides all the highlights were delivering, this makes for a significant sign-up-to-lead conversion. In addition, theres no need to go back to the drawing board. You can simply make use of any existing texts you might have, while our basic setup is already relevant in terms of SEO. If youre already a partner of ours, simply choose the menu items 'Hot Selection,' 'Best Converting' and finally the work bench 'White Labels'. The company is welcoming existing and new partners to start on DatingPartner.com. Greencore boss Patrick Coveney is to split his time between the UK and the US as the business announces a restructure of its US operations and leadership. The business also said share earnings would be below market expectations, prompting a sharp drop in Greencores share price. Chief executive Coveney (pictured left) is to spend around half his time in the US, taking a direct role in the strategic, organisational and commercial leadership of Greencore US. The company greatly increased its presence in the US with the acquisition of Peacock Foods in 2016. Chris Kirke, who was MD of Greencores food-to-go business in the UK, before becoming CEO of Greencore US in 2015, is leaving Greencore Group to return to the UK, but will help with the transition. Chuck Metzger, chief operating officer of Greencore US, has taken on day-to-day responsibility for the US business and will report to Coveney. The moves come as Greencore restructures its US manufacturing operations to address poor utilisation of some of its production capacity. The US changes include ending fresh production at the Rhode Island facility, although the site will be retained for potential repurposing. Greencore also said it expected new business wins to enable it to make better use of its Jacksonville and Minneapolis sites. The business, which recently reported that strong food-to-go business had driven a 9.2% hike in UK revenue, said it expected good organic revenue growth in the current financial year, although volumes had been hit by poor weather in Q2. It added that, while the core US business had performed as expected, a weak performance of the groups underutilised sites in the first half of the year would impact US profit growth. The group now anticipates adjusted EPS in the range of 14.7p-15.7p, lower than the current market expectations of 15.7p-16.6p. The firms share price had fallen 24% following the announcement this morning (13 March). In January, Greencore exited the cakes and desserts market with the sale of its site in Hull to Bright Blue Foods. We've detected that JavaScript is not enabled in your browser. You must enable JavaScript to use craigslist. Reaching the end of Trail #5, Nags Head Nature Conservancy (about 2 miles there and back), we see the beginning of this March sunset: Above and below. photos by Stan Deatherage Click image to expand. With the light limited, the sun perched low behind the thinning clouds, we look north along the rugged beach: Above. The Croatan Sound widens as it courses north, here we look across the sound to the North Carolina mainland and the mouth of the Albemarle Sound: Below. photos by Stan Deatherage Click image to expand. With the light regaining some strength the sunset takes on a changing hue: Above and below. photos by Stan Deatherage Click image to expand. Sunsets can be wondrous, with or without the reddening color spectrum of the horizon's influence, and this day was no exception: Above and below. photos by Stan Deatherage Click image to expand. We, Lynn and I, enjoy walking on the many trails surrounding Moses Cone and this sunset, with Calloway Peak in the background was no exception: Above and below. photos by Stan Deatherage Click image to expand. Images of places in North Carolina, and in particular Downeast, taken by Stan Deatherage - currently for sale as high quality, framable prints - have been assembled here. Loading Google Map...Please Wait... Enter an Address or Place & Click Find Find Latitude Longitude Zoom I have bunches of images from my travels across North Carolina, many that I have never shared. Often, my travel partner (my wife, Lynn, and I ) like to take hikes to rather remote places and we take pictures: me with my Canon DSLR, and she with her fine smartphone camera (the one that makes every near picture look like heightened near reality). We make the hikes, we take the pictures; she leaves her images on her smartphone; I store mine on my hard-drives, and often forget about them. That I must end.To that end, here recently, I have taken a vow to go through all my stored images to either: delete; right, align and crop; then, title and categorize; next, properly store with backups, while considering how I might display some images at a future date on BCN or sell as prints. It is a time consuming process, but, I did travel to the location and took my time to make the images, so, something need to done, especially if I just fit all these new duties around all else I do ... and, I do much. So, let us start ...Recently, my wife and I took a chilly trip to Nags Head, North Carolina, and since the beach was too cold, windy and rough for our visitation, we spent much of our outside time riding slowly to places we like, and taking walks on the sound side of the Outer Banks. Noreaster Quinn had wreaked much havoc north of Nags Head, with over-wash of the Atlantic over the famous Highway 12, while south of the Herbert C. Bonner bridge, Pea Island was completely cut off from the more habitable world to the north and northeast, due to Highway 12 South being completely cut by the sand drenched wash; therefore, we confined our activities from Nag Head to Duck, NC.Recently, we had learned of the Nags Head Nature Conservancy - over 500 acres of high, wooded dunes with much undeveloped Croatan Sound frontage. Here, the operative word is wooded, which would break the wind and provide cover for some decent and very scenic walks. We took those walks, and one evening we captured a lovely sunset over the Croatan Sound.The breeze was much lighter on the sound side of Bodie Island, and the walking, while chilly in the mid forties degrees Fahrenheit, pleasant as day's light was dimming.As we tarry along the Croatan Sound frontage, interestingly, the sinking sun finds its way from behind the clouds in the western sky.As the hue brightens, I take more images from varied vantages to capture the mood before we make our trek to northwestern North Carolina.After we spend some time here in northeastern North Carolina, we find our virtual way to northwestern North Carolina to a most interesting sunset at Moses Cone Memorial Park, near Blowing Rock, NC. Treasurer wants assurances proposed deal won't harm taxpayers or damage pension system State Treasurer Dale Folwell is raising red flags about a proposed merger between publicly owned ECU Physicians , the medical practice of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, and Vidant Medical Group , a private entity that would assume controlling interest.Folwell is sounding many of the same alarms he voiced over the proposed UNC Health Care-Atrium Health mega-partnership that collapsed March 2. He cited a dearth of details in a negotiation process lacking transparency.During his monthly Ask Me Anything teleconference Tuesday, March 6, Folwell told reporters he might seek something similar to the $1 billion performance bond he proposed for the UNC-Atrium deal. The financial guarantee would be intended to offset any increased medical costs for the State Health Plan, or payouts by state taxpayers.Folwell said.Folwell said. He plans to meet with the parties again next week.Folwell said. Topping the requests is written assurance that the tax-exempt status of the state retirement system - the world's 26th-largest public pension - would not be jeopardized when state employees affected by the merger went under the supervision of privately owned Vidant.Attorneys also must determine the impact of ECU's taxpayer-financed debt backed by the full faith and credit of the state. It's also unclear what would happen to ECU facilities built with taxpayer funds.Under the proposal, dubbed Project Unify, Vidant would make an upfront payment of $35 million to ECU, and annual payments of $14.25 million to support Brody School of Medicine. Vidant would bear financial responsibility of the new entity, called VECU Medical Group.ECU Physicians employs more than 350 doctors and 80 advanced practice professionals at 25 medical clinics. Vidant Medical Group has more than 420 medical providers at more than 80 sites in the eastern part of the state. Its parent Vidant Health operates eight hospitals.ECU says Project Unify would address changes occurring in the health care delivery system by creating a national model of rural health and wellness that reduces costs and improves quality in eastern North Carolina.In a statement to Carolina Journal, ECU said the General Assembly has encouraged institutions in the UNC System to create private, nonprofit corporations to support the mission of the university. The the new VECU Medical Group would be legally obligated to support the Brody School of Medicine's mission.The UNC Board of Governors appoints nearly half of the board of directors of the Vidant Health hospital system.the statement said.While the ECU-Vidant agreement in many ways resembles the proposed UNC-Atrium pact, Folwell said there are key differences.The UNC-Atrium proposal involved a joint operating company of dozens of hospitals, some with overlapping service areas. This arrangement raised alarms about stifling competitive pressures that keep health-care costs down. The ECU-Vidant deal involves mostly primary care and specialty clinics in eastern North Carolina, a medically underserved region of the state.Folwell recently has urged the Council of State to be more involved in decisions to buy, sell, and dispose of state property. He raised the issue again Tuesday at the Council of State meeting. He believes the Council of State should clarify its constitutional role to act in such matters. Until that happens, it should ask tough questions about proposals that would affect state taxpayers.through payments to attorneys, actuaries, accountants, consultants, and public relations firms, Folwell said. The Council of State has played a marginal role. To date, the hospital giants have refused to release details of their proposal, he said.At a minimum the Council of State, whose 10 members include the governor and nine elected department heads, should demand a review of these types of deals, Folwell said.he said, and should keep taxpayers informed.Ardis Watkins, spokeswoman for the State Employees Association of North Carolina, has a quarrel with the ECU-Vidant plan, which would give Vidant controlling interest.Watkins said.The state has no business helping to create a monopolistic health-care system in one of the most economically depressed parts of the state, she said. Nor should it relinquish facilities built at taxpayer expense to help meet medical needs in the region.Watkins said she wasn't satisfied by answers from ECU and Vidant at the meeting Folwell convened, particularly those involving employees' constitutionally guaranteed due process and property rights in their jobs and benefits when a job is taken away.A Vidant acquisition could jeopardize state health and retirement benefits for 1,321 state employees, Watkins said.Watkins said.Watkins said.Because she believes the ECU-Vidant and UNC-Atrium deals are identical policy issues, she is surprised the UNC Board of Governors has not made any statements or raised the same level of concern it did with the UNC proposal.The UNC System did not respond to a Carolina Journal request for comment.Watkins said SEANC has contacted BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, which opposed the UNC partnership because of its potential to raise insurance premiums, and state Attorney General Josh Stein, who was prepared to explore antitrust issues with the UNC-Atrium deal. She is awaiting responses. Szoka sees parallels between Cooper's handling of VW settlement money and Atlantic Coast Pipeline fund State Rep. John Szoka, R-Cumberland, is worried $92 million from a national Volkswagen consent decree over Clean Air Act violations might get tangled up in another separation-of-powers showdown between Gov. Roy Cooper and the General Assembly.With the nasty battle over the governor's foiled attempt to create a $57.8 million Atlantic Coast Pipeline escrow fund fresh on his mind, Szoka, co-chairman of the Joint Legislative Commission on Energy Policy, has other cause for concern.Like members of the Energy Policy Commission who shared their anxieties at a Nov. 8 meeting, Szoka is wary about potential impacts from the governor amending his lawsuit in the Cooper v. Berger case ( starting at page 35 ) to include the VW money.In the suit, Cooper contends the General Assembly's insistence the VW money pass through the normal legislative appropriations process is unconstitutional. He claims the General Assembly's move would prevent him from performing his core constitutional functionVolkswagen entered into a consent decree after admitting it installed illegal software equipment on vehicles. The devices allowed vehicles to cheat on emission testing even though the vehicles actually put out up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide.Nearly 19,000 of those vehicles were licensed in North Carolina, entitling the state to some of the environmental mitigation fund to reduce air pollution.Cooper named the state Department of Environmental Quality as the lead agency to develop and implement the state's VW environmental mitigation plan. The national trustee overseeing the $2.7 billion settlement on Jan. 29 approved North Carolina as a beneficiary and DEQ as the lead agency.Cooper says the federal action gives him control of the money because DEQ is an executive branch agency under his purview, and the court directed the agency to spend the money specifically to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions.The VW case is not the only one in which the governor is seeking to forcefully assert a constitutional right for the governor's office to determine how some spending is decided.When he amended the Cooper v. Berger suit he also claimed constitutional authority over how to spend various federal block grants. He challenged the General Assembly's authority to redirect those grants to purposes different from his plans.More recently the General Assembly passed House Bill 90 to take over the pipeline fund Cooper tried to create without the legislature's approval. Cooper could file suit to regain control of the money.Szoka said, adding it would be counterproductive to bog down the VW settlement in court.Szoka can't understand why Cooper isn't following an existing precedent on how to spend federal settlement money - the federal Master Settlement Agreement with tobacco companies that has pumped nearly $3 billion into North Carolina.Szoka said, and the governor had a cooperative role in the process of creating a plan to use the tobacco money.Aside from the legal issues, he's concerned Cooper waited so long to name DEQ as the lead agency for the VW money.of planning, Szoka said, which may put North Carolina behind other states.DEQ spokeswoman Jill Lucas said the state's mitigation plan should be posted this month on the Volkswagen Settlement website for public comment. A series of public information sessions will be scheduled across the state.The state should meet the timeline for submission to the federal trustee for review and approval by June or July.Lucas declined to say whether Cooper's lawsuit might reduce the state's share of mitigation funds, referring the question to Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and the governor.Lucas said, with 15 percent of the allocation devoted to zero emission vehicle supply equipment, such as electric vehicle charging stations.In addition, the Diesel Technology Forum, a manufacturers trade association, on Jan. 8 sent a letter to DEQ, following up on another letter sent in October 2016 to former Gov. Pat McCrory urging use of mitigation funds to buy diesel equipment and engines.Allen Schaeffer, Diesel Technology forum executive director, said in his letter to DEQ that federal Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Transportation studies show heavy-duty vehicles and equipment produce the highest amounts of nitrogen oxide in North Carolina. He asserts replacing them would get the biggest bang for the buck.Schaeffer wrote.he wrote.Meantime, on Tuesday, March 6, representatives of the propane industry addressed the Energy Policy Commission. They urged the General Assembly to consider using some of the VW settlement to "repower" existing school buses with propane-fueled engines along with purchasing new propane-fueled buses. The propane advocates said their method of powering school buses pollutes even less than new diesel technologies. Having selected our usual annual location, the Dare Center in Manteo, the energized Dare County Republican Party met Saturday March 10th 2018 to renew friendships, confirm resolutions which cement our mutual commitments to our US and NC Constitutions and to support President Donald Trump, our elected officials and each other. At this 2018 Convention we signed up 24 local Delegates to represent Dare County at the 3rd Congressional District and the NC State 2018 Republican Conventions.Forty-five Delegates to the County Convention and 39 guests including one Alternate Delegate kicked off our meeting shortly after 9 AM and continued past 11:30 AM. Chairing the Convention was special guest chair and speaker Mrs. Michele Nix of Kinston, NC, our invincible NC State GOP Vice-Chair.Resolutions that successfully made their way through the approval process addressed a variety of topics. One resolution honored highly respected veteran and current Dare County Commissioner Jack Shea, who is retiring from the Dare BOC after the end of this term. He gave a testimony of what it was like to serve in WWII as well as touching on highlights of his career and the threats of socialism spreading to enslave the world. Another honored Donna Elms for her many years of working for her country, helping get the Republican Party started in Dare County and her service as Chair of the Dare County Board of Elections. The Convention also unanimously approved a Resolution promoting GOP Party Unity and a Resolution recognizing and supporting Dare Republican Party Chair, Browny Douglas. The last Resolution that was presented for vote did not get approval but will probably come back again; its topic was a petition to support the intriguing idea of a New Convention of States.Candidates addressed the Convention such as Dare County resident for NC Senate candidate Clark Twiddy and Edenton resident for NC Senate candidate Bob Steinburg. Others were incumbents NC House Representative Beverly Boswell, Dare County Sheriff Doug Doughty, District of Attorney Andy Womble, Clerk of Superior Court Dean Tolson and Dare County Commissioner Jim Tobin. Bobby Hanig of Powells Point spoke about his candidacy for NC House. Scott Dancey, running against US Congressman Walter Jones, was represented by his wife and children. A third candidate for US Congress, Phil Law, sent a message read by Dare County Chair Browny Douglas. Dare Commissioner Rob Ross was out of town so he addressed the assembly via Dare County Board of Commissioners Chair, Bob Woodard. Anne Petera, candidate for Dare County Commissioner addressed the body. Cheryl House, candidate for Registrar of Deeds spoke about her campaign.Michele Nix spoke about the importance to our freedom to elect Associate Justice, Supreme Court of NC, candidate Barbara Jackson. She is on an eight-year term on North Carolina's court of last resort.Our next event is participating in the St. Patricks' Day Parade followed by the Dare County GOP's Annual Trump-Reagan Day Dinner Fundraiser at Captain George's Thursday April 12th. It starts at 5:00 pm. NC Lt. Gov. Dan Forest will speak as our special guest. Tickets are $60 each which includes a donation to help local Republican candidates. Contact Cheryl House 209-324-6096 or Cheryl.house.obx@gmail.com to purchase tickets. The next Dare GOP meeting will be the second Thursday in May. See our website www.daregop.com or our Facebook page for details. The 3rd District 2018 GOP Convention is April 28th at the Greenville Hilton, 207 SW Greenville Blvd., Greenville, NC. The 2018 Primary election is May 8th. The NC State 2018 GOP Convention is June 7th - 10th in Hickory, NC.For information about the Dare GOP contact Dare GOP Chair Browny Douglas at abrowndouglas3@gmail.com or cell 252-216-8294. 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. Contact: White House White House Press Office My Fellow Americans,Protecting the safety and well-being of American Citizens is my highest duty as President. Yet, lawless sanctuary jurisdictions are nullifying federal law, obstructing immigration enforcement, and releasing thousands of criminal aliens into U.S. communities to prey on innocent victims. It's absolutely terrible.For example, in recent days, San Francisco officials denied ICE's request to turn over a criminal alien with a prior conviction for battery and a charge for driving under the influence.In another city in California, local law enforcement recently denied ICE's request to turn over a criminal alien convicted of Sexual Battery who had a history of domestic violence. A truly violent person.And last week, the mayor of Oakland warned criminal aliens of a coming ICE enforcement action - giving them time to scatter and hide from authorities. The mayor's conduct directly threatened the safety of federal immigration officers and the law-abiding Americans in her community.The State of California is sheltering dangerous criminals in a brazen and lawless attack on our Constitutional system of government. Every state in our Union is subject to the laws and Constitution of the United States - including California. Yet California's leaders are in open defiance of federal law. They don't care about crime. They don't care about death and killings. They don't care about robberies. They don't care about the kind of things that you and I care about.In other recent cases, New York authorities released illegal aliens who were previously charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon, possession of poisonous drugs, and strangling a person - in each case, New York officials had refused to turn these dangerous illegal aliens over to ICE or notify ICE about their release with enough time for them to be safely arrested.Just this week, the city of Denver refused ICE's request to turn over a criminal illegal alien charged with vehicular homicide for killing another driver in a horrific hit-and-run.Sanctuary jurisdictions are the best friend of smugglers, gang members, drug dealers, human traffickers, killers, and other violent offenders.We want our cities to be sanctuaries for Americans, not safe havens for criminals. That is why I am calling on Congress to block funds for jurisdictions that shield dangerous criminals.It is time to end the bloodshed brought about by reckless sanctuary policies - and it is time to save American lives and American cities.Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America. School teaching undoubtedly requires skilled ability, and skilled ability is found where there has been scientifically arranged training. Modern developments in the field of education-statistical studies, standardized tests, surveys, and most important of all, classroom experiences-have served to demonstrate that teaching, when properly achieved, is decidedly a professional activity, and as such-just as in the case of any profession-demands a prolonged period of intelligently planned preparation. Teaching is a high-skill, high-stakes job. We must treat it as such, recruiting talented teacher candidates and enabling them to succeed by providing an education that stresses evidence-based strategies and interventions. That education should also include plenty of opportunities to learn and hone their craft early-on through meaningful student teaching experiences. On Valentine's Day, The University of North Carolina System released " Leading on Literacy: Challenges and Opportunities in Teacher Preparation Across the University of North Carolina System ." For me, it was not love at first sight."Leading on Literacy" represents the latest effort by the UNC System to address the shortcomings of teacher education programs generally and literacy instruction particularly. According to its authors, the purpose of the report is to examine how teacher training programs can address the unsatisfactory performance of North Carolina students on federal National Assessment of Educational Progress tests and persistent achievement gaps between student groups. The concern that both will impede economic growth in the state underlies their inquiry, but the report does not include statistics outlining the purported implications of mediocre academic outcomes on the state economy.Particularly striking is the fact that the model for teacher education has changed very little in the last century. For example, a 1929 report published by North Carolina Department of Public Instruction researcher M.C.S Noble outlines a familiar vision for teacher training. In the introduction to his "Teacher Training in North Carolina," Noble writes:Compare Noble's passage to UNC System President Margaret Spellings' foreword to "Leading on Literacy:"Both Noble and Spellings define teacher education as the systematic acquisition of skills driven by empirical research based on analyses of standardized testing data and reinforced with practical classroom experiences.According to this model, knowledge of subject matter and the acquisition of a truly liberal education are ancillary concerns and occur in academic departments often disconnected from the education school. The value of formal teacher training, state endorsement of that training through licensure, and exclusion of those without training or licensure are rarely questioned.But such a framework does not always agree with the research. Over the last decade, Kevin Bastian, Gary Henry, and other education policy researchers have examined the relationship between student test score growth and teacher characteristics in North Carolina public schools. In "Staffing North Carolina's Classrooms: Connecting Teacher Preparation to Student Outcomes," Bastian and Qi W. Xing examine the distribution, characteristics, and performance of teachers based on the origin of their training. The following charts from that study compare teacher performance using UNC System teachers as the benchmark.In most subjects and grade levels, teachers prepared by UNC System institutions outperform teacher education graduates from private institutions in North Carolina, teachers prepared by out-of-state universities, and teachers who obtain a license via an alternative or lateral entry program (which allow qualified-but-unlicensed professionals to obtain teacher certification).But complicating matters for proponents of university-based programs is the fact that several programs that bypass education schools, such as Teach for America (TFA) and Visiting International Faculty (VIF), graduate teachers who generally outperform all others. This includes teachers from the UNC System.TFA recruits top-notch college graduates, most of whom do not have an education degree or state certification, to teach in low-performing or low-income schools for two years. VIF pairs public schools in the United States with college graduates who have earned a teaching degree or license from a non-American institution. VIF teachers may teach in the United States for a maximum of five years due to visa restrictions. In North Carolina, TFA teachers tend to outperform most other teachers in elementary, middle, and high school math, reading, and science. VIF teachers excel in elementary reading and math. Unfortunately, both limit the number of years that participants may remain in the program and supply a very small percentage of teachers in public schools.How then is it possible that Teach for America and Visiting International Faculty teachers are often the most successful in North Carolina's classroom?First, these programs require students to have sufficient knowledge of what they teach, and they thoughtfully integrate content knowledge into students' pedagogical training. Second, they are selective. In 2017, the acceptance rate for Teach for America corps members was only 15 percent. Moreover, teacher training programs abroad recruit candidates from the country's most capable and accomplished young adults. According to a 2016 report published by The National Center on Education and the Economy, countries like Finland and SingaporeEven if teacher education programs raised admissions standards, it would take more than improvements to the education schools in the UNC System to raise student achievement in the state's public schools. The UNC System supplies only 37 percent of the employed teacher workforce in North Carolina. The remaining 63 percent received their training elsewhere. That is a good thing when the teachers come from Teach for America and Visiting International Faculty programs, but they only represent around 2 percent of the workforce.However, as indicated by the charts above, teachers prepared by out-of-state universities and those who pursue licensure through alternative or lateral entry programs do not achieve the same level of test score growth as colleagues who received their training from public and private universities in North Carolina and, of course, TFA and VIF. Addressing that challenge will require strategies that are far beyond the scope of "Leading on Literacy."In the end, it is unlikely that "Leading on Literacy" will be a catalyst for the adoption of much-needed reforms in teacher education, let alone spur improvements in the quality of public schooling. The authors' recommendations deal mostly with course content in teacher education and programmatic concerns, such as the need toandIn fact, nearly all report recommendations are broad, peppered with jargon, and rarely mention the costs or resources required for implementation.Simply put, the authors did not "rock the boat" by, for example, recommending that the UNC System adopt National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ) rigorous standards for educator preparation . It should come as no surprise that NCTQ's first recommendation is that states "should require teacher preparation programs to admit only candidates with strong academic records." According to NCTQ's 2017 State Teacher Policy Yearbook, North Carolina is one of 19 states that "partly" meet this goal. In addition, North Carolina is one of 15 states that do not ensure that elementary teachers trained in North Carolina have "sufficient content knowledge of all core academic subjects." The content knowledge of middle and high school teachers fares slightly better in the NCTQ evaluation.Teach for America, Visiting International Faculty, and the National Council on Teacher Quality point the way forward for teacher training in North Carolina. The question remains whether UNC System leaders will have the courage and commitment required to overcome the political and institutional barriers that have undermined past reforms. This resource is no longer available This resource is no longer available. Return to previous page. I read a lot. It's part of my job as a writer. Sadly, most of what I read these days is kind of terrible. We do awful things to one another. We've been doing it for a long time. Here's something terrible that I learned today. In 1972, Herman Wallace was in the Louisiana State Penitentiary doing a stretch for armed robbery. While he was inside, one of the prison's guards was murdered. Wallace and two other black menRobert King and Albert Woodfoxwere convicted for the murder. There was just one problem: they weren't guilty. To say that Wallace, King and Woodfox, known members of the militant Black Panther Party, were unpopular with the penitentiary's staff was an understatement. Back then the trio insisted that the crime was being hung on them because of the color of their skin and their political beliefs. Their declaration of innocence wasn't enough to save them from being punished for the guard's murder. The trio was declared guilty. Wallace spent the next 41 years of his life in solitary confinement. In 2013, a United States Federal Court Judge overturned Wallace's sentence, stating in no uncertain terms that Wallace's trial had been "unconstitutional" and ordered his immediate release. The Department of Corrections complied with the order. A few days later, Wallace died of liver cancer. The only moments of freedom he had known in over four decades were also his last. King and Woodfox were a little more luckyboth managed to stay alive for more than a few days after leaving prison. This is what happens when justice is perverted. It's exactly why organizations like The Innocence Project and Amnesty International exist. If you think that one more person suffering for crimes that they had didn't commit is one too many, you'll want to hit up their links to see how you can contribute. Things have been terrible for a long time. They'll continue to be so be unless each of us takes the time, in whatever way we can, to fight for what's right. Image: msppmoore Angola Prison, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link Longtime Trump consigliere Roger Stone likes to give slippery answers when grilled by lawmakers or reporters about the specifics of his contacts with Wikileaks and Julian Assange, who are more or less one and the same. The Washington Post finds that their contact dates back to at least 2016. Excerpt: In the spring of 2016, longtime political operative Roger Stone had a phone conversation that would later seem prophetic, according to the person on the other end of the line. Stone, an informal adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, said he had learned from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that his organization had obtained emails that would torment senior Democrats such as John Podesta, then campaign chairman for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The conversation occurred before it was publicly known that hackers had obtained the emails of Podesta and of the Democratic National Committee, documents that WikiLeaks released in late July and October. The U.S. intelligence community later concluded the hackers were working for Russia. The person, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing federal investigation into Russian campaign interference, is one of two Stone associates who say Stone claimed to have had contact with Assange in 2016. The second, former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg, said in an interview Monday that Stone told him that he had met with Assange a conversation Nunberg said investigators for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III recently asked him to describe. This is very bad and not normal. President Donald Trump spoke to reporters at the White House this morning on his abrupt firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and word that he plans to replace him with CIA director Mike Pompeo. Trump sure sounds like he is providing a fig leaf to Putin yet again, this time over the poisoning of a former Russian spy. Snip from the transcript: MR. TRUMP: Well, it sounds to me. I'm speaking to Theresa May today. It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all of the evidence they have. I don't know if they've come to a conclusion. But she's calling me today. As you know, now we're going to the wall. We're going out to the wall. We're going to be looking at the prototypes, which is very important for our country. But Theresa May is going to be speaking to me today. It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia, and I would certainly take that finding as fact. REPORTER: Mr. President, do you believe there should be a response from the United States? MR. TRUMP: As soon as we get the facts straight. And we're going to be speaking with the British today. We're speaking with Theresa May today. As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be. But I have not spoken to her. I'll speak to her some time today. SRINAGAR, By Nisar Dharma: At around 3 am on Monday, Naeem Fazili, the father of militant Eisa Fazili, received a call from Soura police station.He did not tell me straightaway, Naeem recollects his phone conversation with the station in-charge. I asked him if it was innilillahi was innaillahi rajioon (the prayers Muslims say on death). He said yes.The message must have been jarring, if not unexpected, for Fazili, a principal at a government higher secondary school here.At dawn, he put on the Facebook an obituary that can only be seen in Kashmir: As per reliable sources, my son Eisa Fazili has left for heavenly abode. Innilillahi wa innaillahi rajioon!Eisa, Naeems second son, was among the three militants killed at around midnight in a brief shootout at Hakoora in south Kashmirs Anantnag.He had been a student of B. Tech final year in Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University at Rajouri.Choosing to tread the lethal path, he picked up arms to become a militant in August last year, prior to which no one had had a sniff of his intentions.We were completely taken aback when we heard about him becoming a militant. It was unexpected, said the father, who had responded to his sons departure with the passionate appeals for return made through social-media.Eisa, however, ignored them all. Seven months later, Naeem stood close to Eisas body carried in a truck surrounded by a sea of people close to their residence at 90-feet road, Soura. After returning from Itikaf, he began to lower his gaze before his female cousins, with whom earlier used to freely chat He willed me to offer his funeral prayers, Naeem announced to countless faces looking at him. My son gave his life for Allah. I request you to remain calm. We will offer his Jinazah here and he will be buried in our local graveyard, he appealed the sloganeering people, many of whom wanted Eisa to be buried in the martyrs graveyard at Eidgah. He willed me to offer his funeral prayers, Naeem announced to countless faces looking at him. My son gave his life for Allah. I request you to remain calm. We will offer his Jinazah here and he will be buried in our local graveyard, he appealed the sloganeering people, many of whom wanted Eisa to be buried in the martyrs graveyard at Eidgah. He was very pious. As a student of Burn Hall School, he was the person who ensured that the students were allowed to offer namaz in school, one of the hundreds of youth attending the funeral, told The Kashmir Monitor.After offering his midday prayers in the Masjid, where Eisa once used to pray, Naeem returned to lead the funeral prayer attended by thousands of people arranged in rows, some waiting patiently, others shouting their hearts and lungs out.Nearby, his house was, however, was quiet: no wails or shrieks indicating how the family must have been waiting for Eisas return to home, lifeless on a hospital stretcher, shrouded in a blanket. Courtesy: Kashmir Monitor Last week a retired Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned by novichok, a nerve agent, in Salisbury, England. Officials are concerned that anyone who visited the restaurant or pub the man and his daughter went to that day are at risk of being poisoned themselves. Traces of novichok, which is similar to the poison used in the double assassination, were found at both places. The Russian scientist who developed novichok says anyone exposed to minuscule traces of it could be affected by it, even years later. From Sky News: Dr Vil Mirzayanov is a chemist who ran the technical counter-intelligence department in Russia's chemical weapons institute. More than two decades ago, Dr Mirzayanov became so concerned about novichok that he blew the whistle and fled to America, where he campaigned to get all chemical weapons banned. He spoke to Sky News at his home in Princeton in New Jersey. He said: "It's the same as nerve gas but 10 times, at least 10 times, more powerful." The scientist emphasised that Novichok was designed to do "irreparable" damage to the human body. He said it would leave those exposed to significant doses, like Mr Skripal and his daughter, as "invalids" who would need medical assistance for the rest of their lives. Image: Members of the hazardous materials entry team, wearing chemical protective suits, enter building 836 to sample for nerve agents on Maxwell Air Force Base during a nerve-agent exercise Jan 17. (U.S. Air Force photograph by Donna L. Burnett) One of China's most famous female reporters (according to a translation from the video's YouTube page) spices up an otherwise dull parliamentary session when another reporter asks a long and obsequious question. Watch the sassy Liang Xiangyi from Shanghai-based China Business Network roll her eyes, scrunch her face, sigh, look the other reporter up and down, and then turn to whisper something to another person. According to Asia Times: As expected, the National People's Congress passed an amendment to China's constitution to unfetter party chieftain Xi Jinping from presidential term limits, and nothing happened that wasn't in the carefully orchestrated script. Well, almost nothing. On Tuesday morning, a comely female reporter singlehandedly stole the show at an otherwise humdrum press conference in which ministers and NPC delegates took pre-approved questions from a floor comprised of reporters from party propaganda organs. The young lady, Liang Xiangyi, said to be with the Shanghai-based China Business Network, frowned, grimaced, rolled her eyes and even turned away in apparent disdain during a press conference broadcast live on China Central Television. This was while another reporter next to her, Zhang Huijun, from the little-known Seattle-based Chinese language AAT TV channel, went to great lengths to extol China's reforms and parrot official lines about the Belt and Road initiative before posing a rather dull question on state asset regulation to Xiao Yaqing, the newly-installed director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The video has gone viral in China. Meanwhile, Xiangyi was suspended from her job "until further notice." Business / Companies by Staff reporter THE 2018 edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) is set to be bigger as a result of increased international business interest in the country under the new political dispensation.Registration is already underway for the prime trade showcase, which will be held from 24 to 28 April under the theme, "Sustainable Industrial Development-Inclusive, competitive, collaborative".ZITF Company marketing and public relations manager, Ms Stella Nkomo, said there has been a lot of hype and optimism from international and local businesses around this year's edition."There has been a lot of excitement around this year's edition of the ZITF. Even when we were in South Africa at an exhibition called 'Meet with Africa', we found that there was so much optimism, people want to hear our story, people are keen to come to Zimbabwe," she said in an interview."People want to know the opportunities in the country and our word to them was "come to ZITF", it's a shop window for you to see all the opportunities."Ms Nkomo said local interest has also grown evidenced by increasing inquiries on a daily basis from people wanting to participate. Zimbabwe is in the spotlight of optimism on the back of positive sentiments since President Mnangagwa became Head of State last November.He has declared that Zimbabwe is open for business and has been on a drive to re-engage with key stakeholders at home, the international community and the Zimbabwean Diaspora.The new administration has also made investment friendly pronouncements, backing them with relaxation of investment policies.Ms Nkomo said her company was ready for the 59th edition of ZITF which will be held at the traditional ZITF grounds in Bulawayo. Last Thursday, the ZITF held an exhibitor master class seminar in Bulawayo as part of preparations for this year's edition of the multi-sectorial business expo. The exhibitor master class is a stakeholder responsibility programme by the ZITF meant to ensure that all participants in the company's trade shows derive maximum value from their exhibition investment. News / Local by Stephen Jakes Wisdom Terrance Mkhwanazi the Mthwakazi Republic Party youth league member is set to appear at Tredgold Magistrate court number 2 this morning.This follows his arrest which took place at Bulawayo between Selbourne Road and Fort Street on Wednesday last week and had to be detained at Central Police Station for two days facing a charge of malicious damage to property a charge which the youth leader is denying.He is currently out of custody after his lawyer Maqhawe Mpofu of Abameli lawyers for Human Rights successful applied for a bail on Friday the 9th of March 2018 and the magistrate concurred and granted the bail where a sum of $50 was paid and the court ordered Mkhwanazi to report at Bulawayo Central Police station every Monday as his part of bail condition.The police officer who arrested Wisdom Terrance Mkhwanazi on the said date boastful said I quote "We want you and other Mthwakazi people know that as Shonas we rule this country", translated from shona when he said "tinota kuti imi vanhu beMtwakazi muzive kuti isu Mashona tirikutonga"The police officer claimed that Wisdom Terrance Mkhwanazi feature on the videos they have which were taken by the law enforcers on the 2nd of March 2018 when MRP members and police details from anti-riot clashed outside Rainbow hotel and outside the Bulawayo High Court.The clashes were necessitated by the denial by the government of Zimbabwe to deny the Matabeleland Chiefs permission to have Prince Bulelani Khumalo coronated as the King on the 3rd of March and it was during the time when Obert Mpofu, the Home of Minister, Angeline Masuku, the Bulawayo Province Resident Minister, Kembo Mohadi the current imposed coup Vice President, July Moyo ,the Minister of Local govt and Fortune Charumbira the chief President and the Gukurahundist had tried to entice the chiefs not to go ahead with the coronation and the bogus meeting took place at Rainbow hotel in Bulawayo where Obert Mpofu vehemently refused to allow the meeting to go ahead citing the presence of the Mthwakazi activists who had initial barred the chiefs from entering the Rainbow hotel,arguing that the purported meeting was satanic and it meant to weaken the position taken by the chiefs to have Prince Bulelani Khumalo coronated as the Ndebele King."We call upon all like minded Mthwakazi people to fill up the court this morning in solidarity with Wisdom Terrance Mkhwanazi, it is during such times we ask for prayers, material support and morale support," MRP said."It is indeed true that an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us. Their threats, arrests, intimidation and abuse of power will not stop the fight for the independence of Mthwakazi as no one will stop the revolution whose time has come, it can only be delayed." News / National by Staff reporter NAMIBIAN Speaker of Parliament, Peter Katjavivi has lauded his Zimbabwean counterpart, Jacob Mudenda over the peaceful way he handled former President Robert Mugabe's resignation last November.Addressing journalists after paying a courtesy call at Mudenda's office last Friday, Katjavivi said they followed the events culminating in Mugabe's resignation with keen interest and were marvelled at the peace and stability that prevailed in the country during that period."Namibia is a close friend of Zimbabwe, so we were observing events, which were taking place here and I can confirm that we were very happy that everything ended amicably well and there is peace and stability prevailing in Zimbabwe, what more can I say other than we are delighted," he said.Katjavivi said "there are lessons to be learnt by Africa", following events that unfolded in Zimbabwe, expressing gratitude for the priceless opportunity he had been accorded to share and exchange notes with Mudenda on the business of Parliament.He commended plans by Zimbabwe to construct a new Parliament building, drawing parallels with his country, which is also in the process of acquiring new infrastructure for its parliamentarians."We are Speakers, so we were talking about parliamentary issues, sharing ideas and comparing notes, and that forms the basis of strengthening the two sister parliaments to work together more closely."We have an old (national assembly) building that goes back to the days when Namibia was still under the colonial system, so we are looking at building a new national parliament and my colleague is also exploring similar ideas because Parliament is a very important institution," he said. News / National by Staff reporter President Emmerson Mnangagwa's backers always flatter him for his legal prowess and often refer to him as a "distinguished lawyer."Critics, however, opine that evidence available so far proves contrary. They say Mnangagwa has lurched from one legal mistake to the other since assuming the high pressure job in November last year - from his decision to mess up ministerial appointments; his pronouncement in Davos that elections will be held in May when under the Constitution the earliest date for polling is July 23rd and the last date for polling is August 21st, or also giving an ultimatum to those who "externalised" money and assets when there does not seem to be a legal basis for it.Mnangagwa took and passed the bar exam to become a lawyer but has never stepped foot into a courtroom to try a case, the Daily News can reveal.Aged 75, he became Zimbabwe's new president on November 24, succeeding Robert Mugabe, 94, the leader he had backed for decades before helping to oust him, initially studied law via correspondence while serving a 10-year prison sentence for his Crocodile Gang's bombing of a train near Masvingo, then Fort Elizabeth during the liberation struggle.After 10 years in jail, including three years in solitary confinement, he was released and deported back to Zambia, where he continued to study law. He graduated from the University of Zambia (UNZA) with a law degree. After graduating from UNZA Law School, he took the bar exam.Mnangagwa completed his articles with a Lusaka-based law firm led by Enoch Dumbutshena, who would later become Zimbabwe's first black judge.While Mnangagwa has went through the rigours of law school - an endeavour where only the strong survive - he did not complete the journey after earning the title lawyer or attorney, by never trying a single case.The Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) - a self regulating independent professional body whose membership is drawn from all registered legal practitioners residing in Zimbabwe whether in private practice, in commerce or in public service - confirmed that Mnangagwa is registered on the roll of lawyers, but has never practiced as a lawyer."President Mnangagwa is a registered legal practitioner in terms of our legal records. He swore his oath of office at the High Court in 1982."But he never practiced, apart from doing his articles. That's what I understand, that's part of the records. He has been on the roll (of lawyers) since 1982. He did his articles under Dumbutshena in Zambia," LSZ executive secretary Edward Mapara told the Daily News.Mapara, who controls and manages the legal profession, including issues of governance, membership and leadership under the rule of LSZ president Misheck Hogwe and his deputy Thandaza Masiye-Moyo, also revealed that the toppled former president Mugabe was not registered with the LSZ.Mugabe had a BSc, Bachelor of Laws, MSc and Master of Laws from the University of London's external programme.The two law degrees were earned while he was in prison and the MSc while leading the Zimbabwe government."From teaching, he was student of law, he graduated. He was not registered with the LSZ, he never did," Mapara said.Lovemore Madhuku, a lecturer in the Law Faculty at the University of Zimbabwe, said there are so many issues of lawyers who have never practiced but Mnangagwa is making a series of legal faux pas that are disconcerting."You don't necessarily have to practice as a registered practitioner. Legal skills are required in every facet of life. It's very common to never set a foot in a courtroom as a lawyer. It's not uncommon, there are many lawyers like that. But he should show legal skills where he is."Mnangagwa's weakness is that he rarely shows legal skills, like his failure to read the Constitution properly to the extent of not knowing how many ministers can be appointed outside Parliament, or also not knowing what is meant by externalisation."He is associated with many decisions that show lack of legal depth," the constitutional law expert said."The problem is not that he never practiced, but that he is not showing legal brilliance."Tendai Biti, a veteran lawyer and senior partner at Biti Law, said having a legal qualification doesn't make Mnangagwa a good lawyer.He cited a series of strange decisions by Mnangagwa, but was quick to say they had nothing to do with his lack of courtroom experience."It's a reflection of lack of sharpness. There are lawyers who have never set foot in a court room but who won't make the elementary mistakes that he is doing. His structural defect is that he is not sharp. Compare him with Mugabe, he is not sharp," Biti said.He said Mnangagwa has lurched from one legal mistake to the other. The President's ministerial line up had to be revised so that he does not break the constitutional stipulation of having only five non-MPS as ministers or deputy ministers."So it's not only ministers, but his failure to appoint a Defence minister, his pronouncement in Davos that elections will be held in May when under the Constitution the earliest date for polling is July 23rd and the last date for polling is August 21st, or also not knowing what is meant by externalisation."Mnangagwa has threatened to prosecute alleged looters who fail to return externalised funds by March 19.Biti said Mnangagwa is misreading the law and attempting to criminalise externalisation.The former Finance minister said under Exchange Control Regulations, externalisation of US dollars, Rands or other currencies under the basket of currencies does not constitute a crime because since 2009, all foreign currencies became legal tender of this country."So the US dollar is legal tender, it is no longer foreign currency, so how does externalising it become illegal?" Biti asked rhetorically."So even though he is a lawyer, he is legally illiterate." Biti said. News / National by Staff reporter Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya says bond notes have been successful since they have helped companies to increase both production and exports.Dr Mangudya said this when he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Finance and Economic Development yesterday.The introduction of bond notes in 2016, he said, was not meant to deal with cash shortages."I said when bond notes fail to support export incentives in this country, I would resign and you know we have many companies that we have been resuscitated, and I can mention them," he said.He said the bond notes had materially impacted on the fortunes of companies such as Tregers, Paramount Garments, Lobels and Mega Pack, Arenel and Zimplow."What the people were ascribing to, which I do pray to honourable MPs not to do, is to say that it has failed to remove queues in the banks."Once you do that, you are saying print more. But what we are saying is our bond notes are governed as a proportion of exports, so when I say bond notes, I celebrate because I see the image of exports, it is a brilliant mechanism," he added.Dr Mangudya said he would provide Parliament with a schedule of the companies that had benefitted from the export incentives, including the demonstrable growth in exports since the introduction of bond notes."I haven't resigned because the bond notes have succeeded in helping the companies in Zimbabwe to be resuscitated," Dr Mangudya said.He added that bond notes will be in use until Government reintroduces the local currency.The parallel market for foreign currency, he said, was a result of high demand.The central bank chief said there are currently more than $290 bond notes in circulation.Dr Mangudya also welcomed the passing of the Finance Bill by Parliament, saying it would help deal with errant dealers who are involved in multi-tiered pricing.The Bill is now awaiting Presidential assent. News / National by Staff reporter A SUSPECTED serial criminal who allegedly terrorised Victoria Falls residents and tourists for four years, breaking into houses and hotels, has been arrested at his hide-out in Zambia.Since 2014, Bongani Moyo (38), a Zimbabwean who was staying illegally in Livingstone, at number D37 Lubuyu Compound had been allegedly crossing into Victoria Falls illegally and he would break into cars, houses and hotels. He allegedly stole cash, electrical gadgets such as TV sets, laptops, digital cameras and their accessories, cellphone handsets, clothes and other valuables running into thousands of dollars.The court heard that Moyo also used violence and threatened to kill the victims. The total value of stolen property was not given but according to state documents, there are 27 different types of cellphone handsets, six cameras, four laptops and a bicycle among other valuables.Moyo is facing a combined 34 counts, unlawful entry, theft, criminal trespass, robbery as well as entering and exiting Zimbabwe through an ungazetted point.Victoria Falls magistrate, Ms Rangarirai Gakanje, remanded Moyo who was not asked to plead, in custody to next week on Wednesday. The magistrate ordered an investigation into claims by Moyo that he was severely beaten by police whom he alleged forced him to admit to the charges.The prosecutor, Mr Listen Nare, opposed bail saying Moyo is a flight risk and can commit more crimes since he has been convicted five times before by the same court."The State is opposed to bail based on the fact that the accused faces charges of exiting and entering the border illegally. He was arrested in Zambia and it is our submission that bail conditions cannot surface as he can escape jurisdiction and go to Zambia or any other neighbouring country," said Mr Nare.He said investigations were still underway to account for some of the property that was recovered by police in Zambia.Mr Nare said the crimes were committed between September 2014 and last week. Moyo would use unknown objects to force open doors and windows into premises, the court was told.In the first count, Moyo illegally crossed into Victoria Falls on September 7 in 2014 and broke into a house belonging to Mr Stanfordias Ndlovu in Aerodrome suburb.He stole a laptop, a video camera, an HTC and a Blackberry cellphone handsets all valued at $1 200."On October 11, 2017, complainant Danieala Elazar (27) of Eric Magalson Apartment, Jerusalem, Israel, closed his door and windows on retiring to bed.The accused force opened the door and entered the house. The accused threatened to kill the complainant and forcibly took $1 500 and clothing valued at $1 600," said the prosecutor.The court was told that Moyo broke into several hotels and lodges, and stole cash and valuables from clients' rooms.In May last year, Moyo allegedly broke into Breeze FM premises at 220 Kingsway and stole a Samsung tablet cellphone and an iPhone 5 both valued at $700 belonging to presenter Thanduxolo Ndlovu.Some of the victims were tourists booked at various hotels while others were mostly hotel employees whom he knew had valuables and cash, the court was told.Moyo was traced to his hide-out in Livingstone after breaking into Zambezi Horse Trails on February 28 where he threatened to kill the owner Ms Alison Baker (61) with a knife after forcibly opening doors to her bedroom using a sharp object.Moyo was allegedly in the company of two accomplices who are still at large when they stole cash in different currencies, a pellet gun and some valuables worth about $3 000. News / National by Staff reporter THE ministry of higher and tertiary education has distanced itself from the controversial awarding of a PhD degree to former First Lady Grace Mugabe by the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) vice chancellor Levi Nyagura.According to NewZimbabwe.com, Grace Mugabe was conferred with a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in September 2014.Acting permanent secretary L Mudyiwa has written to the Attorney General (AG) Prince Machaya complaining about ZACC's decision to cite the higher education ministry as a complainant in the case.Mudyiwa's was tendered in court by Prof Nyagura's lawyers who are arguing that his docket was not properly compiled."The ministry would like to state that it is not aware of the issues and neither was it involved in making any complaints to ZACC or being involved in investigations leading to the accused being arraigned before the court for criminal abuse of office," Mudyiwa wrote.The permanent secretary said his ministry was not qualified to comment, make a determination or give an opinion on whether what was done by Prof Nyagura was a criminal offence or not.He added that the ministry can only come in after finalisation of the case and not as the complainant but as the administrator on policy issues. News / National by Staff reporter CHITUNGWIZA residents have rapped the Madzudzo Pawadyira-led caretaker commission for unleashing debt collectors on them.The three-member commission was appointed last year by then Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere, following the suspension of the entire council on allegations of corruption.Residents said the debt collectors were demanding astronomical charges and threatening to attach property for unpaid ratepayers. This comes as the debt collection firm - Wellcash Debt Collectors - recently had its contract terminated by Harare City Council following similar complaints by residents.Resident and lawyer, Maraika Bomani, who recently assisted council's efforts in rehabilitating roads told NewsDay yesterday that the timing of the move by council to bring in Wellcash Debt Collectors was suspicious."Residents are now suspicious of the moves by the Pawadyira-led commission, especially as we draw closer to elections. They have not done anything in Chitungwiza as far as service delivery is concerned to the extent that I was forced to chip in and help council to repair some roads but now they have deployed Wellcash Debt Collectors to collect money from estimated bills," he said.The Chitungwiza and Manyame Rural Residents' Association said they would soon engage council to reverse the decision."The Chitungwiza municipality once hired Mangwana and Partners Debt Collectors and terminated their contract after objections from residents and stakeholders, who had lost their hard-earned money. We, therefore, urge affected residents to deal directly with Chitungwiza municipality on bill payments and not through any unscrupulous and dubious merchants or agents masquerading as debt collectors.But council spokesperson Lovemore Meya defended the decision to hire debt collectors, saying the municipality was owed $60 million in unpaid rates.He said the decision to hire debt collectors was a last ditch attempt to collect their dues after all other communication channels had been exhausted. 2 killed, 5 injured in Dhankuta truck accident Two persons died and five other were injured when a truck they were travelling in overturned at Sagurigadhi-6 in Dhankuta along the Dharan-Dhankuta road section of the Koshi Highway on Tuesday. News / National by Staff reporter The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) needs 60 million to prepare for and hold the 2018 harmonised elections due in a few months time.The commission is looking through the voters roll to ensure there are no double entries and in preparation for the inspection of the voters roll by end of April.Speaking to the ZBC News in Harare today (Monday), ZEC Chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba said the money is required for voter education, the printing of ballot papers and other logistics."We have a deficit of $60 million and we are grateful to the government for giving us $900 000. We are also grateful to our funding partners, the UNDP provided forex and we are working on training manuals where we still need support to ensure we are ready for inspection of the voters roll," Justice Chigumba said.The commission faces a mammoth task of printing a ballot paper with names of 97 political parties.She added that the printing of ballots should not be a challenge as strict protocols are followed in selecting the company so that the process is not compromised.She however declined to disclose if the printing company is local or not saying it is a security issue.She also spoke about allegations of militarisation of the electoral body, saying they are unsubstantiated accusations as only a small percentage of the employees are former military personnel."Those complaints of militarisation of ZEC are unfounded. Former military personnel constitute less than 15 percent of the number of ZEC employees. There is no law against their getting employment in the electoral body," she said.Justice Chigumba also clarified the challenge of polarisation of the media which makes ZEC operations difficult if they are not dealt with as some political parties accuse the independent media of being pro-opposition while the state media is pro-establishment."The polarisation of the media is another challenge. Now there is a media monitoring committee in place to ensure media houses comply with the law that they should be non-partisan," she said.Meanwhile, Justice Chigumba said the visiting SADC preliminary observer group is happy that some of its recommendations were incorporated into law or rectified administratively. News / National by Staff reporter CONTROVERSIAL political activist Acie Lumumba, real name Lumumba William Mutumanje, appeared in court on allegations of stealing $8,000 at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport last monthLumumba, 29, appeared before Harare magistrate Josephine Sande on Saturday charged with theft.He was released on free bail and the matter was remanded to March 22.The State, represented by Progress Manngamoyo alleges that on February 27 this year at around 5pm, Graham Tenei and Lumumba met at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International airport.Graham was told that the limit of American dollars that an individual can take out of the country at a ZIMRA check point was $2,000.It was reported that Graham asked Lumumba if he knew someone at the airport whom he could leave his money with.Lumumba then took Graham to one Abigail Chipuru of Traverse Travel Airport Office where he left the money then the two left for South Africa.It is alleged that on February 28, Lumumba sent a WhatsApp message to Jerthro Tonderai Maposa advising that he should go and collect $8,000 from Chipuru without Graham's knowledge.After collecting the money Jethro got into town and received another message that he should go to fourth Street and 'sell the money' on black market through a bank transfer.The money was transferred into Jethro's CBZ bank account and later on he was ordered to transfer $10 000 into Stanbic bank account belonging to Lillian Rufaro Madyira, who is Lumumba's wife.Chipuru, who is the informant in this matter, then made a report at ZRP Robert Gabriel Mugabe Airport. News / Press Release by Luke Tamborinyoka President Nelson Chamisa and nine other national standing committee members today held a two-hour briefing with the seven-member SADC Electoral Advisory Council at the party's headquarters ahead of the watershed polls due in a few months time.President Chamisa told the delegation, led by Advocate Leshele Thoahlane, that the Zimbabwe government has not been sincere on its commitment to a free, fair and credible plebicite as it had not yet made public in substantive terms the roadmap to the next election. He bemoaned the fact that the recommendations made by SADC in the 2013 election in terms of the implementation of key reforms had not yet been done, among them media reforms that would ensure equal coverage of all contesting parties.Accompanying President Chamisa was Vice President Hon. Engineer Elias mudzuri, Secretary-general Mr. Douglas Mwonzora, secretary for elections Hon. Murisi Zwizwai, treasurer-general Hon. Theresa Makone, deputy national chairperson Hon Morgan Komichi, youth assembly chairperson Mr. Happymore Chidziva, Women's assembly chairperson Hon. Karenyi Kore, deputy treasurer general Mr Charlton Hwende, deputy national organizer Hon. Amos Chibaya and senior directors in the party.The MDC leader raised issues to do with violence, the abuse of traditional leaders, the opaqueness around the printing and auditing of ballots as well as the auditing of the voters roll. With a few months to go before the next election, there was neither agreement nor clarity on these key electoral matters.President Chamisa implored the SADC observer team to ensure that Zimbabwe complies with the SADC guidelines on the conduct of free and fair elections, adding that only a credible plebiscite would ensure a return of confidence and legitimacy in the country.The party's secretary general Mr. Douglas Mwonzora said the government had starkly refused to implement key issues that would have assured stakeholders, among them issues to do with the auditing of the voters roll as well as the printing and auditing of the ballot papers, including the identity of the company that would print the ballots.Notwithstanding the clear Constitutional provision and SADC guidelines on the conduct of elections, the government through the Ministry of Justice has refused allow Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to exercise their right to vote.The party also told the SADC observer team that Zimbabweans wanted the army to undo their previous statements that they would not salute a President who did not participate in the liberation struggle by making a clear and unequivocal statement that they will this time respect the sovereign will of the people.Secretary for elections Hon. Murisi Zwizwai expressed concern that polling station mapping had been done in a manner that prejudiced the areas perceived to be opposition party strongholds.Another concern raised to the SADC team was the parlous state of the country's economy, which made citizens susceptible to the control of Zanu PF through partisan food distribution, among other voter manipulation methods.President Chamisa urged SADC to be in solidarity with the Zimbabwean citizens and not with the country's leaders by ensuring that the ordinary people's sovereign will is guaranteed and protected.On its part, the SADC team assured the party leadership that they will do all they can to ensure that Zimbabwe holds a truly free, fair and credible poll.Luke TamborinyokaPresidential Spokesperson and Director of Communications Opinion / Columnist It is not that Robert Mugabe ever forgot the basic reasons of freedom, justice, fairness, which the nation risked life, limb and so much treasure for in the liberation war when he got into power in 1980. He did not, as we can see from all his ranting and raving even since the November 2017 coup that forced him out of office."He (Mugabe) said to me: "ED thinks I am an idiot. How does he think I believe their claim that they are about upholding the legacy of the president, my legacy, when I'm down because of them and when they have been dragging me in the mud?" The leader of the new political party, National Patriotic Front and former Zanu PF minister, Ambrose Mutinhiri, told Everson Mashava in a recent interview."People, especially in Zanu-PF, want honest holders of the legacy of the president and they condemn hypocrisy, they condemn military brutality against the people."He went on to say: "ED says he wants me to endorse him, what will I be endorsing? Hypocrisy? Brutality against the people?"The killing and battering of children (CIO and police officers) who worked with me? No, no, no; I'm not an idiot."The political and illegal arrests must stop if the military regime is true to its claims that it is about upholding the legacy of the president. Why is it doing these injustices?" Mutinhiri maintains that the new political party, which Mugabe has given his backing, is about making sure there are free, fair and credible elections."Fundamentally, there must be a restoration of constitutional order, normalcy, democracy, legitimacy and demilitarisation," said Mutinhiri."The over 2 000 soldiers that are now embedded in villages and streets must be withdrawn through a credible programme."Actually, what President Mnangagwa and the military Junta are doing including ruthlessly silencing the people, the corruption, the vote rigging underway already including the military coup (the regime staged its first coup in 2008 to stop MDC getting into power) are nothing new. They have been doing all these things all along since independence.Robert Mugabe has never objected to what the regime is doing. Indeed, he planned and approved the lawlessness and thuggery, he even promoted many of the Junta members himself to reward them.Mugabe is objecting the Junta regime's lawless thuggery now because he is not the beneficiary and hence the reason he is back to fighting for freedoms and human rights.For 37 years Mugabe has destroyed this nation's economy with all the mismanagement and corruption that have been the hallmarks of his regime. The nation could not remove him and his cronies from office because he instituted a political system that has allowed him and Zanu PF to ride roughshod over our basic freedoms and human rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life.Over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans have paid the price with their very lives for Mugabe to establish and retain his de facto one-party, Zanu PF, cum one-man, Robert Mugabe dictatorship. He was deposed as the dictator in the coup last November, Mnangagwa is the new dictator, but the dictatorship itself is very much alive and thriving.Mugabe's corrupt and tyrannical rule was not a mistake but a deliberate and calculated thing to gratify his and his cronies' insatiable appetite for absolute political power and the influence and fabulous wealth it brought. Mugabe's mistakes were born out of greed; he sold-out on the freedoms, human rights, hopes and dreams the nation had risked-all to secure for all.Someday, when the nation has real and meaningful regime change (what happened following the November coup has left the nation still stuck with the dictatorship or being it under new management) the nation must institute a full investigation into the looting, vote rigging and murders that have taken place these last nightmare decades under Zanu PF rule.President Mnangagwa got away with calling the November coup "a military assisted transition". He is clearly hoping that he can rig the coming elections and get away with calling them free and fair elections. Mugabe knows all there is to know on how Zanu PF has been rigging elections in the past and he is not going to let Mnangagwa get away with another rigged election."The theory or assumption that the so-called G40 members make up the core of NPF is just a spin. The core of NPF is made up of the core that made up Zanu-PF before the November 15, 2017 military coup that unconstitutionally deposed president Mugabe and illegally imposed Mnangagwa," said Mutinhiri."That core of Zanu-PF as it was before the coup has joined hands with a cross-section of other Zimbabweans from across the political divide to found and establish NPF whose immediate objective is to restore constitutional order, normalcy, democracy and legitimacy in Zimbabwe. You must understand that the military coup left Zanu-PF in tatters."Mutinhiri is right, the military coup has indeed left Zanu PF in tatters. Nothing will please Robert Mugabe more than be the one to have the last laugh over Mnangagwa and his coup cabal by being the one to tell the world how the Junta rigged the elections. He will deliver the coup de grace on Mnangagwa's Junta regime! Opinion / Columnist Driving around in my neighbourhood, I am reminded of a scene in an African movie with a Nigeria's setting. The roads are potholed and muddy, with patches of what used to be tarmac, but now just rough patches, bad for my tyres.This is the fourth time in a year that I have had to have the suspension of my car redone. The situation is terrible and this is the legacy that Robert Mugabe has left behind. As I watched these Nigerian African movies, I figured that unprecedented corruption was the culprit in a country with vast oil reserves. The same applied to Zimbabwe under Mugabe rule.Beautiful houses, almost palatial, linked to bad road infrastructure had become the phenomenon. The gap between the upper class and the lower class widened, totally obliterating the middle class. Little did I know that Zimbabwe will get to this stage, but it did under the autocratic rule of Robert Mugabe, his selfish wife Grace, and their G40 cronies.When one looks at the real picture, it boggles the mind how the former president could envisage setting up a new party that would garner support from the long suffering masses. The fact that he believes it, proves that his mental capacity is past its best-before-date. His mental faculties are not renewing as fast as they used to, otherwise he would interrogate the hogwash that is being massaged on his brain by his selfish wife, Grace and dismiss the formation of a party with the contempt it deserves.Who in their normal faculties after suffering for so long would want to go back to that kind of life? Just a reminder, life under Mugabe rule was characterised by deteriorating hospital facilities. He did not care to improve because the State used the tax payers' money to fly him to Singapore, Malaysia and China to get professional health care. Price hikes, Police corruption, queuing for long hours at the banks just to access US$20 when he had up to US$20 000 hard currency delivered to his door step each month, poor sanitary services, no running water on the taps and potholed roads while he made sure the road that led to his house was tarred regularly.Robert Mugabe has decided to set up a party labouring under the assumption that he has the rural vote. How gullible does he think Zimbabweans are? The people in rural Zimbabwe are linked to their children in the urban areas. Their voting behaviour is shaped by their children and benefactors in the urban areas. If I was unemployed during Mugabe rule and struggled to get my parents the basic necessities of life, and to get them proper health care, now that I am employed under President E.D Mnangagwa's rule, I will tell my parents and dependents to put their X where credit is due.A close analysis of the characters in this lunatic party, NPF include such characters as Saviour Kasukuwere, a very corrupt individual who built a 50-bedroomed house with bullet proof windows on the salary of a civil servant. A land baron who sold land meant for youths to PHD Pastor, Walter Magaya, who already owns vast tracts of land. The promotion and mushrooming of land barons increased under his watch. During his stint as Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, he misappropriated the CABS loan facility meant for youth empowerment programs, and failed to explain why the Community Share Ownership Scheme failed to produce tangible financial results, or even to benefit people of communities such as Marange for example.Jonathan Moyo, is equally of shady character. He swindled US6 million from Ford Foundation in Kenya that he had been entrusted with. Back home, he embezzled money meant for students fund from ZIMDEF and used it for his own personal campaign in his Constituency in Tsholotsho where he bought bicycles supposedly meant for Chiefs. These men engaged in disgusting corruption with the backing of Grace Mugabe, the Queen of corruption.Ambrose Mutinhiri is a polygamist and wife beater who ran away from the war while real men fought for his freedom. Using the ticket that he is Mugabe's cousin as his trump card to politics, the butcher of Marondera East Constituency has been nominated to be the president of the sorry party. His character leaves a lot to be desired, having been married to Tracy Mutinhiri who suffered massive marital abuses, both emotionally and physically. She was denied her conjugal rights while Ambrose gave her love to another woman.As for Grace and her little rascals, I would need a whole book to chronicle her corrupt activities. She is a sad story of greed and selfishness. Opinion / Columnist Dear EditorEditor we are sick and tired of opportunists who does not have roots of their own to stand. During the era of Mugabe and his Jezebel, Musindo and Zivhu showered praises to them and even encouraged the people of Zimbabwe to view them as gods.Now that they are villains you now turn against them. Zivhu, in fact, said on occasion that he was behind amai (meaning Mai Mugabe) but now you have changed colours like a chameleon.Who are you really? Where do you belong? If the wind of change visits us again, it's not surprising that you will wake up one day with another colour.We are tired of you spineless people, vultures who survives on spoils of other Animals' effort.If we replay some clips from your speeches you made before 15 Nov 2017 will brave the embarrassments. Don't try to fool us by bribing your way up the ladder Killer. We are seeing you. Stop showering money ZBC -Masvingo correspondent, Josphine Mugiyo to sell you to the members of the public. Your hands are not clean.As for you Musindo it's a shame to see someone who thinks he is a man of God lacking direction in the processing trying to convince the generality to follow you? Opinion / Columnist Tawanda, Bulawayo For many decades, Zimbabwean policy was dictated by the whims of one person who treated our nation like a fiefdom and whose deals and investments were purely for his own benefit.Thankfully, since the people took to the streets in November and made the necessary changes, our new leadership is doing things differently.The international community is responding in kind, and the Zimbabwean Government has secured $3.1 billion worth of commitments from across the world, which will create jobs and opportunities that will benefit all Zimbabweans.However, because this makes President Emmerson Mnangagwa look good in the eyes of many, some in the opposition are crying foul.Welshman Ncube, the MDC Alliance spokesperson and MDC leader, said the opposition feels Mnangagwa's administration is amiss in rushing to sign several deals with foreign countries.Only last week, Zimbabwe and Russia signed three memorandums of understanding on agricultural and industrial revitalisation support, including special economic zones and military technical assistance.This follows large-scale investment by the likes of China, India and several other leading economic powerhouses.Remarkably, the MDC wants the government to refuse these investments and trade opportunities. They don't appear to want ordinary Zimbabweans to benefit, because it might make ED look good.Bear in mind, this is the same opposition that is claiming the president hasn't done enough and are trying to poke holes in his record of achievement.So this leaves the president damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.They say he hasn't achieved much and then slam him for achieving too much by shifting the goalposts in the eyes of the public.However, most egregious is the opposition's insistence that the government not sign any foreign investment or trade deals. This basically means that the leadership of the MDC is putting politics in front of the people.This should be seen as a very grave sin in the eyes of the public.We have had quite enough of politicians who place their narrow interests ahead of the country, decades worth to be precise, and we can ill afford to continue in that vein.Whoever is leading our nation must do all they can to secure a better future for all Zimbabweans, regardless of background.We should be fully supportive of any efforts to ensure greater progress, development and growth for our country which suffered for so long. We should get behind our leaders when they bring in vital foreign currency irrespective of our political alignment or affiliation.When it comes time for election, each and every Zimbabwean can then assess whether the incumbent leadership has achieved enough and whether their opponents could deliver more. This is our moral duty under democratic norms.However, to drive a campaign against the success of our country in order to try and get elected is not just outside the norms of democracy; it is outside the norms of decency, national pride and care for the average citizen.A real and caring opposition pushes the government to do better and criticises when it is not doing enough. Only an opposition intent on achieving power for its own sake and not to serve as servants of the people will criticise a government for achieving too much.For the good of Zimbabwean democracy, we should all hope that the opposition gets its house in order so it can become a robust voice that serves as a check and balance on the government, and not one intent on tripping it up for shallow gain at the cost of the average Zimbabwean.We, the citizens of Zimbabwe, will no longer be a sideshow in national politics but will take our rightful place front and centre to decide who will serve us the best and look after our interests first and foremost. Opinion / Columnist There two things one can be certain Hopewell Chinono will do without failure; number one, he will say one thing one minute and then contradict himself the next minute one only to continue with his narrative in which he will put emphasis on one point of view, as if that is the proven historic fact.Number two, in his spider's web narrative he will consistent distort historic facts to portray Emmerson Mnangagwa as total innocent by stander in the middle of all the chaos, political intrigue and murders that have been going in Zanu PF of the pre-November 2017 coup. The reader is left in no doubt the post-coup Zanu PF led by Mnangagwa is totally different from what went on before, devoid of the corruption, vote rigging, the economic recovery is a certainty, etc., etc.The national revival of the post-coup era, the new dispensation, is everywhere and as invigorating as the first rains breaking the long drought!"Here in Zimbabwe, elections have been a concerted fight against the ruling party which has been retaining power through electoral fraud, violence, intimidation and vote buying since 2000. However, these things have been located, characterized and put squarely on Robert Mugabe's door as the Commander in Chief and the man who ran an imperial presidency," wrote Chinono in Nehanda Radio."He has been able to do this because he had an efficient team around himself which included those in the current government and G40."In one sentence Chinono says all the blame for the electoral fraud, etc. must all be laid on "imperial" Mugabe's door. In the very next sentence Chinono tells us it was the "efficient team" around Mugabe that carried out the electoral fraud, violence, etc."How will the electorate respond to a Zanu PF without Robert Mugabe is the main question which will soon be addressed by the electorate themselves?" asks Chinono."So, the exact outcome of the forthcoming election is unknown yet, more so because the analytical work has been bogged down into partisan narrative and dishonest insights."Well this must be a rhetorical question since the last thing Chinono told the reader was that Mugabe had a "efficient team" around him and some of the members of the same team are in the "current government" led by President Mnangagwa. The answer is obvious, the "efficient team" will carry out its usual tasks of electoral fraud, violence, etc. as efficiently as before!It must be added here that the man who has led this "efficient team" of men and women who have carried out the electoral fraud, violence, etc. is none other than Emmerson Mnangagwa himself.As for whether the "efficient team" could accomplish anything of substance without the "imperial" Mugabe? The very fact that the team very successfully staged the November 2017 coup against Mugabe himself, settles that matter beyond debate!So, why should the outcome of this year's election result be in any doubt; another landslide victory for Zanu PF! Indeed, Chinono confirms this in his next sentence!"What is known is that the party to beat is still the ruling Zanu PF because of its power of incumbency and an assortment of state control mechanism such as the military and its state security cousins," he continued."These institutions were built out of the party's liberation war structures and they remain loyal to the party first and government thereafter."So this is a reality that we will live with until the liberation generation is no longer with us. We can shout and sing all we want about how it's unprofessional, but that is the reality we live with, a reality that manifested itself in all African countries that had liberation movements with military wings."Zanu PF's corrupting influence on Army, Police and CIO making these key state institutions "loyal to the party first and government thereafter" is the very heart and soul of Zimbabwe's cursed culture of political violence. The Police have turned a blind eye to Zanu PF inspired political violence out of party loyalty and thus putting the party thugs above the law.Indeed, the Police, Army and CIO have all been actively involved in politically motivated violence making a total mockery of their statutory duties to maintain law and order and defend the people.Unless the country implements the democratic reforms designed to severe Zanu PF's corrupting influence over not only the security service sector but also of ZEC, Judiciary, etc.; Zimbabwe will never ever end the scourge of electoral fraud and violence and hold free and fair elections.Hopewell Chinono's suggestion that Zanu PF's corrupting influence over the Army, Police and CIO can be excused on the grounds that "institutions were built out of the party's liberation war structures" must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserve. Zimbabwe is not the only nation to emerge from a liberation struggle; other nations done the same and yet they have a competent, effective and none partisan Police force, etc.President Mnangagwa has promised free, fair and credible elections and yet he has pointedly refused to implement the democratic reforms necessary to ensure free elections. rigging and Zanu PF's corrupting influence on State institutions like the Police, ZEC, etc. and refusal to implement the democratic reforms designed to end it is inexcusable.If President Mnangagwa does not have the political will to implement the reforms then he also lacks the vision to see that implementing the reforms is the licence the country has been dying for out of the political and economic hell-hole Zanu PF landed us in. He can be certain of one thing, right now - the nation will find someone with the political will and vision to do the right thing!If President Mnangagwa does not implement the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections then he cannot expect the international community to endorse the process as free and fair. We need the elections declared null and void to clear the deck for a new administration that will implement the democratic reforms, hold free and fair elections and finally get the nation out of this mess! Opinion / Columnist Part 2: Foreign Affairs & Foreign Direct Investments A. Foreign Affairs Regional Cooperation Diaspora Thumbs Up Thumbs Down B. Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) Thumbs Up Thumbs Down Recommendations President Mnangagwa during his inauguration issued some major foreign policy promises. He said "Government will immediately start on a journey to re-engage with those who have punished us through sanctions." He also promised that his administration will set the right economic tone in its first 100 days in office to signal "Zimbabwe is open for business" and attract the right Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to boost the economy. After 100 days in office, what has his administration achieved, and what could be yet to come?On foreign affairs, Mnangagwa has been a dynamo, setting himself apart from his predecessor who had a toxic foreign policy that resulted in isolation of Zimbabwe. President Mnangagwa has brought a number of changes in tone in dealing with the wider world and these changes are significant.We first caught a glimpse of Mnangagwa's foreign policy ambition when he invited notable SADC current and former heads of states to his inauguration including, Rory Stewart Britain's Minister of State for Africa. Mnangagwa signaled his intention to make relations with Zimbabwe's neighbors a priority through paying courtesy calls on South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, DRC, Angola, and Namibia. Recently President Mnangagwa ended a decade-long impasse on the US$259 million Kazungula rail and road bridge project. A deal that failed to get traction in a decade of poisoned relations with former president Mr Robert Mugabe.Government has started courting its nationals in the Diaspora to invest back home. The President has been on a diplomatic offensive. He met Zimbabweans in the diaspora in South Africa and Namibia. The NRZ - DIDG - Transnet deal spearheaded by Zimbabwean Diasporas based in South Africa, signalled governments seriousness in recognizing diasporas.International CooperationOver the first 100 days, President Mnangagwa dedicated considerable time in meeting foreign delegations. He flummoxed everyone by swiftly accepting an invite to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos. World leaders and potential investors were keen to meet Mnangagwa and build up economic ties with Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa has also signaled his wish to rejoin the commonwealth. He would be in China sometime in April on a similar mission.- Government immediately started on a journey to re-engage with those who have punished us through sanctions.- Zimbabwe has certainly acquired a positive image in Africa and abroad.- Confident participation on the global stage.- Mnangagwa's visits to SADC nations and to Switzerland have been well-received.- Using embassies to attend fora, instead of delegations travelling from Zimbabwe.- Government reinforcing the arrears clearance framework - Lima Plan.- Extension of targeted sanctions by USA.- The domestic agenda is voluminous and this limits what the new Government can achieve in foreign policy.- No foreign policy vision document or a white paper or strategy report has been issued by the new Government.President Mnangagwa has been a refreshing and prolific practitioner in attracting FDI. The signals sent so far are positive and give the assurance that more FDI is on its way. The government has claimed receiving $3 billion worth of FDI commitments.- Assurance that all foreign investments will be safe in Zimbabwe. Government will abide by the terms of bilateral investment promotion and protection agreements.- Amending the controversial indigenization and Empowerment Act, and confine the 51/49 to diamonds and platinum.- Developing the necessary basic infrastructure such as water, ICT, power, road, and rail transportation, amongst others.- Establishment of economic zones will be accelerated in order to attract investment and increase exports.- Exempted power generation projects from Corporate Income Tax for the first 5 years of operation.- Zimbabwe Investment Centre to take advantage of online services so that it becomes a one-stop-shop.- RBZ is working on a legal framework to operationalize the establishment of an offshore financial service centre within the context of the SEZ programme.- RBZ established Diasporans Investment Desk.- RBZ allowed Zimbabweans in the diaspora to open Diaspora Investment Accounts with local banks of their choice. The accounts are entitled to a 7% Diaspora Remittance Incentive from the RBZ over and above the interest offered by the bank.- Provide 7% tax-free savings bonds on non-resident transferable funds that cannot be immediately remitted as a result of the current foreign currency shortages.- Government is undertaking to institute measures to strengthen the legal standing of offer letters and 99 year leases.- Reviewed downwards mining ground rental fees in retrospect from US$3 000 to US$225 per hectare per annum.- On-going initiatives spearheaded by the Office of the President and Cabinet, in creating a conducive environment under the Ease of Doing Business' reforms.- Progress in attracting FDI is being made, but progress is never as fast as people hope and expect.- Zimbabwe's ability to attract foreign investors is badly frustrated by the high cost of doing business, erratic electricity supplies, high taxes and a poor transport infrastructure.- President Mnangagwa should intensify external engagement and capitalize on the great interest from international community to invest in Zimbabwe.- He should continue with the investment tours across many parts of the world.- Foreign Ministry must ensure that they get deliverables from these visits and not just photo opportunities.- For the foreign policy to succeed Government needs to rally support at home, acquire broad political consensus and institute reforms to attract and then keep foreign investments.- President Mnangagwa need to calibrate policy towards the powerful nations and investors, and lay down red lines. This will prevent agreements and deals that exploit us and our natural resources. Opinion / Columnist The confluence of political influence in affluent Borrowdale. The crest-fallen Emperor trying to pull a Houdini, now you see him now you don't.Talk of the mythical nine lives of a cat, how about a deserved rest and giving occasional advice from years of experience and hard work? Our northern neighbours have their fountain of wisdom in the evergreen KK, why not borrow a leaf from them?Zimbabwe is lagging behind in many spheres and desperately need that break from political bickering and mayhem. One begins to wonder, is it about the people or it is about 'me-myself-I'? Our political leaders should find one another and accommodate each other for the sake of Zimbabweans and Zimbabwe.Can someone advise the iconic liberator former Emperor to take heed of the people's pleas. Investors are in the country as we speak and some are on the planes heading to Zimbabwe. Give the country a chance so our industries can be resuscitated.The me only attitude will never take us to the promised land. Our neighbours are doing very well, our professionals are wandering all over the globe in search of better lives. We have become a laughing stock to the 'nations', we pray that the ex-Emperor realizes the national tragedy that makes us today and makes a wise decision. Zimbabwe needs peace, total peace.Tondorindo Murisa. Chinehasha. 3 Chand-led Maoist cadres held for attacking Mayor Chaudhary Three persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in attacking Mamata Prasad Chaudhary, Mayor of Ghodaghodi Municipality, in Kailali district on Monday. The arrested persons are said to be the cadres of Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal. Opinion / Letters Dear Sir/ US Holocaust Museum.My name is Devine Mafa, a Zimbabwean living in American. I left my home land and was offered asylum in the USA.Zimbabwean Ndebele tribe that I belong to--I lost my brother and over a million people killed yet the numbers have been severely underestimated to 20000 deaths, all related to tribal cleansing and persecution by the ruling Zanu PF in 1983-1987.No justice has been served for my brother Canan and many others million Ndebele people.My father, Felix Magalela Mafa Sibanda, a former Zimbabwe Member of parliament started an organization to help the surviving victims with birth certificates, assisted documentation of the dead and also provided assistance from his Personal earnings.He became a community organizer for his Organization, PIST - Post-Independent Survivors Trust practically serving everyone using the emotional strength generated from my murdered brother, Canaan Mafa Sibanda.On November 15 2017, dictator Robert Mugabe was disposed and replaced by the architect of Zimbabwe death camps. The man who killed over a million Ndebele people on Mugabe's behalf.In 2008, President Emmerson Mnangagwa was also responsible for rigging, maiming and killing of over 600 Movement for Democratic Change opposition supporters that my father and Chamisa belong to.President Mnangagwa now promises a harmonious election this year before August 31st, 2018. We can not only take him at his word but we hope to push for dialogue, though the debate forum in a public setting.January 31st, 2018, I founded ICND - International Commission for National Debates - to host permanent election debates in Africa. It is my belief to carry ongoing data collection and research to establish that a direct correlation exists between a decreased election violence and open dialogue. I have also established a philosophy, the doctrine of ethical debates as the cornerstone of the organization including honesty brokering to voters, ending violence, manipulation, intimidation, victimization, dishonesty, and unfair political tactics.There are a lot of dangerous election rhetorical slogans issued by the current president "Pasi Nemhandu " - kill and burry the enemy deep down in the ground. These slogans are the fuel to the engine of hate and tribalism. The slogan chanters usually follow up the Psychological chants with of use machetes, burn people alive and kill children.I believe that open forum debates allow talent to be displayed and teach voters to appreciate the political skill, they will also question candidates while at the same time educating voters that violence is not the way. Information is the way.Politicians are revered in Zimbabwe and its the highest achievement sought by all because of lack of jobs and business opportunities.95 % of Zimbabweans are not formally employed and the country is at a crossroad.Zimbabwe is at a crossroad and will need your support in facilitating these debates.It is also my greatest wish that you recognize Advocate Nelson Chamisa who is a 40-year-old opposition leader, likely poised to be the next president of Zimbabwe in the next election if violence and intimidation do not occur. I fear that his efforts will be derailed by Tribalism and election violence.If he stands up against the Gukurahundi atrocities and show a positive will for good direction and go against the expected --to be silent on the killings of over a million Zimbabweans.Please encourage him to speak more for what's right. Reward him so that he can do more about this divisive issue. He is able to end tribalism by acknowledging the ills of the past regime. If he speaks on this issue but fails to garner supporting voices, he will get a backlash and lose the elections.Recently, Chamisa accepted the logic of coronating of the Mandebele king. A huge step by the Shona tribals. The Ndebele king, the last king of Zimbabwe dislodged from power by the British settlers was still not replaced because of tribalism bent on oppressing the Ndebele minor tribe of Zimbabwe. The bad blood between the Shona and Ndebele may have started back then but the adversities and lack of appreciation of each other's culture calumniated into a long drawn tribal massacre by the ruling Shona majority that Chamisa belongs to. Chamisa seems to have understood that a strong culture also indicates a good economy. If we look at Japan, its very developed and yet the Japanese have a tradition that is getting stronger by the day.I have spoken to Chamisa a few days ago and gave him my advice and he likes it. We discussed what he could do to end tribalism in Zimbabwe including building a GUKURAHUNDI Zimbabwe MASSACRE MUSEUM to permanently memorialize the lost one million Zimbabwe lives. A reminder that such should never happen again. We must also reevaluate the real numbers of the murdered Zimbabweans. "DDT all the coacraches !" President Emmerson Mnangagwa is quoted as having fueled the persecution of Ndebele in the late 80s. But he has claimed To repent and must be tested in a public forum debate considering that he has also been alleged to have killed many for Mugabe during every election cycle.If Chamisa makes the right rhetoric against Gukurahundi and tribalism, reward him now for it will help save lives in this election cycle least lives will be lost. His voice must be encouraged to push for the right attitude. "Words matter !" President Obama once said. Words of leaders inspire the right attitudes and peace. Words lead people to have hope and cooperation. This young man has the It - factor and must be supported to motivate peace initiatives between the tribes of Zimbabwe. There is distrust at the moment but it can be fixed with all the support. I had also advised him to reach across the isle and name an " in waiting commission for truth & reconciliation " to show his good conviction and genuineness for it will be wholly appreciated and indicate strong positive factor in not making a campaign. Promise.There are two things I seek in this letter,1. Awarding, advocate Nelson Chamisa and or issue a statement in to let him and the Zimbabwean people know that you are watching and appreciate his positive moves and theirs.2. Help me establish the first presidential debate in Zimbabwe through the non-profit organizations that I founded January 31st, 2018. My team and I have set up networks in the ground and yet we have limited funds to sponsor this debate for I am Personally funding it. South Africa Broadcasting will charge $ 20000.00 per hour and we are seeking 4 hours of debate time and advertising. We would also need staging and moderating. I am pledging 1 million. personal fortune for a budget roughly 1 -6 million to effectively arrange and reach all people and the region with 100 million views- hence using interpretations for all tribes, lawyers and offices and vehicles needed. We also plan to establish high school national debates and have early intervention projects and establish a non-violent society that solves issues through dialogue not hoes, machetes and pitchforks and including necklacing used tires on the head of human beings.Please see the images from Zimbabwe that now appear every election cycle.ICND hopes to also host the debate in South Africa and other emerging democracies.I have every belief that you will assist us extra establish debates and honour Chamisa for his brave words this weekend and help us build a Zimbabwe Holocaust MuseumDevine MafaPresident / ICNDInternational Commission For National Debates1240 Central AveMemphis TN 381049015459000 Brian McKeever became Canada's most decorated Winter Paralympian with his record 14th medal on Monday in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The 38-year-old of Canmore, Alta., raced to his third straight Paralympic title in the men's cross-country 20-kilometre visually impaired freestyle event in a time of 46 minutes 02.4 seconds alongside his guide Graham Nishikawa. It was also McKeever's 11th Paralympic gold medal. McKeever surpassed para alpine skier Lana Spreeman, who won 13 medals in her five Paralympic appearances. Earlier this week, McKeever led the Canadian contingent as the flag-bearer for the opening ceremony in his fifth Games. He'll look to improve on his medal total on Wednesday in the 1.5 km sprint. Canada's Emily Young and Natalie Wilkie finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the women's 15 km standing free. Young, from North Vancouver, finished with a time of 51:51.4, while Wilkie of Salmon Arm, B.C., clocked in at 52:12.9. Hockey dominance continues Canada guaranteed top spot in Group A with an 8-0 win over Norway. The team posted 35 goals in group play while not allowing a single one. The Canadians play in the semifinals on Wednesday at 11 p.m. ET against the second-place team from Group B. Canadian curlers suffer 2 losses In a battle of undefeated wheelchair curling teams, Canada's rally from an early 4-1 deficit against South Korea fell short. The three-time defending Paralympic champions ultimately suffered a 7-5 loss. The struggles continued in the second match as Great Britain, on the heels of several early steals, trounced Canada 8-1. The Canadians will look to get back on track with games against China (8:35 p.m. ET) and the U.S. (6:35 a.m. ET on Tuesday). Snowboarders shut out of podium It was a difficult day on the course for Canada's seven para snowboarders, who were unable to medal in snowboard cross. Calgary's Michelle Salt was the top Canadian, finishing fourth in the women's LL1 event. Sandrine Hamel lost in her LL2 quarter-final. On the men's side, John Leslie (LL2) and Curt Minard (UL) both reached the quarters, but lost in their respective runs. Earlier, Minard bested fellow Canadian Andrew Genge in the 1/8 finals. Alex Massie and Colton Liddle both lost in their LL2 1/8 finals. 70 per cent decline in capelin not due to fishing, say scientists Scientists with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans found a lot fewer capelin last year during their survey of the stock a decline of 70 per cent from the last count, done in 2015. Scientists blame late spawning for the population drop. Once the capelin larvae hatch they need tiny copepods for food, and if they hatch after the copepod population spikes, then fewer larvae will survive. Capelin are described a "lynchpin" species because a healthy population helps other types of fish. Cod and turbot eat them directly, and without lots of capelin those fish will eat commercially valuable crab and shrimp instead. Last year about 20,000 tonnes of capelin were fished commercially, but scientists at DFO said fishing has little impact on the decline. "We don't have evidence that the removal from the commercial fishery are driving it," said Fran Mowbray who led the research. "It seems to be largely environmentally driven." She said the capelin are only caught a few weeks before they spawn and die so it doesn't have a large effect on the availability of food for other species. She said it does reduce the number of eggs laid but more eggs doesn't seem to lead to more fish, because a food source for the young fish is often the limiting factor. A couple of bad years for larvae mean scientists expect stocks to be bad for the next couple years. Fish kill lot more capelin than people do Healthier cod and turbot populations are also bad news for capelin. Mowbray says what humans fish every year is small compared to the amount eaten by fish, birds and whales. She estimates about one million tonnes of capelin are eaten by fin fish alone every year. Because the fish only live a few years before they spawn and die, the population size can have bigger swings than other types of fish. Mowbray pointed out that capelin were at much lower levels in 2010 and the population rebounded. DFO is unable to accurately estimate the total number of capelin in the water, which scientists call an "absolute abundance estimate," because it doesn't do a survey of the full area using sonar. Story continues Other countries such as Iceland do acoustic surveys allowing them to estimate the full numbers. Until recently DFO only had one researcher dedicated to capelin, but has hired two more people to improve the science. As well, the capelin stock assessment will now happen every year instead of every two years. Correction : A previous version of this article said the capelin survey will now be done every year rather than every two years. This is incorrect. The capelin survey has always been done every year. It's the capelin stock assessment that will now be done every year rather than every two years.(Mar 13, 2018 4:57 AM) Correction : A previous version of this article said the last capelin survey was done in 2015. This is incorrect. The last survey was done in 2017. (Mar 13, 2018 4:59 AM) La Boule Patisserie and Bakery executive pastry chef Jennifer Stang is a big fan of vanilla, as many of the baked goods at the business feature the product in various forms. But the price of vanilla is rising, and that means the La Boule pastry team needs to conserve every part of the vanilla beans they use when baking. With a cost of $5 per vanilla bean, bakery staff have to scrape the beans on a metal table so every last drop of oil can be extracted, Stang said. Each seed from a vanilla bean is then saved and used in some of the baked goods at La Boule. Crop shortage to blame for increased cost Stang was told a crop shortage in Madagascar, the world's leading vanilla producer, is the cause behind increased vanilla prices. The amount La Boule is paying for vanilla has more than doubled since the bakery opened in 2016, she said. "It's hard for me for sure," Stang said. "But at this point, we haven't yet passed this cost increase along to our customers. We're trying to absorb it in other ways. We're hoping it will go down." Vanilla comes in a variety of forms, like extract, paste and in beans. Cheaper vanilla products are made in other countries, but Stang said they aren't always high quality. For now, she said, she's committed to paying for Madagascar vanilla. "You get a much better product in the end with the real vanilla," she said. "Sometimes a little bit of expense is worth it." Price increases at grocery stores Earth's General Store owner Michael Kalmanovitch said he's also feeling the effects of the vanilla crop shortage. Prices of organic vanilla products at his store have risen in recent months, he said. Many of Kalmanovitch's customers buy organic vanilla extract in bulk, which he said helps cut down costs for shoppers. He estimates the price of vanilla at Earth's General Store has gone up by about 20 per cent. "In January or so, there was a price increase," he said. "Not as much as I thought there was, but there was." Stang said she hopes the price drops soon. "Vanilla is an unsung hero," she said. "And I think people need to give vanilla a little more props." The irony is Eddy Estrada is scared of heights. "You're standing on this pole ... terrified," he said. But for $17.34 US an hour, plus benefits, the 32-year-old is willing to swing from scaffolding like a lemur. Two thousand workers are being hired to renovate L.A. Memorial Coliseum, which is why Estrada was among the hundreds lined up at a recent construction job fair in downtown Los Angeles. He said he's hoping to help build America, and in doing so, build a better life for his family. But these days he's less worried about falling from a great height than he is falling afoul of federal immigration agents, which he said have been suddenly active in California's Latino communities. "You have people coming over here because that's the American dream to come for a better life, and then they're being placed up against the wall," Estrada said. "It affects me personally." Sanctuary state Many at the construction job fair were undocumented, like Ecuador's Homero Ayala, who said some employers feel suddenly emboldened to mistreat workers now that the immigration officials are more actively trying to deport illegal immigrants. "If you make any demands or complaints, they say they will call the police and you're out of there," Ayala says in Spanish. "That's the problem when you don't have papers." Ayala says they're "caught in the middle of the latest war" between D.C. and California. The casus belli: California's recently enacted sanctuary laws, which limit the ability of state officials to help the federal government enforce immigration policy. According to SB 54, if any undocumented person is arrested by police, immigration officials aren't allowed to tell federal agents when they will be released, nor can they transfer undocumented immigrants directly into federal custody unless they've committed a serious crime. AB 450 means employers have to give workers 72 hours' notice before their workplace is inspected by immigration. And AB 103 gives California the power to review conditions in facilities where immigrants are being detained. Story continues 'They wait at 7-Elevens' Since the laws were passed last October, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his displeasure. And, as if in response, raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seem to have increased in 2018, says carpenter Eduardo Sauceda, who was manning a stall at the construction job fair. "The ICE agents, they wait at 7-Elevens, they go to the Walmarts and they try to fish in who they can," Sauceda said. On March 7, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions travelled to Sacramento to announce a legal challenge to California's sanctuary laws. "I can't sit by idly while the lawful authorities of federal officers are being blocked by a legislative action of politicians," Sessions said at a gathering hosted by the California Peace Officers' Association. 'A grudge match' Immigration lawyer and University of Southern California law professor Jean Reisz believes Sessions' case has legal merit, but says the state should be on firm legal ground as long it doesn't actively hinder federal immigration. "I don't think it's a strong case for the government; I think that it is somewhat of a grudge match between California and the federal administration," Reisz said. "The argument that this state has to bend to whatever will the federal government wants to impose is not a right founded in the Constitution." In an act of legal ju-jitsu, Sessions said the government's suit was based on a partially successful Supreme Court challenge by the Obama administration. In the 2012 case against the so-called "show me your papers" law, the Obama administration alleged Arizona violated federal immigration laws. In striking down three of the four provisions of the Arizona law as unconstitutional, the Supreme Court generally affirmed the concept of federal supremacy in matters of immigration. But Reisz says "there's no direct parallel with the situation in Arizona. "In this case California is seeking to not co-operate with federal enforcement when it's not legally required to, so it's not really making laws to regulate immigration," Reisz said. "The real question is are they interfering with the federal government's ability to enforce immigration. And what I've seen from the laws, they aren't." 'They don't even believe in the flag' Some see it differently in Whittier, Calif., a city of about 90,000 people 30 kilometres southeast of Los Angeles. At a recent rally to support anti-crime legislation, the crowd spoke with one voice: No sanctuary. "Sanctuary in what terms?" asked Jerry Warner. "You have to ask yourself what exactly does that mean? Does that mean it's harbouring and protecting criminals over the citizens? They don't even believe in the flag. So you tell me what, you know, what kind of people we want here." "Good for Sessions," Grace Wahrman agreed. "Finally he's stepping out and doing what the American people want." "We're going to take the State of California back again and make it a great state the way it used to be," said Denis Gregorian. Sessions' lawsuit against California is also getting support from many in the law enforcement community. 'Taboo to even do your job' Ron Hernandez, president of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, says California's so-called sanctuary laws mean most criminals who are in the country illegally get released back onto the streets. "When something goes too far to one end, then I would I would support anybody pushing hard from the other end," Hernandez said. "From a law enforcement perspective, it's become taboo to even do your job." Do their job: that's all that many of the applicants at the construction job fair in downtown L.A. say they want. "I'm trying to make an honest living and support my family," Estrada said. "They're messing with people's livelihoods." Forget Sessions, forget sanctuary, says Estrada. He just wants to work. CBC Daybreak North and Canada Reads want residents of northern British Columbia to share stories of what they love about their local libraries. The person with the best story will earn their community a full set of this year's five Canada Reads contestants to be borrowed through the library. In addition, Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk is hosting a regular round-table discussion about the books with Patricia Gibson of the Prince George Library, Lou Allison of the Prince Rupert Library and Wendy Wright of the Smithers Library, to air Monday mornings. The theme of this year's Canada Reads contest is "one book to open your eyes." The contenders are: - Mozhdah Jamalzadah, defending The Boat People by Sharon Bala - Tahmoh Penikett, defending American War by Omar El Akkad - Greg Johnson, defending Precious Cargo by Craig Davidson - Jeanne Beker, defending Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto - Jully Black, defending The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline To enter the Daybreak North/Canada Reads library love contest, call toll-free 1-866-340-1932 or email daybreaknorth@cbc.ca. Be sure to leave your name, number and reason you love the northern B.C. library you are nominating. Contest closes March 26. By Michelle Nichols and Suleiman Al-Khalidi UNITED NATIONS/AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned on Monday that Washington "remains prepared to act if we must," if the U.N. Security Council fails to act on Syria, as the Syrian army's onslaught in eastern Ghouta continued unabated. The United States asked the Security Council to demand an immediate 30-day ceasefire in Damascus and rebel-held eastern Ghouta, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, backed by Russia and Iran, say they are targeting "terrorist" groups which are shelling the capital. The army's onslaught in eastern Ghouta, backed by air and artillery strikes, has killed about 1,160 people since Feb. 18, a war monitoring group said, as Assad seeks to crush the last big rebel stronghold near the capital Damascus. "It is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take, and we are prepared to take again," Haley told the 15-member Security Council. "When the international community consistently fails to act, there are times when states are compelled to take their own action." The United States bombed a Syrian government air base last year over a deadly chemical weapons attack. The Security Council demanded a 30-day ceasefire across Syria in a unanimously adopted Feb. 24 resolution. Russia and Damascus say a ceasefire ordered by the U.N. Security Council does not protect the fighters in eastern Ghouta, arguing that they are members of banned terrorist groups. "There has been no cessation of hostilities," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday. "Violence continues in eastern Ghouta and beyond - including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and into Damascus and its suburbs." "No sieges have been lifted ... To our knowledge, not one critically sick or wounded person has yet been evacuated. Russia's U.N. envoy Vassily Nebenzia also said some states were accusing the Syrian government of carrying our chemical weapons attacks in a bid to prepare the ground for the unilateral use of force against sovereign Syria. We have heard hints of that in the statements of some delegations today, Nebenzia said. Basically steps are being weighed which could hit regional stability very, very hard. Elsewhere, Syrian jets also struck rebel-held towns in the country's south, the first aerial attacks on the area since the United States and Russia brokered a deal making it a "de-escalation zone" last year, rebels and residents said. The Trump administration frequently points to the de-escalation zone as a sign of progress it can achieve with Moscow on reducing the violence in Syria. But on Monday, the U.S. State Department said it was very concerned by the violence and called an "urgent meeting" in Jordan to ensure maintenance of the de-escalation zone. "If (reports of the strikes are) true, this would be a clear violation of the (southwest) ceasefire by the Syrian regime that broadens the conflict," a State Department official said. "We urge all parties in the southwest de-escalation zone not to take actions that would jeopardize the ceasefire and make future cooperation more difficult." HEAVY ONSLAUGHT The assault on Ghouta is one of the heaviest in the war, which enters its eighth year this week. Thousands of families are sleeping in the open in the streets of the biggest town in the enclave, where there is no longer any room in packed cellars to shelter from government bombardment, local authorities said. At least 70 people had been buried in a town park because air strikes made it unsafe to reach the cemetery on the outskirts, it said. In a video filmed inside Douma, one man cowering in a heavily damaged shelter said: "It is completely uninhabitable. It is not even safe to put chickens in. There is no bathroom, just one toilet, and there are 300 people." Douma residents said dozens of people were trapped alive under rubble, with rescuers unable to reach them due to the intensity of the raids. Government forces have now captured more than half the rebel enclave, entirely besieging Douma and the large town of Harasta, cutting them off from each other and neighboring areas with advances on Saturday and Sunday. In an apparent sign of local discontent with the rebel policy of holding out, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported that hundreds of people protested in the town of Kafr Batna to demand a deal to end the onslaught. Jaish al-Islam, one of eastern Ghouta's main rebel groups, said on Monday it had reached an agreement with the government's ally Russia to evacuate wounded people, after communicating with Moscow through the United Nations. A U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman said the United Nations was not part of that deal and still called for the urgent evacuation of more than 1,000 sick and wounded people in eastern Ghouta. State television broadcasts from the government-controlled side of the battlefront showed dark grey clouds of smoke billowing from several places across a landscape of shattered buildings. HALF-MILLION DEAD The Observatory, said on Monday the death toll in the civil war had passed half a million people. It has confirmed the deaths of 511,000 people, it said, and has the names of more than 350,000 of them. About 85 percent were killed by government forces and their allies, it said. Eastern Ghouta has been besieged for years after many of its residents joined the initial protests against Assad's rule in 2011 that triggered the slide into civil war. The United Nations says 400,000 people live in the enclave, already suffering shortages of food and medicine even before the massive assault began in mid-February. Assad says the assault on eastern Ghouta is needed to end the rule of Islamist insurgents over the civilian population and to stop mortar fire on nearby Damascus. The United Nations has warned of dire shortages of food and medicine, where international deliveries have long been erratic and often obstructed before they could reach the enclave. The expulsion of the rebels from eastern Ghouta would represent their biggest defeat since they lost their enclave in Aleppo in December 2016. They still control large areas in the northwest and southwest and a few scattered pockets elsewhere but have been driven from most major population centers. (Additional reporting by a reporter in eastern Ghouta, Angus McDowall and Ellen Francis in Beirut and Yara Bayoumy in Washington; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Alistair Bell) FILE PHOTO - Uber's logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon By Eric Auchard LONDON (Reuters) - Uber is seeking a second chance in Barcelona three years after it was forced to shut down in the face of taxi driver protests - by introducing a fully licensed ride-hailing service that meets local transportation laws. Its new UberX service will operate with hundreds of professional, licensed drivers in contrast to the UberPop service it ran until late 2014 using non-professional drivers to pick up and drop off passengers, Uber said on Tuesday. Uber is looking to make a clean break with business practices that resulted in a litany of regulatory battles, driver and consumer scandals and court cases. "We made mistakes along the way," Uber General Manager for Southwest Europe Carles Lloret said in a company blog post. "We are changing the way we do business, putting integrity at the core of every decision we make and working hard to earn the trust of the cities in which we operate. Barcelona is no exception." Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in January he was focused on "responsible growth" as he seeks to put an end to the take-no-prisoners culture he inherited upon joining the pioneer of ride-hailing services last year. (http://reut.rs/2HsKVRQ) Two years ago, Uber re-introduced UberX using professional drivers in Madrid. In December 2014, a judge had ordered all Uber services to be shut down in Spain's capital city. Decrying Uber's return as unfair competition to their livelihoods, taxi drivers have mounted a series of 24-hour strikes in Madrid, Barcelona and other Spanish cities over the past year. "We are fully committed to working with the entire sector - including taxis - to improve mobility in Barcelona together," said Lloret. San Francisco-based Uber pre-emptively closed its services in Barcelona in December 2014 as local officials geared up to pass legislation against the UberPop service, which city authorities legally barred the following year. Story continues Protests by taxi associations over the past year against Uber have also targeted Madrid-based Cabify, a rival founded in 2012 that operates in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. Uber operates a range of ride-hailing services in more than 600 cities around the world. (Reporting by Eric Auchard in London; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) A survivor of US-Bangla crash tells how he got new life Keshav Pandey, one of the survivors of Mondays US-Bangla plane crash at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu, said that he was fortunate to get a new lease of life. Building brain-controlled bionic arms is just a day's work for McNiel-Inyani Keri. Keri, 23, is exploring the use of advanced prosthesis that rely on sensors directly connected to the nerve endings and muscles in the patient, restoring the feeling and movement of a real limb. "You can trick your body into thinking the limb is moving and that's kind of cool," he said. "If you're able to grab information about the prosthesis and how it's moving, you are able relay that information up the muscle. "And so when the arm is moving, you feel as though your hand is moving." As a masters student in mechanical engineering at the University of Alberta, Keri is working to build advanced robotic prostheses capable of touching and sensing the world much like living limbs. His research, in partnership with the Bionic Limbs for Improved Natural Control Lab in Edmonton, focuses on the development of prosthetic devices which provide sensory feedback to their users, giving them improved motor control. "The goal of my project is kind of twofold," Keri said of his ongoing thesis research. "I'm trying to do more exploratory work, trying to find out how we can hack the biology of an individual to try and get them to feel as if their own limb is moving when the prosthesis is moving," Keri said in an interview Monday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. "And on the other side, I'm developing technologies that allow us to extract information about how that limb is moving." Keri designed a sensor prototype for the advanced prosthetics which costs around $100 to produce, much cheaper than commercial options currently available. "Commercial sensors are in the tens of thousands of dollars," he said. "And I'm in the process of comparing these two together to see if the sensor that I built is reliable. "And if it is reliable, then I can see how the prosthesis is moving and use that to drive the rest of my research."As an undergraduate in the biomedical stream in the university's electrical and computer engineering program, Keri helped develop a series of innovative medical technologies, including a virtual reality system using 2D ultrasound images which allows surgeons to view the insertion of a needle during surgery, in real time. Story continues This weekend, Keri was honoured for his work, receiving a National Black Coalition of Canada Award for Excellence, which honours individuals or groups that have made outstanding contributions to the community or society at large. Keri was recognized in the Youth Award category for community work and his ongoing research. He was also recently named to the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation's annual "Top 30 Under 30" list. 'Just really inspiring' Keri credits the perseverance of the amputees he works with for keeping him inspired to innovate. "It's amazing. The individuals that volunteer to participate in the studies, they have remarkable stories and their energy is just really inspiring," Keri said. "I really like the intersection between engineering and medicine and the ability to use my technical skills and medical know-how to improve the quality of life for these individuals. "I feel like if you have skills or you have talents, what better way to use them, than trying to improve the lives of others." Keri was born in Kosti, Sudan, during the country's second civil war. His family fled to Egypt before immigrating to Edmonton when Keri was six. Throughout his high school years, Keri studied often with Sky Club, a homework group for refugee and immigrant children at the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers. It was there where an engineer and a physicist who volunteered with the club inspired him to pursue a career in engineering. He now spends much of his time volunteering at the centre mentoring kids in math and science. "It's a place where a lot of these newcomer youths, many of which are first- and second-generation newcomers, get support on how to integrate into this new society. It's just a fantastic place." Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. . ....12 March '18..Large parts of the West, including American Diaspora Jewish leaders, appear to have decided that unless Israel desists from its plan of deporting thousands of single, male Africans who infiltrated Israel illegally during the past decade or so, then the Jewish state is either deeply racist or inhumane. In any rate it is certainly, they claim, compromising its Jewish values.Now, there is nothing new in the fact that most people seem to love nothing better than a bit of virtue signaling, especially if it can be done at the expense of the Jewish state. However, the latest virtue signaling over the illegal African migrants in Israel seems of even poorer taste than usual, given the disproportionately large humanitarian contribution of Israel to the world, especially Africa.For decades, Israel has been helping other nations flourish, while usually getting absolutely nothing in return, apart from being condemned by every conceivable international organization from the EU to the UN.No matter how much Israel does though, it seems it is never enough. Not for the world in general and not for the leaders of US Diaspora Jewry in particular, who constantly obsess over the fate of Jewish values in the much harassed Jewish state.Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) wrote this to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January:Giving illegal migrants, the majority of whom only entered Israel to seek a better economic future, $3,500 each and passage to a safe third country, as Israel has offered, is actually an ethical thing to do, especially if one considers the alternatives.Whereas Greenblatt runs an American-Jewish organization, Netanyahu runs a country. As such, other considerations than those of Jewish purists geopolitical realities for example come into play.Jewish community leaders can afford to focus on ethics only while keeping their hands clean of actual decisions which cannot be guided by ethics alone because what they say and do generally has little consequence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, has to deal with the harsh unpleasantness of actual reality and the potentially damaging consequences of his decisions for the entire state of Israel. This week, the Israeli Knesset adopted legislation which empowers the Israeli Minister of Interior to revoke the permanent residency status of persons involved in terrorism, treason or espionage. Online Learning Wiki Profiles Open University Innovations How blockchain technology can be used to support student learning, assessment and badges. How exams can be generated spontaneously online, issued to the student immediately and results graded and transferred to the student evaluation division instantly. How to give students access to self-help academic information, course selection, program planning and degree auditing. These are just a few of the "breakthrough innovations" being tested at open universities around the world and described in a wiki developed by Contact Nord, a nonprofit funded by the government of Ontario. The result, TeachOnline.ca, profiles the work of 66 open universities dedicated to increasing access to courses for those who want higher education, no matter what their backgrounds. An open university is an institution that allows people to attend courses without having formal academic qualifications, whether for personal enrichment, professional development or to prepare for a university career. The first such school was the UK's Open University, which opened in 1969. These days, open universities are online programs but they're not necessarily free. For example, Open University charges between 10,308 and 15,775 for a master's degree from its Engineering & Technology program. While TeachOnline focuses on Ontario-specific "pockets of innovation" first, and Canada innovation second, it also maintains a list of international activities too. These are projects with three characteristics: They represent a new approach; They support students; and The developers behind them are "prepared to share their innovations, the challenges they've encountered and what they've learned." For example, the University of Denmark runs an admissions program for adults who want to qualify to apply for an engineering degree program. An institution in Sweden is working on developing hybrid MOOCs that serve "diverse learners." And in the United States, the University of Florida online Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on Educational Technology offers a program that develops a community of practice that will live on in participants' lives even after they've completed the degree. According to TeachOnline, the profiles seek "to capture what is happening in open universities so all of us engaged in online and distance education have direct and immediate access to breakthrough innovations we can adopt, adapt and apply in our own institution." Peni and Olive Volavola of Faith City Worship Centre in Nundah have had a pretty special call on their lives to the nation of Africa. How it came about was pretty spectacular too. They told me the story of Gods favour in their life and in their ministry. Vision Olive explained it like this: It was a vision that was given back in 1998. I asked my pastor back then what the vision meant. I saw that I was getting out of an aircraft and the soil was all red and out of the bushes came a little boy, and he wanted food, so I went back to the aircraft to get food but so many kids came. So I asked where this was, and I had travelled all around rural Australia but the faces were different to anything wed seen in Australia. Years later we hosted a man who did ministry in Uganda in 2015. He said that when he left Uganda the Lord put on His heart to have four keys to give to four people when he travelled Australia. Thats when he came up to me and gave me one of the keys. In a vision when I was praying, He showed me his house, with red soil and the deep roots around it. We found out later he has a school there and looks after orphans. Later the man invited Olive and her husband Peni to a conference in Uganda and they jumped at the opportunity to go. They saw the hand of God move when they asked the Lord for airfares and provisions to go to Uganda. They had been praying and believing in God for $7000 for visas, vaccinations and travel expenses. About two months later a man came to them and gave them an envelope. Inside was seventy $100 notes, so they knew then that God wanted them to go. They had another Divine encounter along the journey: When we got off at the airport and I saw the red soil before landing, I just couldnt stop crying because I knew the will of God for my life. It was like going home. God kept laying on my heart everywhere I went to remove my shoes. Later I found out that it was prophetic. Olive referred to How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, Your God reigns! (Isaiah Chapter 52, verse 7) Confirmation Olive says shes not a preacher, but ministers through songs. She learned a local song for the conference, which she only heard once or twice and then God reminded her of all the words. The song was named Ruhanga Ishitwe. As soon as she started singing, everyone was on their knees. They told her that Ruhanga Ishitwe was a song of surrender and it was a confirmation for those people in Uganda. They visited twenty-one churches that had been planted there and saw a great move of God. People were giving their hearts to the Lord and fellowshipping with one another. Peni and Olive would love to go back to Uganda in the near future but are continuing in the vision for their church which is to reach out to the Nundah community and beyond with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Bridget Brenton is involved in Aboriginal and Islander based ministries, and enjoys tech stuff like making websites and making games in her spare time. Bridget Brentons previous articles may be viewed at: http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/bridget-brenton. "Much of the church has acted, and still acts, as though it has been grafted into a Christmas Tree flashing its attractive lights and decorations, but unconcerned about its loss of roots and wondering why it is spiritually drying up and dying." Those challenging words came from Chuck Colson, in his book "Roots of our Faith." Roots are vital to our faith. Roots hold us safe and secure and dig deep into our foundations and protect us from the mudslides of life. They draw sustenance for us. Through their vital action our faith grows. A few thousand years ago, God spoke to Noah and told him a massive flood was on the way. He told Noah to warn the people and to prepare an ark for their safety and survival. But the warning was ignored. As a result when the flood arrived only Noah and his family were rescued along with an Ark load of animals. Noah must have felt severely pressured by the disinterest and stubborn ignorance of the people. Despite the lack of support He put the rejection from the people behind him and chose to trust the Lord. Jesus whose Hebrew name was Yeshua summed it up. "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Me." (Matthew chapter 5, verses 10, 11). Refugee Flood In the Middle East today there is a very obvious flood. It has already arrived and hundreds of thousands of Christians are being murdered, abused and painfully treated. This is what observant believers would see as a sign of the times. Among the flood of refugees spreading throughout Europe and elsewhere, Christians are seeking a safe place. Strong's Concordance says that persecution means 'to pursue, follow after, or press toward.' Vine's Expository Dictionary says it is 'to put to flight or drive away.' Yeshua specifically indicated that times to come, would be like The Days of Noah! "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be." Matthew chapter 24, verses 37b to 39. Noah knew a storm was coming. Amazing to learn, at this point in history there had never been rain. Noah could only imagine what was this thing called rain would be. Nevertheless he was certain he had heard from God, and he went about building the ark despite the negativity and derision he received. Jesus declared: "For the a coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah." (Matthew chapter 24, verse 37) He may have simply said, "Don't miss the boat!" We should all be living with a sense of expectancy for His return. We have never experienced such a tumultuous event before but if He said it, we can believe it. Just like Noah wondering about the rain, when it arrived he understood why the Lord told him to build an ark. Excuses This story comes from the Journal of Royal Institute of British Architects It's called: The Hopeless Story Of Noah "And the Lord said unto Noah: "Where is the ark which I have commanded thee to build?" And Noah said unto the Lord: "Verily, I have had three carpenters off ill. The gopher-wood supplier hath let me downyea, even though the gopher wood hath been on order for high upon 12 months. What can I do, O Lord?" And God said unto Noah: "I want that ark finished even after seven days and seven nights." And Noah said: "It will be so." And it was not so. And the Lord said unto Noah: "What seemeth to be the trouble this time?" And Noah said unto the Lord: "Mine subcontractor hath gone bankrupt. The pitch which Thou commandest me to put on the outside and on the inside of the ark hath not arrived. The plumber hath gone on strike. Shem, my son who helpeth me on the ark side of the business, hath formed a pop group with his brothers Ham and Japheth. Lord, I am undone." And the Lord grew angry and said: "And what about the animals, the male and the female of every sort that I ordered to come unto thee to keep their seed alive upon the face of the earth?" And Noah said: "They have been delivered unto the wrong address but should arrive on Friday." And the Lord said: "How about the unicorns, and the fowls of the air by sevens?" And Noah wrung his hands and wept, saying: "Lord, unicorns are a discontinued line; thou canst not get them for love nor money. And fowls of the air are sold only in half-dozens, Lord. Lord, Thou knowest how it is." And the Lord in His wisdom said: "Noah, my son, I knowest. Why else dost thou think I have caused a flood to descend upon the earth?" Alert God has spoken. He has warned us, and He tells us to obey His wisdom.Are we living in the Days of Noah or the Days of Elijah? I have no problem with joy-filled, Spirit inspired praise and worship but if we are the family of God, I believe the Lord requires that we have heartfelt concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Previously I wrote about 'the Saturday people and Sunday people.' In the second part of this series, I will attempt to reveal the evidence has become a present day reality and wise believers will not ignore the signs. Ron Ross is a Middle East consultant for United Christian Broadcasters (Vision FM). Previously he was radio news editor for Bridges for Peace in Jerusalem, Israel. His career started at WINTV (Email: ronandyvonne@mac.com) Ron Ross' previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/ron-ross.html TUESDAY, March 13, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- A pill that combines three blood pressure-lowering drugs improves people's chances of lowering their high blood pressure, researchers report. The pill contains low doses of the three medications -- telmisartan, amlodipine and chlorthalidone. The finding stems from a study of 700 people, who averaged 56 years old. All had high blood pressure. Among those who took the so-called "triple pill" for six months, 70 percent had achieved their blood pressure targets, compared with 55 percent of those who received their usual care. Usual care meant taking whatever blood pressure medicine their doctor prescribed. The rate of side effects was no greater among those who took the three-in-one pill than among the usual care group. "Based on our findings, we conclude that this new method of using blood pressure-lowering drugs was more effective and just as safe as current approaches," lead author Ruth Webster said in a news release from the American College of Cardiology. She's a researcher with the George Institute for Global Health at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The study was presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Orlando, Fla. The findings should be considered preliminary because research presented at meetings has not undergone the rigorous scrutiny given to research published in medical journals. "The most urgent need for innovative strategies to control blood pressure is in low- and middle-income countries," Webster said. "The triple pill approach is an opportunity to 'leapfrog' over traditional approaches to care and adopt an innovative approach that has been shown to be effective." High blood pressure increases the risk for heart attack, stroke and kidney problems. "A control rate of 70 percent would be a considerable improvement, even in high-income settings," Webster said. "Most hypertension guidelines in these countries do not recommend combination blood-pressure-lowering therapy for initial treatment in all people." The findings, she said, "should prompt reconsideration of recommendations around the use of combination therapy." More information The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more on high blood pressure medications. India, France co-hosted first International Solar Alliance (ISA) Summit at Rashtrapati Bhavan Convention Centre in New Delhi. The aim of the summit was to deliberate on finance mechanism for promotion of solar energy in member countries, crowd-funding and technology transfer. Key Facts The summit was co-hosted by President Ram Nath Kovind and his French counterpart President Emmanuel Macron. It was attended by 21 heads of states and heads of government, several top ministers and bureaucrats apart from participants from multilateral banks and United Nations. Its focus was to mobilise $1 trillion of investments needed by 2030 for massive deployment of solar energy. The summit was of particular significance to India as it strives to achieve ambitious target of generating 175 GW of renewable energy, including 100 GW of solar energy, by 2022. Key Takeaway from Summit 10-point action plan: It was presented by India. It includes making affordable solar technology available to all nations, raising share of electricity generated from photovoltaic cells, framing regulations and standards, providing consultancy support for bankable solar projects and creating network of centres for excellence. Common risk mitigation mechanism: It was announced by France. It will be put in place before the end of 2018. The mechanism was developed by taskforce comprising Council on Energy, Environment and Water, Terrawatt Initiaitve and The Currency Exchange Fund (TCX). Delhi Solar Agenda: It was launched at founding summit, which states that countries will pursue increased share of solar energy in final energy consumption in their respective national energy mix to tackle global challenges of climate change. Commitment to increase share of solar power: As many as 62 member-nations committed that they will increase share of solar power in their energy mix to deal with climate change and provide energy to underprivileged in society. Financial Contribution: India will give $1.4 billion in aid to 15 other developing nations for 27 more solar projects. It already has contributed $62 million to ISA corpus fund and for establishment of ISA secretariat. Beside this, France will provide 700 million in loans and support by 2022 to emerging economies for solar energy projects. International Solar Alliance (ISA) ISA is treaty-based inter-governmental organisation (first to be based in India) that was established following as an alliance dedicated to the promotion of solar energy among its member countries. It is one of the key takeaways at the 2015 Paris Climate summit. ISA is aimed at tapping solar energy in countries that lie partially or fully between Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. It is headquartered in India. ADB willing to finance Tamor feasibility study ADB has shown interest in financing a detailed feasibility study and detailed project report (DPR) for the 762 MW Tamor Hydropower Project, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) said. IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS (MARCH 13, 2018): The 10th annual report on the death penalty in Iran by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and ECPM shows that in 2017 at least 517 people were executed in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This number is comparable with the execution figures in 2016 and confirms the relative reduction in the use of the death penalty compared to the period between 2010 and 2015. Nevertheless, with an average of more than one execution every day and more than one execution per one million inhabitants in 2017, Iran remained the country with the highest number of executions per capita. 2017 Annual Report at a Glance: At least 517 people were executed in 2017, an average of more than one execution per day 111 executions (21%) were announced by official sources. Approximately 79% of all executions included in the 2017 report, i.e. 406 executions, were not announced by the authorities. At least 240 people (46% of all executions) were executed for murder charges - 98 more than in 2016. At least 231 people (45% of all executions) were executed for drug-related charges- 65 less than in 2016. 31 executions were conducted in public spaces. At least 5 juvenile offenders were among those executed. At least 10 women were executed. At least 254 executions in 2017 and more than 3,400 executions since 2010 have been based on death sentences issued by the Revolutionary Courts. At least 221 death row prisoners were forgiven by the families of the murder victims In 2017, the process of introducing new amendments to the Anti-drug law entered a new phase. The amendments had the support of the majority of the Iranian Parliament members and were scheduled to be put to the vote during the first half of the year. However, the Iranian authorities continued carrying out death sentences for drug-related charges while the bill was being reviewed by the Judicial Commission of the Iranian Parliament and despite the fact that Iranian members of parliament had requested that the Judiciary stop drug-related executions until the fate of the new bill was clear. However, this request did not stop the Judiciary from carrying out death sentences for at least 231 prisoners, the sentences of many of whom would have been commuted according to the new law which was later passed by Parliament and approved by the Guardian Council. In the months of January and July alone, at least 120 people were executed for drug offences. Nevertheless, drug-related executions showed a 22% reduction compared with 2016 and as of February 2018 IHR has not received any reports of drug-related executions since the new amendments on the Anti-drug law were enforced on 14 November 2017. Whether the halt in drug-related executions is permanent remains to be seen. Commenting on the reduction in drug-related executions in 2017, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, IHRs Director and spokesperson, said: We welcome the new amendments in the Anti-narcotics law which, if implemented properly, will commute several thousand death sentences. The Iranian authorities must make sure that the cases of all drug offenders on death row are reviewed automatically and the process must be closely monitored by the international community. Moreover, this must be the first step towards abolition of the death penalty for all drug offenses. While the number of drug-related executions dropped significantly, the total number of executions did not. This is largely due to the significant increase in implementation of death sentences in murder cases, so-called qisas executions. For the first time since 2009, the number of qisas executions exceeded those for drug charges with a 29% reduction in drug-related executions and a 69% increase in qisas executions. The increase in the number of qisas executions has been evident in most prisons across the country in a way that appears to be the result of coordinated action by the authorities. The Iranian authorities kept a relatively larger portion of executions secret compared to previous years. Only 21% of executions were announced by official Iranian sources. In violation of its international obligations, Iran continued to execute juvenile offenders in 2017. According to our report, at least five juvenile offenders were executed in 2017 in Iran. One of the juvenile offenders was reportedly sentenced to death for drug offences while the other four were sentenced to qisas for murder charges. Execution of juvenile offenders has continued in 2018 as at least three juvenile executions were reported in January alone this year. The Iranian authorities also carried out 31 executions in public spaces in front of hundreds of citizens, including children. As in previous years, the 2017 report examines the role of the Revolutionary Courts as a major source of arbitrariness and violations of due process within the Iranian judicial system. The Revolutionary Courts have been responsible for the vast majority of death sentences issued and carried out over the last 38 years in Iran. According to IHRs 2017 report, at least 254 executions in 2017 and more than 3,400 executions since 2010 have been based on death sentences issued by the Revolutionary Courts. The Revolutionary Courts are not transparent and Revolutionary Court judges are known for abusing their legal powers. Short trials, a lawyers lack of access to documents and sentences based on confessions extracted under torture are the hallmarks of the Revolutionary Courts. To launch the 2017 annual report on the death penalty in Iran, Iran Human Rights (IHR) and ECPM (Ensemble contre la peine de mort) call on Irans European dialogue partners to push for a moratorium on use of the death penalty and for major reforms in the countrys judicial system which does not meet minimum international standards. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: Besides monitoring implementation of the new Anti-narcotics law for death row drug offenders, the Iranian authorities and the international community must put abolition of the death penalty for all offenders under the age of 18 and an end to the practice of public executions at the top of their agenda. Moreover, a sustainable reduction in use of the death penalty is impossible as long as there is no due process. The Revolutionary Courts, which sentence hundreds of people to death every year, are among the key institutions responsible for Irans violations of due process and must be shut down. During the final days of 2017, Iran witnessed a widespread uprising which lasted more than two weeks. According to official sources, more than 4,000 people were arrested. On January 9, 2018, the Deputy Head of the Judiciary said in an interview with Fars News Agency that the rioters, riot leaders and those who organized and led the recent riots will be punished severely and they will receive the heaviest sentence. Several Iranian officials have echoed this in the past few weeks. IHR and ECPM are concerned about the safety of those arrested following the nationwide uprising and warn against a new wave of executions in Iran. ECPMs Executive Director, Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, said: the situation of human right defenders (lawyers and environmentalists) and the lack of transparency is symptomatic of use of the death penalty for political purpose in Iran. The situation of Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, in this area, is symptomatic of the fear of the regime for intellectuals, leaders, lawyers, professors. EU and every abolitionist democracies should always denounce this situation in every contact with iranian authorities | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde Naftogaz expects to recover from Russia $8 bln over assets seized in Crimea According to the holding's chief commercial officer, once Ukraine wins in court, the question will arise of physically taking this money from Russia. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Poroshenko speaks of tax amnesty The president urged experts to discuss whether it would be appropriate to adopt a relevant law. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter What do you think about our new website? Share your opinion No threat to gas transit via Ukraine: Gazprom CEO Miller predicts that the legal process of termination of gas supply and transit contracts with Ukraine could take up to two years. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Earlier this year, the White House deplored the human rights abuses imposed on the Iranian people by their government and pledged not to remain silent when Iranians rose up to peacefully protest against repression and corruption, as White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders made clear: The United States supports the Iranian people and we call on the regime to respect its citizens basic right to peacefully express their desire for change. America longs for the day when Iranians will take their rightful place alongside the free people of the world. Unfortunately, that day has not yet arrived. Tehrans chief prosecutor has announced that an unidentified Iranian woman, who removed her compulsory hijab in public in late December, was sentenced to 24 months in prison. The prosecutor said the woman was attempting to encourage corruption by the removal of the hijab in public. The woman was one of dozens arrested in Iran since December for publicly removing their hijabs in defiance of the law -- in a nationwide campaign that has alarmed authorities sensitive to any protest after the massive anti-government demonstrations that took place in Iran in December and January. As the protests against the compulsory hijab intensified at the beginning of February, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert expressed support for the Iranian people. We condemn the reported arrest of at least 29 individuals for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms by standing up against the compulsory hijab, she said in a statement. The United States remains steadfast in our support for the rights to freedom of religion, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. People should be free to choose the clothes they wear, and practice their faith as they desire. Depriving individuals of this choice undermines their autonomy and dignity. The announcement of the years-long sentence for the Iranian woman who removed her hijab in public came just one day before the observance of International Womens Day. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had a warning for those societies, which, like Iran, still deny women their human rights. Such conditions deprive individuals, families and communities of the contributions that empowered women can provide, he said. Governments that fail to treat women equally do not allow their societies to reach their full potential. And imprisoning courageous women engaged in peaceful protest is a travesty that must be decried. At least 49 die in plane crash At least 49 people died on Monday when a plane carrying 71 passengers and crew crashed on abnormal landing at Kathmandus Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA)the third deadliest aviation accident involving an international carrier in Nepal. An outspoken pro-reformist Iranian political analyst says he has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after being convicted of spreading propaganda against the Iranian establishment. In a short video posted online, Sadegh Zibakalam, a professor of political science at the University of Tehran, said he planned to appeal the sentence. Zibakalam said that, in addition to the jail term, he was given a two-year ban from all political and social media activity as well as publishing in print media. Zibakalam is known for his criticism of Iran's state policies and sensitive issues, such as Tehrans hostility toward Israel and the nuclear program. The judiciary-affiliated Mizan Online news agency reported on March 12 that Zibakalam was accused of giving interviews to foreign media deemed hostile by the authorities and "attempting to call into question the Islamic republic. Zibakalam told the news site Jamaran.ir on March 13 that he had been convicted after giving an interview to Germanys international broadcaster Deutsche Welle about the recent anti-establishment street protests that rocked Iran. Based on reporting by AFP and Jamaran.ir Iranian news websites have cited the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as saying that its forces have foiled a twin suicide attack in southeastern Iran, near Pakistan border. IRGC news website, Sepahnews said the assailants tried to attack an IRGCs border post on Sunday night, in city of Saravan, Sistan and Balouchestan province. One of the aggressors was using a truck loaded with explosives, while the other had a suicide belt, the IRGC affiliated news website reported. According to another IRGC-run website, Tasnim news agency, the IRGC Ground Forces Quds Base said in a statement, Two terrorists were killed in the incident and two members of Baseej forces serving in the military post were wounded. The IRGCs statement as said, One of the terrorists, who was wearing an explosive belt, got off the vehicle prior to its destruction and moved toward the military post and detonated the belt and killed himself. However, none of the websites have elaborated on the identity of the assailants or where they came from. Furthermore, no group has claimed responsibility for the thwarted attack, so far. Iranian security forces often claim killing, disarming or arresting armed elements but they rarely produce any evidence. The southern part of Sistan and Balouchestan, bordering Pakistan, has been the scene of frequent clashes between Sunni Baluch militants and the Islamic Republics forces. The Islamic Republics security forces also frequently clash with drug traffickers in the area, which is located on a major smuggling route for Afghan opium and heroin. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly accused Islamabad of standing idly by, ignoring the fact that Pakistan has been turned into a safe haven for armed groups to attack Iran. The claim about the attack preceded Foreign Minister Javad Zarif's trip to Pakistan on March 12 where he called for cooperation against "terrorism" between the two countries. Last April, ten Iranian border guards were killed by Sunni militants in a cross-border attack, Tasnim news agency reported at the time. The militant Sunni group Jaish al-Adl (the Army of Justice) claimed responsibility, the report said. Nearly two weeks later, the Chairman of the Islamic Republics Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS), the IRGC Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri implicitly threatened Islamabad by insisting that, if the attacks continued, Iranian forces would enter Pakistans territory to demolish Jaish al-Adle bases, there. Jaish al-Adl has carried out several attacks on Iranian forces with the aim of highlighting what they maintain is discrimination against Iranian Sunni Muslims and the Baluch ethnic group in the province. Iranian Parliament (Majles) has reinstated Roads-Transportation, and Labor ministers after a day-long impeachment session on Tuesday March 13. The MPs cast 152 votes to keep Abbas Akhundi in office against 92 votes that called for his dismissal. They also decided to keep Ali Rabii in office with 126 votes in his favor and 124 against. Although the overall result of the impeachment of the two ministers signals parliaments support for the Rouhani administration, the fact that his ministers had to go through an impeachment process, might cast a shadow of doubt on the future of ties between the administration and the Majles. In Rabiis case the slim edge indicates that the dissatisfaction leading to the impeachment attempt was not just a partisan issue. Many conservatives and reformists voted against him. It can also mean that Rabii has a rough road ahead as labor minister during the next three years. Criticism of Rabiis performance included ignoring workers rights, failure in running the pension funds as well as poor performance in the area of entrepreneurship. Rabii was also criticized for accidents involving an Aseman airline airplane and oil tanker Sanchi which belonged to the ministry of labor. During the impeachment session, Abolfazl Hasanbeigi, MP for Damghan, said that the labor ministry has $150 billion in assets at its disposal, which could have brought billions of tumans of profit during the past four years, but the pension fund is in deficit. He also criticized the minister for lack of profitability of the petrochemical plant and refineries that belong to labor ministry. Hossein Maqsudi, MP for Sabzevar, said that massive demonstrations in December and January could have been prevented if Rabii listened to the workers grievances, adding that President Rouhani should have fired RabiI for ignoring workers demands. Rabii did not address many of these questions in his defense statement, however, defending himself against critics, Rabii said that his ministry is tasked with implementing policies on eradication of poverty a plan that needs 20 years to come to fruition. Responding to the criticism of his poor performance in creating jobs leading to serious dissatisfaction that culminated in widespread protests in December 2017 and January 2018, Rabii contended that most protesters had a job, reported Mehr news agency. During Akhundis impeachment in the afternoon session of the Majles, MP Adl Hashemipour criticized Akhundi for not being accountable for accidents on the ground, in the sea, and in the air. How many catastrophes should happen before we know Akhundi lacks appropriate ministerial qualifications? Iranian agencies quoted Hashemipour as asking. Akhundi in his televised speech broadcast live on the state TV, apologized for the loss of lives in the plane crash near Yasuj, but did not offer convincing responses to questions about roads and housing for which he blamed chaotic bureaucracy. While tabling the motion for impeachment of Akhundi, MPs listed incapability to deal with the crises in the countrys transportation system, failing to supervise the air and land transport fleets, not implementing Majles plans about transportation, and lack of motivation to run the affairs of their ministries as some of the reasons for his impeachment. Akhundi was subjected to impeachment votes once in September 2016 and again in March 2017, but every time he managed to win the MPs vote of confidence. The motion for the impeachment of labor and road ministers was tabled on February 19, one day after an Iranian Aseman airliner crashed near Yasuj, killing all 65 passengers and crew members on board, and nearly a month after 32 technicians lost their lives as a result of the sinking of oil tanker Sanchi. The news of the agriculture ministers impeachment broke out only in early March. The impeachment of Agriculture Minister Mahmud Hojati is on the Majles agenda for Wednesday March 14. Eleven members of Iranian opposition groups accused of attacking mosques and public property have been sentenced to jail terms of up to six years, state news agency IRNA said Monday. Hassan Heidari, deputy prosecutor general of Khorasan Razavi province in northeast Iran, said the 11 defendants, including women, were also convicted of "propaganda against the system of the Islamic republic". Heidari also said that a 37-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man, who were previously married and got divorced, have been arrested on charges of setting fire to Al-Ghadir mosque in Mashhad, blasphemy and destruction of public property. The woman has been sentenced to 14 years in jail. Several of them were found guilty of having set fire to two mosques in the city of Masshad, IRNA said, adding that the rulings were subject to appeal. According to Iranian authorities, the accused form part of an opposition group called "Restart" which was established by Mohammad Hosseini, a onetime game show host on state television who has gone into exile. Restart has called upon people, especially the youth, to attack government owned centers, including banks, mosques, Hossainyehs and Baseejis barracks. (Baseejis are members of an IRGC force and mainly plainclothesmen deployed to suppress dissidents and protesters). In October, several banks in relatively affluent northern Tehran were targeted in nighttime attacks. The deputy prosecutor also said that some of the convicted individuals had contacts with the Peoples Mujahedin Khalq organization (MKO) abroad. At least 25 people were killed in a wave of social unrest that swept towns and cities across Iran between December 28 and January 1. US President Donald Trump has renewed the national emergency with respect to Iran for one more year, beyond March 15, 2018 according to a Presidential statement dated March 12. In his statement, Donald Trump referred to the nuclear deal between Iran, the P5+1 and the European Union and reiterated that while keeping up with the US commitments, his government is serious in its approach towards containment of the Iranian regime in so far as its regional policies, missile tests, human rights record and nuclear program are concerned. On January 16, 2016, Implementation Day under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the United States lifted nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, reads the presidential statement. Elsewhere in his statement, Mr. Trump echoed the official US policy: while maintaining Washingtons stance on lifting parts of sanctions against Tehran, the US keeps cautious in its policies dealing with Iran. Actions and policies of the Government of Iran, including its development of ballistic missiles, support for international terrorism, and human rights abuses continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States Though these measures constitute a significant change in our sanctions posture, comprehensive non-nuclear-related sanctions with respect to Iran remain in place, President Trump insisted. The national emergency with respect to Iran was declared on March 15, 1995. The order was announced to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of the Government of Iran. Ever since the first presidential order was issued in 1995, US administrations have consecutively renewed its stipulations. 23 years later, President Donald Trump now says he is convinced the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to pose threats against the United States, Actions and policies of the Government of Iran, including its development of ballistic missiles, support for international terrorism, and human rights abuses continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. The move is the latest in a series of measures by Washington aimed at dealing with one of the greatest diplomatic hurdles before Donald Trumps administration, to contain the regime in Iran while keeping up to Americas international commitments within the JCPOA. Thus far, the US has successfully tried to target the Iranian regime without violating the nuclear deal which President Trump has repeatedly criticized. In a later development, Trump told reporters that one of the reasons he replaced Rex Tillerson as secretary of state was their differing views on the Iran nuclear deal. He added that the new secretary, Mike Pompeo's views on Iran are more similar to his. Tehran, Iran, March 13 By Azad Hasanli, Kamyar Eghbalnejad Trend: Azerbaijan and Iran are planning to sign a credit agreement in late March to finance construction of the Rasht-Astara railway, Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, who is on a visit to Tehran, told reporters on March 13. The minister noted that the agreement will be signed during the visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, the railway construction is expected to be completed within three years. The minister stressed that the opening of the railway, which is part of the North-South international transport corridor, will allow to deliver goods from the West to the East and vice versa. "This will increase the economic potential of our countries and not only ours, but the entire region. Thus, Azerbaijan and Iran will contribute to ensuring security in the region," the minister added. Previously, it was reported that the cost of the loan agreement is $500 million. The North-South transport corridor is designed to connect northern Europe with India and South-East Asia. The route will also connect the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 89 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said March 13. 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, March 13 Trend: Tasks were fulfilled on deployment of Azerbaijani troops to the combat mission areas at night under the Exercise Directors decision as part of the Azerbaijani Army's large-scale drills, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said in a message March 13. During the night and in conditions of reduced visibility, the forces in a combined way carried out a battle-march on time, route and tasks assigned. In accordance with the plan approved by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev, the large-scale exercises with the participation of various military branches, formations and military units of Azerbaijani Army started on March 12. The exercises involve up to 25,000 military personnel, up to 250 tanks and other armored vehicles, up to 1,000 missiles and artillery systems of different calibers, multiple launch rocket systems and mortars, up to 50 army and front-line aviation. The exercises will last until March 17. Bodies of US-Bangla crash victims taken to TUTH for autopsy Bodies of all 49 passengers who were killed in the US-Bangla plane crash have been taken to the Maharajgunj-based Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in Kathmandu on Tuesday. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Maksim Tsurkov Trend: Peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the main goal of the OSCE, OSCE PA President George Tsereteli told reporters in Baku March 13. He said the OSCE is actively involved in the resolution of all conflicts in the region. Participation in the settlement and peaceful resolution of conflicts is one of the most important and priority tasks for the PA, and for the OSCE itself, he said. We openly declare that, unfortunately, there are shortcomings in many areas, and primarily in frozen conflicts. Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, we certainly support the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. 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, March 13 By Ali Mustafayev - Trend: Romania supports a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in full respect of the principles and norms of the international law, Member of Parliament of Romania, President of Azerbaijan-Romania Parliamentary Friendship Group Victor Paul Dobre told Trend. Our position on Nagorno-Karabakh has always been clear and consistent, in keeping with our assessment of the protracted conflicts. Beyond the tragic loss of lives and the human suffering, these conflicts seriously hinder the stability and the sustainable development of the countries directly affected. We will continue to support a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, said Dobre. He stressed that the resolution of the conflict must also include the respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty. We also support the OSCE Minsk Group as the format for finding such a long-lasting solution, said Dobre. 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. Details added (first version posted on 10:56) Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by President of the Parliament of Montenegro Ivan Brajovic. The head of state hailed the high level cooperation between Azerbaijan and Montenegro and stressed that regular reciprocal visits contribute to the strengthening of bilateral relations. President Aliyev noted that the two countries are actively cooperating within various international organizations, adding that inter-parliamentary ties also play a significant role in developing bilateral relations. Touching upon the economic cooperation, the head of state said there are good opportunities in the fields of trade and investment. President Ilham Aliyev emphasized that his visit to Montenegro as well as the visits of the Montenegrin president and prime minister to Azerbaijan played an important role in strengthening bilateral relations. The head of state expressed his confidence that Ivan Brajovics visit to Azerbaijan will be fruitful, adding that it creates a good opportunity for discussing prospects of bilateral relations. President of the Montenegrin Parliament Ivan Brajovic conveyed the greetings of the president and prime minister of Montenegro to the head of state. Praising the high level bilateral relations between Montenegro and Azerbaijan, Brajovic said his country is interested in strengthening cooperation with Azerbaijan. He said Montenegro supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, and backs the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of international law. Ivan Brajovic said he is pleased to participate in an international conference in Baku on the theme The role of parliamentarians in boosting economic co-operation and cultural ties along the Silk Road, organized by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Silk Road Support Group. The head of state thanked for the greetings of the president and prime minister of Montenegro and asked Ivan Brajovic to extend his greetings to the Montenegrin head of state and prime minister. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 Trend: There were no problems during the collection of signatures in connection with the presidential election in Azerbaijan, Ramil Huseynov, deputy chairman of the countrys Citizen and Development Party, who was also nominated for presidency, told Trend March 13. He added that the signature collection campaign has already been completed and documents for registration of the party's candidate Ali Aliyev have been submitted to the Central Election Commission (CEC). "During this period, we received positive answers to all our appeals to the CEC, Huseynov said, adding that there was no misunderstanding. Fifteen candidates have been nominated for the presidential election in Azerbaijan, scheduled for April 11. Seven candidates have been registered so far. The documents of other candidates are being considered. Moreover, 21 international observers and more than 22,000 local observers were registered to monitor the presidential election. Presidential election will be held in Azerbaijan on April 11. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: The US position with regard to Nagorno-Karabakh remains unchanged and the United States doesnt recognize the de-facto regime in Nagorno-Karabakh, nor does any other country, including Armenia, the US Embassy in Azerbaijan told Trend on March 13. The remark was made in connection with the visit of Bako Sahakyan, who claims to be the president of the illegal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, to the US and the event promoting the fictitious regime in the US Congress. "The United States supports the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair process and will continue to work toward a negotiated settlement based on the Helsinki Final Act principles of non-use of force, territorial integrity, and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples, the embassy added. Earlier, the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and received a note of protest, sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan to the US State Department. Meanwhile, Azerbaijans ambassador to the US, after a meeting in the State Department, presented the protest of Azerbaijan to the American side. According to Hikmat Hajiyev, Spokesman of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, the note said that getting an American visa on an Armenian passport and entering the US on the basis of unreliable information provided by Bako Sahakyan, a resident of the Khankendi city of Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region, permission to carry out activities that propagate an illegal separatist regime in relevant US institutions and aim at collecting finance in the United States in support of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, contradict the norms and principles of international law, the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, the bilateral documents signed between Azerbaijan and the United States, and the official position of the United States. This step of the US is regarded as an activity against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, he added. As a response to such behavior of the US, Azerbaijan will proceed from the principle of reciprocity in relations with the US, Hajiyev stressed. 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, March 13 Trend: Azerbaijani Defense Minister Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov visited one of the areas to observe the military exercises currently being conducted by Azerbaijans Armed Forces, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a message March 13. According to the message, the reports of commanders, deputy commanders, as well as other officials were read out and the tasks of using forces and equipment on the ground were clarified. Hasanov gave appropriate instructions in connection with the use of military equipment, ammunition, participation of personnel in the exercises, as well as the exact accomplishment of tasks and orders. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: Armenia completely isolated itself as a result of the aggression against Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani MP Bakhtiyar Aliyev told Trend March 13. Aliyev added that the Armenians created a mono-ethnic state, support terrorism and train terrorists in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. "Therefore, no international structure and neighboring state participate in joint projects with Armenia, he said. No one will cooperate with Armenia until it ceases to pursue an aggressive policy and withdraws its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories." He further said that Armenia is economically unattractive. "In the Soviet period, Armenia existed due to the budget of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), then - through financial assistance of others, he said. Presently, 75 percent of the economic potential of the South Caucasus accounts for Azerbaijan, so Armenias further fate depends on Azerbaijan. The faster the Armenians understand this, the better they can live. Armenia will not move forward till a fascist regime exists there." 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, March 13 Trend: Iran invested $3.1 billion in Azerbaijans economy, Azerbaijans Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev said at a meeting with Irans Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Masoud Karbasian in Tehran, according to the message of Azerbaijans Economy Ministry March 13. Mustafayev noted that over 700 companies with Iranian capital are registered in Azerbaijan, adding that they operate in the industry, construction, services, communications, trade, transport and agriculture spheres. Also, the International North-South Transport Corridor project, which is an important direction of the Azerbaijani-Iranian cooperation, is being implemented at high pace, he said. The minister said that as part of the International North-South Transport Corridor project, a 8.3-kilometer railway section is ready for operation in Azerbaijan, and a 1.4 kilometer railway section is ready for the operation in Iran, adding that a railway bridge over the Araz River has been built and test trains have already been launched. Mustafayev noted that it is planned to lay the foundation of the terminal in Irans Astara city and build warehouses for the storage of fruit and vegetable products. Discussions also continue to finance the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway, which is a part of the International North-South Transport Corridor, he said. The minister reminded that over 19,000 trucks passed through Azerbaijan from Russia to Iran and back in 2017. Shahin Mustafayev also noted that the number of tourists coming from Iran to Azerbaijan is growing every year and reached 363,000 people in 2017. Iranian citizens rank first among the foreigners who receive entry visas through the ASAN Viza system, he said. He also noted the importance of switching to the round-the-clock mode of operation of the Astara, Julfa and Bilasuvar border crossing points in terms of expansion of cooperation between the two countries. Azerbaijans Ambassador to Iran Bunyad Huseynov, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Javid Gurbanov and Economy Minister of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Famil Seyidov were present at the meeting as well. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Maksim Tsurkov Trend: Azerbaijan is an important member of the Silk Road Support Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), OSCE PA President George Tsereteli told reporters in Baku March 13. He said the OSCE PA has a big delegation from Azerbaijan, which makes good initiatives, including the development of a special group to support the Silk Road project. We see the first results of these efforts, which were supported by many members of the Parliamentary Assembly and by many delegations. Currently, 22 countries are members of this group. It is very important to speed up these projects, as these are ambitious and courageous initiatives. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey are developing a concrete and extremely important part of the Silk Way project the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, Tsereteli added. He noted that the link between cities and societies, which will be beneficial for the development of business and increase employment, is also important. Therefore, political support for projects that will bring prosperity and security to the region is very important, the OSCE PA president added. He also said Azerbaijan makes a significant contribution to these projects. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Ali Mustafayev Trend: Creation of a stable economic route is a common goal of the countries participating in the Silk Road, and Azerbaijan makes a great contribution to this route, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly George Tsereteli said. He made the remarks at the first conference of Silk Road Support Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) in Baku March 13. Economic projects are an integral part of OSCE activities. The situation in the world economy requires close cooperation of countries in order to counter the existing challenges, Tsereteli said. He noted that achieving economic prosperity requires cooperation between all participating countries of the route. Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is an ideal example of a corridor between east and west. Such projects are vital economic bridges between countries, the OSCE PA president added. Considering the fact that Azerbaijan is located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Baku initiated the creation of the Silk Road Support Group. The Silk Road Support Group faces the task of promoting transport corridors, facilitating trade and transport procedures, and free and safe movement of people, goods, services and investments. Cases filed against 26 stores, hospitals, schools The Department of Supply Management began legal proceedings against 26 apparel stores, hospitals and schools on the charge of cheating customers during the first eight months of the fiscal year. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Ali Mustafayev Trend: Azerbaijan is working to lure investments in development of new trade routes, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at the first conference of the Silk Road Support Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Baku March 13. In particular, Azerbaijan held negotiations with Deutsche Bahn and other companies from countries interested in these routes, Mammadyarov said. He noted that the development of international transport routes makes a significant contribution to the economic development of the OSCE region. Over the past few days, Azerbaijan has taken significant steps towards diversifying the economy, and in this respect, investments in transport corridors, in the view of the geographical location of Azerbaijan, are very important, the foreign minister said. The creation of Alat free trade zone and the development of the international sea trade port in Baku are also significant economic projects of Azerbaijan, according to the minister. He stressed that Azerbaijan is expanding its investment potential by creating favorable conditions for foreign investors, as well as developing priority non-energy areas for attracting investments. These steps are a part of the strategy of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. We commissioned the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway last year, which is a reliable and significant railway link for both Asia and Europe, Mammadyarov noted. Lapis Lazuli, which will become another link between the West and East, is also a significant transport link with Azerbaijans participation, the minister said. The Silk Road route will serve as an important momentum for economic development of not only Azerbaijan, but all countries participating in the route, Mammadyarov added. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Ali Mustafayev - Trend: Montenegro will provide real support for the development of the Silk Road, President of the Parliament of Montenegro Ivan Brajovic said March 13 in Baku. He was speaking at the international conference of the Silk Road Support Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Montenegro will work to provide favorable conditions for the participants of the route, Brajovic said. The conference, being held in Azerbaijan, will not pursue virtual goals, and the sides of the Silk Road project will see the results of cooperation soon, he added. In 2013, China announced "One Belt, One Road" initiative aimed at creating infrastructure and establishing links among the countries of Eurasia. The strategy includes two key areas of development: the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road. The strategy envisages creation of a trade corridor for direct supplies of goods from the east to the west on preferential terms. Title changed, details added (first version posted on 13:41) Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Ilkin Shafiyev Trend: This year, five more enterprises will begin to operate in Azerbaijans Balakhani Industrial Park, Chairman of the Board of Tamiz Shahar JSC Etibar Abbasov said at a press conference in Baku March 13. These enterprises will process polyethylene, cooking oil and waste, plastic, paper, as well as produce activated carbon and electrical tapes, he added. To date, five enterprises are already operating in the industrial park. The Balakhani Industrial Park was created upon Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs decree dated December 28, 2011. Tamiz Shahar JSC is the management company. To date, 10 residents, namely, Ekokat, Az.Ekol, METAK, Foriella, Bioropean, Altura Group, Alphapack Azerbaijan, Carboza, individual entrepreneurs Etibar Eminov, Tarlan Azimov, have been registered. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Ali Mustafayev - Trend: The cooperation between Azerbaijan and China within the Silk Road project, as well as the "One Belt, One Road" initiative is an important factor in increasing the flow of cargo from China to Europe, Chinese Ambassador to Azerbaijan Wei Jinghua said in Baku on March 13. He was speaking at the international conference of the Silk Road Support Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. "Azerbaijan plays an important role in the development of international routes, including linking China with European countries and playing the role of not only a bridge between the West and the East, but also being a direct participant in these projects of international significance. China expresses its gratitude to Azerbaijan and all member countries of the Silk Road for cooperation," the ambassador said. He also noted that these projects will significantly expand China's economic cooperation with the countries of Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Europe. "The routes supported by China will bring economic benefits to at least 80 more countries," Jinghua said. In 2013, China announced "One Belt, One Road" initiative aimed at creating infrastructure and establishing links among the countries of Eurasia. The strategy includes two key areas of development: the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road. The strategy envisages creation of a trade corridor for direct supplies of goods from the east to the west on preferential terms. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Maksim Tsurkov Trend: TRACECA offers close mutually beneficial cooperation to the Silk Road Project Support Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, TRACECA Secretary General Mircea Ciopraga said in Baku on March 13. He was speaking at the international conference of the Silk Road Support Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. He said that the Silk Road Project Support Group of the OSCE PA will contribute to the development of opportunities for transport corridors, trade facilitation and transit procedures, and will help to ensure the free and safe movement of people, goods and investments. "The basis of partnership for all parties is to gain mutual benefit from teamwork, and active involvement in high-level international events, where there is room for exchange of experience and knowledge gained by our countries participating in the TRACECA corridor is very important. In this regard, TRACECA offers a close mutually beneficial cooperation to the Silk Road Project Support Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly," Ciopraga said. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Azad Hasanli, Kamyar Eghbalnejad Trend: Iran will run one of the private hospitals in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijans Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev told reporters in Tehran March 13. We are developing cooperation with Iran in the field of healthcare and we are planning to transfer one of the private hospitals in Baku to the management of Iranian doctors, the minister said. I am confident that the implementation of this project will be completed in the near future. He also reminded that Azerbaijan and Iran actively cooperate in other spheres as well. We have very good ties in the agriculture sphere, he noted. We want to create conditions for the Iranian side to set up production of buses and agricultural machinery in Azerbaijan. The minister added that other spheres of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran include tourism, education and culture. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 13 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: A resolution has been unanimously adopted on supporting international efforts to assist Afghanistan at the next meeting of the UN Security Council, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said in his message on this issue. In this document the UN Security Council, a special role is assigned to the measures being implemented to revive the socio-economic infrastructure of Afghanistan. The Security Council, on the basis of the initiatives put forward, supported the efforts to strengthen economic cooperation in the region and urged all countries to undertake the necessary work in this direction. The Agreement on the establishment of the transit, trade and transport corridor Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey (Lapis Lazuli) is among these initiatives. In November 2017, the Turkmen parliament ratified this agreement, which had been signed in Ashgabat by foreign ministry officials of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. It is expected that the railways and motorways will connect the city of Turgundi in the Afghan province of Herat with Ashgabat, and then with the Caspian port of Turkmenbashi. The corridor will run until Baku, then through Tbilisi to Ankara with branches to Poti and Batumi, and further from Ankara to Istanbul. The projects budget, which is aimed at facilitating transit logistics and simplifying customs procedures, is estimated at $2 billion. The project is designed to increase the economic integration of the region and the volume of trade. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Gulgiz Muradova - Trend: During the recent period, bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Moldova have been developing dynamically in all areas of cooperation, Moldovan Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Tudor Ulianovschi said in an interview with Trend. He noted that throughout the last two years, significant positive trends in economic cooperation, including commercial exchanges were registered. "For instance, the turnover between the two countries in 2016 increased by 39 percent compared to 2015 and by 41 percent in 2017 compared to 2016. In spite of this, we believe that the economic and commercial potential does not match the excellent level of relations between our two countries and still remains quite high, especially in some priority areas," Ulianovschi said. The minister stressed that Moldova supports the strengthening of bilateral cooperation in the economic, trade and investment fields. "We are confident that through the Inter-Governmental Joint Commission on economic cooperation and the Business Forum, to be held in the near future in Baku, we will further capitalize on the existing potential cooperation in areas such as agriculture, energy, industry, transport, tourism and other priority areas, to the mutual benefit of our countries," Ulianovschi said. He noted that several high level visits planned to take place during the current year will also be of special importance for this process and further enhancement of political and economic cooperation between the two countries. According to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, the trade turnover with Moldova in January-February 2018 amounted to $1.17 million, which is 12.5 percent more than the same period of 2017. -- Follow the author on Twitter: @GulgizD Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Maksim Tsurkov- Trend: Azerbaijan's investments in the development of railways will be about $5 billion in 2010-2022, Deputy Head of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Hijran Valehov said at the first conference of the Silk Road Support Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Baku March 13. He noted that the freight turnover between the European Union and China is forecast to double by 2030. "Azerbaijan needs to do certain work, particularly, develop the country's railways with a view not to stay away from these processes. Huge work has already been done: the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was launched, the North-South project, which will connect the Persian Gulf, Russia and Northern Europe through Azerbaijan, is being realized. In general, it was planned to invest over $4,879 billion into the development of the railway infrastructure from 2010 to 2022. Part of this fund has already been invested, while the rest will be invested until 2022, " he said. Particularly, he noted that bulk of the funds has been spent on reconstruction and electrification of the railway routes, overhaul of the Baku-Beyuk-Kesik railway section, renovation of the fleet of carriages, purchase of passenger and freight locomotives. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Anvar Mammadov Trend: Azerbaijan is interested in expanding cooperation with India in several spheres, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Firdovsi Aliyev said. Aliyev made the remarks at the Azerbaijani-Indian business forum in Baku. He added that one of the priority spheres of cooperation between the two countries is cargo transportation. Indian cargoes are mainly delivered to Europe by sea via the Suez Canal, he said. In this regard, the International NorthSouth Transport Corridor project being implemented by Azerbaijan jointly with neighboring states will allow transporting cargo from India by land, which will significantly shorten the time and cost of the transportation. We hope that the implementation of this project will give impetus to the development of relations between Azerbaijan and India in the field of cargo transportation. Other promising areas for cooperation are tourism and pharmaceuticals, he noted. We are in talks for the creation of direct regular and charter flights between our countries, he said. I believe that this will make it possible to increase the tourist low from India to Azerbaijan and vice versa. It is also important to develop cooperation between the two countries in the field of pharmaceuticals. Several pharmaceutical plants are being created in Azerbaijan. It will be interesting for India with its rich history of pharmacy to invest in this sphere. The International North-South Transport Corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. At an initial stage, it is planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo per year through the corridor and over 10 million tons of cargo in the future. China wishes Mahara for his election as speaker Chairman of the Standing Committee of Chinas National Peoples Congress, Zhang Dejiang, has congratulated Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara on his election to the post. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Anvar Mammadov - Trend: Global trade tensions helped trigger a broad-based retreat across key commodities, Ole Hansen, head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, told Trend. The risk of an escalating tit-for-tat trade war could hurt global growth forecasts and subsequently, demand for raw materials, he said. He noted that oil drifted lower as the focus turned to rising supply. Crude oil traded near the lower end of the range that has emerged since January, he added. While receiving a great deal of directional input from the ebbs and flows of the stock market, a continued elevated bullish sentiment among speculative traders is being supported by robust global demand, he said. However, crude is simultaneously challenged by rising non-Opec supply and now also the aforementioned trade tensions. Strong non-Opec oil production growth looks set to challenge Opec and Russia's ability to maintain price stability, at least in the short term, he added. In its latest Short Term Energy Outlook the Energy Information Administration sees US oil production averaging 10.7 million barrels/day in 2018, an increase of 1.4 million b/d from 2017. The IEA added to the unease when it said in its Oil 2018 report that production growth from the United States, Brazil, Canada, and Norway would more than meet global oil demand growth through 2020. The EIA continues to raise 2018 non-Opec supply growth while keeping demand growth steady, he said, adding that monthly reports from Opec and IEA are due this coming week on March 14 and 15. Given the recent resilience among speculative investors, they are unlikely to worry about a deeper correction as long as prices stay above $61/barrel on Brent crude oil and $57.50/b on WTI crude, he said. These levels represent the 38.2% correction of the June-January rally and while above the current price action, will be viewed only as a weak correction within a strong uptrend. For now WTI crude oil has settled into a $60 to $65/b range with outside market events providing most of the input for daily price swings, he noted. A close below $60/b carries the risk of an extension to the mentioned key level at $57.50/b. Tehran, Iran, March 13 By Azad Hasanli, Kamyar Eghbalnejad Trend: Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia are considering the possibility of creating a joint energy corridor, Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, who is on a visit to Tehran, told reporters on March 13. He said that representatives of the three countries are conducting relevant talks. "We have a successful cooperation [with Iran] in the energy sector. We are moving from the cooperation in a bilateral format to a trilateral format - Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan," the minister said. Mustafayev further noted that Azerbaijan and Iran intend to cooperate in the sphere of oil and gas production in the Caspian Sea. Earlier the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry announced about the possibility of creating an energy corridor "North-South" on a par with the transport corridor of the same name. "Both countries are working hard in the transport sector. The North-South corridor is being established -- not only transport, but also energy corridor. It envisages the export of electricity from Russia to Azerbaijan and further to Iran. A special working group has been established in this regard. The energy ministers of three countries are working on this issue," the ministry said in a message. Brussels, Belgium, March 13 By Leman Zeynalova - Trend: Azerbaijan has a very important role to play in ensuring connectivity, Luc Devigne, Deputy Managing Director at the European External Action Service (EEAS), told Trend on the sidelines of the event dedicated to the launch of new institutional set-up of Eastern Partnership initiative in Brussels, Belgium. "Azerbaijan helps to connect Europe with Caspian Sea region, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and further China. Obviously, Azerbaijan is very important in this context. It is good that Azerbaijan develops its hub role," he said. Moreover, Devigne touched upon Azerbaijans role in ensuring Europes energy security and emphasized the significance of the Southern Gas Corridor. "We are very positive about this project, and we are very much supporting this project. European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic has recently attended the Southern Gas Corridor ministerial meeting. During the discussions, he reiterated that we are fully supporting this project," he said. Devigne noted that it would be even better for Azerbaijan if it takes international standards, some European standards and joins the World Trade Organization (WTO). "Joining the WTO will provide international regulatory framework, and companies will know what kind of minimum standards they would meet in Azerbaijan. Thats for Azerbaijani leadership to decide, but we stand ready to help Azerbaijan to join WTO, because it is good for Azerbaijan, good for WTO and good for us," he concluded. The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. At an initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage. As part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Huseyn Valiyev - Trend: The launch of Azerspace-2, the second telecommunications satellite of Azerbaijan, is scheduled for April 30 this year, a source familiar with the project told Trend. The satellite will be launched from the Guiana Space Centre using the Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle. French company Arianespace, which earlier launched Azerbaijan's first satellite Azerspace/Africasat-1a, will send the Azerspace-2/Intelsat-38 into the orbit. Azerspace-2/Intelsat-38 will be placed in a geostationary orbit 45 degrees east longitude. The zone of its service will include the countries of Europe, Central and South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The satellite's manufacturer is Space Systems Loral (SSL), which is also a provider of satellite control systems. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 13 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to pay an official visit to Turkmenistan, the Turkmen government said in a message. During a phone talk with Vladimir Putin, Berdimuhamedov expressed hope that on March 18, at the presidential election, the people of the Russian Federation will make the right choice. The two presidents expressed satisfaction with the opportunity to discuss the priority issues of the Turkmen-Russian relations, which are being built on an equal footing and developing on the principles of mutual respect, long-term and strategic partnership, the message said. The presidents of Turkmenistan and Russia specified the key areas of bilateral cooperation, including in the trade and economic sphere. The sides also exchanged views on a number of topical issues of mutual interest on the regional and global agenda. At the same time, both countries reaffirmed their readiness to strengthen effective cooperation as part of authoritative international organizations and structures that meets the goals of universal peace and well-being, the message noted. The strategic partnership agreement between Turkmenistan and Russia was signed following Russian President Vladimir Putins official visit to Ashgabat in early October 2017. The two countries also outlined an action plan for the development of economic partnership. Turkmenistan also confirmed readiness to increase supplies of its agricultural products and textiles to Russia. The priority areas of cooperation between two countries are banking-financial sector, support for export-import operations and joint foreign economic projects. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 13 By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend: An exhibition and conference timed to the 10th anniversary of establishment of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan will be held March 17-18, Altyn Asyr TV channel reported. The businessmen working in such spheres as industry, agriculture, construction and building materials, processing industry, food industry, transport, logistics, tourism, education, trade and services, will present their achievements. The Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs founded the Rysgal joint-stock commercial bank, an entrepreneurship school and a newspaper. Cooperation agreements have been recently signed between the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and business associations of Russia, Austria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 13 By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend: The 13th meeting of the joint Turkmen-Iranian intergovernmental commission on consular, border and customs issues is being held in Ashgabat, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message March 13. According to the message, heads and representatives of the corresponding ministries and law enforcement agencies of the two neighboring countries are taking part in the meeting. The sides stressed the importance of development of border and customs infrastructure with the aim of increasing the volume of trade turnover between the two countries, as well as development of trade and economic relations. The sides also talked about the need to exchange information on combating smuggling, illicit traffic in drugs, common threats and challenges. Iran is the third most important foreign trade partner of Turkmenistan. The two countries focus on intensifying joint activity in the transport and transit sector, road construction, power engineering and gas sector. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Special representative of the Uzbek president on Afghanistan Ismatulla Irgashev commenced an official visit to the UAE and Saudi Arabia on March 12, the press office of the Uzbek Foreign Ministry announced. According to the information, the sides are going to discuss actual topics of bilateral relations, as well as some practical aspects of preparation to the high-level international conference on Afghanistan Peace Process, Cooperation in Security and Regional Interaction in Tashkent on March 26-27. The conference participants are expected to express a consolidated position at regional and global levels on necessity of starting direct negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban movement without any preconditions as soon as possible. The conference will be summed up by Tashkent Declaration, which will reflect the main points of the discussion. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Uzbek and Tajik citizens are not allowed to cross the interstate border without a visa, because the corresponding agreement between the two countries hasnt come into force yet and has to be ratified first, the TajikTA state news agency reported citing the Uzbek Foreign Ministry. Many citizens of both countries came to the border checkpoints, willing to visit the neighboring state, after the intergovernmental agreement On mutual visits of residents of two states had been signed during the official visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Tajikistan. Indeed, the aforementioned agreement signed in Dushanbe on March 9 provides for admission of citizens of the two countries to each others territory without visa during a month. But the agreement has to be ratified by the parliament of both countries first. It will come into force only after an official exchange of the ratification documents, a source in the Tajik Foreign Ministry told the Tajik agency. The ratification and the documents exchange, according to the source, will be carried out in a month, although the agreement mentions that the sides will prepare required documents in three months. For now, the citizens are allowed to stay on another countrys territory for no more than 5 days. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Khalid Kazimov Trend: Irans southwestern province of Khouzestan and Turkish holding of GAMA have inked an MoU for cooperation on a petrochemical project in Izeh Town. Under the agreement, the Turkish company will put about $1.05 billion of investment in a project for creating a petrochemical plant in Izeh Town, IRNA news agency reported. The project is expected to cost about $1.2 billion in total and create about 10,000 job opportunities in future, the report added. Iranian petrochemical plants produced 49 million tons of petrochemical products during the first 11 months of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 20, 2017-Feb. 20). The output of Irans 51 petrochemical complexes registered an increase of 106 percent year-on-year. The countrys petrochemical exports reached 20 million tons in the period, 108 percent more compared to the same period of the preceding year. Four SC benches yet to begin hearing Four Supreme Court benches have not begun hearing despite various cases being assigned in the cause list on Tuesday. Tehran, Iran, March 13 By Kamyar Eghbalnejad Trend: Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Masoud Karbasian has said that talks are underway with Azerbaijan to conclude a preferential trade agreement between the two countries. Speaking on the sidelines of the 12th meeting of joint economic cooperation commission of the two countries, the minister told reporters that the sides are engaged in talks to expand cooperation in various fields, including banking and transportation as well as energy, water, environment and agriculture. Karbasian earlier in the day said the two countries are planning to finalize 12 documents on cooperation within the framework of the 12th meeting of joint economic cooperation commission. An Azerbaijani delegation led by the economy minister and co-chairman of the State Commission for Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran in the economic, trade and humanitarian spheres, Shahin Mustafayev, has arrived in Tehran on a two-day visit. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Khalid Kazimov Trend: Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has expressed hopes that his county and Azerbaijan will finalize an agreement for expansion of cooperation in the oil sector in the near future. Speaking at a meeting with the visiting Azerbaijani economy minister, Shahin Mustafayev, the Iranian oil minister described the ongoing talks between the two countries in the oil sector as positive, IRNA news agency reported. He further forecasted that the sides would reach the agreement during President Hassan Rouhanis expected visit to Baku in late March. The minister also added that the National Iranian Oil Company has put cooperation with State-oil company of Azerbaijan, SOCAR, under international regulations. An Azerbaijani delegation led by the economy minister and co-chairman of the State Commission for Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran in the economic, trade and humanitarian spheres, Shahin Mustafayev, has arrived in Tehran on a two-day visit. Tehran, Iran, March 13 By Kamyar Eghbalnejad Trend: President Hassan Rouhani has described the will of governments and nations of Iran and Azerbaijan in the expansion of bilateral ties and cooperation as significant. Speaking at a meeting with the visiting Azerbaijani economy minister, Shahin Mustafayev, on Tuesday, the Iranian president praised the efforts made by the ambassadors and officials of the two countries at the joint economic cooperation commission to expand ties, the official news website of Iranian president reported. Pointing to an official invitation by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to visit Baku in the near future, Rouhani expressed hope that the upcoming visit would deepen ties, cooperation and friendship between the two countries. President Rouhani called for strengthening bilateral ties and said Iran and Azerbaijan have never posed any threats to each other and will never do so. The president further touched upon existing cooperation between the two countries and said the sides have established proper ties in the fields of industry, pharmaceutical, automotive, agriculture and tourism. The sides have also taken proper steps in other sectors including transit and the Caspian Sea, he added. Elaborating on cooperation between the two countries in transportation, he added that the two countries are capable of turning into a major route for connecting Asia and Africa to northern Europe. The Iranian president also called for the continuation of cooperation and discussions between officials from the two countries concerning the legal status of the Caspian Sea and also planning for organizing economic cooperation in the Caspian region. In Turn, Shahin Mustafayev said that the volume of investment and trade turnover between the two countries in the recent years has considerably grown. The Azerbaijani minister also touched upon President Rouhani's expected visit to Baku and said the visit will accelerate ties and cooperation between the neighboring nations. An Azerbaijani delegation led by the economy minister and co-chairman of the State Commission for Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran in the economic, trade and humanitarian spheres, Shahin Mustafayev, has arrived in Tehran on a two-day visit. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Azer Ahmadbayli Trend: Yesterday the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert ekuta was summoned to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, where he was given a note of protest addressed to the US State Department due to the visit of the so-called president of Nagorno-Karabakh Bako Sahakyan to the US and his participation in the event held in the US Congress administrative building to promote the separatist regime. Also, Sahakyan is going to collect funds in the US to support the occupation of Azerbaijani lands. Every day, 18-year-old Armenian boys die on the line of contact, while their mothers in Armenia are told their sons died from careless handling of weapons. The Armenian authorities are afraid of the new rallies of mothers calling for an end to this 30-year massacre. After the four-day April clashes of 2016, it became clear to many that there was a psychological turning point in this conflict. Armenians looked demoralized and frightened. All interviews with their military and politicians that they were able to successfully confront the enemy, were unconvincing, as they lost part of their controlled territory, as well as suffered serious losses in manpower and equipment. But Armenians have a powerful weapon the Armenian Diaspora, which appeared in Europe and America more than a hundred years ago. Diaspora is an iceberg, only the tip of which is visible represented by Charles Aznavour and Kim Kardashian, while the rest is hidden from prying eyes, and the American congressmen better not face that "rest". Freemasons or Illuminati are just little boys compared to Armenian Spyurk. Don't believe me? Ask CIA. The diaspora has enough funds to bribe some congressmen or media. But today, it is all it can do. I would like to remind its leaders that the main events will not take place in the US Congress or headlines of bribed newspapers, but in the trenches in Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has been going on for almost 30 years. United States, together with the rest of the Minsk Group co-chairs, allegedly have been making great efforts to, as they say, bring peace and prosperity to the region of South Caucasus. But as an old sailor once said: now I understand that for thirty years I have been ploughing the waves of soup. In order not to wait another thirty years and instead of welcoming marginal figures from non-existing states within the precincts of Congress, Washington could make a step that doesnt require a difficult choice simply call on Armenia to follow the international law, namely, to adhere to four well-known UN resolutions to withdraw Armenian military troops from the occupied territories of the Azerbaijan Republic. In the end, despite its trade with loyalty and its tremendous efforts and huge sums of money invested to create the project of "great Armenia", Armenian card will be surely off the table. However, there is still time to make necessary adjustments. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkey condemns the armed attack on the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on March 13. The Foreign Ministry noted that Turkey also calls on Palestinians to act in unity and solidarity against this provocative attack. An explosion hit the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah upon his entrance into the Gaza Strip on March 13. The explosive device detonated shortly after the PM's convoy passed through the Erez checkpoint, in the West Bank, to the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas. Reportedly, the police in the Gaza Strip had detained several suspects in the attack against the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu An explosion occurred on a Gaza road shortly after a convoy carrying Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah passed by on Tuesday, a border official said, but live television showed he was unhurt and attending a scheduled event, Reuters reports. The cause of the blast was not immediately known. Hamadallah, who is based in the West Bank, traveled to Gaza for the inauguration of a waste treatment plant. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Despite all the attempts by PYD and YPG terrorists to prevent civilians from leaving the Afrin districts center, most of them managed to leave Afrin, the Turkish media reported March 13. Reportedly, civilians are leaving through a corridor in southern Afrin, created by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Free Syrian Army. 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, March 13 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Ankara and Baghdad have agreed on a joint fight against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said, Turkish media reported March 13. He noted that PKK is a threat not only for Turkey, but also for the neighboring countries. However, Bozdag didnt mention the exact date of the beginning of military operations in northern Iraq. Previously, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey and Iraq will begin a joint military operation against PKK in May this year. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has continued for more than 30 years and has claimed more than 40,000 lives. The UN and the European Union list the PKK as a terrorist organization. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Since the beginning of the Operation Olive Branch, 3,393 terrorists have been killed in Syrias Afrin, the Turkish General Staff said in a message March 13. In particular, 46 terrorists have been recently killed in Afrin. 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, March 13 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: If the US keeps its promises regarding the PYD and YPG terrorists leaving Syrias Manbij, this will have a very positive impact on relations between Ankara and Washington, the Turkish media quoted the countrys Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying March 13. The Turkish minister noted that on March 19, Turkey and the US will discuss the issue of Syrias Manbij. According to Cavusoglu, if the PYD terrorists leave Manbij, the Turkish Armed Forces and the US will provide stability in this area. Earlier, Ankara demanded from the US to provide guarantees that the PYD and YPG terrorists will leave Manbij. Turkish Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army have completely encircled today the center of Syrias Afrin district. 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 Friends and relatives of murdered man demand probe Friends and relatives of Sanam Shakya, whose murdered body was recovered in a car boot in Biratnagar on March 3, have demanded a probe into the incident. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: The Turkish Armed Forces have left a corridor for safe exit of civilians from the center of the Syrian Afrin district, Turkish media reported on March 13 referring to military sources. Reportedly, the corridor will be open for a few days. The Turkish Armed Forces and the Free Syrian Army are preparing for military operations to liberate the settlement of Mabatly in north-west Africa, according to media. Today, the General Staff of Turkey has announced about complete surrender of Afrin by the Turkish Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army. On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria. Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced that about 8,000-10,000 PYD/YPG terrorists are supposed to be hiding in Afrin. Turkey began drawing its military to the Syrian border from late June 2017. The forces were being concentrated in Turkish Kilis Province bordering Syrian territory controlled by YPG/PYD. On Aug. 24, 2016, Turkish Armed Forces, with the support of the Syrian opposition, launched the Euphrates Shield Operation against the IS militants and liberated the city of Jarabulus as well as the city of Al-Bab in northern Syria. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, who came to the Russian capital on Tuesday, plan to discuss the possible easing of the visa regime for the two countries citizens, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Tuesday, TASS reports. "There are plans to discuss prospects of simplifying the visa regime for the two countries citizens regarding the need to provide national security," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We confirm the need to liberalize the visa regime for some categories of citizens. That said, the Russian side expects to boost the effectiveness of cooperation of the corresponding agencies of the two countries in the fight against international terrorism and organized criminality." The negotiations with Lavrov on March 14 will dominate Cavusoglus program. The sides plan to discuss their positions on major issues of the bilateral agenda, analyze the implementation of the agreements reached by the Russian and Turkish presidents and study the implementation of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and Turkish Stream gas pipeline projects. In addition to that, Cavusoglu will take part in the sixth meeting of the Joint Group for Strategic Planning chaired by the two countries foreign ministers. The Turkish minister plans to discuss preparations for a top-level meeting of the Council of Cooperation. He will also take part in the Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition (MIIT). Turkey will not use the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems in Syria or other countries, but only to protect its territory, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday in his speech at the Russian Foreign Ministrys MGIMO university, TASS reports. "We cannot use it [the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system] during Operation Olive Branch or similar operations, because we can use it only to protect our territories," he said. "The S-400 will be used only to protect our civilian population on the territory of our country," Cavusoglu stressed, In November 2016, the negotiations between Russia and Turkey on the purchase of S-400s became known. The Russian side confirmed the signing of the contract on September 12, 2017; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reported at the same time that advance payment had been made for the contract. Turkey will become the first NATO member state that will receive S-400s from Russia, but the number of the systems to be supplied was not specified. On Monday, Russian Presidential Aide for Military-Technical Cooperation Vladimir Kozhin reported that the contract for delivery of S-400 systems to Turkey would be launched in early 2020. On January 20, the Turkish General Staff declared the start of Operation Olive Branch against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (part of the Syrian Democratic Forces armed coalition) and the Democratic Union Party in Syrias Afrin inhabited by about 1.5 mln Kurds and refugees from other Syrian regions. Ankara recognizes these organizations as terrorist ones. The European Unions executive is due to approve a further 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) in funding for Syrian refugees living in Turkey, EU officials said, before a meeting with President Tayyip Erdogan later this month, Reuters reports. Europes relations with Erdogan have been fraught in recent years but the EU depends on Turkey to keep a tight lid on immigration from the Middle East, where the war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands and pushed millions from homes. Top EU officials will meet Erdogan on March 26 in the Bulgarian city of Varna despite misgivings among many on the European side. The blocs top migration official Dimitris Avramopoulos will announce on Wednesday that the European Commission proposes the extra funding on projects benefiting Syrian refugees in Turkey, the sources told Reuters. Turkey has accepted 3.5 million refugees from Syria, and the EU is already spending a first 3 billion euro installment to help them. Over a million more refugees and migrants reached the EU in 2015, most of them flowing through Turkey. Brussels agreed to pay to help host migrants on the Turkish soil in exchange for Ankara preventing more from trying to cross the Aegean to Greece. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkey's Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli visited the Turkish military base in Qatar, the defense ministry said on March 13. The minister also held a meeting with the leadership of the military base, the ministry added. In 2017, Turkey approved a Law on ratification of the agreement between Turkey and Qatar on deployment of a Turkish military contingent in Qatar. The military agreement between Qatar and Turkey came into force on June 9, 2017. The corresponding document was signed on Nov.10, 2016 in Ankara. In January-February 2018, Turkey exported defense products worth $ 7.9 million to Qatar. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Not a single terrorist will be left in north of Syria, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish media reported on March 13. Erdogan said that the liberation of the center of Syria's Afrin district is a matter of time. The president also said that 3,400 terrorists were killed during the Operation Olive Branch since its launch. Today, the General Staff of Turkey has announced about complete surrender of Afrin by the Turkish Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army. On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria. Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced that about 8,000-10,000 PYD/YPG terrorists are supposed to be hiding in Afrin. Turkey began drawing its military to the Syrian border from late June 2017. The forces were being concentrated in Turkish Kilis Province bordering Syrian territory controlled by YPG/PYD. On Aug. 24, 2016, Turkish Armed Forces, with the support of the Syrian opposition, launched the Euphrates Shield Operation against the IS militants and liberated the city of Jarabulus as well as the city of Al-Bab in northern Syria. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was ousted Tuesday after months of strained relations with President Donald Trump, who sometimes used tweets to disparage the former Exxon Mobil CEOs efforts at international diplomacy, Bloomberg reports. Trump said he is nominating CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson. "I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State, Trump said in a statement. As Director of the CIA, Mike has earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community, Trump said. I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture. He will continue our program of restoring Americas standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. President Trump, speaking to reporters before leaving for California, said he and Rex Tillerson "got along well," but they had different opinions on some issues, CNN reports. One of those issues is the Iran deal, which Trump said is terrible. "We were not really thinking the same," Trump said. "Pompeo and I have a similar thought process," he added. Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who started a whistleblowing nightmare for Americas government, reacted with swift outrage to President Donald Trumps pick for Mike Pompeos CIA replacement, The Washington Times reports. On Twitter, Snowden wrote of Gina Haspel: The new CIA director was a key part of the torture program and its illegal cover-up. Her name was on the Top Secret order demanding the destruction of tapes to prevent them being seen by Congress. Incredible. In other words: Snowden doesnt approve. Snowden fled America a few years ago, after releasing sensitive and classified information about the federal governments surveillance programs. Hes since been living in Russia, with extradition protection. KYODO NEWS - Mar 13, 2018 - 19:32 | World, All The Japanese government plans to explore the possibility of a summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as it considers adopting a new way of dealing with the North, government sources said Tuesday. The decision came after Abe and other officials were briefed by Suh Hoon, one of the South Korean envoys who spoke with Kim in breakthrough talks in Pyongyang last week. While the Abe administration has long advocated a cautious stance in holding dialogue with North Korea, it now anticipates there is a fresh chance to make progress toward resolving the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, the sources said. "If we're to resolve the abduction issue, direct dialogue with the top -- Mr. Kim Jong Un -- is essential," a source at Abe's office said. A high-ranking government official also expressed expectations for a Tokyo-Pyongyang summit. "The issues of (North Korea's) nuclear and missile will be discussed at a summit between the United States and North Korea. Japan and North Korea can discuss (at a summit) the abduction issue and the normalization of bilateral ties," the official told reporters. The last time Japanese and North Korean leaders met was in 2004, when then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met Kim's father Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. South Korean President Moon Jae In and U.S. President Donald Trump have already decided to hold summit meetings with Kim in the coming months as a result of the Pyongyang talks. Abe plans to visit the United States early next month and meet Trump to coordinate their North Korea policies ahead of what will be the first-ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. "In the event that we do hold (a summit with North Korea), we will need to watch the actions of both the United States and South Korea, and look for an effective time," a government source said. "Everything starts from here on," a senior Foreign Ministry official told reporters. The Foreign Ministry already has its eyes on the resumption of dialogue with North Korea, having decided on a plan to spread the message that Japan is aiming to normalize ties with the North, not just demand an end to its nuclear and missile development and a resolution to the abduction issue. Asked whether the government will aim for a summit with North Korea, its top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference on Tuesday that Japan will "consider our forthcoming actions from the perspective of what is most effective." The Abe administration has described North Korea as having taken advantage of previous frameworks for dialogue in order to buy time to further develop its weapons. But the South Korean president's office said in a statement Tuesday that Abe told Suh, director of the country's National Intelligence Service, he does not think North Korea will merely use the upcoming summits for that purpose. Japan officially lists 17 of its citizens as having been abducted by North Korean agents and suspects North Korea's involvement in other disappearances of Japanese nationals. Of the 17, five were repatriated in 2002 after Koizumi's first talks with Kim in North Korea. Pyongyang claims eight of the abductees have died and the other four never entered the country. Justice Rana boycotts SC full bench In an unprecedented case in the recent history of countrys judiciary, Supreme Court (SC) Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana on Monday boycotted a full bench that was hearing the contempt of court case against Kantipur daily, stating that Chief Justice Gopal Prasad Parajuli has already crossed his retirement age. KYODO NEWS - Mar 13, 2018 - 09:22 | All, Feature The government is expected to lift a de facto ban on the production and sales of liquid baby formula possibly in the summer, with the health ministry unveiling on Monday draft safety rules for the product. While liquid formula is widely used abroad for its convenience, the production and sales of such a product is not allowed in Japan due to the absence of government safety standards. Powder formula, which needs to be dissolved in hot water, is commonly used instead. (Photo courtesy of Kunihiko Sawada) But the ministry has started discussions to set the standards for liquid formula after its convenience during natural disasters was highlighted in Japan in 2016, when powerful earthquakes hit the southwestern Kumamoto Prefecture. At that time, Finland provided the formula as emergency aid free of charge. The merit of liquid baby formula is that it can be used even in cases of a water outage. During a meeting of a panel on food sanitation issues on Monday, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare presented the draft standards, which have been worked out based on a study conducted by the Japan Dairy Industry Association. (Supplied photo) In the study, the association confirmed that liquid formula, created with similar ingredients used in powder formula, can be safely consumed for up to one year by preserving it in a sterilized condition inside paper and can containers at a temperature of 25 C. The color of the liquid turned brownish, but no abnormalities were detected regarding taste and nutrition. The draft standards will be put to further discussions at a food safety panel under the Cabinet Office. The government is then likely to revise the relevant ministry ordinances in the summer at the earliest. It is expected to take a few years until the actual products will hit the market as a trial period is expected to be set aside to confirm the appropriateness of the best-before date, according to health ministry officials. According to the Japan Dairy Industry Association, some major dairy makers have shown an interest in making liquid formula and are likely to start developing products once ministry ordinances are revised. Tiger Trafficker Arrested in Nepal Lodu Dime, 40, had been convicted in absentia by Nepalese authorities after the seizure of wildlife products in Nepal during INTERPOL's Operation Prey IV in 2013. A tiger trafficker wanted internationally under an INTERPOL Red Notice has been arrested at the Kathmandu, Nepal airport thanks to cross-border police collaboration between India and Nepal via INTERPOL channels, the international police agency reported March 12. Its report said Lodu Dime, 40, had been convicted in absentia by Nepalese authorities after the seizure of wildlife products in Nepal during INTERPOL's Operation Prey IV in 2013. The seizures included five tiger skins and 114 kg of tiger bones allegedly destined for China. The suspect fled Nepal in 2013, triggering a request by the country's authorities for INTERPOL to help locate him and facilitate his arrest. After a complex investigation, Nepal requested an INTERPOL Red Notice against Dime in January 2018, and it was the publication of the Red Notice that triggered the suspect's detection at New Delhi airport by immigration police during his transit. The INTERPOL National Central Bureau in New Delhi informed the bureau in Kathmandu that Dime intended to travel to Nepal, resulting in his arrest March 5 by Nepalese police. "What we have achieved with the arrest of Lodu Dime is a testament to how police forces in different countries can draw on INTERPOL resources to share information and coordinate beyond national boundaries to track down fugitives, no matter where they hide," said Prakash Aryal, inspector general of police and head of NCB Kathmandu. "The INTERPOL Red Notice played a critical role in the detection and subsequent arrest of this notorious wildlife criminal, highlighting the power of international police cooperation via INTERPOL." INTERPOL's Executive Director of Police Services, Tim Morris, said the arrest "illustrates how INTERPOL's NCB network is the backbone of international police cooperation. Each of our 192 NCBs serves as a critical gateway to global investigations and data exchange." Cloud Service heads quiet on DOD cloud plan The Army, Air Force and Navy are each pursuing their respective cloud strategies as a part of the Defense Department's overall vision. When asked how DOD's newly announced commercial cloud plans could shape their migrations, however, the service secretaries skirted the issue of the Pentagon's centralized cloud procurement strategy. Navy Department Secretary Richard Spencer said any massive technological change affects the culture of an organization, where there would be "crying, gnashing their teeth" before acceptance. "I'm stunned in the building in the disparity of availability and consistency of systems to be used," Spencer said during the question and answer portion of a March 12 event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. "As far as the Navy is concerned, we look forward to the inbound of a new CIO who can sit there and say here is the construct, migrate to the construct so we get the benefits of similar-lined systems -- both economic benefits and managerial benefits from it," Spencer said. Kelly Fletcher has been the Navy's acting CIO since August 2017. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said her service is hoping to move fast with adopting enterprise as a service through edge computing, which can minimizes data travel. Wilson said moving to EaaS also could help free up cyber workers in IT for defense and offense posts -- something Air Force CIO Lt. Gen. Bradford Shwedo has discussed as well. "Beyond just moving some things to the cloud, we're trying to move to what they call 'computing to the edge' so that we don't use as much cloud and we move faster and you don't have to move as much data in or out," Wilson said. "There are companies that are set up to do that," she said, and yet the Air Force is devoting scarce in-house talent to maintain IT systems. "We've got over 1,700 people who are pretty well-trained on cyber and we're using them at the help desk to fix my email when it has a problem," Wilson said. Army Secretary Mark Esper did not respond to the question on March 12, but the Army began constructing a $62 million on-premises cloud solution with IBM in 2017. That effort is just one among many. DOD CIO Essye Miller said at the March 7 industry day for the department's Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud acquisition that there are 500 different cloud initiatives underway across the various service branches and defense agencies. Last year, the Air Force awarded a $1 billion contract to a contracting team that includes Dell EMC, General Dynamics and Microsoft to help move unified communications tools to a cloud infrastructure. The Navy also began modernizing its systems, moving unclassified data such as websites, content management systems, mobile apps, and training systems for its Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) Fleet and Family Readiness (N9) program to an Amazon Web Services cloud infrastructure. Congress Warner: U.S. is unprepared for cyber threats Sen. Mark Warner at a hearing of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee earlier this year. When it comes to cyberattacks against critical infrastructure, election systems and businesses, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) believes the United States is "woefully unprepared" to handle threats from nation-states and others. "We don't have our act together at all," Warner said at March 12 panel at South by Southwest. "We don't have a whole of government strategy There needs to be a much greater sense of urgency." Warner added this unpreparedness "goes back a decade-plus," and pointed to America's $700 billion in annual defense spending -- by far the most in the world -- with proposed decreases in non-defense-specific research and development dollars and without a current cyber warfare doctrine. "I would argue from a national security standpoint, we may be investing in the best 20th century military money can buy, and we ought to be thinking a lot of the conflict of the 21st century is going to be in cyber and misinformation and disinformation," he said. "A reallocation of some of those resources would be worthy of debate." Even in the wake of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, and with the clock ticking before the 2018 midterm elections, "we are not ready as a nation in terms of election security," he said. Warner, who introduced the Honest Ads Act to require heavily trafficked websites to disclose information about ads purchased on their sites, said that legislation alone would not be enough to effectively protect against interference. "What you don't want to have happen is a bunch of us in Washington doing this in a non-collaborative fashion," he said. "Because then, we'll mess it up." In building strong cybersecurity, Warner also lamented the federal government's inability to attract cyber talent, pointing to lower pay, the protracted hiring process and a massive backlog of security clearance requests as hindrances. On the industry side, Warner noted that as more devices become connected as part of the internet of things, "we have not even minimum standards built into any of those devices." "We may need at least to use the purchasing power of the government," he suggested. "At least DOD, and I would argue for the whole of government, we ought to not be buying devices that are going to extend our vulnerability and start with that kind of standard." Warner also said in the wake of data breaches, namely the Equifax breach, "we at least ought to explore some level of software liability." "There should be a penalty paid, and it shouldn't be a slap on the wrist," he said. Oversight Trump fills out intelligence oversight board The same day the nation's top diplomat was fired and a new CIA director picked, President Donald Trump announced plans to add members to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The White House announced on March 13 that Ed Felten, a Princeton computer scientist and a former White House deputy CTO, and Jane Nitze, a former Justice Department attorney and Supreme Court law clerk would be nominated to PCLOB. Last September, Trump picked Adam Klein, former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, as PCLOB's chair. The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced that nomination in February, but a full Senate vote has yet to be scheduled. The board, which conducts oversight of the intelligence community with an eye to privacy and human rights, has been without a quorum to do business for the entire Trump administration. (Three members constitutes a PCLOB quorum.) The board has the authority to access government records including classified material, to interview government officials and request the Justice Department to collect material from private companies via subpoena. Felten, who served under the Obama administration, is a computer scientist who has been a key voice in ongoing debates about encryption. Surveillance policy expert Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute greeted Felten's pick, noting that it's "important to have at least one serious techie among the lawyers, given how profoundly technical architectures determine civil liberties implications of collection." Past reports, including one on mass surveillance in the U.S. in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations, were influential in steering debates in Congress. "In the aftermath of the Snowden leaks in 2013, the work of the PCLOB -- including televised hearings -- went a long way towards providing the American public with at least a semblance of contextual understanding of the complexities of the surveillance operations Snowden had revealed," said Bradley Moss, an attorney specializing in national security and whistleblower cases. "If in fact there were ethical, moral or legal violations of those same authorities during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the PCLOB will once again likely assume the role of the adult in the room." Current board member Elisebeth B. Collins weighed in on the recent congressional debates on the reauthorization of foreign surveillance authorities in a June 2017 Senate hearing. (A six-year authorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed Congress in January, updating rules pertaining to and oversight of searches on U.S. persons.) PCLOB also is a key player in the ongoing administration of the Privacy Shield agreement with Europe. That deal is what makes it possible for U.S. companies like Facebook, Amazon and others to collect and transfer data on European Union residents, despite the EU's much stricter privacy laws. The European Commission's inaugural review of the Privacy Shield, released in October, specifically called for filling the empty PCLOB slots. Chris Calabrese, vice president for policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, told FCW that it is "crucial that we maintain these institutions and the act of nominating people is really important -- there's no shortage of things for them to tackle." That oversight agenda, Calabrese said, should include the new "extreme vetting" policies of the Department of Homeland Security, device searches at the border, social media monitoring and, more generally, how the government is using hacking for intelligence gathering as well as the updated and newly public vulnerabilities equities process that governs stockpiling of known computer bugs. While Calabrese welcomed the nominations, particularly the pick of Felton who is on CDT's board, he cautioned against expecting too much from the organization, which is requesting $8 million for 2018 to support oversight of the $50 billion-plus intelligence community. "PCLOB has always had a tough job," he said. "There are many more things to oversee than there are people at PCLOB to do it." CORRECTION: This article was updated Mar. 14 to note that Adam Klein's nomination to chair PCLOB was advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Foxbit, Brazils largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been down for over 72 hours, reportedly because of a bug that allowed its users to withdraw their bitcoin balances twice. The problem saw the company lose a total of 30 Bitcoins, at press time worth roughly $270,000. Through a livestream on YouTube, the companys CEO Joao Canhada and COO Luis Augusto Schiavon, revealed the bug saw its users take advantage of the exchanges withdrawal system to duplicate 130 withdrawals. After realizing what was going on, Foxbit immediately launched an emergency maintenance mode to halt withdrawals. The maintenance mode reportedly corrupted some of its service providers data. Per the companys executives, data is now being restored, and Foxbit should be back up by March 14. Through a blog post, the cryptocurrency exchange informed its users that it wasnt hacked, and linked back to two cold wallets to show their funds were safe. In an attempt to calm its users down, Canhada and Schiavon stated (roughly translated): All funds are protected, both in reais and in bitcoins. Several clients have already returned duplicate values and we are in touch with everyone. We have a specific fund to cover possible losses and the funds in reais are safe in our bank accounts. The platform was neither hacked nor stolen. While Foxbits CEO and COO claim some users have already returned their ill-gotten funds, it isnt clear how much was returned. Nevertheless, Foxbit assured that the money that went missing doesnt harm its operation, as it represents a small percentage of what it currently has. The wallets shown in its blog post have over 7,500 BTC in total. To further protect users during its downtime, the platform is set to cancel several orders so users dont lose their balances while unable to manage their accounts. Nevertheless users watching the livestream asked whether the exchange would make it up to them, by creating a zero-fee trading period, for example. Story continues The companys CEO and COO merely stated they were paying close attention to what was going on but didnt go any further. Notably bitcoin is growing big in Brazil. According to CryptoCompare data, the Brazilian Real makes up 0.02% of the cryptocurrencys daily trading volume, and the countrys police even took down a digital currency pyramid scheme last year. As covered by CCN, Brazilian central bank president Ilan Goldfajn took a dismissive stance against bitcoin, and claimed it was a typical bubble or pyramid [scheme]. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post $270,000: Brazils Largest Bitcoin Exchange Foxbit Down for 72 Hours, 30 BTC missing appeared first on CCN. Chinas industry & IT ministry is working toward creating domestic standards to propel development and implementation of blockchain technology in the country. In an announcement on an official government website yesterday, Chinas ministry of industry and information technology revealed it has already conducted a special study exploring a framework for standardizing blockchain technology domestically. The process has seen the Ministrys information and software services division and the China Electronics Standardization Institute propose a new technical committee to be established. As things stand, China is a part of the technical committee TC 307 under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) alongside 30 other participating countries working toward international standards for blockchain technology. As reported previously, the ISO appointed Australia to lead the international effort which now sees 7 ISO blockchain standards under development. Acknowledging Chinas participation in the ISO endeavor, the IT ministry claimed positive progress in researching standards for core blockchain facets including identity authentication and smart contracts. The need for a complete blockchain standard system domestically, Chinas IT ministry explains, means it is necessary to work and develop the countrys own effort to introduce standards as soon as possible. The Ministry also said its IT and software services division will look to promote blockchain technology, fast-track the establishment of the blockchain standardization committee and back the development of the sector in the country overall. The embracive stance toward blockchain technology is in stark contrast to Chinas crippling curbs against local cryptocurrency markets which has seen initial coin offerings (ICOs) outlawed and crypto exchanges phased out to effectively shutter domestic trading markets. Blockchain technology has also been under the spotlight on Chinas biggest political stage, the Two Sessions, in recent days. One politician even called for a national digital asset trading platform over a blockchain that would be overseen by the central bank and other authorities. Another official from major Chinese regulatory agency called for a decentralized [blockchain] system based on a centralized structure. Story continues China joins the likes of Russia in publicly revealing an effort toward developing standards for blockchain and distributed ledger technologies [DLT]. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post ASAP: China is Working Toward National Blockchain Standards appeared first on CCN. A stock that you can buy at a price below what it is worth is considered undervalued. This is the case for Shriro Holdings and Xenith IP Group. Investors can determine how much a company is worth based on how much money they are expected to make in the future, or compared to the value of their peers. The list Ive put together below are of stocks that compare favourably on all criteria, which potentially makes them good investments if you believe the price should eventually reflect the stocks actual value. Shriro Holdings Limited (ASX:SHM) Shriro Holdings Limited manufactures and distributes kitchen appliances and consumer products in Australia and New Zealand. Established in 2015, and now led by CEO Tim Hargreaves, the company now has 262 employees and with the stocks market cap sitting at AUD A$129.32M, it comes under the small-cap group. SHMs shares are currently trading at -39% beneath its actual value of $2.23, at the market price of AU$1.36, based on its expected future cash flows. The divergence signals an opportunity to buy SHM shares at a low price. In addition to this, SHMs PE ratio is around 8.91x relative to its Consumer Durables peer level of, 13.3x indicating that relative to its peers, SHM can be bought at a cheaper price right now. SHM is also a financially robust company, as near-term assets sufficiently cover liabilities in the near future as well as in the long run. More detail on Shriro Holdings here. ASX:SHM PE PEG Gauge Mar 11th 18 Xenith IP Group Limited (ASX:XIP) Xenith IP Group Limited provides intellectual property (IP) services and advice relating to the identification, registration, management, commercialization, and enforcement of IP rights in Australia, New Zealand, and internationally. Formed in 1859, and headed by CEO Craig Dower, the company provides employment to 100 people and with the market cap of AUD A$105.57M, it falls under the small-cap stocks category. XIPs shares are currently hovering at around -42% less than its value of $2.07, at the market price of AU$1.19, based on its expected future cash flows. This price and value mismatch indicates a potential opportunity to buy the stock at a low price. Whats even more appeal is that XIPs PE ratio is currently around 18.65x relative to its Professional Services peer level of, 18.77x indicating that relative to other stocks in the industry, we can buy XIPs stock at a cheaper price today. XIP is also a financially healthy company, with short-term assets covering liabilities in the near future as well as in the long run. Story continues Dig deeper into Xenith IP Group here. ASX:XIP PE PEG Gauge Mar 11th 18 SDI Limited (ASX:SDI) SDI Limited engages in the research and development, manufacture, and distribution of amalgam and composite restorative materials, and other dental materials in Australia, Europe, the United States, Brazil, and internationally. SDI was formed in 1972 and has a market cap of AUD A$68.35M, putting it in the small-cap category. SDIs stock is currently trading at -55% beneath its real value of $1.28, at a price of AU$0.57, based on its expected future cash flows. This mismatch signals an opportunity to buy SDI shares at a discount. Whats even more appeal is that SDIs PE ratio stands at around 14.52x against its its Medical Equipment peer level of, 36.09x suggesting that relative to its comparable set of companies, we can purchase SDIs shares for cheaper. SDI is also robust in terms of financial health, as near-term assets sufficiently cover liabilities in the near future as well as in the long run. Its debt-to-equity ratio of 6.65% has been dropping over the past couple of years indicating SDIs capacity to pay down its debt. Continue research on SDI here. ASX:SDI PE PEG Gauge Mar 11th 18 Or create your own list by filtering ASX companies based on fundamentals such as intrinsic discount, health score and future outlook using this free stock screener. For more financially sound, undervalued companies to add to your portfolio, explore this interactive list of undervalued stocks. To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. Police arrest man behind death of teen daughter In what police suspect to be a case of honour killing, a 40-year-old father allegedly killed his 19-year-old daughter at Wakil Tol in Janakpur-2, Dhanusha, on February 20 because he did not take kindly to her alleged relationship with a boy, police said on Monday. By Allison Martell HAMILTON, ONTARIO (Reuters) - A temporary exemption from U.S. tariffs is little comfort to the Canadian steel city of Hamilton, coping with months of uncertainty as U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened a potentially devastating 25 percent duty unless the North American Free Trade Agreement is renegotiated. Canadian negotiators are weighing the interests of the relatively small sector, responsible for about 22,000 direct Canadian jobs and C$9.0 billion ($7.0 billion) in U.S. exports, against those of bigger industries like auto manufacturing and politically influential groups like dairy farmers. "I don't think we're at the end of it. Now it's being used as leverage," said Hamilton Port Authority Chief Executive Officer Ian Hamilton. "President Trump is putting a lot of pressure on everybody." Hamilton, population 700,000, has pushed to diversify its economy, with better transit links to Toronto and affordable homes that are attracting families priced out of Canada's biggest city. A C$139-million project is underway to clean up coal tar that contaminates the harbor and condos are replacing once empty downtown storefronts. When Canadian steel escaped U.S. steel tariffs in 2002, the duties had diverted some cheap steel into Canada. In recent years, a global steel glut has made it difficult for Canadian mills to compete. But ArcelorMittal's Dofasco mill, coking and finishing operations at Stelco , and a collection of smaller operations still directly employ 10,000 people in Hamilton. The North American steel industry is heavily integrated, with raw materials, steel and parts crossing the U.S.-Canadian border several times before a finished product such as a vehicle or refrigerator is sold to consumers. About 65 percent of the Hamilton port's tonnage is iron ore and coal used to make steel. Hamilton, the port president, said one steel company called after Trump first signaled the tariffs on March 1, when it was unclear whether Canada would be exempt at all. The firm wanted to know if the agency might be willing to take over management of its warehouse and find different cargo to fill it. Hamilton Chamber of Commerce President Keanin Loomis, a former Washington lawyer, is part of a new generation in the city who have never worked in a steel mill. But like much of the city, he has a personal connection to steel, a father-in-law retired from the Dofasco mill. If a tariff is imposed, Loomis expects imports to lower domestic steel prices, potentially driving some employers south of the border, where tariffs are expected to boost prices. Loomis said high labor costs, environmental regulations and a looming carbon tax already make it difficult for the steel industry to compete. "This could be the thing that puts it over the edge, he said. The city's United Steelworkers Local 1005 has only about 550 active members, down from more than 13,000 in its heyday in the 1970s. The local union represents workers at Stelco, but not Dofasco, which never organized. Since 2004 it has weathered the closure of Stelco's Hamilton mill, Stelco's two trips through bankruptcy protection, and two new owners. Members at another plant, Max Aicher North America, have been locked out for almost five years over proposed wage and benefit cuts. And union president Gary Howe sees choppy waters ahead. "With Trump being in there, it's probably never going to be over," he said. The Canadian government has vowed to continue lobbying Washington until the threat of duties disappears. Pressed on Trump's decision to link the exemption to NAFTA, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday that Canada considers the two issues to be totally separate. "I think they should get some more backbone," Steve Kajganic, a retired veteran of the Stelco mill and a second-generation steelworker, said of the Canadian government. "Stand up for our country, instead of selling it out." (Editing by Denny Thomas and Jeffrey Benkoe) Affordable housing will prove critical to sheltering people around the world. And now the price to build a home is coming down. At SXSW on Sunday, an Austin, Texas-based startup called ICON unveiled its plan to print a 650-square-foot house. According to The Verge, which earlier reported on ICONs concept, the 3D-printed house would be made of cement and take up to one day to be printed by large 3D robots. Best of all, the homes would cost just $10,000. And ICON hopes that eventually, it can bring the cost of homes down to $4,000. According to the report, ICON is focused on bringing affordable housing to the estimated 1.2 billion people around the world who do not have adequate shelter. The company will begin its mission in El Salvador, where it plans to build 100 of its houses sometime in 2019. The company hopes to bring its housing to move countries in the future. Get Data Sheet, Fortunes technology newsletter In order to 3D print a building, however, ICON needs to create a schematic. It will then place that schematic into a computer that tells its massive printer how and where to place the cement. According to The Verge, ICON can print homes up to 800 square feet. Its first model has a living room, bedroom, and bathroom. It also features a porch. Many industry experts say 3D printing is already revolutionizing the way products are created and will only continue to do so in the future. The printers are capable of using any number of materialsincluding food, cement, and othersand creating a 3D structure. In homes, small 3D printers can be used to create toys for kids. In the medical space, 3D printers are believed to be a panacea for creating cheaper prosthetics. In housing, the cheap construction could be a boon for affordable housing. Eni SpA E has agreed to divest 10% of its stake in the Shorouk concession, offshore Egypt, to a wholly owned subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, Mubadala Petroleum. Eni will generate about $934 million from this sale. Eni currently holds 60% stake in the Shorouk concession through its subsidiary, IEOC. Other partners are Rosneft and BP plc BP with the respective 30% and 10% interests in the concession. The transactions closure is subject to fulfillment of certain standard conditions including all essential authorizations from Egyptian authorities. The super-giant gas field of Zohr is also located at the Shorouk concession, producing 400 million standard cubic feet per day. It was brought online in December 2017 within 28 months after its discovery. The yield from Zohr is expected to eventually reach the plateau by the end of 2019. In 2018, Zohr is likely to add 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for Eni. The deal is in line with Enis dual exploration strategy, via which, the company seeks to farm out stakes in the fields it operates so as to raise cash for financing future development as well as meting out dividends. Enis presence in Egypt dates back to 1954. It operates in the region through its IEOC Production BV unit. The company is a key producer in the country with equity production of about 230,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. About Eni Eni with its consolidated subsidiaries is engaged in oil and gas, electricity generation, petrochemicals, oilfield services and engineering industries. The companys major business segments are Exploration and Production, Gas and Power, and Refining and Marketing. The company conducts its major exploration and production activities for hydrocarbons. About Mubadala Petroleum Mubadala Petroleum is completely owned by Abu Dhabi-based state fund, Mubadala Investment Company with has assets worth above $125 billion. Price Performance Enis shares have gained 2.8% in the last three months against the industrys 2.7% decline. Story continues Zacks Rank & Key Picks Eni carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Two better-ranked players in the same sector are Pioneer Natural Resources Company PXD and ConocoPhillips COP, each stock sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Headquartered at Irving, TX, Pioneer Natural Resources Company is an independent oil and gas exploration and production entity. It pulled off an average beat of 66.92% in the trailing four quarters. ConocoPhillips, based in Houston, TX, is a major global exploration and production (E&P) company. It came up with a positive surprise of 144.45% in the last four quarters. Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2018 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2018? Last year's 2017 Zacks Top 10 Stocks portfolio produced double-digit winners, including FMC Corp. and VMware which racked up stellar gains of +67.9% and +61%. Now a brand-new portfolio has been handpicked from over 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. Dont miss your chance to get in on these long-term buys. Access Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2018 today >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BP p.l.c. (BP) : Free Stock Analysis Report ENI S.p.A. (E) : Free Stock Analysis Report Pioneer Natural Resources Company (PXD) : Free Stock Analysis Report ConocoPhillips (COP) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research BRUSSELS, March 12 (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday said it had extended sanctions against Russia, imposed over the annexation of Crimea and supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine, for another six months. The sanctions, including travel restrictions and asset freezes against 150 people and 38 companies, would be extended until Sept. 15, the European Council said. "An assessment of the situation did not justify a change in the sanctions regime," the Council said in a statement. After annexing Crimea in 2014, in a move that has not been recognised internationally, Russia said it would not return the region. The EU and other Western countries say Russia has also been providing a lifeline to separatists in eastern Ukraine, where a conflict has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014. (Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek Editing by Alison Williams) (Adds Timmermans) BRUSSELS, March 13 (Reuters) - The European Union said on Tuesday that the attempted murder of a former Russian spy in Britain was "shocking" and that it was ready to support Britain if asked to do so. The EU executive called on the bloc's leaders to use a summit next week to show solidarity with British Prime Minister Theresa May and ensure a collective effort to punish those responsible. Britain gave President Vladimir Putin until midnight on Tuesday to explain how a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union was used to strike down a former Russian double agent who passed secrets to British intelligence. A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in an emailed response that the use of a military-grade chemical agent in a murder attempt on UK soil, which threatened civilians, was "shocking". "We stand with the UK in pursuit of justice in this case and are ready to offer support if necessary." Separately, the deputy head of the European Commission told the European Parliament that the Union had a duty to stand by Britain and urged the other 27 national leaders to make that clear when they meet May at a regular Brussels summit next week at which Britain's imminent exit from the EU is on the agenda. "If nerve gas was actively used against civilians in one of our member states, I believe that the European Council should, in clear terms, express its full solidarity with the British people and the British government in addressing this issue," said Timmermans, who as Dutch foreign minister accused Russia of downing an airliner flying from Amsterdam over Ukraine in 2014. The Commission's first vice president also said the EU must work together to punish those responsible, under the Chemical Weapons Convention overseen by the Hague-based OPCW agency. "It is of the utmost importance that those who are responsible for what has happened see very clearly that there is European solidarity, unequivocal, unwavering and very strong, so that those responsible are really punished for what they did. "We cannot have nerve gas being used in our societies. This should be addressed by all of us and not just left to Prime Minister May and the British government. It is a collective European responsibility, also under the OPCW rules." (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Alastair Macdonald, editing by Robin Emmott) By Luc Cohen BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Oil majors are evaluating bids for offshore exploration rights in Argentina, a major change in a country that sent Spanish energy giant Repsol (REP.MC) packing six years ago and has seen little offshore exploration for decades. To secure bids, Argentina will need to show it has moved beyond its historical fluctuations between free-market policies and left-wing populism and that it has made progress in lowering costs for energy firms. Oil companies including Shell and Statoil told Reuters they are looking at bidding in the auctions, to be held later this year, and a government official said Exxon and Chevron have also shown interest. The country faces fierce competition to attract the billions of dollars of investment needed to develop deepwater reserves. Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and neighbouring Uruguay will all auction offshore blocks in 2018 after undertaking oil market reforms or revising contract terms to facilitate the entry of the world's top energy companies. For Big Oil, the potential access to Latin American energy reserves is unprecedented. In many countries now opening, including Argentina, resource nationalism has long barred their entry or limited opportunities. Six years ago, former populist President Cristina Fernandez expropriated Repsol's (REP.MC) stake in Argentina's state-owned oil company YPF SA (YPFD.BA). The move sent chills through both the energy industry and the entire private sector. Interviews with oil industry executives, consultants, geologists and officials point to optimism for Argentina's upcoming auctions and for President Mauricio Macri's government, which has sought private sector and U.S. government help in structuring the process. "Growing confidence in the current government's policies - their focus on trying to create an environment that is attractive for investments - has been the big change," Shell's (RDSa.L) head of deepwater Wael Sawan told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry gathering in Houston. "It's that focus that has created more interest by the sector to say 'why not, let's look at this.'" Story continues The auction will be a test of company confidence in the longevity of Macri's reform agenda because it can take a decade between an initial investment in offshore exploration and the first production. Argentina will take bids for three offshore basins from July through November. Exploration rights for blocks in the 130,000-square km Argentina Basin, 90,000-square km Malvinas West Basin and 5,000 square kilometres in the Austral Basin are on offer. While little exploration has been done outside the Austral basin, YPF has identified 22 million barrels of oil equivalent for further investigation, upstream head Pablo Bizotto said at an event last Wednesday. "There is a lot of interest from large companies - Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell," Daniel Redondo, the secretary for strategic energy planning in Argentina's Energy Ministry, told Reuters on the sidelines of a recent event. Consultancy Bain & Company, on a contract with the government to gauge interest, last year interviewed more than 60 companies, including "all the majors" and independent explorers including Anadarko (APC.N) and Hunt Oil, said Diego Garcia, a Buenos Aires-based Bain partner. Colombia's Ecopetrol may bid in the auctions, its chief executive told Reuters. Norway's Statoil (STL.OL), which already has onshore drilling projects in Argentina, is partnering with YPF on offshore seismic studies and is "considering future licensing rounds," a spokesman said. "Huge areas of the Argentinian continental shelf will be available for bids from companies," executive vice president for exploration Tim Dodson said at an event in Buenos Aires last Wednesday. "We have of course started our evaluations already." Chevron (CVX.N) and Exxon (XOM.N) declined to comment. Anadarko and Hunt did not respond to requests for comment. Firms likely won't decide whether to bid until the full terms of the auction are published. OPENING TO INDUSTRY Macri's government has enacted pro-market reforms across the economy. His 'Let's Change' coalition swept to victory in midterm elections last October, taking advantage of divisions within the opposition Peronist movement, which is generally defined by strong defence of labour rights and national sovereignty. Macri is on course to become the first non-Peronist president to finish his term since Argentina's return to democracy in 1983. He's expected to stand for re-election starting in late 2019. The decision to hold offshore auctions comes as Argentina struggles to attract investment to its Vaca Muerta shale play, which is in a remote part of Argentina that lacks infrastructure to get oil and gas to consumers. Argentina is home to the world's No. 2 resources of shale gas and the fourth largest of shale oil, estimates the U.S. Energy Information Agency. Yet oil production peaked in 1998 and gas output topped out in 2004, according to Energy Ministry data. Investment in exploration has dried up since the country's 2001 financial crisis and the populist political response. Under the terms of a 2014 revision to Argentina's hydrocarbons law, which was well-received by industry, royalties paid to the national government will be 12 percent of the value of hydrocarbons extracted and companies would receive exploration rights for three years, with an option to extend for three years. Rights for each exploration block would be awarded to the company that pledges the most investment, as laid out in the law, Garcia said. "Companies will be interested in studying something that has not been explored," said Daniel Gerold of G&G Energy Consultants in Buenos Aires, who said the regional competition was unlikely to be an obstacle for Argentina. "I do not think the big players will have used up all their exploration capital in Mexico." 'SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE LONG AGO' The majors would likely be most interested in the large Argentina Basin, the least explored of the three on offer, Bain's Garcia said. By contrast, the Austral Basin just off the coast of Tierra del Fuego would be more of a gas play to serve the domestic market and could appeal to local players and Total, which already operates in the area, he said. The Malvinas West basin could be most appealing to exploration-focused independent oil firms, he said. Perth, Australia-based Searcher Seismic began analysing existing data on Argentina's offshore formations in November 2016, smelling opportunity in an economic and political opening, and launched a full database for exploration companies in early February. "This should have been done a long time ago in Argentina," Searcher director Odd Larsen said. "But the politics and the finances unfortunately held Argentina back for a very long time." (Additional reporting by Marianna Parraga and Ron Bousso in Houston and Juliana Castilla in Buenos Aires; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Brian Thevenot) Presidential election concludes, counting to start at 4 pm Voting for the election of third President has concluded at Parliament Building in New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, on Tuesday. The threat, by Chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov, was widely reported by Russia media sites such as state news agency RIA and Tass. It said Gerasimov said Russia had "reliable information" about militants preparing to falsify a government chemical attack against civilians. Gerasimov said Russia would respond to a U.S. strike on Syria if the lives of Russian servicemen were threatened, targeting any missiles and launchers involved. The Russian military has threatened action against the U.S. if it strikes Syria's capital city of Damascus, according to multiple news reports. The threat, by Chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov, was widely reported by Russia media sites such as state news agency RIA and Tass. It said Gerasimov said Russia had "reliable information" about militants preparing to falsify a government chemical attack against civilians. He continued by saying the U.S. would then use this attack to accuse Syrian government troops of using chemical weapons. He added that the U.S. would then plan to launch a missile strike on government districts in Damascus. "In several districts of Eastern Ghouta , a crowd was assembled with women, children and old people, brought from other regions, who were to represent the victims of the chemical incident, " Gerasimov said, according to RIA. Gerasimov said Russia would respond to a U.S. strike on Syria if the lives of Russian servicemen were threatened, targeting any missiles and launchers involved. "In case there is a threat to the lives of our military, the Russian Armed Force will take retaliatory measures both over the missiles and carriers that will use them," he said. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. Drafting a new ceasefire The comments come as Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's regime, which is supported by Russia, continues to carry out airstrikes over the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta just outside Damascus. Story continues The United Nations Security Council had demanded a ceasefire in Syria two weeks ago to allow nearly 1,000 sick and wounded civilians to leave so they can seek urgent medical treatment. On Monday, the U.S. threatened to "act if we must" if the UN ceasefire resolution continues to be ignored. U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Hailey, said Monday that the U.S. was drafting a new ceasefire resolution with "no room for evasion" and warned the country was prepared to act. "It is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take, and we are prepared to take again," Haley told the UN Security Council on Monday. "When the international community consistently fails to act, there are times when states are compelled to take their own action," she added. Syria has experienced a civil war for the past seven years. The conflict started following a popular uprising against Assad and his regime. Unlike other countries in the Middle East affected by the "Arab spring," Assad's regime did not fall so easily, and what's more, Russia offered Assad's regime its support against a variety of rebel groups. To complicate matters further, these rebel groups have also been fighting the so-called Islamic State which is occupying parts of Syria. The U.S. and other allies have supported "moderate" rebel groups against ISIS, but the war is also seen as a battle for influence between Russia and the West in the Middle East. As ISIS' influence has waned and rebel-held locations reclaimed, Assad has regained the upper hand in Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that establishing more deescalation zones in Syria was not a priority for now, Reuters reported. He told reporters that it was important to prevent violation of ceasefire agreements in eastern Ghouta, a situation which he planned to discuss with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who is on a visit to Moscow. More From CNBC Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of State, ending a tumultuous tenure as America's top diplomat. Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of State, The Washington Post reported, ending a tumultuous tenure as America's top diplomat that was marked by a series of public disagreements with his boss President Donald Trump . Since Tillerson took the post in February 2017, mixed messages repeatedly came out of the White House and a State Department with diminishing relevance. The intramural clashes between the president and secretary of State came amid major international crises, including a potential nuclear showdown with North Korea. @realDonaldTrump: Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! This is breaking news. Please check back for updates. More From CNBC Heres a look at some of the companies the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you. Stitch Fix (SFIX) tops our list. The stock is plunging after the online clothing retailer posted an earnings miss for its second reporting quarter, falling four cents short of Wall Street expectations for six cents a share. The company cited tax reform as the reason. Despite that, Stitch Fix added 100,000 new clients and beat revenue estimates by nearly $5M. Microsoft (MSFT) is in hot water this morning. A court filing shows women at the tech company have filed 238 internal complaints about gender discrimination or sexual harassment between 2010 and 2016. Plaintiffs say Microsoft systematically denied women pay raises and/or promotions. Microsoft denies the claims. Amazon (AMZN) workers in Spain are not happy. Reuters reports over 1,000 employees plan to stage a two-day walkout. The workers union says Amazon is blocking salary increases, cutting wages and reducing payments for weekend and holiday employees as part of a new contract agreement. In a first for General Electric (GE), the industrial giant has axed bonuses for its C-Suite and senior managers. The move saved the company millions after already losing money in 2017. CEO John Flannerys target bonus of $3M was also eliminated. Does Zebra Technologies (ZBRA) have what it takes to be a top stock pick for momentum investors? Let's find out. In its weekly release, Baker Hughes, a GE company BHGE, reported an increase in total rig count in the United States. About the Rig Count Baker Hughes data, issued since 1944 at the end of every week, helps energy service providers gauge the overall business environment of the oil and gas industry. Change in this Houston-based oilfield services players rotary rig count hampers demand for energy services like drilling, completion and production provided by the likes of Halliburton Company HAL, Schlumberger Limited SLB, Weatherford International plc WFT, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. DO and Transocean Ltd. RIG. Details Weekly Summary: Rigs engaged in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas in the United States totaled 984 in the week (ended Mar 9) higher than the prior weeks 981. Notably, the total count increased for five in the prior seven weeks. Since it slipped to an all-time low of 404 in May 2016, rig count has been rising rapidly in U.S. shale resources. Punctuated by a few pauses, the current nationwide rig count is considerably higher than the prior-year level of 768. For the week in discussion, the rise in rig count can be attributed to higher onshore operations. The number of onshore rigs totaled 967, higher than 963. Four rigs operated in the inland waters last week, in line with the count for the week ended Mar 2. However, the tally for offshore was 13, down from 14 in the prior week. Oil Rig Count: Oil rig count of 796 was down from 800 for the week ended Mar 2. However, the current tally, though far from the peak of 1,609 attained in October 2014, is significantly above the previous years count of 617. Natural Gas Rig Count: The natural gas rig count of 188 was up from 181 for the week ended Mar 2. With this, the tally increased four times in the last five weeks. Moreover, like oil, the count of rigs for gas exploration sits comfortably above the year-ago tally of 151. Story continues Per the recent report, the number of natural gas-directed rigs is 88.3% below the all-time high of 1,606 achieved in late summer 2008. Rig Count by Type: The number of vertical drilling rigs of 61 units increased from 59 units. Moreover, the horizontal/directional rig count (encompassing new drilling technology that has the ability to drill and extract gas from dense rock formations, also known as shale formations) increased by 1 unit to 923 units. Gulf of Mexico (GoM): The GoM rig count is at 13 units 12 of which were oil-directed compared with 14 units for the week ended Mar 2. Conclusion The number of total rigs exploring in the United States increased, courtesy of the addition of seven onshore rigs in Texas. Three onshore rigs were also added in North Dakota. Although rigs exploring crude fell last week but the favorable oil pricing scenario could ramp up crude drilling activities in the coming weeks. Oil has been trading mostly over the $60-per-barrel mark since January, after the OPEC members agreed to extend the production curb deal beyond first-quarter 2018. Two energy stocks that should make valuable additions to your portfolio are Continental Resources, Inc. CLR and Concho Resources Inc. CXO. Both the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Based in Oklahoma City, OK, Continental is primarily an upstream energy player. We expect the company to witness year-over-year earnings growth of 323.5% in 2018. Headquartered in Midland, TX, Concho explores oil and gas resources in the prospective plays. The company is likely to witness year-over-year earnings growth of 73.2% in 2018. Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2018 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2018? Last year's 2017 Zacks Top 10 Stocks portfolio produced double-digit winners, including FMC Corp. and VMware which racked up stellar gains of +67.9% and +61%. Now a brand-new portfolio has been handpicked from over 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. Dont miss your chance to get in on these long-term buys. Access Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2018 today >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Weatherford International PLC (WFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Schlumberger Limited (SLB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Halliburton Company (HAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Transocean Ltd. (RIG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. (DO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Concho Resources Inc. (CXO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Continental Resources, Inc. (CLR) : Free Stock Analysis Report Baker Hughes Incorporated (BHGE) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research President Trump issued an executive order late Monday that blocks Broadcom, a Singapore-based semiconductor firm, from taking over San Diego-based Qualcomm. The deal had already been under scrutiny from US regulators and lawmakers, who saw the foreign acquisition of Qualcomm as a national security threat. According to Bloomberg, Trump acted on a recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews foreign acquisitions of American firms. Broadcom is in the process of inverting its headquarters to the United States to get around CFIUS scrutiny. Don't Miss: Amazon has a $92 smartwatch with 45-day battery life that supports both iOS and Android The Executive Order outlines that Broadcom, through exercising control of Qualcomm Incorporated (Qualcomm), a Delaware corporation, might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States. The order further bars Broadcoms nominees for standing for election on Qualcomms board of directors, the route that Broadcom was pursuing after the board of directors previously voted against Qualcomm accepting Broadcoms deal. Bloomberg reports that Broadcom CEO Hock Tan met with officials at the Pentagon earlier Monday to try and persuade them not to kill the deal. Clearly, those efforts were unsuccessful. Its difficult to see a path to this deal taking place following Trumps actions with the executive order. A challenge could be made to the national security grounds once Broadcom successfully makes itself an American company on paper. At that point, however, an acquisition would be subject to Department of Justice anti-trust oversight, and its clear that the executive branch of the government is not in favor of the deal. Broadcom and Qualcomm have not yet issued statements addressing the executive order. In its previous response to the CFIUS injuction, the company said Broadcom has a successful 50-year heritage of building leading communications technologies including Wi-Fi, broadband access, network switching and routing. With its proven track record of investing in and growing core franchises, Broadcom is committed to making the U.S. the global leader in 5G. Story continues I recently made this public pledge: Broadcom is committed to making the United States the global leader in 5G, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said in a letter last week to Congressional leaders. Any notion that a combined Broadcom-Qualcomm would slash funding or cede leadership in 5G is completely unfounded. We have a proven track record of investing in and growing core franchises in the companies we acquire. In the case of Qualcomm, this will be 5G cellular. BGR Top Deals: Trending Right Now: See the original version of this article on BGR.com hock tan trump Martin H. Simon/Getty Images President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday blocking Broadcom's takeover of Qualcomm. Trump said there was "credible evidence" that Broadcom "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States." Wall Street banks had been set to make a small fortune from advising on the deal. President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday blocking the impending takeover of the chipmaker Qualcomm by its Singapore-based rival Broadcom. In doing so, he most likely sent millions in advisory fees for those working on the bid up in smoke. Moelis & Company, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley were advising Broadcom on the merger. Those banks would have shared $110 million to $135 million in fees if the deal had completed, Jeffrey Nassof, a director at the consulting firm Freeman & Co., told Business Insider in November when the bid was first announced. Bank of America, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley were also helping arrange debt financing, while Silver Lake Partners had agreed to supply $5 billion in convertible debt financing. Qualcomm had resisted the takeover offer, hiring Goldman Sachs and Evercore to aid its defense. Had the deal gone ahead, Goldman Sachs and Evercore could have made $120 million to $145 million in fees, according to Nassof. Now that the deal has been blocked, Qualcomm's advisers are likely to see some payout, though it's not clear how much. The blow to Wall Street could be temporary, with Trump's decision to block the deal potentially triggering another round of bids. Intel has reportedly been watching the Broadcom-Qualcomm situation with interest, for example. NOW WATCH: We asked Jamie Dimon why JPMorgan is forming a new healthcare company with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway here's what he said See Also: Presidential election underway Voting is underway to elect the new President of the country. The election process began at 10am on Tuesday morning and will conclude at 3pm. Tilly's (TLYS) closed the most recent trading day at $16.18, moving -0.98% from the previous trading session. W&T Offshore, Inc. WTI has recently signed a deal with a group of investors for upstream operations across the Gulf of Mexico. Accordingly, next three years, both W&T Offshore and the investor group will likely drill several well locations of roughly 14 developments in the Gulf of Mexico. In the preliminary stage, both the investor group and W&T Offshore agreed upon a capital budget of $230.5 million. If the drilling program could attract more investors, the initially committed capital spending could then jump to a maximum limit of $275.9 million. W&T Offshore added that the earlier budget will be adequate to finance the drilling programs of mutiple wells. The programs total capital expenditure is projected at $419.6 million by the upstream firm. The amount could increase once the company includes more drilling sites in its project portfolio. For bearing almost 80% expenses of the drilling program, 70% of net revenues will be allotted to the investor group. Eventually, W&T Offshore could get the remaining 30% revenues. It is to be noted that W&T Offshore will be entitled to 38.4% of net revenues after the investor group could manage a specific return from the wells. Headquartered in Houston, TX, W&T Offshore is primarily an exploration and production player with focus on prospective resources, located off the coast of Gulf of Mexico. The companys earnings surprise history is impressive with the bottom line surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 542.8%. Moreover, shares of W&T Offshore have outperformed the industry in the past year. The stock has surged 44.2% against the industrys 9.4% decline. W&T Offshore carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). A few other top-ranked stocks in the energy space are ConocoPhillips COP, Pioneer Natural Resources Company PXD and Concho Resources Inc. CXO, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Story continues Headquartered in Houston, TX, ConocoPhillips is a major upstream energy player. The company is expected to witness year-over-year earnings growth of 380% in 2018. Headquartered at Irving, TX, Pioneer Natural Resources is an upstream energy firm. The company has an average positive earnings surprise of 66.9% for the last four quarters. Headquartered in Midland, TX, Concho is also an upstream energy company. The firm will likely see year-over-year earnings growth of 73.2% in 2018. Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2018 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2018? Last year's 2017 Zacks Top 10 Stocks portfolio produced double-digit winners, including FMC Corp. and VMware which racked up stellar gains of +67.9% and +61%. Now a brand-new portfolio has been handpicked from over 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. Dont miss your chance to get in on these long-term buys. Access Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2018 today >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Pioneer Natural Resources Company (PXD) : Free Stock Analysis Report Concho Resources Inc. (CXO) : Free Stock Analysis Report W&T Offshore, Inc. (WTI) : Free Stock Analysis Report ConocoPhillips (COP) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Peter Diamandis is the founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which designs and operates large-scale incentive competitions to, in essence, change the world. In the words of its own criteria, an Xprize must be bold, audacious, and achievable. It must target market failure, drive investment, and give birth to a new industry. And, of course, it must give other innovators hope. At the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas on Monday, Diamandis and his organization announced a new $10 million competition to develop real-life avatars to enable humans to remotely see, hear, and interact with physical environments and other people. The four-year global competition, announced in partnership with All Nippon Airways, challenges the public to form teams and register by Oct. 31, 2018 to compete for several $1 million prizes (awarded in April 2020 and 2021) and a grand $8 million prize (awarded in October 2021). Fortune spoke with Diamandis to learn more about the new contest and better understand the role of the Xprize in 2018. Heres what he said, lightly edited for clarity. Fortune: Explain the new Xprize. Diamandis: We go through a process every year called our Visioneers Summit in which we look at big ideas that would have potential to change the worldto solve grand challenges. In 2016, the concept of an avatar was put forward as one of the nine teams competing in that year. The concept was funded by ANA Airlines. It was fascinating because ANA came to us, they knew we had the Xprize, they were very excited about sort of our innovative mechanisms and impact focus, and they asked a question that was really unusual for a company to ask: Whats the future of travel and how would we disrupt ourselves? Whats the alternative to getting into an airplane and flying across distance? So we hired a brilliant innovator, Harry Kloor, who led this team. And it came up that the future of travelnot all travel but some travelis, rather than moving your body to a place across the planet, what if instead you could send your senses and your actions to the location you desire? The Avatar Xprize is a $10 million purse. It will take place over four years. Were basically asking teams to combine various technologies and demonstrate a robotic avatar that allows untrained operators to compete a diverse series of tasks, from simple to complex, in a physical environment thats at least 100 kilometers away. And you can imagine that if youre the untrained operator, you put on a pair of VR goggles, headphones, a haptic suit, and as you move your fingers the avatars fingers move. And as you move your arms and walk around, the avatar moves its arms and walks around. And you can see through its eyes and hear through its ears. Youre effectively, for lack of a better term, Uber-ing your senses into that avatar in a different location. Its a way of ultimately bridging the gap between distance and distributing skills and hands-on expertise to a location where theyre needed. Story continues The lowest-hanging-fruit example that rationalizes this is if there were a disaster someplace and you need to get an expert to that disaster. The Fukushima nuclear reactor explosion that occurred six, seven years ago. You could put someone into that avatar and have them walk in there and turn knobs and shut down systemwhatever needed to be done. I work with a team thats predominantly in New York but also in London, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and so forth. Youre not talking about a work telecommute here; youre talking about an area that would otherwise be harmful for a human. The example that comes to mind is drilling and mining operations in northern Australia, which is not terribly hospitable. Is that the kind of thing youre trying to solve? Yeah. Thats the first kind of use or application where it can make a difference, save lives, allow people to go into environments that are not safe and allow experts that might not be physically available to transport their knowledge, ability, or senses to that location to perform what needs to be done. Thats an important first element. It goes from there. You know, my Mom lives in Boca. I live out here in L.A. Right now, I will FaceTime or Skype with her, but I cant help her if she needs help. In the future I will have an avatar that is effectively in her closet and available and I can go help her with something that she needs. That same avatar, if needed, a doctor can avatar into her home and examine her and see how shes doing, move her arm and shoulder and see whats going on. Or a repairman for her dishwasher. It becomes a way to instantly translocate expertise to a person who needs that help. What is so complicated about this? Obviously if youre putting this much money and technology on this its more complicated than the average person thinks it is. This is about systems integration. Were not changing the laws of physics, were asking teams to create a fully operational system that an average untrained user can utilize. You dont want, after a disaster, to have an expert in to give hours of training. People can put on this outfit and go naturally do what they need to do. So this is about integrating a variety of technologies. We dont specify which, but its going to be virtual reality, robotic technologies, machine learning capabilitieswhat makes it easy. The same way that the original Xprize in 2004 was won. Why was it so hard? We launched people in space 50 years earlier, sure. But to do it cheaply, more easily, in a user-friendly fashion so that it actually gets used? Thats critically important. The last thing we want to do is have a prize that doesnt actually change the world. The Xprize is long-running. Why this one, this year? Were looking for ideas that are inspirational, future-forward, that can solve problems. Were looking for things that are at the knee of the curvemeaning that we see them as doable but not being done and a prize would accelerate the future. A prize would bring teams together, help attract capital, help change the regulatory regime if needed. Its a seed crystal that causes change. We believe the time is right. We have prizes going on in adult literacy, childrens literacy, water, energy, a whole slew of things. This came to us. We find our prizes through interactions with philanthropists, corporations, family offices, governments. This one came to us with a partnership from ANA, which put forward an idea that we got excited about. The Xprize has been around a long time. Do we still need it? Im thinking about how Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat has been managing that companys famous moonshots in recent years. Number one, were going from just a focus on prizes to a focus on impact. Heres the basic concept. Were living at a time when individual entrepreneurs are more powerful than governments were 20 years ago. You, me, any one of us have access to the worlds information on Google or Baidu. You could spin up a thousands processor cores on Amazon Web. You could design something and 3-D print it in the cloud. Were entering a period of extraordinary capability and power. Theres more capital available than at any time in human history. I meet thousands of entrepreneurs through Singularity University, the Xprize, through my Abundance community, through my venture fund, and a lot of people are trying to figure out what to do, to work on. Theyre looking to go from success to significance. What the Xprize does is, it says, This is important. This will change the world. This is a problem that governments arent solving, companies arent solving. In success, it will change the world. So we inspire teams to form and try and take on difficult problems. Last question. Youve been rather busy yourself, speaking of entrepreneurs. Tell me about your new project. You mean Celularity? There are a number of new projects. Ive got three primary massively transformative purposes, or MTPs. The first one I ever had was opening up spacethat was since my childhood and that gave birth to the Xprize. A related MTP was inspiring entrepreneurs to solve the worlds biggest problems and I do that through the Xprize Foundation, Singularity University, and through my Abundance group. Its really about helping people find their MTPs, design their moonshots and go after them and empowering and inspiring them. The third area which Ive had now slightly since medical school but really most powerfully in the last 10 years is the field of human longevity. I fundamentally believe that weve reached an important inflection point that were going to be able to to extend the healthy human lifespan by 20 to 40 years in the next decade. Thats going to come from genomics, machine learning, and cellular medicine. Its an extraordinary time. Ive started a number of companies. Human Longevity first with Craig Venter and Bob Hariri five years ago, and thats really been on the genomics and human learning side. And most recently, about two or three weeks ago, Bob Hariri, whos an incredible scientist and one of the top thinkers in cellular medicine in the world, M.D.-Ph.D., jet pilot, brain and spinal trauma surgeon turned cellular medicine scientist, I support him in building Celularity. We raised about a quarter of a billion dollars and are really focused on these placental-derived stem cells as a means to fight and curethey call it augmented immunity and longevity. How do you extend the human life span? A fundamental question: Why should we live longer? Were built to die, arent we? Great question. Let me give you my pitch. Im 56. The average human life span by design was about 26, 27 years old for most of human history. You would enter puberty at age 13 at which point youd have a baby. This is the days of the caveman, 200,000 years ago. By age 26 your baby was having a baby. At that point, the theory was the selfish geneyou are a vehicle for promoting your genetics. If you were a grandparent at age 27-28 and taking the food from your grandchildren, because youre bigger, stronger, more capable, at this time in history when food was scarce, before agriculture existed, you would die. The species would die. So the best thing you would do from an evolutionary standpoint is die in your late 20s. In the Middle Ages that extended to the mid 30s. By the turn of the last century, average age of man was about 40. Today its extended to 78 and well double it again. So what is normal aging? Was it 27 or 28? Mid 30s? 40? You tell me. The reality is, without modern science and technology to fend off your infections or get an appendectomy when needed, most of the world would not be around today. Why should we extend and double the human lifespan again? If you asked that question 100 years ago, half the planet wouldnt be here. But lets take it a step further. The reality is, most people who I know at age 65, or 70, or 75 who at the top of their game, the last thing they want to do is die. If you could extend their healthy life by 20 or 30 years and they worked for another 20 to 30 years, it would be one of the biggest GDP gains for any nation on the planet. I would have loved to see Einstein or Marvin Minsky or any number of incredible scientists live a healthier, longer life and be more productive and add to the body of knowledge that they built. But at the end of the day, why shouldnt people live to 150? Whats wrong with that? Despite security concerns, states haven't upgraded voting tech In September 2015, the Brennan Center for Justice released a report on voting machine security that described how most states' systems were vulnerable to hacking because they relied on outdated hardware and software and had had little ability to conduct accurate post-election auditing. When the center released an update to that report on March 8, it found that not much has changed. Headed into the 2018 elections, jurisdictions in 41 states are using voting systems at least a decade out of date, a small improvement from the earlier study in which 44 states reported long-obsolete voting tech. Another modest increase was in the number of states in which election officials said they must replace voting equipment by 2020 -- 33 in 2018, up from 31 in 2015. Even though election security has received significant attention from the media, security experts and federal, state and local government officials following the 2016 presidential election, the new findings indicate that attention does not necessarily translate to substantive action. But it's not all bad news, Lawrence Norden, deputy director of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program and an author of both the 2015 and 2018 reports, told FCW, GCN's sibling site. The report cites the increasing role of federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the Election Assistance Commission as positive post-election developments. Norden and his co-authors say that trend will continue, whether state and local governments like it or not. However, Norden was surprised the results around voting machines were so consistent across both reports. There are still approximately 40 million registered voters living in counties without paper ballots, including 6.5 million voters in critical swing states like Pennsylvania. "I would have assumed that we'd continue to keep pace in the years since the 2016 election or maybe even move faster because of all the attention to security," Norden said. "In fact, much more progress happened before 2016 than has happened since." However, he noted that voting machine security is just one aspect of the election infrastructure. While policymakers rightly focus on it, it remains one of the more difficult aspects of the election system for hackers to meaningfully manipulate. "There are a lot easier targets in the election system, whether it's registration system, election-night reporting or tally servers attacks against those systems are actually probably a lot easier," he said. President Donald Trump made waves during a March 7 press conference when he said "certainly there was meddling" during the 2016 elections and endorsed more widespread use of paper ballots, something many cybersecurity experts have long called for. "It's old fashioned, but it's always good to have a paper backup system of voting," said Trump. "It's called paper. Not highly complex computers -- paper, and a lot of states are doing that, they're going to a paper backup." However, there's been little movement on this front, according to the Brennan Center study. In 2016, 14 states reported using paperless voting machines in at least some of their districts, while five used them statewide. The 2018 update found that just one of those 14 states -- Virginia -- has moved to replace its paperless voting systems. "While many paperless systems were replaced in the years before the 2016 election, since then, the country has made remarkably little progress -- even despite repeated warnings from intelligence officials and security experts that voter verified paper records are a critical backstop against cyberattacks," write the report's authors. State election officials continue to cite a lack of dedicated funding to replacing voting machines. Following Trump's comments, Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Robert Brady (D-Pa.), co-chairs of the Congressional Task Force on Election Security, released a statement expressing appreciation for the White House's endorsement of paper ballots but noted that "replacing state voting systems takes a great deal of time and money -- and many states have neither." A bipartisan effort in the Senate to include voting cybersecurity measures via an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security authorization bill was withdrawn because of objections from several states. Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) plan to offer their bill as standalone legislation. The lack of budget support has forced many state officials to look for alternative resources to update their voting infrastructure. Tech companies like Google and Cloudflare have started offering free 24-hour, year-round support services to states, counties and municipalities to protect election systems from denial-of-service and phishing attacks. Still other election officials have reported scrounging for spare voting machine parts on eBay. During a January 2018 summit on election security, David Stafford, supervisor of elections for Escambia County, Fla., recommended that states partner with local organizations. "Look in your own community. If you have a university, chances are there are some portion that are involved in cybersecurity," said Stafford. Norden said it is too late to make a substantive dent in voting machine replacements or upgrades before the 2018 election. But he noted that there is plenty of time for other policies -- such as instituting post-election audits for the 80 percent of the country that do have paper ballot machines -- that could make a difference in ensuring election integrity. This article was first posted to FCW, a sibling site to GCN. INDUSTRY INSIGHT MGT Act gives government seed funding for cloud migration While cloud computing is transforming businesses across industries and changing the way hosted services are delivered, the government has been slower to ditch legacy systems and move to the cloud. Now, thanks to the passage of the Modernizing Government Technology Act (MGT Act), federal agencies and departments will soon have access to funds to update their legacy IT systems. The first thing they should do is move these systems to the cloud. Many federal agencies spend more than 80 percent of their annual IT budgets just keeping their servers running. Operations and maintenance of legacy systems consume so much of their budgets that little, if any, resources remain to modernize or introduce new technology. The American Technology Council's recent Report to the President on Federal IT Modernization called for agencies to move to commercial cloud services wherever possible. The situation is so bad that the General Accountability Office put improving the management of IT acquisitions and operations on its high-risk list, meaning the percent of budget being consumed by legacy tech was considered a high risk to agency security and effectiveness. Think about that for a second. Agencies buying decisions from decades ago are putting their ability to perform essential tasks in limbo. The MGT Act addresses this funding shortfall by establishing a $250 million Technology Modernization Fund. The legislation also allows agencies to establish working capital funds that act in concert with the TMF to kick start fresh initiatives and introduce new tech. This funding addresses one of the barriers to agency IT modernization: seed money. Its has been difficult for agencies to buy new technology when all their money goes to supporting existing systems. Much like small tech start-ups in Silicon Valley, government agencies need seed money too. Now comes the big question: What will agencies do with that money? After years of neglect and numerous items added to their to-do lists, agencies now have the funding they need to make critical investments in their IT infrastructure. The answer for most agencies should be: Move to the cloud. Retiring legacy technology and adopting commercially proven cloud-based softwareas-a-service solutions should be the first step on every agencys modernization journey. Moving to the cloud has numerous benefits, including enabling agencies to deliver better services, increasing citizen satisfaction, reducing case volume and lowering costs. Agencies can work with vendors to consolidate legacy systems and eliminate the expensive upkeep and energy costs from running dozens of servers in their basements. The cloud also makes it easier for agencies to quickly scale up or scale down based on their needs. For example, an agency may not need to pay for certain applications and massive amounts of storage year-round. An agency like the Census Bureau needs to quickly scale up every 10 years, but it may not need to pay for some services every year. SaaS platforms allow agencies to grow as they increase utilization of applications across the platform and transform service delivery across all areas of the agencys mission. With cloud-based software, new updates can quickly patch vulnerabilities and introduce exciting new capabilities, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Previously, adding new capabilities like these to legacy systems would require a complicated procurement process and years of approvals. The federal government is on the verge of a new era of digital transformation thanks to the MGT Act. By bringing some of Silicon Valleys entrepreneurial attitude to Washington, D.C., MGT has sparked a modernization in government services -- enabling agencies stop funding legacy IT and move to cloud-based SaaS solutions. OAKVILLE, Ontario, March 08, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Giyani Metals Corporation (TSXV:WDG) (GR:A2DUU8) (Giyani or the Company) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Kneipe Setlhare as country manager. He will be based out of Giyanis new regional office in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. As Giyanis country manager in Botswana, Mr. Setlhare will ensure that the Company meets all requirements to maintain compliance with government regulations, obtain necessary approvals in a timely manner, and manage local third party contractors. Additionally, Mr. Setlhare will supervise the development of the Companys Kanye manganese project, including the upcoming field program, and manage relationships with the local communities. Mr. Kneipe Setlhare graduated from the University of Botswana and is a mining engineer with over 12 years of experience in mining operations management, including roles with BCL Mines and Smelting, and Discovery Metals Limited. He is also a director of Marcelle Holdings who vended 12 manganese licences to Giyani in 2017. The office in Gaborone will provide Giyani with necessary logistical and legal infrastructure to establish itself as a credible mining company that is well positioned to contribute to the development and diversification of the Botswana mining sector. I am very pleased with the progress that we have achieved in Botswana thus far. The setup of a local office in the capital Gaborone, gives us the ability to accelerate the development of our Kanye manganese project. We welcome Mr. Sethlhare to the Giyani team and look forward to his contribution to the growth of our Company said Robin Birchall, CEO. About Giyani Giyani Metals Corp. is a Canadian based junior exploration company focused on creating shareholder value by accelerating the development of its high-grade manganese project in the Kanye Basin, Botswana, Africa. Additional information and corporate documents may be found on www.sedar.com and on Giyani Metals Corp. website: http://giyanimetals.com/. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Giyani Metals Corp. Robin Birchall, CEO Contact: Giyani Metals Corporation Robin Birchall CEO, Director +447711313019 rbirchall@giyanimetals.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 news release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, the financial picture of the Company etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statement. Kiadis Pharma launches a private placement of approximately 2.6 million new shares Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 12, 2018 - Kiadis Pharma N.V. ("Kiadis Pharma" or the "Company") (Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels: KDS), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a T-cell immunotherapy product designed to reduce Graft versus Host Disease (GVHD) in hematopoietic stem cell transplantations (HSCT), today announces the launch of a private placement of approximately 2.6 million new shares to institutional investors, representing approximately 14.8% of the Company's current issued share capital (the "Placing"). Existing shareholders of the Company will not have pre-emptive rights in relation to the new shares to be issued. The new shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the currently outstanding shares of the Company. With the capital increase, the Company intends to make full use of the remaining authority that the shareholders meeting has granted to the Company's Management and Supervisory Boards to issue new shares. Kiadis Pharma intends to use the net proceeds of the Placing to: continue the Phase 3 international, randomized, controlled, multicentre clinical trial for ATIR101 in the United States, Canada and Europe; generate additional manufacturing capacity at vendors and to refurbish, equip and staff its leased manufacturing facility; further prepare the Company for commercialization by investing into a commercial organization, market access preparation and reimbursement discussions; support further production process optimization of ATIR; expand the organization to accommodate the increased number of activities; start a further clinical trial to assess the benefit of ATIR101 in conjunction with another T-cell depleted hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) protocol or with a cyclophosphamide-based haplo transplantation protocol; apply funds for debt repayment, capital expenditures, general and administrative expenses, general corporate purposes in line with Kiadis Pharma's strategy and other working capital needs; and finance potential opportunities to broaden and diversify the research and development portfolio (e.g. through in-licensing or acquiring programs and companies with synergistic or complementary technologies, products and/or product candidates). The new shares will be placed with institutional investors through an accelerated bookbuilding process and the subscription price and the number of shares to be issued in the Placing will be determined through this process. The bookbuilding period for the Placing will commence today with immediate effect and will close at short notice. In relation to the Placing, the Company has, subject to customary exemptions, agreed to a lock-up undertaking for a period of 90 calendar days after the settlement date on future share issuances. In addition, and also subject to customary exemptions, the two largest shareholders of the Company (funds represented by and/or affiliated with Life Sciences Partners and Draper Esprit, together representing 43.8% of the share capital of the Company) as well as all members of the Company's Management Board and Supervisory Board have agreed to a lock-up undertaking for a period of 90 calendar days after the settlement date on future share disposals. The Company will announce the number of new shares placed and the subscription price in the Placing in a subsequent press release expected to be published before the beginning of trading on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Brussels on Tuesday March 13, 2018. A registration document, approved by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) on March 12, 2018, is available free of charge on the Company's website (www.kiadis.com). A summary and securities note, which together with the registration document will form the listing prospectus on the basis of which the new shares will be admitted to trading on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Brussels, will be submitted to the AFM with a view to receiving its approval on or about March 13, 2018, following which it will be made available free of charge on the Company's website (www.kiadis.com). Jefferies International Limited is acting as Sole Bookrunner, Canaccord Genuity Limited as Lead Manager, Chardan as Co-Lead Manager and LifeSci Capital LLC as Co-Manager in connection with the Placing. Saola Healthcare Partners is acting as financial advisor to the Company. About Kiadis Pharma Kiadis Pharma's allodepleted T-cell immunotherapy product, given after a haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), is designed to reduce Graft versus Host Disease (GVHD). Single dose Phase 2 data with lead product ATIR101(TM) in patients with blood cancer shows a strong and clinically very relevant improvement over literature for the Baltimore protocol, with reduced risk of GVHD. Based on the positive results from the Phase 2 trial, the Company submitted a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in April 2017, for approval of ATIR101(TM) across the EU as an adjunctive treatment in HSCT for malignant disease. Kiadis Pharma received Day 120 questions in September 2017 and is on track for potential (conditional) approval in Q4 2018 and launch in H2 2019. Kiadis Pharma is conducting a Phase 3 trial with ATIR101(TM) across Europe and North America (head to head against the Baltimore protocol). The first patient was enrolled in December 2017. In September 2017 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted ATIR101(TM) the Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation. ATIR101(TM) has been granted Orphan Drug Designations both in the US and Europe. The Company's shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels under the ticker KDS. Website: www.kiadis.com Company presentation: http://www.kiadis.com/company-presentation/ For more information, please contact: Kiadis Pharma: Karl Hard Head of IR & Communications Tel. +31 611 096 298 k.hard@kiadis.com Important Notices This announcement not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, in or into the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia), Australia, Canada, Japan, South Africa or any other jurisdiction where to do so might constitute a violation or breach of any applicable law or regulation. This announcement is not a prospectus for the purposes of the Prospectus Directive (as defined below). This announcement is for information purposes only and is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy securities of Company in the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Africa or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration, exemption from registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction, and the distribution of this communication in jurisdictions may be similarly restricted. This announcement should not be regarded as an opinion or recommendation concerning the purchase or sale of securities of the Company. Persons into whose possession this communication 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 jurisdictions. The securities mentioned herein have not been and will not be registered under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "US Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration under the US Securities Act or an available exemption from, or transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the US Securities Act. There will be no public offering of securities in the United States. In the United Kingdom this announcement is only being distributed to, and is only directed at, and any investment or investment activity to which this announcement relates is available only to, and will be engaged in only with, qualified investors as defined in the Prospectus Directive who are (i) investment professionals falling with Article 19(5) of the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"); or (ii) high net worth entities falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order, or (iii) other persons to whom it may otherwise be lawfully communicated (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). Persons who are not relevant persons should not take any action on the basis of this announcement and should not act or rely on it. The Company has not authorized any offer to the public of securities in any Member State of the European Economic Area. With respect to any Member State of the European Economic Area and which has implemented the Prospectus Directive (each a "Relevant Member State"), no action has been undertaken or will be undertaken to make an offer to the public of securities requiring publication of a prospectus in any Relevant Member State. As a result, the securities may only be offered in Relevant Member States (i) to any legal entity which is a qualified investor as defined in the Prospectus Directive; or (ii) in any other circumstances falling within Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Directive. For the purpose of this paragraph, the expression "offer of securities to the public" means the communication in any form and by any means of sufficient information on the terms of the offer and the securities to be offered so as to enable the investor to decide to exercise, purchase or subscribe for the securities, as the same may be varied in that Relevant Member State by any measure implementing the Prospectus Directive in that Relevant Member State and the expression "Prospectus Directive" means Directive 2003/71/EC (and amendments thereto, including Directive 2010/73/EU, to the extent implemented in the Relevant Member State), and includes any relevant implementing measure in the Relevant Member State. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the Netherlands the shares are not and may not be offered other than to persons or entities who or which are qualified investors (gekwalificeerde beleggers) as defined in Section 1:1 of the Dutch Financial Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht) and in Belgium the shares may not be offered other than to persons or entities who or which are qualified investors as defined in Article 101 of the Belgian law dated 16 June 2006 (Wet op de openbare aanbieding van beleggingsinstrumenten en de toelating van beleggingsinstrumenten tot de verhandeling op een gereglementeerde markt). Any investment decision in connection with the Placing must be made on the basis of all publicly available information relating to the Company and the new shares to be placed. The information contained in this announcement is for background purposes only and does not purport to be full or complete. No reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information contained in this announcement or its accuracy or completeness. This announcement does not purport to identify or suggest the risks (direct or indirect) which may be associated with an investment in the Company or the new shares. The new shares shall be admitted to listing and trading on Euronext Amsterdam on the basis of a listing prospectus, consisting of a registration document (the "Registration Document") and a summary and securities note (the "Summary and Securities Note"). The Registration Document, approved by the AFM on March 12, 2018, is available free of charge on the Company's website (www.kiadis.com). The Summary and Securities Note will contain a description of risks and uncertainties relating to holding shares in the Company. These risks and uncertainties include, among others: (i) the ownership of the Shares is highly concentrated and your interests may conflict with the interests of the Company's significant shareholders; (ii) U.S. and other non-Dutch holders of the Shares may be unable to exercise pre-emptive rights; (iii) the Company does not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future; (iv) the Company believes that it was a passive foreign investment company (PFIC) during its 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 taxable years and that it may be so as well during its 2018 taxable year, generally resulting in adverse tax consequences to U.S. investors; and (v) any sale, purchase or exchange of Shares may become subject to a common financial transaction tax. The Summary and Securities Note shall be made generally available via the Company's website (www.kiadis.com) if and when approved by the AFM. In connection with any offering of the new shares, each of Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), Canaccord Genuity Limited ("Canaccord"), Chardan Capital Markets, LLC ("Chardan") and LifeSci Capital LLC ("LifeSci Capital" and, together with Jefferies, Canaccord and Chardan, the "Banks") and any of their respective affiliates acting as an investor for their own account may take up as a proprietary position any new shares and in that capacity may retain, purchase or sell for their own account such new shares. In addition, any of them or their respective affiliates may enter into financing arrangements and swaps with investors in connection with which that any of them (or their affiliates) may from time to time acquire, hold or dispose of new shares. None of the Banks or any of their respective affiliates intends to disclose the extent of any such investment or transactions otherwise than in accordance with any legal or regulatory obligation to do so. None of the Banks or any of their respective affiliates, directors, officers, employees, advisers and agents accepts any responsibility or liability whatsoever for/or makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the truth, fullness, accuracy or completeness of the information in this document (or whether any information has been omitted from the document) or any other information relating to the Company or its associated companies, whether written, oral or in a visual or electronic form, and howsoever transmitted or made available or for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this document or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. None of the Company, the Banks or any of their respective affiliates directors, officers, employees, agents, affiliates or advisers is under any obligation to update, complete, revise or keep current the information contained in this document to which it relates or to provide the recipient of with access to any additional information that may arise in connection with it. Jefferies and Canaccord are each authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority. Each of the Banks is acting exclusively for the Company and no one else in connection with this announcement or any future transaction in connection with it. None of the Banks or any of their respective affiliates will regard any other person (whether or not a recipient of this document) as a client or will be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to its clients or for the giving of advice in relation to the contents of this announcement or any transaction, matter or arrangement referred to in this announcement. The Company's managing director and CEO Arthur Lahr is responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on behalf of Kiadis Pharma N.V. This announcement contains statements about the Company that are or may be forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this announcement may be forward-looking statements. Without limitation, any statements preceded or followed by or that include the words "targets", "plans", "believes", "expects", "aims", "intends", "will", "may", "anticipates", "estimates", "projects" or words or terms of similar substance or the negative thereof are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of any such person to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions. No undue reliance should be placed on any forward-looking statement, which speak only as of the date they were made. All subsequent oral or written forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or any persons acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this statement. Denver, Colo., March 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Indian College Fund honored Dr. Cynthia Lindquist, President of Cankdeska Cikana Community College in Ft. Totten, North Dakota, for her outstanding contributions to American Indian higher education as its Tribal College and University Honoree of the Year. Dr. Lindquist, along with 34 American Indian scholarship recipients named as Students of the Year, were lauded at a reception hosted by the College Fund in Bismarck, North Dakota. The program, sponsored by the Adolph Coors Foundation, awarded Dr. Lindquist a $1,000 honorarium and each student of the year a $1,200 scholarship. Lindquist says she never set out to be a college president. College was a dream for me as a high school kid. I was the oldest of 13 kids, and there was no money for college, she says. But thanks to her parents and both sets of grandparents raising her with a strong work ethic, college is exactly where she landed. After graduating from high school Lindquist went to work for Sioux Manufacturing Corporation (SMC) as a secretary clerk in Ft. Totten. When the company was established, it was managed by white men from the Brunswick Corporation. But her tribe, the Spirit Lake Dakota, set the goal to train tribal members to become leaders in the company. She saw an opportunity for a higher education. I left being a secretary/clerk to get an undergraduate degree at University of North Dakota, and lo and behold, who was there but Karen Gayton Swisher and David Gipp (Who later became fellow tribal college presidents)! I was in college with other Indians! Lindquist says at the time there were not many other American Indian college students. But she persisted with her coursework from the 1970s to early 1980s, and returned to SMC with a bachelors degree in 1981. She became a manager. After five-six months, our chairman at the time, Elmer White, asked me to work for the tribe as the Health Director Planner. And that is how it all began. I was in that role for seven years. I got to know all about Indian health and health systems, she says. She went on to earn her masters degree in public administration with an emphasis on Indian health systems from the University of South Dakota. For two-and-a-half years she studied while working and driving every two months to Rapid City, South Dakotaa 9- to 12-hour commute, depending on the weather. It was really intense. We got stuck in blizzards, you name it. But she found that the opportunity for interacting with other Natives in the program were better this time: 15 of the 30 people in the program were Native, including Lynn Davis, the wife of Carty Monette, the former founding president of Turtle Mountain Community College. Like many of the people in her cohort, Lindquist says, We never aspired to our roles. We were in the right place at the right time. Opportunity opened up. The self-determination movement was beginning around the late seventies and early eighties, and Indian Health Service (IHS) was working hard to establish Indian health programs. Lindquists health career path eventually took her to doing Indian health work at the national level for IHS, working on a traditional medicine initiative for the agency. She was also the first political appointee for IHS, working as a Chief of Staff for the Director for the Clinton administration before returning to North Dakota, where she was appointed by Governor Ed Schafer as the Director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission. At the time of this interview, Lindquist had just returned from Washington D.C. for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium meetings at which tribal college presidents, faculty, staff, and students from across the country visited Capitol Hill to speak to elected officials to request funding support for TCUs and Native higher education. Lindquist said, When I reflect about last week, I realize we have come so far. Our students have a level of sophistication they didnt have before. We do well to stress this while also emphasizing their culture, language, and Native values and what they mean. Education is really about being informed, seeing other sides, digging for information, while respecting other opinions and ideas and remaining grounded in our spirituality. Being Dakota means having a spiritual foundation, no matter what that is. During the time Lindquist was studying community medicine and rural health at Grand Forks working to establish an Indian health pathway to medical school, she was recruited by two tribal elders to apply for the position of president at Cankdeska Cikana Community College in her home community. The transition was a logical one. In addition to hard work being a family value, education is, too. Lindquists mother was on the CCCC Board of Regents and was also a CCCC graduate way before I became president. Lindquist also had experience there, having taught classes when she was the tribes health director/planner. She jumped at the chance. I have been there ever since. I love being back home, with my family, and with my Mom, who just turned 88 on Friday, she said. Things happen for a reason. Lindquist says her health care background equipped her perfectly for her role as a leader in a Native-serving higher education institution. If people dont have some concept of health and well-being, they cannot be a college student. You have to be physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy, and ask, Am I a good role model? Lindquist went on to earn a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of North Dakota in 2006. She used her educational path and healthcare grant-making experience to grow her campus. I put in for every grant from multiple funding sources. I quadrupled the size of my campus in 15 years, she says. When she started at the college, it was housed in a typical leftover federal building. The white walls were dirty and the building contained asbestos. She wondered who would want to go to school there. After learning that abandoning the building was not an option due to financial investments the federal government and American Indian College Fund had made in it, she set to work cleaning it up. We made the renovations look seamless and tied the old in with the new, she says. The campus buildings are now all connected, a necessity in the cold northern North Dakota winters. In addition to physical growth, the college also doubled the number of graduates from when she started, maintains a reserve account, and has maintained spotless audits. As a leader Lindquist says she is most proud of her colleges good data and transparency. The community college belongs to the people. We want integrity there. We want to practice what we preach and give back to the community. Her employees share her commitment. Lindquist says they are devoted, resourceful, and efficient. Ideally we should have one-third more employees, like a grant writer, a data specialist, and a transfer specialist. But we have good, qualified people. Our teachers drive 40-50 miles one way from small farming communities around the reservation. And when we have 40 graduates every May, we are as proud as could be. Many would not be college students without Cankdeska Cikana Community College. There is a lot of historical trauma in our community. The suspicion of education in our communities still lingers. Slowly we are breaking it, she says. She credits integrating prayer, culture, and language for that. The role of a tribal college president isnt just a job, it is a way of life for Lindquist. In addition to focusing her work on the Dakota way of life, her personal life reflects that, with a focus on prayer and family. She enjoys spending time in ceremonies and with her extended family of three children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. She also enjoys gathering with other tribal college presidents, Talking to each other, energizing each other, and helping keep things in perspective, she says. Lindquists Dakota name, Hoton Ho Waste Winyan, means Good Voice or Good Talk Woman, and was bestowed upon her in honor of her great grandmother. To carry a Dakota name implies you speak the truth and from your heart, she says. And she carries it well. Its good work. I am humbled and I am glad I am home and I am glad I got the experiences to be able to do what I do. Its a privilege to do this work and know I have a team supporting me, all with the goal of student success. The 34 students named as Students of the Year are a testament to the hard work of the tribal college presidents as well as their individual commitments to education. The scholars honored include: Aaniiih Nakoda College Shauntae St. Clair Bay Mills Community College Alea Ward Blackfeet Community College Lana Wagner Cankdeska Cikana Community College Nicole Brown Chief Dull Knife College Rebecca Cook College of Menominee Nation Adam Schulz College of the Muscogee Nation Dakota Kahbeah Dine College Jordan Mescal Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Jeroam DeFoe Fort Peck Community College Justin Gray Hawk Sr. Haskell Indian Nations University Cody Lanyate Illisagvik College Amber Downey Institute of American Indian Arts Charlie Cuny Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College Joshua Robinson Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Com. College Melissa Knop Leech Lake Tribal College Alicia Bowstring Little Big Horn College Yolanda Turnsplenty Little Priest Tribal College Kellen Kelsey Navajo Technical University Ashley Joe Nebraska Indian Community College Cornelia Farley-Widow Northwest Indian College Frank Lawrence Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College Caley Fox Oglala Lakota College Jamie White Face Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College Patrick Nahgahgwon Salish Kootenai College JoDawna Tso Sinte Gleska University Pauline Jackson Sisseton Wahpeton College Deborah Anderson Sitting Bull College Kaylie Trottier Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute Martinez Wagner Stone Child College McKenzie Gopher Tohono O'odham Community College Diana Antone Turtle Mountain Community College Samantha Bercier United Tribes Technical College Austin Cree White Earth Tribal and Community College Corey Weaver About the American Indian College Fund Founded in 1989, the American Indian College Fund has been the nations largest charity supporting Native higher education for more than 28 years. The College Fund believes Education is the answer" and provided 6,548 scholarships last year totaling $7.6 million to American Indian students, with more than 125,000 scholarships totaling over $100 million since its inception. The College Fund also supports a variety of academic and support programs at the nations 35 accredited tribal colleges and universities, which are located on or near Indian reservations, ensuring students have the tools to graduate and succeed in their careers. The College Fund consistently receives top ratings from independent charity evaluators, and received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator and is one of the nations top 100 charities named to the Better Business Bureaus Wise Giving Alliance. For more information about the American Indian College Fund, please visit www.collegefund.org. Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/95214877-e50e-4b6a-87a1-1f7f4f1961e6 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/38a75824-f99e-4624-b6f9-58f2a0b1779f VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Better Business Bureaus across Canada are proud to welcome the third, annual BBB National Password Day. This is a reminder for all Canadians, whether they are a consumer or a business owner, to change the passwords to their online accounts two or three times a year to better protect personal and financial information. BBB National Password Day runs in conjunction with BBBs National Top 10 Scams and the Competition Bureau of Canadas Fraud Prevention Month - both launched in March. Studies now show that by the end of the decade the average person will have over 200 online accounts and subscriptions that contain sensitive information, says Jeanette Jackson, Director of Communications & Strategic Partnerships for BBB serving Mainland BC. While most of those wont be used much the information such as passwords, emails, and even credit card data is still there. On Thursday, March 15, BBB encourages you to celebrate National Password Day by scheduling 30 minutes to update your passwords across bank accounts, social networks, email accounts and even point-of-sale (POS) equipment. Select strong passwords that are difficult to guess and vary across your many accounts. Change passwords frequently experts recommend two to three times a year at minimum and be sure to never share your passwords with anyone. Important tips: Make your password tough to decipher Use at least 8 characters Use upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols Avoid words found in the dictionary Avoid using family names Avoid using birth dates To learn more, including additional password security best practices, go to bit.ly/password-day. For information on BBBs National Top 10 Scams, go to bit.ly/top10scams. Media Contacts: For media contacts in your Canadian BBB service area, go to bit.ly/top10contacts. About BBB For more than 100 years, Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses and brands they can trust. In 2017, people turned to BBB more than 365 million times for information on local businesses, all available for free at bbb.org. Better Business Bureaus in Canada represent 10 of 103 independent BBBs in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) is the network hub for BBBs in the US and Canada. Like BBBs, CBBB is dedicated to fostering honest and responsive relationships between businesses and consumers -- instilling consumer confidence and advancing a trustworthy marketplace for all. Ram Bahadur used to sexually exploit girls, young women Ram Bahadur Chaudhary, who has been arrested on charge of torturing Radha Chaudhary, 18, over witchcraft allegation in Ghodaghodi Municipality-5 of Kailali district, was long involved in sexual exploitation of girls and young women in the name of healing them. DEARBORN, Mich., March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In late February, when two large buses of students from Buxton School in Williamstown, Mass. arrived at Oakwood Common, the Beaumont community in Dearborn, residents soon discovered they were in for a treat. Each year high school students from this private coeducational boarding school travel to a notable city and share their talents by performing a theatrical production. This year they selected Detroit and included Oakwood Common as one of two audiences in the area for students to present Welcome Home: An Original Performance. We were honored to be selected, said Shavon Baker, Oakwood Commons activities supervisor, who shared that Buxton students first visited the Oakwood Common campus five years ago. Both times, they reached out to us, so we are really fortunate. The theme of this years production of welcome home also resonated with our residents. There are many meanings for the word home, said Allison Lerman-Gluck, Buxton School drama teacher and director. Our students and audiences come to recognize that sometimes home is a feeling rather than a place. The performance was composed of theatrical scenes, a short play, a movement piece, West African dance and drum, and a shadow play. It was orchestrated with original musical compositions inspired by songs about home. In addition to the students who performed, classmates managed the entire production, including lighting and sound equipment, added Baker. It was extremely professional, and its not hard to imagine these young people going into careers that take them as far as the Academy awards. Our residents are still talking about them. Lerman-Gluck said, Buxton students were pleased to perform in such a lovely space, and they felt welcome at Oakwood Common. About Buxton School Founded in 1928, Buxton School is a private, coeducational boarding school of 90 students located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. While it is primarily a college preparatory high school, there is a strong emphasis on the performing arts. Each year students and faculty take an annual week-long trip to cities in the U.S., as well as travels to Cuba, Puerto Rico and Nicaragua. About Oakwood Common Oakwood Common, a Beaumont community, offers one and two bedroom senior living apartments located at 16351 Rotunda Drive, within a beautiful 29-acre community. It includes exquisite landscaping, nature trails and scenic views along the historic Rouge River Gateway in Dearborn. Assisted living and a comprehensive rehabilitation and skilled nursing center are also available for those with additional needs. For more information and to arrange tours of Oakwood Common, call 800-642-4663. Media Contacts Donna Brandt Oakwood Common 313-253-9583 Donna.Brandt@beaumont.org Margaret Blohm, APR Partner, Studio 313 LLC Margaux & Associates, LLC 313-406-3467 313-377-0735 cell mblohm@studio313llc.com Photos accompanying this announcement are available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1b81f5bc-aa80-4344-be9e-3805e47cd969 http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/578dd034-c957-4b1a-a733-333ed4dbf5d6 http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/aafe7be8-7b5b-4d5b-9170-b7b62af9ad39 2013gmat wrote: Despite no proof that the consumption of any particular foods reverse hardening of the arteries, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods could help reverse blockage of coronory aryeries, the blood vessels that feed the heart. a) Despite no proof that the consumption of any particular foods reverse hardening of the arteries, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods could b)Despite no foods having been proved to reverse hardening of the arteries when consumed, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods can c) Although the consumption of no particular foods have been proved to reverse hardening of the arteries, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods could d)Although not proved that the consumption of any foods reverse hardening of the arteries, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods can e)Although it has not been proved that the consumption of any particular food will reverse hardening of the arteries, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods can what does 'IT' refers to ? placeholder IT NOT (1) Postpone infinitive subjects: (2) Postpone That-clause Subjects. (3) Postpone infinitive or That-clause Objects. Source: Despite no proof that the consumption of any particular foods reverse hardening of the arteries, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods could Wrong. Despite no proof that reverse s Wrong. when consumed Wrong. have Wrong. Although not proved that reverse Correct. Hi 2013gmat.This question is about the usage of "".Some times it would be nice to move an awkward subject or object to the back of the sentence. In these cases, we can put an it in the sentence where the subject or object used to be. We call this use of it "placeholder IT". Dolook for a noun antecedent for a Placeholder IT.There are three situations in which you might can use Placeholder It on the GMAT.Awkward: TO RESIST temptation is futileBetter: IT is futile TO RESIST temptation.Awkward: THAT we scored at all gave us encouragement.Better: It gave use encouragement THAT we scored at all.Right: She made IT possible for us TO ATTEND the movie.Now, back to your question.help reverse blockage of coronory aryeries, the blood vessels that feed the heart.a) Despite no proof that the consumption of any particular foods reverse hardening of the arteries, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods could- "" is barely used. "Despite..." itself often indicates negative contrast, so "despite no proof" seems to be double negative. "Despite the fact that" is CORRECT usage.- "the consumption" is singular --> "" is wrong. Should be "reverseb)Despite no foods having been proved to reverse hardening of the arteries when consumed, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods can- Meaning problem: "no food....proved to reverse....." <== "consumed" is past tense and ACTIVE voice. It means the food proved abc.... when it consumes something? It's illogical. The food should BE consumed (passive voice). To make the sentence clear, we need an auxiliary verb before "consumed" to change the sentence from active voice to passive voice.c) Although the consumption of no particular foods have been proved to reverse hardening of the arteries, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods could- "the consumption" is singular --> "" is wrong.d)Although not proved that the consumption of any foods reverse hardening of the arteries, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods can- "" is wrong grammar. "Although + clause" is correct.- "the consumption" is singular --> "" is wrong.e)Although it has not been proved that the consumption of any particular food will reverse hardening of the arteries, studies indicate that refraining from eating certain foods can- "It" is placeholder it. Do not look for its antecedent, because there is NO antecedent of "it" in the sentence. Placeholder IT moves the That-clause to the back, making the sentence better.Hope it helps. Krebs01 wrote: What I think you need to know is: - I've done the free CAT exam from Manhattan, which I got a 530 score. Attachment: AA34A13C-11A3-4EF9-B76D-978C7524AF52.png - I've been studying since last year; however, I had to do a two moth break because I went to Peru. - last year after I spent one mont or two studying 2 hours top per day I got 540 on the free CAT exam. - My official GMAT exam will happen on April 13th I don't realy know if I should focus in studying theory or doing exercises or both. I'm currently not working so I have plenty of leisure time, but I do need to sutdy for the TOEFL too (not much though). How do you advise me to follow the next weeks of study? I've found an one month study plan from that seem good, but I think it migh be too hardcore. It's pretty much 90 - 100 exercises per day + video lessons. Thanks for any advice. Hello!!What I think you need to know is:- I've done the free CAT exam from Manhattan, which I got a 530 score.- I've been studying since last year; however, I had to do a two moth break because I went to Peru.- last year after I spent one mont or two studying 2 hours top per day I got 540 on the free CAT exam.- My official GMAT exam will happen on April 13thI don't realy know if I should focus in studying theory or doing exercises or both. I'm currently not working so I have plenty of leisure time, but I do need to sutdy for the TOEFL too (not much though).How do you advise me to follow the next weeks of study? I've found an one month study plan from that seem good, but I think it migh be too hardcore. It's pretty much 90 - 100 exercises per day + video lessons.Thanks for any advice. Hi Krebs01,You should dedicate around 3 months to Improve your Score. It's a good thing you have taken GMAT PREP practice test. You now know your weaknesses and can work on them. If you are willing to study dedicatedly for that period, you are sure to achieve your goal. Before taking a lot of practice tests I would encourage you to solidfy your base first. Only after you feel you are at a certain level you can start doing practice test. I believe you may benefit from taking a GMATPREP course. If you are willing, there are some great GMAT prep companies that can help you with your preparation.In order to make an informed decision I would highly encourage you to go to their websites and try on their free trial and decide for yourself which one do you like better. You try out free access to , and Optimus Prep as they have great reviews on GMATCLUB.Also I would highly encourage you to consider verbal online or the verbal live course. They are both amazing courses especially designed for non-natives and they are both within your budget. They offer almost 25% of their courses for free so you can try out their free trial to decide which one you want to go for. Plus the which is included in both the courses is one of the best verbal practice tools in the market. You can easily track your progress in that you can identify your strengths and analyze and improve on your weak areas.You can also try out the they are phenomenal and cover the entire syllabus well. I must add that if you are particularly looking to discover and improve on your weak areas in quant; a subscription to is the best way to do that. They are indeed phenomenal and will not only pinpoint your weak areas but also help you improve on them.Further taking multiple mocks might help. Apart from the GMATPREP, tests and Tests in my experience have good verbal and Quant section and will certainly help you point out and improve your weak areas.Further another advantage of taking many mocks is to build up your stamina. Apart from the GMATPREP tests, taking practise tests of any major GMATPREP company ought to do that.I would also encourage you to purchase the latest version of and the verbal review for some great additional practice. Here is a link that will help you with your decision. https://gmatclub.com/forum/best-gmat-ve ... ml?fl=menuLastly, you can check out a very interesting article by Mike McGarry from detailing a 3 month study plan https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/3-month-g ... -students/. You will find it very helpful as it gives out a study plan as per your needs.Hope this helps. All the best Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+ pre-booking kicks off Samsung has announced the launch of their latest flagships, the Galaxy S9 and S9+ in Nepal. The company is looking to reshape the way people communicate, share and experience the world through these smartphones. Australian government officials have been banned from using a major Chinese messaging app amidst security concerns. The Department of Defence will no longer allow staff to use the WeChat app on Defence-issued devices, according to the Australian Financial Review. "Defence does not provide or support the use of unauthorised software, including the WeChat social media application, on Defence mobile devices," the Department said in a statement. It was also reported that instant messaging via Facebook Messenger is allowed by the Department, and there is currently a security investigation of WhatsApp underway. WhatsApp secures all messages with end-to-end encryption. The AFR quoted one anonymous cyber security expert, linked to the government, who said, applications like WeChat have a higher ability to aggregate and monitor data they [Defence] would be very nervous about software being loaded onto a device which could then access a secure military network. The ban comes after FBI Director, Chris Way told a Senate Intelligence Committee that he did not trust Chinese-owned Huawei and ZTE phones and warned consumers to avoid them. Since its development in 2011, WeChat has grown from a messaging app to an all-in-one portal, now allowing payments via WeChat Pay. WeChat has almost 1 billion users, mostly based in China. Its parent company, Tencent, recently became Chinas first half-trillion-dollar company with much of its success attributed to the Chinese Communist Party banning rivals such as Google and Facebook. Although the Chinese government does not have an official share in Tencent, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that it is pushing Tencent to offer the state a stake in the business and a direct role in corporate decision-making. In 2016, Amnesty International ranked global instant messaging apps and parent companies on how well they use encryption to protect online privacy. Ranking each company out of 100, Tencent and WeChat received a score of 0. Not only did it fail to adequately meet any of the criteria, but it was the only company which has not stated publicly that it will not grant government requests to access encrypted messages by building a backdoor, it said. The top ranked company was Facebook, with its instant messaging apps Messenger and WhatsApp receiving a score of 73/100. Suspects of Tikapur carnage end hunger strike after 4-pt deal Agitating inmates at Kailali District Prison, who are in judicial custody for their alleged involvement in 2015 Tikapur incident, ended their hunger strike on the ninth day on Monday, following a four-point agreement with the local administration. Chief District Officer (CDO) Govinda Rijal ended the strike of 23 accused by feeding them juice. Two women gang-raped in 24 hours Two gang rape incidents have occurred within the span of 24 hours in Saptari district. Police on Monday said two women, ages 18 and 31, were raped at Shambhunath Municipality and Bishnupur Rural Municipality in the district on Sunday and Saturday respectively. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ UMLs Timilsina elected unopposed as NA chair CPN-UML leader Ganesh Timilsina has been elected unopposed as Chair of the National Assembly after no other parties filed their candidacy for the post. New York, Mar 13 (JEN): With the rainy season approaching in South Sudan, where one in three people has been displaced by more than four years of conflict, a senior United Nations humanitarian official has called for urgent financial support to distribute and preposition life-saving aid supplies. Due to seasonal time pressure, we need early funding now to reach millions of people with multi-sectoral assistance during the dry season, through road transport and prepositioning of life-saving aid supplies, said Alain Noudehou, the Humanitarian Coordinator in the African country, in a press release issued over the weekend by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). He said that rain would make the condition of roads difficult for transporting aid supplies and that airlifts would cost many times more than ground transport. A recent report analyzing food security access to adequate food projected that more than seven million people, or almost two-thirds of South Sudans population, could become severely food insecure between May and July without sustained humanitarian assistance and access. The delegation met with the Governor of Leer, community leaders and aid agencies who are currently assisting tens of thousands of people across the region.Noudehous statement came after a high-level delegation of donors, heads of humanitarian agencies and partners visited Leer in the Unity region of the country's north to see first-hand the plight of the 90,000 people living there. Leer was one of two counties affected by famine in 2017. Although the famine was stopped due to intensive humanitarian intervention, the situation remains fragile with about 85 per cent of the population predicted to reach crisis and emergency food insecurity conditions by the end of April. South Sudan attained independence from Sudan in 2011, but a political face-off between two rival factions plunged the worlds newest country into full blown conflict in December 2013. With the conflict now in its fifth year, nearly 4.3 million people, or one in three, have been displaced, including more than 1.8 million who are internally displaced and about 2.5 million who are in neighbouring countries. Once again, I strongly urge all parties to the conflict to stop the fighting and to ensure that humanitarian agencies are given free, safe and unhindered access to all areas of South Sudan, and for all bureaucratic impediments to be removed, said Mr. Noudehou. UNICEF/Holt Kabul, Mar 13 (IBNS): Police have arrested six alleged robbers from western Ghor and Herat provinces of Afghanistan, media reports said on Tuesday. Ghor police spokesman Iqbal Nizami told Pajhwok Afghan News that two robbers were arrested in Ghalmin locality of Firozkoh city, the provincial capital, early on Tuesday morning. He said locals were concerned over the increased number of motor bikes theft in the area. Conducting investigation, police said they arrested two thieves from the area with stolen motor bikes. Abdul Ahad, Herat police spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News of the country that police had arrested four robbers accused stealing gold and other materials. Image: UN website Unified party to have six executive committees The unified Communist Party of Nepal will have six layers of executive committees, a member of the task force headed by Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa (Maoist Centre) that is overseeing the final organisational structure of the new party said on Monday. In August, the BBC revealed that approximately 150 of its journalists and contributors had been made subject to an Iranian court order that froze their assets and prevented them from conducting transactions or inheriting property in the country. This led to the BBC making a formal complaint to the United Nations in October. And now, for the first time, BBC journalists will be sharing their personal experiences with the international community, following reports that the harassment has worsened in the months since the initial complaint. Plans are already in place for some such journalists to address the ongoing session of the UN Human Rights Council, and other actions are expected to follow. In a statement regarding this decision, BBC Director General Tony Hall noted, We are not the only media organization to have been harassed or forced to compromise when dealing with Iran. In truth, this story is much wider: it is a story about fundamental human rights. The Iranian regime is famously paranoid about foreign infiltration, be it political, economic, or cultural in nature. And this paranoia has apparently intensified in recent years, following the opening of nuclear negotiations between six world powers and the government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. While those negotiations were at their peak, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei barred his subordinates from negotiating with the West over any other matters, and this position has been reiterated on many subsequent occasions by him, Rouhani, and other officials, as when they have rejected the notion of any restrictions on ballistic missiles that are theoretically capable of carrying nuclear weapons. This commitment to non-cooperation has been cited as a possible motivating factor in the various arrests of Western nationals during the negotiations and after their conclusion in the summer of 2015. Those arrests have coincided with intensified restrictions on media, and one of the arrestees, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, may have been targeted and accused of espionage because of her previous employment by the charitable arm of the BBC. Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, whose husband is British and who holds citizenship in both Iran and the UK, was detained in April 2016, at the end of a trip to visit family in Iran along with her daughter, who was not yet two years old at the time. The child, Gabriella, has been prevented from leaving the country, and Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been sentenced to five years even though no evidence of espionage or other illegal activity has been presented to the public. The case was once again given renewed attention on Saturday when Zaghari-Ratcliffes husband Richard Ratcliffe attended a rally outside the British Foreign Office to demand updates from the British government, which apparently began negotiating directly for her release only late last year. According to Agence France Presse, the head of the prison where Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held claims to have approved her for release months ago. This raises new questions as well as reinforcing the familiar claim that the Iranian government is holding Zaghari-Ratcliffe as a hostage in order to extract concessions from the UK on some other matter. For Irans hardliners, releasing a Western national might constitute a serious blow to the regimes prestige as a bastion of resistance to influence from Britain and the United States, especially if the release doesnt coincide with other news that can be presented as a victory over what Tehran calls the global arrogance. The danger of compromise is particularly evident in the wake of recent waves of protest in Iran, which Khamenei and other high-ranking officials have sought to dismiss as failed efforts at regime change orchestrated by foreign operatives. Khamenei has also accused the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran of functioning as the foot soldiers for these plots in the midst of the mass protests that took place in late December and much of January. While rejecting the notion of foreign influence, the PMOI has proudly taken credit for much of the recent activism and has been issuing calls to action in recent days, in hopes of sparking a renewed uprising that would coincide with public gatherings on Tuesday in celebration of the fire festival known as Chahrshanbeh Suri. Tehran has accordingly mobilized repressive forces to prevent or disperse such gatherings. But at the same time that institutions like the Intelligence Ministry and Revolutionary Guards were preparing for these prospective gatherings, they were already dealing with a variety of scattered protests, including labor strikes and womens rights demonstrations. On Thursday, police in Tehran dispersed a group of people who attempted to gather in front of the Labor Ministry building to mark International Womens Day. Radio Free Europe reported that more than 50 people were arrested in this incident, which was only one of several high profile womens rights protests to take place in recent weeks. On the same day, three women were filmed singing a feminist song on a Tehran subway car and the video quickly went viral on social media. The three women appeared without their legally required headscarves, thereby connecting their protest to the Revolution Street demonstrations in which dozens of women have stood on top of structures in public spaces to remove their veils and hold them over their heads. These demonstrations have also been dismissed by the supreme leader and other Iranian officials as acts of infiltration by foreign powers. On Saturday, the Center for Human Rights in Iran published excerpts from Khameneis speech on Womens Day, in which he repeated this accusation. They [enemies of Iran] spent all that money and created all that propaganda to trick a few girls into taking off their scarves, he said, but in the end, what they got from all that effort was small and insignificant. But CHRI responded to this comment by saying that it raised the question of why people are being sentenced to prison for peaceful protests that supposedly have little public impact. On Thursday, Tehrans public prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi announced that one of the Revolution Street protesters, Narges Hosseini, had been sentenced to more than two years in prison by a preliminary court. The court also decided to suspend 21 months of that sentence for five years, by Dowlatabadi declared that he would fight this decision, alleging that suspended sentences are not permitted in the case of sentences for immoral acts. IW published an interview with Ms. Hosseini in which she declared that she was surprised by the severity of the sentence, given that the maximum prison term for public removal of the hijab is only two months. However, she added that she had repeatedly seen that civil activists get heavy sentences that in no way are consistent with the charges against them, and was therefore somewhat prepared for a heavier sentence. Hosseini also declared that regardless of the unusually long sentence, she had no regrets about participating in the Revolution Street movement, which she credits with inspiring public dialogue about the hijab and womens rights in spite of the governments aggressive efforts to control the media while marginalizing or discrediting the Iranian activist community. The Fire Festival (Charshanbeh Soori), which this year occurs on March 13, is an ancient tradition that dates back to the days when Iranians were mostly followers of the Zoroastrian religion and believed in the duality of light (good) and darkness (evil). It is celebrated with songs, chants, fireworks, and a form of trick or treating called spoon-banging where costumed children will neighbours to receive snacks. The people will jump over small bonfires while singing, in order to purify themselves for the New Year. However, the Iranian Regime opposes Charshanbeh Soori for its ability to bring the people of Iran together and constantly tries to discourage the public from attending by doing everything from issuing fatwas calling it un-Islamic to citing health and safety concerns, to increasing the presence of police and security forces. This is especially true this year, as the Regime fears that a large gathering of the Iranian people could quickly become the kind of anti-regime protest that swept Iran in January and spread across 142 Iranian cities However, the Iranian people have ignored these warnings and rejected this intimidation since 1979 and no doubt will do so again this year. Every year, Charshanbeh Soori is a trigger for clashes between the Iranian people and the Regime, but these look set to bigger than ever this year, with many of the Iranian people specifically attending to defy the Regime. The main Iranian opposition group, the People Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK), who were prominently calling for the Iranian people to rise up in the past few months, have urged the Iranian people to defy the mullahs again and celebrate Charshanbeh Soori. The MEK chapters within Iran promised to heed the call and respond to the Regimes suppression with protests calling for regime change. Jubin Afshar, the Director for the Middle East Studies at Near East Policy Research, a policy, analysis firm in Washington, DC, wrote: As the unrest in Iran continues, the role of the MEK/PMOI in organizing resistance to regime repression has shifted the balance of power on Irans streets. The people no longer fear the regime, and the regime has much to fear from the people that it has victimized for so long. The world watches to see how far the Iranian people can move the bar in bidding good riddance to this regime and welcoming in a true Iranian spring. China is expected to hold its first joint military exercises with a group of Southeast Asian nations later this year. China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, agreed to the exercises during a meeting in Singapore last month. Singapores defense ministry released a statement at the meeting. It said ASEAN defense ministers welcomed the chance to hold maritime exercises with China. The joint exercises are expected to happen before the end of 2018. Experts say the goal of the exercises is to train naval forces from countries operating in the South China Sea to deal with possible conflicts and avoid accidents. They would also work to develop a code of conduct that aims to set rules to keep the sea safe for shipping. ASEAN members and China are still working on final language for the code of conduct, which could be completed this year. Six governments have competing claims in the South China Sea, which acts as a pathway for one third of the worlds shipping traffic. China claims about 90 percent of the sea as its territory and often sends coast guard ships throughout the waterway. China has also been building up man-made islands in the South China Sea in recent years some of which support military structures. The expansion has angered other nations which also have territorial claims in the area. But clashes and shipping accidents in the South China Sea are rare. Military experts say one reason for this is the development of a code of conduct. Competing nations also use widespread surveillance and have learned to watch out for one another. One part of the joint exercises is expected to involve a simulation of a conflict situation in the South China Sea. Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana recently suggested the exercises might start out with a table top exercise. This usually describes an operation that simulates emergencies but does not involve sending ships to sea. Carl Thayer is a Southeast Asia expert with the University of New South Wales in Australia. He says the exercises should be a chance to let different countries exchange skills in fighting fires and rescuing people after boat crashes. He added that the joint operation can be a good way for military officials to build trust in case they ever come across each other in a possible clash at sea. Theoretically, in a crisis or unexpected situation you have that kind of trust already, that people do know who theyre dealing with. So thats always seen as an important part militarily and ships even more so because theyre isolated rather than units on the ground. Thayer says China sees the exercises as the beginning of more long-term military cooperation with ASEAN nations in the future. The U.S. does not claim any part of the South China Sea. But it has sent ships to the area to carry out freedom of navigation exercises. Such operations are meant to show military force and support free movement of shipping in international waters. Jonathan Spangler is director of the South China Sea Think Tank in Taipei. He says a joint military exercise involving claimants in the South China Sea would mark an important step in developing relations. But he believes resolving the complex territorial issues is more of a long-term problem. "It all depends whether or not China and ASEAN can keep up the positive momentum," Spangler said. "Because the underlying disputes have not been resolved yet, that may prove difficult in the long run. Im Bryan Lynn. Ralph Jennings reported this story for VOA News. Bryan Lynn adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter 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 maritime adj. of or related to the sea surveillance n. intelligence gathering simulation n. something made to look, feel, or behave like something else isolated adj. separate from others momentum n. the strength or force that allows something to continue or to grow stronger or faster over time Elisangela Santos does not understand why everyone in her neighborhood is being told to get the yellow fever vaccine this year. Yellow fever has been a problem for a long time in parts of Brazil, yet the 44-year-old school employee is suspicious. "Every year, it's something else," Santos said as she waited next to a health center in the city of Sao Paulo. They (Officials) invent another thing to make Brazilians spend money, she told the Associated Press. The yellow fever vaccine is free at public health centers across the country. Santos suspicion that someone must be profiting from the vaccine is a sign of Brazilians current high levels of mistrust in the government. The low levels of trust have resulted, in part, from a series of corruption cases. Another issue is a badly designed communications campaign for the vaccine. In addition, Brazils decision to give partial doses, so as to stretch supplies, has led to claims that the vaccine is weak or even dangerous. That misinformation is keeping many people away from the public health campaign. Health workers are trying to vaccinate more than 23 million people in areas of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia states that until recently were not considered at risk for yellow fever. Nearly six weeks into the campaign, the Health Ministry reported that 76 percent of the target population has been vaccinated. That is far short from its goal of 95 percent. The fear about the vaccine is likely to make the last 20 percent very difficult to reach. They are affecting the efforts of South Americas biggest nation to contain its largest yellow fever outbreak in more than 30 years. The fear and suspicion could lead to more cases in Brazil's major cities. The country hasn't had an outbreak in major population centers since 1942. Luiz Antonio Teixeira Junior is Rio de Janeiros health secretary. He said the disease could reach the cities if they have more cases of yellow fever and "the Aedes aegypti mosquito starts to become infected and transmits yellow fever. He noted the government is doing everything it can to stop yellow fever from entering the cities. Yellow fever has long been a problem in large parts of Brazil, but the disease has been spreading in recent years. This is the second outbreak in two years in places where vaccinations for the disease were not common. During the 2016-2017 outbreak, more than 770 people were infected. During the 10-year period before, Brazil had fewer than 10 cases each year. In the current outbreak, health officials have already confirmed 846 cases, of which 260 have died. The outbreak is causing problems for the health system just a few years after officials battled Zika, which was linked to birth defects in babies born to infected mothers. While unconfirmed claims sometimes were a problem during earlier campaigns, the rise of the WhatsApp messaging service is creating more misinformation, said Igor Sacramento. He works as a researcher for Fiocruz, Brazil's leading public research institute. WhatsApp is one way the government shares health information, said Sacramento. Since WhatsApp messages come from friends and relatives, people place a high value on the information, and that means people often accept it without looking at facts, he said. One report on Whats App says a mutation in the yellow fever virus has made the vaccine ineffective, even pointing to a study published by Fiocruz. That is not true, and the group released a statement saying that changes in the disease have not change the vaccine's effectiveness. Even some health experts believe some of the claims. Some have refused to give partial doses, noted Ana Goretti, the acting coordinator of the immunization program at the Health Ministry. The ministry and all of Brazil's medical organizations are preparing to release information that says the partial dose is safe and effective. The vaccination efforts have also been unorganized. Earlier this year, there were hours-long waits at some health centers before people simply stopped coming. Many people outside a health clinic in Jardim Miriam said the first clinic they went to did not have the vaccine. Stopping misinformation and fears about the vaccine is important because yellow fever does not seem to be moving away from coastal areas. The Health Ministry is considering asking for all Brazilians to get vaccinated and earlier this year the government decided that all children should get the vaccinated. The ministry and state health departments are using Twitter and Facebook to advertise the vaccination campaign. They share links to information about the vaccine and the disease. Members of the ministry's social media team have also answered questions about the vaccine on the ministry's Facebook page. But they have not been using social media or WhatsApp to fight unconfirmed claims. Instead, officials say they usually talk to the local press to explain that the vaccine is safe, effective and necessary. Health workers in Sao Paulo and Rio have also gone door to door to tell people to get vaccinated. The claims have scared off Manoel da Silva's family. The 57-year-old retiree said his adult children and his wife are refusing to get vaccinated. His family told him they heard stories of people who were sickened by the vaccine and concerned about the partial doses. "There are lots of things on the internet," said da Silva. He added that his family thinks the campaign is a trick because of the partial doses. Scientists have said that the one-fifth dose works and the World Health Organization has said it can be used in emergencies. It is still unclear how long the protection lasts. Brazilian officials say they have scientific information that shows the vaccine is good for at least eight years, but others have said it may be less. More studies are expected. The yellow fever vaccine, like all vaccines that use live virus, can cause sickness. Susan McLellan is a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch. She says the yellow fever vaccine may even cause more vaccine-linked disease than other live virus vaccines. But in a high risk setting, you're a lot safer with the vaccine than the disease," said McLellan. Da Silva, whose family does not want to get vaccinated, said he, too, was worried, but decided to get the vaccine. "I heard about people getting sick" from the vaccine, he said, "but if a mosquito bites me, I'm already at risk." I'm Susan Shand. And I'm Dorothy Gundy. Sarah DiLorenzo reported this story for the Associated Press. Susan Shand adapted her report for VOA Learning English. George Grow. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story outbreak n. a sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease dose n. the amount of a medicine, drug, or vitamin that is taken at one time mosquito n. a small flying insect that bites the skin of people and animals and sucks their blood transmit v. to infect someone else with a virus or disease defect n. a physical problem; something that causes weakness; a lack of something needed for something to operate perfectly mutation n. a change in the genes of a plant or animal that causes physical characteristics that are different from what is normal Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expressing caution about planned talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. Abe met Tuesday in Tokyo with the head of South Koreas National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon. Before the meeting, the Japanese leader said he welcomed any new denuclearization talks with North Korea. But he also said he believes it is extremely important that North Korea match its words with actions. Abe also told reporters that any high-level talks with the North should also include discussions of other issues. One of those issues is a dispute with Pyongyang over kidnappings of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. Abe said resolving the kidnapping issue with North Korea has been a longstanding Japanese government policy. The Japanese leader has repeatedly called on North Korea to return at least 13 people that Pyongyang has admitted to kidnapping. He has also demanded that the North provide information about other people Japan believes were taken and used to train North Korean spies. So far, North Korea has allowed five people it kidnapped to return to Japan, Reuters news agency reported. A Japanese government official told Reuters that Japan was considering setting up a direct meeting between Abe and Kim Jong Un to discuss the kidnapping issue. Japans request to have the issue brought up in upcoming talks with North Korea was not included in a South Korean statement about Suhs talks with Abe. The statement, released by the presidential Blue House, said Abe told Suh he did not believe the North would use high-level talks to buy time to keep developing its nuclear and missile programs. Suh was part of South Koreas team that recently held talks with Kim Jong Un and other officials in North Korea. He traveled to Tokyo to brief Japanese officials on the talks, while another member of the team informed Chinese officials in Beijing. After the talks, South Korea announced Kim had agreed to hold separate, direct meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and President Trump. Officials have said Kim and Moon will hold talks in late April, while the Trump meeting is supposed to happen by May. Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Associated Press and Reuters. Hai Do 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 caution n. care taken to avoid danger or risk A federal appeals court has rejected an effort by the United States government to halt a case against President Donald Trump and his administration. A group of 21 young people brought the case against the federal government. They accuse the Trump administration of violating their constitutional rights by ignoring the harm caused by climate change. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled against the administration on March 7. The court said the government had failed to provide enough evidence under federal law to dismiss the case. The lawsuit started three years ago in the northwestern state of Oregon. At that time, the case was directed against the administration of President Barack Obama. This is one of several cases seeking to have courts deal with climate change and its causes. Young peoples right to a livable climate The young people, now aged 10 to 21, accuse federal officials and oil industry leaders of knowing for years about the effects of carbon dioxide emissions on the climate. Carbon dioxide is a gas produced naturally in the environment. It is made when people and other living things breathe. Carbon dioxide also is produced from the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal. The case says the government and oil industry knew that the burning was harmful to Earths climate, but refused to do anything about it. The young people said the lack of action has deprived them of their rights to life, freedom and property, including the right to live in a habitable climate. They want the government to write a recovery plan to reduce carbon emissions to 350 parts per million by the year 2100. That would be 400 parts per million lower than current levels. Many of the plaintiffs are from Oregon, but some come from other states. They say they are affected by the effects of slowly rising temperatures in the atmosphere. They have given examples, such as warmer winters, flooding, and damage to fisheries. The Obama administration first tried to have the case dismissed. It claimed that the courts were not prepared to oversee a phenomenon that spans the globe, court papers said. In November 2016, a U.S. district judge in Eugene, Oregon refused to dismiss the lawsuit. District Judge Ann Aiken said a quick dismissal without looking at the facts could support the accusation of the governments knowing decision to poison the air. The Trump administration also tried to have the case dismissed. It urged the court of appeals to halt the case before it continued to trial. The government said letting the case proceed would lead to a burdensome process of searching for documents and questioning people. It also said the case would create a constitutional crisis by putting courts against Trump and the many other administration officials named as defendants. But in the decision on March 7, Chief Judge Sidney Thomas said the dismissal request was too early. He added that deciding whether the accusers claims were too general could be discussed through the normal legal process. Bringing climate change to court Julia Olson, who represented the plaintiffs, is executive director of Our Childrens Trust. The trust provides legal help for efforts to improve the climate. Olsen told the Reuters news agency that her group welcomed the decision. Its very exciting, she said. It will be the first time that climate science and the federal governments role in creating its dangers will go on trial in a U.S. court. The decision means the case will probably return to the lower court in Oregon where District Judge Aiken will decide what happens next. Olsen said she will be seeking official statements from several representatives of top federal agencies, as well as climate change scientists. Im Phil Dierking. Jonathan Stempel reported this story for the Reuters News Agency. Phil Dierking adapted his report for VOA Learning English. The article includes information from other media. George Grow was the editor. Do you think that governments should be sued for ignoring climate change? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story burden - n. someone or something that is very difficult to accept, do, or deal with fossil fuels - n. a fuel (such as coal, oil, or natural gas) that is formed in the earth from dead plants or animals litigation - n. tan issue that is decided and settled in a court of law meritorious - adj. deserving honor or praise phenomenon - n. someone or something that is very impressive or popular especially because of an unusual ability or quality plaintiff - n. a person who sues another person or accuses another person of a crime in a court of law remedy - n. a medicine or treatment that relieves pain or cures a usually minor illness 8 hours ago Stocks drop the most since May on worries over China, Fed Stocks on Wall Street closed sharply lower Monday, mirroring losses overseas and handing the S&P 500 index its biggest drop in four months. Worries about heavily indebted Chinese real estate developers and the damage they could do to investors worldwide if they default rippled across markets. Read Article ONEOK, Inc. engages in gathering, processing, fractionating, transporting, storing and marketing of natural gas. It operates through the following segments: Natural Gas Gathering and Processing, Natural Gas Liquids and Natural Gas Pipelines. The Natural Gas Gathering and Processing segment offers midstream services to producers in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma. The Natural Gas Liquids segment owns and operates facilities that gather, fractionate, treat and distribute NGLs and store NGL products, in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico and the Rocky Mountain region, which includes the Williston, Powder River and DJ Basins, where it provides midstream services to producers of NGLs and deliver those products to the two market centers, one in the Mid-Continent in Conway, Kansas and the other in the Gulf Coast in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment provides transportation and storage services to end users. The company was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Tulsa, OK. Read More Zero tolerance policy against corruption Newly-appointed Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Matrika Prasad Yadav has said that the new government would adopt zero-tolerance policy against corruption and called on all stakeholders, including the bureaucracy, private sector and citizens, to cooperate in this endeavour. Orville Schell, a longtime China expert, has vivid memories of his first trip to the country back in 1975. Mao Zedong was leading China through the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, and Chinese were being shamed, beaten and even killed for perceived political mistakes. Things were vastly different when he returned four years later. Mao was dead, and the country was pulling itself together under reformist Deng Xiaoping. So radical was the transformation that some Chinese felt emboldened enough to plaster posters on a wall in central Beijing criticizing past excesses and advocating democracy. China had suddenly gone from being this implacable enemy that was closed to any contact to being quite open and receptive to interacting, recalled Schell, now the director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the New York-based Asia Society. That opening and Dengs subsequent market-style economic reforms fueled speculation that China was destined to become a democracy. The rise of President Xi Jinping, who is now poised to rule indefinitely after Chinas rubber-stamp legislature voted Sunday to eliminate presidential term limits, has changed all that, a growing number of Western analysts say. In the past, both sides presumed China was trying to become more democratic, Schell said. What Xi marks so clearly is that there is no longer the pretension that China is becoming more democratic and open. Under Deng, the ruling Communist Party began to allow small-scale free enterprise and eased social controls. To ensure the partys survival, leaders embarked on a bold experiment in the 1990s to create a formal system of succession. The Chinese public still had no voice in picking their government, but leaders would share power and step down after fixed terms. Even that has been swept aside under Xi, who is poised to rule for as long as he wants as Chinas most powerful leader since Mao. The move to scrap presidential limits revives the specter of one-man rule that Deng tried to ward off when he abolished lifetime tenure in 1982. The control of public opinion in China right now is much looser than it was in Maos day, but its much tighter than it was under Deng Xiaoping, said Sidney Rittenberg, 96, one of the few Americans to have personally known Mao. Still, he predicted China would never return to earlier periods of isolation, citing the economys dependence on openness to the world, Beijings rising global status and greater awareness among Chinese citizens. Its not so easy to turn the clock back just by changing the constitution, he said. According to Rittenberg, becoming Chinas ruler resulted in a very clear change in Maos personality. He endured the shift, painfully, when he was accused of being part of a foreign spy ring. He spent 16 years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. It is precisely a repetition of that history that some still fear. My generation has lived through Mao, said Li Datong, a former editor for the state-run China Youth Daily. That era is over. How can we possibly go back to that? Even if todays China remains far removed from the chaos of Maos time, it is likewise distant from the massive student-led protests of 1989, when the country had its closest brush with a shift to greater democracy. The demonstrations, centered on Beijings Tiananmen Square, gave voice to pent-up frustrations about corruption and a stifling political system. Deng ordered a violent crackdown that killed hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people. But even after the crackdown, the party eased controls on travel and the economy began to pick up speed. Reformists remained optimistic that political liberalization might follow. Hopes rose ahead of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, cast by the party as a coming-out for a confident, modern China. One of the things people hoped for in the run-up to the Olympics was that the exposure to the outside would help to convince more Chinese people and lawmakers that the way things are done outside China isnt necessarily scary or dangerous, said Jeremiah Jenne, a writer and Chinese history teacher in Beijing. But the global financial crisis that year prompted the leadership to rethink the extent to which China should be open to the world, Jenne said. Foreign advocates of democracy had hoped the internet, cellphones and other emerging technologies would erode party control. Instead, Chinese leaders invested heavily in developing web filters and using the internet and video surveillance networks to strengthen their ability to keep tabs on the public. Since assuming the party leadership in 2012, Xi has overseen a further diminishment of civil society, jailing or otherwise silencing writers, activists and human rights lawyers. Online discussion of the elimination of term limits has been heavily censored. Beijing has long argued that Western-style democracy is not appropriate for China. It cites political and bureaucratic logjams in Washington and elsewhere as evidence of the superiority of its Marxist-Leninist rule. Some key parts of the Western value system are collapsing, said an editorial in the Global Times, a Communist Party newspaper. Democracy, which has been explored and practiced by Western societies for hundreds of years, is ulcerating. Many Western analysts have likewise ceased envisioning a democratic China. We see now that history is not ineluctably moving toward democracy, said Schell, the American China expert. History is just moving where it moves. Yanan Wang, Beijing, AP Ai Weiwei: Even changing leaders wont change China Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei said yesterday that it doesnt matter whether or not China has a change in leadership, the culture and the system will always remain the same. Ais comments came a day after Chinas rubber-stamp lawmakers passed a historic constitutional amendment abolishing a presidential two-term limit that will enable Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely. China has always been, you know, emperor state. So a change leader or not change leader, the system and as a culture always stays the same, Ai told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney, where he was launching an exhibition to highlight the international refugee crisis. In 2011, Ai was detained by Chinese authorities for his outspoken views on human rights. Ais passport was withheld for four years but was returned to him in July 2015. The artist now works from a studio in Germany and has traveled the world to document the plight of refugees and migrants. The move to scrap term limits has crushed faint hopes for political reforms among Chinas embattled liberal scholars and activists, who now fear even greater repression. China allows no political opposition in any form and has relentlessly persecuted independent groups seeking greater civic participation. Leading Chinese officials have repeatedly rejected any chance of adopting Western-style separation of powers or multiparty democracy. AP Bangladeshs High Court yesterday granted bail for four months to opposition leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who was jailed for five years on a corruption conviction and is awaiting an appeal. Despite the decision, it was not immediately clear if or when Zia would be freed from jail. Mahbubey Alam, the countrys attorney general, said after yesterdays ruling that a move against the bail order would be made in the High Court today. Lawyers said a two-member panel of judges considered the 72-year-old Zias age and health condition in granting the bail. Zia has had various health complications in the past. A court convicted Zia on Feb. 8 on charges of misusing her power and embezzling about USD250,000. The conviction means that Zia, the archrival of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, can be barred from running in December elections. The court also sentenced Zias son, Tarique Rahman, and four others to 10 years in prison for involvement in the case. Rahman lives in London and was tried in absentia. Bangladesh law says anyone imprisoned for more than two years cannot run for office for the next five years, but Law Minister Anisul Huq has said the final decision rests with the higher courts. Zia faces more than 30 other charges, ranging from corruption to sedition. Bangladesh politics are deeply fractious, with rivals Hasina and Zia ruling the country alternately since 1991, when democracy was restored. Both women came from political dynasties. Zia is the widow of Ziaur Rahman, a general-turned-president who was assassinated in 1981. Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the countrys independence leader and first president, who was assassinated in 1975 along with most of his family members. In the last election in 2014, Zias party and its political allies boycotted the race, allowing Hasina to return to power with a landslide victory. AP A training program tailored to civil servants from tourism offices of Portuguese-speaking countries has started. Between March and July this year, three training sessions, lasting two weeks each, will be conducted in Macau, involving a total of around 30 government personnel from tourism authorities of Portuguese-speaking countries. The program is organized by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), in cooperation with the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries (Forum Macau). The first batch of civil servants started their training yesterday, with participants from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe. A second group will arrive in Macau in May and a third in July. The training content includes internships in several MGTO departments, and two days of workshops at the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) about Managing Attractions Effectively, Consumer Behavior and Destination Branding. There will also be field trips to various sites of tourism-related infrastructure, the citys historical and cultural heritage areas and other attractions of Macau. The internship aims to acquaint the trainees with the daily work of MGTO as well as the overall development of Macaus tourism industry. By carrying out the training program, MGTO hopes to enhance mutual learning and exchange between Macau and Portuguese-speaking countries in the field of tourism. MGTO signed a memoranda of understanding on cooperation in tourism with Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique in 2010, with East Timor in 2013 and with Angola in 2015. In addition, in 2016 the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture signed a protocol on cooperation in tourism with the Ministry of Economy of Portugal. According to a statement issued yesterday, from 2012 to 2017, MGTO provided training to a total of 130 government personnel from Portuguese-speaking countries. PPRD region delegation visits Portugal and Germany A delegation from the Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) Region is on a visit to Portugal and Germany, in order to establish closer ties with the green industry network based in Europe and in Portuguese-speaking countries. The two-nation visit from 11 to 19 March has been organised by the local. According to a statement issued yesterday, the visit is an additional step in the ongoing effort to diversify the PPRD Regions trade and economic cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries and with European countries. Lawmaker Au Kam San questioned the government about its progress regarding Macaus construction waste, in particular the inert waste which is commonly designated as public landfill. In a written inquiry issued to the government, Au started by reminding the government that, back in 2015, it announced a plan to transport inert construction waste to Guangdong to be reused, as well as to install a construction waste selection facility to select waste for use in Macaus land reclamation. The plan was expected to be implemented somewhere during 2016. However, whats puzzling is that [the plan] should have been implemented a long time ago. Furthermore, in view of the daily 2,000 tonnes of processing capacity, the construction waste landfill should not continue growing, said Au. Were there any setbacks in the plan which prevented it from being able to achieve the desired effects? [It seems that] the related construction waste can be used here [in Macau] after being selected [], which means that using it for Macaus land reclamation will be faster than transporting it to the mainland or other regions, therefore saving a lot of money for shipping operations, Aus inquiry reads. The lawmaker also addressed these questions to the other mainland destinations where this waste is routinely transported. Mainland China announced it will cease the importing of foreign trash. [] Will this affect the agreement [regarding the shipping of Macaus inert construction waste to mainland]? Au asked. Hong Kong pro-democracy candidates won back only two of four seats in a crucial by-election in the semiautonomous Chinese region, final results showed yesterday. The opposition wasnt able to recapture all its territory, losing some to formidably resourced pro-Beijing rivals and falling short of the number needed to veto most bills in the citys semi-democratic Legislative Council. The four seats were among six left empty when a group of lawmakers were expelled following a 2016 controversy over their oaths, which they used to defy China. Little-known activist and neighborhood councilor Au Nok-hin won a key battleground after being enlisted at the last minute. He stepped in after election officials rejected the pro-democracy camps marquee candidate, 21-year-old Agnes Chow, over her partys platform advocating self-determination for the former British colony, which she slammed as political screening. The disqualifications of lawmakers and candidates have raised fears among activists and international groups that Hong Kongs Beijing-backed government is taking an increasingly hard line on dissent. I wont say the result today is a victory, Au said after his results were announced. I would say its only a hollow victory, because weve paid a rather high price for it. The democracy camp has faced huge suppressions due to the political turmoil over these years. Au had called the vote a referendum on democracy in Hong Kong, but the prospect of democratic development looks increasingly distant after Chinas rubber-stamp parliament voted Sunday to abolish presidential term limits, allowing President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely. Under the one country, two systems framework, Beijing promised to let Hong Kong maintain wide autonomy and civil liberties following its 1997 handover from Britain, but fears are rising that Chinas communist leaders are backtracking. Hong Kongs pro-democracy camp now holds 26 seats in the 70-seat Legislative Council. Two remaining empty seats will be decided later because theyre the subject of ongoing legal action. About 43 percent of 2.1 million eligible voters cast ballots for three geographical seats, lower than the 58.3 percent in 2016s citywide vote. It is significant that we didnt mobilize the people to vote. This is a serious challenge for 2020, when the next round of elections is scheduled, said Joseph Cheng, a retired political science professor, who added that residents seem to be apathetic. Edward Yiu, who was the only one of the disqualified lawmakers to compete again, narrowly lost to a pro-Beijing rival after a nail-biting recount. A third pro-democracy candidate, Gary Fan, won his constituency. In a fourth race, architects and surveyors elected a pro-Beijing candidate over Dutch native Paul Zimmerman. About half of the councils seats are chosen by mainly pro-Beijing business and trade groups. Kelvin Chan, Hong Kong, AP The President of the New Macau Association (ANM), Kam Sut Leng, believes that the Macau government should relax a bit, instead of being concerned about Macaus potential internal instability. Kam expressed her thoughts during a phone interview with the Times, when she was asked to comment on the absence of three authors from Macaus upcoming Literary Festival. Kam started by noting that she did not have a deep understanding of the situation, and that the Macau government should have a better understanding of the region and acknowledge that Hong Kong and Macau have differences. Actually, there are big [differences between Hong Kong and Macau]. I think Macau should rest assured. [] They [the government] can relax about Macau. [] They should have confidence in their own administration and policies, declared Kam, adding that these insecurities arise because they are not confident in themselves. They are afraid people might cause a little chaos, which they wouldnt know how to handle. Regarding the Literary Festival incidents effect on Macaus image in the eyes of the world, Kam believes that there will be some sort of impact. She thinks people might perceive Macau as a controlling society, with a strict and highly political culture. Kam feels other cases, such as the banning of Hong Kong lawmakers and journalists from visiting the city, might also contribute to this effect. JZ South Koreas national security director yesterday praised the role of Chinese President Xi Jinpings administration in nudging North Korea toward denuclearization talks, following word of a possible summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Chung Eui-yong briefed Chinas top foreign policy adviser, Yang Jiechi, on the recent inter-Korean talks and was to meet with Xi later in the day. Our president, Moon Jae-in, and the (South Korean) government believe that various advances toward achieving the goal of peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula were made with active support and contribution from President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government, Chung told Yang. Yang said China insists on all parties sticking to solving the issue through dialogue and consultation. As long as all parties insist on solving the issue politically and maintain this direction, we can undoubtedly lead the situation on the Korean Peninsula to move forward in the direction in which the global community hopes for, Yang said. Chung announced last week that Trump said he would meet Kim by May to achieve permanent denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Chung said Kim told the South Koreans during talks in Pyongyang that hes committed to denuclearization and pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests. Suh Hoon, chief of South Koreas spy agency, was also visiting Japan to brief officials there on the progress in talks. North Koreas foreign trade, more than 90 percent of which passes through China, has taken a major hit since Beijing agreed to increasingly harsh U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at pressuring Pyongyang into ceasing its nuclear and missile tests and rejoining denuclearization talks. Chinas trade crackdown shows how it remains indispensable both in persuading Pyongyang to agree to talks and in fostering and safeguarding a longer-term solution, Renmin University foreign affairs expert Cheng Xiaohe wrote in the ruling Communist Party newspaper Global Times yesterday. Chinas faithful implementation helped make the Security Councils resolution effective, Cheng wrote, citing a 52 percent decline in trade with South Korea in January against the year before that required significant sacrifice on Chinas part. While China supports maintaining sanctions for the time being, it is prepared to restore its trading relationship with the North in the event of a breakthrough in order to create a favorable external environment for North Koreas sustainable economic development, Cheng wrote. The editorial followed remarks by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week that the offer of summit talks was at least a partial result of Beijings call for a dual suspension of North Korean nuclear activities in return for a postponement of U.S.-South Korean war games. Trump has spoken with both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe since Thursdays announcement, and said Xi appreciates that the U.S. is working to solve the problem diplomatically rather than going with the ominous alternative. AP The director of the Macau Literary Festival, Ricardo Pinto, explained that the decision to exclude three writers from the event was made after advice was received from the Chinas Liaisons Office in Macau. Pinto told Portuguese newspaper Hoje Macau that the suggestion to cancel the attendance of the three authors came from someone in the Liaison Office of the Central Peoples Government in the city and not from the local government. However, he did not disclose the officials name. The director further expressed that due to what had happened, the organization is considering whether further continuation of the festival is feasible. We need to understand if it makes any sense to continue with the festival and in what terms, circumstances and conditions. Program director Helder Beja told local press that authorities had officially warned them that they could not guarantee the three authors entry into Macau. Organizers of the annual event previously announced that the authors would not be able to attend, as their entry into the city could not be guaranteed due to the political content of their works. The authors were Jung Chang, James Church and Suki Kim. Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak and Secretary of Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam both denied their involvement in the matter. The Central Peoples Government Liaison Office director Zheng Xiaosong told TDM in Beijing that he is unaware of the incident. A plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh swerved erratically and flew dangerously low before crashing and erupting in flames as it landed yesterday in Kathmandu, Nepals capital, killing at least 50 people, officials and witnesses said. The exact number of dead and injured remained unclear amid the chaos of the crash and the rush of badly injured people to nearby hospitals, but Brig. Gen. Gokul Bhandari, the Nepal army spokesman, said it was clear that at least 50 people had died. Officials at Kathmandu Medical College, the closest hospital to the airport, said they were treating 16 survivors. US-Bangla Airlines flight BS211 from Dhaka to Kathmandu was carrying 67 passengers and four crew members, according to an airline spokesman. An AP journalist who arrived at the scene soon after the crash saw the twin-propeller plane broken into several large pieces, with dozens of firefighters and rescue workers clustered around the wreckage in a grassy field near the runway. Hundreds of people stood on a nearby hill, staring down at what remained of the Bombardier Dash 8. The plane swerved repeatedly as it prepared to land in Kathmandu, said Amanda Summers, an American working in Nepal. The crowded city sits in a valley in the Himalayan foothills. It was flying so low I thought it was going to run into the mountains, said Summers, who watched the crash from the terrace of her home office, not far from the airport. All of a sudden there was a blast and then another blast. Fire crews put out the flames quickly, perhaps within a minute, she said, though for a time clouds of thick, dark smoke rose into the sky above the city. The plane had circled Tribhuvan International Airport twice as it waited for clearance to land, Mohammed Selim, the airlines manager in Kathmandu, told Dhaka-based Somoy TV by telephone. The plane was 17 years old, company officials said. Airport officials said the pilot had been told to approach the airports one runway from the south, but he instead landed from the north. The airplane was not properly aligned with the runway. The tower repeatedly asked if the pilot was OK and the reply was yes, said Raj Kumar Chetri, the airports general manager. The runway, however, can be approached from both directions. Nitin Keyal was about to board a domestic flight when he saw the plane coming in. It was flying very low, said Keyal, a medical student. Everyone just froze looking at it. You could tell it wasnt a normal landing. He said it landed just off the runway, broke apart and burst into flames. For a few minutes no one could believe what was happening. It was just terrible, he said. Most of the injured were brought to Kathmandu Medical College, where relatives wept as they awaited news. Haran Saran was at the hospital hoping for news about his nephew, a medical student. Hes not on the list of injured people, said Saran, who did not want to give his nephews name. We still have hope that there has been some mistake on the list, or he is in some other hospital. US-Bangla spokesman Kamrul Islam said the plane was carrying 32 passengers from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives. He did not provide the nationalities of the four crewmembers. US-Bangla operates Boeing 737-800 and smaller Bombardier Dash 8 Q-400 planes. The full-service airline is based in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, and flies to several domestic and international destinations. The parent company, part of US-Bangla Group, is involved in a number of industries, including real estate, education and agriculture. Kathmandus airport has been the site of several deadly crashes. In September 2012, a Sita Air turboprop plane carrying trekkers to Mount Everest hit a bird and crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 19 on board. Binaj Gurubacharya, Kathmandu, AP The president of the Legislative Assembly (AL), Ho Iat Seng, revealed that the mainland government has a system which allows it to closely monitor the gambling habits of mainland civil servants in Macaus casinos. According to reports in the Hong Kong media, Ho, while in Beijing to take part in the annual legislature meetings, told the mainland media that some casinos have monitoring systems specifically designed to target mainland civil servants. Some people, the moment [they] sat down, received a phone call from high officials [from their] Danwei [consists of public service departments in mainland or even state-owned companies], said Ho. The AL president said that mainland principal officials using public money to gamble in Macau has its roots in the past, when Macau was less strict in their management of small casinos. However, Ho claimed that the majority of the mainlands principal officials have been sighted in the monitoring system in recent years. Consequently, the number of cases of the mainlands principal officials using public money to gamble in Macau has been greatly reduced. Ho noted that currently it is very difficult for employees of the mainlands banking and finance industries to come to Macau to gamble. Ho explained that the monitoring system consists of an internal management method, which ensures the relevant departments are immediately notified once a mainland civil servant enters a casino in Macau. Other countries in the world also pay attention to [their] principal officials who come [to Macau] to gamble, said Ho. Yesterday, Ho admitted that no reporting system exists between the mainland and Macau regarding such conduct, according to a report by TDM. The AL president said that it is the mainlands own monitoring technology that allows mainland authorities to know about their civil servants gambling activities in Macau. The one country, two systems principle has set a good example for other countries to solve problems, Sudanese experts have said. Since the application of the principle in Hong Kong and then Macau, the experience has [] helped in creating political and economic stability in the two (regions), Hassan al-Saouri, a political science professor at Al Neelain University and chairman of the Sudanese Society for Political Science, told Xinhua. Hong Kong has achieved great success in preserving its economic position thanks to the principle. Such flexible self-rule has contributed to maintaining a stable relationship between the Chinese central government and the Hong Kong administration, he elaborated. Hassan al-Saouri argued that the principle could also be applied to Taiwan, adding that it was a more logical and viable choice than others. Balla Ali Omer, a Sudanese media writer and China expert, agreed, saying the practical implementation of the one country, two systems principle has contributed to the economic and developmental renaissance in Hong Kong and enhanced the special administrative regions political stability. MDT/Xinhua Trump administration officials say there will be no more conditions imposed on North Korea before a first-ever meeting of the two nations leaders beyond the Norths promise not to resume nuclear testing and missile flights or publicly criticize U.S.-South Korean military exercises. The officials comments yesterday [Macau time] followed the surprise announcement last week that President Donald Trump has agreed to meet the Norths Kim Jong Un by May. This potential meeting has been agreed to, there are no additional conditions being stipulated, but, again they they cannot engage in missile testing, they cannot engage in nuclear testing and they cant publicly object to the U.S.-South Korea planned military exercises, deputy White House spokesman Raj Shah said. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the summit would give Trump a chance to sit down and see if he can cut a deal with Kim over the Norths nuclear program. The president has been very clear in what the objective is here. And that is to get rid of nuclear weapons on the (Korean) peninsula, Mnuchin said. The administration officials credited toughened economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations, and pushed by the United States, with helping bring Kim to the brink of negotiations. Our policy is pressure, is pressure from our partners and allies around the world, pressure to the United Nations, pressure through China, these have had an impact. Its impacted Kim Jong Uns behavior. Its impacted his conduct, Shah said. But some members of Congress said they worry that Trump acted impulsively in agreeing to meet with Kim, before negotiators for both countries had a chance to set some goals the leaders could agree to. But the important thing is the diplomatic work that has to go in before such a meeting. A meeting like that would be kind of an afterthought after things are negotiated. Here it looks as if, you know, thats kind of the opening gambit. And thats a little worrisome, said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a frequent Trump critic. The U.S. and South Korea hold military maneuvers every year. They were postponed during the recent Winter Olympics in South Korea. They are expected to be held in April, but no official announcement has been made about when they will take place. In an interview en route to the Middle East, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis declined to discuss the timing and scale of the exercises. Mattis wouldnt talk at all about the diplomatic push over North Koreas nuclear program. When you get in a position like this, the potential for misunderstanding remains very high, he said. Mattis was among the advisers in the White House on Thursday when Trump decided to accept Kims offer to meet. The offer was relayed to Trump by a South Korean government delegation that briefed the president on their meeting with Kim last week in North Koreas capital. Trump said Saturday that he believes North Korea will abide by its pledge to suspend missile tests while he prepares for the summit. He noted in a tweet that North Korea has refrained from such tests since November and said Kim has promised not to do so through our meetings. I believe they will honor that commitment, the president said. Later, at a political rally in Pennsylvania, when Trump mentioned Kims name, the crowd booed. But Trump responded: No, its very positive no, after the meeting you may do that, but now we have to be very nice because lets see what happens, lets see what happens. Flake and Mnuchin spoke on NBCs Meet the Press. Shah was on ABCs This Week. Mark Sherman & Robert Burns, AP To understand Americas great gun divide, visit Springfield, Massachusetts, birthplace of the USD17 billion-a-year U.S. firearms industry. In a head-spinning contradiction, famously liberal Massachusetts with among the strictest gun-control laws and the lowest shooting-death rate is the king of guns. By the latest annual federal tally, Massachusetts accounted for a quarter of the 11.9 million produced, more than any other state, according to Small Arms Analytics, an industry research firm. Springfield is the unofficial capital of Gun Valley, the chain of factories and suppliers that extends from Smith & Wesson and Savage Arms in Western Massachusetts to Sturm Ruger & Co. and Colt in Connecticut. Along with its snub-nosed revolvers and 9 mm pistols, Springfield-based Smith & Wesson makes the popular AR-15-style assault rifles including the very weapon used to murder 17 students and teachers at Parkland, Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. But residents cant walk into a local gun shop and buy the latest Smith & Wessons M&P15 modern sporting rifle, as the company prefers to call it. By and large, Springfields own elected officials favor those restrictions, and even the towns economic boosters like to deemphasize an export that contributes to 13,000 homicides a year in the U.S. The contradiction is striking, said John Rosenthal, a gun owner and founder of Stop Handgun Violence in Massachusetts. We couldnt be more proud of the results of our gun laws, and we couldnt be more embarrassed that Massachusetts gun makers are wreaking havoc across the nation. Kevin Kennedy, Springfields chief economic development officer, calls Smith & Wesson a good citizen. But he likes to shift the subject to a planned MGM Resorts International casino, which will become the citys biggest employer. Smith & Wesson has slashed its manufacturing workforce by a quarter over the past year. It now employs 1,000 or so, according to Kennedy. Smith & Wesson gets short shrift in a two-minute city promotional video, called Springfield Rising. It lauds the casino, restaurants and new rail car factory. No mention of guns. The camera hovers for a split second over Smith & Wesson headquarters, described only as a legendary manufacturer. It quickly moves to the parking lot, where cars are sheltered under an array of solar panels. Innovative Solar Project, it reads, as if Smith & Wesson were in the green energy business. Symbolizing its isolation, Smith & Wessons headquarters, a prison-like beige-brick compound encircled by high fences and barbed wire, literally stands apart from much of the city of 150,000 and isnt open to the public. The company, now officially called American Outdoor Brands Corp., declined to comment. This cold shoulder bothers gun enthusiasts in Springfield, 90 miles west of Boston and 140 miles north of New York City. Just outside the city limits, Walter Lamon sells guns at Culverine Firearms, where photos of soldiers adorn a store packed with boxes of Smith & Wesson revolvers. His business, like Smith & Wessons, boomed under President Barack Obama because of fears of gun confiscation and fell under National Rifle Association booster Donald Trump (Shares of American Outdoor Brands have lost almost two-thirds of their value since the 2016 presidential election.) Lamon, 70, loathes Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat who tightened the states assault weapons ban. A photo of Healey, with a hand-drawn Hitler mustache, hangs on a wall. Heil Healey, it reads. In Massachusetts the gun industry and people like me are vilified, Lamon said. Thats because the majority of folks have a more liberal bent. For almost a decade, David Upton, 34, managed orders for Smith & Wesson. Even in romance, he experienced the gun divide. When he was dating, some women recoiled in horror at his employer, while others would ask if he could take them shooting. The joke when I was there is that we cant sell 90 percent of the guns we make to people who live in the state, he said. Upton, who now works at a craft brewer, said his old job has since moved to gun-friendly Missouri. In fact, Massachusetts may be losing its status as a gun leader, as manufacturers ship operations to the South and Southwest, according to Jurgen Brauer, Small Arms Analytics chief economist. Increasingly, these kinds of companies feel theyre in a little bit of a foreign land culturally, Brauer said. Employees bristle at being constantly affronted by anti-gun sentiment when they go to church or the grocery store. Springfields firearms focus dates to the Revolutionary War, when George Washington selected the city for the nations first armory, which functioned as a U.S. Army gun factory for almost two centuries. There, inventors transformed the muzzle-loading rifle of the Civil War era into modern breech-loading weapons and then World War IIs signature M1 Garand rifle. For the Vietnam War, the armory was the site of testing for the M16 rifle, the military version of the AR-15. A half mile away, the Springfield Museums offer visitors the Smith & Wesson Gallery of Firearms History. Sponsored by the company, it features 1890s pistols engraved by Tiffany jewelers and a prized nickel-plated. .357 magnum. For Mechanical Skill, Strength, Accuracy And Penetration They Are Unexcelled, reads an early Smith & Wesson add featuring a man in a cowboy hat and handle-bar mustache. But Karen Fisk, the museums marketing director, says few tourists visit that gallery; they flock instead to the new museum honoring Springfield native and author Dr. Seuss. Bud Williams, a former school teacher and probation officer, focuses less on the history of guns and more on their impact today. As a state representative, his district includes Smith & Wesson. More often than he likes, he finds himself comforting the families of gunshot victims in a city whose violent crime rate rivals Chicagos. This is supposed to be a civilized society, why are there so many guns? he asks. To take guns off the streets, Williams, a Democrat, is planning a buyback program. In 2013 and 2016, such efforts netted hundreds of guns that were later destroyed though a handful of the most valuable are stored at Springfields famed armory, now a museum run by the National Park Service. In other words, Springfield celebrates, manufactures, sells and destroys guns. Prashant Gopal, Bloomberg Japan-Korea Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right) met with South Koreas intelligence chief yesterday, and said that while he welcomes any dialogue with North Korea regarding the countrys denuclearization, the North must take real steps toward that goal. Myanmars government yesterday rejected two reports presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council that concluded it committed extreme human rights violations, probably amounting to crimes under international law, in its repression of several minority groups. Philippines Two militants, one Filipino and the other Malaysian, who survived the crushing of a siege of a southern Philippine city last year are among the leading candidates to succeed a slain Islamic State group regional leader as the rebels attempt to recover from setbacks. Thailands cabinet agreed yesterday to draft a law to oversee cryptocurrency trading, seeking to tax the largely unregulated market. Nepals president, Bidhya Devi Bhandari, was elected to a second term in voting yesterday by national and provincial lawmakers. The Election Commission said Bhandari received a large majority of the ballots. South Africa The Nelson Mandela Foundation is preparing events and other initiatives this year to mark the centenary of the birth of the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africas first black president. Spain The European Court of Human Rights has sided with two Spaniards who set fire in public to a photograph of Spains king and queen, saying their protest amounted to freedom of expression. EU-Britain The European Unions chief Brexit negotiator (pictured) warned Britain yesterday against undercutting EU rules and regulations that underpin anything from social protections to food security when it leaves the bloc. Syria Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters have begun a siege of the Syrian Kurdish-held town of Afrin, the Turkish military said yesterday, marking a significant advance in Ankaras seven-week operation that also almost fully encircles hundreds of thousands of civilians. Argentina A group of American scientists who were stranded in an ice-bound island off the northeastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula has been rescued by an Argentine icebreaker. Mexico Prosecutors say they have arrested a man who allegedly played a decisive role in the disappearance of 43 college students in 2014. The Attorney Generals Office says the suspect probably belonged to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel. Illustration of obstruction of ventilation. Credit: Habib Mhenni / public domain Researchers from the UCLA School of Nursing examined clinical records and magnetic resonance imaging brain scans of patients who were recently diagnosed with sleep apnea, and discovered several apparent connections between thinning of the brain's cerebral cortex and apnea symptoms. The researchers also could discern distinct changes in brain structures and concurrent symptoms that differed between men and women. For example, more regions of the superior frontal lobe were thinner in women with apnea than men or control groups, which might explain enhanced cognitive deficits among women with the disorder. No sleep apnea patients showed any thickening of the cerebral cortex. In addition, overall cortical thinning could possibly lead to impaired regulation of the autonomic nervous system and associated impaired breathing function through the upper airway in these patients. Obstructive sleep apnea, which involves disruption of the upper airway, affects about 10 percent of adults. Its cause is unknown. Men are twice as likely to have sleep apnea as women, and symptoms and brain function appear to vary between men and women. However, while previous studies have made connections between brain structure changes and general clinical signs, none have definitively linked sex differences in brain structure with symptoms in sleep apnea. Left untreated, the impact of sleep apnea on brain damage progresses overtime. Using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging scans, the researchers looked at cortex thickness of 12 women and 36 men who had diagnoses of mild to severe obstructive sleep apnea (who were not being treated for their condition), and compared those findings to 40 male and 22 female controls (who did not have sleep apnea). The researchers then compared clinical findings of each patient with evidence of cortex thinning. The study is one of the first to underscore significant clinical differences between men and women with sleep apnea, and points to the need for different treatment approaches to address these varied symptoms. The greater cortex injury in cognitive centers of women's brains may underlie their more common cognitive problems compared with men, while thinning associated with both men and women who have sleep apnea may be behind the disordered breathing seen between both. It is not clear whether these physical brain changes precede the sleep apnea disorder, or worsen sleep apnea's symptoms as the disorder progresses. Explore further Severe sleep apnea during REM sleep tied to acute CV events More information: Paul M. Macey et al. Obstructive sleep apnea and cortical thickness in females and males, PLOS ONE (2018). Journal information: PLoS ONE Paul M. Macey et al. Obstructive sleep apnea and cortical thickness in females and males,(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193854 Credit: Johns Hopkins University Not long ago, here is what Andrew Ewald did to study cancer. Instead of starting with the conventional research cell lines, he got breast cancer cells from the primary tumors of actual patients. That is, not models standing in for cancerthe real thing. And instead of putting those malignant cells into the artificial two-dimensional environment of standard, planar petri dishes, he embedded them in three-dimensional gels of his own design that mimic the matrix of collagen fibers in the human body. Then he rigged microscopes to photograph not just a single tiny area but hundreds of different positions within a thick swath of cells and gel. He took thousands of pictures, one every 10 to 20 minutes, day after day, photographing hundreds of samples at a time. It was a long, arduous process, but Ewald, a professor of cell biology at the School of Medicine, had his reasons. Cancer is a complex diseaseactually a complex collection of complex diseases. But in the laboratory, researchers have typically studied it by isolating lab-produced malignant cells in the simplest of environments. Some years ago, skeptical scientists began to question these methods, observing, for example, that cancer cells in a petri dish behave so differently from tumors in a human body as to cast doubt on much conventional research. Ewald is at the vanguard of a generation of scientists determined to deal with cancer's full complexity. In his lab, he and his colleagues watched time-lapse movies, assembled from those thousands of microphotographs, of what happened to the cancer cells they'd embedded in gel. Startled, they saw slices of a tumor grow what looked like tiny tentacles. The tentacles were cells migrating out from the tumor into the gel along fibrous tracks that resembled cellular highways. Each invading group clearly had leader cells at the front of the pack, pulling followers behind them. Scientists had observed similar activity before, but no one had expected to see that each pack was led by a specific cell that seemed specialized for the job. Was this just a quirk of the tumor Ewald and his colleagues happened to be studying? They repeated the experiment using cells from the other two major breast cancer variants. Each showed the same cell type at the head of the march. "It was literally a hair-standing-on-the-back-of-the-neck, shivers-down-the-spine moment," Ewald says. Had cancer just revealed one of its fundamental deadly tricks? Ewald is a cancer biologist who has never taken a formal university course in cancer biology. He trained as a physicist and comes at cancer as, essentially, a really interesting and hard physics problem. What are the fundamental factors that make cancer behave the way it does? What is the E = mc2 of cancer? "I'm not very good at math anymore," he says. "But two things have stuck with me from physics. The first is a facility with instrumentation"his ability to customize microscopes, for example"and the second is a hatred of uncontrolled variables." When the physics-trained Ewald began attending cancer conferences in the early 2000s as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, he realized how differently biologists approached the disease compared to what a physicist would do. Cancer is mind-bogglingly complicated. Every tumor contains groups of cells with different genetic mutations, and even within genetically identical groups, genes are expressed at different levels. Those cells interact with the body's connective fibers, blood vessels, immune cells, and so on. They're subject to varied forces and pressures. And that's just one tumor. Each kind of breast cancer tumor differs substantially from the others, and even more from tumors produced by lung cancer, brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, and so on. Ewald knew of many studies that showed how changing a gene's expression or a single environmental variable could affect how a particular tumor grew. But what, he wondered, about the nine or 10 other factors that also influenced the tumor in unknown ways that the experimentalist could not control? A physicist studying something might use vacuum chambers, cryogenic temperatures, magnetic shielding, and other tricks to try to quiet confounding factors and ensure that any observed effects were from the one variable under scrutiny. Biologists had no comparable methods for filtering the complications of cancer. "There's a belief in underlying simplicity that has guided physics since forever," Ewald says. "Where we see complication, that's where we don't understand the principles yet. We don't understand the underlying simplicity." Think about an empty room. The room might contain, say, 1,025 air molecules. To describe the physics of the air, you might try to write down 1,025 kinematic equations, each one describing the motion of a single molecule. But if instead you measured the air's temperature and put that value into a single equation developed by 19th-century physicists James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann, you would know everything you need to know about the speed of the molecules. That's what physics doesextracts fundamental simplicity from a seemingly hopeless mess of complexity. That quest for simplicity, however, comes with an important caveat. You may have heard this aphorism, often attributed to Albert Einstein: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." (Einstein actually said, "It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience." Less pithy, for sure, but the same idea.) Much current research aligns with the idea that cancer is primarily a matter of faulty genes. It's an attractive view because the key to preventing and curing the disease then becomes identifying and fixing or suppressing bad genes; other complicated aspects of cancer biologya tumor's physical environment, how it interacts with other kinds of cells, the mechanics of how it invades the rest of the bodybecome secondary. When Bill Clinton announced the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2000, he said, "In coming years, doctors increasingly will be able to cure diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, and cancer by attacking their genetic roots. ... In fact, it is now conceivable that our children's children will know the term 'cancer' only as a constellation of stars." Seventeen years later, it's clear that the gene-centric view of cancer is not the full picture, and while it is pointing the way to some useful therapies, it cannot single-handedly cure the disease. Perhaps that's because, in its simplicity, it leaves out crucial informationEinstein's data of experience. Invasive leader cells, dyed green, push into surrounding tissues and carry less invasive cancer cells in red along for the ride. Movie originally published in Cheung et al, Cell. Credit: ANDREW EWALD For many decades, physicists have built tools important for cancer research and therapy. Microscopy, for example, is the harnessing of the physics of light to pull information out of an object of interesta group of cells, for example. X-rays and MRIs can detect tumors in the body. Proton therapy and radiation help treat cancer in millions of patients. Recently, however, some physicists have asserted that they can do more for cancer than just develop fancy instruments. Perhaps, they suggest, cancer has resisted a decades-long assault that has cost more than $100 billion partly because the assault has been missing the conceptual artillery of physics. In 2009, a group of physicists convinced the National Cancer Institute, the country's top funder of cancer research, to launch a network of "physical science oncology centers" dedicated to this idea. Physicists from fields as distant from cell biology as cosmology were set loose with millions of dollars to pursue ideas that most biologists weren't interested inthat cancer could be a reversion to a primitive evolutionary program, for example, or that game theory and network theory could help develop a fundamental understanding of the disease. It was a risky idea, says Larry Nagahara, who managed the program for several years before joining the Whiting School of Engineering, and what fruits it ultimately bears remain to be seen. Ewald43, bespectacled and clean-shaven with a well-managed mop of sandy blonde hairisn't one of those physicists who parachuted into cancer biology after establishing a career doing something else. His migration to biology began while he was majoring in physics at Haverford College. A genetics course and a stint in a cancer research center turned him on to the richness and complexity of biology. He went to Caltech for graduate school, thinking he would study the physics of cells and other biological structures"the most obvious overlap between physics and biology," he saysbut he was seduced by a time-lapse movie of the brain in formation that his adviser showed him. As a postdoctoral researcher at UCSF, he had had another pivotal experience when he heard his adviser describe how lungs develop in an embryo. He threw himself into studying how cells form complex tissues, organs, andwhen the process goes awrytumors. When Ewald reached Johns Hopkins as a new assistant professor in 2008, he knew the grim statistics of cancer morbidity and mortality. Then, two months after he started his position, his father was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer. "Metastatic" made this a devastating diagnosis: Metastasis is responsible for nine in 10 cancer deaths. Surgeons can often cut out a primary tumor, but there's no way to find and excise dozens or hundreds of far-flung growths, many of which don't show up on scans. Ewald's father died less than four months after his cancer was discovered. It was particularly frustrating, Ewald says, that even Johns Hopkins' world-class doctors did not understand cancer well enough to help. "My only consolation was that I had already organized my research and lab around closing this gap." Biologists' picture of metastasis, it turned out, was particularly murky. As far back as the 1950s, scientists were finding evidence that both single cancer cells and cell clusters could circulate in the blood. Moreover, patients with clusters in their bloodstream fared worse than those without them. Yet researchers largely ignored the clusters and came to think of metastasis as a process of single cells breaking away from tumors, like lone wolves striking out from their packs for new territory. Ewald suspected that biologists had gone too far, in an Einsteinian sense. "You want to study model systems for cancer that are as simple as possible but not simpler," he says. "You want to have the key features of the system still represented." Those key features include not just the cells' migration but their specific environment. Cancer cells are constantly pushing and pulling on collagen, a tough yet flexible fibrous protein that fills much of the space outside cells; the density and orientation of collagen can also affect nearby cells. As a postdoc, Ewald had developed a technique to embed cells inside gels designed to mimic collagen. He'd done so to study how organs develop; the same method, he found, allowed him to create lifelike models of cancer cells' environment. But it also posed a challenge: Microscopes are often designed to take images of a single spot on a simple 2-D slide or dish. That's where Ewald brought to bear a physicist's technical tool set. With his physics training, he understood how light is absorbed and reflected and how it can be manipulated to yield more information. He reconfigured his microscopes to image hundreds of positions in quick succession while staying in perfect focus. And he replaced the light filters. Microscope designers typically enhance their instruments' resolution by blasting a sample with as much light as possible. But light that bright kills cells. "Bringing in more light looks fantastic for a few images," Ewald says. "Then the sample dies." He took a different tack: He carefully guided the scope's light beams to make each photon do more work. He managed to supercharge his resolution while keeping light levels low enough for cells to survive indefinitely. He wrote software that made the microscope take a picture every 10 to 20 minutes for up to 100 hours. He calls the technique 4-D confocal microscopythe fourth dimension being time. He calibrated his equipment to collect not just images but numbersquantitative measures of cells' positions, velocities, and trajectories. All scientists measure, but that can mean different things. One might study metastasis by implanting a tumor in a mouse, then observing whether the tumor spreads. If it does, that's a 1; if not, it's a 0. Repeat and build a dataset that tells you something about the relative tendency of certain tumors to spread. But that does not measure how the malignant cells move from one site to another. Ewald's movies provide immensely more datathey reveal the precise physics of cancer's motion. "Andy's work is very quantitativehe measures everything," says Denis Wirtz, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins who studies the physical forces on cancer cells. "He knows his biology, his physics, and his optics." This rare combination of expertise in a single person has been key to his success, Wirtz says. For their breast cancer study, Ewald and his team collected tumors from various patients. No two tumors were alike, reflecting the complex reality of the disease, plus each had a throng of cells with different genes activated, expressing different proteins. The researchers chopped the tumors into roughly spherical blobs of 200 to 1,000 cells eachknown as "organoids"and embedded them in gels; each organoid represented the full cellular diversity of the original tumor. The gels were made of various materials, enabling the researchers to see how the cancer cells behave in different environments they might encounter in the body. "Because we can generate 200,000 to 300,000 of these organoids per tumor, we can put them in as many microenvironments as we can dream up," Ewald says. Breast cancer tumor cells invade a 3D environment composed of collagen I. This model could support the discovery of new drugs to stop cancer metastasis. Credit: ANDREW EWALD To tell what individual cells in the tumors were doing, the researchers labeled them with fluorescent markers. Over hours, many of the clumps grew those long, thin tentacles that reached into the surrounding gel. Ewald and his team found that nearly all the cells at the ends of the tentaclesthe ones leading the chargewere labeled green. That meant they contained keratin 14, or K14, a protein that helps give cells their structure and connects them to each other. The follower cells didn't have K14. This was a surprise. K14 indicates a relatively rare type of cell, known as an epithelial cell, that lines the outsides of many organs and tumors. According to the standard paradigm, epithelial cells are too sticky and sedentary to separate from tumors and move through the body. Indeed, the researchers had labeled epithelial cells to differentiate them from the cells they thought would metastasize. Now it seemed that the epithelial cells were not just involved in metastasis, they were essential to it. But Ewald was wary about reading too much into the initial result. "Everyone was saying that cancer is not one disease but many diseases," he recalls. "So it was reasonable [for him and his colleagues] to think that K14 would only explain a subset of cancers." When the team tested the two other main types of breast cancer, both sent out cell groups with K14-expressing leaders. Moreover, when the researchers applied a common technique to stop the cells from making K14, the tumors no longer invaded the gel. Multicell groups could invade the collagen matrixthat seemed clear. And those groups were invariably led by cells that seemed specialized for the task. But did that prove that malignant cell clusters can actually make it through the bloodstream to seed tumors elsewhere in the body? Hardly. Moving into the environment next door is only the first of many hurdles a breast cancer cell must overcome to successfully colonize, say, a lung, which from the cell's point of view is another country. "Invasion has been seen almost as synonymous with metastasis," Ewald says, but he points out that the phenomenon is far more complex than simply poking into nearby collagen. "Cells have to invade, but they also need to get into the blood vessels, they need to survive in the blood and escape the immune cells, and then land in distant organs, survive there, and eventually grow out." If his cells couldn't complete that progression, his finding might be an interesting curiosity but far short of suggesting a new paradigm of how cancer actually kills people. So Ewald and his colleagues next implanted tumors in mice. The researchers labeled some of the tumor cells green and some red. (In this experiment the labels did not correspond to specific cell types.) Ewald's team took blood samples from the mice and found multicolored cell clusters made mostly of K14-positive cells. Six to eight weeks after implanting the cells, the scientists found new growths with both green and red cells in the mice's lungs, and now the K14-negative cells were taking over again. Clearly, cell clumps had traveled as a unit from the breast to the lung. The researchers determined that at least 97 percent of the new tumors arose from such clusters; almost none were seeded by single cells. That meant, at least for these breast tumors in these mice, that individual cells traveling solo apparently did little to spread cancer throughout the body. In Ewald's studies, K14 shows up again and again in leader cells. When it's not there, leader cells don't lead. Perhaps, Ewald speculates, grouping actually helps cancer cells complete metastasis. Individual cells, like individual people, do some things better and other things worse, depending on the genes and molecules that are active in them. The cells out in front may be great at pushing through collagen and into the bloodstream, for example, but they might be comparatively poor colonizers. Building new tumors after settling into a new organ is where the follower cells might show their strength. The "terrifying implication," Ewald says, is that these multiclonal metastases will likely be much harder to kill because doctors probably won't be able to target them with just one drug. He thinks his finding could have a major upside: It could help predict when a cancer is likely to metastasize. Pathologists diagnose cancer mainly using a century-old visual inspection system known as staging; the procedure notes the size of a tumor, whether it has spread into nearby lymph nodes, and whether metastases can be found. They have no good way to predict which tumors will metastasize, so they often treat all tumors aggressively on the chance they'll spread if not killed. That results in some patients suffering through unnecessary chemotherapy, and, some scientists suspect, providing drug-resistant cancer cells a pathway to more easily take over after chemo wipes out the drug-susceptible ones. Ewald's findings could make pathology more powerful and precise. For example, K14 could be a potent marker that tells pathologists when to go scorched-earth on a tumor and when to hold the artillery. But there is more work to do. Ewald is now working with clinicians to replicate his findings in a wider range of breast tumor samples, to prove that K14 is universally relevant. And he needs to show that K14 detection actually provides useful information to pathologists and clinicians beyond what's available through existing tests. He's also working with pathologists to test whether K14 can predict recurrence in patients after their primary tumors are removed. (It does in mice, but results in mice often do not translate to humans.) "We're actually optimistic we'll be able to develop a good test of which patients will metastasize," he says. Breast cancer tumor cells invade a 3D environment composed of collagen I. This model could support the discovery of new drugs to stop cancer metastasis. Credit: Andrew Ewald By the time Ewald's team published results in early 2016 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, two other research groups had also reported multiclonal metastasesone using breast cancer cells, the other using pancreatic cancer cells. Ewald and his postdoc Kevin Cheung (now at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle) published a follow-up paper in Science summarizing the trio of results. "Although conventional models suggest that metastases are seeded by single cells from the primary tumor, there is growing evidence that seeding requires the collective action of tumor cells traveling together in clusters," the two wrote. Other researchers besides Ewald had observed groups of cells leaving a tumor. Few, if any, had tracked the groups all the way to a new organ. "Andy's work is among the first, if not the first, to really show that [tumors] don't need to individualize cells to undergo full metastasis," says Peter Friedl, a biologist at Radboud University in the Netherlands, whose movies of cancer cells in motion helped convince cancer biologists that collective invasion is important. He notes, however, that it's not clear whether all cancers can spread in this multicellular way or whether it's a strategy that only some cancers employ, because so far Ewald and others have proved that collective metastasis occurs in only a few types. Meanwhile, Ewald has launched a new project that would have been impossible even 10 years ago when he started at Johns Hopkins. His movies had revealed that metastasizing tumors often assume specific shapesmulti-tentacled tumors resemble starfish, for example. He showed some of the tumor images to Joel Bader in Johns Hopkins' Department of Biomedical Engineering. Bader recognized that the shapes were not just pretty; they could also be used as inputs for machine learning, the powerful computational method that is revolutionizing human endeavors from image analysis to chess to how we search the internet. Ewald and Bader have just received a grant to use computers to analyze hundreds of thousands of organoid shapes, rank them according to how invasive they are, and attempt to correlate the invasiveness with genes and proteins that are active during metastasis. The researchers hope this will yield a catalog of new potential drug targets. In a few years, if the project succeeds, machine learning may start to revolutionize biologists' understanding of what really drives metastasis. "We have 1,000-page textbooks on tumor shapes, but it's still not clear what's important," Ewald says. Againsearching for the fundamental simplicity. On a recent morning, Veena Padmanaban, a graduate student in Ewald's lab, sat in a darkened room. Refrigerators nearby gave off a persistent background drone. Padmanaban was looking at microscope images of organoids made from mouse breast tumors. "We saw that most metastases in mice are caused by cell clusters," Padmanaban says. "What happens if we play around with that?" She had created tumors with and without E-cadherin, a protein that cells use to hold on to each other, like kindergartners holding hands while walking to the playground. In a popular view of metastasis that has long held sway over the field, for a cell to leave a tumor, it must stop producing E-cadherin and set off alone, like a child taking off down the sidewalk. But Ewald's team had found in their previous studies on collective invasion that both leader and follower cells continue to produce E-cadherin and use it to stay connected as they make their way into the collagen matrix. Padmanaban wanted to know whether tumors with E-cadherin are actually more dangerous. She used a joystick to navigate the image field, as in an old Atari video game. Tumors in which she had inactivated the gene that produces the protein did spit out cells, following the conventional paradigm of metastasis. But the mice with these tumors did not end up with metastatic cancer. Apparently, single cells were ready and able to pick up and move but incapable of settling down again, or they got swept up by the immune systems of the mice. Tumors that produce E-cadherin, on the other hand, released fewer total cells into the surrounding matrix, but mice implanted with those tumors soon had lungs peppered with new growths. Once again, in studying the full complexity, an important underlying simplicity was emerging. Or, perhaps a better way to think of itthat simplicity had been there all along, waiting for the right tools, the right methodology, and the right minds to reveal it. Explore further First step of metastasis halted in mice with breast cancer (HealthDay)Higher teen pregnancy among sexual minorities is partially explained by childhood maltreatment and bullying, according to a study published online March 12 in Pediatrics. Brittany M. Charlton, Sc.D., from Boston Children's Hospital, and colleagues analyzed data from the Growing Up Today Study (7,120 young women) to examine potential teen pregnancy risk factors, including childhood maltreatment, bullying victimization and perpetration, and gender nonconformity, as well as sexual minority developmental milestones, sexual orientation-related stress, sexual minority outness, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual social activity involvement among sexual minorities. The researchers found that childhood maltreatment and bullying were significant teen pregnancy risk factors among all participants. Sexual orientation-related teen pregnancy disparities were attenuated after adjusting for childhood maltreatment and bullying, which explained 45 percent of the disparity. Reaching sexual minority developmental milestones earlier was also associated with an increased teen pregnancy risk among sexual minorities. "Teen pregnancy prevention efforts that are focused on risk factors more common among young women who are sexual minorities (e.g., childhood maltreatment, bullying) can help to reduce the existing sexual orientation-related teen pregnancy disparity," the authors write. Explore further Sexual minorities at higher risk of teen pregnancy Copyright 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Social connectivity and meaningful social engagement must be promoted as integral components of healthy aging, according to a new collection of articles in the latest issue of Public Policy & Aging Report (PP&AR) from The Gerontological Society of America (GSA). Several authors also detail a series of initiatives that, if replicated, hold promise for decreasing isolation among older adults. More than 8 million people over age 50 are socially isolated. That means they may not have the support of a social network of friends, family, or community. The toll on their health can be devastating: social isolation has been linked to higher blood pressure, increased susceptibility to the flu and other infectious diseases, greater risk of heart disease, and earlier onset of dementia. "As we age, social connections can be an important contributor to our well-being," said GSA Executive Director and CEO James Appleby, BSPharm, MPH. "Now through our Public Policy & Aging Report, I am proud that GSA is adding momentum to research in this topic areaultimately leading to new evidence-based insights that can be translated into sound policy and practice." Appleby sits on the Executive Council of Connect2Affect, an initiative led by AARP Foundation that is committed to helping end isolation and build the social connections that older adults need to thrive. Lisa Marsh Ryerson, president of AARP Foundation, contributed the first article to the PP&AR's lineup. In addition to describing the efforts of Connect2Affect, she reports on several new ventures underway at the Foundation. One involves a collaboration with the USC Center for Body Computing, with generous support from UnitedHealthcare, to study whether providing free Lyft rides to medical and non-medical appointments can improve health and well-being in older adults. A second involves testing whether an interactive device with built-in speech recognition and the ability to provide voice responses will make it easy, fast, and fun for older adults to get reminders and community information, and to discover and deepen new relationships. The Foundation is also supporting a project that evaluates the effectiveness of phone-based outreach in reducing feelings of loneliness and the incidence of poor health among low-income older adults. A subsequent article by Julianne Holt-Lunstand, PhD, of Brigham Young University, demonstrates the need for such innovations. She concludes that there is now substantial evidence that being socially connected significantly reduces the risk for premature mortality, and that lacking social connectedness significantly increases risk. Moreover, these risks exceed those associated with many risk factors that receive substantial public health resources: obesity, air pollution, smoking, and physical inactivity. The new issue of PP&AR, which contains 10 articles and an opening editorial, is titled "Lack of Social Connectedness and Its Consequences" and can be accessed at academic.oup.com/ppar/issue/27/4 . Provided by The Gerontological Society of America Credit: CC0 Public Domain Patients with multimorbiditytwo or more long-term medical conditionshave complex health care needs, often requiring higher levels of care than other patients. According to a new study, however, patients with multimorbidity in affluent areas receive longer doctor visits, greater perceived empathy, and more patient-centered care than comparable patients in socioeconomically deprived areas. Researchers in Scotland analyzed 659 routine visits to general practitioners in deprived and affluent areas, as well as patient ratings of general practitioner empathy. In affluent areas, multimorbid patients received longer consultations than other patients (13 minutes versus 9 minutes) while in deprived areas, consultation length was about the same for both groups (10 minutes). Similarly, patients with multimorbidity in affluent areas found GPs to be more empathetic and, according to video analysis, more attentive to their disease and illness experience. There were no such differences between similar groups in deprived areas. If primary care is to succeed in narrowing health inequalities, the authors state, action is needed to ensure that patients with multimorbidity in lower socioeconomic areas receive the same level of care and attention as patients in affluent areas. More information: Stewart W. Mercer et al. Multimorbidity and Socioeconomic Deprivation in Primary Care Consultations, The Annals of Family Medicine (2018). Journal information: Annals of Family Medicine Stewart W. Mercer et al. Multimorbidity and Socioeconomic Deprivation in Primary Care Consultations,(2018). DOI: 10.1370/afm.2202 Klebsiella bacteria. Credit: NIAID Researchers are developing a promising alternative to antibiotic treatment for infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria resistant to carbapenem antibiotics. The approach uses antibodies to target the K. pneumoniae protective capsule polysaccharide, allowing immune system cells called neutrophils to attack and kill the bacteria. The early stage, in vitro research was conducted by scientists at NIAID's Rocky Mountain Laboratories and the New Jersey Medical School-Rutgers University. Klebsiella bacteria cause about 10 percent of all hospital-acquired infections in the United States. A carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae strain known as multilocus sequence type 258 (ST258) is one of the antibiotic-resistant organisms labeled an urgent threat by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ST258 is particularly concerning because it is resistant to most antibiotics. It is a significant cause of mortality among people with bloodstream infections. The researchers first determined that the bacterial capsule prevents immune system neutrophils from ingesting and killing ST258. They then extracted capsule from the two most abundant capsule types of ST258 and used them to generate antibodies in rabbits. In cell culture experiments they found that one of the antibodies enhanced the ability of neutrophils to ingest and kill bacteria. These results are a "proof of concept" for a potential immunotherapy approach for treatment of multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae infections, the authors write. Next up, the researchers will test the therapeutic concept in mice. They also will compare immunization with purified capsule polysaccharide as a preventive approach (active immunization) versus using capsule-specific antibodies as a therapy (passive immunization). Ultimately, they hope either antibody treatment alone or in combination with antibiotics could greatly improve care for people with multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae infections. Explore further NIH advances understanding of defenses against antibiotic-resistant klebsiella bacteria More information: Scott D. Kobayashi et al, Antibody-Mediated Killing of Carbapenem-Resistant ST258 Klebsiella pneumoniae by Human Neutrophils, mBio (2018). Journal information: mBio Scott D. Kobayashi et al, Antibody-Mediated Killing of Carbapenem-Resistant ST258 Klebsiella pneumoniae by Human Neutrophils,(2018). DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00297-18 When compared to the screening population ages 50 and over, screening mammography in women ages 40-49 detects 19.3% additional cancers at the expense of an overall 1.5% increase in callbacks and 0.1% in increased biopsies, according to a study to be presented at the ARRS 2018 Annual Meeting, set for April 22-27 in Washington, DC. The study to be presented by Abid Irshad of the Medical University of South Carolina examined the effectiveness of screening mammography between ages 40-49 in comparison to age groups 50-59 and 60-69. More than 41,000 screening mammography exams were examined for callbacks and recall rate, biopsies performed, cancers detected, and sensitivity and specificity of screening mammography. Overall, 41,028 mammograms were performed with 5,196 callbacks (12.7% recall rate), 1,164 biopsies, and 326 cancers detected. Women ages 40-49 had 8,913 mammograms, 1,518 callbacks (17% recall rate), 306 biopsies, and 52 cancers detected. Women ages 50-59 had 13,288 mammograms, 1,659 callbacks (12.5% recall rate), 371 biopsies, and 103 cancers detected, while women ages 60-69 had 12,119 mammograms, 1,239 callbacks (10.2% recall rate), 302 biopsies and 89 cancers detected. Overall, the women ages 50 and over had a total of 31,385 mammograms, 3,504 callbacks (11.2% recall rate), 836 biopsies, and 270 cancers detected. By adding the women ages 40-49 to the screening population of 50 and over, the overall callback rate increased 1.5%, the biopsy rate increased 0.1% and 19.3% more cancers were detected. The study results showed that there was a higher number of callbacks among women ages 40-49 compared to women ages 50-59 (17% compared with 12.5%) and to women ages 60-69 (17% compared with 10.2%). There was also a lower positive biopsy rate among women ages 40-49 compared with women over 50. The number of cancers detected in women ages 40-49 was not significantly different from women ages 50-59 or 60-69. Explore further Screening mammograms in younger women have low accuracy and detect few cancers African Americans with a common genetic variation are at increased risk for developing Alzheimer's disease, while European Americans with the same variation are not, according to a study led by researchers at Rush University Medical Center. They published the study results in the February 22 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The genetic variation, known as Thr92AlaD2 polymorphism, affects a gene involved in the activation of thyroid hormone and occurs commonly; almost half the population are carriers of this polymorphism. The study found that African Americans with this polymorphism are 30 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease dementia than the African American without the genetic polymorphism. Whereas in European Americans, this gene wasn't associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's. This is a remarkable juxtaposition. "This correlation only shows up in African-Americans. We have some ideas but aren't sure why," said Elizabeth McAninch MD, study author and assistant professor of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Rush. Discovery is twist in research that began with thyroid gland The discovery was the latest twist in an investigation that began years ago in Rush's endocrinology division under the leadership of Dr. Antonio Bianco, a thyroid expert and the director of the present studies. Endocrinologists provide care for hormone imbalances that cause health problems. The Thr92AlaD2 polymorphism affects an enzyme that activates thyroid hormones. The enzyme is most important when considering patients with a condition known as hypothyroidism, which occurs when there is insufficient thyroid hormone being produced by the thyroid gland. In most cases, this condition can be controlled with the standard treatment for hypothyroidism, a drug called levothyroxine. However, about 15 percent of patients treated with levothyroxine consistently say it doesn't help them feel better. Wondering what was behind those reports, McAninch and colleagues at Rush previously obtained and analyzed brain tissue from the University of Miami Brain Bank from deceased Caucasian male organ donors who at their time of death were young and healthy, without known thyroid problems, to see if they could find any clues. To their surprise, the brains of the healthy donors who had the polymorphism displayed biomarkers that are known to play a role in neurodegenerative brain disease. "This was a shock to us and deserved more investigation," McAninch recalled. Researchers then drew on data from long-term studies of Alzheimer's The endocrinologists then enlisted the help of Rush researchers who specialize in the issues of the aging brain, and the expanded team set to work with data from three long-term group studies done at Rush from 1993 to 2012the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP), the Religious Orders Study (ROS), and the Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP). The CHAP cohort includes 3656 participants, 2321 of whom are African American, who received cognitive testing in three-year cycles for more than 18 years. In ROS and MAP, 1,707 European American participants without known dementia were enrolled and had annual evaluations. Again, McAninch and colleagues also continued to collaborate with the University of Miami Brain Bank to obtain and study brain tissue from young, healthy African American brain donors. Through utilizing the CHAP data, which has both African American and European American participants, this unique racially-stratified outcome revealed itself. "That's when we saw this huge discrepancy in risk for Alzheimer's disease dementia," McAninch said. Questions remain to be answered in future studies Minorities tend to be understudied in medical research in general, and specifically there needs to be more, larger studies of African Americans to evaluate the risk of Alzheimer's, McAninch observed. "A strength of this study is credited to the amazing resource we have in these three cohort studies here at Rush, where we were able to look at the differences between African-Americans and European-Americans," she says. The Rush-led team is already planning the next inquiry, McAninch says, "to try to understand why African-Americans have this risk, while the European-Americans do not." (HealthDay)Depression is a big problem in women during and after pregnancy, but it's also a concern throughout the reproductive years. Now, new research reports that nearly 5 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 44 have struggled with major depression. And another 4 percent of women in that age group have experienced minor depression. But neither group is getting adequate care for the condition. Less than one third of women with major depression were being treated with antidepressants. For those with minor depression, only 20 percent had been given an antidepressant. "Depression impacts women of childbearing years who aren't pregnant," said study senior author Dr. Alexander Butwick. He's an associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. "By improving awareness of depression in the reproductive years, we may be able to better optimize care before a woman gets pregnant. We can get appropriate counseling and treatment in place before pregnancy, which may help mitigate depression during pregnancy," Butwick said. Nearly 13 percent of women experience major depression during pregnancy, according to the researchers. Depression during pregnancy has been linked to several serious outcomes, including the mother's self-harm or suicide, diminished growth in the baby, early delivery and inadequate mother-child bonding. More than half of women who have depression during pregnancy also had depression before pregnancy, the researchers noted. So getting a treatment plan in place beforehand would be ideal. But about half of U.S. pregnancies are unplanned. That's why the study authors wanted to see how many women are dealing with depression during their reproductive years. "Depression, if uncontrolled, may have an impact on a woman and her pregnancy outcome. If you're aware of a problem beforehand, you have the luxury of time to plan," Butwick said. The study included data from a nationally representative survey of health and nutritional status in the United States. The data is continuously collected in two-year cycles. For this study, the researchers looked at 2007 to 2014. The survey included nine questions to determine depression, ranging from "Do you feel tired or have little energy?" to "Do you have thoughts that you would be better off dead or of hurting yourself in some way?" Major depression required participants to have five or more depressive symptoms more than half the days in the past two weeks, while minor depression involved fewer than five, according to the study. The data only has pregnancy status for women aged 20 to 44, so that's the age group targeted by researchers. They excluded women who were pregnant and those who had given birth in the past 12 months. The study ended up with 3,705 women of reproductive age. Of these, 5 percent suffered from major depression. Factors associated with major depression included having high blood pressure, smoking and having government insurance. The one factor with a statistically significant link to minor depression was having a high school education or less. Butwick said these associations shouldn't be considered as risk factors for depression. More study is needed, he added. Dr. Chris Karampahtsis is a psychiatrist at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., who helps oversee a maternity mental health program. He reviewed the study's findings. "The big challenge has been that there hasn't been much research in nonpregnant women of childbearing years. This is a particular subset of women that requires focus," he said. "Depression is very treatable, but it has to be identified. This study found a large group of women that are being undertreated or not treated at all for depression. It shows we definitely have to become better at screening for depression," Karampahtsis noted. He said the big public health concern is that about a quarter of adults with minor depressive symptoms go on to have major depression. "Intervening early can have a significant impact," he said. The study was published March 12 in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. Explore further How well is depression in women being diagnosed and treated? More information: Alexander Butwick, M.B.B.S., associate professor, anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, California; Chris Karampahtsis, M.D., psychiatrist, department of Behavioral Health, NYU Winthrop Hospital, Mineola, N.Y.; March 12, 2018, Obstetrics and Gynecology Alexander Butwick, M.B.B.S., associate professor, anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, California; Chris Karampahtsis, M.D., psychiatrist, department of Behavioral Health, NYU Winthrop Hospital, Mineola, N.Y.; March 12, 2018, Learn more about depression in women from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health. Journal information: Obstetrics and Gynecology Copyright 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved. In response to the Times report, Mr. Smith and Suroosh Alvi, co-founders of the company, said in a statement that from the top down, we have failed as a company to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone, especially women, can feel respected and thrive. In the months that followed, Vices chief digital officer left the company after it looked into harassment allegations against him. The companys president, Andrew Creighton, has been on leave. Meanwhile, the company faces a lawsuit from a former employee who said that the company marginalized women and discriminated against them by paying them less. In a memo to employees signed Love S, Mr. Smith made no specific mention of issues related to sexual harassment but referred to the companys earlier promise of 50-50 female-male representation at every level by 2020. This marks a new period in Vices history that will make us infinitely stronger, Mr. Smith said. Nancy will run the company day to day from New York, and we will work lock step with our partners, management, employees and board in making sure that Vice maintains its position as the leader of new media, and delivers on its commitment to 50/50 by 2020 as we work to become the most progressive workplace in the world. Ms. Dubuc, who announced on Monday that she was stepping down as chief executive of A&E Networks, became close with Mr. Smith and Vice Media after A&E Networks invested $250 million in the company in 2014. Ms. Dubuc serves on the board of Vice and oversaw the joint venture that started the Viceland TV network in 2016. The Department of Telecommunications will facilitate the establishment of 96 Internet service providers in South Africa. Deputy Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams made the statement while addressing a Parliamentary portfolio committee on the cost to communicate in the country. The department will prioritise the youth and women in the initiative, and will also increase awareness and participation of SMMEs in ecommerce. The department further plans to facilitate and monitor the implementation of the minimum set-asides of 30% for procurement of services from SMMEs along the entire ICT value chain from the financial year, starting in April 2018, she said. High prices Telecommunications Minister Siyabonga Cwele was also present at the presentation, and spoke about high prices in the telecoms industry. One of the main reasons we still have high costs is because the industry remains highly concentrated. We are unlikely to see aggressive competition if we dont open up the sector to more and new entrants, said Cwele. He said the work being done by ICASA on effective competition in the broadband market was making progress, along with the Competition Commissions inquiry into data services. ICASA is scheduled to release its findings by June 2018, which will indicate a list of markets that should be regulated and priority markets to be subjected to market reviews. Cwele made no mention of the allocation of high-demand radio frequency spectrum, however, which mobile operators like Vodacom and MTN have stated will allow them to provide better coverage and faster speeds at cheaper prices. Now read: SqwidNet signs IoT partnership with Activate Group US ambassador: We continue to look with confidence at future for Armenia as sovereign, prosperous state Police not allowing reporters to cover PM's visit to Yerevan military pantheon Newspaper: Azerbaijanis get more active after dismissal of commander of Russia peacekeepers in Artsakh Armenia marks Independence Day 30th anniversary Senior officials visiting Yerevan military pantheon on Armenia Independence Day 30th anniversary US launches strike at one of al-Qaida leaders in Syria Biden to declare end of "20-year war" in Afghanistan in speech at UN General Assembly US Ambassador to Armenia: Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has yet to be settled, Artsakh status will be clarified Nikol Pashinyan: Russian-Armenians and their businesses stand strong with the Armenian State Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan pledges investments worth $780,000,000 US says it is willing to consider return to nuclear deal with Iran Azerbaijani-Turkish military exercises are being held in Nakhchivan Businessman Samvel Karapetyan: I don't agree that systems have changed in Armenia, only people have changed Two residents of Armenia's Kasakh who disappeared in Vorotan section and were returned, are at home Kyrgyz MP proposes to appoint one Ambassador to Armenia and Azerbaijan Armenia Central Bank head: Buffer of Armenian financial organizations is sufficient to resist challenges OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative for South Caucasus to visit Armenia Armenia PM sends telegram of condolence to Russia President Armenia Deputy PM: Government shouldn't be involved in business Nearly 700 projects considered during "Armenia 2020-Armenia 2041" meeting Putin, Aliyev hold phone talks Armenian filmmaker calls on Armenia citizens to join march to Yerablur Military Pantheon on Independence Day Digest: Armenian women die in the Netherlands shooting, Azerbaijan returns 2 Armenians Relatives of deceased servicemen protesting in front of Armenia government building Russian Expert Center: Russia is ready to offer Yerevan buses and new metro wagons "High-Level Observer Day" held as part of "Three Brothers-2021" Azerbaijan-Turkey-Pakistan military drills Flights to and from Gyumri and Moscow launched Russia deputy PM: Development of new strategic document has started with Armenia Armenian businessman: I would like for Armenia to have three official languages Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains or relics of soldiers not found in Hadrut today COAF and AMAA partner to revamp dairy production in Lori Province of Armenia Gunshots heard in Armenia's Kut village again Alexey Overchuk: Russia is ready to help Armenia overcome economic crisis and pandemic Armenia economy minister: Unblocking of communication will help increase country's GDP by 30% Armenia army's units to march on country's Independence Day Armenia PM congratulates Vladimir Putin on United Russia Party's victory Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sergey Smbatyan, performs at InClassica festival (PHOTOS) Russian official: Bandwidth of Upper Lars checkpoint to grow by 6.5 times in 2022 Armenian Deputy PM: Armenia-Russia trade turnover made up $1.9 billion in first semester of 2021 Nursultan Nazarbayev congratulates Armenia President on 30th anniversary of Independence Iran Ambassador to Armenia: We hope alternative road to Goris is built as soon as possible Egypt President congratulates Armenia President on 30th anniversary of Independence Erdogan to visit Russia on a working visit Young Dutch man with mental disorder shoots at passers-by, kills 2 female members of AGBU Holland Russia ambassador to Armenia: Innovative approaches needed to deepen bilateral relations Greek MFA slams Turkey for illegal fishing in its territorial waters PM: Armenia greatly interested in opening communications Armenia-Russia cooperation agreement signed Deputy PM: Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan trilateral platform discusses issues I have spoken about many times Armenia PM spokesperson: No contacts taken place so far with Turkey North Korean MFA slams new defense alliance created by Australia, UK and US 20 Turkey citizens seek asylum in Armenia in past 3 years Armenia economy minister on Goris-Kapan motorway situation: We are very actively rebuilding bypass road Russia deputy PM: Issue of corridors not being discussed Armenia deputy PM: Unblocking of roads will have positive effect Deputy PM: Cooperation within EEU is main guarantee of Armenia's economic recovery Azerbaijan FM heads for US Iran sending sizeable military forces to Azerbaijan border 2 Armenian General Benevolent Union women die from stabbing (PHOTOS) 8 dead after shooting at Russia university 342 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Armenia opposition MP: No security mechanisms on Goris-Kapan motorway to prevent abducting, getting lost Yerevan hosting Armenian Business Forum 2021 Australia PM says France submarine deal not in his countrys interest Half of Earth's coral reefs die out in last 70 years World oil prices falling Firefighting resumes at Armenia national park Over 70% of ballots counted in Russia State Duma elections Largest Armenia flag to be installed in Yeraskh village of Ararat Province (PHOTOS) Azerbaijan returns 2 Armenia citizens Women protest in Kabul in defense of their rights Russia elections over Those apprehended outside jewelry center in Yerevan are tourists from Iran, not Turks or Azerbaijanis Frances Macron cancels Swiss counterparts visit Manny Pacquiao to run for Philippine president Yerkir.am: 2 Turks or Azerbaijanis apprehended outside jewelry center in Yerevan Details of Iran nuclear physicists assassination by Israel intelligence are disclosed France MFA announces crisis in US relations UK lawmakers accuse Johnson of more casual approach to national security Goris city deputy mayor: Azerbaijan military hit Armenian young man with handheld transceiver antenna Khatibzadeh: Iran hopes Iranian truckers detained by Azeris in Armenia's Syunik will be released immediately Turkeys Erdogan: Georgia premier conveyed Armenia PMs proposal to hold meeting Australia plans to soon buy or lease submarines from US or UK Protest being staged outside Armenia government building Armenia ombudsman: National Security Service taking active measures to have our compatriots returned Colorado killer sentenced to 1,282 years, in addition to life in prison Armenia village mayor: Those who ended up in Azerbaijan-controlled territory are 20-, 21-year-old boys Kazakhstan, Belarus to arm CSTO Cement plant opens in Artsakh Goris deputy mayor on probability of Armenia residents ending up in Azerbaijan: 4 people, they disappeared by car Armenia National Security Service: 2 residents end up in Azerbaijan-controlled territory Islamic State claims responsibility for Syria natural gas pipeline attack 507 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Final day of elections in progress in Russia Birds dying en masse in New York Armenia parliament to hold hearings on September 22 Drone mistakenly drops package of drugs into US schoolyard Researchers uncover risk of mutated coronavirus Several hundred people go on protest action at US Congress France: One person dies in a fight with participation of 150 bikers YEREVAN.- Armenian-Lebanese economic relations are far from the high level of political relations that exist between the two countries, Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan said on Monday after the meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. According to the Prime Minister, Armenian-Lebanese relations have great potential for development. "We talked about the opportunities that our two countries enjoy. In particular, we are very much interested in bringing Lebanese business to Armenia. We highlighted Armenias advantages and opportunities. We stated the fact that being a member of the Eurasian Union, having the GSP+ trade regime with the European Union and a free economic zone near the border with Iran, as well as a business-friendly environment, Armenia allows access to larger sales markets. "There are many areas where we can cooperate: light industry, jewelry, pharmaceutics, agriculture, information technology, and tourism. We also agreed that we will continue to negotiate over the establishment of an Armenian-Lebanese investment fund to support our joint initiatives. We also talked about the development of solar and alternative energy. "Highlighting the role of the Armenian community in Lebanon, we noted that the Lebanese Armenians are in fact our ambassadors here and Lebanons ambassadors to Armenia. Being Lebanons devoted citizens, they have a great role to play in the furtherance of friendly ties between our two countries. "Taking the opportunity, I invited Mr. Hariri to visit Armenia. We also agreed to draft an agenda for our intergovernmental commission so that we could hold a commission sitting during Mr. Hariris visit. "We will have several meetings during these two days, and I am convinced that we will give fresh impetus to our economic relations," the PM noted. YEREVAN. Chairman of the National Assembly (NA), Ara Babloyan, has issued a statement on nominating a candidate for the post of the President of the Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia. Under the Part 2 of Article 83 of the Constitutional amendments [in 2005], I propose to the National Assembly Hrayr Tovmasyans candidacy for appointing him in the vacant post of the President of the Constitutional Court from the Staff of the Constitutional Court, the statement reads. The position of CC President remains vacant ever since Gagik Harutyunyan was elected Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council. And several days ago, former Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan was elected member of the CC, and he gave up his parliamentary seat. Also, Tovmasyan submitted a petition for withdrawing from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia. The election of the new CC chief judge will take place during the next NA sessions to be convened from March 20 to 23. YEREVAN. New Ambassador of Malaysia to Armenia Datuk Mat Dris Haji Yaacobwith residence in Moscowon Tuesday presented his credentials to President Serzh Sargsyan. First, the President congratulated the ambassador on his appointment and wished him success, the press office of the President informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. Noting that this year Armenia and Malaysia celebrate the 25th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, the President stressed that the historical relationships between the two peoples are a solid foundation to transform those warm ties into high-level inter-state relations and for effective cooperation. Also, Sargsyan underscored the need for the formation and subsequent expansion of a respective legal framework between the two countries. The interlocutors spoke with satisfaction about the ongoing productive Armenia-Malaysia cooperation within international organizations. Ambassador Datuk Mat Dris Haji Yaacob assured that he will spare no effort to strengthen Armenian-Malaysian ties. In the ensuing talk, the Malaysian diplomat presented his views on and visions for the opportunities toward the development of cooperation. The Armenian President, for his part, welcomed them and stressed that the ambassadors practical mood inspires optimism that there will be activeness in bilateral relations. Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues Co-Chair Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues Co-Vice Chair Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Congressman Jim Costa (D-CA) issued statements in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Azerbaijans anti-Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku, the Armenian Assembly of America reported . Invited by the Armenian Caucus leadership, a delegation from Artakh (Nagorno Karabakh), led by President Bako Sahakyan, are in Washington, D.C. for a week-long working visit, where they will be able to meet and speak with Members of Congress regarding strengthening the U.S.-Artsakh relationship. Rep. Pallone said on the House floor: On February 27, 1988, up to 200 Armenian civilians living in the city of Sumgait in Azerbaijan were indiscriminately killed, raped, maimed, and even burned alive for no reason other than their ethnicity. This senseless violence was instigated by hostile, anti-Armenian rhetoric from Azerbaijani citizens and officials against these innocent individuals. For three decades, Azerbaijan has taken steps to cover up these crimes against humanity and dismiss the atrocities at Sumgait. Even more disturbing is that perpetrators of these events and similar violent attacks have since been lauded as national heroes. He added: I will continue to work with my colleagues on the Congressional Armenian Issues Caucus to remember the victims of the pogroms at Sumgait and to condemn all acts of violence against people who are targeted simply because of their existence. I hope my colleagues will join me in rejecting violent rhetoric and intimidation by renewing our commitment to achieving a collective and lasting peace. Home | News | General | Loyola Jesuit school fees Loyola Jesuit school is one of the best private schools in Nigeria. Get detailed information on Loyola Jesuit college Abuja school fees and studying process. Loyola Jesuit college Nigeria Loyola Jesuit college is private, a secondary boarding school in Abuja. The school is under the management of Roman Catholic church. The year of opening is 1996. The school was named in honor of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the patriarch of Society of Jesus. READ ALSO: 5 best secondary schools in Nigeria according to WAEC 2017 The college is situated on outskirts of Abuja. There are large classrooms, three dormitories, laboratory buildings, dining hall. The school is known as very academically selective college in Nigeria. This is the first school of Nigeria with online application policy. Loyola Jesuit college fees The fee is N2,800,000 for a student. This price includes all costs for living and studying of the student, including clothing, food, textbooks, and so on. Such a price for tuition is justified since the pupil gets really high-quality knowledge and upbringing. The school pays much attention to the upbringing of the moral qualities of students and prepares them for studying in the best higher educational institutions. Secondary school is a ticket to adulthood, so the school administration does everything to prepare students for the future successful career. Loyola Jesuit school fees are expensive because the school provides education and service at the highest level. So, if you want to give your child an elite and quality education then this college is one of the best options for you and your child. READ ALSO: Most expensive secondary schools in Nigeria [embedded content] Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | '2018 is the Year of the Supernatural', - Pastor Chris Oyakhilom 2018 will be the year of supernatural! It`s true, and you must believe it! You may ask about what is the reason to believe that? According to Pastor Chris messages the reason is simple, this year is destined to be a change breaker in Nigeria! Pastor Chris encourages people to believe that this year, Nigeria will experience a great way of abundance! So, what does he mean by that? Let`s find out! Prologue to Pastor Chris and his messages The General Overseer of Christ Embassy Church promises that 2018 will become a year of significant and mysterious changes for our country. It will be a year of supernatural. Therefore, for pastor Chris, God revealed that this year would become a blessing! READ ALSO: Inspirational birthday prayer for myself Pastor Chris explained that this year is the 70th anniversary of Israel creation. This situation can significantly influence the Earth. Therefore, something grand can really happen, and you can all expect that it will influence your life too. Pastor Chris explained what should you expect from this year in seven main topics. Supernatural Health; Supernatural Knowledge; Supernatural Wisdom; Supernatural insight; Supernatural Ability; Supernatural Strength; Supernatural Supply. Let`s try to find out what it all means. It`s really difficult to understand the prophecies of somebody. We can only expect the true meaning when a prophecy has become a reality. Nevertheless, let`s try to understand what we see in this prophecies! Top 7 Pastor Chris Messages 2018! 1. Supernatural Health The first thing to think about in this year it`s supernatural health. What does it mean for the world and yourself? It means that you can expect new fantastic things regarding medicine for Nigeria and the world. Your health will help you out in this year. Moreover, it may sound like new types of medical treatment should be open in this year! That`s is the first reason why you should love this year. Lord will give you more health so you can accomplish new things for this year! It should really sound amazing to you. If you have some problems with your health, then expect that everything will be changed for good in this direction! 2. Supernatural Knowledge Knowledge messages from Pastor Chris are something you should know about! Knowledge is a potential power to change everything. The progress in technologies provides us an ability to understand the knowledge much better than it`s now. In 2018, you may expect more knowledge about almost everything in the world. It becomes true even today, when you hear about Elon Masks plans to conquer Mars or news about new iPhones coming out this year. That`s why you should expect to get more knowledge into your head this year, and it may potentially bring you a fortune! 3. Supernatural Wisdom What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? A wise person knows how to use his knowledge. That`s why this year will not be only a year of knowledge, but also a year of wisdom. You will understand your path and your desire to change things. Wisdom can be treated as an experience that you may get this year! Therefore, why should you waste it? This year provide more knowledge for Nigeria also. We should expect changes for better in our economy, education, security and so on. The previous years were only the steps to prepare for this year, and in this year you will find out the results! 4. Supernatural Insight Nobody tells you that 2018 will be a stable year. You may expect a lot to happen in the world and Nigeria. Also, your own life may change drastically this year. Millions of students are on their way to take JAMB examination and change the life of Nigeria! Pastor Chris promises new ways to help Nigeria this year. God will be with Nigeria, and he will help our country. Do not underestimate this message from a servant of God. Who knows, maybe you will be the one with insight that can change your life forever! 5. Supernatural Ability We all like superheroes who can save the day in any moment of your life. Did you think that you can be a hero of your own story? If you think so, then it`s your year to prove it! If you want to get a new ability, then this year will be the right way to do this! It`s your time to change everything in this world! What can you get a new ability in 2018? You have a great variety of choices! First thing on your list may become a GYM! Did you think that 2018 is the best time to get your muscles in shape? If you are not in a mood like going to GYM, then take actor`s courses, singing, writing or else. Pastor Chris encourages you to develop new abilities which can become something new in your life! 6. Supernatural Strength Pastor Chris gives the ides of a new strength for Nigeria that may come this year! It does not necessarily mean physique strength. It can also mean the strength of faith! Faith is what you really need this year to become strong. If you believe in yourself and if you believe in Lord nothing can be a problem for you! 7. Supernatural Supply 2018 will be the year of endless supply! It`s what you really need to become strong and healthy! It`s what our country needs to become rich and prosperous! This year will help us to become what we truly are! The supernatural supply will help us to achieve all dreams! Pastor Chris messages 2018 promise that you will get a lot of supernatural this year! Therefore, it can be your chance to become supernatural or embrace it! Believe in it and believe that God will help you on this path! READ ALSO: How many ministers do we have in Nigeria? [embedded content] Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | Why we suspended judgement in FGs case against Saraki CCT By Ikechukwu Nnochiri ABUJACode of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, in Abuja, yesterday, justified its decision to suspend further proceedings on the assets falsification charge the Federal Government preferred against the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, saying it was taken in the interest of justice and the right to fair hearing. Saraki The CCT, in a statement signed by its Head, Press & Public Relations, Mr. Ibraheem Al-Hassan, said its decision to adjourn the case sine-die (indefinitely), was anchored on section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. The Justice Danladi Umar-led two-man panel tribunal said the clarification was necessitated by some reports in the media insinuating that it was the CCT Chairman that outrightly adjourned the case indefinitely without stating the reasons. The statement added: We felt that such reports were not balanced, one-sided, and written in bad faith. However, the tribunal wished to state that the decision was taken in the interest of justice and the right to fair hearing, section 36 of the Constitution and the right to appeal from the decision of a lower court. Tribunal is not insensitive to the circumstance under which the defendant was asked to return back to the Tribunal by the Court of Appeal to answer questions relating to counts 4, 5 and 6. Al-Hassan said the CCT Chairman had noted that both the prosecution and the defense counsel filed an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the decision of Court of Appeal with respect to the charge. He said it was on the basis of the appeals that the CCT held that it would be hesitant to take further steps in Sarakis case, pending when the appeal is considered and determined, which would of course definitely determine the outcome of judgement of the Tribunal on count 4,5 and 6. The tribunal held that to be on a safer side and to be fair to both parties, the tribunal decided to tarry for a while so that the integrity and powers of the Supreme Court would not be jeopardized. The tribunal felt that the issue raised by the defence counsel is so germane to wait for the outcome of the appeal before tribunal proceeds, therefore on the basis of that tribunal adjourned matter to enable the Supreme Court dispose off the appeal before it, the statement further read. It will be recalled that the CCT had last week Thursday, announced its decision to tarry for awhile in the matter, on a day both FG and Saraki appeared through their lawyers to adopt their final briefs of argument for judgment to be delivered in the case. FGs lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, had urged the tribunal to go ahead with the case, contending that suspending further proceeding would amount to granting Sarakis desire. He said: Ordinarily we would have said your lordships should tarry awhile to protect the authority and integrity of the highest court, but the prosecution will urge the tribunal to proceed, in view of the position of the law today. On his part, Sarakis lawyer, Mr. Kanu Agabi, SAN, commended the CCT panel for acknowledging the superiority of the apex court, saying there was need for further proceeding to be suspended in the matter to await the outcome of the appeal that was lodged by his client and a cross-appeal that was filed by FG. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | Curses on Human Traffickers: Women salute Ewuare IIs courage, hail Edo govt Few hours after the Edo State government formally expressed its alignment with the royal orders and pronouncements of the Benin Monarch, His Royal Majesty, Omo N Oba NEdo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, market women in the state have hailed the courage of the Oba, pledging to abide by the orders. HIS ROYAL MAJESTY HELD MEETING IN THE PALACE WITH ALL NATIVE DOCTORS, ALL BENIN CHIEFS, ALL ENIGIES, ALL ODIONWERES AND OTHERS Leader of Edo Market Women, Madam Blackie Ogiamien, described the orders of the Benin Monarch as progressive, noting that it gives the needed support to Edo State Governments campaign against human trafficking and illegal migration. She added that with the blessing of the royal father, the people and government of the day are now in synch and it will only take one who is foolhardy to continue in the despicable practices that have aided and abetted human trafficking for years. She argued that the charge by the royal father will bring succour to market women and mothers in general, in the state, most of whom have been yearning for an intervention in the inhuman trade that have claimed the lives of many Edo youths. Madam Ogiamien said: We are comforted by the orders of our father, Oba Ewuare II. Edo people know and appreciate the weight of the curses and orders of the King and we are happy about the orders. A lot of mothers sold houses and gave the proceeds to people who lied that they can take their children abroad through legal means and give them decent jobs on arrival. But the children were abandoned in jungles of death in Libya and in the Sahara Desert, while others died in Mediterranean Sea while being ferried in rickety boats. She added that families in Benin and elsewhere in the state are happy and comforted by the royal pronouncements and assured that market women will abide by the orders. At a well-attended meeting of chiefs, dukes, native doctors, priests and priestesses with the Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Omo N Oba N Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, on Friday, the Benin Monarch placed curses on the people perpetrating human trafficking in the state. The Benin Monarch also extended the curses to killer gangs and cult groups, armed robbers who have been unleashing terror on innocent people in the state and causing mayhem in the name of cult activities. He nullified all oaths administered by human traffickers through their collaborators; native doctors and priests, on victims of the inhuman trade, with a directive that victims of human trafficking are now free from any spiritual oath. He directed the trafficked persons to speak out and name their slave masters and mistresses and seek help if need be. Since last Fridays meeting at the Obas palace, the outcomes of the meeting have dominated discussions among Edo people, who have expressed hope that the curses will check human traffickers, home and abroad, who have brought the pride and dignity of the Edo people to disrepute, through their criminal activities. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | APGA to opposition: Stop playing politics with Anambra leaked memo By Nwafor Sunday LAGOSA chieftain of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, has warned opposition to stop spreading false information regarding the leaked internal memo from the office of the Secretary to the State Government in Anambra State. In a statement made available to newsmen in Awka, the National Coordinator APGA Media Warriors Forum, Evang Chinedu Obigwe condemned the politicisation of such and urged propagators to stop misinforming the public owing to their inability to interpret properly a memo that instructed all political appointees to prepare and submit their handover notes and accounts of stewardship which perhaps is constitutionally binding. Recall that some sections of the media and alleged opposition parties opined that Governor Willie Obiano, dissolved his cabinet, sacked his commissioners, aides and political appointees which reportedly were lies emanating from haters. In view of the above misinterpretation, Obigwe argued that the memo should not have raised eyebrows in the public domain if it had been properly studied by critics. Speaking further, he urged the general public to disregard and ignore those politicising the issue, noting that Governor Obiano is poised to use his second term mandate to deliver more dividends of good governance to the people of the State. He also said that some of the appointees might be reappointed by the governor because of their laudable performance in their respective ministries. He asserted without mincing words that the likes of Hon Law Chinwuba, Commissioner for Works, Engr Emeka Okoye, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on project supervision, Hon Kate Omenugha, Commissioner for Education, Hon Afam Mbanefo, Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon Tony Oli, Senior Special Assistant on Finance to the Governor, Hon Greg Obi, Commissioner for Local government and few others performed creditably well and if reappointed he would not be surprised because every good work deserves a reward. He equally opined that the Governor must be allowed to exercise his constitutional rights, to reappoint and appoint new people in his cabinet. Obigwe admonished patriotic citizens of the State to join hands with the Governor to transform Anambra State. On my own part, I promise to continue to contribute my quota to support the administration of His Excellency, Chief Dr Willie Obiano for the actualization of his lofty vision and mission in the state. Anambra must be great and we will make it happen, he finally said. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | EFCC grills former PDP chairman for hours over alleged fraud - EFCC invited ex-governor Ali Modu Sheriff on Monday - Modu was questioned for several hours by the anti-graft agency - He had earlier been arrested in June 2015 over alleged corruption charges The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, March 12, questioned the former governor of Borno state and ex-chairman of the Peoples Democratic Part (PDP) for hours over an undisclosed issue. Daily Trust reports that the EFCCs spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed that the ex-PDP chairman was in its office earlier today to honour an invitation sent to him. READ ALSO: President Buhari meets US secretary of state in Aso Rock Uwujaren, however, did not disclose the reason why the former PDP chairman was grilled for hours although an anonymous source in the agency claimed it has something to do with fraud. Recall that Sheriff was once arrested by the anti-graft agency in June 2015 over alleged embezzlement of public funds during his tenure as Kogi state governor. Sheriff's government allegedly mismanaged the sum of N300billion received from the Federation Account between 2003 and 2011. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, NAIJ.com earlier reported that the EFCC on Monday, March 5, re-arraigned a former governor of Oyo state Adebayo Alao-Akala and two others in an Oyo state high court sitting in Ibadan over alleged N11.5 billion fraud. The other defendants are a former Oyo state commissioner for local government and chieftaincy matters, Senator Hosea Agboola, and an Ibadan-based businessman, Femi Babalola. The defendants are facing an 11-count charge of conspiracy, awarding contract without budgetary provision, obtaining by false pretence, acquiring property with money derived from illegal act and concealing the ownership of such property, among others. EFCC stages a walk against corruption - on NAIJ.com TV: [embedded content] Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | Police arrest 145 suspects over herdsmen, farmers clashes - Police charge 124 suspects to court in connection with herdsmen, farmers clashes - President Muhammadu Buhari said those guilty of killings will be punished The Nigerian police has arrested about 145 suspects over herdsmen, farmers clashes in some parts of the country, including Benue, Kaduna and Nasarawa states. A presidency source disclosed to the Nation newspaper on Monday, March 12 that the arrests occurred between January 2016 and January 2018. The source, who does not want his identity revealed, said 124 had been charged to court, while 21 suspects are under investigation and waiting to be charged to court. He said bandits and militias have killed about 30 policemen mobilised by the government to quell the killings in parts of the country. READ ALSO: Senators' salary: I warned my colleagues against jumbo pay but they refused - Ben Bruce So far, 106 suspects have been arrested and charged to court for prosecution on the following offences criminal conspiracy, inciting disturbance of public peace, assault and mischief, the source said. "On March 5, no fewer than 24 persons were killed; 20 others were feared missing in two communities in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State following fresh attacks by suspected herdsmen. Early in the year, three suspects with Ak-47 rifles were apprehended by the Police Intelligence Team in Benue, nine members of untrained Civilian JTF/Livestock guards with prohibited firearms were arrested by the military in Arufa, a boundary town between Benue and Taraba with five AK-47 rifles who confessed that they were employed as Livestock Guards by a state government on a N150,000 monthly salary. Similarly, 16 suspects were arrested in Gboko Local Government Area and investigations are ongoing. Several members of armed militia and unknown gunmen were killed or apprehended by the police. Other arrests made include that of six suspects on January 1, 2018 following the police response to the killings in Akor Village in Guma Local Government Area on December 31, 2017. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Exhibits recovered from the suspect include three cutlasses, charms and other items. All the suspects were charged to court .Concerted efforts are being made by the police to apprehend all culprits in the conflict." Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed sympathy with the people of Benue state saying his administration will continue to work towards providing peace to all Nigerians. The president made this remark during his visit to Benue state on Monday, March 12 to carry out an assessment of the security situation of the state. In a series of tweets on his official page, President Buhari said all those guilty of perpetuating violence will face the full wrath of the law. In a related report, the Miyetti Allah which has been accused of being behind the killings in the state has denied involvement in the incessant attacks, while the farmers appealed to the president to take steps to end the killings. The groups made their position known on Monday, March 12 when President Buhari held a meeting with farmers, the Myetti Allah and other groups in Benue as a means of finding a lasting solution to the incessant attacks and killings in the state. Nigerian herdsmen vs Nigerian farmers on NAIJ.com TV [embedded content] Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | Suspected herdsmen attack Ebonyi community, four reportedly die, others injure - A clash between an herdsmen and a farmer led to a violent attack on a community in Ebonyi state by suspected herdsmen - Three natives of the community and one herdsmen were killed during the attack The Ebonyi Police Command on Monday in Abakaliki confirmed a herdsmen attack on the Onunwakpu community of Izzi local government area of the state which left four persons dead. ASP Loveth Odah, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the dead included three natives of the community and a herdsman. Odah disclosed that the incident had occurred when one of the victims had gone to tie down his cow inside his farm to feed it in the traditional way. She said it was in the process of this that he had encountered herdsmen whose cows were also feeding inside the farm. READ ALSO: President Buhari meets US secretary of state in Aso Rock We cannot ascertain what transpired between him and the herdsmen, but his shouts attracted fellow villagers who rushed to the scene to discover that his two hands had been severed. The ensuing altercation grew in intensity and security agencies immediately intervened to bring to normal the clash which also left many persons wounded. One of the herdsmen has been arrested by army personnel, and we assure the public that modalities would be put in place to ensure that such occurrence does not repeat itself. We call on members of the public not to panic over the incident and advise them not to engage herdsmen in physical fights but instead report disagreements to security agencies, Odah added. A native of the area where the incident occurred, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, also corroborated the account given by the police. He told NAN that his kinsman (one of the victims) had gone to feed his cow inside his farm and was attacked by herdsmen. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app He had to fetch grasses for his cow to feed and was appalled that the herdsmens cows were feeding on his crops which he laboured to plant. We heard his shouts and when we rushed to the scene, his two hands had been severed and the clash which resulted in the deaths ensued. This is our land and we are not going to leave it for any group of people, even at the risk of our lives, the community member said. NAN reports that Gov. David Umahi of Ebonyi had recently banned cows from feeding on farmlands in the state. He had also announced that various forms of punishments await farmers and herdsmen who cause trouble in the state. NAIJ.com earlier reported that there was chaos in Ughelli main market on Saturday, March 10, when a cow being led to slaughterr ran away from its herders. The herders were leading the cow from a cowshed at Awhinawhin area to a slaughter at Oghenevweta street when the incident happened. The cow was said to have gone berserk, running into passersby in the area and injuring many. Victims of Herdsmen killing buried in Benue State - on NAIJ.com TV [embedded content] Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | Return of fuel subsidy APPARENTLY, the more things change the more they remain the same in Nigeria. After months of denying what most economists and financial experts had already known the Federal Government has finally admitted that N774 million per day or N24bn per month is now being spent to subsidise the importation of petroleum products. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, while lifting the veil over the badly kept secret by the Buhari administration also placed most of the blame on smuggling along Nigerias borders with neighbouring states. According to the narrative, which rings like a familiar tune from the much-discredited past administrations, the consumption of fuel had gone up from 35 million litres to 50 million litres in recent months. That 42 per cent jump which should have resulted in massive security interventions and the arrest of some culprits has merely led to the wringing of hands by Nigerias security agencies Directorate of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and the National Intelligence (NIA). Instead of these bodies charged with security the vital economic interests of the nation swinging into action to deal with those diverting our imported petroleum products to foreign countries and causing hardship for Nigerians, the impression Nigerians get is one of a government totally helpless to halt this increasingly crippling economic sabotage. One of the reasons that President Muhammadu Buhari gave for making himself the Minister of Petroleum Resources was that he wanted to sanitise the oil industry, especially the NNPC. Obviously, little has been achieved in that direction in view of the assertion by the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, that: the NNPC stinks, at a recent public hearing of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) attended by the NNPC GMD, Dr. Maikanti Baru and the Corporations top brass. We had expected, as part of the change that the APC had promised Nigerians during the 2015 campaigns that by now the NNPCs affairs, which have traditionally been shrouded in secrecy, would have been made more transparent. We had thought the Corporation would have been unbundled, privatised or made a more efficient state-run business like Malaysias PETRONAS and Brazils PETROBRAS. What we see, instead, is the retention of the discredited, corruption-prone model which the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit of the Corporations accounts in 2014/2015 had declared outmoded. Unless we reform the NNPC, deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry and encourage the profusion of refineries in Nigeria, nothing will change. The Corporation will remain the cesspool of corruption. Fuel subsidy payments (whether real or imagined) will continue. Importation of petroleum products, fuel scarcity and the diversion of petroleum products to neighbouring countries will never stop. We are still waiting for the change in the oil sector. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | Ohanaeze faults FGs cut-off mark disparity in Unity schools By Chioma Gabriel ENUGUTHE apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has lambasted the Federal Ministry of Education for continuing in alleged descriminatory cut-off point in unity schools in Nigeria. In a statement yesterday, the group alleged that under the guise of educationally disadvantaged areas, some states are unduly favoured with very low cut off marks while others have unacceptably high cut off points. The statement said: For instance, whereas Abia State has 65 points for male and female, some states in the North have as low as 7 points for female and 10 points for male. This cannot continue. And funny enough, when products of this unjust system graduate, the same so-called educationally disadvantaged specie will get jobs and preferential treatment before his advantage colleague. This is robbing Peter to pay Paul. This is the highest degree of in-built terror against some people in Nigeria and it must stop. It has got to stop. This favoritism must stop if we want to continue as one nation. Ohanaeze Ndigbo also condemned the re-instatement and promotion of Ibrahim Othman , one of the masterminds of the APO six killing in 2006. Othman was recently re-instated and is now an Assistant Inspector General of Police . This is a great insult to the sensibility of the victims and dependants of the deceased traders. There is no part of the world where this kind of callousness can happen and we call on the IG of Police and the Federal Government to reconsider the shameful act. We also call for investigation into the ownership of oil blocs in Nigeria to ensure it meets geographical spread. The DPR and NNPC should publish the ownership structure of oil blocs in Nigeria. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | Policeman killed, as youths clash with soldiers over party food in Delta By Perez Brisibe & Paul Olayemi JESSEThe burial reception in honour of a 111-years-old woman (name withheld) at Boboroku community of Jesse in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State turned awry weekend, as a plain clothes policeman reportedly slumped and died during a clash between the community youth and a team of soldiers drafted from the 19 Battalion, Koko, to maintain peace. It was gathered that there was rowdiness during the sharing of food and drink at the party and in the process some of the youth allegedly made attempts to disarm two soldiers, who had tried to restore orderliness. Nigerian police One person was reportedly shot on the leg as others sustained various degrees of injuries in the melee that ensued, while the windscreen and windows of at least five cars, including one hilux belonging to the soldiers, were also destroyed by the youths who went berserk over the incident. Community sources disclosed that the late policeman simply identified as Imomoh, who resides in the community, was said to have tried to intervene during the rowdy session between the soldiers and the youths. Giving details of the incident, a guest at the reception said: The soldiers were called in to restore calm after the youths in the community tried to hijack food meant for guests at the reception. The guest, who gave his name as Paul Amodu, said: Vexed by the presence of the soldiers, the youths turned their anger on them, leading to fisticuffs amidst gunshots by the soldiers, during which Imomoh was said to have been hit by a bullet; he slumped and died. Also speaking, a security source at the Sapele Area Command, said: The death of the policeman who is a resident of the community, enraged the youths who went wild, attacking guests and destroying vehicles. The soldiers had to apply minimum force in trying to defend themselves by shooting into the air to scare the rampaging youths, who were trying to disarm them leading to the shooting of one person in the leg. Confirming the clash, Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Andrew Ania-maka, described the incident as quite unfortunate. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | PVCs: INEC disenfranchising Ndigbo, Ohanaeze alleges By Dennis Agbo ENUGUIGBO umbrella body, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has raised the alarm that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is deliberately disenfranchising the people of the South-East zone by not giving them access to the ongoing continuous voter registration. INEC PVCs The group also alleged that there is obvious discrimination against its people in the northern parts of Nigeria in the course of the exercise. President General of the apex Igbo organisation, Chief Nnia Nwodo, who made the allegations insisted that it was not just mere talk, but facts that emerged out of investigation. Nwodo spoke in Enugu, yesterday, when the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Enugu State, Mr Emeka Ononamadu, paid him courtesy visit. He emphatically said that virtually all the states in the South-East zone have shortage of registration materials in the Continuous Voter Registration exercise going on. Nwodo said he visited many of the registration centres in the zone before concluding that the South East is being shortchanged in the exercise. He said: I am of the conclusion that INEC has deliberately denied this area of registration materials in order to ensure that we are under registered. I say this not because I am the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo but as a lawyer who respects evidence. Let me use my home as example. I come from Ukehe in Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area. Last week, I went home to check what was going on, but my local government area had the presence of INEC in less than three polling units. In my ward, INEC was present in only one polling unit in my village. Although the INEC staff was very hardworking, the maximum registration they can achieve in a day was 48 people and there were twice the number waiting who were not registered. My projection is that in two days, they were able to register 96 voters against over 500. Ready to help INEC with registration Nwodo said Ohanaeze was prepared to give logistics to INEC to register people who turn out for the exercise, but lamented that the INEC was shortchanging the Igbo. If you want us to pay to hire more machines, we will are ready to do so. If you want us to pay for staff that you may not have enough to deploy to our places, we are prepared to raise money from Igbos, he said. Nwodo equally lamented that while Igbos are being disenfranchised in the South East; over 11.6 million Igbos in Northern Nigeria are equally being discriminated from registration of voters card which he said is an inalienable constitutional right of all Nigerians. Marginalised in the north Our people in the North told me that in the queues, the indigenes are treated before them. And I like to use this opportunity of your presence here to ask that you send this message to your headquarters. This kind of discrimination of Igbos in the registration is not good and healthy for our national polity. Earlier, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ononamadu, said the visit was part of its outreach to critical stakeholders in election process which Ohanaeze Ndigbo is one of the major stakeholders. Ononamadu said since his assumption, he had gone round the seventeen local government areas of Enugu state where activated and re-activated the mechanism of continuous voter registration, noting however that Enugu state is not doing badly in the registration when compared to some states. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | National Council on Establishment to consider 80 memoranda Owerri The National Council on Establishment (NCE) says it will consider 80 memoranda submitted by the Federal Government and states as well as other agencies and stakeholders at its meeting. Mr Ndubuisi Osuji, Permanent Secretary, Service Policy and Strategy Office (SPSO), Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), made this known at the 40th meeting of the NCE on Tuesday in Owerri. He said that results of the evaluation would help boost service delivery in the country. Osuji called on stakeholders to ensure thorough evaluation of memoranda being presented at the NCE meeting. He noted that the aim of the meeting was to examine the various memoranda received from all the 39 states of the federation and make recommendations to the Council. This meeting will consider 80 memoranda comprising of 18 referred cases and 62 new ones, submitted by the Federal and State Governments as well as other agencies and stakeholders. Our experiences have no doubt placed us in a unique position to evaluate the memoranda and recommend measures that will have positive impact on service delivery. Also, we are expected to improve on the processes and systems of operations in the Civil Service. I implore us to dispassionately evaluate the various memoranda presented in order to offer clear evidence based recommendations to the Council, Osuji said. The permanent secretary said that the memoranda cover issues pertaining to conditions of service, salaries, duration of cadre and other establishment issue that will enhance services in civil service. He added that the ultimate objective of the meeting was to reinvigorate the civil service and ensure a shift of focus to modern and effective machinery for the attainment of national growth. He said that the decisions of the council at the 39th meeting had been fully implemented through various circulars. Some of the decisions already implemented includes uniform scheme of service for all category of Nurses, internship for graduate nurses and enhanced entry salary grade for Higher National Diploma holders among others. He, however, thanked the Imo State Government for hosting the 40th meeting, in spite of the short notice. In his remarks, Imo State Head of Service, Mr Ekenze Callistus urged delegates to address all issues raised in the interest of the entire country. I urge all participants to give in their best and contribute constructively to the issues that will be raised. You owe it as a duty to be de-tribalised. You also owe it as a duty to make use of your experiences to conduct the affairs of this meeting, Callistus said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting comprised of permanent secretaries in charge of establishment matters, their directors and Heads of Service in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | News | General | Starving migrant dies of malnutrition after arriving in Italy An Eritrean rescued in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya has died of severe malnutrition hours after arriving in Italy, an NGO reported on Tuesday. Migrants The 22-year-old, named Segen, was one of 93 people taken onboard a rescue boat operated by Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms on Sunday. The organisations founder Oscar Camps had announced Segans death in a Sicilian hospital on Twitter on Tuesday: He was Eritrean and he had spent 19 months in Libya. Many of those rescued by the Spanish NGOs boat and taken to Pozzallo port in Sicily were suffering from malnutrition, exhaustion and dehydration. The condition of Segens fellow migrants shocked even people used to seeing distressed arrivals from Libya. They were all skin and bone, they looked like theyd come out of a Nazi concentration camp it was terrible, the mayor of Pozzallo, Roberto Ammatuna. told the Adnkronos news agency. Many of the migrants had scabies, but what really left us speechless was their physical condition. Men, women and children without any trace of flesh on them, just a jumble of bones. The Open Arms found the boat in which Segen had set sail from Libya with 92 other migrants on Saturday night adrift in the Mediterranean. Despite his condition rescuers on the Open Arms found two people with even worse cases of malnutrition who had to be urgently evacuated from the ship. Who knows how long he hadnt eaten for. He was suffering from advanced organ wasting, he was skeletal, said Carmelo Scarso, a local doctor, of Segen to La Repubblica newspaper. Weve seen plenty of worn out migrants, but this was beyond the limits, he said. AFP CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Loading... Home | World | Africa | Pokello unveils new boyfriend Socialite Pokello Nare has flaunted her new love for the first time on social media, confirming reports suggesting she had moved on. The queen of swagger, as she loves to call herself, posted her new man Ronald Muzambe on Instagram with the caption "where can I get a hat like this." After comments started flowing in, the socialite had to turn off comments as people were reacting negatively. Pokello broke up with Ghanaian husband Elikem Kumordzie last year. Elikem, has described his marriage to the Zimbabwean as a mistake. The queen of swagger has been hanging out with South Africa-based Zimbabwean Muzambe, who uses the handle "rondontharon" on Instagram. The pair has even holidayed in the Maldives together, according to pictures posted on their social media pages. They have also been seen together at various spots. Muzambe is 31, and is younger than Pokello, 32. She has posted several pictures of the two hanging out saying she is on a living spree. In one of the posts, she is walking up the stairs of a hotel. Muzambe also posted a picture doing the same walk. Pokello captioned the picture "on a living spree" and seemed happy. There was another video of her being driven by Muzambe and she was all smiles. In another picture posted by Muzambe, the two are sitting cosily on the beach while on vacation. Pokello and Elikem married in 2015, two years after meeting in the Big Brother Africa competition. The rumour of Pokello and her hubby's split started in November after he got several birthday messages from fans and friends on social media except from Pokello, which was strange as it seemed to have been a yearly ritual. The two have a baby boy together called Tristan, Pokello's second child. Elikem used to visit Zimbabwe a lot but has since stopped. To seal their break-up, Elikem has posted a short video of an engagement ring with a big rock with the caption: "I'm definitely not making a mistake on the next one. The RIGHT one." CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa Loading... Home | World | Africa | Silaigwana appointed acting chief elections officer The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has announced the appointment of Mr Utoile Silaigwana as the acting chief elections officer. Mr Silaigwana takes over from Mrs Constance Chigwamba who has been redeployed to the Public Service Commission. In a statement, ZEC chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba confirmed the appointment which is effective from the beginning of March. "The ZEC is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Utloile Silaigwana as the acting chief elections officer with effect from 1st of March 2018. "Mr Silaigwana possesses a wealth of experience in election management and administration spurning over 15 years," she said. He worked in the then Electoral Supervisory Commission as a director civic and voter education, public relations and international liaison and joined ZEC as deputy chief elections officer responsible for operations in 2007. Mr Silaigwana is a holder of several qualifications in elections administration including a Masters in Electoral Policy and Administration, a Certificate in Election Observation, a Certificate in Elections and Violence and Conflict Resolution and a Certificate in Leadership and Dialogue for Electoral Stakeholders. He is also a Building Resources in Democracy Governance and Elections accredited facilitator and has facilitated training in several countries in the Sadc region and has observed elections in Rwanda, Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Zambia, Ghana and Namibia under the AU Election Observation Mission, ECF-Sadc and Association of Africa Electoral Authorities. "Mr Silaigwana's diverse administration experience at senior level management levels makes him invaluable to ZEC," said Justice Chigumba. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa Loading... The governor of Thailands central bank has confirmed an upcoming law to comprehensively regulate cryptocurrency as a former Thai finance minister throws his support behind the idea. Bank of Thailand governor Veerathai Santiprabhob has revealed details of a meeting between the countrys deputy prime minister, finance minister and other related agencies last week wherein the regulators reportedly agreed to enact a new law to comprehensively regulate cryptocurrencies. The central bank chief added that the new law which will look to grant Thailands ICO-friendly Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) total regulatory powers is expected to be finalized in a months time. To this end, SEC secretary-general Rapee Sucharitakul has revealed that a royal decree is commonly seen as the path to empower the SEC to regulate all aspects of the crypto sector including cryptocurrency exchanges, ICO fundraising. As reported in September, Thailands SEC revealed an encouragingly embracive outlook toward initial coin offerings, stressing it realizes the potential of ICO in bringing new forms of funding for businesses and startups. The SEC has since seen the drafts of its ICO regulatory framework released for public consultation, twice extended, complete its final round on January 22, the report revealed. The idea has gained support from a former Thai finance minister and current FinTech proponent Korn Chatikavanij. Serving as Thailands finance minister from 2008 to 2011, Korn has previously been recognized as the Global Finance Minister of the Year in 2010 after charting a course for the economy through the global financial crisis at the time. The Democrat Party politician now sees a role as chairman of the Thai FinTech Association, a Bangkok-based startup accelerator that also serves as a testing lab for FinTech startups looking to carve an entry into the domestic market. In an interview last week, the chairman spoke of discussions between the body and Thailands Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Bank of Thailand (the central bank) and the Finance Ministry with a focus on regulation for the cryptocurrency sector brought on by the SEC. Story continues Speaking to the Bangkok Post, Korn reveals a concentrated effort to have the SEC, not the financial ministry or the central bank, be the sole authority responsible for introducing regulation for the sector. I agree with the Finance Ministrys [view] of letting the SEC be the only organisation governing digital assets, because it already oversees securities and has a profound understanding of digital assets, Korn said. The former finance minister added: Digital assets are new for everyone, and no one knows everything [about them], so all parties should be open-minded, learn about them and have proper rules and regulations. So far, market participants have gotten on-board with the SECs floated mandatory investment participation requirement wherein ICO operators must have the offering originate in Thailand with capital of up to 5 million baht (approx. $160,000) registered as the minimum. Bitcoin baht image from Shutterstock. The post Thailand Law to Regulate [Legalize] Cryptocurrency, ICO Markets Coming in April appeared first on CCN. Mike Pompeo, President Donald Trumps pick to replace sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, threatens to bring a hard-line brand of climate change denialism to Foggy Bottom for the first time. The current CIA director, named early Tuesday as the nominee to be the nations top diplomat, has long rejected the widely-accepted science behind man-made global warming, dashing hopes that the United States might reverse its decision to leave from the Paris climate accord before November 2020, when the deal allows the country to formally withdraw. In a twist, Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., turned out to be one of the most moderate voices on climate change in the Trump administration, despite his previous employers role as an early and generous financier of the climate change denial movement. Tillerson urged Trump against pulling out of the Paris Agreement last June, and suggested last September that the U.S. could remain in the deal. Still, the State Department rewrote its web page on climate change last March, abolished its climate change envoy position in August and left teams working on global warming issues in limbo, seemingly encouraging staff to leave. Coincidentally, a major environmental nonprofit sued the State Department on Tuesday for refusing to release a U.N. report on U.S. climate action that was due on Jan. 1. If confirmed by the Senate, Pompeo seems poised to do more damage to efforts to combat climate change. Its good news for us, said Myron Ebell, a leading proponent of climate change denial and a director at the right wing Competitive Enterprise Institute. I expect very good things from him at the State Department. Mike Pompeo testifies before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in January 2017. (Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Ebell, who led Trumps transition at the Environmental Protection Agency, said he hopes Pompeo will convince the president to withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, completely ending all U.S. participation in climate talks. He also wants Pompeo to bury an international deal to phase out refrigerants, coolants and aerosols called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, that contribute to climate change. The deal, signed by 197 countries in October 2016, is called the Kigali Amendment. Last November, the State Department quietly indicated its support for the agreement. Story continues In his six years as a Republican congressman from Kansas, Pompeo voted so routinely against environmental policies that he received a 4 percent lifetime score on the League of Conservation Voters ranking. In 2011, he unsuccessfully pushed to end energy subsidies in a move Ebell said was meant to target tax credits for wind turbines. Throughout his tenure in Congress, Pompeo received over $1 million in donations from the billionaire Koch brothers network, making him their top recipient in the Trump administration. He collected $71,100 from Koch Industries, the Republican megadonors fossil fuel conglomerate, catapulting Pompeo to the top of the companys recipients in Congress in 2016 alone, according to data collated by the Center for Responsive Politics. In January 2017, Pompeo skirted questions about his view on climate science during his Senate confirmation hearing to become CIA director. Frankly, as the director of CIA, I would prefer today not to get into the details of the climate debate and science, he said. It seems my role is going to be so different and unique from that. In December 2015, Pompeo railed against the Obama administration for brokering the Paris climate agreement, the global deal to cut planet-warming emissions that virtually every nation on Earth has now signed. For President Obama to suggest that climate change is a bigger threat to the world than terrorism is ignorant, dangerous, and absolutely unbelievable, he said at the time. Pompeo called the accord part of a radical climate change agenda. He even used the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people to inveigh against Obama, claiming he continues this pursuit of misguided policies, including his radical climate change agenda, according to a since-deleted statement cited by Climate Central. In December 2013, Pompeo rejected the consensus among 97 percent of peer-reviewed climate researchers that the planet is warming and burning fossil fuels, industrial farms and deforestation are the main causes. Look, I think the science needs to continue to develop, he said during a segment on C-SPAN. Im happy to continue to look at it. There are scientists who think lots of different things about climate change. Theres some who think were warming, theres some who think were cooling, theres some who think that the last 16 years have shown a pretty stable climate environment. Environmental groups swiftly condemned Trumps decision to name Pompeo as secretary of state. Donald Trump has now somehow picked someone even worse than Rex Tillerson to run the State Department, Naomi Ages, Greenpeace USAs climate director, said in a statement. In addition to being a climate denier, like his predecessor, Pompeo is Koch brothers shill who will denigrate the United States reputation abroad and make us vulnerable to threats at home. One day before he was ousted, now former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addresses a news conference with Chad's Foreign Minister Mahamat Zene Cherif in N'Djamena, Chad. (Photo: JONATHAN ERNST via Getty Images) Related... Rex Tillerson Supposedly Shifted Exxon Mobils Climate Position. Except He Really Didnt. Exxon Continued Paying Millions To Climate-Change Deniers Under Rex Tillerson Rex Tillerson Refuses To Admit Exxon Knew About Climate Change Decades Ago Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Portland, Oregon Chicago Denver Seattle This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Los Angeles Washington, D.C. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. BONUS: Amsterdam This article originally appeared on HuffPost. I'm actually kind of shocked but I'm happy for Katy. Reply Thread Link I'm surprised tbh Reply Thread Link I'm not, there was literally nothing else on TV. NBC had American Ninja Warrior and CBS and NCIS: Los Angeles. PBS is doing pledge week and wasn't showing Masterpiece Theater or anything regular that gets their viewers. Tonight Idol is on opposite The Voice on NBC. Tonight's ratings are the ones to look at tomorrow. Reply Parent Thread Link But American Ninja Warrior is amazing! ANW >>> this. Reply Parent Thread Link deepthroat queen! Reply Parent Thread Link lmao that fucking post!!! hahaha Reply Parent Thread Link LMAO Reply Parent Thread Link She's obviously a beautiful woman with such a symmetrically pretty face so I honestly don't get why she absolutely cannot pull off that haircut. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link This is THE gif of 2018, calling it right now. Reply Parent Thread Link Who the fuck is that dude in gif? I'm so into it Not surprised tbh. itd flop tho Reply Thread Link tune in american idol tonight and find out! Reply Parent Thread Link I think that's the other judge. Wonder how many of his male Bumpkin fans were turned on by him doing that... Reply Parent Thread Link :( IDK ha but I'm feelin this gif mhhhhmmmmm Reply Parent Thread Link he's one of those country-bros who is big in that world, but will prolly find a bigger audience the way Blake Shelton did. He loves to wear skin tight jeans in his concerts and werq that body for the women and the gays in the crowd Edited at 2018-03-13 04:16 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link WHY DOES THIS HAVE ME SCREAMINGGGGG Reply Parent Thread Link is her career over? why is she doing american idol? Reply Thread Link You mean to tell me if they offered you $25 million dollars, you wouldn't do American Idol? Reply Parent Thread Link sis if i were offered 25 mil, i'll strip on national tv Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i think she thought it wasn't going to get picked up so she held negations to last minute to get the most she could. this was during bon apetite and the worst backlash she's ever faced, so maybe going on AI could restore her brand/image. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I dont think her career is over but shes not in her prime anymore. Reply Parent Thread Link As long as she can tour I don't think it's over. She's losing ~relevance though Reply Parent Thread Link She was doing American Idol during Teenage Dream though. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Okay, why is everyone saying wig now, what is that about. Reply Thread Link lmao i love this! Reply Parent Thread Link Omg I found what happened after the guys audition from the Katy Perry wig video and im so happy I did pic.twitter.com/buL3Nv46ZT josh (@joshthornley_) March 12, 2018 Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Haha, ty! I watched this, then watched the Jimmy Kimmel interview where she talks about it, and it makes more sense now. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link but was he good? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link awww katy seems just darling. maybe i will give this a chance after all Reply Parent Thread Link Its NOT your language, its just for us :) pic.twitter.com/6p1cGaog88 Paul McCallion (@OrangePaulp) March 12, 2018 I've actually heard a few people on my timeline say the reboot is good. Reply Thread Link I still can't believe T.Swift had that video debut directly against the first episode of this show. Reply Thread Link she also debuted 'look what you made me do' at the vmas which katy was hosting and put her entire catalog available on streaming when witness debuted. then released reputation on the anniversary when kanye's mom passed away. she is something else. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link ugh, she's awful all around Reply Parent Thread Link holy crap Reply Parent Thread Link idk why ppl act like kanye's mom's anniversary is some holy scared day when kim was literally snapchatting herself attending a concert on that day. the performances airing against major katy moments is suspect tho. Reply Parent Thread Link that gif is creepy Reply Parent Thread Link Her pettiness knows no boundaries. I honestly think she does this on purpose. Reply Parent Thread Link I can't believe FOX pulled out a shelved OJ special that they considered too tasteless to air back in 2006 to air directly against this show. Reply Parent Thread Link I watched a few auditions and I actually like the new judges so far. I can't even remember who was judging the last season on Fox but at least Katy, Luke, and Lionel have some charisma. Ryan is sf annoying though. They should have got someone new to host too.. Reply Thread Link daily reminder that you're a shit father, LIONEL Reply Thread Link Wig Reply Thread Link clap for that hooker Reply Thread Link wig indeed! Reply Thread Link Disillusioned rock stars giving their hot takes on modern pop culture is seriously one of life's gifts. Reply Thread Link Lol mte. Reply Parent Thread Link Sometimes, I want to agree, but this guy is a fucking pretentious douche bag so glad I stopped listening to the Strokes a long time ago. All of their shit sounds the same. Reply Thread Link Edited at 2018-03-13 12:51 am (UTC) "Ive dedicated my life to analyzing this stuff. It comes from a belief that I developed when I was 15 years old probably from my stepdad that art is not subjective. I believe art is objective, and that time is the truth-teller of quality." Reply Thread Link but his stepdad is black (sorry i couldn't help myself) Reply Parent Thread Link His step dad is a black artist Reply Parent Thread Link That doesn't circumvent the fact that as a self important highly regarded ~white indie artists~ he is convinced that his opinion on art and music is literally fact. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I mean, ONTD talks all the time about how well certain works of art (movies, music) have aged. That being said though, if you like a certain song or movie that may be considered ~low brow~ by a dude like him, that shouldnt be a reason to stop liking it. Like whatever the fuck you wanna like. Reply Parent Thread Link ive never even heard of this nobody Reply Thread Link you've never listened to the stokes sis? is this it is a great album Reply Parent Thread Link Educate yourself Reply Parent Thread Link Reptilia is one of the best songs ever. Reply Parent Thread Link are you a child? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link wait really Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah hes a total nobody bc you havent heard of him. Doesnt matter if he was in one of the most influential rock bands of the last 18 years and has basically inspired most of the known rock bands of today Reply Parent Thread Link He's lived in a bubble all his life and is obviously so out of touch with reality it's laughable. Reply Parent Thread Link i love how this comment could be abt ed Reply Parent Thread Link Keep it that way, you arent missing out on much. Reply Parent Thread Link Are you from the US. You couldn't escape The Strokes for a while there. Lord knows I tried. Reply Parent Thread Link all these people coming at you for not knowing who the strokes are I wish I was as blessed as to never have heard of him lmao Reply Parent Thread Link Lol I've only heard of him/the band because people I follow on Twitter like them, otherwise I never would have heard of him/his music. Reply Parent Thread Link Yes to the brainwashing lol Edited at 2018-03-13 12:49 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link I admit I do not get the Ed Sheeran thing at all, but could this guy be any further up his own arse? Reply Thread Link lol, I love this anecdote! Reply Parent Thread Link LOL Reply Parent Thread Link omg lmfao Reply Parent Thread Link lmao this underrated gem of a comment <3 Reply Parent Thread Link Jimi Hendrix was very popular during his lifetime. No, youre seeing it through the rearview mirror. But Electric Ladyland was a number-one album. I dont know. From what Ive seen I thought he had never had any commercial success. lmfaooooo Reply Thread Link lmao Reply Parent Thread Link how is this real Reply Parent Thread Link fuck Im crying lol Reply Parent Thread Link LMAO Reply Parent Thread Link I hope hes not back on the stuff. Reply Parent Thread Link When the interviewer says he doesn't know, Julian tells him to, "let go of your conditioning". L m a o bye Reply Thread Link For me, that quote is about to get just as much mileage as Maxine Waters' "Reclaiming my time". Lmao Reply Parent Thread Link If you could time travel 30 years into the future, tell me who is going to be more popular: Ed Sheeran or Ariel Pink?" When the interviewer says he doesn't know, Julian tells him to, "let go of your conditioning". This interview is hilarious, lmao Reply Thread Link I only started reading it from the Jimi Hendrix part but I couldn't get much further, he sounds like every other self-important know-it-all douche. Reply Thread Link i remember when a user on here said they hacked into albert's email back in the day and found messages about getting money from julian's dad (this was around 2001, i'm assuming) Reply Parent Thread Link albert hammond jr? ooooh thats hilarious hahaha Reply Parent Thread Link Came here to make sure someone brought this up. Reply Parent Thread Link my first thought whenever he says something pretentious or tries to pretend to be down Reply Parent Thread Link yep Reply Parent Thread Link yeah reading about how they got together in meet me in the bathroom shattered the illusion a bit. i mean him and albert met at boarding school abroad so Reply Parent Thread Link I love that people still try to make this argument 17 years later Reply Parent Thread Link Haha I love Jules. He's not wrong. Reply Thread Link Ive talked about this before, but theres an exact parallel between music and politics." a revelation! screaming at this interviewer Oh my god this interview with Julian Casablancas!!! https://t.co/jXZbRhSaxq pic.twitter.com/KfbRfkqFNj Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) March 12, 2018 Edited at 2018-03-13 12:57 am (UTC) a revelation!screaming at this interviewer Reply Thread Link okay lmfaoooooo Reply Parent Thread Link Lollll well he gave up quick Reply Parent Thread Link Lmfaaaao punk I'm screaming Reply Parent Thread Link lol thats sad huh Reply Parent Thread Link lmfaooooooo Reply Parent Thread Link the "okay" lmaoo Reply Parent Thread Link this exchange! people who are confident in their opinions on topics they've done no research on... so exhausting. Reply Parent Thread Link I want to watch Snow Town Murders because the genre is right up my alley, but everyone I've talked to about it said it was on another level of disturbing. :-/ Reply Thread Link It honestly felt like a snuff film Reply Parent Thread Link I will never watch that movie again. There's a horrendous rape scene that then leads to a beating scene that left me traumatized for a few days. It was all I could think about. For your own mental well being don't watch it. Reply Parent Thread Link seriously i pretty much remember nothing about that movie except the rape scene because it will not leave my brain :( Reply Parent Thread Link It's pretty disturbing - and, from what I remember, some of the victim's families were pretty upset about the film getting made. Reply Parent Thread Link Lol wtf. It's a great movie with some great acting, do not listen to people, all those people who say they were so disturbed by it must be survivors of some kind of abuse and the film triggers something in them, which is valid as often films do that to someone who went through a traumatic event, but if you're not then the movie is ok. Not all that, I don't even consider it a horror movie, it's more like an indie crime film. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link It certainly is D: Reply Parent Thread Link Wolf Creek left me feeling like shit for days. Fantastically horrible film. Reply Thread Link That's the only movie I seriously thought about walking out of and I love horror flicks. It really disturbed me. Reply Parent Thread Link I constantly get Wolf Creek and Eden Lake confused. I have to see Wolf Creek soon. Reply Parent Thread Link Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a must for any list like this. Reply Thread Link ive been meaning to watch that Reply Parent Thread Link That was one of high school me's favorite movies lol. Really disturbing. Actor's name is escaping me now, but damn he was scary good. Every time i see him in a movie I think of him as Henry. Reply Parent Thread Link Michael Rooker! Huge teddy bear IRL and a fantastic flirt... Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Oop the formatting doesn't look good on my phone, sorry mobile users lol Reply Thread Link i love me some primeval, it was sad and scary. plus orlando had me rolling. i read that ivan milat's nephew followed in his footsteps and killed his friend out of enjoyment, and he said, you know my family, you know my last name, i'm doing what my family does. sick little shit. Reply Thread Link I haven't seen primeval since it first came out but now I wanna watch it. Reply Parent Thread Link same actually, about wanting to watch it again. with the giant croc and then it's all happening in the middle of a war zone, with militia members going batshit? this movie is on steroids. Reply Parent Thread Link Deliver us from evil was a decent exorcism movie imo Reply Thread Link ivan milat's old house is like 20 minutes away from where I live. dude was psychotic. his nephew also killed someone in the same forest he buried his victims :/ Reply Thread Link I learned that about his nephew when i was researching for this post. That's so horrible Reply Parent Thread Link I went to HS with Matt Milat, he was younger so never meet him while I was there. I did have classes with his older cousins, they were nice and definitely not psychotic. Despite being stupid teenagers we never asked them anything about Milat thank god. Reply Parent Thread Link Um. I would be creeped. Reply Parent Thread Link One of my friends saw Robert when she went to key west last yr. She said he was scary af and everyone was freaked out lol. No one wanted to take his photo bc they were so scared! Reply Thread Link Yeah ive heard you need to ask robeet for his permission to take his pic or else shit gets real. I wanna go see him Reply Parent Thread Link wasn't the strangers based on true events? "because you were home" still haunts me to this day Reply Thread Link I feel like having creepy people try to break into your house is a common and believable trope tho Reply Parent Thread Link The ironic thing is it's not very likely. If someone is killed it's most likely to be their spouse or someone they know. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link For some reason I thought it was based on some serial killer in Northern California but I could be wrong. Reply Parent Thread Link The original french film 'Ils' which it ripped off is true. A couple of kids stalked and killed a couple in some town in Bucharest. Reply Parent Thread Link I will never forget the first time I saw the trailer, and it was the PERFECTLY framed scene of Liv standing in the living room (?) and you aren't even thinking about the fact that there's a dark doorway in the same frame until THAT FUCKER SLOWLY MEANDERS INTO FRAME. I just remember the gross uncomfortable swoop/lurch I felt in my stomach because I was so taken aback. but confession: I've never actually watched the movie lol I always felt like that was probably the best scene and it had already been in the trailer, so it wouldn't be as effective anymore. Reply Parent Thread Link i don't watch a lot of scary movies but i just came in this post to say i used to have a hardcore phobia of seeing tim curry as pennywise (to the point of hyperventilating) and now because of the new It and seeing all the gifs around here and the general internet, i have been totally desensitized to it and it doesn't bother me at all! thanks ontd! Reply Thread Link omg i was the exact same and the new one freaked me out as well! but this gif in the mark salling suicide post literally cured me of both lmao Reply Parent Thread Link LMAO I love that I just decided on that gif cause I wanted to use IT in general and now it's known as the "Mark Salling suicide post gif" Reply Parent Thread Link I still sorta have the heebies, but I remember exaaaactly where my fear came from. I was five and my way older cousin knew I feared clowns and held the living room door of their house shut with IT on the TV while she was babysitting me. I'm still petty about it now lmao. Reply Parent Thread Link I know it isn't cute to kill and eat 300+ people, RIP them all (although he's a big af hungry predator doing what he gotta do, and we are smaller prey so really it's the natural order), but at the same time... 'GUSTAVE'. What an adorable name! Edited at 2018-03-13 01:10 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link lmaooo late but thats my cats name Reply Parent Thread Link The Keddie murders are so sad. People in that town definitely knew more than they were saying. Reply Parent Thread Link I hope they end up solving those murders. The whole thing was so fucked up and sad. Reply Parent Thread Link Someone give me a list of movies that actually scared the shit out of you Like REALLY scared you I don't get scared by much anymore... Reply Thread Link Dead Silence definitely creeps me out. But otherwise I'm in the same boat as you. Reply Parent Thread Link oo yes, dead silent was really good, if only just because i didn't know what to expect. Reply Parent Thread Link The Changeling (1980) Reply Parent Thread Link same actually. nothing seems to scare, scare me. but creep me out? the bay did that. i'm not a fan of parasites. i know i'm in the minority but some found footage films that deal with the supernatural creep me out too. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link lake mungo has this one scene I'll never forget. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Trump: An American Dream Reply Parent Thread Link The Babadook a few, relatively creepy moments. Reply Parent Thread Link The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It wasn't even Leatherface (I already knew him well as a horror icon right alongside Jason, Freddy, etc); it was the style of the film. That gritty, realistic look that made it look like a documentary at best and a snuff film at worst. The family. The isolation. The madness. The film is a masterpiece of horror. Also I live in Texas lol Reply Parent Thread Expand Link If I've even slightly disturbed or creeoed out by a horror movie -its done its job and I'm appreciative -Eden Lake -The VVitch -Martyrs -The Descent -Event Horizon shout out to childhood favs: The Exorcist, The Omen 1&2, The Changeling Edited at 2018-03-13 01:39 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link black christmas (the original) Reply Parent Thread Link Aparecidos, Green Room, Hell House LLC, Under The Shadow, The Wailing, Noroi, Fragile, Antarctic Journal, The Baby's Room, Dead Silence, The Signal (2007), Candy Man, Blair Witch Project etc etc not all scared the shit out of me but were scary in some way & left an impression Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Martyrs & High Tension but it's been about a decade since I've seen either of them. But that's the last time I remember being truly afraid during a movie. Reply Parent Thread Link there's one scene in the banshee chapter that got me pretty good and i don't scare easy. the brief glimpse of the thing's face they give you was enough. Reply Parent Thread Link youre prob going to get a lot of usual recs, but newer ones i thought the Autopsy of Jane doe was kinda creepy. also Still/born Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Noroi and POV: A Cursed Film. Both are Japanese found footage films, and scared the shit out of me. They're on YT. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i don't get scared by much either, but my mind wanders back to only two horror movies wayyy after i have seen them. one, lake mungo, because it has some really disturbing images. and two, grave encounters. i think they portrayed a nightmare of being trapped perfectly. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link the strangers alien the beginning of train to busan. the whole film is a masterpiece imo (im biased cos i love gong yoo) but that deer creeped the living shit out of me world war z, that scene where theyre in the lab? nope, fuck noooo ringu oculus the exorcist (the first time i watched it though. because as i grew older it started making me laugh involuntarily nnn) Reply Parent Thread Link I'm a wimp and haven't watched a horror movie since Ringu. It scared the shit out of me, particularly the scene where they listen to the audio tape backwards. I don't know why but just thinking about that sound gives me goosebumps still. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I am the biggest wimp with scary movies: -House of 1000 Corpses -One of the Texas Chainsaw movies, I think Renee Zelwegger was in it? Reply Parent Thread Link blair witch was the last thing i remember that ACTUALLY made me nervous, but mostly because i believe in mind-trick stuff like that, and also because i watched it at a friend's house and she lived in the woods and i had to drive home afterward lmao oh, and clown on netflix. it wasn't actually good or new or scary but the idea of having an inescapable fate that could have been avoided (also like blair witch) also scares me lol Edited at 2018-03-13 03:19 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link I know a ton of people thought it ~wasn't scary~ at all, but I literally broke out in a cold sweat during one key scene in The Witch. I didn't even know that was a real thing that could happen, but it did. And this is a weird one, but Hard Candy disturbed the everloving fuck out of me. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link The Witch. Mostly because i had listened to those stories about witches in ranches or so from my grandparents. And it was disturbing to see it on motion. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Noroi: The Curse Reply Parent Thread Link The Autopsy of Jane Doe genuinely freaked me out and I had to close my hallway door halfway through the movie. I had to watch another movie afterwards just to reopen my door Reply Parent Thread Link Session 9 is the last horror movie I remember really scaring me. and it's been out for like 15 years. Reply Parent Thread Link Shutter (2004). The first time I watched it was like 10+ years ago so I didn't really remember the story but I knew I was scared shitless. Then I watched it again last year and I had to leave a light on for a week lol Reply Parent Thread Link The Descent, a good few scenes in Goodnight Mommy really disturbed me and probably Silent Hill because I have a weird thing about sirens lol. The original Texas chainsaw got me when I was 13ish. Other than those nothing has ever really scared me too bad Reply Parent Thread Link I've never seen the original but I consider the cinematography of The Town That Dreaded Sundown's remake to be some of the best of all time. It (and Gary Cole) make me love that movie more than I should. Reply Thread Link wow its like you knew i just finished watching veronica and wanted to talk about it anyway the last act was p disappointing Reply Thread Link SCOOP: ICE spokesman resigned because he believed the Trump administration falsely said 800 people eluded arrest due to Oakland Mayor Schaaf's warning. Details here: https://t.co/XZdk8eDuZ3 Hamed Aleaziz (@Haleaziz) March 13, 2018 San Francisco Spokesman for ICE James Schwabb resigned from his position on Monday after the agency's recent northern Californian sweep, in which officials lied about a key aspect of the operation. At 38 years old, he was hired in 2015. James Schwabb told the San Francisco Chronicles on Monday he was frustrated by repeated statements from official individuals, including Jeff Sessions, that around 800 undocumented immigrants escaped arrest because Oakland's mayor Libby Schaff issued a warning about the four-day operation on Feb. 24th, the night before agents started knocking on doors. President Trump claimed it was around 1,000 undocumented immigrants. This ICE operation was called "Keep it Safe". Schwabb: I quit because I didnt want to perpetuate misleading facts. I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didnt agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit. Schwabb said the widely circulated claims about immigrants escaping arrest were misleading because we were not ever going to be able to capture 100 percent of the target list, and I didnt feel like fabricating the truth to defend ourselves against (Schaafs) actions was the way to go about it. We were never going to pick up that many people. To say that 100 percent are dangerous criminals on the street, or that those people werent picked up because of the misguided actions of the mayor, is just wrong. A Washington Spokesperson for ICE did not respond directly for comment, but directed reporters to head of ICE Thomas Homan's previous statement during the operation, 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. In San Diego today, Trump visited border wall prototypes even though he still has no money to actually build it. Trump said, "The larger it is, the better it is because its very hard to get over the top. Its really deterrent from getting over the top. Who would think, who would think. But getting over the top is easy. These are like professional mountain climbers. During a rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday, he said Mexican president President Enrique Pena Nieton asked him to issue a statement Mexico won't pay for it. Instead he attacked Democrats for refusing to use tax payer money for the funds. Trump argues that San Diego needs the wall, and that without it, people still start to move out of California "soon". This was his first visit to the state as president and home of governer Jerry Brown (D), who recently said in filing a response to a DOJ lawsuit against the state on immigration, The Trump administration is full of liars. So naturally Trump attacked him and sanctuary cities. Gov. Brown has done a very poor job. They have some of the highest taxes. The place is totally out of control. You have sanctuary cities where have you criminals living in the sanctuary cities. Trump wants a large border wall because immigrants "are like professional mountain climbers"https://t.co/DF1j2kVTBx Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani (@AdrienneMahsa) March 13, 2018 Lets pay attention to THIS https://t.co/LGhavtHkhF Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) March 13, 2018 ICE needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth. Refund them and then deport all the ICE agents. Any Democrat against defunding ICE can go fuck themselves. Dave Anthony, LLC. (@daveanthony) March 12, 2018 The White House resident is a racist, hate mongering dolt. @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/pK7x9THYnx Wilson Cruz (@wcruz73) March 13, 2018 So even a spokesman for ICE cant abide by this administrations lies about immigrants. https://t.co/u2Uljrbryx John Henson (@John_Henson) March 13, 2018 ICE spokesman resigned today, saying he could no longer spread lies for Trump administration https://t.co/XQzxaWr1yk Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) March 13, 2018 Trump has no funding for this wall. Hes not allowed by law to influence selection - which doesnt matter anyway because Congress hasnt allocated construction funds. This is a political stunt to mask a failed promise during a special election in PA.https://t.co/VBgt7OYV8I Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) March 13, 2018 News today: @realDonaldTrump to visit prototypes of his border wall. Also news: 60% of Americans dont want a wall. Not only is it a huge waste of taxpayer money, it just wont work.https://t.co/UHizsaunPM Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) March 13, 2018 SCOOP (#2): San Francisco County Jail let ICE inside its facility to interview an inmate -- a violation of both sheriff's policy and California sanctuary law. https://t.co/Te3aRIlQUD Hamed Aleaziz (@Haleaziz) March 13, 2018 I quit because I didnt want to perpetuate misleading facts. James Schwab. ICE spokesman resigns, citing fabrications by agency chief, Sessions about Calif. immigrant arrests https://t.co/1JEviHwZoJ pic.twitter.com/lxHPlkAflu Rucha Chitnis (@ruchachitnis) March 13, 2018 An ICE spokesperson opted to quit rather than defend a false claim. Fox News has run with that claim repeatedly. https://t.co/DT3cfmekFx pic.twitter.com/ZjwGMraEZ5 Media Matters (@mmfa) March 13, 2018 READ THIS STORY------->>> The AL sheriff who oversees ICE detention center has pocketed $750K in state & federal funds that was supposed to be used to feed detainees & inmates. Great reporting @ConnorASheets @aldotcom https://t.co/WXpy6imXJb Nina Martin (@ByNinaMartin) March 13, 2018 ICE's chief notches another lie, this time claiming agents don't arrest 'innocent people' (they do). https://t.co/h1cPLz8mJG Gabe #DreamActNow Ortiz (@TUSK81) March 13, 2018 Local police in sanctuary cities may be sharing data with ICE without anyone having to ask. #ALPR https://t.co/C0AMCVFLS1 Matt Cagle (@Matt_Cagle) March 13, 2018 ICE has kept a 7 year old captive & alone for FOUR MONTHS with no parents around. This is cruel and unusual punishment. The Eight Amendment strictly prohibits government from acting this way. THIS is what we need to shut down until we figure out whats going on. Defund ICE. https://t.co/l47AcpudDZ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) March 12, 2018 A guard at a privately-run ICE contractor sexually assaulted a woman and then ICE tortured her in order to get her to retract her claim that she had been sexually abused. https://t.co/M7XCWQ0x0T abolish ice. subscribe to my newsletter. (@SeanMcElwee) March 13, 2018 Each deportation conducted by ICE costs taxpayers an average of $10,854 https://t.co/j2pM5EQek7 Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) March 11, 2018 Wrote about Kamala Harris weak and unacceptable position on ICE https://t.co/fMHJUI1EwJ Jack Mirkinson (@jackmirkinson) March 9, 2018 Source just texted me: "Imagine running Exxon-Mobil for decades and being a titan of the world and then being fired by Donald Trump on Twitter." Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) March 13, 2018 congratulations guys we did it pic.twitter.com/1HDPSnB8bD Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) March 13, 2018 How many of these Democrats, all of whom voted to confirm Pompeo as CIA director, feel they've learned something in the last 14 months? pic.twitter.com/kJrvkLrFtZ Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) March 13, 2018 Mike Pompeo has a long anti-LGBTQ history which includes consulting with @tperkins, president of @FRCdc, an anti-LGBTQ hate group: https://t.co/T4eH8luqeu https://t.co/vGPLUrEGxu GLAAD (@glaad) March 13, 2018 Trumps new pick for CIA head Gina Hapsel was involved in Bush-era torture policy. She oversaw the torture of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and later took part in an order to destroy videotapes documenting their brutal interrogations at a secret prison in Thailand. https://t.co/kXFhQX11f3 Jamil Dakwar (@jdakwar) March 13, 2018 The latest Trump aide to be let go, John McEntee, was Trump's hairspray guy, always ready with a comb and some stiff spray. White House aides never saw him drink, and he was regularly seen praying. He told people he resigned. https://t.co/4OciFmL0JV Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 13, 2018 ONTD, have you ever made promises you can't keep? Politics post Risky Hiking on the Rise in Hawaii Honolulu Fire Department personnel have been called out 59 times to the top rescue location, Diamond Head Crater, during the past year. Social media are spurring an increase in risky scenic hiking at some locations in Hawaii, according to a March 12 report published by the Honolulu Star Advertiser. Nina Wu's article said social media posts, blogs, and apps are highlighting unsanctioned hikes and making the location of trails available, with GPS coordinates, to all. One result is a lot of Honolulu Fire Department rescues, she reported. They have been called 59 times to the top rescue location, Diamond Head Crater, during the past year. Her report lists 15 locations where departmental personnel made at least six rescue trips from January 2017 to February 2018. Wu's article quotes Aaron Lowe, a trails and access specialist with the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, who said use of the state trails has risen significantly, as have the number of people, both visitors and local residents, who are going to places that are obviously dangerous. "A typical example occurred Sunday, when Honolulu Fire Department rescue crews extracted two hikers, a male and a female, who were stuck in a steep clearing left of the Haiku Stairs trail. The 911 call came in just before noon," she reported. "Crews flew in via the Air 1 helicopter and extracted the two via a sling and took them to a landing zone at Kaneohe District Park, the department said by email." The article includes these hiking safety tips: Based on the intelligence report, the two African Drug Syndicate (ADS) members are allegedly involved in the wide distribution of shabu in Bicol Region and Calabarzon. MANILA, Philippines Eleven sachets of suspected shabu were confiscated by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in two Nigerians who are alleged members of African Drug Syndicate (ADS) in an entrapment operation in Bacoor, Cavite last Friday afternoon. The sachets were hidden inside cellphone charger adapter. However, only two of the 11 sachets contained shabu while others contained a chemical compound that was not classified as a dangerous drug based on the screening and confirmatory test made by PDEA. Ang assessment ng PDEA, indeed nagkakahirapan ng suplay ng shabu kaya nandadaya na ang mga tao, itong mga pusher, said PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino. (PDEAs assessment reveals that supply of shabu is indeed getting harder to find thats why pushers are forced to fake it.) The suspects were identified as Agu Austin Chukwuebuka and Nkwocha Chimaobi. They fully denied the allegations against them. Im just a student. I dont know anything about this, said Chukwuebuka. I dont know anything about the drug. This is my first time to see drugs. I dont do any illegal business, Im a student of course and Im sponsored by my family, said Chimaobi. Based on the intelligence report, the two ADS members are allegedly involved in the wide distribution of shabu in Bicol Region and Calabarzon. They are facing charges for violating Section 5 of Article 2 of Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. The operatives found the two after apprehending suspected big-time drug lord, Olivia Encinas, as well as two other ADS members during the previous year. Rosalie Coz | UNTV News and Rescue The post 2 African Drug Syndicate members nabbed by PDEA in Cavite appeared first on UNTV News. Reuters Videos The White House condemned U.S. border patrol agents on Monday who were seen using a whip-like cord to block Haitian migrants carrying supplies into the U.S. from Mexico.White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she had seen some of the footage, calling it unacceptable.We just saw this footage. Its horrible to watch. I just have to get more information on it...FLASH. I cant imagine what the scenario is where that would be appropriate. Im certainly not suggesting that. But weve just seen the footage earlier this morning.Reuters drone footage captured hundreds of mostly Haitian migrants crossing back and forth between Ciudad Acuna in Mexico and the sprawling camp across the border in Del Rio, Texas to buy food and water that was short in supply on the U.S. side.Reuters witnesses saw mounted officers in cowboy hats blocking the paths of migrants, and the apparent use of horse reins swung to threaten the migrants.At the White House, Psaki was pressed over whether disciplinary action would be taken.Reporter: Is it the Presidents stance, or the White Houses stance that whoever these border agents are using what seems to be whips on migrants, that they would be fired, or at least never be able to do that again?Psaki: Of course they should never be able to do it again. I dont know what the circumstances would be, its obviously horrific the footage.U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said the incident was being investigated to make sure that there was not an "unacceptable" response by law enforcement.While visiting Del Rio on Monday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the long reins are used by mounted officials to "ensure control of the horse, but also vowed to investigate the facts."The camp under a bridge spanning the Rio Grande has become the latest flashpoint for U.S. authorities seeking to stem a flow of migrants fleeing gang violence, extreme poverty and natural disasters in their home countries.Hundreds of migrants have been turned around on the Mexico side, leaving uncertainty about whether theyll be deported on flights organized by U.S. authorities.Mayorkas said he expects between one to three daily repatriation flights back to Haiti, and stressed in a news conference that if individuals try enter the U.S illegally they will be returned. An enormous volcanic flare-up at the end of the dinosaurs reign kicked off a chain of events that led to the formation of the U.S. shale oil and gas fields from Texas to Montana. Rice University geologists said older shale gas fields, like the Marcellus in Pennsylvania and Ohio, may have formed from similar volcanic flare-ups hundreds of millions of years earlier. Credit: Wikimedia Commons Nutrient-rich ash from an enormous flare-up of volcanic eruptions toward the end of the dinosaurs' reign kicked off a chain of events that led to the formation of shale gas and oil fields from Texas to Montana. That's the conclusion of a new study by Rice University geologists that appears this week in Nature Publishing's online journal Scientific Reports. "One of the things about these shale deposits is they occur in certain periods in Earth's history, and one of those is the Cretaceous time, which is around the time of the dinosaurs," said study lead author Cin-Ty Lee, professor and chair of Rice's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. "This was about 90 million to 100 million years ago, which is about the same time as a massive flare-up of arc volcanoes along what is today the Pacific rim of the Western United States." Advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing over the past 20 years led to a U.S. energy boom in "unconventionals," a category that includes the shale gas and "tight" oil found in shale fields like the Cretaceous Eagle Ford and Mowry and older ones like the Barnett and Bakken. "These types of natural gas and oil are in tiny, tiny pores that range from a few millionths of a meter in diameter to a few thousandths of a meter," Lee said. "The deposits are in narrow bands that can only be accessed with horizontal drilling, and the oil and gas are locked in these little pockets and are only available with techniques like hydraulic fracturing." Lee said that there have always been hints of a connection between ancient volcanic eruptions and unconventional shale hydrocarbons. During field trips out to West Texas, he and Rice students noticed hundreds of ash layers in exposed rock that dated to the Cretaceous period when much of western North America lay beneath a shallow ocean. One of these trips happened in 2014 while Lee and Rice colleagues also were studying how a flare-up of Cretaceous-era arc volcanoes along the U.S. Pacific rim had impacted Earth's climate through enhanced volcanic production of carbon dioxide. The eruption of Alaskas Pavlof Volcano as seen from the International Space Station May 18, 2013. The volcanos ash cloud rose to 20,000 feet and extended over hundreds of miles of the northern Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA/ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center "We had seen ash layers before, but at this site we could see there were a lot of them, and that got us thinking," Lee said. Lee, graduate student Hehe Jiang and Rice undergraduates Elli Ronay, Jackson Stiles and Matthew Neal decided to investigate the ash beds in collaboration with Daniel Minisini, a colleague at Shell Oil who had been doing extensive work on quantifying the exact number of ash beds. "It's almost continuous," Lee said. "There's an ash layer at least every 10,000 years." Lee said the team determined that ash had come from hundreds of eruptions that spanned some 10 million years. The layers had been transported several hundred miles east of their volcanic source in California. The ash was deposited on the seafloor after being blown through plumes that rose miles into the atmosphere and drifted over the ocean. Lee and students analyzed samples of the ash beds in the geochemical facilities at Rice. "Their chemical composition didn't look anything like it would have when they left the volcano," he said. "Most of the original phosphorus, iron and silica were missing." That brought to mind the oceanic "dead zones" that often form today near the mouths of rivers. Overfertilization of farms pumps large volumes of phosphorus down these rivers. When that hits the ocean, phytoplankton gobble up the nutrients and multiply so quickly they draw all the available oxygen from the water, leaving a "dead" region void of fish and other organisms. Lee suspected the Cretaceous ash plumes might have caused a similar effect. To nail down whether the ash could have supplied enough nutrients, Lee and his team used trace elements like zirconium and titanium to match ash layers to their volcanic sources. By comparing rock samples from those sources with the depleted ash, the team was able to calculate how much phosphorus, iron and silica were missing. "Normally, you don't get any deposition of organic matter at the bottom of the water column because other living things will eat it before it sinks to the bottom," Lee said. "We found the amount of phosphorus entering the ocean from this volcanic ash was about 10 times more than all the phosphorus entering all the world's oceans today. That would have been enough to feed an oxygen-depleted dead zone where carbon could be exported all the way down to the sediment." Oxygen-depleted dead zones often form in the northern Gulf of Mexico due to nutrient-rich runoff from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, which are seen here as tan and greenish-brown plumes visible from the International Space Station in 2012. Nutrient-rich volcanic ash may have fed similar dead zones that produced shale oil and gas fields from Texas to Montana. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Aqua MODIS The combination of the ashfall and oceanic dead zone concentrated enough carbon to form hydrocarbons. "To generate a hydrocarbon deposit of economic value, you have to concentrate it," Lee said. "In this case, it got concentrated because the ashes drove that biological productivity, and that's where the organic carbon got funneled in." Lee said shale gas and tight oil deposits are not found in the ash layers but appear to be associated with them. Because the layers are so thin, they don't show up on seismic scans that energy companies use to look for unconventionals. The discovery that hundreds of closely spaced ash layers could be a tell-tale sign of unconventionals might allow industry geologists to look for bulk properties of ash layers that would show up on scans, Lee said. "There also are implications for the nature of marine environments," he said. "Today, phosphorus is also a limiting nutrient for the oceans, but the input of the phosphorus and iron into the ocean from these volcanoes has major paleoenvironmental and ecological consequences." While the published study looked specifically at the Cretaceous and North America, Lee said arc volcano flare-ups at other times and locations on Earth may also be responsible for other hydrocarbon-rich shale deposits. "I suspect they could," he said. "The Vaca Muerta field in Argentina is the same age and was behind the same arc as what we were studying. The rock record gets more incomplete as you go further back in time, but in terms of other U.S. shales, the Marcellus in Pennsylvania was laid down more than 400 million years ago in the Ordovician, and it's also associated with ashes." Explore further Oxygen loss could be a huge issue for oceans More information: Cin-Ty A. Lee et al. Volcanic ash as a driver of enhanced organic carbon burial in the Cretaceous, Scientific Reports (2018). Journal information: Scientific Reports Cin-Ty A. Lee et al. Volcanic ash as a driver of enhanced organic carbon burial in the Cretaceous,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-22576-3 Pamela Orpinas is a professor of health promotion and behavior at UGA's College of Public Health. Credit: University of Georgia While the national high school dropout rate has declined, many school systems still struggle with a high number of students who do not finish high school. The factors that may lead to a student's decision to leave school are complex, but a new study from the University of Georgia sheds light on how two behaviorsaggression and weak study skillscontribute to the problem. "What we find in our study is that the students who are dropping out have complex behavioral and academic problems," said Pamela Orpinas, a professor of health promotion and behavior at UGA's College of Public Health and lead author on the study. The returned benefit of reducing dropout can't be overstated, she said. A good education can level the playing field for students who may face other challenges in their environment, such as living in resource-poor neighborhoods or an unstable home. "Graduating from high school is almost like a miracle drug," said Orpinas. "If you think of one thing that we could do to improve students' health, it's make sure kids have a good education and graduate from high school." The key to helping a student stay in school is spotting the signs and behaviors that put students at risk of dropping out earlier in their academic careers, she said. Students exhibit both aggression and study skills early in school, and both behaviors have been independently associated with learning and success, or lack of it. Orpinas' study is the first to track the two together over a period of seven years. The researchers randomly selected 620 sixth-graders from northeast Georgia schools. Teachers completed a behavior rating scale for these students every year from sixth through 12th grade. Based on teacher ratings, the students were grouped into low, medium and high aggression trajectories from middle to high school, and into five study skills groups. Orpinas was particularly interested in tracking behaviors that teachers could observe and, more importantly, affect their classrooms. "You can examine dysfunction in the family or problems in a neighborhood, but there's very little teachers can do about it. Aggression and study skills are issues that the teachers could manage in the classroom," she said. Students classified in the high aggression/low study skills group had a 50 percent dropout rate compared to students with low aggression and high study skills who had a dropout rate of less than 2 percent. "That is a dramatic difference," said Orpinas, "and the study illustrates how well these behaviors were able to predict dropouts across all groups of students." This study points to the importance of supporting schools and educators with the resources they need to detect and correct all behaviors that put students at risk, Orpinas said. It will not be enough to address just one of them, either aggression or study skills. "Simple and single solutions do not work," she said. The study, "Longitudinal Examination of Aggression and Study Skills from Middle to High School: Implications for Dropout Prevention," was published February 2018 in the Journal of School Health. More information: Pamela Orpinas et al, Longitudinal Examination of Aggression and Study Skills From Middle to High School: Implications for Dropout Prevention, Journal of School Health (2018). Pamela Orpinas et al, Longitudinal Examination of Aggression and Study Skills From Middle to High School: Implications for Dropout Prevention,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/josh.12602 Morris Animal Funded-researchers have found South American fur seal pups like these are dying off due to factors such as mites, pneumonia and warmer sea surface temperature. Credit: Dr. Mauricio Seguel, University of Georgia Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers uncovered several key factors contributing to a die-off of South American fur seal pups, including mites, pneumonia and sea surface temperature. The findings, published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, help scientists better understand the link between environmental factors and health. "Disease often is the forgotten piece in the conservation puzzle," said Dr. Kelly Diehl, Senior Scientific Programs and Communications Adviser at Morris Animal Foundation. "We hope these findings highlight the urgent need to study the connection between environmental changes and wildlife diseases, studies that will lead to better health and protection of at-risk species. It is an area that Morris Animal Foundation continues to invest in heavily, particularly as we see more species negatively impacted by changes in their habitats." With support from Morris Animal Foundation, Dr. Mauricio Seguel, a research fellow at the University of Georgia, and his Chilean colleagues studied a mass die-off of South American fur seal pups on Guafo Island in Northern Chilean Patagonia. "The cause of this increased mortality was a severe lung infection and inflammation leading to bronchopneumonia. It was caused by a combination of parasites (nasal and pulmonary mites) and bacteria. This study shows for first time in this fur seal species that a combination of common parasites and bacteria can have adverse effects in the population," said Dr. Seguel. Dr. Seguel and his colleagues isolated and identified two types of streptococcus bacteria from bronchopneumonic pups. They believe the mites compromised the pups' breathing and airflow and helped the strep bacteria flourish, leading to severe and fatal disease in the young animals. Another potential factor in the outbreak was the corresponding and sudden warming of sea surface temperature in the Guafo Island area. Higher sea surface temperatures can lead to changes in the marine food chains that affect multitudes of marine species and can add additional stress to an entire population of animals. Studies in this fur seal population also have shown that the immune system of fur seal pups is sensitive to changes in patterns of maternal care, which vary when environmental conditions in the ocean, such as sea surface temperature, change. "Today, we worry about how most environments are rapidly changing, and even the most isolated places on earth have felt the effects of human development and impact," said Dr. Seguel. "South American fur seal populations are widespread. For reasons not clearly understood, the remote Chilean populations of this species have had a dramatic decline in the last 30 years. Our team is working to understand the connection between environmental changes and the role of diseases in wildlife systems." For nearly a decade, researchers have conducted health monitoring studies at Guafo Island. New research by Dr. Seguel and his team is looking at hookworm infections in the South American fur seal pups with up to 100 percent prevalence. These infections cause anemia and retarded growth in a third of the pup population. Like the respiratory mite finding, hookworm prevalence reaches 100 percent in years with higher sea surface temperatures. ""My interest in wildlife diseases started in my childhood, growing up at the Chilean Patagonia. In this place I saw the importance of the environment-wildlife-human linkages and how diseases constantly modified our surroundings. These projects raise concern on the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems. This subject requires further investigation to help improve the health and protection of marine mammals and other animals dependent on these changing habitats," said Dr. Seguel. Other recent findings by Dr. Seguel's team include a floating debris survey and the role of sea gulls on the health and welfare of South American fur seal pups on Guafo Island that also was funded in part by Morris Animal Foundation. Explore further Ocean winds influence seal pup migration More information: Mauricio Seguel et al, Respiratory Mites (Orthohalarachne diminuata) and -hemolytic Streptococci-Associated Bronchopneumonia Outbreak in South American Fur Seal Pups (Arctocephalus australis), Journal of Wildlife Diseases (2018). Journal information: Journal of Wildlife Diseases Mauricio Seguel et al, Respiratory Mites (Orthohalarachne diminuata) and -hemolytic Streptococci-Associated Bronchopneumonia Outbreak in South American Fur Seal Pups (Arctocephalus australis),(2018). DOI: 10.7589/2017-09-214 Provided by Morris Animal Foundation Iceberg off the coast of Greenland. Credit: Drew Avery/Wikimedia Commons It may not rank among the all-time greatest dramas, but the history of ice on Greenland has been a source of scientific controversy for more than a decade. A study led by UCLA climate scientist Aradhna Tripati appears to put the debate to rest, with major implications for future research across a range of disciplines, from climate science to geology. The paper, which is published today in the journal Nature Communications, also sheds light on how global climate may change as people continue emitting greenhouse gases, revealing a potential tipping point: atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations of 500 parts per million or more. Beyond that threshold, major ice sheets at both poles could melt significantly. Current levels are near 400 parts per million. For years, the prevailing belief was that glaciers first appeared on Greenland between 5 million and 11 million years ago. Then, in 2005, Tripati authored a study suggesting the ice had been present there much earlier: about 35 to 40 million years ago. Though Tripati's paper was published in Natureone of the most-respected scientific journalsit was considered controversial. At the heart of the conflict was a simple question: Why weren't similar observations made by other studies? Because the findings were not in line with previous knowledge, the paper was regarded as an outlier. Tripati, who was then a postdoctoral fellow, admits that her research, which was based on the chemistry of Pacific Ocean samples and what they implied about ancient seawater, was "a pretty indirect indicator." Still, she had confidence in the results. She, her students and other researchers conducted a series of studies using different climate indicators, and they kept reaching the same conclusion. "Understanding the history of ice at both poles and how they respond to changing carbon dioxide levels is so important that, as we published these papers, controversy built up," said Tripati, who is a member of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. "We dug in and continued to try to understand what the history, in fact, was." In 2014, Tripati sent Dennis Darby, an Arctic paleoclimate specialist at Old Dominion University who became her co-author on the new paper, promising samples taken from a site in the Greenland Sea where icebergs that broke offa process known as "calving"from glaciers on the island would have drifted by. "As glaciers move across land, they incorporate pieces of sediment," Tripati said. "As glaciers produce icebergs and those icebergs drift through the ocean, those little fragments of rock get released as the ice melts. Each rock fragment has a unique chemistry. That chemistry is a fingerprinteach grain tells you something about where the ice came from." Those samples are dated based on what fossils are present and their magnetic properties, allowing researchers to reconstruct where and when there was ice present on Greenland and other land masses in the Arctic, as well as when there was sea ice in the ocean. Tripati chose to send those new samples to Darby because he had published a study that corroborated her 2005 findings. Using a method he pioneered, Darby analyzed them without knowing what he was looking at, where it came from or how old it wassort of like a blind taste test. He found that the samples contained "very high matches" to east Greenland source sites, again confirming Tripati's earlier research. In fact, his analysis showed that large glaciers were present on Greenland even earlier: up to 47.1 million years ago. That was right at the beginning of the middle Eocene epoch, about 20 million years after dinosaurs went extinct. Darby was also able to match ice from the samples to other locations across the Arctic region. "That's important," Darby said. "It shows this was not just a local or regional effect in Greenland. It was something climatically induced on a much larger scale, a polar event." Data visualization showing changes in Greenlands ice sheet from 2003 to 2012. Rapidly thinning coastal regions are shown in green, blue and purple. Credit: NASA With their new study, Tripati and Darby think the mystery is solved. Darby's technique was rigorously tested in a 2012 study and found to be accurate 98.5 percent of the time. They examined 100 sediment samples and fingerprinted the chemistry of more than 2,000 rock fragments. Today's paper also contains revelations about how atmospheric conditions relate to the presence or absence of ice. In the years since that first freeze, ice formed and retreated from Greenland several times. The researchers found that ice was usually present when carbon dioxide levels were lower than 500 parts per million. "What happens if carbon dioxide levels get sustained at 800 parts per million, where some carbon emissions scenarios have us going?" Tripati asked. "Greenland has a lot of ice. If it all melted, it could raise sea level globally by about 20 feet." Ice comes and goes at both poles under those conditions, the study found. Tripati's research from 2016 that suggested massive ice shelves on Antarctica are also at risk of melting supports this. Understanding tipping points is important because Earth's climate can change quickly, Darby said. He pointed to 10,000 years ago in Greenland, when temperatures rose 10 degrees Celsius in 10 years. "Those thresholds need to be researched," Darby said. "They are largely ignored by climate scientists because these things happened way in the past. Many of them are sort of stuck in the past 50 years. And in that time, we don't see any big changes except in the past two decades, when we see very rapid changes that are concerning." Tripati said that controversies are good for science in general, she saidit shows the scientific process is healthy. She recalled cat-sitting for renowned scientist Sir Nicholas Shackleton around the time she was conducting the early study. "He said to me 'When you discover something surprising, remember that it's OK to be wrong, but ideally you should be the person to find out. Always try to prove yourself wrong instead of trying to prove yourself right,' " Tripati recalled. "I think that's excellent advice. With this study, I didn't know what we were going to find. If it didn't work out, finewe could have written a paper that definitively said 'no evidence for this.' And then we're on the right side of science." The process also underscored the importance of including diverse perspectives in science, Tripati said. Last summer she launched the UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Sciencethe first initiative of its kind devoted to including people of all backgrounds in environmental science. Dogma that endured for decades can shift dramatically if the scientific community is inclusive and welcomes new perspectives, she said. Inclusion and social belonging will foster diversity, and research shows that leads to more creative approaches and ideas, fueling innovation and scientific breakthroughs. Tripati and Darby both hope today's findings inspire future research to better understand what will happen to Earth's climate, species and human communities if we continue on our current carbon emissions trajectory. They also hope it will inform policies aimed at preventing a climate catastropheparticularly efforts to reduce carbon emissions, Darby said. "We need to start looking at what we're doing," Darby said. "Some people stick their heads in the sand because they think we'll come up with technology to save us at the last minute. But that's provided we don't hit one of these thresholds first." More information: Aradhna Tripati et al. Evidence for ephemeral middle Eocene to early Oligocene Greenland glacial ice and pan-Arctic sea ice, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications , Nature Aradhna Tripati et al. Evidence for ephemeral middle Eocene to early Oligocene Greenland glacial ice and pan-Arctic sea ice,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03180-5 Analysis of a spinning egg. Credit: Ross Cross. 2018 European Physical Society If a hard-boiled egg is spun fast enough on a table, it will slowly stand upright as it continues to spin. Although the spinning egg rises due to the force of friction between the egg and the table, the full explanation involves a relatively complex set of equations. In an attempt to explain the concepts to a broader audience, physicist Rod Cross at the University of Sydney has sought a simpler explanation of the rise of a spinning egg. "Spinning eggs have been studied for more than 100 years, but there has not previously been a simple explanation for the rise, either of spinning eggs or the tippe top," Cross told Phys.org. "The essential physics cannot be conveyed to an undergraduate student or to a physics teacher by explaining that an egg rises because the equations predict that it will rise. "Part of the problem is that there have not been enough experimental measurements to pin down the separate roles of sliding and rolling friction in causing the egg (or tippe top) to rise and then causing it to stop rising if it is not spun fast enough." In experiments with a solid aluminum spheroid, Cross demonstrated an important characteristic of the spinning egg, which is that it precesses (i.e., rotates) about two different axes. The obvious rotation is that in the direction which it spins, about the vertical axis. The egg also rotates about a horizontal axis as it stands up on its end. The new study shows that rotation about the horizontal axis is due to precession, and that the precession itself is due to the horizontal friction force. If the egg starts rolling, then the friction force drops to zero and the egg stops rising. Video credit: Rod Cross. physics.usyd.edu.au/~cross/SPINNING%20TOPS.htm On the other hand, the precession of the spinning egg about the vertical axis is caused by the normal force (from the table pushing up on the egg), rather than friction. The experiments also confirmed another related characteristic of the spinning egg: the faster the egg spins, the more vertical it stands. If the egg spins too slowly, it won't rise at all. Again, the explanation can be traced back to the force of friction, since slow rotation causes the egg to roll instead of slide and stand up. Cross also found similar explanations for the inversion of a tippe top and the slow fall and rapid precession of spinning coins. Explore further Spin pumping effect proven for the first time 2018 Phys.org Credit: Australian National University A team of researchers from the U.S., New Zealand, Australia and Germany has found evidence suggesting that a type of star formation near the center of the Milky Way is responsible for large gamma ray emissions, not dark matter. In their paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the group describes their study of the stars in the formation, what they found, and what it could mean for dark matter theory. Over the past several years, a consensus of sorts has emerged among astrophysicists to explain the large gamma ray emissions from the center of the Milky Waythey are likely due to dark matter particles (WIMPs) bumping into each other or with regular matter, it was theorized. But in this new effort, the researchers report evidence of another source, casting doubt on dark matter as the likely cause of the emissions. The researchers have been studying data from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, which has been in orbit for the past decade. They were able to see that the gamma rays actually mirrored the distribution of stars near the center of the galaxythey were formed in the shape of an X, not a sphere as would be expected if it were caused by dark matter interactions. In building a model to recreate what they had found, the team discovered that a more likely explanation was a collection of millisecond pulsars (rapidly spinning neutron stars)their combined emissions appeared to have merged to create the signal that was originally attributed to dark matterthe new source may be less exciting, they note, but at least it is explainable in reasonably concrete terms. Credit: Australian National University The researchers note that while their findings offer the most likely explanation for the gamma ray signals, which constitutes progress in understanding our own galaxy, they also put a bit of a damper on enthusiasm for dark matterthe case for it goes back to things like light bending in odd ways, or the strange behavior observed in some galaxies, which do not offer much to go on. Explore further Does dark matter annihilate quicker in the Milky Way? More information: Oscar Macias et al. Galactic bulge preferred over dark matter for the Galactic centre gamma-ray excess, Nature Astronomy (2018). Oscar Macias et al. Galactic bulge preferred over dark matter for the Galactic centre gamma-ray excess,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0414-3 Abstract An anomalous gamma-ray excess emission has been found in the Fermi Large Area Telescope data covering the centre of the Galaxy. Several theories have been proposed for this 'Galactic centre excess'. They include self-annihilation of dark-matter particles4, an unresolved population of millisecond pulsars, an unresolved population of young pulsars, or a series of burst events. Here, we report on an analysis that exploits hydrodynamical modelling to register the position of interstellar gas associated with diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission. We find evidence that the Galactic centre excess gamma rays are statistically better described by the stellar over-density in the Galactic bulge and the nuclear stellar bulge, rather than a spherical excess. Given its non-spherical nature, we argue that the Galactic centre excess is not a dark-matter phenomenon but rather associated with the stellar population of the Galactic bulge and the nuclear bulge. Press release Journal information: Nature Astronomy 2018 Phys.org Ashley Boyle (center) of Penn Vet took the lead in writing a new consensus statement on treating, controlling, and preventing the equine infectious disease strangles. Credit: University of Pennsylvania Just as strep throat can run rampant in elementary schools, strangles, the "strep throat" of horses, caused by a different Streptococcus bacterium, Streptococcus equi sp equi, is highly contagious. Lymph nodes in the head and neck region become swollen and develop abscesses, resulting in nasal discharge and drainage from the throat. Though rarely fatal, strangles cases can range from mild to severe, and complications that impair eating and breathing can arise in some instances. Altogether, it's a disease that horse owners want to keep far from their stables. Veterinarians have an important role to play not only in treating the disease, but also in ensuring that infected horses are kept away from other animals until they have fully recovered from the illness. This recovery is not always so clear cut, as many animals remain carriers of the bacteria even after they appear healthy. To assist veterinarians, and owners, in understanding the most up-to-date clinical recommendations when it comes to treating strangles, Ashley Boyle, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, took the lead in writing a new consensus statement, issued by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, on treating, controlling, and preventing strangles in horses. "From a practical standpoint, the consensus statement serves to advise all veterinarians on what we recommend as a way to treat and deal with the disease," Boyle says. "I'm an internist who sees this disease as a primary care doctor at the horse farms as well as a field researcher. The authors of the consensus statement are a collection of experts in the field of Streptococcal diseases in horses including veterinary microbiologists, epidemiologists, and veterinarians who research this disease, as well as internists who encounter the disease frequently." Boyle coauthored the report with John Timoney of the Gluck Equine Research Center at the University of Kentucky, Richard Newton and Andrew Waller of Animal Health Trust in the United Kingdom, Melissa T. Hines of the University of Tennessee, and Ben Buchanan of Brazo Valley Equine Hospital in Texas. The last consensus statement was issued in 2005; the lead author of that report was Corinne Sweeney, professor of medicine and associate dean at Penn Vet's New Bolton Center. Starting around 2012, Boyle began hearing from colleagues that it was time for an update. Sweeney suggested that Boyle take on the project. Along with an international team of coauthors, some of whom had contributed to the earlier statement, Boyle set about reviewing information on prevention, treatment and control and finding where updates were necessary. One of the key areas where the guidance has shifted in the new statement is how to determine when an animal is free of disease. This is a critical component of strangles control, as 10 to 40 percent of animals who have had the disease can remain carriers, able to pass on disease to other animals even when they appear healthy. The previous consensus statement indicated a throat wash should be tested three times to be sure the horse was free of disease. "But it was hard to get owners and clients to do that three times," Boyle says. "And multiple studies have shown that those three may not even be good enough." In the new statement, Boyle and colleagues instead recommend "guttural pouch sampling," a technique that tests the fluid that sits in an area between a horse's ear and throat, akin to the human Eustachian tube, in combination with using an endoscope to visually assess the area for unruptured absesses. "We're trying to encourage more primary care veterinarians to do this, even though it's time consuming, because this is how the disease perpetuates itself," says Boyle. "In the end it is easier, faster, and more effective than doing the three throat washes. That's one of our big take-home messages." Another change is a shift away from considering bacterial culture to be the gold standard of diagnosis. "We no longer consider this the gold standard," Boyle says, as horses with low levels of bacteria may still be carriers but not give a positive result on this test. The authors see DNA amplification technologies such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) along with visualization of the guttural pouch as replacing culture as this standard. "There is also a lot of work being done by my colleagues in Europe looking at genomic sequencing," she says. "At some point in the future we may be able to use this technology to trace from where an outbreak came." The publication lays out best practices for quarantine and examination in order to prevent the spread of disease, and biosecurity protocols to reduce transmission in facilities where infected horses have been housed. It spells out treatment protocols, urging judicious use of antibiotics, and explains how to recognize, evaluate the risk for, and treat one of the more serious complications of strangles, an autoimmune reaction known as purpura hemorrhagica, which can be fatal. It also explores the pros and cons of strangles vaccines,the use of different blood tests that can measure previous exposure to disease and determine when it is safe to give vaccines.. While the consensus statement is aimed at veterinarians, Boyle says owners often read them directly, and can implement some of the recommendations. For example, horses are not thought to be contagious until 24 to 48 hours after the onset of fever. "An owner can start thinking about monitoring their horses' temperatures if they suspect an outbreak, and isolate horses when they first spike a fever," Boyle says. "That way they can catch it right at the beginning and spare any other horses from getting sick." Even though strangles is not typically deadly, it is a global problem and quite costly, as management protocols can be extensive. "There are huge financial repercussions not only from dealing with the disease but from quarantining barns and screening potential carriers," Boyle says. "It's also a big problem in the population of rescued horses, as they often come from different locations and are housed in close quarters resulting in the spread of disease." Boyle and her colleagues hope that the new guidelines will help veterinarians and owners navigate strangles cases more effectively, ideally mitigating the disease's health and financial costs. Explore further Genome blueprint for horse and human vaccines More information: A.G. Boyle et al, Streptococcus equi Infections in Horses: Guidelines for Treatment, Control, and Prevention of Strangles-Revised Consensus Statement, Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine (2018). A.G. Boyle et al, Streptococcus equi Infections in Horses: Guidelines for Treatment, Control, and Prevention of Strangles-Revised Consensus Statement,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/jvim.15043 Credit: CC0 Public Domain In practically the blink of an eye, Maggie Irizarry lost about $1,300 to thieves. But the culprits weren't robbers who broke into her Miami home. They were hackers who connived their way onto her Lenovo laptop. Because of that, local police balked at getting involved. Irizarry's only recourse was to plead for mercy with her bank and credit card company in hopes of recovering her loss. Hundreds of thousands of Americas are victims of cybercrime every year. Yet only 15 percent of cyber fraud victims ever report the crimes to law enforcement, the FBI says. Many victimsthose who have lost hundreds or thousands of dollarsfeel they have nowhere to turn. The truth is they often do not. Most local and state law enforcement agencies are not equipped to track down cyber crooks. The FBI is swamped and must prioritize big cases. "It's a huge problem," said Nick Selby, a Texas police detective and information security consultant. "It's difficult for local law enforcement because we don't have the training." International cyber gangs prey upon U.S. victims by hacking their computers to obtain credit card and Social Security numbers to defraud banks and retail outlets. But other crimes are also on the rise. "They are things like, 'My ex is tracking me with spyware on my phone,' or 'My neighbor has hijacked my wireless and is doing illegal things.' There's nobody to tell about this," said Michael K. Hamilton, founder and president of Critical Informatics, an information security firm that operates out of Bremerton, Washington. Local and state law enforcement agencies often are ill-equipped to investigate digital crimes, which can originate across state lines or outside of the United States. Prosecutors sometimes hesitate to take on complicated cases with low conviction rates. At the national level, a rise in cases inundates the FBI, the lead federal agency on cyberattacks and crimes. "This threat is now coming at us from all sides," FBI Director Christopher Wray said March 7 at Boston College. "We're worriedat the FBI and with our partnersabout a wider range of threat actors, from multinational cyber syndicates and insider threats to hacktivists. And we're concerned about a wider gamut of methods." For Irizarry, a chemical engineer who worked at the Environmental Protection Agency before her retirement, the threat came one day when her laptop screen turned bright red. "It gave me a message to call Microsoft. Dumb me, I supposedly call 'Microsoft.' It was an 800 number," Irizarry said. "I panicked a bit." The call responder said he would fix Irizarry's computer for $300, so she turned over her credit card number and gave the man remote electronic access to her hard drive. Later, her phone rang. The callers said they'd overcharged her credit card by $1,000. "They started screaming at me, saying they were going to be fired because they made this huge mistake," she said. Then they asked her to go to a CVS drugstore "and get $1,000 in gift cards in $100 denominations," she said. "At that point, I figured out that they were not Microsoft." At the urging of a friend, Irizarry called the FBI, and an agent told her to alert her bank and credit card company. Then she went to city police. "The guy said, 'I cannot take your complaint.' I said, 'Why not?' 'Because you don't know who did this,'" she said. She said the man had an Indian accent, and the officer surmised that the internet scam operated from India. "They do this all the time, he said, and we don't have jurisdiction over this. You don't have a name or an address," Irizarry recalled. Luckily, the bank reimbursed her $1,000 loss and so did the credit card company. She held $500 in Apple gift cards that she had bought but not yet turned over to the fraudsters. At the urging of the FBI, Irizarry filed an electronic complaint with the bureau's Internet Crime Complaint Center, a national clearinghouse. The center received 298,728 complaints with total losses in excess of $1.3 billion in 2016, the latest year for which statistics are available. While the FBI sorts through and bundles even the smallest internet crimes, active investigations concentrate only when losses are large. "We talked to one of the bigger field offices in the U.S. and they said, 'We have a million-dollar threshold.' There's just too much cybercrime for them to look at anything below $1 million," James A. Lewis, head of the technology policy program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, said at a Feb. 21 event. In a follow-up interview last week, Lewis said local police departments often have only one or two cyber specialists, and prosecutors and judges may not have significant expertise. "There's a reluctance, I think, below the federal level to take on what can be very tough cases," Lewis said. Selby, the Texas detective, said local police departments will take a strong interest if a cyber case involves terrorism, human trafficking or child pornography. "If you got your identity stolen and you're looking for more than a police report, no, you're out of luck," Selby said, adding that the matter is partly generational. "You still have generations of chiefs of police who are in their 60s. They are not really focused on this." Some smaller departments have hired experts with formidable cyber forensics skills. "There have been cases where I've been able to trace activity back to Eastern Europe," said Anthony Kava, a digital forensics examiner and special deputy at the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office in western Iowa. But FBI support is hard to obtain. "There's a long queue to get things done because everyone wants their (the FBI's) assistance," Kava said. At the Miami-Dade County Police Department, which is separate from the Miami City Police that declined to handle Irizarry's matter, officers are instructed to take all cyber complaints, said Sgt. Armando Borrego of the Organized Fraud Intelligence Squad. But cybercrimes that originate abroad are problematic. "What recourse do we have? Our jurisdiction is Miami-Dade County. How do we put somebody behind the computer? Honestly, we can't," Borrego said. Even the FBI struggles with getting hit by cybercrime. Last month, the FBI alerted citizens to beware of criminals sending emails impersonating its Internet Crime Complaint Center, suggesting to victims that they could receive restitution if they provided more information about themselves. The bogus emails contained an attachment. "The text file contained malware which was designed to further victimize the recipient," an FBI release said. 2018 McClatchy Washington Bureau Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Coastal street flooding in Norfolk, Virginia, during the passage of tropical storm Hermine in September 2016. Credit: D. Loftis/VIMS. Researchers at William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science are launching new web-based "report cards" to monitor and forecast changes in sea level at 32 localities along the U.S. coastline from Maine to Alaska. They plan to update the report cards in January of each year, with projections out to the year 2050. The lead on the project, VIMS emeritus professor John Boon, says the report cards are designed to add value by providing sea-level updates that are more frequent and localized than those generated by NOAA or other scientific bodies. Boon and colleagues also take a statistical approach that incorporates evidence for recent acceleration in the rate of sea-level change at many U.S. tide-gauge stations. Boon and his team furthermore stress their use of relative sea-level measurementschanges in water level relative to the land surface on which people live and workrather than the absolute sea-level measures used in many global models and predictions. The relative sea-level rise in Virginia and other East and Gulf coast areas is due to both rising water and sinking land. Joining Boon on the project are Ph.D. student Molly Mitchell and VIMS research scientist Derek Loftis. Mitchell is lead author on the 2012 sea-level report requested by Virginia's General Assembly, while Loftis helps direct StormSense, a project to monitor and model coastal flooding in and around Hampton Roads. Boon created VIMS' popular Tidewatch network and has literally written the book on the analysis of tides and tidal currents. The value of an annual, localized report card Because long-term changes in sea level are incremental in nature typically a few millimeters per yearresearchers have traditionally felt little need to issue frequent forecasts of sea-level changes. Moreover, many sea-level projections are global in scope, with a forecast horizon of 2100far enough off to allow for readily discernible linear change. Thus the IPCC's oft-reported prediction of 65 centimeters (2.1 feet) of global sea-level rise by the end of the century. The VIMS team has purposefully taken a more localized and timely approach, one designed to add maximum value for coastal residents, businesses, and government agencies. Says Boon, "Our report cards show what sea level has been doing recently, what's happening now at your locality. Numerous studies show that local rates of sea-level rise and acceleration differ substantially from the global rates published by the IPCC and NOAAa key result because local rates of relative sea-level rise give a direct indication of the extent to which homes, buildings, and roads are at risk of flooding." The team's decision to use a subset of available tide-gauge data runs counter to the traditional approach taken by researchers at NOAA, the agency that operates the nation's official network of tidal stations. "NOAA should be commended for their care in ensuring the continuity, consistency, and availability of the nation's long-term tidal datasets," says Boon. "But at the same time, a longer record isn't always better, especially when there's evidence of recent non-linear changes in the rate of sea-level rise like we see along the U.S. East Coast." An earlier analysis by Boon showed that this non-linear change or acceleration began in 1987, at the center of a 36-year sliding window beginning in 1969thus setting the start date for the VIMS report cards. This is decades after many U.S. tide-gauge stations began operation. This annotated chart, using the latest data from Norfolk, Virginia, briefly explains the data and statistical approaches researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science use in their projections of sea level to the year 2050. For further details and to view interactive report cards for 32 localities along the U.S. East, Gulf, and West coasts, visit www.vims.edu/sealevelreportcards.For full technical details, read the VIMS report: Boon, J. D., M. Mitchell, D. K. Loftis, and D. L. Malmquist (2018), Anthropocene Sea Level Change: A History of Recent Trends Observed in the U.S. East, Gulf and West Coast Regions, in Special Report in Applied Marine Science and Ocean Engineering (SRAMSOE) No. 467, edited, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA, https://doi.org/10.21220/V5T17T. Credit: VIMS. Mitchell explains further, "If you cross a threshold in terms of something like sea-level rise, what came beforesay a tide-gauge record that began in 1900is biased in terms of seeing where you're going. We think the ice sheets are melting faster today than they ever have before, and if that's true then the previous 90 years of data won't accurately predict the future." The difference between the linear rates used in NOAA's sea-level forecasts and the non-linear, accelerating rates used in VIMS' report cards is much more than a statistical subtletyit leads to sharply different forecasts of our sea-level future. A good example can be found in VIMS' backyard, using data from NOAA's Sewells Point tide gauge in Norfolk, Virginia. Extending NOAA's linear sea-level projections to mid-century indicates that sea level here will be 0.29 meters (11.42 inches) higher by 2050, while the VIMS forecastusing a non-linear, accelerating rateis 0.49 meters, or 19.3 inches. That extra 20 centimeters (8") of sea-level rise would have major implications for the low-lying region. The VIMS team moreover cautions that sea level is likely to experience short-term variations in the future just as it does today. Thus, coastal residents and planners in Virginia and other areas likely to experience significant sea-level increases by 2050 must also account for storm surges and other transient forces raising sea level even higher than the projected mean rise value. Anatomy of a Sea-Level Report Card VIMS' Sea-Level Report Cards have three components: the projection of sea-level height to the year 2050, a display of recent trends in the rates of sea-level change, and an explanation of processes affecting sea level at each locality. The report card website, http://www.vims.edu/sealevelreportcard, explains the data and statistical approaches used in the 2050 projections. The trend charts help users keep track of changes in the rate of sea-level rise and acceleration at each locality (or sea-level fall and deceleration in some places)as these will very likely change from year-to-year due to hurricanes and other short-term weather events, as well as longer-term, decade-scale processes such as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation or the North Atlantic Oscillation. A projection to 2050 made during an upturn in a decadal signal will be higher than it would be if the decadal signal was nearing or at a low. The final report card component explains for each locality and region (U.S. East, Gulf, or West coast) the long-term processes that force changes in the mass, volume, and regional distribution of seawater; changes in shoreline elevation; or both. Complex interactions among these processes can lead to significant differences in sea-level trends in different regions, or in some cases at localities relatively near each other. Alternatively, these interactions can result in similar sea-level trends in areas that lie far apart. Full details of VIMS' Sea-Level Report Cards are provided in an accompanying technical report Anthropocene Sea Level Change: A History of Recent Trends Observed in the U.S. East, Gulf & West Coast Regionsavailable through the Hargis Library at VIMS. The report also provides management recommendations. The team plans to add these to their report cards in the near future. Anthropocenefrom the Greek "anthropo" (human) and "cene" (recent)is a newly coined term that recognizes a growing view among scientists that humanity's influence on Earth's environmental processes warrants adding a new epoch to the geologic time scale. If formally adopted, the term would supersede the current Holocene epoch, which began about 12,000 years ago with the melting of the Pleistocene ice sheets. "The Anthropocene is a time of rapid change when we should really be keeping a close eye on sea level," says Boon. Explore further Sea-level study brings good and bad news to Chesapeake Bay In Malaysia, officials worked with private parties to restore and maintain rainforests, home of one of the worlds highest concentrations of orangutans. Credit: Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOR Programs in which people pay landholders to support natural systems that provide benefits like flood protection, biodiversity and carbon storage, are expanding around the world, according to a new UCLA-led study. The paper, published today in Nature Sustainability, is the first peer-reviewed, global assessment of "payments for ecosystem services" mechanisms. Leading the study were James Salzman, Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law at UCLA School of Law and the Bren School of the Environment at UC Santa Barbara, and researchers at Ecosystem Marketplace, an initiative of the non-profit Forest Trends. Malaysia provides one example of how payment for ecosystem services programs work, Salzman said. The state of Sabah worked with private parties to restore and maintain 131 square miles of rainforest, home to one of the world's highest concentrations of orangutans. The program sells "biodiversity conservation certificates," each representing 100 square meters of forest restoration and protection for at least 50 years. Little more than an idea a few years ago, payments for ecosystem services has grown into a large and expanding market, according to the study, which found that more than 550 programs active worldwide, in both developed and developing countries, with more than $36 billion in annual transactions. "There has been enormous interest around the globe in payments for ecosystem services, fueled by promising case studies and exciting transactions, but until now we've never had a firm grasp on just how large they have really become," Salzman said. "Payments for ecosystem services is a market-based approach that places a value on the many benefits that nature provides to peopleclean water, flood control and wildlife habitat. Done right, trees can be worth more standing than cut down." A worker in Indonesia pulls up mangrove roots to assess their carbon storage potential. Credit: Kate Evans/Center for International Forestry Research No payments for ecosystem services sector has seen more growth than watersheds, where communities, companies and other users pay upstream landowners for land management practices, such as conversation of croplands to forest, that reduce flooding and improve water quality. The researchers found that payments for ecosystem services related to watersheds has the largest volume of global transactions and the greatest geographic spread, with $24.7 billion in transactions across 62 countries in 2015, compared to $6.7 billion in transactions in 2009. China's "eco-compensation scheme" for watersheds is the world's largest payments for ecosystem services program. After a series of major floods and droughts in the late 1990s, China identified deforestation as a major problem and distributed more than $100 billion from 2001 to 2010 for tree planting, logging bans and other landholder actions. South America has also been experiencing rapid growth in the number of watershed payments for ecosystem services programs, with 57 funds created in the last decade. The Latin American Water Funds Partnership, launched in 2011 by a consortium of funders led by the Nature Conservancy, has 16 operating funds. In Quito, Ecuador, for example, a water conservation fund gathers a 1 percent surcharge on monthly water bills and payments from a local electrical utility and beer company to finance projects protecting forests and grasslands in a watershed that serves 2.5 million people. The researchers found strong interest in markets for forestry and land-use practices that store carbon, such as forest conservation and restoring degraded lands, with payments topping $2.8 billion since 2009. But growth will depend on how countries implement their national climate plans under the Paris Agreement. A United Nations program called REDD+ created a framework in which rich countries would pay developing countries for measurable actions that reduced carbon emissions from tree clearing and forest degradation. But as of now, it is unclear whether wealthy countries will accept credits from REDD+ programs. Payments for ecological services that promote biodiversity, such as Malaysia's rainforest certificate program, face the most challenges to scale. Beneficiaries of biodiversity conservation go beyond a specific, local group of users and might include scientists, medical researchers, hunters and fishers or environmentalists. Likewise, the specific benefits of biodiversity programs are often indirect or nonmaterial, such as the joy people experience seeing a California condor flying in the wild. Biodiversity programs exist in only 36 countries and successful programs rely on regulation. Yet in regions where conservation is most under threat due to a lack of regulation or enforcement, biodiversity payments at small scale may be the most promising conservation strategy, Salzman said. Explore further Tallying the wins and losses of policy More information: J. Liu et al. Ecological and socioeconomic effects of China's policies for ecosystem services, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2008). J. Liu et al. Ecological and socioeconomic effects of China's policies for ecosystem services,(2008). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0706436105 James Salzman et al. The global status and trends of Payments for Ecosystem Services, Nature Sustainability (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-018-0033-0 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Credit: Australian Synchrotron Scientists from the Imperial College London, Monash University, CSIRO, and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology have reported an organic thin film for solar cells with a non-fullerene small molecule acceptor that achieved a power conversion efficiency of just over 13 per cent. By replacing phenylalkyl side chains in indacenodithieno[3,2-b]thiophene-based non-fullerene acceptor (ITIC) with simple linear chains to form C8-ITIC, they improved the photovoltaic performance of the material. C8-ITIC was blended with a fluorinated analog of the donor polymer PBDB-T to form bulk-heterojunction thin films. The research was recently published in Advanced Materials. Dr. Xuechen Jiao of McNeill Research Group at Monash University carried out grazing incidence wide angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) measurements at the Australian Synchrotron to gain morphological information on pure and blended thin films. "By changing the chemical structure of the organic compound, a promising boost in efficiency was successfully achieved in an already high-performing organic solar cells" said Jiao. "GIWAXS gave us information about how the donor and acceptor molecules crystallised and aggregated within the thin films, as well as the orientation of the crystallites with respect to the substrates." The technique is highly useful in investigating crystal structures of a range of soft matter thin films of conductive polymers, such as organic solar cells and organic transistors. "The intensity of beam a the Australian Synchrotron provides a super high flux, that means information can be acquired in about three seconds compared with conventional XRD which takes about an hour," said Jiao. Credit: Australian Synchrotron "Changes in colour in two-dimensional GIWAX patterns represent changes in diffraction intensity which allow you to see how the unit cell changes." In an experiment to examine crystalisation and aggregation behaviour, GIWAXS was implemented on single component thin films, ITC, C8-ITC, PBDB-T and PFDB-T with and without thermal annealing at 160 C . Blends of C8-ITIC with donor polymer PFBDB-T demonstrated the best power conversion efficiency. The results suggested C8-CTIC molecules have a higher tendency to crystallise into ordered 3-D structures. Improved molecular packing in C8-ITIC compared to CTIC was thought to contribute to superior charge carrier transporting behaviors, thus improved performance. The paper authors, led by Prof Martin Heeney at the Imperial College London, also reported a new technique to synthesise the non-fullerene acceptor. Other techniques used in the investigation included UV-absorption spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry. atomic force microscopy electroluminescence and theoretical calculations. There is a great deal of interest in non-fullerene acceptors because of their extended light absorption and tunable energy levels. A group from the Chinese Academy of Sciences led by Wenchao Zhou recently reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society last year that a molecular optimisation of 13 per cent in a non-fullerene thin film, of PBDB-T-SF and IT-4F. Explore further Materials 'sandwich' breaks barrier for solar cell efficiency More information: Zhuping Fei et al. An Alkylated Indacenodithieno[3,2-b ]thiophene-Based Nonfullerene Acceptor with High Crystallinity Exhibiting Single Junction Solar Cell Efficiencies Greater than 13% with Low Voltage Losses, Advanced Materials (2018). Journal information: Advanced Materials , Journal of the American Chemical Society Zhuping Fei et al. An Alkylated Indacenodithieno[3,2-b ]thiophene-Based Nonfullerene Acceptor with High Crystallinity Exhibiting Single Junction Solar Cell Efficiencies Greater than 13% with Low Voltage Losses,(2018). DOI: 10.1002/adma.201705209 The neutron interferometer can scan the interior of thick objects, such as this chunk of granite, providing enough detail to show the four types of rock that are mixed within it. Credit: Huber & Hanacek, NIST You can't see well without lenses that can focus, whether those lenses are in your eye or the microscope you peer through. An innovative new way to focus beams of neutrons might allow scientists to probe the interiors of opaque objects at a size range they were blind to previously, allowing them to explore the innards of objects from meteorites to cutting-edge manufactured materials without damaging them. The method, published today in Physical Review Letters, could convert what historically has been a support tool for neutron science into a full-fledged scanning technique that could reveal details ranging in size from 1 nanometer up to 10 micrometers within larger objects. The approach provides this tool, known as neutron interferometry, with what are essentially its first movable "lenses" capable of zooming in and out on details in this size rangea range that has been difficult to probe, even with other neutron scanning methods. More precisely, these "lenses" are silicon wafers acting as diffraction gratings, which take advantage of neutrons' wavelike properties. The gratings split and redirect a neutron beam so that the waves bounce off an object's edges and then collide with one another, creating a visible moire interference pattern representative of the object that is easy for experts to interpret. The method was developed by a team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Canada's University of Waterloo. According to NIST's Michael Huber, the approach could make neutron interferometry into one of the best exploratory tools in a material scientist's kit. "We can look at structure on lots of different levels and at different scales," said Huber, a physicist with NIST's Physical Measurement Laboratory who conducts experiments at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). "It could complement other scanning techniques because its resolution is so good. It has a dramatic ability to focus, and we aren't limited to looking at thin slices of material as with other methodswe can easily look inside a thick chunk of rock." Interferometry is a specialty in the world of neutron science. Before scientists can probe an object's interior with a neutron beam, they must first possess a few fundamental details about how the neutrons will bounce off the object's atomic structure. One of those details is a substance's index of refraction, a number indicating how much it will bend the beam from the direction it is traveling. (Water bends light in a related fashionthat's why your arm looks like it bends away when you dip it into a swimming pool.) Neutron interferometry is the best way to obtain that crucial measurement. Neutron interferometry also has potential for other uses in fundamental physics, such as accurately measuring the gravitational constant. It's sensitive enough to detect how an object's gravitational force can deflect neutrons, just as the Earth attracts a flying ball (and vice versa). But the neutron method's Achilles' heel has been how slowly it works. To focus neutrons on a sample of material, an interferometer has needed a crystal carved to precise dimensions out of a single large block of expensive, top-quality silicon. (Other neutron techniques can make do with crystals of far lower quality.) Unfortunately, crystals that are good enough for interferometry also block out most of the neutrons that strike them, meaning it takes a long time for a beam to send enough neutrons past a sample to get an accurate index of refraction. Other tasks would take far longer. "The neutron sources are already very weak," said Waterloo's Dmitry Pushin. "It would take a hundred years to get a good answer to fundamental questions such as the value of the gravitational constant." Moving these three gratings focuses neutron beams on a sample, allowing them to perceive interior details ranging in size from 1 nanometer to 10 micrometers. Credit: Huber & Hanacek, NIST The new approach sidesteps these problems by using a trio of thin silicon gratings to focus the neutrons instead of a single costly crystal. Under a microscope, the flat surface of each grating looks like a comb with narrow, closely spaced teeth. Not only do the gratings allow the entire neutron beam to pass through themrather than the trickle of neutrons that get through the crystalthey have the pivotal advantage of being movable. "You focus by moving the grating a fraction of a millimeter," Huber said. "It's slight but not difficult." Demonstrated at the NIST Center for Neutron Research, the team's approach builds on a discovery initially made at NIH, where scientists were experimenting with applying the gratings to X-ray beams and noticed a moire pattern forming on their visual imager. "The idea was first developed by our lab to capture the image of materials where X-rays travel at slightly different speeds than in the air, such as the human body itself," said Han Wen, senior investigator at NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. "Central to this idea is X-ray gratings, which were made with the highly specialized tools at the NIST Nanofab facility." Fortuitously, the NIST and Waterloo scientists met the NIH team members at a conference and struck up a collaboration, suspecting that the gratings would work just as well for neutrons as for X-rays. The NIH team brought the gratings back to NIST, where they were assembled into the neutron interferometer. After equally good results at the NCNR, Huber said only one thing stands in the way of their interferometer becoming a great tool for industry: They need a set of apertures of different widths the neutron beam will pass through before it hits the interferometer. Right now, they only have a single aperture at their disposal, and it limits their vision. "We can see the full range of 1 nanometers to 10 micrometers now, but the image is kind of blurry because we don't get enough data," he said. "Every different aperture gives us another data point, and with enough points we can start doing quantitative analysis of a material's microstructure. We're hoping that we can get a set of maybe a hundred made, which would enable us to get detailed quantitative information." The team has already scanned the interior of a block of granite that contains a mixture of four different minerals, and the scan shows the details of where each bit of mineral sits. Huber said the method would be good for non-invasive scans of porous objects like meteorites or manufactured materials, such as gels or foams, which are the basis of many consumer products. "We're also hoping we can finally do that gravitational constant measurement," he said. "We could put a big block of some heavy metal like tungsten nearby and see how it bends the beam. It would improve our understanding of the universe and wouldn't take longer than our lifetimes." Explore further NIST sensor improvement brings analysis method into mainstream More information: D. Sarenac et al, Three Phase-Grating Moire Neutron Interferometer for Large Interferometer Area Applications, Physical Review Letters (2018). Journal information: Physical Review Letters D. Sarenac et al, Three Phase-Grating Moire Neutron Interferometer for Large Interferometer Area Applications,(2018). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.113201 This story is republished courtesy of NIST. Read the original story here. A Soviet-designed "Novichok" chemical is the nerve agent responsible for poisoning a former spy and his daughter, British Prime Minister Theresa May said today. Sergei and Julia Skripal were found collapsed on a park bench on Sunday March 4 in the English town of Salisbury, a few hours after eating lunch and spending time at a restaurant and pub nearby. As reported by the BBC, May said the UK must stand ready to take "extensive measures" if Russia does not provide an adequate explanation for the use of this agent on British soil. What are the origins of Novichok? The Novichok group of molecules are nerve agents developed by the Soviets from the late 1970's but never produced on a large scale, at least to the best of public knowledge. They are referred to as third generation nerve agents to indicate their production as a follow-on to the G-series agents such as sarin (also referred to as "GB") developed in Germany prior to WWII, and the V-series agents (such as VX gas) first developed by the UK in the 1950's. The name "Novichok" translates colloquially from Russian as "newbies". Scientists who worked on the Novichok project disclosed details from 1992 onwards. They stated that the project goals included developing weapons that: could not be detected by the then standard NATO chemical weapons detection sensors have potential to circumvent the Chemical Weapons Convention would be easier to produce using methods and materials prevalent in pesticides industries were designed from the outset to be "binary" chemical weapons (where two relatively non-toxic materials are mixed together just before dispersal to minimise the danger to the personnel delivering the weapons). How would Novichok use be confirmed? Members of the public said that Julie Skripal appeared passed out on the park bench in Salisbury, and her father was making strange movements with his hand. The two remain in a critical condition in hospital. Nerve agents like Novichok are all organophosphate compounds, which act by blocking the normal processes that control nerve activity. Symptoms are given the mnemonic "SLUGEM": Salivationthe famous "foaming at the mouth" Lacrimationcrying", or tears pouring from the eyes Urination, Defecation Gastrointestinal distress Emesis (vomiting) - as the body loses control over muscles, particularly those of the sphincters Miosisone of the key diagnostics; the muscles that cause the pupil to constrict become fully activated and the pupils become pinpoints in the iris. The final "'M" is sometimes given as "muscle spasms". The type of spasms associated with organophosphate poisoning are somewhat diagnostic. Although some of these symptoms are common with other nervous system disruptions, doctors are taught to look for these symptoms together as a sign of exposure to organophosphates. Apart from the physical signs and symptoms, to confirm identity of the agent, police and doctors take blood or other fluid samples, or wipe the patient's skin with a gauze to pick up any residue of the agent. Those samples are reasonably stable and could be sent to an analytical chemistry laboratory for identification. The UK has an Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) designated laboratory run by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Chemical and Biological Systems. The lab is located at Porton Down, around 10 miles from the scene of the attack. In Australia, the equivalent OPCW designated laboratory is operated by the Defence Science and Technology Group. The Handbook of Recommended Operating Procedures for Analysis in the Verification of Chemical Disarmament (also known as "the Blue Book") does not have a specific method for detecting Novichok agents. However, it would be reasonable to assume that they would be detectable by the methods available to a well equipped defence science laboratory. How could Novichok have been administered? Nerve agents such as sarin are typically used in the form of a gas or vapour. But Novichok agents can be made in a solid form, most likely a powder. This would make them a relatively simple agent to be used on a battlefield (as may have been the original design motivation), or to add to food or to be left in a home as may be the case with the Skripals. Nerve agents are bioavailable from the gut - that is, they can absorb into the body after being eaten. That route of delivery isn't well studied, but is consistent with the slightly slower onset of symptoms in Sergei and Julia Skripal. In comparison, nerve agents administered via aerosol or spray are effective very quickly - Kim Jong-Nam died shortly after facial exposure to nerve agent VX in a Malaysian airport. Novichok agents are said to be particularly effective at penetrating the central nervous system (that is, the brain and spinal column) and causing more severe neurological symptoms than is typical for other nerve agents. As well as Sergei and Julia Skripal, a policeman has become seriously ill as a result of this incidentit's not clear whether this was through attending to the sick pair on the bench, or visiting Sergei Skripal's house. Furthermore, the UK government has issued a public health advisory notice for people who were in the pub and/or the restaurant at which the Skripals may have been poisoned. For people who may have been exposed to very small amounts of Novichok, the advised washing of clothing would act to dilute or deactivate the compounds. Will the ex-spy and his daughter survive? A reported case of accidental exposure of a Russian physicist to Novichok in 1987 described the following events: "He staggered out of the room, his vision seared by brilliant colors and hallucinations. He collapsed, and the KGB took him to a hospital. By the time he arrived his breathing was labored. In another hour, his heart would have stopped. His entire nervous system was gradually ceasing to function. The physicist was lucky. The hospital he was taken to, the Sklifosovsky Institute, includes the nation's top center for poison treatment. There, Dr. Yevgeny Vedernikov saved his life. But the scientist was at the edge of death, unaware of his surroundings, for 10 days. He couldn't walk for six months. He was dogged by depression and an inability to concentrate. He found it difficult even to read. To this day his arms are still weak, and he has never been able to return to work. Although he survived, the gas left him with permanent disabilities." This previous incident suggests that while the Skripals could theoretically recover, they may not be in a fit state to act as reliable witnesses to their own attempted murders. The question of who was responsible will remainalthough British Prime Minister May has come to the conclusion that "Either this was a direct action by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others." We're waiting for an official Russian response. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The spread of Pama-Nyungan was likely influenced by climate. Credit: Shutterstock.com The approximately 400 languages of Aboriginal Australia can be grouped into 27 different families. To put that diversity in context, Europe has just four language families, Indo-European, Basque, Finno-Ugric and Semitic, with Indo-European encompassing such languages as English, Spanish, Russian and Hindi. Australia's largest language family is Pama-Nyungan. Before 1788 it covered 90% of the country and comprised about 300 languages. The territories on which Canberra (Ngunnawal), Perth (Noongar), Sydney (Daruk, Iyora), Brisbane (Turubal) and Melbourne (Woiwurrung) are built were all once owned by speakers of Pama-Nyungan languages. All the languages from the Torres Strait to Bunbury, from the Pilbara to the Grampians, are descended from a single ancestor language that spread across the continent to all but the Kimberley and the Top End. Where this language came from, how old it is, and how it spread, has been something of a puzzle. Our research, published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, suggests the family arose just under 6,000 years ago around what is now the Queensland town of Burketown. Our findings suggest this language family spread across Australia as people moved in response to changing climate. Aboriginal Australia is often described as "the world's oldest living culture", and public discussion often falsely assumes that this means unchanging. Our research adds further evidence to Australia pre-1788 being a dynamic place, where people moved and adapted to a changing land. Map of Pama-Nyungan languages, coloured by their main groupings. Credit: Claire Bowern using data from National Science Foundation grant BCS-0844550. Tracing Pama-Nyungan We used data from changes in several hundred words in different languages from the Pama-Nyungan family to build up a tree of languages, using a computer model adapted from those used originally to trace virus outbreaks. Because our models make estimates of the time that it takes for words to change, as well as how words in Pama-Nyungan languages are related to one another, we can use those changes to estimate the age of the family. We found clear support for the origin of Pama-Nyungan just under 6,000 years ago in an area around what is now the Queensland town of Burketown. We found no support for the theories that Pama-Nyungan spread earlier. The timing of this expansion is consistent with a theory that increasingly unstable conditions caused groups of people to fragment and spread. But correlation is not causation: just because two patterns appear related, it does not mean that one caused the other. Different related words for fire in certain Pama-Nyungan languages. Green dots show languages with a word for fire related to *warlu; white has *puri; red has *wiyn; blue has *maka, and purple *karla. Chirila files (http://chirila.yale.edu) and google earth for base image. In this case, however, we have other evidence that access to ecological resources has shaped how people migrated. We found that, in our model, groups of people moved more slowly near the coast and major waterways, and faster across deserts. This implies that populations increase where food and water are plentiful, and then spread out and fissure when resources are harder to obtain. You can see a simulated expansion here. The spread of Pama-Nyungan languages mirrored this spread of people. What languages tell us Languages today tell us a lot about our past. Because languages change regularly, we can use information in them to work out who groups were talking to in the past, where they lived, who they are related to, and where they've moved. We can do this even in the absence of a written record and of archaeological materials. For places like Australia, the linguistic record, though incomplete, has more even coverage across the continent than the archaeological record does. At European settlement, there were about 300 Pama-Nyungan languages. Because there are at least some records of most of them we are able to work with these to uncover these complex patterns of change. Nathan B. performing Yolu Land using English and Yolu Matha. There are approximately 145 Aboriginal languages with speakers today, including languages from outside the Pama-Nyungan family. Many of these languages, such as Dieri, Ngalia and Mangala, are spoken by only a few people, many of whom are elderly. Other languages, however, are actively used in their communities and are learned as first languages by young children. These include the Yolu languages of Arnhem Land and Arrernte in Central Australia. Yet others (such as Kaurna around Adelaide) are undergoing a renaissance, gaining speakers within their communities. Finally, though not the focus of our study, there are also new languages, such as Kriol spoken across Northern Australia, Palawa Kani in Tasmania, and Gurindji Kriol. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders also know English, and most Indigenous Australians are multilingual. Without records of all these languages, and without ongoing work to support speakers and communities, we aren't able to do research like this, and Australia loses a vital link to its history. After all, European settlement of Australia is a tiny chunk of the time people have lived on this land. Explore further Tracking the spread of early hunter-gatherers through language More information: Remco R. Bouckaert et al. The origin and expansion of PamaNyungan languages across Australia, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2018). Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution Remco R. Bouckaert et al. The origin and expansion of PamaNyungan languages across Australia,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0489-3 This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Some of the Moroccan pterosaur fossils from the study. Top: the mandible (lower jaw) of Alcione elainus, a small pterosaur newly described in this paper. Bottom: part of the ulna (forearm bone) from a giant pterosaur, tentatively identified as Arambourgiania. Note the different scales - the mandible is less than 20 cm long, while the ulna is more than 40 cm long; Arambourgiania would have had a wingspan more than three times that of Alcione. Credit: pbio.2001663 Fossils of six new species of pterosaurs - giant flying reptiles that flew over the heads of the dinosaurs - have been discovered by a research team led by the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, revealing that this lineage was killed off in its prime. An analysis of the fossils, publishing 13 March in the open access journal PLOS Biology shows that, contrary to previous studies, there was still remarkable diversity among pterosaurs up to the point of their extinction. Pterosaurs - prehistoric reptiles popularly known as pterodactyls - were flying cousins of the dinosaurs. Soaring on skin wings supported by a single huge finger, they were the largest animals ever to take wing. The pterosaurs were previously thought to be declining before the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period, which was caused by an asteroid impact 66 million years ago. However, hundreds of new fossils from the end of the Cretaceous, discovered at sites in northern Morocco, show that the region supported seven species of pterosaur from three different families. It was thought that the rarity of pterosaur fossils from the end of the dinosaur era meant that they were slowly going extinct. But the new study shows that the data had been misleadingly skewed by the dearth of fossils and that the pterosaurs at this time were actually far more diverse than thought. The new pterosaurs ranged in wingspan from a little over two meters to almost ten meters (from 6 to 30 feet) - almost three times bigger than the largest living bird - and weighed up to 200 kg (440 pounds). The fossils date to just over 66 million years ago, the very end of the Cretaceous period, making these pterosaurs among the last of their kind on Earth. As well as the diversity in size, the authors were also able to show that the species differed significantly in the shape and size of parts of their bodies (such as beak shape, neck length, and wing proportions), suggesting that they occupied distinct ecological niches. Dr Nick Longrich, from the Milner Centre for Evolution and the Department of Biology & Biochemistry at the University of Bath, and the study's lead author, said: "To grow so large and still be able to fly, pterosaurs evolved incredibly lightweight skeletons, with the bones reduced to thin-walled, hollow tubes like the frame of a carbon-fiber racing bike. "But unfortunately, that means these bones are fragile, and so almost none survive as fossils." Longrich said he had always found pterosaurs fascinating, and as a university student had dreamed of studying them. Years later in Morocco, he would stumble across a single, small bone mixed in with fossil fish dug up from a phosphate mine. "It was like a light went off," he said. "I remembered back to the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs, a book I'd practically memorized as an undergraduate. And I thought 'that's a nyctosaur.'" Nyctosaurs, a family of small pterosaurs, hadn't been proven to survive to the end of the Cretaceous. On a hunch, he looked for more pterosaurs, and found more species - including Tethydraco, a member of the pteranodontids, a family that had been thought to disappear fifteen million years earlier. In addition to the single species previously found in the area, six additional species turned up. "I believe there are many more species to find," he said. Co-author of the study, Professor David Martill from the University of Portsmouth said: "Exciting discoveries are being made all the time, and sometimes, just the smallest of bones can radically change our perception of the history of life on Earth." Dr Brian Andres, Research Associate at The University of Texas at Austin, also a co-author of the study, added: "The Moroccan fossils tell the last chapter of the pterosaurs' story - and they tell us pterosaurs dominated the skies over the land and sea, as they had for the previous 150 million years." Moroccan paleontologist Professor Nour-Eddine Jalil from the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, France commented: "This is a fabulous discovery of pterosaurs from Morocco - they tell us their amazing diversity while we thought them in decline. "The Moroccan phosphates are an open window on a key moment in the history of the Earth, one that shortly preceded the global crisis that swept away, among others, dinosaurs and marine reptiles." Explore further New research proves that birds and flying reptiles were friends, not foes More information: Longrich NR, Martill DM, Andres B (2018) Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. PLoS Biol 16(3): e2001663. Journal information: PLoS Biology Longrich NR, Martill DM, Andres B (2018) Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.16(3): e2001663. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2001663 This Sunday, March 11, 2018 photo distributed by Argentina's Navy shows stranded American scientists on Joinville Island in Antarctica, south of the Argentine mainland. An Argentine icebreaker has rescued the five American scientists who were stranded in the island off the northeast tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. (Argentina Navy via AP) A group of American scientists who were stranded in an ice-bound island off the northeastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula were rescued Sunday by an Argentine icebreaker, U.S. and Argentine authorities said Monday. The four scientists and a support staff member, who were conducting research at Joinville Island, were airlifted by helicopter to the Almirante Irizar icebreaker. Argentina's Foreign Ministry said that the U.S. icebreaker Laurence M. Gould was unable to carry out the evacuation because the ice barrier was too dense on the Weddell Sea in front of the island that is south of the Argentine mainland. The U.S. Antarctic Program then requested assistance from Argentina. Argentina's armed forces said that the five are in good health and will be transferred to the U.S. vessel when weather conditions improve. The U.S. National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs said the scientists are led by Alexander R. Simms, an associate professor of earth sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The support staff member is an employee of the NSF's Colorado-based Antarctic support contractor. "The U.S. Antarctic Program expresses its gratitude to their Argentine colleagues for their willingness to help," it said. This Sunday, March 11, 2018 photo distributed by Argentina's Navy shows an Argentina helicopter landing to rescue stranded American scientists on Joinville Island in Antarctica, south of the Argentine mainland. An Argentine icebreaker has rescued the five American scientists who were stranded in the island off the northeast tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. (Argentina Navy via AP) Explore further Crew Member on Antarctic Research Vessel Missing 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Undated photo provided by the State collection for Anthropology and Palaeoanatomy Munich shows strong, intermediate and non-deformed skulls, from left, from the Early Medieval sites Altenerding and Straubing in Bavaria, Germany. Scientists investigating unusual skulls found at dozens of 5th and 6th century burial sites say they appear to provide evidence of long-distance female migration at a time when the continent was being reshaped by the collapse of the Roman empire. (State collection for Anthropology and Palaeoanatomy Munich via AP) The newcomers who arrived in the little farming villages of medieval Germany would have stood out: They had dark hair and tawny skin, spoke a different language and had remarkably tall heads. Now scientists who investigated the unusually shaped skulls say they provide evidence that women also migrated long distances across medieval Europe, not just men. A genetic analysis showed the women traveled from what is now Romania, Bulgaria and northern Greece at a time when the continent was being reshaped by the collapse of the Roman Empire. In a study published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers say the women's elongated headsa result of binding done after birthsuggest they might have been high-class individuals. "These women looked extremely different to the local women, very exotic if you will," said one of the researchers, Joachim Burger, a population geneticist at the University of Mainz, Germany. With colleagues from Europe and the United States, Burger compared the genetic profile of almost 40 human remains unearthed from 5th and 6th century burial sites in Bavaria, along the Isar and Danube rivers. They expected to find the telltale signs of centuries of Roman presence in the areasoldiers from the Mediterranean leaving their genetic mark on the location population. Instead, it looked "very central or northern Europeanblond and fair-skinned, like modern-day Scandinavians," Burger said. Photo provided by the State collection for Anthropology and Palaeoanatomy Munich shows an artificially deformed female skull from Altenerding, an Earyl Medieavel site in Bavaria., Germany. Scientists investigating unusual skulls found at dozens of 5th and 6th century burial sites say they appear to provide evidence of long-distance female migration at a time when the continent was being reshaped by the collapse of the Roman empire. (State collection for Anthropology and Palaeoanatomy Munich via AP) The exception was a group with deformed skulls. Known from various cultures across the world, artificially elongated skulls may have been considered a form of beauty or denoted high status because of the time and effort required to bandage a child's head, said Burger. While the practice is often associated with the Huns who swept into Europe from the East during the 5th century, the genetic makeup of the women found in Bavaria showed little Asian ancestry, suggesting that either head binding had been adopted by people living in southeastern Europe or emerged there independently. "This is a sound study with quite interesting results," said Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He had no role in the research. "Usually large-distance movements involve more malesexplorers, soldiers, political elite, etc.and short range movements are more common for females (spouses moving to their husband's family)," Hublin said via email. While it's unclear why the womenapparently without mentraveled such a long distance, the study's authors speculate that they may have represented strategic alliances between distant populations across Europe. "They must have come on purpose," said Burger. "It's not a single case, there are quite a few of them." Despite their foreign origins, the women integrated into Bavarian society, according to the researchers. They wore the same clothes as the locals and were buried with the same artifacts. Burger said further research is needed to see whether the women intermarried with the local population. Explore further Farming was spread into and across Europe by people originating in modern-day Greece and Western Turkey More information: Krishna R. Veeramah el al., "Population genomic analysis of elongated skulls reveals extensive female-biased immigration in Early Medieval Bavaria," PNAS (2018). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Krishna R. Veeramah el al., "Population genomic analysis of elongated skulls reveals extensive female-biased immigration in Early Medieval Bavaria,"(2018). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1719880115 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Sprint may be weighing merger moves again, according to an unconfirmed report of interest in cable company Charter Communications. A report in the British paper The Times said Sprint's parent company, Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp., had bought nearly 5 percent of Charter. Charter owns Time Warner Cable, now rebranded as Spectrum. Buying 5 percent of Charter would trigger a disclosure through the Securities and Exchange Commission, but no report is required for an accumulated stake of less than that. "The covert stake-building by the Japanese conglomerate raises the possibility of a media mega-deal," the Times report said, noting that SoftBank had talked with Charter last year about merging. Charter had publicly rebuffed that overture. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure then said Sprint was never offered for sale. Sprint then engaged in semi-public merger talks with rival T-Mobile but ended those efforts last fall. "We aren't surprised at Sprint's interest (in Charter), particularly in the wake of walking away from" T-Mobile, analyst Jonathan Chaplin wrote in a note to clients at New Street Research. Since the T-Mobile deal fell apart, Sprint management has emphasized that the company would increase spending to improve its wireless network. As part of its network efforts, Sprint has announced separate network sharing deals with cable operators Altice USA and Cox Communications. These allow Sprint to piggyback on the cable operators' networks as it improves its own. A merger with Charter, or some similar network arrangement, would further Sprint's network plans as well. Charter, however, already has a wireless agreement with Verizon that allows the cable company to offer its customers wireless services using Verizon's network. Chaplin wrote that "Charter is likely to stick with the Verizon MVNO (network agreement) at least until Sprint rebuilds their network and demonstrates the value of network sharing with Altice. ... As such, if the report is true, it is far more likely that it is a precursor to another acquisition attempt." Separately, Sprint announced it is borrowing again against its wireless airwaves licenses that allow it to use specific spectrum on its network. The $3.94 billion borrowing comes on top of its original $3.5 billion borrowing against the spectrum assets. The company had been talking about the added borrowing as it plans to boost investment in its network to more than $5 billion in the coming year. Sprint also said Friday it is eliminating 500 jobs from its Overland Park headquarters campus as part of an ongoing cost cutting program to make its operations more efficient. Explore further Cable company Charter says no interest in buying Sprint 2018 The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. News Microsoft Readies NAV-Based Dynamics 365 Offering for CSPs A new partner-delivered Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution based on the on-premises Dynamics NAV product will become generally available on April 2. Alysa Taylor, Microsoft's general manager of Business Apps & Strategy, announced the upcoming release date of the new Dynamics 365 Business Central offering in a blog post Tuesday, though the product has been in the works since at least 2017, when it was code-named "Tenerife." Dynamics 365 Business Central is a module-based ERP solution based on the existing Dynamics NAV product, but in the cloud. "Business Central offers businesses a single, end to end solution for managing finances, operations, sales and customer service, and an opportunity to easily upgrade from entry-level accounting software and legacy ERP systems," Taylor said. Like Dynamics NAV, whose last major update was in December with the release of Dynamics NAV 2018, Dynamics 365 Business Central has built-in integration with Microsoft's Office 365 suite, including Power BI for visual reporting and Flow for workflow automation. Dynamics 365 Business Central "also brings the full power and product maturity of Dynamics NAV to the cloud," according to Taylor. "As such, Business Central has at its foundation a set of trusted, proven technologies that have served 160,000 customers and millions of users worldwide." Microsoft is making Dynamics 365 Business Central available for sale through its Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners. The product Web site shows two pricing options: an "Essentials" version for $70 per user per month, and a "Premium" version for $100 per user per month. Starting on April 2, customers in 14 markets -- the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden and Finland -- will be able to purchase Dynamics 365 Business Central from CSP partners. Availability for customers in New Zealand and Australia will arrive on July 1. Besides the launch of Dynamics 365 Business Central, Microsoft is planning at least one other major update to its Dynamics 365 business this year. In spring, the company is expected to revamp the Dynamics 365 model in a bid to streamline its various offerings. Taylor indicated that this revamp will entail "new modern, modular" apps, as well as enhancements around artificial intelligence and analytics. Ormat Technologies, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV. Read More Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday ordered government negotiators to resume talks with the South American country's last active rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). "I have instructed the head of the negotiating team, Gustavo Bell, to travel to Quito and reactivate the dialogue," the president said. The ELN welcomed the decision in a statement. Santos' announcement came in response to a unilateral ceasefire by the ELN for Sunday's legislative elections, seen as a test of the group's willingness to get back to the negotiating table. He said the parties would discuss a new ceasefire agreement that is "broad and verifiable" that would prevent a resurgence of violence of the kind that forced the suspension of talks. Santos had suspended the year-long negotiations in the Ecuadoran capital in late January following a series of attacks on police stations that left six people dead and dozens more wounded. Those attacks occurred after a bilateral ceasefire had expired on January 9, during a break in the talks. "We welcome President Santos' call to restart the talks, with the conviction that it is better to have a dialogue in the middle of a bilateral ceasefire," the rebel movement said in a statement. During the suspension of the talks, government forces had resumed operations against the ELN, killing 10 rebels last Tuesday in the group's biggest recent battlefield loss. The ELN has about 1,500 fighters. Colombia's biggest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), made peace with the government in 2016 and has since transformed into a political party that participated in Sunday's elections. Crowds gathered in Frankfort, Kentucky, on March 11 to watch the implosion of the landmark Capital Plaza Tower. The 28-story, 338-foot building was the 12th tallest in the state. State financial administrators said the 48-year-old building had become functionally obsolete. The cabinet said they concluded demolition was the best option after a review of costly maintenance issues and potential safety issues. The honor of pushing the plunger to detonate the building was auctioned, raising $15,000 for a charity helping foster children. This drone footage shows the demolition, as crowds look on outside a 700-foot exclusion zone. Credit: Whitney Westerfield via Storyful The trio will play at The Bee, Publika this 28 April as part of the annual French festival Catch French rock band Lysistrata this 28 April! 13 Mar French post-rock trio Lysistrata will be performing as part of the largest annual French event in Malaysia, Le French Festival 2018 at The Bee, Publika this 28 April. The post-rock meets math-rock band announced their upcoming show in Malaysia as their first ever live performance in Asia. Made up of Theo (guitar, vocals), Max (bass, vocals) and Ben (drums, vocals), the trio have quite the following stemming from their tour across Europe, especially with their fast and energetic songs that compliment their musical techniques. Formed in 2013, the band states that their sound is inspired by the screaming energy of youth, thanks to their average age of 20. One of their latest releases is a 7-song album called "The Thread" which was released in October 2017. Ticket prices are yet to be announced, but they will be available online from 21 March onwards via Peatix. (Photo Source: Vicious Circle) By Aleksandar Vasovic BELGRADE (Reuters) - Water cannons sprayed an Iranair Airbus 320 in welcome on its arrival in Belgrade on Tuesday, marking the first flight from Tehran in 27 years in a sign of improved ties between Iran and Serbia. The two countries had close ties until the early 1990s when former Yugoslavia, of which Serbia was a part, collapsed in a bloody war. Serbia backed its ethnic kin in Bosnia against Muslim Bosniaks and fought a counter-insurgency war in its own southern province of Kosovo against mainly Muslim Albanians. Now, as Belgrade seeks to boost tourism and improve growth, it is reaching out to non-European markets to attract visitors from countries such as Iran, which Belgrade also sees as a target for agricultural exports, and Turkey. Serbia introduced a visa free travel regime with Iran last August, after which the number of migrants from Iran rose from 120 in August to 480 in February, according to figures provided by Serbia's Commissariat for Refugees. Aid workers cautioned that flights from Tehran could be used by a large number of migrants seeking to leave Iran and move to Western Europe. "Of course all positive things carry out their own risks," Serbia's minister for trade, tourism and telecommunication, Rasim Ljajic, told reporters. "Iranians used Belgrade as a transit (point) for their journey to the European Union." He said the two countries had agreed to step up measures to prevent illegal migration. "On the Iranian side, control at the plane boarding will be increased," Ljajic said. "We also agreed to establish a joint committee in order to be able to resolve problems more swiftly." Latif Shahi Methadi, an Iranian, took advantage of the visa free regime and arrived in Belgrade six months ago on a flight from Istanbul. He is now accommodated in a refugee camp in southern Serbia. "Every one of us has our own problem and we want to go to a place where we will be respected as human beings," he told Reuters. He does not want to stay in Serbia and wants to continue his journey to Western Europe. Story continues More than 650,000 people, many of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere, passed through non-EU Serbia in 2015 on their way to the European Union. The route was largely shut down in March 2016, but migrants from the Middle East and Africa keep coming illegally and currently there are more than 3,500 of them in refugee camps in Serbia, waiting to move to another country. (Additional reporting by Fedja Grulovic, Writing by Ivana Sekularac, Editing by William Maclean) By Raya Jalabi and Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a decree on Tuesday he would lift a ban on international air traffic to the Kurdistan Region and flights could resume within one week. International flights to and from the semi-autonomous region's two main airports in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah were halted on Sept. 29 as part of sanctions imposed on the Kurds after they held an independence referendum four days earlier in defiance of Baghdad and voted overwhelmingly in favour of separation. Kurdish authorities have agreed that the airports should come under federal control and report to Baghdad's interior ministry, the decree said. "The opening of Kurdish airports to international flights is an important step," Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani told a news conference according to Kurdish Rudaw TV. "We hope more significant steps will be taken." Only domestic flights have been allowed through the region's airports, with foreign airlines suspending their routes in accordance with an order from the central government. This hit the Kurdistan Region's economy, with a decrease in tourism and travel affecting local businesses. Abadi's decree announced the creation of a new Directorate for Special Protection for Kurdistan's airports "under the command and control of the Federal Ministry of the Interior". Federal customs authorities will supervise the "introduction, production and handling of materials and equipment through the two airports", the decree said. It also specified that a biometric system used in Kurdistan's airports will be linked with the federal system. It was not immediately clear whether the region would maintain its independent visa system. The deputy spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said talks were ongoing on the issue. BUDGET DISPUTE The decree comes amid a dispute over the 2018 budget, which the Kurds have vehemently opposed since it was passed by parliament earlier this month. Story continues Soon after the decree was issued, a legal advisor to Iraq's President Fuad Masum, said Masum was refusing to approve the budget. "After checking the budget we found constitutional, legal and financial violations that need to be addressed by parliament, which should make amendments and return the budget to the president for approval," Amir al-Kenany told Reuters. The long-delayed budget of 104 trillion Iraqi dinars ($88 billion) was passed by parliament on March 3, but Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the vote in protest over their region's diminished allocation. The budget cut the Kurds' share from the 17 percent the region has traditionally received since the fall of Saddam Hussein. It did not specify the exact percentage to be allocated to the KRG instead stipulating it would receive funds proportional to its share of the population. In a previous draft the KRG portion was set at 12.67 percent, which is how much of Iraq's population Baghdad says the provinces in Kurdistan make up. The KRG disputes that estimate. Masum is a Kurd and holds a largely ceremonial role as most power lies with the prime minister who belongs to the Shi'ite Muslim majority. However, he has the authority guaranteed by Iraq's constitution to ratify all laws passed by parliament and can return draft laws to parliament. "We are sending it (the budget) back to the parliament to amend the legal and constitutional violations we pointed out," Kenany said. (Reporting by Raya Jalabi and Ahmed Rasheed.; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) FILE PHOTO: Council-mandated Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan Yasmin Sooka addresses the Human Rights Council 26th Special Session on the human rights situation in South Sudan, Geneva, Switzerland, December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. investigators of war atrocities in South Sudan urged the African Union (AU) on Tuesday to make a final push to secure justice for millions of victims. Oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but slid into civil war in December 2013, with President Salva Kiir's army battling rebels under his ex-deputy Riek Machar. Under a 2015 peace deal that fell apart in 2016, the AU and South Sudan were supposed to set up a "hybrid court" consisting of South Sudanese and other African judges, to try people accused of atrocities. But the court has yet to be created. "The hybrid court of South Sudan is but a signature away. The African Union needs to act with great urgency," Yasmin Sooka, chair of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, told the 47 member states of the rights council in Geneva. The court was an African solution to an African problem, Sooka said, but the AU had told her that they were waiting for South Sudan to designate a government official to sign a memorandum of understanding on the court. "Once that has happened, then the path is free to set up the court immediately. Once that has been done, a prosecutor can be appointed, judges can be designated, and the rules of procedure can begin to be formalised," she said. Sooka's team has identified more than 40 South Sudanese military officers who may be responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. South Sudanese Justice Minister Paulino Wanawilla Unango told the Council that Sooka's report was generalised and flawed. "There is actually improvement in the security and human rights situation," he said, without mentioning the memorandum. He said there had been 203 cases against members of the army for serious crimes including murder and rape, and some had been jailed. "It is not true that there is impunity and (that) there is not any kind of accountability." Story continues Sooka warned in late 2016 of a "Rwanda-like" genocide and said rape was taking place "on an epic scale" in South Sudan. Although talk of genocide has subsided, Sooka said barbarities were continuing and she provided some graphic testimony. "A mother had her eyes gouged out with spears as she tried in vain to prevent her 17-year old daughter from being raped by 14 soldiers," she told the Council. "After being blinded, she herself was raped by 17 soldiers. Her husband was later found by his son, beheaded and castrated, with his penis stuffed in his mouth," Sooka said. (Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Mark Heinrich) Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) began his federal court defense of a state law requiring people prove citizenship when they register to vote, but his first witnesses failed to make a compelling case. Kobach, who claims nothing short of requiring proof of citizenship can prevent noncitizens from voting, presented two experts whose conclusions were challenged, and a voter who explained how she managed to overcome the voter registration requirement without documents. The ACLU is suing Kobach over the 2013 law, saying its unnecessary and has blocked at least 35,000 people from voting. The ACLU finished its case on Monday, giving Kobach the opportunity to defend the law, which a federal judge blocked in 2016 pending the outcome of the trial. Kobach, who is representing himself in the case, claims as many as 18,000 noncitizens are on Kansas voting rolls, and proof of citizenship can prevent that from happening. Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, testified he saw no statistically significant difference in voter registration from 2010, before the law, to 2014, after it took effect on Jan. 1, 2013, according to The Wichita Eagle. An ACLU witness pointed out last week that Camarotas analysis assumed the only thing that changed from 2010 to 2014 was the proof of citizenship law, and failed to account for such variables as the competitiveness of Kansas elections in that time, according to KCUR. Camarota said he didnt need to control for other factors in his analysis, Talking Points Memo reported. Jesse Richman, a political science professor at Old Dominion University began testifying at the end of the day Monday, but his testimony was quickly derailed when the ACLU objected he was presenting data not included in his report, according to Talking Points Memo. Richmans testimony prompted a scolding from U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson, KCUR reported. The professor continued speaking over the judge, arguing his new numbers should be included. But Robinson, who has rarely lost her patience during the trial, snapped at him, according to ProPublica. The judge earlier in the trial reprimanded Kobach and his legal team for failing to follow evidence procedures. Story continues This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Richmans testimony continues on Tuesday. A perplexing moment on Monday came when Kobach called Jo French, a retiree in her mid 70s, to the witness stand. French is one of six people since 2013 who lack a birth certificate or other citizenship documents, but have been approved by the state election board to register to vote. Kobach hoped to show how easy it was for people to be approved to vote even without documents. But French testified there was a burdensome process, even before she could get a hearing with the state election board, according to Talking Points Memo. She said she was blocked from registering to vote when she went to get a Kansas drivers license in 2016. She was born in Arkansas, and paid $8 in an unsuccessful effort to get her birth certificate, which she knew the state wouldnt have because she was born at home and tried to get it before. She eventually got a copy of her family Bible, baptismal records and high school records. After hunting down the records, French said she got someone to drive her 40 minutes to a hearing in Topeka with the election board. Though she said she supports the proof of citizenship law, she said she was insulted that no one believed she was a citizen. She also said she had become friends with Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rucker, and agreed to appear in court to make Kobach look good. Kobach and his lawyers have repeatedly claimed during the trial that its easy for anyone to make their case to his office and the state election board that they could be registered. Donna Bucci testified last week for the ACLU as another example. She was blocked from registering because she doesnt have a birth certificate, but was told to call the Secretary of States office during her lunch break to schedule a hearing. Bucci said she works from 3 a.m. until noon as a prison cook and cant even use a cell phone inside. Kansas Gov. Jeff Coyler (R), who is running against Kobach in the GOP primary for governor, and Attorney General Derek Schmidt, both declined to say Monday whether they still had confidence in Kobachs ability to defend the law. The secretary of state requested to represent himself in this and related cases. For any comment, I refer you to the secretary of states office, Jennifer Montgomery, a Schmidt spokeswoman, said in an email. Related Coverage Kris Kobach Claims Its Not That Hard For Would-Be Voters To Prove Citizenship Kris Kobach Just Got Torched By A Federal Judge In Kansas Vote Trial Kris Kobach Begins To Show Why He Thinks There's Widespread Voter Fraud In Kansas Top ACLU Voting Rights Lawyer Rips Into Trump Expert's Evidence Of Kansas Voter Fraud Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. A lightning strike killed 16 people and injured hundreds more in a church in Rwanda, Africa, an official said Sunday. Most of the victims were killed instantly when lightning struck the Seventh-Day Adventist church in the southern district of Nyaruguru, local mayor Habitegeko Francois told the AFP news agency. GettyImages-915711284 Getty Images Trending: Photo of Former Vice President Joe Biden Speaking With Homeless Man Goes Viral Francois said that two people subsequently died of their injuries and 140 people were taken to hospitals and health centers to be treated. The lightning struck the church in a mountainous region near the border with Burundi at around midday on Saturday, said the official. "Doctors say that only three [more churchgoers] are in critical condition but they are getting better," Mr Francois told AFP. Don't miss: Trump's Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Doesn't Know How Badly Schools Are Performing in Her Home State The Seventh-Day Adventists are a Protestant denomination, which observes Saturday as the Sabbath. It emerged in the U.S. in the mid-nineteenth century, and has millions of adherents in countries across the world. Francois said that one person was killed in a separate incident Friday. Lightning struck a group of 18 students in the same area, with three still hospitalized and the others allowed to return home. The church incident comes after Rwandan regulators closed 700 churches for failing to comply with building regulations. The BBC reported that some of the shuttered churched did not have lightning conductorsdevices intended to protect buildings from lightning strikes. Last week, Rwandan police arrested six pastors for defying church closures. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek Hundreds of people marched in Macedonia on Monday, alongside the Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and other dignitaries, to mark the 75th anniversary of a massive deportation of Jews in World War II. More than 7,000 Jews from the cities of Skopje, Bitola and Stip -- representing almost the whole of the country's Jewish community at the time -- were gathered in tobacco factory warehouses in March 1943 and transported to the Nazi's Treblinka death camp in German-occupied Poland. They all died there. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was among the marchers in the capital Skopje, as well as Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz and Bosnian Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic. During World War II, Macedonia was part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which was invaded and occupied by Germany and its allies. The Bulgarian army later occupied nearly all of what is now modern-day Macedonia. "This space was used to commit a big crime against our citizens," Zaev told the crowd. "We gathered here today to remember those who died in the vortex of a crazy time... their ony crime was their existence, their culture, their tradition, their community." Borisov also addressed the marchers: "We have the task to remember the tragedy of the Holocaust victims and make sure that these events do not happen again." Similar marches were held at the weekend in Bitola, in the southwest, and the central town of Stip, to commemorate those who died in the death camps. The Macedonian parliament is due to hold a commemorative session later on Monday. Macedonia, which has a population of some two million, is now home to only around 200 Jews. Former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, accused by President Duterte as one of the protectors of illegal drug trade in the country. MANILA, Philippines Kung gusto niyang linisin ang pangalan niya, umuwi siya dito at harapin ang mga bintang laban sa kaniya pero habang siya ay nagtatago, continuing evidence of guilt. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the statement in a press conference in the town of Alimodian in Iloilo last Saturday in a call to former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog to return to the country and face his involvement in the illegal drug trade. (Flight is evidence of guilt. If he wants to clean his name, return and face the allegations against him. But while he is in hiding, [it is] continuing evidence of guilt.) The case being faced by Mabilog was opened after President Rodrigo Duterte mentioned it during his speech in Tarlac last week. Hindi na siya umuwi kasi papatayin ko talaga siya, said President Duterte. (He did not return because I will really kill him.) According to the presidential spokesperson, if Mabilog is scared for his safety he can ask for a protection from the court. He also added that President Duterte has no personal anger against the former mayor. Well, he could avail of the existing instruments and remedies already found in the statute book. If he really thinks theres a threat on his life, file a writ of amparo and ask for protection from our courts, said the official. In August 2017 , Mabilog went to Japan for an official visit and has not returned since after the President mentioned that he is one of the protectors of the illegal drug trade in the country. He was dismissed from service by the Office of the Ombudsman in October 2017 because of unexplained wealth. Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte has once again warned mayors who are involved in illegal drug operations. Do not feel so invulnerable na pati iyong mga pulis ninyo pinapatay ninyo (that you would even have your own police killed) and you are using the office of the mayor as your platform for drug distribution. Talagang hihiritan kita (I will really go after you). Hihiritan kita (I will go after you) because you are destroying the nation, said the President. UNTV News & Rescue The post Malacanang urges Mabilog to face drug raps appeared first on UNTV News. Echelon TOP100 2018 features Philippine-based companies from Edtech to FinTech and HR Tech to Real Estate After Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, Echelon TOP100 is coming to the Philippines! Head on to QBO Philippines on March 15, Thu for Echelon TOP100 Philippine Qualifiers, where you can meet fellow entrepreneurs, find out whats happening in the startup communities in the region, and watch shortlisted startups pitch in front of a panel of judges. From over 100 startups applying to showcase their startups in the Philippines, 14 have been chosen to battle it out to be crowned the Judges Choice and Fan Favourite get fast tracked to the Finals at Echelon Asia Summit in Singapore this June amongst the shortlisted 100 and ultimately vie for prizes from WeWork, STSP, Web in Travel, and SPRING Singapore! And whether youre there to pitch, cheer, or watch, get the chance to meet other startups as well as our panel of judges from: Muru-D , a startup accelerator programme in Australia and Asia that help founders scale smarter and faster, offering tech entrepreneurs masterclasses, connections to a global network of mentors, investors, and alumni and seed funding, boasting a total of 44 startups successfully graduating the programme; Gobi VC , a venture capital firm that focusses on early stage IT, TMT, and digital media companies in China and Southeast Asia with its Meranti ASEAN Growth Fund aiming to raise US$200 million to invest in 15 or more companies; and QBO Innovation Hub, the Philippines first public-private initiative for startups of any size and stage collaborate, develop talent, and grow. In alphabetical order, these are the startups pitching at the qualifier: Aral Turo Edukasyon.ph Energo Labs Enguest HeartSmart JazzyPay Larin NearGroup Penbrothers PhilSmile Properna pushkart.ph STORM Learning STORM Technologies Got you curious? Join the community at a Qualifier Roadshow near you! TOP100, presented by WeWork, is a programme powered by e27 that empowers insights, connections, talent and funding opportunities for early-stage tech startups in Asia. In order to shine a spotlight on the chosen 100, we travel through 23 APAC cities in 2 months, span 7 market categories, and partner with community leaders and ecosystem expertise to curate the ones to keep an eye out for. Learn more or apply now at e27.co/echelon/top100 TOP100 Qualifier Roadshows begin across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar from March 6th, 2018, before taking on the rest of APAC. The TOP100 2018 Official Startup Application Round for joining the Qualifier Roadshow has ended, but we are still accepting applications for Discretionary Admission. The post Meet the 14 startups pitching at the TOP100 Philippine Qualifier appeared first on e27. One of the six Scaneagle drones delivered by US Ambassador Sung Kim to the Philippine government lead by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. MANILA, Philippines The Philippine Air Force acquired ScanEagle unmanned aerial system from the United States of America. On Tuesday, March 13, the six new drones were formally turned over to the Philippines by US ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the Scaneagle drones will be used in the troops internal security operations, counter-terrorism and maritime patrol. This acquisition of ScanEagle is one way to modernize the military to deter those who want to wage war against our country, said Lorenzana to Reuters. Lorenzana added that the drones will also be utilized to improve the governments response before and after typhoons and other natural disasters particularly in estimating the areas damaged by calamities or even the locations of victims and survivors. They can also help authorities curb illegal logging and illegal fishing activities through aerial surveys. The units, which come as part of one system, are equipped with two cameras and can stay in the air for a maximum of 24 hours. The two officials also believe that the drones represent the strength of the Philippine-US partnership in terms of defense capability enhancement. We profoundly desire to maintain our strong connection and camaraderie with the United States as well as to expand common interest and handle differences with understanding and respect, said Lorenzana. Assets like ScanEagle will significantly improve AFPs (Armed Forces of the Philippines) ability to detect terrorist activities, piracy activities and territory encroachments, said the US ambassador. The six drones were financed through a $13.7 million grant from the USs foreign military assistance program. Rey Pelayo | UNTV News & Rescue The post PH Air Force acquires unmanned aerial system from US appeared first on UNTV News. (L-R) ACT Teachers party-list Representative Antonio Tinio and PNP Chief Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa MANILA, Philippines The Makabayan bloc of the lower house of Congress believes the number of human rights violations in the country may rise due to the subpoena powers given to the Philippine National Police. Our primary concern is that it will result into the abuse of human rights and civil liberties of the people, ACTS Teachers Party List Representative Antonio Tinio said. A group of lawyers, the National Union of Peoples Lawyer (NUPL), shares the same view on the matter. It will open the opportunity to unlawful and illegal search, arrest and seizure of properties, said NUPL president, Atty. Edre Olalia. Tinio also raised alarm that the government might also soon give similar powers to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The Makabayan bloc said it is open to question the new law, but noted it will study first its possible violations of the Constitution. On the other hand, PNP Chief Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa vowed that the police will not abuse the use of such powers. He added that the subpoena powers will greatly help the PNP in investigating cases as it will speed up the release of required documents or persons. PNPs Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) legal division chief PSupt. Joseph Orsos, initially revealed that anyone who ignores the subpoena of the PNP can be detained. It can be considered as contempt of higher court, meaning RTC (Regional Trial Court). Its not only a contemptuous act against the MTC (Municipal/Metropolitan Trial Court), meaning you can be incarcerated for up to 30 days, said Orsos. Lea Ylagan | UNTV News & Rescue The post PNPs subpoena power may pose threat Makabayan bloc appeared first on UNTV News. Protesters marched and held rallies Monday ahead of President Donald Trump's first official visit to California. Nearly 200 people marched in downtown San Diego, which is on the border with Mexico, to denounce Trump and in particular his crackdown on immigration both legal and illegal. California is the country's most populous state and a Democratic stronghold. Trump will arrive in San Diego at 11:30 am (1930 GMT) and then go to nearby Otay Mesa to view eight prototypes for the wall he wants to build on the border with Mexico. Ariel Norcross, demonstrating Monday outside the Federal Building, carried a placard that read "No hate in the Golden State." "I don't want him, his hateful rhetoric, his hateful administration, any of his policies in my state, in my country," said Norcross. "It's already been a waste of money to build eight prototypes that are not doing anything," he added. "People will find their way here," he said as he walked in a procession featuring placards denouncing the wall plan and children in Mexican ponchos riding on their parents' shoulders. "I don't know why he took so long to get here but I think he is realizing that this is the strongest point of resistance, here at the border and in the state of California," protester Ali Torabei said. After viewing the wall prototypes, Trump is scheduled to give a speech at a military base in Miramar and then head to Los Angeles for a Republican fund-raising dinner. The speaker of California's senate, Democrat Kevin de Leon, led an anti-Trump rally Monday in Beverly Hills, where the dinner will be held. The largest rally scheduled for Tuesday will be at a church in San Ysidro, from which you can see the border. Hundreds of people are expected to take part. Demonstrators plan to erect a large sign calling on Trump to "build bridges, not walls." But a pro-Trump rally in favor of the wall project is also scheduled. Trump is coming at a time of tense relations between California and the federal government, which has sued the state over its policy of not cooperating with US immigration authorities seeking to detain undocumented immigrants. President Donald Trump ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, marking Tillersons long-anticipated departure as Americas top diplomat. CIA Director Mike Pompeo will replace him. Tillerson, 65, allegedly threatened to quit more than once, but had stayed in the job since Trump nominated him in December 2016. He reportedly found out he was fired the same way everyone else did via one of Trumps tweets on Tuesday about Pompeo taking over the role. Heres a look back at Tillersons troubled time and legacy at the State Department: Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spent less than a year on the job. (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters) Tillerson Didnt Want This Job Tillersons short-lived political career was tarnished by controversy before it began. Trump nominated him after a drawn-out public selection that featured foreign policy hawks like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, as well as former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. During the confirmation process, Tillersons ties to Russia sparked bipartisan concern. Tillersons former company, energy giant Exxon Mobil, conducted contentious business operations in Russia under his decade-long leadership as CEO. As CEO of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson met Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2011. His business ties to Russia raised concerns over his appointment. (Photo: RIA Novosti/Reuters) Prior to being tapped by Trump, Tillerson had strongly opposed U.S. sanctions on Russia and had developed a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who awarded him Russias Order of Friendship medal in 2013. Several members of Trumps administration have been haunted by allegations of collusion with the Kremlin to influence Americas 2016 presidential election, making Tillersons previous links to Moscow particularly sensitive. Tillerson was sworn in as the presidents chief foreign affairs adviser on Feb. 1, embarking on what would be a brief but chaotic tenure apparently one he had little interest in pursuing in the first place. I didnt want this job. I didnt seek this job, Tillerson admitted to the Independent Journal Review last March, less than two months after starting the job. He said his wife had convinced him to accept the position, noting he was supposed to retire ... I was going to go to the ranch to be with my grandkids. Story continues Addressing rumors that had surfaced of his desire to resign, Tillerson told reporters in July that he would continue to serve as long as the president lets me. Im not going anywhere, he said. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Tillerson's relationship with President Donald Trump was showing signs of strain at a Cabinet meeting on Nov. 20. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Clashing With Trump Perhaps the most memorable element of Tillersons time at the State Department was his relationship with Trump, which soured almost immediately. Trump repeatedly and aggressively undermined Tillersons diplomatic efforts, rendering his credibility as Americas top foreign affairs representative essentially defunct in the eyes of the international community. They publicly contradicted each other on issues including the denuclearization of North Korea and the fate of the multinational Iran nuclear deal, as well as on Washingtons commitment to NATO and its official view of Qatar. Tillerson appeared to distance himself from the president in August, after Trump seemingly sympathized with participants of a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned deadly. There were very fine people on both sides, Trump asserted, triggering bipartisan outrage and condemnation. When confronted about his bosss comments, Tillerson told Fox News simply: The president speaks for himself. Tensions boiled over in October, when NBC claimed that Tillerson had previously referred to Trump as a fucking moron. Tillerson responded to the reports by saying the president was smart, but he did not deny calling him a moron. Trump dismissed the alleged insult as fake news, then challenged Tillerson to an IQ test, saying: I can tell you who is going to win. In November, The New York Times reported that the White House had a plan to oust Tillerson from his job amid the ongoing disagreements between him and Trump. As Tillerson neared his first anniversary as secretary of state, however, he remained in his position and continued to insist that he was staying put. I intend to be here for the whole year, Tillerson told CNN in January. Tillerson kept a fairly low profile in 2018, visiting Latin America and the Middle East but having little visible influence over policy outcomes in either region. NBC reported in October that Tillerson once called the president a "moron." (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters) State Department Exodus Tillersons exit follows an all-too-familiar trend at the State Department (and, more broadly, across Trumps administration). Under his leadership, the agency has seen a stunning exodus of senior officials, including droves of lawyers and diplomats who have resigned or been forced out in the wake of Trumps election. Tillerson launched an ill-fated redesign campaign, which has dismantled the department at an alarming pace. Maliz Beams, the counselor he named to oversee the process, resigned Nov. 27 after just three months on the job. The agencys internal disarray comes at a time when the country faces extraordinary international challenges, including a massive foreign hacking operation and the looming threat of nuclear war underscoring the vital need for a unified, high-functioning State Department. Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee expressed such concerns in a letter to Tillerson in November, telling him they were dismayed by the departure of more than 100 foreign service officers since January. The number of minister counselors in the State Department has decreased by 15 percent, career ministers by 42 percent, and career ambassadors by an astounding 60 percent, they wrote. The amount of talent leaving the State Department endangers the institution and undermines American leadership, security and interests around the world. Now among the expansive ranks of former State Department staffers, Tillerson is finally free to pursue his long-postponed retirement plans. Nick Robins-Early contributed reporting. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pointedly avoided saying the word Russia on Monday when very specifically questioned about that countrys culpability in the poisoning last week of a former Russian spy with a deadly nerve agent. British officials have determined that Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were poisoned with a nerve agent developed in Russia. British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Monday that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack. We must now stand ready to take extensive measures, May said. But when asked three times at a White House press briefing about Russias link to the poisoning or any possible repercussions for the country from the U.S., Sanders carefully did not say Russia or otherwise address who may have been responsible for the attack. She characterized it as an indiscriminate attack, although British authorities have concluded that Skripal was clearly targeted. Weve been monitoring the incident closely, take it very seriously, Sanders said. The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against U.K. citizens on U.K. soil is an outrage. The attack was reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation. So youre not saying that Russia was behind this? a reporter asked. Right now, we are standing with our U.K. ally, Sanders said again. I think theyre still working through even some of the details of that. Pressed a third time, an annoyed Sanders answered, Like I just said, we stand with our ally and we certainly fully support them and are ready if we can be of any assistance. The Russian Foreign Ministry has dismissed the U.K.s accusations about Skripals poisoning as a circus show. Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was fatally poisoned in London in 2006 with radioactive polonium-210, which its believed he drank in a cup of tea. A British investigation concluded that his assassination was likely approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. Story continues The White Houses extreme reluctance to criticize Russia ever has raised increasing concerns, particularly as special counsel Robert Mueller investigates possible collusion by Donald Trumps campaign in the Kremlins interference in the 2016 presidential election. Early this month, Putin boasted of his nations nuclear capabilities to strike anywhere in the world. A simulated video presented by Putin appeared to depict next-generation nuclear missiles striking Florida. Yet Trump has yet to respond and chose instead to attack actor Alec Baldwin on Twitter the following day. Former CIA director John Brennan said at the time that he was rattled by Trumps apparent lack of concern about the video. When I hear what Vladimir Putin was saying about the nuclear capabilities he has [and] then the president of the United States is tweeting about Alec Baldwin ... I mean, where is your sense of priorities? Brennan said on MSNBC. I think a lot of Americans are looking at whats happening with a sense of: This is surreal. Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Taiwan's high court on Tuesday upheld the acquittal of anti-China activists who occupied the island's parliament in 2014, with the judge describing the protests as "an expression of democracy". Jubilant activists praised the decision which they said was a defence of democratic freedoms at a time when Beijing is ramping up pressure on the self-ruling island. China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and is pushing for reunification, with Beijing signalling a harder line towards what it regards as a renegade province. Thousands of people took to the streets in protest in March 2014 in what became known as the Sunflower Movement, with 200 people occupying the main chamber of parliament for three weeks. The rallies were triggered by a proposed cross-strait trade pact that critics said had been made in secret and would leave export-reliant Taiwan vulnerable to Chinese influence. "The defendants did not initiate attacks or cause bloody conflicts and it was an expression of democracy," judge Chang Huei-li told the court as she upheld last year's acquittal by a lower court. She said protesters were reacting to flaws in the legislative process and the failure of lawmakers to reflect public opinion. "Those who have power should listen to people's voices and promote their welfare," Chang said. Taipei's district court had ruled the protesters' actions reflected their right to civil disobedience, clearing them on charges of incitement and interfering with public functions. But state prosecutors appealed the decision, arguing a lack of legal precedent and consensus for using civil disobedience as a justification for breaking the law. Protest leader Huang Kuo-chang, now a lawmaker, said Tuesday's judgement reaffirmed Taiwan's freedoms. "When lawmakers do not carry out their duties properly the people can stand up and resist and their rights are protected," Huang said after the ruling. Sunflower leader Chen Wei-ting said Taiwan's transparent legal process was a message to China's President Xi Jinping, who was granted a lifetime mandate as leader Sunday. "I want to tell Xi Jinping that even if you can become an 'emperor' and have endless terms, Taiwan is a democratic country," said Chen. He contrasted freedoms in Taiwan with semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where activists have been jailed and political freedoms are increasingly under threat. "I hope our friends in Hong Kong who are in a difficult situation will not give up. Taiwan will alway stand with you," Chen said after the hearing. Fears over warming cross-strait ties contributed to the plummeting popularity of Ma Ying-jeou's Kuomintang government and its defeat in the 2016 presidential elections at the hands of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Relations have since turned rapidly frosty as Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen refuses to acknowledge the island is part of "one China". Days after taking office in May 2016, the DPP government dropped a separate lawsuit against 126 Sunflower protesters for trespassing on cabinet headquarters. A court spokesman said Tuesday's acquittals were final. Also, Thailand mulls a cryptocurrency tax and Indonesia moves forward on National Payment Gateway ofo is locked in a costly battle with Chinese rival MoBike for dominance of the bike-sharing industry. Today, Alibaba has helped fund the competition by leading a US$886 million funding round, according to TechCrunch. MoBike is backed by Tencent, so in some respects the ofo vs. MoBike battle is a proxy war between Chinas two dominant internet forces. According to the article, this has made it unlikely the bike-sharing companies will merge because of the two giants unwillingness to cede territory to the other. The result has been a money dump of over US$3 billion into two companies who have yet to prove the service matches the valuation. Singapore has been ranked the number one smart city in the world by Juniper Research a mobile digital research specialist. Furthermore, the firm broke down the report into four separate sections: Mobility, Health, Safety and Productivity. Singapore ranked in the top spot in all four categories. By comparison, the second-highest ranked city (London) ranked third in mobility and health, seventh in safety and second in productivity. Also Read: The future of interior design is here The report gave credit to Singapores Smart Nation initiative as well as the fact that it is a city-state and thus has more control over its ability to achieve its goals. The report also found that cities across Asia rank highly in their ability to execute on smart city initiatives. Malaysian government meeting with tech giants to discuss fake news law [South China Morning Post] Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is pushing for a national anti-fake news law and today representatives from the tech industry including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have descended onto parliament to discuss the laws future with the government, according to local media reports. Story continues Azalina Othman Said a Member of Parliament for Pengerang said the meeting is proof that the law intends to be inclusive to all and flexible to the industry. However, some have questioned the timing of the law because of the Malaysian national elections right around the corner. Bank Indonesia kickstarts phase two of payment gateway system [The Jakarta Post] Bank Indonesia, the countrys central bank, is set to launch the second part of its National Payment Gateway initiative. The hope is the project will help make cross-bank transfers more efficient and affordable, according to the Jakarta Post. The first step kickstarted in December required infrastructure sharing amongst the banks. The next step will involve setting a transaction standard and what fees will be administered for inter-bank transactions. A major part of the push is to build touch-less toll booths which would hopefully ease Indonesias notorious traffic issue. The Thailand government is mulling a plan to levy a 10 per cent tax on cryptocurrency capital gains and will seek cabinet approval today, according to the Bangkok Post. The decision is the result of a Royal Decree which calls on the government to regulate cryptocurrencies and ICOs. The Deputy Prime Minister, Somkid Jatusripitak, said he would work to build a regulation law this month. Also Read: Meet the VC: Discussing sea turtles and OMO with Intudo Ventures This new tax seems like it would only affect businesses. ICOs are fairly public and a lot of companies are fairly transparent about using cryptocurrencies as a means to make money. They would be easier to legally tax. But for an individual speculator it is hard to imagine how this tax would be enforced because it is fairly easy to remain anonymous within the blockchain. Anonymity is a core feature of the technology. The post Todays top tech news, March 13: ofo raises nearly a billion, Singapore tops smart city report appeared first on e27. Turkey said Tuesday its army and allied rebels had surrounded the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria, raising the prospect of another devastating siege in the country's long conflict. Syria's war enters its eighth year this week with clashes raging on several fronts, including Afrin and the besieged rebel pockets of Eastern Ghouta, which saw their first medical evacuations of civilians on Tuesday. While attention in recent weeks has focused on a ferocious regime assault on Ghouta, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels have steadily advanced against the northern Kurdish enclave of Afrin. In a statement Tuesday, the Turkish military said it had completely encircled Afrin city, home to some 350,000 people and defended by a well-armed Syrian Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units (YPG). Birusk Hasakeh, a YPG spokesman inside Afrin, denied the city had been totally besieged but said the last route leading out of it was being shelled heavily. "If they do encircle the city, we will be ready for a long fight. We will resist," he told AFP. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish forces were within firing range of that route, which leads to a pair of regime-held towns -- essentially encircling Afrin and 90 villages to its west. - France warns Ankara - Sealing off Afrin city would be major for Turkey's "Olive Branch" operation, launched on January 20 and aimed at ousting the YPG, a vital partner for a US-backed coalition against the Islamic State group, but seen by Ankara as "terrorists". The assault has worried world powers, who fear it could detract from the fight against IS and was indiscriminately hurting civilians. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned Turkey on Tuesday that the scale of its offensive may be disproportional. "If Turkey's concerns over the border are legitimate... this absolutely does not justify the action by Turkish troops deep inside the Afrin area," he told parliament. It remains unclear what Turkey's next move will be, but it may lay siege to Afrin while allowing civilians to leave to avoid a high-casualty offensive. Abu Jaafar, a commander in the pro-Ankara forces waging Operation Olive Branch, said rebels were considering leaving an "exit route" for civilians. "We will allow civilians... to leave so they will not be hurt in case (Kurdish) fighters hold out in the villages, neighbourhoods, or buildings inside Afrin," he told AFP. Hundreds of civilians were seen fleeing Afrin on Monday, with cars and buses piled high with personal belongings heading to regime-held areas further east. - 'Monstrous indifference' - Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have meanwhile been pressing an assault to retake Eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel stronghold near Damascus. Since February 18, Russian-backed regime forces have recaptured more than 60 percent of the enclave, whittling down rebel territory to three isolated pockets. The UN Security Council passed a resolution last month calling for a 30-day truce to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations from the enclave, but the ceasefire demand went unheeded. The area has been under government siege since 2013, leaving hospitals too strapped to treat people properly. The UN has said more than 1,000 people in Ghouta were in desperate need of being taken out of the area for medical care. On Tuesday, around 150 civilians, including people with medical conditions, were evacuated from Ghouta's largest town of Douma to regime-held territory. Douma resident Umm Imad al-Ayyubi told AFP she had been waiting for two years to be brought out of Douma for medical treatment. "I am sick and had heart surgery. I'm coming to Damascus for a follow-up," said the 65-year-old woman. Jaish al-Islam, which controls Douma, had earlier announced some "critical medical cases" would be evacuated. More than 1,180 civilians have been killed since the Ghouta assault was launched. On Tuesday, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore voiced concern for some 125,000 children trapped in Ghouta. "Is it not tantamount to a monstrous indifference to the suffering of children that Security Council resolutions for ceasefires are flouted?" Gilmore asked. The United States presented a new draft resolution to the Security Council on a ceasefire to halt what France has called a "bloodbath" in Ghouta. More than 350,000 people have died since Syria's conflict broke out in 2011. With Russia's help, Assad has retaken most of the territory he had lost in the early years of the uprising. Syrian troops have used siege tactics in several areas, sealing off rebel-held territory and pressing a military operation before securing an evacuation deal. The government has reportedly been pursing negotiations to secure local truces or potential evacuations from Ghouta's three rebel-held pockets. Opposition forces have denied negotiating with the regime. burs/mjg/dv United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley addresses the U.N. Security Council on Syria during a meeting of the Council at U.N. headquarters in New York United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley addresses the U.N. Security Council on Syria during a meeting of the Council at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., March 12, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A day after the United Nations Security Council demanded a ceasefire across Syria in February, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley - angry that Russia delayed the vote for several days and sceptical the Syrian government would comply - spoke with President Donald Trump. "There's a lot of decisions to be made now," said Haley during a visit to Central America days after the unanimous Feb. 24 Security Council vote. "We all throw options out on the table and then the president will decide." On Monday, Haley told the Security Council that if the 15-member body failed to act on Syria then Washington "remains prepared to act if we must," just as it did in April last year when the United States bombed a Syrian government air base it said was used to launch a deadly chemical weapons attack. The United States is asking the council to adopt a new resolution demanding an immediate 30-day ceasefire in Damascus and rebel-held eastern Ghouta, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, backed by Russia and Iran, say they are targeting "terrorist" groups shelling the capital. The assault on Ghouta is one of the heaviest in Syria's war. Eastern Ghouta has been besieged for years after many of its residents joined the initial protests against Assad's rule in 2011. The death toll in the seven-year-long war has passed half a million people, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "We have to decide what action are we going to take on everything else that's happening," said Haley during her Central America trip. "Whether it's how the Syrian regime is using chlorine, and whether it's the ceasefire not being handled or the humanitarian access." The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons. It was not immediately clear when the U.S. resolution would be put to a vote. But during her Central America trip, Haley made clear she has no desire to play diplomatic games with Russia. A resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, France or Britain to pass. Story continues Haley, a member of Trump's cabinet, said the council is "so obsessed with unity and that's great and it's pretty and it's nice, but if unity doesn't accomplish anything it's not good for anybody." "You're making everybody happy except for the people of Syria. And those are the people we're supposed to be fighting for," she said. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council on Monday that since the adoption of the February ceasefire resolution, which was drafted by Sweden and Kuwait, "there has been no cessation of hostilities." Haley, who had engagements in Chicago in the days leading up to the Feb. 24 ceasefire vote, was furious at what she described as "Russian stalling." Sweden and Kuwait delayed calling a vote for several days in a successful bid to win Russia's support by dampening language on when a truce would start. Russia has said the Security Council could not impose a ceasefire without a deal between the warring parties. The council is also considering a separate U.S. push for the creation of a new inquiry into who is to blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Russia blocked the renewal of a previous international investigation in November. "Syria is Russia's. They took ownership of it, they need to fix it and now they're whining because they can't," Haley said during her Central America trip. "Iran is controlling Assad and Russia is their puppet covering for them at the Security Council." Russia is worried that Trump is planning further military action against the Syrian government. "We are very much concerned that the alleged chemical use might be a pretext for something bigger and much more dangerous," Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told Reuters. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Grant McCool) The problem with the Code of Conduct I have wanted to write this post for a while. To be precise, I started considering it after I had a very interesting conversation with a friend at a journalism conference in June 2017. CryptoParty Berlin had just published its brand new Code of Conduct (CoC) and we had a lot of concerns about it. Around the same time, I was pressured into using this CoC at an event I organized. I was not sure how to deal with it. Over the last months I had a lot of thoughts and conversations about this issue. I don't believe a CoC is the right solution to help people feel safe at events or in communities. This feeling grew stronger in the last months when I had - once more - to deal with someone that I believe I can call a harasser. To be clear: I strongly believe that our tech communities can get better at making people feel safe. I believe it is urgent to work on solutions to achieve that goal. But I feel like we can do better than a CoC. We need to do better than a CoC because a CoC is a band aid on a larger problem and it won't help in the long term. I decided to write this before 34c3. Quickly after I took this decision Wauland was attacked on twitter for their assembly description where they rejected the idea of CoC (see disclaimers) and I decided to wait and post this after 34c3 in order to avoid participating in an escalation that would make it really hard for CCC to run a peaceful event. Unfortunately things escalated anyway and it feels pretty weird to write and publish this now. I was hoping that I could avoid making this about 34c3. However in the current context I feel like there is no way around it. I guess that at this point the best I can hope for is that this post will help us move forward with this particular debate as well as the general debate. The opinions and examples listed below are only a few of the examples I can think of to explain how I feel like CoC are deeply unsatisfying solutions to help people feel safe at events and in communities. Checklist In general, one of the strongest feelings I have when I read a CoC is that it is a kind of checklist of what a community needs to show to the public about themselves in order to be seen as "good people". Most of the basic points in CoC don't seem to be considered thoughtfully, but rather seem to be listed as they represent the basic content of a CoC in which people get to show that their communities applies positive standards of fighting racism, sexism, ableism, etc. - almost as if it was impossible for a community to apply such standards without listing them in a CoC. For example, accessibility is essential (this is something I truly believe in), and most CoC mention this topic. Unfortunately, in many cases it is merely one more point that needs to be added to a checklist that is about "doing the right thing", without thinking about the implications of such a statement. Attending a CryptoParty should not require more physical ability than navigating your city does. That means that the venue and general organization of the event should allow for people in wheelchairs and/or with impaired eye-sight or hearing to participate in it, and use the bathrooms and other facilities of the building. The CryptoParty CoC is a great example of that. For example, they explicitly mention people with impaired eye-sight. The logical questions to ask in this case are "Can you train people with impaired eye-sight? Do you know anything about using crypto tools in braille or with screen readers?" Of course, when I asked such questions to people involved in writing this CoC, the answer was no. The result is that a person with impaired eye-sight is welcome to sit at a CryptoParty and not get any useful training. Come over, join us in our wonderfully accessible space and sit in a corner! Such elements in CoC are not only useless, but also deceptive - they give the impression that people with special needs will see these needs addressed. The sad reality is: That line that made you feel like you'd get something out of the event was nothing else than an useless talking point copied of some checklist that made the organizers of the event feel like they are doing the right thing. Committee A friend of mine works for a small organization that relies on funding. In order to get grants they were applying for, they had to provide a link to their CoC. As they didn't have one at the time, they did their best at putting a CoC in place, along with a committee that makes sure that the said CoC is respected - which is obviously an essential part of having a CoC. While I trust that people at this organization will truly do their best to stick to what their CoC says, she admitted herself, being a member of the committee (the organization is so small that there wasn't much choice when it came to choosing who would be on the committee), that she doesn't see herself as a competent person to deal with such a task in an appropriate manner. Her reasoning was: If someone comes to me, traumatized by harassment, sexual assault or anything similar, what makes me particularly competent to help this person? As a person who is named as one of the people who would deal with such cases, my duty is to be able to help people in very serious situations. I don't feel like I am qualified for this. Some problems require qualified people. If having a CoC is in itself something to check off a list in order to get funding, use a space, etc., CoC will be written in order to have a CoC, and not because people want to have one. As a result, people who do not feel competent will have to deal with cases they are not qualified to deal with. Again, where is the benefit from enforcing CoC in such cases? How will that help? Vague terms CryptoParty lists being "intimidating" as something that is unacceptable in their CoC. This is where a CoC can get truly absurd. What does "intimidating" mean? I've been told I am intimidating. I am intimidated by people who would never guess that someone thinks that they are. Some people are intimidated by people that belong to the opposite gender - and that works in all directions. Some are intimidated by people who, for reasons that are their own, remind them of their mother, father, ex, a teacher, someone who abused them, etc. "Intimidating" is one of these extremely vague terms that are defined differently by each person, terms that, when used in a CoC, become an absurd tool that can be used achieve everything and nothing. Everything, because the term is so vague that it can potentially be used to paint anyone as a wrongdoer - this is even more dangerous in a society where I feel like the idea that a person might be innocent is rarely accepted as an option. And nothing, because such terms are too vague to actually help anyone be more safe. Gray zones I'd like to come back to a personal experience of mine - it is the experience that triggered my need to write this post. There's a person, in a community I have been involved with for a long time, that has been acting in a very creepy way around me, and showed behavior that I would call mild stalking. They have been doing it on and off for 2 years, and as a self-proclaimed "SJW", are very much aware of the concept of CoC, which they support loudly. I believe that this person honestly cares about feminism and CoC, but that they are unable to be aware of how their own actions are going to far and come over as threatening. They do respect every aspect of a CoC, but refuse to be qualified with those "vague terms" as it is possible to interpret them in so many ways and are, of course, impossible to prove. How is a CoC helping me here, when CoC offer so many gray zones to play with, when the line between insecurity and harassment is so thin that it is almost impossible to distinguish one from another? While such things as clear physical or psychological abuse happen, I believe that most issues in our communities don't come from so-called "predators", which is a picture that is used a lot by people who want to justify the need for a CoC. Most problems that I have been confronted with myself and when helping other people are not about predators. They are about insecure people who cross boundaries, either because are unaware of the fact that their actions cross boundaries, or because they trick themselves in thinking that what they are doing is ok, while being aware of boundaries - this is the case in my story, for example. These people are not predators as such, but people who need help and education. Learning from experiences A few years ago, CryptoParty experienced problems related to flirting with someone who attended a CryptoParty. While respectful flirting can be very unproblematic, in this particular case it was a rather large issue that caused a lot of trouble inside of a local CryptoParty group. As a result, when CryptoParty wrote their CoC years later, they added a paragraph about this topic in it: Don't Hit On The Students! First of all, something that is bad in one case doesn't need to be bad in every situation. While a lot of things can be said about flirting in the context of a student/teacher relationship (which is not the main topic of this text, so I'll pass on this discussion here), I am not sure that making a dogma out of everything that went wrong once is the right thing to do to keep our communities from becoming sterile places where all freedoms are removed in order to avoid any possible mistake. But also (and this is my main issue with such points) CoC are a reaction to things that went bad, and an attempt to fix these issues. While some issues pictured in a CoC represent recurring problems that most people are aware of (like physical abuse, for example), other are a list of things that happened in the past, and will not prevent different issues from coming up in the future. Most problems in communities are unique, even if they can present similarities. CoC are mostly one step behind the actual problems that appear in communities, and therefore are useless in most cases. Enforcing CoC Recent debates about enforcing CoC at European events and in European communities have been started by a rather small group of people. Interestingly, many people I have talked to have expressed the opinion that this situation smacks of imperialism - and I believe this is a true issue. To simplify, in this case, I would define imperialism as: Assuming that your culture is superior and that therefore everyone needs to adopt it. Imperialism comes with self-righteousness and therefore people who show imperialist behavior will use all methods available to them and not give up: It's a war and you fight it until you win. Whoever resists has to fight off their attempts all the time. There is no open space for a discussion about other options - it is as if there was only one solution, and this solution was proven right, to all community and minority-related problems. Of course, once a single solution is presented as the ultimate solution, and when there is no other solution on the table, everyone who doesn't adopt that one solution is socially pressured into adopting it. The idea that refusing to have a CoC means that people don't care about creating safe environments for everyone is wrong. This is exactly what is happening here. People are trying to force organizations like CCC, or events I am involved with, at a smaller scale (I cannot talk for other events I don't know anything about), to adopt a CoC because they feel like it works for them, and therefore everyone should adopt a CoC regardless of the own culture of each community. Enforcing a CoC is a deeply wrong approach when it comes to solve a problem that can be defined and solved in various ways across cultures. Even worse: It is extremely hard to start a debate about such a topic when so many people who want to help are scared to express their opinion - when I told a very diverse crowd of people about my intention to write this post, most answers I got were about expressing fear of publicly stating the ideas I am writing about here, or similar ideas. For all reasons listed above I refuse to believe that a CoC if the best solution we have to solve those problems. I want to believe we can do better, that we can protect people who need protection in more efficient ways. It is extremely hard to gather people to build great things when a community is put under constant pressure to adopt a model to change things without considering all possible options. I do not believe this will stop any time soon, but I believe that being aware of these dynamics can help us think clearly about what we want to do. I would like, before I end this text, to express an opinion that seems to be pretty unpopular in some circles: I'd like to thank CCC for their efforts when it comes to making me feel safe at their events. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that CCC's approach is perfect, and I think lots of things can be made better in terms of making sure people who attend CCC feel safe. However I believe it is deeply dishonest to pretend that CCC doesn't care, doesn't put efforts in such issues, or even worse, "hates women". With the awareness team and a text that can be read as a form of CoC, they have built bases on which we can build solid structures to make as many people as possible feel safe. Claiming the opposite is extremely unfair, even more when we do not know the details about specific events - or only one version of them. Also, I would like to thank those who put the signs stating our rights in the bathrooms at CCC - I feel like this example is much more useful and positive than a typical CoC. There is no safe space... ...And I don't believe that a CoC will change that. Worse, a CoC gives some people the feeling that community issues have been solved and makes them stop seeing needs for improvement. Having a document you don't truly believe in on your website because people expect you to will not make your community or space safe. Having a checklist that shows that you care about topics people expect you to care about will not make your community or space safe. Establishing a list of things that make some people feel uncomfortable about, mostly in vague terms because you can't even really define these things, and because they are different for everyone, will not make your community or space safe. Pretending that a list will change things will not make your community or space safe. Enforcing a solution when better ones could be built will not make your community or space safe. More than believing in the utopia of a safe space, I hope that we can come up with solutions to help everyone deal with problems, and support all people in need of help. We are all triggered by different things. A CoC cannot list and even less predict everyone's weak spots, trigger words, gestures and situations, or everyone's very own fears. While I am thankful for everyone's attempt to protect people from bad or horrible experiences (and that includes me, as a woman in tech), a CoC can't be the best solution we come up with. If a CoC works for you, that's fine and I respect it - please respect that it doesn't work in all cases, and let us build better solutions that will actually help as many people as possible feel safe in our communities. This is not a rant - it is a call for action: Let's gather, let's build the structures we need to make all people feel safe and respected in our communities. Want to talk? I hope we can all agree that Twitter is not the best place to have this discussion. For now I have set up an email to gather ideas, experiences, etc. I hope to be able to gather a group of people who want to work on these issues and set up communication channels or physical meetings to build a future where we actually help people feel safe. Drop me an email - let's discuss how we want to move forward! peacenotwar@systemli.org GPG: 3A25 CA9B B6F0 880C 9B28 0E9F AA27 F71F 3721 7B76 Disclaimers Heres the very first video release from new soft goods brand Jet Lag Brothers featuring a bunch of mates on a little mission to Pablo Picassos hometown of Malaga, Spain. As far as were aware, the Jet Lag Brothers brand is a collaboration between all of the people involved in this clip with (possibly) our very Chewy Cannon at the helm. So far the brand has dropped a range of apparel including hoods, shirts and hats, along with the now ubiquitous road man skinning up bag perfect for keeping your smart phone and combustibles safe from prying eyes. This first clip has been filmed and edited by Palace filmer and JLB member Jack Brooks and features a crew consisting of Chewy Cannon, Lucien Clarke, Gunes Ozdogan, Rodrigo Tx, Tommy May and the king of Sants himself Raul Navarro blasting through the shiny marble streets. JLB MALAGA from JETLAGBROTHERS on Vimeo. Obviously with a cast like this, youre treated to 5 minutes plus of some of the finest skating youre likely to see today on some of Malagas more famous spots, along with a lot of back street action in less heavily documented areas of the city. Additionally, and in line with the overall tongue-in-cheek approach of the brand, the skating is interspersed with clips taking from films with everyone from Arnie to Jim Carrey popping up in between perfectly executed tech lines on marble surfaces. Big ups from all of us to everyone involved here a very enjoyable clip with a nice fun vibe and a dope soundtrack. I mean, youre tripping if youre not excited by a minute and a half of Rodrigo TX footage really, arent you? Head over to the Jet Lag Brothers website for more information on the brand, then check out their web store and pick up some goods for yourselves. As always, theres one thing that we can all count on when an unpredictable firebrand becomes the President: great late-night TV content. Our favorite hosts monologues have been writing themselves for the past two years, and their momentum has barely waned. Yesterday, monologue writers were gifted some old-school Trump nonsense, as the POTUS attended a rally for a Republican congressman in Pittsburgh and took the opportunity to do his two favorite things: publicly diss people and crow about himself. Jimmy Kimmel broke down the gibberish last night. Advertisement Trump went on for over an hour, bragging about his part in the winter Olympics (nonexistent) and being better looking than Conor Lamb (objectively untrue). The most jaw-dropping declaration, however, comes in at the 1:15-mark, when he tells a story about an interview he did for Meet the Press. Trump slams current Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, calling him sleepy-eyes Chuck Todd and a sleepy son of a bitch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kimmels resulting giggles are unavoidable, especially as he fires up to deliver this brilliant line: Hes a sleepy son of a bitch? Then what is your friend Ben Carson, Methuselah? Jimmy Kimmel then gives the rundown on Chuck Todds drowsy interview of treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin before launching into a special edition of Drunk Donald Trump. The Live gag, which basically just slows down clips of Trump and lets him pull all the acting drunk weight, kicks off hilariously with a shot of Trump blearily turning around before addressing the crowd. Keep doing what you do, Jimmy. Weve got to find some way to laugh this. Its not every day that you can demonstrate that the president and his legal team dont have a leg to stand on with a 3-second clip from Joel and Ethan Coens 1998 film The Big Lebowski, but every day of the Trump administration brings new surprises. On Monday, Stephen Colbert took a look at Trumps reported plan to prevent CBS from airing a 60 Minutes interview with adult film star Stormy Daniels, and noticed that Walter Sobchak, the irascible Vietnam veteran played by John Goodman in the Coens ode to slacking around Los Angeles, delivers an impassioned explanation as to precisely why Trump and his lawyers are full of shit. Heres what Sobchak has to say: Advertisement The Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its worth noting that in the context of the filmSobchak explaining to an angry waitress that he has the right to holler, Forget about the fucking toe! regardless of what she or the other patrons might think of ithis legal theories are not entirely accurate. But in the previously unimaginable context were living in right nowa presidential candidate allegedly paying hush money to an adult film star, then becoming president, then trying to prevent a TV network from airing an interview with the adult film star in question despite well-established legal precedents that make that an unlikely prospectwell, sometimes theres a man for his time and place. Still, as satisfying as this Trump-related-Walter-Sobchak-from-The-Big-Lebowski coincidence is, it will pale compared to the inevitably approaching day when Robert Mueller sits Trump down and asks him, under oath, Is this your homework, Larry? One of the first pieces of medical advice most doctors give is not to Google your symptoms. With a whole host of symptom checkers sponsored by WebMD, AARP, Mayo Clinic and more out there, its never been easier for someone with an internet connection and an unexplained tingling in their fingers to diagnose themselves with anything from multiple sclerosis to Parkinsons. So it makes sense that medical professionals prefer for their patients to avoid working themselves into an existential crisis and just come into the office. But two recent pieces complicate the idea that all digital symptom sleuthing and commiseration is one and the same. Advertisement The first, written by Jessica Furseth for The Cut, meditates on the wild, necessary world of online advice for UTI Paina condition that is overwhelmingly experienced by women, but easily dismissed by doctors as a common, passing phenomenon, even as 20 to 30 percent of women with UTIs get them over and over again, effectively rendering the usual single-course antibiotic treatment useless. The gendered nature of UTIs isnt helpful in the quest to find a cure, as womens pain is often taken less seriously, Furseth writes. This means that women (or any person with a female anatomy) will not only have to be their own advocates, but also become experts in what they can do, and what they can take, to reduce the frequency of their UTIs. Many of them will find those answers from each other. She explains how online forums like Reddit and blogs like LiveUTIfree.com provide backchannels of advice to fill in the gaps where the medical establishment cantor wont. They provide a space where the pain and anxiety of frequent UTIs are validated and given the weight and sympathy that they deserve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The second is an interview with Abby Norman, author of Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest To Make Doctors Believe in Womens Pain, in which she decodes the fraught relationship between doctors and patients that leads to womenand the pain they experiencenot being taken seriously. Ask Me About My Uterus takes readers through Normans journey to finally being diagnosed with endometriosis and the lengths she had to go through to get doctors to finally hear herincluding dropping out of college to work in a hospital and scouring through medical literature on her lunchtime. And even after that, she still found herself being dismissed by her doctors. It was downright unacceptable when I tried to assert that I might have information that was relevant, or I wanted to ask for a clarification, or I wanted to reject something they were offering me, she says. Those instances would not only impact my ongoing relationship with that doctor, but would end up in my medical record. Advertisement For women in Normans shoesabout one in ten women suffer from endometriosiswithout access to a medical library, other stories of dismissed pain on online forums can be their first encounter with someone telling them that what theyre experiencing isnt imaginary. The internet community created by these forums provides a lifeline through the four to ten years it often takes to receive a diagnosis of endometriosisand for the years of no known cure afterwards. While WebMD and the abundance of resources out there that serve as tools for self-diagnosis can at times do more harm than good, supportive communities like those Furseth and Norman describe can be crucial outlets for needs that arent being met by the medical establishment, needs that are overwhelmingly felt by womenespecially women of color, whose pain consistently goes unrecognized and untreated by doctors. These forums and the homespun cures they prescribe will and should continue until health professionals recognize their failings and acknowledge that sometimes, the patient may actually know her own body better than the practitioner. Better Life Lab is a partnership of Slate and New America. With the launch of #MeToo, women across the U.S. have begun highlighting instances of sexism and harassment they have faced and have called for safer and more equal workplaces in America. India, too, has had its fair share of gender-in-the-workplace scandals as well as a persistent reputation for gender inequality. And both countries seem to share a desire for remediation and better legislation to tackle these problems. Now some Indian millennial women are at an impasse. The spotlighting of workplace harassment and gender-inequality cases in the United States are a testament to the fact that the so-called land of the American dream is rampant with the same challenges and issues many of these women hoped to evade. Simultaneously, over the past few years, the government of India has made a significant push to tackle its brain drain problem and has appealed to Indias 16 million NRI (nonresident Indian) population as well as individuals of Indian descent to return to the country and use their skills to fuel economic growth and success. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Prime Minister Narendra Modi first made the call for Indians and persons of Indian origin to return, many thought it was primarily targeting older professionals. However, recently, more millennial Indians are choosing to return home (a fraught term, as many of the people India has tried to woo back have never considered it home in the first place). Sanjana Subramanian, an Indian who currently lives and works at a major financial institution in New York City, said she was shocked when she found that the majority of her Indian friends had chosen to return to India after university, rather than following the seemingly traditional route of acquiring a full-time job in the United States and vying for an H-1B visa sponsorship. Advertisement It is assumed and understood that because I want to be independent and free, both personally and professionally, I wont be moving back to India. Avdeep Dhillon One reason for this shift is that Indian workplaces are becoming seen as more inclusive and equal environments compared to the Indian workplaces of the early 2000s and before. According to a report by Schneider-Ross, employers in India are increasingly recognizing the importance of diversity and inclusion efforts and are instituting programs to create equal employment opportunities as well as safer workspaces for women. Shruthi Gopal, a data and policy analyst working in the San Francisco Bay Area, said that after following the progressive initiatives currently being undertaken in India, she is supportive and optimistic and would consider working there. Advertisement Similarly, Shreya Ramakrishnan, a final-year MBA student at MICA, a school at Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, said that the situation has improved markedly: Organizations are getting better every day at integrating women in the workforce, especially New Age companies started by younger people. The biggest problems in India exist in organizations where mindsets are so different between different levels of hierarchy. A new entry might be very forward-thinking in terms of womens rights, but the seniormost official may not be. Itll take some time, but there are changes happening, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Others, however, seem less enamored with the prospect of moving back to India. Avdeep Dhillon, a rising senior at the University of California, Berkeley, said that as she explores her options for entering the workforce, India is not a consideration. Dhillons parents immigrated to the United States from Moga, a city in the northern Indian state of Punjab, when she was young and are considering moving back to India after they retire. However, she said, It is assumed and understood that because I want to be independent and free, both personally and professionally, I wont be moving back to India with them. Deepa Manjanatha, also a daughter of Indian immigrants, who grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, shared similar thoughts. Following her graduation from university, Manjanatha spent some time working in India before moving back to the United States: My time in India did not paint a picture of widespread acceptance or even, at the very least, an acknowledgement of the true value of women and girls in society. So many of the men who I encountered just oozed of very straightforward patriarchal thoughts and beliefs that they didnt even bother to try and mask (the way that men in America tend to do). Advertisement Advertisement Sasha John, an Indian who has lived in both the United Arab Emirates and the United States, told me that because of movements like #MeToo, shes confident that in the U.S. theres at least a culture that would take her concerns seriously. There would be a precedent set that would enable me to voice my concerns in ways I havent seen other countries doing. These kinds of movements have made me really think about how, in the event that something were to happen to me in the workforce, Id be in a country where people dont take this lying down, said John. Advertisement These kinds of movements have made me really think about how, in the event that something were to happen to me in the workforce, Id be in a country where people dont take this lying down. Sasha John In comparison, John was less convinced such a response would be found in Indian workplaces. Its heartening to see people fighting for legislation, she said. But, I personally dont think any change is going to come about in the workplace there because so much of the sexism is ingrained in the cultural and social fabric that just tackling the legislative level isnt enough. In Indian societies you grow up with a lack of ownership over your body and a lack of agency. I think Ive just internalized the fact that if I work in India, sexism is something Im definitely going to have to deal with. I feel like Id just have to suck it up. Johns sentiments have been echoed by a number of researchers and advocates who feel the 2013 Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, which made it illegal to harass a woman in the workplace and set forth mechanisms for reporting and redress, did not do enough to create tangible change for women in the workplace. Advertisement Advertisement In contrast, Divya Suri, a current strategy executive working in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said that growing up she viewed the United States as a utopia. However, after living and working there and witnessing these movements materialize and expose problems of gender inequality in the workplace, she began looking for other places to work in and grow her career. For women of Indian descent, American workplaces come with their own set of unique challenges. Maya Rao, an Indian American with aspirations of working for the U.S. government, said that, as a woman of color, she struggles with being unable to fit into the pale, male, Yale stereotype often attributed to professionals in this field. In addition, according to Rao, people in the United States share many Indian societal sentiments, as they still think that women will quit work once they get pregnant and have childrenif they choose to do so at alland while that is certainly a viable and laudable option, people need to recognize that thats not a path that many women choose to followand that having a baby or having the potential of having a baby does not preclude women from producing amazing work and going above and beyond in the workplace. Ramakrishnan also voiced concerns about working somewhere like the United States, as she felt her nationality could impede her ability to be heard and succeed in the workplace. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As governments, including the Indian and American governments, push to attract top-quality talent to their workforces and promote increased economic growth, it is important that they recognize the unique challenges women face in their workforces. As Reaa Puri, the co-founder of Breaktide Productions, who has worked and lived in the United States, Kuwait, and India, said, Regardless of where women are in the world, we are not safe. Our bodies are often seen as something that dont belong to us. The current state of womens safety, security, and rights in the world is a global and human rights crisis and should be seen as such I know that no matter where I go I wont be able to escape this reality. Advertisement As more equal, safe, and nurturing workplaces spring up, more attention needs to be paid to ensuring that these spaces are the norm, not a rarity. Despite growing conversation around workplace harassment and culture, working in a secure workplace is still seen as a privilege, rather than a right. This debate about whether to stay or go is often beside the point if young workers are struggling to find work at all. As John said, for millennials, finding a job is already so difficult and we face so much insecurity regarding rent and having a roof over our heads. Thinking about workplace structures and dynamics is really just not a priority. Were willing to take anything we get regardless of the conditions, and thats problematic. 1. Yes. Several other districts factor them in. It would provide a more complete picture. 2. Yes. Theyre not as accurate, but they can be useful in spotting a trend in infections. 3. No. The district is keeping tabs on those numbers, so the public doesnt need to. 4. No. As long as the public health district is aware of those stats, thats all that matters. 5. Unsure. The district isnt obligated to include them, but it might be helpful. Vote View Results Donald Trumps decision to fire Rex Tillerson was reportedly motivated by his long-simmering frustrations with a secretary of state he saw as too establishment in his thinking, and Trumps belief that his views line up better with those of Tillersons replacement, CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The New York Times reports: Mr. Pompeo, a West Point graduate best known for savaging Hillary Clintons response to the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, when she was secretary of state, has called for the Iran nuclear agreement to be ripped up, played down talk of Russias interference in the 2016 election and suggested that regime change in North Korea would be a welcome development. Advertisement Sure, when it comes to the Iran deal, which Trump specifically mentioned during his statement, Pompeo will indeed be a change. In internal administration debates, he has reportedly pushed, alongside U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, for Trump not to certify Irans compliance with the agreement, even though Pompeos own agency has concluded that Iran is complying. He has compared Irans regional ambitions to those of ISIS. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But on other hot-button issues, there may be less daylight between Pompeo and Tillerson than it initially appears. On Jerusalem, for instance, CNN reported in March that Pompeo had joined with Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis in urging the president not to upset the status quo by recognizing the city as the capital of Israel. Advertisement Despite the fears of many, given Trumps pro-torture campaign rhetoric, there have been no moves to reinstate George W. Bushera interrogation techniques while Pompeo has been at Langley (not publicly, anyway), and hes continued to maintain that the methods currently permitted by the Army Field Manual are adequate. (His successor as CIA director may feel differently.) His comments about regime change in North Korea have also been somewhat overblown. Pompeo did say, in a conversation at the Aspen Security Forum moderated by the New York Times Bret Stephens last July, that it would be good to separate leader Kim Jong-un from his countrys nuclear capacity and that the North Korean people would love to see him go as well. Given the North Korean regimes well-documented paranoia about invasion, the CIA director should probably not be saying this out loud. But Pompeo also clarified at the same event that he was not talking about something the CIA was working to make happen tomorrow, but was referring to enlisting other countries in the region to amp up pressure on Kims regime. Its more likely he was talking about a desired outcome than a poisoned cigar scenario. And the United States covert action against North Koreas weapons program certainly didnt begin with him anyway. Advertisement Advertisement At times, Pompeos views on North Korea have actually seemed more moderate than the administrations, such as when he suggested to an audience at AEI in January that he would consider it a victory to keep North Korea several months away from being able to hold America at risk with nuclear-tipped missilesa much more modest goal than the full denuclearization promised by the president. Advertisement In any event, given that Trump ironically decided to sit down with Kim Jong-un just before firing Tillerson, whos been pushing for talks for months, its not clear that Pompeos supposedly more hawkish views are actually closer to the presidents current position. There are a number of areas where the more establishment voices on Trumps teamnotably Mattis and national security adviser/dead man walking H.R. McMasterare the ones advocating more hawkish positions. From all indications, Pompeo seems likely to fall in line with them. Pompeo reportedly played a key role in Trumps decision to launch airstrikes to punish Bashar al-Assads chemical weapons use last year, a decision cheered by much of the U.S. national security establishment (and a reversal of Trumps stance on Syria during his campaign). Pompeo has also presided over a major expansion of CIA operations against the Taliban in Afghanistana conflict about which Trump has been much more skeptical than his generals. Advertisement Advertisement As for Russia, Pompeo has been as hawkish as anyone, as both a congressman and CIA director, when it comes to pushing back against Vladimir Putins actions in Syria, Ukraine, and elsewhere. On the specific question of election meddling, Pompeo was rebuked for saying last October that the intelligence community had assessed that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election. In fact, the report in question did not make an assessment on whether the outcome had been affected, and the CIA walked back Pompeos assertion. On the other hand, Pompeo has consistently maintained that Russian interference did take place, was part of an overall strategy to undermine the United States, and that this interference is likely to happen again in the 2018 midterm elections. He has described WikiLeaks, which Trump repeatedly praised during his campaign, as a hostile intelligence service. So its a stretch to equate his stance on this to Trumps. Advertisement Advertisement The differences between Tillerson and Pompeo seem to have less to do with what they believe than with how they act. As a gruff ex-military guy, Pompeo fits the mold of who Trump likes to have on his national security team. (Though unlike his colleagues Mattis, McMaster, and John Kelly, he was only a captain, not a general.) Aides tell the Times that Trump has come to value Mr. Pompeos pungent opinions and hard-charging style during his presidential daily briefings. Advertisement Pompeo also seems more likely to be a team player than Tillerson was. Perhaps the best thing that can be said about Tillersons tenure is that he never seemed to care much what Trump (or anyone) thought about him and had little interest in the obsequious displays of loyalty that Trump craves. Pompeo was a deeply partisan figure before he had his current job and has seemed to work hard both to preserve his standing in the national security establishment and to protect his boss from criticismhis statement defending the outcome of the election being the clearest example. Pompeos tough-talking partisan style, not his views on any issue, probably got him the job. But sooner or later, the new secretary of state may have to either start adjusting those views to fit Trumps demands or find himself facing similar frustrations as his predecessor. Authorities in Austin, Texas, are now saying with greater confidence that the three explosions that occurred in the past couple weeks are linked and are the work of one or more people with a certain level of skill and sophistication. Austin police chief Brian Manley said Tuesday that each of the three bombingstwo of which occurred Monday and the third of which occurred on March 2involved a package that exploded at a home when a resident attempted to bring it inside. Advertisement The authorities are still looking into any motivation or connection among the victims. The man who was killed on March 2 was a 39-year-old black man named Anthony Stephan House. The 17-year-old boy who was killed in the first bombing Monday was also black. The woman who sustained serious injuries from the other explosion on Monday is a 75-year-old Hispanic woman identified as Esperanza Herrera. Manley said that police are looking into whether the bombings could have been a hate crime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Relatives told the Washington Post that the victims of the first two bombings were related to prominent members of the citys black community. Its not just coincidental, Houses stepfather told the Post. They went and got one of my best friends grandson. Somebodys done their homework on both of us, and they knew what they were doing. Advertisement Police, however, do not know of a motive or even if the victims were the intended targets of the attacks, Manley said. To help the investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives sent its National Response Team to Austin. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also issued a statement offering a $15,000 reward for information that would lead to the arrest of the perpetrator or perpetrators. The bombings occurred while the city swelled with visitors coming for the South by Southwest Festival. Police said they believe the timing is coincidental. The bombings have put residents of Austin on edge, and police warned anyone who receives a package they didnt expect to call 911. According to Manley, between Monday morning and Tuesday morning, police responded to more than 150 calls related to packages, none of which were dangerous. On Tuesday, after 14 months of chaos and despair at the State Department, Rex Tillerson was fired by President Trump and replaced by Mike Pompeo, currently the director of the CIA. Tillerson had run afoul of Trump for months; conversely, the hawkish Pompeo seems to have won over the president. To discuss what this means for the future of American foreign policy, I spoke by phone with Daniel W. Drezner, a professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a regular contributor to the Washington Post. In our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed whether Pompeo can contain Trumps worst instincts, why Tillerson couldnt, and how to rate appointees when the man they serve is Donald Trump. Advertisement Isaac Chotiner: I thought we would get this conversation in before we all die in a nuclear war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Daniel W. Drezner: Sounds good. You wrote something in a piece about all this that I wanted to follow up on: This was an absolutely necessary move for Trump. The most important currency for a diplomat is their credibility. If they say something will happen and then they are overruled by their boss, its a problem. My question is whether, as long as Trump is president, this is actually not the most important part of being a diplomatthat essentially no one will have the ear of the boss, or credibility for more than a short period of time, and so all sane people should want is someone who can put Band-Aids on things and, if it comes down to a Situation Room meeting, not give Trump crazy advice. Advertisement First of all, if you put a Band-Aid on something Trump does, Trump has made it very clear at this point that unless you have actually changed his mind, he is just going to rip it off a day later. I understand the impulse, but in some ways the choiceand its an unappetizing one for people who pay attention to foreign policyis between someone who is so incompetent that even if their foreign policy instincts might be correct, they were going to have no influence whatsoever, versus someone clearly much more hawkish, and therefore might pursue policies that are more reckless, but might be within the realm of sanity to the point where they can check Trumps absolute worst impulses, and will actuallybecause Trump trusts them more[he will] potentially listen to them more. Advertisement Advertisement So I guess the first-order question is whether Pompeo shares Trumps worst impulses, and then the question is whetherin the areas he does nothe will be effective at checking them. Advertisement So the first one we dont entirely know. Obviously, Pompeo is much more hawkish on, lets say, Iran, than Tillerson ever was. What we dont know yet is whether Pompeo will listen to experts on this issue. He is going to have to put his name to certain things, in terms of the [Iran deal]. It could very well mean we wind up exiting. But also as secretary of state it means Pompeo has to be concerned about whether exiting from the Iran deal is going to advance U.S. interests if, lets say, the rest of the P5+1 refuses to follow. Advertisement But what does seem clear over the past year is that Pompeo has earned the trust of Trump. The currency of Trumps trust is a rapidly depreciating one, particularly if you disagree with him. Pompeo hasnt done that to the degree Tillerson did on, lets say, Charlottesville or Qatar or, just yesterday, Russia. But Pompeo has said things at times that were somewhat at variance with Trump, for example with reference to Russias interference in the 2016 elections, but that hasnt undercut his standing with the president. Advertisement Are we going to stumble into a conflict by accident, or is it going to happen on purpose? Unfortunately, I think those are the two choices. Daniel W. Drezner Tillerson has also had to speak publicly more, giving him more opportunities to piss Trump off. Its the nature of the job. Right, he could be in the same vice. But theres another thing to consider: In the long term, you are correct. The more Pompeo disagrees with Trump, the more likely Trump will fire him. However, much in the same way that Kelly exerted far more power as chief of staff immediately after replacing Reince Priebus, you can argue that Pompeo will exert authority now. Even someone like Donald Trump doesnt want to fire multiple secretaries of state within months of each other. Advertisement Advertisement He doesnt like to fire people. He didnt want to fire Tillerson. I guess this goes to the definition of want. Trump has a temper, does not like it when people disagree with him, and wants to get them out of the way. At the same time, he is highly conscious of public relations, and part of the reason that Kellys position seemed secure for so long was that even Trump recognized that having three chiefs of staff within the span of a year was not a good look. Tillerson may have been the first secretary of state totally at war with the bureaucracy, but reading between the lines of your piece made me think you were suggesting that there was a hope Pompeo would respect the bureaucracy, and the bureaucracy could influence him in a positive way. Is that because thats what normally happens? Advertisement Advertisement Pompeo has the possibility, and let me stress the word possibility, of getting what I call the bad-boyfriend benefit from replacing Tillerson. Tillerson was such a disastrous secretary of stateyou can see the evidence in senior people exiting, in the low morale in the remaining bureaucracy. All Pompeo has to do are a couple acts of decency or gestures toward the building. The big myth about Washington bureaucracies is that they are always implacably opposed to conservative political appointees. Thats not necessarily true. They genuinely want to serve at the pleasure of the president and at the pleasure of their department heads. They just want to know what their job is supposed to be. And the problem with Tillerson is that he cut off the bureaucracy and would not talk to them at all. Advertisement All he has to do, and we dont know that he will, is make feints in that direction, and he can improve morale, which means there will be reports about morale improving, which will be a windfall for Pompeo. Advertisement Last thing: Maybe this gets at why I am anxious There are really good reasons to be anxious. I dont mean to suggest that everything is going to be fine but just that it is a more complicated picture than the idea that there is just going to be continued chaos. Advertisement Advertisement I hear you and a lot of people saying Tillerson was the worst secretary of state ever, or a complete disaster at his job. You could lay out that case and I would agree with every specific point. But my fears and expectations are such that if we get through the next four years without a disastrous war, I will consider that a success. And so I am happy to take foreign policy appointees who are all the worst ever by some more objective criteria in terms of how they dealt with the president or the bureaucracy if it means we dont get into a disastrous war. Advertisement Those are not incorrect concerns, but the question you have to ask is, Was Rex Tillerson ever going to be able to stop Trump from doing what he wanted to do? And I think the answer was largely No. Trump overruled him on the Paris climate accords. He overruled him on the Saudi embargo of Qatar. He overruled him first on talking to North Korea, and then having a summit with North Korea. Its one thing to say that Tillersons instincts were more mainstream than Trumps. Thats true. But it is also useless if what Tillerson does has absolutely no influence whatsoever on the president. Advertisement The one way in which maybe it would matter would be if Trump was in a Cabinet meeting or a National Security Council meeting, and its not just Tillerson but Mattis and Mnuchin and others pushing. Removing Tillerson removes one voice pushing back on a more hawkish foreign policy. Advertisement Advertisement But there are two ways in which this could potentially be positive. One is that with Pompeo as secretary of state, the Trump administration can send more effective signals overseas. So Trumps threats actually have more coercive leverage, or generally credible commitment, with a Pompeo in charge than with a Tillerson. The second way it potentially matters is in a Cabinet meeting where Trump genuinely wants to blow up something, and it would be a catastrophe, and even someone as hawkish as Pompeo says, Whoa whoa whoa, and that will mean a lot more to Trump than if it came from Tillerson. Is it potentially a bad thing, though, for Trumps threats to have more coercive leverage? Look, pick your poison here: Are we going to stumble into a conflict by accident, or is it going to happen on purpose? Unfortunately, I think those are the two choices. So the danger with Tillerson was always that if he said something, foreign governments would say, Oh, hes not serious or Trumps not serious but then that Trump would potentially follow through. Or the opposite could be the case, and Trump could issue some bombastic threat and not really mean it, but foreign actors would take it too seriously and overreact. The possible advantage of Pompeo would be that the signal-to-noise ratio improves a little bit. Correction, March 15: ProPublica, which reported in 2017 that Gina Haspel supervised the torture of Abu Zubaydah, has retracted its report. From the site: The story said that Haspel, a career CIA officer who President Trump has nominated to be the next director of central intelligence, oversaw the clandestine base where Zubaydah was subjected to waterboarding and other coercive interrogation methods that are widely seen as torture. The story also said she mocked the prisoners suffering in a private conversation. Neither of these assertions is correct and we retract them. It is now clear that Haspel did not take charge of the base until after the interrogation of Zubaydah ended. Advertisement ProPublica writes that it made errors determining who was being referred to as chief of base in declassified agency cables and CIA-reviewed books which referred to the official overseeing Zubaydahs interrogation at a secret prison in Thailand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ProPublica says its original report that Haspel was involved in the destruction of video recordings depicting Zubaydahs torture was correct, and that she did supervise the waterboarding of a suspect who was not Zubaydah. Original post, March 13: Rex Tillerson has been fired as Secretary of State; CIA director Mike Pompeo has been nominated to replace him. Donald Trumps nominee to replace Pompeo at the CIA is Gina Haspel, who had been the agencys deputy director. In 2002, Haspel was present, in a supervising role, at a black site in Thailand where an individual named Abu Zubaydahbelieved to be a top al-Qaida officialwas tortured. Zubaydah was waterboarded, slammed against a wall, and confined in a coffin-like box. As ProPublica reported in 2017, though, CIA analysts were wrong when they had identified Zubaydah as the number three or four in al-Qaida after Osama bin Laden. The waterboarding failed to elicit valuable intelligence not because he was holding back, but because he was not a member of al-Qaida, and had no knowledge of any plots against the United States. The U.S. government acknowledged in a 2009 court filing that Zubaydah was not a top al-Qaida official but maintained that he was an affiliate of the group; the New York Times has written that Zubaydah may have been a helpful [terrorist] training camp personnel clerk. He remains imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay and, as the New Yorkers Dexter Filkins has noted, lost his left eye at some point after being captured under circumstances that remain unclear. Advertisement Advertisement More on the enhanced interrogation: Zubaydah vomited, passed out and urinated on himself while shackled. During one waterboarding session, Zubaydah lost consciousness and bubbles began gurgling from his mouth. Medical personnel on the scene had to revive him. Haspel allowed the most brutal interrogations by the CIA to continue for nearly three weeks even though, as the cables sent from Thailand to the agencys headquarters repeatedly stated, subject has not provided any new threat information or elaborated on any old threat information. At one point, Haspel spoke directly with Zubaydah, accusing him of faking symptoms of physical distress and psychological breakdown. In a scene described in a book written by one of the interrogators, [Haspel] came to his cell and congratulated him on the fine quality of his acting. Advertisement Advertisement The sessions were recorded on video. Heres what happened to the recordings: When questions began to swirl about the Bush administrations use of the black sites, and program of enhanced interrogation, [Haspel] began pushing to have the tapes destroyed. She accomplished her mission years later when she rose to a senior position at CIA headquarters and drafted an order to destroy the evidence, which was still locked in a CIA safe at the American embassy in Thailand. Her boss, the head of the agencys counterterrorism center, signed the order to feed the 92 tapes into a giant shredder. Two points of note, for context: The CIAs enhanced interrogation program was designed under the George W. Bush administrations supervision by two quack psychologists who had never interrogated a suspect or worked in intelligence. Barack Obama chose not to order the investigation or prosecution of Americans who were involved in torture, asserting at one point that he was not interested in refighting old arguments about the subject. Well, now what was old is new again! The Republican majority of the House Intelligence Committee announced on Monday that it was ending its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and would be issuing a number of findings favorable to President Donald Trump. The announcementmade without the knowledge of the Democratic memberscontradicted the assessment of career officials and analysts in the intelligence community and confirmed that the committee never intended to do the job it was tasked with doing. It was a fitting end to a sham inquiry, one in which Republican leaders cravenly renounced their obligation to protect our country. Advertisement A one-page summary of the committees upcoming draft report absolves Trump and his campaign of collusion charges and disputes the intelligence communitys findings with respect to Putins supposed preference for candidate Trump. The findings were so premature and ludicrous that one of the GOP members who publicly backed the majoritys work contradicted that central conclusion in a television interview on Monday night, appearing not to know what was in the draft report he was supposed to be signing off on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When told of the reports finding that the Russians meddled in the election, but not to help Trump, Florida Rep. Tom Rooney expressed disbelief that such a blatantly partisan finding could possibly be in his own report. I think its far more objective than that, he told CNNs Erin Burnett during an astonishing interview I just dont know where this conclusion is coming from that we have concluded that we dont see anything that the Russians were intending to hurt Hillary and help Trump. Advertisement Where this conclusion came from, as Rooney should understand, is an unscrupulous committee that has done its work in total secrecy. We disagree with the narrative that they were trying to help Trump, the Republican leader of the House committee, Texas Rep. K. Michael Conaway, told reporters on Monday. That narrative is supported by an intelligence report from Jan. 6, 2017days before Trump took officein which the Office of the Director of National Intelligence noted that Russia had indeed aspired to help President-elect Trumps chances of victory. On Monday, the current office of the DNI, led by Trump appointee Dan Coates, announced it was stand[ing] by its January 2017 assessment. Advertisement When asked again if he disagreed with that finding, Rooney said not at all. Advertisement Certainly weve seen a lot of evidence and propaganda over the last year that shows that the Russians were trying to damage Hillary Clinton, he told CNN, again contradicting the conclusions of his own committees report. Just last month, special counsel Robert Mueller unveiled an indictment against 13 Russian individuals and three companies describing reams of evidence that they had sought to support Trump and damage Clinton through a social media propaganda campaign. That investigation is also reportedly gathering evidence about Russias hack of the Democratic National Committee and attempts to release emails damaging to Clinton. Advertisement Rooneys confusion underlines what a patently partisan farce the committee became under chairman Devin Nunes, who has consistently sought to transform the group into a public relations arm of the Trump White House. Just under a year ago, Nunes handed the reins of the investigation to Conaway and others after he was shown to be acting as a conduit for the delivery of White House talking points meant to bolster Trumps slanderous accusation that Obama had my wires tapped in Trump Tower. After a House ethics investigation cleared him in December of releasing classified information as part of that episode, Nunes came back to the committee. Upon his return, he released a memo smearing Justice Department officials which Trumps own FBI called misleading. Advertisement Advertisement Nunes, who served as part of Trumps transition team, has attempted to divert the House committees investigation from day one. Early in the investigation, he vigorously defended former Trump aides who have since been indicted or pled guilty to serious crimes, such as Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. At one of the committees earliest meetings, held one year ago next week, he called the intelligence communitys assessment that Russia had supported his party preposterous. It was a preview of Mondays announcement and demonstrated the obvious extent to which Nunes had prejudged the investigation. Ahead of that March 2017 hearing, Nunes previewed another one of the committees findings, saying there was no evidence of collusion. Since then, a whole lot of such evidence has emerged. This includes Donald Trump Jr.s email with Russian cutouts saying he would love information that would incriminate Hillaryinformation that was offered as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. It also includes the subsequent meeting between Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Manafort and Russians who were promising that incriminating material on Clinton, as well as Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos contacts with Russians promising dirt on Hillary Clinton available in thousands of emails. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Monday, Conaway casually dismissed this damning evidence as inadvertent contacts with each other, meetings, whatever. In his own response, the ranking Democratic member on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, explained that the majority refused to subpoena documents like phone records, text messages, bank records and other key records so that we might determine the truth. Schiff added, The Majority was not willing to pursue the facts wherever they would lead, would prove afraid to compel witnesses like Steve Bannon, Hope Hicks, Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump Jr., Corey Lewandowski and so many others to answer questions relevant to our investigation. As the New York Times reported, the committee chose not to call other key witnesses. Trump Jr., who has repeatedly lied about his knowledge of Russias determination to help his fathers campaign, stonewalled the committee by citing attorney-client privilege in refusing to discuss conversations with the president. Rather than subpoena Trump Jr. and other hostile witnesses, the Republicans on the Intelligence Committee decided to just take their word for it. Advertisement The committee closed its investigation as were learning more about various questionable episodes, such as a recently reported meeting in the Seychelles between Trump representative Erik Prince and a key Putin ally that may have been meant to set up a backchannel between Trumps transition team and Russia. If we get to the truth about any of this, it wont because of the House Intelligence Committee. If the Russians do have leverage over the President of the United States, the Majority has simply decided it would rather not know, Schiff said. That will be the legacy of Nunes and other Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee: When they were called on to uncover the truth about Russia and the Trump campaign, they chose to abnegate their duty. Good riddance to an investigation that was equal parts dishonest and pointless. Donald Trump is, at this point, someone our elites have learned to live and work with. The new normal has fully settled in. There is a column in the New York Times on Tuesday titled Why Pasta Is the Answer to Trump. In it, Frank Bruni, evidently on a trip to Rome, reports that hes eaten the same dish for dinnerpasta alla griciafour nights in a row, to his surprise. It made me realize how much I relish constancy now, he writes. And it got me to thinking how underrated sameness is. He writes, specifically, that eating pasta and other comforting rituals are good ways of coping with the uncertainty of the Trump administration: Advertisement Administration officials turn over at a breakneck pace. (Farewell, Rex Tillerson.) Traditional presidential ettiquette is gone. So are traditional presidential ethics. We got our taste of the untried. Dear God, is it sour. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Italians are more practiced at such tumult. Over the past 25 years, Italy has changed prime ministers 13 times. It has swung this way and that. At this point its more or less dangling: The nascent, renegade party that got the most votes in the recent election, the Five Star Movement, lacks a majority, not to mention a workable agenda, and doesnt have a coalition partner. Bruni writes that Italians can turn to their food and hallowed traditionsthe agents of solaceto keep them centered and sane in the face of political upheaval, and argues Americans should try doing the same. I cant predict where, politically, Italy or America is headed, he writes. I cant inoculate myself against Trumps oncoming tweets. But I can count on what happens when pork cheek meets pecorino. I can plant myself at that juncture. And I can stand still. Advertisement It seems inarguable that comfort food can be comforting. The notion that, by extension, pasta is the answer to Trump seems, on the other hand, rather doubtful. The current political situation in the United States poses quite a few problems that pasta probably cannot solve. An example: In January, Jorge Garcia of Detroit, a 30-year resident of this country and a father of two, was deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He had been brought to this country by an undocumented parent from Mexico when he was 10, but was too old to qualify for DACA. He had worked for years to obtain legal status. According to his wife, $125,000 in legal costs and fees had been spent on the effort since 2005. He had no criminal record. Nevertheless, the entry of the Trump administration put an end to the stays of deportation hed been granted in the pasta situation faced and dreaded by immigrant families across the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cynic that I am, Im rather skeptical that the Garcia family will find true stability in eating well and keeping old habits. In fact, Jorges wife Cindy, for her part, has been encouraging herself and others to resist stillness. As depressed as I am, she told CNN, and I just want to scream and cry and lay in bed and not moveI know that I have to come forward for the people who cannot, and tell our story. A rejoinder to this might be that Brunis column isnt for people like Cindy or those disturbed by their situation. This is both a fair point and one that raises the question of who, exactly, the New York Times believes it serves. The implication of this column is that its a paper precisely for those who can elect to turn away from this administrations inconstancy and tumult, and not those whose daily lives are inescapably governed by this administrations uncertainties. Advertisement Of course, one might argue that even those who can turn awaypeople like Bruni, for instanceought to be asking themselves how doing so will help Jorge, Cindy, their children or anyone at all. One might argue, moreover, that the moral imperative, in this administration, of everyone as privileged as Bruni happens to be is precisely to break from complacency. To inconvenience yourself, make yourself uncomfortable, and find ways, small and large, to help change things. Advertisement Much of the recent commentary from those on the Times op-ed page has run up against a generational divide: between columnists arguing haughtily that young people ought to learn to live with certain distasteful elements of the status quoassaultive bad sex, professional Islamophobes and sexists, etc.and young activists who, rudely perhaps, have refused to. Tomorrow, a new crop of activists that have been greeted more charitably than others will be leading a national school walkout over gun control, an issue many had all but given up on. Hopes have been revived by the Parkland students, who, even if a new push at gun control fails, will have demonstrated the virtues of being entirely unable to live with the state of thingsthe wisdom in refusing to be lulled back into stable routines in the face of a morally intolerable situation. Advertisement Advertisement Beyond gun policy, the list of similarly intolerable problems in American life today is, obviously, long. Inequality is soaring, tens of millions languish in poverty, neighborhoods and schools remain deeply segregated, wages for the American worker remain stagnant, insecure housing and health care remain crises, our criminal justice system remains deeply infected by racism, and our society remains tethered to an energy economy that will be the death of us. It is remarkable that the Paper of Record would treat a readership increasingly attuned to all thisand livid, moreover, about the Trump administrationto a column making the case for decadence. Remarkable, but not, at this point, surprising. Lest these criticisms find their way into the next roundup of readers outraged by the latest from the op-ed page, Id like to graciously wish Mr. Bruni bon appetit and note also that the burden of producing ideas for a regular column can genuinely be difficult for a writer to bear. Sometimes, you just have to throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. Trump has removed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, the president announced on Twitter Tuesday. That announcement, according to CNN, is also how Tillerson himself learned of his ousting. Rex Tillerson found out he was fired by President Trump's tweet on Tuesday morning, according to Steve Goldstein, undersecretary for public diplomacy https://t.co/TYsY77tQUx pic.twitter.com/YME9uMvTXI CNN (@CNN) March 13, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The State Department has said in a statement that Tillerson had every intention of staying and that he did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason. Speaking with reporters about his decision, Trump cited different ways of thinking and the Iran nuclear deal in particular. The move makes for a major shakeup to Trumps national security team at a time when the administration is in negotiations with North Korea about a possible meeting. I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service, Trump said in a statement. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well. On Twitter, Trump announced Pompeos move to the State Department and said that Gina Haspel, the deputy director of the CIA, will replace Pompeo. If confirmed, she will be the first woman to run the agency. Advertisement If confirmed, I look forward to guiding the worlds finest diplomatic corps in formulating and executing the Presidents foreign policy, Pompeo said in a statement. According to the Post, the White House originally said Trump asked Tillerson to resign on Friday, and Tillerson cut his trip to Africa short and flew back to Washington on Monday. The State Department, and those familiar with Tillerson, said otherwise, insisting the two men did not speak. Trump has since said he did not speak with Tillerson much. Pres. Trump, on consulting with Sec. of State Tillerson on decision to talk with North Korea: "I really didn't discuss it very much with him, honestly. Rex wasn't, as you know, in the country." https://t.co/aI2H7wZo00 pic.twitter.com/KwaUmcSsvI ABC News (@ABC) March 13, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Later on Tuesday the White House doubled down on the claim, saying John Kelly spoke with Tillerson on Friday and Saturday about his firing. In response, state department officials have said that Kelly called only to say there would be a tweet from the president concerning Tillerson. That call, they said, did not say what the subject of the tweet would be. On Tuesday afternoon, the Associated Press reported that the White House fired the Tillerson aide who contradicted their account of Tillersons firing. Others have also reported that the news of Tillersons firing came as a surprise. Advertisement We got off the plane with Tillerson less than four hours ago. There was zero indication on flight home that this was imminent. Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) March 13, 2018 Advertisement Several senior Republican aides say they were given no heads up on Trumps decision to fire Rex Tillerson: Twitter. And news alerts, just like everyone else, apparently, one senior GOP aide who works on foreign policy said when asked how the news spread https://t.co/KIOSD6Zd3p CNN (@CNN) March 13, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement The tension between the president and Tillerson, who once allegedly called Trump a fucking moron, has simmered for months. Trump has said that Tillerson is too establishment in his handling of foreign affairs, and Tillerson has previously deviated from the official White House line. According to the White House, the change was made because of possible talks with North Korea and upcoming trade negotiations. Advertisement So, finally, Rex Tillerson gets the boot, leaving this much-vacated administration as arguably the worstcertainly the most passivesecretary of state in a century or longer. President Donald Trump made the announcement this morning in his favorite form of communicationa tweetto the apparent surprise of Tillerson, who, just hours before, had returned early from a trip to Africa, where he had been attempting to clean up the diplomatic mess caused by Trumps shithole remark. Tillerson proved ill-equipped for the ways of Washington and utterly inept when he gave the citys games a go. It wasnt the first time in a week that Tillerson was blindsided. Trumps surprise decision to meet with Kim Jong-un was made without consulting his top diplomat. In fact, just a few hours before that announcement, the long-beleaguered secretary had told a reporter that direct talks with North Korea were a long way off. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several news agencies reported Tillersons imminent ouster back in November, and it was unclear Tuesday morning whether Trump merely delayed the announcement by four months or whether other factors have intervened. Tillersons days seemed numbered even earlier, in October, when he pointedly declined to deny news reports that hed referred to Trump as a fucking moron at an interagency meeting in July. Since then, the secretary has expressed views opposed to Trumps onamong other issuesRussian cyberthreats, the wisdom of moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the merits of preserving the Iran nuclear deal, and the idea of holding talks with North Korean diplomats (at the time, Tillerson wanted them and Trump undermined his efforts). Advertisement And yet Tillerson, whod spent his entire adult life climbing the corporate ropes at Exxon Mobil, rising to the supreme posts of chairman and CEO, proved ill-equipped for the ways of Washington and utterly inept when he gave the citys games a go. Most people in his position, finding themselves isolated from the White House, would cultivate countervailing centers of powerkey legislators, the press, foreign leaders, or other conduits of influence. Or they would focus on an issue that they could dominate, in part because their bureaucratic competitors didnt notice it or didnt care. This is how Colin Powell operated in his brief time as George W. Bushs secretary of state, and he may have prevented a small war between India and Pakistan in the process. Advertisement Advertisement Tillerson did none of this. He presided over a mass exodus of the diplomatic corps and a hemorrhaging of his departments budget. He tolerated his exclusion from key meetings of foreign policymaking, allowed himself to be outmaneuvered by the likes of Jared Kushner (who, as the Pentagons top officers learned, could easily be ingratiated and co-opted), and opened few, if any, back channels with Capitol Hill or the media. Advertisement His replacement at State, CIA Director Mike Pompeo (who was reported to be his successor when the stories first floated last fall and who, even at the time, was said to be prepping for the new job), might at least take his responsibilities seriously andgiven his prior experience as a congressmannavigate the citys shoals with greater savvy. Advertisement It could be that Trump put off firing Tillerson four months ago because, first, he didnt want to confirm a press leak and, second, he didnt think having an effective secretary of state was that important. Given his scornful attitude toward the pinstripes at Foggy Bottom and the enterprise of diplomacy in general, he may have liked the idea of letting the place flounder a little longer. (When Russian President Vladimir Putin kicked 775 U.S. diplomats out of Moscow, Trump thanked him for saving the cost of their salaries.) Advertisement Now, though, the summit with Kim is on the horizon, and even Trump may have awakened to the fact that a functional State Department might be useful. Pompeo will be in little need of remedial studies, as hes been closely following North Korean events and politics from his perch at Langley. And he will likely find a crew of staffers at State, eager to welcome any substitute for Tillerson on the seventh floor. Advertisement Pompeo is more hawkish than Tillerson, on North Korea and Iran, and he has displayed loyalty to Trump on high-profile issues. For instance, while he echoed the intelligence communitys unanimous finding that the Kremlin interfered with the 2016 election in a way that helped Trump win, he added that the agencies had also concluded that the interference did not affect the elections outcome. In fact, the official report by the director of national intelligence stated that there was no way to determine whether it affected the outcome, not least because intelligence agencies are proscribed from inquiring into domestic politics. Pompeo has also said that Kim Jong-un is a rational actor and therefore unlikely to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, knowing that we would retaliate. This contradicted the claim by Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser, that Kim could not be deterred from launching an attack. Yet Pompeo has not parted explicitly from Trumps more belligerent approach to North Koreathough now, with the upcoming summit, he might pave a more moderate path that parallels Trumps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the original news stories about the shuffle in personnel, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas was said to be poised as Pompeos replacement at CIA. This would have been a dreadful idea, and the good news today is that Trump hasnt gone in that direction. Instead, Trump chose to move Gina Haspel, currently the agencys deputy director, into the top slotthe first woman to be nominated to the job. Haspel is a career intelligence officer, so the professionals at the agencywhom Trump has derided in the past as members of the deep statewill be pleased. But her nomination will trigger controversy. Haspel is caught up in the agencys darkest recent scandal. She ran a black site (euphemism for a torture-laden detention center) in Thailand in 2002. Three years later, as chief of staff to the director of the CIAs Counterterrorism Center, she was at least complicit in the destruction of documents on the agencys waterboarding of terrorist suspects. In 2013, she was named director of the National Clandestine Servicerunning covert operations worldwidebut, after members of the Senate Intelligence Committee raised concerns about her past, she was given the job only on an acting basis. Pompeo made her his deputy just a year ago, despite similar protests.* Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whose head is next for the chopping block? McMaster has long been rumored as a candidate, especially after he declared, in the wake of Robert Muellers indictment of 13 Russians, that the evidence of Russian hacking was incontrovertible. The latest rumor is that hell be replaced by John Bolton, a longtime hawks hawk who advocates pre-emptive attacks against North Korea and Iran. Trumps national-security team may soon more fully reflect Trumps policy instincts, butespecially given his eagerness to leap into high-level talks with the North Korean leaderits less clear than ever just what those instincts are or where they will lead us. To pass any significant gun control legislation through the United States Congress, President Trump would have had to exert the full power of his office. Trump would have had to twist the arms of his Republican colleagues and burn through significant political capital with his conservative base. So its not exactly surprising that over the weekend he backed away from pushing the more ambitious gun reforms that have circulated in Congress since the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Without Trump on board, universal background checks and a host of other policies appear to have missed their moment for the millionth time. Advertisement I think we could all see it coming, Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, a leading Senate Democratic voice on guns, told reporters Monday. Ive been skeptical since the beginning that the president and his party were really willing to break with the NRA. Murphy said that it will likely take an election where they pay a price for their fealty to the gun lobby for meaningful action to take place. Dont hold your breath. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The only real glimmer of hope came in late February, when the president seemed keen on a few progun control policies during a televised meeting with members of Congress from both parties. He supported lifting the age of purchase for all firearms from 18 to 21, and he backed expanding background checks to cover gun show and online sales. He didnt outright reject a resurrected assault weapons ban, either. Senate Democrats took some of the ideas Trump said he supported and quickly translated them into a legislative proposal, in the hopes of capitalizing on the presidents comments before he could change his mind. Advertisement But the president had lunch with top officials at the National Rifle Association just a few days after that meeting, and his willingness to buck the organization has steadily diminished since then. The White House position has been whittled down to support for the Fix NICS Act, a bipartisan bill to ensure better reporting of information into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, as well as offering Justice Department assistance for training educators to use firearms and establishing a commission to make recommendations for other reforms. In Washingtonese, this is known as punting. The White House also urged states to pursue a policy of restraining orders allowing law enforcement to temporarily disarm those showing signs of danger. (Trump appears to have been convinced, now, that its worth securing warrants for such search and seizure instead of taking the guns first.) Advertisement Advertisement In tweets on Monday morning, Trump said he was backing off of pushing a raise in the minimum age for two reasons. The first is a lawsuit filed by the NRA after Florida passed a law to raise the age last week. The second is that there is, in his mind, not much support (to put it mildly) for the move. Only on gun issues can something with roughly 80 percent public support be described as a political nonstarter. Its true, though, that theres not much support for the measure among Republican members of Congress. Trump doesnt think its worth the effort to change that. Advertisement Nor does he seem inclined to back a revived Manchin-Toomey bill to expand background checks to cover more private sales. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldnt say whether the administration supports that bill during Mondays briefing. But even if she had said the words, theres a gaping difference between passive endorsement and active advocacy. If Trump didnt have the stomach for the latter, the former wouldnt have moved the needle in any meaningful way. Advertisement Democrats are not surprised that this president got one quick look at an uncomfortable clash with his base and ran away in a panic. I havent been this shocked since he backed away from his position on DACA, as one senior Democratic aide told me Monday. Lawmakers on both sides of the issue anticipated this, and Democrats have had their talking points ready since the second Trump uttered his heretical postures in that meeting. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who begrudgingly gave Trump credit last month in an attempt to coax him into following through on those commitments, lashed out at him on Monday for his fealty to the NRA. Even when President Trump momentarily departs from the NRAs script, Schumer said, he quickly gets reeled back in. Advertisement Advertisement Because were talking about the United States Senate, its now a real question as to whether the chamber will even pass a bill that has 64 co-sponsorsfour more than the necessary number of votes!as the Fix NICS Act does. Democrats dont believe that passing Fix NICS alone is enough of a response to Parkland and have been calling for floor time to debate gun control more broadly. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hasnt agreed to such floor time and doesnt appear likely to. Once the chamber is finished with its banking deregulation bill this week, it intends to move onto Ohio Sen. Rob Portmans sex trafficking bill and then the omnibus appropriations bill ahead of the March 23 government funding deadline. Murphy said that he would still push for that wide-ranging debate. He suggested it wouldnt need to take up too much floor time if the parties could reach a time agreement to do it quickly, line up a handful of amendments, and let the votes fall where they may. But, as one reporter asked him, is McConnell likely to allow that? No, he mouthed. Kitty Hawk, an aviation company backed by Google co-founder and Alphabet CEO Larry Page, unveiled its autonomous air taxi, named Cora, on Monday*. The two-person passenger vehicle, which has rotors along its wings so it can take off like a helicopter and then fly like a plane without a runway, has undergone a number of stealth test flights in New Zealand since October. Kitty Hawk announced that it has been working with the New Zealand government to prepare a fleet of Coras for commercial use over the past 18 months. The company has also been developing a ride-hailing app for the future travel service. Advertisement So what exactly is this flying taxi capable of? Cora runs solely on electricity, has a wingspan of 36 feet, and can fly for about 62 miles at a speed of about 110 miles per hour and an elevation of up to 3,000 feet, according to Coras fact sheet. It has three separate flight computers in case one fails and is equipped with a parachute for emergencies. Consumers wont be able to buy one themselves but will rather travel on flights operated by Kitty Hawk and its subsidiary Zephyr Airworks. Coras initial test flights in New Zealand had been shrouded in secrecy, operating under Zephyr Airworks, which few people knew was connected to Page. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than a dozen companies, such as Uber and Airbus, are currently developing autonomous flying taxis, though the New York Times Andrew Ross Sorkin suggests that Cora may have a slight leg up on the competition. For one, Kitty Hawks ranks include transportation industry veterans like Sebastian Thrun, who helped launch Googles self-driving car subsidiary Waymo during his tenure as director of Google X, and Fred Reid, who was the founding CEO of Virgin America and a former president of Delta Air Lines. Advertisement In addition, New Zealand has been friendlier to new aviation technology than other countries like the U.S., where Federal Aviation Administration regulations dont even allow companies to make drone deliveries yet. (Dominos began delivering pizza in New Zealand via drone in 2016.) It appears that the New Zealand government will be quicker to embrace autonomous air taxis as well; reports suggest that Kitty Hawk had a tougher time acquiring flight permissions in California. Kitty Hawk suggests that its fleet could be operating in as soon as three years, which is the same ETA that Uber quoted for testing its Uber Elevate service back in November, with the official rollout of the service in 2023. Yet, its important to note that deadlines in the air taxi industry are rarely met. Advertisement Heres Kitty Hawks video unveiling Cora: Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited Sacramento, California, last week to announce that the Trump administration would sue the state of California, claiming that recent statewide sanctuary policies have made it nearly impossible for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest and deport undocumented people in the area. Federal immigration raids had swept across Northern California at the end of February, resulting in the detentionand perhaps the eventual deportationof more than 200 people. But that number was supposed to be bigger: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had originally targeted about 1,000 people for arrest. Thanks to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who tipped off constituents a day before immigration officers came to the area to conduct the raids, ICEs plans were spoiled. Advertisement The standoff between the federal government and California leaderswhose communities face significant disruption should the Trump administration achieve its immigration-enforcement ambitionshas become intensified in recent weeks, a tension that will only ratchet up during President Trumps visit to San Diego Tuesday to look at prototypes for a border wall. California Gov. Jerry Brown called Sessions lawsuit an act of war and part of a reign of terror against the state. More and more cities and towns have passed sanctuary laws since 2017, meaning they are not aiding federal immigration officials in every case with every request. But in a manner they may not realize, local law enforcement agencies in these communities may be indirectly helping federal immigration agents anyway. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats where a company called Vigilant Solutions, which operates multiple nationwide license-plate-reader databases, comes in. Vigilant Solutions has contracts with cities and counties across the country, including ones with sanctuary policiesand federal agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security, are able to access the same databases in order to find targets for immigration arrests. ICE inked its own contract with Vigilant Solutions in December to gain access to the companys commercial license-plate-reader database, a separate tranche of information. License-plate numbers are collected for all kinds of policing that doesnt necessarily have anything to do with immigration, like finding drug traffickers or other criminals. But because undocumented people can own cars or may regularly travel with, say, documented family members who own cars, their data inevitably gets siphoned up by this kind of dragnet surveillancemaking it another tool for immigration officials at a time when they are dramatically stepping up enforcement. Advertisement Feeding these databases are license-plate readers, which are high-speed camera systems that capture all vehicle plates that pass by their view. The devices are usually mounted on streetlights or highway overpasses or even on cars, like police vehicles or tow trucks, which send the photos of the plates they upload to a central server, along with the location, date, and time when the photos were taken. The data can help police learn whether vehicles were at or near a crime scene as well as where a person works or lives or who they visit regularly, allowing them to help law enforcement agencies target leads and close cases. Joining the largest law enforcement LPR [license plate reader] sharing networking is as easy as adding a friend on your favorite social media platform, boasts the Vigilant Solutions website. With enough data points, agents can draw a fairly accurate portrait of a targets schedule and work and home addresses, making it much easier, for example, to conduct immigration raids. Advertisement Advertisement With enough data points, agents can draw a fairly accurate portrait of a targets schedule and work and home addresses, making it much easier to conduct raids. Vigilants clients include dozens of local agencies in California. Sacramentowhich has robust sanctuary policies that, among other protections, provide city-funded legal aid to help residents fight deportationshares data with more than 750 law enforcement agencies nationwide, according to Vigilant Solutions documents obtained by recent public records requests from Dave Maass, a researcher with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization, and Mike Katz-Lacabe of the Center for Human Rights and Privacy. (Disclosure: I used to work at EFF.) A public records request from San Diego likewise returned a list of more than 640 agencies the city shares its license-plate-reader data with, including at least nine agencies that are within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, under which ICE operates. Advertisement These sharing agreements mean that even if a city with sanctuary policies doesnt provide vehicle-location information to ICE directly, other agencies at the DHS that do provide information to ICE have easy access to, say, Sacramentos data, because the county sheriffs department sends its license-plate data to Vigilant Solutions database. The same goes for Los Angeles County, which also has sanctuary protections. Because Los Angeles County elects to share its license-plate-reader data with San Diego and Sacramento and possibly even other cities or DHS offices that have data-sharing arrangements with Vigilant, ICE can likely obtain Los Angeles Countys data with relative ease. In Northern California, for example, public records obtained by Katz-Lacabe show how ICE has specifically queried the local DHS fusion center, a regional DHS-data clearinghouse that coordinates intelligence sharing between state, local, and federal agencies, for license-plate-reader data. That fusion center also participates in Vigilant Solutions shared database, according to public records from Sacramento and San Diego. Different fusion centers may have different policies, but we know that at least some do provide information to ICE, said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union who specializes in surveillance tech. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Marin, Orange, Alameda, and San Bernardino counties all have cities with sanctuary policies, and all also share data with the Vigilant Solutions license-plate-reader database. More places are signing on: For example, in Culver City, a municipality within Los Angeles County with sanctuary policies of its own, the police department submitted a request earlier this year to contract with Vigilant Solutions for its license-plate-reader technology, which the city council is slated to vote to either finalize or refuse on Tuesday. Law enforcement agencies that contract with Vigilant Solutions can hand-pick which agencies across the country they want to share their data with or if they want to share with the entire network. But looking at the long list of hundreds of agencies that share data with Sacramento and San Diego alone, it appears many of Vigilant Solutions clients are fairly permissive. Advertisement Sacramento alone shares data with at least 11 DHS agencies. And at least seven fusion centers share data with Vigilant Solutions, too, according to documents obtained through records requests from Maass and Katz-Lacabe. DHS openly boasts in multiple instances in which fusion centers have coordinated with ICE on its Fusion Centers Success Stories page. Advertisement The direct contract ICE finalized with Vigilant Solutions that was published in January isnt for access to the companys shared law enforcement license-plate-reader data, but rather for access to its commercial database, which has more than 5 billion records. Unlike its law enforcement database, which ICE can likely also request queries from through its DHS partners, the commercial database is the result of private collection efforts, like by repossession and towing companies, for example, that connect license-plate readers to their vehicles to scan plates on cars they pass by, recording the location and date of the collection, too. Repossession businesses regularly publish ads for jobs to Craigslist looking for contractors to drive vehicles around with license-plate readers attached, collecting data that can then be sold to private companies like Vigilant Solutions. Advertisement Advertisement Although ICEs own contract is for Vigilant Solutions commercial database, that doesnt mean ICE cant sometimes directly access the law enforcement database. In another records request, Maass found that an ICE agent accessed Vigilant Solutions database through the Long Beach Police Departments system in November 2016 and ran 278 license-plate searches over a nine-month period. During the same period, two officers from Customs and Border Control conducted 578 license-plate searches through Long Beachs system, too, likely through joint investigations with the department. In September the next year, ICE announced that it arrested 167 people throughout the Los Angeles area, which includes Long Beach, though its unclear if any of the data obtained through the ICE agents license-plate search contributed to the arrests. Long Beach passed its own set of sanctuary policies in September, days before the immigration raid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Trumps first year, ICE arrested more than 105,000 people with criminal convictions and more than 37,000 people without criminal recordsa 146 percent increase over the year before of people without known convictions. And as the raids continue and feds continue to challenge local sanctuary laws that can prevent law enforcement from sharing data (like a persons home or work address) with ICE, private companies that share their data with national law enforcement networks, like Vigilant Solutions license-plate system, may start to play an even more central role in mass arrests. Local police in sanctuary cities may be sharing data with ICE without anyone having to ask. Cities often adopt sanctuary policies to make it tougher for ICE agents to arrest and deport residents who havent committed serious offenses. But when police contract with companies that engage in dragnet digital surveillance and data sharing, they inevitably give up some level of control over where that data may end up. If you want to protect undocumented people in your community, dont engage in surveillance in the first place, says Stanley of the ACLU. And dont store it. Reddit was abuzz with the news that President Donald Trump had removed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Tuesday morning, with four posts on the sites front page discussing the move within hours of its announcement. The top Hot post as of this writing, with 50,500 upvotes read, Trump sacks Rex Tillerson as state secretary. It linked out to a BBC News article. Another top post, Redditor suggests Rex Tillerson will be fired over his recent condemnation of Russia. 6 hours later Tillerson is sacked, linked to a comment on the World News subreddit Monday. Indeed, many speculated on what tiff may have precipitated Trumps decision; the prevailing theory was that Tillersons hard-line stance on Russia may have rankled the administration, as he broke from the White House on Monday in explicitly blaming the country for poisoning an ex-spy in the U.K. and has previously ascribed to the allegations of Russian meddling in the election. As one user posted, Yesterday Tillerson said that the poisoning of the ex spy in the UK was clearly an act by Russia and would have repercussions. So now Tillerson has been fired. Its literally that simple. There was no evidence that was the case as of Tuesday, and the timeline for his firing remained unclear. There are reports that Tillerson received warning of the decision on Friday. Because of the conflicting timeline, others believed in Trumps explanation that their disagreement over the Iran motivated the firing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another popular post linked to one of the presidents tweets from December. The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon - FAKE NEWS! Hes not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!https://t.co/FrqiPLFJ1E Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2017 Advertisement The discussion on r/The_Donald, a forum where the presidents most bellicose fans congregate, had a decidedly more optimistic tone. Based on the three posts on the forums Hot page discussing the move, it appears that most posters harbored no ill will against Tillerson, though they shed few tears at his departure. Posters also celebrated Gina Haspels nomination as the first woman to become director of the CIA, citing it as proof that accusations of sexism against Trump are unfounded. One person, pantomiming a Trump opponent, wrote, BBB..BUT MUH NARRATIVE THAT TRUMP IS SEXIST! Advertisement Trumps decision to install Pompeo as the new head of the State Department, however, kindled the most debate. One of the Rising posts on the subreddit trumpeted the fact that Pompeo had graduated at the top of his West Point class and promoted him as the right fit to take on North Korea, though his detractors were concerned about his connections to the deep state considering his tenure at the CIA. Reddit has recently emerged as yet another social media platform that found evidence of Russian meddling during the 2016 election. Users amplified tweets associated with Russian trolls by posting them onto Reddit forums, particularly in r/The_Donald where divisive messages from fake accounts like @TEN_GOP received thousands of upvotes. Though Reddit claims to have removed a few hundred suspicious accounts, its hard to tell if Russian trolls still have any influence on the conversations that take place on the platform. This story was originally published by HuffPost and has been republished here with permission from Climate Desk. Mike Pompeo, President Donald Trumps pick to replace sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, threatens to bring a hard-line brand of climate change denialism to Foggy Bottom for the first time. The current CIA director, named early Tuesday as the nominee to be the nations top diplomat, has long rejected the widely accepted science behind man-made global warming, dashing hopes that the United States might reverse its decision to leave from the Paris climate accord before November 2020, when the deal allows the country to formally withdraw. Advertisement In a twist, Tillerson, the former chief executive of ExxonMobil Corp., turned out to be one of the most moderate voices on climate change in the Trump administration, despite his previous employers role as an early and generous financier of the climate change denial movement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tillerson urged Trump against pulling out of the Paris Agreement last June and suggested last September that the U.S. could remain in the deal. Still, the State Department rewrote its webpage on climate change last March, abolished its climate change envoy position in August, and left teams working on global warming issues in limbo, seemingly encouraging staff to leave. Coincidentally, a major environmental nonprofit sued the State Department on Tuesday for refusing to release a U.N. report on U.S. climate action that was due on Jan. 1. Advertisement If confirmed by the Senate, Pompeo seems poised to do more damage to efforts to combat climate change. Its good news for us, said Myron Ebell, a leading proponent of climate change denial and a director at the right-wing Competitive Enterprise Institute. I expect very good things from him at the State Department. Ebell, who led Trumps transition at the Environmental Protection Agency, said he hopes Pompeo will convince the president to withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, completely ending all U.S. participation in climate talks. He also wants Pompeo to bury an international deal to phase out refrigerants, coolants, and aerosols called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, that contribute to climate change. The deal, signed by 197 countries in October 2016, is called the Kigali Amendment. Last November, the State Department quietly indicated its support for the agreement. Advertisement Advertisement In his six years as a Republican congressman from Kansas, Pompeo voted so routinely against environmental policies that he received a 4 percent lifetime score on the League of Conservation Voters ranking. In 2011, he unsuccessfully pushed to end energy subsidies in a move Ebell said was meant to target tax credits for wind turbines. Throughout his tenure in Congress, Pompeo received over $1 million in donations from the billionaire Koch brothers network, making him their top recipient in the Trump administration. He collected $71,100 from Koch Industries, the Republican megadonors fossil fuel conglomerate, catapulting Pompeo to the top of the companys recipients in Congress in 2016 alone, according to data collated by the Center for Responsive Politics. Advertisement Advertisement In January 2017, Pompeo skirted questions about his view on climate science during his Senate confirmation hearing to become CIA director. Frankly, as the director of CIA, I would prefer today not to get into the details of the climate debate and science, he said. It seems my role is going to be so different and unique from that. In December 2015, Pompeo railed against the Obama administration for brokering the Paris climate agreement, the global deal to cut planet-warming emissions that virtually every nation on Earth has now signed. Advertisement For President Obama to suggest that climate change is a bigger threat to the world than terrorism is ignorant, dangerous, and absolutely unbelievable, he said at the time. Pompeo called the accord part of a radical climate change agenda. He even used the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people to inveigh against Obama, claiming he continues this pursuit of misguided policies, including his radical climate change agenda, according to a since-deleted statement cited by Climate Central. Advertisement In December 2013, Pompeo rejected the consensus among 97 percent of peer-reviewed climate researchers that the planet is warming and burning fossil fuels, industrial farms, and deforestation are the main causes. Look, I think the science needs to continue to develop, he said during a segment on C-SPAN. Im happy to continue to look at it. There are scientists who think lots of different things about climate change. Theres some who think were warming, theres some who think were cooling, theres some who think that the last 16 years have shown a pretty stable climate environment. Environmental groups swiftly condemned Trumps decision to name Pompeo as secretary of state. Donald Trump has now somehow picked someone even worse than Rex Tillerson to run the State Department, Naomi Ages, Greenpeace USAs climate director, said in a statement. In addition to being a climate denier, like his predecessor, Pompeo is a Koch brothers shill who will denigrate the United States reputation abroad and make us vulnerable to threats at home. If you want to make an unpopular policy decision and avoid answering any questions about it, the easiest justification is often some top-secret, very definitely real national security threat that no one outside of the government knows about. This was exactly the White Houses strategy this week when it blocked the planned takeover of U.S. chip manufacturer Qualcomm by Broadcom, a competitor currently based in Singapore but in the process of moving its headquarters to San Jose, California. The proposed $140 billion takeover threatens to impair the national security of the US, according to President Trumps executive order blocking the deal. How do we know? Well, according to the same order, there is credible evidence of that threat. Advertisement When it comes to national security issues, its often hard to challenge government decisions. They have access to so much classified intelligence about security threats, information that the rest of us, by nature, cant see. Is it conceivable that there is, in fact, some credible evidence of an imminent national security threat lurking somewhere in the prospect of a Qualcomm-Broadcom merger? Sure. But there is still reason to be skeptical in this case, because the actual concerns we know about appear to be so far removed from the companies and countries involved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ostensibly, the big security threat posed by Broadcoms takeover of Qualcomm was the risk that Chinaa country in which neither company is basedwould have an edge in the race to develop new 5G technologies for the next-generation wireless networks scheduled to deploy in 2020. The logic was laid out earlier this month in a letter from Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Aimen Mir about the reactions to the deal by members of a panel called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Most of the concerns he airs in the letter seem based on the assumption that technology manufactured by U.S.-based companies is inherently more secure than that manufactured by companies in other countries. Advertisement The clearest signal the U.S. is sending is that it is terrified of how successful Huawei has been at designing smartphones and 5G technologies Having a well-known and trusted company hold the dominant role that Qualcomm does in the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure provides significant confidence in the integrity of such infrastructure as it relates to national security, Mir wrote. Aside from suggesting no concrete evidence of any specific threat, other than the looming danger of other countries and their suspect technologies, this is a strange claim on two levels. First, it appears to completely disregard the fact that Broadcom is in the process of moving its headquarters to California and that most of its workforce is based in the U.S. Second, it also disregards the fact that nearly every piece of technology in the United States contains at least some components that were manufactured abroad. Advertisement Advertisement To explain why this deal between a Singaporean and a U.S. company is, in fact, all about the national security threat posed by China, Mir makes a somewhat convoluted series of assertions that mostly serve to indicate how deeply the United States believes the Chinese firm Huawei is winning the race for 5G dominance. Currently, Qualcomm invests significantly in research and developmentthe kind of activity that might enable it to compete in developing next-generation 5G technologiesMir writes, calling Qualcomm the current leading company in 5G technology development and standard setting. Advertisement But the government is concerned that Broadcom CEO Hock Tan would reduce that R&D investmentnot because Tan has said he would cut R&D spending, but because he has said he would like to change how Qualcomm licenses its patents. And since those patent licenses help fund Qualcomms R&D investments, Mir concludes that changes to Qualcomms business model would likely negatively impact the core R&D expenditures of national security concern. Mir also points out that since Broadcom would take on $106 billion of debt financing to acquire Qualcomm, the company might cut long-term investments (like R&D) to focus on short-term profitability. Advertisement Advertisement But back to China: All of this hypothetical cutting of the Qualcomm R&D budget would, Mir alleges, create an opening for Huawei to swoop in and dominate the market for 5G technologies in the coming years. China would likely compete robustly to fill any void left by Qualcomm as a result of this hostile takeover, Mir writes. Given well-known U.S. national security concerns about Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications companies, a shift to Chinese dominance in 5G would have substantial negative national security consequences for the United States. This is the second time this year the U.S. government has intervened to try to stymie Huaweis growthin January it pressured AT&T to pull out of a planned partnership to offer Huawei smartphones to U.S. customers, again citing vague concerns about national security. But while the United States seems to believe it has credible evidence that Huaweis technology poses a great threat to its national security, many of its allies seem very willing to get on board with the Chinese firms push into 5G. Huawei has 5G partnerships with mobile carriers in Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France, to name just a few. If the United States has compelling, classified reasons to believe that the Huawei 5G technology is compromised, or under the control of the Chinese government, it appears to have either decided not to share that information with other governments, or failed to convince those governments of its credibility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The clearest signal the United States is sending as it continues its crusade against Huawei technologya fight now reaching far beyond just that one company to affect the business dealings of other firms, like Qualcomm and Broadcomis that it is terrified of how successful Huawei has been at designing smartphones and 5G technologies. It is perhaps the strongest sign to date that the administration has lost confidence in its own, domestic tech sector and believes the next generation of wireless devices, technical standards, and networks is perilously close to being dominated by the Chinese firm. Thats an economic threat, for sure, but not necessarily a national security one. Over the past five years, the Carpentries have gained considerable traction in Africa. Since the first online instructor training in 2015, more than 100 African-based instructors have been trained of which more than 40 had qualified. An estimated 50 workshops have taken place on the continent in countries including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mauritius, Kenya, Ghana, Gabon, and Ethiopia. More than 15 instructors from other continents have visited the continent to join local instructors in building community and teaching workshops. These include instructors from the UK, several states in the USA, Canada, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. After the first in-person instructor training in South Africa, an African Task Force was established to help mentor trained instructors and support them throughout the instructor checkout process. This task force consisted of volunteers from Australia (Belinda Weaver), the UK (David Perez-Suarez), and the USA (Matthew Collins, Deb Paul, and Henry Senyondo). Each task force member was assigned a group of trainees and worked with them in their own way - including online meetings, online demo sessions, and support via email. At the time, connectivity (thus communication with the African instructors) as well as isolation, and lack of local community, were some of the challenges experienced by both mentors and mentees. To date, 11 out of 23 trainees from the first in-person instructor training in Africa had qualified. The low turnover rate from trainee to a qualified instructor, and the lack of opportunity for new instructors to teach have been a concern of the local instructor community for some time and in December 2017 the African Task Force was brought to life again to address these issues. The new task force consists of eight African-based instructors based in South Africa and Ethiopia. The task force members represent a variety of disciplines including the libraries, digital humanities, bioinformatics, public health, ecology/engineering, life sciences, and computer science. Members include: Caroline Ajilogba Mesfin Diro Erika Mias Lactatia Motsuku Kayleigh Lino Juan Steyn Katrin Tirok Anelda van der Walt The task force will focus on assisting trained instructors to qualify, mentoring instructors and helpers before teaching a workshop, and generally nurturing a healthy African Carpentry community of instructors. We will also provide clearer communication about the process for running workshops in Africa, and for volunteering o teach at workshops. We will work closely with the African Workshop Administrators and the Mentoring Subcommittee. Some of the activities of the African Task Force (specifically the South African-focused activities) are funded through the Rural Campuses Connection Project II (RCCPII). Funding for activities elsewhere in Africa is currently mostly on an ad hoc basis and the task force hope to provide resources to those who would like to apply for larger grants to run Carpentry activities in their other countries on the continent. The task force will meet in person twice per year and members will serve until March 2019. The activities of the task force will be re-evaluated throughout early 2019 to make recommendations about the way forward and to recruit new members should it be viable. In our next post, we will share more information about where to start if you want to run a local workshop. Please join the African Carpentries Google Group if you would like to be informed of local activities, opportunities, and more. We are looking forward to working with our local and international community over the next 12 months and thank everyone for their enthusiastic suppor Bratislava foreigners police changes hours of attendance Due to the transfer to new premises, the foreigners police in Bratislava will change its hours of attendance, while operating in test mode. Police officers are watching people in the queue in front of Bratislavas Foreigners Police department. (Source: Peter Adamovsky) From March 19, the foreigners police in Bratislava will be located on new premises, on Regrutska 4 in the Vajnory borough of the capital. In its first days, it will launch into test operation, Interior Ministry spokesperson Andrea Dobiasova stated. Until then, the hours of attendance at the old address, Hrobakova Street in Petrzalka, will be also change as follows: on March 14 between 7:30 and 12:00 March 15 and 16 closed. Read also: Read also: Foreigners' Police finally move to Vajnory Read more Neither information by phone (+421/9610-36855) will be offered, from March 15, 12:00. As soon as the new phone number is established, the foreigners police will inform the public through its website, minv.sk. What will the new premises offer? The new premises, renovated as to fulfill all standards of a modern building, will increase the number of client points from 15 to 23, and after some time even more. There will be accessibility for the physically handicapped and include a childrens corner. The new site has at its disposal 27 parking places and this number may still increase. The foreigners police are also communicating with the City Transport Company about better public transport connections. Another novelty is the International Organization for Migration days, offering consultancies, information at one point, drawing from the European good experience of so-called "One Stop Shop"centres, the foreigners police wrote on March 13. The new office hours at the new address, Regrutska 4, will be valid from March 19 only from the foreigners police department of Bratislava, and adapted to the working hours of the client centres: Mon 8:00 15:00 Tue 8:00 15:00 Wed 8:00 17:00 Thu 8:00 15:00 Fri 8:00 14:00 13. Mar 2018 at 13:46 | Compiled by Spectator staff This is not where it ends Slovakias current government will collapse, but that should not distract us from focusing on the murder investigation. video //www.youtube.com/embed/wRdHbO_-I4k The third government of Robert Fico will not finish its term; that much is now clear. But the movement that has emerged in Slovakia over the past two weeks is not just about suspicions that some ruling politicians are preying on the system. There were other reasons why people have gone onto the streets in huge numbers twice in the past two weeks. The impetus for those gatherings is not just a desire for change in the upper echelons of Slovak politics, even though that is one demand that the crowd can most easily articulate in their enough of Fico chants. But the emotion that drove them onto the streets was deeper than anger. It was grief over the young couple who were killed, and the horrified realisation that we live in a country where the cold-blooded murder of a journalist is possible. 13. Mar 2018 at 12:46 | Michaela Terenzani Slovakia has a total of five Paralympic gold medals After two days, Slovak Paralympic athletes won five gold medals, one silver and one bronze at the Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, with the successful ones being Alpine skiers. Henrieta Farkasova and Miroslav Haraus added two gold medals for Slovakia at the Winter Paralympics in Korea. Both are from the super-combination of the visually impaired, which took place in the Chongson ski resort on March 12 after a grand total of a super-G and a slalom round, the Sme daily wrote. As of March 13, Slovakia has five gold, one silver and one bronze medal. Most successful disabled Slovak athlete Farkasova won a jubilee 50th medal from the winter Paralympics for her country, while Haraus added the 51st one. In the medal ranking of countries at the WP 2018, Slovakia proceeded to the fourth place, behind the USA, neutral Paralympic Athletes from Russia and Ukraine. The historically most successful Slovak Paralympic athlete Farkasova with her guide, Natalia Subrtova, achieved a golden hattrick at the Paralympics, after victories in downhill and super-G. In her career, it is the tenth medal from the Paralympics she has eight gold, one silver and one bronze. She said her ambition was to win five gold medals in PyeongChang. Other Slovak Paralympic skiers Miroslav Haraus with guide Maros Hudik won in the total from the super-G and slalom rounds. For Haraus, this is the first gold from the winter Paralympic games; before, only Farkasova and Jakub Krako had won the gold. In the current races, Krako and his guide Branislav Brozman were originally third but were disqualified. As for the other Slovaks, Petra Smarzova ended the combination sixth, while Martin France was eight in total. The Slovak wheelchair curling team still has a theoretical chance to make it to the semi-finals after one victory and one defeat on March 13, Sme wrote. 13. Mar 2018 at 13:51 | Compiled by Spectator staff Italian entrepreneur Vadala reportedly detained due to drugs The police arrested the businessman with alleged links to the Italian Mafia during a secret operation early on March 13. The police detained Italian entrepreneur Antonino Vadala in Michalovce (Kosice Region), in the early hours of March 13. The reason is the European arrest warrant issued by a Venice-based court, the Sme daily reported. With the European arrest warrant, the Italian court is demanding the extradition of Antonino Vadala for criminal prosecution in Italy for a drug crime committed by an international organised crime group, said Andrea Predajnova, spokesperson for the General Prosecutors Office, as quoted by Sme. Read also: Read also: Murder investigation: What we know so far and what are the main independence concerns Read more The operation was undercover to prevent any information leak that could have marred detention, she added. The General Prosecutors Office will soon submit a proposal to take Vadala into custody to prevent him from escaping the country and prevent his extradition to Italy. An international police operation The detention was part of an international operation, in which Slovak and Italian police, the Venice-based branch of Italian multi-force agency dedicated to solving and preventing mafia-related crimes, DIA, the Slovak General Prosecutors Office and Eurojust took part. Read also: Read also: UPDATED: Police detain Italian Vadala Read more Altogether 17 people were detained, of whom 11 are in custody and another 6 under house arrest, Sme reported. Vadala is featured in the last story of murdered journalist Jan Kuciak. He does business mainly in agriculture and real estate. In the past he was involved in the business of solar power stations. Kuciak mentioned him in connection with the Italian Mafia organisation Ndrangheta, claiming that in the past he allegedly hid a drug smuggler who later became a murderer. Vadala also has connections to state advisor Maria Troskova and son of the Security Council secretary, Viliam Jasan, who both have temporarily left their positions until Kuciaks murder is investigated, Sme wrote. 13. Mar 2018 at 13:42 | Compiled by Spectator staff Coalition's Most-Hid wants early elections, what comes next? A quick overview Early elections are the most probable answer to the crisis the country is going through. Read also: Read also: MPs agree to hold no-confidence vote against Fico Read more The murder of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his partner Martina Kusnirova triggered a political crisis in Slovakia that will result in the early end of the government of Robert Fico. Slovakia is now awaiting the results of the coalition leaders' session about early elections. Read more on: What has Most-Hid decided and why are early elections the most likely scenario? What happens if the coalition partners do not agree on early elections? What do Smer and SNS say? What does the opposition say? What does the parliament look like at the moment? Who will be the most important players and what are the chances of Smer and its coalition partners in the elections? What has Most-Hid decided and why are early elections the most likely scenario? Most-Hid will leave the government if it fails to make a deal with its two coalition partners, Smer and the Slovak National Party (SNS), over early elections. "If talks about early elections fail, Most-Hid will exit the ruling coalition," Bugar said. Bugar alone told journalists on Tuesday night that even though both eventualities would lead to early elections in the end, there is a difference between the two for the coalition parties. If the three coalition parties, Smer, Most-Hid and SNS, agree to pass a constitutional law on shortening the election term (they need 90 votes in the parliament for that, hence opposition support will be required), they will be the ones to decide the date when the elections take place. Otherwise, the final decision on election day will remain with the president. Read also: Read also: Most-Hid calls for early elections Read more Political analyst Grigorij Meseznikov from the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) think tank sees early elections as an acceptable solution for Smer too, because all the other options are worse. This gives them a chance of stable work, albeit just for a short time, but Smer will still hold on to its strong power positions, Meseznikov told The Slovak Spectator. What happens if the coalition partners do not agree on early elections? In such a case, Most-Hid will leave the ruling coalition, which with all probability means the end of the coalition. The parliament will most probably express no confidence in the government, with the votes of the democratic opposition and Most-Hid. Robert Fico will not be able to put together enough votes in the parliament to win the MPs' support for a new cabinet. But neither would the opposition parties with Most. 13. Mar 2018 at 16:07 | Michaela Terenzani Governments Office wont say when it was informed about Italian Mafia The opposition leader wanted the report to reveal whether the government ignored the potential dangers of the Mafia group. The Governments Office will not have to submit a report to the parliament specifying when it was informed by the Slovak Information Service (SIS) intelligence agency about the dangers caused by the activities of Italian Mafia in eastern Slovakia. The MPs rejected the proposal filed by Igor Matovic, chair of the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO), to oblige the government to submit the report in seven days, the TASR newswire reported. Read also: Read also: MPs agree to hold no-confidence vote against Fico Read more SIS has repeatedly informed the Governments Office about the danger posed by the activities of Italian Mafia in eastern Slovakia, Matovic said, as quoted by TASR. But regarding the fact that two people directly linked with this group have been around the prime minister indicates that the Governments Office ignored the SIS warning. Slovaks need to know for their own safety whether the Governments Office ignored the information or SIS is lying, Matovic added, as reported by TASR. Read also: Read also: Italian entrepreneur Vadala reportedly detained due to drugs Read more President Andrej Kiska has said recently that SIS had been warning the respective government members about the activities of Italian Mafia in eastern Slovakia for a long time. He referred to the information from SIS head Anton Safarik. The public has the right to know why the government members have been ignoring SIS warnings for years, the president added. 13. Mar 2018 at 22:08 | Compiled by Spectator staff Kosice will fly to Germany again The Kosice-Germany route won the popular vote in an intern.et poll among six destinations. More information about travelling in Slovakia Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide Starting in October 2018, there will once again be a route from Kosice to Germany, the Korzar Kosice daily wrote on March 13 when the winner was announced. More than three-fifths of votes cast were in favour during the unique competition of low-cost airliner Eurowing, as part of the Vote and Fly project. The voters could choose between six destinations: Kosice; Aarhus, Denmark; Cork, Ireland; Friedrichshafen, Germany; Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Stavanger, Norway. Read also: Read also: Kosice airport may gain a new route through popular vote Read more The Kosice route beat out the Cork and Friedrichshafen routes which received a mere 30 and 9 percent of votes, respectively. You voted: The winner is Kosice! Thank you everyone for voting and see you soon in Slovakia, the air company Eurowings wrote. Currently, planes connect 160 destinations in more than 50 countries worldwide. Specific destination is not known yet Representatives of the Kosice airport were reluctant to specify where exactly the flights will be directed at the end of October when the winter 2018/2019 time schedule is launched. Everything will be communicated in the right time, deputy CEO and member of the Kosice airport board, Tomas Jancus, said for Korzar Kosice. video //www.youtube.com/embed/sRmQLJAwOYA Eurowings has six bases in Germany: BerlinTegel, Kolin/Bonn, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, and Munich. Thus, it is probable that planes from Kosice will head to one of these airports; from there, it will be possible to connect to other routes, including overseas destinations. 13. Mar 2018 at 22:18 | Compiled by Spectator staff Click the image above to watch the video A car more than a century old visited the Bay of Plenty Vintage Car Club on Tuesday morning, as part of a global tour. The 1915 Model T owned by Dirk Regter rolled up to the clubs headquarters on Cliff Road on the final leg of its New Zealand tour. He and his wife Trudy have been touring the world to raise money for SOS Childrens Villages, a global charity for orphans. This is our last week before we head to Australia, says Dirk. We started in Christchurch, before crossing at Arthurs Pass to the West Coast. We went down to Invercargill and back up to Dunedin, before heading up to Nelson and catching the ferry from Picton to Wellington. After that we drove along the east coast and ended up here in Tauranga. So far theyve travelled more than 50,000 miles all over the world, raised 50,000 euros (around NZ$85,000) and are planning to do a clockwise loop of Australia next. We have a website where people can read about our travelling adventures and donate online too. Bay of Plenty Vintage Car Club chairman Jim Smylie with his slightly younger Model T next to Dirks. Trudy accompanies Dirk in a support vehicle, which is necessary as the car sometimes needs to odd repair to keep it going. Ive also done some modifications to make it safer, says Dirk. He first got the car in 2007, when he drove it from Beijing to Amsterdam with his son, raising more than 130,000 euros (NZ$220,000) for childrens projects in Mongolia. Since 2012 he and Trudy have driven through Africa, North America, and South America, while taking the odd break to spend time with family. To find out more about the tour or to donate, visit www.tfordworldtour.org. The Agreement included uniform gun registration, repudiation of self-defence as a legitimate reason to hold a firearm licence, mandatory locked storage, a ban on mail order sales and standardised penalties, and the banning of semi-automatic rifles and pump action shot guns from civilian ownership. Its provisions were subsequently enacted in national, state and territory legislation across Australia. In the 18 years up to and including the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, there were 13-gun homicides in which five or more people died, not including the perpetrator. In the 22 years since, there have been no such incidents. Most people hear these starkly contrasting numbers and conclude that Australias gun law reforms effectively stopped firearm massacres here, says the papers lead author, Emeritus Professor Simon Chapman of the University of Sydney. However, some scholars and members of the gun lobby have argued that since mass shootings are relatively rare events, the concentration of incidents in one decade and their absence in another decade is merely a statistical anomaly. For example, Australian researcher Dr Samara McPhedran writing in The Conversation said: Mass shootings are rare events, and the long gap between incidents post-1996 may simply reflect a return to a more normal state of affairs, similar to the years before 1987. Social & Emotional Learning Character Lab Expands School Research Capacity with Qualtrics Partnership The Character Lab Research Network, a nonprofit aimed at advancing the science behind social and emotional learning and character development, has partnered with Qualtrics to expand research efforts and make it easier for scientists to work with middle schools and high schools. The partnership was announced at the Qualtrics X4 Summit in Salt Lake City, UT, last week. Character Lab provides resources for schools to help develop character while also helping to improve academic outcomes. At present the nonprofit offers two "Playbooks" for teachers to use in their classrooms: Build Connections, which guides students through the process of connecting classroom learning with personal interests, and WOOP, a strategy for setting and achieving goals. Character Lab's founder and CEO, Angela Duckworth, told THE Journal that additional Playbooks will be released in the near future. (In the coming days, we'll be posting a complete interview with Duckworth, who is also a former K12 teacher, current University of Pennsylvania professor and author of the New York Times bestseller Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.) Qualtrics is the developer of the Qualtrics Experience Management Platform, an enterprise research tool that's been widely deployed in both K12 and higher education for collecting and analyzing data. Although it's probably best known as a survey tool, it offers a range of capabilities, from predictive analytics to longitudinal analysis to professional development. One school system, Iowa City Schools, even used it to create an anonymous bullying reporting system. (That system, now available as a certified solution for any school to use, allows students to securely and anonymously report bullying by simply texting @BULLYING to 35134. They can also report sexual assault anonymously by texting @SAFESCHOOLS to the same number.) As the first step in the partnership, Character Lab launched research projects in Florida's Orange County Public Schools involving 18,000 students in six different interventions whose aims are to investigate "the benefits of advice-giving, re-framing of critical feedback and improving perceptions of teacher relationships." Character Lab's Duckworth said Qualtrics developed and built a custom platform to deliver activities and securely connect to school data. They also eliminated a number of technical barriers that Duckworth said often make research in schools so difficult to do. Also as a part of the partnership, Qualtrics will make ongoing charitable contributions to Character Lab, and Qualtrics CEO and Founder Ryan Smith will serve on the nonprofit's advisory board. "The learning experience is probably the single most important experience of a young person's life. It sets the tone for their entire future, determining their passion to learn and decides so much about their future," Smith said in a prepared statement. "We're excited to join forces with Character Lab to help scientists pursue student development." Duckworth explained that with the Qualtrics partnership, the aim is to cut the current time it takes to investigate the effectiveness of a given intervention in half. As Qualtrics and Character Lab explained: "The goal is to make character increase the pace of research by slashing the time required to go from 'good idea' to 'scientifically tested insight' by at least half from a full year or more to six months or less. Character Lab also assumes the many legal, logistical and technological burdens that typically fall to scientists and schools, making research simply easier. And by bringing scientists, designers and educators together to develop, iteratively prototype and test activities that encourage the development of character, they hope to make the research more fruitful." What happens when UK professors refuse to teach? Gerry Erang gives us a first-hand account of what fellow Luxembourgish expat students have to say. I almost enjoy my usual morning routine of strolling up University Avenue, sipping on a cup of coffee so watery it could be tea, while struggling against torrential rain and the citys, almost melodic, screaming winds. Ever since Ive moved to Glasgow four years ago to study English literature, I have learned to love and loathe Scotlands unofficial capital. Loathe mainly because of the rainy weather and love for pretty much everything else. What I adore most about the city is its constant ferment of music, art, culture and, above all, world-class education. Is higher education under attack? Of all things, it is education that is currently under attack, and also the reason why my usually harmonious walk is interrupted by impassioned protest chants. Professors and researchers have left the university's hallowed halls and are out on the street, simultaneously fighting for their right to a fair pension and taking a symbolic stand against the growing commercialisation of higher education in the UK. The strikes affect me and my fellow students but most of us still unapologetically support our lecturers, even if that means we will not have classes for a while and slightly less support to complete challenging final dissertations. Students support the strikes at Glasgow University's main gate / Aike Jansen But why is the house of British higher education burning? How did the teaching staff from more than 60 of Britains top universities come to leave their offices and classrooms to take such unprecedented action? After all, close to a million students are now affected by the strikes and even the most prestigious universities such as Oxford and Cambridge are participating. The reason for the vehement opposition lies in a conflict between the Universities UK agency (UUK), which is the official employer of academics, and the University and College Union (UCU), the trade union representing researchers and teaching staff. Oxford University / Pixabay Fighting for the academics' best interests, the UCU has denounced the UUK's plan to downgrade the current "defined benefits" pension scheme to a defined contributions scheme. The implementation of this new regulation would cost the average lecturer up to 10,000 in retirement per year and guaranteed pension benefits would then become a thing of the past. Retirees would no longer be allocated fixed pensions but pensions subject to the fickle stock market. The UCU has repeatedly stressed that students should support their professors. After all, the commodification of higher education concerns all of us and should be opposed. Glasgow City Centre / Kit Smith UCUs leader Sally Hunt has said that the strikes could potentially last until July if no agreement is found: a prospect that would indisputably put final year exams at risk. What do Luxembourgish students have to say? I am obviously not the only Luxembourgish student who is affected by the strikes but it is easier for me to support the strikes than it is for other students, as this may well have to do with the students' fees! Many people are oblivious to the fact that it is free for EU students, like myself, to pursue an undergraduate degree in Scotland. For overseas and English students, however, tuition fees easily amount to more than 10,000. While undergraduate degrees are free, masters programmes are likely to break the bank. That is why, in the context of this nation-wide faculty walkout, many students started demanding tuition fee refunds, or at least started complaining about missing weeks of classes that they technically pay for. Aike Jansen In this context, Nathalie Lodhi, a Luxembourgish Masters student at the University of Edinburgh, has summarised her feelings regarding the strikes: As a postgraduate student on a one-year course, I find the idea of losing just under half a semesters teaching quite daunting. Im torn as I both understand and respect the position that university staff members are in, but equally cant bring myself to boycott those classes that are still being held. British tuition fees are so expensive that I couldnt justify that for four weeks. It strikes me as insane that the fees are so expensive and vice-chancellors are paid so much. I find it troubling that universities are becoming more and more corporate." Nathalie Lodhi, University of Edinburgh master's student Ballooning chancellors' salaries versus shrinking faculty pensions In her statement, Lodhi refers to a point that has stirred much debate: the ballooning salaries of university chancellors and the same individuals who propose to cut the pensions of academic staff. In a recent exchange, the conservative MP Michelle Donelan argued that many vice-chancellors are earning more than the prime minister." In her eyes, this is downright immoral". Similarly, the chief executive of the pension scheme, Bill Galvin, has attracted much controversy: while thousands of academics fight for fair pensions, he is reported to have received a considerable pay rise of 82,000. Lodhi is not alone to point out that British higher education is too painfully expensive to miss whole weeks of classes. Around 100,000 students have already signed petitions to claim compensation for approximately 575,000 hours of lectures and seminars. Minister agrees on compensation Universities minister Sam Gyimah has expressed his support in this matter. He agreed that students should ideally receive compensation from the universities and optimistically stated that we are experiencing winds of change in the university sector." Supporting the striking lecturers and receiving compensation should not be mutually exclusive. For this reason, most major student associations largely support the UCU. The student association of the University of Edinburgh for instance posted that they stand in solidarity with the striking lecturers because those working in higher education should be treated and remunerated fairly." Julien Putz, 4th year theatre studies and mathematics student Julien Putz, a Luxembourgish final year theatre studies and mathematics student at the University of Glasgow, is also in empathy with the mouvement. He has highlighted the differences he sees between Luxembourg and the UKs respective approaches to education: Ive always loved Glasgow for its celebration of culture and its proximity to the Highlands. I also really like the university and its system that allows you to specialise in two unrelated subjects in your undergraduate degree. However, I must say that it seems to me that Luxembourg gives its professors more social security and the respect they deserve. Students also receive bursaries and are encouraged to study aboard. Here in the UK, the situation is generally more difficult and the strikes are a symptom of larger problems." Luxembourg actively promoting higher education? As Putz mentions, Luxembourg nationals, as well as many EU member state nationals who fulfil certain criteria, are entitled to significant bursaries by the CEDIES. The CEDIES (Centre de Documentation et d'Information sur l'Enseignement Superieur) is the governmental agency that provides general information about higher education. More importantly, the CEDIES is in charge of funding university students. It not only gives them low-interest loans but also pays bursaries of up to 4,375 per semester that students do not need to repay at all. The numbers attest to the fact that Luxembourg is actively promoting higher education by financially supporting its students. Screenshot - Facebook - Cedies During the last academic year, record numbers of students requested bursaries and loans. 18,156 Luxembourg residents and 11,771 non-residents. A staggering total of 111.1 million was paid out only in bursaries. The statistics also show that close to 1,300 students study in the United Kingdom and around 29.1 million were given exclusively to students who study abroad. Receiving money from the state to pursue your studies is something that most other European and overseas students can sadly only dream of. The strikes beg another pressing question: what happens to the students' bursaries in the unlikely event that they have to repeat a semester due to the disruptions? Asked about it, the CEDIES was not in a position to comment on this issue. Most recent developments After three weeks of strike action, the UCU announced on the 12 March that it had found a preliminary agreement with the UUK that would now be considered by their higher education Committee and brand representatives. However, initial joy about this supposed outcome was only very short-lived. Screenshot -Twitter - UCU The vast majority of academics as well as many UCU branches dismissed the proposed deal as highly unfair and harshly critisised their own leaders for even considering it. Using the hashtag #NoCapitulation on various social media networks, the protesters call for the deal to be rejected and the industrial action to continue. If a satisfying agreement can be found in the future, the strikes will perhaps best be remembered in terms of Nelson Mandelas definition of education as the "most powerful weapon we can use to change the world." Writing both history and a cautionary tale for other countries, the lecturers' rebellion against the commodification of higher education may have proved just that. Gerry Erang G. Erang Vietnams economy is likely to grow by 7.41 percent in the first quarter this year, led by robust exports and tourism, according to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, a statement posted on a government website said on Monday. The tourism sector in the January-March period likely grew by 60 percent while total trade will be up by 40 percent from a year earlier, Phuc told a gathering of Vietnamese during an official visit to New Zealand, it added. If achieved, the figure would be the highest first quarter growth in years, well above the expansion of 5.15 percent in the first quarter of last year. Vietnams growth is often lower in the first quarter than the rest of the year, due to a week-long holiday for the Lunar New Year, which often falls in February. Phuc also said Vietnam is likely to post a trade surplus of nearly $2 billion in the three-month period, according to the statement. Vietnams economic growth was seen expanding by 6.83 percent this year from 6.81 percent last year, the investment ministry said on Wednesday, citing its socio-economic forecasting and information agency. The governments General Statistics Office is scheduled to release official GDP data on March 29. After visiting New Zealand, Phuc will pay an official visit to Australia later this week, to attend the ASEAN-Australia Summit in Sydney. Two companies, including a state-run mobile carrier, have agreed to nullify a deal in which one would acquire a 95 percent stake in the other, nearly two years after the secret contract came under Vietnams state inspection. In late 2015, mobile network operator Mobifone announced it had acquired 95 percent of AVG, the operator of the An Vien Television payment television service, under an undisclosed agreement. Mobifone then renamed AVG MobiTV. The deal however sparked suspicion from Vietnams government, with the state inspectorate later tasked with launching an urgent and complete inspection into the Mobifone-AVG contract. On Monday, the two companies gathered for a reported six-hour meeting, after which they both agreed to cancel AVGs transfering 344.66 million of its shares to Mobifone, and to return what they had received from each other. The holding transfer contract was worth VND8,889.8 billion (US$392 million), according to VnExpress. Pursuant to the newly reached agreement, AVG will return all payments it received from Mobifone, and the mobile carrier will return the shares and other assets it took over from the pay TV operator. The two sides were also committed to trying to minimize damages for both. Pham Nhat Vu, who represented AVG in Mondays meeting, said his company would seek no penalty or compensation from Mobifone for the contract termination, and would cover all the expenses the mobile carrier had spent on having the deal processed. A screenshot of the MobiTV website Protect reputation Even though Mobifone has never disclosed the value of its contract with AVG, it has been alleged that the deal was overpriced. Vu, the boss of AVG, said at the meeting that AVG is a valuable asset, and some South Korean and Russian partners had offered even heftier prices before he decided to sell it to Mobifone. One of the reasons for the Mobifone-AVG deal to come under state inspection was the mobile carriers persistence to keep the contract value secret. Mobifone, which is entirely owned by the state, has been put under the management of the Ministry of Information and Communications since December 2014 As a state-run company, it is Mobifones responsibility to publicize its investment and financial activities to taxpayers. On August 3, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong requested that the government and state inspectorate soon announce the results of their inspection into the Mobifone-AVG deal. VnExpress quoted an AVG representative as saying that the deal was canceled due to several reasons, including Mobifones failure to operate and develop the company upon acquisition as planned. The second reason is that Mobifone only paid 95 percent of the contract value for AVG and repeatedly ignored requests to clear payment for the remaining five percent from the TV operator. AVG also admitted that the governments probe into the deal has resulted in many issues that affect the reputation of both companies, so terminating the contract would help protect their images. Customers are seen at a MobiTV office in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre Mobifone responded by saying that the late payment was due to the strict procedure a state-run company like it had to follow when it comes to financial activities. The mobile carrier added that it was too busy dealing with challenges in the telecom market and had to delay plans to develop AVG. Introduced in 2011, AVG is considered the worst-performing player in Vietnams pay TV sector. As of 2016, it had aggregated only 400,000 users among Vietnams 9.9 million pay TV subscribers. Mobifone had pledged to send the AVG subscribers to one million by 2016 and develop it into one of the countrys top three leading pay TV operators. The company has done nothing to realize these plans, except for renaming it MobiTV. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc was officially welcomed in New Zealand on Tuesday morning, as part of his visit to the island country from March 11 to 14. The welcome ceremony was organized for the Vietnamese head of government, his spouse, and a delegation of high-ranking officials at the Government House in Auckland City, commencing with the traditional ritual of Maori, the first ethnic group living in New Zealand. PM Phuc was then greeted by New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, before the two leaders sat down for a talk. During their conversation, both sides expressed their delight at the development of their two countries diplomatic ties over the past 45 years. PM Phuc and the Vietnamese delegation are welcomed with the traditional ritual of Maori people. Photo: Tuoi Tre PM Ardern asserted that her home country always considers Vietnam an important partner in its bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese premier expressed his belief that the two nations will raise their relationship to a strategic partnership in the near future. The two leaders also witnessed the signing of multiple cooperation documents in education, economic matters, trade, food safety, and quality management. PM Phuc and PM Jacinda Ardern at the ceremony. Photo: Tuoi Tre On Monday, PM Phuc visited the Auckland University of Technology, where he was welcomed with the traditional Hongi greeting of local Maori people. The school is one of New Zealands leading universities, which nearly 400 Vietnamese students are attending. The premier then met with Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Nguyen Viet Dung and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Auckland. He praised the Vietnamese embassys efforts to facilitate the two countries cooperation and support Vietnamese people in New Zealand. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is welcomed with the traditional Hongi greeting of local Maori people at the Auckland University of Technology on March 12, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The fire reportedly started at around 8:00 pm, when locals heard two small explosions and saw smoke coming from an extension of the villa at number 13 Tran Hung Dao Street. Authorities identified a married couple and their two children, aged 16 and 14, as among the five found dead inside the building after the flames had been put out. The remaining victim has not been identified, but is speculated to be a friend who was visiting the family when tragedy struck. The victims bodies are being kept at a morgue at the General Hospital of Lam Dong Province. Their funerals will be paid for by the provincial administration, according to Lam Dong chairman Doan Van Viet. All residents at the villa complex have been relocated to a temporary shelter while investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the fire. A fire consumes an extension of an old villa in Da Lat City, Vietnam, March 12, 2018. Clip: Tuoi Tre The 457-square-meter villa where the fire happened is a state property which has been turned into a slum by dozens of occupants spanning generations. The decades-old building is in degradation due to poor upkeep and extensions added over time by its residents. After the war ended in 1975, many French-style villas in Da Lat were left in disuse and became shelters for homeless people and the poor. These new owners occupied the public villas and turned free space into their own nests, partitioned by sheets of plywood, until there was no more room left. Such villa slums are particularly prone to fire due to the use of wood as a building material and the lack of safety measures. Rescuers search for survivors in the fire at an old villa in Da Lat City, Vietnam, March 12, 2018. Clip: Tuoi Tre The remains of an extension of an old villa in Da Lat City, Vietnam after it was engulfed in flames on the evening of March 12, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Firefighters put out the fire at an old villa in Da Lat City, Vietnam, March 12, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Ambulances and fire trucks are seen near the sight of fire at an old villa in Da Lat City, Vietnam, March 12, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Ambulances and fire trucks are seen near the sight of fire at an old villa in Da Lat City, Vietnam, March 12, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre An electrician cuts power off the area where a fire consumes an extension of an old villa in Da Lat City, Vietnam, March 12, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Here are todays leading news stories: Politics -- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his spouse arrived at Auckland International Airport on Monday afternoon (local time) to begin an official visit to New Zealand. Society -- The illegal parts of a villa belonging to Nguyen Thanh Hoa, the former head of a hi-tech division under the Ministry of Public Security who was nabbed on Sunday for being involved in an online gambling ring, were pulled down in Hanoi on Monday. -- Five people were killed after a fire broke out at an old mansion in Da Lat City, located in the Central Highlands of Lam Dong, on Monday evening. -- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has imposed fines worth a total of VND197 million (US$7,880) upon many roadwork contractors for their carelessness and violations when executing such projects. -- Truong Huong, the prime suspect in the kidnap of two young Vietnamese-American girls in Ho Chi Minh City last week, has claimed that the victims father was the one behind the entire scheme. Officers are verifying the statement. -- Two reporters in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa were threatened and detained by a group of strangers as they were investigating the excessive ore mining in the locality on Sunday. The victims were then released on the same day and reported the incident to police on Monday. -- A 28-year-old man in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum was killed after his homemade explosive, which was used to catch fish along a local river, blew up on Monday evening. -- An unidentified man in the southern province of Dong Nai lost his life after being hit by a train on Monday. -- Le Phuoc Hoai Bao has been officially removed from his post as director of the Department of Planning and Investment in the central province of Quang Nam due to multiple violations during his time in office. Business -- About $435 million worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) was channeled into the southern province of Binh Duong in February, Tran Thanh Liem, chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee said on Monday. -- Taxi associations in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and the central Da Nang City have submitted a document to the central government, proposing that no more Grab and Uber vehicles should be licensed. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The 60-year-old man, identified only by his initials N.B., had boarded Vietnam Airlines flight VN19 departing Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi in the early hours of Saturday en route to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. He was carrying a French passport and accompanied by another passenger who is a medical doctor, according to the carrier. During the flight, the crew became aware that N.B., who occupied seat 5G, had passed away for reasons not released by the airline. The flight captain immediately reported the situation to the airlines ground service and airport authorities at Charles de Gaulle in accordance with established protocols. The passengers family has been notified of his death and received support from the airline in completing paperwork involved to claim the mans body. According to a Vietnam Airlines representative, N.B. showed no sign that would suggest he was unfit for flying during security screenings and boarding at Noi Bai International Airport. The late mans baggage has been sealed and transferred to French authorities to be handed back to his family, the representative said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The illegal parts an imposing villa belonging to a senior Vietnamese policeman, who is under arrest for being involved in a gambling ring, are being stripped down following an order from local authorities. A group of construction workers were removing the walls on the top floor of the residence of Nguyen Thanh Hoa, the former head of a hi-tech division under Vietnams Ministry of Public Security, which were previously built against the law, as of Monday evening. Several inspectors from local authorities were then supervising the process. The five-story villa is located within the Phung Khoang residential area in Trung Van Ward, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi. In late September 2017, Dang Quoc Hung, vice-chairman of the Trung Van People Committee, led a delegation of inspectors to examine the residence. The officials discovered that Hoas family had built three walls on the top floor, which was against regulations. The walls, 2.7 meters tall and 18 meters long, were designed to decorate the house. The team of inspectors then required the house owners to remove the illegal parts within 15 days. As the family failed to comply with the order, competent authorities had to forcefully carry out the process on Monday. The house is located within the Phung Khoang residential area in Trung Van Ward, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi. Photo: Tuoi Tre A source close to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said that authorities in Trung Van Ward have detected another violation at Hoas house, which is expected to be dealt with in the coming time. The family was also said to have failed to pay up the cost for installing the houses wooden doors. Hoa was arrested by the Department of Police in the northern province of Phu Tho on Sunday and is to be held in custody for four months to assist the investigation into his participation in an online gambling ring. The official, who was previously a major general and head of the hi-tech crime prevention division under the Ministry of Public Security, also had his Peoples Police rank removed by the state president on the same day. Phu Tho police broke up the illegal ring in September 2017 and have initiated legal proceedings against more than 70 suspects implicated in the case. They have so far confiscated more than VND1.3 trillion ($57.2 million), while the amount of foreign currency which was sent overseas via the gambling activities was estimated at $3.6 million. The villa is five-story tall. Photo: Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A foreign business responsible for treating waste in a coastal region in southern Vietnam has received a two-fold punishment for their excessive discharge of toxic liquid waste. Kbec Vina, a South Korean company in Tan Thanh District, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, is required to pay nearly VND700 million (US$31,000) as the first penalty for the disposal. It also has to stop the dumping of liquid waste within three months since the quality of its treated waste water does not meet standards. Accordingly during the time span, it must store all the future processed waste water in leak-proof tested tanks and upgrade its facilities. People search for usable objects at the landfill of Kbec Vina, in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre In December 2017, environment police in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province found wrongdoings at the companys waste facility. It was unleashing a large amount of harmful liquid waste into a river, from 200 to roughly 400 cubic meters during the entire day. The figure goes beyond the allowed level by two to three times. The punitive decision from the local government was issued on Monday. A representative from the business said it has reported the punishment to the parent company in South Korea and the fine will be paid in a few days. Kbec Vina is tasked with treating waste by the landfill method in accordance with an agreement signed with the provincial Peoples Committee, which spends about $17 on every metric ton of garbage processed. The amount of waste collected in the province averagely reaches 650 metric tons a day. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The prime suspect in the kidnapping of two young Vietnamese-American girls in Ho Chi Minh City last week has claimed that the victims father was behind the entire scheme. Officers from the municipal Department of Police are working with relevant individuals to verify details in the abduction of the two children. Six-year-old T.H.B.N. and eight-year-old T.H.M.A. were kidnapped on Wednesday last week. Following the report of Tran Hoang, the girls father, police officers began probing the case and managed to rescue the victims on Friday evening. Truong Huong, a 58-year-old Vietnamese-American woman who is also one of Hoangs best friends, was apprehended as the prime suspect. At the police station, Huong admitted she had been in charge of carrying out the abduction, but insisted that she was just following Hoangs directions. According to her statements, Huong is a family member of Hoangs girlfriend in the United States. The woman often stays at Hoangs house whenever she returns to Vietnam and has eventually become very close to the family, including the two girls. Huong added that he had been suspected of kidnapping the child of her boyfriend in the United States but local authorities have yet to reach their conclusion. During her recent stay with Hoangs family in Ho Chi Minh City, the man suggested that she help him set up the kidnap and ask for a ransom from his mother, or the girls grandmother, Huong claimed. The two victims after being rescued by police officers. Photo: Tuoi Tre The money would be used for Hoangs personal spending, the woman added. Following Hoangs directions, Huong rented a house in Binh Tan District, and talked 15-year-old Lam Thi Phuong Dung, the familys maid, into helping her with the scheme. On the day of the abduction, Huong hired a motorbike taxi driver to carry the two girls, as well as Dung, to the tenanted house. At the venue, Huong recorded two videos of the children as proof and sent them to the grandmother to ask for a ransom of US$50,000. According to an investigator, officers are still probing the case as there are several contradictions in Huongs statements. There is no sign showing that Hoang is in need of such a large amount of money, as he is not an addict or heavily indebted, the officer elaborated. Hoangs mother also affirmed that the man is financially independent, adding she would be willing to help her son if he needs money. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! An old bus had its wheel comes off while traveling in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday, frightening passengers aboard yet leaving nobody injured. The incident took place when the rear left wheel of the bus en route to Cat Lai Port in District 2 fell off and rolled onto Do Xuan Hop Street in District 9. The old bus tilted diagonally, leaving its rear axle screeching the asphalt, according to one witness. Tran Chi Trung, director of the Public Transportation Management and Operation Center, confirmed the incident to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper and reported no casualties or injury. The cause was attributed to the broken rear axle, according to Trung. The Thanh Son Cooperative, which operates the bus, was then required by the center to review all of its old buses, put them under maintenance, and register for a quality evaluation. The center has also promised to perform regular checks on all public transport vehicles in use so as to ensure the safety of passengers. The bus, one of the No. 29 series, commuting from Thu Duc Produce Market in Thu Duc District to Cat Lai Port in District 2, is amongst the many vehicles yet to be renovated and upgraded into a new model. The old model has been in use for nearly 10 years, notorious for an unaesthetic exterior and interior, an inadequate cooling system, grumbling engine noises, and often criticized for exhausting plumes of black smoke from its rear. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Next month CI screens an immersive series, Undercover High, in which cameras look at what really goes on in American schools. This follows seven young adults, ranging in age from 21 to 26, who embed themselves for a semester in Topeka, Kansas Highland Park High School. It screened in the US in January and begins here with a double episode premiere. As an expansion of the ground-breaking 60 Days In series, six adults are going undercover for a semester inside one of Americas most distressed high schools. Undercover High is an unprecedented social experiment where participants will act as both students and staff to see whats really going on before (and after) the bell rings. Their goal: blend in so they can understand what (or who) is causing the violence, drugs, teen pregnancy and serious issues facing this school. Tuesdays from April 3 at 7.30pm on Crime + Investigation. Nine will screen a recent UK special Weinstein: The Inside Story on disgraced Hollywood mogul, Harvey Weinstein. The documentary, co-produced by Panorama and the PBS series Frontline, takes an in-depth look at the ways Weinstein allegedly covered up crimes and abuse. It screened in the UK earlier this month on BBC. This special charts the rise and fall of Harvey Weinstein, revealing how he got away with horrific abuse and harassment for over four decades. Through the words of his victims and those closest to him, well expose the astonishing lengths Weinstein went to keep his abuse silent. Born to Kill? Class of Evil is out this Sunday. 9:40pm Sunday on Nine. Former Seven News journalist Dylan Howard, who is now chief content officer at US magazine giant American Media Inc, filed proceedings against Nine last week alleging trespass. The complaint follows Liam Bartlett reportedly filing a 60 Minutes story on Harvey Weinstein. Howard was also named as a defendant. Howard and American Media sought court orders restraining Nine from airing footage obtained in the lobby of the publishers New York headquarters on March 7th. But the NSW Supreme Court heard yesterday that the matter had been settled. Howard, who was sacked by Seven in 2008 following controversy about the airing of AFL players medical records, was among those allegedly enlisted by Weinstein to uncover information about those accusing the movie mogul of sexual assault and harassment. He denies any conflict of interest. Fairfax reports Nine agreed, without making any admissions, not to broadcast or otherwise publish footage obtained when its camera was beyond the turnstiles located in the lobby of American Medias offices at 4 New York Plaza. FremantleMedia will adapt Man Booker Prize winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North into a high-end drama. The novel by Australian author, Richard Flanagan, was inspired by Flanagan hearing his father tell stories about being a POW during World War II. His father was taken prisoner by the Japanese and forced to work on the Thailand-Burma railway, famously known as the Hellfire Pass. The Narrow Road the Deep North follows one man as he comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost. The book sold in excess of a million copies in 42 countries, with the Financial Times describing it as nothing short of a masterpiece and The Observer calling it a novel of extraordinary power. I am delighted that The Narrow Road to the Deep North is to become a major international TV series in this age of great television drama, promising the quality, the depth, and the occasional brilliance of which the form is now capable, Flanagan said. Jo Porter, Director of Drama, FremantleMedia Australia said: The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a compelling universal story that has stayed with me since I first read it. Rich with insights on the human condition, it is ripe for screen adaptation with huge visual potential and scale. At its core is an achingly powerful examination of the many forms of love, forged through the crucible of war. FremantleMedia Australia is proud to be adapting Richard Flanagans brilliant novel for the screen, and we are confident, like this beloved novel, it will resonate with audiences all around the world. A screenwriter and network are yet to be announced. Belgian nuns created a system of alarms and delaying tactics, including flirting and "not understanding" German, to hide refugees and Jews from the Nazis. Two nuns were shot by French soldiers who thought they were German spies. These and other stories recently discovered in letters and other documents written by Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in German-occupied Belgium and Italy during World War II have inspired a book by University of Dayton law professor Dennis Turner. "I call the book 'imaginative nonfiction.' It's inspired by the letters and the other documents. The book features a fictional nun, Sister Christina, in a fictional order, the Sisters of Our Lady of Namur. Sister Christina's narration is based in large part on the events described in the original letters and documents. The book portrays how ordinary people will risk their lives to aid victims of war," Turner said. "I found some really fascinating stories in these letters. It's marvelous to learn how a group of nuns who were usually faithful to their vows bent those rules to protect refugees from the Gestapo. They also were good spies. Their veils and cloaks made them invisible while in plain sight, and their skill at masking their emotions provided them with an aura of calmness, even when being questioned by German police." Turner will roll out What Did You Do in the War, Sister?, set to publish this week, at events in April at the University of Dayton School of Law and University of Dayton Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The event at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. April 3 at the 1700 S. Patterson Building on River Campus. The law school event is at 5:30 p.m. April 11 in Keller Hall 120. "Dennis used some unusual and previously unavailable records to provide a perspective on World War II and the roles played by Catholic nuns in anti-Nazi activities and the Belgian Resistance movement that is entirely new," said Don Lystra, an award-winning fiction writer who has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. "While remaining true to the historical accuracy of his source material, he has crafted an engaging account of World War II. Readers interested in World War II, as well as those fascinated by accounts of remarkable courage exhibited in the lives of ordinary people, will find this book a fascinating and valuable experience." In addition to the letters, some of which are reprinted in the book, Turner rounded out his research with a trip to Belgium where he and his wife, Kathy, visited many locations where Sister Christina's story unfolds. "Extraordinary coincidences, or some may say miracles, played a large part in the writing the book," Turner said. For example, a chance email sent to the publisher of Belgium in the Second World War led to a friendship with the author, widely respected international diplomat and Belgian ambassador Jean-Michel Veranneman. The ambassador, Turner added, was invaluable in keeping him from straying too far from historical facts. "I cannot think of any non-Belgian better qualified than Professor Dennis Turner to write a book telling a story happening in my country. Not only does he hold degrees in history and law from the best American universities, but he also took the trouble to travel to Belgium, especially Namur, to visit where his story happened," Veranneman said. "And what a story it is. I am sure American, Belgian and other readers will all take pleasure in reading his well-researched book, as it will broaden their knowledge of the lesser known events in a smaller country during that really earth-shattering event that was the Second World War. "History is like a mosaic, and Dennis Turner's work is both a beautiful and important stone of that mosaic." There was more serendipity to come, Turner added. Back in Dayton, a dinner guest introduced Turner to a friend in nearby Yellow Springs, Ohio, Andree Bognar, who lived in Nazi-occupied Belgium during World War II. Bognar, in turn, made arrangements for Turner to meet and interview her two sisters, Therese Vandermotte and Mimi Wolfss, in Louvain, Belgium, about their experiences as children in German-occupied Belgium. After having lunch with the sisters, the next day Turner was snapping photos of the Sisters of Notre Dame chapel in Saint-Hubert when he met Guy Joris. Joris told Turner he was the grandson of Gaston Joris who rebuilt the chapel after the war. Guy offered Turner pictures of his grandfather helping set the cornerstone. A friend of Turner introduced Turner to a publisher and another friend offered to edit the book for free. The final piece of luck happened in one of Turner's University of Dayton Osher classes. A student, Sam Lauber, told Turner he was one of those Belgian children hidden in a convent during the German occupation. "It's almost like I was meant to write the book," Turner said. While writing the book, he also appreciated the many similarities between being a trial lawyer, and a law professor and an author of a book, similarities he can use in the classroom. "Much like the Sisters of Our Lady of Namur, lawyers need to work with rules and regulations, which do not work in all situations. Flexibility and appreciation of the ambiguity of laws and facts are essential to being a good attorney," Turner said. "The plotline of a book is no different than the plotline of a closing argument in a trial. Both kinds of stories must fit the facts. If there are gaps and inconsistencies in the stories, readers and jurors will reject them. If that happens, books will remain unsold and clients will lose. Proceeds from the events will benefit the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. For more information on the book and related events, visit the related link. WHITE SUPREMACY is ingrained into cultural ideals and the public psyche. The far-right and right wing tend to win more elections and gain prominence for longer periods due to nationalistic rhetoric. In Britain, the historical violence against anyone who wasnt Aryan is largely suppressed and hidden from the public due to the horrific truth of violence and oppression against entire populations based on their skin colour and origin of birth. The British Empire was built on those very beliefs that the Aryan race was superior and civilised compared to newly discovered lands. This is apparent in the very nature of claiming superiority for discovering others cultural heritage and great technical advances with no recognition of indigenous populations who cultivated them. Modern day attitudes The idea of racial superiority is inherently ingrained in the British psyche and society, with racial focused political parties using different rhetoric to push the same ideals that fuelled the British Empire. Not every Briton is racist and there are plenty who pursue an active anti-racist ideology. But when you examine the passive enablers of British colonial and Nazi ideology, there is a distinct use of language and rhetoric unwittingly repeated by many regular people who may or may not be educated and could be left or right wing on the spectrum. Firstly, the idea of bombing or invading another country is often seen as a positive idea by many the public. Putting this into perspective, when a terrorist attacks Britain and kills children, there are many calls to bring down the organisation behind the terrorist attack and even a knee-jerk reaction in blaming Muslims, even if they have nothing to do with an incident. There is of course a need to deal with such issues, but a military reaction would be ridiculous. Yet, when MPs speak of bombing or invading another country under the guise of liberation, the killing of innocent people is disregarded entirely. This could be put down to two different aspects, one, they are far away and out of sight, therefore, its easier to pretend that it doesnt happen. Two, it is down to the very essence of growing up being spoon-fed colonial lies through the teaching of history and this has ingrained a sense of superiority that is associated with race. Secondly, when Adolf Hitler first decided to join the Workers Party, it was 3-4 men meeting in a pub, but from it blossomed his idea of creating the National Socialist Party or Nazi. Furthermore, during his time in prison, he penned the first part of Mein Kampf and spoke of needing to create a new party ideology to successfully combat the mainstream socialist and conservative ideologies. This is where he took inspiration from Mussolinis authoritarian regime and his own belief that it should be based on the ideas of a strong leader. But he also took his resentment for anything different to the Aryan stock and failures by successive governments to propel the Weimar Republic into an empire. Thus, this created a Nationalistic Racialist political party. Since those days, racism, prejudices of any kind have been frowned upon, but in this modern day, the term racialist has been replaced with cultural. Every party who seeks to whip up nationalist sentiment speaks the same as Hitler spoke in Mein Kampf when he talked of racial identity but use the term cultural identity instead. If you begin to look at the similarities, there are more nationalistic ideas that crop up about workers and the how labour forces are paid very little for their hard work, then if you replace the word Jew with Muslim, they are almost the same (he was a fan of the German word for tremendous). The idea of racial superiority is taught everywhere from a young and that sentiment is slowly changing with the next few generations more likely to break out of that cycle due to the availability of information. However, there is still a long way to go and its going to take further analysis to fully comprehend the similarities. theresa MAY has blamed Russia for the attempted murder of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury. Furthermore, it has been released that since the EU referendum, the Conservatives have received 800,000 in donations from Russian oligarchs. But why was Jeremy Corbyn jeered and booed for pointing this out? The idea that a politician was booed and then accused of political point scoring by those who were using it to score political points, for making a valid point over the potential conflict of interest over the alleged spy poisoning, is an absurd idea. Poison politics Corbyn made a valid point because Theresa May has accused the Russian government of either complicity and conspiracy to kill someone in another sovereign state or incompetence over their ability to contain a deadly nerve agent. Those strong words must be met with strong retribution if those claims are provably true. But the money received by May since becoming PM and leader of the Conservatives does not look good in anyway shape or form for the PM and her party. Corbyn also got jeered for suggesting reasonable dialogue should be the first course of action, does this mean the Conservatives are actively looking to start a war? The money would first have to have provable links to the Russian government, which one of the donors has significant influence with Putin and is an ally of the dictator. The money is directly linked to Putin himself, couple that with the evidence that they influenced public opinion over Brexit and are currently being investigated in the US. If there is a provable link between the poisoning and the Russian government, then May has to be tough but with significant donations made, including 300,000 from someone close to Putin, for an evening with Defence Minister and former chief whip, Gavin Williamson, this would prove difficult for May to do be able to be objective. Russia has since blamed Britain, but what is not being reported is the state of the Middle-East due to colonial agendas by Britain and allies, who face similar opposition from Russia and allies. Both are supporting different factions to gain power for oil and economic advantage, along with geopolitical advantages over their rivals. However, Mays Blame Game, which could be risky is most likely a PR exercise to look strong because it is going to be almost impossible to conclusively prove that Russia did do it and even if they could, I doubt they want to, unless it is an excuse to use military action to force Russia out of the Middle-East. Chaharsahnbe_Suri is an Iranian festival celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz (the Iranian New Year's day). A few days ago, the main Iranian opposition group the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), which has headquarters inside the country, called for mobilisation in connection with Chaharshanbeh Suri. The 2018 date is March 13 and the festival has its origin in ancient Iranian rituals. Despite all the crackdowns over the past 39 years by the Islamic Republic, the ritual is still observed by an increasing number of people. However, Chaharshanbeh Suri is now more of a nightmare for the mullahs. PMOI/MEK call for anti-government protests This year, due to the massive protests that shook the regime to its core in late December and January, the regimes concerns have grown even more regarding public gatherings in general and celebrations, such as Chaharshanbeh Suri. In part, the call by the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) said, In the national festival of Chaharshanbeh Suri, the ceremony of lightning and freedom in the darkness of the clerical tyranny comes to the fore. The uprising is flaring again in Iran; at the national festival of Chaharsahnbe Suri, every alley will be a trench, every house a castle, and every street will turn into the battlefield in the campaign for Freedom. At the national ceremony of the Chaharshanbeh Suri, the young revolutionaries and the rebellious centres will start another insurrection against the clerical regime dictatorship. There is no stopping the storm of the uprising, and it will continue until the overthrow of religious fascism with the slogans of 'Death to the principle of Velayat-e faqih' and 'The auspicious Spring of Freedom is on its way'. In anxiety over the potential escalation of anti-government protests during Chaharshanbeh Suri, the State Security Forces have taken extensive measures throughout the country. People are determined to continue the uprising According to Tasnim News Agency (Affiliated to Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards), on March 7, 2018, Gholamreza Zahedipour, the South Khorasan Security Forces Prevention Officer, said that 50,000 tons of various fireworks materials ( sparklers, rockets, firecrackers, etc.) have been seized this year. He said that the business license of any shop found to be selling these kinds of materials will be revoked. He added that South Khorasan is ready for Chaharshanbeh Suri and that control measures have been intensified at the checkpoints. Zahedipur warned that a serious and uncompromising approach will be adopted towards those who cause public disorder on Chaharshanbeh Suri. In another such seizure of materials, on February 23 the State-run Mehr News Agency quoted IRGC officer, Alireza Lotfi, the head of security section of State Security Forces in Tehran, as saying that they have arrested a man with a total of 24.75 million various fireworks (sparklers, rockets, firecrackers and more) in his car. According to Lotfi, following an inspection of his premises, over 30 million other types of similar materials were discovered. This mood has been apparent in statements issued by Prosecutor Generals and Revolutionary Prosecutors of various provinces and cities around the country. In many cases, they have declared that they have set up a special branch to deal with violations and possible crimes related to Chaharshanbeh Suri. The cities in which the State Security Forces will be on full alert include Tehran, Shiraz (capital of Fars province), Qazvin (capital of Markazi province), Ardebil (capital of Ardebil province), Hamedan (capital of Hamedan province), Sari (capital of Mazandaran province), Amol (Mazandaran province), Birjand (capital of Southern Khorasan province), and Qom (capital of Qum province). In the last few weeks, people from all over the country and in particular the youth, despite all the measures taken by the regime and its various suppressive forces, are determined to continue the uprising to uproot this regime. The evidence can be seen in protests by people from all walks of life, such as farmers, students, workers, women, and others, but Chaharshanbeh Suri, on the back of the call for mobilisation in connection with this event by PMOI/MEK, will give the festival a new definition and a new function as a gigantic annual anti-government demonstration. Fire is now a symbol of Iranian hatred and anger over this regime. During the election campaign, Theresa May told Jeremy Paxman that no deal is better than a bad deal. However, she may have to think again. According to research conducted by law firm Clifford Chance and consultancy Oliver Wyman, some UK industries could face dire consequences if the UK and EU are unable to agree on a mutually beneficial trade agreement. The Report states that the additional 'red-tape costs' to cover non-tariff and tariff barriers would have to be carried by UK and EU firms, with UK industries coughing up 27 million and EU firms the remaining 31 million. Such astronomical costs could "threaten to reduce profitability and pose existential threats to some businesses." What happens in a no-deal Brexit scenario? If the EU and UK fail to come to an agreement and establish a deal that is satisfactory to both sides, the relationship between the UK and the EU would once again be subject to World Trade Organisation rules. The deadline to reach a Trade Deal is the end of the transition period which begins in March 2019. The report also points out that a no-deal outcome would leave certain industries particularly vulnerable. Agriculture, consumer goods, finance, the car industry, and the food and drinks industry would be likely to share 70 percent of the additional costs. Because some of these industries are located in clustered areas, areas like London (finance) and Bavaria (automotive) would see the most drastic effects of a no-trade deal Brexit. Remaining in the customs union would eliminate additional costs Though the report suggests that remaining in the customs union would allow firms to avoid the costs of tariffs and border checks, Theresa May has been adamant in saying that doing so would "betray the vote of the people." But the report points out that a comprehensive customs union post-Brexit, leaving current arrangements broadly in place, would eliminate a large proportion of the costs. Tariffs and border costs could prove to be a significant burden for many UK and EU companies. To counter these ill-effects, the report suggests that companies could use domestic suppliers over foreign ones and perhaps choose different locations for the final stages of production. Additionally, improving IT systems and establishing greater warehouse capacities at borders could also help to reduce costs, the report explains. Some industries more vulnerable than others The authors of this report point to the financial sector as being in a particularly precarious position seeing as it doesn't operate a traditional goods supply chain. In contrast, the report considers the automotive and aviation industry as less vulnerable and more adaptable. Discussions about the financial services industries in London have been ardent. Last week, both UBS and Goldman Sachs began transferring jobs to Frankfurt to prepare for Brexit. More job losses in the London area in this sector appear likely. While the UK government remains hopeful that banks will maintain their presence in London, the EU has been eager to point out that the UK finance industry will also have a different relationship post-Brexit. The Bank of England has warned that approximately 10,000 financial services jobs could be at risk because of Brexit. Whilst Russia dominate the headlines, there are some stories that have been buried in the process, firstly, Philip Hammond will reveal his first Spring Statement after scrapping the Spring Budget last year. The government will be voting on the axing of Free School Meals with a notable exception. Londoners back plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street and Jean-Claude Juncker has issued an ultimatum to Theresa May over Brexit. There has been reconciliation in Palestine but marred with attack on convoy, a suicide bomber hit UAE trained soldiers in Yemen and Turkey have claimed they have surrounded the Kurdish forces in Afrin. Spring statement and Brexit Whilst this may not be buried, the focus is somewhat off it due to the Russian spy poisoning, because that has a little bit more excitement to it than an economic statement by Philip Hammond. Nonetheless, Hammond will make his statement and is expected to say that the OECD has raised its forecast for UK growth this year, but only to 1.3%. It then slows to 1.1% in 2019. Thats weaker than last Novembers Budget forecasts (which could be revised up today). In contrast, the global economy is expected to grow by 3.0% this year, with the eurozone expanding by 2.3%. The OECD says Brexit uncertainty and falling real wages are hurting UK growth. He is also likely to announce several consultations, these could then lead to reforms and policy changes within the Autumn budget. There is a possibility of reformation to the tax system to tackle the increase in plastic waste as it reaches dangerous levels in the sea, building upon the 5p plastic bag charge. Plus, there are several possible consultations that include the taxation of the UKs digital economy, the simplification of tax, AI and the VAT system for small businesses. Jean-Claude Juncker used a speech in the European parliament to appeal for Mays wishes, sketched out in her Mansion House speech on 2 March, to be turned into an achievable blueprint and reiterated that the EU will stand by its backstop plan to keep Northern Ireland under EU law to avoid a hard border with the Irish Republic. The danger, Juncker claimed, was that the prime ministers goal of an enduring Brexit agreement would not be met, and the UK would be locked in constant and destabilising negotiations with Brussels for many years to come. Cutting free school meals In legislation that will get voted on immediately following the Spring Statement, the Tories are set to cut the threshold for free school meals for the children of families on Universal Credit to 7,400 per year. The threshold will represent a cliff edge, meaning that if families earn a penny over it, they will have their entitlement to free school meals removed completely. However, it seems that to ensure the 10 DUP MPs in Parliament side with them in the vote tomorrow, the Tories have incredibly decided to exempt Northern Ireland, where the threshold will be almost double, at 14,000. Middle-East A suicide bombing hit Yemeni troops trained by the United Arab Emirates in the government bastion of Aden on Tuesday, a security source said, with at least five people dead or wounded. The attack in the north of the port city hit an army mess hall serving the so-called Security Belt brigade, supported by government ally the UAE. Aden is controlled by the Yemeni government and its allies in a Saudi-led coalition, who are battling Shia Houthi rebels who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north. But it also hosts militants of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, who have both claimed attacks in the city in recent years. Leaders of Fatah and Hamas on Thursday hailed a unity deal signed in Cairo which they said would end the decade-long rift between the rival Palestinian factions, but many Palestinians expressed scepticism that the agreement would lead to genuine reconciliation. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the deal, telling the AFP news agency that he had given orders for it to be signed immediately, following two days of talks mediated by the head of Egypt's general intelligence agency. The Palestinian Authority has blamed Hamas after an explosion targeted Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah's convoy on its way into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Hamdallah was not injured in the explosion, which occurred shortly after his convoy entered for a rare visit to the territory, a security source in the convoy said, but seven people were wounded. Hamas's spokesperson condemned the bomb attack and rejected the accusations from the PA that it had carried out the attack. The explosion happened after Hamdallah's convoy entered northern Gaza through the Erez checkpoint on the border with Israel. * Rising copper demand drives explorers to riskier places * Several miners to drill in Mongolian desert this year * Face political and economic risks, extremes of weather * At time of depleted copper deposits in No.1 producer Chile (Stuttgart: 704599.SG - news) By Barbara Lewis LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - When temperatures rise and winds drop in the coming weeks, a band of explorers will hunt for copper riches in Mongolia's Gobi Desert. For years Rio Tinto (Hanover: CRA1.HA - news) has been the sole international copper mine operator in Mongolia, bound closely to a country where it has bet billions of dollars on the giant Oyu Tolgoi project. Others have steered clear due to the risks of operating in a nation with an unpredictable and young democracy and judiciary, a frail economy and extreme weather. Now (Frankfurt: 11N.F - news) rising global demand for a metal used in electric cars and renewable energy, at a time of increased costs and depleted deposits in the world's biggest copper producer Chile, is driving miners to riskier locations. Some are looking to Mongolia. Geologists say deposits like Oyu Tolgoi - meaning Turquoise Hill because of the staining of the rocks by oxidised copper - rarely occur in isolation. That means, for some miners, the chances of finding another make the east Asian nation worth a calculated gamble, especially given its proximity to the world's biggest copper consumer, China. The new charge is led by a group of about half a dozen smaller players, including Australia's Xanadu Mines (Frankfurt: 02X.F - news) , Canada's Kincora Copper and U.S. company Wood Capital Partners (IOB: 0QOQ.IL - news) , which have higher risk appetites and are seeking to steal a march on competitors. Wood Capital Partners, set up by two former Citigroup (Swiss: C-USD.SW - news) bankers and specialised in acquiring distressed assets, told Reuters it had invested "several million dollars" in exploration territory in the Southern Gobi. Story continues Co-CEO and Managing Partner Stephen Dizard said the firm bought the concession - which is 364 square km, or about six times the size of Manhattan - from a frontier markets fund which was in liquidation. He wanted to get into Mongolia ahead of a rush driven by the global hunt for new copper. He said miners would become increasingly confident in buying assets in the country because the economy was slowly improving, aided by an International Monetary Fund bailout. "It (Mongolia) was distressed financially and distressed across the sector," Dizard added. "We took the view, the situation had to improve. It has." Beginning in March and April, he said the company's drilling budget would be "a minimum of a seven-figure number". Sam Spring, CEO of Kincora, said it raised about $4.5 million last year to fund its Mongolian exploration. The company, which has licences for more than 1,400 square km of land, drilled 6,000 metres last year and results were promising, and that it would step up activity in late March or early April. "We've started to see a change of investor sentiment. There is increasing infrastructure and hopefully we are seeing tailwinds rather than headwinds," added Spring, who describes Mongolia as one of the last frontiers for top-quality copper assets. Andrew Stewart, CEO of Xanadu, thinks he will be able to gather enough information over the coming months to determine whether he can justify establishing a mine in the country. He is planning drilling using four rigs compared with two last year. "Mongolia is very good because it has the prospectivity," he said. DESERT LABYRINTH The dream is another discovery on the scale of Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi - a chain of deposits in the southern Gobi, about 550 km south of the capital Ulaanbaatar and 80 km north of the border with China. But even Rio Tinto , which is relying on Mongolia to drive growth after committing about $12 billion to the project, only resumed exploration there last year after a five-year hiatus during the copper market downturn. The Anglo-Australian miner says it has still to make any return on its investment, but in January it announced an exploration office in Ulaanbaatar, its first formal office in the capital. This was a symbolic move intended to underline to the government its commitment to the country, according to industry sources. Rio Tinto says the office will employ 80 staff and cover technology as well as exploration. To make up for dwindling output at the open pit mine Rio Tinto is building a labyrinth of underground tunnels that will increase annual output to 560,000 tonnes, about three times current production from the open pit. Ramping up the underground operations will begin around the start of the next decade. As well as the market downturn, Rio Tinto has had to contend with wrangles with the Mongolian government over taxes and power supply. The mine is jointly owned by the government, with 34 percent, and Turquoise Hill Resources (Frankfurt: A1J2DT - news) with 66 percent. Turquoise Hill is in turn 51 percent-owned by Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques said problems were inevitable but his company was there for the long haul. "My personal experience over the last five years is, that you know, lots of issues as you would expect, but each time we have been able to work through them," he said last month. "I'm not saying it's going to be easy." -40C TO 40C Miners and political analysts say that, while the economy in Mongolia is gradually improving, the legal system is opaque and frequent changes in government since the country became a democracy three decades ago have created policy uncertainty, making investors wary. The Mongolian mining ministry did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Miners must also deal with temperatures that can swing from -40C to 40C, and ferocious winds that can last for days. As a result, they tend to limit drilling programmes in the Gobi to between late March and November. By contrast, drilling can take place all year round in Chile and other Latin American countries. Such considerations have deterred most miners for many years. BHP Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie, for example, told Reuters his preference was for safe jurisdictions, namely the Americas. He described Mongolia as "potentially very prospective but not without security and geopolitical challenges". But copper market conditions are slowly driving change. Rio Tinto's renewed activity and the exploration of rivals comes as demand increases for a metal needed in large quantities for the electric-vehicle and renewable energy industries. Copper prices have rebounded to nearly $7,000 a tonne from lows around $4,300 a tonne hit in early 2016, which was their weakest since 2009. At the same time, Chile's long-exploited ore bodies are ageing and challenged by arsenic concentrations and proximity to large populations. Mine workers there have also been demanding higher wages, adding to costs. Such is the draw of Mongolia - which has the same type of "porphyry" rock formations - that even Chile's giant state copper company Codelco has said it is considering investing in the Asian nation. An advantage of the porphyry formations is that the copper is often accompanied by gold, which can effectively subsidise the copper production. "Mongolia represents a very prospective region for copper deposits of the porphyry type," said Jamie Wilkinson, research leader in mineral deposits at London's Natural History Museum. "Oyu Tolgoi was found in 2001. There have been some small discoveries since then but nothing on the same scale. There is lots of potential for future discoveries." 'NOT FOR FAINT-HEARTED' However, while there may be geological potential, there is no guarantee of unearthing commercial volumes of copper, and luck is always a significant factor. The interest from overseas explorers, if sustained, could nonetheless prove crucial for Mongolia itself, which is heavily dependent on commodities and had to turn to the IMF last year following a collapse in foreign investment. About 30 percent of its 3 million people live in poverty, according to 2016 figures from the World Bank and Mongolia's national statistical office. Moody's raised the country's sovereign debt rating by a notch in January, following the IMF bailout deal, but it is still deep in junk territory. The deal has helped the country pay off its sovereign debt and stabilised the local currency, the tugrik, but required Ulaanbaatar to introduce measures such as higher taxes and cuts to social welfare. Iain Watt, CEO of mining business IGI's UK operations, said it too was exploring possibilities in Mongolia, as well as central Asia, and that there was clear potential for investors. "Mongolia is definitely on the up - but it's not for the faint-hearted." (Reporting by Barbara Lewis in London; Additional reporting by Terrence Edwards in Ulaanbaatar and Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by Pravin Char) The effectiveness of homeopathic remedies has been disputed for decades (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) One of the countrys leading homeopathy hospitals will no longer provide NHS-funded remedies. The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine formerly the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital has been told it can no longer spend any public money on the treatments. Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, has described homeopathy as at best a placebo and a misuse of scarce NHS funds. MORE: Spring statement: anaemic UK GDP growth below 2% for next five years Homeopathy is a system of alternative medicine based on the premise that like cures like using specially prepared, highly diluted substances (given mainly in tablet form) with the aim of triggering the bodys own healing mechanisms. For example, pollens might be used to offer a homeopathic treatment for hay fever. Critics argue treatments are little more than an expensive con. NHS-funded homeopathy treatments are being blocked at a major London hospital (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) In a leaflet handed out to patients, the hospital says: From 3rd April 2018, The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (RLHIM) will no longer be providing NHS-funded homeopathic remedies for any patients as part of their routine care. This is in line with the funding policy of Camden Clinical Commissioning Groups, the local NHS body that plans and pays for healthcare services in this area. MORE: New NHS tax should replace National Insurance Should you choose you will be able to purchase these medicines from the RLHIM pharmacy, while other homeopathic pharmacies may also be able to supply the medicines. The area of the NHS funding homeopathic remedies has been a controversial one for decades. The NHS itself says that there is no good-quality evidence that homeopathy is effective as a treatment for any health condition. The Good Thinking Society, which has campaigned for the NHS to stop spending money on homeopathy, told the BBC: The only areas of the UK still wasting money on these disproven treatments are Bristol and Glasgow. MORE: NHS England spends 4.5m a year on dandruff shampoos Meanwhile, the British Homeopathic Association said in a tweet: When considering value for money, it should be remembered that if patients were not treated with the NHS homeopathy service, they would have to be treated by other NHS departments using more expensive conventional drugs. A petition it has organised calling for NHS England to stop withdrawing homeopathic remedies has attracted 34,118 signatures. Once every couple dozen millennia, Earth undergoes a cataclysm, the eruption of one of a handful of the so-called supervolcanoes on its surface. They have a nasty habit of throwing the planet into a global winter. We haven't seen one in the past 20 or 30 thousand years, so while scientists can measure impacts like quarter-mile-thick layers of ash, it's harder to understand how humans would have fared during these blasts and their aftermath. But according to a new paper published in the journal Nature, at least some groups of early humans did just fine in the wake of one gigantic eruption, which took place about 74,000 years ago at the Toba supervolcano in Indonesia. 03_12_toba_supervolcano NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team Trending: What Is French Fashion Designer Givenchy's Net Worth? The study was based on archaelogical evidence gathered at two sites in South Africa, about 5,500 miles away from the supereruption. This was just before humans began to leave Africa, and scientists had long wondered how bad the Toba eruption had been for early humans. What allowed the new study to start answering that question was one microscopically tiny piece of volcanic glass, flung out by the cataclysmic eruption and carried by the winds to South Africa, where it caught the eye of co-author Panagiotis Karkanas, an archaeologist at the American School of Classical Studies in Greece. Read more: Explore the cave where mysterious human ancestor homo naledi was discovered in live broadcasts from South Africa Don't miss: Zooey Deschanel's 'Beauty and the Beast' Live in Concert: How and Where to Buy Tickets "It was one shard particle out of millions of other mineral particles that I was investigating," Karkanas said in a press release. "But it was there, and it couldn't be anything else." Story continues And because the scientists were armed with incredibly precise measuring tools to track successive layers of artifacts, they could confirm that humans lived at the site, called Pinnacle Point, before, during, and after the supervolcano eruption. 03_12_pinnacle_point_settlement Erich Fisher Most popular: Vote to Extend Xi Jinping's Term Shows Growing Crackdown on Dissent, Biographer Says "During and after the time of the Toba eruption people lived at the site continuously, and there was no evidence that it impacted their daily lives," co-author Erich Fisher, who studies early humans at Arizona State University, said in a press release. To the team behind the new paper, that suggests that the area around Pinnacle Point was somehow buffered from the food shortages they would have expected to see from the cold, dark conditions after a supereruption. Given the site's coastal location, they think the secret may have been plentiful seafood. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek By Francois Murphy VIENNA (Reuters) - With a party founded by ex-Nazis back in government, Austria marked the 80th anniversary of its annexation by Adolf Hitler's Germany on Monday with greater public self-examination than usual. Hitler sent troops into Austria, the land of his birth, on March 12, 1938, in pursuit of his dream of a "Greater Germany". They were greeted by cheering crowds who waved swastika flags and made the Nazi salute. For decades after World War Two, Austria presented itself as the first victim of Nazism. While that official position has changed and now stresses the need for Austria to accept responsibility, there is still far less public discussion and commemoration of that chapter of its history than in Germany. The anniversary also coincides with the advent of a new conservative-led coalition government in Vienna that includes the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO), founded by former Nazis in the 1950s. "Austrians were not only victims but also perpetrators, often in positions of leadership," President Alexander Van der Bellen told a ceremony that included ministers from both Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's conservative party and the FPO. "Austria recognises its responsibility," said Van der Bellen, a left-leaning environmentalist who beat the FPO candidate in a presidential election runoff in 2016. SCEPTICISM The FPO now focuses its criticism on Islam while courting Jewish voters and denouncing anti-Semitism. But Israel refuses to deal with FPO ministers and some Jewish leaders are sceptical about whether the party has really changed. The FPO is setting up a committee of historians to look into its past after two of its members' right-wing fraternities were involved in an anti-Semitism scandal. The head of Austria's main Jewish organisation, Oskar Deutsch, attended Monday's ceremony, though his group has stayed away from similar events in the past because of a self-imposed ban on dealing with the FPO. Story continues Deutsch expressed scepticism about the government's announcement on Sunday evening that it hopes to build a commemorative wall that would bear the names of the 66,000 Austrian victims of the Holocaust. "I am not opposed to an additional monument in central Vienna, but a parliament without anti-Semitism and a government without German nationalist fraternity members would be more important," he said in a statement. At Monday's ceremony, held in the former imperial palace where Hitler addressed a crowd of hundreds of thousands to announce the annexation, or Anschluss in German, Van der Bellen urged Austrians to be vigilant about the threats to democracy. "(Austrians must learn) the lesson that democracies too can fall victim to populism and demagogy, the lesson that discrimination is a first step towards dehumanisation, the lesson that anti-Semitism and racism do not simply disappear but exist even today in big and small ways," he said. Chancellor Kurz, a hardliner on immigration, said Austria had a duty to "actively support Jewish life and fight every form of anti-Semitism, regardless of whether it has long been here or was freshly imported". "We also have a particular obligation towards the state of Israel and the need for security of Jews there." (Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Gareth Jones) A woman holds a flag during the maritime flag day in la Apacheta, near El Alto, Bolivia March 10, 2018. REUTERS/David Mercado Thomson Reuters LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia unfurled a nearly 200-km long (124 miles) bright blue flag on Saturday in a show of support for the landlocked country's bid to regain sovereign access to the sea. Tens of thousands of Bolivians held the so-called "flag of maritime revindication," which stretched like a long ribbon along a highway in the Andes between the towns Oruro and Apacheta, on the outskirts of La Paz. The display of patriotism aims to cheer on Bolivia's legal team ahead of oral arguments it will deliver at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the country's claim to sovereign access to Chile's Pacific coast. Bolivia lost its access to the Pacific Ocean in a late 19th century war with Chile, but maintains a navy and wants a corridor to the sea to boost its exports of natural gas and minerals. "We'll show the International Court of Justice and all people on the planet that our cause is just, reasonable and sound," President Evo Morales said after flying over the flag in a helicopter. Morales has faced street protests in recent months over his plan to seek a fourth presidential term next year, after a court eliminated term limits last year. Bolivia and Chile will start nine days of oral arguments before the ICJ on March 19. (Reporting By Daniel Ramos, Writing By Mitra Taj; Editing by David Gregorio) See Also: By Julia Symmes Cobb BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia and the Marxist ELN guerrilla group will restart peace talks in Ecuador, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday, after a six-week pause marked by deaths on both sides. Santos suspended talks in late January after the National Liberation Army (ELN) launched a series of bomb attacks that killed eight police officers and injured dozens, immediately following the end of the two sides' first-ever ceasefire. "Since the bilateral ceasefire ended, there have been too many deaths on both sides, too many wounded, too many victims - this is what we must stop," Santos said in a televised address. "And that can only be achieved by talking," he said, adding he hoped the two sides could agree to another ceasefire. Santos has said the halt to talks was a dilemma and hinted he could scrap them entirely, though he applauded the unilateral ceasefire held by the rebels during legislative elections. He acknowledges talks are unpopular and has slammed the group for its attacks on the armed forces. Santos did not specify a start date for the renewed talks, but said the government negotiators will travel back to Quito. Colombian forces have killed 34 rebels in fighting since the ceasefire ended on Jan. 9, while rebels have launched repeated attacks, killed 19 members of the armed forces and halted pumping of crude oil with bomb attacks. The ELN said in a statement it would answer Santos' call to return to negotiations and reiterated the desire for another bilateral ceasefire. "We join President Santos' call to restart talks, with the conviction that it is better to have dialogue in the midst of a bilateral ceasefire." Talks with the former FARC rebel group, which signed a 2016 peace deal, were also fraught at times. Santos suspended talks when that group, now a political party, kidnapped a general. The peace deal failed in a referendum, but eventually passed through Congress. Story continues The ELN, founded by Roman Catholic priests in 1964, is considered more radical than the FARC and is less centralized. The group has sought peace with the government before but made little progress. Presidential elections in May could determine the fate of the talks. Left-wing candidates, including the Liberals' Humberto de la Calle, who was the government's head negotiator at the FARC talks, say negotiations are positive but not a panacea. Right-leaning candidates accuse Santos of failing to make a fair deal with the FARC - including by allowing ex-rebels to avoid jail sentences. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Helen Murphy and Matthew Lewis) Future of NASA: Who Will Take Over After Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot Retires? NASA's acting administrator Robert Lightfoot announced Monday that he will retire from the agency on April 30. Lightfoot has held the position of acting director since January 20, 2017, when the former administrator, Charles F. Bolden, resigned. Under President Donald Trump, NASA has been given aggressive directives to return humans to the moon and find ways to explore deep space and Mars. Trump reinstated the National Space Council with Vice President Mike Pence as the chairman and gave the agency the task of returning to the moon. In the letter sent to NASA employees by email, Lightfoot wrote that he would work with the White House to help transition the agency to the new administrator. He did not say who that person would be. Trending: Winter Storm Skylar: 1,500 Flights Canceled as Another Powerful Nor'easter Hammers East Coast To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. Trumps pick for administrator, former Congressman Jim Bridenstine, has been stalled for months. During a Senate confirmation hearing in November, Bridenstine was grilled about his views on climate change, NASA's research and whether he would treat everyone at the agency fairly, based on his past support of bills that discriminated against the LGBT community, The Washington Post reported. The Senate committee confirmed Bridenstine in January but the full Senate vote is still on the Senate executive calendar. Don't miss: What Is Texture: Apples Newest Acquisition Dubbed the Netflix of Magazines Lightfoot thanked everyone at NASA for their support, hard work and determination. NASAs history has many chapters with each of us having a part. Ive written my part and now the pen is in your handseach one of you, he wrote. NASA currently has several vacant top administrative positions, according to the agencys organization structure. The second highest position at NASA, the position of deputy administrator, is vacant, as is the position of chief of staff. Additionally, the position of associate administrator is being temporarily filled by Steve Jurczyk. Story continues This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed on Tuesday that allies should act together to counter "the pattern of aggressive Russian behaviour" after the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in England. Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the German leader had condemned the attack and assured May in a telephone call that she was taking the British government's views on possible Russian involvement in the attack extremely seriously. "(Merkel) said it's up to Russia to quickly provide answers to the British government's justified questions and to heed the call to completely and immediately lay bare the relevant chemical weapons programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," Seibert said. Moscow has denied any involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who have been in a critical condition in hospital since being found unconscious on March 4 on a bench in the English city of Salisbury. "They (May and Merkel) discussed the pattern of aggressive Russian behaviour and agreed it would be important to act in unison with allies to counter it," the spokesman for the British prime minister said in a statement. "They agreed that the international community should coordinate closely as the investigation developed and in the wake of Russia's response." Britain has given Russia until midnight on Tuesday to explain how a Soviet-era nerve agent came to be used against Skripal and his daughter. (Reporting by Michelle Martin and Thomas Seythal, and Elizabeth Piper in London; Editing by Gareth Jones) Illustration: Quinn Lemmers for Yahoo Lifestyle When people hear that I gave up my home to travel the world and work remotely for five years, they think Im either nuts or living the dream. The truth is somewhere in the middle. But romantic as that choice might seem, life doesnt just stop when you decide to explore the world. Money problems, health issues, personal strife they happen to us all, no matter where we go. When I began my journey abroad in 2015, at the age of 42, I prepared for some worst-case scenarios. One of those was the potential for health issues but I also figured that was what insurance was for. My first two years abroad were not struggle-free, but my health held steady. My father died just before my first anniversary as a nomad, and when that happened, I went home to Canada for a visit. While home, I took the opportunity to visit my gynecologist for a complete physical just to make sure I was healthy before I headed back into the world. My mother had died of uterine cancer years before, and I was always extra-cautious about my gynecological health. The timing was poor, and my internal exam couldnt be completed. After five dry months, I had my period before leaving home. My doctor and I discussed my bloodless months, but we both thought nothing of it stress and travel can disrupt flows. But as I resumed traveling in Europe and the weeks and months wore on, my period didnt stop. Light spotting hounded me as I moved through the Czech Republic and Hungary, and into Greece. My second-to-last night in Greece brought extremely heavy bleeding. The next day was my last before heading to Africa for a month in Morocco. I consulted a pharmacist and told them about my travel plans, and they insisted I visit an Athens ER. This was the last thing I wanted to do, but I thought of my mother and her illness, and knew I needed to go to the hospital. After eight hours of testing, I was told that Id need an outpatient procedure called an endometrial ablation. The doctor who saw me suggested that I could stave off bleeding during Morocco with progesterone tablets, then return for the ablation, which had a four-day recovery period. I took the pills and headed to pack for my flight. Story continues Morocco began uneventfully, but I felt awful. Three weeks in, things climaxed with a terrifying night of blood loss. I went through a whole pack of pads in one night, changing them every 30 minutes. Was I hemorrhaging internally? It wasnt just heavy bleeding, it was a horror show. The next morning, I sobbed while telling my German innkeeper of my terrifying night. She and her housekeeper headed out to pharmacies on my behalf and brought back copious thick pads and more progesterone. I was popping the pills Id gotten in Greece like candy, and theyd begun to work. My flow finally became somewhat manageable. But my fear intensified. The bloody horror show suggested that I had been misdiagnosed in Athens, and my thoughts once again circled back to my mother and the uterine cancer that had killed her. A doctor in Canada had once told me that because of my genetics, I had a high risk of developing uterine cancer myself. What if that was what was going on? What if I required far more than an outpatient visit? I sat in my Moroccan inn thinking over the options. Returning to Canada was out. The 12-hour flight, the likely wait of weeks for a diagnosis and then potentially months for surgery, the many thousands it would cost me to fly there and then rent a home in which to recover it seemed easier and more affordable to find a solution abroad, where the cost of living was far lower. I began researching gynecological services throughout Europe, from Scotland to Croatia to Hungary. Ten days later I boarded a flight for Albania, to visit a private but budget-friendly American-style hospital. It was scary, and I was going in blind. But it felt like my best option. As soon as I arrived in Albania, all of my fear disappeared. The Albanian hospital was a model of efficiency. Within 96 hours of landing, I had a battery of tests and went under the knife for a hysterectomy more than 5,800 miles from my former life in Vancouver. It was Dr. Zef who broke the news to me that a hysterectomy was needed. He understood English very well but was too proud to bungle his words, so hed speak Albanian to his nurse, and shed translate. When I started sobbing about my mother and my associated cancer risks, Dr. Zef stood up, rounded his desk, and squeezed me like a grandfather would. Shushing me, he wiped my tears away. Is OK, all be OK, he promised, before chuckling affectionately and squeezing my cheeks. His warm smile and sparkling eyes have stayed in my memory Ive never had such a kind face console me in a moment of need. My fear dissipated. The world needs more cheek-pinching mirthful surgeons. I thought surgery day would terrify me, but waking that morning, knowing that surgery was critical, I found strength. I was exhausted and in pain. I reflected on the days before my mothers hysterectomy. She seemed so resigned and cool. Now I understood why. Hysterectomy surgery is routine, but much can go awry. In the year since my surgery, a friends hysterectomy required an emergency bowel resection soon after. And, of course, it was my moms routine hysterectomy that revealed her cancer. She was dead six months later. The hysterectomy itself, though, is almost easy. Its recovery thats hard, its recovery when things can go wrong. For eight weeks after surgery, extreme caution is needed when lifting things. For the first four weeks, its advisable to lift only three to eight pounds at a time. This was not conducive to my solo nomadic life, which regularly required carrying around a 50-pound duffle bag. I couldnt just agree to surgery; I needed a recovery plan. We delayed surgery for 72 hours so I could prepare for my weeks ahead. Despite terrific abdominal pain, I got an Airbnb sorted out so that life in my makeshift home could be lifting-free anything I needed would be at waist height. I cooked and filled my freezer with soups that Dr. Zef insisted would be best for recovery. I stocked up on everything from toilet paper to bread and coffee. In a stroke of luck, my Airbnb hosts stepmother had been a surgical recovery nurse for 25 years. I hired her to visit me twice daily for the first week. She brought prescriptions and fruit, checked my incision for infection, and helped me clean my dressing. For the weeks of my recovery, Tirana, Albania, was my home. Initially, it was a cheap surgery destination filled with ugly communist-era construction and decaying roads. But by the end of my stay, it had stolen my heart. Tirana taught me that kindness transcends language. It convinced me that old-world medicine should go hand-in-hand with modern practices. It taught me that we only learn how strong we are when life forces our hand. And it taught me about besa, a code of honor centuries old that Albanians live by even today. Basically, friend or foe, when youre an Albanians guest, they will die to protect you. What better place to recover from surgery? Nearly a year later, leaving my uterus in Albania has made my travels better and obviously my health better too. Having a hysterectomy in Albania was never a part of my life plan, but it is what happened. And it reinforced my faith in myself and in the kindness of strangers. It also taught me that home can be found in the most unexpected of places. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. (Photo: PA Wire/PA Images) David Miliband has accused Jeremy Corbyn of behaving like Donald Trump when it comes to dealing with Russia. Speaking on BBC Radio 4s Today programme on Tuesday morning, the former Labour foreign secretary suggested Corbyn was not standing up for British citizens with his response to the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter. I tell you the really thing that struck me is that some of the contents of what Jeremy Corbyn was saying it was strangely like the kind of things President Trump says about the need to engage in dialogue, to keep on talking to them, Miliband said. No one is saying that all contact is going to be cut off. The question is whether there are actions as well as words. It is only actions that show the Russians we are serious. (Photo: PA Archive/PA Images) Miliband said it was worrying that the White House has not felt able to point the finger at Russia in the last seven or eight days. Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Corbyn said the UK needed to continue seeking a robust dialogue with Russia on all the issues rather than simply cutting off contact and letting the tensions and divisions get worse and, potentially, even more dangerous. The Labour leader was also heckled by Tory MPs for using the occasion to highlight Tory donations from Russian oligarchs. Some Labour MPs also made plain their displeasure. Theresa May has said it is highly likely that Russia was behind the attack and has given Moscow until the end of today to provide a credible explanation. (Photo: Joshua Roberts / Reuters) Miliband praised the prime minister for her response to the attempted murder. The tone Theresa May set in the House of Commons was right, he said. She was firm but not seeking to be macho. He added: This is about standing up for British citizens. Its not about being anti-Russian. Its now about starting a second Cold War. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK clearly came from Russia and vowed it will trigger a response. Story continues However before Tillersons comments, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders avoided placing the blame at Russias feet when asked if Moscow was behind the attack. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. Related... What Is Novichok? Theresa May Reveals Russian Nerve Gas That Poisoned Spy Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. National Geographic's editor-in-chief has published an extensive letter detailing the magazine's history of racism. Susan Goldberg wrote the letter from the editor as part of the April issue, which is dedicated to race and was published online on Monday. Goldberg is the first woman and the first Jewish person to hold the magazines top position. It hurts to share the appalling stories from the magazines past. But when we decided to devote our April magazine to the topic of race, we thought we should examine our own history before turning our reportorial gaze to others, Goldberg wrote in the letter. Among those appalling stories, Goldberg notes, is one that includes a photo of two Aboriginal people in Australia with a caption calling them "savages" with the lowest intelligence "of all human beings." Trending: Why Are Democrats Backing a Former NRA-Supporter Over a First-Time Black Woman Candidate? To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. National Geographic staff didnt examine their magazine's history alone; they asked an expert for help. John Edwin Mason, who teaches African history at the University of Virginia, highlighted some of the most egregious examples and omissions as part of the review. For example, he noted that a story about South Africa in the early 1960s failed to mention the Sharpeville massacre, when police killed 69 black people who were protesting the countrys discriminatory system of internal passports. National Geographics story barely mentions any problems, Mason told Goldberg, pointing out that many of the black South Africans who are included in the piece are servants or workers. Its bizarre, actually, to consider what the editors, writers, and photographers had to consciously not see. Don't miss: Who is Larry Kudlow? Former Democrat Turned Conservative Republican in Line for Top White House Economic Job This isnt the first time that National Geographic has been associated with racism. One former editor, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, was described in a 2013 cultural study as not merely conservative but frequently an outright racist, the New Yorker reported. (Grosvenor is not mentioned in Goldberg's letter.) Story continues This mea culpa follows closely on the heels of another. As Ann-Derrick Gaillot noted for The Outline, National Geographics article was published days after the New York Times published Overlooked," a series of obituaries that covered the lives of 15 women, including several women of color. Its not every day that we see major, canonical media outlets admit that their power had been wielded in ways that upheld racism and sexism, she wrote. Other stories in National Geographic's Race issue include a cover story on biracial fraternal twins who have different skin colors and a feature on how skulls were used to define racial labels. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek Ever since humans could look up to see the sky, we have been amazed by its beauty and untold mysteries. Naturally then, astronomy is often described as the oldest of the sciences, inspiring people for thousands of years. Celestial phenomena are featured in prehistoric cave paintings. And monuments such as the Great Pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge seem to be aligned with precision to cardinal points or the positions where the moon, sun or stars rise and set on the horizon. Today, we seem to struggle to imagine how ancient people could build and orient such structures. This has led to many assumptions. Some suggest prehistoric people must have had some knowledge of mathematics and sciences to do this, whereas others go so far as to speculate that alien visitors showed them how to do it. But what do we actually know about how people of the past understood the sky and developed a cosmology? A scientific discipline called archaeoastronomy or cultural astronomy, developed in the 1970s, is starting to provide insights. This subject combines various specialist areas, such as astronomy, archaeology, anthropology and ethno-astronomy. Simplistic methods The pyramids of Egypt are some of the most impressive ancient monuments, and several are oriented with high precision. Egyptologist Flinder Petrie carried out the first high-precision survey of the Giza pyramids in the 19th century. He found that each of the four edges of the pyramids bases point towards a cardinal direction to within a quarter of a degree. But how did the Egyptians know that? Just recently, Glen Dash, an engineer who studies the Giza pyramids, proposed a theory. He draws upon the ancient method of the Indian circle, which only requires a shadow casting stick and string to construct an east-west direction. He outlined how this method could have been used for the pyramids based on its simplicity alone. So could this have been the case? Its not impossible, but at this point we are in danger of falling into a popular trap of reflecting our current world views, methods and ideas into the past. Insight into mythology and relevant methods known and used at the time are likely to provide a more reliable answer. Story continues This is not the first time scientists have jumped to conclusions about a scientific approach applied to the past. A similar thing happened with Stonehenge. In 1964, the late astronomer Gerald Hawkins developed an intricate method to use pit holes and markers to predict eclipses at the mysterious monument. However, this does not mean that this is how Stonehenge was intended to be used. Way forward To start understanding the past we need to include various approaches from other disciplines to support an idea. We also have to understand that there will never be only one explanation or answer to how a monument might have been aligned or used. So how can cultural astronomy explain the pyramids alignment? A study from 2001 proposed that two stars, Megrez and Phad, in the stellar constellation known as Ursa Major may have been the key. These stars are visible through the entire night. Their lowest position in the sky during a night can mark north using the merkhet - an ancient timekeeping instrument composing a bar with a plumb line attached to a wooden handle to track stars alignment. The benefit of this interpretation is that it links to star mythology drawn from inscriptions in the temple of Horus in Edfu. These elaborate on using the merkhet as a surveying tool a technique that can also explain the orientation of other Egyptian sites. The inscription includes the hieroglyph the Bulls Foreleg which represents the Big Dipper star constellation and its possible position in the sky. Daniel Brown Similarly, better ideas for Stonehenge have been offered. One study identified strange circles of wood near the monument, and suggested these may have represented the living while the rocks at Stonehenge represented the dead. Similar practices are seen in monuments found in Madagascar, suggesting it may have been a common way for prehistoric people to think about the living and the dead. It also offers an exciting new way of understanding Stonehenge in its wider landscape. Others have interpreted Stonehenge and especially its avenue as marking the ritual passage through the underworld with views of the moon on the horizon. Cultural astronomy has also helped shed light on 6,000-year-old passage graves a type of tomb consisting of a chamber of connected stones and a long narrow entrance in Portugal. Archaeologist Fabio Silva has shown how views from inside the tombs frame the horizon where the star Aldebaran rises above a mountain range. This might mean it was built to give a view of the star from the inside either for the dead or the living, possibly as an initiation ritual. Daniel Brown But Silva also drew upon wider supporting evidence. The framed mountain range is where the builders of the graves would have migrated with their livestock over summer. The star Aldebaran rises for the first time here in the year known as a helical rising during the beginning of this migration. Interestingly, ancient folklore also talks about a shepherd in this area who spotted a star so bright that it lit up the mountain range. Arriving there he decided to name both the mountain range and his dog after the star both names still exist today. Current work carried out by myself in collaboration with Silva has also shown how a view from within the long, narrow entrance passages to the tombs could enhance the stars visibility by restricting the view through an aperture. But while it is easy to assume that prehistoric people were analytic astronomers with great knowledge of science, its important to remember that this only reflects our modern views of astronomy. Findings from cultural astronomy show that people of the past were indeed sky watchers and incorporated what they saw in many aspects of their lives. While there are still many mysteries surrounding the meaning and origins of ancient structures, an approach drawing on as many areas as possible, including experiences and engaging in meaning is likely our best bet to work out just what they were once used for. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The Conversation Daniel Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. A Russian MP said Theresa Mays government was behind the attempt on Sergei Skripals life (Picture: Getty) A Russian MP has claimed the UK government is behind the attack on Sergei Skripal and compared Theresa May to Adolf Hitler. In an astonishing outburst on BBC Radio 4s Today programme on Tuesday, Vitaly Milonov said the nerve agent attack in Salisbury was fake news and called the former Polish foreign minister with whom he was discussing the issue a prostitute. The MP for the ruling United Russia party said of Theresa Mays government: They had to make this fantasy, they had to kill or to try to kill this poor pensioner. This is a drama for British TV. It is the behaviour of Hitler. Of Hitler when he blames someone. Vitaly Milonov claimed the nerve agent attack was fake news (Picture: AP) Discussing last weeks nerve agent attack, which left former Russian double agent Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, in hospital, Mr Milonov said: Its nothing to do with Russia. How can we respond to fake news? Its nothing to do with Russian reality. Theresa May speaking about the attack in the House of Commons on Monday (Picture: PA) Weve been told that you think that a guy was imprisoned in Russia and was sent as a useless fake agent to you as an exchange in some spy drama, was killed, actually poisoned by some 50 years old Soviet-made gas. Its not a story to discuss because we dont have any agents that are not under the control of the special services. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO This poison is 50 years old. Its not modern stuff. You can create this poison from any laboratory in Ukraine or other fake countries that are happy to help you. I think this is something to deal with in theatre or a James Bond movie. Former Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski, who was also part of the interview, said Mr Milonov is not a real MP because there are no democratic elections in Russia. Story continues In response, Mr Milonov said: I would like to give all my greetings to a former Polish politician and I should say that its not the deal of any Polish prostitute to make comments on Russian elections. Investigators in protective clothing in Salisbury (Picture: PA) We dont need any comments from Poland or any other small countries dependent on United States about our elections. He added: Theresa May and her colleagues have created a fake story because they need an explanation to the British people and British business why they are going to perform some anti-British steps in favour of United States policy against Russia. It isnt the first time Mr Milonov has caused controversy with his views. In 2013, he said gay athletes should be arrested at the Sochi Winter Olympics and criticised Apple chief executive Tim Cook for his homosexuality. An architect of Russias anti-gay laws, he said broadcaster Stephen Fry was a sick person because he tried to commit suicide. Mr Fry interviewed the Russian politician in 2013. Mr Milonov said of homosexuality: It is a shame and it is a sin but it is a personal choice. It is not normal but a person cannot be punished in Russia for being homosexual, or to live with a dog, with a horse, with a sheep, whatever. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. Mrs May has given the Russian government until the end of Tuesday to provide an explanation about the nerve agent attack. Russian president Vladimir Putin has so far dismissed questions about the Skripals. When he was confronted during an election campaign visit, he told the BBC: Get to the bottom of things there, then well discuss this. Russias foreign ministry mocked Mrs May over her conclusion that it was highly likely Moscow was responsible for the nerve agent attack. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in hospital (Picture: Rex) In a post on Twitter, the ministrys official account used the hashtag #HighlyLikelyRussia which has been used on social media as the basis of jokes for things to blame Moscow for. The ministry of foreign affairs message said sincere thanks to Mrs May for #HighlyLikelyRussia along with a video suggesting the country was to blame for the recent snow to fall in the UK. The message came as the ministry through its ambassador in London Alexander Yakovenko faced a midnight deadline to explain how military-grade Russian nerve agent came to be used in the Salisbury incident. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. The Kremlin has denied responsibility and Moscows response has been to appear to taunt the UK. Kirill Kleymenov, a presenter on Russian state TV, advised traitors against moving to Britain, adding: Something is wrong there. Maybe its the climate, but in recent years there have been too many strange incidents with grave outcomes there. And another prominent broadcaster, Dmitry Kiselyov, suggested that the UK may have been behind the poisoning of the former double agent. As a source, Mr Skripal was of little value, but as a poisoning victim he is very useful to harden British attitudes against Russia, he said. A Russian MP has compared the UK to Hitler after Theresa May accused Moscow of being behind the poisoning of a former double agent and his daughter in Salisbury. Vitaly Milonov condemned the Prime Ministers claim that it was highly likely Russia was behind the use of a nerve agent to poison Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, who remain in hospital in a critical condition. In an extraordinary claim to the BBC that led to him being taken off air, Milonov claimed the British government was responsible for the attack and was pushing a fantasy for blaming Russia. They had to make this fantasy. They had to kill this poor pensioner, useless for us. This is a drama for British TV, Milonov told BBC Radio Fours Today programme. Its a behaviour of Hitler when he blamed someone for the burning of the Reichstag. Vitaly Milonov compared Britain to Hitler over the 'fake news' of the Salisbury poisoning (Photo: Sergei Savostyanov via Getty Images) Earlier in the exchange, Milonov had called Skripal a useless fake agent and said the poisoning was fake news that was nothing to do with Russia really. The MP, from the ruling United Russia party, said: Theresa May and her colleagues have created a fake story. On Monday, May said Russias ambassador in London had been summoned to the Foreign Office to explain whether the attack was a direct action by the Russian state or the result of the Russian Government losing control of its stock of nerve agents. She gave Russia until midnight on Tuesday to provide a credible response. A police officer stands in Salisbury near the bench where the Skripals were found (Photo: PA Wire/PA Images) May said the military grade agent was produced in the Soviet Union, but Milonov blamed Ukraine, or other fake countries. He then called Radek Sikorski, the former Polish foreign secretary he was on air alongside, a Polish prostitute. Sikorski responded: I think [Milonov] gave the best witness to his own character. I dont think the prime minister would say what she said in the House of Commons without strong evidence, Sikorski added. Listeners were stunned by Milonovs appearance on the Today programme. Labour MP Mike Gapes asked whether the BBC knew before it invited Milonov to speak that he had a history of anti-semitism and homophobia. Story continues To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. In 2014, Milonov allegedly attacked neoliberals who had a 2,000-year-old tradition of attacking Christianity, dating back to their calls for the Saviour to be crucified, which was interpreted as anti-semitic. A devout Orthodox Christian, Milonov has also lashed out at gay propaganda. On Monday evening, the Russian Foreign Ministry mocked May by tweeting a video that jokes it was also highly likely Russia caused Britains recent bad weather. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. Related... Huge Military Convoy Arrives In Salisbury To Help Ex-Russian Spy Poison Probe Sergei Skripal Poisoning: Salisbury Diners And Pub-Goers Urged To Wash Possessions Over Contamination Fears Salisbury Reacts To Contamination Warning This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Saudi Arabia's Women Lawyers Granted New Legal Powers As Kingdom Aims to Be More Inclusive Starting on Monday, Saudi Arabias female lawyers will have expanded powers to work as public notaries, according to the countrys Justice Ministry. After the changes are implemented, women lawyers will have capabilities that more closely resemble those of their male colleagues, such as obtaining a notarization permit and granting power of attorney. Previously, only male lawyers had notary powers. Justice Ministry officials said that Mondays changes are part of a comprehensive plan to make the countrys legal and judicial sectors more inclusive. Trending: Doctors Suspended After Images Show Patient Being Propped Up by His Own Severed Leg As Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud attempts to open his countrys doors to the world and diversify its economy, hes launched a new campaign to give women expanded rights. For instance, Saudi women will be permitted to drive for the first time in June. Women have also recently been allowed to attend public concerts and sporting events, and they were permitted to vote for the first time as recently as 2015. And as the countrys economy has stagnated due to low oil prices, women have been encouraged to join the labor marketmany have started participating in the foodservice industry. But some experts say these changes fall short and only work to highlight the rampant discrimination women experience in the conservative Muslim kingdom. This is, in fact, an outrageous announcement, Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi scholar, told Newsweek. This announcement exposes the level of discrimination against women. Even if this step goes into effect tomorrow, women remain unable to perform full notary services. Saudi monarchy legal doctrine is that women are a lower form of human and cannot be trusted to perform full notary services. Don't miss: Wolfenstein 2 DLC: The Deeds Of Captain Wilkins Download Time Revealed To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. It wasnt until 2004 that Saudi Arabia introduced reforms permitting womens institutes of higher education to offer law degrees. The first female lawyers graduated around 2008, but they werent permitted to appear in court until as recently as 2013. Prior to that, some women were employed as legal consultants but were not officially recognized as lawyers. Story continues Womens unemployment in Saudi Arabia is currently estimated to be around 33 percent. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek The woman was found burning to death outside Christs School in Richmond upon Thames (Google) A woman has died after she burnt to death on the middle of a busy street outside a s school in south-west London. The as-yet-unidentified woman was found engulfed in a fireball outside Christs School and Sixth Form Centre in Richmond upon Thames. The woman ran up and down screaming before quick-thinking passersby tried to smother her in coats to stop the flames. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. Fire crews rushed to Queens Road shortly after 1pm on Monday and erected a blue tarpaulin as they tried in vain to resuscitate her but the woman could not be saved and she died at the scene. Police are investigating reports that the woman, who is not connected to the school, may have set herself alight. Local residents watched on in horror from their windows and were stuck inside their homes for two hours. James Quinn, 27, described the moment his friend was driving past the woman and stopped to help. MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO He said: She was on the common running up and down ablaze and people were getting out of their cars and trying to help her, my friend got out his car to try and help. There were school kids watching from the windows. Once emergency services had arrived there was no chance in saving her. A single bunch of daffodils were left at the scene with a note which read: Thinking of you, sending you and your family love and healing light. A single bunch of daffodils were left at the scene (SWNS) A teacher at Christs School who said: I dont know if pupils saw what happened but I know people were desperately trying to put coats around her and cover her to try and put the flames out, its just terrible. Story continues A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: Officers, London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade attended the scene. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene at 1.41pm. Enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing at this early stage the death is being treated as unexplained. A London Fire Brigade spokesman said: Sadly one woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Laurence OKane Takes Down the Grand Prix Irish Open For 43,550 March 13 2018 Matthew Pitt Laurence OKane almost won the PokerStars Megastack Ulster Main Event in January but fell in fourth-place and had to make do with the 6,680 prize on offer. OKane got over the finishing line this weekend when he outlasted 1,711 opponents in the partypoker LIVE Grand Prix Irish Open Main Event to secure a career-best 43,550. partypoker LIVE Grand Prix Irish Open Final Table Results Place Player Prize 1 Laurence OKane 43,550* 2 Michael Graydon 30,500* 3 Martin Burke 30,500* 4 Robert Finlay 30,500* 5 Kevin OMalley 12,000 6 Christopher Canning 10,000 7 Mantas Misevicius 8,000 8 Shaun Hegarty 6,500 Some 361 players were paid in the tournament and among those who returned home with some prize money to show for their efforts were Cathal Shine, former Irish Open winner Patrick Clarke, Stephen Woodhead, Unibet Pokers David Lappin, Ben Vinson, Mick McCloskey, Dara OKearney, partypoker Team Onlines Louise Butler, partypoker ambassador Padraig Parkinson, and Max Silver. Everyone was guaranteed 6,500 by the time the eight-handed final table was reached and this is the sum collected by Shaun Hegarty who flopped top two pair with king-ten against but lost to Martin Burkes straight. Lithuainias Mantas Misevicius was the next player to bust, his queen-jack of dimaonds running into the pair of queens in the hand of Burke. Misevicius flopped a flush draw, yet the queens held and the player account was reduced by one. The final six became five when Christopher Canning was sent to the rail when his shove with ace-three was called by OKane in the small blind who held king-ten. An ace on the turn improved OKane to a straight and gave Canning an expensive second-best hand. A three on the river was a case of too little too late and only served to rub salt into Cannings wounds. Fifth-place went to Kevin OMalley who three-bet all-in over a Burke opening raise with what turned out to be ace-queen. Burke held a pair of red kings and made the call. A pair of ten on the flop changed nothing, although the king of clubs on the turn gifted Burke a full house. The river bricked and OMalley was gone. Final Four Agree to a Chop After playing four-handed for a short while, the remaining quartet of players decided to strike a deal that locked up 30,500 each and leaving an additional 13,050 for the champion. That champion was not Robert Finlay who committed his stack with queen-eight and was looked up by OKane with the dominating ace-eight. Both players caught an eight on the flop, Finlay couldnt find a queen on the turn or river and he headed to the sidelines. Third-place went to long-time chip leader Burke. Graydon moved all-in from the small blind with ace-three and Burke called off his remaining chips with a pair of sevens. Those sevens were best right up until the river when the ace of spades made an appearance. Game over for Burke. Graydon went into the heads-up battle with OKane with a narrow 84 million to 79 million chip advantage. He soon extended this to 120 million to 44 million, before OKane pulled himself back into contention. The final hand saw Graydon, who had frequently been moving all-in, push again with ten-nine and OKane made a stand with the queen-six. A six on the flop was enough to send Graydon to the cashiers cage to collect second-place money and left OKane to bank 43,550 and the winners trophy. 1 Million Guaranteed Irish Open Next up at the Citywest Hotel is the 2018 Irish Open festival, which includes a 1 million guaranteed Main Event that costs 1,100 to enter or much less if you qualify for it online at partypoker where you can claim a 100 percent up to 250 first deposit bonus when you create your account via UK & Ireland PokerNews and use the bonus code UKPNEWS16 when making your first deposit. Lead image courtesy of My partypoker LIVE Exploration project generation company Altus Strategies announced on Tuesday that it has defined a new 2.3km long gold prospect in western Mali. The Soa prospect, which lies on Altus wholly owned Sebessounkoto Sud Licence, has numerous hard rock workings of up to 150m in length and shafts of 40m depth and historic sample results from the site show 0.68 g/t Au. Sampling of mining waste from the site returned grades of 5.18g/t, 3.98g/t and 2.4g/t Au. Steven Poulton, chief executive of Altus Strategies, said: "Results from the first phase of prospecting at Soa has defined a 2.3km long NE trending target within the Sebessounkoto Sud Licence in western Mali. The prospect is located approximately 22km from AngloGold Ashanti and IamGold's Sadiola gold mine." The exploration project included comprehensive mapping, prospecting, spoil and termite mound sampling and the investigation of recently opened artisanal workings, completed alongside a review of historical databases concerning the area. "The newly defined prospect is one of four prospects defined to date in our western Mali licence cluster. We look forward to updating shareholders on further results from our first phase of exploration in Mali in due course," said Poulton. Altus will use pitting and trenching to better define the prospect in the next phase of exploration, along with mapping and sampling to better understand the occurring mineralisation. As of 0919 GMT, Altus Strategies shares were unchanged at 7.87p. Exploration and development company Botswana Diamonds has begun a drilling programme at the Ontevreden kimberlite pipe in South Africa, the company said on Monday. Ontevreden, which is part of the companys 72% owned Vutomi joint venture, contains many key diamond indicators typically seen in high grade kimberlite pipes and Botswana Diamonds will be initially drilling five holes at the site to ascertain more conclusive information on the diamond content. Chairman John Teeling, the veteran Irish entrepreneur, said: We are pleased to announce the commencement of drilling at the Ontevreden kimberlite pipe. We know that the pipe contains significant quantities of G10 and G9 garnets - high quality diamond indicator minerals frequently found in high-grade kimberlite pipes. The drilling is to discover diamonds. The pipe at Ontevreden was discovered in July and further drilling operations are intended to increase understanding of the size of the discovery, as well as its geology. The site is nearby Petra Diamonds now inactive Helam Mine, which yielded a grade of 267cpht and a diamond value of $145/ct at a +1mm bottom cut off according to 2014 acquired by Botswana Diamonds. As of 0913 GMT, Botswana Diamonds shares were up 4.35% at 1.20p. Russia wants access to the substance used to poison former spy Mr Skripal and his daughter on 4 March before it answers Theresa Mays ultimatum to give "a credible response" by the end of Tuesday or face consequences. Russias foreign minister said that the claims of Russian involvement in the attack were "rubbish" and that they have been denied access to the substance that was used. "We have already made our statement on this case. Russia is ready to cooperate in accordance with the convention to ban chemical weapons if the United Kingdom will deign to fulfil its obligations according to the same convention," he said UK Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament on Monday that the poison used in the attack was developed by Russia in the 1970s and was part of a group of nerve agents called Novichok. "Either this was a direct action by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others," she said. She also warned that if Russia provided no explanations by the end of Tuesday, then the UK would assume the attacks had been an unlawful use of force and retaliate. This retaliation, which was to be detailed in the Commons on Wednesday, may include the expulsion of Russian diplomats as in 2006, when former Russian Federal Security Service operative Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that the strength of the support from other countries was encouraging. Among those expressing their backing for Britain were Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, US secretary of state Rex Tillerson and French president Emmanuel Macron, among others. According to May's spokesman, she had agreed with Macron that they would continue to act in concert with their allies to address the "wide pattern of aggressive Russian behaviour". Stocks finished near their session lows as news of changes at the top of the US Department of State percolated through markets, pushing the single currency higher as market participants tried to guess at the potential implications of the move. Commenting on the downbeat afternoon session for equities, David Madden at CMC Markets UK said: "Stock markets in Europe turned lower around lunchtime, and now they are set to finish firmly in the red. Whatever bullish sentiment existed in the first half of the session has disappeared, and the firmer euro and pound are playing a role too." As of the closing bell, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.98% or 3.71 points lower to 375.49, alongside a 1.59% fall on Germany's Dax to 12,221.03 while Spain's Ibex 35 erased 0.37% or 35.80 points to 9,691.70. Nonetheless, Chris Beauchamp at IG was of a different opinion, linking weakness in the US dollar to the in-line US CPI print published at half past noon. "The recent outbreak of bullishness has taken something of a knock today, and its not hard to find the culprits. US CPI came in bang in line with forecasts, but evidently there were plenty of dollar bulls who had been expecting more, especially from the core figure. "While this disappointed on the headline number, the three-month annualised change hit its highest level since early 2011. The problem for dollar bulls here however is even this measure promptly turned southwards after this seven years earlier," Beauchamp said. In any case, news of the change in one of the US administration's most senior posts sent euro/dollar 0.54% higher to 1.2396, even as the governor of the Bank of Ireland, Philip Lane, said the European Central Bank must keep its guard up against the possibility of a sudden appreciation. As an aside, two days before The Sunday Times had reported that ECB chief Mario Draghi and German central bankers were expected to back Lane's candidacy for the post of chief economist when it came up for renewal in 2019. News was light on the economic front on the Continent, with releases centred on Southern Europe. Thus, according to Spain's INE, harmonised consumer prices in the Iberian country advanced by 0.1% month-on-month and 1.2% year-on-year in February, confirming a previous estimate. In France, INSEE reported a 0.3% or 72,700 person rise in non-farm payrolls for the three months to December. On the company side of things, ahead of its industry-changing asset swap with local rival EON, RWE posted full-year 2017 after tax profits of 1.9bn, with the company's bottom line boosted by a government refund on past taxes on nuclear fuel. In parallel, overnight EON projected as many as 5,000 job cuts as part of the same asset swap, alongside between 600m to 800m of synergies y 2022. "Actress on set!" "Quiet please!" "Ok, let's try that again." These phrases and many more could be heard on a small farm nestled in a wooded and hilly area of Clermont, Georgia, as University of North Georgia (UNG) students majoring in film and digital media worked alongside film industry professionals to create "Dead Winter." The post-apocalyptic short film about a young girl struggling to see what would be gained if she left her Southern home is the brainchild of Allison Hogue, a lecturer of film and digital media at UNG. Instead of using an all-professional crew on her set, Hogue chose to divide the positions between pros and her UNG students and recent graduates. "I was a film student once, and I remember how useful it was to make connections outside of the university," said Hogue, who has worked on shows such as "American Idol," "America's Got Talent" and "Project Runway." "To this day, those connections have proven helpful in securing jobs." "Dead Winter" Director Jason Winn could not agree more. "You get hired when people know your work," said Winn, a part-time instructor of film and digital media at UNG. "So you have to prove your worth before you get paid. That's why so many grads work for free in the beginning." On the Clermont set, about 60 percent of the crew were UNG students, and they were soaking in the experience. Jordan Hood, a senior who lives in Gainesville, accepted the role of assistant editor and digital imaging technician. His job is to handle the video footage and files, which has led him to use the experience as his capstone project. "It's ultimately the biggest final exam ever of 'Can you make an actual film?'" the White County High School graduate said. "It's been really wonderful and nice to be tested." "Dead Winter" was the fourth film set Lily Ojeda has worked on during her collegiate career. The 19-year-old sophomore who live in Mount Airy, Georgia, always comes prepared, wearing a small tool belt to store pens, small tools and especially a notepad. "I always take notes," the Habersham Central High School graduate said. "I try and ask as many questions about 'what does this do' and 'what does that do' because the best way to learn is to do it on set." Winn and his fellow professionals marveled at the UNG students' ability to perform well in the controlled chaos of the movie set. "I don't look at them as students," Winn said. "I look at them as peers." University of North Georgia students, recent graduates and faculty crew the film "Dead Winter" with industry professionals. "Dead Winter" is the brainchild of Allison Hogue, a lecturer of film and digital media at UNG. Hogue was glad to provide this kind of opportunity for her students, but it may not have happened without UNG President Bonita Jacobs bestowing a Presidential Incentive Award on the project. Hogue said she was intending to raise about $3,000 for the project, but needed to raise more. The award allocated $5,000 to the project, making the total budget for the production $8,000. "That put us in a solid place to make it and make it well," Hogue said, adding she was humbled and honored to receive the award. "The story and project are personal, but I wanted to use it to benefit my students, and it means a lot that we have the support of the university." Since UNG launched the film and digital media program in fall 2015, more than 35 students have been awarded bachelors degrees in that discipline. "Our program is designed to prepare students to work in the film and television industry, and opportunities such as these help open doors and develop new contacts in Georgia's exploding film industry," said Dr. Jeff Marker, head of the Department of Communication, Media and Journalism at UNG. University of North Georgia (UNG) graduate students and faculty in the family nurse practitioner (FNP) program traveled to Central America as part of a health care team to provide much-needed medical care to communities in several remote indigent villages in northern Belize. During the weeklong volunteer mission the students, Audra Vaughters, Tammy Martin and Lesa Parker, and Dr. Deborah Dumphy, associate professor of nursing in the College of Health Science and Professions, combined health care relief with the implementation of a research project titled, "Does an International Medical Mission Trip Enhance Cultural Competency in Health care Providers?" The group assisted in screening patients for surgical triage and treated acute and chronic medical conditions of 180 patients at the hospital in Corozal, a town 9 miles from the border with Mexico. The group then embarked on up to three-hour trips to different villages each day that Dumphy said "appeared to be held stagnant in time." They diagnosed and treated villagers suffering from conditions ranging from eye, skin and respiratory ailments to diabetes and high blood pressure. By the end of the trip, 695 patients received treatment. The students applied 60 direct care hours for their senior FNP practicum course. "The students were so inspired by the work done during this trip; they plan to serve again next year as licensed nurse practitioners and the lead medical mission physician was very excited about the prospect of their return," Dumphy said. "This gives validation to the outstanding professionalism and work our students did and credit to graduate programs at UNG." Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, feels his spaceship for traveling to Mars could become a reality by next year. He made these observations during an interactive question and answer session in Austin, Texas. He indicated that such interplanetary ships would be capable of making flights to and from Mars. He also admitted that there is a probability of deadlines being shifted. This is understandable since it is a totally unexplored field. According to Daily Mail UK, Musk has already said he plans to send a cargo mission to Mars by 2022. That will set the stage for subsequent human colonization of the planet. In his opinion, building the spaceship is a problematic area. Once that hurdle is overcome, the rest will follow. Elon Musk is aware of the dangers The inspiration for Elon Musk to venture into Mars exploration was the desire to do something new that no one else appeared to be doing. He seeks the support and encouragement from those around him because his aim is to prove to the world that nothing is impossible. He is relying on his company SpaceX to set the trend. He is fully aware of the fact that a journey to Mars will be an expensive affair, and the first humans could even face death. It is obvious that human colonization will not be a cakewalk. Once in alien surroundings, the first settlers will have to depend on the resources available there for survival, and begin life from scratch. NASA also has Mars on its radar NASA has been involved in a wide variety of research on space-related matters and already sent an unmanned probe to Mars in 2012. The Mars Curiosity rover is working 24/7 to explore the terrain and send feedback to Earth. It is still active and NASA plans to send another one with a different objective. NBC News reports that in 2018, NASA wants to send a robot spacecraft to the Red Planet. It will not move about like Curiosity but will remain stationary, and will make use of probes and sensors to collect data. This robot named InSight will be fitted with instruments that can reach to the depths of the planet in order to understand how it was born. Similar instruments had been used on the moon but they were operated by astronauts. On Mars, robots will take over the task. This study could reveal possible sources of water and ice which will help human colonization. Elon Musk is an entrepreneur who owns Tesla and SpaceX. He has his own sources of finance for his projects while NASA has to depend on government funding. Mars is a frontier that both want to conquer. When former actress Meghan Markle accepted Prince Harry's proposal last November, her life changed in so many ways. When the average woman says, "Yes" and becomes engaged, her life doesn't change that drastically. This proposal was different because Markle is now engaged to a prince, and a lot of things have gone into the preparation for her to become an official member of the royal family. Last week the 36-year-old bride to be was baptized and confirmed into the Church of England to honor Queen Elizabeth who is head of that particular church. Also, recently Meghan underwent two days of intense security training by the British Special Forces. Every senior royal has had the same training except Queen Elizabeth. Princess Diana had security training in 1983. Duchess Kate underwent her training after she was married to Prince William. The security team decided that Meghan needed the training now because she has already taken on some of the royal duties, and security issues are more prominent now than they were for Kate Middleton before her marriage. Wouldnt @MeghanMarkle make a great Thea Paris? SAS 'kidnap' Meghan Markle in training session | Daily Mail Online https://t.co/IRBRqW0FPU Kimberley Howe (@KJHoweAuthor) March 12, 2018 What the training involved Security expert Lou Palumbo explained to Inside Edition what was involved in the training. First, he reminded the television newsmagazine and its viewers that Meghan is being prepared for the new world she is entering. He said she is going to be a target for kidnapping and other dangerous situations where guns might be fired. In other words, Prince Harry's future wife must never let her guard down even though she will be surrounded by dozens of bodyguards. One of the first phases she underwent was learning not panic in dangerous situations because that would decrease her survival chances. She was also trained on how to develop a relationship with captors in the event she is actually kidnapped. In order to make the training as real as possible, the former "Suits" star was surrounded by real guns and live ammunition. Palumbo said live ammunition was used in the training so Meghan could know what real gunfire sounds like. About the security team The kind of training Meghan completed was provided by the Army's toughest men who have been in sensitive situations while serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and Northern Island, according to Gerald Moor, a former senior Army Intelligence Officer. Moor concluded that the future bride and everyone who completes the training finds it to be physically and psychologically intense. Having round-the-clock protection is nothing new for Meghan. When she was living in Toronto while filming her drama series, she was surrounded by a security team. She is more of a target now than she was then since she is just weeks away from becoming Prince Harry's wife. Megan's wedding to Prince Harry on May 19 will be one of the most guarded events at Windsor Castle. The couple and their guests will be protected by a unit of 30 SAS soldiers. Since the last press briefing at the White House, the administration has been in the uncomfortable situation of dealing with a wide-range of controversial issues. After Sarah Huckabee Sanders did her best to deal with the press, she quickly faced backlash across social media for targeting former President Barack Obama. Press Sec. Sanders: "Let's not forget that the Obama administration had the White House and all of Congress for two years and never did anything" on guns. https://t.co/Fdx5P03R8W pic.twitter.com/nCYdG1MFh0 ABC News (@ABC) March 12, 2018 Sanders on Obama Over the last week, Donald Trump has found himself back in the headlines due to a variety of reasons. As the week came to a close, the news broke that Trump would soon meet with Kim Jong-un to discuss North Korea's nuclear program. Over the weekend, the president also made headlines during a controversial rally for GOP candidate in Pennsylvania, Rick Saccone, where he personally attacked "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd, as well as Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, and Oprah Winfrey. Despite this, the issue of gun control remains a major issue that still hovers over the president. .@PressSec tells @jonkarl that many of the gun safety proposals previously mentioned by Pres. Trump, including raising age of purchasing assault weapons and universal background checks, "are still outlined" in current proposal. https://t.co/9oN3kXtR9t pic.twitter.com/JrNLBKOV0o ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 12, 2018 This issue was addressed during the March 12 press briefing with Sarah Huckabee Sanders where the press secretary outlined Donald Trump's plan to help improve gun safety, which include "hardening our schools," "strengthening background checks and prevention," "reform mental health programs" and "continuing the support and conversation." When Sanders was pressed on where Trump stood on raising the age limit for certain guns, she replied, "we're pushing forward on the things that have support, that can be accomplished immediately." Not stopping there, Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared frustrated with the questions and decided to blame the Obama administration for not doing more on the issue. "Let's not forget that the Obama administration had the White House and all of Congress for two years and never did anything," Sanders said. Twitter reaction Following Sarah Huckabee Sanders remarks about Obama, critics of the administration wasted no time firing back. "Has she forgotten that the Republican Congress blocked everything he tried to do?" one tweet read. Always blaming obama. Just disgusting republican no more (@NoRepublican) March 12, 2018 Has she forgotten that the Republican Congress blocked everything he tried to do? Naomi MacRoss (@NaomiMac_Ross) March 12, 2018 Because the @GOP wouldnt let him! Michael Connors (@MichaelHConnors) March 12, 2018 "Always blaming Obama. Just disgusting," a Twitter user wrote. "I wish (SHS) press briefing were later in the day. Would be more believable if I was taking shots! drinking game shot every time she says 'look,'" yet another tweet added. And now @GOP has control, why cant they do anything? Thats right because Obama... Kehlus Zeta (@zeta12364) March 12, 2018 I am so sick of what Obama did or didn't do.....Tell us what you will do! It's getting old! Terri Zwiener (@TerriZwiener) March 12, 2018 Thats because the speaker of the house boehner and his cronies kept getting in the way! Same old sh*t, different toilet. Josh Heintzelman (@tombraider81) March 12, 2018 "(SHS) says Obama WH didnt accomplish anything between 2009 and 2011, and apparently completely ignored Obamas first two years in office. (Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, I could go on)" Jeremy Binckes tweet out. "Thats because the speaker of the house Boehner and his cronies kept getting in the way! Same old sh*t, different toilet.," a follow-up tweet went on to note. With a special election gearing up for Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional district, Donald Trump made his way to the state to help support the Repubican candidate. As expected, Trump didn't hold back his thoughts in attacking the media, with a special focus on "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd. Trump on Chuck Todd: "He's a sleeping son of a bitch." pic.twitter.com/tyjyvsinrL Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 11, 2018 Trump in Pennsylvania Over the last year that he's been in office, Donald Trump has had an up and down relationship with his own Republican Party. For those who have been supportive of Trump's administration, the president has returned the favor. However, the Republicans who dare speak out and criticize the commander in chief, Trump has doubled down on his attacks, often getting personal on his social media feed. For the upcoming special election in Pennsylvania, Rick Saccone is the Republican nominee, a man who Trump has praised in the past and is reportedly running in a close race against Democratic candidate Conor Lamb. Trump: "President Moon of South Korea said without Donald Trump the Olympics would have been a total failure. It's true." pic.twitter.com/7tK3gfWJwI Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 11, 2018 As reported by NBC News on March 10, Donald Trump made his way to Moon Township, Pennsylvania on Saturday night to campaign for Rick Saccone, and predictably went off topic. Trump made sure to target the media and his critics in Washington, saying, "there's a lot of evil there but we're getting it out. A lot of evil." "A lot of fake media. Look at them. Fake media," Trump added, while pointing to the press cameras. Not stopping there, Donald Trump gave himself credit for the upcoming meeting between himself and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Trump first trashed former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton for how they handled North Korea in the past, before citing an interview he did back in 1999 with "Meet the Press" where he spoke about tackling the issue of North Korea. Trump then brought up the show's current host Chuck Todd. "The show now headed by 'Sleepy Eyes' Chuck Todd. He's a sleepy-eyed son of a b*tch," Trump went on to say. "I was young and handsome. I said 'why couldn't I look like that today.' I should have run back then," Trump said, continuing to praise himself in front of a large crowd of supporters who cheered his every word. Moving forward Donald Trump continued talking smack about the media, his political rivals, and his future plans as president, all while his approval rating hover around just 40 percent. While the president doesn't look to be backing down from his agenda and talking points anytime soon, only time will tell how it all plays out. Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Students, teachers, parents and administrators across the country are invited to take part in a National School Walkout this month in a call on Congress to pass tighter gun control laws. The ENOUGH National School Walkout will be held on March 14 -- exactly one month after the mass shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17 people and sent shock waves across the nation. The event will be at 10 a.m. across every time zone and last 17 minutes -- one minute for each of the victims gunned down in the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The walkout is organized primarily by young people working with Womens March Youth Empower. Those behind the Womens March also ran the anti-Trump Womens March demonstrations in January 2017. Womens March Youth Coordinator Tabitha St. Bernard Jacobs, one of the few adult allies guiding the students in the youth-led movement, told ABC News that while the walkout was sparked by the Florida school shooting, the event is about calling out gun violence. St. Bernard Jacobs said it is a way to shed light on the type of gun violence that exists not just in schools, but everyday gun violence, like shootings that impact minority communities or devastate cities like Chicago, Illinois. The walkout's goal is "to demand Congress pass legislation to keep us safe from gun violence at our schools, on our streets and in our homes and places of worship," according to the event. Over 2,000 walkout events are registered for March 14. Students from New Jersey to Indiana to California have said they will participate, as well as groups from schools as far as Ireland, Switzerland, Israel and Mexico, according to the event website. How participants spend those 17 minutes of the walkout is up to them, St. Bernard Jacobs explained before adding that they encourage whatever is best for each environment. Some people are doing a lie-in, while others are holding rallies, St. Bernard Jacobs said. She stressed that this is not a protest against schools but it is a way to encourage school administrators to help students "amplify their voices." She went on to add, "Some schools are looking to this as an opportunity to really educate their young people about what it means in this moment to be engaged." The March 14 event is one of many student walkouts erupting throughout the U.S. as a new generation of youth advocates lead a fierce push for gun reform. While many school districts are supportive of the protests, some schools have reportedly threatened to punish students participating in walkouts. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said schools can punish students for missing class for walkouts, but the punishment should only be because students are missing school -- it cannot be a harsher punishment because the students participated in a protest. Dozens of colleges and universities have said they won't penalize applicants who are peaceful student protesters, including Brown University which posted a note on Twitter. "Applicants to Brown: Expect a socially conscious, intellectually independent campus where freedom of expression is fundamentally important. You can be assured that peaceful, responsible protests against gun violence will not negatively impact decisions on admission to Brown," Brown University tweeted. "That's very encouraging," St. Bernard Jacobs said of the schools supporting students' decisions to protest gun violence. "This is a moment for youth to find their voice." Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. In strange celebrity news, Academy Award-winning British actor, Colin Firth, who has starred in countless movies such as "Bridget Jones' Diary" and a television adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice," is getting some unneeded attention and it's not for a film role. His wife, the Italian film producer, Livia Giuggioli, has revealed that she had an affair when she and Firth were secretly separated years ago. The couple has been married for 20 years. They released a statement through their representative that confirms the affair allegations that took place when Firth and his wife were briefly separated and "The Firths have since reunited." Reports by PEOPLE provided most of the information used in this article. The affair According to multiple reports, the affair was with an Italian journalist named Marco Brancaccia, a former childhood friend of Giuggioli, growing up in their native Italy. The affair lasted for a year back in 2015. When Livia decided to end the affair with Brancaccia, that's when things took a turn for the worst. He allegedly began harassing Giuggioli and her actor husband. The couple said that Brancaccia made threatening Phone Calls, sent harassing e-mails and text messages, threatening to expose even more information. He even sent Firth messages, sending salacious details about his fling with his wife, along with pictures of the two together. Stalking allegations Brancaccia has been talking to the press and has claimed he wanted Firth, "to know what happened." He also alleges that Firth sent him an e-mail telling him that he understood his pain, which Brancaccia appreciated, but insists that the stalking claims about him are absolutely false when "I've done absolutely nothing wrong. Brancaccia does admit to having messages that were exchanged between the two lovers. He reveals that he even kept a diary of their times together. Although Brancaccia denies any wrongdoing on his part, he does, however, admit that he wrote an e-mail to Firth with pictures attached of Guiggioli to prove that he was being truthful about the affair. But he concedes that he now regrets sending those pictures to Firth, who he says was understanding. Very understanding, considering it was Firth who alerted the Italian police about the alleged harassment. Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, was the first to break the story of the stalking by Brancaccia and the ongoing investigation by police. Guiggioli says she has been living in terror because she thought Brancaccia was following her and she also claims that he threatened to write detailed articles about their fling in order to ruin her. Brancaccia said the claims are "absurd." The Italian police are investigating and prosecutors are going forward with charges. The relationship between Donald Trump and the majority of celebrities out in Hollywood is well-documented. Out of all the stars who oppose the president, Alec Baldwin is at the top of the list and doesn't hold back his feelings about the current administration. Trump says Mueller is a distraction for the country. Bullshit. Its the greatest show on Earth. Trump is s vile, lying, stealing maniac. We want Trump gone. And his whole rotten family. Mueller is doing Gods work. ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) March 10, 2018 Baldwin on Trump After Donald Trump announced his campaign for president, he quickly got on the wrong side of many Americans after referring to illegal immigrants from Mexico as "rapists" and "murderers." For the more liberal-leaning Hollywood, Trump's comments represented the hate and division of the political right, only adding to the wide divide in the country. Following Trump's primary victory, "Saturday Night Live" brought on veteran actor Alec Baldwin to play a satirical role of the billionaire real estate mogul, resulting in multiple social media outbursts from Trump. President Trump is reportedly willing to sit down with Robert Mueller if he then ends the Russia probe https://t.co/3txEiPuyPT pic.twitter.com/d4hpIAQDgP New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) March 9, 2018 Since being sworn into office just over a year ago, Donald Trump has been surrounded by a constant stream of controversy and scandals, with the current investigation into Russian election interference remaining the biggest headline. While Trump continues to deny any wrongdoing, Baldwin decided to sound off about the president and his entire family with a tweet on March 10. "Trump says Mueller is a 'distraction for the country.' Bullsh*t," Baldwin tweeted, referring to the Russian investigation as "the greatest show on Earth." "Trump is s vile, lying, stealing maniac," Alec Baldwin went on to tweet, before adding, "We want Trump gone. And his whole rotten family." Not stopping there, the "SNL" star concluded that "Mueller is doing Gods work." Baldwin vs Trump Following Alec Baldwin's debut as a fictional Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live," the show quickly saw an increase in ratings, much to the chagrin of the commander in chief. Baldwin's performance received rave reviews, resulting in an Emmy Award earlier this year. While many loved Baldwin's portrayal, Trump wasn't pleased, bashing the actor on a routine basis on social media. Though Trump hasn't been as vocal on the issue since taking office, he did lash out about Baldwin last week in yet another tirade on Twitter. Russian trouble Alec Baldwin's remarks about Robert Mueller stem from the ongoing investigation into what Russia's role was in the hacking of the 2016 election, and what potential link the Kremlin had to the Trump campaign. As of press time, several past and current associates of the president have been tied to Russia, with some even being indicted in the process. Farrah Abraham recently announced she had split from Aden Stay. The two were together briefly as the former Teen Mom OG star only confirmed the relationship a week prior. Abraham has not really dated around like some of the other girls. Her most notable relationship was with Simon Saran and that was documented as she filmed the show. The two split a while back and after playing the on-again-off-again game, they have been separated for several months now. Career goals It seems that being fired from Teen Mom OG hasn't phased Farrah Abraham at all. She is working on getting her foot in the door in television and film. Leaving the reality television world behind her is what she is focused on. Abraham's mom, Debra Danielsen is still hanging on to her daughter's fame though. She reportedly showed up at the Teen Mom OG reunion taping last weekend. Without Farrah and her money, Debra has little connection to fame. According to The Hollywood Gossip, Debra Danielsen has compiled a list of men she feels would be suited for Farrah Abraham. The names may shock you, but they are familiar. The first one mentioned was Zac Efron. He has really evolved from Troy in High School Musical, but his taste in women haven't been in line with what Abraham offers. Second, Jef Holm. That's right, the former Bachelorette contestant. He was supposed to be Emily Maynard's happily ever after, but that was far from what happened. The other two names mentioned were Kenny Chesney and Jake Gyllenhaal. Clearly, Debra has incredibly high and unrealistic expectations. Farrah's love life Right now, Farrah Abraham is focusing on raising her daughter. Sophia. She put out a statement earlier this week that stated she wanted to date around and find men that weren't only around for her money and fame status. Things with Aden Stay didn't work out, and Abraham insinuated he used her for her status, which many believe is made up. She is content with the way things are going in her life, and she doesn't have to beg men to want to date her, there are plenty who would jump. It will be interesting to see what the men think of Debra Danielsen wanting them to date her daughter. Farrah Abraham isn't exactly considered one of the classiest reality television stars. In fact, she is one of the most hated. It all stems from her behavior, not even from her love life or anything else. Abraham believes the world revolves around her, and that is the way things are. Battle lines will be drawn this week on "General Hospital" with numerous Port Charles relationships being tested. Spoiler alerts indicate that Carly will try to help Sonny with Mike, even as she is frustrated that Nelle is moving into the Quartermaine mansion. Celeb Dirty Laundry says that Liz will be pondering the fact that Sam admitted she loves Jason while Drew ends up saving Franco from Jim. Finn will test Julian's patience by bringing his pet lizard to Charlie's and the good doctor will take a swing at the mobster and end up in jail. Lulu is going to continue trying to make amends with her former BFF but it will backfire and she will find herself on the receiving end of a restraining order. Finn and Lulu each get a shock Port Charles is filled with secrets and one of them is that Hamilton Finn went to bed with Julian's ex-wife Alexis. This is why hanging out at the mobster's bar should be off limits. This week, however, according to spoilers Finn will take his pet lizard Roxy into Charley's bar and restaurant. Julian will refuse service to the good doctor and end up receiving a sucker punch. The police will be called and Dr. Finn will be carted off to jail. Lulu has been distraught since Maxie accused her of murdering Nathan. She cannot accept that her former best friend blames her and wants nothing more to do with her. Rather than give the young widow time to grieve Lulu continues trying to reach out and touch her once BFF. Celeb Dirty Laundry indicates that like Finn, Lulu will get a shock this week because Maxie is going to have her served with a restraining order, indicating she simply does not want to be bothered. Carly has double trouble in Port Charles Carly and Sonny have invited Mike to remain in Port Charles and live with them so they can help him deal with Alzheimer's disease. Spoilers say she will be distracted because Nelle is moving into the Quartermaine mansion. This will cause Michael's baby mama to believe she has the upper hand and has won. Longtime "General Hospital" fans know however that Carly is not one to back down. She will fight tooth and nail to protect her loved ones. Stayed tuned to "General Hospital" weekday afternoons at 2:00 PM on ABC to find out the final outcome of your favorite characters. Finn and Lulu should bounce back from their setbacks due to the actions of Maxie, and Julian. Continue watching for spoiler alerts.to find out in advance what will be happening each day in Port Charles. Kailyn Lowry has just returned home from a week in Hawaii with her "Teen Mom 2" co-star, Leah Messer. The two reality stars decided to go on a trip together with a group of people, so they could take a break from their children and their busy lives back on the mainland. Lowry, who had been planning the trip to Hawaii for months, invited Leah along not too long ago. It sounds like the mother of three girls was excited about the possibility of having a trip without her daughters. The two reality stars appeared to have a great vacation and they are slowly sharing photos from the trip. But according to a new Instagram post, Kailyn Lowry and Leah Messer posed for a photo in the ocean where Leah is hanging on Kailyn's back. Of course, Lowry is bigger and stronger than Leah, so she may have an easier time holding up her friend. While many people celebrated their friendship after seeing the photo, others questioned whether Leah and Kailyn had hooked up. Some people revealed that they looked like a couple in the photo. Working on their friendship The two girls have been on "Teen Mom 2" for years and while they have both been apart of the cast for years, they only film together when they are doing the reunion specials. However, that doesn't mean that these two aren't friends. It's clear that these two are close friends as they both went to Hawaii together. Chelsea DeBoer may have been invited, but was unable to leave her life behind at home. Jenelle Evans, the last cast member, has distanced herself from the show and from her co-stars. Lesbian relationships The reason why people may think that Kailyn Lowry and Leah Messer have hooked up could be due to Kailyn's previous experiences with women. She has admitted that she has tried to be with a woman. Even though she may prefer relationships with men, she has revealed that she has hooked up with a woman before. Her lesbian relationships hit the media after she had filed for divorce from Javi a few years ago, but she quickly started dating Chris Lopez, a man who she met at the University of Delaware. They have Lux Russell together, but it sounds like she's a single mother as he appears to be absent in her life and the life of his son. These days, she's trying to return to normal after the Hawaii time difference. What do you think about Kailyn Lowry and Leah Messer facing questions that they may have hooked up while in Hawaii? Do you think these two friends would take their friendship so far? On last nights episode (March 11) of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver laid out an extensive report on Cryptocurrencies. Oliver took a delicate approach to the intimidating and technical topic. The comedian joked that cryptocurrencies are everything you dont understand about money combined with everything you dont understand about computers. Oliver broke his presentation down into three sections: Bitcoin, Blockchain, and cryptocurrencies in general. Bitcoin in a nutshell Bitcoin is a decentralized, digital currency that has had its value skyrocket in the past year. According to Last Week Tonight, the virtual coin was worth $1,000 in January and $20,000 in the December of that same year. Some people, such as 18-year-old Erik Finman, were able to use the virtual coin to increase their wealth tremendously. According to a CNBC report, Finman invested in Bitcoin when the coins value was only $12. Since then, he has been able to use Bitcoin to reach millionaire status before his 20th birthday. Oliver further explains Bitcoin saying, the fundamental reason that Bitcoin has value is because people agree that it has value. However, Bitcoin is far from perfect. Oliver uses the example of the Miami Bitcoin Conference, which stopped accepting Bitcoin to purchase tickets. The currency isnt quite ready to be used for everyday transactions just yet. In fact, according to Oliver, Bitcoin has lost nearly half its value this year. What is Blockchain? Next, Oliver goes on to explain the possibly revolutionary technology that Bitcoin utilizes. Blockchain keeps a record of every Bitcoin transaction in a ledger. That ledger is stored on a vast number of computers across the world. This is where the term decentralized comes from. Instead of having one central point for hackers to attack, like banks and traditional companies, Bitcoin keeps its information scrambled across a myriad of different computers. Don Tapscott, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Institute, compares trying to hack Blockchain with trying to turn a chicken nugget back into a chicken. Essentially, while it may technically be possible someday, Blockchain remains secure today. Cryptocurrencies in general John Oliver wraps up the segment by going over cryptocurrencies in general. Cryptocurrencies can be made by anyone, and there are nearly 1,500 cryptocurrencies available to be traded with today. Their names range anywhere from TrumpCoin to JesusCoin, and they are just as unreliable as they sound. Instead of aiming to be a usable currency sometime in the new future, most of these coins are issued by companies instead of stock. Companies attempt to raise money using the virtual coins. One company was able to raise $35 million in just 30 seconds. This can be dangerous, Oliver explains. Some companies are not putting forth the products that they promised; instead, these companies continue to raise expectations while showing no tangible results. The fervor around cryptocurrencies has created an internet sub-culture. Oliver explains a few terms that are popular on the internet, the most pertinent of which is hodl, based on a misspelling of the word hold. The basic principle is not to go running scared when the volatile market driving these virtual currencies goes down. Instead, keep your money invested so you dont miss out when the coin jumps in value again. Are cryptocurrencies the future? At the end of John Olivers show, Keegan Michael Key delivers a hilariously informative speech, warning new investors to be part of that #craefulgang. Essentially, cryptocurrencies could very well be something that changes our lives and economic habits forever, or they might be the latest fad that could potentially lose a lot of money for a lot of people. Michael Key puts it best when he says, Never invest more than you are willing to lose. Billie Lee was introduced on this season of "Vanderpump Rules" and fans quickly fell in love with her because of her story. Billie quickly revealed that she was transgendered and that she had just broken up with her boyfriend because he wanted children. This was something she couldn't physically give him because of her body. However, it sounds like the cast of "Vanderpump Rules" couldn't be more open and excited about having a transwoman on the show. Several of the cast members really love Billie for who she is and Ariana especially has been a huge support for her, as she learns how to deal with public criticism of her life. On last nights episode of "Vanderpump Rules," Billie revealed that Ariana's brother Jeremy asked her on a date. While she was excited to go on the date, some of her co-stars were a bit rattled by the comments. Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute revealed that they should Jeremy was crazy and that she should be cautious when going out with him. They also made the rude comment that she should go out in public with him. According to a new report, Billie Lee is now opening up about her date with Jeremy and she reveals that it was actually very nice. More trouble with Stassi Schroeder Several of the "Vanderpump Rules" stars claimed that Jeremy was a creepy guy, which didn't exactly help the situation. As Billie was getting ready for her date with him, she got some supportive advice from her friends. Now, she's speaking out about the date, revealing that she had no idea that people saw him as a creepy person. After her date with him, Billie Lee explains that she thought he was such a nice person and she calls him amazing. However, Billie Lee points out that Stassi has been critical once before. In the interview, she reveals that Stassi made fun of her because Billie is vegan and chose to eat vegan ranch dressing. Are they together? On Instagram, Billie Lee received several comments from Jeremy, where he called her hot. However, she reveals that they are not an exclusive couple. She also explains that he wasn't creepy at all and that they do hang out a lot. She also points out that she's older than him and that he needs to experience some things before they could be compatible. She explains that she does still have bad experiences with guys, who left her when they learn she's transgendered. Are you surprised that Billie Lee and Jeremy aren't a couple after a good date between them? Do you think Stassi had anything to do with it? Tomorrow night will be a very emotional new episode of "Sister Wives" on TLC. Hollywood Life shared a preview that shows maddie Brush is going to have a really hard time with her labor. She made the decision to have a home birth surrounded by her family, but it won't be simple for her. Christine helps Maddie through it One big thing about polygamy is that you have multiple moms. Janelle Brown may be Maddie's real mom, but she is close to the others as well. In the preview, it is shown that Christine will be helping her through this hard labor. Kody Brown will comment that the labor has been going on for a long time, which seems to have him concerned. He says it has been days and he is hopeful that some of this was just pre-labor. Janelle Brown loves how close that her daughter is to Christine. It is really sweet to see this relationship. She says, "I have never really ever thought twice about the relationship Maddie has with Christine. When the kids were little, I worked a lot of hours, and Christine was kind of the one to hold it together at home. Like, really, in a lot of ways, Christine was that person who created their life around when I was gone." She admits that all of her kids have a strong bond with Christine, not just Maddie. Christine Brown talks about how this is a hard stage of labor, but Maddie is holding on. It has to be nice for Janelle to have the extra support at this rough time. They do have a midwife there with them and Maddie does get a chance to even get a bit of sleep. She actually gets in the bathtub to have a water birth when it is time to have her son. More Bed and Breakfast this week This week on the show Meri Brown will finally get Kody to go to Utah with her and look at the Bed And Breakfast that she wants so bad. She needs his support. On the show, they haven't revealed yet if she gets to buy it, but spoilers are out and Meri does own this house now that means so much to her family. This is going to be an exciting time for Meri. Hopefully, this doesn't end up causing problems for the family because of the fact that Meri will want to be Utah instead of Las Vegas with the family. Things have been rough for Meri and Kody for a while now, and you don't want anything that is going to make matters even worse. She was the first wife, but their marriage has been on the rocks for several years as fans have seen on the show. Are you shocked to hear that Maddie Brown Brush will have such a hard time with her labor? Do you think they should have gone to the hospital? Sound off in the comments section below on your thoughts, and don't miss new episodes of "Sister Wives" when they air on Sunday nights on TLC. The fans can't wait to see the new baby on the show. The idea of an Oprah Winfrey run for president started after her speech at the Golden Globes earlier this year. During a rally over the weekend, Donald Trump sent a warning to his potential challenger. President Trump: "I'd love to beat Oprah" in the 2020 presidential election https://t.co/t30yRIq0zd CNN (@CNN) March 11, 2018 Trump on Oprah When Donald Trump first announced that he was running for president, he quickly gained headlines due to his reckless and controversial style, as well as being a well-known media personality. Since then, Trump has gone on to become the commander in chief, much to the chagrin of his critics. While many wait and see who decides to run to represent the Democratic Party in 2020, one name that has gotten mention has been Oprah Winfrey, whose speech at this year's Golden Globes sparked a call to action. Oprah Winfrey has since gone on the record to state that she would only run if God told her to, leaving the door open for her campaign to be a reality in the future. As reported by CNN on March 10, Donald Trump addressed a crowd of supporters in Moon Township, Pennsylvania on Saturday night while campaigning for Repubican candidate Rick Saccone. During his speech, Trump took a few shots at Oprah and sent a warning her way. "I'd love to beat Oprah. I know her weakness. I know her very well," Trump said. "I was on her last show, or on the last week. She had Donald Trump and his family," the president said in the third person. "I know her weakness. Wouldn't we love to run against Oprah?" Donald Trump rhetorically asked the crowd. Concluding his shot at Oprah, Trump said "that would be a painful experience for her." Following Trump's remarks, those who oppose the president wasted no time lashing out on social media. Trump's Oprah backlash After Donald Trump attacked Oprah Winfrey during his speech in Pennsylvania, he quickly faced immediate backlash. "Everyone in that audience has the combined IQ of 50," one tweet read. Youre going to be beating the cage ofva federal prison by 2020 Patriotic Doodie (@DoodiePatriotic) March 11, 2018 And all the dimmest bulbs on the porch are right there behind him. Juli Bunting (@JuliBunting) March 11, 2018 Everyone in that audience has the combined IQ of 50. NDREW WEER (@noobfatherof1) March 11, 2018 "And all the dimmest bulbs on the porch are right there behind him," a Twitter user wrote. "Ha ha, you wish! Oprah is much smarter than you. And I'm not voting for someone who is constantly putting other people down," an additional tweet pointed out. "You're going to be beating the cage of a federal prison by 2020," a follow-up tweet added. Looking at this peanut gallery behind him....I now understand why he won. A mind is a precious thing to waste. Jean Jeanie (@BeanieJeanatjax) March 11, 2018 Im sure one of your fellow prisoners will happily dress up as Oprah and run against you in the Ms. Cell Block 2020 pageant. I am smiling. (@J_adoreDiDi) March 11, 2018 How about if he stops obsessing about Oprah. It's strange. Alison Berkowitz (@aliberk65) March 11, 2018 "How about if he stops obsessing about Oprah. It's strange," a social media user wrote. "Looking at this peanut gallery behind him....I now understand why he won. A mind is a precious thing to waste," a tweet noted. The negative reaction continued as it was clear the president has many critics across the country. Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are expected to hold talks to defuse the rising tensions in the korean peninsula that had been heading for a showdown with nuclear weapons. The date and venue have yet to be finalized. The developments come after the 2018 Winter Olympics, and the peace initiatives started by Moon Jae-in of South Korea have paved the way for the Washington-Pyongyang talks. Sky News reports that Mike Pompeo, director of CIA has clarified that the United States will not be making any concessions to Kims regime during the forthcoming nuclear talks. According to him, North Korea was feeling the pressure that has been created by the US-led international sanctions. Their trade is suffering, and its economy is in shambles. Expectations from the Trump-Kim meeting The proposed meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un is expected to lead to a path of peace in the Korean peninsula. Both the leaders are aware of the devastation that can result from nuclear warfare and would like to avoid a confrontation. Mike Pompeo has announced the meeting but has not yet disclosed any details. He has said that the leadership of North Korea is under pressure, and there will not be any concessions made. He has also added that the President wants to find a solution to the problem. There has been a stormy exchange of words between the two leaders, and at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, President Trump indicated that North Korea is interested in pursuing peace. He appeared to be confident of success and is hopeful of seeing denuclearization. South Korea wants peace in the region A sit down between Trump, and Kim Jong Un could likely lead to peace in the Korean peninsula. That is what Moon Jae, the President of South Korea, has been trying to achieve ever since he took over the reins. He wants peace with his neighbor and reunification of the two Koreas, and the 2018 Winter Olympics provided the platform. Invitation for the talks with Pyongyang was passed on to the White House by an official of South Korea who had met Kim Jong Un. It seems he has agreed to halt the testing of his missiles during negotiations and is also ready to denuclearize. The venue of the meeting is still not finalized and, according to an official of the White House, the possibility of a venue in North Korea is remote. USA Today adds that the meeting will be held in May, and Moon Jae-in is expected to meet Kim in April to prepare the ground. The venue could be finalized at that time. She credits Virginia Tech with unlocking career possibilities she never imagined while living in the town where she went to kindergarten with most of the more than 200 classmates she graduated from high school with. Its why she now gives back philanthropically and with her time to Virginia Tech. Education is the path to freedom, Kolbay said. I feel like I got out of a small town by going to school and getting educated, and then the world just opened doors for me because I had an education. Kolbay intends to hold the door open for the Hokies that follow. Her financial contributions to the school help the College of Engineering provide scholarships and support systems for students and can fund conference travel and research. Her recent appointment to the Department of Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board, meanwhile, helps her advocate for constant improvements to the department that will further enable student success. But her advocacy for students and education doesnt end there. While she was pursuing her undergraduate degree in Blacksburg, she volunteered with friends at a local elementary school, tutoring young students and helping them with their homework. Now, in Northern Virginia, she helps tutor adults going back to high school to earn their diplomas. I always feel like if you can just get a little bit of education, it's your path to choosing what you want to do, Kolbay said. Still, while education provides more options, Kolbays best advice to other students is to keep an open mind to all of those possibilities. After her graduation in 2002, a tough post-9/11 job market limited work prospects, but between Engineering Expo and Career Services, she was able to get her resume in front of other Virginia Tech alumni at an architecture and engineering firm. After accepting the job, she began designing building systems and realized her love for the work. I had no idea that I would enjoy doing that, but jobs were tight when I was coming out of school, Kolbay said. I think being open-minded really paid off because I was like, I'm not too sure this is what I want to do, but there's not a lot of jobs right now, Im going to go try this out. It worked out for me and I stuck with it. Kolbay currently provides engineering expertise for Reston, Virginia-based defense company Leidos. Outside of work, shes looking forward to serving on the Department of Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board. She hopes to provide a unique voice to the increasingly diverse board, which advises the department on curriculum recommendations based on observed industry needs. Kolbay remembers one particularly enjoyable summer she spent in Blacksburg running around town to collect data from parking meters for a project she worked on for associate professor Al Wicks. In her new advisory board role, shell be able to share her insight on why hands-on experiences like this are important for Hokies entering the workforce. Somebody else did it for me, and I know that that's the only way that the programs actually work is that people have to donate time and money, and it's not some magical tree that drops money into the school it's people that care about the school, she said. Another perk of being on the board? More trips to Virginia Tech. It just feels like a special place, Kolbay said. It really is home for me I do feel like I'm driving home when I am driving south on [interstate] 81. Written by Erica Corder The following companies are subsidiares of HP: 3Com, 3PAR, ABB CADE, AOME Holdings Ltd., Alpha Holding One B.V., Alpha Holding Two B.V., Anatolus Holding B.V., Antila Holding B.V., Apogee, Apogee Corp, Apollo Computer, AppIQ, Applied Optoelectronic Tech, Aptitude Management Consulting W.L.L., Aquarius Holding S.C.A., ArcSight, Arteis, Artivision Technologies, Aruba Networks, Atos Origin, Atos Origin Middle East group, Aurasma Limited, Autonomy Corporation, Avantek, BT & D Technologies, Bitfone Corporation, Bluestone Software, Boonton Radio, Bristol Technology Inc., Bromium, CEC Europe Service Management, CGNZ, CaLan, Caleum Holding B.V., Callisto Holding B.V., Colorado Memory Systems, Colubris Networks, Colubris Networks, Columba Holding B.V., Compaq Cayman Holdings Company, Compaq Cayman Holdings General Partnership II, Compaq Cayman Islands Vision Company, Compaq Information Technologies, Compaq Information Technologies LLC, Computer Insurance Company, Computing and Printing Global Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Computing and Printing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Computing and Printing Professional Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Consera Software, ConteXtream Inc, Convex Computer, Crater Holding B.V., David Vision Systems GmbH, Dazel, Division, Dorado Holding B.V., EDS (Electronic Data Systems), EEsof, EYP Mission Critical Facilities, Elara Holding B.V., ElseWare, Eon Systems, Eucalyptus Systems, Eunomia Holding B.V., ExcellerateHRO, Exstream Software, Extreme Logic, F&M Scientific Corporation, F.L. Moseley Company, Flame Holding B.V., Fortify Software, Four Pi Systems, Gram Global Operations Limited, Gram Inc., HP Austria GmbH, HP Belgium BVBA, HP Bermuda Holding One L.P., HP Bilgisayar ve Bask Teknolojileri Limited Sirketi, HP Bilgisayar ve Bask Teknolojileri Limited Sirketi Ankara Subesi, HP Brasil Industria e Comercio de Equipamentos Eletronicos Ltda, HP Brasil Industria e Comercio de Equipamentos Eletronicos Ltda.Branch 01 (Tambore), HP Brasil Industria e Comercio de Equipamentos Eletronicos Ltda.Branch 2 (Sorocaba), HP Brasil Industria e Comercio de Equipamentos Eletronicos Ltda.Branch 3 (Porto Alegre), HP Canada Co., HP China Holding B.V., HP Colombia SAS, HP Computing and Printing Middle East FZ-LLC, HP Computing and Printing Nigeria Ltd, HP Computing and Printing Systems India Private Limited, HP Computing and Printing d.o.o. (Beograd), HP Computing and Printing d.o.o. (Zagreb), HP Deutschland GmbH, HP Deutschland Holding GmbH, HP Europe B.V. Regional Dubai Branch, HP Europe BV Amsterdam Meyrin Branch, HP Finland Oy, HP France Holding SAS, HP France SAS, HP France SAS Bahrain Branch, HP Global Trading B.V., HP Global Trading B.V. Kazakhstan Branch, HP Hewlett Packard Group LLC, HP Holdgate Co., HP Inc (Thailand) Ltd., HP Inc AP Hong Kong Limited, HP Inc Argentina S.R.L., HP Inc Bulgaria EOOD, HP Inc Chile Comercial Limitada, HP Inc Costa Rica Limitada, HP Inc Czech Republic s.r.o., HP Inc Danmark ApS, HP Inc Gulf, HP Inc Hong Kong Limited, HP Inc Magyarorszag Kft., HP Inc Polska sp. z o.o., HP Inc Romania SRL, HP Inc Slovakia s.r.o., HP Inc Tunisie SARL, HP Inc UK Holding Limited, HP Inc UK Limited, HP Inc. Peru SRL, HP Information Technology R & D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., HP International Sarl, HP International Sarl (Puerto Rico Branch) LLC, HP International Trading B.V., HP International Trading B.V. (Puerto Rico Branch) LLC, HP Italy Holding S.r.l., HP Italy S.r.l., HP Japan Inc., HP Korea Inc., HP Luxembourg S.C.A., HP Nederland B.V., HP New Zealand, HP Norge AS, HP PPS Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., HP PPS Australia Pty Ltd, HP PPS Costa Rica Limitada, HP PPS India Operations Private Limited, HP PPS Israel Ltd, HP PPS Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., HP PPS Maroc SARL, HP PPS Multimedia Sdn. Bhd., HP PPS Philippines Inc., HP PPS Sales Sdn. Bhd., HP PPS Services India Private Limited, HP PPS Singapore (Sales) Pte. Ltd., HP PPS Sverige AB, HP Pakistan (Private) Limited, HP Panama S. de R.L., HP Printing and Computing Solutions S.L.U., HP Printing and Personal Systems Hellas EPE, HP Production Company Limited, HP Puerto Rico LLC, HP Schweiz GmbH, HP Solutions Creation and Development Services S.L.U., HP South Africa Proprietary Limited, HP Taiwan Information Technology Ltd., HP Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd., HP Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd. Chengdu Branch, HP Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd. Guangzhou Branch, HP Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd. Nanjing Branch, HP Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd. Shanghai Branch, HP Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., HP Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, HP Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. Dalian Branch, HP Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. Zhangjiang Branch, HP WebOS LLC, HP-PPS Ecuador Cia. Ltda, HPCP-Computing and Printing Portugal Unipessoal Lda., HPI Bermuda Holdings LLC, HPI Brazil Holdings LLC, HPI CCHGPII LLC, HPI CCHGPII Sub LLC, HPI Federal LLC, HPI J1 Holdings LLC, HPI J2 Holdings LLC, HPI Luxembourg LLC, HPQ Holdings LLC, Hadar Holding B.V., Handspring Corporation, Heartstream, Hewlett Packard Distribution Center Panama S. de R.L, Hewlett-Packard (Chongqing) Co. Ltd, Hewlett-Packard (Chongqing) Manufacturing Export Procurement and Settlement Co. Ltd., Hewlett-Packard (Japan NK) Holdings C.V., Hewlett-Packard Angola Ltda., Hewlett-Packard Arabia LLC, Hewlett-Packard Cambridge B.V., Hewlett-Packard Company Archives LLC, Hewlett-Packard Copenhagen B.V., Hewlett-Packard Danube B.V., Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P., Hewlett-Packard Enterprises LLC, Hewlett-Packard Europe BVAbu Dhabi Branch, Hewlett-Packard G.K., Hewlett-Packard Global Holdings B.V., Hewlett-Packard Global Investments B.V., Hewlett-Packard India Sales Private Limited, Hewlett-Packard Indigo B.V., Hewlett-Packard Indigo Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Industrial Printing Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Industrial Printing Solutions Europe BVBA, Hewlett-Packard International Pte Ltd, Hewlett-Packard International Pte Ltd Taiwan Branch, Hewlett-Packard Ireland (Holdings) Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Ireland 1 Limited, Hewlett-Packard Ireland Limited, Hewlett-Packard KSA Ltd, Hewlett-Packard KSA Ltd. Qatar Branch, Hewlett-Packard Lisbon B.V., Hewlett-Packard MENA FZ-LLC, Hewlett-Packard MENA FZ-LLC Libya Branch, Hewlett-Packard Malaysia Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd., Hewlett-Packard Mercator B.V., Hewlett-Packard Munich B.V., Hewlett-Packard Products B.V., Hewlett-Packard Products C.V., Hewlett-Packard Products CV 1 LLC, Hewlett-Packard Products CV 2 LLC, Hewlett-Packard Services Saudi Arabia Company, Hewlett-Packard Singapore (Private) Limited, Hewlett-Packard Sunnyvale B.V., Hewlett-Packard Vietnam Ltd., Hewlett-Packard West Indies Limited, Hewlett-Packard World Trade LLC, Hiflex Software, IBRIX, IndiGo, Indigo America Inc., Kale Holding B.V., Kale Holding B.V. (Puerto Rico Branch) LLC, Knightsbridge Solutions, Lefthand Networks, Limited Liability Company HP Inc, Logoworks, Lyra Holding B.V., MacDermid ColorSpan, ManageOne, Melodeo, Mensa Holding B.V., Mercury Interactive, Metrix Network Systems, NUR Macroprinters, Neoware, Nihon HP Nin-I Kumiai, Novadigm, NuView ManageX, Nur do Brasil Ltda, OOO "Hewlett-Packard RUS", Opelin, Opelin, Open Skies, Opsware, Opsware, Optimization Systems, Optotech, OuterBay Technologies, OuterBay Technologies, PERSIST Technologies, PFE Investments Ltd., PIXACO, PROLIN, PT Hewlett-Packard Indonesia, Palm, Palm, Palm Asia Pacific Limited Taiwan Branch, Palm Comercio de Aparelhos Eletronicos Ltda., Palm Europe Limited, Palm Global Operations Limited, Palm Inc., Palm Ireland Investment, Palm Latin America Inc., Palm South America LLC, Palm Trademark Holding Company LLC, Pearl Holding Cooperatief U.A., Peregrine Systems, Perseus Holding B.V., Phoenix Holding L.P., PipeBeach, Polaris Holding One L.P., Polaris Holding Two L.P., PolyServe, Propus Holding B.V., Qosnetics, Quartz Holding Co, RLX Technologies, Regor Holding B.V., SPI Dynamics, Samsung Printing Solutions, Scitex, Scitex Vision, Scope Communications, Scorpius Holding B.V., Security Force Software, Shoreline Investment Management Company, Shunra Software, Shunra Software, Silverwire Holding, Snapfish, StorageApps, Stratavia, Synstar, Tabblo, Talking Blocks, Tall Tree Insurance Company, Techink International Pte. Ltd., Technology Partners, Telegra, The Technology Partners, Tourmaline Holding B.V., Tower Software, Tower Software Engineering Pty Ltd, Transoft Networks, Trellis Software & Controls, Triaton, Trinagy, TruLogica, Trustgenix, Turquoise Holding L.P., VeriFone, Verifone, Versatest, Vertica Systems, Vesta Holding B.V., Vital Technology Pte Ltd, Voltage Security, VoodooPC, and ZAO Hewlett-Packard A.O.. Left: Getty Images; Right: Alamy Acknowledging that their obituaries historically overlooked the contributions of notable women, the New York Times is seeking to right this wrong by launching a feature on women who "left indelible marks but were nonetheless overlooked" in the obituary pages. The collection launched last week with 15 women, and more will be added weekly. Many of the women profiled, include writers Charlotte Bronte and Sylvia Plath and photographer Diane Arbus, died before they even reached age 50, but others continued their notable activities later in life. Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells used the mighty power of the pen to challenge racism in the Deep South with her powerful reporting on lynchings. Wells, who was born a slave, was a pioneer in news-gathering techniques and civil rights organizing. It is with no pleasure that I have dipped my hands in the corruption here exposed, Wells wrote in 1892 in Southern Horrors. Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so. Wells was a 30-year-old newspaper editor living in Memphis when she launched the anti-lynching campaign that made her famous, according to the Times. She questioned the stereotype that black men were rapists, which was frequently used to justify lynchings. Her reporting found that in two-thirds of mob murders, the victim had never been accused of rape, and that in many cases there had been a consensual interracial relationship. Her work was published in the newspaper she co-owned and edited, the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, and she was dubbed "The Princess of the Press" by the Journalist, a mainstream trade publication. Threatened often throughout her career, Wells never backed down from her beliefs. Wells saw lynching as "a violent form of subjugation" to stop African Americans from acquiring wealth and property after the Reconstruction era, according to the Times. Her articles were widely reprinted, including internationally and in more than 200 African American weeklies published at the time in the United States. Wells was also was a trailblazer for activism. In 1883, after being forced off a train car reserved for white women, she sued the railroad. After losing on appeal, she urged African Americans to avoid the trains. Later in her life, she helped to found prominent civil rights organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Association of Colored Women, and ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois State Senate. She continued to organize around causes such as mass incarceration until she died of kidney disease at age 68. Emily Warren Roebling In the 19th century, women were still wearing petticoats and were unlikely to be visiting construction sites. But Emily Warren Roebling oversaw the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the world's first steel-wire suspension bridge, after her engineer husband, Washington A. Roebling, fell ill. "She began as secretary, taking copious notes," the Times reports. "She went back and forth to the construction site. She negotiated the supply materials, oversaw the contracts, and acted as liaison to the board of trustees. Eventually, she became a kind of 'surrogate chief engineer,' according to a biography of Warren by the historian Marilyn Weigold, a professor at Pace University. She used her 'superb diplomatic skills' to manage competing parties including the mayor of Brooklyn, who tried to have her husband ousted from the project." The bridge, which took 14 years to build, connected Brooklyn and Manhattan for the first time, and was the worlds longest suspension bridge at the time. It was proclaimed the Eighth Wonder of the World. The bridge opened on May 24, 1883. Today, a plaque there honors Emily, her husband and her father-in-law, who was involved in the early days of the construction. It reads: Back of every great work we can find the self-sacrificing devotion of a woman. Emily Warren Roebling didn't rest on that great achievement. Later in life she would study law at New York University and "argue in an Albany law journal article for equality in marriage," the Times reports. In an 1898 letter to her son, Roebling wrote: I have more brains, common sense and know-how generally than have any two engineers, civil or uncivil, and but for me the Brooklyn Bridge would never have had the name Roebling in any way connected with it! Roebling died of stomach cancer on Feb. 28, 1903, at age 59. Readers can nominate candidates for future Overlooked obits. Central moves down to No. 4 in latest football poll Aberdeen Central suffered their first loss on the season, but it wasn't enough to create a massive ripple in 11AA. Police have identified the man shot and killed in an apartment complex in the foothills last Friday as 24-year-old Zachary Sais. But they have not identified the man who they say shot him. That man has not been charged and the case has been turned over to the District Attorneys Office for review, said officer Simon Drobik, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department. Drobik said the shooting occurred when Sais went over to his ex-girlfriends home in the Sandia Vista apartment complex on Tramway south of Lomas and was met by her new boyfriend. It was a domestic incident between the old boyfriend and the new boyfriend, he said. From what I understand there was a weapon involved and the old boyfriend received at least one gunshot wound and was pronounced deceased. Drobik said he did not know which man brought the gun to the scene. Officers were called to the complex shortly after 5 a.m. Friday where they found Sais dead on the first floor of a stairwell outside of an apartment. Another police department spokesman said last week that detectives took three people, including the shooter, into custody for questioning and he was cooperating with the investigation. When asked if detectives are considering the shooting self-defense, Drobik said based on someone not being charged that night, its probably leaning that way yes. Drobik said he did not know the shooters name, and he had still not released it Monday night. Court records show Sais had a history of domestic violence with the woman who lived in that apartment and has a 3-year-old son with her. In 2015, he was arrested and charged with felony kidnapping, aggravated battery and other crimes after police say he chased her through a parking lot with a tire iron and dragged her into his pickup truck while she was holding their child. According to a criminal complaint, Sais eventually dropped the woman off at his parents house and they were able to intervene. The woman filed a restraining order against Sais after the incident but it was dismissed when she didnt appear at the hearing. The domestic violence case against him was also dismissed, although it could have been refiled. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal Balloonists who search for a place to land during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta have grown more concerned as the citys growth continues to eat up potential landing sites. Every year theres landing sites lost, said Scott Appelman, president and CEO of Rainbow Ryders, the official balloon ride company of the fiesta. City Councilor Don Harris introduced legislation earlier this month that would create a task force to examine solutions and make recommendations to ease the problem. This is the most important economic development and tourist attraction in the state of New Mexico, Harris said. Its vital for our economy, and its vital that we put our heads together to make sure the balloon fiesta is viable for the foreseeable future. The resolution specifically mentions the steadily infilled corridor along Interstate 25 from Comanche/Griegos to Alameda. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Balloon Landing Task Force would include officials from state and local governments, and representatives from various city departments and the fiesta. Among the solutions that will be researched are tax incentives for property owners to provide temporary landing fields and acquiring land for balloon landings and other recreational uses. In 2007, the city purchased land on Osuna NE and turned it into Vista del Norte Park, which doubles as a balloon landing site. Harris said perhaps agreements could be made with big box stores; they could be reimbursed for the use of their parking lots and delayed opening times. Appelman and fiesta spokesman Tom Garrity said they support the resolution. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta appreciates what the councilor has done in introducing the legislation, Garrity said. The resolution is currently in the Finance and Government Operations Committee. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal The University of New Mexico Press books are bound for Tennessee. UNMs Board of Regents on Monday approved a contract with Longleaf Services Inc. to assume the warehousing and distribution functions that the UNM Press currently handles in-house. While some critics have blasted outsourcing which requires moving the inventory to Tennessee UNM officials contend its necessary for the Press long-term viability. Were not closing down the Press, interim senior vice provost Rich Wood said. This is a move to allow the Press to continue to exist and thrive. UNM has typically not provided a direct subsidy for the Press, instead covering its year-end shortfalls. But those shortfalls have repeatedly topped $500,000, and UNM has searched for ways to stabilize the operation. Interim Press Director Richard Schuetz expressed his support for the outsourcing, saying he sees it as the next step in our three-part plan to get our Press on solid financial footing. Previous measures included cutting staff and reducing the number of titles published. But UNM emeritus professor Enrique Lamadrid had a different take, complaining about the many recent changes. The rallying cry I heard at the level of deans and administrators is how they are saving the Press, when in actuality theyve done everything possible to dismantle it, Lamadrid said. The contract with Longleaf begins July 1. It will cost an estimated $250,000 for the first year and $260,000 each of the next four, but it could vary depending on the number of books sold and stored, according to materials provided for the meeting. UNM says it will save more than $200,000 in annual fulfillment costs by outsourcing something many universities already have done. Scheutz told regents that UNM is about one of 13 academic presses that still handles distribution in-house. But some have warned that the move could hurt the larger New Mexico book community. UNM Press is the states largest publisher, and about 30 third-party publishers piggyback onto its warehouse service. Those contracts yield about $220,000 in annual revenue. Melissa Vargas, director of operations in the provosts office, said UNM would determine soon on a case-by-case basis which publishers it would continue distributing for under its new Longleaf arrangement. The Press existing warehouse has about 845,000 units, including about 300,000 from other publishers. She said UNM anticipates sending a three-year supply of each title, though nothing is final. The outsourcing affects five jobs. At least two will be transferred to support the University Libraries and Learning Sciences which recently took the Press under its umbrella but no decisions have been finalized on the other three, Vargas said in an emailed response to Journal questions. She said UNM could start sending inventory to Tennessee next month, with a goal of emptying the Albuquerque warehouse by mid-August. Longleaf will cover costs of moving the inventory. Precipitation made a rare but welcome appearance, mainly across central New Mexico, on Sunday, dropping 5 inches of snow in Sandia Park, nearly a quarter of an inch of rain in parts of Albuquerque and three-quarters of an inch in portions of Rio Rancho. Only in a winter like this one so dry that nearly 80 percent of the state is in severe drought and the mountain snowpacks are a joke thats not funny could make a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon seem pleasant. The wet weather was a nice respite but no fix for the states problems, said Daniel Porter, science and operations officer with the Albuquerque office of the National Weather Service. It wont put any dent in our drought conditions, Porter said. But it will delay our fire season some. He said there is a chance we might get more of the same this coming weekend. Rain across Albuquerque this past Sunday ranged from 0.10 inches to 0.23 inches, with the heaviest amounts falling in the northwest part of the city. Reported rainfall in Rio Rancho ranges from 0.25 to 0.75 inches. Corrales took in a steady, soaking rain of 0.27 inches. Bernalillo got about a quarter of an inch and Santa Fe received 0.10 to 0.22 inches. Ponderosa, near Jemez Springs, got 3.5 inches of snow. Todd Shoemake, a meteorologist with the Albuquerque office of the Weather Service, said the weather calms down today and warms up noticeably. Albuquerques highs will be in the low 60s. On Wednesday, however, Shoemake said a little bit of moisture will move into the northwest part of New Mexico, bringing with it a 50 to 60 percent chance of precipitation, maybe even some snow, in the Dulce area of Rio Arriba County. He said that trend continues Thursday with moisture and breezy to windy conditions moving across the state and offering minimal precipitation to the higher elevations of north-central New Mexico. On Friday, Shoemake said, windy conditions and low humidity might make for a couple of hours of critical fire weather in the eastern part of the state. Unsettled weather on Saturday and Sunday brings a potential for showers, mostly in the northern and central parts of the state, and cooler temperatures on Sunday, Shoemake said. We might get some light to localized precipitation on Sunday, Porter said. It will be similar to what we saw this past Sunday. Not a blockbuster event. But in this dry year, it will be a blessing. No matter how chilling and miserable it is. SAN DIEGO Immigration has always made President Donald Trump a wee bit loony. No rational person would say the United States is hurt by accepting risk-takers from shithole countries, paint immigrants as violent criminals and claim that Mexico is sending us its worst people. Just to scare up a few votes? But now, the issue seems to have finally driven him and his entire administration stark raving mad. How else can we explain the fact that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided to sue the state of California over a phony sanctuary law that only has the power to offend conservatives and make liberals feel morally superior? Sessions is not the right person to defend the supremacy of the federal government. Here you have a career politician who hails from Alabama, which seceded from the union in the 1860s and defied federal civil rights laws in the 1960s. Here you have someone who sides with gun zealots who think they have the duty to overthrow a tyrannical federal government, and who thinks local police departments accused of civil rights violations should escape federal oversight. And this is the guy that history has chosen to lecture California on the importance of falling in line behind the federal government? Why is that? Because former Alabama Gov. George Wallace is dead? Its absurd. To make sense of it all, keep in mind the three Fs: foil, fraud and flip. Foil: With a modern-day P.T. Barnum at the helm, the Trump administration has a knack for finding a sucker every minute by creating a foil so as to deflect attention away from whatever is going wrong a fractured and backbiting White House in chaos, a looming trade war over 19th century-style tariffs, the resignation of top advisers, questions about payoffs to a porn star, etc. During the campaign, amid a cascade of gaffes and scandals, Trump shifted the conversation to trade and made a foil out of China. A few weeks ago, when the topic was school safety, Trump pointed his finger at violent movies and video games. Now that the subject has turned to immigration, the convenient foil is California. Fraud: When railing against so-called sanctuaries, the administration keeps contradicting itself. One minute, it says that California is preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from doing their jobs; the next, it announces with great fanfare that its business as usual and that raids are on the way. So much for not being able to do their jobs, eh? No matter who declares what, the federal government doesnt take orders from local and state officials in California. But nor do local officials like Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff whom Sessions called out for spilling the beans about an ICE raid take orders from the federal government. By the way, not for nothing, but Republicans like Sessions have for decades gone to Central California to milk contributions from conservative farmers who would lose everything and see their crops rot on the vine without illegal immigrant laborers to pick them. Flip: Remember when conservatives ranted and raved about local control? When local school officials wanted to skirt federal education accountability requirements under No Child Left Behind, or a local county clerk declared that her Christian beliefs prohibited her from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, or the state of Arizona insisted that it had the right to deputize its local and state law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law, who did all these people go to for support? The Republican Party, thats who. In all those cases, and too many others to mention, conservatives argued for states rights and local autonomy. Part of the reason for that is their healthy suspicion of an overbearing federal government. Where did those people go? We could use a few of them in California to help us fight off the overbearing and hypocritical Trump administration. Think about the spectacle on the left coast, and how surreal it has become. California Gov. Jerry Brown says the administration has declared war against his state. And what exactly are we going to war over? A con job. A mirage. A so-called sanctuary that offers no safe harbor. In the new California, as in the old one, local police still cooperate with ICE agents, who still have access to prisoners in jail. People still get deported. Very little has changed. But those are facts, and politics has no interest in facts. People will believe what they want to believe. On behalf of the Golden State, this carnival act of an administration can believe this: Well see you in court. E-mail: ruben@rubennavarrette.com. Copyright, The Washington Post Writers Group. His daily podcast, Navarrette Nation, is available through every podcast app. He drank, he drove, he killed three people just outside of Moriarty, and, when all is said and done, hell likely only spend nine years in prison. Its a stark reminder that life is cheap in New Mexico, and until that changes, New Mexicans will continue to see one DWI tragedy after another. Caesar Chavez, 52, of Moriarty, pleaded guilty in September to three counts of homicide by vehicle-DWI and one count of causing great bodily harm. He was sentenced last month to 18 years, though with good behavior hell only serve half of that. I want to say Im sorry, Chavez said during the sentencing hearing. It was an accident. I never had intent to kill anybody. I beg for forgiveness. While he may not have set out to kill anyone, he certainly made the decision to drink and get behind the wheel while he was intoxicated. Drinking and driving is the equivalent of firing a loaded shotgun toward a busy street. That shell may not hit anyone, but the callous person who fires that shot shouldnt be surprised when one of those shells does end up striking and killing someone, or even a family. Whether Chavez intended to end three lives on April 23, 2016, is irrelevant. The fact is Pablo Caldera-Quezada, his daughter, Jusalet Caldera, 22, and her daughter, 18-month-old Citlaly Alverez Caldera, are still dead. Neither Chavezs intent, nor his remorse, will buy those three innocent people another day on this earth with their families. Frankly, spending three years in prison for each of the lives he took seems like a bargain considering the price his three victims paid and the price that their family continues to pay. To be sure, Chavezs sentence was in line with what has been imposed on other DWI drivers involved in fatal accidents. Gordon House, who was convicted in a Christmas Eve 1992 DWI crash that killed an Albuquerque mother and her three daughters, served 11 years of a 22-year sentence which works out to nearly three years per life he took. Could it be that life being so cheap in New Mexico perpetuates the horrible tragedies that continue to play out here? Then again, someone who consumes alcohol and gets behind the wheel with her 2-year-old in the back seat probably isnt thinking about the consequences of her actions. Christie Noriega, 31, of Rio Rancho, is accused of doing just that this month. Sandoval County sheriffs deputies say she then crashed into a car parked on the shoulder of Interstate 25, hitting two men changing a flat tire outside Algodones. Killed were 21-year-old Michael Chambellan and 28-year-old Lonnie Escovedo. Escovedo and his fiancee, Benigna Martinez, were on their way from Mora to Las Vegas, Nev., to get married when they had the flat tire. Escovedo called his sister, who showed up to help with Chambellan, her boyfriend. Chambellan had been a wrestler as a student at Sandia High, and he had a reputation as someone who was always there to help others. Prior to the crash, at least two people called Sandoval County Dispatch to report a drunken driver traveling south on I-25. Another couple watched as Noriega swiped the side of the car at 80-plus. Noriega, who, according to a court document smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech and bloodshot, watery eyes, told deputies she had not drunk any alcohol and didnt remember the crash. She was booked into the Sandoval County Detention Center on two counts of DWI-related homicide by vehicle, DWI-second offense, and child abuse. They didnt deserve what happened to them, at all, Martinez said of her fiance and the other man killed. No, they didnt. And they dont deserve for the person who took their lives to serve less than three years per life should she be found guilty in this case. Lawmakers need to toughen up DWI penalties in this state. 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. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Two-term state Rep. Sarah Maestas Barnes, an Albuquerque Republican who represents a key legislative swing district, will not seek re-election this fall, she confirmed Monday. In an interview, Maestas Barnes told the Journal she had been thinking since shortly after the 2016 election cycle about whether she would run again and ultimately decided she needed to spend more time with her family, which includes two young daughters. People dont realize how difficult it is for legislators who have small children to serve, she said. I think if you do the job correctly, its a full-time job. Her decision means a total of at least seven House members will not seek re-election this year, either because they are stepping down or are running for higher office. All 70 House seats are up for election this year, and candidate filing day is today. It could also complicate Republicans hopes of retaking control of the state House, though Maestas Barnes has endorsed Albuquerque City Councilor Brad Winter in the race to take over her seat in the chamber. Its unclear whether Winter would have to step down from the City Council if elected, but he has already served a one-year stint as New Mexico secretary of state while maintaining his council seat. The House District 15 seat Maestas Barnes holds covers parts of Albuquerques North Valley, Northeast Heights and Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. Its regarded as one of the states most competitive districts and has been held by five people since 2001. Maestas Barnes has sponsored several high-profile measures during her time in Santa Fe, including a 2015 bill requiring that Amber Alerts be sent to cellphones when children vanish, a 2016 bill dealing with drunken driving penalties for repeat offenders and 2017 legislation that changed how prosecutors can charge individuals accused of possessing child pornography. She also pushed a bill to expand New Mexicos Baby Brianna Law, which covers intentional child abuse resulting in death, but that proposal stalled repeatedly in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Maestas Barnes said Monday that she still plans to advocate for the bill after stepping down from the Legislature her term expires next January and will work in the coming months on a soon-to-be-formed council studying hunger-related issues in New Mexico. Meanwhile, Democrats will be looking to build on their 38-32 majority in the House in this years election cycle. Republicans won control of the House in 2014, but Democrats reclaimed it in 2016. Maestas Barnes, first elected in 2014, was one of the few GOP legislators in swing districts who were able to fend off Democratic challengers in 2016, as Democrats picked up five Republican-held seats. KABUL, Afghanistan U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday he believes victory in Afghanistan is still possible not necessarily on the battlefield but in facilitating a Taliban reconciliation with the Afghan government. Mattis spoke shortly before arriving in Kabul, where security concerns were so high that reporters traveling with him were not allowed to publish stories until his party had moved from the Kabul airport to the U.S.-led military coalitions headquarters. That was the first such restriction on coverage of a Pentagon chiefs visit in memory. Mattis said he would be meeting with President Ashraf Ghani and top U.S. commanders. We do look toward a victory in Afghanistan, he said, adding, Not a military victory the victory will be a political reconciliation with the Taliban, which has achieved a stalemate in recent years and shown little interest in conceding to the Kabul government. Mattis, a retired Marine general who commanded U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan in the opening weeks of the war in 2001, said getting the Taliban to reconcile en masse may be a bridge too far. So the emphasis is on drawing in Taliban elements piecemeal. He described this approach as an effort to start peeling off those who are tired of fighting, after more than 16 years of war. We know there is interest on the Taliban side, he said. He defined victory in Afghanistan as a political settlement between the Taliban and the government, and an Afghan military that is capable of securing the country largely on its own. At that point, he said, Afghanistan would not be a haven for attacks internationally as it was when al-Qaida used the country as a launching pad for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Ghani opened his meeting with Mattis at the Presidential Palace by expressing appreciation for the U.S. militarys sacrifices over the years, and offering praise for the new war strategy approved by U.S. President Donald Trump last August. Ghani called the new U.S. approach a game changer. It has forced every actor to re-examine their assumptions, he said, adding that in the short run this could intensify the conflict. On the positive side, he said, it enables his government to make an unconditional peace offer to the Taliban without it looking like a surrender. He said it also allowed his government to approach Pakistan with an offer of a comprehensive dialogue. U.S. intelligence officials are predicting the war will remain stalemated as the traditionally most intensive fighting season begins this spring. The visit is Mattis second since Trump announced last August that, despite his instinct to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, his administration would take a more aggressive approach to the conflict, now in its 17th year. As part of an effort to bolster Afghan fighting strength, the U.S. in recent weeks sent an Army group of about 800 soldiers, accompanied by several hundred support troops, to advise the Afghans closer to the front lines. The U.S. also shifted A-10 attack planes and other aircraft from striking Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan as part of Trumps new approach. These and other moves boosted the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by at least 3,500 to a total of more than 14,000. Mattis has said that the U.S. goal is to enable Afghan forces to weaken the Taliban to the point where the Afghans can manage their own security. Put another way, the aim is to convince the insurgents they cannot win on the battlefield, thus driving them to reconcile with the Afghan government. Stephen Biddle, a George Washington University political science professor and longtime observer of the Afghan conflict, is skeptical that the new U.S. strategy will make a decisive difference militarily, although he sees glimmers of hope for progress toward a peace settlement. He noted that both the Taliban and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani have spoken recently of pushing for reconciliation. In late February, Ghani called on the Taliban to take part in peace talks to save the country, offering security and incentives such as passports to insurgents who are willing to join the negotiations. Alice Wells, the State Departments top official for South and Central Asian Affairs, said Friday at the United States Institute for Peace that Ghanis approach is more accommodating toward the Taliban than previous overtures by Kabul and deserves a thoughtful response from the Taliban. Trump, however, said on Jan. 29 that he sees no basis for peace talks as long as the Taliban are killing people left and right. The Taliban stance is that talks for a conflict-ending compromise must take place with Washington, not Kabul. U.S. officials have conveyed messages to Taliban political representatives in Qatar urging the group to negotiate with the Afghan government. Neighboring countries are doubtful about Americas commitment to a political resolution. Pakistan, Iran and Russia are thought to maintain ties to militant proxies inside Afghanistan in case the war-ravaged country collapses. On the military front, U.S. officials assert that years of effort to build a credible and effective Afghan army and air force are beginning to pay off. At the same time, it has become harder to gauge such progress because the American-led military coalition has stopped releasing information such as the size of the Afghan army and rates of attrition in its ranks. The number of Afghan combat deaths also is withheld by the Afghan government. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee late last month, Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, said the Afghan security forces are getting better. He said they do not, however, have the ability to prevent the insurgency from maintaining a rural presence and occasionally threatening a population center or important roadway. In Votels view, the greatest risk to stability in Afghanistan is the Kabul governments uncertain political situation as it prepares for planned July 2018 parliamentary elections. In a late-February report, the Pentagons special inspector general for Afghanistan reported that the Afghan governments control of the country is at its lowest recorded level since the end of 2015 and that Taliban control it at its highest. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump unceremoniously dumped Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday via Twitter and picked CIA Director Mike Pompeo to shift from Americas spy chief to its top diplomat. The abrupt announcement ended the turbulent tenure of the man who reportedly called the president a moron but wanted to stay, and deepened the disarray in the Trump administration. The plans to oust Tillerson had been drawn up months ago, but the timing caught even senior White House officials unawares. The firing was just the latest in an exodus of administration officials, including those in Trumps inner circle, with the president already setting records for staff turnover and several other Cabinet secretaries facing ethics investigations. However, Trump emphatically rejected talk of chaos in his year-old administration as he nears a pivotal moment on the international stage with his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He declared Tuesday, Im really at a point where were getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want. He said he was nominating the CIAs deputy director, Gina Haspel, to take over for Pompeo at the intelligence agency. If confirmed, Haspel would be the CIAs first female director As for Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil CEO whom Trump picked as his administrations top Cabinet official, the president said simply, we disagreed on things. No doubt that was true, one prime example being the agreement to restrict Irans nuclear efforts. Trumps change puts Pompeo, an ardent foe of the Iran nuclear deal, in charge of U.S. diplomacy as the president decides whether to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement. Tillerson has pushed Trump to remain and had been pursuing a delicate strategy with European allies and others to try to improve or augment the Obama-era deal to Trumps liking. We were not really thinking the same, said Trump. Public policy aside, in the view of current and former White House officials, Tillersons moron comment to senior administration officials last summer and the subsequent revelation in the press permanently eroded trust between the two men and it was only a matter of time before Tillerson would be pushed out. Tillerson himself, his voice occasionally quavering, gave brief farewell remarks at the State Department, thanking department staff and diplomats around the world but not mentioning Trump except to say that hed spoken by phone to the president Tuesday while Trump was on Air Force One, hours after the tweeted firing. The gulf that separated the two men was illustrated one last time by conflicting stories on the circumstances of the firing. Trump kept the timing to an unusually close circle that included Chief of Staff John Kelly and Vice President Mike Pence, officials said. Pompeo was brought into the White House Friday after returning from an overseas trip and was offered the job formally by phone Saturday. Kelly was given the task of phoning Tillerson, who was in Africa, but the nature of their conversation was up for dispute. White House officials said Kelly told Tillerson that Trump wanted a change and he should step down. Tillerson, the White House said, asked that Trump wait until he returned to the U.S., and he shortened his trip to Africa where much of his mission revolved around softening the impact of Trumps recent reported criticisms. However, Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein and other State Department officials said that Tillerson hadnt learned he was being dismissed until he saw Trumps early-Tuesday tweet, and hadnt discussed it directly with the president. Goldstein said Tillerson was unaware of the reason he was fired and had had every intention of staying, feeling he was making progress on national security. That was the end for Goldstein. Hours later, he was fired, too. Even after Tuesdays announcement, the White House and Tillerson aides were still struggling to determine when and how Tillerson would exit. After hours of bureaucratic tug-of-war, Tillerson, in his final somber turn before the cameras, said he would be delegating his responsibilities to deputy secretary John Sullivan at the end of the workday and would resign effective at the end of the month. I will now return to private life, private citizen, a proud American, proud of the opportunity Ive had to serve my country, he said. From the start, the former Exxon chief had been an unlikely pick for top diplomat, with no formal experience but a lifetimes worth of personal relationships with heads of state and powerful global figures, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump had boasted to allies that he looked the part of the nations chief diplomat, but differences in style and ideology quickly came to a head. While he espoused unconventional views on the organization of the State Department and made sweeping reform of the bureaucracy his top concern Tillerson proved to be cut from the same cloth of the national security conservatives who have dominated the GOP for decades. He had been recommended for the post by Condoleezza Rice and James Baker. Tillersons insult to Trumps intelligence came after heated discussions about Afghanistan policy, in which Trump had pushed to end the U.S. presence altogether and flirted with outsourcing the military counterterrorism campaign to private contractors. Hours before his firing was made public, Tillerson vocally condemned Russia for allegedly poisoning an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in the United Kingdom, even as the White House declined to assert blame. The pair also never developed a particularly warm relationship. Trump in recent days has told confidants that he feels emboldened, confident in his decisions to order new international trade on tariffs and to meet with Kim Jong Un and far less willing to put up with disloyalty around him, according to a person who has spoken to the president in recent days but was not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. Tillersons departure adds to a period of intense turnover within Trumps administration that has alarmed those both in and out of the White House. Top economic adviser Gary Cohn announced his resignation last week, not long after communications director Hope Hicks and staff secretary Rob Porter both departed near the start of Trumps second year in office. Trump has also faced a cloud of ethics allegations surrounding other members of his Cabinet, including Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin the latter of whom is said to be on thin ice with the president. Pompeo forged a close relationship with Trump as a regular presence in his presidential daily briefing. Current and former White House officials said Pompeo has proven more adept at negotiating the shifting power structures inside the administration and in reading and responding to the wishes of the president. Trump is also said to respect Pompeos military background and West Point pedigree. Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, has already been confirmed by the Senate for his current role at the CIA, making it extremely likely that he will be confirmed for the State Department role. ___ Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Jill Colvin, Jonathan Lemire, Lisa Moscaro and Ken Thomas contributed to this report. PHOENIX Police in Phoenix say two men are dead after being found shot at a Phoenix apartment complexs parking lot. They say officers responded to a report of a shooting early Monday at the Santa Fe Springs Apartments. Police say a 26-year-old man and a 52-year-old man were found with gunshot wounds and both had handguns in their possession. They say one man died at the scene while the other died at a hospital. Their names havent been released yet. Police say detectives are investigating the shooting. LAS CRUCES A Mexican national was sentenced Monday to 21 and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to the 2016 slaying of his former boss. Sergio Meraz-Nevarez, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder in the Oct. 19, 2016, shooting death of Berino ranch foreman Jose Alfredo Ortiz Armendariz, 59. Meraz-Nevarez also pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon involving a person with Armendariz when Meraz-Nevarez fired two gunshots in their direction from inside a vehicle, and one count tampering with evidence for hiding a .40-caliber handgun in a nearby field. Meraz-Nevarez entered the pleas before District Judge Douglas Driggers in 3rd Judicial District Court in Las Cruces. According to investigators, Meraz-Nevarez had worked at a Berino farm in the 400 block of East Six Mile Road, where he was supervised by Armendariz, until he was fired on Oct. 18, 2016. Meraz-Nevarez returned to the farm the following day in a black Ford pickup, armed with a .40-caliber handgun, according to prosecutors. Armendariz and another man, Ismael Rodriguez, had been repairing an irrigation pump when Meraz-Nevarez drove up to them in the pickup, according to court records. He pointed the gun out the passenger-side window of the truck, aiming at the victim, Mr. Armendariz, and fired two rounds, prosecutor Timothy Nuccio said during Mondays hearing. Both of those rounds struck the victim and he was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later. After shooting Armendariz and pointing the gun at Rodriguez, Meraz-Nevarez drove off in the pickup. Later, he stopped the truck and continued to flee on foot, during which he time he hid the gun in a field, Nuccio said. Authorities later found Meraz-Nevarez hiding in a cotton field. He was arrested and booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center, where hes been held since Oct. 20, 2016. Meraz-Nevarez agreed Monday to plead guilty to second-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence as part of a plea agreement. In exchange for the guilty pleas, Meraz-Nevarezs murder charge was reduced from a first-degree count which carries a life prison sentence to a second-degree count which is punishable up to 15 years. Prosecutors also dismissed one count of shooting from a motor vehicle, a second-degree felony that would have been punishable up to 15 years because it resulted in a death. The agreement called for Meraz-Nevarez to be sentenced to the maximum penalties for each of three charges he pleaded guilty to on Monday a total of 21 and a half years in prison. Public defender Raymond Conley said Meraz-Nevarez is not a naturalized U.S. citizen and would most likely be deported to Mexico, his home country, after serving his prison sentence. According to the initial charging documents, Meraz-Nevarez was deported to Mexico in 2013 but was in the U.S. legally at the time of the shooting. But copies of similar charging documents provided by the District Attorneys Office indicate that Meraz-Nevarez was in the U.S. illegally at the time of the shooting. The DAs office also provided a transcript of Meraz-Nevarezs interview with investigators, during which time he purportedly said, I took so much care since they threw me to Mexico in 2013 and I came back (and) I said, Im going to watch that they dont give me a ticket and look. Three years, not even, not even a ticket. During Mondays hearing, Armendarizs son pleaded for justice. My mom, my family have been going through very tough times, Alfredo Ortiz said, speaking to the court through a translator. The only thing we look toward is justice but nothing is going to bring my father back. Ortiz said he wanted his fathers killer to be thrown back to Mexico and never returned back to this county. Meraz-Nevarez did not address the court before he was sentenced. Carlos Andres Lopez can be reached 575-541-5453, carlopez@lcsun-news.com or @carlopez_los on Twitter. 2018 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at www.lcsun-news.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. _____ KATHMANDU, Nepal I say again, turn! the air traffic controller called over the radio, his voice rising, as the flight from Bangladesh swerved low over the runway at Kathmandus small airport. Seconds later, the plane crashed into a field beside the runway, erupting in flames and leaving 49 of the 71 people on board dead. That moment Monday appeared to result from minutes of confused chatter between the control tower and the pilot of the US-Bangla passenger plane, as they discussed which direction the pilot should use to land on the airports single runway. A separate radio conversation between the tower and at least one Nepali pilot reflected the sense of miscommunication. They appear to be extremely disoriented, a man said in Nepali, watching as Flight BS211 made its approach, though it was not clear if the voice belonged to a pilot or the tower. Looks like they are really confused, said another man. In the recording, posted by air traffic monitoring website liveatc.net, the pilot and the tower shifted back and forth about whether the pilot should approach the runway from the north or the south. Just before landing, the pilot asked, Are we cleared to land? Moments later, the controller came back on the air, his voice clearly anxious, and told the pilot, I say again, turn! Seconds after that, the controller ordered firetrucks onto the runway. The plane, which was heading from Bangladeshs capital, Dhaka, to Kathmandu, was carrying 67 passengers and four crew members. Kathmandu officials and the airline laid the blame for the accident on each other. The airports general manager told reporters Monday that the pilot did not follow the control towers instructions and approached the runway from the wrong direction. The airplane was not properly aligned with the runway. The tower repeatedly asked if the pilot was OK and the reply was Yes,' said the general manager, Raj Kumar Chetri. But Imran Asif, CEO of US-Bangla Airlines, told reporters in Dhaka that we cannot claim this definitely at the moment, but we are suspecting that the Kathmandu air traffic control tower might have misled our pilots to land on the wrong runway. After hearing the recording between the tower and the pilots, we assumed that there was no negligence by our pilots, he said. He said the pilot, Capt. Abid Sultan, was a former air force officer and had flown the Bombardier Q400 series aircraft for more than 1,700 hours and was also a flying instructor with the airline. While officials in Bangladesh said the pilot had died from his injuries Tuesday, raising the death toll to 50 people, Nepal police spokesman Manoj Neupane later said that was wrong, and the death toll remained at 49. The injured were being treated in various hospitals in Kathmandu, Nepals capital. Autopsies on the dead were being performed at the Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital morgue, where some 200 relatives waited to hear about their loved ones. Dr. M.A. Ansari of the hospitals forensic department said identifying all the dead could take as long as a week because many of the bodies were badly burned. By late Tuesday morning, four bodies had been identified. Anita Bajacharya waited at the hospital with her parents and other relatives for details on her 23-year-old sister, a medical student who had just finished school in Bangladesh and was returning home on the flight. The sister, Asma Shakya, had called her mother from the airport, excited about returning home. Now her family sat outside a hospital waiting for her body to be identified. Relatives of the passengers from Bangladesh arrived in Kathmandu late Tuesday afternoon and were escorted to the hospital by airline officials. Nepals government has ordered an investigation into the crash. However, Mohammed Kamrul Islam, a spokesman for US-Bangla Airlines, said the governments of both Nepal and Bangladesh need to launch a fair investigation and find the reason behind the accident. According to the airline, the plane was carrying 32 passengers from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives. It did not provide the nationalities of the four crew members. US-Bangla operates Boeing 737-800 and smaller Bombardier Dash 8 planes, including the Q400, the model that crashed. The airline is based in Bangladeshs capital, Dhaka, and flies domestically and internationally. The parent company, part of US-Bangla Group, is also involved in real estate, education and agriculture. Kathmandus airport has been the site of several deadly crashes. In September 2012, a Sita Air turboprop plane carrying trekkers to Mount Everest hit a bird and crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 19 people on board. ___ Associated Press journalists Niranjan Shrestha and Upendra Mansingh in Kathmandu and Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this report. BOSTON The third powerful noreaster in two weeks slammed the Northeast on Tuesday, bringing blizzard conditions and 2 feet of snow to some communities and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. High winds and blowing snow led meteorologists to categorize the storm as a blizzard in parts of New England, including Boston. By afternoon, power outages climbed to more than 250,000 just in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Were not out of winter yet, thats for sure, Paul Knight, of Portland, said as snow accumulated on his eyebrows during a stroll. The groundhog was right. Six more weeks of winter, and probably then some. Bostons usually-packed subway trains were nearly empty as many workers stayed home and schools closed. Amtrak suspended all service Tuesday between Boston to New York City. The railroad later announced that most service between the two cities would resume on Wednesday. The storm was expected to last through most of Tuesday, disrupting road and air travel. The flight-tracking site FlightAware reported more than 1,500 canceled flights on Tuesday. At Bostons Logan International Airport, the terminals were mostly empty with airport workers and the cleaning crew outnumbering passengers. Nearly 2 feet (0.61 meters) of snow was reported in parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine by Tuesday evening. In New Hampshire, a little over 2 feet, 25 inches (63.5 centimeters), was reported near Derry. Not everyone complained. Andrew Gesler, who was walking in Portland with his son in a stroller and his dog alongside, said he was happy to see another big storm. I think it may be one of the last ones so Im out here appreciating it, Gesler said. I love the white stuff, always had ever since I was a kid. Janice James Osterville house on Cape Cod was in the dark again after losing power for three days in the last storm. James and her four children spent Tuesday eating baked goods she made before the storm and hoping the lights and heat come back soon. We are freezing, the 39-year-old said. Joe Rotella ducked into a train station as he tried to find his way to a hotel thats hosting a convention where hes speaking. Organizers were scrambling to establish video links to speakers whose planes were delayed or canceled, said Rotella, chief medical officer with the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. As a visitor to Boston, Ive been looking forward to this for months, and this is kind of an adventure for me, the Louisville, Kentucky, man said. I didnt have to go through the last two noreasters so this still feels like fun. Miami residents Ashley Pozo, 21, and Ray Milo, 25, who we visiting friends in Boston, were stuck at the airport after their Tuesday flight was canceled. Rather than risk getting stranded in the city, they plan to stay another night in the airport, sleeping on chairs, watching Netflix and munching on supplies they picked up from a CVS drug store. In Rhode Island, the snow didnt stop residents from getting to church. In East Greenwich, the Rev. Bernard Healey said he celebrated noon Mass with two hearty souls who came despite the noreaster. If I lost power, wed (still) celebrate Mass, Healey said. We would just use more candles. Eastern Long Island felt the brunt of the storm in New York. Newsday reported that the storm knocked out power to more than 6,000 homes and businesses on Long Island, and forecasters said the islands East End could get up to a foot of snow. Slick roads were blamed for at least one death in North Carolina, which got snow Monday. ___ Associated Press writers Mark Pratt, Michael Casey, and Sarah Betancourt in Boston; Michelle Smith in Providence, Rhode Island; Jennifer McDermott in Warwick, Rhode Island; and David Sharp and Bob Bukaty in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report. Thanks to its breathtaking market size and unparalleled manufacturing base, China has long held sway over U.S. technology companies. But the Trump administrations unusual decision Monday to block a foreign hostile takeover of chipmaker Qualcomm could limit the companies ability to continue accommodating Beijing. In an executive order, the White House rejected the bid by Singapores Broadcom because it might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States. The concern was that a sale of San Diegos Qualcomm would result in the U.S. ceding ground to China in semiconductors and burgeoning 5G mobile technology, two areas crucial to national security and business profits. Taking a more confrontational approach with Beijing puts U.S. tech firms in a precarious position. To gain access to Chinas market, companies have had to acquiesce to Beijings demands for technology and censorship. For years, that approach has gone largely unchallenged, creating conditions in which companies such as Apple have little choice but to submit to Chinas calls to store customer data on its soil, and IBM and Intel to share technology with Chinese partners. But the latest protectionist move from the White House which last week announced tariffs on imported steel and aluminum could signal a reshaping of Americas tech relationship with China. A key driver of that change is an obscure federal committee that has been sounding warning bells about the Broadcom bid. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States made up of officials from the departments of Treasury, Justice, Homeland Security, Commerce, Defense, State and Energy is charged with scrutinizing foreign mergers and acquisitions for national interests. The committee, better known as Cfius, ordinarily weighs in after a deal has been finalized. But the bid for Qualcomm proved too sensitive to ignore. A bipartisan bill is under consideration that would expand Cfius powers to address Chinas competition for cutting edge technology. The U.S. trade representative is also investigating whether Chinas policies are threatening American intellectual property and innovation. Five years ago, approving this deal would have been a no-brainer, said Jim Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But it hit three of todays top pain points: its semiconductors, its 5G and its China. American lawmakers are increasingly concerned that U.S. firms are helping China gain the upper hand in crucial new technologies such as artificial intelligence. That risk is heightened now that China is sliding further back into authoritarianism by stifling all forms of dissent and eliminating term limits so that President Xi Jinping can remain in power indefinitely That gives U.S. companies little room to dictate terms in a market thats so important to their bottom lines. If Cfius is given broader powers by Congress, it could restrict the ability of U.S. companies to transfer technology to Chinese partners, which is often the price of entry into the worlds second-largest economy. And if Cfius makes it harder for Chinese companies to buy U.S. technology firms, Beijing would almost certainly respond in kind when it comes to Silicon Valley companies seeking more access to the Chinese market. That would be a blow for U.S. companies such as Apple, Microsoft and even Qualcomm, which have spent years cultivating business in China, sometimes at the expense of American standards for user privacy and security. That was the case last year when Apple had to comply with Beijings request to remove apps that helped users circumvent Chinese censorship. It happened again in February when the iPhone maker agreed to store its iCloud keys in China, giving authorities there easier access to users accounts, including those of dissidents. Apple says it has not abandoned its values, but has to comply with Chinese laws. About 20 percent of the companys net sales last year were derived from a region it calls Greater China, composed of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Google has also quietly ramped up its presence in China even though it shut down its search engine there in 2010 after taking what appeared to be a principled stand against Beijing over censorship. Microsoft partnered with a state-owned Chinese defense company to build an exclusive version of Windows 10 for the Chinese government. IBM partnered with a high-ranking official previously charged with the cybersecurity of Chinas strategic missile arsenal to develop high-end servers and software. And Qualcomm, the company that fought to preserve its independence from a foreign takeover, has long been a dominant player in China, where it sells its chips and licenses its technology. The company was chastened in 2015 when it was fined $975 million by the Chinese government, which charged the firm with unfair pricing. Qualcomm has since invested millions to help Chinese partners develop drones, supercomputers and even its bread-and-butter chips. It has also invested in a Chinese AI start-up thats developing facial-recognition software already being tested by Chinese authorities for surveillance purposes. Given Beijings plan to make China self-sufficient in technology, experts say U.S. firms are only expediting their demise in the Chinese market by sharing valuable know-how. These companies are on life support when it comes to operations in China, said Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Chinese intend to force non-Chinese suppliers out of the market. All these guys are on limited time. They know it, but they may not say it. The tech industry isnt ready to give up. For one, theres still an expectation that China will live up to its obligations under the WTO to allow reciprocal trade if pressured the right way. Industry officials want Washington to persuade Beijing to loosen its market for cloud computing and widen access to consumer data, partly to inform AI technology. By building a coalition with allies such as Japan and Germany, China can be persuaded that it has to act consistent with global norms and rules they agreed to when they joined the WTO, said Dean Garfield, president of the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade group that represents the tech sector. At the same time, companies can compete globally, including in China. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Garfield said U.S. tech firms arent rolling over for China. Behind the scenes, theyve successfully resisted attempts to transfer top-of-the-line technology. There are times when the Chinese ask companies to make certain concessions to engage in business and the companies do say no,' Garfield said. Theyre not capitulating to every single request. And so the thought that its shortsighted for a company to compete in China because theyre undermining their success in the long term may not be true. Only history will prove that out. 2018 Los Angeles Times Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Sen. Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat and a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, isnt convinced that CIA Director Mike Pompeo is the right person to run the U.S. Department of State. Hes also not enthused about President Donald Trumps decision to promote Gina Haspell to run the CIA. The dean of New Mexicos congressional delegation issued a statement today casting shade on President Donald Trumps leadership choices for State and the CIA following Trumps dismissal of long-embattled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this morning. Describing the State Department as in chaos, Udall said he respects Pompeos service to the nation. But he also said, I am not comforted that President Trump says they share a similar thought process. I voted against Mr. Pompeos nomination to head the CIA because of his defense of torture, spying programs that violated Americans privacy, and other tactics that violate the human rights that are central to our Constitution and what the United States of America stands for, Udall said. He now must face the Senate again and answer tough questions about his fitness for this position, establishing stability in the State Department and rebuilding our reputation abroad through diplomacy, not dangerous threats. And Udall wasnt finished. He also cast doubt on Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel, whom Trump has proposed to replace Pompeo to lead the CIA. Udall said he has similar concerns about Haspel as he does about Pompeo. Udall said Haspel will need to answer to the American people about her role in overseeing torture programs that are now banned, and her reported efforts to cover it up. I have long admired leaders, including Senator John McCain, who have spoken out about the ineffectiveness of using torture to interrogate detainees and the damage it does to our standing in the world, Udall said. The Senate confirmation process must include a frank conversation with Deputy Director Haspel about those issues, among many others. Jon Hendry, one of the most prominent union and film industry leaders in the state, is no longer president of the New Mexico Federation of Labor, an AFL-CIO spokeswoman said Tuesday. The news comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed last week alleging harassment and discrimination by Hendry toward a former employee, Christa Valdez. On Monday, the lawsuit was amended to add another plaintiff: Madeleine Lauve, also a former employee, who alleges Hendry subjected her to discriminatory conditions, including an explicit quid pro quo for sex. The amended lawsuit includes an accusation of racketeering against Hendry, claiming he allegedly did smear and undermine the careers of . . . plaintiffs in the industry, unless they consented to his sexual advances and demands. Hendry is a business agent for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 480. According to the lawsuit, Valdez was employed as a public relations representative there for five years; Lauve is described as being an employee of the union for about a year, though the filings did not say in what capacity. The lawsuit also names IATSE Local 480 as a party directly and vicariously liable for Hendrys alleged behavior. In response to several requests for comment, Hendry said via an email that he had been given strict instructions not to comment on anything. Trent Howell, the attorney for Valdez and Lauve, declined to comment. An AFL-CIO spokeswoman said in an email that Jon Hendry is no longer in the position of NM State Fed President, and the AFL-CIO does not have jurisdiction over internal local union investigations. She did not respond to a question about whether Hendry resigned or was removed. The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that an IATSE executive said over the weekend that an investigation had been opened into the allegations against Hendry. Asked to confirm the existence of the investigation, local union leaders directed the Journal to the unions attorney, Robert Giolito, who declined to comment. The Journal has obtained an email, signed by six union members and sent out to the membership, that asks the community to speak out against abuse of power and harassment in our industry. The email was sent a few days after Valdez filed her lawsuit. Among the accusations made by Valdez in court filings last week: that Hendry targeted her with sexual propositions and inappropriate conditions to maintain employment; that Valdezs employment was terminated in part because she rejected Hendrys alleged advances; that the local IATSE chapter was aware of complaints about Hendrys alleged behavior but still kept him in his position; and that Hendry tried to block her from other employment after her termination. LONDON Russia on Tuesday dismissed accusations of any involvement in the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter as nonsense, saying it will only cooperate with a British investigation if it receives samples of the nerve agent believed to have been used. Police, meanwhile, said the investigation of who poisoned Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, will last many weeks and that they are not ready to identify any persons of interest in the inquiry. The father and daughter remain in critical condition in a Salisbury hospital. British Prime Minister Theresa May said Russias involvement is highly likely, and she gave the country a deadline of midnight Tuesday to explain its actions in the case. She is reviewing a range of economic and diplomatic measures in retaliation for the assault with what she identified as the military-grade nerve agent Novichok. U.S. and European officials were quick to offer words of support for Britain, which will need the backing of its allies if any new sanctions are to have any impact. Her Downing Street office said she discussed the Salisbury incident with U.S. President Donald Trump, and that the U.S. was with the U.K. all the way in agreeing that Russia must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used. They also agreed on the need for consequences for those who use heinous weapons in flagrant violation of international norms, the White House said. Earlier, Trump had said: It sounds to me that they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that his countrys requests to see samples of the nerve agent have been turned down. He insisted that Russia is not to blame for the poisoning. We have already made a statement to say this is nonsense, he said. We have nothing to do with this. The Russian Embassy in London tweeted that it will not respond to the ultimatum without the samples. Russian officials and media have responded with a variety of accusations against Britain in recent days, including suggestions that it was seeking to influence Sundays election, which President Vladimir Putin is expected to win easily. James Nixey, head of the Russia program at the Chatham House think-tank, said Mays response must be more than symbolic. Will actions meet with responses which have real-world effects? he said. Or are we going to have more fudge? Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said financial sanctions would be keys to a strong response. Given that the regime is built on money its effectively a flow of money from the Russian people to Putin and from Putin to his acolytes money matters, he said. We have enormous amounts of control of a lot of peoples assets through various means, and I think its important we exercise that, Tugendhat said. If you get the right people and you freeze their assets, it can make a lot of difference. The cases of other Russians who have died under mysterious circumstances also are being raised. British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said police and the domestic security service will look into 14 deaths in Britain that might be linked to Russia. In the weeks to come, I will want to satisfy myself that the allegations are nothing more than that, Rudd said. The police and MI5 agree and will assist in that endeavor. BuzzFeed News reported in 2017 that 14 deaths in Britain and the U.S. dating to 2006 may have been linked to Russia. Among them are prominent Putin critics, including oligarch Boris Berezovsky and whistleblower Alexander Perepilichny. The chief of the worlds chemical weapons watchdog also said that those responsible must be held accountable. In a speech Tuesday to the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called him Monday evening to inform him of the results of investigations. It is extremely worrying that chemical agents are still being used to harm people. Those found responsible for this use must be held accountable for their actions, he said. Johnson also spoke with his French and German counterparts and to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as Britain sought Tuesday to rally international support. A statement from his office said British officials would brief NATOs political decision-making arm, the North Atlantic Council, on Wednesday. Stoltenberg and Johnson agreed that Russian actions repeatedly threaten the security of NATO partners from the Baltics, Balkans, Ukraine and Georgia and NATO must stand as an alliance to call out Putins behavior, the statement said. Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, was convicted of spying for Britain and then released in a spy swap. He had been living under his own name in Salisbury for eight years before the attack without attracting any public attention. Police are appealing to the public to come forward if they saw Skripal and his daughter driving in his red BMW in the early afternoon of March 4 in the city located 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of London. New counterterrorism chief Neil Basu, who referred to Skripal as a British subject and his daughter as a Russian national, also said Salisbury residents would see much police activity in the coming days and that they should not be alarmed. Some 38 people have been seen by medics in connection with the case. ___ Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka in London contributed. MIAMI Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for the former student charged with killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month even though attorneys for Nikolas Cruz indicated he would plead guilty if his life was spared. Cruz, 19, is scheduled for formal arraignment Wednesday on a 34-count indictment, including 17 first-degree murder charges. The office of Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz filed the formal notice of its intentions Tuesday, though the action does not necessarily mean a plea deal will not be reached. The only other penalty option for Cruz, if convicted, is life in prison with no possibility of parole. Ira Jaffe, whose son and daughter survived the shooting, said he respects the wishes of the 17 families whose children were killed and that time is better spent finding solutions to the problem of mass school shootings. Live forever in jail or die I dont care, Jaffe said in an email. Cruz will rot in hell no matter when it is that he arrives there. Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie Guttenberg died in the shooting, was angry the state decided to pursue the death penalty, noting how tortuously long capital punishment cases last. My reaction is as a parent of a deceased student, I expected that the state would have pulled the parents together to ask what we wanted and they didnt, he said. This guys is willing to plea and spend the rest of his life in the general population. Let him do that and let them do what they want with him, Guttenberg added. Why not take the plea and let the guy rot in hell? Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing Cruz, has said there were so many warning signs that Cruz was mentally unstable and potentially violent, and that the death penalty might be going too far. In an email Tuesday, Finkelstein said Cruz is immediately ready to plead guilty in return for 34 consecutive life sentences. If not allowed to do that tomorrow (at the hearing), out of respect for the victims families we will stand mute to the charges at the arraignment. We are not saying he is not guilty but we cant plead guilty while death is still on the table, Finkelstein said. If Cruz does not enter a plea, a not guilty plea will likely be entered on his behalf by Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer to keep the legal process moving along, his attorneys have said. In other developments, a student who is credited with saving the lives of 20 students by attempting to close and lock a classroom door during the attack was improving at a hospital. Anthony Borges, 15, was shot five times. Weeks after being shot, he fell critically ill of an intestinal infection. After surgeries, his condition was upgraded to fair. Meanwhile, Florida voters may get a chance to decide whether or not they want to approve new gun control restrictions. While Gov. Rick Scott just signed a new school safety and gun bill into law, the states Constitution Revision Commission may vote to place gun restrictions on this years ballot. The commission, a special panel that meets every 20 years, has the power to ask voters to approve changes to the states constitution. Tony Montalto, whose daughter was one of the 17 killed at Stoneman Douglas, asked commissioners at a public hearing Tuesday to put the proposals before voters. He said they need to act because the National Rifle Association has filed a lawsuit against the new law approved by the Legislature. You can help defeat this challenge, Montalto told commissioners. Shortly before the commission hearing in St. Petersburg, students from Tampa Bay area schools spoke passionately in favor of additional gun regulations, as did the father of a student who attends Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Our kids are not asking to do away with the 2nd Amendment. Theyre not asking to take away peoples guns or their ability to hunt, said John Willis. What theyre saying is, that these weapons of mass destruction that do nothing but tear human beings apart in an unbelievable way, do not belong in civilian hands. ___ Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt _____ Associated Press writers Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Jason Dearen in Gainesville and Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg contributed to this story. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Under pressure from top state elected officials due to his response to two recent sexual misconduct claims, New Mexico Democratic Party Chairman Richard Ellenberg abruptly resigned from his post Tuesday. His resignation came just three days after Democrats held their 2018 pre-primary convention in Albuquerque, and it leaves the party facing leadership questions with less than three months before the June 5 primary election. I regret the way in which I have managed complaints of survivors who have come forward about sexual harassment, and take full responsibility to continue to learn and grow so that I can be an advocate and ally in the future, Ellenberg wrote in a memo to Democratic state central committee members. Ellenberg had come under criticism for his response to sexual misconduct allegations levied against prominent state union leader Jon Hendry and former Dona Ana County Commissioner John Vasquez. Earlier this week, Ellenberg told the Santa Fe New Mexican that claims by a former union employee that Hendry has harassed her, touched her inappropriately and tried to make it difficult for her to find other work after she had been fired did not sound credible to him. That comment came after the Democratic Partys vice chairwoman, Neomi Martinez-Parra, had already taken issue with a proposal from Ellenberg that she not pursue a complaint alleging sexual misconduct against Vasquez in exchange for Vasquez stepping down from a post as chairman of the state partys veterans caucus. Vasquez ultimately resigned as a county commissioner last month. Several top-ranking New Mexico Democrats, including three members of the states congressional delegation, had pushed for Ellenbergs resignation Tuesday and issued a statement shortly after it was announced. As Democrats, we stand with the silence-breakers who have come forward to share their stories of sexual harassment and abuse, said the statement, issued by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, U.S. Reps. Ben Ray Lujan and Michelle Lujan Grisham, and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver. Questioning the credibility of sexual misconduct allegations is contrary to our values, and it is time for new leadership that better reflects them, the statement said. U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., also issued a statement later Tuesday, as did Albuquerque congressional candidates Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Damon Martinez. However, some Democratic candidates questioned the timing of Ellenbergs departure, with gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces calling the party rudderless in a Twitter post. State GOP Chairman Ryan Cangiolosi also questioned the timing, alleging Tuesday that Democrats had waited until after their pre-primary convention to act so they could rig results to benefit front-running candidates such as Lujan Grisham, who is seeking the partys nomination for governor. The resignation is overdue, but the hollow calls for action from so-called party leaders only amount to political posturing, Cangiolosi told the Journal. Meanwhile, Ellenbergs resignation comes amid renewed scrutiny of sexual misconduct in New Mexico and around the nation. New Mexico lawmakers early this year adopted changes to the Legislatures anti-harassment policy, which had not been updated since 2008, and all 112 legislators were required to undergo harassment training before the start of this years session. Ellenberg, former chairman of the Santa Fe County Democratic Party, won election in April 2017 to a two-year term as chairman of the state party, pledging at the time to heal lingering divisions between the supporters of ex-presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. The state party will hold an election for a new party chairman during an already-scheduled April 21 state central committee meeting in Truth or Consequences. Whoever is elected at that meeting will serve out the rest of Ellenbergs term, a party spokeswoman said Tuesday. Martinez-Parra, a Lordsburg teacher, will assume the chairmans duties until that election is held. In a statement, the state Democratic Party said Ellenberg had taken responsibility for his words and encouraged an end to a culture of sexual harassment in New Mexico. We will be moving forward to ensure our Party is an ally for the countless women who have come forward and working to change our culture so everyone is treated with respect and professionalism in the workplace, the statement said. SANTA FE In a first look at new mayoral powers in Santa Fe, Mayor Alan Webber announced Tuesday that he and, significantly, not the city manager has named Deputy Chief Andrew Padilla as acting chief of police. Padilla and Mario Salbidrez, also a deputy chief, were placed jointly in charge of the Santa Fe Police Department when chief Patrick Gallagher was hired as chief in Las Cruces late last year. Salbidrez took a job with the Santa Fe Public Schools in early February. Attributing the naming of a police chief directly to the mayor is a change. Such personnel moves, at least nominally, were up to the city manager in the past. Under a voter-approved city charter amendment that went into effect with Mondays swearing in of Webber for a four-year term, the mayor now has supervision over the city manager, the city clerk and the city attorney. He fills those three positions with the consent of the City Council, but can remove the city manager, city attorney and city clerk on his own. Those changes give Webber more direct control over personnel matters than his predecessors. The mayor also is now officially the chief administrative officer of the city and the job is considered full-time. The new charter changes also say the city manager shall have the power to hire and fire all city employees, except for the city attorney and city clerk. But what that power means when the mayor has become chief administrative officer is at this point murky. Tuesdays press release says it will be Webber himself who will conduct a full review of qualified candidates for the (police chiefs) job before naming a permanent chief. There will be a citizens group to participate in that process, the release added. In response to Journal questions, city spokesman Matt Ross said via email, The full-time Mayor is the Executive Officer of the City. In the new format, the Manager (Brian Snyder) reports to the Mayors office and is tasked with carrying out the direction of the office. They conferred and discussed (Padillas) appointment, agreed to get it done and then announced it . Questions remain about how deep into the city work force the mayor can or will offer direction on hiring and firing. Webber said in the release, Chief Padillas first priority will be fully staffing our force as quickly as possible. Our goal is to have the safest neighborhoods in the state, in every corner of our city. Webber beat four other candidates in the mayoral election last week. Padilla has been with the SFPD for nearly 18 years. He started as a patrol officer in 2000 after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. He has worked in patrol, criminal investigations, training, administration and as the commander of the SWAT team. New Mexicos entire congressional delegation is urging the Trump administration to back off its planned tariffs on Canadian newsprint, saying the extra costs could force some small newspapers out of business. U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and U.S. Reps. Ben Ray Lujan, Steve Pearce and Michelle Lujan Grisham wrote to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross this week, saying the tariffs announced earlier this year would be catastrophic to newspaper publishers. Separately, the Albuquerque Journal has also written to Ross, urging him to drop the proposed tariffs. The proposed duties endanger our companys ability to continue providing high-quality local journalism in our communities, Publisher William P. Lang wrote in the letter earlier this year. The Commerce Department has made a preliminary decision to impose duties of up to nearly 10 percent on Canadian companies that ship newsprint to U.S. publishers, contending the paper is being subsidized by the government. Only a handful of mills still produce newsprint in the United States. Although a final decision is not due until August, the Commerce Department required the companies involved to make cash deposits based on the preliminary rates. Prices already have begun increasing. Brian Fantl, vice president of the Albuquerque Publishing Co., which publishes the Journal, said newsprint prices in the past year already have risen from about $580 per metric ton to $680 and that shipping times also have increased. According to the delegations letter, the increased costs could force some small, local newspapers, already under financial pressure because of changes in the industry, to shut down. The newspaper industry is facing duties on Canadian newsprint and changes to the cost of shipping, which could be catastrophic for publishers in the southwest. These changes will result in nationwide increases in newsprint prices, the lawmakers wrote. Eight New Mexico newspapers the Alamogordo Daily News, Carlsbad Current-Argus, Deming Headlight, Las Cruces Sun-News, Las Vegas Optic, Los Alamos Monitor, Ruidoso News and The Farmington Daily Times are among more than 1,000 community newspapers that signed onto a letter protesting the decision with the Commerce Department. The tariff was set in motion based on a request from the North Pacific Paper Company, or NORPAC, a Washington state-based newsprint producer. In a statement to the Columbia Journalism Review, NORPAC CEO Craig Anneberg said, While we understand the concerns recently surfaced by some newspaper publishers, we strongly disagree with the notion that their industry requires low-priced, government-subsidized, imported newsprint from Canada to sustain its business model. The Commerce Department on Tuesday issued a news release saying it had made a preliminary determination that some Canadian companies had been dumping paper in the U.S. at below fair market value, though not to the level alleged by NORPAC. The Commerce Department said the dumping ranged from 0 percent to more than 22 percent below fair market value. NORPAC had claimed some of the companies were selling paper as much as 50 percent below market value. Antao AV, Chief Operating Officer, Synergy Property Development Services, writes about how new-gen technologies like Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics are helping shape the real estate & construction industry. While the influence of technology has permeated every industry and sector conceivable, whether its Banking, Manufacturing or Healthcare, the role technology is playing in shaping the real estate & construction industry is of transformational nature. Of particular interest is the role new-gen technologies like Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics are playing in shaping the industry. And among them Blockchain related technologies seems to be most talked about and most misconstrued as well. Industry pundits, across the globe, seem to reckon that Blockchain could have a large and lasting impact on the way real estate gets done, but it requires big changes, not just minor tweaks. Estimates peg the global market for Blockchain at $708 million in 2017, anticipating it to reach anywhere close to $60.7 billion in 2024. Hence, the impact this technology is poised to play in the near future cannot be undermined. However, before we delve any further on how Blockchain is set to impact the industry, we need to understand the underlying technology. At the core of it, Blockchain is a digital ledger containing digital record of transactions, maintained by a network of computers. This means information of a financial or non-financial transaction is shared with a decentralised network and validated by the entire network. With Blockchain technology, one can transfer assets digitally without the need for a central verifying authority. This is in itself is a revolutionary way of doing things. A Blockchain framework effectively reduces the chances of data manipulation and leaves lesser scope for a hacker to corrupt the computer system. While the legality of cryptocurrencies is still being debated in India, companies have begun shifting focus to the utility of Blockchain technology. According to an industry report, 56 per cent of Indian businesses are inclined to make Blockchain a part of their core business. You may ask, how does it all pan-out for the real estate & construction industry? The answer is that Blockchain could open up newer models of ownerships like shared ownership helping first time buyers to purchase only part of property and proportionately earn rental incomes on the same. In the construction industry, which requires bringing together large teams to design and shape the built environment, the potential uses of this technology can be a real differentiator. With technology and in particular Building Information Modeling (BIM) becoming more widespread, openness to collaboration and new ideas is increasing across the industry. This momentum could be leveraged to bring the use of Blockchain technology to the fore. The potential uses of Blockchain, among many, could be: Recording Value Exchange; Administering Smart Contracts; Combining Smart Contracts to form a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO); and finally certifying proof of existence for certain data. Hence, through this technology there is an opportunity to create a leaner procurement method which better engages the individuals who make up a project team. This will result in reducing costs by removing intermediaries, where a client has more control and transparency of cost, time and scope on their project. A Blockchain-powered online ledger could overcome complications on multiple owners by securely and reliably tracking the size and value of individual stakes in the property in the same way as stock in companies is recorded on exchanges. Incorporated into land dealings and real estate, Blockchain could provide immense business opportunity in the future making way to a reliable property search, efficient management of property and cash flows. Blockchain integration constantly records and shares information to address traditional process inefficiencies in the commercial real estate industry. While there are more advantages to it, there are few hurdles that the industry collectively needs to address before capitalising on the benefits of Blockchain. The adoption of Blockchain in real estate would require legislative changes, standardisation and education around Blockchain concepts so that every stakeholder understands the various stages of the transaction. The success or failure of this attempt will surely determine how government organisations feel about implementing these solutions in the future. As per analysts, putting Indias land records on Blockchain would greatly increase efficiency and reduce fraud. While the Indian government has renewed its interest in digitising land records through the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP), the implementation of a distributed ledger first to digitise existing land records and set the precedent for future transactions ensures a legitimate, government-approved record of transactions. Its heartening to see that some of the Indian states have taken the lead in adopting this technology to solve real world problems, which include, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. While the adoption of Blockchain is still in a nascent stage and the world is still experimenting, it will undoubtedly create a new platform with a scope of positive outlook in the real estate market. With digital transformation taking place everywhere, Blockchain is all set to revolutionise the real estate sector, thereby bringing in reforms in the country. To read more visit here. Pepe Jeans India has signed Bollywood heartthrob Sidharth Malhotra as its first ever Indian brand ambassador. An intriguing mix of classic movie star with an irreverent, urban edge, Malhotras unique style, confidence, and charisma makes him the perfect advocate for Pepe Jeanss newest Spring Summer 18 campaign #MadeToCreate. The campaign is all about acting on your passion to create art and bring to life something remarkable that is driven by creative expression. Our artists and customers were born, or made to create in their own right, so the collection talks to them. And finally the collection inspires you to experiment with fashion and create your own individual looks. Sidharth Malhotra will kick-start a multifaceted campaign set to inspire the next generation of artists and trailblazers. As part of the Spring Summer 18 campaign, Malhotra shared the spotlight with Polish fashion model Hanna Juzon. Speaking on this association Sidharth Malhotra said, Pepe Jeans is such a cool and iconic casualwear brand, and I am super excited to be the first Indian face of the Pepe Jeans brand legacy with this campaign. Denim has always been my go-to fashion essential and I have been a longtime fan of the brand. Pepe Jeans today has evolved in to one of the coolest and most iconic denim brands in the world. We are happy to have Sidharth Malhotra become part of the Pepe Jeans brand heritage. He joins a long list of celebrities, models and fashion icons that have been featured in our global brand campaigns over the years. Sidharths popularity, expressed affinity for the brand, powerful persona and youth connect brings a compelling energy to Pepe Jeans. said Kavindra Mishra, MD Pepe Jeans India. Sidharth Malhotra joins a star-studded global line-up including Ashton Kutcher, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kate Moss, Sienna Miller and Cara Delevigne all of whom have modelled for Pepe Jeans over the years. Pepe Jeans Spring Summer 18 collection is now available at stores nationwide. For additional information on Pepe Jeans India and to view SS18 campaign content and additional announcements surrounding the #MadeToCreate campaign, follow @PepeJeans on Facebook and @PepeJeansIndia on Twitter and Instagram. To read more visit here. Whats life without a few good friends? Whats friendship without gossip over good food? And whats good food without a chilled glass of Pepsi? Pepsi knows that friendship, food and fun are the perfect recipe. And when you add in a chilled glass of the beverage to the mix, you get an unbeatable combo. With pop-culture at its heart and a finger on the pulse of trends, Pepsi is all set to unleash a new campaign, which pivots on the simple belief that just like life is incomplete without friends, food is incomplete without Pepsi. Pepsi reinstates this position in the hearts of consumers through the idea of Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi?. The campaign celebrates the three musketeers - friendship, food and Pepsi, in a never seen before way. The unique proposition of the brand spans all consumer touch points including its packaging. College campuses, retail stores, social media, no matter where todays consumers get together to chill this summer, they will be compelled to answer the question Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi. The 360-degree campaign kicks off with a TVC featuring Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma and Manjot Singh, stars of the popular Fukrey movie franchise. The fun film brings alive Pepsis cool quotient and its inherent association with food. It shows Pulkit and Manjot, aka Hunny and Lali bidding farewell to Varun, or as hes better known, Choocha, at a crowded railway station. The fond goodbye is interrupted by a wish to indulge in samosas, which results in a high adrenaline chase sequence. Pulkit dodges myriad obstacles before he successfully boards the train to ensure his best friend enjoys the samosas with a chilled Pepsi. After all, no fun without friends and Pepsi, right? Click here to watch the film. The campaign also celebrates Pepsis strongest asset, its packaging. The new Pepsi Foodicon bottles will feature different interpretations of age old street food favourites & will stand out on the retail shelves. These Foodicons will take over retail shelves and show consumers different interpretations of age old street food favourites. The distinct visuals on each were interpreted in origami and crafted by Spains Raya Sader Bujana as well as celebrated design firm Cocktail Art. They created origami versions of foods such as Bombays preferred vada pavs, Delhis beloved samosas and Chennais favoured dosas. Speaking about the campaign, Raj Rishi Singh, Director Marketing, Pepsi, PepsiCo India, says, Pepsi has always communicated with consumers in contextually relevant ways. We believe that with the Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi? campaign we will be able to bring Pepsi to the forefront of all fun consumption occasions. The campaign celebrates friends, food and Pepsi in a unique way, by elevating the fun & food occasions. We are confident that our consumers will love the campaign. Senthil Kumar, Chief Creative Officer, J Walter Thompson India said, "Brand Pepsi has always created popular culture and echoed the current youth trends and aims to connect with BFFs everywhere. This summer Pepsi takes a friendly dig at friendship. You can ask your friends for anything and they will go to unreasonable lengths to get it for you. Dont you feel grateful? Of course not. This is what happens when Hunny goes to hell and back to get Choocha the samosa he asked for. Choocha makes another demand, to get him a Pepsi with it. And rightly so. How could anyone have their favourite food without a swig of their favourite Pepsi cola, right? The real, raw friendship of the Fukrey gang gave us an amazing casting opportunity. The chemistry between these bright, young, goofy characters fit the script like it was written for them. Director of the film, Prasoon Pandey, echoes his thoughts, I found it to be a really charming script about great friendships. That inexplicable bond includes a myriad of shades all at the same time- like an emotional family member, friends go to receive and see off each other, like true competitors they do not let go of any chance to pull each others leg, almost like spouses they begin to expect the earth from each other and like only a true friend would, they are also happily willing to move the earth for each other like it is no big deal. The 360-degree campaign will also be supported by massive outdoor & digital surround. There will also be exclusive promotions with partners like KFC, Pizza Hut & Subway. The new PET bottles featuring the different food inspired visuals, will be available to consumers across all modern and traditional outlets across the country. CREDITS CREATIVE AGENCY: J. WALTER THOMPSON Senior VP & Managing partner, Account management: Varun Channa Chief Creative Officer: Senthil Kumar Executive Business Director: Jaibeer Ahmad Executive Creative Director: Udayan Chakravarty Creative Director: Harsh Maheshwari Creative Director: Dushyant Chopra National Planning Head: Mythili Chandrasekhar VP - Strategy Planning: Arnab Datta Chaudhuri Account Director: Anuj Sharma PRODUCTION HOUSE: Corcoise Films Producer Cyrus Pagdiwala Director Prasoon Pandey To Read More Visit Here. Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. The Aiken Housing Authority is moving to demolish Hahn Village, a public housing development just outside of the downtown area. Reggie Barner, the housing authority's CEO, made the announcement during a Monday night City Council work session. "I wanted to make sure Council knew about it," Barner said. "We don't mind it becoming public, we just wanted Council to know." Barner said demolishing the sprawling complex and starting over is far cheaper than completing all necessary, retroactive repairs. Hahn Village "never should have been built the way it was," Barner said. Hahn Village went into service in 1979. Barner said at the time of construction, air conditioning was considered a public housing luxury even in the South. The potential demolition would raze 100 units of public housing, affecting approximately 250 people, according to an Aiken Housing Authority estimate. Public housing is housing provided for people with low incomes. It is subsidized by public funds. There are 1.2 million households across the nation categorized as public housing, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those initially displaced would be found housing in other local areas, a process financed with assistance from HUD, according to Barner. The Aiken Housing Authority currently does not own enough units to house the 250 people. Barner said the organization will be working with private and local developers for that very reason. City Council member Lessie Price, who represents the district in which Hahn Village is located, said the residents do not have to worry about going homeless: "There is an outlet. There is no reason to panic." Price who said Barner gave her a "glimpse of what was to come" a little while ago said the nature of public housing ensures people are not "thrown out" without "a place to go." "These folks will find housing to live in," she added. The Aiken Housing Authority has approximately 244 families living in public housing more than 500 individuals, according to the organization's website. The Aiken Housing Authority operates seven developments in Aiken County: Stoney-Gallman Townhomes, Bradby Homes, Hahn Village, New Hope I, New Hope II, Villa Oaks and Crosland Park. Hahn Village is the single largest complex in the housing authority's portfolio. March 12 work session packet Aiken City Council's March 12 work session meeting agenda and related documents. Barner said some Hahn Village residents are already aware of the plans. A public hearing regarding the prospective demolition will be held in the next 40 days, he said. An application to demolish Hahn Village will be submitted to HUD headed up by former presidential candidate Ben Carson in about 60 days. Nothing will happen until then. Barner said the Aiken Housing Authority Board of Commissioners will vote on the proposal, and he is confident the commissioners will formally support the plan. HUD will then either approve or deny the application. That could take upward of 120 days, Barner said. If given the OK, the gears will really start turning, he continued. Barner attributed the demolition idea at least partly to reduced federal funding. President Donald Trump's fiscal year 2019 budget request, titled "An American Budget," slashes HUD funding by nearly $9 billion. "This is not Democrat or Republican," Barner said of the overarching situation. "This is reality." Barner wants to work with the City to find a higher and better use for the approximate 17 acres Hahn Village currently sits on. Price said that use is still to be determined. Suspect surrenders after police respond to standoff at Hahn Village apartments in Aiken An Graniteville man is in custody after local police responded to a reported standoff at an apartment complex in Aiken. Both Barner and Price agreed that moving out of and away from Hahn Village and into different areas less distinct and less stigmatized areas, Price specifically said will do wonders for the residents. We want to scatter these units, Barner said, describing it as a more viable de-concentration of poverty. "This makes me feel good that there is an attempt to make some changes," Price said to Barner during his pitch. "Otherwise we keep doing, seeing the same numbers, the same stats." In November 2017, Hahn Village was the site of an armed standoff. Police went to Hahn Village to serve felony-level warrants to Graniteville man Anthony Glover Dixon. Also in November 2017, the complex was the site of a double homicide: A 26-year-old and a 28-year-old were shot dead while parked on Bradby Lane in Hahn Village. No suspects have been named. There are indications that French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drians recent visit to Iran was not very successful in terms of achieving its goals. The trip took place with the aim of paving the way for an upcoming landmark visit by French President Emmanuel Macron as well as softening Irans position on engaging in talks on regional issues and its ballistic missile program. Instead, both Tehran and France continue to maintain their stances on these issues. Just hours ahead of his arrival in Tehran, Le Drian said that Iran needs to address international concerns over its ballistic missile program or risk new sanctions. Although the reason for his tough tone, especially on the brink of his visit, is unclear, the negative impact it had on the outcome of his trip cannot be ignored. Indeed, the French foreign minister did not receive a very warm welcome. Despite meeting various high-ranking government officials in Iran, the content of the encounters indicates a lack of progress toward resolving differences. Le Drian met March 5 with Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. Shamkhani, a former commander with the rank of rear admiral, attended the meeting in military uniform, a move described by Iranian media as Tehrans way of sending a message to the French envoy. It should be noted that Shamkhani is considered a Reformist and has not appeared in military attire for quite some time. Le Drian also met March 5 with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, but according to official sources, that meeting was focused mostly on the nuclear deal and how France should abide by its obligations. During the meeting, Zarif had criticized France and Europe for not playing a more active role to keep the accord alive while only attempting to appease the United States. In a series of tweets posted following their meeting, Zarif said he had reminded France that the EU should compel the United States to abide by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) rather than trying to appease it by repeating its extraneous demands. The Iranian ministers tweets also suggested that Tehran maintains its stance regarding the non-negotiable nature of its missile program. This comes at a time when Iranian hard-liners have become extremely sensitive to any type of negotiation with the West over the countrys missile program. It should be noted that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has continuously reiterated this point as well. In an address at the graduation ceremony of military cadets Oct. 25, Khamenei said, As we have repeatedly announced, we announce again that the countrys defense capability is not open to negotiation. But what is interesting is that even Iranian moderates do not seem to welcome the idea of negotiating over the countrys missile program. President Hassan Rouhani had previously expressed a similar stance regarding potential missile talks with the West. In a Feb. 4 address, Rouhani had said, In a world where the US flagrantly threatens other countries with new atomic weapons, can you say that you do not need defense capabilities? We do not need to negotiate with anyone or reach an agreement with any [foreign] power on our defense capabilities. Meanwhile, as both Zarif and Rouhani pointed out to Le Drian, Tehran is not content with Europe's seemingly bowing to US pressure over the JCPOA. Thus, the firm "no" by Tehran to the French foreign minister especially in light of a potential visit by Macron to Iran could serve as an important message to both Europe and the United States. To the Iranians, President Donald Trumps policy of pressure and the European response is reminiscent of the events over 2003-05 when Iran engaged with Britain, France and Germany over its nuclear program. Both Rouhani and Zarif led those negotiations, which involved an Iranian agreement to voluntarily and temporarily suspend uranium enrichment activities as a trust-building measure. The talks collapsed in the end, as Europe under pressure from the G.W. Bush administration demanded a permanent end to enrichment on Iranian soil. Mindful of that experience, which ultimately had no benefit for Iran, they are now from the get-go resisting any supplements or additions to the JCPOA. In fact, it seems the non-negotiability of Irans defense capabilities including its ballistic missiles is one of the few points on which both the hard-liners and moderates in Iran agree. At the same time, Tehran is worried that if the current erosive trend continues, it could result in Tehran gaining no benefits from the JCPOA whatsoever. This is while, as Zarif pointed out to Le Drian, the International Atomic Energy Agency has in 10 consecutive reports confirmed Irans adherence to its commitments under the nuclear deal. On Feb. 23, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that Iran may leave the JCPOA if its promised economic dividends do not materialize and major banks continue to shun the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, in a March 10 interview with Shargh newspaper, Zarif highlighted engagement with the Europeans over regional issues and said, Iran and Europe have been negotiating for 30 years, and this includes our regional dialogues. But if the Europeans want to use this as a tactic to appease the US, they will face other challenges. Zarif and Rouhani have always pursued the idea of Iran as a player and potential Western partner that can promote stability and security in the region. This endeavor appears to have been somewhat successful, as Europe now is engaging with Iran to seek its assistance in solving the regional crisis. As such, the bigger picture appears to be that Iran now knows how influential its role is for Europe when it comes to providing regional security and fighting instability in the Middle East. But it should not be ignored that, at the same time, it expects Europe to resist becoming part of Trumps game of gradually destroying the JCPOA. In Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus school of morality and politics, accepting a bribe is no reason to unseat an elected premier, nor is a hostile takeover of the countrys media. He insists that a prime minister should not be replaced because of criminal indictments or guilty verdicts. According to Netanyahu, a prime minister can only be replaced at the ballot box, although what he means is that a prime minister can only be replaced by Jews at the ballot box. March 17 marks two years since his horrible election-day video warning Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls and calling on Jews to turn out en masse. Its hard to know how many votes he picked up for the Likud with this alarmist message, but the damage he caused to relations between Jews and Arabs is discernible. The annual index compiled for more than 40 years by professor Sammy Smooha of Haifa University points to a decline in the Jewish majoritys perceived legitimacy of the countrys 20% Arab minority. The proportion of Jews accepting the Arabs status as a minority with full civil rights in a Jewish and democratic state fell from 75% to 68%. Three out of 10 Jews think the Arabs should leave the country and receive appropriate compensation. The percentage of Jews who refuse to have Arabs as neighbors grew from 41% to 48%. At the same time, the Arabs perception of the states legitimacy has also changed. Whereas 66% of Arabs recognized Israels right to exist in the 2015 survey, the rate declined to 59% in the 2017 survey. Only a minority, 47%, of Israeli Arabs are reconciled to Israel as a state with a Jewish majority compared to a majority of 60% two years earlier. In addition, the study discerned a significant increase in the threat perception of Israeli Arabs, with 73% fearing a severe undermining of their basic rights compared with 68% in the previous poll. Although the index points to a serious deterioration in relations between Jews and Arabs over the past two years, Smooha does not believe Israeli Arabs have burned their bridges to the Jewish state. He notes that the findings essentially continue to show a strong link on their part to a Jewish and democratic Israel. Speaking at a seminar last week to mark the publication of the index, sponsored by Tel Aviv Universitys Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, Smooha emphasized that over the span of more than 30 years, Jewish attitudes have hardly changed, rejecting the claim that they have become increasingly anti-Arab. Mary Totry of the Oranim College of Education presented a different, if not downright contradictory, view. How does one explain that 55% of the Arabs polled reported having personally encountered discrimination by Jews or state institutions? A democratic state is supposed to defend minority rights, the Haifa-based researcher said. How does one explain that 63% of the Arabs fear the annexation of the triangle area to Palestine? Totry asked, referring to the predominantly Arab Wadi Ara region, which Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman had proposed exchanging with the Palestinians in return for West Bank lands on which settlements have been constructed. Totry was quick to answer her own question: These fears are directly linked to long years of discrimination and to recent events and pronouncements by Jewish public figures against the Arab population. Its not because the Arabs are paranoid and need psychological therapy. Totry believes the index findings should set off alarm bells for all of us. Mohammad Darawshe, director of the Givat Haviva Center for a Shared Society, chose to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel. Darawshe has taken part in numerous co-existence initiatives over the years. In recent years, he has come to the conclusion that as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to bleed, a joint vision cannot be formulated to bridge the position of the Jewish majority with that of the Arab minority. One demands of the other recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, while the other insists on Israel being a state of all its people. Against this backdrop, Darawshe, along with the Merchavim Institute, the Abraham Fund and other organizations, is leading an initiative he calls islands of success, which involves creating specific encounters and points of joint action. The most important and successful island has been established in the school system. An exchange program of sorts for Jewish and Arab teachers currently involves 742 Arabs teaching in Jewish schools and 104 Jews teaching in Arab schools. For 68% of the Jewish school children in the program, it is their first acquaintance with an Arab other than fleeting encounters with a laborer or service provider at a gas station or supermarket. More than 90% of the students participating in the program have shown a positive change in attitude toward the other side. Darawshe dubs the program a discrimination relief pill. Another island is forming amid the Arab middle class, especially in the fields of health care and medicine. More than one-third of Israeli dentists are Arabs, as are more than half of Israels pharmacists. The number of Arab high-tech workers is on an upward trajectory, along with the contribution of Israeli Arabs to the gross national product, which according to Darawshe has increased 40% since 2006. Darawshe recounted that until his daughter joined a high-tech firm, none of its 11 Jewish staff members had visited an Arab village. Since then, four have paid visits to hers. That forces them out of their comfort zone, he said. The third island is in the public sector. The Or Commission, appointed to investigate the October 2000 rioting in which 13 Israeli Arabs were killed in clashes with police, was critical of the low rate of Arabs among state employees, only 1.7%. Since then, the figure has increased more than five times. An additional island is emerging in academia, where institutes of higher learning have begun adding Christmas and Eid al-Adha to their calendars and granting Muslim students special dispensations over the monthlong Ramadan fast. The dean of the Hebrew Universitys prestigious law school, Michael Karayanni, is a native of the Arab village of Kafr Yasif. The fifth island the contribution of Israeli Arabs to the tourism, industry and commerce sectors has yet to emerge. Most Arab towns and villages are stuck within narrow jurisdictions allotted to them by the state and must wait years for zoning and planning permits so that they can build industrial parks and culture centers. But the states greatest failure in ties between Jews and Arabs, Darawshe told Al-Monitor, is in the political arena, in legislative initiatives designed to Judaize the state and the incitement and delegitimization of the Arab minority by the countrys leadership. All that remains is to wait for the version of the Arabs coming out in droves in 2018 if early elections are called and to update damage control. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh delivered a sermon in Gaza on March 9, calling on residents to march toward the border fence with Israel and protest the Israeli siege. We will not be able to control tens of thousands of civilians who join marches in the north, east and south of the Strip, Haniyeh warned. Haniyeh's message was directed at Israel and perhaps Egypt as well. It implied that although Hamas has so far controlled the number of protesters who gather every Friday at the fence, it is now giving the nod to mass demonstrations and clashes with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), deployed on the other side. Since US President Donald Trump announced the move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem after recognizing it as the capital of Israel on Dec. 6, Hamas has been encouraging demonstrators to clash with Israeli troops along Gazas northern border fence. Nonetheless, the IDF surmised that Hamas was limiting the numbers to prevent the protests from spiraling out of control, but at the same time keeping them in the public eye until the leadership deems the time right for larger demonstrations. It seems the time has now arrived. Hamas is apparently scheduling mass marches, dubbed the Journey of Great Return, for two emotionally charged dates. The first is March 30, when Palestinians mark Land Day, commemorating Israels expropriation of lands from its Arab citizens. Hamas views the Land Day march as a rehearsal for the second event, which is planned for Nakba Day, May 15, also marking Israels declaration of independence in 1948. According to reports, the United States is planning to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem the day before, on May 14. Hamas' plan calls for tens of thousands of Palestinians to march toward the fence, especially to the Erez border crossing with Israel, at the northern tip of Gaza. In the coming days, the movement is expected to set up tents near the fence symbolic of the refugees created by Israels independence to house marchers ahead of the protests. Hamas also plans widespread media coverage to alert Gazas 2 million residents to the protest events against the Israeli siege. Israel fears just such a scenario. How should the IDF respond if thousands or tens of thousands charge the fence? The question seems to be not how they can be stopped, but at what cost. Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders are clearly aware that by urging a mass march toward the fence and alongside it, they are in essence calling for a violent clash with the IDF that could result in a large number of casualties. For Hamas, however, the ends seem to justify the means. A Palestinian source in Fatah told Al-Monitor that Hamas' leaders were galvanized by the plans of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for Nakba Day and the scheduled US Embassy opening. They clearly want to show that their protest is bigger and more significant for the Palestinian people, and they dont care at what cost, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. All that matters for Hamas is to be seen as the protest leaders. While Hamas is planning a violent, bloody event, the PLO is gearing up for a different kind of activity, one that will highlight Palestinians' aspiration for worldwide diplomatic recognition. As previously reported by Al-Monitor, the PLO is preparing a ceremony recognizing a Palestinian state with the participation of representatives from countries that have already recognized Palestine. The two different kinds of protests a violent one by Hamas versus the one envisioned by Fatah and the PLO reflect the vastly differing modus operandi of the two main Palestinian factions: Hamas espouses armed conflict at all cost, whereas Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is convinced diplomacy is the only way to end 50 years of Israeli occupation and establish an independent state. The difference will likely sway the struggle for public opinion, with Hamas poised to steal the show, because Palestinian and foreign media will zoom in on violent protests in Gaza and Palestinian casualties. This is a despicable and irresponsible way to win over public opinion, the Palestinian source told Al-Monitor. Meanwhile, the IDF is also preparing for the bloody events planned by Hamas. In an Arabic-language video posted Feb. 19, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, head of Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, said 15 Palestinians had already been killed and 400 injured in clashes with Israeli forces near the fence. As of today, the IDF will adopt tougher measures against those rioting at the Gaza border, he warned. You had better stop now and go demonstrate against Hamas in Gaza. Mordechais warning did not help, and the demonstrations continued at different locations. On March 3, one Palestinian was killed and 16 others were injured by live IDF fire. In recent days, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that three people had been injured, one of them seriously, in clashes east of Jabaliya. According to reports in recent days, the IDF has started firing tear gas grenades from drones to disperse Gaza protesters and push them away from the border. Until now, the IDF was only known to use drones for intelligence gathering. It turns out, however, that it has drones also capable of firing tear gas and can use other means to head off protesters before they have a chance to clash directly with Israeli troops. These new methods are unlikely to deter Hamas from carrying out its Nakba Day plans. Demonstrations and clashes will take place in any event, and the only question is how many Palestinians will pay with their lives or limbs so that Hamas leaders can prove to the PLO and Fatah that the Hamas way is the right and effective one. Experience suggests that Hamas will defeat Fatah in in terms of shaping public perceptions, but that the Palestinians themselves will pay a very high price. Italy went to the polls March 4 and overwhelmingly voted for populist parties. While a government has yet to be formed, Italian-Libyan relations could be set for some real changes. Italy has been deeply invested in Libya in recent years, largely due to the immigration issue. Thousands of migrants and refugees set sail from Libyan shores to Italy each year. Over 4,740 people crossed the sea in January alone, while the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported 119,000 landed there last year. Italy deployed additional troops to counter migration and increase security last year, bringing their total deployment to 400. Last year, Interior Minister Marco Minniti of the Democratic Party took actions that saw the arrival rate drop by 87%. While the results were praised, especially by the countrys right-wing parties such as Lega (League), his methods were controversial and drew criticism from rights groups. Minniti allegedly provided Libyas government in Tripoli, led by Fayez al-Sarraj, with funds that went to militia groups implicated in trafficking to get them to prevent new boats from leaving Libyan shores. The interference led to a battle between nonstate militias in Sabratah late last year. But now, Minniti is likely to be replaced as interior minister after a new government is formed. It is unclear who will take over the government. Italians largely voted against the traditional parties of the center-left and center-right. The populist Five Star Movement finished first with more than 32% of the vote, some 14 percentage points ahead of the center-left Democratic Party. Matteo Salvinis League finished ahead of center-right coalition partner Silvio Berlusconis party, Forza Italia, meaning Salvini is the new leading figure in the coalition. This means that the Five Star Movement and League are in prime positions to lead a new government and shape future policies on migration and Libya. A League-led Cabinet would probably take a harsher stance on migration and would probably intensify contacts with [Libyan National Army head Khalifa] Hifter, whom they see as the only person who can fix Libya, Riccardo Fabiani, a senior Middle East and North Africa analyst with the Eurasia Group, told Al-Monitor. This could translate into Italy coordinating its diplomatic posture more closely with Egypt and therefore weaken western Libya. The League has a heavily anti-immigrant platform, often mimicking campaign rhetoric used by US President Donald Trump with terms such as Italy first. The party also supports Europes Marshall Plan for Africa that seeks to undertake a massive infrastructure and trade program aimed at growing the continents economic development. Meanwhile, a Five Star Movement-led government would be more unpredictable. Five Star has largely campaigned as an isolationist party. It also opposed last years increased troop deployment, arguing this would prevent a new government from imposing its preferred foreign policy. Much like League, it is also highly skeptical of the European Union and has positive relations with the Russian government. That being said, Five Star has never ruled at a national level before, and its positions which shift with public opinion could end up following a previously traveled path. A Five Star-led government would be more difficult to analyze because its positions on this topic are less clear-cut, Fabiani said. In particular, if the Democratic Party were to support this Cabinet, we could probably expect substantial continuity in Italys policy toward Libya. But what is clear is that half the Italian population backed populist parties in the latest election. People bought into larger than life promises despite many Italian experts claiming they are unrealistic this wont be missed by whoever rules next. After the earthquake of March 4, the most likely scenario is a more assertive, more reckless version of Minnitis interference methods, regardless of their controversial and parochial nature, Jalel Harchaoui, a doctoral candidate in geopolitics at Paris 8 University and a frequent commentator on Libyan affairs, told Al-Monitor. However, Minnitis humanitarian measures will likely be slashed or scrapped altogether. That alone may cause dangerous shocks in some communities in Libya. That could mean more money pumped into finding short-term solutions in Libya. Ultimately, the country could witness more battles like the one in Sabratah and a policy that will only further destabilize Libya in the long run. The new Italian government will, no doubt, seek an increase in Italys military activism inside Libya, Harchaoui said. Rome will now allude to the creation of permanent internment camps for sub-Saharan migrants on Libyan soil. The official terminology will undoubtedly be embellished 'working villages,' 'micro cities,' 'assistance centers,' etc. but in actuality, Italys decision-makers will now follow a reasoning similar to that of many far-right politicians who spoke on the issue of migrants in Libya in recent months. The far-right rhetoric on immigration has seemingly succeeded in the short term. But these lofty promises of stopping illegal immigration and other such short-sighted solutions will not make Libya any more stable, nor will they fix Italys economic or social ails. This thinking will prove more dangerous than Minnitis methods, Harchaoui said. It will not lead to any palpable improvement. Libya and Italy have always been linked through history. But now they seem caught in a vicious circle certainly not a virtuous one. Americas top military commander in the Middle East told Congress today that President Bashar al-Assads recent gains in the Syrian civil war will enhance Irans ability to support proxy groups in the region. Chief of US Central Command Joseph Votel told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the intervention by Iran and Russia has proven decisive in bolstering the embattled Syrian leader. Assad appears on the verge of regaining opposition-held holdouts in Idlib province and the Damascus suburbs. From a civil war standpoint, it would appear that the regime is ascendant here, Votel told Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. It means that we will contend with the influence of Iran. Votel did not disagree with the senators characterization that Assads forces had won the war with the help of Iran and Russia. Iran is believed to have as many as 125,000 troops and Shiite-backed proxy forces in Syria under the watch of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani. That includes 8,000 Hezbollah fighters in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, the centerpiece of the US-backed battle against the Islamic State (IS). At the conclusion of the conflict, Votel told lawmakers, Iran could be in a position where they could support Lebanese Hezbollah better. Speaking at Stanford University in January, ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for an open-ended US presence in Syria to counter Iran. He also insisted that the United States is seeking a political transition away from Assad. Its not clear if CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who President Donald Trump named as Tillersons successor today, will aim to continue the policy, and Votel provided no clarity today on whether US officials still sought Assads dismissal. I dont know that thats our particular policy at this point, he said. Well, if you dont know, I doubt if anybody knows, because this is your job, to take care of this part of the world, Graham responded. The South Carolina Republican recently visited Jordan and Israel and wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed on March 12 decrying the lack of a coherent strategy to deal with Irans influence in Iraq and Syria. Graham also called for no-fly zones within Syria to allow the return of refugees and the continuation of efforts to train and equip Syrian rebel forces. Some 2,000 US troops remain in Syria, officially, to train rebel forces to fight remnants of IS. The Pentagon, however, appears to be curtailing the use of Incirlik Air Base in nearby Turkey to provide air support in the fight against the militant group. The Defense Department has asked for $300 million to train Syrian fighters, including the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the fiscal year that begins in October, a 40% cut from the current years request. Though US forces have tried to stay out of the wider war, special operations forces recently repelled a pro-Assad attack on the US-backed SDF near oil fields in territory once held by IS. Votel said he didnt think that rebel forces in Ghouta and Idlib could topple Assad within the next year. As pro-Assad forces continue to hit the rebel-held Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta with bombs and chlorine gas, the Pentagon is discouraging Trump from launching military operations to try to stem the humanitarian crisis. Trump has mentioned eastern Ghouta in recent calls with US allies, including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The best way of doing this is through political and diplomatic channels, Votel said. Yet as the White House is set to formulate a tougher policy on Iran, with Pompeo replacing Tillerson at the State Department, the Pentagon is carefully watching Trumps May 12 deadline to determine whether the United States will continue suspending sanctions as called for under the 2015 nuclear deal. Last fall, US Defense Secretary James Mattis called on the United States to remain in the deal, and Votel appeared to reiterate that position in testifying before lawmakers today. The nuclear agreement addresses one of the principal threats that we deal with from Iran," Votel said. If the deal ends and Iran resumes prohibited nuclear activities, the Middle East commander said, the United States will need "another way" to deal with the threat. MOSCOW Moscow plans to respond to any US strike on Syria and will target any missiles and launchers involved in such an attack, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian General Staff, warned Tuesday. The US seeks to use [any alleged] provocation as a pretext to strike government areas in Damascus, Gerasimov told state-operated news agency RIA. We have credible information that militants are now preparing to stage the use of chemical weapons on civilians by the Syrian government forces. For this goal, the militants have brought to eastern Ghouta people, including women, children and elders, from other areas. These people have to play victims of this staged chemical attack. The White Helmets with their cameramen are already there for live broadcasts, said Gerasimov. He added that the Russian military has discovered a lab used for poisonous chemical production in the terrorist-freed town of Aftriss. Gerasimov alleges that the United States plans to use this staged attack as proof of Russia-supported Syrian government use of chemicals on civilians and will strike government areas in Damascus with missiles. Gerasimov stressed that Russian military advisers, military police and Russian Reconciliation Center servicemen are in Damascus. He warned that Moscow will retaliate if the lives of Russian servicemen are endangered. The statement arguably the harshest in its tone this year came less than 24 hours after US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said the United States is willing to take military action to end the Syrian bombing of civilians if the UN is unable to do so. Later that day, French President Emmanuel Macron issued a similar warning that Paris is prepared to launch targeted strikes against any site in Syria used to deploy chemical attacks that result in the deaths of civilians. A Kremlin official speaking with Al-Monitor not for attribution said, The mounting information warfare on Russia, be it [about] Ghouta or the new [poisoned] spy scandal with the UK, is perceived as their "version of interference. A few days before the [March 18] presidential elections here, the US threatens new strikes. Some Europeans say they support it, then the UK spins this story of a killed ex-spy, blaming it on us. All of this is meant to increase pressure on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, to make his likely new presidential term look illegitimate. I guess this is how they interfere in our own elections after being unable to find proof of our interference into theirs. Moscow sees developments in eastern Ghouta as yet another critical point in the Syrian campaign. Vladimir Akhmedov, a fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a notable Russian expert on Syria, wrote that the situation there is a multifaceted case for Russia not only in terms of military operations, but also in how to work with local councils and opposition groups. Since the defeat of [the Islamic State], the US strategy on Syria has changed. Learning from the Iraq experience, they believe a drawdown there was premature. Now they want to first limit Russias influence in Syria and thus impede it from ensuring control over key areas and, second, to belittle Russias role as a fair intermediary in Geneva. They also seek to drive a wedge between Russia and Iran and thus deprive Moscow of an ally and isolate Tehran from a further active role in Syrian affairs. Then they would reshuffle political decisions on Syria to the point where [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] would have no future and Iran is seriously marginalized. So the outcome on Ghouta is really a litmus test for the new US policy on Syria, Akhmedov said. The stated arguments reflect broader intellectual and political discussions on how to amend Moscows course in Syria and counter what is increasingly seen as a more assertive US posture. Russia's tough rhetoric coupled with the recent announcement of new strategic arms are meant to signal confidence among Russias top decision-makers and the serious intent to not back down in the face of mounting pressures. A direct military clash would be catastrophic for everyone, but this [situation] has gotten too serious for retreat," the Kremlin official said. "We are open to negotiations [with the United States], and the sooner we start them the less chance we slip into clashes." In a lengthy TV interview March 11, Putin spoke of an episode of his early years in St. Petersburg when he was chasing a rat from an apartment block house where he lived with his parents. So I cornered the rat, Putin recollected, and it suddenly turned back on me. I was scared and fled all the way back up to my apartment, but the rat continued to chase me. The lesson Putin said he learned from that incident was, Never corner your opponent to the point where they turn back and bite. WASHINGTON US President Donald Trumps surprise firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by tweet today just a few hours after Tillerson returned from a trip to Africa threw yet another wrench into transatlantic consultations on Iran that had been gaining traction. A US delegation led by Tillersons policy planning chief Brian Hook was slated to meet in Berlin on Thursday for the next round of consultations on Trumps Iran demands between the United States and the three European countries, or E3, that helped negotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Britain, France and Germany. On Friday, the eight-member Joint Commission overseeing the Iran nuclear deal's implementation is supposed to hold its quarterly meeting in Vienna. Tillerson, sounding shaken in remarks in the State Department press room this afternoon, said he was urging the departments policy team and department heads to stay. He would be turning over most of his duties to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan tonight, and working to ensure a smooth transition to Secretary-designate Mike Pompeo when Tillerson's tenure concludes at the end of the month. Im encouraging my policy planning team and undersecretaries and assistant secretaries those confirmed as well as those in acting positions to remain at their post and continue our mission at the State Department in working with the interagency process, Tillerson said. I will be meeting members of my front office team and policy planning later today to thank them for their service. A State Department official as well as a European diplomat said that as far as they knew, the Berlin and Vienna consultations this week would go ahead. But a second State Department diplomat, speaking not for attribution, said he anticipated that Hook would eventually leave after Tillerson does. Hook did not respond to a query. Trump singled out differences over Iran policy as one of the reasons he and Tillerson have sometimes found themselves at odds, even while he said he wished Tillerson well and considered him a good man. "Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time, Trump told reporters as he was boarding a helicopter to travel to California today. We got along, actually, quite well, but we disagreed on things. When you look at the Iran deal; I think it's terrible, I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently. "We were not really thinking the same, Trump said. With Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well. Rex is a very good man. I like Rex a lot. I really appreciate his commitment to service and I'll be speaking to Rex over a long period of time." Allied diplomats could only shake their heads at the latest chaos emanating from Trumps Washington. They had already felt under time pressure to try to see if they could come to an understanding to meet Trumps Jan. 12 ultimatum to toughen policy on Iran or he would not issue the required sanctions waivers at the next deadline on May 12. We do have good progress with the US administration on a number of issues, and capacity to be together, a European diplomat, speaking not for attribution March 9, said of the progress to date in the US-E3 consultations on Iran. One, for us, we want to keep JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]. We dont want to renegotiate, and we dont think it is feasible, the European diplomat said. But once weve said that, we share all the concerns on missiles, regional destabilization, terrorism and we are ready to take steps to address those concerns. But while in the short term Trumps firing of Tillerson puts the transatlantic Iran consultations in disarray, ultimately, the appointment of Pompeo as Trumps top envoy may prove a more authoritative negotiator for European allies because he can speak more reliably for the president. Iran was not the only issue that Trump and Tillerson found themselves at odds over, current and former diplomats said. Tillerson, as well as Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, had served as a check on Trumps initial, sharp tilt in favor of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in their dispute with Qatar. I am not sure that the Middle East was a big part of Trump's rationale, but I think the timing is curious one week before [Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] hits town, former US Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein told Al-Monitor, referring to the Saudi crown princes planned visit to the White House on March 20. We know the Saudis and Emiratis were unhappy with Tillerson's tilt toward Qatar, Feierstein, now with the Middle East Institute, said. But overall, I think Tillerson and Trump were just a poor match. Tillerson is an establishment Republican on foreign policy and Trump isn't. Thus the use of [US Ambassador to the United Nations] Nikki Haley, a foreign policy tabula rasa, to speak for the administration, which we know annoyed Tillerson. Trump and Tillerson had clashed over Iran, North Korea and China policy over the past few months, another former US diplomat said. Trump wanted to get out of the Iran deal, Tillerson thought that was a bad idea, the former US diplomat told Al-Monitor. On China, the secretary [Tillerson] believes the president is leading us into an economic conflict with the most important country to our own economy. This month, Gary Cohn, the chairman of Trumps National Economic Council, also announced he was leaving the administration, partly in opposition to Trumps decision to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel. Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, said he would return to private life and the private sector. He had been in Texas last week for the funeral of his father. Tillersons rocky tenure with the White House continued even as he said he was turning over his duties to his deputy today. Steven Goldstein, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, was also dismissed today after he issued a statement saying Tillerson was unaware of the reason he was being dismissed. The White House insisted that White House chief of staff John Kelly had called Tillerson on Friday in Africa to inform him to expect a tweet concerning his status. The White House announced that it has designated State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert to be acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy. The Tunisian Coalition for Equality in Inheritance, which is comprised of some 70 women's rights groups, mobilized hundreds of protesters for a demonstration on March 10 in front of the parliament to call for a law guaranteeing equal inheritance rights. Held under the banner Equality: A Right Not a Privilege, the march marked a new direction in Tunisian womens quest for equal treatment by taking their struggle to the streets in the hope of pressuring the president and members of parliament into passing a new law granting them equality in cases of inheritance. The current law is based on the Personal Status Code announced in 1956 by President Habib Bourguiba. The code was primarily based on the Quran, specifically the Surah an-Nisa (The Women), which states that in the case of surviving brothers and sisters, the male's share should be twice that of the female. In an address delivered last August during celebrations for Tunisian National Womens Day, President Beji Caid Essebsi promised to enact a code governing individual rights and gender equality and to review inheritance laws in the Personal Status Code to establish gender equality in that regard. In the same address, Essebsi announced the formation of the Committee on Individual Freedoms and Rights. Bushra Belhaj Hamida, an attorney and human rights activist, heads the nine-member committee, which includes lawyers, womens rights activists and university professors. Its main task is to prepare a report on reforms related to individual freedoms and gender equality in accordance with the 2014 constitution. The committee's recommendations will be delivered to Essebsi before they are submitted to the parliament for a vote. Ahlam Belhaj, the former head of the Tunisian Association for Democratic Women, a group that defends womens rights, attended the March 10 demonstration. She told Al-Monitor, The 2014 constitution was a pivotal and significant victory for every Tunisian woman. Tunisian women today will not waive any of their rights guaranteed by the constitution, most notably, the right of full inheritance equality. The 2014 constitution addresses gender equality in Article 21, which states, All citizens, male and female, have equal rights and duties, and are equal before the law without any discrimination. Belhaj emphasized, Calls for equal inheritance are hardly a recent trend. It is an old goal for which the Tunisian Association for Democratic Women has strived since 1999. However, these calls did not elicit any response in the era of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Belhaj believes that the time has come for true gender equality and the repeal of all forms of discrimination against women, because today men and women are jointly and equally assuming economic responsibilities. Salah al-Din al-Jourshie, a member of the Committee on Individual Freedoms and Rights, told Al-Monitor that the committee is examining two options in terms of inheritance equality. The first is to promulgate new laws ensuring complete inheritance equality between men and women, and the second is to also retain the laws in the current Personal Status Code. The latter would allow women to choose, during the administration of the estate, which law to apply. One platform of the March 10 rally was that complete gender equality in inheritance is incompatible with Quranic texts. Jourshie said the committee is well-aware that increasing numbers of women are voicing support for laws codifying complete inheritance equality, but he also acknowledged that some women believe that Islams inheritance laws should be respected. While feminist civil groups are determined to spare no means of peaceful struggle in achieving inheritance equality, the issue remains controversial. The Committee is trying to find a middle ground, Jourshie remarked. Proposals and recommendations should reflect all views in Tunisia. We are aware of the sensitivity of the subject, which is why we postponed submitting the final report to the president until after the municipal elections, slated for May. 6. We didnt want for this issue to become a political card between parties that might be exploited in the upcoming municipal elections. The eastern Mediterranean Sea has become a very busy place, and pressure abounds among coastal neighbors there. Governments are declaring exclusive economic zones (EEZs), but they overlap. States are granting duplicate licenses for natural gas exploration and drilling. Mammoth energy corporations and coastal states are signing hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of hydrocarbon agreements. Frequent maritime safety broadcasts are informing of endless military exercises. Israel and Lebanon are on edge over hydrocarbon reserves. Lebanon awarded bids last month to Frances Total SA, Italys Eni SpA and Russias Novatek to drill for oil and gas in Blocks 4 and 9 within Lebanons EEZ. Israel doesnt recognize these bids and claims that all of Block 9 is within its EEZ. Then there is the crisis between Turkey and Greek Cyprus, which is becoming progressively militarized. A tense military standoff took place Feb. 9 between the Turkish navy and Eni's Saipem 12000 drilling ship, which is licensed by the Greek Cypriot administration to explore hydrocarbon reserves south of the island. In my Al-Monitor Feb. 15 opinion piece Tempers flare over gas exploration in Mediterranean, I wrote, Ankara thinks the tensions in the Aegean [Sea] and eastern Mediterranean Sea aren't coincidental. Ankara feels the natural gas alliance of Greece, Greek Cypriots, Israel and Egypt being aware of the Turkish military's capacity shortcomings since the July 2016 coup attempt, its military involvement in Syria and its increasing isolation is scheming for diplomatic, economic and military faits accomplis. Ankara still believes that. It's also no secret that there's a growing crisis between Egypt and Turkey over disputed EEZs. This persistent tension among coastal neighbors makes one wonder if we are facing a new South China Sea crisis. The latest development in the eastern Mediterranean was the arrival March 6 of the US 6th Fleets Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) to conduct naval operations. Alarm bells sounded as its arrival coincided with scheduled hydrocarbon drillings of US energy giant ExxonMobil in Block 10 of the Greek Cypriot EEZ. Two survey vessels the Med Surveyor, currently located off the port of Haifa, and the Ocean Investigator, moored at the port of Lavrio, Greece are expected to arrive soon in Block 10 to examine the seabed at three locations there. Their mission is to gather more data to narrow down the most likely areas for gas drilling, which ExxonMobil is planning to do in August and September. That activity coincides with the ARG's arrival, raising questions about whether the US Navy is to provide a military escort to ExxonMobils drilling operations. Although Russian, Greek Cypriot and Greek media reported the ARG had been deployed to protect ExxonMobil activities, both US and Turkish official sources denied the reports. Turkish security sources said the rumors were made up. The sources also drew attention to the planned schedule of the US Navy in this regard. Reports that the US 6th Fleet is in the eastern Mediterranean to protect ExxonMobil are totally baseless, Johnny Michael, a spokesman for the United States European Command, said when asked about the situation. Michael underlined that the ARG "conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, to advance US national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa. The ARG will participate in the Juniper Cobra exercise, part of a long-standing agreement between the United States European Command and the Israeli Defense Forces to hold bilateral training exercises on a regular basis to promote and sustain regional stability and to ensure "Israel's qualitative military edge. The Juniper Cobra series has been regularly conducted since 2001, with the last iteration JC16 held in 2016. Now the questions are whether the Iwo Jima ARG will remain in the eastern Mediterranean after its joint exercises with Israel, and if so how long will it stay? The ARG left Florida at the beginning of February on a seven-month mission and arrived in its area of operations Feb. 22. This means the ARG can stay for six more months in the region if it desires. We will have to wait and see what Washington will decide. United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Mohammed Gargash, whose country has had more than one run-in with Turkey in recent times, summed up the situation in a tweet on March 10. "It is no secret that Arab-Turkish relations aren't in their best state," Gargash said. Gargash also called on Ankara to deal wisely and rationally with its neighbors by taking into account Arab sovereignty. The timing of his remark suggests that he had Turkeys Olive Branch operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria in his sights. He may have also been referring to reports that Ankara is preparing a similar operation against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. Many believe Gargash was not just speaking for the UAE when expressing concerns about Turkeys actions in the region. His tweet came a few days after Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was quoted by the Egyptian press saying that Turkey belongs to an axis of evil in the Middle East, whose other members are Iran and extremist religious groups. The prince reportedly uttered his remark during his visit to Cairo last week, when he met with Egyptian newspaper editors. The extremist groups the crown prince is said to have referred to are clearly the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) feel a close affinity to. The Saudi Embassy in Ankara, probably under diplomatic pressure from the Turkish side which chose not to respond officially to the prince issued what for many Turkish commentators was a less-than-convincing denial. The embassy said the princes remarks were falsely reported, saying he had not mentioned Turkey but had referred to the so-called Muslim Brotherhood and radical groups. There was, however, no such denial from the Saudi Embassy in Cairo, or from Riyadh. Tehran, on the other hand, accepted the princes words as having been uttered and dismissed them as childish. Meanwhile, the pro-government media in Turkey wasted no time in attacking Saudi Arabia. Selim Atalay, a veteran journalist who writes for Star daily, accused Crown Prince Mohammed of being out of touch with reality. For there to be an axis, the three angles of the triangle have to be in harmony. The prince clearly has not thought much about which topics Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Turkey are in agreement over, Atalay wrote. He was referring to the differences between Ankara and Tehran over regional disputes and the antipathy felt for the Brotherhood in Iran. If one is to seek a geometry of evil in the Middle East, one has to start with Saudi Arabia, and include the UAE, Egypt and Israel in it, Atalay said. Predominantly Sunni Turkey and predominantly Shiite Iran remain rivals in the Middle East, especially in Syria, where Tehran backs the regime, and has called on Ankara to halt its operation against the YPG in Afrin. During an address in Bahrain in February 2017, Erdogan blasted what he referred to as Persian nationalism, and called on Irans expansionist aims in the Middle East to be halted. Nevertheless, being Islamic and Sunni, and having shared concerns over Tehrans regional ambitions, has proved to be insufficient for establishing the relationship Erdogan and the AKP hoped to have with Sunni Arab regimes. Retired Turkish Ambassador Suha Umar, whose postings included Amman, told Al-Monitor the AKP government had failed to read the historic allergy the Arab world had for 600 years of Ottoman rule in the region. Erdogan responded angrily in December after UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan shared a Twitter post accusing Fakhreddin Pasha, the Ottoman commander during the siege of Medina in 1916, of stealing Islamic manuscripts and artifacts and removing them to Istanbul. These are Erdogans ancestors and their history with Arab Muslims, the post said. Erdogan did not hold back in his response to Nahyan. While my ancestors were busy defending Medina, you impudent man, what were your ancestors doing? he retorted angrily, clearly referring to the British-instigated Arab Revolt against the Muslim Ottomans during World War I. Umar said Ankaras strong support for the Muslim Brotherhood also stoked one of the greatest fears of Arab regimes. Turkey considers the Brotherhood to be a legitimate political movement, while Riyadh, along with Egypt, has gone so far as to label it a terrorist organization. Meanwhile, Ankara and Cairo remain at odds following the coup in Egypt in 2013 that ended the brief rule of the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood-based government of President Mohammed Morsi. Ties between Egypt and Turkey are still frosty. Ankaras unconditional military and political support for Qatar, which is currently under blockade by a Saudi-led Gulf coalition, is another point of serious disagreement between Ankara and Riyadh. Riyadh is also suspicious of the cooperation between Turkey and Iran in Syria, within the context of the Russian-sponsored Astana process, even though Ankara and Tehran are at serious odds over the Syrian crises. Turkey in turn was displeased when Saudi Arabia sent a low-level representative to the extraordinary summit of Islamic leaders in Istanbul, called by Erdogan in December to discuss Jerusalem. Ankara was also annoyed over the recent decision by the Saudi-owned MBC Group to drop all Turkish television serials and programs, which are highly popular across the Middle East. Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmus told Al Jazeera this was a political move and clear censorship. Turkeys Operation Olive Branch in northern Syria, on the other hand, was also received frostily in the Arab world, with the one notable exception being Qatar, which is dependent on Turkish support when it comes to the conflict with Saudi Arabia. The disquiet felt by Arab countries over the operation was openly voiced by Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit at the Munich Security Conference in February. During a panel discussion attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Gheit warned Turkey to be careful when intervening in an Arab country south of your borders. Responding to Gheit, Cavusoglu said Turkey was using its legitimate right to combat terrorism in Syria, and criticized the Arab League for its inability to prevent the Syrian regime from killing half a million people. This is your system, a visibly irritated Cavusoglu retorted, clearly trying to demean the Arab League. Ibrahim Karagul, the firebrand editor-in-chief of the pro-government Islamist daily Yeni Safak, sees a conspiracy against Turkey by an axis in the Middle East set up by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States. This was established to stop Turkey; in order to make the Afrin operation fail, and achieve the multi-nation project to encircle our country, Karagul said. Meanwhile, Turkey still has an uneasy relationship with Iraq, which still insists that Turkish forces in the Bashiqa camp near Mosul be withdrawn. Turkey and Jordan, on the other hand, continue to maintain the appearance of good relations. Many remember, however, that Jordanian King Abdullah II reportedly accused Turkey of seeking radical Islamic solutions to Middle East crises during a meeting with senior members of Congress in Washington in January 2016. Umar said Turkeys relations with the Arab world today are in turmoil because Ankara totally misread the situation in the Middle East, especially after 2004. Prior to that our policy was based on not interfering in the domestic affairs of Arab countries, trying to contribute to Middle East peace, and promoting our economic interests, Umar said. The AKP, however, changed this completely by starting not just to interfere in the affairs of Arab countries, but also to try to organize these countries according to its own vision, Umar added. All that is left for Turkey today, according to Umar, is to try to work with Iran and Russia so Turkey can get its way in the Middle East; however, Iran and Russia are the two countries whose motives Arab regimes fear the most. The result of this is likely to be more strains in Turkish-Arab ties. A Turkish prosecutor has demanded life imprisonment for Andrew Brunson, the North Carolina pastor who was detained in October 2016 for his alleged involvement in a failed attempt to overthrow the Turkish government that year. The prosecutor in the province of Izmir, where Brunson is being held, charged the 50-year-old with being a member and executive of the terrorist group accused of being behind the coup attempt. The Turkish government holds Fethullah Gulen, a Sunni cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, responsible for the coup and is demanding his extradition. But the United States has refused to hand over the septuagenarian imam on the grounds that Turkey has not provided sufficient evidence to prove its claims against him. Brunsons detention raised questions about whether Turkey is using him as a bargaining chip to get Gulen. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reinforced those suspicions in a speech to police academy graduates last year. 'Give us the pastor back, they say. You have one pastor as well. Give him [Gulen] back to us. Then we will try him [Brunson] and give him to you." Brunson, who led a tiny flock at the Resurrection Church in Izmir, protests his innocence, and fellow clergy in Turkey have vouched for him. Jeffrey Jeremiah, the state clerk of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of America, told the independent Turkish media outlet Diken last week that his church had sent a letter to Erdogan appealing for Brunsons release but that he had not received any response. Noting that Brunson had lost 50 pounds since his detention, Jeremiah said of the pastor, He has been in some deep, deep valleys that the Lord has brought him through. He is a faithful man of God who has given his life to help and serve the Turkish people." On Friday, Brunsons daughter Jacqueline told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that the terror allegations against her father were absurd. She said, He is not an armed terrorist trying to overthrow any government, my father is a peaceful pastor." Still, todays indictment may be a hopeful sign that the court will go through the motions of prosecuting Brunson and then let him go back home, as it did with Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucel. The freelancer who had been held for a year on terror charges was released from custody pending trial on Feb. 16 after a Turkish court accepted an indictment seeking up to 18 years imprisonment. He promptly got on a plane and returned to Germany. Critics described the event as a dirty deal whereby the German government allegedly resumed talks to sell Turkey military equipment that it was threatening to withhold in exchange for Yucels freedom. It's too early to say how Brunsons case will play out. The indictment came as the US Congress weighs imposing sanctions on Turkey for what it calls the unlawful detention of US citizens and Turkish employees working at US diplomatic missions in Turkey. The proposed measures include visa bans on Turkish officials established as having participated in the decisions that led to their incarceration. The State Department has pushed back amid concerted efforts to repair relations with Ankara that have steadily deteriorated over US support for Kurdish militants in Syria and the Gulen saga, among other things. As of the beginning of this week, Congress was reportedly swayed by the State Departments arguments, but the indictment against Brunson may alter the mood. It also remains unclear what impact if any todays announcement that CIA Director Mike Pompeo will be replacing Rex Tillerson as the new secretary of state will have on the attempted reset with Turkey. On July 16, 2016, after the coup against Erdogan had unfolded, Pompeo likened Turkey to Iran. He called each a "totalitarian Islamist dictatorship" in a tweet that has since been deleted. He did not hold office at the time. Aykan Erdemir is a former Turkish member of parliament and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative think tank. He told Al-Monitor, Appeasement brings out the worst in Erdogan. He has a track record of doubling down on counterparts he sees as pushovers. In his relations with Russia and Germany, Erdogan has demonstrated he is a pragmatist who is capable of radical U-turns. Thus, Washington can learn from Moscow and Berlins handling of Erdogan. But there are few signs that the Trump administration is willing to embrace their approach. In the rundown Pedion Areos Park, older men walk slowly by young asylum seekers before agreeing on a price for sex. Athens, Greece Mahmoud looks out over the chaotic mess of rooftops and aerials and towards the neglected park he now calls home. Hes wearing a red hoodie, blue jeans and a black cap. Everything suggests he is a typical 20-year-old, apart perhaps from the jagged scar on his brow. I am ashamed about what I do for money, but I will tell you, he says. The Afghan asylum seeker clasps his hands tightly in front of him as he speaks. I didnt know anyone when I arrived in Athens, he begins. Life was very difficult and it still is. I dont have a home so I sleep every night in a park nearby. I had only two options when I arrived one was to become a thief or a drug dealer, Mahmoud explains. But I am not that kind of person. The other option was to stay in the park and have sex with older men, or anyone that asked for it for five or 10 euros [around $5 and $10] . His only shelter is a cheap tent that he shares with an Iranian asylum seeker. Perched on the concrete roof of a small maintenance building hidden among the trees of Pedion Areos Park, it offers little protection from the cold. A bag of oranges provides breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mahmoud says the money he makes selling sex only covers the cost of his daily food. He cannot afford to save anything. He speaks regretfully about his work but sees no way out. This is my only source of money now, he says. Ive made a mistake, and now Im deep in this s***. But Mahmoud isnt alone. Pedion Areos Park has become a hub of illegal male prostitution, sometimes involving refugees as young as 15. Greece has strict laws regulating prostitution. Sex workers must register, be aged over 18, legal residents in Greece and work in a licensed brothel. Despite this, illegal street prostitutes, who are often migrants and refugees, are estimated to outnumber licensed prostitutes by 20 to one. Licensed sex workers have fortnightly sexual health checks and access to free treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Unlicensed street sex workers, like Mahmoud, do not. READ MORE: Male prostitution on the rise in Lebanon Shopping for sex While the majority of Athens sex workers are female, Pedion Areos has long been a hot spot for male sex work. The park, although grand and sprawling, has, like its inhabitants, been largely ignored. The large statue of King Constantine I that stands at its entrance has been covered with graffiti. Used condoms and tissues litter the ground. Those familiar with the park say that the majority of the sex workers there are Albanian, Bulgarian and Romanian. Neno, a Bulgarian Roma, arrived in Athens eight years ago and has been a sex worker in the park ever since. He says he doesnt particularly mind the work, but that it doesnt pay well. A lot of people hate this job, they dont want to be here, he says. For me, its OK. I dont have a problem with it. Just the money isnt good. Neno isnt homeless. He lives in a small town to the southeast of Athens which is popular with tourists, and takes the bus into the capital each weekday. The bus stops directly outside the park. At the weekends, he makes a little extra money playing guitar in tavernas along the coast. For Neno, being a sex worker is a job like any other. For Mahmoud and the parks other homeless residents, it is a desperate attempt to survive. They spend their mornings waiting and warming themselves by fires started in steel cans, into which they put anything that will burn, often producing a choking smoke. The Greek guys [clients] dont come in the day because they think they might get caught, Mahmoud explains. They wait until later to come to the park, when theyll be safer. Business begins in the late afternoon as the winter sun starts to set and the few dog-walkers and runners leave the park. Their busiest time is from dusk until midnight, when the majority of those in the park are sex workers or their clients. As the light in the park fades, middle-aged men walk slowly past benches on which young men and boys sit, as though perusing shop windows. By now, a different demographic has arrived: unaccompanied minors, refugees who have been orphaned, are travelling alone or have been separated from their family during the journey, and see the park as a place to make money. The main issue is that they have no money, either for their daily lives or to pay for a smuggler, explains Kenneth Hansen, the programme manager at Faros, an NGO that runs a shelter for unaccompanied minors close to the park. Some of them have told [us] that they have sex with men in order to do other things, to have money to go and buy a new phone, he says. One boy told us he had sex with two men and got five euros [$5] so he could buy cigarettes One guy told us he had sex with a man so he could pay to have sex with a woman. The clients are always Greek, explains Mahmoud. Most are in their 60s, but some can be as young as 30; others as old as 90. You see men of all ages [buying sex], he says. Some are young men and some look like they might die the next day. Some of the sex workers are clearly on familiar terms with the clients, laughing and chatting openly with the ones they recognise. Others, often the younger ones, sit awkwardly, saying little. Usually the men see me in the park, they come closer to me then ask me, Where are you from?' says Mahmoud. Ive learned a bit of Greek so I understand and we speak a bit. Then they sit down next to me and thats how it starts. Once a price has been agreed, they move somewhere more private but that usually just means going behind a bush a few metres away. The clients Costas is 46 and has good job at a logistics company. Most evenings after work, he goes home to his apartment in a suburb of Athens, where he lives alone. But three or four evenings a month he changes his clothes and drives to the park to look for sex. His routine has been the same for 10 years, he explains. Its easy to find sex here, he says. I normally stay for about an hour before I find someone to go with. He is familiar with two or three of the sex workers at the park whom he knows by name and sees regularly. Five euros is the going rate, he says, regardless of nationality. Costas insists that he never has sex with refugees or anyone under the age of 18. That would be wrong, he says. But he does acknowledge that he cant be sure about the age or nationality of those he does have sex with. Only his closest friends know about his visits to the park, he says. Yiorgos says he is 52 but he looks much older. He lives an hour away but comes to visit a friend who lives near the park three times a week. They go for coffee and, on his way home, Yiorgos walks through the park, looking for sex workers. [The sex workers] are 17, 18, 20, 30, 50, it depends, he says. The day before, there was one that was 16, small, he adds, before looking around nervously. They should be 18, he admits. A sex worker in their 20s could have sex five times a night, earning up to 50 euros, he explains. He doesnt believe that what he does is wrong. If I steal, its a problem. But I dont steal. Neither do I fight . If I fight or steal, yes, the police will come. But if not, they dont come. What could they tell me? All they can do is ask me why I am sitting here. Is it wrong? he says. Prices vary, explains Tassos Smetopoulos, a volunteer who organises a weekly food donation in the park. In Pedion Areos, it starts from five euros [$5] and goes to 200 [$213], he says. Some of [the clients] say to the boys, OK, you can come to my apartment, to have a little party. Some friends of mine will be there too. You can stay the night. Something like this can go up to 200 euros [$213]. It depends on what theyre asking and what the boys accept. In addition to looking in the park, some clients solicit sex from asylum seekers in Athens Victoria Square [Will Horner/Al Jazeera] In search of a better life Shortly after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, Mahmoud, who was then five, left his native Herat with his family. My father went first before us and then the rest of our family followed him, he says. Everybody in Afghanistan then who wanted to seek a good life usually went to Iran, so thats what we chose to do. In Iran, his family lived on the margins, unable to find legal work once their temporary residence permit, which they couldnt afford to renew, had expired. After five years of schooling, Mahmoud started working to support his family. I tell them Athens is a good city, with nice people, but really it's like someone has injected this city with filth Mahmoud, asylum seeker At 15, he left Iran ahead of his family to search for work opportunities in Turkey. I stayed for five years in Turkey working on a construction site, trying to earn some money and to organise my trip to Greece, he says. But so far, he hasnt found the greater opportunities he had hoped for in Europe. If I find any way at all, I want to go to Germany because I know some people there. Maybe I could find a good job, he says. I would leave as soon as possible if I just found the road and some money to get there. Ive tried many times to go [illegally] to Italy from Patra, hiding under a truck, but it never worked, he adds. He says hes tried the official, legal routes for asylum in Greece, which would enable him to live and work legally in the country. Ive tried to claim asylum but I cant. Its very hard. Many times Ive been to [the asylum office] but I never get a meeting. They always say I have to wait. Using a mobile phone borrowed from a friend, Mahmoud speaks to his family in Iran at least twice a week. He gives them updates on his journey but never tells them the truth about his life in Athens. I tell them Athens is a good city, with nice people, but really, its like someone has injected this city with filth, he says. READ MORE: Going undercover as a sex worker It is going on in front of our eyes and no one is doing anything Mahmoud says there are no pimps operating in the park and that it is only the asylum seekers desperate situation that forces them into sex work. But Hansen believes that not enough is being done to investigate whether anyone is behind it. Many [young refugees] are involved in sex for money, he says. But whether they do it for survival sex, or just to get an allowance, or if it is more organised, this we dont entirely know and its an area the authorities dont really want to touch. Its taking place so obviously. You can just go to the park and solicit a 15-year-old It is going on in front of our eyes and no one is really doing anything. In November, Greek police told CNN that they had not had any reports of unaccompanied minors involved in the sex trade in [Pedion Areos or Victoria Square], but said they were aware of the problem and working to address it. The office of the Prosecutor for Juveniles, which is responsible for unaccompanied minors in Greece, told Al Jazeera that it had begun an investigation in December into the issue but that the investigation was ongoing. They declined to answer any further questions about it. Mahmoud says that uniformed police officers sometimes patrol the park, but that evading them has been easy so far. When the police come, if they come, we just go into the bushes and hide and they dont know we are there. * The names of sex workers and clients have been changed to protect their identity The stabbing has brought back memories of a series of fatal attacks against secular bloggers that occurred in 2015. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, a celebrated Bangladeshi author and academic, was stabbed in the back on March 3, while attending a programme at a university in the northeastern district of Sylhet. The lone attacker, Foyzur Rahman, was caught before he could continue stabbing Iqbal from behind. The 24-year-old attacker later said he wanted to kill Iqbal because he believed the academic was an an enemy of Islam. Iqbal, who has authored more than 200 books, is now out of danger and is recuperating at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in the capital, Dhaka, according to his wife, Yasmin Haque. The stabbing has brought back memories of a series of fatal attacks against secular bloggers in Bangladesh nearly three years ago. Investigators have made progress in probing the knife attack in which Iqbal sustained injuries to his head, back and left hand. The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC), a special unit of the Bangladesh Police who took charge of the investigation, have found some evidence that links Rahman with a right-wing forum named Dawah Ilallah. Dawah Ilallah is an internet forum run by the banned Bangladeshi outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and Ansar al-Islam, which were blamed for the spate of deadly attacks against secular bloggers. {articleGUID} Terming the matter an ongoing investigation, an official of the CTTC, who preferred anonymity, told Al Jazeera that the forum labelled Iqbal an atheist, and held frequent discussions on possible ways to kill him. After Rahman volunteered, some users of the forum, which one can join by invitation only, guided Rahman to carry out the attack, the CTTC official said. Abdul Mannan, Additional Deputy Commissioner of CTTC, told Al Jazeera that, at this point, they are not making any conclusive decision about Rahmans affiliation with any armed outfit. The style of the attack, however, indicated a link with ABT, as this outfit attacks people whom it believes to be an enemy of Islam, he said, adding that Iqbal had long been on the hit-list of ABT. We are not yet sure whether Rahman acted alone or as a part of the group, said Mannan. The case of Zafar Iqbal On March 5, at a protest meeting in Dhakas Shahbagh, Haque said her husband wrote more than 200 books and none of those has anything that goes against the Islamic sentiment. Had he [Rahman] read any of his books, he wouldnt have done anything like that, Haque said at the rally. While Iqbal has never styled himself as an atheist or was believed to have said anything that goes against Islam, he has been a staunch critic of Islamist politics and growing intolerance in Bangladeshi society. Students where Iqbal teaches rallied in support of the academic after the attack. [Nafis Tiham/Al Jazeera] His father, who worked as a police officer in what was then Eastern Pakistan, was killed during the 1971 liberation war. He comes from a family of writers. His elder brother, late Humayun Ahmed, is the most popular and highest-selling Bangladeshi writer of all time. His younger brother Ahsan Habib is a satire writer and the editor of Bangladeshs only monthly satire magazine, Unmad, which means madman. After his PhD from the University of Washington, he went on to work as a scientist at the renowned Bell Laboratory in California. In the early 2000s, he came back to Bangladesh to join Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in the northeastern Sylhet district as a professor of electrical and electronics engineering. Zafar Iqbal left a high-salaried job at a very prestigious research lab in the US and got back to his homeland to work for it, said Mohammad Kaykobad, a friend of Iqbal. Kaykobad, a professor of computer science and engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology (BUET), has co-authored several popular science books with Iqbal. As advocates of popularising science education, both Iqbal and Kaykobad helped launch the national level Mathematics Olympiad and Computer Programming contest in the South Asian country of 150 million. Prof Iqbal has contributed a lot to the education sector of Bangladesh. He genuinely cares and has tremendous belief in the talent and power of Bangladeshi people, Kaykobad told Al Jazeera. Many of us dont talk as we fear repercussions. But he didnt, said the BUET Professor, alluding to Iqbals outspoken nature. Why was he attacked? Since Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League party became prime minister in 2009, Iqbal has been an active advocate of the War Crime Tribunal, which was set up to punish those accused of committing atrocities during the 1971 liberation war from Pakistan. The Tribunal has handed out capital punishments to a number of senior leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami the largest Islamist party and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. The Jamaat, which has since been banned from contesting elections, has accused the Hasina government of politicising the Tribunal, while the International Commission of Jurists has stated that the tribunal does not adhere to international standards of a fair trial and due process. {articleGUID} The author became a household name through his books that included science fiction, childrens stories, and other fiction and non-fiction, but in recent years he has received criticism, particularly on social media, for his stand against Islamist politics. Bangladeshi political analyst Zia Hassan says he personally in many ways opposes the rhetoric of Professor Iqbal, which looks at the country through the simplistic narrative of pro versus against Liberation War. This perspective has now been used as a shield to protect the incumbent governments numerous misdeeds, Hassan said, adding that he, however, would like to condemn the attack on him [Iqbal] strongly. Hassan said a lot of people have genuine concerns about the state of the nation and how the ruling party has suppressed dissent. Since [Zafar] Iqbal is sympathetic with the ruling party and blind to its misdeeds, he has now become a foremost target and there has been a concerted effort to vilify him for the things he is not responsible for. Every person is entitled to have his political view and those who oppose Iqbal can oppose him through debates which we have done. The government must take efforts to protect him, Hassan said. The Bangladeshi authors perception as anti-Islamist is also due to his writings, says Asif Shibgat Bhuiyah, a popular Bangladeshi blogger known for his advocacy on Islamic scholarship. A lot of Iqbals writings, especially the ones written for children, are of propagandist nature, Bhuiyah told Al Jazeera. {articleGUID} In many of his books, a bearded or pious man is ultimately represented as a bad person or a villain, he said. Such action from Iqbal has earned criticism because people expected a rational and impartial attitude from a person of such intellect and capacity as Iqbal, said Bhuiyah The blogger says the attack on Iqbal is an outcome of blind and blatant hatred that some people acquire in a highly divisive society like Bangladesh. I fear, this will harm the Bangladeshi society in a severe way. Despite Jordans decision to downgrade its diplomatic representation with Qatar in light of the Gulf crisis in June 2017, economic relations between the two countries have seen momentum, making some expect that the economy will re-open the doors of diplomacy between them. Economic delegation On Sunday, a Jordanian delegation headed by the Chairman of Jordans Chamber of Commerce, Nael Kabariti, met the Qatar Chambers Chairman Sheikh Khalifa Bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha, to discuss cooperation prospects. The two agreed to convene a joint business council in Amman later this month. Kabariti stressed that the blockade imposed on Qatar did not affect the trade between the private sector of both countries, estimated at $400m. Qatar also ranks as the third-largest investor in Jordan, with $2bn worth of investments, mostly concentrated in the financial and real estate sectors. Diplomatic contacts Jordanian-Qatari diplomatic contacts have been suspended since last summer, after Jordan recalled its ambassador in Doha and the Qatari ambassador left his post in Amman. In this regard, the Jordanian-Qatari relations committee in the Jordanian parliament has called several times to restore full diplomatic relations between the two countries. Jordanian member of parliament Abdullah al-Akayla told Al Jazeera: There is relentless parliamentary pressure on the [Jordanian] government to restore relations with Doha and develop them, while Jordan is subject to immense pressure to block it from restoring [full] relations with Qatar. Akayla also said that Jordan needs to have distinguished relations with all countries, without taking sides in geopolitical blocs. Hoping that the Gulf crisis is resolved in the next months, Akayla said that, What happened in the Gulf crisis harmed us and we demanded that Gulf leaders rise to the challenges facing the region. After escaping violence in Myanmar, Rohingya women find themselves still vulnerable in Bangladeshs refugee camps. They witnessed their families being murdered and their homes burned to the ground in what the UN calls a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. With only the clothes they were wearing, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled their villages in Myanmar in search of refuge in Bangladesh. But hidden behind closed doors in the sprawling refugee camps, many Rohingya women and girls continue to be exploited and abused. According to UN estimates, women and girls make up two-thirds of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Al Jazeeras 101 East went to find out how women are being trafficked, tricked and traded amid the chaos of Bangladeshs crowded camps. Fatima, 15, child bride: I cant say no Fatima still remembers the day in August 2017, when soldiers from the Myanmar military came to her village and suddenly everything changed. I used to hang out with my friends, putting on makeup, shopping for clothes and eating. Wed chat with friends and family, laugh and enjoy ourselves, she says. A few months on, she stands in her familys hut in Kutupalong refugee camp on Bangladeshs border with Myanmar. Her hands are decorated with henna, drawn in preparation for her wedding. She has never met her future husband. While child marriage is common in the Rohingya community, Fatima wanted to wait. But her father says he doesnt have the money to keep her. They didnt ask me and I didnt say anything. But whatever decision they make, I have to follow. I cant go against it. I cant say no.' Fatima is distraught as she is dressed for her wedding. Soon, she will be escorted from her home to her in-laws house for the ceremony. She will live with them for the rest of her life, taking care of her husbands family. I feel very sad. How can I go to someone elses house and live my life? Im going to miss my family. Fatimas father: Its safer for our girls to get married Child marriage is common in the Rohingya community, and Fatimas father agreed to marry his 15-year-old daughter off because he will have one less mouth to feed. When shes married there will be less burden on me, because we need to buy her clothes and other things. Its not necessary for a girl to be 18. I have to get her married whether she is 15, 17 or 18. Theres no benefit in keeping girls, he says. And since the family fled their home in Myanmar and came to the crowded refugee camp in Bangladesh, he has also become concerned about their safety. The camps here are so crowded. As parents, we feel its much safer for our girls to get married quickly to avoid any kinds of incidents. Im afraid of the boys. You never know what could happen. They might take my daughter away and that would be shameful for me. Sharifa, 14, sex worker: So much pain in my heart Some of the Rohingya girls end up in Coxs Bazaar, a tourist town not far from the refugee camps which is notorious for its thriving sex industry. Sharifa (which is not her real name) fled her village in Myanmar after she saw soldiers gang-rape and murder her two sisters. She says she also witnessed them slaughter her father and brother. Traumatised, Sharifa escaped to Bangladesh with her mother and remaining siblings. Before they reached the refugee camps, they were befriended by a Rohingya woman who promised to find Sharifa a job as a cleaner. Instead, the woman became her pimp. She told me that I was going to someones house to clean. I said, Yes, Ill go. When I got there, there was a man and I was afraid of him. I felt so sad. I had so much pain in my heart. My head hurt and I was afraid that my family would find out. The pimp pays Sharifa $3 a customer and controls her every move. She feels she has no choice but to continue working to provide for her family. She told me that when someone calls I need to go where they want and do whatever they say. I just do what they tell me. We dont have any money or anything else. My mother and brother are both sick, she says. I think about how I can study again. How can I be a good person? How long do I have to keep going to customers houses? Pimp: We target poor girls who are good-looking Many Rohingya girls like Sharifa are being forced or tricked into prostitution, and it seems that the recent influx of refugees from Myanmar has fuelled the sex trade in Bangladesh. 101 East meets a pimp who has been working in the sex trade for two years. He says most of his customers are Bangladeshi businessmen, tourists and locals. Our customers prefer Rohingya girls who have just arrived and also very young girls. They like beautiful and presentable girls. He explains how they trick the girls into a life of exploitation: We target girls who only have a single parent, girls with only a father or mother. We also target poor girls who are good-looking We treat them to tea and snacks and eventually we tell them that we can get them a job to support their family They come because they dont have another option. Johara, 17, kidnap victim: I live in terror now Johara Begum walked through dense forest for two weeks without food or water to escape attacks from the Myanmar military on her village. When she arrived in Bangladeshs overcrowded refugee camps, another Rohingya woman befriended her and offered to show her around the camp. Instead, Johara was kidnapped and held hostage while the woman arranged to sell her. They put me in another room. They blindfolded me and bound my mouth. I was wearing earrings and a ring from Myanmar, which my mother had given me. They wanted my jewellery and when I resisted they beat me, she says. Joharas mother managed to rescue her before she was trafficked, but now she lives in constant fear that they will come back for her daughter. I live in terror now. Sometimes so much that I cant speak. I never go out. Im too scared to even sleep. When the US administration announced in January that it will be withholding $65m out of a $125m aid package earmarked for UNRWA, millions of registered Palestinian refugees living in the occupied territories, Lebanon and Jordan were understandably alarmed. The refugees were not disturbed by the decision only because the budget cut was undoubtedly going to make their living conditions worse. They were concerned because it signaled what US President Donald Trumps infamous Deal of the Century would mean for their future. Today, as we approach the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, the US policy on Palestinian refugees seems to be becoming more visibly pro-Israel, and Washingtons support for the refugees right of return seems to be nonexistent. But is Trump really doing something significantly different from his predecessors? Is UNRWA really facing an existential threat? To be able to answer these questions, we need to look back at how US policy on Palestinian refugees evolved over the years. From Truman to Obama From President Truman to President Obama, the US policy on Palestinian refugees changed dramatically. Throughout his tenure as president, Harry S Truman tried hard to convince Israel to accept the return of two hundred thousand Palestinian refugees to their homeland. He wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion on the issue; and also instructed Mark Ethridge, the US member of the Palestine Conciliation Commission in Lausanne Conference of 1949, to pressure Israel to accept the return of the refugees. Israel did not back down on the issue, and eventually Truman was forced to abandon this proposal. When Barack Obama moved in to the White House decades later in 2008, the US position on the issue was significantly different. Unlike Truman, Obama argued that the Palestinian refugees should return not to Israel but to a future Palestinian state, if and when it is established. US policy on the issue of Palestinian refugees came closer to the Israeli position over the years. To this day, Israel argues that the tragedy of the Palestinian refugees only began when the Arab countries launched a war to stop the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 and lost it. Therefore, it claims that the Arab states, and not Israel, hold the responsibility for the exodus of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their land. The US also repudiates any responsibility for this tragedy, despite its heavy involvement in the creation of the State of Israel. And currently, it openly sides with Israel on the issue of Palestinian refugees. But the US did not always accept the Israeli version of events. In December 1948, as the tragedy unfolded and the refugee problem started to overwhelm the hosting countries, the UN general assembly passed Resolution 194, stating that refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date. The US was among those who voted for this resolution. Furthermore, in December 1949 the US also voted for the resolution 302(IV) which established the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The main task for this agency was to provide employment, development and direct relief. Yet, over the years the role of UNRWA became even more significant. Today the agency provides healthcare, education and social services for the masses of Palestinian refugees scattered in the occupied territories and Arab countries. Resettling refugees in Arab states In 1950s and 60s, while the refugee issue was still relatively fresh, the US wanted to solve the problem by resettling Palestinian refugees in neighbouring Arab States or outside the Middle East. Back then, Washington also believed that a limited number of refugees, when possible, should be sent back to the lands they originally came from. To make this happen, the US continued its support for the UNRWA and pushed for the economic development of the countries that were hosting refugees. This policy was clear in the Johnston Plan in 1952, the Dulles Project in 1955, the Eisenhower Doctrine in 1957, Lyndon Johnsons speech in the UN in 1967 and other successive initiatives. In the 70s and 80s, US administrations started to used vague language while talking about the future of the refugees, simply saying a just solution is necessary. They stopped referring to the relevant UN resolutions and pressuring Israel to take an active role in the solution of this problem. Eventually the US administrations of this era stopped talking about this issue completely, arguing that it will resolve itself naturally when a settlement is reached in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the 90s and 00s, Washingtons pro-Israeli stance on this issue became even more clear. During Bill Clintons presidency the US chose not to vote for the annual renewal of Resolution 194 for the first time, and later voted against the renewal of the resolution, claiming that the issue should be resolved as part of the negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and there is no need for such dated resolutions. When George Bush took over the presidency, he called for an agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. His use of the terms agreed and realistic scared many refugees, as they knew that Israel does not agree on the return of any Palestinian and consider this an unrealistic and impractical solution. The Trump era Today, Trumps attitude towards the Palestinian refugees is nothing but a continuation of the increasingly more pro-Israel policies implemented by previous administrations. The US still recognises Israel as a Jewish state and it is demanding the Palestinians to also recognise it such. In this context, it is unrealistic for the US to fight for the refugees right to return to their homelands. The last three American Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama already stated that the long-lasting solution to the Palestinian refugee problem will be their settlement in the future state of Palestine, not Israel. Several US media outlets recently reported that in his upcoming peace plan, Trump wont even mention a fair and just resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem. For President Trump, the way has been paved on this issue and he does not need to devise a new policy. All he needs to do is to follow the steps of his predecessors and continue with the same approach of denying the right of return of the Palestinian refugees. Trump may go one step further and say this out loud something his predecessors chose not to do. In case that happens, would it lead to a big outcry among the Palestinian refugees? Certainly yes. But would that change a lot on the ground? Doubtful! As a result of these concerns, in the eyes of Palestinian refugees, Trumps upcoming plan has died before it was born. This brings us to the issue of UNRWA. Although it has been subject to many attacks from Israel and its friends in the US, UNRWAs position is still strong. Nearly every year, we witness an attempt by some pro-Israel forces in the US Congress to target UNRWA either for corruption and mismanagement or sometimes for harbouring terrorists and teaching militant conflict to the Palestinian children. However, the American financial support for the agency is still continuing. Since its inception, the US has been the biggest donor to UNRWA and in 2017 it donated around $368 million to the agency. Despite the announced cuts, the US support for the agency is likely to continue into the future because both Israel and the US view UNRWA as a stabilising element in the region. UNRWA is currently maintaining the status quo concerning refugees If UNRWA seized to exist, Israel as the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be responsible for the millions of refugees living in these areas. Obviously, Israel is not in the mood to carry such burden. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Brief fall of Anar Dara district was a major setback, as the deteriorating security in the province remains a concern. Afghan officials voiced concern over the deteriorating security situation in western Afghanistan, after a district there was briefly captured by the Taliban. Security forces on Monday retook the Anar Dara districts police and administrative offices from Taliban fighters, after troop reinforcements launched an air and ground operation that lasted several hours. At least eight members of the Afghan security forces were killed, including the district police chief, officials confirmed. Such attacks by the Taliban can happen over and over again, Farid Bakhtawar, head of the provincial council, told Al Jazeera. The security situation here is getting worst and it is of a major concern at the moment. About 300 fighters attacked the police headquarters early on Monday with the Taliban immediately claiming responsibility, saying the district was under their control. The attack took place hours after the fighters killed seven members of the army and eight policemen in Bala Buluk district in the province. On Tuesday, at least five Afghan police forces were killed and five others kidnapped in an attack near a checkpoint in Farah city. Although none of the areas in Farah province are under Taliban control, Bakhtawar said the fighters repeatedly managed to take over district headquarters, and at times, also manage to enter the provincial capital, Farah city. According to a recent BBC study, the Taliban are active in 70 percent of districts in Afghanistan, fully controlling four percent of the country, and demonstrating an open physical presence in another 66 percent. Taliban as political party There was no official response from the Taliban to president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghanis invitation last month to unconditional talks. One of the key points of the peace plan announced by Ghani was to recognise the Taliban as a political party. The Taliban however invited US officials to its political office in Qatar to discuss a peaceful solution to end the bloodshed in Afghanistan. The group also said that departure of American troops from Afghanistan remains a precondition for the groups talks offer. But Jim Mattis, the US defence secretary, said on Tuesday during an unannounced visit to Kabul that the elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghan government. In December, General John W Nicholson Jr of the US army said his country would deploy more troops in an advisory role to Afghan forces in 2018, on top of the 14,000 American soldiers already stationed in the country. The increase follows Trumps pledge in August 2017, saying the US will continue to fight armed groups in Afghanistan. We are not nation building again. We are killing terrorists, Trump said. The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, in what has become the countrys longest military intervention since Vietnam. It has also been the costliest, with more than $100bn spent so far. Accusations of Moscows involvement in attempted murder of Sergei Skripal prompt claims of a set-up by Western agents. Many Russians believe a Western provocation was behind the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in the UK, analysts say, as conspiracy theories about the attempted assassination flourish in the country. British Prime Minister Theresa Mays allegation that the Russian governments involvement was highly likely in the attempt to kill Sergei Skripal, 66, with the Novichok nerve agent on March 4 caused outrage in Russia, Dmitri Babich, a political analyst based in Moscow, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. [The Russian public] simply does not believe that President [Vladimir] Putin or anyone in the Russian intelligence would order such a murky way of getting rid of this person poisoning him in a public place with a highly dangerous substance, said Babich. Skripals poisoning was widely seen in Russia as a secret plan carried out by the British or American intelligence services in order to make Moscow look bad, he said. Skripal and his daughter Yulia, 33, were discovered unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury, in southern England. Both are fighting for their lives in critical condition in a hospital. According to the Tass news agency, the speaker of Russias parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, put the responsibility for the attack on the UK. The British Prime Minister Theresa May is very clumsy in trying to cast the suspicions away from the British side All the responsibility for the situation that involves our nationals who have left our country is on Britain, Volodin told reporters on Tuesday. Sergei Markov, director of the Moscow-based Institute of Political Studies, was more direct and accused May of using the scandal to deflect public attention from the internal problems her government is facing, including Brexit. May gave Russia until Tuesday to explain how its nerve agent was used in the nerve-agent attack [PA via AP] Theresa May has a lot of problems because of the failure in the parliamentary elections, Brexit, and the complicated situation with the border between Ireland and the Northern Ireland, Markov told Al Jazeera. So the British intelligence service probably organised the killing of Mr Skripal, sacrificing the guy who they dont need any more. The British claim that the Novichok nerve agent was only accessible to the Russian government was untrue, he added. Novichok had been produced in Uzbekistan in the Soviet times and after the fall of the Soviet Union, as we know, the American intelligence services had access to this factory, Markov said. The American and British intelligence services have a very strong cooperation with each other, and I am sure 100 percent that the British got this Novichok nerve agent from them for this provocation. He alleged Washington and London were working together to check Russias global power. British ultimatum Skripal was a colonel in Russian military intelligence when, in 1995, he sold information to the UK. He left the Russian service in 2000, but was arrested and sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in prison for espionage. In 2010, Skripal was pardoned and allowed to move to London after the British and Russian governments exchanged captured spies. On Monday, May said Skripals poisoning was either a direct act by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others. London gave Moscow until the end of Tuesday to explain the attack, and said it would deliver a new statement on Wednesday. Russia responded on Tuesday saying it would answer only if the UK gave Moscow access to the investigation material. Follow Al Jazeeras Tamila Varshalomidze on Twitter: @tamila87v Rami Hamdallah unharmed but several guards injured during trip to inaugurate wastewater facility in Hamas-run territory. An explosion wounded several security guards of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah but left him unharmed during a visit to the Gaza Strip to open a public-works facility there. The blast on Tuesday happened shortly after Hamdallahs convoy passed through the Israeli-controlled Erez checkpoint, known to Palestinians as Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, an Al Jazeera correspondent at the scene reported. Hamdallah, who heads the Palestinian Authority government based in Ramallah in the West Bank, appeared on live television following the incident at the inauguration of a wastewater-treatment plant in Hamas-run Gaza. Shortly afterwards, he returned to Ramallah where he gave a brief address outside his office. He said seven of his guards were wounded in the attack and they were being treated in hospitals across Ramallah. It [the attack] does not represent patriotism. It is a cowardly act that does not represent our people, nor does it represent the people of Gaza, Hamdallah said. {articleGUID} Majed Faraj, the Palestinian Authority intelligence chief, was part of the convoy. Fatah, the West Bank-based political party to which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas belongs, called the incident a terrorist attack and blamed it on Hamas. This attack is an attempt to kill all reconciliation efforts. It is a dangerous step aimed at spreading disorder and fighting among our people, Munir al-Jaghoub, who heads Fatahs information department at the Office of Mobilisation and Organisation, said. We demand that Hamas expedite its investigation. The developments have proven that Hamas has completely failed in providing security in Gaza, just as it has failed in providing a decent life for our people in the strip. Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian political parties, signed a reconciliation agreement in October 2017, ending a decade of division that saw two parallel governments operating in Gaza and the West Bank, respectively. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Iyad al-Buzom, Gazas interior ministry spokesman, said the act of placing blame has a political dimension. {articleGUID} Here in Gaza, we take all the security precautions to welcome all the convoys and delegations and particularly the prime minister as he entered Gaza, he said. Several suspects were arrested a short while ago, and an investigation to find out who was behind the explosion is under way, Buzom added. The agreement to form a unity government was signed in the Egyptian capital Cairo on October 13, but efforts to implement the deal have faced obstacles. Mustafa Ibrahim, a Gaza-based political analyst, said there are several sides who are benefiting from this explosion. We will hear Fatah saying that some members of Hamas do not want reconciliation, and likewise, we will hear Hamas saying this could have been a fabricated attack by Fatahs security services, Ibrahim told Al Jazeera. The ones who will pay the price are the Palestinian people themselves. The Palestinian Authority may impose more punitive measures against the Gaza Strip, and it is imperative that Hamas captures those behind the attack as soon as possible. This explosion will have repercussions for the people in Gaza. Nickolay Mladenov, the UNs special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, condemned the attack and said in a Twitter post those behind it seek to undermine reconciliation. Also commenting on the incident, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Twitter Gazans need a real government that will provide basic services. #Palestinians in Gaza need a real government that will provide basic servicesnot todays attack on #PA officials trying to inaugurate a water treatment plant desperately needed in #Gaza @usaid @jdgreenblatt45 @USAmbIsrael #israel Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) March 13, 2018 Nauerts remarks came as the White House held a conference on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been under a land, sea, and naval blockade for more than a decade. However, Palestinian officials were not expected to attend the conference. Earlier this week the PA rejected the White Houses invitation saying the issue in Gaza was political par excellence. Im afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast. UN human rights experts investigating a possible genocide in Myanmar have said that Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech against the majority-Muslim Rohingya minority. The UNs Special Rapporteur on Myanmar also said that the Rohingya crisis in the Rakhine State bears the hallmarks of genocide. More than 650,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmars Rakhine State into Bangladesh since a military crackdown last August. Many have provided harrowing testimonies of executions and rapes by Myanmar forces, but Myanmars national security adviser demanded clear evidence for the potential acts of genocide. Facebook role Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, told reporters that social media had played a determining role in Myanmar. It has substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissension and conflict, if you will, within the public. Hate speech is certainly, of course, a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media, he said. UN Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee said Facebook was a huge part of public, civil and private life, and the government used it to disseminate information to the public. Everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar, she told reporters, adding that Facebook had helped the impoverished country but had also been used to spread hate speech. It was used to convey public messages but we know that the ultranationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities, she said. Im afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended. Yeehang Lees comments follow the release of images by the human rights group Amnesty International. Facebook response Facebook said there is no place for hate speech on its platform. We take this incredibly seriously and have worked with experts in Myanmar for several years to develop safety resources and counter-speech campaigns, a Facebook spokesperson told the BBC. Of course, there is always more we can do and we will continue to work with local experts to help keep our community safe, Facebook spokesperson has said. Hamas denies involvement in explosion that left Rami Hamdallah unharmed but injured several guards during trip to Gaza. The hand of Israel is not being ruled out as Hamas announces an inquiry into an explosion that targeted the convoy of the West Bank-based Palestinian prime minister during a visit to the Gaza Strip. Tuesdays blast injured several security guards of Rami Hamdallah but left him unharmed during a visit to the Hamas-run territory to open a public-works facility there. The explosion happened shortly after Hamdallahs convoy passed through the Israeli-controlled Erez checkpoint, known to Palestinians as Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, an Al Jazeera correspondent at the scene reported. Sources told Al Jazeera that Hamdallah and Ismail Haniya, senior political leader of Hamas, spoke by phone later in the day and agreed that Israel was behind the explosion because it appeared to be the incidents main beneficiary. Youssef al-Mahmoud, a Palestinian Authority spokesperson, denied via the Palestinian news agency WAFA that any phone call took place between Hamdallah and Haniya. Hamas has denied any involvement in the explosion, and said it would launch an investigation to bring those behind the attack to justice. Tawfiq Abu Naim, Hamas security chief, has been given the responsibility of heading the probe. Reconciliation agreement Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian political parties, signed a reconciliation agreement in October 2017, ending a decade of division that saw two parallel governments operating in Gaza and the West Bank, respectively. The agreement to form a unity government was signed in the Egyptian capital Cairo on October 13, but efforts to implement the deal have faced obstacles. Hamdallah, who heads the Palestinian Authority government based in Ramallah, appeared on live television at the inauguration of a wastewater-treatment plant in Gaza. {articleGUID} Shortly afterwards, he returned to Ramallah where he appeared unfazed as he delivered a brief address outside his office. He said seven of his guards were wounded in the attack and they were being treated in hospitals across Ramallah. It [the attack] does not represent patriotism. It is a cowardly act that does not represent our people, nor does it represent the people of Gaza, Hamdallah said. Majed Faraj, the Palestinian Authority intelligence chief, was part of the convoy that came under attack. Fatah, the West Bank-based political party to which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas belongs, called the incident a terrorist attack and blamed it on Hamas. This attack is an attempt to kill all reconciliation efforts. It is a dangerous step aimed at spreading disorder and fighting among our people, Munir al-Jaghoub, who heads Fatahs information department at the Office of Mobilisation and Organisation, said. We demand that Hamas expedite its investigation. The developments have proven that Hamas has completely failed in providing security in Gaza, just as it has failed in providing a decent life for our people in the strip. Sabotage alleged On Hamas part, Ahmed Bahar, the partys acting parliamentary speaker, said the explosion was a crime aimed at sabotaging reconciliation efforts, and called for the immediate launch of an investigation. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Iyad al-Buzom, Gazas interior ministry spokesman, said the act of placing blame has a political dimension. {articleGUID} Here in Gaza, we take all the security precautions to welcome all the convoys and delegations and particularly the prime minister as he entered Gaza, he said. Several suspects were arrested a short while ago, and an investigation to find out who was behind the explosion is under way. Mustafa Ibrahim, a Gaza-based political analyst, said there are several sides who are benefiting from this explosion. We will hear Fatah saying that some members of Hamas do not want reconciliation, and likewise, we will hear Hamas saying this could have been a fabricated attack by Fatahs security services, Ibrahim told Al Jazeera. The ones who will pay the price are the Palestinian people themselves. The Palestinian Authority may impose more punitive measures against the Gaza Strip, and it is imperative that Hamas captures those behind the attack as soon as possible. This explosion will have repercussions for the people in Gaza. Nickolay Mladenov, the UNs special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, condemned the attack and said in a Twitter post those behind it seek to undermine reconciliation. Also commenting on the incident, Heather Nauert, US state department spokesperson, said on Twitter Gazans need a real government that will provide basic services. #Palestinians in Gaza need a real government that will provide basic servicesnot todays attack on #PA officials trying to inaugurate a water treatment plant desperately needed in #Gaza @usaid @jdgreenblatt45 @USAmbIsrael #israel Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) March 13, 2018 Nauerts remarks came as the White House held a conference on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been under a land, sea, and naval blockade for more than a decade. However, Palestinian officials were not expected to attend the conference. Earlier this week the Palestinian Authority rejected the White Houses invitation, saying the issue in Gaza was political par excellence. From Rex Tillerson to Sean Spicer, Al Jazeera looks at the most notable Trump administration departures so far. Since coming to office in January 2017, US President Donald Trumps administration has witnessed the departure at times forced of a number of high-ranking officials. Among the most high-profile firings and resignations are EPA director Scott Pruitt, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and FBI Director James Comey. Al Jazeera takes a look at some of the Trump administration departures. Jeff Sessions Resigned US Attorney General Resigned November 2018 Trump alongside Jeff Sessions after Sessions was sworn in as Attorney General [Saul Loeb/AFP] Sessions announced his resignation just a day after the Democrats gained control of the House of Representative in the 2018 US midterms. Trumps criticism of Sessions stemmed over Sessions decision to recuse himself from an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. The US president blamed the decision for opening the door to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the Russia investigation and began examining whether Trumps hectoring or Sessions was part of a broader effort to obstruct justice and stymie the probe. Nikki Haley Resigned US ambassador to the United Nations Resigned October 2018 [Jeenah Moon/Reuters] Haley was appointed to the UN post in November 2016. Before she was named by Trump to her UN post, Haley was governor of South Carolina, the first woman to hold the post. She was re-elected in 2014. Haley was an unusual pick for UN envoy. As South Carolina governor, she was outspoken in her criticism of Trump during the 2016 campaign a stance that effectively disqualified other candidates for top administration positions. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley alluded to Trump in denouncing the siren call of the angriest voices who disrespected Americas immigrants. Trump tweeted that The people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley. Scott Pruitt- Resigned Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Resigned July 2018 [Reuters] Trump accepted Pruitts resignation following an intractable scandal that had engulfed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under his tenure. Pruitt, a known climate-denier and the man helming the EPAs systematic roll-back of Obama-era environmental regulations, had faced relentless media scrutiny after it was revealed he rented accommodation linked to a sympathetic energy lobbyist. Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this, Trump said in a tweet, following Pruitts resignation. Pruitts deputy, former coal lobbyist and climate denier Andrew Wheeler, will take over as Acting Administrator of the EPA. Lt General HR McMaster Resigned National Security Adviser Resigned March 2018 [Samuel Corum/Anadolu] A White House source told Al Jazeera that Trump and McMaster mutually agreed on the decision for the national security adviser to resign. The source denied that the reshuffle was related to recent developments in Trumps cabinet, saying it was the result of ongoing conversations between the two officials. In confirming his resignation, McMaster also announced his retirement from the US Army. Trump announced on Twitter that McMaster will be replaced by former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton. Andrew McCabe Fired Deputy FBI Director Fired March 2018 [Aaron P Bernstein/Reuters] After his firing in March as the FBI deputy director, Andrew McCabe said he had been targeted because he is a crucial witness into whether President Donald Trump tried to obstruct the Russia investigation. According to the Justice Department, McCabe had leaked information to reporters and misled investigators about his actions allegations he denied. Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played and the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey, McCabe said in a lengthy statement following his firing. McCabe corroborated former FBI Director James Comeys claims that Trump tried to pressure him into ending the Russia probe. Rex Tillerson Fired Secretary of State Fired March 2018 [Leonardo Munoz/EPA-EFE] Tillerson, a former top executive of the energy giant Exxon, took office on February 1, 2017. His relationship with Trump quickly turned rocky over the Iran nuclear agreement, the Gulf crisis, and North Koreas nuclear weapons. But things took a serious turn for the worse in October after news reports broke that Tillerson described the US president as a f$@&ing moron. Tillerson denied he had insulted his boss, but their relationship apparently couldnt recover. Steve Bannon Resigned Chief Strategist Resigned August 2017 [Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE] Bannon co-founded Breitbart News, a website with the purported goal of countering mainstream media and providing a platform for movements at the right-end of the political spectrum. The 64-year-olds relationship with the president soured following speculation he was leaking compromising information to the press, and complaining about not receiving enough credit for his policy contributions. He presented his resignation on August 4, 2017. Michael Flynn Resigned National Security Adviser Resigned February 2017 Michael Reynolds [EPA-EFE] Flynn, a former army general, joined Trump early on the campaign trail and assumed the national security adviser role in January 2017 only to resign less than a month later amid an ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. He has since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in that investigation. James Comey Fired FBI Director Fired May 2017 [Alex Brandon/AP] Former FBI director James Comey was fired by Trump in May 2017. Comey was leading an ongoing investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. His dismissal raised fears the president was looking to disrupt the integrity of the inquiry. Reince Priebus Resigned White House Chief of Staff Resigned July 2017 [Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA] By the time he resigned, Reince Priebus had become the shortest serving chief of staff in US history. Unable to contain the chaos that came to characterise the Trump administrations early days, he was reportedly forced out and replaced by current chief of staff and former homeland security secretary retired general John Kelly. He resigned on June 28, 2017. Sally Yates Fired Acting Attorney General Fired January 2017 [Michael Reynolds/EPA] Yates, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama as acting attorney general, lasted a total of 10 days in the Trump presidency. As the countrys top law enforcement official, Yates instructed justice department lawyers not to defend the presidents ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries. She was fired on January 30, 2017. Anthony Scaramucci Fired White House Communications Director Fired July 2017 [Michael Reynolds EPA] A declared opponent of former chief of staff Reince Priebus, Scaramucci arrived at a time of tumult characterised by media leaks and speculation of disunity among White House personnel. His appointment prompted the voluntary departure of former press secretary Sean Spicer and Priebus less than a week later. Scaramucci, nicknamed The Mooch, was asked to step down in July 2017 less than two weeks of taking the job after he gave an expletive-filled interview to The New Yorker denouncing Priebus and Bannon. He defended himself by saying he sometimes used colourful language. Sean Spicer Resigned White House Press Secretary Resigned July 2017 [Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA] Sean Spicer resigned from the press secretary post on July 21, 2017, after making it known to Trump that he vehemently disagreed with his choice of Scaramucci as White House communications director. The 46-year-old became the subject of media scrutiny for remarks such as saying Adolf Hitler had humanity for not resorting to chemical weapons, in a speech meant to highlight the Syrian governments cruelty. Gary Cohn Resigned Chief Economic Adviser Resigned March 2018 [Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE] Trumps top economic adviser and chief of the National Economic Council, Cohn was apparently disillusioned with the recent tariffs that the president was contemplating and has since signed into law. Cohn resigned in protest on March 6. Preet Bharara Fired US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Fired March 2017 [Justin Lane/EPA] Bharara, former US attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan, was fired in March 2017, after he refused to abide by Attorney General Jeff Sessions request at Trumps behest that all 46 US attorneys appointed by Obama step down. Rob Porter Resigned White House Staff Secretary Resigned February 2018 [Alex Brandon/AP] Rob Porter resigned in February 2018 after reports that the staff secretary physically and emotionally abused two ex-wives. Porter denied the allegations but said in a statement he could no longer engage [the] public with a coordinated smear campaign. Hope Hicks Resigned White House Communications Director Resigned February 2018 [Shawn Thew/ EPA-EFE] Hope Hicks was one of the first to join Trump on the campaign trail. Her resignation came on February 28, a day after giving testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, where she admitted to telling white lies in defence of President Trump. Hicks was Trumps fifth communications director in a little over a year. Tom Price Resigned US Secretary of Health and Human Services Resigned September 2017 [Michael Reynolds/EPA] Known as a frugal congressman who railed against abuse of power and misuse of state funds, Price was caught in a media firestorm when it was discovered he cost taxpayers an estimated $1m for his use of private planes during short trips. He announced his resignation on September 29, 2017. Sebastian Gorka Resigned Deputy Assistant to the President Resigned August 2017 [Carolyn Kaster/AP] A former Breitbart staffer and close confident of chief strategist Steve Bannon, Gorka signalled his departure on August 25, 2017. It is widely believed that Bannons resignation a week earlier determined his decision. Others who have resigned or been fired: Thomas Homan, Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director, Resigned June 2018 Tom Bossert, Homeland Security Advisor, Resigned April 2018 David Shulkin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Fired March 2018 Rick Dearborn, Chief of Staff for Legislative and Intergovernmental affairs, Resigned December 2017 Brenda Fitzgerald, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Director, Resigned January 2018 Omarosa Manigault, Director of Communications for White House Office of Public Liaison, Resigned January 2018 Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Resigned September 2017 Michael Dubke, Communications Director, Resigned May 2017 Walter Shaub, Office of Government Ethics Director, Resigned July 2017 Katie Walsh, Deputy White House Chief of Staff, Resigned March 2017 **According to US media there are at least a dozen others who have been fired or left the White House since Trump took office. Floridas new controversial gun laws allow teachers to be armed The debate on gun control continues in the US. Guinea pressured to meet demands of striking teachers Union leaders want the government to increase teachers salaries, as well as cut food and fuel prices. Lourdes Sereno, who is facing impeachment complaint, says she will not resign despite calls by allies of the president. The Philippines chief justice has vowed to fight until the end the impeachment complaint against her, despite calls from allies of President Rodrigo Duterte for her to resign. In a speech on Monday, Lourdes Sereno said giving up her position will erode the independence of the countrys highest court, and embolden those who demand a subservient judiciary. I will not resign, she said. Without the slightest doubt, the right thing to do is to fight this impeachment to the end. Sereno was forced to go on leave by her fellow justices in late February in advance of her impeachment proceedings. On Thursday, members of a committee in the House of Representatives endorsed a complaint against her for a full vote on the third week of March. A Senate trial is expected to follow as soon as the impeachment is approved. A case is also pending before the Supreme Court asking that her appointment be voided. Sereno, who is an appointee of Dutertes predecessor Benigno Aquino, is accused of failing improperly declaring her income when she was applying for chief justice, and for abusing her position as head of the court. She has denied all the allegations. Her supporters said she is being targeted for standing up to the president and his deadly war on drugs, which has left thousands of people dead. During Dutertes first year in office, he clashed with Sereno, after the president released a list of supposed judges linked to the drug trade. In response, the chief justice said suspected judges should not surrender to authorities, unless a warrant of arrest is issued against them. Defying Duterte That angered Duterte, who then threatened to declare martial law and order everybody in the executive branch of government not to honour Sereno. Sereno later voted in the minority against Dutertes declaration of martial law in the southern island of Mindanao and the presidents decision to extend full military honours to during the burial of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. She later came under political attack by allies of the president, who dominate both chambers of the Philippine Congress. During the committee impeachment hearing, which lasted for months, several House members urged Sereno to resign, to spare the country from a protracted constitutional crisis. On Monday, Sereno said resigning would have been an easier option for her. But I do not make choices in life on the basis of what is the easier option, but what is the right thing to do. She said her resignation would invite the kind of extra-constitutional adventurism that treats legal rights and procedures as mere inconveniences that should be set aside when it suits the powers that be. The Supreme Court is also divided on Sereno, with some justices, judges and employees calling for her resignation. Sereno was appointed chief justice after her predecessor was found guilty following an impeachment trial in 2012. Leaders of the Philippines largest Muslim rebel group have warned of a growing frustration in the southern island of Mindanao over the delay in the implementation of a 2014 peace agreement it signed with the government. Ghazali Jaafar, vice chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), told a constitutional reform panel on Tuesday, that Muslim groups are tired of waiting to achieve real autonomy for their people. This is precisely why some of our former comrades bolted from us, and how they are fighting with us because they are frustrated, so to speak, with the way the government is handling the negotiation, Jaafar, who is one of the main authors of a proposed Muslim autonomy law, was quoted as saying by local news. The senior MILF leaders statement comes as government troops launched an offensive against the breakaway armed group, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) last week, killing at least 44 of its fighters and wounding 26 others in Mindanaos Maguindanao province. For Ghazali, the proposed law is the most civilised and peaceful way to end the decades-long conflict in the countrys south, and prevent more clashes, such as those against the BIFF, from breaking out. We are fed up, to be truthful to you, he said. We are tired of corruption, we are tired of nepotism and all things that hold back our Muslim homeland. He pleaded to give the Muslim minorities a chance to catch up with the rest of the country in terms of economic progress. Stalled law President Rodrigo Duterte has committed to support the autonomy law, and promised to press Congress to approve it. The rebels, who dropped their secessionist bid in exchange for broader autonomy, signed a pact with the government to establish a region with more powers and funding for minority Muslims in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation and end a decades-long bloody rebellion. The peace pact would have been a major legacy of Dutertes predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, but the legislation stalled in Congress in 2015 after some rebels from the 11,000-strong MILF became entangled in fighting that killed 44 police commandos during a government operation in the town of Mamasapano. The commandos managed to kill top Malaysian terror suspect Zulkifli bin Hir, who had long been wanted by the United States, but the large number of police deaths sparked public outrage and prompted politicians to stall passage of the autonomy bill. Last year, MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim had said the delay in the passage of the autonomy law paved the way for the emergence of other armed groups in Mindanao. During the Duterte administration, the passage of the autonomy law was stalled anew after armed fighters belonging to the Abu Sayyaf Group and Maute group, which had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, launched a siege of a major city in Mindanao. The siege of Marawi lasted for five months and left about a thousand people killed, including over a hundred soldiers. The conflict has left about 150,000 people dead and stunted development in the resource-rich but poverty-wracked region. A previous peace agreement in 2008 was struck down by the Philippines Supreme Court, which rejected it as unconstitutional, leading to renewed fighting. Shared by Qatar and Abu Dhabi equally since 1969 deal, Al-Bunduq oilfield is operated by a Japanese-owned company. State-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) has renewed its contract with Abu Dhabi to continue operating a shared offshore oilfield, amid the continuing blockade by a quartet of Arab countries against Qatar. The new deal on the Al-Bunduq offshore site replaces the original agreement signed in 1953 between Abu Dhabi and a private oil exploration company, QP said in a statement on Tuesday. In March 1969, Qatar and Abu Dhabi signed a deal to share equally Al-Bunduq field. It was discovered in 1965 and started operating in 1975. {articleGUID} We are delighted to sign this concession agreement, which will ensure the continued development and operation of the Al-Bunduq oil field for many years to come, Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, president and CEO of QP, said on Tuesday. The Bunduq Company, which operates Al-Bunduq field, is a Japanese-owned company. Following the news of the deal on Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Supreme Petroleum Council issued a statement denying Abu Dhabis role in reaching the agreement with QP. Abu Dhabi is one of seven emirates of the UAE. Al-Bunduq oilfield is shared equally by the emirate of Abu Dhabi and Qatar due to its geographic location. It has been under management by a Japanese consortium for the past four decades, according to a statement published by the UAE state news agency WAM. This concession was recently extended by each respective government to the Japanese consortium with no direct communication or engagement between the two states. There is no commercial or trading relationship being established between the UAE and Qatar by the extension of this concession. In June 2017, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt broke off ties with Qatar accusing it of supporting terrorist groups and aligning itself too closely to their regional rival, Iran. The quartet imposed a land, sea, and air blockade on Qatar, and also prevented Qatari aircraft from entering their airspace. Qatar has vigorously rejected the accusations but refrained from imposing reciprocal punitive measures on the four states. Despite the blockade, Qatar continues to supply the UAE with two billion cubic feet of gas every day. South Sudan refugees return to devastated town Some of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who escaped fierce fighting in the town of Pagak, a former rebel stronghold, to Ethiopia have returned to their homes, after the government recaptured the land. Thousands will walk out of the classroom for 17 minutes on Wednesday to honour those killed in the latest mass shooting. Thousands of students and teachers across the US are walking out of schools on Wednesday to commemorate the month anniversary of the high school shooting in Florida and call for increased gun control measures to prevent future incidents. The walkout began at 10am local time and will last for 17 minutes to honour the 17 people killed when a gunman opened fire on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida last month. The walkout was called by Womens March Youth Empower, the youth branch of the organisation that plans worldwide protests to enact laws that favour human rights. The group said in a statement the walkout is being called to protest Congress refusal to take action on the gun violence epidemic plaguing our schools and neighbourhoods. Though students may face disciplinary action if their walkout is not sanctioned by their schools administration, many educational institutions have signalled they will allow the 17-minute memorial to proceed. Students take lead The movement for gun control has been reinvigorated by a spate of devastating shootings that began last October with the Las Vegas shooting that killed at least 58 people. {articleGUID} Since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, students have taken the lead to call for reform. Survivors of the shooting came together to form Never Again MSD, a student-led gun control organisation. Emma Gonzalez, who helped found the Never Again MSD, gave a speech in which she called out politicians for not addressing mass shootings that went viral. Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have ever been done to prevent this, we call BS, Gonzalez said. They say that no laws could have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS, she added. #InOurLifeTime we will fight for and alongside victims of gun violence, and we will prevail. Forget our kids, our Neighbors shouldnt have to worry about this. Emma Gonzalez (@Emma4Change) March 12, 2018 David Hogg, another Never Again MSD member, has become the target of conspiracy theorists who said he was a paid actor present at multiple mass shootings across the US. What would happen if we treated every school shooting like an airplane crash with huge investigations and changes made to prevent others from dying Just saying we would probably see a lot less school shootings. #USAoverNRA David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 10, 2018 The students have already appeared to make headway in their own state. Last week, Florida enacted stricter gun control measures, including raising the minimum age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21. The legislation also paved the way for the arming of teachers, a proposal decried by both students and teachers. {articleGUID} Separately, the Department of Justice put forward a plan to ban bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic assault rifles to function as if they are automatic weapons. Other cities and states are considering bans on high capacity ammunition magazines and semi-automatic weapons. Certain retailers, including Dicks Sporting Goods and Walmart, the nations largest retailer, have banned gun sales to anyone younger than 21 years old. Dicks Sporting Goods also ended the sale of assault-style weapons. Still, the National Rifle Association (NRA), the largest gun lobby in the US, immediately sued Florida to block the legislation. Wayne LaPierre, the NRAs chief executive, said the pro-gun ownership rights group doesnt support any ban on firearms or related equipment. {articleGUID} LaPierre has also called for arming teachers, saying that evil walks among us, and God help us if we dont harden our schools and protect our kids at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. The students have set their sights on the NRA. Hogg said in February that activists will launch their own campaign to make sure everybody knows how much money their politician took from the NRA in advance of midterm elections in November. They also called for individuals to boycott companies that do business with the NRA, prompting hotel chains, rental car companies and other organisations to cut ties with the powerful gun lobby. The teenagers have collected large sums of money for their cause from celebrities like actor George Clooney. The Womens March is helping them with organisational development. After the March 14 walkout, students and other gun control activists have organised a nationwide March for our Lives on March 24. The main march will take place in Washington, DC. Gina Haspel ran CIAs first black site in Thailand and was involved in the destruction of videotapes of interrogations A previous version of this article has been edited to reflect a correction issued on March 17 by ProPublica which stated they had inaccurately described Gina Haspel's role in the treatment of Abu Zubaydah. Gina Haspel has been named by US President Donald Trump as new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, becoming the first woman to hold the post if confirmed by the Senate. Trump announced last week that Haspel, currently the intelligence agencys deputy director, would be replacing Mike Pompeo, who was appointed the new secretary of state after incumbent Rex Tillerson was sacked on Tuesday. In a statement issued by Trump to the Washington Post, he said the nomination of Gina Haspel was a historic milestone. Speaking to reporters, the president said Haspel is an outstanding person. But Haspels career is a point of concern with many human rights advocates. Haspel became the US spy agencys second-in-command in February 2017, but joined the CIA as an intelligence officer in 1985. Her former posts at the intelligence agency include deputy director of the national clandestine service for foreign intelligence and covert action. The former Deputy CIA head has operated black site prisons and drafted orders to destroy evidence that would reveal torture. I think shes a particularly disastrous choice, being one of the principal actors in the torture programme of former President George W Bush, Alberto Mora, the former general counsel for the US Navy and a senior fellow at the Harvards Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, told Al Jazeera. Controversial past The New York Times and ProPublica reported in 2017 that Haspel played a direct role in the CIAs extraordinary rendition programme through which captured fighters were abducted and tortured. She ran the CIAs first overseas detention site in Thailand, also known as a black site, in the early 2000s. The detention centre was the place at which the the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, two Saudi citizens currently held in the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba for alleged links to al-Qaeda, took place. The interrogations involved extensive use of enhanced interrogation techniques, the term used for waterboarding and other interrogation methods internationally classified as torture. The news outlets also reported in 2017 that Haspel had overseen the interrogation of Mr Zubaydah, which included 83 instances of waterboarding in a single month in 2002. But on Thursday, ProPublica retracted its statement, saying that while she had been in charge when al-Nashiri was waterboarded three times, she did not arrive at the base until after the waterboarding of Zubaydah had ended. The New York Times on Friday issued an editors note also saying that she did not supervise the interrogation and waterboarding of Zubaydah. Haspels rise to the head of the US spy agency should cause concern, Mora said: To hold her up as an exemplar, an individual whose career will serve as guidance to those who will join the agency in the future, is shocking. Evidence destroyed Videotapes of the interrogations in Thailand were destroyed on the orders of a cable drafted by Haspel and agreed to by her former boss, then-CIA director of counterterrorism operations Jose Rodriguez. This is not just another political controversy. Of all the problematic nominations that have been made, this is the most problematic by far, John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. Haspel is complicit in the destruction of videos of interrogations. She drafted the order to destroy the videos even after the White House instructed the CIA not to do so. This is a woman who has shown she is willing to break the law. That is the most disturbing thing about the nomination, he said. Still, Haspel enjoys widespread support from within the US intelligence community. When she was appointed as deputy director in 2017, she was described by former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as a seasoned veteran of the agency who is widely and deeply respected by the workforce. Michael Hayden, former National Security Agency director, told US broadcaster NPR on Tuesday, In all this turmoil, I actually think CIA is going to be a bit of a calm spot with Gina now being elevated to the director position. Rami Khouri, a senior fellow at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera Haspels appointment was in keeping with previous actions by the Trump administration. This is very much in line with what weve seen Appointing people in high positions who are, to say the least, controversial not only in terms of their views but in terms of their adherence to fundamental ethics and law in the US and international law against torture, he said. Foa, the director of Reprieve, agreed. The [a]ppointment should be a warning to allies of the US in the UK, Europe and around the world to rethink their cooperation with an administration which has refused again and again to show respect for the values we all share, Foa said. Requested arrest warrant The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in June 2017 requested that the German public prosecutor issue an arrest warrant for Haspel for her role in the torture at the black site in Thailand. The Berlin-based organisation had asked German prosecutors to investigate torture by CIA operatives in December 2014 after publication of the CIA torture report. Its a really bad sign that [Haspel] should be named as CIA director, Andreas Schueller, the head of the ECCHRs international crimes and accountability programme, told Al Jazeera. We think she should stand trial to defend herself against the allegations that she was involved in torture and she shouldnt be appointed to any position. Haspels nomination still requires confirmation by the US Senate a process she did not have to go through to be installed as deputy director. We could see her nomination fail, Sifton says. This is a point where Senators should care about the rule of law. This is a bridge too far. Tunisian volunteer gives refugees dignity in death In a graveyard for the unknown, one Red Crescent volunteer works to honour the migrants and refugees he says the world has forgotten. Turkish army says forces encircle city of Afrin and control areas of critical importance in northern Syria. Turkeys army and allied Syrian rebel forces have surrounded the city of Afrin in northwestern Syria, the main target of Turkeys operation there. The military said on Tuesday that forces encircled Afrin and also gained the control areas of critical importance in the region as of Monday. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, confirmed the development in a separate statement. Turkey together with the Syrian opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group launched in January 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. 350,000 people in Afrin The SOHR said on Monday that hundreds of civilians had already fled Afrin as Turkey advanced. More than 2,000 civilians have arrived in the area of Nubul controlled by pro-regime forces, it said, adding that hundreds more were still on the road. Afrin city the main urban centre in the YPG-controlled enclave on the Turkish border is home to around 350,000 people, the Observatory said. Since the start of its offensive, Turkey has also threatened to push its military operations to Manbij, further east, to sweep Syrian Kurdish fighters from the length of its borders. Turkeys repeated threats to push to Manbij have caused complications with NATO ally the US, which has its troops deployed in the area and is backing the YPG in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), a move that has infuriated Ankara. Bill allows creation of electoral alliances, paving way for tie-up between ruling AK party and nationalist opposition. Turkeys parliament has passed a bill revamping electoral regulations, a move the opposition says could open the door to fraud and jeopardise the fairness of 2019 elections. The legislation formally allows the creation of electoral alliances, paving the way for a tie-up between President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party and the nationalist opposition. The AK party and opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) submitted the bill to the parliament speakers office last month. The bill, which comprises 26 articles, grants the Supreme Electoral Council the authority to merge electoral districts and move ballot boxes to other districts. Ballots will be admissible without the stamp of the local electoral board, formalising a decision made during a referendum last year that caused a widespread outcry among government critics and concern from election monitors. Under the bill, security force members will be allowed into polling stations when invited by a voter, a measure the government says will stamp out intimidation by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish southeast. The bill also states a political party can officially back one another during elections, adding that votes received by the alliance will be counted separately for each party. The number of elected MPs representing the alliance will be based on the total number of votes it gets. Furthermore, the MPs representing each party of the alliance will be decided based on the specific number of votes it gets. The alliance parties may together extend the 10 percent election threshold, a requirement for representation in the 550-seat parliament. The parties that decide on making an alliance should submit an application to the Supreme Election Council within seven days after the election calendar is announced. MHP backs AK party On January 8, MHP leader Bahceli announced that his party would support AK party leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2019 presidential elections, rather than field a candidate of its own. Ahead of a constitutional referendum last April, both the AK party and MHP campaigned for the sweeping package of amendments that changed Turkeys parliamentary system to an executive presidency a month later. {articleGUID} The overhaul comes about 18 months ahead of the upcoming pivotal elections in Turkey. Next November, the country is scheduled to pick a new parliament and formally concentrate executive power in the office of the president in line with the changes made in the 2017 referendum. The changes are a serious threat to fair and free polls, the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) said in a statement on Thursday. The CHP criticised the presence of security forces at polling stations, which MPs said could be used to make vote counting less transparent. The pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) has said the measures could lead to ballot boxes being moved out of districts where it has strong support. As a conference in Washington, DC, seeks to end Gazas humanitarian crisis, residents say they have no expectations. As the White House prepares to hold a conference aimed at resolving the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians in the besieged enclave say the summit is an attempt at erasing the Palestinian cause and turning it into an aid project. Palestinian representatives, who declined the White Houses invitation to attend, were absent at the conference happening on Tuesday in Washington, DC. However, representatives from some 20 countries are among the attendees who will discuss Gazas health challenges, its chronic contaminated water and electricity problem, as well as poverty and food security. Countries and international bodies who attended the conference include Bahrain, Egypt, the European Union, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the United Nations, Japan, Cyprus, Canada and Israel. The United States was expected to unveil several proposals that tackle some of these issues. US President Donald Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt who are key supporters of Israeli right-wing policies against Palestinians will speak at the summit. In his opening remarks, Greenblatt laid blame on Hamas, the Palestinian group which governs Gaza, saying it is profoundly unfit to govern the territory. This is about the health, safety and happiness of the people of Gaza, and of all Palestinians, Israelis and Egyptians. Gaza residents continue to face a desperate situation because of the blockade with water and electricity shortages, as well as a lack of medicines and doctors unable to perform surgeries. The Israeli blockade of Gaza, in its current form, has been in place since June 2007, when Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the area after Hamas won elections in the enclave a year earlier. Israel controls Gazas airspace and territorial waters, as well as two of the three border crossing points; the third is controlled by Egypt. Both Israel and Egypt have kept their borders largely shut and are responsible for further deteriorating the already-weakened economic and humanitarian situations. Gaza, which has seen three Israeli assaults in the last decade, is home to some two million people, many of whom participated in protests against Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital last year. Since Trumps move, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has questioned the US position as an honest broker in mediating peace efforts between the Palestinians and the Israelis. While Palestinian officials see East Jerusalem as the capital of their potential state, the move, experts have said, effectively killed the Oslo peace process that was based on that premise. Dishonest broker With the US now perceived as a dishonest broker by many Palestinians, residents of the Strip believe that the conference is being held to protect Israel from another war with Gaza. This would stand in the way of Trumps plans, 29-year-old Abdulkareem Aboul Enein, told Al Jazeera. I expect the results of the conference to be positive for the people of Gaza, especially since Israel is involved. While this may be a positive thing for Gazans, I think it may hurt the unity government and the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas. Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian political parties, signed a reconciliation agreement in October 2017, ending a decade of division that saw two parallel governments operating in Gaza and the West Bank, respectively. The agreement to form a unity government was signed in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on October 13, but efforts to implement the deal have faced obstacles. Aboul Enein believes it was the right decision for the PA to decline the White Houses invitation. I dont think the PA should have attended I think none of the Palestinian officials should attend any event initiated by the US until Trumps administration revokes its policies against Palestinians, he said. Similarly, 23-year-old Ibtihal Mohammed says the US is merely attempting to ensure that it, in the eyes of the international community, maintains its call for peace and stability in the region. But unfortunately, and as usual, this is just a facade and an act that it puts on year after year, she said. I think the outcome of the conference will be minimal perhaps some aid will be delivered, but that wont last, especially if certain conditions are not met. Pardoning Israel In January, Trump announced the US government would be cutting more than half of its planned funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, a move that could prove catastrophic for millions of people in need. Withholding $65m of a $125m aid package earmarked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) could hinder the agencys operations to a large extent. For nearly 70 years, UNRWA has been the lifeline for the more than five million registered Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories and Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. And for Gazas residents, UNRWAs support is the only constant. As such, some Gazans see a silver lining in the latest efforts put forward by the US to end Gazas humanitarian crisis. Gaza-based writer Asmaa al-Ghoul told Al Jazeera any conference tackling the unbearable living conditions of the Gaza Strip is welcome. The US has done nothing in the past besides place Hamas on a global terror list, which only complicated things for the Strip further, she said. Al-Ghoul also placed blame on both Fatah and Hamas for the worsening conditions in Gaza. Fatah did nothing to stop the blockade and instead, its compliance elongated the siege and Hamas failed at several attempts to reconcile and find a political solution to end the siege on Gaza, she said. We have no expectations Others insisted that the conference is a just a front, and maintain that the conference does not have Gazans best interests at heart. Without a doubt, I think that the conference is a front, and its objective is to serve Israels interests, Sami Akeeleh, an academic researcher, told Al Jazeera. They [US] wants to remove blame from Israel regarding the deteriorating conditions here in Gaza. Akeeleh said efforts are ongoing to pardon Israel from having to make compromises to ease Gazas humanitarian situation. In light of Trumps Jerusalem announcement, its like the Palestinian cause has shifted to a cluster of humanitarian crises and this conference may be an effort to reinforce this particular discourse, Akeeleh said. The US is turning the Palestinian cause into bags of aid. Theres no choice: Uglichs voters on Russias election Al Jazeera speaks to voters in the small Russian town of Uglich, where support for President Putin runs high. Said NeverTrump Erick Erickson, "The fact is @MaggieNYTand @chucktoddhave better character, better morals, and are more honest than the President who is attacking them." The media, the Democrats, and a few NeverTrumps are in a tizzy these past few days because President Trump dared to call NBC's Chuck Todd "a sleeping son of a b" and The New York Times' Maggie Haberman a "Hillary flunky." "@MaggieNYTand @chucktodd are not only great journalists, they are good people. This crass name-calling is beneath the office of the presidency," tweeted Jake Tapper. Tweets like these ran in the thousands. A common theme was one that Tapper raised namely, that name-calling is "beneath the office." A secondary theme raised by Politico's Susan Glasser in an interview with Todd is that Trump's "rhetorical assault" on the media was "unprecedented." Whether Trump's comments are beneath the office is surely in the eyes of the beholder, but they are not at all unprecedented. There was a time not too long ago when Democrats in and out of the media celebrated "plain speaking" and at least one president who made speaking plainly a virtue. That president was Harry Truman. In his fine 1998 book, Harry S. Truman and the News Media: Contentious Relations, Belated Respect, Franklin Mitchell traces the media's evolving response to what at the time many considered the "ill chosen words and threats by the president." Truman was not at all shy about insulting journalists in private and in public. He referred to columnist Westbrook Pegler as "a guttersnipe." He called Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson "gutter columnists" as well. The Alsop brothers, Stewart and Joseph, he called the "All Slops." In private, he called columnist Frank Kent a "prostitute of the mind." In public, he called him "intellectually dishonest." As with Trump, Truman's war with the press led many in the media to accuse him of suppressing press freedom, an argument he had no use for. In an unpublished missive, he wrote, "The old Moslem assinsins [sic] of Mesopotamia have a much better chance of a considered judgment in the end than have these paid mental whores of the controlers [sic] of our so-called 'free press.'" Truman continued, "This so-called 'free press' is about as free as Stalin's press. The only difference is that the Stalin frankly controlled his and the owners and publishers of our press are always yapping about the Constitution and suppressing a free press." Like Trump, too, he accused the press of conflating news and editorial. "News should be reported as it happened," he wrote, and editorials should be stated exclusively as "the opinions of the owners & publishers." During his presidency, Truman thought the New York Times the only nationally circulated paper that confined editorial opinion to the editorial page. The press protected Truman, however, in ways that it would never protect Trump. Washington Post journalist Marquis Childs was once dispatched to the White House to ask Truman if he would present an award at a gathering of black journalists. Said Truman to Childs, "I get along pretty well with the burr heads ... until sooner or later I say nigger." Childs, who was white, reported this only years after Truman had left the White House. Truman not only insulted journalists, but also threatened at least one of them with bodily harm. That journalist threatened was Paul Hume, the Washington Post's music critic. In 1950, Hume reviewed a concert by Truman's daughter less than charitably. "She is flat a good deal of the time," Hume wrote, "more last night than at any time we have heard her in past years. There are few moments during her recital when one can relax and feel confident that she will make her goal, which is the end of the song[.] ... Miss Truman has not improved in the years we have heard her." The president was not pleased. "It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful," wrote Truman in a letter to Hume the day he read the review." When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you're off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work." The letter quickly turned threatening. "Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beef steak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!" Some of his letters Truman never sent. This one he did. The Post did not publish it, but the Washington Daily News did. In a February 2017 article, the Washington Post reviewed the responses to Truman's letter. Like the responses to Trump's tweets, they varied dramatically. One reader the Post quoted captured what many on the right feel about Donald Trump's tweets. Yes, the reader conceded, Truman's letter showed signs of an "ungoverned temper" and "over-quick tongue." The same reader, however, saw in Truman's "gutter vocabulary" evidence of his "personal honesty." The writer concluded: "At best, tact is a mild form of insincerity which is hard to find consistent with complete integrity." There is no excuse for journalists, especially those at the Post, for not knowing their own history. Obama's 'Experts' and Trump's Instincts Why are people with foreign policy experience on North Korea and elsewhere referred to as "experts" when they so often fail to achieve their goals? The media, Democrats, and supposed experts on North Korea are wringing their hands about President Trump's planned meeting with the North Korean dictator. They say that Trump doesn't know what he is doing and that people at the State Department that have expertise are gone. I always have trouble with all the people who are called experts because they have had so little success at what they supposedly are expert about. For the last 25 years, Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama have been toyed with by North Korea while the North Koreans continually built up their nuclear weapons, and the media go to the very people who let this happen for analysis on Trump. In October 1994, via the New York Times: President Clinton approved a plan today to arrange more than $4 billion in energy aid to North Korea during the next decade in return for a commitment from the country's hard-line Communist leadership to freeze and gradually dismantle its nuclear weapons development program. "This agreement will help achieve a longstanding and vital American objective an end to the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula," Mr. Clinton said this afternoon, after his top foreign policy advisers described the details of an enormously complex agreement struck with North Korea late Monday. "This agreement is good for the United States, good for our allies, and good for the safety of the entire world," Mr. Clinton said in a brief appearance in the White House press room this afternoon. "It's a crucial step toward drawing North Korea into the global community." Somehow, this piece of paper didn't make the world safer. Instead, it allowed North Korea the money and time to develop the weapons. When has appeasement ever worked? Obama, Hillary, and Kerry, surrounded by experts (lifers), came up with the "smart" foreign policy of leading from behind, and we got policies that: Had us pulling all of our troops out of Iraq, which allowed ISIS and Iran to build up their power in the region. Had us pulling all of our troops out of Iraq, which allowed ISIS and Iran to build up their power in the region. Had us pull out of our commitment to put missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic which certainly pleased Putin. Had a gun-running operation to Mexico where we lost track of the guns. Had us watching North Korea as it expanded its weaponry but we kept telling them to stop. (It is a good thing we didn't use rough language on Rocket Man, because then he would have really gotten dangerous.) Had us watch as Putin invaded Crimea and Ukraine, and our smart policy-makers told him to stop, but we wouldn't even give Ukraine defensive weapons, even though we are obligated to defend that nation. Had our president promise Putin we would be more flexible if he was re-elected. Had us leave our diplomats vulnerable to attack in Libya, and then pretended a video was responsible in order to protect the political power of Obama. Had us allowing NATO countries to pay less than their treaty obligations. Had us kowtowing to the U.N. Had us negotiate secretly with Iran, the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world; give them hundreds of billions of dollars; and even pay them ransom. They lied throughout the process and then signed a deal with the devil to pretend the world was now safer. Now we have Iran, which continues to sponsor terrorism and continues to threaten death to America with more money, which continues to build more weapons. The Iranians are also helping Assad in Syria. Thank goodness for the "experts" Obama surrounded himself with to get this "smart" policy! Had the U.S allowing the terrorist group Hezb'allah to have a drug-running operation to appease the tyrants in Iran. Had Obama's wife respond with a "Bring Back Our Girls" hashtag when 276 girls were kidnapped in Nigeria by terrorists. Had us saying climate change is more dangerous than terrorism. Some even told us the crisis caused by Syrian and other refugees escaping was because of a potential couple-of-degrees rise in temperature rather than because tyrants were killing and raping them. Had the president draw a red line in Syria over chemical weapons use and, when Syria used chemical weapons, essentially did nothing. He and Kerry did pretend Assad got rid of all his chemical weapons. Had us sign the Paris Climate Accord, which would have cost trillions and slowed down the U.S. and world economies to pretend that government officials could adjust temperatures downward by one degree forever. Does that sound smart or true? Had the State Department spending taxpayer money to interfere in Israel's election. Why didn't the media do an investigation of that if collusion in elections is so dangerous? Where was Adam Schiff? Had the president and agencies under his control refusing to enforce immigration laws Congress passed in violation of their oath of office and the Constitution. Had a purported 17 out of 17 intelligence agencies blame Russians for the DNC computer hack, without ever examining the computer. Is it smart to claim that you can analyze a computer based on a piece of paper from someone else? Not once do I remember the media caring about any of the above disastrous and dangerous policies. But now I am supposed to believe that things are more dangerous because Trump doesn't know what he is doing? There were 15,708 terrorism deaths in 2008, the year before Obama, and 25,621 in 2016, the last year of his presidency. When Bush was in office, George Clooney and the media complained a lot about inaction in the Congo and Darfur, so why did the concern all of a sudden disappear when Obama took office? Why is it dangerous to meet Kim Jong-un but it was fine to make deals from the tyrants from Iran, Syria, and Cuba? Didn't it elevate their status? The way the media are treating Trump is the way they treated Reagan. The media and other Democrats said Reagan was going to cause World War III because of his talk and actions. Instead, he ended the Cold War and brought down the Berlin Wall. Obama had Iran collapsing with sanctions, and instead of holding the mullahs down, he lifted them up. Trump has North Korea at least temporarily stopping its testing of nuclear weapons since November. When Trump talks to world leaders, he tells them he always considers the American people first and tells them they should always consider their people first. That sounds extremely smart and balanced to me. Obama, on the other hand, wanted America to lead from behind, one of the stupidest statements ever. Leading from behind is following, not leading at all, and that is what he did his entire eight years. Which of the above policies is smart, and which ones are stupid? Why do the media and other Democrats continue to get it backward, and why are people called experts when they continue to screw up so much? In Sweden , Muslim migrants often persecute Christian migrants, or immigrants who convert to Christianity. Thus, "Open Doors Deutschland documented 743 attacks on Christians in Germany in 2016, and German police documented another 100 in 2017. Similar violence plagues Christian refugees in Sweden, but the Scandinavian country has yet to issue an investigation. A survey published by Open Doors Sweden last year found that ... one hundred and twenty-three Christian asylum-seekers reported religiously motivated persecution, and 512 separate incidents. Christian refugees suffered 65 violent assaults, 55 death threats, 7 cases of sexual assault, along with instances of social exclusion, insults, contempt, and threats. More than half, 53 percent, said they had been violently attacked at least once. Almost half, 45 percent, reported receiving at least one death threat. More than three-quarters of those who faced such persecution were converts to Christianity, and almost all of the perpetrators were Muslim." In the CQ Researcher issue titled "Religious Persecution," dated November 21, 1997, Kenneth Jost highlighted the "well-documented cases of churches being bulldozed or burned down, clergy and lay leaders [being] arrested and imprisoned and clergymen being murdered by [Sudanese] government troops." In the 21 years since this article was printed, global Christian persecution has increased exponentially. The following is a small sampling of what Christians are facing, and the sad truth is that no one seems to be stopping the oppressors and punishing them. North Korea (94 points) Christians and Christian missionaries are routinely imprisoned in labor camps. Afghanistan (93 points) The government of this Muslim country does not recognize any of its citizens as Christian. Somalia (91 points) The Catholic bishop of Mogadishu has described it as " not possible " to be a Christian in Somalia. Sudan (87 points) The Muslim government has slated Christian churches for demolition. Pakistan (86 points) Christians and other non-Muslims sit on death row , facing charges of blasphemy. Eritrea (86 points) Only four religions are officially recognized (Sunni Islam and the Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Evangelical Lutheran churches). Those belonging to other faiths are persecuted, and those of recognized faiths are routinely harassed by the government. Libya (86 points) The government is reportedly training militants to attack Coptic Christians. Iraq (86 points) Iraqi Christians have yet to return to their homelands after expulsion by ISIS. Yemen (85 points) The ongoing political and humanitarian crisis has further squeezed Christians and other religious minorities, who already faced severe restrictions on practicing their faiths. Jeff Simino at the National Review writes about minority religious groups who suffer in Iran. Thus, "the Iranian government continues to persecute religious minorities, including groups supposedly given special recognition by the country's constitution: Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians." Raymond Ibrahim, chronicler of the status of Christians, assiduously documents what is happening to them. In fact, "[t]he Islamic world has the lion's share of Christian persecution; 38 of the 50 worst nations are Muslim-majority. In short, the overwhelming majority of persecution that these 215 million Christians experience around the world especially the worst forms, such as rape and murder occurs at the hands of Muslims." Moreover, "[u]nlike the persecution of Christians in Communist nations, rooted to a particular regime, Muslim persecution of Christians is perennial, existential, and far transcends any ruler or regime. It unfortunately seems part and parcel of the history, doctrines, and socio-political makeup of Islam hence its tenacity and ubiquity. It is a 'tradition.'" Ibrahim asserts that "those persecuting Christians come from a wide variety of racial, linguistic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds from African, Arab, Asian, and Caucasian nations and share little in common with one another, except for Islam," thus underscoring the source of the hatred. On January 31, 2018, Jack Kerwick wrote, "[T]here was more violence against Christians recorded in Pakistan than anywhere else." As Islamists expand in the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Indonesia as well as Egypt, Nigeria, and Somalia, Christian oppression increases. In Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, "with a grassroots revival of Islam" has come an increase in anti-Christian persecution. Notwithstanding the entrenched Islamic hatred of Christians, "India and Nepal are two prominent illustrations of intense, anti-Christian Hindu nationalism. But, notably, in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, Buddhist nationalism is being used as an instrument of anti-Christian oppression as well." Nathan Johnson documents that in February 2018 in Nigeria, Muslims continue attacks on Christians. In fact, "International Christian Concern (ICC) documented at least 32 attacks by Fulani militants on Christians, which killed over 95 people and destroyed dozens of villages. These attacks spanned 11 different states and killed nearly 100 Christians." With more than twice as many Christians killed this year than last year, there "is a clear uptick in attacks. Between January and February 2018, there have already been more than 270 Christians slaughtered by invading Fulani" (who share many beliefs with other West African Muslims). Furthermore, "[t]his continued violence demonstrates either incompetence or complicity by the Nigerian military in these attacks. Villages that have been attacked are often within sight of military outposts or checkpoints. Despite this, the military has almost never successfully intervened and stopped an attack from causing overwhelming devastation." Less obvious than the outright violence is the fact that "Islamists around the world are furthering their agenda through diplomatic and political action, as well as grassroots social efforts." Consequently, "sharia law has been 'peaceably' enacted into law" and with it the desire to expunge any faith of the infidel. Thus, Ibrahim explains the draconian hardships imposed for centuries upon Copts and other religious groups by Muslim rulers prompted many to convert to Islam. Therefore, "nations such as Egypt which were about 95 percent Christian in the 7th century are today only about 10 percent." Acquiescing to dhimmi status and accepting life with few rights, they eventually converted to Islam "to find relief." Fifteenth-century anecdotes describe Muslims burning churches, slaughtering Christians, and enslaving their women and children. Besides being "physically purged, they were spiritually murdered a slow-motion genocide," if you will. Negative conditions of life of coercion coupled with "social bondage and financial bondage" pressured many to convert to Islam. And it continues to the present day. In 2016, at the Hoover Institution, Ralph Peters wrote: The genocide against Middle-Eastern Christians approaches its endgame, while Western leaders look away as resolutely as they ignored the Holocaust when it was happening. In time, there will be crocodile tears and, perhaps, a museum designed by an in-demand architect. For now, though, the presidents and prime ministers who romanticize Islam and explain away its excesses all but condone the extermination of a 2,000-year-old religious civilization. H.R. 565 Save Christians from Genocide Act was sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.-48) and introduced on January 13, 2017. As of this date, it has been referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. It is intended to "recognize that Christians and Yazidis in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, and Libya are targets of genocide, and to provide for the expedited processing of immigrant and refugee visas for such individuals, and for other purposes." With Easter soon upon the world, it behooves people, no matter their religious persuasion, to acknowledge that while John the Baptist announced to the crowd in John 1:29 "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," it is up to individuals with a conscience to demand protection for those who accept Christianity. There have been far too many Christian martyrs. Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com. Senator Cruz took the first shot the day after the primary. It started with a humorous radio ad focusing on the Democrat's name: Officially, it's Senator Cruz vs. Representative O'Rourke. In reality, it's a liberal vs. a conservative. In some circles, it's Rafael vs. Beto! As Tuesday's primaries were closing, Cruz's campaign released a 60-second radio ad that was a country music jingle prodding O'Rourke for going by "Beto" rather than "Robert." "Liberal Robert wanted to fit in, so he changed his name to Beto and hid it with a grin," the song says. O'Rourke said he's gone by "Beto" since he was born. "My parents have called me Beto from day one, and it's just it's kind of a nickname for Robert in El Paso. It just stuck," he said in a brief phone interview Tuesday night. O'Rourke has previously posted a baby picture of himself in a hand-stitched "Beto" sweater on Instagram. It was a great ad full of humor and disclosing how Senator Cruz will go forward. In other words, he will paint "Beto" as a liberal, and that won't be hard to do at all. Mr. O'Rourke has a few bigger problems than the radio ad. It started on election night, as Karl Rove wrote: National Democrats have hyped the telegenic El Paso congressman as a strong bet to upset Ted Cruz, the state's junior senator. Mr. O'Rourke spent $4.2 million to win his primary with 62%. But he lost 103 of the state's 254 counties to Edward Kimbrough, a retired Postal Service employee, who spent $785 and received 15%, and Sema Hernandez, who spent nothing zero, zip, nada and still got 24%. (Ms. Hernandez did have a Facebook page.) Mr. Cruz received twice as many votes in his primary as Mr. O'Rourke did in his. Mr. O'Rourke routinely swears in campaign appearances. He might have done so even more vividly in private as returns trickled in. Beto will have another problem. It's likely that the Democrats will nominate Miss Lupe Valdez, a very liberal Democrat from Dallas who is closely associated with sanctuary cities. In other words, the governor's race will feature the man who signed SB-4, the Texas law against sanctuary cities, versus a woman who openly opposed it. Put your money on Governor Abbott and Senator Cruz. They will easily get 60% of the vote later this year. What happens to Beto? Maybe he will show up in a Bobby Kennedy movie sometime in the future. PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter. CNN and the moral high ground If CNN isn't your go-to source for news, allow me to bring you up to date. The media chattering class at CNN has bloviated for days on end about the alleged sexual tryst between porn star Stormy Daniels and President Trump, which supposedly occurred in 2006. The incessant monologue ad nauseam has explored every alleged sordid detail imaginable every angle on how the affair will bring Trump's presidency to an end and, as an extra, added bonus, the criminal wrongdoing that also supposedly occurred regarding the alleged payment for services rendered, the payment having been laundered through Trump's campaign funds to silence Daniels. It's the CNN "go for broke" strategy. Let's begin with the obvious: CNN has constructed its own version of events. Of course it has it's what CNN always does. In an all too familiar scenario when facts are thin or nonexistent, CNN producers simply create their own storyline to support their agenda. The oftentimes sloppy and patently dishonest version of their narrative is then peddled as the truth. In plain speak, the opposition media have imagined what happened between Trump and Daniels and offered up their biased and partisan opinions, which eventually morph into liberal talking points. Stormy Daniels penned a statement in which she says she never engaged in sex for payment with Donald Trump. Now she says she did. Does anyone expect a CNN commentator to ask Stormy Daniels if her written statement was a lie, or is she lying now? Apart from the obvious, liberals and their slavish (or should I say salivating?) opposition media stooges are attempting to scale the moral high ground in their nonstop gab-fest about the alleged Trump-Daniels liaison. Their efforts are laughable and pathetic at the same time. Those of us old enough to remember have a vivid recollection of what transpired during the Clinton White House years and during his tenure as the governor of Arkansas. We also recall that CNN ignored, downplayed, and excused Bill Clinton's licentious behavior. So any and all attempts by CNN to castigate and vilify Donald Trump about sex in 2018 are falling on deaf ears. Another undeniable truth? The previous generation of liberal media savants are solely responsible for desensitizing the American public's views regarding sex scandals. The "it's just sex" meme has now come full circle. Very few people care any longer, and there's no moral ground to be had in 2018. (We can also consider the mockery that greeted revelations of the efforts V.P. Mike Pence makes to avoid implications of sexual impropriety. Some of this came from CNN itself.) My unsolicited advice for Jeff Zucker? Quit beating the proverbial dead horse and focus on tangible news such as the upcoming sit-down meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un. The American public has a profound interest in the president's ability to broker peace between the U.S. and North Korea, in addition to the possibility of denuclearizing a rogue state. Regardless of Zucker's extreme dislike of Donald Trump, I encourage him and all his associates at CNN to put their loathing of Donald Trump aside for the time being. And if that's an impossible task, Melania Trump should invite Jim Acosta to White House for an interview, at which she can claim that there's a vast left-wing conspiracy attempting to destroy her husband. Oh, wait never mind. That's a true statement, and CNN has shown time and time again that the network has no interest in those. From Colombia, a huge middle finger to FARC Marxist terrorists Here's something we learn from Colombia: no one, and I mean no one, likes left-wing thugs, the creeps who prance around in Che t-shirts, get government bennies, and literally get away with murder. That's the result of an election held there over the weekend, where FARC Marxist narco-terrorists got next to nothing in the vaunted "peace process" elections, in the culmination of the oh, so globally vaunted peace process that brought Colombia's appeasionist president, Juan Manuel Santos, the Nobel Peace Prize. Seeing FARC's Marxist narco-terrorists on the ballot with ten free seats in Congress, voters just wouldn't vote for them. That was the verdict from Sunday's election in Colombia, with FARC taking home a grand total of...0.21% of the vote in the Colombian House and 0.34% of the vote in the Colombian Senate, rendering them a rounding error. It was lower than even so-called Colombia experts had predicted (neighborhood of 5%) to the press, and far lower than what Northern Ireland's detested Irish Republican Army terrorists took home from their own peace-with-impunity deal, brokered by Bill Clinton in the 1990s. So for all the left's romance about guerrillas out there, all the Che t-shirts, and all the left's love for "peace processes" that reward terrorists, Colombians had other ideas. Seriously, they really rejected these left-wing thugs. And it's not as if these voters hadn't tried to tell their government this earlier. The voters tried to tell Colombia's government they weren't on with the government's deal to fork over ten free congressional seats to the brutal leftist terrorists who terrorized the country in the name of communism for half a century, killing 221,000 people, but no dice. Colombia's government, along with Juan Manuel Santos, blithely ignored the surprise results of the referendum on the FARC "peace deal," which was soundly rejected by the voters and went ahead and shoved it in the voters' faces anyway, expecting some of them to go vote for FARC and pretend the war and terror FARC caused never happened. Since I spent some time in Colombia, I can tell you a few things about what it was like. Colombia, until President Alvaro Uribe was elected in 2001, taking office the next year, was a hellhole. I remember my first glimpse of the country when I landed there on a stopover in 2000, looking at how sad and morose the capital city looked from the plane and because of security concerns, not even being allowed off that plane for the duration of the stopover. When I got to my destination in Ecuador, all I heard about Colombia was that it was a constant source of problems to its smaller neighbor, which wanted nothing to do with it and considered it a plague. In 1998, it really was such a hellhole; its capital was surrounded by FARC terrorists who were openly (and not sneaking around in the jungle) poised to seize the city from its surrounding hillsides with advanced weapons of war. A Colombian friend took me up to those hillsides in 2007, when I visited again, to show me how on the ropes the country was by these communist narco-terrorists, bred from Colombia's left-wing universities. It was so sad that such a beautiful country could be laid so low by such human garbage inspired by Fidel Castro. Worse still, every Colombian family would have "the conversation," some friends explained to me. They would make a pact to never bankrupt the family with ransom if one of them were kidnapped, it was all pre-agreed. And around the windows of townhouses and apartments in northern Bogota, around the beautiful Spanish-style plazas, I would see paper signs in windows from people pleading for prayers and help to rescue their kidnapped relatives. This was as late as 2007. Meanwhile, the newspapers were roaring with praise for the military in the letters to the editor section, one after another praising the troops. And high up on the hills, in an area known as Monserrate, overlooking the capital, at a beautiful church there, the interior had a sign asking parishioners not to write their petitions on the church walls. The walls were absolutely covered with penciled in pleas for prayers for relatives murdered by the FARC terrorists and relatives kidnapped. Nobody obeyed the sign. That should give a whiff of how intense this ordeal has been. And if you don't get to Colombia, be sure to read the memoirs of three American hostages of FARC, Out of Captivity, which were memorably brilliant in describing just how depraved these Marxist narco-terrorists really were. What we have here is the hard, hard reality. Left-wing terrorists are criminals, not misunderstood political actors. They belong in jail. Peace processes for these people are baloney. It's no coincidence that hard-core right-wing parties were the winners in this election. Voters just don't like communism. Let's hope FARC eventually get what's coming to them. From Colombia, a huge middle finger to FARC Marxist terrorists and that phony 'peace' deal Here's something we learn from Colombia: no one, and I mean no one, likes left-wing thugs, the creeps who prance around in Che t-shirts, get government bennies, and literally get away with murder. That's the result of an election held there over the weekend, where FARC Marxist narco-terrorists got next to nothing in the vaunted "peace process" elections, in the culmination of the oh, so globally vaunted peace process that got Colombia's appeasionist president, Juan Manuel Santos, the Nobel Peace Prize. Seeing FARC's Marxist narco-terrorists on the ballot with ten free seats in Congress, the final word was that voters just wouldn't vote for them. That was the verdict from Sunday's election in Colombia, with FARC taking home a grand total of...0.21% of the vote in the Colombian House and 0.34% of the vote in the Colombian Senate, rendering them a rounding error. It was lower than even so-called Colombia experts had predicted (neighborhood of 5%) to the press, and far lower than what Northern Ireland's detested Irish Republican Army terrorists took home from their own peace-with-impunity deal, brokered by Bill Clinton in the 1990s. So for all the left's romance about guerrillas out there, all the Che t-shirts, and all the left's love for "peace processes" that reward terrorists, Colombians had other ideas. Seriously, they really rejected these left-wing thugs. And it's not as if these voters hadn't tried to tell their government this earlier. In a 2016 referendum, Colombians told their government they weren't on with the Cuba-brokered deal to fork over ten free congressional seats to FARC, the brutal leftist terrorists who terrorized the country in the name of communism for half a century, killing 221,000 people. Colombia's government, along with Juan Manuel Santos, blithely ignored the surprise results of that referendum on the FARC "peace deal," and went ahead and shoved the bad peace deal right in the voters' faces anyway, expecting some of them to go vote for FARC and pretend the war and terror FARC caused never happened. Since I spent some time in Colombia, I can tell you a few things about what it was like before FARC was called to the "peace process." Colombia, until President Alvaro Uribe was elected in 2001, taking office the next year, really was a hellhole. I remember my first glimpse of the country when I landed there on a stopover in 2000, looking at how sad and morose the capital city looked from the plane and because of security concerns, not even being allowed off that plane for the duration of the stopover. When I got to my destination in Ecuador, all I heard about Colombia was that it was a constant source of problems to its smaller neighbor, which wanted nothing to do with it and considered it a plague. In 1998, it really was such a hellhole; its capital was surrounded by FARC terrorists who were openly (and not sneaking around in the jungle) poised to seize the city from its surrounding hillsides with advanced weapons of war. A Colombian friend took me up to those hillsides in 2007, when I visited again, to show me how on the ropes the country was by these communist narco-terrorists, bred from Colombia's left-wing universities. It was so sad that such a beautiful country could be laid so low by such human garbage inspired by Fidel Castro. Worse still, every Colombian family would have "the conversation," Colombian friends explained to me. They would make a pact to never bankrupt the family with ransom if one of them were kidnapped, it was all pre-agreed. And around the windows of townhouses and apartments in northern Bogota, around the beautiful Spanish-style plazas, I would see paper signs in windows from people pleading for prayers and help to rescue their kidnapped relatives. This was as late as 2007. Meanwhile, the newspapers were roaring with praise for the military in the letters to the editor section, one after another praising the troops. And high up on the hills, in an area known as Monserrate, overlooking the capital, at a beautiful church there, the interior had a sign asking parishioners not to write their petitions on the church walls. The walls were absolutely covered with penciled in pleas for prayers for relatives murdered by the FARC terrorists and relatives kidnapped. Nobody obeyed the sign. That should give a whiff of how intense this ordeal has been. And if you don't get to Colombia, be sure to read the memoirs of three American hostages of FARC, Out of Captivity, which were memorably brilliant in describing just how depraved these Marxist narco-terrorists really were. What we have here is the hard, hard reality. Left-wing terrorists are criminals, not misunderstood political actors. They belong in jail if not ignominiously defeated and dead on the battlefield. Peace processes for these people are baloney. It's no coincidence that hard-core right-wing parties (led by former President Uribe) were, just by coincidence, the big winners in this election. Far from lapping up votes, FARC got a stinging rebuke that must have surprised even them. Because voters just don't like communism or guerrillas with long records of atrocities. Let's hope FARC eventually get what's really coming to them, given their record. And the left that has idolized them and the peace process goes down with them. Iran's mullahs getting even more nervous about Iran's fire festival March 13 marks Chaharshanbe Suri, or the annual fire festival in Iran. Traditionally, it takes place on the last Tuesday before each Iranian New Year, known as Nowrouz, which begins at the advent of spring. This year, spring falls on March 20. Nowruz translates as "new day," and with the trend of events this year, some Iranians are hopeful that the new year will herald social changes that go far beyond the simple transition from one calendar year to the next. That is with reason. In late December and January, protests took place across the nation, with people chanting against both factions of the regime and the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in what can be interpreted only as calls for regime change. "Death to Khamenei" isn't subtle. The regime replied with brute force, killing at least 50 protesters in the streets. The regime's officials claimed that 5,000 were arrested, but according to the opposition, 8,000 protesters were arrested, and reports continue to trickle out of Iran about killings that are part of the ongoing crackdown. According to the main Iranian opposition movement, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, at least 14 activists have been tortured to death since early January, with the most recent such incident occurring just last week. Domestic awareness of these killings is fueling more outrage. Despite Tehran's heavy-handed approach, there are strong signs that the protests and the uprising are likely to resume and will present an even greater threat to the clerical regime. There were protests by thousands of farmers in the central city of Isfahan last week who clashed with security forces who tried to suppress them. There are constant reports of labor strikes and unrest. The PMOI is specifically looking to Chaharshanbe Suri as a nucleus around which such an uprising might coalesce. Its network has called for a mobilization for Charshanbeh Suri and has been diligently working to that end. It has good reason. The festival has a long history of bringing a massive number of Iranians out into the street in defiance of the regime's efforts to control crowds. Those efforts have grown more intense in the run-up to this year's celebration, as the information provided by the PMOI's domestic network shows. PMOI uncovered Tehran's plans to deploy civilian militias, called Bassij, in every major municipality, under the command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. But the geographic breadth of these protests, which involve more than 140 cities and towns throughout the country, makes it notoriously difficult for the regime to efficiently suppress the movement now. In fact, it has been able to do so only by relying on the sort of violence and indiscriminate targeting of activist communities that is sure to inflame the people's hatred and conviction. It is a foregone conclusion that this Chaharshanbe Suri will boast similar geographic breadth as the previous protests this year. If, in addition to that, the PMOI's organizing succeeds in bringing larger numbers of people into the streets with political demands, it may be all but impossible for Iran's thinly stretched suppressive forces to silence those demands. There may be no better time than the fire festival for this confrontation between the regime and its people. Not only does it signify Iran potentially cleansing itself of the mullahs' regime, but it also highlights the culture clash that makes that regime completely incapable of representing Iranian society. For nearly 40 years, the religious dictatorship has been trying to rid the country of free cultural expression, which includes the ancient fire festival, while the people have stubbornly fought back. The people simply do not see themselves in the culturally repressed mold of the mullahs especially not the nation's educated youth, its persecuted minorities, or its institutionally marginalized women. Chaharshanbe Suri does not stand alone in demonstrating the people's embrace of things that are rejected by the fundamentalists. Annual celebrations of the pre-Islamic leader Cyrus the Great also have resulted in clashes between the public and the security forces, along with simple expressions of the freedoms that are taken for granted in modern secular democracies. Each year, thousands of young Iranians are arrested and punished by flogging for their participation in mixed-gender parties. In the past two months, more than 30 women have been arrested for publicly removing their headscarves in protest of the country's forced veiling laws. A number of women braved out and held a protest, calling for justice and equality, on March 8, just a few days ago. While the regime tried to suppress that immediately, the mere fact that the protest took place is a sign of shifting momentum in Iran. And in Iranian courts, people can be sentenced to death for crimes such as "insulting the supreme leader." Nevertheless, Iranians assembled in great numbers early this year to collectively insult the supreme leader and to call for his resignation, and ultimately for the establishment of democracy in place of veleyat-e faqih, the absolute rule of religious clerics. It seems that after decades of repression, Iranians are more and more willing to risk arrest, torture, and even death to express their desire for a government that represents their interests, their material needs, and their national culture. As the PMOI continues to issue its calls to action in the run-up to Chaharshanbe Suri, the international community owes it support. Although the occasion is for the Iranian people on their own, the world can help to keep open the lines of communication among Iranian activists. It can also reinforce the message that the Iranian people should feel free to build a society that reflects their true national image and not the identity that the mullahs would impose upon them. Hassan Mahmoudi is a human rights advocate, specializing in political and economic issues relating to Iran and the Middle East. What makes this such a stretch is that Mueller apparently doesn't have to tie it to a criminal action. This puts a lot more of Trump's aides in danger of being ensnared in Mueller's ever widening net. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is invoking a new charge in his Captain Queeg search for the lost strawberries. He is looking to tie Trump and his aides to a "conspiracy to defraud the government charge." Washington Times: Special counsel Robert Mueller and his prosecutors have invoked an unusual "conspiracy to defraud the government" charge to ensnare a Russian cyber network and could use the same legal strategy to go after President Trump and his associates, even if the conspiracy is not linked to a criminal act. Although the president constantly denies any wrongdoing, Mr. Mueller's 10-month-long investigation has become the heart of the Trump-Russian election meddling saga, dominating headlines and leaving the White House tangled in conflict and controversy as additional charges have also been filed against four of his close associates with further indictments likely. Last month, Mr. Mueller, a Republican and former FBI director, indicted 13 Russian nationals connected to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) Russian "troll farm," accusing the IRA of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by spreading fake news stories through U.S. social media. The same approach was employed in securing a plea deal last month with Rick Gates, the aide for former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. What has attracted attention in legal circles is the underlying legal theory behind the indictments, accusing the Russians of essentially committing a crime by preventing agencies of the U.S. government from carrying out the duties. Mr. Mueller appears to be leveraging the theory "into a powerful instrument with respect to both foreign and domestic actors," according to a recent article on Lawfare, a national security blog by the Lawfare Institute and Brookings Institution. Emma Kohse, Harvard International Law Journal editor-in-chief, Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Lawfare blog's top editor, argue that, based in the language of the indictments and the legal precedents behind them, the "conspiracy to defraud the government" charge provides the Mueller team with significant flexibility in trying to build a case against Mr. Trump and members of his 2016 campaign. Nothing quite excites partisan investigators like the term "significant flexibility." This is great news for Mueller and the Democrats. Trump aides who never committed a criminal act could be caught up in Mueller's dragnet and sent to jail. The danger quotient just shot up for the president and his aides: The crime of "conspiracy to defraud the United States," the authors noted, is not new, but sets up a very different legal battle than [sic] trying to prove outright that Mr. Trump or his associates actively colluded with Russians to alter the outcome of the 2016 election. The "conspiracy to defraud" approach, the Lawfare authors point out, "has been sitting in plain sight in the general conspiracy statute ... since 1948 (and an earlier provision with substantially similar language dates to 1867). The statute makes it illegal for two or more persons to 'conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose.'" The authors add that "unlike conspiracy to commit an offense, conspiracy to defraud the United States need not be connected to a specific underlying crime," and "defraud" is not defined by the law. At least in the Clinton investigation, there was an actual criminal act perjury that led to the denial of Paula Jones's rights and obstructed the Starr investigation. Now Mueller is saying he doesn't have to prove that a criminal act resulted from the underlying actions of aides for the conspiracy charge to stick. I'm sure Democratic legal experts are cheering Mueller on at this point. But at what cost? These Mickey Mouse charges are going to be used in an attempt to overturn the legitimate election of a president. Don't you think legal standards should be extraordinarily strict if that's the case? In his quest for re-election in a state that President Trump carried by 21 points , Tester has released a new campaign ad "highlighting the 13 pieces of legislation he's co-sponsored that the president signed into law," as James Hohman at washingtonpost.com reports. Two-term Montana Democratic senator Jon Tester has joined a chorus of red-state Democrats with a newfound affinity for Trump voters after continually voting with the Democratic caucus against the president's agenda. The new ad features "[v]eterans, a cop, a firefighter and an elderly couple" counting off "the bills and resolutions," with Tester declaring that "Washington's a mess, but that's not stopping me from getting bills to help Montana signed into law by President Trump." But Hohman also notes that, while Tester's 13 bills include naming "a mountain peak" and amending "the U.S. Flag Code," "Tester has stuck with the Democrats on the major issues": He opposed the tax cuts on the rationale that they blow up the national debt by more than $1 trillion and fought efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act because Montana benefits from Medicaid expansion. Tester and other red-state Democrats are attempting to cozy up to Trump voters, but their records show they vote in lockstep with the Democratic caucus against the president's priorities. A review of Senator Tester's votes on big-ticket Republican bills and nominees in Trump's first year is instructive. GOP tax cut: Tester votes in lockstep with every Democrat against the 2017 Republican "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," the landmark tax cut championed by President Trump. Obamacare repeal: Tester votes in unison with all the other Democrats against three different versions of Obamacare repeal bills, including the final vote on the so-called "skinny" repeal on which Republican John McCain cast the deciding no vote. Judge Gorsuch: Tester joins all but three Democrats to vote against Judge Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. And that was after Tester joined the Democrat filibuster against the Gorsuch nomination, a filibuster that forced the Republicans to exercise the "nuclear option" to "end the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees." Federal appeals court judges: Tester votes "nay" on all four Trump appeals court nominees confirmed by the Republican majority last November, including two Judge Joan Larsen and Judge Allison Eid who "are on President Trump's list of 21 potential Supreme Court nominees." Tester also votes "nay" on Judge Amy Barrett and Judge Stephanos Bibas. Ken Klukowski at breitbart.com wrote at the time that "the votes against the nominees appear to be driven by pure partisanship by Senate Democrats. No substantive allegations have been made against any of the four judges. All four have spectacular credentials in terms of their education, experience, demonstrated brilliance, temperament, and reputations." Cabinet and administration nominees: In confirmation votes last year on 15 cabinet and 8 administration nominees requiring Senate confirmation, Tester votes against 8 Trump nominees, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, secretary of state Rex Tillerson, OMB director Mick Mulvaney, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, HHS secretary Tom Price, education secretary Betsy DeVos, and CIA director Mike Pompeo. All of these positions are key to the president's agenda. Tester, who has voted against the president 64 percent of the time, according to an analysis at fivethirtyeight.com, was also one of just 17 senators voting last year against a waiver to allow General James Mattis to serve as defense secretary. DACA shutdown vote: Tester sides with "his party's most liberal senators, including many 2020 hopefuls," in voting "against a stopgap funding measure Monday to end the three-day government shutdown" over the DACA issue. Senator Tester's lockstep Democrat votes on big issues didn't just begin with the Trump presidency. Tester's votes were key to enacting major pieces of the Obama agenda: March 2010 Obamacare bill: Tester provides the required sixtieth vote in the Christmas Eve 2009 Senate passage of the Affordable Care Act, which led to the March 2010 passage of the final Obamacare bill, which Tester also votes for. Obama 2009 stimulus bill: Tester provides the required sixtieth vote to pass President Obama's 2009 economic stimulus bill, affectionately termed the "Porkulus" bill by Rush Limbaugh. Obama Supreme Court nominees: Tester votes "yes" on Obama's liberal nominees Judge Elena Kagan and Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Senator Tester's "yes" votes on the Obama nominees for the Supreme Court contrast with his "no" vote on the conservative Trump nominee to highlight the pattern in Mr. Tester's voting on the big issues. The Montana Democrat has put out an ad seeking to persuade undecided Trump voters that Tester will vote with Trump on important issues. But when his vote really matters, on the big-ticket bills and confirmations listed above, Senator Tester gets a "zero." Tillerson firing set to showcase just how little the media know It's coming...just wait for it. Any minute now, the press will declare President Trump's ouster of secretary of state Rex Tillerson as "chaos" and "disarray." Such baloney. Tillerson was a good man, and he ably served the country in getting the Saudi Arabians to turn hard toward the West as the Iran threat loomed. That's a real achievement. The result we now see from Saudis allowing women to drive to Saudis changing their stance toward Israel in a friendly direction to Saudis putting the screws to the local billionaire princeling financiers of Osama bin Laden and other lunatic forces, has been, frankly, breathtaking and spectacular. Who could have guessed such a hellhole could become something good, and so quickly? It was in no small part due to the efforts of Tillerson, an old oil man from his Exxon days, who knows the Saudis well and who was able to encourage them in the right direction without making them angry. The emergence of a new leader, Mohammed bin Salman, has been all good for both Saudi and the rest of the world's interests. So of course the press is going to come out and say another exit in the Trump administration is more evidence of "disarray." Lots of good people have exited, of course, and this will be the superficial analysis. I can hear the computer keys clacking about it now. But here's what's really going on. Tillerson was good for his task as he made it, but as a new stage in foreign policy dawns, particularly around Trump's high wire act in North Korea, some different talents are required. Tillerson was a corporate man, a person with the right savvy to rise all the way to the top in the rock-hard bureaucracy of Exxon, and he tended to retain some of that style of governance at State. That was fine. He also had a bit of a lefty tinge, as many corporate types do, on the social justice front, and that wasn't as useful. The fact that he said he took the job of secretary of state only because his wife told him to suggests someone whose heart wasn't all in it anyway. Tillerson had a desire to retain respectability with all sides, which isn't useful to Trump now that he is going unconventional in his diplomacy with North Korea. Something new is required, a new mindset, and from someone willing to take and go along with risks. Mike Pompeo, of the CIA, seems to fit that bill perfectly. Adept at navigating Congress, very popular among the high-risk spooks at the Central Intelligence Agency he now leads, Pompeo will slip into the new role like a hand in a glove. Trump himself finds more in common, personality-wise, with Pompeo, and the new North Korea gambit is all Trump. As Thomas Lifson has noted here, writing about the exit of economic adviser Gary Cohn, it really is a personality thing: President Trump actually likes turnover and is comfortable with uncertainty and disagreement among his closest staff, aka "chaos." Remember that his life experience is mostly in real estate development, and construction, which is project-based. That means that when a project is completed, many people depart. And when a new project begins, new staff is recruited. He may well consider the tax reform bill a project. The next economic project tariffs to protect endangered industries, or maybe elimination of the carried interest provision requires a somewhat different mix of talent. Lifson's analysis of the North Korea gambit and why Trump could succeed, on the website today, is an absolute must-read for understanding how this stage is set up, which provides context for the changing of the guard. In short, the claims of chaos and turnover, which will be the media mantra for weeks following Tillerson's exit, are all hype. People get fired all the time with Trump, frequently enough that it's not even a disgrace. It's a sight better than the Obama style of never firing anyone, no matter how incompetent. Loretta Lynch should have been fired on the spot for her tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton, yet she never was, and that style, repeated over and over through his presidency, opened the gates to corruption. With Trump, it's either perform or time to go. Look to what Trump is really doing in this context, based on the contingencies of the hour and his own management style. His work with Pompeo signals some farsightedness in the coming foreign policy tasks at hand. Here is a short list of what he is doing differently, and why he might even succeed. Barack Obama wasn't kidding when he warned his successor that North Korea is the biggest national security threat the U.S. faces. " No good options " has been the mantra of the deep thinkers, as if we have no choice but to let the Kim dynasty threaten the world with nuclear war from now on. But Donald Trump has never been bound by conventional thinking and brings a healthy skepticism to the pronouncements of the experts who have failed for the past three decades. First of all, Trump projects unashamed strength and a willingness to use the unmatched military power of the United States. In an insightful analysis for McClatchy, Andrew Malcolm puts it succinctly: It's no coincidence that this sudden offer by Kim comes 14 months into the first term of a president who promised to crush ISIS quickly, then unleashed the U.S. military to do just that within the year. The same president warned Syria against using poison gas. When the regime ignored that, within 48 hours the new commander-in-chief ordered cruise missiles to demolish much of the launching base. It was a shocking shift from Barack Obama's apologies and erasable red lines that everyone came to understand were enforced by mere words. As bullies sometimes do, Kim seems to have gotten the tougher message, heightened by strict ongoing global enforcement of even more stringent economic sanctions. One factor that must be understood is that North Korea knows its own weaknesses and expends tremendous efforts in covering them up and creating an illusion for foreigners that it is more powerful than it really is. The skyscrapers; broad, traffic-free boulevards; and gigantic monuments of Pyongyang look best from a distance and contrast starkly with the perpetual near starvation of the rest of the deeply impoverished country. Friends who have visited North Korea have told me of the fanatical efforts their constant North Korean guides (really, minders) take to keep from straying from the appointed course and seeing portions of the capital city that are not carefully primed to look modern and prosperous. Pyongyang is the biggest Potemkin Village in the history of the world. People (and nations) who put up a false front are painfully aware that the reality is quite different. Kim Jong-un, unlike ex-president Obama, doesn't believe his own b. For all his bluster a North Korean tradition he knows that his military is no match, and that employing it would be suicidal. And thanks to the constant nattering of Trump's enemies, domestic and foreign, Kim has to consider the possibility that Trump is "crazy" enough to use as much force as necessary. Another key factor is that Trump has actually engaged China in solving the problem. There is strong evidence that the tightening of sanctions has radically hobbled Kim's ability to function. That is the key to any possibility of getting Kim to drop his nuclear program. He sees nuclear weapons as his guarantee that foreign interests will not overthrow him so, the only thing worse would be domestic forces overthrowing him. That is the button being pushed now, thanks to unprecedented cooperation on China's part, as well as unprecedented Japanese diligence in thwarting North Korean smuggling of drugs into Japan and remittances by the ethnically Korean underworld there that acted as distributors. How Trump accomplished this change in China's posture was first explained by Scott Adams. Ira Stoll of the New York Sun credits Adams with being the first observer to understand Trump's diplomacy. In an April 12, 2017, blog post headlined "The North Korea Reframe," Mr. Adams wrote about how Mr. Trump had reframed North Korea as a challenge to China. "President Trump has said clearly and repeatedly that if China doesn't fix the problem in its own backyard, the USA will step in to do what China couldn't get done," Mr. Adams wrote. "See the power in that framing? China doesn't want a weak 'brand.' ... His reframing on North Korea is pitch-perfect. We've never seen anything like this." Trump has consistently praised Xi Jinping, now dictator for life, and offered carrots while keeping various sticks available as needed. Two big sticks are the threat of a trade war and the threat of nuclear-armed Japan and South Korea. Mr. Adams followed up with an April 17, 2017, post headlined "How To Structure a Deal With North Korea." He suggests giving North Korea "a story to save face." He went on, "In persuasion language, you need to give North Korea a 'fake because.' They probably already want peace, but they don't have a good public excuse for why they would cave to pressure and settle for it. Giving them something that has little value but can be exaggerated to seem like it has great value becomes the 'fake because.'" As with all tyrannical dictatorships, the Kim dynasty's hold on power is absolute until the very moment it dissolves into nothing. Think of the shah of Iran or Romania's Ceausescu, whose absolute power evaporated almost overnight. When you hold power through fear, any weakness becomes potentially fatal. The North Korean ruling elite a group whose inner core numbers in the hundreds (at most) and whose outer circles number a few thousand in a nation of twenty million understand that the populace despises them and would turn on them in an instant. They look all-powerful and are, but only so long as there is no hope of change for their beleaguered subjects. In order to keep those hopes dormant, they need to constantly crush any potential opposition. They live in fear of what might happen otherwise. The reason Kim Jong-un had his half-brother assassinated at Kuala Lumpur Airport is that Korean culture is inherently given to factionalism. For centuries, this has been the way of political power in Korea. Kim Jong-un knows that if he seemed less than certain to prevail, opposing factions might well move to depose him and install another ruler. Thus, he has a constant challenge to keep in line all those who command any source of power: leaders of military units and police corps, principally, but also people in a position to generate or command resources. There are, for instance, the people who manufacture methamphetamines, which has been one of North Korea's chief sources of foreign exchange. Various accounts of Kim's father's reign, notably the memoirs of his personal sushi chef, have made it clear that the way the Kims kept their toadies (and potential rivals) loyal is through lavish gifts like Rolex watches, Courvoisier cognac, and Mercedes-Benzes, as well as the occasional multi-day orgy with the sex slaves the regime culls from the most attractive young women of the nation. Now that sanctions are really hitting, there are reports that Kim is running out of the foreign exchange. This factor has led Gordon Chang to offer the astounding prediction of an "85% Chance North Korea Will Promise to Give Up Nukes." The money flows are not there. We've see [sic], for instance, that Office Number 39 which is the Kim family slush fund is running out of cash according to Chinese sources, and South Koreans say that the regime in Pyongyang is not going to have any more foreign currency reserves by October at the current rate of depletion. That's a real indication that the sanctions are working. And that's the reason why I think that Kim Jong-Un actually has come to the table right now because he wants sanctions relief. ... The only way any deal with North Korea will work is they have no choice but to comply. I am not certain the odds are as high as Chang posits, and we have to anticipate that the North Koreans will try to cheat and violate their commitments. But there are ways to deal with that (Chang mentions a full blockade) once China is committed to seeing the deal succeed. While I cannot guarantee that Trump will succeed, he clearly has better odds than any of his presidential predecessors. If he succeeds, next to the abeyance of the threat to world peace, the biggest upside is watching all those progressive and leftist heads explode. A recent annual survey of 25,800 U.S. adults found that Amazon has the best corporate reputation for the third year in a row, while Google has dropped to the 28th place, down significantly from 8th where it sat last year. The Harris Poll Reputation Quotient, which began in 1999, conducted the survey from December 11 to January 12 and examined the participant sentiment of the 100 most visible corporate brands. Of additional interest is Apples ranking, which dropped from 5th to 29th. In an interview with Reuters, Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema suggested that Google and Apples decline can be attributed to the fact that neither company has come up with truly industry-changing products as of late. Mr. Gerzema believes Google will improve its position moving forward once it cutting-edge technologies such as self-driving cars and other artificial intelligence solutions begin impacting consumers on a large scale. While one survey might not have any particular sway of influence on a companys state of affairs, the fact that both Google and Apple have fallen so significantly while Amazon remains top of the crop may itself be telling. Amazon, which only recently became profitable, had once been a cause for concern given the failure of its touted Fire Phone and its once-plentiful high-end Fire tablets like the 2013 HDX series. Indeed, reports were aplenty of the company that Jeff Bezos built going as far as laying off large portions of its top-secret hardware development Lab126 some years ago. And yet, today, Amazon is on a rhetorical roll as the company has found success with lower-end tablet devices, and arguably more importantly, its Echo line of AI speakers. Partnerships with firms like HTC and Lenovos Motorola have even seen the Alexa AI make its way into smartphones to directly compete with both the Google Assistant and Apples Siri, with some analysts going as far as to predict Amazon will become the worlds first company to break the $1 trillion valuation. Google Co-Founder Larry Page invested heavily in a very secretive company called Kitty Hawk, run by Google Xs former executive Sebastian Thrun, and now the self-piloting flying taxis that the company has been working on are ready to be revealed to the public. The first model is called Cora, and its a cross between a drone and an airplane, design-wise. The rather diminutive craft has room for just a couple of people on board and has been seen in the skies over New Zealand doing tests in recent months. Now, it would seem that Cora and the company behind it are almost ready for prime time, as Kitty Hawk and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden announced that an agreement has been reached that will see Kitty Hawks portfolio officially tested for certification. The goal, according to a report from the New York Times, is to have a network of commercial air taxis up and flying over new New Zealand within three years. Kitty Hawks first publicly revealed air taxi, Cora, is a fully autonomous and electric machine. It takes off vertically like a helicopter and then flies horizontally at fairly high speeds like an airplane. The progress made by Kitty Hawk, according to the Prime Minister, should serve as a signal that New Zealand is ready to accept great ideas in the tech sphere, even when more developed nations like the United States may still not be equipped to adopt such innovations from a regulatory standpoint. Pages involvement in Kitty Hawk was mostly secret until recently, thanks to a shell company called Zephyr Airworks. Pages involvement with a California entity called Zee Airworks on similar grounds has been a bit less of a secret, though Zee Airworks has yet to lay anything out publicly in the same manner that Kitty Hawk has. Around the world, a number of companies are fighting over whos going to revolutionize personal transportation and how its going to be done. Alphabets own Waymo has been betting on putting autonomous vehicles on public roads, while Uber is hedging its bets with both autonomous driving options and air taxis, though both of those are still years away from being fully commercialized. Finlands national investment company Solidium took a 3.3-percent stake in Nokia valued at the equivalent of $1.04 billion over the first quarter of 2018 in order to strengthen its influence at the countrys largest firm and consequently weaken its mostly foreign ownership. Solidium Chief Executive Officer Antti Makinen told Reuters the firm isnt planning on pursuing a larger stake in Nokia in the immediate future and wont be seeking a board seat at the tech giants next annual shareholder meeting scheduled to take place in May. Mr. Makinen described the move as a response to the fact that Nokias domestic ownership has [traditionally] been rather thin, adding that Solidium may end up seeking a board seat at the network equipment manufacturer in the future even though it isnt looking to press for one this spring. Solidium sold some of its shares of Swedish telecom giant Telia and a number of other firms to fund its investment in Nokia. The move itself is understood to be Solidiums own bet and hasnt in any way been impacted by Helsinki, as recently suggested by Finnish economy minister Mika Lintila. Nokia is presently largely focused on the telecommunications segment and is eagerly awaiting the widespread adoption of 5G which drove some of its major investments that are yet to pay off. For the time being, the companys reliance on its licensing division is increasing, as revealed by its recent financial reports. Contemporary Nokia smartphones running Android are designed and sold by HMD Global which was founded by former Nokia employees but the Finnish tech giant has no investment in the firm and only benefits from their licensing agreement. Being Finlands largest company, Nokias decline also impacted the economy of the Nordic country which is only now experiencing some growth following years of stagnation. Nokias mobile business effectively crumbled following its decision to pursue Symbian instead of Android and its 2014 sale to Microsoft didnt manage to revitalize its operations, with the Redmond, Washington-based firm eventually cutting thousands of Finnish jobs. Domestic positions presently account for just over six-percent of Nokias global workforce thats nearly 103,000 strong, according to the companys recent estimates. Googles all prepped to show off a brand new display at the 2018 Display Week International Symposium (SID), according to a newly discovered preliminary program for the event. The company has been working on the new display, specifically for VR and AR content, for quite some time now. However, the specifications of that have only really been guessed at up until this point. Thats going to change during SID 2018, which runs from May 22 through May 25 in L.A. In fact, the company is set to present its display on the very first day of the symposium at some time between 11:10 in the morning local time and 12:30 in Room 515A of the Los Angeles Convention Center. The presentation will take place during session three and will be one part of five during the session. Happily enough, nobody needs to wait until then to finally hear about the basics of what that display entails. Although there is bound to be much more information about the display during the event, the aforementioned program actually provides substantial details. For starters, the display is meant for use in Wide-Field-of-View High-Acuity Head-Mounted Displays, all but confirming that this is the display Google is known to have been working on. It will be based on OLED technology and will only be 4.3-inches in size but this display is nothing to be scoffed at. For starters, it actually appears to pack in a pixel density at around 1443 pixels-per-inch (PPI). For perspective, a modern top-tier 6-inch smartphone has, at very best, between 500 and 600 PPI. Meanwhile, Googles display is listed as an 18-megapixel display with a refresh rate of 120-Hz. If those specifications turn out to be accurate, it could represent a significant step forward for the technology it appears to be intended for. Whats more, that statement becomes even more potent if its intended use includes smartphone-associated AR or VR headsets. Such a high resolution and refresh rate would undoubtedly improve the overall experience and cut down on common problems associated with VR such as motion sickness and dizziness. With that said, the news should probably be taken with a grain of salt since there are still a couple of months before the event is scheduled to take place. Google could always opt to back out of the session for any number of reasons or the program may not be entirely accurate about the display in question. In any case, this wont remain a mystery for long. Google Cloud and Ubisoft on Tuesday announced Agones, an open-source game server hosting solution specifically designed for multiplayer titles which is built on Googles automated deployment system Kubernetes. While the platform is far from the first dedicated service for multiplayer game hosting, its meant to disrupt the industry by providing a highly scalable, non-proprietary solution that can be utilized by anyone. Kubernetes its the crucial piece of the Agones formula, with the newly announced offering being a textbook example of its primary purpose accelerating the process of developing and hosting highly complex workloads such as contemporary multiplayer experiences. Agones is still being developed by Google Cloud in partnership with Ubisoft and interested developers will be able to utilize it without any special effort due to its integration into Kubernetes portfolio of extensions. The systems tools such as the Kubernetes API can also interact with Agones like they would with any other supported solution, Google confirmed. Creating a dedicated game server designed to be deployed using the new service is akin to authoring any other Kubernetes workload, with the recommended course of action being integrating it into a container image. Agones replaces traditional cluster management and server scaling employed by proprietary solutions with a Kubernetes cluster including GameServer Custom Resource Definitions and a custom-built Kubernetes Controller, thus seeking to deliver a highly versatile solution for dedicated multiplayer game servers. Refer to the gallery below for a visualization of how Agones differs from its proprietary alternatives. The name of the platform is also meant to be indicative of its capabilities, with Agones being a Greek world for contest. Google and Ubisofts Agones partnership potentially paves the way for deeper collaboration between the two companies in the future, not just in terms of hosting but also in regards to one of Googles main focus points artificial intelligence. Ubisoft recently started integrating AI solutions into its development practices with the goal of identifying bugs in its game code even before theyre compiled and hinted its prepared to embrace AI on a larger scale moving forward. Google itself is still in the process of transitioning to an AI-first company, which is how CEO Sundar Pichai is describing its new approach to product design. Verizon subsidiary Yahoo will have to face all of the lawsuits against it as a result of its handling of recently revealed data breaches, according to District Judge Lucy Koh, who denied a motion by Verizon that would have seen a large number of the claims against Yahoo, such as breach of contract and negligence, dropped outright. The most recent revelation brought to light that all 3 billion Yahoo users were affected by one of the breaches that took place in 2013. This prompted many of the plaintiffs of suits against Yahoo to amend their claims, a move that Koh backed, saying that it proved that the plaintiffs decisions to actually use Yahoos services would have been affected if they had known the full extent of the breaches beforehand. Yahoo is facing a number of lawsuits brought by a wide range of plaintiffs consisting of just about every company that it interacted with between 2013 and 2016, during the time that the breaches were taking place. Verizon had moved to dismiss many of the claims against Yahoo in order to pare down the number of lawsuits it would have to contend with, and now that the motion has been denied, proceedings against Yahoo are quite likely to become more active in the coming months. New lawsuits could potentially surface. On that note, this ruling had a knock-on effect of essentially greenlighting a massive class-action lawsuit against Yahoo with hundreds of millions of plaintiffs worldwide, spearheaded by specialist John Yanchunis and famous Florida law firm Morgan & Morgan. For the uninitiated, Yahoo hid a large number of massive data breaches over the years, and they did not come to light until the company was being reviewed for a buyout by wireless carrier Verizon. As noted above, these large-scale breaches happened over the course of multiple years, and eventually resulted in the data of Yahoos entire user base being compromised, resulting in possible loss of personal data for the entire 3 billion strong group. Some of the breaches were apparently the work of state-sponsored Russian hackers. The company stands accused by multiple parties of not only negligence, but malicious intent in keeping the breaches a secret for so long. The worlds first navigation app with high-definition maps is now launching on Android smartphones and select tablets, having been created by Toronto, Canada-based startup Live Roads. The self-titled app boasts lane-level navigation support and HD maps that it combines in an attempt to provide users with a highly accurate and unprecedentedly immersive experience. While 3D vehicle models and HD mapping support are some of the main selling points of Live Roads, the app also delivers a versatile set of tools when it comes to more conventional solutions such as SD maps which it can display simultaneously with their HD counterparts thanks to its picture-in-picture mode. Offline functionality is also part of the package, though the service is presently only available in the United States and Canada. Live Roads can display customizable 3D vehicles on ones navigation interface and also allows for simple live location sharing so that users can quickly inform anyone about their whereabouts. The app ships with live traffic reports and bases its suggested routes on that data, ultimately seeking to offer an intuitive navigation solution. Live Roads is launching as both a free and premium app, with the former only supporting HD maps at intersections, whereas the paid software can display them all the time. The service also comes with a robust points system that will allow you to try out the premium version of Live Roads at no charge for an entire month. Live Roads developers claim existing navigation solutions are inexcusably outdated as they havent kept in touch with various advancements in the mobile industry recorded over the last two decades, with their newly announced app being meant to address those issues. The service is compatible with the vast majority of contemporary Android smartphones, with its creators striving to provide users with an unprecedentedly detailed navigation platform meant to disrupt the industry as a whole. Fridays interlocutory statement by Supreme Court justice Pablo Llarena turning down Jordi Sanchezs request to attend the Catalan parliaments plenary session where he would be elected president of Catalonia is a flagrant violation of the separation of powers in Spain. Up until this point, we had witnessed infringement of basic rights, unjustified abusive detention without bail and a pre-trial enquiry which constitutes, effectively, an all-out judicial persecution of the Catalan independence movement. Yesterday, though, the rule of law in Spain sank to a new low: a judge has taken the liberty to deny a Parliament the right to convene and hold a vote on the presidential candidate proposed by the Speaker of the House. To quote Constitutional Law Professor Javier Perez Royo: the powers of a Parliament are inviolable in a parliamentary democracy. The law sets out a single condition for someone to be elected president of Catalonia: they need to be an elected member of parliament whose voting rights are unrestricted. Obviously, Jordi Sanchez meets the legal requirements to be elected, even though he may be disqualified if he is found guilty by a court of law in a not-too-distant future. Claiming otherwise is akin to denying the principles of democratic legitimacy, parliamentary autonomy and, as we said above, separation of powers. Furthermore, it is a violation of the candidates right to stand and the active suffrage right of the Catalan voters who cast a ballot on December 21. With his ruling, justice Llarena rises above the constitutional order and takes the liberty to advise the Catalan parliaments Speaker to pick a fresh candidate from the Junts per Catalunya MPs because, in his opinion, Sanchez might actually be elected, unlike Juan Carlos Yoldi (1). What sort of democracy is this, where a parliament is not allowed to decide who it may elect as president? Would they have the courage to do the same to a candidate in the Spanish parliament, or is this just about crushing the democratic will of the Catalan people? Still, Llarena has gone even further and, along similar arguments which he laid out in previous writings, the Spanish judge is now suggesting that the mere existence of a pro-independence majority in the Catalan parliament that has not renounced its goal even if a profound strategic change is being discussed is enough reason to keep Jordi Sanchez, Jordi Cuixart, Oriol Junqueras and Joaquim Forn behind bars. In a way, Pablo Llarena aims to blame the two million Catalans who long for a Republic for the fate of their leaders. Therefore, he seeks to punish the general public at large. Given this new judicial outrage, you would think that Spains democrats might offer some sort of response, but everything indicates that nobody except Podemos will lift a finger to denounce it. Hopefully, it will be the European Court of Human Rights that sooner or later will put the Spanish democracy to shame. Meanwhile, its degradation is further augmented by the most reactionary, vociferous elements within Spanish nationalism, who aim to outdo each other. ____________ Translators note: (1) In the mid-1980s ETA prisoner Juan Carlos Yoldi was elected to the Basque parliament. A Spanish court of law ruled that he should be allowed to stand for president and address the chamber during the debate, which he did. However, Yoldi had no chance of securing a parliamentary majority and being voted in. EV National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA SUV The tester wanted to enjoy a simple pleasure behind the wheel, with the gearheads over at Magazin Pro Driver CZ, a Czech crew, using the inevitable queue at the location to catch the electric Porscha on camera - the spotting took place in the proximity of the Stuttgart Porsche mothership.We have to admit that checking out the electric whine of the Porsche in the piece of footage at the bottom of the page still gives us mixed feelings. However, since we trust Zuffenhausen's spirit, we're keeping an open mind here and are willing to embrace the inevitable future of the marque.Speaking of the Mission E's soundtrack, we're looking forward to finding out how Porsche aims to adress the mandatorysoundtrack matter, if given the freedom to. As we wrote earlier this month, automakers' lobbying has determined the US government to push back the introduction of legislation mandating a lower noise limit for hybrid and electric vehicles - the limit will be imposed for speeds under 19 mph, so pedestrians and other vehicle operators can be aware of the hybrid/EV approaching.The new deadline for all the said vehicles in production is now September 2020, but there's also a preliminary deadline, which will see 50 percent of a carmaker's hybrid and electric lineup complying to the said rule starting September 2019.The) is currently considering allowing a wide range of soundtracks to be offered. The agency stated that it would allow the public to express its opinion on this by the end of the year.Returning to the Mission E, the Cross Tourismo concept we met at the Geneva Motor Show, which came in lifted wagon form, might not be the (only) production alternative to the body style of the "standard" Mission E, which you can see here.As we mentioned earlier today, Porsche is considering a whole family of Mission E models, which could involve two-door coupe and convertibles, while rear-wheel drive is also under consideration.The J1 Porsche-developed platform of the Mission E isn't suitable for high-riding vehicles, with the Mission E Cross Tourismo probably being as close to anas this architecture will ever get.Nevertheless, those in the market for premium electric crossovers will have their needs catered to thanks to the upcoming PPE (Premium Platform Electric) architecture, which Porsche is co-developing with Audi. kilowatt EV To be officially called Spark Controlled Compression Ignition (SPCCI) Skyactiv-X, the new engine will have, according to the manufacturers estimates, well-to-wheel emissions lower than that of the existing electric vehicles.In this context, lower well-to-wheel emissions mean that the new engine will produce, for instance, less CO2 burning fossil fuel than the CO2 produced by turning coal or petroleum into electricity for EVs.According to Mazda, a mid-sized electric car consumes around 20-hours of electricity per 100 km. CO2 emissions produced by generating this amount of power amounts to 200g/km by burning coal and 156g/km by burning petroleum.Mazda claims that a 10 percent improvement in the existing Skyactiv-G engines would make combustion units be on a par with electric cars.From one point of view, Mazdas claims do seem something of a smokescreen. The entire theory pretty much comes down to the assumption that the advent of EVs would also mean the rise in production for electricity to manufacture and charge them.And thats a debate that has been raging ever since the introduction of the Nissan Leaf back in 2010. For Mazda, the current approach in determiningemissions is wrong, so it changed the rules by and for itself.With two-thirds of global electricity production currently relying on the use of fossil fuels, Mazda believes regulations placing the absolute emissions of an EV (electric vehicle) at zero to be disingenuous, argues the carmaker.In order to more correctly measure CO2 emissions over the life cycle of a vehicle, Mazda is moving beyond current 'Tank-to-Wheel' evaluations (which consider only emissions whilst driving), to a 'Well-to-Wheel' method, which also considers fuel extraction, manufacturing, and shipping.In an attempt to water down the feeling that it sides with big oil, the carmaker states that, despite the revolutionary Skyactiv-X, it will offer some electric vehicles and hybrids of its own. In 2019, the carmaker says it will introduce an electric vehicle model, followed by a plug-in hybrid in 2025.What is worth mentioning about the new engine is that it will be one of the few gasoline units available in the world (Mazda calls it, wrongfully, the worlds first) to use compression ignition. AWD HP The Mokka was one of the first big players in what's now a huge segment. Six years ago, Opel teamed up with Buick and Chevrolet , using a platform derived from the Corsa to take on the Nissan Juke.Much of the testing was done by the South Korean division which GM bought from Daewoo. Even production took place there until European demand proved too much to handle.The next Mokka X will also be developed in partnership with another brand, but it won't be Buick. After many years of consecutive losses, GM sold Opel and Vauxhall to Peugeot. Thus, the crossover is going to revolve around the French carmaker's tech.This test prototype appears slightly longer than the 4,275mm current model. That means the 4,394mm Nissan Qashqai is within the Mokka's sights. But Opel needs to walk a fine line, careful not to compete with its own Grandland X. It's impossible to know which platform the Opel model rides on since the French had only taken charge a year ago, in March 2017. However, the fact that this test vehicle hasfitted sets it apart from 99% of B-segment models.The engines will almost certainly be borrowed from PSA, who have some of the cleanest small diesels in the world right now. There's a new 1.5 BlueHDI with 130and 300 Nm that is particularly well suited for this project. Gasoline motors will mostly be of the 1.2-liter turbo variety.We expect the debut of the new Mokka X to come in 2019, only after the hotly anticipated all-new Corsa hits the market. That car will give us the first glimpse into the synergy of Opel and Peugeot technology. EV But what seemed at first to be a move meant to keep the peoples car in line with the industry trend is becoming more and more of a long-term business plan.Speaking at the Volkswagen Group's Annual Media Conference in Berlin, CEO Matthias Muller revealed that probably sooner than later VW is aiming to become the number one electric vehicle producer.Building on the existing Roadmap E plan to electrify part of the lineup, Muller says that by the end of 2022 no less than 16 facilities the group operates around the world will be manufacturing EVs. Thats a huge leap from the current three locations.The bulk of the plants, nine, would be added to theproduction roster over the next two years. To ensure a constant flow of batteries for the new cars, Volkswagen has signed an undisclosed number of contracts, valued at 20 billion euro ($25 billion), with battery manufacturers from both Europe and China. North America will soon follow.Volkswagen says that pushing for electric vehicles does not mean internal combustion units would die. Diesel engines, the target of so much public loathing over the past few years, would remain at the core of the VW lineup.In 2018, Volkswagen will invest 20 billion euros in developing better diesel and gasoline engines, a sum which would be supplemented by 90 billion euros ($111 billion) over the next five years."We are financially robust and strategically well-positioned," Muller said during the conference."Things are moving. And we have plans for much more. A change of course for the Volkswagen supertanker - full speed ahead to the future!" Volkswagens three-box model also finds itself between a rock and a hard place, as demand for sedans keeps slowing down in favor of crossovers and sport utility vehicles. To this effect, the Chattanooga plant where the Passat is made will idle for two weeks this spring, with the automaker re-tooling for increased Atlas production.Plant spokesman Keith King had a chat with the Times Free Press , claiming that its not a secret the market is shifting from sedans and passenger cars to family-friendly SUVs. The two weeks of idling "allows us to correct course a little bit," which is a tongue-in-cheek remark considering what Volkswagen has been up to.The numbers dont lie. From a high point of 6,997 examples sold in the United States in February 2014, the Passat dropped to 4,380 units in February 2016, then stumbled to 3,036 cars in the second month of 2017. For reference, the Toyota Camry moved 30,865 copies in February 2018. How can you compete with that?Despite the downfall of the Passat , overall sales of the automaker in the United States are up 5.7 percent compared to the first two months of 2017. SUVs are to thank for this substantial upswing. The compact-sized Tiguan crossover is the sweetheart of the German brand in this part of the world, with utility vehicles accounting for 54 precent of all Volkswagen of America sales in February 2018.According to Volkswagen of America, the non-production periods for Chattanooga are planned for March 26th to 29th and April 2nd to 5th. And despite ongoing media rumors of layoffs, spokesperson King assured that no one is being sent off. At the present moment, 3,450 people are employed at the Tennessee-based plant. Hyundai recently became the official mobility partner of the first ASEAN Mentorship for Entrepreneurs Network (AMEN). AMEN, a flagship program of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, which was launched in November 2017 and designed to accelerate the scaling of the small enterprises in ASEAN through mentorship. The partnership is a testament to our continuous commitment to the purpose of ASEAN, that is, to accelerate growth through enhanced cooperation within the ASEAN community. We are proud to be part of the ASEAN network--this time, highlighting the role of mentorship in empowering SMEs in the Philippines, said Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. president and CEO Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo. During the event, which was attended by 450 mentors from both the public and private sectors in the ASEAN region, the 14-seater Hyundai H350 was used as the main mode of transport. It ferried delegates to and from venues of AMEN's Mentoring the Mentors program. Coincidently, the event was held back-to-back with the 10th Filipina Entrepreneurship Summit. The Hyundai-AMEN partnership comes at the heels of Hyundais successful mobility partnership with the ASEAN Summit in November 2017. According to the company, the presence of Hyundai in AMEN reflects the Korean automoaker's confidence in the countrys business and investment climate as well it being a gateway to regional expansion. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government was reelected for a third term in Monday's parliamentary elections, but preliminary results show it failed to win a majority. Why it matters: Trudeau has governed Canada with a minority of legislative support in parliament for the past two years. Last month, he called for an election two years earlier than scheduled in the hope of forming a majority government. The body of the late Rev. Billy Graham has arrived at the Capitol for a private ceremony with President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and members of Congress. Graham's body will lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda where notably influential citizens, including a dozen former presidents, are honored on Wednesday and Thursday, before his burial Friday at Graham's library in Charlotte, N.C. David Rhodes, president of CBS News, told a conference in Jerusalem hosted by Israeli media giant Keshet that the delay behind Anderson Cooper's "60 Minutes" interview with Stormy Daniels is because there's "still a lot of journalistic work to do" rather than the threat of legal action from President Trump, Variety reports. He promised it would air soon, adding, Its hard to know [what its impact will be] in advance, especially since so many controversies in the current political environment have not necessarily broken the way you would expect them to." The big picture: The narrative around Daniels, a porn star who allegedly had an affair with Trump and has since filed a lawsuit against him, isn't going away. Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, has said he paid Daniels out of his personal funds as part of a non-disclosure agreement, but Daniels said Trump never signed it and that Cohen was intimidating her "into silence." More from Rhodes, per Variety: House Intelligence Committee Democrats, led by Rep. Adam Schiff, released their own status report on the committee's findings in the Russia investigation. The report highlights a partial list of key witnesses that the Committee has yet to contact or interview. The Dems announced that they plan to issue a full report detailing their findings soon. Why it matters: The report adds that Republicans on the committee "refused to interview" key witnesses including Reince Priebus, Stephen Miller and Sean Spicer. Republicans announced on Monday that they found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Read the full report here. Facebook is getting ready to launch a news section for its Watch platform and it's testing different video partnerships with roughly 10 publishers, Axios has learned. Why it matters: This would be the first standalone news product for national news in Watch. The tech company previously launched several products, like Instant Articles and Facebook Live, with an array of publishers which included but was not limited to news companies. Facebook is in touch with both legacy and digital-first news publishers to test a daily video feature that would run for at least a year, according to multiple sources familiar with the effort. The content needs to be a minimum of three minutes. Facebook plans on launching the feature this summer and testing what works best. Sources say Facebook is working strategically with publishers to understand budget needs and monetization opportunities on the platform. The big picture: Facebook is trying to create more meaningful engagement on its platform. While executives have said they dont know exactly how they will measure meaningful engagement through comments and shares, creating a news product thats native to the platform and includes content from vetted publishers will hopefully drive less passive engagement and curb the spread of misinformation on its platform. Timely news video is the latest step in our strategy to make targeted investments in new types of programming on Facebook Watch... As part of our broader effort to support quality news on Facebook, we plan to meet with a wide-range of potential partners to develop, learn and innovate on news programming tailored to succeed in a social environment. Our early conversations have been encouraging, and we're excited about the possibilities ahead. Campbell Brown, Head of News Partnerships for Facebook, in a statement to Axios responding to a request for comment The backstory: 2017 was a year of reckoning for Facebook, from both a fake news and publisher relations perspective. The company has since taken steps to combat the spread of misinformation on its platform and to improve its relationship with publishers, including being more transparent and collaborative around product testing. Our thought bubble: Creating a standalone destination for news is an opportunity to guide readers to credible sources its platform, especially during breaking news, when misinformation tends to spread faster. It also gives the company a chance to work more strategically with publishers on achieving their branding and monetization goals. The San Francisco ICE spokesman James Schwab has quit following the DHS' spread of false information that "roughly 800 undocumented immigrants escaped arrest" because of the warning issued by the Oakland Mayor of the ICE raids the day prior, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Schwab believed the number to be significantly less than what agency officials including Jeff Sessions were saying, and had reportedly asked for a correction. Key quote: I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didnt agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit. Representatives from more than 20 countries and international organizations met today for more than six hours at the White House and discussed the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The participants included Israel and six Arab countries, the majority of which have no diplomatic relations with Israel. Senior U.S. officials said all the participants agreed that the humanitarian and economic crisis in Gaza requires immediate action from the international community. They added that, "fixing Gaza is critical for any future peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians". The participants Israel was represented at the meeting by General Yoav (Polly) Mordechai the most senior Israeli officer in charge of civilian and economic issues in the West Bank and Gaza. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt and Jordan also took part. It's very rare for Israeli and Arab officials to gather around the same table. Creating closer relations between Israel and the Arab world has been a primary goal of the Trump administration over the last year. The White House wants the Arab world to be a part of its efforts to promote a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. A senior U.S. official said after the meeting: "It was refreshing to see the Arab and Israeli representatives at the same table. It was a good sign as we remain hard at work putting the finishing touches on our peace plan. We encouraged all parties to leave politics at the door and talk about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and they did it". The Israeli Prime Minister's Office issued the following statement: "We were pleased that today's White House conference on Gaza was productive and we were encouraged to see many of our neighbors in attendance. We hope that their participation will lead to progress towards greater regional stability and peace with the Palestinians. We extend our sincere thanks to Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt for organizing and hosting this important event". The Palestinian Authority was also invited by the White House but turned down the invitation due to President Trump's December 6th Jerusalem announcement. Other countries that did participate: The U.K, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, Cyprus, the Netherlands and Sweden. The discussions Jared Kushner, who was at the conference all day, presented for two hours on U.S. ideas for projects in Gaza. The senior U.S. officials said the projects were short term either ready to be implemented right away or responding to an immediate need. Kushner also presented medium and long term projects for Gaza. The projects were in the fields of health, sewage, electricity and water. The Trump peace plan was not discussed during the meeting. U.S. special envoy Jason Greenblatt told participants that the plan is still being drafted and will be presented when ready. What's next Louis Farrakhan, the controversial head of the Nation of Islam, has returned to the headlines over the last few weeks with much of the focus coming from conservative media outlets highlighting Democrats' connections to him. The most recent furor began after Farrakhan spoke at the Nation of Islam's Saviours' Day event on Feb. 25 and pontificated anti-Semitic views to his audience. What he said: Farrakhan said "the powerful Jews are my enemy" during his Saviours' Day speech. Later, he also stated that "Jews were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out turning men into women and women into men. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. The backstory: Farrakhan, leader of the National of Islam since 1970, has long been a controversial political figure. He has promoted views advocating African-American self-sustenance and religion while calling for a separation from white America's structures. In his closest brush with mainstream politics, he spearheaded the 1995 Million Man March on Washington, D.C. Flashback: This isn't the first time Farrakhan has said inflammatory things: The flashpoint: Tamika Mallory, co-president of the Women's March, is under fire for her appearance at the same Saviours' Day event, which saw Farrakhan call attention to her and her activist work. Supporters have been calling for Mallory to denounce Farrakhan, but she hasn't done so directly. However, she did address the controversy in a Twitter thread last week, though she never mentioned Farrakhan by name. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. However, the Women's March organization did release a more direct statement, stating that Farrakhan's "statements about Jewish, queer, and trans people are not aligned with the Women's March Unity Principles": A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. What they're saying: Conservative outlets, led by The Daily Caller and Fox News, have called on progressive leaders to condemn Farrakhan and his rhetoric. They argue that had a figure popular in conservative circles made similar incendiary remarks, progressive leaders would be calling for them to be held accountable. This isn't new: Associating with Farrakhan has brought other political figures from the left under scrutiny before. Some have attempted to publicly disassociate themselves from him. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that it is highly unlikely lawmakers in the Senate will approve legislation to rollback President Trumps recent move imposing heightened tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. The thought that the president would sign a bill that would undo actions hes taken strikes me as remote at best, and I like to use floor time in the Senate for things that actually have a chance to become law. So I think its highly unlikely wed be dealing with that in a legislative way. McConnell told reporters at his weekly news conference He did, however, highlight that Republicans who largely lambasted Trump's move are still concerned about the tax implications and will continue engaging the White House with hopes that in the end this will be a narrowed process rather than a broad application. The backdrop: Trump's announcement that the U.S. is imposing tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum has triggered outcry among GOP lawmakers and industry officials. He later decided to exempt Canada and Mexico, for now. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a retiring Trump critic, has introduced a bill seeking to nullify the tariffs. 1 big thing: A cabinet full of trouble Coming into office, President-elect Trump boasted his cabinet had by far the highest IQ of any cabinet ever assembled. These days, Axios' Jonathan Swan reports, Trump and his chief of staff John Kelly are more likely to privately question the basic intelligence of their cabinet officials than shower them with such praise. Why it matters: As we have said before, all habits, good and bad, flow down fast in any organization. It should come as no surprise that cabinet officials are improvising, understaffed, and are ignoring precedent, procedures and in some cases the law. Expect more not less of this. Sources familiar with Kellys thinking say he gets especially aggravated by the stories of cabinet secretaries traveling in style on taxpayer funds: Kelly cant fathom why cabinet secretaries keep making unforced errors that tar the administration and mock Trumps claims that he hired the best people to drain the swamp. why cabinet secretaries keep making unforced errors that tar the administration and mock Trumps claims that he hired the best people to drain the swamp. As CNN reported, the White House held meetings last month with four cabinet-level officials to discuss damaging stories about questionable ethical behavior at their respective agencies. (A White House official tells Axios that the meetings weren't dress-downs, but "positive" discussions about "smart ethical judgment," and are expected to happen with all cabinet secretaries.) Even the cabinet secretaries credited with policy wins for Trump such as Attorney General Jeff Sessions with his hardline law enforcement policies, and EPA administrator Scott Pruitt with his aggressive deregulatory agenda have either fallen out with Trump or caused unnecessary problems for senior staff. And on Sunday nights "60 Minutes," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has largely stayed under the radar since her tortuous confirmation hearings, struggled to provide answers when asked for evidence to back up her school choice policies in her home state of Michigan. "60 Minutes," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has largely stayed under the radar since her tortuous confirmation hearings, struggled to provide answers when asked for evidence to back up her school choice policies in her home state of Michigan. White House officials quickly leaked that they were "alarmed," upset and dumbfounded by her performance. President Trump holds a Cabinet meeting. (Kevin Dietsch / Pool via Bloomberg) Heres a sample of damaging stories from Trumps cabinet: Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is warring with the Trump political appointees in his agency and has infuriated Kelly by playing his own press agent and repeatedly going directly to the media to declare he has authority to fire the disloyal staff. The Shulkin controversy erupted after the VA's inspector general reported the secretary used taxpayer dollars to pay for his wife to go to Europe. Secretary David Shulkin is warring with the Trump political appointees in his agency and has infuriated Kelly by playing his own press agent and repeatedly going directly to the media to declare he has authority to fire the disloyal staff. The Shulkin controversy erupted after the VA's inspector general reported the secretary used taxpayer dollars to pay for his wife to go to Europe. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, per N.Y. Times, was "attempting to cancel a $31,000 order for a customized hardwood dining room table, chairs, sideboard and hutch the day after the chairman of the House Oversight Committee announced an investigation." Secretary Ben Carson, per N.Y. Times, was "attempting to cancel a $31,000 order for a customized hardwood dining room table, chairs, sideboard and hutch the day after the chairman of the House Oversight Committee announced an investigation." Pruitt, the EPA administrator, created terrible optics by flying first class on the taxpayer dime, and per WashPo, using a military jet, at a cost of $36,068.50, to catch a plane to Rome. created terrible optics by flying first class on the taxpayer dime, and per WashPo, using a military jet, at a cost of $36,068.50, to catch a plane to Rome. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has been under scrutiny for charter flights and angered Trump and senior White House officials when he made a surprise announcement which was legally and politically problematic that Florida would be exempt from offshore drilling. (The press reported this as a political gift to Floridas GOP governor Rick Scott.) Ryan Zinke has been under scrutiny for charter flights and angered Trump and senior White House officials when he made a surprise announcement which was legally and politically problematic that Florida would be exempt from offshore drilling. (The press reported this as a political gift to Floridas GOP governor Rick Scott.) Sessions or, as Trump called him, our beleaguered A.G. has kept his head down and delivered major policy wins, but Trump will never forgive him for his original sin of recusing himself from the Russia investigation, according to sources close to the president. Sessions latest misdemeanor was being photographed having dinner with Trumps arch-nemesis, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. or, as Trump called him, our beleaguered A.G. has kept his head down and delivered major policy wins, but Trump will never forgive him for his original sin of recusing himself from the Russia investigation, according to sources close to the president. Sessions latest misdemeanor was being photographed having dinner with Trumps arch-nemesis, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been on the wrong side of Trump on most major issues from the Jerusalem embassy move to the Paris climate accords, to his approach to North Korea. Rex Tillerson has been on the wrong side of Trump on most major issues from the Jerusalem embassy move to the Paris climate accords, to his approach to North Korea. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is one of Trumps favorites unfailingly loyal and helped deliver the ultimate policy victory in tax reform. But even he has been associated with media missteps. He still hasnt appointed a deputy, and provoked rare on-the-record scorn from Republicans over his handling of the debt ceiling. His wife, Louise Linton, recently told Elle Magazine she was super-duper sorry for all her self-presentation missteps. Steven Mnuchin is one of Trumps favorites unfailingly loyal and helped deliver the ultimate policy victory in tax reform. But even he has been associated with media missteps. He still hasnt appointed a deputy, and provoked rare on-the-record scorn from Republicans over his handling of the debt ceiling. His wife, Louise Linton, recently told Elle Magazine she was super-duper sorry for all her self-presentation missteps. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, whom Trump once lauded as a star, resigned over his misuse of private planes. Whats also true: The cabinet secretaries who are safest are the ones whove remained most invisible. Some have told us they keep their profiles extremely low, deliberately. The Under the Radar Club includes Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, new HHS Secretary Alex Azar, trade representative Bob Lighthizer, and Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon. The four exceptions are cabinet officials who are all visible, well-liked by Trump and have not contributed to the recent headaches: Defense Secretary James Mattis, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, CIA director Mike Pompeo, and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Be smart: Similar to his selection of Vice President Pence during the campaign, Trumps installation of Pruitt, DeVos and Pompeo in his cabinet gave a lot of comfort to the conservative movement. Oculus said it now has a software update to solve the expired certificate issue that left Rift owners unable to use their virtual reality headsets on Wednesday. Oculus announced the fix on Twitter and offered affected users a $15 store credit. Why it matters: The issue shows just how dependent modern devices are on software and the Internet to function. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah survived an assassination attempt against him this morning as he was entering the Gaza strip to participate in an opening ceremony for a water treatment facility funded by the World Bank. According to Palestinian officials, a roadside bomb exploded near one of the SUVs in Hamdallah's motorcade. The big picture: The assassination attempt took place hours before a special meeting on Gaza planned to take place today at the White House with the participation of several international donors to the Palestinians. Senior adviser Jared Kushner and special envoy Jason Greenblatt are supposed to present U.S. proposals for dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza at the meeting. The Palestinian Authority said a few days ago it will not attend due to President Trump's decision to move the United States' embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The details: Hamdallah, who arrived in Gaza with the head of Palestinian intelligence General Majed Faraj, was not hurt. Hamdallah left Gaza less than two hours after he arrived much earlier than expected. According to Palestinian official the perpetrators opened fire on the motorcade after the bombing. They said that seven security guards and aides to the prime minister suffered light wounds. At the ceremony in Gaza, Hamdallah said he will not be deterred by such attacks. He added he will visit Gaza again and, in a homage to former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, he said: "All those who have a problem with me coming to Gaza can go drink the water of the Gaza sea". Hamdallah also sent a message to the White House and said: "There is a meeting in Washington today we will not accept any attempt to bypass the Palestinian Authority and we will not accept any attempts to condition international assistance with political solutions." The assassination attempt is the most serious incident in Gaza since Fatah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's party that effectively rules the Palestinian Authority from the West Bank, and Hamas, the Islamic movement designated a terror organization by the U.S. that has controlled Gaza since a 2007 military takeover, signed another reconciliation agreement mediated by Egypt last October. The implementation of the reconciliation deal was very slow with both Fatah and Hamas stalling on their commitments. President Abbas called Hamdallah once he left Gaza. Abbas's office issued a statement stressing Hamas was responsible for the incident and blaming the organization for hampering the reconciliation efforts. The U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov issued a statement condemning the assassination attempt and called for a prompt investigation in order to bring the perpetrators to justice: "Until the legitimate Palestinian Authority is fully empowered in Gaza, Hamas has the responsibility to ensure that the Government is able to carry out its work in the Strip without fear of intimidation, harassment and violence. I commend the Prime Ministers leadership and continuing efforts to address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and achieve reconciliation. Those who inspired and perpetrated todays attack seek to undermine these efforts and destroy the chances for peace. They must not be allowed to succeed. U.S. special envoy Jason Greenblatt condemned the assassination attempt in a tweet: "We condemn attack against Rami Hamdalla. Gazans have been brought to the brink of collapse by Hamas, PIJ & other extremist groups. Attack on PA delegation opening water treatment plant is an attack on the welfare of the people of Gaza. Wishing a speedy recovery to the injured" Tuesday's special election in Pennsylvania's 18th district is too close to call with both candidates within one percentage point of each other. Democrat Conor Lamb is looking to beat out Republican Rick Saccone in a district President Trump carried by 20 points in 2016. Where it stands: Lamb (D): 49.8% Saccone (R): 49.6% 99% of precincts are currently reporting What we're waiting for: Some absentee ballots are not expected to be counted until the morning and leaves open the possibility for the victory to sway to either candidate. With the votes differing within a few hundred ballots, there will likely be a recount. About the race: Tim Murphy , the Republican who held the seat for 15 years, resigned in October after it emerged he had urged a woman he was having an affair with to have an abortion. , the Republican who held the seat for 15 years, resigned in October after it emerged he had urged a woman he was having an affair with to have an abortion. Millions of dollars have been poured into the race, with Republican groups outspending Democrats by a big margin. with Republican groups outspending Democrats by a big margin. President Trump has privately bashed Saccone as a "weak" candidate, but would be hoping to avoid the critical headlines a Lamb win would spark. Trump spent his weekend in PA campaigning on Saccone's behalf. as a "weak" candidate, but would be hoping to avoid the critical headlines a Lamb win would spark. Trump spent his weekend in PA campaigning on Saccone's behalf. Democrats, meanwhile, are desperate for an upset victory. We will continue to update the results as they come in. After months of media reports about a fractured relationship between President Trump and his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Trump tweeted today that CIA Director Mike Pompeo will replace Tillerson as head of the State Department. The State Department issued a statement that Tillerson had not spoken to Trump and was "unaware of the reason" for his dismissal. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. The timing: Trump's announcement comes just hours after Tillerson broke with the White House to blame Russia for the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom. But the Washington Post, which first broke the news, reported that Trump made his decision last week: "Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington." Yes, but: Senior state department officials are telling a different story: that Tillerson found out he was fired from Trump's tweet. And WashPost's Ashley Parker, who authored the original story, said it was "highly possible" that Tillerson "officially" learned of his firing via the tweet. Trump also said that he will nominate CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to head the spy agency. If confirmed, she would become the first woman to lead the CIA. The backdrop: This has been many months in the making. Axios' Mike Allen and Jonathan Swan first reported that Pompeo was in the running to replace Tillerson in October. They noted that Pompeo personally delivers the President's Daily Brief making him one of the few people Trump spends a great deal of time with on a daily basis and that the president is quite comfortable with Pompeo, asking his advice on topics from immigration to the inner workings of Congress. From State Department Under Secretary Steve Goldstein... "The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security. He will miss his colleagues at the Department of State and the foreign ministries he has worked with throughout the world. The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling. We wish Secretary Designate Pompeo well." From Trump's statement... "As Director of the CIA, Mike has earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community. I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture. He will continue our program of restoring Americas standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." "Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well." From Pompeo's statement... "I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State. His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further Americas prosperity." From Haspel's statement... "After thirty years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year. I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency." Go deeper: The high-profile Trump White House departures. There were no real surprises during the erstwhile Secretary of State Rex Tillersons visit to Africa. It is likely to be remembered merely for preceding his firing by President Donald Trump, which the White House linked to upcoming negotiations with North Korea, rather than to anything about his Africa trip. Why it matters: Trump and Tillerson had little personal chemistry and a host of policy differences, so the transition was expected. However, removing Tillerson at the tail-end of his first major official trip to Africa undercuts whatever promises he made or good will he may have won with African leaders, and would seem to be another manifestation of the administrations disregard for the continent. Tillerson visited Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Chad countries selected in large part for their security challenges, though no security cooperation initiatives seem to have been unveiled. He pledged more than $500 million in humanitarian assistance, though how much of that was new money (as opposed to funds left over from previous budgets) remains unclear. He criticized the human rights situation in Ethiopia and Kenya, but softened that message with praise for the two countries efforts at improvement. Tillerson also warned his hosts in harsh language of the dangers of an economic embrace with China and referred to increased trade and foreign direct investment, specifically the finalizing of the Continental Free Trade Agreement through the African Union. What's next: President Trump has nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo as the next secretary of state, but the administrations approach to Africa would likely change little under his leadership. John Campbell is the Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Political operative Roger Stone, an informal adviser to the Trump campaign, told two of his associates in 2016 that he'd been in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, per the Washington Post. An anonymous Stone associate cited in the report the other is Sam Nunberg claimed that Stone discussed hacked emails from the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta in Assange's possession in the spring of 2016. Why it matters: If the claims about Stone are true, he would have known about the hacked DNC and Podesta emails which the U.S. intelligence community determined came via a Russian hack months before their eventual release by WikiLeaks later in the summer and fall of 2016. Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has said Russia "is not to blame" for the nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy in the U.K., AP reports. The denial comes as the Kremlin has also asked the U.K. to open an investigation into the spy's daughter, per Reuters, and summoned the British ambassador to Russia, per the AP. The backdrop: U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May addressed the House of Commons on Monday and said "the [British] government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal." She gave the Kremlin 36 hours to come up with a credible response. Former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain in critical condition after the poisoning. The latest... Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, says no British media outlet will be permitted to work in Russia if the U.K. decides to shut down state-run network RT's broadcasts, per RT. The countdown: Prime Minister Theresa May has given Russia until midnight tonight to explain the use of a Russian-manufactured nerve agent on British soil against ex-spy Sergei Skripal. If Russia fails to provide an answer to the U.K.'s satisfaction, May promised "extensive" measures in response and didn't rule out punitive measures against RT in a speech to the House of Commons yesterday. The poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom represents an alarming new attack in Russias unconventional war on the West. Skripals poisoning follows the mysterious death in December 2016 of another former spy, Oleg Erovinkin, in Moscow, who was later reported to have been a source for the Trump "dossier." Between the lines: The Kremlin used the nerve agent Novichok as a calling card to signal that it can act with impunity and to scare off anyone contemplating disclosure of sensitive information about Russia's "active measures" against the West. Why it matters: Not only does this attempted assassination violate all norms of international behavior, it also breaks unwritten rules of spycraft holding that a formal exchange of agents precludes further retribution. In spite of President Trump's predictable equivocation regarding Russia's complicity, the UK and NATO response to this escalation of Russia's hybrid war must be swift and forceful. Michael Carpenter is senior director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. When Saudi Arabia opened the bid for construction of its first nuclear power plant, the U.S.based manufacturer Westinghouse was eager to beat out Russias Rosatom and China's National Nuclear Corporation for the deal. Last week Energy Secretary Rick Perry traveled to London to discuss the potential for a nuclear cooperation agreement with senior Saudi officials. Why it matters: In order to secure the deal, the Trump administration may relax the U.S.s gold standard nonproliferation guidelines conditions that would prohibit Saudi Arabia from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent fuel. In that case, neither outcome of the bidding process would come without downsides. The big picture: Enriching and reprocessing capabilities make it easy to exploit peaceful nuclear activities to develop a clandestine weapons program. Waiving the nonproliferation standard would open a pathway for Saudi Arabia to develop nuclear weapons as tensions with its regional rival, Iran, continue to escalate. Yet if the U.S. insists on the gold standard as a condition for this deal, Saudi Arabia could turn to Russia or China, costing the U.S. an important economic and diplomatic foothold in the region. The bottom line: Whichever course the administration pursues, the Saudi nuclear deal will carry a steep political cost, either compromising the United States' strong record on nonproliferation or allowing its leadership in the international nuclear industry to slip even further. Jackie Kempfer is a nuclear security research associate with the Promoting Security and Prosperity Initiative at the Stimson Center. Trump advisors and allies are floating the idea of replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo, age 53 someone who's already around the table in the Situation Room, and could make the switch without chaos. We're told that President Trump is quite comfortable with Pompeo, asking his advice on topics from immigration to the inner workings of Congress. that President Trump is quite comfortable with Pompeo, asking his advice on topics from immigration to the inner workings of Congress. Pompeo personally delivers the President's Daily Brief, making him one of the few people Trump spends a great deal of time with on a daily basis. delivers the President's Daily Brief, making him one of the few people Trump spends a great deal of time with on a daily basis. Pompeo is one of the few in the administration who knows how to convey tough news to the president, and how to push back without turning DJT off. (SecDef Jim Mattis is good at that, too.) one of the few in the administration who knows how to convey tough news to the president, and how to push back without turning DJT off. (SecDef Jim Mattis is good at that, too.) Trump doesn't see Pompeo as a showboat. see Pompeo as a showboat. Pompeo would take the job, as the cap to a career that included being a U.S. House member from Kansas. would take the job, as the cap to a career that included being a U.S. House member from Kansas. Pompeo would have credibility with world leaders, who'd know he was a legit part of the president's inner circle something no one thinks about Tillerson. Sources tell us Trump recognizes that a Cabinet shuffle would bring bad press. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly wants stability, and so is discouraging high-level departures before next year. And yet, insiders say Trump's relationship with Tillerson is broken beyond repair. We're told Trump was furious that Tillerson didn't try to blunt the story about him calling the president a "moron," by just going out and denying it (whether or not it actually occurred). After what Trump considered a strong trip to Vegas, he seethed when he got back and saw Tillerson's gaffe dominating cable-news coverage. Everywhere he flipped, there was Tillerson's face instead of his. considered a strong trip to Vegas, he seethed when he got back and saw Tillerson's gaffe dominating cable-news coverage. Everywhere he flipped, there was Tillerson's face instead of his. The relationship is so toxic, sources tell Jonathan Swan and me, that few in the White House think it can be rebuilt. There's zero trust between the West Wing and the State Department. is so toxic, sources tell Jonathan Swan and me, that few in the White House think it can be rebuilt. There's zero trust between the West Wing and the State Department. NBC, which broke the "moron" story, said the chief of staff "abruptly scrapped plans to travel with ... Trump on Wednesday so he could try to contain his boss's fury." Be smart: The breakdown in the relationship between a president and the Secretary of State has profound effects on American statecraft and the way foreign countries view this administration. Today, President Trump brought an end to the Rex Tillerson era, removing him as Secretary of State after months of disagreements over everything from Charlottesville to Russia. Why it matters: The relationship between the President and Rex Tillerson hasn't been good for months. Tillerson has broken with Trump on several important international issues and there were even reports that he had called Trump a "f****ing moron." Iran nuclear deal After Tillerson's firing, Trump brought up their differences over the Iran Nuclear deal. Tillerson has recommended that Trump re-certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal; while Trump has said the U.S. will pull out of the deal if big changes are not made. North Korea Trump and Tillerson's differences on this issue were laid bare in October when Trump tweeted, "I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man... Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!" Tillerson recently said several steps needed to be taken before talks with North Korea before Trump abruptly agreed to a face-to-face meeting. Charlottesville Following the racist rallies in Charlottesville, Tillerson told Fox News' Chris Wallace: "I don't believe anyone doubts the American people's values or the commitment of the American government, or the government's agencies to advancing those values and defending those values." When Wallace asked about Trump's values, Tillerson replied: "The president speaks for himself." Russia In September, when Trump was still calling Russia's interference in the U.S. presidential election a "hoax", Tillerson was spreading a message of vigilance: "When countries like Russia threaten their democratic neighbors by attacking the very foundation of our democracies, by meddling in our free and fair elections, we stand with our democratic partners. We call for greater vigilance and we work together to safeguard our democracies from interference in the future," he said. Qatar When Tump attacked Qatar for funding terrorism and supported the Saudi-led blockade, Tillerson muddied Trump's message, urging Qatar's neighbors to ease up on the blockade and engage in "calm and thoughtful dialogue." Venezuela Tillerson urged the White House last summer not to sanction Venezuela, but Trump considered it anyways, sources told Axios' Jonathan Swan. There are many conflicting reports about how Secretary of State Rex Tillerson found out he was fired. Tillerson "did not speak to the President [Tuesday] morning and is unaware of the reason" for his termination, said Steve Goldstein, the State Department's Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. He wasn't the only one to lose his job. The White House fired Goldstein for what they considered a contradictory account, per the AP. The State Department confirmed to Axios Goldstein is leaving. How Tillerson was fired: The Washington Post reported Tillerson found out last Saturday he was going to be replaced when Chief of Staff John Kelly called him. The Washington Posts Ashley Parker later walked their report back about the phone call this weekend, and clarified Tillerson was told his days were numbered, not that he was fired. NBC News reported Tillerson officially found out he was fired when he read Trumps tweet today. Bloomberg and the AP reported Kelly told Tillerson on Friday that he would be fired, but that the timeline was uncertain. AP cited a White House official who "said Chief of Staff John Kelly had called Tillerson on Friday and again on Saturday to warn him that Trump was about to take imminent action if he did not step aside, and that a replacement had already been identified," the AP's Josh Lederman and Matt Lee write. "When Tillerson didnt act, Trump fired him, that official said." The State Department did not immediately offer a comment on Tillerson's firing. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is currently touring Africa, declared Monday that the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the U.K. clearly came from Russia and vowed it will trigger a response, reports the AP. Why it matters: Tillerson is way out ahead of the White House here. Shortly after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May announced that her government had "concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible" for the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy and his daughter on U.K. soil, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to point the finger at Russia for the attack. President Trumps tariffs on steel and aluminum, authorized last Thursday, will likely come with costs to the global economic and diplomatic order that exceed their domestic benefits. Why it matters: The tariffs were intended to address Chinese economic practices that harm American workers. But in order to truly mitigate that harm, the U.S. would need to collaborate with Europe through institutions such as the World Trade Organization. Instead, Trump's tariffs will create tensions with our trading partners and undermine global stability. The potential tensions: EUU.S. relations: The Europeans will not accept a tariff hike without responding. As the world's largest trading bloc and importer of U.S. goods, the EU has plenty of leverage. EU retaliation could result in higher prices for Americans, a slower U.S. economy and, most important for the president, layoffs in key American labor sectors. Whats more: Trumps decision will further reinforce already negative European views of the U.S. administration. The Europeans will not accept a tariff hike without responding. As the world's largest trading bloc and importer of U.S. goods, the EU has plenty of leverage. EU retaliation could result in higher prices for Americans, a slower U.S. economy and, most important for the president, layoffs in key American labor sectors. Whats more: Trumps decision will further reinforce already negative European views of the U.S. administration. Managing China: Rather than checking Chinas ambitions, Trumps tariff move will allow Beijing to claim the moral high ground as a supporter of multilateral and open trade. It will also make it harder for U.S. and EU leaders to forge a joint strategy to address concerns about Chinese subsidies and dumping practices. Rather than checking Chinas ambitions, Trumps tariff move will allow Beijing to claim the moral high ground as a supporter of multilateral and open trade. It will also make it harder for U.S. and EU leaders to forge a joint strategy to address concerns about Chinese subsidies and dumping practices. An already-fraying global economic order: The Trump tariffs circumvent the World Trade Organization, the global referee underpinning a stable, multilateral trading system. Trump, an international institution skeptic, is already stalling the appointment of U.S. judges to the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. His invocation of a rarely used national-security clause to justify the tariffs will further undermine the WTO and set a dangerous precedent for other countries to act unilaterally in self-interest. The bottom line: Rather than checking Chinas ambitions as intended, the tariffs will likely create a vacuum of economic and diplomatic leadership for Beijing to fill. Erik Brattberg is director of the Europe Program and a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. President Trump told reporters as he left the White House Tuesday that he made the decision to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "by myself" and admitted that he "didn't really discuss it much" with Tillerson before announcing it on Twitter. His reasoning: Trump said that he appreciated Tillerson's commitment the position, but that the two "disagreed on things." The president said that he and Pompeo are much more aligned, adding, "From day one, I have gotten along with Mike Pompeo." Top quotes: Human rights investigators at the United Nations are saying that Facebook played "a determining role" in disseminating hateful rhetoric in Myanmar, Reuters reports. Close to 670,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees have fled atrocities in Myanmar's Rakhine State and the U.N. is investigating a possible genocide there. Why it matters: It's the latest accusation from around the world on Big Tech's influence and potential to cause harm. Everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar. It was used to convey public messages but we know that the ultra-nationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities. Im afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended. U.N. Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee to Reuters Facebook's response... Pressure is growing on President Trump to replace Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, with reports that Energy Secretary Rick Perry is being considered as a replacement and an influential Republican calling for Shulkin to be fired. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. The backdrop: As we reported this weekend, Trump has become increasingly fed up with Shulkin in recent days. A source with direct knowledge confirms the New York Times report that Trump has mentioned Perry as a possible replacement but other names are in the mix. Some senior staff will try to talk Trump out of picking Perry because that would mean two more confirmation votes (for Perry and his replacement) in addition to votes for the new secretary of State. Why Perry? The head of the Energy Department came to Washington to keep his head down and has kept Trump happy. Trump likes that Perry has a good relationship with Marcus Luttrell, the war hero whose story is told in the movie "Lone Survivor," and has been a strong advocate for veterans' issues. People expected him to come to DC and get media profiles, but he's stayed diligently out of headlines. Trump believes he's knowledgable on the issues and likes him. Yes, but: The president has also been heard throwing around other names as potential replacements for Shulkin. Just remember: this is Trumpworld, where nothing is ever final until Trump makes or tweets his decision. Perry's spokeswoman had no comment. Sources told the AP the Veterans Affairs departments inspector general is probing allegations that Shulkin asked a member of his security detail to run personal errands at a Home Depot and carry furniture items to his house David Brooks' N.Y. Times column, "Good Leaders Make Good Schools," spotlights the importance of grade school principals in setting a culture "by their very behavior the message is the person." Why they matter: "Principals raise expectations and alter norms. ... When you learn about successful principals, you keep coming back to the character traits they embody and spread: energy, trustworthiness, honesty, optimism, determination." By Trend An Azerbaijani delegation took part in the 13th meeting of the TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) intergovernmental commission, held in Yerevan, and achieved all the set goals, a source in the Azerbaijani government said March 12. According to the source, everything was good for the Azerbaijani delegation. "The delegation, headed by National Secretary of Azerbaijan in TRACECA Akif Mustafayev, also consisted of the representatives at the level of deputy head of the department of the Foreign Ministry, head of the department of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, as well as chief adviser from the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies," the source said. The source said that the delegation had a number of important tasks. "In particular, one of the tasks was to prevent the election of TRACECA secretary general. The matter rests in the fact that according to the provisions on the Secretariat, the secretary general is elected for a period of two or three years and the next meeting of the intergovernmental committee will be held in Baku in 2019. Therefore, if the election of the secretary general had been held in Yerevan, then the election would not have taken place in Baku and the elected candidate would have been the secretary general during the presidency of Armenia and during the presidency of Azerbaijan, the source said. A decision was made that this does not correspond to the interests of Azerbaijan, and perhaps, the secretary general elected in Yerevan would more serve the interests of Armenia. However, due to the conducted work, the election of the secretary general was not held because there was no consensus, and the term of the presidency of the current secretary general was extended for another year, the source said. Thus, the election of a new secretary general will be held at the 14th session of the intergovernmental commission in Baku in 2019. Of course, the representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia cannot be elected TRACECA secretary general as the countries are at war. In Baku, the election will be held on the conditions that the countries will be notified in advance of the candidates who will present their programs for the development of the corridor, which has not been done before, the source said. Presently, there is a certainty that all TRACECA members will have the opportunity to choose the most worthy person who will serve the development of the corridor." The source added that the Azerbaijani delegation managed to achieve the cancellation of the adoption of the declaration of the 13th meeting. "The phrase, which was in favor of Azerbaijan, about the reference to the declaration of the Baku summit of 1998 was deleted from the text of the declaration to be adopted, the source said. The Azerbaijani delegation stopped the process of adopting the declaration. Therefore, taking into account that Armenia wanted to make its own additions, the declaration was not adopted. Only resolutions were adopted. So, the goals and tasks set for the delegation were completely fulfilled." The source also noted that the Turkish delegation did not participate in the meeting. "Before the meeting of the intergovernmental committee, Yerevan canceled the protocols on the normalization of the Armenia-Turkey relations, which were signed in Switzerland, the source said. In response, Turkeys representative did not come to the meeting. Thus, there were not flags of Turkey and Uzbekistan at the venue, although these countries are members of the multilateral agreement. At the request of the Azerbaijani side, the flags of Turkey and Uzbekistan were hung along with the flags of other 11 countries." The source said that the security of the Azerbaijani delegation was ensured at a high level. "In this regard, appeals were made at the highest level to TRACECA secretary general and Armenia," the source said. TRACECA is an international program of cooperation in the field of transport between the EU and partner countries in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia. The organization has a permanent secretariat in Baku. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Rashid Shirinov A memorandum of understanding, aimed at expanding and strengthening economic and trade ties as well as business relations between azerbaijan and India, will be signed within a business forum on March 13, Indian Ambassador to Baku Sanjay Rana said at a press conference in Baku on March 12. The chambers of commerce and industry of Azerbaijan and India, the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs (Employers) Organizations of Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) will sign the document, the ambassador noted. The Secretary General of the Indian Commerce and Industry Chamber Saurabh Sanyal, in turn, noted that Azerbaijan and India need to expand trade turnover. Noting that this figure was $462 million in 2017, he said that it does not correspond to the available potential. India and Azerbaijan enjoy close friendly relations based on historical links and growing bilateral cooperation. Data of Azerbaijani State Customs Committee shows that of $462.5 million trade turnover last year, export from Azerbaijan to India amounted to $365.5 million. As for Indias export to Azerbaijan, it rose by more than 60 percent in 2017. The items of imports from India are mainly clothes and textiles, information technologies, food items and heavy machinery. Rana also said that Indian companies are interested in establishing joint ventures with Azerbaijan in the field of pharmaceutics. India is famous for its pharmaceutical industry. Indian companies are interested in opening joint ventures in the field of pharmaceutics, in particular in the territory of the Pirallahi Industrial Park, he noted. The diplomat said that negotiations are already underway in order to establish such an enterprise in Azerbaijan by Indias Sun Pharma and Azerbaijans Gilan Holding. Currently, a number of plants for production of pharmaceutical products, including joint Azerbaijani-Russian and Azerbaijani-Iranian plants, are being created in the Pirallahi Industrial Park. Ukraine and Belarus have also expressed interest in setting up joint pharmaceutical ventures. The Pirallahi Industrial Park, specializing in the production of pharmaceutical products, was established by the presidential order in September 2016. Investors engaged in industrial parks in Azerbaijan are exempted from the value added tax (VAT), customs duties, as well as contributions on compulsory state social insurance for seven years. Rana also noted that Azerbaijan and India are discussing the opening of direct flights. He said that on March 13, a delegation from India will arrive in Baku to hold talks with Azerbaijan Airlines CJSC. Direct flights will help to increase the tourist flow between the countries and develop business relations. Negotiations in this direction are being held, however, only at the initial level, the diplomat said. Previously, Rana noted that in addition to regular flights, the possibility of launching commercial flights is being discussed with entrepreneurs. This, of course, will depend on the development of inexpensive packages in accordance with the needs of tourists, said Rana. Given that Azerbaijan has been gaining prominence in the world tourism map over recent years, easier and faster travel by direct flights with India could further improve the tourism sector of both countries. Direct flights would also create new business opportunities in tourism. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Rashid Shirinov President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly George Tsereteli has paid an official visit to Baku, where he attended the first conference of Silk Road Support Group of the OSCE PA as well as discussed the cooperation of the OSCE PA with Azerbaijan, the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and other issues. At the meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov later in the day, Tsereteli said that the OSCE PA will observe the presidential election in Azerbaijan proceeding from an unbiased and neutral position. The sides discussed issues of cooperation between the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Azerbaijan. They stressed importance of constructive dialogue and development of ties in the spirit of mutual understanding. Mammadyarov and Tsereteli positively assessed the active participation of the Azerbaijani delegation in the work of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the initiative to develop cooperation. The sides also exchanged views on the negotiation process conducted with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Mammadyarov stressed that attempts to change the internationally recognized borders of states with the use of force are unacceptable. The minister said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved within the internationally recognized territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan on the basis of the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and the Helsinki Final Act. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict 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 regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijans territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions. In an interview with reporters on March 13, Tsereteli said that Azerbaijan is an important member of the Silk Road Support Group. He said the OSCE PA has a big delegation from Azerbaijan, which makes good initiatives, including the development of a special group to support the Silk Road project. We see the first results of these efforts, which were supported by many members of the PA and by many delegations. Currently, 22 countries are members of this group, Tsereteli said. In 2013, China proposed the One Belt, One Road initiative that focuses on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries. The strategy consists of two main components: the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the ocean-going Maritime Silk Road. The strategy envisages creation of a trade corridor for direct supplies of goods from the east to the west on preferential terms. Considering the fact that Azerbaijan is located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and thus is a key link in the Silk Road Economic Belt, Baku initiated the creation of the Silk Road Support Group. In his interview, Tsereteli also mentioned that peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the main goal of the OSCE, which is actively involved in the resolution of all conflicts in the region. Participation in the settlement and peaceful resolution of conflicts is one of the most important and priority tasks for the Parliamentary Assembly, and for the OSCE itself, Tsereteli said. Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, we certainly support the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. The OSCE Minsk Group is co-chaired by France, the Russian Federation, and the United States. Although the Minsk Group deals with the issue for over two decades, its activities have brought no breakthrough results so far. First Conference of Silk Road Support Group Later in the day, Tsereteli addressed the first conference of Silk Road Support Group of the OSCE PA. Creation of a stable economic route is a common goal of the countries participating in the Silk Road, and Azerbaijan makes a great contribution to this route, he said. Tsereteli noted that achieving economic prosperity requires cooperation between all participating countries of the route. Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is an ideal example of a corridor between east and west. Such projects are vital economic bridges between countries, the OSCE PA president added. Mammadyarov, in turn, noted that Azerbaijan is working to lure investments in development of new trade routes. In particular, Azerbaijan held negotiations with Deutsche Bank and a number of other potential investors from countries interested in these routes, he said. The foreign minister stressed that Azerbaijan is expanding its investment potential by creating favorable conditions for foreign investors, as well as developing priority non-energy areas for attracting investments. Mammadyarov noted that the development of international transport routes makes a significant contribution to the economic development of the OSCE region. The Silk Road route will serve as an important momentum for economic development of not only Azerbaijan, but all countries participating in the route, he added. President of the Montenegrin Parliament Ivan Brajovic, who also addressed the conference, said that his country will provide real support for the development of the Silk Road. Montenegro will work to provide favorable conditions for the participants of the route. The conference, being held in Azerbaijan, will not pursue virtual goals, and the sides of the Silk Road project will see the results of cooperation soon, he said. Chinese Ambassador to Azerbaijan Wei Jinghua, in turn, said that the cooperation between Azerbaijan and China within the Silk Road project as well as the One Belt, One Road initiative is an important factor in increasing the flow of cargo from China to Europe. He noted that these projects will significantly expand Chinas economic cooperation with the countries of Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Europe. The routes supported by China will bring economic benefits to at least 80 more countries, Jinghua added. TRACECA Secretary General Mircea Ciopraga, who also joined the conference, noted that TRACECA offers close mutually beneficial cooperation to the Silk Road Support Group. The basis of partnership for all parties is to gain mutual benefit from teamwork, and active involvement in high-level international events, where there is room for exchange of experience and knowledge gained by our countries participating in the TRACECA corridor is very important, Ciopraga said. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz The development of beekeeping in Karabakh and a large harvest will lead to a decrease in the cost of honey, Badraddin Khasratov, chairman of the Association of Beekeepers of Azerbaijan, told Trend. By Rashid Shirinov A statement of the new OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, that Italy will try to intensify the dialogue between the OSCE member states during its OSCE chairmanship indicates Italy's interst in the resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. A political scientist Ilshat Aydarov made the remarks in his interview with Day.Az on March 11. During his recent speech at the UN Security Council meeting in New York, Alfano noted that OSCE will continue to support the work of the Minsk Group co-chairs for the final settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Aydarov said that the statement of the Italian diplomat shows that this year the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs will make much more efforts in the negotiation process than in previous years. I think that Italy can render proper assistance in the Karabakh settlement through the current mandate of the country presiding in an authoritative international organization, the expert said, noting that Italys initiative in this matter is important at this stage, when there is a certain activity of the Minsk Group co-chairs. The Minsk Group spearheads the OSCE's efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is co-chaired by France, the Russian Federation, and the United States. Although the OSCE Minsk Group deals with the issue for over two decades, its activities have brought no breakthrough results so far. Aydarov mentioned that over the years, the OSCE Minsk Group has not taken any real steps towards resolving the conflict through negotiations, but recently there has been some activity in the negotiation process. He suggested that there are certain prerequisites for the problem to move off dead center in foreseeable future. The political scientist further noted that it is quite logical that Azerbaijan expects the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to take practical steps to settle the long-standing problem, especially during the chairmanship of Italy, with which Azerbaijan has good relations. There are reliable partnership relations between Azerbaijan and Italy, which were facilitated by trust-based political dialogue and economic cooperation. This fact gives grounds for Baku to expect more concrete steps and actions from Italy towards the Karabakh settlement, Aydarov said. Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years. Until now, Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Nigar Pashayeva This year Azerbaijanis celebrate one of the most significant Yel Chershenbesi (Wind Tuesday), the third of four magic Tuesdays before the most-loved ancient Novruz holidays, on March 13. Celebrations of festive Novruz, which is marked on March 21, begin a month before the actual holiday with four natural elements such as Su Chershenbesi (Water Tuesday), Od Chershenbesi (Fire Tuesday) Hava Chershenbesi (Wind Tuesday) and Torpaq Chershenbesi (Earth or Last Tuesday). This Tuesday also symbolizes the capital of Azerbaijan, since Baku is well-known as city of wind. Therefore, citizens of the land of fire and wind have numerous beliefs connected with this magic and airy day of Novruz Holiday. According to tradition, Azerbaijanis always solemnly celebrated the third Tuesday because precisely in this day wind animates nature, opens the buds of trees. Sunshine makes air warmer and village inhabitants prepare for the spring-field works. Housewives also have own errands not only in villages but also in the urbanized cities. According to the tradition of celebration, women ventilated the house and carried out to ventilate matrices, pillows, blankets, carpets. House should be filled with the fresh air which embodies arrival of spring. In the kitchen should be cooked pilaf in milk or friable pilaf from bulgur, because they are as light and airy as the day of the windy feast. Apart from pilafs, the table has to be decorated with the abundance of dried fruits and different desserts from seeds, especially semeni halvasi - delightful dessert on the juice of the germinated grains of wheat. Wind Tuesday is also noteworthy because in this they members of the family tie red ribbon over the semeni. Third Tuesday is also noted in Azerbaijani folklore where is said that in the Wind Tuesday four winds, namely: ag-yel (white wind), qara-yel (black wind), xazri (Northern wind) and gilavar (Southern wind) released from the black jar and each of them are dressed in clothes of particular colors. So, White Wind and Black Wind are dressed in white and black colors, respectively, Northern Wind in blue, and Southern in red. Alongside four winds of the land of wind and fire in the local folklore is also mentioned Yel Baba (Father of Winds), who reflected in folklore as the old man. This mythical man helped find a way to home in the case if someone is got lost. Of course, the main rite of the Tuesday is fire, which is allowed to kindle in the previous Fire Tuesday. According to beliefs, the wind blows away from the people around the fire all their adversities. Happy Chershenbe! -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order on measures to improve the provision of irrigation water to sown areas and meet the population's drinking water needs. Under the order, 21 million manats will be allocated from the state budget to the OJSC Melioration and Water Economy of Azerbaijan to design and drill subartezian wells to improve the supply of irrigation water to 8,740 hectares of sown areas in 248 settlements, 38 cities and districts with a population of about 597,000 people, as well as to meet the needs of irrigated soil in irrigation water, as well as the population's drinking water needs. The Cabinet of Ministers is instructed to resolve issues arising from the order and the Finance Ministry is tasked to provide financing indicated in the order. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will observe the presidential election in Azerbaijan proceeding from an unbiased and neutral position, OSCE PA President George Tsereteli said during a meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku on March 12. The sides discussed issues of cooperation between the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Azerbaijan. They stressed importance of constructive dialogue and development of ties in the spirit of mutual understanding. Tsereteli expressed confidence that the holding of the first international session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Silk Road Support Group in Baku would make a significant contribution to strengthening of the cooperation. The active participation of the Azerbaijani delegation in the work of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the initiative to develop cooperation was positively assessed. During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the negotiation process conducted with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs for the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Mammadyarov stressed that attempts to change the internationally recognized borders of states with the use of force are unacceptable. The minister said that the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved within the internationally recognized territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan on the basis of the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and the Helsinki Final Act. At the meeting, the sides also touched upon the forthcoming presidential election in Azerbaijan. Mammadyarov stressed that the election will be held in a free, fair, transparent and democratic atmosphere and will reflect the will of the people of Azerbaijan. The minister noted that the Central Election Commission (CEC) is professionally performing preparatory work for the upcoming election. The sides exchanged views on the prospects for development of relations between Azerbaijan and the OSCE PA, the issues on the OSCE agenda. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva A third regular meeting of representatives of the Caspian littoral states to discuss a draft agreement on trade and economic cooperation kicked off in Ashgabat, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message on March 13. The meeting was organized by the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Finance and Economy, and the State Enterprise for Caspian Sea Affairs under the President of Turkmenistan. Heads, leading specialists and experts of the relevant ministries and departments of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan took part in the meeting. The meeting noted that a lot of work was done over the past period on practical implementation of the previously reached agreements. Significant progress was made on a number of new normative and legal documents, which are planned to be signed in a five-sided format. They include the agreement on trade and economic cooperation among the Caspian littoral states, designed to promote the comprehensive strengthening and expansion of mutually beneficial economic ties. The negotiators stressed that the draft agreement, developed by the Turkmen side, is aimed at boosting mutually beneficial trade and economic ties among the Caspian littoral states. The legal document is designed to simplify and intensify the interaction of the parties in industry, agriculture, trade, tourism and other areas, responding to the interests of the peoples of the regional states, contributing to sustainable development and strengthening of friendship among the neighboring countries on the Caspian Sea. The participants of the meeting noted that the Caspian region, in the context of the globalization of the world economy, is playing an increasingly leading role in the Eurasian space as one of the most important geopolitical, trade-economic, energy and transport-communication centers. Therefore, the establishment of coordinated international cooperation based on clear legal norms and mutual consideration of the interests of the Caspian states is of high importance and urgency. The sides also paid particular attention to the initiative to establish a permanent Caspian Economic Forum, designed to become a negotiation platform for representatives of the government and businesses from the Caspian littoral states. Such a forum is designed to facilitate the establishment of fruitful contacts with world business and authoritative international organizations, opening more opportunities for productive partnership. Its meetings will be held alternately in the cities of the Caspian littoral states, which will allow maintaining a regular constructive dialogue taking into account the interests of all sides. During the two-day meeting, it is planned to discuss the draft agreement, as well as exchange opinions and agree on positions regarding separate articles of the agreement. The previous meeting on this issue was held in the Turkmen capital in April 2017. The Caspian Sea is surrounded by the five coastal countries of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. The Sea has a total surface area of 371,000 square kilometers, holding 78,200 cubic kilometers of water. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva The terms for completion of the construction of the gas pipeline to Astana were announced at a government session in Kazakhstan on March 13. Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev spoke about the plan to build a natural gas pipeline to Astana, Kazinform reported. Addressing the session, he noted that a special working group at the ministry is working on the implementation of the roadmap for the construction of the pipeline. The minister stressed that the aforementioned roadmap provides for the Ministries of Energy, Investment and Development, as well as regional administrations (akimats) and KazTransGas joining efforts in terms of developing the design estimates and allocation of land for the construction of the Kyzylorda-Zhezkazgan-Karaganda-Temirtau-Astana pipeline. This work, according to Bozumbayev, is scheduled to be completed by this July. By June 2018, the Ministries of Finance, Energy, National Economy, Samruk Kazyna Fund, Baiterek Oil Company, KazMunayGas JSC in partnership with the regional administrations should develop the scheme and terms of financing of the project, he added. Thus, Samruk Kazyna should either create or appoint a subsidiary responsible for the implementation of the project and form a sufficient charter capital to attract funding, according to the minister. The deadline for this has been set for June 2018. Bozumbayev added that the akimats need to speed up the design and construction of gas distribution networks, stressing that this work has to be completed by December 2019. The construction of the natural gas pipeline from south to north of Kazakhstan is one of the Five Social Initiatives proposed by President Nazarbayev at a joint session of the parliament on March 5. The Ministry of Energy is responsible for the gasification of Astana. In June, it is planned to attract funds from international financial organizations for the construction of the first stage of the Saryarka main gas pipeline. Akims along the line of this gas pipeline will allocate plots. The completion of the construction of the gas pipeline is scheduled for next year. The project on gasification of Astana, northern and central regions of Kazakhstan will allow providing efficient and convenient heating system, increasing the power output. New Saryarka pipeline will provide consumers with domestic natural gas from Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent main pipeline. This project is one of priority projects for KazTransGas JSC. Specialists of the company chose the most efficient construction variant for its implementation considering the use of operating pipelines currently kept in conservation. It is expected to allow reducing sufficiently the net cost of the pipeline construction and setting comfortable gas price and rates for consumers. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz AUSTIN Pipe bombs hidden inside packages left at two separate Austin houses killed a teenage boy and seriously injured two women within hours Monday morning, spurring an investigation by Austin police who believe the attacks are linked to an earlier attack and may be racially motivated. The first box detonated Monday in the Springdale Hills neighborhood of east Austin after the teenager brought it from the front porch into the kitchen to open it. The 17-year-old was killed, and a woman in her 40s was injured, police said. Five hours later, as police were investigating the first explosion, another blast occurred at a home about five miles southeast in the Montopolis neighborhood near the airport. A 75-year-old woman suffered life-threatening injuries after she picked up a package left at her front door. The explosions appeared similar to an explosion on March 2 that killed a 39-year-old northeast Austin man. In each case, the explosions came in the early morning hours from boxes left on front doorsteps. None was delivered by a mail service, police said. We are looking at these incidents as being related, based on similarities that we have seen in the initial evidence that we have on hand here today, compared to what we found on the scene of the explosion that took place a week back, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said. The explosions Monday come as tens of thousands of people have descended on the states capital for the annual South by Southwest conference and festival. The explosions did not occur near any of the SXSW events. Manley said investigators are working to determine if the bombings were hate crimes because the victims in the early-morning explosion and the one a week ago were black. The third victim was Hispanic. Two law enforcement sources said all three explosions were caused by pipe bombs. We don't know what the motive behind these may be, Manley said. We do know that both of the homes that were the recipients of these packages belong to African-Americans, so we cannot rule out that hate crime is at the core of this. But we're not saying that that's the cause as well. Austin police warned residents to immediately report any suspicious packages and not to touch or move them. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo offered similar warnings to Houstonians. What can happen there can happen here, and its a moment we can all learn from: Be suspicious of things you dont expect in the mail, he said. Acevedo, the former police chief in Austin, said he had spoken with Manley and offered the support of the Houston Police Department. It breaks your heart that you see people getting killed by a cowardly act, somebody so callous they would send a package with explosive devices in it, he said. $15,000 reward offered In response to the bombings, federal law enforcement officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the investigation, moving in from Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. Were aware of the explosions, were present and were assisting APD, said Rosanne Hughes, spokeswoman for the FBIs San Antonio Field Office. Nicole Strong, an ATF spokeswoman, said agents from the bureaus National Response Team were also on their way to Austin, bringing experience in fire origin and cause, forensic chemistry, explosives, fire protection and fire accelerants. The team responded to the 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon and high-profile bombings such as the 1996 blast at the Olympics in Atlanta. Gov. Greg Abbott said his office is offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of anyone involved in the incidents. I want to assure all Texans, and especially those in Austin, that local, state and federal law enforcement officials are working diligently to find those responsible for these heinous crimes, Abbott said in a statement. As the investigation continues, the State of Texas will provide any resources necessary to ensure the safety of our citizens, and quickly bring those guilty to justice. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, like Abbott, called on all residents in the state to be cautious. Call 911 immediately if you receive something suspicious, he said on Twitter. 'We want the answers' Concerns among Austin residents grew by the hour. It could have easily happened in our home, said Corazon Renteria, whose son went to school with the teenage victim killed by the first bomb in East Austin. She later heard the bomb go off at the second home in the Montopolis neighborhood near the airport but thought a gas stove had exploded. We want the answers, she said. Why these people? Why that home? Answers were few Monday, but officials said they were working to track down whoever is responsible. We do not have a specific victimology or ideology that we have identified, so assigning a motive to this at this point, were not able to do that at the stage were at in the investigation, Manley said. If you know anything about these attacks, it's imperative you come forward and let us know. Neighbor Brandon Rendon was making breakfast with his family Monday morning when he heard the explosion go off four houses down the street. I don't feel safe, said Rendon, a 27-year-old contractor, as he stood on a neighbors lawn outside the police tape that blocked off his street. It just feels overwhelming. Michael Booker, 76, who lives about a block away from the house where the first blast occurred Monday, said he didnt find out about the explosion until a friend called to check on him. After learning of the second blast, he questioned what was happening. What are they trying to do, send us a message? he asked. Booker said the neighborhood is extremely quiet and predominately black, but that homes have been selling quickly and more white families are moving in. Its safe and neighbors know one another, he said. A few houses down, Lamont Tucker, 45, said he was pretty concerned. A lot of us have lived here 40-plus years. Weve never heard of such a thing, Tucker said. I am not trying to live my life scared of everything, but its shocking. At the scene of the third explosion, Isaiah Guerrero, 15, said he heard an explosion after 11 a.m. just one street over. It shook my house and my body, said Guerrero, who is on spring break from school. Neighbors said the 75-year-old victim lived at the home as a caretaker for her aging mother, whom children on the street affectionately called abuela, meaning grandmother. The neighborhood is largely Latino, filled mostly with older residents or multigenerational families who have owned homes there for years. Ongoing concerns Officials made efforts to reassure the revelers at South by Southwest, a popular event that draws celebrities and others from across the country. Its important for those who are here in Austin to be aware of whats going on, said Manley, adding that conference visitors should have fun while theyre in Austin. There is no reason to believe you are at greater risk. Civil rights advocates said they were monitoring the developments Monday and had been in touch with authorities but were waiting for more information. Were very concerned, based on what has happened, but were upset about all human life at this point and until we know something more specific, said Nelson Linder, with the Austin chapter of the NAACP. But of course the fact that it appears two African-Americans so far were targeted is a major concern. St. John Barned-Smith, Allie Morris and Peggy Fikac contributed to this report. We could praise Beaumont ISD for doing the right thing last week and releasing Bevil Oaks students to the Hardin-Jefferson school district after years of pleas from the town's residents. But the facts are it should have happened long ago, and it might have been going to happen anyway. > > ARTICLE: Beaumont ISD releases Bevil Oaks to Hardin-Jefferson Multiple times over the past 30 years, Bevil Oaks has tried unsuccessfully to leave BISD. Last spring, residents renewed their efforts, citing less distance to Hardin-Jefferson, better academic results and safer schools. Hardin-Jefferson agreed to let them in. But BISD's board of managers rejected the petition in May on the grounds that it didn't meet the criteria for detachment from the district - basically a formula relating to enrollment and tax base and subject to interpretation. Bottom line: The district didn't want to lose the money. Bevil Oaks appealed the decision, and an administrative law judge in Austin ruled in December that detachment was legal. A hearing scheduled for last week was waived, and the parties agreed to the order releasing the city to Hardin-Jefferson, which Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath signed off on. BISD might have seen this coming and decided to be gracious before a defeat. Or it might have realized that the last thing it needs as it tries to polish its public image is a skirmish with a small, resolute group making unflattering comparisons between it and another school district. Or it might have come to the conclusion that given current circumstances - the challenges the district already faces with merging two high schools into one, the ravaged state of Bevil Oaks after Tropical Storm Harvey or the fact that at last count, a third of Bevil Oaks children designated for BISD schools had transferred to Hardin-Jefferson - it was in students' best interests to accede to Bevil Oaks' request. We'd like to think so. ----------------------------------- This is our opinion; what is yours? Email us a letter to the editor at opinions@beaumontenterprise.com Make sure to include your name, mailing address and phone number so we can contact you to verify the letter, but only your name and city of residence will be published. You can also mail letters to The Enterprise, P.O. Box 3071, Beaumont, TX, 77704. The limit on letters is 200 words. Physicians, medical groups and coding experts requested 25 diagnosis codes at the ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting, March 6 and 7, along with 16 procedural codes. Here are six key ICD-10-CM proposals to know. 1. Physicians proposed a unique set of diagnosis codes for each of the 13 types of Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes, which are connective tissue disorders that affect areas including the joints, bone and muscle. 2. The American Academy of Ophthalmology requested new codes for examinations in which patients fail vision screening, as well as additional codes for orbital roof and wall fractures. These requests had been presented at previous committee meetings and were modified based on feedback. 3. A group of physicians submitted changes to coding for intracranial hypotension. The proposed changes would differentiate between cranial and spinal cerebrospinal fluid leaks, which have differing causes, symptoms, complications, diagnostic testing and treatments. 4. A proposal requested creating a code to distinguish between patients that leave against medical advice after seeing a provider from those that leave before being seen by a provider. 5. The American Academy of Neurology proposed replacing the term "neuropacemaker" with the term "neurostimulator" to describe implanted devices used for treating multiple disorders, including chronic intractable pain, urinary and fecal incontinence, and gastroparesis. The organization also requested including terms that encompass the full range of neurostimulator sites. 6. ICD-10-CM currently doesn't contain a code recognizing rheumatoid arthritis patients in remission. The American College of Rheumatology recommended creating such a code, as patients in remission might not require the same treatment as patients with active rheumatoid arthritis. On behalf of The American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities I am writing in response to a Kaiser Health News and IndyStar article titled How a push to cut costs and boost profits at surgery centers led to a trail of death. This article provides an inaccurate impression of safety in accredited outpatient surgery facilities. Accreditation is defined as a process that a health care institution, provider, or program undergoes to demonstrate compliance with standards developed by an official agency. Patient safety is built on a platform of accreditation requirements upon which must stand on good clinical judgment by clinicians. Outpatient surgical facility accreditation is concerned with patient safety from the facilitys perspective. In most states, The Board of Medical Examiners, determine acceptable physicians judgment. Such is not the purview of the accrediting bodies. The American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities applauds the efforts of the other outpatient accrediting organizations, all have standards which promote patient safety. AAAASF places patient safety at the core of its mission. AAAASFs overriding focus is to mitigate untoward events through preparedness. AAAASF accomplishes this goal by requiring 100 percent compliance with all standards. The standards include requirements for written protocols, procedural blueprints, conditions and essential elements. The standards cover the surgical environment and physical plans of the operating suite. Provisions encompass emergency evacuation of a patient to a hospital, fire protection, intruders, power failures and temperature controls. Other standards define equipment necessary for anesthesia, the operating room and the recovery room. There are protocols for instrument sterilization and patient monitoring in both preoperative and postoperative as well as cleaning the facility to ensure sanitary conditions. Crash cart necessities dictate medications, equipment and algorithms essential in case of malignant hyperthermia, cardiac or pulmonary arrest. AAAASF standards mandate the presence of necessary personnel for all procedures. Physicians must be board certified by a recognized certifying board and are required to possess hospital privileges for each procedure performed within the AAAASF Accredited Facility. Nursing and all medical personnel must be trained in hazard safety, blood-borne pathogens, universal precautions and must hold either basic life support or advanced cardiac life support certifications. A physician be immediately available, until the patient is discharged. Medical records must include appropriate evaluations and documentation of care. These standards are applicable to the surgeon, anesthesia professionals and nurses. Appropriate patient selection is critical to a successful outcome. No patient can undergo surgery in an AAAASF facility with a preexisting medical condition that would dictate the need for a hospital environment. Patient selection is a critical interface between surgeon and anesthesia professional judgment, as well as guidelines predetermined by the facilitys policies. Facilities must comply with quality assurance, performing on-going assessments and continuous reviews of processes that may be improved. Every accredited facility is required to perform mandatory biannual peer review reporting. The data encompasses the number of cases performed, as well as any complications and mortalities occurring within 30 days of the procedure. Through our research, we have found that most postoperative deaths are not caused by practices of the facilitys staff. AAAASFs Investigative Committee is comprised of surgeons and anesthesiologists who review all post-op deaths that occur within 30 days of a procedure. Facilities who fail to report such incidents are in jeopardy of losing their accreditation. The sporadic anecdotal reports of three or four deaths occurring during or after a procedure in an outpatient center does not suggest that accredited outpatient facilities are not safe. This would be analogous to stating that an airplane crash denotes the airline industry unsafe. Additionally, the same unfavorable outcome may occur in a hospital setting. AAAASF peer review data is analyzed and evaluated to validate the reliability of the standards. Currently, a team of Harvard physicians is tasked with performing this analysis. The results of the data analysis unequivocally establishes a high level of patient safety in AAAASF accredited facilities. A paper is pending publication in the July 2018 issue of the monthly peer reviewed journal, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The paper highlights issues with the complication of pulmonary emboli from deep vein thrombosis, which are blood clots that can occur in the legs or abdomen and travel to the lungs causing mortality. DVT/E is one of the leading causes of deaths in both accredited outpatient facilities, as well as hospitals. Accreditation is a thorough and stringent process. Many of the protocols parallel those in acute care facilities. AAAASF accreditation ensures that facilities function at a high standard. In review of over 20 million procedures, our data demonstrates that AAAASF accredited facilities are at least as safe as hospitals and licensed ASCs and perhaps even safer. Without question, AAAASF is the gold standard in accreditation. Editor's note: This response has been lightly edited for style. A Philadelphia jury awarded the estate of a 65-year-old deceased man $6 million after his physicians disregarded two seperate recommendations from radiologists to send the man for an MRI, The Legal Intelligencer reports. Here's what you should know. 1. The man was diagnosed with hepatitis C and cirrhosis in 2007. He became a patient of gastroenterologist Steven Lichtenstein, MD, and primary care physician Harvey Soifer, MD, in 2009. He then became a patient of Eugene Choi, MD, in 2010. All three physicians are affiliated with Philadelphia-based Mercy Health System. 2. The man underwent an ultrasound ordered by Dr. Choi in December 2010. The radiologist recommended the man undergo the MRI to look for liver cancer. 3. Between December 2010 and April 2013, the man met with the three physicians multiple times, but none of the physicians ordered an MRI. 4. The man was admitted to a hospital in April 2013 because of blood in his stool. He underwent a CT scan of his abdomen and pelvis and a radiologist recommended an MRI. Once again, the physicians didn't order the MRI. 5. In June 2014, Dr. Lichtenstein ordered an ultrasound, which found no evidence of a mass. In October 2014, the man was admitted to an emergency room with severe abdominal pain. A CT scan was performed showing a ruptured liver mass, which was later confirmed by MRI. A biopsy confirmed the mass had originated from liver cancer. 6. The man was a poor candidate for surgery. He died Nov. 9, 2014. 7. The defense argued the physicians didn't order the MRI because the man had undergone "several radiology studies" in the past and none had showed signs of hepatocellular carcinoma. The patient also had several other comorbidities. Dr. Choi said the man had, "outlived his life expectancy." 8. Despite the $6 million award, Dr. Lichtenstein and Dr. Soifer already settled with the family for confidential amounts before the trial. Dr. Choi was found to be 32 percent liable, however Dr. Choi and the man's estate entered into a high-low agreement before the jury came back with the verdict. The estate will receive an unspecified amount. Sixty-two percent of healthcare executives indicated their organization experienced a cyberattack in the past 12 months, according to a survey by cybersecurity solutions provider Merlin International and the Ponemon Institute. For the survey, the organizations asked 627 healthcare executives how their organizations are addressing challenges with cybersecurity. Here are the top five items healthcare executives indicated threat actors targeted from their organizations. 1. Patient medical records: 77 percent 2. Patient billing information: 56 percent 3. Log-in credentials: 54 percent 4. Passwords and other authentication credentials to systems, servers or applications: 49 percent 5. Clinical trial and other research information: 45 percent To access the "2018 Impact of Cyber Insecurity on Healthcare Organizations" survey, click here. Cerner, which lost out on an EHR contract at Chicago-based University of Illinois Health in late 2017, claims the hospital's contract with Epic will cost taxpayers nearly $100 million in excess costs, according to NBC Chicago. In September 2017, UI Health's board of trustees voted to move forward in the contracting process for an Epic EHR implementation. The board awarded the Verona, Wis.-based vendor a $62 million, seven-year deal. Nearly three months later, Cerner filed a protest with Illinois' chief procurement office for higher education over the Epic contract, alleging the bidding process was unfair and tainted by a possible conflict of interest. Cerner claimed its bid was $1.5 million lower than Epic's and included all implementation costs while Epic's didn't. However, the state rejected the protest in January, ruling Cerner didn't submit a proposal demonstrating its technical qualifications at the minimum required level and noting it awarded Epic the contract through a request for proposals, not a competitive bidding process. Now Cerner is claiming if UI Health still goes with Epic, the deal will hurt taxpayers. "I smell a rat here," Mara Georges, Chicago's former Corporation Counsel who currently serves as Cerner's Chicago attorney, told NBC Chicago. "The taxpayers of the State of Illinois are entitled to an explanation, and an explanation has not been forthcoming!" Ms. Georges said the proposals were supposed to consider all costs associated with the overhaul, but Epic's failed to mention other costs associated with implementation, which could drive total costs as high as $100 million. She said Cener's all-encompassing bid was only $60.5 million, and added that Cerner was never given the opportunity to demonstrate its software's capabilities but Epic was. "For whatever reason, there was an interest in making sure Epic was awarded this contract," Ms. Georges told NBC Chicago. "It appears there was favoritism toward Epic, and that procedures were not followed to give everyone involved in the process a fair shake." Although a UI spokesperson told NBC Chicago the process abided all procurement processes under state law, the Illinois Procurement Policy Board scheduled a session for March 20 to address the contracting concerns. New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System is partnering with Hudson Yards, a new neighborhood on Manhattan's West Side, to open a clinic for only Hudson Yards employees, residents and families. Here are three things to know about the project. 1. The 18,000-square-foot health center will be located on the second floor of a residence and office complex called 55 Hudson Yards. 2. Open extended and weekend hours, the center will offer follow-up care coordination, prescription delivery services to Hudson Yards offices and homes, alternative and physical therapies, as well as home and office visits with an on-call medical team. 3. If a Hudson Yards resident or employee requires offsite treatment, Mount Sinai healthcare navigators will refer patients to any of Mount Sinai's locations. 4. The center, led by Mount Sinai internist Tina Sindwani, MD, is scheduled to open in early 2019. Advocate Health Care, a 12-hospital system based in Downers Grove, Ill., saw its financial position improve in 2017, according to recently released bondholder documents. The system ended 2017 with revenues of $6.2 billion, up from $5.6 billion in the year prior. Advocate saw net patient service revenue drop 6 percent year over year, but that decline was offset by an increase in capitation revenue, which nearly doubled year over year. After factoring in an increase in expenses, Advocate ended 2017 with operating income of $219.7 million. That's down 16 percent from operating income of $263.6 million in 2016. Fueled by strong investment gains, Advocate's net income climbed 36 percent year over year to $811.3 million in 2017. In December 2017, Advocate entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care. The combined system, called Advocate Aurora Health, would include 27 hospitals, have annual revenues of about $11 billion and serve nearly 3 million patients each year. The parties expect the transaction to close in late March or early April. More articles on healthcare finance: Tenet eliminates poison pill, adopts governance changes Wisconsin hospital at risk of losing Medicare contract over injuries to babies 94-year-old California hospital on active earthquake fault to close: 6 things to know Somerset, Ky.-based Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital CEO Tim Bess resigned March 5, according to a Commonwealth Journal report. Mr. Bess left to "pursue other leadership opportunities within [Brentwood, Tenn.-based] LifePoint Health," Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital's parent, the report states. He assumed the CEO role at the hospital in 2014, prior to which he was CEO of Wythe County Community Hospital in Wytheville, Va., another LifePoint facility. During Mr. Bess' tenure, the hospital affiliated with UK Markey Cancer Center in Lexington, Ky., for radiation oncology services and established a patient-or family representative-specific seat on its board of trustees. Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital COO Elizabeth Jones took over as interim CEO while the hospital searches for a permanent successor, according to the report. Salem, Mass.-based North Shore Medical Center, part of Boston-based Partners HealthCare, is working to make its board look more like its patient population to satisfy state requirements for a $207 million expansion project, according to a report from The Salem News. NSMC plans to close Lynn, Mass.-based Union Hospital in October 2019 and consolidate it with Salem (Mass.) Hospital as part of the expansion project. However, many critics of the hospital closure voiced concerns that just one of 24 trustees on NSMC's board was a Lynn resident despite that 39 percent of the medical center's patients live in Lynn. Due to these concerns, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health required NSMC to create a board "with cultural, ethnic and gender diversity that is reflective of communities it serves" as a condition of its approval of the expansion plan, according to the report. So far, NSMC has appointed four new trustees, three of whom work or live in Lynn. Here are the new board members. Dharma Cortes, PhD, social scientist, Lynn resident Gargi Cooper, nurse practitioner, Lynn Community Health Center Jay McManus, director, Children's Law Center of Massachusetts in Lynn Johanna O'Connor, MD, chair of anesthesia, NSMC Read the full story here. More articles on leadership and management: New Nashville mayor: I'm committed to having a public safety net hospital in our community Free medical care clinic in Nebraska cuts only paid position Azar set to testify March 15 in defense of 2019 budget A New York physician filed a counter-lawsuit in state Supreme Court March 6 against a former resident who claimed the physician repeatedly raped her while she completed rotations at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center, according to the Democrat & Chronicle. Here are four things to know about the case. 1. Katia Kaplan-List, MD, filed a lawsuit last month against Johan Blickman, MD, PhD, a pediatric radiologist at URMC. According to the lawsuit, cited in a March 1 report by the Democrat & Chronicle, Dr. Blickman repeatedly raped Dr. Kaplan-List and attempted to involve her boyfriend in a plot to murder his ex-wife, among several other allegations. 2. A URMC spokesperson previously told the publication via email the university received word of an "inappropriate relationship" between Dr. Kaplan-List and Dr. Blickman through her lawyer in 2016, two years after Dr. Kaplan-List completed her rotations at URMC. The spokesperson said the university "took action" after they received news of the relationship in 2016. "Last week, the university received a complaint in which new and different allegations have been made against Dr. Blickman by Dr. Kaplan-List, some of which would be serious criminal offenses if proven true," the spokesperson told the Democrat & Chronicle March 1. "Dr. Blickman is on (paid) leave and we will review these new allegations as we prepare our response to the complaint, but we have not received a law-enforcement inquiry related to them." 3. In his countersuit filed March 6, Dr. Blickman claimed he and Dr. Kaplan-List engaged in a "consensual romantic and sexual relationship" from September 2014, when she finished her last URMC rotation, to January 2016. Dr. Blickman's lawsuit claimed the university investigated their relationship in June 2016 and issued a finding Sept. 16, 2016, which found the relationship to be consensual and did not violate any policies, according to the report. 4. Dr. Blickman's lawsuit alleges Dr. Kaplan-List's complaint was meant to "maliciously defame Blickman and his reputation within the community and medical profession and monetarily capitalize by the false and salacious accusations contained therein," according to the report. The lawsuit also notes Dr. Kaplan-List's lawyer previously failed to file the lawsuit correctly, and that all civil claims are outside of the statute of limitations for the case. To access the full Democrat & Chronicle report, click here. The following healthcare mergers, acquisitions, partnerships and general transactions took place or were announced during the week of March 5. 1. UNC Health Care, Wake Forest Baptist ink deal to transition ownership of High Point Regional Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health Care signed a binding agreement March 8 to transfer ownership of High Point (N.C.) Regional Health. 2. Cleveland Clinic + 4 others among finalists to partner with Boca Raton Regional Hospital Boca Raton (Fla.) Regional Hospital entered into negotiations with five health systems March 8 to potentially form a strategic partnership. 3. Trinity Health in talks to sell New Jersey assets to Virtua Health 3 months after failed merger Carbondale, Pa.-based Maxis Health reportedly entered into a nonbinding agreement March 8 to sell Lourdes Health System, a two-hospital system in Camden, N.J., to Virtua Health. 4. Cleveland Clinic, Avita Health System partner on cancer care The Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center and Avita Health System, a three-hospital system in Galion, Ohio, launched their affiliation March 6 to expand patients' access to oncology and specialized treatment services. 5. State endorses Beth Israel Deaconess, Lahey Health proposed merger: 4 things to know The Massachusetts Department of Public Health approved the proposed merger between Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Burlington, Mass.-based Lahey Health and three other healthcare organizations March 5. 6. State OKs Southern New Hampshire Health, Elliot Hospital combination The New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General signed off on the proposed combination of Manchester, N.H.-based Elliot Health System and Nashua-based Southern New Hampshire Health March 5. 7. UAB Health System signs second affiliation agreement in 4 weeks Birmingham-based UAB Health System signed a strategic and operational affiliation March 5 with Infirmary Health, a five-hospital system in Mobile, Ala. 8. UPMC finalizes affiliation with Cole Memorial Hospital Coudersport, Pa.-based Cole Memorial Hospital officially completed its integration with Pittsburgh-based UPMC March 1. 9. Ascension expands footprint with acquisition of Presence Health: 4 things to know St. Louis-based Ascension Health, the largest nonprofit health system in the nation and the largest Catholic health system in the world, has finalized its acquisition of Presence Health, a Catholic health system in Chicago. 10. UCSF Health, Sonoma Valley Hospital ink affiliation agreement: 5 things to know San Francisco-based UCSF Health and Sonoma (Calif.) Valley Hospital signed an affiliation agreement March 1 to create an integrated healthcare network. 11. Columbus Regional finalizes merger with Piedmont Healthcare Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare officially integrated Columbus (Ga.) Regional Health March 1, making Piedmont a 10-hospital system. 12. Ardent finalizes joint venture with U of Texas to acquire Texas health system Nashville, Tenn.-based Ardent Health Services and Tyler, Texas-based UT Health Northeast finalized their joint purchase of East Texas Medical Center Regional Healthcare System, also in Tyler, March 1. 13. Quorum Health sells 70-bed Illinois hospital Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health completed the sale of 70-bed Vista Medical Center West in Waukegan, Ill., to New York City-based US HealthVest on March 1. Detroit Medical Center's Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital in Commerce Charter Township, Mich., confirmed a judge granted its motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by nurses against the hospital. Here are six things to know. 1. Judge Martha Anderson in Oakland County Circuit Court dismissed the lawsuit Feb. 28. 2. The lawsuit centered on Assignment Despite Objection paper-form based complaints filled out by nurses. The forms were part of a report submitted to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs alleging various patient safety violations at the hospital. 3. The nurses claim hospital officials refused to accept and respond to the forms. Hospital officials said the lawsuit calls on Huron Valley to recognize and implement this paper-form based complaint process. But they said doing so "would not only be inefficient and impractical, but is also an action pre-empted by federal labor law." 4. The hospital, which is in contract negotiations with nurses, ultimately filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming state courts cannot lawfully get involved on either side during bargaining. 5. Hospital spokesperson John Truscott said in an emailed statement to Becker's: "We respect the decision of the Oakland County Circuit Court to grant our motion to dismiss what was a baseless lawsuit. At Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital we continue to work collaboratively to negotiate in good faith with the union representing our nurses to arrive at a mutually acceptable contract." He also noted the hospital's quality achievements, including recognition as a Top Hospital for Safety and Quality by Leapfrog Group and earning Magnet Recognition by American Nurses Credentialing Center. 6. Nurses represented by Michigan Nurses Association-affiliated Professional Nurses Association of Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital disagreed with the judge's decision and plan to appeal. "We believe there is strong evidence that Huron Valley executives violated Michigan's public health code by refusing to accept and respond to reports by nurses of unsafe conditions in the hospital," the union told Becker's via email. "Michigan law requires that a hospital respond to such reports within 60 days but Huron Valley never responded at all, because they never accepted the reports in the first place. "And of course, our members at Huron Valley remain extremely concerned about the consequences of short staffing We are continuing to try to resolve these concerns at the bargaining table with Huron Valley and statewide through legislation that would cover all Michigan nurses and hospitals." More articles on human capital and risk: What Is Geofencing and How Can It Help Talent Acquisition? 18k Kaiser nurses vote for option to strike at California facilities Union nurses in Michigan host patient safety rally at Ascension hospital A National Labor Relations Board judge ruled against Napa, Calif.-based Queen of the Valley Medical Center Feb. 28 on issues regarding caregivers who supported unionization. Here are six things to know. 1. Judge Sharon Levinson Steckler ordered Queen of the Valley Medical Center to continue bargaining in good faith and reverse retaliatory actions taken against the more than 400 employees who voted to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers in November 2016, according to a union news release. 2. NUHW said the judge found the hospital had committed a "litany" of violations against those employees, including one case where a pro-union employee's shift was changed, forcing her to give up her second job. 3. The judge's ruling comes after the NLRB filed a "bad faith bargaining order" against Queen of the Valley Medical Center last year related to the election. 4. Union officials said the hospital initially worked with NUHW but later "abruptly withdrew recognition, claiming that the labor board erred in conducting the election by mail rather than inside the hospital. Since last March, the hospital has refused to honor its agreements with NUHW, provide workers with union representation, or bargain a contract unless we agreed that the contract could be voided if the hospital succeeded in overturning the election." 5. According to NUHW, the judge allowed two weeks for the hospital to comply with her ruling. 6. Queen of the Valley Medical Center's CEO, Larry Coomes, disagreed with the ruling. In a statement to Becker's, he said the "decision is not final and will be reviewed by the National Labor Relations Board ... Either party can appeal the NLRB's decision to the federal court of appeal to determine whether the regional office of the NLRB properly certified the election. We strongly believe that pursuing our appeal to the highest allowable court is necessary to protect the rights of our employees and is consistent with our mission of inclusion for all." More articles on human capital and risk: What Is Geofencing and How Can It Help Talent Acquisition? 18k Kaiser nurses vote for option to strike at California facilities Union nurses in Michigan host patient safety rally at Ascension hospital Oaks Bluff, Mass.-based Martha's Vineyard Hospital filed a legal complaint against former President and CEO Joe Woodin, who was ousted from the role in June 2017, according to a MV Times report. Here are eight things to know: 1. The complaint, filed in the Dukes County Superior Court, alleges Mr. Woodin defaulted on a $250,000 promissory note he signed Jan. 5, 2017. 2. Per the note, Mr. Woodin was meant to pay the hospital $50,000 per year as well as accrued and unpaid interest at 1.95 percent. However, Mr. Woodin has not paid the hospital any amount in relation to the note, according to the complaint. 3. The complaint also notes the hospital can call back the full promissory note amount if "the borrower ceases (voluntarily or involuntarily) to be an employee of the lender," according to the report. 4. Mr. Woodin's abrupt ouster in June 2017 drew criticism from the community. Many rallied around him and voiced their concerns on Facebook and at local meetings. 5. Although Timothy Sweet, the hospital board chairman, took responsibility for the confusing way Mr. Woodin's departure was handled, the board firmly stood by its decision to fire Mr. Woodin. 6. Mr. Woodin was recently named CEO of South Peninsula Hospital in Homer, Alaska. 7. Mr. Woodin filed for arbitration in relation to his ouster in October 2017. The hospital filed counterclaims, which included "the claim of breach over the promissory note, on Dec. 14, 2017," the MV Times reports. 8. Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services is mediating the negotiations. The case is set to go before a judge, however hearing dates have not been set. Martha's Vineyard Hospital had not yet returned Becker's Hospital Review's request for comment at the time of publication. Attorneys on behalf of Chicago filed a federal lawsuit March 6 against three of the largest opioid distributors in the U.S. for allegedly contributing to a public health crisis related to the "unfettered and unlawful distribution" of opioids in the city, according to a report from the Chicago Sun-Times. Here are seven things to know. 1. The lawsuit names AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corp., as defendants. Collectively, the three companies account for 90 percent of all prescription drug distribution revenue in the nation. 2. Chicago saw more than 740 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2016, marking a 75 percent surge from the year prior, according to the Sun-Times. 3. Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel attributed the rise in opioid addiction and overdoses in Chicago and nationwide to the oversupply of the drugs. "Chicago is continuing our legal fight to end irresponsible practices and hold companies accountable for their deceptive actions that cause serious damage to individuals, families and neighborhoods, and has helped fuel the heroin epidemic in Chicago," said Mr. Emanuel. 4. John Parker, senior vice president of the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, a national trade group representing drug wholesalers, told the Sun-Times via email the opioid crisis is a "complex public health challenge that requires a collaborative and systemic response that engages all stakeholders." "Given our role, the idea that distributors are responsible for the number of opioid prescriptions written defies common sense and lacks understanding of how the pharmaceutical supply chain actually works and is regulated," said Mr. Parker, according to the Sun-Times. 5. In 2014, Chicago became the first city to file a lawsuit against drugmakers for concealing health risks associated with opioids. Many other cities and counties across the nation have filed similar lawsuits, but so far Chicago's case is the only one to reach the discovery portion of the lawsuit. 6. On March 8, the city announced a $225,000 investment in the Chicago Recovery Alliance. The initiative seeks to train community members who have experience with opioid addiction to become peer health workers to connect community members with treatment centers, increase awareness about opioid addiction and distribute naloxone within in the community, among other efforts. 7. Naloxone distribution through the Chicago Recovery Alliance helped reverse 1,544 overdoses in 2017. More articles on opioids: Trump administration considers death penalty for opioid drug dealers Boston hospitals face opioid shortage: 3 things to know House committee to consider 20+ opioid bills over 2 days As the Trump administration considers strategies to combat the opioid epidemic, it is weighing policy that would make dealing drugs a capital offense, among other more stringent, noncapital punishment, according to a report from The Washington Post. The Domestic Policy Council and the Department of Justice are investigating policies and could announce potential changes within weeks, according to the report. Senior administration officials told the Post that the White House is particularly interested in drug policy from Singapore, where drug dealers can receive the death penalty. Currently in the U.S., the death penalty only applies to the following drug-related offenses: Murder in a drive-by shooting Murder with a firearm, related to drug trafficking crime Murder related to drug trafficking Death of a law enforcement officer related to drug crime Read the full story here. More articles on opioids: House committee to consider 20+ opioid bills over 2 days NQF issues guide for safe opioid prescribing: 3 things to know Kentucky AG files fourth opioid crisis lawsuit Citing a decline in the number of acute burn injuries in children, Tampa, Fla.-based Shriners Hospitals for Children proposed a plan to consolidate burn care across its 22-hospital network, reports The Boston Globe. It is unclear whether the consolidation plan will result in burn center closures or just condensed services. The consolidation plan, which would include these details, are expected to be finalized in July. Mel Bower, a spokesperson for Shriners, told The Globe the demand for pediatric burn care has decreased and hospital officials have a duty to monitor the "financial efficiency" of services they provide. "By consolidating our burns services and utilizing technology and other resources available to us, we believe we can serve our domestic and international patients more effectively and efficiently," Mr. Bower said. Of Shriner's 22-hospital network, just four locations offer burn services nationwide. Two of those, Shriners Hospitals for Children-Boston and Shriners Hospitals for Children-Cincinnati, are being targeted for cuts in the consolidation plan. Becker's Hospital Review reported these 13 contract resolutions and dissolutions between payers and providers since Jan. 1, beginning with the most recent. 1. Piedmont, BCBS negotiations stall ahead of March 31 deadline Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare still lacks a new contract with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia. 2. Yale New Haven Health, Anthem reach 3-year agreement Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health will remain in Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's network through 2020 under a new contract. 3. Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Florida Blue reach contract impasse Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Hospital and Florida Blue have yet to reach an in-network agreement as a March 31 termination deadline looms. 4. BCBS of Texas: Texas Health Resources seeks nearly $1B in rate increases Arlington-based Texas Health Resources will no longer be in Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas' network if both parties don't reach a new agreement by March 31. 5. 2 OSF hospitals back in network with BCBS Two hospitals recently acquired by Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare from Chicago-based Presence are back in network with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois as of Feb. 16. 6. Disney partners with 2 Florida health systems to offer HMO plans: 4 things to know Walt Disney Co. has contracted directly with Orlando (Fla.) Health, which owns six acute care hospitals, and Florida Hospital in Orlando, which has more than 20 campuses, to roll out two insurance plans for Disney employees in central Florida. 7. Augusta Health gets 3,700+ signatures on petition against Anthem Fishersville, Va.-based Augusta Health launched an online petition to gather support in its ongoing dispute against Anthem. 8. Aetna inks value-based agreement with Community Care of North Carolina Aetna's Medicaid members will gain access to Community Care of North Carolina's physician network and care management services under a new agreement. 9. Froedtert South reaches 3-year agreement with Anthem Kenosha, Wis.-based Froedtert South signed an in-network agreement with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. 10. Nemours reaches in-network agreement with managed care plan AmeriHealth Caritas Wilmington, Del.-based Nemours Children's Health System joined Medicaid managed care plan AmeriHealth Caritas' provider network. 11. UPMC, Highmark to extend in-network access to 10+ hospitals UPMC and Highmark, both in Pittsburgh, inked a deal ensuring Highmark policyholders in-network access to UPMC's community and specialty hospitals. 12. Premier Health, UnitedHealthcare end 7-month impasse; 200k members in-network Dayton, Ohio-based Premier Health and UnitedHealthcare agreed to a new, multiyear contract, effective Jan. 1. 13. Humana Tricare members regain in-network access to 5 Tenet hospitals Beneficiaries covered under Humana Tricare regained in-network access Jan. 1 to Birmingham, Ala.-based Brookwood Baptist Health's hospitals, outpatient centers and physician clinics, which are owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare. Ohio residents with Anthem insurance told The Plain Dealer they fear Anthem's discretionary emergency department policy will negatively affect them. Here are six things to know from the article. 1. Anthem rolled out its controversial ED policy in Ohio Jan. 1. Under the coverage change, the insurer reviews diagnoses after members' ED visits. If their condition is determined to be nonemergent, Anthem may not cover their ED claims, with several exceptions. 2. The Plain Dealer asked readers Feb. 22 to submit their experiences under the new policy. "Readers say they are afraid to visit the emergency room and potentially be saddled with expensive medical bills," the newspaper found. 3. One reader who is covered through his wife's Anthem policy, Matt Vale, told The Plain Dealer, "I wonder every day if me or my wife have a trip to the ER, will it be covered?" 4. Ohio Department of Insurance Assistant Director of Public Affairs Chris Brock told the publication the agency will continue to monitor the policy change. Mr. Brock also strongly encouraged Anthem members to review and file a complaint with the department if they have a concern about their claim. 5. Anthem has said its ED policy aims to cut the costly and improper use of EDs for nonemergent reasons. The policy is in effect across Ohio, Indiana, New Hampshire, Missouri, Georgia and Kentucky. 6. The Ohio American College of Emergency Physicians, Ohio Hospital Association and Ohio State Medical Association are collecting ED claims Anthem denies to submit to the Department of Insurance, according to the report. More articles on payer issues: How health insurers game Medicare Advantage ratings to boost bonus payments Cigna's stock price tumbles on news of deal with Express Scripts 8 quotes from Alex Azar's speech on the transition to value-based care Acting CDC Director Anne Schuchat, MD, on March 12 denied recent media reports suggesting the CDC epidemiologist who's been missing for a month was passed over for a promotion prior to his disappearance, according to a report from CBS News. In early March, multiple media outlets reported Dr. Timothy Cunningham, team lead for the CDC's division of population health, met with a supervisor Feb. 12 to discuss why he hadn't received a promotion the week before he went missing, citing comments from an Atlanta police official. Dr. Cunningham left work early that day after telling colleagues he didn't feel well. He has not been seen since. "Today marks one month since Commander (CDR) Timothy Cunningham was last seen, and we have not given up hope that he will soon be found," Dr. Schuchat said. "There has been news coverage that Commander Cunningham recently did not receive a promotion. As many of his colleagues in the [U.S. Public Health Service] have pointed out, this information is incorrect." Dr. Schuchat added Dr. Cunningham was promoted to commander effective July 1, 2017. The promotion was reflective of "his excellence as an officer and an employee." Atlanta Police Sgt. John Chafee told CBS News the department stands behind previous statements made regarding Dr. Cunningham's employment, citing the CDC as the direct source of the information. Dr. Cunningham's family on March 6 increased a reward for information on his whereabouts to $15,000. More articles on population health: Healthy Nevada Project combines genetics with population health for new study States with strictest gun laws linked to fewer murders, suicides: 6 study findings 140k+ Americans died of alcohol, drugs or suicide in 2016: 3 things to know A study published in the CMAJ examined the risk of stroke among patients with dengue. Researchers gathered data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. They studied 13,787 patients with dengue newly diagnosed between 2000 and 2012. They matched the dengue patients to a control cohort of patients who did not have dengue by demographic characteristics and stroke-related comorbidities. The study shows the overall incidence rate of stroke was 5.33 per 1000 person-years in the dengue cohort and 3.72 per 1000 person-years in the control cohort. The risk of stroke among patients with dengue was highest in the first two months after diagnosis. "The effect of dengue on stroke may be acute rather than chronic," study authors noted. A nurse suspended from Madison, Wis.-based UnityPoint Health-Meriter amid unexplained injuries to newborns was also allegedly let go from a previous nursing role at Madison-based UW Hospital, according to WAOW Newsline 9. UW Hospital spokesperson Toni Morrissey told WAOW the nurse worked in a residency program at the hospital from July to October 2003, but declined to comment on his departure from the hospital. However, a source close to the situation said the nurse claimed he was fired over what he said was absenteeism, according to WAOW. Meriter suspended the nurse Feb. 9 after five babies in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit suffered various unexplained injuries, ranging from bruises to a skull fracture, since April 2017. Due to the ongoing investigation into the nurse's actions, Meriter spokesperson Jessika Kasten told WAOW she is unable to comment on whether the hospital knew the nurse was previously fired. Federal officials said two infant bruising events in February prompted Meriter officials to look at past incidents for any connection. Officials discovered the nurse had cared for all of the babies who experienced injuries. Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare, formed through a series of mergers and acquisitions, unites a diverse group of healthcare providers. In the early stages of its formation, the health system's five acute care hospitals all functioned using their own enterprise resource planning and clinical information systems, while other providers, such as physician groups, used smaller systems or manual processes with limited technology platforms for supply chain functions. "As Hartford HealthCare continued to mature and build its network by acquiring additional entities, the need for one ERP system and a single source of truth for financial and supply chain data became critical to building a foundation for integrating these new facilities into one common platform efficiently," according to Christopher O'Connor, author of "The Healthcare Supply Chain: Best Practices for Operating at the Intersection of Cost, Quality, and Outcomes," and the book's expert contributors from the healthcare consulting firm Nexera and its sister group purchasing organization Acurity. Hartford HealthCare's improvement efforts are detailed in a case study featured in the book. Each chapter includes best practices for achieving optimal performance in the central areas of supply chain operations, as well as additional areas closely tied to the supply chain in a value-based environment. Hospital supply chain professionals can determine where their supply chain department stands with the Hospital Supply Chain Performance Self-AssessmentTM, a free online tool that benchmarks current individual hospital supply chains' performance against the areas covered in the book. Here is an excerpt of Hartford HealthCare's case study in the book. Hartford HealthCare started with a clear set of strategic goals: Have one ERP system for the entire health system that would serve as the source of truth for data and one supply chain team at the corporate level Use a single set of item descriptions systemwide, with one ERP item number for each item (one item master shared across the entire health system for all acute care entities) Implement systemwide business processes to support data management Align the procure-to-pay process across all Hartford HealthCare entities Improve automation and efficiencies for the end users Align procurement data with health records to support a clinically integrated approach to improving quality and reducing costs Methodology Hartford HealthCare selected one ERP system to provide overall support for its facilities. It created a project team, including functional team leads, project management, change management and training to ensure successful implementation in each institution and facilitate each go-live. A new cross-functional content management team comprising members from supply chain and finance was developed to maintain key data elements to support new business processes. Hartford HealthCare standardized policies, procedures and business process workflows. Improvements to the new ERP system included the following: Partnering with suppliers for direct connection functionality to expand the item master without having to build and maintain the items Dramatically improving the number of electronic data interchange transactions for purchase orders and invoices Real-time interface with clinical charging system Subscribing to modules for item cleansing and purchasing contract price management software to interface with the ERP system Establishing an ERP governance structure to monitor requests for ERP upgrades or enhancements Creating a standard process for onboarding new departments or entities everyone follows the same model Results In 2015, Hartford HealthCare adopted a standardized procurement system at three acute care facilities, with all Hartford HealthCare entities scheduled to be on board by early 2018. One ERP system now supports the procure-to-pay business process, with flexibility to get additional entities on board using a consistent, coordinated approach. Hartford HealthCare moved from multiple acute care item masters to a single source of truth, which has further contributed to standardizing supplies. The single ERP system has improved efficiency by reducing off-contract spending, which has led to cost savings. Having the ERP system interface with its clinical system helps avoid discrepancies, further contributing to efficiency and smooth operation. Price negotiations and product recall support have been improved through the use of historical data. There is better communication and collaboration between system support departments, including accounts payable, purchasing, content management, finance, revenue cycle and information technology services. The ERP system provides shared data, robust reporting and analytic development. As Hartford HealthCare continues to build its operations using Lean principles (the system for creating more value using fewer resources), it will use this data to eliminate waste, increase capacity in its organization and further enhance its business processes so that they are more efficient and customer-focused. How does your hospital perform on the cost-quality-outcomes spectrum? Take this Hospital Supply Chain Performance Self-Assessment to find out. Chief of Adult Reconstructive Surgery at Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center Craig Della Valle, MD, was named the 28th president of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons. Here are five things to know: 1. Dr. Della Valle's practice focuses on primary and revision total knee replacements. In addition to his clinical practice, he serves as the Aaron G. Rosenberg Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Rush. 2. Throughout his career, Dr. Della Valle has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications on topics such as partial and total knee and hip replacements. 3. Dr. Della Valle completed his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia and his fellowship at Rush University Medical Center. He also completed fellowship training in orthopedic research at the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City. 4. Since entering practice, Dr. Della Valle has performed more than 9,000 hip and knee replacements, and he travels extensively to share his research. 5. Dr. Della Valle previously served as the chair for the education and communications council, committee on committees and bylaws, education committee, nominating committee and patient education committee for AAHKS. He is currently a member at large on the AAHKS board of directors. Atiq Durrani, MD, was accused by his patients of performing unnecessary and unsatisfactory surgeries at The Centers for Advanced Spine Technologies in Cincinnati, WLWT 5 report. The spine surgeon denied any wrongdoing and shut down allegations of misconduct. However, in separate dispositions, Dr. Durrani's colleagues spoke about their experiences working alongside him, noting something was wrong. Here are five insights: 1. Nael Shanti, MD, was another spine surgeon at CAST. He was hired under the impression of becoming a partner with Dr. Durrani; however, during his three years of employment no partnership was made. 2. Dr. Shanti testified as part of the civil lawsuit filed by Dr. Durrani's patients. He noted Dr. Durrani often arrived late for cases and began new cases without finishing the case prior. Dr. Durrani is also accused of operating on multiple patients at the same time. Dr. Shanti also testified Dr. Durrani would allegedly not let him be part of a patient's initial or follow up exams and consultations. 3. Zeeshan Tayeb, MD, was a pain management specialist at Dr. Durrani's private practice. He recalled one time when Dr. Durrani was allegedly performing the wrong surgery on a patient. With Dr. Durrani allegedly operating on a portion of their patient's spine that was not injured. However, when concerns of Dr. Durrani's behavior were brought up, he was met with apprehension. Physical therapist Jeff Angeline noted when he went to Dr. Durrani with concerns, Dr. Durrani left the physical therapist a note to no longer attend rounds. 4. A few months before Dr. Durrani was arrested, both Dr. Shanti and Dr. Tayeb left. They both felt they were used by Dr. Durrani. The federal indictment against Dr. Durrani alleges the surgeon gained significant profits by convincing patients to undergo medically unnecessary spine surgeries. In the criminal complaint filed, Dr. Durrani is alleged of earning $12 million from Medicare between 2010 and 2013. 5. Along with treating fellow surgeons and staff poorly, another staff member alleges Dr. Durrani used derogatory language toward women and minorities. When the staff member reported the harassment, Dr. Durrani was reprimanded; however, went back to using the inappropriate language shortly after. Christian Zimmerman, MD, a neurosurgeon at Saint Alphonsus Medical Group and SAHS Neuroscience Institute in Boise, Idaho, discusses his thoughts on the biggest spine technology trends moving forward. Q: What is the biggest spine technology trend for 2018? Dr. Christian Zimmerman: In as much as surgical healthcare has become increasingly more scrutinized, the current technological trends center on several insurance-based factors. Tighter indications and outcome-driven derivatives have transformed practice patterns as appeal processes and resubmission attempts for most surgical interventions are the expectation. These "cost containment" measures will impact sales and ultimately detract from the innovation mindset. As other implant-positioned specialties have absorbed the consolidation and bundling of procedures, the spinal medicine macrocosm will not be exempt. Health systems have become so reliant on higher-reimbursing surgical specialties, forging trends to scale back lost leaders or expand business initiatives in more accommodating methods for spinal business models. The trends currently balance outcomes with payer affirmation and referral. Q: Where do you see the biggest innovations in implant material? CZ: Anterior cervical plate systems with "stand-alone" graft technology seem to follow the bundling schedules for cervical surgery reimbursements. The interchangeable plug (Sea-Spine) allows for certain variance in size of plug placement to the plating system and the different arrays of screw insertion offer significant options dependent on vertebral body surface area. Q: Where do you see biologics and stem cells in spine headed for 2018 and beyond? CZ: Current payer reimbursements of orthobiologics are steadily ratcheting their cost structures despite the continual strong demand in spinal instrumented care. Striking a truce in these markets seems to have come about of recent, yet time will render the uncertain. The indications and usage of platelet-rich plasma technology seem to on the rise, with indications also expanded to include most soft tissue injury and repair. The Irish border poses difficult questions for Brexit. Will cross-border trade attract customs duties, and how will cross-border trade be measured? Then, the question becomes, 'Can the Irish land border be given special treatment after Brexit?' On current evidence, subject to the final negotiations, cross-border trade could be subject to a range of different customs tariffs. Then there will be a search for methods to document cross-border trade. Paperwork declarations for commercial trade will be a requirement. If the Brexit negotiations lead to the re-introduction of customs duties between the UK and EU, then trade in goods across the Irish border would be affected. The scale of customs tariffs and the administrative processes will define how hard the border will be. The border may be significant for larger businesses. With the implementation of Brexit, the common travel area will remain. But will cross-border trade movements be supervised and how will any adverse impact on businesses be minimised? This will be difficult to deliver. For goods shipped from/to Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland, the best answer, which would leave trade arrangements untouched by customs charges, would be an arrangement for no customs duties on any of this trade. At best, a UK-EU trade deal would reinstate a single market and continue regulatory alignment. If, as seems likely, the UK-EU final agreement falls short of a full duty-free arrangement, then the serious question is, how can the impact of the UK-Ireland border be minimised? Getting the second best answer of no hard border must be seen from the three differing perspectives of each administration in the UK, Northern Ireland and Ireland. A constraint on the possible options is that the position of the Irish Government will radically differ to that of the UK. The Government, acting either for the whole of the UK or with devolved arrangements for Northern Ireland, would be able to regulate any customs duties for either all of the UK or, unusually, only for defined areas of trade involving Northern Ireland. If, as a method of facilitating trade to/from the UK, the UK agreed that there should be no customs duties on goods from Ireland that would be, for the Irish, a national UK decision. For Ireland, as a member of the EU, there would be problems in an offer of duty-free trade on goods from the UK, or just from Northern Ireland, because that would also give indirect access to all 27 EU countries. The European Commission might oppose this suggestion. But could arrangement be designed for cross-border trade by SME businesses to continue by specifically removing any customs duty charges on intra-island trade? In scale, this is akin to a de minimis clause which helps small-scale local trade. In effect, this exemption would mean that only cross-border trade conducted by larger firms would face customs duties. It would fall short of the declared political aspiration to eliminate the border. The other major cross-border question is whether and how the border formalities can be simplified without creating a 'stop and check' administration. Subject to occasional random physical checks, the Government seems ready to approve a system of fairly unrestricted 'authorised economic operators' and e-mail document delivery. These methods of customs clearance using modern technology have the potential to ease the operation of the Irish border for both governments. However, time is short and final proposals are awaited. With regret, at best - without a new UK-EU free trade agreement - a formal UK-Ireland trade border will be needed. By unavoidable consequence, this could hurt Northern Ireland as a place to do business. Entrepreneur Gerard O'Hare - who built the Quays Shopping Centre in Newry and has been listed as one of Northern Ireland's richest people - has stepped aside after selling it along with another key retail asset, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal. Mr O'Hare (60) developed the Newry shopping centre in his role as chief executive of Parker Green International. Now he has sold his interest in both the Quays and sister shopping centre Fairgreen in Carlow in the Republic of Ireland to an unidentified purchaser. It's understood his exit is part of an agreement with the company's funders, concluding just weeks after the Quays unveiled a multi-million pound extension anchored by Marks & Spencer. Pure Gym has also opened up in the extension, while the first phase of the centre is anchored by Sainsbury's and Debenhams. The move marks the end of an era for Dr O'Hare, who is also deputy chairman of economic development agency Invest NI. He's expected to expand into estate agency after acquiring PJ Bradley Estate Agents and Curran Associates Chartered Surveyors, now trading under the brand of Bradley NI. Parker Green International is also expected to continue its development of a new Iceland supermarket in Newry's Monaghan Street. Loans taken out by Parker Green International had been part of the Northern Ireland portfolio of loans absorbed by the Republic's bad bank, Nama. The portfolio was then sold by Nama to US fund, Cerberus, in the 1bn Project Eagle deal in 2014. In 2015, Parker Green International refinanced with Garrison Investment Group in New York and Earlsfort Capital in Dublin. In September last year, financial statements for Parker Green for the year ending December 2016 noted that the loans were due to be repaid by January, but that the repayment depended on the properties in the group being sold, which has not occurred. The company said at the time it would not be selling its best-known assets the Quays and the Fairgreen in Carlow. While Parker Green International did not wish to comment on Dr OHares departure, one source said the entrepreneur has played a major part in establishing Newry as a prime commercial and retail-driven centre over the last 30 years. He was credited with involvement in the development of Buttercrane Shopping Centre the citys first shopping centre before the opening of the Quays in 1999 as well as the Old Creamery Retail Park on Monaghan Street. These centres now offer an eclectic mix of over 150 national and international retailers that any city would be proud to have, attracting up to 15 million visitors per annum. The source said there were 5,000 jobs in Newry which would not have existed without Dr OHares private investment over the years. He added: Dr OHare was also president of the Newry Chamber of Commerce from 1999 to 2002 and was the catalyst in securing city status for his home town as well as leading the campaign for early euro trading when the Republic of Ireland joined the eurozone in 2000. New openings at the centre in recent months include Superdry, Sostrene Green and Smiggle. In the 2013 Sunday Times Irish Rich List, Dr OHare was listed at number 52 with a wealth of 152m. But that was a fall on the sum of 220m which was put on his wealth by the Sunday Times in 2010. He was one of a number of entrepreneurs associated with the city of Newry, including First Derivatives founder Brian Conlon and Lord Ballyedmond, the late founder of veterinary medicine firm Norbrook Laboratories. Dr OHare is also a brother of Eamon OHare, the boss of Newry-based construction giant OHare & McGovern. Employers in Northern Ireland are losing the confidence to hire new staff as concerns over Brexit persist, according to a survey. Foreign language skills were in such short supply that some call centre firms were locating their contact centres for overseas clients in Great Britain. As Chancellor Philip Hammond prepares to deliver his first spring statement in the House of Commons, recruitment giant Manpower said employers in Northern Ireland were becoming more cautious about hiring. Manpower's quarterly employment outlook survey - based on responses from over 2,000 employers - showed the measure of confidence had fallen two points to just 2%. Amanda White, head of specialist markets at Manpower, said: "Jobs confidence in Northern Ireland has taken a dip this quarter. "Brexit is still concerning employers who are unsure what it will mean for their ability to attract talent, and retaining foreign language skills is a top priority. We're already seeing reduced applications from EU workers across the board." Ms White said the call centre sector in Northern Ireland still needed speakers of European languages. With German and Nordic speakers most in demand, "employers are having to think creatively to attract and retain talent", she said. "Relocation fees are sometimes on offer and, in the longer term, some employers are looking at reorganising their contact centres so that their foreign language teams are based on the mainland, where it is easier to find these skills, and their English-speaking operations will be in Northern Ireland." Despite the fall in confidence in Northern Ireland, employers in the UK as a whole were at their most optimistic in over a year. The managing director of Northern Ireland's biggest personal injury law firm says she's hoping to grow its work in clinical negligence. Maurece Hutchinson of JMK Solicitors in Newry and Belfast said she had a special interest in acting for families where children had suffered brain injuries at birth. The practice, which has annual revenues of around 5m, also took a novel approach to upping productivity last year, offering staff the opportunity to work from a hotel in Lanzarote for a month if certain targets were met. Ms Hutchinson said the approach had paid off. Read More "I loved the personal injury side as I was very interested in anatomy and medicine and loved understanding that area of work. I might have gone into medicine but I couldn't stand the gore. "And with personal injury, I have really loved helping people and feeling like I was making a tangible difference." Where a case results in a satisfactory settlement for a client against a party who has caused them an injury, "people are so much happier at the end of the process", says Maurece. "It's an area where you can really make things better." She's still haunted by some of the horrific injuries suffered by clients in road traffic accidents. "There was the lady who survived a terrible accident when she was pinned to a car. Another male client was given a 5% chance of survival and in fact the police thought it was a fatal road accident when they found him. "He had suffered a catastrophic brain injury but all he wanted from a settlement was to have enough to leave and live a new life in Spain." Maurece joined JMK Solicitors in 2005. It's owned by Jonathan McKeown - also the owner of accident management firm Crash Services, which he bought over from his father Michael McKeown. JMK has been ranked the top personal injury firm in Northern Ireland for the fourth year in a row after figures from the Compensation Recovery Unit showed it had handled 1,420 separate personal injury cases in 2017. Maurece is keen to develop its clinical negligence side, and has extensive experience in representing parents whose children have suffered brain injury at birth, leaving them needing constant care. The sums awarded to parents where hospitals admit liability can be significant, but she adds: "Nearly all the money goes to provide care but very little goes to the injury itself. Often liability may not be admitted until the last minute and for the lawyers that is a breakthrough, but for parents it's finally the realisation that they could have had a healthy child without the negligence." Does your company offer any great perks? Let us know at digital@belfasttelegraph.co.uk From the age of three, Maurece Hutchinson knew exactly what she wanted out of a career as she watched a 1970s daytime TV drama about the criminal law system. Now she's the managing director at JMK Solicitors in Belfast and Newry, Northern Ireland's biggest legal practice to specialise in personal injury law. The firm employs around 60 people, including 23 solicitors, and majors in acting for claimants in road traffic accident cases. But Maurece is keen to grow its clinical negligence side, and has a special interest in cases of children suffering injuries after being starved of oxygen at birth. Maurece is the mother of two children, Natasha (12) and 10-year-old Nathan. She is married to Paul, and the family lives in Banbridge. Looking back on her early interest in law, she says: "I remember sitting under the ironing board when I was about three while my mother was doing the ironing. Crown Court was on TV and I remember being just fascinated by it." Fast-forward 13 years, and as a pupil at Omagh Academy, Maurece's resolve to pursue law strengthened the more people tried to put her off it. "They would say it was too hard to get into and I would never get the results you needed, and that I wouldn't do well because I didn't have any connections in the profession. And neither of my parents had gone to university," she says. Her parents Olive and Maurice "didn't really have any money but they were really invested in us". "They used to live in Ballymoney where they had a coffee shop called The Pop In. They had lots of famous people coming into it, like Joey Dunlop and Seamus Heaney," she says. Later, the family moved and had a sweet shop in Castledawson, Co Londonderry. A spirit of competition grew between her and her older sister Amanda and younger brother Clyde. Amanda now owns a whiskey business in Yorkshire while Clyde is a businessman with a background in science, including a PhD in biochemistry. Maurece applied herself relentlessly at school and got three As at A-Level, and studied law at Queen's University, Belfast. But before her A-Level results came, "I told myself I'm going to London and I'm not coming back unless I get really good grades". Maurece got a job chambermaiding in St James's Club, an exclusive venue with accommodation. There, she followed in her parents' footsteps by having a few celebrity encounters. "David Bowie was staying in the club by himself during one of his tours. I was tidying his suite and I was absolutely starving at the time. His breakfast was still sitting out and hadn't been touched so I tucked into it. But he came back into the room and I was tucking into his Danish pastry." But the rock star was extremely pleasant and gave Maurece complimentary tickets for his tour. David Coverdale of Whitesnake also stayed there and was lovely, she adds. But dealing with celebrities of such magnitude didn't necessarily improve her self-confidence. "I am a very shy person and I have fought against shyness all my life. I'm a horrendous worrier and always have to remind myself everything will pass." But Maurece says she won't let any of her worries get the better of her. "I'm not a confident public speaker so I have done a public speaking course. I hate flying so I will get on a plane all the time," she says. After entering the Institute of Professional Legal Studies in Belfast, she started an apprenticeship with law firm Wilson Nesbitt in the city. It now focuses on conveyancing and family law but in the early 1990s while Maurece was training, it still had an active criminal law practice. In a throwback to her old viewing habits, she loved criminal law. "I used to love going up to Crumlin Road Courthouse to represent people in court, and I remember getting the underground tunnel between the gaol and the courthouse, and really just loving it." But as time went on, criminal law was becoming less attractive. Maurece feared for the future of young clients who could potentially be caught in a spiral of criminal activity. Personal injury, in contrast, offered the hope of a better outcome for clients who'd suffered a loss. "I suppose I feel that with personal injury you are at least helping people," she says. "I loved the personal injury side as I was very interested in anatomy and medicine and loved understanding that area of work. I might have gone into medicine but I couldn't stand the gore. "And with personal injury, I have really loved helping people and feeling like I was making a tangible difference." Where a case results in a satisfactory settlement for a client against a party who has caused them an injury, "people are so much happier at the end of the process", says Maurece. "It's an area where you can really make things better." She's still haunted by some of the horrific injuries suffered by clients in road traffic accidents. "There was the lady who survived a terrible accident when she was pinned to a car. Another male client was given a 5% chance of survival and in fact the police thought it was a fatal road accident when they found him. "He had suffered a catastrophic brain injury but all he wanted from a settlement was to have enough to leave and live a new life in Spain." Maurece joined JMK Solicitors in 2005. It's owned by Jonathan McKeown - also the owner of accident management firm Crash Services, which he bought over from his father Michael McKeown. JMK has been ranked the top personal injury firm in Northern Ireland for the fourth year in a row after figures from the Compensation Recovery Unit showed it had handled 1,420 separate personal injury cases in 2017. Maurece is keen to develop its clinical negligence side, and has extensive experience in representing parents whose children have suffered brain injury at birth, leaving them needing constant care. The sums awarded to parents where hospitals admit liability can be significant, but she adds: "Nearly all the money goes to provide care but very little goes to the injury itself. Often liability may not be admitted until the last minute and for the lawyers that is a breakthrough, but for parents it's finally the realisation that they could have had a healthy child without the negligence." Maurece is regional coordinator for the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. Research by the firm led to the discovery that insurance companies had settled with around 1,800 children who suffered car accidents over six years, without them having legal representation. Maurece has lobbied for the practice to be outlawed, leading Lord Justice Gillen to give it prominence in the Review of Civil and Family Justice in October 2016. "I really am like the terrier on your sofa when it comes to matters like that", she adds. Meal-kit firm Gousto has raised 28.5 million in fresh funding as the company aims to use artificial intelligence to further tap the multi-billion market. The cash was raised from Hargreave Hale, Angel CoFund, MMC Ventures and BGF Ventures, bringing the total amount raised to 56.5 million. Gousto, which was founded in 2012 by Timo Boldt, is also backed by Unilever, which did not participate in the latest funding round. It currently delivers more than one million meals a month, with prices starting from 2.98, and by 2025 the firm wants to be serving up 400 million meals in the UK. Mr Boldt said: Our commitment to technology has seen us create a leading value proposition, driving customer satisfaction levels 56% higher than the UKs leading supermarket. Over the next year, well win even more of the one billion meals eaten in the UK, by prioritising investment in AI and automation to wow customers. New funding allows us to continue transforming the grocery market and supporting the British economy with the creation of new jobs, with our headcount expected to increase two-fold over the next few years. Street food catering platform Feast It has also whet investor appetite, having secured a further 680,000 in funding from the likes of Browns restaurants founder Jeremy Mogford and former ARM Holdings CFO and British Land director Tim Score. The company which allows customers to book 300 independent caterers that might usually be seen at street markets and food truck pop-ups said it will use the cash to fuel its expansion across the UK and broaden its offerings beyond food and drink. It brings Feast Its fundraising to 1 million over the past 12 months, during which time it grew 400% as it worked to gain a foothold in the 42.3 billion UK events industry. Co-founder Digby Vollrath said: Its not surprising weve seen an explosion in consumer demand for the very best suppliers. There are over 7,000 companies offering catering in the UK and with so much choice and noise in the industry, there is a clear need for a platform to make peoples lives easier. Feast It hand-picks the best possible suppliers, big or small, with the simple aim of taking the hassle out of organising events. Weve done everything from a 20-person dinner party to a 40,000-person festival so far. Feast It says it has worked in collaboration with the likes of Disney, Amazon and Soho House since its launch in early 2017. L-R Jean-Christophe Novelli, Crawford Ewing, Company Director of Ewings Fishmonger, Peter Hannan, founder and owner of Hannan meats and Jim Mulholland, grand chef at Novelli at City Quays. Celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli has revealed the menu for his debut Belfast restaurant. The multi-Michelin-starred and 5-out-of-5 AA Rosette-winning chef has given Northern Irish produce top billing for Novelli at City Quays restaurant - which is part of the all-new AC Hotel Belfast Set on Belfasts waterfront at the City Quays quarter, the new 112-seater venue will open in April. Novelli at City Quays will be the celebrity chefs first restaurant on the island of Ireland. You need to have wonderful ingredients to produce wonderful food, and I have been thoroughly inspired and excited by the quality and variety of produce available to me here on my Belfast doorstep, said Jean-Christophe Novelli. At Novelli at City Quays, our customers can look forward to the authentic Mediterranean-inspired cuisine I am best known for, including my famous Coq au Vin, French Onion Soup and Loin of Sugar Pit Pork, and all made with the best of locally sourced ingredients. Among the Northern Ireland-based producers and processors will be Abernethy Butter, Hannan Meats, Ewings Seafood, Yellow Door and North Down Group - all local companies hand-picked by Jean-Christophe and Jim Mulholland, his Belfast grand chef, to supply the new restaurant. Even the charcuterie board features homegrown chorizo and salami, produced by Limavady-based Corndale Farm. Expand Close L-R Jean-Christophe Novelli, Crawford Ewing, Company Director of Ewings Fishmonger, Peter Hannan, founder and owner of Hannan meats and Jim Mulholland, grand chef at Novelli at City Quays. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp L-R Jean-Christophe Novelli, Crawford Ewing, Company Director of Ewings Fishmonger, Peter Hannan, founder and owner of Hannan meats and Jim Mulholland, grand chef at Novelli at City Quays. It has always been my passion and my mission to source whatever I can locally, and it has been an incredibly rewarding experience to introduce our amazing local produce to such a globally celebrated chef as Jean-Christophe Novelli and to see him, in turn, become a champion of it, said Mr Mulholland. The 25m AC Hotel by Marriott is the multinational company's first hotel in Northern Ireland and will be among the city's largest, with 188 bedrooms. Jean-Christophe Novellis French Onion Soup Expand Close Jean-Christophe Novellis French Onion Soup / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jean-Christophe Novellis French Onion Soup Ingredients 150g unsalted butter 1 tablespoon olive oil 1kg red onions, thinly sliced 1 sprig fresh thyme, stalks removed 2 bay leaves salt and freshly ground black pepper 3 teaspoons caster sugar 750ml dry white wine 350ml strong beef stock, hot 1 tablespoon lemon juice croutons 1 baguette 1 garlic clove, peeled 180g Gruyere cheese, sliced freshly ground black pepper pinch paprika Method Melt the butter in a large saucepan with the oil and gently cook the onions for about 68 minutes or until softened. Add the herbs and seasoning, sprinkle over the sugar and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the onions are melting and glossy. Pour in the wine and raise the heat. Bring back to the boil and simmer to reduce for 10 minutes. Add the hot stock, bring back to the boil and simmer for 25 minutes. When you are ready to serve the soup, preheat the grill. Slice the baguette diagonally and dry-fry in a heavy-based pan without oil or butter. While it is toasting, rub a clove of garlic on the bottom of the pan to infuse the bread. When the baguette pieces are golden brown, top with the sliced cheese, grind over the pepper, sprinkle with the paprika, and grill for 23 minutes (or microwave for 10 seconds) until the cheese is bubbling. Just before serving the soup, add the lemon juice and stir. Ladle into hot bowls and top with the cheesy croutons. Serve immediately. The Novelli at City Quays dish will see a twist on the classic French Onion soup recipe, with a pastry lid. Two men have been arrested by police investigating allegations of historical child sex abuse. The men, aged 53 and 55 were arrested in Belfast on Tuesday morning. This is in relation to an investigation into allegations of serious historical sexual child abuse in the Co Down area, police said. They were taken to Antrim police station to assist police with their enquiries. UPDATE: The men were later released on bail pending further police enquiries. A trial involving the leaders of far-right group Britain First for allegedly inciting hatred in Belfast has been plunged into doubt following their imprisonment in England. Paul Golding and his deputy Jayda Fransen are among four people due to contest charges at a hearing listed for next month. But Belfast Magistrates' Court heard today that date is now uncertain because the pair have been jailed for religiously aggravated harassment in a separate case. Their barrister, Richard McConkey, is set to contact English authorities to see if they can be released from custody for the scheduled trial in Northern Ireland. Inquiries will also be made about the alternative possibility of arranging prison video-links for the proceedings. Adjourning the case, District Judge Fiona Bagnall indicated she may have to postpone the April 6 contest if uncertainty over their availability continues. Golding, 36, and Fransen, 32, are being prosecuted over speeches delivered outside Belfast City Hall. The case relates to a 'Northern Ireland Against Terrorism' rally in August last year. Demonstrators had gathered on the same day as a republican march to mark the use of internment without trial by the British Army at the height of the Troubles in 1971. Golding and Fransen are charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words. They allegedly intended to stir up hatred or arouse fear by his comments, according to the police case. Similar charges have also been brought against 60-year-old John Banks, of Acacia Road in Doncaster, south Yorkshire, and Paul Rimmer, 55, of Modred Street in Liverpool. All four accused deny the allegations against them. But doubts about the trial being able to go ahead emerged after Golding and Fransen were convicted at Folkestone Magistrates' Court last week over unrelated charges. Fransen was handed a 36-week sentence while Golding received 18 weeks. "They are going to be in custody on the date of the contest," Mr McConkey said. "I'm not aware of eligibility requirements the authorities would need so they can be produced." Granting an adjournment for further inquiries, Mrs Bagnall acknowledged the April trial date was likely to "fall by the wayside". Schools have been told they face difficult decisions ahead as money is dished out for the forthcoming year. Below is the full text of a letter from the Department of Education's finance director Gary Fair to schools. Dear Chairpersons of Board of Governors of Grant-Aided Schools School Budget Allocations 2018-19 I am writing to outline the budget position for schools for the 2018-19 financial year. Following the NI Budget announcement by the Secretary of State on 8 March 2018, decisions have now been taken by the Department on the 2018-19 education budget. The outcome for education is challenging and some very difficult decisions have had to be taken. While the Department has been able to maintain the total schools budget in cash terms at 1,167.5 million, it has not been possible to fund the additional pressures facing schools in 2018-19. In addition, all school budgets must be managed on the assumption that there will be no further in-year allocations from the Department during 2018-19. Summary totals of each schools budget share, provided under the Common Funding Formula arrangements for 2018-19, have now been published on the Departments website - School Budget Allocations 2018-19. The delegated budgets for all schools have been calculated based on the 2017-18 Common Funding Scheme, with the following adjustments: - the previous Transition Fund, which was originally intended to be a one year adjustment in 2014-15, has now been subsumed into the formula funding share for all schools for 2018-19; and - an adjustment has been made to the funding stream split, moving 2.4 million from the Post primary to the Nursery and Primary funding stream to reflect demographic changes and to moderate changes to the AWPU cash value within the two formula streams. It is important that firm financial management and budgetary discretion is applied and that you take immediate action to review your schools budget position, to enable difficult decisions to be taken now to ensure that you live within your allocation for 2018-19. While responsibility for agreeing a financial plan rests first and foremost with the board of governors in each school, it is important that, following their robust review and challenge, any outstanding concerns are immediately brought to the attention of the Education Authority to ensure that necessary actions are taken. I fully appreciate the difficulties that this budget outcome will mean for schools and I do not underestimate the challenges ahead. Yours sincerely Gary Fair. Derrylin House Fire - Toys in living room - Three generations of the same family-including a baby and two teenagers were killed when the blaze engulfed their Derrylin home on February 27. A LITTLE toy doll lies among the devastation as the first pictures emerged from inside the fire-damaged Derrylin bungalow in which four people lost their lives. The pictures show the charred shell of the former family home, which was gutted in a horrific fire on February 27. The heartbreaking images taken at the scene yesterday show the paraphernalia of family life dotted throughout the soot-damaged remains. A child's doll can be seen lying forlornly covered in ashes. The fire has turned its once golden hair to dull grey. Elsewhere, the decapitated torsos of other dolls lie discarded, their clothes burned off by the heat of the blaze. The living room furniture has been reduced to dust, and terracotta tiles litter the floor. In one corner, beside the fireplace, a basket of books speaks of hopes for the future. A stack of children's books includes a 'Learn with words' guide, perhaps used by teenage mum Sabrina Gosset to coax her little daughter to speak. In the kitchen, the only splash of colour is a pair of orange oven gloves featuring a green and blue cartoon cat, lying incongruously among the blackened debris. Seen from the outside, the roof of the house has vanished, replaced by a gaping hole which exposes the inside to the winter sky. It is hard to imagine that this was a bustling family home just over a fortnight ago. Three generations of the same family are understood to have been killed in the early morning blaze on the rural Molly Road. While the police have yet to release the names of those who passed away, a relative last week told the Belfast Telegraph that the four people who died were Roman Gosset (16), his sister Sabrina (19), their mother Denise 'Dee' Gosset, and Sabrina's toddler daughter Morgana (1). It is understood the family used several names, including the surname Quinn. They also spelled their surname Gosset. It is believed that they were originally from Doncaster in England, and had lived in Tralee in Co Kerry for about three years before moving to Derrylin around 18 months ago. Surveying the damage from the front of the property, landlord Tommy Fee, who was among a group of neighbours who had attempted to save those inside the house from the fire by breaking down a door and window with a sledgehammer, described the scene as "an awful mess". He said: "It's heartbreaking to see the child's books and dolls. "All their possessions are lying outside, it's an awful mess. "They were put outside by forensics, and I'm not sure if we will be allowed to move them. "Everything is destroyed, the walls and floors. There's no timber left, it's all off the roof." Last week, a relative of those who died told this newspaper that the late Denise Gosset was a "wonderful mother" who "loved her children". She said that she had last been in touch with Denise and her daughter Sabrina at Christmas, but that the Derrylin residents had then "suddenly gone quiet". She revealed that she had only learned of their deaths after being contacted by the Belfast Telegraph. Daniel Sebastian Allen (27), whose address was given as Molly Road in Derrylin, has been charged with the four murders, criminal damage and arson with intent to endanger life. He appeared at Enniskillen Magistrates Court on March 5, and was remanded in custody to appear again on March 26. Israeli ambassador to the UK Mark Regev (right) meets with ICEJ director Brian Silvester at the Ulster Hall yesterday The Israeli ambassador to the UK visited Belfast yesterday to attend an event in support of his country at the Ulster Hall. Mark Regev held meetings with members of the DUP at Stormont yesterday before attending the Taste of Tabernacles evening function. As Israel's former spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Regev was the face of the state as he gave numerous interviews to the media explaining his country's position during the Gaza War in 2008-2009 and other major conflicts. Organised by the Irish branch of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), the meeting called for a "demonstration of solidarity with the Jewish community"in view of "the unfolding security situation in the Middle East". The ICEJ said yesterday evening's event was a "wonderful opportunity to demonstrate to the Jewish people that they are not alone". Posting on his Twitter account yesterday Mr Regev noted that Israel's sixth president, Chaim Herzog, was born in Belfast a century ago this year. Speaking after meeting Mr Regev, DUP Assembly member Simon Hamilton said: "We discussed our respective political processes as well as how we can deepen the economic links between our two countries." Despite a warm welcome at the Ulster Hall and from unionist politicians, Mr Regev faced protests ahead of speaking at Cardiff University last month. A petition signed by over 200 students claimed that as ambassador Mr Regev "both stands and covers for (Israeli) war crimes and violations of international law". In December Mr Regev praised US President Donald Trump's highly controversial move to officially recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The move sparked protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "You could not have peace without Jerusalem being Israel's capital," he told the BBC. This month representatives of Arab League member states met in Egypt to demand that Jerusalem must be the capital of a future Palestinian state. The status of Jerusalem has been at the centre of a decades long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A district judge has said that urgent changes are needed to Northern Ireland's domestic abuse legislation to stop the "circle of continuous offending and suffering". Derry-based Magistrate Barney McElholm made the comments in an interview with Viewdigital. Judge McElholm said that those who see or become victims of violence often end up becoming victims or perpetrators themselves. He told VIEW that greater emphasis needed to be focused on rehabilitation of offenders to stop them continuing the same patterns of offending behaviour after they are released from prison. "I would like to see domestic violence being addressed in a very serious, co-ordinated and methodical way. Judge McElholm said that he sees domestic violence cases 'every day' in Londonderry Magistrates Court and it cannot be allowed to continue. "Most domestic violence offences that come through me fall into the realm of common assault. And that has a maximum sentence of six months, you need more specific legislation to deal with this," he said. "I have sent someone to jail, who was in front of me for a domestic assault, for a six-month sentence. They were out in a couple of months time. What has changed? "We have to be far more imaginative and nnovative. Our legislators need to look at the entire situation. You need a combination of custody and rehabilitation, such as perpetrator programmes, designed specifically for people who have served a period of custody. Judge McElholm once quoted from a W.H. Auden poem September 1, 1939: I and the public know, what all schoolchildren learn, those to whom evil is done, do evil in return. "I was referring to the insidious nature of domestic abuse. It poisons generation after generation," he said. "If you get a child who is subjected to domestic abuse or who witnesses domestic abuse against one of his parents by the other parent, that child will be very emotionally and psychologically disturbed and to the point where they will either become a perpetrator or they could become a victim.' Secretary of State Karen Bradley has been accused of "waffle" after she postponed taking a decision to cut MLAs' pay. Alan McQuillan, who sat on the panel that set Stormont politicians' salaries and expenses, said most ordinary people were "outraged" by the government's failure to act. Mrs Bradley last night told the House of Commons that she was "minded" to cut MLAs' pay by 27.5% but would consult with the local parties before making a final decision. She said she would seek to introduce legislation in Parliament that would allow her to vary MLAs' salaries but she did not set a date for doing so. Mr McQuillan said: "The Secretary of State is correct when she says she needs legislation to change MLAs' pay. "However, we have seen no sense of urgency or direction from her on this issue. She says she wants to hear the parties' views on the matter. "After that, the government may well say that it's difficult finding time to introduce legislation in Westminster because of Brexit matters. "Then, it will be summer recess and in the autumn we will likely hear that there is the possibility of fresh Stormont talks. It's all waffle, waffle, waffle." A former member of the Independent Financial Review Panel, Mr McQuillan added: "Most ordinary people are beyond being fed up with it all - they are outraged. "The Secretary of State is desperate to keep the DUP happy and Sinn Fein well funded and within the fold. The Stormont institutions haven't functioned for 14 months. "To continue as we are doing regarding pay is completely unacceptable." Mrs Bradley indicated yesterday that she was willing to examine ways of giving MLAs some form of scrutiny role on Westminster decisions, even if they were not part of a fully functioning legislature. Such a scenario could provide a half-way house style arrangement between devolution and direct rule. "I would welcome the views and proposals of the Northern Ireland parties and others on how such arrangements - providing for local decision-making and scrutiny, on a cross-community basis - might be achieved in the continued absence of an executive," she said. The Secretary of State said she would keep under review her statutory obligation to call an election. Last year, the Government commissioned former Assembly chief executive Trevor Reaney to examine the issue of MLAs' pay. Before Christmas, Mr Reaney recommended the 27.5% cut, a move that would take the standard salary rate of 49,500 down to 35,888 in two stages. Mrs Bradley told the Commons she would seek to introduce legislation at Westminster that would hand her the power to vary MLA pay. "I am minded to reduce pay in line with the Reaney Review recommendation, but I would welcome full and final representations from the Northern Ireland parties before I make a final decision," she added. The Secretary of State also announced that a cap to stem money paid out through the Renewable Heat Incentive would be extended for another year. DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said it was right that Mrs Bradley was taking a series of decisions "for the good government of Northern Ireland". He said: "This is long overdue but is very necessary. I also welcome that she is willing to look at arrangements providing for local decision making and scrutiny on a cross-community basis." Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy said: "It's clear that neither the British Secretary of State nor the British Tory Government has any plan to restore the political institutions on the basis of rights and equality." On MLAs' salaries, Mr Murphy said: "Sinn Fein has consistently made it clear that MLAs' pay should be reviewed if the Assembly is not re-established in the short-term and that is clearly not the case following the DUP's reneging on an agreement." SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon said it was yet another vague statement from Mrs Bradley. "After 14 months without a government, people here are sick and tired of soundbites and fudge. There is absolutely no certainty or clarity offered in this statement on what's next," she said. "Despite the fact that the Good Friday Agreement offers a way forward through the convening of the intergovernmental conference, the Secretary of State continues to choose a path of political drift rather than one of political solutions." The brother or Mary McAleese has joined with growing calls for the Secretary of State to establish an independent inquiry into child sex abuse at a Northern Ireland school appealing to the "gentlemen" who knew of the abuse going on at the school to speak out saying they could still offer comfort to those who suffered abuse. The Northern Ireland Office, however, rejected the call for an inquiry, saying it was for a restored Northern Ireland Executive to decide on if there needed to be an investigation. Former Irish president McAleese, in an emotional interview with RTE, revealed how her younger brother Clem Leneghan, was abused by the paedophile priest throughout his time at St Colmans College in Newry. Read More Mr Leneghan, a film and TV production safety consultant now based in England, was not sexually abused but said he was subjected to psychological and physical abuse during his time at the school. Former President Mary McAleese says her younger brother was abused by Fr Malachy Finnegan pic.twitter.com/q00uoLxGfs RTE News (@rtenews) March 12, 2018 Disgraced cleric Finnegan, who was a teacher and later president at St Colmans College for 11 years before moving to Clonduff as parish priest in 1988, died in 2002. He has been linked to a string of abuse allegations against children, including sexual and physical attacks. Mr Leneghan said he did not want to comment on his experiences at the hands of the priest as "I do not wish my story to take the spotlight away from where it belongs which is on the need for truth and justice for the many victims of Finnegans lifetime of criminal sexual abuse of children." He called for Karen Bradley to "lose no time" in opening an inquiry into how the priest was allowed to abuse for so long at the school and called on those who knew of the activities and failed to act to speak out. "While Finnegan himself can no longer be called to account in the courts, I know that other, adults both in St Colmans and more broadly within the Dromore Diocese knew of his activities and failed to act. "Gentlemen, you know who you are. On behalf of all victims of abuse, of whatever form, I call on you now to come forward and tell what you know to the PSNI. "Please, do it today. If you can find the courage to speak then you may, even now, help bring some healing to those who continue to suffer for the crimes of Malachy Finnegan. If you choose to continue in your silence, history will not be kind to your memory." Clem Leneghan (49) first told of his torment at the school in a recent letter to the Belfast Telegraph. Malachy Finnegan was a sadist," he wrote. Expand Close Fr Malachy Finnegan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Fr Malachy Finnegan Throughout my seven years as a pupil at St Colmans in the 1980s, something rotten was allowed to fester at the core of that school I saw it every day. Speaking to RTE's Sean O'Rourke programme Mary McAleese, said the abuse in the school was widely known. She had always felt her brothers could tell her anything, but that a climate of fear meant her youngest sibling felt unable to be open about his time at the school in the 1980s. My baby brother, the youngest of nine children, was seriously physically, sadistically abused by Malachy Finnegan, she said. Ms McAleese described her brother as wonderful, beautiful, adding: As you can imagine, as the youngest of a family, (he was) so incredibly loved by all of us. She also said a public inquiry was needed. We know now that the first, the very first complaints, go back to the 1970s not the 1990s at all, but go back to the 1970s which means there is a body of information that was well known to people that were in a position to do something about it but didnt, she added. Former Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey resigned from his post on March 1 after coming under fire for celebrating mass with Finnegan in 2000, as well as officiating over his funeral in 2002, despite knowing he had abused children. The diocesan spokesperson also stood down amid the furore, which followed a financial settlement reached by the Catholic Church with one of Finnegans victims in October. St Colmans College has said the school will cooperate fully with any investigation. In a statement, the Northern Ireland Office added: "This Government has always been very clear in its outright condemnation of any form of abuse of children. The Secretary of State urges anyone with information relating to the abuse of children or young people to contact the PSNI. "The issues at play here are devolved, and it should be for a restored Executive to decide on the right way forward. That is why it remains the UK Government's overriding priority to see devolution restored." Mary McAleese has revealed that her youngest brother was "sadistically" abused by Father Malachy Finnegan - and joined demands for an independent inquiry. In an emotional interview, the former Irish president told how her brother, Clem Leneghan, was abused by the paedophile priest throughout his time at St Colmans College in Newry and said complaints against the cleric had been made as far back as the 1970s. Read More My baby brother, the youngest of nine children, was seriously physically, sadistically abused by Malachy Finnegan, she said. Clem Leneghan (49) first told of his torment at the school in a recent letter to this newspaper. Mrs McAleese said: My own mother had to discover this just three weeks ago, by reading it in the Belfast Telegraph. Mr Leneghan, a film and TV production safety consultant now based in England, wrote: Malachy Finnegan was a sadist. Throughout my seven years as a pupil at St Colmans in the 1980s, something rotten was allowed to fester at the core of that school I saw it every day. Mr Leneghan was not sexually abused. Ms McAleese, originally from north Belfast, said knowledge of the abuse was widely known. As he (her brother) pointed out, so many people had to have known, she remarked. So many people who were in the school had to have known, so many people who could have done something about it. We know now that the first, the very first complaints, go back to the 1970s not the 1990s at all, but go back to the 1970s which means there is a body of information that was well known to people that were in a position to do something about it but didnt, she added. Ms McAleese described her brother as wonderful, beautiful, adding: As you can imagine, as the youngest of a family, (he was) so incredibly loved by all of us. Speaking on RTEs Sean ORourke programme, Ms McAleese said she had always felt her brothers could tell her anything, but that a climate of fear meant her youngest sibling felt unable to be open about his time at the school in the 1980s. Four out of her five brothers attended St Colmans, she said. Ms McAleese, who was Irish president between 1997 and 2011, said that both the school and the Church had huge questions to answer. Who knew what and when? she asked. An independent inquiry is warranted, she added. Ms McAleese also called on Pope Francis to visit Newry if he comes to Ireland next August in light of the revelations. Former Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey resigned from his post on March 1 after coming under fire for celebrating mass with Finnegan in 2000, as well as officiating over his funeral in 2002, despite knowing he had abused children. The diocesan spokesperson also stood down amid the furore, which followed a financial settlement reached by the Catholic Church with one of Finnegans victims in October. Disgraced cleric Finnegan, who was president at St Colmans College for 11 years before moving to Clonduff as parish priest in 1988, died in 2002. He has been linked to a string of abuse allegations against children, including sexual and physical attacks. Claire McKeegan from KRW Law welcomed Ms McAleeses intervention. She said: The victims and survivors today repeat their call for a Public Inquiry into clerical abuse in Northern Ireland and welcome the statement of Former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese in support. We again ask that the Secretary of State for NI and local politicians make a public commitment to support the victims in their call for an investigation without any delay, and extend the same invitation to Archbishop Eamon Martin. Patrick Corrigan of Amnesty International also called again for a public inquiry and said: We extend our solidarity to Mrs McAleeses family at this time of great pain for them and many other families. Sadly, the Father Finnegan abuse scandal is not an isolated case. A spokesperson for the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference said: Bishops met with the chair and CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland. Irrespective of improved standards, vigilance and greater awareness, bishops agreed that the Church can never become complacent concerning the safeguarding of children. Bishops reflected on the immense suffering caused to children and vulnerable persons by abuse. They emphasised the shared responsibilities of Church and statutory authorities for prompt reporting, robust risk assessment, concrete action to prevent further abuse, and meaningful outreach to victims in support of the healing process and to assist their search for justice. Bishops reiterated their commitment to both the review process of dioceses undertaken by the National Board and their full cooperation with any inquiry required by statutory bodies. A spokesperson for St Colmans College reissued an earlier statement from the Board of Governors which said the school will cooperate fully with any investigation. St Colmans College declined to comment, but reissued an earlier statement which said: The school will cooperate fully with any investigation regarding Malachy Finnegan by regulatory and statutory authorities. This is the most suitable mechanism to address these issues. Given that the PSNI has established a Victims Unit to investigate these matters, and that there may be a potential public inquiry and further civil proceedings, it would be inappropriate for the Board to make any further comment. The Board reiterates its advice that anyone who has been a victim of Malachy Finnegans abuse should bring this to the attention of the PSNI. The DUP has said it is right for the Secretary of State to look at options around MLA pay, saying it is "unsustainable" for representatives to continue to receive their full salaries. Sinn Fein, meanwhile, says the UK Government needs to act rather than come up with "half-baked" proposals which "give the illusion of something happening" calling on London and Dublin officials to deal separately with the contentious issues to allow the party along with the DUP to work to restore power sharing. On Monday Karen Bradley in the House of Commons issued a statement on the Northern Ireland budget. She said she was "minded" to cut MLA pay following a report in December which recommended a third of a cut in pay for Northern Ireland's 49,500-per-year elected representatives. She said she wanted to consult with the parties on the matter. Read More DUP deputy leader and the party's Westminster leader, Nigel Dodds said his party had been calling for action from Westminster including on MLA pay. "Just as Sinn Fein MPs shouldn't be paid the full amount at Westminster so clearly it is unsustainable for MLAs to be paid the full amount. There is another issue as to if staff should be affected," he told the BBC. We've delivered the money and we need ministers to spend it. Nigel Dodds Mr Dodds said the statement from the Secretary of State would help alleviate the public's frustration over the continued political impasse. "What we are saying is that without prejudice to restoring devolution ... we need to have decision making and that means parliament must take decisions and we welcome the fact decisions are going to be made. "That is good for health, education and infrastructure. We've delivered the money and we need ministers to spend it. "We care about the restoration of Stormont and we think it is the best way forward for Northern Ireland. People want decisions to be made and if there is room for local input then that is all good. "If we can not get the Assembly up and running we can't have a situation in which Northern Ireland drifts." Mr Dodds dismissed suggestions the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference should be established describing it as no more than a "talking shop" that had no powers and could only deal with non-devolved matters. "The main thing is to have executive decision making and if that can not be done at Stormont, the only place it can be done is at Westminster," he added. Expand Close Conor Murphy / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Conor Murphy Sinn Fein said it was clear the British government had "no clear plan to restore government" in Northern Ireland. MLA Conor Murphy said the quickest way to restore a "full-functioning Assembly and Executive" was for the British and Irish governments themselves to deal with rights issues and legacy funding matters. "They [Karen Bradly and the Prime Minister] have not come forward with any plan to restore the Executive. There is no pathway through any of the proposals I have seen but merely an attempt to put the Assembly into suspended animation and to try and justify continuing at some form or level people's pay." He questioned the purpose of a shadow or transitional Assembly as has been mooted in response to the Secretary of State's comments in the Commons. "Is it to create a pathway back to devolution? Or to continue the denial or rights, to create an illusion of something being done when nothing is being done?" The two governments could bring forward propositions to remove those issues which seem to be the stumbling block for us going back into the institutions. Conor Murphy Mr Murphy said the quickest way to restore the Stormont institutions was to do it through the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference which could deal with the issues "and denial of rights". "We have not heard any proposition from [Karen Bradley] as yet but what she seem to be suggesting doesn't create any pathway to anything rather than a continued limbo form of politics which is not acceptable after such a long time. "The DUP have been able to frustrate the process. The two governments have sovereign responsibility, they are co-guarantors of the agreement they could bring forward propositions to remove those issues which seem to be the stumbling block for us going back into the institutions. "Karen Bradley does not seem to offer anything. "The reality is we had an agreement with the DUP .. both governments need to take on the issues of rights, they agree they should be available to people... they need to take those obstacles off the table and allow us to get back together and get the institutions working again. "What Karen Bradley said last night doesn't seem to offer any path." A victims campaigner has won High Court permission to pursue legal action over the holding of a border poll in Northern Ireland. Raymond McCord was granted leave to seek a judicial review of the British Government's alleged failure to implement a policy for calling a referendum on Irish unity. A judge ruled he has established an arguable case that the current discretionary arrangements are unlawful. With his challenge now advancing to a full hearing later this year, Mr McCord insisted he wanted to remove any possible political abuse of the constitutional issue. He said: "It's about taking the green and orange out of the decision, and that's how it should be." The staunch unionist is mounting separate challenges in Belfast and Dublin over the current provisions for going to the public. His case against the British administration questions the legality and transparency of the provisions for holding a border poll. Under the 1998 Good Friday Agrement a referendum can be called if the Secretary of State believes a majority of people in Nothern Ireland no longer want to remain part of the United Kingdom. Mr McCord, an outspoken critic of loyalist paramilitaries since a UVF gang beat his son Raymond Jr to death in 1997, is not pressing for such a poll. But the Belfast man believes authority for calling such a significant ballot should not rest with one individual. He claims the current criteria is too vague and undermines the Agreement. It was confirmed in court that Government's position remains the same since Karen Bradley took over from James Brokenshire as Secretary of State. No opposition was raised to Mr McCord being permitted to continue his challenge to the alleged lack of policy. The judge, Sir Paul Girvan, held: "I'm persuaded there are legal arguments there which justify the granting of leave." The verdict means Mr McCord has now secured the legal right to press ahead with cases in both jurisdictions. He has already been granted leave at the High Court in Dublin to take proceedings against the Irish State, Taoiseach, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Attorney General. Following the latest determination in Belfast he described the holding of a border poll as the biggest decision since Northern Ireland's formation. "As it stands it's left at the discretion of one person, a politician who doesn't live here," Mr McCord said. "It's open to abuse and we need a policy set in stone so that it can't be abused by any political parties for political gain." His solicitor, Ciaran O'Hare of McIvor Farrell law firm, also called for clarity and transparency. "At this juncture, it appears that the decision whether or not to hold a Poll is at the whim of one person and the public have no insight whatsoever into the decision making process," Mr O'Hare said. "My client is looking forward to the full hearing of his case, which will be one of the most important constitutional cases that have ever come before the court." Senior DUP politicians are set to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds has said that Washington must know Sinn Fein is to blame for the collapse of power-sharing at Stormont. A number of DUP representatives will travel to the United States this week for the St Patricks Day celebrations. Party leader Arlene Foster has asked Mr Dodds to attend events in Washington DC including the Speakers Lunch on behalf of the Party. Mr Dodds will also have meetings with senior officials in the State Department as well attending events to promote Northern Ireland including a breakfast event at the NI Bureau. Commenting ahead of his visit North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds said Sinn Fein were blocking devolution. It is important that the unionist voice is heard in Washington over the next number of days. It is important that people in the USA know, just as people at home know that the Assembly and Executive could be restored tomorrow on the basis of the Programme for Government," he said. "People in Washington should know that four out of five parties in Northern Ireland would form an Executive tomorrow. Sinn Fein is the only party blocking that. For thirteen months Sinn Fein has disgracefully stood in the way of key decisions impacting on schools, roads and hospitals. "The people of Northern Ireland should not have to suffer because of Sinn Feins party political priorities. Thats why it is welcome that a number of decisions will be taken by the Secretary of State. We look forward to further decisions being taken in London which will help everyone in Northern Ireland. "As the UK prepares to leave the European Union, it is more important than ever that linkages are built with the United States and the DUP will continue to use our influence at Westminster for the good of everyone in Northern Ireland. DUP North Antrim MP Ian Paisley has been invited to the White House by President Donald Trump. The two men have known each other for the past ten years and Mr Paisley was a guest of the President last year after his inauguration. Expand Close DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds Mr Paisley said that Northern Ireland and the United states have a special relationship. It's an honour to meet the President of the United States but especially so as our two nations embark upon extending the special relationship in trade and culture," he said. "I will dine with the President and also attend a White House reception. I will be encouraging him to continue to support Northern Ireland. Our cultures are tied by history and trade. We must continue to develop such links. Mr Paisley, along with colleagues, will attend other events and meetings to promote Northern Ireland. Lagan Valley MLAs Edwin Poots and Paul Givan have been invited to Washington DC as guests of the pro-life group Family and Life. During this visit they will meet a number of organisations focused on defending the rights of the unborn child. The Met Office has issued a yellow rain warning for Northern Ireland from Wednesday to Thursday afternoon. County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County Londonderry and County Tyrone are all set to be effected from 12:00pm on Wednesday March 14 to 12:00pm on Thursday March 15. Strong southeast winds will bring a period of persistent, occasionally heavy rain Wednesday afternoon and into Thursday morning. Flooding of a few homes and businesses is possible while some flooding of roads may result in longer journey times and disruption to bus and rail services. The southeast winds may also prove an additional hazard with delays for high sided vehicles on exposed routes and delays to air and ferry transport. The Chief Forecaster said: "An area of rain will push into Northern Ireland from the southwest on Wednesday before slowly clearing northeastwards on Thursday morning. "The heaviest and most persistent rain is likely over the Mourne and Sperrin mountains where 50 mm of rain may be seen. Elsewhere 15-25 mm of rain is likely. Coastal gales are also likely, particularly along exposed southeast facing coasts." Maria Lynskey, niece of Joe Lynskey, in Oristown, Co Meath, where a search is being conducted to find his body The niece of Disappeared victim Joe Lynskey left a prayer yesterday at the Co Meath site it's suspected he is buried. A fresh search has been launched for Mr Lynskey who was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972. Maria Lynskey travelled to a small wooded area in Oristown, 20 miles west of Drogheda, where the search for her uncle resumed. Desperately hoping for a breakthrough, she pinned a short prayer to a tree along with a candle and rosary beads. The Disappeared are the 16 people abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles. Mr Lysnkey was a former Cistercian monk who later joined the Provisionals. The IRA eventually admitted to his murder in 2010. Two others, Co Tyrone teenager Columba McVeigh and undercover soldier Robert Nairac, also remain missing. Anne Morgan showed her support to Maria Lynskey yesterday in Co Meath. The remains of Ms Morgan's schoolteacher brother Seamus Ruddy were finally found in France last year. Linda Pywell, whose brother Brian McKinney was abducted by the IRA in 1978, is aware of what the Lynskey family is going through. Mr McKinney's body was found in Co Monaghan in 1999. "Maria will just be on tenterhooks, hoping and praying for a positive result," Ms Pywell said. "At the same time, it's still that awful realisation that he's dead, it's such a bittersweet feeling. She will be very hopeful as we all are for her at the minute. "With my brother, we had six weeks of digging and as time went on we began to lose hope. "It was on the very last day of the dig, it was about to be called off and two of the Garda decided to go and search another spot and they found Brian. "We were really elated, for 21 years we didn't know where he was and for 17 years we couldn't really speak about it because no one was really looking for him. "When it finally came to it we had peace in our hearts that we would finally be able to give him a resting place. "It was very important to us before mum and dad died." Should the search for Mr Lysnkey prove unsuccessful, Ms Pywell said it was still meaningful to know efforts are being made. "It's so important. The families of the Disappeared do meet from time to time and still hope for Columba, Joe and Robert and their families to find the peace in their hearts that we've found." Geoff Knupfer is the lead investigator with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains. He said he did not anticipate a long search and that the family were well aware there was no guarantee of success. A previous search for Mr Lynskey in 2015 instead uncovered the remains of Disappeared victims Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee. The current site was chosen after reviewing information and is the same area that victim Brendan Megraw was found in 2014. Mr Knupfer issued a fresh appeal for information on the three remaining cases. He stressed any information could only be used by the commission. Member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) have condemned the Salisbury attack (Justin Tallis/PA) Britains international allies, led by the US, have responded with condemnation over the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. The UKs Nato allies rallied around Theresa May following her statement to MPs in which she said it was highly likely Russia was responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Mrs May was assured of the backing of the US, Germany and France in calls to President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, according to Downing Street readouts. Number 10 said: Chancellor Merkel condemned the attack and said she stood in full solidarity with the UK. While Mr Trump told Mrs May that the US was with the UK all the way, agreeing that the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used. FM @sigmargabriel talked to British FM @BorisJohnson regarding Sergej #Skripal: We condemn this attack with an illegal chemical weapon in the strongest terms. It would be a very serious matter if it was confirmed that Russia stands behind this incident. GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) March 13, 2018 And the Baltic states, which border Russia, also offered their support in the wake of the attack. Latvia said it was prepared to offer the required support and urged Nato and the EU to agree on action. A statement said: The Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns in the strongest terms the use of chemical weapons in Salisbury, the United Kingdom, on March 4. Those who planned and carried out the attack in the territory of a NATO member state must receive an appropriate and strong response. Latvia supports the UKs efforts of carrying out an investigation into the circumstances of the perpetrated crime. This incident confirms the necessity for stepping up the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention to prevent the use of chemical weapons. Latvia condemns the use of chemical weapons in the attack in Salisbury on 4 March @LVembassyUK @BaibaBraze @UKinLatvia @KeithShannonFCO @foreignoffice https://t.co/Nr1T6zqZWI Latvian MFA (@Latvian_MFA) March 13, 2018 Lithuania issued a statement which said: The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry expresses strong solidarity with the United Kingdom following an audacious criminal act the poisoning of a former military intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The Lithuanian MFA stresses that the use of a military-grade nerve agent within NATO territory represents an exceptional case, making it essential to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice immediately. We call for a joint NATO and EU response. Estonia condemns the chemical attack on the soil of the UK our close friend and ally. Estonia expresses its utmost support to the UK and places its trust in their investigation. Sven Mikser (@svenmikser) March 13, 2018 And Estonia said it was disturbed by the case and the state had every confidence in the investigation. Estonian foreign minister Sven Mikser said: This attack is a brutal violation of international law and order and demonstrates complete disregard for human life and suffering. Perpetrators of this heinous crime must be held accountable. We call for the full co-operation of the international community in this regard. We call on Russia to reassure the international community of its declaration of full destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile in October 2017 and that the integrity and effectiveness of non-proliferation regimes will be upheld. We offer our utmost support to our ally and friend the UK in its efforts to resolve the issue. William meets meets the Prime Minister of Malta Joseph Muscat, his wife Michelle Muscat and their daughters (Jeff Spicer/PA) The Duke of Cambridge has revealed Princess Charlotte loves to dance when he met the Maltese prime ministers two children. Williams comment about his daughter came as he shared a light-hearted moment with Maltas leader Joseph Muscat, wife Michelle Muscat, and the couples twin daughters Etoile Ella and Soleil Sophie at a Commonwealth Day reception. The Duke joked with the 10-year-old girls saying Its a bit colder than Malta at the event staged by the Commonwealth Secretariat at its London home Marlborough House. This evening, The Duke of Cambridge, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess Cornwall are attending the #CommonwealthDay reception at Marlborough House. Follow @RoyalFamily for more. pic.twitter.com/arq86eS2g9 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 12, 2018 Other guests included the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, high commissioners and former prime minister Sir John Major, and the event was hosted by Baroness Scotland, the Commonwealths secretary-general. When Mrs Muscat said her children were attending a stage school, William replied: My daughter Charlotte loves dancing. Charlotte, who celebrates her third birthday in May, started nursery school at the beginning of the year and is a pupil at Willcocks near Kensington Palace. The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall and The Duke of Cambridge then watched a performance by Ngati Ranana, the London Maori Choir. pic.twitter.com/QZk1F44MYI The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) March 12, 2018 The reception followed a service to mark Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey attended by Charles, Camilla and William, other senior members of the royal family and Meghan Markle and fiance Prince Harry. During the reception the royal trio also met twins Colin and Charles Ihe, 33, RAF flying officers from London who are British and have Nigerian ancestry. The pair graduated from RAF Cranwell on March 1 and are part of the militarys Black, Asian and Minority Ethnics (BAME) network, which celebrates and supports serving personnel, as well as inspiring new recruits to join. Expand Close Camilla meets performers at a reception at Marlborough House (Jeff Spicer/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Camilla meets performers at a reception at Marlborough House (Jeff Spicer/PA) William, a former RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot, also graduated from Cranwell after learning to fly with the airforce and wished the brothers good luck with their careers while Colin said the Prince of Wales, another royal pilot, joked about his time at the RAF base. He said: The prince was playing on the fact surely were the same person, in other words are we twins, so to speak. And he looked back at his time at Cranwell, his view point is Cranwell is what Cranwell is its a rite of passage, a wonderful place. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has welcomed international support over the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning as the deadline for Russia to provide a convincing explanation creeps closer. France, Germany and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all gave their backing to the UK after the Government confirmed it was highly likely Russia was behind the use of deadly Novichok on UK soil. However President Donald Trumps White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stopped short of pointing the finger at Russia. Speaking on Tuesday Mr Johnson said: What were doing today is giving Russia until midnight tonight to explain how it came to be that Novichok was used on the streets of Wiltshire. If they can come up with a convincing explanation then obviously we will want to see full disclosure of that to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague. If not, then clearly we will want to be announcing the UK response and that will come tomorrow. In the meantime what weve been doing is talking to friends and partners, explaining what we see as the high likelihood of Russian state agency. And Ive been very encouraged so far by the strength of the support that we are getting. Ive been encouraged by the willingness of our friends to show support and solidarity. Mr Johnson added: Russia is a great country. It is a great pity therefore that the Russian regime seems to be moving in this dangerous and disruptive direction. A huge police inquiry was launched after former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on March 4. Expand Close Sergei Skripal in Moscow in 2006 (Misha Japaridze/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sergei Skripal in Moscow in 2006 (Misha Japaridze/AP) The pair are in a critical but stable condition in intensive care. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was part of the initial police response, is in a serious but stable condition. The episode has left Britains relations with Moscow, which were already under severe strain, at breaking point. In an extraordinary statement in the Commons on Monday, Theresa May told MPs it was highly likely Russia was responsible for the poisoning. She disclosed that the dangerous substance used in the attack was a military-grade Novichok nerve agent produced by Russia. The PM set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for Moscow to explain whether it was behind the attack or had lost control of its stockpile of the poison. Failure to provide a credible response would lead her to view the incident as an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom, sparking unspecified measures in reprisal. Housing Minister Dominic Raab told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme it would open up the whole panoply of counter-measures from economic, financial, diplomatic measures, potentially including moves targeted at individuals such as visa bans and freezing financial assets. However he downplayed the involvement of Nato in any response to Moscow, saying that Mrs May chose her words very carefully in her Commons statement. He said: The words unlawful use of force are different and have a different meaning in international law from armed attack. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the country was not to blame, and asked for access to samples of the poison. Expand Close Boris Johnson visit to Russia PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Boris Johnson visit to Russia Following Mrs Mays statement, news agency Tass quoted Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying: It is a circus show in the British Parliament. The conclusion is obvious, its another political information campaign, based on a provocation. Mr Putin dismissed questions about the Skripals when he was confronted during an election campaign visit, telling the BBC: Get to the bottom of things there, then well discuss this. Scottish Brexit Minister Mike Russell insisted there will be enough time for MSPs to scrutinise emergency Brexit legislation (Jane Barlow/PA) The Scottish Governments controversial alternative to crucial Brexit legislation will be properly scrutinised, the minister in charge has insisted. Scottish Brexit Minister Mike Russell said while the procedures being put in place for the MSPs to examine the SNP administrations emergency legislation were unusual, he stressed there was enough time for scrutiny. Mr Russell spoke out ahead of a rare late night meeting of one of Holyroods committees, with MSPs sitting from 5.45pm to consider the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill. The Scottish Government has brought forward the legislation amid a stand-off over the return of devolved powers from Brussels following Britains departure from the EU. But with more than 230 amendments to the Bill lodged, MSPs will have to sit late into the night with the Parliament also having earmarked more time on Wednesday morning for this if it is needed. Today's scrutiny of the #ContinuityBill begins with a pre-stage 2 debate, allowing all MSPs a chance to speak before consideration of all 231 amendments by @SP_FinCon. This meeting will also be in the Chamber, allowing those who lodged amendments to speak. https://t.co/qCVhtXbivJ pic.twitter.com/ZyFwucLPnk Scottish Parliament (@ScotParl) March 13, 2018 The Continuity Bill is being rushed through Holyrood on a shortened timetable as emergency legislation, with the Scottish Government stating it has to be passed before the UK Governments EU Withdrawal Bill gets final approval. Ministers in both Edinburgh and Cardiff have branded that legislation as being a Westminster power grab. Agriculture, fisheries, food labelling and public procurement are among 24 devolved policy areas the Downing Street wants to temporarily retain power over following the UKs exit from the EU, to put in place UK-wide frameworks. Speaking about the Scottish Governments Bill, Mr Russell said: I can confirm that as things stand the Government is of the view that it is necessary to proceed with this legislation. All along, the objective of the Government, and the Welsh Government has been to reach agreement on amendments to the UK Governments Withdrawal Bill. Sadly we havent yet reached such an agreement. The changes that the UK Government has put forward without the agreement of Holyrood ministers unacceptably constrains devolved competence, Mr Russell argued. He added: I remain hopeful agreement can be reached, but were not at that stage and this parliament needs to have a backstop. It needs to have this Bill. I recognise that the procedure for this bill has been unusual. But there is enough time for the Bill to be properly scrutinised and that is what will take place. Dont often agree with Neil, but hes right about this. Not a single SNP backbencher will even tell us which Opposition amendments, designed to improve this Bill, should be accepted. https://t.co/ZdGgKE1vjE Adam Tomkins (@ProfTomkins) March 13, 2018 Conservative MSP Adam Tomkins said the Scottish Government Bill was a woeful piece of emergency legislation which will do nothing but bring this Parliament into disrepute. With Holyroods Presiding Officer having already ruled the Bill to be outside of the Parliaments legislative competence something contested by the Scottish Government Mr Tomkins argued there are a number of provisions that are manifestly and straightforwardly incompatible with the requirements imposed on us in the Scotland Act. He added: Its not too late for the SNP to withdraw this Bill its bad law, we should abandon it and not enact it. Scottish Conservatives have tabled the majority of amendments to the Bill, and a spokesman for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: It would appear on the face of it that they have laid down a lot of amendments to take up a lot of time and we will see where deliberations get to this evening. Prime Minister Theresa May pointed the finger at Russia over the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury (PA) Russia will refuse to meet Theresa Mays midnight deadline unless Britain agrees to send Moscow samples of the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal. The countrys embassy in the UK fired off a salvo of seven tweets in which it said Britain must comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention for a joint investigation and warned the threat of sanctions would meet with a response. It comes as President Donald Trump told Mrs May in a phone call the US is with the UK all the way, according to Downing Street. Mrs May said the Government had concluded it is highly likely Russia was responsible for the attack which left ex-spy Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia in a critical condition in hospital. 3/7 Moscow will not respond to Londons ultimatum until it receives samples of the chemical substance to which the UK investigators are referring. pic.twitter.com/B5CNtimcc3 Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) March 13, 2018 She demanded that Moscow account for how a Russian-produced nerve agent could have been deployed in Salisbury and vowed to set out measures Britain will adopt if no credible response is received by the end of Tuesday. Home Secretary Amber Rudd earlier said Russia had started responding but the embassy appeared to suggest this amounted to little more than informing the Foreign Office of its demands and reiterating it was not involved. Britains ambassador to Russia Laurie Bristow was summoned by Moscow and told by first deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov that the Kremlin strongly protested the accusations, the embassy said. Police said the probe could take several weeks as investigators carry out a painstaking operation to identify how the Novichok nerve agent was used to poison Mr Skripal on British soil. Counter-terror police chief Neil Basu said officers prime focus is to establish the method used to administer the chemical weapon. A huge police inquiry was launched after the former double agent, 66, and his daughter, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on March 4. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was part of the initial police response, was also taken ill. He is in a serious but stable condition. AC Neil Basu: "I would to share my thanks with the public for their patience and understanding. An investigation of this complexity and size will understandably take some considerable amount of time and the publics continued support is greatly assisting our investigation team." Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) March 13, 2018 Speaking at Scotland Yard, Mr Basu warned the public in the city they could expect to see more police activity, saying: In truth it may last many weeks. The Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner would not identify any potential suspect, saying: Its a painstaking operation to identify anyone of interest to this inquiry, and eliminate them or include them, but at this stage we are not declaring a person of interest or a suspect. Investigators are also focusing on Mr Skripals red BMW, registration number HD09 WAO, and appealing for any witnesses who saw the pair in the car between 1pm and 1.45pm on March 4 to come forward. Expand Close Emergency personnel at the Ashley Wood Recovery Centre in Salisbury as the investigation into the suspected nerve agent attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal continues (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Emergency personnel at the Ashley Wood Recovery Centre in Salisbury as the investigation into the suspected nerve agent attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal continues (Andrew Matthews/PA) Police have so far collected 380 exhibits and have been scouring hours of CCTV footage from across the city. Detailing the timeline leading up to the pair being taken ill, Mr Basu disclosed that Yulia had arrived at Heathrow Airport on a flight from Russia the day before. The senior officer referred to Mr Skripal as a British national and Yulia as a Russian citizen. He also revealed that a total of 38 people had been seen by medics in relation to the incident, of whom 34 had been assessed and discharged from hospital. Three people remain in hospital the Skripals and Mr Bailey. One other unnamed person is being monitored as an outpatient, but is not showing signs of exposure to the chemical weapon. As the clock ticked towards the midnight deadline: It emerged that police and MI5 are to look into allegations that a string of other deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia. Peter Wilson, the UKs permanent representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said the indiscriminate and reckless attack on the Skripals was the first offensive use of a nerve agent of any sort on European territory since the Second World War. The Government was weighing up Britains options should Russia not provide a satisfactory response with a cyber counter-strike said to be among the possible measures being considered, along with economic, financial and diplomatic action. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the country was not to blame, and asked for access to samples of the poison. France, Germany and former US secretary of state Rex Tillerson, speaking before he was sacked, all gave their backing to the UK. In a call to Mrs May, Mr Trump agreed the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) The episode has left Britains relations with Moscow, which were already under severe strain, at breaking point. Ahmed Hassan is on trial at the Old Bailey (Metropolitan Police/PA A teenager told jurors he planted a bomb on the Tube at Parsons Green as part of a fugitive fantasy fuelled by action films. Budding photographer Ahmed Hassan dreamed of studying to become the next David Attenborough when he came to Britain from Iraq in 2015. He told immigration officials he was kidnapped by Islamic State and trained to kill because he thought it would help his asylum claim, he said. But the Old Bailey heard how he got bored and thought about committing suicide in the summer of 2017. During that time, he got the idea to construct a bomb from homemade TATP after watching films and documentaries, the court heard. I was very bored, very stressed, very confused and I watched lots of movies, action moviesAhmed Hassan He told jurors: I think the main reason, I wasnt thinking as a normal person would do. I was very bored, very stressed, very confused and I watched lots of movies, action movies during that time. It became kind of a fantasy in my head. I was thinking about it. Yes, that was it. I was watching documentaries as well, about fugitives and just the idea of being a fugitive got into my head. And I thought about it and that was it. Tim Moloney QC, representing Hassan, asked: Was that an attractive idea? He said: Very much so. Hassan went about buying the ingredients for TATP and tested 50g of it on a Coca Cola can on the kitchen table of his foster home in Sunbury, Surrey, he said. He told jurors: I heard a whoof and a very small heat, fire, for a fraction of a second. I was certain that it would not explode. It would just burn. I wanted it to look serious so I added the shrapnel to it. Expand Close Parsons Green after the incident (Victoria Jones/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Parsons Green after the incident (Victoria Jones/PA) He had stayed awake all night on a sofa in the conservatory ahead of the Parsons Green incident, and his foster father Ron asked why he was not sleeping. Hassan said he did not answer. When asked by Mr Moloney where the device was at that point, Hassan answered: It was next to me. Asked if he ever intended to hurt anyone, he said: The idea of killing another human being never crossed my mind at all, never in my life. Mr Moloney asked if he thought it would explode. Hassan replied: Not at all. I was certain that it would burn because I had tested it. On September 15 last year, the 18-year-old media student planted 400g of TATP and shrapnel on a District Line tube timed to go off when it reached the west London stop. When he was picked up at the port of Dover the following morning he told police he had made the bomb, which only partially exploded on the packed rush hour service. Hassan told jurors he wanted to go back to Iraq. Under cross-examination, Hassan denied planting the bomb to avenge the death of his father, who was killed in an explosion. Alison Morgan said: You did feel you had a duty to hate Britain because of the death of your father. You believed that coalition forces were responsible for his death. You believed that the fight against Britain should be brought into this country. He replied: No, not at all. No, I never thought about that. Ms Morgan said he was a proficient liar and had deceived those closest to him. He replied: I never lied. I made up a story for the Home Office to accept me in the country. Hassan insisted he never tried to blame anyone else, saying: I left evidence all over the placeI left everything behind to suggest it was me. I actually was seeking them to find out it was me. Earlier, Hassan told jurors he was never taken prisoner by IS, as he had claimed to Home Office officials in 2016. Hassan said: I have never had any contact with Daesh at all. Asked why he made it up, he said: Because I came from a wealthy safe area in northern Iraq in Kurdistan and if I told the truth my only reason to leave the country was to further my studies I felt I had to make up something strong. In the Jungle in Calais people used to talk about these things and make up stories. I never came across a refugee who said he would tell the truth when he arrived in the country. I wanted to go to university and my ultimate goal was to become a wildlife photographer like David Attenborough. Hassan told how his mother died when he was young and his taxi driver father was killed in an explosion in Iraq in 2006. So far as Im aware I was told that he died in an explosion while he was working as a taxi driver. He used to go to work and come back evenings and then he did not come back. It was very difficult. I did not understand what was going on. I was in a state of confusion because of fighting, because of bombing. Hassan moved to northern Iraq with his uncle and older brother and from the age of 12 worked ferrying goods like vegetables across the border with Iran. The defendant said he decided to leave Iraq because he wanted a better life. He smuggled himself to Britain by train and on a lorry at the age of 16, he said. Hassan told jurors he enjoyed studying photography when he was at Brooklands College in Weybridge. He said it felt good to be nominated when he won student of the year in June 2017, adding he took the same title six years in a row in Iraq. He has continued his studies while in prison so his academic year is not wasted, he said. Hassan has denied attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion that was likely to endanger life. Russia has warned the Uk to consider the consequences of a retaliatory cyber attack (Kirsty O'Connor/PA) Russia has warned Britain to consider the consequences of mounting a retaliatory cyber strike after the Salisbury spy poisoning. In a fresh sign of the escalating diplomatic tension sparked by the case, the Russian Embassy cautioned against such a reckless move. Theresa May has set Moscow a deadline of midnight on Tuesday to explain how a nerve agent was deployed against Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Expand Close Salisbury incident PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Salisbury incident If there is no credible response from the Kremlin, Mrs May has pledged to set out a full range of measures to be taken in response. The Government has not publicly disclosed the options under consideration but reports on Tuesday suggested one possibility was a cyber counter-attack. Responding to the speculation, the Russian Embassy in the UK said: Statements by a number of MPs, Whitehall sources and experts regarding a possible deployment of offensive cyber-capabilities cause serious concern. Not only is Russia groundlessly and provocatively accused of the Salisbury incident, but apparently, plans are being developed in the UK to strike Russia with cyber weapons. Judging by the statements of the Prime Minister, such a decision can be taken at tomorrows meeting of the National Security Council. We invite the British side to once again consider the consequences of such a reckless move. Expand Close Salisbury incident PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Salisbury incident Britains capacity in the area of offensive cyber was summarised in December by the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee, which has access to high-level security figures and highly classified material. Offensive cyber covers a range of measures including possible retaliation after a cyber attack and capabilities to attack wider systems or infrastructure, according to the committees annual report. It added: Both GCHQ and MoD (Ministry of Defence) are responsible for developing these capabilities for the UK and this involves skills and techniques across a range of technical work in each organisation. Offensive cyber work is broad and includes: The development of computer code or hacking tools; intelligence development, for example through interception; and delivery either by network or physical access. Deployment can take place through a specific device or an adversarys computer network, according to the report. In 2015, then chancellor George Osborne said: We are building our own offensive cyber capability a dedicated ability to counter-attack in cyberspace. The committees report quoted evidence from GCHQ about the programme. The passage was partly redacted but the intelligence agency referred to a full spectrum of capabilities from tactical stuff through to the high end of counter state offensive cyber capabilities which might never be used but are the sort [of] high-end deterrents. Lance Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen (left) Private Mark Barrett (centre), and another man who cannot be named, are on trial accused of being part of banned far right group National Action. (Elizabeth Cook/PA) A British Army trainer accused of being a member of a banned racist neo-Nazi group allegedly kept a terrorism manual written by white nationalist Anders Breivik, a court heard. Serving soldier Lance Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen is accused of membership of National Action, along with Private Mark Barrett and a 23-year-old man who cannot be named. All three were described at the start of their trial by prosecutors as active members of the virulently racist right-wing group, before and after its ban in December 2016. Opening the case at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday, Duncan Atkinson QC, said: These defendants are not being prosecuted for their racist of neo-Nazi beliefs, however repulsive they may be. But for their participation in an organisation that sought actively through fear, intimidation and the threat of violence rather than through free speech and democracy to shape society in accordance with those beliefs. All information, therefore, of the kind likely to be useful to a white extremist committing or preparing an act of terrorism.Duncan Atkinson QC, prosecuting In the days before the groups ban under terrorism legislation, prosecutors alleged one of the men received an email stating the group was simply shedding one skin for another and would continue under a new name. It continued: All genuinely revolutionary movements in the past have needed to exist partly underground. These are exciting times. Expand Close The men are on trial at Birmingham Crown Court (Rui Vieira/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The men are on trial at Birmingham Crown Court (Rui Vieira/PA) Outlining what the wider organisation stood for, the prosecution barrister said National Action engaged in a campaign of virulently racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic propaganda, through which it sought to stir up a violent race war against ethnic minorities and others it perceived as race traitors. Mr Atkinson said: Hostile to democracy and the British state, National Action actively sought to recruit and radicalise young people through the violent imagery and hate-filled language of its social media messages, its provocative street demonstrations and intimidation of local communities. Jurors were told the group was banned in the UK following a number of actions including their support for the murder of the MP for Batley, Jo Cox. The men all came to the attention of West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit and Ministry of Defence following an investigation into the organisation. Vehvilainen, 33, and Barrett, 24, were both serving members of the British Army in the Royal Anglian Regiment, the court heard. Barrett, based at Kendrew Army Barracks, Rutland, but arrested at Dhekalia Barracks, Cyprus, was allegedly recruited by his older colleague and had an active affiliation with the group, said Mr Atkinson. Raids were carried out on their barracks homes, and material including mobile phones and hard drives were seized. Expand Close A document written by Anders Breivik, under an alias, at Vehvilainen's home at the Army's Welsh HQ in Sennybridge Camp, Powys (PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A document written by Anders Breivik, under an alias, at Vehvilainen's home at the Army's Welsh HQ in Sennybridge Camp, Powys (PA) When Vehvilainens home at the Armys Welsh HQ in Sennybridge Camp, Powys, Wales, was searched, officers found a document on a phone written by Breivik, under an alias. The manual entitled A European Declaration of Independence, contained both ideology and methodology of his own attacks and items on funding, recruitment, training and armoury for acts of terrorism. Vehvilainens phone contained evidence of 900 visits to a website, where he made two posts which Mr Atkinson alleged were derogatory of, and insulting to, black persons, dehumanising them and inciting hatred against them. Married Vehvilainen has denied two charges of stirring up racial hatred, and one count of possession of a terrorism manual. The other male is facing three counts of possession of a terrorism manual including a copy of Breiviks pamphlet and one count of distributing material likely to be useful to terrorists. He is alleged to have had a mega folder on his laptop which was alleged to contain step-by-step instructions for killing people, and the manufacture of a host of explosives, detonators and bombs. The prosecution alleged among documents in his possession was a White Resistance Manual for fun, which had entries on arson, sabotage and selective assassinations. Mr Atkinson said: All information, therefore, of the kind likely to be useful to a white extremist committing or preparing an act of terrorism. He is also accused of distributing a terrorist publication, called Ethnic Cleansing Operations, via Skype. Describing its contents, Mr Atkinson said: This document is a detailed account of how to achieve the eradication of the predatory black race from the United States. Its addressing both the white extremist rationale for doing so and techniques that can be employed for actual ethnic cleansing. The opening continues on Tuesday. University staff are joined by politicians and students as they hold a rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh (Jane Barlow/PA) The stalemate between lecturers leaders and university officials looks to have ended after an agreement was reached in the bitter dispute over pensions. The University and College Union (UCU) said that talks with Universities UK (UUK) had concluded, and that a transitional benefit arrangement had been agreed on, subject to consultation with its members. In the talks, mediated by the conciliation service Acas, both parties agreed on an interim solution where both employers and employees will be required to pay higher pension contributions. Agreement has been reached between UUK and UCU under the auspices of Acas following six days of talks. https://t.co/EBTNbk7PAC pic.twitter.com/zyoD1DSRII Universities UK (@UniversitiesUK) March 12, 2018 A spokesman for the UCU said the agreement would be considered by its higher education committee and branch representatives on Tuesday. The interim arrangement says that the transitional period for which higher contributions would need to be paid would be implemented on April 1 2019 and last for three years. Members of staff at universities across the country have been striking in protest at changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). The row centres on proposals that would change the USS from a defined benefit scheme, which gives workers a guaranteed income in their retirement, to a purely defined contribution scheme, in which pensions are subject to fluctuations in the stock market. This is what has come out of the Acas talks between UCU and UUK https://t.co/fbiRLgoqoN It is going to members this evening. Our higher education committee and branch representatives are meeting tomorrow to consider it. #USSstrike UCU (@ucu) March 12, 2018 A wave of 14 days of strikes are due to end with a five-day walkout between Monday and Friday this week. Rex Tillerson has been fired as US Secretary of State (AP Photo/Azeez Akunleyen) Donald Trump has fired US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA director Mike Pompeo. The US president said Gina Haspel will become the new CIA director, the first woman chosen for the job. Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Pompeo, will do a fantastic job! and thanked Mr Tillerson for his service. He said he made the decision to sack his secretary of state by myself and that Mr Tillerson will be much happier now . The president said he and Mr Tillerson had been talking about this for a long time and they had disagreed on issues like the Iran deal. A senior State Department official said Mr Trump never explained to Mr Tillerson the reason why he was fired. The undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, Steve Goldstein, said Mr Tillerson had every intention of staying in the job because he felt he was making critical progress in national security. Two White House officials have said Mr Tillerson was told he was out on Friday, but Mr Goldstein said he did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason. Mr Tillerson had returned from a shortened trip to Africa hours before Mr Trumps announcement, which offered no explanation for the change. A White House official said Mr Trump wanted to have a new team in place before upcoming talks with North Korea and various trade negotiations. There had been rumours throughout most of Mr Tillersons tenure of friction between Mr Trump and his secretary of state, a former ExxonMobile chief executive. In October, NBC news reported that Mr Tillerson called the president a moron, something he never actually denied. Mr Tillerson continued to insist his relationship with the president was solid and brushed off rumours of strain between them. He was due to retire from Exxon in March 2017 aged 65 under the companys mandatory retirement policy. Mr Tillerson was paid 27.3 million dollars (19.5 million) last year, and has accumulated roughly 160 million dollars (115 million) in Exxon stock along with 149 million dollars (107 million) of unvested stock options. Gina Haspel could become the first woman CIA director (Carolyn Kaster/AP) Donald Trumps choice to be the first female CIA director is a career spymaster who once ran an agency prison in Thailand where terror suspects were subjected to a harsh interrogation technique. The US president has selected Gina Haspel to replace Mike Pompeo, who is moving to become Secretary of State after the sacking of Rex Tillerson. Ms Haspel, the current deputy CIA director, also helped carry out an order that the agency destroy its waterboarding videos. Expand Close Gina Haspel will be the first female CIA director if her nomination is confirmed (CIA via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Gina Haspel will be the first female CIA director if her nomination is confirmed (CIA via AP) That order prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. Ms Haspel, who has extensive overseas experience, briefly ran a secret CIA prison where accused terrorists Abu Zubayadah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded in 2002, according to US intelligence officials. More than a decade after waterboarding was last used, the CIA is still haunted by the legacy of a tactic that the US government regarded as torture before the Bush administration authorised its use against terrorist suspects. There is no indication that Mr Trumps choice of Ms Haspel signals a desire to restart the harsh interrogation and detention programme. Ms Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, has been chief of station at CIA outposts abroad. In Washington, she has held several senior leadership positions, including deputy director of the National Clandestine Service and deputy director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action. When she was picked as deputy CIA director, her career was lauded by veteran intelligence officials, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who recently retired. But it upset the American Civil Liberties Union and other rights advocates who found it unsettling that Mr Trump chose someone who was involved in the harsh interrogation programme. Haspel was up to her eyeballs in torture, both in running a secret torture prison in Thailand and carrying out an order to cover up torture crimes. One man held at the secret prison she ran was waterboarded 83 times, slammed against walls, sleep deprived, and locked in a box. ACLU (@ACLU) March 13, 2018 No one who had a hand in torturing individuals deserves to ever hold public office again, let alone lead an agency, Human Rights Firsts Raha Wala said. To allow someone who had a direct hand in this illegal, immoral and counterproductive programme is to willingly forget our nations dark history with torture. Authorities investigate an explosion at a home in Austin, Texas (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP) Package bombs that killed a teenager and wounded two women in Austin on Monday are probably linked to a similar bombing that killed a man in Texas capital city earlier this month, authorities said. Investigators are considering whether race was a factor because all of the victims were minorities. The first of Mondays attacks killed a 17-year-old boy and wounded a 40-year-old woman, both of them black. As police chief Brian Manley held a news conference to discuss that blast, officers were called to the scene of another explosion that badly injured a 75-year-old Hispanic woman. Briefing regarding explosion on Galindo. https://t.co/gkSSgME0S4 Austin Police Department (@Austin_Police) March 12, 2018 She was taken to a hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries. Authorities suspect that both of Mondays blasts are linked to a March 2 attack that killed a 39-year-old black man, and they urged the public to call police if they receive any unexpected packages. The latest explosions happened during the South by Southwest music, film and technology festival, which brings about 400,000 visitors to Austin each year. The explosions happened far from the festivals main events, and there was no immediate word from organisers about additional safety precautions. Four years ago, a driver ploughed through a barricade and into festival-goers, killing four people and injuring many others. SXSW is heartbroken by the explosions in Austin earlier this month and today. Our thoughts are with the victims and those affected. @Austin_Police are conducting ongoing investigations related to these incidents. Please stay safe, and if you see something, say something. https://t.co/ptMu3fylec SXSW (@sxsw) March 12, 2018 Additional security measures were taken in the aftermath, including additional policing, tougher security checks and brighter street lighting, among others. The three explosions occurred in different parts of Austin. Mondays first explosion happened at a home near the citys Windsor Park neighbourhood and about 12 miles (20 kilometres) from the home where the March 2 package bomb killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House. His death was initially investigated as suspicious but is now viewed as a homicide. Mondays second explosion happened in the Montopolis neighbourhood, near the airport and about five miles (eight kilometres) south of the days first blast. A $15,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for Austin package bombings. https://t.co/6V5lC2DF39 pic.twitter.com/Y4dplcUsn8 Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) March 12, 2018 In at least the first two blasts, the packages were left overnight on the victims doorsteps and were not mailed or sent by a delivery service. Mr Manley said neither the Postal Service nor private carriers such as UPS or FedEx have any record of delivering the package to the home where Mondays explosion occurred. There are similarities that we cannot rule out that these two items are, in fact, related, he said. Investigators have not determined a motive for the attacks, but it is possible that the victims could have been targeted because of their race, he said. We dont know what the motive behind these may be, Mr Manley said. We do know that both of the homes that were the recipients of these packages belong to African-Americans, so we cannot rule out that hate crime is at the core of this. My heart goes out to the family of the individual who died & was injured from the explosion on Old Fort Hill Dr. This type of crime will not be tolerated in #ATX. If you receive a package that you are not expecting or looks suspicious, DO NOT open it, call 911 immediately. pic.twitter.com/sJSYQZMziv Brian Manley (@Chief_Manley) March 12, 2018 Special Agent Michelle Lee, a San Antonio-based spokesman for the FBI, said the agency responded to both events and was assisting Austin police, who were leading the local investigation. She said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was leading the federal investigation. A second package was discovered near the site of the initial Monday explosion, and some residents and media members were evacuated or pushed farther from the blast site as authorities determined whether it was a bomb, Mr Manley said. Police did not immediately identify the teenager who was killed. Mr Manley said the woman who was injured in that attack is in hospital. The US Secretary of State has been sacked after publicly backing the UK finding that Russia is highly likely to have used a weapons-grade nerve agent on British soil. President Donald Trump, who initially avoided blaming the Kremlin over the assassination attempt in Salisbury, announced on Twitter that Rex Tillerson will be replaced in the role by CIA director Mike Pompeo. The Washington Post reported that the US leader made the decision on Friday. The news came as the international community rallied round Britain after the first use of this kind of chemical weapon in Europe since the Second World War. A huge police inquiry was launched after former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on March 4. They remain in a critical condition. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was part of the initial police response, is in a serious but stable condition. The episode has left Britains relations with Moscow, which were already under severe strain, at breaking point. In an extraordinary speech on Monday, Prime Minister Theresa May set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for the Russians to provide a credible explanation as to why deadly Novichok was used on UK soil. Expand Close Donald Trump (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trump (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Peter Wilson, the UK Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told fellow delegates: I did not expect to have to brief this Council on the first offensive use of a nerve agent of any sort on European territory since World War Two. The stark conclusion is that it is highly likely that Russia, a fellow State Party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), is implicated in chemical weapons use, whether by failure to control its own materials or by design. This attempted murder, using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British city, was not just a crime against the Skripals. It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the UK, which put the lives of innocent civilians at risk. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said if Russia failed to provide a convincing explanation the UK response would be announced on Wednesday. He added: Russia is a great country. It is a great pity therefore that the Russian regime seems to be moving in this dangerous and disruptive direction. The Government has a variety of counter-measures including economic, financial, and diplomatic moves. There has also been speculation about a potential covert cyber offensive against Russia in retaliation. Prime Minister Theresa May told the regular weekly meeting of Cabinet at 10 Downing Street that there was no doubt of the severity of what had taken place in Salisbury, which was a reckless, indiscriminate and despicable act. Mrs May confirmed that she will chair a meeting of the National Security Council on Wednesday to discuss the Russian response and will then inform the House of Commons of any measures to be taken. France, Germany and Mr Tillerson all gave their backing to the UK after the Government confirmed it was highly likely Russia was behind the assassination attempt. However, President Donald Trumps White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stopped short of pointing the finger at Russia. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the country was not to blame, and asked for access to samples of the poison. News agency Tass quoted Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying: It is a circus show in the British Parliament. The conclusion is obvious, its another political information campaign, based on a provocation. Mr Putin dismissed questions about the Skripals when he was confronted during an election campaign visit, telling the BBC: Get to the bottom of things there, then well discuss this. It is "highly likely" that Russia was behind the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, Theresa May has told MPs. The Prime Minister said the substance used was a "military grade" nerve agent produced by Russia and there were only two possible explanations - either Moscow was behind the attack or it had lost control of its stockpile of the poison. Mrs May said Russia's ambassador Alexander Yakovenko had been summoned to the Foreign Office to explain what had happened. There was no handshake in the face-to-face meeting with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who voiced Britain's outrage over the incident and said that either explanation would be very disturbing. Mr Johnson has given Russia until midnight to respond and told the ambassador Moscow must immediately provide full and complete disclosure of its Novichok nerve gas programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. In a dramatic statement after a meeting of the National Security Council, Mrs May told MPs: "It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia." She added: "Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down; our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so; Russia's record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations; and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations; the Government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal." That meant "either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country" or Vladimir Putin's government had "lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent". The Kremlin has denied the involvement of the Russian government in the nerve agent attack on the Skripals. At least one officer in 10 has been rapped for violating procedure or committing a criminal offence, the exception being Mid Ulster. COPS have been sacked, required to resign and had their pay docked for crimes including sex offences, firearms breaches and assault, Sunday Life can reveal. Officers were also disciplined for motoring offences, failing to investigate and even counterfeiting, according to details released to this newspaper by the PSNI. In the last year at least one officer in 10 of the PSNI's 11 districts has been rapped for violating procedure or committing a criminal offence, the exception being Mid Ulster. The Freedom of Information request by Sunday Life revealed 60 officers were subject to disciplinary action last year, ranging from dismissal to written warning. The most serious matter for which an officer was investigated and disciplined was "sexual offences", though the police would not release any further details of the offence. An officer was also hauled over the coals for a "firearms issue during domestic" and another for possession of ammunition without a certificate, though due to identification issues the PSNI provided no further details. One member of the force was also found to have changed an address on a search warrant which is issued by a magistrate to allow police to enter specific premises to gather potential evidence. The PSNI's disciplinary branch, which supplied the information to Sunday Life, refused to match a date or location to each matter saying it may also identify the officer concerned. According to the data the most common issue for which cops were reprimanded was failing to investigate crimes, including failing to maintain accurate records and not updating the complainant. There were also 10 breaches of data protection dealt with in the last year, including one officer who was sanctioned for violating the data protection regulations and having an inappropriate relationship. But the force would not reveal the nature of the relationship between the officer and the civilian and how it lead to the breach. The discipline branch also dealt with four instances of officers committing common assault, including one bust-up where an officer was done for assault on police. Excessive use of force by police resulted in three disciplinary actions, as did inappropriate comments, aggressive behaviour towards colleagues and disorderly behaviour. According to police records three officers were dismissed, one was required to resign, and eight had their pay reduced. Others were handed a fine, reprimand, caution or written warning. The ranks of those disciplined were one inspector, six sergeants and 53 constables. A spokesperson for the Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) said that officers face a range of pressures and only in a very small number of cases did police officers "not get it right". They told Sunday Life: "Sixty out of a workforce of 6,600 is less than one-hundreth of the payroll, and that becomes much less when you consider the number of officers dealt with by written warning. "The PFNI has supported many of the officers involved and can say that for the many, they have come away from the process with no sanction, better informed and better equipped to carry out their duties. "Dismissing an officer is the toughest sanction that can be imposed, but these cases are rare and shouldn't be exaggerated. The PFNI will never excuse blatant criminal behaviour or misconduct. Officers are there to uphold the law and must adhere to the highest professional standards whilst it must be acknowledged that on occasions mistakes are made, which can have catastrophic effects on officers and their families." Other matters for which officers were disciplined included: Counterfeiting Dishonest account of a road traffic collision Inappropriate language Failing a drugs test Issues relating to the conduct of a business interest Failures when dealing with a missing persons report Motoring offences (unspecified) The offences or breach of regulations for which officers were disciplined last year occurred between January 2011 and September last year, according to the police. Just last month the Enniskillen based sergeant was jailed for six months after being convicted of shoplifting. Totten (50, above) was described in court as a "bluffer" who carried out "brazen and bold thefts" at an Asda store in Enniskillen. Constable MacSherry (right) was jailed for nine years after she admitted killing a man in a drunken car crash in October 2015. Omagh woman MacSherry admitted causing the death of 49-year-old Paul Mills by dangerous driving and drink driving. Mr Mills died after MacSherry's car slammed into the father-of-two's stationary car at over 80mph on the Clanabogan Road, Co Tyrone. The Dungannon-based officer (left) was given a nine-month suspended jail sentence for passing on information on a Lithuanian man accused of rape to a "female friend". The man was stabbed to death two months later and Donaldson was convicted of unlawfully obtaining personal data from police computers. In a raid at his home, cops found a music counterfeiting operation from which he earned 33k flogging the knock-offs online A former high-ranking civil servant from Batam could face life in prison if convicted of terrorism charges linked to his 2015 pilgrimage with his family to Syria, where he allegedly trained with the Islamic State (IS), prosecutors said Tuesday. Dwi Djoko Wiwoho, 50, is standing trial in a West Jakarta court for allegedly undergoing firearms training with IS and funding the international militant group. Two relatives also face trials on similar charges. Djoko, his wife and children and their relatives went through the governments weeks-long de-radicalization programs to help them re-enter Indonesian society after their return in August 2017. Despite those efforts, the three men face separate trials in the same courthouse. The prosecutor began his case against Djoko on Tuesday by reading the criminal indictment. The defendant sold his house on July 2015 for 500 million rupiah (U.S. $36,372) and used part of that money to go to Syria, prosecutor Jaya Siahaan said. After five days, the defendant stopped training because he didnt want to be a soldier and only wanted to be a regular civilian who supports IS, the prosecutor said. But the defendants action violated the anti-terrorism law. Djoko, who did not speak as the indictment was read against him, tilted his head during the session. The case will resume next Tuesday with witness testimony. Others charged The prosecutor said Djokos brother-in-law, Iman Santoso, provoked the pilgrimage by delivering sermons on the obligation of jihad during family Quran recitations in Pancoran, South Jakarta. The defendant alongside his family agreed to go to Syria to join IS, Jaya said. Iman allegedly facilitated travel arrangements for the group of 26 and found a local guide in Syria. Djoko went to Syria with his wife, Ratna Nirmala, and three children along with his mother-in-law who died in Iraq. Iman and his brother, Heru Kurnia, also made the trip, leaving on Aug. 1, 2015, and remaining in Syria for almost two years. Iman and Heru face similar charges in the same courthouse. Defendant Heru Kurnia faces a terrorism trial in a West Jakarta courtroom, March 13, 2018. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews] Return to Indonesia Djoko and his family reportedly left the former IS capital Raqqa, Syria, in mid-June 2017. They said they were held in a Syrian refugee camp before being sent back to Indonesia. After returning, the group underwent the Indonesian Counter Terrorism Agency (BNPT) repatriation program. They testified about their their time in Syria for a video posted Sept. 11, 2017, on BNPTs YouTube page. In the video, Djoko and the others spoke of their regret in joining IS because that group lied to them and broke promises that their children would be educated in decent schools. Instead, IS fighters wanted to marry his daughters, Djoko said. They asked when my youngest daughter would have her first period. They wanted me to notify them, Djoko stated in the video. Adhe Bhakti, a researcher at the Center for Radicalism and Deradicalization Studies, an independent think-tank in Jakarta, said the trials are a result of issues between BNPT and Densus 88, the nations elite police force that arrested the three men. The fact that Djoko was arrested after he graduated from the BNPT de-radicalization center points out coordination problems, Adhe said. BNPT spokesman Irfan Idris told BenarNews that attendance at the de-radicalization center was for psychological assistance following a horrifying experience with IS. They havent been convicted, he said, referring to the defendants. De-radicalization will be conducted after they are convicted or released." Military trucks move through the former main war zone in the southern Philippine city of Marawi, Feb. 28, 2018. The Eastern Sabah Security Command released a list of 16 men wanted for trans-border crimes and terrorism, March 13, 2018. Authorities in eastern Malaysias Sabah state have added two suspected Malaysian leaders of Islamic State (IS) to an updated list of wanted militants, although the Philippine military had said both were killed in last years battle of Marawi. The names and photos of Mahmud Ahmad and Amin Baco appear as new additions to a list of 16 militants that the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) published in January. The command oversees security along Sabahs east coast that lies close to the southern Philippines, where the five-month battle took place. This is the first wanted list that ESSCOM published after the Philippine government declared the IS-linked militant siege of the Marawi over in late October 2017. All the 16 are wanted for various suspected cross-border crimes, such as murder, kidnapping, sea hijacking and also militancy, ESSCOM chief Hazani Ghazali told BenarNews. All of them are Filipinos except two who are Malaysians, Amin Baco and Dr Mahmud Ahmad. Hazani did not respond to questions from Benar about Ahmad and Baco. Deaths remain unconfirmed In October, the Philippine military declared that Ahmad, a former Malaysian university professor who had succeeded Filipino Isnilon Hapilon as regional leader of IS after Hapilon was killed during the battle of Marawi, died soon after. He [Ahmad] died during the assault of our troops the other day or the other night, where 12 other rebels died, Philippine military spokesman Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla said on Oct. 20, 2017, adding then that troops had not recovered the body. To date, the Philippine government has not confirmed Ahmads death through DNA testing. A former student at Islamabad Islamic University in Pakistan, Ahmad reportedly received training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in the 1990s before returning home to teach at the University of Malaya. In 2014, Ahmad fled to the southern Philippines when Malaysian police announced that he and several other Malaysians were wanted for suspected militant activities. He is believed to have helped transfer funds from ISs core group in Syria to the southern Philippines through Indonesia to finance the militant siege of Marawi. Baco, one of the other new names on ESSCOMs list, is as an expert bomb maker. After the Philippine military broke the Marawi siege, he was said to be leading IS stragglers in the area. But on Nov. 6, Padilla said Baco was believed to have been killed alongside other militants during post-battle firefights. Bacos remains are now the subject of an ongoing aggressive search, he said at the time. On Tuesday, Philippine National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said Baco was one of two leading candidates to take over the top leadership role of the regional branch of IS. Bacos body had not been found, but reports suggested he is alive in the southern Philippines, the Associated Press quoted Esperon. He was not accounted for in Marawi but he was reported somewhere else, the national security chief said. Security cooperation totally chaotic: analyst Independent conflict and security analyst Pawel Wojcik said the inclusion of Ahmad on ESSCOMs list shows a low level of cooperation between Philippine and Malaysian authorities. This is another case where the Malaysian and Philippine cooperation seems to be weak despite last years calls for joint-intelligence sharing and multiple law enforcement agencies attempts to establish some form of a new understanding between the two countries because of a growing jihadi threat, the Polish expert told BenarNews. In fact, the designation of [Ahmad] as a wanted man on the list leads us to think that such understanding and cooperation are at a totally chaotic level and that actual improvement is not there. Patrick Blannin, a security analyst from Australia, said the decision to list Ahmad could mean that Malaysian security officials have intel that hes still alive. Either way, it may highlight a lack of a much needed coordination between the two states, which is a problem, Blannin, an international security researcher based at Bond University in Queensland state, told BenarNews. Members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters patrol in the town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Maguindanao province, southern Philippines, in October 2012. Tips from residents in the southern Philippines that rebel group members were gathering, combined with intelligence efforts, led to clashes over the last four days that left dozens of Islamic State-linked fighters dead, military officials said Monday. As of Friday, the military could positively confirm only 12 militants killed in gun battles that began a day earlier between troops and members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in remote villages of Maguindanao province. Since then, the death toll climbed to 44. The number of casualties was based on intelligence information, local army spokesman Lt. Col. Gerry Besana told BenarNews. Many died in the ground operations on the first day, many also died on the second day during artillery and close air support [operations]. The clashes erupted after soldiers on a routine patrol were attacked by 50 BIFF members, a breakaway faction of the separatist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which signed a peace pact with the government in 2014. Lt. Col. Alvin Iyog, commander of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion, said 26 other militants were wounded in the fresh fighting. The firefight was intense and resulted in the slight wounding of one of my men. But they kept on pounding the enemy with heavy fire, Iyog said, adding that retreating rebels had left behind a cache of firearms and improvised bombs. BIFF pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) and to militants who attacked the southern city of Marawi last year, though it did not send fighters. At least 1,200, mostly militants, were killed in the five-month battle in Marawi. Intelligence sources told BenarNews that several foreigners had fanned out across BIFF-controlled areas, joining Filipino militants as they engaged troops in hit-and-run attacks mostly confined to marshy territories and remote townships in the south. Iyog said troops had to wade through chest-deep water to get closer to enemy positions. Residents had reported to the military a day ahead of the gun battle that BIFF was massing up in the area, forcing them to flee to safer ground. This prompted the army to deploy troops to the towns of Datu Saudi Ampatuan and Datu Unsay. BIFF, with hundreds of fighters, split from the 10,000-member MILF in 2008 and vowed to continue with the separatist fight, attracting younger, more hardline fighters. Aside from connections with IS, the military also accused BIFF members of engaging in criminal activities, including cattle rustling and drug trafficking. While the militants were defeated in Marawi, some local Muslim leaders and even MILF leader Murad Ebrahim had earlier warned of attacks spreading in other populated areas in the south, particularly in the cities of Iligan, Cotabato, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and General Santos. Militant attacks are not new in these areas, and shortly after President Rodrigo Duterte became president in 2016, his home town of Davao was bombed by an obscure group, which boasted links to the IS. That group, the Maute, would later help IS leader Isnilon Hapilon and several Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern fighters take over Marawi in May. The fighting ended in October, with the deaths of Hapilon and the key leaders of the Maute gang, but Duterte had kept military rule in the south, with dozens of other fighters believed to be at large and posing danger. Local military chief Brig. Gen. Bienvenido Datuin confirmed that recruitment efforts by militants were ongoing but had not attracted younger fighters to replenish their thinning ranks. Their strength has been reduced significantly and recruitment efforts have not been gaining ground as local populace, through the efforts of the local government units and military, has been made aware on preventing and countering violent extremism, Datuin said. Mark Navales in Cotabato contributed to this report. An American soldier from the 19th Special Forces Group takes part with Filipino troops in a counter-terrorist training exercise in Mindanao, in September 2011. Updated at 12:05 p.m. ET on 2018-03-15 The Philippines has strengthened anti-terror and defense ties with the U.S. and Australia in an effort to beat back the influence of extremist group Islamic State in the south, five months after IS-linked fighters were chased out of Marawi city. On Tuesday, the Philippine and Australian navies began a 15-day joint naval exercise in southern Filipino waters, where militants with ties to IS are notorious for hijacking foreign and local cargo vessels, officials said. Meanwhile the United States, another longtime military ally, handed Manila the first of six state-of-the-art drones in a package worth 687 million pesos (U.S. $13.2 million), according to the office of Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. In southern Zamboanga city, two Armidale-class Australian patrol boats arrived to take part in the exercises, which are designed to give the Filipino navy additional capability against militants. Through the drills, Philippine sailors will learn from their Royal Australian Navy counterparts about ways of thwarting terror attacks in key areas of Mindanao and neighboring Asian countries, said Rear Adm. Rene Medina, commander of naval forces in western Mindanao. I am certain that both our navies share a common concern in ensuring safer seas for our seafarers and the local community as well, he said, adding there had been zero kidnapping at sea for more than year in the south. The last incident was the abduction of German yachtsman Jurgen Kantner in November 2016. He was beheaded months later by his captors, believed to be a faction of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), the countrys most violent extremist group, which has been blamed for kidnappings and bombings. One of ASGs leaders, Isnilon Hapilon, later emerged as the acknowledged head of the IS in the country and led a takeover of the southern city of Marawi by force. He was killed last October, along with several followers, at the end of the five-month siege. More than 1,200 people were killed in Marawi, a majority of them suspected militants. During the drawn-out battle, the U.S. and Australian militaries provided vital intelligence help, flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that pinpointed enemy locations for airstrikes by Philippine forces. Australian Defense Force personnel (right) face off against Philippine marines in a boodle fight following a military exercise at the Gregorio Lim Marine Base in Cavite province, southwest of Manila, Dec. 18, 2017. [AP] Pacific Eagle On Tuesday, the U.S. turned over a ScanEagle Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to the Philippine military. Given its superb technical specifications, this equipment will certainly be vital to the capability readiness of the Philippine Air Force especially in the conduct of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations in support of a variety of missions such as territorial defense, security and stability, Defense Secretary Lorenzana said in showing the press one of the militarys latest acquisitions of hardware. With a number of security issues confronting our country, there is a need to upgrade our nations armed forces and to establish a more credible defense, he said, adding that the new drone was one way of deterring those who want to wage war against our country. The acquisition of six UAVs from the United States came two months after the Philippines confirmed that it had launched a new anti-terror pact with the U.S. while Washington was helping break the Marawi siege. Operation Pacific Eagle, as it is known, began a month before the militants were defeated in Marawi, but only became public knowledge early this year. Dozens of U.S. troops rotate in and out of the Mindanao region, the countrys southern third, serving as advisers to local forces, but the American personnel are barred from taking part in actual combat. This is a significant drop from the hundreds who were deployed to the south, which was considered the Southeast Asian theater of the U.S.-led war on terror nearly two decades earlier. The new arrangement came after diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Philippines soured after President Rodrigo Duterte took offense to the outgoing administration of then-American leader Barrack Obama, which had expressed concern about his administrations brutal drug war. Duterte later warmed up to Obamas successor, President Donald Trump, who had praised his leadership, despite criticism from other western countries and the United Nations. Washington recently included the Maute group in its list of foreign terrorist organizations affiliated with IS, a move welcomed by the Philippine government. This version clarifies information about the number of new drones acquired by the Philippines from the United States. Moncks Corner, SC (29461) Today Thunderstorms. High 77F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms during the evening becoming more widespread overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, on General Mark Milley's call to the Chinese. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices The Central Bank has uncovered examples of where credit unions are offering loans without checking if members can repay them. It says a "concerning number" of the institutions need to improve how they are run and operate to a higher standard. APOLOGY JOHN RONAN, JODIE RONAN AND CHAMBURY INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED On March 13 we published a court report entitled Company formerly linked to Johnny Ronan loses dispute over dockland ownership of a Judgment delivered by Mr. Justice Haughton in the High Court in a case between Chambury Investment Company Limited and Balark Investments Limited. In the article we stated that Judge Haughton also noted sharp commercial practice by Chambury over the acquisition of the property. We are happy to clarify that Mr. Justice Haughton made no reference, suggestion or finding of sharp commercial practice by Chambury or any persons associated with that company including John Ronan and Jodie Ronan. We apologise to Chambury, John Ronan and Jodie Ronan for the error and for any upset and distress it may have caused. *** ORIGINAL REPORT A company formerly linked to developer Johnny Ronan has lost a High Court case over ownership of small parcels of property on Dublin's south docks where a 100m redevelopment is planned, writes Ann OLoughlin. In a judgment related primarily to the law on buying out ground rent on a "fee simple" basis, Mr Justice Robert Haughton found it would be wholly unjust not to declare Balark Investments was entitled to the fee simple interest in the property. The judge also said Balark founder and former director, Greg Kavanagh, was "a generally unreliable witness". The case centred on part of a property at Sir John Rogerson's Quay which, until the 1960s, was the B&I ferry terminal and which is the site of a planned 100m commercial and residential development. The buildings and land have also been used for filming TV dramas such as "Love/Hate", "Ripper Street" and "Quirke". The property concerns two rectangular lots fronting the quay, one 256 feet extending southwards and a second, an extension of the first, extending towards Hanover Quay. Balark, part of the Marlet Group led by Pat Crean, is behind the planned development. It claimed the project was being delayed by the Chambury Investment Company, which was connected to Mr Ronan. Chambury claimed Mr Ronan bought the freehold interest in the affected lots in June 2015 but Mr Ronan's lawyers said he was no longer the owner. Chambury claimed its interest in the property was worth 20m. However, the Circuit Court ruled, in July 2017, that Balark was entitled to acquire Chambury's fee simple interest in the property for just 60,000. Chambury appealed the Circuit Court's decision the High Court. Balark separately sought a declaration it was entitled to demolish buildings on the land. Today, Mr Justice Haughton affirmed the orders of the Circuit Court. He also granted Balark declarations it sought in relation to demolition. Balark had brought its application to acquire the fee simple in both lots in 2016 under the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Acts of 1967 and 1978 which provide for the buyout of ground rent. Original leases for the land dated to 1939 and 1858, expiring after 250 years. Chambury disputed Balark's application. The county registrar ruled in Balark's favour in April 2017 and following appeal by Chambury to the Circuit Court, this decision was confirmed although a higher fee simple purchase price of 60,000 was assessed by the Circuit Court judge. In his decision on Chambury's appeal to the High Court, Mr Justice Haughton said it would be "entirely unreasonable and wholly unjust" not to declare Balark was entitled to acquire the fee simple in relation to the first lot if redevelopment of the property in 1909/10 as a ferry office and embarkation terminal was already a breach of a covenant under an 1939 lease. It could not now be reasonably asserted that the development in 1909/10, which was itself a redevelopment of the site, was a breach of that covenant or that it should not now be excused under the 1978 Act, he said. He found the entirety of the second lot, including an unbuilt on portion of it, also qualified under the Act and Balark was entitled therefore to enlarge its interest in that into a fee simple interest. He said he had read affidavits and witness statements on which Chambury sought to place reliance in order to persuade the court not to exercise its discretion under that section 9(5) of 1978 Act. "Without making any factual finding, taken at its height, it pointed to sharp commercial practice leading to the acquisition by Balark of its interests in the leases and the site and it reflected the commercial disappointment of an unsuccessful under-bidder". he said. The judge described as a "generally unreliable witness" Balark founder and former director, Greg Kavanagh. He said Mr Kavanagh "deliberately misled the court on an issue going to credibility". When Mr Kavanagh was recalled to the witness box, at his own request in order to "set the record straight", the judge said he appeared to be conflicted and to feel he was constrained by a confidentiality agreement before he resigned as a director of Balark. This was despite the court's repeated instruction he was obliged to answer relevant questions notwithstanding that agreement, the judge said. * This report has been subject to an amendment By Sarah-Jane Murphy The former head of group finance at Anglo Irish Bank said he was not aware that 7.2bn transactions with Irish Life and Permanent were a straight exchange of cash with no underlying security until after they had taken place. Colin Golden told the jury he first became aware of the scale of the deals and the fact they were non-cash transactions, in the first few days of October 2008. Mr Golden was giving evidence today at David Drumm's conspiracy to defraud trial, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. On day 37 of the trial, he told Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, there had been talk of a transaction of a smaller size, and of a slightly different nature throughout the summer of 2008. It went from three to seven, and I had been told it was a collateralised transaction. That's where there's lending on both sides, secured by stocks, he said. Mr Golden told the court that Ciaran Cunningham, head of treasury finance at the time, told him about the 7.2bn transaction with ILP that had taken place on September 30, 2008. The witness said he was a little surprised when Willie McAteer asked him to contact the financial regulator on October 24 to talk her through the transactions. I suggested to Mary Burke that we send through the detailed transactions, and she agreed that was a good idea, he said. Mr Golden said Mr Cunningham emailed him a list of the deals with ILP, as he wouldn't have been familiar with their level of detail. He confirmed that this was then forwarded by email to Mary Burke at the Financial Regulator. Mr O'Higgins asked if the regulator was told at that time that Ernst & Young, Anglo's external auditors, had been taken through the transactions by employees at the bank. A number of days before my conversation with the regulator we had taken Ernst and Young through them, so yes, I thought it was a pertinent point for the regulator to be aware of, the witness said. Mr Golden told the jury that accountancy wasnt black and white, and said there was always an element of judgement involved. Auditors have a level of expertise in order to assist banks in this regard, he said. Mr Golden said that in mid-October 2008, Vincent Bergin, head of the EY team who audited Anglo had said the transaction with ILP was technically sound. Technically sound from an accounting perspective. I can't recall the conversation beyond that, he said. Yesterday, a former Anglo executive told the jury that he was shocked at the hostile and aggressive reaction of the regulator to the ILP transactions as he believed the regulator was aware they had taken place. Matt Moran, former chief financial controller at Anglo said that during a regular meeting at the financial regulator in January 2009 he was suddenly being asked questions as if the regulator knew nothing about the transactions. Mr Drumm, with an address in Skerries, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with former bank officials Denis Casey, William McAteer, John Bowe and others to defraud depositors and investors at Anglo by dishonestly creating the impression that deposits in 2008 were 7.2bn larger than they were. He has also pleaded not guilty to false accounting on December 3, 2008, by furnishing information to the market that Anglo's 2008 deposits were 7.2bn larger than they were. The trial, now in its sixth week, continues before Judge Karen O'Connor and a jury. Added 5.35pm: A former senior accounting executive at Anglo Irish Bank said he did not understand the significance of who placed the money first regarding the bank's transactions with Irish Life and Permanent until months after they took place. Colin Golden, former head of group finance at the bank, told Dublin Circuit Criminal court that even during his time working at Anglo he didn't understand why people were discussing that point. I'm going to be completely straight up here who placed first I didn't understand why it was a big deal, he said. Mr Golden was giving evidence today on day 37 of David Drumm's conspiracy to defraud trial. He told Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, that the group finance department produced a report for the bank's audit committee meeting on November 18, 2008. He said senior executives at the bank reviewed the wording of the reference to the ILP transactions, which was labelled Item 12 Customer Accounts, on the document he presented to the meeting. I would be guessing if I said who wrote it. But I reviewed it, he told the jury. When asked about inaccuracies in the document regarding the description of the transactions, he said it was a surprise when he found out in early 2009 that the deal had settled net. I was told they were settled gross, he said. He said he wasn't sure who had told him this, and added it could have been a misunderstanding on our side or on someone else's side. During cross examination Mr Golden said the head of Ernst and Young audit team, Vincent Bergin, shrugged his shoulders and described the transactions with ILP as technically sound. Mr Golden said that he phoned the financial regulator on October 24 2008 to talk him through the ILP transactions after being asked to do so by Willie McAteer. He described how he told Ms Burke that he had been lead to believe that the transactions had been approved by the regulator. She sniggered, and said she didn't know but led me to believe that someone more senior was knowledgeable about them, he told the jury. By Breda Graham We love the possibility of a new route for Cork Airport but we love the fact that we can make it happen even more. Cork Airport is through to the final vote for in an online competition for a new route with German airline Eurowings. Voting is now closed. The Top 3 destinations are @CorkAirport, @KosiceAirport and Friedrichshafen. The big final for the top 3 positions will take place live on @eurowings Facebook page tomorrow at 14.00 here: https://t.co/VGuybiu8Da . Thank you for your support! pic.twitter.com/0IjaydeOeg Cork Airport (@CorkAirport) March 12, 2018 Cork Airport topped the poll with 33.3% in a week-long European-wide public vote which shortlisted the three most popular airports out of the original six. The final three will now battle it out to win a new route with Eurowings in a live Facebook vote which will take place on the Eurowings Facebook page from 2pm to 3pm Irish time. The most voted destination will be part of the 2018/19 winter schedule for Eurowings, which is a subsidiary of Lufthansa. Cork is the only Irish airport to be shortlisted in the competition alongside Kosice in Slovakia and Friedrichshafen in Germany. Cork Airport Managing Director, Niall MacCarthy, said, We are amazed at the support from the public. Over the past week, people have rallied to ensure Cork Airport made the final three and we are delighted to have topped the poll in round one. However, there is still more work to be done. We are now asking everyone to take part in the live vote, as a win will be a major boost to the region, and to Ireland as a whole. This will provide greater route choice for those flying from Cork Airport while also being of benefit to the economy through inbound tourism. To have your say for Cork, take part in the live vote during the 60 minute window from 2pm today. Fancy a holiday to Australia or want to visit a loved one who moved Down Under? Qatar Airways is giving away a pair of return flights from Dublin to Australia to one lucky person in Dublin city centre today. By Ann O'Loughlin Former Rehab CEO Angela Kerins case over her treatment by the Dail Public Accounts Committee is of singular importance for all citizens and the State and the outcome will have resonance for years, the Supreme Court has been told. Ms Kerins experience before the PAC changed her life forever, John Rogers SC said. She had experienced great distress over how she was treated but, if the court decided there was a remedy for such treatment, her experience would not have been in vain. This case was one where not just the parties but the State and citizens will have to live with the outcome, he said. It concerned the rights of citizens when appearing before, and engaging with parliament and through its committees, and whether or not a citizen who suffered what Ms Kerins did has a remedy. The transcript of the hearings was replete with mean, deeply wounding, extremely damaging and hyper-critical remarks by members of PAC about Ms Kerins involvement with Rehab and her salary, including remarks accusing her of being evasive in her answers, telling her to get a grip on herself and suggesting information had to be dragged out of her. The PAC had no role in relation to probing payments made by Rehab but that was what it ended up doing, he said. While it was maintained this was a non-adjudicative procedure, that was highly questionable. Mr Rogers was opening Ms Kerins appeal today before a seven-judge Supreme Court over the rejection of her case. Ms Kerins claims two PAC hearings on February 27, 2014, and April 10, 2014, where questions were asked about her 240,000 annual salary and other matters, amounted to a witch hunt against her. She attended the first hearing on a voluntary basis and said the treatment she experienced was such she was too unwell to attend the second. The PAC denied a witch hunt and argued it was entitled to scrutinise how public funds are spent when some 80m public monies are paid annually to Rehab companies. In January 2017 a three-judge High Court panel decided - because the Constitution confers absolute privilege on "utterances" in the Oireachtas and the PAC was making no "determination" in relation to Ms Kerins - the courts cannot intervene in relation to how the two hearings were conducted. The court was critical of the conduct of aspects of the hearing but said, if Oireachtas members were constrained in their speech as Ms Kerins alleged, "the effective functioning of parliament would be impaired in a manner expressly forbidden in absolute terms by the Constitution". In permitting an appeal directly to the court rather than the normal route via the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court said the case met the necessary "exceptional" circumstances for such an appeal because it involved a "very important issue of constitutional law". The issues raised include the legal safeguards available to witnesses who appear before the PAC in a voluntary capacity; the role, if any, the court has in protecting such witnesses in circumstances where there are the important issues of freedom of speech in the legislature, the separation of powers and the extent to which the courts may intervene in the affairs of the legislature. The Supreme Court will also address whether the High Court correctly concluded that Article 15 of the Constitution means parliamentarians cannot be sued over what they say in the Oireachtas or its Committees. The Supreme Court also said the interests of justice are engaged because the High Court, despite its finding Ms Kerins was damaged personally and professionally by actions of the PAC, ruled there was no legal remedy for the wrongs perpetuated. Because the Constitution guarantees to vindicate the personal rights of citizens, the issue of safeguarding such rights meets the criteria of the interest of justice, it said. The Oireachtas and State parties contend Ms Kerins case involves an unprecedented challenge to parliamentary speech. The Supreme Court will also hear PACs cross-appeal against the High Courts decision directing it to pay two-thirds of Ms Kerins estimated 700,000 legal costs arising from that courts concerns about the conduct of the PAC hearings. The State has also cross-appealed a decision requiring it to pay its own costs of the High Court hearing. By Ann O'Loughlin The Data Protection Commissioner has agreed before the Supreme Court to deal with a complaint by an accountancy trainee aimed at securing access to an exam script on grounds it constituted personal data. The decision follows a nine-year legal battle by Peter Nowak, involving several hearings before the Irish courts and ultimately going to the European Court of Justice (CJEU), to have the Commissioner (DPC) address his complaint. The DPC previously advised Mr Nowak that exam scripts would not generally constitute personal data and refused to hear his complaint about being refused access. After the Circuit, High Court and Court of Appeal ruled Mr Nowak had no right to appeal the Commissioners decision, he went to the Supreme Court which referred issues to the Court of Justice of the EU. In a judgment last December, the CJEU held that the written answers submitted by a candidate at a professional examination, and any comments by an examiner about those answers, constitute personal data within the meaning of the relevant EU data protection laws. The CJEU said the fact that an examiner may not know the identity of the candidate whose script they are marking is irrelevant. It noted the scope of the personal data Directive is very wide and the personal data covered by it is varied. The use of the words any information in the definition of the concept of personal data reflects the aim of the EU legislature to assign a wide scope to that concept, it said. When the matter returned before the Supreme Court today, Paul Anthony McDermott SC, for the Commissioner, said it would consider the complaint afresh. The Supreme Court ruled Mr Nowak was entitled to the costs of the appeal, to include the costs of the reference to the CJEU, less a 15,000 payment already made to him for his costs. The case dates back to 2009 when Mr Nowak, a registered student with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland (CAI) asked to view his scripts for an accounting exam after failing it for the fourth time. He had passed other exams apart from this one and sought the script with a view to challenging the result. The CAI released 17 items but declined to release the exam script, saying it did not constitute personal data under data protection legislation. Mr Nowak then applied to the DPC who advised him that exam scripts would not generally constitute personal data. After he filed a formal complaint, the Commissioner refused to investigate the complaint, saying it was not sustainable on legal grounds and, in a technical sense, was frivolous and vexatious. Mr Nowak appealed to the Circuit Court, which found he had no right to appeal the DPC's refusal. The High Court and Court of Appeal agreed with the Circuit Court, but the Supreme Court said it was not clear whether an exam script constitutes personal data and asked the CJEU for guidance. Seven other EU member states, along with the European Commission, made submissions to the CJEU in the case. The Government has offered full support to the UK's efforts to bring those responsible for the Salisbury chemical attack to account. Tanaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said the attack, which saw a nerve agent used to poison a former double agent on UK soil, was a "disturbing violation of international law." Ireland can act as a bridge between the US and EU to prevent a trade war the Taoiseach has said, writes Elaine Loughlin. Speaking after he arrived in Washington as part of his St Patrick's day trip to the US Mr Varadkar warned that there is a danger America and Europe may "drift apart" due to growing divisions. Mr Varadkar is due to meet President Donald Trump in the White House on Thursday where he is expected to bring up the threat of a trade war between the EU and US. Speaking at the Brookings Institute Mr Varadkar said: "For years, this relationship helped provide a bridge between the EU and the United States. I fear that there is a danger that the EU and the United States may drift apart due to growing divisions on trade, tax, climate change and many other areas. "Such a development would not be in the interests of the people on either side of the Atlantic. Ireland can and is willing to act as a bridge between the US and the EU to interpret one to the other and to help ensure that positive and constructive relations are maintained and developed," he said Mr Varadkar also said the lack of an Assembly in Northern Ireland has been "corrosive and damaging". He told the event: "Continuing differences between the political parties representing the two communities in Northern Ireland mean that there has been no power-sharing Executive in Belfast for some time. "Its absence is corrosive and damaging. It means that there is no effective political engagement on issues of relevance to the lives of the people of Northern Ireland, economically and socially," said Mr Varadkar. The Taoiseach pointed out that the majority of people in Northern Ireland voted to stay in the European Union in the Brexit referendum and even now the majority want to stay in the EUs Customs Union and Single Market. "Brexit is a real threat to the Good Friday Agreement," Mr Varadkar warned. He also told the audience that among the many challenges that we face are Brexit, increased regional instability fuelled by geopolitical tensions and conflicts; changing approaches to international trade; cyberterrorism; and uncontrolled mass migration. Update 6.43pm: Health Minister Simon Harris has cancelled his St Patrick's Day trip to Europe to concentrate on tackling the hospital overcrowding crisis. Mr Harris was due to fly to the Netherlands and Belgium for the annual celebrations. However, on Tuesday he said it did not "feel right" to travel while those in the health service worked to try and deal with the overcrowding problem. People across the health service are working extraordinarily hard to make progress in what is a difficult week. I am in regular contact with HSE. It would not feel right to me as Minister to travel for St Patricks Day so I have made decision not to do so Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) March 13, 2018 In a tweet he said: "People across the health service are working extraordinarily hard to make progress in what is a difficult week. "I am in regular contact with HSE. It would not feel right to me as Minister to travel for St Patrick's Day so I have made decision not to do so". Earlier in the day Independent TD Mattie McGrath had called on the Minister to reconsider his trip. "I think it is grossly irresponsible for Minister Harris to be out of the country at a time when almost every major local and regional hospital is in the grip of capacity crisis with respect to patients on trolleys," said Mr McGrath. On Monday overcrowding in hospitals across the county reached new record levels with 714 people waiting on trolleys. The figure remained high on Tuesday with 649 patients waiting on trolleys in hospitals across the country, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. Update 5.59pm: Numbers on hospital trolleys fall following extra 5million for the HSE Trolley numbers have eased slightly today after a record high of 714 yesterday. However, health experts are warning that the three short weeks around St Patricks Day and Easter could compound the situation. President of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine Emily OConnor says increasing bed capacity in the short-term is essential. If we want this to be significantly improved by next winter, we need the government now to actually put extra beds into the system, said Ms OConnor. Be they in modular units, be they prefabricated builds, that needs to be started now. Once we have a commitment to lets say 500 or 1,000 beds being produced now, then we can start incentivised recruitment drives to get doctors and nurses to work in these units. Original story 4.57pm: The number of patients on trolleys has fallen again this afternoon, according to figures from the HSE. It says there were 343 patients on trolleys as of 2pm, including 18 children who were waiting on a bed. The HSE was given an extra 5million yesterday to spend on home care packages to help speed up the discharge of older patients. Michael Harty from Homecare Direct says the sector has too few staff, a problem the Government needs to help tackle in time for next winter. We need to ensure that homecare can play a bigger role in the healthcare continuum so that this time next year, when well inevitably have another crisis and theres funding put into it, the capacity is there to react to that and move those people out of hospital, said Mr Harty. - Digital desk Update 10.50pm: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that he will consider a call from the former President Mary McAleese for an inquiry into the church's handling of child abuse allegations against Fr Malachy Finnegan. Speaking in the US, Mr Varadkar said he would speak to the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Children about the matter on his return. The case relates to allegations against the priest in the northern diocese of Dromore. The Taoiseach said his understanding was that the issue relates to allegations in the North. However, he said that some Catholic dioceses encompass both north and south, so the matter would need consideration. "I saw some of the reports of it, and I know it was deeply powerful and has affected a lot of people," he said. Earlier: Mary McAleese: My brother was sadistically abused by paedophile priest Malachy Finnegan Former president Mary McAleese has called for an inquiry into child abuse allegations against Malachy Finnegan, former president of St Colman's Grammar School in Newry, Co Down. Ms McAleese revealed that her youngest brother had been "seriously physically, sadistically abused by Malachy Finnegan" for the duration of his time attending the school. Former President Mary McAleese says her younger brother was abused by Fr Malachy Finnegan pic.twitter.com/q00uoLxGfs RTE News (@rtenews) March 12, 2018 Her brother only confided in her about the abuse recently, at the age of 49. Speaking on Today with Sean O'Rourke, Ms McAleese said that her brother never told of the abuse he suffered "because that culture of silence was so oppressive and because these children were made so fearful". She said that her brother is "so incredibly loved by all of us, to think that he suffered and never felt that he could tell anyone...for all the years he was there, and it was known. So many people had to have known. So many people who could have done something about it, we know now that the very first complaints about Malachy Finnegan go back to the 1970s. Ms McAleese called for an independent inquiry to be carried out into the allegations of abuse at St Colman's College. Speaking this morning, Ms McAleese told that she has received neither an acknowledgement nor a reply from the letter she wrote to Pope Francis after the Vatican declined to approve her taking part in a conference in Rome. The Voices of Faith conference moved to a location in Rome outside of the Vatican and Ms McAleese was the keynote speaker. When a listener sent a text to the programme to ask if Ms McAleese would consider leaving the Catholic church due to the issue she has with it, she said she would not. "I'm comfortably a member of the Catholic church, comfortably uncomfortable sometimes. It's my home, my spiritual home...I love my church." You can listen to the full interview below: Digital Desk The ongoing political impasse in the North is corroding and damaging the region, the Taoiseach has warned. Leo Varadkar said the looming Brexit made the need to restore powersharing even more urgent. Mr Varadkar told the Brookings Institution, an influential think tank in Washington DC: "It's our duty to work closely with the British Government and parties in the North to find an agreed basis for the restoration of the institutions - and, given the wider circumstances - the task could not be more urgent." He said: "Continuing differences between the political parties representing the two communities in Northern Ireland mean that there has been no power-sharing Executive in Belfast for some time. "Its absence is corrosive and damaging. It means that there is no effective political engagement on issues of relevance to the lives of the people of Northern Ireland, economically and socially," The Taoiseach's speech came ahead of his participation in an event at Capitol Hill on Tuesday night to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday peace accord, which largely ended the North's violent conflict. The broker of the 1998 deal, Senator George Mitchell, was also an invited guest of honour at the commemoration. "As with any peace, reaching agreement is far from the end of the journey - the path to reconciliation and stable politics can be a long and winding one and sometimes can be a bumpy ride," Mr Varadkar told an invited audience at the institution. He said the ongoing deadlock between the DUP and Sinn Fein was undermining the 1998 Agreement. "Just as important, it means that the direct voice of the people of Northern Ireland is not heard in the negotiations on the terms under which the United Kingdom will leave the European Union, even though these will be of great consequence to people in Northern Ireland and the border counties in particular," he added. "The majority of people in Northern Ireland voted to stay in the European Union, even now the majority want to stay in the European Union's Single Market and Customs Union. For me I think that makes Brexit a real threat to the Good Friday Agreement." On Brexit, Mr Varadkar told his audience that the only thing standing in the way of a "deep and comprehensive future relationship" between the UK and the EU was the former's "red lines". He said: "While we deeply regret the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the EU, as we see it, there can be no upside. Nonetheless we must respect that decision." "After decades of moving closer to its European partners, the UK has taken a decision to move farther away from us and that's why we must defend our national interests." Mr Varadkar again stressed the need to maintain an invisible border on the island of Ireland post-Brexit. "The economic benefits of this invisible border have been hugely significant - in terms of North/South trade and the all-island economy - and also and perhaps most importantly to the normalising of wider social and political relations across the island," he said. "We are determined to ensure that these hard-won advances are not reversed. "More widely, Brexit poses serious challenges for Ireland - and, given the strength of our ties to, and engagement with the UK, we will suffer more negative economic impacts than any other EU Member State. "Our relationship with the UK is unique in terms of our shared history, geography and culture, and, while it represents an ever decreasing share, the UK remains our single most important economic partner. "Ireland wants there to be a deep and comprehensive future relationship between the EU and the UK - one that maximises economic engagement and trade, one that ensures ongoing and continuing cooperation in areas such as combating terrorism and international crime, and also common foreign and security policies. "The extent and possibility of this new deep and comprehensive relationship is limited only by the UK's own red lines." Mr Varadkar was on the third day of his St Patrick's Day tour of the US. On Thursday he will hold bilateral talks with President Donald Trump at the White House. Amid concerns the president's protectionist policies may spark a transatlantic trade war, Mr Varadkar said such an outcome would create no winners. "Alongside our EU partners, we oppose any steps that raise barriers to trade, whether through the imposition of tariffs or otherwise," he said. Mr Varadkar also told the century-old think-tank that Ireland was committed to efforts to eliminate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. "I believe that the major challenges that we face today, whether in Ireland, the United States, or across the world, will best be dealt with by acting together, and not in isolation," he added. "Confident despite the doubts of today; certain that our united strength is the solution to global instability." - PA Leo Varadkar has been asking US State governors how to deal with Donald Trump ahead of their meeting later this week. The Taoiseach says he is not apprehensive about the meeting, but has asked the pro-Trump governors of Texas and Oklahoma how to approach the US president. Mr Varadkar says they have shared some pieces of advice. He said: "I have asked them since most of them have met him on occasion. What they have all said to me is it is what you expect, the person you see on TV is the same person you'll meet in the office. "So, I'm looking forward to that meeting obviously." Leo Varadkar has been getting advice from a couple of US State Governors about how to deal with Donald Trump on Thursday pic.twitter.com/vbdCZYJ3jB Sean Defoe (@SeanDefoe) March 12, 2018 The Taoiseach will give the keynote speech at an event marking the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in Washington DC today. The event will take place at the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill, as Mr Varadkar continues his St Patrick's week visit to the States. His trip will culminate with his meeting with Donald Trump in the White House on Thursday. Mr Varadkar observed: "I think there is a risk of widening differences and widening gaps between Europe and America... around issues such as tax, trade, different approaches to climate change, security. "I actually think that's where Ireland can have a very important role - being a bridge between America and Europe, interpreting one to the other. That's a role that will perhaps become more important in the future, particularly as the United Kingdom leaves [the EU]." Today's forum commemorating the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement will also feature speakers including former US special envoy to Northern Ireland George Mitchell, former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood. By Louise Roseingrave A 19-year-old man sustained catastrophic head injuries after falling six metres through a roof onto a concrete surface. A verdict of death by misadventure was returned at the inquest of Craig Hanlon McKeon (aged 19) a fishmonger from Basin Street flats in Dublin 8. The young man who loved climbing fell through a roof tile at a former steelworks factory at St Jamess Street in Dublin on January 4, 2016. He died in hospital the following day. Craig had everything going for him, his job, his girlfriend, his whole life ahead of him. He was so kind and generous and so loved by everyone. Its been a devastating loss, his mother Fiona McKeon said at the conclusion of the inquest. At a resumed hearing into the death at Dublin Coroner's Court, Manager of James' Street Steel, Sean Kavanagh said the buildings were leased to the Health Service Executive for use as a car park for staff at St Jamess Hospital. The site is made up of three buildings between 20 and 40 years old, with roof structures made of corrugated steel and asbestos tile. Mr Kavanagh said the company was responsible for the buildings and monthly checks were made at the site. The section of roof where the young man fell has since been repaired, Mr Kavanagh said. The inquest previously heard evidence from the teenagers friend Conor Fitzgerald, who said the pair "just loved climbing". They had gone "on a ramble" after meeting earlier that day, he said. We were bored. We decided to climb up on the roof. We both liked climbing and we wanted to see what was up there, Conor said. They had climbed onto the steelwork's roof two or three times previously, gaining access through an apartment block nearby. Craig was walking about two feet behind Conor when he fell, the court heard. I heard a crack and a breaking noise and I looked back and Craig was gone... I dont know what Craig stood on. I dont think he tripped. He just fell straight down, Conor said. He immediately raised the alarm and gardai arrived at 4.40pm. Dublin Fire Brigade arrived two minutes later. Craig was rushed to St Jamess Hospital. He had sustained multiple skull fractures in the fall. He died of his injuries the following day, January 5, 2016. The cause of death was massive head injuries due to a fall from a height, according to an autopsy. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a verdict of misadventure and commended the familys generous decision to donate the young mans organs. Update 10pm: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has paid tribute to the lost crew of R116 today on the first anniversary of the tragedy, writes Elaine Loughlin. Speaking ahead of the anniversary, Mr Varadkar said: "It is the one-year anniversary, and they have been on my mind. I have been reading some of the coverage of the anniversary when I have had time over the past couple of days. "I am a former Minister for Transport, so I know the Coastguard well, and indeed I met Captain Dara Fitzpatrick during my role as Minister. I am conscious at this stage that there are families who are still grieving and of course there are families who do not have the remains of their loved ones, and my thoughts are very much with them at this sad time," Mr Varadkar said in Washington. Earlier:Family and friends of those killed in the Rescue 116 crash will attend a vigil on the Mayo coast later tonight. Tomorrow marks one year since the helicopter went down near Blackrock Island with the loss of all four crew members. The bodies of Captain Dara Fitzpatrick and Captain Mark Duffy were recovered afterwards. Their colleagues, Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith, remain lost at sea. Niamh Fitzpatrick, sister of Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, tweeted: For all the calls, messages, prayers & hugs, a heartfelt thank you. We have an unbelievably tough time ahead, but the never-ending kindness & that powerful wave of support does help. Through these absolute worst times in life I have seen the absolute best of humanity. Thank you. For all the calls, messages, prayers & hugs, a heartfelt thank you. We have an unbelievably tough time ahead, but the never-ending kindness & that powerful wave of support does help. Through these absolute worst times in life I have seen the absolute best of humanity. Thank you. Niamh Fitzpatrick (@NFitzPsychology) March 13, 2018 Local photo-journalist Fergus Sweeney says its had a huge impact on the Blacksod community. If we think about the four crew members who were lost and the huge positive effects they brought to peoples lives by doing their jobs, rescuing people, taking them out of danger, I think the energy from the crew and that positivity has been transferred to the community, said Mr Sweeney. Tonight's First Dates Ireland viewers will see two familiar faces on their screens. Former Head 2 Toe presenter Pat O'Mahony will be entering the restaurant in search of love and will be paired off with someone we've already seen met. Enter Gemma, who many First Dates fans will recognise from series one when she made her first appearance on the show and was matched with someone she had previously been on a date with. Tonight will also see best friends and cousins Darragh (27) and Alan (26) on a double blind date. Darraghs date, ultra-confident Essex girl Emma (27), is delighted to discover that hes a doctor who can cook. Meanwhile, lifeguard Jane (22) is ecstatic to find out that her date Alan shares her love of Harry Potter. Primary school teacher Tom, 27, will also be putting his heart on the line when he sits down with former boyband member Dean, 32. Tom may have already caught Dean's eye on the Luas on the way to the venue so who knows how this one is going to play out. Meanwhile, actor and Oscar Wilde enthusiast Patrick, 56, from Cavan learns the importance of being earnest with dressed-to-kill entrepreneur Valerie, 53, from Meath. First Dates Ireland will air tonight on RTE 2 at 9.30pm. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the fatal shooting of 17 people at a Florida school. The office of Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz filed the formal notice on Tuesday. Cruz, 19, is scheduled for formal arraignment on Wednesday on a 34-count indictment, including 17 first-degree murder charges. His lawyers have said he would plead guilty if the death penalty was not pursued in the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The action by prosecutors on Tuesday does not necessarily mean a plea deal will not be reached. The only other penalty option for Cruz is life in prison with no possibility of parole. Ira Jaffe, whose son and daughter survived the shooting, said he respects the wishes of the 17 families whose children were killed and that time is better spent finding solutions to the problem of mass school shootings. "Live forever in jail or die - I don't care," Mr Jaffe said in an email. "Cruz will rot in hell no matter when it is that he arrives there." Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing Cruz, has said there were so many warning signs that Cruz was mentally unstable and potentially violent, and that the death penalty might be going too far. Mr Finkelstein said Cruz would plead guilty if prosecutors opt not to seek the death penalty. "Because that's what this case is about. Not, did he do it? Not, should he go free? Should he live or should he die?" Mr Finkelstein told the Associated Press. In an email on Tuesday, Mr Finkelstein said Cruz is "immediately ready" to plead guilty in return for 34 consecutive life sentences. "If not allowed to do that tomorrow (at the hearing), out of respect for the victims' families we will stand mute to the charges at the arraignment. We are not saying he is not guilty but we can't plead guilty while death is still on the table," Mr Finkelstein said. If Cruz does not enter a plea, a not guilty plea will likely be entered on his behalf by Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer to keep the legal process moving along, his attorneys have said. Meanwhile, a student who is credited with saving the lives of 20 students by attempting to close and lock a classroom door during the attack is improving at a hospital. Anthony Borges, 15, was shot five times. Weeks after being shot, he fell critically ill of an intestinal infection. After surgery, his condition was upgraded to fair, his attorney and the hospital said. The boy's intestinal area has been sealed off and he is breathing on his own after being taken off a ventilator, family attorney Alex Arreaza said. Anthony's family has filed notice that they will sue Florida authorities to seek money to cover the cost of his recovery. Meanwhile, Florida voters may get a chance to decide whether or not they want to approve new gun control restrictions. While Governor Rick Scott just signed a new school safety and gun bill into law, the state's Constitution Revision Commission may vote to place gun restrictions on this year's ballot. The commission, a special panel that meets every 20 years, has the power to ask voters to approve changes to the state's constitution. Tony Montalto, whose daughter was one of the 17 killed at Stoneman Douglas, asked commissioners at a Tuesday public hearing to put the proposals before voters. He said they need to act because the National Rifle Association has filed a lawsuit against the new law approved by the Legislature. "You can help defeat this challenge," Mr Montalto told commissioners. The commission, which is expected to take a final vote on its proposals over the next few weeks, will consider raising the age of weapon purchases to 21, banning bump stocks, a ban on types of semi-automatic rifles, and extending the waiting period for gun purchases. Shortly before the commission hearing in St Petersburg, students from Tampa Bay area schools spoke passionately in favour of additional gun regulations, as did the father of a student who attends Marjory Stoneman Douglas. "Our kids are not asking to do away with the 2nd Amendment. They're not asking to take away people's guns or their ability to hunt," said John Willis. "What they're saying is, that these weapons of mass destruction that do nothing but tear human beings apart in an unbelievable way, do not belong in civilian hands." - PA Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has welcomed international support over the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning as the deadline for Russia to provide a "convincing explanation" creeps closer. France, Germany and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all gave their backing to the UK after the Government confirmed it was "highly likely" Russia was behind the use of deadly Novichok on UK soil. However, President Donald Trump's White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stopped short of pointing the finger at Russia. Speaking on Tuesday Mr Johnson said: "What we're doing today is giving Russia until midnight tonight to explain how it came to be that Novichok was used on the streets of Wiltshire. "If they can come up with a convincing explanation then obviously we will want to see full disclosure of that to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague. "If not, then clearly we will want to be announcing the UK response and that will come tomorrow. "In the meantime what we've been doing is talking to friends and partners, explaining what we see as the high likelihood of Russian state agency. "And I've been very encouraged so far by the strength of the support that we are getting. "I've been encouraged by the willingness of our friends to show support and solidarity." Mr Johnson added: "Russia is a great country. "It is a great pity therefore that the Russian regime seems to be moving in this dangerous and disruptive direction." A huge police inquiry was launched after former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on March 4. The pair are in a critical but stable condition in intensive care. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was part of the initial police response, is in a serious but stable condition. The episode has left Britain's relations with Moscow, which were already under severe strain, at breaking point. In an extraordinary statement in the Commons on Monday, Theresa May told MPs it was "highly likely" Russia was responsible for the poisoning. She disclosed that the dangerous substance used in the attack was a military-grade Novichok nerve agent produced by Russia. The PM set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for Moscow to explain whether it was behind the attack or had lost control of its stockpile of the poison. Failure to provide a "credible" response would lead her to view the incident as "an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom", sparking unspecified measures in reprisal. Housing Minister Dominic Raab told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme it would open up "the whole panoply of counter-measures from economic, financial, diplomatic measures", potentially including moves targeted at individuals such as visa bans and freezing financial assets. However he downplayed the involvement of Nato in any response to Moscow, saying that Mrs May "chose her words very carefully" in her Commons statement. He said: "The words 'unlawful use of force' are different and have a different meaning in international law from 'armed attack'." Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the country was not to blame, and asked for access to samples of the poison. Following Mrs May's statement, news agency Tass quoted Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying: "It is a circus show in the British Parliament." "The conclusion is obvious, it's another political information campaign, based on a provocation." - PA Update 3.47pm: Leading Democrat Chuck Schumer has said the sacking of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shows how unstable the Trump administration has become. The Senate Minority Leader said he hoped CIA Director Mike Pompeo will "turn over a new leaf" as secretary of state and toughen policies toward Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Mr Schumer said after the firing of Mr Tillerson: "The instability of this administration in just about every area weakens America." Mr Pompeo is President Donald Trump's pick to replace Mr Tillerson, and he would need to be confirmed by the Senate. But Republicans have just a slim 51-seat majority, and confirmation is not certain. Mr Schumer said: "If he's confirmed, we hope that Mr Pompeo will turn over a new leaf and will start toughening up our policies towards Russia and Putin." Senator Bob Corker, the Republican Foreign Relations Committee chairman, said Mr Trump's decision to fire his chief diplomat caught him by surprise. Mr Corker, who has been Mr Tillerson's most vocal supporter on Capitol Hill, acknowledged "there's been tensions" between Mr Tillerson and Mr Trump. But he said it had seemed "that they had learned to work together a little bit better" and he did not know what had caused the sacking. In October, Mr Corker said Mr Tillerson, along with Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, are "those people that help separate our country from chaos". On Tuesday, Mr Corker said, "I have a lot of faith in Tillerson's judgment. I've shared that with the president many times." UN Ambassador Nikki Haley hailed Mr Pompeo as a "great decision" for next secretary of state. Ms Haley, who had a contentious relationship with Mr Tillerson, congratulated Mr Pompeo in a tweet and called him her "friend". She wrote: "Great decision by the President." Over months of speculation about Mr Tillerson's future, Ms Haley had been rumoured as a possible successor. Earlier: Donald Trump has fired US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA director Mike Pompeo. The US president said Gina Haspel will become the new CIA director, the first woman chosen for the job. Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Pompeo, "will do a fantastic job!" and thanked Mr Tillerson for his service. Mr Tillerson had returned from a shortened trip to Africa hours before Mr Trump's announcement, which offered no explanation for the change. A White House official said Mr Trump wanted to have a new team in place before upcoming talks with North Korea and various trade negotiations. There had been rumours throughout most of Mr Tillerson's tenure of friction between Mr Trump and his secretary of state, a former ExxonMobile chief executive. In October, NBC news reported that Mr Tillerson called the president a "moron," something he never actually denied. Donald Trump replaced sacked US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo. Mr Tillerson continued to insist his relationship with the president was solid and brushed off rumours of strain between them. He was due to retire from Exxon in March 2017 aged 65 under the company's mandatory retirement policy. Mr Tillerson was paid $27.3m (22m) last year, and has accumulated roughly $160m dollars (129m) in Exxon stock along with $149m (120.5m) of unvested stock options. Update 6.30pm: Russia will refuse to meet Theresa May's midnight deadline unless Britain agrees to send Moscow samples of the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal. The country's embassy in the UK fired off a salvo of seven tweets in which it said Britain must comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention for a joint investigation and warned the threat of sanctions would "meet with a response". It comes as President Donald Trump told Mrs May in a phone call the US is "with the UK all the way", according to Downing Street. Russia's foreign ministry has mocked Theresa May over her conclusion that it was "highly likely" Moscow was responsible for the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Mrs May said the Government had concluded it is "highly likely" Russia was responsible for the attack which left ex-spy Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia in a critical condition in hospital. She demanded that Moscow account for how a Russian-produced nerve agent could have been deployed in Salisbury and vowed to set out measures Britain will adopt if no credible response is received by the end of Tuesday. Home Secretary Amber Rudd earlier said Russia had "started responding" but the embassy appeared to suggest this amounted to little more than informing the Foreign Office of its demands and reiterating it was not involved. Britain's ambassador to Russia was summoned by Moscow and told by first deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov that the Kremlin "strongly protested" the accusations, the embassy said. Update 4.07pm: Salisbury spy probe could take weeks as investigators carry out 'painstaking' inquiry on nerve agent The Salisbury spy probe could take several weeks as investigators carry out a "painstaking" operation to identify how a nerve agent was used to poison a former double agent on British soil. Giving the first investigative update on the case since Theresa May publicly pointed the finger at Russia, counter-terror police chief Neil Basu said officers' "prime focus" is to establish the method used to administer the chemical weapon. A huge police inquiry was launched after former double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on March 4. They remain in a critical condition. UK's head of counter-terrorism policing Neil Basu, speaking at Scotland Yard, where he explained that the investigators' "prime focus" is how poison was administered to former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, as police and members of the armed forces continue to investigate the suspected nerve agent attack in Salisbury. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was part of the initial police response, was also taken ill. He is in a serious but stable condition. Speaking at Scotland Yard, Mr Basu said: "The public are going to continue to see a great deal of police activity in and around the city, including potentially more cordons being erected, but please don't be alarmed. "It is necessary as part of this major investigation by the counter-terrorism policing network. In truth it may last many weeks." The Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner would not identify any potential suspect, saying: "It's a painstaking operation to identify anyone of interest to this inquiry, and eliminate them or include them, but at this stage we are not declaring a person of interest or a suspect." Investigators are also focusing on Mr Skripal's red BMW, registration number HD09 WAO, and appealing for any witnesses who saw the pair in the car between 1pm and 1.45pm on March 4 to come forward. Police have so far collected 380 exhibits and have been scouring hours of CCTV footage from across the city. Detailing the timeline leading up to the pair being taken ill, Mr Basu disclosed that Yulia had arrived at Heathrow Airport on a flight from Russia the day before. The senior officer referred to Mr Skripal as a British national and Yulia as a Russian citizen. He also revealed that a total of 38 people had been seen by medics in relation to the incident, of whom 34 had been assessed and discharged from hospital. Three people remain in hospital - the Skripals and Mr Bailey. One other unnamed person is being monitored as an outpatient but is not showing signs of exposure to the chemical weapon. As the clock ticked towards the midnight deadline Theresa May set for Moscow to explain how a military-grade chemical from a group of nerve agents known as Novichok came to be used on British soil: It emerged that police and MI5 are to look into allegations that a string of other deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia. Peter Wilson, the UK's permanent representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said the "indiscriminate and reckless" attack on the Skripals was the first offensive use of a nerve agent of any sort on European territory since the Second World War. The Government was weighing up Britain's options should Russia not provide a satisfactory response - with a cyber counter-strike said to be among the possible measures being considered, along with economic, financial and diplomatic action. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the country was not to blame, and asked for access to samples of the poison. France, Germany and former US secretary of state Rex Tillerson, speaking before he was sacked, all gave their backing to the UK. Ahead of a call with Mrs May, US president Donald Trump said: "It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all of the evidence they have." The episode has left Britain's relations with Moscow, which were already under severe strain, at breaking point. On Monday, Mrs May said the Government had concluded it is "highly likely" Russia was responsible. She demanded that Moscow account for how a Russian-produced nerve agent could have been deployed in Salisbury and vowed to set out a "full range" of measures Britain will adopt if no credible response is received by the end of Tuesday. Update 2.51pm:President Trump has appeared to back the British Government in the row with Moscow over the Salisbury nerve gas attack, saying: "It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all of the evidence they have." He was questioned after he sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just hours after Mr Tillerson strongly supported the UK. The President told reporters outside the White House: "Theresa May is going to be speaking to me today. "It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact." The President, who had initially avoided blaming the Kremlin over the assassination attempt against former double agent Sergei Skripal, had announced on Twitter that Mr Tillerson would be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo. The Washington Post reported that the decision was made on Friday and Mr Trump said he and Mr Tillerson, who had reportedly once called the President a 'moron', had been "talking about this for a long time" and had disagreed on issues like the Iran deal. But with the Trump camp's links with Moscow facing continued scrutiny, the timing of the announcement prompted questions about the President's support for the UK in the row with Russia. Update 1.52pm: Britain needs to be "much, much tougher" in its response to Russia over the Salisbury nerve agent attack, a prominent Tory MP has said. Sir Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, said any decision not to send "a lot of dignitaries" to the World Cup, due to take place this summer in Russia, was "nowhere near good enough" and was a "pathetic response". Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate on the Diplomatic Service and resources, Sir Nicholas (Mid Sussex) was asked by the DUP's Jim Shannon (Strangford) if withdrawing from the World Cup and having it in England would be an impressive way of putting pressure on Russia to change. Sir Nicholas Soames said any decision not to send "a lot of dignitaries" to the World Cup, due to take place this summer in Russia, was "nowhere near good enough" and was a "pathetic response". Sir Nicholas responded: "I don't think that it's nearly serious enough for the kind of steps that I believe this Government will need to take against Russia. I think just to say that you're not going to send a lot of dignitaries to the World Cup is nowhere near good enough, it's a pathetic response. "We will need to do much, much better and be much, much tougher than that so that they understand across the full spectrum that this is the kind of behaviour up with which we will not put." He joked that he used to say: "The Treasury do work for the Russians (in) the way that they have undermined successfully our military effort." Sir Nicholas branded Brexit a "very poor" decision", arguing there was a compelling and unassailable case for Britain to retain and develop its active diplomacy. Britain, he said, was at a crossroads, adding: "Our global influence is already coming under very considerable pressure and it is essential for the further success, safety and security of this realm that our diplomacy is properly resourced." He warned the country was not a superpower but a middle-ranking one, arguing it was "inevitable that our influence - already, sadly but quite clearly, on the wane - will inevitably further decrease as the realities of the folly of our exit from the EU become clear". He added: "We're going to have to redouble all our efforts, we're going to have to call in our chips and we're going to have to work very, very hard to retain our influence and position on the world stage." Tory former minister Richard Benyon (Newbury) who brought the debate, said: "Brexit brings a new urgency to our deliberations. It's not too late to see a paradigm shift in our strategy, but influence is hard won and is easily lost." Mr Shannon argued the UK could "thrive" as a nation post Brexit by becoming a global Britain, but needed the diplomatic services and the resources to make that happen. Shadow foreign and Commonwealth affairs minister Helen Goodman argued there had been a "significant" reduction in the department's budget. My Question to the Prime Minister in her Statement on Monday about the attempted murder in Salisbury by poisoning. https://t.co/HnC5SBU6CT Nicholas Soames (@NSoames) March 13, 2018 Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister Mark Field said he had a "significant amount of sympathy" with Sir Nicholas's comments, adding that Brexit was a mistake, but "we have to make it work". He said: "If we are to maintain and increase our global outreach and our influence we need to make sure that the vision of a global Britain is more than just a mantra. "I accept that this must ensure that we provide the investment that is required. "The FCO will continue to work closely with the Treasury to ensure the Diplomatic Service is sufficiently resourced." Update 11.56am: Russia has asked for access to samples of the nerve agent that poisoned ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. Mr Lavrov said Russia "is not to blame" for the incident on March 4. The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the British ambassador in Moscow over the case, Russian news agencies have said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Photo: AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko. Mr Lavrov warned that Russia will only co-operate with Britain on the investigation if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used to target Mr Skripal and his daughter. Mr Lavrov said that Moscow's requests to see samples of the nerve agent have been turned down, which he called a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which outlaws the production of chemical weapons. Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday that Mr Skripal and his daughter had been poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed in the Soviet Union. She said Russia has until the end of Tuesday to explain how the substance ended up in Britain. Mr Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow is willing to co-operate with the probe, but he suggested London would be "better off" complying with its international obligations "before putting forward ultimatums". Update 10.42am: Russia's foreign ministry has mocked Theresa May over her conclusion that it was "highly likely" Moscow was responsible for the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. In a post on Twitter, the ministry's official account used the hashtag #HighlyLikelyRussia - which has been used on social media as the basis of jokes for things to blame Moscow for. The ministry of foreign affairs' Tweet said "sincere thanks to Mrs May for #HighlyLikelyRussia" along with a video suggesting the country was to blame for the recent snow to fall in the UK. Sincere thanks to Mrs May for #HighlyLikelyRussia It's gone to people And here is the first news for #HighlyLikelyRussia pic.twitter.com/sy3qMzBitU MFA Russia (@mfa_russia) March 12, 2018 It came as the ministry - through its ambassador in London Alexander Yakovenko - faced a midnight deadline to explain how military-grade Russian nerve agent came to be used in the Salisbury incident. The Kremlin has denied responsibility and Moscow's response has been to appear to taunt the UK. Kirill Kleymenov, a presenter on Russian state TV, advised "traitors" against moving to Britain, adding: "Something is wrong there. Maybe it's the climate, but in recent years there have been too many strange incidents with grave outcomes there." And another prominent broadcaster, Dmitry Kiselyov, suggested that the UK may have been behind the poisoning of the former double agent. As a source, Mr Skripal was of little value, but "as a poisoning victim he is very useful" to harden British attitudes against Russia, he said. Earlier:The nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia "clearly came from Russia" and "certainly will trigger a response", US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said. Mr Tillerson's comments amount to the strongest US response yet to Theresa May's declaration that it was "highly likely" Russia was behind the horrific poisoning in Salisbury on March 4. The British Prime Minister told MPs that the highly dangerous substance used in the attack was a military-grade Novichok nerve agent produced by Russia. She set a deadline of midnight today for Moscow to explain whether it was behind the attack or had lost control of its stockpile of the poison. Failure to provide a "credible" response would lead her to view the incident as "an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom", sparking unspecified measures in reprisal. Home Secretary Amber Rudd will chair a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergencies committee in Whitehall on Tuesday morning to discuss the latest developments. According to AP, Mr Tillerson told journalists travelling with him in Africa that the Novichok agent was "only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties". Although he said it "clearly came from Russia", he added that he did not know whether Vladimir Putin's government had knowledge of the poisoning and said it was "almost beyond comprehension" that a state actor would use such a dangerous substance in a public place. In a formal statement released after a phone call with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, the US Secretary of State said: "We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week. "Those responsible - both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it - must face appropriately serious consequences. We stand in solidarity with our Allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to co-ordinate closely our responses." With the world weighing up the possibility of sanctions against Russia, French president Emmanuel Macron offered his country's solidarity with the UK in a phone call with Mrs May, in which he said that Paris would "co-ordinate closely" with London following Russia's response. A Downing Street spokesman said: "They discussed the wide pattern of aggressive Russian behaviour and agreed that it would be important to continue to act in concert with allies to address it." Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said: "The use of any nerve agent is horrendous and completely unacceptable. "The UK is a highly valued ally, and this incident is of great concern to Nato. Nato is in touch with the UK authorities on this issue." Mrs May's dramatic statement to the Commons on Monday came after Mr Johnson summoned Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko to the Foreign Office to voice Britain's outrage, giving him little more than 24 hours to provide Moscow's response. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the nerve agent attack on Mr Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer who was jailed as a double agent before being sent to the West in a 2010 spy swap. Following Mrs May's statement, news agency Tass quoted Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying: "It is a circus show in the British Parliament. "The conclusion is obvious, it's another political information campaign, based on a provocation." And Mr Putin dismissed questions about the Skripals when he was confronted during an election campaign visit, telling the BBC: "Get to the bottom of things there, then we'll discuss this." Mrs May said: "On Wednesday we will consider in detail the response from the Russian State. "Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom." That would result in Mrs May setting out "the full range of measures that we will take in response". The National Security Council is expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss the Russian response, if any, ahead of a statement by the PM. Mrs May said: "This attempted murder using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town was not just a crime against the Skripals. "It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk. "And we will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil." In the US administration's first public statement on the issue, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the attack was "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible". She said: "The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizens on UK soil is an outrage. "We offer the fullest condemnation and we extend our sympathy to the victims and their families and our support to the UK Government. "We stand by our closest ally and the special relationship that we have." A man has been taken to hospital after a helicopter accident at an airport. Police were alerted to the incident at Perth Airport in Scotland at around 10.50am on Tuesday. The man has been taken Ninewells Hospital in Dundee with a suspected broken leg. No other aircraft or vehicles were involved in the incident. A spokesman for Police Scotland said: "One man has been taken to hospital with a suspected broken leg." The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirmed it was in attendance at the scene. A spokesman said: "The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was alerted at 11.26am on Tuesday to assist emergency service partners at Perth Airport, Scone. Operations Control mobilised a number of resources to the scene. "Crews will remain in attendance until the area is made safe." Graeme Frater, managing director of Perth Airport, added: "We are aware of a ground incident at Perth Airport today involving a helicopter. "We are supporting all involved and will release more information when available." - PA The first test was their provision of submissions that had called for by Commissioner Kenneth Hayne - in other words self-confess about misdeeds with openness. Day one of the banking royal commission was a tone-setting moment - an opportunity for our four big banks to demonstrate co-operation, contrition and recognition that over the past 10 years they had regularly fallen short of legal and community expectations. Yes all admitted that at various times they had engaged in misconduct or poor conduct - a point that has been made abundantly clear over the past seven years, as financial institutions (mainly the banks) have been required to give back $250 million to 540,000 to home loan customers alone thanks to a reliance on fraudulent documentation, breaches of responsible lending obligations and processing/administration errors. Loading Three out of the four big banks - ANZ excepted - received a rebuke from counsel assisting, Rowena Orr, for presenting submissions that were in some way deficient - with a particular attention reserved for the Commonwealth Bank which had swamped the commission with spreadsheets. Orr said the "National Australia Bank failed to provide comprehensive information" and that Westpac had on Monday night identified further examples of potential misconduct that were not included in its first two statements to the commission. It was an inauspicious beginning to hearing and one that will not have impressed Hayne who later in the day was clearly irritated by a last minute request by NAB's counsel during Monday afternoons session about the confidentiality of some exhibits. As the banking royal commission starts rolling out examples of bad behaviour, many of the bankers and their lawyers are working hard to make sure they are not on the wrong side of history. Every royal commission needs a Catholic Church and nobody wants to be the Catholic Church in a royal commission, a source recently told Fairfax Media, referencing the devastating findings of the recent royal commission into institutional responses to child abuse. Commonwealth Bank lost its bid to have its secrets not published by the royal commission. Credit:Glenn Hunt (The same could be said for the Victorian bushfires royal commission nobody wanted to be the electricity company whose faulty wires caused such devastation.) But theres one bank that looks like it wants to be the Catholic Church, the lawyer said. The leadership transition comes at a time when Goldman's traditional business model is under siege. Its bond-trading business, once a huge component of the firm's revenue, which hit nearly $US1 billion a week in 2009, is now a shadow of its former self. The bank's limited presence in countries like Saudi Arabia and Mexico have meant Goldman has been left out of some lucrative transactions. And its belated attempts to muscle its way into businesses such as consumer lending have failed to transform the company into a real competitor of commercial banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup. Since his elevation to president was announced in late 2016, Solomon has been working to address those shortcomings. In spring 2017, he and Schwartz presented directors with a plan to generate $US5 billion a year in additional revenue starting in several years. At the same time, Solomon strayed beyond the traditional mold of a Wall Street power broker. He demanded, for example, that Goldman's recruiters increase their hiring of women with the goal of eventually reaching total gender parity. CEO Lloyd Blankfein has joked that he intends to die at his desk, but now he's preparing his departure. Credit:Mark Lennihan To many inside Goldman, Mr Solomons ascension was far from a sure thing. Mr Solomon himself was among the skeptics; associates said that he had told them that the top job was Mr Schwartzs to lose. Mr Schwartz, who had been Goldmans chief financial officer, knew the firms business model cold and had played a central role in the firms trading business during its heyday. Mr Solomon, on the other hand, had won the respect of the banking division but was less well-known in other parts of the bank. For the past year, the relationship between Mr Schwartz and Mr Solomon has been chilly at times. They had never been close personally and, while striving to work together professionally, subordinates could tell that both men knew they were in the midst of a horse race. Getting 'Gary'ed' Mr Schwartz recently confided to friends that he was worried about being Garyed, said people familiar with the conversations. It was a reference to what happened to Mr Cohn, who remained Goldmans president for more than 10 years in hopes of taking over from Mr Blankfein, before joining the Trump administration. Late last year, Mr Schwartz approached Goldmans lead director, the private-equity executive Adebayo Ogunlesi, with an ultimatum, according to people familiar with the exchange. Mr Schwartz said that unless he was tapped as chief executive in the coming months, he would resign. Mr Ogunlesi was noncommittal, these people said. He has a black belt, but lost the power struggle: Harvey Schwartz. Credit:Bloomberg Mr Schwartz reiterated his demand to Mr Ogunlesi earlier this year, the people said. The move didnt work as intended. On February 21, during a meeting at Goldmans headquarters, the board took up the succession question in earnest. Mr Blankfein expressed his preference for Mr Solomon, said the person who was briefed on the meeting, and the board agreed. Mr Blankfein then left for a business trip to Asia and didnt tell Mr Solomon the news for more than a week. Mr Schwartz was notified last week. He immediately decided to retire, capping a career that started on Black Monday, the day in October 1987 when the stock market plunged 22 per cent. Mr Blankfein announced Mr Schwartzs exit and Mr. Solomons promotion to be the firms sole president at a weekly management committee early on Monday, according to people briefed on the discussion. Two foodora cyclists have launched unfair dismissal claims in cases the Transport Workers Union believes could prove a test case for the burgeoning food delivery industry. The two cyclists, Josh Klooger and Avi Winner, are launching claims arguing that they were unfairly dismissed for taking holidays and speaking out about being underpaid. Josh Klooger is claiming he was unfairly dismissed as a Foodora courier Credit:Eddie Jim Transport Workers Union national secretary Tony Sheldon said that while the two workers were hired as independent contractors, foodora had treated them as employees. The case will seek to build on the the High Court of Australia decisions in Hollis v Vabu which found that couriers riding their own bicycles were employees and not independent contractors even though they were responsible for repairs, loss or damage to their equipment and uniforms. Fast-food giants McDonalds, Hungry Jacks and Red Rooster are pushing to make part-time work in burger joints and pizza shops more flexible, and for the removal of penalty rates for working between 5am and 6am. But the changes will not affect most of their own workers, leading to claims they are trying to soften award conditions in case the workplace tribunal terminates their wage deals. McDonald's is among the companies pushing to change the award. Credit:Glenn Hunt In a submission to a review of the Fast Food Industry Award made with McDonalds, Hungry Jacks and Red Roosters owner Cravable Brands, the Australian Industry Group said part-time work conditions were too inflexible. The business group said the Fair Work Commission should remove the requirements for part-time workers and employers to set regular start and finish times for shifts, with time worked outside those agreed hours paid as overtime. These regular hours can only be changed in writing. There's a one in 10 chance the Instagram personality you follow is an 'InstaLiar', with research showing many popular accounts have thousands of fake and inactive followers. When analysing a sample of 3500 Australian influencers on Instagram, social media technology and marketers Hypetap found 13.3 per cent have not got as many fans as they claim. Social media influencers might not be who they say they are. Globally, 15.5 per cent of a sample of 10,000 influencer profiles have a fake or disengaged following totalling more than a fifth of their audience. Sacked Doughnut Time employees still chasing thousands of dollars in unpaid wages will likely have to go to the federal government for the money amid reports a deal to save remaining stores has fallen through. Foreign workers could miss out entirely because the government guarantee is only available to Australian citizens. Eight Doughnut Time companies and ice cream sandwich business Mister Fitzs Finest Ice Cream were sent into liquidation on Friday, including one which appeared to control a Queensland store previously slated to remain open. The Doughnut Time store in Brisbane's King George Square busway station is among those closed. Credit:Jorge Branco The same day, Victoria state manager Vanessa Gaddi-Chmielewski told workers the entire company would be liquidated, the ABC reported. An Australian first trial is taking wind farms from passive producers that sell all their output in a slab to more active, and opportunistic, participants in the energy market. Neoen Australias South Australian Hornsdale 2 wind farm has carried out a trial which could see wind replace coal, gas and even pumped hydro in providing energy stability. The combination of renewables plus storage at Hornsdale is changing Australia's energy market. Credit:Tesla Under current market conditions, the Australian Energy Market Operator sets a generation target every five minutes to meet demand, which larger power companies try to meet. Occasionally, they are slightly below these targets which means the system falls out of balance and then gas or pumped hydro steps in quickly to make up the difference. When American musician and producer Ry Cooder came knocking on Barbarito Torres' door in 1996, he ignited an artistic fire that, more than 20 years later, is still burning. "Can you believe that!" says Torres, "Me playing my instrument, that I was sought after by an American. An American who came to Cuba holding my cassette and wanted to know what instrument this was." Barbarito Torres with his laud, a type of lute. Through the Buena Vista Social Club "I got to play it for the world and teach people about it." Credit:Alejandro Gonzalez Torres is one-fourteenth of the Afro-Cuban powerhouse Buena Vista Social Club. Born in Mantanzas, Cuba, 62-year-old Torres has been playing the laud for 52 years. "Growing up during, or after, the revolution ... it was a normal childhood," says Torres, "I've always been the same person and that's a musician. Zaras Finally Launching An Online Store In Aus & Your Wallet Just Carked It, was the headline in one publication , while a TV personality I follow on Instagram received 180 likes on a cut-and-paste of another outlet's headline . An image from the landing page of Zara's new Australian website, which launches on March 14. When the news was announced a couple of weeks ago, it was met with much excitement from various media outlets and social media users. From today, fashion giant Zara will have an online store in Australia, meaning shopping with the Spanish brand has never been easier. First, the pros: having Zara available online will make it more accessible to people who live outside the capital cities where it has a presence (Zara currently has 15 stores across Australia). Depending on where they shop, colleagues have described wildly different Zara experiences. Some stores are serene, and "finds" seem to grow on trees, whereas others can resemble nightclubs the morning after an overseas guest act (and before the cleaners have visited). Zara is now available online in Australia, seven years after it launched bricks and mortar stores. Credit:Bloomberg Having the online store, one colleague said, means she can choose in peace, with some sense of order "If I want a blazer or a particular trend, I want them all in the same spot, not all over the store..." and then try things on, or better still, try them on in the comfort of her home. And by offering free returns, customers can send back items they dont like, rather than merely leaving them to gather dust in the closet because a) returning things to a store is inconvenient, and often comes with a deadline; and b) the garment was so cheap to begin with that returning it seems like a waste of time. The National Portrait Gallery has been dealing with building defects for up to six years, and the building is now out of warranty. The Finance Department - which is footing the bill for the building's repairs when the gallery closes next year for six months - has confirmed that the defect liability period for the 10-year-old $87 million building has expired. The National Portrait Gallery has been plagued by building defects as far back as 2012. The gallery will be closed from April to September 2019 to replace the waterproof membrane underlying the concrete podium surrounding the building, the floors throughout the galleries and faulty double-glazing in the windows. The gallery has not yet announced how much the repairs will cost, as the project has yet to be put out for tender. While the Federal Government deserves to be commended on the way it handled last week's U.S.-driven steel and aluminum tariff crisis it's fair to say we are not out of the woods yet. Neither steel nor aluminium make it onto the top five list of Australian exports to America. They are, in descending order, beef, meat other than beef, aeronautical parts, pharmaceuticals and alcoholic drinks. The real risk from President Trump's strongly held belief that if America is to be made great again it needs to play hardball with trading partners he believes are engaged in dodgy practices has always been a full-blown trade war. Given Australia is, by comparison, a relative minnow that would be the worst possible outcome for this country. The Forsters, who retired from working in the finance and nursing industries in Sydney, said they considered moving to Newcastle and Sydney but they couldn't find a house that suited their needs. "We thought, why not Canberra? We travel there a lot, our specialists are here and we wanted a different community because where we lived it was all older people, we wanted a place that had families and younger people," Mr Forster said. The pair bought their corner blockfor $440,000 and wanted to design a house that could cater for their motorhome and for their future needs. "We know, as older people, in about 10 years, we're likely to give our licence up so we need public transport, we need access to services, we saw the light rail was going in and we said "that's it, we want the light rail"," he said. "We plan to travel a lot in our motorhome, so we plan to have a garage big enough to fit it when we're in Canberra." Defence's spending on contractors hired through recruitment agencies last year was the highest among major agencies, growing to $155 million from $23 million in 2012-13 as its staff headcount fell by nearly 4000 to 18,400. New figures show the government is turning more to contractors after job cuts at public service agencies. Credit:Jessica Shapiro Since the change of government in 2013, annual expenditure on labour contractors for 18 of the largest workplaces has ballooned from $318 million to more than $730 million as the Coalition imposed staffing caps and shed public servants. Government agencies have more than doubled their spending on contracted labour in the last five years as the Coalition slashed the public service workforce. The giant Human Services Department more than doubled its spending for on-hire labour contractors to $71.3 million from $31.1 million as its workforce shrank by nearly 2000 public servants. Social Services doubled its yearly on-hire labour spending from $50 million to $99 million in the last five years while cuts to Health Department staff have coincided with a growing bill for contracted labour, reaching $115 million last year. Agencies have revealed their spending on contracted labour to a parliamentary inquiry, which is investigating the Coalition government's use of contractors after a 2017 audit report showed its moves to cut 15,000 public service jobs coincided with a doubling in spending on consultants. While the Auditor-General uncovered a growing spend on consultancy contracts for "specialised or professional skills", agencies have also detailed their growing use of contracted labour unrelated to consultancy work and commonly used for IT, engineering, recruitment and business administration. Most agencies reported their spending on "on-hire" labour contractors found through recruitment agencies, while Home Affairs, Finance and Social Services did not break down their contracts into those hired through external providers and those contracted directly. Many departments spent further on contractors directly hired for short-term needs. Hubert de Givenchy, who has died aged 91, was one of the great designers from the golden age of haute couture; his long and stylish list of clients included Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman, but perhaps most famous of all was Audrey Hepburn, for whom as Holly Golightly he created the little black dress seen in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). A Givenchy collection was witty, elegant and keyed to the high style of his clientele even including such necessities as Bermuda shorts and swimsuits for their Caribbean winter holidays or suede breeches for hunting weekends along the Loire. Hubert de Givenchy with his wife, Mary, at the Council of Fashion Designers of America 1996, New York, shortly after his retirement. Credit:PAUL HURSCHMANN Suits were carved to the body, flattering and utterly right for wearing to a job interview or for meeting a prospective mother-in-law. And once the anti-glamour of the 1960s faded, the great upswing towards formality found Givenchy ready with his grand ball gowns. Audrey Hepburn was his star client, one who always wore his clothes with verve and grace, and he dressed her for nearly four decades. They were first introduced when he was approached to design costumes for Sabrina (1954), although he was unable to commit the time and instead invited her to choose from the rail. Doctors and nurses in "high-risk" hospital wards must get the flu shot before June or they may be sacked, the NSW government has announced as part of its plans to stop a repeat of last year's influenza epidemic. Health Minister Brad Hazzard said medical staff in wards such as neonatal, transplant and cancer must show they had been vaccinated by June 1 or they would be moved or forced to wear a mask. If they resisted, they may be sacked. Last years flu season was just diabolic. Anything that we can do to try and head that off has to happen, he said. Health Minister Brad Hazzard is trying to prevent a repeat of last year's brutal flu season. Credit:Daniel Munoz A total of 103,193 influenza cases were recorded in NSW public hospitals between January to November last year, almost triple the 2016 total of 35,537. Police have released CCTV footage of a young man attacking a bus driver in Brisbanes east last month. The footage shows the man boarding the bus at Carindale about 2pm on February 11 before getting into a verbal altercation with the driver about the fare. After tapping his go card on the machine, the footage shows him lean over the driver and punch him in head twice in front of passengers on the bus. As the driver goes to stands up, the man then shoves him into the drivers window before he walks off the bus. A Gold Coast business and its two directors have been fined more than half a million dollars for a scam involving smoke detector distribution licenses. Samuel Edward Newnham and Adrian James Campbell pleaded guilty to 11 counts of making false and misleading representations in the Southport Magistrates Court on Tuesday, according to the Office of Fair Trading. The company and its directors were ordered to pay more than $579,000 in fines, compensation and court costs. Credit:Ken Robertson The fine comes after an investigation found Eco Boss Pty Ltd sold 11 exclusive distribution licenses for the sale and installation of a particular brand of smoke detection technology within Australia. According to the Office of Fair Trading, the pair had told interested buyers they had an agreement with UK-based company Radal Technology Ltd to sell territorial licenses in Australia. Friends of a teenage drug dealer have strongly denied a gun was present when he was fatally stabbed by a buyer who is claiming self-defence at his murder trial. Michael Brack arranged to meet Ryan John Howes at shops on the Gold Coast in November 2015 and was killed when their deal went awry. Witnesses Reality Marschke-Hand (centre) and Reece Rowe (left) leave the Brisbane Supreme court in Brisbane on Tuesday. Credit:AAP Howes had gone to buy 14 grams of cannabis for $160 but ended up stabbing the 16-year-old in the neck, his Brisbane Supreme Court murder trial has heard. His defence team has argued he heard "two clicks" of what he believed to be a gun during the altercation. An online database will be trialled in Brisbane to help retailers share information on scammers after recent a spate of crimes across south-east Queensland. The SafeCity Network database, launched by the National Retail Association with the support of Brisbane City Council and Crime Stoppers, will be trialled over a 12-month period for all retailers across Brisbane CBD and Fortitude Valley. The trial comes after police a number of Irish nationals were accused of scamming 12 Brisbane businesses in the past six weeks. Credit:Queensland Police Service Retailers involved in the trial will be given a login to an online software program where they can anonymously upload CCTV footage and reports of crimes they have experienced to share with others in the area. The database would allow a better information flow between businesses after it was understood only about 20 per cent of retail crimes were reported to police, an NRA spokeswoman said. Tropical cyclone Linda has formed off the Queensland coast about 1100 kilometres east of Mackay. The category one cyclone formed in the Coral Sea on Tuesday and was expected to move south-west towards the Queensland coast over the next 24 hours before turning south-east away from the coastline. A Bureau of Meteorology bulletin said conditions would become "unfavourable" on Wednesday for tropical cyclone Linda, which was expected to transition into an intense subtropical low. The remains of the cyclone were likely to generate large waves and dangerous surf conditions along the state's southern beaches with tides expected to be higher than normal, peaking on Thursday morning. These accusations did not meet the standard of proof required by investigators, which sat between the balance of probabilities and reasonable doubt. A failure to find something proven to this standard did not mean it did not happen, investigators said in their report. Former councillor Tessa Sullivan. Credit:Jason South Ms Sullivan, who served just 14 months of her four-year term on the council, said in a statement posted on social media on Tuesday that she was "relieved the truth is out". Mr Doyle remains in hospital, where he has been since February due to stress. His wife, Emma Page-Campbell, responding on her husband's behalf, said he "continues to deny all allegations made against him". She added that the 64-year-old Mr Doyle "now recognises that his cheerful and oftentimes animated personality and manner towards people, both men and women alike, may no longer be appropriate by today's standards". Melbourne City Council chief executive Ben Rimmer released a statement that indicated that if Mr Doyle had not resigned as lord mayor, it would have been necessary "to consider what further action to take. Greens councillor Cathy Oke told the special meeting of council that more support was needed for women in politics who spoke out when something was wrong. Women dont speak out because we fear that if the wrong person is unwittingly spoken to it could mean a leak, a breach of confidentiality, a breach of trust, and ultimately information in the hands of their accused and their powerful networks, she said. She said she felt ashamed she had not spoken out about Mr Doyles behaviour earlier. "I had a real fear that speaking to someone in the powerful connected networks in this city, on this matter, would lead to a media smear or attack on my reputation. Although perhaps ridiculous to some, that fear was real and paralysing," a tearful Cr Oke told the council meeting. Cr Oke said she wanted her daughter to grow up in the post #MeToo era, where speaking out doesnt cause so much pain. Investigators working for the council, led by barrister Ian Freckelton, QC, have suspended an additional aspect of the inquiry into allegations of improper conduct by Mr Doyle at a medical awards event until he is able to respond. Councillor Cathy Oke. Credit:Eddie Jim The 100-page report completed by Dr Freckelton and his team will not be released in full only a nine-page statement from Mr Rimmer summarising it. The investigation is understood to have cost in the region of $1 million. Among the allegations investigators explored was that Mr Doyle had clutched the upper thigh of Cr Oke during a job interview with one of the two final candidates for chief executive in 2014. Loading Mr Doyles alleged grope was seen by then councillor Stephen Mayne, who was also interviewed by Dr Freckelton. The report found investigators did not accept the argument advanced by Mr Doyle in respect of [this incident] that his touching of Cr Oke was a signal to her that he was impressed by a candidate for a job. The report noted that Mr Doyle had stated clearly throughout the investigation that he either did not engage in the acts constituted by the allegations or that his conduct in engaging in them was not sexually inappropriate. The report also found that the Melbourne City Council workplace was at times "sexualised ... by the conduct of Mr Doyle". This was particularly the case at Tuesday night dinners after council meetings, where liquor was served. Mr Doyle would often consume large amounts of wine at these dinners. Dr Freckelton found that, because Mr Doyle's proven misconduct was combined with drinking, "consumption of alcohol at Melbourne City Council on a Tuesday evening ought to be the subject of policy revision". Mr Doyle's wife, Ms Page-Campbell, said her husband "continues to deny all allegations made against him". She said he fervently rejects that any [alleged] conduct was intended to be inappropriate or sexual in nature". A cyclist was taken to Royal Perth Hospital on Tuesday morning after being hit by a car in Kingsley. Police, St John Ambulance and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services were called to the scene on the corner of Hepburn Avenue and Allenswood Road about 6am. The injured cyclist was taken to RPH. Credit:Darren Pateman Four firefighter crews attended after a report the bike was caught beneath the car, but found it freed when they arrived. Two paramedic crews attended the cyclist, a man in his forties. He was taken at normal road speed to RPH with a suspected spinal injury. They promised a loud and proud rally, and the crowd protesting the closure of Moora Residential College delivered. Despite a strong police presence on St George's Terrace, hundreds of students, friends, family and supporters descended on the streets of the Perth CBD on Tuesday morning, holding signs declaring "regional students matter", "cut our education = cut our futures" and "budget bulldust: save Moora College". Traffic stopped as protesters cross. Credit:Hannah Barry A truck convoy also rolled into town on at 10am, and their presence was soon heard all over the city. The truck, emblazoned with the slogans "Save Moora College" and "Save Moora", travelled over the causeway and up St Georges Terrace and brought traffic to a halt. WA's energy minister has been accused of curbing his support for more competition in the electricity market in a bid to appease unions. Ben Wyatt has softened on plans to end the monopoly of the state's major electricity supplier Synergy, however has continued to support an open market for regional supply in WA's north. WA treasurer Ben Wyatt is against a free power market. Credit:Tanya Lake The treasurer previously said he would open up the North-West electricity grid to competition, which would lead to cheaper prices, opposition spokesman Dean Nalder said. WA's electricity market should follow the example of its gas supply industry, Mr Nalder told reporters on Monday. ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has expressed regret over his leaked comments that he "hates journalists", and said his government's new communication strategy is not intended to prevent the media doing its job. Mr Barr attracted both praise and criticism when audio emerged of him telling a group of communication professionals last week he was "over" the mainstream media and "hates journalists". Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he was "over" the mainstream media and the "filter" of journalists. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos "What passes for a daily newspaper in this city is a joke and it will be only a matter of years before it closes down," Mr Barr said. "We need to completely overhaul the way we communicate as a government and that's exactly what we're doing." Malcolm Turnbull is the first Australian Prime Minister to host ASEAN Leaders in Australia. Credit:Jessica Hromas This week for the first time, the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, will meet in Australia. This is a historic moment for our place in the world; a rare opportunity in a time of momentous change unprecedented in its scale and pace. Overwhelmingly, it is a meeting about prosperity and security. In less than one generation, millions of people across the Indo-Pacific region have been lifted out of dire poverty. Malcolm Turnbull is vowing to strengthen Australias work with its neighbours to halt the spread of terrorism across the region, as he prepares for talks with Asian leaders on measures to share intelligence and stop foreign fighters. The Prime Minister will use a regional summit this weekend to ramp up work on counter-terrorism in the wake of the violence in the Philippines city of Marawi by fighters inspired by Islamic State. Writing in The Age today, Mr Turnbull hails the milestone summit with the Association of South East Asian Nations in Sydney this weekend and promises greater co-operation against violent extremism. Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull meets Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte for a bilateral meeting during the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting. Credit:AAP We are indispensable strategic partners and work together to keep our region secure. The rising threat of terrorism and extremism is a shared challenge we can only tackle together, he writes. Land across Melbourne's booming outer suburban growth areas is to be bought up by the Andrews government and used to build more than a dozen new schools. The state government will spend almost $237 million to purchase the sites, most of them planned for Melbournes fringe. The funding commitment for 14 new schools is the first major bricks-and-mortar education announcement from the state government so far in this election year. Premier Daniel Andrews greets some students at State Parliament. Credit:Penny Stephens The money will go towards land in suburbs including Clyde North, Cranbourne West, Mickleham, Deanside, Rockbank, Cobblebank, Wollert, Wyndham Vale and Pakenham. "As head of the administration, I deeply apologise," Abe said on Monday afternoon. He added that he hoped an investigation would "uncover the whole truth". The most dramatic admission was that bureaucrats had removed Akie Abe's name and alleged comments from a description of a meeting between Finance Ministry officials and administrators of the Moritomo education group, which operates a kindergarten where children recite a 19th-century patriotic royal decree and are taught that some history textbooks in Japan and elsewhere in Asia wrongly characterise the country's wartime atrocities. Taro Aso, Japan's finance minister has refused to step down after it was revealed that his name and that of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were removed from documents connected with a land-sale scandal. Credit:Bloomberg According to the deleted remarks, a Moritomo administrator told Finance Ministry officials in Osaka that when he showed Akie Abe, a onetime honourary principal of a planned Moritomo elementary school, the location of the land, Abe said: "It's good land. Please go ahead." The land had been slated for construction of a new school in Osaka, Japan's third-largest city. The report also showed that Finance Ministry officials had removed the names of several Liberal Democratic lawmakers from the land sale documents, as well as a reference to Nippon Kaigi, a prominent right-wing pressure group of which Shinzo Abe and other influential conservative politicians are members. Loading At a news conference on Monday, Aso said bureaucrats altered the documents between February and April last year. Last February, Abe said he would resign as prime minister and a member of parliament if evidence emerged showing that he or his wife was connected to the discounted land sale to Moritomo Gakuen. When reporters asked Aso on Monday whether the bureaucrats had acted to protect the Abes, Aso said that in his judgment, Akie Abe had nothing to do with the case. Last week, Nobuhisa Sagawa, former chief of the bureau within the Finance Ministry that oversaw the land sale, resigned from his current post as tax agency chief. Earlier this month, a Finance Ministry employee in the Osaka branch office that had dealt with the land sale committed suicide. Opposition MPs have long questioned Shinzo Abe's denials of involvement in the land sale. But as news of the altered documents emerged, even members of Abe's own party were sceptical of the explanation that bureaucrats acted independently. In comments to the Nikkei newspaper, Shinjiro Koizumi, a rising star within the party and a son of Junichiro Koizumi, a former prime minister, said blaming bureaucrats was the equivalent of "cutting off a lizard's tail". "If the falsifications are true, we need to tell the truth to people," Koizumi said. "We have to take it not only as an administrative issue, but as one that affects all politics." evelations about the deletion of evidence implicating Akie Abe in a land deal could complicate Shinzo Abe's effort to win a third term. Credit:New York Times And in a speech on Sunday, Shigeru Ishiba, one of Abe's rivals within the Liberal Democratic Party, said he did not believe that bureaucrats had the power to alter documents without political direction. "Unless we clarify who did this, trust for the Liberal Democratic Party will be shaken," Ishiba said. Polls have shown Abe's popularity declining as media reports suggested that document tampering had taken place. A survey over the weekend by the right-leaning Yomiuri Shimbun found the cabinet's approval rating had dropped below 50 per cent for the first time in five months. That same poll found that 80 per cent of respondents said the government was mishandling the Moritomo case. Analysts said Abe's ratings were likely to decline further at a time when his government is struggling to gain exemptions from steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump and to grapple with the foreign policy implications of Trump's decision to meet with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un. "The political authority or prestige of the Abe administration will decrease drastically because of this scandal," said Jiro Yamaguchi, a professor of political science at Hosei University in Tokyo. The decision by US President Donald Trump to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could weaken Shinzo Abe's standing.. Credit:AP Critics of Abe said the way the disclosures had slowly emerged showed the weakness of the Japanese news media and the conservative tilt of the government bureaucracy. The bureaucracy is "very secretive, arrogant and authoritative", said Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University in Tokyo. He added that because the opposition had been so divided, it had not been potent enough to challenge Abe. Analysts said the slow drumbeat of the scandal would inevitably weaken Abe and his agenda. His most cherished long-term goal to try to change the pacifist clause in the country's constitution is now probably compromised. And even if Abe can hold off calls for resignation now, his chances for re-election in a party leadership vote in September have diminished. "Without clear signs of his being involved, I think it's hard to assume that he's going to be forced out," Harris said. "But I think there's enough here now that as you approach the preparation for the LDP elections in September, there is going to be a sense in the party of 'You know what, enough of the drama and more than a whiff of scandal. It's time for someone clean and a little more low key,'" he added. Beirut: Turkish forces along with allied rebels completely surrounded the Syrian city of Afrin on Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of its mostly Kurdish residents besieged. Hundreds of civilians managed to flee the advancing troops on Monday, but an estimated 700,000 are encircled in Afrin and surrounding villages and towns. A Turkey-backed opposition fighter of the Free Syrian Army secures the streets of the north-western city of Azaz, Syria. Credit:AP The only road out was in range of Turkish artillery fire, the UK-based monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Some 230 civilians have been killed in Turkey's Operation Olive Branch so far. Some 370 YPG fighters have also been killed along with 340 Syrian rebels and 42 Turkish soldiers, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In a major relief to those who still haven't linked their Aadhaar cards with bank accounts and mobile numbers, the Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the deadline from March 31 indefinitely till the final judgement in the controversial case. The apex court is hearing the case on the constitutional validity of the government's biometrical identification scheme. However, it is still mandatory to link your welfare schemes with Aadhaar to get benefits under Article 7 before the deadline. The SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said on Tuesday that the government can't insist on mandatory Aadhaar linking with mobile phones, passports, PAN, etc. Just after the SC interim order, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah tweeted that he is not going to link "anything to Aadhaar until I absolutely have to" Dear HDFC, Airtel & others please stop spamming me with emails/messages now. I'm not linking anything to #Aadhaar until I absolutely have to. https://t.co/EDjESAb1LV - Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) March 13, 2018 In wake of the March-31 deadline, banks, and mobile service providers have been repeatedly calling and messaging customers to link the 12-digit Aadhaar number to avail the uninterrupted services. Though today's order applies for mobile numbers, tatkal passports, and bank accounts, people still have to connect their Aadhaar numbers with welfare schemes like Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Mid-day Meal Scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, among others. Top 5 developments so far No need to connect Aadhaar with mobile phones, passport, and bank accounts till the final verdict in the Aadhaar case is pronounced. There's no new deadline to connect these services with the 12-digit Aadhaar number. The Supreme Court has not extended the deadline for welfare schemes like LPG, MNREGA,and ration card, among others. The SC has said the government can't insist on linking of Aadhaar with mobile phone, bank account, tatkal passport, etc. There are over 93 government-sponsored schemes that provide subsidy through the Direct Bank Transfer scheme. If you are one of the beneficiaries, connect it with the Aadhaar number before March 31. On March 7, the government had told the Supreme Court that it might extend the deadline as some more time would be needed to conclude the prolonged hearing of the Aadhaar case. "We have extended the deadline in the past and we will extend the deadline again but we may do it by the end of month to enable the petitioners in the case conclude the arguments," said Attorney General K.K. Venugopal. The five-judge Constitution bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud, and Ashok Bhushan, are hearing the petitions contesting the validity of the Aadhaar law agreed with his contention. Earlier, senior advocate Shyam Divan, who led the arguments challenging Aadhaar and its enabling Act, had asked that the deadline of March 31 be extended as it was highly unlikely that the hearing in the case would conclude. Justice Chandrachud, too, had pointed out that even if the court reserved its verdict on March 20, the banks and other institution would have only 10 days left, which might be difficult. The Bench then called the Attorney General for assistance in the issue. Recently, the industry body Assocham had also urged the government to relax the deadline for seeding bank accounts, especially the public sector banks. "Notwithstanding judicial scrutiny and government's well-intentioned moves, the banks, particularly those in the PSUs, may find it hard to complete the task of linking Aadhaar with the accounts of all the customers by March 31, 2018," Assocham said in a statement. Following the unearthing of the massive fraud at Punjab National Bank and a few other banks, the PSBs are anyway fire-fighting to protect their core business and hard pressed for human and other resources required to take up the job of Aadhaar linkage, it explained. As of March 2017, India issued 1.14 billion Aadhaar cards, covering 85 per cent of the population, as per the State of Aadhaar Report 2016-17. A year on, over 1.2 billion residents have been enrolled. According to the government, that's 99 per cent of the country's adult population. With PTI inputs TCA Anant retired as the chief statistician of India on February 1, 2018. So far, the government has not named a replacement, though it is searching for a suitable successor. KV Eapen, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, has been given the additional charge of the post of Secretary, Ministry for Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), but a search for a full time chief statistician is still on. One of TCA Anant's big achievements during his tenure was the revamp of the methodology for collating data and calculating the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - which included moving from factor cost to market prices, changing the base year, and finally expanding the number of companies in the sample. Though the new methodology came for much criticism initially - among other things, the GDP growth calculated by the new method was higher than that when calculated by the old method - it has now been accepted by most people as being closer to global practices. What he left unfinished though was revamping the other methods that are desperately needed. One, which has been much in discussion, is jobs data - India still does not have a reliable and quick method of calculating the number of jobs being created or the number of people unemployed in the country. The Niti Aayog has made some recommendations for revamping jobs data, and that has now been put up on the labour ministry site for comments from the public. The other big one, which does not get too much attention, is the creation of an Index of Services Production (IIS), which will give a clearer picture of the country's economic health than the current Index of Industrial Production (IIP). MoSPI had initiated some basic work - including the development of a methodology to measure service production for railways, airlines and postal services. But it has not progressed beyond that. And yet, developing an Index of Services Production (IIS) is crucial because services account for over 53 per cent of the Indian economy today compared to industry (which includes manufacturing, mining and others) which accounts for roughly 29 per cent (Agriculture and allied accounts for the remaining). IIP, which has been a mainstay of tracking the health of the Indian economy only tracks manufacturing, mining and electricity. It does not include almost any services. And yet, services not only comprises a bigger part of the economy in the country today, it is also the sector which is growing faster than both manufacturing and industry. So why has there been a delay in developing the ISP? One reason is that almost all countries find the job of measurement of services much more difficult than measuring production. Despite that though, much progress has been made by developed countries in calculating service growth on a regular basis. Sweden, UK, South Korea and the US started on this journey well over a decade ago. The statistics office of the European Union member states (Eurostat) also requires measurement of turnover data for a wide variety of services on a regular basis. India, despite much of its growth in recent years being powered by services, has been a bit of a laggard in this matter largely because measuring service growth has been a much more difficult task than measuring production growth. So far, the only indicator of service health on a regular basis is the purchasing managers index (PMI) on services, which serves as a proxy for sentiment in the services sector. But now, with the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which not only brings most services under an unified tax net but also requires regular filing of invoices by all companies, reliable data on services should no longer be a problem. Indeed, GST should give a huge fillip to creating a reliable and robust ISP, which will be far better indicator of economic growth than the IIP. (And the method of measuring IIP and also GDP can get a big boost from GST data). It would be good if the government, while choosing TCA Anant's successor, also gives him a brief on creating a robust methodology for ISP using GST data. It would go a long way in tracking the economic health of the country more rapidly than is being done now. The latest Central Statistics Offices (CSO) 2017 Trade Statistics report, published today, shows that Irish whiskey exports recorded a 14.2% increase in value in 2017. Irish whiskey is the worlds fastest-growing spirits category, representing a third of the value of all Irish drinks exports. It is estimated that nearly 120 million bottles (10 million cases) were sold in 2017, worth over 600 million in exports from Ireland, up 20% from 2016. Irish whiskey is exported to over 135 international markets. The category saw a 16.7% increase in exports to the US, its largest export market; a 15.7% increase in exports to Canada and 9.2% increase in exports across the 27 EU markets. Commenting on the figures, Head of the Irish Whiskey Association, William Lavelle said, "These figures confirm the sustained double-digit export growth in the Irish whiskey category. Irish whiskey export growth is delivering for the Irish economy, creating jobs throughout the country and benefiting Irish barley farmers." Source: www.businessworld.ie The latest Bank of Ireland/ESRI Savings and Investments Index has been released today. The Index tracks household attitudes towards savings and investment as well as monitoring their perspectives on the current and future savings and investment environment. The Bank of Ireland/ESRI Savings and Investments Index remained unchanged at 102 in February 2018. The Savings Index was unchanged at 103 in February but the Investment Index surprisingly nudged higher to 101 against the backdrop of the first correction in global stock markets in two years. Despite Februarys market declines, attitudes towards investment actually improved in the month with the Investment Attitudes Index increasing to 104 from 95 in January. Thirty six percent of people said they were regularly investing in February this is the strongest response since the index began in October 2017 and a big increase on the 30% of people who said they were investing in January. The Savings Index remained unchanged in February at 103 with a small improvement in attitudes towards saving being offset by a small decline in sentiment towards the savings environment. The savings index has been stable for the past few months having enjoyed a consistent improvement through 2017. The February data showed that half (49%) of people were regularly saving. The proportion of people saving as much or more than they should also increased to 54%, reversing the four percentage point decline in January. So it appears that savers are now more satisfied with the amounts they are saving. Commenting on the Bank of Ireland Savings and investments Index, Tom McCabe, Bank of Ireland Investment Markets said, "The results were surprising as one would normally expect investment attitudes to weaken in the face of falling stock markets. The fact that the data still indicate were a nation of savers rather than investors could suggest that Irish people are less exposed to stock market volatility than in other countries and consequently dont react as much to such periods." He added, "It will be fascinating to see if this investor resilience persists next month, particularly in light of growing concerns about trade wars which could keep markets on edge in the short term." Source: www.businessworld.ie TALLINN, Estonia (AP) Estonia says a Russian military cargo plane has violated its airspace near the island of Vaindloo in the Gulf of Finland. Estonias military said the Il-76 plane spent less than a minute in the Baltic countrys airspace Monday. It said the aircrafts transponder was switched on and a flight plan had been presented to Estonian authorities, but the plane maintained no radio contact with Estonias air navigation service. Estonias foreign ministry handed Russias ambassador a note over the incident. Its the first air intrusion into Estonia this year by a Russian plane, in comparison to two violations in 2017 and seven in 2016. Vaindloo is near a corridor where Russian military and cargo planes fly to get from the St. Petersburg area to the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad. Ant Financial made its first investment in Pakistan by buying $184.5 million stake in TMB. Photo:IC Ant Financial Services Group, the internet finance affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., has agreed to buy a 45% stake in Telenor Microfinance Bank (TMB), Pakistans largest mobile financial service provider. Ant Financial and TMBs Norwegian parent, Telenor Group, announced the strategic partnership on Tuesday. Ant Financial, the operator of Chinas most popular online payment service, Alipay, will help TMB develop mobile payment and digital financial services in Pakistan. Ant Financial will pay $184.5 million for the stake in TMB, according to the statement. Completion of the transaction will be subject to regulatory approvals in both countries. The partnership will bring together TMBs knowledge and local market presence with more than 20 million customers, and Ant Financials technology for payments and other financial services, to offer mobile-payment and inclusive financial services to individuals as well as small and micro-businesses in Pakistan, the statement said. The partnership is well in line with the expressed Telenor strategy of focusing our financial services efforts in emerging markets, Telenor Group CEO Sigve Brekke said. TMB operates Easypaisa Pakistans first mobile financial-services platform, launched in 2009 which is the largest branchless banking service in Pakistan in terms of agent network, active accounts and transaction value, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. TMB also provides microfinance and related financial services to Pakistans unbanked people, or those who dont have accounts with traditional banks. World Bank data show that 100 million Pakistanis are unbanked, accounting for 5% of the worlds unbanked population. TMB said that the rising smartphone penetration in that country is expected to quickly improve the financial service coverage for the unbanked population there. Under the partnership, Ant Financial will share its technology know-how with TMB to bring improved user experience on the Easypaisa mobile payment platform, as well as provide inclusive financial services to the unbanked and underbanked population in Pakistan, Ant Financial CEO Eric Jing said. Ant Financial is Chinas largest internet finance company, with a value of $60 billion as of its most recent funding round, in April 2016. In addition to operating Alipay, the company owns wealth management service Ant Fortune, the credit-scoring platform Zhima Credit, and one of Chinas earliest online-only banks, MyBank. Alipay has 520 million active users in China. The deal marks Ant Financials first investment in Pakistan as part of the companys efforts to strengthen its global presence. Over the past few year, Ant Financial has forged partnerships in Asia, Europe and the U.S. in a bid to connect Alipay with more customers and merchants globally. In Asia, Ant Financial has made major investments in local partners, including Delhi-based One97 Communications, which operates Indias leading online payment service, Paytm; and Thailands Ascend Money, an arm of the agriculture-to-telecom conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group, as well as firms in Indonesia and the Philippines. Alipay services have also been launched in Japan, U.S., Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and other countries. Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) Schooling is an inevitable and indelible part of everybody's life. Each one has a different perspective towards this. While some parents might feel that a child can learn in any school, some other parents have OCD and have to enrol their wards in the best of schools with the most pricey education. Among these extremist ideas, a balance is required for choosing a school that has the best curriculum yet charges reasonably. School life forms the foundation of a child's career and future. A good school could do wonders in their lives while a bad school could ruin them for life. Hence, it is important to take the right decision for this milestone. Like choosing the right course, choosing the right school also depends on a various factors based on your child's needs. Let's look at some of the parameters to evaluate before enrolment. Zurich Insurance Group is doubling down on plans to expand throughout Latin America. Weeks after agreeing to pay $409 million for the Latin American operations of Australian insurer QBE, the Swiss carrier announced it will grow the recently acquired Cover-More Group travel insurer/service provider business within several Latin American countries. The Swiss carrier said Cover-More has signed deals to acquire 19 legal entities in the traveler assistance space that operate in Latin America, particularly in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. Zurich said that the acquired businesses operate under the Travel Ace and Universal Assistance Brands, and now theyll form Cover-Mores Latin American hub. Plans call for continuing to use the Travel Ace and Universal Assistance brands. Financial terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed. This transaction gives us immediate access to new customers and scale across Latin America, which is among the fastest-growing travel insurance and assistance markets worldwide, Cover-More Chief Executive Officer Mike Emmett said in prepared remarks. It will also enable us to better support our customers traveling to Latin America. Zurich has focused heavily in recent months on expanding into emerging markets such as Latin America. It closed the deal to snatch up Cover-More for $551 million in April 2017, gaining a company with a global reach in areas including travel insurance, medical assistance and employee assistance. Zurichs plan to acquire QBEs Latin American operations will help it to become the top insurer in Argentina and build market share in other neighboring countries. The acquisition will be completed by the end of 2018, pending regulatory approvals. Source: Zurich Insurance Group/Cover-More Photo: The Canadian Press Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, left, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau The president of the Canadian Steel Producers Association says Canada may be off the hook for now from American steel and aluminum tariffs, but it is still at risk from a glut of foreign steel. Joseph Galimberti says Canada has to work very quickly to identify possible attempts to circumvent the U.S. tariffs by sneaking steel in through Canada and must be prepared to act to stop this. "We have been, and will continue to be, in steady communication with the government of Canada to ensure that no steel diversion is taking place as a result of the tariffs imposed by the United States," said Galimberti. President Donald Trump required Canada and Mexico to take steps to stop trans-shipments of foreign steel via their ports as one of the conditions for exempting them from the 25 per cent duty on steel and 10 per cent duty on aluminum that will apply to imports from every other country. Trump signed the proclamation on those tariffs last week and the exemption given Canada was a last-minute victory for the Canadian government. The weekend before the announcement, Ottawa was getting word that Trump was heavily leaning toward including Canada, largely because of concerns steel from China was coming into the U.S. from Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dispelled that notion in a phone call to the president on March 5, followed by numerous calls to business and congressional leaders including the heads of the both houses of Congress. Two days later, word trickled out that Canada and Mexico would both be given exemptions, pending the outcome of NAFTA talks. On Monday, Trudeau started a four-day tour of Canada's steel and aluminum towns with a stop at a Rio Tinto aluminum production facility in Quebec's Saguenay region. He is working to reassure anxious workers the government has and will continue to have their backs. At a news conference, he said Canada already has measures in place to prevent foreign countries, mostly China, from dumping steel into Canada, but he can and will do whatever else it takes to protect the industry. "This is something that we take very seriously, because it does come and directly impact on the great Canadian workers, the great Canadian industries that we count on," he said. "I'm happy to work with (the United States) to do even more to ensure that diversion or other ways of getting lower-cost material unfairly onto Canadian soil is prevented in every way we can." Photo: The Canadian Press Loblaw Companies Ltd. and Imperial Oil Ltd. have signed a deal that will allow PC Optimum members to earn points at more than 1,800 Esso gas stations starting this summer. The company says members will earn 10 points per litre on fuel as well as 10 points per dollar on eligible convenience store purchases and car wash services at Esso stations. Registered members may also receive targeted offers. The PC Optimum program was launched earlier this year when Loblaw brought together the PC Plus and Shoppers Optimum programs. The company faced some issues during the merger, with some members complaining online about troubles with the new app and points conversions. The PC Optimum program is already available at Mobil gas stations. Another penalty on the account! Not even a week had passed since the first appearance and the pawns had already... Phinma Corp begins imports from Vietnam ICR Newsroom By 13 March 2018 Philippine cement company Phinma Corp has recently imported 50,000t of cement, or approximately two million bags, from Vietnam with plans to import the same volume per quarter to a total of 200,000tpa as it breaks into the Philippines market. The Philippine cement market is expanding rapidly due to large government-funded infrastructure projects. Registered by Phinma Corp in September 2017, PhilCement aims to produce around 3Mta of cement. Phinma is headed by Eduardo Sahagun, formerly CEO of Holcim Philippines Inc. Published under Cemex is the first company to operate plants by remote control 13 March 2018 Cemex has announced that it is the first company in the industry to successfully operate plants by remote control. The companys monitoring and remote control system, Centro de Control Cemento (C3), operates in real time and tracks the live data of 14 cement plants, 25 kilns and 86 grinding mills in Mexico, alongside a facility in Colombia and another in the US. Cemex created the C3 to unify the control systems of all its cement plants to make real-time optimal decisions. From its central location in Monterrey, Mexico, the system monitors information about each stage of the production process, as well as the performance of equipment within each facility. This enables C3 operators to take corrective action in coordination with plant staff, to minimise any deviation from safety, environmental, efficiency and product quality targets, according to a press release. "Cemex applied the most modern technology to develop a system that marks a unique milestone in todays cement industry. The C3 is an excellent tool to promote safety in our operations and make our processes more efficient," said Edgar Angeles, operations vice president of Cemex Mexico. Application of the C3 system has already resulted in a 50 per cent reduction in operational incidents. It has also improved operating efficiency and reliability, alongside promoting best practice and shared knowledge. Published under A poll that the Church of England conducted for Mother's Day in the United Kingdom revealed that Britons prefer Princess Diana to the Virgin Mary as the "ideal mother." In the poll, the People's Princess landed the top spot at 5 percent, while Jesus Christ's mother made it to eighth place behind Michelle Obama and the Queen. Britons also ranked their own mothers (4 percent) as the most ideal mom after Princess Diana. The list also included the Duchess of Cambridge, Mother Teresa, Mary Poppins as well as Molly Weasley, the mom from "Harry Potter." The respondents also answered questions about things their mothers did that have made a significant impact in their lives. Most of the replies alluded to their moms serving as positive role models (7 percent) who taught them to value hard work (11 percent) and do the right thing (18 percent). Reverend Sandra Millar, who heads Church of England's life events, offered an analysis of the poll's findings. "It can feel like the pressure to do something material for them [children] is overwhelming but actually, in the long-term, when we look back at our parents, what we remember about our mums are those values [they taught]," Millar told Premier. Millar also said that the church sometimes fills the space in cases where devotees have lost a mom or cannot become moms to kids. The reverend also stated that she was glad many Brits felt that moms do more than cooking and cleaning. Over 2,000 Britons above the age of 18 participated in the survey from ComRes that was conducted from March 2 to March 4 in time for Mother's Day. In the U.K., Mothering Sunday is observed every fourth Sunday of Lent. In 2018, the day fell on March 11. The Church of England honored and celebrated mothers across churches and communities as families headed to hear Sunday Mass for Mother's Day. A Spanish website could find itself locked in a legal battle with the Vatican over the use of the latter's name, but InfoVaticana believes there are other reasons why it is being targeted in a potential lawsuit. The office of Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin reportedly sent InfoVaticana a demand letter to turn over the website's web domain. In a blog post, the site mentioned that the said letter claimed the Vatican had "exclusive property rights over the name of the physical center of the Catholic world," thus indicating that InfoVaticana did not have the right to use its name. However, Gabriel Ariza Rossy, the owner of InfoVaticana, told Church Militant that the request was actually a form of "political prosecution" in light of the fact that the website writes and exposes corruption in the Spanish Episcopal Conference. He further explained that there were other sites using the Vatican's name but had no affiliations to the Vatican itself and had never received similar requests from Parolin's office. Rossy said that their legal woes started after Cardinal Ricardo BlAzquez filed a complaint with the Apostolic Nuncio last year with regard to InfoVaticana. Parolin's office later on sought legal advice from law firm Baker & MacKenzie, which sent the demand letter. The website operator believed that the Spanish bishops did not want InfoVaticana poking into and questioning their activities. Rossy also stated that he had tried to compromise with the office of the Secretary of State to make it clear that his online information site was not affiliated with the Vatican but he was declined. Instead, the Vatican gave him six months to comply with its demand with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office. The blog site Vox Cantoris wrote that this was not the first time the Vatican had allegedly assaulted someone's freedom of speech, thought and expression. It said that the Vatican had also sued the blog "Protect the Pope" that Deacon Nick Donnelly ran. Vox Cantoris also received threats of a potential lawsuit when the story of a Basilian priest and a papal adviser was published. Local authorities have taken the citizenship and farmland of six Christian families in Laos, promising to reinstate them only when the 16 people give up their Christian faith, Voice of the Martyrs reports. In December, authorities and village party members confiscated the registration papers of the families, saying they would be returned if they renounced their faith. Next, they also took the deeds to their land. On May 7, when two Christian leaders attempted to intercede for the families with the vice president of the Patriotic Front, they were told that return of the registration papers and the land deeds was contingent on the families renouncing their faith. The families said, "We are willing to die rather than renounce our faith." Voice of the Martyrs is helping the believers with food and fuel. home World Iran forces Christian retreat center to shut down due to alleged ties with CIA A retreat center belonging to the Council of Assemblies of God (AoG) was reportedly ordered by the Iranian government to shut down on March 10, nearly three years after it was accused of having links with the CIA. Caretakers of the Sharon Retreat Centre have been served an evacuation notice on March 7 and were given until March 10 to remove all of their belongings before the property is handed over to the Executive Headquarters of Imam's Directive (EIKO). Advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide noted that EIKO, which is presided over by Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was created after the 1979 Revolution to oversee the confiscation of property belonging to supporters of the former regime. Iran's revolutionary court had ordered the confiscation of the retreat center on July 21, 2015, but the process has taken nearly three years to come into effect. In December 2016, the court maintained that the property was owned by an organization "funded by the US through the CIA spy agency to infiltrate the Islamic world, and particularly Iran, by conducting evangelistic activities." Mansour Borji from advocacy group Article 18 asserted that the closure of the retreat center "not only a takeover of a property by corrupt judiciary and Intelligence officials, but yet another move in an ongoing and systematic campaign by the Iranian state to uproot Protestant Christianity." "Labelling a long-standing and vibrant Church with national security charges for its rightful religious activities and accusing them of collusion with the CIA is indeed worrying. It should be a concern for anyone who is interested in safeguarding freedom of religion and belief in this country," Borji told World Watch Monitor. The AoG church in Iran, which was registered as a church and religious institution in 1973 and reinstated as a religious institution after the Islamic Revolution, is not organizationally affiliated with the AoG denomination in the U.S., according to CSW. Iranian authorities have repeatedly cited the former name of the Central AoG Church in Tehran, "Philadelphia," as evidence of its U.S. affiliation. However, the name supposedly alludes to the original Greek word in the New Testament, meaning "brotherly love." By linking the AoG to the CIA, the Iranian authorities have sought to facilitate the confiscation of church property, as well as the possible prosecution of church leaders on national security-related charges. In 2013, the authorities shut down the central church of the AoG churches in Iran and arrested its leader, Robert Asseriyan, who was then given the choice of either leaving the country or serving a long-term prison sentence. home World Mennonite agrees to testify in death penalty case after being jailed for refusing on religious grounds A Mennonite criminal defense investigator from Colorado has agreed to testify in a death penalty case after she was jailed for refusing to take the stand because she feared that her testimony could be used to help execute the defendant. Greta Lindecrantz, who opposes capital punishment because of her Mennonite faith, is now reportedly planning to take the stand because she believes that it might help save the life of Robert Ray, who was one of the defendants sentenced to death for a double killing in 2005. Court documents filed on Saturday have revealed that Ray's lawyers have said that Lindecrantz's refusal to testify is hurting Ray's appeal and putting his life at risk. "Based on this dramatic change in circumstance, she has concluded that her religious principles honoring human life now compel that she must testify," Lindecrantz's lawyer, Mari Newman, wrote in the document, as reported by the Edwardsville Intelligencer. Lindecrantz was sent to jail nearly two weeks ago after Arapahoe County District Judge Michelle Amico found her in contempt of court for declining to testify for prosecutors during an appeal of Ray's conviction and death sentence. Newman has filed a motion seeking the immediate release of Lindecrantz, who was part of Ray's original team that worked on finding things that might persuade jurors to vote against the death penalty. After she was jailed, Lindecrantz had repeatedly refused to answer the question in court about her work. At one point, she told the judge that she will not change her mind as she was led away by deputies back to jail. Newman had previously stated that Lindecrantz fell sick and has not been getting adequate care in jail. Ray and co-defendant Sir Mario Owens received the death sentence for the 2005 killings of Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancee, Vivian Wolfe. Attorneys representing Ray are now trying to overturn the 2009 conviction and death sentence by partly arguing that the defendant did not have an effective defense. Prosecutors, who have questioned Ray's original lawyers as part of the appeal proceedings, have subpoenaed Lindencrantz to testify to support their case that the defendant had good representation from his publicly-funded defense team. Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, whose office is seeking Lindecrantz's testimony, stated that the defendant's lawyers are the ones who brought up the issue about Lindecrantz's work on the case. "We want to put her on the stand so she can say what she did or didn't do in this case," Brauchler told Reuters. home World Thousands rally in Ireland to oppose repeal of abortion laws Thousands of pro-life advocates took to the streets across Ireland on Saturday to oppose the legalization of abortion as the country prepares to vote on a referendum on the issue in May. In Dublin, at least 10,000 protesters marched from Parnell Square to Merrion Square for the Rally for Life. Many held signs saying "Save Lives, Save the Eighth," "Repeal Kills Vote No" and "Keep Ireland Pro-Life." Ireland is expected to hold a referendum in May to determine whether to replace or retain the Eighth Amendment, which guarantees the right to life of the unborn child. The government has announced that it will begin drafting legislation based on the recommendations made by an all-party parliamentary committee that would allow abortions up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy without restrictions. Saturday's protest has attracted people from all over the country and some from overseas. An estimated 90,000 people have taken part in the march, where a number of different religious groups were represented, according to organizers. During the rally, pro-life advocates highlighted the rights of people with disabilities, noting that 90 percent of pregnancies diagnosed with Down Syndrome in Britain end in abortion. Those present at Merrion Square heard from a Down Syndrome activist who has previously addressed the U.N. on the issue. Spokesperson Niamh UA Bhriain noted that the protest was aimed at opposing abortion in Ireland, and added that the proposed legislation by the government would be even more liberal than in Britain. "For the next 11 weeks our message will be focused on ensuring that the Irish people vote no to this extreme abortion referendum," UA Bhriain said, according to RTE. While Ireland has been known to be a pro-life and a Catholic stronghold, abortion has become a divisive issue in recent decades as the country continues to face cultural changes and the Catholic church tries to recover from sex abuse scandals and other controversies. In January, two opinion polls have shown that over 50 percent of voters are in favor of a proposal to allow abortions up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy, with just under 30 percent opposed and others undecided. Pro-life advocates have complained about the supposed strong media bias in favor of loosening the country's abortion laws, but they also noted that the pro-choice movement may be overconfident. "We will win because of the hubris of the other side. Traditional Ireland has finally awoken," said Gerry McGeough, a 59-year-old member of the Catholic Irish nationalist group Ancient Order of Hibernians who had traveled from the Northern Ireland county of Tyrone with several busloads of activists. This Easter, Bible Society New Zealand (BSNZ) is giving away 100,000 copies of The Super Cool Story of Jesus. They want to tell the message of who Jesus is to children nationwide. This is a huge opportunity - one that could have a remarkable impact on thousands of Kiwi children in 2018. It is the chance to get the story of Jesus into the hands of children who may never have heard this story before, said BSNZ Programme Director Stephen Opie. The Super Cool Story of Jesus is a creative little child-friendly book. It tells the story of Jesuss life, including the Easter events, in playful, rhyming language with fun pictures. Award winning author Award-winning childrens author Joy Cowley says the illustrations in the book are stunning. She goes on to say,Its such a pleasure to see the story of Christ Jesus in a multi-cultural context, beautifully designed. These illustrations will appeal to children, enhancing a message of love and light. We hope that by getting a copy of The Super Cool Story of Jesus into childrens hands this Easter it will ignite a curiosity about Jesus, sparking further questions and leading them to the Bible. Imagine the difference this could make in their lives,said Stephen Opie. We pray this resource will help kiwi children understand the true meaning of Easter and that parents, families and friends will engage with passing it on to the next generation,he added. Parenting expert Parenting expert, co-founder of the Parenting Place and also founder of Faith4Families, Mary Grant says, Of all the ways we care for our children, it could be said that, for Christian parents, passing on our faith is the most important. We are the ones who can pass on the wonderful Jesus story and the truth about the God who does stuff. Not just by living it but by talking about it at every opportunity, and when our children are most receptive. BSNZ will also be working closely with partner organisations to get free copies of The Super Cool Story of Jesus to families, with a special focus on reaching families in less favourable circumstances. To order your free copy of the Super Cool Story of Jesus book go to www.biblesociety.org.nz/supercool The book is available both free to individuals or in bulk orders to churches for their Easter activities from the end of February 2018. Sarah Richards is the Communications Specialist with the Bible Society. "Ye shalt locate false teachers from online evidence or in person whilst they preacheth and drive public campaigns against them. Making sure everyone knows just how shocking they are, thou shalt pick at the teaching of others and bring to light their heretic ways. Attack their theology in any way it does not align with thine own personal theology. Ye are free to call them names, label them and destroy their ministries. This is pleasing to me." Said God, never. The internet is full of articles and videos of preachers and teachers. With the growth of online information and access, grows the online presence of trolls, haters, and those who believe it is their calling to discredit others based on their own personal interpretation of the Bible quoting "obvious verses" to back their case. Named and labelled I carried out my own 'false teacher' search. Included in one website, Brian Houston is accused of 'Pleasure Christianity'. He and his wife are labelled "unBiblical" as leaders because there were no married leaders serving together in the Bible. He is also listed because 'fun' is unbiblical. The same website named Oral Roberts, Benny Hinn, Bill Johnson and Kenneth Copeland. These men are labelled "Bottom of the Barrel A motley crew of demonic mockers". thepathoftruth.com The next website I found explains that Joel Osteen "is a pretty-boy philosopher who rarely teaches the Bible" and Rick Warren "teaches lukewarm, sour milk to his sycophantic parasites". freeworldfilmworks.com I also found many a website that labels CS Lewis an antichrist, pagan mythologist and heretic. Such kind words. In Biblical times, if it were available, Jesus, Peter and Paul would have been the subjects of many 'FALSE TEACHER EXPOSED!' websites. (With all probability the sites would have been managed and funded by Pharisees.) What is a false teacher? The Bible says; they hold you back from the truth by teaching the Law, their intentions are not good, they have evil teaching and shameful immorality, they are greedy, are like unthinking animals and they brag about themselves and lure those free from sin right back into it. Freedom In Galatians 5 Paul speaks about freedom, "Freedom is what we haveChrist has set us free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again" (verse 1). He then speaks about the Law in verse 4, "Those of you who try to be put right with God by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ. You are outside God's grace." That's a big statement right there. One we easily read and pass by. God's Grace is a gift, so in effect we are saying no to a gift to be distracted by the Law. So, what then is the Law? Paul says, "For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the lawI stopped trying to meet all its requirementsso that I might live for God." (Galatians 2 verse 19) "For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die." (Galatians 2 verse 21) In Paul's time the false teachers were hindering the Christians from obeying the truth of the gospel with all their talk about joining the Jewish people and keeping the law. All those who take the church off on a tangent, away from the clear direction given by the central truth of the gospel, are like these false teachers. Anything we need to DO in order to; get closer, go higher, strive further and push in through our own strength and determination to get something spiritually that has already been freely given to us through Christ, is essentially, 'Law'. My brush with the Law I gasp in my heart thinking that we are missing the real freedom Jesus has for us. The true message of freedom. In my life I have been burdened with the Law of false teachers. You've probably heard the teaching. "Your Christian walk will always be a battle." "You will always 'struggle' with sin." "You constantly need to cleanse, purge, seek forgiveness and plead with God to take away your sin." "You need to dig deeper with God." "You need to satisfy this 5 point plan sermon to get closer to God." "The next step for you is learning to speak in tongues, now go and practise in the shower." "Apologise for what Great Uncle Harold did in 1937 and you will be free." When I hear these things now, I feel like I should go pick up a bucket of Law and drag it round with me, living a suffering burdensome Christian life of pleading with God not to hate me and allowing me just one step closer to Him. When I heard those things back then? Eventually a spiritual depression set in. It makes you tired. People who teach the Law are the false teachers. And sadly, many don't even realise they are teaching it. It generally sounds 'good'. Incorrectly accusing Can we all live alongside one another with the central truth of the gospel as our one uniting cord tying us together? We feel the need to incorrectly label those who are preaching the central truth of the gospel, while overlooking the Law Teaching which is so prevalent in the church. Bishop TD Jakes says, "We are taught in our society that if we disagree within a movement, we leave ... we sever." "I believe that until we bridge the gap between our thinking, and humble both sides and say 'we're both attempting to describe a God we love, that we serve and that we have not seen, and that we are viewing Him through the context of the Scriptures but that with a glass darkly' why should I fall out and hate and throw names at you when all that I know and understand, be it very Orthodox, is still through a glass darkly?" (christianpost.com) Respect We should be discussing, sharing, challenging thinking (hopefully with respect) and being open to changing our own view or understanding. This is the organic nature of Scripture and God and our lives intertwined. Our personal theology is continually moulding and forming. If we look back on our lives, we can see that some of our thoughts and understandings of the past differs quite a lot with todays. Realising this about ourselves may give us some insight and grace knowing that everyone is on this moulding journey. Belinda Croft has been writing for Press Service International since 2010. She lives in Melbourne with her husband Russell and their three children. Her passion for understanding the things of God in simple ways, social justice and news issues influence her writing style. Belinda Croft's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/belinda-croft.html On Friday, the Greek Orthodox Church called for an emergency meeting to discuss a major reform to be launched. The move comes after the Church was rocked by overwhelming scandals on sex and finance over the past two weeks, and has been triggered by increasing pressure from the public and the government. The 102-member Holy Synod, governing body of the Church, meets in Athens from Friday to Saturday. Yesterday, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church worldwide, Archbishop Christodoulos, made an apology to the whole nation regarding all the embarrassing misbehaviours of priests and senior clerics that have continually been unveiled. "I humbly ask for forgiveness from the people and the clerics who, in their majority, honour...the cassock they wear," Christodoulos said in his opening statement. He called the crisis "particularly grave", while some others described the situation as a religious "tsunami". The entire story began on 3th February when a priest, Iakovos Giosakis was suspended after he was charged by a prosecutor with smuggling antiquities. Giosakis is also under investigation facing criminal charges for bribery and money laundering. Additionally the next day, Metropolitan Bishop Panteleimon of Attica was suspended for six months over allegations of embezzlement. He was also accused of broadcasting wiretaps of sexually explicit telephone conversations involving senior clergy by private TV stations. Meanwhile, the Church is investigating four other clerics, including a 91-year-old metropolitan bishop, after a photo published in an Athens daily allegedly showed him nude in bed with a young woman. All scandals have seriously damaged the reputation of the Church as well as the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos. Whilst there is a close bondage between the Orthodox and social, political and cultural background of Greece, the public is very disappointed with the Church. A poll published last week in an Athens newspapers showed Christodoulos' popularity has dropped drastically from 68 percent in May to 43 percent this month. Even though the scandals have clearly hurt the Church, the crisis becomes a new opportunity for the Church to evaluate and improve its administration. "We are witnessing a crisis in the church," Culture Minister Fani Palli-Petralia said on Thursday after a meeting with the prime minister, "I believe the church will come out of this crisis stronger. This is a demand by all of us." On Saturday, a series of measures proposed by the archbishop, including greater involvement of civil overseers in the church's financial dealings and "ethical misconduct", are going to be approved by the Holy Synod. Seminary students may also lose their exemption from military service which is an obligation for nearly every Greek man. Furthermore, a call for reformation of the Church-State relationship has been renewed due to the outrage amongst the public and the desperate demand for a sweeping change of Church leadership. Some law-makers suggested stripping the Orthodox Church of its status as the official state religion despite the fact that this would require a constitutional change. Religious commentator say that this proposal is almost unthinkable because historically the church and the politics in Greece are intertwined. According to a poll published on Sunday by Kappa Research, almost 65 percent of the public support such a reform. The integrity of the Greek Orthodox Church is obviously very low at this moment. On Pope Francis's 5th anniversary in the role, Benedict XVI lavishes praise on his successor The retired Pope Benedict XVI has said there is an 'inner continuity' between his pontificate and that of Pope Francis, and praised his successor as a 'man of profound philosophical and theological formation'. The comments, aimed at contradicting conventional wisdom and misunderstandings about the two pontificates, came in a letter published by Mgr Dario Edoardo Vigano, prefect of the Secretariat for Communication, as the Vatican released a series of books on the Theology of Pope Francis, according to the Catholic Herald. The paper reported that Benedict XVI wrote the letter in thanks for having received an advance copy of the series. He said that it 'contradicts the foolish prejudice of those who see Pope Francis as someone who lacks a particular theological and philosophical formation, while I would have been solely a theorist of theology with little understanding of the concrete lives of today's Christian.' The series is edited by Don Roberto Repole, the president of the Italian Theological Association. Benedict XVI added: 'The small volumes show rightly that Pope Francis is a man of profound philosophical and theological formation. And therefore help to see the inner continuity between the two pontificates, even with all the differences in style and temperament.' News of the letter comes on the fifth anniversary of the election of Pope Francis. 'Punish a Muslim': Fourth Muslim Labour MP sent suspicious package with letter advocating violence Four Muslim Labour MPs have been sent suspicious packages over the last 48 hours with copies of a 'Punish a Muslim' letter that calls for violence against Muslims. Rupa Huq, the MP for Ealing Central and Acton, was the latest to receive the letter today, after copies were reportedly opened by staff for Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) and Mohammad Yasin (Bedford). A fourth package was sent to the Manchester Gorton MP, Afzal Khan, but was not opened, according to the Guardian. A member of Huq's staff was today taken to hospital as a precaution after opening the letter, which Huq told the Guardian contained a 'sticky substance' that the police had described as 'low-level noxious'. This came after two people were taken to hospital yesterday, also as a precaution when a package leaking a suspicious liquid was sent to Yasin's office. Police are now investigating the 'Punish a Muslim' letter, which has been distributed across the country and details a list of violent acts to be performed against Muslims. A group which monitors anti-Muslim hate crimes, Tell Mama UK, said that it had received reports of people in Bradford, Leicester, London, Cardiff and Sheffield receiving the letters. Huq told the Guardian that she had been assured that the substance was not harmful. But, she said: 'It is horrible though, it's really very frightening. It is to put the frighteners on us but we won't be cowed. I'm sure I won't be the last and I'm sure this is part of a pattern of targeting Muslim MPs. Among my colleagues, people have shown support but they are outraged.' All four of the packages sent to MPs have been found in the Norman Shaw north building in the parliamentary estate, which is linked by a walkway to Portcullis House. A parliamentary spokesman confirmed that four packages had been sent to the building in recent days and that police were investigating the latest package. The spokesman added: 'This is further to the two items investigated yesterday, both of which were found to be non-harmful. The police are investigating the content of the letters to identify any potential link.' A Metropolitan police spokesman said: 'Police were called at 9.49am on Tuesday, March 13 to reports of a suspicious package at Norman Shaw Buildings, Victoria Embankment, Westminster. Specialist officers have been called and the package will be assessed.' 'Sister Wives' star Maddie Brown goes through a long, intense labor in new episode Maddie Brown revealed the difficult time she went through while giving birth to her first child in the latest episode of the TLC reality television series "Sister Wives." Even though her labor was long and painful, Maddie chose to give birth at home without an epidural so she could be surrounded by her family. The March 11 episode of "Sister Wives" showed the excitement surrounding the birth of Maddie's child. Not only was the baby going to be Maddie's first, but he would also be her parents' first grandchild. However, even though the family was excited, they were also rattled by and sympathetic to the long and difficult labor that Maddie had to go through. "Sister Wives" follows the story of a polygamist family in Utah, headed by patriarch Kody Brown. He has four wives: Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn. Maddie also wanted to have a water birth at home like Robyn, Kody's fourth wife, who had her youngest child at home. Maddie thought that since she wanted to give birth at home, a water birth might make the pain manageable. Thus, Maddie began to sit in a tub in the bathroom as her contractions got closer and closer together. However, it seemed that Maddie had a rough time giving birth. She was in labor for 72 hours, which had her family worried. Kody in particular was concerned that Maddie's pain and discomfort might get worse as she got closer and closer to active labor. Maddie's mother Janelle also brought in Christine, one of Kody's other wives, who had been like a mother figure to Maddie during her childhood. Janelle said that Maddie and her other children's close relationship with Christine never bothered her. Christine, according to Janelle, was there for the children during a time in their lives when Janelle was busy at work. Thus, she never begrudged her children a close relationship with Christine. Christine, meanwhile, expressed her sympathies for Maddie, whom Christine said looked very exhausted. The former also expressed how difficult it was for her that Maddie took such good care of herself during her pregnancy, only to experience such a long and exhausting labor. As active labor began, it seemed that things did indeed get worse for Maddie. Caleb said that she was in a lot of pain, and Kody also expressed that he suddenly realized the danger his daughter was in. However, everything did turn out fine in the end. The show's episodes are filmed almost a year before they are aired, and its fans have probably already seen on social media that Maddie gave birth to her son, Axel, on May 20 of last year. "Sister Wives" airs Sundays at 8 p.m. EST on TLC. Antenna: The man who invited a horse to tea Lord Berners legendary teases also included dying doves pink and dressing his dogs in pearl collars, which helped to make his home with contents offered in our Interiors sale on 12 April a haven of fun for artists, writers, musicians and socialites, as Meredith Etherington-Smith reveals Between the wars Faringdon House, the Georgian home of Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson Lord Berners in Oxfordshire in the south of England, became a restful weekend perch for a colourful and accomplished group of friends. Among their number were artists such as Salvador Dali; avant-garde musicians Igor Stravinsky, Constant Lambert and William Walton, who dedicated Belshazzars Feast to Lord Berners; writer H.G. Wells; intellectuals such as Gertrude Stein (whom Berners described as the least well-dressed woman in the world); the couturier Elsa Schiaparelli; society photographer Cecil Beaton; and Bright Young Things including Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell and the Mitford sisters. What these people and others came to enjoy was the special atmosphere of fun created by its owner. Easter 1939 at Faringdon. From left: Frederick Ashton, Robert Heber-Percy, Lady Mary Lygon, Constant Lambert, Lord Berners, Prince Vsevolod of Russia A composer, writer, painter and life-long eccentric, Berners was certainly no dilettante. He composed music for ballets such as The Triumph of Neptune (1926), which was based on a story by Sacheverell Sitwell, produced by Diaghilev and choreographed by Balanchine, and the score for the 1947 film Nicholas Nickleby. He painted surprisingly well (in the manner of Corot), and wrote novels, of which The Girls of Radcliff Hall, written under the pseudonym Adela Quebec, depicted a St. Trinians-style establishment populated by schoolgirls who were thinly disguised portraits of friends such as Beaton and the stage designer Oliver Messel. Beaton was so horrified that he bought up all the limited copies and burned them. A George II giltwood mirror in the manner of Matthias Lock, circa 1745-50. Estimate: 30,000-50,000. This lot is offered in the Interiors sale on 12 April at Christie's London English school, 20th century. A view of the Drawing Room at Faringdon House. Estimate: 2,000-3,000. This lot is offered in the Interiors sale on 12 April at Christie's London The contents of Faringdon, to be sold in the Interiors sale in London on 12 April, consist of conventional early to mid-Georgian furniture and mirrors, and 16th and 17th-century British portraits. The eccentric and witty additions to the grand decor revealed the curious conjunction of things that caught Berners fancy, marking him out as a collector in the grand eccentric English tradition of Horace Walpole and William Beckford. His taste veered from the surreal, such as a pair of Regency waxwork figures, to Venetian blackamoor torcheres, to the turquoise Burmantofts and Minton shells that were so ubiquitous in chic interiors of the time. A matched pair of Bermantofts faience turquoise-glazed shell jardinieres, late 19th century. Together with another pair by Minton. Estimate: 1,000-1,500. This lot is offered in the Interiors sale on 12 April at Christie's London Berners was especially friendly with the Mitford sisters, particularly Diana. Yet it was Nancy Mitford who penned the finest account of his eccentricities, teases and kindnesses at Faringdon: in The Pursuit of Love, Berners appears as Lord Merlin, a charming aesthete with numerous friends. Berners indulged in many notable teases of Faringdons stolid neighbours, too. These ranged from doves dyed in dainty pastels to the tinkling chandelier in the porch, from dogs wearing pearl collars to an invitation to tea for Moti, Penelope Betjemans Arab stallion. It was a summons that came with a request: namely, that the horse sit for a Berners portrait in his drawing room. Moti, Penelope Betjemans Arab stallion, arrives at Faringdon for tea and his portrait sitting On the terrace steps at Faringdon, 1936. From left: Elsa Schiaparelli, Lord Berners, Baroness Budberg, H.G. Wells, Robert Heber-Percy and Tom Driberg On another occasion the poet Sir John Betjeman, a close friend of Berners, fondly remembered him taking Schiaparelli, then at the height of her fame, to a Bring and Buy sale at the local vicarage, and pressing her to buy something from the second-hand clothing stall. Sybil Colefax, the notorious social climber and collector of celebrities, was the target for another memorable tease. I wonder if by any chance you are free to dine tomorrow night? Berners wrote in a letter to her. It is only a tiny party for Winston [Churchill] and GBS [George Bernard Shaw]. There will be no one else except for Toscanini and myself. Berners made both his name and the address on the envelope illegible, driving Colefax into a frenzy at missing the dinner. Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, Lord Berners (British, 1883-1950). One of two portraits of Robert Heber-Percy (1911-1987). This lot and three other portraits of Robert Heber-Percy (1911-1987) are offered in the Interiors sale on 12 April at Christie's London A cream-painted and glass-mounted four-poster bed, mid 20th-century. Estimate: 3,000-5,000. This lot is offered in the Interiors sale on 12 April at Christie's London An Austin-based company is looking to change the homebuying market by making houses more universally accessible. According to its website, ICON debuted the first permitted 3D printed home at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin on March 12, 2018, built using a prototype of a mobile printer that will have the ability to produce "a single-story, 600 to 800 square foot homes in under 24 hours for less than $4,000." Andrew Liveris is leaving DowDuPont. after a career spanning four decades, clearing the way for Jim Fitterling to take the reins of Dow when its spun off as an independent company next year. Liveris, 63, will relinquish the chairmans title on April 1 and leave the the board as previously planned on July 1, DowDuPont said in a statement Monday. Fitterling was appointed to be chief executive officer of the materials company, which will reclaim the Dow name when DowDuPont splits up into three publicly traded businesses based around its materials sciences, agriculture and specialty products divisions. Fitterling has been chief operating officer of the unit since 2015 and led the merger with DuPont, which closed last September. DowDuPont, the nation's biggest chemical company headquartered in Michigan and Delaware, has substantial petrochemicals operations in the Houston area, including plants in Deer Park, Seadrift, La Porte and Freeport. The company has invested $6 billion in expanding its facilities along the Gulf Coast in recent years. The Freeport complex, one of the first major ethylene plants in the region, began operating last year with a 1.5 million-ton annual production capacity. The company eventually plans to boost its capacity by a quarter, which would make it the largest ethylene production plant in the world. Like Liveris, Fitterling has spent his career at Dow since being hired in 1984. In the past decade, Fitterling has led the packaging and specialty plastics business, overseen the carve-out of Dows styrene and chlorine businesses and steered a $6 billion construction project on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Fitterling earned an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Missouri. The 56-year-old is the first openly gay executive to be named CEO of a major chemical company. Dow under Liveris has been one of the most vocal proponents of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in corporate America, particularly in opposing state laws seen as hostile to LGBT employees. In the absence of federal action on gay rights, Dow has teamed up with companies such as Salesforce.com, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook to lobby against the laws and also support legal positions that protect LGBT rights. Fitterling has been a leader of that effort at Dow. After nearly three decades at the company, he came out broadly in 2014. In an interview last week, the executive acknowledged that hed probably be the first openly gay CEO in the chemical industry if he got the job. Building an inclusive and equal environment is good for business, he said on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. We think it is great for innovation, it creates the right teamwork and the right dynamic that we want to have for hiring, Fitterling said. And we also think it is the right thing to do. Business today I think is setting a good role model example for how you do that. So being open about that and being public about that I think is important. Liveris had considered leaving last year amid activist pressure as DowDuPont looked to reshape management to prepare for a breakup. Now is the right time for me to effect my previously announced plan to transition and then to retire, Liveris said in the statement. Jeff Fettig, who is co-lead independent director of DowDuPont, will take over as executive chairman. Federal officials will be warning international travelers in Houston today about the risks of buying counterfeit goods overseas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials will showcase some of the most common knockoffs confiscated from travelers returning from spring break trips overseas. The display, held in Terminal D at George Bush Intercontinental Airport Tuesday afternoon, is part of a national educational campaign launched last year to bring awareness to intellectual property rights.. Customs, immigration and border patrol agents seized more than 34,000 shipments of counterfeit goods in 2017, an 8 percent increase from the previous year. If these goods had been genuine, they would have totaled more than $1.2 billion, according to federal officials. RELATED: U.S. Customs and Border Protection warns consumers about counterfeit products The counterfeit goods on display at IAH today include luxury apparel and accessories, consumer electronics, footwear, watches and jewelry, and handbags and wallets. They were all seized in Houston. It is illegal to purchase counterfeit goods and bring them back to the U.S. Doing so could result in a fine, said Yolanda Choates, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman. Counterfeit goods not only hurt U.S. retailers and manufacturers by violating their intellectual property rights, but can also pose safety and security hazards to consumers. Counterfeit batteries can catch fire, knockoff makeup can contain lead and off-brand electronic accessories can contain viruses. Moreover, buying fake goods can fund criminal enterprises, Choates said. Sometimes, international travelers may not realize they've bought a fake item until it is confiscated by customs officials when they return to the U.S., Choates said. "It's heartbreaking when that happens," Choates said. "We're not looking to penalize people. We're looking to educate them. We want the public to be an informed consumer." WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was replacing Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, just over a year into the former Exxon Mobil CEO's tenure. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job!," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!" Speaking with reporters at the White House after the announcement, Trump said he and Tillerson, "disagreed on things." "When you look at the Iran deal; I think it's terrible, I guess he thought it was OK," Trump said before boarding the Marine One helicopter. "We were not thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process." The news follows what had been a difficult tenure for Tillerson, who fought to keep pace with a president who liked to conduct foreign affairs through his Twitter account, and struggled to get key positions within the State Department filled. During a press conference in Washington Tuesday, Tillerson said Trump had called him from Air Force One a little after 12 p.m., hours after the president's tweet he was being replaced. "What is most important is to ensure an orderly and smooth transition during a time the country continues to face significant policy and national security challenges," Tillerson said. RELATED STORY: Tilleron's transition into politics breaks down Speculation on when Tillerson would leave has been a topic within Wasington political circles for months. Last year NBC News reported Tillerson called Trump a "moron" after a meeting at the Pentagon and had to be talked out of quitting by other members of the administration. After news leaked out, Tillerson went before cameras and said he had never considered quitting and would serve, "as long as the president feels I can be useful" - though never denied calling the president a moron. There were conflicting reports Tuesday on how Tillerson was fired. State Department officials told the Associated Press that he was not given advance notice of his firing. But White House officials told Bloomberg News Chief of Staff John Kelly had called Tillerson on Friday to warn he was going to be fired. Richard Fisher, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and a friend of Tillerson's, said Tuesday the president's public firing of Tillerson through Twitter was "Trump to the nth degree." "Treating someone of this distinction and magnitude in this manner is certainly distasteful and disrespectful," he said. "I wish the president had a different sense of style." Before joining the Trump administration last year, Tillerson spent more than a decade leading Exxon - a position that seemed the culmination of a decades-long career at the Texas-based oil giant. His nomination by Trump followed recommendations by former secretaries of state Bob Gates and Condoleezza Rice and seemed to assuage some nerves about how a president with no experience in public office would handle foreign affairs. As the CEO of Exxon, one the world's biggest companies, Tillerson had extensive experience negotiation with foreign leaders, particularly in trouble spots, such as the Middle East, and in Russia, where President Vladmir Putin had awarded him a state honor. "He falls squarely in the classic American realpolitick model of foreign policy," John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said last year. Tillerson had been a board member of the Washington think tank. EDITORIAL: Tillerson's Foggy Bottom Breakdown But once in office, Tillerson struggled. His pick to be No. 2 at the State Department, Elliot Abrams, who had served in the Reagan and Bush administrations, was critical of Trump during the presidential campaign and was ultimately rejected by the administration. His statements were frequently undercut by Trump. When Tillerson suggested diplomatic approaches to the North Korea's nuclear threat, Trump slapped them down, calling them a waste of time. Trump's decision to meet with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was reportedly made without consulting Tillerson. "Tillerson was used to a world where he had more control than one has as secretary of state," said Jon Alterman, a state department official under former president George W. Bush and now vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "You just try to nudge the ball one way or another, but you're not in control." Tillerson favored the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by former president Barack Obama, while Trump harshly criticized and threatened to leave it. Tillerson also supported U.S. participation in the Paris climate accords; Trump withdrew the country from the international agreement. Drawing on his experience at one of the world's largest oil companies, Tillerson set out to overhaul the State Department. But his efforts at streamlining were met with resistance from career diplomats, many of whom chose to leave the department. In a media briefing last year, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert acknowledged a morale issue but defended Tillerson, saying he was collaborating with veteran members of the department. "That's why I say, you know, 'Folks, hang in there,' " she said. "We have a lot of work to be done. Please don't give up." Congressional reaction to Tillerson's sacking was largely muted Tuesday, with several top Republicans, including some from Texas, limiting their remarks to praising his integrity and wishing him well. "I wish him the very best in his next endeavor and welcome him home to Texas," said Rep. Pete Olson, R-Pearland. Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, told reporters he was surprised by Tillerson's firing, saying the White House gave him no advance notice. He added that he found out by news alerts on his phone. "Rex Tillerson is a great American and I'm sorry to see him go," Cornyn said. Chronicle Staff Writer Kevin Diaz contributed to this report. Managing attorney Jess Bailey of Bailey Law Firm PLLC was presented with the ICC Pinnacle Award at the Intercontinental Chamber of Commerce Gala on Saturday, Feb. 9, for her support and commitment to the ICC. Bailey Law Firm has received the Better Business Bureau Award of Excellence 2016 and 2017, the Intercontinental Chamber of Commerce Pinnacle Award 2012 and is Three Time Nominee for Lone Star College System Business of the Year Award. Jess Bailey was also presented with the Intercontinental Chamber of Commerce President's Award in 2016 and named by Houston Luxury Magazine as one of their Dynamic Women of Houston in both 2016 and 2017. A transactional law firm servicing the Houston area as well as clients internationally, Bailey Law Firm PLLC has been in business since 2010. For additional information and services, visit www.bailey-law-firm.com. HCC Northwest president named to business board The Texas Association of Business, the voice for business in the state of Texas, has appointed Houston Community College, Northwest College President Zachary Hodges, Ed.D., to its board. The TAB represents more than 4,000 members with 200 local chamber partners and $8 billion annually in business. "Dr. Hodges is joining the TAB board during a pivotal time, as we become laser focused in key areas including competitiveness, in which community colleges play a huge part in Texas," said TAB Chair A.J. Rodriguez. "His wealth of knowledge and expertise in higher education will be invaluable." "A well trained, skilled workforce in Texas is a primary mission for the state's community colleges," said Hodges. "Workforce development equals economic development, which equals community development. I look forward to helping the TAB as it works to protect and enhance the Texas business climate and strengthen the state's economy." METRO offers small businesses a map to success Representatives from dozens of small businesses have a leg up on the competition thanks to METRO's "Meet the Buyers" event. The free seminar held today gave business owners a chance to hold face-to-face meetings with the agency's procurement decision makers. It is part of Metro's award-winning Small Business Enterprise Program. Metro Board Chair Carrin Patman expressed the Board's deep commitment to partnering with small businesses. "I want to thank you for the enormous contributions small businesses make to the region and particularly to Metro. You are also job creators and that is invaluable for all of us," said Patman. Over the last three years, Metro has awarded $136 million to small and disadvantaged businesses (SBE/DBE). "We were the first agency in the Houston-Galveston region to set a 35 percent small business goal on eligible contracts. We're proud to say we consistently meet or exceed our goal," Patman added. Metro President & CEO Tom Lambert explained how everyone at the agency is responsible for encouraging small business partnerships. "Our culture is to embrace the opportunity to work with small businesses as we go forward," Lambert said. Heartmade Art Market takes over Main Street Square On Saturday, April 7, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., the Houston Downtown Management District (Downtown District) partners with Tracy Carlson Photography and Crush Design Co. to present the third annual Heartmade Art Market at Main Street Square, located in the heart of Downtown Houston. The event benefits Hoof Prints and Heart Beats, a local organization that offers free equine therapy to children and adults with special needs. This outdoor urban market features the work of over 55 local artists, crafters and creatives. In addition to shopping, enjoy music from A Fistful of Soul, food trucks, interactive elements and much more. For more information, please visit www.downtownhouston.org or www.heartmadehouston.org. Mobile eyelash app 'Eyelashr' now in Houston Now available on iOS and Android, Eyelashr, the new app offers on-demand eyelash extension services for customers in the greater Houston area. With the Eyelashr app, customers can schedule a skilled lash stylist to travel to their home, office or hotel for eyelash extensions. Eyelashr CEO and co-founder Maher Daoudi served as the co-owner, co-founder and former CEO of the Houston-based global brand, Xtreme Lashes LLC. The University of St. Thomas is pleased to announce that Dr. Janet McCollum, Director of Research & Assistant Professor, has been named a winner in Blackboard's Exemplary Course Program (ECP). The awards program recognizes faculty and course designers from schools, colleges, and universities around the world who develop engaging and innovative courses that represent the very best in technology and learning. Dr. McCollum won for her course "Educational Research Design and Data Analysis." The course demonstrated excellence in four areas: Course Design: the elements of instructional design, such as its structure, learning objectives, and instructional strategies; Interaction and Collaboration: the level of engagement offered by the course and the level of student interaction and collaboration; Assessment: the evaluation of student work toward the achievement of learning outcomes and the quality and type of student assessments and Learner Support: the resources made available to students, which may be accessible within or external to the course environment. For 17 years, the ECP has recognized instructors and course designers whose courses demonstrate best practices. Since its founding, thousands of instructors, teachers, and designers have used the ECP to evaluate and improve their courses with recognized best practices. To be considered for the honor, applicants must be a user of the Blackboard Learn or Moodlerooms learning management systems. Submitted courses are evaluated by other course developers, instructional designers, teachers, and professors using the ECP Rubric. "I'm proud to recognize Dr. McCollum for her commitment to creating engaging, innovative courses that maximize learning outcomes," said Bill Ballhaus, Chairman, CEO and President of Blackboard. "We look forward to continuing to partner with the University of St. Thomas and other members of the educational community to drive student success." Dr. McCollum will be honored alongside other outstanding recipients on the Blackboard website as well as in the Blackboard Community, a platform where the largest organized network of Blackboard users connect, collaborate and learn from their peers. To learn more about the Exemplary Course Program, visit https://community.blackboard.com/community/ecp. The University of St. Thomas was founded in 1947 by the Basilian Fathers as an independent, Catholic, coeducational university in Houston, TX. Situated in the city's Museum District, the University enrolls 3,237 total students with an undergraduate population of 1,864. For more information, visit www.stthom.edu. Sumner Manufacturing is partnering with Houston Community College to provide job training for 144 new and existing workers using a Skills Development Fund Grant from the Texas Workforce Commission. The $208,493 grant will benefit workers in the Workforce Solutions Gulf Coast area. Friendswood police arrested four women on various drug and forgery charges during two separate traffic stops last week. On March 9 at about 3:36 p.m., an officer pulled over a green Ford in the 17400 block of Fife. A second vehicle, a white Buick, followed the police officer into the parking lot and stopped a few feet away, police said in a press release. A second officer approached the Buick and asked its driver, identified as 28-year-old Jade Grepares of Houston, to get out of the car. MORE FROM FRIENDSWOOD: Trailers, golf carts stolen during early morning crime spree Grepares allegedly refused and tried to drive away. A K-9 unit was called to the scene, and a subsequent search turned up the muscle relaxer carisoprodol, the sedative alprazolam, ecstasy, marijuana and methamphetamine, police said. Grepares also allegedly had counterfeit money in her wallet - four $10 bills, three $5 bills and three $100 bills. She was arrested and charged with forgery, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and possession of a controlled substance. Her bond was set at $30,000. In the green Ford, officers allegedly found 30-year-old Ashley Lyn Schmidt to be in possession of two counterfeit $5 bills. Schmidt also had a suspended driver's license, police said. Schmidt was charged with forgery, and her bond was set at $5,000. Meth possession charges On March 10 at about 6:38 p.m., police stopped a vehicle that allegedly had illegal window tint in the 3400 block of FM 528. The officer said the driver, Brittny Searle, 30, of San Leon, appeared nervous and could not find her driver's license. The front seat passenger, Gabrielle Searle, 27, of San Leon, was tightly gripping a backpack, police said. Gabrielle Searle was wanted in Galveston County on a warrant for theft of a firearm. The officer said Gabrielle Searle got out of the car and took off running across FM 528 amid heavy traffic. She was stopped and detained. A search of Searle's backpack revealed nine Xanax pills, marijuana and 3.3 grams of methamphetamine, police said. The officer also allegedly found 1.3 grams of methamphetamine in Brittny Searle's purse. Gabrielle Searle was charged with possession of a controlled substance and evading arrest. Her bond was set at $21,000. Brittny Searle was charged with possession of a controlled substance, and her bond was set at $5,000. A third person in the car was not detained. Dear Toni, I have your 2018 Medicare Survival Guide Advanced edition, but I still am confused on an issue. My husband retired from an oil company with full benefits. We both turned 65 last year and will now be going on Medicare. His company has automatically enrolled us in their Med Supplement plan. I understand that this is designed to provide coverage to supplement expenses covered under Medicare Part A, B and Part D. We are currently paying $152 a month for this plan. However, I just received a letter from Social Security stating that due to "IRMAA" they are deducting a monthly adjustment amount of $348.30 from my Feb. SS check and a monthly deduction of $54.20. Why are they making me pay for the Prescription Drug coverage when I never signed up for it, and I am already paying for the coverage through my husband's company? I am dumbfounded over what is happening! Can you clarify this for me, as it seems Social Security cannot? Thank you. Nancy C from Lake Charles, Louisiana. Hello Nancy, From what you are explaining to me about your husband's retiree insurance plan that covers Medicare Parts A, B, and D, I would conclude that this could be a Medicare Advantage Plan and not a Medicare Supplement. A Medicare Advantage plan is a different type of Medicare plan from a Medicare Supplement. Many are confused when they discover that they are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan and that their physician or healthcare facility is not accepting the Advantage plan that they are enrolled in. Over the last few years many changes are being seen regarding company retirement plans during a Toni Says Medicare consultation. Since you have received an IRMAA letter from Social Security, I would imagine that your husband will be getting one also, depending on when his Medicare begins. The IRMAA amount which is billed to you is based on your last income tax filed in 2016, and if your income is over $85,000 as an individual or $170,000 as a couple, you will pay more. The $54.20 IRMAA amount which you are paying is for the income level over $133,501 for an individual or $267,000 for a couple. This Part C and D income Medicare Rule went into effect in 2011, regarding Medicare Prescription drug plans and this may have affected you and your Social Security check. The IRMAA rule is explained on page 101 of the Medicare Survival Guide Advanced edition with the "Life Changing Event" form found in Chapter 8 or online at www.medicare.gov. If you have to pay an extra amount and you disagree because you are not making the income you had before you retired, you can appeal because of a life change (i.e., a life changing event such as death of a spouse or retirement/loss of a job that lowers your income) and the Life Changing Event form may be what you and your husband will need. Remember, always get copies of the paperwork Social Security is going to process for your Medicare and Social Security issues. You will always want back up in case you may have to go back and argue your case. Social Security Educational Workshop: March 20, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Fort Bend Chamber, 445 Commerce Green Blvd., Sugar Land. RSVP as space is limited 832-519-8664 or info@tonisays.com. Toni King, author of the 2018 Medicare Survival Guide Advanced edition, which puts Medicare in people terms, is on sale at www.tonisays.com. If you have any questions regarding this article or any Medicare issues reach out to Toni at 1-832-519-Toni (8664) or email at info@tonisays.com. The Raven Grill, a restaurant near the Museum District and Montrose neighborhoods, is celebrating its 20th anniversary on March 24, and is looking ahead indefinitely by striving to be as sustainable as possible. Owners Rob and Sara Cromie, have been in the restaurant business for as long as they can remember. Prior to opening The Raven Grill in 1998, both Sara and Rob worked and managed extensively in bars and restaurants from Texas to Atlanta, Georgia. "It is virtually all Sara and I have ever done. Both of us started by working at local places in junior high," Rob Cromie said. Cromie describes The Raven Grill as neighborhood casual, "anywhere from shorts and t-shirts to people going to the opera downtown." The menu consists of mostly American food, with a nod towards Mexican dishes. "For our anniversary, we are going to spruce everything up, and redo the menu, which we do every couple of years. We are really focusing a lot more on the sustainable product end of it. I know that is kind of a catch phrase now with restaurants but I am trying to take it a step further," Cromie said. Cromie intends on doing that by having his own beehives and chickens, kept out on property he owns about five miles away from his house. He also works with VerdeGreens, a local hydroponic farm, planting the kinds of foods he intends to use at the restaurant, such as tomatoes, lettuce and herbs. "This has been a fight since day one. You would think it is easy to get good tomatoes, but its not. They are being gassed to be red. They've got color but they've got no flavor. I was just thinking that something had to change. I have to do it on a large scale. The sustainability is, I feel, crucial to cutting down the carbon footprint. Everything is a few miles away, so there is zero carbon footprint," Cromie said. He is also working with an Texas A&M aquaculture professor to farm locally produced white shrimp in a professional zero waste facility. "Seafood is our second largest import, and the stuff we are importing, only two percent is inspected. So farming in seafood has to happen, and that is why I started looking into it more and more," Cromie said. Farming shrimp also helps with the wild shrimping 80 percent bycatch rate. The Raven Grill will debut a new smaller menu, in addition to their current one, which will feature the dishes made by the local products, and it will explain where the products came from. Cromie hopes that this menu will allow them to get feedback from the people and know if they think sustainable dishes are important or not. "The thing that most people don't know about most restaurants is they purchase things premade. And we make everything from scratch. Our gravy, our salad dressing, our bread is all from scratch. We are in the one percent in Houston restaurants, because for most places, it's just not feasible. You just can't win on the cost of goods and labor," Cromie said. Cromie will use the honey from the bee hives in house cocktails and salad dressings. The eggs will be featured in a selection of brunch items, and the herbs and the vegetables will be used in a wide range of dishes as well. "It is a little easier to get very specific about what I serve," Cromie said. The Raven Grill is located at 1916 Bissonnet St., Houston. For more information, visit www.theravengrill.com. For many visually impaired kids, sharing in the fun of a typical Easter egg hunt is difficult or impossible. But the Deer Park Lions Club and Friends of Laura organization have planned a March 25 hunt designed especially for those age 6 months to 13 with vision problems and their siblings. The eggs emit a beep to help the kids find them, and volunteers are on hand to help if need be. The event was started shortly after Darla Haygood's visually impaired niece, Laura Pilkington, died at age 5 in 1999. "Laura was legally blind and she attended the Houston (beeping Easter egg hunt) and thoroughly loved it," Haygood said. "She just had a great time and there were so many kids there that were able to participate in something they hadn't been able to participate in before. So after she passed away, a teacher that worked with her suggested we start the event in Southeast Harris County as a way to honor her memory and let other visually impaired kids experience the happiness she experienced with the egg hunt she got to do." The Beeping Easter Egg Hunt has changed venues from year to year depending on space and availability, but has remained in the Clear Lake-Pasadena-Deer Park area. The eggs are specially made by volunteers. "We drill holes in the eggs - there's about 150 of them - and put a batter with a beeper from Radio Shack inside each of them," Haygood said. "Right before the hunt, our volunteers go and turn each of them on and hide them. Then they stand around the area to help kids who might need some extra help finding them." After they find the eggs, the kids bring their haul to the Easter Bunny, who gives them a basket full of candy and a gift in return. "We let them hunt the eggs over and over again," said Haygood, "and we separate the age groups so you don't have an excited 12-year-old accidentally mowing over a 3-year-old." More Information wANT TO GO? What: Beeping Easter Egg Hunt for visually impaired children When: 2-4 p.m. Sunday, March 25 Where: Jimmy Burke Activity Center, 500 W. 13th St., Deer Park, TX 77536 Price: Free Details: Traditional egg hunts for siblings without visual impairments will also occur. Preregister by emailing Lisa Wright at Lwright0905@icloud.com or call 281-235-7215. See More Collapse Local high school students get involved by dressing up as the famous bunny. "We tell them, 'OK, make sure you don't talk.' They're going to be feeling you to get an idea of what you look like, and if you talk they'll know you're not the bunny,' " Haygood said. The group also hosts a simultaneous traditional egg hunt for siblings who don't have visual impairments. "We wanted to make sure their brothers and sisters weren't just standing around watching their siblings have fun," Haygood said. The event also provides free food, a petting zoo and bounce houses. Those interested in involvement should preregister by contacting Lisa Wright either by phone at 281-235-7215 or email at Lwright@0905@icloud.com When the weather warms up, it's not just humans that emerge to enjoy the outdoors. Wild animals also come out to bask in the elevated temperatures, and there is no shortage of them in the diverse ecosystem of Houston. Bats are one of those species, and as the area heads into springtime, it's very likely that interaction between humans and bats will become more prevalent. People should understand that bats are important to our ecosystem, and it's equally important to leave them alone, said Diana Foss, urban wildlife technical guidance biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Bats seem to have a negative connotation in the collective mind of the masses, Foss said. From the image of bats flying aggressively into people's hair to the fear of contracting rabies, she said that more than anything, bats want to be left alone to hunt insects. "I'm not sure exactly where this negative image came from, other than pictures people have taken of bats that were already frightened or injured, so their faces don't look at those moments like they normally look," she said. "I think it might be because people might not see them that often, even though they live all over the Houston area, so when someone is out at night and sees a bat flying around, it can seem foreign to them." People often see bats flying at night in what seems to be erratic patterns, but Foss said that the flight paths are actually extremely well controlled and not erratic at all. Bats fly with the equivalent of hands, she explained. The majority of their wings are comprise of what amounts to human fingers, protected by a thin membrane. "Think of all the dexterity a human hand has," she said. "Their wings are designed to turn on a dime to hunt insects insects that we can't even see. They are extremely advanced." Rabies are another concern for people. Some reports, like one recently published on the La Porte Police Department's Facebook page claim that "...bats are the number one carrier of rabies in the State of Texas. Some statistics show that six percent of the bat population is positive for rabies and that 90 percent of human exposures are from bats." Bats in the Houston area and where they can be found: Mexican free-tailed bat - roosts in bridges, bat houses, buildings, caves, etc. Big brown bat - roosts in trees, bridges, bat houses, buildings Evening bat - roosts in trees, bridges, bat houses, buildings Tri-colored bat - roosts in trees, bridges, bat houses, buildings Eastern red bat - roosts in trees Northern yellow bat - roosts in trees amongst Spanish moss & in dead palm fronds Seminole bat - roosts in trees Silver-haired bat - roosts in trees Hoary bat - roosts in trees Rafinesque's big-eared bat - roosts in hollow trees in bottomland hardwood sections of northern & eastern part of our region; threatened state species Southeastern myotis - same habitat as Rafinesque's See More Collapse But these statistics, Foss said, are hard to quantify and often extremely skewed. "It's really tough to determine what the percent of rabies is in the overall population of bats," she said. "Just as it would be tough to determine the overall percentage of rabies in raccoons or skunks. There's no way to test the entire population we don't even know where all of these animals are. Some of them live in large colonies the Mexican Freetail bats but others are solitary and live in trees right outside your house and you probably don't even know it. In order to get an accurate percentage, we'd have to test every bat and the only way you can test is by euthanizing the animal." Another problem with those type of statistics, she said, is the way they're gathered. "When people quote those numbers, they're relying on looking at the number of bats that have been turned into the Texas Department of State Health Services," she said. "Those bats that are turned in are tested and the department reports how many were negative and how many were positive for things like rabies." The problem, she said, is that not only are those bats representative of a random sample of the local bat population, but because the total bat population isn't known, so determining any percentage would just be guesswork. "Those were bats that were easily picked up and accessible, which means they were sick or injured," she said. "If a bat is letting someone capture it, there is something wrong with it." Contrary to what some may think, she said, bats are incredibly important and a necessary part of the ecosystem as pollinators, seed dispersers and pest control. "A study on Mexican Freetail bat feeding up in the hill country was done several years ago," Foss said, "and they found that after the bats would fly out at sunset and eat whatever insects they could, but the researchers found that around midnight, the bats would fly to extremely high elevation nearly 10,000 feet and no one knew why. So they sent (monitoring equipment) up there and heard feeding calls." The bats were eating specific moths that hatched in Mexico around sundown and caught the breeze that carried them into the hill country around midnight each night. These moths specifically lay eggs on cotton, corn and other important agriculture, she said, which could virtually destroy the crop if pesticides weren't used to stop them. "Because these moths are being eaten every night by the Mexican Freetail bats, it's estimated that it saves famers in those counties between $741,000 to $1.6 million per year it's a significant amount," she said. The paradigm on bats, she said, might hopefully be shifting, especially given that many homeowners are installing bat houses in hopes of drawing bats to their properties to help control pests especially in mosquito-prone areas like south east Harris County. Plans to build bat houses that work for bats found in the Houston area can be found at www.batcon.org. And while Foss said Texas Parks and Wildlife support the construction of bat houses on private property, she stresses that there are a few things to avoid and a few things to keep in mind. "It's important to build the right kind of bat house," she said. "There are some poorly designed houses on the market that use mesh inside or don't have the right kind of vent holes. And avoid the rocket box plans you might find while they do work, they don't work for any of the bats found in the Houston area so it would just be wasting your time." She said placement of the house is also important. "Bats like it hot," she said, "so those houses need at least six hours of direct sunlight per day don't put them up in a tree. They also need to be 10 to 12 feet off the ground because bats need drop space to leave the roost. If you're constructing the house on a wooden pole, it's important to put aluminum sheeting or something similar around the base to prevent raccoons from climbing inside." In fact, Texas Parks and Wildlife is so supportive of bat houses that they're currently in the planning stages of installing large bat houses near bayous in the area. Eventually, the organization will begin fundraising for the effort. "It's a way to give bats an alternative to bridges," she said, "especially in areas where the bayous or bridges have recently flooded." If a resident finds a bat, it is recommended that the bat be left alone, as it could simply be grounded and learning to fly. Anyone who thinks they might have been bitten by a bat should seek medical attention immediately. A Spring man posted bond Sunday after he was arrested last week and charged with possession of child pornography, according to the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office. Surachai Boontem, 67, was charged after an investigation sparked by a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. His arraignment is set for Friday. According to court documents, the organization advised the Constable's Office about a year ago that a video had been uploaded to Boontem's Flickr account that showed a young girl exposing herself. A warrant was issued last year and a and a deputy armed with a search warrant arrived at Boontem's home March 1 .It was unclear what had happened between the time of the first warrant and the search of his home. READ MORE: Channelview man charged with soliciting 14-year-old boy for sex Boontem told the investigator he gets child porn photos and videos from friends in Thailand using an application called LINE, according to court records. He said he saves the images using Dropbox and has accessed them on several devices. On Boontem's computer, investigators found several more video files, all featuring girls between the ages of 6 and 10 engaging in sexual acts. Boontem has no history of criminal activity in Harris County. He was released from the Harris County Jail Sunday after posting a $20,000 bond. His bond conditions require that he have no contact with anyone under the age of 17 and stay away from places where children gather such as schools and day care centers. He also is forbidden to have or use a phone, computer or other device with internet access. She said she watched a report from Cambodia in 2008, where a man wanted sex from the youngest girl he could find, and knew she wanted to do something to help survivors of sex trafficking. Dawn Manske, Made for Freedom founder and CEO, said during her 10 years of teaching English in China, she had seen children who had been trafficked into the big cities because their families were so poor, but the report tore her heart apart. Later in 2011, a friend gave her some fisherman pants from Thailand as a wedding gift, and people started asking her about them. "The first day of our honeymoon, we're getting on a plane, and a TSA agent comments on my pants, 'Where did you get those pants?' Then a flight attendant comments, 'Those are really cool. Where did you get them?'" Manske said. "For three months and even now people still ask me about my pants. I had a woman chase me through a parking lot to ask me about them. It was just crazy." She said she wondered if the unique pants could be the basis for a business that would also help people. In October 2011, Manske, who lives in St. Louis, decided to start a social enterprise that would help women who had escaped sex trafficking as well as those from marginalized situations. She founded Made for Freedom, which today sells handcrafted items made in about 15 centers across the world. Manske showcased some of Made for Freedom's products at a pop-up shop at the 23rd Annual Texas Campus Crime Stoppers Conference Feb. 26-28 at the Omni Houston Hotel at Westside. Manske said she made some design changes to the fisherman pants and renamed them CREABELI pants, which comes from "creating a beautiful life." She reached out to a friend who lived in Thailand, asking if she had connections where women were learning to sew. The first CREABELI pants arrived in the States in 2014. Now the pants and other items like T-shirts, jewelry, accessories, purses, bags and yoga products are available at www.madeforfreedom.com. Manske also sells them at conferences and special events. She said she heard an interview once where an American survivor of sex trafficking basically said, "We don't need your pity. We need jobs." Manske said individuals that get arrested for prostitution in the United States, whether they were trafficked into it or not, often have trouble finding employment afterward because of their criminal records and that the situation makes them more vulnerable to being trafficked again. Many people recognize trafficking as a problem, she said, but lack the direction to combat it. "We all know that human trafficking is a huge issue," Manske said. "It's the fastest growing illegal industry, and a lot of people want to do something, but they don't know what to do. Through purchasing Made for Freedom products, you can be part of the solution." Supply Chain Manager Tara Nolley said she got involved with Made for Freedom because she wanted to be a part of solution. "I heard about Made for Freedom and its vision at my church. I joined because I wanted to do something about sex trafficking. I wasn't in a situation where I could help women directly, but I could support Made for Freedom," Nolley said. Made for Freedom partners with a center in St. Louis that offers at-risk youth the opportunity to learn how to screen-print T-shirts. The young men print designs on shirts that are made in another center in India, and the shirts are then sold. Manske said some of her favorite products are the professional purses. She met with a woman named Tuey in Chiang Mai, Thailand, who had already been making purses in very bright tribal prints. Together the two women went to the local market, and Manske found a more neutral fabric that she said would be better suited for western professional women. Tuey refused to pay the prices at the market for leather handles, so she learned the skill of making them instead. Now, the purses are made at the center in Chiang Mai and are sold in two sizes and multiple colors. One of the great things about the Made for Freedom products, Manske said, is how her customers get to tell others about the mission as they compliment the items and ask where they got them. Manske said Made for Freedom has been approved for a third Kiva loan. Kiva is an international nonprofit, which is a way for investors to lend as little as $25 to borrowers to help them start or grow a business. The loan will be for $25,000, which is the largest available amount available. She said she plans to use the money get another order of CREABELI pants, to do further marketing and to hire an employee, who will help with outreach and coordinate the Join the Fight program. Join the Fight is a initiative that encourages people to get involved with the enterprise's mission through several ways. Students can serve as campus ambassadors. People can host DEEP fashion events. The Dignified Employment Empowers & Protects events educate attendees and let them shop. Volunteers can sometimes help with doing research and making phone calls. Retailers can also get wholesale accounts, so they can begin selling the Made for Freedom products. Through the Made for Freedom Foundation, the enterprise's nonprofit venture, Manske said she hopes to create an awareness about exploitation. "We're going to be doing impact conversations [through Facebook Live], and that is really very education-based, helping people understand what exploitation looks like," Manske said. Nolley said sex trafficking is a "terrible crime" that society should be actively trying to fight. "Slavery is illegal in most of the world, but illegal slavery continues," she said. "Slavery still exists, and it is still evil. It deprives people of their human rights. It denies that they are people, created in God's image. We should all be working to end it." For more information about Made for Freedom or to shop its products, visit www.madeforfreedom.com. The sexual harassment lawsuit filed against the owner of Shipley Do-Nuts this month is the latest in an ongoing legal fight between the doughnut maker and other former workers over an alleged fraud scheme. Three women claim Lawrence Shipley III routinely groped them and used racial slurs for Hispanics in a lawsuit filed in Harris County district court earlier this month. He has flatly denied those allegations, and says the women are retaliating against his company after it fired a former plant manager for allegedly steering more than $1 million worth of contracts to distribution companies he owned. READ ALSO: Shipley Do-Nuts owner 'regularly' groped employees, used racial slurs, lawsuit states Shipley sued Julian Garcia, the plant manager, for the alleged fraud scheme in September. "These people were employed and cared for by my family for over 20 years," Lawrence Shipley wrote last week. "What they are doing now is nothing more than hateful retaliation for becoming corrupt, entitled and self-serving." Murphy Klasing, who is representing Shipley Do-Nuts, said he was unsure of exactly what roles Esmeralda Sanchez, Martha Garcia and Elizabeth Peralta played in Julian Garcia's alleged scheme. READ ALSO: Shipley Do-Nuts expanding into Oklahoma EDITORIAL: Shipley needs to shape up or risk losing status as Houston favorite The three women were employed as housekeepers or for clerical work, and are not publicly listed as owners or partial owners in the 12 companies listed as defendants in Shipley Do-Nuts' lawsuit against Julian Garcia. An attorney for the women, Karla Evans Epperson, declined to comment on the litigation against Julian Garcia, but said several of her clients are related to him. Also fired in late 2016 was Juan Sanchez, the husband of Esmeralda Sanchez and a former warehouse worker who Shipley Do-Nuts has accused of setting up his own distribution company with a freight box truck that he bought from the company. They started this sort of competing trucking business right under the nose of the company, Klasing said. "Hilariously, when we shut them down... all the franchises quit using them, and so they sued." Juan Sanchez, however, maintains in court documents that Shipley Do-Nuts was fully aware of his business, with his employers going as far as letting him park the truck on company property. A month after his firing, he filed a lawsuit against Shipley Do-Nuts for defaming what he says is his legitimate business. He also joined the three women in a federal lawsuit filed against the company last April for allegedly failing to pay overtime. Previous suits The overtime suit is consistent with others filed against Shipley Do-Nuts in recent years. So too are the allegations of racial slurs and groping, though previous lawsuits have usually cited actions by managers at the companys Houston plant, rather than against Lawrence Shipley specifically. In one lawsuit that the company settled in 2008, 15 workers said they were forced to endure inhumane and egregious conduct by plant managers. They claimed managers threatened workers with guns and said things such as killing a wetback is like killing a dog and if you kill a wetback, no one cares. The suit also accused managers of, among other things, forcing workers to clean used vibrators and dildos, and throwing out applications submitted by African Americans, who were referred to by the N-word. The manager at the heart of that suit hasnt worked at the plant since 2008, Lawrence Shipley said. One of the company's attorneys said last week that its dangerous to believe the three women simply because of Shipley Do-Nuts history of abuses and legal troubles. I think the history of Shipleys in Houston, the number of people its employed over the years, and the success of the company and the longevity of those employee speaks much more than (the most recent claims), Klasing said. Robert Downen covers crime for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter or email him at robert.downen@chron.com. SWEETWATER Now in its 61st year, the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup has thrived while others have faded, despite being anathema to biologists and animal rights advocates. The snake roundup attracts a reported 30,000 visitors who want to get up close and personal to a deadly pit viper. Some are appalled, other are fascinated at an event which includes the bloody public slaughter of thousands of Western Diamondbacks for their skins and other parts. Except for the very gory part, the worlds largest roundup somewhat resembles a Texas county fair with pit vipers instead of livestock, and snake handlers replacing ranch kids. RELATED: Miss Texas, Margana Woods gets into snake pit, skins rattlesnake because why not Theres cotton candy and turkey legs, beauty queens and evening dances, cookouts and eating contests, a gun and knife show and plenty of souvenirs. For three days, the Nolan County Coliseum, normally used for rodeos and horse shows, is dedicated to all things rattlesnake. We get visitors from Australia, Japan, China, Germany, and all over Europe. And a lot of foreign media comes, said Rob McCann, 47, the Jaycees spokesman for the event. The big question is, are these snakes fake? Then they ask, Are you sewing their mouths shut? That would be cruel, he added. McCann said you almost have to be born here to understand the roundup. Its something uniquely West Texas. I grew up with it as a kid. We got in free if we skinned snakes. I know all these guys who handled snakes, and they taught us how to hunt snakes at an early age, he said. Go here to read more about the this years rattlesnake roundup. The mother of a 12-year-old Mississippi child said he killed himself after being bullied by his classmates. Andrew Leach left a note before hanging himself in his family's outdoor garage last week, the 6th grader's mom, Cheryl Hudson, told WREG. Leach's father said his son was struggling with his sexual orientation. When Leach told others he thought he may be bisexual, it "amped up" the bullying, his father said. "Kids were telling him, 'We're gonna put hands on you. You're not going to make it out of this bathroom.' Things of that nature," his father said. PHOTOS: Conroe students put on 'Walking Dead' style makeup to teach life-saving lesson According to Leach's mother, a group of the boy's classmates would "go around calling him fat, ugly and worthless." Figures from Stopbullying.gov show that 28 percent of U.S. students between grades 6-12 experience bullying. Of those, only 20 to 30 percent notify adults about the harassment. More Information Mississippi 6th grader commits suicide after being bullied for sexual orientation See More Collapse A GoFundMe page has been opened in order to help pay for Leach's memorial. See other victims of bullying that made the news in past years. Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday voted unanimously to buy the shuttered Riverside General Hospital property in Houstons Third Ward and revive it as a mental health facility. An approximately $5.3 million grant from the nonprofit Houston Endowment Inc. is expected to help finance the purchase of the property at 3204 Ennis Street. The hospital Houstons first nonprofit hospital for black patients was plagued in its final years with financial and legal troubles before shutting its doors and ending up in bankruptcy proceedings. The revival of the former hospital could help stabilize access to health care in Third Ward, which has a critical need for community-based services. This month, the nearby Central Care community clinics network lost federal funding that will likely cause the reduction of primary care and specialty services in the area. READ: Central Care clinics lose grant funding in federal court ruling A shortage of mental health beds has also caused backups in transferring inmates from the Harris County jail for treatment. The main thing is the hospital is going to be re-opened, said attorney Jay Dale, who is representing Riverside in the bankruptcy proceedings. Thats the big deal right there. Dale said proceeds from the sale would help pay back Riversides creditors. Riversides historic flagship campus in Third Ward opened in 1927 to treat black patients. The health care center was known as Houston Negro Hospital until 1961. In later years, the hospital became one of the states largest providers of substance abuse and mental health treatment with a network of four campuses across the city. READ: Troubled Riverside hospital tries to shake the past In 2012, federal agents descended on the hospitals main campus and seized records. By 2014, Riverside General Hospital was crippled by scandal and mismanagement. A federal health care prosecution uncovered a $160 million Medicare billing scam at Riverside that ensnared a dozen hospital officials. Former CEO Earnest Gibson III and three others, including his son, Earnest Gibson IV, were found guilty at trial in 2014. A FEMA audit released in September 2015 determined that Riverside officials mismanaged a $32 million Hurricane Ike recovery grant by using taxpayer funds for gift cards, general operations and other expenses not associated with storm repairs. A three-member committee of conservators who took control of the hospital in April 2014 also failed to stop the abuse, the audit found. READ: Audit: Riverside misused half of $32 million Ike recovery grant The former CEO, now 73, is serving 45 years. His right-hand man, Mohammad Khan, is serving 40. Earnest Gibson IV is serving a 20-year sentence and Regina Askew, who rose from a case worker position to become an in-house hospital auditor, is doing 12 years. Once a bright spot in a struggling neighborhood, the headquarters was closed in April 2015. The other three locations are also closed. Dale, the attorney, credited the nonprofit Houston Endowment Inc. for helping finance the potential purchase of the hospital. A Houston Endowment representative declined to provide details Monday as the sale was not final. At this point in negotiations, we are unable to comment on specifics regarding Riverside General Hospital, other than to say that we hope Houston Endowment can play a role in returning this asset to the community - both Third Ward and the larger community, Catherine Butsch Villarreal, director of communications, said in an email. We are working with community stakeholders on the best way to do so. The purchase would need approval from the federal bankruptcy judge. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday. A Houston Public Works analysis of homes inundated by Hurricane Harvey in the citys floodplains says 84 percent of the structures would have been spared if they had been built to the more stringent standards Mayor Sylvester Turner plans to put to a City Council vote later this month. The data was distributed to council members for the first time Friday (see update below), six weeks after Turner outlined his proposal and roughly a week after the end of the citys announced period for public feedback. Public Works spokeswoman Alanna Reed said staff still were gathering data when the proposal was first announced, adding that efforts to verify its accuracy continued through Monday, when the department released updated figures that differed slightly from those released Friday. This data, theres a lot of little details to it, there are a lot of variables, she said. They just want to make sure, as I do, that its the most accurate data thats out there. Of the 31,822 flooded single-family homes Public Works examined, an estimated 48 percent of them would not have flooded during Harvey if all of them had been built to the citys current elevation standard, which was set in 2006. EDITORIAL: Fight flooding now! That rule requires that new or redeveloped homes sit one foot above the projected water level in a 100-year flood (also known as a storm that has a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year). Public Works also ran scenarios based on the larger 500-year floodplain and the depth of floodwaters during a 500-year storm, which has a 0.2 percent chance of flooding in any given year. If the homes Harvey flooded had been elevated to the projected water level in a 500-year storm, 56 percent would have been spared, the report states. Make them a foot higher than that, and 72 percent would not have flooded. Placing the homes two feet above the 500-year flood level -- the standard Turner is proposing -- would have saved 84 percent of the homes. Going even higher -- to the 500-year flood level plus three feet -- would have spared 93 percent of the homes analyzed. UPDATE: The data was forwarded for distribution to the council on Friday but, due to a miscommunication, was not actually sent. Council members were to receive the updated data in final form Tuesday evening. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) upgrades are not for the faint of heart, but facilitating two such transitions in successive years while also outsourcing ERP in a hybrid cloud model is a bold undertaking. Sloan Valve CIO Tom Coleman is tackling these challenges to better position the plumbing products manufacturer for growth. 112-year-old Sloan makes toilets, sinks, faucets, soap dispensers and other such equipment for restaurants, hospitals and other commercial enterprises. Recent growth has required Sloan to upgrade its computing infrastructure, but the company has elected not to expand its corporate data center, located in its Franklin Park, Ill., headquarters. The hybrid cloud model will better enable Sloan to implement new financial software and connect it to critical business functions running in public clouds as SaaS applications, including applications for sales, customer relationship management (CRM), field services and other business processes, Coleman says. The move will also reduce Sloan's need to manage servers, databases, software upgrades, backup and redundancy systems and other resources required to support nine manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Mexico and China. Coleman also won't have to dip into his budget for new infrastructure to keep pace with the company's growth. The cloud is an increasingly common destination for companies pivoting to support digital business needs. Businesses across every industry are offloading computing tasks to a variety of third-party hosts, often in combinations of public and private cloud systems. The hybrid cloud market could top $85 billion by 2019, according to MarketsandMarkets. ERP, SaaS pave road for IT modernization Sloan hired Coleman in 2000 to improve business processes for its SAP ERP implementation. During his tenure, Coleman has upgraded SAP several times to keep pace with newer versions. But Coleman, like many CIOs attracted to the advantages of renting software via the cloud, has adopted several SAP public cloud services, including SuccessFactors for human capital management, and Hybris cloud solutions for CRM and field service. A move to SAP's Hybris Commerce suite is also in the offing. By Anthony Dina In todays world, the power of data analytics is everywhere. From agriculture to healthcare, from shopping to dating, from the vehicles we drive to the way we do business, our experiences are increasingly shaped by data analytics. This is true even when it comes to whisky tasting, although in this case the analytics process is driven by our senses and our reasoning rather than sophisticated algorithms. This is a topic that is close to my heart, given that Im a director of data analytics who moonlights as a whiskey sommelier. I often have occasion to reflect on the amazing parallels between the principles of data analytics and the process of tasting whisky. With that thought in mind, lets look at 10 of the ways in which data analytics and whiskey tasting share common ground. Lets take a step back and see how we got here. Back in the 1980s, when data warehouse vendors like Teradata provided the ability to pool data, business owners asked even more demanding questions. Then SAS and SPSS, whose origin owes to government and academic interests, developed tools that allowed for "what will happen" questions and not just "what happened." Fast forward to now. Fueled by math smarts and entrepreneurial spirit, we now expect Amazon to recommend books when we shop or Uber to send strangers with an empty seat to our address. Doubt what I'm talking about? Ask Siri or Alexa. Back to whiskey. By 1954, the U.S. saw the number of distilleries collapse into four companies. Courage and curiosity brought back independent distillation following the rise of microbreweries in the 1970s. Pioneer Tito Beveridge planted the craft distillery flag in Texas in 1997 after he observed the first seedlings in Kentucky and Tennessee. What followed was a wave of craft distilleries with shoots emerging in California, Texas, New York, Colorado and Washington. It's now a multi-billion business with 27.4 percent growth. Amplifying this trend, cocktails popularized by shows like Mad Men or House of Cards put whiskey in our collective consciousness. We should no longer expect only wine to come in flights either. We can skip our way through whiskeys too. We arrived at the new normal: whiskey tours, bourbon runs and the rise of The Whiskey Sommelier. Whiskey tastings now pop up like daisies in a sun-drenched field. Whiskey tasting is an active sport involving all five senses and your brain. Now lets loop back to data analytics and look at the threads that tie these two worlds together. In particular, lets look at 10 reasons why data analytics and whiskey tasting share common ground. Deductive reasoning When online retailers look for patterns in clickstream data, they engage a practice known as deductive reasoning. I see this and I see that. Therefore this other thing is highly correlated. Ask people at Walmart why they stock strawberry Pop-Tarts in the front of the store before a hurricane. They will tell you it was because they saw a pattern. Same is true for experiencing whiskey. An active whiskey drinker analyzes what she experiences. Does she note a familiar herb like heather in all of the Speyside single malts? She is looking to establish a premise AFTER collecting data. She is not making a grand statement like all Speyside single malts have heather after tasting just one. Inferring generalities from specifics then running experiments to prove the theory is inductive reasoning. Feature detection Data analytics pursues feature detection to find what will predict an outcome. Features are like column headers in a spreadsheet. Lenders inspect aspects of home mortgage applications to see what attribute or combination of attributes will shine a light on those who are worthy. This process is not unlike whiskey tasting. Consider tasting wheels. They are just circular spreadsheets. Each spirit can be ranked in intensity to those specific flavors. Those features originate from grain selection, fermentation, distillation, barrel type and aging. These are puzzle pieces that whiskey lovers adore assembling in their minds. They are getting to know the whiskey like characters in a novel. Classification One of the short cuts to dealing with large populations is to bucketize them into groups. The Boomer, Gen-Xer and Millennial labels are nothing more than a classification exercise based on birth years. We make generalizations about each groups interests. Consider that Red Bull has the Millennials in their cross hairs while Metamucil aims at the gray hairs. This classification technique works well with whiskey comparisons too. Bourbon by law needs to have 51 percent corn. So in a blind test comparing spirits from different grains, *look* for the candy corn aroma. Its a signature to this class of whiskey. Propensity Propensity is a fancy term to describe what might likely happen. Its how data analytics deal with the unknown. We see a drop in the price of oil and the propensity for Houstonians to leave the family cell phone plan rises. The same principle underpins whiskey when it comes to food pairing. Chicken piccata, an Italian dish served with a lemon and caper sauce, is likely to go well with a Rye. Why? Because the rye grain has lemon on the nose. So the propensity for the match is high. Iteration Data analytics professionals, just like master distillers, like to experiment before they lock down on a data model. They have ideas and tweak as they go. Internet properties like Facebook play with the shade of blue to see which gets the most clicks. So why not expect that with whiskey? Whiskey blenders like Compass Box continue to push the envelope for their blended malts. They were famously cornered by the Scottish Whiskey Association for a rather unconventional aging process in the original recipe of Spice Tree. Establishing a baseline (supervised learning) We know what is normal for blood pressure because doctors have measured this vital sign for years. More than that, they have correlated both positive and negative outcomes to the data. They know a patient is high risk because of the histories of hundreds of thousands of patients. The role of data analytics is to determine what is "normal" based on a given data set. However, normal becomes useful when we know the outcome of a certain event too. In the land of data analytics, when we establish a baseline with known outcomes and ask algorithms to pick out things that predict the future, we are engaged in supervised learning. The act of building a baseline for whiskey tasting comes from personal experience. Blind tasting after blind tasting helps the taster single out the single malts from the blends. A corn mashbill from rye or barley. Secondary casking versus single. The more a whiskey taster experiences, the bigger the sample set, the broader the foundation, the more the taster knows. This foundational knowledge helps whiskey tourists know when they have left the paved road and are launched on an adventure. Anomaly detection Anomalies get a bad rap. That is until you understand that all parents want their kids to be normal, but never average. Being above average earns gold medals on the downhill and early acceptance to that hard-to-get-into college. This is not normal. Seeking anomalies is the job of talent scouts. It is also core to data analytics because its something from which we learn. It might be the use of a product the designer never expected. Ask the Pfizer about its original intent for Viagra. The world of whiskey tasting presents a similar opportunity. Greenspot Irish Whiskey has green apple all over it. Westland Single Malt tastes like chocolate. And Hudson Four Grain has a barnyard quality to it. You can almost hear the sheep. When you hang notes in the air like Pavarotti, you get noticed. Anomaly detection is a different kind of appreciation. Whiskey aficionados aim for this. Normalization Eighty percent of a data scientist's time is spent wrangling data filling in the missing elements in a table so the columns and rows are ready to be analyzed. It is hard to draw conclusions when the artifacts are missing. And this same rigor is pursed by the whiskey trade. Evaluating whiskey must be done if and only if the spirits are served in the same way and the same time. We know that wine oxidizes in the glass. An angry glass of cabernet becomes approachable after an hour once it breaths. Time also plays into whiskey, except oxygen is not the factor. When alcohol evaporates from the glass precious olfactory volatiles escape with them. A whiskey freshly poured might be feisty at five minutes and friendly at 50. So it's important that we treat data and whiskey with the same level of consistency: same glass shape, same pour size, same time out of the bottle. Enrichment Business data only gets better when we add diverse data types like geo-spatial, event-related or weather data to it. When a Texan shops online at happy hour on Cinco de Mayo and the cart was abandoned, there should be no surprise. Oh, it was sunny that day. This context-driven awareness adds a deeper understanding. Modern analytics is all about enriching structured data with unstructured to gain a better experience. Likewise distillers are aging whiskey in second or third casks. They take a completed product and finish it off in wine, sherry, port, rum or Sauternes casks. Or it might take the form of the *blenders' art* like Johnny Walker, Dimple or Compass Box. These distillers ladder up the experience by marrying whiskeys from different places. Hudson Four Grain ages the same spirit in three different sizes of barrels each with a different char to get that exact expression. Shaped by taxation Fans of history have no trouble remembering when Alexander Hamilton rode to Western Pennsylvania in 1794 to help his boss lay down the Whiskey Rebellion. This was before Mr. Hamilton was a Broadway sensation. He was our first secretary of the treasury and was hungry to pay down the national debt with a whiskey tax . Our friends in Scotland struggled with same issue in the mid-18th century where distillers were taxed based on still size and not production. In 1787 taxation was the tipping point in the split between the Lowlands and the Highlands. Religion, language and affiliation with England may have proper historians talking, but a true Gaelic Highlander knew the real argument was over whether blended whiskey was a *real* whiskey or swill to appease the English. Likewise analytics in the English-speaking world found its voice because of taxation. First appearing in Britain in Roman times, the practice became a consistent effort in 1801. Its mission was for allocating precious resources. And since counting people one by one takes longer than a single decade, statistics found its place in economics. So the next time you raise a Glencairn glass of the *water of life*, just remember that as you ponder notes of heather, sea air and the smell of warm biscuits, you might actually be thinking like a data scientist. Cheers. For additional information on Dell EMC solutions, please visit: DellEMC.com/Hadoop DellEMC.com/AI DellEMC.com/MachineLearning DellTechnologies.com/IOT Machine Learning Knowledge Center An old woman scowls at passersby as she squats in a nest of plastic bags and bundles arranged on four seats on the Herald Square Q, N, and R subway platform. At one end of the platform, a man cups a cigarette in his palm, indifferent to the confused frowns of those around him. Across the tracks, on the northbound side, a man with matted hair declaims against an invisible adversary, while an almost visible stink clears a path as he paces up and down. The station reeks like soiled laundry and sweat because at least a half-dozen people are camped out here, wearing sweaty, soiled clothes steamed by the heat and moisture of thousands of subway riders maneuvering through the station at every hour. A southbound Q train rolls in, and footsore riders are grateful when they glimpse an empty car, but they discover that all those empty seats are too good to be true: someone has parked a large, overladen cart at one end, settled into the two-seater for an afternoon snooze, and defied anyone to endure the foul-smelling air just to have a subway seat. So the fragrant passenger on the Q train retains his private car, while exasperated riders pile into already-crowded adjacent cars. New York has experienced such a visible increase in homelessness that the de Blasio administration finally had to acknowledge last summer what everyone knew to be true, after years of denial: permanent encampments exist across the city, with clusters of carts and lean-tos in various lots and around off-ramps in the outer boroughs and people camped out in discarded office chairs with piles of blankets and boxes in the blocks around Penn Station. The de Blasio administrations response is to question the hardiness of those who complain of rampant homelessness and tolerance of antisocial behavior. The mayor implies that real New Yorkers tolerate filth and anarchy as an urban feature, perhaps even an amenity. Its probably no coincidence that de Blasio avoids the subway, zooming through midmorning traffic so that he can enjoy his low-impact workout at the Park Slope YMCA, thereby avoiding the sight of the citys deteriorating conditions. Its obvious to daily commuters that more panhandlers and long-term indigent or distressed individuals are using the trains and subway stations for shelter, a place to sleep, or simply a place that they wont be forced to leave. The next time that you hear about a sick rider causing a delay, consider why there are more homeless in prominent public spaces than weve seen in New York for decades; why Penn Station resembles the Bellevue Hospital waiting room; why urine has once again become the inescapable fragrance of New Yorks streets and subway stairwells. How can one not conclude that the de Blasio administration sees the hundreds of vagrants riding the trains or camped in stations as a problem that it doesnt have to deal with? After all, as the mayor likes to remind his critics, the subway isnt the citys responsibility. While letting vagrants camp out on trains or colonize a subway platform does not create homeless individuals, it does attract them from other locales. Its a demoralizing situation for New Yorkers, especially those who depend on subways, with the modest expectation of a ride home without being accosted by a beggar or a deranged person off his meds. Its also dispiriting to find the doorways of ones building soaked in urine, or to have to negotiate with a possibly belligerent drunk taking his party out on to the front stoop. In the citys tonier neighborhoods, co-op boards can handle this sort of unpleasantness. The rest of us have to depend on city government to maintain livable and decent conditions in our neighborhoods. Unfortunately, Mayor de Blasio must operate on the principle that if you never go down into the coal mine, you wont have to see any sick canaries. Photo: JANIFEST/iStock Here is a selection of emails and Facebook comments weve received in recent months. Please send correspondence to letters@cjr.org, along with your name, location, and any relevant affiliation. Reader feedback has been edited for length and clarity. Fear itself: Donald Trump isnt the only existential threat facing journalism The journalism world has changed so much since I started in the field that its almost unrecognizable anymore. While in college in Albany, NY, in 1961, I landed a job as an overnight telegrapher in the Capital Bureau of United Press International, keeping three TTY machines running in the dead of night on three different news wires. By 1963, I wound up as manager of a one-man bureau in western New York. We had our big stories in those days, but you had to cover it all, no matter what it was. Which meant I went from covering events like the inner city riots in Rochester in July of 1964 to traveling with Robert Kennedy to cover his US Senate campaign. As hectic and demanding as it all was, we had the incredible benefit of not having videotape or online coverage to deal with. Yes, TV news covered it all, but they had to shoot it on 16mm film, then process and edit the footage before it could be broadcast. And, of course, there was no social media to cause the problems that it does now. Sign up for CJR 's daily email ICYMI: The Times tech columnist unplugged from the internet. Except he didnt. Looking back, this all seems so blissful now. I eventually left UPI and journalism, but I have great admiration for the journalists today who give so much to this profession. It was never an easy job, but it was exciting and involving, and I doubt I would enter the field if I were starting out today. Don Allen, Liberty, MO Dangers from inside the newsroom I appreciate Christiane Amanpours call for the ruthless elimination of sexual harassment in news outlets. However, we journalists need to look at the fact that a culture of censorship has grown up in the US in which people in power prohibit employees and others from ever speaking to journalists without notifying the authorities, often public information officers. In addition to intimidating employees who do speak, the process keeps many people from speaking at all. These rules will hide many kinds of evil, including sexual harassment. The Society of Professional Journalists has made it a priority to oppose these highly effective restrictions. However, horrifyingly, a number of news outlets have these mandates on their own employees, with the same type of impact as the nondisclosure agreements explored in an earlier CJR article. The employment of these restrictions by US news outlets themselves must be one of the most powerful endorsements of censorship in the world today. One could wonder if news outlets use of these mandates is one reason they say so little about these rules in government and elsewhere. This is in face of the fact that millions of people are thus gagged, keeping facts and understanding from the pressand the publicconstantly. Kathryn Foxhall, SPJ Freedom of Information Committee Member, Freelance Journalist How Tom Tryniski digitized nearly 50 million pages of newspapers in his living room Ive been using Tom Tryniskis site for years now and have been constantly amazed at what hes been able to do, sitting there in Fulton. He has helped me answer many a question for researchers, and I respect his respect for the importance of newspapers in telling the history of New York State. Vicki Weiss, Librarian, New York State Library Who killed Time Inc.? In this obituary for Time magazine and the empire that was built from it, right-wing founder Henry Luce, who routinely made up stories to sell the magazine, is mentioned in passing in one paragraph with nothing provided on his lamentable practice in the early history of the rag, passing off his opinions as news stories without attributionin other words, deceiving the public with fake news. Youd think now, of all times, that would be something to go into, rather than seeking blame for who killed the company. Clif Brown, Evanston, IL Its time to rethink how we cover Trump One thing that disturbs me as well is the license Trumps bad behavior seems to give some reporters to engage in it themselves. How many days in a row do we have to hear references to shithole? It reinforces the slur and it forces the abusive term on the reader. Right or left may respond to it differently, but repeating it isnt the same thing as referencing it. Ive also noted many inclusions of Trump mocking the disabled reporter. Dont reporters get that they are participating in the mockery by re-running it over and over? As you say, some of this is in service of reinforcing or debunkingbut it reminds me of middle school kids reinforcing the bully so they dont get bullied. I will say that some of the excellent reporting does continue from time to time, and the sheer mass of ugly and unreliable material I have to wade through to get to the good stuff makes me very appreciative of what all reporters are having to deal with. Thanks for your healthy, linguistically sound, smart article. Kathy Bowman, Joseph, Oregon I am a former newspaper journalist who also taught journalism at three universities. I appreciated your essay, although I think it was a little spare on suggestions for how to do it differently. So here are mine: If you know your source is lying to you, or using you to spin the news or get out their message, or to speak through you to the President (audience of one), dont participate. As I think Jay Rosen suggested, stop sending top reporters to WH briefingssend an intern to pick up a press release or hear if something is said that is important. Dont participate in a press briefing that isnt. Similarly, stop giving surrogates a platform. Stop giving this administration a chance to clean up its mistakes. Did you really say Grab her . . . ? Are you a racist? Why havent you condemned . . . ? Why havent you commented on . . . ? The more you keep the discussion going on something that is over, the more you give the WH the opportunity to change the narrative or at least create the illusion that there is an open question that needs to be settled. Report what the president said or didnt say, did or didnt do. Be very careful about speculationwhat will happen with legislation, who will or wont be fired. It isnt news until it happens. Lois Melina As The Post opens, journalists share their favorite journalism movies The only one I would have added is The Front Page (the 1974 Matthau-Lemmon version) only because its so much damn fun, though Carey Grants Walter Burns in the 1940 iteration, His Girl Friday is equally priceless. Tom Verde, Pawcatuck, CT Suicide by news subjects shouldnt be pinned on media, experts say I found a few problems in regards to how to safely report on suicide, the biggest being the description on methods used throughout the article. From reportingonsuicide.org, the problem with mentioning methods is listed as follows: Risk of additional suicides increases when the story explicitly describes the suicide method, uses dramatic/graphic headlines or images, and repeated/extensive coverage sensationalizes or glamorizes a death. Your mention of Mr. Johnsons method of suicide is problematic for this reason. The same is true with the description of Mr. Burros death in relation to the Times article. The fact that he died by suicide would be a sufficient way of describing it. Marshall Taylor, Randolph-Macon College 19, Religious Studies Major Google-funded investigations unit helps local UK papers hold power to account I was quite excited by the fact you were covering a UK story about the Bureau Local project, which is indeed doing great work in a data journalism, but I was saddened to see you quote, without challenge, data from a university study about the state of regional journalism in the UK from 2016 which doesnt reflect real life in our industry at all. Theres no doubt were stretched these days, but the headline facts simply arent right, largely due to the terming of what coverage is. The study also took, in my opinion, a very London-centric view on the value of weekly newspapers, which historically have scrutinised councils in far more depth than daily ones. David Higgerson, Digital Editorial Strategy Director, Trinity Mirror The source: How hacked emails and a yacht in Monaco ended my career at The Wall Street Journal While I feel Jay Solomon definitely received a raw deal, I was impressed that he identified where he opened himself up to this type of disinformation attack. If it can happen to him with his pedigree and experience as a journalist, imagine what the average person is up against when they think nothing of exposing information about themselves daily. We are in the age of information and information is power and money. Joseph Martin Edit tests are out of control, say journalists in search of jobs This kind of thing is very common in software as well. Ive been asked to create projects from scratch, work for free, produce open-source code, etc. Its out of control. Kevin Stevens New study: How to build revenue by connecting with your audience I have long felt that journalism, as a craft, spends a lot of time and energy assuming what readers and audiences want and not actually engaging them to find out the reality. Change will not be easy. I can recall sitting in on editorial meetings as a reporter in more than a couple of newsrooms and being looked at as some kind of rebel when I would say, We need to do stories about what people need to know and not always what we think they want to hear. I am still convinced that readers, listeners, and viewers appreciate and want better journalism. I like what this article has to say and agree that these revenues should be plowed back into the newsroom. Stu Nicholson RIP Facebook Live: As subsidies end, so does publisher participation You cant encourage outlets to make live content and then distribute that content in such a way that is unreliable for the creator and irritating for the audience. News organizations dont care about Facebooks revenue stream. They care about the level of audience engagement the product earns them, and Facebook Live wasnt doing that. Facebook was just trying to make money, but thats not what journalists are in it for, and theyre going to abandon platforms that dont meet their needs no matter who is paying. Facebook. Is not. A news service. Amy Pachla Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review. Sociologist Zeynep Tufekci wrote in an essay published in The New York Times on March 10 about experiments she performed on YouTube during the 2016 election, where she noticed that no matter what kind of political content she searched for, the recommended videos were always more extreme and inflammatory, whether politically or socially. This is a vicious circle, she writes: In effect, YouTube has created a restaurant that serves us increasingly sugary, fatty foods, loading up our plates as soon as we are finished with the last meal. Over time, our tastes adjust, and we seek even more sugary, fatty foods, which the restaurant dutifully provides. When confronted about this by the health department and concerned citizens, the restaurant managers reply that they are merely serving us what we want. Tufekci mentions research done by former YouTube engineer Guillaume Chaslot, who worked on the video platforms recommendation algorithm and spoke to CJR recently about his conclusions. Like Tufekci, he found that the videos being recommended on the site were overwhelmingly contentious and inflammatory, including many that promoted conspiracy theories, because that kind of content makes people click and spend more time on the site, and that serves Googles business interests. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg. Edward Lefty Grimes was in pain. It had been an hour since hed arrived at the Clifton police station with what should have been a straightforward question: Where could he legally smoke his medical marijuana? One officer on duty knew, but he was out on an assignment and couldnt be reached. Meanwhile, Grimes, who suffers from back pain after a fall at work forced him to undergo multiple spine surgeries, was starting to hurt. He debated: Should he light up, and risk getting arrested? Or should he wait for the officer to return? He decided to wait. Finally, more than an hour after Grimes first arrived, Lt. Favio Toyas returned. You can smoke outside by the ashtrays, he told Grimes after checking his patient identification card, apologizing for the delay. They dont run into this every day, Toyas said of his fellow officers. But for Grimes, a self-styled medical marijuana advocate from East Hanover, its a scene he knows all too well. In the past four years, Grimes has visited more than 70 police departments across the state in an effort to educate officers about the guidelines for enforcing New Jerseys medical marijuana law. In encounters that he films and later posts to YouTube, police are generally civil but often do not know the guidelines or in some cases that medical cannabis is even legal in New Jersey. Were here to educate police so patients dont get arrested, said Grimes. Unless an officer takes it upon himself to do the research, they dont know the law. This is particularly concerning now, says advocates, because Gov. Phil Murphy and other state leaders are pushing to not only legalize recreational marijuana but also patients access to New Jerseys existing medical marijuana program. Murphy has ordered a review of the program, including how dispensary licenses are obtained, the allowable medical conditions and the various ways that medical marijuana can be ingested. Right now there are lines at dispensaries and they cant fulfill our needs, Grimes said. If its going to be legal, we need to worry about cannabis patients rights first. The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey has also called on the state to approve an additional 43 ailments for which patients can be treated with marijuana. About 15,000 people are eligible to receive medical marijuana in New Jersey far lower, says Murphy, than the number of patients in states like Michigan, which has a comparable population. If the coalitions list, which is under review, is approved, that number would grow, says executive director Ken Wolski. With a planned expansion, now is the time to look at training for police, said Wolski. Police should be made aware of the rights of patients in New Jersey. Grimes, 50, is an unlikely advocate. Though he sometimes wears suits and ties, he has also been known to sport T-shirts proclaiming, Dont shoot me, Im white, or `Im recording you. Around his neck hangs a camera, which he tucks beneath his long, wavy hair. Hes also known to have a cane in his left hand, which is how he got the nickname Lefty. Grimes says he was inspired to act after attending a town hall hosted by then-Gov. Chris Christie. Medical marijuana patients in New Jersey can smoke anywhere tobacco can be smoked in public. But at the town hall, Grimes who medicates every three hours for his back pain said he asked a state police trooper where he could legally smoke cannabis. Rather than direct him to an appropriate location, Grimes said the officer threatened to arrest him if he lit up. This encounter, says Grimes, occurred in 2014 four years after medical marijuana was legalized in New Jersey and two years after the state Attorney Generals Office issued guidelines to police outlining how they should enforce the states program. After that we started to go to police departments to see if they all thought the same, Grimes said. The result has been what Grimes calls the Ignorance is No Excuse Tour, a series of videos posted to YouTube that show him and other patients approaching police around the state. Often, he will walk up to a desk officer, identify himself as a medical marijuana patient and ask where can legally smoke pot to medicate. Reactions vary, from officers initially looking baffled to offering him as happened in Mahwah space in the stations lobby to roll a joint. In a couple of instances, he says, he has been threatened with arrest or blatantly ignored. While police have been quicker to respond to him since he began his effort, he says on average he still waits about 20 minutes for an officer to answer him. The problem, says advocates, is that while some officers may have been trained in the states Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, or CUMMA, enforcement guidelines, there is no requirement that they receive this instruction. They could not provide specific figures, but Grimes and other advocates say they are aware of medical marijuana patients who have been arrested by officers who were not familiar with the law. Most of the time, the charges are dropped, unless the patient is found to be in possession of more marijuana than is allowed under state law or was smoking in an unauthorized location, according to the group Americans for Safe Access. The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey has called for training for all state, county and local law enforcement officers. The state and Bergen County Policemens Benevolent Associations did not return requests for comment. But a spokeswoman for the Attorney Generals Office dismissed calls for police training. The Office of the Attorney General is not aware of concerns pertaining to the knowledge or enforcement of these guidelines that would necessitate training for law enforcement officers at this time, said Sharon Lauchaire, the offices acting communications director. As he continues to advocate for training, a new front in Grimes fight has emerged in recent months. The debate over legalizing recreational marijuana has prompted some municipal officials to pre-emptively introduce or adopt bans on marijuana retail sales. The Hasbrouck Heights and Garfield councils adopted bans in February, while Ramseys council chose instead to limit sales to certain areas of town. Hawthorne is expected to vote on a ban on March 21. These new restrictions have led Grimes to attend council meetings, where he has implored local officials to consider the patients he says will be affected by these bans. There are sick people in town that you dont see, he recently told the Garfield City Council. They need dispensaries in town. Why would you want sick people to jump through more hoops? Currently there are five medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, with a sixth on the way. Garfields ban doesnt specifically address medical marijuana, but the citys mayor disagrees that a dispensary should be allowed. If patients need cannabis to treat their ailments, they can go to another town to buy it, he argues. I dont want to bring drugs into the heart of Garfield, Mayor Richard Rigoglioso said. But Grimes argues cannabis can help patients. Christian Velasquez, 25, of Dover, who joined Grimes when he recently visited the Clifton police department, credits the drug with allowing him to live a normal and productive life. With the help of marijuana, Valasquez, who also suffers from a back injury, said he was able to complete school and now goes to work every day. Grimes himself has benefited from cannabis. For 10 years, he says, he used opioids to treat his pain. It wasnt until he started using marijuana that he was able to wean himself off the medications, he said. I was in incredible pain and it got me off drugs, Grimes said. Marijuana helps a lot of people get off pharmaceuticals. The recent backlash to legalization, then, has him concerned. Towns are on a banning spree right now, he said. Ive never seen so much ignorance in my life. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A pilot whose helicopter went down in Manhattans East River, killing five passengers, says in an emergency radio transmission that he had engine failure. The pilot is heard saying Mayday, mayday, mayday during the crash on Sunday night. The person at the other end of the transmission had trouble making out what the pilot was saying. The pilot reported an engine failure over the East River and referenced a hotel. The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched investigators on Monday. Video taken by a bystander and posted on Twitter shows the red helicopter land hard in the water and then capsize, its rotors slapping at the water. The helicopter, a private charter hired for a photo shoot, went down near Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence. One person, the pilot, freed himself and was rescued by a tugboat, officials said. The passengers were recovered by police and fire department divers, who had to remove them from tight harnesses while they were upside down, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. It took awhile for the drivers to get these people out. They worked very quickly as fast as they could, Nigro said. It was a great tragedy that we had here. Witnesses on a waterfront esplanade near where the aircraft went down said the helicopter was flying noisily, then suddenly dropped into the water and quickly submerged. But the pilot appeared on the surface, holding onto a flotation device as a tugboat and then police boats approached. Its cold water. It was sinking really fast, Mary Lee, 66, told the New York Post. By the time we got out here, we couldnt see it. It was underwater. Celia Skyvaril, 23, told the Daily News that she could see a person on what looked like a yellow raft or float screaming and yelling for help. News footage showed one victim being loaded into an ambulance while emergency workers gave him chest compressions. A bystander, Susan Larkin, told The Associated Press that she went down to see rescue boats in the river and a police helicopter circling overhead, hovering low over the water. You could clearly see they were searching, she said. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said the Eurocopter AS350 went down just after 7 p.m. The aircraft was owned by Liberty Helicopters, a company that offers both private charters and sightseeing tours popular with tourists. A phone message left with the company was not immediately returned. The skies over New York constantly buzz with helicopters carrying tourists, businesspeople, traffic reporters, medical teams and others. Crashes are not unheard of. In 2009, a sightseeing helicopter of the same model and operated by the same company as the one in Sundays wreck collided with a small, private plane over the Hudson River, killing nine people, including a group of Italian tourists. A crash in October 2011 in the East River killed a British woman visiting the city for her 40th birthday. Three other passengers were injured. A helicopter on a sightseeing tour of Manhattan crashed into the Hudson River in July 2007, shaking up the eight people aboard but injuring no one. In June 2005, two helicopters crashed into the East River in the same week. One injured eight people including some banking executives. The other hit the water shortly after takeoff on a sightseeing flight, injuring six tourists and the pilot. Nigro and Police Commissioner James ONeill said the rescue operation Sunday took place in a 4 mph current in water about 50 feet (15 meters) deep, under challenging conditions. The cause of the crash is unknown. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. Officials did not immediately release the names of the pilot or passengers or say how the two passengers died. The helicopter was recovered in the rescue operation and towed to a pier. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Ex-Iowa Insurance Agent, Adjuster Charged With Insurance Fraud A former insurance agent and former claims representative have been charged with felonies following an investigation by the Iowa Insurance Divisions Fraud Bureau. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that former insurance agent 37-year-old Nicholas Menough, of Grimes, is charged with fraudulent submissions, forgery and second-degree theft. In the other case, former claim representative 42-year-old Cora Lea Harrington, of Pleasant Hill, has been charged with fraudulent submissions and second-degree theft. The investigations began in April 2017. Prosecutors say Menough falsified insurance policy applications and altered financial documents related to the sale of insurance policies to receive advanced sales commissions. Harrington is accused of altering financial documents to claim proceeds for herself. Menough was arrested Feb. 5. Harrington was arrested by the Pleasant Hill Police Department on Feb. 9. Texas Tow Company Owner Convicted of Insurance Fraud The former owner of a towing company was convicted of fraud in Houston after buying insurance coverage after a wreck and then filing a claim with the wrong date. Mohamad Awad, the former owner of Hemo Towing, was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and received seven years or probation after a trial last week conducted by prosecutors from the Texas Department of Insurance with the help of investigators from the Harris County District Attorneys Office. A Texas Department of Public Safety investigation found that Awad added coverage for a tow truck after a wreck. He then filed an insurance claim and lied about when the wreck took place. Awad asked his employees to lie to adjusters and investigators and create fake documents to support the fraudulent claim. Hemo Towing had offices in Houston, Midland, and Odessa. Idaho Woman Sentenced for Insurance Fraud Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden announced a Benewah County woman was sentenced Friday, February 23, for one count of Insurance Fraud. First District Judge Scott Wayman sentenced 31-year-old Nessa Sullivan of Fernwood after she pleaded guilty in December. Judge Wayman sentenced Sullivan to three years in prison. He then suspended the sentence and placed her on two years probation. Sullivan was ordered to pay $1,207 in restitution and a fine of $500. The court also ordered her to pay court costs and $300 towards the cost of her public defender. In addition, Sullivan was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service. Judge Wayman also ordered 90 days of discretionary jail or labor program to be administered by a probation officer. An investigation determined that in July 2016 Sullivan struck a deer with her car prior to obtaining coverage through GEICO. She later filed a claim with the insurance company, but did so using a false date of loss. Photos she provided to the GEICO investigator were time-stamped with the actual date of the accident. As a result, GEICO denied the claim. Upon receiving a referral from GEICO, the Idaho Department of Insurance investigated. Sullivan later confessed that she provided false information on her claim. The case was prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General Jessica Cafferty in the Attorney Generals Special Prosecutions Unit. After seeing smoke from the Milli Fire rise high over Sisters during a day trip to the Willamette Valley last summer, Doug Hoschek and Tina Machuca decided to do a bit of digging to see what would happen if an equally dangerous fire sparked near their home in Sunriver, Oregon. What they found concerned them, to put it mildly. They began to notice flammable trees dangerously close to neighboring homes, fire hydrants encircled by bitterbrush and limited options for evacuation in a worst-case scenario. Perhaps most troubling: They found a homeowners association that, in their view, isnt acting fast enough to address concerns in a community bracketed by the Deschutes National Forest on three sides. Their fear is it will take a tragedy to create change. The only logical outcome to this is its going to take a fire, Hoschek said. What we hope and pray is, when there is a fire, its small enough to be contained. On the other hand, residents and forestry officials point to Sunriver as a community that has improved tremendously at wildfire preparedness in a relatively short time. After decades of protections for every tree, Sunriver has embraced a set of standards designed to make the area safer. If theyre not the most progressive, accomplished neighborhood in Deschutes County, theyre definitely in the top three, said Joe Stutler, a former Deschutes County forester who advises the county. Commitment to natural beauty runs deep in Sunriver. But while this ethos has attracted people to the community from across the country, it may mean that wildfires always will be a risk, especially as fire seasons get longer and hotter across central Oregon. A resort community, Sunriver has a full-time population of fewer than 1,500 people. During busy summer weekends, the community swells to about 20,000 people, most of them vacationers. Sunrivers master plan was completed in 1968, and from the outset, the vision of developer John Gray was to develop a community where the natural environment is at the forefront, with forested common areas spread throughout the community. Ecological vigilance has been a major concern since the beginning of planning, the foreword of Sunrivers consolidated plan reads. While Hoschek noted that he doesnt believe Grays vision requires Sunriver to be managed like an extension of the forest, the focus created an ethos of environmental protection that has stayed with the community for 50 years, according to Hugh Palcic, general manager of the Sunriver Owners Association. In part because of that, Sunriver preserved the natural forest in the community in its early years, sometimes to the detriment of homes in the neighborhood. Wooden shake roofs were required as part of the communitys code, which leaves the entire house at risk of fires, according to Alison Green, program director for Project Wildfire, which directs fire planning and mitigation in Sunriver and throughout Deschutes County. The roof is actually the most fire-vulnerable part of a home, Green said. While Palcic said Sunriver has never had a serious wildfire within its boundaries, he added that the Awbrey Hall Fire, which ripped through Bends western edge in 1990, burning 3,350 acres and destroying 22 homes in 12 hours, provided a wake-up call for the community to the south. Green said the community began phasing out its iconic wooden roofs, passing an ordinance that any roof must be replaced by a fire-resistant material. Green said just 100 of 4,200 homes in Sunriver still have wooden roofs. Project Wildfire came on-board in 2004, and Sunriver drafted a community wildfire protection plan a document designed by local stakeholders to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire the following year. The community has made a significant investment in keeping fire from reaching the crowns of trees, Palcic said. To that end, Sunriver annually brings in contractors to get rid of certain trees and remove brush and undergrowth, a rotating job that clears out areas once every six years over roughly 150 acres of the communitys common areas. Still, Hoschek and Machuca dont believe its enough. Hoschek, who worked in the outdoor apparel industry for 45 years and developed the synthetic fabric known as Polarfleece, has been living in Sunriver on and off since 1973. He and Machuca, his wife, have been living full time in their home near Sunrivers northern edge since 2016. We live here because we love nature, Machuca said. Last fall, Hoschek co-founded Prescribed Fire Living, a separate program that encourages residents of Sunriver and nearby communities to protect their homes from wildfire. Hoschek said hed spoken to about 80 neighbors about the program. Following the Milli Fire and the damaging winter fires in Los Angeles, Hoschek and Machuca became more concerned about the way Sunrivers common areas were being managed, and how they could get out of the labyrinthine community in case of a devastating fire. Jim Fister, chair of the Sunriver Service Districts board of directors, identified five evacuation routes from Sunriver. However, the condition and accessibility of several of those roads remains an open question. A locked gate off of Meadow Road, near the southern edge of the community, is deemed an evacuation route and could be opened in an emergency. Other routes rely on roads managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which Machuca said can be difficult to navigate in a car. We drove the (roads) that they said were in service, Machuca said. Theyre not. Fister described the routes as passable during the summer, but acknowledged that the community is working to formalize its evacuation options, in part because of criticism from Machuca and Hoschek. He said fires can be difficult to plan for, as the community is surrounded by Forest Service land on three sides. There are a lot of moving pieces, Fister said. While Hoschek noted that Sunriver cant do much about fires in the national forest, he and his wife were frustrated by the forested areas within the communitys boundaries. During a walk around the community, Hoschek pointed to bitterbrush small, flammable shrubs common in western North America along roadways and around fire hydrants as a potential fire risk. However, Palcic said bitterbrush can be a helpful plant, in moderation. In addition to providing habitat for small rodents, Palcic said the shrub reduces the direct sunlight on soil, which keeps the fire risk down. If its not a sea of it, it really could be beneficial, Palcic said. Stutler added that the bitterbrush provides a buffer between roadways and Sunrivers more than 30 miles of paved bike trails, reducing the possibility of collisions. However, Hoschek countered by saying less-flammable plants could provide the same service. There are other plants that dont do what bitterbrush does, Hoschek said. Hoschek also expressed concerns about the composition of the forest in Sunriver. He said areas that would have been clearings in a more natural forest environment have been occupied by a mix of ponderosa and lodge pole pine trees. While ponderosa pines are comparatively fire-resistant, Green said lodge poles have thinner bark, and are thus more susceptible to combustion. While Palcic said the Sunriver Service District is working to plant ponderosa pines where they can, Hoschek criticized Sunriver for continuing to allow lodge poles to proliferate within the community. Green said lodge poles are common in south Deschutes County, as the trees do well in pockets of frost and lava-rich soils. Despite their reputation, Green added that lodge poles rarely combust without underbrush beneath them, which the community works with homeowners to remove. If a tree is healthy, trees are one of the last things Im worried about, Green said. One of the biggest challenges for Sunriver is the number of homeowners in the community who only live there part-time. Hoschek noted that a vast majority of Sunrivers approximately 4,200 homes are listed as vacation rentals. Thomas Welle, manager of the National Fire Protection Associations Denver field office, said forest communities with a large percentage of absentee owners face challenges around communication and awareness. It makes it more difficult for the people who are living there, Welle said. Some people just dont care. To help bridge the communication gap, Palcic said Sunriver has begun sending courtesy letters to homeowners who arent complying with the communitys fire-prevention rules. While those letters can eventually lead to citations, he said explaining why the rules are in place has helped significantly. Palcic said theres always more Sunriver can do to reduce its wildfire risk. Grays focus on the natural environment looms large over the community, and Palcic added that, in a recent survey of homeowners, the number of respondents who felt the community was removing too many trees outnumbered the respondents who felt the community should do more by a factor of three or four. The key, he said, is balancing the concerns of people like Hoschek with the communitys desire to fit into the natural world. I think well always be dealing with the risk of wildfire, Palcic said. But I think we can determine how much risk were willing to live with. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Investing in cryptocurrencies is complicated. Four new trusts make it easier, says crypto investor Michael Sonnenshein. "Digital currencies are not like stocks and bonds and all the other things that you buy," Sonnenshein, managing director at Grayscale Investments, a digital currency investment firm, said Monday on CNBC's "Fast Money." "There's certain technological prowess that people need to have in order to handle them, store them securely, et cetera." Recognizing that investors want exposure to digital currencies, Grayscale launched four new crypto funds: Bitcoin Cash Investment Trust, Ethereum Investment Trust, Litecoin Investment Trust and XRP Investment Trust. Grayscale is the creator of the popular Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), a way to invest in and trade the price moves of bitcoin without directly investing in the digital currency. The new trusts, Sonnenshein said, are "something that people can really wrap their heads around." So far, in the week since the products were introduced, the demand has been "fantastic," said Sonnenshein, whose company has approximately $2.1 billion in assets under management across eight different products. "There's a lot of investors who want to be able to place targeted exposure in a fund," he said. "And, there are also investors who want that more-diversified exposure, like the digital large-cap fund offers." "We're continuing to break records all the time," Sonnenshein said. He said each fund operates as a trust on a rules-based methodology, where tokens are evaluated each quarter to see if they have fallen into the 70 percent target of the overall market cap in digital currencies. "Of course there are other qualifiers and disqualifiers: There's got to be a liquid market. We have to have a custodial solution that we feel really is secure and robust and allows us to continue to operationally support the product," Sonnenshein said. Each fund has a one-year holding period before it can be resold without restrictions. Only U.S. qualified accredited investors can put money into funds. Sonnenshein said Grayscale plans to roll out more new products later this year. China said it will merge its banking and insurance regulators, according to a parliament document released on Tuesday, in a series of proposed changes in the biggest ministry shake-up in years. In a long-awaited move to streamline and tighten oversight of the financial system in the world's second-biggest economy, China will also transfer some of the banking and insurance regulators' roles to the central bank, documents showed. In much-anticipated plans to create seven new ministries and a raft of government agencies announced on Tuesday, one of the most significant changes was creation of the national markets supervision management bureau. The new body will decide on antimonopoly and pricing issues, replacing the roles played by the three national antitrust regulators: the National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). Unifying the structure under one agency, rather than handing the responsibility to one of the three existing watchdogs, reflects the growing importance of the issue for the government. China will also form a powerful new competition regulator in a bid to ramp up oversight of mergers and acquisitions and price-fixing as the world's second-largest economy seeks to make policymaking more efficient and coordinated. Since the beginning of last year, Beijing has cracked down on leverage and risky market practices, with China's various regulators releasing a flurry of new rules in an attempt to rein in risks. China's financial system has become increasingly tough to regulate due to its sheer breadth. It has grown rapidly in size and complexity, emerging as one of the world's largest with financial assets at nearly 470 percent of gross domestic product, according to the International Monetary Fund. The latest ministry shake-up also includes the creation of a new immigration management bureau and the restructuring of the national intellectual property rights bureau. The proposals will be formally approved by the parliament on Saturday. China is restructuring the responsibilities, roles and powers of its state institutions to make them more efficient. President Xi Jinping's top economic adviser, Liu He, said that such reform would be profound. CNBC contributed reporting to this article. Since CNBC's Jim Cramer is in San Francisco this week, he wanted to go over a new stock group in technology space that's just refusing to quit. "I'm calling them 'the cloud kings,' the seven software companies that are transforming the way their customers do business," the "Mad Money" host said on Monday. "I've been telling you about the cloud revolution for years now, ... but the truth is it's still in its early stages, which is why I still like the seven kings of the cloud: Adobe, Salesforce.com, ServiceNow, Red Hat, VMware, Splunk and Workday." In addition to their cutting-edge tech, these companies' stocks have been wildly strong performers, Cramer said. Shares of all seven have rebounded between 17 and 30 percent since the market's Feb. 9 lows. Here are their one-year gains: "In many cases, their stocks are indeed expensive up here. The kings come at a cost," Cramer acknowledged. "Regular viewers know I do hate to chase. But on the rare occasions when these names give you a dip, they have been fabulous outright buys." To convince investors why macro-economic or geopolitical worries shouldn't weigh on this part of the cloud, Cramer went over each cloud king's track record and explained what made it a worthy buy. He began with Adobe, the design-oriented software giant making strides in various artificial intelligence and cloud-based applications. "When it comes to digital media and marketing software, Adobe is in a league of its own," the "Mad Money" host said. "This company has a terrific long-term track record, but the stock really took off a couple of years ago after Adobe began to transition from an old-school, on-premises software company to a modern, cloud-based, software-as-a-service business." Adobe's transformation to charging its customers on a subscription basis has "turbocharged" its earnings growth, Cramer said. He hoped that the company's Thursday report would miss on a minor line item so that investors could buy into the stock, which hit a new all-time high on Monday, at a lower level. Next, Cramer turned to Salesforce, which he called "the king of the cloud." The company helps enterprises better understand their customers with a range of tools spanning marketing, e-commerce, community management, analytics, application development and professional cloud services. With its latest quarter, Salesforce became the fastest enterprise software company to hit a $12 billion annual revenue run rate, seeing double-digit sales and unbilled deferred revenue growth. "I wouldn't be surprised if the future looks just as bright now that Salesforce is using artificial intelligence to better predict consumer behavior," Cramer said, referencing the company's Einstein tech. But, he warned, "the stock has run dramatically and I'd like it a heck of a lot more on a pullback." Cloud king No. 3, ServiceNow, focuses largely on efficiency, helping companies build applications that reduce labor costs by automating jobs in areas like human resources, legal, finance, security and facilities management. In its latest quarter, ServiceNow's subscription revenue grew by 44 percent. "Right now, the company gets a ton of credit for its IT services division, but I think the rest of ServiceNow, all the auxiliary businesses that involve automating back-office jobs, is the real future of the company," Cramer predicted. "However, this is another one that just made a record high today, so please be patient. Put it on your shopping list. Wait for a better entry point." Red Hat, the fourth on Cramer's list, is the top open-source enterprise software provider in the world, assisting companies in their transitions to the cloud. Recently, Red Hat has started helping enterprises build out their own private cloud networks, which offer faster, more secure access to their information. "The growth has really taken off since they made this move," the "Mad Money" host said. "Red Hat reports in two weeks and Wall Street has a history of misunderstanding this company's results, causing the stock to get hit. It got hit really badly last time. Let's hope that happens again. These dips have made for excellent buying opportunities." In an aside, Cramer said that he would anoint VMware, another cloud onboarding play, to his list of cloud kings if the company wasn't publicly involved in deal talks with Dell. The last two cloud kings were "phenomenal growers" Splunk and Workday. Splunk helps companies analyze and use their data in the best way possible, while Workday, like ServiceNow, focuses on making human resources and finance departments more efficient. "The bottom line? When you identify a powerful theme that's revolutionizing the way we do business, find the biggest winners, wait for a good entry point and then hang on for the ride," Cramer said. "Adobe, Salesforce.com [with CEO] Marc Benioff, ServiceNow, Red Hat, VMWare, a little convoluted ownership structure there, Splunk and Workday they are the kings of the cloud and they all belong on your stock market shopping list." After CNBC's Jim Cramer broke the news that Larry Kudlow was the top candidate to replace Gary Cohn as the president's top economic advisor, he wanted to double back and explain why. The "Mad Money" host, who worked with Kudlow for years, said on Monday that the TV personality has a certain way about making his point that is "non-confrontational, yet stern." That demeanor could be Kudlow's ticket back to the White House, where he worked during the Reagan days, Cramer said. "In an administration that's starved of history and institutional knowledge, he'll bring tons of it," Cramer said. "On the tariff issue specifically, our allies are going to get a friendly voice in the West Wing while our rivals will be chided, hopefully, into doing the right thing somewhat different from the president's recent meat-axe approach to these kinds of things." And while President Donald Trump does have a habit of changing his mind, the "Mad Money" host emphasized why a National Economic Council chief Kudlow would be good for the country. "If he disagrees with the president, he'll state his case and then he will back down," Cramer said. "That's why I think he's a good choice: he'll be a very credible expert to argue with the president, which I believe is what Trump wants and is why I bet that Larry Kudlow gets the job." Micron madness A booth of Micron Technology at an industrial fair in Frankfurt, Germany. Kai Pfaffenbach | Reuters With the major averages slipping from their highs on lingering trade-war concerns, Cramer wanted to go against the grain and take a look at what's winning. "One word: tech. Tech is what's working," Cramer said on Monday from CNBC's 1Market in San Francisco. "The truth is, tech has been on fire for a long time this is now the seventh straight week of gains for this group." Tech's first tailwind on Monday came in the form of an analyst upgrade. Nomura Instinet released a report that raised its price target on shares of Micron to $100 from $55. Shares of Micron, an Idaho-based chipmaker specializing in DRAM dynamic random-access memory and flash memory chips, ran up nearly 9 percent on the news. "I've been telling you that something like this was on the horizon," Cramer said. "Micron's the backbone of everything from the personal computer, which has gotten a second wind, to the data center, which is the strongest part of the entire food chain." Introducing: The 'cloud kings' Attendees stand on step ladders to look inside a cloud display at an exhibition booth during the Mobile World Conference Americas event in San Francisco. Cayce Clifford | Bloomberg | Getty Images Since Cramer is in San Francisco this week, he wanted to go over a new stock group in technology space that's just refusing to quit. "I'm calling them 'the cloud kings,' the seven software companies that are transforming the way their customers do business," the "Mad Money" host said. "I've been telling you about the cloud revolution for years now, ... but the truth is it's still in its early stages, which is why I still like the seven kings of the cloud: Adobe, Salesforce.com, ServiceNow, Red Hat, VMware, Splunk and Workday." In addition to their cutting-edge tech, these companies' stocks have been wildly strong performers, Cramer said. Shares of all seven have rebounded between 17 and 30 percent since the market's Feb. 9 lows. So, to convince investors why macro-economic or geopolitical worries shouldn't weigh on this part of the cloud, Cramer went over each cloud king's track record and explained what made it a worthy buy. Splunk CEO on best retail practices Doug Merritt, CEO, Splunk Scott Mlyn | CNBC Sticking to tradition in retail specifically, choosing what to sell without having the data to back up the decision could be what's killing struggling chains. That's at least if you ask Doug Merritt, the president and CEO of software analytics play Splunk, who told CNBC on Monday that picking items to sell without consulting customer data could land retailers in jeopardy. "If you're doing it that way, it's going to be harder and harder to be successful," Merritt told Cramer. "That is not the way that Amazon's doing it. That's not the way that Mercadolibre's doing it. That's not the way Alibaba's doing it." "Worlds are being disrupted because people are taking a data-driven approach right now to understanding product velocity [and] customer needs," Merritt said. Workday CEO on working with Netflix Workday co-founder and CEO Aneel Bhusri told Cramer on Monday that getting Netflix as a customer was a win for his cloud-based software company. "They could've picked anybody," Bhusri said. "They were working with legacy systems in the past, but they were actually an early adopter of our financial systems." Bolstering its financial systems was Workday's focus for much of 2017. In addition to its flagship human capital management software, which helps streamline human resources departments, the company has been asking clients to embrace its financial products as well. But Netflix wasn't just a high-profile customer, Bhusri told Cramer. "Reed Hastings, their CEO, would send me emails at all hours of the night with things I could fix in the product," the CEO said. "He's very good with products, as you know, and they worked with us over time to really build a terrific global platform. It's just a great partnership. And we will now ... integrate into their customer systems, so the customer systems and their billing systems will integrate into Workday for them to have a seamless business end-to-end experience." Lightning round: Don't mess around in MCD Sticking to tradition in retail specifically, choosing what to sell without having the data to back up the decision could be what's killing struggling chains. That's at least if you ask Doug Merritt, the president and CEO of software analytics play Splunk, who told CNBC on Monday that picking items to sell without consulting customer data could land retailers in jeopardy. "If you're doing it that way, it's going to be harder and harder to be successful," Merritt told "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer. "That is not the way that Amazon's doing it. That's not the way that Mercadolibre's doing it. That's not the way Alibaba's doing it." "Worlds are being disrupted because people are taking a data-driven approach right now to understanding product velocity [and] customer needs," Merritt continued. Splunk is partnered with Amazon's cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, and boasts clients such as Coca-Cola, Nordstrom, Groupon and the state of Alaska. The San Francisco-based company helps clients gather real-time data related to their businesses to smooth operations, heighten security and gain eye-opening insights into their customers. For retailers in particular, Merritt's company hones in on ultra-specific data points that paint a picture of broader customer patterns, wants and needs. "There are signals WiFi hotspots, mobile devices, sensors on the stores that, if you know how to trap, you can do a much better job of understanding what your customers need and listening to that customer so you can be successful," the CEO said. These days, Splunk is moving towards a more "prescriptive" model, telling customers not only that they need to harness their data to survive, but also explaining which data points are most useful and how to use them, Merritt told Cramer. The move is part of Splunk's push to create faster "time to value" for their customers, which comes in handy for multinational companies that need to comply with foreign regulations, the CEO said. But most of all, Merritt said that Splunk's core mission and its partnership with Amazon highlights what companies increasingly need: visibility into customer sentiment and behavior. "Every company has got to become a data-driven company or they just won't compete going forward," Merritt told Cramer, speaking from CNBC's 1Market in San Francisco. "And Splunk is the best solution out there to help companies understand this multitude of data that is coming in every single day and turn it into a business outcome, a true competitive advantage." What is it that successful entrepreneurs do differently? It's the million or even billion dollar question; and if the answer were obvious, we'd perhaps all be a lot richer. According to Annette Kimmitt, EY's global growth markets leader, it all comes down to seven key factors. Kimmitt has spent the past 30 years helping to grow start-ups into billion-dollar businesses. Her findings are based on feedback from some 250 of the most successful companies set up by EY's Entrepreneur of the Year alumni, and insights from the advisers who work with them. "We found that the best high growth entrepreneurs were very deliberate in building out their capabilities across these seven drivers." It is too early to expect a solution of a 64-year-old problem, but the chances of seeing the beginning of a constructive process toward a peaceful Korean Peninsula have rarely been better. The Koreans seem eager and ready. Just look at those broad smiles, four-hand handshakes and the warmth of official greetings shared by estranged Korean cousins. And don't underestimate the U.S. leader warming up for the "art of the deal." It makes me think of similar scenes among the divided Germans while I was standing on Checkpoint Charlie of the wall-separated Berlin in late 1980s. That is now a museum in a bustling and sophisticated capital of a reunited Germany. All it took to get there was a wise and affable Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and the enlightened leadership of President George H.W. Bush and the then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. They worked together to reunite, in October 1990, a country that savagely destroyed Europe during World War II and created the worst human tragedy the continent had ever known. What followed was another miracle: The long process of establishing a European currency was stepped up to create a genuine European customs union and an operational single market for goods and services. These measures helped to firmly anchor a reunited Germany within the continent's community of nations, and to make an epochal progress toward the European economic and political unification (aka, the "European project"). A man walks past an empty ticketing area for Delta at a deserted Logan Airport in Boston after the third nor'easter storm to hit the region in two weeks cancelled the majority of flights on March 13, 2018. Airlines canceled most flights to and from Boston's Logan International Airport on Tuesday, as another powerful winter storm bringing heavy snow and high winds struck the region. More than 870 flights into or out of the main New England airport were called off, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Dozens more were canceled from New York-area airports and throughout the Northeast due to the storm. Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that it had suspended operations in and out of Boston. American Airlines on Monday called off its nearly 200-flight Boston schedule for Tuesday and warned of the potential for other flight cancellations around the Northeast. American and Delta's cancellations include its hourly shuttle service between Boston and New York's LaGuardia. Airlines including American, Delta and JetBlue are waiving ticket-change fees for travelers affected by the storm. Southwest said passengers won't pay additional fees for a date change. The airline doesn't charge date-change fees but passengers generally have to pay more if the fare is higher on the new travel date. Airlines will often cancel flights ahead of time to avoid stranding passengers and crews, which can lead to further delays if employees are not in place to work when flights resume. Delta said it expected operations to be nearly back to normal on Wednesday, depending on the condition of runways. A nor'easter last week prompted airlines to call off more than 2,400 flights. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies cannot provide the answer for any society that uses less and less cash in everyday transactions, two leading European policymakers said. The findings form part of an opinion piece co-authored and published Tuesday by a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank, Benoit Couere, and Jacqueline Loh, chair of the Switzerland's Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Markets Committee. The report claimed blockchain-based tokens are rarely used to price goods and therefore relatively worthless for making payments. It added that as a store of value, they are akin to "gambling in a casino." The opinion piece does concede that with non-cash payments on the rise, an electronic solution of some form may be coming. "While bitcoin and its cousins are something of a mirage, they might be an early sign of change, just as Palm Pilots paved the way for today's smartphones," the report said. "Cash will not be king forever, even though it still rules in many parts of the world." New research from the BIS, known as the central bank of central banks, showed non-cash payments in 25 major countries have roughly doubled in size, as a share of gross domestic product, since the turn of the century. Cash is the only current way in which a person on the street can access money that is backed by a central bank. Should cash disappear from the street then an economy would be wholly reliant on the liquidity of commercial banks. The piece contended that while a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could solve this risk, it could also disrupt the manner in which the financial system and economy currently works. "A CBDC for all would challenge the current model of banks taking customer deposits and using that money to fund the lending that helps drive the economy," it said. "The consequences for bank business models and financial stability would need to be carefully parsed." The report also noted that such a currency would not be able to grant the same anonymity as cash, as it would lead to illegal use. That, it said, could create a different problem where central banks would hold unprecedented amounts of information about individuals. BJ's Wholesale Club is expanding its partnership with Instacart to offer customers same-day delivery in cities along the East Coast, with plans to expand to all BJ's Clubs nationwide by the end of April. This newly expanded partnership follows the lead of wholesale retailers Costco and Walmart's Sam's Club, which also recently partnered with Instacart to offer nationwide same-day delivery services. Instacart's growing relationship with wholesale club stores is helping the delivery service compete with Amazon and its Whole Foods grocery business. BJ's members who place orders through the retailer's website will receive lower member-only pricing, with groceries costing 25 percent less than average supermarket pricing, the company said. BJ's also offers digital coupons, same-day grocery pickup services and a mobile app. Instacart CFO Ravi Gupta told CNBC in February that the company just had its best year ever and the added competition from Amazon has given it "tremendous momentum." He added that Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods served as a "catalyst for the entire industry to suggest that e-commerce is for real and everyone needs an e-commerce solution." In 2016, Instacart signed a five-year deal to be the exclusive delivery provider for most Whole Foods items. However, Amazon has been testing new delivery options, including tow-hour delivery to Amazon Prime customers in select U.S. cities. On the campaign trail, then-candidate Donald Trump pointed to his business acumen as evidence of his effective leadership and repeatedly promised to run the White House like a business. Once elected, he filled top Cabinet positions with former business executives in an apparent bid to satisfy this key campaign promise. Now, more than a year into a presidency that has been plagued with high turnover, public feuds, ongoing leaks and low employee morale, top management experts agree that no large company in America is run quite like Trump's White House. "If a corporate leader tried to do what Trump does, he would probably get fired," says Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business and author of the book "Dying for a Paycheck." The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on this story. Reports from The New York Times and other publications suggest that Trump runs his White House using chaos as a management technique. However, the president tweeted that isn't the case. "The new Fake News narrative is that there is CHAOS in the White House. Wrong!" he wrote on March 6. TRUMP TWEET: CHAOS Although considered ineffective at well-established companies, embracing chaos as a management strategy isn't totally unheard of, particularly for start-ups, business experts say. President Donald Trump displays his signature after signing the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul plan in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., December 22, 2017. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters Willie Pietersen, a management professor at Columbia Business School and author of "Strategic Learning: How to Be Smarter Than Your Competition and Turn Key Insights into Competitive Advantage," points to the late Apple founder Steve Jobs. "Steve Jobs was one of those who was somewhat chaotic as a kind of innovative genius," Pietersen tells CNBC Make It. "[Jobs] was in many cases very cruel to people and very unkind but people gave him a pass on that because of his absolute brilliance, and the excitement and the exhilaration of working behind a brilliant idea." During Apple's early years, Jobs was fond of calling employees in the middle of the night. If he suddenly had a new idea, he'd completely change everyone's course of action and scrap previous plans. "[Jobs] was constantly shaking up the organization, constantly striving for new things, rolling over people who didn't agree with him, and sometimes treating them in a brazen and unfair way," says Pietersen. "He was not known as a diplomat in any sense at all." This chaotic management style proved to be effective for Apple and ultimately led to the creation of highly innovative products, namely the iPad and iPhone. "[Jobs'] mind was very active and very creative," says Pietersen. "And then he hit upon something that was totally brilliant and off it went." Jobs isn't alone in using chaos to manage others. Pietersen points to start-up founders like SpaceX and Tesla's Elon Musk, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg as successful leaders who had somewhat chaotic management styles at the start of their companies. However, Pietersen warns that there's a major difference between the leadership style required to run a start-up, whose aim is to be disruptive and innovative, and that of an established organization like IBM. "Would Elon Musk be a candidate to run IBM or General Electric? My answer would be no," says Pietersen. Start-ups don't have established systems and are much more experimental. They also tend to be led by the same person or group of people who raised the money for the company, which gives them more leeway to be chaotic in the hopes that they become rich and make their investors rich. "Typically at the beginning of a start-up," says Pietersen, "it's almost necessary to be chaotic because these are ideas that have never been thought out before and there are no underlying structures or systems to make them happen." But once a start-up transitions into a larger organization, says Pietersen, the leadership team becomes more disciplined and moves away from this chaotic management style. In fact, many start-up founders ultimately sell their company to people who are better suited to run a large organization effectively. "That's a very good decision at that stage," says Pietersen, "because [they're] not built to run a steady enterprise or a complex enterprise." Meanwhile, companies like Apple whose founders stay on as CEOs are able to remain successful because their business leaders tailor their management style to be more conducive for a large-scale operation. As for the White House, Pietersen questions whether Trump intentionally uses a chaos-based management style namely because the U.S. government is not a start-up. "I don't know that it's an explicit philosophy so much as a sense of disorganization," he says. Intentional or not, Trump's use of chaos has been effective at distracting people from critiquing his policies, says Pfeffer. He likens Trump to a magic act: "One of the things that a magician does is move lots of hands," he tells CNBC Make It. "The intention, of course, is to divert your eyes so you don't see what he or she is really doing. And I think that's pretty much what Trump has been able to accomplish." The Stanford professor notes that Jobs used a somewhat similar strategy (although in a different context and in a less extreme manner). When a new iPhone release was impending, Jobs would create a frenzied fanfare over the unveiling, leading to speculation about the iPhone's release date, the possible new features and where the launch would take place. This "chaos" kept the public's focus on the newness of the product instead of whether or not the latest iPhone was actually better than the previous one, says Pfeffer. Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivers a keynote address at the 2005 Macworld Expo. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images As the market parsed Tuesday's tidal wave of news, from a blocked Broadcom-Qualcomm deal to an ousted Secretary of State, CNBC's Jim Cramer issued a warning to investors. "Can we take a step back for a moment? This is not a good way to invest, people. Your strategy should not change based on every other presidential tweet," the "Mad Money" host said. "Instead of focusing on every little thing from the White House, how about evaluating companies on their own merits? Too old-fashioned for you?" he continued. "Maybe don't stress too much about the tweets unless you want to invest in Twitter." Cramer turned to the technology space to illustrate his point. Paired with the blockage of Broadcom-Qualcomm, fears of Chinese retaliation to President Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs fueled investors to sell out of tech stocks in Tuesday's trading session. But Cramer wouldn't fold so easily. "Look, there's China-oriented tech and non-China-oriented tec you can have a smattering of both in a diversified portfolio, which you know I always preach, or you know what? You can just ignore Chinese exposure completely," the "Mad Money" host said. For example, the high-growth stocks of Amazon, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet are all insulated from any pushback from the People's Republic, Cramer said. Cramer added that his newly anointed "cloud kings" were also safe, non-China-oriented investments: Workday, VMware, Salesforce.com, Red Hat, ServiceNow, Adobe and Splunk. But investors who sold their shares in companies that Trump directly attacked in his past tweets weren't exactly playing it safe, either, Cramer argued. "Suppose you only invested in the companies that President Trump has directly attacked in his tweets," Cramer said. "First he went after United Technologies for wanting to move a Carrier plant to Mexico stock's up 23 points since then," he said. "Then he trashed Boeing for charging too much for the new Air Force One. That $152 stock back then has gone to $338. Then he went after Lockheed Martin. You left $81 bucks on the table if you walked away from that one." While he didn't want investors to ignore the president's tweets or write off the changes to U.S. trade policy, Cramer did want investors to consider the circumstances before selling because of a tweet. "I am saying that if you have a diversified portfolio some health care stocks, some banks, some consumer packaged goods stocks, some tech you won't need to re-position every time the fickle administration changes its view," the "Mad Money" host said. And with the president using the stock market as a rating system, Cramer argued that it wouldn't be in Trump's best interests to seriously debilitate stocks anyhow. "If you're going to react to every gesture, every comment, every tweet this president makes, you're going to end up losing sight of the bigger picture: as much as the president wants to be tough on trade or on companies that take our jobs offshore, he wants the stock market to go higher even more," Cramer said. "Look, it's an unholy alliance. But judging by the stock market's trajectory since the election, it's one that favors the bulls, not the bears." President Donald Trump's plan to appoint CIA Director Mike Pompeo as secretary of State sends a startling message to China, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Tuesday. "It says to China you are our enemy," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." "This is about China being our intellectual and economic enemy," he added. "I think [saying] anything short of that is just a mistake." On Tuesday morning, Trump announced he plans to appoint Pompeo to succeed Rex Tillerson as secretary of State, the latest news in a string of personnel changes at the White House. Tillerson's departure followed a series of public disagreements with Trump. The president also said he is looking at CNBC senior contributor Larry Kudlow "very strongly" for the role of top economic advisor. Cramer said having both Pompeo and Kudlow, a confidant of Trump and longtime economist, in the White House would be an interesting dynamic. "It's good cop, bad cop" on globalism, Cramer said, a day after he reported that Kudlow is the leading contender to succeed Gary Cohn as the president's top economic advisor. Tillerson stood for free trade and commerce, while Pompeo has equated China with Russia, Cramer added. Kudlow previously said Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum are a "bad omen" and could cause a "major calamity." "If you're China, you're probably sitting there thinking, 'What is [Trump] doing?" said Cramer, the host of CNBC's "Mad Money." Pompeo also has likened Iran to the Islamic State militant group, calling the country a "thuggish police state" in a speech in October. Cramer added having Tillerson in the role as secretary of State "stood for a bizarre form of business globalism that is obviously not in sync anymore with where the president is going." Having rallied over 200 percent in the past year, Square's stock sets itself apart by its ability to bonce back from seemingly devastating declines, CNBC's Jim Cramer said on Tuesday. Speaking from CNBC's 1Market in San Francisco, the "Mad Money" host decided to look into Square's resilience and explain what's kept the stock afloat. "Not once, but twice in the last four months, this stock has been hit with fierce declines," Cramer said. "Both times it seemed like the beginning of the end for Square, and both times the stock managed to turn things around, coming back with a vengeance." The payment technology company is led by CEO Jack Dorsey, who is also CEO of Twitter. In November, Dorsey announced that Square was building a pilot program for accepting bitcoin. Square's new cryptocurrency connection ignited its stock, which surged to new highs and suddenly started trading in lockstep with bitcoin. "To me, this is a ridiculous linkage," Cramer said. "Square has enough going for it that it doesn't need this tenuous connection to cryptocurrencies to power its stock to new highs." "I think the best thing they could do would be to figure out a way to decouple from Bitcoin, which is incredibly volatile and really has very little to do with the core business," he recommended. For Cramer, Square's true catalysts are associated with its core business. First, its competition is sparse; neither Apple Pay nor PayPal's Venmo have grown enough to make Square irrelevant. Square also turned profitable much sooner than people expected, reporting a profit last August and guiding toward earnings growth of 45 cents per share in 2018. Better yet, each blowout earnings report has sent the stock soaring. "The company's been mixing its lucrative, high-margin subscription services that it offers to small businesses with healthy transaction growth, and the combination has made the stock incredibly attractive," Cramer said. "That's a major reason why, over the past six months alone, Square's stock has nearly doubled." The bitcoin problems did cause some pain for Square's stock, however. Even though Square was simply running tests to gauge how much its customers cared about being able to process cryptocurrency transactions, according to CFO Sarah Friar, it got caught up in the bitcoin mania. Dorsey, Square's CEO, exacerbated the issue by aggressively promoting Square's bitcoin connection, Cramer said. After the stock's first bitcoin-driven plunge in December, Dorsey sent out a tweet promoting a new capability in Square's Cash app to instantly buy and sell bitcoin. "We support Bitcoin because we see it as a long-term path towards greater financial access for all," Dorsey wrote in January. The tweet sent shares of Square on another roller-coaster ride, surging to over $46 a share before sliding back down to $39 by the market's bottom on Feb. 9. "Here's where I come down: I adore Square," Cramer said. "It's got fabulous fundamentals [and] a great long-term growth story. What I don't adore is how the CEO got overly promotional about using Square's platform to trade bitcoin, and now the stock has all these irrational moves that scare investors away." Cramer recommended that Square executives downplay its bitcoin connection, saying that the company's forecast of 37 percent revenue growth in 2018 is already a great story. "On the other hand, all of this volatility in Square has given you two amazing opportunities to buy the stock into weakness, so if Jack Dorsey wants to keep flogging the cryptocurrency connection, you might get another chance to buy this stock into unjustified weakness," he said. "The bottom line? When you buy a stock, make sure you're owning it for the right reasons," the "Mad Money" host concluded. "Square has some fabulous technology and even better numbers; maybe someday the bitcoin connection will have a material impact on the business, but until then, remember that when this stock sells off based on volatility in cryptocurrencies, that's a reason to buy Square, not to dump it." China looks content to let U.S. President Donald Trump take the lead in the dialogue with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. But if talks hit a snag, Washington and Pyongyang may turn to Beijing for help. Shenyang, Liaoning province, China: A North Korean restaurant in one of China's largest Korea towns. CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images China, so far, has welcomed a planned meeting between Trump and Kim due to take place before May without indicating any interest in participating. A Friday editorial in state-run newspaper Global Times "applauded" the summit, set to be the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean ruler. The milestone meeting suits Beijing's interests, so President Xi Jinping isn't expected to interfere, analysts explained. Once a close ally of North Korea, the Asian giant has long supported de-escalation on the Korean peninsula and a moratorium on nuclear weapons. "Beijing is getting what it wants without having to take a public role," said DJ Peterson, president of geopolitics advisory firm Longview Global Advisors. "China also has to be sensitive toward the needs of North Korea: Kim wants to be on his own with Trump so for now, China is likely to respect that and remain in the background," he said. Moreover, a Trump-Kim summit could produce strategic gains for Beijing. "One possible outcome might result with Beijing accelerating its call for a reduction in the presence of U.S. troops in Japan and South Korea, as well as pressuring Seoul to reconsider the need for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system," said Chin-Hao Huang, assistant professor at Singapore-based Yale-NUS College. "This gradual reduction of U.S. security and military presence in the region could be interpreted as a win for Beijing, but would only occur after U.S. consultation with Japan and South Korea." How China could step in If discussions between a Washington and Pyongyang get tricky, China could enter the process. "Both sides will need China, especially if the talks hit a rough patch," noted Jim Walsh, a senior research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has previously traveled to Iran and North Korea for talks with officials on nuclear issues. "The U.S. will want China to lean on the DPRK; the DPRK will want China to make its case to the Americans; and both will want [China] to be part of whatever political settlement is achieved, if one is achieved," Walsh said. Beijing is Pyongyang's largest trading partner, but Xi's administration has increased sanctions enforcement against the reclusive regime. Bilateral trade in January fell to its lowest level since June 2014 in dollar terms, according to official data. Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk has doubled down on his dire warnings about the danger of artificial intelligence. The billionaire tech entrepreneur called AI more dangerous than nuclear warheads and said there needs to be a regulatory body overseeing the development of super intelligence, speaking at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin, Texas on Sunday. It is not the first time Musk has made frightening predictions about the potential of artificial intelligence he has, for example, called AI vastly more dangerous than North Korea and he has previously called for regulatory oversight. Some have called his tough talk fear-mongering. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said Musk's doomsday AI scenarios are unnecessary and "pretty irresponsible." And Harvard professor Steven Pinker also recently criticized Musk's tactics. Musk, however, is resolute, calling those who push against his warnings "fools" at SXSW. "The biggest issue I see with so-called AI experts is that they think they know more than they do, and they think they are smarter than they actually are," said Musk. "This tends to plague smart people. They define themselves by their intelligence and they don't like the idea that a machine could be way smarter than them, so they discount the idea which is fundamentally flawed." Based on his knowledge of machine intelligence and its developments, Musk believes there is reason to be worried. "I am really quite close, I am very close, to the cutting edge in AI and it scares the hell out of me," said Musk. "It's capable of vastly more than almost anyone knows and the rate of improvement is exponential." Musk pointed to machine intelligence playing the ancient Chinese strategy game Go to demonstrate rapid growth in AI's capabilities. For example, London-based company, DeepMind, which was acquired by Google in 2014, developed an artificial intelligence system, AlphaGo Zero, that learned to play Go without any human intervention. It learned simply from randomized play against itself. The Alphabet-owned company announced this development in a paper published in October. Musk worries AI's development will outpace our ability to manage it in a safe way. "So the rate of improvement is really dramatic. We have to figure out some way to ensure that the advent of digital super intelligence is one which is symbiotic with humanity. I think that is the single biggest existential crisis that we face and the most pressing one." To do this, Musk recommended the development of artificial intelligence be regulated. "I am not normally an advocate of regulation and oversight I think one should generally err on the side of minimizing those things but this is a case where you have a very serious danger to the public," said Musk. "It needs to be a public body that has insight and then oversight to confirm that everyone is developing AI safely. This is extremely important. I think the danger of AI is much greater than the danger of nuclear warheads by a lot and nobody would suggest that we allow anyone to build nuclear warheads if they want. That would be insane," he said at SXSW. "And mark my words, AI is far more dangerous than nukes. Far. So why do we have no regulatory oversight? This is insane." Musk called for regulatory oversight of artificial intelligence in July too, speaking to the National Governors Association. "AI is a rare case where I think we need to be proactive in regulation than be reactive," Musk said in July. Clarity is the mot du jour here in Brussels, with so little of it forthcoming from Washington D.C. on the subject of trade and tariffs. European Commission officials have been trying thus far in vain to understand whether proposed U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium will end up impacting their 28 member states. Last week, the European Commissioner for trade, Cecilia Malmstrom, repeatedly insisted that she did not buy the American pretext for introducing tariffs, that of national security, in particular when applied to ostensible allies on this side of the Atlantic. She said the European Commission would take its case to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva and push to have any U.S. measures reversed; she told me that Trump's position was "politically hard to understand, but also legally hard to make the case." But after a long-scheduled weekend meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Malmstrom used another bit of neat diplomatese she described her discussions with Ambassador Lighthizer on Saturday as having been "frank." Translation: far from cordial. And that should come as no surprise, after the Trump administration very suddenly signed off on tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium, a move that not only roiled financial markets in the short-term, but may leave more lasting damage by upending the tradition of well-choreographed conversations on trade that have characterized U.S.-Europe relations for the past decade or so. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson boards his plane to depart at the end of a five-country swing through Africa from Abuja, Nigeria, March 12, 2018. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by President Donald Trump, according to White House officials' statements on Tuesday morning. He was in office for a little over a year, one of the shortest tenures in modern history and it was not, experts say, a distinguished one. "Tillerson would be at or near the bottom of the list of secretaries of state, not just in the post-Second World War world but in the record of US secretaries of state," says Paul Musgrave, a scholar of US foreign policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. More from Vox: Betsy DeVos tweeted a bizarre self-own about Michigan's public schools "The Secretary had every intention of staying": State's shocking Tillerson statement Mike Pompeo, your likely new and Trump-friendly secretary of state The former Exxon Mobil CEO, whose nomination was initially greeted warmly by prominent foreign policy hands, will leave office without any major accomplishments. This is largely because he failed to wield any significant influence in internal administration debates over issues like North Korea or Russia, and in fact actively alienated the president during several key policy debates. His push to slash "inefficiencies" in the State Department and seeming disinterest in working closely with longtime staff were even more damaging. Under Tillerson's watch, 60 percent of State's top-ranking career diplomats resigned and new applications to join the foreign service fell by half, according to a November count by the American Foreign Service Association. This hollowing-out of the foreign service, combined with Tillerson's inability to appoint people to vital positions like ambassador to South Korea, delayed American responses to major crises and weakened the State Department for a "generation," according to George Washington University's Elizabeth Saunders. This can't all be blamed on Tillerson: Even a skilled and experienced diplomat would have had trouble maintaining influence in the chaotic Trump White House, a place where foreign policy is often made over Twitter. As if to underscore the point, Trump announced Tillerson's departure in a tweet before the secretary himself could make a statement. Tweet Yet scholars and foreign policy practitioners across the political spectrum agree that he deserves much of the blame. "I think he really will go down as one of the worst secretaries of State we've had," Eliot Cohen, counselor to the State Department under President George W. Bush, told Axios's Jonathan Swan. "He will go down as the worst Secretary of State in history," tweeted Ilan Goldenberg, an Obama-era State Department official. Tweet Many expected Tillerson to be one of the "adults in the room," helping Secretary of Defense James Mattis rein in some of Trump's wildest ideas. His attempts to play that role backfired his ham-handed attempts to manage Trump alienated the president, who has reportedly complained about his "totally establishment" views on foreign policy. When you combine the lack of influence over Trump with Tillerson's dismantling of the State Department's staff he made more of a mess of the department in a shorter amount of time than any other secretary of state in history you have a truly disastrous tenure in Foggy Bottom. "He took the job and made it smaller," Musgrave says. Tillerson failed at the thing he was supposed to be good at When Trump announced Tillerson as his pick for secretary of state, back in December 2016, the foreign policy community was split on the appointment. As CEO of Exxon Mobil, one of the world's largest corporations, Tillerson seemed to be more than qualified to effectively manage a sprawling bureaucracy like the State Department. Mainstream GOP foreign policy experts like former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley all praised the pick. "He would bring to the position vast knowledge, experience, and success in dealing with dozens of governments and leaders in every corner of the world," Gates said in a statement. "He is a person of great integrity whose only goal in office would be to protect and advance the interests of the United States." Critics, though, worried about Tillerson's close relationship with Vladimir Putin and Exxon's willingness to strike deals with corrupt foreign dictators and history of lobbying against climate change (though the corporation now says it accepts climate science). During his January confirmation hearings, senators grilled him about both Russia and climate change, with Democrats clearly unsatisfied by his answers. "Do you lack the knowledge to answer my question, or refuse to answer my question?" Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) puffed after Tillerson repeatedly stonewalled his questions about Exxon funding climate change denial. "A little of both," Tillerson replied. Tillerson was confirmed in late January 2017 nonetheless, in a vote that basically fell along party lines. Quickly, he set about upending everyone's views about him. As soon as March, it had become clear that the conventional wisdom was 100 percent wrong. The fears about Tillerson's policy views had proven overblown, mostly because he had been completely overshadowed in internal White House deliberations over issues like Syria and Russia. "More than a month after he became America's top diplomat, Rex Tillerson is like no other modern secretary of State: he's largely invisible," the LA Times's Tracy Wilkinson reported at the time. "His influence at the White House is difficult to discern. He appears to be competing with Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and Stephen Bannon, the president's chief strategist, both of whom have Trump's ear on foreign policy." The optimism about Tillerson's management acumen, by contrast, had clearly been misplaced. Tillerson failed to place political appointees in a number of vital leadership positions, failed to spend a lot of time with his own employees, and pushed out longtime employees without clear replacements in mind. Morale inside the organization collapsed. "I used to love my job," one State Department staffer told the Atlantic's Julia Ioffe at the time. "Now, it feels like coming to the hospital to take care of a terminally ill family member. You come in every day, you bring flowers, you brush their hair, paint their nails, even though you know there's no point. But you do it out of love." What was true in March remained true for the rest of Tillerson's brief tenure. On issue after issue, Tillerson proved to be out of touch with the president's foreign policy positions. The US bombed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in early April just days after Tillerson suggested the administration would be fine with Assad staying in power. On June 9, Tillerson called on Saudi Arabia and its allies to end their isolation of Qatar; less than two hours later, Trump sided with the Saudis by labeling Qatar "a funder of terrorism at a very high level." On July 20, after a meeting in which the president reportedly asked for a major expansion of America's nuclear arsenal, Tillerson told aides that the president was a moron or, according to some reports, a "fucking moron." One time, Tillerson tried to open the door to negotiations with North Korea and Trump slapped him down in a tweet. The staffing problem at the State Department remained bad throughout Tillerson's tenure and in some ways got even worse. Only 64 out of 153 political appointees were confirmed by the Senate, according to a count by the Washington Post and Partnership for Public Service. He had not nominated anyone to be the assistant secretary supervising vital regions like Asia and the Middle East, nor did he nominate ambassadors for countries as important as Saudi Arabia and South Korea. These kinds of vacancies can be devastating. Political appointees are necessary to shape policy, as they serve as a conduit between the administration and foreign governments. Without people in these positions, career diplomats fill in as best as they can, but they have a hard time making new decisions or formulating new policy. It's near unprecedented to go this long with this many vacancies, because it cripples America's ability to develop diplomatic stances on vital issues. "When I was assistant secretary, I was sworn in early April [of the first year]," says Hank Cohen, the assistant secretary of state for Africa under George H.W. Bush. Under Tillerson, this position has still not officially been filled. "It's a big problem," Cohen said. In addition to that, it's not like the past year has been uneventful. During Tillerson's tenure, tensions over North Korea's nuclear program got so bad that war started to seem like a real possibility and then President Trump decided to sit down with Kim Jong Un for the first direct negotiations ever between Washington and Pyongyang. One US ally in the Gulf (Saudi Arabia) laid economic siege to another (Qatar). Russia apparently poisoned a double agent on British soil. And even the career staff suffered under Tillerson. He eliminated entire segments of the department, like the department that tracked war crimes. He imposed limits on transfers inside the organization, typically a way the State Department deals with staffing shortages, in late June. He publicly defended a Trump administration proposal to cut his department's budget by 30 percent and has repeatedly pushed for staffing cuts despite repeated rebukes from Congress. He also cut off the department from vital recruiting sources, like the Presidential Management Fellows program. "Secretary Tillerson's term has led to widespread demoralization in the foreign service, the dismissal or resignation of people with expertise that individually may not be irreplaceable but as a cohort certainly becomes so," Musgrave says. "That hinders the State Department's ability to enhance US interests through diplomacy." The State Department's personnel shortfalls have long-term effects on everything ranging from the South China Sea to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict you can't negotiate very well if you don't have people who know how to do it. Saunders analogizes the US under Tillerson's emaciated State Department to a person who doesn't have health insurance. "Your life is probably fine up until the point you get sick," she says. Joseph Percoco, a former top advisor and close confidante of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, was convicted on fraud and bribery charges in a federal corruption case on Tuesday. Percoco, who served as the governor's executive deputy secretary, was accused of accepting more than $300,000 in bribes from three business executives of two companies which had business with the state. According to prosecutors, Percoco referred to the bribes as "ziti" in emails, a term he borrowed from the HBO mafia drama The Sopranos. The governor was not accused of any wrongdoing in the case. But the conviction of Percoco, whom Cuomo once referred to as "my father's third son," comes as a political blow to the two-term Democratic governor, who has promised to clean up corruption in Albany. Percoco was cleared of extortion charges. His lawyer did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. Change sure comes within hours. That night, five days after losing his fight against a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent levy on imported aluminum, pro-free trade economic advisor Cohn resigns as head of the National Economic Council. On the morning of March 6 , Trump denounces reports of chaos in the White House as "Fake News." But he goes on to say, "I still have some people that I want to change (always seeking perfection)." Here's a list of some of the jolting events, starting with Cohn's sudden resignation as President Donald Trump 's top economic advisor last Tuesday night through the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson only a week later: It's hard to believe, but Gary Cohn 's resignation from the White House was only last week. Also March 6, Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway is accused by federal investigators of violating the Hatch Act by making political statements supporting Republican Roy Moore in the Alabama U.S. Senate race. The same day, porn star Stormy Daniels files a lawsuit against Trump alleging that a nondisclosure agreement she had signed with the president's attorney over an alleged affair was not valid because Trump hadn't signed the agreement. March 8, at a televised Cabinet meeting, Trump says his administration is in the final stage of crafting regulations to ban bump stocks, devices that enable semi-automatic guns to fire at fully automatic speeds. "Bump stocks are going to be gone," he says in a move that followed the Feb. 14 massacre of 17 students and adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Also March 8, Trump hastily agrees to meet with Kim Jong Un in a bid to defuse tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile testing. Tillerson was in Africa while Trump made his decision. March 10, Tillerson's spokesman announces in Kenya that the secretary of State was not feeling well and had canceled his events in the east African country. Also March 10, at a campaign rally for Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone, Trump says Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters has a "low IQ" and calls Chuck Todd, host of NBC's "Meet the Press," a "son of a bitch." March 12, two weeks after admonishing fellow Republicans as being "afraid of the NRA," Trump says there's "not much political support (to put it mildly)" for raising the minimum age of purchasing an assault gun to 21. Also March 12, the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee ends its probe into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election, saying it found "no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy" between the Trump campaign and Russia. In another development on March 12, Trump's personal assistant, John McEntee, is fired and escorted out of the White House amid a Secret Service investigation into alleged financial crimes, The Wall Street Journal reports on March 13. Citing people close to McEntee, the Journal says the case is related to online gambling and taxes. McEntee could not be located by CNBC for comment, and the White House declined to comment on personnel issues. After being fired, however, McEntee joins Trump's re-election campaign as a senior advisor. March 12-13, British Prime Minister Theresa May says it was "highly likely" that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England. Trump is initially silent about May's statement, although White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters: "Right now, we are standing with our U.K. ally. I think they're still working through even some of the details of that. And we're going to continue to work with the U.K., and we certainly stand with them throughout this process." Just before he was fired, Tillerson says he didn't know whether Moscow knew of the attack with a military-grade nerve agent, but that one way or another, "it came from Russia." On March 13, the White House says Trump agrees with May that Russia "must provide unambiguous answers" about the chemical used to poison Skripal and his daughter. A cryptocurrency mining computer equipped with four cooling fans is seen on display at a computer mall in Hong Kong, January 29, 2018. Japan will urge its G20 counterparts at a meeting next week to beef up efforts to prevent cryptocurrencies from being used for money laundering, a government official with direct knowledge of the matter said. Finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of 20 major economies will meet in Buenos Aires on March 19-20, with cryptocurrencies set to be on the agenda. But the prospects for the G20 finance leaders to agree on specific global rules and mention them in a joint communique are low, given differences in each country's approach, the official said, a view echoed by another official involved in G20 talks. "Discussions will focus on anti-money laundering steps and consumer protection, rather than how cryptocurrency trading could affect the banking system," one of the officials said. "The general feeling among the G20 members is that applying too stringent regulations won't be good." The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a 37-nation group set up by the G7 industrial powers to fight illicit finance, will report to the G20 its findings on ways to keep cryptocurrencies from being used for money laundering. Japanese policymakers fear that while there is broad consensus among the G20 nations on the need for such steps, some nations have looser regulations than others, which leaves loopholes for money laundering, the official said. Japan was the first country to adopt a national system to oversee cryptocurrency trading, although it carried out checks on several exchanges this year after the theft of $530 million from one exchange, Coincheck Inc. France and Germany have said they will make joint proposals to regulate the bitcoin cryptocurrency market. A head of the European Union's watchdog said a short-term strategy could be to focus on applying anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules, warning consumers of the risk of trading in cryptocurrencies and preventing banks from holding them. The trick would be to apply regulations to protect consumers and prevent illicit activity, without stifling innovation in the fast-growing crypto-currency and fintech sectors, the Japanese officials said. Goldman Sachs' Harvey Schwartz told the company he would leave if he was not offered the CEO position, The New York Times reported. The report, citing people familiar with the matter, said Schwartz approached lead director Adebayo Ogunlesi with an ultimatum that he would resign unless he was tapped for the chief executive role in the next few months. Schwartz's move backfired, however. In a meeting last month, current CEO Lloyd Blankfein expressed his preference for David Solomon to succeed him, the report said. On Monday, Goldman announced that Schwartz would retire from his role as co-president and co-chief operating officer. The bank also said that Solomon would take over as the sole president and COO, making him the odds-on-favorite to become the next Goldman Sachs CEO. The news comes amid increasing speculation about Blankfein's departure from Goldman. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported Blankfein would likely step down as soon as this year. "The board ran its succession planning in a deliberate and orderly fashion on its own timeline," a Goldman spokesperson said in an email. Click here to read the full New York Times story. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., on Tuesday contradicted his own GOP-led committee's findings in its probe of Russian meddling during the 2016 U.S. election. In a statement, Gowdy said it was "clear, based on the evidence, Russia had disdain for Secretary Clinton and was motivated in whole or in part by a desire to harm her candidacy or undermine her Presidency had she prevailed." The statement from Gowdy, who is not seeking re-election at the end of his current term, cuts against conclusions announced Monday by the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee. Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said on Monday that the committee, which has been active for more than a year, has finished conducting interviews as part of its investigation. In his statement, Nunes thanked Gowdy, as well as Republican Reps. Tom Rooney of Florida and Mike Conaway of Texas, "for the excellent job they've done leading this investigation." But Gowdy's Tuesday statement appeared to contradict the initial findings of his own investigation, which said it disagreed with the intelligence community's prior judgments "with respect to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's supposed preference for candidate Trump." Taxpayers in states like California and Connecticut certainly have a lot to complain about when it comes to their tax bill, yet residents of Illinois are shouldering a bigger burden. With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the GOP's new tax code, capping taxpayers' deductions on their property, state and local income taxes (also known as SALT) at $10,000, the result will likely be bigger tax bills for residents of certain states, including California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. But that's not the whole picture. Personal finance site WalletHub compared state and local tax rates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia looking at real estate taxes, income taxes, vehicle property taxes, and sales and excise taxes to identify the places with the highest and lowest tax rates overall. Taxpayers in the most tax-expensive states, which include Illinois, Connecticut and Nebraska, pay three times more than those in the cheapest states, like Alaska. Here's a look at the country as a whole: Until now, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was widely expected to become the country's longest-serving premier. Recent reports tying him to suspected cronyism could change that. Protesters stage an anti-Abe demonstration near the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on March 12, 2018. KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images For over a year, allegations have been flying that Abe and his wife Akie Abe granted political favors to a right-wing education group for a real-estate deal. Kyodo News reported on Monday that the first lady's name was removed from paperwork related to the sale, with finance ministry officials admitting admitting the same day that documents had been altered. Protesters in Tokyo took to the streets after that admission. A number of controversies have dogged Abe during his two terms, but the 63 year-old has always retained a firm grip on power. Monday's news, however, could hit his approval ratings just as his ruling faction, the Liberal Democratic Party, prepares for a key leadership vote in September. The LDP, Japan's main political entity, holds a hefty majority in parliament, so whoever wins the party's leadership vote is typically assured the role of prime minister. If Abe clinches victory in September's vote, that will put him on track for a third term in power a record for the country. But the current scandal could "erode Abe's support within the LDP, forcing him to announce that he won't seek a third term and clearing the way for a successor," according to Tobias Harris, Japan vice president at political risk advisory firm Teneo Intelligence. Up until now, "there was little appetite within the LDP to change leaders," but with "evidence of serious wrongdoing" on the part of the finance ministry, "questions about who ordered the cover-up, how politicians were involved and what Abe knew will only grow," Harris explained. Support for Abe's cabinet dropped two points to 44 percent, according to a telephone survey conducted by broadcaster NHK over the weekend. A separate poll by newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun showed the cabinet's rating falling six percentage points to 48 percent. It was the first time that metric had fallen below 50 percent since October. At the heart of the controversy are reports that Moritomo Gakuen, a private educational institute with an ultra-nationalist reputation, used its connections with Abe's wife to obtain a cheap price for state land. Moritomo planned to use the land for a new school, naming Akie honorary principal. She quickly resigned from the position, however, when news of the deal broke last year. If the government's approval ratings fall further, Abe "may either not run or face defeat in the upcoming LDP leadership election," echoed Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics. That could spell trouble for the prime minister's "Abenomics" reform program that has helped revived the world's third-largest economy. Google co-founder and Alphabet CEO Larry Page's autonomous flying taxi company unveiled its commercial plane called Cora late on Monday. In 2016, Page invested in two flying car start-ups. One of those was Kitty Hawk, which is developing Cora. Last year, the company released footage of a prototype aircraft that flew over water and was all-electric. Now the company is pushing forward with making the flying cars a reality. In the video in which Kitty Hawk unveiled Cora, the company said it is working with the New Zealand government to commercialize its air taxis. Cora is completely autonomous, can travel at 150 kmh (93 mph), and is all-electric with a range of 100 kilometers. It also takes off and lands vertically so doesn't need a runway to operate. Megan Woods, minister for research, science and innovation for New Zealand, said that Kitty Hawk's Cora fits in with the country's aim of having net zero emissions by 2050. Kitty Hawk is operating in New Zealand as Zephyr Airworks. "New Zealand's Central Aviation Authority has the respect of the worldwide regulatory community. A people who embrace the future. And a dynamic economy that could serve as a springboard for Cora," Kitty Hawk explained in a press release Monday. Cheryl Kaplan Source: M.Gemi Cheryl Kaplan tried consulting, merchandising and buying, and even once was a restructuring advisor for distressed companies. But all along she was itching to create something of her own. Then came M.Gemi. The Italian-luxury shoe brand is gaining popularity among fashion's elite today but also targets shoppers on a budget. All the products sneakers, heels, flats, boots and loafers for men are made in Italy, constructed within one of M.Gemi's workshops, but cost on average $350. For quality leather goods, many would call the price tags a steal. The timing of new inventory is unique, to keep customers interested in M.Gemi and always coming back for more. Every Monday, the company drops a new shoe style for shoppers to snag, but only for a limited time. (Though some styles, like the coveted Felize moccasin or Corsa ankle boot, are here to stay.) "Retail is like everything else if you stay the course people will get bored," Kaplan told CNBC about the current retail environment, which is rife with store closures and businesses going bankrupt. "Everything cycles through, and right now consumers are looking for experiences. ... If you don't change, you get stale. It's as simple as that." Kaplan started her career in retail as an intern with Gap, then leaving college with a fashion and business education. She went on to build Rue La La with some co-workers from SmartBargains.com, where she spent more than seven years early in her career. The Rue La La business model became well-known for offering stellar sales on brand names, but only for a small window of time. It's an approach to retailing that Kaplan and Rue La La founder Ben Fischman eventually brought over to M.Gemi. In 2014, Kaplan got together in Boston with Maria Gangemi and Fischman to pull together the idea for an online shoe brand that filled a niche. Fast forward to today and Kaplan is president of M.Gemi, which is named for Gangemi and is expanding its e-commerce business into bricks and mortar. But M.Gemi's stores, more like showrooms, are a far cry from a Finish Line, Stride Rite or Clarks. The company opened its first location in 2016 in New York's SoHo neighborhood, where other e-commerce brands such as Allbirds, Casper and Warby Parker got their start. Source: Janie Liu Inside the SoHo shop, one will find every style of shoe M.Gemi currently has available, in a slew of different patterns and colors and rotating weekly. Employees are prepared to walk shoppers through the company's history and how the browsing process works shoes aren't meant to be taken from the store. Instead, shoppers can sample shoes in various styles and sizes and then order the best fit via a tablet on the spot, or at a later time on mgemi.com. "Prior to opening stores, we were always trying to limit hurdles through having the best customer service, making ordering online and returns really simple, ... having a prepared label in the box," Kaplan said. "But at the end of the day, being able to walk in and try on [the shoe] was something we wanted." Instagram and gelato trucks M.Gemi also has a temporary shop uptown in New York at The Shops at Columbus Circle and keeps a second permanent fitting location at The Shops at Prudential Center in Boston. To date, the company has raised $47.2 million from backers including Accel Partners and General Catalyst, helping the company grow. "Those stores have become destinations for people," Kaplan said. "We want to expand ... but we want to do it in a smart way and location is everything. We will look for the right location, at the right time, and with the right contracts in place to be flexible in how we build these stores." M.Gemi has also outfitted a gelato truck that roams around the U.S., popping up in hot markets to act as a showroom for its shoes and raise awareness for the brand. Social media tapping influencers and keeping a fresh Instagram profile has played another important role in M.Gemi's success. "[M.Gemi] has done something really smart. ... These advancements in production, logistics and delivery are [making] a pretty novel experience for the consumer," Sutian Dong of Female Founders Fund told CNBC. The New York-based venture-capital firm has invested in woman-led retail companies including Rent The Runway, Winky Lux and Eloquii. "They leverage social channels to talk directly to consumers and deliver a product that changes consistently," Dong added. "In the shoe category, they've created a brand that consumers resonate with and something that the modern shopper wants." Fischman praises Kaplan as a key to M.Gemi's success. "She's one of the most pragmatic people," Fischman told CNBC. "Cheryl has this incredible filter where she cannot only be uniquely creative about the business but also understand the practical realities: Will it work? Is it feasible?" The next wave President Donald Trump flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, right, speaks during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday, Nov. 01, 2017. Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images Mattis, a former Marine commander with a military career spanning four decades, forged a close relationship with the former Exxon Mobil CEO largely due to their diplomatic approach to national security matters. "We talk two, three times a day, sometimes. We settle all of our issues between he and I, and then we walk together into the White House meetings. That way, State and Defense are together," Mattis said in January. Tillerson and Mattis, along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, reportedly had a so-called suicide pact in which the others would resign if Trump tried to remove one of them. As CIA director, Pompeo delivered Trump's intelligence briefing nearly every day and has said that the president "asks really hard questions." Pompeo, 54, became CIA director more than a year ago after serving in the House, where he was a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Below is a roundup of Pompeo's views on various national security matters: Pompeo on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election US President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at the APEC leaders' summit on November 11, 2017. Mikhail Klimentyev | AFP | Getty Images While the ongoing investigation continues to determine the extent of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Pompeo has downplayed the Kremlin's interference. Speaking at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies last year, Pompeo said that the intelligence community determined that Russia's interference ended up not impacting the outcome of the election. However, the intelligence assessment report on this very topic said the community "did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election." And so, Pompeo's comments at FDD were not only a direct contradiction to the report but also in line with Trump's views. Pompeo on the Iran nuclear deal Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Getty Images The staff shakeup installs an ardent critic of the Iran nuclear deal as the nation's top diplomat and narrows the difference of opinion between the White House and the State Department, analysts say. Similar to Trump, Pompeo has called the nuclear agreement "disastrous." In January, Trump said he would stick with the deal for now, but wants to fix the agreement's "terrible flaws." Meanwhile, Pompeo has said that Tehran is "intent on destroying America" and that he was looking forward to "rolling back" the deal. This is why it looks like Pompeo's new assignment is bad news for Iran. Tillerson's firing also removes another member of the administration's internationalist wing and emboldens Trump to take more punitive measures against rivals, including Iran and Venezuela, they warn. Pompeo on Guantanamo Bay A prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Getty Images While serving as a congressman from Kansas, Pompeo criticized the attempt by President Barack Obama to close down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "GTMO has been a goldmine of intelligence about radical Islamic terrorism. I have traveled to GTMO and have seen the honorable and professional behavior of the American men and women in uniform, who serve at the detention facility," Pompeo said in 2016. Pompeo was also against any prisoner transfers from Guantanamo saying, "The detainees at GTMO are treated exceptionally well, so well that some have even declined to be resettled, instead choosing to stay at GTMO." He added: "It is delusional to think that any plan the president puts before Congress to relocate radical Islamic terrorists to the U.S, and potentially Fort Leavenworth Kansas, will make our country safer. The reality is that this proposal will ultimately put Kansans and Americans in danger." It remains to be seen if Pompeo agrees with Trump's push for harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding. Trump's pick to succeed Pompeo at the CIA, Deputy Director Gina Haspel, is known for her role in the agency's "black site" prison program, in which terrorism suspects were detained and tortured. Pompeo on the NSA's spying program The National Security Agency (NSA) logo is shown on a computer screen inside the NSA in Fort Meade, Maryland. Brooks Kraft | Corbis | Getty Images Governments should work together to fix overcapacity in the steel markets and avoid a trade war, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Tuesday. Tensions between the United States and its international trading partners, including the European Union and Japan, have intensified over the last couple of weeks over proposed tariffs on metals. President Donald Trump has decided to put a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum, arguing that these imports posed a threat to national security. Western countries have been hit by a collapse in steel prices. Lower demand for the product and, until recently, rising production in China, have led to job losses in the industry and lower prices. According to the OECD, the way to fix this overcapacity problem is by following international trade rules, namely those established under the World Trade Organization (WTO). "Governments should avoid escalation and rely on global solutions to resolve excess capacity in the global steel industry," the organization said in its March economic outlook on Tuesday. "Trade protectionism remains a key risk that would negatively affect confidence, investment and jobs," the OECD also pointed out in the report. Speaking to CNBC Tuesday morning, Alvaro Pereira, the acting chief economist at the OECD, said that trade right now was very positive, but added that there was a risk of increasing protectionism. "I think it is important to reiterate that since 2008 we had 1,200 measures of increased protectionism all across the G-20 economies and we believe the latest news on this front shows what matters right now is to avoid an escalation, it's very important to engage in dialogue If you look at the past, what could happen if you have an escalation, I think what matters right now is to intensify the dialogue to avoid an escalation in trade tensions," he said. Shares of Qualcomm opened nearly 5 percent down Tuesday, a day after the company's proposed merger with Broadcom was called off. President Donald Trump ordered the immediate and permanent end of takeover talks between the rival chipmakers Monday, citing national security concerns. Qualcomm had resisted a deal for months, rejecting several record-breaking price tags. Broadcom remained committed to a merger, despite growing concerns from regulators. It promised U.S. investment in 5G if the deal went through and advanced a plan to move its headquarters to the U.S. from Singapore. Shares of Broadcom opened roughly 1.5 percent up Tuesday. President Donald Trump sang Mike Pompeo's praises in a statement nominating the CIA director for secretary of state, after ousting former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson from the position. Tillerson's ouster ends a tumultuous tenure as America's top diplomat that was marked by a series of public disagreements with Trump. Trump has picked Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel to run the spy agency. If confirmed by the Senate, Pompeo would take on Tillerson's tough task of coordinating policy with an often unpredictable president. Here is Trump's statement on Pompeo, Tillerson and Haspel: Ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may have gotten more than he bargained for in his 14 months trying to keep up with a president full of surprises in Donald Trump. But the former Exxon Mobil CEO leaves the top diplomatic post with his beneficial tax deals on stock holdings that amounted to more than $200 million. Tillerson, like other Trump officials with large financial holdings, was required to avoid conflicts of interest in stocks when assuming office because of federal law. There's nothing untoward about it the law is designed to allow private citizens to assume important public roles without conflicts of interest related to their personal wealth. It gives Cabinet members the option of selling stocks on a tax-deferred basis as the cleanest way to remove conflicts, and then they can invest those proceeds in diversified holdings such as mutual funds or Treasury bonds. In the case of Tillerson, a large piece of his stock holdings were a little different than the norm. Typically, private citizens who sell stocks to serve in federal office defer any capital gains until such time as whatever replacement investments they bought are sold and subject to taxes. The former oil CEO had a huge stake in Exxon Mobil stock available to him as an executive compensation reward that accrued over four decades with Exxon Mobil but had not yet been granted and would normally be paid out in retirement over a decade. The New York Times estimated in January 2017 that Tillerson's Exxon stake of roughly 2 million shares was worth $174 million. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks with reporters after meeting with Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj in Washington, December 1, 2017. James Lawler Duggan | Reuters But Tillerson could not be paid in stock and without potentially running afoul of government ethics laws. The oil giant agreed to sell the stock and set up a cash trust for Tillerson that would be invested in securities such as Treasury bonds, and pay Tillerson regularly over a decade. Tillerson would only forfeit the right to payments from the trust if he took a job with a competing oil company. Bloomberg estimated last year that the plan would save Tillerson from an immediate federal income tax bill of as much as $72 million. Tillerson also had an estimated $54 million in directly owned Exxon Mobil shares he had to sell. The State Department's legal team also outlined Tillerson's plans to divest Exxon shares in an ethic letters sent to the government in early January 2017. All of Tillerson's public company holdings were outlined in a financial disclosure report he filed last March with the government and include stock holdings he would have had to divest separate from the Exxon retirement plan. State Department and Exxon Mobil did not immediately return requests for comment. Robert Willens, a New York-based tax and account expert, said all of these stock sales to meet government ethics requirements are designed to not require reporting of income and defer taxes. The tax "home run" Willens said, is if Tillerson holds the investment accounts that replaced the stock holdings until death, at which time the value would pass to his heirs on a "stepped up" basis. That means they would not be required to report a gain or loss based on the value at the time Tillerson sold. For example, instead of a stock sold at $1,000 and that had gained in value to $10,000 a $9,000 tax basis the heirs' value is based on the day that it is transferred, at $10,000, so there is no gain to report. In that case, the tax deferral is likely to become a situation in which the holdings are never subject to income tax, Willens said. Ethics watchdogs: Tillerson did the right thing The Russian military has threatened action against the U.S. if it strikes Syria's capital city of Damascus, according to multiple news reports. The threat, by Chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov, was widely reported by Russia media sites such as state news agency RIA and Tass. It said Gerasimov said Russia had "reliable information" about militants preparing to falsify a government chemical attack against civilians. Russia's First Deputy Defence Minister, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, General Valery Gerasimov. Mikhail Metzel | TASS | Getty Images He continued by saying the U.S. would then use this attack to accuse Syrian government troops of using chemical weapons. He added that the U.S. would then plan to launch a missile strike on government districts in Damascus. "In several districts of Eastern Ghouta, a crowd was assembled with women, children and old people, brought from other regions, who were to represent the victims of the chemical incident, " Gerasimov said, according to RIA. Gerasimov said Russia would respond to a U.S. strike on Syria if the lives of Russian servicemen were threatened, targeting any missiles and launchers involved. "In case there is a threat to the lives of our military, the Russian Armed Force will take retaliatory measures both over the missiles and carriers that will use them," he said. The U.S. Department of Defense urged Russia to "stop creating distractions" and "enabling the Assad regime's brutality" in a statement sent to CNBC responding to the allegations. Drafting a new ceasefire The comments come as Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's regime, which is supported by Russia, continues to carry out airstrikes over the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta just outside Damascus. The United Nations Security Council had demanded a ceasefire in Syria two weeks ago to allow nearly 1,000 sick and wounded civilians to leave so they can seek urgent medical treatment. On Monday, the U.S. threatened to "act if we must" if the UN ceasefire resolution continues to be ignored. U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Hailey, said Monday that the U.S. was drafting a new ceasefire resolution with "no room for evasion" and warned the country was prepared to act. "It is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take, and we are prepared to take again," Haley told the UN Security Council on Monday. "When the international community consistently fails to act, there are times when states are compelled to take their own action," she added. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow "has no connection" to a deadly nerve agent used to attack a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K. Lavrov said Russia had requested access to the nerve agent used in the March 4 attack in Salisbury, England, but had been denied access "to materials related to the Skripal case," Reuters reported. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday that it was "highly likely" that Russia was responsible for the attempted murders of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Stressing that Russia had no connection to the poisoning, Lavrov said he expected London to reply to Moscow's request to open up the investigation as Yulia is a Russian citizen. Lavrov's comments come after Russia was given a deadline the end of Tuesday to explain why a nerve agent, which the U.K. deemed to have been created in Russia, was used to poison the Skripals. Calling it a "reckless and despicable act," May said Monday: "There are therefore only two plausible explanations for what happened in Salisbury on March 4. Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country. Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others." May said U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had summoned the Russian ambassador to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to explain why the nerve agent was used in the poisoning. Moscow has until the end of Tuesday to respond, she said. May hinted that Britain is "ready to take much more extensive measures" against Russia, beyond the commonplace expulsion of diplomats, visa freezes and suspended security cooperation. Offering his support to the U.K. government, the now-ex U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday "the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation" was never justified. "And we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. From Ukraine to Syria and now the U.K. Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens," he said in a statement. France's President Emmanuel Macron and the European Union have also offered the U.K. their support. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the White House made the right call in killing Broadcom's aggressive plan to buy Qualcomm. "Let me say unequivocally, President Trump and his administration made the right decision on blocking Broadcom from taking over Qualcomm," he said from the Senate floor Tuesday. The Senate minority leader's comments come after President Donald Trump ordered the companies to abandon the proposal and barred Broadcom's 15 proposed candidates for Qualcomm's board from standing for election. Trump said he had "credible evidence" that the deal had the potential to threaten the national security of the United States. Broadcom has repeatedly said that it disagrees that its bid to buy Qualcomm would present any kind of national security concern. The Singapore-based company had been optimistic that its plan to move its headquarters to the U.S. could save the deal. Schumer called this a "happy moment" and urged greater scrutiny of foreign entities that seek controlling stakes in American companies. In particular, the New York Democrat called out China, saying the country has been "very smart" about trade. Schumer said that Beijing is always looking for opportunities to "steal" American technology and innovation. "When China attempts to steal our best technology by buying American companies, whether it's robotics or AI or chips like here in Qualcomm we ought to block it," Schumer said. The Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States had raised concerns about Broadcom's pursuit, which was unprecedented for a deal that hadn't been formally announced or agreed to. One of the committee's concerns had been how the transaction could stymie U.S. progress in developing 5G wireless network technology. In its March 5 letter, CFIUS said the San Diego-based Qualcomm is a "trusted" player in the nation's telecommunications infrastructure. "Having a well-known and trusted company hold the dominant role that Qualcomm does in the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure provides significant confidence in the integrity of such infrastructure as it relates to national security," the Treasury Department wrote to lawyers involved in the proposed deal. With Broadcom's reputation for slashing research spending, some had feared the resulting company would be less competitive in the race against China to dominate 5G innovation and development. The Treasury Department said, "China would likely compete robustly to fill any void left by Qualcomm as a result of this hostile takeover." That "would have substantial negative national security consequences for the United States." CNBC's David Faber and Alex Sherman contributed to this report. By Ivan Ssenabulya Opposition Democratic Party is demanding for disciplinary action against the state minister for lands,who is also the Bukono County MP Persis Namuganza for undermining the leaders and Busoga Kingdom. Namuganza is criticized for her recent utterances, when she ordered subjects to pelt the kyabazinga with stones and attacking the speaker Rebecca Kadaga for supporting installation of a hereditary chief who she says is not from the royal clan. Addressing a news Conference at their offices in Kampala, DP Deputy Publicity Secretary Fred Mwesigwa said such attacks were regrettable urging president Museveni the appointing authority to urgently address the problem. The blocking of Broadcom's proposed takeover of Qualcomm dragged the entire tech sector lower Tuesday. The S&P 500 technology sector shed more than a percent in session trading, the sector's biggest drop since March 1. Analysts credit the dip to an order from President Donald Trump on Monday banning a merger between the rival chipmakers. It's not the death of the specific deal that sent stocks lower, they say shares of Qualcomm held positive for some of the day even while the rest of the sector turned red but rather the implications of the president's heavy hand. Protectionist concerns Trump's interjection into Broadcom's months-long takeover bid for Qualcomm could signal greater review of deals to come, B. Riley FBR chief market strategist Art Hogan told CNBC. "What's really changed in the last 24 to 48 hours really feels like the regulatory tone," Hogan said. "The Broadcom-Qualcomm [deal], it seems to be a long-running drama, and out of the blue the administration opined on it." That takes away the deal's "halo effect" on the tech sector and hangs doubt on future deals, Hogan said. Tie-ups between Qualcomm and NXP, AT&T and Time Warner, and Disney and 21st Century Fox could all face regulatory challenges. "There was a certain level of valuation baked into this sector for M&A," Hogan said. Semiconductors The semiconductor S&P 500 subsector led by chip giants Intel, Nvidia and Texas Instruments has led the tech stocks in the last 12 months, up nearly 45 percent year over year. Qualcomm and Broadcom round out the subsector's top five companies by market cap, making a failed merger between the two companies particularly painful for the group, according to Scott Kessler, lead tech analyst at CFRA Research. "This whole story is causing people to kind of take a step back because at the least it looks like you have an increasingly protectionist administration that is increasing tariffs and scuttling M&A," Kessler told CNBC. "Those things in the broad sense are probably not great for those in the semiconductor space or tech companies in general." A lower leading subsector may have scared investors out of the tech market, Kessler said. Semiconductor stocks shed more than a percent Tuesday, to more than 3 percent off their 52-week high. "That's a pretty big swing," Kessler said. "It's been a great performer." Trouble with China A failed merger between Qualcomm and Broadcom has some investors worried about the Trump administration's tougher rhetoric on China. "While most tech names including FANG stocks are relatively insulated from any China worries/headwinds, this is enough of a near-term concern for tech investors to take some profits after a golden run over the last few weeks with many of these names making new highs," GBH Insights' Dan Ives told CNBC. National security concerns cited as rationale for blocking the deal boil down to a fear of Chinese companies entering U.S. telecommunications markets and beating the U.S. in the race to develop a 5G mobile wireless network. Though Broadcom is based in Singapore and is in the process of redomiciling to the U.S., the Treasury Department has said, "China would likely compete robustly to fill any void left by Qualcomm as a result of this hostile takeover." The blocked merger could indicate more severe barriers to China to come from the executive branch, analysts said. Trump last week raised tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, heightening concerns of a trade war with China. "The worry is with the ... Broadcom blockage from the Trump administration that this will add fuel to the fire in a battle versus China on the horizon over the coming 12 to 18 months," Ives said. WATCH: Broadcom-Qualcomm deal blocked on security concerns As President Donald Trump steps up efforts to engage North Korea in nuclear disarmament talks, the State Department is in the most turmoil since the president's inauguration. The latest upheaval came Tuesday with the sudden firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was dismissed with few details provided by the White House. Trump picked CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of State. The moves followed Trump's abrupt announcement last week of a yet-to-be-arranged meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. His current national security advisor is rumored to soon be leaving his job. His staff secretary was ousted after public revelations of domestic abuse that other aides had kept hidden. His fourth communications director quit a few days ago after acknowledging she had lied to protect Trump. His personal assistant in the White House has been dismissed and escorted out of the executive mansion. Trump enunciated gun restrictions after the Parkland school massacre, then backtracked after fellow Republicans and the National Rifle Association objected. That mirrored his previous handling of the fate of immigrant Dreamers and health-care marketplace stabilization. He said his steel tariffs would hit Canada and Mexico unless they concluded a new North American Free Trade Agreement. Then he backtracked, without a new NAFTA, after fellow Republicans and U.S. allies warned against a trade war and threatened retaliation. The special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election has indicted the former chairman of Trump's presidential campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller has also secured guilty pleas from Trump's former White House national security advisor, deputy campaign chief and campaign foreign policy adviser all of whom are now cooperating witnesses. Trump's lawyers, who have repeatedly portrayed the investigation as on the verge of ending, are discussing terms under which Mueller can question the president himself about potential collusion with Russia and subsequent obstruction of justice. All these winds buffet the White House as Trump faces hazards, largely of his own making, on several fronts. He rattled markets with the threat of trade disruptions to a strong global economy. He caught national security aides unprepared by agreeing to become the first sitting president to meet with North Korea's nuclear-armed dictator. The administration has articulated no clear U.S. strategy for a meeting South Korea's leader says will occur within two months. Trump declined to promptly speak up in solidarity with America's foremost ally after the prime minister of Britain pointed at Russia for the attempted murder of an expatriate on British soil. He has remained silent as an actress in pornographic films is on the verge of publicly telling her story of a pre-White House affair with him. Trump's personal lawyer paid $130,000 for her silence on the eve of the 2016 election. For now, despite his sub-40 percent approval ratings, Trump enjoys political protection from fellow Republicans who control both houses of Congress. But that protection may not survive the year. Here in southwest Pennsylvania, the Democratic candidate in Tuesday's special House election took a late polling lead in a district Trump won in a landslide. If Conor Lamb breaks the GOP's 16-year grip on this district, Republicans will confront the prospect of midterm defeats large enough to make more incumbents reconsider their appetite for the battle. And if Democrats win back Congress in November, Trump will not merely be standing on shaky political ground. He'll be staring directly at the prospect of impeachment. outside help from a therapist might even be warranted. Antonio Guillem | Getty Images Recent stock market swings in and out of correction territory despite overall good economic news have reminded investors that such wild volatility is always a possibility. While experienced financial professionals generally take such developments in stride, how can their clients protect themselves from their own emotional reactions? The best way to avoid irrational decisions as an investor is to turn off the financial news, said certified financial planner Rick Waechter, founder of Old Peak Finance. "Investing requires a long-term view," he said. "The news is by definition short-term, and there is no way to reconcile them," he said. Waechter said that, at most, investors should look at their accounts monthly and preferably less often. "Every six to 12 months, consider rebalancing ... to get back to your target risk level," he said. Reframing It's helpful to reframe situations for clients, advisors say. "To encourage my clients to buy during down days or drops, I phrase it as 'The market is on sale,'" said Michelle Goldstein, a financial planner and owner of Goldstein Financial Future. "And who doesn't love a sale? "A cumulative drop of 10 percent, like we had recently, means all your favorite funds are marked down 10 percent." For his part, Aaron H. Parrish, CFP and vice president and senior financial advisor with Triad Financial Advisors, said he frequently encounters "anchoring bias" with clients who are reluctant to sell an instrument because it is trading lower than the purchase price. More from Advisor Insight: Americans go on more drunk shopping sprees Scammed taxpayers agree to pay IRS 'debt' on iTunes cards Market shocks should be wake-up call for investors "My way to help people avoid emotions and think clearly about the situation is to ask, 'If you had the money in cash right now, would you buy that stock?'" he said. "By framing it that way, people let go of what they previously bought the stock at and realize that there may be a better use of that money. "I also run across this when discussing surrendering a permanent life insurance policy that doesn't serve a purpose anymore." Behavioral approaches "I don't think it's the client's responsibility to protect themselves from irrationality," said Paul Winter, CFP and president of Five Seasons Financial Planning. "In my view, it's part of our job as financial advisors to protect clients from [themselves], a big part in times like these." The first step for investors is to admit to themselves that they will likely behave irrationally when it comes to their own investments and financial decisions, he said. "Given all the research and academic work on behavioral economics and behavioral finance, this seems fairly indisputable," Winter said. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson learned he was fired Tuesday only from a tweet by his boss, President Donald Trump, NBC News reported, citing State Department officials. And to add insult to injury, Tillerson was basically an afterthought in that tweet, which first introduced Trump's new chosen top diplomat, CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Tweet According to NBC News, senior State Department officials said that there were long-standing tensions between Tillerson and Trump, and that former Exxon Mobil CEO Tillerson learned that he was canned from that tweet just before 9 a.m. Tuesday. Tweet NBC News reported that White House chief of staff John Kelly spoke with Tillerson by phone on Friday and told him that Trump intended to ask Tillerson to "step aside," according to two sources familiar with the situation. Kelly did not provide an exact date or time for that change, according to those sources. The Associated Press reported that during that call from Kelly, Tillerson only was told that Trump might tweet something that would concern him, but was not told what the tweet would say or when it might be posted. In a prepared statement issued Tuesday, the State Department's press office suggested that Tillerson was blindsided by the announcement of his being axed. "The Secretary had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues," the press office said. "The Secretary did not speak to the President this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted." The office added: "We wish Secretary-Designate Pompeo well." NBC News reported in October that Tillerson was on the verge of quitting last summer because of policy disputes and clashes with the president. Tillerson after a July 20 meeting had referred to Trump who was not in attendance as a "moron," according to NBC. Tillerson later publicly claimed that "I have never considered leaving this post." But he has refused to say whether or not he called Trump a moron. In an Oct. 4 briefing, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Tillerson did not use the word "moron" to describe Trump, the NBC report said. "The secretary did not use that type of language to speak about the president of the Unites States," Nauert said. "He did not say that." "What is most important is to ensure an orderly and smooth transition during a time that the country continues to face significant policy and national security challenges," Tillerson said. Without thanking Trump or mentioning him by name, the outgoing Cabinet secretary expressed appreciation for "selfless leaders" at the State Department and other agencies, his voice breaking at times. He highlighted what he deemed the strides made during his time at the agency, and encouraged his deputies to stay in their current jobs. President Donald Trump fired Tillerson earlier in the day in a tweet, and Tillerson told reporters he spoke to Trump on Tuesday afternoon. Speaking at the State Department, the top U.S. diplomat said he will focus on an orderly transition for Trump's new choice to lead the State Department, CIA Director Mike Pompeo . Tillerson will hand his responsibilities over to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. Outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will give up his duties at the end of Tuesday and officially leave the job at the end of the month. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks to the media at the U.S. State Department after being fired by President Donald Trump in Washington, March 13, 2018. The former Exxon Mobil CEO's departure caps more than a year of policy clashes, sometimes public, with his boss. The State Department has lost clout in the Trump administration, and the White House has proposed massive budget cuts for the agency. Morale in the department reportedly dropped under Tillerson's watch. White House officials told news outlets that Tillerson found out he was fired on Friday. State Department spokesman Steve Goldstein issued a statement saying Tillerson had not planned to leave. He "did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware of the reason" for his firing, Goldstein said. Goldstein himself was fired Tuesday, as well. The secretary of State and president publicly disagreed several times during Tillerson's tenure. Those areas include the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate agreement, negotiations with North Korea and the response to Russia's actions around the globe. Most recently, Tillerson diverged from the White House this week in saying poison used on a former spy in the United Kingdom "came from Russia." He took another shot at Moscow in his parting remarks Tuesday. "Much work remains to respond to the troubling behavior and actions on the part of the Russian government," he said. "Russia must assess carefully as to how its actions are in the best interests of the Russian people and of the world more broadly. Continuing on their current trajectory is likely to lead to greater isolation on their part, a situation which is not in anyone's interest." In thanking State Department officials for their work, Tillerson highlighted what he deemed progress made in the past year. He said the U.S. "exceeded the expectations of almost everyone" in applying sanctions in an effort to stop North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. He added that "much remains to be done" in U.S. foreign policy, pointing to efforts to end a civil war in Syria and ensure stability in Iraq. He said the U.S. would face a challenge in improving its relationship with China, "free of conflict." In closing his remarks, Tillerson again thanked the State Department and Americans as a whole for "acts of kindness" and "quiet hard work." Said Tillerson: "I'll now return to private life as a private citizen, as a proud American, proud of the opportunity I've had to serve my country. God bless all of you, God bless the American people, God bless America." President Donald Trump injected fresh uncertainty into oil markets on Tuesday by removing Rex Tillerson from his post as secretary of State and replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a foreign policy hawk. The staff shakeup installs an ardent critic of the Iran nuclear deal as the nation's top diplomat and narrows the difference of opinion between the White House and the State Department, analysts say. Tillerson's firing also removes another member of the administration's internationalist wing and emboldens Trump to take more punitive measures against rivals, including Iran and Venezuela, they warn. That could raise the geopolitical risk premium in oil markets and ultimately disrupt crude output, potentially sending prices higher as supply tapers off at a time of robust oil demand. "We are probably looking at both the U.S. exiting the Iran deal and the U.S. imposing more sanctions on Venezuela, and both of those are pretty bullish for oil," said Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks to the media at the U.S. State Department after being fired by President Donald Trump in Washington, March 13, 2018. Leah Millis | Reuters The Iran nuclear deal has been in peril since Trump disavowed the accord in October. Under the agreement, Iran accepted limits on its nuclear program and agreed to international inspections. In exchange, the United States and international partners suspended sanctions, allowing Iran to restore its lost oil production. Trump waived U.S. sanctions in January but said he would not do so again unless his administration reached a deal with European allies to toughen the terms of the deal and address Iran's ballistic missile tests. He set a deadline for May. "The likelihood of those being renewed is probably now more uncertain," said Arun Pillai-Essex, a senior political risk analyst at Verisk Maplecroft. That does not mean the deal is doomed, Pillai-Essex said, but he noted that Trump and Pompeo have similar views on the deal. Tillerson was among a group of deputies who counseled the president against scrapping the accord. Thus far, European signatories to the deal including Germany, France and the UK have not signaled a strong willingness to make major concessions, Pillai-Essex said. By choosing Pompeo as Tillerson's successor, Trump is increasing pressure on Europe to agree to changes to the deal, said Mark Dubowitz, CEO of Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a longtime critic of the accord. "The appointment of Mike Pompeo is a message to the Europeans that they better fix the fatally flawed Iran deal by May 12, or the president will take America out of the deal and reimpose the most powerful economic sanctions on their companies and banks, who are enriching the Iranian regime," he said. An American exit from the Iran nuclear deal is unlikely to immediately upend oil markets, said Croft. It would take time for renewed sanctions to squeeze Iranian oil supplies, although the market could begin pricing risk into crude prices. There was little evidence of that premium on Tuesday, as oil prices were sharply lower, dragged down by concerns about surging U.S. crude production. The administration could have a more immediate impact on the oil market if it decides to ratchet up sanctions in Venezuela, where economic crisis and mismanagement have caused sharp declines in the petrostate's crude output, said Croft. The European Union should unite in response to any U.S. tariffs on its steel and aluminium exports and it could retaliate alongside nations from outside Europe, the French economy and finance minister told CNBC. "I think the first is to have a common response from the member states from the European Union," Bruno Le Maire said on Monday. But then, if other countries want to take part in the EU response, "of course, we are kind of open to these discussions." He called for "European forces to think about common concern, a common response, and to deliver a response if necessary." Le Maire's comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week a proposal to raise import taxes to 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum. The tariffs could particularly hurt car exporters and construction firms in countries around the world that are on the tariffs list. Trump said he believes the tariffs will help deal with overcapacity in the steel industry and China's practice of "dumping" excess steel onto other countries. The EU sees the move as protectionist, limiting free trade and, along with other nations including China, has said the move is tantamount to a "trade war." The U.K., EU and Japan hope to negotiate exemptions from the tariffs. Mexico and Canada are already exempt. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told CNBC on Monday that Canada's exemption from the tariffs has nothing to do with North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations but he thanked Trump for the "special consideration" given to Canada over the tariffs. He added that he was willing to go further in cooperation with the U.S. "We are also very worried about global oversupply, about China dumping and other places dumping their steel and aluminum and it's affected our workers here," Trudeau said. "We've put in very strong measures, some of the strongest in the world against dumping, but as I said to the president and as I said to congressional leadership, I'm happy to work with the U.S. to go even further with them." The EU reacted angrily to Trump's announcement with the European Commission announcing last Wednesday that it would raise import duties on archetypal U.S. goods including bourbon, peanuts and cranberries if the U.S. went ahead. The EU's trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom commented last Friday that the EU should be excluded from tariffs. On Monday, Trump tweeted that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will be "speaking with representatives of the European Union about eliminating the large Tariffs and Barriers they use against the U.S.A." A 'bad idea' The tide of opposition to tariffs has continued in the EU with the region's finance ministers voicing their dismay to the idea as they arrived for a meeting of the Eurogroup in Brussels on Monday. Commenting as he arrived at a meeting, Netherlands Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra told CNBC that tariffs were "a bad idea." "Let me be clear. I think this is a bad idea; it's bad for European citizens, for Dutch citizens and it will turn out to be bad for U.S. citizens as well, so I very much hope that we can make sure that we avoid going down such road," he said. The threat of China factored heavily into the U.S. government's decision to block Broadcom's proposed buyout of Qualcomm. President Donald Trump, for his part, officially declared on Monday that the proposed $117 billion deal was prohibited on national security grounds. The president said in his order that "there is credible evidence" leading him to believe that Broadcom through control of San Diego-based Qualcomm "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States." That conclusion may seem extreme given that Broadcom is based in Singapore and looking to redomicile to the U.S., where it conducts most of its operations but it's not a fear of the Southeast Asian city state that is raising national security concerns. "The case that has been constructed is that, given Broadcom's business practices, the worry is that they will cut investment significantly, particularly in the 5G roadmap, weaken Qualcomm, as well as the U.S. position and allow Huawei, a Chinese company to take the lead," explained Stacy Rasgon, chip analyst at Bernstein. The Treasury Department said last week in a letter to lawyers involved in the deal that Qualcomm was trusted by the U.S. government and cited Huawei as a competitive threat in the development of 5G, which is a telecommunications standard that will allow for faster transfer of data. President Donald Trump's administration is considering a trade package including indefinite tariffs, investment restrictions and possible visa restrictions on Chinese travelers, a source told CNBC Tuesday. The new package was crafted in response to the findings from a recent investigation of China by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. The so-called Section 301 investigation was formed to determine whether China's practices were "unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce." The proposed package of penalties, which could foment a more adversarial trade relationship with China, comes amid a report from Reuters that the Trump administration is also seeking to impose heavy new tariffs on China. Trump may impose tariffs on $60 billion of Chinese goods, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing a source who had discussed the issue with the White House. The potential tariffs would target the technology and telecommunications sectors, according to Reuters, but would not be limited to those sectors. Politico reported earlier that Trump had rejected proposals for tariffs on $30 billion of Chinese imports, demanding instead even steeper duties on China. China runs a $375 billion trade surplus with the United States and when President Xi Jinping's top economic advisor visited Washington recently, the administration pressed him to come up with a way of reducing that number. Trump came to office on a protectionist agenda and his first action as president was to pull the United States out of the 14-nation Pacific trade pact, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). He has started talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and most recently imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. This story is developing. Please check back for updates. --Reuters contributed to this report. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Larry Kudlow has a "good chance" to take over as his top economic advisor. "I'm looking at Larry Kudlow very strongly," Trump told reporters as he prepared to depart for California. "I think Larry Kudlow has a good chance." Trump also said he was "speaking to many others" about possibly filling the role. Gary Cohn, who had held the position, left the White House last week after a disagreement with Trump over tariffs on aluminum and steel imports. The president's remarks on Kudlow came a day after CNBC's Jim Cramer reported that Kudlow, a longtime CNBC senior contributor and on-air personality, is the leading contender to take over as director of the National Economic Council. Kudlow, a former Wall Street economist and free trade advocate, would take the job if Trump offered it, Cramer also reported. Kudlow criticized Trump's decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and lamented that Cohn left the White House, However, Kudlow applauded the administration's decision to give tariff exemptions to Canada and Mexico. In his remarks Tuesday, Trump said he would welcome disagreement from Kudlow. "We don't agree on everything, but in this case I think that's good," Trump said. "I want to have different opinions. We agree on most. He now has come around to believing in tariffs as a negotiating point." Trump has tied the exemptions for Mexico and Canada to ongoing negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which the president has threatened to scrap unless the U.S. can secure what he sees as a better deal. Kudlow declined to comment on Monday's report from Cramer. Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin testifies before the House Veterans' Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill on February 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump is considering removing Veteran Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and replacing him with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing two people close to the White House. The Times reported that, while Trump has not given Perry a formal offer for the position, Shulkin has fallen out of favor with the president. The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. Read the full report from the New York Times. Donald Trump appeared to back the UK's claims that Moscow was behind the attempted murder of a former Russian spy hours after the Kremlin angrily rejected the charge and demanded access to the details of the investigation. The US president, speaking at an impromptu press briefing on the White House lawn, told reporters he planned to speak to UK prime minister Theresa May on Tuesday about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a Soviet-era nerve agent. "It sounds to me that it would be Russia based on all the evidence they have," Trump told reporters. " As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be." Mr Trump's comments came as he confirmed he had decided to sack Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, who on Monday night had led western condemnation of the attack on British soil that left the Russian double agent and his daughter critically ill. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday that accusations of Russian involvement were "nonsense". The UK ambassador was summoned for an explanation. He added: "We are expecting the United Kingdom to reply to our request that we sent in accordance with the [Chemical Weapons Convention] to present the substance in question to us and to open the entire investigation to us, because it involves a Russian citizen," Mr Skripal's daughter. Mrs May on Monday said it was "highly likely" that Moscow was involved in Mr Skripal's poisoning as the agent used came from a group of Russian-made chemical weapons called Novichok. She gave Russia until the end of Tuesday to provide a "credible response", warning that the UK could step up sanctions against President Vladimir Putin's government. But Mr Lavrov rejected the British ultimatum and said Russia would only act under terms set by the Chemical Weapons Convention that give respondents 10 days to face accusations of producing chemical weapons used abroad. Mr Skripal, a former Russian agent who passed secrets to Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6, and his daughter are in a serious condition after being taken ill in Salisbury, south-west England, on March 4. Russia's foreign ministry warned that Moscow would retaliate against any British sanctions. "Any threats of the adoption of 'sanctions' against the Russian Federation will not be left without response. The British side must be mindful of that," the foreign ministry said. Deputy foreign minister Vasily Titov said Russia had had no role in the poisoning and called the British government's accusations "openly provocative". Claims of Moscow's involvement in the attack have only added to rising tension between the Kremlin and the west as Russia warned the US against intervening militarily to end the assault by Syrian government-backed forces on the rebel enclave of eastern Ghouta. Nato and some European officials also offered public backing to the UK as attention turned to how western institutions would react to the assault. But the case risks exposing faultlines among the allies, with some European capitals already chafing at existing EU sanctions against Moscow while Mr Trump has still not imposed a fresh round of sanctions requested by Congress last year. The UK also received statements of solidarity from leading figures in the European Commission and European Parliament. Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister and leading European parliamentarian, tweeted on Tuesday: "We stand shoulder to shoulder with the British people. It must be made clear that an attack against one EU & Nato country is an attack on all of us." Jens Stoltenberg, Nato's secretary-general, called the use of the nerve agent "horrendous and completely unacceptable". He said the western alliance was in touch with authorities in the UK, which he called a "highly valued ally". Tension was increased between Russia and the west over the conflict in Syria when Valery Gerasimov, head of the general staff of the Russian Federation's armed forces, said Russia would retaliate if the US launched strikes on Damascus. "In case the lives of our soldiers are under threat, the armed forces of the Russian Federation will take retaliatory measures both against missiles and against the delivery vehicles used," Ria Novosti and Interfax quoted Mr Gerasimov as saying. Mr Gerasimov's stark warning came after Washington ratcheted up the pressure for decisive international action to end an assault by the forces of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on eastern Ghouta, the rebel enclave on the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Nikki Haley, US ambassador at the UN, told the Security Council on Monday that the US was prepared for unilateral action to end the Assad regime's shelling of eastern Ghouta. "It is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take, and we are prepared to take again," Ms Haley said, according to Reuters. On February 24, the UN Security Council unanimously called for a month-long ceasefire in Syria. But Syrian government forces backed by Russia have kept up their strikes on eastern Ghouta, which the Assad regime and Moscow claim are targeting "terrorists". More from the Financial Times: US business chiefs warn on dangers of protectionism Donald Trump drops call to raise age limits on assault rifles Welcome to Donald Trump's Hotel California Sen. Ron Wyden , D-Ore., pledged to oppose Haspel's nomination, saying her background makes her "unsuitable" to lead the CIA. "If Ms. Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of U.S. intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from her past," he said. But first, Haspel must be confirmed by the Senate. The process is expected to be complicated by her role in the CIA's "black site" program, in which terrorism suspects were extrajudicially detained and tortured. In shaking up his national security team , President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will nominate Gina Haspel to head the CIA, a move that would make her the spy agency's first woman chief. Launched following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the secret prison network was condemned by human-rights groups, which said the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" methods violated international laws against the use of torture. One of President Barack Obama's first official acts was to end the black site program. In 2002, Haspel was running a black site prison in Thailand where terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah was held following his capture in Pakistan. In Thailand, Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times, locked in a coffin, slammed against the wall and deprived of sleep, according to a landmark congressional report on the CIA's torture program. It was only after Zubaydah was tortured for months that CIA agents realized they were mistaken: He was not, in fact, a leader of al-Qaeda. Zubaydah is currently being held at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. From 2003 to 2005, Haspel was chief of staff to the CIA director of clandestine operations, Jose Rodriguez. In his 2013 memoir, "Hard Measures," Rodriguez described how Haspel directed agents to use an industrial strength shredder in 2005 to destroy videotapes of CIA interrogations conducted at black sites. In February 2017, Trump named Haspel to be the CIA's deputy director, prompting Democratic senators to write a letter protesting her appointment. The public version of the letter from Wyden and Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said only that Haspel's "background makes her unsuitable for the position." Their reasons for saying this were detailed in a separate, classified letter that has not been made public. On Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., signaled that she might be open to supporting Haspel's confirmation, despite her work on the black sites. "It's no secret I've had concerns in the past with her connection to the CIA torture program and have spent time with her discussing this," Feinstein said in a statement. "To the best of my knowledge she has been a good deputy director and I look forward to the opportunity to speak with her again." If confirmed, Haspel said in a statement that she looks forward to "providing President Trump the outstanding intelligence support he has grown to expect during his first year in office." Trump picked Haspel to move up from deputy director to CIA chief on Tuesday when he fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. In the announcement, Trump said he has picked CIA director Mike Pompeo to head the State Department. A border patrol officer stands next to some of U.S. President Donald Trump's eight border wall prototypes as they near completion along U.S.- Mexico border in San Diego, California. Mike Blake | Reuters President Donald Trump's visit to prototypes of his border wall in California on Tuesday is a down payment on a key campaign promise to his base. New polling suggests Trump voters would also back another controversial pledge the president has yet to fulfill: protecting the so-called Dreamers. A survey slated for release today by Republican polling firm TargetPoint Consulting found 86 percent of Trump supporters would approve of a deal that increased border security in exchange for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants covered under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Only 10 percent of Trump voters opposed such a compromise. The poll defined Trump supporters as those who voted for him, approve of his performance and plan to cast a ballot for a Republican in the midterm elections. The survey also showed the president's base does not consider tying the border wall to DACA to be a deal breaker. Just 3 percent said they would withhold their vote for another GOP presidential candidate in 2020 if Trump supported the compromise. "When it comes to a deal on Dreamers and the border, if the president leads and puts his shoulder behind it, our research concludes that his base will follow him almost universally," said Michael Meyers, president of TargetPoint. The survey, which was provided exclusively to CNBC, was conducted in February with more than 800 Republican and conservative voters in partnership with New American Economy, a group of business leaders and public officials who support a fix for DACA. The margin of error was 3.46 percent. DACA recipients in limbo DACA was supposed to expire March 5, but a court injunction is allowing the program to continue until pending litigation is resolved. That has left businesses and workers in legal limbo as they scramble to figure out their next steps. Some of America's biggest companies including Microsoft, Facebook and Google have urged Washington to find a solution for the roughly 700,000 affected immigrants, many of whom work in the tech sector. Ovation Corporate Travel CEO Paul Metselaar recently posted an impassioned plea on LinkedIn urging businesses to remain vocal. "I think that the business community needs to step up and lead because this is something that affects our welfare. It affects our bottom line, and it affects the future of our entire country," he told CNBC in an interview. Metselaar said he was inspired to speak out by the experience of one of his own employees, Ilka Eren, who is a DACA recipient. The 25-year-old said she came to the United States from Turkey with her parents when she was 9. Eren kept her undocumented status a secret from friends, classmates and coworkers, even after she qualified for protected status. "I was embarrassed of my situation," Eren, who is an executive assistant at Ovation, told CNBC. "It was a heavy weight on my shoulders." Eren discussed her status with Metselaar after Trump announced he would wind down the program. Eren said the company has been supportive but the future remains uncertain. If DACA is struck down, she would no longer legally be able to work there. "We don't know what the future holds every single day," she said. "There's new news and a new tweet ... so there's a lot of anxiety and fear right now." No action from lawmakers The debate over DACA has also divided Republicans on Capitol Hill and strained relations between GOP leadership and the White House. While Trump, at times, has expressed sympathy for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children at one point promising to pursue "a bill of love" he rejected proposals that linked enhancing their protections with funding for the border wall. Instead, Trump insisted that any immigration legislation also limit family sponsorships, which the president refers to as "chain migration," and overhaul the visa lottery system. The Senate last month failed to pass any version of a deal. In a tweet earlier this month, Trump laid the blame squarely on Democrats, who oppose a broader deal. "Democrats are nowhere to be found on DACA," he wrote. "Gave them 6 months, they just don't care. Where are they? We are ready to make a deal!" Democrats argue that it is Trump who backed out. The American Civil Liberties Union is planning protests Tuesday during the president's visit to San Diego to pressure the White House to abandon the border wall and come up with a fix for DACA recipients. The group is also spending six figures on a 30-second ad on Fox and Friends airing this week. "Trump, time to show the love," the ad states. WATCH: Here's how the green card lottery actually works Members of the United Nations Security Council vote to impose new sanctions on North Korea on December 22, 2017. Two Singapore companies and others in Asia have been supplying luxury goods to North Korea hence violating sanctions, according to a leaked United Nations draft report, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Both the UN as well as Singapore prohibit the sale of luxury goods to the communist state, and Singapore's government said it has started investigations into this case. The two companies OCN and T Specialist share the same director, and have said they have done nothing wrong, according to BBC. Russian President Vladimir Putin (3 R) meets with President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad (2 R) during his visit at the Hmeymim base in Syria's Latakia on December 11, 2017. The U.S. Department of Defense has hit back at Russian claims that the U.S. military is about to launch missile strikes on government-held districts in Syria's capital Damascus. A spokesman for the department told CNBC Tuesday that Moscow is complicit in Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's crimes in the war-torn country. "We urge Russia to stop creating distractions and compel the Assad regime to stop brutalizing innocent Syrian citizens and allow much-needed aid to reach the people of East Ghouta and other remote areas," the spokesman said. "By enabling the Assad regime's brutality, Russia is morally complicit and responsible for Assad's atrocities. It is impossible to ignore the growing body of evidence that Syria is continuing to use chemical weapons on its own people a clear violation of international law." Earlier Tuesday, the Russian military threatened action against the U.S. if it led airstrikes on Damascus. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the armed forces of Russia, was widely reported as saying Moscow had "reliable information" about militants preparing to falsify a government chemical attack against civilians. Workers make a pipe connection on the Orion Perseus drilling rig, Webb County, Texas. Eddie Seal | Bloomberg | Getty Images American shale drillers will take aim at the seven million barrels-per-day mark next month, as U.S. oil production continues to hit new record highs. Output from the nation's shale oil regions is poised to grow by 131,000 barrels a day next month, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's statistics arm. The Energy Information Administration sees drillers in the seven shale regions pumping 6.95 million barrels a day in April, up more than 25 percent from a year ago. April's forecast got a boost from upward revisions to EIA's projections for previous months. The Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico will see production jump by 80,000 barrels a day, according to EIA's outlook. The basin remains the biggest driver of a recovery in U.S. shale output that began in late 2016. The Eagle Ford shale, also in Texas, is seen kicking in 23,000 barrels a day towards the regions' growth. Meanwhile, North Dakota's Bakken shale and the Niobrara region in Colorado and surrounding states will each grow output by 12,000 barrels a day, EIA projects. Drillers across these regions use advanced technology like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to fracture rock formations and extract oil and gas from the basins. U.S. shale regions, source: EIA Just how much U.S. shale oil output can grow was a topic of debate throughout last week's CERAWeek in Houston, one of the world's biggest energy conferences. Many executives said the industry is on the cusp of another leap forward as producers and service companies adopt a new generation of technologies like predictive analytics and machine learning. Timothy Dove, president and CEO of Permian driller Pioneer Natural Resources, said the industry is at a technological "tipping point" that could lead to higher efficiency in the oil patch. "We have the golden goose right before us, and it's our job as operators to perform at a very high level of efficiency to bring this to bear," he told an audience at CERAWeek. Watch: Chevron CEO calls it 'early innings' in shale performance The "unceremonious" firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is "very concerning," especially in light of the upcoming summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Bill Richardson, whose past diplomatic missions included negotiations with Pyongyang. Last week, Trump accepted an invitation to meet with Kim by May, although it has yet to be arranged The two leaders have exchanged barbs in the past over North Korea's nuclear program. Richardson told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Tuesday that the meeting is "the most significant negotiations I think the country is going to have during the first term." And those negotiations have to be led by a secretary of State, contended Richardson, who formerly served as ambassador to the United Nations and as Energy Secretary under former President Bill Clinton. Therefore, he believes the meeting should be delayed by a month. Trump fired Tillerson earlier Tuesday in a tweet and tapped CIA Director Mike Pompeo to fill the position. However, Pompeo first needs to be confirmed by Congress. "Pompeo is going to take a least a month to get confirmed. He's got to get up to speed," Richardson said. "He's an intelligence official but he's got to learn about Asia, diplomacy. He's got to learn about many issues relating to the State Department." He added, "I just don't understand why there's such a rush to move ahead" on the North Korea meeting. "Do it right. Do it with a full national security team." A senior administration official told CNBC last week that the development was just a meeting and not a promise of sanctions relief or concessions from the U.S. "We're not even talking about negotiations," he said. "The president is not prepared to reward North Korea in exchange for talks, but he's willing to meet and he expects North Korea to start putting action to these words." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Richardson's remarks. CNBC's Amanda Macias and Christina Wilkie contributed to this report. The likely appointment of CIA Director Mike Pompeo as the new secretary of state following President Donald Trump's shock firing of Rex Tillerson could spell more bad news for Iran. Pompeo, named as his pick for secretary of state by Trump on Tuesday shortly after he announced Tillerson's departure on Twitter, has taken a notoriously tough stance on Iran in the past in his erstwhile role as director of the CIA. Not only has Pompeo likened Iran to the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group, calling the country a "thuggish police state" in a speech in October, he has also promised to constrain Iran's investment environment and "roll back" its 2015 nuclear deal. Showing his disdain for the internationally-brokered agreement, Pompeo said in October that the U.S. intelligence community and Treasury Department could make it harder for Tehran to meddle in regional affairs by exposing Iranian businesses that have ties to the nation's elite security force. The comment came shortly after Trump refused to certify the nuclear deal, marking the beginning of a campaign to toughen the terms of the agreement and rein in Iranian activities not addressed by the accord. In November 2016, when Pompeo was appointed to lead the CIA, he warned that Tehran is "intent of destroying America" and called the nuclear deal "disastrous." He added that he was looking forward to "rolling back" the agreement. If you're a millennial, you've probably heard that we have sub-par savings rates. We don't save enough for retirement, we don't save up enough to live on our own so we stay with our parents longer, and we're just all-around bad spenders. Luckily, most of these stereotypes aren't actually true. Or, if they are, there's a good reason why. But, for those millennials who do have a hard time saving, and don't worry, we've all been there, here are 10 tips to help you out. 1. Pick the right student credit card Many students make the mistake of waiting until after college to get their first credit card. This mean that, when it's time for them to get an apartment, they have no credit history to back them up. The moral of the story: Don't be afraid of getting a credit card in college! In fact, credit card companies make cards just for students that make it almost impossible to overspend, and you build credit while you're at it. Most student credit cards are secured cards, meaning they're backed up by a one-time deposit that will go towards any late payments. 2. Track your credit Knowing your credit is the first step towards improving, or just understanding, your finances. If you start paying attention sooner rather than later, you'll be better off. Luckily, there are a ton of tools to help you track your credit. There are apps, like Credit Wise from Capital One, that can show you your credit for free whether you're a Capital One customer or not. There are also Credit Karma and Credit Sesame, which are more free tracking services. 3. Open an online savings account Since nearly everything we do is online, why shouldn't your bank account (or at least one of them) be online too? Online savings accounts are just as safe as traditional banks, and they often offer higher rates of return than the measly few cents you earn a year from your credit union. Discover and Capital One are two of the more well-known banks that offer simple savings accounts. You can have money directly deposited into the account each month, so you don't even have to think about saving it's done for you. 4. Buy a used car, if you have to buy a car at all If you have to buy a car, don't go for the high-lease or the newest model, as much as you may want it! Many people swear by buying only used cars. After all, you don't have the hassle of car loan payments. Plus, you can settle for catastrophic car insurance, instead of a more comprehensive insurance that lenders require. 5. Get a side hustle The best way to save money? Earn more of it. Side hustles can go from a second, part-time job at Starbucks to selling your art on Etsy. Or you could drive part-time for a ride-share company like Uber or Lyft. Note that, if you have an older car, that might eliminate you, since Uber likes their drivers to have newer cars. You may also not make as much as you'd think driving for a ride share company. 6. Open a Roth IRA, or any retirement account seriously, just do it We've given you this piece of advice dozens of times before, so pardon the repetition, but it's important! Saving anything, even an amount you think might be negligible, is a great place to start. Roth IRAs are our favorite retirement accounts because of one very important feature: Your contributions and interest earnings grow tax-free and, at retirement, withdrawals are 100 percent tax-free. Roth IRAs also simply offer more freedom than an employer-sponsored 401(k). 7. Automate your bills Forgetting to pay your bills reflects badly on your credit. Maybe not if you miss just one bill after religiously paying on time, but eventually. The point is, we all forget to write a check once in a while. Our lives are hectic and we'd rather not think about all the bills we have to pay. Good news: You don't have to think about it. If you automate your bills, they'll be paid on time every month and you might even get a discount. Cell phone companies and auto insurance companies often offer a few dollars off your bill each month if you automate. 8. Get rid of some of your subscriptions Long gone are the days where Netflix and Hulu were the only subscription services. Now, Amazon alone offers half a dozen different subscriptions. With automatic payments, it's easy to forget about the many services you've signed up for. Luckily, there are easy ways to cut down on your subscriptions. Trim is just one example of the many personal finance assistant apps on the market it lets you cancel your old subscriptions and much more. You can also set up spending alerts for various categories and have Trim, or another app, negotiate some of your bills, so you can say goodbye to spending an hour arguing with the cable company. 9. Don't shop at high-end grocery stores Especially now that Amazon has bought Whole Foods, you might be thinking of hopping on the Whole Foods bandwagon. I have nothing against high-end grocery stores like Whole Foods or Andronico's, but they're still expensive when you consider the alternatives. If you really want organic foods, check out your local farmer's market. They're actually cheaper than buying from high-end grocery stores and you'll get to meet the farmers in your community! Also, "rescue" ugly or deformed fruit and veggies at your grocery store. They taste the same and they're a little cheaper. Finally, try small, specialty neighborhood shops. You may have to go to the store a little more frequently, since there aren't any preservatives in some of the food, but it'll taste a lot better and you'll be supporting local businesses, and maybe getting better prices, too. 10. Get a budgeting app or journal "Make a budget" is probably even more annoying advice than "contribute to your retirement plan." But they're both important. Making a budget isn't hard, but sticking to one is. Luckily, budgeting isn't done by hand or those boring Excel spreadsheets anymore. They can actually be fun! There are hundreds of apps for budgeting now. Or if you're the kind of millennial who is into old fashioned things, you can try bullet journaling, which involves keeping track of your finances the old fashioned way, with pen and paper. You'd be amazed how entertaining drawing pictures and using a bunch of different sharpies to record expenses can be. Closing thoughts 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 Salisbury Attack 1) May gives Putin until midnight to explain the use of Russian poison The Prime Minister said the facts increasingly suggested Russia was behind the apparent hit on double-agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Branding the attack a reckless and despicable act, Mrs May said the substance used was a military grade agent Moscow has produced. Mrs May said the government would not accept such an attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil. She will decide on a range of sanctions over the next 24 hours after urgent talks with Nato, the United Nations, EU and US. The Prime Minister will also draw up a secret package of measures against Russia which will never be revealed. This could include targeting the Kremlins propaganda machine. Whitehall sources said yesterday they were accelerating their offensive cyber programme and could hit select targets for a specific effect. Daily Mail Editorials Russia must be treated as a pariah The Times Leader She is a true leader unlike her opposite number The Sun Says Opinion Moscow could be surprised by Britains severity Gideon Rachman, FT Surely we should boycott the World Cup now? Stephen Glover, Daily Mail >Today: >Yesterday: Salisbury Attack 2) Corbyn draws criticism from his own benches for partisan point-scoring The Labour leader faced shouts of shame and disgrace when he mentioned Tory donations. Were all familiar with the way huge fortunes, often acquired in the most dubious circumstances in Russia, sometimes connected with criminal elements, have ended up sheltering in London and trying to buy political influence in British party politics, he said. Meddling in elections, as the prime minister put it, and there has been over 800,000 worth of donations to the Conservative Party from Russian oligarchs and their associates. Chris Leslie, the Labour MP for Nottingham East and a regular leadership critic, told the Commons: There are certain circumstances, as the prime minister knows, that we take party political differences of opinion. But when our country is potentially under attack, this is just not appropriate. Mrs May said questions of what another state may have done on British soil should be a matter that would concern all of us and should be above party politics. The Times He united the House in dismay at his inappropriate reply Patrick Kidd, The Times His response was shameful Daily Express Leader Scientist who blew the whistle on Russian chemical weapons urges action Daily Mail The poison is so rare it has never been known to be used before The Times Suspicious liquid sent to Labour MP The Times Putin keeps attacking because the weak West lets him, former NATO commander says The Sun >Yesterday: Mark Francois on Comment: States like Russia now pose the primary threat to the UK we must strengthen our defences accordingly Salisbury Attack 3) The United States is outraged, the State Department says Tillerson clearly blames Russia The Guardian The White House earlier declined to do so Daily Mail Putin will hold an election rally in Crimea tomorrow The Times A positive Spring Statement may tempt Tory MPs to demand more spending The US has said it is outraged that Russia appeared to have been involved in a nerve agent attack in the UK that left a Russian double agent and his daughter critically ill. The State Department said it had full confidence in the UKs assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the attack in Salisbury and that there was never a justification for this type of attack the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation. US secretary of state Rex Tillerson had been in contact with foreign secretary Boris Johnson by telephone on Monday morning, the department said. From Ukraine to Syria and now the UK Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens, the State Department said. FT Philip Hammond will face spending demands from cabinet colleagues and senior backbenchers after he reveals improved economic forecasts today. Figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility are expected to show borrowing of about 7 billion to 11 billion lower than that projected in November. Forecast GDP growth for this year is also expected to rise to 1.8 per cent, from 1.4 per cent in November. The chancellor will reveal consultations on VAT, tax on technology companies and a public waste tax to cut down on plastics. He will also set out how departments will divide up 1.5 billion for Brexit preparations. The Times Eeyore no more, as the indicators are expected to be positive Daily Mail IDS urges him to reverse Universal Credit cuts The Guardian But he will hold the course FT The coffers could be 10 billion better off than forecast at the Budget The Sun The Treasury hopes to sell the Help to Buy loan book FT Consultation explores chewing gum tax The Times Minimum pension contributions set to rise The Sun Opinion Hammond should tackle corporate greed Rachel Sylvester, The Times How big is the Chancellors Brexit war chest? Joe Owen, The Times >Today: Which taxes should Tories cut? 1) Sam Dumitriu: No virtue-signalling giveaways, instead hammer taxes that hold back growth >Yesterday: Nicky Morgans column: Its too soon to abandon fiscal discipline, but the Spring Statement is a chance to communicate our vision Wallace: To properly resolve the Westminster bullying scandal, Bercow must step aside Back in November, I predicted in this column that the next scandal to hit Westminster would be about bullying. At the time, the shockwaves of the Weinstein revelations were still rushing round the worldWhat began with sexual abuse in Hollywood has, in time, turned into a far more widespread rejection of the general tactic of intimidating people into silence. Some victims speaking out have inspired others, and bit by bit there are signs of a cultural shift against the ability of people to threaten others into silence. As part of that domino effect, people who allege bullying on the part of MPs have begun to tell their storiesWith a cross-party scandal on the working conditions and employment practices of some parliamentarians, the natural person to look to for leadership would ordinarily be the Speaker of the House. But heres the greatest problem of all: John Bercow is one of those alleged to have bullied staff. Mark Wallace, the i paper Hancock warns state control of the press would harm democracy Matt Hancock said it was right the second part of the Leveson Inquiry into the Press had been scrapped. The world has changed, and I want to look to the future, he told the Oxford Media Convention. I tremble at the thought of a media regulated by the state in a time of malevolent forces in politics. Get this wrong and I fear for the future of our liberal democracy. Launching a Government review into journalism, which will be led by Dame Frances Cairncross, Mr Hancock said it would explore whether intervention may be required to safeguard the future of our free and independent Press. He added: It is about making sure we dont wake up in five years time to find high-quality journalism has been decimated and our democracy damaged as a result. Daily Mail Government is paralysed Katy Balls, The Guardian Brexit contributes to payroll growth at core Whitehall departments Theresa May will have spent 2 billion on Brexit preparations by the time the country leaves the EU in one year, a think tank claims. The Institute for Government said 10,000 extra roles will have been created by then to cope with the sheer amount of work required. Staff numbers at the Department for Environment have soared 65 per cent since June 2016. And the department led by Environment Secretary Michael Gove is now 4 per cent larger than it was when George Osborne launched the Coalitions austerity drive in 2010. The Home Office is using 50 per cent more agency staff per month than it was before the Referendum. In all, six core Brexit Ministries will have spent 1.3 billion by March 2019, the IFG said. The Sun >Yesterday: Bradley is minded to cut MLA salaries as Stormont impasse continues Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley has said she is minded to cut the salary of members of the crisis-hit Stormont Assembly by 27.5%, but will consult the parties before making a final decision. Mrs Bradleys predecessor James Brokenshire commissioned former Assembly chief executive Trevor Reaney to examine the controversial issue of paying MLAs who are not performing their roles as legislators due to the powersharing impasse. Before Christmas, Mr Reaney recommended the 27.5% cut, a move that would take the average salary of 49,500 to 35,888 in two stages. Mrs Bradley told the Commons she would seek to introduce legislation at Westminster that would hand her the power to vary MLA pay. Further to that, I am minded to reduce pay in line with the Reaney Review recommendation, but I would welcome full and final representations from the NI parties before I make a final decision, she said. Belfast Telegraph Unite set to defeat Momentum in battle for power over Labour machine Just three or four people control Unite Waless political alignments WalesOnline Labour really is blind to its own bigotry Melanie Phillips, The Times Brighton Labour leader forced out with upsetting abuse after criticising anti-semitism The Times The credible prospect of a Labour victory could itself deter voters Rafael Behr, The Guardian Resolution in sight for university strikers Daily Mail Unite is expected to win a power struggle for the job controlling Labours party machine, adding to fears over the growing power of Jeremy Corbyns largest financial backer. Jennie Formby, the unions southeast regional secretary, is heading for a coronation in the race to become general secretary after her main rival pulled out, senior Labour figures said. Jon Lansman, founder of the grassroots Momentum group, withdrew under intense pressure from Mr Corbyns team after his decision to stand exposed a split between the Labour leaders two most important backers. Mr Lansman called for others to come forward to challenge Labours old, top-down model, a reference to what his allies have described as a Unite stitch-up. Hopes that Laura Parker, Momentums national co-ordinator, would put herself forward have faded, however, with some suggesting she had been put off by hostile briefing from supporters of Mr Corbyn. The Times >Yesterday: Mike Clancy on Comment: How the trade unions can help drive up productivity Calls for formal inquiry into Telford child abuse The official inquiry into child abuse has been asked to investigate claims that police and social workers failed to tackle gangs that targeted girls over a 40-year period. Three girls are reported to have been murdered by paedophiles who are estimated to have abused hundreds of victims in Telford, Shropshire. The local council yesterday asked for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to upgrade Telford to become a separate specific review alongside allegations involving establishment figures and the Church of England. An investigation by the Sunday Mirror gathered allegations of abuse in the town said to include cases involving girls as young as 11 who were drugged, beaten and raped. The Times Father of murdered abuse victim receives threat Daily Mail The BBCs silence is shameful Douglas Murray, The Spectator News in Brief James Frayne is Director of communications agency Public First and author of Meet the People, a guide to moving public opinion. Unlike in the United States, there isnt much of a public debate on foreign and security policy in Britain. It rarely features in elections and only a small number of politicians self-define as foreign policy experts. We therefore hardly ever ask what voters think about foreign policy; it doesnt seem to matter politically. It would be an exaggeration to say the poisoning of Sergei Skripal will put foreign and security policy at the heart of political debate, but its reasonable to assume the public are taking more interest in our relations with Russia. And its reasonable to assume voters will make decisions about the leadership credentials and strength of senior British politicians as they watch them handle Russia. So what do the public actually think about Russia? Boiled down: the Russian states reputation is poor, but actually worsens when you dig deeper into the polling and look beyond headline views on Vladimir Putin. Across every recent poll, Putin is unpopular with the British public and perceived to be a threat to the West generally and Britain specifically. Two thirds of the public said Putins position as Russian President made the world less safe in a 2016 ComRes poll. And a 2017 YouGov poll asked British people to rate Putin on a scale between 0 and 10, where 0 denoted strong dislike; Putins average score was 2 on this scale. Correspondingly, the public are concerned about Russian foreign policy. The same YouGov poll revealed that, by 51 per cent to ten per cent, people think relations between Russia and the West have got worse in recent times and most blame Russia for that. People view Russian foreign policy as a serious threat to world peace (although its significantly below terrorism, nuclear proliferation and cyber-attacks). A separate YouGov poll from 2017 showed that, given a list of options that included Iran, North Korea and China, people said they thought Russia was the biggest threat to Britain. We need to inject an important caveat at this point. This is that, on some measures, Donald Trumps reputation is worse than Putins and many consider American foreign policy to be a danger to the world under his leadership (perhaps progress on North Korea will change that). The YouGov poll that asked people to rank Putin on a scale asked people to do the same for Trump. More people said they strongly disliked Trump than Putin. Furthermore, while more people said they thought Russian foreign policy was a danger to the world than American foreign policy, it was a close run thing. However, apologists for Russia should take little comfort from this point. Theres no denying that Americas reputation in the rest of the world has taken a battering since Trumps election. But the British people retain deep respect for the US both as a nation state but also as a cultural entity. They love America but dislike Trump; people can easily divorce the two in their minds. Any half-serious survey of other polls on British attitudes to the US shows its a very popular country. The same is not true of Russia. For example, when asked to rate a series of countries that Britain might trade with, in a 2016 YouGov poll, Russia scores poorly. Just nine per cent of the public said a trade deal with Russia should be a top priority. Furthermore, when given a list of countries that Britain might receive more migrants from, in a 2016 YouGov poll, Russia also scored poorly. The countrys reputation as an aggressive power has undermined its reputation broadly. (Yes, there are other things in play in these polls, but they indicate scepticism about the Russian state). For those that argue its ridiculous to compare the reputation of Russia with the US because of course the British people like the US more its worth comparing attitudes to Russia with attitudes to China. China isnt viewed as a threat to Britain or, rather, its viewed as less of a threat than Russia, Iran and Korea. And polls also show the public is enthusiastic about a trade deal with China (although, to be fair, this is partly because of a belief that China is an existing and future economic powerhouse). What does all this mean for British politicians? People arent stupid; they dont want some sort of very serious confrontation with Russia. But they will expect senior politicians to speak the truth as they see it: to blame Russia for aggressive acts where necessary and to construct diplomatic and military alliances that defend the country (and those that live within it) from hostility. Many in the Labour Party, and some in the Conservative Party, seem to enthusiastically back a multipolar world to counter the economic and military power of the US. Thats not something the British people will support, if that means the promotion of Russian power and influence. Welcome to the future. Hackers are currently holding a major American city for ransom and are demanding that they be paid in Bitcoin. Atlanta officials confirmed on Monday that a ransomware attack had kicked much of its computer system offline. Without the system functioning, Atlanta is unable to collect online bills from residents, which perhaps isnt such a bad thing for people who are behind on their water bills or traffic ticket payments. But the attack has frightening implications for government agencies. "This is much bigger than a ransomware attack, this really is an attack on our government," Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told a news conference. "We are dealing with a hostage situation." The attackers have indicated that it will not restore Atlantas websites or computer system until they are paid $51,000 in Bitcoin. Ransomware, as its name suggests, freezes or infects computers and then provides a message asking for a ransom if users want their systems unlocked. Like other malware, it works by sending an email to unsuspecting users with a phishing link. Atlanta officials have not yet indicated whether they will pay the ransom. As of Friday afternoon, Atlantas page for allowing residents to pay their water and sewer bill was still not loading. The municipal court online payment webpage says; City of Atlanta is currently experiencing technical issues which is impacting the ability to take payments at this time. Under Armour Under Armour warned a whopping 150 million people on Thursday to change their password. The company owns a popular application called MyFitnessPal that tracks nutritional intake and workout routines. Hackers gained access to all 150 million users passwords, names, and email addresses. The company denies that credit card information was accessed but says they are getting law enforcement involved. We do not know the identity of the unauthorized party. Our investigation into this matter is ongoing, the company announced. Italian soccer (football) team It happens to the best of us. The Italian newspaper Il Tempo is reporting that SS Lazio, a football team in Italy, was tricked into paying the final portion of a players contract to hackers. A Dutch soccer club had traded their star defender, 26-year-old De Vrij, to SS Lazio in 2014. A hacker impersonating the Dutch team recently sent SS Lazio an email asking for the final installment of his contract, or two million Euros. The Dutch team says they never sent that email and never received the final payment. Authorities are reportedly investigating the issue. Citing national security issues, President Donald Trump late Monday ordered that Broadcom immediately abandon its proposed acquisition of Qualcomm. Trump, in the presidential order issued Monday, wrote that there is "credible evidence" that Broadcom's proposed move to exercise control of Qualcomm "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States." The order is in response to Singapore-based Broadcom's proposal to acquire San Diego-based Qualcomm for $121 billion, a move that Qualcomm's board of directors unanimously rejected last month. [Related: Report: Intel Considering Broadcom Acquisition To Stave Off Broadcom-Qualcomm Merger] Trump, in his rejection of the Qualcomm acquisition, wrote, "The proposed takeover of Qualcomm by the Purchaser is prohibited, and any substantially equivalent merger, acquisition, or takeover, whether effected (sic) directly or indirectly, is also prohibited." He also wrote that the 15 people proposed by Broadcom as candidates for the Qualcomm board of directors are disqualified from standing for election as directors of Qualcomm. Broadcom and Qualcomm are also ordered to certify in writing to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that they have taken all steps to abandon the merger. Qualcomm and Broadcom did not respond to a request by CRN. Sailing under the brand name of Cruceros Maritimos Vacacionales, Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) and officials from Acapulco and the Mexican state of Guerrero have confirmed plans to launch service with the 1,400-passenger Magellan sailing from Acapulco during the winter season 2019. With the first sailing scheduled for Feb. 3, 2019, the Magellan will offer a seven-day program, departing on Sundays, and calling at Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo, according to John Dennis, vice president of CMV. With Mexico City within a four-hour drive from Acapulco, Dennis said that CMV will be opening a sales office there over the next few weeks. The average price for a seven-day cruise will be $699 or about 14,000 peso, according to Dennis. For 2019, the Magellan will sail 10 seven-day cruises, but plans call for extending the 2020 season to five months and eventually possibly going to year-round operation, according to Nicholas Tragakes, CEO of Global Maritime Group, the parent company of CMV. Tragakes noted that Mexico fits into the companys strategy of creating national cruise products, pointing to its national products in the UK, Germany, France and Australia. Mexico is a national niche market for us, he said, and there is nobody else here. The timing is perfect, and creating a Mexican product fits our culture and how we do business. With a longer season, Tragakes also said that interporting would be possible, embarking not only Mexican passengers in several ports, but also international passengers, considering the air connections these destinations have. However, 80 to 85 percent of the passengers are expected to be Mexican. Dennis added that Mexico already generates from 110,000 to 120,000 cruise passengers annually who travel to Southern Florida and elsewhere to cruise, and that CMV would tap into this market in addition to the many who do not have visas, but still fit the cruise passenger demographics. He noted that 70 percent of Mexican tourism is within Mexico. Sunday departures will also enable passengers to spend Friday night and/or Saturday and Saturday night in Acapulco and that pre- and post-packages were being prepared, combining a land stay up to seven days with a seven-day cruise. Another market the company is considering is incentive cruises. Eventually, Tragakes said that Mexico may also become a source market for CMVs ship in the UK and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Acapulco is ready to handle turnarounds, according to Bernardo Varela, director of Grupo TMM, the terminal operator. He said that the port already handles turnarounds for CMV as well as other brands. Jesus Radilla, undersecretary of the ministry of tourism for Guerrero, pointed to the significant private and public investments being made in the infrastructure, tourism offerings and attractions in Acapulco, bringing the town back to its former days when it was hosting the rich and famous from around the world. Photo: Seated (from left): Nicholas Tragakes, CEO, Global Maritime Group; and John Dennis, vice president, CMV. Standing (from left): Alexos Tsokos, director of finance, CMV; Abraham Garay, general director, Acapulco DMO; Bernardo Varela, director, Grupo TMM; Jesus Radilla, undersecretary, ministry of tourism, Guerrero; and Daniel Martinez de Pinilos, country manager, CMV. WESTON Those not directly affiliated with Weston Public Schools will not be permitted on district property during Wednesdays planned student walkout, the school announced Tuesday. This step is being taken to ensure the safety and security of our students and safe and to minimize disruption to the educational process, a statement from the school district said. It is a truth universally acknowledged that marketers ruin everything. Pumping monetization strategies, ad real estate and loads of marketing jargon into our new favorite social media apps and then pushing them to the mainstream has been a prevailing sign of the times. First it was Facebook, then it was Twitter, then Instagram. Now its the "influencer" space as a whole: The turf of individuals who have earned expertise, respect and leadership, among a trusted following within their niche communities on social media. There have been many positives for brands and influencers alike from the development of influencer marketing trends, such as a 90 percent believed success rate of influencer marketing tactics for brands, and the possibility a stable income for hardworking influencers. However, there has been an elephant-sized downfall to this merge: the term influencer itself. This word leaves a bad taste in my mouth every time I have to use it to describe a colleague of mine within the space, and many other influencers agree. Perhaps its because the denotation -- an individual whose effect on the purchase decision is in some way significant or authoritative -- was coined by marketers who only see in green. Perhaps its because people who are truly influential dont need to tell everyone that they are a #influencer. Here are five reasons why the word influencer should meet a quick death in 2018: 1.) Influencers hate the title. Per the definition, calling someone an influencer defines them exclusively based on how useful they are to the advertising industry. As a result, some of social medias most prominent content creators have been vocal about the devolving reputation of the term. Related: What I've Learned From Spending $10 Million on Influencer Marketing In a GQ article written by Tom Goodwin, voted LinkedIns #1 voice in marketing in 2017 and 2018, Goodwin delved into the paradox behind one desperately needing to assert their influence through a title, without actually getting stuff done. He described influencers as those who have mastered the art of follow-backs, buying likes, retweets, giveaways and more, while those who are truly influential do not have the time to market and merchandise influence. Further, a recent case study we conducted at Influencer News revealed that 85 percent of social media content creators preferred the title creator over influencer. When considering social media power-users, or those who have genuinely garnered followers counts between 5,000 and 50,000, the percentages of those who preferred the term creator sharply increased as follower counts increased. Within the 25,000 to 50,000 follower count range, the data jumped to 95 percent who preferred creator. 2.) Creators aim to inspire. Influencing should be a byproduct of good content creation, not an end goal. It shouldnt be assumed that social media figures come to prominence with the dream of persuading others to buy a brands new product, or to simply be a pawn in a marketers larger scheme. However, thats what the name seems to imply -- an inherent agenda to manipulate or to control. Related: How To Become An Instagram Influencer In a Business Insider interview with acclaimed model and blogger Ruth Crilly, the beauty content creator said the term goes against everything she felt her blog stands for. It implies she is doing something underhand to influence, she said, as if her followers are sheep. 3.) Influencers take. Creators give. Customer loyalty is the foundation of longevity for brands hoping to utilize the basic principles of relationship marketing through their influencer base. The irony with influencer marketing then is that it hopes to capitalize on the facade of a connection between the influencer and the influenced with the aim of only pushing products. There is a spammy take but there is no genuine exchange of value between producer and consumer. In contrast, the term creator implies one who is not defined by their marketing utility but by their desire to create content that adds value to those who engage with it. The end goal is to foster camaraderie and meaning around their creations and thus become expert voices within their growing social spheres. This goal more fully aligns with the mission of relationship marketing, and promises a longevity that influencer marketing likely cannot sustain for the long-haul. 4.) The influencer industry won't survive further fragmentation. The term influencer is exceptionally vague when considering the breadth of individuals it aims to herd into one classification. From fitness gurus to chefs creating original content that encourages healthy lifestyles, from entrepreneurs to social justice figures sparking movements, from photographers to world travelers documenting their adventures: There is a wealth of diversity within the industry that is not adequately realized by the term. And lets not forget about the sub-categories: Micro-influencers (5K-10K followers), mid-tier influencers (50K-100K followers), top-tier influencers (100K+ followers) and celebrity influencers -- the ones your cat follows on Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter and pre-ordered their spring hoodie line. Are you sick of this list yet? Related: The Road Ahead for Influencer Marketing: 2018 and Beyond Jack Conte, CEO of the social platform Patreon, said in a video blog entitled I Dont Like The Word Influencer that the term ultimately commodifies creators by throwing them all in the same category, or makes them non-differentiable from any other creator who also has influence. 5.) The best of the best dont use the word. Why should we? When Samsung partnered with social media superstar Casey Neistat for its commercial for the 89th Oscars of 2017, the term influencer was no where to be found when describing the community of social media content creators who are producing videos and sharing ideas with their audiences. Likewise, when Adidas brought together a remarkably diverse room full of the worlds most influential designers, athletes, musicians, and other creatives for its Calling All Creators campaign, their creative identities, not their social reaches, were the centerpiece of their conversation. When YouTubes CBO Robert Kyncl spoke to his community of social media in a recent interview with Casey Neistat, he referred to them as creators. Even Jimmy Kimmels Mean Tweets series featured a segment exclusively for YouTubes biggest personalities, entitled Creator Edition," not Influencer Edition. The best of the best dont use the term influencer. Influencers themselves dont want to be called influencers. So, marketers, why should we? Related: Creators Are Often Influential but They Hate Being Called 'Influencers' Patron Founder Atsushi Hiratsumi Looks to Revolutionize Influencer Marketing With Instagram's Collection Ads, Brands Have A New Way To Sell To Their Users Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com Larry Kudlow might be the favorite on a list of potential economic advisers to President Donald Trump, but that doesnt mean hes not paying attention to the race for the top seat in his home state. Kudlow, the TV personality and Redding resident who served as an economic adviser to Trumps campaign, is providing similar advice to a first-time Republican candidate for governor. Kudlow is a long-time friend of Art Laffer, the economics guru Bob Stefanowski paid to endorse his 26-page plan for resuscitating Connecticuts economy. Its the centerpiece of Stefanowskis mostly-self-funded candidacy for governor, and its apparently got Kudlows approval. My introduction (to Kudlow) was through Art Laffer, who Ive known for 20 years, Stefanowski said. Art and I wrote the plan for Connecticut and Larry has reviewed that plan. Weve talked about it and hes supportive of what Im trying to do for Connecticut. Larry is very supportive of what Im trying to do to bring taxes down. Stefanowski stopped short of characterizing their relationship as friends, but said hes been in frequent contact with Kudlow, whos been providing advice on his economic plan for the state. Art and Larry and I have very similar views on supply-side economics, he said. Kudlows name has made headlines as the top candidate to replace former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn as Trumps economic chief. "I'm looking at Larry Kudlow very strongly, Trump told reporters outside the White House Tuesday. Kudlow took to Twitter after Cohns resignation (prompted by Trumps plan to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel) to say hed encouraged Cohn to stay in the role. Kudlow has also been loudly anti-tariff both on Twitter and in his commentary on CNBC, calling the tariffs a crisis of logic. Blanket tariffs never a good thing, Kudlow tweeted. Why hurt allies? Or econ? Punish biggest offenders w/ targeted tariffs. More Information Lawrence "Larry" Kudlow Age: 70 Residence: Redding, Connecticut Political party: Republican (former Democrat) Occupation: Economic analyst, television personality and newspaper columnist Known for: The Kudlow Report See More Collapse He backed off the stance once Trump announced the tariffs wouldnt apply to every country. Excluding Canada & Mexico right decision @realDonaldTrump Also optimism on NAFTA. All very positive, Kudlow tweeted. Trump brushed over their differing viewpoints in his comments to reporters. We don't agree on everything but in this case I think that's good: I want to have a divergent opinion, Trump said. We agree on most. He now has come around to believing in tariffs as also a negotiating point. I'm renegotiating trade deals and without tariffs we wouldn't do nearly as well. But Larry has been a friend of mine for a long time. He backed me very early in the campaign; I think the earliest; I think he was one of my original backers. He's a very, very talented man, a good man, and I think Larry Kudlow has a good chance. I'm also speaking to many others but I think Larry has a very good chance. Kudlow, 70, was the host of CNBCs The Kudlow Report, and spent several years working in former president Ronald Reagan's White House budget office, and for the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns. He is still a regular presence on cable news and hosts a podcast, The Larry Kudlow Show. On both Twitter and his podcast, Kudlow has been generally complimentary of Trump on a wide range of issues beyond economics, including on immigration, abortion and the Russia investigation. A former Democrat, Kudlow has often been touted as a potential Republican challenger to Sen. Richard Blumenthal. WASHINGTON - The confirmation of President Donald Trump's picks for secretary of state and CIA director is likely to be hampered but not stymied by a mostly partisan backlash to their records in the administration and the decision that led to their nominations - the termination of Rex Tillerson for being one of the few Cabinet members, Democrats argued Tuesday, who was willing to stand up to the president on foreign policy. Leaders of both parties predicted Tuesday that it could take a while to confirm CIA Director Mike Pompeo as the new secretary of state and Gina Haspel as Pompeo's replacement at the CIA, leaving the State Department officially rudderless at a time when the administration is facing pressing challenges surrounding newly announced talks with North Korea, looming deadlines for continued compliance with the Iran nuclear deal, Russian aggression in advance of the 2018 midterm elections, the rollout of new tariffs and a deteriorating situation in Syria. "It'll obviously take some time and effort," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas. "I'm confident we'll get them confirmed, but when there's so much of a backlog on nominations already, it just adds two other high-profile nominations to our workload." Senate Democrats excoriated Trump, accusing him of further confusing the White House's often controversial and shifting diplomatic stance by ousting Tillerson at this juncture. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Trump "a commander in chaos," and some of Tillerson's harshest Democratic critics rushed to defend him. "It is another sign that the Trump administration does not tolerate independent voices," said Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., a senior senator and former ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. "I had my differences with Mr. Tillerson . . . but it is a concern to see this type of a change and for the apparent reason that Mr. Trump demands total loyalty." The widespread criticism from Democrats ensures that GOP leaders will have difficulty confirming Pompeo and Haspel as expeditiously as Republican leaders hope to do. But the backlash is not expected to upset their eventual chances of confirmation - especially because Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday he has no plans to ask Democrats to oppose their nominations. The Senate approved Pompeo last year to be the director of the CIA with the support of 14 Democrats - some of whom sounded bullish about the chances that they would vote for Pompeo again. "Every time he's come in before the [intelligence] committee, he's been well received, he's been forthright, answered all the questions," said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. "I always think he was well received." But not all Democrats who backed Pompeo once were willing to commit to doing so again. "I think there are a number of us who voted for him last time who are actively reconsidering based on his service in the administration," said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. "A lot of us gave him the benefit of the doubt. We were told he was going to handle everything on the level and be nonpolitical. And it's not clear that that's his record at the CIA." Republicans and Democrats also sounded warnings that Haspel would have to answer for the time she spent in charge of a CIA "black site" prison and for her efforts to destroy videotapes depicting detainees being subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques" that have been condemned as torture. "Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program during the confirmation process," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., an ex officio member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Tuesday. But Haspel's record is not likely to destroy her chances of confirmation. Though some Democratic senators, such as Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Tuesday that Haspel's past makes her "unsuitable to serve as CIA director," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the author of the report that exposed the extent of the CIA's interrogation programs, appeared to defend her. "She has been, I believe, a good deputy director," Feinstein said, stressing that the interrogation techniques employed on Haspel's watch were not, at the time, explicitly illegal. "Fortunately the law, thanks to Senator McCain, has been changed, and torture is now illegal in the United States," Feinstein said. "That's with specificity, and I think that's important. So it's a different day." The White House's announcement of the Pompeo and Haspel nominations caught many on the Hill by surprise. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said that while he spoke with Trump and Tillerson late last week and was "aware" of their oftentimes stormy relationship, he thought "there was a reprieve" over the past several months. The president called Corker at 9:58 a.m. Tuesday - more than an hour after tweeting an announcement about the nominations - to talk up Pompeo as the next secretary of state. Trump "let me know how highly he thought of Pompeo," said Corker, who could not recall having ever met the current CIA director but added that he had "heard good things." The two are expected to meet on Capitol Hill later this week, and Pompeo's confirmation hearing is expected to be held in April. A hearing the committee was scheduled to have with Tillerson on Thursday to plan the State Department budget has been canceled. Corker was close with Tillerson and last year said that Tillerson was one of only three Cabinet members that "separate our country from chaos." Corker has also indicated in the past that he thinks the Senate cannot approve a secretary of state who will simply be a yes man for Trump. When asked whether Pompeo would be more willing to tell Trump what he wanted to hear than Tillerson was, Corker said, "I don't know." Other Republican senators said they thought Pompeo's closeness to Trump would be an asset. "One of the most important jobs for the secretary of state is to make clear to the world the president's policies and priorities," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who said he "cannot think of a better choice" than Pompeo for the role. "No one has a stronger relationship with President Trump than Mike Pompeo. This relationship will empower him throughout his tenure as secretary of state." Pompeo promised during his confirmation hearing as CIA director to "speak truth to power" with Trump. But he has come under fire in the year since for various actions that seemed to spin facts in the president's favor, such as falsely claiming that the intelligence community conclusively determined that Russian interference "did not affect the outcome of the election." Pompeo's hard-line positions on Iran are also more in lockstep with Trump's than those of Tillerson's - a consideration for defenders of the multilateral nuclear deal with Tehran, who need Trump to waive certain sanctions again May 12 if it is to remain intact. In January, Trump agreed to waive sanctions one last time, and only as an ultimatum for making changes to the law in Congress - changes lawmakers say they cannot make until the White House comes to an agreement with European nations about the changes they will accept. It is not clear whether Pompeo will be confirmed into office before that deadline, or before Trump potentially holds a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which South Korean officials announced at the White House last week would take place by May. Senate Democrats acknowledged those deadlines Tuesday but said they could not be pressured into rushing Pompeo's nomination. "We're going to have to have some in-depth confirmation hearings," Menendez said. "There's a difference between being the CIA director and being the secretary of state." Chances are good that you know at least once narcissist, whether its a coworker, a family member or a friend. Sometimes that person is even your boss. Narcissistic traits include egotism, excessive confidence, lack of empathy and aggression. Such people show a marked preference for their own opinions and are very sensitive to any and all criticism. Why narcissisim is not all bad You might have come to understand how different a relationship can be with these folks. If you've seen them in leadership positions, you probably have even more insight. It seems they live life by a different set of standards than we do -- yet undeniably, they have a certain charisma. We tend to think of narcissistic leaders negatively. But on the upside, narcissists also tend to have a strong work ethic and high drive, and can be extremely likable. This is frequently how they rise to the top. The narcissistic employee is driven, charismatic and exudes confidence, so he or she will stand out among peers as a prime candidate for leadership positions. When this individual is in a position of power, he or she will show definitive and easily recognizable traits. Here are some of those traits, and why they can hurt your business, or even help it at times. Related: 8 Traits of Healthy Narcissism That Drive Success Narcissists tend to lead with vision. One positive aspect of a narcissistic leader is vision. In his or her mind, they create a future reality, share it with their subordinates and then push through until that vision is achieved. The focus and follow-through ability of narcissistic leaders is indisputable, making organizations more action-oriented. The productivity of an organization will often rise under the guidance of this type of leader. Related: How to Work With a Narcissist Delusions of grandeur drive them to try conquering the world. Two traits of certain narcissists are delusions of grandeur and extreme confidence. The combination of these two can create a desire to conquer the world. In business, they will often want to annihilate their competition and dominate their field. This competitive nature can help ensure success for their business. This is definitely a positive trait for a company's bottom line, assuming the narcissist does not leave a path of destruction that harms the business's reputation. Related: Elon Musk's Ex-Wife on What She Learned Living With an Extreme Entrepreneurial Success They don't listen to what contradicts their vision. Let's talk about the flip side. Narcissists inability to listen to others and accept differing opinions is one of their downfalls. They often surround themselves will brilliant advisors and employees, yet deny those people the opportunity to bring their ideas to fruition. The narcissist already possesses a vision and does not typically desire input from others. This type of close-mindedness can result in missed opportunities and overlooked ideas, hurting the organization. Related: 6 Pieces of Compelling Advice that Many Entrepreneurs Ignore Theres an empathy problem. Along with the inability to listen, the narcissistic leader will also lack empathy. The feelings and needs of subordinates are seldom taken into consideration. As one can imagine, this will make the leader appear aloof and cold-hearted, which is often the case. The lack of empathy will likely become detrimental to everyone's morale. If the narcissist doesnt keep their abrasiveness in check, they will lose valuable employees, friends and clients. Productivity may also drop. Related: Why Being the Beta Chief Is Better Than Being the Alpha Chief They can be exploitative. Leaders with narcissistic personality traits frequently take advantage of others, exploiting their power to achieve their vision. This may include extending work hours, limiting breaks or demanding unreasonable immediate action. This exploitative way of managing decreases motivation and productivity in the long run. Initially, employees may be charmed by the leaders charisma and motivated to be more productive. This often doesn't last, however. But -- can they be effective? One researcher at Durham University in the United Kingdom proposed that narcissism has two sides, a bright one and a dark one. Narcissistic leaders, at their best, can be charismatic, engaging, motivated and motivating. At their worst, they can be nit-picky and condescending. Author and psychoanalyst Dr. Michael Maccoby agrees, finding narcissists may thrive in chaotic times but can seem out of place during times of tranquility. It can be difficult to measure how successful any leader may be for an organization, and narcissistic leaders are no different. So, it seems like the narcissist creates an action-oriented environment but may fall short in maintaining employee morale. Effective leadership is possible if the narcissist is aware of his or her own shortcomings -- and if he or she is willing to work on themselves. Being open to others ideas and showing empathy to those around them makes a world of difference. Ideally, a narcissistic leader can deliver strong morale and high productivity. They just need to cultivate the emotional maturity to accept advice and truly listen to outside perspectives. Achieving that balance will help this leader not only save themselves, but also the business. Related: 12 Quotes on Leadership, Passion, Hard Work and More from the Entrepreneur Behind Nike Phil Knight When You're a Leader, Everything You Do Has an Impact Your Narcissistic Boss Could be Great But Is Probably Just Hurting the Business Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com A former business development manager for the $1 billion Philadelphia Federal Credit Union will be sentenced in June for his role in helping Pennsylvania public officials, including an elected judge, launder drug money. Kevin M. Biederman, who worked at the credit union from 2012 to March 2016, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and bank bribery Friday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. His plea deal was not publicly available online. Three Bucks County public officials were also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, wire fraud, mail fraud and extortion. According to the court documents, from June 2015 to November 2016, the public officials and Biederman conspired to launder $400,000 in cash during an undercover police investigation that included a cooperating witness. The undercover cops told the county officials the money that needed to be laundered came from illegal drug trafficking, health care and bank fraud schemes. Singapore Sets Up A Cybersecurity Start-Up Hub Singapore is setting up its first cyber-security start-up incubation hub, with funding to be provided for new inventions, as the nation strives to carve out a role for itself in the new digital economy. Dubbed Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem @Block 71 (ICE71), the hub will open its doors to cyber-security entrepreneurs In April. It will be located in a cluster of industrial buildings in Ayer Rajah Crescent known affectionately and collectively as "Block 71". The area is currently home to about 700 technology start-ups. The aim is to hand-hold aspiring entrepreneurs to ensure their business ideas are sound, and to ensure they have the necessary financial and business know-how to take their ideas to the next step. Help will also be given for expansion to overseas markets and access to venture funding. The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Singapore's Cyber Security Agency (CSA) are working with Singtel and the National University of Singapore (NUS) to launch ICE71. The hub will be located within the existing premises of Singtel's corporate venture arm Innov8 and NUS Enterprise at Block 71, and seeks to groom up to 100 entrepreneurs and 40 start-ups over the next two years. Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim announced these moves during the debate on his ministry's budget on March 6. "A vibrant cyber-security ecosystem is an important factor contributing to robust national cyber security," said Dr Yaacob, agreeing with Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Chua Chu Kang GRC) and addressing a point made by Ms. Sun Xueling (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC) that Singapore's connectedness exposes it to attacks. Separately, CSA will also roll out a new funding scheme to spur developments that would meet national security needs, believing that innovation is the key to stay ahead in the arms race against cyber attackers. The areas of focus include forensics, authentication, Internet of Things and managed security services. Funding of up to $500,000 will be provided to qualifying projects by Singapore-registered companies. At least 50 per cent of the manpower employed in the project must be Singaporean or Singapore permanent resident. The aim is to develop home-grown companies that could own a slice of the lucrative cyber-security market, tipped to attract spending of US$105 billion (S$138 billion) by 2020, according to global estimates by market research firm IDC. Singapore's cyber-security market could generate $900 million in revenue by 2020, said Dr Yaacob. "Cyber security is also a growth engine," he said, acknowledging Mr Cedric Foo's (Pioneer) point that tech talent is needed to propel Singapore's economic expansion in the digital realm. To prepare the workforce, the IMDA will invest an additional $145 million in its tech skills development and job placement initiative, dubbed TechSkills Accelerator (Tesa), over the next three years. This will create 20,000 training places by 2020, with a focus on company-led courses and emerging areas such as cyber security, data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things. Since its inception in April 2016, Tesa has trained 27,000 professionals in new tech skills to prepare them for the digital economy. Some $120 million has been spent to date. The Ministry of Communications and Information will also be deferring the review of the Broadcasting Act to study in detail how digital technologies and social media platforms have come together to increase the risk of fake news, said Dr Yaacob in his reply to Mr Ong Teng Koon's (Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC) question on the challenges brought about by such convergence. Dr Yaacob added: "As Parliament has just appointed the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods to examine the issue, it would be better to study the Select Committee's recommendations first, before making further moves." Straits Times: You Might Also Read: Singapore: The Place To Launch Cyber Attacks From: Singapores Mounting Cyber Threats: GOP leaders say agenda is more than masks, rallies welcome them back Pa. Republican leaders say their agenda is about more than school masks as protest over statute of limitations for abuse victims greet them. Derwent London plc owns 83 buildings in a commercial real estate portfolio predominantly in central London valued at A5.4 billion (including joint ventures) as at 30 June 2020, making it the largest London-focused real estate investment trust (REIT). Our experienced team has a long track record of creating value throughout the property cycle by regenerating our buildings via development or refurbishment, effective asset management and capital recycling. We typically acquire central London properties off-market with low capital values and modest rents in improving locations, most of which are either in the West End or the Tech Belt. We capitalise on the unique qualities of each of our properties - taking a fresh approach to the regeneration of every building with a focus on anticipating tenant requirements and an emphasis on design. Reflecting and supporting our long-term success, the business has a strong balance sheet with modest leverage, a robust income stream and flexible financing. As part of our commitment to lead the industry in mitigating climate change, in October 2019, Derwent London became the first UK REIT to sign a Green Revolving Credit Facility. At the same time, we also launched our Green Finance Framework and signed the Better Buildings Partnership's climate change commitment. The Group is a member of the 'RE100' which recognises Derwent London as an influential company, committed to 100% renewable power by purchasing renewable energy, a key step in becoming a net zero carbon business. Derwent London is one of only a few property companies worldwide to have science-based carbon targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Landmark schemes in our 5.6 million sq ft portfolio include 80 Charlotte Street W1, Brunel Building W2, White Collar Factory EC1, Angel Building EC1, 1-2 Stephen Street W1, Horseferry House SW1 and Tea Building E1. In 2019, the Group won several awards including EG Offices Company of the Year, the CoStar West End Deal of the Year for Brunel Building, Westminster Business Council's Best Achievement in Sustainability award and topped the real estate sector and was placed ninth overall in the Management Today 2019 awards for 'Britain's Most Admired Companies'. In 2013 the Company launched a voluntary Community Fund and has to date supported over 100 community projects in the West End and the Tech Belt. The Company is a public limited company, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and incorporated and domiciled in the UK. The address of its registered office is 25 Savile Row, London, Read More 9 hours ago Stocks drop the most since May on worries over China, Fed Stocks on Wall Street closed sharply lower Monday, mirroring losses overseas and handing the S&P 500 index its biggest drop in four months. Worries about heavily indebted Chinese real estate developers and the damage they could do to investors worldwide if they default rippled across markets. Read Article logo_ddn_tag_Site JN with Tagline logo-sns_tag_Site Our apologies, unfortunately our website is currently unavailable in most European countries due to GDPR rules. In March last year, Apple quietly released several new products. So we wouldn't be surprised if the electronics giant eschewed a formal event again in 2018. However, with rumors of a new iPad (or two) swirling on the horizon, we're betting that Apple won't skip its spring event this year. No matter what Apple has planned, we're certain that now is not the time to buy an iPad. Apple Could Unveil 2 New iPads Apple has trimmed its iPad lineup quite a bit in the last few years. Currently, there are four versions: the iPad Pro in two sizes, the iPad that was meant to replace the iPad Air 2, and the iPad mini 4. Last year is when the iPad was introduced, sporting a 9.7" screen and a cheaper price tag. The smaller iPad Pro was also introduced in 2017. SEE ALSO: Oops! Apple Messed Up, But You Can Get a MUCH Cheaper Battery Out Of It Apple seems prepped to release two new models, according to information filed with the Eurasian Economic Commission. Although model identifiers are included, it's not obvious if they'll be entirely new slates, or simply updates for existing models. 9to5Mac believes we're more likely to see updates to the iPad mini 4 and the iPad line. Expect Cheaper iPads Soon If trends follow what we saw with the mini 3, we could see the mini 4 drop in price as little as week after the new iPad announcement. The smallest discount we could expect to see on the mini 4 is 30% off, which would drop it to $279. Considering we've already seen it fall to $275, this is more than reasonable for the WiFi model. If the WiFi + LTE model drops similarly, it'll be around $370. If we see heftier discounts (a strong possibility for the WiFi model), then the deepest cut we can expect is 50% off. That would be $199. The mini 4 is going on three years old; even so, that seems a bit optimistic. It's more likely the mini 4 will land between $220 and $250. The smallest discount we could expect to see on the mini 4 is 30% off, which would drop it to $279. However, we think it's more likely to land between $220 and $250. Since the iPad that replaced the Air 2 is already on the lower end of the price spectrum, we don't expect to see significant discounts for it. It would probably be reasonable to see the iPad fall to around $230, at most. It's worth noting that the secondary Apple market seems to be thriving. We tend to see a large number of deals on refurbished iPads. Over the last year, about 50% of the deals on iPads we saw were for refurbished models. AirPods Could Also Get an Update In other gadget news, Apple is expected to announce a major update to its AirPods soon and some experts think it'll involve Siri support. Additionally, the AirPower wireless charging mat was announced last year, and it's allegedly slated for release this year. We could see pricing and availability announced during a spring event. SEE ALSO: 8 Things to Buy in March (and 3 Things You Should Definitely Skip) Although some rumors have indicated we could see a new Apple Watch this month. However, we're betting that it'll be just be Watch bands. Major updates to the Watch seem more likely to come in September, along with new iPhone announcement. As for MacBooks, Apple hasn't announced a new notebook in March since the early-2015 model of the 13" MacBook Pro. The iPad Pro Isn't Doing Well The iPad Pro was introduced in November of 2015, but it hasn't taken off. Most media outlets declared it an abject failure. Some even suspected the failing tablet was why the company decided to update its notebook lineup. That said, Apple has been dealing with declining tablet sales for a few years now. It seems that last year they were able to turn things around... by introducing a newer, cheaper model. The 2017 iPad starts at $329, which is the cheapest starting point for any new iPad. So where does that leave the Pro? Rumors suggest we might see new iPad Pros later this year, but we're not holding our breath. Readers, are you excited for two new iPads? Perhaps you're stoked for a price drop on one of the older models? Let us know in the comments below. If youre not producing sexy research thats going to come up with a magic bullet, then people are not going to give you the money. (Photo: Pixabay) They can make test-tube babies, grow human eggs in a lab and reproduce mice from frozen testicle tissue, but when it comes to knowing how a mans sperm can swim to, find and fertilize an egg, scientists are still floundering. Enormous advances in treating infertility in recent decades have helped couples conceive longed-for offspring they previously would not have had. Yet this progress has also been a work-around for a major part of the problem: Sperm counts are falling drastically worldwide - and have been doing so for decades and scientists say their honest answer to why is:We dont know. Infertility is a significant global health problem, with specialists estimating that as many as one in six couples worldwide are affected. In more than half of those cases, experts say, the underlying problem is in the male. Most of the focus of infertility research has been on women, however: on what can reduce their fertility and on how that can be averted, compensated for or corrected with treatment. While this approach has produced results - and babies - it has also left male infertility scientifically sidelined. Treatments such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where the sperm is placed into the egg rather than next to it, bypass the male problem rather than treating it, said Richard Sharpe, professor at the University of Edinburghs center for reproductive health. The treatments - some of them quite invasive - are to the female partner. So the female is having to bear the burden of the males sub-fertility ...(And at the same time), we have a very crude snapshot of what is going on in the male. We know that sperm counts are dependent on high levels of testosterone, and there is some knowledge of links between sperm count and infertility, experts say. But beyond these basics, sperms intricacies remain largely undiscovered. Without understanding the biology of how normal sperm work, we cant possibly understand how they dont work, or how to correct the problem, Sarah Martins Da Silva, a reproductive medicine specialist at the University of Dundee told a London briefing this week. Sperm counts in men from America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand have dropped by more than 50 percent in less than 40 years, according to pooled research published last year, described by one of its authors as anurgent wake-up call for further investigation. STILL IN THE 1950s Experts say that to address the basic unanswered clinical and scientific questions in andrology - the study of male reproductive health - would require research ranging from large, ideally international, epidemiological studies to detailed lab work to decipher exactly how sperm cells function. Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at Britains Sheffield University, said even at a basic level - the diagnosis of a possible male fertility problem - the science is lagging. The techniques of sperm analysis - examining ejaculate under a microscope, counting the sperm, assessing how well they swim, and seeing what they look like - were invented in the 1950s, he said.And we are still doing the same thing now. So while estimates suggest as many 1 in 20 young men now have sperm counts low enough to impair fertility, that remains educated assumption, rather than data from specific studies. The quality of evidence we have got in this area falls way behind that of other branches of medicine, Pacey said. Attracting funding for fundamental research into possible environmental impacts on sperm counts - chemical exposure, for example, or smoking, obesity, or sport and exercise - is tricky, partly because such studies need vast numbers of people, take many years and may not give clear answers. In the competitive world of grant funding, there is a view that male infertility is a problem solved, Sharpe said.We have ICSI. OK, this doesnt fix the problem in the affected men, but it treats the symptoms, and thats good enough. So from an urgency and priority perspective, its easy to downgrade when compared to cancer, obesity or cardiovascular disease. Comprehensive European or global data on funding going to male fertility research are not available, but in Britain, for example, only around 3.6 percent of the Medical Research Council Populations and Systems panel budget was provided for male infertility research from 2014 to 2017. Pacey told Reuters he hasa filing cabinet full of failed applications over the years and Sharpe noted that once research falls behind, future studies have less to build on. If youre not producing sexy research thats going to come up with a magic bullet, then people are not going to give you the money, he said. The threat of infectious diseases looms larger than ever. There is a growing need for awareness so that people can adopt preventive measures. Hyderabad: The threat of infectious diseases looms larger than ever. There is a growing need for awareness so that people can adopt preventive measures. Experts agree with Tedros Adhanom, the director-general of the World Health Organisation, who has said that sporadic outbreaks of infectious disease can no longer be considered isolated events. Dr Suneetha Narreddy, a senior infectious control physician at Apollo Hospital says, No place in the world is isolated. Viruses and bacteria are able to move from one place to another at a great pace because of tourism. There is also an increase in human-wildlife interaction and increased human intervention in places inhabited by animals, which is why there is a movement of pathogens between animals and humans. We do not know what can trigger an epidemic, but the chances of such an occurrence are very high. The Centre for Disease Control has reported that the influenza virus in the United States of America is highly debilitating. The virus is being considered a major global threat. Similarly, in Yemen, cholera has become a major cause of concern. The bacteria may spread to Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East. Dr Narreddy says, We can no longer say that what happens in some other part of the world will not affect us. Control measures have to be implemented to prevent these events from turning into epidemics. The WHO has been issuing alerts from time to time, asking for preventive measures to be taken up. Pathogens that were once found in only one continent, are now encountered world over. They have even mutated and adapted to local climates. Dr S. Shanker, the superintendent of Fever Hospital, says, Viruses and bacteria no longer live in the environments that they emerged from. They are adapting to the environments that they have been transferred to. Because of this, it is very difficult to predict what will happen next. The world is becoming a smaller place, but increased accessibility is also leading to the spread of diseases. If the population of a particular place does not have the immunity to fight a pathogen, it can result in an epidemic. Experts say that it is important to develop an immunity against pathogens. The early onset of diseases and disorders such as kidney failure, diabetes and hypertension are markers of poor immunity. Children below the age of five, pregnant women and senior citizens also have low immunities. Dr S. Ramakrishna explains, It is important to ensure that vulnerable populations are strong enough to be able to deal with diseases. Often, during an outbreak, governments do not have the time to understand the disease-causing virus or bacteria. Preventive measures such as the maintenance of good hygiene, the consumption of nutritious food, and the practice of keeping fit through exercise go a long way in helping the body fight diseases. Over 30 Sri Ram Sene activists had allegedly barged into the pub on January 24, 2009, and assaulted some women and men, claiming they were violating traditional Indian values. (Representational Image) Mangaluru: The incident had garnered national outrage after a video clip of the attack went viral and yet, a local court on Monday acquitted Right-wing fringe outfit Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik and several others in the 2009 Mangaluru pub attack case for lack of evidence. Third Judicial Magistrate of First Class Court R. Manjunath stated in his order, The accused are acquitted. Over 30 Sri Ram Sene activists had allegedly barged into the pub on January 24, 2009, and assaulted some women and men, claiming they were violating traditional Indian values. And while the video depicted several men allegedly dragging women at the pub by their hair, slapping and roughing them up and accusing them of loose morals, the verdict has left people shocked, while Muthalik celebrates. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, several people have expressed their shocked outrage at the verdict which has brought to question womens safety in India. Taking to Twitter, Dhrubo Jyoti wrote, A group of men barged into a pub, beat up women, dragged out and paraded in front of television. A decade and many many protests later, all acquitted reportedly for "lack of evidence". Shameful#MangalorePubAttack Dhrubo Jyoti (@dhrubo127) March 12, 2018 Another Twitter user expressed his shock as well, The Judiciary let India down. Now I know why the symbol of law is the blindfolded lady. How can they let these goons free? It will only encourage further acts of fundamentalist violence. #MangalorePubAttack Adarsh J (@AdarshJforchang) March 13, 2018 Yashas cannot help but be sarcastic as he writes, The court acquits Pramod muthalik and Ram sene goons for lack of evidence. Guess it was 'Invisible hands' that hit women at Mangaluru Pub. #MangalorePubAttack yashas (@YashasRonie) March 13, 2018 While Chef Kavita Chesetty feels that it is a 'strange land' we live in, #MangalorePubAttack culprits get relief!! Strange is this land we live in. Where reality and allegations are mixed up!! Kavita Chesetty (@kavita_malli) March 13, 2018 Other users too expressed their shock at the verdict, with one user writing, "Lack of evidence for something an entire nation watched?? #MangalorePubAttack." Another twitterati Harish asks everyone to realise what just happened. He tweets, "State of judiciary- After 9 years, #MangalorePubAttack perpetuators who were caught on cam hitting girls are let off. Let that sink in." Blogger Ritu Putatunda asks women to take matters in their own hands since the judiciary managed to fail them so badly. She tweets, 4)Henceforth women shd arm themselves,take self defense training,& fight back when such goons assault them!Remember,so-called justice system of India fails again&again to support #womensrights,hence women hv to fight for their rights! #MangalorePubAttack Rita Putatunda (@SistahFeminista) March 13, 2018 And one twitter user chilling puts forward reality, He said he was morally guilty for what happened at the concentration camp (Photo: AFP) The Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland has witnessed one of the most gruesome crimes against humanity. One of the people involved in this massacre, Oskar Groening was convicted in 2015 and was sentenced to four years in prison. But the 96-year-old also known as the Bookkeeper of Auschwitz has died before beginning his prison sentence. The man was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of three lakh people in the infamous concentration camp. Although he didnt directly participate in killings, Groening was called the bookkeeper since he had to count cash taken from victims when they were brought to Auschwitz. His was one of the last major court battles related to the Holocaust when six million Jews were murdered under Adolf Hitler. While Groening was sentenced after his conviction, legal wrangling and his ill health delayed the beginning of his time in prison. He gained attention in 2005 as he described in job in interviews for proving to Holocaust deniers that the killings did take place. He said he was morally guilty for what happened at the concentration camp as he collected cash from Jews and sent it to Berlin where it funded the Nazi war effort. The Supreme Court, however, said Aadhaar will be necessary only for social schemes. (Photo: File) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended until further orders the deadline for Aadhaar linkage with bank accounts and all schemes of the Ministries/ Departments of the Central and State governments, except for availing benefits and subsidies. As a result of this order Aadhaar is not mandatory for various other services. The earlier time limit was upto March 31. A five judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Kanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan made it clear that its earlier interim order passed on December 15, 2017 extending the time limit would remain in force till judgment was pronounced in the matter. The Bench has been hearing arguments from January 17 on validity of linkage of Aadhaar. Further the apex court extended the date for the completion of the linkage of Aadhaar and e-KYC process in respect of mobile phone subscribers till judgment is rendered. When advocate Vrinda Grover brought to the notice of the court that new Rules were issued to make Aadhaar mandatory for Passport under Tatkal scheme, the court said the new rules would not be applicable for passport under Tatkal as any one of the other identity cards could be used till the judgment is rendered. Senior counsel Arvind P Datar informed the court that. Grovers passport has been cancelled though it is valid till 2020 as only additional booklet was required. She was to travel to Bangladesh to participate in a conference and in the absence of Aadhaar she cannot get her passport. Passing interim orders on a batch of petitions questioning the validity of the Aadhaar law, the Bench said insofar as new bank accounts are concerned, the Bench extended the deadline till March 31, subject to the submission of the details in regard to the filing of an application for an Aadhaar card and the furnishing of the application number to the account opening bank. The court made it clear that the extension of the time limit beyond March 31, 2018 shall apply for Aadhar linkage, besides the schemes of the Ministries/ Departments of the Union government and all state governments in similar terms. Regarding linking of PAN card with Aadhaar, the Bench clarified that in so far as the provisions of Section 139 AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 are concerned, the matter stands governed by the judgment of this Court upholding the provision. The petitioners Justice KS Puttasamy and others argued that Aadhaar Cards could permissibly be utilised only for six schemes as approved by the Constitution bench in earlier orders. They wanted the court to direct the Centre to strictly follow these orders. Further they insisted that the Aadhaar card scheme was to be purely voluntary and could not be made mandatory until this Court finally decides the matter. Attorney General KK Venugopal said Aadhaar would be essential for availing social security benefits, services and subsidies and accordingly the Bench granted exemption for these benefits. The government had made it to link Aadhaar with welfare schemes insisting that it was necessary to weed out benami deals and black money. The Centre was also planning to make it mandatory to link Aadhaar with driving license and voter ID cards, among other things. Aadhaar was launched in India in 2009 to streamline welfare payments and reduce wastage in public spending. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been keen to make Aadhaar mandatory for everything from filing income tax to the registration of mobile phone numbers and booking railway tickets. Aadhaar is now mandatory for welfare, pension and employment schemes. A group of petitioners have asked the Supreme Court to declare the government's insistence on Aadhaar disclosure as a violation of the right to privacy. A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and UU Lalit said two decisions taken on August 24, 2007 and January 29, 2010 with regard to dropping of acquisition and closing of proceedings respectively were taken to 'confer advantages and benefits upon the builders/private entities rather than to carry out or effectuate public purpose'. (Photo: File) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday set aside two orders of the erstwhile Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in connection with land acquisitions in adjoining areas of Gurgaon in Haryana terming the decisions "nothing but fraud on power". The apex court verdict came on plea related to the land acquisition done by the Haryana government by its August 27, 2004 notification, for acquiring lands measuring about 912 Acres from three villages namely, Manesar, Lakhnoula and Naurangpur of Gurgaon district for setting up Chaudhari Devi Lal Industrial Township. On February 26, 2005, 224 acres of land was released from acquisition by the government but builders approached the farmers for purchase of their land at throwaway prices. Just two days before the pronouncement of award for the land acquired by the government on August 26, 2007, an order was passed on August 24, 2007 dropping the acquisition. The builders who had purchased the land from farmers later approached the government for licence to build housing societies and they were subsequently granted the approvals. The top court said the "inescapable conclusion" was that there was an "unholy nexus" between the government machinery and the builders and private entities in devising a modality to deprive the "innocent and gullible landholders" of their land holdings and jeopardise the public interest, which the acquisition was intended to achieve. A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and UU Lalit said two decisions taken on August 24, 2007 and January 29, 2010 with regard to dropping of acquisition and closing of proceedings respectively were taken to "confer advantages and benefits upon the builders/private entities rather than to carry out or effectuate public purpose". "The record indicates that various entities including certain 'middlemen' cornered unnatural gains and walked away with huge profits taking the entire process of acquisition for a ride. Substantial sums have exchanged hands in the form of settlement money," Justice Lalit, who penned down a 97-page verdict for the bench, said. The bench said all the steps and stages show that builders and private entities were well aware that acquisition would not go through but the landholders were confronted with "smoke screen" of acquisition and were cornered and persuaded in entering into transactions with the builders and private entities. "The transactions so entered into between the landholders and the concerned builders/ private entities could not be said to be voluntary and free from any influence. The unnatural and unreasonable bargain was forced upon the landholders by creating facade of impending acquisition," it said. The top court said that the public interest was not the underlying concern or objective behind those decisions dated August 24, 2007 and January 29, 2010 but the motive was to confer undue advantage on the builders/private entities. "It is clear that considerations other than those which were required to be bestowed, guided the exercise of power in arriving at decisions dated August 24, 2007 and January 29, 2010. "The inescapable conclusion, therefore, is that there was an unholy nexus between the government machinery and the builders/private entities in devising a modality to deprive the innocent and gullible landholders of their holdings and jeopardise public interest which the acquisition was intended to achieve," it said. The apex court passed various directions including in connection with the transactions entered into between landholders and the builders and private entities concerned in the present case were not voluntary and were brought about by fraudulent influence. "Certain 'middlemen' and builders enriched themselves at the expense of the landholders and public interest which was to be achieved by acquisition," it said. The court said that the decisions dated August 24, 2007 and January 29, 2010 as well as entertaining of applications for grant of licence for building housing societies from those who had bought the lands after the acquisition was initiated, were not bonafide exercise of power by the state machinery. "The exercise of power under the Act was guided by considerations extraneous to the provisions of the Act and as a matter of fact, was designed to enrich the builders/private entities. These decisions were nothing but fraud on power," it said. The bench said wherever there has been fraud on power, the duty of the court was not only to set aside such exercise of power but to see that there was no unjust enrichment directly or indirectly as a result thereof and there was full and substantial restoration. The apex court passed slew of directions granting relief to the farmers whose land were acquired and later taken by the builders. Theni: Expressing grief over the trekking expedition deaths, the Chief Minister said, I am anguished to know that 10 persons were killed in the forest fire. Mr Palaniswami announced a solatium of Rs 4 lakh to each of the families of the deceased, `one lakh to the grievously injured and Rs 50,000 to those with simple injuries. While ordering the probe into the incident, Mr Palaniswami said action should be initiated against those who arranged for the trek without Forest department's permission. On the possibility of forest fire, he explained that the scorching sun and severe drought condition and the leaves frequently falling to the ground, any small fire could spread fast leading to severe damage. During summer months of March, April and May, permission for trekking is not given, as the high forest ranges are dry with the possibility of forest fires spreading fast, he said. The CM refuted a charge that there had been laxity in undertaking rescue operations and said that it was launched immediately on war footing. "Owing to the difficult terrain and darkness, the personnel involved in the rescue operation faced lot of difficulty on Sunday night," he added. Deputy CM O. Panneerselvam, Ministers R.B. Udayakumar, Dindigul C. Sreenivasan, C. Vijayabaskar, besides senior officials, and district collector, police and forest officials were camping in that area and overseeing the rescue operation. A 36-member team - 24 from Chennai and 12 from Tiruppur and Erode districts had embarked on the trekking expedition and reached Kurangani hills on March 10. The team included 25 women and three children, according to Theni District Collector Mariam Pallavi Baldev. Three of them had returned to the plains without going ahead further. After staying at an estate in Kozhukumalai overnight, the trekkers started their return journey to the plains on Sunday morning when they noticed the sudden forest fire and got separated while attempting to find a safe way, collector said. The Supreme Court on March 8 restored Hadiya's marriage with Shafin Jahan stating that she was free to live with her husband and 'pursue her endeavours'. (Photo: File). Kozhikode: Days after the Supreme Court scrapped the Kerala High Court order annulling the marriage of Hadiya, the 24-year-old woman on Monday demanded the state government to compensate for the losses she incurred during her two years of struggle. Clarifying to reporters that she had not demanded any compensation from her parents, Hadiya said, "There were some reports in the media that I demanded compensation from my parents. That is absolutely wrong. I sought compensation from the state government". "My legal struggle lasted roughly for two years and the six months I spent with my parents were horrible. I was literally under house arrest. I lost two precious years of my life. I dont think my parents would want to harm me but they were under the influence of some antinational forces," Hadiya was quoted as saying by The Times of India. Not elaborating on the "antinational forces", Hadiya added, "They are using them (parents) for political benefits. On being asked whether she would visit her parents, she said that she would not meet them as they needed time to accept her as a Muslim. "My parents also need some time to come to terms with all that has happened. I am not going to meet them this time. They need some time to accept that I am a Muslim," NDTV reported Hadiya as saying. The Supreme Court on March 8 restored Hadiya's marriage with Shafin Jahan stating that she was free to live with her husband and "pursue her endeavours". Hadiya, who was born to a Hindu couple in Kerala, made headlines after she converted to Islam and married a Muslim man against the wishes of her parents. The Kerala High Court in May, last year, annulled the marriage on a complaint by her father terming it as an instance of 'love jihad'. The high court, while declaring the marriage as "null and void", had described the case as an instance of 'love jihad' and ordered the state police to conduct probe into such cases. Security personnel inspect the site of an IED blast in Kistaram area of Chhattisgarhs Sukma district on Tuesday. PTI Bhopal: Nine CRPF personnel were killed and two others injured on Tuesday when Maoists blasted the mine protected vehicle (MPV) they were travelling in using over 50 kg of explosives in Kistaram jungle, in Chhattisgarhs south Bastar district of Sukma. The attack came about four hours after another CRPF team had a fierce gun battle with about 100 Maoists, also in Sukmas Kistaram forest in which, sources said, at least three grenades fired from Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL) failed to go off. All Maoists were in uniform. Initially our party thought that it is another party of CRPF but after few minutes they realised that they were Maoists Initially, our party fired UGBL but three grenades did not explode. Had the grenades gone off, we would have major success in the encounter, the CRPF officer told to this newspaper. Despite that the jawans 208 CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) battalion forced the Maoists to retreat into the nearby jungle. The Maoists were heard communicating on a Chinese communication set that one Maoist was killed in the incident, the CRPF officer said. At around 12.30 pm, the Maoists emerged again, to blow up a vehicle carrying men from CRPFs 212 battalion. The impact of the explosion was such that the MPV was tossed eight to ten feet in the air before it crashed on the ground, throwing many personnel out of the vehicle, officials said. The slain include one assistant sub-inspector, one head constable and seven constables of CRPF. The injured were evacuated by a chopper to Raipur. The CRPF men were moving from Kistaram camp to the new camp in Palodi in the MPV when Maoists triggered improvised explosive device (IED) targeting them, D.M. Awasthi, special director general, Maoist operation, said. The blast is suspected to have been triggered by joining wires from a distance when the MPV crossed over the IED, officials said. Some of the CRPF personnel who were killed had recently returned from leave and were going to report at the new camp with their belongings and weapons, officials said. The attack came a few hours after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) issued an alert of a possible Maoist attack on security personnel in the area. The attack site is in the core area of Maoist zone, where encounters take place almost every day between Maoists and security forces. Only inputs by security forces deployed on the ground reflect the ground situation, Mr Awasthi said. This was the fifth attack by Maoists on CRPF personnel in Sukma district since 2010. Twelve CRPF personnel were killed on March 11 last year in the Bheji area of Sukma district and their arms looted when Maoists ambushed their patrol party. A few days later, on April 24, 25 CRPF personnel were killed in a similar ambush in Sukma In the deadliest ever attack on security personnel by Maoists, 75 jawans of the Central paramilitary force were massacred in Chintalnar in the district on April 6, 2010. Tuesdays attack came a day after Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh threw a challenge at the Maoists by riding pillion on a bike on Inzaram-Bhejji road, barely 40 km from the attack site. The chief minister condemned the attack, describing it as an act of cowardice. He said that the Maoists had targeted security personnel because they are angry over the developmental work being carried out in the area. He convened an emergency meeting of senior officers and police officers to take stock of the situation and that counterinsurgency operations in Bastar be intensified. Home minister Rajnath Singh said the incident was deeply distressing and asked CRPF director general R.R. Bhatnagar to rush to Chhattisgarh. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans, he said. The home minister also spoke with the Chhattisgarh chief minister and directed minister of state Hansraj Ahir to reach the state by Tuesday night and review the ground situation. Officials said Maoists, led by their elusive commander Hidma and his PLGA (Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army) battalion no. 1, could be behind the deadly attack. Sukma, considered one of the worst insurgency-hit regions of the state, has witnessed several deadly attacks on security forces in the past, particularly in summer months when rebels carry out their annual tactical counter offensive campaign (TCOC), which begins in February till onset of monsoon in Bastar in mid-June. Those killed have been identified as assistant sub-inspector Ram Krishna Singh Tomar, head constable Laxman and constables Ajay Kumar Yadav, Manoranjan Lenka, Jitendra Singh, Sobit Kumar Sharma, Manoj Kumar Singh, Dharmendra Yadav and Chandra H.S. The injured are Madan Kumar and Rajesh Kumar. According to health department sources, these eight survivors continue to be in ICU and are being attended to by doctors and plastic surgeons. Chennai: The death toll in the forest fire in Theni district climbed to 11 with one more trekker succumbing to burns on Tuesday. Of 17 trekkers undergoing treatment at various hospitals, eight continue to be critical and are on ventilator support. According to health department sources, these eight survivors continue to be in ICU and are being attended to by doctors and plastic surgeons. Health secretary J. Radhakrishnan, who is camping at Madurai, said around 15 injured individuals are admitted at the Government hospital in Theni, including four patients who suffered more than 90 per cent burns, while another eight have suffered more than 50 percent burns. Three of them have incurred less than 40 per cent burns and are being monitored round the clock. The multi-disciplinary team of doctors are not only providing treatment for burns, but they are also looking to prevent infections due to burns. Private health care providers, who specialise in treatment of burns, have also joined the team of government doctors and plastic surgeons, the health secretary told DC. On Sunday night, the police arrested Ranjith (30), who was the tour guide for trekkers from Erode. Another guide, Rajesh, who was coordinating with trekkers from Chennai, has also been detained. We have launched a manhunt for missing Peter Van Geit, the Belgian who founded the Chennai Trekking Club. A few villagers of Kurangani settlement and staff associated with a local tea estate are also under the scanner, police said. Earlier in the day, top forest officials inspected the Karangani range where the tragedy struck and placed forester Jaisingh on suspension. According to forest department sources the forester as charged for not patrolling the area coming under his jurisdiction and queries were also raised against local rangers and guards and further investigations are on. The focus would now be on preventing the fire outbreak in to other areas and a circular was issued to foresters asking them to tighten the movement of public into reserve forests, forest department sources said. Utah junior high science teacher Skipper Coates said she was crushed when she found out about 70 out of 85 of her students admitted to keeping a form of social media secret from their parents. I decided to share the information because I believe we are on the brink of a serious mental-health crisis with this generation, she wrote in an article on LoveWhatMatters.com. They carry these heavy secrets that come with deep emotions, but arent learning the appropriate outlets for that emotion, and they arent learning how to get secrets off their chests. Coates recently shared her findings about her students social media use in a Facebook post as a wake-up call to parents to be aware and talk to their children. On March 8, she posted, Today I asked three of my classes to finish this sentence: What my parents dont know about social media is You guys. The answers were SICKENING. Heartbreaking. Depressing." **EDIT: As this post is going viral it is important to me that readers know how much I LOVE these teenage people. It is... Posted by Skipper Coates on Thursday, March 8, 2018 Coates included images of some of the most blunt and honest responses from the 85 ninth-graders, ages 14-15, who participated. One student admitted to staying up until 2 a.m. every night on social media. Others talked about secret accounts and how they can hide or delete pictures and messages. Still, others referenced accessing drugs and pornography. Parents of the world, WAKE. UP. Your kids are living in a world that you are not invited to be part of. And they know how to keep you out. Your teenager DOES NOT NEED a smart phone, she wrote. According to her experience written on LoveWhatMatters.com, Coates said she has two big takeaways from her students responses. First, more technology cant solve the problem. Second, parents need to talk to their kids who are searching for emotional outlets. We need to put down our phones long enough to build face-to-face relationships so our kids dont need to seek validation from peers and strangers, she wrote. Coates later added a comment to the top of her Facebook post about her love for her students and encouraged people to use the online discussion to show them good digital citizenship. Be kind. Have compassion, she wrote. In the coming days, I will be working closely with my school, community, and local therapists to learn more about how we can help. In the four days since it was posted, Coates' comments and pictures on Facebook have been shared over 17,000 times. SALT LAKE CITY Recent allegations against major figures in the children's book world including Utah's James Dashner prompted the New York Times to assert in February that children's publishing is having its own #MeToo movement. Earlier this year, author Anne Ursu conducted a survey regarding sexual harassment in children's publishing. She detailed her findings in a Feb. 7 article on Medium but did not name specific authors nor was her article open for comments. In the wake of her piece, commenters took to a previous School Library Journal piece, accusing Dashner, Jay Asher and Sherman Alexie of sexual harassment. Dashner issued an apology on Twitter a fews days later. Best-selling author and Utah resident Shannon Hale spoke with the Deseret News about why the book world may be susceptible to sexual harassment, why it shouldn't be tolerated and what adults can do to raise a more empathetic generation. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Deseret News: Were you surprised by the recent news that childrens and YA publishing also has problems with sexual harassment? Shannon Hale: I was very surprised and that shows my own naivete, I guess. Im always wanting to think the best of everybody. And I personally have never felt sexually harassed in the childrens book business. Part of that may be that I co-write with my husband a lot and we travel together, so Im just in a different situation. Everyones, by and large, so great and I have worked in several different industries, and childrens books by far have the most dedicated and lovely people Ive ever worked with. I kind of blindly went along thinking, "Glad it's not a problem here!" But thats the very kind of situation where harassment and abuse can flourish. Now that I think about it, I shouldnt have been surprised. Because in a cultural environment where everyone is supposed to be nice and everyones supposed to be kind, were supposed to ignore and not talk about the bad parts. Thats where people who are abusive can really flourish, where people who are harassed or abused feel like they dont have a voice to speak up. DN: Do you think the book industry or the childrens book industry in particular is any more susceptible to sexual harassment than other industries? SH: I think so, yeah. The first thing you need is a power imbalance. It's not just unwanted and unwelcome flirting or touching or innuendo or demands, of course theres a whole continuum of what that really means. But there also has to be a power imbalance, because thats when it's not just flirting, it's not just looking for a date, it's preying on somebody else who doesnt have as equal a voice or footing as you. Its easy to see that in something like Hollywood. Im not surprised at all that thats the industry that really blew this up because when youve got people who are desperately trying to make it in the business, and youve got very high-powered directors and studio execs, thats a huge power imbalance where those sorts of things can happen. And (it can also happen) in a company, where you have a boss or someone who very clearly has seniority, has firing power over subordinates. That, of course, is a power imbalance where abuse and harassment can flourish. I think that was harder to see in the book world because the stakes just arent as high. Despite the outside perception, there just is not a lot money in books and theres not a lot of power in books. It's very easy for us, for published authors and agents and editors, to feel like they dont have that much power because all of us are just trying to get by and do our best. However, there is a perception of power. So, if you have a best-selling author and then youve got a new writer , they can look up to that established author as someone who can get them into the business and that high-powered author could take advantage of that to abuse them or harass them, or to manipulate them, or coerce them into a sexual relationship. DN: The book world has long emphasized role models and mentors people we think of as protectors. How do you think these recent allegations will change those roles? SH: I think it will. People who are in contact with kids every day are really scrutinized like teachers. They are in a different kind of situation. As an author, you meet with a lot of kids, but not one-on-one you go in, speak to schools and you leave. So were not in a situation where there is a high likelihood for abusing our position against children or young adults. So its really with other adults, (and) where it really seems to happen is in book conferences, where a lot of different writers get together and some seem to have a spotlight shined on them (that says), "These are our superstars," and everyone is looking up to them and admiring them and wanting to be them. I think thats where the danger really comes in. But it doesnt really matter in that situation if were childrens book authors or adult book authors or whatever it is, it's the same kind of weird power imbalance that can happen in any industry. But we should hold ourselves to a higher standard. Of course there always is blowback and criticism that some people are being too nitpicky about what constitutes harassment saying certain things that make people uncomfortable shouldn't be harassment, shouldnt end peoples careers, and I can understand peoples concern. But at the same time, were in childrens books. We have an obligation to not only write things that we think will do no harm, but (also things) we think will really change lives and empower kids and teens. But we also have an obligation to be the kind of people that parents shouldn't be worried about their kids looking up to. DN: You are writing for a vulnerable community and that does put you in a different position than it does other writers. SH: Nobody talks to us about this. When you get a book published, you dont have a published author orientation where you learn the rules the do's and donts, theres none of that. Its like: You wrote a book alone and suddenly that qualifies you to be an expert and a role model and a public speaker. I remember being very scared and very lost when suddenly people wanted me to go out and speak and say things. My first book, the advance on it was $10,000. And that was a book I worked on for four years. My second books advance was $12,000, my third books advance was $12,000. None of these books had major publicity campaigns I did not go on book tours. No one really cared about me, I was small change. And so it was very easy in that situation to feel like I was not somebody with any kind of power. I was a mom, I spent most of my days taking care of kids and writing when babies napped and not making near enough to live on. But the perception from the outside was that I was a published author and therefore I had power and influence. So one thing this is forcing all of us I think the majority of people are not bad people in this industry but I think it is making all of us take a closer look at us and (ask), "What voice and power do I have? How I am using that? How do I need to be mindful of those who are vulnerable and those who are from vulnerable communities? How do I need to make sure that Im being wise with my voice and my power and not hurting anyone?" DN: Do you think that culture of nice that you spoke of has a tendency to silence peoples voices? SH: Yes, I absolutely do. Not just in the childrens book community, but in any community where the most important value is kindness. Im a mom and a parent. I want my kids to be kind. It's a wonderful thing but you can take it too far. For example, if a childs in a bullying situation, they should speak up. They should be encouraged to speak up. They should be supported when they speak up and not just be told that you need to be kind no matter what. We can teach our kids, "Its OK, you dont have to stay in a situation where youre being harmed." Kindness is not the only important thing it's also important (to use) your voice. You need to feel like youre heard and validated. I do think that kindness culture can have harmful and unintentional circumstances. It's not that kindness is bad, but just that in addition to teaching kindness, we teach also to speak truth be kind but speak truth. Another important factor (to keep in mind with sexual harassment issues) is the adoration of men over women. The vast majority of people who have been accused and have been proved to be harassers and/or abusers are men. In the childrens book industry, 80 percent of people who work there are women, from writers to book sellers to librarians to editors to publicists. I've seen this in a thousand different ways, the way we honor mens voices over womens voices. One small example is that girls are encouraged and praised to read books about boys and girls, whereas boys are only encouraged to read books about boys and shamed for taking an interest in a story about a girl. So when abuse or harassment does happen and a woman speaks up or a girl speaks up and says that a man or a boy did this to me, were more likely to believe the man who says, "No, I didnt," than to believe the woman because we have already established that (men's) voices are more important. And it's not just men who believe men, but women believing men. And you can see this come out as women have come out and accused people the majority of people who have come out and said, "Oh, I dont believe thats true," and defending the men are women. We all buy into this cultural belief that men are more important. And whenever I say that I get people saying, "So you think women are more important?" as if it has to be either/or. We automatically make this hierarchy, instead of saying, "Cant both be important at the same time? Cant we just honor both instead of just constantly assuming that the man is more important?" DN: Its interesting to me that many of these accusations have come over the comments sections rather than in formal ways. Why do you think that is? SH: Well, first of all, in this community, we dont have an HR department. We don't have anyone to report to, so theres really not anywhere to go. We dont all work for the same company we dont work for any company! Writers are all self-employed. And I think for a long time, there was the whisper network. There were women warning other women, "Be careful with this guy, dont get in an elevator with this guy," kind of a thing. But thats not a great way to do it because not everyones on the whisper network. And when something happens to you in isolation, it's easy to feel like its your fault it must have been just you. But if you could see that this guy has done this to 20 other women, then you understand, "It's not me. I didnt ask for this. This is why Im feeling so bad." One of the (accused) authors has already gotten a lawyer and threatened to sue people who accused him. So there are consequences for speaking out and some of the women who have spoken out have been harassed by other women and accused of lying, just wanting attention and etc. So Im not surprised that its come out in anonymous comments in blog posts, because no one knew where to talk about it. They want to talk. They want to get it off their chest. Some people have been holding onto these things for years, just cankering their soul, but they dont know where to say it. I think theres a really interesting phenomenon how it happened. DN: In Utah, you are part of what seems to be a fairly close-knit writers community. What are writers saying among themselves about these recent sexual harassment allegations in the book world? SH: I think its been really tough, especially as one of our own was one of the people named, and so theres a lot of personal feelings about it. You hope that its wrong, but at the same time, you need to honor the voices of the women who are coming forward and listen to them, because its very, very unlikely that women make false sexual harassment claims. It almost never happens. So the odds are that they are telling the truth, especially when there are multiple accusers, so it is hard and its emotional. I think it shook a lot of people up. There are friendships that have been strained. I dont think weve quite found our footing and figured out where were coming out of it. DN: James Dashner, in a recent Twitter comment, wrote that he is deeply sorry regarding the allegations against him and that he never intentionally hurt another person. Do you feel he owes his readers any more than that? SH: Its hard for me to speak specifically about James. Ive known him for a very long time and out of respect for his family, I havent wanted to speak particularly about his case. However, I have noticed a couple of instances recently where men have been accused, have apologized and it was really good and everyone accepted their apology. And theyve come out of it OK. DN: What do you think we as readers, as parents, as teachers and as adults can do to combat these long-held social beliefs? Do you have any thoughts on what the action item is? SH: I do! Its a very simple way to start: I would say give kids books about characters that are outside their own experience. Obviously, Im a writer and so I do this because I believe that stories change lives. Theres no better way to develop empathy (than to read about) people we might never meet and experience (life) through their eyes. And too often we only give kids books about people that look like them and live lives like them. And not only giving boys books with female protagonists, in addition to all of the wonderful books with male protagonists, (but) also giving them books about people of color, (characters with) different economic backgrounds, characters with disabilities all kinds of characters with different experiences. That simple act can be revolutionary in a kid's life and allow them (to) grow up in world where they see all the people as fully human, not just the ones that look like them. 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Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (10) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (2) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (3) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (3) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (2) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (1) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (2) May 31 (2) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (5) May 27 (1) May 26 (1) May 25 (2) May 24 (2) May 23 (1) May 22 (2) May 21 (2) May 20 (3) May 19 (3) May 18 (2) May 17 (2) May 16 (2) May 15 (3) May 14 (2) May 13 (2) May 12 (2) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (2) May 08 (3) May 07 (2) May 06 (2) May 05 (2) May 04 (2) May 03 (3) May 02 (2) May 01 (2) Apr 30 (1) Apr 29 (2) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (2) Apr 26 (2) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (2) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (4) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (2) Apr 17 (2) Apr 16 (2) Apr 15 (2) Apr 14 (2) Apr 13 (2) Apr 12 (2) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (2) Apr 08 (2) Apr 07 (2) Apr 06 (2) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (2) Apr 03 (2) Apr 02 (2) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (1) Mar 30 (1) Mar 29 (2) Mar 28 (2) Mar 27 (2) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (2) Mar 23 (2) Mar 22 (1) Mar 21 (1) Mar 20 (2) Mar 19 (2) Mar 18 (2) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (2) Mar 14 (2) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (2) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (3) Mar 08 (2) Mar 07 (1) Mar 06 (2) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (8) Mar 02 (2) Mar 01 (1) Feb 28 (2) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (1) Feb 25 (1) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (2) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (2) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (2) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (1) Feb 14 (1) Feb 13 (1) Feb 12 (2) Feb 11 (1) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (1) Feb 08 (1) Feb 07 (1) Feb 06 (1) Feb 05 (5) Feb 03 (1) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (1) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (5) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (3) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (4) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (1) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (5) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (4) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (6) Dec 14 (4) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (5) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (5) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (5) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (4) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (4) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (4) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (3) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (4) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (2) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (4) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (6) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (4) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (3) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (5) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (6) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (5) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (3) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (2) Aug 07 (2) Aug 06 (2) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (2) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (2) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (6) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (4) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (4) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (5) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (2) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (2) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (1) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (2) Jun 04 (2) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (5) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (2) May 23 (4) May 22 (4) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (4) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (4) May 13 (9) May 12 (4) May 11 (5) May 10 (5) May 09 (4) May 08 (3) May 07 (5) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (1) May 02 (5) May 01 (7) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (1) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (3) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (3) Apr 14 (4) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 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Jun 15 (1) Jun 14 (2) Jun 11 (1) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (1) Jun 07 (1) Jun 06 (1) Jun 04 (2) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (1) May 31 (3) May 30 (1) May 29 (1) May 28 (2) May 26 (1) May 25 (1) May 18 (1) May 17 (1) May 15 (1) May 09 (1) May 07 (2) May 02 (1) May 01 (1) Apr 30 (1) Apr 27 (1) Apr 26 (2) Apr 23 (1) Apr 22 (1) Apr 19 (1) Apr 18 (1) Apr 12 (1) Apr 11 (1) Apr 09 (1) Apr 07 (1) Apr 05 (1) Apr 01 (1) Mar 30 (1) Mar 27 (1) Mar 25 (1) Mar 22 (2) Mar 19 (1) Mar 18 (1) Mar 16 (1) Mar 15 (2) Mar 13 (1) Mar 12 (1) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (1) SALT LAKE CITY In the childrens book "Islandborn" (illustrated by Leo Espinosa, Dial Books, 28 pages) and its sister Spanish version "Lola," New York Times best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz tells the story of a young immigrant from the Dominican Republic who must rely on her family and community to recall her roots. Along the way, the protagonist named Lola absorbs stories about air heavy with music, mangoes that make grown men weep at the memory, and a monster so fierce that it drove her family and neighbors away in spite of it all. For Diaz, the book represents his debut in the genre as well as the fulfillment of a promise he made more than 20 years ago. I began this journey because my goddaughters asked me to write them a book when they were very young, he told Deseret News. The girls looked around at what was available at the time and found few stories and characters in which they saw themselves. Frustrated by this lack of representation, they turned to the one adult they believed had the power to change that. They said Youre a writer. Write us a story, he remembered. Twenty-one years later, Diaz has done just that. The outcome, said illustrator, Utah resident and Colombia native Leo Espinosa, has been overwhelming. Its amazing when you see the reaction of the children because they see themselves reflected in the book, he said. The process of dressing "Islandborn" was an especially challenging one for Espinosa, whose portfolio includes three previous childrens books, as well as illustrations for publications such as the New Yorker and The New York Times. In "Islandborn," the monster had to be scary, but not too scary. You dont want to give children nightmares, he said. But the main issue in "Islandborn" was color. Lola today in her relationship with people in her neighborhood and the classroom have to be colorful because its part of who she is right now," Espinosa said. "But her memories need to be a little bit brighter than that. To do that without oversaturating the book was a puzzle the artist confronted each day he stepped into his studio. Im really pleased with the way we solved it, he said. Diaz agreed. The art was revelatory, he said, his voice taking on a new degree of earnestness as the conversation turned to the period of production when Espinosa began submitting his illustrations. Suddenly the book began to acquire more pages and the structure the materiality of the book altered to meet what was happening in the art, which was something really extraordinary. The end result is a book that is sure to earn readers well beyond the audience of Diazs goddaughters. Part of this is while the story hinges on immigration and the sense of being caught between two worlds, the themes of relying on ones community, remembering and honoring the past and standing strong in the face of adversity are as universal as they come. That the monster in the book represents a government with little regard for the rule of law only makes it more relevant. The book is something of a tutorial for dealing with political monsters that one needs solidarity, that one needs courage, that one needs to be able to face up to the things they dont want to face up to, Diaz explained. Citing the political turmoil that characterized his youth in Colombia, Espinosa expressed his own hope that the book published in English and Spanish should serve as a source of strength and encouragement to its young readers. Children have a lot of power, and the more we facilitate that, the more we encourage them to keep on and find ways to make their voice heard, the better, he said. If you go What: Junot Diaz and Leo Espinosa book signing When: Friday, March 23, 7 p.m. Where: Larimer Auditorium, Rowland Hall Upper School, 843 S. Lincoln St. How much: The purchase of a $20 family Ttcket from The Kings English Bookshop includes a copy of "Islandborn" and general admission seating for up to four people. Phone: 801-484-9100 Web: kingsenglish.com Norways Oslo Airport soon won't be just an airport; it will be a city, too. The Nordic Office of Architecture and Haptic Architects unveiled plans for a new Oslo Airport City that will allow travelers to experience all the typical experiences of visiting an airport with the added attraction of driverless cars and smart technology all around them in an urban setting. The electric driverless cars could take travelers around the airport, and all of the new features will rely on renewable energy, too. As Curbed reported, the city, which will be 4 million square meters, will be built next to the airport. The government plans to use this airport to test driverless cars to see how they fare in an urban setting. The term airport city comes from Dr. John Kasarda of the Center for Air Commerce at the University of North Carolina. He created the term to define airports that include more than just concourses and gates. Tomas Stokke, the director of the architecture firm, told Travel + Leisure, that this airport city will be different than others around the world in that it will feel more like an actual city. What you normally have with airport cities is some type of business park where youll mainly find logistic buildings, but what were doing is creating an airport city with urban qualities that include streets, squares and walkable spaces not blocked off by cars in addition to building on the various sport and leisure qualities Norwegians are quite into, he said. The airport will also add 22,000 to 40,000 jobs by 2050. However, dont expect the airport anytime soon. As Curbed reported, the Olso development will need 30 years of construction that will begin in 2019 or 2020. This is a unique opportunity to design a new city from scratch, director of Haptic Architects Tomas Stokke said in a statement. Using robust city planning strategies such as walkability, appropriate densities, active frontages and a car free city centre, combined with the latest developments in technology, we will be able to create a green, sustainable city of the future. Salt Lake City is seeing its airport go under reconstruction. According to the Deseret News, the Salt Lake International Airport is undergoing a $3.6 billion redesign, which will include a new south concourse in 2020 and a new north concourse in 2024, will bring a top-tier airport to the U.S. "The citizens of Salt Lake are going to end up with one of the best airports in the U.S.," Bill Wyatt, new executive director of Salt Lake City's Department of Airports, told the Deseret News. A startup out of Austin, Texas, may have a solution that could fix one of the worlds biggest problems with the help of a 3D printer. As The Verge reported, startup ICON has built an inexpensive 3D printer that can print out the components of a small house in only 12 to 24 hours. These homes measure about 650 square feet. The homes cost about $10,000 to build, but the company plans to sell them for $4,000. ICON plans to use the technology to build a 100-home community in El Salvador next year. The company has partnered with New Story, a nonprofit that seeks to help fix the issue of homelessness across the world. New Story has already built homes in Haiti, El Salvador and Bolivia, according to Fast Company. If New Story succeeds, the first people to live in a 3-D printed town won't be the technologists or the futurists of Silicon Valley. They'll be people in the world's poorest regions, who most need a roof over their heads, Wired reported. Right now, about 1.2 billion people in cities around the world lack affordable and secure housing, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, which equals about 330 million households. The report said the housing gap will likely increase by 30 percent to 1.6 billion people by the year 2025. Cities are the engines of economic growth, and policymakers need help prioritizing solutions, Ani Dasgupta, global director of WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, said in a statement. Supporting affordable housing is one of the best ways to help fast-growing cities in the global south run smoother and provide benefits to all residents." Jason Ballard, who is one of the three founders at ICON and also runs a sustainable home upgrade service called Treehouse, will use one of these homes as an office to see how well they work before the company implements them into communities. The model home, which was unveiled at a South by Southwest conference and festival in Austin, Texas, on Monday, included a living room, bedroom and curved porch. Ballard told The Verge that both ICON and New Story hope to use these homes when human civilization leaves Earth. One of the big challenges is how are we going to create habitats in space, Ballard said. Youre not going to open a two by four and open screws. Its one of the more promising potential habitat technologies. PROVO A Provo photographer accused of inappropriately touching teen boys while they posed in their underwear pleaded guilty Monday. Kyle Celis Navarrete, 32, pleaded guilty in 4th District Court to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, and four counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old, a class A misdemeanor. At sentencing, currently scheduled for April 23, Navarrete faces a potential prison term of one to 15 years for each of the felony charges, while the misdemeanors carry a possible year in jail. In exchange for Navarrete's plea, prosecutors dismissed a charge of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, and four counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. In the fall of 2017, Navarrete arranged photo shoots with at least four boys, ages 16 and 17, and told them they needed to "take underwear photos to get a modeling career," according to a police affidavit. "Defendant enticed each boy to participate with promises of and lies about obtaining modeling work through modeling agencies with the photographs defendant was taking of the boys," charging documents state. Police said Navarrete would touch the boys' genitalia under the guise of "adjusting" them to look better for the photos, according to the affidavit. On at least one occasion, Navarrete had one of the boys touch him, the charges state. Navarrete ran his own photography company called Island Boys Photography. He had a mobile studio, worked alone and took out ads online looking for aspiring models and clients. This Is What Andrea Jeremiah Said About Film Industry Actress Andrea Jeremiah has recently expressed her unhappiness in a recent interaction that the film industry is a powerful male dominated and women are underestimated. On the occasion of Womens Day, on March 8, the actress said that women have always been stereotyped and objectified in the industry. According to a leading daily, the actress was quoted saying, Even a Deepika Padukone had to do a film with Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor to become a Deepika Padukone. A Nayanthara has to do films with Vijay, Ajith, Suriya, Rajinikanth and then she becomes Nayanthara. Why cant an Andrea just do good strong roles and become an Andrea? Why does the worth of an actress have to be determined by her co-stars. Moreover, the actress revealed that after the release of the critically acclaimed Taramani she hasnt given any consent for another movie. She last portrayed a terrific character in the suspense-horror flick, Gruham opposite Siddharth. The film had been directed by U. Milind Rau. For latest movie reviews, ratings and trailers, download the Desimartini App. Source: www.thenewsminute.com A fundamental problem in finding out a place as vast and diverse as India is the address. A residential address isnt like what you see in a developed country like the US where the address simply includes a house number and a street number. In India, an address to a house or a shop runs over two-three lines and includes the house name and number, lane name and number, the street name and finally the name of the city, state and the PIN code. In a digitally advancing India, typing out that long an address is often a cumbersome process. Thick fingers typing out in a small smartphone screen will have spend some time to get it right. More than that, since there is no unifying factor in how a place is addressed across the country, its often difficult to train an algorithm to find an address or even to locate a place. Google Maps, which has become the go-to app for navigating and locating places on a map, faced the issue of finding a way to map a country like India. The app has it easy in the US or in Europe. Theres Street View that physically goes to a place and maps it, replete with every bit of information available around it. Plus its easy to guess an address of one place by looking at another. In India, the situation is vastly different. Noida has its area divided up into sectors while Jaipur has it separated into Nagars. Kolkata has its paras while Delhi has gallis. Google took it upon itself to address the issue. Its answer? Plus Codes. Simply put, Plus Codes are the addresses of cities of the future. Google describes it as street address for people or places that don't have one. It assigns a small geographical area with a unique string of characters that can go up to ten characters. The Plus Code for Digits office in Noida looks like this: H8P8+9H Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Instead of typing out the long address for the office, the Plus Code can be shared with people. Typing in the code in Google Maps or even in Google Search will take you to the location. The 7-string code is unique to the location, on a global scale. Cool, right? Whats even better is that Plus codes are open-source. Anyone can place a pin on a map and generate a Plus Code for it. It transcends borders, accessible offline and can be used without depending on a smartphone. Google actually had the feature up and running for quite some time now. It used to be called Open Location Codes which worked as an alternative to using latitude and longitude. It worked like a street address for places that dont have a specific address. But back then, it could only be seen on the desktop application of Google Maps. Over the last year or so, Plus Codes have been appearing on the mobile app as well. A co-worker of mine claimed he had used it as an alternative to live-location sharing back when location sharing wasnt an option. That too in a Tier 2 city like Nagpur where addresses often are more confusing. Plus codes work similar to how a Pin code works. The six-digit pin code used in India is interpreted by dividing the number into region, sub-region, district and finally the post office. Quite similarly, Plus Codes are divided into an area code and a local code, combined with the name of the city and state. Google Maps has created a grid across the world, with each square labeled by an area code. The area code is further divide into smaller grids which gives the local code. Google said the Plus Codes are accurate up to a 14x14 square metre area. That essentially allows Google to map every building in India with a unique Plus code. Each character of the Plus code is a reference to an area on the world map. It starts off with high-level rows and columns which represent large geographical areas and then you keep adding more rows and columns inside the larger boxes to close in on the location. Based on our research, we found that a ten-string character is the right format and the right size for people to use. But it can change as we keep adding more Plus codes. We can more letters, more numbers, but a Plus code for a place is unique to that particular place, Anal Ghosh, Google Maps Lead in India told Digit. Moreover, the onus to map the world using Plus codes is not just on Google. Plus codes are open-source, which means just about anybody can place a pin on a map and generate a Plus code for it. Car broke down in the middle of the highway? Just create a Plus code for your location and share it with the mechanic. It could be argued that Google Maps already had a simplified way of sharing location. Location URL can be shortened into a bite-sized text that can be shared via an app. But that link remains confined to the digital space and can only be used to lookup an address on an internet-connected device. Plus Codes work offline as well. Simply write down the code on an invitation card, or on your business card and anyone can type the code out on Maps or Search to find the location. Why the name Plus code though? The code literally has the + sign combining the area code and the local code and it becomes useful to computers to differentiate a random string of characters from a Plus code. Plus codes are the future. In a globalised world where borders between countries do not bound people anymore, addresses too will have to be liberated from the bounding nature of borders. With people from diverse cultures who speak diverse languages coming together, having an alphanumeric code for an address removes that cultural barrier. Its also easier for a computer to understand and ultimately, it becomes easier to services like Amazon, Uber, Ola, Swiggy and Zomato to serve users better. You can generate a Plus code for any square inch of the world. You can drop a pin anywhere in the world and get a Plus code for the area. But the Plus codes are not the same across the world. If you drop a pin in France, you might get a six-character Plus code. The city part is India specific, Ghosh revealed. However, Plus Codes may be the future, but its still far out. Plus codes are not replacing the traditional street addresses in India anytime soon. And for that too, Google has a solution. Using machine learning, Google will parse the addresses to find out known landmarks, or a familiar street name to get the user closest to the destination. Most of the time Google Maps, or any other mapping application, for that matter, will fail to register an exact address, especially in India. Googles Smart Address Search will pick up the most recognisable part of the address and redirect users to it. But what if there is no address in the first place? You can add it manually of course. While you could add addresses to businesses or shops, adding address to a residential space is new. Google allows free-form addresses to accommodate the Indian way, and pulls the name of the city, state and the Pin code automatically based on the location. Google also has strict guidelines for not including personal details like name of a person or a phone number while registering an address. Over the past three-four years, we have been focusing on India a lot. Google Maps was introduced as a global product in India a decade back in 2008. Then we started looking at all the challenges that were specific to India. We had the technology for Plus code developed in 2015. Then we realised that address search is an issue in India, and the technology could be used as a solution. So we customised it for India and built the product accordingly for India, Ghosh added. In all, Google is deeply invested in solving Indias navigation problem. The primary motivation for it is to reach the next billion users, something that Google likes to mention often. But more importantly, India has become Googles testing ground. Just like the offline playback feature in YouTube (which was copied by all and every streaming app), and the bike-mode in Google Maps, which Google claimed is used by around 10 percent of the total user base of Google Maps, smart address search and Plus codes, if successful in India, will lead to more global implications. In a riveting turn of events, US President Donald Trump has officially blocked Singapore-based Broadcom's bid to acquire Qualcomm, which is based out of the US. The executive order signed by the US President states that there is credible evidence which suggest that the deal "threatens to impair the national security of the United States." This order comes just a week after US Department of the Treasurys Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States citing similar concerns. In the four-page letter, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Investment security, Aimen N. Mir, said Broadcom may decrease investment in Qualcomm R&D to increase profitability. This, in turn, will give China the opportunity to play a bigger role in the 5G standard-setting process. Mir added, ...a weakening of Qualcomms position would leave an opening for China to expand its influence on the 5G standard-setting process. Chinese companies, including Huawei, have increased their engagement in 5G standardization working groups as part of their efforts to build out a 5G technology. For example, Huawei has increased its expenditures and owns about 10 percent of 5G essential patents. While the United States remains dominant in the standards-setting space currently, China would likely compete robustly to fill any void left by Qualcomm as a result of this hostile takeover. The executive order does not exactly explain the basis of which, the said assessment was made. However, it seems like the Trump administration might have similar concerns as laid out by the Department of Treasury. Moreover, the current US administration seems to be extra sensitive to the issue of foreign investment in the country as it put tariffs in place for imported steel and aluminum. Reportedly chip giant Intel was also not happy with Broadcom's acquisition bid, as that would affect Intels position in the market as a 5G hardware provider. However, things might get a bit more complicated moving forward as Broadcom is looking to shift (re-domicile) the company headquarters from Singapire to Delaware in US. Electric cars are all the rage today, but it's been a long road to get to this point. Elon Musk and his company Tesla are the main forces assigned to the modern day electric car movement, however the enigmatic entrepreneur and his electric car upstart didn't spark the revolution, it was the old-school General Motors. In California in the early 1990s state legislators mandated that all major car manufacturers had to offer a zero emission vehicle to be able to sell other cars in the state. This forced General Motors to push its previous electric vehicle concept into production, and the GM EV1 was born. GM produced the EV1 the first and only vehicle to be marketed under the GM badge and not brands like Chevrolet, Buick or Cadillac from 1996 to 1999. The EVs weren't for public sale but were rather part of a lease program as part of an engineering evaluation. Only about 1100 units were ever produced. Featuring a two-seater layout, the EV1 had a coupe body with a very Jetsonian look to it with its flat body and bubble-like passenger compartment, and its rear wheels were covered by body panels which had shades of the Citroen DS from the 1950s-70s. This was coupled with a very 1990s slim front end with its mouth sewn shut made for, let's call it, an interesting looking vehicle. The GM EV1 was roughly the same size as a modern day Corolla hybrid hatch in terms of length and width and has about the same kerb weight of 1400kg, which isn't too bad for a fully-electric car loaded up with older, less efficient batteries. Initially the EV1 was equipped with lead-acid batteries before upgrading to nickel-metal hydride batteries for the last 500 or so models. The first run of lead-acid batteries gave the EV1 a range of about 100km between charges while the nickel-metal hydride batteries upped the range considerably to about 250km. An electric motor produced 102kW and 149Nm, which compares quite admirably to modern day compact electric cars like the upcoming Hyundai Ioniq EV that promises 88kW and 295Nm with a range over 200km. In 2013 General Motors decided its EV1 was a failed experiment and recalled all leased vehicles despite a large amount of users offering to buy the vehicles off GM crushed the majority and donated the rest to universities and museums with the electric powertrains deactivated. The controversial EV1 takeback spawned a 2006 documentary titled 'Who Killed The Electric Car?' that spouted conspiracy theories about big oil companies, car makers and the government colluding to stymie zero-emissions vehicles. Either way the GM EV1 might not be remembered by many, but it was effectively the pioneer of modern day, mass-produced electric cars, which only now are finally coming into the global conscious. 1996 time capsule Average price of unleaded petrol - 70.65 cents Highest grossing movie Independence Day Top of the music charts 'Macarena', Los Del Rio NRL premiers Manly Sea Eagles AFL premiers North Melbourne Kangaroos Keep up with all the behind the scenes action at Drive on Facebook, YouTube and on Instagram. Dundalk Institute of Technology are national leaders when it comes to research and designing policy to reduce the use of restrictive practices. Restrictive practices are defined as devices, mechanisms, protocols or procedures that limit the liberty of the individual, often in clinical settings. This can be anything, from a dementia patient being locked in a room to someone being strapped to a bed, says Dr Kevin McKenna. Dr McKenna is a nurse, psychologist and a lecturer in the school of Health and Science in DkIT. He has completed a PhD on restrictive practices. He recently was a keynote speaker at the Restraint Reduction Networks annual conference in Birmingham. The Networks main goal is to limit the use of restrictive practices. Dr McKenna explains that restrictive practices can take place in the home, or in the health and education system. Surprisingly, the mental health system is actually quite well-regulated, Dr McKenna reveals. The Mental Health Commission has a register, where all practices used on a patient are recorded and detailed, and the length of time that a restrictive practice is used is recorded, he explains. Dr McKenna says that sadly, within the education system, the use of restrictive practices can still occur. Isolation can often be used for discipline. Some schools have rooms called quiet or soft rooms, but there is no way of telling what the condition of these rooms are actually like, Dr McKenna says. At the conference, it was revealed that one third of schools and adolescent services in the UK could not say the number of times restrictive practices had been used, Dr McKenna says. Children who are very young can be subjected to restrictive practices, usually by way of segregation. Think of naughty steps or bold corners, says Dr McKenna. So, what we see is restrictive practices are being used early in life, right up until the end, says Dr McKenna. Elderly people in care homes, many of whom suffer from dementia, can be the victim of restrictive practices. This can be something as simple as a locked door, says the lecturer. There have been many high-profile cases of restrictive practices and abuse, especially involving people who have intellectual disabilities. Just think of Aras Attracta in Sligo, and Englands Winterbourne these cases were only recent. The use of these practices is still wide-spread, says Dr McKenna. What is most shocking about the use of restrictive practices is the fact that there is no scientific evidence to prove that they work. Restrictive practices have no evidence-based results what is even more worrying is that there is little international agreement on what constitutes as good practice, Dr McKenna says. There are no randomised control trials, no empirical data supporting their use there was a study carried out across 16 European countries where four clinical scenarios were presented. What some countries thought was best practice was considered unlawful in others. There is no consistency, Dr McKenna reveals. The use of restrictive practices also negatively impacts the carer as well as the person on the receiving end. Gwen Bonner carried out a study called Trauma for All, and what she found was that the use of restrictive practices was distressing for everyone involved, even if they were employed as a safety measure, reveals Dr McKenna. DkIT is recognised as a national leader when it comes to conducting academic research on the use of restrictive practices. The British Institute of Learning Disabilities recognises our research, which is quite a privilege, says Dr McKenna. We have carried out studies on regressional violence in social care, and we have created the Seclusion and Restraint Reduction Strategy in conjunction with the Mental Health Commission, says Dr McKenna. DkIT also had the first degree in the world which studies aggression and violence in social care, he reveals. Now 17 or 18 countries offer similar programmes. DkIT with the North Eastern Health Board carried out a lot of research in the early 2000s there really was, and still is, no other college in the country with an interest in this. We are research leaders in that regard, not to toot our own horns we have presented our findings to the World Health Organisation in Geneva, and national strategies have been written in Dundalk. DkIT therefore is a national leader and global contributor in reducing restrictive practices. Dr McKenna is hopeful that the use of restrictive practices on vulnerable people will be reduced. We have seen an improvement since we first started our work back in 2001, but perhaps we are frustrated with the speed of implementation, admits Dr McKenna. There is a higher visibility and lower tolerance for restrictive practices, and we hope that our policies will be implemented across the board one day. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. A new book about Irelands complex history for 2000 years will be launched in Inniskeen Community Centre this Friday, March 16th at 9pm . The book, which was written by Matt Kearney, is a comprehensive history of Ireland from how our ancestors lived 2000 years ago until the present time. It is intended for readers who want to be informed of our history without the burden of excessive detail. Each period of history is written in separate brief and easy to read articles. Chapter One covers the period from how our ancestors lived 2000 years ago until the death of Brian Born in 1014. It also includes articles on the life of St. Patrick and St. Brigid. It describes the Golden Age of monasteries in Ireland, raids by the Vikings and their defeat at the hands of Brian Boru at Clontarf in 1014. In Chapter two, the author covers the period from the Anglo Norman invasion of 1169 until the founding of the Land League in 1879. Also included are articles on Oliver Cromwell, the Penal Laws, the Ulster Plantation, St. Oliver Plunkett and his arrest and death at Tyburn. Chapter three covers the long struggle for Irish Freedom before 1916 and afterwards, Home Rule and Roger Casement, the Easter Rising and its aftermath and the Civil War. The chapter also covers industrial progress in the new state following independence and modern Ireland from 1960 until 2014. And finally, chapter four covers Northern Ireland from 1921, the period of the Troubles from the late 1960s and moves towards peace with the Good Friday Agreement. The visit of Queen Elizabeth in 2011 is covered and the visit of President Michael D. Higgins to England in 2014, the first Irish head of state to visit Great Britain. The chapter concludes with some important dates in Irish history. The author Matt Kearney lives in Inniskeen, Co Monaghan. He started writing when he retired from farming. Matt has always been interested in local history this is his third book. Instantly delete email threats for Office 365 365 Threat Monitor scans all emails as they reach your users' mailboxes to detect ransomware, phishing and spam. Receive real-time phone alerts, get real-time security breach updates and instantly delete threats with just one click - for free! Learn More. How far does the long arm of U.S. law enforcement extend when government agencies seek electronically processed information? The U.S. Supreme Court recently addressed that issue in an intriguing session involving terms that bordered on the metaphysical applied to global electronic connectivity, the law, and the significance of national borders. The discussion came during last month's oral arguments in U.S. v. Microsoft, a lawsuit stemming from Microsoft's refusal to comply with a federal court order compelling it to release information resting at a computer facility outside the U.S. -- in this case, Ireland. The U.S. Department of Justice sought the order in connection with its investigation of a criminal narcotics case. Microsoft essentially claimed that by turning over data held outside the U.S., the company would run the legal risk of violating another country's privacy laws, even if the content would be useful to U.S. authorities for catching criminals. Microsoft also said it feared a major business risk: the potential loss of huge numbers of customers who no longer would trust it to protect customer privacy. "If customers around the world believe that the U.S. government has the power to unilaterally reach in to data centers operated by American companies, without reference or notification to their own government, they won't trust this technology," argued Microsoft Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith in an online post published just before the Supreme Court session. The importance of the case to the IT sector was reflected by the submission of amicus curiae briefs in support of Microsoft by major companies such as Google, Cisco and Verizon, as well as several business associations. Microsoft Challenges Enforcement The case boils down to a few basic assertions. For Microsoft to prevail, the company must prove that the action sought through the court order necessarily must take place at the Irish facility where privacy laws applicable in that country could come into play. The company simultaneously must prove that the governing U.S. law -- the Stored Communications Act -- was not intended by Congress to apply outside of the U.S. under a legal concept awkwardly referenced as "extraterritoriality." In opposition, the Justice Department has accused Microsoft of peddling a false contention about action required outside of the U.S. The information easily could be obtained with a few computer key strokes from a U.S. site connected electronically to the Irish facility, according to the DoJ. Even if the court were to buy the foreign site argument, the SCA still would be enforceable abroad, the Justice Department maintained. Microsoft and advocacy groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) have characterized the case as major privacy showdown. However, the actual legal arguments before the Supreme Court deal less with privacy issues than with the enforceability of the SCA. "The case is simply not about whether the U.S. authorities have probable cause to ask for the contents of this email account," said Andrew Woods, assistant professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Instead, the case is about which country's authorities ought to be able to compel that account information," he told the E-Commerce Times. With that legal stage set, the Supreme Court justices entered the fray. While it is risky to predict a Supreme Court ruling based on oral arguments, it is notable that the geographic issue figured prominently in the discussions. Location, Location, Location! Several justices pursued the DoJ's assertion that the information required by the court order could be disclosed simply by accessing the Irish facility from a computer in the U.S. "This is not an international problem here. This is a mirage that Microsoft is seeking to create," said Michael Dreeben, deputy U.S. solicitor general on behalf of the DoJ during a dialog with Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Tapping into the storage unit from the U.S. eliminates the involvement of another country and meets the "disclosure" requirement of the law since the activity would occur in the U.S., the DoJ contended. Chief Justice John Roberts underscored that point, observing that the applicable section of the SCA is titled "Required Disclosure of Customer Communications or Records," and noting that Congress intentionally inserted the heading. "It seems to me that the government might have a strong position there that the statute focuses on disclosure. And disclosure takes place in [the state of] Washington, not in Ireland," Roberts said, referring to Microsoft's headquarters site. Associate Justice Samuel Alito verged into the metaphysical: "I guess the point is when we're talking about this information, which ... yes, it physically exists on one or more computers somewhere, but it doesn't have a presence anyplace in the sense that a physical object has a presence someplace. And the Internet service providers can put it anywhere they want and move it around at will. The whole idea of territoriality is strained." Microsoft's counsel asserted that a physical element was involved. "I would not agree with that, Justice Alito," said Joshua Rosenkranz, partner at Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe. "First, I disagree with the premise. These emails have a physical presence. They are actually on a hard drive. Are they movable? Yes, but letters are movable as well -- and they are under protection of foreign laws, which, by the way, are really quite robust." Criminal Procedure Linked to Case Just to cover all the bases, the justices discussed criminal law procedure surrounding the designation of warrants and subpoenas related to the case. They also addressed the enforceability of the SCA in an international context, touching on the use of agreements among countries. Microsoft and the DoJ agreed that the SCA was "silent" on international enforcement, with Microsoft asserting that lack of specific authority meant the law could not be invoked for the Ireland location. The DoJ argued the reverse: that because the act did not specifically prohibit its use abroad, then the department was correct to cite the SCA to get the desired information. The scope of the court's eventual decision theoretically could include a broad consideration of the powers of the SCA. However, that is not likely, according to Jennifer Daskal, professor of law at American University Washington College of Law. "This case is primarily about the rules that govern law enforcement access to data pursuant to a warrant," she told the E-Commerce Times. "I imagine the Court will stick to that issue, which is big enough on its own, without reaching out to address other parts of the SCA." Some justices wondered aloud if recently introduced legislation, designed to protect privacy without seriously frustrating law enforcement on a reciprocal basis between the U.S. and other countries, might be the answer. Both President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May thought the issue significant enough that they discussed the legislation by phone last month. The DoJ pressed the court for a decision, noting that legislative initiatives frequently are uncertain, and arguing that the court had a responsibility to deal with the issue before it. Ordinarily the court would issue a decision by the end of the relevant term -- in this case by June 2018. The SCA needs some updating due to advances in technology, Daskal said. The pending Senate legislation, titled "Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data," or CLOUD Act, "recognizes this reality," she wrote in an online post for the Harvard Law Review. The act "separates access to data from the question of where the data happens to be held," Daskal pointed out. "Fingers crossed that Congress acts quickly, thereby mooting the Supreme Court case," she added. "If not, the Court should rule in a similar way. It should recognize that location of data should not dictate access, as Justice Alito seemed to argue, while at the same time highlighting the importance of comity if and when such demands for data create a conflict of laws." Such a ruling would reduce international discord, Daskal asserted, while establishing "the kind of precedent the United States would and should demand when foreign governments seek U.S.-held data." John K. Higgins has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2009. His main areas of focus are U.S. government technology issues such as IT contracting, cybersecurity, privacy, cloud technology, big data and e-commerce regulation. As a freelance journalist and career business writer, he has written for numerous publications, including The Corps Report and Business Week. Email John. Instantly delete email threats for Office 365 365 Threat Monitor scans all emails as they reach your users' mailboxes to detect ransomware, phishing and spam. Receive real-time phone alerts, get real-time security breach updates and instantly delete threats with just one click - for free! Learn More. SAP this week announced it would acquire long-term partner Callidus Software for about US$2.4 billion to improve back-office to front-office links. The transaction is expected to close in Q2 2018, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. SAP will get Callidus Software's CallidusCloud, which offers a full suite of sales performance management and configure-price-quote solutions. CallidusCloud's solutions link sales-related information such as pricing, incentives and commissions, to enterprise resource planning systems. SAP expects the purchase to give it immediate leadership in the Lead to Cash space, which includes SPM and CPQ, and to enable it to deliver the most complete, end-to-end, fully cloud-based Lead-to-Cash offering. The Lead-to-Money space "is incredibly important because the impact on revenue is both more obvious and more measurable than many other features," observed Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "I can't think of a firm that uses SAP that won't find this new capability beneficial," he told CRM Buyer. CallidusCloud's technology will let SAP seamlessly link front and back offices; align sales, compensation and corporate goals; and ensure real-time data flow between the field and finance department. "It's a good move by SAP, as it lets the ERP vendors back into CRM," said Holger Mueller, principal analyst at Constellation Research. Enterprises have had to integrate different products, which is "always a risk, always pain," he told CRM Buyer. "Now there's the promise again of an all-encompassing CRM suite." What CallidusCloud Brings to the Table CallidusCloud SPM solutions give sales people instantaneous knowledge of their compensation associated with particular product and pricing configurations, while reducing errors in calculating sales commissions and compensation arrangements. CallidusCloud CPQ solutions help sales people identify and configure product packages that have built-in rules for discounts, and are able to generate proposals for customers on the spot. They also can generate contracts automatically and in real time, while sales people are with customers. The CallidusCloud offering includes "Litmos," a sales-focused, mobile-native learning platform that has been showing solid growth. SAP's Post-Acquisition Plans Once the transaction is completed, SAP will consolidate all CallidusCloud product assets within SAP Hybris solutions as part of SAP's Cloud Business Group. SAP Hybris, which offers omnichannel solutions, is part of the company's S/4HANA business suite in the cloud. Together with SAP's Gigya identity management solutions, it connects the demand and supply chains. The SAP Cloud Platform will be used for the technical integration of CallidusCloud solutions. It's difficult to say how much work -- such as re-engineering -- this will entail, said Enderle, but "SAP had a decent reputation for taking care of their customers." SAP will continue to support integration of CallidusCloud solutions with third-party installations. CallidusCloud's existing management team will continue to lead the company. "The acquisition is a great move for SAP to build a comprehensive customer experience cloud suite," said Cindy Zhou, principal anayst at Constellation Research. "CallidusCloud's CPQ, Incentive Comp and SPM solutions address a gap in SAP's CX portfolio," she told CRM Buyer. SAP "has been investing in building a comprehensive CX suite the past few years" to better compete with Salesforce, Oracle and Infor, Zhou said. More companies are realizing the importance of guided sales activity to winning deals, she noted, and "CPQ and SPM are increasing in prominence." The Impact of the Purchase This acquisition "further strengthens SAP's direct-to-revenue value proposition," Zhou said. SAP has agreed to pay 21 percent more than Callidus Software's 30-day weighted average price per share, and 28 percent more than the 90-day volume weighted average price per share. "The payment is both in line with [Callidus Software's] value to SAP and what was likely needed to close the deal," Enderle said. Callidus' purchase "rounds out SAP's solution with no overlap, and gives them access to a new group of customers for cross-sell opportunities," Zhou noted. Both companies sell to enterprise customers, she pointed out, and "Callidus also has a mid-size customer base, which can help SAP address the mid-market as well." Richard Adhikari has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including Information Week and Computerworld. He is the author of two books on client/server technology. Email Richard. PARIS To mark the conclusion of Paris Fashion Week, the Ambassador of Great Britain hosted a fashion sustainability round table discussion at the British Embassy in the French capital. The event was organised in collaboration with LCF (London College of Fashion) and Kering, the partnership who, at Februarys London Fashion Week, launched an online, free-of-charge sustainable fashion course. Scientists and environmentalists have raised the alarm about microplastics polluting our oceans. Now, researchers at the University of Manchester have revealed more details of how they might get there. The first ever catchment-wide microplastic study, published March 12 in Nature Geoscience, assessed microplastic contamination in the sediments of river beds along 40 sites in northwest England. Researchers discovered microplastics in every river bed they studied. But when they returned to the sites after a period of extensive flooding, they found that 70 percent of the microplastics had been washed out to sea. A graphic, published in the study, shows the concentration of microplastics and microbeads before and after flooding. Nature Geoscience "We are only beginning to understand the extent of the microplastic contamination problem in the world's rivers. To tackle the problem in the oceans, we have to prevent microplastics entering river channels," Jamie Woodward, one of the study's authors and a professor at the University of Manchester, said in a university press release. On one site along the River Tame, the researchers found 50 percent more microplastic particles than had previously been recorded in one place, The Guardian reported. But the study's implications extend far beyond the Manchester watershed. Since flooding flushed 43 billion plastic particles out of the studied rivers, researchers concluded that the current five-trillion estimate for plastic particles in the oceans is far too low. "This is a small to medium sized catchment in the north of England, it is one flood event, it is just one yearthere is no way that [five trillion global] estimate is right," Rachel Hurley, another of the study's authors, told The Guardian. Microplastics are a problem for marine animals, who ingest them by accident. A February study found the particles in 73 percent of 233 fish pulled from the northwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean. Humans also consume them once they move up the food chain, though it is still unknown to what degree they impact human health. While the Manchester study suggests the problem is even greater than previously believed, it also offers the possibility of stopping it at its source. The study's authors recommend stricter regulations monitoring how waste flows into urban rivers. "[W]e hope that improvements in wastewater management will be put in place in the future," Woodward said. The UK already took one decisive step against plastic pollution in January, when it banned microbeads, small plastic spheres often used as exfoliants in cosmetics. Microbeads made up a third of the plastics found in the Manchester study, though researchers told The Guardian they might have come from industrial uses not included in the recent ban. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday morning that he is nominating CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Rex Tillerson as U.S. Secretary of State. "We got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things," Trump said today. The president noted that the Iran nuclear deal was a point of contention, but there were other issues where the two famously clashed, including Trump's withdrawal of the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate agreement. However, it appears Tillerson found out about his firing like this rest of usvia Twitter. "The Secretary did not speak to the President this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted," Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein said in a statement. The Trump administration has gone through several high-level personnel changes during the president's first year in office. Earlier reports suggested that the former ExxonMobil CEOwho reportedly called his boss a "moron"would soon be on his way out. During his short tenure at State, Tillerson focused on cutting costs and eliminating staff, including the crucial position of U.S. climate envoy. Many positions at the department remain unfilled. "Although the Trump administration is packed with billionaires and industry lobbyists, we can't say we're surprised to see Rex Tillerson's stilted and awkward tenure as Secretary of State end," said Wenonah Hauter, the executive director of Food & Water Watch. "America's premier oil and gas booster should have no role in U.S. diplomacy at a time when we urgently need to transition off of fossil fuels." Critics have previously spoken against Tillerson's personal and business ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his company's storied history of climate deceptioneven though Exxon admits climate change is real now. While Pompeo does not head a giant fossil fuel corporation, he has received millions in campaign funds from the billionaire Koch brothers, criticized the Paris climate deal as a "costly burden," and described the assertion that climate change is a national security threat as "ignorant, dangerous and absolutely unbelievable." "Mike Pompeo is a climate denier and should not be leading the State Department," Hauter noted. "He's been referred to as 'the Koch Brothers' Congressman.'" Naomi Ages, Greenpeace USA Climate Director, similarly added: "Donald Trump has now somehow picked someone even worse than Rex Tillerson to run the State Department. Greenpeace has been opposed to Tillerson as Secretary of State from the moment he was nominated, and we continue to believe that the U.S. government cannot and should not be run by fossil fuel industry flunkies. Mike Pompeo, though, is uniquely unqualified to be Secretary of State in an entirely different way than Rex Tillerson was. In addition to being a climate denier, like his predecessor, Pompeo is a Koch brothers' shill and a dangerous choice who will continue to denigrate the United States' reputation abroad and make us vulnerable to threats at home." Hauter also denounced the former Kansas congressman for authoring legislation that preempted state GMO labeling laws, "and would likely continue the U.S. state department's role in promoting genetically modified crops around the world." "We urge the Senate to reject his nomination," Hauter said. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently announced $1.4 billion in funding for 26 large-scale renewable energy projects across the state, the single largest commitment to renewable energy by a state in U.S. history. The awarded projectsincluding 22 utility-scale solar farms, three wind farms and one hydroelectric projectare expected to create more than 3,000 short- and long-term jobs, generate enough clean energy to power more than 430,000 homes and reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million metric tons, the equivalent of taking nearly 340,000 cars off the road. The announcement, issued Friday, also included a formal request for the state to be excluded from the federal offshore oil drilling plan, citing fears that a catastrophic spill would endanger coastal communities, the nation's third-largest ocean economy and thwart the state's new $1.4 billion commitment to renewables. "Instead of protecting our waters from another oil spill, like the one that devastated the Gulf, this new federal plan only increases the chances of another disaster taking place," Cuomo said in a statement. "This is a total disregard for science, reality, and history, and their actions defy everything we know. We believe the future is a clean energy economy and New York is going to lead a counter-movement to what this administration is doing to the environment and illuminate the path forward." Former Vice President Al Gore also praised the state's move. "Governor Cuomo is demonstrating outstanding leadership in helping to solve the climate crisis and building a sustainable future," Gore said. "His vision and leadership stand in stark contrast to the Trump administration's malignant mission to make us even more dependent on the dirty and destructive fossil fuels. Now more than ever, it's up to all of us to step up and act on this urgent cause of our time. Governor Cuomo is showing how it can be done." The governor's office said that several of the state's new renewable energy projects will break ground as early as April 2018 and all projects are expected to be operational by 2022. The projects will also help advance the governor's Clean Energy Standard to obtain 50 percent of New York's electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. Find out about the 26 large-scale renewable energy projects here. A federal judge ruled Monday that Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), broke the law for failing to implement his agency's ozone pollution rule. Judge Haywood Gilliam of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said Pruitt violated the Clean Air Act for failing to announce by Oct. 1, 2017 which areas in the country have unhealthy levels of smog, a rule set by the 2015 ozone standard. According to The Hill, Pruitt only announced findings for areas that complied with the Obama-era rule, but not for areas out of compliance. The EPA boss initially tried to stall the Oct. 1 deadline by a year but reversed course. "There is no dispute as to liability: Defendants admit that the administrator violated his nondiscretionary duty under the Clean Air Act to promulgate by October 1, 2017, initial area air quality designations," Gilliam wrote, citing a Justice Department court filing in January that acknowledged the EPA failed to meet the deadline. Gilliam ordered the EPA to finish the process for the entire country by April 30, with the exemption of areas in San Antonio, Texas, which the agency must comply with shortly thereafter. In 2015, the Obama administration strengthened standards for ground-level ozone to 70 parts per billion based on extensive scientific evidence about the effect of smog on public health and welfare. Smog can exacerbate asthma attacks for children and vulnerable populations. Sixteen state attorneys general as well as a broad coalition of health and environmental organizationsincluding the American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Clubsued Pruitt in December for failing to meet the deadline for designating areas. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who led the litigation, celebrated Monday's decision. "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency admitted in this case that it failed to do its job and meet its deadline under the Clean Air Act," he said. "The stakes are high. The smog-reducing requirements at issue will save hundreds of lives and prevent 230,000 asthma attacks among children. That's worth fighting for." New York Attorney General Schneiderman, one of the AGs who sued the administration, added: "We'll keep a close eye on the EPA's compliance with today's order, and our coalition stands ready to act to protect our residents and our states from Washington's toxic policies." Environmental groups also celebrated the ruling. "Everyone deserves to breathe clean air. And because of the Clean Air Act, we're legally entitled to it. The court got it right when it ordered the EPA to finish making ozone designations sooner than the agency requested," said attorney Seth Johnson, who represented Earthjustice, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the groups. "Cleaning up ozone air pollution is especially important for kids, seniors, and people with asthma. Many of our largest metropolitan areas have unhealthy smog levels. These include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Cleveland, Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Antonio. The court's decision will help save hundreds of lives by getting the cleanup process going." Mary Anne Hitt, the director of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, had a similar sentiment. "This is a victory for everyone who breathes, and is clear evidence that Scott Pruitt's frequent attempts to delay and obstruct federal clean air safeguards is against the law. The severity of Pruitt's attempts [is] a matter of life and death. Delaying the implementation of these life saving smog standards puts the health of thousands of kids at risk." EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman told Reuters, "We look forward to working with co-regulators to continue the designations process for the 2015 standards for ground-level ozone; we are evaluating the information provided by governors in February 2018 as part of that process." By Carey Gillam News that President-elect Donald Trump has asked U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo to be CIA director shows just how dark the days ahead might be for America's burgeoning food movement, which has been advocating for more transparency and fewer pesticides in food production. Pompeo, a Republican from the farm state of Kansas, was the designated hitter for Monsanto and the other Big Ag chemical and seed players in 2014 when the industry rolled out a federal effort to block states from mandating the labeling of genetically modified foods. Pompeo introduced the "Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act" in April of that year with the intention of overriding bills in roughly two dozen states. In bringing the bill forward, Pompeo was acting on behalf the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), which represents the interests of the nation's largest food and beverage companies. The bill, which critics called the "Deny Americans the Right to Know" Act, or the "DARK Act," went through two years of controversy and compromise before a version passed and was signed into law by President Obama this summer. The law nullified a mandatory labeling bill set to take effect in Vermont in July of this year, and it offered companies options to avoid stating on their packaging whether or not a product contained GMO ingredients. Pompeo has shown himself to be a "puppet" for special interests. If he accepts Trump's offer to head the CIA, it could spell a significant setback for consumers, according to Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. "The worst choice I can think of," Kimbrell said of Pompeo. "Far from draining the swamp, Pompeo is the ultimate "swamp" creature. He is little more than a puppet for the big chemical and biotech companies." Consumer groups have pushed for mandatory labeling for years because of concerns that genetically engineered crops on the market now carry potential and actual risks for human health and the environment. A chief concern has to do with the fact that most GMO crops are sprayed with the herbicide glyphosate, the chief ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup. The World Health Organization has declared glyphosate a probable human carcinogen, and residues of glyphosate are increasingly being detected in commonly consumed foods. The Trump transition team answer for those consumer concerns about pesticides doesn't look reassuring either. Trump has named Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to lead transition efforts at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That's happy news for the agrichemical industry because Ebell appears to be a big fan of pesticides. His group's SAFEChemicalPolicy.org website champions the safety and benefits of chemicals used in agriculture and elsewhere, and discounts research that indicates harm. "The EPA is supposed to protect us from dangerous chemicals, not defend them, as Ebell would almost certainly do if he ran the agency," the Environmental Defense Fund said in a statement. By Jessica Corbet Angering organic farmers and advocates, the Trump administration announced on Monday that it will officially withdraw a rule that would have added animal welfare regulations for meat, eggs and dairy marketed as "organic." The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) killed the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP) final rule after deciding that it "exceeds the department's statutory authority, and that the changes to the existing organic regulations could have a negative effect on voluntary participation in the National Organic Program," according to a USDA statement. While Greg Ibach, undersecretary for the USDA's marketing and regulatory program, claimed that "the existing robust organic livestock and poultry regulations are effective," organic farmers, animal rights advocates and consumers who have supported the enhanced regulationswhich were published on Jan. 19, 2017 and would have taken effect in Mayexpressed disappointment with the move. "The decision nullifies 14 years of policymaking in a process mandated by Congress, and marks an about-face for the agency," Lynne Curry wrote for Civil Eats. The rule would have "specified a set of standards for organic livestock and poultry designed to minimize stress, facilitate natural behaviors and promote well-being," she noted in an update to a piece she published in December. As Curry explained: Championed throughout the organic industryfrom farmers to consumer groups to retailers and animal-welfare advocatesthe OLPP was intended as a course correction for the $43 billion food industry, formulated to bring organic dairy, eggs and meat production into line with consumer expectations of higher animal welfare. Trust in the organic seal depended on it, some advocates insisted. But this latest USDA decision codifies the big rift between the majority of certified organic producers, who follow the spirit of the law, and the fewer, much larger producers who seek to gain market advantage, primarily by continuously confining animals that are required by law to have outdoor access. The USDA's ruling preserves the status quo, and fails to establish the USDA Organic label as the "gold standard" for organics that OLPP promised. When the department moved to withdraw the rule in December, the industry group Organic Trade Association (OTA) said, "This groundless step by USDA is being taken against a backdrop of nearly universal support among the organic businesses, and consumers for the fully vetted rules that USDA has now rejected." "It is against this overwhelming public input that USDA ignores growing consumer demands for food transparency," the group added. "It makes no sense that the Trump administration would pursue actions that could damage a marketplace that is giving American farmers a profitable alternative, creating jobs and improving the economies of our rural areas." Monday's announcement came after the OTA requested oral hearings late last week for a lawsuit it filed against the USDA for repeatedly delaying and moving to withdraw the rule. "Failure to implement the final rule, and its welfare provisions, will lead to irremediable damage to consumer trust in the USDA Organic seal," warned Jesse Laflamme, a supporter of the OTA lawsuit and co-founder of Pete and Gerry's Organic Eggs, which partners with over more than family-owned farms in 14 states. "Our farmers will suffer severe financial setbacks." Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams. (Photo: ROBINSON NINAL JR./ Presidential Communications Operations Office (Philippines))President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and U.S. President Donald Trump discuss matters during a bilateral meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on November 13, 2017. Church and human rights groups in the Philippines have condemned the "red tagging" of at least 600 activists listed by the government as communist rebels including a United Nations special expert. "Red-tagging" or accusing people of being communist has become a common practice of the military to harass perceived critics of the government, they said. Among those on the list is Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples at the United Nations, Ucanews reported on March 12. UN human rights experts had on March 8 expressed grave concerns about terrorism accusations levelled against the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Tauli-Corpuz, a Philippine national. Tauli-Corpuz, a known advocate for the rights of Philippine tribal people, denied the allegation, calling the list "baseless, malicious, and irresponsible." The Philippines Department of Justice submitted the 55-page list before a Manila court last month for the processing of arrest warrants and filing of cases. President Rodrigo Duterte earlier labelled the Communist Party of the Philippines, and its armed wing, the New People's Army, as terrorist organizations. 'UNACCEPTABLE ATTACK' UN special experts said that the legal petition listing her name is an unacceptable attack against the mandate holder by the Philippines Government. "We are shocked that the special rapporteur is being targeted because of her work defending the rights of indigenous peoples," said Michel Forst, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and Catalina Devandas Aguilar, chairperson of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures. In a statement, Human Rights Watch said the Justice Department court petition "is a virtual government hit list" that puts at "grave risk" leftist and human rights activists. "There's a long history in the Philippines of the state security forces and pro-government militias assassinating people labeled as [communist] members or supporters," the rights group said. The group said the government should publicly reject the petition and "ensure the safety of those listed in it, or risk being complicit in the resulting crimes." The Student Christian Movement said the list aims "to further legalize its fascist campaign to stifle dissent." Anje Marquez, the ecumenical group's spokeswoman, said the release of the list "is an attempt to silence critics" and allows security forces to go after people without due process. Cristina Palabay, spokesperson of rights group Karapatan labeled the government's "proscription petition" as "dubious and a maneuver to target persons in progressive organizations." On the list are Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison and his wife Juliet de Lima who are in exile in The Netherlands. Also listed are Luis Jalandoni and Coni Ledesma of the National Democratic Front who are also in Europe, and Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, consultants during the peace talks. Other names include Beverly Longid, global coordinator of the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation, Joanna Carino of the tribal group Sandugo, and Cordillera People's Alliance chairman Windel Bolinget. Many on the list are peasant leaders, union organizers, activists, and human rights defenders. Lawyer Edre Olalia, secretary-general of the National Union of People's Lawyers, said the list "forebodes a prelude to a more intense crackdown" against activist groups. "It is part of a shotgun witch hunt designed to sow and create a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace," he said. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, a lawyer, said the Justice Department "would not have filed the petition without evidence." CHRISTIANS FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION Sister Carmela Adama, spokeswoman of the underground group Christians for National Liberation, said the president is "trying to provoke widespread bloodshed." UN expert Tauli-Corpuz was named in a Philippines government petition filed in February in a Manila court, accused of terrorism and alleged membership of the New People's Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines along with over 600 others. "The accusation against her comes after the public comments made, jointly with other Special Rapporteurs, in relation to the militarization, attacks and killings of indigenous Lumad peoples by members of the armed forces in Mindanao. "This accusation is considered as an act of retaliation for such comments," the experts said. Tauli-Corpuz, in her position as Special Rapporteur most recently addressed the issue in a news release on Dec. 27, which was made in line with the responsibility entrusted to her by the Human Rights Council to report on alleged violations of indigenous people's rights globally. The Philippine's president's spokesperson reacted with hostility to the news release, publicly accusing the Special Rapporteur of seeking to embarrass the Duterte administration, said the UN experts. But the UN experts said, "We call on the Philippine authorities to immediately drop these unfounded accusations against Ms. Tauli-Corpuz and to ensure her physical safety and that of others listed." (Photo: REUTERS / Erik De Castro)Pupils sing a religious hymn "Hosana," meaning Savior, as they throw confetti from a truck during Palm Sunday in Mogpog town on Marinduque island in central Philippines April 13, 2014. Filipino Roman Catholics flock to churches with palm fronds as they observe Palm Sunday, marking the start of Holy Week. Philippines Department of Tourism has launched a farm- and faith-based tourism program as part of the agency's plan to entice sector-specific foreign and domestic tourists. The southeast Asian nation is known for its Roman Catholic roots, where Catholics make up for more than 80 percent of the 104 million people, with Muslims accounting for five percent of the population. Then there is a growing number of evangelical Christians and members of the homegrown Iglesia ni Kristo. "Farm tourism is not only about the farm produce but more importantly the experience in the farm," Tourism Assistant Secretary Eden Josephine David said at the launch of two programs at the Marriott Hotel in Pasay City. David said that farm tourism aimed to showcase the best crops of the country, while faith-based tourism planned to attract visitors interested in the Philippines' religious diversity, the inquirer.net reported. "Farm tourism is the practice of attracting visitors and tourist to farm areas for production, educational and recreational purposes," David explained. The initial farm tour projects unveiled at the launch were for Davao City fruits, focusing on durian, pomelo, banana and cacao with the support to local tourism and business groups. One of the packages unveiled was the "City Chocolate Tour Overload" developed by Cacao Industry Development Association in Mindanao Inc. and Visit Davao Consortium. Travelers can visit cacao farms to join in the harvesting of cacao fruit and help process the produce into chocolate. Marissa Diploma, DOT director for the faith-based tourism unit, said that the country's budding faith tourism programs seeks to develop the Philippine tourism product "from the pilgrim's eye." There are already prominent pilgrimage sites in the country such as Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino and Magellan's Cross in Cebu; Padre Pio Shrine in Sto. Tomas, Batangas; Divine Mercy Shrine in Cagayan de Oro City; Our Lady of Manaoag Church in Pangasinan; and Shrine of Our Lady of Piat in Cagayan. Initial faith-based tour packages include Paoay Church, a Unesco-recognized heritage site; Kamay ni Hesus in Lucban, Quezon; and Shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Ramos, Tarlac, and Monasterio de Tarlac in San Jose town. Tour operators in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea have already expressed interest in promoting faith tours in the Philippines. Diploma said that the Department of Tourism will next focus on developing faith tours for Muslims, non-Catholic Christians and even indigenous faiths. Agribusiness groups have also expressed interest in developing coffee farm tours in Cavite and "coffee crawls" in urban centers. To date, scientific research has played an important role in early-childhood education policy and practice. It has provided us with core knowledge about the role of early learning experiences and environments in shaping child development, shed some light on whether and how early education programs work, and has, at times, addressed key questions about policy and programmingwhether measuring the impact of different curricular and instructional approaches or how to structure the preschool day. But the research has also provided an incomplete picture. To make early educations case, the field has relied primarily on a handful of seminal studiesmost of which began in the 1960s and 1970sthat were conducted with small samples not reflective of the overall population and often focused on one specific program or model. This heavy reliance on a small set of outdated studies for our best evidence on preschools effects has rightfully fueled skepticism about early educations value in todays policymaking and advocacy conversations. Nationwide, only 2 in 10 children have access to a high-quality early education experience. Research in the last decade about the effects of preschool on childrens learning and development shows that high-quality experiences are linked to better learning outcomes, but also underscores the challenge of designing and implementing high-quality education for all students. There is a narrow focus on questions of whether or not preschool works. What were missing is clear consensus on the ingredients for a widespread improvement strategy that is effective across todays populations of students and the variety of early education contexts. What do we, as two researchers studying early-childhood education, think would make the difference? We need a new generation of relevant, rigorous, large-scale research to inform a scalable improvement strategy for early education. This research should explore how different types of classrooms where young children spend their time have an impact on how they learn and grow, thereby providing current and more accurate data to bear on scaling practices and policies. We need a new generation of relevant, rigorous, large-scale research to inform a scalable improvement strategy for early education." Getting to a place of evidence-based policymaking for improvement demands a body of evidence that captures and reflects demographic shifts in the population over the last several decades, particularly with respect to linguistic and cultural diversity and increasing immigration rates. Research also needs to reflect an awareness of how childhood stress and trauma affect learning. Critically, early-childhood research must also capture the growing number of children (upwards of 75 percent) who are currently in some sort of early-childhood setting and reflect that current landscape, ranging from informal care at home to group-based family or community settings to public or private preschools. In 2017, we launched our own longitudinal study, which seeks to find out exactly what todays preschoolers need and how to deliver it. We hope it will serve as a model for states across the nation who are ready to build the next generation of scientific research in early education and care. The study is beginning with a statewide representative sample of 3- and 4-year-olds in Massachusetts who are in public, community, or parochial pre-K or in child care with parents, guardians, or relatives. We plan to follow children and families for several decades, as they transition from early education to formal schooling and beyond. Ultimately, we hope to build a research blueprint that other states and research groups can adapt, thereby creating a richer portrait of the experiences of young children across the nation in their first years of education. Quantitative and qualitative information about early education and care settings, about family and provider experiences, and about the way children learn will, we hope, inform solutions for improvement. Other researchers in this space should adjust their practices to spend less time on comprehensive interventions that do not lend themselves to scale and more time partnering with practitioners and policymakers to address everyday problems and identify concrete solutions for early education. District and school leaders, educators, and early education providers face significant hurdles to deliver on the promise of early education. Only through scientific research can we shed light on the features of settings that boost childrens development, help set expectations for providers and policymakers, equip educators with knowledge and strategies to cultivate optimal learning experiences, and ultimately benefit children. States should not use the SAT or ACT to measure high school achievement because those exams dont fully reflect states academic standards, and could distort whats taught in the classroom, according to a study released Tuesday. The paper, released by Achieve, which pushes for high-quality standards and tests, calls for a halt in an assessment trend thats been picking up steam in recent years: states using the SAT or ACT instead of their high school tests. This school year, 13 states are using one of those college-admissions tests statewide to measure high school achievement. Testing experts have long raised questions about using the SAT or ACT as an official measure of high school achievement. They argue that college-admissions exams cant do a good job of measuring students mastery of their states academic standards because they were not crafted to gauge students grasp of those standards. They were designed to do something different, which is to predict students chance of success in college. At the heart of Achieves paper is this question: How well do the SAT and ACT measure mastery of a states academic standards? In the world of testing, thats called alignment, and its a core principle of the field that a test has to be well aligned to what its trying to measurein this case, the knowledge and skills in state standardsin order to produce valid results. We Respectfully Disagree Both the College Board and the ACT disputed the new papers contention that their tests arent well enough aligned to states standards. While ACT values the opinions of other experts in the field, we respectfully disagree with the contention that assessment of state academic standards and assessment of college preparedness are mutually exclusive, the company says in a statement. The College Board said it has conducted studies showing that the SAT is aligned with the current standards in all 50 states. The exam also meets or exceeds all requirements for state assessments in federal law, including that they align to state standards, the group said. The SAT is the only college-entrance exam that has been redesigned in accordance with the current state standards that guide teachers work in classrooms around the country, Michele McNeil, the College Boards executive director of K-12 and global policy and external relations, says in a statement. Achieve, which played a key role in developing the PARCC common-core test, examined three recent alignment studies. All three find the college-admissions exams lacking, although to differing degrees. Here are the highlights: Study of the ACTs alignment to the Common Core State Standards, by Achieve, 2018: Less than half of the questions in English/language arts, and less than half of the items in math, were judged to be aligned to the high school expectations in the common core. Questions that purported to measure mastery of writing standards didnt ask students to produce writing. Achieve says that in its own technical manual, ACT acknowledges that 40 percent to 43 percent of its math items measure pre-8th-grade math content. Study of the feasibility of letting districts swap Florida state tests for the ACT or SAT, by the Assessment Solutions Group, 2018: Neither the SAT nor the ACT fully cover Floridas academic standards. Either test would require the state to add more questions to the college-admissions exams for either one to reflect Floridas math and English/language arts standards. It suggests the revision or replacement of five to seven questions in the SAT, and 10 or more in the ACT. The study also found that results from the ACT and SAT would not be comparable to those from Floridas own Algebra 1 or 10th grade English tests, casting doubt on the interchangeability of the three tests. Study of the SATs alignment to the Common Core State Standards, by the Human Resources Research Organization, 2016, for Delaware and Maine: The report found that 76 percent of the English/language arts questionsa level it describes as reasonably alignedand 47 percent of the math items were fully aligned to the common core, which both states use as their academic standards. The report singled out particularly weak coverage of geometry and statistics, and recommended that states add more math questions to adequately reflect those standards. Another alignment study, which was not included in Achieves report, found a strong or moderate match between the SAT and Connecticuts common-core standards. That 2016 study, by a team from the University of Connecticut, found the weakest coverage of math standards in functions and geometry. A similar study done for Wisconsin on the ACT, and also not included in Achieves paper, found that the ACT measures the skills and knowledge in the states academic standards. It notes, however, that in math, some ACT questions focused on skills typically addressed at lower grade levels. Alignment studies are wonky. But Achieve argues that theyre important because whats measured on tests exerts a tremendous influence on whats taught in classrooms. The danger in using admissions tests as accountability tests for high school is that many high school teachers will be driven to devote scarce course time to middle school topics, water down the high school content they are supposed to teach in mathematics, or too narrowly focus on a limited range of skills in [English/language arts], the paper said. Achieve urges states not to adopt the SAT or ACT to measure high school achievement for accountability. Administering a college-admissions test statewide to get more students thinking aboutand applying tocollege is an appropriate use of those tests, but using them to measure achievement is ill-advised, the paper says. A Good Match? Its a tricky policy issue, because when states opt for college-admissions tests instead of standards-based tests, they get benefits that resonate in the wake of a major backlash against overtesting, said Robert A. Schaeffer, the public education director of FairTest, which opposes high-stakes standardized tests. This is a two-edged sword, he said. [Using the SAT or ACT] can reduce the volume of testing. And it saves parents money by shifting the cost of those tests from their checkbooks to the taxpayers. But theres still the question of whether the tests are a mismatch for measuring achievement, rather than college readiness, he said. Its a truth-in-advertising thing, Schaeffer said. If you want a test to give you accurate information about students, teachers, schools or systems, you have to know that the test measures what it claims to measure. In its paper, Achieve urges states not to use the SAT or ACT as statewide achievement measures. But it also urges caution if states are considering giving individual districts the freedom to substitute a college-entrance exam for a state high school test. Thats a newbut still not-too-popularform of testing flexibility offered in the Every Student Succeeds Act. Allowing such a choice could create significant comparability issues between the college-admissions exams and state high school tests, Achieve argues. It might also let districts shop around for the test that puts them in the best light. States that already use the SAT or ACT to measure high school achievement statewide should consider augmenting those tests with additional or revised items to get a fuller representation of their academic standards, the Achieve paper argues. Thats not unprecedented. Maine and Illinois, for instance, have augmented those exams to more fully cover their standards. ACT spokesman Ed Colby said that the company is absolutely committed to helping states if they want to augment the ACT, but maintains that augmenting only supplements, rather than establishes, the validity of the ACT for ESSA accountability purposes. The College Board did not respond to a question about its willingness to work with states that wish to augment the test. Police issue warning to Manx drivers with UK-registered cars Police are warning Manx motorists they could face prosecution if they fail to register vehicles locally after buying cars in the UK. The Roads Policing Unit is urging those who buy vehicles off Island not to drive them for several months without completing the necessary paperwork. Cars over three years old must be booked into the Test Centre, while those less than three years old just need to be registered. Police warn those who don't complete the paperwork face prosecution for having no vehicle licence, as UK tax isn't valid for vehicles permanently based on the Island. The RPU says it will be pro-actively checking UK-registered vehicles. Police investigate damage at primary school Police are appealing for information after damage was caused at one of the Island's schools. A bench was upturned, an overflow pipe broken, sharp plastic left on the ground and empty cans of lager and cigarette ends left at Victoria Road Primary School in Castletown. The incident happened between 5pm on Friday and 8am yesterday. Officers from the Southern Neighbourhood Policing Team say this is unacceptable behaviour and not what children should see when they arrive at school. Anyone who saw or heard something relevant to the police's investigation is urged to contact Castletown Police Station on 822222. Police fly flags at half mast following death of former police surgeon Dr Philip Christian recently opened the victims' suite at Police Headquarters. The Isle of Man Constabulary is flying its flags at half mast following the death of a former police surgeon. Dr Philip Christian, who worked as a police surgeon for 50 years, died suddenly at the weekend. Chief Constable Gary Roberts described Dr Christian as a wonderful man and great public servant. The police recently opened a victims' suite at Police Headquarters named in Dr Christian's honour. 2018-03-13 Maeci Alfano: "I express my personal and the Italian Government's heartfelt grief for the victims of yesterday's air crash near the international airport of Kathmandu. " The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano: "I express my personal and the Italian Government's heartfelt grief for the victims of yesterday's air crash near the international airport of Kathmandu. Our sympathy goes to the families hit by this immense sorrow". 2018-03-13 Maeci The fourth Italy - Thailand Business Forum in Phuket The Italian and Thai business communities met in Phuket on 11 and 12 March for the fourth meeting of the Business Forum, at a time of particularly intense business relations between the two countries. On 9 February, Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano was in Bangkok and in turn, his counterpart Don Pramudwinai made a visit to Rome less than a month later. Italian Ambassador, Francesco Saverio Nisio, said that this year also marks the 150th anniversary of relations between the two countries. He remarked on how useful the Business Forum was, giving the most influential business groups the opportunity to meet once a year with a view towards increasing the volume of trade and investments. Each country hosts the event every second year. Both co-chairs, Carlo Pesenti of Italmobiliare and Busaba Chirativat of the Central Group and La Rinascente, and all participants at the meeting considered the new political climate between Bangkok and Rome to be highly positive. The ambassador pointed out that the companies sponsored tens of events promoted by the Embassy during the year to mark the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations. In addition to networking, various matters were discussed during the Forum including the performance of the Thai economy and opportunities and incentives offered by the big Eastern Economic Corridor project. The prospect of renewed negotiations on an EU-Thailand free trade agreement was also examined. Agriculture, food, design, textiles, industry and tourism were the sectors that aroused the most interest, while robotics, aviation, infrastructure, transport, cars, and biofuel were also discussed within the framework of the Thailand 4.0 project. Thirty-one groups took part with Italy represented by Italmobiliare, Cavagna, CMC Ravenna, CNH Industrial-IVECO, Danieli, Ducati, Faber Industrie, Ferrero, Generali, Leonardo Company, Pirelli, Unicredit and Vittoria, along with two prominent new members: Inalca Food and Beverage (Cremonini Group) and SAIPEM. The Thai groups included Central Group, GPSC (PTT Group), Bangkok Bank, Thai Airways, Thai Summit, Singha Corporation, Mitr Phol Group, Dusit Thani, SCG, Thai Union, Thai Hua Rubber, Inoue Rubber, Von Bundit, Merchant Partners, Thaivivat and Deesawat Industries. Kalin Sarasin, Chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade, was also in attendance along with SACE Chairman Beniamino Quintieri. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) celebrated with Panama the completion of the Panama Canal expansion project on June 26, 2016. The $5.6 billion engineering effort allows ships with triple the carrying-capacity of current vessels to transit the canal. The enterprise gave Smithsonian scientists unique opportunities to study two global-scale experiments: a natural, intercontinental land bridge bisected by a man-made, inter-oceanic pathway. They studied fossils, invasive species, whale migration routes, environmental services and changing climate. STRI staff scientist Carlos Jaramillo along with Bruce McFadden, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, led the five-year Panama Canal Paleontology Project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation to salvage fossils uncovered by the earthmovers. The fossils reveal ancient migrations of flora and fauna between North and South America and include new species such as Panamacebus transitus, the earliest monkey found in North America. Excavations expose an unusually complete view of the geology of the isthmus' formation--this record of global transformation of ocean currents, weather patterns and ecosystems would otherwise have remained buried under rock and rainforest. The canal expansion reopens questions about whether exotic species will cross the freshwater corridor to establish themselves on the other side, potentially disrupting the existing ocean ecosystems. Former STRI director Ira Rubinoff argued in the 1960s that maintaining a freshwater bridge between oceans sharply reduced the risk of invasions likely with a sea-level canal, since most marine organisms cannot withstand abrupt changes in salinity. Staff scientist Mark Torchin asks if exotic species--and their parasites -- will be helped or hindered by increased ship traffic arriving daily from around the world. Nearly 17,000 commercial vessels cross the Gulf of Panama each year. Staff scientist Hector Guzman's studies of humpback whale migration led the government of Panama to propose a "traffic separation scheme" to the International Maritime Organization. Ships in the Bay of Panama now reduce their speed and come into the Pacific entrance to the Canal through a narrow shipping lane. Researchers expect this to reduce the probability of collisions between ships and whales by 95 percent. To study the Canal's freshwater heartbeat scientists turn to its source -- the surrounding forests. The Republic of Panama established Soberania National Park and additional protected areas to conserve the forested watersheds that supply the canal with its lifeblood. At the Agua Salud project located near Soberania, staff scientist Jefferson Hall and colleagues ask how native tree species in lowland tropical forests regulate water flow through soil, help maintain biodiversity and store carbon. The project recently collaborated with the BIO Program of the Inter-American Development Bank to produce the free, online publication, Managing Watersheds for Ecosystem Services in the Steepland Neotropics. "Climate change increases the likelihood of extreme weather, such as intense storms and droughts," said Matthew Larsen, director of STRI. "We don't fully understand how the hydrologic and other natural systems in the Panama watershed will respond. STRI's ongoing scientific investigations help the Panama Canal Authority and land-use managers to better understand the range of future conditions." Last year's El Nino put the risk of water shortages in the canal into sharp relief. STRI monitoring stations throughout the region contribute to understanding such events. STRI maintains more than a dozen research facilities throughout Panama, including the Punta Galeta Marine Education Center near the Caribbean entrance to the canal and the Pacific-side Punta Culebra Nature Center. Both are open to the public, offering exhibits and educational tours. STRI's presence in Panama has always been intertwined with the canal. From 1910 to 1912, the Smithsonian's Panama Biological Survey resulted in the first inventory of species and assessment of environmental conditions across the canal watershed. Panama's President Pablo Arosemena encouraged scientists to extend their survey throughout the country, creating an important baseline for understanding the wealth and diversity of the region's natural resources. The Barro Colorado Island research station was established in Lake Gatun, then newly flooded, in 1923. In 2016, along with Panama and the world, STRI looks forward to the fresh pulse that marks the completion of the canal expansion project. ### The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a part of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. STRI website. BEER-SHEVA, Israel...March 13, 2018 - Off-the-shelf devices that include baby monitors, home security cameras, doorbells, and thermostats were easily co-opted by cyber researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). As part of their ongoing research into detecting vulnerabilities of devices and networks expanding in the smart home and Internet of Things (IoT), the researchers disassembled and reverse engineered many common devices and quickly uncovered serious security issues. "It is truly frightening how easily a criminal, voyeur or pedophile can take over these devices," says Dr. Yossi Oren, a senior lecturer in BGU's Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering and head of the Implementation Security and Side-Channel Attacks Lab at Cyber@BGU. "Using these devices in our lab, we were able to play loud music through a baby monitor, turn off a thermostat and turn on a camera remotely, much to the concern of our researchers who themselves use these products." "It only took 30 minutes to find passwords for most of the devices and some of them were found only through a Google search of the brand," says Omer Shwartz, a Ph.D. student and member of Dr. Oren's lab. "Once hackers can access an IoT device, like a camera, they can create an entire network of these camera models controlled remotely." The BGU researchers discovered several ways hackers can take advantage of poorly secured devices. They discovered that similar products under different brands share the same common default passwords. Consumers and businesses rarely change device passwords when purchased so they could be operating infected with malicious code for years. They were also able to logon to entire Wi-Fi networks simply by retrieving the password stored in a device to gain network access. Dr. Oren urges manufacturers to stop using easy, hard-coded passwords, to disable remote access capabilities, and to make it harder to get information from shared ports, like an audio jack which was proven vulnerable in other studies by Cyber@BGU researchers. "It seems getting IoT products to market at an attractive price is often more important than securing them properly," he says. Tips for IoT Product Security With the goal of making consumers smarter about smart home device protection, BGU researchers offer a number of tips to keep IoT devices, families and businesses more secure: 1. Buy IoT devices only from reputable manufacturers and vendors. 2. Avoid used IoT devices. They could already have malware installed. 3. Research each device online to determine if it has a default password and if so change before installing. 4. Use strong passwords with a minimum of 16 letters. These are hard to crack. 5. Multiple devices shouldn't share the same passwords. 6. Update software regularly which you will only get from reputable manufacturers. 7. Carefully consider the benefits and risks of connecting a device to the internet. "The increase in IoT technology popularity holds many benefits, but this surge of new, innovative and cheap devices reveals complex security and privacy challenges," says Yael Mathov, who also participated in the research. "We hope our findings will hold manufacturers more accountable and help alert both manufacturers and consumers to the dangers inherent in the widespread use of unsecured IoT devices." ### Click here to access the paper. The BGU research collaboration also includes Michael Bohadana, a researcher at Deutsche Telekom Innovation Labs@BGU and Prof. Yuval Elovici, director of Cyber@BGU, director of Deutsche Telekom Innovation Labs@BGU and a member of the BGU Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering. American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) plays a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion's vision: creating a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University's expertise locally and around the globe. As Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) looks ahead to turning 50 in 2020, AABGU imagines a future that goes beyond the walls of academia. It is a future where BGU invents a new world and inspires a vision for a stronger Israel and its next generation of leaders. Together with supporters, AABGU will help the University foster excellence in teaching, research and outreach to the communities of the Negev for the next 50 years and beyond. Visit vision.aabgu.org to learn more. AABGU, headquartered in Manhattan, has nine regional offices throughout the United States. For more information visit https://aabgu.org/. Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Incidence of Major Depression Among primary care patients with subthreshold depression, mindfulness meditation training reduces the incidence of major depression and improves depression symptoms. A randomized controlled trial of adults with subthreshold depression compared a usual care group in which there was no psychological intervention (n=116) with a behavioral activation group focused on mindfulness training (n=115). Intervention participants were invited to attend weekly two-hour mindfulness training sessions for eight consecutive weeks. At 12 months, there was a statistically significant difference in the incidence of major depressive disorder between groups (11 percent in the mindfulness group compared to 27 percent in usual care). Mindfulness training also had a small effect in reducing depression symptoms (between-group mean difference = 3.85). Other secondary outcomes demonstrated no significant change. The authors suggest that, for patients with subthreshold depression who have not had a major depressive episode in the past six months, mindfulness training is a feasible method of preventing major depression. The authors plan future research into the cost-effectiveness, health service use implications, and acceptability of mindfulness training. Treating Subthreshold Depression in Primary Care: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Behavioural Activation With Mindfulness Samuel Y.S. Wong, MD, et al The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, New Territories, Hong Kong http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/111.full Asthma Management Tools Improve Asthma Control and Reduce Hospital Visits A set of comprehensive asthma management tools helps decrease asthma-related visits to the emergency department, urgent care or hospital and improves patients' asthma control. The Asthma APGAR tools, including an asthma control assessment completed by patients and linked to an asthma management algorithm, were tested in a randomized controlled study of 18 family medicine and pediatric practices across the United States. The study compared outcomes in more than 1,000 patients with persistent asthma aged five to 45 years using Asthma APGAR tools versus usual care. The proportion of patients reporting an asthma-related emergency department, urgent care or hospital visit in the final six months of the study differed significantly between groups: 11 percent for intervention groups and 21 percent for usual care groups. Between baseline and one year, the percentage of patients whose asthma was in control increased significantly in the intervention group (14 percent) compared to the usual care group (3 percent), with a trend toward better control scores and asthma-related quality of life in the intervention group at 12 months. Intervention practices also significantly increased their adherence to three or more elements of the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program guidelines compared to usual care practices. Participating practices reported that changing practice to incorporate the Asthma APGAR tools was challenging, but the tools themselves were perceived as useful and efficient. The authors suggest that the Asthma APGAR tools are effective for asthma management in the primary care practice setting. Use of Asthma APGAR Tools in Primary Care Practices: A Cluster-Randomized, Controlled Trial Barbara P. Yawn, MD MSc FAAFP, et al Olmsted Medical Center, Rochester, Minnesota http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/100.full New Analysis Recommends Against Using Digital Rectal Exam in Primary Care Although the digital rectal exam is widely used in primary care to screen for prostate cancer, a new study finds limited data to support its effectiveness. The study, a meta-analysis of previous research, found that the quality of available evidence was very low and that existing studies were at risk of bias. In the analysis, pooled sensitivity of the digital rectal exam among primary care physicians was 0.51 and pooled specificity was 0.59. Given the considerable lack of evidence supporting its efficacy, the authors recommend against routinely performing digital rectal exams to screen for prostate cancer in the primary care setting. Digital Rectal Examination for Prostate Cancer Screening in Primary Care: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Jason Profetto, MD, CCFP, et al McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/149.full Patients with Multiple Conditions Receive Higher Level of Care in Affluent Areas Patients with multimorbidity--two or more long-term medical conditions--have complex health care needs, often requiring higher levels of care than other patients. According to a new study, however, patients with multimorbidity in affluent areas receive longer doctor visits, greater perceived empathy, and more patient-centered care than comparable patients in socioeconomically deprived areas. Researchers in Scotland analyzed 659 routine visits to general practitioners in deprived and affluent areas, as well as patient ratings of general practitioner empathy. In affluent areas, multimorbid patients received longer consultations than other patients (13 minutes versus 9 minutes) while in deprived areas, consultation length was about the same for both groups (10 minutes). Similarly, patients with multimorbidity in affluent areas found GPs to be more empathetic and, according to video analysis, more attentive to their disease and illness experience. There were no such differences between similar groups in deprived areas. If primary care is to succeed in narrowing health inequalities, the authors state, action is needed to ensure that patients with multimorbidity in lower socioeconomic areas receive the same level of care and attention as patients in affluent areas. Multimorbidity and Socioeconomic Deprivation in Primary Care Consultations Stewart W Mercer, MBchB, PhD, et al University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/127.full Oseltamivir Does Not Increase Risk of Suicide in Children A new study finds that use of oseltamivir, an antiviral drug used to treat influenza A and B, does not increase risk of suicide in children. Researchers identified 21,047 children between one and 18 years of age who attempted suicide during the 2009-2013 influenza seasons. Of those, 251 had been exposed to oseltamivir. Mean age was approximately 15 years, and underlying mental health diagnoses were common (65 percent). Because the observed association between oseltamivir and suicide could potentially be confounded by underlying influenza infection, the analysis was repeated with influenza diagnosis alone (without oseltamivir use) as the exposure. Using this novel study design, which reduced statistical concerns found in previous studies, researchers did not find an association between oseltamivir or influenza diagnosis (only) and suicide. The Relationship Between Oseltamivir and Suicide in Pediatric Patients James W. Antoon, MD, et al Children's Hospital University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/145.full No Increase in Shared Decision-Making for PSA Testing but Discussions Have Broadened Although health care organizations differ in their recommendations for use of prostate-specific antigen testing for prostate cancer screening, they agree that the decision to undergo PSA testing should be shared by patients and clinicians. A new study finds that although there has been no increase in shared decision-making for PSA testing, the content of discussions has become more comprehensive. The study compared responses to the National Health Interview Survey in 2010 and 2015 among men age 50 and older (n=9598). In this nationally representative sample, a similar proportion (approximately 60 percent) of men with recent PSA testing reported one or more elements of shared decision-making in both 2010 and 2015. They also reported a modest shift away from discussions limited to the advantages of PSA testing toward full shared decision-making in which advantages, disadvantages, and uncertainties were discussed (12 percent of recently-tested men in 2010 compared to 17 percent in 2015). One in 10 men who did not receive PSA testing reported receiving one or more elements of shared decision-making, a number which did not change during the study period. The results suggest that, contrary to guideline recommendations, many men receiving PSA testing still do not receive shared decision-making and a limited number of men without PSA testing receive one or more shared decision-making elements. The authors call for new and innovative strategies to achieve more widespread application of shared decision-making for men considering PSA testing. Recent Patterns in Shared Decision Making for Prostate-Specific Antigen Testing in the United States Stacey A Fedewa, PhD, MPH, et al American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Georgia http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/139.full Electronic Consultation System Improves Access to Specialty Care An electronic consultation system designed to reduce excessive wait times for appointments with specialists experienced exponential growth during a recent five-year period. The Champlain BASE eConsult service was created to provide primary care clinicians in Ontario, Canada with a range of high quality and timely (up to one week) specialty input. Unlike electronic consultation systems that provide direct links between clinicians, this service enables primary care clinicians to search a directory, select a specialist, and contact her/him through a secure channel. The system, created in 2010, had four completed eConsult cases in April, 2011 compared to 769 cases in April, 2016, with primary care clinicians submitting 14,105 cases to 56 specialties during the 5-year period. Specialties receiving the highest number of eConsults were dermatology (17 percent); endocrinology, obstetrics/gynecology, and hematology (7 percent each); cardiology (6 percent); and neurology (6 percent). Specialists responded in a median of 21 hours; in 75 percent of cases they responded within three days. Self-reported billing time for specialists ranged from less than 10 minutes (in 48 percent of cases) to more than 20 minutes (4 percent of cases). By the end of the study period, approximately 80 percent of primary care clinicians in the region had adopted the eConsult service, which is poised for expansion across Canada. The study demonstrates that, once integrated into a practice's specialty referral workflow, the eConsult service has the potential to reduce wait times for specialty care. Sustainability of a Primary Care-Driven eConsult Service Clare Liddy, MD, MSc, CCFP, et al C.T. Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/120.full Health Care Reform and EHR Design Should Be Built Around Patients' Goals Meaningful reform of primary care should not only address the provision, documentation and payment of care; it should be based on patients' goals for their lives and health, with corresponding redesign of electronic health records. A report from an international team of primary care researchers recommends that the current problem-oriented fee-for-documentation structure of EHRs be replaced by a framework built around life and health goals. This focus would not only better serve patients; it would also help refocus medical professionals on the full scope of human health. To begin the process of creating goal-directed electronic health records, the authors suggest incorporating core patient profile and health planner functions into existing EHRs and creating linkages between patient characteristics and other parts of the EHR. If patient attributes captured by EHRs are expanded to include actionable sociocultural and socioeconomic information, life and health goals, care preferences, and personal risk factors, they can be leveraged by other EHR components so that patients and clinicians can work together to develop personalized care. The authors point out that, although numerous systemic and administrative health care innovations have been tried, the problem-oriented approach to care and its conceptual image coded into the medical record remain the same across innovations. If patient life and health goals are to drive health care and medical record design, shifts will also need to occur in health care delivery, measurement, and payment. The authors call for research into how patients and health care teams can partner effectively using goal-directed health records. Moving From Problem-Oriented to Goal-Directed Health Records Zsolt J. Nagykaldi, PhD, et al University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/155.full Physicians' Work Should Focus on Personalized Care, Not Transactional Tasks Shifting physicians' roles from transactional tasks to personalized care would best serve patients, physicians and society. According to a newly-articulated vision of shared care, physicians should reduce their roles in transactional aspects of care, such as gathering and entering data, providing disease-specific patient education, and providing most preventive care. Instead, such duties should be filled by other members of the health care team with complementary skills, leaving physicians to diagnose and help patients meet personal goals and objectives. Physicians' would provide personalized care by synthesizing data from diverse, often discordant sources; adjudicating the competing needs of multiple conditions; adjusting patients' treatment plans to align with their goals and preferences; and advocating for patients in a complicated, fragmented health care environment. To make this approach a reality, changes would need to occur on multiple levels including health care organization and delivery, technology, reimbursement, medical education, and practice and physician "buy-in." The authors state that their vision would meet the needs of patients and society while closing the gap between physicians' intended patient care mission and their current transactional roles. In the process, they explain, physicians could discover joy, purpose, and meaning in their work. From Transactional Tasks to Personalized Care: A New Vision of Physicians' Roles David B. Reuben, MD, et al David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/168.full Clinicians' Skills in Narrative Can Help Chronically Ill Patients Heal "What patients bring to their clinicians is their stories," writes behavioral scientist Thomas Egnew. It is through these stories that clinicians try to understand and treat patients' health. When patients experience chronic or life-threatening illness and their suffering increases, clinicians can take on the role of holistic healer by addressing the inevitable existential conflicts in patients' narratives and helping them edit their stories to promote acceptance and meaning. In this guiding role, Egnew explains, clinicians can help patients transcend suffering, "assume the mantle of their heritage as healers," and find meaning in their work. A Narrative Approach to Healing Chronic Illness Thomas R. Egnew, EdD, LICSW University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/160.full A Patient Embraces the "Pathless Trek" into Chronic Illness For a young woman with ulcerative colitis, a total colectomy (removal of the colon) marks the end of an illness and the beginning of a journey of personal discovery. Adi Finkelstein, PhD, describes her physical illness and the decision to undergo a colectomy after which, her surgeon promised her, she would have a new life. Over time, she did indeed build a new life, although perhaps not the one her surgeon envisioned. Her journey included letting go of her desire to be an exemplary patient and embracing the liberation that came with accepting her disability, as well as a career researching and teaching medical and nursing students about chronic illness. Living with her own disability while helping others better understand chronic illness is, she writes, "[a] paradox that sustains me." You Will Have a New Life Adi Finkelstein, PhD Jerusalem College of Technology, Jerusalem, Israel http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/166.full A Family Physician Reflects on Community, Retirement, and Our Sagging Bodies As a family physician approaches retirement, he reflects on the next chapter of his life with feelings of freedom and fear. "To live without the vestments of a career," he realizes, "is a test of faith." He finds comfort in knowing that his community will be well cared for by a new generation of physicians. On a more personal level, he is both surprised and freed by his aging body, encouraging us to "relax our grip on life, just as our skin has relaxed its grip on us." Ultimately, he puts his faith in the knowledge that, more than three decades ago, he was called to a career in medicine. "Therein lies the hope that I will be called again." When It's Time to Retire: Notes From the Afterlife David Loxterkamp, MD Seaport Community Health Center, Belfast, Maine http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/171.full Core Outcomes Established for Multimorbidity Research According to a panel of international experts, clinical trials of multimorbidity should measure and report, at minimum, quality of life, mortality, and mental health outcomes. Twenty-six multimorbidity researchers, clinicians, and patients from 13 countries participated in a Delphi Panel and reached consensus on 17 core outcomes for multimorbidity research. The highest ranked outcomes were health related quality of life, mental health outcomes and mortality. Other outcomes were grouped into overarching themes of patient-reported impacts and behaviors (treatment burden, self-rated health, self-management behavior, self-efficacy, adherence); physical activity and function (activities of daily living, physical function, physical activity); outcomes related to the medical visit (communication, shared decision making, prioritization); and health systems outcomes (healthcare utilization, costs, quality of healthcare). The authors suggest that, when designing studies to capture important domains in multimorbidity, researchers consider the full range of outcomes based on study aims and interventions. A Core Outcome Set for Multimorbidity Research (COSmm) Susan Smith, MD, MSc, et al HRB Centre for Primary Care Research, Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/132.full Innovations in Primary Care: Citizen Engagement and Team-Based Ordering of Labs Innovations in Primary Care are brief one-page articles that describe novel innovations from health care's front lines. In this issue: Citizen Engagement in Primary Care - A primary care organization uses methods of citizen engagement to gather recommendations from a representative group of patient advisors to prioritize areas for practice improvement. http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/175.full Ordering Labs as a Team - A primary care practice shifted its lab ordering procedure from a clinician activity to a team-based process. http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/176.full ### Annals of Family Medicine is a peer-reviewed, indexed research journal that provides a cross-disciplinary forum for new, evidence-based information affecting the primary care disciplines. Launched in May 2003, Annals is sponsored by seven family medical organizations, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Board of Family Medicine, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, the Association of Departments of Family Medicine, the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors, the North American Primary Care Research Group, and the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Annals is published six times each year and contains original research from the clinical, biomedical, social and health services areas, as well as contributions on methodology and theory, selected reviews, essays and editorials. Complete editorial content and interactive discussion groups for each published article can be accessed free of charge on the journal's website, http://www.annfammed.org. Follow Us: Twitter: @annfammed Facebook: Annals of Family Medicine DALLAS, March 13, 2018 - Generic anti-platelet drugs seem to work as well as a brand name drug for heart patients, according to new research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. When a Canadian health system switched from prescribing the brand-name anti-platelet drug Plavix to a far-cheaper generic version, heart-attack and chest pain patients were no more likely to die from any cause or be re-hospitalized for a heart attack or unstable angina within a year than those prescribed Plavix (17.9 percent vs. 17.6 percent). In addition, there were no significant differences between the drug groups in the percent of patients who died or were hospitalized for any reason; had a stroke or transient ischemic attack; or who developed bleeding as a side effect of treatment. "People can safely use generic clopidogrel. This large and real-world study should be reassuring to physicians and healthcare organizations who have been concerned about changing what is prescribed," said Dennis T. Ko, M.D., M.Sc., lead study author and senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto. In Canada and the United States, generic drugs are approved based on small studies in healthy people showing that the active ingredient is released at equivalent levels and over the same timeframe. That suggests, but doesn't prove, that the generic product will also have the same safety and medical benefit. Clopidogrel is used to treat patients with acute coronary syndrome, percutaneous coronary intervention, stroke or peripheral vascular disease. Researchers compared outcomes in patients (average age 77, 57 percent male) who were prescribed clopidogrel after hospitalization for a heart attack or heart-related chest pain (unstable angina) in Ontario, Canada, where the Ministry of Health began to automatically substitute generic clopidogrel for Plavix once the brand name drug's patent expired in 2012. Between 2009 and 2014, 12,643 patients were prescribed Plavix and 11,887 generic clopidogrel. Plavix cost about $2.58 Canadian dollars per pill in 2010 and was projected to cost the Ontario Drug Benefit Program $72.8 million by 2012. But by switching to a generic, which costs $0.39 per pill in 2018, the expense was only $19 million Canadian dollars. "Plavix was one of the most commonly used drugs in cardiology, so switching to generics can reduce a lot of cost for individuals and health systems," said Ko, who is also a cardiologist at the Schulich Heart Centre of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre at the University of Toronto. While the study was conducted in Canada, the results should apply to the United States, even if the generic drug offerings are slightly different, according to the researchers. "There are quite a few different generic brands. In this study, we considered them as a group, but later found no differences in outcome when we compared between different generics," said co-principal investigator Cynthia Jackevicius, Pharm.D., M.Sc., professor of pharmacy at Western University of Health Sciences and senior adjunct scientist at ICES. The American Heart Association recommends clopidogrel - sometimes in combination with other drugs - for patients who have had acute coronary syndrome (unstable angina or heart attack) or stroke. ### Other co-authors are Harlan M. Krumholz, M.D., S.M.; Jack V. Tu, M.D., Ph.D.; Peter C. Austin, Ph.D.; Therese A. Stukel, Ph.D.; Maria Koh, M.Sc.; Alice Chong, B.Sc; and Jose Francisco de Melo Jr. Author disclosures are on the manuscript. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada funded the study. Additional Resources: Available multimedia is on the right column of the release link - https://newsroom.heart.org/news/patients-do-as-well-on-generic-antiplatelet-drugs-as-more-expensive-brand-name-product?preview=2474dca0dc36ae159d21f830187138bc After March 13, view the manuscript online. Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews Follow CircCVQO on Twitter: Circulation: CVQO@CircOutcomes Statements and conclusions of study authors published in American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association's policy or position. The association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations and health insurance providers are available at http://www.heart.org/corporatefunding. About the American Heart Association The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke - the two leading causes of death in the world. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. In late February, CBS News Denver reported that mountain lion sightings were on the rise in Colorado's high country. Lion attacks on people in the state and around the world are rare, but the story referenced an attack on a 5-year-old boy in 2016 by a mountain lion near Aspen. Wildlife biologists around the world studying these big cats have had difficulty explaining why these attacks occur, even after tracking the predators with GPS collars. A study from Colorado State University and Colorado Parks and Wildlife provides new insight. Researchers found that while the animals are generally fearful of and avoid humans, hunger can dampen that fear. The study, "Hunger mediates apex predator's risk avoidance response in wildland-urban interface," was recently published online in the Journal of Animal Ecology. "These predators, including mountain lions, aren't 'hangry' and seeking out back yards to find food, but there comes a point when a mountain lion is hungry enough that it may use back yards to hunt for food, similar to what takes place in the wild ," said Kevin Blecha, who worked on the research in conjunction with Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists, while pursuing a graduate degree in ecology from CSU. Previous studies have shown that big cat predators intentionally avoid people, due to fear. Other research has found that predators prefer to spend their time in prey-rich areas. "Unfortunately, these two explanations were not lining up in explaining large predator movements in back yards, and even contradicted each other, especially when there could actually be more prey, like deer, available near people's homes," said Blecha. GPS tracked predator movements In this study, researchers analyzed hunting behaviors of mountain lions on the fringes of Denver and Boulder, Colorado, through the sprawling exurbia, and into the jagged wilderness areas along the Continental Divide. The team used bio-monitoring collars with GPS location and acceleration recorders, strapped to the lions, allowing the researchers to document the predators' hunting behaviors. Data from the GPS collar locations revealed whether the mountain lions were avoiding, attracted to, or ambivalent to houses. GPS tracked the dates and times since the mountain lion last fed on a prey animal, allowing researchers to measure the hunger level that the lions were experiencing while moving about its home range. Animals that had not eaten in more than four to seven days showed little to no avoidance of the higher housing densities. Hunger, time of year matter in animals' actions Blecha and the team found that predators' behavior was connected with having an emptier stomach. While a mountain lion can become hungry at any time of the year, the animals would go longer and longer periods of time between making kills as the winter progressed through late spring, a time of the year when wild prey numbers are lowest. Late spring is also when conflicts between mountain lions and humans may be the highest. Researchers concluded, too, that female mountain lions avoided houses less than male counterparts, which is likely due to females expending more energy during times when they are rearing kittens. In addition, camera traps recorded whether the animals' prey sources were more likely encountered in the higher housing densities or in more wild, public land areas like national forestlands. These camera traps revealed that deer, raccoons and pets were less likely to be encountered in the wildland areas. Complementing this finding, the collars showed that mountain lions were more successful at finding and killing prey near houses than they were away from these structures. Blecha said it is likely that prey such as mule deer are safer in sprawling subdivisions and exurbias, given that mountain lions, coyotes, and human hunters usually avoid these urban fringes. "This study contributes to a growing body of evidence indicating that an animal's energetic state is very important in the decision-making process; animals will make riskier choices when hunger beckons," said Blecha. "This is likely the same for all animals, whether it is mountain lions, rabbits, birds, or even humans." This is among the first studies to demonstrate a direct relationship between hunger and the decision-making process of a large predator. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said homeowners living in the wildland-urban interface can do their part by recognizing that wild and domestic animals in their backyards are seen as prey to wild predators. "It is important to keep pets from running loose in these areas without supervision," said Blecha. ### ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Spent nuclear fuel needs to be safely transported from the power plants where it is generated to interim storage locations and eventually to a permanent geologic disposal site. Late last year, Sandia researchers completed an eight-month, 14,500-mile triathlon-like test to gather data on the bumps and jolts spent nuclear fuel experiences during transportation. The data from this test could be used to demonstrate the safe transportation of spent nuclear fuel. Nuclear power supplies almost 20 percent of U.S. electricity and is the leading carbon-neutral power source. However, it produces between 2,200 and 2,600 tons of spent fuel in the U.S. each year. Fuel rods become brittle and highly radioactive while powering the nuclear reactor, making safe transportation important. A nuclear waste transportation and storage cask fresh off the assembly line was loaded with three surrogate fuel rod assemblies from the U.S., Spain and South Korea and then traveled from Spain to Colorado and back again by truck, ship and train. Zirconium alloy tubes filled with lead rope, lead pellets or molybdenum pellets imitated the uranium oxide pellets inside a spent nuclear fuel rod. "All of our preliminary data suggests that the likelihood of a fuel rod breaking during routine handing and transportation is low. This test is more realistic than past tests and could result in a more reliable quantification of the transportation risks," said Sylvia Saltzstein, manager of the transportation projects. Sandia collaborated on the triathlon with Equipos Nucleares S.A. (ENSA), the Spanish cask designer and manufacturer, and Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos S.A. (ENRESA), the corporation responsible for the management of nuclear waste in Spain. The Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD), Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), and Pacific Northwest and Argonne national laboratories also took part in the triathlon. A grid of almost 300 rods makes up a fuel assembly, and the cask used in the test can hold 32 assemblies in a specially designed basket. The mock fuel rods within the three assemblies were outfitted with tiny accelerometers and strain gauges before they went into the cask. The cask and basket were similarly equipped. The accelerometers and strain gauges measured each bump, rattle and jolt the mock fuel experienced during the trip, yielding data that can be used to quantify the safety margins of transporting spent nuclear fuel. Earlier tests mimic transportation vibrations to approximate stresses Though Sandia has thoroughly tested the robustness of nuclear waste casks during decades of simulated catastrophic transportation accidents, another challenge is the stress from everyday transportation on the fuel rods inside the cask. Saltzstein and her colleagues hope that repeated jostling won't lead to a fuel rod snapping, like bending a soda can tab one too many times. The triathlon is actually Sandia's fourth test to measure routine transportation strains. The first used a large shaker table to test Sandia's sensor-studded mock fuel assembly, with lead rope in zirconium alloy tubes to mimic the weight of uranium pellets. A shaker table is just that, a table that vibrates up and down in a controlled manner. The researchers programmed the table to reproduce the shocks and vibrations from traveling by truck and measured the strain experienced by the fuel rods. Although a reasonable initial test, the table only went up and down, so more testing was needed. The second test placed the same assembly on a truck trailer loaded with 50,000 pounds of concrete, the same as a transportation cask, and took it on a 38-mile trip on highways, city streets and dirt roads. This test showed similar, very low, levels of strain on the mock fuel. However, since spent nuclear fuel mostly will travel by train, the third test looked at the shocks and vibrations experienced riding the rails. Sandia researchers took shock and vibration data provided by the Association of American Railroads to set up a shaker table that could move in six directions instead of just up and down, simulating the strain and acceleration of train travel. They also replaced the lead rope in some of the rods with lead and molybdenum pellets for a better approximation of spent fuel. This test agreed with two earlier tests: The stresses from normal transportation are about 100 times lower than the stresses known to damage nuclear fuel rods. The three tests gave Sandia researchers confidence, but they needed a yet more realistic test. For the triathlon, they moved an actual spent fuel cask provided by a Spanish partner, but very similar to those used in the U.S., from one mode of transportation to another to obtain data closer to real world conditions. The triathlon started in northern Spain, where the cask traveled by heavy-haul truck for about 250 miles through main roads and highways. After a layover to download data from the sensors, the cask was transferred to a barge, which skirted along the coast of France to Belgium, sailing more than 1,000 miles over four days. After a layover in Belgium, the cask was transferred to a cargo ship. Then the ship crossed the Atlantic to Baltimore -- almost 4,000 miles -- through sometimes rough seas. This took two weeks. In Baltimore, the cask was transferred to a dedicated flatbed train car and traveled west about 2,000 miles through 12 states, which took seven days. Then, in partnership with the Association of American Railroads, the cask and fuel assemblies were tested at the Transportation Technology Center Inc. facility near Pueblo, Colorado. The center has almost 50 miles of test track, permitting such controlled scenarios as joining two rail cars together or rumbling over a track crossing. After these trials, the cask with its sensors reversed course and returned to Spain. In addition to the logistical challenges, the biggest technical challenge was building a data acquisition system that could collect all the shock and vibration data robustly and unsupervised, said Paul McConnell, project manager for the tests. A Sandia contractor, Bill Uncapher, designed the system and Sandia technologists, Carissa Grey and Wes Chilton, built the system. The rail cask test generated about 8 terabytes of shock and vibration data. Saltzstein expects the full analysis will take nearly a year. The data from the test also will be used to validate computer models of the stresses experienced by spent fuel during normal transportation. "Preliminary results show very low shock and vibration levels, which we will compare to the mechanical properties of fuel that's come out of a nuclear power reactor," said McConnell. "Ultimately, we want to understand if the fuel can withstand the accumulation of shocks and vibrations during the journey that could potentially cause a fuel rod to break." The test was partially funded by the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's Spent Fuel and Waste Science and Technology program. ### Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and Ericsson have launched a Master's in NFV and SDN technologies for 5G networks with the collaboration of IMDEA Networks This program, which will be taught at the UC3M Madrid-Puerta de Toledo campus and the Ericsson Auditorium in Madrid, is the product of a long-standing collaboration between both entities in the area of education and research. Ericsson and UC3M have identified 5G and related technologies such as NFV and SDN as areas of great potential for the development of talent in Spain because of their importance in the digitalization of industry, and because they will be the technologies that respond to the growing volume of data traffic, expected to increase 40% per year from 2017 to 2023. 5G technology is growing in importance, and it is estimated that in just five years, it will have billions of subscriptions covering 20% of the world's population. In addition, studies by Ericsson indicate that 5G will be profitable for Spain, generating a market of 23.3 billion euros in 2026 from the application of this technology to the digitalization of industry. It is expected that talent specialized in 5G will be in great demand in the ICT industry and vertical sectors such as energy, manufacturing, public transportation and tourism. Moreover, educating talent in the most advanced and disruptive technologies of the telecommunications industry will contribute to creating the 5G ecosystem in Spain. The program has a highly practical component. It will be taught by UC3M engineers and professionals from leading companies in the industry, such as Ericsson, Acciona, Dell and Telefonica, among others. Twenty-five percent of the class hours will be held at the IMDEA Networks laboratory as part of 5TONIC, the top European testbed for 5G technologies that also counts with Ericsson, UC3M and Telefonica amongst its members. The Master's degree program is modular and is designed for both recent graduates of the areas of ICT and telecommunications professionals who wish to combine it with their work. Grants for the program will be offered so that recent graduates with excellent academic records can choose to study while doing their internships at Ericsson Espana. These students have the opportunity to pursue the Master's degree and carry out their internships under the guidance of highly experienced engineers. OFFICIAL PRESENTATION OF THE MASTER'S DEGREE IN NFV AND SDN FOR 5G NETWORKS The Master's in NFV and SDN for 5G networks was presented today at a ceremony which took place at the UC3M Madrid-Puerta de Toledo campus and was inaugurated by its rector, Juan Romo. The rector explained that "in 2015, the University, in collaboration with Ericsson, foresaw the need to create true international specialists in network and service virtualization technologies, specialists who would be able to apply the best theoretical and practical knowledge to virtualization and cloud projects. Such projects are now commonplace in the field of telecommunications and are the backbone of next-generation 5G networks." Furthermore, Jose Antonio Lopez Munoz, president and CEO of Ericsson Espana, noted that "5G will be fundamental in the digital transformation of Spain, so we have to develop talent that will make 5G and its use a reality, not only in our industry but also in other sectors. With Carlos III we have already developed 180 specialists in virtualization through our courses on NFV and SDN, and now we are proud to present the first Master's in 5G." Arturo Azcorra, IMDEA Networks director and UC3M professor in the Department of Telematics Engineering, explained: "Network functions virtualization (NFV) technology and software-defined networking (SDN) technology make it possible to export the cloud/edge/fog model to the new generation of 5G communications. In tandem, these technologies make it possible to substitute network nodes based on specific hardware with general-purpose hardware, reaping benefits that include the reduction of infrastructure costs, the rapid deployment of applications, services and infrastructures to achieve the goals set by companies in the shortest time possible, and the creation of new kinds of applications and business models by companies, which benefits them and increases the value of their networks." Lastly, Pablo Garcia Estevez, senior expert on innovation at Ericsson Espana and student in the specialization courses on NFV, SDN and 5G networks, said, "The Carlos III-Ericsson program has demonstrated to me that it has the best researchers and professors on these subjects at the University, along with the participation of the top experts in the industry. In addition, as enrollment is open to employees of other companies and recent graduates, it is a privileged networking point in the Autonomous Region of Madrid for these technologies." ### Scientists in Cairns (Australia) and Cardiff (Wales) have taken an important first step towards solving two problems that hinder access to vaccines: they need to be kept cool, and no one likes needles. In the April edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a team led by Associate Professor John Miles from James Cook University and Cardiff University's Professor Andrew Sewell describe how they engineered a new vaccine production platform and built a fully synthetic flu vaccine. The vaccine protected mice from potentially lethal doses of swine flu and also worked on human cells when tested in the laboratory. "Theoretically, this prototype synthetic vaccine would not require refrigeration and could sit on the shelf for years without going out of date," Professor Sewell said. "In addition to being expensive, maintaining a cold chain of delivery can be extremely difficult in remote areas of the globe. In hot places without reliable electricity, this can count for the majority of the cost of vaccines, and significant wastage." Taking the needle out of the equation would also make vaccinations simpler to administer, and a whole lot less frightening. "To be administered orally, vaccines need to be able to survive the acids and enzymes in our stomachs. A couple - including the polio vaccine - can do this, but most cannot," said Associate Professor Miles, Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine. The team showed the synthetic vaccine was hyper-stable in both stomach acid and human blood, meaning it could be taken orally. Promisingly, it was effective when administered orally to mice. To build their synthetic vaccine, the team used D-amino acids. "These are mirror images of the L-amino acids that are the building blocks of all proteins," Associate Professor Miles said. "While L-amino acids are common in nature, D-amino acids are rare. We were attracted to them because they're very stable, meaning these compounds are harder to break down." After trialing D-Amino acids in various combinations, the researchers selected a version that successfully provoked the immune system's T cells to launch a defensive attack, protecting the mice when they were later given swine flu. "We were very surprised at how flexible the immune system is in recognizing dangerous targets," Associate Professor Miles said. "It can't actually tell the difference between our antigen and a real-world fragment of swine flu. This suggests you can build vaccines out of anything you want as long as they 'look' like the real thing in three dimensions." While we might be a long way from taking our vaccines orally and at room-temperature, Associate Professor Miles says this proof-of-concept study shows exciting promise. "We have some further work to do in making these vaccines work across larger populations and against other bugs and possibly cancer," he said. "But what we have now is a promising platform for synthetic vaccine production. We hope these new concepts and advances will help make a significant contribution to health world-wide." ### The transition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Europe is marked by two key events in European history, i.e., the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the migration into this Empire by various barbarian tribes such as the Goths, Alemanni, Franks, and Lombards. This resulted in a profound cultural and socioeconomic transformation throughout the continent, and many settlements from this epoch would subsequently develop into the villages and towns we still know today. An international team led by anthropologist Dr. Michaela Harbeck from the Bavarian State Collection for Anthropology and Palaeoanatomy (SAPM) and population geneticist Professor Joachim Burger of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has now performed the first genomic analysis of populations that lived on the former territory of the Roman Empire in Bavaria, Germany, from around 500 AD and provided the first direct look at the complex population dynamics of what has popularly been known as the Migration Period, or "Volkerwanderung" in German. In addition to anthropologists from Mainz and Munich, the team also includes Dr. Krishna Veeramah, a population geneticist from Stony Brook University in the US, as well as colleagues from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In an interdisciplinary study funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the international research team analyzed the ancient genomes of almost 40 early medieval people from southern Germany. While most of the ancient Bavarians looked genetically like Central and Northern Europeans, one group of individuals had a very different and diverse genetic profile. Members of this group were particularly notable in that they were women whose skulls had been artificially deformed at birth. Such enigmatic deformations give the skull a characteristic tower shape and have been found in past populations from across the world and from different periods of time. "Parents wrapped their children's heads with bandages for a few months after birth in order to achieve the desired head shape," explained Dr. Michaela Harbeck. "It is difficult to answer why they carried out this elaborate process, but it was probably used to emulate a certain ideal of beauty or perhaps to indicate a group affiliation." So far, scholars have only speculated about origins of the practice in medieval Europe. "The presence of these elongated skulls in parts of eastern Europe is most commonly attributed to the nomadic Huns, led by Atilla, during their invasion of the Roman Empire from Asia, but the appearance of these skulls in western Europe is more mysterious, as this was very much the fringes of their territory," said Dr. Krishna Veeramah, first author of the study. By analyzing DNA obtained from these elongated skulls, Professor Joachim Burger's team revealed that these women likely migrated to early Bavarian settlements from eastern Europe. "Although there is evidence that there was some genetic contribution from Central Asia, the genomic analysis points to the fact that women with deformed skulls in this region are genetically most similar to today's south eastern Europeans, and that the Huns likely played only a minor role in directly transmitting this tradition to Bavaria," Burger noted. Besides their deformed skulls, these women also tended to have darker hair and eye color than the other Bavarians they were buried and probably lived with, who primarily had fair hair and blue eyes. But the migration of females to Bavaria did not only involve those possessing elongated skulls. Only a little later, two women can be identified who most closely resemble modern Greeks and Turks. In contrast, there was no evidence of men with drastically different genetic profiles. "Most of these foreign women are found with grave goods that look unremarkable compared to the rest of the buried population," added Veeramah. "These cases of female migration would have been invisible from the material culture alone." "This is an example of long-range female mobility that bridges larger cultural spaces and may have been a way for distant groups to form new strategic alliances during this time of great political upheaval in the absence of a previous Roman hegemony," stated Burger. "We must expect that many more unprecedented population-dynamic phenomena have contributed to the genesis of our early cities and villages." "Interestingly, though our results are preliminary, there are no major traces of genetic ancestry in these early inhabitants of Bavaria that might have come from soldiers of the Roman army," said Harbeck. "We need to keep investigating on an even broader basis how much Celtic and Roman ancestry is in these early Bavarians." ### Bottom Line: The United States spent nearly twice as much as other high-income countries on medical care but did less well on many population health outcomes despite similar utilization. Spending differences were driven primarily by prices for labor and goods, including pharmaceuticals, devices and administrative costs. Why The Research Is Interesting: It is well known that the United States spends more on health care than other countries but less is understood about what explains those differences. What and When: Analysis of data from 2013-2016 comparing differences in health care spending, performance and structural features between the United States and 10 high-income countries (United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia, Japan, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Denmark). Authors: Irene Papanicolas, Ph.D., Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health, Boston and coauthors Results The United States: Spent 17.8% of its gross domestic product on health in 2016, other countries ranged from 9.6% to 12.4% Had the lowest life expectancy and highest infant mortality rate Spent more to plan, regulate and manage health systems and services Had higher per capita pharmaceutical costs Paid higher salaries to physicians and nurses Study Limitations: While the data were generally comparable, there were modest differences in approaches to collecting and standardizing data across countries. Study Conclusions: Efforts targeting health care usage alone are unlikely to reduce growth in health care spending in the United States, and a more concerted effort to reduce prices and administrative costs is likely needed. Related material: The following related elements also are available on the For The Media website: -- A summary video is available for download or to embed on your website. Download the video as a high-quality MP4 file by right-clicking on this link and then clicking the down-pointing arrow in the control bar at the bottom of the video. In addition, you may copy and paste the html code below to embed the video on your website. -- An audio author interview is available on this page The following editorials and Viewpoint: The Real Cost of the U.S. Health Care System Challenges in Understanding Differences in Health Care Spending Between the United States and Other High-Income Countries Factors Contributing to Higher Health Care Spending in the United States Compared With Other High-Income Countries Health Care Spending in the United States Compared With 10 Other High-Income Countries Hip and Knee Replacements (Viewpoint) ### For more details and to read the full study, please visit the For The Media website. (doi:10.1001/jama.2018.1150) Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc. Want to embed a link to this report in your story? Link will be live at the embargo time http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2018.1150 Charlottesville, VA (March 13, 2018). Smartphones have changed the ways in which we live. They connect us with friends and families by phone, texts, and pictures. They warn us about what weather to expect and what traffic patterns we'll face on our way to work. They keep us abreast of all the news of the day and in touch with colleagues and clients. Here's another item we can add to the list: smartphones can assist neurosurgeons in performing intricate surgeries. In a paper published today in the Journal of Neurosurgery, "Smartphone-assisted minimally invasive neurosurgery," Mauricio Mandel, MD, and colleagues from Sao Paulo, Brazil, describe a smartphone-endoscope device for use in minimally invasive neurosurgery. These authors found the device easy to use, efficient, cost effective, and a great learning tool for less experienced neurosurgeons. Background Neuroendoscopy is a minimally invasive neurosurgical procedure performed in select cases to correct hydrocephalus, remove tumors, treat vascular disease, and manage other disorders. Neuroendoscopic procedures generally result in less pain, shorter recovery times, and less scarring than craniotomy (open surgery). During the neuroendoscopic procedure, a rigid or flexible neuroendoscope is inserted through a small incision in the skull, nose, or roof of the mouth and moved on to the planned surgical site in the brain, ventricles, or subdural or subarachnoid spaces. The neuroendoscope contains a light source to illuminate the surgical field, a lens for magnification, and a camera, which sends images to a nearby video monitor so that surgeons can see where they are operating. The neuroendoscope also contains channels and ports through which surgeons can insert and maneuver endoscopic instruments and irrigate the surgical site. Present Study In this paper, the authors describe their experiences in performing a variety of neurosurgical procedures with the aid of smartphone-endoscope integration: intraventricular procedures, such as treatment for hydrocephalus; vascular neurosurgery, such as aneurysm clipping or cavernoma resection; and emergency neurosurgery, such as evacuation of a subdural or intracranial hematoma. The authors demonstrate how a smartphone takes the place of the video camera usually used in neuroendoscopy and makes the presence of a separate video monitor optional. During minimally invasive surgeries performed in 42 patients, a fully charged smartphone (iPhone models 4, 5, and 6) was attached to the front of the neuroendoscope by means of an adapter. The primary surgeon focused directly on the iPhone screen in front of him or her, rather than off to one side where the video monitor normally stands. The smartphone relayed images from the screen via Wi-Fi to a video monitor placed elsewhere in the operating room. The video monitor remained in the operating room so that other members of the surgical team could view the procedure or in case the primary surgeon wished to revert to more conventional neuroendoscopy. The surgeons who tested the smartphone-endoscope device found images provided by the smartphone to be sufficient and did not switch to the conventional method. In each case the device worked well. All surgeries were successful, and no complications related to use of the smartphone occurred. Based on their experience, the authors list several advantages of using smartphone-assisted neuroendoscopy: The smartphone is light-weight and small. It attaches easily to the endoscope by means of an adapter. Despite the small size of the smartphone screen, its high-definition image provides an excellent view of the surgical site. The smartphone camera supports real-time video acquisition, storage, and transmission via a variety of wireless technologies (Wi-Fi, 4G, Bluetooth, etc.). Images viewed by the primary surgeon can be simultaneously shared with the rest of the operative team on a video monitor, streamed directly to other colleagues or websites, and recorded for review and teaching purposes. Images can be manipulated in real time using camera functions on the smartphone. Compared with standard video equipment, smartphones are cheaper, more portable, and do not require an external power source. Should the battery become depleted during a prolonged surgery, the smartphone can be recharged without an interruption in the procedure. Having the smartphone screen directly in front of the primary surgeon allows "a more dynamic and intuitive approach to resection" than can be experienced when a surgeon has to look away from the endoscope being manipulated to view the surgical field on a separate video monitor. The learning curve for neurosurgical residents less experienced in neuroendoscopy is reduced when the smartphone is used. The authors recognize that their study is preliminary and the number of cases is low. Nevertheless, they suggest that the smartphone-endoscope device may provide an alternative method of performing neuroendoscopy. The relatively inexpensive costs of a smartphone and adapter could prove beneficial in underserved areas and in countries whose medical infrastructure cannot support expensive equipment. When asked about the study, Dr. Mandel said, "The most interesting aspect of this project was that our initial goal was to reduce the cost of the neuroendoscopic video set, but, in the end, we came across a new, more intuitive and fluid method of performing these procedures." ### Mandel M, Petito CE, Tutihashi R, Paiva W, Abramovicz Mandel S, Pinto FCG, Ferreira de Andrade A, Teixeira MJ, Figueiredo EG . Smartphone-assisted minimally invasive neurosurgery. Journal of Neurosurgery, published online, ahead of print, March 13, 2018; DOI: 10.3171/2017.6.JNS1712. The authors are affiliated with the Division of Neurosurgery, Hospital das Clinicas of University of Sao Paulo Medical School, and/or the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Disclosure: The authors report no conflict of interest concerning the materials or methods used in this study or the findings specified in this paper. For additional information, please contact: Ms. Jo Ann M. Eliason, Communications Manager, Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group, One Morton Drive, Suite 200, Charlottesville, VA 22903. Email: jaeliason@thejns.org; Phone: 434-982-1209. For 74 years, the Journal of Neurosurgery has been recognized by neurosurgeons and other medical specialists the world over for its authoritative clinical articles, cutting-edge laboratory research papers, renowned case reports, expert technical notes, and more. Each article is rigorously peer reviewed. The Journal of Neurosurgery is published monthly by the JNS Publishing Group, the scholarly journal division of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Other peer-reviewed journals published by the JNS Publishing Group each month include Neurosurgical Focus, the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, and the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. All four journals can be accessed at http://www.thejns.org. Founded in 1931 as the Harvey Cushing Society, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a scientific and educational association with more than 10,000 members worldwide. The AANS is dedicated to advancing the specialty of neurological surgery in order to provide the highest quality of neurosurgical care to the public. All active members of the AANS are certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Neurosurgery) of Canada or the Mexican Council of Neurological Surgery, AC. Neurological surgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of disorders that affect the entire nervous system including the brain, spinal column, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. For more information, visit http://www.AANS.org. Dr Rhiannon Edge from Lancaster Medical School has been invited to the 68th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The opportunity to join the annual gathering of Nobel Laureates in Germany is aimed at outstanding young scientists below the age of 35. Rhiannon is one of only 600 students, doctoral candidates and post doctoral researchers from 84 countries to be chosen for this event, where she will meet 43 Nobel Laureates. She said: "I am extremely excited to take part in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in June. I really believe that collaboration - engaging with scientists and researchers from a range of backgrounds - will best meet the challenges in health research, and ultimately improve public health. "The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting will provide a unique opportunity to build relationships with world-leading researchers that I hope will lead to future working partnerships." This year's meeting from June 24-29 is dedicated to physiology and medicine. The Head of Lancaster Medical School Dr Rachel Isba said: "I am absolutely delighted that Rhiannon has been competitively selected to participate in this very prestigious international event. I am sure that she will be an excellent ambassador for the University and look forward to hearing about her experiences on her return." The programme will for the first time feature so-called 'Agora Talks', in which Nobel Laureates answer the audience's questions. In poster flashes and master classes, the young scientists will present their research to the Nobel Laureates and their colleagues. Countess Bettina Bernadotte, President of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, said: "This summer we will once again welcome the next generation of top researchers." Three newly minted Nobel Laureates will come to Lindau in 2018: the two biologists Michael Rosbash and Michael Young honoured for their role on the inner body clock, as well as the German-American chemist Joachim Frank. Alongside the inner clock, the key topics of the 68th Lindau Meeting are the role of science today, gene therapy and scientific publishing practices. Since their founding in 1951, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings have served to promote exchange, networking and inspiration. ### Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers uncovered several key factors contributing to a die-off of South American fur seal pups, including mites, pneumonia and sea surface temperature. The findings, published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, help scientists better understand the link between environmental factors and health. "Disease often is the forgotten piece in the conservation puzzle," said Dr. Kelly Diehl, Senior Scientific Programs and Communications Adviser at Morris Animal Foundation. "We hope these findings highlight the urgent need to study the connection between environmental changes and wildlife diseases, studies that will lead to better health and protection of at-risk species. It is an area that Morris Animal Foundation continues to invest in heavily, particularly as we see more species negatively impacted by changes in their habitats." With support from Morris Animal Foundation, Dr. Mauricio Seguel, a research fellow at the University of Georgia, and his Chilean colleagues studied a mass die-off of South American fur seal pups on Guafo Island in Northern Chilean Patagonia. "The cause of this increased mortality was a severe lung infection and inflammation leading to bronchopneumonia. It was caused by a combination of parasites (nasal and pulmonary mites) and bacteria. This study shows for first time in this fur seal species that a combination of common parasites and bacteria can have adverse effects in the population," said Dr. Seguel. Dr. Seguel and his colleagues isolated and identified two types of streptococcus bacteria from bronchopneumonic pups. They believe the mites compromised the pups' breathing and airflow and helped the strep bacteria flourish, leading to severe and fatal disease in the young animals. Another potential factor in the outbreak was the corresponding and sudden warming of sea surface temperature in the Guafo Island area. Higher sea surface temperatures can lead to changes in the marine food chains that affect multitudes of marine species and can add additional stress to an entire population of animals. Studies in this fur seal population also have shown that the immune system of fur seal pups is sensitive to changes in patterns of maternal care, which vary when environmental conditions in the ocean, such as sea surface temperature, change. "Today, we worry about how most environments are rapidly changing, and even the most isolated places on earth have felt the effects of human development and impact," said Dr. Seguel. "South American fur seal populations are widespread. For reasons not clearly understood, the remote Chilean populations of this species have had a dramatic decline in the last 30 years. Our team is working to understand the connection between environmental changes and the role of diseases in wildlife systems." For nearly a decade, researchers have conducted health monitoring studies at Guafo Island. New research by Dr. Seguel and his team is looking at hookworm infections in the South American fur seal pups with up to 100 percent prevalence. These infections cause anemia and retarded growth in a third of the pup population. Like the respiratory mite finding, hookworm prevalence reaches 100 percent in years with higher sea surface temperatures. ""My interest in wildlife diseases started in my childhood, growing up at the Chilean Patagonia. In this place I saw the importance of the environment-wildlife-human linkages and how diseases constantly modified our surroundings. These projects raise concern on the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems. This subject requires further investigation to help improve the health and protection of marine mammals and other animals dependent on these changing habitats," said Dr. Seguel. Other recent findings by Dr. Seguel's team include a floating debris survey and the role of sea gulls on the health and welfare of South American fur seal pups on Guafo Island that also was funded in part by Morris Animal Foundation. ### About Morris Animal Foundation Morris Animal Foundation's mission is to bridge science and resources to advance the health of animals. Founded by a veterinarian in 1948, we fund and conduct critical health studies for the benefit of all animals. Learn more at morrisanimalfoundation.org. New Rochelle, NY, March 13, 2018-A national sample of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals reported high levels of concern about violence and discrimination related to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election in a new study. The majority of study participants had been directly exposed to hate speech and violence, and many expressed concerns that the election may have emboldened and legitimized these acts, according to an article published in Violence and Gender, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article, which is part of a special section on Transgender Violence is available free on the Violence and Gender website. The article entitled "'I Fear for My Safety, But Want to Show Bravery for Others': Violence and Discrimination Concerns among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals after the 2016 Presidential Election" was coauthored by Cindy Veldhuis, Columbia University School of Nursing (New York, NY) and colleagues from San Jose State University (CA), University of Kentucky (Lexington), University of California Department of Medicine, and University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing. The researchers gathered information from a national sample of transgender, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming individuals about their concerns and experiences related to discrimination, violence, and hate crimes between December 2016 to May 2017. In the article "'We Do Not Matter': Transgender Migrants/Refugees in the Dutch Asylum System," Yvon van der Pijl and coauthors from Utrecht University (The Netherlands) and the European Commission (Brussels, Belgium) present a stark and disturbing picture of this population as being at the same time visible - with their sexual/gender identity stigmatized - and invisible and politically irrelevant. The authors contend that the Dutch authorities offer transgender migrants/refugees compassion and pity rather than equal rights and full citizenship. Tamar Goldenberg and colleagues from University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) coauthored the article entitled "Intimate Partner Violence among Transgender Youth: Associations with Intrapersonal and Structural Factors." In this study of transgender and gender non-conforming young people, 45% reported personal experience with intimate partner violence (IPV). The study identified specific factors more likely to be associated with a history of IPV, such as previous imprisonment, participation in sex work, and symptoms of depression. This information can help better target effective IPV prevention and services to youths affected by this type of violence. "Over the last several months, Violence and Gender has received incredible manuscripts in the area of IPV and transgender individuals. We have learned so much from the research in this area, and this manuscript by Dr. Goldenberg and her colleagues provides significant insights into prevention and services for the practitioner as well as for researchers who are looking at similar areas," says Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Supervisory Special Agent (ret.) and currently, Director of the Forensic Sciences Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. ### About the Journal Violence and Gender is the only peer-reviewed journal focusing on the understanding, prediction, and prevention of acts of violence. Through research papers, roundtable discussions, case studies, and other original content, the Journal critically examines biological, genetic, behavioral, psychological, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors as they relate to the gender of perpetrators of violence. Led by Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigative Analyst (ret.), Violence and Gender explores the difficult issues that are vital to threat assessment and prevention of the epidemic of violence. Violence and Gender is published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, and is the official journal of The Avielle Foundation. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Violence and Gender website. About the Publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website. A large team of Russian researchers from Rosatom, joined by three MIPT physicists, has modeled the impact of a nuclear explosion on an Earth-threatening asteroid. They manufactured miniature asteroids and blasted them with a laser. The modeling technique developed in this study is a way of experimentally evaluating asteroid destruction criteria such as the explosion energy needed to eliminate a dangerous object on a collision course with Earth. The English translation of the paper reporting the results will appear in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. Asteroids are celestial bodies consisting of carbon, silicon, metal, and sometimes ice. Scientists usually classify objects larger than 1 meter as asteroids, although this lower limit is disputed. On the other end of the scale, asteroids get as big as 900 kilometers across. Traveling at 20 kilometers per second, such giants pose a threat of obliterating all life on Earth. There are two basic options when it comes to protecting the planet from a collision with an asteroid: It either has to be deflected or blown into pieces most of which will miss us or burn up in the atmosphere. The authors of the paper explored the second option by modeling the effects of a powerful shock wave released by a nuclear explosion on the asteroid surface. The research team showed that a brief laser pulse aimed at a miniature replica of an asteroid produces destructive effects similar to those of a nuclear explosion on an actual space rock. The distributions of heat and pressure predicted for the real event generally matched those measured in the scaled-down experiment. For their laser model to be accurate, the researchers made sure the density and rigidity of the small-scale asteroid -- and even its shape -- mimicked the real thing, and controlled the shock-wave pressures. Thanks to this precise correspondence, the researchers had a way of directly calculating the required energy of a nuclear explosion on the actual asteroid from the energy of a laser pulse destroying its miniature replica. Thus, for example, to eliminate a 200-meter asteroid, the bomb needs to deliver the energy equivalent of 3 megatons of TNT. This was calculated once the team measured that it took a 500-joule laser pulse to destroy a model 8-10 millimeters in diameter. For the sake of comparison, the most powerful explosive ever detonated -- Tsar Bomba, or "king of bombs," built by the Soviet Union in 1961 -- had an energy output of about 58.6 megatons, though accounts vary. The research team came up with a technology for manufacturing artificial asteroid material. Its composition corresponds to that of the chondrite (stony) meteorites, which account for about 90 percent of asteroid remains reaching the surface of the Earth. The properties of the model asteroid, including its chemical composition, density, porosity, and rigidity, were adjusted during manufacturing. The replicas were made using the data on the chondrite meteorite recovered from the bottom of Lake Chebarkul. It is the largest fragment of the asteroid that entered the Earth's atmosphere in February 2013, exploding over Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. The asteroid material was manufactured using a combination of sedimentation, compression, and heating, imitating the natural formation process. Out of cylinder-shaped samples, imitation asteroids of various shapes were made, among them spherical, ellipsoidal, and cubical ones. To confirm that their laser modeling fits in with reality, the researchers also did compressible flow calculations. They showed that a lab asteroid 14-15 orders of magnitude less massive than its space prototype requires almost twice as much energy per unit mass to be completely disrupted. The experiments made use of three laser devices: Iskra-5, Luch, and Saturn. The laser beam was first amplified to a predetermined power and then directed at the asteroid replica fixed in a vacuum chamber. Model destruction was monitored from behind as well as from the side, and fragmentation dynamics were registered. The laser affected model asteroids for 0.5-30 nanoseconds. To estimate asteroid destruction criteria, researchers analyzed the data available from the Chelyabinsk meteorite. It entered the Earth's atmosphere as a 20-meter asteroid and fractured into small fragments that caused no catastrophic damage. It therefore makes sense to say that a 200-meter asteroid has been eliminated if it is fractured into pieces with a diameter 10 times smaller and a mass 1,000 times smaller than the Earth-threatening rock itself. For obvious reasons, this conclusion only holds for a 200-meter asteroid entering the atmosphere at a similar angle and for fragments traveling along trajectories similar to that of the Chelyabinsk meteor. The researchers were also interested in whether the explosion effect is cumulative -- that is, can one powerful explosion be replaced by a succession of smaller ones? They found that multiple weaker laser pulses provide no significant advantage over a single pulse combining their power in terms of the general destruction criterion. This holds for simultaneous as well as consecutive pulses. In some of the experiments, the laser was targeted at a cavity made in the miniature asteroids ahead of time. By exploiting the cavity, the researchers spent less energy -- namely, 500 instead of 650 joules per gram. Similarly, the effect of a buried nuclear bomb is expected to be more pronounced. Calculations accounting for the scaling effects indicate that it takes a 3-megaton bomb to eliminate an Earth-threatening nonmetallic asteroid measuring 200 meters across. The research team now plans to expand the study by experimenting with asteroid replicas of different composition, including those containing iron, nickel, and ice. They also intend to identify more precisely how the shape of the asteroid and the presence of cavities on its surface affect the general destruction criterion. "By accumulating coefficients and dependencies for asteroids of different types, we enable rapid modeling of the explosion so that the destruction criteria can be calculated promptly. At the moment, there are no asteroid threats, so our team has the time to perfect this technique for use later in preventing a planetary disaster," says study co-author Vladimir Yufa, an associate professor at the departments of Applied Physics and Laser Systems and Structured Materials, MIPT. "We're also looking into the possibility of deflecting an asteroid without destroying it and hope for international engagement." ### The paper reporting the results of the study was published in the Russian edition of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics by a team of researchers from Rosatom -- a Russian atomic power state corporation -- as well as from MIPT and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The two Rosatom institutes involved in the study are the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics and the Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Fusion Research. With diverse proposals focused on everything from natural killer cells to therapeutic vaccines to treat HIV, three recipients have been selected for the 2018 Avant-Garde Award for HIV/AIDS Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The awards will each provide $500,000 per year for up to five years (subject to the availability of funds) to support the research of three scientists, Drs. Catherine Blish, Nathaniel Landau, and Sara Sawyer. NIDA's annual Avant-Garde Award competition, now in its 11th year, is intended to stimulate high-impact research that may lead to groundbreaking opportunities for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in drug users. "We are thrilled to see the innovative approaches being stimulated by our Avant-Garde program," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. "The scientists at these institutions are looking at complex nuances that could reshape how we manage HIV/AIDS treatment - a unique issue with people who use drugs - bringing continued energy to the science of HIV and AIDS." The principal investigators funded by the awards are listed below: Catherine A. Blish, Ph.D., M.D., Stanford University, Palo Alto, California Project: Targeting Natural Killer Cells to HIV in Intravenous Drug Users Dr. Catherine Blish proposes a novel approach to fight HIV by using natural killer cells to optimally target HIV strains transmitted through injection drug use. Current approaches focus on targeting HIV strains transmitted through sexual contact, which could differ in immune response properties unique to injection drug users. This approach could be valuable in the development of vaccines and therapeutics for HIV prevention and cure strategies. Nathaniel R. Landau, Ph.D., New York University School of Medicine, New York City Project: Therapeutic Dendritic Cell Vaccine for HIV Dr. Nathaniel Landau proposes to develop a therapeutic vaccine that enhances the immune response against HIV so that patients can discontinue or reduce antiretroviral drug regimens. The long-term misuse of drugs including alcohol, methamphetamine and opioids is associated with suppressed immune responses. For such individuals, stimulation of an immune response via a vaccine could slow disease progression. Moreover, minimizing the need for treatment would be beneficial for those who may be less able to adhere to complex antiretroviral drug regimens. Sara L. Sawyer, Ph.D., University of Colorado Boulder Project: Hunting the HIV-1 Unicorn Dr. Sara Sawyer proposes to open an exciting new platform for vaccine development. Currently, most HIV infections are HIV-1. A hindrance to HIV-1 vaccine development has been the lack of an effective animal model system in which to study transmission and develop vaccines. Dr. Sawyer proposes to harness primate genetics to identify an improved model, which could open up a whole new avenue of HIV/AIDS research. The Avant-Garde Awards are modeled after the NIH Pioneer Awards and are granted to fund scientists of exceptional creativity who propose high-impact research that could open new avenues for prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS among people with substance use disorders. For information about NIDA's AIDS Research Program, including the Avant-Garde Award Program for HIV/AIDS Research, go to http://www.drugabuse.gov/AIDS. Read about selected highlights of past Avant-Garde awardees. Drs. Blish, Landau and Sawyer are funded under grant numbers DA046089-01, DA046100-01 and DA046108-01, respectively. ### About the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world's research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy, improve practice, and advance addiction science. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs and information on NIDA research and other activities can be found at http://www.drugabuse.gov, which is now compatible with your smartphone, iPad or tablet. To order publications in English or Spanish, call NIDA's DrugPubs research dissemination center at 1-877-NIDA-NIH or 240-645-0228 (TDD) or email requests to drugpubs@nida.nih.gov. Online ordering is available at drugpubs.drugabuse.gov. NIDA's media guide can be found at http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/media-guide/dear-journalist, and its easy-to-read website can be found at http://www.easyread.drugabuse.gov. You can follow NIDA on Twitter and Facebook. About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov. NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health Fossils of six new species of pterosaurs - giant flying reptiles that flew over the heads of the dinosaurs - have been discovered by a research team led by the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, revealing that this lineage was killed off in its prime. An analysis of the fossils, publishing 13 March in the open access journal PLOS Biology shows that, contrary to previous studies, there was still remarkable diversity among pterosaurs up to the point of their extinction. Pterosaurs - prehistoric reptiles popularly known as pterodactyls - were flying cousins of the dinosaurs. Soaring on skin wings supported by a single huge finger, they were the largest animals ever to take wing. The pterosaurs were previously thought to be declining before the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period, which was caused by an asteroid impact 66 million years ago. However, hundreds of new fossils from the end of the Cretaceous, discovered at sites in northern Morocco, show that the region supported seven species of pterosaur from three different families. It was thought that the rarity of pterosaur fossils from the end of the dinosaur era meant that they were slowly going extinct. But the new study shows that the data had been misleadingly skewed by the dearth of fossils and that the pterosaurs at this time were actually far more diverse than thought. The new pterosaurs ranged in wingspan from a little over two meters to almost ten meters (from 6 to 30 feet) - almost three times bigger than the largest living bird - and weighed up to 200 kg (440 pounds). The fossils date to just over 66 million years ago, the very end of the Cretaceous period, making these pterosaurs among the last of their kind on Earth. As well as the diversity in size, the authors were also able to show that the species differed significantly in the shape and size of parts of their bodies (such as beak shape, neck length, and wing proportions), suggesting that they occupied distinct ecological niches. Dr Nick Longrich, from the Milner Centre for Evolution and the Department of Biology & Biochemistry at the University of Bath, and the study's lead author, said: "To grow so large and still be able to fly, pterosaurs evolved incredibly lightweight skeletons, with the bones reduced to thin-walled, hollow tubes like the frame of a carbon-fiber racing bike. "But unfortunately, that means these bones are fragile, and so almost none survive as fossils." Longrich said he had always found pterosaurs fascinating, and as a university student had dreamed of studying them. Years later in Morocco, he would stumble across a single, small bone mixed in with fossil fish dug up from a phosphate mine. "It was like a light went off," he said. "I remembered back to the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs, a book I'd practically memorized as an undergraduate. And I thought 'that's a nyctosaur.'" Nyctosaurs, a family of small pterosaurs, hadn't been proven to survive to the end of the Cretaceous. On a hunch, he looked for more pterosaurs, and found more species - including Tethydraco, a member of the pteranodontids, a family that had been thought to disappear fifteen million years earlier. In addition to the single species previously found in the area, six additional species turned up. "I believe there are many more species to find," he said. Co-author of the study, Professor David Martill from the University of Portsmouth said: "Exciting discoveries are being made all the time, and sometimes, just the smallest of bones can radically change our perception of the history of life on Earth." Dr Brian Andres, Research Associate at The University of Texas at Austin, also a co-author of the study, added: "The Moroccan fossils tell the last chapter of the pterosaurs' story - and they tell us pterosaurs dominated the skies over the land and sea, as they had for the previous 150 million years." Moroccan paleontologist Professor Nour-Eddine Jalil from the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, France commented: "This is a fabulous discovery of pterosaurs from Morocco - they tell us their amazing diversity while we thought them in decline. "The Moroccan phosphates are an open window on a key moment in the history of the Earth, one that shortly preceded the global crisis that swept away, among others, dinosaurs and marine reptiles." ### The fossils from the study are permanently accessioned at the Faculte des Sciences Ain Chock, Universite Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco Adapted by PLOS Biology from release provided by the University of Bath In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2001663 Citation: Longrich NR, Martill DM, Andres B (2018) Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. PLoS Biol 16(3): e2001663. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2001663 Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Carpenter ants infected with a specialized parasitic fungus are not subjected to aggression or isolation from their nest mates, and they continue to share in the colony's food resources until they leave the nest for the last time to die, according to a study led by Penn State researchers. The findings suggest that, although the fungus is deadly to infected individuals, it is only a chronic condition for the colony -- one that does not induce the kind of strong defensive measures thought to be common in social insect societies, the researchers said. Studies have shown that fungal pathogens from the genus Ophiocordyceps -- known as "zombie ant fungus" -- control the behavior of carpenter ant workers, compelling them to climb vegetation and bite the veins or margins on the underside of leaves. The infected ants die, remaining attached to the vegetation postmortem. There, the fungus grows and releases spores onto the forest floor below, where they can infect other foraging ants. "Previous work suggested that insect societies protect the colony through social immunity," said lead author Emilia Sola Gracia, postdoctoral scholar in biology, Penn State. "It was thought that during social interaction, ant workers detect infections in their peers and display aggression toward them or remove them from the nest. "This fungus, which co-evolved with its host, takes 14 to 21 days to develop in infected individuals before compelling them to leave the nest and perform their last act. The question is, during this development, does the pathogen change how infected ants interact with others or alter the chemical cues they emit, which allows nest mates to detect the infection? Such detection would be optimal for the colony since infected workers die near foraging trails where the fungus releases spores that infect other members of the colony." To test the hypothesis that infected individuals are recognized by healthy colony members, the research team looked at whether infected ant workers are attacked by nest mates, whether they spend more or less time in trophallaxis -- socially exchanging food -- and whether they are spatially separated from other colony members inside the nest. The researchers collected ants from forested areas in South Carolina and established three colonies in a Penn State laboratory, each colony consisting of three groups of worker ants. One of the three groups was untreated -- healthy, the second was injected with a growth medium containing the parasitic fungus and a third received the growth medium alone. The ants were marked with unique dot patterns on their head, thorax and gaster so individuals could be followed over time. They affixed a modified GoPro camera fitted with both an infrared lens and a macro lens on top of the colonies to capture recorded video virtually 24 hours daily. While observing 1,240 hours of video footage, the researchers, who reported their findings in the online journal PLOS ONE, saw no attacks toward individuals injected with the fungus and found no significant difference in food sharing between infected and uninfected individuals. The team did find that infected individuals spent considerably more time inside near the nest entrance and spent more time outside the nest than healthy workers. "It could be that spending more time outside the nest is an early signal of fungal manipulation, which ultimately requires its host to leave the nest for fungal reproduction to occur," Sola Gracia said. "But the most significant finding is that this co-evolved parasite doesn't seem to directly affect social dynamics within the colony." Taken together, these results suggest healthy individuals do not detect the parasite inside their nest mates, according to senior author David Hughes, associate professor of entomology and biology. "The colony's inability to detect infected individuals allows the fungus to develop within the colony, while receiving food and protection from natural enemies that could damage or kill its ant host before the parasite has completed its development," he said. "Based on our observations and the biology of the fungus, we suggest that the pathogen is a chronic parasite of the colony that is able to survive without triggering strong behavioral defenses in the society -- in short, the parasite is able to fly under the radar of the colony's defenses." ### Other researchers on the project were Charissa de Bekker, assistant professor of biology, University of Central Florida, and Ephraim Hanks, assistant professor of statistics, Penn State. The National Science Foundation supported this work. Funding from California's special tax for mental health services has allowed Los Angeles County to reach the seriously mentally ill and those at risk for mental illness with services and prevention efforts, lowering both homelessness and the need for psychiatric hospitalizations, while improving employment and wellbeing, according to a new RAND Corporation study. The analysis found that from 2012 through 2016, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health provided prevention and early intervention services to almost 130,000 youth, and intensive clinical and social services designed to stabilize those who have serious psychiatric illnesses to almost 25,000 youth and adults. "We found evidence that the services created in Los Angeles County under the Mental Health Services Act are reaching the people they intend to help, and those people are benefitting from the services provided," said Scott Ashwood, lead author of the report and a policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. California voters in 2004 approved Proposition 63, which created a 1 percent tax on all personal income over $1 million to provide expanded mental health services statewide. Researchers from RAND and UCLA analyzed administrative data to evaluate two types of programs in Los Angeles County supported by the tax. The first is prevention and early intervention programs that aim to prevent the onset of mental illness and the related negative consequences. The second area evaluated was the county's full-service partnership program, which takes a "housing first" approach to improve residential stability and mental health outcomes for people with serious mental illness. Funding from the Mental Health Services Act allowed the county Department of Mental Health to significantly expand both types of services to reach more people from a wider array of age groups. The evaluation found that the prevention program provided services to about 130,000 youths, with 65 percent of those served being new clients. Hispanic and Asian youth served by the program had particularly good outcomes in comparison to other groups, although all racial/ethnic groups saw improvements. "Helping young people can change the trajectory of their lives and potentially put them on a path where they experience less suffering, better relationships and more success in life," Ashwood said. Researchers found that the number of people receiving services under the full-service partnership program rose over the study period, providing intensive housing support and other social services to about 25,000 adults and children during the period. Participants tended to have a severe diagnosis, such as suffering from schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder, and had a high likelihood of being homeless. The rate of homelessness dropped sharply among those served by the program and participants also experienced less inpatient hospitalization for their mental health problems. The employment rate also increased among those receiving services, although the overall jobless rate among the group remained high. Researchers recommend that the county Department of Mental Health revise some of its data collection methods to better document whether program participants are improving and whether best practices are being followed as services are delivered. The evaluation did not include other county services supported by the Mental Health Services Act, such as primary prevention programs or outreach services, because those efforts do not have data readily available for review. ### Support for the study was provided by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and the California Mental Health Services Authority. The study, "Evaluation of the Mental Health Services Act in Los Angeles County Implementation and Outcomes for Key Programs," is available at http://www.rand.org. Other authors of the study are Nicole Eberhart, Lesley Baseman, Aaron Kofner, Gulrez Azhar, Margaret Chamberlin, Jeanne Miranda and M. Audrey Burnam, all of RAND, and Elizabeth Bromley, Sheryl Kataoka, Bonnie Zima, Alethea Marti, Lingqi Tang, Blake Erikson, Kristen Choi and Lily Zhang, all of the UCLA Center for Health Services and Society. RAND Health is the nation's largest independent health policy research program, with a broad research portfolio that focuses on health care costs, quality and public health preparedness, among other topics. TROY, N.Y.--Jian Sun, professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering and director the New York State Center for Future Energy Systems at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received the 2017 R. David Middlebrook Outstanding Achievement Award from the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS). He was recognized for "contributions to modeling and control of power electronic converters and systems." The R. David Middlebrook Outstanding Achievement Award is the highest technical achievement award presented by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power Electronics Society. It honors an individual who is judged to have accomplished outstanding contributions to the technical field of power electronics. An international authority in modeling and control of power electronics, Sun has performed pioneering work in the theory and application of sequence impedance methods for three-phase power electronics. His Impedance-Based Stability Theory has laid the foundation for addressing system integration issues related to renewable energy and high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission, including the challenges of harmonic resonance, and is transforming the technology and practice of the renewable energy industry. The initial focus of Sun's work was on power electronic converters and control for wind turbines. As the scale of wind energy in the power grid increased rapidly, his research evolved into large wind farms and their interactions with the power grid. He has been involved in solving a number of resonance and instability problems in large-scale wind and HVDC transmission systems in Europe and China, and is currently working with transmission system operators and utility companies to develop and implement new grid codes that incorporate new requirements based on his theory. As director of the Center for Future Energy Systems, Sun is responsible for overseeing and developing the center's research programs, as well as facilitating strategic growth and securing new industrial partnerships. Funded by the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR), the center aims to connect the expertise of academic researchers with forward-thinking companies to develop and commercialize new, innovative energy technologies for a sustainable future energy supply system. Sun joined the Rensselaer faculty in 2002, after spending five years at the Advanced Technology Center of Rockwell Collins working on power electronics for aircraft power systems. He earned his bachelor's degree at Nanjing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, master's degree at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and doctorate at the University of Paderborn, Germany, all in electrical engineering. He served as editor-in-chief of IEEE Power Electronics Letters from 2008 to 2014, and has served as treasurer of IEEE PELS since 2013. He received the IEEE PELS Modeling and Control Technical Achievement Award in 2013 and is a fellow of the IEEE. Sun's work exemplifies The New Polytechnic, a new paradigm for teaching, learning, and research at Rensselaer that uses advanced technologies to enable fresh collaborations across disciplines, sectors, and regions, in order to answer the global challenges of our day. The New Polytechnic is transformative in the global impact of research, in its innovative pedagogy, and in the lives of students at Rensselaer. ### About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is America's first technological research university. For nearly 200 years, Rensselaer has been defining the scientific and technological advances of our world. Rensselaer faculty and alumni represent 86 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 17 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 8 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 8 members of the National Academy of Inventors, and 5 members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, as well as 6 National Medal of Technology winners, 5 National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With 7,000 students and nearly 100,000 living alumni, Rensselaer is addressing the global challenges facing the 21st century--to change lives, to advance society, and to change the world. To learn more, go to http://www.rpi.edu. Contact newsmedia@rpi.edu Visit the Rensselaer research and discovery blog: http://approach.rpi.edu Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RPInews When implemented correctly, health care team training can reduce patient mortality by 13 percent, according to a new review paper by a psychologist at Rice University. "Transforming Health Care One Team at a Time: Ten Observations and the Trail Ahead" outlines existing evidence and theory on the science behind developing health care teams and how training improves outcomes for patients. The author, Eduardo Salas, the Allyn R. and Gladys M. Cline Chair of Psychology in Rice's School of Social Sciences, explained why team training is a critical part of medical care. "When training is implemented correctly, the result is improved outcomes across the board, both for patients and employees," Salas said. "The most significant outcome is the reduction of patient mortality by 13 percent." According to the paper, team training should incorporate considerations such as on-the-job skill building and simulations; leadership shared across members of a medical team; an environment that protects the psychological safety of team members (through showing others respect, active listening and encouraging others to speak up); debriefing on job situations; and measurement of outcomes for later assessment. In addition to reducing patient mortality, Salas said, health care team training also achieved the following: Reaction times to patient needs improved by 18 percent. Employee learning increased by 29 percent. Teamwork performance improved by 17 percent. Clinical task performance improved by 32 percent. Medical errors reduced by 18 percent. Skill-based transfer increased by 26 percent. Safety climate for both patients and employees improved by 11 percent. Length of stay in a unit other than intensive-care decreased by 6 percent. Patient satisfaction increased by 13 percent. These results were based on 129 prior studies (with 23,018 total participants) conducted between 2013 and 2017. Participants included health care providers (physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, etc.), allied health care personnel (nurses and therapists), health care staff (unit clerks) and health care students (medical students, nursing students, etc.) and came from facilities ranging from small clinics to large hospitals, both in the U.S. and abroad. Despite these advances, gaps in understanding persist in many of the areas cited earlier, and challenges remain in applying the science to practice, said Salas, who is also a professor and chair of the Department of Psychology. He said health care organizations should focus on the following areas: Sustaining and understanding unique organizational conditions that impact training. Understanding multiteam systems (i.e., health care professionals from multiple departments working together) and creating a climate for teamwork. Exploring alternative ways to implement training, incorporating more robust performance measurement and fostering multidisciplinary collaboration to better improve patient outcomes. The paper will appear in an upcoming edition of Group and Organization Management. The research was funded by Rice University. ### This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/. Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews. Related materials: Rice Department of Psychology: https://psychology.rice.edu/ Eduardo Salas profile: https://psychology.rice.edu/eduardo-salas Photo link: http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/03/42518574_l-2l96wvx.jpg Photo credit: http://www.123rf.com 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 just under 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. African Americans with a common genetic variation are at increased risk for developing Alzheimer's disease, while European Americans with the same variation are not, according to a study led by researchers at Rush University Medical Center. They published the study results in the February 22 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The genetic variation, known as Thr92AlaD2 polymorphism, affects a gene involved in the activation of thyroid hormone and occurs commonly; almost half the population are carriers of this polymorphism. The study found that African Americans with this polymorphism are 30 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease dementia than the African American without the genetic polymorphism. Whereas in European Americans, this gene wasn't associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's. This is a remarkable juxtaposition. "This correlation only shows up in African-Americans. We have some ideas but aren't sure why," said Elizabeth McAninch MD, study author and assistant professor of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Rush. Discovery is twist in research that began with thyroid gland The discovery was the latest twist in an investigation that began years ago in Rush's endocrinology division under the leadership of Dr. Antonio Bianco, a thyroid expert and the director of the present studies. Endocrinologists provide care for hormone imbalances that cause health problems. The Thr92AlaD2 polymorphism affects an enzyme that activates thyroid hormones. The enzyme is most important when considering patients with a condition known as hypothyroidism, which occurs when there is insufficient thyroid hormone being produced by the thyroid gland. In most cases, this condition can be controlled with the standard treatment for hypothyroidism, a drug called levothyroxine. However, about 15 percent of patients treated with levothyroxine consistently say it doesn't help them feel better. Wondering what was behind those reports, McAninch and colleagues at Rush previously obtained and analyzed brain tissue from the University of Miami Brain Bank from deceased Caucasian male organ donors who at their time of death were young and healthy, without known thyroid problems, to see if they could find any clues. To their surprise, the brains of the healthy donors who had the polymorphism displayed biomarkers that are known to play a role in neurodegenerative brain disease. "This was a shock to us and deserved more investigation," McAninch recalled. Researchers then drew on data from long-term studies of Alzheimer's The endocrinologists then enlisted the help of Rush researchers who specialize in the issues of the aging brain, and the expanded team set to work with data from three long-term group studies done at Rush from 1993 to 2012 -- the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP), the Religious Orders Study (ROS), and the Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP). The CHAP cohort includes 3656 participants, 2321 of whom are African American, who received cognitive testing in three-year cycles for more than 18 years. In ROS and MAP, 1,707 European American participants without known dementia were enrolled and had annual evaluations. Again, McAninch and colleagues also continued to collaborate with the University of Miami Brain Bank to obtain and study brain tissue from young, healthy African American brain donors. Through utilizing the CHAP data, which has both African American and European American participants, this unique racially-stratified outcome revealed itself. "That's when we saw this huge discrepancy in risk for Alzheimer's disease dementia," McAninch said. Questions remain to be answered in future studies Minorities tend to be understudied in medical research in general, and specifically there needs to be more, larger studies of African Americans to evaluate the risk of Alzheimer's, McAninch observed. "A strength of this study is credited to the amazing resource we have in these three cohort studies here at Rush, where we were able to look at the differences between African-Americans and European-Americans," she says. The Rush-led team is already planning the next inquiry, McAninch says, "to try to understand why African-Americans have this risk, while the European-Americans do not." ### The study, undertaken specifically to examine the association of the Thr92AlaD2 polymorphism with Alzheimer's disease, was a collaboration of endocrinologists and specialists from both the Rush Division of Endocrinology, the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, and the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, all within Rush University Medical Center; the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida; and the Thyroid Center of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The work of faculty and students from The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) has yielded the first evidence of how waterborne microinvertebrates move across vast expanses of arid desert. An article published March 13, 2018 in Limnology and Oceanography Letters, a publication of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, details for the first time how high desert winds disperse small invertebrates and how they colonize hydrologically disconnected basins throughout the region. "These novel findings might have large implications for freshwater systems," said Elizabeth J. Walsh, Ph.D., professor in UTEP's Department of Biological Sciences and director of the doctoral program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. "As climate changes and water patterns shift, our work might help others understand the intricacies of the wind-aided dispersal of freshwater organisms. It's important because these organisms are the base of the food web. How they move will affect the movement of the biological communities that are built up around them." Walsh added that the impetus for the research grew out of a previous five-year study of Chihuahuan Desert aquatic environments funded by the National Science Foundation. Part of that project involved characterizing the biodiversity of microinvertebrates at 300 sites. Researchers wanted to better understand how organisms were colonizing these bodies of water that were separated by vast distances of desert and not tied together by hydrological links such as drainage routes. "If they weren't being moved by water, and they weren't being moved by other animals, then the next thing we thought is, 'It has to be the wind,'" Walsh said. Enter Thomas E. Gill, Ph.D., UTEP professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Environmental Science and Engineering Program, who while conducting concurrent studies on Chihuahuan Desert wind storms, pondered, "What kinds of living things are being carried along with the dust?" What followed was a multi-year interdisciplinary research effort that collected dust samples; confirming those samples contained microinvertebrates in dormant, developmental stages; rehydrating them in laboratory settings; and utilizing next-generation sequencing to determine which organisms were present in the dust. The last step involved moving the dust through a simulated storm to determine if the organisms could survive being blasted through the air across lengthy distances. Doctoral student Jose A. Rivas Jr. and Gill worked with Scott Van Pelt, Ph.D., a soil science researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to conduct such a test at the USDA Agricultural Research Service's wind tunnel facility in Big Spring, Texas. "We basically simulated a wind storm," Gill said. "We took the clean desert soil, in which we mixed microinvertebrates, and blew it into the air. After this energetic, turbulent journey through the wind tunnel, our team showed that those organisms, which are about the size of grains of sand in their dormant stage in their development, survived getting sandblasted into the air. They can fly through the atmosphere, maybe hundreds of miles in viable conditions, and still wake up." Gill said the group's findings will help inspire further research on the movement of organisms. He added that the effort that took place at UTEP was a successful collaboration because of support from the UTEP Interdisciplinary Research (IDR) program, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center for Atmospheric Sciences (NCAS). He also said the work conducted by doctoral students Rivas and Jon Mohl - who served as the study's lead and second authors - was vital to the effort. "It's a very exciting and unique project," said Rivas, who was the study's lead author. "Dust storms are a huge part of the Southwest. We interact with them every spring. What's interesting is not only learning about dust storms but finding out what exactly is being transported, what's in the dust? This is especially important in understanding the diversity of our Chihuahuan Desert ecosystem. Learning how small, aquatic animals are transported and colonize new areas will lead to insights into how communities in tem ### The article was co-authored by Walsh; Gill; Ming-Ying Leung, Ph.D., professor and director of the UTEP Border Biomedical Research Center's Bioinformatics Core; Robert L. Wallace, Ph.D., the Patricia and Philip McCullough Professor in Biology, Ripon College; Mohl; Rivas; and Van Pelt. NEWTOWN SQUARE, Penn. (March 12, 2018) - Homes and forests intersect in the wildland-urban interface, or WUI, a geography that now includes one-third of all homes in the United States within just 10 percent of the nation's land area. For the first time, scientists with the USDA Forest Service and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been able to track change in the nation's WUI over a 20-year period, revealing that new WUI area expanded by more than 46 million acres, an area that is larger than Washington State. Both the number of homes in the WUI and total footprint of the WUI are growing rapidly, and this expansion has many implications for wildfire management and other natural resource management issues. Miranda Mockrin, a scientist with the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station, is a co-author of the study with lead author Volker Radeloff of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The study, "Rapid growth of the U.S. Wildland Urban Interface raises wildfire risk," was published March 12 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Wildland-urban interface is an area close to or intermingled with forests and grasslands, with at least one home per 40 acres. Scientists distinguish between "intermix" WUI, in which housing and vegetation intermingle, and "interface" WUI, where housing is near a large area of wildland vegetation. From 1990 to 2010, the WUI grew rapidly, increasing from 30.8 to 43.4 million homes (41 percent growth) and expanding in area from 143,568,227 acres to 190,271,144 acres in area, or 33 percent. The vast majority of new WUI areas were caused by new housing (97 percent), not an increase in wildland vegetation. "An expanding wildland-urban interface has broad impacts on natural resource management, and poses particular challenges for wildfire management," said Tony Ferguson, Director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory. "WUI data and maps produced by the USDA Forest Service and all of our partners in this research will be vital for counties and cities working to enhance the safety of citizens and the management of natural resources." The greatest expansion of WUI area occurred in the East, with the highest gains in houses and people in the WUI in the South and Southwest. The number of WUI homes increased by 70 percent or more in Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Utah, and Colorado over these two decades. The highest increases in WUI area were seen in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Montana, and Idaho (all greater than 60 percent expansion in WUI area). "Our research demonstrates that the peace and beauty of natural settings have been consistently valued by homeowners over the past two decades," said Mockrin. "It is important for people to appreciate that this growth in housing among wildlands does come with costs for people and nature alike, including increasing wildfire risks, changes in invasive species, declines in native wildlife, and changing ecosystem processes." Research on the extent of the WUI and where people and nature are intersecting is essential for planning that can help reduce the risk of wildfire for residents and firefighters, and in order to conserve natural areas. "Knowing how the wildland-urban interface is growing, and why, is essential for the people making decisions on management and policy," said Radeloff. Co-authors with Radeloff and Mockrin include David P. Helmers, Anu H. Kramer, Patricia M. Alexandre, Susan Stewart, and Sebastian Martinuzzi of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Avi Bar-Massada of the University of Haifa; Van Butsic of University of California - Berkeley; Todd J. Hawbaker of the U.S. Geological Survey; and Alexandra D. Syphard of the Conservation Biology Institute. Data developed for the study is available online through the USDA Forest Service at: https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/data/wui/ ### The mission of the Northern Research Station is to improve people's lives and help sustain the natural resources in the Northeast and Midwest through leading-edge science and effective information delivery. The mission of the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains world-renowned forestry research and wildland fire management organizations. National forests and grasslands contribute more than $30 billion to the American economy annually and support nearly 360,000 jobs. These lands also provide 30 percent of the nation's surface drinking water to cities and rural communities; approximately 60 million Americans rely on drinking water that originated from the National Forest System. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Stop 9410, Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call toll-free at (866) 632-9992 (English) or (800) 877-8339 (TDD) or (866) 377-8642 (English Federal-relay) or (800) 845-6136 (Spanish Federal-relay). RIVERSIDE, CA. - Here's a blind test taste like Pepsi never imagined. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, recently published a study of recycled wastewater that did not focus on its safety-which has long been established-but rather its taste. After years of drought, the notion of drinking recycled wastewater has gained momentum in California. Thoughts turned to all the water being discarded--to supplementing "conventional" groundwater with recycled water. But consumers were quick to flag the euphemism of "recycled." Some have even branded the technology "toilet to tap." "It seems that this term (wastewater), and the idea of recycled water in general, evokes disgust reactions," said Daniel Harmon, a graduate student in psychology and the lead author in the study on water taste. The study published in print in the February edition of the journal Appetite. However, Harmon added: "It is important to make recycled water less scary to people who are concerned about it, as it is an important source of water now and in the future." The water's safety has been the source of most related research. The wastewater is treated using reverse osmosis. A preferred technology is called indirect potable reuse, or IDR. IDR reintroduces treated wastewater into groundwater supplies, where it re-enters the drinking water system. Six California water agencies already employ IDR. These include the Water Replenishment District of Southern California, the Orange County Water District, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, the Inland Empire Utilities District, the city of Los Angeles, and the city of Oxnard. Studies have found IDR removes virtually all contaminants. But no one has considered its relative taste; at least, not in a blind taste test, and not in a scientific study. The UCR study included 143 people, who were asked to compare IDR-treated tap water with conventional tap water and commercially bottled water. The waters were presented in similar cups and were unlabeled, hence the participants were "blind" to the source of the water. After tasting the water, participants ranked the samples' taste from one to five, then also in categories including texture, temperature, smell, and color. The researchers weighed factors that influence taste perception. There are genetic differences in taste sensitivity. That was gauged using a tried-and-true measure: paper strips coated with the chemical phenylthiocarbomide, or PTC. Those who find the strip's taste to be bitter are considered to have more sensitive taste. Researchers also considered two personality traits that help determine water preference. These traits are referred to as "Openness to Experience" and "Neuroticism." Openness is how receptive people are to novel and diverse experiences. Neuroticism refers to anxiety and insecurity. At the outset, researchers hypothesized the three waters would score equally. In fact, one emerged the least preferred. "The groundwater-based water was not as well liked as IDR or bottled water," said Mary Gauvain, a professor of psychology at UC Riverside and co-author of the study. "We think that happened because IDR and bottled water go through remarkably similar treatment processes, so they have low levels of the types of tastes people tend to dislike." The more nervous, anxious people in the study expressed the preference for IDR and bottled water, and were more negative about the more mineral-rich tap water. People more open to new experiences liked the three samples about the same. Another surprise: Women were twice as likely to prefer bottled water as men. The researchers' best guess: Women register higher "disgust reactions" than men, which means their reactions to tastes they dislike are more extreme. These disgust reactions are the subject of the team's next research paper. In its conclusion, researchers suggest that favorable comparisons between reverse osmosis and bottled water may make consumers more amenable to drinking recycled wastewater. In particular, they suggest, marketing to women, who make most consumer purchasing decisions, should focus on these similarities, and also cater to women's demonstrated openness to new experiences. "We think this research will help us find out what factors people pay attention to in their water decisions, and what populations need to be persuaded to drink IDR water and how to persuade them," Harmon said. ### Aside from Harmon and Gauvain, researchers in the study include Isaac Arthur, who recently completed his undergraduate studies at UC Riverside, Drew Story, a graduate student at UC Riverside, and Z Reisz, who received his Ph.D. at UC Riverside and is now at Santa Barbara City College. The research was supported by an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, or IGERT, award from the National Science Foundation. Sensor City, the joint venture project between the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, has been awarded a 3.5m grant to investigate the opportunities of 5G community Wi-Fi in health and social care. The grant is one of only six awarded through the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) 5G Testbeds and Trials programme which aims to spearhead efforts to make the UK a world leader in 5G. Sensor City will lead a consortium made up of public sector health suppliers, the NHS, university researchers, local SMEs and a leading UK 5G technology vendor. Funded for one year in the first instance, the project will see high value technologies including low-cost open source 5G networks, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the Internet of Things deployed across deprived communities in the Liverpool City Region test bed The consortium will use this technology to reduce the digital divide, while measuring the impact on patient monitoring and support, management of loneliness in older adults, aid to independents living in the home and the facilitation of communication between hospitals and the community. Professor Joe Spencer, University of Liverpool academic lead for Sensor City who developed the bid, said: "A successful demonstration of a 5G testbed in health and social care will see the development of new, innovative and disruptive technologies that will help to bridge the digital divide in the UK, especially in deprived communities. "5G Wi-Fi will not only enable the development of new cost-effective products and services to address real needs and demand, but also bring huge social and economic benefits for the most vulnerable in society, while reducing the demand on hospital-based services." Margot James, Minister of State for Digital and the Creative Industries, said: "One year on from the Digital Strategy, we are delivering on our commitments to create a Britain fit for the future, with a thriving digital economy that works for everyone. "The ground-breaking projects announced today will help to unlock 5G and ensure the benefits of this new technology are felt across the economy and wider society." Alison Mitchell, executive director at Sensor City, said: "Sensor City is proud to lead on what is set to be a truly groundbreaking project with a consortium of like-minded partners. The Government's 5G strategy for the UK presents a fantastic opportunity to transform the lives of many, especially through health and social care, so I think I speak for all partners when I say we're excited to see this work unfold over the next five years." DCMS also announced five other testbeds from the Orkney Islands to the West of England with funding ranging from 2 million to 5 million. ### Notes to Editor: 1.Sensor City is supported through the UK Government's Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (now Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, BEIS) with a 5 million University Enterprise Zone status capital investment award in 2014. In 2016, the England European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020, awarded Sensor City 5 million in capital investment as match funding to support the development of the hi-tech sensor hub. Montreal, March 13, 2018 - The University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) has announced the recipients of the 2017 Awards of Excellence. These awards recognize the outstanding performance of CHUM researchers in the area of health research. VIDEO: https://we.tl/3qsNqRB5k9 "I am proud to present these awards to our winners, who are leaders in their fields globally. The results of their work prove that research is essential for generating knowledge and tangible benefits for patients and the public," stated Dr. Vincent Poitout, Director of Research at the CHUM and Scientific Director of the CRCHUM. Alex Parker., Ph. D. and Pierre Drapeau, Ph. D., Award of Excellence - Scientific Contribution of the Year Researchers Alex Parker and Pierre Drapeau discovered a promising drug for treating people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Experiments conducted on worms, zebrafish, mice, and on human subjects during a limited clinical trial, conclude favourably as to the potential efficacy of pimozide. This drug, prescribed to treat schizophrenia, may prove valuable in ALS. The results of their work were published in the journal JCI Insight in November 2017. "This is a major scientific advance. Only two approved treatments exist for this fatal disease at this time. We think that pimozide will be more effective in improving the quality of life of patients," declared Parker, a CRCHUM researcher and professor at the Universite de Montreal. "The CHUM is currently taking part in a national clinical trial with 100 patients to verify the safety and efficacy of pimozide in these volunteers. If the results of this study conducted by Dr. Lawrence Korngut at the University of Calgary are conclusive, we will quickly be able to offer pimozide to ALS patients," hoped Drapeau, a CRCHUM researcher and professor at the Universite de Montreal. Marie-Helene Mayrand, M.D., Ph. D., Award of Excellence - Young Researcher A researcher and gynaecologist at the CHUM, Dr. Marie-Helene Mayrand has earned the 2017 Research Award of Excellence in the "young researcher" category, which recognizes the outstanding scientific contribution of a researcher whose research program has been in existence for less than ten years. A medical specialist and epidemiologist, Mayrand conducts research in the area of women's health, contributing to improving gynaecological cancer screening and preventing human papillomavirus (HPV)-related diseases. She is also interested in optimizing professional Ob-GYN (obstetrics and gynaecology) practices. The recipient of salary awards and several large research grants, she has already published over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to more than a hundred conferences in Quebec, Canada and abroad. She also collaborates with the Institut national de sante publique du Quebec (INSPQ) and the Institut national d'excellence en sante et en services sociaux (INESSS) to produce public health advisories related to cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination. Julie Bruneau, M.D., M. Sc., Award of Excellence - Career A researcher and doctor, the head of the CHUM's Department of General Medicine, and a professor at the Universite de Montreal, Dr. Julie Bruneau is a leader in addiction medicine. She has earned the 2017 Research Award of Excellence in the "career" category in recognition of her exceptional scientific contribution and her leadership throughout her career. Early in her career, Bruneau quickly noticed that drug users were often discriminated in the health system. The fight against inequalities in the provision of healthcare to drug addicts became the issue that determined the path of her research career. In 1988, with Drs. Francois Lamothe, Jean Vincelette, Eduardo Franco and Julio Soto, she piloted the first Canadian study on the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among people who inject drugs. Through the years, her work and public pronouncements have helped change perceptions about, and approaches to, people who use drugs. In particular, she demonstrated the importance of the role of needle exchange programs and the efficacy of agonist treatments in the prevention of HIV and hepatitis C infections. "A lot of work still has to be done to eliminate inequalities and the way we look at healthcare provision to drug users," asserted Bruneau. As the director of the Quebec - Atlantic node of the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM), Bruneau pilots many innovative projects aiming to resolve the opioid crisis. "With the current opioid crisis, we are saving lives. But we cannot stop at just managing overdose cases. We have to be sure that those who take opioids have access to the best healthcare possible and that they are considered full-fledged citizens in society. Ultimately, my hope would be for people who use drugs to be entitled to accessible, nondiscriminatory health care and services, wherever they may be along the path of their chronic illness called addiction," concluded Bruneau. ### About the CRCHUM's Research Awards of Excellence Bestowed annually since 2012, the CRCHUM's Research Awards of Excellence are honorary awards given to CHUM researchers who make significant contributions to the advancement of health research. The awardees are chosen from among the institution's approximately 150 regular researchers. For more information View the profiles of each of the recipients to find out more about their research interests and scientific publications and for links to archived press releases related to their research. Alex Parker: crchum.chumontreal.qc.ca/chercheurs/parker-alex Pierre Drapeau: crchum.chumontreal.qc.ca/chercheurs/drapeau-pierre Marie-Helene Mayrand: crchum.chumontreal.qc.ca/chercheurs/mayrand-marie-helene Julie Bruneau: crchum.chumontreal.qc.ca/chercheurs/bruneau-julie About the CRCHUM The University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) is one of the largest hospital-based research centres located in North America. Our mission is to improve adult health through a research continuum that encompasses basic science, population health and clinical research. More than 1,750 people work at the CRCHUM, including 439 researchers and 700 students and research fellows. http://crchum.chumontreal.qc.ca/ Information: Isabelle Girard Communications and Media Relations - CRCHUM +1 514 890-8000, ext. 12725 @CRCHUM isabelle.girard.chum@ssss.gouv.qc.ca Just as strep throat can run rampant in elementary schools, strangles, the "strep throat" of horses, caused by a different Streptococcus bacterium, Streptococcus equi sp equi, is highly contagious. Lymph nodes in the head and neck region become swollen and develop abscesses, resulting in nasal discharge and drainage from the throat. Though rarely fatal, strangles cases can range from mild to severe, and complications that impair eating and breathing can arise in some instances. Altogether, it's a disease that horse owners want to keep far from their stables. Veterinarians have an important role to play not only in treating the disease, but also in ensuring that infected horses are kept away from other animals until they have fully recovered from the illness. This recovery is not always so clear cut, as many animals remain carriers of the bacteria even after they appear healthy. To assist veterinarians, and owners, in understanding the most up-to-date clinical recommendations when it comes to treating strangles, Ashley Boyle, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, took the lead in writing a new consensus statement, issued by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, on treating, controlling, and preventing strangles in horses. "From a practical standpoint, the consensus statement serves to advise all veterinarians on what we recommend as a way to treat and deal with the disease," Boyle says. "I'm an internist who sees this disease as a primary care doctor at the horse farms as well as a field researcher. The authors of the consensus statement are a collection of experts in the field of Streptococcal diseases in horses including veterinary microbiologists, epidemiologists, and veterinarians who research this disease, as well as internists who encounter the disease frequently." Boyle coauthored the report with John Timoney of the Gluck Equine Research Center at the University of Kentucky, Richard Newton and Andrew Waller of Animal Health Trust in the United Kingdom, Melissa T. Hines of the University of Tennessee, and Ben Buchanan of Brazo Valley Equine Hospital in Texas. The last consensus statement was issued in 2005; the lead author of that report was Corinne Sweeney, professor of medicine and associate dean at Penn Vet's New Bolton Center. Starting around 2012, Boyle began hearing from colleagues that it was time for an update. Sweeney suggested that Boyle take on the project. Along with an international team of coauthors, some of whom had contributed to the earlier statement, Boyle set about reviewing information on prevention, treatment and control and finding where updates were necessary. One of the key areas where the guidance has shifted in the new statement is how to determine when an animal is free of disease. This is a critical component of strangles control, as 10 to 40 percent of animals who have had the disease can remain carriers, able to pass on disease to other animals even when they appear healthy. The previous consensus statement indicated a throat wash should be tested three times to be sure the horse was free of disease. "But it was hard to get owners and clients to do that three times," Boyle says. "And multiple studies have shown that those three may not even be good enough." In the new statement, Boyle and colleagues instead recommend "guttural pouch sampling," a technique that tests the fluid that sits in an area between a horse's ear and throat, akin to the human Eustachian tube, in combination with using an endoscope to visually assess the area for unruptured absesses. "We're trying to encourage more primary care veterinarians to do this, even though it's time consuming, because this is how the disease perpetuates itself," says Boyle. "In the end it is easier, faster, and more effective than doing the three throat washes. That's one of our big take-home messages." Another change is a shift away from considering bacterial culture to be the gold standard of diagnosis. "We no longer consider this the gold standard," Boyle says, as horses with low levels of bacteria may still be carriers but not give a positive result on this test. The authors see DNA amplification technologies such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) along with visualization of the guttural pouch as replacing culture as this standard. "There is also a lot of work being done by my colleagues in Europe looking at genomic sequencing," she says. "At some point in the future we may be able to use this technology to trace from where an outbreak came." The publication lays out best practices for quarantine and examination in order to prevent the spread of disease, and biosecurity protocols to reduce transmission in facilities where infected horses have been housed. It spells out treatment protocols, urging judicious use of antibiotics, and explains how to recognize, evaluate the risk for, and treat one of the more serious complications of strangles, an autoimmune reaction known as purpura hemorrhagica, which can be fatal. It also explores the pros and cons of strangles vaccines,the use of different blood tests that can measure previous exposure to disease and determine when it is safe to give vaccines.. While the consensus statement is aimed at veterinarians, Boyle says owners often read them directly, and can implement some of the recommendations. For example, horses are not thought to be contagious until 24 to 48 hours after the onset of fever. "An owner can start thinking about monitoring their horses' temperatures if they suspect an outbreak, and isolate horses when they first spike a fever," Boyle says. "That way they can catch it right at the beginning and spare any other horses from getting sick." Even though strangles is not typically deadly, it is a global problem and quite costly, as management protocols can be extensive. "There are huge financial repercussions not only from dealing with the disease but from quarantining barns and screening potential carriers," Boyle says. "It's also a big problem in the population of rescued horses, as they often come from different locations and are housed in close quarters resulting in the spread of disease." Boyle and her colleagues hope that the new guidelines will help veterinarians and owners navigate strangles cases more effectively, ideally mitigating the disease's health and financial costs. ### The consensus statement was published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. A.G. Boyle et al: Streptococcus equi Infections in Horses: Guidelines for Treatment, Control, and Prevention of Strangles-Revised Consensus Statement. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 2018; Feb 9. doi: 10.1111/jvim.15043. Belgian royals visiting Canada would have liked to meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but the Canadian leader was busy touring aluminum and steel smelters to reassure workers this week. King Philippe and his wife Mathilde arrived in Ottawa on Sunday for the first visit by Belgian royals since 1977, and over the coming days will also make stops in Toronto and Montreal. Royal watchers and officials said the couple would have liked to meet Trudeau before they leave Saturday. But a scheduling conflict and Trudeaus tour of Canadian steel and aluminum cities to show his support for these industries after the US announced tariffs on the metals made it impossible. In line with protocol, Canadian Governor General Julie Payette, who represents Canadas head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, welcomed the king and queen at her official residence on Monday. The essence of a state visit is a meeting of the two heads of state, Patrick Renault, a spokesman for the royals, told AFP. But were not surprised at all about not having a meeting with the prime minister. We were aware that there were agenda issues on both sides for some time. The Belgian royals were accompanied on the trip by seven government ministers, including Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, academics and business executives hoping to bolster cultural and trade ties between the two nations under the Canada-EU free trade agreement that came into force in September. Although Trudeau was unavailable, four Canadian ministers were expected to meet with the Belgian delegation, including Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne. It is a great pleasure to deepen the long-standing relationship between our two countries, said Trudeaus spokesman Cameron Ahmad. Genevas public prosecutor has opened a criminal investigation into top managers at an oil trading firm in the city and has made two arrests, allegedly linked to a corruption scheme in Venezuela. According to an Associated Press (AP) report on Monday, two executives at oil trading company Helsinge in Geneva have been arrested by Swiss prosecutors. The AP cited an anonymous source familiar with the case who said the arrests followed allegations made in a complaint linked to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. The Geneva Attorney Generals Office confirmed the investigation into unnamed Helsinge executives on suspicion of corruption of foreign officials and money-laundering, but declined to comment further. Helsinge was set up 14 years ago in Panama, and operates offices in Miami, Geneva and the English Channel Island of Jersey. It was reported earlier this month that PDVSA is suing a group of oil trading companies over a multi-billion-dollar corruption scheme to buy petroleum products below market value. The lawsuit accuses Helsinge of obtaining inside information and rigging bidding proceedings by bribing PDVSA officials in a scheme that yielded billions of dollars in illicit gains. The suit claims Helsinge also provided inside information to other trading firms including Lukoil Petroleum Ltd, Colonial Oil Industries Inc, Glencore Ltd, Vitol SA, and Trafigura AG. swissinfo.ch/sb A woman caught in Spain with the body of her stepson in her car boot admitted Tuesday she had killed him, police said, as a funeral was held for the young victim whose murder shook the country. Ana Julia Quezada, a Dominican woman who had for years been going out with the father of eight-year-old Gabriel Cruz, admitted being the perpetrator, a police spokesman told AFP, without elaborating. Gabriels disappearance on February 27 in the small southeastern village of Las Hortichuelas sparked a days-long search involving hundreds of volunteers. His parents Patricia Ramirez and Angel Cruz, who are separated but get along well, have given countless tearful interviews since he went missing after leaving his grandmothers house to go play. As his fathers partner, Quezada had been a fixture in the search for Gabriel, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the boys smiling face and speaking to reporters in tears. Then in a shocking twist, Spains Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido announced Sunday that police had found Gabriels body in her car. On Tuesday, Gabriels funeral at the cathedral in Almeria near Las Hortichuelas drew a huge, saddened crowd, with people shouting we are all Gabriel. Speaking to the media, Cruz gave thanks for all the support received during excruciating days of uncertainty. You gave us strength to search for Gabriel, he said. News of Gabriels murder and Quezadas arrest sparked an outpouring of hatred towards her in Spain, despite calls for calm by his parents. Amateur footage broadcast Monday showed 43-year-old Quezada mobbed when she left a building accompanied by police, who had to wrestle with people to push them away. One online petition signed by more than 330,000 people asked the Dominican Republic to request her extradition to serve prison time there so that she would not be allowed to enjoy the comfort of Spanish jails. Another demanding that she be sentenced to life in prison has been signed by more than 270,000 people. News also emerged that a girl presented as Quezadas daughter by Spanish media died in 1996 in the northern city of Burgos after falling out of the window of their home. Asked about this, Zoido confirmed Monday that an incident had taken place, saying police had investigated the tragedy at the time but the case was dismissed. Amnesty International said Tuesday a Spanish law banning the "glorification of terrorism" had created a "chilling" environment in which people are increasingly afraid to express alternative views or make controversial jokes. In a report titled Tweet if you dare, the NGO said article 578 of the Spanish criminal code, which bans glorifying terror or humiliating victims of terror, was being used to crush satire and creative expression online. The result is increasing self-censorship and a broader chilling effect on freedom of expression in Spain, it said. Over the last few months, several netizens or rappers have been jailed for tweets or lyrics considered as glorifying terror. Rapper Pablo Hasel was sentenced to two years in prison in March for Twitter posts and a song which judges found praised terror groups, encouraged violence and insulted the state. Last month, the Supreme Court also upheld a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence for another rapper, Valtonyc, for lyrics it said glorified terrorism and insulted the crown. People should not face criminal prosecution simply for saying, tweeting or singing something that might be distasteful or shocking, Esteban Beltran, head of Amnesty International in Spain, was quoted as saying in a statement. Speaking to reporters in front of Spains top-level National Court, where many of the sentences were handed out, Beltran also asked for article 578 to be repealed. He said the number of convictions for glorifying terror had risen from just one in 2011, when Basque armed group ETA declared a permanent ceasefire, to 31 in 2017. Im preparing mentally for us to go to prison, said Nyto Rukeli, one of 12 rappers from the La Insurgencia (The Uprising) collective who in December were sentenced to two years in jail for their lyrics and have appealed. We dont have much hope, the 23-year-old rapper added. Eda Seyhan, the author of the report, said the convictions had created an environment in which people are increasingly afraid to express controversial or alternative views or make potentially sensitive jokes for fear of legal prosecutions. Privacy Settings This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. You may change your settings at any time. Your choices will not impact your visit. NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using. The EU's ambassador to Russia has returned to Moscow, EU sources said Friday, less than three weeks after he was recalled to Brussels for consultations over the nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain. European Union leaders summoned Markus Ederer back to Brussels on March 25 as part of diplomatic measures against Moscow, which they blamed for the assassination attempt on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English town of Salisbury. Ederer went back to Moscow on Thursday following consultations with the EUs diplomatic service, EU source said. EU leaders united in backing Londons assessment that Russia was to blame for the attack on March 4 and after conducting its own tests the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Thursday confirmed Britains findings about the substance used in the attack. EU members, the United States, NATO and other nations expelled more than 150 Russian diplomats in a coordinated action against Moscow in support of Britain, and Russia retaliated with similar moves. French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday blasted the "unacceptable" nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain and expressed his "full solidarity" with the British government. The president condemned the unacceptable attack and reaffirmed Frances commitment to fighting impunity when it comes to chemical weapons use, Macrons office said in a statement. Macron spoke to British Prime Minister Theresa May by telephone on Monday evening and she informed him of the results of the investigation and the answers she was expecting from Moscow, the statement added. Macron assured May of Frances full solidarity with the United Kingdom, it said, adding that the pair agreed to stay in close contact over the issue in the coming days. The French statement refrained from pointing the figure at the Kremlin for the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal. British police have said the case is being as an attempted murder. May and US President Donald Trump said it appeared to have been carried out by Moscow, an accusation furiously denied by Russian officials. The French foreign ministry had condemned the attack earlier Tuesday as a growing number of Western governments expressed support for Britain over the affair. We have full confidence that the British investigation will rapidly establish who was responsible, foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muehll said. The diplomatic incident could pose a dilemma for Macron who has argued for keeping an open dialogue with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, despite verbal clashes over the war in Syria. Macron is due to travel to Russia for the first time as president in late May for an economic forum in St. Petersburg and possibly also a visit to Moscow. The French foreign ministry declined to comment on whether he was considering postponing or cancelling the trip. French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday backed Britain's charge that Russia was responsible for the nerve agent poisoning of a former spy, saying there was "no other plausible explanation". Since the start of the week, Britain has kept France closely informed of the evidence gathered by British investigators and of elements demonstrating Russian responsibility in the attack. France shares Britains assessment that there is no other plausible explanation and reiterates its solidarity with his ally, Macrons office said after a Thursday morning call between the French leader and British Prime Minister Theresa May. Macron and May condemned all use of chemical weapons and agreed on the importance of European and transatlantic unity in response to the attack, the French presidency added in a statement. A British diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said London was grateful for French solidarity at this time. As President Macron said this morning, the unity of our European and transatlantic alliance is essential as we respond to Russian behaviour. On Wednesday, May expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury, as the standoff with Moscow which denies responsibility escalated. Britain also suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup which Russia is due to host in June and July. The US rowed in behind Britain, saying it believed Russia was responsible. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stopped short of accusing Moscow but said it would be a very serious matter if it were found to be involved. France had on Wednesday appeared reticent to accuse Russia directly, with government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux saying Paris was waiting for the allegations to be fully proven before taking a stance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said she took the British government's claim that Russia was involved in the poisoning of an ex-spy "extremely seriously", urging Moscow to provide "swift answers". The chancellor condemned the attack in the strongest possible way and assured that she took the British governments assessment on the issue of Russian involvement extremely seriously, Merkels office said in a statement. The comments came after Merkel spoke by phone with British Prime Minister Theresa May. Merkel also called on Moscow to urgently reveal details of any chemical weapons programme following the alleged use of a banned nerve agent in the attack. It is up to Russia to provide swift answers to the justified questions of the British government, and comply with the request to comprehensively and promptly disclose the relevant chemical weapons programme to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the statement said. The OPCW verified the destruction of Russias declared chemical weapons programme last year. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel had earlier said that any Russian connection to the poisoning in Britain of a former double agent would be a very serious matter. May on Tuesday said it was highly likely Moscow had attempted to assassinate Sergei Skripal, accusations furiously denied by the Kremlin. The former double agent and his daughter remain in critical condition after the brazen nerve agent attack on a street in the southern English city of Salisbury. Russia has rejected Mays accusations as another dirty attempt by British authorities to discredit Russia. The head of the British military facility analysing the Novichok nerve agent used to poison Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter said Tuesday it has "not identified the precise source" of the substance. Gary Aitkenhead, chief executive of the Porton Down defence laboratory, told Britains Sky News that analysts had identified it as military-grade Novichok, but they had not proved it was made in Russia. We have not identified the precise source, but we have provided the scientific info to government who have then used a number of other sources to piece together the conclusions, he said. It is our job to provide the scientific evidence of what this particular nerve agent is, we identified that it is from this particular family and that it is a military grade, but it is not our job to say where it was manufactured. Aitkenhead added that extremely sophisticated methods were needed to create the nerve agent, and that was something only in the capabilities of a state actor. Sergei Skripal and his daughter have been in hospital since March 4 after the poisoning in Britain that London and its major Western allies have blamed on Russia. The first use of chemical weapons in Europe since World War II has chilled Moscows relations with the West, as both sides have expelled scores of diplomats. Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday suggesting that the British government may be behind the poisoning to distract attention from problems around Brexit. Aitkenhead would not comment on whether Porton Down had developed or keeps stocks of Novichok, but he dismissed claims the agent used to poison the Skripals had come from the site. There is no way anything like that could have come from us or left the four walls of our facility, he said. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the worlds chemical watchdog, will meet Wednesday to discuss Britains allegations that Russia was responsible for the poisoning, according to documents released on Tuesday. It said Russia asked the OPCW, which has received samples of the Novichok used that it has been analysing, for the meeting. The confidential gathering will start at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) at its headquarters in The Hague. Russia is free to apply to accredit more diplomats to replace the alleged spies that have been expelled from the United States, a State Department official said Friday. This week, in response to an apparent attempt to assassinate a Russian double agent in Britain with a nerve agent, Washington joined a score of Western allies in expelling more than 150 suspected intelligence officers attached to Russian missions. In all, 48 alleged Russian operatives working under diplomatic cover for its US mission were on the list along with 12 attached to the Russian mission to the United Nations in New York. Russias consulate in Seattle will also be closed, but the total size of its diplomatic footprint in the United States might not shrink for long, because the expelled staff could be replaced. The United States has expelled 48 Russian intelligence officers, but it is not requiring the Russian bilateral mission to reduce its total number of personnel, a State Department official told AFP. The Russian government remains free to request accreditation for vacant positions in its bilateral mission. Any requests for new diplomatic accreditation will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The Russian officers, whom Moscow denies are spies, have until April 2 to leave, although US media reported that Russian planes were already at Dulles airport on Friday to begin their transport. Russia has responded to the Western moves with matching tit-for-tat expulsions. But, the US official said, it has not requested that the headcount at Washingtons embassy in Moscow be reduced as the Kremlin had done when former US president Barack Obama expelled 35 diplomats in 2016. We therefore understand that the United States may request new diplomatic personnel to fill the positions of diplomats who have been expelled, he said. President Donald Trump has often appeared reluctant to criticize his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and in a call last week congratulated him on his latest re-election. But this weeks diplomatic expulsions were unprecedented in their scale, and the State Department insists that Washington reserves the right to respond to Moscows unjustified expulsions. The House Intelligence Committee's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election has found no evidence of collusion by Donald Trump's presidential campaign, Republicans leading the panel announced Monday. Declaring their year-long probe essentially over, they conceded that Moscow did interfere in the election, but rejected the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that it had aimed to help Donald Trump win the election. And they blamed Barack Obamas government for not stopping the meddling, which Trump has been reluctant to acknowledge ever took place. We have found no evidence of collusion, coordination or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians, the committees majority Republicans said in a summary report on their investigation. They said they concurred with the judgment of US spy chiefs from January 2017 on the Russian interference, except with respect to President Vladimir Putins alleged preference for candidate Trump. After more than a year, the committee has finished its Russia investigation and will now work on completing our report, said panel chair Devin Nunes. We hope our findings and recommendations will be useful for improving security and integrity for the 2018 midterm elections. Democrats cite White House pressure The announcement outraged Democrats on the committee, who had continued to fight to interview more witnesses and pursue more of the well-established links that Trump and his advisors have to Russia. Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the panel, said the move stemmed from pressure from the White House, where Trump and close advisors face a separate collusion investigation by the Justice Departments independent prosecutor Robert Mueller. He called the investigation under Nunes fundamentally unserious. We have learned a great deal about countless secret meetings, conversations and communications between Trump campaign officials and the Russians, all of which the Trump Administration initially denied, he said. If the Russians do have leverage over the president of the United States, the majority has simply decided it would rather not know. Trump though declared in an all upper-case tweet that the committee found no evidence of collusion or coordination between his presidential campaign and Russia, a claim he has made since the first allegations were made in late 2016. And House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has supported Nunes despite questions about his leadership of the intelligence committee, likewise declared the issue resolved and said the focus has to be on preventing Russian meddling in Novembers US congressional elections. Thats what this next phase is about and we hope Democrats will join us in seeing this through, said Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong. The intelligence committee has been deeply riven from the beginning. Nunes, a close supporter of the president, sought with some success to turn it into an investigation of the Obama administration and the FBI, which he and Trump accused of illegally spying on the Republicans campaign. The report summary made no mention of the alleged theft and leaks by Russians of embarrassing documents and communications from the campaign of Trump rival Hillary Clinton in mid-2016, which top US intelligence officials have stated as a fact. Instead, it flipped that allegation on its head by claiming that anti-Trump research made its way from Russian sources to the Clinton campaign. And it criticized the Obama administration for a lackluster pre-election response to Russian active measures. Mueller, Senate probes still on The end of the House committees Russia probe does not leave Trump in the clear, however. For one, the Senate Intelligence Committee is still investigating alleged collusion, and the two parties are cooperating more closely there. More importantly, Muellers investigation is advancing steadily and ominously. He has already indicted several former top Trump aides, as he develops evidence of extensive contacts between the campaign and Russia. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump has tried to obstruct the investigation, and is said to be discussing with White House lawyers whether the president himself will agree to be interviewed. All 29 NATO countries urged Russia Wednesday to answer Britain's questions over the poisoning of an ex-spy in what they called the first ever offensive use of a nerve agent on the alliance's territory. The joint statement by the 29 member countries of the US-led alliance said the attack against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, southwest England, was a clear breach of international norms and agreements. Allies expressed deep concern at the first offensive use of a nerve agent on Alliance territory since NATOs foundation, said the statement by the North Atlantic Council, which groups NATO allies. Allies expressed solidarity with the UK, offered their support in the conduct of the ongoing investigation, and called on Russia to address the UKs questions, including providing full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, they added. British Prime Minister Theresa May has said a military grade nerve agent known as Novichok was used in the March 4 incident. Allies agreed that the attack was a clear breach of international norms and agreements, the statement said. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg added in a tweet: I welcome that the 29 NATO Allies have just agreed a statement expressing full solidarity with the UK and offering support after the Salisbury attack. The attack has raised speculation that Britain will consider triggering article five of NATO membership, a rule that says an attack on one member constitutes an attack on all. Britain has received broad international support in the wake of the poisoning, which also left a policeman seriously ill. EU President Donald Tusk said earlier Wednesday that Russia was most likely behind the attack and that leaders of the 28 European Union states were likely to discuss the issue at a Brussels summit next week. The UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting on the poisoning later Wednesday at Britains request. Dissident Soviet scientist Vil Mirzayanov gained notoriety in the 1990s when he blew the cover on Moscow's secret experimentation with Novichok, the nerve gas used in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in Britain. Mirzayanov had worked for almost three decades in the Soviet Union at the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology. After he was fired in 1992, he and another scientist wrote a newspaper article revealing how the government had developed deadly chemical compounds known as Novichok or newcomer in English. Now 83 and living in the United States, Mirzayanov described the sophisticated substances used to make the Novichok agents which had been developed under a classified programme codenamed Foliant, or folio. Novichok agents are binary chemical weapons, he said, which means that their potency only manifests itself after chemical synthesis of relatively harmless components. Since the same chemical elements in Novichok are used to make pesticides, facilities producing these substances can easily be disguised as civilian factories, he wrote. Mirzayanov said he had witnessed several scientists failing to regain their health after exposure to a Novichok-type agent. The damage it inflicts is practically incurable, he said in the article. Asked this week about the March 4 poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, he was quoted as saying: These people are gone the man and his daughter. Even if they survive they will not recover. Scientific conspiracy In his memoirs published in Russian in 2002, Mirzayanov said his institute and others in the country involved in the chemical weapons programme continued their research even after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and as Russia proclaimed disarmament and a ban on chemical weapons. Binary bombs had been developed since the 1970s and were tested at a military base used for chemical weapons in a town called Shikhany in Russias southern Saratov region and also in Uzbekistan, Mirzayanov wrote. Like hundreds of other scientists, I was participating in a conspiracy against the future convention on chemical weapons, he said. He had been put in charge of controlling potential leaks of harmful chemicals used in the Foliant programme into the air and waterways. His memoirs describe witnessing a relatively unsuccessful test of a precursor to Novichok-type agents based on a chemical named simply Substance-33. In the test, the substance was deployed in vapour form via a bomb dropped from a plane. The Novichok agents were not listed in the eventual Chemical Weapons Convention because Russia kept them secret, Mirziayanov argued. Mirzayanov became involved in Russias nascent democratic movement and wanted to make his concerns about the chemical weapons programme public. As a result of his dissident activities, he was fired from the institute. He then decided to write the whistle-blowing article in a Moscow newspaper along with another chemist, Lev Fyodorov. They warned of poor safety standards at the Moscow facility and vast quantities of harmful chemicals stored elsewhere in Russia. The article led the authorities to prosecute Mirzayanov for divulging state secrets. He was arrested in October 1992 and held for several days in Moscows notorious Lefortovo prison, used by the security services. His case was eventually closed in 1994 after considerable international pressure on the Russian authorities. Mirzayanov has lived in the United States since 1996. Russia declared in 2017 that it had destroyed all of its chemical weapon stockpile. Moscow has rejected accusations of involvement in poisoning Skripal. Strike action by lecturers at around 65 British universities over planned pension reforms entered its fourth week on Monday, with little sign of compromise. Universities UK (UUK), an association of British higher education institutions, proposed in January moving from guaranteed income pensions to a scheme in which they are subject to stock market fluctuations. It argues the change would help fight a pensions deficit of more than 6 billion (6.8 billion euros, $8.3 billion). The University and College Union (UCU) opposes the switch, saying it would leave a typical lecturer almost 10,000 (11,273 euros, $13,907) a year worse off in retirement. Its not just a question of money, Akane Kawakami, a language professor at Londons Birkbeck University, told AFP on a picket line. If the reform passes, people who plan to become academics will think twice, she said. We are relatively poorly paid for what we do, and part of the attraction of this job is the possibility of having a good retirement plan, Kawakami added. So if we take away this opportunity, many more people will go (to work) in other sectors. The UCU last week announced a further 14 days of strikes designed to target the examination period between April and June, if there is no resolution in ongoing talks. Discussions are continuing between the union and the UUK through the conciliation service Acas. I fully support the strike but at the end of the year we have a degree to get, said Saad Qummer, a 21-year-old chemical engineering student. I had classes canceled how will that affect our exams? The strike is affecting around one million students, according to the UCU. Phil Collins, former rock star and one of the most successful figures in pop music history, has become a major force in preserving the story of the Alamo and the 1835-36 war for Texas independence, having donated some $15 million in artifacts last year to the state-owned historic site. It may be years before all 204 documents, relics and pieces of battle ordnance, in what is believed to be the worlds largest private collection of Alamo memorabilia, are publicly displayed. But the former drummer for Genesis and solo artist has singled out several items among his most cherished artifacts, including a fringed leather musket ball pouch that David Davy Crockett, the Alamos most famed defender, is believed to have carried during the 1836 siege and battle. In order to embrace the pouchs authenticity, one has to accept the account of Mexican Lt. Jose Enrique de la Pena, who was at the Alamo and later wrote in a diary that Crockett was among several Alamo defenders captured, then executed under the order of Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Some refuse to part with the traditional narrative, the one Collins grew up with through television and movies, that Crockett fought to the death. People don't want to believe things that mean they have to rethink and disbelieve everything they've been brought up to believe, Collins, who grew up near London and now lives in Switzerland, told the San Antonio Express-News last year. In his 2012 book, The Alamo and Beyond: A Collectors Journey, Collins cited a list of de la Penas belongings, written by an aunt after he died in 1840, tracing the story of the leather pouch. The list, written in Spanish, said the pouch, listed as Numero 11, had belonged to Don David Croquet of the site of the Alamo and was given to de la Pena, presumably just before Crockett was executed. In the book, Collins acknowledged that artifacts connected specifically to Crockett and other famous figures are difficult to prove with sufficient provenance for the average Alamo enthusiast. But he said hes been careful since he began collecting Texas artifacts in around 2002 to work with experts to authenticate every item purchased. "I normally dont buy anything that doesnt have strong provenance," Collins told reporters at the Alamo in June 2014. Collins other artifacts include a 26-pound howitzer shell, similar to one found at the Alamo, that was discarded by Mexican forces and unearthed in East Texas in 2000; a Bowie knife that belonged to Jesse Robinson, an early Texas settler who fought at the Battle of Concepcion and Siege of Bexar; and a Spanish short sword, or espada ancha, that was popular with horsemen in the 1800s. The collection also includes the circa-1830s metal remains of a dual-barrel over and under flintlock pistol found on the Alamo grounds after being buried for more than 150 years. Other items include documents, such as a receipt signed by Alamo commander William Barret Travis for 30 heads of beeves to feed his men. The Spanish short sword and a Mexican howitzer cannon belonging to Collins are currently on display at the Alamo. More items from his collection are likely to be exhibited in the fall, said Kaye Tucker, Alamo liaison with the General Land Office. Collins also has financed the transport of a 13-by-15-foot model of the 1836 compound from Georgia to the History Shop, a collectibles store just north of the Alamo, as well as an excavation below the shop that revealed horseshoes, ordnance and other items. He commissioned artist-historian George Nelson to produce eight 34-by-40-inch bronze panels tracing the evolution of the Alamo site from a mid-1700s mission to a modern plaza, at a cost of more than $20,000 each. Aside from winning the gratitude of Texans, Collins has been named an admiral in the Texas Navy, an honorary designation bestowed by Gov. Rick Perry. Jerry Patterson, who just stepped down as Texas Land Commissioner, who is in charge of the Alamo, has said Texans are deeply indebted to Phil Collins. He is giving us back our heritage, Patterson said. Patterson has said it will take at least five years to raise funds, design and build a visitor center to display the entire collection. The Land Office has been working with the nonprofit Alamo Endowment to raise funds to preserve and improve the Alamo. shuddleston@ express-news.net Twitter:@shuddlestonSA Theres a lot of choreography in If/Then, the musical getting its first Texas production starting Friday at The Public Theater of San Antonio, but audiences wont see most of it. Thats because the most complex moves take place backstage. Hunchback (of Notre Dame) was big just visually, it was big, said Nicholas Ponting, who designed the sets for both shows. This show is bigger technically. The show explores what might have happened if a New Yorker named Elizabeth made different choices in her life. On one track, shes married, has a child and goes by Liz; on the other, she is single, has a high-powered career and goes by Beth. The best way to describe it is its Sliding Doors, the musical, said director Molly Cox, referring to the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow movie. You have one person playing two people and sort of seeing their pathways and which way they go. Literally, it happens in the blink of an eye that she moves between Beth and Liz. Theres not a musical interlude and somehow magically the stage transforms. Instead, when she shifts between the two timelines, the cast and crew often moves into hyper-drive, shifting setpieces off and on to create a new setting. The heart of Pontings set is a bridge-like structure that spans the width of the stage, which allows Cox to have some moments happen in tight spotlights on the second level while setpieces are moved around down below. Ponting also opted for a fairly muted color palette for the set, making it easier to illustrate the array of locations including an airplane, New York parks, a subway, a hospital and an Army base described in the script. Its two worlds - Elizabeth is Liz and Beth, and they switch like that on a dime, said Ponting, who is also in the show. So my thinking was, if I put too much color on the stage, that shift is going to be harder to see. So if I can be muted with my colors, that allows lights and costumes to dictate that reality shift a lot easier. So the set is muted and the colors that are just highlighted are the brick red and the iron red and blue and green. They look muted right now, but when (lighting designer Dan Heggem) puts color on (the set), they pop. So the lights are really going to make this show. The biggest lift of the show, Cox said, is that of Stephanie Genito, the New York-based actress who plays the lead character and has to really sell the whole premise. Shes (playing) the same human, just sort of different, Cox said. So its not like, Hey, when youre Beth, youre British. And when youre Liz, youre not. So its also in how well shes making the shifts in her own characters. Genito has a distinct perspective on the show: She saw it dozens of times when it was on Broadway because she was working for Sandbar Concessions, which runs the refreshment stands at the Nederlander theaters in New York. One of the jobs perks is getting to see the show thats playing in that theater. (And yes, that does mean that she also got to see Hamilton.) She fell in love with If/Then, so when she saw a casting call for The Publics staging, she auditioned and got the part. Its a super-cool show, she said. And I feel like there are so many wonderful moments in it that are kind of like a love letter to the city. The Broadway production had more onstage dance than The Publics show. Thats because the show struck Cox as less a musical than a play with music, so it didnt seem to call for big dance numbers. Instead, Cox and choreographer Courtnie Mercer worked with the cast on choreographed movement during scene transitions and blocking rather than all-out dance. The show is so real, Mercer said. Theres one section in the wedding (scene) where they have a little dance line, but other than that, we just felt that there wasnt a point in the show that really needed that big musical number. There is, of course, all of that backstage choreography, which includes having set pieces are in the right place to make sure scene transitions are fast and smooth. You should see the Excel sheets they have back there In this scene, youre prepping this and youre taking off this and youre striking this and then youre moving this over here and prepping these props, Ponting said. And you have quick (costume) changes, as well. Because all the ensemble plays New York City people, New York construction workers, upper-class people, doctors. Its a complex show that, ideally, wont feel that way out in the audience. That was the case for Genito when she was watching it on Broadway. I got to see it so many times and didnt realize the eight-part harmonies that were going on, she said. You just watch it Oh, thats nice. Cox is hoping San Antonio audiences will have the same experience. Its a complicated show that we hope you dont see the complication, she said. It would make me happy if everybody walked out and was like, All right, Im kind of confused because that was a big show to pick up, but also, that didnt look hard. I would love that. If/Then opens Friday. It can be seen 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through April 8, The Public Theater of San Antonio, San Pedro at Ashby. Tickets range from $20 to $35 at thepublicsa.org or by calling 210-733-7258. dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN SOUTH PADRE ISLAND Spring Breakers came out in droves for the first free beach concert this week, thousands of scantily clad students gyrating to hip-hop music and chugging beer despite temperatures in the mid-60s and a cool breeze off the Gulf. I think kids want to get out of school and have some fun, said Clayton Brashear, owner of Claytons Beach Bar & Grill, one of the most popular venues on the island. Hopefully they come down to the beach and do what they do. Spring Breakers spread out across Texas this week, including in San Antonio, which sees long lines at popular attractions such as the San Antonio Zoo, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, SeaWorld and the Alamo, among others. Figures werent immediately available Tuesday for how Spring Break affects San Antonio, but at South Padre Island, officials say theyre expecting more than 50,000 people to descend on the small coastal community of about 3,000 residents. Spring Break is a major economic force on the island, but there are also problems. In an effort to address some of those safety issues caused by the mass of humanity, a new city ordinance requiring event organizers to shoulder a greater share of the cost of beefing up security and cleanup will be tested for the first time. The ordinance came after some residents complained that Spring Break had gotten out of hand last year, with critics saying venues like Claytons were largely to blame. Residents split into two camps, with some urging island leaders to reimage the island as a family-friendly Spring Break destination, and businesses arguing the party must go on. Through the first several days of Texas Week, typically the busiest period of Spring Break on the island, there have been no major incidents beyond the usual inebriated mischief. Still, with more than 10,000 partygoers expected to attend hip-hop and rap concerts at the beach bar each day, all eyes will be watching Claytons. We just follow the rules and everything goes OK, said Brashear as he surveyed the throngs of partygoers. It just makes it cost more. The mass gathering ordinance requires two police officers and two security guard for events with more than 1,000 attendees, and an additional officer and security guard for each additional 1,000 attendees. A sanitation plan that includes a ratio of one portable toilet per 300 attendees and a litter plan that accommodates one 40-gallon trash receptacle for each 200 anticipated attendees was submitted to the city as required. Each violation of the ordinance is punishable by up to $500. The city did pass ordinances to rein in some of the wild and crazy parties, but the ordinance falls short in certain areas, said Shane Wilson, a first-grade teacher and president of Property Owners Who Care who led the push for a tamer Spring Break. Well see where it goes. Hopefully its enough, but if its not well have to readdress it when we come back. Additionally, the mass gathering ordinance requires event organizers to provide the name of all entities involved in the event so that authorities can research prior history to determine public safety needs. Wilson had hoped the city would be tougher still on the handful of venues across town that attract musicians such as Gucci Mane and especially Tekashi69, a convicted felon with two singles on the Billboard Hot 100. When it was announced the rapper, who pleaded guilty to the use of a child in a sexual performance, would headline a show many citizens expressed their frustration on Claytons event announcements Facebook page. But many say the island has to be realistic about its identity and what sells. If country music would sell to Spring Breakers then wed bring in country music, said Chad Hart, owner of Inertia Tours, a company that sells Spring Break party packages to students. You have to bring in what the kids want to listen to. The controversy hasnt slowed turnout. So far, hotel occupancy is up 20 percent over last year, and police estimate Spring Break visitors to the island could reach 55,000, according to Randy Smith, the police chief for South Padre Island. There were about 45,000 last year. To prepare for the influx, the city has tripled its police force and stepped up coordination with other state agencies. The police are also relying on license plate readers, drones and monitoring cameras to keep tabs on the young spring breakers. The police are still searching for a group of four that vandalized a sandcastle in front of the citys visitors center, causing an estimated $24,000 worth of damage. Otherwise the annual party has been relatively tame, Smith said. Weve had some of our typical incidences of public intoxication and Class C small disturbances, Smith said. Nothing too overbearing. Spring Break is crucial to the viability of South Padre Island businesses, ranking fourth in monthly net revenue. Even as some would like it to be a more family friendly place, Brashear argues the island is a resort community, and its residents need to start acting like it. Mayor Dennis Stahl, a San Antonio transplant, says both sides have a point. My responsibility as mayor is to ensure all visitors as well as island residents are treated to as safe an environment as we can get, Stahl said. Students from across Texas and the Midwest dragged ice chests onto the crowded beach in front of Claytons on the first day of Texas Spring Break. Among them was Mike OBrian, a 21-year-old senior from Rutgers. OBrian had spent past Spring Breaks in other locations, but as security in Mexico had become a concern, and drinking on the beach in popular Florida destinations was banned, his friends this year opted for deep South Texas to celebrate. Everything is bigger, better and more lit on South Padre compared to the rest of the country, OBrian said. This place is the best. Teresina Francis moved to San Antonio just three years ago. But Saturday afternoon, outside San Fernando Cathedral, she found herself immersed in the citys diverse, though often overlooked, ancestry. It helped that her 12-year-old son, Lucas, was the flag bearer for men dressed as blue-coated Spanish soldiers who first called San Antonio home 300 years ago. But Teresina was equally moved by the scores of Canary Islander descendants on hand in their forebears black vests and white shirts, not to mention the buckskin-clad representatives of American Indians. What weve learned here is that Texans are very proud of their culture, of their history, Francis said. This was a great presentation. It helps us learn more about the history than we ever would have anywhere else. That living history lesson was at the heart of El Nacimiento, The Birth of San Antonio, a Tricentennial celebration of those peoples who first put the city on the map more than a century before anyone ever started to remember the Alamo. A pageant of dance, drama and music with local and international dignitaries, El Nacimiento honored the myriad communities behind San Antonios founding specifically, the American Indians who first occupied the area hundreds and even thousands of years ago, the Spanish soldiers and friars who settled it in 1718, and the Canary Islanders who sparked its growth in 1731 into the municipality that would become the seventh largest city in the nation. Its really a story that isnt often told, said El Nacimiento director Joe Arciniega, himself a descendant of both a Spanish soldier and Canary Islanders who helped found his hometown. Its hard to remember much else about San Antonio when something like the Alamo is so famous, Arciniega said. However, the true story of why this is a tricentennial begins actually well before 1718. Arciniega said that story started with the American Indians who had been on this land more than 10,000 years. Representing those indigenous tribes at El Nacimiento were members of the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions, Tehuan Band of Mission Indians and the Rio Grande Native American Church, whose drums and chants fueled an American Indian deer dance, bird songs and round dance Saturday. A lot of us lost our history, our native part of the culture when we were assimilated to (have) Spanish or Mexican last names, said Epifanio Hernandez of the Tehuan Band of Mission Indians. We not only educate our families, but we re-educate the people of San Antonio that supposedly wrote the history or are writing the history. We want them to correct it. Not change it. Correct it. That history often starts with the Spanish soldiers at the fort known as Presidio San Antonio de Bejar, which was established May 5, 1718 just four days after the founding of Mission San Antonio de Valero, better known later as the Alamo. The San Antonio Living History Association brought those soldiers to life in vivid detail, firing muskets in the air while garbed in full Spanish soldier regalia from black tricorn hats down to white boot-covering gaiters. Its important because you develop more of an appreciation for your past, said the history groups vice president, Phillip De La Pena. Its one thing to read the name of somebody on a roster. Its another thing to have a visual of what that person would have actually looked like. Thats what this very colorful time in Texas history would have been like. Color was especially on display for the Canary Islands, whose settlers had a hand not only in building San Antonio but also San Fernando Cathedral. In addition to delegates and musicians from the Spanish archipelago, El Nacimiento hosted dozens of members of the Canary Islands Descendants Association, who flowed into Main Plaza dressed like those 16 families who first arrived at Presidio San Antonio de Bejar on March 9, 1731, to form the citys first civil government. Yet as Canary Islands Descendants Association president Mari Tamez noted, the purpose of staging El Nacimiento was to portray all the various building blocks of San Antonio that combined 100-plus years before the Battle of the Alamo. These folks were doing the hard work to make sure that by the time the Alamo (battle) did occur, that it was somewhere that people were willing to live and die for, Tamez said. And that well explains one of several refrains the many groups echoed at the end of the El Nacimiento presentation: This land / Our land / This place / Our home. Correction: A previous version of a photo caption in this story misidentified the costume of Jo Anne Gonzalez Murphy. She is dressed as the wife of a 1718 Presidio San Antonio de Bejar soldier. John Igo, an acclaimed author, poet, theater critic and beloved college professor, left a rich personal legacy when he died in August 2016. He reigned for decades as San Antonios genial literary uncle, his obituary declared after Igos death at age 89 in a nursing home. Igo, who taught for 47 years at San Antonio College, left behind a city library that bears his name. He also left behind the seeds of a bitter family fight over his estate, that is worth at least $1 million, and includes land near the University of Texas at San Antonio. The legal confrontation, set for trial next month in Bexar County Probate Court, involves Igos only sibling, younger sister Maryhelen Clark, 79, and her estranged daughter Christine Kiesel, 60. He always said he didnt need a will because I was next in line and it would come to me automatically, like it has been done in the family for the last 100 years, Clark said. He always said, I want everything to go to my baby sister, she said. Clark said Igo owns about 9.5 acres off Hausman Road on the Northwest Side and that she and he jointly owned another 14.5 acres there, land that has been in the family since 1846. But less than three months before his death, Igo, who was childless and had no direct heirs, created a will that gave nothing to Clark. Signed by him in a barely legible scrawl, the will left most of his assets to Kiesel and a library at the University of the Incarnate Word. Contacted Monday, Kiesel declined to comment, citing the need to consult her attorney. Attempts in February to mediate a resolution among the parties failed. On March 26, a hearing is set on Kiesels motion for a summary judgment. If that is denied by Judge Kelly Cross, the case is set for trial on April 9. The central issue will be Igos mental competence when, in declining health and having had one or more strokes, he unexpectedly made critical changes to his estate plan. Besides creating a will that disinherited his sister, he granted medical and durable powers of attorney solely to Kiesel. There are problems with the will. There are people listed in the will who dont exist, said Samantha Brown, 59, another of Clarks daughters, who said she earlier shared power of attorney. According to family members, Igo was already afflicted with dementia and thus was in no condition to make such consequential legal moves. The medical records say it, not me, said Brown, Kiesels younger sister. A nurse reported that on May 23 (2016) he was in his underwear going door to door, banging on doors, saying he needed to see a doctor. He knows that they are trying to let him die. They made the notation that he was very disoriented and upset, said Brown. The following day, she said, Igo met with a lawyer over the will. Then, five days later, Brown added, medical records revealed another disturbing episode. On May 29, in the same period, he fell out of bed and said voices told him to get out of bed, she noted. Clark and Brown say all the legal changes were made without their knowledge, during a time when Kiesel had cut off communications and prevented them from seeing Igo. She didnt tell us he had had strokes. We called hospital after hospital to find out where he was. It got to be a nightmare, Brown said. In her pending motion for a summary judgment, Kiesel claims she was Igos closest niece and that it was his wish to retain San Antonio lawyer Carol Bertsch, who specializes in elder care, to prepare his will and make other changes. Ms. Kiesel had no involvement in the drafting of John Igos will, she asserted in the motion. She added further that according to Bertschs deposition, Igo told her, None to his sister. Kiesel also noted that two witnesses to the signing stated in their depositions that Igo appeared to know exactly what he was doing and thus was mentally competent. Since the undisputed testimony shows decedent had testamentary capacity on the day he signed his will, applicant and proponent Christine Kiesel is entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law, she concluded. In her deposition, Bertsch said she recalls Igo as being clear-minded and assertive. He was very specific about specific bequests, she said. She also said Kiesel was not present when Igo outlined his intended bequests. Under questioning by Clarks lawyer, however, Bertsch said she did not read the will to Igo or know if he read it by himself after it was sent to him for review. She further acknowledged she did nothing specific, such as conduct cognitive tests, to determine Igos mental state. I had no question about his mental capacity, she said. He was opinionated. He had a strong personality. He was not a shrinking violet, she testified. SAN ANGELO They were seeking to get their message out to Democratic Party primary voters who can elect them in eight weeks to face off against incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. They came to a most unlikely place to do so: A West Texas city known for its remoteness, in a county that has steadfastly voted for Republicans for decades. On Monday night, all 10 Democrats running for governor in the March 6 primary faced off in their first public forum by attacking Abbott for failing Texans on public education, in health care and foster care, on the push to pass the controversial bathroom bill and on expedited disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Harvey. Our state needs an outsider with a fresh perspective to fix this mess, Houston entrepreneur Andrew White, son of late Gov. Mark White, told the group in a message echoed by several of others. We live in Trumps prison now. I want to break Texas out. Ill restore sanity and bring hope to Texas. I can beat Greg Abbott, he said, a theme that the other candidates hammered home in extolling their own credentials. Citing her four decades of military service and as a federal agent, former Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez said her campaign is based on a simple premise: You have to learn how to serve, and serve in a way that does not hurt people. During the two-hour forum, which drew more than 100 Democratic Party faithful to San Angelo, the candidates offered a variety of ideas for things they want to change. San Antonio businessman Tom Wakely called for imposing a business income tax, ending the death penalty and open-carry of firearms, legalizing marijuana and adding new taxes on oil and gas production. The latter idea brought groans from several in the audience. White proposed a pay raise for teachers, to be funded by closing a loophole in property tax laws. He also called for a coastal spine and a new Houston reservoir to protect the coast against future hurricanes. Austin businessman James Jolly Clark called for a longer school day, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; huge cuts in property taxes; and the firing of state environmental regulators for doing a bad job protecting Texans. He also blasted the Republicans in Austin who he said wasted time on the controversial bathroom bill and are flushing our state down the toilet. Houston electronics businessman Joe Mumbach called for a $15 minimum wage, which he said will boost the states economy. He said Texas Democrats must convert Republicans to their views to win the election. Former Balch Springs Mayor Cedric Davis Sr. called for cash grants for Harvey victims to allow them to get back on their feet more quickly and for an end to state tax abatements that shortchange school programs. Houston mortgage broker Demetria Smith blasted Texas officials for not following the U.S. Constitution and said Texas needs a governor who will ensure compliance. Flower Mound financial analyst Adrian Ocegueda called for changes in campaign-finance laws and an end to politicians who dont know how to say no to money. Your voice is whats important, and your voice is what needs to be heard on Election Day, Dallas businessman Jeffery Payne said. Instead of a blue wave that Democrats are wanting next November, he said, I believe a blue tsunami will hit Texas. Retired Flint teacher Grady Yarborough used his time to focus on public education and health programs. Most of the candidates are unknown to most Texans, though a few, like Valdez, White and Davis, are relatively well-known in their hometowns. Most are struggling to raise campaign funds to get through the primary and then into the general election against Abbott, who reportedly has around $50 million in his war chest. Most also said they had no plans to campaign while they were in staunch GOP San Angelo. David Currie, chairman of the Tom Green Democratic Party, said that while Texas Democrats have been living in a political desert for 24 years, he hopes the large field of candidates who have filed to challenge Abbott could portend a change in state politics in the fall. I am hopeful that having this many candidates will energize people to think about the future of Texas, he said, and to vote for change. AUSTIN - As the fight for the Democratic nomination for governor heads toward a May 22 runoff, Houston businessman Andrew White on Tuesday called for debates with former Dallas County sheriff Lupe Valdez. The partys nominee for governor - whether its me or Lupe - should begin spring training now for the fall campaign against Greg Abbott, White, son of the late Democratic former Gov. Mark White, said in a statement. A few debates between the two of us before the runoff would make the eventual nominee all the stronger. And who doesnt love a good debate? Valdez is open to a debate, said her spokesman, Kiefer Odell, while taking a swing at Whites performance in the primary election. Valdez got nearly 43 percent of the primary vote, while White received over 27 percent. The runoff is required since no one got a majority. We will be glad to work out a debate schedule when the voters become more focused on the race, but this primary wont be won on 30-second debate responses, Odell said. While we understand why someone who received such low support in most of Texas' major urban areas and the Rio Grande Valley needs a debate to create buzz, Sheriff Valdez is focused on developing substantive relationships with voters across the state- just as she has done in Dallas County for the last 13 years. Its unclear how Valdez would fare in a debate, since she hasnt revealed well-developed policy positions and her knowledge of state government has been called into question. The Dallas Morning News, in endorsing White in the primary election, said that Valdez offered during an editorial board meeting that she didnt know whether Texas spent $8 million or $8 billion on border security. White urged the Texas Democratic Party and media outlets to sponsor debates. His campaign pointed out that the format could range from televised forums to Facebook Live. But Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the state party, said it has no plans to sponsor a debate at this time. He said the party hasnt previously hosted debates for statewide offices, and cited widespread criticism when the Democratic National Committee set a presidential debate schedule in 2016, with some thinking it gave Hillary Clinton an edge. The Texas Democratic Party has never hosted debates for statewide office. We are not the DNC, and we all know it didnt go so well for them on presidential debates, Garcia said. A number of people in the Democratic establishment favor Valdez, seeing her as a candidate who would attract voters in the general election. Valdez came from a migrant farmworker family to become the first woman, Latina and lesbian elected Dallas County sheriff, a post she resigned to run for governor. She has cited her experience in elected office as important, and her life experience as an impetus to fight to ensure others have the same opportunity she had at an education that allowed her to successfully pursue her goals. White, an entrepreneur, hasnt previously run for office but says he is the best-positioned candidate to face Abbott. He has defined positions on issues including education; says he can appeal to those who, like him, have moderate views; and says his business background gave him experience in thinking in an innovative way. We look forward to coordinating with our eventual gubernatorial nominee, Garcia said. Right now, the Texas Democratic Party is laser focused on building the coordinated campaign infrastructure necessary to win in November. That means developing innovative tech tools to engage voters, training activists and local leaders, building coalitions, honing our message, raising funds, and coordinating with our nominees up and down the ballot. Abbott, the Republican incumbent, is strongly favored in the general election, regardless of which Democrat wins the nomination. The Democratic candidates are underfunded, while Abbott had more than $40 million in his campaign account in the last finance report. A Democrat hasnt won a statewide election in nearly a quarter of a century. The San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association refused to show up at City Hall for a public meeting Tuesday that city officials had arranged with hopes of negotiating a new contract for municipal firefighters and paramedics. Instead the fire unions attorney sent a letter reinforcing a demand that the city drop its lawsuit over the terms of the firefighters collective bargaining agreement addressing firefighters pay, health benefits, hours and other terms of employment. That contract expired in 2014, but remains largely intact with most provisions still in effect under whats known as an evergreen clause. If the city dismisses its lawsuit, union officials will come to the table in seven days to begin negotiation discussions, union President Chris Steele said later Tuesday afternoon. City officials countered that they wont drop the lawsuit, noting the pending court case doesnt prevent negotiations for a new contract. They also noted the union refused to negotiate with the city for many months before the lawsuit was ever filed. One of the major issues central to the standoff is whether firefighters should pay any share of their health benefits. San Antonio firefighters currently pay no monthly premiums for health insurance covering themselves or their families, said Jeff Coyle, the citys director of government and public affairs. City officials said that practice is financially unsustainable with the skyrocketing costs of health care in recent years. There isnt an offer on the table right now, Coyle told reporters at the failed meeting. The two parties have to talk to start that conversation. And we dont understand at this point what is stopping us from just sitting down and beginning that conversation. The city wants a new contract that is fair to its employees and affordable to taxpayers, Coyle said. A Texas Supreme Court ruling on whether the evergreen clause is constitutional is likely at least a year away, he said. We want the public to know that the city is doing everything it can to try to find a resolution to this. I think people are tired of the issue, Coyle said. But Steele vowed that City Manager Sheryl Sculley is not going to break the firefighters. Steele said he will be at the negotiating table once the city dismisses its lawsuit. We dont get free health care. We have given up raises forever to keep a great health care plan, Steele said. At the end of the day, theyre spending money on lawsuits, he said of the city. The fire unions members have already given up more than $20 million in pay raises by being unwilling to negotiate a new contract for the past 31/2 years, Coyle said. That amount was calculated based on a 3 percent annual pay increase. During last years failed mediation talks, the city rejected a proposal that the fire union assume responsibility for firefighters health benefits, Steele said, which would have required employees to pay some share. We want to manage it, we want to run it, Steele said of firefighters health benefits Tuesday. We want the city manager to write one check once a year and never worry about the cost ever again. Any extra cost is borne by the members. City officials said the unions proposal would have allowed little to no municipal oversight of those health benefits. The proposal was rejected because it didnt ensure Fire Department employees would have sound health benefits for the future, Coyle said. Steele also said the city proposed a pay cut of $27 million for San Antonios firefighters during last years mediation discussions. But the city noted in a news release later Tuesday that it actually proposed a 12 percent pay increase over a five-year period and for firefighters to start contributing toward their health care costs. Both sides posted videos online Tuesday allowing the public to view last years mediation discussions, which ultimately reached an impasse on April 3. The fire union posted a 16-minute video on its YouTube page of what it called highlights of those mediation talks, while the city posted videos of the entire 26 hours of discussions on its collective bargaining website. PHILADELPHIA Mayor Ron Nirenberg returned to his alma mater Monday to talk about the arc of his political career and its underpinnings that are rooted at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Since he decided to run for the District 8 City Council seat in 2013, and eventually took on an underdog mayoral campaign in 2017, Nirenberg has always pointed to his time studying and working at the Annenberg and subsequently working for the Annenberg Public Policy Center as having developed his political ethos. In his hourlong lecture at the school, Nirenberg told an audience of about 100 students, faculty, administrators and alumni how he went from enrolling in the graduate program with the aspiration of becoming the beat writer for the Boston Red Sox to mayor of San Antonio. After he earned his masters of communication, Nirenberg went to work for the policy center as a program director, working across 22 cities to develop democracy particularly with young people. The world is convulsing with young people wanting to make changes in their community, he said, showing a video hed helped create of high-school students working to effect change in their neighborhood through municipal government. Those students werent old enough to vote, but Id venture to say that they were probably more informed than most voters. After nearly a decade working from San Antonio, but traveling around the U.S. for his work with the policy center, Nirenberg gave up the work so he and his wife, Erika Prosper, could focus on raising their son, Jonah, 9. They moved to the North Side of San Antonio to be close to an excellent early-childhood center, which he said was their top priority. My son was born in 2008, and we decided the most important thing for him was that we wanted to find a really good early childhood center, Nirenberg said. Hed started working as an associate general manager of Trinity Universitys jazz radio station and got involved with his neighborhood association to help feed his desire to remain civically engaged and to ensure that he was doing what he could to ensure his son would inherit a better world. Eventually, the then-District 8 councilman Reed Williams announced that he wouldnt seek re-election, and a smattering of friends encouraged Nirenberg to run for the seat. He launched his bid for the seat and eventually defeated the establishment candidate. Nirenbergs presentation of the 2018 George Gerbner Lecture in Communication included a PowerPoint presentation, and as he recalled his first campaign against Rolando Briones, he showed a rogue political hit piece that appeared in the district late in the 2013 election. The pink flyer includes a photo of a shirtless, young Nirenberg in a bodybuilding pose with the bottom half blurred to insinuate it was a lewd image. It also listed a smattering of statements some true, some false that aimed to tank his political career. Nirenberg told the audience the bulk of which is either studying or teaching communication that the flyer was an example of communication that degraded, rather than enhanced, the political conversation in the district. If you threaten that establishment, you will have the kitchen sink thrown at you, he said. Nirenberg told the audience about the white papers hed written and subsequently published and handed out, against the advice of his political consultant, who warned him that he was detailing an agenda he couldnt hedge on in the future. But he did it anyway, first when he ran for the council and again when he sought to oust then-Mayor Ivy Taylor. He also outlined other ways he communicates with San Antonians, through town halls, Facebook Live and other methods. Nirenberg showed a clip of a young Vietnamese girl singing about helping others, that we are not different; we are all the same, noting that hed represented one of the most diverse council districts in the city and perhaps the state. Theres a large population of refugees in that Northwest Side district, and though many of them may not be able to vote, theyre still constituents, he said. This is the ethic of our office. Be a better neighbor, Nirenberg said, noting that elected leaders should represent not only likely voters or those who agree with their politics, but everyone. It stands to reason, then, one of the things I learned is to make sure your values are expressed in the work you do. Nirenberg said he expressed that by taking action his first day in office, signing the Compassionate Cities charter and passing a resolution supporting the Paris climate accord. Soon after, he said, San Antonio took a stand against the Texas Legislatures anti-immigrant Senate Bill 4. San Antonio was the first city to push back against an anti-immigration bill, SB 4, he said. We sued. We were the first to sue and since then every major city has sued. As he closed his remarks, Nirenberg confessed that he was extraordinarily nervous. Though hes given major speeches before much larger audiences, this was the first time he stood before the professors who helped create who hes become. My life changed here. I learned what I needed to know, he said. (Annenberg) made me who I am today. I met my wife here and brought my son here for the first time. Amid long applause, he wiped his brow, exhaled and looked amazed by the reception. Earlier in the evening, scores of people gathered for a reception in his honor. Michael Delli Carpini, dean of the school, said he was excited to hear the mayor speak. Most graduates from Annenberg go into academia or nonprofit work, he said, and Nirenberg may be the first to hold elected office. Thats one of the reasons why I was excited to bring Ron back, he said, noting that the mayor has walked the walk of whats taught at the school. Nirenberg told the students gathered that what theyre studying is important, and they can have an impact on the world. I think its crucial, Delli Carpini said of Nirenbergs message. I think it opens up new possibilities for them. The six-candidate Republican primary for Texas House Speaker Joe Straus open seat narrowed to two on March 6, when Matt Beebe, a tea party-aligned IT business owner, and Steve Allison, an attorney and former VIA board vice chair, finished decisively ahead of the pack. The new race, leading to a May 22 runoff, sets up a clash between two candidates from different wings of the Texas GOP, set in the backyard of the speaker often found at the middle of his partys splintering. Both candidates entered the race with name recognition in District 121, which covers Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills, extending north past Loop 1604. Beebe, an Empower Texans-backed social conservative who twice opposed Straus in the primary, collected 29.5 percent of the vote. Allison, a longtime friend of Straus who said he did an outstanding job as speaker, drew 26.3 percent. No other candidate broke 14 percent. Its symbolically important because if youre thinking about the future of the GOP and where its going, this is Joe Straus district, said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones. If the movement conservatives are able to flip it, that has an impact on perception thats far greater than just one seat. Beebe won every precinct north of 1604 where at least 10 people voted, and most precincts north of San Antonio International Airport, an analysis of voter data by the San Antonio Express-News shows. Two precincts north of Wurzbach Parkway went to former Councilman Carlton Soules; in both areas, Beebe collected far more votes than Allison. Beebe Allison Soules Williamson Tie No votes Allisons strongest support came from the cluster of Alamo Heights, Terrell Hills and Olmos Park precincts, where he was known for serving on the board of the Alamo Heights Independent School District. In the precinct with the most votes cast, in Terrell Hills along the southern edge of the district, Allison received nearly six times as many votes as Beebe and drew 58 percent, his best showing in any precinct. Overall, Beebe won 42 precincts and Allison won 18, while the other candidates combined to win just five precincts where more than 10 votes were cast. Beebe and Allison each carried 13 of the 26 precincts where more than 250 votes were cast. Both candidates were largely unpopular in the areas where the other had his biggest support: In the 10 precincts where Allison drew his largest vote share excluding one where he received the lone vote cast he received 47.2 percent to Beebes 13.7 percent. In Beebes top 10 precincts, he received 44.9 percent to Allisons 17.2 percent. But the initial results only tell so much ahead of a runoff thats likely to see lower turnout and an unpredictable redistribution of voters who initially supported the four losing candidates: Soules, Adrian Spears, Charlotte Williamson and Marc Whyte. Runoffs are always a weird dynamic, said one local Republican consultant, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly about the race. Beebe supporters tend to be more dedicated, probably more likely to vote in a runoff, but I dont think theres enough of that overall to change the character of this district from what its been for the last dozen years or so. Whyte, an attorney who fit a similar pro-business conservative profile to Allison, finished with 12.4 percent of the vote and received his strongest support from areas where Allison performed well. His support might go largely toward Allison, Jones said, though he pointed out that Whyte voters could have opposed Allison for various reasons. Those initial results would suggest that some of those Whyte voters would be more likely to vote for Beebe than Allison in a runoff, Jones said. But are they motivated enough to vote for Allison to actually turn out and vote? An element thats likely to draw attention during the runoff is Beebes two-time opposition to Straus, in 2012 and 2014, in a district where the speaker has won every primary election with at least 60 percent of the vote. Viewed as a moderate, pro-business conservative, Straus first won election in 2005. Allison, asked about his differences with Beebe, seized on his opponents history with Straus. I think what we need to look at is, Matt Beebe attacked Joe quite a bit in prior campaigns and is quite opposed or opposite to Joe, Allison said in an interview Monday. Acknowledging his history with Straus as a bit of a looming shadow over the runoff, Beebe nonetheless said hed always run positive and message-focused campaigns against Straus, and that his supporting outside groups had emanated anti-Straus sentiment. Joe was a lightning rod for conservatives across the state, and they spent a lot of money dumping on those sort of proxy wars, whether it was me or (Jeff) Judson in 2016, Beebe said Monday. Every message weve ever sent out, every Facebook post, every email, every conversation, every mailer or push card, weve been positive, issues-oriented. And Ill continue to do that. Beebe added that hes running against Allison, not Straus, whether or not the speaker gets involved in the race. Straus could weigh in with an endorsement, or through some of the $10 million in unspent campaign cash hes pledged to put toward responsible Republicans. I think weve got enough contrast with Mr. Allison that well be able to demonstrate to voters that hes not the kind of conservative that they really want representing them, Beebe said. Allison, like in the first leg of the primary, presented his experience in the transportation and education fields, primarily as his top selling point, calling it the big distinction between himself and Beebe. For his part, Beebe said hes played a citizen activist role advocating for certain bills in front of the Legislature and developing relationships with a coalition of House members. I think my points and issues are resonating very, very well and are important to the district, Allison said. Property tax relief, school finance and education Im going to continue to focus on those same issues. The state has little to show by the way of public school finance reform as we approach the second anniversary of a Texas Supreme Court ruling that found the system deeply flawed but constitutional. Forgive us for being naive, but we expected state leaders to get moving quickly on improving the antiquated public school finance system after the May 2016 ruling. Its message seemed pretty clear. Texas more than 5 million school children deserve better than serial litigation over the increasingly Daedalean system. They deserve transformation, top-to-bottom reforms that amount to more than Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid. They deserve a revamped, nonsclerotic system fit for the 21st Century, the court said in its 100-page ruling. RELATED: Editorial: Public school finance woes carry long-term implications In last years legislative sessions since then, both regular and special, lawmakers spent more time debating the merits of a bathroom bill than it did tackling the decades-old problem of school funding. We now have another committee attempting to come up with recommendations. It convened for its first meeting in January. If we are fortunate, substantive legislation from the 86th Legislature will result from that effort. Reform cannot come soon enough. The students who began as first-graders in 2013 when the latest public school finance lawsuit was filed will be entering middle school in the fall of 2019. The only thing the foot dragging in Austin has produced is a growing list of school districts forced to seek tax increases to balance their budgets. Since 2006, more than 685 tax ratification elections have been held among the 1,018 Texas public school districts that impose a property tax, according to information compiled by Joe Smith, owner of texasisd.com, a clearinghouse of news and information for school officials. State law caps the maintenance and operations tax rates of districts at $1.17 per $100 of property value, and requires districts that want to levy a tax rate higher than $1.04 to seek permission from voters through a tax ratification election, or TRE. RELATED: Gov. Greg Abbott takes fresh aim at local officials' ability to raise property taxes Not all TREs are successful; some school districts, including the San Antonio Independent School District, have had to go to the voters multiple times to get approval. Smiths data indicate 534 slightly more than half of the school districts that collect state taxes have been successful with their tax-hike requests. In Bexar County, in addition to SAISD, Edgewood, Somerset, Southside, Harlandale and Alamo Heights ISDs have had successful TREs. Two others may soon join their ranks. The South San Antonio Independent School District is considering asking taxpayers for a property tax increase this summer to counter a decline in enrollment. Without the hike, the beleaguered school district will have to cut more than $7 million from next years budget, school district officials said. Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District trustees are also considering asking voters to approve a tax ratification election. The projected $5.8 million in revenue would help counter decreased enrollment and an anticipated reduction in state funding next year. State lawmakers like to brag they are keeping taxes down, but are they really? The states share of public school funding has slowly dwindled over the last decade. In the 2016-17 school year, the state picked up only 48.4 percent of the tab, and that share it is expected to keep going lower. There is simply no cost savings in that when the taxpayers back home have to vote to impose a higher tax on themselves to make up the difference. And any bill as some have proposed that would cap the tax increases a district could levy would simply be counterproductive, shortchanging students. The Legislature must fix this. Seems the president of San Antonios firefighter union could have much better use of his time than taking on the city charter. Foolish of me to think his focus would be on his members skills, training and professionalism oh, yeah, not to mention wrapping up good-faith negotiations for a firefighter contract that is fair but keeps the city fiscally sound, something the police union responsibly saw fit to do awhile back. Instead, he expands his portfolio to make unwise recommendations on city governance and financial stewardship. Lets see starting an external war to divert attention from the unresolved issues at hand. Seems like a pretty transparent political tactic from the failed-leader playbook. Brian Clearman Picking new targets I have long lamented the rapid decline of civility in politics, but this primary election brought some justice to the equation: District Attorney Nico LaHoods vicious, false and vile campaign ads brought his candidacy to a screeching halt! He can now employ his offensive tactics against some poor wretch in the private sector. Michael Aratingi Ad the culprit As an 88-year-old woman with no clout whatsoever, I was unfortunately not a beneficiary of George Soros generosity, so my vote in Joe Gonzales favor in the Democratic primary for district attorney cant be attributed to that. I think Nico LaHood needs look no further than his own disgusting advertising to find the culprit. (Well, he might have had a little boost along the path to his loss from Brian Chasnoff thank you, Brian!) Barbara Ridgeway Empty caroling A man with no shame also has no conscience. When Carlos Uresti was convicted, it was not the verdict he was expecting. Hooray for the jury and the judge who will give Uresti some long years (hopefully) to think about how he did nothing wrong. Could it be the tip of the iceberg that will soon emerge? I guess singing Christmas carols didnt show you had a heart. Fred Machado Its about fairness Re: Not so biased, Your Turn, Thursday: A reader claims that out of 143 letters the Express-News published in February, 42 percent were pro-Trump, thinking it was mildly biased. In a current CNN poll, Trump has an approval rating of 35 percent, so 42 percent does not seem biased at all. Perhaps it was even generous of former CIA chief John Brennan to call Donald Trump an unstable, inept, inexperienced and unethical man. We know that for years the Express-News has maintained fairness to all sides, but these are unusual times for us with this current chaotic administration, and we do need these letters to inform the majority opinions. Adam Castillo Smoke indicates fire There are a couple of things that make me wonder if Russia has compromising material on Donald Trump. I will begin with Trumps decision not to offer Mitt Romney the position of secretary of state. Was it Trumps decision, or could it be that Vladimir Putin vetoed the choice? After all, Romney had called Russia our No. l geopolitical foe back in 2012. Then there is the fact that the House voted 419-3 and the Senate 98-2 for Russian sanctions, and yet the president has refused to implement them. I, for one, am not willing to accept Trumps portrayal of Robert Muellers investigation as a witch hunt. To repeat a cliche, Where theres smoke, theres usually a fire! Carl Lloyd Share gun blame Both Democrats and Republicans need to take some of the responsibility for these mass shootings. They never extended the ban on assault weapons. Lives should be more important than the NRA. Brian Kelly NRA not infallible Re: Attack NRA and youre also attacking hero, Marc A. Thiessen, Other Views, March 3: If assault-style weapons, weapons of war, were not available to any citizen, good and bad, there would be little need to defend against them. Mr. Thiessen advances the provocative argument that to criticize the NRA, for any reason, is to not recognize the sacrifice and heroism of Stephen Willeford, the citizen-savior of the Sutherland Springs massacre. One can praise his decisive action, and one can also acknowledge the good the NRA does writ large on gun safety, yet still criticize the NRA for the stranglehold it has on our legislators in crafting meaningful gun safety legislation that the majority of citizens are demanding. Mr. Thiessens less than nuanced viewpoint dumbs down the seriousness that good policy requires. We owe this to the thousands of our fellow Americans who have been killed and maimed by these weapons of war. Pamela Wessel, Bulverde Regulation the key The NRA says, The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. How about no one carrying a gun except law enforcement? The constitution allows a well-regulated militia, regulated being the key word. Vicki Seifert, Fredericksburg Its a pro-life issue The issue of unlimited gun rights should be a pro-life issue. There is simply no way to justify being fiercely protective of unborn children while turning a blind eye to the slaughter of Americas school-age children. Alonso Buitron No enlightenment I thought that, at 75, I would understand most everything, be it life, religion or politics. But now I see that I know less than when I started. Frank C. Zieglar, Hondo Postdoctoral Researcher in The Global Mediterranean at Ohio State PRESENTATION The Departments of Comparative Studies, French and Italian, German Languages and Literatures, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and The Film Studies Program, within the College of Arts and Sciences, seeks a Postdoctoral Researcher to join our team. The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest college and the academic heart of the university. The College hosts 81 majors. With 38 departments, 20+ world-class research centers, and more than 2,000 faculty and staff members, students have the unique opportunity to study with the best artists, scholars, and scientists in their field. The College values diversity and offers a supportive, open, and inclusive community. The Departments of Comparative Studies, French and Italian, German Languages and Literatures, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and The Film Studies Program at The Ohio State University invite applications for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in the area of The Global Mediterranean. We seek an emerging scholar or artist with proven interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary interests working on global migration, specifically Middle East/North Africa flows to southern and northern Europe. Specializations may include areas such as Mediterranean Studies with research and creative interests in migration studies; global migration studies; refugee and migration issues; the global south; translation studies; documentary filmmaking; screen studies; visual culture; urban geographies; environmental studies (water). While the topical focus and geographic areas are open, the successful candidate must be able to address these issues in an interpretative framework. We seek a colleague who has the resources to: 1) develop and contribute to interdisciplinary initiatives in research or creative work and teaching with departments, programs, and centers; 2) offer innovative cross-listed and collaborative graduate and undergraduate courses; 3) mentor undergraduate and graduate students interested in issues of migration and globalization; and 4) who will be an active member of the Migration Studies working group and will be instrumental in the creation of a Mediterranean Studies working group. We are also interested in applicants who could be involved in outreach efforts with migrant groups in Columbus and thus serve as a bridge between OSU and the community. The fellowship carries a one course per semester teaching load (four courses total over two years). This is a twelve-month appointment beginning August 2018 that is renewable for up to two years. The successful candidate will be affiliated with one or more of the sponsoring units: The Department of Comparative Studies; The Film Studies Program; The Department of French and Italian; The Department of German Languages and Literatures; The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. APPLICATION Application details will be forthcoming by the end of March, 2018. The Ohio State University is committed to establishing a culturally and intellectually diverse environment, encouraging all members of our learning community to reach their full potential. To build a diverse workforce, The Ohio State University encourages applications from all individuals. Ohio State is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration This fellowship is made possible by Ohio States Humanities and the Arts Discovery Theme. Two Connecticut-named submarines broke through the pack ice Saturday in the Arctic Circle. The Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Hartford and Seawolf-class fast attack submarine, USS Connecticut both surfaced during the multinational maritime Ice Exercise 2018 in the Arctic Circle, north of Alaska. Both fast-attack submarines, as well the UK Royal Navy submarine HMS Trenchant, are participating in the biennial exercise in the Arctic to train and validate the warfighting capabilities of submarines in extreme cold-water conditions. From a military, geographic, and scientific perspective, the Arctic Ocean is truly unique, and remains one of the most challenging ocean environments on earth, Rear Admiral James Pitts, Commodore, Undersea Warfighting Development Center, said in a U.S. Navy release. ICEX provides the U.S. Submarine Force and partners from the Royal Navy an opportunity to test combat and weapons systems, sonar systems, communications and navigation systems in a challenging operational environment. The unique acoustic undersea environment is further compounded by the presence of a contoured, reflective ice canopy when submerged. According to Pitts, operating in the Arctic ice alters methods and practices by which submarines operate, communicate and navigate. We must constantly train together with our submarine units and partners to remain proficient in this hemisphere, Pitts said. Having both submarines on the surface is a clear demonstration of our proficiency in the Arctic. In recent years, the Arctic has been used as a transit route for submarines. The most recent ICEX was conducted in 2016 with USS Hampton and USS Hartford. The first Arctic under-ice operations by submarines were done in 1947-49. On Aug. 1, 1947, the diesel submarine USS Boarfish with Arctic Submarine Laboratory's founder Dr. Waldo Lyon onboard serving as an Ice Pilot, conducted the first under-ice transit of an ice floe in the Chukchi Sea. In 1958, the nuclear-powered USS Nautilus made the first crossing of the Arctic Ocean beneath the pack ice. The first Arctic surfacing was done by USS Skate in March 1959. USS Sargo was the first submarine to conduct a winter Bering Strait transit in 1960. The units participating in the exercise are supported by a temporary ice camp on a moving ice floe approximately 150 miles off the coast of the northern slope of Alaska in international waters. The ice camp, administered by the Arctic Submarine Laboratory, is a remote Arctic drifting ice station, built on multi-year sea-ice especially for ICEX that is logistically supported with contract aircraft from Deadhorse, Alaska. The ice camp will be de-established once the exercise is over. GREENWICH Calling it nothing short of groundbreaking, the Greenwich United Way is getting set to unveil its new Early Childhood Achievement Gap Solutions Program. Designed to close the achievement gap in student performance in town classrooms, the program will be conducted as a partnership with Greenwich Public Schools, the YMCA of Greenwich, Family Centers and others. Im not sure anyone else has tried to address the achievement gap in this way yet, said David Rabin, CEO of the Greenwich United Way. No one agency can solve the achievement gap issue. But when you unite several agencies together, you have a greater opportunity to do so. This is a research-based, data-driven solution. Some $1.26 million has been raised to fund the program for three years. It will have a two-pronged approach. First will be an in-home birth-to-3 component called Parents as Teachers, followed by an instructional program in preschools run by the YMCA and Family Centers. At-risk kids in Greenwich enter school scoring 28 points to 36 points behind their peers on standardized tests, Rabin said. Our three priority areas for this year are early childhood education, mental health and self-sufficiency, Rabin said. This strikes right at the heart of what were doing. This is going to get them on a level playing field. Its proven by data that when an at-risk child goes through these two programs, theyre going to get on that level playing field with their peers. The program will be formally launched at 9 a.m. May 15 at Greenwich Library. Janice Gruendel, an expert in early childhood education from the Ziglar Institute at Yale University, will deliver an address on its benefits. Launching in May will enable work to begin during the summer before the new school year starts, Rabin said. The effort has the endorsement of Superintendent of Schools Jill Gildea. The school district is assisting with the hiring to staff the program, Rabin said. With focus, attention and efforts, the Greenwich community has coalesced around Early Childhood Achievement Gap Solutions in an effort to eradicate pervasive gaps that are evident as early as during the preschool years, Gildea said. With this intervention program and services model, our most vulnerable youth receive expert attention, care and support in an effort to better prepare them to access educational experiences. Rabin gave credit to Nancy Weissler for spearheading the effort. A Greenwich United Way board member and former chairman of the town Board of Education, Weissler has seen first-hand the effects of the achievement gap. This is someone who knows what she is doing when it comes to research, Rabin said. She is our volunteer lead on this. The United Way is looking for more donors to learn about the program and support it. More information is available at www.greenwichunitedway.org. Donors have been excited to support the program, Rabin said. Early childhood education is something that really tugs at the heartstrings, he said. Having children entering kindergarten on a level playing field helps everyone. For every dollar invested in a program like this, there is an $8.60 return, and everyone would want a return on investment like that. People would give all their money for a return like that. by Anthony Cervino | Tue, Mar 13th 9:52am EDT NFL Network's Ian Rapoport is reporting the New Orleans Saints and QB Drew Brees have agreed to terms on a two-year $50 million deal including $27 million of guaranteed money. (Ian Rapoport on Twitter) Fantasy Impact: Although Brees garnered interest from the Vikings, he re-signed with the Saints, as we all expected. It looks like Brees, who just turned 39, will finish his career in New Orleans. His contract expires in 2020. New in to sale Looking to sell? Try SecondLife New in to sale 25 new names to know Delivery Destination or Region Greece 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. Action is being taken across the Lake District National Park to protect livestock during lambing season following tragedy in recent years. As spring sets in, farmers across the region are preparing for a challenging season for their flock, as a growing number of livestock worrying incidents are recorded across the UK. Because of the increased incidents, the Lake District National Park is providing free signage for local farmers to remind dog owners to keep their dogs under close control. The threat of dogs stressing a lambing sheep, also known as sheep worrying, is of great concern to farmers. It can lead to injury and even cause the ewe to abort the lamb. The National Park is calling out to dog owners to avoid tragedy this year. The Lake District appointed its first ever dedicated Farming Officer, Briony Davey, last year. She said it is "important" that people understand why they are being asked to keep their dogs under close control at this "crucial time of year". Ms Davey said: Its a time when the National Park starts to come alive, and we would like as many people to get out and enjoy this beautiful place as possible. We just ask people to be aware of the impact they can have and please keep their dogs under close control, preferably on a lead. Lambing signs Whilst many dog owners in the region are used to taking care around livestock, some walkers are unaware that if their dog was to chase the sheep, even if they dont attack, pregnant ewes and lambs can become distressed or stumble and fall, which can result in a tragedy. Breeder Jean Wilson, from Matterdale said: This time last year I lost a valuable Herdwick ram worried by a stray dog. I am grateful to the Lake District National Park for showing their support to us farmers by supplying lambing signs to hopefully avoid a repeat of that horrible ordeal. Also in support of protecting local livestock, and the livelihood of Lake District farmers, is Cumbria Tourism who is including guidance in its upcoming Dogs Love Cumbria guide about responsible dog ownership. Gill Haigh, Managing Director, Cumbria Tourism said: Dogs are very welcome visitors in Cumbria, and we know that the county is growing in popularity with dog-owners, hardly surprising given the world class walking landscape. Many of our tourism business members provide first class dog friendly facilities too. We would ask all our visitors to share our collective responsibility for protecting our world-class environment and that includes keeping dogs under close control around livestock, particularly during lambing time. Thousands of British farmers are still in the dark over 2017 BPS payments which in turn is causing ongoing cash flow pressures. Over 3,000 farmers and growers await the payments, and the NFU has now called for improved communications and efficiency from the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). Despite over 95% of farmers in England receiving their payment, unpaid farmers still do not know the status of their 2017 claims ahead of completing forms for BPS 2018, which opens today. The NFU has said the lack of payment and communication to these farmers is causing ongoing cash flow pressures and leaves them unable to plan properly. In January, the government confirmed that farmers who havent received BPS money by the end of March will be offered a bridging payment of 75% in April. But NFU Vice President Stuart Roberts said the NFU has "repeatedly and consistently" raised concerns with the RPA over the progress and delivery of BPS payments. He said they are "key" in managing farm businesses, especially during recent severe weather which has caused some farmers to endure additional costs. Mr Roberts said: We have asked the RPA what more can be done to get affected farmers payments out of the door as soon as possible. Since the last announcement in January, the number of farmers paid has only risen by 2.5 percentage points. Over the past few years we have seen a fall in the progress of BPS payments after December. 'Lack of communication' The Vice President said it is "disappointing" to see a lagging of progress "yet again". He continued: It is equally important that farmers are contacted in the event of payment issues. Many of our members have continued to report to us that they are unable to get any meaningful updates and this lack of communication leaves cash flow planning impossible. While we are glad that the RPA listened to our call for bridging payments, and these are expected next month, it is disappointing to see this take several months to land with farmers. We need to see as many farmers paid in full and receiving accurate payments this month. He said the farming industry should never be reaching the point where bridging payments become necessary. The NFU said it is "concerned" that the number of bridging payments issued by the RPA may be more than last year, if payment performance does not pick up in March. Mr Roberts continued: BPS 2018 looks to be another challenging year with farmers up and down the country needing to make additional mapping changes. Were also urging the RPA to clear all outstanding cases, with some dating back as long as 2015. This needs completing as soon as possible to enable an efficient and improved service for 2018. A Magazine Had Asked Me To Do A Shoot With Sridevi "I've been an absolutely huge fan of Sridevi. She was my number one favourite. I told Boney [Kapoor] fairly recently that when I was new in the industry, a magazine asked me to do a shoot with Sridevi.'' I Was In Love With Her ''I can't tell you how nervous I was. In my heart, I was so afraid that when I would come in front of her, she would understand in two seconds that this boy is in love with her. I was smitten, totally." Aamir Deeply Disturbed By The Untimely Demise Of Sridevi Aamir Khan had posted on his social media account, "I am deeply disturbed and saddened by the untimely and tragic passing away of Sridevi.I have always been a huge fan of her work. Equally I have always been an admirer of the grace and dignity with which she conducted herself. My heartfelt condolences to everyone in the family. I join all the millions of her fans in mourning her demise. Ma'am, we will always remember you with love and respect." The Superstar Knows How Sridevi Got Drowned Trade Analyst Komal Nahata revealed Aamir Khan's words in his blog. He wrote, ''Over the telephone, Boney and Aamir got talking about the unfortunate demise when the former started to recount the chain of events in brief, leading to the horrifying end. Hearing this, Aamir instantly recalled how a very dear friend of his had, a couple of years ago, almost lost his wife in the bathtub." The Same Incident Happened With Aamir's Friend's Wife ''It had so happened that Aamir's close friend was on a holiday abroad, with his wife. While there, the wife had one day gone to the bathroom for a bath in the tub. Not having much to do, the husband, after a while, entered the bathroom, wanting to chat with the wife while she bathed in the tub.'' She Was Suffering From Low Blood Pressure ''To his shock, he saw about half his wife's face, including the nose, submerged in the water. Calling her out by her name, the man saw her stare at him blankly and make some feeble sounds. Wondering what was happening, the man shouted out to his wife, ran towards her and still screaming her name, pulled her out of the bathtub.'' "What had happened," said Aamir to Boney, "was that my friend's wife suffered from low blood pressure, and when she lay in the bathtub in extremely hot water, with her entire body, except her head, in the water, the blood pressure went further down.'' Ranveer Singh & Arjun Kapoor to face JAIL term in AIB case ? | FilmiBeat The Bombay High Court today refused to grant any interim relief to actors Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor on an FIR filed against them and some other film personalities in 2015 for allegedly using obscene and abusive language during the comedy event 'AIBKnockout'. A bench of justices R M Savant and Sarang Kotwal directed the actors' lawyer to first serve a copy of their plea to one of the complainants in the case, activist Santosh Dundkar. The actors had urged the court to direct, by way of an interim relief, the Pune and Mumbai police to refrain from taking any coercive action against them. The bench, however, said it will consider the prayer only after the complainant was provided a copy of the petition, and scheduled the matter for further hearing on April 3. On December 20, 2014, Singh and Kapoor, along with 10 other celebrities, including Karan Johar, Deepika Padukone, and members of the AIB team, had performed at a charity event in Worli area here. The video of the event was uploaded on YouTube a year later and it went viral. In February 2015, Dundkar filed a complaint with the chief metropolitan magistrate of Girgaon court, alleging that the show was "vulgar, obscene...pornographic." The court then ordered that an FIR be registered against all the 10 people. Soon after, another FIR was registered against all 10 of them in Pune following a complaint by a local alleging obscenity during the event. Singh and Kapoor approached the high court earlier this year after they received summons from the Pune police, directing them to visit the police station for questioning and recording their statements. They claimed in their plea that the FIRs against them bore an ulterior motive.They also alleged that the FIRs were filed with a "mischievous" and mala fide intent, and sought that the same be quashed. Later, another bench of the Bombay High Court had granted an interim relief to Padukone, Johar, and the AIB members and directed both the Mumbai and Pune police not to take any coercive action against them until further orders. Credits - PTI Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Naresh Agarwal, along with three other party leaders - Nitin Agarwal, Mukesh Agarwal and Madhu Mishra - joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday. Their initiation into the party took place in the presence of Union Minister Piyush Goyal, at the BJP headquarters in Delhi. Addressing the press, Agarwal made a very indecent remark on Jaya Bachchan and said, "My status was reduced to that of a film actor. Because of her, the ticket was not given to me, which I did not find right. I just want to serve the BJP, I have no conditions and no demand for a ticket in the Rajya Sabha." His remark did no go down well with the leaders of his new party. Senior leader Sushma Swaraj welcomed Agarwal on board but said his comment is not acceptable. She wrote, "Shri Naresh Agarwal has joined Bhartiya Janata Party. He is welcome. However, his comments regarding Jaya Bachhan ji are improper and unacceptable." While Sushma Swaraj condemned his statement, Twitterati demanded a stricter punishment and insisted the BJP government to sack him so that he teaches his lesson! Aishwarya Rai Bachchan To Romance THIS SUPERSTAR In Woh Kaun Thi Remake? Following this, Brakha Dutt tweeted, "The last time someone called a female actor 'nachne wali' was the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid for @AzmiShabana on my show We The People. I removed him from the show. #NareshAgarwal needs a boot from the BJP. That would be fitting." Author Shobha De also slammed the politician and tweeted, "Shame on you Naresh Agarwal. You are a disgrace. You won't make the cut even as a sidey naachnewala. BJP should make this man apologise immediately." From linking the names of Hindu gods with alcohol to suggesting that former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav was a terrorist, he has always triggered row with his irresponsible statements. Triple Talaq: Naresh Agarwal drew flak for calling Muslim women demanding a strict law against Triple Talaq as non-Muslims and BJP supporters. The Muslim women who were present at the Rajya Sabha gallery to watch the Triple Talaq debate were termed BJP supporters by Agarwal. Lynching debate: A massive uproar broke out in the Rajya Sabha last year when the SP MP linked the names of Hindu gods with alcohol. He narrated an incident in 1991 when he visited a school that was turned into a jail. He said the names of some Hindu deities linked to some types of alcohol were written on the wall of the school. Pointing towards the treasury bench, Agarwal said these lines were written by "your people". Inputs From PTI Is Kasam Going Off Air? Although the channel had repeatedly refuted the rumours, there are reports that Kratika is pregnant and might quit the show. A leading daily confirmed that the show won't go off air. A source was quoted by the leading daily as saying, "Kasam is economically viable for the producers. Also, it recently got a year's extension." Kratika Is NOT Planning To Renew Her Contract! The source further added, "Kratika is not pregnant, but she is not planning to renew her contract. She feels that the role is getting monotonous and she wants to try new things." Kratika & Nikitin It has to be recalled that the actress had recently been on a vacation to Maldives with her husband, Nikitin Dheer. She was seen scuba diving and had also shared pictures from the trip. Kratika Is NOT Pregnant The actress clarified that she is not pregnant and as of now, she has no plans to quit the show! She said, "I just returned from a scuba diving trip. Had I been pregnant, my doctor would not have allowed it." The Actress Is NOT Quitting The Show! Kratika further added, "Rumours of the show going off air and me quitting it have been doing the rounds for many months. As of now, I am not leaving it." Kasam Latest Update: Rishi & AK Search For Tanuja Coming back to the show, in the latest episode, we saw as to how goons attack Rishi in the mall. Rishi and AK (Abhishek Khuranna) fight the goons and go in search for Tanuja. Family Members Worried Meanwhile, outside the mall, the family members are worried about Rishi and Tanuja. Manpreet is worried about Rishi and he too, goes inside the mall to save his brother. Kids Arrive At The Spot! On the other hand, the kids, Tania and Natasha arrive at the spot. Seeing her chachu (Manpreet) enter the mall, Natasha too, goes inside to search her mother. Rano and Netra are fed up of Tanuja as they feel that because of her, Rishi gets into trouble. Raj shouts at Netra for cursing Tanuja. Rishi Rescues Tanu! Tanuja hears Natasha's voice and shouts as to what she is doing in the mall. The goon hits Tanuja, who shouts for help. The police enter the mall and finally, Rishi manages to rescue Tanuja. Oman Air Upgrades, Intros New Routes and Amenity Kits to Challenge Its Gulf Carrier Rivals With dramatic moves to upgrade equipment, facilities and amenities, Oman Air is signaling that it is ready to compete with its better-known regional rivals Qatar, Etihad and Emirates. Although Oman Air has many of the same advantages of other flag carriers from Persian Gulf nations, the airline doesnt have quite the same reputation for opulence as Gulf airlines like Qatar, Emirates and Etihad Aways. FlyerTalk forums have given Oman Air mixed reviews when it comes to offering the high-end travel experience so many passengers have come to expect from the Gulf airlines. Many of the objections to flying on the smaller, less well-known airline stem from Omans use of some aircraft that are leased from Kenya Airways. Other air travelers cite the carriers less than ideal facilities at its Muscat International Airport (MCT), a limited route map and in-flight amenities that fall short of other Gulf carriers despite the best efforts of cabin crew members. It seems that this forgotten kid brother in the regions thriving aviation industry has been hard at work trying to stoke a bit of sibling rivalry Oman Air has addressed its most glaring weaknesses in rapid succession. Officials say the airline will open a long-planned, brand-new, state-of-the-art terminal at MCT. While the new facility was under construction, passengers were forced to rely on shuttle busses to transport them to a disused older terminal nearby. Last month, the airline took delivery of its first new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Oman expects to add at least 30 new 737 MAX planes to its fleet in the coming months. Oman has worked hard to boost its international reach. In just the last month, the airline has announced new routes to Istanbul Ataturk Airport (IST), Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) and Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport (CMN). This week, Oman officials even unveiled new premium cabin amenity kits. Announcing new inflight amenities, the airline makes no secret that it is out to capture a reputation for elegance that has so far only been enjoyed by the likes of regional rivals Qatar, Etihad and Emirates. The development of new amenity kits and inflight products complements Oman Airs ambitious program to improve their service whilst supporting its dynamic fleet and network expansion, the airline explained in a March 11 statement. Oman Air is committed to constantly improving its product, developing its brand and offering its guests a unique experience. Oman Air says it is not just ready to compete with its regional competition, but also plans to copy a highly successful point-to-point international business model that has been employed by other airlines in the Gulf region with geographically advantageous bases of operations. Oman says it turned to a surprising example for its inspiration. The new model emulates the best practices by countries that have similar position as that of Oman such as Iceland, airline officials explained in a statement in February. Since adapting the destination business model, Iceland Air has increased the number of tourists five-fold since 2010 and delivered profitable growth. [Photo: Shutterstock] Last quarter, General Electric (NYSE:GE) surpassed its free cash flow forecast by a stunning $2.7 billion, even though EPS barely reached the low end of guidance. Nevertheless, several GE analysts continue to warn investors about the company's weak balance sheet and a potential "cash crunch." These bearish analysts seem to ignore General Electric's asset sale plans, though. The main goal of slimming down is that a more focused GE would be more likely to achieve strong long-term financial performance. However, there will also be a series of cash windfalls in the next two years or so, which will help the company clean up its balance sheet while maintaining its dividend. Lining up asset sale deals GE has already launched the asset sale process. Last September, it agreed to sell its Industrial Solutions unit -- part of its troubled power segment -- to ABB for $2.6 billion. The sale price represents a hefty valuation of 12 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It looks like General Electric's iconic lighting division will be the next to go, as the company follows through on a plan to exit its consumer-facing businesses. Last month, GE reached a deal to sell much of its overseas lighting business (along with its automotive lighting unit) to a former executive. This month, GE began shopping the remainder of its lighting operations, including the key U.S. business. It has attracted interest from at least two Chinese companies, and some of GE's domestic competitors may also bid. The sale could potentially raise about $1 billion. General Electric also recently hired bankers to market its industrial gas engine business. This piece of the struggling power segment could be worth $2 billion in a sale, according to Reuters. The biggest asset sales probably won't occur until 2019. Most notably, GE is likely to jettison its entire rail-focused transportation segment. It may also sell part or all of its massive aircraft leasing unit, its healthcare IT business, and other parts of its power business. The Baker Hughes stake will also generate cash General Electric's 62.5% stake in Baker Hughes, a GE Company (NYSE:BKR) could be another significant source of cash in the next few years. General Electric has agreed to hold on to its Baker Hughes shares until at least mid-2019. During that time, it will get 62.5% of the cash from any share repurchases by Baker Hughes, without having its stake diluted. Given that Baker Hughes announced a $3 billion share buyback program last fall -- and has billions of dollars of cash on its balance sheet -- the proceeds to GE will be significant. After the lockup period expires, there's a good chance that General Electric will look to unload its Baker Hughes stake. That stake is currently worth about $21 billion, but its value could rise significantly if oil prices continue to trend higher and Baker Hughes achieves its merger synergy targets. 2019 earnings per share estimates for Baker Hughes cover a wide range from $1.27-$1.95, reflecting analysts' uncertainty about the company's outlook. If Baker Hughes' EPS is trending toward the upper part of that range, GE's stake could be worth far more than $21 billion by the time the lockup period expires. That will be good for investors, regardless of whether General Electric sells its stake for cash or spins it off to shareholders. The cash crunch fears are unfounded Late last year, GE cut its quarterly dividend from $0.24 to $0.12. The company has 8.7 billion shares outstanding, so its dividend now represents an annual cost of $4.2 billion. General Electric already generates enough free cash flow to cover this payout, even if you exclude parts of the company that are likely to be sold. As a result, GE will be able to put all of its asset sale proceeds toward shoring up its balance sheet. It should be able to dramatically improve its pension funding over the next few years while also reducing its debt. By the time GE's asset sales start to wind down, the underlying cash flow from its remaining businesses should rebound. Furthermore, General Electric's two big secular growth businesses -- aviation and healthcare -- are likely to drive steady free cash flow growth beyond 2020. Anytime Fitness Celebrates Its 4,000th Gym In Shanghai, China The World's Fastest-Growing Gym will soon be the Only Franchise on All 7 Continents WOODBURY, Minn. - March 13, 2018 // PRNewswire // - Anytime Fitness, the world's fastest growing fitness center for 10 consecutive years, will celebrate the opening of its 4,000th gym March 16th in Shanghai, China. Additionally, after formalizing an agreement to open gyms in Morocco, Anytime Fitness will pursue plans to open at least one new gym in Antarctica - which would make Anytime Fitness the first franchise in history with locations on all seven continents. Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8220551-anytime-fitness-gym-number-4000/ "Our mission is to 'Improve the self-esteem of the world,'" said Chuck Runyon, the CEO and co-founder of Anytime Fitness. "It may sound like an audacious goal, but we're very serious about it. We'll soon have 4,000 gyms open in more than 30 countries on all seven continents. Each of those gyms supports a small community of like-minded individuals who are determined to enjoy healthier, happier and more active lifestyles. That's what we mean by 'Improving the self-esteem of the world.'" We All Hate Burpees: Video Complete with a Chinese dragon dance and a ceremonial groundbreaking, the 4,000th gym celebration will take place at an Anytime Fitness gym currently under construction in Shanghai. Anytime Fitness is the first and only U.S.-based gym to have been granted a franchising license in China. Currently there are 11 Anytime Fitness gyms open and operating in China. "We are based in community areas within walking distance of where people live and work and we reach out to people in a way that is non-intimidating, relatable and personable," said Maurice Levine, the master franchisee for Anytime Fitness in China. "Less than 1% of the 1.4 billion people who live in China are members of a health club. We are poised to introduce high-quality health and fitness programs throughout the entire country." Record-Setting Growth Rate Inc.com recently referred to Anytime Fitness as "fastest-growing fitness franchise of all time." Founded in 2002, it took Anytime Fitness just 16 years to reach 4,000 gyms. Only one other company has reached 4,000 franchised units faster. Subway did it in 15 years. And only a tiny percentage (.005%) of all franchises have 4,000 units. Additionally, according to FRANData, Anytime Fitness is just one of 15 franchisors located in 30 or more countries. "We built the franchise by focusing on convenience, affordability and a friendly, supportive atmosphere," said Runyon. "That will never change. But we've sustained and, in many areas, accelerated our growth by expanding our programming and benefits for members. Specifically, our new group training sessions and our mobile app - which serves as a personal trainer in your pocket - have been wildly popular and will contribute to our future growth." Africa First And Then Antarctica Within the next few weeks, Anytime Fitness expects to formalize an agreement with master franchisees to open dozens of gyms in Morocco within five years. That entre into Africa means that the franchise will almost certainly have gyms open in 32 countries on six continents by the end of this year. Runyon's next goal is to become the first franchise in history with locations open and operating on all seven continents. "We've already begun exploring options for Antarctica," he said. "It's going to happen - and sooner than you might think." Total revenues for Anytime Fitness, its parent company, Self Esteem Brands, and its master franchisees are expected to top $2 Billion in 2018. "Our purpose, very simply, is to help people get to a healthier place," said Dave Mortensen, the president and co-founder of Anytime Fitness. "To help as many people as possible, we're constantly striving to provide our franchisees with the support, the tools and the technology they need to best serve their members. We've been successful because we work hard, not merely to meet the ever-changing preferences of fitness consumers, but to anticipate them." Join In Seattle, Workout In Sydney - Or Shanghai One of the benefits of an Anytime Fitness membership, and a contributor to the company's rapid growth, is the franchise's "Anywhere Access" policy: Join one Anytime Fitness gym and you can use any of the chain's 4,000 gyms worldwide - at no additional cost. That gives members the option of exercising not only whenever they choose (Anytime Fitness gyms are open 24/7/365), but virtually wherever they like. And with gyms in all 50 states and more than 30 countries (including Australia, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and Japan), the "Anywhere Access" policy can be a real cost-saver - especially for frequent travelers. Other Recent Anytime Fitness News: http://anytimefitness.com/press About Anytime Fitness Ranked #1 on Entrepreneur's prestigious Top Global Franchise list, Anytime Fitness is the fastest-growing gym franchise in the world, with 4,000 gyms serving 3,000,000 members on five (soon to be all seven) continents. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Anytime Fitness prides itself on providing its members with convenient fitness options and friendly, personal service in well-maintained facilities which feature top-quality exercise equipment. Gyms are now open in all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, The Republic of Ireland, Wales, Grand Cayman, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Qatar, India, Chile, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Belgium, Italy, Sweden and the Philippines. All franchised gyms are individually owned and operated. Join one gym and use them all. SOURCE Anytime Fitness ### Add to Request List Added Request Information Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Plans have previously been announced for Party for the Planet, a multi-day celebration in honor of the 20th anniversary of Disneys Animal Kingdom. One of the programs set for that event are Tiffins Talks, special hard-ticket dining offerings that will take place on select nights from April 22 to May 5. Tiffins Talks are intimate dining experiences that will allow guests to enjoy specialty food and beverages that compliment the topics shared by animal and conservation expert speakers. Each Tiffins Talk will feature an expert whos had a hand in creating Disneys Animal Kingdom as it is today. The tentative schedule for speakers and dates: Sunday, April 22, 2018 Dr. Joseph Soltis, Research Scientist for Disneys Animals, Science and Environment, will speak about the Elephants and Bees project in which honeybees are helping people and elephants in Kenya. The menu will feature African cuisine. Wednesday, April 25, 2018 Joe Rohde, Portfolio Creative Executive and a veteran Imagineer, will share tales from his adventures all over Asia, India, Nepal and China. The chefs of Tiffins will follow Joes journeys with a menu inspired by his travels. Friday, April 27, 2018 Dr. Jason Fischer, Conservation Program Manager for Disneys Animals, Science and Environment, will speak about Disneys efforts to conserve the purple martin, a remarkable migratory songbird that travels to Walt Disney World Resort from the Brazilian Amazon to raise a family each year. The menu will feature North American cuisine. Sunday, April 29, 2018 Rachel Daneault, Zoological Manager at Disneys Animal Kingdom for the Primate Carnivore team, will talk about the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) project that Disney supports in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The menu will feature African cuisine. Wednesday, May 2, 2018 Dr. Anne Savage, Conservation Director for Disneys Animals, Science and Environment, will speak about the cotton-top tamarin conservation project Disney supports in Colombia. The menu will feature South American cuisine. Friday, May 4, 2018 Dr. Scott Terrell, Director of Animal and Science Operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, will chat about caring for the Sumatran tigers that call Disneys Animal Kingdom theme park home, as well as the conservation work Disney is doing to protect tigers in Asia. The menu will feature Asian cuisine. Tiffins Talks are separately priced offerings and are available by booking online or calling (407) WDW-DINE. Each program costs $165 per person (tax and gratuity included). Disneys Animal Kingdom theme park admission is not included in the price of Tiffins Talks. Speakers are subject to change without notice. Comments (1) EBRD Director : Investors are really interested in Georgia - GeorgianJournal Google to soon make Allo usable for web users without the need of phone News oi-Sandeep Sarkar Google is working on making the desktop client for its smart messaging app Allo usable without the need of connecting the app with a smartphone. Google's smart messaging Allo is all set to get a new update for its desktop client. The desktop client for the messaging app was released back September 2016 in India. The instant messaging app was developed for the Android and iOS operating systems with the web client available on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. The app, however, had a drawback in which the phone had to be switched on and connected to data/ Wi-Fi in order for the app to function. The app uses phone numbers as identifiers and allows users to exchange messages, files, voice notes and images. It includes a virtual assistant, a feature that generates automatic reply suggestions, and an optional encrypted mode. Users can resize messages and add doodles and stickers on images before sending them. Google Allo Quick Look #GIZBOT Now fresh reports are surfacing over the internet which would enable the device to work independently without the need of using a smartphone. As per some reports from the Beebom the head of the Google Duo, Justin Ubreti hinted that the company might be working on making the app usable without the need of connecting it with a smartphone. However it is still not clear when this feature would be made available for the users, we expect that Google might roll out the feature for the Allo app soon. You can read about the 10 things a user can do with Allo by clicking on this link. In one of our recent articles related to Google, we covered that the tech giant is rolling out new features for its AI assistant which is said to give users more control over the connected devices. As per some reports from the Beebom Google is all set to launch a bunch of new features to its Google Assistant which will offer an overall better user experience. Read the full story here. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Google Pixel Buds to receive new gesture controls News oi-Sandeep Sarkar Google has also renamed its Smart Detection feature to "In-ear-detection." The Smart detection feature enables the Pixel Buds to pause the music playback as soon as they are removed from the ear. Google is reportedly working on developing new gesture control features for its wireless earphones Pixel Buds. According to some reports from Beebom, Google appears to develop a triple-tap feature which turns off the earbuds instantly. This feature is expected to improve the battery life of the Pixel Buds. Further, Google has also renamed its Smart Detection feature to "In-ear-detection". The Smart detection feature enables the Pixel Buds to pause the music playback as soon as the earbuds are removed from the ears. As of now the Pixel Buds allows a user to only reject and answer calls along with activating Google Assistant, and control volume audio playback using gestures. It would be interesting to see what other feature Google has in store for us. The Google Pixel Buds were released back in October 2017 and were made available for more countries in February 2018. In one of our earlier articles, we covered the Pixel Buds and found that Pixel Buds are not just a pair of wireless earphones; they are a lot more than that. The earphones have touch-sensitive controls that operate via gestures. Tapping the right bud plays or pauses the music, swiping back and forth on the right bud increases and decreases the volume whereas a long press brings up Google Assistant. It also allows users to receive and place calls. Pixel Buds come in a case which also charges the earphones much like the Apple AirPods. The device survives for five hours on a single charge whereas the case has enough juice to power up the device four times. You can read the complete article by clicking on this link Top 10 Tips & Tricks for Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL The Pixel Bud is available at a price of 249 AUD in Australia which is roughly equal to INR 12,591.24. The Google Pixel Bud will be available for 159 in the UK which is roughly equal to Rs. 14,154.80 and at 179.00 in Germany which is approximately Rs 14,181.46. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Russia rejects as 'circus show' British claims on ex-spy case Iran Press TV Mon Mar 12, 2018 07:21PM Russia has denounced as a "circus show" British Prime Minister Theresa May's allegations that Moscow was highly likely behind a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England. "It is a circus show in the British parliament," Russia's TASS news agency quoted the country's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Monday. "The conclusion is obvious: It's another political information campaign, based on a provocation." Zakharova made the remarks shortly after the British premier said it was "highly likely" that Moscow was responsible for poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4. The 66-year-old former spy and his 33-year-old daughter have been hospitalized since then after they were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the southern English city of Salisbury. Both Skripal and his daughter remain unconscious in a critical but stable condition, according to a Reuters report. May also said the poisoning had occurred "against a backdrop of a well-established pattern of Russian state aggression," and that London was ready to take "much more extensive measures" against Moscow than in the past. Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off a question about Moscow's involvement in the case, saying British authorities should first "get to the bottom of things." UK playing 'dangerous game' over spy poisoning Also on Monday, Russia's embassy in London accused the British government of playing a "dangerous game" by linking the attacks to Moscow, warning it risked harming bilateral relations. "Current policy of the UK government towards Russia is a very dangerous game played with the British public opinion, which not only sends the investigation upon an unhelpful political track but also bears the risk of more serious long-term consequences for our relations," the mission's press secretary said in a statement. The statement added that from the first reports of the poisoning, the Russian embassy had requested from the UK Foreign Office information about Skripal and his daughter, and the investigation. "British officials don't provide any additional information and don't distance themselves from the media campaign," it said. "We would like to stress once again that we are outraged by the anti-Russian media campaign, condoned by the government, that influences the investigation and has a psychological effect on British residents," the statement added. Skripal was found guilty by a Russian tribunal of selling classified information to UK's spy agency MI6 and was imprisoned in Russia in 2006. He was exchanged in a spy swap in 2010. Britain's National counter-terrorism police have taken over the investigation on the attack and they are treating the case as attempted murder. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK eyes sanctions on Russia over 'nerve agent attack' Iran Press TV Mon Mar 12, 2018 02:34PM The UK has announced that it is preparing to unveil new sanctions against Russia in response to an alleged chemical agent attack which London has blamed on Moscow. UK Prime Minister Theresa May met with her National Security team on Monday to discuss the latest evidence, warning of a firm response if it is proved Russia was behind the attack. Former double agent Sergei Skripal, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, have been hospitalized since they were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the city of Salisbury on Sunday. Both Skripal, 66, and his daughter remain unconscious in a critical but stable condition, according to a Reuters report. Police Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey has also fallen ill because of contact with the substance while investigating the incident. Speaking to BBC Radio on Monday, the chair of the UK's Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat, said the attack was "looking awfully like it was state-sponsored attempted murder." Tugendhat said he was expecting the prime minister to make an announcement soon. "The key with responding to Russia is making sure we make Putin realize what we're doing, and make people who support him realize that supporting him isn't a great idea," said Tugendhat. "And that, to be honest, doesn't mean general sanctions. That means very specific sanctions." Previously Finance Minister Philip Hammond had said that Britain would respond "appropriately" if a foreign state was found to have been involved in the poisoning. "This is a police investigation and it will be evidence-led and we must go where the evidence takes us," Hammond told BBC television on Sunday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly denied any involvement in the poisoning of the double spy in Britain. Peskov said the fact that the attack took place in Britain proves Russia had no role in the incident. "The Russian citizen you mention... worked for one of Britain's special services, the incident took place on British territory, and it is in no way an issue for Russia, let alone for the Russian leadership," Peskov told journalists. British police on Wednesday attributed the critical illness of the two to a nerve agent that British media claim only governments could have possessed. British media and politicians previously speculated that Russia might be behind the incident. Moscow has strongly denied the allegations and expressed its readiness to help with the investigation. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address British PM Says 'Highly Likely' Russia Was Behind Nerve-Agent Attack RFE/RL March 12, 2018 British Prime Minister Theresa May says evidence shows that it is "highly likely" that Russia is behind the nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in the city of Salisbury despite Kremlin denials that Moscow was involved in the incident. May said in a speech to parliament on March 12 that either the Russian state was responsible for poisoning 66-year-old Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia in the city of Salisbury, or that it allowed the military grade nerve agent Novichok, developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War, to get into the hands of others to carry out the attack. She added that Russia's ambassador had been summoned to explain how the nerve agent came to be used against the former spy and given until the end of March 13 to explain how the chemical made its way to Britain. "Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom," May said, calling the attack a "reckless and despicable act." "We will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil," she added. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the United States stands by the country's "closest ally." "The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against U.K. citizens on U.K. soil is an outrage," Sanders said during a daily White House briefing. "The attack was reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation." Officials say the pair remain in a "critical but stable condition" at a Salisbury hospital after being exposed on March 4 to a nerve agent. A police officer who fell ill after attending the Skripals also remains seriously ill. Russia's Foreign Ministry was quick to denounce May's speech, saying in a statement that the accusations were politically motivated and based on a provocation. "It is a circus show in the British parliament," the TASS news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying. Even before May's comments, the Kremlin had strongly denied any notion of involvement, asserting that anti-Russian hysteria is being whipped up by the British media. President Vladimir Putin, speaking just hours before the British meeting, said officials in the United Kingdom should first figure out what exactly occurred in Salisbury before blaming Russia for the incident. "Get to the bottom of things over there first, and after that, then we can discuss it," he told a BBC journalist in response to a question about Skripal during a tour of a greenhouse at the National Grain Center in the Krasnodar region. Earlier in the day, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that, since Skripal worked for British intelligence and was poisoned on British soil, the incident had "nothing to do with Russia, let alone the Russian leadership." "The odds that #Russia's govt lost control of #Novichok stocks and this was used by some murderous mavericks to go after #Skripal are minimal," Russia analyst Mark Galeotti said on Twitter. Skripal, a retired Russian military intelligence colonel, was convicted by a Moscow military court in 2006 of "high treason" for passing secrets to Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. He was one of four Russian prisoners released in 2010 in exchange for 10 Russian sleeper agents detained in the United States. England's chief medical officer said during the weekend that traces of the nerve agent used to poison Skripal and his daughter had been found in a pub and a restaurant the two visited before falling ill. Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, on March 11 urged an estimated 500 people who may have come into some contact with the substance to wash their clothes as a precaution and clean items such as mobile phones, handbags, and eyeglasses. "There has been some trace contamination by the nerve agent," Davies said. "I am confident this has not harmed the health of anyone who was in The Mill pub or Zizzi's [restaurant]." Trace amounts of the substance were found on and around a table where the pair had eaten in the restaurant, the BBC reported. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said that Britain might step up sanctions against Russia if it finds that Moscow was involved. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on March 10 that it was still "too early" to say who was behind the poisoning. She has said police were examining more than 200 pieces of evidence, had identified more than 240 witnesses, and were looking through security camera footage. With reporting by AFP, The Independent, AP, Reuters, and the BBC Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-britain- nerve-agent-spy-poison-/29093546.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Moscow Calls May's Claim About Russian Trace in Ex-Spy's Poisoning 'Circus Show' Sputnik News 20:11 12.03.2018(updated 21:03 12.03.2018) British Prime Minister Theresa May has said that Moscow was either responsible for ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal's poisoning, or allowed the military-grade nerve agent to get into the hands of those who were. Downing Street has summoned the Russian ambassador to the UK to explain how a military-grade nerve agent of a type produced in Russia ended up in Salisbury, May said, speaking to lawmakers after meeting with the UK's National Security Council. The prime minister said it was "highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and [his daughter] Yulia Skripal," and warned that Moscow now has until the end of Tuesday to disclose the details of its Novichok nerve agents program to the the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). If a credible response is not received, London will consider the poisoning as the use of force on British territory, she noted. "It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of agents known as Novichok," May said. "Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others," she added. The prime minister stressed that there can no longer be any question of "business as usual" with Russia, and warned that Britain will stand ready to take more extensive measures against Moscow. According to the prime minister, the investigation into Skripal's poisoning continues. Responding to May's claims, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the prime minister's remarks as a "circus show in the UK's parliament." Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious outside a shopping center in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. Police suspect that they were poisoned by a "very rare" nerve agent. The pair are currently hospitalized and in critical condition. The site where they were found has since been visited by 180 military personnel in hazmat suits to remove vehicles and objects from the scene and look for traces of the nerve agent. In 2006, a Russian court convicted Skripal of high treason for collaborating with the UK's MI6 intelligence agency during his service as an officer in Russian military intelligence. The disgraced officer, believed to have blown the cover of some 300 of his fellow agents, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. In 2010, then-President Dmitry Medvedev pardoned Skripal as part of a spy swap program, and the ex-spy moved to the UK, settling in Salisbury in 2011. Tom Tugendhat, foreign affairs select committee chairman in the UK's parliament, said the Skripal incident looked like a case of "state-sponsored attempted murder." Following Skripal's hospitalization last week, British media have accused Moscow of involvement, a claim Russian officials rejected, citing lack of evidence. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a BBC journalist that the UK should figure out what happened to Skripal before discussing the issue with Russia. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK Health Officials: Public Risk 'Low' After Poisoning of Former Russian Spy By VOA News March 12, 2018 British health officials said Sunday that traces of a nerve agent used in the suspected attempted murder of a Russian spy in Britain were found in a pub and restaurant he visited, but that the risk to public health remains low. Health officials said those who visited the Mill pub and Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury, southwest England on March 4 and March 5 should take "simple" precautions, including washing their clothes. "While there is no immediate health risk to anyone who may have been in either of these locations, it is possible, but unlikely, that any of the substance which has come into contact with clothing or belongings could still be present in minute amounts and therefore contaminate your skin. Over time, repeated skin contact with contaminated items may pose a small risk to health," a statement released by Public Health England read. Hospital officials in Salisbury said there is no evidence of a wider attack on the town, aside from three people who have been hospitalized since the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, both of whom are hospitalized in critical condition. Police have not publicly talked about the nerve agent that poisoned Skripal or who might have been responsible. But suspicions are pointing to Russia. British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said Britain is being "pushed around" by the Kremlin. Prime Minister Theresa May has promised an "appropriate" response if it is discovered that Russia is responsible for poisoning Skripal, but has urged caution. Russian officials deny the Kremlin had anything to do with the assassination attempt. Skripal served in Russia's military intelligence agency, GRU, and was exchanged in a spy swap in 2010 on the runway at Vienna's airport. After serving four years imprisoned in Russia for spying for Britain's espionage service, MI6, Skripal was one of four Russian double agents exchanged for 10 Russians expelled from the United States. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address White House Calls Attack on Ex-Spy in UK 'An Outrage,' But Doesn't Mention Russia By Steve Herman March 12, 2018 The White House is stopping short of blaming Russia for the poisoning of a former Russian military intelligence officer who was a double agent for Britain's intelligence services. "The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against U.K. citizens on U.K. soil is an outrage," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday. "The attack was reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation and we extend our sympathy to the victims and their families and our support to the U.K. government." Sanders added that the United States stands by "our closest ally and the special relationship that we have," but she did not share in London's strong accusations toward Moscow for the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury. Both remain hospitalized in critical condition. "I think they're still working through even some of the details of that," replied Sanders to a reporter's question about whether Russia is to blame. "It actually sounds like a measured response and that's fine and it should be," the Stimson Center's director of nuclear safeguard, Cindy Vestergaard, tells VOA. She explains that U.S. authorities will likely prefer to review evidence compiled by the British before pointing a finger at Moscow. "As with any state declaring chemical weapons perpetrators, others need to confirm the facts before doing the same," said Vestergaard, who has studied chemical assassinations. "Even then, the preference is still for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons an international organization tasked with verifying and implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention to do the same." U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament earlier in the day that it is "highly likely" Russia is responsible for the attack with the military-grade Novichok nerve agent, and that Moscow has until Wednesday to respond. "Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom, and I will come back to this House and set out the full range of measures we will take in response," the prime minister warned. "This is a circus show in the British Parliament," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters. Criticism for Trump "This reckless, targeted hit-job was an attack against the United Kingdom and we must condemn it," Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from the state of Illinois, said on Twitter. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the use of any nerve agent "is horrendous and completely unacceptable." "The U.K. is a highly valued ally, and this incident is of great concern to NATO. NATO is in touch with the U.K. authorities on this issue," Stoltenberg said. President Donald Trump has faced criticism for his lack of tough words about Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, after U.S. intelligence agencies determined that Moscow sought to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. On Monday, 140 members of the opposition Democratic Party called on Trump to impose sanctions on Russia. The Democrats say Trump is "ignoring the law" by not imposing sanctions on Moscow under the bipartisan Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. "We've given you the tools needed to meet this challenge. If you continue to leave those tools on the shelf, we will push for additional legislative action with more stringent requirements," according to the letter. "If you refuse to protect the United States from a hostile foreign government, Congress must act on our own. The future of our democracy is on the line." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China to help Africa nurture independent growth capabilities People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:47, March 12, 2018 China will help African countries nurture independent growth and development capabilities as part of new measures to boost China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, a deputy commerce minister said Sunday. Efforts will be made to help reduce poverty, create jobs, develop economy and improve people's livelihood in Africa, offering training and jobs to young people in particular, Qian Keming told a press conference on the sidelines of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress. Besides the ongoing ten cooperation projects covering a wide range of fields from industrialization to public health, which were announced at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Johannesburg in 2015, China are designing new measures to enhance bilateral economic and trade cooperation based on African countries' demands, according to Qian. China will align the Belt and Road Initiative with the African Union Agenda 2063 and development strategies of individual African countries, he said. "We also plan to work with third-party institutions, including international poverty alleviation and development agencies, to beef up support for Africa and lift bilateral cooperation to a new phase," Qian said. The new FOCAC summit will be held in Beijing in September, with focus on the Belt and Road Initiative. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Estonia Says Russian Plane Violated Its Airspace In The Baltic Sea March 12, 2018 Estonia says a Russian military cargo plane has violated its airspace near Vaindloo Island in the Baltic Sea. The incident on March 12 was the first alleged airspace violation of Estonia by a Russian plane this year after the Baltic nation reported several similar intrusions in 2017 and 2016. Estonia's military said the Il-76 plane spent less than a minute in the country's airspace. It said the aircraft's transponder was switched on and a flight plan had been presented to Estonian authorities, but the plane maintained no radio contact with Estonia's air navigation service. Estonia's Foreign Ministry handed Russia's ambassador a protest note over the incident, though the Russian Defense Ministry denied violating Estonian airspace. "The flight was performed in strict compliance with the international rules of the use of airspace. The borders of other states were not violated, which was confirmed by objective monitoring means," the ministry said in a statement. Vaindloo is near a corridor where Russian military and cargo planes fly to get from the St. Petersburg area to the Russian Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad. Based on reporting by AP and TASS Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/estonia-russia-plane- a\airspace-violation-ii-76/29094949.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Military Denies Claims of Violation of Estonian Airspace by Il-76 Plane Sputnik News 20:48 12.03.2018 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian Defense Ministry denied allegations of the violation of the Estonian airspace by a Russian Il-76 military transport plane on Monday. According to the ministry, the plane conducted on Monday a coordinated transfer flight to an airfield in Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad in the Baltic region while flying with a switched-on transponder. "During the flight, the crew of the plane was in contact with Estonian air traffic controllers, who did not make any complaints against the actions of the crew," the ministry said in a statement. "The flight was carried out in strict accordance with the international rules for the use of airspace without violating the borders of other states, which has been confirmed by means of objective monitoring," the statement said. Earlier, the Estonian Defense Forces stated that a Russian-owned Il-76 aircraft entered the airspace of Estonia at around 1 pm Moscow time around the island of Vaindloo. The Estonian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Tallinn and handed him a note. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address "We're America, Bitch!" "I'm not saying the military's in love with me the soldiers are, the top people in the Pentagon probably aren't because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy. Some people dont like to come home, some people like to continue to spend money. One cold-hearted globalist betrayal after another, thats what it was. Donald Trump - 07 September 2020 "Now the Kurds are fighting for their land, just so you understand. As somebody wrote in a very very powerful article today, they didn't help us in the Second World War, they didn't help us with Normandy, as an example." "January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.... For many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry; subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military; we've defended other nation's borders while refusing to defend our own; and spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon.... "From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. "From this moment on, it's going to be America First.... "Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. "We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones -- and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth." "We have two different foreign policies in this country right now, which is catastrophic for us," Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said on CNN's "State of the Union" on 08 October 2017. "We have one foreign policy that comes from the State Department and the Department of Defense. And then we have another foreign policy that comes from the President's Twitter feed." Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declined to deny that after a recent meeting he'd called the president a "fucking moron.") "... let me explain something to you. We go into Iraq. We have spent thus far, $1.5 trillion. We could have rebuilt half of the United States. $1.5 trillion. And we're going to then leave. So, in the old days, you know when you had a war, to the victor belong the spoils. You go in. You win the war and you take it. ... You're not stealing anything. You're taking-- we're reimbursing ourselves-- at least, at a minimum, and I say more. We're taking back $1.5 trillion to reimburse ourselves." April 18, 2011 "..... part of the problem that we've had is we go in, we defeat somebody, and then we don't know what we're doing after that. We lose it, like as an example, you look at Iraq, what happened, how badly that was handled.... I've always said, shouldn't be there, but if we're going to get out, take the oil. If we would have taken the oil, you wouldn't have ISIS.... You know, it used to be to the victor belong the spoils. Now, there was no victor there, believe me. There was no victor. But I always said: Take the oil." September 08, 2016 "America shouldn't be doing the fighting for every nation on Earth not being reimbursed, in many cases, at all. If they want us to do the fighting, they also have to pay a price - and sometimes that's also a monetary price - so we're not the suckers of the world. We're no longer the suckers, folks. And people aren't looking at us as suckers..... We don't want to be taken advantage anymore by countries that use us and use our incredible military to protect them. They don't pay for it, and they're going to have to.... I'm not only talking about in the Middle East. I'm talking about all over the world. Wealthy countries cannot expect the United States to pay for a vast majority of their military. They can pay us. They can reimburse us." Remarks by President Trump to Troops Al Asad Air Base | Al Anbar Province, Iraq - 27 April 2018 Trump Doctrine US President Donald Trump referred to US Marines buried in a WWI cemetery in France as "losers" and "suckers" for getting killed in action, according to a report 03 September 2020 in the Atlantic magazine. The report, penned by the magazine's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, said Trump had refused to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018 because "he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain," although the official explanation offered by aides was that the helicopter due to take him there could not fly due to weather. "In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, 'Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers,'" the article said. "In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as 'suckers' for getting killed," the Atlantic added, citing four unnamed people it said had firsthand knowledge of the discussions. According to the Atlantic, Trump asked aides on his trip to France, "Who were the good guys in this war?" and could not understand why the United States had come to the aid of the Allies. After a year in office, the essense of the Trump Doctrine emerged - embrace your enemies, particularly brutal dictators, and alienate your friends, almost all of which are democracies. Trump thrashed out and got into fights with everything and everyone. This president has his hands in all the hot spots of the world - whether in the Middle Eastern countries Syria and Iran or in North Korea. To even think about taking on these trouble spots, he would need allies. But he kept alienating them one by one. The stable security order established after World War II has been replaced with a time of insecurity, where nobody knows what will happen next and this mainly depends on the unpredictable actions of the United States. Internationally, gathering storm clouds set nerves on edge, with some questioning Trump's leadership on the world stage. Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, said 31 December 2017 that Trump's unpredictability and the disruptive nature of his presidency has created "an incredibly dangerous climate." "We're actually closer, in my view, to a nuclear war with North Korea and in that region than we have ever been," he said on ABC's "This Week." "I don't see the opportunities to solve this diplomatically at this particular point," he said. A central point in Trump's actions and decisions seemed to be the confrontation of the Judeo-Christian and the Islamic world. America left the Iran nuclear deal, moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, used military force in Syria. The aim first is at the most belligerent, most ideological, and least cooperative Islamic state, and one that's also big enough - Iran. Trump can't understand Europe's tolerance of Islam. In light of Trump's unilateral foreign policy decisions, CFR Visiting Senior Fellow James Goldgeier and Georgetown University Associate Professor Elizabeth N. Saunders ask in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs,"how can a political system vaunted for its checks and balances allow one person to act so freely?" The authors observe, "the problem goes well beyond Trump, and even beyond the well-documented trend of increasing presidential power. Constraints on the president - not just from Congress but also from the bureaucracy, allies, and international institutions - have been eroding for decades. . . . Trump did not create the freedom of action he is now routinely displaying. He has merely revealed just how difficult it is to prevent it." Goldgeier and Saunders conclude, "The end of the Cold War unleashed the power of the American presidency. It may take the rise of China as a peer competitor for the American people and their leaders to realize that in order to make better foreign policy, the United States needs the wisdom and restraint offered by a Congress and a bureaucracy that have real power and serious expertise, as well as allies and international institutions whose utility is valued. . . . This is now the unchained, unconstrained presidency. It didn't start with Trump, but it has exploded since he took office, and Americans will be living with its consequences for a long time to come." Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Trump announced on Twitter on 13 March 2018 that Tillerson would be replaced by Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo. Trump and Tillerson had reportedly been at odds over how to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and a nuclear deal with Iran. In July 2017, Tillerson reportedly called Trump a "fucking moron" following the president's suggestion that the U.S. should increase its nuclear arsenal 10-fold. Pompeo had regularly briefed Trump on intelligence matters and was said to have earned the president's trust. Trump also released a statement through a White House spokesperson that he is confident Pompeo is "the right person for the job at this critical juncture." He also said Pompeo "will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." Pompeo said in a statement that he looks "forward to guiding the world's finest diplomatic corps in formulating and executing the president's foreign policy." Tillerson joined a long list of senior officials who have either resigned or been fired since Trump took office in January 2017. Others include strategist Steve Bannon, national security adviser Michael Flynn, FBI Director James Comey, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, health secretary Tom Price, communications directors Hope Hicks and Anthony Scaramucci, economic adviser Gary Cohn and press secretary Sean Spicer. Donald Trump and other top national officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, had increasingly favored use of the term "Indo-Pacific" over the more conventional "Asia-Pacific." Scholars, politicians and strategists in Australia, Japan and India have also been pushing to popularize the idea of the "Indo-Pacific" and make it the basis for regional policy. As key drivers of a new Indo-Pacific concept, the US, Australia, Japan and India share common geopolitical concerns regarding China's rising influence as a major power. Despite joint concerns toward managing China's rise in the Indo-Pacific region, the four Quad countries may diverge on specific strategic considerations and priorities. Importantly, the geographic region where their concerns come from has expanded to not only the established Asia-Pacific region, but also the areas surrounding the Indian Ocean. India's engagement and Act East policy overlaps with Japan's "Broader Asia" vision, which is vividly manifested in the joint "confluence of the two seas" concept. Yet, while Japan's Indo-Pacific idea carries with it a strong overtone of balancing and even containing China along with "the arc of freedom and prosperity," India places a high premium on developing its own regional security, political and economic interests. The Trump administration strongly prefers a policy of withdrawal and retrenchment rather than engagement, prompting Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, to describe Trump's foreign policy as "the Withdrawal Doctrine." While there was a legitimate debate over whether the United States overplayed its hand after the unipolar moment following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington was damaging its core interests through neglect. Trump's stand on any number of issues has been subject to vacillation. His view of the Iran nuclear deal swung from acceptable to unacceptable in the same day. He's shown similar swings in his views of foreign leaders. Trump's foreign policy has been incoherent and usually reflected the views of whoever was most influential with the president at any given moment. Trump has shown no sign of reversing his attitude toward the members of the diplomatic service and the intelligence community in the country, hinting at the possibility that the divide between the United States and the rest of the world can only get wider. It goes without saying that the void in international politics is always filled in with contenders, such as great powers Russia, China, the European Union as well as mid-size powers, in various parts of the world, such as India, Brazil and Turkey. Fox's Laura Ingraham asked Trump on 03 November 2017 "Are you worried that the State Department doesn't have enough Donald Trump nominees in there to push your vision through?" Trump said: "I'm the only one that matters" in setting U.S. foreign policy, thus downplaying the importance of high-level jobs such as the assistant secretary of state, which is currently vacant. "Let me tell you, the one that matters is me," Trump said in an interview that aired on Fox News on Thursday night. "I'm the only one that matters, because when it comes to it, that's what the policy is going to be. You've seen that, you've seen it strongly." The most obvious element of the Trump Doctrine is strategic ambiguity, or incoherence. There are no dispositive sources of policy, which may constradict itself from day to day. Officials like Kellyanne Conway and Sebastian Gorka tried to downplay Trump's internet habits and dismiss news outlets that report on his tweets. But Trump remains president, and his opinions (no matter if they're mis-spelled) carry a lot of political weight. Given Trump's unique rhetorical style and apparent willingness to quickly change positions, some caution against reading too much into any one of the president's statements, especially those he publishes on Twitter. On NBC's Today, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway lamented the "obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little of what he does as president," and on CNN's New Day, Trump's Deputy Assistant Sebastian Gorka called Chris Cuomo's focus on Trump's tweets "irresponsible" and told him he was "obsessing," concluding that, "if you want to keep talking about a tweet, then you're not serving your audience well or the American public." Both Conway and Gorka referred to the media's coverage of Trump's tweets an "obsession." White House press secretary Sean Spicer regularly dodges questions from reporters by claiming the president's tweets speak for themselves. Trump himself has attacked the media for repeating quotes from anyone but him, saying "Don't believe the biased and phony media quoting people who work for my campaign. The only quote that matters is a quote from me!" "Increasingly I think the equilibrium we're all headed towards is everyone inside the US gov and outside just ignoring what POTUS says," MSNBC's Chris Hayes wrote 11 August 2017. Appearing on CNN 11 August 2017, Leon Panetta said "I understand that this is a President who comes out of the development industry in New York City, comes out of reality TV. I think he kind of prides himself that talking is kind of his business, and talking is the way he appeals to his base, and he's been able to win election to President because of his ability to talk... But when you are President of the United States, and when you are Commander-in-Chief, this is not reality TV. This is a situation where you can't just talk down to everybody in the world and expect that somehow you can bully them to do what you think is right. These are leaders in these countries. They worry about their countries, they worry about what is going to happen. And they take the President of the United States literally." Another evident element of the Trump Doctrine is that America is simply the most powerful state among some 200 other state actors, none of which share common interests, but rather engage in one-off transactional relations. Like a real estate deal, there is always one side that gets the best of the deal, and each deal is seperate from all the others. H.R. McMaster and Gary D. Cohn wrote May 30, 2017 in an oped in the Wall Street Journal "America First does not mean America alone. It is a commitment to protecting and advancing our vital interests while also fostering cooperation and strengthening relationships with our allies and partners. A determination to stand up for our people and our way of life deepens our friends' respect for America". The president embarked on his first foreign trip with a clear-eyed outlook that the world is not a "global community" but an arena where nations, nongovernmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage. We bring to this forum unmatched military, political, economic, cultural and moral strength. Rather than deny this elemental nature of international affairs, we embrace it." A third element of the Trump Doctrine is a preference for authoritarian figures, and a disdain for the human rights record of other countries. In the early months in office, Trump embraced Dueterte in the Phillippines, Erdogan in Turkey, and Xi in China, without a peep about their treatment of their own people. In contrast, he was scathing in his criticism of European leaders such as Angela Merkel. And fourth, the election of the New York-born reality star set off what Wilson Dizard termed "a retreat into monarchism" in the capital city of the republic, where the president has delegated crucial duties to his family members while neglecting to staff civil service. Nowhere was this more clear than in the US Department of State. Dozens of diplomatic positions went unfilled by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, Trump tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner with the momentous task of building peace in the Middle East. So far, Kushner's intervention perhaps helped yield the Qatar diplomatic crisis. It's almost medieval, the government under the Trump administration. You have the king and the royal family around him and you have all these princes and court jesters all trying to influence the king. There is no system. There is no control. It's all whoever talked to him last. After a few months in office, Donald Trump began to repudiate many of the the positions he had articulated during the 2016 electoral campaign. There were quick reversals on a "One China" policy in a renewed pledge to Xi Jinping; on the Iran nuclear agreement in a pledge to Federica Mogherini; and on the U.S. mutual defense pact with Japan in a pledge to Shinzo Abe. At the G7 summit on 10 April 2017, Rex Tillerson declared the US would punish "all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world." This far-reaching statement in Italy, basically vowed that the US would attack anyone and make anyone accountable who has harmed innocent people. Washington would thus be acting as world police - even without permission, if need be. Tillerson had changed his tone on Syria several times in the previous week. Despite expressing opposition to intervention during his election campaign, Donald Trump ended up attacking Syria anyway. There was no adequate explanation for why Trump shifted his stance from "America first" to "America everywhere." Some suggested this was a domestic diversionary tactic, as Trump wanted to prove that Russia did not hand him the US election, and that his campaign team's connections to Moscow were innocent. The Russians will wait to see whether US foreign policy will stabilize, or whether yet even more sudden changes are in store. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left no doubt that Russia would have to change its Syria policy and sever its ties to Iran and Hezbollah. Such defiance of Moscow would not have been expected a few days ago. Since the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, Tillerson has reflected the Trump administration's dramatically changed stance on the war. Intentions of rapprochement with Russia have been replaced with a course of confrontation. There was a seismic shift in the US administration's position on Syria. The statement by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson 11 April 2017 that the reign of President Bashar Assad's family "is coming to an end" suggested the US was taking a much more aggressive approach about the Syrian leader. The remark came after a U.S. airstrike in Syria and threats of more punitive action. Only weeks earlier, U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump, were signaling a willingness to work with Russia and saying that Assad's status was not a priority for the time being. Donald Trump on 12 April 2017 declared the North Atlantic Treaty Organization "no longer obsolete," three months after he said the alliance had outlived its usefulness because it had not defended against terrorist attacks. "The secretary general and I had a productive discussion about what more NATO can do in the fight against terrorism," Trump said at a joint news conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. "I complained about that a long time ago and they made a change, and now they do fight terrorism. I said it was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete." As tensions rose over Syria, Trump seemed to walk away from campaign promise to improve ties with Moscow. President Donald Trump has declared that US relations with Russia "may be at an all-time low". His top diplomat offered a similarly grim assessment after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier on 12 April 2017. "Right now we're not getting along with Russia at all," Trump said flatly during a White House news conference. Only weeks ago, it appeared that Trump, who praised Putin throughout the US election campaign, was poised for a potentially historic rapprochement with Russia. On 13 April 2017 Trump said he won't label Beijing a currency manipulator. In one of the sharpest reverses of his presidency, Trump backed off from a campaign pledge by saying he would not declare China to be a currency manipulator, an action that could have led to higher tariffs on Chinese goods. The accusation had formed a basis of Trump's argument for lost American jobs, on the grounds that an undervalued currency was boosting Chinese exports and leading to artificially low prices, all at US manufacturers' expense. The hard-line, populist tenor that dominated Trump's insurgent candidacy gave way to a centrist governing philosophy and within three months after taking office, he edged away from some of the nationalist themes that endeared him to his base. Steve Bannon's influence had waned and his days in the Trump White House seemed numbered. On 05 April 2017 Trump removed chief White House strategist Stephen Bannon from his role on the National Security Council (NSC). On 11 April 2017 Trump said "I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late," Trump said. "I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn't know Steve. I'm my own strategist and it wasn't like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary." Trump ended by saying, "Steve is a good guy, but I told them to straighten it out or I will." Jared Kushner was, until his father-in-law ran for president, a lifelong liberal and a Democratic donor. Bannon had called Jared a "globalist" and a "cuck" - "cuckservative," a portmanteau of "cuckold" and "conservative". Cuck is a favorite slur on the right, used to condemn moderates as emasculated girly men. Cuck a sexually and racially charged version of "RINO," a Republican In Name Only. "Globalist" is a term typically used by nationalist, pro-Trump right-wingers, a code word for Jew [Kushner is Jewish]. As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised a radically different approach to foreign intervention than that of his predecessors. At campaign events, Trump railed against U.S. military intervention so frequently that it eventually became a part of his stump speech. "We've spent $6 trillion in the Middle East," Trump repeatedly lamented. "We could have rebuilt our country twice." In his first year as president, Pentagon data suggests Trump has struggled to carry out his "America First" approach to the world, at least when it comes to the use of force. Instead, Trump has sent more U.S. troops to conflict zones in the Middle East and South Asia. He's dropped more bombs on Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. And he's expanded a global campaign of targeted drone killings. Add it all up, and it's hard to see how Trump's foreign policy is any less interventionist than his predecessors. If anything, Trump's policies are a little more hawkish than those of Barack Obama. No conflict exemplifies Trump's approach more than Afghanistan, where the US had been fighting Taliban insurgents for 16 years. Before becoming president, Trump was a regular critic of the war, calling it a waste of lives and money and demanding an immediate withdrawal. "Let's get out of Afghanistan. Our troops are being killed by the Afghanis we train and we waste billions there. Nonsense! Rebuild the USA." And "It is time to get out of Afghanistan. We are building roads and schools for people that hate us. It is not in our national interests." But six months into his presidency, Trump reversed his position, instead deciding to indefinitely extend the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan. Under Trump's plan, 3,000 more U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan, backed by an expanded U.S.-led bombing campaign. According to U.S. military figures, the NATO coalition is on pace to triple the number of bombs dropped on Afghanistan in 2017 compared to the previous year. The bombing could continue to expand in 2018, in part because of the relaxed rules of engagement that allow the U.S. military to go after insurgent targets. Since Trump took office, there has been a 31 percent increase in the number of U.S. troops and civilians working for the Pentagon in the Middle East and North Africa, according to Pentagon data. That includes increases not only in well-known conflict areas, such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, but also in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain. The U.S. military also acknowledged it has about 2,000 troops in Syria - four times as many as Pentagon officials previously said. The U.S. forces will stay in Syria indefinitely. Drone strikes have also continued in non-battlefield settings, including Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and Libya - a continuation of President Barack Obama's global campaign of targeted killings. If Obama expanded the U.S. drone program, Trump has expanded it even more, both in terms of geography and frequency. In Yemen, U.S. airstrikes have tripled, and in Somalia they have doubled this year compared to last. The Jul 2018 summit sparked bipartisan outrage over Trump's failure to criticize Putin or address alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections that his critics believe tipped the vote in his favor and that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office has been investigating for more than a year. Former CIA director John Brennan called it "nothing short of treasonous." Conservative voters in Trump's stronghold states said they were not worried about criticism of the US president kowtowing to Putin or even convinced by media accounts of how their one-on-one meeting took place. They blamed politicians for speculating about Trump and Putin's discussions behind closed doors, but were confident the true nature of the talks was positive. Typical comments of supporter were "I'm assuming it was a good meeting and I'm assuming that our president basically was very pro-America and he certainly let President Putin know that.... He's been a shock to a lot of people. I do respect the fact that the man has not changed for other people. He has stayed true to himself and who he is." Rules of Engagement (ROE) In the fight against ISIS in Mosul, the United States adjusted its rules of engagement (ROE). Under the December 2016 Obama directive there had been some "relatively minor adjustments" that decentralized part of the process of approving fire missions as the campaign moved from a largely defensive campaign to an offensive one. Under an additional directive issued by Trump in February 2017, US advisers embedded at the brigade level were able to directly deliver support such as airstrikes and artillery fire to the units they're partnered with. Previously, such support would have gone through a whole a strike cell bureaucracy and through Baghdad. Trump hadn't eliminated Obama's troop number limits. Thus, the caps of 503 for Syria and 5,262 for Iraq remained. But the military is ignoring them with White House approval by using an existing loophole to categorize deployments as temporary. On 31 March 2017 the Pentagon said that officially there are 5,262 U.S. troops in Iraq, though officials privately acknowledged a couple thousand more there. On the campaign trail in late 2015, Donald Trump pledged to "bomb the shit" out of ISIS if he became president. "The other thing with terrorists," then-candidate Donald Trump said on "Fox and Friends" in December 2015, "is that you have to take out their families." In December 2016, when the Army issued its latest Rules of War Manual, military leaders planning operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria may authorize strikes where up to 10 civilians may be killed, if it is deemed necessary in order to get a critical military target. The collateral damage estimation (CDE) included a threshold of predicted civilian deaths called the Non-Combatant cutoff value or NCV. his number is the threshold of predicted deaths where, in order to get permission for the strike, the targeteer has to prove that the military utility is so significant as to make those predicted deaths acceptable. The procedure for every military action involves a precise evaluation of the number of civilian deaths likely to result from a given military action. According to the LA Times: "The U.S. military predicts how many people will die in its airstrikes by surveilling and estimating the population within a proposed blast radius. It also sets a limit on the number of innocent people each command is authorized to kill incidentally. This limit, called the Non-Combatant Cutoff Value, or NCV, is perhaps our starkest rule of engagement, and it varies region-by-region for political reasons." Obama-era rules required "near-certainty" that no civilians will be killed in airstrikes. Under Trump, there was a transfer of risk from military forces onto civilians. Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan had been designated "areas of active hostility," but drone strikes in other areas such as Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan required high-level approval under Obama-era doctrine. In March 2017 Trump lowered the threshold on acceptable civilian casualties from a "near certainty" of no such deaths to "reasonable certainty". In March 2017 Trump gave the US military more authority to conduct offensive airstrikes on al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia. On 31 March 2017 Sarah Sewall, undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights during the Obama administration, said that Trump had "moved the Somalia engagement of U.S. forces from the category of more targeted uses of force to that of general hostilities.... The former category required that only those who were a direct threat to Americans could be targeted. Now they can be targeted if they're members of an organization that's an associated force with the perpetrators of 9/11.... the former standard of using the use of targeting according to a near certainty of not killing civilians has now been relaxed.... the laws of war still apply, so uses of force still have to be proportional and they still have to be discriminate." On 10 September 2019 Donald Trump forced out John Bolton as his national security adviser. The president said they had strong disagreements on several policy issues. Trump tweeted that he told Bolton his "services were no longer needed" at the White House. John Bolton took over the role of national security adviser in April 2018. He was a surprise pick at the time, with a world view seemingly ill-fit to the president's isolationist "America First" pronouncements. Trump had sometimes joked about Bolton's image as a warmonger, reportedly saying in one Oval Office meeting that "John has never seen a war he doesn't like". Prior to becoming Trump's national security adviser, Bolton was a Fox News commentator. He served as the US ambassador to the UN from August 2005 to December 2006 and undersecretary of state from 2001 to 2005. Bolton also served under the administrations of former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. Bolton had opposed a recent State Department plan to sign an Afghan peace deal with the Taliban, believing the group's leaders could not be trusted. That opposition pinned Bolton against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Individuals familiar with his view said Bolton believed the US could draw down to about 8,600 troops in Afghanistan and maintain a counterterrorism effort without signing a peace deal with the Taliban. Bolton had opposed a recent State Department plan to sign an Afghan peace deal with the Taliban, believing the group's leaders could not be trusted. That opposition pinned Bolton against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Individuals familiar with his view said Bolton believed the US could draw down to about 8,600 troops in Afghanistan and maintain a counterterrorism effort without signing a peace deal with the Taliban. North Korea was another issue upon which Bolton and Trump disagreed. US officials have said it was Bolton who was responsible for the collapse of a summit in February between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi by recommending the presentation a list of hardline demands that Kim rejected. Even before taking over as national security adviser, Bolton said that he thought talking to the North Korean leadership would be fruitless. Despite Trump's efforts to improve relations with Russia, Bolton remained a harsh critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bolton was also against Trump's insistence that Moscow be allowed to rejoin the G7. Bolton was an ardent opponent of arms control treaties with Russia. He was instrumental in Trump's decision to withdraw last month from a 1987 accord that banned intermediate-range missiles because of what Washington charged was Moscow's deployment of prohibited nuclear-capable cruise missiles, an allegation Russia denied. Bolton was also outspoken about Russian meddling in the US elections. "Attempting to undermine America's constitution is far more than just a quotidian covert operation. It is, in fact, a casus belli, a true act of war, and one Washington will never tolerate," Bolton told graduates at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security in Washington. "We should respond in cyberspace and elsewhere. I don't think the response should be proportionate. I think it should be very disproportionate. Because deterrence works when you tell your adversary that they will experience enormous cost when they impose costs on you. That causes them to say we're not even going to think about it," Bolton said about a possible response to Russia's meddling. Bolton advocated against Trump's decision last year to pull US troops out of Syria. He masterminded a quiet campaign inside the administration and with allies abroad to convince Trump to keep US forces in Syria to counter the remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS). Bolton advocated for hardline measures on Venezuela. The US backs opposition leader Juan Guaido, who invoked the constitution earlier this year and declared himself interim president, calling President Nicolas Maduro's 2018 reelection "illegitimate". Maduro accuses Guaido and the US of attempting a coup. In January, Bolton held a notepad with a handwritten line that read, "5,000 troops to Colombia". According to the Miami Herald, White House officials said that the president was frustrated that Maduro had not stepped down as Bolton had predicted. The Herald added, however, that officials warned that US policy towards Venezuela was not likely to drastically change with Bolton out of the picture. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address North Korea yet to comment on Trump-Kim meeting plan: South Korea Iran Press TV Mon Mar 12, 2018 05:24AM South Korea says it has not yet received an official response from the North about a summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which the American president has said is being planned for May. South Korea's Ministry of Unification said on Monday that Pyongyang was apparently silent over the upcoming summit to "cautiously" formulate a response. "North Korea seems to need more time and take a cautious approach in setting its stance," said the ministry's spokesman Baik Tae-hyun. He also said Pyongyang was also seeking to set up a committee to prepare for an inter-Korean summit, which would be the third between the two Koreas, following ones in 2000 and 2007. Another awkward Trump moment? North Korean media have reported on a recent visit by a senior delegation from South Korea, but they have reportedly made no coverage of the summit plans between Trump and Kim or South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Trump almost immediately agreed to meet with Kim without precondition by the end of May only hours after being briefed by the South Korean officials who had visited Pyongyang in Washington on Thursday. He even took to Twitter the following day writing that a deal with Pyongyang was "very much in the making." According to US media, Trump made the decision without consulting key figures in his administration. White House officials said later that a meeting with the North's leader would not take place unless Pyongyang took "concrete actions." Trump has repeatedly threatened the North with military action to stop its missile and nuclear programs. He has also in the past attacked Kim with personal insults. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN expert says Myanmar's crackdown on Rohingya bears 'hallmarks of genocide' Iran Press TV Mon Mar 12, 2018 06:27PM A top UN rights expert has warned that Myanmar's crackdown on the persecuted Rohingya bears "the hallmarks of genocide," insisting that the government should be held accountable for the ongoing crimes against the Muslim community. The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, told the UN Human Rights Council in the Swiss city of Geneva on Monday that she was increasingly convinced the crackdown may amount to genocide. Lee also suggested the term was not strong enough. "I am becoming more convinced that crimes committed ... bear the hallmarks of genocide, and call in the strongest terms for accountability," media outlets quoted her as saying. The quest for accountability "must be aimed at the individuals who gave the orders and carried out violations against individuals and entire ethnic and religious groups," Lee added. "The government leadership who did nothing to intervene, stop or condemn these acts must also be held accountable," she noted. The South Korean academic, who is investigating Myanmar's ongoing crackdown against the Rohingya, voiced alarm at "credible reports" of widespread indiscriminate killings, including by burning people alive. She pointed to "conservative estimates" that at least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the first month of violence alone. Elsewhere in her remarks, Lee echoed a call from the UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, last week for the creation of a new international probe tasked with preparing criminal indictments over atrocities committed in Myanmar. Lee also called Monday for a "comprehensive review" of actions taken by the UN before, during and after the latest crackdowns on Rohingya in Myanmar. "The violence and suffering call not just for accountability but also for self-reflection by the UN, and the question: Could we have prevented this?" she said. Lee also warned of "extensive bulldozing of former Rohingya villages with huge redevelopment projects already underway in some areas." Meanwhile, Marzuki Darusman, the head of a UN-backed fact-finding mission into violations in Myanmar, told the council that at least 319 villages had been burned since August. "We have seen unsettling photographs and satellite images of Rohingya villages flattened to the ground by bulldozers, erasing all remaining traces of the life and community that once was." On Monday, the UK-based rights group Amnesty International accused Myanmar of building security installations on top of razed Rohingya villages, casting doubt on plans to repatriate hundreds of thousands of refugees. Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has done virtually nothing to stop the crimes committed by the military against the Rohingya. Suu Kyi's government has snubbed and obstructed UN officials who have sought to investigate the situation and it has prevented aid agencies from delivering food, water and medicines to the refugees. Backed by Myanmar's government and Buddhist majority, the military launched yet another heavy-handed crackdown against the Muslim minority in Rakhine state on August 25, 2017, using a number of armed attacks on military posts as the pretext. Only in its first month, the clampdown, called by the UN and prominent rights group an "ethnic cleansing campaign," killed some 6,700 Rohingya Muslims, including more than 700 children, according to Doctors Without Borders. About 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled the predominantly-Buddhist Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh since August last year. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia: Syrian government has 'every right' to defend own citizens against terrorists Iran Press TV Mon Mar 12, 2018 07:04PM Russia says the Syrian government has "every right" to defend its own citizens against terrorists, who are wreaking havoc in the Arab country. During a Monday meeting of the UN Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Damascus has "every right to try and remove the threat to the safety of its citizens", describing the militant-held Eastern Ghouta, near the capital, as a "hotbed of terrorism." For the past several years, the flashpoint enclave, home to some 400,000 people, has been under the control of multiple foreign-backed terror groups, particularly the so-called Jaish al-Islam Takfiri outfit and the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, which have practically captivated the civilians and use them as human shield against the government's liberating forces. The Syrian army troops, backed by pro-government forces, have launched a full-scale offensive to crush the terror outfits, which constantly launch mortar attacks against residential neighborhoods in and around Damascus, killing and wounding dozens of people. Furthermore, the Ghouta-based militants are trying to prevent civilians from leaving the enclave as they constantly target the safe passages of al-Wafideen and Jisreen with shells and explosive bullets, killing a number of people so far. Earlier on Monday, US Ambassador Nikki Haley presented a new draft resolution to the UN Security Council demanding a 30-day ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta, claiming that the previous UN truce resolution, unanimously passed by the council on February 24, "has failed" as Damascus, backed by Russia, stepped up its offensive in the enclave. "We have drafted a new ceasefire resolution that provides no room for evasion," Haley further said, warning that Washington was "prepared to act if we must" against "any nation that is determined to impose its will through chemical attacks and inhuman suffering, most especially the outlaw Syrian regime." The US and its western and regional allies have often pointed their fingers at the Syrian government for chemical attacks, which Damascus has consistently denied. The Russian envoy, however, strongly rejected Haley's accusation regarding the chemical attack, saying Nusra Front terrorists were the real perpetrator behind the attack in eastern Ghouta. "This was done in order to prepare the ground for unilateral military actions against sovereign Syria," Nebenzya said, referring to the attempts to put the blame on the Syrian government for the chemical weapons use in the Arab country. Following the alleged use of chemical weapons in the enclave in January, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson claimed that the Syrian government could be using chemical weapons, accusing Moscow of being responsible for the victims because of its military engagement in Syria. The Russian Foreign Ministry at the time said Washington was spreading mass propaganda against the Kremlin in a bid to demonize the Syrian government and subsequently topple it, underscoring that the information on the chemical attacks used by the US was uncorroborated. The Syrian government has time and again stated that it had completely destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles, which was confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Last week, Syria's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Hussam Aala, told the UN Human Rights Council on that military operations in Eastern Ghouta targeted "terrorist organizations in accordance with international humanitarian law." He added that the Ghouta-based terrorists "continue to indiscriminately shell" the capital. Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country. According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 511,000 people have been killed in Syria since the onset of the foreign-backed militancy some seven years ago. It added in its Monday's report that it had succeeded in identifying only more than 350,000 of those killed. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address France ready to strike chemical arms sites in Syria: Macron Iran Press TV Mon Mar 12, 2018 05:37PM France has expressed readiness to launch targeted strikes against any site in Syria used to deploy chemical arms and weapons that could result in the death of civilians. French President Emmanuel Macron, who is on an official visit to India, said at a news conference on Monday that his country's military would be ready to strike if it found "irrefutable evidence" chemical weapons had been used to kill civilians in Syria. "The day we have, in particular in tandem with our American partners, irrefutable proof that the red line was crossed -- namely the chemical weapons were used to lethal effect -- we will do what the Americans themselves did moreover a few months ago; we would put ourselves in position to proceed with targeted strikes," Macron said. "We are cross-matching our own information with that of our allies but to put it very clearly we have an independent capacity to identify targets and launch strikes where needed," the French president added. Earlier on Monday, Russian media said that the Syrian military had found a workshop used by foreign-backed militants to make chemical weapons. The workshop was discovered in a recently-liberated area in Eastern Ghouta where Syrian troops are fighting foreign-backed extremists and Takfiri terrorists, Russian news agencies reported Monday, citing a field commander. This comes as Western governments and their allies have never stopped pointing the finger at Damascus whenever an apparent chemical attack takes place. 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. Damascus has also consistently denied using chemical weapons over the course of the foreign-backed militancy that has gripped the country since 2011. Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is sympathetic to the militants operating against the Damascus government, said recently that a suspected chlorine attack had taken place in Eastern Ghouta region on February 25. Prior to the report, Moscow, which has been backing Damascus in its terror fight, had warned that militant groups in Eastern Ghouta were preparing a false flag attack in a bid to blame the Syrian government for using chemical weapons against civilians. In January, pro-militant sources in Syria, the White Helmets and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, claimed that the Syrian government had used chlorine gas against militants in northwestern Syria. The US and UK raised the issue at the UN Security Council on February 6, but the Syrian envoy rejected the allegations as "false and cheap." Last year, 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 airbase, which the opponents of the Syrian government claimed was used as the launch pad for the alleged gas attack, taking the lives of about 20 people, including both Syrian soldiers and civilians. Damascus denied the accusation of being behind the alleged gas attack and described it as a "fabrication" to justify the subsequent US missile strike. Damascus says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the Arab country. The Syrian government and allied fighters have managed to liberate most of the territories that used to be under the control of the militants for the past years. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The owner of downtown Greenwichs Horseneck Wines & Liquors plans to open within the next couple of months a second establishment, in the Harbor Point complex in Stamfords South End. Theresa Terry Rogers is targeting a launch between mid-April and early May for Harbor Point Wines & Spirits, at 130 Washington Blvd. Rogers lives with her husband a few hundred yards away in the Infinity apartment building. Ive done a number of wine tastings for the Infinity residents, and its always a wonderful turnout as people are very excited about learning about wine, Rogers said Tuesday. At Harbor Point Wines & Spirits, we want to make it a family feeling when they walk in the store. Taking 1,347 square feet at the site of a former Walgreens, Harbor Point Wines & Spirits will operate yards away from a bustling restaurant row on Harbor Point Road that includes Sign of the Whale, Boothbay Lobster, Bareburger, Fortina and the new Mexicue. Well do a lot of events with the restaurants, Rogers said. And we want to make it fun and educational. Well have virtual (video) conferencing from wineries, so if one of them is having a tasting, you can be part of that experience here. Rogers has owned Horseneck Wines & Liquors, which operates at 25 E. Putnam Ave., since 1989. Among other upcoming arrivals in Harbor Point, the owners of Patisserie Salzburg which has two cafes in Westchester County, N.Y. plan to open a third location in the spring at 2 Harbor Point Road. Building and Land Technology, the Stamford-based developer that owns Harbor Point Wines & Spirits building and many of the surrounding buildings, hopes to bring in another restaurant at 18 Harbor Point Road, where World of Beer closed a couple of months ago. It also wants to recruit a coffeehouse to the adjacent 24 Harbor Point Road. Weve still got a number of restaurants that are doing great, BLT Chief Operating Officer Ted Ferrarone said in an interview last month. Were always fine-tuning the mix and trying to find restaurants that will resonate with both the residents and office tenants in Harbor Point. Residential expansion in Harbor Point is driving the business growth. A 392-unit building opened last year at 100 Commons Park North. A couple of blocks away, BLT is building 435 units in two towers on a site between Harbor Point Road, Pacific Street and Dyke Lane. Gregg Dancho finds himself at a curious crossroad. As director of Bridgeports Beardsley Zoo, he coordinated the institutions 95th anniversary celebrations last year and he recently received a flurry of media attention for the back-to-back births of some of the zoos rarest residents. At the same time, he has been stymied in trying to bring the zoo to a higher level of animal presentation. As zoo professionals, we want to see these removed, he said, pointing to the black barred enclosures that house some of the animals for outside exhibition. The habitats here are not something I want to see here and we will be removing them. However, that offers yet another challenge: financing the construction of modernized exhibits. The Beardsley Zoo operates on an annual budget of roughly $5 million, with sourcing evenly divided between earned revenue, philanthropic entities and a mix of city and state government support. Connecticuts fiscal problems have limited Hartfords largesse, and corporate support has dwindled in recent years. Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media Were as close to a pure nonprofit as we can possibly be, Dancho added. The 22-acre Bridgeport institution, which is run by the Connecticut Zoological Society, bills itself as Connecticuts Beardsley Zoo and attracts 300,000 visitors per year. It has become a popular site for birthday parties and weddings, and Dancho even envisions bringing corporate events to the site. However, competition remains an issue as myriad attractions compete for the leisure time and funds of Connecticut families. The Bronx Zoo has been the quintessential zoo trip I went to the Bronx Zoo when I was in grammar school when I grew up in Stratford, acknowledged Dancho, who also mentioned Rhode Islands Roger Williams Zoo as luring visitors from Eastern Connecticut that hed love to bring in. If I dont have people coming to the zoo, we wont have the resources to continue what were doing. Nonetheless, Dancho and his zoo have earned praise for their important work in the preservation of rare species. The zoo is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), and weve been accredited for 25 years, he continued. Being an accredited member of AZA, one of the main goals and objectives of our facility is conservation. We work with endangered species as much as we can. In December, the zoo reported births of animals that have nearly vanished from the wild: three pups born to the South American maned wolves which, despite the name, is not a wolf but a unique canid species in the genus Chrysocyon and twin cubs born to the Amur tigers that are native to Siberia. (The cubs mother rejected her offspring after birth, requiring the zoos staff to take on extra duties as surrogate parents until they are ready to be on public display.) More zoo births are planned: Dancho recently brought in mates for two of the zoos most eligible bachelors, the two-toed sloth and the red panda, while its resident male Andean condor will soon leave to mate at another zoo. These animals fall within the AZAs species survival plan (SSP) program, and there is no guarantee that they can stay as permanent residents of either the Beardsley Zoo or any other AZA member. If theres an SSP species in our facility, it doesnt belong to us, Dancho stated. It belongs to the zoo collective. In very rare cases, we have animals here that are part of release programs and are put back in the wild. And while Dancho would like to see an overhaul of many exhibits, the zoo is moving forward on three new enclosure projects. One will offer a new home to the red pandas, who are now housed at a center featuring animals from the South American rainforest admittedly, a strange place to put the Himalayan species, but no other space was available. Last summer, the zoo broke ground on the enclosure, with funding provided through a $75,000 challenge grant from the Werth Family Foundation that was matched with two donations from Easton residents Bob Natt, chairman of the health care technology company Alegeus, and his wife, Helen. The zoo designed the red panda enclosure, which Dancho said he hoped to complete by the fall. When you are building a habitat for the denizens here, you need to have safety for the guests, safety for the animals and a way for people to see them better and the animals have a home that feels like a habitat and not a cage, he said. Animal welfare is a huge component of what we do right now. Two other exhibits, one for the spider monkeys and one for the Andean bears, are also being prepared, and Dancho has been interviewing architects that specialize in zoo exhibit design. Dancho noted that the zoo owns 54 acres of land in the surrounding Beardsley Park, which can be used to expand the zoo if resources becomes available. Contributed If there is a potential game-changer for raising the zoos awareness and attendance, Dancho predicted, it would be the increased focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education. The zoos zoomobile has become an increasingly popular tool in bringing some species to classrooms and educational settings around Connecticut and New York, and the new emphasis on STEM studies has spurred an increased volume of visits by students in local schools. We are seeing more and more school trips coming here, Dancho observed. Students are getting to see the things they need to see and learn about the things they need to learn. Today, school trips are not just end of the year get the kids out of the classroom mini-vacations. Now, everything is based in STEM programs. Phi Hall is a reporter for the Fairfield County Business Journal. For more of his work and that of the journal, please visit westfaironline.com. The second official teaser for the Lenovo S5 is out, touting a metal unibody, a fullscreen display, dual camera with bokeh effect and Face Unlock. The teaser comes straight from Chang Cheng, the same Lenovo exec who announced that the S5 will arrive on March 20, with a humongous 6,000mAh battery. Chang Cheng has also teased some sort of AI smart engine on the Lenovo S5, but we can only guess its applications. Cheng has said that the Lenovo S5 will be better than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, which means we can expect an 18:9 screen, Snapdragon 625 (or better), the dual camera with Portrait Mode and at least 4GB of RAM. What we know so far is that the Lenovo S5 will be available in Red and will have a huge 6,000mAh battery, and that it will be made official on March 20. Source | Via These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. Haiti - Diplomacy : The future American ambassador in DR ally Haitians ? Thursday the businesswoman Robin Bernstein and personal friend of the President of the United States, Donald Trump designated by this one, for the post of Ambassador in the Dominican Republic, was interrogated by the Senator Ben Cardin of the Senate Committee of the foreign affairs, who was doing his evaluation. The Senator asked her whether she was aware of the decree 168-13 of the Dominican Constitutional Court in 2013 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-9742-haiti-denationalization-reaction-of-mhave-to-the-dominican-decision.html which establishes that the children of foreigners in transit do not have the Dominican nationality which has affected the descendants of Haitians, by retroactively depriving them of the Dominican nationality "What will be your approach to ensure that these people regain their nationality ?" Bernstein replied that human rights are very important to her, especially because her Jewish family left Russia for lack of respect for these rights "If I am confirmed, I will play a very active role with the staff of the Embassy [...] and I will try to restore the nationality of these people who are stateless [...] We will work with them to obtain a passport" ensuring that she will collaborate to this end with the Ambassador in Haiti. On Friday, responding to Ms. Bernstein's statements, Chancellor of the Dominican Republic, Miguel Vargas Maldonado, said that his country is free and sovereign and that he will not accept or accept any interference from another nation "We will wait for the arrival of the ambassador. Here we have no stateless person registered [...] our main mission is to defend our sovereignty and this is done within the framework of the Constitution and the laws. Each Nation has the right to manage its immigration status in the manner it deems most appropriate." Asked if he thought the new US ambassador was biased, he said, "We have to wait for the new ambassador to arrive in the country, but we also have to analyze her statements in detail." Recall that with its decree TC-168-13 making lose the Dominican nationality to thousands of Haitian descendants https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-9834-haiti-denationalization-audit-results-of-dominican-civil-state-registers.html the Dominican Republic has always defended itself for making these people stateless by recalling many times that the Haitian Constitution in its article 11 stipulates "Possesses the Haitian nationality of origin, any individual born of a Haitian father or a Haitian mother who themselves were born Haitians and had never renounced their nationality at the time of birth" rejecting responsibility on the Haitian Government, which does not issue identity documents to these citizens living in the Dominican Republic. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-9834-haiti-denationalization-audit-results-of-dominican-civil-state-registers.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-9742-haiti-denationalization-reaction-of-mhave-to-the-dominican-decision.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-9563-haiti-social-a-resolution-with-heavy-consequences.html SL/ HaitiLibre Korean Drama | 2011 Drama Directed by Jang Tae-yoo () Sin Kyeong-soo () Written by Kim Yeong-hyeon () Park Sang-yeon () TV Channel/Plateform: SBS (SBS) Airing dates: 2011/10/05~2011/12/21 24 episodes - Wed, Thu 21:55 Synopsis A high-budget historical thriller with an unusual concept, "Deep-rooted Tree" stars Jang Hyeok as a brilliant Joseon-era investigator. Kang Chae-yoon is an ordinary guard in the imperial palace during the reign of King Sejong. The King has a vision to create a written language for Korea, and has worked with scholars to create the first Korean alphabet. In this project he is helped by So Yi, a beautiful, mute lady of the court. When palace scholars begin getting murdered seven days before the release of the official hangul (alphabet), Chae-yoon takes it upon himself to investigate. He begins to uncover a vast, labyrinthine conspiracy behind the serial killings, which leads him to a group of shadowy, powerful men who seek control of Korea's fate. As Chae-yoon inches closer to the truth, he discovers how far the roots of their powers extend, and finds his own life in danger. Based on a bestselling novel by Lee Jeong-myeong, "Deep-rooted Tree" is a tense, finely-crafted series, laced with mystery and romance. Source Published on 2018/03/13 | Source Added episodes 11 and 12 captures for the Korean drama "Misty" (2018) Advertisement Directed by Mo Wan-il Written by Je In Network : jTBC With Kim Nam-joo, Ji Jin-hee, Jeon Hye-jin-II, Im Tae-kyung, Go Joon, Jin Ki-joo,... 16 episodes - Fri, Sat 23:00 Synopsis An anchorwoman is suspected of murder and her husband, a prosecutor-turned-public defender, decides to defend her. Through the process of fighting the murder charge, the couple grows closer again. Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2018/02/02 More A pair of controversial political candidates have generally disappeared, both from the local view and from the race for Montanas U.S. Senate seat. William James Dean and his wife, Sarah, both registered last fall with the Federal Election Commission as candidates for the Senate seat now held by Democrat Jon Tester of Big Sandy after the couple moved to Havre from California. Neither had filed with the Montana Secretary of State by the deadline Monday, essentially putting them out of the race The couple filed with the FEC, which administers federal campaign finance law, on opposite sides of the ticket, James Dean as a Republican and Sarah Dean as a Democrat. That put them in line for a head-to-head battle in the general election if each won their primary. The couple gave a joint interview to the Havre Daily News in October, with vague discussion of what they said was the best, most detailed platforms of any candidates, but without providing any details. Then more information came out about the couple. James Dean had filed as a candidate in the 2016 presidential election in California under his given name, Daniel Lane Dean, listing his party as both Democrat and Republican. Sarah Dean had a list of online businesses on which she used a variety of other names, generally based on Priscilla Dawn Baer, apparently her given name. The couple attended at least one fundraising event and also spoke as candidates at local events, and sent letters to the editor as candidates, although they remained vague on what they would do if elected. Some local Republicans said they were skeptical of James Deans candidacy when he spoke at a Pachyderm meeting. The couple raised another stir at the start of February, when James Dean said he and Sarah Dean were moving from Havre to find a safe place for relatives of his, whom he said were being abused by a guardian. He said he was trying to gain custody of those relatives. He caused a lockdown at a local school later that day when he tried to pull his relatives, of whom he did not have custody, from class and was escorted from the school by law enforcement officials. Dean had filed for a temporary order of protection against his relatives guardian, which was denied by a justice of the peace and state district judge when he appealed that ruling. Both judges said the testimony of an investigating law enforcement officer and Child and Protective Services representatives showed no support for allegations against the guardian and that Deans relatives were living in a safe environment. Tester, who is seeking his third term, does have a high level of competition for his seat, although no Democratic opponents have filed. Four Republicans are competing for their partys nomination to challenge Tester in November, Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Matt Rosendale of Glendive, former District Judge Russ Fagg of Billings, state Sen. Albert Olszewski of Kalispell and Bozeman businessman Troy Downing. A Libertarian candidate, Rick Breckenridge of Dayton, and two Green Party candidates, Timothy Adams of Three Forks and Steve Kelly of Bozeman, also entered the race by Mondays deadline. Havre Police Department Officers investigated a Monday 9:30 a.m. report that a man stole items from the callers business shop in Havre. Officers made an arrest after a First Street business caller reported a shoplifter Monday at 12:19 p.m. No details were provided on the arrest. Officers investigated a 2:32 p.m. Monday report at the police station of fraudulent charges on a credit card. Officers investigated a 2:53 p.m. Monday report from the Havre area of a stolen pickup. Officers investigated a call from a First Street business Monday at 3:18 p.m. that while clerks were dealing with a male customer who tried paying with a bad check, a girl who was with the man took the items out of the store. Officers investigated vehicle crash at a Third Street West residence reported Monday at 3:29 p.m. An arrest was made in connection with a sex offense reported Monday at 3:41 p.m. from the child abuse hotline. No details were provided about the arrest and charges. Officers investigated a Monday 4:13 p.m. report from Sixth Avenue of a building being spray painted. Officers investigated a two-vehicle crash reported at 4:37 p.m. Monday at First Street and Third Avenue. An officer serving a warrant at a First Street business Monday at 5:04 p.m. made an arrest, but no details on the arrest were provided. Someone reported a ring found Monday at 7:12 p.m. in a First Street West business parking lot. Codie Darwin Nalder of Havre, 23, was arrested on a Justice of City court warrant and a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia by an officer serving a warrant to 17th Street West Monday at 10:37 p.m. Joseph Don Wetsit of Havre, 23, was arrested on a Justice or City court warrant after an officer stopped on Third Street to help with a stuck vehicle at 1:27 this morning. Hill County Sheriffs Office Deputies escorted a prisoner from Justice Court to the hospital Monday at 1:55 p.m. Roland Lee Myers of Box Elder, 37, was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence and Bernard Christopher Calvin of Box Elder, 37, was issued a summons on a charge of possession of dangerous drugs during a vehicle stop at 1:42 this morning on First Street. Havre Fire Department Emergency medical personnel responded to one call Monday and two calls this morning. Fire department and NorthWestern Energy crews responded to a report of a gas smell on the 600 Block of Second Avenue at 12:05 Monday. No leaks were found. Havre Animal Shelter This morning the shelter held five medium-hair cats whose sex is listed as unknown; and one female and two male short-hair cats. The shelter held this morning held a male 8-month-old pit bull-hound mix, a 1-year-3-month-old female Australian shepherd, a 1-year-old male Labrador retriever-pug mixed-breed, a 6-year-old female Labrador retriever, a 2-year-old female mixed-breed, and a 15-week-old male mixed-breed puppy. Births A girl was born Friday, March 9, 2018, to Michael and Melissa Wood of Great Falls. Editors note: This story has been updated to show Penny Hadford and Dana Kjersem both filed as candidates Monday. A flurry of filings late last week and Monday before the 5 p.m. filing deadline has added numerous candidates to races of local interest. Conor Burns of Havre filed Thursday to run as a Libertarian for the House District 28 seat now held by Hill County Democratic Central Committee Chair and state Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre. No Republicans filed to run for the seat. HD 28 comprises most of Havre. Burns, 36, is a machinist with BNSF and served two tours in the U.S. Navy. He said Sunday that he made the decision to run for the seat about 48 hours before he filed. People had been talking to me about doing it for a while, but I never really gave it much thought, he said. If elected, Burns said he wants to work to reduce property taxes and taxes that small businesses have to pay on equipment. Im a big economics nerd, so my main concern is to get Montana to a more free market type of atmosphere really. he said. Burns added that he also wants to support legislation to increase the rights of gun owners. In the race for House District 32 that runs from Hill and Chouteau counties to Phillips County, former Republican state Rep. G. Bruce Meyers of Box Elder is challenging Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder. Windy Boy served in the House and returned to that body last election after terming out in the Montana Senate. Meyers, who could not be reached for comment by printing deadline this morning, won the seat in HD 32 in 2014 but did not run for re-election in 2016, instead running for the seat in Senate District 16 from which Windy Boy was terming out. Meyers lost to Sen. Frank Smith, D-Poplar. Windy Boy, who filed as a candidate Friday, is a former Chippewa Cree Tribe council member and the tribes historic preservation officer. He said his 15 years of experience in the state Legislature provides institutional knowledge he can share with newer lawmakers. Although he said that he has accomplished a lot during his tenure in the Legislature, Windy Boy said he decided to run for re-election because there is still a lot more that needs to be done. It took all these years to get a lot of the stuff through that I did, and there are still other things that need to be done that didnt quite make it across the finish line, he said. One of those is continuing to push to revise the regulation of charter schools in the state, which he said could help provide students in Indian Country more opportunities and staunch the dropout rate. Two charter schools already exist in Montana one in Bozeman and another in Libby, but Windy Boy said current law doesnt provide school districts with enough flexibility. Miles G. Hutton of Turner filed Friday to run as a Republican in the race for the District 3 seat on the Blaine County Commission. Hutton, 55, is a Turner native, rancher and owner of Borderline Outfitters, a hunting outfitter business. Hutton will face Harlem Mayor and former Democratic state Sen. Kenneth Kim Hansen in the general election for the seat. Incumbent Charles Kulbeck, a Democrat from Harlem, announced in January he would not seek re-election. Hutton said he once ran unsuccessfully for the Turner School Board, but that this years campaign will be his first for countywide office. Hutton said he has considered a run for the County Commission for a while and after consulting with his family and local Republicans decided to enter the race. We havent had anyone from this end of Blaine County be a commissioner for a lot of years, so I thought it wouldnt hurt to have some representation, and I have been interested in doing something like this for awhile, Hutton said. In other last-minute filings, Hill County Justice of the Peace Audrey Barger received a challenge from Bruce Grant in her non-partisan bid for re-election, and Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson, a Democrat, faces a primary challenge from fellow Democrat Dana Kjersem. Republican Penny Hadford filed to run against Democratic Hill County Treasurer Sandy Brown. Two Democrats, Deputy Hill County Attorney Karen Alley and Havre attorney Randy Randolph, will compete to be their partys candidate for Hill County Attorney. Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson, appointed by the county commissioners to replace Gina Dahl who resigned last year to take a job in Billings, did not file to run in the election. No Republicans or third-party candidates filed to run for the seat. Hill County District Judge Daniel Boucher, who is unopposed in his nonpartisan race, filed for re-election Monday. Clerk and Recorder Susan Armstrong, Auditor Cathy Olson, Sheriff Jamie Ross and County Superintendent of Schools Maureen Odegard, all Democrats, are unopposed. In the race for Blaine County sheriff, Republican Undersheriff Frank Billmayer and Democrat Sheriffs Department Lt. Jim Colby, will face each other in the general election. Treasurer Tori MacLean and County Attorney Kelsie Harwood, both Democrats, are unopposed in their bids for re-election. Clerk and Recorder/Accessor Tammy Williams and County School Superintendent Valerie White, both Democrats, are running for full terms after being appointed by Blaine County commissioners last year to finish out the terms of their predecessors. Blaine County Justice of the Peace Perry Miller is unopposed in his nonpartisan race. Chouteau County Commissioner Robert Pasha will face state Rep. James OHara, R-Fort Benton, for the District 3 seat on the commission in the countys only contested primary. Chouteau County Attorney Stephen J. Gannon; Sheriff Vern Burdick; Clerk and Recorder Lana K. Classen, all Republicans, are unopposed, as is nonpartisan Justice of the Peace Susan Spencer. Republican Toni Frieling-Eckhoff is unopposed in her race for the open treasurer/assessor seat. In Liberty County, Clerk and Recorder Angel Colbry will face a Republican Primary challenge from Gavin Buffington. County Treasurer Denise Waken will go up against challenger Rachelle Fenger in the Republican primary. County Commissioner Larry Hendrickson, County Superintendent of Schools Kathy Armstrong, County Attorney Robert Padmos and Sheriff Doug Riggin, all Republicans are unopposed in the primaries and general election. Justice of the Peace Holly Fredrickson is also unopposed in her nonpartisan bid for re-election. In statewide races in which candidates filed earlier, Joshua Kassmier of Fort Benton and Darrold Hutchinson from north of Hingham will compete in the Republican primary for the seat occupied by OHara in House District 27 that runs from the Canadian border to just outside Great Falls, including Liberty and parts of Hill, Chouteau and Cascade counties. The winner of the primary will go up against Democrat Dan Nelsen of Fort Benton in the general election. State Rep. Casey Knudsen. R-Malta, is unopposed in the race for House District 33 that runs from northeastern Hill County through northern Blaine, Phillips and Valley counties. In State Senate District 14 that includes House districts 27 and 28, Brad Lotton of Havre will challenge state Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, in the Republican primary. The winner will face Democrat Paul Tuss of Havre in the general election. Republicans in the race for the District 1 seat on the Montana Public Service Commission are in a four-way primary. Former state Rep. Randy Pinocci, R-Sun Belt; state Rep. Rob Cook, R-Shelby. Cory McKinney of Great Falls and Mark Wicks of Inverness are vying for their partys nomination. The winner will face off against Democrat Doug Kaercher in the general election for the seat now held by Commissioner Travis Kavulla, R-Great Falls. Kavulla is unable to run for re-election due to term limits. Coyla Mildred (Peterson) Boe passed away March 11, 2018, just before 2 p.m. at the age of 102 and about 5 months after approximately three months stay at the Sweet Nursing Home in Chinook, Montana. She was surrounded by family, her oldest daughter and husband, Glenn and Bonnie (Boe) Patchell, her younger daughter and husband, Karl and Mary (Boe) Harder, her granddaughter, Kari (Patchell) Goodman, and her grandson, Erik Boe. She was greatly beloved and respected and many felt it an honor to know Coyla. A viewing will be held Thursday evening March 15, 2018, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Edward's Funeral Home, 500 Indiana Street, Chinook, Montana. Graveside services for family will be at Kuper Memorial Cemetery off Highway 2 on John Stephen's Memorial Road, north and west of Chinook, north of the S-curve at 10 a.m. Friday, March 16, 2018. Memorial services will be held at the American Lutheran Church on Sixth Street in Chinook, Montana, at 11 a.m., Friday, March 16, 2018, with a luncheon after in the church basement. Coyla was born Oct. 20, 1915, in Milan, Minnesota, to her parents, Thomas Oscar and Josephine (Running) Peterson, She was the second-oldest of five siblings. She was baptized in the Lutheran Church in Milan, Minnesota, and confirmed at Outlook, Montana, at Highland Lutheran Church. She ran track and won ribbons in eighth grade, and she graduated high school in 1933 from Outlook High School. She attended Northern Montana College in Havre for one year and then taught in a rural school for one year in northeastern Montana near Antelope, with about 15 students grades first through eighth, teaching all subjects. She also helped on her parents' farm the year after she taught school (the year before she was married). She took a course in home nursing taught by the Red Cross during World War II for the purpose of assisting an R.N. if needed for an epidemic. She passed the test and received a certificate from the Red Cross. Coyla was a long-time resident in Chinook, Montana. She and her husband, Clarence (Dutch) Morris Boe, moved to Chinook in September of 1937, so 81 years of residency in total during which she raised her family, starting with Duane Arlin Boe born 1938, Bonnie Rae Boe born 1940 and Mary Gail Boe born 1943. She spent many happy times in their home and from October 2008 to December 2017 she enjoyed independent living by herself in her own apartment. She loved her many friends at the Grand Villa Apartments. Preceding Coyla in death: her husband, Dutch (April 2008), and their son Duane (July 1992), as well as her older sister, Gladys Muriel (Peterson) Johnson and her husband, Clair Johnson; her younger brother Glenn Alphonso Peterson and his wife, Josie; her younger sister, Phemie Maxine Peterson, and her youngest brother, Wallace Burnell Peterson and his wife, Ruby. Coyla is survived by two daughters, Bonnie and Mary, and their spouses as indicated above; seven grandchildren, Craig Patchell, Kari (Patchell) Goodman, Shawn Patchell, Conrad Harder, Melanie (Harder) Johndrow, Kristin (Boe) Bigelow and Erik Boe; 16 great grandchildren, three step-great-grandchildren; three great-great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson on the way in August 2018; and four step-great-great-grandchildren, one of whom is deceased as of 2015. The event will run over two days on Wednesday and Thursday comprising two separate conference streams plus a packed program of free HR workshops, an informative exhibition floor, live interviews, motivational speakers, networking events and a Grand Prize Draw to win $10,000 cash. Headlining this years speaker line-up are Olympic champion skier Alisa Camplin OAM and best-selling author Saroo Brierley, whose remarkable real-life story inspired last years award-winning film Lion. In addition, attendees will hear from HR Directors, CEOs and business leaders from diverse industries with companies including PwC, KFC, NAB, Toyota Finance, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Aurecon and NSW Police. Two 16-year-olds charged with assaulting teacher Related Stories Henderson County sheriffs deputies charged two 16-year-olds with assaulting a school employee after an incident at the Henderson County Career Academy last Thursday. One 16-year-old student was charged with possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in addition to the assault. He was released under a $2,500 bond. The other teenager was released under a $2,000 bond on the assault charge. Ville to Ville Relay sends runners through town Six of 12 legs in the Ville to Ville Relay cross Henderson County. Around 250 runners will be racing through Henderson County on Saturday, April 14, during the Ville to Ville Craft Brew Relay. The popular race from Asheville to Greenville is already sold out. Teams of six runners cover 12 legs ranging from 3 to 10 miles (except ultra teams, which have three runners). Each team provides its own race vehicle to drop off and pick up runners at designated transition areas along the course route. About 1,500 runners total have signed up. The first flight of runners will leave Highland Brewing Co. around 5 a.m. on the first leg, to A.C. Reynolds Middle School. Switchoffs in Henderson County are Fletcher Community Park, Carter Landscaping, Southern Appalachian Brewery, Hillandale Elementary School, Tuxedo Park and Talisman Camps in Zirconia. From Zirconia, there are only four more legs. Teams will finish near downtown Greenville with a celebration featuring a variety of local brewers, music, and food trucks. Online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter should have to sign up to a code of practice accepting responsibility for their role in fighting "fake news", a new European Commission report has said. The European Union is to embark on a clampdown on disinformation, which is now posing a threat beyond day-to-day political discourse. A High Level Expert Group, comprising members from throughout the EU, recommended a series of actions for leaders to take in the coming months. It acknowledged that while "not necessarily illegal", disinformation can be harmful for citizens and society at large. "The risk of harm includes threats to democratic political processes, including integrity of elections, and to democratic values that shape public policies in a variety of sectors such as health, science, finance and more," it said. Among the key proposals are: A code of practice for online platforms. Media and information literacy to be added to the school curriculum. Taxpayer support for demonstrably independent public service media. European centres for monitoring the growth of disinformation. The committee, which includes Independent News and Media (INM) Editor-in-Chief Stephen Rae, chose not to use the term "fake news" as it has been "appropriated and used misleadingly by powerful actors to dismiss coverage that is simply found disagreeable". The report stated that "disinformation" goes well beyond the term "fake news". Disinformation is defined as including "all forms of false, inaccurate or misleading information designed, presented and promoted to intentionally cause public harm or for profit". Battle While much of the report centres on what media and politicians can do to battle disinformation, there is an emphasis on the role of digital platforms. It notes that online sites "are becoming increasingly important as both enablers and gatekeepers of information". Fine Gael Dublin MEP Brian Hayes said it is important to ensure that the steadfast principles of accuracy and truth remain at the heart of all forms of journalism. "These are the values which have served us so well to date in all aspects of our lives," he said. Paul OBeirne has been charged with the murder of Vincent Ryan A Dublin man has been remanded in custody after being charged with the murder of Vincent 'Vinnie' Ryan. Paul O'Beirne (35), of Cole-park Drive, Ballyfermot, is accused of the murder of Ryan at McKee Road, Finglas, on February 29, 2016. Meanwhile, a 36-year-old man from Finglas was arrested yesterday in England on foot of a European Arrest Warrant on the same charge. Tracksuit He is in custody, and it is not yet known if he will fight his extradition to Ireland. Gardai have obtained directions for him to also be charged with Ryan's murder. The 25-year-old father was shot dead while sitting in his car. Expand Close Vincent Ryan was shot dead in 2016 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vincent Ryan was shot dead in 2016 Mr O'Beirne, dressed in a navy tracksuit, sat silently with his arms folded during the hearing before Judge Victor Blake at Dublin District Court yesterday evening. Evidence of arrest, charge and caution was given by Det Sgt Gavin Ross of Finglas Garda Station. He told Judge Blake that the accused was arrested at his home address at 2.36pm yesterday on foot of a warrant issued by the district court. The warrant was then handed in to court. Det Sgt Ross said Mr O'Beirne was taken to Ballyfermot Garda Station, where he was charged. The court heard he was handed a copy of the charge, and in reply after caution said: "No- thing got to do with me at all." Det Sgt Ross confirmed that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has directed that Mr O'Beirne is to face trial on indictment in the Central Criminal Court. The detective applied to the court to remand Mr O'Beirne in custody, to app-ear at Cloverhill District Court on Friday. Defence solicitor Padraig O'Donovan consented to the garda application. Judge Blake adjourned the case for mention until Friday for a book of evidence to be prepared. Mr O'Beirne was granted legal aid after his solicitor furnished the court with a statement of his means and told the judge he was on social welfare. There was no garda objection. Mr O'Donovan told the court that his client agreed to appearing via video-link at his next hearing. Ryan, a younger brother of murdered Real IRA chief Alan Ryan, was shot dead in broad daylight as he ate a roll outside his girlfriend's home. In October 2013, he and his pal Darragh Evans (27) were cleared by the Special Criminal Court of charges of possession of an assault rifle and a handgun at Clonshaugh Walk, Coolock, on September 15, 2011 - the same day on which notorious drugs trafficker Michael 'Micka' Kelly was shot dead. It emerged at Ryan's funeral that the last conversation he had with his partner, Kelly Smyth, was about getting married. Gardai have sent items, including fragments of clothing, found in the search for missing Tina Satchwell (45) to the State Laboratory for forensic testing. The items were found during the search of Mitchel's Wood outside Castlemartyr in east Cork for Ms Satchwell, who vanished last year. However, a garda source said it was still unclear if the items are connected to the case. It is understood a quantity of material was illegally dumped at the sprawling area over recent years and detectives want the forensic tests conducted as a precautionary measure. Search Gardai, supported by Defence Forces engineering units and Search Dogs UK, now have combed more than half the 40-acre search zone over the past eight days. The search has been extended to include streams, rivers and bogland in the area. These areas will be examined with the support of the Garda Sub Aqua Unit. Gardai now have 250 different lines of inquiry in their search for Ms Satchwell - an increase of 30 on last week. The revelation came as Ms Satchwell's husband Richard said that the discrediting of a recent witness was like "having a bucket of cold water chucked over me". Mr Satchwell also said his wife's best friend is convinced Ms Satchwell is now living in the UK. He further claimed his wife was memorising UK social security numbers in the time before she vanished. Mr Satchwell has repeatedly said 26,000 in cash as well as two suitcases and clothing vanished from their home on the day his wife disappeared. Garda sources have now confirmed that a man who claimed he spotted Ms Satchwell near a Dublin beach last January was "well-intentioned but mistaken or confused". Ms Satchwell disappeared without trace from her home in Youghal, Co Cork, on March 20, 2017. The potential Dublin lead is not being treated as credible. Mr Satchwell referred to the man's information on RTE's Ray D'Arcy Show last Saturday night - but it emerged the same individual had offered information about the case of missing schoolboy Philip Cairns. Garda sources said the man was "genuine but either mistaken or confused". Blitz English-born truck driver Mr Satchwell said he was continuing with a blitz of broadcast interviews in the hope it would generate further leads in the case. He said he was very upset to learn that the Dublin lead was not a breakthrough. "It is like having a bucket of cold water chucked over me," he told RedFM. "But I am hopeful that everything we are doing now is going to bring more and more people forward." It has emerged that Ms Satchwell, in the days before her disappearance, informed some people that: "I would never do anything to hurt Richard - I love him too much." Mr Satchwell insisted he does not believe his wife was having an affair, merely that she was battling depression and may have needed some time away from the marriage. Mr Satchwell also confirmed yesterday he had been in prison. "I was caught... working while claiming social welfare. That was here [in Ireland]," he told RedFM. "As regards being in jail? Want the truth? I think I would sooner be there than where I am now. The media don't care about my feelings or Tina's feelings - they just want to make me look bad," he added. Meghan Markle acted like a blushing bride when she told a group of schoolchildren and their principal that she was "very, very excited" about her forthcoming wedding. The American actress' comments came when she met pupils from across Britain after her first Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. Hundreds of children were invited to the event, attended by Queen Elizabeth and other royals including Prince William and Kate Middleton, Prince Charles and Camilla, as well as prime minister Theresa May. Lovely In Dean's Yard near the Abbey, Harry and Meghan chatted with the youngsters who earlier had been in the congregation, and Holly Hartley, principal of Thistley Hough Academy in Stoke-on-Trent, and her pupils. "She was saying what a lovely service it had been and her first service at Westminster Abbey," said Ms Hartley. "We congratulated her on her engagement. "She was delighted and said she was 'very, very excited' - she stayed chatting with us for quite a while. What a lovely, lovely lady." Harry and Meghan will wed on May 19 in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The couple have invited 1,200 members of the public, who will be chosen by lord lieutenants across Britain, into the grounds to celebrate their big day. "She said what a lovely day she'd had and we had a little joke about the rain, as we had to brave the rain earlier," Ms Hartley added. "She said it was great to see people from all over the world so well represented at the service." Former president Mary McAleese has revealed her younger brother was "sadistically" abused as a child by Father Malachy Finnegan. Dr McAleese said that her youngest brother was abused by paedophile priest Fr Finnegan, who was the president of St Colman's College in Newry at the time. She has now called for a full inquiry into accusations against the late priest and those who held senior positions within the school and diocese at the time. Speaking on The Sean O'Rourke Show on RTE Radio One, she said: "My youngest brother, my baby brother, was seriously, physically and sadistically abused by Malachy Finnegan. "My mother, almost 90 years of age, had to discover that from an article in the Belfast Telegraph three weeks ago. "Four of my five brothers went to that school. Expand Close Pope Francis / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Pope Francis Inquiry "It shouts for an inquiry and I think an independent inquiry is warranted." She said that there are many survivors of abuse suffering "a mountain of hurt". "He was 49, he was seven when I got married and left home," Dr McAleese said. "He's not the only one, there are legions of silent sufferers who carry it through their lives and it remains unresolved and causes so much suffering. "The sad thing is that here we are, 20 years after the new guidelines were introduced, all of the secrets were supposed to be out but here we are, there's a mountain of them and a mountain of hurt." The Bishop of Dromore Dr John McAreavey hit the headlines earlier this month after he resigned following the controversy over his officiating at Fr Finnegan's funeral. Fr Finnegan died in 2002 and has been accused of sexual abuse by 12 people. Meanwhile, the former president also revealed that she has "received neither an acknowledgement nor a reply" to a letter she wrote to Pope Francis after the Vatican declined to approve her taking part in a conference in Rome. "I accept the authority of the Pope, of course I do. But do I accept absolutely everything the Pope says? I don't have to. No," she said. On the Eighth Amendment, Ms McAleese said she "has a lot of reading to do", having been out of the country last week. "I'm comfortably a member of the Catholic Church, comfortably uncomfortable sometimes," she said. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes RiskyRob ( Lop V.I.P.) User ID: kaput 03-13-2018 08:42 AM Posts: 8,137 Post: #1 President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes Advertisement http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/804723...a-visit-to President Donald Trump will visit California tomorrow to see prototypes for a potential border wall and learn more about the construction, according to administration officials involved in the planning. Eight border wall prototypes are on display near the border east of San Diego. The 30-foot-tall barriers use varying configurations of steel, concrete - even spikes - to create ramparts far more formidable than almost anything currently in place along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Tests conducted by the Department of Homeland Security have found the prototypes are nearly impossible to climb or break through. President Trump has dropped his insistence that the new structure be a wall, rather than a fence, as U.S. border agents prefer something that allows them to see through into Mexican territory. Trump said last year that an completely opaque structure would leave agents at risk of being struck by sacks of drugs hurled into the United States. Ascended Master President Donald Trump will visit California tomorrow to see prototypes for a potential border wall and learn more about the construction, according to administration officials involved in the planning.Eight border wall prototypes are on display near the border east of San Diego. The 30-foot-tall barriers use varying configurations of steel, concrete - even spikes - to create ramparts far more formidable than almost anything currently in place along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Tests conducted by the Department of Homeland Security have found the prototypes are nearly impossible to climb or break through.President Trump has dropped his insistence that the new structure be a wall, rather than a fence, as U.S. border agents prefer something that allows them to see through into Mexican territory. Trump said last year that an completely opaque structure would leave agents at risk of being struck by sacks of drugs hurled into the United States. Ascended Master (This post was last modified: 03-13-2018 08:44 AM by RiskyRob .) Archangel Michael User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 08:50 AM Posts: 14,103 Post: #2 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes I hope Trump wears body armor, so many nutbag liberals out there, including the Governor. RiskyRob ( Lop V.I.P.) User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 08:56 AM Posts: 8,137 Post: #3 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes Archangel Wrote: (03-13-2018 08:50 AM) I hope Trump wears body armor, so many nutbag liberals out there, including the Governor. God will protect him. "Those who declare publicly that they belong to me, I will do the same for them before my Father in heaven. Mathew 10:32 God will protect him."Those who declare publicly that they belong to me, I will do the same for them before my Father in heaven. Mathew 10:32 Ascended Master LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:03 AM Post: #4 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes RiskyRob Wrote: (03-13-2018 08:56 AM) Archangel Wrote: (03-13-2018 08:50 AM) I hope Trump wears body armor, so many nutbag liberals out there, including the Governor. God will protect him. "Those who declare publicly that they belong to me, I will do the same for them before my Father in heaven. Mathew 10:32 I'm sure it will work just as well as making Mexico pay for the wall.. I'm sure it will work just as well as making Mexico pay for the wall.. RiskyRob ( Lop V.I.P.) User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:08 AM Posts: 8,137 Post: #5 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:03 AM) I'm sure it will work just as well as making Mexico pay for the wall.. You don't think the USA can keep illegal invaders out? It just takes the will to do it. You don't think the USA can keep illegal invaders out? It just takes the will to do it. Ascended Master (This post was last modified: 03-13-2018 09:11 AM by RiskyRob .) LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:11 AM Post: #6 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:03 AM) RiskyRob Wrote: (03-13-2018 08:56 AM) God will protect him. "Those who declare publicly that they belong to me, I will do the same for them before my Father in heaven. Mathew 10:32 I'm sure it will work just as well as making Mexico pay for the wall.. or locking hillary up or locking hillary up LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:13 AM Post: #7 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:11 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:03 AM) I'm sure it will work just as well as making Mexico pay for the wall.. or locking hillary up LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:15 AM Post: #8 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes RiskyRob Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:08 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:03 AM) I'm sure it will work just as well as making Mexico pay for the wall.. You don't think the USA can keep illegal invaders out? It just takes the will to do it. Oh I'm sure they'll dig under it or climb over it.. but they won't be paying for it! Oh I'm sure they'll dig under it or climb over it.. but they won't be paying for it! RiskyRob ( Lop V.I.P.) User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:20 AM Posts: 8,137 Post: #9 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:15 AM) Oh I'm sure they'll dig under it or climb over it.. but they won't be paying for it! "Tests conducted by the Department of Homeland Security have found the prototypes are nearly impossible to climb or break through." "Tests conducted by the Department of Homeland Security have found the prototypes are nearly impossible to climb or break through." Ascended Master LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:21 AM Post: #10 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes RiskyRob Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:20 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:15 AM) Oh I'm sure they'll dig under it or climb over it.. but they won't be paying for it! "Tests conducted by the Department of Homeland Security have found the prototypes are nearly impossible to climb or break through." Well if better be for the billions it will cost the American taxpayers.. Well if better be for the billions it will cost the American taxpayers.. RiskyRob ( Lop V.I.P.) User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:24 AM Posts: 8,137 Post: #11 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:21 AM) RiskyRob Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:20 AM) "Tests conducted by the Department of Homeland Security have found the prototypes are nearly impossible to climb or break through." Well if better be for the billions it will cost the American taxpayers.. It will save billions in illegal immigration. The US wants only the best and brightest. It will save billions in illegal immigration. The US wants only the best and brightest. Ascended Master LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:25 AM Post: #12 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes RiskyRob Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:20 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:15 AM) Oh I'm sure they'll dig under it or climb over it.. but they won't be paying for it! "Tests conducted by the Department of Homeland Security have found the prototypes are nearly impossible to climb or break through." "climb or break through" how does that equate to "dig under it"? "climb or break through" how does that equate to "dig under it"? RiskyRob ( Lop V.I.P.) User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:31 AM Posts: 8,137 Post: #13 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:25 AM) RiskyRob Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:20 AM) "Tests conducted by the Department of Homeland Security have found the prototypes are nearly impossible to climb or break through." "climb or break through" how does that equate to "dig under it"? Oh, bullsh*t don't play idiot word games you idiot c*ckclown , the fence is impregnable. Oh, bullsh*t don't play idiot word games you idiot c*ckclown , the fence is impregnable. Ascended Master LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:36 AM Post: #14 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:25 AM) RiskyRob Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:20 AM) "Tests conducted by the Department of Homeland Security have found the prototypes are nearly impossible to climb or break through." "climb or break through" how does that equate to "dig under it"? The "fence wall thing" will extend 2.5 inches below ground and it will stop all burrowing humans and animals that wish to enter the United States illegally. Only the best and brightest shall be capable of tunneling deeper than 3 inches.. The "fence wall thing" will extend 2.5 inches below ground and it will stop all burrowing humans and animals that wish to enter the United States illegally. Only the best and brightest shall be capable of tunneling deeper than 3 inches.. RiskyRob ( Lop V.I.P.) User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:40 AM Posts: 8,137 Post: #15 RE: President Trump plans California visit to see border wall prototypes LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:36 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 09:25 AM) "climb or break through" how does that equate to "dig under it"? The "fence wall thing" will extend 2.5 inches below ground and it will stop all burrowing humans and animals that wish to enter the United States illegally. Only the best and brightest shall be capable of tunneling deeper than 3 inches.. We proved walls work, said a senior Yuma agent not authorized to speak on the record. But that doesnt mean we need a 30-foot wall from sea to shining sea. The wall system President Trump is talking about includes a physical wall, but also a fiber optic sensor cable, radars, roads, lights. That technology is one component of the presidents border security initiative. What he calls a wall system includes a barrier, updated cameras, sensors, roads and lighting. A wall system gives us situational awareness throughout the border and certainty of apprehension of individuals who are crossing the border, said Hermansen. We proved walls work, said a senior Yuma agent not authorized to speak on the record. But that doesnt mean we need a 30-foot wall from sea to shining sea. The wall system President Trump is talking about includes a physical wall, but also a fiber optic sensor cable, radars, roads, lights.That technology is one component of the presidents border security initiative. What he calls a wall system includes a barrier, updated cameras, sensors, roads and lighting.A wall system gives us situational awareness throughout the border and certainty of apprehension of individuals who are crossing the border, said Hermansen. Ascended Master (This post was last modified: 03-13-2018 09:41 AM by RiskyRob .) Advertisement Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 3 Vote(s) - 3.67 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES James Registered User User ID: kaput 03-13-2018 01:45 PM Posts: 8,398 Post: #1 THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES Advertisement Russia RESPONDS to Theresa May's demand to explain poison attack on spy Quote: RUSSIA has dramatically accused the UK of failing to provide samples of the nerve agent used to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in a "brazen" attack on British soil. Britain has refused to give Russia access to materials linked with the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury last week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said today. In a scolding rebuke to Prime Minister Theresa May, Lavrov dismissed allegations Russia was behind the attack as "nonsense". https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-n...a-may-news T-minus and counting Soyim! DOOM is so on right now! I've brought in all the Tomato Plants....I can't wait....!!!! You should be dancing, yeah - Bee Gees, Musical group Russians respond to May's declaration of war on spurious claims of May's racist claims of "Those Damn Russisns just becos Russia!"T-minus and counting Soyim!DOOM is so on right now! I've brought in all the Tomato Plants....I can't wait....!!!! James Registered User User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 01:57 PM Posts: 8,398 Post: #2 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES Poisoned Russian spy Sergei Skripal was close to consultant who was linked to the Trump dossier Quote: A security consultant who has worked for the company that compiled the controversial dossier on Donald Trump was close to the Russian double agent poisoned last weekend, it has been claimed. The consultant, who The Telegraph is declining to identify, lived close to Col Skripal and is understood to have known him for some time. Col Skripal, who is in intensive care and fighting for his life after an assassination attempt on Sunday, was recruited by MI6 when he worked for the British embassy in Estonia, according to the FSB, the Russian intelligence agency. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03...nt-linked/ Just Wow! Just an interesting twist to the Saga of our final days on earth, exposed by the The Telegraph no less:Just Wow! You should be dancing, yeah - Bee Gees, Musical group (This post was last modified: 03-13-2018 01:57 PM by James .) LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 02:01 PM Post: #3 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES https://youtu.be/Y-tXJ6wrFqA Let there be Waaaaaaaaagh! -anonymous ork Let there be Waaaaaaaaagh! -anonymous ork James Registered User User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 02:05 PM Posts: 8,398 Post: #4 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 02:01 PM) https://youtu.be/Y-tXJ6wrFqA Let there be Waaaaaaaaagh! -anonymous ork Show me your War Face....!!!!! MMMWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (cough cough) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!! Show me your War Face....!!!!!MMMWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (cough cough) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!! You should be dancing, yeah - Bee Gees, Musical group LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 02:09 PM Post: #5 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES Your doom is coming sooner. Just a few weeks till Cyril Ramaphosa comes to redistribute daddies house to the oppressed kaffirs making you a homeless refugee :( Donald J Trump Homer's University of GREATNESS User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 02:12 PM Posts: 6,934 Post: #6 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES "Go with the flow, like a twig on the shoulders of a mighty stream" Del Griffith The Ghost Of LOP Registered User User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 02:22 PM Posts: 41,224 Post: #7 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES What are they going to do go to War With Russia ? I mean come on..... I am so confused !!! James Registered User User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 02:24 PM Posts: 8,398 Post: #8 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES The very Chadley T-rex Tillerson says his entire family has their army boots and day-glo jumpsuits on and AR15s at the ready to take out the Cominists yonder 'em thar hills. T-rex said he don't need no stikin Comimist award no more.. Damn the Western Ruling Class Families are all piling-in and taking their best shot kicking the sleeping Russian Bear in the Face...The very Chadley T-rex Tillerson says his entire family has their army boots and day-glo jumpsuits on and AR15s at the ready to take out the Cominists yonder 'em thar hills. T-rex said he don't need no stikin Comimist award no more.. You should be dancing, yeah - Bee Gees, Musical group James Registered User User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 02:43 PM Posts: 8,398 Post: #9 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES James Wrote: (03-13-2018 02:24 PM) Damn the Western Ruling Class Families are all piling-in and taking their best shot kicking the sleeping Russian Bear in the Face... The very Chadley T-rex Tillerson says his entire family has their army boots and day-glo jumpsuits on and AR15s at the ready to take out the Cominists yonder 'em thar hills. T-rex said he don't need no stikin Comimist award no more.. LMAO! French God-king Macron and his Mothe...wife have waded into the fray, decreeing that all French tanks are ready to invade Russia with new French battle-tank defensive technology of an extra 16 reverse gears and large white flags.. Justine Trudeau gayley announced today that he would be providing unarmed Canadian Troops in stilettos and brightly colored stockings to apologize if anyone got shot 'becos if you kill your enemies they win' he said. LMAO! French God-king Macron and his Mothe...wife have waded into the fray, decreeing that all French tanks are ready to invade Russia with new French battle-tank defensive technology of an extra 16 reverse gears and large white flags..Justine Trudeau gayley announced today that he would be providing unarmed Canadian Troops in stilettos and brightly colored stockings to apologize if anyone got shot 'becos if you kill your enemies they win' he said. You should be dancing, yeah - Bee Gees, Musical group LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 02:50 PM Post: #10 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES Well Oll CHAP! Looks Like we will be BAILING That Island Out Once again! Well Oll CHAP!Looks Like we will be BAILINGThat Island Out Once again! How Many Times Do we have to SAVE Their Asses! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 02:52 PM Post: #11 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES The F#cking English are like our Adopted Step State! James Registered User User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 02:59 PM Posts: 8,398 Post: #12 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES Putin Tells May to get her facts in order before His Gov responds Classic Putin response just in.... You should be dancing, yeah - Bee Gees, Musical group James Registered User User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 03:11 PM Posts: 8,398 Post: #13 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES James Wrote: (03-13-2018 02:43 PM) James Wrote: (03-13-2018 02:24 PM) Damn the Western Ruling Class Families are all piling-in and taking their best shot kicking the sleeping Russian Bear in the Face... The very Chadley T-rex Tillerson says his entire family has their army boots and day-glo jumpsuits on and AR15s at the ready to take out the Cominists yonder 'em thar hills. T-rex said he don't need no stikin Comimist award no more.. LMAO! French God-king Macron and his Mothe...wife have waded into the fray, decreeing that all French tanks are ready to invade Russia with new French battle-tank defensive technology of an extra 16 reverse gears and large white flags.. Justine Trudeau gayley announced today that he would be providing unarmed Canadian Troops in stilettos and brightly colored stockings to apologize if anyone got shot 'becos if you kill your enemies they win' he said. Not to be out-done the President of the United State of America is employing his Son, Barron, as the Little Drummer Boy in the Great Ruskie invasion after 12 tonight. Trump said that even if you are mildly retarded the US Military has a jerb for you, urging the 56% to follow Barron's example. Not to be out-done the President of the United State of America is employing his Son, Barron, as the Little Drummer Boy in the Great Ruskie invasion after 12 tonight. Trump said that even if you are mildly retarded the US Military has a jerb for you, urging the 56% to follow Barron's example. You should be dancing, yeah - Bee Gees, Musical group Donald J Trump Homer's University of GREATNESS User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 03:17 PM Posts: 6,934 Post: #14 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES James Wrote: (03-13-2018 02:59 PM) Classic Putin response just in.... Putin Tells May to get her facts in order before His Gov responds "Go with the flow, like a twig on the shoulders of a mighty stream" Del Griffith James Registered User User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 03:22 PM Posts: 8,398 Post: #15 RE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ENGLISH RULING CLASS Inc. ISSUES 12 HR ULTIMATUM TO RUSKIES James Wrote: (03-13-2018 03:11 PM) James Wrote: (03-13-2018 02:43 PM) LMAO! French God-king Macron and his Mothe...wife have waded into the fray, decreeing that all French tanks are ready to invade Russia with new French battle-tank defensive technology of an extra 16 reverse gears and large white flags.. Justine Trudeau gayley announced today that he would be providing unarmed Canadian Troops in stilettos and brightly colored stockings to apologize if anyone got shot 'becos if you kill your enemies they win' he said. Not to be out-done the President of the United State of America is employing his Son, Barron, as the Little Drummer Boy in the Great Ruskie invasion after 12 tonight. Trump said that even if you are mildly retarded the US Military has a jerb for you, urging the 56% to follow Barron's example. Even the Beloved Soros/De Rosthschild crime families Inc. issued a family Press statement saying they would be taking their historical roles as cheerleaders, on the bleachers with the balance sheets cheering on the Rus..West and providing free kool-aid to all. Roll on 12 o'clock....tic toc Even the Beloved Soros/De Rosthschild crime families Inc. issued a family Press statement saying they would be taking their historical roles as cheerleaders, on the bleachers with the balance sheets cheering on the Rus..West and providing free kool-aid to all.Roll on 12 o'clock....tic toc You should be dancing, yeah - Bee Gees, Musical group Advertisement 1 / 3 Conservation icon Dr. Jane Goodall poses for a portrait. Courtesy of Stewart Volland 2 / 3 David Greybeard was the first chimp to lose his fear of Jane, eventually coming to her camp to steal bananas and allowing Jane to touch and groom him. As the film "Jane" depicts, Jane and the other Gombe researchers later discontinued feeding and touching the wild chimps. Courtesy of Hugo van Lawick 3 / 3 Jane Goodall formed a close bond with young Fifi. As the film "Jane" depicts, Jane and the other Gombe researchers later discontinued feeding and touching the wild chimps. Courtesy of Hugo van Lawick Viewers are being treated to a remarkable documentary airing on both Nat Geo and Nat Geo Wild. Jane is the fascinating story of the life of Jane Goodall, the woman who single-handedly changed the worlds perspective about chimpanzees and animals in general. The footage is taken from over 100 hours of never-before-seen film of Goodall in the 1960s searching out and befriending the chimpanzees in Tanzanias Gombe National Park. This young woman was a secretary selected to take on the challenge of living in the jungle and searching for chimpanzees while documenting their social behaviors and family connections. At the time she began her journey Jane was 26 years old. This opportunity changed her life and indeed, the world, as it was only the beginning for her. Living among the animals, Goodall knew this would be her lifes journey. After initially reporting on her research, National Geographic dispatched filmmaker Hugo van Lawick to Tanzania to film Goodalls experiences. The two worked closely to create magnificent footage about Goodall and the chimps, and they ended up falling in love. But in the end it was Goodalls love of her work that spearheaded her life. This film includes Goodall in current time discussing her experiences and relating what she went through in Tanzania and raising her son in the Serengeti as well as Gombe. Seeing the film for the first time was incredibly nostalgic, acknowledged Goodall. It took me back to the best days of my life in a way that none of the other documentaries have. Filmmaker Brett Morgen said about creating this documentary, The film is very much a love story, except the love is not between man and woman. The love is between a woman and her work. After rediscovering the footage in the Nat Geo archives, weaving the past with the present was a labor of love for Morgen. There have been multiple great documentaries about Jane Goodalls research and her life, explained producer Bryan Burk, but this rediscovered material showed a side of Jane Id never seen before. He said, By showing her early travels to Africa and her initial interactions with the chimpanzees, along with insight into her private life, the footage revealed a future legend at the beginning of her journey. Watching the footage from Africa is amazing in itself, but hearing about her journey directly from Goodall makes this a must-see for anyone interested in Jane, chimpanzees, exploration and animals. This is truly a memorable show that will not only amaze viewers, but also shine a brighter light on the woman who has brought the wild to the mainstream population. She is an amazing woman and her story is awe-inspiring. Jane premiered this week on Nat Geo and Nat Geo Wild, where it will continue to screen. This wonderful documentary is definitely worth seeing. Alternative high school students on Alpine School Districts west side are going to have a shorter trip to school come 2019. Polaris High School, the districts alternative high school, will be getting a Saratoga Springs location. Some Polaris High School students spend more than an hour on a bus to get from the west side of Utah Lake to the school in Orem. Some of the kids out west were sitting on a bus an amount of time we feel is too much, said Kimberly Bird, spokeswoman for Alpine School District. Polaris West High School, as it will be named, will open in satellite classrooms on the Westlake High School grounds in Saratoga Springs. The satellite classrooms are currently being used to help manage the 3,000 students who attend Westlake High School until a new high school is opened in Eagle Mountain in fall 2019. Bird said the expansion is about equal access to alternative education for students across the district. The new location wont offer any additional programs from what Polaris High School currently offers and the district isnt planning to hire additional teachers for western location. Teachers may be reallocated from different positions to the new western location. Polaris High School has about 130 students enrolled. Kris Packer, an assistant principal at Westlake High School, will be the principal of Polaris West High School. Packer will be the assistant principal of Polaris High School next school year. Packer, whose appointment was announced in late February, deferred comment to Bird due to the newness of the announcement. Lunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. 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Here's what to know. Only 56 cases of the new variant have been identified, while delta remains the most prominent variant. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 1 Vote(s) - 5 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol LoP Guest lop guest User ID: kaput 03-13-2018 06:43 PM Post: #1 US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol Advertisement Last Sunday, the largest joint military exercise between the United States and Israel began with little fanfare. The war game, dubbed Operation Juniper Cobra, has been a regular occurrence for years, though it has consistently grown in size and scope. Now, however, this years 12-day exercise brings a portent of conflict unlike those of its predecessors. Previous reports on the operation suggested that, like prior incarnations of the same exercise, the focus would be on improving Israeli defenses. Juniper Cobra 2018 is another step in improving the readiness of the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] and the IAF [Israeli Air Force] in particular to enhance their operational capabilities in facing the threat posed by high-trajectory missiles, Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovitch, the IDFs Aerial Defense Division head, told the Jerusalem Post. However, this years Juniper Cobra is unique for several reasons. The Post reported on Thursday that the drill, set to end on March 15, was not only the largest joint U.S.-Israeli air defense exercise to ever happen but it was also simulating a battle on three fronts. In other words, Israel and the U.S. are jointly simulating a war with Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine namely, the Gaza strip simultaneously. https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-us-...ah/238768/ I guess now you know who owns the USA.Last Sunday, the largest joint military exercise between the United States and Israel began with little fanfare. The war game, dubbed Operation Juniper Cobra, has been a regular occurrence for years, though it has consistently grown in size and scope. Now, however, this years 12-day exercise brings a portent of conflict unlike those of its predecessors.Previous reports on the operation suggested that, like prior incarnations of the same exercise, the focus would be on improving Israeli defenses. Juniper Cobra 2018 is another step in improving the readiness of the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] and the IAF [Israeli Air Force] in particular to enhance their operational capabilities in facing the threat posed by high-trajectory missiles, Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovitch, the IDFs Aerial Defense Division head, told the Jerusalem Post.However, this years Juniper Cobra is unique for several reasons. The Post reported on Thursday that the drill, set to end on March 15, was not only the largest joint U.S.-Israeli air defense exercise to ever happen but it was also simulating a battle on three fronts. In other words, Israel and the U.S. are jointly simulating a war with Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine namely, the Gaza strip simultaneously. Fu King Registered User User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:09 PM Posts: 3,345 Post: #2 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol YES: "WE THE JEWS OWN AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS KNOW IT" Prime Minister of ISRAEL; Ariel Sharon "BBC News" Oct. 3,2001* *One Month After 911 World Jew Population: 15 Million 5 Million ISRAEL 5 Million U.S. 5 Million Scattered Around the World LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:10 PM Post: #3 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol Rrrrr Rrrrr LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:13 PM Post: #4 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol Wait , I thought US troops die for my freedumb lol More like the banker chosen . LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:15 PM Post: #5 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol Hopefullly a critical mass of enlightment will be reached in America to put an end to these 1% banker wars. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:16 PM Post: #6 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 06:43 PM) I guess now you know who owns the USA. Last Sunday, the largest joint military exercise between the United States and Israel began with little fanfare. The war game, dubbed Operation Juniper Cobra, has been a regular occurrence for years, though it has consistently grown in size and scope. Now, however, this years 12-day exercise brings a portent of conflict unlike those of its predecessors. Previous reports on the operation suggested that, like prior incarnations of the same exercise, the focus would be on improving Israeli defenses. Juniper Cobra 2018 is another step in improving the readiness of the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] and the IAF [Israeli Air Force] in particular to enhance their operational capabilities in facing the threat posed by high-trajectory missiles, Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovitch, the IDFs Aerial Defense Division head, told the Jerusalem Post. However, this years Juniper Cobra is unique for several reasons. The Post reported on Thursday that the drill, set to end on March 15, was not only the largest joint U.S.-Israeli air defense exercise to ever happen but it was also simulating a battle on three fronts. In other words, Israel and the U.S. are jointly simulating a war with Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine namely, the Gaza strip simultaneously. https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-us-...ah/238768/ The US was never supposed to have a standing army..... The US was never supposed to have a standing army..... Monk-1 Registered User User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:17 PM Posts: 5,687 Post: #7 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol Sounds more like they have a real roach up their ass. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:19 PM Post: #8 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol Stupid apes. Follow those orders, you dumb fucks.. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:31 PM Post: #9 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol Where does mattis sit With sending resources Into a never ending black hole? The fine continent of oz Was sneakily infiltrated Greed and delusion Will annihilate them in due course Its best to quickly reassign them the title Of an outlying powerless principality Hypocrites with money and power. - yahoo That won't make much great againWhere does mattis sitWith sending resourcesInto a never ending black hole?The fine continent of ozWas sneakily infiltratedGreed and delusionWill annihilate them in due courseIts best to quickly reassign them the titleOf an outlying powerless principalityHypocrites with money and power. - yahoo LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:34 PM Post: #10 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQnEBSwdAXw Operation Protect Israel LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:36 PM Post: #11 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol Remember Israel has illegally planted a bogus Leader to be in charge of Australia Completely unconstitutional And they've not only ignored demands to rectify.... LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:51 PM Post: #12 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol Are there other links to this story or is this it? LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 09:52 PM Post: #13 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol High Courts reading of section 44 is strict and unsurprising. It means that a dual national is barred from Parliament even where they were born in Australia /// https://theaimn.com/turnbull-must-urgent...itizenship Unconstitutionally invades sovereign nation:High Courts reading of section 44 is strict and unsurprising. It means that a dual national is barred from Parliament even where they were born in Australia/// LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 11:04 PM Post: #14 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol To put it's right foot forward Global manipulation cant be tolerated any longer We're sure you will understand in time But there'll be change over Even if your favoured book says so or not Access to reply - denied Israel has had too many chancesTo put it's right foot forwardGlobal manipulation cant be tolerated any longerWe're sure you will understand in timeBut there'll be change overEven if your favoured book says so or notAccess to reply - denied Planetary Christ KAN DAEK I AM THAT I AM User ID: 1337 03-13-2018 11:06 PM Posts: 1,169 Post: #15 RE: US Commander: US Troops Prepared to Die for Israel in War against Syria, Hezbol LoP Guest Wrote: (03-13-2018 06:43 PM) I guess now you know who owns the USA. Last Sunday, the largest joint military exercise between the United States and Israel began with little fanfare. The war game, dubbed Operation Juniper Cobra, has been a regular occurrence for years, though it has consistently grown in size and scope. Now, however, this years 12-day exercise brings a portent of conflict unlike those of its predecessors. Previous reports on the operation suggested that, like prior incarnations of the same exercise, the focus would be on improving Israeli defenses. Juniper Cobra 2018 is another step in improving the readiness of the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] and the IAF [Israeli Air Force] in particular to enhance their operational capabilities in facing the threat posed by high-trajectory missiles, Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovitch, the IDFs Aerial Defense Division head, told the Jerusalem Post. However, this years Juniper Cobra is unique for several reasons. The Post reported on Thursday that the drill, set to end on March 15, was not only the largest joint U.S.-Israeli air defense exercise to ever happen but it was also simulating a battle on three fronts. In other words, Israel and the U.S. are jointly simulating a war with Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine namely, the Gaza strip simultaneously. https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-us-...ah/238768/ And you did not know who owns the USA already? And you did not know who owns the USA already? Nature is returning to equilibrium, the only thing being destroyed was never real to begin with - an artifice that has inevitably lost its hold on the hearts and minds of men. Some wait for the end, others give birth to the new. http://www.abundanthope.net/ Advertisement Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Turkey's Erdogan v kurdish YPG, FAKE war, same as both v ISIS: for dummies LoP Guest lop guest User ID: kaput 03-13-2018 10:13 PM Post: #1 Turkey's Erdogan v kurdish YPG, FAKE war, same as both v ISIS: for dummies Advertisement Introduction , added March 13, 2018: The bigger the lie the more people will believe it. That's what's behind "700,000" in this headline: '700,000 trapped in Syrian city of Afrin' after Turkey and allied fighters surround area Photo caption: Syrian civilians ride their cars through Ain Dara in Syria's northern Afrin region as they flee Afrin . But make no mistake: unlike the population of Gaza, not only fully aware but also cast as "victims" in the fake "Israel bombings of Gaza", these kurds do believe that the fake war "Erdogan on YPG" is real. Last Prophet's words from 19 January 2018: Turkey's Erdogan v kurdish YPG, FAKE war, same as both v ISIS: for dummies It's one of the countless fake wars served in Syria, a series started by Assad v ISIS, extended later with YPG/Hezbollah/USA/Russia/Turkey v ISIS. Main Agendas : - confuse and divert the audience from other branches of the IV Reich military pushing war crimes to the utter limits in Eastern Ghouta. Note: this refers to the frequency. As for the arsenal of weapons EVERYTHING has already been used: hospitals targeted with chemical weapons since 2013 and bunker busting bombs since 2016 (nuclear weapons is a hoax). - serve Erdogan in black as white to syrians victims of genocide: Erdogan served as defending sunni syrians while turkish military neutralizes the real rebels in Idlib. How is all this possible? Same general answer as for the rest: everyone making headlines is reading from a script, all scripts written by one and the same secret society. Leaders of Kurdish parties in Turkey and Iraq's Kurdistan same as leaders of kurdish YPG in Syria and kurdish HDP party in Turkey: all illuminazi agents. Same as Erdogan and the ayatollhas installed in Theran after a staged revolution 1979. This obviously not to mention the puppets installed in Baghdad after the US invasion 2003. Why do the illuminati call this fake war "Olive Branch"? Only one explained it. The real reason is not the obvious, which would be simultaneously mocking those who believe this is a bloody war on the YPG while passing truth in plain sight about the fake war. The real reason is illuminati's "Glory of the Olive" agenda, referred for example in Last Prophet's words, 10/24/2012, see snapshot preserved in webarchive still in 2012. Notes - For Introduction: March 13, 2018 - '700,000 trapped in Syrian city of Afrin' after Turkey and allied fighters surround area Turkish forces and allied rebels surrounded the Syrian city of Afrin on Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of its mostly Kurdish residents trapped. The only road out was in range of Turkish artillery fire and was therefore impassable, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Some 230 civilians have been killed so far in Turkey's Operation Olive Branch, however Kurdish fighters warned the new siege could trigger a humanitarian crisis. There was no water after Turkish forces seized control of the local dam, and residents say they have relied on water wells for their consumption. While attention in recent weeks has focused on a ferocious regime assault on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, in Syria's north Turkish forces and Syrian opposition fighters have been advancing in their offensive against the Kurdish enclave. Turkey launched its operation on January 20, saying it intended to clear the border of YPG fighters, whom they consider terrorists. However, its mission has expanded to include territory deep into Syria. Senior officials have said that Turkey was trying, through war, to take lands it occupied during the Ottoman Empire. Redur Xelil, head of foreign relations for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed alliance of fighters that includes the YPG, accused the Turkish forces of carrying out "demographic change" in Kurdish territory captured in Afrin. "The Turkish government is settling Turkmen and Arab families in the villages of Afrin that it occupied after forcing out its people, and is distributing the belongings of the people of Afrin to the new settlers," he said. The United Nations said that it received "disturbing reports" of civilian deaths in the northwestern Syrian enclave and that it believes "tens of thousands" have been displaced. Turkey denied the claims. The Turkish offensive opened a new front in a multi-sided civil war now entering its eighth year, which has drawn in neighbours and global powers who have armed and assisted fighters on the ground. Turkey considers the YPG a serious threat to its security, while the US has relied on the group in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). Their different positions have been the source of increasing friction between the Nato allies. Ankara is riled by US support and arming of the Kurds, and accuses Washington of not fulfilling a promise to move the Syrian Kurdish fighters in Manbij east of the Euphrates River. It threatened on Tuesday to expand its current offensive in northern Syria to drive the Syrian Kurds out of Manbij, where the US has troops. Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkeys foreign minister, said it had been agreed that the YPG would leave Manbij and Turkey and the US would jointly secure the area. The US did not immediately confirm and the YPG said it had not been informed of any such deal. https://www.yahoo.com/news/apos-700-000-...30203.html CONTEXT Transcript from Last Prophet's words from Oct 2012: MAKE NO MISTAKE: Illuminati ordered Assad to go chemical and will occupy Syria as last resort. Agents "playing Iran ayatollahs in control of Iran" can NOT fall. Syria: illuminati repeat the Libya fake war script to save puppets Gadaffi and Assad and prevent freedom fighters to take power. It started with agent Erdogan of Turkey vs agent Assad of Syria, that in the first act already had a "turkish plane shot down by Assad", before Erdogan occupies rebel held Syria. Illuminati agents Erdogan, Muslim Brootherhood, Ahmadinejad and Assad part of script "Glory of the Olive" GOOGLE Glory Of the Olive, the illuminati code for the destruction of ... . FIRST RESULTS since 2004 by angelic Google is the END TIMES TRUTH. http://www.usmessageboard.com/threads/as...ll.253502/ Oct 2015: Turkey Ankara bombings hoax, ZERO dead, remake of Suruc, actors reused, staged using the treasonous Kurdish HDP leaders Now for treason in plain sight 2015: Illuminazi agents playing Kurdish leaders participating in Turkey's "democracy" : Mockery of Kurds, having treasonous leaders of HDP participate for the first time in a government as Turkey's fighter jets start the air bombings of kurds in Iraq and Syria. Illuminati media doing what the human cattle refuses to, or in other words adding 1+1 in one sentence: "This is the first time MPs from a pro-Kurdish party have cabinet seats and comes as the government is waging a remorseless offensive against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants." http://illuminati-suicide-bombers.blogsp...eused.html , added March 13, 2018:The bigger the lie the more people will believe it. That's what's behind "700,000" in this headline:Photo caption:But make no mistake: unlike the population of Gaza, not only fully aware but also cast as "victims" in the fake "Israel bombings of Gaza", these kurds do believe that the fake war "Erdogan on YPG" is real.Last Prophet's words from 19 January 2018:It's one of the countless fake wars served in Syria, a series started by Assad v ISIS, extended later with YPG/Hezbollah/USA/Russia/Turkey v ISIS.- confuse and divert the audience from other branches of the IV Reich military pushing war crimes to the utter limits in Eastern Ghouta.Note: this refers to the frequency. As for the arsenal of weapons EVERYTHING has already been used: hospitals targeted with chemical weapons since 2013 and bunker busting bombs since 2016 (nuclear weapons is a hoax).- serve Erdogan in black as white to syrians victims of genocide: Erdogan served as defending sunni syrians while turkish military neutralizes the real rebels in Idlib.Same general answer as for the rest: everyone making headlines is reading from a script, all scripts written by one and the same secret society.Leaders of Kurdish parties in Turkey and Iraq's Kurdistan same as leaders of kurdish YPG in Syria and kurdish HDP party in Turkey: all illuminazi agents.Same as Erdogan and the ayatollhas installed in Theran after a staged revolution 1979. This obviously not to mention the puppets installed in Baghdad after the US invasion 2003.The real reason is not the obvious, which would be simultaneously mocking those who believe this is a bloody war on the YPG while passing truth in plain sight about the fake war.The real reason is illuminati's "Glory of the Olive" agenda, referred for example in Last Prophet's words, 10/24/2012, see snapshot preserved in webarchive still in 2012.- For Introduction:March 13, 2018 - '700,000 trapped in Syrian city of Afrin' after Turkey and allied fighters surround areaTurkish forces and allied rebels surrounded the Syrian city of Afrin on Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of its mostly Kurdish residents trapped.The only road out was in range of Turkish artillery fire and was therefore impassable, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.Some 230 civilians have been killed so far in Turkey's Operation Olive Branch, however Kurdish fighters warned the new siege could trigger a humanitarian crisis.There was no water after Turkish forces seized control of the local dam, and residents say they have relied on water wells for their consumption.While attention in recent weeks has focused on a ferocious regime assault on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, in Syria's north Turkish forces and Syrian opposition fighters have been advancing in their offensive against the Kurdish enclave.Turkey launched its operation on January 20, saying it intended to clear the border of YPG fighters, whom they consider terrorists. However, its mission has expanded to include territory deep into Syria.Senior officials have said that Turkey was trying, through war, to take lands it occupied during the Ottoman Empire.Redur Xelil, head of foreign relations for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed alliance of fighters that includes the YPG, accused the Turkish forces of carrying out "demographic change" in Kurdish territory captured in Afrin."The Turkish government is settling Turkmen and Arab families in the villages of Afrin that it occupied after forcing out its people, and is distributing the belongings of the people of Afrin to the new settlers," he said.The United Nations said that it received "disturbing reports" of civilian deaths in the northwestern Syrian enclave and that it believes "tens of thousands" have been displaced.Turkey denied the claims.The Turkish offensive opened a new front in a multi-sided civil war now entering its eighth year, which has drawn in neighbours and global powers who have armed and assisted fighters on the ground.Turkey considers the YPG a serious threat to its security, while the US has relied on the group in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).Their different positions have been the source of increasing friction between the Nato allies.Ankara is riled by US support and arming of the Kurds, and accuses Washington of not fulfilling a promise to move the Syrian Kurdish fighters in Manbij east of the Euphrates River.It threatened on Tuesday to expand its current offensive in northern Syria to drive the Syrian Kurds out of Manbij, where the US has troops.Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkeys foreign minister, said it had been agreed that the YPG would leave Manbij and Turkey and the US would jointly secure the area.The US did not immediately confirm and the YPG said it had not been informed of any such deal.Transcript from Last Prophet's words from Oct 2012:MAKE NO MISTAKE: Illuminati ordered Assad to go chemical and will occupy Syria as last resort. Agents "playing Iran ayatollahs in control of Iran" can NOT fall.Syria: illuminati repeat the Libya fake war script to save puppets Gadaffi and Assad and prevent freedom fighters to take power.It started with agent Erdogan of Turkey vs agent Assad of Syria, that in the first act already had a "turkish plane shot down by Assad", before Erdogan occupies rebel held Syria.Illuminati agents Erdogan, Muslim Brootherhood, Ahmadinejad and Assad part of script "Glory of the Olive"GOOGLE. FIRST RESULTS since 2004 by angelic Google is the END TIMES TRUTH.Oct 2015: Turkey Ankara bombings hoax, ZERO dead, remake of Suruc, actors reused, staged using the treasonous Kurdish HDP leadersNow for treason in plain sight2015: Illuminazi agents playing Kurdish leaders participating in Turkey's "democracy" :Mockery of Kurds, having treasonous leaders of HDP participate for the first time in a government as Turkey's fighter jets start the air bombings of kurds in Iraq and Syria.Illuminati media doing what the human cattle refuses to, or in other words adding 1+1 in one sentence:"This is the first time MPs from a pro-Kurdish party have cabinet seats and comes as the government is waging a remorseless offensive against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants." LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 1337 03-14-2018 01:55 AM Post: #2 RE: Turkey's Erdogan v kurdish YPG, FAKE war, same as both v ISIS: for dummies Nov 2015: Illuminati theater diverting from leading role of the supposedly sunni Turkey gov in the genocide of sunnis across the border in Iraq and Syria Turkey downs russian jet hoax computer graphics video same as 9/11 planes or almost all videos "Russia and US led coalition bombing ISIS oil wells trucks". Exceptions: grain silos in rebel held areas marketed as ISIS refineries, trucks supplying oil to rebel held areas (Azaz) marketed as attacks to ISIS trucks exporting oil to Turkey. http://illuminati-theater.blogspot.com/2...puter.html Jul 2016 - Turkey: FAKE Coup attempt, Illuminati theater, SCRIPT exposed hours later: suppress sunni opposition to Syria Invasion http://protest-suppression.blogspot.com/...asion.html more CONTEXTNov 2015: Illuminati theater diverting from leading role of the supposedly sunni Turkey gov in the genocide of sunnis across the border in Iraq and SyriaTurkey downs russian jet hoax computer graphics video same as 9/11 planes or almost all videos "Russia and US led coalition bombing ISIS oil wells trucks".Exceptions: grain silos in rebel held areas marketed as ISIS refineries, trucks supplying oil to rebel held areas (Azaz) marketed as attacks to ISIS trucks exporting oil to Turkey.Jul 2016 - Turkey: FAKE Coup attempt, Illuminati theater, SCRIPT exposed hours later: suppress sunni opposition to Syria Invasion Last month, United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres called for global action to minimise the risk posed by electronic warfare to civilians. Guterres lamented that there is no regulatory scheme for that type of warfare, noting that it is not clear how the Geneva Convention or international humanitarian law applies to it. A decade ago, cyber security received little attention as an international issue. But, since 2013, it has been described as the biggest threat facing the United States. Although the exact numbers can be debated, the Council on Foreign Relations Cyber Operations Tracker contains almost 200 state-sponsored attacks by 16 countries since 2005, including 20 in 2016. The term cybersecurity refers to a wide range of problems that were not a major concern among the small community of researchers and programmers who developed the Internet in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1996, only 36 million people, or about 1% of the worlds population, used the Internet. By the beginning of 2017, 3.7 billion people, or nearly half the worlds population, were online. As the number of users soared after the late 1990s, the Internet became a vital substrate for economic, social, and political interactions. Along with rising interdependence and economic opportunity, however, came vulnerability and insecurity. With big data, machine learning, and the Internet of Things, some experts anticipate that the number of Internet connections may grow to nearly a trillion by 2035. The number of potential targets for attack, by both private and state actors, will expand dramatically, and include everything from industrial control systems to heart pacemakers and self-driving cars. Many observers have called for laws and norms to secure this new environment. But developing such standards in the cyber domain faces a number of difficult hurdles. Although Moores law about the doubling of computing power every two years means that cyber time moves quickly, human habits, norms, and state practices change more slowly. For starters, given that the Internet is a transnational network of networks, most of which are privately owned, non-State actors play a major role. Cyber tools are dual use, fast, cheap, and often deniable, verification and attribution are difficult, and entry barriers are low. Moreover, while the Internet is transnational, the infrastructure (and people) on which it relies fall within the differing jurisdictions of sovereign states. And major states differ in their objectives, with Russia and China stressing the importance of sovereign control, while many democracies press for a more open Internet. Nonetheless, the description of www as the wild west web is a caricature. Some norms do exist in cyberspace. It took states about two decades to reach the first cooperative agreements to limit conflict in the nuclear era. If one dates the international cybersecurity problem not from the origins of the Internet in the early 1970s but from the take-off period since the late 1990s, intergovernmental cooperation in limiting cyber conflict is now at about the two-decade mark. In 1998, Russia first proposed a UN treaty to ban electronic and information weapons (including for propaganda purposes). With China and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, it has continued to push for a broad UN-based treaty. The US continues to view such a treaty as unverifiable. Instead, the secretary general appointed a Group of Governmental Experts (UNGGE) which first met in 2004, and in July 2015 proposed a set of norms that was later endorsed by the G20. Groups of experts are not uncommon in the UN process, but only rarely does their work rise from the organisations basement to recognition at a summit of the 20 most powerful states. The UNGGEs success was extraordinary, but it failed to agree on its next report in 2017. Where does the world go now? Norms can be suggested and developed by a variety of policy entrepreneurs. For example, the new non-governmental Global Commission on Stability in Cyberspace, chaired by former Estonian foreign minister Marina Kaljurand, has issued a call to protect the public core of the Internet (defined to include routing, the domain name system, certificates of trust, and critical infrastructure). Meanwhile, the Chinese government, using its Wuzhen World Internet Conference series, has issued principles endorsed by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation calling for recognition of the right of sovereign states to control online content on their territory. But this need not contradict the call to protect the public core, which refers to connectivity rather than content. Other norm entrepreneurs include Microsoft, which has issued a call for a new Geneva Convention on the Internet. Equally important is the development of norms regarding privacy and security regarding encryption, back doors, and the removal of child pornography, hate speech, disinformation, and terrorist threats. As member states contemplate the next steps in the development of cyber norms, the answer may be to avoid putting too much of a burden on any one institution like the UNGGE. Progress may require the simultaneous use of multiple arenas. In some cases, development of principles and practices among like-minded states can lead to norms to which others may accede at a later point. For example, China and the US reached a bilateral agreement restricting cyber espionage for commercial purposes. In other cases, such as security norms for the Internet of Things, the private sector, insurance companies, and non-profit stakeholders might take the lead in developing codes of conduct. What is certain is that the development of cybersecurity norms will be a long process. Progress in some areas need not wait for progress in others. Joseph S. Nye, Jr. is a professor at Harvard and author of The Future of Power. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018 The views expressed are personal As far as outcomes go, French President Emmanuel Macrons visit to India stands out for its strategic content, with understandings reached and agreements signed that have a long-term strategic significance. While France was the first country with which we declared a strategic partnership and began a strategic dialogue; strategic considerations have not studiously guided the growth of our ties. The meaning of strategic partnership can always be broadened to include economics and other areas, but it is in the domain of security that the concept expresses itself most credibly. Not being allies, there are, of course, limits on India and France forging a joint front against security threats with different geopolitical roots that each country faces. Our defence procurement process is unable to accommodate strategic decision making, which is why French participation in our defence sector has been uneven, with some striking successes such as the Scorpene and Rafale contracts; but notable setbacks in bagging contracts for refuelling aircrafts, helicopters and short range surface to air missiles even when tenders were won and joint projects approved. While the translation of the undefined concept of a strategic partnership into decision making at the governmental level in different areas will remain a fluid proposition, India and France have taken decisions during Macrons visit that are manifestly strategic in intent and substance. They are important in the context of widespread concerns about the uncertainties that have begun to mark the global system as a result of Donald Trumps erratic foreign policy pronouncements and the unveiling of Chinas hegemonic ambitions on land and sea. Both India and France intend to cooperate to address the consequences of Americas inward looking and protectionist policies, its willingness to repudiate international accords and weaken international institutions that it has itself sponsored, as well as the instabilities that Chinas self-aggrandisement is generating in the Indo-Pacific region and the power imbalance it threatens to produce, with consequences also for Europe. India has now firmly accepted France as a net security provider in the Indian Ocean (IO) and intends working with it to promote stability there. Emulating a similar India-US move, India and France have agreed on a Joint Strategic Vision of India-France Cooperation in the Indian Ocean region, flowing from which a Reciprocal Logistics Support Agreement has also been signed. The intention is to associate other strategic partners and establish trilateral dialogues, for which the first candidate could well be Australia. Besides building greater maritime domain awareness, the 2018 edition of the Varuna naval exercise will focus on submarine and anti-submarine warfare. The India-France Joint Vision for Space another major strategic document emerging from the visit envisages the pursuit of the study of a constellation of satellites for maritime surveillance. The third document of strategic importance signed during the visit is on the exchange and reciprocal protection of classified or protected information, which reflects the growing strategic trust between the two countries. Stronger India-France strategic understandings have been reflected in the joint statement in various other ways. The robust paras on terrorism call for halting cross-border movement of identified terrorist organisations threatening India. All UN member states are called upon to implement UNSC Resolution 1267 designating terrorist entities, which points to Chinas obstructionism on designating Masood Azhar as a terrorist. France has reaffirmed its strong and active support for Indias membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. With the Belt and Road Initiative in mind, France has joined the US, Japan and the EU in stressing that connectivity initiatives must be based on key principles of international norms, good governance, rule of law, openness, transparency, social and environmental standards, principles of financial responsibility, accountable debt financing practices, and must be pursued in a manner that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity. The reference to sovereignty is important in the light of our opposition to the CPEC. The joint statement strongly endorses the nuclear deal with Iran. On Syria, where the positions of the two countries differ, that the two sides were able to craft a suitable paragraph is a drafting achievement. In the context of the Trumps trade-related broadsides and his latest decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, India and France have reaffirmed the centrality of the rules-based multilateral trading system and its importance for open and inclusive global trade. The launching of the International Solar Alliance jointly by Macron and Modi furthers the objectives of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and forges one more strategic bond between India and France. Kanwal Sibal is former foreign secretary The views expressed are personal The Louvre briefly evacuated one its busiest rooms on Monday after black-clad environmental activists staged a protest against oil giant Totals patronage of the Paris museum. About a dozen protesters lay down on the floor in front of The Raft of the Medusa, an iconic 19th-century painting by Theodore Gericault showing the shipwreck of a French navy frigate. The demonstrators entered inconspicuously before lying down in front of the painting chanting slogans against Total, an AFP reporter said. The Louvre confirmed it had evacuated museum-goers from the room for around 10 minutes after the protest around 10.30 am. The activist group 350.org, which campaigns against the use of fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy, said it staged the demonstration to symbolise victims of the oil industry. The same group carried out a similar protest at the Louvre in March last year in front of an ancient Greek statue, the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Some 30 activists had laid a long stretch of black fabric at the base of the statue to symbolise a river of oil, urging the Louvre to end its two-decade collaboration with Total. The Total Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the energy giant, supports a range of causes from education to the arts. Activists have carried out similar protests against fellow oil giant BP in London for its sponsorship of the Tate Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the British Museum. A group of activist groups led by 350.org have launched the Free the Louvre campaign. The US-founded group takes its name from 350 parts per million, which it says is the safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more Between actor couple Kajol and Ajay Devgn, hes the tough one on-screen, and shes the tough one at home when it comes to parenting! The latter is something that Ajay had shared with us in an earlier interview, talking about his wife of almost two decades. Yes, he is very much true in saying that. I am the tough parent, admits Kajol, who has two kids daughter Nysa (14) and son Yug (7) with Ajay. But I have to say that he backs me up whenever I need to be backed up, so thats good parenting, she adds. The couple sent Nysa to Singapore for higher studies, last year, and Kajol says making that decision was not easy at all. Its really difficult for any parent to be separated from your children, but at the end of the day, its for their own good. It was very, very tough for me, but not as tough as it was probably for Ajay because I have myself studied in a boarding school away from home. Even my mom (veteran actor Tanuja) and sister (Tanishaa Mukerji) have studied in boarding schools... As parents, we have to do such things throughout our lives... things that are beneficial for them, even though it is painful for us, says Kajol, who is currently shooting for her next film Eela. Ajay and Kajol are anyway known to keep their kids away from public glare, so they lead as normal a life as any other child. Does she worry that growing up in the public eye can make star kids mature earlier than their peers? I dont know if the attention makes them mature too much [before time], but yes, they need to put their guard up, for their privacy, which they are entitled to [even as star kids], and freedom up to a certain point, says the concerned mother. Having been a star kid herself, and a Bollywood actor for 26 years now, Kajol is prepared for speculation around her daughters career choice whether she,too, would join the film industry someday. The actor says it would be Nysas choice. I would be supportive of Nysa in whatever she chose to do in life. I have never been restrictive of whatever she wants to do, even up to now, she signs off. Interact with the author on Twitter/ @RishabhSuri02 Most actors start off fairly awkward on stage. It takes most actors a long time to figure out how to know what to do, says Ratna Pathak Shah. But the observation seems to hardly apply to the 60-year-old, with quite a few flawless performances in a career spanning four decades, to her name. Shah was in the Capital to perform Ismat Apa Ke Naam, a play on the life of the revolutionary feminist writer Ismat Chughtai, as part of the Delhi Theatre Festival. The play brings to the stage, stories set in middle-class Muslim homes a milieu that both writer Ismat Chughtai, and the plays director, Naseeruddin Shah, are closely connected to. Each actor has his or her own process, but I think the discoveries are fairly similar How do you make a scene work, how do you make conversation sound like a conversation, and not [a] dialogue, how do you make relationship interesting and therefore understandable to the audience. And if they are helped along [the way] by teachers or good directors, so much the better. I was among the lucky ones, I was helped, shares Shah, known for her appearances in Mirch Masala (1987) and Mandi, and more recently, Lipstick Under My Burkha and Kapoor and Sons (2016). Our conversation veers towards theatre and the Capitals relationship with it. Delhi hasnt been very inviting for the last few years, for some reason (laughs). But I think it still has an audience that is interested in theatre. Hopefully, this is only the beginning of a happy relationship again with Delhi, and Gurgaon now, says Shah, who last visited Gurgaon with the series Bhishmotsav, a series of Hindi plays adapted from playwright and short-story writer Bhisham Sahnis stories. Back to the dramatisation of Ismat Chughtais stories that she is in Delhi for, the actor says it wasnt just because the play dealt with the way women are perceived and treated in our society, but because the play helped her discover her abilities as an actor, that she took it up. Shes (Chughtai) is interested in human beings, the man-woman relationship, and is not looking at it with rose-coloured spectacles. Shes not a Bollywood film storyteller, who is telling the same story over and over again, just changing costumes. There were many wonderful discoveries and excitements, while doing this play, she explains. I read the script a lot. And usually the script sort of reveals itself as you read. Its a bit like a detective piecing together a story. Similarly you piece together a character, use your own personal experiences, what youve seen other actors do Over the years, Shah has been one actor who has remained admirably aware of the medium she has worked in. From the hugely popular sitcom Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, romcoms such as Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Naa (2008) and Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (2012), the 2016 drama about a dysfunctional family, Kapoor and Sons, and the black comedy Lipstick Under My Burkha the same year, to a recent romantic offering on Netflix, where she plays a paranoid Catholic mother, and Ismat Apa Ke Naam, Shah has juggled platforms, genres and roles with consummate ease, over the last decade. I read the script a lot. And usually the script sort of reveals itself as you read. Its a bit like a detective piecing together a story. Similarly you piece together a character, use your own personal experiences, what youve seen other actors do. All kinds of influences operate on you as you try and find your own voice, she says about the process she embarks on for an acting assignment. The job of the actor is to communicate what the playwright wantsputting on weight, cutting hair, growing mooch [beard], whatever [it may take], she adds. On a recent visit to Lady Shri Ram College for Women for a talk, Shah had remarked how Hindi films have struggled with the idea of gender. We have a long way to go. Our society has a long way to go. We are not able to see the problem. So many people say Arey yeh ab nahin hota, yeh sab kya purani baatein karte rehte ho, Arey these women are becoming bra-burning feminists, or Ok, so you hate men, haan? This kind of puerile conversation is still going on. It was happening when I was in college. Im astounded and so depressed, the actor says. But at the same time, so many things are changing, [with] so many women around us in every field. What happened with Frances McDormand? (The actor, in a rousing display of comradeship with her fellow female actors, asked every female actor who had been nominated, to stand up, as part of her acceptance speech for her Best Actress Oscar) She made a point. Its true we are around. [The change] Itll take time, but I never lose hope, Shah signs off, forever the optimist that we know her to be. Follow @htshowbiz for more Karisma Kapoors kids celebrated their birthdays on Monday and Tuesday and stepmom Priya Sachdev only has sweet wishes for them. She made two new Instagram posts to wish Samaira and Kiaan on turning 13 and 8 respectively. Happy Birthday #Samaira wishing you a very Happy 13th Birthday Princess. you are officially a Teenager now...! Love you, she wrote for Samaira. Happy Birthday #Kiaan you are 8 years old today ... you are the star in all our lives Shine Bright!, she wrote for Kiaan. Her husband and Samaira and Kiaans father, Sunjay Kapur is seen in both the photos. Karisma also wished her children on their back-to-back birthdays through Instagram. Samairas pictures from her birthday party on Monday also went viral. Priya is industrialist Sunjay Kapoors third wife. He married Priya in April 2016 in New Delhi then flew to New York for the reception. They were rumoured to have been a couple since 2013. With the grand lady #greatgrandma#greatgrandkids#christmascheer#familylunch A post shared by KK (@therealkarismakapoor) on Dec 25, 2017 at 3:16am PST Sunjay and Karisma got married in 2003 and their very messy divorce got finalised in June 2016. Things started getting sour after 2005. The Delhi high court advised the couple to explore the possibility of a settlement. Karisma moved out of Kapurs house in 2010, which was when her son Kiaan was born. She then permanently shifted base to Mumbai. In 2014, the two decided to end their 12-year-long marriage and filed for divorce through mutual consent. Follow @htshowbiz for more The Reporter lop guest User ID: kaput 03-14-2018 12:23 AM Post: #1 Martin SleuthERs Ireland Progress Advertisement link to image: I am here to warn you that the state of willful blindness needs to change, and must be overhauled quickly, not just for your own souls sake, but also for the sake of all the Irish people, many of whom have been brought up as Catholics, under your collective false religious indoctrination, he wrote. But thats not all, they were put on notice, and each was given a personal note. SleuthERs letter to them can be read at As developments arise, this report will be updated. Bishops meet quarterly; and their Spring session is currently being held at the Columba Centre in Maynooth, Kildare, March 5-7, 2018. The purpose of the conference is to allow them to exchange views, and share their beliefs and experience in order to promote the common good of the Church in Ireland. Much of the work of the conference is done in committees that cover issues such as laity, liturgy, family, and social justice. Martin SleuthER (Tony Farrell) gave them another issue to cover Christs Second Coming. No doubt that issue should take precedence over their present agenda. They claim to discuss issues of mutual concern, or issues of national policy. In a message to church followers on Feb. 13, Francis urged church members to Take up the Lenten journey with enthusiasm, sustained by almsgiving, fasting and prayer. Farrell urges the bishops and the pope to take The Lord seriously. Read Farrells letters and share them with others. https://hannahmichaels.wordpress.com/201...ss-report/ At their spring conference, Irish Catholic bishops have more to discuss than usual business, because Martin SleuthER just sent 27 bishops, and the pope, a personal message.link to image: https://hannahmichaels.files.wordpress.c...report.jpg I am here to warn you that the state of willful blindness needs to change, and must be overhauled quickly, not just for your own souls sake, but also for the sake of all the Irish people, many of whom have been brought up as Catholics, under your collective false religious indoctrination, he wrote.But thats not all, they were put on notice, and each was given a personal note.SleuthERs letter to them can be read at SleuthERs Progress Report Ireland , JAHTalk.thefarrellreport.net/sp-ireland.As developments arise, this report will be updated.Bishops meet quarterly; and their Spring session is currently being held at the Columba Centre in Maynooth, Kildare, March 5-7, 2018. The purpose of the conference is to allow them to exchange views, and share their beliefs and experience in order to promote the common good of the Church in Ireland. Much of the work of the conference is done in committees that cover issues such as laity, liturgy, family, and social justice.Martin SleuthER (Tony Farrell) gave them another issue to cover Christs Second Coming. No doubt that issue should take precedence over their present agenda. They claim to discuss issues of mutual concern, or issues of national policy.In a message to church followers on Feb. 13, Francis urged church members to Take up the Lenten journey with enthusiasm, sustained by almsgiving, fasting and prayer.Farrell urges the bishops and the pope to take The Lord seriously.Read Farrells letters and share them with others. Budget carrier AirAsia India on Tuesday added one more A320 aircraft in the fleet, raising its size to 17 and announced the launch of its services to Imphal from New Delhi as well to Delhi and Pune from Bengaluru from early next month. With the latest induction, AirAsia India has added three new aircraft and as many destinations along with eight new routes in the first quarter of the current calendar year, the airline said in a statement. The Tata Sons and Malaysian airliners group AirAsia-invested AirAsia India is still short of three planes to qualify for launching international operations. Under the existing rules, domestic airlines can fly overseas provided they deploy 20 aircraft or 20 per cent of their capacity in the domestic market, whichever is higher. AirAsia India has inducted one more Airbus A320 plane, which has taken its total fleet size to 17 aircraft, the airline said, adding that it will launch its flight services to Imphal in the North-east from April 7. The Bengaluru-based airline also announced special one-way promotional fares of Rs 4,999 for the New Delhi-Imphal service. Imphal would be AirAsia Indias second destination in the country. The first quarter of 2018 is proving to be an exciting one for us. The new route is currently underserved and the launch of services will enhance connectivity. So far, we have added three aircraft, three new destinations, eight new routes, AirAsia India managing director and chief executive officer Amar Abrol said. Our ultimate mission is to enhance air connectivity and making air travel a reality to everyone in the country, he added. The bookings for all three new flights are open from Tuesday, it said adding the customers can avail fares from as low as Rs 4,999 for New Delhi - Imphal, Rs 1,799 for Pune - Bengaluru and Rs 3,499 for New Delhi - Bengaluru flights. Vipul Ambani, a top official of a company controlled by fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi, moved the Bombay High Court on Tuesday challenging his arrest in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, and sought bail. Ambani, arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last month, claimed that the agency did not follow due procedure while arresting him. Ambani was president, finance, at the Nirav Modi-controlled Firestar Group of Companies. The CBI had claimed while arresting him that Ambani was aware of fraudulent letters of undertaking issued by PNBs former deputy manager Gokulnath Shetty in favour of Modis firms. A CBI court here earlier this month remanded him in judicial custody till March 19. In the petition filed through advocate Pranav Badheka, Ambani alleged that while he was summoned to the CBI office on the morning of February 19 and arrested, he was produced before a magistrate only on February 21, around 3.45 pm. The Code of Criminal Procedure mandates that a person must be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of his or her arrest, said the petition. Since he was produced before a court after 24 hours, the arrest, and subsequent judicial custody, were illegal, it contended. Claiming that his personal liberty was violated by the CBI through wrongful arrest, Ambani also urged the high court to grant him bail. The high court directed the CBI to respond to Ambanis plea within a week and adjourned the hearing. The CBI has alleged that Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi obtained fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) and letters of credit (LCs) worth USD 2 billion (Rs 12,636 crore) from PNB with the connivance of bank officials. The CBI told a Mumbai court on Tuesday that it has added the charge of criminal breach of trust to the case related to diamond trader Mehul Choksis firms in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case. The maximum punishment for the offence under section 409 of the IPC (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) is life imprisonment. Among others, the agency has arrested Gokulnath Shetty, the then deputy manager (now retired) of PNB, in connection with issuance of fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) to Choksi-owned firms. The acts of Shetty prima facie disclose commission of offence punishable under section 409 IPC along with other offences already alleged in the FIR, read the CBIs submission before the special court. Earlier the agency had pressed the charge of cheating under the IPC and relevant charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The CBI has alleged that firms controlled by diamond traders Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi obtained fraudulent LoUs and letters of credit (LCs) worth USD 2 billion (Rs 12,636 crore) from PNB in connivance with bank officials. Tata Sons Ltd., the holding company for Indias biggest business group, raised $1.38 billion after upsizing its offering of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. stock, people with knowledge of the matter said. Tata Sons priced its sale of Tata Consultancy shares at about 2,872 rupees apiece, the bottom of a marketed range, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. It sold about 31.3 million shares, after originally offering 28.3 million shares to investors, one of the people said. Shares of Tata Consultancy, Asias largest software developer, fell as much as 5.9% in Tuesday trading. They were down 5.1%, headed for the biggest one-day decline in more than three years, at 1:13 p.m. in Mumbai. Tata Sons will use the proceeds to pay creditors of its wireless division, a person with knowledge of the matter said Monday. Tata sold Tata Teleservices Ltd.s mobile-phone operations to Bharti Airtel Ltd. last year and pledged to pay the units obligations. It will also use the funds to raise its holdings in some listed units, the person said. Tata Sons may buy the stakes from other Tata Group affiliates, which would help to reduce cross-shareholdings, according to the person. Tata Consultancy shares were offered at 2,872 rupees to 2,925 rupees each, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg earlier. An official at Tata Sons declined to comment on the final pricing. The conglomerate has been planning to raise its ownership over time in five of its largest businesses including Tata Chemicals Ltd. and Tata Steel Ltd., Bloomberg News reported last year. Tata Sons is buying an additional 6.6 percent stake in Indian Hotels Co. that was held by Tata Trusts, according to a stock exchange filing this month. Last year, it boosted its stake in Tata Motors Ltd., the owner of Jaguar Land Rover. Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley are arranging the offering of Tata Consultancy stock, according to Mondays terms. The price range represents a 4.2 percent to 5.9 percent discount to its last close. The holding company is also seeking a $1.5 billion offshore syndicated loan, as it seeks to pay down expensive debt at its telecommunications unit, people familiar with the matter said last week. Tata Sons plans to use the proceeds to repay debt of units Tata Teleservices and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra, one of the people said at the time. A tourist from Delhi was injured in an accident while he was paragliding at Naukuchiyatal village near Bhimtal town in Uttarakhands Nainital district, police said on Tuesday. The pilot of the paraglider also sustained minor injuries in the accident that happened on Monday, bringing to fore safety concerns in the adventurous sport. The tourist, Raj (known by his first name), who sustained fractures, was taken to Delhi, police said. All paragliding operators have been asked to ensure safety norms, Nainital district magistrate Deependra Chaudhary said. We will take action if any violation is brought to our notice, he said. Paragliding is a sport in which a wide canopy resembling a parachute is attached to a persons body by a harness to allow him to glide through the air after jumping from a height. Tourists have been trying their hands in paragliding in Bhimtal region for the past 12 years. On Monday, the paraglider could not land at the designated spot because of wind speed and hit a house, injuring the tourist, said Mahesh Rawat of Pandey Gaon, a village near the accident spot. There should be more regard for safety norms, and the pilots must know wind pressure and conditions accurately before beginning the flight, he said. Nitesh Bisht of the Bhimtal Adventure Club, which conducts paragliding, said all norms were followed. Parachutes are changed every year for safety of the tourists. The pilots are brought from Manali as they have more experience in the field, Bisht said. Paragliding has become an important business in Nainital considering the tourists interest in the sport. There are 9 paragliding companies in Naukuchiyatal, Bhimtal, Ghodakhal and khutani that give employment to 150 youths. It is not correct to say the whole industry is not following safety norms, said Bisht. We have to take clearances from forest and many other departments to get paragliding permits; all companies have valid documents. Tourists are strapped to a parachute, called paraglider, that has the presence of a pilot for support and guidance. They touch the ground after flying an aerial distance of 1 km from a high point. Paragliding operators charge Rs 1000-1500 per person in Bhimtal. If theres one thing that Dhan Singh Rawat never failed at, it was being in the headlines with unfailing regularity. Probably the youngest in the Trivendra Singh Rawat, the higher education minister is known for making nationalist statements something that earned him flak from several quarters. He also made dress code mandatory for teachers and students in degree colleges and wanted compulsory singing of National Song and National Anthem in the educational institutes, the proposals again inviting severe criticism. But identifying Dhan Singh on the basis of some statements and few bad decisions would be wrong. Even his detractors would grudgingly agree that as a minister he has taken several steps to strengthen the infrastructure in the education sector that have showed positive results. His no-nonsense approach to put the education department, ailing like most others in the state, back on track has earned him praise too. Biometric attendance He started with a bang. Just over a month after taking charge, Dhan Singh announced that digital attendance would be made compulsory in all colleges to ensure presence of teachers. Students, however, pointed out several loopholes in the system saying that merely punching in your attendance twice daily to register incoming and outgoing time wont stop teachers from giving classes a miss during the day. They, in fact, suggested that biometric machines should be installed outside every classroom so that theres a record that teachers took classes. The highs and the lows Thumbs Up Wall of Valour Land and building for degree colleges Face recognition attendance system for principals along with biometric for teachers ADB funds for strengthening infrastructure in colleges Desi convocation uniform Thumbs down Dress code for students Dress code for teachers Strengthening infrastructure for building, basic amenities of labs, furniture and others The minister, had, however, remained stuck to his decision saying his first priority was to ensure biometric attendance system in all the colleges. Ensuring attendance of students also needs focus and we will work on those lines, he had asserted then. Nationalism Dhan Singh wears nationalism on his sleeves and is never shy of flaunting it. His one-liner If you want to live in Uttarakhand, you must sing Vande Mataram created a buzz that resonated across the country making sure that the mountain state remained in the headlines for days. If that wasnt enough, the minister went on to claim that that I dont think anyone in Uttarakhand has any problem with it. Its not right to link it with religion. To instil a feeling of nationalism among students, the minister directed for regular unfurling of the national flag on a 100-foot-high pole in all the institutions of higher learning in the state. Out of 100 colleges, 80 have installed the poles. Dhan Singh also made recital of the National Song and National Anthem mandatory. He also made sure that initiative launched by Centre the Wall of Valour was implemented in every degree college. Under the initiative colleges were told to will build a wall measuring 15 feet by 20 feet on which were painted the images of the 21 soldiers awarded the Param Vir Chakra, Indias highest military decoration. He personally inaugurated the Wall of valour at each college. His objective: The young should not forget the contribution of the men who dedicated their lives for the country. Dress Code Like it happened with school education minister Arvind Pandey, the move to impose a mandatory dress code on lecturers and college students also boomeranged in the higher education department. Worse, the ruling BJPs student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), was first to reject the decision. To ease things, the minister started meeting the student union leaders and also taking their views into consideration. But, despite several attempts, the students refused to agree to it. The issue with the dress code is that not all students can afford it. Instead of providing the students in college better infrastructure and free books, we are putting on them the burden of the dress code. Thats not acceptable, says Ramakant Srivastava, ABVP state president. Savita Mohan, joint director, higher education, however, says that all government degree colleges have adopted the dress code. It is only the aided colleges that are not ready to accept the dirictive. Desi Convocation uniform One of the significant decisions of Rawat was to shun the traditional videshi convocation gown and caps and adopt an attire that reflects the heritage of Uttarakhand. The convocation dress now includes a traditional Pahari cap with pichora (women dress), and jacket with an imprint of states bird Himalayan Monal. Infrastructure Soon after taking charge, the minister had promised to change the face of higher education. Heres how he tried to do it. Of 30 new degree colleges that were established in last three years, the minister provided land to 15. Work to get land for remaining colleges is in progress. The department has estimated that Rs 500 crore is needed to strengthen infrastructure and facilities in the degree colleges. For this, Rawat has roped in the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In addition, delays in Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) were also rectified. The promotions of principals were done in time following which 92 college now have principals. The other eight posts are vacant following retirement of incumbent principals. The minister has promised to fill them soon. Of 2,100 posts of professors, 500 are vacant. The minister has facilitated engagement of 870 teachers of which 370 will be on contractual basis to ensure availability of teachers in the absence of regular lecturers. The Delhi government has decided to lead a delegation of political parties to the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee to discuss issues related to the Delhi master plan (MPD) 2021 and find a solution to the sealing problem. Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia announced this on Tuesday after a meeting with Delhi Congress leaders at chief minister Arvind Kejriwals residence. Condemning the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for skipping the all-party meeting at the CMs house on Tuesday, Sisodia said the government would go any extent to protect the interest of city traders. Sisodia urged BJP leaders to come along for the meeting with the monitoring committee. This (sealing) is the biggest crisis in the lives of traders. We are ready to do anything required to prevent sealing. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress MPs will jointly raise this matter in Parliament. We will go to the monitoring committee to discuss MPD, its interpretation, and sealing. The CM requests both the Congress and the BJP to come with us. We should present our points in favour of traders before the committee, Sisodia said. The deputy CM was speaking at a media briefing after the meeting at Kejriwals residence. Sisodia said the government would create opportunities for both parties to apprise the monitoring committee about their views on the sealing. The Congress delegation agreed today to make joint efforts to stop sealing. Ajay Maken (Delhi Congress chief) has given some good suggestions for reforms, we will implement them, Sisodia said. Kejriwal, on Saturday, wrote to chiefs of local units BJPs Manoj Tiwari and Congresss Maken -- inviting them to hold a discussion on the matter. Earlier, on Saturday, Maken sent a letter to CM asking to come together to resolve the issue. Taking on the BJP for not attending the meeting, Sisodia said that the ruling party at Centre was not serious and doing politics over the sealing. Had they been interested in resolving the matter, they could have brought a law in one day in Parliament as they have numbers. But the BJP wants to finish off traders by establishing foreign direct investment in the city, he said. Later, Kejriwal also tweeted, Had a v good meeting wid reps of Congress. BJP boycotted. I wish BJP had also participated in the interest of Delhis traders (sic). Reacting to the AAPs government criticism, Tiwari, who is on five-day visit to Mauritius with president Ram Nath Kovind, said, If the Kejriwal government is committed to find a solution, it should immediately hold a special session of the Delhi assembly on March 15 and pass a resolution seeking moratorium on all commercial constructions and unauthorised colonies existing till December 31 and forward it to the Centre. Earlier, Maken reached the CMs residence at 12 pm with former Delhi Congress chiefs Arvinder Singh and Subhash Chopra to give his suggestions on how to stop action over alleged violation of municipal norms. The meeting lasted almost for an hour and was fruitful, Maken said. Health minister Satyendar Jain, development minister Gopal Rai, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and MLA Somnath Bharti were among the others who took part in the talks. Maken also attacked the BJP for boycotting the meet. We have given a representation to the CM, and will send this to the BJP also, in which we have divided the city into six parts. We have told them that for each area, the MPD and the existing law has a solution and therefore the ongoing sealing is illegal, Maken said. The Congress leader said the Delhi governments view had not been appropriately presented before the court. Solutions are there in the existing law. The government must make a submission properly in the court with conviction, Maken said. Days after he was questioned by the police over an alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash, VK Jain, the advisor to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, resigned citing personal reasons and family commitments. In his statement to the police, Jain claimed that he saw Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs assault the chief secretary at chief minister Arvind Kejriwals residence. Confirming that he put in his papers on Monday, Jain said that working with the Delhi government was quite a learning experience and that he will be briefly taking a break in his professional life. On returning office after several weeks of leave, he submitted his resignation letter to the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) and sent a copy to the lieutenant-governor. Jain was appointed to the post in September last year, days after he had retired as the CEO of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). The board is chaired by Kejriwal. A 1984-batch DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service) officer, Jain was promoted as an IAS officer in 2011. In a statement to police as well as the court, Jain had alleged that AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan had surrounded and then assaulted chief secretary Anshu Prakash at Kejriwals residence late on February 19. Initially though, Jain had said he had not seen anything as he was in the washroom when the incident is alleged to have taken place. The alleged assault on Prakash reportedly took place in the presence of Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia. In solidarity with Prakash, IAS and DANICS officers have not been attending meetings with AAP ministers, and only maintaining written communication with them. The joint forum of the Delhi government employees has demanded action against Kejriwal and Sisodia in connection with the case. Four persons were killed and at least one admitted to a hospital in a critical condition after consuming suspected spurious liquor at Khoda colony in Ghaziabad on Monday night. Four policemen posted in the area have been suspended in connection with the incident. Police said all the victims were migrant labourers from UP and Bihar who had come to Ghaziabad for earning a livelihood and were residing at Khoda colony. The four deaths took place between Monday night and Tuesday morning. The victims are Ashok Prasad (45), Avnesh Kumar (28) and his 18-year-old brother Sandeep Kumar. The fourth victim, Ravinder Kumar, 35, died on Tuesday morning at his house. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said officials had been directed to take strict action against the culprits. We have suspended the station house officer, the police post in-charge and two beat constables of the area. We have also ordered a forensic examination of the suspected spurious liquor and sent the bodies of the victims for postmortem examination, said HN Singh, senior superintendent of police, Ghaziabad. The police said they had recovered two liquor brands that were allegedly adulterated Party Special and Crazy Romeo. My brother-in-law bought a bottle of liquor from a local grocery shop from a woman. After consuming it he went to sleep at night. In the morning, some people came to wake him up and found him dead, said Mukesh Kumar, brother-in-law of Ashok Prasad. The families said that all the victims had bought liquor from local shops that sell alcohol smuggled from Haryana and nearby areas for anything between Rs 50 and Rs 75 for a quarter (180 ml). Not only liquor, even ganja (marijuana) is also sold openly in local shops in Khoda. There are at least 50 places where smuggled liquor and drugs are sold. All this is happening in connivance with the local police. It is estimated that shopkeepers make nearly Rs 10 lakh a month in Khoda selling spurious liquor and drugs, alleged Yogesh Bhati, brother-in-law of Khoda Nagar Palika chairperson Reena Bhati. On Tuesday, after the four deaths came to light, locals staged a protest at Shankar Vihar market. The protesters criticised the local police and demanded immediate closure of shops which sell smuggled liquor. We have recommended suspension of the excise inspector of Khoda and two beat constables after the incident. Teams from Ghaziabad and Meerut are conducting raids to nab the culprits and seize liquor. The samples of liquor consumed by victims will be sent for forensic examination, said Rajesh Mani Tripathi, joint commissioner (excise). Khoda Nagar Palika chairperson Reena Bhati said that tshe had earlier complained to the police about the sale of spurious liquor in the area after which the local shops were shut down. The shops reopened after four days. These shopkeepers work in connivance with local police, she said. Dharmendra Chauhan, circle officer of Indirapuram said that the post mortem of one of the victims, Ashok Prasad, had not confirmed the reason of death. He added that the viscera has been preserved for further analysis. The Delhi Police on Tuesday said they will submit a status report before the Supreme Court in connection with the probe into the death of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. More than four years after the Sunandas death, police have not been able to reach a conclusion and said the probe is underway. In February, the apex court issued a notice to the Delhi Police on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamys appeal challenging the Delhi High Court order dismissing his plea for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the case. Dependra Pathak, special commissioner and chief spokesperson of Delhi Police said, Since the matter is being heard by the Supreme Court, it will not be appropriate to comment on it. The investigating team is working professionally and all aspects related to the case is being investigated. We will submit a report in the court. Swamy has moved the top court after his plea, seeking a probe by a court-monitored special investigation team (SIT) into Sunandas death, was dismissed by the Delhi High Court in October last year. The apex court also asked Swamy to prove maintainability in the case. On being asked about the progress made so far in the case, Pathak refused to share details of the investigation. Since the matter is sub-judice, it will not be right to discuss details of the investigation. Delhi Police will disclose the details when it is the right time, he added. Sunanda,51, was found dead in the suite of a luxury hotel in Delhi on January 17, 2014. In January 2015, a year after her death, Delhi Police registered a case of murder after a medical report said that her death was unnatural and was caused due to poisoning. Nobody has been named as a suspect as yet. It was not clear whether Sunanda had consumed poison on her own or it was administered forcefully or by injection, police said. Pushkars viscera samples were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lab in Washington DC to determine the type of poison that killed her after an AIIMS medical board identified poisoning as the reason behind her death. The board did not specify the type of poison and asked police to send the samples to a lab outside India. (with agency inputs) A 24-year-old woman who called an Uber cab was allegedly locked inside the car by its driver who sexually harassed and threatened her, Delhi Police said on Monday. When the woman tried to escape, the driver allegedly prevented her by activating the cars central locking system. Aslam Khan, deputy commissioner of police (north-west), said the accused driver was arrested from a Haryana village where he was found drunk. The accused driver has been identified as Sanjeev alias Sanju. He was driving the cab despite not being registered with Uber, said Khan. The white Swift car he was driving did not have a yellow commercial number plate and had tinted glasses. The driver did not have a driving licence, the officer added. Responding to the allegations, an Uber spokesperson called it a case of identity theft and issued a statement saying the company immediately removed the driver partners access to the Uber app. ...will take strict action against him (the original driver) for letting an unregistered driver without a licence access his account and take trips via Uber App, the aggregator said in its statement. There was, however, no response to a query as to how a private vehicle with tinted glasses was allegedly pressed into service. The woman lives with her husband in outer Delhis Rohini and drives to work in Sonepat. On Friday, she chose to hire an Uber cab. She got into the cab around 7pm, but noticed that the vehicle did not have a yellow number plate. She still took the car, said the DCP. Minutes into the ride, the woman allegedly found the drivers conduct suspicious. The driver called someone and spoke about meeting somewhere and drinking together. The woman immediately checked the drivers details on the Uber app and found it was another person, said the DCP. She panicked when she realised that the driver allegedly chose an isolated route over her preferred route. The woman tried to jump out of the car when it slowed down at a traffic junction near Mukarba Chowk, but the driver activated the central locking system, said Khan. The driver then threatened to harm the woman and passed sexual remarks. She screamed for help, but was unable to draw anyones attention, said Khan. When the cab slowed down again near a CNG pump in Jahangirpuri around 9pm, she managed to unlock the door and jump out. The woman quickly dialled the police control room number even as the driver escaped with the car, said the officer. Police registered a case of sexual harassment, kidnapping, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation. Simultaneously, we sought the cab details from Uber, said the DCP. The same night, the police traced the car and its driver to Sonepats Janti Kalan village where the vehicle owner lives. From question paper leaks to imposters writing examinations to invigilators dictating answers to students inside exam halls, cheating in exams is rampant in India. A few years ago, an educational scandal in Madhya Pradesh saw widespread rigging of exams conducted by the states professional exam board, Vyapam. And in the capital, aspirants to the staff selection commission exam are on hunger strike demanding a probe into an alleged leak of a question paper. Educationists and candidates have been fighting a tough battle against mass cheating and exam malpractices in the country. Technology may yet come to the rescue. Question paper packets of the West Bengal Secondary exams that began on Monday have been fitted with a microchip. West Bengal Board of Secondary Education President Kalyanmoy Ganguly said the microchip will be put on a sticker on the sealed envelope containing the question papers. The chips are GPS-enabled. If the seal is broken, the data will be passed on to the server at the control room at the boards office. West Bengal isnt the only state trying to take on the cheating mafia. In Uttar Pradesh, deterred by stringent anti-cheating measures undertaken by the BJP government including closed circuit televisions and the deployment of and a special task force, 661,643 students around 10% of the number enrolled failed to show up for the board exams last month. Declining teaching standards, understaffed schools, and cut-throat competition in which too many students chase unrealistic grades in board exams for too few college seats means the cheating industry is never short of takers. That education is a state subject shouldnt deter the Centre from stepping in and stemming the rot in our examination and evaluation processes. Are strong measures such as a law that makes cheating in exam an offence punishable by a seven-year jail term, (China adopted this in 2016), the solution? Telangana was contemplating a prison term of up to seven years for those caught cheating in the matriculate exams. Gujarat has had a law against cheating in high school examinations since 1972, under which the guilty can be jailed for up to two years. Trying to shed the notoriety of a hotbed of exam-cheating, the Uttar Pradesh government could implement some provisions of a now-defunct anti-copying law first enacted in 1992 that made supervisors and invigilators at exam centres where students are caught cheating culpable. The way to stop cheating in exams is hi-tech security for question papers, electronic surveillance with deployment of closed circuit TVs at exam centres, random checks, surprise interviews and high-level re-evaluations. No measure should be ruled out to ensure that genuine students dont bear the brunt of the actions of those who take the easy way out. Uttar Pradesh politician and former MLA, Naresh Chandra Agarwal, is a good example of what a politician should not be. Or maybe he is a good example of what a successful politician should be. Agarwal is proof that while a rolling stone gathers no moss, it , at least, gets to go to places other, stationary stones cant. And so, Agarwal has been on a roll. With the exception of a few, Agarwal has warmed the benches of almost all political parties in the Hindi heartland in a career spanning more than three decades. He started with the Congress in 1980, but grew disenchanted with the party soon. By 1989, he was contesting as an independent candidate. He went back to the Congress only to later form the Loktantrik Congress. From there he joined the Samajwadi Party; later, he broke ranks with the SP to join Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party. Then he went back to the SP. And on Monday, this rolling stone joined the BJP. For much of this time, Agarwal has managed to be with the party in power which seems to be his political philosophy as well. At the time of going to press, Agarwal is still in the BJP, though he has been severally criticised by senior party leaders for his sexist and insensitive statement made on Monday at a function held at the party headquarters in Delhi to welcome him into the BJP. The BJP, which claims to be ideologically-driven, will find it difficult to explain how a politician like Agarwal fits into its agenda. He has already caused much embarrassment to the party and his expression of regret, on Tuesday, appears to be nothing more than a lame attempt to deflect political heat for his statement. Agarwal is the latest of turncoats to join an ever-expanding and increasingly powerful BJP, but, unlike others, Agarwal stands out. The 66-year-old leader is infamous for his obnoxious and controversial statements, the latest seen on Monday. In 2013, he made derogatory statements against Prime Minister Narendra Modi; last July, he ridiculed Hindu gods; in December, he likened Kulbhushan Jadav to a terrorist; and, in January, he mocked Muslim women who had come to witness the tabling of the triple talaq bill in Rajya Sabha. Agarwal has a dubious political rap sheet. The only thing, perhaps, worth being envious about is his collection of tippets given by the many political parties he has joined and left. Without doubt, Agarwal brings with him a richness of embarrassment to BJP. Many students who appeared in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 Chemistry examination on Tuesday said the paper was easy and not lengthy. However, some students found the paper a bit difficult and one of the teachers even said it is hard to score well as organic chemistry and numerical questions were quite tricky to solve. Unlike physics, there were no tricky questions in this paper, said Raghav Rajpurohit of Kendriya Vidyalaya No 2 in Jaipur. Chandra Dev Singh of the same school said, It went well. Apart from one or two low mark questions, I was able to do all. The paper was easy. All the questions came from within the NCERT textbook. If you have studied the book well, youd have easily done all, said Parikshit Ranjeet Raje of Jayshree Periwal High School in Jaipur. Soumya Meena of Notre Dame Academy in Patna also found the paper easy and could complete the paper before time. I had practised all exercise questions from NCERT books as well as the last 10 years questions that helped. Dushyant Kuma, a student of Dehraduns Vivekananda school, too found the paper easy. The questions were straight forward and werent tricky, he said. Another student Sumit of the same school said, I was afraid of Chemistry, but the question paper was good. The difficulty level was not high and someone who has studied the subject wont have issues in solving it. However, Bhopals Bal Bharti School Class 12 student Preeti Vishwakarma said, The chemistry exam paper was not a straight one. I found difficulty in solving numerical questions. Bhopals St Francis School Class 12 student Anmol Dogra said, The paper was a bit difficult. However, it was not a lengthy. Most of the students completed the questions before time. Bhopals KV No 1 chemistry teacher Neeta Chaturvedi said, It is easy to pass the exam but it is hard to score well as organic chemistry and numerical questions were quite tricky to solve. The questions were easy and direct. At least 40% questions were from last five years question papers. Anyone who would have solved the previous year questions and covered the NCERT exercises can score above 80. The questions were easier than last years. However, the private candidates who do not study from NCERT books were seen sleeping in my centre, that was a bit concerning, said Abha Choudhary, chemistry teacher of Notre Dame Academy, Patna. (With inputs from Nandini in Patna, Salik Ahmad in Jaipur, Nihi Sharma in Dehradun and Shruti Tomar in Bhopal.) With the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) examination beginning on Monday, students of junior classes bore the brunt as many of them were forced to take their exams outside their schools due to shortage of space. At Government Senior Secondary School, Neechi Mangli, students of Classes 6 and 7 were accommodated in a Dharmshala (inn) located in front of the school. When HT visited the spot at 10.30am on Monday, around 300 students of Classes 6 and 7 were seen sitting on mats in a nearby inn to take their Summative Assessment II exams. Students of Class 9 were, however, accommodated in a shed inside the school. School authorities say that as their school has become an examination centre for Class 10 and 12 students, they had no space left for their own students. A student of Class 7 said, The place where I was seated was poorly lit, so I faced problems in writing the paper. Meanwhile, school principal Neeru Burman, said, As we have multiple exams on the same day, we were forced to make the students of junior classes take their exams outside the school. We have informed the district education officer about the issue as our school is a centre for both Class 10 and 12. Situation equally bad in other schools The condition is the same in most other schools. At Government Senior Secondary School, Talwandi Rai, students of Class 10 were made to sit on the floor as around 500 students of Class-12 had occupied all classrooms in the school. The students of Classes 6, 7 and 9 of the school were meanwhile adjusted in a Nabard building close to the school. A student, said, We have paid the fee to the board but today when I visited the examination centre to appear in the Class 10 board exam, I was asked to sit on the floor. The board should have set up examination centres in the school, where they have sufficient number of classrooms and infrastructure. At Government High School, Jamalpur Awana, too, the school was forced to accommodate some of its students in the adjoining primary school. Officiating principal, Ashok Kumar, said, Our school is set up as an examination centre for Class 10, 12 and 8. To accommodate the 286 Class 10 students in the morning, we sent our own students to the primary school for the exam. Visually impaired students of Jamalpur Awana couldnt take exam in own school Though the PSEB has made a provision for visually impaired students to take their exams in their own schools, six students of Class-10 of Government Institute for Blind in Jamalpur, had to go to Government High School, Jamalpur Awana, to take their exam as their own school was facing a staff shortage. Institute principal Paramjit Kaur said, This time, we couldnt arrange for our students to take the exam in their own school due to shortage of staff. Exam starts late Due to shortage of classrooms, the exam for Class-8 students at Government Girls High School, Chanan Devi, Salem Tabri, started at 1.20pm instead of 1pm as the school was waiting for the exams of Class 10 students to get over. The school has 13 classrooms, out of which 10 classrooms were occupied by 263 students of Class 10. Multiple exams on same day On March 12, while on one hand, students of Classes 6,7 and 9 had their exams from 9.30am to 12.30pm, students of Class 10 appeared in English exam from 10 am to 1.15pm. The school will again face problem on March 15, as students of Class 10 will appear for their Punjabi exam, and Classes 6, 7 and 9 will have their exams too. The problem will increase further when the exams of Class 5 will begin on March 13 (9.30 am to 12 pm). A cool-girl staple, big sleeves (think: tiered, flared, ruffled, or balloon-shaped) have a superhero-like ability to take any outfit from simple to sartorial in an instant but, at the same time, remain surprisingly wearable. Plus, they make even the smallest things like waving down your ride feel like a photo op. After 2017 was owned by oversize sleeves from dramatic flourishes to capped sleeves to belled cuffs to rolled-up balloon-sleeves it seems the trend is picking up winds in 2018 too. Many fashionable personalities were seen sporting the dramatic flairs with sass to various prominent platforms. A post shared by (@nana_style_0) on Jun 3, 2017 at 9:05pm PDT The first lady of US, Melania Trump, has been a fan of the trend for a long time. She sported a white dress by fashion designer Roksanda Ilincic featuring the designers signature puff cuffs in 2016. Then in 2017, she arrived at a November state dinner in Beijing in a black floral gown with oversized, furred-sleeves. Later on, she wore a Dior dress with oversized sleeves for the unveiling of the White House Christmas decorations. A post shared by Frances McDormand Fan Page (@francesmcdormandworld) on Jan 21, 2018 at 8:52pm PST More recently, Oscar winning actor, Frances McDormand, sported a bell-sleeved blue Valentino gown at Screen Actors Guild Awards in January, 2018, where she won the award for best actress for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. A post shared by Shaleena Nathani (@shaleenanathani) on Mar 11, 2018 at 9:31am PDT In Bollywood, actor Deepika Padukone donned a gown by Falguni and Shane Peacock with sculpted bodyline and voluminous sleeves. The Padmaavat star rocked the look at the red carpet of an awards show on Sunday. A post shared by Rhea Kapoor (@rheakapoor) on Jan 24, 2018 at 9:15am PST Another fashionista, actor Sonam Kapoor, who is known for her high fashion looks, has also been seen sporting the oversized sleeves trend over the years. She has donned the look at many red carpets, award ceremonies, inaugurations, and television shows. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more Gurgaon All 25 CNG stations in the city will remain closed from 1pm on Saturday till 6am on Monday due to rerouting of a pipeline at Iffco chowk for construction of an underpass, a spokesperson of Haryana City Gas Distribution Limited (HCGDL) said on Tuesday. The gas supply to PNG (piped natural gas) for both domestic and industrial customers will, however, remain unaffected during this period. According to HCGDL officials, the decision was taken by GAIL (Gas Authority of India Ltd) for rerouting the existing CGPL pipeline at Iffco Chowk due to the underpass work being carried out by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at the junction. As an advisory, the company urges the CNG customers to have an alternate arrangement during the said period and use the available fuel wisely, Satish Chopra, managing director, HCGDL, said. With the temporary suspension in service, all 25 CNG stations at sectors 31, 44, 49, 52, 53, 53(II), 57, 62, 72A, 22, 29, 15(I), 15(II), 37, 86, 89, 98, Alipur, IOCL, sectors14, 33, 35, Sohna Palwal Road, Bus Depot, Pataudi and Farrukhnagar will be affected. Read I Gurgaon gets new CNG station in Sector 52 It is not the first time that the expansion work at the junctions of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway has led to temporary closure of CNG stations. Owing to the shifting of the pipeline for expansion work at Iffco Chowk and Signature Towers, six CNG stations were closed for 24 hours last year, from 2pm on September 16 till 2pm the day after. The stations closed for 24 hours were located at sectors 31, 15, 14, 12, 22, 89, 86 and Pataudi Road. HCGDL has a daily CNG supply capacity of over 4 lakh kilogram. On December 5, 2017, following the direction of the district administration, all CNG station were ordered to remain open 24x7 as a measure to reduce queues at the stations which were resulting in snarls. Veteran actor Michael Caine has joined the list of Woody Allen film alums who have vowed to never work with the director again in the wake of the allegations levelled against him by daughter Dylan Farrow. Caine, who won an Academy Award in 1987 for Allens film Hannah and Her Sisters told The Guardian, I am so stunned. Im a patron of the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) and have very strong views about paedophilia. The 84-year-old actor said that while he did not regret working with Allen when he did, he would not do so again. I cant come to terms with it, because I loved Woody and had a wonderful time with him. I even introduced him to Mia (Farrow). I dont regret working with him, which I did in complete innocence; but I wouldnt work with him again, no, he said. Allen has long denied the allegations made by daughter Dylan, who is one of the stars three children with ex Mia Farrow. Dylan publicly claimed in 2014 that Allen molested her as a child. A number of celebrities have recently come out and expressed regret for working with the Annie Hall director, including Colin Firth, Timothee Chalamet, Mira Sorvino and Peter Sarsgaard. Follow @htshowbiz for more As if two parallel Jokers wasnt enough, Tommy Wiseau, the multi-hyphenate man behind The Room, often described as the Citizen Kane of bad movies, has thrown his own hat into the ring. Wiseau, in collaboration with Nerdist, shared an audition tape of himself delivering some of the most memorable lines of Heath Ledger, Mark Hamill and Jack Nicholsons versions of the Joker. Hes made to look like Ledgers character, but at one point says, Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight, a line made popular by Nicholson. Although he does make several attempts to say, Why so serious. Wiseau even attempts to create his own Joker laugh, but it sounds a lot like his own, which James Franco performed so frequently in The Disaster Artist, the recent film about the making of the Room, for which Franco won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Wiseau. Wiseau gained fame in the early 2000s after he wrote, produced, directed and financed The Room, which has developed a reputation as being one of the worst films ever made. The story of its making was recreated in Francos The Disaster Artist, which was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Jared Leto currently plays the Joker in DCs Extended Universe films. He first played the character in Suicide Squad and is expected to reprise his role in at least two new films. Negotiations are also underway with Joaquin Phoenix, who is expected to star in director Todd Philips independent Joker origin story, produced by Martin Scorsese. Wiseaus eccentric personality has been mocked and celebrated with equal measure, which was evident in some of the tweets about the Joker video: Tommy Wiseau would unironically make the perfect joker Charlie Balsar (@churro_lee) March 13, 2018 I just died XD https://t.co/CwSGFnsZrP BossLogic (@Bosslogic) March 13, 2018 tommy wiseau makes a better joker than jared leto beep beep richie (@pumhaengzero) March 13, 2018 Tommy Wiseau's Joker > Jared Leto's Joker (@Vallture) March 12, 2018 I didnt think Id see a scarier film than ANNIHILATION this year. I was wrong. https://t.co/PCjCpx4G2e Matt Singer (@mattsinger) March 12, 2018 Follow @htshowbiz for more Days after the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) pulled its ministers out of the Union cabinet, the Centre categorically rejected a demand for establishing a separate railway zone for Andhra Pradesh on the grounds that it was neither technically feasible nor financially viable. Union home ministry officials conveyed this message to Andhra Pradesh chief secretary Dinesh Kumar at a meeting held to discuss the implementation of promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act-2014 in New Delhi on Monday. The establishment of a railway zone headquartered at Visakhapatnam was one of the key promises made to Andhra Pradesh in the bifurcation act. As the South Central Railway is headquartered in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh has now been deprived of a railway division. According to those familiar with the development, Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba told officials from Andhra Pradesh that a committee appointed to examine the feasibility of the special zone project found the proposal unviable. Railway authorities present at the meeting maintained that such a project will do little other than give rise to additional administrative expenditure, an official said. Ironically, Union railway minister Piyush Goel had told the Rajya Sabha on February 6 that the Centre was seriously considering the installation of the separate railway zone for Andhra Pradesh. Even finance minister Arun Jaitley made a similar contention last week. The TDPs decision to pull out of the NDA government, however, seems to have changed all that. We have already suggested that a new railway zone for Andhra Pradesh by merging the Waltair (Visakhapatnam), Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal divisions could be formed. Since the rail network in the state is expanding, it will definitely be financially viable, said Srikakulam MP K Rammohan Naidu in his letter to Goel. PVN Madhav, BJP legislator and spokesperson, said all was not lost yet. We are still confident that the NDA government will take a positive decision on the matter, he said. A delegation of TDP MPs met Goel on Tuesday evening to submit a representation on the issue. They vowed to continue agitating until the demands were met. Issuing a whip to party MPs to be present in Parliament for the next two days, the BJP on Tuesday hit out at the opposition for not allowing Parliament to function and indicated that it will press ahead with the Union Budget-related processes even amid protests. The Bharatiya Janata Party MPs were informed about the three-line whip -- to remain present in both houses of Parliament for the next two days -- and its strategy for ensuring the passage of the bills by parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar at a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Party here. It was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Rajnath Singh, party chief Amit Shah and veteran leader LK Advani. The meeting was addressed by Kumar and ministers of state for parliamentary affairs Vijay Goel and Arjun Ram Meghwal. Modi and Shah didnt air their views. Talking to reporters after the meeting, Kumar urged the Congress and other parties to let the house function. It seems (Congress leaders) Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi dont believe in democracy. They speak outside (the house) on democracy but dont practice it in Parliament. The Congress(men) doesnt have democracy in their genes, Kumar said. He asked other parties to discuss the pending bills constructively. We have included all important issues in the list of business. We have also issued a three-line whip to all our MPs. We request all the parties to let the house function and hold constructive discussions, the minister said. The whip is a clear indication that the Narendra Modi government is determined to get on with the completion of the necessary legislative procedures vis-a-vis the Union Budget despite opposition protests. A BJP leader present in the meeting told IANS on condition of anonymity that the Finance Bill and Demands for Grants have to be cleared in this session and the party had thus asked all its MPs to remain present when that happens. Both the houses were adjourned early on Tuesday after the Telugu Desam Party and some opposition parties protested on various issues, ranging from grant of special category status to Andhra Pradesh to the Punjab National Bank scam. The cancellation of flights across India threw major airports into chaos on Tuesday as hundreds of passengers were forced to rejig their schedules and wait for long hours. Nand Lal, who is in his mid-40s, had come from Haryana to catch a Guwahati-bound flight at Terminal 1 of Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport. He was offered a seat on one of the Guwahati-bound flights scheduled the next day. Lal agreed readily but had one problem: He didnt have a place to stay for the night. Getting a hotel will be expensive. I am a working class person and have to save every penny. Even eating food from outside is expensive, he said. A similar fate befell 43-year-old Mohit Nagpal, who had no clue what to do after his Jammu-bound flight was cancelled. He had come to the Capital with his wife for a wedding. I have to reach Jammu urgently for a meeting. This is so sudden. It ruined every plan we had made till now. We werent even informed earlier that our flight has been cancelled, said Nagpal. Similar scenes of chaos were witnessed at Mumbais airport. A passenger flying from Mumbai to Indore by IndiGo said he came to know about the cancellation only after reaching the airport. After travelling all the way to the airport, I got to know that my flight was cancelled. However, I was shifted to an alternate flight by the airline, he said. Low-cost carriers IndiGo and Go Air cancelled 65 flights a day after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) grounded 11 Airbus A320neo aircraft powered by a particular batch of faulty Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines. The problem is likely to persist till at least June and more than 13,000 passengers are likely to be affected, according to officials. Foreigners also faced problems. At Delhi, a group of three women from Canada were among those passengers who had no clue about what to do next. Kelsi, Piyanka and Arianna, who are in their 20s, were dependent on a travel agent for their ticket bookings and trips. Kelsi said that their agent didnt inform them about the cancellation. We came to know about its cancellation only after reaching the airport, she said. A Class 12 student was hacked to death by a gang of four men on his way to the examination centre on busy Hyderabad-Mumbai national highway Monday morning. E Sudheer, 19, studying at Pratibha Junior College, Kukatpally, in Moosapet, (a suburb in Hyderabad) was going to the examination centre, along with his two friends, Meghanath and Sai Krishna, on a motorcycle when he was attacked by a gang of four men around 8.30am. The men, also on motorbikes, stopped Sudheer and his friends at Kukatpally junction and pulled him down and started assaulting him, according to the police. The gang threatened his friends when they intervened. Sudheer tried to escape by boarding a school bus but the men dragged him out and kept stabbing him with knives and daggers till he died, said Kukatpalli inspector V Prasanna Kumar. Naveen and the main accused, Mahesh, have been arrested, the police said on Tuesday. Locals chased the gang and alerted two traffic constables who managed to nab Naveen. The other two men are still at large, the police further said. A day after he was sacked for his controversial remarks on the nature of the Kashmir dispute, former Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Haseeb Drabu said on Tuesday that he was pained at the way he was dismissed without an opportunity of being heard. While I understand and accept the decision of the Party, to take to media before talking to me, was painful. I was not accorded the opportunity to explain the context and the content of my speech, he said in a statement. He said that he had no formal or even personal communication either from the government or from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) about his being dropped from the cabinet on March 12 and that the manner and method of communicating the decision was shocking. I called the CM residence in New Delhi and was told that CM was busy and would call me back in 10 minutes. That call never came. By early afternoon I called up the CM residence and sought an appointment. Even as I was waiting for it, it was reported on the website of the daily Greater Kashmir that the CM had decided to drop me from the council of ministers and had written to the Governor to this effect. I finally got a call to meet the CM at 7.15 pm, he said. Drabu said his speech at the PHDCCI programme on March 9 was focused on a thought, which had been on his mind: the role of civil society in resolving the issue of Kashmir. Speaking to a select gathering of ambassadors and industrialists, who could be possible investors in peace in J&K, I tried to make the point that Kashmir was not only a political issue to be resolved by the nation state of India and the successive governments at the centre and the state, but that there is a social issue that needs to be resolved at the level of the civil society, he said. Drabu said that it was made in the larger context of how society in Kashmir has been ravaged and has impaired real-life situations and sensibilities especially of the youth. The former minister also said there was a need for civil society institutions to get involved and make interventions in their areas of influence to resolve the social issues pervading our society. There were innuendoes that I said this or was made to say this with an ulterior motive, he said. The fact is that it is a long-held belief and I have repeatedly said it that the engagement with Kashmir should be at various levels, he said. Drabu also denied going against the PDPs stated political position. Those who heard my speech or care to read it dispassionately will know that when I was talking about our aspirations and the efforts at self-discovery, I was in fact nuancing the very stand of the Peoples Democratic Party before a very select audience, he asserted. Drabu also invoked PDP founder, the late Mufti Mohammed in his defence. As for my understanding of the political ideology of PDP, it is based on my drafting of various election manifestoes, the aspirational agenda, and the all-important Self Rule document, which Mufti Sahib involved me in, he said. He also recalled how the terms and conditions based on which the current PDP-BJP alliance was formed, the Agenda of alliance, was drafted under his guidance. Drabu, however, said that he harboured no ill will against anyone. Thats simply not my way of being, he said. India took the drastic measure of grounding all Airbus SE narrow-body planes powered by the latest Pratt & Whitney engines, removing the aircraft from the countrys skies after a series of in-flight incidents. A320 neos with even one Pratt engine featuring a seal found to cause vibrations are no longer allowed to fly, Indias Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement Monday. The unilateral action is at odds with the European Aviation Safety Agency, the primary regulator for Airbus planes, which repeated guidance that the jets are safe if they have a single affected turbine. The Indian move immediately grounded eight aircraft at IndiGo, the nations largest carrier, and three at GoAirlines India Pvt. It comes after three in-service shutdowns of aircraft with one PW1100 engine featuring the seal, two of which occurred in the past week, according to the DGCA. Shares of IndiGo fell as much as 3% in Mumbai on Tuesday. Pratt and Whitney engine issues will take a while to get resolved, analysts at Mumbai-based brokerage Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd. wrote in a research note on Tuesday, recommending selling the stock. This will hurt IndiGo in the near term and may lose market share to domestic peers. The glitch with the so called knife-edge compressor seal is the latest in a series of expensive problems for Pratt in its development of the geared turbofan engine model. The manufacturer, part of United Technologies Corp. had proposed a fix that would see at least one engine featuring an older seal reinstated on planes while it worked on a more permanent solution. Nothing Concrete Under the Pratt plan, all defective components would be replaced by early June, requiring some planes to fly with one affected engine for almost three more months. Thats not acceptable, according to the Indian regulator, which said the manufacturer had no concrete proposal in place at this stage. United Technologies shares fell 1.9% on Monday in New York, while Airbus fell 2.5% in Paris, the biggest loss in a week for both. Pratt & Whitney said in an emailed statement that its working closely with customers to minimize disruption and has already begun to deliver engines with the upgraded configuration. The US company added that the aircraft on ground situation may take until the end of the second quarter to address. Of the 11 newly grounded Indian aircraft, as many as five may be able to recommence flying by swapping engines between affected planes. EASA repeated a ruling that operations by aircraft with one defective engine should be permitted, provided such jets dont undertake extended flights over water, where theyre more distant from diversionary airports in the event of an emergency. Not necessary The Indian decision was a unilateral one with which EASA wasnt involved, the European agency said in an emailed statement, adding that a complete grounding is not deemed necessary for the time being. The snags with the engines have led to repeated grounding of airplanes in India. IndiGo had taken at least seven of its jets out of action by July last year, awaiting a fix for the engines. As recently as February, the DGCA had ordered IndiGo to not fly three of its jets. The assembled fuselage of an Airbus A320 narrow-body passenger twin-engine jet airliner moves across the Airbus SE factory floor in Hamburg, Germany. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg) Pratt replaced the original seal because it was degrading faster than expected, reducing the planned service interval. Indigo is both the largest current operator of the A320 neo and the No. 1 customer. It and GoAir said theyd complied with the DGCA directive. State-run Air India Ltd. and Vistara, the local affiliate of Singapore Airlines Ltd., also fly the A320neo, but those are powered by CFM engines, made by a joint venture between General Electric Co. and Frances Safran Aircraft Engines SAS. Actress-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan has declared movable and immovable assets worth Rs 493 crore in her affidavit to the Election Commission (EC). The three-term Rajya Sabha MP of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the affidavit submitted to the poll panel while filing nomination for her fourth straight term has declared that her assets along with that of her husband, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, have doubled since her last such affidavit in 2012. According to the affidavit, the 69-year-old politician, together with her husband, has immovable assets worth over Rs 460 crore, and their movable assets are valued at Rs 540 crore, much above the Rs 343 crore declared in 2012. The list of her movable assets includes a pen worth Rs 9 lakh and watches worth Rs 51 lakh, though less expensive than what her hubby Big B owns -- watches worth a whopping Rs 3.4 crore. The couple own a 3,175 square metre residential property in Brignogan Plages in France other than plush properties in Bhopal (MP), Noida (UP), Delhi, Pune and Mumbai (Maharashtra), and in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad cities of Gujarat. Amitabh Bachchan has been shown as owning a Rs 5.7-crore three-acre plot in Daulatpur area of Barabanki district and the Rajya Sabha MP herself owns a Rs 2.2-crore agricultural land measuring 1.22 hectare in Kakori area of Lucknow. Poll panel officials say that with assets adding up to almost Rs 1,000 crore, Jaya Bachchan could well be walking into the Rajya Sabha as the richest lawmaker at present. Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agrawal switched sides to the BJP on Monday and also managed to embarrass his new party with controversial remarks against actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan on Day One. Agrawal, who is known to shoot his mouth off, quit the SP after he was denied another Rajya Sabha stint, with the party picking Bachchan for a fourth term in the Upper House. My comparison was drawn with those working in films... I was rejected for those who dance in films, work in films, the 66-year-old Agrawal, whose Rajya Sabha term ends April, said at a press conference at the BJP headquarters. He did not name Bachchan but his remarks left the BJP leaders on the dais squirming. BJP spokesman Sambit Patra quickly distanced from Agrawals remarks and said the party respected people from all fields and welcomed them in politics. But the remarks didnt go down well with senior BJP leader and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. Shri Naresh Agarwal has joined Bharatiya Janata Party. He is welcome. However, his comments regarding Jaya Bachhan ji are improper and unacceptable, she tweeted a few hours after Agrawal joined the party in the presence of railways minister Piyush Goyal and others. Agrawal said he remained grateful to SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and his cousin, Ram Gopal Yadav, but claimed his former party was sliding and forging alliances to remain relevant. He denied setting any condition for joining the BJP and said he wanted to be in a national party to serve the nation in true sense. Agrawal is not new to controversy. Last July while speaking in the Rajya Sabha, he likened Hindu gods and goddesses to alcohol, triggering an uproar. His remarks on Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian naval officer on death row in Pakistan, too, had embarrassed the SP. A seven-term legislator and former minister, Agrawal started his political career with the Congress. He broke ranks to form the Loktantrik Congress in 1997 to become a minister in the BJP government in UP under Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh. He then joined the Samajwadi Party, held ministerial portfolio in Mulayam Singh Yadav government before becoming a Rajya Sabha member in 2012. Agrawal is known for his political management skills that would be tested when Uttar Pradesh MLAs will vote for 10 Rajya Sabha seats on March 23. The BJP has fielded eight candidates and supports Anil Agrawal, a close aide of Naresh. Agarwal said his MLA son would vote in favour of the BJP. The BJP hopes that his contacts in rival parties would help it secure support of 18 other MLAs required to win the ninth Rajya Sabha seat. If the BJP pulls it off it would mean a defeat for Bahujan Samaj Partys Bhimrao Ambedkar, who is being backed by SP as well as the Congress. The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Kolkata said in its report that Kunduli rape victims clothes did not bear any trace of semen, a senior police officer said. The report submitted by the CFSL to the court is now available with the investigating officer, superintendent of police (crime branch) RB Panigrahi told reporters on Monday. The CFSL forensic test revealed that the stains on the exhibits (clothes) yielded identical autosomal genetic profiles of female origin from one and the same female individual, Panigrahi said. The clothes were sent to the CFSL for re-examination following a controversy over a purported State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) draft report, which had indicated that the girls undergarments bore semen marks. The draft report did not match with the SFSLs final report. Read | Odisha tribal rape victims family holds up traffic with her body, refuses autopsy Odisha DGP RP Sharma had ordered the crime branch to investigate into the alleged discrepancies in the two forensic reports. Police are still investigating into the apparent surfacing of the SFSLs intermediate interdivision draft report, which was also reported by a section of media, the SP said. A 14-year-old Dalit girl of Kunduli area of Koraput district had alleged that she was gang-raped by four men in uniforms on October 10 last year near a jungle in Pottangi police station area of the district. The girl committed suicide on January 22. The state government had in February ordered for a court-monitored special investigation team probe into the incident. The government had also ordered a judicial probe. Congress President Rahul Gandhi met French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday and discussed with him issues that affect liberal democracies including fake news. Gandhi was accompanied by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, when he met with the visiting French president. The Congress chief, however, did not raise the Rafale fighter jet deal with Macron, party sources said. The Congress has been attacking the BJP government on the defence deal, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of causing loss to the state exchequer by buying the fighter jets at inflated rate. Yesterday, I met with French President @EmmanuelMacron. We discussed a range of issues common to our liberal democracies, including fake news. I look forward to building on this meeting and to collaborating with him on global challenges such as Climate Change, Gandhi tweeted on Monday, posting a picture with Singh and Macron. Asked about the meeting and why Gandhi did not raise the Rafale deal issue, Congress communications in charge Randeep Surjewala said the party presidents always meet visiting heads of state. The Congress has a history of maintaining a relationship with visiting heads of state in national interest. As far as the Rafale deal is concerned, it has six serious flaws which go to the root of the matter and is pointing towards a brewing scam in procurement of aircraft and compromise on national security, he alleged. The Congress leader said Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman refused to disclose the price for the fighter jets citing threat to national security, but Dassault Aviation in its Annual Report of 2016 as also of 2017 says that they sold 36 Rafale aircraft for Rs 1,670 crore per aircraft. The same aircraft was sold to Egypt and Qatar 11 months at Rs 1,319 crore per aircraft and there is a clear cut loss of Rs 12,632 crore to the state exchequer, he said. The Rafale deal signed after an international bidding was opened finally on December 12, 2012 and the UPA price as per information in public domain was about Rs 526 crore. The simple question that 132 crore people want to know is why did you buy Rs 526 crore aircraft for Rs 1,670 crore - over 300 pc extra. The loss to exchequer if calculated notionally would be Rs 41,000 crore. Why did the prime minister bypass the Defence Procurement Procedure which looks at price discovery through contract negotiation committee and price negotiation committee and nobody in this country can violate that principle, he asked. Surjewala also asked why the prime minister did not take prior approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security. Why did the prime minister deny to India transfer of technology for manufacture of twin engine Rafale fighter aircraft and the Defence Minister lie to the nation on February 7, 2018 when she issued a Press Release and a statement saying that as far as Rafale aircraft is concerned, no off-set partner has been chosen by the vendor, Dassault Aviation, he said. Surjewala said, If the Defence Minister is going to lie to the nation through her teeth, if the prime minister is going to dupe and mislead, if the PM is going to violate the Defence Procurement Procedure and CCS, if the PM is going to supersede the PSU HAL in favour of a private company, then who is going to defend Indias interests?. We need 45 air squadrons, we only have 32 air squadrons, by the time these aircraft come we will have 23 air squadrons only. How will we take on the might of our neighbours who can possibly any time challenge our borders as also our air space? These are questions to which the PM and the defence minister have adopted a complete Maun-Vrat. I dare them to answer these in public, Surjewala said. The factional fight in the Samajwadi Party could benefit the BJP in the Rajya Sabha election. The Shivpal Yadav camp was likely to break ranks with the Opposition by backing the saffron party, an SP leader said on Tuesday. The ruling BJP has decided to contest one more than the eight Rajya Sabha seats it is certain to win in Uttar Pradesh when polling is held on March 23. Shivpal and his supporters are likely to go against the wishes of SP president Akhilesh Yadav just the way they did in the presidential election. We expect at least seven leaders to cross-vote in the BJPs favour, the leader, who refused to be identified, said. Shivpal, who is Akhileshs uncle, was not available for comments. Though Akhilesh got the better of his uncle in the war for control of the SP, Shivpal defied the party when leaders close to him successfully supported the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance candidate Ramnath Kovind in the presidential election against the Oppositions Meira Kumar. Read: BJP takes Rajya Sabha battle to the Opposition, fields additional candidates to upset alliances In Uttar Pradesh, a Rajya Sabha candidate needs 37 votes to be elected. The BJP, which has a brute majority in the Vidhan Sabha, is assured of eight seats and the SP one. The Opposition, including the SP and the Congress, has announced support for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)s Bhimrao Ambedkar for the 10th seat, which no party can win on its own, but with the BJP entering the contest, Ambedkars fate looks uncertain. The SP will be left with 10 votes after ensuring a Rajya Sabha seat for its candidates. Combined with 19 votes of the BSP, seven of the Congress and one of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the total goes to 37. The residual votes of the BJP and allies will be 28. There are two Independent votes. If there is cross-voting in the Opposition camp, the BJP could clinch a ninth seat in Uttar Pradesh. The Shivpal camp has obliged the BJP on more than one occasion. Prominent SP leaders, including Bukkal Nawab, Yashwant Singh and Sarojini Agarwal, all considered loyal to Shivpal, quit the legislative council, allowing chief minister Yogi Adityanath, his deputy minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other ministers to get elected from the Vidhan Parishad. The three former MLCs are now in the BJP. Read: Rajya Sabha election sees opposition parties join hands to counter BJP, could set stage for 2019 MLAs Vijay Mishra and Aman Mani Tripathi, who won the 2017 assembly election after Akhilesh denied them tickets, too, are considered close to Shivpal. Aman contested as an Independent and Mishra on the Nishad Party ticket. Though the Nishad Party was an alliance partner of the SP in Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bypoll, it has no control over Mishra, which could work in favour of the BJP. Along with UP, another 49 Rajya Sabha seats will be voted for on March 23 across several states in a crucial election that will push up the BJPs tally in the Upper House but not enough to take it past the half-way mark. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Family members of Michael Flynn have a message for a Republican activist who is putting on a fundraiser to benefit the former national security advisor's legal defense: no thanks. Conservative lobbyist Jack Burkman had announced earlier Monday his intentions to hold a fundraising event to aid in the legal defense efforts for Flynn, who is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible Russian collusion during the 2016 election. Burkman's event for the "Defending American Rights Legal Fund" says it will send proceeds to benefit Flynn. A similar event was hosted by Burkman to benefit former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates. In a statement to ABC News, Flynn's brother, Joe Flynn, says, While we appreciate the support of thousands of people across the country for Lt. General (Ret.) Flynn, we want to make very clear that the only legitimate Legal Defense Fund for him is the one set up by myself and my sister Barbara on behalf of him and his family." The statement from Flynn's brother goes on to say the Flynn family does not endorse any third party "press/donor events on behalf of General Flynn and urge supporters and the press not to pay any attention to them. However, Burkman says the Flynn family knew of the fund. "The Flynn Camp approved the April 5th date and then backtracked. Understandably, they fear adverse reaction from the judge," Burkman told ABC News in a statement. "Nonetheless, we will push on and plan to raise north of $500,000 for General Flynn. We will not allow any federal judge to take away our first amendment rights. The Flynn family maintains they had no knowledge of Burkman's efforts and did not authorize the fundraiser. ABC News reported last week Flynn has put his Virginia home up for sale in order to help foot the bill for his legal costs. Flynn pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador before president-elect Trump took office. He was the first senior White House official who agreed to cooperate with the special counsel's investigation into election interference. Sentencing for Flynn, who faces one count of lying to federal authorities, has not yet been set pending his successful cooperation with the special counsel's investigation. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The only resolution that the RSS, the BJPs ideological parent, passed at its three-day annual meeting that concluded in Nagpur in Maharashtra over the weekend, listed its concerns about the vanishing dialects and the need to preserve Indian languages. Passed on the same day when over 30,000 farmers from Nashik were marching for their rights, in the BJP-ruled state, the carefully worded resolution was largely apolitical and skipped controversial references. Over the past years, the RSS highest decision making platform, the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, has raised issues with political undertones violence against its cadres in West Bengal and Kerala or the social tension arising out of caste based discrimination. However, a year before the country goes to polls, the Sangh has chosen to focus on a cause that does not put it in an adversarial position with the government. A senior Sangh functionary said the move is an indication of convergence of ideas and energy between the Sangh and the BJP. There is an understanding that the BJP under Narendra Modi is designing a political landscape that draws from the ideology of the Sangh such as integral humanism and antodaya (serving the last man in the queue) to draft pro-people policies, so the ecosystem should be collaborative, the functionary explained, asking not to be identified. Though RSS-BJP ties are largely cordial currently, over the past four years, RSS affiliates working in the sectors of labour and economy have attacked the government for demonetisation, allowing foreign direct investment, and the continuing farm crisis. These issues were the centrepiece of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwats annual Dussehra speech; but were not included in the resolution. When the Sanghs views on contemporary issues of farmers distress and bank scams were sought, Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi, re-elected to another three-year term, his fourth, during the conclave, responded by calling for the need to strengthen processes. He said no government could remain insensitive to farmers woes. Commenting on the confrontation over economic policies, he said it was a sign of a healthy disagreement that is allowed within the structure. In a family, all brothers arent equal. They have different ideas, hobbies, etc., but there can be differences in opinion (matbhed) but there wont be any fallout (manbhed), Joshi said. However, to ensure that RSS is not seen as ceding ground, a subtle message was delivered that the outfits will continue to press for their demands. Joshi said the government may have concerns about implementing certain measures, but that the RSS expects ideology-driven organisations to pursue their cause without any compromise. Another senior RSS functionary said the government has largely accommodated the organisations demands; the BJPs response to the call for the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya is also favourable, this person added on condition of anonymity. By allowing the government greater flexibility in policy making, the Sangh has opted for a mentors role, but will continue to monitor as well, he said. A second year BA student shot dead his English lecturer in front of the latters daughter at a government college in Sonepat in Haryana on Tuesday, in the second incident of a student attacking a faculty member this year. In January, an expelled Class 12 student shot dead his principal in Yamuna Nagar, also in Haryana. Rajesh Malik, 40, and his daughter, 14 (she has finished her Class 11 exams and was free) had just arrived at the Shaheed Dalbir Singh College in Pipli village when the accused , identified as Jagmal Singh, walked in, opened fire on Malik, and escaped. Malik, who was shot four times, was rushed to hospital by staff members, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. A clerk at the college, Jyoti Devi, witnessed the incident and claimed Malik scolded Singh some time ago for harassing a girl in the class, according to the police. Singh may have been instigated into committing the murder by an assistant professor at the college who recently fought with Malik, the police claimed. The police have booked both Singh on charges of murder and the assistant professor on charges of criminal conspiracy. No arrest has been made. The police said Singh used a licensed .32 bore pistol belonging to his uncle to kill Malik. Maliks body was sent for a postmortem at the Sonepat civil hospital. He suffered two bullet wounds in the back, one in the chest and one in the elbow. He is survived by his wife, who is posted in the ministry of textiles in Delhi, a 16-year-old son who is in Class X (and in the middle of his board exams) and his daughter. Maliks father collapsed after hearing news of his sons death and had to be hospitalised. A college assistant professor in Haryana was shot dead on Tuesday allegedly by a student, police said. The motive behind the incident, which occurred on the campus of Shaheed Dalbir Singh College in Sonepats Pipli village, is not clear. Rajesh Singh was sitting in one of the rooms when the student, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, walked in, fired four shots at him and fled, said Kharkhoda police station SHO Virender Singh. Rajesh Singh, who students said taught English, was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The incident occurred between 8:30am and 9am. The investigation is on. It is too early to confirm the identity of the student and motive behind the killing, said SHO Virender Singh. A professor who was in the college at the time of incident said, Malik was sitting in the steno room when the accused with his face covered opened fire at him and fled. It all happened so quickly. He (accused) looked like a student, but we cant confirm if he was from this college. The incident comes weeks after a Class 12 student shot his school principal at a private school in Haryanas Yamunanagar. The student reportedly held a grudge against the principal after she scolded him for poor performance in studies. Three months after Cyclone Ockhi ravaged the Kerala coast and caught the administration on the wrong foot, the government has sounded an alert as a depression in the Arabian Sea for last two days deepened further on Tuesday. The Met office has warned fishermen not to venture into the sea for next two days as the depression situated 390 kms south-west of Thiruvananthapuram intensified further. Keralas chief secretary Paul Antony met different departmental heads Tuesday morning to review preparations. Coast Guard ships are on standby while the government has set up two control rooms in Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram. We are in constant touch with the weather and disaster management offices. We have been informed that the depression is intensifying and situated 390 kms away from the Thiruvananthapuram coast now, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. Read | How rescue forces were stunned by the fury of Cyclone Ockhi He asked all fishermen who ventured into the sea before the warning came into force to return immediately. Government officials said they were coordinating with Navy and Coast Guard to meet any eventuality. The Met office has predicted heavy rainfall in next two to three days. Thiruvananthapuram metrological centre director S Sudevan said heavy rains will be accompanied by winds with speeds of 40 to 60 kmph in south Kerala. He said the warning for fishermen will be in force till Thursday. After cyclone Ockhi ravaged the southern coast, fishermen claimed that they were not given any warning by the state fisheries department. However the National Disaster Management Authority had claimed that it had informed the Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments about the incoming cyclonic storms and heavy rains. Cyclone Ockhi also raised questions about the governments preparedness to deal with major natural calamities. The cyclone claimed 80 lives in Kerala and 28 in Tamil Nadu. In Kerala 40 fishermen are still missing. Read | Cyclone Ockhi: In ravaged hamlets, kin of missing fishermen battle despair A 30-year-old man, believed to be a tour guide who led a 36-member trekking group on an ill-fated expedition in the district, has been arrested, police said on Tuesday even as the death toll increased to 11. Ranjith was arrested Monday night, they said, adding that he was being questioned to ascertain whether he had any links with a Chennai-based group which is believed to have arranged for the expedition. Police are probing, among others, how the trekkers came into contact with Ranjith, a local. Meanwhile, a 29-year-old woman succumbed to severe burn injuries on Tuesday, said an official. She (Divya from Erode) was admitted in Madurai Government Hospital with severe burn injuries. She died at around 12.30 pm, a hospital official told IANS. While nine persons lost their lives on the spot, one person died at a Madurai hospital on Monday. A 36-member team -- 24 people from Chennai and 12 from Tirupur and Erode districts -- had embarked on the trekking expedition and reached Kurangani hills on March 10. The team included 25 women and three children. Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purhohit on Tuesday visited the Madurai Government Hospital and consoled the family members of the injured. The Chennai-based group believed to have arranged the ill-fated trekking expedition to Kurangani Hills where 11 members were killed in a forest fire, on Tuesday claimed the team had received an entry pass to proceed with their mission. It also blamed local farmers for the fire that engulfed the area, killing some of the trekkers on a womens trek to commemorate womens day. Majority of the members were women, though there were male volunteers who accompanied them. We came to know that on Saturday, March 10, the group started off from Kurangani at the base and paid fees at the forest entry check-post who issued an entry pass, an update on the website of Chennai trekking club (CTC) said. It may be recalled the state government had said the trekkers had not obtained required permission for the expedition. Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami had on Monday said: Without permission, they embarked on a trekking expedition.Trekkers should climb hills only after taking the governments nod. During the summer months of March, April and May permission to trek is not given as the high forest ranges are dry with the possibility of forest fires spreading fast, he had said in Salem. In its update today, the group said the trekking route from the base at Kurangani to Kollukumalai on top was a regular and a clear trail created by local villagers and trekkers. On Saturday morning when the group started to trek, there was no sign of fire in the entire forest range and by evening it had reached Kollukumalai tea estate at the top and camped there, it said. Read | Death of nine trekkers in Tamil Nadu forest fire was a tragedy waiting to happen They started their descent the next morning through the same trail they went up by and reached close to mid-point of the exit. As a normal seasonal cultivation practice, local farmers at the base burn grass during this season and on Sunday it seems they lit the grass at the base. Due to an unusual low depression in the Bodi valley, there were unexpected and unprecedented strong winds on Sunday. As a result, the fire swept across from the base of the hills and spread across the hill upwards. Some of the survivors told that there was very limited reaction time due to the fast spreading smoke, it said. As soon as smoke was noticed the team proceeded on the downhill, away from the smoke but got blocked by fire in the opposite direction, it added. On Sunday afternoon the group reached out to the local guide who was with them, and he gave them accurate information on the location of the group, it said. This critical information was immediately shared with the forest department along with participant details and helped in the search and rescue operations. In the evening CTC put together and sent an experienced team to Theni to provide on-ground support, the website added. Two of the deceased, experienced trekkers Arun and Vibin had led the group, it said. It further said there was no organisational hierarchy in any of the activities or events organised by CTC. Any trek organised by the club undergoes multiple approvals, while the participants are carefully selected and disclaimers are obtained from all of them. While starting the trek, it is also ensured that necessary permissions are obtained and the organisers carry the documents with them... As in this case, although we followed all the safety procedures and precautions, the team was overcome by fire, it said. The group said that the incident was a natural disasterand mourned the death of every CTC and non CTC person struck by this tragedy. Meanwhile, a survivor of the forest fire today recalled her ordeal, saying she could come out alive only because she jumped into a valley when the fire engulfed her group. City-based Vijayalakshmi, one of the trekkers who took up the ill-fated expedition to the Kurangani Hills range in Western Ghats, said today that the fire spread very quickly when the group was on the move, catching most of them unaware. Recalling the trek on Saturday, she said the members of the expedition noticed smoke on the hills around 2pm when they stopped for lunch even as they decided to proceed on a different trail. After going some distance, we spotted fire there also and within two minutes it started spreading all over, she told reporters here. With no escape route in sight, all she and another girl could spot was a valley-like formation and they immediately jumped there to avoid the fire, she said even as others fell on them but sustained burns. There was a small valley like thing. I and another girl jumped into it, she said, adding, they did not suffer any major injuries even as fire stopped in some time. The Forest Survey of Indias (FSI) SMS warning about hot spots/fire alert in Kurangani Hills in Tamil Nadus Theni district was received just before midnight on Sunday, a senior state forest department official said on Tuesday. However, the FSI said they had sent the intimation on Sunday afternoon. On Sunday, a group of 36 trekkers were caught up in a massive forest blaze in Kurangani Hills, resulting in the death of 11 people and several injured seriously. The SMS alert from FSI came only at 11.46pm on Sunday. The FSI also sends email alerts. On Sunday, the attachment did not open. But many times the attachments sent by FSI do not open. Hence we depend on SMS alerts as it comes directly to the mobile phones of many state government officials, the forest department official, who did not want to be identified, told IANS. According to the official, the Tamil Nadu government is in the process of signing an MoU with the Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), part of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), for such warnings. Once the MoU is signed then we can get the data from NRSC directly. We have the capability to decode the data sent by NRSC, the official added. Responding to the charge, a senior official of the Dehradun-based FSI told IANS over phone: We alert the state government officials in two modes - email and SMS. Requesting anonymity as the official was not authorised to speak to the media, the official added: We just checked the email sent to the Tamil Nadu official. The email was generated at 3.37pm on March 11 and was sent. The email was forwarded to another computer system and the attachment to the mail opened without any hitch, the official added. According to the FSI official, data is gathered from satellites that pass over India. The first satellite pass was at 1.57 pm and the second at 1.59pm. Read | Death of nine trekkers in Tamil Nadu forest fire was a tragedy waiting to happen Meanwhile, ISRO chairman K Sivan told IANS that the Tamil Nadu forest fire was picked up by NRSC in the afternoon. The data was sent to FSI soon after that. We have a MoU with FSI. The FSI in turn sends the alerts through SMS. Queried about the delay in SMS as voiced by the Tamil Nadu official, the FSI official said that is done by a vendor and it is not possible to get the time of delivery. According to the official, within 40 minutes of the receipt of data from NRSC, emails would be generated by FSI and within few minutes after that, the SMS would be sent. There are around 18,000 registered mobile numbers with FSI for data. Any person can register his mobile number on our website and also specify his area of interest so that the customised data is sent through SMS, the official added. The FSI also provides bulk registration facility so that a nodal officer in a government department can register numbers of even beat level officials so that information can be reached to him/her, FSI official added. According to FSI official, while many states have registered mobile numbers of over 2,000 officials, Tamil Nadu with less than 250 registered numbers ranks low in the overall picture. The state can register the mobile numbers of beat level officials so that critical information can be reached to them, the FSI official said. With hopes in their eyes and written assurance from the Maharashtra government to meet their demands, thousands of farmers, who had gathered here from all over the state, have gone back to their native places. Under the banner of the Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha (AIKS) of the CPI(M), over 35,000 farmers trekked 180km from Nashik to here over six days under the blazing sun, some even barefooted, with a slew of demands which included their right to till forest land and a complete loan waiver. The farmers called off their agitation on Monday after the BJP-led government announced it has accepted almost all of their demands in writing and assured to implement them in a time-bound manner. The protesters, mostly farmers and tribals, had taken their agitation to Mumbai where they gathered in the Azad Maidan on Monday. They hailed from Nashik, Ahmednagar district, Thane, Raigad districts and other parts of the state. The agitators left for home by various modes of transport, a senior police official said, adding two trains were arranged by the government to ferry them back . Farmers and tribals from Nashik district boarded the special trains arranged by the government, Ashok Dhawale, AIKS president and a member of the CPI(M) Central Committee, told PTI. All farmers bought tickets and boarded the trains as it was not fair to take any favour from the government, he said. When our march reached Somaiya Ground in Sion on the night of March 11, the government was ready to provide us 100 BEST (civic) buses to take us to south Mumbai. But, we declined to take any favour that day too, Dhawale said. We decided to march past midnight because we did not want to cause any inconvenience to Mumbaikars and students who were having their SSC and HSC exams, he said. Dhawale said the farmers were happy with whatever they got from the government. We won the battle, but the war is still on. We are going to see at the ground level how the government is going to implement the written assurance given to us. Smiles have returned on the faces of farmers and adivasis as their long-pending issues and demands are going to be sorted out, he said. On January 18, a policeman showed up at the door of Abdul Hafeez, a 37-year-old businessman in Kulwakurthy in Telanganas Mahbubnagar district, and asked to record his fingerprints, Aadhaar number, phone numbers, social media accounts, voter ID, passport, and the names and numbers of his family members, associates, lawyers, pawn brokers, and concubines, if any. The policeman also geo-tagged Hafeezs home by noting down its GPS coordinates. This information, Hafeez was told, was for the Sakala Nerasthula Samagra Survey, the brainchild of the state police to gather a vast archive of personal information of convicted criminals, suspects and under-trials. The data, according to a police circular, would be stored in TSCOP a new software application downloaded onto the phones of the states constables. With TSCOP a policeman moving through a difficult area can see in real time: who are the criminals in this area? Where do they live? Who are the people here who can help the police? said M Mahendar Reddy, Telanganas Director General of Police, who oversaw the development of TSCOP. It is not meant for senior officers, it is meant for beat policemen who are on the front lines. For Hafeez, however, the survey was the most recent instance of harassment at the hands of the local police. I am not a repeat offender, Hafeez said in an interview. I am a victim of police harassment. The story of Hafeez and TSCOP offers a peek into the largely unnoticed big-data revolution sweeping through Indian state governments. Administrators and police departments are using individual Aadhaar numbers to consolidate citizen data scattered across disparate government departments, allowing for the creation of detailed personal databases. This data is being collected without the consent of citizens, in the absence of a data privacy law, and stored without any coherent data security policy. Modern databases are designed to interoperable, said Rahul Matthan, a partner at law firm Trilegal. But when we start to use these databases, we need a proper privacy framework that holds government and private parties to account for how they use this data. Such a framework, Matthan said, needs to move beyond simply asking for user consent as individuals may not understand the implications of sharing their data. Rather, the framework should hold data-gathers and users accountable if their use of this data results in any harm being caused to the individual. Biometric Databases On February 22 this year, Gujarat state counsel Rakesh Dwivedi acknowledged that the Gujarat government had maintained an archive of biometric data of the states residents in a software application called the State Resident Data Hub (SRDH). This data, Dwivedi said, was erased shortly after the Aadhaar Act was implemented in March 2016. His admission, before the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, marked the first time a state government had formally conceded to maintaining such a database. Meanwhile, Gujarat continues to maintain a separate biometric database of ration card holders, as reported by HT on January 21 2018. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has consistently maintained that it is the sole custodian of citizen data collected during the Aadhaar enrolment process. Dwivedis statement in court reveals this was not always the case. These state hubs were created under an agreement between the state and UIDAI, Dwivedi said in remarks reported in HT. Hindustan Times has seen one such draft MoU. Applications like TSCOP and SRDH, which contain the Aadhaar numbers and biometrics of citizens, reveal the complete absence of public information regarding who has access to the sensitive personal data of over one billion Indians enrolled in the controversial Aadhaar programme, and how it is put to use. These applications also reveal Aadhaars central paradox wherein a system designed to minimise data collection has given state and central governments the ability to gather and centralise increasingly detailed information about their citizens. Any policy that proceeds without adequate public consultation can only damage democratic practices in the country, said Reetika Khera, a professor of economics at IIT Delhi, who has written extensively on privacy and Aadhaar. This is no exception. Telanganas TSCOP and Gujarats SRDH appear to be two different applications, but six state-level IT administrators and programmers familiar with the projects, say they are based on the same principle of using Aadhaar as a common identifier to integrate previously discrete data silos. The SRDH was a prototype to showcase certain capabilities, said a coder who worked on the project. The UIDAI did not respond to a detailed HT questionnaire asking about the existence of these biometric databases, or the veracity of the draft MoU accessed by HT. State Resident Data Hubs In 2012, the UIDAI asked a consortium of private companies to develop data hubs to help states leverage the true potential of Aadhaar and Aadhaar-enabled service delivery, according to the SRDH Institutional Framework published in April that year. A draft copy of an agreement between the UIDAI and state governments, obtained by HT, reveals that SRDHs were created to provide a way for states to utilise the demographic data they had collected on behalf of the UIDAI during Aadhaar enrolment. The UIDAI, the draft MoU said, would define the process for accessing, securing and keeping up-to-date resident KYR (Know Your Resident) data as collected during enrolment. HT was unable to access a signed copy of these agreements between states and the UIDAI. An SRDH advisory document issued by UIDAI in March 2012 notes that SRDH does not (and should not)store biometric data. However, Dwivedis admission that Gujarat was holding biometric resident data in its SRDH points to the existence of separate agreements allowing states to merge biometric information they had gathered, with the demographic data they obtained from UIDAI. We made a generic programme for states to manage their Aadhaar data, a coder who worked on the project said, seeking anonymity as he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement. We provided them with runnable code. Each state was responsible for implementing it themselves. States could modify the code, UIDAI documents said, but customisation would void warranty-support offered by Mahindra-Satyam, a private software company, which also prepared the deployment guide for the software. Accenture, KPMG, Ernst and Young, Price Water House Coopers, Wipro and Deloitte Touche Tomahatsu were empanelled as project consultants, the document said. The UIDAIs Project Management Unit coordinated with a network of private vendors and government departments to implement the programme. The SRDH created a resident data repository equipped with tools to allow states to seed this bulk database with individual Aadhaar numbers. We created a data repository of bulk resident data that states could seed with Aadhaar numbers, the coder explained. We call it inorganic batch seeding. For example: A list of ration card holders could be merged with a list of names and Aadhaar numbers to create a unified list of ration-card holders organised by Aadhaar number. This could further be merged with a list of old-age pensioners to get a list of ration-card holders who also availed of pensions, and so on to create master databases that were integrated with Aadhaar-based biometric authentication to access these services. The process of seeding in bulk, the coder said, is probabilistic rather than exact. There are many residents with the same name so we give different weightages to variables like name, date of birth, pin code, he said. The system will give possible matches and ask the system administrator to manually select one. Mismatches during inorganic seeding could explain periodic news-reports of villagers being denied food rations. KYR+ Project Management Unit communication, interviews and documents reviewed by HT reveal that the SRDH rollout epitomised the build the plane while youre flying approach beloved of software engineers. Private vendors had access to the sensitive personal information and Aadhaar numbers of millions of Indians. Much of the data was stored as un-encrypted csv files on thumb drives, and emails exchanged between trouble-shooting teams included screenshots of resident data including Aadhaar numbers. HT found the SRDH deployment guide essentially an installation manual hosted on an open-access server. With this kind of guide, you have a lot information on how the website is structured, the default passwords etc, said Robert Baptiste, a French security researcher who has exposed numerous flaws in databases managed by Indian government departments. In his most recent exploit, Baptiste gained access to 40 GB worth of personal data of 47,000 BSNL employees, hosted on a BSNL website. Publishing the SRDH deployment guide online, Baptiste said, made it very easy for hackers to spot holes in the security architecture of the SRDH. This should be an internal document, Baptiste said. Coders functioned as a hive mind, developing innovations with little regard to security or privacy concerns. One internal document shows how a coder came up with a way for SRDH users with administrator privileges to link multiple identity cards like passports and drivers licences without the consent of the individual. Since SRDH houses a giant database of UID numbers, it makes sense to link a persons UID number to other identity/proof of residence cards that he/she might have, the coder wrote. With KYR Plus you can view details about other identity cards that the individual might have easily. In retrospect, KYR Plus marked the point where Aadhaar shifted from a lean system to verify the identity of a user, into a tool to consolidate vast amounts of information about every resident. The final slide of the internal document illustrates how a system administrator could extend the SRDH to inter-link any personal document of a resident. If the type of card you are looking for doesnt exist.You can easily add a new card type here, the coder wrote, offering an example. License to Kill. SRDH Evolution HT interviewed senior IT officials in four states, who said they struggled to integrate the SRDH with their programmes. Yet, some states latched on its potential and built their own portals. Andhra Pradesh created a version called Peoples Hub which uses a residents Aadhaar number to consolidate 29 different department databases to create a single source of truth on the resident, according to AP government documents. The hub, officials said, does not hold biometric data. Now we know per household, the benefits being given, said A Babu, CEO of the Real Times Governance Society, the state entity overseeing the Peoples Hub. Each household has an 8-digit number and its GPS coordinates are fixed on a map. The data in the Peoples Hub is from a detailed survey conducted by the Andhra government. The results are partially visible on an open access website that plots the GPS location of every single house in surveyed districts. Clicking on a house on the map reveals the names of the residents, and their partially masked Aadhaar numbers. Babu said integrating citizen data at this scale makes it easy to quickly identify the beneficiaries of government schemes, and seamlessly route entitlements to their respective bank accounts. Privacy advocates like Khera question how much citizen data must be collected, and under what circumstances. Efficient administration requires some information, not all information, and certainly does not require it to be centralised, Khera said. Recent research on data-mining, she said, indicates that, algorithms based on inaccurate assumptions can end up harming instead of helping. Abdul Hafeez, the man who took on TSCOP the Telangana Police app is one example of the dangers indiscriminate data collection and mining. TSCOP TSCOP follows the same principle as the SRDH, except with police data. Here Aadhaar numbers are integrated with police databases to build detailed profiles of convicted criminals, and under-trials. TSCOP is based on a similar platform called HydCOP, according to M. Mahendra Reddy, the DGP of Telangana, who developed both applications. For HydCOP, Reddy wrote in a 2016 paper, the homes of 3,500 repeat offenders in Hyderabad were surveyed and geo-tagged for periodical visits by the front-line police officers. The platform, Reddy wrote, was integrated with UIDAI and NIC databases. When asked about the legal basis for integrating a police application with the UIDAI, Reddy said UIDAI integration was only for policemen to mark their attendance using the biometric sensors of their phones. UIDAI did not respond to a questionnaire sent by HT. So, when TSCOP was launched, Reddy announced a similar state-wide survey of criminals to collect data for the app. This brought the police to Abdul Hafeezs house. In 2010, Hafeez had filed an RTI application at his tehsil office to establish the ownership-status of public land encroached upon by a local builder. When I filed the RTI, the local police and land mafia filed a false case of cheating against me. Hafeez said. I was acquitted in 2013. Then the police filed another case against him for possession of black jaggery, a controlled substance, despite Hafeez said, his providing them with all the relevant documentation. So when the police came and said they are entering my name in a repeat offenders database, I took them to court, Hafeez said. Once the petition was admitted, the state government simply withdrew the police circular and the state-wide survey was suspended. The state government did not even contest the case, because they knew they cannot just gather personal data like this, said Y Sheelu Raj, Hafeezs lawyer. They are taking advantage of the fact that our country does not have a data protection law, and hoping no one will protest. DGP Reddy declined to give the legal basis for the police gathering such intrusive citizen data. He also refused say what the Telangana police has done with all the fingerprints and geo-tagged data they have already collected. We are following all provisions of relevant laws, he insisted. Three weeks ago, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader Amra Ram had spent four days in jail after he attempted to lead a farmers protest march to the Rajasthan assembly. On February 22, Rajasthan police arrested 179 farmers from different locations and detained around 2,000 farmers who were marching to Jaipur to stage a sit-in outside the assembly that was in session. Amra Ram was also part of the farmers protest in Maharashtra a long march by about 30,000 poor agriculturists -- that was conducted peacefully and ended on Monday with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis accepting most of their demands. While Vasundhra Raje was insensitive in handling the protest and we had to spend four days in jail, the Maharashtra chief minister had the grace to meet us with his ministers and give us a written assurance, Amra Ram said. As a result, the protest in Maharashtra did not cause any inconvenience, while the highway was blocked in Sikar (near Jaipur) by farmers protesting police high-handedness. Agriculture experts said the BJP government in Rajasthan could have handled the protest more deftly. Raje needs to learn from Devendra Fadnavis. Why should the chief minister be ashamed of meeting her own people? Its not just about Rajasthan chief minister, the problem is with the view that protesters are anarchists, agriculture expert Devendra Sharma said. We must appreciate the remarkable sagacity of Maharashtra chief minister in dealing with the farmers protest. The incident also shows that people want to protest in a peaceful and dignified manner, and resort to aggression only when government tries to block them, he added. Defending the move, home minister Gulab Chand Kataria cited high court directives that allow rallies and protests in Jaipur only between noon and 4pm on working days, and said there was apprehension of a breach of peace. State agriculture minister Prabhulal Saini said the government was sensitive to the farmers demands as was evident by the loan waiver and other announcements made by the chief minister in the assembly. Farmers are, however, unhappy in most parts of Rajasthan mainly because of the governments inability to purchase their produce at minimum support price. We understand that the loan waiver is a temporary solution. We want the government to implement its stated policy of purchasing crop at 50% above the cost price so that farmers dont fall into debt trap, Amra Ram said. In Maharashtra, the move to arrange special trains for transporting the farmers back to Nashik was also appreciated. What was common to the two protests was the allegation that left parties were instigating the farmers to launch the protests. A team of doctors from Mumbai reached Jodhpur Tuesday afternoon, hours after actor Amitabh Bachchan made a cryptic blog post sparking worries about his health. His wife Jaya Bachchan later said he was fine and had a pain in his neck and back. I am getting my team of doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again... I will rest and keep informed, Bachchan, who is in the city to shoot for Thugs of Hindostan, said in his blog, posted around 5 am. Amitji is fine. He has pain in the back and neck... The costumes are very heavy, so theres some pain. Otherwise he is fine, actor-politician Jaya Bachchan told reporters outside Parliament. As news spread about the 75-year-old stars possible ill-health, reporters and others gathered outside the Ajit Bhawan Palace where he is staying. Questioned by the media, the doctors refused to make any comment about his health. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje wished Bachchan a speedy recovery. Concerned to hear Shri @SrBachchan Ji is unwell. Do let us know if we can be of any assistance. Wish you a speedy recovery! she tweeted. Raje, who is on tour to Andhra Pradesh and Kanchipuram, interacted with Jodhpur district administration officials over telephone and asked them to take full care of Bachchan. In his blog post, Bachchan also wrote about the gruelling shoot schedule of the Vijay Krishna Acharya-directed film, which also features Aamir Khan. The morning after the night that began yesterday for work some people need to work for a living and work hard. Its been rough.. but when ever did any be achieved without it .. there is struggle and disappointment and pain and sweat and tears... then the expectation of all working out .. sometimes it does, most of the times not... it is the right impetus to say and deliver that it has been successful and achieved, he said. P Bachchan reached Jodhpur on March 5. He is staying at the hotel Ajit Bhawan Palace. Thugs of Hindostan is an adaptation of the 1839 novel Confessions of a Thug and also features Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh. RSSs Jaipur Prant Sanghchalak Dr Ramesh Agarwal on Tuesday said the RSS is not actively engaged in getting dissenting BJP leaders back into the party fold. Asked at a press conference if dissident BJP leaders will be brought back, Dr Agarwal said this was not the thinking of the Sangh. If that person seeks advice then the Sangh gives it keeping in mind the welfare of the country and the state. But the Sangh does not actively go after dissenters to bring them back to the BJP. Asked about Dr Kirori Lal Meena rejoining the BJP, Agarwal said he returned as he is aligned with the RSS ideology. Meena, a powerful leader in eastern Rajasthan, rejoined the BJP on March 11 after nine years. He is the BJP candidate for the Rajya Sabha. On rejoining the BJP, Meena had said that he had returned not on directions of the state or central unit of the party but on directions of the vichar pariwar. He is a sangh swayamsevak. So he might have felt that he should return such a party (with which he is ideologically aligned) but had left due to some differences, said Agarwal. Agarwal said a grand Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya driven by the aspirations of the people and not due to politics being played on the issue. The temple already exists in Ayodhya. But now a grand temple will be built there. Ram is in the heart of every Indian and only a Ram temple can come up at Ayodhya. Asked if the BJP was raking up the issue in view of general elections, Agarwal said the BJP might be politicising the issue but the RSS has refrained from it. He said RSS had backed the saints and organisations such as VHP that are campaigning for building a Ram temple in Ayodhya. Agarwal said the RSS has increased its footprint in the country. RSS work had reached 42% of mandals in the country and the partinidhi sabha resolved to increase the coverage to 100% mandals by 2021. Giving an outline of the All India Pratinidhi Sabha held from March 9 to 11 in Nagpur, he said the meeting passed a resolution on the need to preserve Indian languages. He said primary education should be in mother tongue and teaching study material and option of appearing in exams in higher education should be available in Indian languages. The day the by-election for sarpanch of Garhazan village in Bharatpur was held, poll candidate Shahnaaz Khan was busy taking her MBBS fourth year practical examinations. A few hours after polling on March 5, the bypoll results came in. Villagers had elected the 24-year-old medical student of Teerthanker Mahaveer Medical College and Research Center in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, as their sarpanch. Shahnaaz is the youngest sarpanch of her village, which is in Mewat region that includes parts of Haryana and Rajasthan. She is also the most educated woman in Garhazans history and gets a chance to take forward her paternal grandfathers political legacy. People in Mewat area dont send their daughters to schools. I will present before them my own example to show what education can do for a woman, Shahnaaz said after taking oath as sarpanch on Monday. She will start her internship at Civil Hospital in Gurgaon shortly and take an entrance examination for postgraduate course in medicine later, but is confident of juggling studies and grass-roots level politics. Shahnaazs was elected sarpanch after her grandfather Hanif Khans election in 2015 was declared null and void by a court in October last year. The court ruled Hanif Khan had forged educational qualification documents. The Rajasthan government has made Class 10 mandatory qualification for sarpanch candidates. Hanif Khan had been sarpanch of Garhazan for 55 years. A young and educated woman sarpanch is a change in Mewat region, which is considered among the most backward areas of Rajasthan. Mewat comprises portions of Alwar and Bharatpur districts inhabited by the Meo Muslims. My family is committed towards serving the people. Shahnaaz joined politics to fulfil her grandfathers dreams. She will serve the Meo community because it is backward. The literacy rate in Bharatpur district is 70.1%, which is higher than the state average 66.1%, but less than the national average 74.04%. The difference in level of education of boys and girls in the district is 29.9%. Shahnaaz said she was equipped to spread awareness about sanitation to prevent diseases in the area. For instance, people here die of tuberculosis. The disease can be cured with a six-month course but people are unaware. Shahnaazs parents are also in politics. Her mother Zahida Khan is a former MLA from Kaman constituency in the district. Her father, Jalees Khan, was Kaman pradhan (head of block level panchayat body). Zahida Khan said, My family is committed towards serving the people. Shahnaaz joined politics to fulfil her grandfathers dreams. She will serve the Meo community because it is backward. Shahnaaz studied in The Shri Ram School, Aravali, Gurgaon, till Class 10 and did her Class 12 from Delhi Public School, Maruti Kunj. Skill training for transgender people in Rajasthan will start soon to provide them with alternative means of livelihood, officials familiar with the initiative said. Transgender is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity or expression is different from those typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth. On the initiative of the Rajasthan Transgender Welfare Board, the Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation (RSLDC) had decided in November last year to take up skill training for such people. The programme got delayed because of problems ranging from funds to identity cards for transgender people. In January this year, I showed interest in setting up a centre to impart training to transgender people, said Pushpa, a member of the Transgender Welfare Board who runs an NGO, Nai Bhor. She found problems with the guidelines. I found the investment high for setting up a training centre. The other problems were getting identification cards for the transgender community and meeting the criterion of 30% placement to the candidates imparted training, Pushpa said If the community has so much money, then it would have started the skill centre on its own. Pushpa demanded that either the government give loan for setting up the centre or provide infrastructure for 2-3 hours daily. Pushpa said, The state has around 22,000 transgender people, but only 350 of them have voter ID cards on which transgender has been written in the sex column; the rest of them have ID cards with female written on them. The file to provide identification cards to transgender people is lying with the state government since 2016. Most of the transgender people have Aadhaar/voter IDs with female written in the sex column. In such situation, it will be difficult to prove that candidates being trained are transgender people, Pushpa said. Employment to trained transgender people is a big problem due to low awareness in society about the community. RSLDC managing director Krishna Kunal said the issues would be sorted out and training for transgender people would start in a couple of months. We intend to impart inclusive training to transgender people through training partners or transgender board, and the state government will extend all facilities. RSLDC plans to impart skill training to transgender people in cooking, making leather products and jewellery, and as beauticians. Kunal said Style & Scissors, a beauty saloon in Jaipur and training partner of RSLDC, has trained 15 transgender people since 2016. One of them has been retained at the saloon as a beauty therapist. Figures from the annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2016 are extremely distressing: they reveal a horrifying spike in child rape incidents by 82.09%, as compared to the figures of 2015 report. Some shockers in Lucknow Mar 2, 2018: A three-year-old girl fell prey to her fathers younger brother who allegedly raped her on Holi day. The girls condition is still stated to be critical and she underwent another surgery in KGMU on Saturday . Jun 9, 2017: A 12-year-old girl was gang raped by four boys of 14-15 years of age in Nagrams Utarawa village on the outskirts. June 10, 2017: A 16-year-old girl in Shram Vihar, a colony for under privileged BPL card holders in Alambagh area was raped by youths staying in her neighbourhood. Jul 20, 2017: An eight-year-old girl was murdered after being raped allegedly by a 14-year-old boy of her neighbourhood in Banthra area on the outskirts. Sept 10, 2017: A 10 -year-old girl accused her rickshaw-puller father of raping her daily after returning home drunken in PGI area. Dec 22, 2016: A seven-year-old girl was raped by a drug addict after holding her captive in a thicket behind the Gurudwara in Ashiana. What is even more alarming is the fact that the highest rise has been registered in Uttar Pradesh in the same period after Tamil Nadu and the state ranks third on the list of rape with minors. The NCRB data shows 19,765 cases of rape against children were reported across the country in 2016 while this figures was 10,854 in 2015. In 2016, the largest number of 2,467 such incidents were reported from Madhya Pradesh followed by 2,292 incidents in Maharashtra, 2,115 cases in Uttar Pradesh, 1,258 incidents in Odisha and 1169 cases in Tamil Nadu. In 2015, total 1,568 incidents were reported from Madhya Pradesh, 2,231 cases in Maharashtra, 594 cases in Uttar Pradesh, 1052 incidents in Odisha and no incident was reported in Tamil Nadu for two consecutive years in 2015 and 2014. The incidents of rape with minors reported from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in 2016 and 2015 are comparable but high increase is being witnessed in Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. Child rapes are registered under Section 376 of the IPC and under Sections 4 and 6 of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. India has the lowest percentage of reporting in rape cases and a large number of rapes go unreported due to social stigma, said woman activist Madhu Garg. But the willingness to report such cases had increased in recent years after widespread media attention in several incidents, Garg said. She added that the rise in child rape was very alarming and there was urgent need to find out the actual reason behind this horrifying trend. Member of Lucknow Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Sangeeta Sharma said the most important reason behind the increase in such cases was exposure of people to Internet and mobile phones. Parents must give proper time to their kids and interact with them to explain about bad touch and good touch as such incidents can happen to anyone anywhere, she said. Citing a case, Sharma said a five-year-old girl was sexually victimised by the staff members of a private school in Vrindavan Colony of PGI area in May 2017. She said the girls mother was a doctor but still she could not assess her daughters trauma. The incident was discovered only when the child had a urinary infection, after which a case was registered with the police. She said 10 months after the incident, both the victim and her mother were unable to recover from the trauma the incident had caused. Sharma said it was high time the law enforcement agencies focused on sensitisation programmes at school level as well as at parents and social levels to curb sexual abuse of minors. Advocate Rohit Kant Srivastav, who has handled multiple case of rape with minors, said it was very difficult to counsel children and make them understand how to narrate the incidents at different levels during the judicial process. He said the rape survivors, especially minors, had to undergo acute trauma to recall the horror and face the accused during the trial process. Corporators of opposition parties on Monday alleged that development work in Lucknow had come to a standstill for the past six months and the corporators quota had not been released by mayor Sanyukta Bhatia. Sayyed Yawar Hussain Reshu, M Salim, Raj Kumar Singh Raju from the Samajwadi party, Amita Singh and Girish Mishra from the Congress, in a joint press conference at Lucknow Municipal Corporation office, demanded that a meeting of the LMC House be held so that development works take off in the city. The corporators said fogging was not done, drains and nullahs were not cleaned and the city was under threat of mosquito- borne diseases. The opposition corporators alleged that the mayor was not interested in discussing the problems of the city. The mayor has not even signed the proceedings of the executive committee meeting, which was held a month back. Thats why officials are unable to release funds for development work. LMC officials are not addressing complaints regarding roads, cleaning of nullahs citing lack of funds as the mayor has not signed the proceedings, alleged Reshu. Girish Mishra, senior corporator of Congress, said: Over 60% of streetlights are out of order and they are not being replaced because there are no LED lights available in LMC store. The LED light scam in which 16,000 LED lights disappeared is not probed seriously. Mishra said, Corporators demand release of their quota amount immediately so that they can initiate some development work in their wards. For last six months, all development works have come to a halt. Amita Singh, corproator from Ismailanj ward, said: Work of nullah cleaning and fogging is yet to start. There is filth all around the city as door-to-door collection of garbage is not done regularly. These things need to be discussed in the LMC House. Meanwhile talking to HT on phone from Chandigarh, mayor Sanyukta Bhatia refuted the charges and said she would soon call a meeting of the LMC House. LED STRINGS REMOVED The LED strings placed by LMC on around 7,000 poles across Shaheed Path, Lohia Path, and airport route are being removed after complaints that these strings were stolen at several places. On Monday, most of the LED strings were removed by the LMC, said additional municipal commissioner PK Srivastava. Do you need a hand for any chore? This 31-year-old chap is all up to help you, and learn something in the process. Thinking how much will he charge for his services? Nothing! Dont believe us? Meet Pratul Jain aka Prat, and know the blissful way of living life sans monetary transactions. I realised early in life that if you remove money from any equation, then life becomes beautiful, says Jain, who belongs to a business family of Indore. When studying B Com (Hons) from Delhi Universitys Hansraj College, I learnt about so many things from theatre to politics. After graduation, I took to fashion designing, and even studied at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). Soon after, I started a workshop with three of my friends, and our business grew exponentially in India and even abroad, says Jain, recollecting vivid memories of the days when he used to party all night and remain engulfed in the glamour world. Sitting casually in a t-shirt and a cool pair of bermudas, today, Jain relents a mysterious laugh telling about the time when his life turned upside-down. Coming back after judging a fashion show at a college, I agreed to stay back at my friends place. The next morning, my friend, who was just 25 years old then, suffered a brain haemorrhage. In her paralytic state, she told me to follow my heart. Jo karna hai abhi karo, kal ka pata nahi [Do what you want to, but today, because tomorrow is uncertain] Her words echoed in my mind, and I decided to explore life in a very filmy way, says Jain, who dissolved his fashion designing business, donated the money to four lesser known villages in North India, and took a train to Kanyakumari. With just a backpack, I reached South India and travelled to Kerala. I decided I will only live in the homes of locals, and therefore started offering myself for any help that they required. In turn, I would ask them some space to live and food to eat. This process made me learn so many new things, and I started travelling to different parts of India and the world with the same ideology offer to work and learn but without money, says Jain, who has till now worked as a bamboo house maker in North East India, baker in France, an inspirational orator in Kashmir, and a scuba-diving instructor in Australia, among many others. When people asked him to write about his life experiences, it took Jain a while to push himself back to social media a task he had given up along with his business but once he revived, he started getting mails from all parts of the world. People started inviting me to learn something new that they could teach. My life even became a case study for a group of experts from Europe, who were researching on people who live life differently. But, with all this, one day when I was about 28, my parents called me home. It was the first time my mother hugged me, and both my parents were so overwhelmed to share how people specially the elderly from different parts of the world had called to tell them how I spend time with them in their villages, when even their own children werent living with them. You dont have to be [Nelson] Mandela or [Mahatma] Gandhi to help people and the community at large. The website and Facebook page BackpackWithPrat soon became a way of living, and at present Jain takes people to remote villages and unheard places, to live life like he does. Jain says, You dont have to be [Nelson] Mandela or [Mahatma] Gandhi to help people and the community at large. If you have something new to teach, Ill come and work for you for free! In fact, soon Ill be introducing a festival in India, where youngsters from urban cities and some unsung heroes will travel to a small village near Manali, and get to know each other and the locals. Because, till the time you are learning, life is beautiful! Interact with the author at Twitter/@HennaRakheja The Boisar MIDC police on Tuesday arrested four persons belonging to a chemical unit, including its director, in connection with the blasts that occurred in Boisar MIDC on March 8. The arrested accused were identified as Saral Dinesh Shah, director of Novaphene Specialities Limited , Hemraj Paraatne, manager, Gyandeep Mhatre, chemist and Raju Raote, worker. They were booked under Sections 304 (a)(causing death by negligence), 285,286,287 (negligence), 427 (mischief) of the Indian Penal Code. After being produced before the Palghar court, all the four accused were released on personal bond and cash surety of Rs15,000 each, said Avtaru Gupta, counsel for the four accused. Meanwhile, the death toll from the blasts at Novaphene Specialities Limited, in which six adjoining units were completely destroyed, reached four on Monday night. Nackched Singh, 62, who worked as a watchman for Prachi Industries a neighbouring unit of Novephene Specialities died at a Surat hospital. Meanwhile, the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) has said Novaphene Specialities Limited had not conducted a safety audit since 2015. Sudhakar Rathod, acting director, DISH, said no safety audit was conducted by a government-approved auditor since 2015 and called this a serious case. My subordinate H Dhawad, joint director (Safety) DISH has submitted his report to me and this damning lacuna has been observed, said Rathod. In fact, on Tuesday we have registered an offence against Dinesh Shah, director of Novaphene Specialities as he is the occupier of the plant, under the Factories Act against Novaphene Specialities before the chief judicial magistrate, Thane. Furthermore, Novaphene Specialities did not appoint any qualified supervisor or chemical engineer, which is required during any chemical process in a hazardous unit, Rathod said. An unqualified worker was given the task to conduct the process and the worker increased the steam pressure in the glass-lined reactor containing the hazardous solvent. As the chemicals inside the reactor started to boil rapidly, it resulted in the continuous blasts, said Rathod. The company did not take necessary permission from DISH to manufacture any intermediate chemical inside its premises,he said. The fourth victim, Singh, was first admitted in a comatose condition in a Mira Road private hospital, and later shifted to a Surat hospital. The other three victims are Pintu Kumar Gautam, Janu Adaria, and Alok Nath (all contract workers of the neighbouring Arti Drugs, which also got destroyed in the blasts). The anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of Mumbai busted a racket in Vikhroli on Tuesday and seized nearly 500kg of marijuana from a truck. The drugs were being smuggled under the disguise of onions, from Malegaon area of Nashik. The police have taken three suspects into custody and are interrogating them. They suspect it could be an inter-state racket. Police sources said the contraband was caught on the eastern express highway after they received information from officials of the Azad Maidan unit of ANC. The Marijuana sacks were hidden under sacks of onions. The truck has been seized. Its documents are being checked, said an ANC source. Police are interrogating the suspects to know where and to whom they were supposed to deliver such huge quantity of marijuana. Meanwhile, call details of the suspects are being analysed. The police have registered a case under Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act. At the ongoing elections for the senate, 57 graduates from the University of Mumbai (MU) will be contesting the polls. Senate is the principal authority for all financial estimates, budgetary appropriations and for providing social feedback to the university on current and future academic programmes. The university had received 89 nominations for the graduate constituency, of which 14 applications were declared invalid. Another 18 candidates withdrew their nominations, reducing the final tally to 57. More than 62,000 registered graduates from MU will vote to elect their representatives for in the senate. The university has already conducted elections for four smaller constituencies university teachers, college principals, management representatives and college heads of departments. Polls for teachers constituency, one of the larger ones, will be held on Tuesday. The graduates elections will be held on March 25. The newly-appointed senate will meet on March 30 to approve universitys annual budget. Student wings of all the major political parties and other organisations have fielded candidates for the senate elections, which are taking place in MU after seven years. Shiv Senas youth wing Yuva Sena and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-aligned Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) both have fielded candidates for all the 10 seats, of which one each is reserved for each of women, SC, ST, DT/NT and OBC candidates. The Congress party has nominated six candidates, including an SC and OBC candidates. The Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS), the student wing of MNS, had fielded four candidates. Two of them have withdrawn their their nominations. For the past two years, the university has been working with ad hoc bodies, with no elected member, owing to the state governments ban on elections. The ban was lifted after the state introduced a new law Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016 to govern the states public universities . Theres thwarted love, villainous deceit and the age-old fight of good versus evil all told through the twirls and pirouettes of 41 ballet dancers dressed in gold and white. The Royal Russian Ballet is bringing Swan Lake to Mumbai, for 25 shows across 13 days, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. About the show WHAT: Tchaikovskys Swan Lake WHEN: March 13 to 25; shows at 2.30pm and 7.30pm WHERE: NCPA, Nariman Point COST: Tickets start at Rs2,360, available online The original composition by Tchaikovsky has undergone several changes since it premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow 141 years ago. Our production is based on the ballet conceptualised by Marius Petipa [considered the father of classical ballet] and Lev Ivanov [a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer] back in 1895, who changed the musical narrative yet retained the essence of original composition, says Anatoliy Kazatskiy, director of this production of Swan Lake. Though weve retained the traditional choreography, weve changed the ending from tragic to a positive one where good wins over evil. Slight variations have been made in the sets and costumes, to make them colourful and contemporary, adds choreographer Vladmir Troschenko. This staging is being co-produced by the Gurgaon-based Navrasa Duende, which first brought it to Delhi in September. Almost 10,000 people attended the five shows held there, says Dinesh Singh, founder of the production company. From Mumbai, Swan Lake will travel to Ahmedabad, Kolkata and back to New Delhi. The story is inspired by Russian folk tales about a princess named Odette who was cursed by a sorcerer, turned into a swan, and then had to battle an evil black swan, Odile, for the prince they both loved. The duets of both Odette and Odile with Prince Siegfried have always been my favourite as they depict the power of both womens love for the prince, says Mikhail Tkachuk, 28, who plays Odette and Odile [both parts are usually performed by the same ballerina]. This is my first time performing in India and I am very excited. At the Delhi shows, about 40% of the audience was below 35, says Singh. This may have to do with The Black Swan, Darren Aronofskys Oscar-winning 2010 film, which was about a production of Swan Lake. Whatever the reason behind the reception, the Russian ballet company was thrilled by the response. We want to touch peoples lives and inspire audiences, says director Kazatskiy. Thats what the performing arts are intended for. Differences between the ruling BJP and the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) municipal commissioner Sudhakar Shinde, have come to a boil now. The party has declared that it will bring a no-confidence motion against Shinde for which a special general body meeting will be convened. BJPs group leader in the house Paresh Thakur, officially declared on Monday that the party will take up the no-confidence motion against Shinde. He alleged that the commissioner has presented a misleading budget for the city and that little work is being taken up for the development of Panvel. Shinde presented a Rs516-crore PMC budget for the year 2018-19 on March 7. The BJP has questioned the budget estimates and allocations during a discussion in the PMC standing committee. Its members questioned the revenue source stating in the budget, where property tax accounts for 20% of the revenue, the civic body has no record of the residential, commercial and industrial property. They claimed that the administration had not given satisfactory replies. The commissioner has failed on all fronts. The budget makes no sense and the figures announced have no basis. The condition of the roads, sewage and water in the city have not improved, Paresh Thakur. There is no development plan of the city yet and the absence of ward committees is preventing peoples work, he added. We will soon call for special general body meeting in which we will pass a no-confidence motion against the commissioner. We will ask the government to transfer him and give us a new commissioner, Thakur said. While Shinde refused to comment on the BJPs plan, opposition leader Pritam Mhatre said, The commissioner is working day and night for Panvels development. It is obvious that he is not allowing the ruling party to run the corporation as its private company and that is what is irking them. He declared, We will standby by the commissioner and so will the people of Panvel. HT had in November last year reported that BJP was planning to bring a no-confidence motion against Shinde. Paresh Thakur is the son of former MP Ramseth Thakur and brother of Panvel MLA Prashant Thakur. There have been reports in recent times of the Thakurs exerting pressure at Mantralaya and on chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, to get Shinde transferred. The Thakurs have been lobbying for an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer to be posted as the PMC commissioner. Shinde is an Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer. PMC municipal commissioner had walked out in a huff following ruling partys allegations On February 21, a day after an upset Thane municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal asked the civic corporators to pass a no-confidence motion against him so that he could be transferred, it was the turn of PMC commissioner Sudhakar Shinde to get upset. Following relentless targeting of the administration and the commissioner in the general body meeting, by the BJP corporators, Shinde walked out of the meeting in a huff. The BJP had during the meeting alleged that the civic officials had become lethargic and doing little work. They accused the commissioner of turning a blind eye even as the officials slept. The opposition Peasant and Workers Party (PWP) too later staged a walkout, blaming the ruling party for the state of affairs and declaring their support for Shinde. Following the meeting, the BJP held a press conference in which they castigated the commissioner alleging that he has been working in a biased manner and taking selective action in the city. When contacted, Shinde had refused to comment, stating, I am doing my job to the best of my ability in the interest of the people. Dont know why such attacks then. Who is Sudhakar Shinde? A 2007-batch IRS officer, Sudhakar Shinde is the first commissioner of the newly-founded PMC, who was appointed on October 1, 2016. Five-and-a-half months in the office, he was abruptly transferred on March 15, 2017, after the election commission order because he is the brother of Maharashtra water conservation minister Ram Shinde. At the time, it was alleged that Shindes decisions undermined interests of some BJP leaders. The BJP leaders vehemently denied the allegation. Residents started signature campaigns and online petitions and held indefinite fast. Shinde had during his short stint in Panvel brought about drastic changes in the region that has been beset with encroachments and illegal construction, unhygienic conditions and violation of civic norms. During his tenure, he did not take any leave even on Sundays. After his transfer, the menace of encroachments and illegal construction returned to the city. Shinde was reinstated as PMC commissioner on May 30, 2017, after civic elections. Recent reports suggest local BJP leaders are making efforts at the Mantralaya and on chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to get Shinde transferred. There are online petitions and signature campaigns being undertaken by residents currently in support of the commissioner. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the case against Chhota Rajan, is still struggling to get all cases that are triable against him at magistrate courts, before one court, for technical convenience. Rajan has around 71 cases against him, of which 25 have to be first tried before the magistrate court only. These are mostly extortion cases that were registered with the anti-extortion cell of the Mumbai police before being transferred to CBI. CBI had been seeking to allot one magistrate court to hear all 25 cases. To justify their demand, the agency claimed that Rajans life is under threat in Mumbai jails. Hence, the authorities have decided to not bring him to the city and he is being produced before the sessions court through video conference. Police sources claimed the request was turned down as a special magistrate court cannot be assigned only to try cases of one accused, when the pendency of cases in metropolitan magistrate courts is so high. The agency requested if the administration could transfer all the cases pending against Rajan before one magistrate court, if not allotment of one magistrate court. The request is still under consideration. Pending the request, the agency has not yet taken up any of the 25 cases. Noted criminal lawyer Girish Kulkarni, said, There are cases where courts have refrained from hearing a case involving the same accused if they had adjudicated his other case. This shows there may be bias opinion. Senior lawyer, Mahesh Jethmalani said, When the judge is dealing with many cases regarding same accused, he decides each case individually. The same would be followed for Rajan. Former high court, Judge Abhay Thipsay, said, The question of bias can come when there are common factors to be adjudicated in the case. He added that parties have a right to approach the same judge or higher authorities to transfer their case before another court if they feel there is a bias. Rajan moved an application in June 2017 asking a magistrate court in Esplanade centre to take him into judicial custody as the case was pending in court before being transferred to CBI. The court has not taken up the case as it has not been notified to hear CBIs cases, which is mandatory. CBI makes no progress in most Rajan cases Two years and three months after the deportation of underworld don Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje, alias Chhota Rajan, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has hardly made any fresh headway in cases registered against him, barring the murder of journalist J Dey. Rajan was deported to India in November 2015 from Bali. After his arrival, the Centre, with the consent of the state government, on November 21, 2015, issued a notification to transfer all the cases against him to CBI. Mumbai police had listed around 71 cases against Rajan which were transferred to CBI. Out of these, the agency has taken up investigation in around 20 cases in the last two years. However, the agency has hardly produced anything fresh against the gangster. Meanwhile, the special court is conducting trials in five cases murder of journalist J Dey, attempt to murder hotelier BR Shetty, firing at builder Ajay Gosalia, John Pareira murder case and Asif Dadhi shootout. Of these, CBI had presented fresh evidence only in the J Dey murder case, while in the rest of the cases, the agency submitted reports saying the investigation done by Mumbai police is correct. The prosecution endorsed the charge sheets filed by the city police and began the trials. Meanwhile, CBI is still struggling to trace records of older cases. An officer from Mumbai police, who was deputed to CBI to assist the agency in the process, said, In many cases they have not found preliminary record and case papers. Most officers who investigated the cases have retired and some are not traceable. Further, court records of old cases are also not available in many of the cases as they were destroyed periodically, keeping only the copy of the judgement on record as per the rule. The special court set up to hear cases registered under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA) had recently asked the registry to trace records of the old cases of Rajan and submit the reports periodically, once in every 15 days. With several such difficulties, the agency registered fresh complaints in several old cases, an officer said. As Mumbai changed from a colonial trading hub to the financial capital of an independent country, a white landmark in Fort stands as testimony to changing times. St Thomas Cathedral, one of the oldest buildings in the city, will begin celebrations this weekend to commemorate three centuries of existence. We plan to kick-off the celebrations from March 16 onwards through a music recital, following which we have planned some seminars and a museum, wherein artifacts from earlier times would be put on display, said Kamal Jadhav, member, tercentenary celebrations committee. Established as a place of worship for British colonialists, the church is considered point zero of the city, from where the 16 milestones of the city are measured, out of which 11 have been discovered. Today, the cathedral is the main centre of worship for Mumbais Church of North India congregation. St Thomas Cathedral is a grade-1 heritage structure and of historical importance to the city because that is the only landmark from where there were three roads leading to the city, and thats how we have found a milestone every mile from the church. Which is why it is called the zero milestone of the city, said an official from BMC heritage department. In earlier days, the transport used to take place by horse-cart, since the church was the earliest British structure to come up in Mumbai (then Bombay), various milestones across the city were marked from the church, said Rev Avinash Rangayya, presbyter-in-charge of the church. Restoration architect Sheetal Gandhi, who is preparing the church for the celebrations, tries to not change the neo-gothic structure of the church. Since the church is the oldest structure in south Mumbai, it has layers of history attached to it. Thus, when we restore the structure, we want an amalgamation of modernity and heritage, which is why we will date everything that is being added there recently, Gandhi said. Four forest fires were reported from protected forest areas in and around Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) on Tuesday. According to the forest department, a fire started at Mulund and Tulsi at 4pm. Within an hour, two fires were reported at Wagale Estate, Yeoor the first from Ram Nagar and second from Hanuman Nagar. A fourth fire was reported from the periphery of the national park around Aarey, Goregaon, around 6pm. These are all man-made fires that have been lit purposely to clear vegetation of forest lands, said Anwar Ahmed, chief conservator of forest, SGNP. We have deputed around 60 forest officials to different parts of the national park to douse these fires. This is a threat to the wildlife of the park and we are trying our best to ensure they are doused at the earliest. The fires are under control. He added that for the first time SGNP caught a local resident lighting a fire in the Yeoor range on Monday. Rajesh Kathod Mokashi, 25, was produced before the magistrate court, Thane, on Tuesday and was sent to judicial custody till Wednesday. It is very difficult for us to identify the source of these fires because we are only alerted when the fire has been lit. However, with this evidence confirming culprits lighting these fires, we have to increase patrolling and better protect these areas, said Ahmed. Shailesh Deore, range forest officer, Tulsi range said that the fire at Mulund was under control. Since these fires are atop hills, it is difficult to douse them early. We are using fire-beaters and trying to cut off the fire line based on the wind direction. We expect the fire to be doused by 10pm, he said. A total of 35-40 forest officers are at the spot. Animal welfare officers too, rushed to the park to ensure the fire was doused. The fire was massive and out of control. Our teams within the national park are helping the department put it out, said Pawan Sharma, president, Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare. Forest officers from Yeoor range of SGNP said the two fires were doused by 7pm Tuesday. Three-foot-high dry leaves and twigs are catching the fire even with a small spark. Some of the cases over the past two days have been due to high temperatures as well. However, cigarettes and intentional fires is the main cause, said Sanjay Waghmode, range forest officer, Yeoor. Man caught lighting fire at Yeoor forests In a first, the forest department caught an offender illegally lighting a fire within the protected forest area of Yeoor, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, on Monday night. Rajesh Kathod Mokashi, 25, was produced before the magistrate court, Thane on Tuesday and was sent for judicial custody for one day. We appeal to citizens living in high-rises to alert the forest department on witnessing fires within the park. Along with hot weather conditions, the tribal hamlets are lighting fires, which is a major cause of concern for the wildlife, said Sanjay Waghmode, range forest officer, Yeoor. In a relief for a 23-year-old unwed mother, the Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to issue her daughters birth certificate without mentioning the name of the biological father of the child. The relief, however, is limited to the birth certificate. The division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla refused to alter birth record of the child and delete the name of her biological father altogether from the record maintained by the BMC, although the man had consented for dropping his name from all the records relating to the child, including her birth record maintained by the civic body. The bench refused to alter the girls birth record primarily in view of a Supreme Court ruling recognising right of every child to know identity of his or her biological parents. The Borivli resident had approached the high court last year seeking corrections in the birth record of her daughter complete removal of the name of the childs biological father from the record and change in her status, as reflected in the record, as unmarried. According to her lawyer, advocate Uday Warunjikar, though unmarried, the 23-year-old got pregnant and delivered a baby girl in November 2014. She claimed that her marital status was mistakenly recorded as married in the application for registration of birth of the child and the application also mentioned the name of the childs biological father, but for some reason the young woman wanted to get his name struck off from the record. He said the woman also wanted to get her marital status in the record corrected to unmarried. In support of her claim, the woman had cited a judgment of the apex court that mandated authorities to issue birth certificates of children of single parents or unwed mothers only on the basis of affidavit filed by them without the name of their partners. In March 2016, she had made an affidavit in terms of the Supreme Court judgment and requested the BMC health officer to correct her daughters birth record. She approached the high court after her plea was turned down. The health officer responded saying he had no power to change or make corrections in birth record of a person and such corrections cannot be done without orders from a competent court. The high court, however, found that the health officer has limited power to correct the birth record only if he is satisfied that the earlier entry is erroneous in form or substance. The bench said, though there was no such error in this case, it was necessary to order the civic body to issue a fresh birth certificate of the petitioners daughter without incorporating name of biological father of the child, in terms of the Supreme Court order. A special CBI court remanded the former director of Winsome Diamonds Groups company Hasmukh Shah, and close confidante of the companys promoter, in 14-day police custody on Tuesday. Shah had been arrested on Monday in a multi-crore loan default-cheating case. The defence, meanwhile, argued that Shah was not the director but head-clerk at the relevant time. As per the CBIs case, Shah is one of the authorised signatories for M/s Forever Precious Jewelry and Diamonds. The CBI submitted that Shah signed documents related to the opening of standby letter of credits (SBLCs). The CBI counsel said Shah instructed and pressured other employees for becoming authorised signatories of the company. The CBI, while seeking Shahs remand, said, the company has borrowed from a consortium of various banks including Canara Bank, led by Punjab National Bank. The management committee of Canara Bank sanctioned fund-based limit of Rs12 crore and non-fund based limit of Rs150 crore. Out of the sanctioned non-fund based limit the company opened various standby letter of credits (SBLCs) in favour of various bullion banks. The company then purchased gold from bullion banks abroad including The Bank of Nova Scotia, Standard Bank Ltd., and Standard Chartered Bank against these SBLCs. This gold was processed and exported to 13 buyers in the United Arab Emirates. It is also alleged that the company failed to make the payment for the gold imported against the SBLCs. The company pleaded not receiving the proceedings from foreign buyers resulting in invoking of the SBLC, which cost wrongful loss of Rs146.35 crore to Canara Bank, CBI counsel A Limosin told the court. Limosin further submitted before the court that a total 11 cases have been registered against M/s Winsome Diamonds and Jewelry Ltd and M/s Forever Precious Jewelry and Diamonds incurring a total loss of Rs4,625.43 crore. M/s Forever Precious Jewelry and Diamond Ltd was engaged in production facilities for cutting and polishing of diamonds and for manufacture of plain and studded gold jewelry. The manufacturing units of the company are located at various cities including Ahmedabad, Cochin and Chennai. CBI also alleged that Shah was coordinating all exports and imports being done from Chennai and Cochin units for the company and giving directions to the units heads. The defence argued that Shah is not the beneficiary for the amount. Additional sessions judge VV Kathare remanded Shah in police custody after CBI said they need to understand the modus operandi of the case and to unearth the larger conspiracy and ascertain the exact magnitude of the scam. The Maharashtra government on Tuesday decided to withdraw cases against those booked across the state, including Mumbai, following the Bhima Koregaon violence in January, as well as to compensate for the losses incurred during the incidents. The state government will withdraw the cases against those booked. However, history-sheeters who took advantage of the situation and indulged in violence will have to face the music, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said while addressing the Legislative Council. Dalit groups and leaders have been alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has filed unnecessary cases against Dalit youths and arrested them. In all, Fadnavis said, 622 cases have been registered against 1,199 people, and the losses suffered have been pegged at Rs13 crore. READ: Maharashtra recommended Bhima-Koregaon clash accused Sambhaji Bhide for Padma Shri Touching upon allegations that the BJP government is going soft on the prime accused, Milind Ekbote, in the Bhima Koregaon case, Fadnavis said all efforts are being made to secure his custodial interrogation. The Supreme Court has given him conditional bail and said we can interrogate him. The Attorney General is fighting the case on our behalf so that we can secure his custodial interrogation, the CM added. He claimed that the state government had spared no efforts to get hold of Ekbote, combing various establishments in Pune, detaining his relative and even sending teams to Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The Opposition, however, remained completely unconvinced and again alleged that the state is protecting him. This man is giving interviews to the media, but the police could not nab him. This raises doubt on the intentions of the government, said Nationalist Congress Party leader Sunil Tatkare. Violence erupted when Dalit groups had gathered at Bhima Koregaon to celebrate the bicentenary of the battle between the forces of British East India Company and the Peshwas army, which was eventually defeated. The Dalit community commemorates the British victory as members of Mahar community, then considered untouchables, were part of the East India Companys forces. The Peshwas were Brahmins, and the victory is seen to symbolise Dalit assertiveness. Tourists may now be able to travel in battery operated e-rickshaw instead of horses or hand-pulled carts at Matheran, the famous hill station located about 100 kilometers from Mumbai, if the Union government agrees to amend a notification it issued 15 years ago. The Maharashtra government recently wrote to the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), requesting it to amend the notification it issued on February 4, 2003, which declared Matheran as an eco-sensitive zone and restricted the entry of motorized vehicles. The state government, in its letter, pointed out that citizens face several hardships, particularly in cases of emergencies,as they have no option to travel except horses. According to officers in the Mantralaya, the proposal came from the Raigad district collector, on request of Matheran residents. Satish Gavai, additional chief secretary of the department, could not be reached for the comment. According to the collectors proposal, Matheran city council, Matheran Eco-Sensitive Area committee and the transport department have given the green signal for the introduction of e-rickshaws. It also represented for allowing tractors for solid waste management. Local residents and rickshaw puller unions have been demanding the introduction of eco-friendly, noiseless and smokeless e-rickshaws for several years. Matheran city council had passed a resolution to introduce e-rickshaws in December 2012. Sunil Shinde, a local resident, said it would help rickshaw pullers by ending the need for the profession and restore their dignity. Students, senior citizens, women, and tourists, who come late night will benefit the most, he added. Something significant happened this weekend in Mumbai and it is cause for celebration. On her recent trip to Mumbai, Hillary Clinton divested herself of her stuffy pastel pant suits, the ones that might or might not have played a role in her ultimate defeat in the last Presidential elections, and instead chose to wear a hand-woven silk kurta, colour-blocked in coffee bean brown, silver and sapphire blue, created by Mumbai-based Payal Khandwala. She had never looked more comfortable or elegant or at ease. This sartorial transformation, coming as it did on the heels of Kate Middleton and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau opting to wear Anita Dongre for their official engagements, and doing so to much appreciation, marks the beginning of two trends. That of women designers of power and influence finally giving other women like themselves the clothes they require to empower and nurture them in the post Me Too age. And even more significant, it underlines Indias immense potential to become the worlds aesthetic benchmark. My focus has always been clothing for women that care more about personal style than fashion, says Khandwala, when we spoke to her about the garment that had been featured as the second part of her Indessentials Redefining Indian Essentials, for her Autumn Winter collection last year, which had made its way to the former Presidential candidates back. It is important for me to make clothes that are comfortable because women shouldnt have to suffer for fashion. Not anymore. We have bigger things to fix. Clothes can empower us all and we must choose the ones that make us feel better about ourselves. How can we expect to be treated as equals if we spend our time fussing about our bodies, squeezing in our tummies, shaping our thighs, tottering in our heels? How can we be confident if we are not even comfortable? she says. Unsurprisingly, this woman-centric approach found great synergy with Clinton, an international feminist icon. She said the outfit had jumped right out at her. Im thrilled that she picked it! She embodies all the values this brand stands for, so it made it all the more special, Khandwala says. In her unstructured kurta, Hillary had displayed a hitherto unseen exuberance warmth and confidence because thats how clothes are meant to make you feel. She said she was so comfortable in it and that she received so many compliments, says Khandwala. So palpably, had Mrs Clinton enjoyed wearing the garment so much, she insisted on making a quick pit stop to the designers store in Colaba, and it was no coincidence that she had chosen to wear another striking Indian outfit, this time from Dongres Grassroots for her visit. She loved the shape and the colour and she responded to that in the garment and later to the silhouettes and our palette at the store, says Khandwala. As for the Indian aesthetic and what it can do to transform the worlds attitudes to dressing, Khandwala is as focused as Dongre about championing Indian crafts and textiles. Our craftsmanship separates us from our peers in the fashion landscape. I hope that we can bring to the forefront the voice of a Modern India. One that is young and proud. So there you have it. One kurta and two emerging fashion trends: women opting to wear clothes made by other women, who understand their need for empowerment, ease and dignity; and Indian crafts and textiles standing on the cusp of an international aesthetic resurgence. We like! AN ACCIDENTAL CASTING? We were delighted to learn that Akshaye Khanna had been signed on to essay the role of our friend and former editor Dr Sanjaya Baru in an upcoming film being made on his best-selling memoir The Accidental Prime Minister. As is known, Baru had spun a riveting tale about his years as Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singhs media advisor and chief spokesperson from May 2004 until August 2008, revealing that the former PM had been more or less in Sonia Gandhis thrall during his term. The political commentator and policy analyst serving as secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry who is as celebrated for his erudition as he is for his rapier sharp wit and constant twinkle in his eye, appeared happy with the choice too. I was delighted to learn that Akshaye Khanna would play me. Ever since I watched Dil Chahta Hai, I have been a fan of his. Did he think Khanna would do justice to the role? Well, he has the required glint of mischief in his eye! he said, over the phone. However, our enquiry if Khanna would require additional dancing skills to match Barus legendary nimble footedness in the corridors of power went unanswered. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday challenged the government to share the irrigation data in the state legislature to make it clear how much irrigation potential had been created in the state since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power. For the past three years, the BJP-led government has not shared this data in the Economic Survey Reports tabled in the state legislature. This was part of the Oppositions discussion on the 2018-19 budget in the state assembly on Tuesday. Legislators slammed the state over the general economic outlook and the poor allocation for key sectors. We were made to table a white paper on irrigation after we missed giving data on irrigation potential for just two years. Its been four years of the BJP rule, and we have no information on how you have fared in this sector because you blank this out every year. We demand that this information be revealed in the House, said former finance minister Jayant Patil. In his budget speech, Patil also pointed out that the irrigation sector was short-changed in Maharashtra compared to other states such as Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Telangana that had allocated funds in the range of Rs14,000 crore to Rs 16,000 crore. This year, only Rs 8,080 crore has been allocated for water resources and you plan to complete 50 ongoing projects with these funds. But, last year, of the Rs8,233 crore budgeted, we have information that only Rs1,018 crore was utilised. The irrigation scam probe was initiated by the former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan after an Economic Survey report said that only 0.1% of irrigation potential was created in the decade even as Rs70,000 crore was invested in the ongoing irrigation projects. NCPs senior leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and former water resources minister Sunil Tatkare faced allegations in the probe. The BJP-led government after coming to power had initiated an open inquiry against Pawar and Tatkare in the irrigation scam. The Congress and NCP also pointed out that the increased debt of Rs4.61 lakh crore meant a Rs44,145 debt per person in the state. The revenue deficit last year was estimated at Rs4,511 crore and then revised to Rs14, 843 crore. Going by the state of finances, there is every chance that the revenue deficit for 2018-19 of Rs15,375 crore will get revised to Rs 35,000 crore, said Patil. Chavan alleged that there was a lot of discrepancy or blanking out of figures in the Economic Survey tabled by the government. Your last years survey showed that nearly 4,000 factories had shut down owing to industrial slow down. But for some reason, this data for the past two years is missing in the report, said Chavan. The Shiv Sena on Tuesday raised questions over Narayan Rane filing his Rajya Sabha nomination as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate. Rane, a former Sena leader, filed his nomination on Monday to enter the Upper House of the Parliament. From which party has Narayan Rane filed his nomination? If the BJP has made him a member, when did he accept the membership? senior Sena leader, Anil Parab, said. The former chief minister of Maharashtra quit the Sena in 2005 after raising doubts over Sena chief Uddhav Thackerays administrative abilities. He then joined the Congress party, and subsequently quit in September 2017 to float his own party, the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksh, and declared support to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Parab, who is a Sena legislator in the Council, further asked, How can the president of one party be a member of another party? According to the rules, if a party wants to give a ticket to the chief of another party, he has to be made a primary member of the party giving the ticket. Residents of Khoda, who have until now maintained silence over the illicit liquor trade in their locality, came out openly against the illegal liquor vends in their area. They staged a protest at Shankar Vihar main market and also reached the grocery shop in Gali No.9 which is operated by a man named Sunil. The shop is run by Sunil and his mother Neelam. They have been operating the liquor business for over a year. Nearly 250-300 residents go there daily to purchase liquor. Altercation and arguments between drunkards are common in the streets, a woman shopkeeper on Gali No. 9 said. Sunils shop and home were deserted on Tuesday as its occupants had fled as soon news of the four deaths spread. The police seized several cartons of liquor from the shop. Locals held protests in Shani Bazar and Subhash Park in Khoda. Reena Bhati, chairperson of Khoda nagar palika, also arrived at the spot to pacify locals. Some people had come to us with complaints of liquor being sold illegally. We went to the police but the shops started doing business again, Bhati said. She recently won the seat on a BJP ticket. Locals said sale of smuggled liquor was also rampant in areas of Deepak Vihar and Adarsh Nagar in Khoda. Even children sell liquor bottles stocked in gunny bags. People operating such shops tell us that they pay Rs 40,000 per month to the local police to keep their trade going, Krishnandan Prasad, a Shankar Vihar resident, said. District magistrate Ritu Maheshwari had ordered a crackdown on the liquor mafia in Khoda, Loni and other rural areas. We have come to know about the connivance of local police and action will be taken against the guilty. The samples of liquor consumed by the victims have been sent to an Agra laboratory for testing. Postmortem reports will also help ascertain the exact cause of death, Maheshwari said. She added that FIRs against the culprits would be lodged soon. Seven police and excise department personnel have been suspended in connection with the incident. The officials of the district administration said the illicit liquor traders were mixing chemicals and repackaging the liquor in used liquor bottles. We have identified 48 sensitive spots, including Khoda, in Ghaziabad where liquor smuggling is prevalent. Our teams from Meerut and Ghaziabad will be conducting raids shortly, Rajesh Mani Tripathi, joint commissioner (excise), said. Here in the City of London, you can step out of Bank underground station and walk half a mile in any direction to see what Pritzker Prize-winning architects can do when they push themselves. At Bank intersection itself, breaking up the heavy imperial-era neoclassicism of Soane, Baker and Lutyens is James Stirlings Number One Poultry, whose postmodern curves softly echo the other buildings grandiose lines. Stirling won the Pritzker, architectures Nobel Prize, in 1981; Number One Poultry, still controversial, is nevertheless now the youngest building to be officially protected, or listed, by the British government. Most architects who have been awarded the Pritzker are best known for buildings like this: grand and controversial office buildings such as Lloyds headquarters, vast museums like the Tate Modern, unforgettable set-pieces such as the Sydney Opera House. But, last week, the Pritzker jury gave the 2018 prize to the Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi, who is best known for very different designs. Doshi, now 90, has had his share of landmark commissions -- the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, for example, and Ahmedabads Tagore Hall. But he is best known for Aranya, a low-cost housing project in the central Indian city of Indore. Aranya is one of the wonders of India: a housing project that actually works. Houses are arranged around open spaces, organized into 10-home clusters to create a sense of community, but each also includes a small private courtyard to the rear. Rather than completely erasing the dense urban clusters which it was meant to replace, Aranya seeks to replicate their neighborly social spaces. As some observers have pointed out, Aranya essentially imitates the slums that dot Indian cities like Indore -- except with infrastructure and more open space to make it more liveable. The architecture celebrated by prizes and popular acclaim is the most macho, egotistic side of the profession. Consider that the most memorable -- if abysmally written -- architect in literature is Howard Roark in Ayn Rands Fountainhead. The Pritzker itself is regularly assailed for not recognizing more women. But Doshis award is a reminder of what good architecture should actually be: As he told the Guardian last week, architects should move away from their focus on the designer as individual to being far more collaborative, compassionate and invested in the dignity of those they house. Doshi seeks to create places where the borders between commercial and personal space are blurred and shifting; where individuals and businesses have the ability to change and modify their spaces so that a new genius loci can emerge; where people of differing backgrounds and income levels can live together. Perhaps this is a quintessentially Indian project. Yet its one that is too little seen in todays India, obsessed with gated communities and harsh, exclusionary Chinese-style infrastructure. It was not always so. Doshis principles are a reminder of the possibilities and promise that seemed everywhere in the first decades after Indian independence in 1947. On the wall of my study at home is a 1940s advertisement for Tata Steel. The ad highlights the governments plan to build millions of low-cost houses that would require the companys materials. What stands out, though, is how the company illustrated what it thought these new townships would look like: compact but adaptable houses, with little yards, capable of accommodating many generations of one family, set around shared and semi-public areas. The picture shares a great deal with Doshis vision for Aranya, suggesting an unusual consensus between professionals, companies and the state. You would look in vain for such projects in todays India. Every year, the federal budget sets aside a little for low-cost housing; every year, people expect big construction companies to make money off federal money without providing actual, liveable townships. As a result, 10 million upscale homes lie empty in India while a vast proportion of Indian town-dwellers live in slums. Across the developing world, whether India, Brazil or South Africa, governments will increasingly be judged on the communities they create. Drive into Cape Town and you pass, on one side, the informal settlements for which South Africa is famous; and, on the other side, the vast new development known as N2 Gateway where residents are agitating for Doshis principles to be applied: Why are we being given flats, they ask, when we want houses? Its time for todays architects and planners to take a step back and listen to Doshi. Perhaps, after contemplating Number One Poultry and what it says about modern architecture, they could walk around the Royal Exchange to look at the statue of George Peabody that stands behind it; his Peabody Trust, which practically invented inner-city low-cost housing, still exists -- many of its buildings sharing with Number One Poultry the yellow stripes on their exteriors that are somehow emblematic of London. Steps from the British parliament buildings in Westminster, in the former Devils Acre -- the place that gave birth to the word slum -- the Peabody Trust replaced one community with another, far safer and more liveable, in the 19th century. Surely governments can do the same in the 21st? Bloomberg View This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. The Mohali municipal corporation on Monday passed Rs 128.17-crore budget for the next fiscal (2018-19) during a special meeting here on Monday. With the revenue for 2018-19 pegged at Rs 112.93 crore, the budget has a deficit of Rs 15.24 crore. At Rs 60 crore, the MCs share in the goods and services tax (GST) is the main source of revenue. However, the MC has not introduced any new taxes. The civic body also shelved two important proposals pertaining to increase in the community centre booking charges and introduction of fee for using public parks for functions. The revised budget estimates for the current fiscal are Rs 109.78 crore. Against the expenditure of Rs 69.30 crore in the current fiscal, the corporation has approved Rs 83.17 crore for development works in 2018-19. Another Rs 40.5 crore have been allocated to paying salaries and pensions to employees besides other expenses of the establishment. Rs 4.5 crore have been kept as contingency fund. Councillors protest new charges Led by deputy mayor Manjit Singh Sethi, a number of councillors opposed the move to increase the booking charges of community centres by 25%. First, we need to provide the public with adequate facilities in community centres, like air-conditioned halls. Only then we should think of a booking fee hike, said Sethi, following which the proposal was shelved. The controversial Rs 1.79-crore pruning machine again found mention during the House meet. The councillors also raised concern over the proposal to charge money from NGOs and residents for holding functions in parks. As they protested, the proposal was dropped. Even as the House passed the proposal to charge Rs 500 as cleanliness charges from those holding functions, mayor Kulwant Singh later claimed no such charges would be levied. However, for shooting commercial advertisements in parks, Rs 20,000 will be charged. The House also adopted a resolution allowing 25% increase in expenditure on wood at the cremation ground. Earlier, it had sanctioned Rs 29.17 lakh for the wood. It also authorised municipal commissioner Sandeep Hans to remove all encroachments in the city and come out with a policy for street vendors. Govt sitting on proposals, says House The controversial Rs 1.79-crore pruning machine again found mention during the House meet. The corporation wants that it should be allowed to use the pruning machine that is at present parked in Dera Bassi. The machine kicked a massive row after an inquiry pointed out that norms were not followed in its purchase. The mayor was also issued a show-cause notice by the local bodies department, which he had challenged in the high court. The file regarding the machine is lying with the chief vigilance officer of the Punjab local bodies department. The other issue was exemption of property tax to Quark City. In the initial agreement, the government had given the exemption to this special economic zone in the Industrial Area. Its management has now told the corporation that it would not make further investments in the city if the notification in this regard is not issued soon. The House decided to send a reminder to the state government to take action on it. Earlier, the mayor had opposed the exemption, stating that it would cause financial loss to the corporation. The corporation wanted the government to compensate it for the losses. The proposal regarding the city bus service is also pending for clearance with the local bodies department. Expressing concern over it, councillors said the department should not sit on important proposals. A final year female student of Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Panjab University (PU), has accused an associate professor of sexually assaulting her at the department. The allegations of sexual harassment are against associate professor (orthodontics) Dr Deviner Preet Singh. Complaint forwarded to PUCASH The student had submitted a written complaint to vice-chancellor Arun Kumar Grover last week following which the complaint was forwarded to Panjab University committee against sexual harassment (PUCASH) for further action.The vice-chancellor confirmed the development. According to the complaint, the professor had held her in the room when she went to the department. Just a misunderstanding The associate professor, who has been on leave since the complaint was filed, said that there has been a misunderstanding in the case and they are trying to solve it. This is just a misunderstanding and nothing else and we are trying to solve it, said Dr Devinder. He added, She had come for a check up in the department and I was trying to tell her what has happened as some complications were occurring. She is a chronic asthmatic patient. We are trying to solve the misunderstanding, he repeated. This is the second sexual harassment case against a PU professor, after the assistant professor Komal Singh, former chairperson of the public administration department, who was suspended on being found guilty of sexual harassment for the fourth time, in 2015. A post graduate student had alleged that Singh had indulged in verbal misbehaviour with her. Complaint against V-C still pending Meanwhile, the sexual harassment complaint against the vice-chancellor by a varsitys fellow remains a talking point till date. It has been over two years since a sexual harassment complaint was filed against Prof Arun Kumar Grover, but despite over a dozen senate and syndicate meetings of the university, the matter remains stuck as a probe committee is yet to be formed. At yet another senate meeting held on February 17, to finalise names for the reconstituted sexual harassment committee, members had demanded an independent committee, saying a member of the National commission for Women (NCW) should be a part of it. Actor Ravi Teja is currently busy wrapping up his next project with director Kalyan Krishna. Tentatively named Nela Ticket, the makers of the project will unveil the first look and final title on the occasion of Ugadi, according to reliable sources. In the film, which went on the floors earlier this year in January, newbie Malavika Sharma plays the leading lady while Jagapathi Babu plays a pivotal role. Meanwhile, actor Ravi Teja and director Sreenu Vaitla, known for delivering blockbusters such as Venky and Dubai Seenu, have reunited for the third time for a project titled Amar Akbar Anthony. In a media interaction in Hyderabad last month, Ravi confirmed teaming up with Vaitla; however, he didnt comment on the genre of the film or his role. The industry grapevine is that Ravi is playing a triple role in the film, which is mostly likely going to be entirely shot in the US. He is expected to commence work on Vaitlas film from April. This month, Vaitla will travel to USA and finalise the locations. Mythri Movie Makers, known for producing Mahesh Babus Srimanthudu, will be bankrolling this project. Last seen playing a techno cop in Touch Chesi Chudu, which turned out to be a disaster, Ravi Teja has pinned high hopes on this next two projects. Follow @htshowbiz for more ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop A very rare and primitive kind of meteorite that had hit Rajasthan in June 2017 could unravel many mysteries about the early origin of life and provide clues to how the solar system has evolved through billions of years, says a team of scientists from the Geological Survey of India. The meteorite belongs to a very rare and primitive group of meteorites called CM group of carbonaceous chondrites. An estimated 44 tonnes of meteoritic material hit the earth every day, but less than 5% of these belong to this group, said G Vidyasar, additional director of GSI. The meteorite had hit Mukundpura near Jaipur in Rajasthan in the early morning of June 6, 2017 creating a 6 feet deep crater in an agricultural land. Eyewitnesses described it as a bright reddish-yellow fireball coming from the western sky and triggering a loud noise when it hit the ground. The local police had recovered around 2.2 kilos of the meteorite and handed over to the GSI. What is of interest to the scientists is that the carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, unlike other meteorites, contain very primitive traces of carbon. And carbon forms the backbone of all life on earth. This meteorite could be carrying some of the most pristine primordial matter recovered from space as it is made up of materials which were formed during the early stages of the formation of the solar system. A detailed analysis could provide clues about the origin of life and the formation and evolution of the solar system, said Dwijesh Ray a scientist with the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad who has also studied this rock from the space. Scientists said that the presence of volatile organic compounds and water indicates that they have not undergone any significant changes while entering the earths atmosphere. Their composition could be very close to that of Solar Nebula, from which the solar system is believed to have condensed. Hence it can shed light on formation and evolution of stars and provide information about the age, composition and evolution of the solar system, said G Suresh, deputy director general of GSI. The GSI which maintains the National Meteorite Repository has a collection of over 700 meteorites. But only four out of these, including the Mukundpura meteorite, belong to the carbonaceous chondrites group. The earliest collection of a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite in the GSI coffer dates back to June 1890, which had struck Nawapalli in Odisha. Scientists also said that another meteorite had struck Tinsukia in Assam just prior to the Mukundpura meteorite on June 5. It had hit the floodplains of the River Lohit. Even though bigger in size than the Mukundpura one, the Tinsukia meteorite is an ordinary chondrite. There are no famous historical figures to discover in the Valle dItria in Italys central Puglia, no city of note with theatres and great cathedrals. Instead, its a quiet place of rolling green hills, meandering country roads, endless stone walls, earthy food and wine. But there is one magical, must-see attraction: stone cottages with conical roofs called trulli, grouped together in the town of Alberobello, a UNESCO World Heritage site. At its heart, a trullo is a simple farm building, a heap of field stones piled on top of each other, topped with a stone cone roof, called the candela. The structures have a fairytale quality to them, often enhanced by mystical symbols painted on the candelas that scholars trace to Jewish, Christian and pagan origins. Decorative pinnacles cap the roofs, shaped like spheres, disks, stars and crosses. The valley is a place of rolling green hills, meandering country roads, endless stone walls, singular cone-roofed country cottages, rock-solid peasants and earthy food and wine. (Cain Burdeau via AP) Nicola Loperfido, a 36-year-old craftsman, was making replicas of trulli in his workshop as he tried to explain their appeal. The circular shape evokes the cycles of life and seasons for a farmer. This circularity is expressed in other ways too: Old trulli villages had a circular central piazza called iazzile. The trullo, he said, symbolizes the integration humans had with their land. LAND AND STONE The pleasure of the Valle dItria lies in timeless things: seasonal changes, the play of light on paddocks and olive orchards, the cascade of brilliantly pink almond blossoms in the spring, the mist and fog of winter, the solitary farmer working a field, bird song. A visitor can go for hours, days even, just observing fields of durum wheat, legumes, olives, almonds, patches of chicory, tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, spinach, broccoli rabe; walking long stretches of stone walls girding red-colored fields; stopping at altars on the sides of roads in an endless maze of old sheep tracks called i tratturelli. Onofrio Urso hoeing on a piece of land in Puglia's fertile Valle d'Itria in Italy where he grows a variety of vegetables and fruit. (Cain Burdeau via AP) Theres a strange geology afoot here too. The Valle dItria is one of the worlds rare karst zones, consisting of layers of limestone a foot beneath the surface. To reach water, wells must be dug 350 meters (1,150 feet) or more. As an alternative, water has been collected in cisterns and ditches since ancient times. Despite the rocky ground, farming is not just doable, it thrives. The limestone acts as a sponge, farmers say. The valley also enjoys, and suffers, from high humidity. Its good for agriculture, but can make daily life unpleasant, with water dripping down the inside walls of homes and a feeling of dampness for much of the year. FOOD AND LODGING People settled here centuries ago, fleeing the coasts, conflict and incursions by Saracens, Goths and others. Beginning in Roman times, the valley was divided into large estates given to Roman soldiers for their service. This system helped turn the area into one of Italys most valued agricultural regions with distinctive olive oil, red and white wines and other products. Some of the regions foods are world-famous, like burrata cheese, capo collo meat sausage, fava bean dishes, almond biscuits, digestive liqueurs called rosoli and dry breads called frise and taralli. The vegetables and fruit have a better taste than anywhere else because of the goodness of the land, said Gennaro Santoro, a 75-year-old winemaker. Agriturismos and masserias farms that offer lodging have sprouted up. Restaurants and roadside inns serve delicious country fare. And strolls through town centers are perfumed with the smell of food wafting out from kitchens. A table set with appetizers for lunch at the Arrosteria Borgo Antico, a restaurant in the historic center of Ceglie Messapica, a town known for its good food in the Valle d'Itria in Puglia. (Cain Burdeau via AP) ARCHITECTURE WITHOUT ARCHITECTS The Valle dItria is a stupendous example of Mediterranean architecture with whitewashed buildings and curvaceous lines. But its the genius of the stonework and trulli thats truly distinctive here. Limestone structures are ubiquitous: castles, town walls, government edifices, churches. They were mostly built without mortar and often without lumber. Home walls are commonly 2 meters (6.5 feet) thick. A great masterpiece of architecture without architects, commented the Japanese architectural historian Hidenobu Jinnai in describing Cisternino, one of the valleys more picturesque hilltop towns. From the Adriatic to Ireland you find these kinds of structures, explained Leonardo Antonio Palmisano, an architect who specializes in trulli, as he oversaw work to incorporate an abandoned trullo into a new modern home near Locorotondo, home to the regions master trullo builders. The most famous trullo is in Alberobello, the Trullo Sovrano. Today it is a museum. Traditionally, trulli were simple homes for farmers and served agricultural purposes: a place to make wine, store tools and animals. They eventually were largely abandoned, considered too cold and damp to live in. But these days many have been bought and turned into modern homes. Others lie in ruins throughout the valley, falling down and overrun by weeds and trees. Even in a dilapidated state, their carefully laid walls and pinnacles seem magical. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more Beyond the future of North Koreas nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, a number of other issues could be raised during upcoming talks between Pyongyang, South Korea and, potentially, the United States. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un plans to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April and, according to South Korean officials, wants to meet US President Donald Trump. South Koreas long, complex relationship with its northern neighbour leaves the two sides with a wide range of issues to potentially address. Family Reunions The Korean War of the 1950s ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically at war and families torn apart on both sides of the military demarcation line that divides the peninsula. South Korean officials have called for the resumption of visits between separated Korean families in the North and South, as a humanitarian and human rights issue, especially as many family members are now in their 80s. Over 75,000 individuals residing in South Korea are aging and dying without meeting their families residing in North Korea, said the Korean Red Cross, which has facilitated visits in the past. The last reunions were in 2015, before relations deteriorated over the Norths nuclear programme and other issues. The South has also sought the resumption of video conferences and the delivery of letters from separated family members. Detainees North Korea has a number of foreigners imprisoned, including at least six South Korean citizens, according to the Souths Unification Ministry. Among them are Christian missionaries Kim Jung-wook, who was arrested in October 2013, and Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-kil, who have been held since 2014, the ministry said. The other three are North Korean defectors who South Koreas National Intelligence Service said last year were captured by the North without specifying where and why. Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday he wanted to see a resolution to the issue of past abductions of 13 Japanese citizens Pyongyang admits were kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies. North Korea also holds three American men. Kim Dong-chul, a Korean-American missionary formerly of Fairfax, Virginia and thought to be 62, was sentenced in March 2016 to 10 years of hard labour for subversion. Kim Sang-duk, 59, also known as Tony Kim, spent a month teaching accounting at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was detained at Pyongyang International Airport in April 2017 while trying to leave the country. Kim Hak-song, thought to be 55, also taught at PUST, which was founded by evangelical Christians and opened in 2010. He was detained in May while travelling by train from Pyongyang to the Chinese border town of Dandong. Pyongyang has previously demanded Seoul return 12 North Korean women who worked at a North Korea-run restaurant in China and defected to South Korea as a group in 2016. Economic, Cultural Exchanges A rare example of North-South cooperation was the Kaesong industrial complex in North Korea. At its height, Kaesong employed 55,000 North Korean workers in South Korean-owned factories, turning out products from toys to textiles and providing the North with hard currency. The complex shut down in 2016 after Seoul said the North was taking workers wages and using the money to fund its nuclear and missile programmes. A South Korean panel concluded in December there was no evidence North Korea diverted wages to bankroll its weapons programmes. South Korean factory owners have been hoping the thaw in inter-Korean relations would allow them to visit the complex to see what remains of the equipment and stocks they left behind when North Korea seized the factories, but an invitation from Pyongyang has not been forthcoming. North Korea, under increasing pressure from international sanctions, is likely also keen to find new ways of boosting economic activity and generating foreign currency. Moon has pledged to reopen the industrial park if there is progress on the Norths denuclearization. More likely in the short term, analysts say, are cultural exchange programmes like those the two Koreas engaged in during the recent Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. North Korea sent musicians, performers and officials to the South, while South Korean skiers travelled to a resort in the North for a joint training event. Bidya Devi Bhandari was on Tuesday re-elected the President of Nepal with an overwhelming majority. She was the candidate of the ruling Left Alliance and was supported by two major Madhesi parties. She defeated Kumari Laxmi Rai of the Nepali Congress, the main opposition party, by securing a majority of more than two-thirds. Bhandari mustered 39,275 votes while Rai garnered 11,730 votes, Election Commission spokesperson Nawaraj Dhakal said. Members of the federal Parliament and provincial assemblies participated in the election. CPN-UML leader Bhandari was elected the first woman president of Nepal on October 28, 2015. Bhandari, the wife of charismatic communist leader Madan Bhandari, has been active in politics since her school days. She came to the limelight after the untimely death of her husband in a road accident in 1993. She was elected twice in parliamentary elections in 1994 and 1999 and also served as the defence minister. She wielded considerable influence in the CPN-UML, one of the constituents of the Left Alliance, and was elected vice-chairperson of the party in its eighth general convention held in Butwal. Bhandari, who retained the position at the partys general convention, is considered one of the confidants of party chairman and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. She will be administered the oath of office by the Chief Justice on Wednesday. Chinas sweeping government restructuring plan gives President Xi Jinping more direct control over the levers of money and power by consolidating, creating or eliminating dozens of agencies. The plan presented to the National Peoples Congress on Tuesday leaves 26 cabinet-level ministries tasked with regulating industries and initiatives at the heart of Xis policy agenda. Their duties range from curbing risk in the countrys $43 trillion banking and insurance sectors to overseeing aid programmes for the presidents Belt and Road trade-and-infrastructure initiative. In the past it wasnt clear who had ultimate responsibility, with issue areas split between different ministries, said Yi Kwan Chu, a director in the China practice at the Washington-based Albright Stonebridge Group consulting firm. There were too many cooks in the kitchen, creating chaos. Here are some highlights: Central Bank becomes more central China handed its central bank powers to write rules for much of the financial sector, while merging the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. The moves create a new regulatory structure for finance with the Peoples Bank of China as its central pivot point. Stronger environmental watchdog The moves will see China expand its environmental ministry, creating a new Ministry of Ecology and Environment. The new body will absorb some roles now held by the state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission. This is in line with the idea of consolidating power in one ministry for a stronger and better coordinated environmental agenda, said Li Shuo, a climate policy adviser at Greenpeace East Asia. More details are needed -- including the new bodys leader -- before analysts can assess policy plans. China's President Xi Jinping (L) and Premier Li Keqiang (R) arrive for the fourth plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (AFP) Agency for Xis pet project The plan combines formerly scattered and often overlooked units under the ministries of commerce and foreign affairs and creates a new body responsible for international development to supervise Chinas overseas aid efforts, said Yanmei Xie, a China policy analyst for Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing. That agency will provide a bureaucratic focal point for the Belt and Road Initiative, a massive programme to build or expand roads, railways, ports, pipelines and power plants around the globe. It has a mission explicitly to support Chinas geopolitical strategies, including the One Belt, One Road initiative, Xie said. Anti-monopoly regulator empowered The new market supervision administration appears set to be a powerful new regulator for companies operating in China absorbing the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the China Food and Drug Administration. The changes create the countrys first specialist agency focused on anti-monopoly issues, said David Cohen, a Beijing-based managing editor for the China Policy consulting firm. The agency will also oversee the State Intellectual Property Office, the focus of a potential trade dispute between the US and China. New Mega Ministry for Agriculture China is building a more powerful agriculture agency--absorbing roles held by the NDRC and the ministries of commerce, land and water resources--as growing Chinese appetites exacerbate historical food supply concerns. Organizing things around issue areas makes a lot of sense for businesses who can now deal with one regulatory body, said Chu, of Albright Stonebridge. Now, the big question is who is going to be in charge of these new mega-ministries. Appointees could be announced as soon as Monday. Buffeted by political storms and emergency declared by Maldives President Yameen Abdulla Gayoom, a former vice-president of the island-country wants India to assume leadership and act to resolve the crisis by imposing targeted sanctions against the regime in Male. London-based Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, who was the vice-president of Maldives from 2013 to 2015, believes that India has the moral responsibility as the closest neighbour and the largest democracy to come to the aid of another democracy, as it had done in the past. India has always come to our rescue, but I have not seen much involvement from India this time, apart from some statements. I would say to (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi: Sir, time is against us; take decisive action and resolve it as quickly as possible, he said in an interview. India has long wielded considerable influence in Maldives, but major investments by China in the strategically located Indian Ocean country has led to new challenges in recent years, which circumscribe the options before New Delhi in the current situation. Jameel Ahmed, however, believes Indian can talk to China and both can resolve the crisis. The imposition of emergency and its recent extension followed a ruling of the countrys Supreme Court that overturned verdicts against nine opposition figures, including former president Mohamed Nasheed, and reinstated 12 opposition members of parliament. Subsequently, the chief justice was arrested along with the presidents half-brother, former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. The United Nations, United States, India, United Kingdom and the European Union have urged Yameens government to lift the emergency and restore political process. Before he set out details of the crisis and the way forward in an address to the International Institute for Strategic Studies here on Monday, Jameel Ahmed, who held ministerial positions before serving as the countrys vice-president, spoke to Hindustan Times. Excerpts: How would you describe the current situation in Maldives? The political crisis is escalating at a dangerous rate; resistance is met with brutal force. Nothing is functioning at the moment; parliament is paralysed, the judiciary is under siege, the chief justice is in detention. The entire opposition is either in exile or in prison. No constitutional or legal institution is able to function independently. The whole country is in some way paralysed; this is a nation that is helpless at the moment. The international community should intervene; time is critical. So far we have seen few statements, but the world has largely been silent. What is the way forward according to you? We are not disconnected from the world. We are a country where big international companies invest. Many big Indian companies are there. The question is who would invest in a country whose chief justice is in detention. If chaos reigns, it will have a spiral effect; it has implications for the security of the Indian Ocean, it will be felt across the world. History tells that when there is this kind of chaos, when governance fails, extremism thrives, which is not in the interest of India and the larger world. The situation is more serious than some people think. Democracies, particularly India, must take leadership in resolving the crisis. India has moral responsibility, as the largest democracy, to assume leadership; it is more than capable of resolving the crisis in consultation with China. Although we are out of the Commonwealth, India is the biggest country in the group; it should use the forum to help us. The time has passed to play it safe. Democracies should be ready to help when other democracies are in turmoil. In what way you would like India to be decisive in resolving the issue? Both unilaterally and multilaterally there are various options India can take. We are a country that is a signatory to many international covenants, of the UN as well. You should be able to force Maldives to comply with international covenants, obligations, hold it to account. First, get engaged with the nation. Be more involved. In my opinion, India has not been as involved as it should be. India has always come to our rescue; it is our closest neighbour but I have not seen much involvement from India this time, apart from some statements. I dont think that you (India) should keep quiet. You should be seen to be involved and engaged; the more you do that, the current regime (in Maldives) will be forced to be accountable, to comply with its obligations. If that does not work, then India should explore available international avenues. This is the time to explore targeted sanctions on the regime and the businesses that are helping it; freezing assets and imposing travel bans. This will work; this is a small country you are talking about. This is not North Korea; we are vulnerable. This needs to be done quickly, because time is not on our side. He (President Yameen) wants to buy time, he has already paralysed parliament, judiciary, and is now trying to create a kangaroo court by replacing the entire supreme court. Where will the country go from there? If targeted sanctions dont work, then India and world bodies should come together and impose more widespread sanctions to compel it to re-instate parliament and judiciary. The opposition has been calling on everyone to help. We, all opposition parties, are working as a joint coalition; we interact and consult on a daily basis. I am sure a formal letter seeking help has gone to the Indian government; to come and help and restore democracy. We have also been appealing to the British government, the European Union, US, all big democracies. How do you see Chinas role in Maldives in recent years? While the worlds democracies have been busy addressing terrorism, crises in Afghanistan, Syria, Myanmar and elsewhere, China has been quietly consolidating, from Africa to Maldives, through finances... Which is why India and other democracies should approach the Maldives crisis differently; there needs to be firm action and explore all avenues to prevent another failed state in the region. The Chinese have invested heavily, but at what cost to us? This (President Yameens) government has not been open. Since it came to power, many laws have been changed to allow shabby deals to take place. It has borrowed heavily from China; we do not know the exact amount, but it is estimated to be more than USD 1.5 billion. The terms of free trade agreement the current regime has entered with China has not been disclosed to parliament or the people. But it is also in Chinas interest to see a stable Maldives, safe Maldives. If the country is not stable, their investments will also not be stable. I think both India and China can talk and come to the conclusion that this is a matter that they should build a consensus on and save the nation. President Yameen is facing allegations of corruption linked to projects awarded to Chinese companies. It is not just a matter of charges. There is hard evidence; his own confessions in several public rallies. He said openly that bags of cash came to his house. He would not be in his place if this was a democratic country where its institutions are allowed to function. If Maldives had an India-like democracy, this government would not exist. Many projects awarded to companies would not stand the test of democratic scrutiny, I can tell you this much. To what extent has radical Islam grown in Maldives? There are reports that several people joined the Islamic State and fought in Syria. Where there is chaos, in countries where governance has failed, poverty and extremism thrive. This is seen across Asia and our neighbours. We are a progressive, comparatively modern Islamic country, but successive governments have failed to address the issue of radical Islam. Since he (President Yameen) came into power he has turned a blind eye to their activities, because it serves his interests. He wants to consolidate his position by eliminating political parties and opponents; so while he does that, these groups extend him support directly or indirectly. Under his watch these groups continue to thrive, but their activities will spill out into the Indian Ocean; it is not in your interests, nobodys interest. Iran has invited China and Pakistan to participate in the development of the strategic Chabahar port and extended support to the right of self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Foreign minister Javad Zarif, on a three-day visit to Islamabad, asked Pakistan to take a role in developing the port in the Gulf of Oman while speaking on Monday at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, a think tank backed by Pakistans foreign ministry. We offered to participate in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). We have also offered Pakistan and China to participate in Chabahar, he said. A statement issued by Pakistans Foreign Office following a meeting between Zarif and his counterpart Khawaja Asif on Monday said both sides had reiterated support for the peaceful struggle of the peoples of Palestine and Kashmir for their right to self-determination. During his meeting with Zarif, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi thanked the Iranian leadership for its steadfast support to the struggle of the Kashmiris. Zarifs invitation to Pakistan to join the development of Chabahar came less than a month after India and Iran inked an agreement to lease operation control of a part of the port to New Delhi for 18 months. India is set to start operations in this part of Chabahar with borrowed Iranian equipment by May-end. The port is a crucial part of Indias plans to create a transport and trade corridor to landlocked Afghanistan by bypassing Pakistan. However, Zarif sought to allay Pakistans concerns about Indias involvement in Chabahar by saying that the port project was not meant to encircle Pakistan or strangulate anybody. He said Iran will not allow anybody to use its soil to hurt Pakistan, just as Islamabad will not allow its soil to be used against Tehran. He compared Irans relations with India to Pakistans ties with Saudi Arabia. Our relations with India, just like Pakistans relations with Saudi Arabia, are not against Pakistan as we understand Pakistans relations with Saudi Arabia are not against Iran, he said. Zarif also raised the issue of cooperation between Chabahar and Gwadar ports during his meetings with foreign minister Asif and National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua. During his meeting with Janjua on Tuesday, Zarif talked about tapping into the potential of Gwadar and Chabahar ports to boost economic cooperation, according to a statement from Irans foreign ministry. Gwadar is a key part of the multi-billion dollar CPEC, a flagship project of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative that has been opposed by India as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Zarif said Gwadar and Chahbahar were important projects for developing deprived areas of eastern and southeastern Iran and southwestern Pakistan. These regions need to be linked by sea and land routes, he said. We are taking measures to do that and there is an open invitation to Pakistan to participate in that, he added. Zarifs vision for better Pakistan-Iran ties envisaged realisation of the long-delayed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, establishment of banking ties and signing a free trade agreement. Milli Muslim League (MML), JuD chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeeds new political party, today said it will launch its manifesto here on March 23, following a Pakistani courts decision upholding its registration as a political party ahead of polls this year. Saeed, who has kept a low profile after the government has apparently taken over all the movable and immovable assets of his Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Falah-i-Insaniyat foundation (FIF) and frozen their bank accounts in the country, is likely to unveil the manifesto of his party. The Islamabad high court last week set aside the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to reject the application of the MML for registration as a political party. The ECP will decide the fate of the MML after hearing it in the coming days. Earlier, the ECP had rejected MMLs application to register it (as a political party) on the interior ministrys recommendation saying the MML has links with banned militant outfits. In a statement issued here on Tuesday, MML president Saifullah Khalid said after the courts decision there is no legal hurdle left in the way of its registration as a political party. Now we will launch MML manifesto on March 23 on its first founding day, he said. Referring to the court verdict, Khalid termed it a victory of the Pakistan ideology, saying the court has ordered that the MML be given a chance to play its role in national politics. About the forthcoming general election, the MML president said it has decided to field its candidates for all national and provincial assembly seats in the polls. The MML will select those candidates who can not only afford electioneering expenses but also enjoy personal vote bank in the constituencies, he said and added such candidates must believe in supporting the Kashmiris freedom struggle. Despite the Pakistani governments claims of having taken over all assets of the JuD and FIF and frozen their bank accounts in the country, Saeed and other leaders and activists of these banned organisations are still freely using its headquarters and offices. The government had initiated action against Saeeds organisations in pursuance of an ordinance issued by President Mamnoon Hussain in February amending the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, and allowing the state to proscribe UN Security Council-listed organisations, some of which had been exempt from prosecution. The move had also come in the backdrop of a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental money-laundering watchdog, that put Pakistan on its grey list due to the countrys failure to control financing of terror groups. At the FATF meeting in Paris last month, Saeed and his charities were top on the list of the groups that the FATF wanted Pakistan to act against. The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a global terrorist. Saeed, who is accused of having masterminded the November 2008 Mumbai attack, was also placed on the terrorism black list by the UN in December 2008. The banned JuD head was released from house arrest in November last year after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case. He had been under house arrest since January last year. Russia will not allow any British media outlets to operate on its territory if Russian broadcaster RT loses its UK licence, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday, amid a row over the poisoning of an ex-Russian double agent in England. Not a single British media outlet will work in our country if they shut down Russia Today (RT), the state-run RIA news agency cited Maria Zakharova as saying on state television. In a blunt warning to Prime Minister Theresa Mays government, Zakharova also said nobody should threaten a nuclear power, alluding to Russia. May has said Moscow may have been behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury and has said it is ready to take tough action against Moscow. Pakistans ruling PML-N on Tuesday elected Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharifs younger brother, as its president, two weeks after he was appointed as interim chief of the party. Nawaz Sharif was last month also barred from leading a political party following his disqualification by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers scandal in July last year. Shahbaz was elected unopposed as no one filed nomination papers against him during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawazs (PML-N) general council meeting held here. Addressing the meeting after his election, Shahbaz thanked the party for its confidence in him but said he could not even think about taking the place of his brother. Nawaz Sharif can be considered the political heir of Quaid-i-Azam (Jinnah) and we are lucky to have been blessed with a leader like Nawaz Sharif, he said. Nawaz was also present in the meeting and congratulated his younger brother on his election as party chief. Shahbaz was appointed as interim president on February 27 in a special party meeting which also appointed Nawaz as Quaid for life, a symbolic post to honour him. Analysts believe that Nawaz Sharif still calls the shots and his younger brother would just be a figurehead while real decision making would stay with the ex-premier despite his bar on becoming the legal head of the party. An explosion targeted Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallahs convoy as he arrived in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday for a rare visit, lightly wounding seven people, officials and witnesses said. Hamdallah was not injured in the explosion, which occurred shortly after his convoy entered the territory run by Islamist movement Hamas, a security source in the convoy said. Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj was part of the convoy but was not hurt either, the security source said. A statement on official Palestinian media said president Mahmud Abbas considered it a cowardly targeting of Hamdallahs convoy and held his rivals Hamas responsible. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Radical Islamists opposed to Hamas also operate within the Gaza Strip and have regularly been behind unrest there. The Hamas interior ministry confirmed there had been an explosion and said security forces were investigating the incident. It said it would not derail Hamdallahs visit, which comes as reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Abbass Fatah party falters. The two major Palestinian factions signed a reconciliation agreement in October that was supposed to see the Islamists hand over power, but it has all but collapsed. Hamdallah appeared on television shortly after the explosion as he opened a plant in the territory. The meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong un would go as planned if Pyongyang sticks to the promises it made, particularly regarding missiles and nuclear test, the White House said on Monday. Last week, a South Korean delegation, led by its national security advisor, informed Trump that Kim Jong un has invited him for a meeting. The invitation, conveyed orally, was accepted by Trump, a decision that took the world by surprise. We fully expect that it (the meeting) will (take place). The offer was made and weve accepted. North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises and, if so, the meeting will go on as planned, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is continuing to prepare on a number of levels for the meeting. Most of that is an inter-administration, interagency process and Im not going to get ahead of any of the details of the where, the when, or any of that here today, she said, responding to a series of questions on the meeting between the two leaders. Sanders said that the maximum pressure campaign on North Korea is working. We know that they have responded due to that, and they have pushed this message through the South Koreans to us. We have accepted their invitation on the three promises that they made, and were going to move forward in this process, she said. Meanwhile, in New York, US National Security Advisor HR McMaster and US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, briefed members of the UN Security Council on developments related to North Korea. During the meeting, McMaster and Haley urged the international community to maintain maximum pressure on the North Korean regime and asked Council members to devote the political will and resources necessary to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions to hold the regime accountable. The announcement of a meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim is a historic opportunity that holds great potential for the world, Haley said. While we cant say whether Kims offer is genuine, we can say that this historic meeting would not have been possible without the international communitys participation in the maximum pressure campaign, initiated by the Trump Administration, and a commitment to holding North Korea accountable through three strong UN sanctions resolutions in 2017, she said. The crash-landing of a passenger plane at Kathmandu airport that killed 49 people has put Nepals aviation safety record in the spotlight once again. Air travel is popular in the poor Himalayan country, but its mountainous terrain, poor regulation and a lack of investment in planes and infrastructure have led to large numbers of accidents over the years. Here are five things to know about flying in Nepal: Poor national record There have been 27 fatal plane crashes in Nepal in the past three decades an average of almost one per year, according to the independent Aviation Safety Network database. More than 20 of these occurred in the last decade alone and seven killed 18 people or more. All its airlines are barred from flying in European Union airspace. The majority of crashes happened at small domestic airports where pilots negotiated small planes onto tiny strips of tarmac in some cases hewn into steep mountainsides. But the worst have occurred at Kathmandus single-runway airport, which services both international and domestic routes. In 1992, two planes crashed near Kathmandu within just two months of one another, killing a total of 280 people. Read: I say again, turn: US-Bangla airlines flight radio chat reveals confusion over landing Capital overstretched Aviation experts say challenging terrain is a key reason for the high accident rate in Kathmandu. Nepals only international airport sits in a narrow valley 1,338 metres above sea level, meaning planes have a relatively tight space to turn in. The airport also lacks the sophisticated radar technology found elsewhere in the world, forcing pilots to navigate by sight, known as a non-precision landing. The airport has only one runway, so planes have to remain in long holding patterns in the air a problem that has only worsened in recent years. Nepal Airlines pilot Vijay Lama said Kathmandu provided the basic minimum and congestion at the airport was creating havoc. Read: Nepal begins probe of plane crash that killed 49, airline defends pilot Lack of investment Investment in Nepals aviation sector has failed to keep pace with the boom in commercial flights both international and domestic. Tiny Nepal, with a population of just 30 million, has 11 domestic airlines, almost as many as giant neighbour India. Plans to upgrade airports in major tourist destinations Pokhara and Lumbini for international flights have been in limbo for years. Read: US-Bangla plane crash in Kathmandu: The worlds deadliest air disasters in the last decade Mountain landings Although most of the biggest accidents have occurred in Kathmandu, most pilots acknowledge that the precipitous landing strips high in the Himalayas are the toughest to negotiate. Lukla the gateway to Mount Everest has been dubbed the worlds most dangerous airport, requiring the pilot to navigate through narrow mountain gorges before landing on a steep runway just 500 metres (yards) long with precipitous drops on either side. In 2008, a passenger plane crashed on landing at Lukla, killing everyone on board except the pilot. The countrys beautiful but rugged terrain makes the safety of air operations more challenging than in other areas of the world, says the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN special agency. Read: Nepal plane crash: Plane shook violently followed by a loud bang, says survivor Lessons not learned Some experts accuse Nepals civil aviation authority of failing to act on recommendations from past crash investigations. Lama, the pilot, said investigations teams usually did not widely circulate their conclusions, making it difficult for the industry to learn lessons. But UK-based aviation expert Andrew Blackie, part of a team that investigated a crash in Nepals south in 2016, said resources were an issue. In Nepal there are some very tough choices about where the government is spending its money... they are very aware that an expensive investigation means less money spent on other things, he said. Appointment 13 March 2018 Mr. Dieckmann joins Regent Porto Montenegro from the legendary Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados, where he was positioned as Resident Manager. With 19 years of extensive experience in the luxury hospitality industry, Mr. Dieckmann has worked for some of the most well-known names in the hotel business many of whom are members of the prestigious Leading Hotels of the World. Recent posts include Resort Manager at Six Senses Yao Noi and Executive Assistant Manager at Soneva Kiri Resort, both in Thailand. Kai started his career in Germany, working for many of his native country's famous hotels, including Brenner's Park Hotel & Spa and Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg. Working his way up the hospitality ladder, he soon rose to become Front Office Manager at London's St James's Hotel and Club; Rooms Division Manager at Grand Hotel Park, Gstaad in, Switzerland, gaining valuable experience in different departments along the way. Supplier News 13 March 2018 SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Beekeeper, a GDPR compliant developer of a digital workplace app, is offering a "31 Point Assessment to Ensure GDPR Compliance" white paper to assist hoteliers in preparing for the European General Data Protection Regulation deadline that goes into effect May 25, 2018. GDPR protects European Union (EU) residents' personally identifiable information against security breaches. Any hotel that does not comply is risking heavy fines. "If you operate a hotel in North American, GDPR directly affects your data security standards," said Corey McCarthy, Beekeeper head of global marketing. "Any hotel that provides accommodations to travelers from countries in the EU must comply with GDPR. Beekeeper has already taken the labor-intensive steps needed to become GDPR compliant; we've done the work and believe this document could help any hotel company still building their framework. "Our Data Protection Officer, Dr. Amir Ameri, compiled an important list of questions to ask when going through the compliance process," McCarthy said. "The first 10 steps are listed below. To access the full 31 Point Assessment, click here." Beekeeper 31 Point Assessment to Ensure GDPR Compliance Does your company process personal data in an EU country or of EU residents? (Personal data is any data that may be used to identify a person, including technical, genetic, cultural, mental, economic, and social information.) Is your company familiar or registered with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework (https://www.privacyshield.gov/welcome)? Does your company utilize technology to detect and alert a data breach (IDS / HIDS)? Does your Company maintain an inventory of all assets which process (transfer / store) personal data? Are your company's personal data flow channels identified? Is your company technically equipped to search for and permanently remove one individual's personal data? Is the concept of "Privacy by Design" incorporated in your personal data processing products and services? Do you apply a Privacy Impact Assessment in your product or service development lifecycle? Is permanent deletion of personal data according to a standard such as NIST (or other)? Does your company have direct access to all the systems used for their processing of personal data? Disclaimer: These are the questions that Beekeeper has been using internally to assess compliance and, at the request of many colleagues, our CISO has been asked for his recommendations. These are not sanctioned by GDPR. "One of the best ways hoteliers can start their journey to GDPR readiness is by using a secure communications platform that is already compliant," Ameri said. "In April, Beekeeper assembled a team to make sure every box on our 31 Point Assessment got checked. Our task is done. We encourage companies still needing assistance to visit Beekeeper's GDPR Hub and follow our journey to compliance here." Hoteliers with questions about implementing GDPR best practices should visit Beekeeper's GDPR Hub. Supplier News 13 March 2018 Orlando, Fla. -- The Del Lago Resort & Casino is proof that the right mobile app will drive guest engagement and revenues. Since opening the hotel in July, which includes a European-style Spa and a 3,700-square-foot banquet facility, guests are initiating approximately 10,000 engagements a month with the property through the Intelity ICEapp and ICEbedside tablets. Analytics show that people are looking at resort and casino information daily via the app, and as a result, more than $25,000 in additional room service revenue has already been generated. "The Del Lago Resort & Casino is ahead of the curve when it comes to technology," said Del Lago's Crystal Paolelli. "We believe strongly in the digital guest experience, which includes offering a mobile app so guests have easy access to information everywhere during their stay, and keeping that app front-and-center in guestrooms. With ICEbedside tablets strategically located on night stands, we are making it extremely convenient for people to order room service, request valet service, ask housekeeping for an extra pillow, make a restaurant reservation, schedule a treatment and much more. ICEbedside even gives guests control over some of the in-room technologies, like lights and the TV. "Before the hotel opened, we researched several mobile app developers and found the Intelity guest service platform to be the easiest to navigate and use; plus, it has the most integrations with our existing property systems," she said. "We also like that ICEbedside is streamlined; there's no clutter, just convenience. It's a nice fit with our design aesthetic. Guests love it, and they are using it throughout their stay." Located at 1133 State Route 414 in Waterloo, N.Y., the Del Lago Resort & Casino features a 94,000-square-foot casino, 205 guestrooms/suites, a 24-hour fitness center, and business center. The property also features multiple restaurants, including Portico by Fabio Viviani, a French Quarter-inspired Farmers Market Buffet, the Centrifico bar, a 4,200 square-foot food court. "The Del Lago Resort & Casino is the gateway to the Finger Lakes region," said Gregg Hopkins, Intelity chief sales and marketing officer. "It's a Las Vegas style venue in every way especially the investment in guest-facing technology. We are honored that Del Lago is so pleased with the ICEapp and ICEbedside tablets. Whether guests are looking for basic property information or they want to use the device as an alarm clock, to listen to hundreds of international radio stations, check the local weather or change the atmosphere of the room, Intelity is just a touch away. By combining the luxury of Del Lago with Intelity's engagement tools, guests are happy and more likely to return again and again." For more information about the Intelity Guest Service Platform, click here. Supplier News 13 March 2018 All hotel owners know that even a simple rumor can have a devastating effect on their business if it attracts the right kind of media attention, a simple accusation can instantly damage your hotel's hard-earned reputation. Legal experts have noticed a rising trend in bed bug litigation whereby guests sue hotels for millions of dollars, the financial impact of a bed bug lawsuit can be detrimental to your business. This does not only give your hotel a bad reputation but also makes you lose out on a lot of income. A recent example of failure to find bed bugs occurred in 2006 whereby a couple from Chicago sued a Catskills resort for about 20 million, stating that they were mentally and physically scarred after suffering from more than 500 bug bites. Here are 8 ways how bed bugs can affect your business: Lowers the Value of Accommodation Studies indicate that a single report of bed bugs can lead to the value of your hotel room dropping significantly in both the cases of business and leisure travelers. The other detrimental effects of a bed bug infestation are that your hotel's reputation gets tarnished, especially if the news of the infestation gets social media attention, higher operational expenses are required to treat the infestation which lowers your hotel's operating efficiency. A recently conducted report on the economic impact of bed bugs on the hotel industry discovered that bed bug reports or the presence of bed bugs can reduce the value of your hotel room by $21 for leisure travelers and $38 for business travelers as the presence of bed bugs is usually at the top of people's concerns when choosing a hotel and also the main reason that drives them away. Cost of Remediation and Litigation Bed bug infestations should not be taken lightly as they tend to garner a lot of negative publicity which can tarnish your reputation and increase the losses of your business. The total cost of bed bug infestations involves the replacement of soft products, treatment and business losses experienced. The report states that almost half of all hotels have had to undergo litigation due to bed bug infestations which can cost about $17,177 per incident and can go as high as $23,560 in terms of the remediation and litigation costs. Brand Degradation and Negative Online Image News of a bed bug infestation can tarnish your hard-earned reputation as well as creating a negative online image of your hotel and its services. Travelers tend to share their staying experiences online on various travel sites which can further damage the reputation of your establishment. This is bound to hurt your business as the majority of travelers consider online reviews before visiting certain places. Lower Stakeholder Value This can become pretty prominent if a bed bug infestation makes headlines or gets social media traction which can lead to lower stakeholder value as your business takes a hit which lowers the amount of people that visit it which in turn leads to lower hotel operating efficiency. Increased Operational Expenses Bed bug infestation can increase your establishment's operational expenses due to negative publicity as well as the extra operational expenses that are required to treat the infestation and increase your establishment's operating efficiency. A scenario of this can occur whereby you may find yourself with a lawsuit on your hands. Cost of Replacement of Your Inventory Bed bugs can cause some serious damage to your mattresses, sheets, towels and furniture. It is usually advised that you should replace your furniture and soft goods if a bed bug infestation gets out of control on your premises which can be pretty costly. Lowers Your Customer Trust and Causes Loss of Income Your guests will find it hard to trust your services and facilities again as they would have seen the online reports and testimonials and won't want to take anymore chances with their health. This negative publicity can hurt your business and its income in the long-term so it is best to take the necessary preventative treatment in time. Increases Medical Costs due to Allergic Reactions Bed bugs are not usually considered dangerous but the effect of their bites can vary from small bite marks to itchy red welts to severe allergic reactions that need medical attention. Excessive scratching of the bite marks can lead to further inflammation. The best way to avoid this is by hiring a trained and qualified workforce to regularly inspect your rooms along with timely pest control inspections. If you have a slight doubt about the presence of bed bugs in your hotel then investing in bed bug protection is the minimal cost that you should pay in comparison to what you would have to shell out if you have a full-fledged bed bug infestation. Don't delay take bed bug precautions today! About Raymond Web When people find their homes and offices infested with pests, it is not uncommon for them to panic. Raymond Web has taken upon him the task to educate people on pest prevention and control strategies helping them keep their surroundings healthy, safe and pest-free. Being the digital marketing manager for Take Care Termite and Pest Control, in Tracy, CA, he has in-depth understanding of people and their pain points due to pests, which he efficiently uses in his content to educate people and add value to their lives. Opinion Article 13 March 2018 Agriculture represented 714,000 jobs in 2014 compared to 899,000 jobs for hotels and restaurants. France's granary brings in 32.1 billion euros per year, or 1.5% of the GDP, compared to 7.2% for tourism, which brings in 160 billion euros of domestic consumption. The agriculture sector - which is essential to the health of our economy and to our health in general - has been subsidized since the birth of the common agricultural policy more than 50 years ago, while hotels and restaurants generate foreign exchange and taxes which are used to finance the state budget. In 2015, 282.6 million euros were paid to municipalities and local authorities via the tourist tax. Don't throw any more... Advertisements While global groups are able to absorb debt, implement tools and processes to make economies of scale, and have an international base that allows them to withstand periods of crisis in certain destinations, independent hotel and restaurant owners must maintain their activities alone, against all odds. More than 95% of companies in France have less than 20 employees. Hoteliers and restaurateurs operating in rural areas, produce value for a region, hire and train locally and often find themselves alone to manage their business and maintain it with respect to market competitiveness standards. Hotels and restaurants are long-term investments in a territory. They support the dynamism of a tourist destination that can build a coherent offer around a coherent offer of accommodations. It is a workforce trained in French excellence that has seen the birth of the cuisine of star chefs. The culture of French gastronomy has now been exported but its reputation is international and the whole world envies us. We must not forget the importance of our sector. While it is laudable to come to assist the weakest, it is dangerous to only turn to those who are loudest and forget about an industry that is less significant from an electoral point of view despite being much more important for the vitality of our economy. Why is it that cafetiers, hoteliers and restaurateurs who spend their days in the kitchen are taxed more than large companies? Why is it that independent accommodations and restaurants receive so little help for the day-to-day management of their business? Why is a small property taxed on the same basis as a multinational? Is it not possible to relax certain regulations for small craftsmen, as is the case in other sectors? It is not a question of asking for less from independent properties, but rather of asking for better and for helping them to maintain their activity that is vital to the quality of our reception. Indeed, we are not talking about the hotel groups that are established in rural areas where tourists go for a just few weeks a year, but rather about independent properties are active most of the year with an open cafe, the organization of events... The time has come to consider the sector for its true value and to accompany it in its transformation for its sustainability and for the attractiveness of our destinations. The hotel and restaurant industry is a sector that is thriving; it has reinvented itself and continues to evolve. If we continue taking advantage of the beast instead of accompanying it as it evolves, we risk cutting off its wings. On Monday, Havoc served as a special guest on MSNBCs The Beat with Ari Melber where he was there to debate music in the Tri-State area with New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli. While he was there, host Ari Melber asked Havoc if more new music was on the way from the legendary duo, and luckily for us there is. Havoc says he's currently in talks with Prodigys family to put out a new album before the end the year. He said thats the best way to keep their [and Prodigys] legacy alive. The way Im reflecting on it is Im just trying to keep the legacy alive. We deserve that, and Im actually currently working on the new album in conjunction with the family. It'll be out there pretty soon, before the end of the year. Before the end of the year itll be out, he confirmed. In addition to that, Havoc also talked about the fan-made Kanye West bracket that someone made of Yes entire catalog, and the reason he brought that up was because Havoc produced two recent songs for Ye that were on the list, Real Friends & Famous. So he named the fan who made the bracket, Carrington Harrison, the person to make his real list on the show. This is one few times weve heard Havoc publicly speak since the passing of his good friend & Mobb Deep partner Prodigy. Check out the album announcement with Ari Melber (below). Late last week, Juelz Santana was caught at the airport with an unconcealed firearm, breaking a New Jersey law stating that airplane passengers must have the weapon concealed in a hard case that is specifically made for the gun. After he realized his mistake, Juelz fled the scene, allegedly leaving behind his passport and luggage as he raced away. The rapper turned himself in yesterday and new reports suggest that, following his arrest, he will be jailed until his preliminary hearing on March 26. A local New Jersey newscast has confirmed that Santana will remain in federal custody pending a hearing on his weapons charges. They gave slightly more insight on the situation at the airport, informing that "an FBI task force officer wrote [in a criminal complaint] that [Juelz Santana] had been waiting to board a flight from Newark to San Francisco on Friday when security personnel discovered a .38-caliber derringer pistol in his carry-on bag." Santana has been formally charged with attempting to bring a handgun on an aircraft as well as possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. Juelz has been ordered to remain in jail until at least March 26, when a hearing will be held to determine the consequences of his actions. The hearing is currently scheduled for 2 pm. [via] As one of Hollywood's "it" couples today, Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott enjoy showing off their material goods. In the form of a "push present," a gift typically given to a mother from the father of her newborn child, Travis cashed out on a $1.4 Million Ferrari LaFerrari, one of the hottest exotic vehicles on the market right now. We reported that the gift was originally given to the makeup mogul following the birth of Stormi, the couple's first child. Of course, Kylie likely needed to make some custom changes to the car to suit her tastes and to make sure it is as high-performing as possible. She posted on Instagram today that the new whip is finally in her possession. Kylie posted a photo of the black ride with a lavish red interior, captioning, "picking up my new bitch." We have to say, the car is fresh and anybody would be lucky to be riding around in it. Kylie isn't the only one with a new whip as Drake has also picked himself up the new LaFerrari, of which only 500 were made. Travis Scott has been gearing up for the release of Astroworld, which is rumored to be dropping this year. He has also been spotted in Wyoming, possibly making music for Kanye's upcoming musical efforts. Shia LaBeouf disappeared from the scene last summer after he was arrested in Georgia and aggressively lashed out at the cops around him. He's now sober, and ready to talk about his hiatus exclusively with Esquire, where he told the magazine that he did two months of practice interviews with his therapist as preparation. Among the topics on his arrest, and the happenings while filming The Peanut Butter Falcon, Shia talks about Kanye West and how the rapper grabbed his Yeezy inspiration from him. If you can remember, in Kanye's 2016 track "No More Parties In LA," he rapped: I wish I dressed as fresh as Shia LaBeouf. He took all my fucking clothes, Shia said. Apparently, Kanye approached the actor when he was planning a pop-up and asked if he could use some of his own clothing in the installation. Around the same time, I took my mother to his concertShe is, of course, obsessed with Kanye West. When I brought her backstage, he was a fucking sweetheart to her. And it just felt fair. So Im like, Go for it, my guy. Take everything you want. It's been a minute since they've spoken though, and there are no hard feelings on Shia's end. Me and him havent really been in contact since he blew up onstage and, you know, shit on me, he said - referring to Kanye's meltdown in Sacramento during the Saint Pablo tour. I fucking love Kanye West. Hes going through a lot. And I dont know where hes at or what hes doing. After Nicki Minaj delivered the much-anticipated follow-up to 2012's Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded with the intumescent and ambitious 22-track studio release of The Pinkprint, haters and the #Barbz alike struggled with the rapper continuing to straddle the pop/hip-hop binary. Eager for the Queens-bred femcee to hang up the multi-colored wigs and ditch Nicki Lewinsky, Roman Zolanski and the Harajuku Barbie once and for all, Minaj stans salivated over the prospect of remixes and singles like the Lil Herb-assisted "Chi-raq" signaling the rapper's return to her gilded mixtape era. Rallying for Minaj's bars to reference the Southside Jamaica/gritty Queens vibe reminiscent of her Smack DVD days over a spinning carousel of Top 40/Euro dancehall hits, fans were eager that tracks like "Lookin Ass" would put an end to the conflation of "Starships" and actual hip-hop. The Pinkprint undeniably demands an expectation adjustment from even the most seasoned Minaj fan, putting aside the well-known "I'm a brand bitch, I'm a brand" bar-dropping entrepreneur in constant competition with the New York-battle rapper to make way for the rise of Onika Maraj. Treating fans to much more than just fleeting glimpses of her private life, Minaj dug deep to deliver an introspective autobiography--the most vulnerable the rapper has been on wax to date. Remedying the lackluster additions of the lilting Dr. Luke-assisted "Pills N Potions" ballad with an impressive sextet of bonus tracks boasting fire tracks like "Shanghai" and "Big Daddy" featuring Meek Mill, The Pinkprint is equal parts daring and ambitious--merging her gritty, battle-rap beginnings with the ultra-polished pop production that catapulted Minaj to international stardom. With such a stark contrast between Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded and The Pinkprint, fans are eager to digest this new era of Minaj's discography--an epic body of work four years in the making that the rapper dubbed as her most impressive collection yet. You know what? This era will be a billion times more epic than anything Anaconda could have delivered," said Minaj in a late 2017 interview for Dazed magazine. "I think this era will definitely be the most memorable and the most impactful of my career yet. Ive made it my business with this album to not even put a date or a deadline on it, she said. I cant say if Im fifty-per-cent, eighty-per-cent or ten-per-cent done, because I dont know. Tomorrow, I might walk into the studio and decide that I dont like anything Ive done in the last six months. Or, tomorrow I might walk in and feel like the whole album is done. Theres so much beauty in not knowing. I just want to go in the studio and create like I used to, before there were any expectations. You know? When I was just having fun, working on my mixtapes, going in and creating... writing my little life. From breakups, feuds and chart-ranking singles to a complete social media silence in 2018, check out what Minaj has been up to following the release of her latest studio album. Wells Fargo, the second largest bank in Houston, is still grappling with the reputational fallout created by employees opening 3.5 million potentially unauthorized accounts for customers. As part of its efforts to rebuild trust in addition to a $185 million settlement with multiple authorities and a $142 million class-action suit the bank has flattened its management structure and brought in new leaders. The community banking division now has 91 region bank presidents, down from 160 region presidents and area presidents. This will ideally bring the banks leaders closer to its customers. In Texas, Wells Fargos former region president for the Philadelphia and Delaware markets has returned to the company and is now head of community banking for Texas. David Miree began his new position in Houston on June 1, 2017. Miree recently spoke to the Chronicle about his endeavors to improve the banks reputation. Excerpts, condensed and edited for clarity: Q: What are you doing to help improve Wells Fargos image in Houston and Texas overall? A: We recognize, in this moment, the best thing we can do is to make sure weve got full alignment of all of our Houston and Texas team members square on the customer experience. So understanding whats right for them, what their needs are, and what their hopes and dreams are. And making sure that we are aligning the right recommendations based upon their needs. Q: Can you give me specifics on how youre trying to improve the customer experience? A: We have gotten rid of our sales goals based on the sales practice review. So we used to have goals around product focuses. Our new goals for team members are solely centered around the customer experience. The whole expectation is: Did we deliver the kind of experience the customer was looking for? Did we give them more than what they came in for? Employees recognition comes from how the customers feel about that interaction. Customers are sent a survey and they fill out the survey form and send it back about that banker and their experience about them specifically. Q: How are the efforts to change the banks reputation going? And how long do you think it will take to truly rebuild trust here in Texas? A: The efforts are going extremely well based upon customer feedback and team member feedback. But with that being said, were on a journey to rebuild trust and we recognize it was very much needed. And that doesnt happen overnight. Its going to take some time for us to be able to move beyond the challenge we faced the past, Ill call it, 18 months. And so well recognize we made it through when the customers tell us that. Q: Can you give me more specifics on other steps youve put in place? A: From a product standpoint, were always looking at how we can create the best products our customers need. Because so much is changing right now across banking from a digital transformation perspective. For one example, we have ATM card-free cash withdrawals now. We also have increased our minimum wage for every employee in the company to $15 per hour. Q: How big is Wells Fargos community banking presence in Texas? A: Community banking is $53 billion in deposits here in Texas. Weve got about 650 branches, roughly 1,200 ATMs and close to 10,000 community banking team members. Q: What does Wells Fargo overall expect in 2018 for Texas? A: We expect another good year. We had a really good year in 2017, all things considered. Were optimistic because of growth of the Texas marketplace. When you have household growth coming in, it is such a leading indicator of opportunity. Having 400,000 new households in 2017 the number was higher in 2016 and having an opportunity to engage with those new residents and provide banking services to them. New business growth here is solid as well, which creates opportunity for not only our lending teams but our wealth division and private banking teams as a result of those relationships. And our ability to really engage those clients gives us our confidence based upon what weve captured so far. Q: Anything else you wanted to say? A: Wells Fargo is working very, very hard to regain trust. We recognize there were some mistakes made in the past, but we have taken tremendous steps as a company, and as individuals in a company, to rectify and get back on track again. The actions and the steps to really continue our engagement efforts have not slowed down. Theyve only intensified in 2017 and will continue to in 2018. WASHINGTON - During a walk through a park in Switzerland this fall, with reporters in tow, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was drawn to a sphere-shaped sculpture of two figures huddled together, embracing. Only two weeks earlier, the former Exxon Mobil CEO had gone before cameras to deny he was resigning his post as his relationship with President Donald Trump soured over tweets undercutting Tillerson's foreign policy agenda and reports that Tillerson, in a moment of frustration, had called the president a "moron." Looking at that sculpture, Tillerson quipped: "Some days I feel like I need to do that. Curl up in a ball." After a career spent through the ranks of the Texas oil industry to arrive at the CEO's suite at one of the world's largest oil companies, Tillerson's grand attempt to transition into political life has run repeatedly into turbulence, most recently shaken by a White House leak that chief of staff John Kelly has drawn up a plan to replace Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a former congressman who has developed a close relationship with the president. Both Tillerson and Trump - Tillerson in a brief comment to reporters, Trump in a tweet - have denied efforts are afoot to push the secretary of state out of office, but many in Washington believe its only a matter of time, perhaps weeks, before Tillerson makes his exit. "I'm surprised he's lasted this long with the personality he has," said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, who knows Tillerson from his days running Exxon Mobil. "He is very serious and matter of fact, and President Trump is more theatrical, I guess is the word." This latest round of palace intrigue has raised the question of whether Tillerson's struggles were inevitable, given the vastly different personalities of the taciturn Texan and the flamboyant New Yorker, or of Tillerson's own making. An engineer by training who spent his entire professional career at Exxon, Tillerson struck many in the foreign relations community as an odd choice from the start. Unlike his predecessors, Tillerson, 65, had never worked in Washington, a town with its own rules and mores, and a world away from the technocratic culture of Exxon. He has struggled to make allies in Congress and among the State Department's career diplomats, who can help ensure success, analysts said. Headquartered outside Dallas, away from massive operations in Houston and other global energy centers, Exxon has operated for decades under a strict management strategy that promotes efficiency and the relentless pursuit of minimizing risk - the legacy of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. Tillerson came up through the executive ranks of Exxon under that strategy, and when he arrived in the State Department's historic Foggy Bottom headquarters, on the banks of Washington's Potomac River, he set about overhauling a bureaucracy more than 200 years in the making with almost 70,000 employees worldwide. Department grumblings In a speech to State Department staff in September, Tillerson told staff, such a "redesign" would "enable this organization to be more effective, more efficient, and for all of you to take great satisfaction in what you do day in and day out." But so far, Tillerson has been short on details, and delays in hiring and promotions while he carries out his grand strategy have turned many within the State Department against him, prompting condemnation from former top department officials and members of Congress from both parties. "I've talked to a lot of people and its really sour" at headquarters, said Ronald E. Neumann, a former ambassador in Africa during the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and president of the American Academy of Diplomacy. "He talks about he wants to make everything better and then there's a bunch of management gobbledygook. There has been no coherent briefing of the Hill, and Congress is frustrated." As the head of one of the world's largest oil companies, Tillerson had both experience working abroad and longstanding relationships with leaders in parts of the world that have long occupied an outsized share of U.S. attention abroad. Foreign policy analysts particularly saw the potential for Tillerson to have an impact in the Middle East, where civil wars are raging in Syria, Yemen and Libya. Tillerson's relationships within Middle East players like Russia and Saudi Arabia raised expectations among diplomats that might be able to help move the warring factions toward peace talks. But this summer, after Tillerson urged the Saudis and other Middle East leaders to resolve differences and end a blockade of Qatar, Trump threw Tillerson's peace broker strategy into question, tweeting that Qatar was a "funder of terrorism at a very high level" and "the time had come to call on Qatar to end that funding." "Once that happened, U.S. neutrality fell by the wayside," said Jim Krane, a fellow in energy geopolitics at Rice University's Baker Institute of Public Policy. With Trump taking sides, it undermined Tillerson's chances for what might have been an early foreign policy accomplishment in a region that has long bedeviled secretaries of state. Trump also has undercut Tillerson on North Korea with belligerent "fire and fury" statements and tweets as Tillerson sought to calm escalating tensions around North Korea's nuclear program situation through quieter diplomacy. Department's budget cut Meanwhile, Tillerson's attempts to conciliate the rank and file at Foggy Bottom were complicated by the White House's call for an 8 percent cut in the State Department's budget, a move that would inevitably force large-scale layoffs in the diplomatic corps. And any hope Tillerson might have had of getting his restructuring completed quickly were likely dashed by the announcement that Maliz Beams, the former CEO of a retirement services firm hired to help execute Tillerson's plans, quit after just three months on the job. "There's going to be a lot of stories trying to fathom what happened, but 90 percent of this is going to be [Tillerson] just wasn't up to doing the job," said Gary Schmitt, a former intelligence official in the Reagan administration and now a scholar with the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "He didn't get people hired. People wouldn't work for him. It was chaos. A new CEO can come in and decide we're going to have four divisions instead of 10, and that's fine. But Washington doesn't work that way." In a media briefing last month, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert acknowledged a morale issue, but defended Tillerson's overhaul efforts as a collaborative one involving veteran members of the department. "That's why I say, you know, 'Folks, hang in there,' " she said. "'We have a lot of work to be done. Please don't give up.'" Foreign affairs analysts say that Trump, whose contradictions of the secretary of state's policy positions have little precedent, shares the blame for the turmoil at State. Early on, Tillerson and Trump seemed to share a rapport, with Tillerson a regular visitor to the White House, but those visits have diminished in recent months, with Pompeo instead the more regular guest, Schmitt said. Kelly, who was long seen as an ally of Tillerson's, along with Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, is believed to have tired of the drama coming from Foggy Bottom. "Tillerson has made some enemies at State," Krane said. "People usually quiet, under the radar are speaking out about the gutting of the department, which put him in an impossible situation. He's lost the confidence of the folks above him, and if you're antagonizing the people below you, it's a pretty tough working environment." WASHINGTON - The Texas oil industry is poised to have one of its own at the highest echelon of U.S. government with Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson rising to the top of President-elect Donald Trump's list to be next secretary of state. The ascension of the 64-year-old Tillerson comes at a critical time for the oil and gas sector, as it is beleaguered by calls from governments worldwide to radically cut carbon emissions to combat climate change. It also puts Tillerson in one of the most powerful positions on the world stage, giving the industry a visibility it has not enjoyed since Dick Cheney, the former Halliburton CEO, served as vice president to former President George W. Bush. Tillerson, a native of Wichita Falls who lives outside Dallas, met with Trump again Saturday for two hours at Trump Tower. He is the favored pick by top advisers Stephen K. Bannon and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to multiple news reports Saturday. Sources warned, however, that Trump, famous during his presidential campaign for relying on gut instinct and not the advice of his close circle of family and advisers, could go in another direction. Other names still in the running reportedly include former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. An Exxon spokesman declined to comment Saturday. Rising to the top As the head of one of the world's most powerful companies - its foreign affairs division is sometimes compared to the State Department itself - Tillerson would enter the office with relationships already long established with many heads of state, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. At a time when relations have been particularly fraught over the war in Syria and Russia's activities in Ukraine in 2014, Tillerson is a seasoned hand in Russia who ran Exxon Mobil's operations there in the 1990s and more recently signed a historic deal with state-owned Rosneft to drill in the Russian Arctic. His close ties with Putin, however, are already raising eyebrows. U.S. Sen. John McCain, for instance, said Saturday that it's "a matter of concern." Tillerson rose steadily through the ranks after joining Exxon in 1975 shortly after graduating from the University of Texas. Before age 40, he was named a general manager, overseeing oil and gas operations across a large swath of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas. Then it was on to Yemen and Russia, before eventually rising to a short list of potential successors to Lee Raymond as CEO. He is "the essential Exxon product," said Joseph Pratt, a history professor at the University of Houston who wrote a recent book on the Irving-based company. "Exxon is a meritocracy that really tests you, the whole way up." Renowned within the company for his discipline and even temper - traits he is said to ascribe to training with the Boys Scouts of America - Tillerson beat out his competition and became CEO in 2006. As news spread of Tillerson's likely posting to the Trump administration Saturday, it drew cheers within Texas oil circles from Houston to Midland. John Christmann, CEO of Houston-based Apache Corp., said Tillerson "will offer a fresh perspective to the position." Jeanne Phillips, spokeswoman for Dallas oil billionaire Ray L. Hunt, pointed to "Rex's experience around the world" and said he would be an "excellent choice for secretary of state." Steven Pruett, president of Elevation Resources in Midland, said he was a "big fan" of Tillerson and applauded his likely appointment. "It's very exciting for Texas," Pruett said. Over the past decade Tillerson has shown himself to be a less combative leader than predecessors like Raymond. When oil prices rose to record levels in 2008 - driving up Exxon profits and anger from motorists - Tillerson went on NBC's "Today" show to explain the vagaries of the international oil markets. On climate change, a minefield for oil CEOs the past decade, Tillerson has acknowledged scientific findings that humankind is causing the earth's temperature to rise. And while calling for a tax on carbon emissions at-large, he has also questioned the social impact of a large-scale pull back from fossil fuels. Earlier this year the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requested the records of Exxon and its auditor to examine whether the company had properly warned investors of the threat carbon regulation posed to its business. "The conflicts of interest with this secretary of state pick abound," Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in an email. "You wouldn't hire the CEO of a tobacco company to serve as surgeon general. So why would you pick the leader of an oil and gas corporation to spearhead a position tasked with national security and global climate action?" 'He's got the skills' Tillerson would add to a Trump Cabinet thick with executives from business and finance. The real estate mogul turned politician has already announced former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as his treasury secretary and Andy Puzder, head of the restaurant group that includes chains such as Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, as his labor secretary. Considering the size of Exxon's global operation and the far-reaching scope of the secretary of state's office, Tillerson is expected to get tough questioning by the Senate if he is the nominee. Like other corporate leaders to make late career moves into government, ethics experts say Tillerson would likely be advised to sell off any holdings that pose a potential conflict of interest, including Exxon shares valued at $145 million, according to a filing with the SEC in April. More immediately, Tillerson would suddenly be thrust into a spotlight very different from his current role as CEO, in which he is judged by the strength of Exxon's quarterly earnings reports. His media availability is largely limited to Exxon's once-a-year annual meeting. "He's got the skills you'd want to see in a secretary of state," said Jim Krane, an energy fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute of Public Policy. "But he's a businessman first and foremost, and that's not the same as being a diplomat." The International Association of Drilling Contractors will relocate its headquarters to Lockton Place, a new building at 3657 Briarpark Drive in Westchase. IADC, which has represented the worldwide drilling industry since 1940, will move from 10370 Richmond in the third quarter, JLL announced. The 18,920-square-foot lease brings the 186,000-square-foot building to 93.5 percent leased. A day of livestock exhibits, hatching chicks and carnival rides -- not to mention long, tiring walks around NRG Park -- should appease energetic children during spring break. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo makes for a fun day trip, and it likely won't just be the elementary and middle school children learning a thing or two. "We also find a lot of adults learn something, especially going through AgVenture and being able to see farm animals and have an up-close experience with those," said Julie Bass, executive director of general exhibits and attractions. Click through the photos to see things to do with your children over spring break. Inside NRG Center, children can see sheep, pigs and cattle being born. Chicks hop around their brooders and incubators where 419 had been born as of Monday. There's also a milking demonstration, a bee exhibit and an ant farm. Volunteers are nearby to point out the queen bee and explain the importance of nutrients in soil. Children can also plant a sunflower seed to take home and learn what products are created in the various regions of Texas. Popular attractions like the petting zoo and pony rides are available, too. MORE: A picture-perfect souvenir: Rodeo-goers angle for the perfect shot Outside the east end of NRG Center, Fun on the Farm gives children a farm-to-fork experience where kids do farm chores and then take their products to the farmers market. They plant a fake seed and then pick up a fake tomato as if they'd grown it. They also get eggs from the hen house (the hens are real though), collect wool and milk a fake cow. At the end, they sell these products at a farmers market and get two bills. The first is to redeem an actual snack, and the second is to deposit into a "bank" to teach the importance of saving. The Junction also has a goat mountain, pig races and the famous mutton bustin'. Visitors can sign their kids up on the day of their trip to race sheep at the Junction (must be between 5 and 6 and not weight more than 55 pounds), but riding inside NRG Stadium during the RodeoHouston show requires advanced registration. At the Stars Over Texas stage, children are enchanted by magic, science and animals shows every hour starting at 11 a.m. There are kid-friendly rides, too, at the Junction Carnival. The Junction Carnival will open at 11 a.m. during the week of spring break and at 10 a.m. on the weekends. Agventure, which hosts the exhibits inside NRG Center, opens at 9 a.m. A 10-month-old puppy died on a flight out of Houston's IAH Monday evening after a United Airlines flight attendant told the dog's owner to put it in the overhead compartment. Shortly after boarding United Fight 1284 to New York's LaGuardia, the passenger was told to place the 10-month-old Frenchie and its carrier in the overhead compartment, June Lara, a passenger who sat behind the owner on the flight, told Chron.com Tuesday afternoon. "However, the flight attendants of flight UA1284 felt that the innocent animal was better off crammed inside the overhead container without air and water," Lara wrote on Facebook. "They INSISTED that the puppy be locked up for three hours without any kind of airflow. They assured the safety of the family's pet so wearily, the mother agreed." Now Playing: Maggie Gremminger is still heartbroken over what she witnessed on March 12 on United Airlines flight #1284 from Houston, Texas, to New York City's Laguardia Airport Video: People WATCH: PetSmart groomer fired after video showing her violently handling a dog goes viral By the time the plane landed roughly three hours later and the overhead compartment was opened, the dog was dead, Lara said. According to United's pet policy, animals must be in a carrier and "fit completely under the seat in front of the customer and remain there at all times." The airline said in a statement that it is investigating the animal's death. "This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin," United said in the statement. "We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them. We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again." Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on twitter at @fernalfonso. Jennifer Kalinsky is not afraid of hard work, and she's not afraid of moving. Those qualities might just make her the perfect person to take on home flipping as a new challenge. Fresh out of a divorce six years ago, Kalinsky, now 53, bought a spec home that was under construction and finished it out in a way she knew would sell quickly. It was 4,500 square feet and had a big swimming pool and a big yard. After a year and a half there, it was time to sell. She made money on it - her first flip - and bought a patio home in Uptown Park. It had 3,200 square feet on three floors and needed updating. Even as she was moving in, she knew she wouldn't be there long. She took on her next two projects in Bellaire, again making money in each home. Bold changes: Choosing to remodel instead of move, this couple made bold color choices. Her secrets to success aren't secrets at all: She bought homes in great locations for good prices because they all needed updating. With each home project, she learned more about what sells, using design updates that are both classic and current. Most importantly, with each new project, she found new subcontractors who could offer great ideas and deliver quality work on time. More Information Advice from Jennifer Kalinsky If you're planning to flip a house, use classic and current styles. Don't try to show your own personality. Home buyers aren't there to buy your furniture, but funky or quirky decor may keep people from making an offer. Also, if your home's decor looks great, some buyers may want to buy your furniture, too. Open things up, especially in the kitchen. What's trending now are big open spaces - kitchens open up to family rooms and even dining areas - so family can spend more time together and entertaining friends is easier. Kitchen cabinets matter. Popular styles include Shaker-style painted white, open shelves or even cabinets on legs - rather than on the floor - so they look more like furniture. Have a good vision and good subcontractors. Good subs will offer ideas that help the project and potentially save you money. Don't be afraid to ask what they think; after all, if you don't like their ideas you don't have to use them. See More Collapse Kalinsky is part of a growing number of people learning to be their own bosses: house flippers. She's not a trained designer, architect or builder. Like others, she's combining her life experience, common sense and learn-as-you-go knowledge for a new career. A Houston native, she's now living on the edge of Bellaire in a modestly finished 3,000-square-foot home that's just blocks away from McMansions. The neighborhood flooded for the first time during Hurricane Harvey, and a number of older homes have already been torn down and others are on the market, likely to be sold for lot value. "It's kind of like a ghost town around here," she said, noting that her home was a bit higher than many others and that all of the new homes going up are being elevated several feet. The home was just weeks away from being ready for her to move into with her boyfriend and teenage daughter - she committed to staying here at least four years so her daughter wouldn't have to move during high school - when it took on 8 inches of floodwater. Its original wood floor was ruined, and doors and windows were damaged. Electrical work was required, and drywall work was called for as well. Baby boomer shift: Tom and Holly Forney didn't need more space -- they just needed different space. While no one wants their home to flood, the damage - she had flood insurance - allowed Kalinsky to make changes she otherwise might not have. The original flooring was narrow planks of red oak, and its orangey tones show through nearly any stain treatment. Being forced to replace it meant Kalinsky got the flooring she really wanted: larger format planks in a gray-taupe palette. Before the flooding, Kalinsky had already remedied things that dated the home: white walls and lighter colors replaced dark brown inside and out. Its low-pitched shingled roof was replaced with a more contemporary metal one. Her goal for the home she's lived in just three months was to create a contemporary farmhouse style, which currently is popular in home design. Search for it on Pinterest or just Google the term and you'll find thousands of examples of homes with pale neutral colors, rustic-chic decor, barn-style sliding doors and distressed furniture. One thing Kalinsky learned quickly is that while her potential buyers may just be buying the structure, they're drawn in by great landscaping and fall in love with furnishings - even if they're not their own. She's certainly living in a home she loves, but understands that when a home is designed or decorated to be sold in a few years or so, it needs to appeal to others. "Leave your personality out of it," said Kalinsky of advice she'd give to others. "Nothing quirky or too trendy." Outside, dark wood siding and brick were painted white. Paired with the new gray metal roof and glossy black double doors, the home's exterior went from old and frumpy to sleek and sophisticated. Inside, the main living area got a new look when she removed the low ceiling and added tongue-in-groove planks of wood to what became a vaulted ceiling. Dated interior colors got a big boost with Sherwin-Williams' Pure White paint, a great universal white for people worried about not getting undertones right. A divider wall separated the kitchen and living room, and a long island that reached out to an exterior wall interrupted traffic flow. That floor-to-ceiling wall was turned into a pony wall so that the cabinets could stay on the kitchen side and the new counter's overhang could allow for barstools on the family-room side. A previous owner had expanded the home, creating a large master suite on the back and an upstairs den and guest room that Kalinsky transformed into a second master suite. Updates in the master bath included a glass-enclosed shower, Carrara marble counters and lively - and not too expensive - black-and-white tile flooring. Kalinsky's on-trend decor is light, casual and slightly rustic - and a mix of high and low. In her living room, an off-white sofa and slipcovered chairs share space with a coffee table and distressed wood console. She's always dabbled in antiques, selling them at pop-ups and antique shows when she was raising her three daughters. A pair of tall antique shutters are propped up on each side of the console. Years ago, she worked with interior designer Julie Dodson, of Dodson Interiors, to decorate her home when her children were young. Since then, she gained confidence in her own taste - and decisions - and learned about both design and decorating with each move. "I've learned a lot," Kalinsky said. "And I've also done a lot of work on myself, and I'm proud of that." Her next project will likely be in an older high-rise, which she's already looking at. "A lot of baby boomers are heading to high rises," she said. When I think of beef carpaccio, I'm transported to the early '80s restaurant scene, when women in oversize sunglasses and Diane von Furstenberg wrap dresses chatted over plates of paper-thin slices of beef topped with a mound of frilly field greens. When my thoughts turn to steak tartare, I zoom straight to 21 Club in Manhattan, circa the "Mad Men" era, where Brooks Brothers-clad captains of industry sat down to mounds of raw chopped beef. My carpaccio and tartare thoughts are vintage. But they shouldn't be, especially in present-day Houston, when top chefs are reviving both dishes in provocative new ways. The tartare-ists are having fun reinterpreting the classic dish of chopped or minced meat (or fish) bound in something creamy, and garnished with minced shallots and fresh herbs. Today's clever, anything-goes tartares include the lusty merger of beef tartare and fried oysters at State of Grace and a bracing lamb tartare with shallots, mustard, chives and quail egg from chef Jose Hernandez at Lucienne. At the wine-soaked a'Bouzy, you can get your tartare thrills from both the surf (salmon with ponzu, seaweed and aioli) or the turf (Prime steak with mustard and quail egg). REVIEW: Lucienne at Hotel Alessandra in downtown Houston The carpaccio crowd, meanwhile, dig plates of fanned-out, gossamer-thin slices of raw beef or seafood. Mastro's Steakhouse serves Spanish octopus carpaccio or Aspen Ridge beef carpaccio. At Potente downtown, the big money is on the Marble Ranch Wagyu carpaccio with pickled mushrooms. The River Oaks swells can't get enough of the spicy 44 Farms Prime beef tenderloin carpaccio drizzled with sweet chili and agave dressing off the revamped menu at Le Colonial. And buzzy Emmaline might be making the town's prettiest carpaccio: petals of sea scallop dotted with winter citrus, serrano chile slices and pink peppercorn. REVIEW: Amid controversy, rare four stars for Aqui Why are we in a carpaccio moment? "To me, it's light, healthy, feel-good food," said Potente executive chef Danny Trace. "I love the light notes of it. When you're talking seafood carpaccio, it reminds me of good times. It makes me happy." Those carpaccio good times don't have to be a thing of the past. Yeggmen, prowlers, burglars, thieves. Whatever they're called, law enforcement officials were fed up with 'em. A spate of nighttime criminal wrongdoings forced the sheriff, constable and police departments to implement a curfew. And those visiting the city for employment would have to bring letters testifying to their character. "An edict has gone forth that the floating, loafing, irresponsible population, which usually assembles here must find headquarters elsewhere," the Chronicle reported in its March 13, 1915, editions. "... All three departments have arranged to co-ordinate their efforts and co-operate in a united effort to rid Houston of assassins, bandits, purse snatchers and sneak thieves." In 1930: Winged pests get the boot from City Hall There should be no trouble finding work here to keep the shiftless out of trouble, cops figured. "Spring planting time is at hand. The fields are calling for honest men who need work. The rockplile and the county roads are likely to be the habitat of others. [...] "Men who are without identification papers will do well not to stray too far away from their domiciles late at night. Finding a job at night is rather difficult and, besides, jobs are not usually found in the vicinity of pool halls, nor at resorts of questionable character." This news comes at the same time burglars broke into the offices of the Bering-Cortes Hardware Co. at the southeast corner of Prairie and Milam. The thieves were able to access the roof of the building through the stairwell of the Majestic Theatre, which fronted Texas Avenue. This is a picture of my mother soon after she immigrated to the United States in 1921. She was around 11 years old. A few months later that year, this country adopted its first numerical and nationality-based immigration quotas, the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. It was followed in 1924 by a more permanent law that also restricted legal immigration to a percentage of the immigrants already here from each source country. That was not changed until 1965, when the Immigration and Nationality Act abolished the national origins quota system. Now, immigration is all about relationships to a lawful permanent resident or to an employer. There are caps on the total number of immigrants who may be admitted each year in most categories, except for "immediate relatives" (spouses, parents and minor children). Also in 1965, a quota was imposed on Western Hemisphere immigrants for the first time. Luckily, my mother got in before the 1921 law took effect, or she might have been banned, just because of the nation she "came from" in eastern Europe (and that hated her kind). She came on a passport from a newly reconstructed Poland that included parts of what had been White Russia. SHIFTING IDENTITY: Which America are we? The authorities of her day looked down on immigrants from eastern and also southern Europe (e.g., Italy), countries that were thought to be poor and teeming with the unskilled and diseased masses. Even before the quota law went through, my mother's family was worried that officials at Ellis Island in New York City, the greatest entry port for immigrants from Europe, were turning away people from places they did not like for arbitrary reasons. They therefore avoided it and like many others sailed on a Canadian Pacific steamship from Antwerp, Belgium, to St. Johns, Canada, and took a CP railway down to the waiting arms of the rest of the family. My mother had a story like so many of today's immigrants who rely on family ties to enter the United States lawfully. With her parents and five siblings, she fled Europe after World War I and the Russian Civil War. The small family had nothing to bring with them, but her father's extended family was already here. My great-grandmother called a family meeting. She imposed a tax on all her other children, each according to ability, to chip in to pay for passage and to sponsor the immigrants once here. Not that they did not grumble, but no one dared to defy their mother. The first few months my mother was here, one of my grandfather's brothers took them in and they all slept on the living room floor lined up like sardines. AFTER DACA: For Houston's immigrants, fear and uncertainty are the new rules With all that family support, what happened? My grandfather started a business with his oldest son; the younger son finished college and became a teacher; his daughters all married professional men; and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren were all educated and skilled contributing members to the American community. The immigration scheme that we have had since 1965 is called "family reunification," in which a new citizen can sponsor a sibling for a green card and, if granted, that sibling can then sponsor his or her child. That child can then sponsor his or her eventual spouse, and so on. But the current administration does not like immigrants, regardless of lawful status. It disparages this system by calling it "chain" immigration. It wants to scrap what has worked for us. But as my great-grandmother knew and we should remember, family helps family. Today, we would call this "family values," the kind that have made this nation strong. Laura Oren is professor emerita at the University of Houston Law Center. Bookmark Gray Matters. Not that it does not grumble. When push came to shove, Diane Sanchez went for the hedgehog. Why a hedgehog? Why, as Houston reeled under Hurricane Harvey, and putrid water rose in the 47-year-old teacher's house, when it became clear she would soon lose the home where she'd lived for 13 years why did Sanchez seize the family dog, sling a bag of clothes on her shoulder, and with her remaining free hand, grab Auggie the hedgehog? Disasters open unexpected windows into who we are. The question of why, in extreme moments, we choose to save what we do has no single answer. Instead, after that first impulse to save loved ones, the last object chosen from a left-behind life can be a signal of what really matters. Marketing plays a role, of course; infusing objects with meaning is the industry's sole purpose, notes Utpal Dholakia, a marketing professor at Rice Business school. The more compelling the story, the more valuable an item will seem. Yet it's rarely marketing that determines the truest object of desire. Instead, deeper instincts some universal, some utterly personal make the decision for us. DEEP IMPACT: Harvey's gone. But trauma lingers in our brains and bodies. Six months after Hurricane Harvey drove some 39,000 people out of their homes, the stories of what those Houstonians grabbed under duress can be instructive. Many survivors had time only to save themselves and the clothes on their backs. But others could save a bit more. In the chaotic moments before plowing into the water to safety, these Houstonians grabbed an oddball array of objects from their old lives. The items they took and those they left behind reflected more than what was just possible, or even practical. They signaled who these Houstonians were, and what they felt they needed to survive. HOLED UP on the third floor of his house in West Houston, Allen Wuescher heard chimes. He was, he thought, alone. The neighborhood was underwater, his wife Lucie and three small children were in Austin. rescuers had yet to arrive. All evening, as the water crept in, Wuescher had hauled valuables upstairs. The first floor went quickly. Now, the second story was gone too, and Wuescher waited on his final floor in the dark to be rescued. It was just before firefighters shouted from outside that Wuescher figured out the chimes. A box of wine glasses was floating near the living room ceiling, clinking as though held by unseen partiers. By the time he called his wife to say he was fleeing, Wuescher was so rattled he just did what she said: He jammed a Disney "Frozen" backpack with small valuables, and then he stuffed a Minions mini-suitcase with avocados. Avocados? Even though he was armed with credit cards, a cellphone and friends who could shelter him, Wuescher still believes the avocados were a good choice. "I had no idea where I was going," he says. That Minions bag of vegetables signaled he was never alone. "Lucie made sure I had food," he says. "It's good in that kind of situation to have someone think for you." Clearly, external sustenance like food and family are essential. But emotional rescue can take other forms. Psychotherapist Rosalie Hyde, who specializes in trauma and works with Harvey survivors, notes that all people hold onto things that have meaning beyond the object themselves. These choices, she says, can be conscious or unconscious, and often complex, rooted in very early emotional attachments. One flood survivor, for example, might save a jar of pennies because it reminds her of someone tender and nurturing. But another might grab an object reminding him of a positive moment with someone who was not otherwise kind. SENSE OF SOLIDARITY: What Houston's refugees can teach Harvey survivors For Sharon Bippus, an ESL teacher who fled her townhouse, the cherished object was a deck of cards. Soft-spoken and impish, Bippus can put the most anxious student at ease. But moving back to her still-gutted house has infuriated and depressed her, as she recently indicated with a series of Facebook snaps of an Elf On The Shelf in dire poses in her unfurnished living room. This wasn't Bippus' first encounter with disaster. More than a decade ago, Bippus lived in Izhevsk, Russia, with the Peace Corps when her apartment building caught fire. She left behind money and passport, but had just enough time to pluck a Russian English dictionary. "Totally impractical," she says. So when the water invaded her town house last fall, she had given some thought about what to grab. This time she took money, documents and a garbage bag of clothes. She also took a deck of Tarot-style cards, and not because she needed to understand her future. "They're not for fortune telling," Bippus says. Instead, by randomly choosing one of the cards with their lush, Edwardian images, and phrases such as "rescue" or "unexpected visitors," she can commune with her unconscious self no matter where she is. "It's like doing artwork," Bippus says. "A way to get in touch with my intuition, by meditating on pictures and symbols." She's still pleased with the choice. "Everything in my house was torn up, everything was chaotic. I needed to do something creative, for my soul," Bippus says. Claudia Kolker Mark Austin, a music promoter who manages the much-loved Houston soul band the Suffers, saw similar priorities as he rescued people by van in Harvey's wake. Shortly after the rain stopped, the Fender guitar company quietly asked Austin to distribute 30 new guitars to flooded-out musicians. Ninety percent of the guitarists who fit that description, Austin discovered, had lost everything but their instruments. "Once you find that guitar," Austin said, "you just know it can't be replaced. One guy hid from the water up in his attic. His guitar was the only thing he saved." Another musician who lost everything else told Austin, "I don't have a really good relationship with my father, but he bought me this guitar. It's the only thing I have that carries a good memory of him." FOR PEOPLE fighting to keep their heads above water long before Harvey struck, though, saving even one sentimental object was a luxury. When the giant NRG Center home to the Houston Texans transformed in one day into a shelter for 10,000, it was obvious which flood survivors had no clue where they would go next. Many who came from poor areas held nothing but blankets and pillows, said Angela Blanchard, president emerita of Houston's Baker Ripley human services agency, and the shelter's organizer. Blanchard's own childhood told her why. "When you don't have a lot of money, and you go somewhere to visit, you know they're not going to have a couch for you, because someone will already be using it, and they're not going to have a linen closet full of pillows and sheets for you," Blanchard says. "You know you need to bring your own." Some arrivals at NRG had instinctively prepared for the worst. As each drenched, exhausted guest entered the stadium, polite guards gently labeled and confiscated all weapons. The center's security locked away a couple of dozen guns, some 30 knives and two rocks. FIGHT AND FLIGHT: How the trauma of a storm like Harvey affects your brain Other last-minute grabs were fueled by emotional concerns. At 2 a.m. on the night of the storm, after her mother woke her announcing the family of seven needed to flee, 19-year-old Allison Daniel knew what she needed. Rushing to her closet, she stared for a moment at the water bubbling malevolently through the floorboards. Then she grabbed the soft pajama pants she wears every day after school and some giant fluffy green earrings suitable for a Dr. Seuss heroine. Saving these objects helped to stabilize her after the storm, she believes. "Oh yes," Daniel says. She has wide, espresso-bean eyes and a childlike jumpiness. "I just wasn't thinking I brought things that comfort me. My clothes are a really big way I express myself. And my fluffy earrings: They were so fragile. I had to take care of them! These things make my life feel normal." Allison Daniel Clinically speaking, Daniel's split-second choices were quite sound. Even for nonteenagers, what we wear has a measurable effect not merely on our moods, but on our ability to function. In one set of experiments, researchers from Columbia and Rice Universities asked subjects to slip on crisp white coats. Some were told they were wearing lab coats; others were told they were wearing painters' uniforms. The subjects who thought they were dressed in doctor garb performed better on attention-related tasks than those who didn't wear the coats. And those who were told the coats were painter's uniforms performed the same with or without the coats on. But survivors didn't save just their own clothes. Jerriann Nettles, a 43-year-old school teacher, prepared to leave Harvey clutching a Chanel dress that was precious because of the person who could no longer wear it. Nettles, who had moved to an expansive house outside Houston only the year before, was sure the hurricane would miss her tranquil neighborhood right up until the moment her adult daughter, now in the Coast Guard, called and told her to get out. Frantically, Nettles and her husband dragged mementos from her daughter's childhood trophies, tchotchkes, toys to the second floor. Then, just before plunging into the water to rescue her elderly neighbors, Nettles grabbed her grandmother's Chanel dress. It was silky, covered with deliciously smooth loops of thread. "My grandmother didn't have a lot of money, and she saved to buy this dress from a resale shop," Nettles says. "To this day it still smells like her. She wore Chanel No. 5 perfume. She wore the powder. Anything she had held that combination of her body chemistry and Chanel." Breathing that scent felt like having her grandmother nearby. "The smell," Nettles says. "It's the last thing on earth you may have on earth from someone's life. If the flood were to take it away ... " FLOODED BY social media advice about clutter and author Marie Kondo's exhortations to toss those possessions that don't "spark joy," Harvey survivors often apologize when admitting their sorrow. "I know they're only things and it could be so much worse," one man says, standing in the bare kitchen of his small townhouse. Contractors had stripped but not yet replaced the drywall, making it possible to walk straight into his neighbor's dining room. "But they were our things. " NEED FOR NORMAL: After Harvey wrecked Dickinson, Dan wanted his pool cleaned That's why, maybe, those items that Houstonians rescued still feel precious: not because of their monetary value, but because they embody the deepest feeling and investment of the individual. It's why we love our kids. It's the reason imperfect shelves built at home give more pleasure than flawless ones from the store, and why we will pay more for a coffee cup if we've cradled it for a little while in our hands. It definitely explains why Diane Sanchez, bolting from her deluged house, grabbed her hedgehog. The foul-smelling water sloshed chest-high in the front yard. Helicopters were roaring. Sanchez knew she'd have to leave the fish and the snail behind. But the family loved Auggie, even though one couldn't truly know if he loved them back. Undeniably cute, with pointy noses and moist button eyes, hedgehogs are largely inscrutable. "They are not cuddly," says Sanchez. "They aren't going to learn their names or snuggle with you." They also dislike other hedgehogs. What they do offer is the chance to lavish effort upon them. Without constant attention, Auggie would have been downright painful: His unrestrained quills might stab anyone who touched him. To gain a hedgehog's acceptance, its caregivers must carefully hold him in their palms every night (and it has to be night, because they're nocturnal). After several months of this, Auggie gradually began flattening his quills around family members which is how Sanchez was able to pick him up. After six months with relatives, the family has just returned to their house. "Figuring out how to put our lives back together is probably the worst thing that's ever happened to me. And I've had cancer twice," Sanchez says. "I feel more out of control now." But Auggie, impassive as ever, is a sure thing. Her teenage kids adore him, doting on him and taking comfort from the continuity he brings, Sanchez says. Saving their small, prickly pet from the flood might have been her first step toward saving her family, and herself. Claudia Kolker is the author of "The Immigrant Advantage" and the editor of Rice Business Wisdom. Bookmark Gray Matters. It's not going to learn your names or snuggle with you. Phillip Margolin is a household name as a result of his 21 legal thrillers, the latest of which "The Third Victim" was released this month. But before he became a full-time writer in 1996, he spent much of the previous 30 years studying or practicing law, including a 1980 case in which he introduced the "battered woman syndrome" defense to the Oregon legal system. Margolin discussed his legal and writing careers and how fact and fiction intertwine. Q: Tell us about "The Third Victim." A: The book is about Robin Lockwood, who is brought on to be co-counsel in a big case, one in which another attorney Alex Mason, whom no one likes is accused of murder. Lockwood is young, but she's capable and strong. In fact, she's a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. But there's another twist, and that is that the lead counsel, Regina Barrister, is facing the onset of Alzheimer's. We have one of the top Alzheimer's research centers here at the Oregon Health and Sciences University, and I was fortunate to get the head of the program to read the book to ensure I was portraying Regina accurately. With an aging population, dementia is an increasing problem, and I wanted to address it in this novel, while also writing a suspenseful legal thriller. Q: As you mentioned, this book involves a murder charge. You were an attorney. How many murder cases did you take? A: Well, I was involved in roughly 30 such cases, but not all went to court. Some of the time, the cases were decided by a plea. Q: You have the distinction of being the first Oregon attorney to use the "battered woman syndrome" as a defense. A: Yes. I haven't tried a case in 20 years but, interestingly, I still get calls about how to approach such a defense. I pioneered this defense in a case from 1979 to 1980, and I then tried similar cases, and I also lectured on this topic at continuing legal education seminars. It's a specialty, so even if you are a super lawyer who has done a ton of murder cases, you are not necessarily equipped to use that type of defense without a lot of training. NEW FICTION: In 'The Wife,' sexual misconduct strains a marriage Q: Oregon is where you practiced law, and Portland is where you live. What is it about Portland that makes it an attractive setting in your novels? A: I love Portland. I grew up in New York City, was in the Peace Corps in West Africa, and I did my training in San Francisco. I fell in love with the West Coast. My first job after law school was clerking for the Chief Justice of the Oregon Court of Appeals, and I fell in love with the state. I've lived in Portland since 1971. It's gorgeous. We have the best summers in the universe. We are surrounded by mountains and rivers, though you do have to put up with rain a good portion of the year. But, as a mystery writer, it's great, because when I say it is a "dark and stormy night" in Portland, then I'm telling the truth. We get really gloomy weather from about November until March. Q: As an attorney and the author of 21 legal thrillers, what are your favorite legal thrillers by other authors? A: I admire Agatha Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution," Robert Traver's "Anatomy of a Murder," and Scott Turow's "Presumed Innocent." One other book I should mention that isn't technically a legal thriller is Michael Connelly's "Concrete Blonde." Every once in a while I read a book and get really pissed off at an author, because I get jealous. I think, "Why didn't I think of that?" I love Michael Connelly, and I think that was his best book and sort of a legal thriller. Q: It seems as though many lawyers become writers. Why do you think that is? A: I question your premise. I get asked this question a lot. But I'd be interested in statistics of how many lawyers also have books published. If you look just at Texas, for example, there are thousands of lawyers, but only a handful have written books. I think what happens is that the publisher, when publicizing a book written by a lawyer, uses that fact to promote the book. That leaves the impression that there are more lawyer-writers out there than there actually are. NEW FICTION: The Hitchcockian influence in 'The Woman in the Window' Q: Well, perhaps we can agree that, irrespective of who is writing, lawyers tend to make great characters in novels, and they seem to be portrayed in extremes. In your latest novel, to take one example, you have the nasty Alex Mason. In "To Kill a Mockingbird," to take a different example, you have Atticus Finch, who is at the other end of the spectrum. Which is closer to the truth? A: It's like any other profession: It's a bell curve. But in fiction, you want to have good villains. My experience is that, at the top, you have brilliant lawyers, people who are the epitome of inspirational leaders. At the other end of the spectrum, you can have leeches who prey on the public. But that's a small percentage. Most are out there trying to do the right thing. They want to do their job and take care of the families, much in the way that newspaper reporters, bus drivers and plumbers do. Mike Yawn is the Director of the Center for Law, Engagement, And Politics at Sam Houston State University. Bookmark Gray Matters. It thinks, "Why didn't it think of that?" Aliza Delgado was fast asleep in the early morning hours of Tuesday on a charter bus carrying her and bandmates from Channelview High School back home from a Spring Break trip to Disney World. The voice of her band director, who was yelling something, awoke her. That's when she realized she'd been in a crash that sent the bus plunging 50 feet down into an Alabama ravine. "She was crying a storm," said her father, Joe Delgado, who spoke to his daughter shortly after the crash that killed the bus driver and injured dozens of her classmates. Delgado first got a call from someone telling him his daughter was a passenger on the charter bus. He couldn't reach her, because her phone had flown out of the bus, he said. Aliza Delgado used a borrowed phone to call him a few minutes later. She told him that her legs were swelling and her shoulder and lower back were in pain. The bus was left mangled on the bottom of the ravine under Interstate 10, close to the Alabama-Florida line. Still, Channelview ISD Superintendent Greg Ollis said it was incredible that none of the 46 students or adults on the bus were killed or more seriously maimed. No one from the high school was in critical condition. Forty students and six adults were on the bus that crashed, he said. "We're blessed because I think our students are going to be alright and our staff members are going to be alright," Ollis said. "It's unbelievable how it turned out after what we saw this morning." Up to 20 people were injured in the crash, Baldwin County Sheriff Sheriff Hoss Mack said. Dozens of children were flown or taken by ambulance to 10 different hospitals. "My heart goes out to those people," Alabama Law Enforcement Agency spokeswoman Robyn Bryan said. "Just knowing your child may be on a trip and encounter something like this, I know the parents at home are just worried sick." The charter bus company, Houston-based First Class Tours, identified the driver as Harry Caligone, 65. The company identified him as a long-time driver. READ ALSO: Video shows the tragic aftermath of deadly bus crash involving Channelview students in Alabama Now Playing: Facebook user Jesus Tejeda captured this footage of a bus crash off Interstate 10 in Alabama the morning of March 13, 2018. High school band students from Channelview ISD were on board the bus. Video: Jesus Tejeda/Facebook Alabama state troopers received a call about the crash around 5:30 a.m., after the bus fell off the road near Interstate 10's mile marker 57, near the state's eastern border, Bryan said. The bus appeared to have left the roadway before crossing a bridge and falling into the ravine, said Assistant Deputy Chief Anthony Lowery of the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office. A Baldwin County commissioner who assisted this morning said responders had to rappel down to the bus to rescue the bus riders, according to the Associated Press. Passengers were all rescued from the bus by noon, Bryan said. The crash shut down I-10 in both directions. Students who were uninjured or discharged from hospital after being treated for minor injuries are at two sites - one in Alabama and one in Pensacola, Fla., Ollis said. Several students were afraid to ride back to Channelview on the road, Ollis said, so the district is working with airlines to try to find them flights home. The bus that veered off the ravine was following behind another bus that also carried Channelview band students, Ollis said. Fewer people were on the bus that crashed because it was hauling band instruments. Some parents and staff members with the first bus turned around to help out, Ollis said. Parents who were not on the trip, through stories from their children, have since described the choppy, lightning-fast moments from crash. Aliza Delgado, a senior French horn player, told her dad she didnt know where any of her friends had been taken or whether they were injured. Delgado hopped in his car immediately and headed for Pensacola, Fla., where his daughter is being treated at a hospital. He had neared the Mississippi state line by 12:30 p.m. I just want to see her smile and make sure shes fine, he said. DeWayne Benson, a 15-year-old sophomore who plays bass clarinet, told his mother Frances Dodson-Benson that he woke up to the sound of the bus hitting "some sort of hard bumps," the Associated Press reported. "Then there was a loud, really huge crash that was presumably when the bus finally came to a stop," she said. "There were students on top of students, the bags, it was just a disarray, a lot of commotion, a lot of panic." Twenty students were taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, five of whom were originally in serious condition. Three of the five have been upgraded to good condition, said Sacred Heart specialist Kathy Bowers. The 15 others have been released. Sixteen of the students riding the bus, all in stable condition, were taken to hospitals and a freestanding emergency department in the Infirmary Health System in Alabama. Two were transferred, by ground, to the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile, which treats more serious injuries. Three were transferred to Infirmary hospitals that provide a higher level of care. Infirmary spokeswoman Martha Davidson said five of the students have been discharged, and two more will follow soon. Seven students remain at Infirmary hospitals, she said. Non-injured individuals are being transported to Coastal Church in Daphne, said Steve Arthur, captain of the investigations command at the Baldwin County sheriff's office. EMS set up a shelter there with food, drink and warm clothing. Family members of people riding the bus are being asked to call 251-972-6807 to check on the condition of their children. Channelview Independent School District officials said it is now focused on getting everyone back home safely. Grief counselors, local pastors and others had gathered at Channelview High Tuesday afternoon to receive students arriving on the other bus. More than 9,500 students attend Channelview ISD. The school district is wedged between Sheldon and Deer Park, just west of the San Jacinto River. The district is about 78 percent Hispanic, 11 percent black, 8 percent white and 79 percent economically disadvantaged, according to the Texas Education Agency. By 1:30 p.m., the band's second bus arrived back safely at Channelview High, flanked by police cars with lights flashing. Family members and others had gathered in a back parking lot to meet the bus. "We are extremely grateful for the first responders, hospital employees, and volunteers from churches and schools in Alabama and Florida that have stepped up to help our students and comfort them through this difficult situation," the district said in a statement. "Those communities have opened their hearts and arms to our students and employees." Just yesterday, the Channelview High School Falcon Band updated its Facebook page with a group shot of the kids smiling outside of Disney World in Florida. More than 300 students are part of Channelview High School's band program, according to Channelview ISD's website. The band program consists of the Falcon Marching Band, six concert bands, a winter color guard and a winter percussion ensemble. Delgado said the band takes a big trip every four years, and that band members had performed at Disney World over the weekend and visited the major Disney parks. According to social media, several bands from the Houston area made spring break trips to Disney World, including high schools in Conroe, Vidor, Langham Creek and La Porte. Lisa Emords grandson Canyon is a freshman in the La Porte band, which is returning home from Florida Tuesday as well. She said her heart leaped into her throat when she heard the news about Channelview this morning. It scared me so bad, she said. I was in tears until I heard from my grandson that he was OK. Berenice Montelongo, a sophomore who plays trombone in Channelview High's band, said she wanted to go on the trip to Disney but said she couldn't afford the expenses. She woke up to find photos of the accident on her Instagram feed this morning. "I started panicking. I started texting some of my friends," Montelongo said. "Some of them didn't answer so that worried me a little." Eventually one of her friends on the band trip texted her back, telling her that he and a handful of her friends were OK but that classmates had been transported to hospitals across Alabama and Florida. As she stood in front of a cafe directly across the street from Channelview High, Montelongo said she just wanted to see her friends. "I'm waiting for them to all be OK and arrive," Montelongo said. "I'm really worried about people in the hospital in other states. They're so far away from home." Cristian Gonzalez, a 2011 Channelview graduate who was the band's drum major, said he'd been in touch several times today with Channelview friends who are in Pensacola, Fla., where some of the students are being treated at a local hospital. He talked to Mendy Graham, a Channelview High School teacher who was vacationing in Pensacola and headed for the hospital when she heard the news. "She said it's a blessing they're treating them like they're their own kids," Gonzalez said. Channelview students have been able to meet with counselors and spend time with support dogs, Graham reported, and a retail chain has supplied new clothes so they could change after the crash. Gov. Greg Abbott joined in the outpouring of support for the school and said the state would be able provide the district any necessary aid after the crash. "Cecilia and I are heartbroken by the news of this tragic accident, and we offer our prayers to all these young Texans and their families," Abbott said in a news release. "I pray for a speedy recovery for all those injured, and I am especially grateful for the heroic actions of the Alabama first responders that undoubtedly helped save lives today. Texas is prepared to offer any assistance necessary as we rally around the entire Channelview High School community during this difficult time." The National Transporation Safety Board has dispatched a six-member crash investigation team that is expected to arrive at the crash site late Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman in Washington said. The school district chartered the bus from Houston-based First Class Tours, company spokeswoman Anne Steinberg said. "It is our understanding that there are injuries as a result of the accident. Our prayers are with the injured and their families at this time," the company said in the statement. "We pledge our assistance in cooperating with local authorities in the investigation." Late Tuesday the company issued a statement offering its condolences for the driver as well as prayers for the injured. "Regrettably, the accident has taken the life of the driver of the bus, Harry Caligone. Harry was a long-time driver for our company and we are deeply saddened for this loss. We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family. First Class Tours runs 58 buses and motor coaches and employs 94 drivers, according to data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Federal inspectors have inspected the company 276 times in past years, issuing a total of 20 violations. FMCSA records show federal inspectors cited the company twice for unsafe driving violations. In Louisiana, a driver failed to wear their seat belt, and in Texas, for driving 11-to-14 miles above the speed limit. Data from the agency shows company drivers have crashed four other times - with one fatality in the last 24 months. In that instance, a bus struck and killed a 73-year-old woman in downtown Houston as she made her way across the crosswalk. The driver, who was not the driver in Tuesday's crash, failed to yield right of way, according to the crash report. No other causes were cited in the report. RELATED: Bus hits, kills, 73-year-old woman The most recent data from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration show that there were 1,172 "school-transportation-related" crashes from 2006 to 2015. In that same time period, 1,313 people died in school-transportation-related crashes, or approximately 131 fatalities per year, and 102 school-age pedestrians died in school-transportation related crashes, according to NHTSA records. Sixty-one percent were struck by school buses, 3 percent by vehicles functioning as school buses, and 36 percent by other vehicles (passenger cars, light trucks and vans, large trucks, and motorcycles, etc.) involved in the crashes, NHTSA records show. In 2015, 49 people in school buses died in crashes. According to the Criminal Justice Information Center in Alabama, there have been more than 75 charter or tour bus crashes since March 2008, resulting in at least seven fatalities. The crash comes more than two years after a school bus crash in Houston killed two children. A GoFundMe page was created in response of the crash. With a $30,000 goal, the organizer wrote that the money will be used to provide assistance to the affected families. Reporters Dug Begley and Mark Collette contributed to this article. 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. Samantha Ketterer covers breaking news for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter. Send tips to samantha.ketterer@chron.com. Thursday, March 8 When the biggest diplomatic move of President Donald Trump's administration to date was announced, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Ethiopia. Tillerson had just arrived on the African continent Thursday for a multiday trip when a delegation from South Korea arrived at the White House to discuss recent negotiations with North Korea. They were there to meet with top aides to the president, but Trump himself intervened, inviting them into the Oval Office. There, he was told that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was open to discussions with the United States, and Trump, without hesitation, agreed. The South Korean delegation announced the anticipated meeting between the United States and North Korea from the White House driveway. Only hours before, Tillerson had been asked about the prospect of discussions with the North Koreans. "We're a long ways from negotiations," Tillerson told the media. The distance, it turns out, was much shorter than Tillerson knew. Now Playing: America's top diplomat under President Donald Trump, former Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson, grappled with crafting new foreign policy as the new White House occupant stuck to his election platform of "Make America Great Again." (March 13) Video: Associated Press Friday, March 9 At some point on Friday, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly contacted Tillerson, according to the Associated Press, to inform him that there might soon be a presidential tweet concerning him. That call was likely in the middle of the night for Tillerson, according to Bloomberg News. Tillerson told Bloomberg and other members of the press that he'd had a call at 2:30 a.m. about which he couldn't say anything further. Tillerson continued on to Djibouti. Trump's schedule for the day was largely empty. Saturday, March 10 Tillerson's schedule on Saturday was cleared by the State Department, attributed to Tillerson not feeling well. Trump traveled to Pittsburgh for a rally on behalf of a congressional candidate in the state. During his speech, he celebrated the apparent breakthrough with North Korea. "When the South Korean representatives who just left North Korea came outside, big throng of press, they announced that North Korea, Kim Jong Un, would like to meet with President Trump," the president said. "This doesn't happen, you know. They say well, Obama could have done that. Trust me, he wouldn't have done it. And by the way, neither would Bush, and neither would Clinton. And they had their shot, and all they did was nothing." Sunday, March 11 Tillerson resumed his public schedule in Kenya. Trump mostly tweeted. CIA Director Mike Pompeo appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation," where he was asked about the situation with North Korea and upcoming negotiations. CBS' MARGARET BRENNAN: Tillerson said this will be done through him. Is that still the plan? POMPEO: This is a level of discussion the president is going to drive this effort this negotiation, but it will take a team to build out the picture so that we put the president in the best position so that he can achieve that outcome. BRENNAN: Because it's unclear, though, if it's the State Department or your agency that will take the lead. It was your counterpart from South Korea who was at the White House this week. POMPEO: I don't think there's any doubt about who's going to take the lead on this. The president of the United States is going to take the lead. Monday, March 12 British Prime Minister Theresa May, speaking from Parliament, made a remarkable announcement. The poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K. earlier this month was undertaken with a nerve agent produced by the Russian government. The implication was either that Russia had lost control of that toxin, she said, or that the Russian government had a hand in the attack. Tillerson had begun his flight back to the United States, cutting his trip short, he told reporters, because he wasn't feeling well. In a break from past practice, he spoke to the press on the record, including about the incident in the U.K. The attack on the spy, Sergei Skripal, which left him and his daughter in critical condition, "clearly came from Russia," Tillerson said, given how difficult the toxin was to obtain. The attack was a "really egregious act" that would "certainly trigger a response." "What we've seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive," he said. "And this is very, very concerning to me and others that there seems to be a certain unleashing of activity that we don't fully understand what the objective behind that is." Asked about May's comments during the daily White House news briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to point the finger at Russia. "I think [the British are] still working through even some of the details of that," she said. Tuesday, March 13 Tillerson arrives back in the United States at 4 a.m. A few hours later, The Post breaks the story about Tillerson being replaced with Pompeo. Trump confirms the move in a tweet: "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" State Department Undersecretary Steve Goldstein told CNN that the tweet was the first point at which Tillerson knew he'd been fired, though the New York Times reports that Tillerson found out "before dawn." The department had already released a statement suggesting that Tillerson's departure was not mutually agreed upon. "The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of critical progress made in national security," that statement read. "He will miss his colleagues at the Department of State and the foreign ministers that he's worked with throughout the world." The secretary, the statement added, "did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason" for the firing. Trump was asked about his decision during a brief news conference. "Mr. President," one reporter asked, "what did you say to Rex Tillerson?" "Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time," Trump said, not indicating that any of those conversations had occurred recently. "We got along, actually, quite well, but we disagreed on things. . . . We were not really thinking the same. With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well." Trump said he made the decision to meet with North Korea "by myself," noting that Tillerson "wasn't in this country." Trump was also asked about May's remarks in the U.K. He said he'd be speaking with the prime minister later in the day. "As soon as we the facts straight," Trump said, "and we're going to be speaking with the British today; we're going to be speaking with Theresa May today. And as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia - or whoever it may be." He then praised the decision by the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee to exonerate him on questions of collusion during the 2016 presidential campaign. A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned over what he described as "false" and "misleading" statements made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and ICE acting director Thomas Homan. James Schwab worked out of the agency's San Francisco office until he abruptly quit last week. He said he had been told to "deflect" questions about the Oakland, California, mayor's interference with an ICE raid last month and to refer reporters to statements from Sessions and Homan that suggested that hundreds of "criminals" ("criminal aliens," Homan called them) escaped capture in northern California because the mayor tipped them off. "I quit because I didn't want to perpetuate misleading facts," Schwab told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didn't agree with that. Then I took some time, and I quit." Sessions, Homan and President Donald Trump sharply criticized Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, D, for issuing a public warning in late February about an imminent ICE raid throughout the region. At the time, Schaaf said she wanted to protect "law-abiding" immigrants from "the constant threat of arrest and deportation." Schwab also criticized the mayor's warning as "misguided," but he told Fox affiliate KTVU after resigning that ICE ended up capturing 232 suspected undocumented immigrants - even more than officials had originally expected. About half of the people picked up had felonies or misdemeanors on their records, officials say. In the raid's aftermath, officials in Washington had repeatedly suggested that hundreds of criminals had escaped because of the mayor's actions. Homan said in a news release that "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." The ICE director went further the next day, according to the Chronicle, when he said that "there's 800 that we are unable to locate because of that warning" - essentially blaming all the escapees on the mayor. Then, last week, Sessions gave a speech in Sacramento. "How dare you?" he asked the mayor. "Those are 800 wanted criminals that are now at large in that community, 800 wanted criminals that ICE will now have to pursue by other means, with more difficulty, in dangerous situations, all because of one irresponsible action." These figures propagated across news outlets. Trump said Thursday that ICE had been prepared to arrest "close to 1,000 people" but got "a fraction" of that, thanks to the mayor - and called Schaaf a disgrace. As the regional ICE spokesman, Schwab said this week, he had wanted to set the record straight. The officials from Washington had been referring to the raid's target list of about 1,000 people, he said, but immigration sweeps never net anywhere close to the total number of targets. "I didn't feel like fabricating the truth to defend ourselves against [the mayor's] actions was the way to go about it," he told the Chronicle. "We were never going to pick up that many people. To say that 100 percent are dangerous criminals on the street, or that those people weren't picked up because of the misguided actions of the mayor, is just wrong." If reporters asked him about Homan's and Sessions's comments, he said, his superiors at ICE told him to simply "deflect to previous statements" from those top officials. "It's the job of a public affairs officer to offer transparency for the agency you work for," Schwab told the Chronicle. "I've never been in a situation when I've been asked to ignore the facts because it was more convenient." As the days went by, he told CNN, "I just couldn't bear the burden - continuing on as a representative of the agency and charged with upholding integrity, knowing that information was false." So after a long career as a government spokesman - with stints at NASA and the U.S. Army before he joined ICE in 2015, according to his online resume - Schwab quit. He announced the decision "abruptly," another ICE official told KTVU. ICE officials said late Tuesday that Schwab's statements were inaccurate, and their percentage of arrests in California was lower than usual. The agency said 925 of its targets in the San Francisco Bay area had "criminal histories." The figure included 884 with felony or misdemeanor convictions, ICE officials said, without offering a breakdown of the severity of those crimes. The agency provided a sample list of 10 suspects who remain at large and whose convictions include manslaughter, armed robbery, sex with a minor and drunken driving. "While we can't put a number on how many targets avoided arrest due to the mayor's warning, it clearly had an impact," said ICE spokesperson Liz Johnson. "While we disagree with Mr. Schwab on this issue, we appreciate his service and wish him well." A spokeswoman for the Justice Department initially denied that the attorney general had spoken of "800 wanted criminals" in his speech. "The AG said they were 'wanted aliens' not criminal," Sarah Isgur Flores wrote to The Washington Post on Tuesday morning, referring to his prepared remarks. But Sessions veered from the written remarks, and was was recorded saying "800 wanted criminals" at least twice in his speech. In a subsequent statement to The Post, Flores wrote: "Does anyone seriously dispute that the Mayor attempted to thwart the efforts of federal law enforcement to apprehend wanted aliens in Oakland - many of whom had previously been arrested or convicted of crimes ranging from drug trafficking, to domestic abuse, to child pornography? "But if anyone wants to have a public argument over precisely how many dangerous criminal aliens eluded arrest because of the Mayor's irresponsible actions, we are happy to have that debate. We believe in the rule of law and one criminal alien victimizing residents of Oakland is one too many." Schaaf applauded Schwab's decision to resign. "I commend Mr. Schwab for speaking the truth while under intense pressure to lie," she said in a statement to The Post. "Our democracy depends on public servants who act with integrity and hold transparency in the highest regard." UNITED NATIONS The United States is prepared to act if Russia doesnt get on board with a new call for a cease-fire in Syria, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Monday. The U.S. has circulated a new resolution for the U.N. Security Council to consider as the 30-day nationwide humanitarian cease-fire called for on Feb. 24 has not been implemented, Haley said. It is a simplified text with no counterterrorism loopholes for Iran, Russia or (Syrian President Bashar) Assad to hide behind, Haley said. It is not clear when a vote would take place. If a 30-day nationwide humanitarian pause cannot be agreed upon, Haley said, the U.S. may be compelled to take its own action. The U.S. remains prepared to act if we must it is not the path we prefer but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take and we are prepared to take it again, Haley said. The U.S. launched dozens of missiles against a Syrian airbase last year in response to a chemical attack U.N. investigators have since said was carried out by the Syrian government. Security Council diplomats have accused Russia of flouting the February agreement by replacing it with a five-hour daily humanitarian cease-fire. The cease-fire resolution included a clause exempting efforts to fight terrorist groups from the humanitarian pause, which Russia has been accused of exploiting. Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said an immediate cease-fire would have been utopian. He added that the counterterrorism operations are in line with the U.N.s resolution and that the Syrian government has every right to try and remove the threat to the safety of its citizens. Relying on Russia to restrain Assad is not a strategic policy but a tactic, a wishful one at that, Syrian opposition representative and negotiator Hadi Al Bahar said at a meeting chaired by Britain on Monday afternoon. The evidence of the past seven years is that Russia is mostly unable to control its client. The regime, not Russia, is in charge, Al Bahar said. He urged member states to act to deter violations of the cease-fire by the threat, and if necessary use, of limited military action. It is feasible, it is necessary and it is overdue, Al Bahar said. The Violations Documentation Center in Syria recorded three chlorine gas attacks and 58 napalm attacks by Syrian government and Russian forces, Husam Alkatlaby from the VDC reported at the meeting. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that efforts to combat terrorist groups in Syria do not supersede obligations to stop the fighting, as he urged for the U.N. call for a cease-fire to be heeded. Guterres said he was deeply disappointed by the parties who by action or inaction, by design or indifference allowed fighting to continue in areas including besieged Eastern Ghouta. The conflict is generally diminishing in intensity but there has been no cessation in hostilities, Guterres said. In Eastern Ghouta, airstrikes, shelling and ground offensives have intensified after the resolution was adopted, he said. Some humanitarian aid has been delivered to the besieged enclave, but convoys only been able to partially deliver food and medical supplies. The human rights situation is becoming more desperate by the day, Guterres said. To the U.N.s knowledge, not a single critically sick or wounded person has been evacuated since the Security Council called for the humanitarian ceasefire on Feb. 24, Guterres said. A total of 400,000 people have been largely cut off from humanitarian aid in Eastern Ghouta, which has been under siege by government forces for the past four years. Some 1,000 sick people need to be evacuated from the area, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Syria said Monday. One thousand civilians have reportedly been killed in Eastern Ghouta since Assads forces started their onslaught on the rebel enclave on Feb. 18. Update 5:10 p.m.: Houston Police have cleared the scene of any danger after a suspicious package sparked a scare at an apartment complex in the Museum District Monday. Original Story: The Houston Police Department is investigating a suspicious package found in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the Museum District. Houston firefighters were called out to The Carter Apartments on Chelsea Boulevard, near Montrose Boulevard, to a suspicious substance call around 3:45 p.m. When they arrived, they called for assistance from HPD about a half hour later, according to HPD Spokesperson Jodi Silva. Investigators are unsure if HPD's bomb squad will be called out. The suspicious package arrived on the same day as two packages sent to homes in Austin exploded, killing a teenager and injuring an elderly woman. Austin police believe the explosions are connected. No other information was available. Check back for updates on this developing story as they come in. Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan. Houston might have another nickname to add to its sizeable repertoire. An Australian online news site recently featured an article about affordable housing in Houston, which the author called "Blade Runner city" because of its lack of zoning laws. Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi cult classic, "Blade Runner," takes place in 2019 Los Angeles, where it is depicted as a messy dystopian city with flying cars, smog, intrusive advertisements, massive skyscrapers and industrial blight. So it's not the most flattering nickname, but hey, images of Houston skyscrapers next to sex shops aren't flattering either. "Without zoning, you'd get Blade Runner cities full of high rise apartments, but they'd be damn cheap to buy," writes the article's author, Jason Murphy. NEAT: What Houston's tallest skyscrapers are named after Now Playing: A look behind the scenes of the Oscar-nominated visual effects of "Blade Runner 2049." Video: Los Angeles Times "There is one city in the world that is most famous for existing without major zoning laws Houston Texas," he notes. "It is famous for having enormous urban sprawl and the lack of rules mean very different kinds of buildings can end up next door." "But Houston, which is an extremely wealthy city, also has very affordable housing," Murphy writes. Voters have elected to reject any efforts to pass zoning laws in Houston three different times in the past century. Today, Houston is the largest city in the country with no regulation. The result is some hilariously placed buildings, with many of them being downright confusing or scary. Check out the images above to see some of the strangest results from Houston's no-zoning rules. Charges have been dismissed against a former motorcycle gang member arrested after the fatal shootout involving police and biker gangs in Waco in 2015, the latest in a series of dismissals as prosecutors say they after pursuing bikers accused of being more culpable. Cody Ledbetter, a 28-year-old diesel mechanic with no criminal record whose father was shot and killed in the melee, was facing life in prison after being arrested on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and aggravated assault. He was a member of the Cossack biker gang, although his lawyer says he is no longer a member. Read more: Texas prosecutor dismisses more cases tied to biker shooting Ledbetter was accused of being part of the gunbattle involving police and bikers from rival motorcycle clubs including the Cossacks and the Bandidos at the Waco Twin Peaks restaurant on May 17, 2015. The massive shootout between police and motorcyclists resulted in the deaths of nine people, with 20 more hospitalized and 177 were arrested. Now Playing: On Wednesday, a grand jury in Texas indicted 48 bikers in connection with a shootout last May outside a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco that left nine people dead. The new indictments now bring the total number of people facing felony charges in the incident to 154. Prosecutors in Waco announced that all the bikers who were indicted are charged with engaging in organized criminal activity. Prosecutors added that those who have been indicted face 15 years to life in prison if convicted. Video: Houston Chronicle McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna dismissed Ledbetter's case Monday, saying probable cause existed for the arrest and prosecution, but the office wanted "to focus on its efforts and resources on co-defendants with a higher level of culpability," according to court records. The dismissal joins another 13 cases dismissed against bikers earlier this month as federal and state prosecutors untangle what happened during the midday shootout. A federal racketeering trial has revealed transcripts of a lengthy wiretap operation against former Bandidos vice president John Portillo that helps prove the theory that members of the Bandidos traveled to Waco to confront members of the Cossacks, Reyna said during a press conference earlier this month. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle after the shootout, Ledbetter said the Cossacks were not anticipating a fight, and after the fight broke out, the motorcycle gang was not expecting a shootout. Read more: Life and death in Waco: A biker's story Ledbetter's attorney, Paul Looney, took the opportunity to blast Reyna and Waco law enforcement for the mass arrest of all the bikers and lengthy stays in jail, some on bail as high as $1 million. "The things that happened to these people only happen in third world countries. We have to find a way to learn the lessons necessary to make sure innocent people are not tormented by runaway prosecutors like what happened in McLennan County," Looney said. "We must have a check and balance system that currently doesn't exist because this can never be the case again." Ledbetter's father, Daniel Boyett, was shot and killed in the gunbattle. Ledbetter, whose right arm was in a sling following a motorcycle accident a week before, ran for cover when the first gunshots were fired. He had no weapon with him and drove a rental car to Twin Peaks. "I can finally put this behind me," Ledbetter said in a written statement issued by his attorney. "This takes a lot of weight off of me." In remembrance and in laughter, with green ribbons affixed to their lapels, family, friends and constituents filled a megachurch Monday to bid farewell to City Councilman Larry Green. Green, who died suddenly last week at 52, represented southwest Houstons District K for more than six years. He came to be known as a staunch advocate for the communities that elected him, securing resources such as street repairs, a new police station and an economic development zone. The two-and-a-half-hour service at Brentwood Baptist Church celebrated that legacy. Now Playing: Remembering Larry Green Video: Fox 26 Houston He gave himself to this district, Mayor Sylvester Turner said at the service Monday. The district loved him. He loved them back. And Larry was hands-on, and he wanted better because if youve lived in districts and neighborhoods that have been underserved, what brings you satisfaction is to make it better. Maybe in his own way, he knew he didnt have a long time. And so he had to work with a great deal of urgency to get it done, Turner said. Greens funeral was preceded by a viewing and a service from his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha. By 11:30 a.m., the start of the Homegoing Service, Brentwood was standing room only, with enough local elected officials in attendance that Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis eventually listed them off from the podium: I want you to know Larry Green is enjoying every minute of this. I looked out and I saw the DA, the sheriff, the constables, police chief, fire chief, the mayor congresspeople here. OBITUARY: Councilman Larry Green remembered as a friend to his district Greens nieces read Scripture, and Rev. Remus Wright, of the Fountain of Praise Church, led the congregants in prayer before family, friends and elected officials told stories about the councilmans life. The cause of Greens death remains unknown, but police do not suspect foul play. Greens cousin, Christine Sampson Willie, spoke to his compassion. One of Larrys most unique gifts was making every person and relationship with him feel like that relationship was unique and special, Willie said. I believe that quality in him is the main reason this church is so full today. Tonja Wagner-Jackson, one of several high school classmates in attendance, recalled a lighter side: Green would regularly pull Wagner-Jacksons hair when he sat behind her in second grade. Though somber at times, the funeral was punctuated by frequent laughter, singing and standing ovations commemorating Greens service to the city of Houston. He remains the only person elected to lead District K, one of two City Council seats added after the 2010 Census. VOTE: Houstonians to pick replacement for late City Councilman Larry Green on May 5 Time and again, fellow elected officials acknowledged Greens dedication to his constituents. His ultimate mountaintop was the opportunity to run for this newly created voting rights District K, (which) came about through the idea of one person, one vote, said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, his former boss. I dont know who else could have run. All I know is the man who should have won did win. Jackson Lee and U.S. Rep. Al Green, no relation to the councilman, brought flags they had flown in Greens honor above the U.S. Capitol. In addition to serving as Jackson Lees district director, Green, a Houston native and Thurgood Marshall School of Law graduate, practiced law for two decades and ran the job training nonprofit HoustonWorks USA. At City Council, he chaired the transportation, technology and infrastructure committee. Turner, who took office two years ago, called those who gather weekly around the council horseshoe an extended family and promised they would not let the ball drop in District K. Can you die and still live? he asked. I believe you can die and still live. And the beauty of today is that Councilmember Larry Green has passed, but he still lives. Green is survived by a brother, two nieces, two nephews and numerous family members in Texas and Louisiana. Take a bow, Jeb Bush. Remember how you said that Donald Trump was "a chaos candidate," and that he'd probably be "a chaos president"? Well, you nailed it. A headline in the New York Times, Jan. 29, 2017: "How Trump's Rush to Enact an Immigration Ban Unleashed Global Chaos." President Donald Trump had just signed an executive order on immigration that barred visitors from seven Muslim countries. The order had been cooked up in secret by two hard-line White House aides, Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. John Kelly, then the secretary of Homeland Security, was not briefed until Trump was signing it. No one knew the details: Were existing visas canceled? Did the ban apply to U.S. Green Card holders? The result: mass confusion at airports. Within hours, federal judges began intervening to block this ill-conceived decree, forcing the administration back to the drawing board. This tragedy of errors was chalked up by Trump apologists to his inexperience. So what is the excuse a year later when chaos still reigns in the White House? The 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum was also conceived by two renegade officials, White House staffer Peter Navarro and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, who circumvented the normal policy process with the president's connivance. On March 1, Trump announced the counterproductive tariffs, followed the next morning by an imbecilic tweet that "trade wars are good, and easy to win." The stock market dived, even though no executive order was ready. This set off a furious behind-the-scenes struggle over the details. As late as Thursday morning, West Wing aides had no idea what, if anything. the president would announce. That afternoon, Trump said that that he would grant temporary waivers to Mexico, Canada and possibly other countries: "I'm sticking with 10 and 25 initially. I'll have a right to go up or down depending on the country, and I'll have a right to drop out countries or add countries." In other words, tariff policy will vary according to his whims. This is the Humpty Dumpty Doctrine: "'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'" The same ad hoc approach was evident that same day when Trump summoned to his office startled South Korean officials who were meeting his aides. The South Koreans said that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un wants to meet Trump (of course he does!) and would be willing to suspend his missile and nuclear tests and discuss denuclearization. "OK, OK," Trump replied with all the forethought that he might give to deciding between a Big Mac and a Quarter Pounder. "Tell them I'll do it." Trump made this risky decision without hearing directly from the North Koreans and without consulting his secretary of state, who just hours earlier had said, "We're a long way from negotiations." The next day, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared to walk back the RSVP, saying, "The president will not have the meeting without seeing concrete steps and concrete actions take place by North Korea," but other officials insisted that the summit "stands." To imagine how the discussions will go, if they actually take place, remember how "surreal" Trump's meetings with U.S. lawmakers have been. Only now he will be babbling incomprehensibly about a nuclear crisis, not guns or immigration. Trump is uncontrollable and uneducable. The "adults" in the White House have done their best but will never succeed for the simple reason that subordinates cannot tell their childish boss what to do. Those who try are chewed up and spit out. Economic adviser Gary Cohn is leaving; national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Chief of Staff John Kelly may not be far behind. Why Tillerson stays for more humiliation is a mystery. Trump has even lost his emotional support pillars, Communications Director Hope Hicks and bodyguard Keith Schiller. This White House has seen 43 percent turnover among senior staff, compared to 9 percent for Barack Obama in his first year and 6 percent for George W. Bush. Trump doesn't care. During the campaign, after having shown that he had never heard of the nuclear triad, he disdained the need to consult foreign policy advisers: "I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things." He has certainly said a lot of things, but if there is evidence that he has "a very good brain" it must be classified at a level that Jared Kushner can no longer access. This administration was born in chaos and will die in chaos because Trump has a chaotic mind and a compulsion to inflict his mental disorder on the wider world. This is how the American era will end - not with a bang but with buffoonery. Less than eight months stand between now and the general election in November, and Harris County voters will need to use every second of that time to study up on the ballot if they want to cast an informed votes. Voters will be asked to make a decisions in by our count 76 contested judicial races. Ready to do your homework? At a certain point, youre tempted to just flip a coin to choose between the candidates. The judges and justices who hold these positions can make the difference between recovering millions or nothing, freedom and incarceration, life and death. The ongoing bail reform lawsuit would look very different with a different set of judges. Voters need to be sure theyre choosing the right candidates to serve behind the bench. It can be quite the challenge. Even the best connected politicos and most active attorneys have trouble keeping track of all the different positions and contenders. Slovacek: Removing party labels in judicial elections leaves out key information for voters Polls released by the Houston Bar Association or informed endorsement lists such as the Houston Chronicle editorial board help provide the best guidance. But sometimes no amount of warning or cajoling can stop a partisan wave from driving out quality judges and washing in underqualified newcomers. Democrats or Republicans may take some joy in seeing their team win so many seats during a sweep election, but the people closest to our courts arent so pleased when good judges lose. Thats why top judges, such as former Texas Supreme Court Judge Wallace Jefferson, have long advocated for a change in our selection process. Texas will make a small step in the right direction when we get rid of straight-ticket voting for judges in 2020. That means voters will actually have to go down the ballot and pick their judicial preferences. However, it doesnt eliminate the risk that candidates with familiar names will just get an unearned boost think Judge Scott Walker, a little-known judicial candidate who apparently won election in to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2016 because he shared the same name as the governor of Wisconsin. EDITORIAL: The process that results in top judges being swept off the bench needs to come to an end And it is not as if the lack of partisan straight-ticket voting has led to better results in primary races. Longtime judge Jay Karahan lost his Republican primary race to Dan Simons, a man who has been condemned for misrepresenting evidence and was brought before a district attorneys disciplinary committee. Judge Theresa Chang lost her race to Erin Swanson, the daughter of a state representative. Harris County has reached the breaking point. No republic can function if voters are burdened with making informed selections in 76 different races. Yet again, we look to the Texas Legislature to implement a modern standard of judicial selection one that fills our benches in professional process instead of through a coin toss. Since day one of his campaign for president, Donald Trump has linked illegal immigration with crime. Vice President Pence recently did it as well during a visit to the Texas-Mexico border to tout how this administration has been taking decisive steps to enforce our laws; secure our borders; taking dangerous drug dealers off our violent criminals off our street. But there is no link between illegal immigration and crime even in a border state like Texas. The Texas Department of Public Safety preserved the results from immigration checks when people are arrested and convicted of crimes, unlike other states. This allowed me to check immigration statuses against criminal convictions and compare them to the share of illegal immigrants in Texas population. The results are in a new brief I wrote for the Cato Institute, showing that illegal or legal immigrants are less likely to be convicted of crimes than native-born Americans. Lets examine the raw numbers: In 2015, natives were convicted of 409,063 crimes, illegal immigrants were convicted of 13,753 crimes, and legal immigrants were convicted of 7,643 crimes in Texas. EDITORIAL: Congress rushes to help the banks while ignoring gun laws or immigration reform Natives were convicted of a disproportionate 95 percent of all crimes, although they only made up 83 percent of Texas population. Illegal immigrants, making up just six percent of the population, were convicted of only three percent of the crimes. And legal immigrants were even less crime prone, making up 11 percent of the population but receiving only two percent of criminal convictions. Even in a Republican-governed border state like Texas with law enforcement officials very concerned about illegal immigration and with a reputation for enforcing criminal laws to the hilt illegal immigrants appear less crime-prone than natives. This holds true even for particularly violent crimes. Many Americans are concerned about murders committed by illegal immigrants, notably the killing of Kate Steinle in San Francisco in 2015. Steinles killing was a tragedy but, as the Texas crime data shows, it is a remarkably rare one, at least in the Lone Star state. There were 951 total homicide convictions in Texas in 2015. Of those, native-born Americans were convicted of 885 homicides, whereas illegal and legal immigrants face 51 and 15 such convictions, respectively. In other words, there were 2.9 murder convictions of illegal immigrants in Texas for every 100,000 of them living there that year. Thats compared to 3.9 convictions of native-born Americans for every 100,000 natives. Once again, legal immigrants were the most peaceful as there were only 0.51 homicide convictions for every 100,000 legal immigrants. Thus, homicide conviction rates for illegal and legal immigrants were 25 percent and 87 percent below those of natives, respectively. Per capita, there were fewer convictions against illegal immigrants for every crime except for gambling, smuggling, vagrancy and kidnapping crimes that account for a mere 0.18 percent of all criminal convictions in Texas in 2015. There is a potential criticism of our findings so far. Illegal immigrants might not be convicted of many crimes because they get out on bail and skip town before the courts can convict them. After all, most of them are from Mexico and theres little stopping them from returning if they think theyll be convicted of a crime. However, the arrest data shows results that are very similar to the convictions data. For virtually every crime, legal or illegal immigrants are less likely to be arrested than native-born Americans. Illegal immigrants who commit violent and property crimes should be deported after serving their sentences. The United States does indeed have more crime than other developed countries but its inaccurate to scapegoat immigrants for this problem, or to portray them as more bloodthirsty or less law-abiding. So even if Pence claims that stopping violent crime or drug dealing starts with more security at the border, illegal immigrants low conviction rate for serious crimes such as murder should put the worries of many Texans to rest. There are many reasons to be concerned about illegal immigration, from cultural impacts to the economy, but criminality is not one of them. Evoni Williams was pictured by Waffle House customer Laura Wolf, who uploaded the touching scene to Facebook. I don't know her name, but I heard this elderly man tell her his hands don't work too good, read the Facebook post. He was also on oxygen and struggling to breathe. Without hesitation, she took his plate and began cutting up his ham. This may seem small but to him, I'm sure it was huge. I'm thankful to have seen this act of kindness and caring at the start of my day while everything in this world seems so negative. If we could all be like this waitress and take time to offer a helping hand [sic]. The post has since been shared over 44,000 times, garnering thousands of comments praising the helpful employee. Speaking to Chron, Williams said: I didn't know the photo was taken until a couple hours later. When I saw it, it's just something I would do for anybody. Page Content A recent courtesy meeting with the President of Haiti, Mr. Jovenel Moise (centre) provided ICAOs North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACC) Regional Director Mr. Melvin Cintron (centre-right) with an excellent opportunity to deliver, on behalf of the President of the Council and the Secretary General, ICAOs message of partnership and commitment to Haiti. It was attended by Haitis Minister of Transportation, Mr. Fritz Caillot (centre-left), its Director General of Civil Aviation, Capt. Olivier Jean (right), and Presidential Advisor Mr. Gerd Pasquet. Mr. Cintron highlighted the need for Haitis first aviation law to be approved as the crucial foundation upon which the Haitian air transport system could be built. Haitis new leadership clearly illustrated its understanding of the role of aviation as a pillar for the sustainable economic development and growth of Haiti, with the President affirming his commitment to ensuring that Haitis air transport system is transformed and recognized globally as a system that is safe, secured, efficient and compliant with ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs). This new leadership and political will are providing a much welcomed results-based vision for the future of Haitis transport system. The meeting with Haitis leadership came after a very successful Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Oversight System (CASSOS) meeting which took place in Port au Prince. CASSOS and the Corporacion Centroamericana de Servicios de Navegacion Aerea (COCESNA) have supported the NACC Regional Office by providing a specialist to the No Country Left Behind (NCLB) assistance team of the Regional Office. Mr. Cintron also met with the Ambassador of France to Haiti, H.E. Elisabeth Beton Delegue, in order to highlight and recognize Frances leadership role in the development of Haitis air transport system, by way of the contributions and collaboration of its Direction des Services de la navigation aerienne with ICAO and Haitis Office National de l'Aviation Civile. Off West Africa, navies team up in fight against piracy March 07,2018 | Source: AFP "Sir, we're going to handcuff you," a coast guard from Sao Tome tells a man accused of fishing illegally in the archipelago's waters. But the "fisherman" is really a French navy seaman disguised in a T-shirt, cap and sunglasses -- a member of an unusual multinational training exercise to combat crime in the Gulf of Guinea. Illegal fishing, piracy and hostage-taking haunt the vast bay lying off West Africa, whose coastline runs from Liberia in the west to Gabon in the south. According to the European Union, the Gulf of Guinea is the "worst-affected region" in the world for unauthorised fishing. In 2016, around a third of all catches, a haul worth about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion), were illegal, it says. In a survey of sea piracy in 2017, the International Maritime Bureau found that of 16 incidents around the world when a vessel came under fire, seven occurred in the Gulf. In late February, the French patrol boat Lavallee took part in exercises with naval vessels from central African countries over five days, an operation dubbed "African Nemo". These exercises, held several times a year, are designed to be realistic. In one, not far off the Sao Tome and Principe archipelago, sailors from Sao Tome were ordered to arrest the crew of a Chinese fishing boat, in the shape of the Lavallee. A Sao Tome naval officer led his men in boarding the foreign vessel for an inspection and thorough search, which resulted in the arrest of the pretend fisherman for pillaging local fish stocks. The "fishermen" put up a fuss, rowdily complaining of the heat and doing their best to make life more difficult for their captors. One Sao Tome sailor carefully treated a make-believe injury sustained by a fisherman, setting his arm in a sling. Once the exercise was over, it was time for an assessment -- the Sao Tome sailors realised they need to beef up safety precautions while boarding a vessel and improve ways of searching a suspect. Another scenario envisaged an operation against pirates. Aboard a Gabonese patrol boat that sailed from Gabon's coastal capital Libreville, participants practised how to conduct the mission without breaching international maritime law. "This type of exercise is informative and places us in real-life situations," said the vessel's commander, Sub-Lieutenant Gael Mbanda. "They enable us to pinpoint our weaknesses in equipment and personnel." Rules for terms of intervention and sharing tasks were signed in June 2013 by leaders from the 15-nation Ecomomic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and from the 10-nation Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). This accord -- signed in Cameroon and known as the "Yaounde Process" -- has led to stronger cooperation over some 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles) of African coasts and the adjacent waters, Maritime Security Review reported in June 2017, when EU logistical support began. Despite the political steps forward, huge practical challenges remain, given the sheer volume of fish stocks stolen in a vast area of water. "Illegal fishing amounts to a quarter of the value of African exports," said Lionel Kinadjian, the representative of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Gabon. Senior French naval officer Captain Emmanuel, whose second name was withheld for security reasons, also pointed to a shift in tactics by pirates. "(They) have moved on from 'bunkering' -- the theft of goods stored aboard a vessel -- to an increase in the taking of hostages for ransom," he said. Associated Newspapers Ltd Theme(s): Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods. Thai Cabinet waters down tough punishments for migrants March 07,2018 | Source: The Nation Despite Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-chas threat to arrest hundreds of thousands of illegal migrant workers, the Cabinet yesterday approved a draft amendment that would lessen punishments. The Foreign Worker Management Act of BE2560, which came into effect last year, prescribed what are widely accepted as harsh penalties. The controversial law ignited panic among migrant workers from neighbouring countries last year, prompting thousands to return home due to fear of the punishments. However, the Cabinet yesterday gave the green light to a draft amendment that would lessen the punishments against illegal workers and their employers. The draft seeks to eliminate jail terms of up to five years facing illegal workers. According to the draft, fines against employers would be reduced from between Bt400,000 and Bt800,000 per illegal worker to between Bt10,000 and Bt100,000. Four of the original laws articles have been suspended in response to concerns from many sides. In addition to reducing penalties for many offences, the draft amendment also relaxes some conditions for migrant workers and their employers. Prayut said the amendment could help to accelerate the migrant worker registration process. On Monday, the premier ordered faster nationality verification to help track criminal records and provide protections to workers. Adisorn Kerdmongkol, an expert on migrant workers, praised the Cabinet decision, saying it would help ease tensions in the labour sector. He said the previous punishments opened the possibility that government officials would take bribes from employers who used illegal workers and feared the consequences of the law. The amendment also gave workers the right to change employers without being punished, while the first version prohibited workers from changing employers, Adisorn added. Millions of migrant workers live and work in Thailand and authorities have documented more than 1 million from neighbouring countries, including Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. The tougher law, as well as the slow process of national verification and registration, created problems in the labour market last year, resulting in panic among workers and employers as well as a Cabinet reshuffle. Prayut expressed anger on Monday while inspecting a national verification centre after learning that the Labour Ministry had failed to complete the installation of a retina scanner, which delayed registration. He then threatened to arrest all illegal workers and their employers who failed to comply with the law. After the panic and controversy last year, the government extended the deadline to enforce the law from the end of last year to the end of June this year. However, the process to legalise migrant workers is moving at a slow pace. So far, 988,798 migrant workers have had their nationalities verified, including 784,091 Myanmars, 157,232 Cambodians and 47,475 Laotians. An estimated 698,675 workers have until June 30, when the law is to be enforced, to register. Once registered, they will be allowed to work in Thailand for another two years. Migrant workers in Thailand have been involved in a nexus of human trafficking and illegal fishing for years, in what the United States and the European Union have called modern-day slavery. Thailand is listed on the US Trafficking in Person (TIP) report Tier 2 Watchlist. Meanwhile, the European Union issued a yellow card against the country in April 2015 for taking insufficient measures to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Prayut yesterday cited his governments successful and continuous efforts in coping with illegal fishing, including monitoring workers on and offshore to protect the countrys seafood exports and resources. The labour problem is not only about us, but also about the neighbouring countries, since [migrants] have to be registered at borders, he said. When they sneak back to their countries, that makes the procedure slow. We need to have sufficient officers and tools to manage this properly. 2002 - 2017 Thai Visa thaivisa.com Theme(s): Communities and Organisations. Tanzania: Lake Victoria anti-illegal fishing initiative gets US$1.8 mn allocation March 08,2018 | Source: AllAfrica The Council of Ministers in the Lake Victoria Fishing Organisation (LVFO) has approved a total 1.8m US dollars (about 4.1bn/-), to curb illegal fishing in the second largest fresh water body in the world. Each member country of the organisation including Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda will contribute 600,000 US dollars to curb illegal fishing of the Nile perch, which is on the verge of extinction due to rampant illegal fishing in the lake. Speaking in Entebbe recently, the outgoing Chairperson of the Council who is Tanzania's Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Development, Mr Luhaga Mpina, said the allocated funds will boost the fight against illegal fishing in the lake. "Tanzania has already initiated efforts to curb the challenge since the start of this year and the results are impressive," the Minister remarked. Minister Mpina calledupon other member countries surrounding Lake Victoria to take action and implement recommendations put forward by research institutions in the region towards curbing illegal fishing in Lake Victoria. The studies were carried by the Tanzania Fishery Research Institute (TAFIRI), Kenya Marine Fishery Research Institute (KMFRI) and National Fishery Research Institute of Uganda. Minister Mpina reminded other leaders of the council to educate their people on laws governing the lake from other countries so as to avoid disturbances which may be brought about by ignorance of the laws. "It is my hope that all countries surrounding the Lake will adhere to the law in preserving it for sustainable fishery," Mr Mpina remarked. The Minister was crystal clear that days were numbered for illegal fishing in the lake, explaining that leaders in the region have agreed to check the vice. "Tanzania has registered a number of successes in the fight against illegal fishing since we established operation Sangara this year," he explained. The outgoing Executive Secretary of LVFO, Mr Godfrey Monor, said member countries of the council have agreed to form the East Africa Fisheries Organisation (EAFO) to curb illegal fishing in the region. Theme(s): Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods. YRF Dragged to Court for Excluding Promotional Song in Fan, Everything You Need to Know About the Case Recently, I wrote about the Wisconsin man who sued Southwest Airlines for exactly $74,999.99 after his plane landed at the wrong airport in Branson, Missouri--about seven miles away from where they were supposed to be. I thought it was a smart legal strategy (because suing for that amount meant the case will be heard in state court, not federal), and a good example of how a little guy can negotiate effectively against a much larger adversary. But some readers seized on it all as an example of a frivolous lawsuit--something that can keep business leaders awake at night. So, I wonder how they'll feel about this story--involving not just one, but 34 airline passengers, who were accidentally put on the wrong plane and sent 600 miles away from their intended definition. It happened Monday in Sweden, where bad weather caused an airline called Nextjet canceled a flight from Sundsvall, which is in central Sweden, to Gothenburg, which is on the west coast of the country. Flight cancelations happen all the time, But here, Nextjet apparently never told the passengers who were waiting for their flight to Gothenburg, according to the English language Swedish news site, The Local. The last they'd heard was that their flight was delayed. So when a 50-seat plane rolled up, the boarded--and were flown, by mistake, to the city of Lulea, which is in the far north of Sweden and about 600 miles away from Gothenburg. In terms of distance, that's kind of like boarding a plane to Atlanta, only to land and find out you've been brought to Washington, D.C. instead. (Map embedded at the end of this article. Some passengers who were actually booked on the flight and supposed to go to Lulea were told that their flight had been canceled, and wound up stuck in the airport in Sundsvall. A man who was on the mixed-up flight said that none of his fellow passengers who flew to Lulea actually intended to go there. "What seems to have happened is a serious communication error between the airport in Sundsvall and us," a Nextjets spokesperson told the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet (in Swedish, but Google Translate works pretty well). He said the passengers were put up in a hotel and flown on to Gothenburg the next day. Meantime, airport officials in Sundsvall were unamused. "We had not learned anything about this before the plane lifted. Something has gone wrong when you failed to provide airport information," the airport operations manager said. "During my 16 years, I've never [seen] like something like that." Readers might be struck by the reaction of the passengers, however--especially in contrast to the story we just saw about the man who sued Southwest. Granted, it's only one day after the mishap, and granted the Swedish newspaper didn't interview everyone on board the plane. Maybe some passengers are really upset. But not passenger Roger Leirvik, who apparently lives in Gothenburg and was in Sundsvall for a one-day business trip. And so far, there's no mention in any of the coverage of anybody suing anyone. "I just laughed. What can you do?" Leirvik told Aftonbladet. Last September, Christian Haigh learned he was one of the 143 million people in the U.S. whose information was hacked in the Equifax breach. As you might recall, Equifax issued an apology that was almost laughable. Lawyers started class-action lawsuits. But Haigh, who is a co-founder and CTO of litigation finance startup Legalist, had a different approach. He filed suit against the credit reporting giant in small-claims court in San Francisco. This was a brilliant idea. I imagine it's unlikely Equifax thought it would be dealing with individual plaintiffs, suing for fairly small dollar amounts, in very informal courtrooms across the country. (I have to "imagine" this, to be clear, because I haven't heard back after emailing the three top U.S. media contacts listed on Equifax's website asking for any comment on this story.) Ultimately, Haigh won an $8,000 judgment against the credit reporting giant--later reduced to $5,500 on appeal. In the process, his company started funding other people's small claims suits against Equifax, too. (Legalist pays lawyers in plaintiff's suits on an hourly basis, and takes a contingency fee if the case is successful.) I interviewed Haigh and his co-founder, CEO Eva Shang, after reading two blog posts in which Haigh described his experience (here and here). The two co-founders, both in their early 20s, were friends at Harvard who left before graduating for Y Combinator, and who raised a $10 million investment round last summer. "I think the theme our company really believes in is that the justice system should be reoriented to help the underdog," Shang said. "A lot of people... believe it's so stacked in favor of people who have money and power." As I learned more about Haigh's case and the company, I kept seeing certain principles emerge--principles I think can help David beat Goliath in almost any situation. Here's the story. Fortune favors the bold. Here's the timeline: The breach happened in July; Equifax disclosed it on September 7. Haigh filed suit on September 19. That's rocket-speed in litigation. In fact, many lawyers seem to wait until the last day before the statute of limitations expires on a claim before filing. Not Haigh, and none of this would have worked out for him if he hadn't raced to the courthouse. "Since we heard about [the Equifax breach] and realized I'd been impacted, I wanted to do something about it," Haigh told me. "And if I didn't do something then, I would have never done it. I would have waited until the class actions and forgotten. I wanted to do something." Choose your battlefield. If your data was breached, you may choose not to fight, but that only means that you've conceded easily. If you are going to fight, it's best if you can be the one to choose where the fight takes place. Here, that meant small-claims court. Doing battle with Equifax there resulted in a "much more relaxed situation," Haigh said. As we'll see, it worked to his advantage. Contrast that to the many who simply logged into Equifax's website for a year of free credit monitoring--or else, did nothing at all. Turn weaknesses into strengths. This is when things start to get graceful; when you can find a way to turn something that should be working against you into an advantage. Haigh isn't a lawyer, and this was his first time in court. But as Shang pointed out: "When you're showing up in small claims court, it's not a literal battle between you and the other side. It might feel like it, but you're really trying to impress the judge. It's an arena for regular people to settle grievances. So Christian's weakness--no law degree--became his strength." Turn strengths into weaknesses. Haigh won, but Equifax appealed the judgment, and it sent a high-powered lawyer from the law firm of King & Spalding to oppose him--along with an in-house lawyer and a company vice president. It would have been natural to be intimidated, but Haigh said he realized this could actually be a good thing for him. "Equifax, being a large national corporation, part of their litigation strategy is to hire the best people, so they hire King & Spalding. But they're not really thinking through the fact that King & Spalding probably doesn't go to small-claims court very often," he told me. Sure enough, Haigh writes in his blog post, this benefited him when the company's lead lawyer didn't know (or seemed not to know) that in small claims court, hearsay evidence is admissible. Thus, he wasted time and effort arguing that Haigh shouldn't be allowed to use a report about the Equifax breach from Senator Elizabeth Warren as evidence. Show up. As the great philosopher Wayne Gretzky once put it, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take. And I guess you lose 100 percent of the small-claims court cases you never get around to filing. "This is a no-brainer," Haigh wrote in his blog post, "but I looked up the woman who came after me as well as the man who preceded me. They both got similar awards, in the $8,000 range. Just showing up to court could mean a significant judgment." Keep showing up. As long as I'm punctuating these principles with quotes, how about one supposedly from Winston Churchill: "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." The obvious example of this principle here is the extra effort that Haigh put into winning the appeal--along with his increased "confidence that no matter how stacked the odds are against you, the better case will prevail." Eat your own dog food. I honestly don't know if Haigh and Shang filed this suit expecting to fund other people's small-claims cases against Equifax, or if they came up with the idea only afterward. But Shang told me that not long after the data breach story broke, "we actually started getting applications" for funding these kinds of cases. If you've been dreaming of disconnecting and ridding your day of digital distractions, there's an island destination that would love to have you this weekend, but there is a catch. Each year the largely Hindu island of Bali in Indonesia celebrates its New Year's Day with a holiday known as Nyepi, or Silent Day. The idea is that everything on the island shuts down, even ATMs, and everyone is to spend 24 hours inside meditating, fasting and reflecting upon the past year. And don't think that just because tourism drives Bali's economy that visitors will be able to get away with gallivanting around while the locals observe their sacred day at home. Even the beaches are closed during Nyepi and a sort of tradition police known as "pecalang" are on patrol chastising anyone who dares to step outside or make noise. The Balinese day of silence and inward contemplation is so revered that even glancing at a notification on your mobile device risks causing offense. This year the authorities on Bali are going to make it easier to avoid those digital distractions by taking almost the entire island offline during Nyepi, which begins this year at 6 a.m. Saturday, March 17 and ends 24 hours later. During that time, and for the first time ever, all phone companies on Bali have agreed to shut off the mobile internet during Nyepi. "Let's rest a day, free from the internet to feel the calm of the mind," Gusti Ngurah Sudiana, head of the Indonesian Hinduism Society, told the AP. "Many Hindu people are addicted to gadgets... I hope during Nyepi they can be introspective." Days following the Parkland massacre, in which 17 Florida students and teachers were shot to death by a former student, Bill Reynolds's phone was ringing off the hook in Clayton, Missouri. Reynolds, a co-founder at emergency response app company CrisisGo, says that after a school shooting his company typically gets a "flurry" of inquiries. But after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, he described the inbound calls as a "deluge." "Parkland was different. We had the largest uptick [of sales] in our history this week," says Reynolds. "We are getting calls from superintendents from big districts saying their community is demanding answers to how the school is prepared, and the superintendents are looking to us." Emergency response technology is part of the disaster relief market, which, according to IBISWorld, brings in about $10.2 billion in revenue. The industry is made up of companies and organizations that are in the business of selling or supplying everything from shelter to medical relief after a natural or manmade disaster, from a tornado to an act of terrorism. Mobile apps like CrisisGo are now part of a fast-growing segment within this industry. In a category long dominated by nonprofits, with little corporate presence, startups have taken notice. Last year, during the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon in San Francisco, 30 teams pitched emergency response mobile apps. CrisisGo was started in 2013 by three co-founders--Reynolds, an education software sales rep, Songwei Ma, a software engineer, and Jim Spicuzza, who had launched and sold a business that made content-management systems for school websites. The company says it now has between 45 and 50 full-time employees. Reynolds got the idea for CrisisGo while he was working for Schoolwires, a company that builds websites for schools. A client asked if he could put the district's emergency response plan on the school website, so he did. On the way home, something nagged at him: In an emergency, a teacher wouldn't have time to sit down and check the emergency plan on a computer, but probably would be able to check a smartphone. Reynolds pitched the idea to Spicuzza, a friend from the edtech industry. Spicuzza brought on Ma, whom he had worked with in the past, and they started building the mobile app. With school shootings becoming the new norm, schools are staffing up with armed security guards and metal detectors. CrisisGo is a less visible solution to help assuage the panic school administrators are feeling--a sort of emergency response Slack for the education market. If there's an emergency, a teacher can use the app to set off an alarm, access an evacuation plan, and chat with any other staff member in the school. Today, about 14,000 schools across the country use CrisisGo's app to manage emergency situations and drills, ranging from active-shooter lockdowns to natural disasters and fires. One of the app's main features is a "panic button" that teachers can hit to send a school-wide alert (every phone and computer in the school will sound an emergency tone). Teachers can also live chat with the principal, faculty members, and the local police directly in the app. Evacuation routes and floor plans are included in the app's dashboard and school faculty can follow a checklist for specific emergencies. CrisisGo offers a free version and an annual subscription version, which has expanded features like anonymous tip reporting. Schools in Lake Forest, Illinois; Carmichaels, Pennsylvania; Kirkwood, Missouri; Boston; and other areas have adopted the technology. Annual costs average about $5 per student and could range from $7,000 to $100,000 a year for a district, depending on size. Currently, about 8,300 schools are paid users. CrisisGo has also partnered with the American Association of School Administrators, a national organization for school superintendents, to help distribute a free version of the app to every laptop in schools as part of a safety toolkit program. The U.S. educational market is just the start for CrisisGo. The Midwest upstart plans to scale its product globally, and to corporations. Recent new customers include United Nations International schools and 1 World Trade Center Observatory in New York City, its first corporate security customer. The Kirkwood Public School district, one of CrisisGo's first paying customers, is already seeing the value of getting its entire faculty onto the app. In 2014, Levaughn Smart was hired to revamp the entire district's emergency response protocols. "The [school district's] crisis manual had to be updated--it was in a three-ring binder in a folder on the back of each classroom door, and no teachers ever looked at," says Smart. Its promotional videos were are bizarre as they were intriguing. The show-reel for the new Scientology TV channel showed people in white lab gear zipping up gold containers, and feautred a man explaining that a device on screen was called an e-meter, and "is the cutting edge of spiritual technology". The network devoted to one of the world's most secretive religions seemed like an interesting prospect, so we tuned in to the first couple of hours of programming at its launch, and what we saw was disturbing. That's because, as someone who's creeped out and vehemently opposed to Scientology, I could immediately see how they could appeal to people. Recommended Church of Scientology accused of covering up TV star sex abuse claims Leader David Miscavige and his clan are very convincing; Do you have a drug problem? Scientology is the answer. Are you a bad father? Scientology again. Is your marriage on the rocks? Scientology is the cure. The case studies involved people whose pearly white smiles never faded - Scientology fixed their problems after all. Their representatives make a point of saying the Church of Scientology "is not what you'd expect." The channel is supposed to debunk all of the supposed myths people have about the L Ron Hubbard-founded religion. The first hour of their network show is meant to be educational: learning about case studies, the purification process, auditing, technology and humanitarian work. Scientology is portrayed as a healing experience rather than a religion: the allegations of abuse, exploitation, brainwashing, spying and cover-ups are left out of the narrative. Tours of the facilities including the gym, sauna, bookstore, church and centre are mundane enough to make people think everything happening is completely normal. But that's what it's supposed to do: normalise Scientology. For someone looking for something to believe in, the life-changing "tools and resources" could be compelling. It's the perfect gateway drug for people who are looking for something missing in their lives. Commercial breaks tout activism - the work the church's volunteers do with impoverished children around the world and helping repair the damage of California's wildfires. Look beyond the plastic smiles and tag-lines and the network is effectively one big infomercial for the religion. Statements like "Scientology isn't just something you believe in it's something you do," "Scientology saves lives" or "every single person is free" are meant to be scripture, but they feel like knock-off horoscopes for someone who isn't looking to join the cult-like religion. With all these things combined after one hour of watching, I truly understand why someone would be captivated by something that on the surface absolves you of your problems and creates a supportive community. That's why the Scientology Network is so clever: it latches onto vulnerabilities and operates as a solution. Unfortunately having an entire network dedicated to the religion allows it to prey on more people looking for something to complete them. Hopefully, they come out unscathed. The first trailer for Fantastic Beasts 2 has been released. The second of five confirmed adventures set within the same world as Harry Potter sees Eddie Redmayne return as Newt Scamander who will this time around be enlisted by Hogwarts' Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to thwart the plans of the villainous Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) back in 1927. Returning for the sequel - titled The Crimes of Grindelwald - are Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller and Zoe Kravitz who plays Leta Lestrange. The film sees the adventure move from New York to London and then onto Paris with director David Yates promising fans there'll be some surprising nods to Harry Potter. JK Rowling's hidden Harry Potter sketches Show all 7 1 /7 JK Rowling's hidden Harry Potter sketches JK Rowling's hidden Harry Potter sketches Harry and the Dursleys, by J.K. Rowling JK Rowling's hidden Harry Potter sketches Quidditch, by JK Rowling JK Rowling's hidden Harry Potter sketches Peeves, by JK Rowling JK Rowling's hidden Harry Potter sketches Snape, by JK Rowling JK Rowling's hidden Harry Potter sketches Outside Privet Drive, by J.K. Rowling JK Rowling's hidden Harry Potter sketches MIrror of Erised, by J.K. Rowling JK Rowling's hidden Harry Potter sketches The Weasleys, by J.K. Rowling The Crimes of Grindelwald will take place just months after the first Fantastic Beasts as the villain escapes prison and begins to recruit followers - wizards who wish to raise pure-bloods who can rule over all non-magical beings. The only one who might be able to stop him is the wizard he once called his dearest friend, Albus Dumbledore, reads the synopses. But Dumbledore will need help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander. Written by J.K. Rowling, the film received a backlash in recent months following the controversial casting of Depp as well as confirmation that Dumbledore's sexuality won't be explored "explicitly" in the film. I think all the fans are aware of [Dumbledores sexuality], Yates - who directed the final four Harry Potter films - said. He had a very intense relationship with Grindelwald when they were young men. They fell in love with each others ideas, and ideology and each other. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will arrive in UK cinemas on 16 November. The first film - released in 2016 - is available to stream on NOW TV. Follow Independent Culture on Facebook Lailas Wisdom was one of the best albums of 2017, and also one of its most criminally overlooked. The hip hop record by Rapsody, a 35-year-old rapper from North Carolina, barely appeared in the traditional end of year album roundups in the UK or the US, despite receiving critical acclaim from those who did listen, and a Grammy nomination at the 2018 ceremony for Best Rap Album. The artist born Marlanna Evans is a 10-year veteran of hip hop who came to prominence the old-fashioned way: starting out with the North Carolina collective Kooley High, on producer 9th Wonders 2007 compilation The Dream Merchant Vol. 2, going on to release a string of releases helmed by 9th, including three EPs, four mixtapes, a wealth of guest appearances and her debut studio album The Idea of Beautiful. Her sharp, swift flow and talent for wordplay led to a breakthrough feature on Kendrick Lamars incendiary album To Pimp A Butterfly arguably the best feature on that record and she went on to sign to Jay-Zs label Roc Nation in 2016, releasing Lailas Wisdom in September the next year. 2017 was stacked with full-length rap releases, from Kendricks DAMN. to Jay-Zs 4:44 and Flower Boy by Tyler, the Creator. But it was Lailas Wisdom that stood out among those Grammy nominees; hip hop at its best and most refined, with heady beats that switched between old-school, classic hip hop and more of a funk-driven vibe; deft lyrics, coherent themes, and a beautiful, energetic dynamic running right through it. Recommended The 30 best albums of 2017 Perched on a sofa in the corner of a photography studio in east London, ahead of a show at the Jazz Cafe, we speak in half-whispers to avoid our conversation echoing around the large space. She beams at the mention of her Grammy nomination: Oh... what?! That was an amazing start to the year, she says. I dont even know how to put it into words I was just excited to be nominated. We won just to be there. It felt good opening the year like that, and even Grammy week was dope. Im not the most popular artist, Im not the biggest celebrity, so the fact I was recognised felt good. To inspire other people on the same path as me. When we did it [Lailas Wisdom] I knew it was a dope project but I know how the business works so I thought it was gonna get overlooked it was gonna be a slow burn, so I didnt go into it with any big expectations... although I was very proud of it. For me, this is the longest Ive ever worked on a project. Some EPs we did in two weeks, albums wed spend like three months. But for this one I really wanted to challenge myself, try new things, play with my voice. I really wanted it to be a moment. 80 songs later we were knocking it down, bringing Terrace [Martin] into the fold to make the music bigger. Loading.... Working with 9th again, Rapsody knew her album would continue hip hops tradition of bridging a gap between the old and the new. Older artists live on because new generations sample their music: It was important to keep that going, she nods, and because I grew up on soul my dad loved Luther Vandross, my mum liked Tina Turner, Patti LaBelle it reminds me of my youth, so I wanted to put that in the music. Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Lailas Wisdom is named in honour of her paternal grandmother, Laila, who said the phrase give me my flowers while I can still smell them her expression of gratitude when her granddaughter came to visit. And the album, both in its production and in her words, is about holding onto the knowledge passed down to you by your elders and then passing it on again: exploring those eternal themes of love, confidence, and power about how a person can give power to themselves, rather than wait for someone else to. Power given to yourself is whats valuable, what matters, she says. I spent too much of my time and career focusing on chasing power from other people. And you dont need it. Your music speaks for you and how you feel. I know where I am, I know what I mean to people. We give power to these bloggers, these trophies which are nice to have but at the same time they dont define you. They cant define your career, your life achievement. Its all about the way you make people feel, and the confidence you have in yourself, and thats where our real power comes from. True as that is, she agrees that there was still a crushing sense of disappointment when Kendrick was snubbed for the third time for Album and Artist of the Year at the 2018 Grammys. That one hurt. Hes been stiff-armed three times, Rapsody says. Even Jay Z didnt win a single award. Its crazy. But as we know, they dont understand our culture, they dont understand hip hop. The Grammys is for everybody to vote on, and everybody doesnt live in hip hop or understand it, thats what I had to realise. You want those artists to be represented, but when theyre not you cant let it take anything away from you. Recommended The Grammys set Kendrick Lamar up to fall They feel it. They see it. They cant not, she says at the suggestion the industry is all too aware of how artists are taking more control over their work. All of the power is with the artist now, you dont necessarily need a label not to say they dont help, Im happy with my situation but you can do it by yourself, have direct contact with your fanbase, make videos with an iPhone. You dont need a $10m dollar budget to create art. And that can only be better for the music and the culture. When she signed a record deal, the one thing she wouldnt compromise on was her creative control, which is why, she says, it took a while to work things out. Partnering with Roc Nation was the best thing we could have done, she says. Def Jam has been really supportive, but then thats the culture Jay Z has created. We walked in with the album 90 per cent done and they were just like we love it. Theyre not the type of label to want you to change things for radio or whatever. It was like... Tell us how we can help. She blinks when she hears how Kendrick posted her album artwork as his Twitter profile around its release last year something he also did to celebrate SZAs album CTRL which he also featured on. Oh wow, Im tripping, I missed that! she says laughing. But Im not surprised, thats who he is the celebrity hasnt changed him. Hes the biggest thing in music right now, but hes still humble, and a great leader who wants to bring others with him. And you cant ask for anything better from a person. In a similarly collaborative manner, Rapsody makes music like a director would a movie, where everybody is featured like their own character, but theyre part of the story. Thats what I wanted it to be like, an event, and we were piecing it together to have an intro, a climax she continues. Im a big suspense thriller fan, trying to piece the story, figuring out what the twist is. I kind of model my writing after that. Im not always a punchline rapper sometimes my lines connect so you have that lightbulb moment. In the film its like, I thought you was the killer but its the other guy! Lailas Wisdom featured a wealth of talent, from Kendrick but also artists including Anderson .Paak, Busta Rhymes, Black Thought, Amber Navran and Terrace Martin: before its release in September, Busta Rhymes announced it was the best album... from top to bottom in its entirety that Ive probably [heard] in the last 10 years. Lailas Wisdom was nominated for Best Album at the Grammys There were some good ones, Rapsody acknowledges modestly. All of them were special. I think creating Nobody (ft. Anderson .Paak, Moonchild and Black Thought) was really fun. The song was mostly done, I had two verses on it and no hook. And Anderson just started humming. I was like, man, you got something? Youre more than welcome, go for it. So he just went in the booth and kicked it, and it worked so well. The fun part is doing that, watching that process going down, and then the producing of it. Anderson sung it in one long bit and we split it up, then Terrace [Martin] plays over it and sends it back, and this is before Black Thought got on it. The song ended and Anderson kept playing, and it was such a funky joint we thought Oh thats another piece! lets make that the introduction for Black Thought. Jesus Coming came about right near the end of the albums production when 9th Wonder showed Rapsody a beat by that point there were 18 tracks that would later be narrowed down to 14. But Rapsody knew she had to have it. He [9th] called Amber Navran, I said Man, this is what the song makes me feel. I thought about homeless people and how in society theyre invisible to us. Thats a big thing for me. I watch people walk by like they dont even matter. So Amber came back and played the hook for me. Her voice is crazy. Then she had this other part that was muted, I was like What is that? Let me hear it. And it was what we ended up using for the bridge, which is my favourite part the inflection and the rise and fall in her voice creates the motion, its like, Rapsody throws her hands up, grinning, Aaahh! It came out perfectly. Lailas Wisdom, the album by Rapsody, is out now via Roc Nation/Virgin EMI in the UK When it comes to the fashion industry theres a seemingly fine line between appropriation and appreciation and brands dont always get it right. Case in point, Pharell Williams and Adidass latest collaboration inspired by Holi celebrations in India and Nepal. The collection, which is made up of colourful trainers, t-shirts and jackets, aimed to highlight the celebratory nature of the festival of colours where crowds of Hindus gather to eat, drink, and cover their bodies in brightly coloured powders. Recommended Little Mix member accused of cultural appropriation for wearing dreads However, following a recent trip to India to promote the Hu Holi collection, Williams and Adidas have been criticised on Twitter for appropriating Indian culture for the sake of fashion. Inciting comment from angry social media users, many suggested that the hallmarks of the traditional festival were being capitalised upon by the duo for their own gain without proper accreditation. Something about Adidas new collection screams cultural appropriationUsing our festival to sell a brand, and its shoes on top of it all, which Hindus would easily take offence to and theres not even an Indian celeb at the face of it, one person wrote. Another added: A European company getting an American musician to market a line of apparel/footwear inspired by an Indian festival. Yuppp, technically, this is cultural appropriation. But perhaps the most scathing criticism of them all came from Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who has urged Williams and Adidas to apologise and rename the collection. In a post on his website, Zed claims that the collaboration is a trivialisation of traditions-concepts-symbols-beliefs of Hinduism. Hu Holi Tee 29 (Adidas) Pharrell Williams and Adidas should have done some homework before taking Hinduism concepts frivolously and using these to make a fashion statement and sell shoes for mercantile greed, some of which contain leather, the statement reads. Inappropriate usage of Hinduism concepts or symbols or imagery for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it might be painful to many devotees. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt many followers. The President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Zed is well known for being outspoken with regards to the use of Hindu motifs and previously triggered Amazon to remove stockings from its website that featured an image of Hindu deity Lord Ganesha. However, not everyone understands the furore surrounding the collection with some claiming that it helps to promote diversity. Please don't apologise for your Holi ad, one person wrote on Twitter. I remember when celebrating diversity was a good thing...Let's keep it that way. A spokesperson from Adidas told The Independent: "Adidas Originals and Pharrell Williams created Hu as a global platform to inspire positive change. "Hu was founded upon the principles of unity, equality, humanity, and colour with an intention to explore humanity and celebrate diversity around the world. Together Adidas Originals and Pharrell Williams use the platform to help tell stories of others from around the globe." Whats that sound? Could it be the pitta patter of Britains greasiest awards ceremony? On Monday, doner devotees and falafel fans alike came together for the annual British Kebab Awards, where the countrys finest kofte kings are rewarded for their culinary contributions. Kebab businesses from all over the UK battled it out in 16 categories in a bid to impress the esteemed judging panel consisting of food experts, entrepreneurs and MPs. This years eclectic mix of judges included Capital Radios Tim John, childrens minister Nadhim Zahawi and shadow economic secretary Jonathan Reynolds. The ceremony took place at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel in central London and was attended by more than 1,200 guests, who were no doubt wrapped up in their finest attire to mark the occasion. The prestigious best kebab van gong went to the family-run Atalays Kebab Van in Thame, Oxon, which is managed by Turkish-born Resul Atalay and his twin sons. Atalay is famed for his homemade doner kebabs and chilli sauce made from 30 ingredients. Best chef was awarded to Mazlum Demir for the second-year-running, who produces a unique squid ink and octopus-flavoured kebab at Skewd Kitchen in Barnet. Elsewhere, Cobra Beers award for best fine dining experience went to Tarshish Mediterranean Grill in Wood Green, London. Meanwhile, the best kebab house in Scotland title was awarded to Verdo Turkish BBQ in Edinburgh, which is renowned for using fresh, seasonal ingredients to give its kebabs an authentic Turkish flavour. Recommended Vegetarian meals at fast food outlets no healthier than meat options The Welsh counterpart went to Golden BBQ in Cardiff while the Northern Ireland award went to Chaska in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. See below for the full list of winners, all of whom have done-r great job this year: Best chef - Mazlum Demir/Skewd Kitchen, Barnet, London Cobra Beer Best Fine Dining - Tarshish Mediterranean Grill, Wood Green, London Just Eat Best Delivery - Irmak BBQ, Dunstable Bira London Best Kebab Restaurant in South and East London - Cappadocia Restaurant, Kingston Best Kebab Restaurant in North and West London - Ali's Berlin Doner, Ealing Ace4Kebabs Customer Satisfaction - Uni Kebab, Southampton Best Value Restaurant - Gokyuzu, Harringay, London Best Kebab House in Wales - Golden BBQ, Cardiff Best Kebab House in Northern Ireland - Chaska, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh Best Kebab House in Scotland - Verdo Turkish BBQ, Edinburgh Best Newcomer Kebab House in London/Outside London - Pircio, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire Best Takeaway Regional - Master Kebabs, Gillingham, Kent Alton&Co Best Takeaway in London - Joint winner: Wallington Express, Wallington & Greek On The Street, Croydon Big K Best Kebab Restaurant Regional - Turknaz Restaurant, Whitley Bay, Northumberland Best Supplier Award - Holland Bazaar, Enfield, London International Restaurateur Honorary Award - Cuneyt Asan, Dubai Thats a wrap, folks The Mayor of New York has conceded defeat to Texas, admitting the Southern US state produces a better barbecue. During a discussion at the South by Southwest Festival in the Lone Star state, Austin mayor Steve Adler goaded Bill de Blasio on the topic by asking, Oh, New York has a barbecue? To which the Mayor of New York responded, We do not have as good as barbecue as you. Recommended Vegetarian meals at fast food outlets no healthier than meat options Im not competing with Austin on barbecue, the New York Post reported him saying. A rivalry that ensued as a result of an article posted by foodie website Munchies, the two states have gone head-to-head over the quality of their grills. Headlined, Why is Brooklyn barbecue taking over the world? the story discussed how the influence of barbecue joints in the borough was being felt in every corner of the globe, from Colombia and Spain, to Sweden, England and Japan. Brooklyn BBQ is more stylish, more loose, Mario Castrellon, owner of restaurant Maito told Munchies. It lets you break from traditional Texas or Kansas City BBQ. It's more of a blend of every style, which lets you play around with every recipe rather than following a straight-up traditional recipe." Ben Tish's winter barbecue Show all 6 1 /6 Ben Tish's winter barbecue Ben Tish's winter barbecue Ben can't resist a chunk of protein, cooked for a long time over wood and charcoal so it takes on those beautiful, primal smoky flavours you simply cannot recreate in a conventional oven Kris Kirkham Ben Tish's winter barbecue For Ben, wrapping up, getting the barbecue lit and smelling the wood smoke on a crisp afternoon is a true joy Kris Kirkham Ben Tish's winter barbecue Barbecue fennel with fresh chilli and Parmesan Kris Kirkham Ben Tish's winter barbecue Slow-cooked lamb shoulder with anchovies, lemon, garlic and thyme Kris Kirkham Ben Tish's winter barbecue Winter squash cooked in embers with walnut, pomegranate and marjoram gremolata Kris Kirkham Ben Tish's winter barbecue Ben has plenty of time to walk the dog Kris Kirkham Unsurprisingly, the piece left many Texans fuming including Adler who tweeted, We shall fight at the pits, lunch tables, at the tea cooler, in streets and at the front counters. We shall never surrender. Backing up his colleague, the US Senator for Texas, John Cornyn quipped at the image used in the article adding: Ha. Looks pretty unsatisfying. Since de Blasios comments, spokesman Eric Phillips explained that he was simply telling it like it is. The mayor knows we have great barbecue and that our scene has come a long way and will only get better, Phillips said. But while you can mess with Texas about a great many things, the mayor doesnt believe barbecue is one of them. A photograph that captured the moment a young toddler met his baby sister for the very first time has gone viral, thanks to the boys emotional reaction. For many parents, introducing their children to new family additions is something that requires a lot of consideration. They have to make sure that the older sibling dont feel neglected, while also checking that their newborn is receiving the care it needs. Recommended Khloe Kardashian reveals her baby shower was sponsored by Amazon But when Jordan Burch, an award-winning family and portrait photographer, arrived at the Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, to capture the special moment a mother introduced her baby to its older brother Jackson, he wasnt expecting the boys extraordinary reaction. Dear Jackson, today didnt go at all how I expected it to, Burch wrote on Facebook. Usually when mums have me come to the hospital, to capture their first born, meeting their sibling, its pretty stinkin adorable. Not that you werent adorable. You were. 22-month-old Jackson couldn't contain his tears when meeting his baby sister for the first time (Jordan Burch Photography) When Jackson first entered the room with his father Stephen, he was completely calm, even sitting down beside his mother Ashley on the bed. However, a few moments later, he began to cry hysterically, much to his mothers dismay. I watched, as your tears, broke your mommas heart, Burch wrote. Recommended Birth photography contest unveils amazing images from around the world While the 22-month-old may not have understood at the time how special it was to have gained a younger sibling, Burch feels sure that he will in due course. There is this unconditional, unexplainable kind of love. That even if it isnt felt, all the time. Its always there, Burch wrote in regard to Jacksons relationship with his mother. But aside from that, theres this other kind of love. A big brother, kind of love. One that you dont know about yet. Jackson's mother attempted to soothe him in his emotional state (Jordan Burch Photography) But youll soon learn. The photographs of Jackson wailing next to his mother and sister have gone viral on Facebook since being posted in November, garnering more than 42,000 reactions. Laura Swift, a former labour and delivery nurse and now a birth photographer, has provided advice for parents explaining what they should do when introducing their older children to a new baby. Her tips include giving your children a tour of the hospital before the birth, allowing them time to respond, reminiscing about fond memories with them, relaxing and discussing how theyll spend time with the baby in future. When teenager Sydney accidentally sent a picture of herself trying on a dress to the wrong number, she had no idea she would end up helping raise over $33,000 (23,700) for a child suffering from leukaemia. Shopping for a dress for a school formal event, Sydney took two pictures to send to a friend for their opinion. However she accidentally sent the photos to the wrong number, which turned out to be a man called Tony Wood who lives in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Father-of-six Wood was unsure how best to respond. Society puts a lot of pressure on these young women to have a certain look and a certain body build, he told Daily Mail Australia. We try to teach our children to be themselves and not worry about what others think... Even with that, my young daughters already express a desire to fit in and I figured this young lady might need that reassurance. So Wood replied to Sydney saying: I believe this message was intended for someone else. My wife isnt home, so I couldnt get her opinion, but the kids and I think you look stunning in your dress! You should definitely go with that one! He also sent a picture of five of his children giving Sydney the thumbs-up. My wife wasnt home so I couldnt get her opinion and I assumed that the children thumbs upping her would accomplish that substantially better than some overweight middle aged bald guy, Wood explained. The exchange was posted on Twitter by Sydney friend, Mandi Miller, and it quickly went viral. I got a message from some random number the other day with a couple pictures of a young lady in a dress, Wood wrote on Facebook. I decided, Let's make this persons day. So I had the kids thumbs up her and told her she looked stunning in her dress. Now, all of the sudden, my kids are Twitter famous! Pretty cool! Wood also shared an amusing video of his childrens reaction to being told theyd gone viral on the social network too. However, the story then took a surprising turn when some Twitter users joined the Facebook group for Woods sixth child who was absent from the picture: four-year-old Kaizler wasnt at home because he was in hospital undergoing chemotherapy for his leukaemia. The Woods had set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Kaizlers treatment in December 2015, but when the page was posted on Twitter, donations suddenly came pouring in from strangers. The parents had originally hoped to raise $10,000 (7,200), but the total currently stands at over $33,000 (23,700) thanks to donations from over 1,200 people. In response to a Twitter request, Wood then shared a picture of Kaizler giving a thumbs-up too. Its a bigger blessing than anyone could ever know, he said. Good morning! a loudspeaker blares in the working-class Sao Paulo suburb Jardim Monte Alegre. Weve got your yellow fever vaccine, and today were going house to house! You better wake up because mosquitoes never sleep! Twenty health workers pile out of cars. Though they laugh and chat with residents, their mission is deadly serious. Brazil is suffering its worst outbreak of yellow fever in decades. The virus, which kills 3 to 8 per cent of those who are infected, is circling the megacities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, threatening to become the countrys first urban epidemic since 1942. There have been 237 deaths since the hot season began, and the fatality rate will explode if the virus reaches the slums and the clouds of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes swarming there. A aegypti known for centuries as the fearsome yellow fever mosquito is also the chief spreader of Zika, dengue and chikungunya. It breeds in drinking water barrels and street garbage puddles, hides in the dark corners of houses and often bites several humans before laying eggs. To head off that catastrophe, health officials are struggling to vaccinate 23 million people. But the effort has been slowed by what critics call government missteps and false rumours about the vaccine. When they stopped coming to us, we started going to them, says Nancy Marcal Bastos, health and sanitation director for northern Sao Paulo. People have a lot of excuses for why they havent gotten the vaccine yet, but when we show up, its usually easy to convince them. Toting coolers full of vaccines, health workers stop in the corner bar and the local gym, demanding: Who hasnt been vaccinated yet? Line up! The workers jab extended arms and fill out forms with surprising speed, then move house to house. The challenges are daunting. In early 2016, the yellow fever virus broke out of its usual pattern: limited spread by forest mosquito species from monkeys to loggers, hunters, farmers and other residents of the Amazon basin. Instead, the virus began moving south and east, following forest corridors inhabited by monkeys towards the big coastal cities and triggering a public health emergency. Initially, locals were eager to be inoculated, with doctors administering 85,000 shots in just the first weekend (Getty) Panicky Brazilians started shooting, clubbing and poisoning monkeys in the belief that this could slow the spread. Actually, authorities said, that hurt efforts to track the virus, because monkey deaths are used as an indicator of its direction. Last year, it did not quite reach the cities cases faded out by July as cooler weather set in. Global health authorities sighed with relief, hoping intense vaccination efforts would snuff the outbreak. But that didnt happen, says Dr Sylvain Aldighieri, chief of epidemic response for the Pan American Health Organisation. There was lab-confirmed transmission during the winter, he says. So the amount of virus around at the beginning of the summer was already huge. Most of these new cases are occurring in areas where, until now, we didnt recommend immunisation

Dr Renato Vieira Alves

The resurgent virus is now lunging forwards more than a mile a day, he says, and efforts to stop an epidemic have become a race between the virus and the vaccinators. This years caseload is 26 per cent higher than at this time last year, and with more hot, rainy months ahead, the figure is destined to increase. This year, yellow fever named for its most common symptom, jaundiced eyes and skin began killing foreign tourists, including visitors to Ilha Grande, a tropical island south of Rio. Two Chileans and a Swiss citizen died, and visitors from France, the Netherlands and Romania fell seriously ill. In January, just before carnival season, another tourism lure, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention raised its alert level, advising Americans headed for Rio, Sao Paulo and several other areas to be vaccinated first. Brazil makes its own vaccine through a subsidiary of its Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. Much of this years chaos could have been averted if the government had acted faster, critics say. Low oil prices have hurt every sector of the economy, and the country has had a series of distracting political crises. The vaccine is effective but not harmless it can only be given to babies and the elderly if risk of infection is high (Getty) Brazils public health response was very delayed, says Dr Karin A Nielsen, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, who conducts research in Brazil. Monkeys were dying in the wild two to three years ago. Dr Jesse Reis Alves, a travel medicine specialist here, says the vaccination campaign should have been launched in a calm moment between outbreaks. Instead, he says, they waited for a new outbreak. In September, vaccinations were given to people living around forests near Sao Paulo where dead monkeys were found; the suburbs were targeted only in November. Initially, long lines formed at clinics, and 85,000 shots were given in one weekend. Then, on Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms, anti-vaccine activists who had found little footing in Brazil began spreading terrifying rumours. Some people began trashing the vaccine, saying, Its going to kill you, says Dr Ernesto TA Marques Jr, an expert in mosquito-borne diseases at the University of Pittsburgh. It was picked up in the media. When they stopped coming to us, we started going to them. People have a lot of excuses, but when we show up, its easy to convince them

Nancy Marcal Bastos

The vaccine, invented in the 1930s, is highly effective one dose normally provides lifetime protection. But it is not harmless. It cannot be given to newborns or anyone with a compromised immune system. It is given to people older than 60, pregnant women, or children younger than 8 months only when the risk of infection is high. About one recipient in 100,00 suffers a dangerous reaction like jaundice, hepatitis or encephalitis, Marques says, and about one in one million dies. If you vaccinate 30 million people, youll get about 30 deaths, he says. But if yellow fever infected 30 million people, two million could die. So, with the disease moving rapidly forwards, health authorities announced that they hoped to inoculate 95 per cent of the population in 77 cities and towns in the viruss path a total of 23 million people, including 12 million in this city alone. But they didnt have 12 million shots to give us, says Dr Wilson M Pollara, Sao Paulos health secretary. So were doing it in phases two million at a time. About one in a million dies from side effects, but the fatality rate will be much higher without the vaccine (Getty) The global vaccine stockpile, overseen by the World Health Organisation, normally contains only six million doses, made by only four manufacturers, including the Cruz foundation. But Brazil has increased production to about five million doses per month and can soon double that, says Dr William Perea, the WHOs epidemic control coordinator. That should easily cover Brazils needs for now, he says, so the global stockpile will not be drawn down. If necessary, it can be replenished; the four makers together can turn out 100 million doses a year in an emergency, he says. To stretch its initial supply of the vaccine, Brazil gave out one-fifth of the doses. That provides protection for at least a year and can be used in emergencies, the WHO says. Thus far, however, only 5.5 million people have been vaccinated. Despite those low numbers, the Health Ministry has pushed back against critics, insisting it followed international procedures. I dont think there were mistakes or delays, says Dr Renato Vieira Alves, the ministrys communicable disease coordinator. You cant launch new vaccination campaigns in an instant. While the caseload is higher than last years, it is only a fraction of the population at risk, he argues. Most of these new cases are occurring in areas where, until now, we didnt recommend immunisation, he says. To overcome suspicion of the vaccine and frustration with long lines at clinics, vaccinators have started going door-to-door or using tents shifted from one neighbourhood to another. There, they hope face-to-face chats will succeed where other efforts have failed. Lucia Elena de Paula, 36, explains her fears to a nurse, saying: I saw a video on WhatsApp with a girl who says she was paralysed after taking the vaccine. But after a few soothing words from a staff member, she agrees to get the shot. After dragging her 10-year-old grandson into a gym where the vaccines sit on an exercise bench, Aparecida Caldeira, 61, says: When we went to the clinic in January, the lines were just too long. Im so grateful they came here. But thats just typical in Brazil waiting to do everything at the last minute. New York Times Elaborate St Patrick's day celebrations and parades are held all over the world in honour of the beloved holiday, whether the country's inhabitants are Irish or not - and this year is no different. With countries and cities gearing up to celebrate the day of Irish heritage, 2018's St Patrick's Day parades, festivals, celebrations, green beer and green landmark's are expected to be a day to remember. These are five of the biggest and best St. Patricks Day parades. New York City The city hosts the worlds largest Saint Patricks Day parade - and has done so since 1762, 14 years before the United States signed the Declaration of Independence. The first parade was on March 17, 1762, and since then the worlds oldest and largest celebration has only gotten bigger and better. Now the parade annually draws over two million spectators to join in on the fun. The parade starts at 11am on 44th Street and 5th Avenue and proceeds up to 79th Street, passing St Patricks Cathedral on the way, where the parade is reviewed from the steps by His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York. While no cars or floats are permitted in the parade, bagpipes, bands, dancers and thousands of participants are. This year, 200,000 participants are expected to walk in the parade, which lasts for roughly six hours. St Patrick's Day parade in New York City (Getty) For those in New York City, attending the parade is worth the experience - but it does get quite crowded. Additionally, green hats and other costume dress are not permitted in the reviewing stands - nor is alcohol, as outlined in New York City open container laws. The Empire State Building will be lit green for the day. The parade is free to attend. Dublin Dublins St Patricks Day celebrations may not be as big as New York Citys - but they are much longer. The city celebrates the public holiday with a week of celebrations which include boat races, street and music performances, the Irish Beer & Whisky Festival, and, of course, the parade. Dublin has some of the most extravagant celebrations for St Patrick's Day (Getty) This years celebrations start on March 16 and will run through March 19 - with the parade happening on March 17. And with an audience of half a million, the parade in the Irish homeland, which proceeds from Parnell Square to St Patricks Cathedral, is a sight to behold. This years theme is "Home is Where the Heart is." London In London, St Patricks Day celebrations take place the weekend of March 17, usually starting the 19th and ending the 18th. London's St Patrick's Day parade will happen on March 18 (Getty) This year, the parade will be on March 18. Featuring floats and dancing, the procession starts at noon, making its way down Piccadilly on a 1.5-mile (2.4km) route. The parade passes some of Londons most iconic landmarks, including The Ritz, Piccadilly Circus, and Trafalgar Square. There is then an all-day festival in Trafalgar Square - which features food, fashion, music, and drinks. It is free to attend Chicago While certainly not the biggest celebration, the city of Chicago takes their dedication to the holiday a step further than most by dyeing the Chicago River green. The tradition started in 1961 when the chairman of the parade at the time saw green dye in the river. At the time, green dye signalled illegal pollution. But taking something negative and turning it into a positive, the parade chairman got the idea to turn the river green in celebration of Saint Patricks Day. The Chicago River is annually dyed green for the holiday (Getty) Now, the start to Saint Patricks day is marked with the dyeing of the river, which draws 450,000 people, and then continues to the parade which starts at noon, where more spectators arrive to join in on the celebrations. The parade lasts for three hours and follows a route from Columbus Drive through Grant Park. Both events are free to attend. Montserrat Known as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, Montserrat is the only other place outside of Ireland where St Patricks Day is considered a public holiday. Irish descendants make up most of the inhabitants of the island located in the British West Indies. The day is commemorated with a 10-day festival, which includes festivities such as a Kite Festival and a St Patricks Day dinner. Saint Patricks Day is also the anniversary of the countrys first slave uprising, that took place in 1768, which adds African and Caribbean festivities to the day of celebration. This year marks the 250th anniversary of the slave uprising, so the 2018 celebration is especially important. While there is no parade, the countrys celebrations will centre around a reconstructed slave village where attendees can buy traditional food or participate in traditional games and dances. As with every St Patrick's Day, this year's celebration will feature hundreds of landmarks lit green in what is expected to be the world's largest Global Greening ever. The Irish Government has offered full support to the UKs efforts to bring those responsible for the Salisbury chemical attack to account. Deputy Premier and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said the attack, which saw a nerve agent used to poison a former double agent on UK soil, was a disturbing violation of international law. Ireland condemns this cowardly attack which has taken place on our neighbours soil, the Tanaiste said. We stand in solidarity with our closest neighbour and friend in the face of a disturbing and shocking chemical nerve agent attack in U.K. pic.twitter.com/PbtblZOT3T Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) March 13, 2018 The use of chemical weapons, including the use of any toxic weapons, is unacceptable and abhorrent. He added: The incident in Salisbury represents a disturbing violation of international law and goes against norms which have long been established. Mr Coveney said Ireland (joins) many states in supporting the UKs efforts to ensure a thorough investigation so that the perpetrators of this crime can be held accountable. We offer our full support and solidarity to the UK and to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in their efforts to seek answers and take appropriate action for this indiscriminate and reckless act, he added. Health Minister Simon Harris has cancelled an overseas trip to concentrate on the hospital overcrowding crisis (Niall Carson/PA) Health Minister Simon Harris has cancelled his St Patricks Day trip to Europe to concentrate on tackling the hospital overcrowding crisis. Mr Harris was due to fly to the Netherlands and Belgium for the annual celebrations. However, on Tuesday he said it did not feel right to travel while those in the health service worked to try and deal with the overcrowding problem. People across the health service are working extraordinarily hard to make progress in what is a difficult week. I am in regular contact with HSE. It would not feel right to me as Minister to travel for St Patricks Day so I have made decision not to do so Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) March 13, 2018 In a tweet he said: People across the health service are working extraordinarily hard to make progress in what is a difficult week. I am in regular contact with HSE. It would not feel right to me as Minister to travel for St Patricks Day so I have made decision not to do so. Earlier in the day Independent TD Mattie McGrath had called on the Minister to reconsider his trip. I think it is grossly irresponsible for Minister Harris to be out of the country at a time when almost every major local and regional hospital is in the grip of capacity crisis with respect to patients on trolleys, said Mr McGrath. On Monday overcrowding in hospitals across the county reached new record levels with 714 people waiting on trolleys. The figure remained high on Tuesday with 649 patients waiting on trolleys in hospitals across the country, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. The UK will come to regret its decision to leave the European Union, Jean-Claude Juncker has suggested. European Commission president Mr Juncker said things cannot remain as they are for the UK in its relationship with the EU after leaving the bloc. Addressing the European Parliament, Mr Juncker was cheered by Eurosceptic MEPs as he noted the UKs departure was due on March 29 2019. Responding to their applause, Mr Juncker said the time would come when you will regret your decision. But former Ukip leader Nigel Farage claimed the European Commission was seeking to bully the UK and suggested Theresa May should back a departure from the bloc without a transition deal. In a message to Mrs May ahead of next weeks European Council summit, Mr Juncker said the EU needed more clarity on how the UK sees its future relationship. Mr Juncker said cherry-picking is not going to be possible in the future trade relationship between the UK and EU. I would rather have preferred Britain not to have decided to leave the European Union, but anyone who leaves the European Union has to know, frankly, what this means, he said. If you decide to jettison, leave behind, the common agreements and rules, then you have to accept that things cannot remain as they are. The European Parliament plays a crucial role in the ongoing #Brexit negotiations. Watch our video to find out how and tune in for the plenary debate on EU-UK future relations today at 9am CET. pic.twitter.com/z0PDCGsXIh European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) March 13, 2018 Mr Juncker said the controversial backstop proposal for dealing with the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic translates faithfully the agreement reached between Mrs May and the EU in December. He said the EU was ready to work with the UK on its preferred option of the border issue being resolved in the future trade deal, or by other specific measures. But he added we need to receive concrete proposals from the UK first. Mr Juncker said: The 27 member states stand firm and united when it comes to Ireland. For us this is not an Irish issue, it is a European issue. But he was heckled by one MEP who shouted it is a British issue. Brussels chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Mrs Mays decision to leave the single market and customs union was closing doors to possible models of future co-operation. Mr Barnier added that it was a rather surprising idea to think the EU could accept convergence in some areas and at the same time open up the possibility for divergence when there is a comparative advantage to be had for the UK. Its time to face up to the hard facts, he said. The UK is choosing to leave the union, the single market and the customs union, we have noted that. Do they also want to distance themselves from our regulatory model, the one that we have constructed together with you and you with us for 44 years? He questioned whether that could result in the UK dumping products on EU markets by diverging from the blocs economic and social model after Brexit. The European Parliaments Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt also called for more details from the Prime Minister. He said: There was this Mansion House speech by Mrs May, but it was mainly repeating the red lines that we know already. On #Brexit, its time to go beyond slogans & sound bites, from all sides. Thats what we do in this resolution. We present an architecture, a concept, a vision for the future, a plan that matches the red lines of the UK w/ the principles on which the EU has been built #EPlenary Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) March 13, 2018 Mr Verhofstadt said it was time to move beyond slogans and soundbites. His European Parliament motion calls for an association agreement to deal with the future UK-EU relationship. But it insists on a binding interpretation role for the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and rejects UK efforts to cherry-pick single market access for particular sectors, such as the financial services industry. Theresa May should take @realDonaldTrump's lead and stand up to the unelected European Commission bullies at next week's EU summit. pic.twitter.com/1uRPsTCxCS Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) March 13, 2018 Mr Farage, a supporter of US President Donald Trump, said the UK should leave the EU without a transition deal and claimed a transatlantic trade deal could be struck in 48 hours. He said: Mrs May, we did not vote for a transition period, we voted to leave this organisation, we voted to leave the customs union, we voted to leave the single market. Please Mrs May, at this summit next week, do what Trump has done stand strong against the European Commission, against the unelected bullies. Exporting companies in the UK and EU face additional red-tape costs of about 58bn (65bn) in total in the event of a hard Brexit, a report has said. The study by consultants Oliver Wyman said country level differences are pronounced, singling out the agri-food industry here and the car and manufacturing sector in Germany as particularly exposed. If the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal, the annual costs overall, both tariff and non-tariff, for exporters in the remaining member states is estimated to amount to 31bn. That's fractionally more than for UK exporters, who will be hit with a 27bn bill. Oliver Wyman said the study focuses only on the direct impacts of the UK's exit from the EU which are of immediate importance to companies for Brexit planning. It does not model additional impacts such as migration, pricing changes or third-country Free Trade Agreements, which are likely to increase the overall impact. The report noted that in the EU27, the hardest-hit sector will be automotive, where the direct impact will be around 2pc of current Gross Value Added (GVA). But it added: "Country-level differences will be pronounced. In Ireland, for example, the exposure of the agricultural sector to UK consumers is a particular pinch point, and in Germany four of the 16 states - Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Lower Saxony - will shoulder around 70pc of the total impact due to their respective strength in automotive and manufacturing." It added that in the UK the financial services sector will take by far the biggest hit, incurring around a third of the extra 'red-tape' costs. However, there are very significant impacts in other sectors where firms are highly integrated into European supply chains - for example in the automotive, aerospace, chemicals and metals and mining sectors. If the UK stays in a form of a customs union, it would reduce the costs for both sides by about half, the report said. But Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out keeping Britain in an EU customs union because it would prevent the country from striking its own trade deals. Irish and Scottish farmers should work together to deal with the challenge of Brexit, a joint Teagasc and Scottish Rural College Conference (SRU) has heard. Speaking at the conference in Edinburgh today, Director of Resreach at Teagasc Professor Frank OMara said international research collaboration is essential for rural areas to thrive and that the existing strong links between SRUC and Teagasc can be further developed to deal with challenges. The conference heard that rural regions need to be innovative in order to share prosperity in an increasingly globalised economy and respond to societal challenges. Organisers said it is hoped that the event will help build greater public awareness of the potential of rural areas and resources to deliver on a wide range of economic, social, and environmental challenges and opportunities benefitting all citizens of Ireland and Scotland. Teagasc Director, Gerry Boyle added that rural areas need to start investing in new technologies and the bio-economy in order to create more jobs and be more competitive. It is important to highlight that new opportunities for rural areas will not be just confined to traditional sectors. New digital and other areas of science and technology will create opportunities for agri-food. They have a real contribution to make to the rural economy. Investing in growing these domains creates opportunities in many sectors, more highly skilled jobs, more competitive and sustainable rural economies, as well as openings into new markets, he said. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed will travel to the UK as part of the annual series of Irish Government engagements to mark St Patricks Day. Speaking in advance, Minister Creed stressed the significance of the itinerary against the backdrop of Brexit that the St Patricks Day festival, now celebrated globally, offers a unique opportunity for the Irish Government to put its best foot forward for the country in promoting trade and fostering business relationships against an overall backdrop of celebrating our diaspora and their achievements all over the world. This year, in the context of an impending Brexit, his itinerary takes on an important added dimension and said that his political meetings and trade promotion events will be marked by the Governments firm intention to secure and strengthen our market in the UK for Irish agri-food products. The Minister will meet with Chief Executive Officers of major buyers of Irish food and drink in the UK, and will also include a meeting with the UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Michael Gove. Creed will also, along with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, accompany this years Parade Grand Marshalls, Gloria Hunniford and Imelda Staunton, in leading the St Patricks Day Parade to Trafalgar Square. Minister Creeds programme includes attendance at the launch of an Embassy and Transport for London partnership to celebrate St. Patricks Day on the London Underground; meetings with Irish business and professional networks; engagement with the Irish arts community; attendance as guest of honour at the London St. Patricks Festival Ball; leading the London St. Patricks Day Parade and addressing the St. Patricks Festival in Trafalgar Square celebration. The first meeting of a task force brought together to look at possible policy changes to assist the agricultural sector improve its safety record took place today. Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen TD., whose remit includes workplace health and safety, chaired the meeting of the the group which is made up of representatives from various Government Departments and State Agencies, who are identified as having a role to play in deciding on the appropriateness of certain policy changes. These changes were suggested by agricultural sector representatives following Minister Breens and Minister Creeds meeting with those organisations in May 2017. Speaking after the meeting, Minister Breen said for too many years, Farming and the Agricultural sector has suffered the largest number of workplace fatalities in Ireland. "The number of deaths in the sector is completely disproportionate to the numbers employed. In an attempt to change this, last year I asked sector representatives to identify policy changes that they believed could help improve the situation. Today I have presented the submissions received to the various policy-making Departments or Agencies to find out what it is possible to introduce and what may not be. There is clearly no immediate solution to this continuing issue, but I am convinced that by working together, the State and the farming Community can bring about positive change and reduce deaths, Minister Breen continued. The task force was the result of a suggestion by the agricultural sector and from the Board of the Health and Safety Authority. The matters discussed by the task force covered a wide range and included items on education, training and the age profile of farmers. In 2017, 24 persons died while at work in agriculture. This represents more than 50% of the workplace fatalities recorded by the HSA for the year (47). To date this year, three people from the farming community have lost their lives in work-related accidents. The Minister indicated that the task force convened today will meet again and firm proposals will emerge. Following the identification of actions Minister Breen will discuss them with his colleague Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed. The Minister is again calling on farmers to stay safe, think about their actions and consider work practices on a daily basis. Russia is strengthening its position in the global food market with the country's agriculture sector booming. This is largely due to government policy in response to sanctions, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. The policy of import substitution has proved its worth in a number of sectors. Talking about agricultural produce, we can say we are self-sufficient. We expect that export potential may double by 2025, said Yevgeny Akhlashev, director of the ministrys food and processing industry department, which expects exports to reach $40 billion. He noted that, over the past three years, Russia has dramatically reduced imports of sugar (by 73pc), meat (by 36pc), and cheese products (by 29pc), while domestic production in these sectors increased considerably. Statistics show that Russias export potential in the agriculture sector has surged 15-fold in the past decade. As a result, exports of sugar have risen 17-fold in the past two years. Vegetable-oil exports have increased by 40pc. Food exports, dominated by wheat and fish, soared to a record $19 billion last year, according to the Russian Export Center. This month, during his speech to the Russian Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin said exports of food to international markets should exceed imports within the next four years. The president urged an increase in exportation of meat, and the degree of self-sufficiency in beef, dairy products and vegetables. Russia is currently enjoying record grain production, which has beaten last year's bumper crop and the record harvest set by the USSR in 1978. The country has harvested around 135.393 million tons of grain, including 85.9 million tons of wheat, during the current growing season. Exports are reportedly set to beat another record this season. Irish whiskey exports' 14.2pc increase in value in 2017, is to the advantage of Irish barley farmers, the Head of the Irish Whiskey Association, William Lavelle has said. Irish whiskey exports recorded a 14.2pc increase in value in 2017, according to the Central Statistics Offices (CSO) 2017 Trade Statistics report, published today. The category saw a 16.7pc increase in exports to the US, its largest export market; a 15.7pc increase in exports to Canada and 9.2pc increase in exports across the 27 EU markets. It is estimated that nearly 120 million bottles (10 million cases) were sold in 2017, worth over 600 million in exports from Ireland, up 20pc from 2016. Mr Lavelle said that this figure shows how Irish whiskey growth is benefitting both the Irish economy and the Irish farmer. "These figures confirm the sustained double-digit export growth in the Irish whiskey category. Irish whiskey export growth is delivering for the Irish economy, creating jobs throughout the country and benefiting Irish barley farmers. Irish whiskey remains the fastest growing spirits category in the world. This growth is showing signs of no abatement. Our industry has global ambitions and we are targeting more growth in more markets. Farmers facing heavy penalties for wildfires could stop walkers coming onto their land, the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association has said. Mayo Chair of the Irish Natura & Hill Farmers Association Gerry Loftus has called on Minister Creed to retract his recent statement which will see farmers held responsible for wildfires they have not lit. If he doesnt stated Loftus the only sensible action for farmers will be to restrict access to their property which will clearly impact on hill walking." He said there is a situation in Mayo where farmers have payments held up due to a fire which none of them had anything to do with and where a non-farmer has been convicted of lighting the fire all be it by accident. "Unfortunately the farmers are the ones that continue to suffer and while these farmers and others like them need to have their monies paid out, all farmers will now need to assess what public access to their property means. As Mayo Chair of the INHFA I am he added very conscious of the impact that this could have on our tourism sector and would hope that the Minister and his officials will see the mistake that this threat is before we get to the point of seeing these hills closed. This however is for the Minister and his officials to decide on. "If he removes the threat of penalising farmers for fires they have not lit, then this will reassure farmers that they have nothing to fear from the public accessing their land. If he doesnt remove this threat, then Minister, it will be you and your advisors that will have closed the hills." It comes as farmers were warned that if they burn land after March 1 they risk facing prosecution, while the land is not eligible for payment under the Basic Payment Scheme and other area-based schemes. Farmers who burn land illegally, may face reduced payment and penalties under this scheme and the other area-based schemes, e.g. Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme and it can also render the land of your neighbours ineligible for payment. The Minister said that both farmers and the wider public, whether it be at work or in enjoying the countryside, should at this time of year be mindful of the damage caused by burning and should take appropriate care. The burning of vegetation is controlled by the Wildlife Acts and it is an offence under Section 40 of the Wildlife Act, 1976 (amended by Section 46 of the Wildlife Act, 2000) to burn, from March 1 to August 31 in any year, any vegetation growing on any land not then cultivated. The Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has issued a strong warning to farmers and their advisors that it is illegal to burn land from March 1 to August 31. He said that farmers who burn land after March 1 risk facing prosecution, while the land is not eligible for payment under the Basic Payment Scheme and other area-based schemes. Farmers who burn land illegally, may face reduced payment and penalties under this scheme and the other area-based schemes, e.g. Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme and it can also render the land of your neighbours ineligible for payment. The Minister said that both farmers and the wider public, whether it be at work or in enjoying the countryside, should at this time of year be mindful of the damage caused by burning and should take appropriate care. The burning of vegetation is controlled by the Wildlife Acts and it is an offence under Section 40 of the Wildlife Act, 1976 (amended by Section 46 of the Wildlife Act, 2000) to burn, from March 1 to August 31 in any year, any vegetation growing on any land not then cultivated. Individuals who are found to burn vegetation within that prohibited period are liable to prosecution by An Garda Siochana or by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Land found to have been burned during the specified closed season for burning is considered automatically ineligible under the various support schemes. Farmers will have to wait for the final balancing payment for GLAS until mid-summer, it has emerged. It is likely that the 2017 inspections will not be completed until the end of May for the environmental payments. The ICMSA's Lorcan McCabe said the delay was just "unacceptable" as it was supposed to be paid by mid-December. So far 46,000 GLAS applications have been paid an 85pc advance amounting to 156m. At the Farmers Charter meeting it also emerged that payments are being held up due to inspection issues on TAMS investments relating to slurry storage and structural investments. Mr McCabe said a commitment was given at the meeting that these would be resolved and paid before the end of March. He said it was also disappointing that there will be no change to the 2018 BPS inspection regime despite the signing into law in late 2017 of the EU Omnibus regulation which was supposed to deliver simplifications in schemes. The IFA's Richard Kennedy said the Department confirmed that a flexible and practical approach would be taken in regard to any weather related inspection issues. He said officials confirmed they are making the necessary changes for 2018 to avoid the delays that occurred with satellite inspections last year. All farmers have to make BPS applications online this year and so far 1,341 farmers out of the 16,000 who submitted paper applications last year have lodged theirs online. To date there have been 12,933 online applications in total. More than 40 meetings are expected to be held by the Department in April to assist with online applications and help anyone having difficulties. So far there have been 123,211 or 99.5pc of Basic Payment scheme applicants paid 1.16bn. Around 94,700 ANC applicants have been paid 202.6m. Some 20,684 farmers have been paid 16m in advance payments under the Sheep Welfare Scheme. Inspections are due to be completed by the end of March, which will result in payments of 3m being paid. Around 6,000 have not been paid in the Knowledge Transfer scheme, with reduced payments where farmers did not attend all meetings. So far 13,814 have been paid 10.2m. Everyone has to start somewhere. In 1973, legendary entrepreneur and Apple cofounder Steve Jobs needed a job. He had just dropped out of Reed College and he was still three years away from founding Apple and changing the computer industry forever. Also, the 18-year-old needed a ride. He said his access to transportation was possible, but not probable in a job application that is currently up for auction at RRAuction. Jobs listed computer and calculator as his skills and he also said his abilities and interests include electronics tech or design engineer. And the inventor of the iPhone didnt even have a phone at the time. Check out the entire job application: Three years after he filed this paperwork, Jobs would team up with Steve Wozniak to found Apple and release the Apple I computer, which was an instant success. That led to the Apple II, which led to the Macintosh, which led, decades later, to the iPhone a version of which you may be reading this story on right now. Before Apple, Jobs travelled to India and also spent some time on a commune in Oregon, all of which sounds a lot more eventful than punching the clock working on computer and calculator as a teenager. The rest is history. Aryzta is under no pressure to offload its 49pc stake in French frozen food firm Picard, even as it eyes at least 450m in disposal proceeds by the end of the year, according to chief financial officer Frederic Pflanz. And CEO Kevin Toland has ruled out a sale of the troubled group's flagship La Brea artisan bread brand. It bought California-based La Brea in 2001. The embattled Swiss-Irish baked goods firm, whose brands also include Cuisine de France, has been selling non-core assets as it tries to shore up its business. The group generated net proceeds of about 30m from the sale of its La Rousse foods business, and 57m from the recent disposal of its troubled Cloverhill and Cicero facilities in the United States. That's left some analysts predicting that Aryzta will have to complete the sale of its Picard stake before the end of its July year-end in order to meet its own cumulative asset sale target. But Mr Pflanz, who joined the group in January, insisted that's not the case. Picard is owned jointly with private equity group Lion Capital. "We're not only looking to sell our joint venture, but we're looking at other disposal processes," he said. "We're happy that the processes are already under way, which is a good thing. "I definitely do think that anybody who is buying or selling a business will drive a hard bargain." He added that even if Aryzta didn't reach its 450m disposal target by the financial year end, the group will remain safely within its debt covenants. "We have no pressure whatsoever today on hard bargains, or low bargains, or mid bargains." The executives were speaking as Aryzta said its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda), slumped almost 30pc to 161.3m in the first half of its financial year. Its revenue fell 6.3pc to 1.79bn. Mr Toland, who started as CEO last September, and the group's board, have been trying to hammer Aryzta back into shape after an especially tortuous time in the US. Mr Toland insisted yesterday that his actions at Aryzta are not linked to achieving any metrics with a view to his long-term incentive plan. "In terms of our own incentives, and particularly my own, it's absolutely secondary it's [about] doing the right thing for the business and putting the business in the right place," he said. A carpet of fallen apples at the Bulmers factory orchard in Clonmel Storm Ophelia blew the apples off the trees and flooding from Storm Brian swept them into a corner of the field. Picture by Jonathan Ryan Bulmers maker C&C expects to report profit of 86m for the 12 months to 28 February 2018. Admiral Taverns, which the group acquired 47pc of last September, is expected to contribute an additional 1.1m to C&Cs earnings, the company said in a trading update today. The Admiral deal gives C&C a greater direct-to-market platform in the key English market which it has struggled to crack. Last year operating profit at the group was 95m. In addition the company said that, despite weather-related disruption, trading and cash generation was broadly in line with management expectations. Cash conversion is expected to be within the companys guidance range at around 60pc of earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation. In Scotland, the group said that its Tennents and super-premium brands grew revenues strongly, while its Magners brand (Bulmers in Ireland) returned to volume growth with momentum building through the first year of the companys cider distribution partnership with AB InBev. The trading environment in the Irish market remained "highly competitive" the company said, both within long alcoholic drinks and from other categories, with the overall cider category declining 1pc, while bulmers brand volumes were down 6pc during the 12 month period. "As highlighted in our first half results, revenues and profitability in Ireland were also negatively impacted by reduced volumes in our wholesale business and the reversion of certain customers to direct supply from AB InBev," C&C said. The groups exports expect to experience volume growth of around 2pc for the companys financial year 2018, with good growth in Magners and Tennents in Asia Pacific off-set by slower growth in cider in Europe. Looking forwards, the company said that the performance of its Scottish businesses and its growing super-premium portfolio has been encouraging last year, and both are well positioned to deliver further value growth in FY2019, the company said. While C&C expects competitive pressures to continue in Ireland, it expects its Irish performance to improve next year. Meanwhile in the UK, C&C said that the outlook for the UK high street and consumer spending remains "challenging" but that its brands and the predominantly wet-led, community pubs that it serves are proving to be resilient. The judge threw out McDonaghs claim which meant the six other claims collapsed with it and were dismissed The Central Bank has said there is now a "significant question" as to the ability of CBL Insurance Europe (CBLIE) to pay its debts. Kieran Wallace has now been appointed administrator to the troubled New Zealand-owned insurer, which has 12,500 policies in Ireland. It mainly underwrites construction-related credit and financial surety insurance, as well as professional indemnity and property insurance, and travel bonding. New Zealand's High Court has placed insurance firm CBL Insurance Ltd, the main subsidiary of CBL Corporation Ltd, in interim liquidation after a request from the country's central bank. The Central Bank of Ireland has said, in an affidavit published by the regulator yesterday, that its primary and most urgent current concern arises as a result of the interim liquidation. "There must now be a significant question as to the ability of the Insurer [CBLIE] to pay its debts, having regard to the extent of its reliance on the financial position of CBLNZ [CBL Insurance] as its primary reinsurer," the affidavit noted. "In light of the public nature of the financial difficulties faced by the CBL Group, the policy holders of the insurer face considerable uncertainty with regard to the future of the insurer and its ability to continue to meet its obligations to them." The Central Bank said it has taken its action to protect CBLIE policyholders. It said existing policies continue to remain in force. But it added: "The Central Bank is recommending that policyholders contact the firm directly, or their broker (if the policy was bought through a broker) to arrange alternative cover as soon as possible." The affidavit said that the regulator believes CBLIE is in a "financially distressed position" and that it is "incumbent upon the [Central] Bank to take such action as is necessary to protect the interests of policyholders and the integrity of the insurance market within the State." The Central Bank said it could not support an examinership petition by CBLIE. The Central Bank said the administration will protect CBLIE, and its policy holders, from the risk of insolvency proceedings being commenced by its creditors, including CBLNZ. "An administration would enable an administrator to take control of the business of the insurer, and secure its business, assets and records, so that he can take immediate steps to determine whether the insurer can be restored to a sound financial footing and continue as a going concern." The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is seeking nominations for its 2018 Women in News Editorial Leadership Award. The award recognises an exemplary contribution of an Editor to her newsroom and under her leadership, the contribution of her newspaper to society. One outstanding editor from sub-Saharan Africa and one from Middle East and North Africa will be named Laureates in 2018. In 2017, the award was given to Karima Kamal, columnist and contributing editor for Al Masry Al Youm from Egypt and Kenyan journalist Pamella Sittoni, Editor of the International Desk for the Nation Media Group and Managing Editor for The East African. This award is a strong confirmation that the world is taking notice of the important contribution that women leaders in media houses are making to the development of their countries, regions and the world. I'm confident that it will inspire other women journalists, particularly the younger ones, to aim for the top through diligence." said Sittoni. On being named a winner, Kamal said: "I am very pleased to have received the Award as I feel it is the crown of my professional journey. The Award supports those who defend the freedom of the press, and is also a confirmation of the importance of promoting the presence of women equally and fairly within all strata of media. The 2018 recipients of the Women in News Leadership Award will be honoured during the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Estoril, Cascais, Portugal, 6-8 June 2018. The Winners will receive an all expenses paid trip to attend the World News Media Congress 2018, the premier global annual meeting of the worlds press. Deadline for nominations is April 8, 2018. Credit unions have been accused by the Central Bank of issuing loans without assessing if members are able to repay the borrowings. Regulators said some credit unions need to improve how they are run. The Central Bank report found "a concerning number of governance and operational risks still need to be addressed". After making 700 visits to the head offices of credit unions in the last six years, the regulator said some credit unions were still taking too many risks. The weaknesses were found at large and smaller lenders. Registrar of credit unions Patrick Casey, who operates from within the Central Bank, called for higher standards. He said: "Whilst governance standards have improved across the sector, governance remains one of the key risk areas for credit unions. It is concerning that over 60pc of individual risks identified during on-site engagements relate to governance or operational risks." The Central Bank found what it said were "notable" issues around the issuing of loans in some credit unions. It referred to some credit unions failing to assess the capacity of members to repay before providing loans, and failing to document rationales for credit decisions. Carrying out an affordability assessment is a key regulatory requirement before a loan is issued. The regulator did not say how many credit unions are issuing loans without carrying out affordability assessments, but did say the issue represents 19pc of risk issues identified. Some credit unions were also found to be failing to document processes and procedures. "In other instances, while processes and procedures were documented, credit unions were failing to implement them effectively," the report states. Also identified was what the report referred to as inadequate segregation of duties. This meant some officials in credit unions have responsibilities for multiple functions, "increasing the risk of error and misappropriation". And credit union boards came in for criticism. Regulators cited issues being identified by auditors, but boards failing to respond appropriately. "Issues were also identified in relation to the level and quality of discussion and challenge by boards," Mr Casey's report states. The Central Bank said the majority of credit unions now have a strategic plan in place, which maps out how future growth will be achieved. But the quality, effectiveness and the level of review of strategic plans was questioned. The new report comes after a Central Bank report last week found that staff and directors won a prize in raffles run in a third of credit unions that have a draw. It also found draws were conducted by staff, who were eligible to enter the draw, with no independent oversight present. Patients in Ireland visit their general practitioner on average three times a year and spend 171 each in the process. But one-in-five spends more than 250 visiting their doctor, according to research that has been conducted by Amarach for online consultants VideoDoc. Parents who need to visit a GP also incur further costs, with the average cost of childcare adding 50 to outlay. A standard visit is between 55 and 60 according to recent comments from Health Minister Simon Harris, who said it was too expensive. The research found those forced to take time off work end up spending six hours on average to visit their doctor. The survey found four out of 10 adults agree the average waiting time to see a GP is too long. Many say that in the last six months they needed to see a GP outside of traditional surgery hours. In an effort to reduce medical bills, more than half of Irish people now "Google their symptoms" in the hope of avoiding GP costs, something that is more common among women than men. Many visits are for straightforward matters like repeat prescriptions or cold and flu symptoms. A sample of 1,000 people nationwide were surveyed. VideoDoc offers unlimited online consultations for an annual subscription of 35. The family rate is 110. The survey comes after TDs were told that general practice in Ireland is "just hanging in there". Reform, investment and political commitment is needed if the healthcare system is to move to a primary care-led system, TDs were told recently by Dr Tom O'Dowd, emeritus professor of general practice at Trinity College Dublin. Dublin-based tech company Glantus has acquired the New York-based Hedgehog Analytics. Total revenues over the next two years as a result of the combined merger is expected to reach $10m (8.1m), it is understood. "This is a major acquisition in our expansion and diversification in both a geographically and sectorally," Maurice Healy, chief executive of Glantus, said. "The deal provides Glantus with a significant footprint in the United States and presents us with a unique opportunity to scale up our business in the coming years." Expand Close Maurice Healy, chief executive of Glantus / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Maurice Healy, chief executive of Glantus Established in 1994, Glantus, which provides software solutions and artificial intelligence, already has presence in the US, with an office in New York. Meanwhile, data analytics company Hedgehog was established in 2014 by a group of specialists with backgrounds in statistics to make data science accessible by delivering insights as well as analytics. Today Hedgehog provides a range of US companies with data science consultancy, particularly in the financial services, pharmaceuticals and marketing advertising sectors. In a statement, Glantus said that the rationale behind the acquisition was that Hedgehog provides data-based consultancy but stops short of providing products to enable the solution. This is where Glantus comes in, the company said, and going forward, Hedgehog would be providing the Glantus suite of products as options to its pre-existing and prospective customers in the US. The companys increased presence in the US will see it increase its employee numbers in sales and marketing, with further growth in support and R&D resources required in Ireland, where it currently employs 50 people. Following the acquisition, Hedgehog will be branded as 'Glantus US' and it will be headed up by Lee Medoff, who said today he is "delighted" to be joining the Glantus group as chief analytics officer. The acquisition comes after the company recently formed a partnership with UK housing solutions provider Castleton UK in a deal set to be worth around 10m for the company. Goldman Sachs has said that Harvey Schwartz will retire from the bank, leaving David Solomon as sole president and chief operating officer and the most obvious successor to CEO Lloyd Blankfein. The bank did not say why Schwartz was retiring. He and Solomon were named co-COO in 2016 in a setup that appeared to pit them against each other to eventually lead the most powerful US investment bank. The 'Wall Street Journal' said on Friday that 63-year-old Blankfein was expected to retire as soon as this year and the bank was not looking beyond Schwartz and Solomon to replace him. Goldman did not comment. The unexpected announcement that Schwartz will also retire eliminates a presumptive CEO candidate with a strong trading background and comes as Goldman Sachs has been trying to reinvent itself after market trends and regulations sapped profits from its once-lucrative trading business. Schwartz, 53, will leave on April 20. He had been co-head of the bank's trading division before being promoted to chief financial officer in 2013. Solomon, 56, had been a co-head of investment banking at Goldman since 2006 until becoming co-COO. The bank typically maps out its succession planning by naming two or three candidates to top roles. Schwartz and Solomon were named as co-COO roles after Gary Cohn left to become US President Donald Trump's chief economic adviser. He said last week that he would resign, after he lost a fight over Trump's plans for hefty steel and aluminium import tariffs. Analysts viewed Schwartz's retirement as a positive, because it clarifies the succession. (Reuters) Misunderstood: Mary Magdalene, seen here in a 1635 painting by Guido Reni, was airbrushed out of the picture from the beginnings of Christianity For many, in the context of the #MeToo campaign's efforts to empower women, a new Mary Magdalene biopic for release this week is a must see. Those tempted to dismiss the film as a swords-and-sandals biblical epic lose sight of its radical portrayal of a strong, independent female challenging social and religious norms in the Holy Land in the first century AD. But it is also likely to provoke a knee-jerk reaction among conservative Christians determined to do down any tampering with Christianity's founding story. A pity, because this is a film which could generate an important debate over why the woman, who was Jesus's most faithful follower and remained with him as he died, while the other apostles fled, and was the first witness to his resurrection, was airbrushed out of the picture from the very beginnings of Christianity. She is, according to the film's director, Garth Davis, one of the most "misunderstood spiritual figures in history". Mary Magdalene's character was traduced by Pope Gregory the Great in 591 when he declared her a prostitute, albeit a repentant one. That papal misreading of the gospel narrative and conflation of different Marys, including the one who washed Jesus's feet with her tears, into 'Mary Magdalene the prostitute' became an established myth, with artists down the centuries drawn by the dramatic potential of the sensual temptress. Expand Close Rooney Mara as Mary Magdalene in the new film / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rooney Mara as Mary Magdalene in the new film As Pope Gregory so eloquently put it: "It is clear, brothers, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts..." Epithets variously referred to her as 'penitent Mary' and 'great sinner'. This misconception about Mary Magdalene was somewhat corrected in 2016 when the Vatican finally conceded that as the first messenger of the resurrected Jesus, she was the 'Apostle to the Apostles'. According to Irish academic Dr Sharon Tighe-Mooney, author of What About Me? Women and the Catholic Church' (Mercier 2018) which was launched on International Women's Day, the epithet 'Apostle to the Apostles' interprets Mary Magdalene's role as simply to tell the apostles what she had witnessed, thereby downplaying the significance of her witnessing Jesus's death and resurrection. "This is because her role as witness, a major feature of priestly succession, would undermine the Church's position on the exclusion of women from the ministry. If Mary Magdalene is indeed an apostle, and the leader of Jesus's women followers, as she has the requisite apostolic attributes, the nature of the male-only priesthood would have to be reconsidered." In an article titled 'Who Framed Mary Magdalene?', Heidi Schlumpf, former editor at US Catholic, noted that since scripture scholars have "debunked" the myth that Mary Magdalene and the infamous repentant sinner who wiped Jesus's feet with her tears are one and the same woman, "word is trickling down that Mary Magdalene's penitent prostitute label was a misnomer. Instead, her true biblical portrait is being resurrected, and this 'apostle to the apostles' is finally taking her rightful place in history as a beloved disciple of Jesus and a prominent early church leader." Among those trying to "right a 2,000-year-old wrong" is Christine Schenk, executive director of FutureChurch, a US-based church reform organisation. She believes reclaiming Mary Magdalene's reputation as an early church leader has implications for women's leadership in the Catholic church today, including the ordination of women. The director and crew behind the new biopic hope Mary Magdalene will turn the tables on the received narrative and tell the story of Jesus from a female perspective. The film's aim, as the actor Tahar Rahim, who plays Judas, succinctly puts it, is to help people realise "it's not Mary the prostitute, it's Mary the disciple". The film recounts how Mary of Magdala, an independent young woman - still unmarried despite being in her early 20s - leaves her family and small fishing village on the northwest bank of the Sea of Galilee to join a new movement, led by the charismatic Jesus of Nazareth. Rooney Mara, who plays Mary Magdalene in the film, explains: "We first meet Mary while she's living in Magdala with her family and she is very different to everyone in her family. They are pushing her to get married and have children, as she's already considered old, and to do what a woman is expected to do. 'Forgiven for her sexual sins' "She feels very connected to God in a way that she can't really understand and that she wants to explore more. So, when Jesus comes along, he's the first person who understands what she's feeling. She's brave enough to leave her family behind and follow him." One of the most dramatic scenes in the film depicts an exorcism carried out on Mary before she leaves Magdala at the behest of her family. Director Garth Davis explains: "They can't understand Mary's personality or her choices - they just see it as a demon." In Dr Sharon Tighe-Mooney's opinion: "It is significant that Mary Magdalene is not attached to any man, which is most unusual for a woman of her time. "As a result, she became a particular target for early Church writers who speculated about her identity and role in the Bible. A woman forgiven for her sexual sins by a benevolent Jesus was a much easier character for the male hierarchy to deal with than a woman in whom Jesus placed the important mission of witnessing his death and resurrection." So, what do we know about Mary Magdalene? In her film role, Mara follows in the footsteps of Barbara Hershey, who played Mary Magdalene in Martin Scorsese's 1988 adaptation of The Last Temptation of Christ. Setting aside the film's controversial denouement in which Jesus, in a dream sequence, is spirited from the cross to marry and father children with Mary Magdalene; the film depicts her as a prostitute, whom he saves from a mob threatening to stone her. Mel Gibson's 2004 The Passion of the Christ featured Monica Bellucci in the role of Mary Magdalene. The idea for the film was sparked when Davis learned about ancient fragments in Coptic and Greek from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. That got the production team thinking about how Mary Magdalene had been marginalised for centuries. "We wanted to restore her to her rightful place at the centre of the Jesus story, as a key apostle. Mary recognises that the 'kingdom' ... needs to start within ourselves. "Our spirit lies within, and it sits in the same place as love and kindness. Mary's message is as revolutionary today as it has ever been," producer Emile Sherman explained. In her book, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity, Rev Cynthia Bourgeault, an Episcopalian priest, seeks to reclaim Mary Magdalene's legitimate role as a teacher and apostle. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, she highlights, is the only existing early Christian gospel written in the name of a woman. "Mary Magdalene earns her place among the apostles because of all Jesus's students, she is the one who best catches the full unitive meaning of his teachings and is best able to 'walk the talk'." Mary of Magdala is mentioned 12 times in the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, making her the second most mentioned woman after the Virgin Mary. Luke's gospel recounts how she accompanied Jesus on his journeys (Luke 8:1-3) "The Twelve accompanied Him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and maladies: Mary called the Magdalene, from whom seven devils had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who were assisting them out of their means." But most of the references to her are found in the crucifixion and resurrection narratives. Mary Magdalene stood at the foot of the cross during the crucifixion (Mark 15:40, Matthew 27:56 and John 19:25). In St John's gospel she is recorded as the first witness to see the risen Lord (20:1-18). She goes to the tomb alone, sees that the stone has been rolled away, and runs to get Peter. Professor Karen L King of Harvard's Divinity School in her book The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle explains that no complete Gospel of Mary Magdalene is known to exist. St Peter's ire Fewer than eight pages of the ancient papyrus text survive, which means that about half of the gospel is missing, perhaps lost forever. The significance of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene is, Professor King believes, its argument for the legitimacy of women's leadership; it shows that Mary Magdalene received revelations from Jesus, and that St Peter wasn't very happy about that because she was a woman. The new film shows this conflict over Mary's role among the disciples over her emotional, intellectual and spiritual intimacy with Jesus. Peter believed that Jesus would lead people to a new world order, whereas Mary puts the focus on the need to change oneself from within in order to bring change to the world at large. Opposition to Mary Magdalene's leadership within the early Christian community in time gave way to a male-dominated, hierarchical model of leadership. In tandem with this development of Christianity, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene got lost and a pope began to teach that the woman, who was second only to the Virgin Mary in terms of gospel appearances, became a whore. Is it mere coincidence? Actress Rooney Mara on helping to restore the reputation of Mary Magdalene in her new film: See Weekend magazine Ireland's 2018 Eurovision entry could face a broadcast ban in Russia as the video for the song features a gay couple. Ryan O'Shaughnessy will represent Ireland in Lisbon with self-penned track 'Together'. The video, released last week, features a male couple dancing in Dublin's Temple Bar. However there has been speculation that the video violates Russia's strict anti-gay "propaganda" ban. Eurovision rules mean participating countries must broadcast all entries during the live broadcast or face a possible ban. While the promotional video for the song features a gay couple, it is not yet known if the live Eurovision stage performance will. Countries are not obliged to broadcast promotional videos for entries, just the live performance at Eurovision. On reading the news last night of a possible ban, Ryan tweeted: "The Russians are now threatening a broadcasting ban because of my video for Together. Anti-gay propaganda regime at its finest! Hilarious if you ask me.. #IDareYou" Ireland participates in the first Semi Final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on May 8th. Ireland's Semi has been dubbed 'a bloodbath' due to the large number of favourites particpating. Among the current favourites to win the 2018 crown are Israel, Estonia and Sweden. Children's Minister Katherine Zappone has urged Sinn Fein to change its stance on abortion up to 12 weeks ahead of a referendum on the Eighth Amendment. The party led by Mary Lou McDonald is supporting repeal of the Eighth - but currently opposes the legislation proposed to take its place. Without the backing of Sinn Fein it is extremely unlikely the laws being proposed will get through the Dail, even if the public back the referendum. The latest Irish Independent analysis of support for the 12-week proposal shows 57 TDs in favour and 73 against, including Sinn Fein's 23. Unlike in Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, the Sinn Fein hierarchy has decided not to allow its public representatives vote with their conscience on the issue. Instead they are tied into the party position, which only supports terminations in cases where a woman's life, health and mental health is at serious risk or in grave danger, and also in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities and cases of sexual abuse and rape. Ms McDonald has indicated a change of policy may be forthcoming on foot of an internal party review - but this may not take place until after the referendum. And it's understood there are concerns the issue could split the usually united party as many members are strongly in favour of retaining the Eighth. The Children's Minister, who is to the forefront of the repeal campaign, said it would help the political dialogue if Sinn Fein moved swiftly to review its position. Referencing the opening statements in the Dail debate on the topic last week, Ms Zappone said she "listened very carefully to the very strong words of Mary Lou McDonald" and also Dublin Mid-West TD Eoin O Broin. "I do know that some of their colleagues have changed their minds in light of the facts, the evidence, the legal testimony. "I hope they can do that. I think it would be good for the party and also be good for the campaign," she said. At the same time Ms Zappone said she is not concerned that many politicians are continuing to stall when it comes to declaring their position on the issue of 12 weeks. "The politicians, my colleagues, some of them are continuing to listen to the debate, to consider the proposals that government is putting forward. "I think they'll make up their minds well within the next short period of time in order for us all to go out present to the people what we believe," she said. Among the 28 TDs who have yet to give their view are Ms Zappone's Cabinet colleagues Michael Ring, Heather Humphreys and Denis Naughten. Meanwhile, the Pro Life Campaign has said comments made by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar while in the United States "should give pause for thought to everyone who believes unborn babies are deserving of protection in the law". Mr Varadkar indicated his belief that unrestricted abortion could be voted through the Dail by the end of the year if the referendum is passed. Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro Life Campaign said: "In one sense the Taoiseach was stating the obvious when he said that unrestricted abortion in the first three months of pregnancy would be in place quickly if repeal happened. "But what his comments certainly show is that what the Government is proposing is abortion on demand and nothing else." A former Anglo Irish Bank executive was "shocked at the hostile and aggressive reaction" from Financial Regulator officials when they met to discuss an interbank deal done at the height of the financial crisis. Anglo's then chief financial officer Matt Moran said he was surprised at the tone of the "tense" meeting after the bank was bailed out and its CEO David Drumm and chairman Sean FitzPatrick had both resigned. Mr Moran was being cross-examined in the trial of Mr Drumm, who denies conspiracy to defraud over the 7bn deal. Mr Drumm (51) is pleading not guilty to conspiring to defraud Anglo investors by dishonestly creating the impression that the bank's customer deposits in September 2008 were larger than they were. He is alleged to have conspired with Anglo's former finance director Willie McAteer and head of capital markets John Bowe, as well as then-CEO of Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) Denis Casey, and others. The case at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court centres on multi-billion euro interbank loans which circulated between Anglo and ILP. Mr Drumm also denies false accounting, by providing misleading information to the market. Mr Moran yesterday told Brendan Grehan SC, cross-examining, about a meeting at the Financial Regulator around January 12 to 14, 2008. He said he was asked a number of times by IFSRA official Donncha Connolly "why did the bank do that transaction?". "I said I believed he was aware, he knew the bank had done the transaction and why the bank had done it." Mr Moran said: "The meeting was very tense I would say and I didn't go down to that meeting expecting the transaction or what happened to be brought up in such a strong or aggressive manner." Mr Grehan said: "Suddenly you were being asked questions as if the Financial Regulator knew nothing about the transaction." "That was the impression given," Mr Moran said. The trial continues. An auditor shrugged when he was told about Anglo Irish Banks 7.2bn interbank loans during the financial crisis and said he thought they were technically sound, a court has been told. Former Anglo official Colin Golden said the auditor gave him this response when he brought him through the details of the cash exchange with Irish Life and Permanent weeks after it happened in 2008. Mr Golden also noted that when he told an officer of the Financial Regulator that he understood the transaction had been approved, she sniggered and said she didnt know but led me to believe someone more senior was knowledgeable. Mr Golden was giving evidence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today in the trial of Anglos former CEO David Drumm. Expand Close Former head of group finance at Anglo Irish Bank, Colin Golden, arrives at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court this morning where he gave evidence in the trial of former CEO of the bank, David Drumm, who is charged with conspiracy to defraud. Pic Collins Courts. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former head of group finance at Anglo Irish Bank, Colin Golden, arrives at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court this morning where he gave evidence in the trial of former CEO of the bank, David Drumm, who is charged with conspiracy to defraud. Pic Collins Courts. Mr Drumm (51) is pleading not guilty to conspiring to defraud Anglo investors by dishonestly creating the impression that the banks customer deposits in September 2008 were 7.2bn larger than they were. He is alleged to have conspired with Anglos former Finance Director Willie McAteer and head of Capital Markets John Bowe, as well as then-CEO of ILP Denis Casey, and others. The case centres on multi-billion euro interbank loans which circulated between Anglo and ILP. Mr Drumm also denies false accounting, by providing misleading information to the market. Today, Mr Golden, then-Head of Group Finance said the banks preliminary 2008 results were published in December that year and were available for whoever needs them. The board would approve the accounts and a number of directors would actually sign them, he said. Mr Golden said he first became aware in the first few days of October 2008 of the scale of the September ILP transaction and the fact that it was a straight cash transaction. There had been talk of smaller transactions of a slightly different nature with ILP throughout the summer of that year. Mr Golden told Paul OHiggins SC, prosecuting, they were different firstly in that the earlier transactions were 3bn as opposed to 7bn Secondly, he had been told there was going to be a collateralised transaction where lending on both sides would be secured by stock. Mr OHiggins asked him what did happen. There was a straight exchange of cash whereby there was no underlying security supporting both legs of the transaction, Mr Golden replied. He said he heard this from Ciaran Cunningham head of Treasury Finance. Mr Golden and others spoke to the auditors in the middle of October, before they came on site to do their full year audit, he said. Mr Golden said he and Kevin Kelly, Head of Financial Reporting asked to meet Ernst and Youngs audit partner Vincent Bergin to bring him through what were called judgemental matters. Mr Golden said he brought Mr Bergin through the substance of the transactions while Mr Kelly covered technical aspects. Vincent Bergin said they were technically sound from an accounting perspective, Mr Golden said. Asked if he was aware of initiatives to gain funds for the bank in the run up to September 30, Mr Golden said there were a multitude of initiatives to gain funds but they began to fall away toward the end of September. Mr Golden said he had no involvement in any specific initiative other than providing information for reporting. A number of days after he spoke to Mr Bergin, Willie McAteer called and asked him to ring the Financial Regulator about the transactions. It was clearly an idea to make sure the Regulator was specifically aware of them, Mr Golden said. The call took place on October 24, 2008 - a number of people were on the call including Mary Burke, from IFSRA. They brought her through the transactions and Mr Golden later mailed her details of them. He believed Ms Burke said on the phone call that she was not aware of the transactions. Mr Golden said Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) was in the bank for an assessment from early October, following the Government guarantee at the end of September. They were primarily concerned with the lending side, he said. Ciaran and I both felt we needed to tell PWC about the ILP transactions, he said. PWCs report outlined the transactions. Mr Golden and Mr Kelly were both invited to a meeting of the banks audit committee on November 18. The jury was shown again an item of discussion at the meeting, headed customer accounts. This outlined the ILP transactions, stating that Anglo had entered into an arrangement, including a description and the result - an increase in loans and advances to banks of 7.2bn. It stated that IFRS does not allow the group to net the financial assets and liabilities and there was no legal right of offset. In addition, on maturing all accounts were settled on a gross basis, the document stated. Mr Golden said he brought the meeting through the points on this note and Kevin Kelly and Ciaran Cunningham would have been involved in writing this. Mr Golden was aware there were a number of inaccuracies, including the sequence in which that the transactions had been carried out. He told the jury it was a surprise when he found out in 2009 that the transactions had actually been settled net instead of gross. Mr OHiggins asked him why he thought they had been settled gross. I had been told, he said, but did not recall by whom or if there had been a misunderstanding. He had no idea why the sequence was wrong. Mr Golden was shown several different drafts of the minutes of the meeting and said he felt what he said was reflected in the company secretarys handwritten note, that about Ernst and Young were brought through the transactions and the Financial Regulator was aware. At the meeting, he recalled Donal OConnor, then a non-executive director, was on conference call and asked about the transactions being window dressing. Mr Golden recalled Willie McAteer addressed this, saying they were balance sheet management. Mr Golden could not say personally who got what documents in advance of the meeting. He said the transactions were not discussed at a subsequent audit committee meeting on November 24. Mr Golden said he pointed out to Ernst and Young the pages in the PWC report that dealt with the transaction. He sat down with the auditors prior to the audit committee meeting and talked them through what was going to be discussed at the meeting. The jury was shown an e-mail from Mr Bergin seeking additional information after the meeting. Peter Geissel, Anglos bonds portfolio manager wrote to colleagues, saying: Guys, we need to be careful about the corp deposit flows. The 2.5bn net inflow is after we adjust for ILP etc. The jury then saw a mail from Ciaran Cunningham to Mr Bergin on November 24, with a breakdown of corporate deposits. A table showed Irish customer deposits rising by around 7bn between September 15 and 30, 2008, before falling back by a similar amount by November 18. Another figure showed minus-5.329bn. Mr Golden said the minus figure seemed to refer to a drop representing the reversal of the 7bn ILP transaction, combined with a 2bn in new deposits that resulted from the benefit of the Government guarantee. Mr Golden said it was clear to him that Ernst and Young were aware of this. On November 25, Chief Financial Officer Matt Moran emailed Mr Bergin about Anglo being in breach of the regulatory liquidity test. He informed Mr Bergin of Anglos plans to become compliant again. Mr Golden said he had no personal involvement in the March transactions and anything he knew about them he learned subsequently. Questioned by Bernard Condon SC, defending, Mr Golden said the auditors had right of access to all documents. During cross-examination, the jury was shown a typed note Mr Golden had made of the meeting with Mr Bergin. He shrugged his shoulder and said he believed it was technically sound, the note read. Mr Golden had also noted what was said in a phone call with Mary Burke of IFSRA on October 25, 2008. I said I was led to believe that the transaction had been approved by the FR, it stated. She sniggered and said she didnt know but led me to believe someone more senior was knowledgeable. The trial continues. A descendant of the composer of the lyrics of the national anthem is seeking the return of items including an original signed copy of the song from a receiver appointed over a pub in Limerick. Lorcan Bourke, a great grand nephew of Peadar Kearney, claims receiver Anne O'Dwyer, of Duff Phelps Ireland Ltd, has taken over Bourke's Bar in Catherine Street where items, including the signed copy of the anthem had been on display. Mr Bourke had leased and operated the bar until its closure in 2014 following financial difficulties for his landlord. Peadar Kearney wrote the lyrics of the song which was adopted as the national anthem in 1926. At the High Court on Monday, Richard Kean SC, for Mr Bourke, said his client is very concerned about the whereabouts of valuable items which had been displayed in the bar. They included the copy of Amhran na bhFiann, signed by Mr Kearney, and which has been in the Kearney family for many years. The copy was dedicated to Mr Bourke's grandfather, Lorcan Bourke, who the plaintiff is named after. Other items of value include two framed pictures with the lyrics of "The Fields of Athenry' and 'Dublin in the Rare Auld Times' autographed to him by his relative through marriage, composer Pete St. John. His client had been in talks about getting items returned to him, but has been unable to get them back, counsel said. Mr Bourke went to the premises last September and had assumed he would be allowed take what he says are his possessions. He noticed several items were missing. A security official who met with his client made it clear to Mr Bourke that no property was to be removed. Mr Bourke is concerned the items may be sold if the receiver is not prevented by the court from doing so, counsel said. His client's concerns were heightened because he believes that the premises have been sold and will reopen at St Patrick's Day under new management, counsel said. Mr Bourke seeks injunctions restraining the receiver from selling his chattels in the pub until the case has been resolved. In a sworn statement, Mr Bourke said the pub closed in 2014 after the firm he had leased the premises from got into financial difficulties. Despite always paying his rent on time and running a successful business, he was not able to renew his lease to his landlord's financial difficulties. He said his former landlord's debts were acquired by a fund called Penture Property Finance DAC, which appointed Ms O'Dwyer as receiver over the premises in January 2017. Following the pub's closure he had to move to Dublin out of economic necessity. Arranging for the removal of all of his items in the pub was extremely difficult, he said. He had left the matter in the hands of professional advisors and had kept in contact with the relevant parties about the items. But when he inspected the premises last September he said several items were missing and he does not know where they are. As well as the framed song lyrics, he said he does not know where other items in the bar that belong to him had gone, including a grandfather clock, enamel pub signs, bar equipment, sound and light system and furniture. Mr Justice David Barniville, on an ex-parte (one side only represented) basis, granted Mr Bourke permission to serve short notice of the proceedings on the receiver. The case comes back on Wednesday. A man who tried to rob a post office in a moment of madness after earlier asking the staff for a bag has been given a two and half year suspended sentence. Michael Kelly (55) was recognised by one of the staff as a regular customer. He came into the shop, asked for a bag, offered to pay for it and left the premises. Garda Campbell Brennan told Eilis Brennan BL, prosecuting, that Kelly returned minutes later and held a note against the cashier window ordering them to fill the bag with money or I will kill you. He also instructed that the gardai should not be alerted. The staff member refused to fill the bag, saying No to Kelly twice before telling him she was about to press the panic alarm. Kelly left without taking anything. The woman later told gardai that she was in disbelief because she recognised Kelly. Gardai arrived and Kelly was ultimately identified through CCTV footage. He was arrested about five months later. Kelly, of no fixed abode pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attempted robbery at Rush Post Office in Rush, Co Dublin, on September 24, 2016. His seven previous convictions are for minor offences and he has not come to garda attention since 2004. Kelly said in garda interview that it was a moment of madness, telling officers he was drunk. He said he had been an alcoholic but had been sober for 10 years before the attempted raid. He had recently relapsed and his relationship with his partner was in trouble. Gda Brennan agreed with Mark Lynam BL, defending, that Kelly was now sober and had been so for over a year. Mr Lynam told Judge Martin Nolan that Kelly had been dealing with alcohol issues since he was eight years old. He said at the time of the offence Kelly's doctor had advised him that his level of drinking was now a threat to his life. Counsel said Kelly had since engaged with the Simon Community and was now doing charitable work for them. He was remorseful and accepted it was a nasty and serious incident. Judge Nolan said it was a convincing threat and a very frightening experience for the staff in the post office. He accepted that Kelly had a long history of alcohol abuse but had since taken steps to rehabilitate. He said in his view he doesn't deserve an immediate custodial sentence before he suspended a two and half year jail term. Declan Homan, (54), from Island Lodge, Walsh Island, Co. Offaly pictured leaving the Four Courts after the opening day of a High Court action for damages. Picture: Collins Courts A van driver who claimed he hurt his back when a mattress he was delivering was lifted by a gust of wind in to the air, and carried him for 12 feet before he was thrown to the ground, has sued in the High Court. Declan Homan said he was delivering the 4 foot 6 inch mattress to an apartment on the last of 16 deliveries that day when he was caught by a gust of wind. The 54-year-old, who said he left work with pain three days after the accident, has not had a job since. In his action against his employer, the father-of-four has included a claim of 400,000 for loss of earnings to date and in to the future. It is more than a soft tissue injury. I have a lot of pain and nobody seems to be listening," he told Mr Justice Kevin Cross. Mr Homan, Island Lodge, Walsh Island, Co Offaly, has sued Etmar Ltd, with offices at Glen Easton Point, Leixlip, Co Kildare, as a result of the accident on December 13, 2011. The court heard one of Mr Homans brothers is a director of Etmar. He has claimed he was instructed to deliver the mattress and was doing deliveries with another brother in the Sandyford Industrial Estate in Dublin. He claimed he fell from a height of five feet, about twelve feet away from the truck. He has further contended there was an alleged failure to provide him with safety equipment such as a safety harness. Mr Homan claims he suffered pains to his back immediately and he has constant pain, made significantly worse by any degree of activity. The claims are denied. Mr Homan told Mr Justice Kevin Cross he went to work the next day and went to a doctor three days after the accident Cross examined by Bernard McDonagh SC, for Etmar, Mr Homan agreed he had no difficulty with the wind for the first 15 deliveries, but he said it was windy all day. He agreed he had not worked and had been on social welfare since 2011. Counsel put it to him he had been on a number of holidays, including four holidays in one year and had been to Florida and Tenerife. Mr Homan replied his wife, who was a sales rep, paid for the holidays. Counsel put it to him he was indulging in gross exaggeration in relation to his injuries. Mr Homan replied: I disagree with you. Counsel put it to Mr Homan that when one of the defendants doctors examining him asked to touch his toes he refused. Mr Homan replied that he told the doctor I cant do that. Counsel suggested to him the mattress incident was not foreseeable by his employer as it was caused by a gust of wind. Counsel also said he had not complained it was too windy to do the job. Mr Homan replied there was no point as he would have been told to get on with it. He agreed his social welfare was withdrawn at one stage because he was declared fit to work. Mr Homan said he appealed the decision and he was later deemed unfit to work. The case before Mr Justice Kevin Cross continues. A 33-year-old sales assistant, who claimed she was injured due to repetitive lifting of heavy television sets in a Blanchardstown store, has withdrawn a 60,000 damages claim against her employer, Power City Limited. Barrister Grainne Berkery, counsel for FBD Insurance on behalf of Power City, told Judge Mary OMalley Costello in the Circuit Civil Court Tuesday that Jessica Bolton had withdrawn her claim at the door of the court. In a full defence entered by Ms Berkery, who appeared with Francis X. Burke Solicitors, the court learned that Power City had come to court prepared to fully contest all issues surrounding Ms Boltons allegations. Ms Berkery said that in the circumstances the company was not seeking a legal costs order against the plaintiff. Bolton, of St Jarleths Road, Cabra, Dublin 7, had alleged that in 2013 she had been directed to lift televisions from the storeroom at Power City, Blanchardstown, for customers. She claimed she had suffered twinges in her chest and had to attend her doctor, alleging she had been unaware of the extent or significance of her injuries which, she claimed, had been caused by repetitive lifting of heavy televisions in her place of work. Ms Bolton alleged in her Civil Bill that she only became aware of the cause of her injuries when she visited her GP who had referred her to hospital for cardiac evaluation which had ruled out any cardiac cause. Power City had denied negligence and breach of duty and, particularly, that Ms Bolton had been directed to lift or carry heavy televisions from the store into the main shop at Blanchardstown Shopping Centre. The company claimed that if Ms Bolton had suffered injury, which it denied, she had been the author of her own misfortune and had failed to exercise reasonable level of care for her own safety in compliance with the employee provisions of the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Acts. Bolton had claimed she had attended her doctor in May 2013 and complained of chest pains which were attributed to torn chest muscles caused by having been obliged to lift heavy televisions at work. In January 2015 she alleged that medically it had been noted she had likely long-term muscle problems and that it was difficult to predict a time of full recovery. The company claimed that only men were employed in its warehouse and when payment was taken from a customer this generated an order to the store and a warehouseman brought the item up to the sales counter. Judge OMalley Costello, by consent, struck out Ms Boltons claim and made no order as to costs. Editor-in-chief of INM Stephen Rae (right), commissioner for digital economy and society Mariya Gabriel and executive director of News Media Europe Wout van Wijk at yesterdays launch Online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter should have to sign up to a code of practice accepting responsibility for their role in fighting 'fake news', a new European Commission report says. The European Union is set to embark on a clampdown of disinformation, which is now posing a threat beyond day-to-day political discourse. A High Level Expert Group (HLEG), composed of journalists, academics and representatives from the major online platforms, has recommended a series of actions for leaders to take in the coming months. It acknowledges that while "not necessarily illegal", disinformation can be harmful for citizens and society at large. "The risk of harm includes threats to democratic political processes, including integrity of elections, and to democratic values that shape public policies in a variety of sectors, such as health, science, finance and more," it says. Among the key proposals are: A code of practice for online platforms; Media and information literacy to be added to the school curriculum; Taxpayer support for media outlets that provide a public service; European centres for monitoring the growth of disinformation. The group, which included Independent News & Media's editor-in-chief Stephen Rae, chose not to use the term "fake news" as it has been "appropriated and used misleadingly by powerful actors to dismiss coverage that is simply found disagreeable". They say 'disinformation' "goes well beyond the term 'fake news'." Disinformation is defined as including "all forms of false, inaccurate, or misleading information designed, presented and promoted to intentionally cause public harm or for profit". While much of the report centres on what media outlets and politicians can do to battle disinformation, there is a strong emphasis on the role of digital platforms. It notes online sites "are becoming increasingly important as both enablers and gatekeepers of information". The HLEG found social media sites have "enabled the production and circulation of disinformation on a larger scale than previously, often in new ways that are still poorly mapped and understood". Companies should allow access to data so that independent inquiries, audits and research can be made to ensure transparency and authenticity. It states: "Digital intermediaries such as social networks and online video platforms can impact public opinion by sorting, selecting and ranking news and information via their algorithms. They should therefore be able and willing to act in a responsible way that is commensurate with their powers and the impact their activities can have on forming public opinion." The report supports the idea of sites committing to a code of practice "without delay". Governments are also encouraged to introduce tax breaks for reliable news outlets, such as VAT exemptions. Responding to the publication, Mariya Gabriel, commissioner for digital economy and society, said: "This report is just the beginning of the process and will feed the commission reflection on a response to the phenomenon. Our challenge will now lie in delivering concrete options that will safeguard EU values and benefit every European citizen." Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes said it is important to ensure the steadfast principles of accuracy and truth remain at the heart of all forms of journalism. Patsy Hutch was the target of a foiled hit on his life Gardai are investigating if a major Kinahan cartel drugs trafficker based in the UK offered more than 200,000 for the foiled hit on Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch's brother. Four Dublin men remained in custody last night at Store Street and Clontarf Garda stations where they were being questioned about a conspiracy to murder Patsy Hutch (57) near his north inner city home on Saturday morning. Brothers Gary (34) and Glen Thompson (23), from Plunkett Drive, Finglas, as well as former British army soldier Robert Brown (35), from Phibsborough Road, Dublin, were arrested in a north inner city car park. A senior source revealed that gardai are probing whether Gary Thompson became enlisted in the plot by a cartel-linked Finglas drug dealer nicknamed "Mr Flashy". In a follow-up operation a 41-year-old New INLA figure from the Cushlawn area of Tallaght was also arrested. Their time in custody was extended at a late night sitting of Dublin District Court on Sunday and the four suspects are expected to be questioned for a number of days. Sources have revealed detectives are looking into intelligence that a notorious middle aged Birmingham-based criminal, who has very close links to exiled cartel kingpin Liam Byrne, put up the cash for the murder of Patsy Hutch. The Birmingham based trafficker was one of the first targets of the gardai's Criminal Assets Bureau and left Dublin for the English Midlands in the late 1990s where he enjoys a luxurious lifestyle. The England-based criminal remains a target for the agency as he is considered one of the most senior members of the Kinahan cartel. Monitored Gardai are investigating if he offered the huge "bounty" which is alleged to have attracted at least four criminals to take up the offer. However, every move being made by the men was being closely monitored by the Garda Drugs and Organised crime Bureau as part of their latest major intelligence operation. Yesterday at a Garda press briefing, Ian Cruxton, deputy director of the UK's National Crime Agency, said that the British authorities were working closely with gardai to tackle organised crime. "We stand shoulder to shoulder with our colleagues here," he said. "We feel we have a very powerful operation." Asked whether Irish criminals can still elude detection in the UK, he said: "Our message will always be that the UK won't be a safe haven." Assistant Commissioner John O'Driscoll echoed those sentiments and said the level of international cooperation between An Garda Siochana and worldwide police agencies is at an unprecedented level. "Our aim is to ensure that our targets become the targets of international crime agencies," he said. Intelligence-sharing between An Garda Siochana and other police forces is already "reaping rewards", he said. Mr O'Driscoll also said that the lives of up to 50 people have been saved in the capital thanks to Garda operations targeting organised crime. THE death of Limerick toddler Aimee Keogh cannot be in vain and hospitals around the country need access to life-saving paediatric technology and services as a matter of urgency, a Limerick family has said. In an emotional plea outside Limerick Circuit Court after the conclusion of a civil action against the HSE, Aimee Keogh's father James implored on the Minister for Health, Government and the Taoiseach to implement the recommendations made by the University Hospital Limerick following its own internal investigation into the death of the toddler in 2014. Aimee died as a result of an undiagnosed hole in the heart, despite a consultant radiologist raising a concern of the possible heart defect up to four months before her death. Mr Keogh said that if hospitals around the country had quicker access to a paediatrician with a special interest in cardiology, "no family should have to go through the horrible and heartbreaking ordeal that my family suffered and continue to suffer each and every day". During the court case, the HSE apologised unreservedly for a breach in their duty of care to the Limerick toddler who died on the grounds of the University Hospital Limerick in 2014. "In this present day, it is absolutely shocking that people are dying from person's negligence, lack of care and system failures and this has to stop now", Mr Keogh said. Aimee's father told of how the screams of his two sons will haunt his family forever after they heard their little sister had died. "On July 10, 2014, our lives were shattered and changed forever. Aimee was our princess who had her whole life in front of her but sadly this was stolen from her, her parents and her two brothers. "Aimee's death should not have happened. Despite several visits to the university hospital Limerick and reviews by not only one, but by four different paediatricians, no one detected that she had this life threatening problem," Mr Keogh said in his heartbreaking statement. Earlier, Judge Eugene O'Kelly ordered the HSE make a statutory solatium compensation payment to the Keogh family over the death of Aimee in a civil action taken by the family. During the brief court proceedings, barrister Michael Purtill BL, acting for the Keogh family with Frances Twomey and Company solicitors, read a letter sent to them by the HSE. In it, UL Hospitals Chief Operations Officer, Noreen Spillane said that the HSE wanted to "apologise unreservedly, for the "hurt, stress and upset on the tragic death" of Aimee. Read in full the letter issued by the HSE to the family of Aimee Keogh: 5 March 2018, Dear Deirdre and James On behalf of the Health Service Executive we wish to apologise unreservedly to you and your family for the hurt, stress and upset on the tragic death of your baby daughter Aimee. Regrettably, our investigation has shown that aspects of the care received by Aimee at the University Hospital Limerick did not reach the standards that could be expected. Yours sincerely Noreen Spillane, Chief Operations Officer, UL Hospitals. Judge O'Kelly heard that the civil litigation arose as result of a claim of HSE negligence and breach in the duty of care of Aimee Keogh. The little two-and-half-year-old toddler, from Glenbrook, Old Singland Road in Limerick, died after she went into cardiac arrest in an ambulance on the grounds of University Hospital Limerick on July 10, 2014 as she was being prepared for transfer to Crumlin Children's Hospital. Following a previous admission to hospital in March 2014 for febrile convulsions caused by tonsillitis, consultant radiologist Padraig O'Brien said that after reading her x-ray, he was suspicious of a septal defect more commonly known as a hole between the chambers of the heart. However, Aimee was never referred on to a paediatric cardiologist and further negligence occurred when a paediatric neurologist and a treating paediatrician failed to review or recognise abnormalities presented in the X-Ray, the Keogh family claimed. For almost four months, Aimee's major congenital heart defect went undiagnosed until her condition deteriorated in the days before her death. Aimee had suffered 17 seizures before her admission to hospital on July 9 and was being prepared for transfer to Dublin for a paediatric cardio echo procedure that can only be performed by a paediatric cardio consultant based in Crumlin. An inquest into the little toddler's death heard that Aimee's case was never reviewed by a paediatric cardiologist, but paediatric consultant Annemarie Murphy, who was in charge of Aimee's case, said she found the X-Ray to be normal and a multidisciplinary team who reviewed the same X-Ray over three weeks later also found it to be normal. At the time, there were no paediatric cardiologists based outside of Crumlin and children could have to wait up to two years to see a paediatric cardiologist. In the short hours before her death, Aimee became an urgent case as her seizures were more frequent and not related to any underlaying illness. James Keogh described the family's last few moments with Aimee who "was living on borrowed time". "Whilst being transferred to the ambulance, Aimee became upset and stressed which brought on one of her seizures and she went in to heart failure while clutching her little teddy". Aimee Keogh died a short time later despite the best efforts to resuscitate her. "Telling our two little boys that their sister was not coming home was the hardest things we ever had to do as parents and their screams will haunt us forever", James Keogh said after the case concluded as he called on the Government to act and prevent any further families suffering like his did. Health Minister Simon Harris has cancelled his St Patricks Day trip to Belgium and The Netherlands due to the hospital trolley crisis. The minister is to remain in Dublin for the week, saying it would not feel right to travel abroad while hundreds of people are on A&E trolleys. In a tweet this evening, he said: People across the health service are working extraordinarily hard to make progress in what is a difficult week. I am in regular contact with HSE. It would not feel right to me as Minister to travel for St Patricks Day so I have made decision not to do so. The numbers waiting for a hospital bed reached a record-high of 714 yesterday but dropping back to 649 today. Mr Harriss schedule included meeting with ministers in both countries about drug pricing and supply. Ireland recently signalled an interest in joining the existing collaboration, known as the BeNeLuxA Initiative, in a bid to get cheaper drugs. A CORK town celebrated the 'Luck of the Irish' by saving its St Patrick's Day parade at the eleventh hour from cancellation over a route and insurance cover impasse. Mallow had even posted public notices that it's St Patrick's Day parade planned for 2pm next Saturday was being cancelled. The north Cork town was to stage its 31st parade with thousands expected to attend. More than 100 floats, bands and marching groups were expected to participate in one of Munster's biggest St Patrick's Day events. However, within hours of the cancellation notices being posted, a community group in Mallow - the Tidy Towns Committee - came to the rescue. It agreed to allow its insurance cover to be used to provide the additional indemnity required. The parade was saved and will now proceed on St Patrick's Day at 2pm as planned. The Chairman of the Mallow St Patrick's Day Committee, Noel O'Connor, warned it was originally impossible to proceed with an event being planned for since October 26 last because of late route changes and insurance issues. "The insurance issue thankfully was agreed - the situation has now been resolved. Of course it was a very drastic move to cancel the parade in the first place," he said. "The committee has worked tirelessly since Christmas on the logistics of organising a safe, fun-packed parade in the town," he said. But two weeks ago, the parade committee were informed major changes were required - with gardai insisting on a full road closure of the parade route from its planned assembly time until a specified time after the parade conclusion. "The next shock our committee got was when we were informed, with just one week to go, that to get our March 17 road closure from Cork County Council we would have to have the parade insurance policy indemnify the council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) for all activities on the closed road for the closure period." Mr O'Connor said the parade insurance cover, which costs around 700, was insufficient to cover the demand. All efforts by the parade committee to secure the additional indemnity failed until the Mallow community group agreed to allow its insurance policy to be utilised. It isn't the first time a St Patrick's Day parade in Cork has run into difficulties. Six years ago, Blarney faced the threatened cancellation of its St Patrick's Day festival which centred on the ancient village square. The village square belongs to the Colthurst family, the owners of Blarney Castle. However, in 2012 Sir Charles and the Colthurst family were advised that a public liability insurance cover limit of 1.5m could potentially still leave them open to being sued over any injuries sustained by members of the public at the festival. Blarney Estates which runs the Colthurst familys Blarney interests had sought 6m in public liability cover from Blarney Community Council for the festival which they wanted to stage on the village square. Without that insurance cover being in place, Sir Charles warned that the event could not use the village square. If you plan on taking full advantage of Liveline's Fiver Friday, you might want to take a visit to Clones. The Monaghan town has some 17 businesses taking part in Joe Duffy's event this Friday, with breakfast, dinner, haircuts and sport socks selling for 5 each. In Dublin, one children's clothing boutique is offering three Dolce & Gabanna outfits for 5 each, while Bargaintown in Dublin's city centre is offering carpets for a fiver. A spokesperson for the show said the response to this year's event has been phenomenal. "Previously, we had a two month lead-in. This time, it is only ten days but the response has been fantastic with interest from all over the country." To meet demand and spread the word, Liveline producers are placing 'Fiver Friday' offers on their website, broken down county-by-county. Broadcaster Joe Duffy famously set up 'Fiver Friday' during the height of the recession. It gave a much needed boost to small local businesses around the country, as well as giving them a mention on his programme, the second most listened to programme in the country. He decided to unleash 'Fiver Friday' again this after hearing small business owners describe the impact the 'Beast From The East' and 'Storm Emma' had on their businesses, with many closing for the guts of a week. Businessman Colm Kavanagh runs a small shop in Arklow. He contacted Liveline and suggested to Joe that 'Fiver Friday' may make a return to help small businesses in the aftermath of the heavy snow. "He [Colm] had stayed open through thick and thin, hail, rain and shine, and the monster snow. "But as Colm Kavanagh told us, on one of the days, Sunday, even though he opened at half five in the morning as per usual, it was four o'clock in the afternoon before he saw his first customer," Joe told RTE's 'Today With Maura and Daithi' programme. Colm suggested to Joe that "on the eve of St Patrick's Day, why don't we have a bit of celebration, encourage people to go out there again and shop local, and encourage local retailers to give a bit of razzmatazz, a few special offers on the table. And it's taken off like wildfire." Joe explained that the event was the idea of small business owners and how it is primarily a community effort, supported by RTE's Liveline programme. While the snow was hugely negative for small businesses around the country, it did bring out the best in Irish people in other ways, the broadcaster said. "But people did come together and realise that embracing each other and linking arms in every sense of the word, made a big difference. For many people, especoally children, that is a very memorable week. For others, it was a big challenge and they are still recovering so you're trying to give them the small hand that we can." More information can be found on the Liveline website. Mary McAleese and her brother Clem Leneghan who penned a letter detailing the 'sadistic' abuse perpetrated by Malachy Finnegan (inset) THE brother of Mary McAleese has told of the culture of bullying, violence, intimidation and secrecy presided over at his school by paedophile priest Malachy Finnegan. The former Presidents youngest sibling, Clem Leneghan, said Malachy Finnegan was a sadist who terrorised children at St Colmans College in Newry, Co Down. An emotional Ms McAleese spoke about the abuse on radio yesterday, and is calling for an independent inquiry into the legions suspected to have been abused. My youngest brother, my baby brother, the youngest of nine children, was seriously, physically and sadistically abused by Malachy Finnegan, she revealed. Finnegan, who taught at St Colmans from 1967 to 1976 has been linked to a catalogue of abuse against pupils. Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey resigned earlier this month, after it emerged he had decided to celebrate funeral Mass for Finnegan in 2002, despite being aware of his past. In a recent letter to the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Leneghan described the destructive, criminal abuse that went on every day at the school during his time there. Throughout my seven years as a pupil at St Colmans in the 1980s, something rotten was allowed to fester at the core of that school I saw it every day. Read More Thankfully I never experienced sexual abuse there and I feel intense sadness for those who did but I was one of many who suffered other forms of abuse, which Finnegan knew about and allowed to flourish. He had a duty to protect but chose instead to indulge his destructive, criminal urges. He presided over a culture of bullying, violence, intimidation and secrecy. Mr Leneghan (49), a film and TV production safety consultant, wrote: These experiences shape young lives and have complex, damaging echoes long into adulthood for many I know Im not alone in this. Its such a shame that Finnegan isnt around to face justice and his many victims. Can he have been able to get away with this for so long without other adults in the school or diocese turning a blind eye or actively protecting him? Will they now be called to account for their silence, their complicity? Meanwhile, Ms McAleese said an independent inquiry is necessary to investigate the diocese of Dromore. She revealed how for decades her close-knit family had been kept in the dark about the abuse Mr Leneghan suffered. All my brothers, four or five (of them) went to that school. My wonderful, beautiful brother, and the youngest of the family, is so incredibly loved by all of us. To think he suffered and never felt he could tell anyone... So many people in the school had to have known, so many people who could have done something about it. We know now the very first complaints about Malachy Finnegan go back to the 1970s not the 1990s at all, which means theres a body of information well known to people in the position to do something about it but didnt. What frightens me is we only find this out all these decades later... the culture of silence was so oppressive and these children were made so fearful. Ms McAleese said she and her family had once been well acquainted with Bishop McAreavey. I know John McAreavey well, he was a regular visitor to our home. She told RTEs Sean ORourke how her brothers had gone on trips with Bishop McAreavey and even stayed in the same house as him, as children. John was always very kind and good to them, she said. But there are huge questions to be answered by all senior people involved in that school and in the dioceses, as to what they knew and when they knew it. It shouts for an inquiry really. I think an independent inquiry is warranted. She added: There are legions, the silent sufferers, they carry it with them all their lives. Finnegan, who was president at St Colmans College for 11 years before moving to Clonduff as parish priest in 1988, died in 2002. St Colmans College has promised to co-operate fully with any investigation. The Catholic bishops have also said they will fully co-operate. Fianna Fail councillor Kevin Sheahan has said it's "disrespectful" when people refer to Ireland's national holiday as 'Paddy's Day'. Cllr Sheahan said he doesn't see any reason whatsoever why people can't revert back to the "titles that we've always used for centuries". Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Cllr Sheehan said he has received a lot of support since he first brought up the subject at a cultural committee in Limerick last Friday. Cllr Sheahan, from Askeaton in Limerick, had told the committee that "there is no such thing" as 'Paddy's Day' and said "it's not acceptable". He blamed the "yuppie media" from Dublin 4 for encouraging the term and urged people not to imitate them. Cllr Sheahan said: "We have drifted into using 'Paddy's Day'. "I think people have become a little careless and with a little bit of encouragement I think people will make the effort to revert back." Cllr Sheahan said he thinks it's "disrespectful" when people don't use the proper name for Ireland's national holiday. "The first time I ever heard 'Paddy's Day' was on the airwaves and the airwaves up until a few years ago came from Dublin and Dublin only," he said. An artist's impression of the final design for the planned College Green plaza in the heart of Dublin, looking towards the Bank of Ireland (Dublin City Council/PA) DUBLIN City Council is outlining plans to turn College Green into a world-renowned pedestrian plaza. An Bord Pleanala has begun a five-day hearing into the proposal, at the Gresham Hotel, in the city centre. Officials for the council said the plan was to reclaim College Green as a "pre-eminent public space for Dublin" and create world class public space. "It will strengthen the historic city centre in counter balance to the vigorous expansion of the city centre eastwards," council architect Ali Grehan said. Central to the plan is a hierarchy of travelers in the city centre with pedestrians and cyclists at the top and private vehicle owners at the bottom. Ms Grehan said it has been a historic meeting place in the capital sine the first viking settlement. Should the project get the go ahead vehicles would no longer be able to pass through College Green. The area would be lined with trees, have a two-lane cycle track and become a suitable venue for events and performances. A number of local businesses have objected to the plan on the basis it may cause fewer people to come to the city centre. There are also concerns about traffic flow across the River Liffey at the impact of traffic congestion. Head of the council's technical services, Brendan O'Brien, explained how bus routes could be maintained. Buses heading northbound will avoid the plaza by using Winetavern Street while southbound buses will be diverted along the quays. A turning area for buses will be built at Dame Street bordering the proposed pedestrian plaza. Pat Rabbitte, former communications minister, Kate Shanahan, Head of Journalism and Communications DIT, Stephen Rae, INM Editor in Chief, Jane Ohlmeyer, Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History at Trinity College and Kevin Doyle INM Group Political Editor IRELAND should pitch to become a European centre for tackling the phenomenon of fake news and disinformation, two leading academics have said. Our healthy democracy and ability to house some of the worlds leading internet companies are cited as reasons why there is a wonderful opportunity to do good in this space Speaking on a special Independent.ie podcast, Jane Ohlmeyer (Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History at Trinity College) and Kate Shanahan (Head of Journalism and Communications at DIT) agreed that Ireland is well-placed to be a world leader. Ms Ohlmeyer, who is also chair of the Irish Research Council, said: I think weve got the expertise in terms of the technology. But we are also a great example of a democracy thats actually functioning remarkably effectively at the moment. I know we bitch and moan about it but actually when you look elsewhere, particularly to Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom, what we have a very robust political infrastructure and a commitment to it. She suggested education facilities on both sides of the border should work together with computer scientists and the big technology companies on a very inclusive basis. The podcast, hosted by INMs Group Political Editor Kevin Doyle, also features former communications minister Pat Rabbitte and INMs Editor-in-Chief Stephen Rae. They were reacting to the publication of a High Level Expert Group (HLEG) report on fake news compiled for the European Commission. It recommended that platforms such as Facebook and Twitter should have to sign up to a Code of Practice accepting responsibility for their role in fighting fake news. But Mr Rabbitte suggested it should have gone further to put pressure on digital companies to actively prevent false information being spread on the internet. Fake news is as old as the Roman civilisation but not in the sense that we are talking about here, he said. I would argue for some more imposition on the digital companies themselves. Mr Rabbitte said that online platforms can no longer present themselves as neutral bystanders who are just a vehicle to share information. The digital companies get off lightly. I think they have a larger share of responsibility, the ex-Labour Party TD added. Mr Rae, who was the Irish representative on the HLEG, explained that there was a consensus that this report is a first step in a carrot and stick approach if the companies dont engage adequately with self-regulation. Ms Shanahan said the battle against disinformation needs to take account of the reality younger people are no longer tied to a single media outlet or even platform. I think the generations that are coming through now have a very different understanding of choice. They graze a lot of platforms. They are quiet agnostic. They are not loyal to one particular platform. But she said when a big story breaks people still look for trusted sources. Ms Shanahan said many online platforms have not been willing to consider the social impact of their activities or curbing or monitoring what they do. It has run away with them. They havent staffed up the way a newspaper would have to because they havent been subject to the same laws as a newspaper or media outlet has. You are going to see that they will have to man or woman up to their responsibility. But they are being dragged very slowly to the table, she said. Addressing the decision to side-line the phrase fake news in favour of disinformation, Mr Rae said much debate had taken place but the overwhelming majority didnt want it called fake news. Everybody was agreed we shouldnt be called fake news because it has now become a weaponised phrase. The way Donald Trump has been using it makes it increasingly more weaponised. The consensus was to describe it as it is, and that is disinformation, he said. Five key findings from the report 1. Fake news will no longer be a term used by the European Commission as it has been used misleadingly by powerful actors to dismiss coverage that is simply found disagreeable. The report states that disinformation goes well beyond term fake news. 2. Online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter should have to sign up to a Code of Practice accepting responsibility for their role in fighting fake news. 3. EU Member States should support media that provide a trustworthy public information service. This could be by way of VAT exemptions or other types of tax breaks. 4. Governments should recognise media and information literacy as a core subject, adding it into school curriculum. The HLEG says governments should mandate teacher training colleges to include critical media literacy modules and encourage critical media literacy to become an integral part of all subject-learning, lifelong learning for teachers. 5. EU should create a network of European Centres for Research on Disinformation, which should link up fact-checking organisations, scientists, members of press councils. The young Co Meath schoolgirl who died from meningitis last week has been remembered at her funeral as a child who loved to hear a good story. Kayla Carey (6) was laid to rest today after her heartbroken family gathered in St Marys Church in Navan to say their final goodbyes to her. Her white coffin was carried into the church while Somewhere Over the Rainbow was sang by a soloist. Kayla passed away last Thursday after battling the infection that has also hit her young cousin Jasmine. Kayla, like all children, loved hearing good stories, and for Kayla if it involved a unicorn it would probably be a great story, said Fr Kevin Heery. He told how Kaylas senior infants class teacher in Scoil Mhuire, Ms Murray, loves to tell the children a story as part of their routine. Expand Close Kayla Carey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kayla Carey Words can't express the shock, grief and loss of why we are gathered here today. The sudden passing of Kayla last Thursday has shocked our community, said Fr Heery, adding that in numbness and pain the community prayed that Kaylas familys hearts could be blessed with peace. A prayer was also said for young Jasmine who is still being treated for meningitis in Temple Street hospital in Dublin, the same hospital where Kayla died. The two children attended the same school together. Read More All students and staff were sent home as a precaution, and psychologists from National Educational Psychological Service were brought in to provide support to teachers and parents. Symbols brought to the altar to represent Kaylas life included one of her colourful drawings, a toy unicorn, and her boots. After funeral mass Kaylas dad Martin helped carry her coffin to the hearse, and leaned in to kiss it before breaking down in tears and being consoled by family and friends. Burial took place in St. Finian's Cemetery, Old Athboy Road, Navan. Shortly after Kaylas death her mother Geraldine posted a message on Facebook. "My little princess didn't make it. RIP Kayla, Mammy loves you and can't believe this," she said. Read More Kayla is also mourned by her brother Brooklyn and sister Faith, grandparents, aunts, uncles and extended relatives. The HSE has said that its medical experts are working closely with the school and are advising and supporting parents, guardians and teachers. The schools principal Colm Devlin said Kaylas death will affect the entire community. This is a terrible tragedy for her family, our school and the whole community. We are deeply saddened by this turn of events. Our sympathy and thoughts are with Kaylas family and friends, he said. EU Commissioner Phil Hogan has weighed into a row over the appointment of Europe's top diplomat, saying it is not surprising that a key ally of Jean-Claude Juncker's landed the prized position. Mr Juncker, the President of the European Commission, has been accused of performing a "brilliantly executed coup" by planting his chief of staff Martin Selmayr in the job of Secretary General of the Commission. The German bureaucrat, nicknamed 'The Monster', is now in charge of the commission's 33,000 staff. But the appointment has raised eyebrows across the political spectrum, with observers questioning the 47-year-old's sudden leap to such a powerful position. In a statement to the Irish Independent, Mr Hogan has staunchly defended both Mr Juncker and Mr Selmayr. The former environment minister said "far too much" has been written and said about the appointment and it is important "to recall some essential facts". He said: "The appointment was made in full conformity with the rules of the European Commission. This is beyond question." And Mr Hogan noted the appointment was "unanimously agreed by the College of Commissioners". "As the vital relationship of confidence between the president and the secretary general is an essential ingredient in the proper functioning of the commission, it can hardly be a surprise that the president turned to his former head of cabinet to fulfil this role," Mr Hogan said. European media reports have suggested Mr Juncker nominated his aide for deputy secretary general before announcing moments later that sitting secretary Alexander Italianer was resigning. Mr Italianer had not indicted that he was intending to step down. Germany's commissioner Gunther Oettinger was accused of treating MEPs as fools yesterday when he insisted the commission had done "everything by the book". An investigation is to be launched by one of the European Parliament's committees into the process. A vote will be held at a later date on whether the parliament will call for Mr Juncker to reverse the appointment. But Mr Hogan said Mr Selmayr had the "leadership and professional capacity" to lead the staff of the institution. "No one can call into question his European commitment or his ability to do the job. "In a merit-based institution like the European Commission, it is not surprising that someone with such an enormous capacity for hard work, mastery of detail, energy, focus and determination should rise to the top," Mr Hogan said. "As head of cabinet to President Juncker over the past three-and-a-half years, he has demonstrated these qualities." Mr Hogan said a line should be drawn under the controversy so that it did not distract from issues such as trade, Brexit, the budget, CAP reform, banking union, energy union, migration and border protection. "Europe needs strong action from strong and experienced people at this time," he said. "President Juncker and Martin Selmayr should have our full support to deliver our policy priorities without delay and allow the co-legislators of the European member states and the European Parliament to scrutinise, amend and adopt." Taoiseach Leo Varadkar looks out the window of Texas School Book Depository Taoiseach Leo Varadkar looks out of the 7th floor window of the Dallas County Administration Building in Dealey Plaza, downtown Dallas, a floor above the vantage point of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, known then as the Texas School Book Depository, as part of his visit to the United States. Niall Carson/PA Wire Taoiseach Leo Varadkar looks out of the 7th floor window of the Dallas County Administration Building in Dealey Plaza, downtown Dallas, a floor above primary crime scene for the 1963 JFK shooting after evidence of a sniper was found on the sixth floor, known then as the Texas School Book Depository, as part of his visit to the United States. Niall Carson/PA Wire Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has visited the site of the infamous assassination of John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Mr Varadkar said it felt a bit surreal as he looked out the window of Texas School Book Depository where shooter Lee Harvey Oswald is alleged to have shot President Kennedy. Its a place you read about and hear about, he added. The Taoiseach visited the museum dedicated to Mr Kennedys assassination on the second day of his St Patricks Day trade mission to the US. Expand Close Taoiseach Leo Varadkar looks out the window of Texas School Book Depository / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Taoiseach Leo Varadkar looks out the window of Texas School Book Depository Earlier, Mr Varadkar during an official visit to the Choctaw reservation in Oklahoma. Mr Varadkar, who is the first Taoiseach to visit the Choctaws, thanked the community for the support they provided to the Irish people during the Great Famine. The Choctaw nation raised $170, which equates to thousands of dollars in modern currency, and sent it to Ireland in 1847. The Taoiseach paid special tribute to the current Choctaw Chief Gary Batton and said the story of the communitys charity symbolises the spirit of St Patrick better than anything else. Back in the nineteenth century, when the Irish people were oppressed, abused, neglected and degraded by our colonial master, at our lowest, your spirit of generosity was at its highest, Mr Varadkar said. You showed compassion to a starving people, who were dying in their hundreds of thousands, or about to embark on our own Trail of Tears across the Atlantic Ocean to seek a new life in Canada or the United States. A few years ago, on a visit to Ireland, a representative of the Choctaw Nation called your support for us a sacred memory. It is that and more. It is a sacred bond, which has joined our peoples together for all time, he added. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gives a Foreign Policy speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington DC on day three of his week long visit to the United States of America. Niall Carson/PA Wire TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has said he is appalled by the alleged poisoning of a Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. The Taoiseach said it is unacceptable for any state to carry out an assassination attempt in another country following the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter by Russian agents. I have to say I'm really appalled and really shocked at what happened in Salisbury the other day, Mr Varadkar said It doesn't matter where it is, no country should be involved in extra-territorial assassinations, it's not acceptable behaviour in world affairs and there can be no tolerance of any country using chemical weapons or chemical agents in any way. No matter who did it and no matter where it occurred it's something the Irish government is appalled at and roundly condemned, he added. Mr Varadkars comments come as new police investigation was launched into the suspicious death of another Russian national in Britian who opposed Vladimir Putins administration. The Taoiseach said the EU would show solidarity to the UK following the incident. In terms of what response we see from the UK even though the UK is leaving the European Union we still want to have a deep security partnership. They're still our neighbour and we still want to be friends of theirs. So certainly the European Union will respond, I think, favourably to any call for support from Britain, Mr Varadkar said. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gives a Foreign Policy speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington DC on day three of his week long visit to the United States of America Niall Carson/PA Wire TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has warned there can be no upside to Britain leaving the EU. Mr Varadkars warning echoed the sentiments of comments by Jean-Claude Juncker who said the UK would regret leaving the Union. Speaking at Brooking Institute in Washington, the Taoiseach also said the failure by Northern Ireland politicians to restore the power sharing executive is "corrosive and dangerous" for the people who elected them to office. He said the gridlock over restoring the Assembly means Northern Ireland citizens have no "effective political engagement" on issues that affect their lives. "Just as important, it means that the voice of the people of Northern Ireland is not heard in the negotiations on the terms under which the United Kingdom will leave the EU, even though it will be of great consequence for them," he added. Sinn Fein and DUP have failed to negotiate a new power-sharing executive despite more than a year of talks. The Taoiseach said the majority of people in the North voted for Britain to stay in the European Union and the same voters would prefer if Northern Ireland remained in the customs union and single market once Brexit is finalised. He reinforced his call for an invisible border between Northern Ireland and Ireland and insisted the current arrangement has had "hugely significant" economic benefits to the all-island economy. Expand Close Jean Claude Juncker / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jean Claude Juncker After Brexit, the Taoiseach said he wants to ensure there is a "deep and comprehensive future relationship" between the EU and the UK, which will maximise economic engagement and trade, while also ensuring there is continued cooperation on combating terrorism and international crime. "The extent and possibility of this is limited only by the UKs red lines," he added. Mr Varadkar also continued with the theme of his St Patrickcs Day trade mission and called on US to make Ireland its bridge into Europe once Britain leaves the EU. He also repeated his concerns about the growing divide between the US and the EU in relation to tax, trade and climate change. "We value our relationship with the United States, based as it is on the shared values of democracy and the rule of law, respect for the freedom and dignity of all, irrespective of origin, religion, sexuality or ethnicity," he said. "For years, this relationship helped provide a bridge between the EU and the United States. I fear that there is a danger that the EU and the United States may drift apart due to growing divisions on trade, tax, climate change and many other areas," he added. The Taoiseach said an international trade war, which has been sparked by US President Donald Trump's recent import tariffs on steel, would make "losers of us all". "Alongside our EU partners, we oppose any steps that raise barriers to trade, whether through the imposition of tariffs or otherwise," he said. "As the President of the European Council Donald Tusk has said, trade wars are bad, and they are easy to lose," he added. In the foreign policy focused speech, the Taoiseach described Ireland as committed internationalists and multilateralists who believe countries achieve more by working together under rules-based order that citizens. He said the main international challenges facing the Government are: Child protection experts in the UK are being consulted as part of the expanding investigation into the operation of a suspected Irish paedophile ring. Ireland's child protection agency, Tusla, and gardai are being supported by UK child protection experts who have helped deal with some of the most shocking exploitation cases in England and Scotland over recent years. The move came as one source warned the investigation is dealing with what is suspected to be the biggest paedophile ring ever uncovered in Ireland. One source revealed that what the investigation has already uncovered is "truly shocking". "We are talking about a level of child abuse and exploitation that is more accurately referred to as torture," they said. Eleven people - five men and six women - were arrested but subsequently released without charge last week. All were questioned about the alleged abuse and sexual exploitation of children. A file is now being prepared in relation to the Garda investigation for the Director of Public Prosecution. The scale and nature of the matters under investigation are so serious that both Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan and Children's Minister Katherine Zappone have been briefed. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said the matter was "deeply shocking". He has mooted a possible inquiry to determine that every measure was taken at the earliest possible opportunity to ensure the safety of the children involved. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insisted his information is that all State agencies acted in accordance with procedures and protocols. "I have been briefed on this issue by Minister Zappone," he said. "She is keeping me in touch with the facts of the case and, at this stage, what we do not want to do is anything to jeopardise or that will compromise the privacy of those children," he said. The district court judge involved has warned the media that strict reporting restrictions are in place over the matter and any breach of the court orders involved would result in serious consequences. The judge issued the warning after an application from Tusla, the child protection agency, for clarity from the court in respect of previous orders made in respect of publicity over the ongoing case. Gardai also expressed concern that publicity could jeopardise their investigation and any potential future criminal proceedings. Orders under Sections 28, 18 and 17 of the Childcare Act, 1991 are now in place. The judge warned the identity of the vulnerable parties involved must be protected - and expressed particular concern over reporting of geographic details of the case. "There is no point in making such an order if the media is to trash and disrespect it," the judge said. Publicans Dermot Muldoon and Pauline Fay will be ignoring the new laws this Good Friday. Photo: Seamus Farrelly One village will be staying dry this Good Friday as three pub owners have vowed to ignore new laws and keep their doors closed. Following new legislation publicans will be allowed to legally serve alcohol on the day for the first time in 90 years. But a trio of pub owners in Drumconrath, Co Meath, have decided they will not be opening up for customers. Dermot Muldoon, Pauline Fay and Pat Dempsey have declared they will honour the time-old tradition this year. "Publicans get two days off in the whole year - just two - so we decided to keep that holiday as well as keeping up the tradition and having a bit of respect for our religion," said Mr Muldoon . "We've received a load of support from our customers, after all it's only one day. We were known for closing on Good Friday throughout the world - it was something different about Ireland and now that's gone. Slowly all the Irish traditions are being stripped." Pauline Fay of Fay's Bar said the day enables bar owners to completely switch off and spend the day with family. She added: "Quality of life has no price. I always spent the day with my children and continue to do so." Nepalese firemen spray water on the debris after a passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo: AP A Bangladeshi airliner crashed yesterday after making an unexpected turn in cloudy weather as it came in to land at the airport in Nepal's capital, killing at least 50 people. There were 71 people onboard the US-Bangla Airlines plane arriving from Dhaka when it clipped the fence in Kathmandu and burst into flames, said Raj Kumar Chettri, general manager of Tribhuvan International Airport. Those aboard included 33 Nepali passengers, with 32 from Bangladesh, one from China and one from the Maldives. One of the survivors, Basanta Bohora, said: "All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang. I was seated near a window and was able to break out." The accident was the latest to hit mountainous Nepal, which has a poor record of air safety. Small aircraft ply an extensive domestic network and often run into trouble at remote airstrips. "We have recovered 50 dead bodies so far," said army spokesman Gokul Bhandari. Although several people had been rescued from the burning wreckage of the Bombardier Q400 series aircraft, nine people were still unaccounted for, he added. Mr Chettri said that moments after the plane received permission to land, the pilot said he wanted to go in a northern direction. Asked by the control tower whether there was a problem, he replied in the negative. The plane was then seen making two rounds in a northeast direction, Mr Chettri said. Traffic controllers again asked the pilot whether things were OK, and he replied, "Yes". The tower then told the pilot his alignment was not correct, but there was no reply, Mr Chettri added. "The plane should have come from the right direction," Mr Chettri said, adding that it hit the airport fence, touched the ground and then caught fire. The aircraft descended to an altitude of 4,400 feet and then climbed to 6,600 feet before crashing about two minutes later. A grandson of cult leader Charles Manson has won the bizarre California court battle for the killers corpse. Jason Freeman of Florida can collect the remains of Manson from the morgue in Bakersfield, a Kern County Superior Court commissioner ruled on Monday. Mansons body has been on ice since he died in November in a Bakersfield hospital. He had been serving a life prison sentence for orchestrating the 1969 killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and eight others. Expand Close Charles Mansons Remains / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Charles Mansons Remains The fight for Mansons remains was waged between Freeman, a man who claims he was fathered by Manson before his followers carried out the heinous slayings, and a pen pal who collects so-called Manson memorabilia. The dispute over the body foreshadows a similar fight over his estate in a Los Angeles courtroom. A dog has died on a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York after a flight attendant ordered the animal be put in the planes overhead bin. United said it was taking responsibility for the incident on the Monday night flight, saying pets should never be put in the overhead storage compartment. Other passengers posted photos of the customer and her children after the flight. I really hate @United Airlines. o l i v i a (@oliviamunn) March 14, 2018 Passengers say they heard barking during the flight and did not know that the dog had died until the plane landed at LaGuardia Airport. Chicago-based United said it is investigating the incident and talking to the flight attendant. Oskar Groening admitted he was morally guilty for the murders of Jews at Auschwitz, where he collected money from victims. Photo: AFP/Getty Images The man known as the 'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz' who in 2015 became one of the last people to be convicted for crimes in the Nazi genocide of Europe's Jews during World War II, has died aged 96, magazine 'Der Spiegel' reported yesterday. Oskar Groening was sentenced to four years for his role as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 of the Auschwitz concentration camp's roughly one million victims. He was in hospital when he died and had yet to begin his sentence. 'Spiegel' said Groening died on Friday but prison authorities had yet to receive a death certificate. He did not take part in any killings himself but counted cash taken from victims on their arrival at the camp. Groening's court battle was seen as one of the last major trials related to the Holocaust, during which some six million Jews were murdered by Adolf Hitler's regime. Despite his conviction, the start of his sentence was delayed by legal wrangling and his ill health. He came to attention in 2005 after giving interviews about his work in the camp in an attempt to persuade Holocaust deniers that the genocide had taken place at a time when most Holocaust prosecutions still focused on leaders rather than rank-and-file perpetrators. Groening admitted he was morally guilty for the work he carried out at Auschwitz. His job was to collect money and valuables from prisoners' luggage and send them to Berlin. In July 2015, he was sentenced to four years in prison. Initially deemed too ill for prison, he was declared fit for imprisonment in December and was scheduled to start serving his sentence soon. "It's very clear that I am morally guilty for the murders and I acknowledge that guilt here today with remorse," he said at his trial. Trained as a banker, Groening told judges that he tried several times to be relocated to another post or to the front. The first time was when he saw an SS guard kill a baby by smashing it against a truck. The second was when he saw an SS soldier pour gas through a slot into a farmhouse where Jews were held. His third request to be relocated was finally accepted at the end of 1944 and he was moved to the front, he said. "Albeit belatedly, justice has been done," Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said after the conviction. "Groening was only a small cog in the Nazi death machine, but without the actions of people like him, the mass murder of millions of Jews and others would not have been possible." Auschwitz, the world's biggest cemetery for the number of deaths that occurred there from 1941 to 1945, included concentration, labour and extermination camps. As many as 1.5 million people were killed there during the Holocaust, according to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. A probe has been launched by counter-terrorism police amid reports a Russian exile who was a close friend of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky has been found dead. Scotland Yard said a man in his 60s was found at a home in Clarence Avenue, New Malden, south-west London on Monday and that the cause of his death is unexplained. The force said in a statement: "At this stage the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had. "There is no evidence to suggest a link to the incident in Salisbury." Lawyer Andrei Borovkov told Russian media outlets on Tuesday that his client, Nikolai Glushkov, the former deputy director of airline Aeroflot, had died. But he said he was unaware of the time and circumstances. Neighbour Patricia Egan told the Press Association she was woken at 3.30am by the police. "The door was banged this morning, it woke us up," the 65-year-old added. "A policeman asked if we had seen or heard anything suspicious or did we hear the dog. "There was a lot of police, about 10 cars. "They didn't tell us what had happened, they just said there's been an incident. "I'm just in shock - this nice neighbour, he was a lovely fellow." She described him as well educated, said he had lived in the house for several years, and revealed that his daughter, who she thought was in her 20s, would visit. "He told me she had gone to a Swiss finishing school, he said he was trying to force her to learn Russian," she added. "He also had a son but he lived in Moscow I think." She said her neighbour's birthday was on Christmas Eve and that they had "popped in for a glass of wine" to celebrate, adding that he "used to have a lot of people over". "It was a Russian house, all brown furniture," Ms Egan added. "He told me he was from Georgia and always said how beautiful it was." She described him as intelligent and very well-mannered, very generous and friendly, and that he had very good English. Ms Egan also revealed he had an operation a few months ago on one of his legs for arthritis. "He didn't go out much because of his illnesses, he had something wrong with his heart and had a few strokes," she added. Three blue tents were erected in the front garden of the terraced house on Tuesday, with a police cordon also put in place. Two police officers could be seen standing guard outside, with a number of officers in blue forensic suits also leaving the property. At around 8.15pm a private ambulance reversed up to the tent as police vans shielded the view to the public, and a body was removed from the house. Businessman Mr Glushkov was outspoken after the death of his friend Mr Berezovsky, telling the Guardian in 2013 he would "never believe" he took his own life. Mr Berezovsky, a friend of murdered spy Alexander Litvinenko and thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found hanged in the bathroom of his Berkshire home in 2013. An inquest recorded an open verdict. Police and MI5 are to look into allegations that a string of deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia, including the Berezovsky case. Lady Anne gives a statement outside her Liverpool home following the death of her husband Sir Ken Dodd who has died aged 90, as his nephew John Lewis looks on. Photo: PA Ken Dodd, the British comedy legend, has died aged 90 just two days after getting married. The star - famous for his epic stand-up shows, his tickling sticks and Diddy Men - died in the house in which he was born. His wife, whom he married at home in the Liverpool suburb of Knotty Ash last week, was at his bedside. The Liverpool comedian left hospital on February 27 at the end of a six-week stay for a chest infection. He wed Anne Jones, his partner of 40 years, on Friday and an announcement was due to go out later this week about the marriage. Speaking outside their home, Ms Dodd said: "I have lost a most wonderful husband. We first met when I was in the Ken Dodd Christmas Show in 1961 at the Manchester Opera House. "I've had the supreme joy and privilege of working and living with him as a partner for the past 40 years. "The world has lost a most life-enhancing, brilliant, creative comedian with an operatically trained voice, who just wanted to make people happy." Mr Dodd, known for his unruly hair and teeth, performed his very last show just months ago, at The Auditorium in the Liverpool Echo Arena on December 28. Brandishing a tickling stick and greeted by his Diddy Men, the star had vowed to carry on with his "tattyfilarious" comedy when he left hospital last month. "I'm going to teach my legs how to work again, they've forgotten, you know, and once I've recovered myself I'll get back to doing the job, which is the only job I've ever had," he said at the time. "While I was in here, I wrote some new jokes, so it should be all right." As news of his death broke, fellow comedians and television stars paid tribute to Mr Dodd on social media. Television personality Claire Sweeney, a fellow Liverpudlian, wrote: "RIP Ken Dodd. A legend and an inspiration. I have a lot to thank you for." Other tributes came from actor John Challis, who played Boycie in Only Fools and Horses, and Hollyoaks actress Annie Wallace, who described him as a "true son of beautiful Liverpool". ( Daily Telegraph London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Fashion chain French Connection has revealed it received an unwanted takeover approach last year as it insisted it was very close to returning to profit after six years in the red. The firm said the unsolicited approach came from an unnamed US suitor and led to months of talks, although no formal offer was made. French Connection said: In the interest of all shareholders, we entered a period of full due diligence and negotiation over a number of months. This ultimately did not lead to an offer for the group. The takeover tilt made in the middle of last year was made public as French Connection reported fees in connection with the approach in full year results showing sharply narrowed losses. Our goal has been to return the group to profitability and I believe we are very close to achieving that aim.Stephen Marks, chairman and chief executive It is understood that while no offer was made, the approach was seen as credible at the time. Shares surged as much as 19% at one stage on the bid revelation and as French Connection said it was on the brink of finally returning to profit. The fashion chain saw annual pre-tax losses nearly halve to 2.3 million from 5.3 million the previous year as it axed loss-making stores and overhauled ranges. On an underlying basis, its operating losses narrowed to just 600,000, down from 3.7 million the previous year. Retail like-for-like sales grew 0.8% over the year to January 31 in a particularly challenging UK retail market a marked slowdown on the 4.4% rise seen the previous year. An 8.6% surge in wholesale revenues helped boost overall group sales, up 0.5% to 154 million. French Connection said there was unlikely to be any let-up in the tough trading hammering British retailers, but put faith in its ongoing turnaround plans and store overhaul to help it weather the storm. Chairman and chief executive Stephen Marks said: Our goal has been to return the group to profitability and I believe we are very close to achieving that aim, given the momentum that we are currently seeing within the business. While it is clear that the retail market in which we are operating in the UK is unlikely to improve in the near future, we have clear visibility on the benefits we will obtain from the ongoing portfolio rationalisation. French Connection closed 11 stores and concessions over the last financial year and said it would continue to axe unprofitable sites, with an ultimate aim to have around 30 full-price stores by the end of next January. This is down from 65 full-price stores in 2013 and around 36 currently. Overall, the group has 116 stores and concessions and a further 212 franchised outlets. However, it opened its first new store in years in Manchester last November. Mr Marks, who launched the business 44 years ago and holds a 41% stake, has been leading an overhaul to revive French Connections fortunes after it struggled to compete with fast-fashion brands such as ASOS and Zara. Last year it came under heavy fire from activist investors calling for a break-up of the company and for Mr Marks to give up his double role as chairman and chief executive. Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley bought out the activist investors, raising his stake to 27% last summer, just below the level required to trigger a takeover bid. Analysts at Numis Security said the groups recovery was increasingly visible. Shares in Greencore plummeted on Tuesday after the Irish food-to-go supplier warned that problems at its US division would dent profits. The sandwich maker flagged the weak performance of underutilised US sites, the timing of new business contributions and the sterling/dollar exchange rate as having led to a reduced expectation in profit growth. As a result, earnings per share for the year are now expected to be between 14.7p and 15.7p, compared with market expectations of 15.7p to 16p. The news sent shares sliding 23% to 140p. Greencore acquired US-based Peacock Foods in 2016 and is now exploring ways to best utilise the manufacturing network of approximately 2.5 million square feet. To this end, it announced a major shake-up of the division that will include closing its Rhode Island facility and see chief executive Patrick Coveney spending half his time in the US to take a direct role in the strategic, organisational and commercial leadership. The restructure reflects the commercial pipeline and aims to address these utilisation challenges, Greencore said. Greencore anticipates a 3 million one-off cash cost for resetting the US network. But it added that the programme will help give it a boost next year, saying: Plans are well advanced which, if successful, would secure significant new business at several sites in the Midwest region. The group anticipates that such new business would contribute revenue and earnings from the first half of full year 2019. Heather Locklear faces up to five years in prison if found guilty (Ian West/PA) Actress Heather Locklear has been temporarily banned from possessing any guns after she allegedly threatened to shoot officers responding to a report of domestic violence at her home. A judge on Tuesday ruled the former Dynasty star, 56, could not hold any firearms as part of her bail conditions after she was charged with battering sheriffs officers. Outside court, Ventura County Sheriffs Office spokesman Sergeant Eric Buschow said the force is looking for a handgun registered to Locklear after she was arrested in her Thousand Oaks, California, home on the night of February 25. She said that if they (the officers) ever come back to the house that she would shoot them, he said. Locklear, also known for appearing in Melrose Place, faces up to five years in prison if found guilty, district attorney Thomas Dunlevy said. She was arrested on suspicion of injuring a partner but was not charged with any domestic violence offences. Instead, she was charged with four counts of battery on a sheriffs officer and one count of obstructing an officer. Overseeing the case at Ventura County Superior Court, commissioner Derek Malan agreed to Mr Dunlevys request to add the restriction to her bail conditions. Defence lawyer William Haney had argued: I dont think my client has had a gun for many decades. According to the Los Angeles Times, Mr Buschow previously described her behaviour with officers as extremely hostile and at one point she became combative. In 2008, she pleaded guilty to reckless driving after being arrested on suspicion of the more serious charge of driving under the influence of prescription drugs. Locklear, who was previously married to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and later Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, was released on a 20,000 dollar (14,385) bail. Her case was adjourned until April 13. A police car in front of Austrian parliament in Vienna after an attack (AP Photo/Ronald Zak) A man has been arrested after he tried to drag a police guard from his car outside the Austrian parliament building. Vienna police said the incident took place shortly after 8am, when the 26-year-old suspect, an Afghan national, spoke to the officer in his patrol car, then grabbed his clothes and tried to pull him out of the vehicle. The officer used pepper spray to deter the assailant, injuring him slightly. Police say the officer was unhurt, and no weapons were found on the suspect. The incident comes after a knife attack on Sunday night on an Austrian soldier who was guarding the Iranian ambassadors residence in Vienna. The attacker in that case, an Austrian national, was shot dead, and senior national security official Michaela Kardeis said that he clearly had sympathy for political Islam. The mans Vienna flat was searched on Monday, and Ms Kardeis said investigators are evaluating items such as a computer and mobile phone that they seized. She added that she had taken care not to say that he was a jihadi or radicalised but that simply out of his interest in surfing which has not yet been evaluated in detail there is a certain sympathy. Mina Basaran (white robe) was due to get married next month An entire hen party has been killed after a private jet carrying 11 people crashed in south-western Iran, according to state media. The jet was carrying eight passengers, including Mina Basaran, daughter of Turkish businessman Huseyin Basaran, who was reportedly visiting the United Arab Emirates with friends to celebrate her upcoming marriage. The aircraft had been flying from Sharjah in the UAE to Istanbul, Turkey, when it crashed in Irans Zagros Mountains. It was unclear what caused the crash, but Irans state news agency Irna said its black boxes had been retrieved from the site. Expand Close One of the last photos Mina Basaran uploaded to her Instagram account / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp One of the last photos Mina Basaran uploaded to her Instagram account The jet suddenly gained altitude roughly 80 minutes into the flight, and then plunged 3,050 metres, before disappearing from the radar, according to data from FlightRadar24. The pilot had reportedly requested to fly at a lower altitude due to technical problems, according to Isan news agency. Ms Basaran, 28, arrived in the UAE last week. She had been regularly updating her Instagram, which has 65,000 followers, with photos from the hen party. The last shot showed eight women dressed in pink and white dressing gowns at a Dubai hotel. The Iranian Red Crescent said 11 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage - eight passengers and three crew members. Turkey's minister of transport said it would send a team of investigators to the scene. A helicopter is hoisted by crane from the East River onto a barge in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Five people are dead after a chartered helicopter crashed into New York's East River. The helicopter's pilot - the only survivor in the chilly waters that separate Manhattan and Brooklyn - told investigators the incident may have been caused by a passenger's piece of luggage. The helicopter was chartered for a private photo shoot when it went down. Pilot Richard Vance (33) said luggage may have accidentally hit the emergency fuel shut-off button, leading to the crash. In a recording, Mr Vance can be heard telling officials that he was going to crash. Among those identified as having been killed were Brian McDaniel, a firefighter from Dallas; Trevor Cadigan, a video journalist originally from Dallas; and Argentine tourist Vallejos Blanco. Expand Close U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Go Team member inspects debris as the team gathers information on scene while awaiting salvage of the helicopter that crashed in the East River in New York, U.S. Photo: REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Go Team member inspects debris as the team gathers information on scene while awaiting salvage of the helicopter that crashed in the East River in New York, U.S. Photo: REUTERS Two helicopter employees were also killed. A video of the crash was caught by a witness who said the aircraft was flying unusually low to the water. The helicopter is seen making a level crash landing before tipping, with its propellers splashing through the water. Mr Vance managed to get himself free. Liberty Helicopters is the only helicopter charter in New York City that has a special federal aviation authorisation to fly within 1,000ft (304m) of the Statue of Liberty. Chancellor Philip Hammond is set to offer voters a glimmer of light as he delivers his first spring statement against a slew of positive economic indicators. With an expected drop in borrowing, higher-than-predicted GDP growth of 1.7% for 2017 and the recent elimination of the Governments deficit on day-to-day spending, Mr Hammond is expected to tell MPs that the UK is reaping the reward for years of austerity. But all eyes will be on the Office for Budget Responsibilitys forecasts for the deficit, debt, GDP and productivity, to see whether they back up the Chancellors claim that there is now light at the end of the tunnel. Expand Close How the UK economy has changed (PA Graphics) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp How the UK economy has changed (PA Graphics) The OBR said last month it expected borrowing in 2017/18 to undershoot its previous prediction by a significant margin. The figure is now thought likely to come in around 43 billion, rather than the 49.9 billion forecast in November, delivering a knock-on boost to subsequent years. Speaking at the weekend, Mr Hammond cautioned that, at 86.5% of GDP, Britains national debt remains higher than the safe level. Reminder tomorrow the Chancellor @PhilipHammondUK will deliver his #SpringStatement to @HouseofCommons. Visit this feed for live updates during the speech. Starts at 12.30pm pic.twitter.com/1e5Y7Fxhyw HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) March 12, 2018 There is light at the end of the tunnel because what we are about to see is debt starting to fall after it has been growing for 17 continuous years, said the Chancellor. That is a very important moment for us but we are still in the tunnel at the moment. Labour has called on the Chancellor to use the statement to declare a halt to austerity measures and end the financial crisis in our public sector. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: Our public services are at breaking point and many of our local councils are near bankruptcy. Expand Close John McDonnell / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp John McDonnell He needs to listen to the calls from across the political spectrum including the Tory council leader in his own constituency to end the financial crisis in our public sector. Philip Hammond must use today to act and end austerity. Our country cannot afford for him to continue to ignore the problems facing working households in our country. If his statement is one of boastful self-praise and not a recognition of the devastation faced by many in our country then he will have failed. Expand Close How the UK economy has changed (PA Graphics) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp How the UK economy has changed (PA Graphics) Mr Hammond has said he will not make tax and spend announcements in the statement, which he insists is no longer a fiscal event after he shifted the Budget from its traditional springtime slot to the autumn. He is expected to speak for less than half an hour and confine himself to an update on the state of the nations finances. His Treasury deputy Liz Truss said there would be no red box, no rabbits out of the hat and no tax changes. He will launch a number of consultations to report in time for the autumn Budget, including on the impact of VAT on small businesses and the use of the tax system to cut plastic waste. Expand Close The Andrew Marr Show / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Andrew Marr Show The Scottish National Partys economy spokeswoman at Westminster Kirsty Blackman said the Chancellor should use the statement to address the uncertainty created by the UKs planned withdrawal from the EU. The UK government is asleep at the wheel while Brexit has already started to hit the economy, said Ms Blackman. Philip Hammond must use the spring statement to provide long overdue economic clarity over the UK governments Brexit plans, and make clear that he will not cut vital public services to fund a Tory extreme Brexit. Sergei Lavrov said that Russia was not to blame for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP) Russia has asked for access to samples of the nerve agent that poisoned ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. Mr Lavrov said Russia is not to blame for the incident on March 4. The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the British ambassador in Moscow over the case, Russian news agencies have said. Mr Lavrov warned that Russia will only co-operate with Britain on the investigation if it receives samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used to target Mr Skripal and his daughter. Mr Lavrov said that Moscows requests to see samples of the nerve agent have been turned down, which he called a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which outlaws the production of chemical weapons. Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday that Mr Skripal and his daughter had been poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed in the Soviet Union. She said Russia has until the end of Tuesday to explain how the substance ended up in Britain. Mr Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow is willing to co-operate with the probe, but he suggested London would be better off complying with its international obligations before putting forward ultimatums. Telit Communications has warned on annual profits after a raft of unique challenges over the past year that included the sacking of its chief executive Oozi Cats amid questions over his identity. The company confirmed on Tuesday that it was slashing its adjusted underlying earnings expectations to between between 20 million to 23 million US dollars (14.4 million 16.6 million) for the 12 months to December 31. That is compared to guidance put forward in September which forecast earnings of between 44 million to 48 million US dollars (31.7 million 34.6 million), with the revisions coming just weeks before the release of its annual results in April. Revenues have also been knocked lower from previous forecasts of 390 million to 400 million US dollars (280.8 million 287.9 million) to between 374 million to 376 million US dollars (269 million 270.6 million). The group said it reflected a conservative approach in the preparation of its results, reflecting higher spending on research and development, a prudent level of provisions and other adjustments and component shortage issues which affected sales in the final weeks of 2017. The group clearly faced a number of unique challenges during the course of 2017 which have unquestionably affected our financial performance in the short termTelit Communications chairman Richard Kilsby The profit downgrade also comes in the wake of a difficult year for the company, with Telit being forced to formally dismiss its chief executive Oozi Cats in mid-August amid allegations he was the same man as American fugitive Uzi Katz. Uzi Katz and his wife Ruth V Katz were accused of wire fraud in connection with a string of property deals across Boston in the 1990s. Telit Communications hired international law firm CMS to investigate the allegations. An independent review had uncovered evidence showing that an indictment was issued against Oozi Cats in the US, which had been knowingly withheld from advisers. The board initially agreed that Mr Cats take a leave of absence before he formally resigned on August 14. Chairman Richard Kilsby said: The group clearly faced a number of unique challenges during the course of 2017 which have unquestionably affected our financial performance in the short term. We are resolved to ensure that the business is placed on a sustainable footing for the longer term and the Groups financials are recalibrated on a prudent and conservative basis. We are pleased with the outcome so far. Mr Kilsby said the company had also secured new covenants with its leading bank and confirmed that trading in 2018 was off to a good start, with trading ahead of the boards expectations. This underpins our confidence that we will deliver significant revenue growth as well as stabilising gross margins and improving cash generation in the current financial year. President Donald Trump has inspected the prototypes for the big beautiful border wall he wants to build to separate the US from Mexico. The president, making his first trip to California as president, appeared engaged as he was briefed on eight border wall designs. He said he preferred a fully concrete wall because it was the hardest to climb, but he noted that it needed to be see-through. Expand Close President Donald Trump reviews border wall prototypes (Evan Vucci/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp President Donald Trump reviews border wall prototypes (Evan Vucci/AP) President Trump said the first thing he noticed on the drive to view the prototypes was the patched-up holes in part of the existing fence at the border. We have a lousy wall over here now, but at least it stops 90, 95%, President Trump said. When we put up the real wall, were going to stop 99%. Maybe more than that. President Trumps visit was greeted with peaceful protests by demonstrators both for and against his planned wall. The trip also came amid an escalating battle between his administration and the liberal state, which has refused to help federal agents detain immigrants in the US illegally. The president said Tuesday that the states sanctuary policies put the entire nation at risk. His Justice Department sued California last week over a trio of the states immigration laws. Theyre the best friend of the criminal, President Trump said. Thats what exactly is happening. The criminals take refuge in these sanctuary cities and its very dangerous for our police and enforcement folks. Demonstrations were held at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego, the nations busiest border crossing, where protesters chanted, No ban! No wall! as honking cars and buses cheered them on. Protests were also held on the Mexican side, in Tijuana. President Trump was to be briefed on lessons learned from the construction of the prototypes built in San Diego last autumn. He was also to meet with border agents and officers to ask what they need, Homeland Security spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said. San Diegos Republican mayor criticised Mr Trumps planned short visit, saying the president will not get a full picture of the city. Kevin Faulconer said a popular cross-border airport terminal connecting San Diego and Tijuana shows that building bridges has worked wonders. This is a time to build bridges, not walls; to pull Americans together, not set us apart. pic.twitter.com/YXBPBcLiND Jerry Brown (@JerryBrownGov) March 7, 2018 Mr Faulconer, writing in The San Diego Union-Tribune, also said San Diego police work to protect everyone regardless of immigration status, an apparent dig at Mr Trumps push to target illegal immigration. Kolkata, Mar 11 (IBNS): Bridging the gap between Indian healthcare and the use of technology was one of the key areas of discussion at the Health Tech 2018, a four-day conference, organised by The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry, in association with Medica Superspeciality Hospital, in Kolkata. Technology is almost single-handedly responsible for changing the entire landscape and philosophy of human existence, and the healthcare sector is no different. Today, with a rapidly increasing population, there exists a significant gap in the number of healthcare providers available and the number of those who require quality healthcare. This inequality in numbers can have adverse effects, but this is where technology can step in and make a great impact. Healthcare is embracing rapid digitisation, and thanks to medical apps, video conferencing, Internet of Things (IoT), and other such technologies, it is possible to navigate this situation and bring healthcare to the doorstep of every Indian, was discussed in detail at the conference. Now, there are a plethora of apps available where one can post medical queries, upload medical reports and test results, and get advice from qualified doctors, and this is just one of the many examples that show how healthcare and technology are quickly merging together. The various themes on which the seminar focused were - Technology that is driving the future of healthcare sector, Entrepreneurships in Health Tech, and New Technologies for high-end delivery. One of the highlights was the release of a PricewaterhouseCoopers thought paper on Reimagining the possible in the Indian healthcare ecosystem with emerging technologies. "The objective of this programme was to bring all stakeholders in the healthcare sector under one roof to exchange ideas and best practices as it emerges in a continuously evolving environment," said Dr. Alok Roy, Past President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Chairman, Medica Group of Hospitals. The Health Tech programme is an exceptional platform for networking and taking business collaboration forward with global partners. Technology is changing every day. What is in vogue today may become obsolete soon; so design and technology together can shape the future for the industry players, said Dr. Roy. At the conference, various subject experts spoke in detail how cooperation between technology and people can ultimately produce amazing achievements and help us push the barriers of medical science. Digital technology in medicine and healthcare can transform unsustainable healthcare systems into sustainable ones, equalize the relationship between medical professionals and patients, make medical services cheaper and faster, and provide effective solutions and overcome the struggle to cope with deadly diseases like cancer, AIDS or Ebola, and gradually give rise to healthier citizens in healthier ecosystems, the speakers highlighted. The programme was flagged off on March 8. The scope of West Bengal being the preferred destination for healthcare stakeholders was addressed by Moloy Banerjee, Managing Director, Linde India Limited. Overseas perspective was addressed by Archil Dzuliashvili, Ambassador of Georgia to the Republic of India, followed by speeches from dignitaries from various countries, including Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Trade Commissioner from the Canadian High Commission was also present. {image_2}The Chamber has always endeavoured to connect technology end users with developers in co-creating better environment and enabling an ecosystem with better enterprise planning, easier manufacturing process, and faster services at lesser costs. Above all, the Chamber acts as a co-player with state government as a promoter and facilitator of West Bengal as business destination, said Arnab Basu, Chairperson, IT Committee, The Bengal Chamber and Partner and Technology Consulting Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Other key participants included Dr. Rana Mehta, Partner, Leader Healthcare, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Sanjiv Mehta, Country Manager- Education, Healthcare and Startups, HP; Sumit Puri, CIO, Max Healthcare; Nand Kishore Dhomne, VP-IT & CIO, Manipal Hospitals; Girish Kopper, Sr. Manager-IT, Lilavati Hospitals; Dr. Arpan Pal, Principal Scientist & Head Embedded Systems & Robotics, TCS Research & Innovation, TATA Consultancy Services, among others. Overseas participants included Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) which is under Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry, Government of Japan. Representing JETRO was Chief Director General, Kazuyu Nakajo. The seminar concluded on March 11 with the theme New Age Technologies for High End Delivery. Dr. Kunal Sarkar, Sr. Vice Chairman, MEDICA Superspeciality, spoke about Artificial intelligence (AI) as the fourth industrial revolution. Dr. Munal Mahabub, Vice President, Chittagong Women Chamber, Chief Hospital Head (Surgiscope Hospital Ltd), Member (Sub Committee) Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry spoke on the topic 'Technologies for Circumcision A Possible area of Business collaboration' with special focus on India and Bangladesh. Prof. (Dr.) Rabin Chakraborty, Sr. Vice Chairman, MEDICA Superspeciality Hospital, who is trained in robotics, said, Technology is here to assist physicians and caregivers in speeding up the service for end users. By enhancing the process of delivery, doctors will be doing their work with aid of robotics, remote sensors and artificial intelligence that will take medical service to new frontiers with less human error and faster effective results. The participants at the conference agreed that expanding reliance on technology in healthcare is expected to boost this service sector tremendously with better professional and patient equation by consistent use of centralised database. A pril Fools Day or All Fool's Day is celebrated on April 1 across the globe, though it originated in Europe. Over the centuries, the day has thrown up some memorable pranks. Sudipto Maity lists a few April is the cruellest month stirring wrote Wasteland poet T.S. Eliot. But for many all over the world the month starts as a Fun day. Or April Fools Day. Making fun of others, playing a hoax, even giving a bad news which is not true, are all taken in with good humour. According to popular beliefs, the early practices originated in France. It was the first country in Europe to implement Pope Gregory XIIIs order of replacing the old Julian calendar with the Gregorian Calendar in 1582. New Years day was originally celebrated around April 1 as an advent of spring . With introduction of the Gregorian Calendar, the New Years date moved to January 1. Many people, who either refused to acknowledge the new date, or were unaware about the change, continued to celebrate New Years day on the old date. This prompted others to make fun of these traditionalists, sending them on fools errands. Eventually it became a ritual and spread throughout Europe. However, this theory has been questioned by many who dismiss it for lack of evidence. As proof, they point out that while England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752, the tradition of April Fools Day was already well established there by then. Constantine and Kugel Another theory states that the tradition of April Fools Day dates back to the time of Constantine the Great and one of his court jesters, Kugel. Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University who was invited by the public relations team at the University to pitch in as an expert and speak on the origin of April Fools day. Boskin told his audience that when a group of court jesters told Constantine that they could rule the kingdom better than him, he was amused and allowed a jester named Kugel to rule for a day. King Kugel, having ascended the throne, passed a proclamation calling for a celebration of absurdity on April 1. Later, it became an official event. Sounds plausible? Associated Press thought so and ran the story. It took them a couple of weeks to realise that Boskin played a hoax on them. "In a way, it was a very serious day. In those times fools were really wise men. It was the role of jesters to put things in perspective with humor," he told AP. Boskin was accused of ruining the life of a young reporter working for AP, but he has since used the story as an example to teach his students the importance of cross-checking facts. Up in the sky Way back in the late Eightes or could be early 90s too, a leading Indian-English daily, The Statesman, informed its readers about an alien invasion that was going to take place on the night of April 1. The newspaper in a well crafted piece with convincing images in its Sunday supplement Miscellany ahead of the fool's day urged readers to look up in the sky. As luck would have it, the unsuspecting readers fell for the bait. Its difficult to forget about that prank, says senior journalist Sujoy Dhar, who was in his sophomore year then. He too was a victim. And why not? It was unthinkable that a house we would associate with copybook journalism would indulge in a plan to fool its readers. Maybe thats why so many believed in the fake news. Many were amused later when the paper later announced that it was a prank. But some were outraged too, hehe, recalls Dhar. Since then, many Indian news outlets have tried to fool its readers/viewers, but haven't been able to emulate The Statesman's skill in presentation of the news or its success, stresses Dhar. Instant Colour TV However many old timers in Europe recall how in the early 1960s, the Swedish national broadcaster had fooled people when they announced that new technology would help owners of black and white TV sets to convert them into colour sets by pulling a nylon stocking over the screen. At the time, SVT (Sveriges Television) was the only television channel in Sweden. The broadcast was in black and white only. Well, it took almost eight more years for people to watch colour TV in Europe when colour transmission began in 1970. The 1962 hoax transmission by the broadcaster of Sweden can still be watched on YouTube!!! Of cockroaches and lizards Among other things, Krishnanagar in West Bengals Nadia district is famous for its clay craft. In medieval times, a common practice among the natives was pranking relatives using objects made of clay. These objects, mostly resembled food (fruits, sea food) and insects, and due to the of artistry, they looked life-like. Reminiscing about a prank she pulled on her colleagues once in Mumbai, travel writer Uttara Gangopadhyay shares, It was April Fools Day and I could not resist taking to office a pair of cockroaches and a lizard that I had at home. I went to office early and placed those on the desktop keyboards and within files at random. "Slowly people started trickling in, when suddenly the morning quiet was torn by a shrill cry. The lizard was discovered. The colleague who discovered it on her key board nearly fainted while others tried to shoo it from far." And as luck would have it, one of the cockroaches was discovered too - another ear piercing cry and rushing around by a few who wanted to distance themselves from the offending animal. Finally, a brave heart, armed with a long plastic ruler tried to shoo away the lizard, which refused to move. Some wondered if it was dead when suddenly someone tried to slide it off the keyboard by tilting it. It was then they discovered that the lizard was made of clay. Somebody similarly hit at the cockroach and its clay identity established." She says. Was she caught? Yes, and she still has the cockroaches! A 'sweet' prank The renowned Jolbhora Sandesh of Bengal may find takers aplenty, but do you know how it came into existence? It was born due to ones desire to fool an unsuspecting dear relative. The year was 1818. According to descendants of the famous confectioner Modak, upon receiving instructions from the zamindar's wife, confectioner Surya Kumar Modak with his son Siddeshwar got down to work. The instructions were clear, the mother-in-law wanted to play a prank on hernew son-in-law but wanted it to be subtle. Modak came up with the idea of filling a large Talsansh (a traditional Bengali dry sweetmeat) with rosewater and sweet syrup and it was presented to the new groom. As he took a bite, the water-filled centre crumbled, drenching his panjabi (Bengali style Kurta). What followed was a loud cheer from the mother-in-law. The rest is history. Though the incident took place much before April Fools Day arrived in the country via the colonialists and gained a following, it remains a classic case of perfect execution of a prank. Image on the Top of the Story: The top image is one of 2001 April Fool's Day in Denmark, regarding Copenhagen's new subway. It looks as if one of its cars had an accident, and had broken through and surfaced on the square in front of the town hall. In reality, it was a retired subway car from the subway of Stockholm cut obliquely. Image courtesy Lars Andersen, Wikimedia Commons Dhaka/New Delhi/Kathmandu, Mar 13 (IBNS): External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has spoken to her Bangladeshi counterpart AH Mahmood Ali over the death of 49 people in the Bangladeshi flight crash incident in Nepal's Kathmandu city on Monday. Swaraj expressed her sympathy over the incident. "EAM @SushmaSwaraj spoke to #BangladeshForeignMinister & expressed deepest condolences & sympathies for the loss of lives in the crash of #USBangla Airlines in #Kathmandu today. EAM offered any assistance required in Kathmandu, and shared thoughts and prayers for those injured," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. EAM @SushmaSwaraj spoke to #BangladeshForeignMinister & expressed deepest condolences & sympathies for the loss of lives in the crash of #USBangla Airlines in #Kathmandu today. EAM offered any assistance required in Kathmandu, and shared thoughts and prayers for those injured. Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) March 12, 2018 Meanwhile, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently in Singapore, condoled the loss of lives in the incident. In a video message, Hasina extended to provide support and assistance to Nepal in treating the survivors of the crash. Hasina said she will cut short her Singapore trip and return to Bangladesh on Tuesday. Hasina also spoke to her Nepalese counterpart Khadga Prasad Oli over telephone from Singapore and both the leaders condoled loss of lives in the tragedy. I am very much shocked at the incident, Hasina said in the video message. We will do whatever is necessary. Ive also told this to the honourable prime minister of Nepal. We are and always will be by the side of Nepal in the rescue operation or treatment of the injured, Hasina said. Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 13 (IBNS): A case has been filed against cardinal George Alencherry of Kerala's Syro-Malabar church over allegations of financial irregularities pertaining to a land deal, media reports said. The case has been filed by the Kochi Central Police on Monday. Along with Cardinal Alencherry, cases were filed against few other priests as well. Cardinal Alencherry has been alleged to sell a piece of land at a lower price incurring loss to the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese. Alencherry is the head of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese. The case has been filed by the police following the direction of the Kerala High Court. A bench in the high court has stated that prima facie evidence shows Alencherry along with some other priests are involved into the alleged financial irregularities. A senior police official told The Indian Express, "The Cardinal has been made the first accused in the case. Charges under sections 120 (B) for criminal conspiracy, 406 for criminal breach of trust and 415 for cheating under the Indian Penal Code have been filed in the case." Srinagar, Mar 13 (IBNS): Jammu and Kashmir Education Minister Syed Altaf Bukhari was given additional charge of the finance ministry on Tuesday, a day after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had sacked Haseeb Drabu as Finance Minister after the latter termed Kashmir as a social and not a political issue. According to reports, the Chief Minister after deliberations with her party leaders, decided to give additional charge of Finance to Altaf Bukhari. An order issued on Tuesday by Mehbooba Mufti, read: In pursuance of Rule 5 of Jammu and Kashmir government Business rules and as an interim measure, I Mehbooba Mufti, do hereby assign the charge of the departments of the Finance, Labour and Employment to Syed Muhammad Altaf Bukhari in addition to the government business already assigned to him. Drabu had landed in a controversy over his reported statement in a conference in New Delhi on Saturday that Kashmir isnt a political issue but a society with social issues. It (J&K) is not a political issue as far as I can see. They have been barking up the wrong tree for the last 50 or 70 years by talking about the politics of it, that the political situation has never improved. We seriously need to look at in terms of how it is a society that is in search for itself, Drabu was quoted saying at the function organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. (Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri) New Delhi, Mar 13 (IBNS): After the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) grounded 11 Airbus 320 Neo planes, aviation major IndiGo airlines on Tuesday cancelled 47 of its flights, reports said. According to reports, on Monday, a Lucknow-bound IndiGo flight from Ahmedabad made an emergency landing after its engine suffered failure mid-air. It later landed safely with186 passengers in Ahmedabad airport, media reports said. After observing that there have been 69 Pratt and Whitney engine failures as of September 15, and that the number of cases crossed 100, the DGCA grounded nine IndiGo and three GoAir planes with Pratt and Whitney engines yesterday, India Today reported. Talking to India Today, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said, "All engines in the series that experienced trouble in India have been grounded. No aircraft with engines facing trouble will take off till the issue is completely resolved." Indigo cancelled more than 40 flight on Tuesday, a day after the move was made by the DGCA. IndiGo has 32 Pratt and Whitney engine planes. Nine of them were grounded on Monday by the DGCA, reports said. On the otherhand, Goa Air has 13 Pratt and Whitney engine planes. Three of them were grounded by the DGCA. Meanwhile, in a statement available with the media, IndiGo said that following the cancellation, affected passengers will be accommodated on other flights on the network. GoAir has reportedly cancelled 18 flight on Tuesday. New Delhi, Mar 13 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday addressed the inaugural session of the END TB summit in New Delhi. He expressed confidence that the Delhi End TB Summit would be a landmark event towards the complete elimination of TB. He said every step taken towards the eradication of this disease, is also linked to the betterment of the lives of the poor. The Prime Minister announced that India has set a target for complete elimination of TB by 2025, as against the global target date of 2030. He said the Government is working comprehensively towards this goal. He said State Governments have a key role to play in this regard, and he has personally written to all Chief Ministers to join in this campaign. The Prime Minister said frontline TB physicians and workers are a crucial part of the drive to eliminate TB. He said those patients who overcome this disease also inspire others. The Prime Minister gave examples of Mission Indradhanush and Swachh Bharat, to show how the Union Government is speeding up progress towards desired targets. New Delhi, Mar 13 (IBNS): Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu has appealed the officers of Indian Postal Service to re-design and strengthen the rural postal network to make it a distribution and logistics hub. He was interacting with the Probationers of Indian Postal Service of Rafi Ahmed Kidwai National Postal Academy, here today. The Vice President said that feel proud to be part of India's oldest and widest service network and the post offices with their widest network of branches can execute the challenge of Financial Inclusion, especially among the weaker sections of the society by providing Postal savings schemes and insurance schemes. He called on the officers to be agents of change by transforming lives of people living in rural areas. "The rural Post office can become an ICT centre and Retail Centre, thus bringing enormous benefits to the rural populace," he added. The Vice President said that post offices play crucial role in providing communication services to people living in rural areas. He further said that they act as a linkage between rural and urban areas. "Postman is the first man to reach the last man and it is the finest service that helps the last man in remote areas,"he added. The Vice President advised the officers to be innovative in their ideas to provide world class services to Indian population. He further said that services like online selling of Postage Stamps, distribution of Ganga Jal, Post Office Passport Seva Kendra and Aadhar Enrolment and Updation Centres ensured convenience to the people. "Always keep on identifying new areas where the post office can make the difference in quality of service," he added. New Delhi, Mar 13 (IBNS): Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday condoled the death of CRPF jawans in Maoist attack in Kistaram area of Chhattisgarhs Sukma district. Attacking the Centre, Gandhi said the incident reflected a 'deteriorating' internal security situation due to 'flawed policies'. Condoling the loss of lives in the mishap, Gandhi tweeted: "The Maoist attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh in which 9 CRPF jawans lost their lives is tragic. It reflects a deteriorating internal security situation due to flawed policies. My condolences to the families of those killed. To those who have been injured, I wish a speedy recovery." The Maoist attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh in which 9 CRPF jawans lost their lives is tragic. It reflects a deteriorating internal security situation due to flawed policies. My condolences to the families of those killed. To those who have been injured, I wish a speedy recovery. Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 13, 2018 West Bengal Chief Mionister Mamata Banerjee also condoled loss of lives in the incident. "Deeply saddened at the news coming from #Sukma. Lives of at least nine CRPF jawans lost. My heartfelt homage to all the martyrs. Strength to their families. Jai Hind," Banerjee said. Deeply saddened at the news coming from #Sukma. Lives of at least nine CRPF jawans lost. My heartfelt homage to all the martyrs. Strength to their families. Jai Hind Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) March 13, 2018 At least eight Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed, and six others injured in an IED blast by Maoists in the Kistaram area of Chhattisgarhs Sukma district on Tuesday, media reports said. According to reports, the condition of four of the six injured are critical. The incident, that took place during a search operation, came days after ten ultras were killed in a gunfight with security forces along Chhattisgarh-Telengana border on March two. In April 2017, 25 CRPF jawans were killed and six injured in an ambush by Maoists in the Burkapal area of Sukma in one of the biggest massacres in the recent time. New Delhi, Mar 13 (IBNS): President of India Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the World Hindi Secretariat building on Tuesday on the third day of his visit to Mauritius. He also launched the World Hindi Secretariats logo, an Early Digital Learning Programme as well unveiled foundation stones of a social housing project and a large ENT hospital being built with Indian assistance. Addressing the gathering, the President said that Hindi has played an important role in society and culture in both India and Mauritius. It is a global language and the Indian community, spread across the world, has preserved its culture and traditions and passed it to the next generation through its linguistic traditions, including Hindi. Hindi is being taught in about 175 universities in various countries. The President noted that the 11th World Hindi Conference is going to be held in Mauritius in August 2018. Apart from India, Mauritius is the only country where this conference is being hosted for a third time. This is evidence of the affection of the people of Mauritius for Hindi. Later in the day, the President addressed the Indian diaspora at a reception hosted by the High Commissioner of India in Mauritius. Speaking on the occasion, the President said that in India we rejoice at the remarkable success of our brothers and sisters who left Indian shores many generations ago and have achieved great material success while cherishing their spiritual values. Since time immemorial, Indian life and society have been defined by VasudhaivaKutumbakum, meaning the whole world is our family. This is even more so for Mauritius, with whom we are linked by blood and sweat. The President said that today, more than ever, India wants to connect with its diaspora. To this end, we have made special provision for Mauritius in our OCI scheme. The President invited members of the Indian diaspora to visit and participate in programmes of the PravasiBharatiya Kendra in Delhi. He was happy to note that young Mauritians have already started to connect with the Kendra. "We must use our diaspora networks and platforms for connecting with India and for engaging with others in different parts of the world," he said. Earlier this morning, two former Prime Ministers of Mauritius, Paul Berenger and Navin Ramgoolam, called on the President for separate meetings. On Wednesday morning, the President will leave for Madagascar for the final leg of his two-nation state visit. He will become the first Indian President to visit Madagascar. New York, Mar 13 (JEN): Inclusive partnerships are essential to addressing drug challenges and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to the top United Nations panel dealing with all aspects of narcotic drugs. "With the UN General Assembly special session consensus as our blueprint, we can promote efforts to stop organized crime while protecting human rights, enabling development and ensuring rights-based treatment and support," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday in a video message at the opening session of the 61st Commission on Narcotic Drugs. "I have called on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC] to develop a comprehensive strategy that works across the three pillars with other UN entities to advance our efforts," he stressed, referring to the three main pillars of the UN's work peace and security, human rights, and development. UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said that throughout the coming year, the agency is looking forward to continuing its lead role in the UNs strategic work on drug issues. "The Commission on Narcotic Drugs has proven time and again its value in bringing the world together Member States, UN agencies, regional organizations, civil society, young people and scientists," he said. "The political commitment, expertise and experience gathered here represent a vital resource as we seek to find balanced, integrated solutions, drawing on the mutually supportive and reinforcing international drug control conventions and human rights obligations, and working towards the Sustainable Development Goals," Fedotov underscored. The opening session was also addressed by the President of the International Narcotics Control Board, Dr. Viroj Sumyai, and featured a video message from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. At this session, UNODC and WHO [the World Health Organization] will present a new report on treatment and care for people with drug use disorders in contact with the criminal justice system, and addressing alternatives to conviction or incarceration, explained Fedotov. Over the next week, the session, chaired by Ambassador Alicia Buenrostro Massieu of Mexico, will also consider a variety of resolutions, such as on combating the synthetic opioid crisis, strengthening drug prevention in schools and measures to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. UNODC remains committed to supporting you in all your efforts to improve balanced, evidence-based responses to the challenges to health, security, safety and development posed by drugs, he concluded. Along with the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs serves as the central policymaking body within the UN system on drugs. It is one of UNODCs governing bodies, and its resolutions and decisions provide guidance to Member States, UNODC and the international community. UNODC New York, Mar 13 (JEN): Despite a United Nations Security Council demand to institute a 30-day ceasefire across Syria, airstrikes, shelling and ground offensives have intensified in Eastern Ghouta, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported Monday, warning that the conflict is entering its eighth year with the grimmest reality on the ground. A country known for its ancient civilization and with a people known for their richness of diversity, Syria is bleeding inside and out, the UN chief told the 15-member body in his briefing on the implementation of Security Council resolution 2401unanimously adopted on 24 February. Along with a 30-day ceasefire, the resolution calls for delivering aid, evacuating the sick and wounded, lifting sieges, accelerating humanitarian mine action, and protecting civilians and infrastructure. Let me highlight just one stark fact on this grimmest of anniversaries: In 2017, more children were killed in Syria than during any other year since the war began, he said.According to UN data, the conflict has produced more than 5.6 million Syrian refugees and 6.1 million internally displaced people, with more than 13 million people inside the country requiring humanitarian assistance, including nearly six million children. However, violence continues in Eastern Ghouta and beyond, including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and into Damascus and its suburbs, Mr. Guterres said, warning that in Eastern Ghouta, airstrikes, shelling and ground offensives have even intensified and claimed many hundreds of civilian lives, some even saying more than 1,000 were killed. He reported that none of the Councils directives have been implemented: the provision of humanitarian aid and services has not been safe, unimpeded or sustained; no sieges have been lifted and not one critically sick or wounded person has yet been evacuated. All parties involved should be reminded that even efforts to combat terrorist groups identified by the Council do not supersede these humanitarian obligations. Guterres noted, however, that in some areas, like Deir ez-Zour and Douma, the conflict is diminishing in intensity. A ceasefire between the Government and Jaish al Islam forces in Douma is largely holding, he said, noting that their meeting took place yesterday and today, and there has been progress on civilian evacuations and humanitarian aid. Guterres oral report detailed latest efforts of his Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to bring about a political solution to the conflict and UN activities to address the humanitarian crisis. On Thursday, this conflict will enter its eighth year. I refuse to lose my hope to see Syria rising from the ashes, he said, To see a united, democratic Syria able to avoid fragmentation and sectarianism with its sovereignty and territorial integrity respected and to see a Syrian people able to freely decide their future and choose their political leadership. UNOCHA Kathmandu, Mar 13 (IBNS): Traveling in a US-Bangla flight, families and relatives of Bangladeshi flight crash victims reached Nepal on Tuesday. Officials of the US-Bangla Airlines confirmed The Daily Star that the flight reached Tribhuvan International Airport at Kathmandu around 10:35am (local time) one and half an hour after it departed Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka this morning. The family members were taken to the hospitals to visit the Bangladeshi victims, the sources the Bangladeshi newspaper. At least 49 people were killed when a Bangladeshi flight crashed in Kathmandu city of Nepal. The plane arrived in Nepal from Bangladesh capital Dhaka. Seventy-one people were traveling in it. Meanwhile, a high-level Bangladeshi team, which included Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism A.K.M. Shahjahan Kamal, arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday, media reports said. "The team will take stock of those deceased and injured in the plane crash. They will also discuss the possible reasons for the crash with Nepali authorities," reported Kathmandu Post. Nepal PM KP Oli on Monday said a commission will be formed to investigate the cause of the crash. Abid Sultan, the pilot of the US-Bangla Airlines plane that crashed in Nepal, passed away in a Kathmandu hospital, media reports said. Plane's co-pilot Prithula Rashid and crew member Khwaja Hussain died earlier. Image: YoutubeGrab Islamabad, Mar 13 (IBNS): Pakistan has condoled the loss of lives in the Nepal plane crash incident which left 49 people dead. A statement issued by the country's Foreign Ministry said: "The people and Government of Pakistan are deeply saddened at the tragic crash of passenger aircraft of Bangladesh, resulting in the loss of precious lives." "We convey our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families of the departed souls and pray for the speedy recovery of the survivors," read the statement issued by the Ministry. Traveling in a US-Bangla flight, families and relatives of Bangladeshi flight crash victims reached Nepal on Tuesday. Officials of the US-Bangla Airlines confirmed The Daily Star that the flight reached Tribhuvan International Airport at Kathmandu around 10:35am (local time) one and half an hour after it departed Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka this morning. The family members were taken to the hospitals to visit the Bangladeshi victims, the sources the Bangladeshi newspaper. At least 49 people were killed when a Bangladeshi flight crashed in Kathmandu city of Nepal. Image: Youtube Grab The plane arrived in Nepal from Bangladesh capital Dhaka. Seventy-one people were traveling in it. Meanwhile, a high-level Bangladeshi team, which included Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism A.K.M. Shahjahan Kamal, arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday, media reports said. "The team will take stock of those deceased and injured in the plane crash. They will also discuss the possible reasons for the crash with Nepali authorities," reported Kathmandu Post. Nepal PM KP Oli on Monday said a commission will be formed to investigate the cause of the crash. Abid Sultan, the pilot of the US-Bangla Airlines plane that crashed in Nepal, passed away in a Kathmandu hospital, media reports said. Plane's co-pilot Prithula Rashid and crew member Khwaja Hussain died earlier. Scarborough, Mar 13 (IBNS): Shaun Chen, Member of Parliament for Scarborough North, on behalf of Patty Hajdu, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, has announced a project that will invest in training equipment and materials to help apprentices get the skills they need to succeed. The project is funded under the Union Training and Innovation Program (UTIP). The Canadian government will provide over $110,655 for the construction of a Building Information Modelling classroom, delivered by Sheet Metal Workers and Roofers Union. The organization will purchase equipment that will help participants, as they develop their skills to help them get jobs in the sheet metal and roofing industries. As a result of this project, which is being funded under Stream 1 of UTIP, apprentices and existing workers will benefit from a state-of-the-art facility as they learn new skills and enhance their knowledge of new practices in their industry. Union-based skills training is a key element to achieving the governments commitment to get more people working in the skilled trades while also reducing barriers for apprentices to complete their training. Canadas future success depends on building an economy that is as inclusive as it is innovative. Our government is proud of this project that will help apprentices in Scarborough, and especially those who face additional barriers to participate and succeed in the skilled trades, start exciting and well-paying careers in the trades. Hajdu said. I am thrilled that we were able to secure federal funding for this project, a learning centre that gives workers the skills they need to succeed. This initiative will provide mentorship and training that well equips the next generation of workers. It is especially meaningful that the union is also actively recruiting more women and building a more diverse workforce, and this new state-of-the-art facility will help them do just that Chen said. Ottawa, Mar 13 (IBNS): In a phone interaction with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, US President Donald Trump has stressed on a fast completion of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations, media reports said. Trump's eagerness to seal the deal of NAFTA came months after the US and Canada were on the loggerheads on this issue. Reacting to Trump's urge, Trudeau told CNN that Canada is glad to see the US is eager to seal the deal. Days ago, Trump had kind of blackmailed Canada by saying the US will exempt its neighbouring country from the latest trade tariffs only when a new NAFTA is signed. Later, Canada and Mexico were exempted from the imposition of the trade tariffs. Mexico is also a member nation of the trade deal. NAFTA is an agreement which came into force from January 1994 by Canada, Mexico and United States creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. For more than two years, US President Trump criticised the agreement and also hinted to take some serious steps being in the administration or at least send some ultimatums. Trump reportedly wants the treaty to be more fair. Image: Image: facebook/@POTUS Glenmark Pharmaceuticals ended at Rs536.10 down by Rs0.35 or 0.07% from its previous closing of Rs536.45 on the BSE. Domestic business forms ~30% of Glenmarks total sales. It is not clear, what is the contribution of its orthopaedic products in its sales. When Strides Shasun sold its domestic brands to Eris for Rs500cr (Sales of Rs180cr), the valuation worked out to be 2.8x. Assuming that Glenmark will divest the Orth business at 3.0x (EV/sales), we believe that the business to be divested is generating annual sales of ~Rs300cr and forms ~10% of its India business.The company reported gross debt of Rs4,638cr and net debt of Rs3,603cr as of December 31, 2017. Compnay in Q2FY18 had said that it aims to reduce debt by Rs300cr each year. The debt to equyity ratio of ~0.8x, lower margins along with its high R&D expenses and US pricing challenges are the key concerns for the company.At this stage, more details are awaited on this new development. Good things come to those who wait, work hard and believe in doing good, regardless of the credit. Shahnaaz Khan. who's now been elected as the sarpanch of Garhazan village in Bharatpur was busy taking her MBBS fourth year practical examinations on the day of the election. The 24-year-old Sarpanch of Mewat region is not only the youngest person to hold that title but also the most educated woman so far in Garhazan. ht Shahnaaz is a student of Teerthanker Mahaveer Medical College and Research Center in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. With this victory in hand, Shahnaaz will get a chance to carry forward the legacy of his paternal grandfather, who was a political leader in the region. People in Mewat area dont send their daughters to schools. I will present before them my own example to show what education can do for a woman, Shahnaaz said after taking oath as sarpanch on Monday. reports HT. Youtube Even though she stands on a pedestal laden with responsibilities. Shahnaaz is ready and fully prepared to juggle studies and the political obligations of her post. Shahnaaz's grandfather had been sarpanch of Garhazan for 55 years but was asked to step down after the Rajasthan government made passing Class 10th, a mandatory qualification for sarpanch candidates. It's a welcome change, to have a woman and a highly educated one at that, step-up and take charge in the political arena at the panchayat level. Not only will this help in encouraging more women to study and work, it is proof that empowered women can empower hundreds of other people. Bollywood celebrities like Riteish Deshmukh, Dia Mirza, and Onir expressed their opinions and extended respect for the farmer's community as an estimated 35,000 peasants completed a 180-km march to Mumbai over six days to bring to the notice of the government the agrarian crisis gripping the state. BCCL The group of peasants men, women, youth and even seniors chose to abandon their nights rest, as they marched from the Somaiya Grounds, Vidyavihar, starting 2 a.m. (Monday) to reach the historic Azad Maidan at dawn, to avoid inconveniencing students appearing for the ongoing board examinations. BCCL Saluting the spirit of farmers and why it's important to pay heed to their needs, here is what film fraternity said. Twitter 1. Dia Mirza: Our destinies are entwined. Our farmers grow our food. Their lives and livelihood are in peril because of climate change, exploitative middlemen, lack of sustainable support. Stand by our farmers. 2. Riteish Deshmukh 50,000 farmers walked 180kms, asking for the rightful compensation for their crop. On their last stretch they walked all night making sure they didnt disturb the SSC board examinations. #Compassion #respect #Salute #JaiKisan - pic.twitter.com/epa0a90A6u Riteish Deshmukh (@Riteishd) March 12, 2018 3. Onir: Respect Kisan Long March. These farmers have kindness far beyond most arrogant political rallies who dont care about public inconvenience. 4. Prakash Raj: With blisters in the foot hunger in their eyes, our farmers have walked seeking fair play, dignity. This is the truth because of your lies and failed promises Will you give them justice as they knock at your door before they rise to knock you out #justasking. 5. Siddhartha Basu: Not just the Maharashtra government, all of India needs to listen and respond positively to the acute distress of our farmers everywhere. 6. Shirish Kunder: As long as the farmers and soldiers are willing to die for us, respect? The moment they protest against any injustice, political agenda? We love docile cows! 7. Shruti Seth: You can be sure that this will be turned into a political slugfest and the poor farmers will return home empty-handed. And then the government will deflect all the attention to something absolutely nonsensical. Hope we grow brains by 2019. 8. Maria Goretti: My heart goes out to our farmers and their plight my grandparents were farmers, I know how difficult this is. 9. Pritish Nandy: The Indian farmer is an amazing person. He is fighting a losing battle against nature, life and the state for years now. He deserves our respect and support. Not political cliches. 10. Kunal Kemmu: I feel very emotional listening to the plight of the farmers and their stories. Walking barefoot and with bare necessities and still being as patient, calm and disciplined. I really hope we find a way to help end the prolonged ordeal of the backbone of this country Jai Kisan! 11. Atul Kasbekar: Massive respect! Farmers in the mammoth agitation agreed to walk across the city at night so as to not inconvenience citizens, especially kids appearing for exams. 12. Abhishek Kapoor: Put yourself in the farmers shoes today. Theyve walked a very long way to be heard. Hope they get what they want cause its going to be a long and hard summer. Please dont whine about traffic jams. 13. R. Madhavan: I totally and wholeheartedly support this for all farmers in this nation. Lets make that difference. 14. Rahul Dholakia: Should write a film (thats all what I can do) where the protagonist dupes the bank of thousands of crores and then he distributes the money to all the farmers to clear their debts and escapes abroad! And just imagine if the bank belonged to Netas! Farmers rock. 15. Puri Jagan: Bhaiya gobhi kaise diye? 20/kg Bhaiya 15 ka laga do. Dominos, 1 medium pizza. Rs 285 Rs 300. Keep the change. Farmers are dying Imtiaz Ali's love for traveling is pretty evident in all his films. Be it Aditi and Viren's Goa trip in Socha Naa Tha or Ved and Tara's mad escapades in Tamasha, every frame of his films reflect his passion for story-telling using the backdrop of travel. Twitter Imtiaz Ali, who was also a student of Hindu College in Delhi loves the city and his latest visit to the city proves how he is extremely fond of 'Dilli Ka Khaana'. Twitter Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali was in Delhi and from visiting Sadar Bazaar for piping hot kachodis to eating Chole Bhature, he didn't miss out on a single delicacy, proving how much he loves Desi food. Twitter welcome to Delhi. jai Sitaram Diwanchand! A post shared by Imtiaz Ali (@imtiazaliofficial) on Mar 11, 2018 at 1:49am PST Minar, GK #bestdalmakhani A post shared by Imtiaz Ali (@imtiazaliofficial) on Mar 11, 2018 at 10:54am PDT sadar bazaar #bestkachori A post shared by Imtiaz Ali (@imtiazaliofficial) on Mar 12, 2018 at 10:51am PDT And he gave us a glimpse of secularism in India by sharing this post. His food walk in Delhi included a tourist-y trip to food-places including: India witnessed one of the largest gatherings of protesting farmers in the recent time in Mumbai. It was a peaceful march mainly aimed at conveying the concerns of the farmers. They got an unprecedented support from the locals. With food, water, traffic management, and what not, the city looked in sync with the concerns that today bother the food provider of the country. PTI The government, however, accepted their demands as they reached Mumbai after walking 180 km. But #KisanLongMarch campaign did yield results most of us couldnt even imagine, given the gap between rural and urban India. Shrirang Swarge/Peoples Archive of Rural India Here is what India learnt from the protest. 1. When in need, help arrives from all corners People in Mumbai didnt hesitate in welcoming the farmers who came in big numbers. The city looked ready with people helping the farmers with food and water. Faith-based groups were at the forefront helping and comforting the farmers. It can teach India that we Indians care about different groups despite having diversity. 2. Discipline, not chaos A city famous for traffic woes welcomed a strong crowd to take over the roads, flyover and lanes meant for their own vehicles was a big plus in itself. The Mumbaikars looked ready to accommodate to the marching farmers. The traffic management in these days was excellent as people were more accommodating for farmers. 3. Bridging the rural-urban divide People were seen out of their homes and talking to farmers, knowing their issues and clicking photographs with them. The people posted more photos of the march than the media, which again show that people were interested in knowing about the real problems of the farmers. This communication between the rural and urban India is going help in reducing the widening gap between 'India' and 'Bharat'. 4. A message of pan India farmer crisis The march not only reflected the problems of the farmers of one state, it also represented the anger and mistrust of the farmers from all corners of India in the government and the state. The blood-soaked feet of the many farmers told the story of poor farmers of otherwise better looking Punjab, Western UP and Haryana. The tale of a farmers audacity to survive is same regardless the states. 5. Power of people: When people are together, they can make govt accept their demands. The government said it will meet the demands, but do u think it happened just like that. It happened because the government also see how people in the city are talking to these people, helping them, talking about their issues. Political parties who use farmers as a vote bank also understand this that if people from rural and urban India communicate, it wont be easy to take any section living in the country for granted. With International Women's Day just around the corner, the world plans to celebrate and felicitate the women in unique ways. Air India too has decided to celebrate this day in an indeed special way. The national carrier informed PTI that it has operated a flight on the Kolkata-Dimapur-Kolkata sector on Sunday with an all-women cockpit and cabin crew as part of its celebration of International Women's Day. Not just this, but during this entire week, Air India has plans to organise a series of cultural and creative events to commemorate the event, the release added. Air India had operated the world's first all-women crew flight from Kolkata to Silchar way back in 1985. In a release issued recently by the airline service, flight AI709, an Airbus 319, was operated by Captain Akanksha Verma and Captain Satovisa Banerjee in the cockpit while the cabin crew comprised D Bhutia, MG Mohanraj, T Ghosh and Yatili Kath. The flight was flagged off by Air India's General Manager, Personnel, Navneet Sidhu along with other senior officials at the city airport rolling out the events planned by Air India Eastern Region to commemorate the International Women's Day on February 8, it said. Walking for six days is an arduous task. Bet it requires more than courage to undertake a 180-kilometre-long journey on foot, braving the scorching heat, without food, water. The protesting farmers, who started to march from Nashik on March 6 and reached Mumbai on Sunday, are cleverer than most. The sea of farmers in red caps, carrying red flags ensure all these grounds were covered, along with those that require a little more effort. In a crowd pf protesters, where it is difficult to distinguish one from the other, a few farmers were spotted carrying mini solar panels, size of a hat, tied to their heads. The purpose? Charging mobile phones during the laborious journey. Nathu Nivrutti Udar is marching at #KissanLongMarch with a solar panel on his head. "I got this panel for my house but when we decided to come here I thought I should install this on my head, so that I can charge the panels and use it to charge farmers' phones,"he said. pic.twitter.com/pjwZoj13ax Bobins Abraham (@BobinsAbraham) March 12, 2018 A handful farmers were spotted with these devices, which they were sharing with fellow protesters. Upon being asked, they told that a half-hour charge could give enough energy to the phone to run a couple of hours. The panels could charge four-five phones at a time. Among these, 60-year-old Sundarabai Mhadu Bhoi, relied on groundnuts to keep up the energy. She generously shared the much-needed supplies with the reporters and fellow protesters. BCCL Many farmers were seen using cardboard to protect themselves from the blazing sun at the site of a protest rally in Mumbai Azad Maidan. BCCL Close to 55,000 farmers of the All India Kisan Sabha are demanding Devendra Fadnavis Maharashtra government to give them a fair price for their crop and a waiver of all loans. Babasaheb Bawiskar, an ageing farmer who is part of the rally that commenced in Nashik on Tuesday, said he has a huge family to fend for and hasnt got any help from the government over the last few years. I have been ailing and am unsure how I will be able to take care of my family in the coming days, he told The Times of India. The resolve of these farmers was visible as they continued to walk undeterred by the blisters and injuries on their feet. Ajit Nawale of the All India Kisan Sabha said that villagers supplied the protesters with ration. One such villager in Bhiwandi said: I can relate to the pain of the farmers as I see it on my husbands face every year after a failed crop. We hope they seek a reply to all the hardships we have been facing over the last several years. The stir is likely to be called-off after the farmers reached an agreement with the Devendra Fadnavis government. The government has agreed to give written assurances that it would address their grievances within the next two months. With the arrival of 50,000 farmers In Mumbai who will gherao the Maharashtra assembly to tell politicians about their ordeals, the Indian farm crisis seems to have got the platform to tell its story. Farmer suicide is an issue which has been talked and written about massively. But except for sugar-coated promises made by the politicians, nothing much has been done to contain the damage the farmers have been subjected to over the decades. If the farmers have to come to Mumbai to make their voice audible to the otherwise deaf ears of the politicians, one can imagine how dire the circumstances must be for the people who provide us with food. India's farm crisis is growing and the magnitude of it can be understood that not only in Maharashtra, several farmer movements have been seen in different states across India in recent moments and farmer suicide is just a tip of the iceberg which lurks beneath a state's apathy. Here is everything you should know about farm loan waivers in India. 1. Appalling, Isn't it? AFP 2. Things have worsened for farmers in near past AFP (Source: NCRB) 3. The current farmer debt in India Reuters' (Source) 4. Farmers owe money to these banks AFP (Source) 5. Interestingly, just 5 Indian companies owe almost half of that amount to our banks too! PTI (Source) 6. Remember Mallya -he fled the country with over Rs 9,000 owed to banks! AFP 7. Major corporates who owe banks fortunes Trupti Patel, (Source) 8. Farm loan waivers are expected to rise AFP (Source) 9. Here are some recent farm loan waivers Reuters 10. It all started in 1990 AFP (Source) 11. A first birthday gift from the Centre Reuters At a press event in New Delhi today, Google had a new surprise for India. As part of its efforts to streamline Google Maps for the Indian audience, the company has now launched something called Plus Codes, which it promises to make sharing your address easier than ever. reuters Plus Codes are basically the companys interpretation of a mailing address for the modern age. After all, if we can have a phone number and IP address, why are physical addresses so long and cumbersome? Instead, Plus Codes transforms your address into a simple 10-digit (sometimes 11) alphanumeric code, making remembering and sharing it an absolute breeze. Basically, Google has divided the entire world into tiny quadrants at the smallest level, with 20x20 of these quadrants making up a larger one. That way, an alphanumeric code can give you an exact location marker right down to within a few metres. Take the code 7JFJ2R3H+G65. Thats the Plus Code for the Mumbai branch of Indiatimes, though itll be listed locally as just 2R3H+G65. Here, the first four characters are the area code, with everything after being the local code. The entirety of India is actually contained within three of the largest layer of quadrants, 8J 7J, and 7M. Zooming into 7J, and Central Mumbai is squarely in the 7JFJ quadrant, holding everything from Dahanu in the North to King Edward Memorial Hospital in the south, and from the eastern limits of Thane to the waters around the city. Go in closer, and 7JFJ2R has some of Lower Parel, most of Dadar, and a piece of the Bandra Reclamation area. In some more, and the Times Tower falls squarely in 7JFJ2R3H+. As for the G65 at the end, G6 is part of the wing our office is in, and that makes G65 right about where I set in the office. Yeah, its that accurate. The best part, is that you can generate this Plus Code address from within the Google Maps app and easily shared via a text. Or, you can use this handy map to find your Plus Code, and explore the quadrants around you. Copying pasting one of these codes even just directly into Google search will give you the location result in Maps. Screenshot You dont need to sign up or register; every piece of Earth already has a code assigned to it, even the middle of the ocean (should you need a parcel delivered there). Its also free to use, for both developers and users. In an ideal scenario, e-commerce portals like Flipkart and Amazon, and even food delivery services like Swiggy can adopt Plus Codes as an optional way to provide your address for deliveries. Unless of course you enjoy wasting 15 minutes of your day trying to figure out which gate your delivery executive is waiting at and why he isnt coming inside. When it comes to the world stage, Indias broadband Internet connectivity and speeds are both nothing to be impressed by. However, it seems that there are pretty big discrepancies even within the country. Ookla, the company behind the Speedtest bandwidth monitoring platform, has ranked Chennai as having the fastest fixed broadband speed of the 20 largest cities in India. It registered an average download speed of 32.67 Mbps, at least 57.7 percent faster than the nations average. The results were based on tests carried out by users on Speedtest through February 2018. Aside from Chennai, other metros like Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam also scored higher than the countrys average of 20.72 Mbps. Bengaluru ranked in second place with an average of 31.09 Mbps, Hyderabad in third with 28.93 Mbps, Vishakhapatnam in fourth with 26.59 Mbps, while Delhi ranked 5th with average speeds of 23.57 Mbps. Mumbai ranked lowest among the four big metros with an overall ranking of 8, with fixed broadband speeds averaging 17.1 Mbps. Chennai Patna is by far the slowest city compared to the rest of the country, with speeds averaging 62.4 percent slower than the countrys average. Besides Patna, download speeds in Kanpur, Lucknow, Pune and Nagpur are significantly lower than that of their respective states. However, Karnataka as a state had the fastest speeds in India, averaging 28.48 Mbps, with Tamil Nadu in second, and Mizoram in last place. ASHLAND, Ore., March 12, 2018 Conservation groups filed a federal petition for Endangered Species Act protection today for the Siskiyou Mountains salamander, a rare terrestrial salamander that lives in old-growth forests in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of southern Oregon and Northern California. The salamander is threatened by federal land-agency plans to ramp up logging in southern Oregon.This highly specialized animal cant adapt to logging, so it will be pushed to the brink of extinction without Endangered Species Act protection, said Jeff Miller with the Center for Biological Diversity. The salamander is a unique indicator species of forest health in the Siskiyou Mountains. It deserves immediate protection in the face of accelerated logging.By eliminating the survey and manage program that required timber planners to look for salamanders before logging their habitat, the Bureau of Land Management has put this rare species in further peril, said George Sexton with KS Wild. Increased logging of mature forests in the Applegate Valley could jeopardize the very survival of the salamander.The Siskiyou Mountains salamander (Plethodon stormi) is a long-bodied, short-limbed terrestrial salamander, brown in color with a sprinkling of white flecks. The species only lives in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of southern Oregon and Northern California; it has the second-smallest range of any western Plethodontid salamander. Its best habitat is stabilized rock talus in old-growth forest, especially areas covered with thick moss. Mature forest canopy helps maintain a cool and stable moist microclimate.We have to ensure this unique salamander doesnt blink out of existence, said Josh Laughlin with Cascadia Wildlands. In addition to playing an important ecological role by contributing to nutrient flow and soil health, the Siskiyou Mountains salamander is a distinct part of this regions natural heritage.Todays petition was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Environmental Protection Information Center and Cascadia Wildlands.BackgroundThere are two distinct populations of the Siskiyou Mountains salamander separated by the Siskiyou Mountains crest a larger northern population in the Applegate River drainage in Oregon and a small southern population in Californias Klamath River drainage. Most known Siskiyou Mountains salamander locations are on U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands.Conservation groups first petitioned for protection of the salamander under the Endangered Species Act in 2004. To prevent the species listing, the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed a conservation agreement in 2007, intended to protect habitat for 110 high-priority salamander sites on federal lands in the Applegate River watershed. In 2008 the Fish and Wildlife Service denied protection for the salamander based on this conservation agreement and old-growth forest protections provided by the Northwest Forest Plan.Under the Northwest Forest Plan, the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service were required to survey for rare species such as the Siskiyou Mountains salamander and designate protected buffers from logging where salamanders were found. But the Western Oregon Plan Revision adopted by the BLM in 2016 will substantially increase logging in western Oregon and undermine the habitat protections of the salamander conservation agreement.The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.6 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. Corn Market Ends Lower Barchart - Mon Sep 20, 4:39PM CDT Corn prices were 1 1/4 to 5 1/2 cents lower going home. December prices ended the session 6 1/2 cents off the low as some shorts covered while waiting to see the Crop Progress numbers. The weekly Crop... ZCZ21 : 518-6 (-0.57%) ZCPAUS.CM : 5.0570 (-1.38%) ZCH22 : 527-0 (-0.52%) ZCZ21 : 518-6 (-0.57%) Cattle Complex Mixed at Monday Close Barchart - Mon Sep 20, 4:39PM CDT Fat cattle futures firmed in the afternoon but still closed mostly weaker on Monday. December 21 contracts gained 55 cents, while the rest of the complex was 2 to 7 cents weaker. Feeder cattle futures... LEV21 : 122.775s (-0.02%) LEG22 : 131.525s (-0.02%) GFU21 : 155.000s (+0.08%) GFV21 : 156.675s (+0.19%) Chart of the Day: DO NOT PANIC! Barchart - Mon Sep 20, 4:17PM CDT Summary Do not abandon your discipline. We are not in a "Market Correction" Prune but don't buy. Today I will not post a chart of an individual stock because someone out there just might buy it and... VTI : 225.07 (-1.73%) VTI : 225.07 (-1.73%) The Livestock and Grain Markets - OH MY !!! Chicago Quant Technologies - Mon Sep 20, 3:27PM CDT In the face of an onslaught of downside pressure only one of these markets has held considerably well. Grain Spreads: Corn Guesses Walsh Trading - Mon Sep 20, 3:05PM CDT Balance Sheet Questions Could Emerge through Harvest The UAC board and MGAA Chair Charles Manchester are set to have an extensive meeting on March 20, for a high-level exchange of ideas and information that would be beneficial for both parties, said UAC General Manager William Legge. UAC and MGAA are both very successfully promoting the interests of underwriting agencies and managing general agents to intermediated markets in the United Kingdom and Australia and New Zealand, Legge said. There is a wide range of issues well explore together because of our commonality of interests. Manchester is the CEO of Manchester Underwriting Management, which underwrites UK and international business, with a focus on financial lines, through UK regional brokers and in the London market. Related stories: March 12, 2018 (Toronto, Ontario) Auto insurance fraud is estimated to cost Canadians more than $2 billion every year. Today, the shocking results of a new Aviva investigation designed to determine the impact of auto repair fraud on insurance consumers highlights the urgent need to reform the auto insurance system. Through this investigation, Aviva estimates that auto repair fraud across Ontario costs consumers approximately $547 million annually. A year-long secret operation y Avivas fraud investigation team set out to discover what really happens during the auto repair process when auto body shops and tow truck drivers encounter vehicles involved in collisions on Ontarios roads. Throughout 2017, Aviva purchased ten cars which investigators and automotive experts deliberately crashed and damaged. Experts retained by Aviva carefully examined and assessed each car to calculate the actual extent and cost of repair. Equipped with hidden cameras, the damaged cars were positioned near provincial highways at random locations in the Toronto area to simulate collisions. Undercover investigators posing as drivers equipped with recording equipment waited for assistance. The investigation recorded and tracked the entire process from the time assistance arrived at the collision scene, until damaged cars were repaired and invoices submitted. Evidence gathered during the investigation revealed nine out of ten cases involved fraud. In this investigation, Aviva found: Substantial level of fraud : An average of 57% of total repair costs invoiced to Aviva were fraudulent. : An average of 57% of total repair costs invoiced to Aviva were fraudulent. Additional deliberate damage : Hidden camera footage caught auto body shop employees deliberately causing damage to cars. : Hidden camera footage caught auto body shop employees deliberately causing damage to cars. Wrongful billing and repairs of car parts : Auto body shops billed for new car parts, but installed used parts, or did not replace the parts at all. Additionally, parts that were not damaged were itemized on the final invoice as repaired. : Auto body shops billed for new car parts, but installed used parts, or did not replace the parts at all. Additionally, parts that were not damaged were itemized on the final invoice as repaired. Billing for services not provided : Tow truck operators invoiced Aviva for towing and storageservices that did not occur. : Tow truck operators invoiced Aviva for towing and storageservices that did not occur. Consumer abuse: Tow truck operator offered incentive for tips on accidents requiring towing services, discouraged driver from using Avivas accredited auto body shops, towed vehicles without proper permission and asked a driver to sign a blank work order. Watch this video of the evidence found in Avivas fraud investigation. Commenting on the investigation, Gordon Rasbach, Aviva Canadas Vice President of Fraud Management, said: This amounts to a national scandal. However, we recognize that not every tow truck operator or auto body shop is fraudulent. As for those who are taking advantage of the system, government and the insurance industry must collectively act against auto insurance fraud by tackling the root causes that have led to a broken and dysfunctional system. The way forward begins with government - that is why we are proposing a 5-point action plan on behalf of honest consumers. Aviva calls for 5-point action plan In Ontario, Aviva is pleased to see progress on implementation of The Marshall Report and the Serious Fraud Office, but more needs to be done. For years, insurers have suspected fraudulent activity coming from the automotive repair industry. Aviva believes provincial regulators should have a clear mandate to regulate the insurance industry to identify, deter and prevent fraud. To that end, Aviva is calling for a 5-point action plan from government to: 1. Ban referral fees to take unnecessary cash out of the system (these fees benefit third party suppliers but not consumers). 2. Prohibit blank work orders to ban any supplier from asking consumers to sign them. 3. Allow discounts to customers who agree to use an insurers accredited repair network. 4. Force insurers to report all identified fraud and investigation outcomes so that data is shared. 5. Increase penalties for suppliers of goods and services to insurance claims who abuse consumers or defraud insurers Gordon Rasbach continued: The video footage and clear evidence of fraudulent invoicing shows just how pervasive the problem of fraud is in Canada. We predict that Canadians are paying more than $2 billion a year for auto insurance fraud. They have told us that enough is enough. Honest drivers who may have been a victim of fraud without their knowledge, or are paying for it through higher premiums deserve better. For more information on fraud and how to solve it, visit: https://www.avivacanada.com/fightfraud/ Kenneth A. Distel of Avon, Conn., was re-elected president of the Professional Insurance Agents of Connecticut Inc. (PIACT), at the associations Annual Convention held March 8-9 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn. Distel is area vice president of RPS Distel in Farmington, Conn. PIACT is a trade association representing professional, independent insurance agencies and their employees throughout the state. An active member of PIACT, Distel served as president-elect of the association in 2016 to 2017, treasurer in 2015 to 2016 and secretary in 2014 to 2015. Currently, Distel is executive chairperson of PIACTs Executive/Budget & Finance Committee. He also is an ex-officio member of the Administrative/Nominations and the Association Programs Committees. Source: Professional Insurance Agents of Connecticut Inc. Topics Agencies Connecticut Ridesharing has officially arrived in New York, and confusion over New York no-fault insurance and PIP Loss Transfer has arrived with it. On June 29, 2017, the New York State Assembly approved and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the states $153 billion budget, which included changes in state law providing for ridesharing and starting a rule-making process that will allow rideshare companies to expand statewide and expand they did. Prior to the passage of the law, people wanting a ride were limited to calling a livery operator or a service regulated by a local Taxi and Limousine Commission. With the passage of its 2018 fiscal budget, New York has amended its ridesharing (a/k/a: ride-hailing, ride-sourcing or e-dispatch) laws to provide that Uber and Lyft driver-partners are covered by Ubers group ridesharing insurance while connected to the Digital Network. Rideshare insurance has evolved to meet the modern world of insurance coverage. Prior to this, Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing apps had to operate in New York City under the citys rules for livery taxis. Rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft are also known as TNC companies. TNC stands for Transportation Network Company, a term defined in a recently enacted part of the State Vehicle & Traffic Law. A TNC, sometimes known as a Mobility Service Provider (MSP), is an organization that pairs passengers via websites and mobile apps with drivers who provide such services using their personal, non-commercial vehicles. TNCs cannot accept a street-hail. Payment must be through the app and drivers accepting cash from a passenger for a ride is considered illegal. Law enforcement are operating stings to catch unaware drivers, and fines can be as much as $2,000. Interestingly, the new legislation itself excluded New York City, which means a TNC must still be authorized by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission to operate in New York City. The TNC insurance coverage rules are intuitive. While New York Uber drivers are online via the Uber app waiting for a rideshare request, they are covered by Ubers liability insurance policy, providing indemnity for liability to third persons if they are at fault in an accident. Coverage minimum limits are $50,000 per person/$100,000 per accident, with $25,000 in property damage liability per accident. They are also covered by Personal Injury Protection (PIP) (no-fault) at $50,000, as well as UM/UIM coverage at $25,000/$50,000. While New York Uber drivers contacted via the Uber app are driving to pick up a rider, but before the rider gets into their vehicles, they are covered by third-party liability coverage at minimum limits of $1.25 million, UM/UIM motorist coverage of $1.25 million, PIP (no-fault) of $50,000 and contingent collision and comprehensive coverage, provided the driver maintains auto insurance that includes collision coverage for that vehicle while not on an Uber trip. Once a rider is picked up, the Uber driver has the same coverage in those amounts as when driving to pick up the rider, plus the rider is covered once he or she enters the vehicle. When driving the vehicle for personal use, not connected to the Digital Network, no coverage is provided by Uber. Lyft provides similar insurance with slightly different limits. PIP no-fault benefits are available to the Uber driver and passenger as set forth above before and after a rider is picked up. New Yorks no-fault scheme, contained in Article 51 of its Consolidated Laws (Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Insurance Reparations), requires vehicle owners to carry insurance with $50,000 minimum limits that covers basic economic loss, i.e., first-party benefits, because of personal injury arising from the use or operation of a motor vehicle. Basic economic loss includes, among other things: (1) medical expenses; (2) lost earnings up to $2,000 per month for three years; and (3) out-of-pocket expenses up to $25 per day for one year. N.Y. Ins. Law 5102(a). Third-party tort claims are limited by New Yorks no-fault laws, and a PIP carrier who has paid benefits to a driver or passenger has no traditional subrogation rights. If both vehicles involved in an accident involve covered persons, they cannot sue each other in tort for losses that should be covered by PIP no-fault benefits. However, if either one of the motor vehicles involved (1) weighs more than 6,500 lbs. unloaded, or (2) is used principally for the transportation of persons (e.g., taxi, bus) or property for hire (e.g., FedEx, delivery truck), a compensation insurer is free to pursue a loss transfer against the negligent motorists vehicle insurer for the recovery of the $50,000 first-party benefits it became obligated to pay under 5102(b)(2). N.Y. Ins. Law 5105(a). Loss transfer must be pursued through arbitration, and the vehicle meeting the livery condition need not be the negligent vehicle to trigger the loss transfer exception. Loss transfer is an opportunity for a PIP carrier to recover from the negligent motorists insurer the first-party benefits it paid because of an accident. Unfortunately, when PIP benefits are paid to an Uber driver or rider, there is significant confusion regarding whether loss transfer will be allowed. Is one of the motor vehicles involved used principally for the transportation of persons or property for hire? There can be no question that a TNC vehicle is a vehicle used for the transportation of persons for hire. Whether such a private vehicle is used principally for this purpose is another issue. Argument That Uber Vehicle Must Be Principally Used For Livery On one hand, a liability carrier may argue that an Uber vehicle is not used principally for hauling riders most of the time it is used as a personal vehicle. Therefore, loss transfer is neither available or appropriate. In In re Philadelphia Ins. Co., 948 N.Y.S.2d 501 (N.Y. App. 2012), the court said there is a paucity of decisions interpreting the phrase for hire in the loss transfer context. It admitted that the statute is inartfully drafted and does not limit the universe of vehicles to which it applies only to taxis and buses, and livery vehicles. That case dealt with a minivan, and the evidence established that the minivan owner was not in the business of transporting members of the public for compensation. The court said the term vehicle for hire is commonly understood and defined in other contexts as a vehicle held out to the public for the provision of transportation services in exchange for a fee. The court also noted that the phrase used principally for the transportation of persons or property for hire typically refers to vehicles operated by drivers who are required to have a certification or license and are subject to specialized licensing, insurance, safety and other requirements. However, there is little to guide us on what the term principally means. In a New York County trial court order, the court reviewing a finding of an arbitrator that loss transfer applied looked at the sufficiency of evidence that a vehicle was a motor vehicle used principally for the transportation of persons or property for hire. The arbitrator found evidentiary support that the vehicle was registered or used as a livery for hire. However, the Supreme Court said the vehicle had to be principally used as a vehicle for hire. DTG Operations, Inc. v. AutoOne Ins. Co., 2014 WL 4743462 (N.Y. Sup. 2014). The court determined that there was sufficient evidentiary support for the arbitrators finding that it was principally used for livery, based on the examination under oath submitted by the PIP insurer. While the other side argued that such testimony did not show that the vehicle was principally used for hire or livery, the PIP carrier submitted documentary evidence showing that the vehicle was registered as Livery Use in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011, and in 2010 until five days before the accident. It upheld the arbitrators decision, stating that it cannot be said that the arbitrators determination as to the livery use of the vehicle was arbitrary and capricious or unsupported by any reasonable hypothesis. In a 2008 case, a minivan registered as a passenger vehicle and bearing livery license plates belonging to a commercial vehicle, was being used to transport wheelchair passengers for a company engaged in the business of such transportation. Progressive Northeastern Ins. Co v. New York State Ins. Fund, 870 N.Y.S.2d 478 (N.Y. Sup. 2008). Vacating the arbitration award allowing loss transfer, the Court found the record devoid of evidence establishing that the principal use of the minivan was as a vehicle for hire. The Court concluded that simply finding that vehicle was being used at the time as a vehicle for hire, was inadequate to support the award and in disregard of the standard prescribed by the legislature. Determining what principally means could be a task of monumental proportions. Is it determined based on total hours driven, distance driven or something else? Does the portion of time that a person is looking to be hired with the app on, but without a paying rider, count toward the livery time or the non-livery time? Therefore, as the argument goes, the vehicle must be shown to be used primarily as a livery vehicle and not simply on the date of the accident. If the vehicle is registered as a regular passenger vehicle but was used as a livery vehicle on the date of loss, that should be taken into consideration when applying for loss transfer. Argument That Uber Vehicle Need Not Be Principally Used For Livery On the other hand, it could be argued that the defining characteristic of a TNC vehicle changes once the Uber app is activated and the vehicle is actively operating as a vehicle for hire. Therefore, when a vehicle is operating with the app on, or is transporting a rider, it transforms into a vehicle which primarily is one of livery. Section 5105 was drafted at a time when taxi cabs and livery vehicles for hire were highly-regulated and easily-identified. The Stronger Argument Unless and until 5105 is amended to clarify the issue, based solely on the wording of the statute itself, the stronger argument would seem to be that the loss transfer plaintiff has the burden of proving that the vehicle was principally used for the transportation of people. The original no-fault legislation, enacted in 1973, did not include an exemption for vehicles of a certain weight or those used for hire in 674 (now 5105). A bill introduced in 1977 attempted to amend 674(1) as follows: Such right to recover shall exist, however, only if at least one of the motor vehicles involved is: (a) used principally for the transportation of persons or property for hire or other commercial purpose; or (b) is hauling any vehicle not propelled by its own power. (Emphasis added) S.A. 55748 1977-1978 Regular Sessions (N.Y. 1977). The tow truck exception didnt make it into the final statute, but the principally requirement did. It may turn out that the arbitrator and the courts will need to look at each case individually, requiring a fact-finding as to the percentage of time the TNC vehicle is used as a private vehicle as opposed to an Uber vehicle. The term principally would seem to connote that the percentage for the latter be more than 50% to qualify for loss transfer. According to Lawrence Fuchsberg, Principal Attorney at the New York Department of Insurance, the perplexing issue of Loss Transfer Arbitration and ride-sharing apps is currently under review. If the New York legislature wants to adapt their laws to fulfil their original intent of allowing such a loss involving a livery vehicle to be transferred to the at-fault party, it will need to amend 5105 to accommodate the fast-moving rideshare industry. Visit our website for a complete chart on Med Pay and PIP insurance subrogation law in all 50 states. Topics Carriers Auto Profit Loss New York Property Sharing Economy Ridesharing Uber Global fisheries output will slump by 20 percent by 2300 and by 60 percent in the worst-hit North Atlantic region if governments fail to slow long-term global warming, a U.S. team of scientists said on Thursday. Most studies of climate risks extend to 2100 and overlook extra catastrophic effects such as the projected slump in ocean life that would only emerge in coming centuries, they said. Unchecked long-term warming would thaw sea ice around Antarctica and disrupt ocean currents, winds and the growth of tiny plankton, the report found. Worldwide, ever more nutrients would sink to the ocean depths, away from fish near the surface. Marine ecosystems worldwide will be increasingly starved for nutrients, lead author J. Keith Moore of the University of California, Irvine, told Reuters of the findings published in the journal Science. [Editors note: The study, called Sustained climate warming drives declining marine biological productivity, can be downloaded from the Science website.] The shifts would cut the productivity of fisheries in 2300 by an average 20 percent and by 60 percent in the North Atlantic, where a normal upwelling of nutrients from deeper waters would be most reduced, according to computer simulations. Exceptions would be the Southern Ocean near Antarctica and in the Arctic Ocean around the North Pole where higher temperatures and shrinking ice, allowing more sunlight to reach the water, would boost the growth of tiny plants. Moore said such long-term projections involve many uncertainties but add to existing concerns about more heat waves, downpours and droughts that mainstream scientists link to a build-up of man-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We need to be thinking 1,000 years into the future, not 100 years, he wrote in an email. Global warming isnt a problem our children can solve it will be too late. The study assumed greenhouse gases will continue to build up in the atmosphere, boosting average surface temperatures by 9.6 degrees Celsius (17 Fahrenheit) by 2300. That would be far above goals set in 2015 by almost 200 nations under the Paris climate agreement to limit warming to well below 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times by phasing out fossil fuels this century. The report did not factor in other risks, such as an acidification of the oceans caused by the build-up of carbon dioxide that could undermine the ability of creatures such as lobsters and oysters to build protective shells. Charlotte Laufkoetter, a scientist at the University of Bern who was not involved in the study, praised the findings as based on the best existing science, despite the difficulty of projecting so far into the future. There are of course several uncertainties circulation in the Southern Ocean is very difficult to model, she told Reuters. (Reporting by Alister Doyle; editing by Mark Potter) Related: Topics Climate Change London-based broker Beach & Associates announced the completion of its acquisition by Acrisure LLC, the Michigan-based retail consulting and insurance broker. Having obtained all necessary regulatory approvals, Acrisure has acquired 100 percent of the companys equity from existing shareholders. These shareholders include Aquiline Capital Partners, a private equity firm led by Jeff Greenberg, as well as current and previous Beach management. Further terms of the transaction, which was first announced in January, were not disclosed. Under new ownership, Beach will retain its name, identity and business strategy and will continue to operate as an independent advisory and transactional broking business within Acrisure, the Grand Rapids-based retail consulting and insurance broker. All of the existing Beach management team will remain and have elected to become shareholders in Acrisure. Source: Beach & Associates Topics Mergers Agencies Michigan A Tekamah, Nebraska, man is suing an Oklahoma pipeline company, which he accused of failing to properly repair an anhydrous ammonia pipeline, causing a deadly leak in 2016. The Omaha World-Herald reports that Steven Chace filed the lawsuit against Magellan Midstream Partners in federal court. The lawsuit says Chace reported concerns to the company about a leak in 2013, but a permanent repair was never made. Chace says he awoke the night of Oct. 17, 2016, choking and was nearly killed by the fumes before he escaped. He says he saw his neighbor, 59-year-old Phillip Henning, killed in the deadly cloud. Nearly two dozen homes near the leak were evacuated. Magellan said it cant comment on the lawsuit and that the leak is still being investigated by federal officials. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Oklahoma Nebraska Yahoo has been ordered by a federal judge to face much of a lawsuit in the United States claiming that the personal information of all 3 billion users was compromised in a series of data breaches. In a decision on Friday night, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California rejected a bid by Verizon Communications Inc., which bought Yahoos Internet business last June, to dismiss many claims, including for negligence and breach of contract. Koh dismissed some other claims. She had previously denied Yahoos bid to dismiss some unfair competition claims. Yahoo was accused of being too slow to disclose three data breaches that occurred from 2013 and 2016, increasing users risk of identity theft and requiring them to spend money on credit freeze, monitoring and other protection services. The breaches were revealed after New York-based Verizon agreed to buy Yahoos Internet business, and prompted a cut in the purchase price to about $4.5 billion. A Verizon spokesman had no immediate comment on Monday. A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The plaintiffs amended their complaint after Yahoo last October revealed that the 2013 breach affected all 3 billion users, tripling its earlier estimate. Koh said the amended complaint highlighted the importance of security in the plaintiffs decision to use Yahoo. Plaintiffs allegations are sufficient to show that they would have behaved differently had defendants disclosed the security weaknesses of the Yahoo Mail System, Koh wrote. She also said the plaintiffs could try to show that liability limits in Yahoos terms of service were unconscionable, given the allegations that Yahoo knew its security was deficient but did little. In seeking a dismissal, Yahoo said it has long been the target of relentless criminal attacks, and the plaintiffs 20/20 hindsight did not cast doubt on its unending efforts to thwart constantly evolving security threats. Last March, U.S. prosecutors charged two Russian intelligence agents and two hackers in connection with one of the Yahoo breaches. One accused hacker, Karim Baratov, a Canadian born in Kazakhstan, pleaded guilty in November to aggravated identity theft and conspiracy charges. The other defendants remained at large in Russia. The case is In re: Yahoo Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 16-md-02752. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Grant McCool) Topics Lawsuits USA Cyber Normally, investors focus on cash flow, net income, and revenues as the basic measures of corporate health and value. But over the years, another measure has crept into quarterly reports and accounts: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). While investors can use EBITDA to analyze and compare profitability between companies and industries, they should understand that there are serious limits to what the metric can tell them about a company. Here we look at why this measure has become so popular and why, in many cases, it should be treated with caution. Key Takeaways Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) is a metric that measures a company's overall financial performance. In the mid-1980s, investors began to use EBITDA to determine if a distressed company would be able to pay back the interest on a leveraged buyout deal. EBITDA is now commonly used to compare the financial health of companies and to evaluate firms with different tax rates and depreciation policies. Among its drawbacks, EBITDA is not a substitute for analyzing a company's cash flow and can make a company look like it has more money to make interest payments than it really does. EBITDA also ignores the quality of a company's earnings and can make it look cheaper than it really is. EBITDA: A Quick Review EBITDA is a measure of profits. While there is no legal requirement for companies to disclose their EBITDA, according to the U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), it can be worked out using the information found in a company's financial statements. The usual shortcut to calculate EBITDA is to start with operating profit, also called earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), and then add back depreciation and amortization. However, an easier and more straightforward formula for calculating EBITDA is as follows: E B I T D A = N P + I n t e r e s t + T a x e s + D + A where: N P = N e t p r o f i t D = D e p r e c i a t i o n A = A m o r t i z a t i o n \begin{aligned} &EBITDA = NP + Interest + Taxes + D + A \\ &\textbf{where:}\\ &NP = \text{\small Net profit}\\ &D = \text{\small Depreciation}\\ &A = \text{\small Amortization}\\ \end{aligned} EBITDA=NP+Interest+Taxes+D+Awhere:NP=Net profitD=DepreciationA=Amortization The earnings, tax, and interest figures are found on the income statement, while the depreciation and amortization figures are normally found in the notes to operating profit or on the cash flow statement. 1:54 Should You Ignore EBITDA? The Rationale Behind EBITDA EBITDA first came to prominence in the mid-1980s as leveraged buyout investors examined distressed companies that needed financial restructuring. They used EBITDA to calculate quickly whether these companies could pay back the interest on these financed deals. Leveraged buyout bankers promoted EBITDA as a tool to determine whether a company could service its debt in the near term, say over a year or two. Looking at the company's EBITDA-to-interest coverage ratio could give investors a sense of whether a company could meet the heavier interest payments it would face after restructuring. The use of EBITDA has since spread to a wide range of businesses. Its proponents argue that EBITDA offers a clearer reflection of operations by stripping out expenses that can obscure how the company is really performing. Easily Understood Financial Health of a Company Interest, which is largely a function of management's choice of financing, is ignored in EBITDA. Taxes are left out because they can vary widely depending on acquisitions and losses in prior years; this variation can distort net income. Finally, EBITDA removes the arbitrary and subjective judgments that can go into calculating depreciation and amortization, such as useful lives, residual values, and various depreciation methods. By eliminating these items, EBITDA makes it easier to compare the financial health of various companies. It is also useful for evaluating firms with different capital structures, tax rates, and depreciation policies. EBITDA further gives investors a sense of how much money a young or restructured company might generate before it has to hand over payments to creditors and the taxman. All the same, one of the biggest reasons for EBITDA's popularity is that it shows higher profit numbers than just operating profits. It has become the metric of choice for highly leveraged companies in capital-intensive industries such as cable and telecommunications. The Drawbacks While EBITDA may be a widely accepted indicator of performance, using it as a single measure of earnings or cash flow can be very misleading. A company can make its financial picture more attractive by touting its EBITDA performance, shifting investors' attention away from high debt levels and unsightly expenses against earnings. In the absence of other considerations, EBITDA provides an incomplete and dangerous picture of financial health. Here are four good reasons to be wary of EBITDA. No Substitute for Cash Flow Some analysts and journalists urge investors to use EBITDA as a measure of cash flow. This advice is illogical and hazardous for investors. For starters, taxation and interest are real cash items, and, therefore, they're not at all optional. A company that does not pay its government taxes or services its loans will not stay in business for long. Unlike proper measures of cash flow, EBITDA ignores changes in working capital, the cash needed to cover day-to-day operations. This is most problematic in cases of fast-growing companies, which require increased investment in receivables and inventory to convert their growth into sales. Those working capital investments consume cash, but they are neglected by EBITDA. Even if a company just breaks even on an EBITDA basis, it will not generate enough cash to replace the basic capital assets used in the business. Treating EBITDA as a substitute for cash flow can be dangerous because it gives investors incomplete information about cash expenses. If you want to know the cash from operations, just flip to the company's cash flow statement. Skews Interest Coverage EBITDA can easily make a company look like it has more money to make interest payments. Consider a company with $10 million in operating profits and $15 million in interest charges. By adding back depreciation and amortization expenses of $8 million, the company suddenly has EBITDA of $18 million and appears to have enough money to cover its interest payments. Depreciation and amortization are added back based on the flawed assumption that these expenses are avoidable. Even though depreciation and amortization are non-cash items, they can't be postponed indefinitely. Equipment inevitably wears out and funds will be needed to replace or upgrade it. Ignores Quality of Earnings While subtracting interest payments, tax charges, depreciation, and amortization from earnings may seem simple enough, different companies use different earnings figures as the starting point for EBITDA. In other words, EBITDA is susceptible to the earnings accounting methods found on the income statement. Even if you account for the distortions that result from interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization, the earnings figure in EBITDA is still unreliable. Makes Companies Look Cheaper Than They Are Worst of all, EBITDA can make a company look less expensive than it really is. When analysts look at stock price multiples of EBITDA rather than bottom-line earnings, they produce lower multiples. A company may trade at what appears to be a low multiple to its forecast EBITDA, making it appear to be a bargain. However, when comparing that same company using other multiplessuch as operating profits or estimated net incomethat same company may trade at much higher multiples. To gain a complete picture of a company's valuation, investors need to consider other price multiples besides EBITDA when assessing a company's worth. The Bottom Line Despite its widespread use, EBITDA isn't defined in generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. As a result, companies can report EBITDA as they wish. The problem with doing this is that EBITDA doesn't give a complete picture of a company's performance. In many cases, investors may be better off avoiding EBITDA or using it in conjunction with other, more meaningful metrics. Many investors have experienced abnormal levels of investment performance volatility during various periods of the market cycle. While volatility may be greater than anticipated at times, a case can also be made that the manner in which volatility is typically measured contributes to the problem of stocks seeming unexpectedly, unaccountably volatile. The purpose of this article is to discuss the issues associated with the traditional measure of volatility and to explain a more intuitive approach that investors can use in order to help them evaluate the magnitude of risks. 2:11 A Simplified Approach To Calculating Volatility Traditional Measure of Volatility Most investors know that standard deviation is the typical statistic used to measure volatility. Standard deviation is simply defined as the square root of the average variance of the data from its mean. While this statistic is relatively easy to calculate, the assumptions behind its interpretation are more complex, which in turn raises concern about its accuracy. As a result, there is a certain level of skepticism surrounding its validity as an accurate measure of risk. In order for standard deviation to be an accurate measure of risk, an assumption has to be made that investment performance data follows a normal distribution. In graphical terms, a normal distribution of data will plot on a chart in a manner that looks like a bell-shaped curve. If this standard holds true, then approximately 68% of the expected outcomes should lie between 1 standard deviations from the investment's expected return, 95% should lie between 2 standard deviations, and 99.7% should lie between 3 standard deviations. For example, from 1979 to 2009, the three-year rolling annualized average performance of the S&P 500 Index was approximately 9.5%, and its standard deviation was roughly 10%. Given these baseline parameters of performance, one would expect that 68% of the time the expected performance of the S&P 500 index would fall within a range of -0.5% and 19.5% (9.5% 10%). Unfortunately, there are three main reasons why investment performance data may not be normally distributed. First, investment performance is typically skewed, which means that return distributions are typically asymmetrical. As a result, investors tend to experience abnormally high and low periods of performance. Second, investment performance typically exhibits a property known as kurtosis, which means that investment performance exhibits an abnormally large number of positive and/or negative periods of performance. Taken together, these problems warp the look of the bell-shaped curve and distort the accuracy of standard deviation as a measure of risk. In addition to skewness and kurtosis, a problem known as heteroskedasticity is also a cause for concern. Heteroskedasticity simply means that the variance of the sample investment performance data is not constant over time. As a result, standard deviation tends to fluctuate based on the length of the time period used to make the calculation, or the period of time selected to make the calculation. Like skewness and kurtosis, the ramifications of heteroskedasticity will cause standard deviation to be an unreliable measure of risk. Taken collectively, these three problems can cause investors to misunderstand the potential volatility of their investments, and cause them to potentially take much more risk than anticipated. A Simplified Measure of Volatility Fortunately, there is a much easier and more accurate way to measure and examine risk, through a process known as the historical method. To utilize this method, investors simply need to graph the historical performance of their investments, by generating a chart known as a histogram. A histogram is a chart that plots the proportion of observations that fall within a host of category ranges. For example, in the chart below, the three-year rolling annualized average performance of the S&P 500 Index for the period of June 1, 1979, through June 1, 2009, has been constructed. The vertical axis represents the magnitude of the performance of the S&P 500 Index, and the horizontal axis represents the frequency in which the S&P 500 Index experienced such performance. S&P 500 Index Performance Histogram. Image by Sabrina Jiang Investopedia 2021 As the chart illustrates, the use of a histogram allows investors to determine the percent of the time in which the performance of an investment is within, above, or below a given range. For example, 16% of the S&P 500 Index performance observations achieved a return between 9% and 11.7%. In terms of performance below or above a threshold, it can also be determined that the S&P 500 Index experienced a loss greater than or equal to 1.1%, 16% of the time, and performance above 24.8%, 7.7% of the time. Comparing the Methods The use of the historical method via a histogram has three main advantages over the use of standard deviation. First, the historical method does not require that investment performance be normally distributed. Second, the impact of skewness and kurtosis is explicitly captured in the histogram chart, which provides investors with the necessary information to mitigate unexpected volatility surprises. Third, investors can examine the magnitude of gains and losses experienced. The only drawback to the historical method is that the histogram, like the use of standard deviation, suffers from the potential impact of heteroskedasticity. However, this should not be a surprise, as investors should understand that past performance is not indicative of future returns. In any event, even with this one caveat, the historical method still serves as an excellent baseline measure of investment risk and should be used by investors for evaluating the magnitude and frequency of their potential gains and losses associated with their investment opportunities. Application of the Methodology How do investors generate a histogram in order to help them examine the risk attributes of their investments? One recommendation is to request the investment performance information from the investment management firms. However, the necessary information can also be obtained by gathering the monthly closing price of the investment asset, typically found through various sources, and then manually calculating investment performance. After performance information has been gathered, or manually calculated, a histogram can be constructed by importing the data into a software package, such as Microsoft Excel, and using the software's data analysis add-on feature. By utilizing this methodology, investors should be able to easily generate a histogram, which in turn should help them gauge the true volatility of their investment opportunities. The Bottom Line In practical terms, the utilization of a histogram should allow investors to examine the risk of their investments in a manner that will help them gauge the amount of money they stand to make or lose on an annual basis. Given this type of real-world applicability, investors should be less surprised when the markets fluctuate dramatically, and therefore they should feel much more content with their investment exposure during all economic environments. By Geoff Percival Aryzta shares endured a rollercoaster day ultimately closing down 1.4%, after having been up earlier on the back of the Cuisine de France owner reporting a further revenue decline, and investor uncertainty over the strength of its underlying business. The Irish-Swiss baked goods group said its first-half revenues covering the six months to the end of January fell by 6.3% to 1.79bn, driven by a 7.4% drop in revenues at its struggling North American arm. Group earnings, on an Ebitda basis, fell by 29.6% to 161.3m and underlying net profit fell by over 53% to almost 51m. However, the company said its European revenues rose by 0.7% and it remains on track to exceed its 450m disposals target by the end of its financial year at the end of July. Summing up the groups current situation, chief executive Kevin Toland said: We are actively implementing a range of measures to improve our Ebitda. We are in a multi-year turnaround programme. However, Investecs Ian Hunter who has a sell label on the Aryzta stock said that while the first-half numbers beat expectations, the Europe outperformance came on the back of a greater than expected price/mix increase rather than underlying volume. The underlying business remains under pressure, particularly in North America but the sale of assets, guidance on continued disposals and unchanged covenant targets give some comfort that debt levels are being actively addressed. We are, however, still cautious on the underlying business over the short to mid-term, Mr Hunter said. By Eamon Quinn and Padraig Hoare Irish shoppers are on course to spend over 10.9bn this year on groceries up 420m on 2017 based on trends over the early months. According to Kantar Worldpanel Ireland, the amount spent in supermarkets and grocery chains in the 12 weeks to late February in the Republic totalled 2.56bn. Thats 3.9% more than was spent in the same period a year earlier, and comes after prices across 30,000 Irish grocery items monitored by Kantar Worldpanel were all but unchanged in the year posting a small decline of 0.1%. Last year, shoppers spent a total of 10.49bn across the big five supermarket chains and the smaller independent grocers. That amount includes home groceries only, while goods bought for on-the-go consumption are not included, the researcher said. In the latest survey, Dunnes, which had attracted more business over the hard-fought Christmas period, retained its top slot. It secured a 23.1% share of the 2.56bn spend over the 12 weeks, despite a large growth spurt for Tesco, which won 22.3% of the market. SuperValu, in third place, was close behind with a share of 22%. And Lidl and Aldi competed for shares of 10.8% and 10.6%, respectively. Having previously reported a decline in sales, Aldis performance is back on track. Sales have increased by 1.3% and market share stands at 10.6% just 0.2 percentage points behind Lidl, Kantar said. The big five account for 88.8% of all grocery spend in the Republic amounting to over 2.25bn in the latest survey period. The survey of 5,000 households showed that other outlets such as the branded independent chains had a share of 11.2% Shoppers have spent an additional 96m on groceries over the latest 12 weeks compared to last year and two factors have led to this growth, said David Berry at Kantar. First, shoppers are choosing to buy slightly more expensive items and this is reflected in continued sales growth for brands. Second, customers have picked up more items during their weekly shop, with the cost of the average trip 60c more than this time last year, he said. Meanwhile, Irish households increased their spending on all types of goods and services, while spending in the UK went into reverse, according to Visa. There was an almost 4.5% increase in Irish household expenditure in February compared with a year earlier, while UK households tightened their belts for the ninth time in 10 months, recording a more than 1% drop in spending. Irish retailers once again saw an improvement in face-to-face transactions, while household goods were the most popular among consumers. Household goods saw growth of more than 11% year-on-year the fourth month in a row of double-digit expansion. The almost 6% growth in spending on food and drink was the fastest since April 2017, while there were also similar rises in spending transport and communication, recreation, hotels, bars, and restaurants. Visa country manager Philip Konopik said Valentines Day was an important factor in driving spend in February but warned the impact of Storm Emma would dampen growth in March. By Ann O'Loughlin Graham Dwyer "cannot escape" a court ruling that retained data generated by his mobile phone could be used as evidence against him during his trial before the Central Criminal for the murder of Elaine O'Hara. Brian Murray SC for the State and the Garda Commissioner said telecommunication data from Dwyer's personal mobile phone was retained and accessed by the Gardai investigating Ms O'Hara's death under the 2011 Communications Act. At the relevant time Ireland was mandated by the EU to have such an Act in relation to retained data in place for the investigation, prevention and prosecution of serious crimes. Counsel said the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had in 2014 made certain adverse findings about the 2006 EU directive underpinning the 2011 Act. Dwyer's lawyers applied to the judge presiding over his trial before a jury at the Central Criminal Court to have the retained data excluded from his 2015 trial based on the ECJ's decision. The trial Judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt ruled against Dwyer and allowed the contested evidence go before the jury. Counsel said it is the State's case in the High Court proceedings that the retention and use of Dwyer's data at his trial was lawful and a finding the Cork born architect "cannot escape." Counsel was making submissions on the 10th day of Dwyer's action against the State and the Garda Commissioner aimed at having provisions of Ireland's data retention laws struck down. Dwyer, who denies killing Ms O'Hara, claims the 2011 Communications (Retention of Data) Act, which allowed Gardai obtain and use data generated by his mobile phone during his 2015 trial for Ms O'Hara's murder breached his privacy rights. Data obtained under that Act should not have been used at his trial, he claims. Dwyer argues the Act was introduced to give effect to a 2006 EU directive concerning the retention and use of data. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) found in 2014 the directive was invalid and that position was further strengthened in subsequent rulings by that court in 2016. He claims the 2011 Act suffers from the same flaws identified by the ECJ. In proceedings against the Garda Commissioner, and the State, Dwyer seeks various declarations that his privacy rights under the Irish Constitution, European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Charter have been breached. During his submissions Mr Murray also told the court that no evidence had been given by the ECJ in its decisions about data retention regimes as to how alternatives to a general data retention system would work. Counsel said the 2016 ECJ rulings did not refer to any jurisdictions where alternative retention regimes which would deemed as less invasive on privacy rights had been attempted or tested, he added. The action continues and is expected to conclude later this week. A south Dublin businessman has apologised before the High Court for being in contempt of court orders not to interfere with the receivership of a property owned by him, writes Ann OLoughlin. The apology was offered by Gerry Ward, Mount Eagle Green, Leopardstown Heights, Dublin 18 before Ms Justice Carmel Stewart today. Receiver Simon Coyle brought a motion seeking Mr Ward's attachment and committal to prison over the businessman's refusal to comply with the order in relation to a property located at Cedar Brook Avenue, Cherry Orchard, Dublin 10. However Mr Ward has brought proceedings where he opposes the validity of the receiver's appointment. The Judge had previously made an order directing the Garda Siochana to attach Mr Ward and bring him before the court to answer his contempt. Today when the case returned before the court Declan Wade Bl for Mr Coyle told Ms Justice Stewart Mr Ward had since furnished a sworn statement to the court. While some of the contents of the statement were unhelpful counsel said Mr Ward had offered what his client deemed to be an apology. Ms Justice Stewart said Mr Ward had offered an apology in his statement, and considered the application seeking Mr Ward's attachment and committal to be at an end. Mr Colye, the judge said, was entitled to the legal costs of this particular application from Mr Ward which had been before the courts on several occasions. Representing himself Mr Ward, who said the proceedings concerning the receivership were "not over by a long shot," had asked that costs be reserved pending the final outcome of the dispute. Mr Coyle was appointed receiver by Bank of Ireland in 2015, which Mr Ward acquired with a mortgage from ICS Building Society in 2007. In 2016 Mr Coyle obtained orders from the High Court preventing Mr Ward from dealing with, occupying, trespassing and interfering with the Cherry Orchard property and the receivership. The receiver was unable to gain possession of the property, resulting in Mr Coyle bringing proceedings alleging contempt of the court against Mr Ward. Proceedings had also brought against the occupier of the property, who last month left the premises. That action was discontinued after the High Court accepted the occupant was an innocent party in the matter. By Ann O'Loughlin Former Rehab CEO Angela Kerins was blaggarded by members of the Dail Public Accounts Committee in a way that changed her life forever, the Supreme Court has been told. The outcome of her case contending the PAC is accountable for such treatment of a citizen is of singular importance and extraordinary moment for citizens and the State and will have resonance for years, her counsel John Rogers SC said. The courts were not entitled to say Deputies must be given a wide berth as the Constitution says citizens have rights to a good name and a right to redress for a constitutional wrong. The Constitution either does not protect parliamentary committees at all from suit or only if they are lawfully exercising their functions, he argued. In this case, the PAC went off the rails, proceeded without any legal scaffolding and Ms Kerins claims include misfeasance in public office, that the PAC abused their power. He was opening Ms Kerins appeal before a seven judge Supreme Court over the High Courts rejection of her case alleging two PAC hearings on February 27th and April 10th 2014, where questions were asked about her 240,000 annual salary and other matters, amounted to a witch hunt. She voluntarily attended the first hearing and said her treatment was such she was too unwell to attend the second. The PAC denied a witch hunt and argued it was entitled to scrutinise how public funds are spent when about 83m public monies were paid annually to Rehab companies. In January 2017 a three judge High Court decided, for reasons including the Constitution confers absolute privilege on speech in the Oireachtas and the PAC was making no "determination" concerning Ms Kerins, the courts could not intervene in relation to how the hearings were conducted. While critical of how aspects of the hearings were conducted, the High Court said, if Oireachtas members were constrained in speech as Ms Kerins alleged, the effective functioning of parliament would be impaired in a manner "expressly" and "absolutely" forbidden by the Constitution. The Supreme Court later agreed to hear a leapfrog appeal directly to it due to what it described as the very important issues of constitutional law raised. These include whether the High Court was correct to find natural justice rights did not apply to Ms Kerins because the PAC was not exercising a jurisdiction as it had no fact finding role in its hearings concerning Rehab and Ms Kerins had not been compelled to appear before it. Other issues include the legal safeguards available to voluntary witnesses before the PAC and whether the courts have any role in protecting the personal rights of such witnesses in the context of freedom of speech in the legislature and the separation of powers. During submissions today, Mr Rogers read from transcripts of the PAC hearings which he said contained many deeply wounding and extremely damaging remarks about Ms Kerins, including accusing her of being evasive in her answers and telling her to get a grip on herself. PAC had no jurisdiction to inquire into how Rehab spent public monies paid to it and breached both its remit and jurisdiction by asking Ms Kerins detailed questions about her salary, bonuses, contracts Rehab held with other entities and even what year and model was her Audi car, he said. The High Court finding the PAC was not exercising a jurisdiction as this was a non-adjudicative procedure involving no power compelling Ms Kerins to attend was deeply troubling and failed to address her personal rights under Article 40.3. Even if there was no determination, a committee purporting to exercise a power of the State to conduct an examination must conform with the rules of natural justice and is subject to the jurisdiction of the court when what it does puts in risk the personal rights of the citizen, he submitted. This was about utterances directed at an individual citizen who was blaggarded by Deputies who sought to disparage her to a point where the High Court found she had been damaged in her reputation. Counsel also described as "shocking" comments by then PAC member, now Minister for Transport, Shane Ross in a January 2014 newspaper article. Mr Ross described an interview with RTEs Morning Ireland in which Ms Kerins was asked about her salaryas "car crash stuff" and also speculated whether Ms Kerins would get the CRC treatment from a Fine Gael dominated PAC. Mr Rogers was also critical of comments by then PAC Chairman John McGuinness and his failure to intervene when Ms Kerins was being asked questions which counsel said were outside the PAC jurisdiction. Ms Kerins experienced great distress over how she was treated, he said. Her case was not just about damages, as the State contended, and she was very anxious the record of what was said about her was expunged. The appeal continues tomorrow. By Isabel Hayes A man accused of attacking three women in random attacks told gardai he would never assault a woman. On day 10 of the trial today at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Gerardine Small BL, prosecuting, read out transcripts of a number of garda interviews with Slawomir Gierlowski (33) which took place at Clondalkin Garda Station in June 2016. Mr Gierlowski, of Galtymore Road, Drimnagh, denies attacking three women on dates in 2011, 2015 and 2016 at locations around Clondalkin in south Dublin. The women cannot be named for legal reasons. In the first interview read out to the jury, which took place on June 1, 2016, a garda interviewer asked Mr Gierlowski if he could tell them anything about the false imprisonment which took place at Knockmeenagh Lane on May 16, 2016. No, Mr Gierlowksi replied. I'm fed up with this. I've said I know nothing about it. In the May 2016 incident, a man armed with a hunting knife attacked a woman as she was walking along Knockmeenagh Lane to the nearby Luas stop. The woman has testified that she thought the man was going to slit her throat and she grabbed the blade to stop that happening, causing the knife to cut tendons in three fingers. Mr Gierlowski was also brought through evidence that he was allegedly on Knockmeenagh Road on the morning of the day in question. When asked what he was doing, he said he was just driving. Did you see anybody in the lane? the garda interviewer asked. No, Mr Gierlowski replied. He said that he was in the van the whole time. When asked about the presence of duct tape which was found in his van, Mr Gierlowksi said he sometimes needed it for work and it had been there a long time. When asked if he would take part in a formal identification parade, Mr Gierlowski said he would. In a further interview the following day, Mr Gierlowski was asked about a jacket found in his house which has been linked to the alleged crime. The trial has previously heard blood matching the victim's DNA was found on the jacket. When asked why the jacket was there when the victim was falsely imprisoned at Knockmeenagh Lane, Mr Gierlowski said: I'm not able to answer this question. He said he couldn't account for his alleged presence at Knockmeenagh Lane between 6.40am and 6.50am on the morning of the attack. I can't explain this because I can't remember if I was there or if I wasn't, he said. Mr Gierlowski was then questioned about an attack in Clondalkin on September 3, 2015, in which a man put a leather belt around a woman's neck and knocked her to the ground. The man then wrapped duct tape around the woman's face and hands and sexually assaulted her. When asked, Why did you do this to her?, Mr Gierlowski replied, Why are you saying I did this? I did not assault anyone. He said he didn't know how his blood was found on the belt, or how his semen was found on the woman's underwear. I have told you people that I would never assault a man or a woman, he said. When questioned about the third attack in Clondalkin on September 11, 2011, in which a woman was punched several times and sexually assaulted, Mr Gierlowski said it was impossible that his DNA had been found on that woman's underwear. You have to believe me that I would never hit any woman, he said. This is really sick. I don't understand how my DNA ended up on that item. He added that he had been with his girlfriend for eight years. Mr Gierlowski has pleaded not guilty to nine charges, including false imprisonment, sexual assault and assault. The trial continues before Judge Pauline Codd and a jury of 11 men. By Sonya McLean A father-of-two who was swinging an axe when he threatened to kill his children's grandparents has been given a two and half year suspended sentence. Gavin O'Reilly (36) was driving in front of John and Amanda Martin before he jammed on his brakes and stopped his jeep. He moved off but stopped a second time, took a large axe from the vehicle and approached the Martin's car, swinging the tool over his head. Garda Marvin Ireland told Noel Devitt BL, prosecuting, that as there was no traffic behind Mr Martin he managed to reverse his own car and drive away. He headed back in the same direction a few minutes later, passing O'Reilly who shouted at him that he would kill them and get them. O'Reilly had previously been in a relationship with the Martin's daughter and they had two children together. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the break-up had been acrimonious. O'Reilly, of Castlebyrne Park, Blackrock, Dublin pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Mr Martin in Deansgrange on February 13, 2017. He has one previous conviction for possession of drugs. Mr Martin read his victim impact report in which he stated that he had his wife were left traumatised and in a state of shock for several days. He said it would be on his mind when he woke in the morning and he would be thinking about the incident at night when trying to sleep. He said it consumed him every day. He said his younger daughter had trouble dealing with what had happened to her parents and was nervous going to school as O'Reilly lived near by. He said his wife lost her confidence in going out alone, even to the local shops and neither of them could enjoy going for walks as they previously had done. We both lost the feeling of feeling safe, Mr Martin said before he added that they had to change their car and the school run was never the same. He said it had initially put a massive strain on his relationship with his daughter, O'Reilly's former partner, but added that this was no longer the case. Thankfully we can now recall the horror of that morning without getting too upset, Mr Martin said before he added this should never have happened." Patrick Reynolds BL, defending, told Mr Martin that his client wished to offer his apologies and agreed that the incident should never have happened Counsel said his client had been a painter and decorator since he was 21 years old and had at times employed other people. He asked the court to accept that it was a moment of madness for O'Reilly. Judge Martin Nolan said O'Reilly had made serious threats and to give a concrete expression to those threats he swung an axe. I've no doubt it was a frightening incident and that the victim impact report is accurate in terms of the life effects. He was in a particularly bad temper and he took it out on them, Judge Nolan said before adding that O'Reilly's actions were reprehensible and totally unjustified. He said he didn't believe O'Reilly deserved an immediate custodial sentence before he suspended a two and half year term on condition that he does not seek to contact the Martins. By Conor Kane Independent TD Mattie McGrath has called on the Minister for Health Simon Harris to reassess his priorities and reconsider his visit to The Netherlands and Belgium for St Patricks Day. Mr McGrath said these are far from normal times with the number of patients on trolleys in Irish hospitals reaching 714. I think it is grossly irresponsible for Minister Harris to be out of the country at a time when almost every major local and regional hospital is in the grip of capacity crisis with respect to patients on trolleys, he said. Unless he is going off to learn how The Netherlands achieved number one status on the Euro Health Consumer Index in 2015, or how it has managed to be listed in the top three European countries since 2005 in terms of health economics, then he is clearly failing in his sense of priorities. The TD for Tipperary said that, in normal times, it is perfectly reasonable for Government Ministers to fly the Irish flag abroad for the St Patricks Day celebrations. Mr McGrath said: However, these are far from normal times. We have chronic and systemic problems right across the board and we also now face an unprecedented revolt by GPs to a central plank of the ministers policy with respect to abortion provision. "If he gave even a fraction of the passion that he has for pushing abortion to reducing the trolley crisis or addressing the deficits in Home Care Packages then we might actually get somewhere. As it is, the Minister has spent the vast majority of this parliamentary session focusing entirely on the passing of a referendum bill which will place unquantifiable strains on an already creaking healthcare system. The Minister must therefore immediately reassess his priorities and act accordingly. By Ann O'Loughlin A van driver who claimed he hurt his back when a mattress he was delivering was lifted by a gust of wind in to the air and carried him for 12 feet before he was thrown to the ground has sued in the High Court. Declan Homan said he was delivering the 4 foot 6 inches mattress to an apartment on the last of 16 deliveries that day when he was caught by a gust of wind. The 54-year-old who said he left work with pain three days after the accident has not had a job since. In his action against his employer, the father of four has included a claim of 400,000 for loss of earnings to date and into the future. It is more than a soft tissue injury. I have a lot of pain and nobody seems to be listening," he told Mr Justice Kevin Cross. Declan Homan (54), Island Lodge, Walsh Island, Co Offaly has sued Etmar Ltd, with offices at Glen Easton Point, Leixlip, Co Kildare as a result of the accident on December 13, 2011. The court heard one of Mr Homans brothers is a director of Etmar. Declan Homan has claimed he was instructed to deliver the mattress and was doing deliveries with another brother in the Sandyford Industrial estate, Dublin. He has claimed he fell from a height of five feet about 12 feet away from the truck. He has further contended there was an alleged failure to provide him with safety equipment such as a safety harness. Mr Homan claims he suffered pains to his back immediately and he has constant pain made significantly worse by any degree of activity. The claims are denied. He told Mr Justice Kevin Cross he went to work the next day and went to a doctor three days after the accident. Cross examined by Bernard McDonagh SC for Etmar, Mr Homan agreed he had no difficulty with the wind for the first 15 deliveries, but he said it was windy all day. He agreed he had not worked and had been on social welfare since 2011. Counsel put it to him he had been on a number of holidays including four holidays in one year and had been to Florida and Tenerife. Mr Homan replied his wife who was a sales rep paid for the holidays. Counsel put it to him he was indulging in gross exaggeration in relation to his injuries. Mr Homan replied: I disagree with you. Counsel put it to Mr Homan when one of the defendants doctors examining him asked to touch his toes he refused. Mr Homan replied he told the doctor I cant do that. Counsel suggested to him the mattress incident was not foreseeable by his employer as it was caused by a gust of wind. Mr Homan, counsel said had not complained it was too windy to do the job. Mr Homan replied there was no point, as he would have been told to get on with it. He agreed his social welfare was withdrawn at one stage because he was declared fit to work. Mr Homan said he appealed the decision and he was later deemed unfit to work. The case before Mr Justice Kevin Cross continues. Variety and versality have marked this Cork musicians journey to date, writes Cathy Desmond YSEULT Cooper-Stockdale is one of Irelands most talented cultural exports. The young cellist from St Lukes Cross in Cork City has just moved to London to play with the Southbank Sinfonia, a cutting-edge chamber orchestra formed from the worlds most promising graduate musicians on the cusp of international careers. Variety and versatility have marked her musical journey to date. A passion for new music has seen her premier new commissions with Irish contemporary ensembles but she is a leading light too of Fishamble Sinfonia, an orchestra specializing in early music. Be it new music or old, it is her virtuosity that has garnered her a clutch of coveted Irish and international prizes marking her as a bright rising star. Her beautiful tone will be heard on Thursday when this young emigrant appears as soloist with the Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra to play Robert Schumanns cello concerto. When we speak, she is buzzing after the first rehearsal. The Schumann, she explains, is one of the three big concertos in the cello repertoire. Ive been fortunate to have played the other two, the Dvorak and Elgar concertos during my student days but this is my first time to play this work with an orchestra, says Cooper-Stockdale. It is musically complex there is lovely dialogue between the soloist and orchestra that you dont get a sense of practising unaccompanied. It is a late work and Schumann was losing his mind when he wrote it. The cellist Stephen Isserlis explores this in his fascinating documentary on the work. She credits the British cellist as being one of her inspirations. She also name checks Pieter Wispelwey, a Dutch cellist introduced to her by her former teacher Gerda Marwood. I keep coming back to his recordings of the Bach cello suites. Cooper-Stockdale grew up in a musical family in St Lukes Cross in the north side of Cork City. She followed in her mothers footsteps playing cello and piano. Her uncle Tim Cooper is a piano teacher in the School of Music and accompanies her at her Cork recitals. She played her mothers old cello until she acquired her own instrument. No, she says, a Stradivarius is not on her wish list. She plays a modern instrument made in Cork by luthier Bertrand Galen in his workshop in Naylor Street. I am delighted with it. It was made for me in 2006 and it has served me very well. Like Schumann she studied for a while in Leipzig, a city she describes as a special place with a wonderfully stimulating environment steeped in classical music. There will be a bittersweet resonance to the performance of another work on Thursdays programme. Declan Townsends Songs of Farewell was premiered in Spain in 1989. Adrian Petcu conducted the Cork School of Music Symphony Orchestra at a performance in Valencia with the late Tomas O Canainn on uilleann pipes. Played as an encore, it was a musical farewell to the city. The composer, writing about the work said: The Song of an Emigrant was written in response to attending an American Wake in West Cork in the late 50s and recalls the plaintive nature of the time and the occasion. A section titled Il u e il dos, he describes as the Valencian equivalent of The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee, a reflection of the joy and sadness of living in a big city. Declan Townsend was, for many years, a classical music reviewer, for this paper. Dr Townsend has also worn many hats in his career at Cork School of Music. Many of the musicians in the orchestra playing on Thursday were colleagues of his late son Finbarr, a valued member of the viola section until his untimely death in 2013. The performance will be a special tribute to him. Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra: Thursday, March 15, Aula Maxima, UCC Surfer Easkey Britton has joined forces with the EPA to tackle plastics and the Story of your Stuff competition, writes Deirdre Reynolds FROM Mullaghmore to Maui, Easkey Britton has spent almost three decades navigating some of the most awesome waters in the world on her beloved board. After finding herself wading through trash in previously pristine escapes, however, now the five-time Irish national surf champion is riding the crest of a new wave against single-use plastic. The big-wave-surfer-turned-marine-scientist has joined forces with the Environmental Protection Agency to launch the Story of your Stuff competition for secondary schools, to get teens thinking about the lifecycle of everything from their pens to their iPads. Growing up so immersed in the outdoors and, of course, the sea, and especially with all the travel Ive been doing with surfing, that sort of hunger for knowledge developed just to better understand different things I was witnessing, says Britton, who began surfing aged four and has a PhD in marine environment and society. When youre in the water in some of these places that are really beautiful in other parts of the world, youre actually surfing through trash that wasnt there [before]. Just the rapid change of it in the space of five years, even. I think as a surfer, you see those changes first-hand in terms of the marine environment, so that kind of all influenced the decision to just better understand whats happening and how to affect change in that space. More than 8m tonnes of plastic including plastic bottles, bags, straws, and cutlery is dumped in the worlds oceans each year, studies show. You dont have to go to the beach to witness the devastating impact its having on marine life. Channel surfers, too, got an insight into the scale of the problem when one Sky News report revealed how a 6m Cuviers beaked whale died off the coast of Norway with 30 plastic bags in its stomach last year. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, health and science correspondent Thomas Moore, who has been leading the channels viral campaign to #PassonPlastic with a series of exclusive documentaries, said he was every bit as dismayed by that discovery, among others, as viewers at home. We went to Bermuda 18 months ago now, and we saw plastic washing up on paradise beaches, he says. There was all these tiny granules of plastic which had clearly been in the water for a long time, but were now clearly a risk. We saw bits of plastic that had been chewed by fish and by turtles on every tide they were coming up on the beaches. It felt wrong, and we thought, If it feels wrong to us, itll feel wrong to other people too. We looked at all the threats that the ocean is under climate change, acidification, overfishing all those seem quite remote to somebody sitting at home, but plastic just felt like the issue that people could really do something about, and the reaction has been absolutely amazing. In just 12 months, weve started a social conversation I cant go to a party now without somebody saying, Oh my God, youre involved with Ocean Rescue, thats so cool! Plastic is so bad! Plastics found on a beach As part of the initiative, a life-sized plastic whale, made of the same amount of the stuff that ends up in the ocean each second, is set to make its way across the Irish Sea in the coming months. When it comes to marine littering, the quarter-tonne creation dubbed plasticus is just a drop in the ocean, according to one expert. We undertake a lot of research on the sea on our two research vessels, the Celtic Explorer and the Celtic Voyager, says Dr Peter Heffernan, chief executive of the Marine Institute in Galway, Irelands national agency for marine research, technology, development, and innovation. Certainly the vast majority of the rubbish dumped in the sea would be the large plastics, the macro plastics. Its [only] in the relatively recent past that [weve learned more about] microbeads and how pervasive they are. Although theyre much smaller in total quantity, theyre pervasive in the ocean, and potentially in the food chain, and thats caused a lot of scientific tension. All water returns to the sea, so if something is washed down the drain it eventually finds its way back into the ocean, he says, and its true to say that any single bit of plastic that has ended up in the ocean has at some time been in a humans hands. If we dont act now, and start to take really personal action, its likely by 2050 that therell be more plastic by weight than fish [in the ocean]. Despite leading the way with a tax on plastic bags back in 2002, churning out 61kg of plastic waste per person per year, Ireland is still the worst offender in Europe for choking the sea. Following the trail blazed by the UK last month, a ban on microbeads, found in some soaps and shower gels, and plastic-free supermarket aisles are just two more of the proposals aimed at turning the tide. At home and work, meanwhile, something as simple as choosing a reusable coffee cup or cotton buds with paper sticks can help to reverse the plastic pandemic, say those at the frontline. [Its] very difficult to do anything about the plastic that is already out in the open ocean, admits Moore, but we can do something about the source of the plastic and thats us. I remember from my childhood going to the beaches and seeing quite a lot of oil and tar because people were careless about chucking it over ships thats gone now. The challenge now in 2018 is very much plastic. We have to find a way of solving this to stop so much plastic going out to sea. The key thing for me has been if everybody takes a small step themselves, together we can make a massive difference. Really small things, like just a [water] refill station, [are] so important to reducing the amount of plastic waste that were producing. Here in the UK, because theres such consumer pressure on plastic, youve got businesses almost falling over each other trying to do something about plastic packaging, straws, bags, and so on, he says. I think if Ireland can get on board in the same way the UK has, and together we put pressure on the supermarkets, on the food producers, on the drinks companies, to make them think about the kind of plastic theyre producing [and] the amount of plastic were all coming home with in our shopping, we are so powerful. If we stop throwing so much out, we will solve this problem in time. Easkey in action on the surfboard. With a plastic bottle taking around 450 years to break down and a plastic fishing line even longer, change cant come soon enough, says Heffernan. Certainly, on a personal level, there are choices [as to] how we use plastic, and Ireland set a good example with the tax on plastic bags, he says. I think those initiatives on banning the manufacture and sale of microbeads are very much to be welcomed, [but also] just saying in your own life, either in business or at home, Im going to avoid the use of single-use plastic, and finding alternatives. I think that type of behavioural change at all levels is necessary to alleviate the very severe risk to the ocean. As the topic continues to trend on Twitter, back at the Wild Atlantic Way, Britton urged beachgoers to join the #2minutebeachclean movement by taking 120 seconds out to pick up any plastic waste they come across, and disposing of it responsibly. Getting caught sipping from a disposable water bottle, she jokes, would result in automatic expulsion from the surfing community. Im pretty religious about always travelling with my stainless steel water bottle its actually hard to find one that has zero plastic. I always have my water bottle and my own cup now to refill, but its gone from, in the space of a year, seeing that now be a norm. I hope the tide is turning and I hope that its not just going to be a blitz in the media. I dont think it will. I think there is a shift happening because were seeing actually now political will, as well as this sort of bottom-up movement, where youre seeing it inspiring whole towns and communities to become plastic-free. Weve reached that tipping point where we dont have a choice, she says. I guess the wake-up call is when its worked its way all the way through the system and the food chain, so that its directly affecting our health and wellbeing. Its about valuing the ocean as something thats so beneficial for our health and wellbeing in lots of different ways, and I think when you have that appreciation and emotional connection to something, then its very hard not to be conscious of the impact were having. During the last few decades there has been acknowledgement of how unmarried mothers and their children who were placed in the care of the state were mistreated and sometimes abused within Church-run institutions, writes Bryan Fanning, Professor of Migration and Social Policy at University College Dublin. To a considerable extent this abuse was made possible by the stigma then attached to sex outside marriage. Efforts to hide unwanted women and their children away from society created a climate in which abuse could take place and be covered up. Some women whose children were placed in care had relationships with African men, some of whom came to Ireland as medical students. The children born of relationships between African men and Irish women experienced not just the stigma experienced by other unmarried mothers but also extreme racism. Christine Buckley was born in London in October 1946, the daughter of a 31 year-old Irish widow from Dublin and a 20 year-old Nigerian medical student, who were in a long-term relationship with each other. As a three-week old baby she was given up for fostering and in 1950 she was sent to St. Vincents Industrial School in Goldenbridge, an orphanage run by the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin. In a TV documentary about her experiences Christine described a regime in which children were dehumanised they were referred to by a number rather than by their names (her given number was eighty nine) - and received sadistic punishments. On one occasion a nun poured boiling water on her leg. On another she received a beating so severe she required more than eighty stitches. In addition to the well-documented abuse suffered by children in such institutions many mixed-race children experienced further abuse because of the colour of their skin. Christine Buckley was one of only a handful of orphans to complete her secondary school education and receive Leaving certificate in local separate Mercy Secondary School known to some former inmates as the outside school, set apart from Industrial school at Goldenbridge. She trained as a nurse and during the 1980s she traced her biological parents. Christine came to national prominence in 1996 when RTE broadcast Dear Daughter, the documentary directed by Louis Lentin about the physical and emotional abuse experienced by Christine and other children. The programmes title was taken from the opening words of a letter from her African father, Dr. Ariwodo Kalunta, after she traced him. Christine campaigned for the establishment of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse and the Residential Institutions Redress Board. She stood as an independent candidate in the 1997 Dail elections. In 1999 she founded an education and support centre for former residents of industrial schools. Her activism, and the attention garnered by Dear Daughter, were seminal in bringing to light the institutional abuse of both white Irish and mixed-race children in care in Ireland. However, Christine Buckley was just one of a number of disavowed mixed race Irish children who experienced institutional abuse. Rosemary Adaser was one of at least seventy African Irish children placed in care in Ireland during the 1950s and 1960s. Her mother worked as a telephonist in the Rotunda maternity hospital in Dublin. Her father was a Ghanaian doctor who had also worked there. Rosemary was placed as an infant in a mother and baby home and like other African Irish babies she was never offered up for adoption. She has described experiences of racist abuse from those supposed to care for her and from other children also. Rosemary described having pots of urine and excrement emptied on her by other children, being made unblock toilets with her hands because her skin was black already and being always, she recalled, the last child to bathe in the same bath water preceded by thirty other girls for fear my black skin would contaminate the white girls. Nuns told her that no man would ever want her because she was black. However, at the age of sixteen she became pregnant and her baby was taken from her soon after he was born. She emigrated to England when she was twenty. During the 1980s she traced her mother. Rosemary Adaser subsequently founded an organisation, the Association of Mixed-Race Irish (AMRI), which has campaigned for acknowledgement of the racism that children like her experienced. During the last few decades Ireland has seen large-scale immigration. My book Migration and the Making of Ireland is an attempt to understand this by focusing on the experiences of those who have settled here across the centuries. There is, I think, much to learn from the experiences of past generations of migrants and their families that can help us understand the challenges facing the Ireland of today. One of these lessons is that it is difficult to make progress unless the racism and injustice experienced by some is acknowledged and addressed. Bryan Fanning is Professor of Migration and Social Policy at UCD * This story was subject to amendment on March 16, 2018 Counter-terrorism police are investigating the death of a man in south-west London amid reports that a Russian businessman who was a close friend of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky has been found dead. Scotland Yard said a man in his 60s was found at a home in Clarence Avenue, New Malden, on Monday and that the cause of his death is unexplained. His comments come as EU and British negotiators this week attempt to hammer out a draft transition deal amid continued stumbling blocks ahead of a crucial EU leaders summit next week. Tensions are mounting after suggestions from London that people may have to pre-register on the island of Ireland before crossing the border after Brexit. Speaking in Hong Kong as part of his St Patricks Day visit to China, Mr Coveney explained how the invisible border with the North had facilitated easy trade and movement of people. That has been a real stabiliser in terms of the peace process, said Mr Coveney. But this is about a lot more than trade, it is about the normalisation of life on the island of Ireland so there arent barriers to the movement of people and goods like there were in the past when there was a physical border infrastructure on the island. So we are very protective to make sure that doesnt return. Mr Coveney said he believed that the British government was committed to making sure there was no border infrastructure after Brexit. EU and British teams are this week returning to phase one of the Brexit negotiations to iron out differences on the divorce bill, citizenship rights, and the contentious border question. An EU summit in Brussels next week will consider these issues, a draft transition agreement, and matters around a future EU-UK trade pact. There is still disagreement over the border, with London last week ruling out a suggestion the North could ultimately stay inside the EU customs union and therefore stop any new checkpoints. While Brussels has agreed that the transition period for Brexit will end in December 2020, Mr Coveney suggested in an interview with Bloomberg that it may last longer. If it needs to be extended, well then it can probably be extended for a short period after that if thats whats necessary, he said. Meanwhile, there is growing opposition to a suggestion from a leaked British report that people crossing the border could be asked to pre-register. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar immediately ruled out such a scenario. Any new checkpoints would become targets, he said. But if you do have physical infrastructure, if you do have cameras, and signs and border posts, those things will become targets, he said. Fianna Fail councillor Frank OFlynn won widespread support from colleagues when he claimed the IDA was only concentrating its on certain areas of the country and demanded its officials come to County Hall and outline what plans they have for the local sites. He said there had been considerably less visits to vacant IDA sites in the Cork region in the past two years, compared to the Dublin area. We have a number of vacant sites in key locations, said Mr OFlynn. In Fermoy, theres a site adjacent to the [Cork-Dublin M8] motorway and its fully serviced with electricity, water, roads, broadband, etc. The only time it was ever used was as a car park for a point-to-point meeting. The IDA took over the Fermoy site from the Department of Defence a number of years ago when a decision was made to close the army barracks there, Fitzgeralds Camp. It was closed along with a number of other army barracks around the country as part of a major rationalisation of Defence Forces installations. The IDAs main vacant landbanks are in Ringaskiddy (149.32 hectares) and Carrigtwohill (two sites of 64.23 hectares). These are some of the largest IDA landbanks in the country. The IDA also owns two, far smaller, vacant sites each in Youghal, Fermoy and Kanturk and single sites in Charleville, Bandon, Skibbereen, Kinsale, and Millstreet. The IDA is not spreading jobs around the region as it should be, said Mr OFlynn. I want the IDA to come in here and outline its plans for these vacant sites. With the lift of the economy its now or never for these sites. He said the figures on vacant IDA sites were supplied to him from a copy of a question which was answered in the Dail earlier this year by Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation, Heather Humphries. Fianna Fail councillor Gillian Coughlan said: The IDA seems to be pushing just a few key hubs around the country. I recently attended a briefing by the Government on the 2040 plan, which showed [industrial] development around the city and east Cork, but nowhere else. The IDA owes it to the people to provide jobs in other areas. Her party colleague, Gearoid Murphy, said the IDA should be looking at using the sites to build up indigenous industries, if it cant attract foreign direct investment into some of its sites around the county. Fine Gael councillor Michael Hegarty said he agreed with asking the IDA to attend a meeting but proposed that representatives from Enterprise Ireland should also be invited to attend. Mr OFlynn said he was also in favour of that. Council chief executive Tim Lucey would not be drawn on what he thought of IDA activities in the county. However, he said he would ensure the council writes to the IDA and Enterprise Ireland requesting they send officials to a forthcoming meeting in County Hall to address councillors concerns. We need to move now, otherwise we will be left behind, said Mr OFlynn. We need industries in our smaller towns. This is essential for rural regeneration. In January, the Governments lifting of the ban on selling alcohol on the Christian festival was widely welcomed by the majority of vintners. Similar to the village of Newmarket in Co Cork, Drumconrath publicans Dermot Muldoon, Pauline Fay, and Pat Dempsey have decided to honour the time-old tradition. "Publicans get two days off in the whole year, said Dermot. Just two, so we decided to keep that holiday, as well as keeping up the tradition and having a bit of respect for our religion. Weve received a load of support from our customers; after all, its only one day. We were known for closing on Good Friday throughout the world it was something different about Ireland and now thats gone. Slowly, all the Irish traditions are being stripped. Dermot knows the other side of things too, having been in Dublin showing American tourists the sights one Good Friday. I had the day off, so I could go up to Dublin with the American tourists, but, ironically, we couldnt get into the Guinness Storehouse, he said. I can see the other side of it and maybe there should be exceptions for such tourist sites, like hotels, but I think that we are doing the right thing by staying closed, here in Drumconrath. Normally, on the Good Friday we are off, we head across the border for a drink its the novelty factor of having a drink on the other side of the counter. Were delighted to stay closed this year. Pauline Fay, of Fays Bar, said the day enables bar owners to switch off and spend the day with family. Quality of life has no price, she said. I always spent the day with my children and continue to do so. This year, again, myself and my daughter will do the stations of the cross, before doing a bit of shopping together. I dont think a bit of religion does anyone any harm. Ive received 100% backing from my customers, some of whom have said that even if I was open, they wouldnt come in. Fr Finian Connaughton, who has been parish priest for 18 years, welcomed their decision, saying: This tradition goes back years and, unfortunately, a lot of Irish rural and Church traditions have been taken over by the powers-that-be in Dublin. Its city life versus rural life, again. The councils environment special purposes committee is to examine the green energy drive after Sinn Fein councillor Eoghan Jeffers said a project carried out in Lincolnshire, England, showed that using grass cuttings from that countys 8,750km of roads provided enough electricity to power 4,500 homes a year and enough gas to power 1,100 homes. Cork County Council has 12,600km of roads under its jurisdiction and has to cut verges on many of them during the summer. Mr Jeffers called on the county council to carry out a similar study on biomass fuel usage and asked officials to prepare a report on unused land which could be utilised for urban farming projects. We need to change our outlook on green energy. It should be explored. Verge grass could provide electricity for thousands of homes. Lands which will never be used for housing could also be used for grass-cutting, said Mr Jeffers. He said he went on a delegation to the Basque country where urban farming was being encouraged and proving educational for children. Sinn Fein councillor Des OGrady supported his calls and said he was aware of a number of local authorities in England and Europe that had invested in special machinery which harvests verge cuttings for energy. They can turn grass and weeds into energy. It can be profitable and, at the very least, cost-neutral (to the county council), he said. Independent councillor Marcia DAlton, an environmental engineer, said green energy from roadside verges has huge potential. She said as a first step, the environmental special purposes committee should fund a PhD student to carry out a study on it. Fine Gael councillor Kevin Murphy, who is chairman of that committee, said he was very supportive of the ideas. Tidy Towns groups could work with the county council as well to help implement this, he said. Council chief executive Tim Lucey said officials would look at what surplus land was available that might not be used for housing. We need to look at what models are out there in other jurisdictions and develop pilot projects, he said. Mr Lucey said the council had successfully developed community allotments and said he would also look at the concept of utilising land for urban farms. This could change our total attitude to the use of wasteland, said Mr Jeffers. Mr Knowles, a married man with a stepson, was from Ballintotis just outside Midleton. Gardai and the Health and Safety Authority are investigating the fatal incident. The deceased, understood to be in his 40s, died at a whiskey maturation warehouse at Dungourney, around nine kilometres outside the town. The exact nature of the incident is unclear but it is understood he sustained crush-like injuries and that the tragic incident occurred shortly after 9am. Gardai confirmed that its officers from Midleton and members of the emergency services attended a scene in Midleton where a man in his 40s was pronounced dead. Mr Knowles was later removed to Cork University Hospital and a post-mortem was due to be carried out. The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) confirmed that the incident had occurred on the Irish Distillers site at Dungourney and that it had launched an investigation into the circumstances. The Dungourney site is used as a satellite maturation site and has been the subject of investment worth more than 100m by the company in recent years. Four years ago locals in the area celebrated the arrival of the first barrels of whiskey to the warehousing facility. The distillery is a world leader and home to globally recognised brands, including Jameson, which had sales of 5.7 million cases in 2016. In the aftermath of yesterdays tragic incident the company issued a brief statement in which it said it was cooperating fully with the two investigations that are now underway. "Irish Distillers regrets to confirm that one of our members of staff was involved in a serious incident, which resulted in a fatality this morning in Dungourney, Co Cork," it said. We would like to express our deepest sympathy to his family. We are offering all the support available to those affected by this tragic accident. "At this time, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further, as the incident is the subject of an investigation by An Gardai Siochana and the Health & Safety Authority. We are cooperating fully with the investigation." Irish Distillers employs 600 people nationally, with around 200 of those employed in its different facilities in and around Midleton. Mr Varadkar said it is not entirely clear what is going wrong after the number of people waiting on trolleys hit an all-time record high of 714, and as nurses lashed out at the absolutely unsafe conditions. According to the latest Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation figures, some 714 people were waiting on trolleys yesterday morning, including a 64-year-old man waiting 109 hours at Tallaght Hospital. The figure, an all-time national record, dwarfs the 495 when health minister Mary Harney declared a national emergency in 2006. It is the 14th time this year, and 17th time since the start of 2017, that trolley levels have exceeded the previously unheralded 600 threshold, and includes: 80 patients at the University Hospital Limerick; 45 at University College Hospital Galway; 43 at Cork University Hospital; 40 at Tallaght Hospital; 37 at the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore; And 23 at Kerry General Hospital. INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said the the number of people being left on trolleys is absolutely unsafe and that emergency department scenes can only be described as chaotic. Warning that if it was any other industry there would now be a national inquiry into what planning went into the predictable surge in admissions after the the recent snow storms because, in my opinion, there were none, Ms Ni Sheaghdha said officials ignored nurse calls last week for the coming two weeks to be declared a national emergency. She insisted both the HSE and the Government must now take responsibility for addressing the overcrowding crisis instead of looking for excuses, the flu, the storm, when what they should be looking at is how they are planning However, while acknowledging the seriousness of the situation, Mr Varadkar last night attempted to blame the snow storm aftermath and a longer than expected flu season instead of failing to act on warnings for the all-time record figures adding he does not know why the trolley count figures are out of control. We were seeing some improvements in November and December last year. The situation has now deteriorated. Its not entirely clear why that is and additional beds have been provided to hospitals. In part I think it is because of a very long flu season, but thats not an excuse and thats not acceptable, he told reporters in Oklahoma, where he continued his week-long St Patricks Day visit to the US. Fianna Fail health spokesman Billy Kelleher last night said it is extraordinary for a Taoiseach, former health minister, and qualified doctor to say it is unclear why the trolley count has reached a record high. He must be the only man in the world who doesnt know what the problem is, capacity and planning. Either he is being flippant or he doesnt understand the problems, Mr Kelleher said. Speaking after an emergency department task-force meeting, Health Minister Simon Harris said he is allocating an extra 5m to significantly increase home care packages and provide hundreds more transitional care beds to reduce hospital pressure, and has also recently published the Governments bed capacity review which has called for an extra 2,500 beds in the system by 2030. The HSE last night said it is cancelling most non-urgent inpatient procedures, postponing some day surgery cases, and asking hospitals to send patients home in so far as they can. A spokesperson said 621 extra beds were opened yesterday, while public hospitals are in discussions with private hospitals to transfer suitable patients. Officers said they were working on files for the Director of Public Prosecutions to try to bring charges including conspiracy to murder against the senior leadership of the cartel, including those based elsewhere in Europe and in the Middle East. Speaking at a briefing in relation to the interception last Saturday of a suspected hit-team linked to the Kinahan cartel, Assistant Commissioner John ODriscoll said the capture of people redhanded with firearms, on their way to kill someone, had the greatest impact on an organised crime group. Flanked by the heads of various Garda specialist units and by a deputy director of the British National Crime Agency, Mr ODriscoll said they had intervened in almost 50 situations where hitmen were on their way to assassinate a particular target. He appealed to people, including addicts who owe the cartels money, not to engage in activities for them, such as spotting and reporting the movements of members of the Hutch grouping. Four people including an ex-British soldier, an INLA man, and two Finglas brothers remain in custody after they were arrested with four firearms in relation to the attempted assassination of a senior figure in the Hutch family. That raid was the result of an operation involving the National Surveillance Unit, the Security and Intelligence Section and the ongoing work of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau. The weapons included two submachine guns, one revolver, two semi-automatic pistols and a quantity of ammunition. A total of nine searches were conducted. Mr ODriscoll, who heads Special Crime Operations, said seven people were before the courts on charges of conspiracy to murder, separate to Saturdays arrests. He said this number was unprecedented and was hugely significant, and that there were a growing number of cases of people being arrested in possession of firearms where gardai believe a death was imminent if they had not intervened. He said the seizure of firearms on their own only had a certain impact on gangs, but the capture of people in possession of firearms with the intention of using them had the greatest impact, as there was only so many people willing to murder and be a member of a hit team. He said gardai were working with international law enforcement, such as the NCA in Britain, and similar agencies in Holland and Spain and beyond, in terms of snaring cartel leadership. Mr ODriscoll said they were working on plans, with foreign agencies, in which they were targeting people at the highest level. He said this could be in relation to directing criminal activities in Ireland from abroad or for conspiracy to murder. By Elaine Loughlin In Oklahoma The Irish Whiskey Association is gravely concerned that Irish spirits will become embroiled in an EU-US trade war. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to raise trade and tariffs between Europe and American when he meets President Donald Trump in the White House this week. Speaking in Austin, Mr Varadkar warned of a possible spiral of tit for tats in trade between the EU and America and cited Irish whiskey as being a target. Mr Trump announced a 25% import tariff on steel and 10% on aluminium which has prompted fears of a trade war. The EU has threatened retaliatory tariffs on US goods, including bourbon and jeans. Mr Varadkar said: When I hear bourbon whiskey I think the next response might be tariffs against Irish whiskey, so what you get into is a spiral of tit for tats. Responding, the head of the Irish Whiskey Association William Lavelle said more than 45% of Irish whiskey and over 50% of Irish cream liqueur is sold in the US and warned this figure could plummet if Irish spirits are targeted by the US. EU retaliatory action leading to a whiskey and spirits tariff war would harm EU exports much more than US exports. He said Ireland has enjoyed duty-free access between EU and the US since 1995 with 120 million bottles of Irish whiskey expected to be sold in the US this year. Mr Lavelle said: This sales figure could plummet if Irish spirits are targeted by the US in subsequent tit-for-tat rounds of tariff imposition, particularly if the EU first targets Bourbon. The impact of such a trade war could be as devastating for the Irish whiskey and spirits industry as prohibition in the US was, when the Irish whiskey industry collapsed from being the powerhouse of global whiskey supply to near extinction. The impact of such a trade war would also be much more damaging to the Irish whiskey and spirit industry than the impact of Brexit might be on other Irish agri-food sectors. In real terms, this would likely result in distillery and plant closures, job losses and major losses to Irish tillage and dairy farmers given that the Irish drinks industry currently purchases 15% of the Irish barley harvest and 12% of the Irish milk yield, he said. Mr Lavelle urged the EU Commission not to include whiskey or spirits in any form of trade war, starting by excluding bourbon from the proposed tariff imposition. Ahead of her visit as part of St Patricks Day meetings, Ms Zappone said: I definitely concur with Mary McAleeses thoughts. I would have been of that view for many, many years. I think it is really important to continue the dialogue and I will be both visiting the Holy See in the context of the ambassadors residence and also having lunch in the Irish College in Rome. She said she will be there as a senior minister from Ireland and bring a respect for different aspects of the tradition but certainly not the misogyny of the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. News Bangladeshi Plane Crashes in Nepal, Killing at Least 49 Wreckage of an airplane is pictured as rescue workers operate at Kathmandu airport, Nepal, March 12, 2018. / Reuters KATHMANDU At least 49 people were killed on Monday when a Bangladeshi airliner crashed in cloudy weather as it came in to land at the Nepalese capitals hill-ringed airport, officials said. The chief executive officer of US-Bangla Airlines, Imran Asif, accused Kathmandus air traffic control for giving wrong signals. But airport general manager Raj Kumar Chettri said the pilot disregarded their messages and came in from the wrong direction. Seventy-one people were on board the plane arriving from Dhaka when it clipped the fence at Kathmandu and burst into flames, Chettri said. There were 33 Nepali passengers, 32 from Bangladesh, one from China and one from the Maldives. All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang, one of the survivors, Basanta Bohora, told the Kathmandu Post daily. I was seated near a window and was able to break out of the window. The accident was the latest to hit mountainous Nepal, which has a poor record of air safety. Small aircraft ply an extensive domestic network and often run into trouble at remote airstrips. So far 49 people are dead and 22 are undergoing treatment at different hospitals, Sanjiv Gautam, executive director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), told reporters. Several people were rescued from the burning wreckage of the Bombardier Q400 series aircraft and are undergoing treatment at hospitals, army spokesman Gokul Bhandari said. Chettri said that moments after the plane received permission to land, the pilot said he wanted to go in a northern direction. Asked by the control tower if there was a problem, he replied in the negative. The plane was then seen making two rounds in a northeast direction, Chettri said. Traffic controllers again asked the pilot if things were OK, and he replied, Yes. The tower then told the pilot his alignment was not correct, but there was no reply, Chettri added. The plane should have come from the right direction, Chettri said, adding that it hit the airport fence, touched the ground and then caught fire. It was not immediately clear if the pilot had issued a Mayday call, or distress signal. US-Bangla Airlines Asif, however, said that wrong signals might have led to the crash. A three-minute conversation between the pilot and the air traffic control before the landing indicated that they sent wrong signal to the pilot, he told reporters in Dhaka. Series of Accidents Many of the bodies that lay on the tarmac, covered with cloth, were charred, witnesses said. Thick plumes of smoke could be seen from the aircraft at the Tribhuvan International Airport. Those on board include 12 Nepali tour agents who were returning after an annual sales conference in Bangladesh, an official said. The aircraft that went down on Monday was 17 years old, data from tracking website Flightradar24.com showed. It descended to an airport altitude of 4,400 feet (1,341 m) and then climbed to 6,600 feet (2,012 m) before crashing about two minutes later, the website said. Bombardier said on Twitter it was saddened by the accident. Our thoughts are with those injured, and their families, it said. There have been a series of accidents at Kathmandu in the past. In March 2014, a flock of birds shattered the windshield of a Malaysia Airlines jet as it landed in Kathmandu. The same month, a rear wheel of an Airbus A320 operated by an Indian budget airline caught fire after landing. In 2012, a plane carrying trekkers to Mount Everest region hit a bird and crashed in Kathmandu, killing all on board. In 1992, all 113 people aboard were killed when a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok crashed while trying to land in Kathmandu. US-Bangla Airlines is a unit of the US-Bangla Group, a US Bangladeshi joint venture company. The two pilots and two cabin crew were Bangladeshi nationals, airline spokesman Kamrul Islam said in Dhaka. Our team will fly to Nepal as soon as the airport is open, he added. We are in touch with Nepali authorities. The Bangladeshi carrier, which launched operations in July 2014 with a slogan Fly Fast-Fly Safe, operates Bombardier and Boeing aircraft. Burma Man Files Sexual Abuse Complaint Against Employer A waiter from South Okkalapa Township filed a sexual abuse complaint against the restaurant owner, who is now in police custody. / The Irrawaddy YANGON A waiter revealed sexual abuses carried out by his employer the owner of the Mae Laint Lon restaurant in South Okkalapa Township in Yangon who allegedly has HIV. The victim filed a complaint against the owner with the South Okkalapa Township police on March 8. The victim is from Irrawaddy Region. He started working at the restaurant on Feb. 27, for a salary of 80,000 kyats per month. The victim, who is 22 years old, told The Irrawaddy that he was abused three times last week and he asked for help from the manager after the third time, on March 7. Ma Hanna, the manager of the restaurant, said: He was only here for few days and we dont know each other well. He dared not to say what had happened at first. I asked him to speak openly what happened, and then he told me. He said there was no use of a condom. I could not believe that when I heard it, because we knew that the owner was on medication for HIV, she added. The victim said he was forced to have oral sex with his employer twice and that he was paid 5,000 kyats each time as hush money. He told of another instance when he was forced to have anal sex with his employer. The victim is now on HIV preventative medication. After I learned from Ma Hanna that he had HIV, I was so scared. I didnt know what to do. I was ashamed. I dont want others to suffer like me. I want him to confess his crimes, he said. A friend of the victim who also previously worked at the restaurant confided in his friend about similar abuses. Ma Hanna also said others have shared stories of abuse but that they were all afraid to report them. In Myanmar, women and girls who have faced sexual abuse have sought legal action. But this is the first publicized case brought by a man. This is a violation of morals. How could he do that? asked Daw Swe Swe Nyunt, a community member who is helping with the case. She told The Irrawaddy that it was a positive sign that the police took immediate action and arrested the owner after the complaint was filed. The South Okkalapa Township police declined to comment other than to say that they had received the complaint, stating that were not allowed to talk about the case. The Irrawaddys interview with the victim, his friend and those who are helping with his case can be found in Myanmar language here. Nyein Nyein contributed to this report. Burma Mon Party Balks at Political Dialogue Meetings on Military's Terms The Mon National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the NMSP, trains in Ye Township, Mon State, in January. / Lawi Weng / The Irrawaddy YANGON The New Mon State Party (NMSP) says it cancelled local political dialogue meetings for ethnic Mon over the weekend after the Myanmar army, or Tatmadaw, refused to allow more than 30 people join the events. The party planned to host some 200 people at each of five meetings across Mon State on Saturday in preparation for a national-level political dialogue next month, all part of its preparations for the 21st Century Panglong Union Peace Conference scheduled for May in Naypyitaw. But is says the Tatmadaws Southeast Region Command, based in Mon States Moulmein Township, ordered it to restrict Saturdays meetings to no more than 30 guests each. We were supposed to hold public meetings in five places. We planned to do it today. But we cancelled them, NMSP central committee member Nai Win Hla told Mon news agency Men 3 on Saturday. In recent months the Tatmadaw blocked efforts by the Restoration Council of Shan State to hold similar meetings for ethnic Shan as well. The NMSP says it still plans to hold its national-level dialogue on April 6-9 in Mon States Ye Township and is asking the union government for permission to hold the smaller preliminary meetings with as many guests as it wants. The government side of the Peace Commission will help the NMSP do it, party spokesman Nai Ong Ma-Nge told The Irrawaddy on Monday. The NMSP signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government and Tatmadaw in February and plans to join the 21st Century Panglong as a full member. Burma Remembering Two Deaths that Changed the Course of Myanmars History Former RIT students lay wreaths for Ko Phone Maw and Ko Soe Naing to mark the 30th anniversary of their deaths on Tuesday at Yangon Technological University. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy YANGON She used to wake her younger brother every day; for Daw Mar Mar Ei, it had become a morning ritual. But this pleasant routine came to an abrupt end one sultry summer day when she found herself staring at the young mans dead body lying on a trolley in the bleak old concrete morgue of Yangon General Hospital. He looked as if were sleeping, she said. And peaceful. Standing there in the morgue, she was sandwiched between two plainclothes police officers, who held her tightly by the arms. One of them told her: You should cry. I shouted back at them: I cant! How can I cry when my brother was unjustly killed! the 55-year-old recalled of that fateful day 30 years ago when she first saw the dead body of her younger brother Ko Phone Maw, who was shot dead by riot police on the night of March 13, 1988 on the campus of the Rangoon Institute of Technology (now Yangon Technological University). On Tuesday, the YTU Student Union commemorated the 30th anniversary of the deaths of Ko Phone Maw and Ko Soe Naing, who were also shot that night but died 23 days later of injuries sustained on the scene. Three other university students who were wounded survived. On the evening of March 12, 1988, a group of RIT students got into a brawl with another group of young people from the neighborhood near the campus. The students were not pleased with the authorities handling of the case, and more clashes with local people erupted the next evening. A cordon of riot police wielding Remington shotguns raided the campus and opened fire on the students, who were also tear-gassed. Ko Phone Maw, a fifth-year Chemical Specialization student, was shot dead on the spot. The killing and the way the security forces handled the case sparked anger; another student rally at RIT the next day soon spread to other campuses. Along with calls for justice in the shootings, they demanded the ouster of the Ne Win regime, which had been long despised by the people for its oppressive rule and economic mismanagement. The regime responded to the demands with more brutality. On March 16, riot police cracked down violently on hundreds of students marching along the southern flank of Inya Lake, near the White Bridge bus stop, named after a small bridge spanning a culvert. A number of students it is still unclear how many were beaten to death. The site of the massacre was left so bloodied that it came to be known as Red Bridge. Over the next five months, Myanmar witnessed a series of follow-up student protests sparked by the March 13 shooting, mostly in Yangon. These ultimately led to a nationwide popular uprising in August, known as the Four Eights Uprising, as it occurred on Aug. 8, 1988. The uprising saw thousands of deaths and arrests, but ended Ne Wins 26-year-long single party rule and eventually paved the way for the political changes which allowed a democratically elected government to take power three decades later. Dr. Maung Maung, Myanmars president at the time, remarked that 1988 was a year of upheaval, and one that that will long be marked as a turning point in the countrys history. The unfulfilled expectations of the people over the decades since the nations gaining back her freedom poured out on the streets in loud and angry outcry for change, he writes in his book The 1988 Uprising in Myanmar. It was a storm of huge size and fierceness, and storms dont just come; they build up and gather from different directions and then burst upon the scene. For Ko Ko Gyi, one of the prominent student leaders who took part in the uprising, the deaths of Ko Phone Maw and Ko Soe Naing formed a spark that brought a huge change to the country as well as for him personally. Were it not for their deaths and the 88 Uprising, I wouldnt have been a politician as I am today; probably a government official or trader, he said. Thirty years ago today, he was a final-year student majoring in International Relations at Yangon University. He would be imprisoned on and off for his political activism until his most recent release in early 2012. To honor the deaths of Ko Phone Maw and Ko Soe Naing, political activists in 2012 nominated March 13, the day the students were shot, as Myanmar Human Rights Day. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was Myanmars main opposition leader at the time, agreed with the proposal while commenting that their deaths were caused by the lack of human rights in Myanmar. This year, the State Counsellor did not send a message in time for Wednesdays commemoration, but last year she urged her fellow citizens to honor Ko Phone Maw and Ko Soe Naing along with other young people who sacrificed for the country, by making good efforts on behalf of Myanmar. Daw Mar Mar Win, another sister of Ko Phone Maw, said at Tuesdays commemoration that she was happy to see that people still remembered her brother. Both sisters, who have for many years now spent much of their time at a meditation center, remembered their brother as a smart young man who hated violence and quarreling. His death left their family traumatized, they said. The authorities forced them to keep the funeral as low profile as possible. As the cause of death, the official death certificate says only: Puncture wound (chest), and makes no reference to a gunshot. Initially they were even forbidden from placing an obituary in the newspaper, though authorities eventually relented on this point after the family insisted. They werent even left alone to conduct the funeral as they wished. The family was only allowed to see the body on the day before the cremation, for identification purposes. On the day of the funeral, March 17, the authorities secretly cremated the body at 8 AM at another cemetery, in an effort to avoid drawing public attention to the ceremony. At Tamwe Cemetery (which is no longer extant; the site later made way for a development project), the family members were not allowed to get out of their car or to say a final goodbye to their brother and son. All they could do was watch in tears through the front windscreen of their car as the unmarked coffin was swallowed by the flames. Daw Mar Mar Win believes in the law of Karma, and that those who were responsible for her brothers death will reap what they have sown. Likewise, the family believes that in death their brother and son was paying for his past sins and misdeeds; something from which nobody can escape. But we miss him. He is a good boy, she said. Burma Regional Govt Says Weekly Journal Violated Media Ethics With Satirical Piece An illustration accompanying the satirical article Electioneering Smile published in the Nov. 20 issue of the Tanintharyi Journal. / The Irrawaddy YANGON The Tanintharyi regional government has sued the Tanintharyi Journal, a weekly journal published in the region, for violating media ethics, said deputy director of the regional government office U Aye Lu, who filed the complaint. The complaint was filed in December over a satirical piece deemed to satirize the regional chief minister Daw Lei Lei Maw and her family. The article headlined Electioneering Smile, which appeared under the byline Mu Say Ooh in the journals Nov. 20 issue, referred to an incumbent female administrator who planned to contest the election for ward and village administrators. It mocked orders made by the woman in her capacity as a local administrator, as well as her promises and efforts to get re-elected, while Daw Lei Lei Maw had made similar remarks and gave similar instructions. We sued the journal because it didnt follow media ethics. And we presented evidence at the court, U Aye Lu told The Irrawaddy after the cross-examination on Monday. U Aye Lu filed a complaint with the Dawei Township Court on Nov. 23, saying that the satirical piece had created a negative impact on the image of the chief minister as well as the regional government. On Dec. 21, the court ruled that the journal be sued under Article 25 (b) of the Media Law, which carries a minimum fine of 300,000 kyats to a maximum 1,000,000 kyats for news stories that deliberately affect the reputation of a specific person or an organization, if not concerned with public interests and human rights. The claim that the satirical piece affected the reputation of the regional government, regional chief minister and her family is just an accusation, said lawyer U Aung Thein, one of the patrons of the Myanmar Lawyers Network and the defense lawyer for the executive editor of the Tanintharyi Journal. Satire is about making people laugh. So, I asked at the trial why they [the regional government] were so serious and if the lawsuit implied suppression of the media, he said. Well wait for the courts verdict according to the Media Law, said deputy director U Aye Lu. The next trial, the tenth since December, is set to take place on March 22 and witnesses will be questioned. In another case about published satirical pieces, the Myanmar Army (Tatmadaw) sued The Voice Daily chief editor U Kyaw Min Swe and satirist Ko Kyaw Zwa Naing (known by his pen name, British Ko Ko Maung) for a satirical piece about clashes between the Tatmadaw and armed ethnic groups in June 2017. The Myanmar Army later dropped the charges three months into a trial during which the pair were detained by authorities. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. Burma Tatmadaw Refuses to Hand Back Land in Shans Kyethi Township Deputy Defense Minister Lt-Gen Myint Nwe. / The Irrawaddy NAYPYITAW The Tatmadaw will not hand over to farmers land it confiscated in Shan States Kyethi Township in the 1990s, Deputy Defense Minister Maj-Gen Myint Nwe told Parliament on Tuesday after a lawmaker urged the Tatmadaw to return some 200 acres of land in the township. The Tatmadaw will not return the land, because farmers cannot show ownership documents and the Home Affairs Ministry has issued land permits to the Tatmadaw for the areas in question, the deputy minister said. During the Lower House session on Monday, lawmaker Sai Aung Kyaw of Kyethi Township asked if the Tatmadaw would return 31 acres in Nam Gon watershed area and 165 acres of farmers land confiscated by No. 131 Light Infantry Battalion in Kyethi Township. The 165 acres were used as rotating farmland, a graveyard or left vacant before the battalion confiscated it. As the graveyard had been moved to a new site, the military confiscated the land, Maj-Gen Myint Nwe said. Contradicting the lawmakers claim, the deputy defense minister said the areas confiscated by the battalion comprised 15 acres of rotating farmland, a 3.5-acre graveyard and 561.5 acres of vacant land. The military would not return it, he said. Small-landholders who rely on the land for farming will face hardship as a result, said lawmaker Sai Aung Kyaw, adding that the farmers, being rural people, were not aware that the land needed to be registered for farming. The battalion confiscated the land a long time ago. They have done nothing with it just fenced it off. I dont know about their security point of view. I brought the case to the Parliament at the request of the farmers, Sai Aung Kyaw told reporters. However, Maj-Gen Myint Nwe said the Defense Ministry would return 31 acres of watershed area including Nam Gon Lake to the public. The lake was renovated this year at a cost of 18.7 million kyats from the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation. The lake supplies drinking water, hydropower as well as irrigation water for Kyethi residents. Under U Thein Seins administration, the Defense Ministry told Parliament that it would return more than 150,000 acres of confiscated land. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. News China Says New Agency Will Improve Foreign Aid Coordination A security official walks past a pagoda at the Yanqi Lake International Conference Center, where the Belt and Road Forum was being held, north of Beijing, China, May 15, 2017. / Reuters BEIJING China plans to set up an international development cooperation agency, according to a Parliament document released on Tuesday, to better coordinate its foreign aid program. The new agency will be responsible for forming policies on foreign aid, as well as granting aid and overseeing its implementation, according to the document. The move is to give full play to foreign aid as a key means of major-country diplomacy, enhance strategic planning and coordination of foreign aid, and better serve the countrys overall diplomatic layout and the Belt and Road Initiative, state news agency Xinhua said. The Belt and Road initiative refers to President Xi Jinpings landmark scheme to build a new Silk Road, connecting China to Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond. The new agency will be formed as part of a broad reshuffle of government departments that Chinas largely rubber-stamp parliament will formally approve on Saturday. A new state immigration administration agency responsible for border control, repatriating illegal immigrants and managing foreigners and refugees would also be set up under Chinas Ministry of Public Security, Xinhua reported. China has only occasionally provided details of its foreign aid program in recent years. The last time it did, in a policy paper released in 2014, it said more than half of Chinas foreign aid of more than $14 billion between 2010 and 2012 went to Africa, underscoring Beijings interest in the resource-rich continent to fuel its economy. It provided no breakdown of aid recipients or any yearly figures. In 2011, China put its total foreign aid over the past six decades at 256.29 billion yuan ($40.51 billion). An analysis by AidData, a research lab at William Mary University in the US state of Virginia, found that official Chinese development assistance from 2000 to 2014 totaled $81 billion, with Cuba receiving the most aid. Overseas aid provided by the United States over the same period was $366 billion, AidData said. Much of Chinas overseas finance is made in the form of loans or export credits, which allow infrastructure-for-resource deals. This approach gives China an advantage over the United States in Africa, the official China Daily said on Tuesday in an editorial on US Secretary of State Rex Tillersons visit to the continent. China has been working for years to try to meet Africas needs, helping African countries build railways, bridges and ports, the newspaper said. That is why most African countries have sought to forge a partnership with China, it said. Some Chinese projects have attracted attention for Chinas support of governments with poor human rights records and lack of transparency, such as Zimbabwe, Sudan and Angola. China will host a once-every-three-years summit with African leaders in Beijing in September. News UN Investigators Cite Facebook Role in Myanmar Crisis U Wirathu attends a press conference in Yangon in 2016. The ultranationalist monk has used Facebook extensively to spread hate speech. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy GENEVA UN human rights experts investigating a possible genocide in Myanmar said on Monday that Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech there. Facebook had no immediate comment on the criticism on Monday, although in the past the company has said that it was working to remove hate speech in Myanmar and kick off people who shared such content consistently. More than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmars Rakhine State to Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown last August. Many have provided harrowing testimonies of executions and rapes by Myanmar security forces. The UN human rights chief said last week he strongly suspected acts of genocide had taken place. Myanmars national security adviser demanded clear evidence. Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, told reporters that social media had played a determining role in Myanmar. It has substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissention and conflict, if you will, within the public. Hate speech is certainly of course a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media, he said. UN Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee said Facebook was a huge part of public, civil and private life, and the government used it to disseminate information to the public. Everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar, she told reporters, adding that Facebook had helped the impoverished country but had also been used to spread hate speech. It was used to convey public messages, but we know that the ultra-nationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities, she said. Im afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended. The most prominent of Myanmars hardline nationalist monks, U Wirathu, emerged from a one-year preaching ban on Saturday and said his anti-Muslim rhetoric had nothing to do with violence in Rakhine State. Facebook suspends and sometimes removes anyone that consistently shares content promoting hate, the company said last month in response to a question about U Wirathus account. 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. Tuesday, March 13th, 2018 (1:33 pm) - Score 5,212 The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has given his 2018 Spring Statement and confirmed the first 95m allocation from the governments 190m Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) challenge fund, which was setup to stimulate commercial investment in gigabit capable broadband (rural and urban). Readers might recall that the same fund has already been used to fuel a 10m pilot of 1Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP/H) broadband connectivity across six areas of the United Kingdom (here). The initial pilots reflected a variety of different approaches, such as connection vouchers for businesses (i.e. up to 3,000 to help get the service installed), aggregated demand schemes and opening access to existing public sector infrastructure etc. At the time the government said that its wider aim was to spread such connections to key public buildings and businesses, with the expectation that this leads to broadband providers creating additional connections to local homes and businesses. Despite the spin this LFFN programme is technically also open to gigabit capable fixed wireless networks, although we dont expect to see too many of those. Since then the government has been busy encouraging a broad range of local bodies (councils, LEPs etc.) as well as health, education or transport bodies to apply for the fund. This programme comes as part of the governments expanded 31 billion National Productivity Investment Fund. Today the Spring Statement 2018 allocated its first wave of funding for the Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) scheme, providing over 95 million for 13 areas across the UK. Please note that the figures below reflect the amounts of funding bid for, not the final amount that will be awarded (all successful bids will be subject to due diligence before their final funding amount is confirmed). Location LFFN Funding Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon 2.4m Belfast 11.5m Blackpool 3.0m Cambridgeshire 4.0m Cardiff 6.0m Coventry, Solihulll & Warwick 5.7m Highlands 4.5m London 8.5m Manchester 23.8m Mid Sussex 2.2m Portsmouth 3.9m North Yorkshire (NYNet) 15.1m Wolverhampton 4.9m Unfortunately we dont get much of a breakdown to summarise the details of each project, although DCMS have provided a rough overall summary of what the bids cover. The successful projects include: * Using hospitals, health centres and GP surgeries as anchor tenants providing a full-fibre hub which surrounding homes and businesses can then also be connected to. * Upgrading schools, libraries and emergency response buildings to gigabit-capable full fibre connections. * Strategic re-purposing of existing infrastructure, allowing full fibre to be rolled out at a fraction of what it would otherwise cost. * Creating fibre spines along major transport routes and public building networks. These extend a suppliers fibre footprint, making full fibre connections more available to surrounding homes and businesses. The government also anticipates that the next wave of the Challenge Fund will open in Summer 2018. UPDATE 2:55pm The UK Internet Service Providers Association has sent in a comment. Andrew Glover, ISPA Chairman, said: ISPA welcomes the announcement of the next stage of the Local Full Fibre Networks Challenge Fund, with half of the 190m fund to be allocated to help roll out full-fibre to local areas. ISPA has been working with members and Government to maximise the impact of the fund and we look forward to receiving a further update. We further welcome the 25m allocated for the first six 5G testbeds. Long term investment in the UKs telecoms networks, including through the LFFN Challenge Fund, remains a key priority in delivering reliable and leading edge communication services. In addition to targeted support, Government must also continue to reform and remove barriers to broadband rollout to ensure the UK remains well connected and able to compete in a global digital economy. UPDATE 3:34pm The boss of rural fibre optic ISP Gigaclear has also sent in a comment. US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order blocking what could have been the biggest technology deal ever the bid by Singapore-based Broadcom to acquire the US processor maker Qualcomm over national security concerns. The US has expressed national security concerns recently over Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei presence in the US market and this appears to have been a factor in the decision. The proposed takeover of Qualcomm by the Purchaser is prohibited, and any substantially equivalent merger, acquisition, or takeover, whether effected directly or indirectly, is also prohibited," the order issued by Trump on Monday said. The Committee of Foreign Investment in the US, a panel that evaluates takeovers by foreign entities of US companies, had indicated earlier that it might recommend to Trump that he take this very action, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Trump said he had made his decision based on a CFIUS review which had examined how Broadcoms purchase of Qualcomm might affect 5G networks. In a letter to the attorneys for the two companies on 5 March, the CFIUS said: "Given well-known US national security concerns about Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications companies, a shift to Chinese dominance in 5G would have substantial negative national security consequences for the United States." THE CFIUS told attorneys for the two companies on Sunday that Broadcom had gone against its orders in the bid to purchase Qualcomm. It appears that the CFIUS had told Broadcom that it would have provide five business days notice before it did anything that materially changed the deal. Broadcom had applied to redomicile its business in the US, an act that would have put it out of the purview of the CFIUS, but did not give the panel the required notice. Huawei faced problems in the US in January, with a deal for AT&T to sell its phones on plans being cancelled at the last minute. And following this, Verizon was reported to have yielded to pressure from the US Government to stop selling Huawei devices. In February, US intelligence chiefs warned against the use of Huawei equipment, with the head of the FBI, Christopher Wray, telling a US Senate hearing: Were deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that dont share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks." Cloud communications and customer engagement systems provider 8x8 has launched X Series, its new system that combines call, collaboration, conferencing and contact centre functionality X Series provides a single system of engagement with one workflow engine, one set of application services, one analytics engine and one set of data, all sitting on top of systems of record, explained 8x8 senior vice-president of midmarket and enterprise, Scott Sampson (pictured). "We're the only vendor in the market" that delivers all this, he told iTWire. X Series removes the barriers between PBX, unified communications, analytics and other systems, he said. "We have the ability to drive a single engagement model that brings all these features together." Benefits include context-rich engagements (via built-in CRM plus integration with third-party products including G-Suite, Salesforce and Zendesk), collaborative contact centre capabilities (tap into the expertise of peers and subject matter experts), and advanced customer journey analytics based on a single data set. "Customer-obsessed companies are looking for a communications infrastructure that helps them transform their employee and customer experience," said 8x8 chief executive Vik Verma. "X Series is designed to radically change how companies deliver unparalleled customer experience by providing intelligent interactions between their employees and customers." Cloud-based X Series will run in 8x8's 15 data centres around the world, and is claimed to be capable of delivering the highest level of call quality and SLAs, even as part of general internet traffic. It is expected to become available later this year. Internationally, the company has customers ranging in size from five to 10,000 lines. Its highest win rate occurs where potential customers are interested in virtual office capabilities and unified communications. "That's really the sweet spot for 8x8," said Sampson. Local 8x8 customers include money transfer company OFX and Sands, the miscarriage, stillbirth and newborn death support organisation. Asia Pacific vice-president Brendan Maree pointed out that Sands has no physical office, but instead has 48 people using the 8x8 application from their mobiles. With layered approaches to digital transformation and IoT driving cyber security, spending is predicted to grow 33% from 2018 to an annual figure of US$134 billion over the next four years. The latest data from the analytical gurus at Juniper Research is contained in its newest report, dubbed "Cybersecurity: Mitigation Strategies for Financial Services, Operators, Enterprise & IoT 2018-2022." The report, which as always is on sale to relevant parties at relevant prices, found that "nearly 70% of 2022 spend would originate from medium-sized businesses, as cybercriminals target low-hanging fruit". In the context of strategies for financial services, mobile operators, enterprise and IoT service providers, Juniper says its research "highlighted that stakeholders digital transformation and IoT endeavours were key catalysts for increasing spend to defend assets from threats". Juniper states that it :anticipates that the cumulative cost of data breaches between 2017 and 2022 will reach US$8 trillion, with variable per-business losses depending on the nature and scale of the attack. "Shipping company Maersk, for example, estimated the cost of NotPetya infecting its global network in 2017 at between US$200 and US$300 million." Juniper argued that, "as a result, stakeholders must plan in terms of risk mitigation rather than prevention. It predicted that service providers in high-risk environments would be forced to restructure their networks to avoid potential compliance breaches, data theft or service outage". Research author Steffen Sorrell explained: Once a single endpoint is breached, the big danger is lateral movement across the network. Layered networks, proper lifecycle management and user least privilege approaches will prove key to containing serious breaches. Security through flexibility Meanwhile, the research found that "securing the IoT, with 46 billion connected units anticipated in 2021, would require more forward-thinking. With devices in the field for years at a time, adopting a cybersecurity strategy that is flexible enough to react to future demands would be essential". "It highlighted the fact that cyber criminals efforts soon render modern approaches less effective. For example, the Cerber family of ransomware has analysed how machine learning systems detect malware behaviour and applied evasion techniques as a result." As per usual, there's a free whitepaper with more market insights to tempt you into acquiring the full research, and it is entitled: "Cybersecurity ~ How can service providers save the bottom line?". In a world where your call is important to us, one cloud-enabled platform claims full programmability for its contact centre smarts that can save the world with instant deployment. Ok, ok, so Twilio Flex probably isn't going to save the world in the same way you'd expect Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger to, but if it can help to make calling contact centres even the tiniest bit better, it might end up saving your sanity. Naturally, Twilio notes Flex's flexibility, stating that it is "the first contact centre platform that gives businesses complete control of their contact centre experience". Flex is said to allow companies to "instantly deploy an omnichannel contact centre platform and also programmatically customise every element of the experience including the interface, communication channels, agent routing, and reporting to meet the unique needs of the business". Indeed, Twilio says Flex is "a new type of platform for applications which has the potential to disrupt traditional monolithic application vendors in the same way API platforms disrupted traditional infrastructure services for communications, compute and payments", and is "built on the same elastic Twilio infrastructure that supports hundreds of thousands of contact centre agents and handles nearly 40 billion (annualised) interactions a year". So, for those who've never had the joy of calling a contact centre, why is such an entity important? Well, Twilio reminds us that "a companys contact centre is critical to building and maintaining relationships with customers. However, as customer expectations shift with the availability of new communication channels, companies struggle to keep pace because of the difficulties and cost of upgrading the on-premises, hardware-based solutions that have dominated the contact centre market for decades". In addition, Twilio tells us that "many companies have outgrown the one-size-fits-all applications and are demanding the ability to create an experience for their customers and agents customised to their unique needs". Al Cook, head of the contact centre business at Twilio, said: "Hundreds of companies, including ING Bank, Zillow, Simply Business and National Debt Relief, have built customised contact centre solutions using Twilios communication APIs. With Flex, we are providing a contact centre platform that has a point-of-view based on the best practices weve learned, offers options for those who want to get up and running quickly, and gives businesses unlimited flexibility as they design their customer experiences." Customisability from infrastructure to interface In an age of disruption left, right and centre, Twilio says it is "introducing an entirely new approach to the industry", and that, as noted above, Twilio Flex "delivers the first instantly deployable, cloud-based platform that allows businesses to programmatically customise every element of their contact centre experience - from the core infrastructure to the user interface". More detail on what Flex allows businesses to do Instantly support an omnichannel experience: Flex allows businesses to instantly deploy agent, administration and supervisor desktops and begin engaging with customers via channels including voice, SMS, email, chat, video, Facebook Messenger and any other channel immediately, either natively or through an integration. Flex allows businesses to instantly deploy agent, administration and supervisor desktops and begin engaging with customers via channels including voice, SMS, email, chat, video, Facebook Messenger and any other channel immediately, either natively or through an integration. Programmatically customise any user interface: While Flex user interfaces work out of the box, they are designed to be customised at every point of the contact centre journey. Businesses can customise customer-facing components like click-to-call or click-to-chat, add entirely new channels or integrate reporting dashboards to display agent performance or customer satisfaction. While Flex user interfaces work out of the box, they are designed to be customised at every point of the contact centre journey. Businesses can customise customer-facing components like click-to-call or click-to-chat, add entirely new channels or integrate reporting dashboards to display agent performance or customer satisfaction. Bring contextual intelligence to every interaction: Flex empowers developers with machine learning to improve agent, supervisor and operator productivity and uses Twilios powerful TaskRouter to apply attribute-based routing logic across all communication channels. Flex empowers developers with machine learning to improve agent, supervisor and operator productivity and uses Twilios powerful TaskRouter to apply attribute-based routing logic across all communication channels. Build applications with drag-and-drop ease: Twilio Studio, a visual application builder, makes it easy to customise everything from IVRs and chatbots to SMS-based appointment reminders or surveys -- quickly and easily without writing code. Twilio Studio, a visual application builder, makes it easy to customise everything from IVRs and chatbots to SMS-based appointment reminders or surveys -- quickly and easily without writing code. Integrate any application: Flex can integrate with any third-party applications that are critical to the business including customer relationship management (CRM) from Salesforce or Zendesk, workforce management (WFM), workforce optimisation (WFO), reporting, analytics and data store. Sheila McGee-Smith, president and principal analyst of McGee-Smith Analytics, said: "Twilio has been working with the in-house developers of businesses large and small for many years, helping them create customised customer and agent experiences. The best practices gleaned from those engagements have been incorporated into a service that works out of the box and also allows for robust customisation." An enterprise platform "built for scale" The company tells us that "Flex is designed for businesses and ISVs with large scale contact centre deployments that require an additional layer of customisation in order to best serve their customers". "Underpinning the Twilio Flex contact centre platform is Twilios Super Network, an elastic infrastructure that catalogs, orchestrates and delivers global connectivity to Twilios customer base. "Twilio powers nearly 40 billion interactions a year while maintaining a 99.95% service level agreement. Built on Twilios Super Network, Flex enables businesses to support up to 50,000 agents and reach customers in more than 100 countries without having to manage infrastructure or carrier relationships." An ecosystem to extend customer success Twilio naturally also wants to remind us all that "Flex provides a robust opportunity for the entire ecosystem of partners - from ISVs to technology partners to systems integrators". Ryan Nichols, general manager of Zendesk Talk, said: When it comes to delivering the best customer experiences theres no one size fits all. The partnership between Twilio and Zendesk is powerful because together we provide businesses a choice in how to build an integrated omnichannel experience. We look forward to continuing this partnership with Twilio in the future. For companies looking for a pre-built contact centre solution, Twilio says it will "continue to refer them to one of its many contact centre partners like Zendesk or Serenova. Twilio Flex provides ISVs new sophisticated components to build into SaaS contact centre solutions that ultimately allows the entire ecosystem to more effectively address the full spectrum of customer requirements." Twilio also reports "actively working with tier one systems integrators to help customers who want to build a highly customised solution, but may not have development resources in-house". Then there's the Twilio Marketplace, whose partners include "IBM Watson, Ytica, and Verint" which will provide customers with "one-click integrations for capabilities like sentiment analysis, workforce optimisation, workforce management, analytics, reporting, and storage". Pricing and availability Twilio says: "Flex is currently in preview and will be generally available by the end of 2018 with flexible pricing options including per seat per month." Further quotes: Greenbox Systems has formally launched its new Canberra IT Commissioning Centre, a highly-secure IT lifecycle services facility specifically designed for the federal government and defence sectors. Located at Queanbeyan West, the new centre was opened on Wednesday by the Minister for Defence Industry, Christopher Pyne. The Canberra ITCC expanding Greenboxs existing footprint in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne will provide federal government and defence agencies with secure and large-scale IT services backed by defence standards, ISO and R2 accreditations. Projects conducted through the facility will be managed by a team of 25 security-cleared specialists. Shane Mulholland, chief executive at Greenbox, said the commissioning centre was designed to fulfil the need for specialist resources in the Canberra region, addressing the demand for scalable, security-focused lifecycle services from its target markets. Our emphasis on the secure management of sensitive IT assets from imaging to disposal of extremely-sensitive data has generated significant interest for our services in Canberra, said Mulholland. We previously delivered these services via our Sydney facility. However, the proliferation in both devices and data, as well as an increase in market demand made it clear we needed a dedicated site to service the nations capital. Mullholland said that, in addition to its security certifications, the 1500-square-metre commissioning centre was equipped to process large volumes of devices. He said not only could it store more than 1500 pallets of equipment, but it gave Greenbox the capacity to conduct more than 2000 standard operating environment loads daily, with 800 machines operating simultaneously. The new facility is the largest IT lifecycle service centre in Australia, allowing us to deliver to the needs of large and security-sensitive organisations, said Mulholland. For Canberra clients, Greenbox reduces the costs and risks around the IT chain of custody. Having a local facility means that we are highly responsive and can manage all logistics and transportation in-house to the highest security standards. China has altered dates in its national vulnerability database to try and make it appear that serious vulnerabilities were published ahead of the US national threat database. The claim was made by researchers at US security firm Recorded Future who had initially pointed out the difference in speed of publishing between the Chinese database and its US counterpart, the US National Vulnerability Database (NVD). They had found that NVD trailed the CNNVD in the time taken between initial disclosure of a flaw and its inclusion in the database while the NVD took an average of 33 days, the CNNVD took just 13. But later they found that this did not apply to more serious vulnerabilities and theorised that this could be because publication was being delayed to allow time to evaluate how they could be used in domestic surveillance. In an initial look at the Chinese National Vulnerability Database, the chief data scientist at Recorded Future, Dr Bill Ladd, found that while the CNNVD was faster than the US in publishing details of flaws, it appeared that the more serious flaws were being published much later than in the US. In a blog post, Dr Ladd and Priscilla Moriuchi said during their initial study, back in November 2017, they had also found that the CNNVD was essentially a shell for the Ministry of State Security. "This is important because the MSS is not just a foreign intelligence service, but it also has a large, and arguably more important, domestic intelligence mandate," they wrote. "Recognising the importance of the domestic mission is key to understanding why the MSS would manipulate data that is primarily consumed by Chinese or regional users." The motive for altering dates was to prevent Chinese researchers from finding details of a vulnerability in the event that it was being used for an attack within China. "For example, if a company was victimised by an exploit for CVE-2017-0199 on May 15, 2017 and used CNNVD data, then it would not have known to remediate that vulnerability until June 7, 2017," Ladd and Moriuchi wrote. "Since CNNVD altered the publication date for this vulnerability after publication to April 13, 2017, a current examination of the vulnerability could lead investigators to conclude that the company was aware of the vulnerability after April 13 but chose not to remediate. "Depending upon the data loss, the breach, and the country, this data manipulation could put companies at further risk for fines or legal action resulting from an intrusion." Security researchers from a previously unknown Israeli company, CTS Labs, have disclosed 13 flaws in AMD processors. All can be taken advantage of only by an attacker who has already gained admin privileges within the system in question. The flaws were published on a website, accompanied by a white paper from which technical details were redacted, in order, CTS Labs said, to prevent exploitation based on what it had decided to publicise. From archived information, it appears that the CTS Labs domain was registered in June last year. AMD was given 24 hours to respond though standard practice in the security community for many years has been to give a company, whose products are found to have bugs, 90 days to respond. In most cases, disclosure after the 90-day period is a exercise which is co-ordinated between the bug finder and the company whose product is vulnerable. Um, overhype much? Come on man, this is just garbage @viceroyresearch. These vulnerabilities don't "make AMD's product non-functioning" by any stretch. pic.twitter.com/FMluS8A1Nc Jake Williams (@MalwareJake) 13 March 2018 Soon after the CTS Labs publication, a company named Viceroy Research issuedwith the dramatic headline: "AMD The Obituary". Viceroy is reported to have three people on staff: John Fraser Perring, a 44-year-old Briton, and two Australians, Gabriel Bernarde and Aidan Lau. The company has published such sensational reports, about other industries, The disclosure of the bugs comes a couple of months after flaws in Intel processors, known as Meltdown and Spectre, were made public. This disclosure, however came after a long period, as the initial information was provided to Intel by Google in June 2017. The bugs themselves fall into four categories (names given by CTS Labs): Ryzenfall, Chimera, Fallen and Masterkey. CTS Labs said that the Ryzen chipset, a new line from AMD, was being shipped with exploitable backdoors, which had come about as a result of obtaining technology from ASMedia, an outsourcing partner. Yeah tinfoil hat machines are running crazy right now, for now lets just keep at it that its a shady company seemingly wanting to throw shade on AMD. Majority of vulnerabilities seem irrelevant, good summary by @cynicalsecurity: https://t.co/3tVmNU4JUs Yonathan Klijnsma (@ydklijnsma) 13 March 2018 It pointed out that ASMedia, a subsidiary of ASUSTek Computer, had been penalised by the US Federal Trade Commission for not taking security seriously. Under the Ryzenfall category, CTS Labs claimed that malicious code could be used to take over the AMD Secure Processor; privileges of this processor could be used to write into protected memory areas; Windows Credential Guard could be bypassed and network credentials stolen; and Ryzenfall could be used along with Masterkey to install persistent malware on the Secure processor. In the Fallen category, CTS Labs listed vulnerabilities that allowed reading and writing to protected memory areas; leveraging of these flaws to steal network credentials protected by Windows Credential Guard; and bypassing BIOS flashing protections implemented in SMM. Under the category Masterkey, CTS Labs claimed that there were a number of flaws in the firmware of the secure processor that would allow attackers to gain access to this processor; stealthy and persistent malware could reside in this area; AMD's firmware-base security features like Secure Encrypted Virtualisation and Firmware Trusted Platform Module could be tampered with; network credential theft was possible, and hardware could be physically damaged and bricked. In the Chimera category, CTS Labs said it had found two sets of backdoors, one in firmware and one in hardware, both allowing malicious code to be injected into the Ryzen chipset; the chipset's middleman position could be leveraged for attacks; chipset-based malware could evade endpoint security solutions; and malware on the chipset could use direct memory access to attack the operating system. Someone found their greenscreening backdrops, why would you even want your real office there? pic.twitter.com/HuT8qsU5yL Yonathan Klijnsma (@ydklijnsma) 13 March 2018 All the vulnerabilities were revealed to the security firm Trail of Bits last week. Its founder Dan Guido told the Motherboard website that each of them was exploitable and worked as described. Guido was paid US$16,000 for his work as a contractor, a fact he disclosed in a tweet. I initially responded to their request out of curiosity -- "Hey, do you want to see our new processor bugs before we release them?" "hell yes I do" -- but after their asks continued to grow billed them our week rate for the work. Dan Guido (@dguido) March 13, 2018 British security researcher Kevin Beaumont said in an initial technical analysis: All of the bugs require administrator (or root) access to exploit. This is a significant mitigation. All of the bugs require the ability to execute code. This is a significant mitigation. No proof of concept code has been provided. No technical information has been published. Nothing is in the wild for this. It could not lead to a global cyber attack like WannaCry, as it does not provide code execution. iTWire has sought clarification from CTS Labs on various aspects of the disclosures, including matters surrounding them which have been raised by various security researchers. AMD said in a public statement on its website: "We have just received a report from a company called CTS Labs claiming there are potential security vulnerabilities related to certain of our processors. "We are actively investigating and analysing its findings. This company was previously unknown to AMD and we find it unusual for a security firm to publish its research to the press without providing a reasonable amount of time for the company to investigate and address its findings. "At AMD, security is a top priority and we are continually working to ensure the safety of our users as potential new risks arise. We will update this blog as news develops." The trial of an open payment contactless ticketing system is to be expanded across the entire Sydney ferry and light rail network by Cubic Transportation Systems and Transport for New South Wales. The trial was introduced to bring contactless ticketing into Australia. To date, more than 15,000 passengers have used their Mastercards to tap on and pay for travel across Sydney Harbour since the trial began on the Manly Ferry service in July 2017. And with the contactless trial extension, customers will now also be able to use American Express and Visa cards to pay for their travel. In New South Wales, we know transport is no longer just about infrastructure but also about embracing technology to provide the best services possible for our customers, said NSW transport minister Andrew Constance. The integration of contactless transport payments into the Opal ticketing system makes the purchasing of one-off fares quick, easy and seamless, providing choice and convenience to customers. Tom Walker, senior vice-president and managing director of CTS Asia-Pacific, said the trial had been a very important test for this complex new technology and we are delighted that contactless will now be expanded further. According to CTS, contactless ticketing promises to bring major benefits for both consumers and operators, and the trial has demonstrated that the technology Cubic pioneered with Transport for London can be adapted to fit Australias unique environmental and regulatory conditions. Across London, more than 2.1 million journeys are now made using contactless ticketing on its bus, Tube and rail services every day. CTS says open payment will not replace Opal, which is now used by nearly 14 million people a week, but will provide freedom of choice when it comes to paying for travel. Australians are keen adapters of technology and we expect to see a rapid adoption of contactless ticketing here, said Walker. In addition, Cubic is continually evolving Opal to take advantage of best-of-breed technology developments that the company is investing in and deploying around the world. Putting its recent bankruptcy woes behind it, California-based unified communications vendor Avaya has closed its acquisition of contact centre-as -a-service provider, Spoken Communications. Avaya says the Spoken platform accelerates its growth in cloud-based solutions and provides a reliable and highly scalable cloud platform for customers of all sizes. Customers around the world can confidently move to the benefits of cloud at their pace and in the way that best meets their needs, building upon the robust functionality of their existing solutions, said Jim Chirico, president and chief executive of Avaya. Continuing to invest in innovation for the future, Spoken brings a transformative platform with many built-in features that today require third-party tools. This greatly simplified model will make it easier for customers and partners to do business with Avaya. With over 170 patents and patent applications, Spokens intellectual property will supercharge Avayas move into Big Data, Machine Learning and AI, as well. This acquisition is the latest example of how Avaya is now moving at cloud speed and investing for the future to provide our customers and partners with the innovative cloud solutions they need. We welcome the members of the Spoken team to the Avaya family, and look forward to building great success together, Chirico said. In December 2017, Avaya emerged from Chapter 11 protection from bankruptcy in the US with completion of its debt reconstruction plan. The exit from bankruptcy protection followed the company's move into chapter 11 in January last year with almost US$6 billion in debt and plans to reduce that debt to US$2.9 billion. Avaya had said it expected to emerge from the restructuring of its business by the end of 2017 after the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York confirmed its reorganisation plan. ORLANDO, Fla. The wide variety of collaboration and communications tools now available to businesses can help connect employees in different locations, but can also result in fragmented and siloed conversations. With that in mind, a new breed of team collaboration chat apps has emerged in recent years that, in many cases, incorporate video and voice call functionality alongside text-based messaging. That means enterprise organizations can begin to consolidate some of their existing communication tools into a single platform deployed across the business, according to a panel of CIOs at the Enterprise Connect conference here in Orlando. Jason Kasch, CIO at Structural Group, a Maryland-based engineering and construction firm, said his company had previously used a range of applications to connect staffers everything from Microsofts Yammer and Oracle Social Network to group text messaging platform GroupMe and Slack. By moving to RingCentrals Glip, the company found it easier for employees to start conversations with the right people in the organization. We had a bunch of different products where people were collaborating and the one piece that was missing was a central contact point, Kasch explained. If everyone was on a different platform, they didnt have the ability to single point click to start a video conference or a conversation immediately. Kasch said deploying the Glip team chat app helped the company replace its various collaboration platforms and made it easier to connect colleagues in different locations. When we collapsed all of those onto one platform we didnt do it consciously saying, Hey, this was a problem, as we didnt realize it was a problem, he said. But the minute we launched RingCentral and gave everyone in the company access to Glip, everyone started migrating all of their conversations to this platform simply so that so they could converse with everybody else in the company. John Herbert, CIO at 21st Century Fox, said that relying on numerous collaboration tools can create more headaches for companies rather than solve them. Fragmented conversations and fragmented tools actually create a bigger problem, he said. The media corporation has rolled out Slack as a core collaboration hub for 25,000 employees across 90 countries, uses Zooms video conferencing across the company, turned to Okta for identity management and relies on Quip for content collaboration. Once we committed to Slack and Zoom it just changed everything, because then everybody is on that same platform with that experience for some consistency. Other firms are moving in a similar direction. Mott MacDonald, a 16,000-strong engineering consultancy headquartered in the UK, has gone all-in on Microsofts Office365 applications. It uses Skype for Business to connect staff as well as Yammer and Lync. For us, it is still a bit fragmented, said the firm's CIO, Ronald Sattan. Sattan welcomed Microsofts decision to consolidate Skype for Business into Teams, which will help to bring those conversations together into one place. The convergence of all that into one thing is going to be massive for us, he said. Michael Sherwood, director of technology and innovation for the City of Las Vegas, said that supporting a range of tools is the reality for now. While he would like to have a single, central collaboration application, most likely we will have a fragmented world, he said. We allow employees to have an Android or an iPhone, we will continue to allow a Microsoft path and a Cisco Spark/WebEx path, he said. All of our vendors use different platforms and internally we will allow the same type of provision. Hopefully, at some point we can get to the utopia of having one platform: from a maintenance standpoint it would be a lot more progressive. Summerville, SC (29483) Today Thunderstorms. High 78F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Reddit Email 141 Shares By Juliette Legendre | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | Far more dangerous than the far-right effort to win elections alone is its concerted campaign to change the culture a strategy it owes, perversely, to the left. When Marine Le Pen took the reins of her fathers French far-right National Front party, she launched a well-crafted communication strategy to de-demonize the partys image. She distanced herself from unsavory associations and condemned the partys more overtly racist and anti-Semitic elements. She also co-opted some of the lexicon of the left to appeal to the working class, and hijacked liberal values such as secularism or equality to attack Islam. Though the party has yet to score major electoral successes, its definitely entered the mainstream under Le Pens leadership. The real measure of her success may be less in the polls than in peoples minds, writes Cecily Alduy, a professor of French studies at Stanford University, in The Nation. The National Fronts ideas are now regularly seen in the media and sometimes considered acceptable within mainstream parties. A 2014 survey conducted by the Institute of Political Sciences Center for Political Research found that 85 percent of respondents believe that France is in decline, 66 percent think there are too many foreigners in France (up from 49 percent in 2009), and 63 percent believe that Islam is incompatible with French societys values. The success of Marine Le Pen or Donald Trump and other right wing populists, however, isnt only due to a change in leadership style, but rather the result of decades of right-wing cultural struggle, shifting the overall political spectrum to the right. Groups located more on the extreme end of the far right, such as the identitarian movement of which Richard Spencer is a part, have also been heavily investing in conquering peoples minds specifically young mens minds. And the Internet has made this task much easier for them. The surprise is that, whether far right activists realize it or not, they owe this metapolitical approach to the left particularly to Marxist scholar Antonio Gramsci, who pioneered the theory of ideological hegemony in the 1920s. Cultural power, Gramsci argued, must precede political power. Political Shift to the Right This effort from the far right to win hearts and minds is both contributing and benefiting from the global uptick in right-wing populism. Alt-right leaders were enthusiastic about the election of Donald Trump even if they recognize he wasnt really one of them, says George Hawley, a political scientist at the University of Alabama and author of Making Sense of the Alt-Right. To a certain degree, they consider Trump and similar political figures in Europe to be Trojan horses that help disseminate white-supremacist ideas into mainstream politics under the guise of softer populist rhetoric. One major concern is that these Trojan horses might go beyond mere populism, as some fascist politicians did in the 20th century. Cas Mudde, an expert on the far right at the University of Georgia, describes right-wing populism as a thin-centered ideology that relies on concepts borrowed from thicker ideologies such as nationalism. It is not a coherent ideology, but rather a fluid and transitory phenomenon. Today, in many European countries, several far right parties that were once operating on the margins are now participating in mainstream politics. Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Italy have been the latest victims of this phenomenon. A far right party has entered the German parliament for the first time since World War II, the Dutch Freedom Party and the French National Front came in second in national elections last year, and a center right-far right alliance appears to have triumphed in the Italian general election. In Central and Eastern Europe, the situation is even more worrisome. Austria, Poland, and Hungary are now governed by right-wing nationalists who are promoting strict anti-immigration policies and dangerously undermining democratic institutions. In recent months the European Union has been in a standoff with Poland over its latest undemocratic reforms granting greater power to the Polish executive branch over the judiciary. But besides increasing political gains, the real victory for far-right activists is the shift of the public discourse further to the right. This is part of their metapolitical strategy, claims Joe Mulhall, a senior researcher at Hope Not Hate, an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom: Across Europe and America, the alt-right political project is not based on winning elections. It is a metapolitical approach. Its about changing the course of society through its culture and through expanding the window of acceptability around the issues that are interested in race, identity, etc. Enter Gramsci The European New Right (ENR), or Nouvelle Droite, a pan-European far-right school of thought that originated in France in the late 1960s, has been a source of ideological inspiration for the far right in Europe and more recently in the United States. ENR thinkers typically oppose liberal democracy, multiculturalism, and socialism alike. The main leader of the movement is the French intellectual Alain De Benoist. And what is striking is that De Benoist learned from his enemy, finding inspiration in the work of Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci and his writings on cultural hegemony. Gramsci argued ideological wins precede political wins. He understood that Marxists were failing to overthrow the bourgeoisie because they hadnt gained control of the culture. The support of the people must be gained first, Gramsci argued, and the best way to achieve that is to slowly change their ideas, values, culture, and worldview. De Benoist interpreted Gramscis writings through a far-right lens and advanced this notion of right-wing Gramscianism which targeted the universalist and egalitarian values of liberalism and socialism. Through a think tank called the Groupement de Recherche et dEtudes pour la Civilisation Europeenne (the European Civilization Study and Research Group GRECE), New Right thinkers have aimed at shaping and cultivating a counter hegemonic conception of the world. They have been publishing intellectual journals and hosting conferences and debates throughout Europe. They fundamentally reject the ideals of the Enlightenment and of Christianity, and fight back against the materialist ideologies from liberalism to socialism. Instead, they posit a pan-European nationalism and a world of ethnically homogeneous communities, writes Joe Mulhall. Back in the late 90s, the influence of the New Right was mainly contained within Europe. But in recent years, the American alt right has been finding inspiration in the writings of De Benoist and other ENR thinkers. Greg Johnson, a leading American alt right figure and editor in chief of Counter-Currents Publishing, has been publishing a North American New Right journal. This movement, he says, seeks to apply the ideas of the European New Right and allied intellectual and political movements in the North American context and to lay the metapolitical foundations for halting and reversing these trends. Daniel Friberg is a leading Swedish far-right activist and co-founder of the Alt-Right Corporation with the American white nationalist Richard Spencer. In his recent book The Real Right Returns: A Handbook for the True Opposition, Friberg writes: Taken in its totality, our metapolitics aims to set an authentic Right in motion; a force which is growing in strength through our own, alternative media channels, as well as through gaps in the censored channels of the establishment. This force, once it reaches critical mass, will live its own unstoppable life, broadening the narrow confines of public discourse in a revolutionary manner and paving the way for a European renaissance. The Europeans Come to CPAC That vision was on full display when Marion Marechal Le Pen spoke at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland. A former member of the French parliament, this younger Le Pen is primarily known for holding even harsher nationalist views than her aunt, National Front leader Marine le Pen, and for her ties to the identitarian movement. Marion stepped away from politics last June and has remained silent since, so when French media discovered she was going to speak at CPAC, they interpreted it as a sign of her comeback on the political stage. But Marion clarified her that her ambitions were about the cultural stage, not the political one. A day before CPAC, the right-leaning publication Valeurs Actuelles published a profile in which she claims: The battle of ideas has been won in many ways, but it struggles to transform into electoral victories. In each election cycle, financial resources are scarce and supports are limited. It is on that front that young French conservatives have a major mission to accomplish. I am convinced that our political family must invest more into the field of metapolitics. Sure enough, her speech at CPAC focused on the virtue of embracing metapolitics as announced her new project: Our fight cannot only take place in elections. We need to convey our ideas into the media, culture, and education to stop the domination of the liberals and socialists. That is why I recently launched a school of management and political science to train the leaders of tomorrow, those who will have the courage, the discernment, and the skills to defend the interest of their people. Broadly speaking, progressive movements in the U.S. and in Europe have failed to offer a vision that motivates and makes young people excited, laments Mulhall. And now white nationalists aim to substitute their own alternative. They are organizing online and offline on both sides of the Atlantic and radicalizing well-educated young men by strategically disseminating their racist worldview. And theyre doing it with the frame of an Italian Marxist who imagined a vastly different use for his ideas. Juliette Legendre is a researcher for Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies. Via Foreign Policy in Focus - Bonus video added by Informed Comment: Euronews: Bannon joins Le Pen at Front National Congress Reddit Email 57 Shares Middle East Monitor | Israel has one of the highest poverty rates of any developed country with the gap between the rich and the poor ever widening, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed yesterday. Single-parent families or families where only one parent works have a disproportionate rate of poverty, the repost warned. The OECD said Arab workers and the Haredi Jewish community were the worst hit by poverty as a result of the low wages they are paid which are often below the poverty line. This, it added, was in spite of the fact that Israels economy is thriving. Arabs and Ultra-Orthodox Jews Israels poorest communities are expected to be half of Israels population by 2060. Because of the demographic trends and labour participation rate of the Ultra-Orthodox and Arabs sooner or later it will have a macro economic consequence, OECD economist Alvario Pereira told a news conference in Jerusalem. 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: i24 News: Israel is a rich country with poor people' Reddit Email 96 Shares TeleSur | The YPG and allied forces, under the umbrella organization the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), control over 60 percent of the Syrian border with Turkey. The Kurdish residents of Afrin have said they would act as human shield to confront a Turkish assault on the local Kurdish militia YPG who rules the city, days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the siege on the Syrian city was complete and that the Turkish army was preparing to enter it soon. As part of its Olive Branch military operation, the Turkish military and its allies, the Free Syrian Army and several Islamist armed groups, have almost completed the siege of Afrin and are preparing to enter the city, but were waiting for the population to leave through a humanitarian corridor provided by them. But despite Turkish authorities saying that their army is within two kilometers of the city and threatening to invade soon, residents have refused to leave their hometown and are now planning to act as human shields to stop further attacks. Several Kurdish, socialist and anarchist organizations have announced their intention of standing between the Turkish army and the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) during a future assault on the city. A joint statement by the Initiative for the Unity and Solidarity of Peoples (SYPG) and the Free Socialist Women (JAS) says We are now on the 51st day of our great resistance against the attack of the colonialist and fascist Turkish state on our canton Afrin. As SYPG and JAS, we will launch a new group of human shields against the invasion of the Cizire region and the Firat (Euphrates) region. Also thousands of people from Kobane, a city that resisted the Islamic State group for five months, are reportedly arriving to Afrin in support of the population. We will not give Afrin to Erdogan even if we are subjected to airstrikes for months or years, said Fikriye Resid, and 58-year-old woman who came from Qamishlo to Afrin to be a human shield. But supporters of the Turkish military operation call this a crime war and blame the YPG of forcing population to act as human shields. Afrin has been suffering from constant attacks by warplanes and artillery shelling since the operation began in Jan. 20, causing the death of about 204 civilians, including Kurds, Arabs and Armenians. The Kurdish Red Crescent Moon estimates the number at 232 civilians killed, including 35 children and 29 women. Now, the citys population is also suffering from water and electricity shortages, as the Turkish military seized the Midanki Dam, which provides these basic needs to Afrin and its surroundings. According to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, the Turkish Army and Turkey-backed armed groups have seized control of over 38 percent of Afrins villages, but the siege is yet to be completed. The aim of the operation is to free the area from the YPG, a Kurdish militia the Turkish government considers the Syrian branch of the outlawed rebel group the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and a terrorist organization. The YPG and allied forces, under the umbrella organization the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), control over 60 percent of the Syrian border with Turkey, which has raised security concerns in Ankara. On Saturday, international activists and Kurdish communities in foreign countries marched and protested against what they called the Turkish aggression against Afrin and European arms trade with Turkey. The People Permanent Tribunal in Paris will hold a session next March 15-16 on Turkish war crimes against the Kurdish people, including politically motivated murders by the Turkish intelligence services in foreign countries and the bombings of Kurdish cities within Turkeys borders. Until the most recent military intervention by Turkey, Afrin had been relatively calm during the Syrian civil war, as local government and militias started their own political project and defense strategies against other insurgent and Islamist groups, becoming a safe spot for Syrians fleeing from other regions. Via TeleSur Bonus video added by Informed Comment: EuroNews: Turkish forces advance on Afrin VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orla Mining Ltd. (TSX-V:OLA) (the Company or Orla) is pleased to announce that Mr. Etienne Morin will be joining the executive team at Orla as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Paul Robertson will step down as Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Morin will assume the role effective April 30, 2018. Following Mr. Morins appointment, Mr. Robertson will remain active with the Company in an advisory role. Marc Prefontaine, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented: On behalf of the Board of Directors, we would like to welcome Etienne to the Orla team. Etienne has extensive industry experience and market understanding, which will help guide the Company through the next phase of its development, and I look forward to working with him to execute on the Companys strategic initiatives. I would like to thank Paul Robertson for his dedication to this role since 2015, including his oversight of two significant acquisitions for Orla. Mr. Morin joins Orla from Goldcorp Inc. where he spent the last 11 years in various finance and operations roles, as well as acquiring significant capital markets experience in his roles as Director of Corporate Development and more recently heading the investor relations function. Mr. Morin holds a Bachelor of Arts in geology from Colgate University and a MBA from the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. About Orla Mining Ltd. Orla Mining owns two advanced stage open pit, heap leach style oxide gold projects in Panama and Mexico. Camino Rojo is an advanced gold and silver project covering over 200,000 hectares in Zacatecas State, Central Mexico. The project is 100% owned and has historical oxide reserves along with historical sulphide resources (which Goldcorp Inc. retains a back-in right on the sulphides). The Company believes it has exploration potential for additional oxide and sulphide mineral resources. Access and infrastructure are excellent with a paved highway and powerline nearby. A NI 43-101 Technical Report dated January 24, 2018, on Camino Rojo is available on SEDAR. The 100% owned Cerro Quema project in Panama includes a near-term gold production scenario and exploration upside. Cerro Quemas 14,800 Ha concession boasts paved road access, a supportive local population and private land ownership. The Cerro Quema project is currently in the last stage of the permitting process for a proposed open pit mine and gold heap leach operation. Please refer to the Cerro Quema Project - Pre-feasibility Study on the La Pava and Quemita Oxide Gold Deposits dated August 22, 2014, which is available on SEDAR. Forward-looking Statements This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian and United States securities legislation, including, without limitation, statements with respect to the expected timing for appointment of the Chief Financial Officer, the results of exploration and planned exploration programs, the potential for discovery of additional mineral resources and the Companys objectives and strategies. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts which address events, results, outcomes or developments that the Company expects to occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Companys management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements are discussed in this news release, including without limitation, assumptions that the Companys activities will be in accordance with the Companys public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained and that there will be no significant disruptions affecting the Company or its properties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements involve significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to: risks related to uncertainties inherent in the preparation of preliminary economic assessments, drill results and the estimation of mineral resources; and risks associated with executing the Companys objectives and strategies, including costs and expenses. Except as required by the securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the Company, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if managements beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. For further information, please contact: Marc Prefontaine President & Chief Executive Officer www.orlamining.com This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Toronto, Ontario (FSCwire) - Tsodilo Resources Limited (TSX Venture Exchange: TSD) ("Tsodilo" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on its BK16 kimberlite project in Botswana. BK16 The BK16 kimberlite project is located within the Orapa Kimberlite Field (OKF) in Botswana. The diamond mines in Botswana have produced an average of 27 million carats annually in the last 10 years and Botswana is the worlds largest producer of diamonds by value. In 2017, the OKF area produced 11.07 million carats. Of the 83 known kimberlite bodies, eleven have been or are currently being mined. These are AK01, AK02 and AK07 (Orapa, Debswana), AK06 (Karowe, Lucara Diamond Corporation), BK01, BK09, BK12 and BK15 (Damtshaa, Debswana), DK01 and DK02 (Letlhakane, Debswana) and BK11 (Firestone Diamonds). The Karowe mine has produced such notable diamonds as the 1,109 carat `Lesedi La Rona` and the 813 carat `Constellation`. The diamondiferous BK16 kimberlite pipe is approximately 6 hectares in size at surface, and is known to contain rare and valuable Type IIa diamonds (see press release dated May 31, 2016). The following phases of kimberlite were identified during the 2015 drilling program: volcaniclastic kimberlite VK1, Black VK2, Grey VK3 and VKxxx also referred to as the basalt breccia, red country rock breccia (CB) and coherent kimberlite (CK1). The Large Diameter Drilling (LDD) program, including collaring of the holes, was executed between July and October 2017, and including the Kalahari cover sediments a total of 3,150 meters was drilled. Excluding the cover sediments, 2,008.6 tonnes of kimberlite was extracted. A 1 mm screening unit attached to the drill removed the fines resulting in 1,441.5 tonnes of +1 mm of kimberlite to be processed through the DMS plant (see table below). The kimberlite was sampled every 12 meters down each LDD hole subdividing the 1,441.5 tonnes into 243 individual samples for treatment. Kimberlite Phases LDD Meters LDD Tonnes Tonnes to the plant VK2 961 691.5 539.6 VK3 1686 1227.8 852.0 VKxxx 89 65.1 28.7 CB 33 24.2 21.2 Total 2,769 2,008.6 1,441.5 Dense Medium Separation (DMS) Plant The DMS plant was commissioned on January 18, 2018 using the historic tailing material to test the plant. Treatment of the LDD samples started on the 18th and to date 724.7 tons have been processed representing 141 samples out of a total of 243 or 61 % of the tonnage. These 141 samples have generated 2,778.6 kg of concentrate translating to a DMS yield of 0.38%. It must be emphasized that the weight of the samples that were moved to the plant from the drill site in 2017 and are not comparable to the weight of the samples awaiting treatment at the plant due to water loss over the last 5 months. It is projected that the treatment of the Large Diameter Drill (LDD) samples through the DMS plant will be completed in the first week of April. The treatment of the tailing material of BK16 will then resume. The second consignment of 71 drums of concentrate have been securely moved to the companys final recovery area at its secure complex in Maun. The POLUS-M X-ray sorter has been set up to treat dry DMS concentrate in the size range of -8 +3 mm and -3 +1 mm. To date, the Polus-M sorter has treated 32 LDD samples and produced cumulatively 7.0 kg of concentrate in 1 to 3 mm size range and 0.6 kg of the 3 to 8 mm size material. The material in the 8 to 12 mm size range for these 32 LDD samples have a combined weight of 43.6 kg. The X-ray sorted concentrates will be hand sorted in Maun at the Companys secure sorting facility by a third-party sorter starting on March 19th. The -12 +8 mm material will also be hand-sorted in Maun. The recovered diamonds will be transported to the Diamond Technology Park in Gaborone, Botswana for acid cleaning and valuation. The company is exploring avenues to obtain the use of a larger BV machine to treat the plus 8 mm fraction. The sorter operation concept is based on the use of diamonds' property of luminescence under X-ray impact and on the difference of those properties with diamonds and associate luminescent minerals. The mode under reference term "luminescence and absorption" when the X-ray tube and photo detectors are located on both sides of the material flow is implemented. The effect of difference in X-ray absorption by diamonds and associate luminescent minerals is used. Additional information on the POLUS-M sorter from Bourevestnik, Inc. can be obtained from the press release of December 11, 2017 available on the Companys website. About Tsodilo Resources Limited Tsodilo Resources Limited is an international diamond and metals exploration company engaged in the search for economic diamond and metal deposits at its Bosoto (Pty) Limited ("Bosoto") and Gcwihaba Resources (Pty) Limited ("Gcwihaba") projects in Botswana and its Idada 361 (Pty) Limited ("Idada") project in Barberton, South Africa. The Company has a 100% stake in Bosoto (Pty) Ltd. which holds the BK16 kimberlite project in the Orapa Kimberlite Field (OKF) in Botswana and the PL216/2017 diamond prospection license also in the OKF. The Company has a 100% stake in its Gcwihaba project area consisting of seven metal (base, precious, platinum group, and rare earth) prospecting licenses all located in the North-West district of Botswana. Additionally, Tsodilo has a 70% stake in Idada Trading 361 (Pty) Limited which holds the gold and silver exploration license in the Barberton area of South Africa. Tsodilo manages the exploration of the Gcwihaba, Bosoto and Idada projects. Overall supervision of the Company's exploration program is the responsibility of Dr. Mike de Wit, President and COO of the Company and a "qualified person" as such term is defined in National Instrument 43-101. This press release may contain forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements 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 pertaining to the use of proceeds, the impact of strategic partnerships and statements that describe the Companys future plans, objectives or goals) are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, changes in equity markets, changes in general economic conditions, political developments in Botswana and surrounding countries, changes to regulations affecting the Company's activities, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, exploration and development risks, the uncertainties involved in interpreting exploration results and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration business. 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, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release may contain assumptions, estimates, and other forward-looking statements regarding future events. Such forward- looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and are subject to factors, many of which are beyond the Company's -control, which may cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. TORONTO, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation (hereinafter, "The Company") (TSX:TNX) (NYSE MKT:TRX) is pleased to take this opportunity to provide information regarding the investment climate in the mining industry in the United Republic of Tanzania. "The political and economic climate of Tanzania is exceptionally good for investors in Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation," stated James E. Sinclair, TRX Executive Chairman. "The climate is favourable for responsible companies who have partnered in mining endeavours with Tanzania. Our Company partnered with Tanzania through our Joint Venture Agreement with STAMICO, the mining agency for the government, a decade ago. The Company entered into the Agreement long before sharing in mining operation profits was required by Tanzania. We were ahead of the curve. We more than complied long before laws were enacted in Tanzania regarding mining profits," said Sinclair. The background for The Company's successes where other mining companies are struggling and failing is due to a number of economic and political changes. The new government of Tanzania, as of November 2015 elected President John Magufuli who has a staunch anti-corruption agenda. Honourable President Magufuli is receiving worldwide recognition for his advancements in bringing Tanzania into 21st Century business and industry, by establishing laws and regulatory standards for Tanzania to benefit from commercial activity within its borders. New laws and regulations benefit the nation and its people, but also benefit industry operating within its borders. Written laws are preferable to common and changeable understandings. Understandings can change from administration to administration, but written laws are not as flexible. President Magufuli is finally disposing of Colonialism in addition to eliminating corruption. Magufuli is a member of the CCM Party which has ruled Tanzania since Julius Nyerere. Thus far, in the Magufuli administration, more than 12,000 employees have been removed for cause, and these dismissals include the heads of Ministries. "President Magufuli's achievements are producing miracles in Tanzania, not only with new laws and regulations which protect government and industry, but also by Magufuli's active involvement in the development of industry. Tanzania is welcoming international investment as President Magufuli stamps out corruption and dishonesty from the system," stated James Sinclair, TRX Acting Chief Executive Officer. In the two years President Magufuli has been in office, the investment landscape has changed dramatically in Tanzania. Magufuli chairs the Tanzanian National Business Council (TNBC) scheduled to meet Monday. The Council is a demonstration of the Magufuli Administration's commitment to engage with private industry and create a framework to attract local and foreign investments into a stable business environment. "President Magufuli will be viewed with international interest as he transforms the nation's economy," Sinclair, said. Many positive and transformative initiatives have been put into place by the Magufuli administration. Initiatives and new laws have been promulgated to stabilize and regulate matters from the mining industry to protecting Tanzania from illegal fishing. Of significant note, last week President Magufuli was awarded the Mandela Peace Prize. The changes in Tanzania have been achieved by Magufuli, and he has done so in a manner which protects and preserves not only life, but the quality of life as indicated by this prestigious award. "Magufuli has insisted on the protection of local industrialists. It was part of his stated agenda in 2015 and he is putting his initiatives into practice in a manner which is fair to private industry and balances the protections of the economic interests of Tanzania. The movement of Tanzania into the 21st Century international community has been a metamorphosis which will benefit the nation and its investors," Sinclair continued. What is occurring in Tanzania is similar to what is being seen in other mineral rich, economically underdeveloped countries. A few examples of the trend toward equitable host nation treatment can be seen in Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico, numerous countries in South America, Africa, Greece and Turkey. Tanzanian Royalty is, and has been, ahead of the curve with respect to equitable arrangement with its host nation during the past 20 years, and specifically with the Buckreef Project Joint Venture Agreement in the past decade. The Joint Venture Agreement can be viewed on EDGAR or SEDAR. Tanzania now requires new mining industry contracts to be in the form of the Buckreef agreement. The Company's agreement with Tanzania is the exact model currently required. This is critical for investors to know in order to understand the relationship between TRX and Tanzania. The Buckreef Project Joint Venture Agreement provides for profit sharing which exceeds current minimum statutory requirements of Tanzania, i.e. profit sharing TRX (55%) and Stamico, the state owned mining company (45%). This agreement existed before the minimum required profit sharing laws were enacted, and this good relationship with Tanzania precludes government intervention in our mining operations due to a long standing, existing fair and equitable agreement. The TRX agreement with the government is unique in that Tanzania not only owns 45% of the profits, but also 45% of the entire asset. The Buckreef Project is robust enough to easily support the 55%/45% arrangement with Tanzania. New laws adopted to secure profits for the host nation make Tanzania a nation of laws and regulations which maintain and support a stable and attractive economic environment for the mining industry. "The companies who took advantage of Tanzania in the past are the companies that are struggling now. The companies that used and abused their mining privileges in Tanzania are the ones in difficulty. Tanzanian Royalty is not among them. We had greater foresight and acted with fairness and integrity before it was the law, and now we will reap the benefits of exceptionally good relations with the government in our mining operations. We are pleased to have the government of Tanzania as our partner. TRX could be the governmental/corporate and industrial model for all new contractual issues in Tanzania," Duval concluded. For further information, please refer to the Company website at: www.TanzanianRoyalty.com Respectfully submitted, James E. Sinclair, Executive Chairman Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation CONNECTICUT OFFICE: PO Box 577 Sherman, CT U.S.A. 06784 Fax: (860) 799-0350 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. TORONTO OFFICE: 82 Richmond Street East Suite 208 Toronto, Ontario M5C 1P1 Toll Free (844) 364-1830 www.TanzanianRoyaltyExploration.com 3K Shares Share The patient The patient is a forty-two-year-old male who works in the auto manufacturing arena. He takes one step to his left, he turns and lifts a seventy-five-pound piece of metal from a moving conveyor belt. He turns back and takes one step to his right to put the metal on his table. He tightens three screws, lifts the metal off the table to take one step to his right, turning, and places the metal back on the conveyor belt. He does this again and again, four times a minute, 240 times an hour, 2,880 times in his 12-hour shift. This is every day. If he doesnt have a bad back or neck, he will get them very shortly. When he develops a chronic back or neck problem, he will need help to keep his job. This job keeps a roof over his family and food on their table. This patients help is half of an opioid pain pill with a fourth of a muscle relaxer. He takes this every four hours while he works, with the pain medication rotated to a different pain med every four months. The alternatives to the opioid pain medication are not effective in the workplace. They have never been, and they never will be. Every state has occupations that require heavy physical labor. Physical labor has been the backbone of the United States since 1776, and it will continue to be our backbone forever. Americans who perform physical labor are the true heroes of this country, but our backbone has developed problems of its own. The origin On July 1st, 2015, the Tennessee state government passed a law that closed 308 pain clinics in one day pain clinics that had been certified by the Tennessee Department of Health. The law dictated that only pain specialists could operate pain clinics in the state of Tennessee. This law left only the sixty-three pain specialists practicing in the state. All sixty-three offices were at full capacity and did not accept any new patients, at least not without a two to six-month wait. Closing the 308 clinics put 120,000 Americans properly diagnosed with chronic pain, properly being treated with appropriate opioid pain medications on the street with nowhere to go. All 120,000 went through opioid withdrawal, and some of them died. Opioid withdrawal lasts seven days. That is seven days in which the patient cannot work. When the patient comes back to work, he begins to suffer, but he needs that roof and the food on the table for his family. Until two weeks ago, when I was interviewed by a reporter from my local ABC affiliate, no one had talked about the 120,000 who are still out there. These 120,000 patients felt as if they didnt count, and they didnt matter. They feel forgotten as if they are deplorable. But in America, every one of us counts. Tennessee was the third state to pass this law. Florida was the first state to adopt the law which resulted in 600 certified pain clinics closing with 240,000 patients, properly diagnosed with chronic pain and properly being treated with appropriate opioid pain medications, being left with nowhere to go for treatment. Alabama was the second state to pass the same law with 400 certified pain clinics being closed, leaving another 160,000 patients also properly diagnosed with chronic pain and properly being treated with appropriate opioid pain meds left in the cold. North Carolina (fourth) and Missouri (fifth) soon followed. And they kept going, state after state, ultimately leaving six million Americans without appropriate treatment. These patients are still out there, and they are still suffering. The opioid epidemic began in 2015. It was started by the Federal (DEA) and state governments, not the doctors, not the pharmaceutical companies. One year after these laws were passed, the use of heroin skyrocketed across the United States. No one would ever guess that our government, federal and state, would promote heroin use in its people, but they did. Who would ever guess that our media would remain silent and ignore six million people unjustly suffering? But they do. The why is still a mystery, but I know. Someone always benefits when the people are made to suffer. That is not America, and it never will be. Councill Rudolph is an emergency physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com A Kilkenny native and mother-of-two facing a terminal cancer diagnosis has raised 138,671 after appealing to the public to help her access experimental treatment in America. Given just 12 months to live by her oncologists, Vicky Phelan, set up a GoFundMe page which has raised almost 140,000 since February 13 of this year. Vicky who currently lives in Annacotty in Limerick but is originally from Mooncoin previously said her goal was to raise 100,000 to access a clinical trial in Maryland, USA and meet the associated costs but she has far exceeded that target. Speaking to the Kilkenny People last month, Vicky said: Im stunned by the support Ive had so far, its amazing and Im so grateful. The support from the people of Mooncoin has been phenomenal. Theyve organised a Midnight Walk in the village on Friday, April 6, theyre organising a Lip Sync battle, a Shave/Dye fundraiser. Theyve been great. Vicky fulfils the criteria for eligibility for the Maryland trial but she said the problem is not eligibility, its access, because they only take one patient per month. Vicky, who is married to Jim and is mother to Amelia, 12, and Darragh, 7, was first diagnosed with cervical cancer in July 2014, but following an aggressive course of radiation and chemotherapy, was given the all-clear late that year. A routine scan in November last year, however, showed a large mass of lymph nodes around her aorta, which is inoperable. Having already had the maximum dosage of radiation, Vicky was offered palliative chemotherapy as her only option, which she was told may give her one more year of life.It was not a prognosis she was willing to accept. I went to Dublin for a second opinion, from Dr David Fennelly, and he was much more positive than what I was hearing in Limerick. I found them extremely negative here, it was basically like they told me to go home and die. They could do nothing for me. He agreed, though, that in Ireland there are no options for me, but he was open to me going abroad. Having been reluctant to set up the GoFundMe page, Vicky finally did at the insistence of her sister and has been staggered by the response. Yeah, I just cant get over it, she added. To donate to Vickys GoFundMe page, visit www.gofundme.com/savevickyphelan Port Louis, March 13: President Ram Nath Kovind said on Tuesday that the peaceful Indian Ocean was must for India and Mauritius. He was addressing a gathering of Indian diaspora here at the reception hosted in his honour by the High Commissioner of India in Mauritius. "The Indian Ocean has connected us in many ways. It has been a uniting force for us. A stable and peaceful Indian Ocean is in the interest of both India and Mauritius. We must strive and work together to ensure and achieve this shared objective," President Kovind said. The President also lauded economic progress of Mauritius. "In the last 50 years, the people of Mauritius have created a democratic, plural and multiethnic society laced with high optimism and progress. The economic achievements of this small but vibrant country are laudable. You have created, what many call, a heaven on earth," President Kovind said. He also said Indians wanted to support their brothers and sisters here, in building a stronger Mauritius, with infrastructural projects that add value to the well-being of common people. Terming India and Mauritius as two countries, but one people; the President said, "Our inspiration, encouragement and inner strength also come from the same source. For both of us, Mahatma Gandhi is an everlasting source of pride. His message and struggle did not stop on the sands of Dandi, it reached in full strength to shores of Mauritius as well." He also invited Indian diaspora to visit and participate in the programmes of the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra in Delhi. President Kovind also exhorted Indian diaspora to spread Indian thought and practice at the world stage. Earlier, the President also laid the foundation stone of an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) hospital here. The three-fingered mummified structure discovered in the ancient city of Nazca, Peru, could be a sign of alien existence says a Russian scientist. The scientific community have been calling it a hoax for long but conspiracy theorists have a view to differ. Russian expert has revealed that he did a 'DNA' test on them and they are not human. So are we referring to alien existence, most likely! These mummies date back to 6,500 years ago. According to a report published in The Daily Mail, Dr Konstantin Korotkov, a professor of Computer Science and Biophysics at Saint-Petersburg Federal University, said the mummies are 'aliens'. Dr. Korotov also happens to be the same one who claimed in 2008 that he had a camera to capture the human soul. He was quoted to Sputnik news, "Each of the little mummies has two arms, two legs, a head, a pair of eyes and a mouth. The tissue has biological nature and their chemical composition indicates that they are humans. Their DNA features 23 pairs of chromosomes, just like we have." But he maintains that they do appear as humans but they are not! A skeletal specialist, Dr Edson Vivanco had also expressed a similar view when he said the remains are definitely 'non-human.' These three-fingered mummies look bizzare to most and have even been called fake before. These mummies were discovered in 2017 by a team which was led by controversial Mexican journalist Jamie Maussan. There were thoughts about the deformities on them and thus challenging them to be real ones. So while most scientists called it a hoax, some are still studying the mummifies structures. British alien expert Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Investigations Manual, has also dismissed the conclusions as a hoax. He told the MailOnline, "I think the whole saga of finding these mummies is laughable and they are very probably fakes. If you think about it how would humanoid aliens with three long fingers survive? They would be incredibly clumsy and it seems doubtful they would be capable of making a cup of tea let alone a flying saucer." Several others too have dismissed the idea of probable aliens. Some research had also said that humans can meet aliens by next century. But it still looks like the questions of alien existence are still a mystery and mummies would definitely not be the answer! (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 13, 2018 03:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Mar 13, 2018, 10:23am ET VW to build EVs at 16 factories by 2022 \"Things are really moving,\" says CEO Matthias Mueller. \"A change of course for the Volkswagen supertanker full speed ahead to the future!\" Volkswagen has outlined an ambitious production plan for electric vehicles, selecting no less than 16 global factories to build EVs through the end of 2022. The VW Group currently produces EVs at three locations. The "Roadmap E" plan will retool an additional nine group plants to manufacture electric vehicles in just two years. Critically, the German automaker has already secured battery supply contracts for vehicles that will be sold in Europe and China, with contracts worth EUR 20 billion (~$25 billion USD). A supplier decision for North America "will be taken shortly." The near-term plan includes nine new vehicles, three of which will be purely battery powered, to arrive in showrooms before the end of 2018. CEO Matthias Mueller suggests the company is not turning its back on traditional powertrains, despite the focus on EVs. "We are putting almost EUR 20 billion (~$25 billion USD) into our conventional vehicle and drive portfolio in 2018, with a total of more than EUR 90 billion (~$111 billion USD) scheduled over the next five years," he says. Image by Ronan Glon. Olive Condell - Stradbally The death took place on Sunday, March 11 of Olive Condell (nee Dobson) of Main Street, Stradbally. Peacefully at Clover Lodge Nursing Home, Athy. Sadly missed and remembered with love by her daughter Eva, son Gordon, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, daughter-in-law Avril, son-in-law John, brother-in-law Fred, nieces, nephews, extended family, neighbours and her many friends. Reposing at Main Street, Stradbally on Wednesday from 12 noon until removal at 6.45pm to arrive at St. Patrick's Church of Ireland, Stradbally for 7pm. Funeral Service on Thursday at 2pm. Burial to follow in the adjoining Churchyard. Ned Connolly - Portlaoise The death took place on Sunday, March 11 of Ned Connolly of Green Road, Portlaoise. Much loved brother of Jim and Paddy. Deeply regretted by his loving family. sisters in law, nieces, nephews, extended family, relatives and friends. Reposing in the Chapel of Rest at the Regional Hospital, Portlaoise on Monday from 7pm with rosary recital at 9pm. Removal on Tuesday morning at 9.15am to arrive at SS Peter & Paul's Church for 10am requiem Mass. Interment afterwards in SS Peter & Paul's Cemetery. Teri Robinson - Abbeyleix The death took place on Sunday, March 11 of Teri Robinson of Abbeyleix and formerly of Royal Terrace East, Dun Laoghaire. Suddenly at her home. Much loved mother of Sarah and Rachel and devoted grandmother to Daniel, Ben, Aaron, Steven, Rebecca and Sam. Sadly missed by her loving family and friends. Reposing at her home on Wednesday evening from 6pm to 8pm. Removal on Thursday morning to St. Josephs Church, Glasthule arriving at 9.45am. Funeral immediately after 10am Requiem Mass to Shanganagh Cemetery, Shankill. Bernadette Hyland - Crettyard The death took place on Sunday, March 11 of Bernadette Hyland (nee Cunningham) of 3 Miners Walk, Newtown, Crettyard and formerly of Banada, Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon. Suddenly, in St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny. Sister of the late Mary. Deeply mourned by her loving husband Ned, sons Dylan and Jake, her parents Michael Joe and Mary (Cunningham), brothers Thomas, Michael and John, sisters Noreen, Carmel, Kathleen, Martina and Christina, mother-in-law, father-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, grandson Harrison, nieces, nephews, relatives and friends. Reposing at her residence from 3pm on Tuesday with Rosary at 8pm. Removal at 11.15am on Wednesday morning to arrive at St. Michael's Parish Church, Athy for Requiem Mass at 12 noon. Burial afterwards in St. Michael's New Cemetery, Athy. James Quigley - Mountmellick The death took place on Saturday, March 10 of James (Jimmy) Quigley of 71 St Josephs Tec, Mountmellick. Died peacefully at his home. Funeral arrangements to be announced later. John Malone - Ballyroan The death took place on Friday, March 9 of John Malone of Colt, Ballyroan. Peacefully, at his residence, in the loving care of his family. Deeply regretted by his loving wife Mary, sons Michael and Gerard, daughters Ann-marie and Sharon, grandchildren, brothers, sister, nephews, nieces, extended family, relatives and friends. Reposing at his residence on Saturday from 2pm to 6pm with rosary at 5pm. Removal on Sunday to St. Fintan's Church, Raheen, for 11am Requiem Mass. Burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Fintan Dowling - Camross The death took place on Thursday, March 8 of Fintan Dowling of Camross and Dorchester, Boston, U.S.A. Unexpectedly. Sadly missed by his loving family. Funeral Arrangements to be announced later. Gardai believe there was a big international dimension to the activities of those arrested in Laois last week, when a substantial amount of jewellery stolen from a shop in Athlone during Storm Emma was recovered. Gardai also arrested three males believed to be from Romania during the operation in south Laois on Friday afternoon, March 9. Laois-Offaly Division Gardai confirmed the suspects were detained at stations in Portlaoise, Tullamore and Athlone where they are to be questioned in relation to their possible involvement in the robbery from a jewellery shop in the Co Westmeath town in which up to 250,000 worth of goods were stolen. Their periods of detention were extended by 72 hours over the weekend. They are being detained under organised crime legislation. Gardai also believe they have enough evidence to question some of those detained in relation to other raids. There is also an international element to the activities of the suspects. There are connections to incidents in Italy, Norway and France. The operation was carried out by gardai and detectives based in Portlaoise, Tullamore and Tipperary. They made the arrests at a house in the Ballagmore area on the Laois Tipperary border. The Laois Offaly Garda Divison taskforce, which was set up late last year in response to a spat of gang robberies, played a key part in the operation. It was set up on the instigation of Laois Offaly Chief Superintendent John Scanlon. The arrests are understood to be part of ongoing investigations into the activities of non-Irish national gangs who establish in various parts of Ireland and carry out burglaries in surrounding counties. Laois Gardai recently featured in a PrimeTime special in relation to the type of criminality involved. During the programme gardai reported having to cover hundreds of kilometres a night in pursuit of gangs. The Leinster Express also understands that two detectives in each Laois-Offaly Garda Division District (Birr, Portlaoise, Tullamore) have been appointed to monitor the movements of and record and gather information on criminal gangs from outside Ireland. The intelligence gathered will be shared nationally to combat crime and bring those responsible before courts. During Storm Emma the Park Jewellers in the Golden Island Shopping Centre in Athlone was broken into on Saturday, March 3. Alarms were deactivated at the centre and the shop before rings, bracelets, watches and chains were removed. A hard drive was also taken from the centre's CCTV system. The raid was not detected until Golden Island security staff opened the centre on Saturday morning. Those responsible are suspected of entering and left the shopping centre via the roof. In a separate incident in Portlaoise last week, a large quantity of tools were stolen from a building site on the St Fintan's Hospital campus in Portlaoise. A community drug addiction treatment centre is being constructed on the site by Clancy Construction for the HSE. The theft was carried out sometime between Tuesday March 6, and Wednesday March 7. Laois Gardai report that a large quantity of tools were taken including drills and hand tools. They say the suspects would have needed transport and are asking the public for any information. The Heath National School in Laois asking Laois County Council to fix a host problems relating to the public road passing it, ranging from flooding encroaching the school, to speeding, to a lack of gritting in icy weather. For years, rainwater has flowed off the road into the front grounds of the school, up to six inches deep on occasion. The school has even resorted to setting out a row of benches for parents to step across with their children to get them into school without getting soaked. Principal David OBrien said that drain works were done by the school and the council but the problem is worsening. It is becoming a bigger problem because of increased rain. The whole front of the school was flooding. We have put in soakholes as requested by the council, to deal with water that is not coming from our side. Water goes nowhere except into our drains," he told the Leinster Express. Our concern now is that all this water is going into our small waste water treatment tank in our field. We are concerned it will interfere with it. One of our soakholes is totally blocked now with soil and sand. Over time, with this significant water from the road, the other will block and that will create huge problems. The whole front will flood. There is a chance it will come into the school, Mr OBrien said. The council installed a gully but it does not lead anywhere. It fills with mud and school staff have to empty it with a bucket. Flooding is not the only problem for the 230 pupil school. Speeding traffic and a lack of salting in icy weather are also a grave concern. The gritter truck goes as far as the roundabout off the motorway, but they wont o the little hill to the school, we rely on that to keep the school open, Mr O'Brien said. We have got a lower speed limit and speed light signs, but unfortunately there is still a significant issue with speeding, we understand the council are looking into measures like speedbumps, Mr OBrien said. His concerns were raised by Fine Gael Cllr Tom Mulhall at the February meeting of the Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District. Cllr Mulhall's motion requested traffic calming and measures to stop water coming off the road into the school. It was seconded by Cllr Willie Aird. There are gullies, maybe they need cleaning. Water goes through the playing ground onto the pitch, Cllr Mulhall said. The council has agreed to jet out their existing road gully, and conduct a topographical survey of the area around the school to see if a suitable outfall for surface water can be identified. However the road is not the only cause of floodwater the council said. Laois student has won Odlums CEIST Junior Bake Off They say they identified the major source of surface water as being agricultural land adjacent to the school with some road surface water contributing to the problem. On the issue of traffic calming, Laois County Council will review existing signs and road markings, and if required, traffic calming measures will be recommended. Eleven homes built long before the celtic tiger development of Killenard village in Laois, were left out of the new sewerage system installed at that time. The eleven 'New Houses' as they are called, were built in 1982 by Laois County Council. They still include six council social houses. All rely on individual septic tanks. Cllr Paschal McEvoy said that it makes no sense whatsoever, speaking at the February meeting of Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District. For the life of me, I cant understand why they were not connected when the new sewage pipes came into play, he said. His motion to Irish Water to connect the homes was backed by Cllr Tom Mulhall. In fact these are nearly the oldest houses in Killenard. A row of 11 individual septic tanks is hard to credit. I dont think new planning regulations would accept it. They are not far from the wastewater equipment in Ballycarroll, I think its very doable, Cllr Mulhall said. Flooding, speeding and icy roads at The Heath NS The councils water engineer Michael OHora will do a topographical survey to see if a gravity connection would work. This is unlikely, Mr OHora added. A design and a budget will also be done, including the cost of a new pumping station if required. If the cost is not too high for a grant under the Multi-Annual Rural Water Programme, a proposal can then be made to create a Group Water Scheme, to seek department funding in 2019. A Laois tractor dealer has been stung for more than 160,000 by the Revenue Commissioners for under-declaration of tax. Brendan Casey of Castlecuffe, Clonaslee is described as an agricultural machinery dealer in the latest published tax defaulter's list. He under-declared VAT due. Following an audit Mr Casey agreed to settle his tax liability for 162,768.76. The tax owed was 101,312.00 while the interest was 31,063.16. The penalty levied on him was 30,393.60. Two Offaly companies were also included in Revenue's latest List of Tax Defaulters for the period 1 October 2017 to 31 December 2017. Killaderry Logistics Ltd, an agricultural machinery contractor based in Daingean, has been hit with a total bill of 126,763 by Revenue. That figure is made up of 65,761 of tax, interest of 11,681 and penalties of 49,321. It resulted from a Revenue Audit Case for under-declaration of VAT, PAYE/PRSI/USC and Corporation Tax. Newton Plant Hire, based in Rathrobin, Mountbolus has been hit with a bill for 60,158 by Revenue. That figure is made up of tax of 41,014, interest totaling 6,840 and penalties amounting to 12,304. It resulted from a Revenue Audit Case for under-declaration of Income Tax, VAT and PAYE/PRSI/USC. In total 64 cases were published today by Revenue and 10,217,360.36 is the total settlement amount in these cases. The largest settlement for 1,042,236.97 was for Dunbar IT Consulting in Dublin The published settlements reflect only a portion of all Revenue audits and investigations. In the three month period to 31 December 2017, a total of 1,295 Revenue audit and investigations, together with 21,606 Risk Management Interventions (Aspect Queries & Profile Interviews), were settled, resulting in yield of 108.03 million in tax, interest, and penalties. CLICK HERE FOR FULL LIST All aspects of whistleblowing procedures in the the Irish Prison Service are being considered, the Service has confirmed. In the wake of a 30,000 award to a Laois based-prison officer who was found to have been penalised for highlighting shorcomings, the service issued a statement to the Leinster Express confirming the top to bottom review. A spokesperson said a Protected Disclosures Policy was adopted and approved in October 2015 but confirmed this is now under review. The Irish Prison Service Protected Disclosure Policy is being currently being reviewed and all aspects of the policy are being considered in the light of learnings over the past two years. A working group to carry out this review has been established. The Irish Prison Service intend to finalise its Review of the IPS Protected Disclosure Policy at end March 2018 and any revisions to the policy arising from that Review will be implemented shortly thereafter in tandem with a communication strategy to raise awareness of the policy and to encourage and support staff to bring incidents of wrongdoing to our attention, said a statement. It declined to say how the review is being carried out our by whom. The Service said it giving consideration to the ruling of the Workplace Relations Commission which was received on the 8 March, 2018 and as to whether the matter will be appealed to the Labour Court. It said a Protected Disclosures Policy was adopted and approved on the 30 October 2015. The statement said the the purpose of the policy is to encourage all workers to raise internally concerns about possible wrongdoing in the workplace so that these concerns can be investigated. The Irish Prison Service Protected Disclosures Policy indicates that as a first step, a worker, believing reasonably, that a wrongdoing exists in the workplace, should consider reporting the matter to his/her: a) Line manager at Assistant Governor Level or above If the worker would be uncomfortable or otherwise reluctant to report to his/her manager, then they can report the matter to: b) The next highest level of management up to and including the appropriate Director or Campus Governor However, if for any reason the worker feels it inappropriate to report a wrongdoing to the persons above, then s/he should report these concerns to c) The Head of Internal Audit. The statment said the Head of Internal Audit is available at all times to receive disclosures from workers. The Head of Internal Audit is based in the Department of Justice and Equality but has a remit over Vote 21 the Irish Prison Service. "As it is imperative that staff understand their role in handling a protected disclosure, attendance at Protected Disclosure training was rolled out and was mandatory for all senior staff in the Irish Prison Service," said the statment. A prison officer who blew the whistle on training and employment issues in the Irish Prison Service and whose actions were supported by a judicial report, was award the 30,000 after winning a case against the Irish Prison Service. The award and ruling placed the Irish Prison Service under the microscope nationally over how it treats staff who wish to highlight shortcomings in the service's ability to deal with complaints. While the officer continues to argue he remains isolated in his job, his actions have forced the IPS into a complete review and possible overhaul of how it handles legitimate concerns of staff. The long-running dispute involves a prison officer who the Irish Prison Service has fought at length at different levels. The officer is understood to be based in Laois with the issues that gave rise to his complaints arising at the Portlaoise prison complex. He was awarded the compensation as a result of unfair treatment he received after making a protected disclosure under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014. The Act aims to protect people who raise concerns about possible wrongdoing at work. It is often called the whistleblower law and provides for redress for employees who are dismissed or penalised for reporting possible wrongdoing in the workplace. The Workplace Relations Commission ruled in his favour in relation to the original complaint and various harmful consequences he suffered as a result. The prison officer originally blew the whistle in March 2016 about training and employment practices. The Department of Justice refused to recognise his allegations as a protected disclosure, but the officer appealed The appeal was considered by a retired judge. Judge William Earley examined the issue and deemed in February 2017 that he had made a disclosure as permitted under the law. The discloser was treated unfairly for making the disclosures and his opportunities for career advancement were deliberately curtailed by the Irish Prison Service, found the judge. The IPS did not comply with its own standards as laid out in its policy in that it did not address with sufficient seriousness the concerns of the discloser and further penalised him for his complaints, he said. The judge also investigated the response and violent incidents which the officer witnessed while on duty which involved assaults on prison officers. Judge Early found that another example of isolation involved the failure of prison authorities to interview the officer after he witnessed the two violent incidents in which one prison officer suffered a broken ankle and another suffered lacerations. The incident of March 2015 suggests a serious criminal offence was committed. According to the discloser the DPP did not prosecute due to want of evidence. In any event it is quite extraordinary that the primary witness to the assault was not interviewed, the judge found. In February 2015, the officer was notified that the Gardai were investigating a report from the member of the public of an incident at his local shopping centre. It was claimed he was being filmed and followed. Because of the security risk he notified prison authorities. Gardai investigated but did not find any evidence of a security risk. The investigation was closed in April 2015 when the Gardai notified the prison service. However, the prison officer did not find out that he or his family were not at risk until more than a year later, in August 2016. It is difficult to understand how information of such importance was not given to the discloser in a timely manner, found the judge. It has subsequently emerged that he was being followed in a case of mistaken identity involving a private investigator. The WRC endorsed the Judge's findings. It said this was an extremely serious issue of a potential security threat and ruled the treatment was linked to his disclosure. The WRC found the prison officer had written to management in July 2016, reminding them he had sought a report on the security matter earlier in February. The response he received was that the matter was progressing to HQ and was awaiting a response. This despite local management having knowledge of the removal of the threat to the complainant and his family since April 2015. The WRC deciding officer found a failure of management to inform the complainant, despite his very clear, cogent descriptions of the effects of the matter on his family, constituted unfair treatment. The WRC concluded that: There was a link to his protected disclosure. It is understood that the 30,000 award covers just six months after making the protected disclosure - March to October 2016. A second new complaint has been made to the Department of Justice as a result of what is claimed to be ongoing consequences. The Department of Justice declined to comment. It is understood that McCann Fitzgerald solicitors have been appointed to carry out a review. The terms of reference are unknown. Despite the award his solictors Reidy Stafford remains in the dark about the next steps. Laois TD and Minister for Justice Charlie Flangan declined to comment. The case has been raised with him in the Dail. It has also been covered extensively in national media. Portlaoise has been announced today as one of seven Irish towns to get funding for historic projects. The town will get a share of a 1 million fund for 2018, under the Historic Towns Initiative, by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Laois Heritage Officer is Catherine Casey. "We are absolutely thrilled, its a real testament to the hard work and commitment of so many people in the town over the past few years," she said. While the amount granted to Portlaoise has not yet been announced, it will be spent on the historic centre of Portlaoise. "The project is the conservation of the Fort walls around Fitzmaurice Place, to re-landscape Fitzmaurice Place itself and to improve the public realm (paving, undergrounding of services etc) along Church Avenue and Tower Hill. We also hope to provide public access to the Fort," she told the Leinster Express. Phase 1 of the 2 year project will have to be complete by the end of this year. The aim of the Historic Towns Initiative is 'heritage led urban regeneration'. "The core of Portlaoise is perfect for that, upgrading and caring for the heritage at the centre of the town can become a driver for the regeneration of that area," Ms Casey said. "Our project was supported by local businesses and community groups, including the Old Fort Festival, Downtown Portlaoise, Portlaoise Tidy Towns and a range of others, showing how much enthusiasm there is for action to conserve our heritage," she said. "The work of Laois Heritage Society on the Fort Protector Conservation Plan and Portlaoise Tidy Towns on Old St Peters Graveyard, all helped to access this new funding and we are really grateful for their support," Ms Casey added. The 16th century Fort Protector is an army garrison, still mostly intact, near Portlaoise Main Street, much of it absorbed into later buildings. It was the first English garrison established in Ireland. Read more here. It is already the subject of a popular summer festival in Portlaoise. Laois Heritage Forum has welcomed the announcement. "Huge news for Portlaoise today as the town is one of just 7 selected nationally to receive funding under the Historic Towns Initiative. "The project grew out of the recently published Laois County Council public realm strategy for Portlaoise and the ongoing Conservation Plan for the Fort, led by Laois Heritage Society," they said. It was announced today Tuesday March 13 by Minister Josepha Madigan TD, and Michael Parsons, a Portlaoise resident who is Chair of the Heritage Council, and a member of Laois Heritage Society (below). "Its wonderful to be in a position to support such a range of projects in each province. The projects, taken together, give a flavour of the variety of heritage initiatives that can be undertaken to better present the historic narrative of our heritage townscapes. The Heritage Council is very grateful for the support of Minister Madigan, and I hope that the success of this years round of projects will inspire others to explore the heritage potential of their towns in future years. said Mr Parsons. Minister Madigan said: I would like to congratulate the seven successful towns that will benefit from the Historic Towns Initiative 2018, which is funded by my Department and operated by the Heritage Council. These towns have come through a tough competitive process where all of the applications were of a very high standard. This funding will support the seven towns in their programmes of heritage-led regeneration and help them to build on their cultural heritage to drive investment in regeneration and renewal in their town The other towns are Youghal in Cork, Kilmallock in Limerick, Ballinrobe in Mayo, Kells in Meath, Castlebayney in Monaghan and Carrick-on-Suir in Tipperary. THE father of a young girl who died at University Hospital Limerick as a result of negligence says no family should have to go through what his family has endured over the past four years. James Keogh from Glenbrook, Old Singland Road made his comments after the HSE apologised over the death of two-year-old Aimee Keogh on July 10, 2014. In a letter, which was read at Limerick Circuit Court this Tuesday, the HSE offered an unreserved apology to Deirdre and James Keogh and their family for the hurt, stress and upset which was caused by Aimees death. Regrettably, investigation has shown that aspects of the care received by Aimee at University Hospital Limerick did not reach the standards that could be expected, read the letter which was signed by a senior manager at the UL Hospitals group. During the proceedings, Judge Eugene OKelly was told medical personnel at UHL had failed to properly diagnose a congenital heart defect from which the toddler was suffering. An ECG carried out on 3 June 2013 was passed as normal when it was in fact abnormal. Michael Purtill BL, instructed by solicitor Frances Twomey told the court that had it been properly diagnosed Aimee should have been referred to a pediatric cardiologist. Judge OKelly approved what is known as a solatium payment of 35,000 to Aimees parents, her brothers, Ben and Luke, and her grandfather. He said the sum may seem paltry in the circumstances but pointed out that the court could only award what is allowed under statute. Speaking afterwards Mr Keogh appealed to the Minister for Health to appoint a pediatrician with a special interest in cardiology to be made available at every hospital so that no other family has to go through their heartbreaking ordeal. No family should have to go through the horrible and heartbreaking ordeal that my family has suffered and continue to suffer each and every day, he told RTE news. In this present day, it is absolutely shocking that people are dying from persons negligence, lack of care and systems failures and this has to stop now, he added. PROLIFIC teenage gangs are targeting Limerick city convenience stores and terrorising staff in shoplifting sprees a phenomenon which has escalated in recent weeks, retailers have said. The spate of raids is being carried out in the evenings by groups of around six teenagers, usually aged around 16 or 17 years old. Retailers in Limerick city are engaging with members of An Garda Siochana to stamp out the problem, which has seen staff members assaulted and goods stolen. The gangs have targeted a number of convenience stores in the city centre, including Spar on Catherine Street, Centra on OConnell Street and ONeills Mace on Upper William Street. The young culprits typically storm the shop wearing masks, snatching small things, like biscuits, sweets and minerals, said Shane Gleeson of Spar on Catherine Street. The shop has been visited three times in recent weeks by the gang, and he and staff have had to physically remove the offenders from the store. They are assaulting staff, pushing and shoving, particularly female staff. There is huge pressure on staff who are now having to physically prevent theft, said the retailer. Marcella ONeill of Mace, Upper William Street, agreed. This store has also been visited by gangs in recent weeks. It is very hard on our staff, because they are having to keep them from entering the shop. You have no chance if they enter so we have to stop them at the door. You would be worried about the staff on in the evenings. One thing that has been helpful to us is a WhatsApp system with staff, which helps to spread news and helps everyone to be aware, she said. Ms ONeill, who is a local representative for the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, said that meetings have been organised with gardai to help tackle the issue. This kind of thing has always happened but it has really escalated in the last couple of weeks. Its just so disheartening, because you work so hard. LIMERICK TDs have called for urgent and immediate action to tackle University Hospital Limericks worsening trolley crisis, after overcrowding reached an all-time high this week. According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation on Monday, there were 80 patients being treated on trolleys in the emergency department and in the wards at UHL. This Tuesday morning, there were 58 patients on trolleys. Though an improvement of the situation, UHL remains the worst for overcrowding in the country. The second highest rate of overcrowding was seen at Cork University Hospital with 56 patients on trolleys. The UL Hospitals Group has said that it is battling the the worst flu on record as it deals with 16 flu patients across the Mid-West. Condemning the overcrowding at UHL, Labour TD Jan OSullivan described the situation as frightening and intolerable for patients, staff and families across the Mid-West who dread having to go to the emergency department. Fianna Fails Willie ODea described the overcrowding as absolutely deplorable this week. Last week was the worst week ever experienced for Emergency Department overcrowding. Today we are seeing the worst day ever with University Hospital Limerick as the worst affected in the country. It's truly shocking. Not only are the figures themselves completely unacceptable, but the length of time that patients, particularly the elderly, are being kept on trolleys is extremely worrying. The Minister for Health [Simon Harris] and the HSE have completely failed people this winter. It is now the middle of March and the situation is actually getting worse. Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan said that Mondays figures were absolutely disgraceful. Local Fine Gael and Fianna Fail TDs and senators have a lot to answer for, as they have allowed this problem in Limerick to escalate and deteriorate while their parties are in power. They are too busy thinking of votes and tax cuts, than in taking decisions to fix our crippling health system. It's scandalous and I hope constituents will convey this to them. At the beginning of 2018, Senator Paul Gavan and I wrote to Minister Harris to seek an urgent meeting to discuss the crisis situation in UHL. We are yet to hear from the Minister regarding this meeting. Deputy Quinlivan added: Our hospital is in a state of constant crisis; the full capacity protocol, a supposed emergency measure, is being used every single day, despite its function to be for emergencies only. This needs immediate government and ministerial action or lives will surely be lost due to this outrageous overcrowding. The hospital recently received written commitment from the Governments 10-year National Development Plan to fund the delivery of a 96-bed block, which will cost in the region of 25m. This is expected to be built and ready for us by 2021. However, Deputy OSullivan said it is essential that interim arrangements are made to provide more beds. It has been mooted that up to 60 modular beds will be provided to tackle the problem between now and 2021. There is a proposal for a modular unit being considered and that must not be put on the long finger. Deputy O'Sullivan concluded by saying that that political will is now needed to fund the opening of any remaining beds in the region and proceed with a modular unit. Management in the UL group have already shown their capacity to recruit staff for the ED unit despite the difficulties of attracting nurses and doctors to work in Ireland and I have no doubt they can do so again if given the resources. UL Hospitals Group is appealing to members of the public to consider all their care options before presenting to the Emergency Department at UHL. The spokesperson said that injury units in St Johns, Ennis and Nenagh hospitals are open for appropriate injuries. Injury Units are open in Ennis and Nenagh Hospitals from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday and 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday at St. John's Hospital. Others with a less serious illness can be treated by their GP or out of hours GP service where their GP can refer them to an Assessment Unit the following day if required. However, if you are seriously injured or ill or are worried your life is at risk the ED will assess and treat you as a priority. NA Piarsaigh fans travelling to Croke Park this weekend are being advised to wear an extra pair of thermals with temperatures set to plunge. People remaining in Limerick for St Patricks Day parades are also being advised to wrap up warm, with temperatures in the low single figures forecast as another cold blast sets in. A cold front is on its way to Ireland from Siberia, and is set for these shores by the weekend. Although its not expected to be anywhere near as bad as Storm Emma two weeks ago, snow and ice are anticipated. Its certainly not going to be severe as the outbreak earlier this month. In terms of cold, night-time temperatures could end up being lower for a few nights from Saturday through to Monday night at least, said a spokesperson for Irish Weather Online. The spokesperson predicted overnight temperatures could plunge to minus six or minus seven in rural parts of the county. Although some snow is expected, the worst of the conditions are expected in Dublin and the midlands. This will impact Na Piarsaigh fans, who will travel en masse from Caherdavin to Croke Park for their All-Ireland decider against Cuala this Saturday, throw in 3.45pm. The spokesperson added: Its likely there will be snow showers coming in off the Irish Sea on Saturday. If youre sitting in the stand or terrace facing the easterly breeze, you will need an extra pair of thermals. In Limerick, the snowfall will not cause as widespread disruption as Storm Emma at the start of the month, which saw the city grind to a halt. Low single figures are unusual for mid-to-late March. But in terms of St Patricks Day parades down through the years, snow or hail showers wouldnt be uncommon. Its just the fact this has come off the back of two outbreaks in a row. At the moment, its just a case of wrapping up in warm clothes. The parades themselves will not be disrupted, the spokesperson confirmed. Meanwhile, Met Eireann has put in a weather warning in place for 18 counties including Limerick ahead of a very wet and windy Wednesday. The 24-hour alert comes into force at midnight tonight. Warning what is to come, a forecaster said: "Very wet and windy weather is expected to affect mainly Munster and south Leinster during Wednesday." Clare and Tipperary are also affected by the warning. LIMERICK is to get a retail boost this month with a new boutique food hall set to open in the heart of OConnell Street. The first Alex Findlater and Co food and wine hall is set to open at 109 OConnell Street, in a unit once occupied by the restaurant Chocolat. The 18,000 square foot development will include an oyster and seafood bar, an upmarket food area, an elegant Bollinger jazz and supper club, complete with 300 wines from across the world. There will also be a Warbler & Wren coffee house as well as in-house coffee from Lavazza and Robert Roberts, and a full premium food retail experience, making the Alex Findlater and Co food and wine Hall the new go-to destination in Limerick for food and drink shopping, all-day dining and meeting with friends over exceptional coffee, great wines and Champagnes, and delicious dishes from a wide variety of carefully curated menus. It will be operated by the Savoy group, which currently also runs the five-star Savoy Hotel, the George Boutique Hotel, the Hamptons Bar and Grill, plus Da Vincenzo, the Italian restaurant. Dr James Ring, the chief executive of the Limerick Chamber has welcomed the development. He said: Its important. We have a good mix in the city, but I think one thing which is lacking is the high-end offering. We cater well for the fast food type stuff, as well as the mid-range stuff. But I feel our options at the high-end are somewhat limited. This will be a great addition to the city. Dr Ring pointed out that apart from Dublin, Limerick has the highest level of disposable income in the country, and this may have been a factor in its opening. Residents of the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island metro area reported the highest scores on a Gallup-Sharecare's survey of well-being, conducted in 2016 and 2017. The survey included people in 186 U.S. metro areas, and the scores were averaged over a two-year period. Overall, the Naples metro area scored 67.6 out of 100 on the survey's measure of well-being. Runners-up in the poll include Barnstable Town, Massachusetts, in the second position, and Boulder, Colorado, in third, according to Gallup-Sharecare. [The Happiest US Communities: Full List] The Naples metro area is no stranger to the top spot the area also had the highest well-being scores in the 2014-2015 poll and the 2015-2016 poll. What's more, well-being scores in the Naples area have continued to improve, despite recent declines in well-being in the state of Florida overall, and in the nation. (Last year was a particularly bad one for Americans' happiness, with a record number of states reporting declines in their residents' well-being in 2017, according to another recent Gallup-Sharecare poll.) "The continued strong well-being measured in the Naples, Barnstable Town and Boulder communities is impressive and illustrates that well-being locally can remain high amid declines nationally or regionally," Dan Witters, research director for the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, said in a statement. The rankings are based on interviews with more than 337,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states, conducted from January 2016 through December 2017. The researchers calculated a well-being score for each community based on the participants' answers to questions about different aspects of their well-being, including their sense of purpose, social relationships, financial lives, community involvement and physical health. Many of the nation's top cities for well-being were concentrated in five states: California was home to seven of the top 25 communities in the well-being rankings, while Florida was home to four, Gallup-Sharecare said. Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia each had two communities in the top 25. In contrast, the lowest-ranking communities for well-being in the 2016-2017 poll were GulfportBiloxiPascagoula, Mississippi; CantonMassillon, Ohio; and Fort Smith, which is on the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Some communities stood out for having relatively high well-being scores, despite being located in states that ranked low in well-being out of the 50 states. For example, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, were among the top 25 well-being communities, despite being located in states that placed in the bottom half of state well-being rankings in 2017, Gallup-Sharecare said. Communities with high well-being scores tended to share certain attributes; for example, they tended to have low scores for obesity, smoking and daily pain, and high scores for regular excise, healthy eating and "liking what you do each day," Gallup-Sharecare said. Residents in the Naples area had some of the lowest scores for worry, depression and stress (meaning they experienced little of those negative emotions), and they also scored highly on "making time for regular vacations or trips with family and friends," the poll found. "Beyond being bright spots within our nation, the top well-being citiesare well positioned to serve as examples for communities all across the rankings list," Ashlin Jones, vice president of research and data sciences at Sharecare, said in a statement. "No two communities are exactly alike; each one has its own unique strengths, challenges and identity," Jones said. "As we look to improve well-being locally, it's important for leaders and well-being experts to collaborate and share best practices, while tailoring approaches to meet the distinct needs of each community," she said. Original article on Live Science. The finding indicates that these long-headed brides, who lived in the sixth century A.D., likely traveled great distances from southeastern Europe an area encompassing the region around modern-day Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia to what is now the southern part of modern Germany. The long trek was certainly arduous, but the reward was great: Wedlock helped cement strategic alliances in medieval Europe, the researchers wrote in the study. [In Images: An Ancient Long-headed Woman Reconstructed] Great migration When the women with the alien-like skulls were alive, Europe was undergoing profound cultural change. The Roman Empire dissolved as the "barbarians" the Germanic peoples that include the Goths, Alemanni, Gepids and Longobards moved in and took over the region , the researchers wrote in the study. The foreign brides were buried in the cemeteries of one of these groups the Baiuvarii who lived in what is now modern-day Bavaria. Specimens with strong (left), some (middle) and no (right) skull deformation. (Image credit: State collection for Anthropology and Paleoanatomy Munich, Germany) The discovery of the remains of these women perplexed archaeologists for decades. It's only possible to create pointy skulls, scientifically known as artificial cranial deformation (ACD), in early childhood, when the skull is soft and malleable. But archaeologists couldn't find any children with egg-shaped skulls in the cemetery. Moreover, the women were buried with local grave artifacts, rather than foreign ones, suggesting they had adapted to local culture. Egg-shaped skulls are perceived as the ideal of beauty in some cultures, and may be a sign of status or nobility, the researchers noted. These observations prompted scientists to wonder whether the women had migrated from elsewhere, perhaps from Eastern Europe, where cranial deformation was practiced as early as the second century A.D. in Romania; from Asia, the home of the nomadic Huns, a culture that also carried out cranial shaping; or from the local area, meaning that the Baiuvarii had adopted the head-changing practice themselves. The Baiuvarii burial sites were in medieval Bavaria, which is located on the former borders of the western (green) and eastern (light brown) Roman Empire. (Image credit: Krishna R. Veeramah, et al/PNAS) To solve the mystery, the researchers in the new study looked at the DNA of 36 adults 14 who had egg-shaped skulls from six Bavarian cemeteries. They also looked at the DNA of a local Roman soldier and two medieval women from Crimea and Serbia, where the mysterious women may have originated. DNA deep dive The pointy-skulled women were genetically very different from the other Baiuvarii, the researchers found. The men and women with normal skulls, with the exception of two individuals, had similar ancestry traced to northern and central Europe, the researchers said. In contrast, the women with deformed skulls largely hailed from southern and southeastern Europe. At least one of the women had East Asian ancestry. Armed with this knowledge, it's fair to say that "adult females with deformed skulls found in Medieval Bavaria likely migrated from southeastern Europe, a region that not only contains the earliest known European burials of males and females with ACD but also the largest accumulation," the researchers wrote in the study. According to DNA analyses, the Bavarian males (A) came from northern and central Europe, as did the Bavarian females (B) with normal skulls. The Bavarian females with elongated skulls (C) largely came from southeastern Europe, except for some (D) who had ancestry farther east. (Image credit: Krishna R. Veeramah, et al/PNAS) Given the diversity of the women with alien-like skulls, it's possible that some came from southeastern European tribes, such as the Gepids, and Asian tribes, such as the Huns, the researchers noted. Or, perhaps all of the women came from southeastern Europe, which was already a melting pot of local and Asian tribes, they said. [In Images: Deformed Skulls and Stone Age Tombs from France] The DNA analysis revealed that the pointy skulls weren't the foreign brides' only visible difference. The majority likely had brown eyes and blond or brown hair, while the normal-skulled people tended to have genes for blond hair and blue eyes. The study was published online yesterday (March 12) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Original article on Live Science. Business Monitor International, a unit of Fitch Group, said the governments tax reform program will make the Philippines less competitive in attracting foreign investments. BMI said in a report Tuesday foreign investments could slow over the near term as the proposed conditional corporate tax reduction and repealing of fiscal incentives could create uncertainties for businesses. The Finance Department already submitted the second package of the governments Comprehensive Tax Reform Program to Congress and the proposal is now being deliberated at the House of Representatives. While the proposed tax reforms in the second package would streamline the complex tax system, we believe it will likely weigh on the countrys competitiveness, and create uncertainty for investors in the near-term, BMI said. The second package came after the first package was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte in December 2017. It aims to lower corporate income taxes and reduce fiscal incentives to investors to achieve the governments objective of making the tax system more efficient and fairer. Package two of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion proposes to gradually reduce the corporate income tax rate from 30 percent to no less than 25 percent, while modifying tax incentives for companies to make these performance-based, targeted, time-bound and transparent. The Philippine Economic Zone Authority currently grants an attractive package of incentives including income tax holiday for a maximum of eight years, followed by a perpetual 5-percent tax on gross income earned and zero value added tax on local purchases and up to 30 percent of local sales.The country has 14 investment promotion agencies, more than 200 laws granting various types of investment and non-investment tax incentives and the Tax Code that also provides several tax benefits. The latest draft of the Trains second package called for an overhaul and streamlining of the tax incentives to make these business perks more equitable and effective in creating jobs, developing industries, attracting more foreign direct investments and generating more revenues to fund the governments P8.4-trillion Build, Build, Build infrastructure program. The government is asking for a limit on Philippine Economic Zone Authoritys incentives to a maximum of 10 years and to change the 5-percent tax on gross income earned to 15 percent tax on net income. The bill also calls for the repeal of more than 30 special laws that grant incentives to investors and for Peza-registered enterprises to export 90 percent of total sales, up from the current requirement of 70 percent. Despite the proposed corporate income tax cut, we note that tax rates in the Philippines will still be one of the highest and least competitive in the region, and the repealing of tax incentives to investors will likely make it worse, BMI said. This comes at a time when other countries in the region are trying to offer more tax incentives in order to attract foreign direct investments. Not only that, the tax reduction is conditional and dependent upon the governments ability to reduce the cost of tax incentives for every reduction in the cost of the tax incentives by 0.15 percent of GDP, there will be a 1.0-percent reduction in corporate tax rate, it said. A "flying car" company funded by Google co-founder Larry Page seems to finally have a prototype that looks something like a personal aircraft people might actually use. The company, Kitty Hawk, released a video and statement debuting the vehicle, called Cora, today (March 13). Cora looks a bit like a tiny, one-seater airplane, but its wings are studded with small, upward-facing propellers that allow it to take off and land vertically. According to the video, the Cora is fully automated and fully electric, and requires no piloting skills to operate. That's a far cry from another device Kitty Hawk unveiled in April 2017, called the Flyer, which looked more like a cross between a Jet Ski and a giant, store-bought quadcopter. [Science Fact or Fantasy? 20 Imaginary Worlds] According to Kitty Hawk, the Cora has a range of about 60 miles (100 kilometers) on one charge, can travel up to 110 mph (180 km/h), and has an operational altitude between 500 and 3,000 feet (150 to 910 meters). It's designed, according to the company, for two passengers. In Cora's branding, Kitty Hawk ditched the phrase "flying car" and replaced it with "air taxi." The company suggested a long-term plan to bring a commercial air-taxi service to New Zealand. The New Zealand bit is interesting, because the statement Kitty Hawk released is as much an advertisement for the regulatory environment in the small country off the Australian coast as it is a promotion for this new device. Kitty Hawk, which launched in California, repeatedly praised New Zealand's "forward-thinking regulatory environment" and suggested it would have been impossible to launch Cora in the U.S. A history of the project detailed on Cora's website pointedly notes that several of the aircraft's early design milestones took place in California, but that sometime between the craft's first human flight, in August 2017, and signing an agreement with New Zealand October 2017, the company made the decision to "partner" with the far-off country. Included in the company's fact sheet about Cora: what the air taxi will do if its propellers fail in midair. Cora can apparently deploy a parachute to stop its fall. The company also noted that all of the propellers are powered independently so a failure of one wouldn't knock out all of them and that the flight control system has multiple, redundant computers. When can the public expect to ride Cora? Kitty Hawk said it doesn't have a specific timeline for that. Originally published on Live Science. Authorities in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, said they recorded a handful of incidents that included a body found and a shootout that left one person dead. The body of a 21-year-old man was found last week by a rural road in the area of kilometer marker 23 of the Nuevo Laredo-Piedras Negras Highway. Authorities identified him as Glafiro Vazquez Hinojosa, 21. A lumberer discovered the body in a brushy area after seeing an unearthed hand, according to reports. READ ALSO: 8 hacked-up bodies found in pickup truck in Mexico An investigation continues. A shooting was also reported last week. Gunmen and Mexican Marines clashed in the area of Avenida Tecnologico and Constituyentes. Troops said they came under fire as they were patrolling the neighborhood. The shots fired left one man dead. He has not been identified. Two suspected street-level dealers were recently arrested in the Sister City as well. Jose, 26, and Nestor, 22, were charged with possession with intent to distribute. Soldiers with the Secretariat of the National Defense, or SEDENA, found them in possession of Ziploc baggies containing cocaine and marijuana. READ ALSO: State Department warns of dangerous Mexico spring break destinations A man was also arrested for allegedly robbing a convenience store in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, authorities said recently. Tamaulipas attorney generals office identified him only as Carlos, 27. He is accused of taking by force 1,132 pesos, or about $66, from the cash register. Mexican army troops arrested a man who was allegedly found in possession of a stolen vehicle. The suspect was identified as Gerardo. Soldiers said they pulled him over, and he could not prove ownership of the vehicle. A records check revealed the vehicle had been reported stolen. San Antonio has an adorable new resident: Tyonek, a 5-month-old beluga whale calf. Tyonek made the move to SeaWorld San Antonio last Thursday from Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska, the theme park company said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service chose the San Antonio theme park in February to be the young belugas new home after he repeatedly stranded himself in September off on a beach in the Cook Inlet, a 180-mile-long bay that extends from Anchorage to the Gulf of Alaska. Tyoneks journey from Alaska to Texas took about eight hours, said Chris Bellows, SeaWorld San Antonio vice president of zoological operations three hours by truck from Seward to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, then a five hour nonstop chartered flight from Anchorage to San Antonio International Airport. Tyonek had first class service, Bellows said. The whale calf rode in a transport unit, a large container filled with temperature-controlled water, while surrounded by animal care specialists. He landed at San Antonio International Airport at around 8:45 p.m. Thursday, Bellows said. From there, Tyonek was transported by truck to SeaWorld San Antonio where he was lowered into a pool into the parks zoological support area. Hell remain there until the parks veterinary staff determine hes ready to meet one of the San Antonio parks nine other belugas, Bellows said. NOAA selected SeaWorld San Antonio as the best home for the young calf, stranded when he was two to four weeks old, in part because he lacked the socialization skills needed to survive in the wild and would have a chance to socialize and interact with the parks beluga population. Seven men from North Carolina and Virginia were arrested Monday after invading three Petaluma homes in the hopes of stealing cannabis, the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office said. The men broke into the homes on the 100 and 200 blocks of Eugenia Drive around 3 a.m. Monday, officials said, but their targets were off the mark, as none of the homes contained stashes of marijuana the men were allegedly seeking. This is the second time in about a month that the North Bay was hit by marijuana-motivated home invasions, following two robberies Feb. 8 in Santa Rosa. One of those incidents left a 54-year-old man dead. Homeowners in these residences (Monday) were tied up and one was pistol-whipped, the sheriffs office said in a statement. Thankfully, none of the occupants were seriously injured. None of the residences had anything to do with the cultivation or sales of marijuana. Five of the suspects got into a white minivan and led law enforcement on a car chase to Novato, eventually pulling over and fleeing in different directions. One of the men, Ledarrell Javon Crockett, 28, of Winston-Salem, N.C., was arrested after knocking on the front door of a home and asking to call an Uber. Three more suspects fled in a silver Volkswagon Passat, which was located at a Novato Costco and helped lead to their arrest, authorities said. They were identified as 20-year-old Chrisshawn Denardray Beal and 28-year-old Jaray Day-Shawn Simmons, both of Winston-Salem, N.C.; and Melvin Corbin, 19, of Richmond, Va. A female suspect reportedly escaped before officers arrived. The final three men arrested Monday evening Nakia Robert Lydell Jones, 22; Romello Shamar Jones, 20; and Siddiq Jafar Abdullah, 21 were apprehended at San Francisco International Airport as they tried to board flights back to the East Coast, authorities said. All are from Richmond, Va. So, what were they doing in Petaluma? Sgt. Spencer Crum, of the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office, said that investigators believe the men came to the Bay Area with the express purpose of stealing marijuana. The trip, however, was a bust in multiple respects, authorities said, as there was no evidence of marijuana at any of the homes that were robbed. We have some evidence that there was some marijuana being grown in the neighborhood awhile ago, so they might have had the wrong house, Crum said. One man who was arrested in the Feb. 8 home invasion case, as well as a female suspect who remains at large, are both from Richmond, Va., according to law enforcement. Crum said the sheriffs office is looking into a connection between the two incidents. One suspect, a woman, from Mondays home invasion, remains at large, authorities said. Previously they believed that another man was at large, but later said, there were only seven men involved in the home invasion robberies and all seven are in custody. The other seven suspects have been booked into Sonoma County Jail on $1 million bail, with the exception of Beal, who has a no-bail warrant out of North Carolina for possessing a firearm with a prior felony. They were charged with robbery of an inhabited dwelling, burglary, false imprisonment, kidnapping and conspiracy. The Army veteran who killed three caregivers at a Napa Valley rehabilitation center for soldiers was licensed by the state to work as a security guard and carry a pistol on his hip for nearly a decade, but he failed to renew the permits last year, records show. The lapse came as the former serviceman, Albert Cheung Wong, 36, struggled to adjust to civilian life in California after returning from the war in Afghanistan, according to friends and family members. He had difficulty sleeping and couldnt keep a normal schedule, and plans to study computers in college fell through as he bounced between the Bay Area and Sacramento, they said. Last spring, his mother died. The hardship steered Wong to the Pathway Home in Yountville, where after nearly a year of residential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder he was recently expelled over unspecified concerns about threatening behavior. Two weeks later, on Friday morning, he returned to take five employees hostage before fatally shooting three of them and turning the gun on himself. The state records do not detail Wongs career as an armed guard, or say exactly why he didnt renew his license or pay the required fees. His motive for storming the rehabilitation center remains unknown, and authorities have revealed little of an investigation headed by the California Highway Patrol. But those who knew Wong said he had struggled emotionally for a long time, and some said he showed signs of becoming violent. He was starting to feel like he was in a hopeless circle after a while. You can only think about that for so long without snapping, said Cissy Sherr of Millbrae, who was Wongs legal guardian for several years after his father died and his mother became ill. Sherr and her husband, Matthew, hadnt seen Wong much since he stayed with them for several months after his military service ended in 2013.. But they kept in touch, and most recently he shared with them his anxiety about earning a degree before his veterans education benefits expired. The death of his mother, who suffered from untold medical problems, also weighed on him. I know how devoted he was to his mom his whole life, Sherr said. He would bring her meals whenever he could. ... Even before he left for the service, he was very active in spending time with her. She always had to be in assisted living. I just know how when you have a purpose for taking care of somebody, it guides you. Still, Sherr said she didnt see Fridays outburst coming. In 2008, Wong successfully applied for licenses to carry a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and work as a private security guard. The permits require a 12-hour course with classroom and shooting instruction and a criminal background check. The security license lapsed in September and the firearm license in October, records show. Under California law, mental health professionals can keep people who pose a danger to themselves or others from possessing a gun, but its unclear whether any such steps were taken with Wong. The weapon used Friday was described in 911 dispatches as a semiautomatic rifle, but authorities have not said whether Wong bought or possessed it legally. Wongs life was marked with problems long before his return from the battlefield. After living with the Sherrs for several years following the death of his father, the family was unable to continue caring for him because of their work schedules, Cissy Sherr said. Wong spent his teen years in a number of Bay Area foster homes. Over the span of four short years of high school, he might have lived in four different places, Sherr said. But he graduated high school. Thats admirable. After high school in Daly City, Wong enlisted in the Army, serving in the reserves from October 1998 to December 2002, miltary records show. He became active in May 2010 and was deployed to Afghanistan from April 2011 to March 2012. Upon his return, he was awarded an Army Commendation Medal, as well as accolades for marksmanship and good conduct. His service ended in August 2013. His latest residency was Sacramento, according to the Napa County Sheriffs Department. As the investigation continues, the family of Jennifer Golick, a 42-year-old St. Helena resident who was slain by Wong, expressed sorrow and thanked the community for its support. She was a beloved mom, sister, daughter, colleague and friend, said her husband, Mark Golick, who briefly addressed reporters in her hometown. She is missed terribly. Golick reportedly told Wong to leave the treatment program over fears of violence. A friend of the family, who did not want to be named, told The Chronicle that the veteran had become a threat. Golicks mother, Lani Gray, said, I feel sadness throughout my entire body. Im still crying inside, and I will be forever. The other two victims were the Pathway Homes executive director, Christine Loeber, 48, of Napa, and Jennifer Gonzales, 32, who was six months pregnant.. Gonzales was a clinical psychologist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Pathway program, run by a nonprofit that leases space on the campus of the state-run Veterans Home of California-Yountville, remained closed Monday, with its future uncertain. The six residents have been moved to other facilities, and they are staying at hotels throughout Napa County, said organization spokesman Larry Kamer. The facilitys board members have begun scrutinizing security at the facility. Wong killed the women after bursting into a morning gathering and exchanging gunfire with a Napa County sheriffs deputy, authorities said. On Friday afternoon, when officers entered a room where Wong had been holed up for nearly eight hours, they found him and the three remaining hostages dead. All four had been shot. Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World By Miles J. Unger Simon & Schuster. 480 pp. $32.50 --- An "exorcism painting." That's how Pablo Picasso described "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," what some experts consider the first example of cubism and all acknowledge as a primary portal to modernism. Created in 1907, the painting was so revolutionary that it rattled the artist himself. Picasso rolled up the canvas and stashed it away, stung by peers' scorn and wrung out by the eight months he'd spent conjuring it in his seedy Montmartre studio. Only Georges Braque, with whom Picasso would soon share an uncharacteristically cooperative partnership, quickly gleaned the canvas' utter originality. It took years for the cognoscenti to reckon with and admire the way this remarkable work shattered and reconstituted artistic paradigms. "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" is a group portrait of five prostitutes in a brothel. Its semi-sensical planes are spliced and splintered. The figures' primitive, angular proportions are wildly distorted, echoing ancient Iberian sculptures Picasso had seen at the Louvre, and the two women on the right have faces reflective of African masks that the artist admired. A platter of fruit in the foreground is stony, a curiously off-putting emblem of what should be inviting. "Les Demoiselles" is "a cathartic painting, a great cry of lust, anger, anguish, and release - a form of black magic in which Picasso summons his demons in order to vanquish them," writes Miles J. Unger in "Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World." Unger, a culture writer for the Economist who has also written books on Michelangelo and Winslow Homer, closely chronicles Picasso's painful but liberating exorcism, the social and aesthetic factors that contributed to it, and the cubism it messily birthed. If you're an art lover, this is an engrossing read. Unger draws not just from his own wide knowledge and considered taste but from an imposing array of journals, memoirs, biographies and periodicals. From these he offers a historically and psychologically rich account of the young Picasso and his coteries in Barcelona and Paris. The author escorts us into the painter's bare-bones studio, so cold in winter that tea froze in its cup. We accompany the volatile, sparkling-eyed charmer to the slummy muraled cafes and dance halls where artists, writers, journalists and models drank, flirted and quarreled. We stroll the dark streets where muggers lurked in wait for day-trippers eager to sample the hillside Montmartre demimonde on Paris' periphery. We venture into town to visit the cluttered storefront galleries of sometimes unscrupulous art dealers, and the erudite but combative enclaves of prescient collectors like the Steins. Picasso was stirred by symbolism, fauvism and the stylistic innovations of, among others, El Greco, Ingres and Cezanne. He was energized by the street-savvy renderings of Toulouse-Lautrec and taken with the winsome savage innocence of Gauguin and, to some degree, Henri Rousseau. He responded also to the literary currents of the time, channeled through Andre Salmon, Guillaume Apollinaire and other writer friends. But most of all, Picasso wanted to be like no one else. Fiercely competitive, he amplified ugliness to counter the prettiness of his professorial arch-frenemy Henri Matisse. Their quest to be at the sword's tip of the avant-garde inspired and exhausted them both. Given his later fame and wealth, it's easy to forget that Picasso's first journeys to Paris to become an artist ended with his retreat to Spain, seeking handouts and reassurance from his family even as he ridiculed their parochialism. But by 1907, Picasso's Paris buyers had finally come around to the melancholy blue-period paintings redolent of death and mourning after the suicide of his artist and poet friend Carlos Casagemas. Aficionados were also embracing the opium-warmed reveries of Picasso's rose period. Any other painter, in that situation, would have simply kept churning out those sought-after blues and roses. Finally, a signature style! Not Picasso. Though self-centered, calculating, jealous and sometimes cruel, he was also truly visionary - or, more accurately, in an unrelenting quest for whatever vision came next, as long as it was altogether original. With "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," he ruptured the planes of the two-dimensional canvas. In affinity with Cezanne, he asserted the painting as an object in itself, not a mere rendering of objects. "Les Demoiselles" tore apart and reordered reality, turning a traditional sensual motif into a grotesque, scary grouping of angular naked forms that bust every which way out of their frame, sexually confusing and intimidating us while testing our visual sanity. Unger and others see the work as, among other things, a nightmarish vision of venereal disease, with which Picasso may well have had some experience. "The women themselves may be singularly unsexy," Unger writes, "but the rhythmic push and pull to which space is subjected diffuses the erotic charge across the entire surface of the canvas - an instance of what Freud would term polymorphous perversity, i.e., the childish impulse to seek gratification in all sensation." "Working mostly at night in the cramped, filthy, ill-lit studio," he writes, "this man, who thrived on conviviality, was forced to become a solitary pilgrim to a goal he could not see and could barely even imagine. ... For weeks on end, these 'monsters' were practically Picasso's only companions as his friends fled and his domestic life spiraled downward." Readers enamored of this crucial moment in art history might complement Unger's detailed telling with the more panoramic and accessible "In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse and the Birth of Modernist Art," by Sue Roe. The two books together - Unger's in close-up, Roe's in the broad view - wonderfully capture how Picasso's personal history, temperament and aesthetic development combined with the revolutionary currents in turn-of-the-century Parisian culture to bring about this unforgettable depiction of five primordial she-devils, a painting that Picasso's writer friend Andre Salmon called "the incandescent crater from which emerged the fire of present art." --- Kafka has written about books and the arts for The Washington Post, the Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune. Setsuko, the heroine of Oh Lucy!, is a middle-aged, chain-smoking and very unhappy Tokyo office worker. Early in the film, she witnesses two depressing events that may portend her own future: one is a suicide, and the other is the retirement of a pathetic older worker treated with fake affection by the colleagues who secretly ridicule her. Yet the film is often very funny, such as when Setsuko (Shinobu Terajima) attends goofy language lessons in American English, which require her to don a blond wig and which to her consternation include plenty of hugging and high fives. Its a testament to the skill of first-time feature director Atsuko Hirayanagi that these wild mood swings can coexist without blowing the movie apart. But Setsuko may have a way out of her misery in the person of John (Josh Hartnett), a congenial teacher of questionable qualifications who works in a remarkably sleazy language school. Besides the wigs, he likes to give his students American names (Setsuko becomes Lucy) to loosen them up. The language school scenes are comic in a very broad manner, though much of the films humor has darker, more absurdist tones. John abruptly vanishes, fleeing with Setsukos niece to L.A. Setsuko, whos never been abroad, decides its time to visit sunny California. She acquires an unwanted traveling companion in the form of the sibling (Kaho Minami) whom she hates and who is the nieces imperious mother. You are correct if you see a lot of culture-clash comedy on the horizon. There also will be events that underline Setsukos isolation and bitterness, including her growing sense of attachment for John, and her uncertainty as to how hell respond. The sisters track him down, only to learn that Setsukos niece has ditched him. Setsuko, her sister and John set out to find her. Adventures follow, and a return to Tokyo. Not every incident, whether sad or humorous, works, but enough do to make the movie worth seeing. Clearly Hirayanagi feels great affection for Setsuko, who can be decidedly unpleasant. Terajimas outstanding performance in the lead helps us share that affection. This film grew out of the directors 2014 short (also titled Oh Lucy!) about Setsuko. Its tricky to expand a 21-minute piece into a feature, and there are a few moments when this film demonstrates why. In addition, some of the films pokes at L.A. seem a little too easy. Viewers able to overlook some of these issues and ride with the extreme tonal shifts will be rewarded with an idiosyncratic character study suggesting that the road to self-knowledge is beset with obstacles and uncertainties. Walter Addiego is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: waddiego@sfchronicle.com Oh Lucy! Comedy-drama. Starring Shinobu Terajima, Josh Hartnett, Kaho Minami. Directed by Atsuko Hirayanagi. In English and Japanese with English subtitles. (Not rated. 96 minutes.) This is philanthropy, Harvey Weinstein-style: The now-disgraced movie mogul offered up, as part of a package he donated to a charity auction for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, two tickets to last year's White House correspondents' dinner. But it's unclear how Weinstein planned to acquire the tickets for the White House Correspondents' Association's annual splashy affair, which are only sold to member news organizations - and his donation of them runs afoul of the WHCA's anti-scalping (even for charity!) policies, which ban buyers from raffling or selling off their seats to the media dinner. The rule-breaking is, to put it beyond mildly, not the worst thing Weinstein's been accused of, but here's how the ticket saga played out: A Daily Mail story on Monday detailed donations to the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation by two men now toppled by sexual-misconduct scandals - Weinstein and actor Kevin Spacey. Among the lavish prizes offered for auction in 2016 was an extensive package from Weinstein, which included, according to the Daily Mail, sharing a table with the famed producer at his company's annual dinner party on the night before the Oscars, walking the red carpet with him at the Met Ball, two tickets to the 2017 Super Bowl, two invites to the White House correspondents' dinner and two front-row seats to the "Project Runway" finale. One of those items jumped out at us. Unlike the other A-Listy events, tickets to the WHCD aren't typically the province of Hollywood elite, though powerful folks have certainly found ways to secure seats for themselves. (Weinstein has attended the dinner before on multiple years.) But the keepers of the oft-coveted tables are adamant that correspondents themselves are the ones with access. "Only WHCA members can buy tickets to our annual dinner," WHCA Executive Director Steve Thomma confirms. "And it is our policy that those tickets may not be sold at auction or raffle to raise money for other organizations or for any commercial purpose." Reps for Weinstein didn't respond to our requests for comment. And a rep for DiCaprio's charity didn't know much that would clear it up. Apparently, the winner of the ultraposh package never paid up, according to the rep. "So the lots were void and never fulfilled," she said. PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte found an unlikely ally from a Chinese top official who defended the formers continuing war on drugs, after United Nations Human rights chief Zeid Raad Al-Hussein issued a statement Duterte needed a psychiatric examination. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque welcomed Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kangs praise of Duterte after comments from the UN rights chief calling his behavior disgraceful and questioning the Presidents mental stability. That basically should be the correct stand of all states. This is not because we have ties with China but because that is really the objective of the United Nations, Roque said. Roque said UN officials cannot deal with elected leaders of member nations in a manner that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al-Hussein did. Dutertes drug war, along with his efforts to develop the Philippines economy, fight terrorism and improve peoples livelihoods have all effectively protected and promoted the Philippine peoples fundamental rights to security and development, Lu said. The achievements made by the Philippine government led by President Duterte on these fronts have won great approval and extensive support among the Philippine people, he added. The exchange of words between Duterte and UN chief was triggered by the Presidents remark to feed to crocodiles UN rapporteurs.Earlier, Roque said he doubted the President would actually do it. Its an appropriate response. I dont think hes in a position to do it. Come on, Roque said. Roque gave assurances that despite the exchange of barbs between Duterte and Zeid, UN special rapporteurs were still welcome to visit and investigate the Philppines as long as they would be neutral. The Presidents spokesman reiterated Zeids remark was uncalled for and was an affront to the countrys sovereignty. I think the matter of the statement by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights is being treated very seriously. Its being treated as a diplomatic affront. Its wholly unacceptable, Roque said. Laredo police said Monday that they are looking for a black or dark-colored pickup involved in a hit-and-run that left a woman in critical condition. The vehicle struck Jasmin Barragan, 23, of San Antonio, in the southbound lane of Bob Bullock Loop by Casa Blanca Lake Road at about 2 a.m. Sunday, LPD said. Attorneys, colleagues and family members unanimously praised on Monday Laredos newly-retired federal judge, deeming him a brilliant jurist and an icon in the community. Friday was Judge George P. Kazens last day on the job after almost 40 years on the bench. The announcement of his retirement came as a surprise to many, according to multiple people who spoke to Laredo Morning Times. Kazen, 78, was appointed as U.S. district judge for the Laredo division of the Southern District of Texas in 1979 by then-President Jimmy Carter. He graduated from the University of Texas School of Law at age 21. READ ALSO: Final voting results from the Webb 2018 Primary Election U.S. District Judge Diana Saldana, a colleague and close personal friend of Kazen, described him as a shy and humble man. She served as Kazens law clerk and then as magistrate judge for five years before filling the district judge vacancy left by Kazen after he took senior status in 2009. Kazen, who could not be reached for comment on this story, did not want a big announcement because he did not want to bring attention to himself, Saldana said. The announcement was emotional, with many tears shed, according to Saldana. She was the one who delivered the news of Kazens retirement at the end of an awards ceremony for court employees. We really are like a family at the courthouse, she said. We all would like to think that he was going to serve forever because hes such a huge role model, mentor and just an icon in this community. It was really very difficult to get to that realization that all good things do come to an end. Saldana said the ceremony was also a chance for the staff to tell Kazen how he has touched their lives. In the weeks to come, hes going to see that outpouring of love and support, she said. We really are just very grateful that hes one of our own. Hes a Laredoan through and through. Anybody who knows him knows that he was born to be a lawyer and a judge. It was just a gift that he had and he shared that gift with all of us. Kazen will spend quality time with his family and get to do things that he hasnt been able to do in the 39 years hes been judge, such as traveling, reading and going to see musicals, Saldana said. He is moving on to another part of his journey, she said. Kazen will also be missed by the very men and women who appeared before him in hopes of getting justice for their clients through his interpretation of the law. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose Angel Moreno said he has tried cases before Kazen for 26 years. He was a fabulous judge, about as bright as they come and (he had) a wonderful temperament, Moreno said. (I tried cases before him) from when the docket was small to when it was huge, probably the largest in the country back then. Attorney Oscar J. Pena Sr. told LMT that Kazen was an excellent judge and a true scholar of the law. Hes always been an outstanding judge with a very quick grasp of the law, he said. It was always good to know that he was going to be sitting on the bench because you could count on him knowing the law and having studied the case very thoroughly. Pena said he knew Kazen before he was appointed judge and that even then, he was always a fair and honorable man. He said it was a pleasure dealing with Kazen because he was extremely honest and forthright. Pena lamented that Kazen was never appointed to a higher court. He should have been promoted to a court of appeals or even the Supreme Court, he said. He has that kind of legal mind. He rendered very good service to this community during the time that he was here on the bench. I wish we had more like him. Im sorry to see that he is stepping down. READ ALSO: Webb County elections administrator to resign Local attorney Donato Ramos Sr., who worked at Kazens law firm when he was fresh out of law school in 1971, also said Kazen would have been a great pick for the U.S. Supreme Court. Youll travel a lot of miles and get to a lot of states before you can get somebody like Judge Kazen, he said. He could have been a person that could have sat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Hes that caliber of a jurist. Ramos added that even when he met him as a lawyer, Kazens intelligence and work discipline stood out. He is, without a doubt, the smartest man Ive ever met, Ramos said. Weve been very blessed to have him as a judge in Laredo. Hes what I call a man that really works at making sure that justice prevails. He will not go into a trial of any type without being fully prepared. Kazen, a father of four, is a devout Catholic who has served on the Red Mass planning committee since the Diocese of Laredos inception in 2000. He also makes regular contributions to Catholic charities. The judge was married to the late Barbara Ann Kazen, a civic leader who was known for her work with the Bethany House of Laredo. The Kazen family is notoriously known as a family of attorneys. Greg Kazen, who followed in his fathers footsteps and has a law practice in McAllen, told LMT that his entire family was proud of his fathers very esteemed and distinguished career. Ive never had anything but the utmost respect for him not only because of his career and his abilities, but because he is one of the most genuine and most moral people that Ive ever known, Kazen said of his father. I couldn't imagine anybody who could have served better in that capacity as a judge and I certainly couldn't have asked for a better father. One-hundred eleven people were newly arrested or indicted on murder charges in 2017 in Bexar County. A handful of the suspects were arrested on charges stemming from killings allegedly committed in past years, though the majority of the suspects were arrested in connection with 2017 homicides. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus announced earlier this month that the total number of homicides committed in 2017 was 125. RELATED: Gym owner charged with murder in death of S.A. firefighter Scott Deem The final homicide tally of 2017 is down from 2016's spike of 149, but it was still the second most deadly year since 1995. Preliminary crime statistics also show a 58 percent decrease in gang-related murders from 2016 to 2017, and a 46 percent decrease in drug-related homicides. The year saw its fair share of grizzly murders, including the fatal shooting of a pregnant 15-year-old, allegedly by the father of her child, Armando Garcia-Ramires, who is also her stepfather. Police said after he slayed the teen girl, he ran to some nearby woods and attempted to kill himself but failed. Cody Gann, 18, is accused of using a high-powered rifle to carry out a drive-by shooting around 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving at the home of his "arch enemy" Nathaniel Vega in retaliation for two drive-by shootings at his house and the house of his girlfriend, 19-year-old Jasmine Cary. The attack left Vega's sister, 10-year-old Delilah, with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. Vega was left unharmed. RELATED: Alleged gang feud may have led to the Thanksgiving Day slaying of 10-year-old girl Jesse Ray Castilla was accused in late November of slaying Joseph Camarena and then stuffing his body into a barrel, which two people agreed to hide for Castilla in exchange for a bag of methamphetamine, according to police. As the pair when to dump the barrel in a river, the barrel hit the ground with enough force to dislodge the lid and expose Camarena's legs. Finally, Emond Johnson is accused of setting fire to his own gym in May in an effort to get out of a lease for which he was $7,000 behind in payments. The raging fire ended up killing firefighter Scott Deem and injuring two other firefighters. Johnson allegedly lied about the cause of the fire but later confessed when investigators discovered holes in his story. Despite these tragedies, statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that only 1.3 percent of the population of the United States became victims of violence last year, which continues a decades long decline in violence across the country. 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 WAYNESBURG, Pa. - The stakes are high for President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans in Tuesday's special election to fill a U.S. House seat, with GOP leaders unnerved about the prospect of defeat and the implications for this year's midterm elections. A loss in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District - a working-class slice of the country that Trump has cultivated as his political base - could shatter hopes that his core voters will turn out in droves this fall and save the GOP's 24-seat House majority. And, coming days after the president announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, the vote could raise fresh questions about the power of Trump's protectionist agenda to lift his party. "It really is a test that sets things in motion," former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said. "Does the base have energy? Does the party have the structure and discipline it needs?" But the cause has divided Republicans. Inside the White House, Trump and his aides have dismissed suggestions that the contest is a referendum on him and have berated GOP candidate Rick Saccone, 60, for running a sluggish campaign against Democrat Conor Lamb, 33, according to three Republicans who were not authorized to speak publicly. One GOP official said Saccone, a state representative, has been a "failure" due to his lackluster campaigning and reliance on Trump - and coolly added that Lamb, a former Marine, has been clever in sharing aspects of Trump's stances and running as an outsider in courting Republican voters. "He's running like he's a friend of Trump," former Pennsylvania congressman Bob Walker, R, said. "That approach, plus the fact that some Democrats in these areas are coming home, makes it competitive." Lamb has closed his bid with care. At campaign stops, the youthful former prosecutor never mentions Trump. When former Vice President Joe Biden visited, it was Biden, not Lamb, who took questions. "Let me tell you what kind of Democrat Conor is," Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said at Lamb's rally Sunday. "He's a God-fearing, union-supporting, gun-owning, job-protecting, pension-defending, Social Security-believing, health care-creating, and sending-drug-dealers-to-jail Democrat!" Conservative groups have spent more than $10 million in the race, and Trump rallied a crowd here over the weekend, underscoring the desire to emerge victorious and calm GOP lawmakers who have seen a spate of retirements and only grown more wary of their reelection chances since Democrats won a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama in December. Republicans said Monday that the surge of drama in what they had expected to be a relatively sleepy race has revealed significant issues nationally for Trump and the party. "It should wake everybody up," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said. Win or lose, "it should be a warning signal that Republicans have to do a better job explaining our policies and not live in an echo chamber. The people who hate Trump will come out, but what about the people who like him?" Saccone spent the final day of the campaign alongside Donald Trump Jr., with the candidate and the president's eldest son donning hairnets for a kitchen tour of Sarris Candies in Canonsburg. Trump Jr., who went to high school and college in Pennsylvania, said he wanted to spotlight a business that had grown from 320 to 400 employees following passage of the GOP-authored tax law last year. Asked about Republican criticism of Saccone's campaign, Trump told reporters, "God knows, if it's going to make it difficult for Trump, the media's going to be all over it." At the candy plant, Tony Ross, 72, said he remained undecided. He was intrigued by Lamb after his former union, the United Steelworkers, endorsed him, and by the Democrat's support for the president's new steel tariffs. "It's like a death in the family when a steel plant closes down," Ross said. "But I haven't seen anything in Saccone's record that stands out for unemployed people." Darlene Bales, a 67-year-old factory employee, pointed at Saccone during the tour. "If he doesn't win, lock him up!" she said. Polls show a close race, but Saccone dismissed the numbers. "You guys have been up and down with poll numbers," he said. "We're out meeting people every day, and everywhere I go, it's 100 to 1 for Rick Saccone." Trump won the district by nearly 20 percentage points against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. The 18th includes suburban towns south of Pittsburgh and has a mostly white electorate. The special election was called after representative Tim Murphy, a Republican, resigned in disgrace last year following revelations of an extramarital affair during which the antiabortion congressman seemed to suggest that his mistress should seek an abortion. "You can't read too much into these special elections. That's why they call them special," former Trump campaign adviser Ed Brooker said, reflecting the mood of Trump's political circle on the eve of the election. "You have to focus on what the candidates there are doing." The victor will serve out the remainder of Murphy's term, but the district will cease to exist in its current form in November, due to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court redrawing the state's congressional map. Lamb's moderate streak has won converts. Linda Miller, 74, said that she and her husband left their presidential ballots blank in 2016, and that she had not voted for a Democratic nominee since Bill Clinton. Trump, she said, had "brought some jobs back," but Lamb had won her over after saying he would not support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a leadership race. "I haven't seen anything she's done in there that's any good," Miller said. "We need a young person in there who's going to be honest." Frank Snyder, general secretary of Pennsylvania's AFL-CIO, challenged reporters at Lamb's Sunday rally to follow the rental cars of Republican operatives who have come to the district to turn out voters. "They've got Tennessee plates. They've got Virginia plates. They've got plates from Washington, D.C.," Snyder said. Still, veteran Pennsylvania Democrats are cautious about predicting an upset. "Lamb has outraised Saccone, but it's the outside money where the Republicans have the advantage," former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell said. "The incredible Republican spending is going to have an effect, even though Lamb has been smart in not letting the race get nationalized like we saw in the special congressional election in Atlanta last year." In that vote in Georgia's 6th Congressional District, Democrat Jon Ossoff was defeated by Republican Karen Handel, R. Saccone's pitch has been less about touting the Republican tax law and more about embracing Trump at every turn. But that hasn't stopped outside GOP groups such as the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., from running a flurry of ads criticizing Lamb for opposing the Republican tax effort and tying him to Pelosi. At the president's Saturday rally, many attendees said they remained steadfast in Trump's corner despite his controversies, giving party leaders confidence that the tariff push and Trump visit could keep the seat red. On stage, Trump warned them that he could make progress only "if we elect people who are going to back our agenda." James Johnson, 42, had a one-word reason for why he planned to vote for Saccone on Tuesday: "Republican." "I think we need to keep the country going in the direction it's going in," said Johnson, a Trump-supporting union member who works in manufacturing. He credited Trump for his paycheck going up about $100 a month since Republicans passed their tax law - and said that's enough for him. LOS ANGELESProtesters marched and held rallies Monday ahead of President Donald Trumps first official visit to California. Nearly 200 people marched in downtown San Diego, which is on the border with Mexico, to denounce Trump and in particular his crackdown on immigration both legal and illegal. California is the countrys most populous state and a Democratic stronghold. Trump will arrive in San Diego at 11:30 am (1930 GMT) and then go to nearby Otay Mesa to view eight prototypes for the wall he wants to build on the border with Mexico. Ariel Norcross, demonstrating Monday outside the Federal Building, carried a placard that read No hate in the Golden State. I dont want him, his hateful rhetoric, his hateful administration, any of his policies in my state, in my country, said Norcross. Its already been a waste of money to build eight prototypes that are not doing anything, he added. People will find their way here, he said as he walked in a procession featuring placards denouncing the wall plan and children in Mexican ponchos riding on their parents shoulders.I dont know why he took so long to get here but I think he is realizing that this is the strongest point of resistance, here at the border and in the state of California, protester Ali Torabei said. After viewing the wall prototypes, Trump is scheduled to give a speech at a military base in Miramar and then head to Los Angeles for a Republican fund-raising dinner. The speaker of Californias senate, Democrat Kevin de Leon, led an anti-Trump rally Monday in Beverly Hills, where the dinner will be held. The largest rally scheduled for Tuesday will be at a church in San Ysidro, from which you can see the border. Hundreds of people are expected to take part. Demonstrators plan to erect a large sign calling on Trump to build bridges, not walls. But a pro-Trump rally in favor of the wall project is also scheduled. Trump is coming at a time of tense relations between California and the federal government, which has sued the state over its policy of not cooperating with US immigration authorities seeking to detain undocumented immigrants. TOKYO - Japan's hard-line prime minister, Shinzo Abe, had grown accustomed to being President Donald Trump's favorite foreign leader. But now he is suddenly scrambling to remain relevant as the U.S. president embarks on a daring diplomatic gambit with North Korea. When North Korea embarked on a charm offensive linked to the Winter Olympics a month ago, Japan's prime minister warned anyone who'd listen not to fall for Kim Jong Un's "smile diplomacy" and to keep up the "maximum pressure" campaign. Now, with both the South Korean and American leaders planning summits with Kim, Abe is trying to minimize the appearances of differences with Trump. "I don't believe North Korea is using this opportunity simply to buy more time," the Japanese prime minister said after meeting Tuesday with Suh Hoon, the South Korean intelligence chief who met with both Kim and Trump last week. "North Korea now has to face important negotiations, including the inter-Korean summit and a summit with the United States," Abe told Suh, according to a readout from South Korea's presidential Blue House. The prime minister did not supply the same readout. He said simply that his basic position remained the same: that North Korea must take steps to denuclearize, and that the outstanding issue of Japanese citizens abducted by the North in the 1970s and 1980s must be dealt with at the same time. "It is extremely important that North Korea take concrete steps to turn its words into actions," Abe told reporters after the meeting. Trump has said that he believes North Korea is "sincere" in its offer to hold talks on its nuclear program, although the White House has said it wants a concrete commitment to denuclearization before any summit between the leaders of the United States and North Korea. The summit is tentatively scheduled for May, following an inter-Korean summit at the end of April. Abe and Trump had been walking in lock-step when it came to North Korea, both promoting a strategy of putting "maximum pressure" through sanctions on the Kim regime to force it to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Both were suspicious of efforts led by Moon Jae-in, South Korea's progressive president, to use diplomatic engagement to achieve the same outcome. The split was starkly illustrated at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, just over a month ago. Abe and Vice President Mike Pence remained seated while the unified Korean team entered the stadium, and both resolutely avoided interacting with Kim's sister. That turned out to be an error of judgment on Abe's part, said Gerald L. Curtis, the renowned Japan scholar. The opening ceremony set off a cascade of diplomacy, beginning with a summit invitation from Kim to Moon and leading to a summit invitation from Kim to Trump. Trump hastily accepted that invitation last Thursday - without giving Abe any advance warning that he would do so. "Abe made a major mistake at the Pyeongchang Olympics by putting on that mad, upset angry face," Curtis said. "Now Japan is not a major player. The Chinese and the South Koreans and the Americans are all pushing this (pro-talks) line, and Abe is scrambling to get on board." Part of the reason Abe failed to see which way the winds were turning was because he was blinded by his distrust of Moon and by a general Japanese government antipathy for South Korea. Historical disputes, particularly over Japan's use of Korean women as sex slaves during World War II, continue to cast a dark cloud the countries' relations. Abe's government is incensed that Moon's administration has reopened discussion about a 2015 deal that was supposed to be the "final and irreversible" statement on the matter. That anger was compounded at a state dinner for Trump in November, when Moon served shrimp from islets that are the subject of a festering territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan. The divergence in approach between Japan and the United States could hardly come at a worse time for Abe. Trump decided to accept Kim's invitation on the same day that he imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from countries including Japan, despite Tokyo's please to recognize their alliance relationship. It also comes amid damning new revelations that have damaged Abe's domestic standing and reignited doubts about his political future. The Finance Ministry this week admitted to removing the name of Abe's wife from documents related to a heavily-discounted land deal for a controversial nationalist school in Osaka. Abe had strongly denied any cronyism by him or his wife, but the ministry's admission that it had doctored the paperwork has raised new doubts about the process. Abe's support ratings have taken a dive as a result. The latest survey from the Yomiuri Shimbun, a paper that is generally supportive of Abe, found that his approval rating had slumped six points to 48 percent, the first time it had fallen below 50 percent since the parliamentary elections in October. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that economist and CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow has "a very good chance" at replacing Gary Cohn, the outgoing director of the White House National Economic Council. "I'm looking at Larry Kudlow very strongly," Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to California. "He now has come around to believing in tariffs." The president may name the 70-year-old Kudlow as his top economic adviser within a day or so, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday. Trump has spoken by phone with Kudlow about the economic adviser role a couple of times in recent days, including once over the weekend, according to two people familiar with the situation. The people familiar with Trump's deliberations cautioned that he hasn't made a final decision and could change his mind. Two other people described Kudlow as being among those being considered as replacements for Cohn. All of the people asked not to be identified discussing the matter. Kudlow is already an informal adviser who occasionally speaks to the president, one of the people said. In addition to his duties at CNBC, where he is a senior contributor, Kudlow is a radio host, syndicated columnist and entrepreneur. He was an economist for Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. and served in President Ronald Reagan's administration. Other people whose names have been mentioned as part of the search include White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, Deputy Director for Economic Policy Shahira Knight, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and Stephen Moore, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Cohn announced his departure last week after Trump moved forward with steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports -- a plan Cohn had vociferously opposed. The divide came to a head in an Oval Office meeting where Trump sought confirmation from his advisers that he had their support. According to two people with knowledge of the exchange, the president asked Cohn directly if he backed the decision and Cohn declined to pledge his support. Another person familiar with the meeting disputed that account. Nevertheless, hours later, Cohn was on the way out. White House aides like Kudlow because he's viewed as team player who would support the president's vision, and would arrive on the job with substantial Wall Street credibility. Still, Kudlow has also clashed with Trump in the past. Earlier this month, he wrote a column for CNBC describing the president's tariffs as "a regressive tax on low-income families." "Trump should also examine the historical record on tariffs, because they have almost never worked as intended and almost always deliver an unhappy ending," Kudlow wrote in the March 3 column, which also included praise for other parts of the president's economic agenda. Kudlow has strongly backed the tax overhaul that Trump signed at the end of last year. In 2016, when a tape surfaced before the election featuring Trump boasting about grabbing women's genitals, Kudlow said he was "furious" and threatened to vote for Mike Pence as a write-in candidate. To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net, Toluse Olorunnipa in Washington at tolorunnipa@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, Michael Shepard 2018 Bloomberg L.P. Two months after Jared Kushner joined the White House as a senior adviser, his family firm sold a stake in a Brooklyn building to a unit of a company whose largest shareholder is the government of Japan. The buyer of record in the $103-million deal for 175 Pearl St. was Normandy Real Estate Partners, a New Jersey-based investment firm. But documents filed in Tokyo show that it was operating on behalf of a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. By law, the Japanese government owns at least a third of NTT, in effect a controlling share. Questions have been raised repeatedly whether Kushner, whose family business has been in search of overseas investors, might pursue a personal agenda while helping run U.S. policy. This is the first known deal with a government-affiliated firm since he entered the White House. There's no evidence the NTT company made the investment with a political intent -- it denies that, as do all the others involved -- or that there has been any political gain. But it's the kind of deal that conflict-of-interest rules seek to limit: not only inappropriate entanglements and their appearance but situations in which potential favors might one day be paid back. Officials like Kushner are expected under U.S. law to recuse themselves from government decisions that would have a "direct and predictable effect" on their financial interests. At the time of the March 31, 2017, deal, Kushner was helping his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, oversee trade policy. Since then, his security clearance has been curtailed and his portfolio narrowed. The Washington Post recently cited U.S. intelligence reports that officials in at least four countries have discussed ways to manipulate Kushner because of his family business. Japan was not among them. A spokesman for Kushner's lawyer called The Post article inaccurate. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been looking into whether Kushner brought his family's search for foreign investors into policy deliberations. The Brooklyn transaction represented a premium of more than 60 percent on a price-per-square-foot basis over what Kushner Cos. and its partners paid four years earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The deal enabled the Kushner group to take larger ownership stakes in nearby buildings in Brooklyn's chic Dumbo neighborhood that have signed tenants such as Etsy and WeWork. Kushner Cos. is now a co-owner with the NTT unit. The Japanese firm owns 23 percent of the building through limited liability companies plus more through a Normandy-controlled investment fund, a person familiar with the arrangement said. A day after the companies bought 175 Pearl St., the NTT company purchased a stake in Normandy itself. Kushner Cos. maintains a non-controlling share of less than five percent. Meanwhile, the property, connected to one of the Kushner-owned buildings by a pedestrian walkway, remains vacant. A person familiar with the building said talks with potential tenants are underway and final improvements are being made. A spokesman for the subsidiary, NTT Urban Development, said the company knew the deal involved Kushner Cos. The subsidiary describes itself as the real estate arm of NTT. It primarily operates in Japan and had only seven U.S. properties as of September 2016. Its purchase of 175 Pearl was the only one it made in New York City last year, the Tokyo documents, filed in February, show. Normandy had previously done separate deals with both Kushner Cos. and NTT Urban Development. But it wasn't until February 2017 that it approached NTT to do the deal with Kushner, the NTT unit's spokesman said. All involved deny any political component to the deal or involvement by Jared Kushner. A spokesman for Abbe Lowell, Kushner's lawyer, said Kushner has had no role in the company since joining the White House 14 months ago and followed ethics advice on recusals and separating from his business. A Kushner Cos. spokeswoman said it only engaged with Normandy and wasn't aware of a relationship with NTT. Kushner Cos. and Normandy said Jared Kushner played no part in the deal. The NTT Urban Development spokesman said Normandy negotiated on its behalf, and the amount invested in the property was smaller than NTT's other U.S. properties. A spokesman for the prime minister's office in Japan said, "We are not aware of such a transaction." Yoshinori Ogawa, a senior strategist at Okasan Securities in Tokyo, said he doubts that the government influences NTT investments and added that subsidiaries of NTT make their own business policy. Kushner divested some of his assets to family members to avoid conflicts with his White House role. He held onto others. His disclosure documents don't note that his share of the company that sold 175 Pearl was divested as the filings do with many others. Trump's victory was a source of acute concern in Japan. He ran a protectionist, Japan-bashing campaign, vowed to drop a Pacific trade deal, accused Tokyo of manipulating its currency, threatened to remove U.S. troops from the country and even suggested Japan might have to develop its own nuclear weapons. When Trump won, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe skipped a planned Peru visit and flew to New York to be the first head of state to personally congratulate the president-elect in a Trump Tower meeting that included Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who was still running Kushner Cos. at the time. Trump warmed to Abe and, after taking office, White House officials asked Finance Minister Taro Aso to join Abe on his next visit for trade talks with Vice President Mike Pence. The Japanese leaders extended their push in a February 2017 trip to the White House, where Aso and Pence talked about economic cooperation. Afterward, Abe joined Kushner and other members of the Trump family aboard Air Force One for a flight to Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort owned by the president. NTT Urban Development and Normandy bought the Brooklyn property six weeks later from the Kushner group, which included Invesco Ltd. Atlanta-based Invesco had a majority stake in the property, which was operated by Kushner and Aby Rosen's RFR Holding LLC. Japan's charm offensive hasn't yielded much thus far. After Trump backed out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, trade talks came to an impasse until he announced steel and aluminum tariffs last week, a move that sunk shares of Japanese companies. --With assistance from Maiko Takahashi Isabel Reynolds and Kazunori Takada KABUL, Afghanistan - Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited Afghanistan on Tuesday to meet senior U.S. and Afghan officials and discuss both the military campaign and "peeling off" some members of the Taliban to pursue a peace deal with the Afghan government. The unannounced visit comes two weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani made what many observers consider an unprecedented offer, inviting the Taliban to begin peace talks without preconditions to end the 16-year war. The Taliban said last month that it is open to reaching a political settlement and negotiating, but it has not responded to Ghani's offer. Mattis, speaking on a flight to Afghanistan from Oman, said that talking about a peace settlement is "not cart before the horse" and that it is backed by the ongoing efforts of the U.S. and Afghan militaries. Some members of the Taliban may be willing to pursue peace, especially considering a fracturing in the group that has occurred over the past few years, he said. "All wars come to an end," Mattis said. "You don't want to miss an opportunity because you weren't alert to the opportunity. So, you need to have that door open, even if you embrace the military pressure." Mattis acknowledged that efforts to reconcile with the entire Taliban have been difficult. The effort right now, he said, is to reach "those who are tired of fighting" and build it out from there. Army Brig. Gen. Michael R. Fenzel, a senior U.S. military planning officer, said Tuesday that the fact that the Taliban hasn't already dismissed meeting with the Afghan government about negotiations already may be a positive sign. Typically, the group dismisses conversations like that out of hand, Fenzel said. The general said that the U.S.-led military coalition has seen "significant evidence across the entire country that there is interest" in reconciliation, with groups of 10 and 20 Taliban fighters at a time turning themselves in. He acknowledged, however, that their doing so has not yet "reached critical mass." The defense secretary and his staff arrived at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport on a C-17 jet in the morning before being whisked away on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter in damp, chilly weather to the U.S. military headquarters in Kabul. He met immediately with senior officials, including U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass and Army Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the top U.S. officer in Afghanistan. Afterward, he visited with Ghani and other senior Afghan officials at the Presidential Palace. Ghani said at the palace that President Donald Trump's new South Asia strategy, adopted in August, allows Afghan officials to tell their people that talking about peace with the Taliban "is not tantamount to surrender or to collapse." The strategy calls for ramping up military and diplomatic pressure on the Taliban to force a negotiated settlement, and does not include a timetable for U.S. military withdrawal, a notable difference to the plan under President Barack Obama. Ghani noted that an offer of peace in the 1990s ultimately led to the collapse of the Afghan government, "and people always carry their memories." Mattis visited the country for the second time Tuesday since the new strategy was unveiled. The Pentagon chief is among a small group of senior advisers who convinced Trump that it made sense to not only continue the U.S. role in the war but also bolster it with more air power and a modest increase in the number of U.S. troops from about 11,000 to 14,500. But the Taliban remain a powerful force in Afghanistan, regularly carrying out high-profile attacks in and around Kabul in addition to holding or contesting more than a quarter of Afghanistan's territory. The defense secretary's latest visit included a new security precaution in which journalists traveling with him were directed to withhold publishing anything until after he left the airport and arrived at the U.S. military headquarters in Kabul. That followed a Taliban attack on the airport in September a few hours after Mattis's last visit. The attack prompted a U.S. response that led to civilian casualties when an American jet dropped a malfunctioning missile on a nearby home. Trump, in announcing his plan, said that it was his initial instinct to pull out U.S. troops - an apparent acknowledgment of how unpopular the war is with the American public after more than 2,200 U.S. military fatalities and more than $1 trillion in taxpayer spending. Senior U.S. officers, including Nicholson, have said that the U.S. military has reached a turning point in Afghanistan this year, but similar points have been made in the past. In the past few months, the air campaign has ramped up, with hundreds of Air Force strikes each month since August and 4,361 in total last year. That's up from a total of 1,337 in all of 2016. The Pentagon also has started to deploy additional U.S. military advisers to fan out across the countryside with Afghan troops. They are expected to coordinate air power, fire support and intelligence collection and analysis, skills with which the Afghan military and police forces have often struggled. The beefed-up military action follows two years of the Afghan government struggling to maintain control of its territory, including numerous areas where American forces fought the Taliban and suffered fatalities. As of October, the government in Kabul had control or influence in 56 percent of its 507 districts. Insurgents controlled 14 percent, with another 30 percent contested. That marked a drop from fall 2016, when the government controlled 72 percent, with 7 percent under insurgent control and 21 percent contested. --- Video Embed Code Video: During a March 13 flight to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis spoke about pursuing a peace settlement with the Taliban and keeping a "door open, even as you increase the military pressure."(The Washington Post) Embed code: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has chosen a new secretary of state, untested in diplomacy but more attuned to the president's views and way of conducting foreign policy, at a time when the United States is facing an array of delicate and potentially dangerous national security challenges. Seeking what he called "a different mind-set, a different thinking," Trump said Tuesday that he was replacing the reserved and cautious Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a former House of Representatives firebrand with strong "America First" and hard-line Republican credentials. "With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well," Trump said as he left the White House for a trip to California. Both Tillerson's departure and the choice of Pompeo had been rumored for months, amid Trump's clear unhappiness over public disagreements with Tillerson on issues ranging from Russia to the Middle East and North Korea. Although he frequently derided the rumors as "fake news," Trump said Tuesday that he had been considering replacing Tillerson for "a long time." But the reality of the move, and the suddenness with which it was done - with Tillerson returning early from a trip to Africa, only to learn via a Trump tweet early Tuesday that he had been fired - startled and confused allies around the globe and many throughout the government. In an afternoon appearance before reporters at the State Department, Tillerson's voice quavered as he vowed to ensure an "orderly and smooth transition" before his formal departure on March 31. He expressed no gratitude or good wishes to Trump, thanked his staff, and commended the strong commitment to diplomacy of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who has often served as his ally in battles with the White House. Tillerson spoke of the importance of "allies and partners" in promoting global security, and he thanked the American people for their "devotion to a free and open society, to acts of kindness towards one another, to honesty." Pompeo, whose once-active Twitter account has lain dormant since he was nominated as CIA chief 14 months ago, said in a statement that he was "deeply grateful" to Trump and that he looked "forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America's prosperity." Trump also named CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to succeed Pompeo as the agency's director. She would become the first woman to run the spy agency and could come under scrutiny during the Senate confirmation process over her past role in running one of the CIA's "black site" prisons, where detainees were subjected to interrogation methods widely denounced as torture. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he expected to hold a confirmation hearing for Pompeo in April. The closely divided chamber has stalled on confirming dozens of Trump nominees. Reaction to the fast-moving events varied widely. Thomas Countryman, one of a number of career diplomats dismissed by Tillerson early in the administration as he gutted staff and supported Trump's massive budget cuts, called him "a poor advocate for the State Department." But Tillerson, he said, "served as a Cabinet-level check on some of President Trump's worst impulses, such as wanting to 'break' the Iran nuclear agreement. . . . If the new secretary of state has a disdain for diplomacy mirroring Trump's, it will be bad for the department and the country." Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., by contrast, said he "cannot think of a better choice" than Pompeo. "No one understands the threat posed by North Korea and Iran better than he does," Graham said in a statement, and "no one has a stronger relationship with President Trump." Pompeo, assuming that the Senate confirms him in time, will face a confluence of foreign policy decisions and potential national security crises this spring that would challenge even the most experienced diplomats. A meeting between Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un, tentatively to be held before the end of May, will bring two volatile leaders face to face with the highest stakes imaginable. In mid-May, Trump has said, he will decide whether to end U.S. participation in the Iran nuclear deal, a determination that could profoundly change the United States' relationships with its closest European allies and throw down a gauntlet before Tehran. Even before those events, Trump is due to host, beginning Monday, in rapid succession, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar for complicated talks on Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Depending on how those bilateral talks go, the administration is hoping to bring the Persian Gulf leaders together for a May summit in Washington to broker an end to a regional dispute among them that has hobbled U.S. policy across the Middle East. Tillerson has been deeply involved in all of those issues while operating with a skeleton staff that is expected to dwindle even more with his departure. On these and other challenges - including Russia - he has often been publicly at odds with Trump's impulsive approach to foreign policy, counseling more traditional diplomacy rather than dependence on gut instinct. Pompeo is likely to be more amenable to Trump's way of doing business. As a congressman from Kansas and a tea party leader, he sharply opposed the Iran nuclear deal, tweeting just before his CIA nomination his determination to "roll back" the agreement. Tillerson openly acknowledged the strong disagreement between himself and the president over Iran in early August, telling reporters that "he and I have differences of views on things like JCPOA and how we should use it," using an acronym for the deal, which is officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. As CIA director, Pompeo has followed Trump's lead in falsely insisting that the intelligence community concluded that Russia's interference had not influenced the result of the 2016 presidential election. He has congratulated Trump on his boldness in agreeing to meet with North Korea's Kim, a leader who Pompeo last year suggested was a good candidate for U.S.-authored regime change. Tillerson had led the charge for international backing for harsh sanctions against North Korea, but he urged step-by-step diplomacy and was clearly taken unaware and aback by Trump's quick agreement to a summit with Kim. While battling the White House, Tillerson also had to contend with Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who publicly endorsed a proposal not to certify Iran's compliance with the deal based on the notion that all of Iran's activities, not just nuclear, should be considered when deciding on certification. He also reportedly clashed with Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, himself a rumored short-timer in the White House. While Pompeo's CIA job has immersed him in intelligence related to North Korea, Iran and beyond, the new secretary of state will have no time for a diplomatic learning curve. It remains unclear whether Mattis, who often joined Tillerson in pressing Trump to be more patient and thoughtful on a range of issues, will be willing or able to continue in that role. In a statement last fall, Corker said that Tillerson, Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly "are those people that help separate our country from chaos." Since then, Kelly has come under sharp criticism in Congress - and even in the White House - for his conduct in the job. In addition to the pending North Korea talks, the administration is involved in high-stakes diplomacy with Turkey over its policy in Syria, as well as upcoming trade negotiations. Most immediately, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, is due to arrive here Monday. Tillerson, as chief executive of ExxonMobil, had long and deep relationships with Arab leaders in the Persian Gulf. But his calls for caution were sometimes challenged by presidential son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, who has formed his own ties, often outside the purview of the State Department, with MBS and with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, who is seen as the United Arab Emirates' de facto ruler. Kushner has been counting on the gulf leaders to support his still-unrevealed peace plan, a prospect that was already thrown into doubt when Trump announced - over Tillerson's objections - U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and plans to move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv. When the Saudis and Emiratis, along with Bahrain and Egypt, broke relations and instituted a boycott of neighboring Qatar last summer, Trump openly supported them, backing their charges that Qatar supported extremism. Tillerson and Mattis, who noted the close U.S. military relationship with Qatar, quickly issued evenhanded statements calling for dialogue. Eventually, after months of openly criticizing Qatar, Trump was persuaded to change course, offering to broker a deal among the nations at a summit at Camp David, Maryland. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates refused, and Tillerson and Mattis have spent much of the ensuing months voicing support for Qatar and trying to pressure the others to come to a Trump-led negotiation. --- Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonning contributed to this report. TAIPEITaiwans high court on Tuesday upheld the acquittal of anti-China activists who occupied the islands parliament in 2014, with the judge describing the protests as an expression of democracy. Jubilant activists praised the decision, which they said was a defense of democratic freedoms at a time when Beijing is ramping up the pressure on the self-ruling island. China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and is pushing for reunification, with Beijing signaling a harder line towards what it regards as a renegade province. Thousands of people took to the streets in protest in March 2014 in what became known as the Sunflower Movement, with 200 people occupying the main chamber of parliament for three weeks. The rallies were triggered by a proposed cross-strait trade pact that critics said had been made in secret and would leave export-reliant Taiwan vulnerable to Chinese influence. The defendants did not initiate attacks or cause bloody conflicts and it was an expression of democracy, judge Chang Huei-li told the court as she upheld last years acquittal by a lower court. She said protesters were reacting to flaws in the legislative process and the failure of lawmakers to reflect public opinion. Those who have power should listen to peoples voices and promote their welfare, Chang said. Taipeis district court had ruled the protesters actions reflected their right to civil disobedience, clearing them on charges of incitement and interfering with public functions. But state prosecutors appealed the decision, arguing a lack of legal precedent and consensus for using civil disobedience as a justification for breaking the law. Protest leader Huang Kuo-chang, now a lawmaker, said Tuesdays judgment reaffirmed Taiwans freedoms.When lawmakers do not carry out their duties properly the people can stand up and resist and their rights are protected, Huang said after the ruling. Sunflower leader Chen Wei-ting said Taiwans transparent legal process was a message to Chinas President Xi Jinping, who was granted a lifetime mandate as leader Sunday. I want to tell Xi Jinping that even if you can become an emperor and have endless terms, Taiwan is a democratic country, said Chen. He contrasted freedoms in Taiwan with semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where activists have been jailed and political freedoms are increasingly under threat. I hope our friends in Hong Kong who are in a difficult situation will not give up. Taiwan will alway stand with you, Chen said after the hearing. Fears over warming cross-strait ties contributed to the plummeting popularity of Ma Ying-jeous Kuomintang government and its defeat in the 2016 presidential elections at the hands of the Democratic Progressive Party. Relations have since turned rapidly frosty as Beijing-skeptic President Tsai Ing-wen refuses to acknowledge the island is part of one China. Days after taking office in May 2016, the DPP government dropped a separate lawsuit against 126 Sunflower protesters for trespassing on cabinet headquarters. A court spokesman said Tuesdays acquittals were final. MOSCOW - Russia vowed Tuesday to retaliate if Britain imposes sanctions in response to a suspected chemical attack on British soil and demanded access to samples of a nerve agent that British investigators say they have identified as Russian. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said Russia does not intend to comply with British Prime Minister Theresa May's demand Monday for an official explanation of how a nerve agent identified as Novichok, which was developed by the former Soviet Union, allegedly came to be used in the poisoning attack in southern England that targeted a former Russian spy and his daughter. Lavrov insisted that Russian experts should be able to examine the British evidence but again denied Russian involvement in last week's attack. May spoke with President Trump about the incident on Tuesday afternoon. She told him it was "highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack," according to a statement released by the British embassy. "President Trump stated the United States stands in solidarity with its closest ally and is ready to provide any assistance the United Kingdom requests for its investigation," the White House stated. "President Trump agreed with Prime Minister May that the government of the Russian Federation must provide unambiguous answers regarding how this chemical weapon, developed in Russia, came to be used in the United Kingdom." Earlier, though, the president had hedged on the issue of actual blame. "We're speaking with Theresa May today and, as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be," he said when asked about it by reporters outside the White House. "It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all of the evidence they have." Then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking to reporters en route to Washington from Africa, said the nerve agent "clearly came from Russia," and he warned of consequences. Hours after Tillerson backed the British accusation, the White House announced Tuesday that he would be replaced as secretary of state by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. In Moscow, the foreign ministry said it presented the British ambassador with "a strong protest over the unfounded accusations leveled at Russia by British authorities" and stressed that "Moscow would not respond to London's ultimatum until the Russian side is provided with samples of the chemical substance." And it promised that Russia would retaliate if sanctions are imposed. "Any threats will not remain unanswered," the ministry said in a statement. "The British side should be aware of that." May said the use of Novichok, which is believed to be unique to Russia, made Moscow's complicity in the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, in the city of Salisbury, about 88 miles southwest of London, "highly likely." Both remain comatose. In a case they believe to be unrelated, British counter-terrosim police said Tuesday they are investigating the unexplained death of another Russian emigre, Nikolai Glushkov, 68, in London, whose body was found Monday. Glushkov had been an associate of the oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who had fallen afoul of Russia President Vladimir Putin and lived in exile in England until his death by strangulation in 2013. In Moscow, Lavrov denied that Russia had anything to do with Skripal's poisoning and reiterated Moscow's willingness to cooperate if information related to the nature of the chemical agent was shared with Russia. Lavrov said Britain has an obligation to share forensic data under the Chemical Weapons Convention. Russia also summoned the British ambassador, Laurie Bristow, after the allegations, Interfax reported. "Before delivering ultimatums to report to the British government within 24 hours," Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow, "it is better to comply with your own obligations under international law - in this case, the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons." Russia's representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Alexander Shulgin, told a meeting of the group's executive board Tuesday that London's allegations of Russian involvement were unfounded and unacceptable, Interfax reported. He called on Britain to turn over samples to the organization for independent laboratory analysis. His British counterpart, Peter Wilson, said investigators had concluded that Russia was responsible based on a positive identification of the chemical agents, a history that links Novichok to Russia, Russia's "record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations," and a British assessment that Russia considers some defectors as "legitimate targets for assassination." "This attempted murder, using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British city, was not just a crime against the Skripals. It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, which put the lives of innocent civilians at risk," Wilson said. Russia, he said, had either engaged in a direct attack against Britain or lost control of the nerve agent it developed. May had given Russia one day to provide an explanation. She promised to return to Parliament on Wednesday with a plan for specific action. But in her remarks, May described a "reckless" and "indiscriminate" attack against the 66-year-old Skripal and his daughter Yulia, 33. A police officer also remains hospitalized. On the Russian Foreign Ministry's verified Twitter account, the posts carried a characteristically flippant and sarcastic tone. It launched a hashtag, #HighlyLikelyRussia, and portrayed May's ultimatum as part of broader anti-Russian hysteria plaguing Western discourse. "Sincere thanks to Mrs. May for #HighlyLikelyRussia," a tweet read. The post included a video of recent intense snowfall in Britain, mockingly suggesting that Russia was to blame for the weather. The video concludes with an image of a penguin, and signs off with "at least penguin enjoys it." Other Foreign Ministry accounts, such as one belonging to Russia's embassy in South Africa, struck similar notes. Meanwhile, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Federation Council, Russia's upper chamber of parliament, wrote on Facebook that May's accusations were "despicable and unacceptable." "For Britain, the Queen of Courts, this is a complete degradation," Kosachev wrote. "The accused has to provide the proof, not the court or the prosecutor, without being given access either to the evidence or the trial itself." Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, asserted that the British allegations were part of a planned effort to interfere in Sunday's Russian presidential election. "It is during this period that these events unfold in order to try to discredit Russia in the eyes [of] the international community, in order to create this unfavorable background in the conduct of the election campaign," he said, according to Interfax. Citing "this interference in our elections," he added: "The form chosen is the most cynical, when the health of citizens is put at risk. . . . Once again I want to say that Britain is responsible for this." His counterpart in the Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko, echoed his words. "In Russia, a very important political campaign is underway on preparing for the presidential election," Matviyenko said. "This is another fake aimed at whipping up another round of the Russophobic campaign." While most of the reactions have so far avoided the topic of Novichok, the nerve agent identified by May in the poisoning of the Skripals, other members of Russia's Federation Council addressed the accusations head-on. Council member Igor Morozov, a veteran of the Russian security services, told the RIA Novosti news agency that "Russia has not only stopped producing nerve agents, including Novichok, but also completely destroyed all of its stockpiles." However, he also said it would be "dangerous but possible" to secretly produce Novichok, although that would require special facilities and technicians. Last year, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced the destruction of Russia's final batch of declared chemical weapons. However, Russian scientists who blew the whistle on Novichok's existence in 1992 claimed at the time that the nerve agent was designed specifically to skirt chemical weapons conventions. No life is too small to save even that of a massive spider bigger than a human hand. Locals in Queensland, Australia spotted a giant arachnid clinging to life, both literally and figuratively, above a surging river last week. They endeavored to save it. Andrew Gilberto captured the rescue on camera, and the footage quickly went viral. It has since spurred an online philosophical debate: Which lives should be saved and which left to the raging waters? "While the spider clinged to a branch, I'd risk my life wading through flood waters to smack it with a newspaper," wrote a cynical Twitter user. The Queenslanders fearing not the fast-flowing water nor the eight-legged behemoth plucked the spider, branch and all, from its perch above the river and placed it safely beside an avocado tree near a supermarket. Thanks to the lucky break, the spider now resides in what most Millennials would consider paradise. The arachnid is thought to be a whistling spider, named for the hissing sounds it makes. It is not venomous. The Queensland region was pounded by heavy rains last week, leading to widespread flooding and the whistler's predicament. Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf. An American pastor jailed in Turkey may face a maximum of 35 years in prison in connection with the 2016 coup attempt, according to an indictment liable to further strain ties with Washington. Andrew Brunson, who was imprisoned in the government purges that followed the botched putsch, was charged with espionage and attempting to topple Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. The pastor is also accused of collaborating with Kurdish PKK militant group fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast, the agency said. A court will decide whether to accept the indictment and send him to trial. Posted Tuesday, March 13, 2018 7:45 am The Springfield Public School District was born in 1869. There were two schools one for white students and one for black students that was constructed in 1872 near the northwest corner of Washington and Central streets. In 1884, Drury College made a deal to acquire that building in exchange for building the first Lincoln School for black students on the southeast corner of that intersection. In 1931, a new Lincoln High School building was constructed on the northeast corner of Sherman Ave. and what is now called Bob Barker Blvd. It was partially funded by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. That foundation constructed 5,000 schools expressly for the education of black students in the south. Missouri was a border state, but the need was so great that the foundation built three schools in Missouri and Lincoln High School in Springfield was the first. Julius Rosenwald was the son of Samuel and Augusta Rosenwald, both of whom had emigrated from Germany in the mid-1850s. Samuel and Augusta met in Baltimore and married in 1857. By 1862, the couple was living in Springfield, Illinois, where Samuel was a clothing merchant. Julius was born Aug. 12 of that year. As a youngster, Julius worked as an organ grinder at a church and at the family store on Saturdays. As a 12-year-old, Julius sold brochures on a monument to Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the memorial in Springfield, and got to see President Ulysses S. Grant. In early 1879, at the age of 17, Julius left for New York City. There, he resided in a boarding house for young men and befriended Harry Goldman, who later became a founding partner in Goldman Sachs, in addition to working in his uncles clothing stores. Eventually, Julius and one of his brothers opened a mens clothing store of their own in Greenwich Village. When they had trouble acquiring mens clothing to sell, the two brothers decided to manufacture their own and moved to Chicago to set up the business there in 1886. Julius married Augusta Nusbaum in April 1890. In 1893, at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Augustas brother, Aaron Nusbaum, acquired the contract to sell soda-water drinks to the exposition visitors that summer and he made $150,000 at his venture. Two years later, Nusbaum met a mail-order sales businessman by the name of Richard Sears. Sears and his partner, Alvah Roebuck, were overwhelmed by the response to their catalog and Roebuck had sold out to Sears for $20,000. Sears needed help and offered Aaron Nusbaum a half ownership in Sears, Roebuck and Company for $75,000. Nusbaum didnt want to put that much money in the company, so he convinced his brother-in-law, Julius Rosenwald, to put up half of that amount and own 25 percent of the company. Julius jumped at the chance because Sears had purchased a large number of suits from him and owed him a considerable amount of money, so he could become a partner without coming up with the full $37,500 himself. He became a partner in Sears and Roebuck in 1895, and by 1900, a consumer could order almost anything they wanted from Sears. That was the year that Sears and Julius bought out Aaron Nusbaums share. In 1906, the Sears Roebuck Company needed to build a modern new plant in Chicago and needed money to do it. Sears and Julius met with Julius old friend, Harry Goldman of Goldman Sachs. Goldman recommended that Sears, Roebuck become a publicly owned company by virtue of a stock offering. That gave the company the money it needed and made Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald instant millionaires. Two years later, Richard Sears resigned as president of the company, but remained as chairman of the board. Julius became president of Sears Roebuck. In 1914, Richard Sears died at the age of 50. Under Julius leadership, the company thrived, and by 1920, it had $245 million in annual sales twice as much as its nearest competitor, Montgomery Ward. In the latter part of 1924, Julius picked his successors, retired as president and became chairman of the board. Julius lifetime earnings were estimated at $80 million. He had already turned to philanthropy back in 1910, with the objective of giving his money away while he was still alive. The son of Jewish immigrants, Julius was concerned with any kind of discrimination and believed that all races deserved an education and a chance to better themselves. He began to help build YMCAs for black Americans, and in 1911, he met and became friends with Booker T. Washington. Washington talked to Julius about helping build schools for black children in the south where there were none. Julius even joined the board of trustees of the Tuskegee Institute that Washington had founded. The Rosenwald Foundation began to contribute to funding the building of black schools in the south. Julius believed his contribution should be matched by local black families to give them a sense of ownership in the schools, with local governments picking up the tab for the remainder of the costs. This worked well, and by 1932, the year of Julius Rosenwalds death, his foundation had helped fund the construction of 5,000 school houses in 15 southern states. One of those, of course, was Lincoln High School in Springfield, which was built the year prior to his death. Next week: The Rosenwald Fund and notable teachers and students at Lincoln High School. Diagnosed with breast cancer in her late 40s, Virginia Lyssy Jendrusch soon discovered that she would never again be eligible for life insurance. Though she survived the cancer she had a double mastectomy and never had a recurrence Jendrusch realized how much insurance would have meant to her family had she not survived. She was not going to let anyone else fall into that trap, her daughter Laurie Clark said. Becoming an agent with Catholic Life Insurance, Jendrusch often used her own experience as an example. One by one, every person she could get a hold of at the grocery store, hair salon, our friends, she told, Clark said. She saw an opportunity in every person; shed say it was such a blessing to be able to help them all. Thats how Mom looked at things. Jendrusch died March 4 at 85. The oldest of eight children raised during the Depression, Jendrusch knew about hard work. She grew up on the farm picking cotton, Clark said. They were extremely poor lived in a very tiny house. More Information Virginia Lyssy Jendrusch Born: Aug. 16, 1932, Kosciusko Died: March 4, 2018, San Antonio Preceded by: Husband Leonard Jendrusch; grandson Clifford Miller; parents John and Helen Lyssy. Survived by: Daughters Diane Miller and son-in-law Steve Miller, Laurie Clark and son-in-law Rodney and Ann Christenson and son-in-law Joe; son Alan Jendrusch and daughter-in-law Monica; 12 grandchildren; two great-granddaughters. Services: Funeral was Saturday. See More Collapse Graduating from Poth High School in 1950, Jendrusch married a young farmer from Cestohowa in 1954. Though her husband would have been happy to stay on the farm, Jendrusch had had enough of such a hard life. Settling on the near North Side of San Antonio, Jendrusch worked full time as a budget analyst at Fort Sam Houston, which enabled her and her husband to send their children to Catholic schools and purchase 75 acres in Dewees on which to raise cattle and grow crops. She wanted to keep a little bit of the country for my dad, Clark said. It was also how they fed their children, planting rows and rows of produce, Clark said. We would feed a lot of the neighbors, too. Spending almost every weekend at the farm, the six of us would pile in the pickup truck, all in the cab, Clark recalled. No seat belts; Mom would pray the rosary there and back. That tells you what a faith-filled person she was. Enrolling at what was then Texas State University in her late 40s, Jendrusch fulfilled a lifelong dream and graduated in 1989, about the same time she retired from Fort Sam Houston. Starting her career at Catholic Life in 1990, Jendrusch continued to sell life insurance until she was 84, taking the bus after she gave up driving. She was passionate about life insurance, Clark said. A Mexican businessman convicted of helping the notorious Zetas drug gang launder money in the U.S. and trying to bribe a federal judge in Austin has died at a federal prison in West Virginia. Francisco Colorado Cessa, 57, died Sunday at the Federal Correctional Institute Hazleton, according to the Bureau of Prisons. In a statement, the bureau said it would not release his cause of death without a Freedom of Information Act request. The request has been filed; a response is pending. A spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services said state law only allows the release of autopsy information to next of kin and law enforcement. Colorado hailed from the Mexican state of Veracruz where he owned an environmental remediation company that largely did business with Mexicos state-run oil company. He was arrested in 2012 and accused of helping Zetas leader Miguel Trevino Morales and two of his brothers launder millions of dollars through a U.S. quarter horse breeding and racing operation. A jury convicted Colorado in 2013 of money laundering conspiracy and a judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison. After he was sentenced, Colorado was charged with conspiring to bribe the judge involved with his case. An appellate court later overturned the money laundering conviction, but after separate trials in 2015 and 2016, juries convicted him in both the money laundering and the bribery cases. A judge sentenced Colorado to 3 1/3 years in prison for conspiring to bribe a public official and almost 17 years in prison for conspiring to launder money. During both money laundering trials, prosecutors showed that Colorado purchased quarter horses at U.S. auctions that later ended up on the Oklahoma ranch of Jose Trevino Morales, a U.S. citizen and brother of Miguel Trevino. Former Zetas members and associates testified in the 2016 trial that Miguel Trevino and his brother Omar gave Colorado millions of dollars in cash in Mexico. Colorados lawyers argued that he was a victim of extortion by Miguel Trevino, also known as Cuarenta and Z-40, whos wanted in Laredo for ordering murders in Texas and is accused of being behind mass killings in Mexico, where hes currently in jail. They said that, like another Veracruz businessman whose charges were dropped after he told U.S. investigators he was kidnapped and forced to buy horses at U.S. auctions, Colorado was an unwilling participant in the conspiracy and was never compensated for his livestock purchases. The 84-year-old woman stuck in her home with her son during a 24-hour standoff with law enforcement died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office. On the evening of March 6, Bexar County sheriff deputies went to the Macias home in the 9200 block of Saddle Trail to serve a mental health warrant for Fernando Macias, 60, and to conduct a welfare check on his mother, Amelia Macias. Individuals held in the months-long anti-graft campaign in Saudi Arabia were tortured as New York Times (NYT) reports the death of Maj Gen Ali al-Qahtani, an officer in the National Guard, while in custody. Early November, around 200 individuals including several members of the royal family, top officers, and influential businessmen were locked up at Riyadh Ritz Hotel and forced to sign financial deals with the state in exchange for their freedom. Based on several interviews of associates and aides of those arrested, the NYT Monday reported that around 381 people have been targeted by the campaign aimed at the seizure of parts of their assets. Citing sources who requested not to be named for fear of reprisal, the US media revealed the death in custody of al-Qahtani; an army general who was also arrested in the campaign. Medical sources who saw al-Qahtanis body said he showed signs of torture; his neck appeared twisted, looking broken, and his skin showed signs of physical abuse. The General is not a wealthy individual but appeared to have been arrested in the campaign because of his position as top aid to Prince Turki bin Abdullah, a son of the late King Abdullah and a former governor of Riyadh, who was himself detained early November. The NYT believes the general was arrested in a bid to get information from him on his boss, who is seen a major rival to Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. Seventeen people in total were reported victim of torture during their interrogation in the five-star hotel where the detainees were separated from their families, company associates. A Saudi official at the kingdoms mission in Washington denied reports of abuses and said that the detainees had full access to legal counsel and medical care. All allegations of abuse and torture of those investigated during the anti-corruption proceedings are absolutely untrue, the official was quoted as saying. Populations in the Matrouh province are being encouraged to cast their votes at the coming presidential election later this month with businessmen in the province offering 500 free Umrah pilgrimage trips to voters, reports say. Egyptians are called to polls this March 26-28 but most opposition parties have called for boycotting the process citing unfair conditions. Incumbent President Fattah al-Sisi is seeking a second four-year term in office almost unchallenged as the only other candidate is deemed weak and pro-al-Sisi regime. Most likely opponents to Sisi were Ahmed Shafik, the countrys last Prime Minister under Hosni Mubarak, and Sami Anan, former army Chief of staff. Both were forced to sign out from the process. The first gave up his presidential dream few months after returning from his United Arab Emirates exile. Anan has been arrested and detained in a military camp for allegedly breaching military rules over his intention to run for the election. Local media, Almesryoon, reports that local businessmen in Matrough have offered 500 free Umrah trips to voters. All voters according to the media are qualified for a draw, with winners chosen at random. Al-Sisi warned against any attempt by his critics to disrupt the process. Media have also received warnings after authorities set up hotlines for complaints against fake news. A recent campaign has deplored the influence of outside groups in elections. It is important for taxpayers and voters to understand that the primary outside group the insiders fear is us the educated and motivated voters. For years, insider incumbents have relied on financially dominating their political opponents to win over voters and avoid scrutiny of their voting record. Yet efforts by outsiders to shine a light on what really happens inside our state capitol is causing a fundamental shift in the status quo. This can be demonstrated with a few numbers, beginning with 1.5 percent. Thats the approximate percentage of all campaign spending attributed to the Empower Texans PAC, or ETPAC, the main outside group identified by insiders as their political bogeyman. If you presume most of the 98.5 percent of other funds are supporting insiders, the disproportional fear of ETPAC shows its efforts clearly pose a threat to insiders. As it stands today, $113.5 million has been spent on Texas legislative and statewide campaigns during this campaign cycle. Of that, $1.6 million was spent by ETPAC. That is a lot of money, but a small portion of the total. So why the fuss? Because the distinction insiders make is that ETPAC is an outsider. That means ETPAC is willing to take the often unpopular stance of backing challengers against insider incumbents. It also means that what the insiders loathe is having their voting record exposed in primary elections. Most Texans know there is a swamp in Austin as well as in D.C. Thats why the concept of term limits is so popular. But we have term limits in Texas: elections. About 85 percent of districts are single party, so the decision whether to replace an incumbent was made in the primary last week (runoffs occur May 22). In the Austin swamp, insiders use a phrase thats illustrative: campaign talk. By this they mean, The things we have to say to get elected so we can come to Austin and do what we know is best for voters who dont really understand what is good for them. Take property taxes. Incumbents consistently campaign against high property taxes. Meanwhile, they keep going up. ETPAC has historically backed challengers against incumbents whose actions in Austin contradict their promises to voters. Empower Texans remains outside the swamp and informs voters who want their representatives to do in Austin what they campaigned on during election season. One means is the Fiscal Responsibility Index. It rates votes on legislation by criteria announced before the votes are taken. It is a blind test of whether legislators deliver on their campaign promises. It is a transparent process where voters can do their own investigation. Perhaps this explains why this voter-education tool is particularly hated by many insider incumbents. Meanwhile, ETPAC also supports incumbents who stand with voters those who defy the insider culture and actually vote for the policies promised during their campaigns. Such rebels are often punished by the Austin lobby with a well-funded primary challenger. ETPAC works to ensure these outsider incumbents have sufficient funding to defend their voting records. There is no mystery why business groups band together to donate to incumbents as a means to protect their businesses from adverse regulations. And it is easy to understand why incumbents get most of their campaign funds from these and other special interest groups and their supporters. But Empower Texans has a different goal to empower voters to impose term limits on politicians who dont follow through on their promises. ETPACs single-digit percentage of total campaign funding in Texas has an outsized impact precisely because Texans disagree with the Austin swamp. Texas voters actually know much better than politicians what is best for Texas. If all of us outsiders stick together, we can drain the Austin swamp. You can access publicly disclosed election finance data for yourself at www.transparencytexas.org Prosecutors say that a 20-year-old woman accused of causing a drunk driving crash that killed a mother and her newborn baby had a blood alcohol content of .21, nearly three times the legal limit. Alleged Drunk Driver Does Not Remember Deadly Crash According to ABC 7, the crash occurred early Wednesday morning along the Gulf Freeway feeder road in Houston. Shayla Joseph, 36, and her 3-month-old daughter, Braylan Jabari Joseph, were both pronounced dead at the scene. Prosecutors have now revealed that the driver of the other vehicle, Veronica Rivas, 20, had a blood alcohol content of .21 following the collision. The number was recorded by a hospital attendant and reported to officers. Drunk driving was suspected early on as investigators noted a strong odor of alcohol on Rivas breath following the accident as well as red glassy eyes and slurred speech. A friend of Rivas family told reporters that Rivas was so drunk that she does not even remember hitting the car. Alleged Drunk Driver Appears Before Judge Rivas faced a judge in court Friday morning and appeared to break down in tears when prosecutors told her that a 3-month-old baby was in the back of the car she hit. Rivas has charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter and was released from jail on a $30,000 bond. During her court appearance on Friday, the judge informed Rivas that she is not allowed to leave her home without the courts permission and must wear a GPS monitor which will track everywhere she goes. She also must wear a device that will monitor if she drinks any alcohol as a condition of her bond. Texas Auto Accident Statistics The following information was provided by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT): 3,773 people were killed in Texas traffic accidents in 2016, marking a 5.45% increase from the 3,578 deaths reported in 2015. 638 of the deaths reported in 2016 were attributed to head-on collision. Alcohol was determined to be a factor in 987 traffic deaths, accounting for roughly 26% of all Texas traffic fatalities. An additional 264,076 people were injured in auto accidents in Texas in 2016. Based on reportable data for 2016, TxDOT estimates: One person was killed in a traffic accident every 2 hours and 20 minutes. One person was injured every 1 minute and 59 seconds. A reportable crash occurred every 57 seconds. Contact an Experienced Auto Accident Attorney If you or a loved one have been injured in a car crash, contact Thomas J. Henry. Our experienced Corpus Christi car accident attorneys have experience handling a multitude of injury accidents, no matter how severe the crash or injury. You may be entitled to compensation for your damages if another driver acted negligently. Our firm has the experienced lawyers and financial resources that you need to achieve the real results you deserve. Our firm has offices in Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston, serving clients across Texas and nationwide. Call us today for a free case review attorneys are available 24/7, nights and weekends. If you cannot make it to our office, we can visit you at your home, in the hospital, or at work. Editors Note: This content is made possible by Thomas J. Henry Personal Injury Law. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com. When former ASB customer 95-year-old John Lokes needed to open an account with the ANZ Bank recently he found that, for an older person, changing banks may not be as easy as you think. Banks in New Zealand are required to obtain photo ID from new customers in most cases a passport, driving licence or an 18+ card. The latter is issued by the Hospitality Association and is used by young people to establish that they can legally purchase alcohol. John, who lived on the Hibiscus Coast for 35 years before moving to Te Atatu last August, has not had a valid passport for many years and says he gave up his driving licence around two years ago. His British birth certificate and Gold Card are not suitable. The bank therefore suggested that he apply for an 18+ card a situation that he considered ridiculous. My son-in-law joked that hed like to see me line up to get into a nightclub and present them with my 18+ card, he says. In fact, applicants for an 18+ card also require photo ID. The card costs $50. However, banks can, at their discretion, allow for an exemption for new customers without photo ID. They are likely to require the applicant to produce other forms of ID, such as a NZ birth certificate or Gold Card and proof of their address. An overseas birth certificate may require proof of citizenship. Eventually, this is what the ANZ Bank agreed to do for John. John says hes glad the situation is sorted and hopes that his experience serves as a warning to other elderly people who may not have considered that they could potentially need to have some form of photo ID. Traps were placed around Hatfields Beach last month to help rid the area of rats, mustelids (stoats and weasels) and possums. Hatfields resident Colin Christie decided to set and check a trap line to support the pest control work that Hibiscus Coast Forest & Bird is doing elsewhere on the Coast. He says Hatfields is ideal territory for rats, with freedom camping activities, a public reserve and rubbish bins near the beach all providing a potential rodent food source. In fact, while I was in the reserve talking with Pauline Smith from Forest and Bird about the trap line, a rat swam past up the creek, he says. In late February, Colin set 26 snap traps, which target rats, as well as two DOC 200s and two Timms traps, for possums. The traps, provided by Hibiscus Coast Forest and Bird, were placed around the perimeter of Hatfields Beach Reserve, up to the bridge and on the grass by the beach. They are not accessible for non-target species, such as domestic animals and are baited with peanut butter and a synthetic bait that Hibiscus Coast Forest and Bird is trialling this consists of plastic blocks impregnated with the aroma of meat or fish that can last up to 12 months. In his role as pest detection dog handler for DOC, Colin will also use dead rats taken from the traps to train rescue dog Bindy to find rodents. He is training his other dog, Pipi, to detect mustilids. Colin is regularly monitoring the trap line, recording what is caught, replacing bait and making any adjustments needed. The information goes on Forest & Birds database. He says he wants his whole family to get involved in the work. Everyone has to do their bit if we are to have a predator free New Zealand, Colin says. If we all put traps out at home and at work it would really make a difference to our wildlife. Tech & Science, Nature & Weather, Local News, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: March 13 2018 More Than 350 Households and Small Businesses to Benefit from Sullivan County's 2.7 Megawatt Solar Array. Albany, NY - March 13, 2018 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the completion of the state's largest community solar project which will result in reduced energy bills for more than 350 households and small businesses. The 2.7-megawatt solar array, located in Sullivan County, is critical to supporting Governor Cuomo's mandate for half of all electricity consumed to come from renewable energy sources by 2030. "An investment in renewable energy is an investment in the future and sustainability of New York's environment, and the overall health of this state," Governor Cuomo said. "This Sullivan County project will deliver energy savings to residents throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley region, while supporting the establishment of a cleaner, greener New York for all." The solar array is located in Callicoon, Sullivan County and includes approximately 9,800 solar panels. The project will reduce greenhouse gases by 1,670 metric tons annually, the equivalent to taking approximately 360 cars off the road. The Sullivan County project is owned by Delaware River Solar. It received nearly $1.3 million in funding through Governor Cuomo's $1 billion NY-Sun initiative, which is building a self-sustaining solar industry in New York State. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority administers the NY-Sun initiative. These community-based projects increase access to solar in areas where residents may or may not own property or have room to install solar panels at their location by enabling them to subscribe to a local community solar project. Once households and businesses subscribe, energy is still delivered through their regular electric provider while the power produced from the solar array is fed directly back to the electric grid. As a result, the grid is supplied with clean, renewable energy while subscribers get credit on their electric bills. In February, Governor Cuomo announced that solar power in New York increased more than 1,000 percent from December 2011 to December 2017, leveraging more than $2.8 billion in private investments. There are more than 12,000 people engaged in solar jobs across New York. Richard Kauffman, Chairman for Energy and Finance, New York, said, "Under Governor Cuomo, our community solar initiatives are growing across the state like the one announced today in Sullivan County. Even those who cannot install solar on their own roofs can reap the benefits of cleaner and more affordable energy and save on costs and help us all combat climate change." Alicia Barton, President and CEO, NYSERDA said, "New Yorkers are once again joining Governor Cuomo's commitment to fighting climate change and protecting our environment as we march towards meeting his nation-leading commitments to adoption of renewable energy. I commend all of the Sullivan County community solar subscribers for taking part in solar energy projects like this one that are not only reducing harmful carbon emissions, but creating thousands of jobs and spurring local investments all across our state." Chairman of the Senate Energy & Telecommunications Committee Joseph A. Griffo said, "It is important that we continue to seek ways to produce energy from as many sources as possible. I am hopeful that this solar array will help us to increase our renewable energy generation while also providing consumers and businesses who choose to take part with a reduction to their energy costs." Chairman of the Assembly's Committee on Energy Michael J. Cusick said, "Once again, New York State accomplished an enormous milestone, with concerns to reducing greenhouse gas emission, by completing the state's largest community solar project. This project demonstrates that our state is on track to reach our renewable energy goal by 2030. Thank you to Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority for progressively working to steer us in the right direction." Sullivan County Legislature Chairman Luis A. Alvarez said, "The completion of this precedent-setting array demonstrates both the Governor's commitment to a 'green' New York and the Sullivan County Legislature's commitment to a 'green' Sullivan County. We are taking the lead in advancing affordable renewable energy solutions, as well as in promoting community solar that benefits users and taxpayers simultaneously. Indeed, our Industrial Development Agency's innovative Community Distributed Generation Program has become a statewide model in how to encourage the growth of community solar while enhancing the tax base. This is a hometown success in every respect, and I'm thrilled to witness its debut." Rich Winter, CEO, Delaware River Solar said, "We are excited that our first community solar array is in our home town of Callicoon, New York. And we are very gratified by all the local support as evidenced by the fact 82 percent of the power is subscribed by people in Sullivan County and 52 percent in the town itself. Hyper local green energy in New York State!" Reforming the Energy Vision Local News, Health & Wellness, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: March 13 2018 Health Inspection Indicates Hazardous Living Conditions, Including Mold, Vermin and Potential Lead Paint - Posing Serious Public Health Threat to New Yorkers. Albany, NY - March 13, 2018 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today directed the New York State Department of Health to investigate the hazardous conditions plaguing the New York City Housing Authority to protect New Yorkers. Prior to the announcement, the Governor toured the Jackson Houses, a NYCHA building in the Bronx, alongside Borough President Ruben Diaz, City Councilmember Ritchie Torres, Assemblyman Michael Blake, New York State's Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, and Jim Walden, an attorney for NYCHA tenants, where they saw evidence of mold, vermin, and decades-old, potentially hazardous paint peeling from the walls. The conditions present a clear threat to public health and serve as a reflection of conditions across NYCHA housing, which demand immediate action from the state. "The situation we've seen is as upsetting and as disturbing as anything I've seen anywhere and I've been through the worst housing complexes all across this country," Governor Cuomo said. "It is just shocking that in New York State we would have people who are subjected to these conditions, and on behalf of the people of the state, I apologize to the NYCHA residents because they deserve better and they'll get better." New York State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said, "NYCHA residents deserve safe and habitable housing, and the conditions I witnessed first-hand this morning simply do not qualify. Exposure to lead, mold and pests can have serious and lasting health effects, particularly for the most vulnerable New Yorkers. My team at the Department of Health stands ready to conduct further investigations and we commend Governor Cuomo for his leadership in addressing this serious matter." At the Governor's direction, Commissioner of Health, Dr. Zucker, will be conducting a formal investigation into NYCHA properties after a state inspection indicated clear health and safety hazards. The public health hazards to be addressed by the investigation include mold and potential lead paint, two issues that have been neglected by city officials. The Governor also unveiled a plan to create a tenant-led oversight council to oversee how funding is spent and how repairs are being conducted at NYCHA. As tenants are closest to the problem, they are in the best position to advance and oversee solutions to the crisis plaguing NYCHA. The council would include NYCHA's tenant board members and members of the Citywide Council of Presidents, but would serve as an independent oversight body. The tenant-led oversight council would be made up of resident leaders, who would work with advocacy organizations, elected officials, and faith and union leaders. The creation of the tenant-led oversight council would be negotiated in the FY 2018-19 State Budget. Sigilon Therapeutics is a Cambridge, MA-based biotech company developing innovative therapeutics by encapsulating cells in a novel coating that renders them invisible to the immune system. The engineered cells contained in the companys particles can provide long-term continuous therapy for a range of chronic disorders, including hemophilia and diabetes, and eliminate the need for intermittent injection or infusion. With this technological breakthrough Sigilon hopes to fundamentally change the trajectory of disease treatment. Medgadget editor Tom Peach recently spoke with Devyn Smith PhD, Chief Strategy Officer of Sigilon Therapeutics, to learn more about the companys technology. Tom Peach, Medgadget: Devyn, what is your role at Sigilon Therapeutics and what was your background prior to joining the team? Devyn Smith, Sigilon Therapeutics: I joined Sigilon a year ago as the Chief Strategy Officer and Head of OperationsI joined as I was excited to work on novel cell therapies, after a background working in this area in both consulting and in a large Pharmaceutical company. I think our technology offers a real opportunity to providing durable, meaningful treatments for paitients. By way of background, I began my career with a PhD in Developmental Biology at Harvard Medical School. I then spent some time in strategy consulting before moving into the biotech sector; I went to Pfizer and became COO of the Neusentis Research Unit in the UK, focusing on regenerative medicine and pain and sensory disorders, and also served as Head of Strategy for the Medical Sciences Division of Pfizer R&D. Medgadget: What is the story behind Sigilon as a company? Where did you start and how did you get to where you are today? Devyn Smith: We began about 10 years ago at MIT, where the labs of Robert Langer and Daniel Anderson were working on a project focused on creating a novel biomaterial that could encapsulate and protect cells from the bodys immune system. Over the course of that research, a library of compounds was discovered that can be used to coat a biomaterial, prevent the bodys immune system from recognizing the implant, and, thus, remain in the body for years. This work formed the basis of Sigilon Therapeutics, which was founded about 18-months ago. We are currently 30 employees and have taken that coating technology and coupled it with proprietary cell technology to build what we call living therapeutics. Medgadget: What are some of the problems with conventional biologic therapies? Devyn Smith: Current biologic therapies are effective, but the big challenge is that they must be re-dosed frequently. The initial dose of a drug leads to a very high concentration of the therapeutic in the blood. Then, over time the proteins are degraded, and this concentration drops before re-dosing, which results in a series of peaks and troughs of therapeutic levels. Its often at these peaks and troughs that you see side effects and adverse events due to either too much or too little therapeutic in the body. In the case of treating something like hemophilia, this could mean patients have to be infused and keep receiving those infusions two or three times a week. Additionally, there are also some proteins that are currently just not amenable to becoming effective therapies because they degrade too fast and would need continuous infusions. Medgadget: What is the structure of one of Sigilons therapeutic particles? Devyn Smith: So lets start with the inside. The center of the particle contains a population of cells, between a few hundred and many thousands. These cells have been created with some very specific properties: they must live a long time, they must divide very slowly, if a neighboring cells dies, they should replace it, and they must produce consistently high-levels of the desired protein for a very long time. The cells are then embedded in a modified alginate capsule, 1.5mm in diameter. The third component of the technology is the small molecule (Afibromer) that then coats the outside of these capsules and prevents the body from recognizing the capsule as a foreign body. The cells are protected from the immune system by the capsule, and the capsule is protected from the body by the coating that prevents local fibrosis. Medgadget: So what advantages does this system have when compared to current biologic therapies? Devyn Smith: Firstly weve eliminated those peaks and troughs of traditional dosing of biologics with a constant source of the therapeutic. For example, in a hemophilia patient, that could mean eliminating bleeds in their joints, which are common when the therapeutic levels hit a trough. Secondly a patient only needs to receive our therapy once and they will receive adequate treatment for many years because of the steady release of the therapeutic. This means that a patient can basically live a normal lifeand not have to even think about their condition for years on end. All of these benefits come with additional security compared to something like gene therapy, which also offers a long-duration treatment option, as our therapy can both be re-dosed and is stoppable/removable if needed. Medgadget: How are these therapeutic particles actually delivered to the body? Devyn Smith: The particles are placed in the lesser sac (omental bursa), which is like a little tote bag between the liver and stomach with a convenient window to introduce material through. This is a great space for the particles, as its a highly vascularized zone and drains right into the portal system, so a therapeutic can be rapidly delivered to the rest of the body. The capsules are also well protected in this locationit would be possible to implant the particles subcutaneously, but you would probably risk crushing them with trauma. We are also exploring other areas in the body to place our therapy. Medgadget: What are the main target diseases for Sigilons technology? Can the particles only dose passively or is there a possibility of a controlled delivery? Devyn Smith: Our primary targets include hemophilia, where patients experience some of the side effects weve already talked about along with requiring multiple infusions a week. Were also looking at lysosomol storage disorders, which is another area where constant dosing of proteins can really benefit patients significantly. The third area we are currently exploring is diabetes, where treatment is currently very invasive with patients needing insulin shots or a pump system. In this case, the fact that we can deliver a particular cell line to the body that could sense the glucose level in the environment and respond with an appropriate dosing of insulin is really very exciting. Medgadget: What is the path to seeing Sigilons particles in clinical usage? Devyn Smith: We are currently in regulatory discussions and are moving rapidly towards clinical studies with a goal of the first in-human use the end of next year (2019). We have also just received our first Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product classification by the European Medicines Agency for our hemophilia B candidate. One of the beauties of the platform is that weve eliminated a lot of the traditional target risk in pharmaceutical development because we are pursuing known targets and disorders with a clear clinical and regulatory path. What is novel is our modality of delivery, which should really revolutionize treatmentand do so quite rapidly. Medgadget: What do you think is the future of cell-based therapeutics? Are we going to see a complete end to conventional biologic therapies? Devyn Smith: The goal is that with diseases like hemophilia or diabetes, a patient receives hopefully one treatment and they are good for three, five or ten years. This is fantastic as weve eliminated the need for the short-term injectable therapeutics, and the patient is effectively disease-free. This would clearly have significant implications for current therapies in these diseases. We believe that the safety record of our therapy will really be a differentiator. We think in time there will be a migration towards the majority of treatment being delivered via cell therapy, and patients will be able to live completely disease-free lives. Link: Sigilon website President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria said Nigerian authorities prefer to negotiate with Boko Haram group which abducted schoolgirls for the release of the hostages rather than resorting to military action. Nigeria prefers to have the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok and Dapchi back alive, and that is why it has chosen negotiation, rather than a military option, President Buhari told US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a meeting in Abuja on Monday, according to a statement released by the presidency. The two men discussed the use of negotiations to bring back the abducted schoolgirls, the statement said, adding that Nigeria was working together with international organizations and negotiators, to ensure that the girls are released unharmed by their captors. Female students have been reported missing following a Boko Haram attack on Government Girls Secondary School at Dapchi town in Yobe state last month. The kidnapping is one of the largest since the jihadist group abducted more than 270 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014. In September 2017, some 100 Chibok girls were reunited with their families after the Nigerian government shelled out over 2 million in ransom payments to Boko Haram terrorists. Buhari and the US Secretary of State also discussed counter-terrorism efforts and humanitarian issues in Nigerias North-East and in the Lake Chad Basin. Means to advance peace and security, promote good governance, and spur mutually beneficial trade and investment were also brought up at the meeting. by Tanya Gazdik , March 12, 2018 In case you havent heard, Detroit is in the midst of a revival and is attracting scores of new residents who want to take advantage of affordable housing and other positive attributes. While that may be true, you have to be willing to take the bad with the good, and high on the list of whats bad is a couple of months of frigid weather and very little sunshine. Automotive journalists complain year in and out that they must come to the city in January for the North American International Auto Show. Even Detroit-based journalists dread it because the press days inevitably fall during a nasty snowstorm, which makes navigating around the city a challenge even for those of us adept at winter driving. So when rumors started circulating in February during an equally cold Chicago Auto Show that the Detroit Auto Dealers Association, which runs the show, might be moving it to October, more than one journalist and automotive executive did a happy dance. advertisement advertisement There are more reasons for a move than not. For starters, an October show would put Detroit ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show in November and the Consumer Electronics Show technology extravaganza in Las Vegas, also in January. Both shows have been stealing the Motor Citys thunder in recent years. Another possible benefit includes adding outdoor events and reducing automakers' costs. As for the regular public show days, you've got to think not having to negotiate inclement weather might encourage a few more spectators. Any change would happen after the 2019 auto show, which is set for Jan. 14-27. Auto show executive director Rod Alberts told the Detroit Free Press that enthusiasm is building for such a move, although a final decision has not been made.The more stakeholders we talk to, the more they like the idea, Alberts said. We want to showcase Detroit in what may be the most beautiful month of the year. The shows annual economic impact is $450 million, nearly twice the value of hosting a high-profile event like a Super Bowl, 2019 show chairman Bill Golling told the Detroit Free Press. An earlier show could prompt the return of some automakers who have abandoned the show in recent years, including Volvo, Mazda, Porsche, Jaguar, Mini, Ferrari and Maserati. Mercedes-Benz wont be attending in 2019. Theres also talk of changing the name from the North American International Auto Show (which it started going by in 1989 to emphasize its global importance) to a moniker that includes Detroit, a move that increasingly makes sense given the citys revival. Detroit Auto Show rolls off the tongue a lot easier, as well. Hopefully the dealers association received support for the idea during talks with auto executives at the Geneva Auto Show last week and will be announcing the change very soon. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, March 13, 2018 In a blow to Yahoo, a federal judge has ruled that the company must face a host of claims by consumers who are suing over a series of data breaches that occurred between 2013 and 2016. The ruling, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, grows out of revelations that Yahoo not only suffered three data breaches that appear to have affected 3 billion users, but didn't inform users about the incidents until years after the fact. Yahoo has said says it didn't know the 2013 data breach -- the largest of the three incidents --until December of 2016, shortly before it notified people. Last August, Koh ruled that the consumers could proceed with some of their claims -- including allegations that Yahoo violated California's law against unfair competition and broke its contract with users -- but she dismissed other allegations. At the time, she rejected Yahoo's argument that consumers didn't suffer any concrete injury, and therefore lacked "standing" to proceed with their lawsuit. advertisement advertisement Koh's August order allowed the consumers to flesh out several of the dismissed claims and bring them again. The consumers did so last year. Yahoo again asked Koh to throw out those claims, arguing in papers filed this January that the consumers' allegations consisted of "broad generalizations, legal conclusions, and threadbare assertions." Koh's new ruling dismisses some claims, but allows the consumers to proceed with others, including that Yahoo fraudulently deceived consumers by concealing the data breaches. She specifically noted that the consumers alleged that they would have "taken measures to protect themselves, had they been told about the hacking incidents. In 2013, hackers stole data -- including, in some cases, names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and security questions and answers associated with an estimated 3 billion Yahoo accounts. Yahoo didn't disclose that breach until December of 2016. In 2014, a separate data breach resulted in the theft of similar information associated with 500 million accounts; the company disclosed that breach in September of 2016. And in February of 2017, Yahoo announced yet a third attack in which hackers gained access to users' passwords by forging cookies. by Sara Guaglione , March 13, 2018 National Geographic is devoting its April 2018 issue to race and its coverage of diversity, exploring the topics in depth in a special edition. The Race Issue, available online now and on newsstands March 27, also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The Race Issue's cover story features fraternal twin girls, one who resembles her white mother and the other who looks more like her Jamaican father. The story is a real-world example of the concept that racial differences have no genetic or scientific basis, according to DNA-sequencing pioneer Craig Venter in other words, race is a societal, not scientific, concept. advertisement advertisement The Race Issue includes a story on how scientific ideas of race originated, as well as a letter from National Geographics editor in chief Susan Goldberg admitting to the magazines historically racist coverage of the world, and a feature documenting black men getting stopped by police while driving. Debra Adams Simmons, the executive editor of culture at National Geographic, said the time is right for an issue dedicated to race. A cultural wave in the United States has put race at the forefront of the national discourse, she wrote. Goldberg asked John Edwin Mason, a professor of African history and the history of photography at the University of Virginia, to analyze National Geographics nearly 130-year archive and see how the magazine covered people from diverse backgrounds. Mason found a long tradition of racism in the magazine's coverage, from its text to its choice of subjects and photography. "Until the 1970s, "National Geographic all but ignored people of color who lived in the United States, rarely acknowledging them beyond laborers or domestic workers," wrote Goldberg in the issue's editor letter, where she discusses Mason's findings. "Meanwhile, it pictured 'natives' elsewhere as exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savagesevery type of cliche." National Geographics April issue kicks off its Diversity in America magazine series. Throughout the rest of 2018, the series will focus on different racial, ethnic and religious groups in the United States and examine their changing roles in 21st-century life. Next month, the magazine will tell the stories of the 3.45 million Muslim Americans from more than 75 countries who have been deeply embedded in communities across the country for more than a hundred years, Simmons explained. Later in the year, National Geographic will explore Latinos, focusing on a growing political and cultural influence as theyve become the largest minority group in the United States. It will also address the role of South Asians in medicine, technology and business, and how culture is being redefined in Native American life. National Geographic has also launched a social-media campaign with its Race Issue, called #IDefineMe. The campaign calls on individuals to share their experience with race and asks readers how they define themselves. by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, March 13, 2018 Google announced several additions to AdWords on Tuesday. The first -- focused on YouTube to improve direct-response advertising -- is called Custom Intent Audiences, and allows marketers to target people on YouTube who recently searched for products and services on google.com. YouTube now allows brands to target ads to consumers based on anonymized information that Google collects on people across its network of sites. The video service has now added search-based targeting to its Google Preferred ad-buying program. Marketers at Delta Air Lines, for example, could reach people on YouTube who recently searched Google.com for "flights to Florida" by creating a keyword list for the video campaign in the new AdWords experience. This is one of several features announced by Google to drive demand through search and video. Along with Custom Intent Audiences, Google has rolled out TrueView for Action Ads, which allows advertisers to customize calls to action that appear along with their video ads on YouTube and are automatically set with Target CPA bidding. The ads can be skipped after five seconds, similar to TrueView in-stream ads. advertisement advertisement Google Notes and a new Recommendations page have also been added. Notes helps to capture important events or details about the accounts in the performance graphs of the campaign, so anyone with access to the account can see the notations. Marketers, for example, can leave a note to explain a recent spike in clicks for a specific promotion. The AdWords Note feature seems similar in theory to Google Keep, which allows people to add notes, lists, photos and audio to files. The feature was launched in March 2013 as a note-taking service for the web, but also provides support for mobile apps running on Android and iOS operating systems. Google has also rebuilt and renamed the Opportunities page to help marketers focus on the most actionable fixes for the account. On the Recommendations page, marketers will now see 16 new types of recommendations, including suggestions to set the optimal bidding strategy, add audiences, or create better ads. In the near future, marketers will see account performance scores to help prioritize improvements to optimize efficiently for better performance. by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, March 13, 2018 Cheetos and Hersheys have harnessed artificial intelligence and virtual reality tech, respectively, to engage attendees at this years SXSW Conference & Festivals. The PepsiCo Frito-Lay cheese curls brand unveiled Cheetos Vision an AI-powered camera app that transforms everything the user looks at into Cheetos-infused imagery. (See video below.) Users can capture and share the altered images and videos directly on social media, and even use the app (available on the AppStore) to transform their profile photos into Cheetos creations. "The Cheetos brand is always on the cutting edge of playful fun, so it's only natural we would leverage AI to help fans see the world through a Cheetos lens," said Rachel Ferdinando, vice president of marketing, Frito-Lay North America. advertisement advertisement Meanwhile, Hersheys and home delivery service goPuff are offering a VR experience (screen grab above) in the festivals Retail Innovation Lounge that lets attendees experience what the future of retail could look like. The Hershey Company is experimenting with a variety of nontraditional sales and distribution channels as last-minute digital purchases and on-demand fulfillment models become more important, says Brian Kavanagh, senior director, insights driven performance and retail evolution for the company. Working with goPuff is helping Hershey explore the future of VR and retail, and the SXSW installation is giving Hershey face-to-face opportunities to learn more about the Millennial and Gen-Z consumers who are goPuffs core consumer base, the partners said. GoPuff, which aims to be an alternative to convenience stores, delivers Hersheys and other snacks, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, smoke stuff and party stuff, household goods staples, small electronics items and other products to residences in some markets for a flat $1.95 fee. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, March 13, 2018 Siding with Twitter, a federal appeals court has refused to reconsider its decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the tech company by family members of two ISIS victims. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a short order issued Monday that none of the court's judges requested a vote on whether to grant a new hearing. The move means that the decision clearing Twitter will stand, barring a successful appeal by the families to the Supreme Court. The legal dispute stems from a November 2015 terrorist shooting in Amman, Jordan that killed Lloyd Carl Fields, Jr. and James Damon Creach. Their families alleged in a lawsuit against Twitter that the company supported ISIS by allowing members to create accounts on the service. The lawsuit specifically alleged that Twitter violated the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, which prohibits anyone from knowingly providing material support to terrorists. advertisement advertisement In January, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit said the family members couldn't proceed with their claims because they didn't establish a direct relationship between Twitter's actions and the shooting. "Communication services and equipment are highly interconnected in modern economic and social life, such that the provision of these services and equipment to terrorists could be expected to cause ripples of harm to flow far beyond the defendants misconduct," the judges wrote. The decision appeared to mark the first time an appellate court ruled on whether social media services can be sued for allegedly assisting terrorists. Twitter, Google and Facebook still face several other lawsuits stemming from terrorist incidents, but the recent appellate ruling could prompt judges to dismiss those other suits. A type of antibiotic used in treating bacterial infections has been tied to many adverse health events, leading specialists to advise caution in the prescription of these drugs. Recent evidence now confirms that they increase the risk of aortic disease, which is a condition that damages the main artery of the human body. Share on Pinterest Fluoroquinolones, a type of antibiotic, could endanger vascular health. Fluoroquinolones are a type of antibiotic sometimes prescribed in the treatment of various bacterial infections, from bacterial sinusitis to urinary tract infections. Howevery, they have been flagged as bringing potentially dangerous side effects. So, in 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved safety labeling changes [] to enhance warnings about their association with disabling and potentially permanent side effects and to limit their use. Recent longitudinal studies linked the use of these antibiotics with a significantly increased risk of aortic disease, which is a vascular condition wherein the aorta the bodys main blood-carrying vessel is affected. Aortic disease is characterized either by aneurism (when the artery dilates) or dissection (when it ruptures), and both of these events can be life-threatening. A new study led by researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Lund University (both of which are in Sweden), and the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Denmark has now confirmed some of these worrying associations. However, lead researcher Bjorn Pasternak from the Department of Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet says that theres a ray of hope amid the general doom and gloom. Our results confirm the findings in the previous studies but suggest that the increased risk is not as pronounced as indicated by those studies. Bjorn Pasternak Studies suggest that you are more likely to die from drowsy driving than from texting while driving, distracted driving or drunk driving combined. Drowsy driving means operating a motor vehicle when a person is unable to remain alert due to lack of sleep . Drowsy driving is also known as sleep deprived driving, fatigued driving or tired driving. Driving in this state leads to slow, decreased reaction time and judgment of stimuli. In some cases, the driver may also fall asleep behind the wheel. Sleep deprivation is a major cause of motor vehicle accidents , and it can affect the human brain as much as alcohol can. 21 percent of all fatal accidents are due to drowsy driving. 60 percent of adult drivers or about 168 million people have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy in the past year. of adult drivers or about 168 million people have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy in the past year. About 37 percent or 103 million people have fallen asleep at the wheel, according to the National Sleep Foundations [ NSF ] 2005 poll. or 103 million people have fallen asleep at the wheel, according to the National Sleep Foundations [ ] 2005 poll. 4 percent or approximately eleven million drivers admit they have had an accident or near accident because they dozed off or were too tired to drive. or approximately eleven million drivers admit they have had an accident or near accident because they dozed off or were too tired to drive. Sleep-related crashes are most common in young people between the ages of 18 and 29 . . The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 100,000 accidents are the direct result of driver fatigue each year. Vehicular crashes result in an estimated 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and 12.5 billion dollars in monetary losses each year. According to data from Australia, England, Finland, and other European nations, drowsy driving represents 10 to 30 percent of all accidents. of all accidents. Drivers who slept 4 hours less had 10 times the crash rate of drivers who slept for regular times. the crash rate of drivers who slept for regular times. Men [56 percent] are more likely than women [45 percent] to drive while drowsy. Men are almost twice as likely as women to fall asleep while driving. Shift workers are more likely [36 percent] than those who work a regular daytime schedule [25 percent] to be involved in crashes. According to NSFs 2000 Sleep in America poll, 42 percent of drivers said that they become stressed, get impatient and 12 percent said they tend to drive faster when they are driving drowsy. when they are driving drowsy. Only about 22 percent of elderly drivers said they pull over to nap when driving drowsy. Most crashes occur between 4 to 6 a.m.; midnight to 2 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. Nearly 23 percent of adults admit that they know someone personally who has crashed due to falling asleep at the wheel. Maggies law states that drivers must not knowingly operate a vehicle while impaired by lack of sleep and should they cause a fatality, these drivers may be convicted of vehicular homicide. Maggie's Law defines fatigue as being without sleep for more than twenty-four consecutive hours and makes reckless driving while fatigued a criminal offense. Maggies law was enacted in the state of New Jersey and was named after twenty-year-old Maggie McDonnell, a college student who died in 1997 when a vehicle driven by Michael Coleman swerved across three lanes and hit her car head on. Coleman told police that he had not slept for thirty hours and was fined 200 dollars for reckless driving. Maggies law was passed in 2003 in New Jersey where the driver is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and 100,000 dollars fine. Though at present the law is in force only in New Jersey, some other states are also in process of implementing the law. Lack of adequate sleep . Around 7 to 8 hours of sleep daily at night is essential for the human body. Fatigue-related accident is much higher, if you have been awake for more than 18 hours. . Around 7 to 8 hours of sleep daily at night is essential for the human body. Fatigue-related accident is much higher, if you have been awake for more than 18 hours. Driving long distances alone along vast boring stretches of road. along vast boring stretches of road. The presence of untreated or unrecognized sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea or narcolepsy [a disorder of the nervous system which causes excessive daytime sleepiness]. Habitual snoring and depression also cause daytime drowsiness. such as obstructive sleep apnea or narcolepsy [a disorder of the nervous system which causes excessive daytime sleepiness]. Habitual snoring and depression also cause daytime drowsiness. Driving at times of the day when you would normally be sleeping . Your body and brain are regulated by your biological clock, also known as the circadian rhythm, which influences how alert or drowsy you are at certain times of the day. . Your body and brain are regulated by your biological clock, also known as the circadian rhythm, which influences how alert or drowsy you are at certain times of the day. Taking medications which have drowsiness as a side effect. You are constantly rubbing your eyes and yawning. There is difficulty in focusing, frequent blinking, or heavy feeling in eyelids. You have difficulty in keeping your head up or your head is bobbing continuously. Sleepiness or nodding off makes it harder to react to events going on around you. Drowsy drivers often miss exits or traffic signs and misjudge distances. There is inability to focus or clearly remember the road directions and signs. Slow reaction to stimuli. Decreased accuracy in responses. Long lapses in attention. Inability to stick to one lane, tailgating, or the driver may even hit the curb or shoulder rumble strip. Increased moodiness and aggressive behaviors. Tired, restless and irritable drivers are more prone to road rage and speeding. Sleep deprivation can have similar effects on your body as consuming alcohol. It is estimated that being awake for 18 hours at a stretch makes you drive like a person who has blood alcohol content [BAC] of 0.05 or 50mg per 100 ml. A number of studies show that the loss of more than twenty-four consecutive hours of sleep can result in impairment of conscious intellectual activity such as thinking, reasoning, remembering, judgment and reaction time [relating to steering, acceleration and braking]. This is equal to 0.1 percent BAC, which is well above the legal limit. Both drunk and sleepy drivers find it hard to pay attention to the road as well as suffer from impaired decision making. However, while a drunk driver may drive slower or try to react to a situation, a drowsy driver may nod off when driving fast, thus unable to swerve the vehicle or brake in time when need arises. A lot of Bollywood celebrities are getting fitter by the day and some of them even take the initiative to perform their own action stunts in front of the camera. Bollywood is no longer just about glitz and glamour anymore and most actors and actresses in Bollywood possess some serious ass-kicking skills! By that, we mean most celebrities are learning or have learned martial arts and are not afraid to show it off in front of the camera! Here are ten celebrities from the hood, who have mastered the art of martial arts and are certainly very proud of it! Akshay Kumar We've seen the star in action since his 'Khiladi' days. The veteran action hero is trained in Muay Thai, a martial arts form from Thailand, while he was in Bangkok, before joining Bollywood. He also runs many martial arts academies all over the country and has opened a women's only self-defence centre recently in Mumbai. Talk about imparting wisdom! Facebook/Akshay Kumar Aishwarya Rai Ash learned karate for her blockbuster flick 'Robot', a movie she did with Rajnikanth a few years ago. Imagine the most beautiful woman in the world kicking some serious butt in her karate gear! She was taught by her teacher 'karate' Ramesh, who runs the Japan Shito-Ryu karate school in India. Sun Pictures Tiger Shroff With a name and body like that, you would actually expect him to know some hardcore martial arts! Tiger has been practicing martial arts since he was 14-years-old! Trained in gymnastics, Taekwondo and Wushu, he usually choreographs most of his stunts in his movies. Seen 'Heropanti' yet? Times Of India Deepika Padukone When she signed up for 'Chandni Chowk To China', Deepika received some serious Jiu-Jitsu training and trust us, it wasn't a crash course. You know why? because she was trained by her co-star Akshay Kumar himself! Ramesh Sippy Entertainment John Abraham While taking up 'Race 2', John was asked to train in MMA (mixed martial arts) for a sequence of 'cage fighting' in the movie. Not that John needs much training, but because it was a specialized skill, he had to undergo it! We're not complaining, really! UTV Motion Pictures Genelia D'Souza Almost-new mommy to another baby boy, Genelia has trained in one of the toughest forms of martial arts called 'Kalaripayattu', from Kerala. She went through some vigorous training for her film 'Urumi', where she was a sword-wielding warrior and looked hot AF! Indiatmes Vidyut Jamwal Another ace Kalaripayattu practitioner, Vidyut has been learning martial arts since the age of 4. He didn't hone the skill for a particular movie but to enhance his own technique in one of the most prominent forms of martial arts in India. Youtube Nargis Fakhri Nargis is currently training in Muay Thai and we think it's for an upcoming movie! We're just glad to see another woman throwing some kicks and punches on screen! Facebook/Nargis Fakhri Randeep Hooda If we're talking about good bod's and fitter people, we can't leave Mr. Hooda behind, can we? The actor is quite the sportsman and also co-owns the Super Fighter League (SFL) team- Haryana Sultans. The actor plans to train the Mumbai fire-fighters in MMA (mixed martial arts) and we can't be more thrilled! Times Of India Priyanka Chopra PeeCee had to go through some intense martial arts training for her film 'Drona', which released back in 2008. It certainly doesn't mean she's forgotten her skill and we're sure she shows them off time and again in 'Quantico'! The actress was trained in Gatka, a style of stick fighting developed by the Sikhs in Punjab. Twitter So there we have it, ten fit and fine Bollywood celebs who are tough as a brick, along with their fine acting skills. We also have experienced actors like Shilpa Shetty, Ajay Devgn, Govida, Kamal Hasan and Kangna Ranaut who know some form of martial arts too. Well, they definitely serve as true inspiration and we couldn't be more proud of them! Sudan is to sign this week a roadmap agreement with Russia to build nuclear power stations in the country. The road map agreement and several other memorandums of understanding will be signed during the visit Sudanese Minister of Water Resources, Irrigation, and Electricity Moataz Mousa, is paying to Moscow since Monday, reported state-run news agency SUNA. According to Russian news Agency Sputnik, the site for the construction of the plant will be selected and the key parameters for the project will be identified: technology, capacity, equipment, terms and stages of implementation, and financing schemes. The development of cooperation in the nuclear field between the two nations began last year. Actually, Moataz Mousas visit to Russia comes months after Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir met with President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea coast city of Sochi in November. Bashir had then spoken about his countrys intention to develop cooperation with Russia in the nuclear energy sector. He had reportedly requested Russia to protect his country from the aggressive acts of the United States and expressed desire to ramp up military ties with Moscow, while praising Russias military campaign in Syria. Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide and war crimes, has been pushing for closer energy and military ties with Russia. Hypebeast, illogically-cool and India's Most-Stylish Sardar are just a few ways to describe Diljit Dosanjh. However, the truth of the matter is, he's a mix of all of the above. If you spot a pair of sneakers on the streets of Hollywood, a T-shirt on an international celebrity, chances are, Dosanjh owns them already. That's how updated he is with trends around him. Hence, when we spotted the star in an iconic hoodie recently, we jumped with joy to inform you quick. Pairing the piece in the most ordinary manner (sweatpants and training shoes), Diljit pulled off a very relatable, travel-friendly style stunt with this one! Viral Bhayani To state a few facts, Diljit's hoodies besides his wardrobe (of course), belong to the American streetwear brand, Obey. And it is a pick straight off their collaboration with the music band, Bad Brains. Besides hoodies, the collection also featured sweatshirts, T-shirts and other celebrity-approved pieces. Though, clearly this white+red palette caught Dosanjh's eye. Rakuten That said, it would be unfair to mention that the piece isn't too expensive either. Retailing at a cost of Rs. 7,094 as seen here, the hoodie features images of the music band at their candid best and text that represents the sanctity of their music. And as usual, since he was taking off soon, he carried a simple backpack in tow. And yes, those iPhone earphones for a slight jiggy on-board. Viral Bhayani Clearly, by pulling the hood over his blue snapback, Dosanjh has pulled quite an #AirportStyle moment with this one. A top Australian brand with a March-laycan changed hands at around $220-221 cfr China, according to various sources. End users in China continued to stay on the sidelines in anticipation of lower prices, after as premium hard coking coal cargoes transacted some $6-14 per tonne cfr China lower than a week ago. Sellers are trying... UPPER THUMB -- President Donald J. Trump's proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could affect nearly 15,000 Thumb area residents. In January, there were 3,130 Huron County residents receiving federal SNAP benefits. Sanilac County's SNAP participation totaled 4,851, and Tuscola County's total was 7,013 residents. "As of now, the president's proposal includes having SNAP recipients receive some of their food benefits in prepared grocery packages with preselected food inside," said Bob Wheaton, public information officer with the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, in an email to the Tribune. "This would be a change for Michigan food assistance recipients who now access all of their food assistance at the grocery store by choosing the food that they want to purchase and using SNAP dollars that are loaded on their Bridge Cards to pay for the food," Wheaton added. "America's Harvest Box" has been pitched by U.S. Department of Agriculture officials as a way to cut costs and improve efficiency. SNAP administrators across the country have said their programs already are efficient, allowing recipients to purchase whatever foods they want directly from retailers, which benefits families, retailers and local economies. The proposal, unveiled last month in the Trump administration's 2019 budget, is part of an effort to reduce the cost of the SNAP program by roughly $213 billion over a 10-year period. When asked about the practicality of the proposal for Michigan SNAP recipients, Wheaton responded: "Given that it's early in the budget process, we are not at the point where we can get into those types of specifics." Rus Sykes, director of the American Public Human Services Association, an umbrella organization that includes the American Association of SNAP Directors, said administrators across the country were shocked by the proposal and are concerned that if it moves forward, states will be forced into an impossible situation. "They will not have the ability to administer this program this way," Sykes said, "And the states will be on the line for everything that goes wrong." Generally speaking, Wheaton said, income requirements for SNAP are such that a number of households that have people work part-time or full-time are eligible for food assistance. In Huron County, 1,133 SNAP beneficiaries are children, and 1,729 children receive SNAP benefits in Sanilac. In Tuscola, 2,676 children receive the benefits. Another change to those on government assistance will come in October when work requirements are expected to be reinstated in all Michigan counties for all able-bodied adults without dependents. For many years, Michigan had a statewide waiver from the federal work requirement for people who are considered able bodied with dependents that receive food assistance for more than three months. "Michigan first received the waiver in 2002 due to the high unemployment rate in the state at the time," Wheaton stated. "As a result of the improvements in the state's economy over the last several years, Michigan has been notified that the state is no longer eligible for the waiver and is phasing it out and reinstating the work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents." Huron is not one of 14 counties where those requirements have been phased out. "However, by the end of the fiscal year in October, we expect to have the work requirements reinstated in all counties," Wheaton said. "As of January, we estimated that there were 192 people in Huron County who would need to meet the work requirements once they are reinstated." The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Indian Ocean Island Mauritius has celebrated its 50th year of independence on Monday with fireworks amid the resignation of its first female president of the republic. Thousands of residents attended the official celebration ceremony with Indian President Ram Nath Kovind designated guest of honor, while Indian helicopters took part in an aerial display and parade, AFP reported. The Monday celebrations came amid financial scandals where the islands female leader Gurib-Fakim is accused of using a platinum credit card given to her by an NGO to buy jewelry for about 280,000 rupees ($8,218), along with more than 510,000 rupees ($14,969) spent on clothes in Dubais duty-free area, and a purchase at an Apple store in Washington, DC. The scandal has rocked an island trying to differentiate itself as a model of good governance and transparency. The international community has fawned over Gurib-Fakim since she became Mauritiuss first woman president in 2015. The island, which has one of the best economies on the continent, has for the fifth year in a row, finished top of the Ibrahim index of African Governance. Contributed photo /Quodlibet Ensemble CENTERBROOK - Community Music School and Essex Winter Series are pleased to present a master class with members of the Quodlibet Ensemble, April 10 at 4 p.m. at the Centerbrook Meeting House, 51 Main Street in Centerbrook. The musicians will offer advice on technique and performance for student musicians who will each play during the class. The master class is free and open to the public. The Quodlibet Ensemble is a New York-based string chamber orchestra of young, dynamic artists presents a range of great music, from the Baroque to the modern day. After its debut in 2008, the Ensemble has since performed at the Shepherd Music Series in Collinsville, the Yale British Arts Center, and at Drew University in Madison, N.J. Quodlibet Ensemble made its New York debut in March 2016, followed by an appearance at Rockefeller University. Their debut CD, Quodlibet Ensemble: Concerti Grosso, in which all players adapt gut strings, was released in the fall of 2014. The acting leader of Italy's ruling Democratic Party rejected approaches from the center-right and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement as the fractious party agonizes over whether it should help break the country's political gridlock. Deputy-secretary Maurizio Martina said the party intended to "deeply respect" voters who inflicted its worst-ever result on March 4. Italians favored the center-right and Five Star, which were the biggest winners, though neither received enough votes to govern alone. "We will continue to serve citizens, from the opposition, with the role of a parliamentary minority," Martina, 39, agriculture minister in the outgoing government, told a meeting of the party's leadership in Rome, according to newswire Ansa. Martina read out a brief resignation letter from Matteo Renzi, who stepped down as PD chief after more than four years in the job. The party is in a position to form a majority with either of the two main groups, but is divided on how to respond to approaches from Five Star and from the center-right which is led by the anti-migrant League. PD officials say a large majority wants it to be in opposition, though anything could happen in the weeks to come. Campaign rivals are positioning themselves ahead of votes for parliamentary speakers starting on March 23, which will be a pointer to new alliances. President Sergio Mattarella, who has the task of nominating a premier, is due to start formally consulting party leaders in early April. "To the forces who won, we say only one thing: now you have no alibi," Martina said. "I say it in particular to the League and to Five Star: the citizens voted for you to govern, now do it." On the eve of the meeting, ex-premier Renzi ruled out any participation in government. "No to institutional governments, no possible collaboration with Five Star or the right," Renzi, 43, told Corriere della Sera earlier Monday. "We need to start from zero, from the opposition." Renzi, who won a seat in the Senate, denied speculation that he might create a new party of his own, following in the footsteps of French President Emmanuel Macron. Still, in a later email message to followers he said: "We're not giving up, we're not leaving the future in the hands of others." Michele Emiliano, head of a minority faction, told reporters before the leadership meeting that the PD should give external support to a Five Star government. "Repeat elections are impossible and very dangerous for the PD, and I don't think the PD can back a government of the right," he said. The party's stand depends on who will be chosen as leader in early April, at a national assembly, or in several months' time if primaries are held. Possible contenders include Martina himself, premier Paolo Gentiloni, economic development minister Carlo Calenda and Nicola Zingaretti, head of the regional government for the Rome area. If gridlock persists for several weeks, the PD could prove receptive to a possible appeal from Mattarella for all political forces to join a government tasked with limited objectives such as pushing the 2019 budget through parliament by the end of the year, and a reform of the electoral system. League leader Matteo Salvini, whose party has reached out to the PD, said Monday he would ask in parliament for the votes he needs to achieve a majority, and insisted he would not give ground on the main measures of his program. "We'll never go into government if we can't do what we want to," Salvini said in Milan. He listed scrapping a pension reform which raised the retirement age, "control illegal immigration and renegotiate European treaties." Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has sworn off comment on North Korea in the lead-up to the proposed summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. "I do not want to talk about Korea at all. It's that delicate," Mattis told reporters traveling with him Sunday on a trip to the Mideast. Mattis said he would refrain from discussing the military's role in keeping pressure on North Korea to negotiate and leave it to the White House and the State Department to work out the details of arranging the summit. "Right now, every word is going to be nuanced and parsed apart across different cultures, at different times of the day, in different context" and it is best for him to stay on the sidelines, he said. Mattis has repeatedly stressed that diplomacy is the first option in dealing with North Korea, even as Trump and Kim traded personal insults and Kim boasted of having developed an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering nuclear warheads to U.S. mainland targets. Mattis said he is deferring to the diplomats "because it's that delicate. When you get into a position like this, the potential for misunderstanding remains very high or goes higher." Through Monday, North Korea also maintained silence on the summit itself while its propaganda outlets stuck to routine pronouncements that its army and people would never bow to economic sanctions or military threats. "We have not seen nor received an official response from the North Korean regime regarding the North Korea-U.S. summit," said Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman for South Korea's Ministry of Unification, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "I feel they're approaching this matter with caution and they need time to organize their stance," Baik said. Chung Eui-yong, the national security adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, began laying the groundwork for the summit by visiting China and Russia to outline a plan that would have Moon meet with Kim next month ahead of Trump-Kim talks, tentatively scheduled for late May. In Beijing on Monday, Chung met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who used the official names for North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and South Korea (Republic of Korea) to give his endorsement of both the Moon-Kim talks and the Trump-Kim summit. Following his meeting with Chung, Xi said, "We expect a smooth DPRK-ROK summit and DPRK-U.S. dialogue," China's state-run Xinhua news agency said. It was Chung who last Thursday night at the White House made the stunning announcement that Trump had agreed to meet with Kim on the "denuclearization" of the peninsula. Chung, who had met with Kim in Pyongyang earlier last week, said the North Korean leader had agreed to a temporary halt In missile and nuclear tests leading up to the meeting with Trump. Kim also agreed that the U.S.-South Korea "Foal Eagle" and "Key Resolve" joint military exercises expected to begin next month would not derail the summit, Chung said. At the White House on Monday, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that if the North keeps its promises, "the meeting will go on as planned" in what would be the first face-to-face talks between a sitting U.S. president and the leader of North Korea. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. The Marine Corps has released a solicitation for a new military ski system for use at the Corps' Mountain Warfare Training Center Bridgeport, California, reaffirming the service's commitment to improving troops' ability to fight and operate in the cold. In a six-page sources sought solicitation published March 9, the service laid out detailed requirements for a new standard-issue ski system, including a multi-functional ski boot that can function on its own as well. Bridgeport, with its mountainous terrain, is the Marines' stateside location for cold-weather training. Ultimately, the solicitation calls for 863 sets of skis in different sizes. It comes following a broader Corpswide effort to purchase more than 2,600 NATO ski systems to replace aging and ineffective legacy gear. During a trip to Norway in December, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller revealed the plan to outfit troops deployed there, as well as scout snipers, reconnaissance Marines, and select infantry companies, with the new skis. "If we are who we say we are, which is the nation's force in readiness, we have to be ready," Neller told the Marines at the time. The Marine Corps ultimately plans to spend $12.75 million on new skis as the service transitions from nearly two decades of desert combat to operations in a more diverse array of climates. According to the most recent solicitation, the skis for use at Bridgeport will weigh no more than six pounds, and preferably four. The skis will be able to bear at least 250 pounds of weight, and the system should "maximize comfort wherever possible" to keep fatigue at bay. The Marines want the skis in white snow camouflage, with non-reflective surfaces, to enable troops to blend into their surroundings day and night. Manufacturers have until April 9 to respond to the solicitation; it's not clear when the training center expects to receive the new skis. Fielding of the NATO ski system to special communities and infantry Marines is set to begin at the end of this year. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck The U.S. Air Force is curtailing its media engagements and limiting the amount of information it releases in what it says is an effort to protect operational security, according to a new memo. The service says its latest move is in line with the new National Defense Strategy, and must "avoid giving insights to our adversaries which could erode our military advantage," according to a seven-page memo obtained by Military.com. The new guidance was first reported Monday by Defense News. The March 1 memo, titled "Public Affairs Guidance: OPSEC and Public Engagement Reset" highlights for public affairs officers throughout the ranks how to best deal with members of the media. In some specific cases, officers are encouraged to "re-assess" media coverage or stories already in the works. "PA offices should account for and re-assess all potential media coverage that may result from previous interviews that have yet to be published," the memo says. "The PA office should review all information provided to ensure it protects operational security, and if necessary, work with/advise higher headquarters of the potential coverage." Media embeds, base visits and interviews are suspended until further notice with limited exceptions. Related content: Combatant commands such as U.S. Air Forces Europe-Africa and Pacific Air Forces are to adhere to their existing media practices, according to the guidance; however, in the likelihood that COCOM-approved engagements "may result in coverage of airmen, units and operations," PA officials should consult with "higher headquarters," the memo states. Exercises and any event that reveals tactics, techniques and procedures have been flagged as "operational security risk" topics. Topics for potential engagement with the media include human interest stories, historical topics or programs that bring awareness such as Black History Month and Sexual Assault and Prevention Month, the memo says. The guidance comes at a time when services such as the U.S. Navy -- as well as the Defense Department as a whole -- have clamped down on media engagement in recent months. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson last March issued a memo which told sailors to steer clear of "events that are primarily for marketing, and that don't make an intellectual contribution to warfighting," as well as openly sharing information with the press. The Pentagon that same month issued similar guidance in which Defense Secretary Jim Mattis cautioned about publicly speaking about readiness shortfalls, which he argued could give adversaries an upper advantage. Mattis himself has given limited, public briefings at the podium at the Pentagon since becoming defense secretary. Similarly, with the ramp up in Afghanistan and a fluid timeline on operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon has pulled back on divulging troop numbers, continuing a long-running controversy over how many and where troops are in harm's way in the Middle East. Some programs in the latest fiscal 2019 budget request, especially those belonging to the Air Force, remain obscure. The Trump administration is requesting $716 billion for national security, of which the Pentagon would receive $686.1 billion in military funding. Overall, it's a $74 billion increase from current funding levels. The Defense Department has been stifled in recent years due to budget caps and automatic spending cuts known as sequestration that have hurt readiness, manning and operations and maintenance levels. The Air Force, for example, intends to invest heavily in next-gen technologies in next year's budget, testing new equipment that can give it a competitive edge against near-peer adversaries while also prototyping weapons for the advanced fight. The service asked for $504 million in fiscal 2019 for its next-generation air dominance research, development, test and evaluation program, according to the budget request, plus a planned investment of roughly $11 billion over the course of five years for RTD&E on next-gen air dominance. But the service is steadfast to say it is investing that money in a "family of systems" instead of divulging concrete examples of what the end result may be in an effort to keep such information away from U.S. adversaries -- mainly, Russia and China. --Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214. As lawmakers once again try to stop U.S. refueling and intelligence missions in support of planes from the Saudi-led coalition targeting rebels in Yemen, a top general insists U.S. support is necessary to build on its relationship with Saudi Arabia. Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, said working with Saudi Arabia has proven successful in recent months even as the civil war in Yemen has continued on nearly three years and counting. In response to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Votel said U.S. intelligence in the CentCom area of responsibility does not track where a plane belonging to the Saudi-led coalition goes or what the aircraft targets after it refuels from a U.S. tanker. Lawmakers questioned whether it is possible for the U.S. to stop providing aerial refueling and intelligence to Saudi Arabia altogether. Related content: "I think right now that the provision of those things that you just covered right now gives us placement, it gives us access and it gives us influence with Saudi Arabia," Votel said. "And what I would highlight to you is that we have been working with them, sharing our own experiences," he said, in response to Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. "If the argument is this allows us to maintain control, are we maintaining some level of control?" King asked. "The influence that we derive with them is by working with them to demonstrate how we do our targeting process," Votel said, adding the Saudis "absolutely" listen to the advice the U.S. gives them on limiting civilian casualties. While CentCom officials in previous months have said the U.S. does not provide specific targeting intel to Saudi jets striking Houthi sites, they do advise them on their missions, as confirmed by Votel on Tuesday. "Senator, from my perspective, it's better for us to stay engaged with them and continue to influence this," Votel said. "They want this type of support, and they want to improve their capabilities." Votel's comments came as Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, are attempting to push a vote to remove the U.S. military from hostilities in Yemen. Congress has not authorized any actions in Yemen. In November, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to adopt a nonbinding measure that urges forces involved in the years-long Yemen conflict to work toward a political solution -- but does not call for an end to America's assistance in the war. The measure, House Resolution 599, followed an earlier measure, House Congressional Resolution 81, which stalled. Like the latest Senate bill, it explored whether Congress could invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to force the U.S. to end its involvement in the Saudi-led conflict within 30 days of passage. Ebb and Flow in Refueling Statistics Since Saudi-led operations commenced in 2015, Air Force tankers such as KC-135 Stratotankers and KC-10 Extenders have conducted more than 2,800 refueling operations over the Horn of Africa, Air Forces Central Command spokeswoman Capt. AnnMarie Annicelli told Military.com on Tuesday. The aircraft have offloaded "88 million pounds of fuel in support of U.S. missions and Saudi and Emirate operations against threats throughout the Horn of Africa, to include Yemen," as of Jan. 1, Annicelli said in an email. The latest numbers show an 18 percent increase in sorties since October, when the command accounted for 2,363 sorties in the Horn of Africa region. Prior to that, the Air Force routinely provided refueling statistics to this reporter, saying the numbers were specific to jets refueling for operations in Yemen. Last fall, officials said they erred in the way they previously provided statistics because they had no way of tracking refueling missions specific to Yemen. "We do not have the ability to break out this data just for the Saudi coalition jets in Yemen because our database does not break down details on each receiv[ing aircraft]," Capt. Jose Davis, then-spokesman for AfCent told Military.com at the time. The data account for total refueling operations happening in or near the Horn of Africa "to include but not limited to Saudi-led operations in Yemen, U.S. missions in that area, and Emirate operations against [Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula] targets," Davis said in October. As operations continue, statistics do not show a significant refueling spike in the region over the last few months. That could be because strikes from Saudi jets have steadied. "In any armed conflict in which aerial operations play a big role, there will be ebbs and flows of aerial operations and they tend to be most intense at the very outset because that's when you have the most targets on the ground," said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in a phone interview Tuesday. "It's not surprising that there'd be a slower tempo than at the outset of operations -- but beyond that, it's a little hard to project because sometimes there would be tactical or strategic reasons, and then they'll just revert to the norm," Gartenstein-Ross said, adding it's unlikely this means there will be a prolonged decline in coalition airstrikes. The war first made headlines in spring 2015, when Iranian-backed Houthi rebels -- anti-government fighters aligned with ousted former president Ali Abdullah Saleh -- were dislodged from their position near the port city of Aden by the coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Kuwait. The Sanders-Murphy-Lee Bill adds to the ongoing debate on Congress' role in wartime operations. "There's a secondary debate, if we cut the Saudis off, which is unlikely for a wide variety of reasons," Gartenstein-Ross said. "Especially [given] the assistance being provided to Saudi [Arabia] -- there's a better case than, say [striking Libya in 2011], that assistance in refueling is not the kind of thing which the War Powers Act should be invoked." The primary argument for this conflict is "whether Congress should take more responsibility for warfighting," he said. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. The commander of U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, with the backing of Russia and Iran, has essentially won the seven-year-old civil war that has killed more than 400,000, forced millions to flee, and spread sectarian strife throughout the region. U.S. policy has been that Assad must step down or be ousted, but "from the civil war standpoint, it would appear that the regime is ascendant here," Army Gen. Joseph Votel said. Russia and Iran have served as "key enablers" to allow regime forces to defeat a range of rebel groups, including those backed by the U.S., and only pockets of resistance remain in the besieged area of Ghouta, east of Damascus, and in Idlib to the north, Votel said. At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, asked, "Is it too strong a statement that, with Russia and Iran's help, Assad has won the civil war in Syria?" Votel responded: "I don't think that is too strong of a statement. I think they have provided him the wherewithal to be ascendant at this point." When asked if it is still U.S. policy that "Assad must go," Votel said, "I don't know that that's our particular policy at this particular point." In the long term, Assad's victory in Syria will leave the U.S. to contend with increased threats to Israel and Jordan from Iran's support of Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, he said. Votel testified with Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of U.S. Africa Command, on the challenges both face -- Votel in the Mideast and Afghanistan, and Waldhauser on the entire African continent. Waldhauser said he knows of no plans to move AfriCom's headquarters from Stuttgart, Germany, to Africa and noted that he operates with no dedicated forces, relying on troops "allocated" from other combatant commands. As he had in testimony to the House last week, Waldhauser said the Article 15-6 fact-finding investigation into the Niger ambush last Oct. 4 that killed four members of the Army's Third Special Forces Group has been completed and forwarded to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. He gave no indication of what the findings are and again gave no timeline for the investigation's release, but said the families of the fallen would be briefed first. He pledged to give Congress a "comprehensive" public review of the findings at a later date. On Afghanistan, Votel said part of the new strategy against the Taliban was borrowed from the campaign in Iraq and Syria that has now liberated 98 percent of the territory once controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In Iraq and Syria, U.S. airpower was focused against drying up ISIS revenue streams, mainly from captured oil wells, Votel said. In Afghanistan, the U.S. is now committed to attacking centers of the poppy trade that provides much of the Taliban's funding and cutting off the export of heroin, he said. "This is a lesson learned from Iraq and Syria, where we got serious about going after the funding streams that supported ISIS," Votel said in reference to operations in Afghanistan. "We started to see an immediate impact, so that is exactly the intention." -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Just-fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson never mentioned President Donald Trump by name in farewell remarks Tuesday, confirming that he learned he was out of a job from a Trump Tweet handed him by an aide. In a quavering voice, Tillerson left out the traditional thanks to the president he served and omitted any endorsements of his policies. Instead, he praised Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for his support in valuing diplomacy as a vital tool in protecting the nation's national security interests. "I received a phone call from the president of the United States shortly after noontime from Air Force One," some three hours after Trump sent out a Tweet saying he was nominating CIA Director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, Tillerson said. In an earlier statement released to the media, State Department spokesman Steve Goldstein said Tillerson "had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security," particularly on the latest opening with North Korea. "The secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason" for his removal, said Goldstein, who also was fired shortly after the release of the statement. On the White House lawn before departing on a trip to California, Trump said of Tillerson, "We got along, actually, quite well but we disagreed on things," confirming long-standing rumors of his rocky relationship with the nation's top diplomat. "When you look at the Iran deal, I think it's terrible; I guess he thought it was OK," Trump said of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in which Iran agreed to give up its nuclear programs in return for the lifting of sanctions. "I wanted to either break it or do something, and he felt a little bit differently," Trump said. Tillerson was also left out of the loop on the startling announcement last week that Trump had agreed to a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. "No, I really didn't discuss it very much with him, honestly. I made that decision by myself. Rex wasn't, as you know, in this country," Trump said. "I made the North Korea decision with consultation from many people, but I made that decision by myself." At the State Department, Tillerson thanked Mattis, career diplomats and the American people, but left out Trump. He also laced his remarks with what could be seen as personal digs at the president. Tillerson called on all State Department employees to treat each other with "integrity and honesty," suggesting a contrast to the way he was removed. He also urged them to confront "challenges of sexual harassment within the department." It is not unusual in the Trump administration for top officials to learn from others that they have been fired. Last May, then-FBI Director James Comey found out he had been dismissed from news reports while on a visit to a California field office. Comey did not know whether he was authorized to take the FBI plane back home to Washington, D.C. The FBI sent him home without waiting for authorization. The firing of Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil chief, came after he joined British Prime Minister Theresa May in pointing the finger at Russia and President Vladimir Putin in the attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury. Earlier, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said it is too early to tell whether Russia is involved but Tillerson said: "We have full confidence in the U.K.'s [United Kingdom's] investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week." He continued, "We are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. From Ukraine to Syria -- and now the U.K. -- Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens." Trump said Tuesday that he might condemn Russia for the attack but would have to talk first with the British prime minister. "As soon as we get the facts straight, and we're going to be speaking with the British today. We're speaking with Theresa May today and, as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be," Trump said. Trump said that he lacked "chemistry" with Tillerson but was expected to be on the same "America First" wavelength with Pompeo, a West Point graduate and former Republican representative from Kansas who was a Tea Party favorite in three terms in office. "I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State," Trump said. He also nominated Gina Haspel, the current Deputy Director of the CIA, to replace Pompeo and become "the CIA's first-ever female director, a historic milestone," Trump said. Pompeo's nomination was expected to go smoothly, but Haspel's could be problematic. Haspel, who has spent much of her career in covert action, allegedly ran a "black site" in Thailand that used harsh interrogation techniques and has been charged by human rights groups with attempting to destroy evidence of the interrogations. In a statement, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is battling brain cancer at home in Arizona, praised Pompeo's nomination but had reservations about Haspel. "During his own confirmation proceedings for Director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo repeatedly committed that he would comply with the law that applies the Army Field Manual's interrogation requirements to all U.S. agencies, including the CIA," McCain said. "The American people now deserve the same assurances from Gina Haspel, whose career with the agency has intersected with the program of so-called 'enhanced interrogation techniques' on a number of occasions," McCain said. In his remarks at the State Department, Tillerson said he would end his duties immediately and turn them over to John Sulllivan, the deputy secretary of State. He said his formal resignation would officially take place at midnight March 31. "I'll now return to private life, as a private citizen, as a proud American, proud of the opportunity I had to serve my country," Tillerson said. Tillerson was not Trump's first choice as Secretary of State. Trump interviewed several other prospects at Trump Tower in New York, including former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Massachusetts, before settling on the surprise choice of the former oil executive from Texas. Their differences were apparent almost from the start. Tillerson wanted the U.S. to stay in the Paris climate accord; Trump took the U.S. out. Tillerson backed the JCPOA; Trump called it an "embarrassment." Then there was the flap over Tillerson allegedly calling Trump a "moron." NBC reported last July that Tillerson used the term "moron" preceded by an obscenity after a meeting at the Pentagon with Cabinet officials. Tillerson later denied that he was considering resigning but did not specifically deny calling Trump a "moron." As he walked to the helicopter Tuesday, Trump was asked about the "moron" flap but apparently couldn't hear the question. A reporter asked "Did you fire him because he called you a moron?" Trump said "What?" Again, the question was asked: "Did you fire him because he called you a moron?" Trump responded "Say it again," but he boarded the helicopter before allowing another question. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had been sidelined by the White House on a range of issues and had allegedly called Trump a "moron," and moved Tuesday to replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Tillerson's ouster came a day after he broke ranks with the White House again on alleged Russian involvement in a nerve agent assassination attempt in Britain. "We disagreed on things," Trump said in confirming the long-standing rumors of his rocky relationship with the nation's top diplomat. "Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time," he said of his desire to turn the State Department over to Pompeo. On the White House lawn, before departing for a trip to California, Trump called Tillerson "a good man," but said "we were really not thinking the same." He pointed to their differences on Iran. "Really, it was a different mindset," Trump said. "I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service," Trump said in a statement reported by The Washington Post. "A great deal has been accomplished over the last 14 months, and I wish him and his family well. "I am proud to nominate the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State," he continued. Trump also nominated Gina Haspel, the current deputy director of the CIA, to replace Pompeo and become "the CIA's first-ever female director, a historic milestone." The firing of Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil chief, came after he joined British Prime Minister Theresa May in pointing the finger at Russia and President Vladimir Putin in the attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury. The Washington Post, which broke the news of Tillerson's departure, reported that he had actually been asked by Trump on Friday to step down, and that he curtailed a planned trip to Africa on Monday in order to come back to Washington, D.C. Earlier Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said it is too early to tell whether Russia was involved in the attempted murder. But Tillerson said: "We have full confidence in the U.K.'s [United Kingdom's] investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week." Tillerson said, "We are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. From Ukraine to Syria, and now the U.K., Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens." Tillerson's ouster and the lengthy nomination process for Pompeo will likely mean that the State Department will be without a leader as Trump prepares for a possible summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, tentatively scheduled for the end of May. In his more than a year at the State Department, Tillerson had grown close to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and they both had pushed the diplomacy-first option in dealing with North Korea. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Recent Education Benefit Changes Explained The Department of Veteran Affairs and the National Military Family Association (NMFA) recently hosted the #ExploreVA Facebook Live event on VA education benefit changes. Robert M. Worley II, VAs director of Education Service, and Besa Pinchotti, communications director for NMFA, discussed these recent changes and how they may affect Veterans, servicemembers and their family members looking to further their education. Watch a video of the event and read questions and answers on the VA VAntage Point Blog. For more on GI Bill and military education benefits, visit the Military.com Education Center. Military members and veterans can get up to four free months of Apple Music through the Apple Music military discount -- but... Political Consultations between Belarus and Uruguay 10-03-2018 On March 9, 2018 during the visit of the Belarusian delegation to the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, bilateral consultations on political issues were held. The Belarusian delegation was led by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Evgeny Shestakov, the Uruguayan delegation was headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ariel Bergamino. The parties discussed a wide range of issues, including political cooperation, interaction within international organizations. Special attention was paid to the trade and economic cooperation, as well as to the development of the legal framework. The sides confirmed their interest in intensification of work on the draft agreements on visa liberalization, establishment of a joint commission for trade and economic cooperation. The parties reached an agreement to complete in the near future the process of coordination of the text of the draft Memorandum of Understanding between the Foreign Ministries of Belarus and Uruguay. print version Consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Belarus and Czechia 13-03-2018 On March 13, 2018 consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Belarus and Czechia took place in Prague. The Belarusian delegation was headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oleg Kravchenko, the Czech delegation was led by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jakub Durr. During the negotiations the sides discussed current state and prospects for the development of the Belarusian-Czech relations in political, trade and economic spheres, interaction between Belarus and Czechia within international organizations, issues of humanitarian cooperation, the situation in the region. The parties confirmed the importance of the contacts intensification at the level of the Foreign Ministries of the two countries and agreed on further practical steps for their development. The Head of the Belarusian delegation also met with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechia, Martin Stropnicky. The sides discussed the most topical issues of the bilateral agenda. print version Consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Belarus and Argentina 13-03-2018 On March 12, 2018 Buenos Aires hosted the Belarusian-Argentine consultations on political issues. The Belarusian delegation was headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Evgeny Shestakov, the Argentinean delegation was led by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Daniel Raimondi. During the consultations, the parties discussed a wide range of issues of bilateral relations, including political cooperation and interaction within international organizations. Special attention was paid to the expansion of trade and economic relations and the development of legal framework. Following the consultations, the parties signed Memorandum of Understanding on Political Consultations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of the Argentine Republic. print version Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus E.Shestakov holds a meeting at the Parliament of Argentina 13-03-2018 On March 8, 2018 within the framework of the visit of Belarusian delegation to the countries of Latin America, meeting in the Parliament of Argentina was held. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Evgeny Shestakov, as a member of the delegation, noted the need to develop interparliamentary cooperation, including for the purpose of boosting bilateral contacts in political, trade, economic, scientific, cultural, sport and other spheres. Argentinian side informed on the establishment of the Group of Friendship with the Republic of Belarus in its Parliament, and confirmed its interest in promoting the development of bilateral contacts in various areas. print version Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus O.Kravchenko to pay a working visit to Brussels 09-03-2018 On March 12, 2018 the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Oleg Kravchenko, will pay a working visit to Brussels (Belgium). The Belarusian representative will lead the national delegation at the annual Senior Officials Meeting of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) to be attended by the European Commissioner for the European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, and the Head of the European External Action Service, Federica Mogherini. The Meeting will be dedicated to implementation of the deliverables agreed at the EaP Summit in Brussels in 2017 and streamlining of the EaP institutional architecture. print version Chandan Taparia of Motilal Oswal Securities told CNBC-TV18, "We have selected to go with selective NBFC, especially Bharat Financial Inclusion. This stock is all set to give the fresh breakout. We have seen strong momentum and consolidation breakout for last couple of trading session. We have seen the rise in trading volume and delivery volume. So, I am expecting positive move in the counter. One can buy with a stop loss of Rs 1,045 and we are expecting it to head towards Rs 1,111 level." "Second trade is on private bank - Kotak Mahindra Bank. It is the strongest counter which has emerged in last couple of trading sessions. Recently, it formed a pollen flag and narrow range price breakout on the daily chart. We have seen good amount of long built up and mechanical indicators are also suggesting a fresh leg of rally to hit the new lifetime high territory." "So expecting a positive move towards Rs 1,135. One can buy with a stop loss of Rs 1,090." "Third trade is buy on Reliance Industries. This heavyweight counter has been moving in a broader range between Rs 900 and Rs 960. Recently, it formed a positive price pattern and Put writing is visible at lower strike. So, I a expecting it to surpass or head towards upper band of the trading range. One can buy with a stop loss of Rs 917 and this stock has potential to test Rs 960-965 levels," he added. : Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com told CNBC-TV18, "The Nifty itself is a buy but the midcaps are the place to be today. So Britannia Industries is a buying opportunity. FMCG stocks have been doing well and Britannia has been an outperformer. Today again it should do well. So, it remains a buy." "Havells India is a buy. After a decent correction, the stock built a base and has broken out. So there is some momentum on the upside." Rajat Bose of rajatkbose.com told CNBC-TV18, "Today PSU banks are a no-brainer. You can buy Canara Bank and you can buy State Bank of India (SBI). SBI also looks pretty good. So, you buy PSU banks at current level, put a money stop because all technical stops are being taken out and it is moving further up. So, from that perspective, you can ride that rally in PSU banks with a money stop of about 1 percent to about 1.5 percent." "In Voltas , I would put a stop loss below Rs 642.50 and target would be Rs 653. Jet Airways looks good to me. My target is Rs 703 and I will put a stop loss below Rs 688.80," he added. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More ACC Ltd and Ambuja Cements - the two Indian units of LafargeHolcim plan to enter into a 'master supply agreement' with each other. Both the companies have sought approval from their shareholders to "enter into, execute and deliver the master supply agreement" with each other, they said in separate regulatory filings. The agreement is for supply of cement, clinker and raw materials such as fuels, fly ash, slag and gypsum. This would also include spare parts. According to the pricing formula, for cement they would provide discount of 5 per cent to each other on their average net selling price. "On the basis of a comprehensive evaluation carried out by both the special committee and Board of Directors of the company, the board is of the opinion that there are at present certain constraints in implementing a merger between the company and Ambuja Cements," ACC had said in a filing to BSE. Ambuja has recently announced a capex of Rs 1,391 crore that it plans on spending on setting up a 3.1 MT greenfield clinkerisation plant at Marwar Mundawa in Rajasthan. ACC, on the other hand, had announced a Rs 600-crore capital expenditure plan last year in March focused on setting up five ready-mix concrete plants along with undertaking debottlenecking across its projects in the country. Moneycontrol takes a look about what top research houses think about the Master Supply Agreement between the two companies: CLSA: Buy on both ACC & Ambuja Cements The global research firm is of the view that the two companies intend to derive savings with respect to the Master Supply Agreement. It sees a clear rationale for minority shareholders to approve the Agreement. CLSA has buy ratings on both Ambuja Cements as well as ACC. Morgan Stanley: Agreement likely to drive faster volume growth The house feels that the Master Supply Agreement between the two companies could drive faster volume growth. However, it is of the view that there is limited clarity on the quantum of potential cost saving/revenue uptick. "We believe that the companies are already realising some of the shared/fixed cost synergy," it said. Deutsche Bank: Agreement will improve plant capacity utilisation Deutsche Bank expects benefit from the Master Supply Agreement to accrue from three major areas. It believes that the main objective of the Agreement is to reduce cost to service markets. It is of the view that the agreement will improve plant capacity utilisation wherever possible. The global research firm prefers ACC to Ambuja Cements on better valuation while the preferred sector picks remain Shree Cement, UltraTech Cement and Dalmia Bharat. At 12:47 hrs ACC was quoting at Rs 1,574.25, up Rs 10.80, or 0.69 percent. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 1,580.00 and an intraday low of Rs 1,558.00. Ambuja Cements was quoting at Rs 241.30, up Rs 0.75, or 0.31 percent. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 244.00 and an intraday low of Rs 240.10. economy Supreme Court denies entry to foreign law firms Supreme Court says foreign law firms can't practice in India, but foreign lawyers can visit to advise clients. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Private lender IndusInd Bank today said the Reserve Bank has approved the merger of Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited with the bank. The Reserve Bank of India has, vide its letter dated March 13, 2018, conveyed its "no objection" for the voluntary amalgamation of BFIL with the Bank, subject to compliance with certain terms and conditions, IndusInd Bank said in a filing to BSE. The scheme remains subject to the receipt of approval from the stock exchanges, Sebi, the National Company Law Tribunal, the respective shareholders and creditors of BFIL and the Bank and other applicable statutory and regulatory approvals, it added. IndusInd Bank in October last year decided to acquire the country's leading micro-finance player Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd (BFIL). The merger will be effected through an all-stock transaction of BFIL into IndusInd through a Composite Scheme of Arrangement. Post merger, the new entity will have 4,000 branches and outlets and 16 million customers. A top South African court has allowed Bank of Baroda to close its operations in the country next month, over its links with the controversial India-born Gupta brothers who are facing massive corruption allegations. Judge Ntendeya Mavundla of the Pretoria High Court yesterday dismissed with costs an application by 20 companies linked to the Guptas seeking to stop the Bank of Baroda (BoB) from closing all its accounts and leaving South Africa. The Indian state-owned bank announced last month that it had decided to close down operations in South Africa in line with a revision of its global strategy. BoB was the only bank that had been working with the Gupta companies after all South African banks severed ties with them following corruption allegations against Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta involving billions of rands. The three brothers, as well as Duduzane Zuma, son of former president Jacob Zuma who was forced to resign last month, are being sought by authorities investigating these allegations, but the whereabouts of all four are unknown. Mavundla said in his judgement that the courts could not interfere with BoB's decision to leave the country. "The respondent's rights to trade or not to trade supersedes whatever right if any the applicants might have. I further conclude that the balance of convenience far outweighs that of the applicant's and tilts in favour of (BoB)," Mavundla said. "Put differently, the courts cannot compel the respondent to keep the doors of its business open for whatever duration," the judge added. The applicants had secured an interim order against BoB late last year after the bank had advised that it would be closing all accounts of Gupta-linked companies. The companies cited difficulties they would have with the closure of paying salaries to thousands of their employees in their businesses ranging from information technology to mining. But the latest judgement said that BoB had "every right" to terminate business contracts including those of the 20 Gupta-linked companies. There were no immediate comments from the Gupta companies and Bank of Baroda on the ruling by the court. The Gupta family, who arrived in South Africa from their hometown of Saharanpur in UP about two decades ago, has established a massive business empire in diverse fields, allegedly through their closeness to ex-president Zuma. The eldest brother, Ajay, has been declared a fugitive by authorities after he failed to hand himself over to investigators as agreed. Last week, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba announced on national television that Ajay Gupta had not acquired South African citizenship because he had refused to renounce his Indian citizenship first. Gigaba also came under fire for initially declaring that Atul Gupta did not have South African citizenship either, but later withdrew this after the media published a copy of Atul's South African identity document. After a series of hacks and attempts to steal assets from cryptocurrency companies, one of the largest crypto-exchange in the world, Binance has decided to go on the offensive to deter the attempts. Hong Kong-based Binance has announced USD 250,000 bounty to anyone who supplies information that leads to the legal arrest of the hackers involved in the attempted hacking incident on Binance on March 7th, 2018. The company had reported a hacking attempt, though it said that all funds were safe and no funds had been stolen. To ensure a safe crypto community, we cant simply play defence. We need to actively prevent any instances of hacking before they occur, as well as follow through after-the-fact. Even though the hacking attempt against Binance on March 7th was not successful, it was clear it was a large-scale, organized effort, the company said. The reward will be paid in BNB coins after arrests of the perpetrator at a determined exchange rate. Additionally, Binance has also reserved USD 10,000,000 for future bounties against any illegal hacking attempts on the exchange. The company also encouraged other exchanges and crypto-businesses to join the initiative and do the same. In January, Coincheck cryptocurrency exchange was attacked by hackers and they stole over USD 500 million worth of the crypto-assets. This was the biggest such attack in the crypto-world ever. The heist surpassed the attack on MtGox exchange in 2014 when hackers vanished with digital currency worth USD 480 million. Following that, the regulator in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong asked the exchanges functioning in their respective jurisdictions to employ the best security measures. Japan's financial regulator had also inspected all cryptocurrency exchanges present in the country. The fee hike is set to be implemented from October 2, 2020 The EB-5 visa is gaining popularity as an alternative to the embattled H-1B visa, which is the most popular US visa category for the movement of Indian techies. Usually an entrepreneurial visa, with an initial investment of USD 500,000 and a promise to create at least ten full time jobs in the US, children of high net worth individuals, executives as well as middle class people are looking at the visa as a sure shot chance at a US Green Card. Most people want to invest in EB-5 mainly for their children so they are able to go to the US and stay there and not be dependent on any other visa category, said Andrew Graves, Director of Business Development, U.S. Immigration Fund. Were also recently seeing large uptick in current H-1B visa holders where they want their permanent residency, H-1B is just temporary and theres a long lottery so theyre opting to go the EB-5 route. Plus the headwinds in the H-1B are not basically going away for the next year or so. The EB-5 visa has been around for 27 years now, with the minimum investment remaining the same. However, EB-5 has been under Congressional review and the investment amount is likely to go up from USD 500,000 to close to USD 1 million. The United States Congress created the EB-5 Program in 1990 to enable high net worth foreign investors to obtain a US visa for themselves and their immediate family. However, the visa is now being increasingly used by students from different parts of the world. China makes up about 80 percent of the overall (EB-5) market. It is so popular that there is a waiting list. In 2016 we had over 14,000 investors from china while India had about 300, Graves said. India has been slow to take up on the opportunity and stands fifth in terms of countries that invest in the EB-5 visa category, after China, South Korea, Vietnam, Brazil. The most popular industry that EB-5 visa holders invest in is real estate because of safety of capital according to Graves. He attributed the lack of interest in the visa category to the huge focus on H-1B visas. However, the intense focus on the vetting process for H-1B and the proposed overhaul of its lottery system, and the dependence on employers is making it an increasingly less lucrative option. USIF has been in India for the past two years and has been trying to build awareness around EB-5 as the shortest route to get permanent residency in the US. It partnered with education group The Chopras Group in India last year with an aim to raise USD 125 million by this year. Weve witnessed growing interest since our launch from families wanting to expand their business operations into the US or for their children to have greater freedom and mobility in their professional lives without having to rely on an employer to sponsor them. A large number of our initial clients have done this purely to obtain access to the United States, not necessarily to migrate to the US. Weve seen over 3,000 enquiries since we started and over 600 meetings via seminars and one-on-one interactions in the last 5 months, said Shan Chopra, Managing Partner of The Chopras Group. Besides the metro cities with a large number of executives, the Chopras Group has seen huge interest from cities such as Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Mengaluru. This has also meant a slew of interesting scenarios, the most common one being HNIs in tier-2 cities asking for help to convert their black money into white. Graves remembers a time when a prospective EB-5 visa holder was asked to pay the minimum investment in physical gold. Chopra has fielded queries on whether payments can be made in bitcoins. Suresh Prabhu India will take up with the US authorities their "unfortunate" decision to hike import duty on steel and aluminium products, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu. The Trump administration last week announced hiking import duty on steel and aluminium to 25 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, triggering fears of a global trade war. "The measures are unfortunate and we will take up these issues with my US counterpart and I will definitely try to explain to them the necessity for working together through multilateral trading platform as well as bilateral trading platform," Prabhu told PTI in an interview. The ministry is already studying the impact of duty hike as India exports these goods worth about USD 1.3 billion a year to America. With hike in tariffs by the US government, exports of these products to the American market will become expensive and could impact the competitiveness of domestic items. S&P Global Ratings has said that the decision could result in retaliatory action from the EU and China, triggering a trade war and hurting global economic growth. A report by Kotak Institutional Equities has also stated that export of steel to the US from various countries is likely to fall by 9-14 million tonne due to this measure. Major steel exporters to the US comprise Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and Russia which together account for close to 60 per cent of the shipments. India exported close to 0.9 MT steel to America in 2017. Some trade experts have suggested that India should drag the US in the World Trade Organization's (WTO) dispute mechanism against the move as it is not in compliance with the global trade norms. Further, the issue is likely to be flagged by certain participants of the mini-ministerial meeting of WTO members called by India on March 19-20 here. The US and China would send their political representatives for the meeting. The idea of the meeting is to "create an atmosphere, so that this negativity around global trade and multilateral trading system should reduce and all the countries should benefit from open trade", Prabhu said. FDI Seeking to attract more FDI from the US, India has reached out to the businesses in America's mid-west region citing investment opportunities in states like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It is the right time for the American businesses to come and invest in India and be part of the success story the world's fastest growing emerging economy, the Indian Consul General in Chicago Neeta Bhushan told a large group of corporate sector representative from the mid-west region. The Indian Consulate in Chicago last week organised a meeting with mid-west business leaders pitching for business opportunities in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Delivering her keynote address on "India's new initiatives, Budget 2018, Business opportunity in Indian States, Upcoming Business & Cultural Initiatives," Bhushan highlighted major aspects of Indian economy, key initiatives undertaken by the Government during the recent Budget 2018-19 and economic initiatives taken by the Government. In the last three years, India has achieved a growth rate of around seven per cent and it is estimated that India will continue to grow at around 7.5 per cent, she said. India is a USD2.5 trillion economy now, making it the seventh largest economy in the world, she said. Speaking on business environment for Entrepreneurs in India, Bala Palamdai, president, TiE Midwest mentioned that India's new economic initiatives and tax reforms have made a huge change and the process had become much simpler leading to more digitisation and the economy had become more attractive for business and investments. TiE is a non-profit association dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship in the Bay Area. BF-3, a short take-off and vertical landing F-35 Lightning II, releases an inert 1,000 lb. GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) separation weapon over water in an Atlantic test range in Patuxent River, Maryland August 8, 2012. A Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft has dropped its first bomb in a new test stage of the Pentagon's costliest weapons purchase, officials said August 9, 2012. REUTERS/Andy Wolfe/Lockheed Martin/Handout (UNITED STATES - Tags: MILITARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS - GM2E88A0LJR01 live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More State-owned Bharat Dynamics has opened its initial public offer for subscription on Tuesday, with a price band of Rs 413-428 per share. Here are 10 things you should know before subscribing the issue:- Company Profile Hyderabad-headquartered Bharat Dynamics is one of the leading defence PSUs in India engaged in the manufacture of surface to air missiles (SAMs), anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), underwater weapons, launchers, countermeasures and test equipment. It is the sole manufacturer in India for SAMs, torpedoes, ATGMs; and it is also the sole supplier of SAMs and ATGMs to the Indian armed forces, according to F&S Report. Additionally, it is also engaged in the business of refurbishment and life extension of missiles manufactured. The defence company currently has three manufacturing facilities located in Hyderabad, Bhanur and Vishakhapatnam. About the Public Issue The initial public offering of 2,24,51,953 equity shares is an an offer for sale by the promoter, The President of India, acting through the Ministry of Defence. The company has reserved a portion of 4,58,203 equity shares for allotment to eligible employees. The issue will close on March 15. The price band for the offer is at Rs 413-428 per share. Employees and retail investors will get shares at a discount of Rs 10 per share on offer price. Bids can be made for a minimum lot of 35 equity Shares and in multiples of 35 shares thereafter. Equity shares are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE. The book running lead managers to the offer are SBI Capital Markets, IDBI Capital Markets & Securities and YES Securities (India). Fund Raising Bharat Dynamics aims to raise Rs 927.27 crore at lower end of price band and Rs 960.94 crore at higher band, through the issue. Objects of the Issue It is an offer for sale; hence the company will not receive any proceeds from the offer and all the proceeds will go to the selling shareholder. Main objects of the Offer are to carry out the disinvestment of 22,451,953 equity shares by the selling shareholder and to achieve the benefits of listing the equity shares on the stock exchanges. It is a part of divestment programme for which the government revised its target to Rs 80,000 crore (from Rs 72,500 crore earlier) in the recent Union Budget. Strengths > The infrastructure at manufacturing facilities combined with vast expertise enable the company to cater to the needs of the Indian armed forces in a timely manner. > The implementation of 'Make in India' policy has enabled it to improve supply chain management in order to meet long term commitments to primary customer, the MoD and ensured transparency in identifying and developing new vendors. Increase in indigenisation will enable the company to reduce reliance on imports and the cost of products. > In order to ensure that products qualify the trials by the Indian armed forces, it has set up various quality control processes such as multi-level inspection at vendors plants, inspection of outsourced materials / components, subassembly checks and final checks of our products in order to ensure highest success rates of products. > It has a diversified Board with directors and each of key management team having several years of experience in the defence industry. > As of January 31, 2018, its outstanding order book was Rs 10,543 crore. It has delivered consistent growth over the last five financial years both in terms of financial and operational metrics. Financials The state-owned defence company has posted profits continuously in the last five fiscals. It has reported a CAGR of 39.4 percent and 10.8 percent on revenue and net profit fronts respectively over FY14-FY17. Promoter and Management Its promoter is the President of India acting through the Ministry of Defence. Udaya Bhaskar has been associated with the company in the capacity of a Chairman and Managing Director since January 30, 2015. He holds a bachelors degree in plastics technology and chemical engineering from H B Technological Institute, Kanpur University and holds masters degree in technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He joined the company in the year 1990. Shareholding The promoter currently holds 100 percent of the pre-Offer equity share capital of the company. The government will dilute 12.25 percent stake through the issue. Post completion of the offer, promoter's shareholding will be reduced to 87.75 percent of the post offer paid-up equity share capital. Dividend Policy Bharat Dynamics has consistently declared dividends for the last five fiscals. Risks and Concerns Here are some risks and concerns highlighted by several brokerage houses:- > BDL is primarily dependent on a single customer, the Indian armed forces through the Ministry of Defence. A decline or reprioritisation of the Indian defence budget, the reduction in their orders, termination of contracts or failure to succeed in tendering projects and deviations in the short term and long term policies of the Ministry of Defence or the Indian armed forces in the future will have a material adverse impact on company's business, financial condition, and results of operations, growth prospects and cash flows. > The company operates in a highly regulated environment and interference from the government is quite high as it involves national security concerns. > It is dependent on its information technology infrastructure to conduct its business activities, manage risks, implement its internal control systems and manage and monitor its business operations. > Government of India intention to open FDI in the defence sector is expected to increase the competition intensity among players operating in the sector. > Cost overruns/delays in delivery may lead to loss under fixed-price contracts. > The company is dependent on key original equipment manufacturers for sub-assemblies/ component, single source supplier and sub contractors. With several state elections lined up in 2018 in the run-up to the big general polls next year, market experts believe that political stability is a big trigger going forward. Looking ahead, political stability is an issue. While the ruling party won in North East on anti-incumbency factor, what about this sentient in states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh? asked Pradip Shah, Chairman & Founder, IndAsia Fund Advisors in an interview to CNBC-TV18. Currently, global economies are doing well along with issues of Korean tensions and ebbing trade war fears. In India, the demand situation is good and we are emerging out of GST and demonetisation issues too, he said. But there are selling triggers existing till March as well such as long term capital gains tax, among others. Shah believes it would be adventurous to buy PSU banks at current levels. There is more pain to come. While individual banks may be able to resolve issues better, they will also need capital, he told the channel. In case of information technology stocks, he remains positive, while highlighting they have been changing business models over time. They are no longer the firms that they were even five years ago. Among non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), he said \they were benefiting from the hesitation of PSU banks to increase the loan book. Clearly private banks and NBFCs are taking the market share and that will continue, he said. But, within that context, NBFCs are multiple intermediaries who borrow from banks. So, the cost structures are worst and hence private banks are better placed. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More After a blockbuster 2017, profit booking and relentless selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pulled the S&P BSE Sensex lower by 6 percent so far in the year 2018 as of closing price of on March 12. There are plenty of domestic and global factors which pulled the index lower but the good news is that the bull run is intact and investors who are in the market for long innings have nothing to fear. Investors should look at companies across market caps which have a sustainable business model and can deliver high-quality growth. Smallcaps are still a better bet than Sensex or Nifty, suggest experts. Commenting on the Indian market, Shankar Sharma of First Global in an interview with CNBC-TV18 said that there is no bear market in Indian equities as well as global markets. India is not in a bear market but it could lag in terms of performance. I am publically very bullish on the smallcaps for the last 4 years, he said. After speaking to the management of many companies in the last 1 month in which we have exposure suggest that FY19 numbers for most of the companies suggest earnings growth of 30-50 percent or even 150 percent which makes valuations not very demanding, he suggests. After the recent correction, valuations of Indian market have come down to a reasonable level which should give motivation to investors to accumulate quality stocks on declines. Investors should focus on stocks which have either corrected a lot or have huge growth potential. Here is a list of top 13 stocks compiled from different experts which are contra buys at current levels: Analyst: Sandeep Chordia, Executive Vice-President - Strategy, Kotak Securities Indo Count The home textile companies which are mainly exporters of bed linen and terry towels like Indo Count should do well in the next 2-3 years as the destocking by large retailers in the US is coming to an end and as they start restocking growth should come back. Indo Count is trading at 10x FY19E for a 10 percent RoE profile. Cochin Shipyard Cochin Shipyard has been performing poorly because of the physiological linkage to the shipping industry. It does a large amount of ship building work for the Navy and Coast Guard. The order book is healthy providing visibility for next 4 years. If one removes the cash and other income then operational RoE goes to 25 percent compared to 11 percent reported in FY18E. UPL Agrochemical stocks which have corrected a lot are also contra buys. We like UPL Ltd. in this space as it is the largest player in the industry and its earnings this year is expected to be nearly 5x higher than its second largest peer, PI Industries. The sector has companies which have a RoE profile of 20 percent and trades at ~20x one Forward PE basis. UPL for a 24 percent RoE profile and trades at 15x on Fw PE basis. DB Corp DB Corp could be a good contra play in the media space. People have a very negative sentiment towards print media companies. The worst seems to be behind in FY18 and numbers should improve from FY19E onwards. Due to the favourable election cycle, the print advertisement should pick up in FY19. For more than 25 percent EBITDA margin, more than 20 percent RoE and a dividend yield of over 3 percent the stock trades cheap at around 13x FY19E. Tata Motors Tata Motors could be a good contra play in the automobile space. Past few quarters have disappointed investors due to volatile margins and forex hedging losses. Going forward as Hedging losses unwind we expect JLR EBITDA margins to improve. Based on the anticipated improvement in EBITDA margins and earnings the stocks look cheap. There could be a positive surprise from Indian operations, mainly CV business. State Bank of India The SBI stock has corrected 21 percent from its recent high. However, the stock can be a good contrarian play as lower slippages in FY2019E over FY2018E, improving loan growth and resolutions of IBC accounts are expected to improve margins in the near term. CASA growth has remained strong in recent quarters led by strong growth in savings accounts and this will provide some relief to incremental borrowings cost. Analyst: Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services HCL Technologies The stock underperformed the benchmark Nifty index in the last 1 year, up to a little over 13 percent. Geojit continues to remain positive on HCL on a consolidated basis driven by traction in deal wins and strength in Mode 2 & 3 services (focus on next-gen offerings). Revenue contribution from Mode 2 & 3 services surpassed 25 percent of the total revenue and the management is eyeing to further increase the contribution from digital business to 40 percent over the next few years. Deal wins remained strong in Q3FY18 with the company signing twenty transformational deals across services. The companys strategy of augmenting its IP based partnerships with technology vendors to broaden its product offerings is expected to provide a tailwind to revenue growth going ahead. We factor revenue CAGR of 9 percent over FY17-20E. Aarti Industries After rallying a little over 50 percent in the last one year, the stock has undergone some bit of consolidation so far in the year 2018. It rose a little over 2 percent in the same period. AARTI Industries Ltd (ARTO) is a global leader in Benzene based derivative products. The company has a diversified product portfolio with end users in pharma, agrochemicals, specialty polymers, paints & pigments. ARTOs Q3 Revenue grew by 29 percent YoY, led by strong growth across business segments with Speciality chemical business grew by 23 percent YoY, home & personal care business 103 percent YoY and Pharma 35 percent YoY. Recently, ARTO signed Rs10,000cr exclusive supply contract with a global chemical conglomerate for high-value speciality chemical intermediate over a period of 20 years with the commencement of supplies from the Year 2020. Going forward, we believe that with strong off-take Pharma segment and stable growth from Specality chemicals segments, we factor revenue to grow 14 percent CAGR over FY18E- FY20E. Given healthy earnings outlook, we continue to have a positive rating on the stock. Torrent Pharma The stock is down nearly 6 percent so far in the year 2018 and on a 1-year basis, it slipped by nearly 1 percent. But, Geojit feels that there is tremendous potential in the business. Torrents acquisition of branded formulations business of Unichem Laboratories will strengthen its presence in the domestic market with expansion in the chronic portfolio, improved market share and widen distribution networks. Besides recovery in US business is expected to drive robust growth going ahead. Higher revenue growth from Europe is also another positive for the company. Given increased R&D spends for high margin/high-volume products and meaningful new launches for coming years. Notably, the management has guided for 10-15 ANDA filings in FY18 and also indicated plans to submit 3-4 derma products by this fiscal end. We expect Torrent Pharmas revenue and Adj. PAT to grow at a CAGR of 14 percent/9 percent over FY17-20E owing to increased contribution from the domestic, gradual pickup in US sales through quality filings and strong growth in Germany, Brazil and RoW. Idea Cellular Amid the ongoing troubles in the telecom sector, shares of Idea Cellular slipped a little over 27 percent so far in the year 2018 and on a 1-year basis it has fallen over 24 percent. Ideas focus on the Vodafone merger and accelerating synergistic benefits both in terms of operating cost and capex is expected to achieve a higher level of efficiency going ahead. The merger process is likely to be completed by H1CY18, we expect synergies to start accruing from FY20E leading to an expansion in EBITDA margin to 28.4 percent in FY20E. Importantly, the companys fund-raising will provide Idea with much-needed liquidity to boost network and protect its revenue and market share. Moreover, Ideas plan to monetise its tower assets will strengthen its balance sheet. Tata Global Beverage The stock has fallen over 14 percent so far in the year 2018 but it nearly doubled in the calendar year 2017. Geojit Financial Services feel that the stock is a good buy on declines. Tata Global Beverages (TGB), an integrated natural beverage company derives ~70 percent of revenue from branded tea business and ~60 percent of the revenue comes from markets outside India. TGB has put in place a new strategy to drive growth and profitability including exiting from loss-making geographies. Under the core business rejuvenation, TGB will expand its product offerings in premium and non-black categories and enhanced its focus on green and herbal tea categories (higher margins). It is also planning to foray in large tea consuming Asian markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, and China. To renew Nourishco (JV), TGB launched several new products/variants under Tata Gluco Plus and Himalayan water brands. We expect TGB to gain market share across geographies led by its innovative premium product offerings and expect revenue/PAT to grow at ~6 percent/23 percent CAGR over FY17-20E. Analyst: Ritesh Ashar, Chief Strategy Officer, KIFS Trade Capital Bhansali Engineering Polymers The stock witnessed profit booking so far in the year 2018 after it rallied over 600 percent in the last one year. Investors should look at adding positions on every fall. The company currently has a capacity of Rs80,000 whereas the domestic demand is 350000 which is being catered by only two such companies in India. By 2018 and 2022 company is planning for capacity expansion to 350000 which is nearly 4 times. And, the company will be self-sufficient in catering the overall domestic demand. Financials of the company are very lucrative. Accumulate on dips should be the strategy. Firstsource Solutions The stock has underperformed on a 1-year basis when compared to the benchmark index. It rose a little over 11 percent in the last one year. But, tracking the momentum in 2018, IT stocks are likely to pick up momentum. FSL is into small cap IT Softwares we have seen IT has been performing and likely to outperform. As per RRG IT sector is the only sector which is in the Trending quadrant. The company has posted a net profit of Rs.99.55 crores for the period ended December 31, 2017, with reduction of debt and available at cheap valuations. FSL looks to be a turnaround and open for targets of more than 65 with long term horizon. Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Being the sole supplier of missiles to Indian armed forces, Bharat Dynamics enjoys strong competitive advantage in a growing defence sector. There are huge opportunities particularly as a result of indigenisation of Indias defence missile programme. This is also reflected in the growth numbers. Companys revenues over the financial year 2015-17 have grown at close to 30 percent annually to Rs 4,600 crore and order book has jumped to Rs 11,000 crore or close to 3 times its FY17 sales. What is peculiar to this business is that despite huge scale it does not require large capex as close to 70 percent of its requirements are outsourced. Bharat Dynamics procures orders from the government on a cost-plus basis and has demonstrated one of the most efficient capital management. Even after undertaking a buy back (17 percent of capital) it is sitting on a cash equivalent of close to Rs 466 crore or 30 percent its equity capital of about Rs 1,600 crore as on September 2017. Obviously, if one adjusts for the cash the reported return on equity of about 30 percent would be much higher. This is also a reason that since the business needs very little funding, the IPO (size Rs 961 crore) is entirely an offer for sale from the government of India. Nevertheless, the companys focus is on developing technical know-how, building competitive product portfolio through a lot more investment in R&D and in house capabilities, which is at par with some of the international players in this space. It manufactures some of the advanced Surface-to-Air missiles, Anti-Tank Guided Missiles, launchers, lightweight torpedoes and test equipment. Thanks to governments Make in India initiatives, the company is working with DRDO and other government programmes to develop advanced missiles. A secular growth opportunity While sectoral opportunities are huge, the company is in the process of setting up two additional manufacturing facilities which will not only enhance its capacity to execute existing orders but also prepare it for next generation missiles, and to participate in the advanced upcoming government programmes. As on September 2017, Bharat Dynamics reported capital work in progress of close to Rs 176 crore, which is nearly 30 percent of its net fixed assets, indicating a large part of the money is getting deployed now, and benefits will reflect in the medium term. In the coming years, there would be much more value addition and project size would be effectively larger thus leading to better margins. That apart, it is also gradually looking for the export market particularly in the product categories, which are generally available and competitive in nature. To begin with, it has already bagged one export order through competitive bidding proving its cost and technical capabilities. Valuations At the upper end of the price band of Rs 428, the post issue market capitalisation works out to close to Rs 7,900 crore, which is about 16 times its FY17 earnings. Considering the company has zero debt, enjoys competitive advantages in a growing market, earns good cash flows and generates strong return ratios, valuations looks attractive. Moreover, retail investors are offered Rs 10 discount on the final price. Burdened with heavy debt due to crop damage and in a bid to protest against unfulfilled promises, Maharashtra farmers undertook a massive protest march to Mumbai that ended last night with the state government agreeing to most of their demands and assuring a six month timeline for proper implementation. The implementation of the demands includes complete farm loan waiver, higher support prices, etc. While this would provide immediate respite to the anguished farmers, the question is can it ensure longer-term farm income stability? A piecemeal approach in handling the agrarian distress can only ensure political mileage. In order to transform Indian agriculture to an engine of growth and ensure doubling of farm income by 2022, holistic reform is warranted. Improvement in farm productivity and average land holding, prevention of wastage in the value chain, production of high value-added crops and creation of more non-agricultural employment in rural areas is the need of the hour. Short term solutions can provide temporary respite while spoiling the credit discipline, as was evident post the spate of loan waivers last year. For companies dependent on agriculture and rural economy, a more structural long-term solution can only improve fortunes. What went wrong? In three of the last four years, agriculture has seen a negative growth in Maharashtra, a state with a mere 19 percent land under irrigation and major dependence on the weather and monsoons to irrigate fields. Untimely and scattered rains, along with hail storms and pest attacks, have successively damaged crops, leaving little room for recovery. This has hit farmers incomes immensely, impacting not only their ability to pay off loans but shrinking their basic disposable income. Not only this, Maharashtra has a lopsided allocation of resources that favors certain crops and orphans others, which further aggravates the issue. Frequent intervention in the form of support prices or for resource allocation, many a time to gain political mileage, has disturbed the equilibrium within crops. The disparity between area and output is clearly visible. The farmers side: After successive crop damages, the farmers had been assured benefits and support from the government. However, the implementation of these promises has been delayed, which pushed farmers to borrow from exploitative moneylenders and other resort to other desperate measures. What delayed the payments? The disbursal of the farm loan waivers announced by the state last year was delayed majorly on account of verification of the beneficiaries after anomalies were found with Aadhar numbers submitted in applications. Key demands from farmers: The farmers came with a clear cut set of demands, which includes: Complete farm loan waiver Implementation of the Swaminathan Aayog suggestion, especially the MSP (minimum support price) to be 1.5x of input costs Speedy compensation of losses to farms due to crop damages in hail storms and pest attacks Land ownership over forest land under cultivation of tribal farmers. Pension scheme for farmers Changes in river linking scheme Enhance water availability in drought prone districts The economic angle: The damage to the states major crops like onion and cotton due to hail storms, pest attacks and uneven monsoons during the year are expected to contract the states agricultural output by almost 8.3 percent. This in turn would slow down the overall GPD growth of the state, which is expected to come in at around 7.3 percent, the lowest in three years. The political angle: In the crucial run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, no political party wants to be perceived as anti-farmer. Many argue that the entire protest was much of a political play with each side portraying support for farmers. However true these might be, the fact that farmer incomes are grossly below the minimum cannot be denied and immediate steps to ensure both shorter and longer-term farm income stability is a dire need of the hour. The benefits: The implementation of the demands would definitely bring in some respite for farmers. It would also help in removal of the drain from farmers' incomes (loan repayments) which would help in assuring that the benefits of forthcoming reforms reach and stay with farmers. However, delay in comprehensive reforms would only push farmers again into the vicious cycle of loans, moneylenders and interest payments. The challenges: The loan waiver for farmers will cost the state almost Rs 34,000 crore, which will definitely have a huge impact on the state's treasury. Funding the waiver would entail cutting down other forms of investment like infrastructure. Loan waiver per se creates the classic moral hazard problem (moral hazard occurs when someone increases their exposure to risk when insured) leading to a rise in delinquency of the entire agricultural portfolio of lenders. Moreover, there seems to be no guarantee that the farmers will not end up in a similar situation again, two or three years down the line. The formula and implementation of the minimum support prices seems messy and stands to intrude the demand supply equilibrium. With frequent interventions, free market forces are obstructed, which prohibits free adjustment of production and crop choice. Due to this, the farmer tends to remain sticky to crops where either the MSP is high or where crop has a better resource allocation. This would result in continued overproduction of certain crops (much beyond demand) and lingering scarcity of certain others as the switch between crops is hindered. Doubling of farm incomes far fetched The government has time and again reiterated the vision of doubling farm incomes by 2022. Even after rosy estimates, agricultural growth is lagging at around 2 percent for the year and the target of doubling the real sustainable farm incomes requires almost a 13 percent growth in the coming years, which is a huge way off the current growth path. With 47 percent of the workforce employed in agriculture, improving agriculture incomes has the maximum potential for eliminating poverty in the country. Mere loan waivers and MSP intrusions are one-time support and do not improve the sustainable income flow for farmers. Improving agricultural incomes and reducing rural distress would require rapid and comprehensive steps, including farm mechanization, leading to higher productivity, provision of proper storage facilities for harvest, increasing penetration of irrigation to reduce dependency on weather, encouraging and stimulating the food processing industry, improving rural logistics, promoting crop insurance, non-farm income, etc. Follow @Ruchiagrawal For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research Page. Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday broke his silence on the charges levelled against the 80:20 gold scheme that was rolled out in 2013, calling them a "diversion of public interest rather than a focus on key issues". Rajan said that the implementation of the 80:20 scheme was in no way connected to the recently unearthed scam at Punjab National Bank, except for the fact that they pertained to the same industry. He maintained that the scheme was brought in to combat the lack of gold supply at the time and bring back jobs in the Indian jewellery sector. In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh, Rajan said the government in 2014 was looking to relax import restrictions on gold after the rupee had recovered from 2013's taper tantrum. The central bank then implemented the 80:20 scheme to allow importers of gold to start importing again but with certain conditions in place. Asked about the timing of the scheme's rollout, Rajan said the government's 80:20 proposal appeared to follow objective criteria and that its motive was clear: to give a fillip to free trading in gold and create jobs in the jewellery sector. The former RBI governor also spoke about the recently reported Rs 13,640 crore Punjab National Bank fraud and said that the scam should have been uncovered sooner. He also said that had the RBI had any idea of what was going on at the time, it would have done everything in its power to stop it. Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview. Q: First for starters, we have to start with the frauds because that is the reason why we are asking this question who fault is it? Is it the fault of the owner of the bank, the auditor, the regulator or the management? A: There is plenty of blame to go around, but it is important to first focus on why the fraud occurred and what systems were inadequate. In any such thing and I am sure the investigation will go into all these details, but why was this Letter of Undertaking (LoU) given. Why was it not recorded in the banking system? Did management take notice of it? Was it put before the board? And of course after that did the auditors pick it up, if they didnt why didnt they pick it up because auditors go branch by branch and then were the regulators instructions obeyed over time or were they not and why were they not obeyed? Of course the owner in this case the government which appoints the board members as well as the management what is their culpability in this whole thing. I think every facet has to be examined. One of the important concerns about frauds that I had when I was at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was that we unearth them, but we never actually brought any of the culprits to book. So, one of the things we did was we said we need to bring together all the people involved both in unearthing as well as investigating and see how we can move forward. So, we sent a list of the big frauds to the Prime Ministers Office to try and get some action on that. So, these are the kinds of things we need to figure out. Q: When you were governor, many of these LoUs were signed and used to get letters of credit and actually a letter when you were governor on August 03rd 2016 was sent to all the banks asking them to thoroughly scrutinise the SWIFT system, audit it. Looks like you all were sensitive that a problem can come from this SWIFT connectivity to the core banking system. Can the supervisor be blamed for not pushing hard enough to get their instruction implemented? A: Before we assign blame, we have to know what happened and why it happened. In many banking systems there are so many ways of getting around the system. We have to understand that when a way is discovered for example with the SWIFT system it was the problem at Bangladesh Bank which unearthed the problems that were there. When the problem is discovered it is important that the regulators send the message to the banks that we have unearthed this problem, now fix it in your systems. Of course after that the regulator basically assumes to some extent that the banks have fixed it. If they havent, we have to understand why the banks didnt. I mean when they were told about a problem why wasnt the problem fixed and I understand they were other reminders sent after that by the Reserve Bank and we have to understand why they werent obeyed. So, there is a fair amount of learning from this episode that we need to get. But surely there is plenty of responsibility to spread around. Q: Hot from the oven news is that the Reserve Bank has banned LoUs. News coming in just about 10 minutes back. Way to go you think? A: I cant opine on current policy and I am sure they have looked at the issues. One of my concerns in India is that there is sometimes a very ---cavalier treatment of guarantees whether it is bank given guarantees or government given guarantees. We dont think these are real and it is only when they are called upon by the entity that has relied on them that we understand that it is almost like giving a loan or in fact more than giving a loan because it usually called upon when the loan is in distressed. So, it is actually like providing equity. Unless we account for these properly there are huge contingent liabilities on the government balance sheet as well as on the bank balance sheet and it is important that we acknowledge them. Q: You are speaking about pushing blame around and the government has picked up this 80:20 gold scheme as one of the ways in which people were allowed to make money. What are your comments on you must have heard what the government said about this? A: As far as I understand, the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam started in 2011 and was unearthed in 2018. The gold scheme that is under the scanner at this point was something which lasted between May 2014 and November 2014. It seems to me very hard to argue that whatever happened then and I am happy to talk more about that, but whatever happened there was in any way related to the scam other than it happened in the same industry that there was gold involved. It is important to treat these has two separate issues. Happy to talk about the 80:20 because the actions there as far as I understand were justified, but I think it is important to keep it separate from the scam. People conflate this all the time and I think this seems to be diversion of public interest rather than a focus on the key issues which are important. Why is it that our banking system is leaking so much? How do we prevent the leaks especially when there is so much new money going into the banking system as re-capitalisation? Q: This 80:20 scheme goes as liberalisation of the number of people who could import but it looks like only some people benefited. How would you answer to that charge? A: What happens with a number of issues is, the RBI is supposed to talk with the government, the government sort of is often the prime mover and the RBI is then supposed to ask whether the policy can be implemented and then announce the policy. On the 80:20 gold scheme remember the circumstances in which it was brought about. We had a foreign exchange crisis in 2013 and there was a great sense that the current account deficit was getting out of control, a big part of the current account deficit was big purchases of gold as real interest rates were strongly negative. So, when the public was moving into gold in a big way the government thought that perhaps one stop gap arrangement - a temporary arrangement would be to reduce the imports of gold. So, it brought in this 80:20 scheme which said that out of every 100 grams that you import of gold, you have to re-export 20 gram and there are a few entities - State Trading Corporation etc and a few public sector banks that would be allowed to import. That had a very important effect in quelling the imports of gold which also meant that the pent-up demand to some extent for gold was building up because our jewellery industry was at a loss given that gold had been stopped. At this point the commerce department started arguing that maybe we should have some liberalisation and we should open it up to more players to import gold so that there is more free flow of gold into the system. Obviously with any liberalisation if you actually implement it, gold imports will go up, the question is who was allowed to implement? There as I understand it and again I have to collect this information at a distance - the department of trade in the commerce ministry has a criterion of who it nominates as star exporters, star trading houses, prime exporters and that objective criterion was available and as I understand it, that criterion was then used to say here are the guys who can import. The whole objective was to bring down the premium that had built-up in the gold trading because of the constraints on supply side. So, liberalisation would have brought down that premium considerably. Why were we able to liberalise? Because we had weathered the first part of the crisis, we had built up reserves somewhat. There was a little more confidence that things were a little better. Further the ultimate aim was this was a constraint on our industry, on industry which employs a lot of people, so the ultimate aim was to get rid of it completely. The scheme that is under controversy was run during the first few months of the NDA regime and finally it was done away with in November 2014. Like any constraints that are imposed on a market system, there would have been some people who made money and some people who didn't. The people who didn't make money objected against the people who did make money but the people who made money were objecting against others, this kind of thing keeps going on. Ultimately the idea was to bring back free trading, that's what happened and that is a good thing. Q: The charge is that the circular came on May 13 when a regime change was in the offing and therefore in a sense malafide in intent? A: I don't want to go into that. I understand this is a big issue in parliament. The point I think is important to remember is that this is a period of rapid regulatory changes, we were dealing with foreign exchange crisis. There were a number of adhoc schemes, adhoc arrangements and I can see that there could have been some arguments made that this new government is going to take time to understand, maybe we need to bring it in, I don't know what the rationale was behind the government at that time. However the point from our perspective at RBI was to understand whether there was any objective criteria for doing what was being done, the logic being that we had weathered the foreign exchange crisis, that in fact there were constant representations from the gold industry that there was a shortage of gold and to some extent there was pent-up demand which was potentially creating other problems. So, our job was to see is this done in a reasonable way. I have not been able to go back to the circulars that were issued and the underlying discussions. What happens in this cases is, the department takes care of it and talks to the government and issues them but as governor I do bear responsibility for any actions of the RBI. Q: Could you have said no? A: Let me put it this way, any policy has ramifications both positive and negative. The positive ramifications of any liberalisation is that you increase the imports of the object that you have stopped in order to facilitate more work in industry. There was an arguments that a lot of workers have been laid off because of a shortage of gold, we need to re-employee them. So, you have to look at that positive aspect. Second, we did not want to liberalise fully because we did not want the flood of gold to come in, we have to do it in steps. If you want to do it in steps obviously you have to pick somebody to import. There is already the public sector which is importing, you are not stopping them from importing, so in a sense this is a liberalisation you are adding more people. That has to bring down the premium on gold which was partly the objective. When you pick them the question is what objective criteria do you follow? If there is a definition by the department of trade that was what the government picked and told us this seems reasonable and we looked at the definition and that seemed reasonable. I presume that is the process we followed and we went out and in consultation with the government issued the circular. Now the new government if it thought this was an issue of importance could have acted immediately. As I understand it took some time to see how this process worked and eventually when we had more foreign exchange under our belt we did away with the schemes. So, to some extent I think procedures were followed what is important in these situations. Q: Let me comeback to the reason why I invited you about reorganising public sector banks or re-imagining them. Would you say ownership is an issue? I mean in the sense if the PNB fraud had happened at a private sector bank would RBI have been easily able to supersede the bank like it did in Global Trust Bank in 2003? Do you think ownership is what we have to attack therefore? A: I think a system with public and private banks can work reasonably. The question is are the incentive structures in the public bank appropriate and this is something we need to examining very carefully. What happens in these kinds of situations how much does the management know, what length of tenure does it have, what incentives does it have to find out what is going wrong and put this appropriate systems in place and what kind of monitoring does the board do? Is the board composed of engaged professionals who understand risk management and who ask the right questions about risk management procedures. One of the things we did during my time was we got rid of a whole set of box ticking requirements we had for the public sector boards. We asked them to focus on the five or six big issues that they needed to keep the bank appropriately managed. Now we also need to ask questions about who appoints these board members and on what basis and how the board members are compensated. One of my concerns was that we compensate public sector board members at a much lower rate than the private sector can compensate. So, even in the market for board members the public sector it at disadvantage even if you had a perfectly good procedure for appointing them. Of course the Bank Board Bureau was supposed to appoint them, but that never actually happened. We need to look at all this and see if the governance of the banks by the government is being done in an arms length professional way as were suggested during the various Gyan Sangam or in fact we havent moved away from that still and more needs to be done. These are important questions to ask. Q: We did have the Bank Board Bureau, but several managing directors were changed without telling them or without telling their own boards. So, do you still think that within the current system of overwhelming government domination we can run these banks better? A: No, we have to change that system. Under the current system the boards have no responsibility for appointing the management. If they have no sort of stick over the management, they dont chose the compensation for the management particularly, if dont they have appropriate sticks over management what control can they have. If everything comes from orders from the ministry as opposed to the board determining things including the appointments of the board then essentially you have taken off powers from the board, rendered it fairly toothless and then you expect it to manage the bank in the banks best interest. We need to think very seriously about public sector banks governance reforms. One of the experiments that was tried during my time was to try and bring in private sector people at a lateral level. Of course you want to be careful about doing too much of it, but one of the problems in doing that of course is that private sector people shy away from coming into the public sector banking system except very few are motivated by patriotic reasons. You cant rely on that to get a large pool of people into the system. So amongst the things we have examine the governance of the public sector banks are the boards appropriately appointed and appropriately incentivised and appropriately empowered. The management, does the management have adequate pay compensation etc. but do they have adequate tenures also. Are they appropriately qualified for the job that they have? We are putting people in charge of Rs 5-10 lakh crore at these banks and we need the best people in the country to do it. To do it in a reasonable way. Of course they have to have the ability to hire good people, to bring good people into their jobs as executive directors, as head of risk management and so on. The public sector was a great repository of talent, but over the years because of variety of issues including hiring fees, including constraints on whether they can hire on campuses or not their ability to recruit talent as been greatly diminished. Ultimately, the issue is not of pay. Public sector banks pay much more up to a certain level than private sector banks, typically at lower levels. It is only at the higher levels that they pay less and that precisely where you need the best talent. So, we need to think about public sector pay also how to rectify it in a way that there is more pay for performance but also gets good people in there. Q: One question on this, Montek Singh Ahluwalia thought so and I am asking you when I interview him is the answer bringing down government stake below 50 percent, so that you are free from all these recruitment constraints? A: That is an experiment we should try with a few public sector banks. But until you get the governance right, you want to make sure that the board once you bring the stake down below 50 percent is able to govern the bank. Otherwise, if you have a bank which is not governed by anybody neither the government nor the board and management has no oversight you could get fairly bad outcomes. I would say the first criterion is to strengthen the governance. There is a chicken and egg problem. It may be hard to strengthen the governance without first distancing the bank from the government. We need to work on both at the same time. Q: The Reserve Bank has issued a circular almost pushing all the bad loans of vintage loans to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in the next six months. It is a fairly strong circular and it is almost looking like AQR2 and it might put 3-4 percentage points more of already stressed loans into NPAs, but it looks like it will be the last sweep do you think that is the way to go? A: I think it is important that the NCLT shows some proof of the concept that is we must bring some of these resolutions to a conclusions. The banks must get their money back, so they be able to unwind some of the provisions they have made. I think that is important that the timeframe that has been given should be adhered to as far as possible and some of these knotty questions that have risen who can bid and who cant bid should be resolved with some clarity. I think if we do that then there will be a growing consensus that there is this NCLT which works and which is a resolution of last resort if nothing has worked we can go there. Which then means that all the out of court systems of resolution that we have in place will have a much better chance of working because banks way before it goes to the NCLT and the promoter can sit down and say what makes more sense now so that we dont have to go into a resolution which can be painful for both of us. I would be very much like to see those first few cases that went in, resolved and resolved with some degree of success in the sense that the firm is put back on track. The bankers get a fair amount of money back and we move forward. Q: Are we on the verge of a trade war or do you think this one increase in tariffs from President Trump will pass? A: Given the recent news on Rex Tillerson it is very hard to predict what this administration will do both for the good and the unpredictable. My worry is that the big issue which is the trade imbalance with China hasn't been addressed as yet. There are measures that are floating through Washington especially using Section 301 on unfair trade practises which are still to be seen and those have to do with intellectual property and so on, issues which are very dear to the Chinese heart. So, my worry is that we haven't seen the end of this process yet. In fact we maybe at an early stage and there is more to come. So, I would not rest easy saying that we are done, I think there is more to come. Q: The US jobs data came in really excellent, do you think the FED has to now hasten rate hikes and as a consequence are we going to see some asset bubbles burst? A: On the first question, the jobs data also said that wage growth was not as strong as previously feared, so it had a good news bad news effect. Good news was strong labour market growth and the wage growth that some people want to see more of wasn't huge. However it also brought comfort to the FED that their pace of tightening was reasonable but at this point not significantly behind the curve. So, I think they will continue between 3 and 4 hikes this year, certainly one this month which they have prepared the markets well for. There is a lot of leverage which has built-up post crisis, so there will be pain points. Leverage requires easy money, requires a lot of liquidity and to when the interest rates go up and liquidity becomes harder to come by, the lessons of leverage come back to hit you. So, there is an issue there. There will be points, it is hard to know where. We will find out as interest rates move up. Q: What about that quote attributed to you, that you warned Rahul Gandhi and the Prime Minister on Nirav Modi? A: They say you leave India but India never leaves you. Social media seems to have fascination for attributing complete rubbish to me and this gets its own life. So, absolute rubbish. I wish the RBI had known of the scandal when it was happening. If we had, we would have stopped it. The truth is, this is something that was off the books, it didn't come on to our radar screen because it was completely opaque to us. We need to understand what went on there and how we stop it. As you just said, the RBI has taken some measures in this regard. @alextdaugherty Kyle Kashuv was in a bind. The 16-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student, who opposes gun control, had just finished a press conference with Sen. Marco Rubio and the family of a Parkland shooting victim on Capitol Hill, and his next engagement was coming up. One problem: He needed someone to adjust his tie, which was left in a knot so he could slip the loop around his head. Can you help me with this? Kashuv asked a reporter and a Senate aide as he fiddled with his phone. Weve got to call an Uber to the White House. Kashuv, the high school junior who vaulted to national prominence as a conservative counterweight to the vocal Parkland students who favor tighter gun-control legislation, is back in Washington for second week of high-profile meetings, and hes setting the agenda in the nations capital. Senators from both parties are rearranging their schedules to speak with him, television channels are clamoring to get him on air and he even brokered a Skype conversationbetween Rubio and YouTube video blogger Jake Paul. He has already met with President Donald Trump once, and plans to be at the White House before and during the March for Our Lives on March 24th. In the media [Trump] is portrayed as ignorant and unknowing and cold, but in real life hes very smart and very quick and hes very caring, Kashuv said. When I met with the president, first it shocked me that I met with the president but... he was just so nice. I think its amazing that in the busiest day of his entire administration with the steel tariffs and North Korea, he found the time, took everyone out of his office, and we sat there and talked for a while and thats something that very rarely occurs. Kashuv and his 19-year-old right-hand man, Michael Gruen, who coordinated Kashuvs meetings on Capitol Hill and the White House with help from former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, arent in Washington solely for the photo-ops. They want Rubio and others in Congress to pass a bill that provides funds for school safety and coordination between school districts and law enforcement. Read more here. If you have USD 1 million and you are looking to buy a luxury home anywhere in the world, the most value for money option would be Sao Paulo. The largest city in Brazil can also get you the biggest prime housing space in USD 1 million173 sqm. This is nearly 11 times the landmass you will get in Monaco in the same amount. Cape Town, which is currently battling a water crisis has the second most inexpensive housing space in the world as per the Knight Frank study. One can buy 157 sqm of prime property in USD 1 million in the South African city. The Las Vegas of the Middle East, Dubai, is also among inexpensive cities as far as prime properties are concerned with 138 sqm luxury space available in USD 1 million. The same amount can get a buyer a decent 93 sqm in the Indian financial capital - Mumbai. The report cites demonetisation, implementation of GST (goods and services tax) and RERA as challenging for real estate market in India. Consequently, luxury property prices rose at the rate of a meagre 0.6 percent in Mumbai. Though the report adds that the market confidence is now improving. The tiny (area: 499 acres) European city-state of Monaco, which is home to upscale casinos and yacht-lined harbour has one of the most expensive property rates in the world, according to the Knight Frank study. Here you can get only 16 sqm housing space in USD 1 million. For Monaco, 2017 was a year of two halves. Prices climbed 2 percent in the first six months of the year but later stabilised, resulting in annual growth of 0.5 percent, the report says. Hong Kong (22 sqm), New York (25 sqm), London (28 sqm) and Singapore (39 sqm) were among the top cities with the most expensive prime property. Among them, three (including Monaco) are city-states which is understandable. Given the low area availability and space constraint plus the booming economy, the property rates in these cities go through the roof. Bull's Eye, CNBC-TV18's popular game show, where market experts come together to dish out trading strategies for you to make your week more exciting and compete with each other to see whose portfolio is the strongest. Remember these are midcap ideas not just for the day, but stocks that look attractive in the medium-term as well. This week, Ruchit Jain, Rakesh Bansal and Jay Thakkar battle it out for top honours. Below their top stock picks and analysis: Ruchit Jain of Angel Broking Buy Century Textiles with a stoploss at Rs 1156 and target of Rs 1236 Buy Bank of Baroda with a stoploss at Rs 127 and target of Rs 140 Buy Amara Raja Batteries with a stoploss at Rs 788 and target of Rs 855 Buy Titan Company with a stoploss at Rs 817 and target of Rs 862 Rakesh Bansal of RK Global Buy IIFL Holding with a stoploss at Rs 778 and target of Rs 858 Buy Ashapura Intimates Fashion with a stoploss at Rs 448.8 and target of Rs 500 Buy Bharat Financial with a stoploss at Rs 1027 and target of Rs 1125 Buy Titan Company with a stoploss at Rs 797.8 and target of Rs 874 Jay Thakkar of Anand Rathi Securities Buy Bharat Financial with a stoploss at Rs 1040 and target of Rs 1090 Buy Cholamandalam Investment with a stoploss at Rs 1414 and target of Rs 1492 Buy Exide Industries with a stoploss at Rs 208.5 and target of Rs 219 Sell Petronet LNG with a stoploss at Rs 238.50 and target of Rs 222 live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Shares of Interglobe Aviation (IndiGo) slipped 3 percent intraday as DGCA asked company to ground 8 A320 neo planes. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked IndiGo and GoAir to ground 8 and 11 A320 neo planes, respectively. Indigo has cancelled 47 flights after DGCA grounds aircraft with faulty engines and GoAir cancelled 18 flights post DGCA order. DGCA directions are issued in the interest of safety. The company cancelled certain flights due to the grounding of our aircraft, company clarifies. Passengers have been given the option to choose another flight at no additional cost or passengers can cancel their booking & get a full refund, it added. According to foreign brokerage Morgan Stanley Q4 may be a weaker quarter with yields down YoY. Awaits further details on the A320neo issue and maintain earnings for now. It has maintained equal-weight on stock with target at Rs 1,213 per share and continue to assume 24 percent ASKM growth in Q4, EBITDAR at Rs 16.6 billion. At 13:22 hrs Interglobe Aviation was quoting at Rs 1,276.20, down Re 1, or 0.08 percent on the BSE. Posted by Rakesh Patil live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Shares of Suzlon Energy rose 3.4 percent intraday Tuesday on commissioning of its new product. Suzlon Group announced the installation and commissioning of its new product, S128; the largest wind turbine generator (WTG) in India. The first prototype of S128 has been commissioned at the Sanganeri, Tamilnadu. The testing is underway with certification expected in Q3 of CY2018. The S128 WTG is available in 2.6 MW to 2.8 MW variants and offers hub heights up to140 meters. J.P. Chalasani, Group CEO of Suzlon Group said, "The S128 wind turbine is going to be a revolutionary product in India. It has been our continuous effort to reduce the levelised cost of energy (LCoE) and we continue to invest in R&D with an aim to develop technologically advanced and innovative products. On Monday, the company won an order for development of 75 MW wind power project from a leading independent power producer (IPP) through Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) bid. At 10:42 hrs Suzlon Energy was quoting at Rs 11.65, up Rs 0.31, or 2.73 percent on the BSE. Posted by Rakesh Patil US President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday and announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Tillerson become the latest high-ranking member of the White House to exit the Trump administration. In little over a year of Trumps presidency, more than a dozen key members of his administration have either been sacked or resigned from their posts. According to a report by Vox, the number of exits the Trump administration has seen in its first year is higher than the past five administrations have seen overall. The Trump administrations staff turnover during the period is around 34 percent. The second-highest first-year turnover was under President Ronald Regan at 17 percent. Here are some of the notable exits from the White House under Trump: Rob Porter Porter resigned after being accused of domestic violence by his two ex-wives. Porter has denied the allegations. White House officials initially defended him, with chief of staff John Kelly calling him a man of true integrity and honour. Reince Priebus Similar to Tillersons exit, Trump announced on Twitter that he was replacing Reince Priebus as the Chief of Staff with John Kelly. News reports citing White House officials suggest that Trump told Priebus he wanted to make a change two weeks before he was fired. Anthony Scaramucci Scaramucci officially served as the White House Director of Communications for just six days before being fired. A week after Scaramucci was hired, The New Yorker published a detailed account of an expletive-ridden phone conversation one of their reporters had with him. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "The president certainly felt that Anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person in that position, and he didn't want to burden Gen. Kelly." Sean Spicer Spicer took over as the Press Secretary in January 2017. Spicer stepped down, just a few hours after Anthony Scaramucci was brought on board the Trump administration as communications director. James Comey FBI Director James Comey was sacked by Donald Trump, who the White House initially said, was acting on the advice of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They also criticised Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton emails investigation. However, President Trump later said that it was his decision alone and that he was thinking about the FBI's Russian election interference probe when he resolved to fire Comey. Mike Flynn Flynn was part of Trumps campaign before becoming the National Security Adviser (NSA). He was at the White House for around three week before he resigned when it was learnt that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of meetings he had with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak prior to President Trump's inauguration. Hope Hicks Hicks is one of Donald Trump's longest-serving aide. While her resignation was announced on February 28, it will only go into effect a few weeks later. Hicks resignation came a day after she was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee during which she said she had occasionally lied on Trump's behalf, according to news reports. Steve Bannon Bannon was earlier Chief Executive Officer of Trumps election campaign. Upon Trump's election, Bannon was appointed as the Presidents chief strategist, which was met with backlash. Bannon has been the executive chairman of Breitbart News magazine which published articles promoting an alt-right movement. News reports suggest that Bannon was fired because Trump was getting increasingly frustrated with him. The Supreme Court on Wednesday indefinitely extended the deadline for linking of Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts and phone numbers, till the top court pronounces its verdict in the ongoing case. The five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, however, said that Aadhaar is still necessary to avail social benefits, services and subsidies. In November 2017, the government had extended the linking of Aadhaar card with the Permanent Account Number (PAN) for taxpayers till March 31, 2018. In December 2017, the apex court had also directed the extension of Aadhaar number linking with mobile numbers and bank accounts till March 31, 2018. While the extension is certainly welcome, it is also important to note that there currently is some uncertainty about whether this extension applies to linkages made mandatory under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act. "If the latest order does indeed exclude Aadhaar linkages mandated under Section 7, a large number of Central and State Government schemes (such as PDS, LPG, MNREGA and many more) would still need to be linked to Aadhaar by the end of the month, significantly diminishing the relief brought by today's order. We are awaiting a copy of the interim order to clarify this, said non profit legal services organisation Software Freedom Law Centre in a statement. The final hearing in the Aadhaar validity case started on January 17, 2018. Earlier this month, the Government had indicated to the top court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail various services and welfare schemes run by the government may be further extended beyond March 31. Actor Amitabh Bachchan attends the 'The Great Gatsby' world premiere at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York May 1, 2013. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT) - RTXZ6Y8 Veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan has taken ill on the sets of his upcoming movie Thugs of Hindostan. As per media reports, a team of doctors has been rushed from Mumbai in a charted plane to tend to the actor in Jodhpur. The 75-year-old actor is wrapping his part in YRF's ambitious project co-starring Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, and Fatima Sana Sheikh. Directed by Dhoom 3 director Vijay Krishna Acharya, Thugs of Hindostan is an adaptation of the 1839 novel Confessions of a Thug. Amitabh completed the first leg of the shoot for the film in Thailand and described it as one of toughest shoots of his career. Strangely though, the so-called harsh schedule just completed in the wilds and hills and chills of mountainous Thailand... of disciplined, gentle and smiling Thai has not had any after effects of discomfort or malaise. It's been tough, the shoot for 'Thugs of Hindostan', but in a funny way very energising," Amitabh had written on his blog after completing the shoot. The film is high of action and thrill, demanding the actors to work hard on their physical and mental fitness. The female leads have already been sharing videos of their workout on their social media handle. Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram, gestures as he leaves a court after a hearing in New Delhi, India, February 28, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi - RC1336C523F0 Justice Indermeet Kaur of the Delhi High Court today recused herself from hearing the bail plea of Karti Chidambaram, arrested by the CBI in the INX Media corruption case. Justice Kaur, who did not give any reason for her recusal, said she would refer the matter to the Acting Chief Justice for assigning the bail plea to another bench for today itself. The bail plea was yesterday mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar and was listed for hearing today. Karti's parents P Chidambaram and Nalini Chidambaram, both senior advocates, were present in the courtroom. Karti, the arrested son of former Union minister P Chidambaram, had moved the high court seeking bail, hours after a court here sent him to judicial custody till March 24. A special court had yesterday sent Karti to judicial custody in the INX Media corruption case and dismissed his plea that he be put in a separate cell in Tihar Jail in view of a threat perception. The court had also dismissed his appeal for an urgent hearing on his bail plea and the threat perception due to the fact that his father, as a Union minister in the previous UPA government, had handled several sensitive issues. The court had sent him to Tihar Jail after the CBI, in whose custody he was quizzed for 12 days in a row after his arrest on February 28 from Chennai, said he was no longer required for further custodial interrogation. The court said his bail plea would be heard on March 15 as scheduled. Karti was arrested by the CBI on his return from the United Kingdom in connection with an FIR lodged on May 15 last year. It alleged irregularities in a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to a media house, INX Media, for receiving funds of about Rs 305 crore from overseas in 2007 when his father was the Union finance minister. The CBI had initially alleged that Karti Chidambaram received Rs 10 lakh as a bribe for facilitating the FIPB clearance to INX Media. It, however, later revised the figure to USD 1 million (about Rs 6.50 crore at the current exchange rate and Rs 4.50 crore in 2007). Representative image Drones or Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) is the latest trend catching onto the imagination of the public. It is estimated that Indians have spent more than Rs 40 crore on civilian drones in 2016-17 alone. The government, though, seems to be struggling with major gaps in policy to regulate the use of the aircraft, which are, banned in the country. According to a study by the think-tank, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), ad-hoc measures taken by state and central government have been ineffective as questions of privacy and trespassing, air traffic, terrorist threat management, and legal liability have not been addressed properly. The Railway Claims Tribunal, Mumbai, today awarded compensation to 36 victims, which included 17 death and 19 injury cases, of the Elphinstone foot overbridge stampede, the railways said today. A total of 39 claims (18 deaths and 21 injuries) were filed before the RCT Mumbai after the September 29 tragedy in which 23 people lost their lives. The compensation was awarded in 17 death and 19 injury cases. A high-level committee of the railways after taking statements of nearly 30 survivors had absolved the railway authorities and said the incident was caused by rumours and rain. The railways said three cases (one death and two injury) could not be decided today due to technical reasons (non-availability of proper documents). These three cases will be decided shortly, it said. @alextdaugherty It's not surprising that Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo has tried to distance himself from President Donald Trump as he runs for reelection. After all, Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by 16.3 percentage points in Curbelo's Miami-to-Key West district. But Curbelo's campaign said they would be open to Trump campaigning in the district when asked by Axios on Tuesday. "While Carlos has never invited public figures to campaign with him, he has welcomed those who have offered," Curbelo spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said to Axios. "He has also joined Presidents Obama and Trump in South Florida to stand with them on issues in which he agrees with them ... Anyone who wants to support Carlos' efforts and endorse his bipartisan approach to public service is welcome to do so." Trump jumped on the campaign trail this past weekend in Southwestern Pennsylvania to stump for a Republican running in a special congressional election. In a speech that lasted over an hour, Trump insulted the intelligence of Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters, along referring to Meet the Press host and South Florida native Chuck Todd as a "sleeping son of a bitch." Curbelo faces a likely challenge from Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in November. Update: Curbelo's campaign sent an additional statement after the Miami Herald asked about whether or not he would campaign with Trump. "Supporters buy into Carlos and his bipartisan, civil approach to public service, not the other way around," Rodriguez said in an email. "Anyone who wants to support Carlos is welcome to do so. While Carlos and the President have major differences in both style and substance, if the President is willing to get behind Carlos' style of leadership and the policies he supports, that would be a positive development for our country's toxic politics. However, as stated previously, Carlos is not seeking the support or endorsement of any other politicians. He is exclusively focused on earning the support and respect of the people of South Florida." This post removed a paragraph after Axios amended their story. The Supreme Court has refused to reconsider its decision, which had set aside the Gujarat High Court order for paying from tax payers' money to rebuild destroyed shrines during the communal riots. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has dismissed the review petition filed by the Islamic Relief Committee, Gujarat (IRCG), noting there was no merit in the plea. The bench upheld the previous judgment and found no error apparent on the face of the record, requiring the top court to reconsider its view. With the dismissal, the apex court had stood firm on its view that tax payers' money cannot be used to build or rebuild any religious structure in the wake of the constitutional bar against it under Article 27. Representative Image. India was the world's largest importer of arms from 2013 to 2017, according to report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). India's arms imports rose 24 percent from the previous five-year period (2008-2012). Saudi Arabia was the second largest importer, while Egypt was the third. Russia accounted for 62 percent of India's arms imports over the past five years, making it India's largest arms supplier. US follows at second place, since arms imports to India have gone up by 557 percent between 200812 and 201317, the report said. The research institute attributed India's push to import weapons to tensions in the South Asian region. "The tensions between India, on the one side, and Pakistan and China, on the other, are fuelling India's growing demand for major weapons, which it remains unable to produce itself," said Siemon Wezeman, Senior Researcher at SIPRI. In the 2013-2017 period, Pakistan's arms imports dropped by 36 percent from the 2008-2012 period. China's arms imports, too, fell by 19 percent, the report said. China is the world's fifth largest arms importer, SIPRI research indicates. The US was the largest exporter of arms over the past five years, accounting for 34 percent of the world's arms exports. US, Russia, France, Germany and China are the world's largest arms exporters. Overall, volume of international transfers of major weapons rose 10 percent between 2013-2017 and 2008-2012, according to SIPRI. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Budget carrier IndiGo has cancelled as many as 47 flights today after the country's aviation regulator DGCA grounded its eight A320Neo planes with faulty Pratt & Whitney engines, along with three such aircraft of GoAir. IndiGo has cancelled 47 flights across its domestic network on March 13, the airline announced on its website. The flights that have been cancelled are from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Patna, Srinagar, Bhubaneswar, Amritsar, Srinagar and Guwahati, among others. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) cracked the whip after an IndiGo flight bound for Lucknow returned to Ahmedabad within 40 minutes of its getting airborne due to a mid-air engine failure yesterday. Citing safety of aircraft operations, the Director of the DGCA, in the March 12 order, said that A320 Neos fitted with PW1100 engines beyond ESN 450 have been grounded with immediate effect. Three other IndiGo A320Neo planes have been on the ground since February following similar engine problems. Yesterday, hundreds of passengers were stranded across the country as dozens of flights were cancelled by IndiGo and GoAir following the grounding of 11 planes. IndiGo operates about 1,000 flights daily. 19:58 Govt has accepted our demands, we are happy. Leaders of every party and people of Mumbai supported us. Our strength combined with theirs hence this result: Sanjay Sukhdev, Nashik farmer who was participating in the protest. 19:44 We are very happy. Our demands have been met. We will be getting back our land which is like mother to us: Suresh Jairam, Nashik farmer who was participating in the protest. (ANI) 18:55 JUST IN: Maharashtra farmers call off protest after state agrees to their demands 18:16 We have accepted most of their demands and have given them a written letter: Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis on Maharashtra farmers' agitation 17:38 Only promising to fulfill the demands won't work, it's now the duty of the govt to work towards fulfilling what they've committed. They should think about the welfare of farmers so that they don't have to take it to the road next time: Anna Hazare on farmers agitation. 17:37 Farmers ki shikayat hai ki jo humari zameen hai us se kum unke naam par hai, toh jitni bhi zameen woh cultivate kar rahe hain woh unke naam par honi chahiye. CM has agreed. Chief Secretary will follow-up on this & implementation will start in 6 months: V Savra, minister. 16:30 Ashok Gulati says only 19 percent of farm land in Maharashtra has irrigation coverage and sugarcane comprises 75 percent of land with irrigation coverage in Maharashtra. 16:28 Loan waivers won't fix anything, it's an atonement for not reforming agriculture, and government needs to do capital investment in agriculture, Gulati told CNBC TV18. 16:26 Ashok Gulati says agriculture investment will suffer due to loan waivers; Modi govt needs 13 percent agriculture growth for 5 years to double farm income, doubling farm income by 2022 is a pipe dream, reports CNBC TV18. 16:22 Ashok Gulati says it's a crisis boiling over in Maharashtra, lip service won't work, & it is an emergency on the agriculture front, reports CNBC TV18. 16:05 Farmers' protest likely to be called off after agreement with government, reports CNN News18 quoting sources. 15:40 Apart from the loan waiver and better Minimum Support Price, these farmers want the implementation of the Forest Rights Act to secure the rights of the people working on community lands and to help the farmers secure loans to opt for basic irrigation facilities. 15:13 Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and NCP leader Ajit Pawar will be part of the governments talks with farmers. Vidhan Bhawan Meeting with delegation of farmers and all political parties begins atunder the chairmanship of Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis. 14:58 Accept demands of farmers and tribals: Rahul Gandhi to PM, Fadnavis Congress president Rahul Gandhi today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to shed their egos and accept the "just demands" of the thousands of farmers and tribals protesting in Mumbai. The mammoth farmers march to Mumbai is a "stunning example of people's power", Gandhi said on Twitter. The Congress, he added, stands with the farmers and tribals marching to protest against the apathy of the central and state governments. "I appeal to PM Modi and the CM to not stand on ego and to accept their just demands," Gandhi tweeted. 14:46 Maharashtra just the beginning, farmers from across India planning 'mother of all protests' in Delhi The ongoing protest by thousands of farmers in the heart of Mumbai may just be the beginning. For, leaders of farmers associations in several states are planning to hold similar marches in their respective states in the lead-up to a mega protest in the national capital in April. The governments anti-farmer stand needs to be challenged. We will hold a rally for the same in Guwahati very soon. Also, all state farmer heads are in close collaboration and we are planning to hold a big protest in New Delhi sometime in April. Farmers from all over India will be present in that rally. State farm heads are meeting in Guwahati this month itself, said Akhil Gogoi, a Northeast-based farmer rights leader. Indias Northeast has been reeling under farmer crisis caused by land erosion, floods and the general terrain of the land. The state government does not buy our output, which results in heavy losses to our farmers. The issues that have been raised in Maharashtra apply to farmers all over the country. The Mumbai march was a plan well-conceived and all of us had planned it keeping in mind the governments stand, said Gogoi. Read the full report here. 14:27 Heavy police security in Mumbai for farmers' march The Mumbai police is leaving no stone unturned to maintain law and order as thousands of farmers converged at the Azad Maidan here after walking around 180 km from Nashik to press for their various demands. More than 35,000 farmers from across Maharashtra, who embarked on a 'Long March' last Tuesday, reached the Azad Maidan early today, after camping at the K J Somaiya Ground in Sion area. "Some more farmers are expected to join the march from neighbouring districts. The police personnel are on their toes and prepared enough to maintain law and order," Deven Bharti, the joint-commissioner of police (crime), told PTI. "The march has came all the way peacefully to the country's financial capital," Bharti said, adding that the police hope to disperse the protesters also in a peaceful manner. As a huge number of protesters have gathered in the city, the police is keeping a tab to ward off any possible anti-social elements from taking advantage of the situation, another official said. 14:26 According to Talekar, the Mumbai roti-bank, of which the dabbawalas are an integral part, deploys GPS-tracked vans to collect excess food from eateries, hotels, public functions and households, so that it can be distributed to the poor and hungry people. Meanwhile, city residents were also seen offering 'Vada-pav' (a popular street snack), other food items and water to farmers last night. A Mumbai resident also posted on social media a picture of food and water being distributed to farmers. Several political parties like the Congress, the NCP, the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena have extended their support to the protesting farmers. 14:24 Dabbawals, Mumbaikars provide food to protesting farmers The famed 'dabbawalas' of Mumbai and the city residents came out to help the thousands of farmers, who walked for six days to reach here from Nashik to raise their various demands, by providing them food and water. The farmers walked upto the Azad Maidan in South Mumbai early this morning as a part of their 'long march' for raising demands, including implementation of the Maharashtra government's loan waiver scheme. Subhash Talekar, the spokesperson of Mumbai Dabbawala Association, said, "We thought about helping the farmers with food as they are our food-providers and have come from remote parts of the state." "We asked our men working between Dadar (in Central Mumbai) and Colaba (South Mumnbai) to collect food and deliver it to our farmer brothers at the Azad Maidan," he said. Dabbawalas, the tiffin-carriers known for their efficient delivery service, provided food to the protesters as a part of their 'roti-bank' initiative. 14:17 Farmers need to be heard, says Yuva Sena president Aaditya Thackeray Thackeray said that when he spoke to them, he did not see red flags but red blood. "Whichever the flag they carry, whoever their political hero, government has to hear them." "They are farmers who need to be heard. Its unfortunate to be insensitive to those who feed us and put ideological cages on them. Im proud of my fellow Shiv Sainiks who are with them nursing their wounds, and voicing the farmers in the Assembly too, only seeing their need.," he tweeted. 14:10 Govt positive towards farmers' demands: Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said his government was "sensitive and positive" towards the demands of farmers and tribals, who have marched from Nashik to Mumbai to draw the administration's attention towards their problems. Fadnavis was responding to a discussion in the Assembly, initiated by Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who lauded the farmers participating in the 'Kisan Long March' for their peaceful protest while demanding a complete loan waiver and compensation for hailstorm and pink bollworm pest attack on crops. The Azad Maidan in South Mumbai turned into a sea of red this morning as thousands of farmers, carrying red flags, converged here after walking around 180 kms from the neighbouring Nashik district over the last six days. The farmers plan to surround the Assembly complex to press for their demands of an unconditional loan waiver, and transfer of forest land to tribal farmers who have been tilling it for years. The CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha is spearheading the protest. "They (the protesting farmers) reached the Azad Maidan early this morning from the K J Somaiya Ground in the eastern suburbs so that students appearing for their board exams are not hassled due to traffic jams. The Mumbaikars are also taking care of them," Vikhe Patil said in the House. 13:52 We're positive in fulfilling demands. Since the first day of the Morcha we tried to discuss various issues with them. Girish Mahajan was in touch with them from day one. But they were firm on taking out the March: CM Devendra Fadnavis said, reports ANI. 13:52 Farmers will not fall prey to any of the tactics, says Shiv Sena "However, seeing their persistence it can be gauged that farmers will not fall prey to any of the tactics," Shiv Sena said on Monday. The Sena added that it would not give importance to what thoughts, organisation and colour the agitation represents. "They do not have any caste, religion or political ideology...Farmers have red flags in their hands. How can the Sena support them is the question?" it said. "We may have differences... however, their active participation in the state's agitation, especially for Mumbai, cannot be forgotten...those who do (forget), should be considered enemies of the state," the Sena said. mrut Dange Ahilya Rangnekar It noted that Shreepad Aand Shahir Annabhau Sathe were leaders with communist ideologies. "Mill workers and farmers were ready to spill their blood for the Maharashtra movement (held in the 1960s for creation of a separate Marathi-speaking state). Today, they are despondent and committing suicide," the Sena lamented. 13:50 Sena backs farmers' protest march Mumbai The Shiv Sena today threw its weight behind the thousands of farmers who marched from Nashik to Mumbai to highlight their problems and said the party would back them regardless of their red flags. The saffron party also said the role of leaders with communist ideology -- a red flag usually symbolises communism -- in the agitation for a separate Maharashtra cannot be forgotten. The CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha is spearheading the protest that turned south Mumbai's Azad Maidan into a sea of red today as thousands of farmers carrying red flags converged there after walking around 180 km from neighbouring Nashik district. The farmers plan to surround the state Assembly complex to press for their demands of an unconditional loan waiver and transfer of forest land to tribal farmers who have been tilling it for years. "It is possible that the government may talk of assurances to farmers and even deploy some of its ministers to temporarily confuse them," the Sena, an ally of the ruling BJP in Maharashtra and at the Centre, said in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana'. 13:35 Mammoth farmers' march an example of people's power. Congress stands with farmers protesting against government apathy: Rahul Gandhi said. 13:30 Congress MP Nana Patole is addressing the morcha at Azad Maidan, reports Firstpost. 13:21 'No question of compromise, will go back only when demands are fulfilled': Ajit Navale, Kisan leader "This is not a political issue. The government must respect farmers. We have marched more than 100 kilometres and will go back only when all our demands are fulfilled, AIKS general secretary Ajit Nawale said, reported Hindustan Times. 13:01 Farmers delegation reached Maharashtra Assembly for the meeting with the State Govt formed six-member committee to discuss their demands, reports ANI. 12:56 "There'll be a meeting with farmers at 1 pm. I think we'll give solutions for 80-90 percent of their issues. We're serious about the demands including loan waiver and will come up with best decisions. Written assurance will be given for accepted demands," Girish Mahajan, Maharashtra Minister said. 12:50 Maharashtra farmers' protest propelled by urban Maoists. They are carrying red flagsThey are influenced by Urban Maoists: Poonam Mahajan, BJP MP, told CNN News18. 12:43 A twelve-member delegation of the farmers will be meeting the six-member committee in Vidhan Bhavan at 1 pm. Leader of Opposition will also participate in the meeting. The CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha said it will consider what the government has to offer, reports CNN News18. 12:37 "Central government, I think, is the biggest criminal on all these issues of farmers today. They have done nothing for farmers. These whole thing about implementing 1.5 times minimum support price (MSP) is a hoax. We have seen it in the Rabi crops, what they have done. It (MSP) is no where coming close to C2 + 50 as said by the Swaminathan Commission," Dhawale told CNBC TV18. 12:32 Here are the key demands that Ashok Dhawale listed: tribals Marathwada Vidarbha programmes 1. An extension of the loan waiver scheme which they had announce last year.2. The implementation of the Forest Rights Act, which says that whatever land is cultivated byto be vested in their names.3. Pension for poor farmers and agriculture workers.4. Immediate relief to farmers who lost nearly Rs 12,000 crore due to the pink ball worm attacks on Bt cottons inand5. Oppose land acquisitionfor schemes like Bullet trains. 6. Oppose major river linking projects which are creating problems. 12:22 "We will not leave Mumbai until our demands are satisfied," CPI(M) leader Ashok Dhawale told CNBC TV18. 12:21 The major demands include pension for poor farmers, increased compensation for hailstrom affected farmers, relief to Marathwada and Vidarbha farmers who are suffering due to pink worm in Bt cotton, CPI(M) leader Ashok Dhawale told CNBC TV18. 11:29 "State is positive about demands of farmers. Over 95 percent of the protesters are tribals, so technically they are not farmers," Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra CM said in the State Assembly today, reports CNN News18. Fadnavis added that he will meet the farmers' representatives at 1 pm today. 11:05 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has stated that it will provide 20 additional mobile toilets at Azad Maidan. Currently, 20 such toilets are installed. Furthermore, four water tankers will be put in place at the ground. Pay toilets near Azad Maidan and Mantralaya have been instructed to provide free services for two days, reports CNN News18. 11:01 Attacking the government in relation to the Maharashtra farmers' protest, Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi said, "Not only in Maharashtra, farmers across India are suffering under BJP," reports CNN News18. 10:52 A quick recap of the farmers' protest march: The long march was initiated by the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha (ABKS), affiliated to the CPI (M). On Friday, the farmers reached Bhatsa river in Thane district where over 5,000 people from Palghar district joined the march. Their demands include a transfer of forest land to tillers, implementation of the Swaminathan Commissions recommendations, and a compensation of Rs 40,000 per acre for farmers affected by the hailstorm and pink bollworm, and putting a stop to sharing the states water with Gujarat. In other events, Maharashtra's congress workers hold banners in Mumbai to welcome protesting farmers that are expected to converge in the thousands on Monday. 10:33 The farmers walked at night to reach Azad maidan to avoid trouble to students "We do not want to put SSC students in any trouble. But we will reach Azad Maidan. Therefore, we have decided to start walking past midnight," AIKS President Com. Ashok Dhawale had tweeted. 10:21 Around 15,000 farmers are camping at Mumbai's Azad Maidan, gearing up for a massive protest outside the Maharashtra Assembly in a few hours to press for farm loan waivers and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations. 10:17 All issues to be resolved says Girish Mahajan on Maharashtra farmers' protest "We want this issue to be resolved. The government will look into the demand and government will fulfil demands. Officials have been called for the meeting tomorrow," Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Girish Mahajan had told CNN News18 on Sunday. Prtoesting farmers in the thousands, led by the All India Kisan Sabha's protest march crossed Thane Mulund Check Naka on Sunday to reach Mumbai. 10:03 The All India Office bearers of AIKS including president Ashok Dhawale, Vice President, Amra Ram, joint Secretaries Vijoo Krishnan, Jithendra Choudhury MP and KK Ragesh MP and senior columnist P Sainath will join the struggle in front of Manthralaya at Mumbai today. 10:03 The main demands of the ongoing struggle includes comprehensive loan waiver, strict implementation of Forest Rights Act within stipulated time frame, implementation of M S Swaminathan Commission recommendations including minimum support price to all crops at 50 percent above cost of production, stop forced acquisition of agriculture land in the name of mega infrastructure projects to aid real estate business, ensure monthly pension to peasants and agriculture workers and minimum wage and strict implementation of MNREGA. 09:48 The representatives of the Maharashtra farmers' protest led by All India Kishan Sabha (AIKS) will meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Devender Fadnavis at 11:30 am, reports CNN News18. The farmers will take a call after the meeting on whether to march towards the State Assembly or not. 09:41 While there is no likelihood of all farmers being allowed to proceed to the Assembly complex from Azad Maidan, a delegation of farmer leaders will be allowed to meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, reports PTI. 09:38 Last year, the state government had announced a farm loan waiver of Rs 34,000 crore, terming it the "biggest loan waiver in Maharashtra's history". State Governor Vidyasagar Rao told the state legislature that the government has transferred over Rs 12,000 crore into bank accounts of 31 lakh farmers until last month. 09:34 Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan, who welcomed the march at Mulund in suburban Mumbai yesterday, said the government, which has met earlier demands by farmers, will consider their latest ones. 09:30 Azad Maidan in south Mumbai turned into a sea of red this morning as thousands of farmers, carrying red flags, converged here after walking around 180 kms under blazing sun over the last six days. The farmers plan to surround the Assembly complex to press for their demands of an unconditional loan waiver, and transfer of forest land to tribal farmers who have been tilling it for years. They reached Azad Maidan early today, after camping at KJ Somaiya Ground in Sion area. The CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha, which is spearheading the protest, said it will consider what the government has to offer. CPI(M) leader Ashok Dhawle said over 50,000 people have joined the protest. "We will begin our rally after 11 am today so that students appearing for their Class 10 board exam don't face any difficulties," he said. Tribals from Thane district have joined the farmers from Nashik district in the protest. In line with our expectation and views, the budget focused on addressing the post-harvest issue to provide relief and bargaining power to the farmer, improve farm incomes and rejuvenate rural demand. Though a lot would depend on the implementation of the schemes, the current allocation indicate a boost to rural incomes which would ripple through to farm inputs and rural consumption. Despite an improvement in production, income in the hands of the farmers has remained substantially subdued over the past decades. The budget introduced several measure focused on improving the income and demand in rural India which we believe would benefit several companies. Read the full report here. 09:01 Here's why farmers are protesting: The march has been organised to protest the failures of the state BJP government on the farm front, including issues like farm loan waivers, remunerative prices for produce, non-implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission as well as the Forest Rights Act, he said. Protesting farmers have demanded a change in the plan to link rivers in Nashik, Thane and Palghar to ensure that tribal lands are not submerged and water from the scheme be made available to these areas as well as other drought-prone districts, organisers said. They said that farmers were also protesting against the state government's land acquisition for projects like high speed rail and super highways. 08:55 Maharashtra farmers, who have now reached Azad Maidan after walking overnight from KJ Somaiyya ground in Sion, are reportedly dehydrated from travelling in the scorching sun for 30 kilometres on Sunday in Mumbai. There is a medical dispensary set up at Azad Maidan. "Farmers were suffering from blood pressure and diarrhea," doctors told CNN-News18. 08:51 Opposition Congress, NCP, Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and AAP, as well as ruling ally Shiv Sena have extended support to the farmers' march. Patidar leader from Gujarat Nikhil Sawani, who joined the march, said his community supported the protesters. As the march reached suburban Vikhroli, the phalanx of farmers comprising both men and women extended for almost three kilometres. 08:28 Senior Shiv Sena leder and cabinet minister Eknath Shinde and Yuva Sena (Shiv Sena's youth wing) chief Aditya Thackeray also greeted the protesters in suburban Vikhroli. Thackeray said the Shiv Sena stood "shoulder to shoulder" with farmers in their struggle. It was wrong to say that farmers were demanding loan waiver, as they are not criminals that they should need a `waiver', Aditya said, adding "farmers are fighting for `freedom from debt'." As so many farmers have marched to Mumbai despite the government's grand loan waiver, Sena leaders have demanded to see the list of actual beneficiaries of the scheme, he said. 08:21 JUST IN | Shiv Sena says they are not going to let the assembly function today until the farmers' demands are met, reports CNN News18. 08:12 Senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar also assured that the chief minister will meet the protestors' delegation, and blamed the "apathetic" approach of past governments for the farmers' woes. "Our government is committed to address all the grievances of farmers, which have accumulated due to the apathetic approach of the last several years...We are very sensitive towards farmers and two ministers (Tribal Development Minister Vishnu Savara and Mahajan) have already been asked to look into their demands," Mungantiwar told PTI. 08:11 From the government's side, Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan, who is also guardian minister for Nashik district, met farmers' leaders in Mulund as the march entered Mumbai, and assured that most of their demands will be met. "The Chief Minister (Devendra Fadnavis) has sent me to meet you. Most of your demands will be met. We will take a delegation to the chief minister," Mahajan said, addressing the protesters. 08:09 The government had reached out to farmers, promising to meet their demands, but farmers' leaders said they will press on with today's protest at the Vidhan Bhavan (Legislature Complex). 08:08 No govt can be insensitive to farmers' problems : RSS Farmers' problems should be understood sensitively and practical solutions found for them, the RSS said on Sunday. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) General Secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi said there was a need to change the agrarian policy and the government has to ensure that farmers get a proper price for their produce. However, he noted that there were a few obstacles in doing so. Replying to a query on farmers' issues, he said their problems should be understood sensitively and practical solutions found for them. "No government can be insensitive on the questions related to farmers and it has to be sensitive towards farmers and find ways to address their problems. It is their job to think and find a solution," Joshi told reporters here at the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) of the RSS, the ruling BJP's ideological mentor. His remarks assume significance as they come against the backdrop of thousands of farmers from various districts of Maharashtra marching towards Mumbai to protest outside the state assembly. Joshi said the farmers also need to change their mindset and while farming, they must keep government policies in mind. 08:04 The traffic will be normal like any other day. So far, no diversions are proposed on any road in limits of Mumbai for the proposed Long March, tweets Mumbai Police. 08:02 This govt can't do anything for you: Raj Thackeray Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday came out in support of the farmers who have reached here after undertaking a 'Long March' to Mumbai from Nashik to press their various demands including full loan waiver. "This government is incapable of doing anything," the MNS chief said, addressing thousands of farmers who rested at Somaiya Ground in Sion area after reaching the city this evening. "I have come to greet you. You have come all the way in this heat. Give me the reins of power and I will show what can be done," the MNS chief said. "Don't forget your bleeding feet. These people (the BJP-led Maharashtra government) have shown you dreams, but have not kept their word," Thackeray said. "Don't fall prey to their promises. They value you only during elections. Farmer suicides haven't stopped in this state yet. Tomorrow the government will try to fob you off with some promises. But the government itself is pauper, so what can it offer you?" Thackeray said. 07:59 Apart from opposition parties, Shiv Sena, a partner in the ruling coalition, too has vocally supported the agitation, isolating the ruling BJP. 07:51 Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will likely meet the protesting farmers at noon on Monday, reports CNN News18. Fadnavis on Sunday night had said his government will talk to the farmers who have undertaken a `Long March' to the city to press their various demands. The chief minister also appealed agitators not to hold up the traffic tomorrow so that students appearing for Std 10th exams in the city are not delayed. 07:47 "On Sunday, our number was over 35,000. Over 20,000 farmers from other parts of the state will join on Monday," Kisan Gujar, president of the state council of AIKS, said, adding that the farmers were also protesting against land acquisition for projects such as high-speed railway and super-highways. 07:46 The farmers, led by All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), are demanding, among other things, proper implementation of the Maharashtra government's loan waiver scheme. Braving scorching heat, they have covered around 180 km on foot in six days. "We will gherao (lay siege to) the Vidhan Bhavan to demand a complete loan waiver, fair price for farm produce, implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, compensation for hailstorm-affected farmers among other things," Kisan Gujar, president of the state council of AIKS, said. Over 35,000 farmers from across Maharashtra, who embarked on a 'Long March' from Nashik on March 6 to press their various demands, will lay siege to the legislature today. Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram, gestures as he leaves a court after a hearing in New Delhi, India, February 28, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi - RC1336C523F0 The Supreme Court will hear the ED's plea challenging the Delhi High Court order granting interim protection to Karti Chidambaram, son of Congress leader P Chidambaram, in a money laundering case related to the INX Media corruption matter on March 15. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud today considered the Enforcement Directorate's submission for urgent hearing of its appeal and said it would be heard day after tomorrow. Advocate Rajat Nair, appearing for the probe agency, mentioned the ED's appeal for urgent hearing. On March 9, the Delhi High Court gave Karti Chidambaram a breather in a money laundering case and restrained the ED from arresting him till March 20. A CBI court yesterday sent Karti Chidambaram to judicial custody till March 24. The court also refused his plea for urgent hearing on his bail plea which was already listed for March 15. Following the high court order, he cannot be arrested by the ED if the CBI court grants him bail on March 15. Karti Chidambaram has approached the high court to strike down the powers of arrest of the ED under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as unconstitutional and in violation of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which deal with the rights of people for equality before law and protection of personal liberty. The plea sought quashing of the enforcement case information report (ECIR) and probe by the ED for the offences under the PMLA. It sought quashing of the probe by the ED, alleging that it was contrary to the procedure established by law and violates Karti Chidambaram's fundamental rights. The ED had registered a case against Karti Chidambaram and others in May last year. It had registered an ECIR, the ED's equivalent of an FIR, against the accused named in the CBI complaint. These accused included Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea. The Reserve Bank of Indias KYC diktak to wallet companies such as Paytm, Mobikwik, Ola Money, Amazon Pay and Sodexo to meet full KYC (know your customer) norms for all their customers has opened opportunities for youngsters at business process outsourcing (BPO) companies. Several wallet companies have hired BPOs to fasten the know-your-customer verification (KYC) formalities as the firms fear customers may leave their services if the process takes a longer time, a Mint report said. Also Read What is KYC? How does one become KYC compliant? Paytm has hired NSB BPO Solutions Pvt Ltd to help the company with document processing, data capturing and call centre operations for the KYC work. The BPO firms has over 8,000 people. These e-KYC agents are located at different cities, where they go door-to-door each day collecting and verifying documents till midnight. NSB BPO did not reply to an email querry. The Mobile Wallet firm, which claims to have around 10 lakh customers, has hired two agencies for KYC, Vinay Kalantri, founder and managing director told the paper. Also Read Yet to complete KYC on your wallet? Here's how it is done We are targeting to be compliant with the KYC norms in the next 180 days. We have not seen a drop in customers but we have not seen the number grow either. Verifications are also happening at the retailer and distributor outlets, Kalantri added. EbixCash, another wallet firm told the paper that the firm will do KYC over its 2 lakh EbixCash touchpoints and physical outlets. The very spirit of prepaid is to offer an entry point for consumers to access financial services and limit based KYC used to offer that. While the new norms add friction, the optimist in me is hopeful that these regulations bring interoperability, which will widen the market and use-cases. As the industry complies with regulations, appropriate upsides of increased limits and seamless interoperability needs to be offered to the customers so that they do not revert to back to cash, Bhavik Vasa, chief growth officer at EbixCash told the paper. While the directive has created opportunities at BPOs for unemployed youths, the job would exist ony till the customers are totally compliant with the new KYC norms. On March 6, the Centre told the Supreme Court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail various services and welfare schemes run by the government may be further extended beyond March 31, since conclusion of the hearing of the Aadhaar case would take more time. Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi smiles as she addresses the media at her residence in New Delhi May 16, 2009. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress-led coalition appeared to be heading for a second term after a clear victory in the general election, TV networks projected as votes were counted on Saturday. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi (INDIA POLITICS ELECTIONS) - GM1E55G1IKL01 UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will host a dinner tomorrow which is likely to be attended by leaders of 17 opposition parties, amid talk of forging a broader front against the BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2019 general elections. According to Congress sources, leaders of Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party, which recently pulled out its ministers in the Modi government but continues to be a constituent of the NDA, BJD, and the TRS have not been invited. The BJD and TRS rule Odisha and Telangana respectively. They said former chief ministers of Jharkhand Babulal Marandi of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha and Hemant Soren (JMM) will attend the dinner, along with former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, who recently quit the NDA and joined forces with Lalu Prasad's RJD, which is an ally of the Congress. Lalu's son and Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav is also likely to attend, but there was no immediate confirmation. Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay, DMK's Kanimozhi and Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party are likely to be present, and so would be leaders of left parties - CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and CPI's D Raja. Leaders of other parties like JD-S and Kerala Congress, Indian Union Muslim League, Revolutionary Socialist Party and RLD are also likely to attend. Sources said while BSP has been invited, its leader Mayawati may not send a representative as her party has aligned with JD-S for the Karnataka polls likely in April/March this year. The dinner being hosted at the 10, Janpath residence of Sonia Gandhi, is expected to set the tone for opposition unity in the run up to the next general elections. V K Jain, the advisor to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has resigned citing personal reasons and family commitments, days after he was questioned by police in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, sources said today. "Jain has resigned from the post of advisor to the Delhi chief minister citing personal reasons and family commitment," one of the sources told PTI. He has submitted his resignation letter in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) and sent a copy to the lieutenant governor, the source added. He was appointed to the post in September last year, days after he had retired as the CEO of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). The board is chaired by Kejriwal. Jain had not been coming to the CMO since the incident and had gone on a week-long medical leave, the sources said. Prakash was allegedly assaulted by AAP MLAs during a meeting at the chief minister's residence in the evening of February 19. The Delhi Police had last week told a court that during interrogation, Jain disclosed that AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan surrounded the chief secretary and saw them assaulting him at Kejriwal's residence. However, Jain had earlier said that he did not see anything as he had gone to the washroom at the time of the incident. The alleged assault on Prakash took place in the presence of Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia. In solidarity with Prakash, IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Services (DCS) officers have not been attending meetings with AAP ministers, and only maintaining written communication with them. Steve Jobs: He founded Apple, one of the most successful tech companies in the world. However, he was fired from his company in 1985 after a power struggle with John Sculley, the CEO he had hired. Jobs returned to the company 12 years later and held the position of CEO till 2011. Apple is planning to announce the launch of a budget, entry-level MacBook at its annual developer meet, Worldwide Developers Conference 2018 as per a report by DigiTimes. The laptop is expected to be priced around the MacBook Air range. The report says that the laptop will have the same 13.3-inch display that comes with MacBook Pro and has a resolution of 2560x1600 pixels. South Korean firm LG Display is expected to supply the panels to the Cupertino-based tech giant. Earlier, the panels were supposed to be supplied by a China-based vendor but some issues at the Chinese suppliers have forced Apple to go to LG. LG will start the supply of display panels around April and the production of the new laptop is expected to begin by the end of May or the beginning of June. The MacBook will be assembled in China by Quanta Computer and Foxconn Electronics. Digi Times, in a report, says that the laptop can be shipped at the end of the second quarter of this year. Its research analyst Jim Hsiao expects shipments for the new MacBook to reach around four million units in 2018. Interestingly, the estimated number still falls short of the target of six million units of new notebooks, as per Hsiao. Last year, in September, Apple had slashed prices of many devices including its range of laptops and phones. Amitabh Bachan | Brand value: Rs 230.4 crore Megastar Amitabh Bachchan's cryptic blog post on getting his doctors from Mumbai to "fiddle around" with his body today sparked worries about his health but wife Jaya Bachchan said he was fine and had a pain in his neck and back. A team of doctors from Mumbai travelled to Rajasthan after Bachchan posted his blog around 5 am today. "I am getting my team of Doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again... I will rest and keep informed in process," Bachchan, who is in the city to shoot for "Thugs of Hindostan", said in his blog. Addressing questions about her husband's health, actor-politician Jaya Bachchan told reporters in New Delhi that he had back pain because of the heavy costumes he had to wear in the film. "Amitji is fine. He has pain in the back and neck... The costumes are very heavy, so there's some pain. Otherwise he is fine," she told reporters outside Parliament. As news spread about the 75-year-old star's possible ill-health, reporters and others gathered outside the hotel. Questioned by the media, the doctors refused to make any comment about his health. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje wished Bachchan a "speedy recovery". "Concerned to hear Shri @SrBachchan Ji is unwell. Do let us know if we can be of any assistance. Wish you a speedy recovery!" she tweeted. In his blog post, Bachchan also wrote about the gruelling shoot schedule of the Vijay Krishna Acharya-directed film, which also features Aamir Khan. "The morning after the night that began yesterday for work some people need to work for a living and work hard. "It's been rough.. but when ever did any be achieved without it .. there is struggle and disappointment and pain and sweat and tears... then the expectation of all working out .. sometimes it does, most of the times not... it is the right impetus to say and deliver that it has been successful and achieved," he said. US President Donald Trump tweeted early on Tuesday morning that Rex Tillerson will no longer be the Secretary of State. His tweet stated that CIA Director Mike Pompeo will replace Tillerson, while Gina Haspel (his deputy) would become the first female Director of the CIA. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018 Soon after The Washington Post reported the news, Trump confirmed the news on social media. However, according to an Associated Press report, Trump claimed that he himself made the decision to oust Tillerson and that the 65-year-old would "be much happier now." Since taking charge in 2017, the former Exxon Mobil boss had publicly dismissed the presidents point of view on various issues and the two have had clashes on numerous domestic and international policies. So much so that Tillerson distanced himself from Trump over the latters response to clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. In October 2017, Trump tweeted that Tillerson was "wasting his time" negotiating with North Korea over its nuclear and missile programmes. He had said, "Save your energy, Rex, we'll do what has to be done!" At the time it was reported that the secretary of state had considered resigning from the post, but was stopped from doing so. On Tuesday, Trump thanked Tillerson for his services in the tweet. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba Milli Muslim League (MML), JuD chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's new political party, today said it will launch its manifesto here on March 23, following a Pakistani court's decision upholding its registration as a political party ahead of polls this year. Saeed, who has kept a low profile after the government has apparently taken over all the movable and immovable assets of his Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) and frozen their bank accounts in the country, is likely to unveil the manifesto of his party. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) last week set aside the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to reject the application of the MML for registration as a political party. The ECP will decide the fate of the MML after hearing it in the coming days. Earlier, the ECP had rejected MML's application to register it (as a political party) on the interior ministry's recommendation saying the "MML has links with banned militant outfits". In a statement issued here today, MML president Saifullah Khalid said after the court's decision there is no "legal hurdle" left in the way of its registration as a political party. "Now we will launch MML manifesto on March 23 on its first founding day," he said. Referring to the court verdict, Khalid termed it a victory of the "Pakistan ideology", saying the court has ordered that the MML be given a chance to play its role in national politics. About the forthcoming general election, the MML president said it has decided to field its candidates for all national and provincial assembly seats in the polls. "The MML will select those candidates who can not only afford electioneering expenses but also enjoy personal vote bank in the constituencies," he said and added such candidates must believe in "supporting the Kashmiris' freedom struggle". Despite the Pakistani government's claims of having taken over all assets of the JuD and FIF and frozen their bank accounts in the country, Saeed and other leaders and activists of these banned organisations are still freely using its headquarters and offices. The government had initiated action against Saeed's organisations in pursuance of an ordinance issued by President Mamnoon Hussain in February amending the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, and allowing the state to proscribe UN Security Council-listed organisations, some of which had been exempt from prosecution. The move had also come in the backdrop of a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental money-laundering watchdog, that put Pakistan on its 'grey' list due to the country's failure to control financing of terror groups. At the FATF meeting in Paris last month, Saeed and his "charities" were top on the list of the groups that the FATF wanted Pakistan to act against. The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a global terrorist. Saeed, who is accused of having masterminded the November 2008 Mumbai attack, was also placed on the terrorism black list by the UN in December 2008. The banned JuD head was released from house arrest in November last year after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case. He had been under house arrest since January last year. Trudeau said the proportion of women in the Indian workforce is "very low" at 26-27 per cent and exhorted companies to "pledge" for increasing their numbers during the Canada-India business forum in Mumbai on Tuesday. (Reuters) From an aluminum smelter, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called US President Donald Trump to press for a permanent exclusion from US tariffs on aluminum and steel. It was their first conversation since Trump last week imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, raising trade tensions. Trudeau "emphasized that preserving (the two nations') mutually beneficial supply chains is critical to jobs and businesses on both sides of the border," according to a summary. The prime minister was touring an aluminum smelter in Alma, Quebec. He was to also visit three Canadian steel cities this week to reassure workers. His Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, will be in Washington tomorrow and Thursday to "advance Canada's efforts to keep trade open, fair and barrier-free, to benefit people on both sides of the border," her ministry said in a statement. She is to meet US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Congressional leaders and others. Canada, the top supplier of steel and aluminum to the US market, has been temporarily exempted from the tariffs, along with Mexico. When Trump announced the 10 per cent tariffs on aluminum and 25 per cent on steel, he said Canada and Mexico could be exempted permanently if the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is successful. In the call with Trudeau, Trump "emphasized the importance of quickly concluding the ongoing NAFTA negotiations," the White House said. But both Mexico and Canada have rejected Trump's linkage of the levies to the ongoing NAFTA talks. "We will continue working toward securing a definite and permanent exemption from those tariffs," Trudeau said earlier. He said he and Trump also "welcomed and encouraged the progress being made on negotiation of the renewed North American Free Trade Agreement" and discussed an opioid crisis affecting both nations. Donald Trump US President Donald Trump said a former double agent's poisoniong in Britain sounded like the work of Russia, saying he would speak with UK Prime Minister Theresa May today. "It sounds to me like it would be Russia, based on all of the evidence they have," Trump told reporters. "Theresa May is going to be speaking to me today. As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia. US President Donald Trump on Monday blocked microchip maker Broadcom Ltd's proposed takeover of Qualcomm Inc on national security grounds, ending what would have been the technology industry's biggest deal ever amid concerns that it would give China the upper hand in mobile communications. The presidential order reflected a calculation that the United States' lead in creating technology and setting standards for the next generation of mobile cell phone communications would be lost to China if Singapore-based Broadcom took over San Diego-based Qualcomm, according to a White House official. San Diego-based Qualcomm has emerged as one of the biggest competitors to China's Huawei Technologies Co in the sector, making Qualcomm a prized asset. Qualcomm had earlier rebuffed Broadcom's $117 billion bid, which was under investigation by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a multi-agency panel led by the U.S. Treasury Department that reviews the national security implications of acquisitions of U.S. corporations by foreign companies. In a letter on March 5, CFIUS said that it was investigating whether Broadcom would starve Qualcomm of research dollars that would allow it to compete and also cited the risk of Broadcom's relationship with "third party foreign entities." While it did not identify those entities, the letter repeatedly described Qualcomm as the leading company in so-called 5G technology development and standard setting. "A shift to Chinese dominance in 5G would have substantial negative national security consequences for the United States," CFIUS said. "While the United States remains dominant in the standards-setting space currently, China would likely compete robustly to fill any void left by Qualcomm as a result of this hostile takeover." A White House official on Monday confirmed that the national security concerns related to the risks of Broadcom's relationship with third party foreign entities. A source familiar with CFIUS' thinking had said that, if the deal was completed, the U.S. military was concerned that within 10 years, "there would essentially be a dominant player in all of these technologies and that's essentially Huawei, and then the American carriers would have no choice. They would just have to buy Huawei (equipment)." Shares of Broadcom rose less than 1.0 percent to $264.10 in after hours trade while Qualcomm fell 4.3 percent to $60.14. Broadcom said it was reviewing the presidential order. "Broadcom strongly disagrees that its proposed acquisition of Qualcomm raises any national security concerns," it said in a statement in response to the decision. Qualcomm did not respond to a request for comment. The move by Trump to kill the deal comes only months after the U.S. president himself stood next to Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan at the White House, announcing the company's decision to move its headquarters to the United States and calling it "one of the really great, great companies." This is the fifth time a U.S. President has blocked a deal based on CFIUS objections and the second deal Trump has stopped since assuming office. "The proposed takeover of Qualcomm by the Purchaser (Broadcom) is prohibited, and any substantially equivalent merger, acquisition, or takeover, whether effected directly or indirectly, is also prohibited," the presidential order released on Monday said. The order issued by the White House cited "credible evidence" that led Trump to believe that Broadcom taking control of Qualcomm "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States." Trump's move accelerated a decision that appeared likely after CFIUS told Broadcom in a letter on Sunday that its investigation "so far confirmed the national security concerns." The U.S. Treasury Department letter was "obviously a poison pill," Jim Lewis, a CFIUS expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said before the Trump order. He described the CFIUS communication to Broadcom as "unprecedented." Broadcom had struggled to complete its proposed deal to buy Qualcomm which had cited several concerns including the price offered and potential antitrust hurdles. The presidential decision to block the deal cannot be appealed. However, it is not clear what rules Broadcom would have to follow if it goes ahead with announced plans to move its headquarters to the United States. Saudi Arabias elite prominent industry leaders and members of the royal family are facing physical abuse, losing control of their assets, and are having their movements closely monitored by the authorities. According to a New York Times report, many of these businessmen are forced to wear ankle braclets tracking their movements. They have lost most of their personal wealth, their bank accounts frozen and some continue to be out of contact with their families in the name of a crackdown on corruption in November last year. Their spouses and children are also not allowed to travel. In November last year, many influential persons were detained at the Ritz Carlton in Saudi Arabia by a decree of the Monarch King Salman and executed by the Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud. The detainees were allowed no outside contact, not even with their families until much later. They were also not allowed to access to the internet, or their bank accounts. Many of these people were subjected to physical and mental abuse. Close to 17 of them were hospitalised. They were forced sign off large assets over to the governments coffers. The Government of Saudi Arabias statement to New York Times on Sunday was that all such allegations were absolutely untrue. Most of these persons have been released but under severe restrictions. The article said that many of these detainees had to write off large sums to the government to secure their release. They also had to give away many of their personal assets in the form of real estate and personal stock options without any such legal process. The government is yet to officially take over these assets, putting these families in a great amount of uncertainty. Other reports state that the Kingdom have taken over the bank accounts of the detainees, handing over USD 26,000 to meet monthly expenses. The government has been keeping mum on the issue, citing privacy laws. The report points out that due to the lack of transparency in these processes, the move could be the part of an ongoing feud met in the guise of tackling corruption. The current Monarch, King Salman, is the brother of the previous monarch King Abdullah. After his death, his children received an inheritance through a charity foundation called the Abdullah Foundation. The foundation amounted to billions of dollars which was meant to finance projects in the name of the king and provide for his heirs. The foundation gave close to USD 340 million for each of the late Kings sons and USD 200 million for his daughters. The Crown Prince aims to get hold of that money, stating that the amounts were acquired by circumventing the authorities. Prince Turki is the administrator of the foundation. He is also a son of the late king. Turki was removed from his post as the governor of Riyadh in 2015 and is still detained following the Ritz episode. His siblings and other family members are not allowed to travel outside the country, while some continue to be in London fearing of the conseqeunces of coming back. Prince Mutaib, brother of Prince Turki and leader of the national guard was also stipped off his post. General Qahtani, a close aide of Prince Turki, was also detained at the Ritz. Although personally not wealthy, he died while in custody. The report also spoke of lab tests pointing to bruises and his neck being twisted in an unnatural manner. There was also talks of how MBC the Arab worlds largest media outlet, was also strong-armed into being handed over to the authorities. Waleed al-Ibrahim, MBCs chairman, was one of the detainees who was released in January after being giving up control of the company to the Kingdom with the help of PWC and the British law firm Clifford Chance acting as intermediaries. Amcor Limited [ASX:AMC] shares dropped by a mere 0.76% this morning. Their market cap is valued at $16.53 billion and enterprise value stands at $21.01 billion. Return on assets stands at 7.63% while return on equity holds at a high percentage of 72.67% Incorporated in 1926 and stationed in Southbank, Australia, Amcor specialises in providing packaging solutions in Australia, New Zealand and other regions around the globe. Amcor operates through other investment segments, while manufacturing a large variety of different products such as foods and drinks. They also manufacture flexible high-quality materials for meeting packaging standards. What is the current state of Amcor Limited? Part of their share drop stems from its Rigid Plastics Segment, which delivered a low profit. Volume challenges in the North American beverage segment was one of the reasons why Amcor suffered from such low profits in regard to their Rigid Plastics Segment. However, Amcor isnt doing badly, their outcome is overall a mixed result. Amcors Flexibles segment contributed to a small amount of growth as it saw profits before tax increase back in February. Management predicts growth for their flexibles segment, but doesnt expect much of an increase from rigid plastics. Amcors controlled entities Amcor has not acquired any new businesses as of late, however back in November 2017 Amcor went through with their first option to extend the 750 million multi-currency credit. Management will go through with monitoring evolving interpretations of certain types of tax legislations and its resulting impacts, as a result they will be able to revise estimates of Amcors tax. Amcors news release reported that CEO Mr Ron Delia stated: During the half year we have grown earnings, expanded margins and maintained strong returns, with good progress on key investments. Cash flow and the balance sheet remain strong which, along with our confidence in the earnings growth capacity of the business, enabled the Board to increase the interim dividend by 8% to 21.0 US cents per share. Amcor believes the business is focusing on growth levers that are within the grounds of their control. Regards, Ryan Clarkson-Ledward, For Money Morning PS: Gold stocks can be either a hit or miss, its hard to tell especially if youre going in blind with little to no knowledge on the matter. Jason from Money Morning outlines the details in gold stocks and how to properly invest in his free report, The Right Time To Buy Gold Stocks in 2018. Guaranteed Rate has let go of about 180 employees across all of its locations, but the company said the cuts were not related to the decline in the amount of new mortgage loans it funded last year, the Chicago Tribune reported. We recently made the decision to rebalance our organization in areas where we were overstaffed, resulting in some positions being eliminated, the company said in a statement spokeswoman Valerie Dolenga provided to the publication. The move improves our competitive positioning and allows us to be even more aggressive in providing the best mortgage rates for our customers. Dolenga said that among the affected staff were operations assistants who assisted in processing loan paperwork. Guaranteed Rate had about 3,600 workers around the US before the layoffs. Two Midlanders died Sunday night after a man allegedly fatally stabbed his wife and later was killed in an officer-involved shooting, according to a press release from the Midland County Sheriffs Office. The office received a 911 call at 9:11 p.m. Sunday in reference to a disturbance at 2201 W. County Road 137. Information relayed indicated Dolores Marquez Alvarez, 46, was on a bed and didnt appear to be breathing, according to the release. EMS arrived on the scene and started CPR with no results and and reported she was dead. Deputies reported the situation appeared to be a stabbing, and the suspect, Juan Garcia Alvarez, 57, was the victims husband. He had left the scene, and deputies secured the residence and gathered information from family members. Information about him was relayed to other law enforcement agencies. Criminal Investigation Division units and additional deputies were dispatched to the area because family members were arriving and fights were breaking out, according to the press release. The family reported at 10:58 p.m. that the suspect was at the rear of the house. Officers encountered Alvarez, who had a firearm. He refused to put it down and fired a round at officers, according to the release. Multiple shots were fired, and Alvarez was struck. EMS was called to the scene and declared the suspect was dead. Terry Luck, justice of the peace for Precinct 1, also pronounced the Alvarezes had died and ordered autopsies at the Tarrant County Medical Examiners Office, according to the press release. The Texas Rangers were called to the scene to conduct an investigation into the officer-involved shooting. The findings will be reported to Midland County District Attorney Laura Nodolf for presentation to a grand jury, according to the release. Last year, 158 separate incidents statewide involved peace officer shootings with a firearm that caused injury or death, according to the annual report from the Texas Attorney Generals office. Eighty individuals were killed, and 78 were injured, according to the report. The incidents also resulted in five officer deaths and 21 who were injured. More than 80 percent of the situations involved individuals who were reported to be carrying a deadly weapon. Democratic candidates for governor say its time for the state to legalize recreational marijuana, while Republican candidates oppose the idea. Nine states and Washington, D.C, have already legalized recreational marijuana. Democrats seeking their partys nomination for governor say its time the state follow suit, arguing the move would bring in needed revenue and would be a major step toward criminal justice reform. The candidates in the March 20 primary are Sen. Daniel Biss, businessman Chris Kennedy, billionaire J.B. Pritzker, educator Bob Daiber, activist Tio Hardiman and physician Robert Marshall. On the other side, the two GOP primary candidates have opposed legalization and raised questions on the future of Illinois medical marijuana pilot program, which is set to expire in 2020. Gov. Bruce Rauner implemented the pilot program in 2015, but he has recently fought in court attempts to expand the list of qualifying conditions. He is against legalization for recreational purposes. His primary competitor, Rep. Jeanne Ives, has consistently railed against any type of legalization. Heres a look at where the candidates stand: . RECREATIONAL While all Democratic candidates favor legalizing recreational marijuana, there are some debates about how the process should take place. The perceived front runners Pritzker, Biss and Kennedy all favor legalization, arguing it would bring more tax revenue into a state with nearly $9 billion in unpaid bills. They also say it would help Illinois overcrowded prison problem and fight what they see as racial disparities in sentencing and arrests. Illinois was considered to be one of the top 12 states with the most arrests for marijuana possession, according to the American Civil Liberties Unions most recent analysis in 2010. While African-Americans made up 15 percent of the population at the time, they accounted for 58 percent of marijuana-related arrests. We must review and commute the sentences of people incarcerated for marijuana offenses in Illinois, said Pritzker, a Chicago entrepreneur. Its time to bring the era of mass incarcerations for minor drug offenses to an end. Kennedy, of Kenilworth, echoed the sentiment and said he would commute sentences on a case-by-case basis for non-violent offenders solely convicted of possession or sale of the drug. He also wants the University of Illinois to oversee legalization, saying the school would act as a third-party not looking to profit off of a public health decision like lobbyists in Springfield. Biss said he would go one step further. The lawmaker said he would commute sentences en masse, following the model of San Francisco, where prosecutors threw out thousands of marijuana-related convictions dating back to 1975 with no action needed from those convicted. Im committed to a criminal justice agenda that focuses on rehabilitation and community investment rather than mass incarceration and we must make sure that no one gets left behind, said the Evanston lawmaker. Marshall, a Burr Ridge physician, and Daiber, a regional schools superintendent from Marine, are both favorable to legalization, but Daiber stipulates the initiative must be passed by the voters. Chicago activist Hardiman favors decriminalizing marijuana and legalizing only small amounts for recreational purposes. On the Republican side, Rauner and Ives both oppose legalization, saying there may be detrimental effects in states where recreational use is permitted. I do not support legalizing marijuana. I think thats a mistake, said the governor. You know theres a massive human experiment going on in Colorado and California and other places. We should see how thats impacting lives and addiction and hurting young people before we make any decision about it here. Rauner signed legislation in 2016 making possessing small amounts of marijuana a civil offense, saying prosecuting these minor cases is a drain on taxpayer dollars. But he said he would have to carefully consider the consequences of any further legislation before deciding to expand decriminalization. Ives, of Wheaton, did not respond to The Associated Press request for comment but previously told the State-Journal Register that she opposes legalization, saying it is the wrong way to solve our budget problems. . MEDICAL The states medical marijuana program, one of the most restrictive in the country, has largely taken a back seat in the race. Former Gov. Pat Quinn signed the pilot program into law in 2013, but it wasnt implemented until 2015. Rauner has been both friend and foe to the medical marijuana industry, adding two qualifying conditions to the list in 2016 but resisting further expansion. To qualify for a medical card, a person must have a debilitating condition such as cancer, HIV/AIDS or Alzheimers disease. Illinois added PTSD and terminal illness to the list of qualifying conditions in 2016. The Rauner administration is appealing a Cook County Circuit judges order that the state expand the list to include intractable pain, or pain thats resistant to treatment. The governor didnt say whether he would continue the program beyond its 2020 expiration date. Dan Linn, executive director of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws in Illinois, said its possible Rauner could end the program. But he said Rauner likely wouldnt take that action because the industry is responsible for 1,500 jobs and caters to 30,000 patients across the state. Ives has opposed legalization in any form and voted against the pilot program in 2013. Pritzker, Biss and Kennedy all want to make the pilot program permanent and expand the list of qualifying conditions. Only Biss specifically detailed how he would expand the list, saying he would model Illinois program on Californias, allowing cannabis to be prescribed to any debilitating illness a physician sees fit. He adds he will also reduce licensing fees, streamline regulations, and expand access by making sure there are doctors in every community who will prescribe medical cannabis. Hardiman said he would make the pilot program permanent, but wouldnt make any further changes. Daiber has said he would loosen restrictions under the program, but added that if marijuana is legalized, it would remove the necessity of a medical program. Marshall did not return the AP request for comment, though he has previously said he supports legalizing marijuana and decriminalizing drugs such as cocaine and morphine. JERSEYVILLE A 1,400-acre rail-served business park could see upward of 1,000 new jobs created during the next few years, but the impact of the development could reach a much wider area, according to developers. While the emphasis is on the 1,000 jobs, Shari Albrecht, executive director of the Jerseyville Economic Development Council, said that includes only jobs within the business park. Mid-American International Gateway Business Park is a development near Crystal Lake Road southeast of Jerseyville. Served by the Kansas City Southern Railroad, as planned it would include logistics, assembly and manufacturing. The project has been in development for about four years and is collaboration between the Stonemont Financial Group, an Atlanta-based private real estate investment firm, the KCS and the Jerseyville Economic Development Council. The infrastructure and development costs would be about $500 million, developers said. Albrecht said the development would likely spur other growth, including new housing, retail and commercial development in Jerseyville, especially along U.S. 67 heading south. Were getting a lot of attention, she said. She said they were concentrating on the development inside the park at this time and would address ancillary development later. At this point were working with Stonemont Financial Group so that we understand their timeline for their project, she said. Weve also been in contact with a retail consultant and some other consultants to help us put together an economic impact study. She noted the city itself has three distinct commercial districts: downtown, south on U.S. 67, and east and west on Illinois Route 16. If were going to recruit and work with existing businesses to expand, we want to make sure all of them are in a position to make sure they are successful, she added. A timetable has not been determined and will rely in great part on the timetable for the business park development. A major talking point has been the need to finish the expansion of U.S. 67 from two to at least four lanes from just north of Godfrey to Jerseyville and beyond. They all know the importance of (U.S.) 67 being finished, Jerseyville Mayor Bill Russell said after the meeting. This development will drive that completion. A lot of the engineering is done. Were confident this project will move this along. While the emphasis on job creation has been Jerseyville and Jersey County, Albrecht said workers will come from throughout the region. Because of its population, that is expected to benefit Madison County. Tony Fuhrmann, Madison County Employment and Training administrator, said he expects the development to have a big impact, especially in northern Madison County, because thats where the largest pool of available workers will be. I think there will be job opportunities, especially in the northern area, he said. Well try to work with those companies to see what kind of training they need. Fuhrmann also said that changes in how the state deals with workforce development could mean a greater involvement by Madison County Employment and Training officials to the north. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is considering rearranging workforce development areas into regional economic areas. Fuhrmann said there is a possibility that Jersey and Calhoun counties could become part of Madison Countys region. Im waiting to hear from DCEO on what the plan is and the time frame, he said. Scott Cousins can be reached at 618-208-6447. Illinois College is making a big push to raise money Thursday after an anonymous donor promised to match all funds donated to the school that day. This is the first year for the All in for IC Day of Giving and IC is encouraging alumni and friends of the college via social media and other outreach methods to donate money to the Illinois College Fund. Patrick Wagner, ICs vice president of Development and Alumni Relations, said the day is meant to connect with members of the Illinois College community and alumni and bring them back into what Illinois College is doing. We are doing a lot of great things and we have had an increase in applications, Wagner said. We just want to tell all of our alumni and the community what we are doing and bring them back into the fold. We want to keep them excited about Illinois College. In addition to funds donated Thursday as part of the regular All in for IC campaign, a friend of the college will match every dollar raised, he said. We were planning the All in for IC day and this person reached out to us and can thankfully match everything donated, Wagner said. In addition to its fundraising efforts, the college also is trying to boost school spirit on Thursday. We asked everyone on campus to wear their IC gear and we have a number of ambassadors that are reaching out to their groups, Wagner said. IC alumna Betsy Wagers, a 2015 graduate from Mahomet, said she is excited about the day and plans to help out with the social media campaign. I really cherish the years that I had at Illinois College, and I want to help give others the opportunity to have some of the experiences I had while I was there, Wagers said. Wagner said the college raised record funds last year and is hoping to beat that this year with a goal of $885,000 for the IC Fund. The IC Fund supports scholarships for students to attend Illinois College and other academic opportunities. We had a great momentum last year and we want to build on that, Wagner said. We want to keep providing support for scholarships for our students. Its about keeping IC affordable. Donations will be accepted via check or through a link on the Illinois College website at ic.edu/allin4ic. Wagner asked that any checks meant for the Day of Giving include a note in the memo line dedicating it to the IC Fund for the Day of Giving. A fundraising total, a list of donors and donors general locations will be available Thursday on ICs website. Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha. Tuolumne County logo View Photos Sonora, CA Crews tackling two Tuolumne County-sponsored tree mortality projects will be slowing travel for the next couple of weeks at least, according to the contractor hired for the work. In fact, come tomorrow morning, Hopes Tree Service co-owner Bob Cooper reports that one of the jobs will close a travel lane at the T-intersection of Phoenix Lake Road and Paseo de los Portales from 9:30 until 11 a.m. while crews take down four trees in that area. He adds that, also beginning tomorrow is a major felling project of over 300 trees located all along the 15-mile stretch of Big Hill Road. Hours for that work are slated every weekday from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. during which parts of the road will completely close down for up to 15 minutes at a time. The crews will begin removing identified hazard trees by Belleview Elementary and then slowly work their way over the ridge to Columbia and Sawmill Flat Road. After 42 years of helping to bring new life into the world, long-time Covenant Health Plainview labor and delivery nurse, Mercedes Avelino, has decided to open a new chapter in life. Honestly, Im really going to miss everything and everybody, said Avelino as she fought back a few tears during her retirement celebration this past Monday. Considered a cornerstone inside Plainviews labor and delivery department, Avelino has delivered thousands and thousands of babies all over the world during her long career. I graduated in 1974 from the University of Santo Tomas College of Nursing in Manila, explained Avelino. Avelino said she grew up and attended school at St. Marys, a monastery in the Philippines. My father was the mayor of Pontevedra. . . and because of politics, they thought it would be safer for me to be placed with the nuns, said Avelino. Avelino said growing up, she was truly inspired by the faith and love exuded by the sisters. When I was young I really wanted to become a nun, said Avelino. However, Avelino said her mother and grandmother didnt feel it was the best decision and urged her not to join the convent. I really wanted to serve God. So I thought the closest thing to becoming a nun was to become a nurse, Avelino said. I pictured myself as one of the sisters taking care of the sick. After graduation, Avelino enrolled into the University of Santo Tomas. I loved it so much, I found out nursing was my true passion, said Avelino. Originally, Avelino said she aspired to become a critical care nurse, however after contracting a nearly fatal disease, the young nurse said she was hospitalized for more than a month. I prayed to Jesus that if he give me another life I would serve him the best I could, said Avelino. He did, and Avelino thought the best way to serve him was in Labor and Delivery. I just love labor and delivery. Seeing that baby come out of the womb, its a true miracle, said Avelino. Avelino said she worked in the biggest maternity and childrens hospital in the Philippines, Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital. It was a 1,500 bed maternity and pediatric hospital. We delivered babies left and right. At least 60 babies a day, said Avelino. Avelino said she worked at the hospital for a few years before she was invited to become a labor delivery manager at a hospital in Saudi Arabi. I worked there for about five years. It was different, but we were safe, said Avelino. After that, Avelino returned and was asked to serve as the dean of a new college of nursing in the Philippines. Avelino said she served as the dean for several years, but eventually came to the decision she wanted to move to the United States. Avelino added that one of her older cousins was already working in the states as a nurse. I applied for positions in New Jersey and in Texas, said Avelino. Though New Jersey came in with a high salary, Avelino said she heard the people of Texas were much friendlier and more hospitable. I chose Texas not for the money, but for the people. And everything I heard was true, said Avelino with a smile. Avelino started working at Lubbocks South Park Hospital on Quaker Street and worked there for the next seven years until it closed in the early 1990s. From there, Avelino moved to St. Mary Hospitals labor and delivery department where she worked for a year. During that time, Avelino said she was visiting a nursing friend at Plainviews hospital, then the Methodist Hospital. It was then that she was approached by Plainview nurse manager, Connie Vering, who was in desperate need of an experienced labor and delivery nurse. Avelino said she wasnt really looking for a new job, but eventually decided to take on a few shifts which would help in her effort of putting her children through college. With a promise that she could work overtime to help her children, Avelino was eventually convinced to work fulltime in Plainview in 1997. I really like Plainview; especially the nurses and doctors I worked with, said Alevino. We worked as a team and the doctors really trusted me. For the next 20 years, Avelino served as a fixture of Plainviews Labor and Delivery. But its time for me to move onto the next phase of my life, said Alevino. I going to miss everything. Alevino says she plans on traveling a lot with her husband Walter. But first she plans on spending some time with her grandchildren. Her son, Dr. Emanuel Dela Cruz is a plastic surgeon in Texas and her Daughter, Charm Alger is a CPA in New Jersey. The Fair Theater is proud to announce their inaugural Fair Theater Spring Break Movie Days next week. The Fair will present Despicable Me 3 on Wednesday, Paddington on Thursday and Coco on Friday. Movie times are 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. for all three days. Ticket prices are $2/adults and $1/kids 12 and under and concessions will be available. Despicable Me 3 sees the mischievous Minions hope that Gru will return to a life of crime after the new boss of the Anti-Villain League fires him. Instead, Gru decides to remain retired and travel to Freedonia to meet his long-lost twin brother for the first time. The reunited siblings soon find themselves in an uneasy alliance to take down the elusive Balthazar Bratt, a former 1980s child star who seeks revenge against the world. Paddington features a young bear (Ben Whishaw) who makes his way to England in search of a new home after a deadly earthquake destroys his home in Peruvian rainforest. The bear, dubbed "Paddington" for the London train station, finds shelter with the family of Henry (Hugh Bonneville) and Mary Brown (Sally Hawkins). Although Paddington's amazement at urban living soon endears him to the Browns, someone else has her eye on him: Taxidermist Millicent Clyde (Nicole Kidman) has designs on the rare bear and his hide. Coco features a young Miguel who dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz despite his family's generations-old ban on music. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead. After meeting a charming trickster named Hector, the two new friends embark on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel's family history. All movies are rated PG. For additional information about the Spring Break movies or the Fair, please contact Tori at 293.4000 or thuddleston@plainviewtx.org. On Friday, March 16, the Contemporary Art Museum Plainview (CAMP) will open its second major exhibition from 6 8 p.m. to be called THE BIG FLIP The Art of Skateboarding. What ties them all together is that the main impetus for their art is their love of skateboarding. The five artists in this exhibition are not only champion skateboarders but they have had their artwork published in books and magazines, collected some very impressive commercial clients and have shown their artwork in galleries and in both regional and national museums. For more information about the exhibit or CAMP, contact Kelly Alison at me@kellyalison.com. Finishing off a week of Spring Break Celebrations will the Skate Board Competition at the Plainview Skate Park (6th & Joliet) on Saturday, March 17th. Organized by Lubbock Skateboard, the competition will include competitions for all levels of skaters and entries are only $5.00. Sign-ups begin at 10 a.m. and amenities will be available. For more information about the contest, contact Tony at tony@tonymaplesphotography.com or visit the Lubbock Skate Board Facebook page. Baker Hughes and McDermott International said they're partnering to offer integrated offshore energy services in order to better compete with other growing players like Schlumberger and TechnipFMC. Houston's Baker Hughes recently expanded with its recent merger with General Electric's oil and gas business, while Houston-based McDermott is growing with its pending acquisition of The Woodlands' CB&I. Their first partnership announced this week is to provide integrated front-end engineering work for British oil major BP's latest West Africa development offshore of Senegal and Mauritania. The trend offshore, which is still struggling to recover from the recent oil bust, is to offer more integrated energy services for discounts, consistency and more. That's why Technip and FMC Technologies merged, and why global services leader Schlumberger acquired Cameron International and is now planning a joint venture with London-based Subsea 7. RELATED: Schlumberger and Subsea 7 plan new joint venture "Increasingly, industry players are looking for commercially-innovative business models and integrated offerings that help reduce costs, while increasing efficiency and productivity," said Graham Gillies, vice president of subsea production systems and subsea services at Baker Hughes, a GE company. "This is an excellent example of how the industry has evolved its approach." James West, an energy analyst with Evercore ISI, said Baker Hughes is responding quicker than expected to continue competing with the top offshore players. "We feel this announcement substantiates our previous expectation for operators to encourage additional alliances and JVs to avoid a duopoly (of Schlumberger and TechnipFMC)," West added. As for McDermott's pending merger with CB&I, the deal is expected to close in the second quarter with McDermott CEO David Dickson staying in charge of the combined company and McDermott Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Stuart Spence remaining in the same role. WASHINGTON Days after 17 people were gunned down at a Florida high school last month, President Donald Trump vowed to overhaul some of the nations gun laws, promising to do more to protect our children. The president announced a string of changes, including a ban of so-called bump stock devices, which can make semiautomatic rifles fire like machine guns and were found on firearms used in Octobers mass shooting in Las Vegas. The Justice Department, Trump said, was reviewing the issue and would soon move to take the devices off shelves. But at the time, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Justice Department agency leading the legal review of bump stocks, had reached no such conclusion. Officials in the bureaus press office appeared surprised when first asked about the presidents comments and said the agency was still determining whether it could ban the devices which it had previously said it could not do. Trumps remarks had the desired effect. The Justice Department and the ATF aligned themselves with the president, backing away from the bureaus earlier conclusion and announcing Saturday that the agency can ban bump stocks under current law, as the president had promised. On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reiterated that he had sent a draft proposal to effectively ban bump stocks to the Office of Management and Budget, which approves federal rule changes. The reversal was the culmination of weeks of political posturing from Trump, whose public demands have repeatedly short-circuited his administrations regulatory process and, at times, contradicted his own Justice Department. The dissonance laid bare his lack of experience in managing governing processes like regulation. And by publicly pressuring the ATF to ban the devices, legal experts say, Trump undercut the process and all but guaranteed that gun owners and gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association have grounds to sue. There will be lawsuits because it looks like the agency has bowed to political pressure, said Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. The ATF and Justice Department declined to comment. A senior administration official defended the process and said that the White House had consistently coordinated with the Justice Department. In the weeks leading up to Trumps first calls to ban bump stocks, the official said, the White House knew the bureau was open to revisiting a ban. Yet in tweets, public remarks and statements, Trump upended the time-consuming, often-overlooked federal rule-making process, which requires coordination among multiple agencies. The president dismissed it as long and complicated, vowing that bump stocks would be banned and that the legal review was almost finished. I expect that these critical regulations will be finalized, Jeff, very soon, Trump said in the days after the Florida shooting, directly addressing Sessions while the agency was continuing its review. As recently as last week, the public positions of the president and the bureau were out of sync. Trump announced that the legal papers to ban bump stocks were nearly completed and said the devices would soon be gone. That same day, bureau officials said that the agency was still reviewing the issue and that no final determination had been made. Traditionally, the bureau would study existing statutes, decide that the law permits it to regulate bump stocks and then submit a proposed rule to the Justice Department. The deputy attorney generals office would make modifications before the budget office reviewed and approved the rule change, and it would then be published in the Federal Register. The regulation of bump stocks has strayed from that pattern. The bureau determined in 2010 that it could not regulate the devices because they could not be defined as machine guns, which are regulated under the National Firearms Act, the law that regulates firearms in the United States. To prohibit bump stocks, the agency had to contradict that earlier position, essentially saying the statute had not changed but could be read differently to include such a ban. After the Las Vegas shooting, in which 58 concertgoers were killed by a gunman using firearms outfitted with bump stocks, public pressure grew to ban them. Justice Department and ATF officials privately stuck by their earlier conclusion that they could not outlaw bump stocks, but with little appetite to tackle gun policy in Congress, Sessions asked the ATF to review its determination. Agencies periodically scrutinize earlier rulings and change interpretations. What set apart the bump stock evaluation, according to former bureau officials, was Trumps overt political pressure. No disrespect intended, but Im sure President Trump has no idea what exactly the authority is for ATF or the DOJ to ban these things, said Bradley A. Buckles, who was the head of the bureau from 1999 to 2004. In all honesty, he doesnt know what his authority is in that regard. And in altering its 2010 interpretation made under former President Barack Obama, the bureau could be subject to lawsuits that tie up a bump stock ban in the courts. The Justice Department and the ATF are going to get sued, and Trump is going to get flak, said Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston. Obama was correct in his interpretation of the statute. If you want to ban bump stocks, it has to be done through Congress. The apparent reversal on bump stocks appears to be more political than legal, said Rick Vasquez, a former ATF official who supervised the bureaus prior determination on bump stocks. Theyre basically playing games with the regulations and the law right now just to make a political statement, he said. Other presidents have also influenced Justice Department rule making to help their preferred policies come into fruition, then watched as those rules became fodder for lawsuits. Under Obama, the Justice Department created the legal underpinnings to protect immigrants living in the country illegally who came to the United States as children after Congress failed to address the issue. That program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was the subject of multiple lawsuits. If bump stock bans are approved, as expected, questions remain on how the rule will be enforced, including whether it will apply to purchases before a ban would be instituted. On Monday, Trump continued to publicly press for a ban. Bump Stocks, he tweeted, will soon be out. Nelda Drury, founder of the San Antonio Folk Dance Festival, get her first taste of international dance when she was 5 years old. A student from the teachers college in San Marcos came to her school to teach the youngsters some dance steps. I remember Mother saying she got to swish her skirt and they put lipstick on her, said Liz Newton, Drurys daughter. She said, This is living! She never lost her love of dance. She created the dance program at San Antonio College, where she taught for 25 years; she taught all over the world, including a memorable stint in Japan that she particularly loved; and she founded the San Antonio festival, which marks its 60th anniversary this weekend. The spotlight this year will be on Bulgarian, Romanian and vintage American dance. The event includes workshops, dance parties and two public concerts. Friday nights concert focuses on Hispanic culture and Saturdays has an international focus. Im so pleased that were still having the festival, Drury said. And this is going to be a big one. More Information San Antonio Folk Dance Festival concerts When: 8 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Where: Thiry Auditorium, Our Lady of the Lake University, Cost: $20 at the door. Information: safdf.org. See More Collapse Drury herself is celebrating a landmark this year. In April, she will turn 100. A serenade will be performed in her honor at Saturday nights concert at the festival. And the commemorative T-shirt features a photo of a beaming Drury from the early days of the festival. Dance still has a hold on her. Even after she began relying on a Rollator to get around, she still attended the Tuesday night folk dance sessions at the University of the Incarnate Word with her daughter. She would do the steps she had taught to people over the world from her seat, Newton said. That came to a halt in November, when Drury fell and broke her collarbone. Shes been taking physical therapy, and her daughter is certain shell be able to resume the sessions soon. Shes on the mend, Newton said. As soon as shes ready go back to our Tuesday night folk dance class, well be joining in. dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN With cool, clear water running through the Frio River, plenty of hiking trails and an outdoor dance floor, it's easy to understand why many Texans travel to Garner State Park each spring, summer and fall to enjoy its beauty. But it's likely that not every visitor will be inclined to spend a night under the stars cramped in a sleeping bag, inside a small tent, nestled among rocks, twigs, dirt and free-roaming wildlife. DANBURY When Ann Marie Seavy-Cioffi took her 93-year-old mother to Danbury Hospital for a scheduled blood transfusion last week, a computer glitch meant they had to wait four hours for the procedure to begin. By the time it started, there was time to transfuse only one pint of blood, and Seavy-Cioffi said she was asked to bring her mother back in a couple of days. If this was your mother, you would be as outraged as I am, she wrote on the hospitals Facebook page. Shouldn't I be? On Monday, 80-year-old Carole Conaway spent the afternoon carrying her phone around while on hold with her doctors offices. She needed to schedule appointments with her primary care doctor and the specialist who treats her for her kidney disease, but gave up after 1 1/2 hours. It just rankled me, Conaway said. I just hung up. I said, I cant do this anymore. Seavy-Cioffi and Conaway were just two of many patients complaining about problems reaching doctors, scheduling appointments and obtaining other services since the Western Connecticut Health Network upgraded its computer system at the beginning of the month. The health network concedes that there have been problems, and asked patients for patience as it transitions to a new system for billing, scheduling and maintaining electronic health records. WCHN switched to the new system on March 3 after two years of preparation. The health network said the system will help better serve our patients and provide consistent quality care, and allow its three hospitals and scores of doctors offices to use the same system. Patients are receiving the same great clinical care that they have always received, WCHN officials said Tuesday in a statement. As with any large scale technology transition, the true test comes when staff begin using the new system. While our providers adjust to this new technology, patients may notice longer wait or appointment times or increased presence of support staff. But Conaway said the recent problems mark a stark difference from the care she is used to, that receptionists at her doctors offices know her well and that she has never had a problem making appointments. Normally, I have a very good experience with Danbury Hospital, Conaway said. I feel like family with them. Noting that she worked for 22 years in the radiology department at Danbury Hospital, she recalled the nightmare adjustment for staff when the hospital got computers in the 1990s. I understand with new electronics it takes awhile to get it straightened out, but an hour and a half trying to make two appointments, thats ridiculous, Conaway said. Conaway, who uses a motorized scooter and relies on the SweetHart bus to bring her to the doctors, had to cancel earlier appointments because of the snow. She said she does not need to see a doctor immediately, but should go soon. Its not serious for me, but it could be, she said. Danbury resident Danee Pross said her Southbury doctors office called almost two weeks ago asking her to reschedule a routine appointment. But after calling during mornings and lunch breaks for more than a week, Pross has been unable to get through. Its kind of common sense that if they call you to reschedule, they need to answer their phone, Pross said. She has tried calling other Western Connecticut Health Network offices in Danbury and Ridgefield, but they could not help either, Pross said. What do you do from that point on? she said. Switch different doctors? Pross planned to call again Tuesday, but if she couldnt get through, she said she would use an old-school method: the fax machine. Ive given up enough of my time, Pross said. GREENWICH Imagine: Dancing next to a life-size figure, your iPhone blaring a favorite tune. But the person facing you isnt there. Shes thousands of miles away in Iraq, tucked in a room much like yours. And yet together, you share a moment. Or imagine this: Turning a $3 webcam into a microscope that can film the universe blown up large. In a lab, you tinker with little pieces of technology until the focus is just right and your camera records the minutiae you want it to see. The world is your oyster, in all its detail and design. At Greenwich Academy, two teachers have pioneered initiatives that make both of these hypotheticals a reality. And last week, they dodged a noreaster for a few days in Austin, Texas, where they shared their knowledge at South by Southwest. Empathy machines Kristen Erickson, a history teacher who curated GAs Portal Project, sat on a SXSW panel last Wednesday with Lewis Lee, a formerly incarcerated Milwaukee resident who often interfaced with students at Greenwich Academy in the fall of 2016. Lee lives in a neighborhood where 62 percent of the men have been in prison, according to a video by Shared_Studios. Erickson and Lee spoke about their experiences with the Portal Project, and what the resource meant to two very different regions. The panelists agreed that both Greenwich and Milwaukee are bubbles, isolated from other communities. Breaking through those bubbles, thats kind of breaking down those barriers, Erickson said. And the Greenwich portal didnt just foster connections in Wisconsin. Nearly two years ago, GA became the first high school in the United States to play host to the Portal Project. Designed by Shared_Studios, the international program uses gold shipping containers to inspire interactions between global citizens in places as far flung as Gaza or Greenwich. Inside the portal, participants find themselves in a basic room with monitors, which they to communicate with people across borders and boundaries. During the three months that Erickson curated the project, GA students were exposed to voices from different continents and diverse backgrounds. We wanted to get the kids connected around the world, she said. In Iraq, children at an internally displaced camp told their peers in Greenwich how much they wanted to return home. When news stories about retaking Mosul cropped up months later, one student asked Erickson whether that meant the refugees would get to go back where they felt they belonged. You get to know humans in a place, and its not just a country and its politics at this removed level, said Erickson. Though some of the conversations grew heavy, for the most part, the children in Iraq wanted to distance themselves from their situation and enjoy a moment of escapism with their American counterparts. They just want to dance, and sing, and be normal kids, Erickson said. Other discussions dove into students coursework. One group focused on the global reach of hip-hop spoke with a dance troupe in Honduras. The portal opened up linguistic opportunities as well: Spanish classes practiced with native speakers, and kids discovered the Arabic they knew was more classical than colloquial. The project also served as a jumping off point for understanding a more universal view of the United States. Erickson recalled asking someone in Afghanistan what they had heard about America. The response? People go into schools and shoot children, they said, though they did not believe that all Americans were violent. In short, the project became a tool for knowledge throughout GAs ranks, from the lower school to teenagers. I think our kids are constantly communicating, but at a very superficial level, and the portal really changes that up and forces you to engage, Erickson said. Theres something about committing to dialogue our students leaving behind their phones and their own context and just kind of entering this space that requires their full attention. A $3 treasure Though at first glance, Erin Rileys work may seem eons away from a sociocultural initiative like the Portal Project, both undertakings boil down to the same thing: Sharing thoughts. As the director of GAs engineering and design lab, Riley has partnered with another educator in Los Angeles to spearhead new technologies that could be incorporated in any classroom. Using a webcam thats available online for mere dollars, she has created two types of cameras a microscope and macroscope that can capture life on earth with scientific precision. At South by Southwest, Riley presented her research with the hope that other maker-educators could deploy it in their curricula. This is all open source. Everything is freely given, she said. At the academy, Rileys camera has been used for film assignments, in fourth grade science classes, and even in advanced STEM coursework. The small device has vast applications in both arts and sciences, but perhaps its most obvious appeal is the hands-on attention it requires. It offers another look at how to use technology in a less packaged form, Riley said. Theres something really powerful about building your tools, and then using your tools. Students customize their cameras, and they can toy with the design to fit their particular visions. Because the mechanism is so inexpensive, it represents a low pressure learning opportunity, which means theres room to experiment. The first thing students do is they tear this thing apart, Riley said. Theres lots of different ways that these tools can be used, and its very homemade, and they really enjoy that. They enjoy the kind of messy, abstract quality to capturing images. When Riley spoke about being part of a larger network of educators, her mission sounded not so distant from Ericksons. At GA, both teachers are giving local kids access to a whole new world, widening their horizons while also contributing to a more collaborative intellectual community. We want to offer really open-ended, accessible activities for learning for our students, Riley said, and ones that are cross-disciplinary. A lawmaker from Pennsylvania says he wants to crack down on bullying. One way to do so, he says, is to punish parents for their child's bad behavior. State Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria. plans to propose legislation that would require parents to pay up to $500 if their child is a habitual bully and to notify school officials each time the child bullies another student. The bill, though, would not immediately impose the stiff penalty. If a child bullies for the first time, school officials would have to take some type of action, according to Burns's office. Parents would have to take parenting classes on bullying after a second incident. If a child keeps bullying, a judge will determine whether there's enough evidence to fine the parents and issue a court order forcing them to pay $500. If bullying continues after the third incident, parents will be fined $750 for each offense thereafter, Burns said. "Parental accountability is a big factor in bullying," Burns said. "A lot of parents refuse to believe that their son or daughter is bullying people. They want to believe that their kid is great and would not do such a thing." The proposal also covers cyberbullying, which is considered a crime in Pennsylvania. It is one of three pieces of legislation that Burns said he is planning to introduce. One proposal would have the Department of Education create a system that would allow people to report bullying anonymously. It would also penalize educators, either by some type of disciplinary action or suspension, if they fail to report a bullying incident. The other would require schools to track and report incidents of bullying to create real-time data, according to his office. It is unclear whether Burns's proposals were prompted by specific incidents of bullying, but his office said he has visited classrooms throughout his district, located east of Pittsburgh, to talk about bullying and urge students to sign an anti-bullying pledge. A 2011 survey of more than 24 million children ages 12 to 18 found that nearly 28 percent of students - or about 6.8 million kids - reported being bullied, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That is, they were called names, insulted, threatened with harm, and pushed or shoved, for example. Nine percent, or about 2.2 million kids, said they were cyberbullied. Bullying and suicide are closely related, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but research does not show that bullying directly causes suicide. "We know that most youth who are involved in bullying do NOT engage in suicide-related behavior," the CDC said in a 2014 report. "It is correct to say that involvement in bullying, along with other risk factors, increases the chance that a young person will engage in suicide-related behaviors." Burns's proposal to punish the parents of a bully is not unheard of. Under an anti-bullying law that took effect in October in North Tonawanda, a small city north of Buffalo, New York, parents can be fined $250 or be sentenced to 15 days in jail, or both, if their child violates laws on curfews and bullying, the Buffalo News reported. The law was prompted by the violent behavior of a small group of male students. The law also faced some objections. Charles Ewing, a University at Buffalo SUNY law professor, questioned whether the law is legal, constitutional or practical and said parents of a bullying victim have the option to sue a bully's family. "The idea is to sort of beat our chests and say, 'We're not going to tolerate this anymore and somebody's got to do something.' If this were perceived to be a problem that needed criminalizing, it should be up to the state legislature to criminalize it," he told the Buffalo News. In 2016, city officials in Shawano in northeastern Wisconsin passed an ordinance that gives parents 90 days after a police warning to address their child's bullying behavior. They will be fined $366 if they fail to do so and $681 if their child bullies again, WFRV reported. City officials passed the law in the wake of a high school shooting. Jakob Wagner, a student who had been bullied, shot and wounded four students as they were leaving a high school prom. Burns said a total of 16 Democrats and nine Republicans have signed on to be co-sponsors of his three bills. Washington Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have completed a draft report concluding there was no collusion or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, a finding that has enraged Democrats but is sure to please the White House. After a yearlong investigation, Texas Rep. Mike Conaway announced Monday that the committee has finished interviewing witnesses and will share the report with Democrats for the first time on Tuesday. Conaway is the Republican leading the House probe, one of several investigations on Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. Conaway previewed several of the report's conclusions. "We found no evidence of collusion," Conaway told reporters Monday, suggesting that those who believe otherwise read too many spy novels. "We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings. But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn ... could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings or whatever, and weave that into sort of a fiction page-turner spy thriller." The public will not see the report until Democrats have reviewed it and the intelligence community has decided what information can become public, a process that could take weeks. Democrats are expected to issue a separate report with much different conclusions. In addition to the statement on coordination with Russians, the draft picks apart a central assessment made by the U.S. intelligence community shortly after the 2016 election that Russian meddling in the campaign was intended to help Trump and hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton. Committee aides said they spent hundreds of hours reviewing raw source material used by the intelligence services to make that claim and that it did not meet the appropriate standards. Democrats have criticized Republicans on the committee for shortening the investigation, saying they have seen far too few witnesses to make any judgment on collusion. The top Democrat on the panel, California Rep. Adam Schiff, suggested that by wrapping up the probe the Republicans were protecting Trump. He called the development a "tragic milestone" and said history would judge them harshly. Republicans "proved unwilling to subpoena documents like phone records, text messages, bank records and other key records so that we might determine the truth about the most significant attack on our democratic institutions in history," Schiff said. According to Conaway, the report will agree with the intelligence assessment on most details, including that Russians did meddle in the election. It will detail Russian cyberattacks on U.S. institutions during the election and the use of social media to sow discord. It will also show a pattern of Russian attacks on European allies information that could be redacted in the final report. It will blame officials in former President Barack Obama's administration for a "lackluster" response and look at leaks from the intelligence community to the media. It will include at least 25 recommendations, including how to improve election security, respond to cyberattacks and improve counterintelligence efforts. The report is also expected to turn the subject of collusion toward the Clinton campaign, saying an anti-Trump dossier compiled by a former British spy and paid for by Democrats was one way that Russians tried to influence the election. Conaway did not suggest that Clinton knowingly coordinated with the Russians, but said the dossier clearly "would have hurt him and helped her." The congressional investigations are completely separate from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, which is likely to take much longer. Unlike Mueller's, congressional investigations aren't criminal but serve to inform the public and to recommend possible legislation. Contributed / West Haven Elks / Paul J. Rapanault WEST HAVEN Former Mayor Ed OBrien was honored Saturday night as the West Haven Elks Lodges Irishman of the Year. As part of the ceremony, current Mayor Nancy Rossi presented OBrien with a citation recognizing him as the West Haven Elks Lodges Irishman of the Year. EDWARDSVILLE More and more people have been coming to courthouses across the state seeking remedy to their problems without benefit of an attorney. Nearly all would prefer having an attorney but many have had trouble finding or affording one, according to information from the Illinois Supreme Court. But those self-represented litigants pose a myriad of challenges for circuit clerks, judges, court staff and others who find themselves involved in their case. To address the problem, the state recently awarded grants to eight circuits, including the Third Judicial Circuit, which includes Madison and Bond counties. The $15,000 grant will allow the much larger Madison County to expand more services into Bond County. Madison County will also be purchasing computer terminals to add to its law library in the basement of the Madison County Courthouse, a move that will help them serve people who file their own cases or try to represent themselves. The law library has a law librarian, a clerk, and volunteers with Illinois JusticeCorps, which is administered by the Illinois Bar Association. Among other things, the staff and volunteers help people navigate documents and the court systems. The grants come from the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice along with the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts Civil Justice Division. In a recent conversation, Circuit Judge Barb Crowder said the law library will also be re-arranged to better assist the huge number of self-represented litigants, which seems to be growing every month. The grant will enable law librarian Angela Warta to take on the additional role of coordinator with the seven other counties. The coordinators will be trying to make Illinois courts better, easier, and more accessible for self-represented litigants, according to an e-newsletter from the Illinois Supreme Court. Coordinators will serve as a bridge, linking their courthouses with others throughout the state to share ideas, develop new resources, and establish programs for assisting self-represented litigants, the court said. Warta, or another employee, will soon be driving over to Bond County each month to meet with Circuit Judge John Knight and Associate Judge Ron Slemer. Bond County plans to set aside a space for a computer terminal. For now, a Madison County representative will make the 40-minute drive to Greenville to help people locate the appropriate forms and familiarize them with the services. As we see what the demand is, we thought we would also be able to roll out the ability to do appointments either by phone or Skype with our attorneys here, Crowder said. Warta and the seven other coordinators plan to meet regularly by phone to exchange ideas. Were hoping some of the things we do here will help other circuits throughout the state, because so many people need help with their legal services who just dont have the money or lawyers to deal with. HAMDEN Herb Kolodny lost his right leg to cancer five years ago. His limb was amputated above the knee but he was fortunate to get fitted for a prosthetic. Kolodny was 65 and covered by Medicare before his amputation, which allowed him not only to get a custom prosthetic, but also a microprocessor-controlled knee, or MPK, which can improve a persons gait as he or she walks. The internal computer monitors a persons walking pattern, controlling fluid that allows the processor to make adjustments in resistance so a person can walk more efficiently at various speeds and more safely down ramps and stairs. Kolodny said the MPK has made all the difference in his recovery and quality of life. He returned to work within three months as a computer technician, crawling under desks, pulling cables and connecting PCs to networks. He said he didnt realize how lucky he was at the time, and didnt know that his custom prosthetic isnt available to many people who are privately insured in Connecticut. Many private insurance companies will approve amputations, but not prosthetic limbs, routinely declaring them not medically necessary, Kolodny said. This contrasts with how Medicare and Medicaid handle prosthetics. They will approve prosthetic limbs as medically necessary with respect to the patients ability to use the device and return to work, or whatever activities the patient was enjoying before an amputation. As crazy as it sounds, Medicare is the gold standard and private insurance companies wont cover better than Medicare, Kolodny said. That wasnt the case 20 years ago, but something changed in their thinking and they tried to offer something less than Medicare. Kolodny, a co-founder of Connecticut Amputee Network, along with co-founder Brenda Novak, who also has a prosthetic leg, are lobbying legislators to get insurance parity for people with lost limbs. The Insurance and Real Estate Committee heard testimony from Kolodny and others supporting a bill Sb 376 An Act Concerning Health Insurance Coverage For Prosthetic Devices that would require private insurance companies to match coverage and care for prosthetics to equal what Medicare offers. The bill also prevents companies from categorizing prosthetics as durable medical equipment. The committee is scheduled to vote on the bill March 22. Under the Affordable Care Act, prosthetics are an essential health benefit in the rehabilitative and habilitative services category, so all individual and small-group health insurance plans must cover prosthetics in some way. But the states benchmark plan, which further defines each category of essential health benefits, groups prosthetics with durable medical equipment. By relegating prosthetic limbs to DMEs, the practical effect is that they are no longer essential health benefits, Kolodny said. Wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and similar equipment that can be found at pharmacies fall into the DME category, but a prosthetic device shouldnt be treated as such because its custom-made to be an extension of an individuals limb, Kolodny said. It is unique to that person. Adjustments to get fitted for a prosthetic take months and when the residual limb shrinks or changes shape, more customization is required. For children it is even worse because they would need adjustments to an artificial limb as often as a child usually needs new shoes, he said. Furthermore, insurers often put limits on how much they will pay for a prosthetic or limit how often one can replace damaged or defective devices. These caps include covering one limb per lifetime or covering only up to $2,500 per lifetime or $500 per year for a prosthetic limb, Kolodny said. Making prosthetic coverage equal to Medicare would allow more people access to custom prosthetics if they arent already under Medicare. Kolodnys leg cost around $33,000 because it included the microprocessor but he said many insurance companies dont want to pay that because theyre not looking at the total patient cost. People get healthier, pretty darn fast, and that translates into fewer secondary medical issues for those who have the leg, he said. The medical cost for someone who doesnt receive a leg could be 10 percent higher over and 18-month period. State Sen. George Logan, R-Wallingford, also testified in support of the bill and said Kolodny is a prime example of the benefits of good prosthetic coverage. Its a health benefit for these folks to get these prosthetics and theres a cost savings to state if were able to prevent other health issues because of loss of limb, Logan said. They recover sooner and minimize the chance of injuries or needing more medical care. Without prosthetic care, individuals live more sedentary lifestyles, which leads to secondary complications, such as diabetes and increases in health care utilization and spending, according to a study by Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, LLC. Furthermore, people who received prosthetic limbs had improved mental health status and were more likely to return to work and rely less on social services, the study said. Additionally, more sophisticated technology has been found to increase the quality of care and patient outcomes. For those who did receive prosthetics, those with MPKs, such as Kolodnys, had fewer falls resulting in major injuries and lower medical costs, up to half of what non-MPK users paid over a 12-month period, according to a study by RAND Corporation. Living with a prosthetic leg brought (the insurance parity) to my attention, Kolodny said. If youre not an amputee, its not something you know about. NASA will lose its temporary leader at the end of April, a move that could force Congress to make a decision about who will take the helm of the space agency as it heads into a decade focused once again on human exploration. Robert Lightfoot, the agencys acting administrator, announced Monday that he will step down April 30, ending his 14-month tenure as the temporary head of NASA. Lightfoot informed his colleagues in a memo Monday. The grit and determination you all demonstrate every day in achieving our missions of discovery and exploration are simply awe inspiring, he wrote. I leave NASA blessed with a career full of memories of stunning missions, cherished friendships, and an incredible hope for what is yet to come. He continued, NASAs history has many chapters with each of us having a part. Ive written my part and now the pen is in your hands - each one of you. Lightfoot was named acting administrator Jan. 20, 2017 after serving as deputy administrator for about five years. Prior to that, he was the director of the agencys Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. EDITORIAL: Ground Control to Major Don -- Your NASA pick lacks the right stuff He now holds the record for longest-serving interim leader of the space agency. Keith Cowing, editor of NASA Watch, a website devoted to space news, said Lightfoots announcement likely will put pressure on U.S. Senators to confirm a permanent leader. I think this will push the Senate to do something, Cowing said Monday. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, a Republican from Oklahoma, was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the agencys permanent leader in September 2017, a nomination that was resubmitted in January. But that nomination must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. An article published by The Oklahoman on Monday said Bridenstines nomination is in serious jeopardy. Bridenstine would be the first politician to lead the agency, which some in the Senate are against, the article states. There do not appear to be enough favorable votes in the Senate to get him confirmed. As the Senate has battled over whether to confirm Bridenstine, Lightfoot has been tasked with much more than acting leaders are expected to do. Lightfoot was given the position to keep the train on the tracks, Cowing said, and ended up having to prepare the agencys 2019 fiscal year budget proposal. I think when Lightfoot accepted this job, he did not expect to be there for more than a year, Cowing said. This has been unusual. Half a year at most is what youd normally expect. NASAs $19.9 billion budget proposal includes $10.5 billion for human exploration, with a focus on returning to the moon as a steppingstone for a trip to Mars. Last week at the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee meeting to discuss the budget proposal, members expressed their frustrations at the Senates inability to confirm Bridenstine. In the environment we work in, the resources that the agency needs in the long term, having a director nominated and confirmed by the United States Senate from the administration is critically important, said Rep. Frank Lucas, a Republican from Oklahoma. At that meeting, Lightfoot said he had no trouble accessing the White House, but that it would be valuable to have the presidents choice holding the top position. Lightfoot at that time gave no indication that he would be leaving. Read more: NASAs JSC director Ellen Ochoa retiring in May Lightfoots career with the agency started in 1989 as a test engineer working on the space shuttle program, but it is not clear what his next moves will be. I look forward to more time with my family and closest friends, and cheering the NASA team on from the outside, he wrote in his memo. Lightfoots announcement comes just a few months after Ellen Ochoa, director of Houstons Johnson Space Center, announced that she would retire in May. Ellen Ochoa - the first Hispanic woman to go into space and who logged more than 1,000 hours in orbit - has also announced her resignation as director of NASAs Johnson Space Center in May. WASHINGTON - Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday that U.S. attorneys will more aggressively enforce the law that makes it a crime for gun buyers to lie on their federal background checks, one of several steps Justice Department officials outlined as part of the Trump administration's response to last month's deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida. The Justice Department also will increase the presence of law enforcement officers at schools and continue to review the way law enforcement agencies respond to tips from the public, Sessions said. "No child should have to fear going to school or walking the streets of their neighborhood," Sessions said in a statement. Lying on a federal background check when purchasing a firearm is a felony that can be punished by up to five years in prison, but the crime is rarely prosecuted, according to current and former Justice Department officials. Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to "swiftly and aggressively" prosecute cases against people who are prohibited from having firearms and lie on a federal form to pass the background check. The announcement comes nearly a month after the massacre that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and as Trump's administration rolls out policy proposals that focus largely on school safety and mental health rather than gun control. The White House announced Sunday that it would help provide firearms training to some schoolteachers and establish a Federal Commission on School Safety to be chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Neither the Justice Department initiatives nor Trump's plan contain significant proposals to change gun laws. Instead, Sessions' actions enhance existing programs and call for more aggressively enforcing current law. The White House has also backed away from Trump's initial call to raise the minimum age to purchase some guns from 18 to 21 years old. The National Education Association, the country's largest teachers lobby, along with other groups sharply oppose the idea of arming teachers. Many of the students who survived the Parkland shooting - along with gun control groups - have called for tighter restrictions on gun purchases. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said that Democrats will push for passing universal background checks, legislation on protection orders and a debate on banning assault-style weapons. Such measures are opposed by the National Rifle Association, which endorsed Trump and spent an estimated $30 million to get him elected. "Despite all the tough talk from the president, all the televised meetings where he talked about significant change, the [Trump] plan is a moral abomination that centers on buying teachers guns," said Peter Ambler, executive director of Giffords, the gun control organization founded by Gabrielle Giffords, the former congresswoman who survived being shot in the head in 2011. "The idea that you can turn schools into fortresses and protect them as to opposing the root cause is plain wrong," Ambler said. "My mom spent most of her career as a public school teacher. And the idea of her groping a handgun or an AR-15 trying to stop someone massacring kids with an assault weapon is insane." Sessions said the Justice Department will help state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies hire more "school resource officers," sworn law enforcement officers responsible for preventing crime and protecting schools. Using existing programs, the department will provide support for firearms and "situational awareness training" to school and law enforcement personnel, he said. Sessions also has taken an incremental step toward banning "bump stocks," the devices that allow a shooter to fire a semiautomatic firearm as though it was an automatic weapon. On Saturday, the attorney general submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a proposed regulation on bump stocks. Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock attached a bump stock to his semiautomatic firearm and effectively turned it into a machine gun that left 58 people dead and hundreds more injured in a matter of minutes. After that incident, the NRA said that bump stocks "should be subject to additional regulations." The bump stock proposal requires OMB's approval and public comments before they can be banned. In 2010, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concluded that it could not regulate bump stocks because such devices did not meet the legal definition of a machine gun. But Sessions, recently speaking to a group of state attorneys general, said he believed the devices could be banned. The effort is likely to face lawsuits from manufacturers who cite ATF's original opinion from 2010. Federal agencies are required by law to report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) the relevant records about individuals who are prohibited from possessing a gun under federal law. Sessions is calling on the FBI and other relevant agencies to certify within 45 days that they are in compliance with that law or have a plan to become fully compliant. There is no indication that 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the Parkland shooting, would have been stopped by an improved background check system. He legally purchased his AR-15 and several other firearms. But NICS has come under scrutiny after several other high-profile shootings. Dylann Roof, who killed nine people three years ago at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, was able to buy his gun after errors by the FBI and local law enforcement led to his name not being entered into criminal-record databases when he was arrested and had admitted to drug possession. The Air Force said it failed to follow policies for alerting the FBI about the domestic violence conviction of Devin P. Kelley, who killed more than two dozen churchgoers in Sutherland Springs, Texas, last year. Because his conviction was not entered into NICS, Kelley was allowed to buy firearms. Tens of thousands of people wanted by law enforcement officials were removed last year from the FBI criminal background check database that prohibits fugitives from justice from buying guns. The FBI purged the names from the database after the Justice Department changed its legal interpretation of "fugitive from justice" to say it pertains only to wanted people who have crossed state lines. That meant fugitives previously prohibited under federal law from purchasing firearms can buy them, unless barred for other reasons. President Donald Trump ousted U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, ending a rocky tenure in an abrupt move that stunned the former Exxon Mobil CEO and set in motion a shakeup of the administration's foreign policy team. Trump announced Tillerson's ouster in a tweet shortly before 9 a.m. after weeks of staff turmoil, saying he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state. But it was several hours before Trump discussed his decision with Tillerson, who said he'll hand over all responsibilities to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan at midnight Tuesday. In a farewell statement, Tillerson said the president called him "a little after noon time" from Air Force One en route to California. The top U.S. diplomat didn't thank Trump or praise his leadership in his public comments, instead singling out the work of his State Department colleagues on high-profile issues including North Korea and counterterrorism. The president's move comes as his administration is preparing for high-stakes and historic talks between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump told reporters at the White House Tuesday that he and Tillerson had disagreements over key issues including the Iran nuclear deal. Tillerson, Trump said, "had a different mindset. I think Rex is much happier now." Trump lauded Pompeo after the announcement, saying that as CIA chief, he had "earned the praise of members in both parties by strengthening our intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community." Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel would succeed Pompeo, becoming the first woman to lead the agency, Trump said. Haspel is a career spy, with more than three decades' experience at the agency. Tillerson, 65, took a middle-of-the-night phone call from White House chief of staff John Kelly on Friday during his Africa trip, telling him that the president was planning to replace him, according to two officials. He then spent the weekend fighting for his job between stops in Africa. Still, a top State Department official said Tillerson was blindsided by Trump's telling the world he was ousted in a tweet. "He had no idea that this was occurring," said Steve Goldstein, Tillerson's undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, who was fired by the White House hours later. "He did not know." With his voice appearing to break, Tillerson said that after handing over all responsibilities to Sullivan, he'll officially step down as secretary of state on March 31. He'll spend the coming weeks assisting with the transition and he encouraged his top aides to stay on until that process is finished. The dismissal follows a wave of departures and turmoil in Trump's inner circle. The president's top economic adviser Gary Cohn announced plans to leave earlier this month, joining former communications director Hope Hicks. Staff secretary Rob Porter was fired after allegations of domestic abuse. "The instability of this administration in just about every area weakens America," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on Twitter. Trump, in his Tuesday announcement, signaled that Pompeo would bring the skills needed to confront the changing foreign policy challenges facing his administration. The 54-year-old former congressman from Kansas has grown close to Trump by delivering the president's daily intelligence briefing almost every day since taking office in January 2017. "I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past 14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this critical juncture. He will continue our program of restoring America's standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Trump said. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a confirmation hearing on Pompeo's nomination in April, according to Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn. Haspel's nomination also would need Senate approval. Hired for his business acumen and outsider's attitude, Tillerson, had initially earned Trump's praise as a deal-maker in the president's mold who would champion his "America First" policy to the world. He came to the position with recommendations from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ex-Pentagon chief Robert Gates. But after an early honeymoon with Trump, he appeared unable to maintain a bond with the president. The two repeatedly, and publicly, disagreed -- on whether to stay in the Paris climate change accord, on how aggressively to back the embargo against Qatar led by Saudi Arabia and on whether to pursue a diplomatic solution to North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Tillerson also grew increasingly alarmed by what he saw as secret talks between Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- fearful that the discussions could backfire and tip the region into chaos, according to people familiar with Tillerson's concerns. Speculation that Tillerson was on his way out -- so frequent that it was nicknamed "Rexit" -- escalated in October, when NBC News reported that Tillerson had referred to Trump in private as a "moron." Tillerson scoffed at the report, although he left it to his spokeswoman to deny he'd used the word. "My commitment to the success of the president and the country is as strong as it was the day I accepted his offer to serve as secretary of state," Tillerson told reporters at the time. "I have never considered leaving this post." In December, Tillerson dismissed as "laughable" a report of a plan at the White House to replace him with Pompeo. Trump joined in with a denial that only underscored their policy disputes. "The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon -- FAKE NEWS!" the president wrote on Twitter at the time. "He's not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!" While battling the White House, Tillerson also faced dissent within the department he led. He oversaw a decline in morale as many long-time diplomats headed for the exits and he struggled to get dozens of his choices into top jobs at the State Department. He had a victory in December, however, when his acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Susan Thornton, was officially nominated for the job by Trump. Tillerson also alienated many staff members by publicly championing the president's call to cut the department's budget by a third and promising a redesign of the department in a process led by outside management consultants. Leaders of the congressional foreign policy committees from both parties questioned why Tillerson was investing so much time in the department redesign and swore the cuts would never happen. Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in October that Tillerson had lost his effectiveness, saying that he had been dealt a "bad hand" by the president and had "played it badly. For both reasons he cannot be effective SecState & should resign." Aides at the State Department repeatedly rejected the notion of discord between the president and his secretary of state, arguing that Trump appreciated Tillerson's unvarnished advice. At the same time, White House officials said Trump had come to dislike Tillerson for his reserved demeanor and what was labeled his "establishment"point of view. He repeatedly clashed with key White House staff including former senior adviser Stephen Bannon, who acknowledged in an interview with the New Yorker in October that he had blocked some of Tillerson's appointments. Tillerson also seemed to signal his displeasure with the president after Trump's widely criticized response to a neo-Nazi protest in August that led to a death in Charlottesville, Virginia. Tillerson said Trump "speaks for himself" and "we express America's values from the State Department." Tillerson had a rocky trip in Africa, canceling a number of events after his staff said he fell ill and then cutting the end of the trip short. He arrived back in Washington around 4 a.m. local time. Trump's announcement came less than five hours later. --With assistance from Toluse Olorunnipa Nafeesa Syeed Jennifer Jacobs and Jennifer Epstein TUESDAY Gioscio, Bettie Evelyn. 2 p.m. Tuesday at Daws Family Funeral Home in South Jacksonville. Visitation noon-2 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. Logan, Trisha Renea. 11 a.m. Tuesday at Worthington Funeral Home. WEDNESDAY Voiles, William Bill. Visitation 9-11 a.m. Wednesday at Airsman-Hires Funeral Home in Carrollton. A funeral will immediately follow visitation. THURSDAY Hoyt, M. Sue. 11 a.m. Thursday at Neibur Funeral Chapel in Barry. Visitation 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. Knapp, James E. Jim. Graveside funeral with military honors 11 a.m. Thursday at Ebenezer Cemetery, north of Jacksonville. The family will meet friends from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Buchanan & Cody Funeral Home in Jacksonville. FRIDAY Seybold, Bertha A. (Shaw). Noon Friday at Niebur Funeral Home in Pittsfield. Visitation 11 a.m.-noon Friday at the funeral home. Niebur Funeral Home is in charge. SATURDAY Graves, R. Steven Rudy. Celebration of life 2 p.m. Saturday, March 17, at WBs Pub-N-Grub in Charleston, where his family also will greet friends. Buchanan & Cody Funeral Home in Virginia is in charge. Lacy, B. Park Jr. Memorial service 3 p.m. Saturday at Niebur Funeral Home in Pittsfield. Visitation 1:30-3 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home. From the day we enter the professional world -- and even before that -- the need to network is hammered into our brains. We need to put ourselves out there, make connections and grow our network in order to advance in our careers. Related: 10 Powerful Business Networking Skills to Build Rapport Quickly Yet while the overall concept isn't wrong, the way we often go about it is. Networking isnt a bad thing in and of itself. Its helped me grow hundreds of companies and build my personal brand. But when we approach networking solely with a Whats in it for me mindset, it becomes less about value and more about selling yourself. I recently sat down with Scott Gerber and Ryan Paugh, co-founders of The Community Company, to discuss their upcoming book, Superconnector: Stop Networking and Start Building Relationships that Matter. Heres what they had to share with me about the importance of community-building. Start with self-awareness. With The Community Company, Gerber and Paugh build community-driven programs for global brands and media companies. But they caution that before you can begin to build a community, you need to first look inward. It really starts with getting to know yourself, Paugh told me. Before you can really get to know other people and get to build great relationships with them, you have to understand what kind of person you are and what ways to build connections in your life are going to work best for you. Depending on whether youre an introvert or extrovert, how you go about building community will be fundamentally different. For me, I know I thrive best communicating face-to-face in small group settings. Thats why I throw small networking dinners whenever I travel. This allows me to meet new people and connect in a setting Im comfortable in; and its had a huge impact on my professional network. Related: 10 Powerful Business Networking Skills to Build Rapport Quickly Make over your mindset. Nobody likes a networker, Gerber told me. In the book, were not trying to offer tips or tactics. Those words have led to the destruction of what networking started as, to a hacking of relationship-building. Instead, building community and growing your network requires a total mindset shift. Its not something you can learn overnight. Its not simply a matter of applying a five-step program for success. You need to focus on making connections that provide value -- and not necessarily monetarily. Once youre comfortable in your own skin, you can go out and build the community that works best for you. And that means creating the community that will allow you to succeed and help you help others succeed, too. Its those mutually beneficial relationships that turn your connections into a community. Dont mistake technology for "community." In todays world, were constantly connected. And while technology may seem like a benefit in terms of building community, it can sometimes be a detriment. For me, Im never without my cell phone, and Im constantly in tune with my social networks, tracking my likes and followers. But these kinds of metrics are ultimately meaningless when it comes to identifying and growing our communities. As Gerber said, I believe people conflate being connected with being a connector, and those are fundamentally different principles. Those vanity metrics of likes and shares lead us to believe weve built something when we actually havent, he pointed out. Technology should be used to amplify your community, but its not your community itself. You can create meaningful relationships online by using these tools, but you need to be focused on providing value. Profit is not a bad thing. In the community-building world, theres somewhat of a stigma about gaining profit from your community. But that shouldnt be the case; we shouldnt be made to feel guilty about seeking profits. Building a community takes time and effort, and we all need to get something out of the relationships we invest in. Whether thats opportunity or companionship, there needs to be some kind of mutual benefit for both parties. As Paugh said, A lot of community builders fail because they dont think about how theyre profiting. But striving for profit doesnt mean you should resort to the stereotypical habits of networkers. Instead, be a "superconnector." While networkers have a transactional mindset, superconnectors are more focused on a value exchange. When I meet new people, Im not thinking right away about how they can help me. Instead, Im committed to building that relationship, that community, with the idea that when the time comes, Ill have somewhere to turn. Related: How to Build a Community With Facebook Groups On this note, Gerber told me, Your network is your net worth is nothing new. How strong those bonds are is crucial to your fundamental success. The difference is, are people willing to help you when the time comes? Thats the defining moment to show how strong your community actually is. Are you a superconnector? How has your community helped you find success? Share your story in the comments below: Related: Selfies are the Next Big Marketing Tool for Entrepreneurs Why Building Community Is More Important Than Networking 3 Ways World-Class Connectors Build a Community Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com SOUTH PADRE ISLAND Spring Breakers spread out across Texas this week, including in San Antonio and this popular beach town. Thousands of scantily clad students gyrated to hip-hop music and chugged beer despite temperatures in the mid-60s and a cool breeze off the Gulf. I think kids want to get out of school and have some fun, said Clayton Brashear, owner of Claytons Beach Bar & Grill, one of the most popular venues on the island. Hopefully they come down to the beach and do what they do. RELATED: Outrage erupts online after South Padre spring break party books rapper convicted of child sex crime In San Antonio, attractions such as the San Antonio Zoo, Six Flags Fiesta Texas and SeaWorld, among others, drew long lines. An official with Visit San Antonio, a public-private nonprofit that sells and markets the city as a tourist destination, said the entity couldnt make any projections on how many visitors might visit San Antonio this week or what the economic impact of this years spring break would be. But in South Padre Island, officials say theyre expecting more than 50,000 people to descend on the small coastal community of about 3,000 residents; theres been a 20 percent increase over last year already. Spring Break is a major economic force here, but with it also brings problems. In an effort to address some of those safety issues caused by the mass of humanity, a new city ordinance requires event organizers to shoulder a greater share of the cost of beefing up security and cleanup will be tested for the first time. RELATED: Aftermath of South Padre spring break fight caught on video spills over onto social media The ordinance came after some residents complained that Spring Break had gotten out of hand last year, and venues like Claytons were largely to blame. Residents split into two camps, with some urging island leaders to reimage the island as a family-friendly Spring Break destination, and businesses arguing the party must go on. We just follow the rules and everything goes OK, said Brashear as he surveyed the throngs of partygoers. It just makes it cost more. The mass gathering ordinance requires more police officers, security guards, port-a-potty units and trash cans. Each violation of the ordinance is punishable by up to $500. The city did pass ordinances to rein in some of the wild and crazy parties, but the ordinance falls short in certain areas, said Shane Wilson, a first-grade teacher and president of Property Owners Who Care who led the push for a tamer Spring Break. Well see where it goes. RELATED: Viral video shows spring break 2017 'chaos' at Port Aransas Students from across Texas and the Midwest dragged ice chests onto the crowded beach in front of Claytons on the first day of Spring Break. Among them was Mike OBrian, a 21-year-old senior from Rutgers. OBrian had spent past Spring Breaks in other locations, but as security in Mexico had become a concern, and drinking on the beach in popular Florida destinations was banned, his friends this year opted for deep South Texas to celebrate. Everything is bigger, better and more lit on South Padre compared to the rest of the country, OBrian said. This place is the best. For more information about the ordinance and what acts are going to South Padre Island this week, go to expressnews.com The Austin Police Department has received at least 150 calls for suspicious packages since authorities responded to two explosions Monday. Police were called out to two separate residences Monday after packages exploded, causing one death and injuring two women, said Austin Police Chief Brian Manley. The two explosions, which occurred in a roughly six-hour period, are believed to be related to a March 2 explosion that killed a man, he said. The Austin Police Department is offering $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person or group behind three attacks that left two dead and two injured after they came into contact with a suspicious package. Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said Tuesday afternoon the department is still investigating who is behind the attacks that have rocked the Central Texas city. Investigators are not ruling out a hate crime or terrorism, and the investigations remain ongoing. Police responded to two homes on opposite sides of the city Monday after packages exploded in residential neighborhoods, causing one death and injuring two women. The two explosions, which occurred in a roughly six-hour period, are believed to be related to a March 2 explosion that killed a man, he said. RELATED: Austin police say 3 explosions that killed 2 and injured more are related In two of the incidents, the packages exploded when they were picked up and in the other the package was brought inside a home where it exploded. Manley warned residents to report any package they were not expecting to receive. A seemingly rattled community took that warning to heart and Manley said the department has received 265 calls for suspicious packages since Monday, none of which were found to be dangerous. In San Antonio, the police department received five such calls as since 9 a.m. Monday, said Officer Doug Green. Manley identified 17-year-old Draylon Mason as one of the victims of Monday's explosions and said his mother was in stable condition in the hospital. A 75-year-old woman who encountered a package Monday afternoon is still critical and has life-threatening injuries, Manley said. "Our hearts go out to the families involved in these incidents," he said. RELATED: What we know so far about the package explosions in Austin Gov. Greg Abbott is also offering up $15,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case. Manley said the packages were not delivered by an official mail agency, like the U.S. Postal Service, and were left on door steps overnight. Each package was cardboard as well, he said. "What we have right now is similarities that we believe link the three cases," he said. Click through the slideshow for everything we know about the attacks so far. Kelsey Bradshaw is a digital reporter for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @kbrad5 The death of John Igo, a beloved college professor who died last year, has sparked a bitter family feud over his estate, worth at least $1 million. Igo, an acclaimed author, poet and theater critic, taught for 47 years at San Antonio College. He left a rich personal legacy when he died in August 2016. He reigned for decades as San Antonios genial literary uncle, his obituary declared, after Igos death at age 89 in a nursing home. RELATED: Alice Walton, a Trinity grad, is the richest woman in the world He also left behind the seeds of a bitter fight over his estate, which includes land near the University of Texas at San Antonio. The legal confrontation, set for trial next month in Bexar County Probate Court, involves Igos only sibling, his younger sister Maryhelen Clark, 79, and her estranged daughter Christine Kiesel, 60. He always said he didnt need a will because I was next in line and it would come to me automatically, like it has been done in the family for the last 100 years, said Clark. He always said, I want everything to go to my baby sister, she said. But less than three months before his death, Igo, who was childless and had no direct heirs, created a will that gave nothing to Clark. Signed by him in a barely legible scrawl, the will left most of his assets to Kiesel and a library at the University of the Incarnate Word. Attempts in February to mediate a resolution among the parties failed. On March 26, a hearing is set on Kiesels motion for a summary judgment. If that is denied by Judge Kelly Cross, the case is set for trial on April 9. Click here to read more about this family feud on expressnews.com. Instagram/@armiehammer Actor Armie Hammer, who just finished up awards season promoting his movie "Call Me By Your Name," has many Texas ties. Hammer and his wife Elizabeth Chambers own Bird Bakery in San Antonio. He was the 2013 grand marshal of the Battle of Flowers Parade. Two gunmen are at large after fatally shooting a man early Tuesday at an apartment complex on the East Side, police said. The victim, a man in his 20s, was gunned down around 1:45 a.m. in the 1500 block of Upland Road. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. Billy Calzada, Staff / San Antonio Express-News AUSTIN As the fight for the Democratic nomination for governor heads toward a May 22 runoff, Houston businessman Andrew White on Tuesday called for debates with former Dallas County sheriff Lupe Valdez. The partys nominee for governor whether its me or Lupe should begin spring training now for the fall campaign against Greg Abbott, White, son of the late Democratic former Gov. Mark White, said in a statement. A few debates between the two of us before the runoff would make the eventual nominee all the stronger. And who doesnt love a good debate? AUSTIN - Gov. Greg Abbott didn't want the bathroom bill to reach his desk despite his public statements of support, the chairman of a select House committee said Tuesday. The bottom line was, they did not want this bill on the governors desk, Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, who heads the House Select Committee on Economic Competitiveness, said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News. We had been hearing this also from industry leaders, which corroborated the same thing we were told directly. Cook said the revelation came during a meeting in his office that included then-Abbott Chief of Staff Daniel Hodge during last years regular legislative session. The chairman made his comments as his commitee released a report freshly slamming the bathroom bill and warning against efforts to revive the measure. Abbotts office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did Hodge. Cook, as chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, refused to have a hearing on the bathroom bill during the special session called by Abbott when the bathroom bill and other measures failed in the regular session. The report by the select committee ranged far beyond the bathroom bill but said business has to step up vigorously to fight such proposals, rather than being afraid of retribution from powerful officials. The bathroom bill, which would have restricted the public restrooms that transgender people can use, was opposed by House Speaker Joe Straus, a business-aligned Republican from San Antonio, who appointed the economic competitiveness committee. Cook and Straus opted against running for reelection, potentially paving the way for a version of the measure to pass in next years legislative session if its again pushed by Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The state faced the prospect of boycotts if lawmakers had approved the measure, since it was widely criticized as discriminating against a vulnerable population. Texas success was seriously threatened by the proposal, according to the report. By making this and other unnecessary social issues a priority, lawmakers were forced to divert their attention from critical topics like education, property taxes, the states budget and infrastructure, the report said. The special committee also took aim at the anti-sanctuary-cities measure championed and signed into law by Abbott, saying multiple people testified that it is an excessive regulation that completely hinders development. Read more about this at express-news.com An astronaut famously known for his participation in the aborted Apollo 13 mission to the Moon will be speaking at Space Center Houston next week. Fred Haise was just 36 years old when the Apollo 13 mission launched to the Moon in April 1970. But an oxygen tank exploded two days after lift off, forcing Haise and the two other crewmembers to abort their lunar landing. Amy Hardberger is extremely well-qualified to serve on the San Antonio Water Systems board of trustees. She is the associate dean at St. Marys University School of Law. In addition to her law degree, Hardberger has an advanced degree in hydrogeology, and she is a certified geoscientist. She specializes in water law with a particular focus on water conservation, pricing and water evaluation. She is a water expert. RELATED: Council firestorm erupts over SAWS appointee Her recent appointment to the SAWS board, along with Eduardo J. Parra, an engineer, and the reappointment of banker David McGee should have been a slam dunk. For many council members it was, but not for District 6 City Councilman Greg Brockhouse, who singled Hardberger out for questioning. Brockhouse expressed concerns that Hardberger might be too conservation-focused or anti-development, which he said might be out of step with his constituents. He also expressed concerns about the process. We have no problem with asking questions. But Brockhouse only questioned Hardberger, and not the men. He stated this was because Hardberger will represent his district. But then District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval noted Parra will also represent part of Brockhouses district, but for some reason was spared questioning. She apologized to Hardberger. District 5 City Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales said, I do feel particularly offended when one of my colleagues chooses to isolate and target the one woman who comes before us. RELATED: Texas Power Broker: Robert Richard Puente navigates SAWS through Texas water politics Brockhouse has said his questions and concerns have nothing to do with gender. There certainly were other dynamics at play. Brockhouse is a more conservative council member and also a rival to Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Meanwhile, Hardbergers father, former Mayor Phil Hardberger, is especially close with Nirenberg. By all means, we want council members to question appointees. Even those who are especially qualified like Hardberger. But that means questioning all appointees. After all, Brockhouses concerns apply to the men on the SAWS board as well. Right? Settling up with Uncle Sam on Tax Day can be complicated, but preparing that tax return does not have to be an out-of-pocket expense for those with a modest income. San Antonios Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program a collaborative effort of the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, Catholic Charities and the city of San Antonio is providing free tax preparation assistance for families with an income of $60,000 or less. The joint project is in its 17th year and helps keep tax refund money in the hands of the filers. In 2017 VITA volunteers prepared approximately 31,000 returns free of charge that resulted in $54 million in tax refunds for the filers. All program volunteers are trained in tax preparation and are IRS-certified. The training includes 20 hours of instruction on basic to moderately complex tax filings. The volunteers are all well-versed in helping filers take advantage of tax incentives that might benefit them financially such as earned income and child tax credits. This year the team of volunteers includes some Lanier High School business students. As of Feb. 1, 22 students had completed the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program training and that number is expected to grow, San Antonio Independent School District officials said. The student volunteers are working out of the Guadalupe Community Center, one of dozens of VITA sites at community and neighborhood centers, libraries, schools and other locations throughout the county. Most of the locations are also offering free electronic filing. To locate VITA sites and hours of operation, go to www.vitasa.org or call the United Way helpline at 2-1-1. We encourage eligible tax filers to take advantage of this valuable service. Most taxpayers who qualify for the free tax preparation do not owe the government money and are, in fact, due refunds. Ensuring taxpayers get back money that is rightfully theirs is good for the individual family and the local economy. Below is the most up-to-date information on Tuesdays snowfall in Connecticut, which barely hit the southern part of the state and dropped more than 10 inches in some areas in the northern part of the state. UPDATE 9 P.M. Bradley International Airport is open and clean-up operations are nearing complete. A number of cancellations are expected in the morning as some airlines continue to work on returning to their normal flight operations after Tuesdays noreaster. Those expected to travel in the morning should check with their airline before traveling to the airport. Several airlines are offering travel waivers. Flight status updates can be found at www.flybdl.org. Twitter users can get automated updates by tweeting their flight number to @BDLFlightInfo. UPDATE 6:30 P.M. The National Weather Service issued a special weather statement Tuesday for Fairfield County and nearby counties because temperatures could drop into the 20s during the evening, resulting in freezing of the heavy, wet snow from todays noreaster. Slush and standing water will likely freeze resulting in continuation of hazardous travel conditions. UPDATE 6:15 P.M. A winter storm warning remains in effect until 8 p.m. Tuesday for northern Litchfield County. The snow is expected to continue to fall in the area into the evening, with an expected snow accumulation of up to 2 inches. This could cause difficult travel conditions during the evening commute, the National Weather Service said. There will be significantly reduced visibility at times. UPDATE 5:25 P.M. Bradley International Airport remained open Tuesday through the storm. About 75 percent of Tuesday flights were canceled. Cancellations are expected to carry on into the evening, but there are still a number of on-time flights. People scheduled to travel with the airport are advised to check with their airline on their individual flight itineraries and any potential re-booking options before heading to the airport. Multiple airlines are issuing travel waivers. There are real time flight updates available at www.flybdl.org. Twitter users can received automated updates by tweeting their flight number to @BDLFlightInfo. UPDATE 4:35 P.M. State police reported, between 4 a.m. and 4 p.m., troopers responded to 810 calls for service, 170 motorist assists, 75 accidents without injuries, two accidents with injuries and zero fatalities. UPDATE 4 P.M. Brookfield police said roads are in good condition. There were no crashes or road closures during the storm, police said. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said there haven't been any major incidents or issues to report and they obviously haven't had any bad outage problems to deal with not like last week, at least, he said. We didnt get as much snow as we were thinking, so were pretty good so far, Boughton said. Our public works crews will work the rest of the day and clean and clear areas, like the schools, but were in good shape. UPDATE 3:45 P.M. Temperatures are expected to fall into the 20s Tuesday evening, resulting in the possibility of freezing on roadways that were hit with heavy, wet snow during the snowfall earlier in the day. Slush and standing water will likely freeze, causing hazardous travel conditions. UPDATE 3:30 P.M. Bridgeports city services and departments closed for the day at noon due to the significant snowfall. Police in Fairfield took to social media to warn drivers of post-storm conditions, urging residents to use caution when driving. Near freezing temperatures may cause slipping and road hazards with black ice on wet surfaces, Fairfield police said. In Monroe, police said the town-wide parking ban is in effect for the rest of Tuesday. All cars, trailers, basketball hoops and other items should be removed from the roadway so the roads can be cleared of any snow. Earlier in the day, Monroe police said, there were several reports of accidents and vehicles stuck in the snow during the storm. Norwalk police canceled Tuesday afternoons public fingerprinting. The department said public fingerprinting will be made available on Wednesday. And police have added additional times for fingerprinting on Thursday between the hours of 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Redding Park and Recreation has extended its open gym hours at the community center Tuesday afternoon so people can get out of the house. The session is open from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Town offices and schools were closed Tuesday morning. Town offices will reopen at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. There are no power outages in Redding. Police Capt. Mark ODonnell also reported only one accident Tuesday. He said there were no injuries. Ridgefield Emergency Manager Dick Aarons said the "huge, everybody out type plowing" is winding down as crews get the last of the snow off the roads. Snow stopped falling in Ridgefield early Tuesday afternoon and reached about 8.3 inches, according to the National Weather Service totals. "We were certainly ready to tackle yet another one if we got hit with it," Aarons said. "But we're delighted at this point that it was a much milder March storm than the previous two." The only snow-related incident was when a private plow truck hit a utility pole, Aarons said. The accident caused power outages at five houses, but has since been cleared and power has been restored. The annual Wilton Police Awards Ceremony scheduled for Tuesday evening at the Wilton Library has been postponed because of the weather. A make-up date has not yet been announced. UPDATE: 1:43 PM Heres the forecast through Wednesday night: Tonight: A 30 percent chance of light snow before 8 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 27. Wind chill values between 20 and 25. West wind 6 to 9 mph. Wednesday: A 40 percent chance of snow showers, mainly after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 38. Wind chill values between 20 and 30. West wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Wednesday night: A 30 percent chance of snow showers before midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 27. Wind chill values between 15 and 20. West wind around 13 mph. UPDATE: 1:15 PM New Milford police are responding to a crash on Route 7 near the 1st and 10 Sports Bar and Grill. UPDATE: 12:57 PM The Winter Storm Warning will now end at 2 p.m., the National Weather Service says. Early Tuesday morning it said the warning will end at 6 p.m. By noon it revised the warning saying it would end at 4 p.m. It also cut back on an additional accumumation to of 1 to 2 inches. Mid-morning it projected additional accumulation of 3 to 5 inches. UPDATE: 12:38 PM As the snow stops falling in Danbury, local police said roads are better than expected in the snowstorm. In the Danbury area, only Rock Road at Mamanasco Road in Ridgefield is closed because of low hanging wires. But state police dispatchers in Southbury and Litchfield and Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, Newtown and Redding police reported no crashes or road closures Tuesday morning. All roads are open in these towns, police said. While Sgt. Gary Coe said Danburys roads are pretty good the citys parking ban remains in effect. The police department said on Twitter the city is in a level one snow alert and urged drivers to move their cars off the streets, so crews can remove snow. Conditions are still hazardous so if you must be driving, take it slow, the department said on Twitter. Bethel police also asked drivers to avoid the roads. Hopefully people will stay off the roads so they can be cleaned up by our highway department, a dispatcher said. UPDATE: 12:15 PM A car crashed into a pole on Pumpkin Hill Road in New Milford around noon Tuesday, according to police. UPDATE: 12:03 PM The snow had ended in Norwalk with skies starting to brighten. UPDATE: 11:55 AM From the latest NWS weather discussion: Quiet conditions for the end of the week through the weekend as high pressure slowly builds across the region. Temperatures will be below normal through the middle of the weekend then normal for Sunday and Monday. There are indications of another storm possibly approaching the area for the beginning of next week. Hmmm ... To read more, click here UPDATE: 11:40 AM Newtown tops the list for having the highest snow accumulation in the tri-state region, according to the National Weather Service. Newtown: 10.8 inches Bethel: 9 inches Ridgefield: 8.3 inches Wilton: 6.8 inches Easton: 6.5 inches New Fairfield: 6.5 inches New Canaan: 5.5 inches Seymour: 4.5 inches Monroe: 3.1 inches Greenwich: 2.5 inches To see the complete list, click here. UPDATE: 11:24 AM Though still windy, the snow appears to have all but fizzled out in Stamford. There has been little to no snow accumulation and the roads remain wet but clear. Dispatch reports throughout the morning have given no indications of road closings, damage or traffic incidents related to the storm. Power outage numbers in Stamford appear to fluctuate frequently. At about 9:30 a.m. the Eversource outage map showed 40 customers without power. That number quickly dropped to one and has since risen to eight. The map shows 21 customer outages in New Canaan and two in Norwalk. As of 11 a.m. there were approximately 2,300 outages statewide, a majority of which appear to be in the central and eastern parts of the state. UPDATE: 11:16 AM Weather Channel expert Tom Niziol said that that fact that Tuesdays storm tracked to the south of Long Island meant that it was able to pull in more cold air. Noreasters are always a tough calls, and this was no exception, he said. In this storm the low has tracked just a little farther off the coast, so what that does is that it insures snow all the way to the shoreline - the cold air has settled in just a little deeper. He said that although February typically offers the best chance for snow in Connecticut, March is no slouch in that department. March is a very volatile month - the seasons are changing and it can be a very energetic time of the year, Niziol said. You can certainly get some big ones in March. UPDATE: 11:07 AM More power outages are being across southwest Connecticut. United Illuminating reports more than outages with 74 in Easton, 27 in Fairfield and three in Trunbull. Eversource outages include 71 in Newtown, eight in Stamford and a handful in Wilton and Weston. Eversource said there are more than 2,400 outages, most in eastern Connecticut. UPDATE: 10:51 AM Temperatures remain close to freezing, according to the National Weather Service. Oxford airport is the coldest at 30 degrees, followed by Danbury with 32 degrees with snow and fog. Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford and Tweed-New Haven Airport in East Haven check in at 32 degrees. Temperatures are expected to drop into the mid-20s away from the shoreline and near 30 at the coast. UPDATE: 10:36 AM The National Weather Service is ending its winter storm warning two hours early for Fairfield and New Haven counties. It also canceled its winter weather advisory for the New York City area because snow accumulations have been limited to colder surfaces with little, if any, accumulation of roadways. For southern Connecticut, it said additional snow accumulations of 3 to 5 inches are expected. Schools are closed, highway crews are out and first shift, non-essential state workers were told to stay home. While some inland areas have already received several inches of snow, the shoreline has seen an average of 1 to 2 inches. Many roads have remained wet, not snow covered. Highest snow accumulations are away from the shoreline that has snow mixed with rain. The snow will be mainly before 5 p.m. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 34. Wind chill values between 20 and 25. North wind around 16 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. UPDATE: 10:17 AM Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said while Tuesdays third noreaster in 10 days created some challenges for the morning commute, he only predicts a mild to moderate impact on evening travel. State agencies closed Tuesday and many private businesses meaning highway volumes will be down. But the governor noted that temperatures across the state could drop, creating ice and worsening roadway conditions. We are concerned about a drop in temperature what that could mean, he said, speaking to press from the Emergency Operations Center in Hartford. There are currently about 1,800 power outages across the state, Malloy reported, due to some heavy snow that fell Tuesday morning. However, Malloy predicted fewer outages this storm than the 160,000 outages experienced last week. As of 9:45 a.m. Connecticut has had 26 accidents, including two roll-overs and one injury, Malloy said. Malloy said the drivers in those rollovers were insufficiently cautious. He urged caution on the roadways and told those that do not need to travel, dont. Metro North and Connecticut buses are running full service, but Amtrak and Shore Line East trains have been suspended. Unlike the noreaster on Wednesday, Connecticut does not have a truck ban in effect Tuesday, although Rhode Island does. We are not experiencing problems but we are obviously monitoring that situation, Malloy said. At Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, 65 percent of incoming and outgoing flights have been cancelled, Malloy said. However, the airport is fully operational. While he said there is no exact cost on how much the state has spent on keeping roads clear during the three norasters, theres no doubt it exceeded the amount we budgeted. UPDATE: 10:04 AM Snow is beginning to accumulate in Greenwich, but town officials say so far the morning has run smoothly. Schools, town hall and other public facilities are operating on normal schedules, said Emergency Management Director Daniel Warzoha around 9:45 a.m., as the storm is forecast to slow down in the western part of the state where Greenwich is located by early afternoon. We still have a lot of roads that are straight pavement, Warzoha said. Theres snow building up on the grassy areas and on the trees and that kind of stuff, but so far no major incidents. However, there is still one road blocked - Bedford Road near Steeple Chase. Verizon and Cablevision wires are down ad both providers are expected to attend to the area today to get the area back online. Its been out there since the get-go of the original storm, the director said. People have been driving over the wires but weve got to get those out of the right of way and get those back on the poles. UPDATE: 9:59 AM Connecticut State Police Statewide Activity: March 13, 2018 4:00 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. Calls for service: 312 Accidents no injuries: 26 Accidents with injuries: 1 Fatalities: 0 Motorist assists: 64 UPDATE: 9:54 AM Eversource reporting more than 1,600 outages, nearly all in eastern Connecticut. Scattered outages in Wilton and Stamford. UPDATE: 9:36 AM The snowfall and wind has ramped up in Stamford as sheets of large fluffy snowflakes plummet from the sky. Though not there yet, conditions look as if the snow will start sticking soon. Roads remain wet but clear and traffic in the downtown area appeared lighter than usual for the morning commute. Plows can be seen patrolling throughout the city, monitoring road conditions. Some power outages have popped up in Stamford, likely as a result of the wet snow and wind. According to the Eversource outage map, there are currently 40 Stamford customers without power. UPDATE: 9:25 AM How much snow is collecting on the ground depends on where you are in Connecticut. Along the shoreline, temperatures are 34 in Stamford, 35 in Bridgeport and east to Stonington. Move further inland to towns like Newtown, Danbury, Brookfield or New Milford, the temperatures is 31 degrees. The coldest spots - at 29 degrees - include Cornwall, Norfolk and Sailsbury. Most of the snow falling in southern Connecticut is wet snow. UPDATE: 9:05 AM Here are the latest snowfall totals from the National Weather Service: Wilton: 3.8 inches Ridgefield: 3.5 inches Bethel: 3.5 inches Monroe: 3.1 inches Newtown: 2.8 inches Easton: 2 inches To see the complete list on tri-state area totals, click here UPDATE: 8:47 AM Heavy bands of snow are moving across western Connecticut. Roads that were just wet are now becoming snow covered. UPDATE: 8:30 AM As Greenwich residents began Tuesday commutes as usual, large fluffy snow flakes fell, turning into water by the time they hit the roads. Schools are on schedule and plows have begun their rounds, ensuring whatever does stick is cleared for motorists and pedestrians. Greenwich Emergency Management was not immediately available for comment as of 8:30 a.m. but Eversource Energy spokesman Mitch Gross said people are urged to take caution and prepare for this storm like the others. "Everything was taken care of from the last storms," he said. "Now we are focusing on this one. "All the Eversource line and tree crews and many of the out-of-state mutual support crews are still here and ready to respond as well," said Gross. And he said although he is not a meteorologist, the Eversource spokesman could not remember seeing a weather pattern like this in recent years. "Back to back, to back, no," he said. "I can't remember anything like this." UPDATE: 8:45 AM Now, we have an accident. Its an overturned vehicle on the northbound Merritt Parkway between Exit 40B and 41 in Norwalk. The accident has closed the right lane. No word yet on whether anyone was injured. UPDATE: 8:44 AM Very light traffic on the roads and as a result, still no major accidents in southwest. Another big factor: the snow isnt sticking on most roads in lower Fairfield County. Check out these highway cams here to see how the roads look across Connecticut at this time. UPDATE: 8:14 AM The National Weather Service has updated its snowfall totals. Four to 6 inches in Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Westport, Weston, Redding, Wilton, Fairfield and Trumbull. Six to 8 inches: Danbury, New Milford. Newtown, Brookfield, Bethel, New Fairfield and the Naugatuck Valley. Eight to a foot: The shoreline from New Haven to Old Saybrook and most of eastern Connecticut. A foot to 18 inches: The southeast corner of Connecticut from New London up to North Stonington. UPDATE: 8:09 AM New Haven Line service is currently experiencing delays of 10 to 15 minutes due to weather related conditions. For service updates please monitor www.mta.info/mnr, UPDATE: 7:58 AM While snow begins to fall more rapidly in Danbury, local police dispatchers said roads are OK, so far. Bethel Emergency Management and police reported no crashes or road closures. Danbury, Brookfield, New Milford, Newtown, Redding and a State Police Troop A dispatcher also said there have not been any accidents or roads closed Tuesday morning. But a Ridgefield police dispatcher described roads as nasty. But people are moving very slowly, she said. But, thank God, no accidents or anything. UPDATE: 7:50 AM Here are snowfall totals from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network taken between 6 and 7 a.m. Tuesday. Colebrook: 3.9 inches Bethel: 3.5 inches Brookfield: 2.8 inches Seymour: 2.2 inches Naugatuck: 2.5 inches Warren: 2.5 inches Prospect: 2.1 inches Watertown: 2 inches. Norwalk: 0.90 of an inch Darien: 0.60 of an inch UPDATE: 7:44 AM Still no major accidents or lane closures in southwest Connecticut. For an updated statewide list, click here. UPDATE: 7:38 AM JUST IN: All Judicial Branch courts and offices will be closed on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. UPDATE: 7:34 AM Town of Fairfield offices will open at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday for non-essential employees. Fairfield Public and Fairfield Woods Branch Libraries will open at 10:30 am today, Tuesday, 3/13, but please continue to check back for any further updates. UPDATE: 7:31 AM Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton tweeted this earlier this morning: Danbury Public Schools will be closed for today. Sleep well young Jedi warriors. UPDATE: 7:20 AM Like last week, Tuesdays storm has gotten off to a slow start with light snowfall and little to no accumulation as of 7:15 a.m. Though light, the snowfall is wet making for wet road conditions and slushy sidewalks. Not much traffic has hit the roads as of yet. Out of an abundance of caution, Stamford Public School Superintendent Earl Kim announced early Tuesday morning via Twitter that Stamford Public Schools would be closed for the safety of the schools young drivers and commuters. Eversource managed to restore power to nearly all its customers in Fairfield County before the onset of Tuesdays storm. As of 7:15 a.m. there remained only two customers in the county without power - one in New Canaan and one in Norwalk - according to the outage map on the power companys website. Over the weekend, Eversource said it is prepared for the oncoming storm and warned high winds and wet snow could bring more damage. The company said many of the Eversource and out-of-state workers who have been working over the past week to restore power remain positioned around the state, ready to respond.. We prepare for severe weather every day and have been watching the approaching storm closely, said Eversource Vice President of Electric Operations Mike Hayhurst. The previous storms have thoroughly saturated the ground and further weakened more trees, leaving them susceptible to possibly coming down on our lines in high winds. We have hundreds of employees ready to respond and will again have crews prepositioned around the state well before the storm hits so were there when customers need us to safely and quickly restore power after an outage. UPDATE: 7:24 AM United Illuminating reporting 48 outages; 24 in Woodbridge, 19 in Hamden and four in Trumbull. For UI updates, click here Eversource reports 674 power outages; most caused from the last noreaster. In southwest Connecticut, the only outages reported are one each in New Canaan and Norwalk. For Eversource updates, click here UPDATE: 7:11 AM Greenwich Public Schools are open. The snow intensity is forecast to lighten up by early afternoon and end from southwest to northeast between 3 an 7 p.m., according to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection report. The impact on the afternoon rush hour is expected to be very minor in western CT this afternoon. Eversource Energy tweeted Monday that a text outage alert system is in place. "Before the next storm hits, sign up for our text outage alerts," officials wrote. "To register, text "REG" to 23129. If the power goes out, simply text OUT to that number and STAT to the same number for updates. Were here when you need us. Stay safe, everyone!" UPDATE: 7:05 AM From Norwalk Police: Roads are wet throughout the city, as light snow continues to fall. Keep an eye on conditions, lower your speed, wear your seatbelt and headlights on. Stay safe #Norwalk! UPDATE: 6:47 AM Because of the storm, commuters are advised to check websites for the most up-to-date information. Metro-North trains: www.mta.info/mnr Amtrak trains: www.amtrak.com Shore Line East trains: www.shorelineeast.com CTtransit buses: www.cttransit.com CTfastrak buses: www.ctfastrak.com UPDATE: 6:38 AM Snow is overspreading the area this morning and will last through much of the day. There is about an inch along the shoreline and about 3 in the Northwest Hills. UPDATE 6:24 AM JUST IN from the governor: State offices will be closed for the first shift on Tuesday, due to the significant snowfall impacting the state and expected to continue into the evening. Nonessential, first-shift employees should not report to work on Tuesday. UPDATE: 6:15 AM Looks like Greenwich is one of the few public schools open Tuesday. It posted on its website: All Greenwich Public Schools are open and running on schedule Tuesday, March 13. UPDATE: 6:10 AM Looks like most people are calling it a snow day, or working from home. DOT still reports no accidents on major roads. This is the only traffic alert on its page: WINTER STORM WARNING FOR ALL OF CONNECTICUT. EXPECT HEAVY SNOW ON TUESDAY. UPDATE: 6:02 AM Wanted to share one of my favorite weather sites. Its called windy.com. You can track the noreaster, zoom into any location, see if its snowing, what the temperature is and yes, the wind speed. Very cool. Check it out here. UPDATE: 5:56 AM The temperature is steadily dropping across the area. Just before 6 a.m., the temperature was 31 in Oxford, 32 in Danbury and 34 in Bridgeport. That temperature is about five degrees warmer than it was around midnight. UPDATE: 5:45 AM Metro-North is operating on a regular schedule Tuesday morning. No delays are reported at this time. It does have a winter weather advisory. Please take care when traveling during inclement weather, allow for extra travel time, and use caution when entering and exiting trains, and on platforms and staircases. UPDATE: 5:40 AM As with every snowstorm the state Department of Transportation reminds us how much of a crew it has on the roads. It includes 634 plow trucks and 200 private contractors ready to clear the roads. If motorists need to travel Tuesday, they are reminded of their winter weather driving skills: Clear the snow and ice from your vehicle Always wear your seat belt Give yourself extra time to get to your destination Be aware of potentially icy areas such as bridges Keep a safe distance of at least five seconds behind other vehicles and trucks that are plowing the road Don't pass snowplow trucks Keep an emergency winter driving kit in your car. UPDATE: 5:35 AM State officials say there are no travel restrictions on Connecticut roads on Tuesday. Rhode Island started a tractor trailer and tandem trailer ban on highways at 4 a.m. on Tuesday. While a similar ban is not planned for Connecticut at this time, state officials will continue to be in communication with their counterparts in Rhode Island as the situation develops. UPDATE: 5:27 AM Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has partially activated the states Emergency Operations Center at 4 a.m. Tuesday to monitor storm conditions across the state and prepare for winter weather that is forecast to have an impact on morning and potentially afternoon travel. As we continue to monitor the most up-to-date forecasts on tomorrows impending snowstorm, our state agencies are working around the clock to ensure we are prepared to respond to this latest round of winter weather, Malloy said. The snow is expected to impact the morning commute in central and eastern Connecticut, so if motorists must travel, they are encouraged to take it slow and remember their winter weather driving skills. At this point, state offices are expected to open Tuesday on a normal work schedule, however Malloy is encouraging state employees to stay alert for potential announcements in the morning in the event that additional updates may be made. Just back from Benue state where he met with the people, President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to the Aso Rock Villa where he is currently meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. Legit.ng learnt that Tillerson arrived Nigeria's seat of power in the evening of Monday, March 12 and is expected to discuss issues relating to both countries. READ ALSO: Police arrest herdsman with military rifle, confirm 16 killed in Plateau attacks The meeting is holding behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Buhari discusses with Rex Tillerson in Aso Rock. Credit: Presidency Vanguard also quotes Tillerson as condemning the recent mass abduction of schoolgirls in Dapchi and promised Washingtons full support in Nigerias fight against Boko Haram jihadists. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app The recent kidnapping of 110 schoolgirls is heartbreaking. Officials of the US with their Nigerian counterparts. Cresit: Presidency Nigeria has the US in full support and we are actively working with our partners in what we can assist you in this fight, he said. Legit.ng earlier reported that Rex Tillerson would arrive in Abuja for his first official visit to Nigeria. A press advisory from the US Embassy said Tillerson would hold talks with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday. When he arrives, Tillerson will become the highest ranking official in the Trump administration to visit Nigeria. Discussion time between Buhari and Tillerson. Credit: Presidency The secretary is expected to hold a press conference at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday by 11.45 am," the statement said. Legit.ng also reported on Monday, March 12, that Rex Tillerson arrived Abuja for his first official visit to Nigeria. Tillerson had visited Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Chad. Nigeria is his last stop on his five-country tour of Africa. Boko Haram Kidnappings: Dapchi Protests Abduction of Their Daughters by Boko Haram - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Babatunde Fashola, the power, works and housing minister, is assuring Nigerians of steady power supply - Fahola, who spoke in Akwa Ibom state, argues that the power sector recovery programme put in place by the ministry and other stakeholders was beginning to yield results - Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom says his administration is working on digitalised meters for the people of his state Nigerias power, works and housing minister, Babatunde Fashola has reassured the people of the country that they would experience steady power supply just as he explained that the federal government was making efforts in that direction. Fashola reportedly spoke at the 25th monthly power sector meeting on Monday, March 12, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state. According to him, the power sector recovery programme put in place by the ministry and other stakeholders was beginning to yield results. READ ALSO: President Buhari meets US secretary of state in Aso Rock The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the minister as saying that the federal government had secured the World Bank approval for 486 million dollars Transmission Company of Nigeria expansion funding. Progress is being made with the same bank for the rural electrification and distribution expansion Funding. Clearly, our implemental power initiative is well underway, some jobs are manifesting and the promise of steady power is real. If we persevere, I am certain that we will witness uninterrupted power, which is the final destination of our journey, he said adding that the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP), policies, actions and programmes were meant to solve the power problems. One of the results is the regulation that will democratise access to meters for power sector customers. We have reached a 7,000 Megawatts (MW) generation capacity and have a 5,000 MW distribution capacity, what is newsworthy is that in the last month, we have met with Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), DisCos, and GenCos. On how to implement the eligible customer policy and increase connectivity to the 2,000 MW that is available, in many parts of the country connected to the grid, citizens feedback is positive, even though all the problems are not solved. Citizens acknowledge more power in dry weather, reduced hours of running their generators and reduction in fuel (diesel and petrol) purchase to power generators. The report said Fashola described solar energy as cleaner and more efficient source of power, emphasising that in many states, solar power is being accepted and used and added that consumers were already embracing the solar power generation plan, an initiative of the government to boost electricity. The minister said that the country was moving away from theorising power to actual provision of efficient power to support trade and business, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). He also inaugurated the meter asset provider regulation 2018, and presented a copy of the regulation to Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom. Governor Emmanuel, while speaking, said his administration was working toward the provision of digitalised meters in the state, adding that by 2019, every household in the state would be using a digitalised meter. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app According to the governor, the metering company in the state would solve the four million meters need of the country. He called on the federal government to take advantage of the metering company existing in the state. He warned against vandalism of power installations, adding that the state government would wage a war on vandals to protect the infrastructure in the sector. The major cardinal point when we did our five-point agenda that anchored on industrialisation is also the drive that we are doing on electricity generation and distribution, he said. Legit.ng earlier reported that the electricity challenges in the Nigeria may stretch and worsen as the Power Generation Companies in Nigeria (GENCOs) filed a lawsuit against the federal government before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, over alleged preferential treatment to two of its competitors with the intention to destroy its business growth and prosperity. Top 4 Embarrassing Stories of Nigeria's Political Elite - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Former governor Ali Modu Sheriff was invited by the EFCC on Monday - Modu was questioned for several hours by the anti-graft agency - The reason for his invitation and several hours of interrogation is not yet known The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, March 12, questioned the former governor of Borno state and ex-chairman of the Peoples Democratic Part (PDP) for hours over an undisclosed issue. Daily Trust reports that the EFCCs spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed that the ex-PDP chairman was in its office earlier in the day to honour an invitation sent to him. READ ALSO: President Buhari meets US secretary of state in Aso Rock Uwujaren, however, did not disclose the reason why the former PDP chairman was grilled for hours although an anonymous source in the agency claimed it has something to do with fraud. Recall that Sheriff was once arrested by the anti-graft agency in June 2015 over alleged embezzlement of public funds during his tenure as Kogi state governor. Sheriff's government allegedly mismanaged the sum of N300 billion received from the Federation Account between 2003 and 2011. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that the EFCC on Monday, March 5, re-arraigned a former governor of Oyo state Adebayo Alao-Akala and two others in an Oyo state high court sitting in Ibadan over alleged N11.5 billion fraud. The other defendants are a former Oyo state commissioner for local government and chieftaincy matters, Senator Hosea Agboola, and an Ibadan-based businessman, Femi Babalola. The defendants are facing an 11-count charge of conspiracy, awarding contract without budgetary provision, obtaining by false pretence, acquiring property with money derived from illegal act and concealing the ownership of such property, among others. EFCC stages a walk against corruption - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - A policeman slumped and died during a fight between youths and soldiers at a funeral - The fight allegedly started over the sharing of party food - Some youths allegedly made attempts to disarm two soldiers trying to maintain orderliness during a rush for food and drinks A burial ceremony at Boboroku community of Jesse in Ethiope West local government area of Delta state became a scene of violent clash between youths and soldiers brought in to maintain orderliness during the sharing of food. Some youths of the community allegedly attempted to disarm the soldiers preventing them from disrupting the queue for party food and this led to a clash between the youths and soldiers of the 19 Battalion, Koko. During the clash, a person was reportedly shot on the leg by the soldiers while others sustained several injuries. Vanguard reports that the late policeman identified as Imomoh, who resides in the community, was said to have tried to intervene during the rowdy session between the soldiers and the youths, when he slumped in the process and died. READ ALSO: Police arrest 145 suspects in connection with herdsmen, farmers clashes A guest at the reception, Paul Amodu said: The soldiers were called in to restore calm after the youths in the community tried to hijack food meant for guests at the reception. Vexed by the presence of the soldiers, the youths turned their anger on them, leading to fisticuffs amidst gunshots by the soldiers, during which Imomoh was said to have been hit by a bullet; he slumped and died. A security source at the Sapele Area Command, said: The death of the policeman who is a resident of the community, enraged the youths who went wild, attacking guests and destroying vehicles. The soldiers had to apply minimum force in trying to defend themselves by shooting into the air to scare the rampaging youths, who were trying to disarm them leading to the shooting of one person in the leg. The Delta state police public relations officer, DSP Andrew Ania-maka, who confirmed the incident to the press, described it as quite unfortunate. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng earlier reported that the Anambra state police command on Monday, March 5, confirmed the death of a policeman in a fracas between some youths of Umuenze, in the Orumba south local government area, and the police in the area. According to a statement by the state commissioner of police, Garba Umar, the command described the incident as unfortunate. While assuring law-abiding residents of police protection, Umar vowed that the command would not fold its arms and allow miscreants to violate the law with impunity. Police parade over 50 suspected cultists in Lagos - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit.ng News - EFCC places a post no debit order on 30 accounts traced former chairperson of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund - Ngozi Olejeme denies roles in alleged N64bn fraud after arrest by EFCC Thirty bank accounts linked to Ngozi Olojeme, the deputy chairman, finance committee of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation in the 2015 presidential election has been frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The Punch reports that the seizures were sequel to investigations into allegations that Olojeme who was the chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) from 2009 to 2015 and other senior officials of the NSITF diverted $48m (N68bn). READ ALSO: Senators' salary: I warned my colleagues against jumbo pay but they refused - Ben Bruce An EFCC source disclosed that the commission had placed a post no debit order on 30 accounts traced to Olojeme. She has about 26 accounts with First Bank and four at Guaranty Trust Bank. The accounts have been frozen pending investigations, the source said. The freezing of Olojemes bank accounts is coming less than three months after the EFCC seized 37 properties traced to her. The Nation newspaper, citing a source at the anti-graft commission reported that the cash looted in NSITF was evacuated under the guise of award of contracts. The source said: We have frozen 30 accounts traced to Olojeme in some banks. But our detectives discovered that she is the kind of person who does not keep huge money in these accounts. In some of these accounts, there were funds ranging from N20million to N30million, which were insignificant compared to slush funds traced to her. Investigation confirmed that the cash looted in NSITF was evacuated under the guise of award of contracts. The contract sum will be paid to a company and her Account Officer will pick the raw cash and go to Bureaus De Change(BDCs). The Account Officer, who has made startling revelations was actually what our detectives termed clearing and forwarding for her. When we confronted her with our findings, she refused to admit committing any infractions while in office. She refused to admit having been confident that all the slush funds were withdrawn in cash. So far, she is ready to go through the rigours of trial. We are already seeking legal advice on whether or not she should be arraigned with other management staff of NSITF or be tried separately. Already, the EFCC has arraigned a former Managing Director of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Umar Munir Abubakar and four others for alleged diversion of N18billion out of the sum in question. The others are Deputy General Manager, Finance Henry Ekhasomi Sambo; General Manager, Legal Adebayo Adebowale Aderibigbe; Chief Richard U. Uche and Aderemi Adegboyega. The Nation newspaper listed some of the choice properties reportedly seized from Olojeme to include: 1. Plot R/151(No. 30A) Kingsway Road, Old GRA, Enugu. Registered at Enugu Land Registry as No. 5 Page 5 in Volume 1659 2. Parcel of land measuring 4833.241 Sq. Metres located at Uberi Bush along Mbiama Road, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State 3. Parcel of land located at Igbanadan Bush, Emeya 2 Town Ogbia LGA in Bayelsa State. 4. Properties located at 196, Melford Okilo Road, Amarata-Epie, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State 5. Properties located at No. 25, Kainji Crescent, Off Lake Chad Crescent, Maitama , Abuja. 6.Property located at Plot No. 933 Cadastral Zone B01, Gudu District, Abuja 7. All that piece/parcel of land with C of O No. DSTR 1227 and the properties therein also known Umuezeafada family land located at KM 9, Asaba-Benin Express Road, Asaba, Delta State. 8. Plot 124 Cadastral Zone A02 Wuse Known as No. 30, Tunis Street, Off Lusaka Street, Wuse Zone 6, Abuja 9. Plot 3115 Cadastral Zone A04 Asokoro, Abuja. 10. Plot 2271 Cadastral Zone E12 Orozo, Abuja. 11. All that piece of land with C of O No. DTSR638 and the properties therein also known as Plot 101, Phase 1, Block 1 Core Area, Asaba Delta State 12. All that piece /parcel of land also known as Plot 1c, 3 and 4 Phase IV, Block 111 Core Area, Asaba, Delta State with C of O No. DTSR 1194. 13. No. 20 DBS Road, Asaba, Delta State 14. House/Flat 86, 11 Crescent, Kado Estate, Abuja 15. All that Piece/parcel of land and properties therein located at Ogbe Onishe Village in Umagwu Quarters, Asaba, Oshimili South LGA of Delta State also known as Luxury Suites and Resort Hotel, located off Nnebisi Road, Asaba 16. Properties located at No. 204 Nnebisi Road, Asaba beside STANBIC IBTC Bank 17. All that piece or parcel of land and properties thereof located at Elibujor Layout, Opp DLA office, Asaba Oshimili South LGA of Delta State. NSITF office located at Asaba Benin Expressway by Nuel Ojay Junction, Asaba. 18. Plot Nos 29 and 31 of Umonyia Ejedeofor Family Layout Ibusa Road located along Benin-Asaba Expressway, Asaba, Delta State 19. that piece/parcel of land with C of O No. DSTR 16326 and the properties therein also known as Plots 104 and 105, Block IV, Phase V, Core Area, Asaba, Delta 20. All that piece/parcel of land with C of O, No. DSTR 55853 and the properties therein also known as Plot 34. Phase 111, Block IV, Core Area. Asaba, Delta State 21. Properties located at No. 17, Ebenuwa Street, Off Nnebisi Road, Asaba, Delta State 22. No. 3D Opolo, Old Commissioners Quarters, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State 23. All that piece/parcel of land also known as plots 7,8,11,12,15,16,19, 20,23, and 24 Phase IV, Block 111, Core Area, Asaba, Delta State with C of O No. DSTTR1194 24. All that piece/parcel of land with C of O No. DSTR15303 and the properties therein also known as Plot No. 16 Central Spine Phase IV, Asaba, Oshimili South LGA of Delta State 25. All that piece/parcel of land with C of O No. DSTR 16325 and the properties therein also known as Plots 109 and 110, Block IV, Phase V, Core Arae, Asaba Delta State 26. All that piece/parcel of land with C of O No. DSTR 13807 and the properties therein measuring 80.532 hectares in Aboha-Ogwashi-Uku(Layout) at Aniocha LGA. Delta State. 27. All that piece/parcel of land with C of O No. DSTR 15046 and the properties therein also known as Plots 96, 97, and 98 Layout Survey of Block 1, Bridge-Head, Asaba, Oshimili South LGA of Delta State measuring 6.684 hectares 28. All that piece/parcel of land and the properties therein located at No. 42 Lawrence Road Akintola via Okpe Road, Sapele, Delta State measuring 1274.95 Square Meters and registered at Land Registry Asaba as No. 8 at page in Vol at 8 29. All that piece/parcel of land and the properties therein located at Orugbe Bush, Emeyal 11 Town Ogbia LGA, Bayelsa measuring 3, 625.493 Square Metres. 30. All that piece/parcel of land and the properties therein located at No 6 Sir C.A. Aghara Drive off Okpanam Road by NNPC Filling Station, Asaba, Delta State 31. All that piece/parcel of land and the properties therein located at Oduke, Off Uche Nwembu Road, off Asaba-Benin Expressway, Asaba Delta State. 32. All that piece/parcel of land and the properties therein located at No. 3, Ogwa Godspower Avenue, Oshimili LGA, Asaba, Delta State. 33. All that piece/parcel of land and the properties therein located No. 11 Chiweta Street, off Ezenie Avenue, Asaba, Delta State. 35. All that piece/parcel of land and the properties therein located at James Odeta Street, Oshimili South LGA, Asaba, Delta State. 36. All that piece/parcel of land and the properties therein located at No. 8, Thomas Chukwunike Street, Oshimili South LGA, Asaba, Delta State. 37. All that piece/parcel of land and the properties therein located at No. 11 Mokolo Close, Off Summit Road, therein located at No. 8, Thomas Chukwunike Street, Oshimili PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng had earlier reported that Ngozi Olejeme, recently denied being arrested by the EFCC, saying said she submitted herself before the EFCC to clear the wrong allegations against her. Her media aide, Stanley Imoko, in a statement made available to Legit.ng said Olejeme got to know about THE allegation against her when she was declared wanted by EFCC for alleged diversion of several billions of Naira by her and the management. Jonathan was never a bad president on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Criticisms have trailed the N13.5 million running cost allowance Nigerian senators receive every month - Some Nigerian lawyers berated the senators for allocating such amount for themselves - One of the lawyers, Femi Falana, blamed the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission for condoning such payments Some legal practitioners in the country have berated the Nigerian Senate for receiving N13.5 million running cost allowance every month. The senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, disclosed the details of what every senator earns as salary and running cost, which has since generated backlash from Nigerians. Lawyer and human rights activists, Femi Falana, commended the lawmaker for his revelations, but said what lawmakers earn goes beyond what was declared by the senator, adding that the exposure confirms a statement by the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council, Itse Sagay, that Nigerian legislators are the highest paid in the world, Premium Times reports. READ ALSO: PDP holds mega rally in Jigawa state Legit.ng noted that Falana blamed the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) for condoning such payments without questioning since 1999. He tasked the Buhari-led administration to ensure that no public office holder is paid unapproved salaries and allowances. He also called on Nigerians to support the whistleblower (Sani), especially now that his colleagues are planning retributive measures against him for making such revelation. Another lawyer, Lekan Alabi, said: There is something fundamentally wrong with their approach to running the business of the government of Nigeria. There is something fundamentally wrong with their upbringing. It is only in Nigeria that people who are doing nothing are being paid hugely for idleness. It is only in Nigeria where people dont work; yet receive N13.5million per month for running cost. Running cost for what? How many times do they sit in a year? When they resume, you hear that they are going for recess, when they come back, theyll say theyre going for Easter. After Easter, theyll say they are going for Ramadan break. After Ramadan break, youll hear New Year break. So what is the justification for N13.5 million monthly running cost? What I think is that because the Nigerian society is very weak, there is a lot of injustice; economic injustice, oppression, depression, a lot of wrong doings in the society. That is why the crime rate is high. How many of them can go to their constituencies and move on the street without being kidnapped. That goes to show that in a society where you have economic injustice, you cannot have peace. What are they running? They have their aides, their aides are collecting salaries. The clothes that they put on, we buy the clothes for them, so what is the definition of the running cost? What do they run for one month that they are entitled to N13.5 million in a country where staff are being owed salaries, where workers are not being paid? As far as Im concerned, the running cost is illegal, its immoral and it can only be induced by people who are insensitive to the state of economy in Nigeria. And it also reflects that Buharis presidency is not just weak but also inefficient." Ola Adeosun, another legal practitioner, said: "I know as a fact that this running cost thing is a 'fraud', which virtually all public office holders fraudulently create for themselves outside the budgetary earnings, just like the phoney 'security votes' of governors and presidents." PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the lawmaker representing Kaduna Central senatorial district in the Senate, Shehu Sani, revealed that he and his colleagues receive N13.5 million monthly as running cost. The lawmaker stated that apart from the running cost, senators also earn N750,000 monthly salary. He said there is no specific instruction on what the running cost should be used for, adding that lawmakers must provide receipts to back up their expenses from the running costs. Kogi West senatorial district to recall senator Dino Melaye from the Nigerian Senate - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - An APC presidential aspirant, Dr SKC Ogbonnia, has vowed to set up an NNPC office in the USA and cause the country to resume importation of Nigerian crude if he wins - He stated that the US had gotten frustrated with the corruption associated with the national oil company - According to Ogbonnia, an NNPC office in the US will offer prospective foreign investors the opportunity to conduct business inquiries on various bogus offers Dr SKC Ogbonnia, an All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant has stated that if he wins the presidential office, he would cause the United States to resume importation of Nigerian crude oil. In a statement made available to Vanguard, the aspirant also stated that he would set up an NNPC office in the USA on Day 1 of his presidency. READ ALSO: Robbers attack Kano NNPC station; escape with N16m Legit.ng gathers that Ogbonnia stated that corruption was the reason why Nigeria had been shut out from the US crude oil market. He stated: As president, I will restore Americas confidence and genuine investment in Nigerias oil and gas sector. I am set to exhibit common sense leadership. It is not a new story that the Western world is growing tired of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Apart from the dizzying corruption within the state oil company, the US, in particular, is very frustrated with the advanced-fee fraud letters that originate from Nigeria, most of which are linked to the NNPC. Not only has this scam devastated many American lives, it has also contributed to Nigerias bad image in the United States and elsewhere. As Nigerias next president, I will make NNPC truly transparent and accountable to the admiration of Nigerians and the international community. For example, besides the much-needed overhaul of the oil giant, one of the many executive orders I will sign on Day 1 of my presidency is the establishment of an NNPC office in the United States. An NNPC office in the US will offer prospective foreign investors the opportunity to conduct business inquiries or the necessary due diligence on various bogus offers with Nigerian addresses. It is mind-boggling that Nigeria is the only major oil-producing nation that does not boast of an office dedicated to its oil and gas interests in the United States, especially in Houston, Texas, the oil and gas capital of the world." PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that SKC Ogbonnia aired his views concerning the state of the nation and his political ambition in view of 2019. Ogbonnia said he has been nurturing the dream of leading the affairs of Nigeria for a long time; and that he had planned and dedicated resources to identify the problems confronting the nation with possible, practical solutions. Should President Buhari seek reelection in 2019? - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit.ng - The federal government has been urged by the Igbo Positive Change in Nigeria to take action on the ongoing invasion of lands in Anambra state - It warned Kogi youths to stop unleashing mayhem on the people of Eziagulu Otu Aguleri - According to the group, continued invasion on the lands might lead to a reprisal attack from Aguleri youths A group has called on the federal government to take necessary actions to end the unlawful invasion of suspected thugs from Ibaji local government area of Kogi state to Eziagulu Otu Aguleri in Anambra state. The Igbo Positive Change in Nigeria said urgent action is needed from the federal government to end the invasion. The national president of the group, Chinedu Obigwe, while speaking on Tuesday, March 13, said failure of the government to end the invasion might lead to a reprisal attack from Aguleri youths. READ ALSO: Nigerians react as PDP holds mega rally in Jigawa state (photos) Obigwe said: These attacks are becoming unbearable and provocative, thus if the APC led Federal government fails to nip the ugly situation in the bud, it might attract a reprisal attack from the peaceful Aguleri youths." He warned that the habit of attacking peaceful people can set Nigeria on fire and threaten existence of unity in Nigeria. READ ALSO: Saraki, Dogara, others should take my challenge and publicly declare their salaries - Oby Ezekwesili blows hot on senators "The security of lives and properties Governor Obianos administration entrenched in Anambra state is being threatened with the violence being unleashed on the people of Eziagulu Otu Aguleri and Enugu Otu Aguleri. I am warning the Kogi youths to stop unleashing mayhem on the people of Eziagulu Otu Aguleri because if the people of the community are pushed to the wall they might resort to self defense for the protection of their lives and properties. Remember that no human has the monopoly of violence hence the reason why you should stop your attacks," Obigwe noted. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng earlier reported that Ohanaeze Ndigbo accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of deliberately disenfranchising the people of the south east region. The groups, national president general said the electoral body is denying the southeast people access to the ongoing continuous voter registration. John Nnia Nwodo said the electoral body is denying the people access to collecting their permanent voters' cards Nigerians want PDP back in 2019 - Goodluck Jonathan declares at PDP Caucus Meeting - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Malam Bala Usman, the Jigawa coordinator of the federal government Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSPF), has warned teachers in the state against consuming pupils meals. Usman gave the caution during an interview with newsmen in Dutse on Tuesday, March 13, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. Legit.ng gathered that some of the cooks engaged to prepare the meals alleged that some of the teachers were sharing some meals meant for the children. READ ALSO: Nigerians react as PDP holds mega rally in Jigawa state (photos) The coordinator said: Aggressive measures will be taken and sanctions will be applied on every teacher that found consuming the food. Henceforth, cooks should be well sensitised to desist from such attitude. According to him, the programme is being implemented in 2,250 public schools in the state. Usman, who disclosed that 3,992 cooks were engaged to prepare the meals, added that a range of 100 to 150 was allocated to each of the cooks in the programme. He further warned the cooks against changing the food menu without the consent of the authorities. The coordinator stated that from October 31, 2017, and February 27, about 692,380 pupils were fed in the programme. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng previously reported that the federal government disclosed that under the Home Grown School Feeding Programme of the Buhari administration, a total of N3,770,688,144 had so far been released for the feeding of 1,287,270 school children in nine states. This disclosure was made by the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Laolu Akande on Sunday, June 11. According to Akande, the benefiting states are Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta and Abia, and they have received various sums in tranches. Watch this Legit.ng TV video asking Nigerians to list the achievements of President Buhari Source: Legit.ng News - The president of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki, says love is needed in Nigeria - Ohanaeze Ndigbo has alleged the the Independent National Elelctoral Commission (INEC) is disenfranchising the south east people The president of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki, has insisted that the National Assembly had powers to legislate over the Independent National Elelctoral Commission (INEC) and other agencies of government. Saraki made the statement on Monday, March 12, when speaking on the controversy generated by the recent amendment to Section 25 of the Electoral Act, which seeks to re-order the sequence of polls during the general elections, The Punch reports. The Senate president who was represented by the deputy majority leader, Senator Bala Ibn NaAllah, at the hearing conducted by the Senates joint committee on INEC; and judiciary, human rights and legal matters, called on INEC to be cautious over the issue. READ ALSO: EFCC grills former governor of Borno state He said: Of recent, there have been arguments on who has power to do what, he said, adding that Nigeria had a lot of people who knew how to go to court to get all kinds of judgments. INEC should be cautious of who it is listening to. We would not sit anywhere this constitution will be violated. It is necessary we caution ourselves. We need this country, we love this country. Saraki also raised concerns that some political aspirants and parties were already campaigning when INEC was yet to declare electioneering open. He said: The Senate in particular would be very worried, if INEC begins to condone the actions of some political parties. You have not declared campaigns open, and some are already campaigning. He called on the electoral commission to sanction politicians or parties that violate electoral rules. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, a socio-political Igbo group has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of deliberately disenfranchising the people of the south east region. Ohanaeze Ndigbo said the electoral body is denying the south east people access to the ongoing continuous voter registration. The president general of the group, John Nnia Nwodo, on Monday, March 12, while making the allegations insisted that it was not just mere talk, but facts that emerged out of investigation. He made the allegation when the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Enugu State, Emeka Ononamadu, paid him courtesy visit. Election-2019: (Dont) mark your calendar on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday, March 13, approved that the nominees for the positions of deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and members of the Monetary Policy Committee be screened for confirmation. President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, directed the Senate committee on banking and finance, to begin the process of screening the two nominees for deputy governor of the CBN. Senator Rafiu Ibrahim raised the point of order on the floor of the upper chamber, saying the Senate should consider the screening of two deputy governors as members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to enable the monetary policy committee continue to direct the affairs of the apex bank. READ ALSO: We left PDP due to lack of internal democracy - Adeniran Ibrahim who also serves as the chairman of the Senate committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions, said the non-confirmation of the deputy governors of the CBN and members of the MPC was negatively affecting the economy, especially foreign investments. Saraki said: Thank you for bringing that up. I commend my colleagues for the statesmanship roles that they continue to play. This is a Chamber that has always been for the issue of the economy. For all it takes, we will continue to ensure that we see the best in the ease of doing business and promoting confidence. Inasmuch as we continue to defend the institution and the Constitution, it is time that we look at the priorities and understand what is important. Therefore, the Senate Committee Chairman on Banking, please ensure that you complete that process so that we can give the necessary support in this issue of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and the Deputy Governors of Central Bank." Legit.ng had previously reported that the Senate last year July had passed a resolution, halting further confirmation of President Buhari's nominees not captured in the Constitution over the remarks of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo on the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app The resolution had affected the confirmation of about 50 nominees of the president. How Nigeria got into serious mess - on Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit Nigeria - Professor Adeniran who recently defected from the PDP to the SDP said the formers greatest problem is lack of internal democracy - He said he and his colleagues left the PDP as a result of the failure to address the problem - Adeniran said his new party will defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 A former minister of education, Professor Tunde Adeniran, on Monday, March 12, said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)s lack of internal democracy forced him and others to leave the opposition party. Adeniran said he and others, particularly Professor Jerry Gana, a former minister of information made efforts but could not make the party comply with the ideals of true democracy, Punch reports. Legit.ng gathered that Adeniran said this in his hometown, Orin Ekiti, in Ido/Osi local government during an interaction with party officials and members in Ekiti state. READ ALSO: Nigerians react as PDP holds mega rally in Jigawa state (photos) In a statement made available to newsmen in Ado Ekiti by the Social Democratic Party (SDP)s National Technical Adviser, Public Communications, Yemi Akinbode, Adeniran boasted that his party would win the 2018 governorship poll in Ekiti state. He said: The PDP lacks internal democracy and that has been the partys greatest challenge and may end up being its undoing. We tried to correct them, we tried to put them on the path of sanity, but they refused. We believe in change and transformation of the democratic system, where human dignity and other virtues can be protected. The SDP is a third force and evolving coalition of progressive forces that has become a force to reckon with. Nigerians are yearning for change because so much has gone wrong in this country. Nigerian youths have seen the party as an appropriate vehicle and they are embracing it. What we intend to do is to give effect to what we believe in, I mean to sanitise the political system where the rule of law, justice and fair play can be embraced to promote internal democracy. Let me say this, no political party can bring the desired change when internal democracy is tampered with because you cant build something on nothing. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Adeniran added that the SDP had embarked on an aggressive membership mobilisation that would make Ekiti a launch pad for the party to gain national prominence and defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. He expressed confidence that the SDP would restructure Nigeria to promote development. Legit.ng previously reported that the national publicity secretary of the SDP, Alfa Mohammed, said on Sunday, March 4, that the party was expecting five governors and twenty senators and several House of Representatives members to join the party soon. The party spokesperson, who spoke in Minna, Niger state, also said he would confirm in three weeks if former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, would be joining the party or not. According to him, no less than five governors have indicated interest to join the party and will be defecting soon along with 50 Civil Society Organisations who had already joined the party. Nigerians share their thoughts exactly 1 year before elections - on Street Gist Source: Legit.ng - A 19-year-old Nigerian, Kelvin Odunuyi, who was shot dead in London on Thursday, March 8, was said to have been warned not to go see his friends - The mother of the victim, Afishetu Oniru, said that she warned him not to go to Wood Green, where he was shot - A police source said that the case is being treated as gang-related, but that the victim was not a gang member but socialised with people who were gang members The mother of a 19-year-old Nigerian, Kelvin Odunuyi, who was shot dead by unknown people while standing with friends at the entrance of Vue Cinemas in Wood Green, London, said she warned him not to go see his friends but he didn't listen. Legit.ng noted that Odunuyi, who was a rapper with stage name DipDat, was shot on Thursday, March 8, and was pronounced dead two hours after he was taken to the hospital. The victim's mother, Afishetu Oniru, speaking with Evening Standard, a United Kingdom-based news medium said: I have always lived in London but when we moved to Wood Green for a short time, I got scared for my family. We now live in Harrow and I told him not to go back to Wood Green to see friends, but he did and now he is dead after being shot dead in a random attack. Police said he was at the wrong place at a wrong time. READ ALSO: Disease X could cause widespread infection globally - WHO warns He was with a big group when two boys on bicycles came along shooting he was hit, its a tragedy. I am devastated. I knew he would be safe at home with me but he went there and now he is dead. Another mother is grieving, enough is enough. "The government needs to act to stop the bloodshed. He was a lovely jovial boy. He was clever and loved by all who knew himhe had everything going for him. An eyewitness said: I saw these two boys in balaclavas (mask) on a black scooter come round the corner and the one on the back opened fire as they were rolling past. I saw his body on the floor and his friends were around him. I didnt know until later that it was Kelvin. Its a war zone round here. A police source confirmed that the killing was being treated as gang-related, adding that the victim was not a gang member but socialised with people who were gang members. Detective Chief Inspector, Luke Marks, said: We believe two people made off on a moped shortly after the incident and this is one line of enquiry that were actively pursuing. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a 16-year-old rapper, Leonardo Osemeke, also known by his stage name Showkey, attended a friend's house party in the Peckham area of London, and was later found with stab wounds. Leonardo, who later died from his stab wounds, was due to travel to Nigeria with his family a few days before he was attacked. According to police reports, several weapons were recovered from the scene of the crime and a 15-year-old was also arrested in connection with the murder. Which country would you leave Nigeria for? - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Fulani herdsmen have surrendered 30 different guns illegally acquired, to the police command in Niger - The director-general of the states department of nomadic affairs Abdullahi Babayo said a lot of things are being done to stop clashes between herdsmen and farmers - Babayo, however, called for demarcation of cattle routes while attributing the increase in cases of conflict between farmers and herdsmen to non-existence of such routes The director-general of the states department of nomadic affairs, Alhaji Abdullahi Babayo said Fulani herdsmen have surrendered 30 different guns illegally acquired, to the police command in Niger. Babayo, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Tuesday. He said the arms were surrendered following peace and reconciliation initiated by the department to enhance peaceful coexistence in the state. READ ALSO: PDP holds mega rally in Jigawa state He said the department had already embarked on aggressive sensitisation campaign on the dangers of cattle rustling. According to him, ''We have reached out to Islamic clerics, specifically to teach us what our religion said about stealing and killing innocent souls and the punishment there after.'' The director-general explained that the approach from religious point of view had greatly assisted in mobilising those who were doing illegal business to have a rethink. He said that all efforts were geared toward mobilising Fulani herdsmen to embrace western and Islamic education to enable them to contribute to the socio-economic and political development of the state . He added: ''We are doing everything possible to stop clashes between herdsmen and farmers over land encroachment during grazing, cattle rustling or other crimes in the state.'' PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app He called for demarcation of cattle routes while attributing the increase in cases of conflict between farmers and herdsmen to non-existence of such routes. Babayo said the department would continue to partner with security agencies by offering intelligence information on bad elements. He called for more investment in the education of herdsmen and farmers children, stressing that illiteracy was also breeding crimes among the groups. He enjoined herdsmen to enroll their children, especially girls, in schools. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that Plateau states police command confirmed the arrest of a herdsman who was apprehended with a military AK 47 rifle. Terna Tyopev, the commands spokesman, who confirmed the arrest on Sunday, March 11, in Jos, gave the rifles number as HC2614. Tyopev said that the herdsman, whose name was given as Muhammadu Musa Bimini, was arrested by mobile policemen on March 8, at Daffo adding that the suspect had been transferred from Bokkos to the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Jos and was already being interrogated. Victims of Herdsmen killing buried in Benue State - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - Kogi state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, on Sunday, March 11, fired all his commissioners, as well as the 21 administrators of the local government areas. - Few minutes later, however, Governor Bello reversed the decision - The PDP in the state, says that the governor's action showed he is clueless on issues of governance The Kogi state chapter of the PDP on Monday, March 12, berated Governor Yahaya Bello for exhibiting juvenile delinquency in governance. The party was reacting to the governor's decision to reverse his action in dissolving the state executive council and the council administrators in the 21 local councils within minutes. The party said the governors rigmarole in decision-making on sensitive issues that affect the lives of the people of the state was a hallmark of his administration brazen ineptitude and cluelessness. In a statement signed by its director, research and documentation, Achadu Dickson, the PDP said the drama had once again reinforced the partys position that Bello is not fit to govern Kogi state. The PDP says Governor Bello has shown signs of ineptitude and cluelessness. Photo credit: Emmanuel Osodi READ ALSO: Kogi APC crisis: Only convention can expel party members - Party spokesman The last two years of Bellos administration have been characterised by inconsistencies in policy making and the weekend drama has proven once again that the governor is not in charge and does not have a mind of his own to govern a complex state like Kogi," part of the statement read. The PDP disagreed with the percentage payment of salaries to council workers after laying off over 80 per cent of the workforce and called on the governor to pay salaries of workers in the state. The party also urged the governor to quickly meet the demand of medical doctors in the state who had been on strike for four months due to non-payment of their salaries. In a related development, the PDP has said the alleged linking of Governor Bello to an arms importation saga, shows that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is desperate as the 2019 elections draw near. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app In a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Saturday, March 10, the party asked the presidency to investigate the Kogi state governor who was linked to the alleged importation by Senator Dino Melaye. Which of President Buhari's ministers should be sacked? on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Senator Shehu Sani has demanded the federal government to make good its national minimum wage promise for the third quarter of the year - Sani stated that the implementation of the national minimum wage was overdue and that workers in the country are faced with serious economic constraints - He further said that the National Assembly is making efforts to see that the federal government adhere to the minimum wage scheme Senator Shehu Sani of Kaduna senatorial central district has urged the presidency to fulfil the third quarter promise for the implementation of the new national minimum Wage for workers in the country. Sani said this in his speech with newsmen on Tuesday, March 13, in Abuja. It would be recalled that Senator Chris Ngige, minister of labour and Employment had assured civil servants of governments resolve to conclude negotiations on the new national minimum wage before the end of the third quarter, Nigerian Tribune reports. READ ALSO: New global campaign launched against tobacco companies targeting kids Ngige, who is also the deputy chairman of the threefold committee for the review of the national minimum wage, also gave assurance that the committee was in progress. He said that if the promise was made in the interest of the workers, it has to be implemented, but if it was made as a political statement there would certainly be a consequence. Ngige stated: The honour of the government and the integrity is to keep to that promise and that pledge, if not it is going to affect the relationship between workers and the government." Sani said that the implementation of the national minimum wage was long overdue as workers in the country are faced with various challenges and hardships. He further remarked: I do not think Nigerian workers are doing well if you look at the reality of life today, the economic situation and compare it to the minimum wage. It means what they are earning, there is nothing to write home about as they have bills to settle, school fees for the children, house rents, among others. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! If you put all these into perspectives, you will see that the minimum wage is no more a minimum wage, because it cannot even take care of their basic necessities. So, as representatives of the people, we have both the constitutional, political, moral responsibility to advance, defend and protect the course of workers demand. He said that the National Assembly would ensure that the minimum wage is strictly followed by the federal government. Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that Ngige, on Monday, March 5, assured Nigerian workers that implementation of a new minimum wage in the country would be done. He said the committee set up for that purpose by the federal government had already started work. Minister of industry says economy is improving; Nigerians disagree - On Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng By Gaius Publius, a professional writer living on the West Coast of the United States and frequent contributor to DownWithTyranny, digby, Truthout, and Naked Capitalism. Follow him on Twitter @Gaius_Publius, Tumblr and Facebook. GP article archive here. Originally published at DownWithTyranny Compare the two charts above. They show median wealth of households headed by black individuals (top chart) and white individuals (bottom chart) between the ages of 25 and 40 in successive waves of the triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, with and without student debt. (Credit to Matt Bruenig for preparing these data from the SCF.) Student debt is increasingly burdening everyone, but that burden disproportionately weighs on black households. Marshall Steinbaum (source) As an interim addendum to our short series, Killing a Predator Cancelling Student Debt Part 1 here, Part 2 here consider the observation above by Marshall Steinbaum, one of the co-authors (with Stephanie Kelton, Scott Fulwiler, and Catherine Ruetschlin) of the Levy Institute paper on student debt cancellation weve been looking at. It comes from a more general piece Steinbaum wrote for the Roosevelt Institute discussing his Levy Institute paper. Id like to focus here on just that observation. Before we look at more of what Steinbaum wrote, please note three things about the charts above. First, consider the differing degrees to which student debt subtracts from the wealth of young black households and white households. The takeaway from that should be: No, canceling student debt would not mainly benefit the rich. It actually disproportionately benefits black households when measured as a percentage of household wealth. Second, look at the vertical scales of the two graphs, their Y-axes. The numbers are not the same. The top charted point (peak of yellow line) for young white households is $80,000. The top charted point (peak of yellow line) for young black households is slightly more than $18,000. Thats a peak-to-peak wealth differential of greater than 4:1. Worse, the actual wealth of these black households in 2016 is less than $4,000 (blue line, top chart), compared to more than $40,000 for white households in the same year (blue line, bottom chart). In other words, the 2016 wealth differential is more than 10:1. Canceling all student debt would bring that differential down to just 5:1 still shameful for a society like ours, but it shows what a great boon student debt cancellation would be for young black households. Finally, note that while from 2013 to 2016 white wealth for these households has recovered somewhat from the Wall Streetcaused great recession, black wealth has recovered not at all. Now Steinbaum: One thing that immediately becomes clear upon investigation of the student debt crisis is the extent to which it is a creature of this countrys legacy of racial discrimination, segregation, and economic disadvantage patterned by race. My prior researchwith Kavya Vaghul found that zip codes with higher population percentages of racial minorities had far higher delinquency rates, and that the correlation of delinquency with race was actually most extreme in middle-class neighborhoods. What this tells us is that student debt is intimately bound up with the route to financial stability for racial minorities. In that work, we ascribe this pattern of disadvantage to four causes: segregation within higher education, which relegates minority students to the worst-performing institutions, discrimination in both credit and labor markets, and the underlying racial wealth gap that means black and Hispanic students have a much smaller cushion of family wealth to fall back on, both to finance higher education in the first place and also should any difficulty with debt repayment arise. The implication is that while higher education is commonly believed to be the route to economic and social mobility, especially by policy-makers, the racialized pattern of the student debt crisis demonstrates how structural barriers to opportunity stand in the way of individual efforts. Insisting that student debt is not a problem amounts to denying this reality. Looking at the time series of median wealth for households headed by black and white people between the ages of 25 and 40 (what we refer to as white households and black households) in successive waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) [see charts above] reveals these racialized patterns. By this measure, the racial wealth gap (the ratio of the median wealth of white households in that age range to the median wealth of black households in that age range) is approximately 12:1 in 2016, whereas in the absence of student debt, that ratio is 5:1. Moreover, while overall net household wealth levels for the non-rich increased between the 2013 and 2016 waves of the SCF for the first time since the Great Recession did violence to middle-class wealth, rising student debt weighed in the other directionespecially for black households. The time trend from these charts is clear: Student debt is increasingly burdening everyone, but that burden disproportionately weighs on black households. Steinbaum refers to another study to explain why this is the case (emphasis mine): A 2016 paper by Judith Scott-Clayton and Jing Li offers clues, since it tracks the debt loads of black and white graduates with four-year undergraduate degrees. They find that immediately upon graduating, black graduates have about $7,400 more in student debt than their white counterparts. Four years after graduating, that gap increases to $25,000. The crucial difference is simply that white graduates are likely to find a job and start paying down their debt, more-or-less as the system is designed, but black graduates are notthey carry higher balances, go to graduate school (especially at for-profit institutions) and thus accumulate more debt, and subsequently earn no better than whites with undergraduate degrees. What this suggests is that any given educational credential is less valuable to blacks in a discriminatory labor market (probably because they attended less well-regarded institutions with weaker networks of post-graduate opportunity, and also because even assuming they did attend the same institutions as their white counterparts, outcomes for black graduates in the labor market are mediated by racial discrimination). The assumption that debt-financed educational credentialization represents constructive wealth-building and social mobility thusreflects a failure to comprehend the landscape of race-based economic exclusion. The interaction of student debt with race-based economic exclusion provides a powerful argument for student debt cancellation all on its own. Something to keep in mind as this idea enters public discourse. A Clonmel couple that has endured the torment of their son's serious illness for the last year and-a-half can finally see light at the end of the tunnel. 24 year-old Evan Hickey from Roaring Springs, Old Bridge, will undergo life-saving surgery to remove a cyst from his brain on June 1st. Hugely relieved that a date has at last been set for the surgery, there was further good news for his parents Honra and Joe Hickey, brother Andrew and their family, when it was confirmed that the operation will be performed in Brussels, and not at the Skull Base Institute in Los Angeles, as was originally planned. Renowned brain surgeon Dr. Hrayr Shahinian will instead travel from the Skull Base Institute to the Saint-Pierre University Hospital in Brussels for the operation. "This means that Evan will now only need a short flight time, reducing the risks attached", says his father Joe. The nightmare for the Hickey family began in October 2016. Two months earlier Evan - who had previously worked as a carer with Nua Healthcare in Lisronagh, between Clonmel and Fethard - and a group of friends moved to Vancouver in Canada, where he worked in construction. He was there for two months when he began to feel ill, and when his symptoms worsened he returned home to his family in Clonmel just over a year ago. "Evan has had a really rough run", says Joe. "Because the cyst is at the back of the optic nerve his eyes give him trouble, he suffers constantly from headaches and he has numbness in his left hand. He has good days and bad days, any activity leaves him fatigued. "I'm not saying it just because he's my son, but Evan is the bravest man I've ever come across", says Joe. "No matter how much pain he's going through he gets up, goes into the local swimming pool and sauna and does the best he can". Joe says Evan is both nervous and excited about the operation, which will give him his life back, something that his father says he richly deserves. "He has stayed positive the whole way through the ordeal and is humbled by everybody's generosity and kindness". A campaign to raise 170,000 for the keyhole surgery produced a remarkable response. The full total was raised in the space of just a couple of months, thanks to an incredible show of support from across the local community, throughout the country and even from friends he had made in Vancouver. Expressing the family's heartfelt thanks to everyone who had contributed, Joe says "we are both humbled and appreciative for all that you have done to ensure that Evan can undergo the operation. "As a family we found ourselves faced with the enormous task of raising what seemed to be an insurmountable amount of money to finance the required surgery. "But we needn't have worried, because what ensued was a people-driven frenzy of fundraising that coincided with support and well wishes, and which surpasses the amount of money required". He said that even after the total was reached people continued to fundraise to ensure that travel and aftercare costs would be looked after. "What you have achieved in such a short time has been truly inspirational and for that we will be forever grateful". Joe admitted that Evan's illness had taken its toll on all the family. "It's only since the date and hospital for the operation have been confirmed that we can see some light at the end of the tunnel", says Joe. "This has been a life-changing journey, with incredible highs and lows, but in so many positive ways as well. "Both of our extended families have also been an amazing support to us". Joe says that Dr. Shahinian and Christina Kim, the clinical manager of the Skull Base Institute have remained in constant contact with Evan from Los Angeles, drawing up a plan they believe will offer him the best possible chance of recovery and one that will be the least taxing on him. Evan will have all of his pre-operation tests completed in Irish hospitals before the family flies to Belgium at the end of May. "Thanks again to all of you for the essential part you have played in Evan's journey to recovery. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers on June 1st", says Joe. Today (13 March 2018), Estonia hosted Russian arms control inspectors, demonstrating Allies ongoing commitment to transparency. The inspectors visited the Estonian Defence Forces 1st Infantry Brigade at Tapa military base, where NATOs multinational battlegroup is based. Together with the three other battlegroups in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, these forces form part of the biggest reinforcement to NATOs collective deterrence and defence in a generation. Last week, Russian inspectors also visited the Latvian Mechanised Infantry Brigade in Camp Adazi, where NATO troops are also based. All of these visits are being carried out within the framework of the Vienna Document, an agreement on military transparency reached among the 57 member nations of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2011. Designed to promote mutual trust and transparency, the Vienna Document commits OSCE members to accept a number of inspection visits by other members each year, in order to verify there are no undeclared military capabilities or activities of concern. NATO strongly supports efforts to build confidence and transparency on military activities. Allies respect the letter and spirit of the Vienna Document, and NATO regularly updates its schedule of military exercises online. (Natural News) In recent weeks independent and alternative media outlets and their content creators have been sounding the alarm over censorship actions undertaken by Left-leaning social media giants like Facebook, YouTube, Google, Twitter, and others. In many instances, the social media sites werent just censoring content, they were taking down entire channels and with them removing complete video and content libraries that often contained hundreds or thousands of programs all under the guise of combating hate speech and fake news. Targets of this censorship included Natural News Network founder/editor Mike Adams, whose Health Ranger channel on YouTube has been completely eradicated. Also included was Alex Jones, creator of InfoWars.com. Their warnings were met with criticism, doubt, and derision in many media quarters, but as it turns out, they were not only right, they were just the tip of the censorship iceberg. As noted by investigative journalist Ben Swann via All News Pipeline, there is indeed a concerted effort by the Alt-Left social media giants to deep-six conservative, independent voices of liberty as part of an overall effort to silence their voices. (Related: Health Ranger announces Brighteon.com as the answer to YouTube censorship bypass tyranny and censorship with p2p file sharing.) Is there an Internet purge of conservative voices or voices of dissension online? Swann begins in a recent Reality Check report on the issue. Some say yes, and the purge is being pushed by YouTube, owned by Google, by Facebook, and by Twitter. Swann then went on to note that, in Jones case, he set up an alternative YouTube channel after his original channel was shut down for the third time in one week by the sites regulators only to have the far-Left Southern Poverty Law Center demand that the new one be shut down as well. The Reality Check host said YouTube did confirm that some advertisers asked not to be included on Jones channel, but that at present there were no plans to pull it offline. Of course, all of this comes after YouTube announced in December that it would hire some 10,000 new moderators to flag content, Swann reported. And those moderators have been flagging at a stunning rate. He noted further that in several cases the moderators were pulling entire channels without any advance warning whatsoever, and that most of those channels were deemed either pro-gun or conservative. Swann quoted a report from The Verge which said: YouTube indicated that as the platform ramps up human-powered moderation efforts, new moderators may have mistakenly removed or flagged right-wing videos and channels. Bloomberg reported the newsquoting a YouTube spokesperson saying that as we work to hire rapidly and ramp up our policy enforcement teams throughout 2018, newer members may misapply some of our policies resulting in mistaken removals. The spokesperson said that YouTubes policies had not changed, and that well reinstate any videos removed in error. To date, the original Alex Jones and Health Ranger/Natural News channels on YouTube remain offline, leading rational people to believe that suddenly the content on those channels are a violation of YouTube policies otherwise theyd have been reinstated by now. Ah, so its not a conspiracy, Swann reported. There is no question that, in fact, human moderators were pulling down right-wing or conservative content. The question is why. Swann then recounted that a 30-second video of an actual Antifa protest where demonstrators were calling for armed action against opponents posted by fellow investigative journalist Mike Cernovich was also removed as a violation of community policies. No, YouTube, thats news, Swann said, before noting that Adams and Jones channels have also been removed. Swanns investigation found evidence of a coordinated effort by Alt-Left groups SPLC and Media Matters for America to silence conservative voices to ban them from the public area of ideas just like the Nazis once burned books and Stalin purged his country of intellectuals who could challenge his authority. There is a sustained purge taking place, and it has become obvious. Watch: Help us fight social media censorship bookmark Censored.news today and never miss an important story! J.D. Heyes is editor of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for Natural News and News Target. Sources include: AllNewsPipeline.com NewsTarget.com (Natural News) The endless push from the left to turn anything and everything into some kind of coordinated attack against women continues. Last week, political theory professor Sophie Smith of Oxford University tweeted a photo of a female custodian scrubbing the words Happy International Womens Day off the Clarendon steps on the universitys campus. Along with the picture, Smith wrote, Oxford security makes a woman cleaner scrub out Happy International Womens Day on the Clarendon steps. What an image for [International Womens Day], @UniofOxford. Not wanting to come across as sexist or anything other than politically correct, the university promptly issued an apology in the form of a tweet response: We are deeply sorry for this and for offence caused. International Womens Day is hugely important to Oxford. This should not have happened, the school wrote on Oxfords official Twitter account. Smith accepted the universitys apology, but then fired back with a list of demands. I appreciate your apology, but far more importantly can you please make sure that the woman asked to remove the message receives a heartfelt apology, a warm cup of tea, the rest of the day off an, along with all our precarious staff, good enough pay to live in this city, she wrote. So what exactly happened here? Was Oxford University showing disrespect towards women on International Womens Day by asking one of its employees to clean chalk off of the Clarendon steps? The answer, as you probably already guessed, is no. On the contrary, many universities require students to get permission from the school administration before using chalk on campus grounds it really isnt anything out of the ordinary. What likely happened in this particular situation was no one got permission to write Happy International Womens Day on the Clarendon steps, and therefore the school asked one of the custodians to scrub it off. Nothing sexist or discriminatory here; just school policy. Frankly, there really isnt a need to have so many days and months dedicated to various groups of people, but if there must be an International Womens Day, then its worth asking the following question: Why are so many women particularly feminists and radical leftists so quick to make the day more about victimhood than anything else? Its as if International Womens Day was created not to celebrate women throughout history, but to remind the world that women are supposedly oppressed and restricted by the so-called glass ceiling. Unsurprisingly, failed democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton mentioned the glass ceiling on International Womens Day in a tweet directed at Virginia state Delegate Danica Roem, the first elected openly transgender lawmaker. @pwcdanica put a huge crack in the glass ceiling last November, then got right to work to serve her constituents, Clinton wrote on Twitter last week. Notice how she said that Danica Roem cracked the glass ceiling, as opposed to smashed or broke through the glass ceiling. If you want to perpetuate a culture of victimization (as Hillary Clinton most certainly does), then you can never declare that the so-called restraints keeping people (in this case, women) oppressed are destroyed. Danica Roem cracked the glass ceiling, but its still there and thats exactly what Hillary wants. (Related: Here are five lies that self-made victims tell themselves.) The catch, however, is that there really isnt any glass ceiling at all, especially when it comes to education. As noted by Breitbart News, females are vastly outpacing males in the United States with regards to education, and more women than men are enrolled in medical school, law school, and doctoral programs. Additionally, for every 100 men that are enrolled in graduate school, there are 135 women how could this be if we lived in a society that wanted to keep women oppressed? Read Gender.news for more coverage of gender issues in America. Sources Include: Breitbart.com WashingtonTimes.com Solano Community College has evacuated three of its campuses in Fairfield, Vacaville and Vallejo this afternoon because of a bomb threat, school officials said. Classes have been canceled for the rest of the day at the three campuses, according to the college. More information on the nature of the threat was not immediately available. The controversial Christopher Columbus statue located inside San Jose's City Hall building was removed and placed into a hall of the Italian American Heritage Foundation on Saturday, according to the City Hall building manager. At the City Council meeting on Jan. 30, Mayor Sam Liccardo and the City Council decided on a six-week deadline to remove the 9-foot-tall statue and find a new location. The topic was discussed after Councilmember Raul Peralez recommended in a September 2017 memo that the statue be moved to "a more appropriate location, with input from the community" since it had become the subject of several security issues beginning in 2001. As recently as Oct. 12, a handful of protesters entered City Hall and confronted visitors and city staff with their opposition to the statue. Security staff and police worked to disperse the protesters. Four options were considered by councilmembers for relocation: storing the statue at the History San Jose Collection Center on city-owned land until it could be later donated to an accepted recipient, moving it to Terminal A of the Mineta San Jose International Airport, moving it to the Bank of Italy in Kelley Park and lastly keeping it in the current location. Building manager Walter Lin said that the Council would accept a private location for the statue's relocation and that the Italian American Heritage Foundation expressed great interest in having the statue in their hall. In accordance with this authorization, the statue was moved just days before the deadline, which would be this Tuesday, Lin said. The statue's breakdown, transportation and reassembly took approximately six hours in total, beginning when a fine arts moving company arrived at City Hall around 9:30 a.m. and ending when the statue was restored just after 3:10 p.m., according to Lin. The statue itself is comprised of three pieces that weigh nearly 3,000 pounds in full, so lots of equipment was brought into City Hall to move the fragile figure, Lin said. The 6-foot reconstruction of Columbus, the flat bottom and a cylinder-shaped base were all placed in special traveling crates and strapped inside a moving truck. Lin said the locations are less than a mile away from each other, but the driver drove extremely slowly to ensure nothing happened. The Italian American Heritage Foundation plans to build a protective enclosure to deter the public from having the ability to deface the statue, which happened multiple times at its City Hall location, Lin said. The city will not be a part of the building of the enclosure. In total, the process cost the city around $10,000, according to Lin. At this time, there are a simple table and chairs where the statue once sat, but the city is looking into rotating public displays about each city department to provide more information about what they do to constituents, according to Lin. The building manager also said that organizations often ask to display art in City Hall, so this may open up a space to do that as well. A former Oakland Raider, released from the team after a domestic violence incident at an apartment in San Francisco's Nob Hill neighborhood last week, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in court Monday afternoon. Aldon Smith, 28, has been charged with domestic violence, assault, false imprisonment and vandalism in connection with an incident on the evening of March 3 in the 600 block of Bush Street. In addition to his not guilty plea, a protective order was issued, prohibiting Smith from contacting the victim. "Domestic violence is a major problem in our community and we want to send a very clear message," District Attorney George Gascon said. "We want to make sure we also protecting the survivor in this case," Gascon said regarding the protective order. Officers first began investigating after someone reported to police around 8:30 p.m. that Smith was involved in a domestic violence incident. When officers responded to the Bush Street residence, Smith had already left, according to police. The victim in the incident suffered injuries not considered life-threatening. Smith turned himself in three days later after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Two days after the incident, the Raiders released Smith from his contract. He previously played for the San Francisco 49ers starting in 2011 before being released by the team in August 2015 following an arrest for a DUI hit-and-run in Santa Clara. He signed with the Raiders the following month, but was suspended for a year in November 2015 for violating the NFL's substance abuse policies. Smith is due back in court on April 5. Security was tight when conservative and controversial talk show host Ann Coulter made a Bay Area appearance Tuesday night. Coulter spoke at the IFES Society Community Center in Mountain View. The sold out event was organized by the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley, formerly known as the Conservative Forum. Upon taking the stage in the South Bay city, Coulter said, "It's great to be in San Francisco." Police had a visible presence at the event, and signs in the area alerted people of the temporary restrictions. In her talk, Coulter spoke about immigration, President Donald Trump and California. "California is a beautiful state in the union, it's just sad," she said. "But I have a plan. We regretfully either allow California to secede - I think Trump would agree - and sell it back to Mexico!" On the subject of immigration, Coulter chose a Silicon Valley connection. "Mark Zuckerberg doesnt want anyone coming in that can compete with his kid," she said. "He wants someone who can compete with his landscaper." She added: "Our immigration policy is anyone who lives within walking distance. ... Not only do illegal aliens get to come here, but they get to bring their cousins too. We wouldnt want them to be poor, unskilled or lonely." Coulter's speech last year was canceled at the University of California, Berkeley after the sponsoring group pulled out. Threats of violence were also made ahead of the planned Berkeley event, which would have featured other conservative pundits. Authorities said Monday there were no reported threats ahead of Coulter's Mountain View visit. President Donald Trump visited the border wall prototypes that stand just a few feet from the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday during his first official visit to San Diego. The president was joined by Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and border agents and officers as he viewed the eight different prototypes that were built in October 2017. Pool photographers who travel with the president captured the tour on video. President Donald Trump said seeing the border wall prototypes in person will absolutely help him make his decision when picking a final design. NBC 7's Rory Devine has more. Holding side-by-side photos of the border south of San Diego with and without a physical border, Trump explained that a new modernized wall could stop close to 100 percent of illegal cross-border migration. "We have a lousy wall over here now but at least it stops 90, 95 percent. When we put up the real wall we're going to stop 99 percent, maybe more than that," he said. There were no arrests made as of around 3 p.m., but there was plenty of back-and-forth shouting between the president's supporters and opponents. NBC 7's Artie Ojeda has the story. Trump previously ordered that the new wall be between 18 and 30 feet tall, be able to blend in with its surroundings and withstand a 30-minute attack. "For the people that say, 'No Wall' if you didn't have walls over here, you wouldn't even have a country," President Trump said. He went on to say the state of California was "begging" for the federal government to build walls in other areas. "They won't talk about that," he said. Of the prototypes, the president said he prefers something that was transparent because that way you can see what's on the other side of the wall. He also added that a slatted wall might be more susceptible to damage, though. President Donald Trump toured prototypes of his proposed border wall in south San Diego on March 13, 2018. Moments after Air Force One took off from MCAS Miramar, the president tweeted that "If we don't have a wall system, we're not going to have a country." His tweet, a rehash of comments he made during a brief formal news conference at the end of his tour, pressured Congress to fund the wall project and prohibit grants to so-called sanctuary cities. The president arrived in San Diego just before 11:30 a.m. when Air Force One touched down on the tarmac at MCAS Miramar. He spoke to several military officials and walked directly to Marine One. Heading to see the BORDER WALL prototypes in California! pic.twitter.com/fU6Ukc271l Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018 Two helicopters trailed by three Ospreys flew over central San Diego to make the 30-mile trip south to Brown Field near the U.S.-Mexico border. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit over a law that went into effect January declaring California a sanctuary state. While standing near the border, the president was asked for his opinion on Gov. Jerry Brown who on Monday invited Trump to see the state's plans for building a high-speed train. "The governor is doing a terrible job running the state of California. I have property in California," the president said. "The taxes are way out of whack." Before the afternoon commute began, the president was on his way to Los Angeles International Airport where he will participate in a roundtable with members of the Republican National Committee in Santa Monica. Later in the afternoon, a group led by DACA recipients and undocumented young people rallied at San Diego's Waterfront Park against the president's immigration agenda. NBC 7's Dave Summers was at the rally at Waterfront Park Tuesday where DACA recipients and young undocumented people led the charge against President Trump's immigration agenda. Organizers say there was a real concern that members of the undocumented community wouldn't show up near where the President was earlier today for fear they might be detained. Extra security was in place for the president's visit including road closures and restrictions on parking near the border wall prototypes. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department also issued a number of banned items from the area including poles for flags or banners. Ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border were not closed during the president's visit, according to U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officials. On the Mexico side of the border, streets near the prototypes were blocked off. Tractor-trailer rigs were parked along the U.S. side of the fence to block the view from Mexico. Some photographers and journalists used vehicles or risers to get high enough to see the visit. NBC 7s Melissa Adan reports from the area near the border wall prototypes and discusses security and preparations for pedestrians and vehicular traffic in the area. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen arrived in San Diego Monday on her way home from South Korea. Nielsen spent the morning getting an aerial tour of the border wall prototypes before landing at the U.S. Coast Guard. She also got a tour of some of San Diegos most important ports, by boat. It was Nielsens first visit to San Diego since her confirmation in December 2017. Last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed California's law declaring itself a sanctuary state harms agents. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit challenging laws in California that are considered some of the most generous protections in the nation for immigrants facing deportation.[[476610413, C]] On Feb. 27, the Trump administration prevailed in a federal lawsuit brought by the state of California and advocacy groups that was aimed at halting the construction of a proposed border wall south of San Diego. The lawsuit had argued that the administration overreached by waiving laws requiring environmental and other reviews before construction can begin. The San Francisco Sheriff's Office admitted Monday that two of its deputies violated the city's sanctuary policy last week at two jails, allowing immigration agents to talk to inmates. Public Defender Jeff Adachi said when he found out ICE agents were in two city jails, he called Sheriff Vicki Hennessy. Under city and state sanctuary laws, deputies are not supposed to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. In both cases, deputies allowed ICE agents access to interview rooms inside the jails. One inmate spoke with an agent; the other refused. In a statement Monday, Hennessy said the deputies made a mistake. Adachi said it's an alarming error. "I took her at her word, but it's concerning we have deputies at the jail who don't know San Francisco is a sanctuary city and not suppose to cooperate with ICE," Adachi said. The sheriff's office said it is now reviewing policy at the beginning of each shift for several days. Adachi doesn't know the inmates' names or why they are in jail. He said ICE issued a detainer for one of the inmates. Deputies should not contact ICE when the inmate is released, Adachi said. Under San Francisco policy, ICE needs to obtain a warrant signed by a judge to take custody of an inmate being released, he said. The sheriff's office said an ICE agent tried to get into the jail Monday and was refused entry. An ominous warning sign at an art studio in Golden Gate Park touched off a flurry of concern over drug needles at a popular childrens playground in San Francisco. The sign apparently was posted by a staffer at the park. It was seen Monday at the Sharon Art Studio, which is next to the Koret childrens playground, causing concern over drug needles at the park. A photograph of the sign was posted on social media site Reddit on Monday morning, and by 11 a.m., there were more than 50 responses from readers talking about the warning. The sign, which has since been removed, read: "Caution, hypodermic needles were found in this area. Please take proper safety precautions to protect yourself and others. Health and safety department has been contacted by rec and park supervisor Ellen McCarthy." A user on Reddit said the sign was near Koret children's playground, next to the arts studio, and that touched off concern for the safety of children and families. Families in the park said they havent seen drug needles, and cleanup crewman said it has not been a particular problem. On Monday afternoon, the sign was taken down, according to McCarthy, who said she couldnt talk with the media. A spokeswoman for the San Francisco Rec and Parks Department said the sign was put up by a well-meaning staffer at Sharon Art Studio last winter on the exterior of the building. The response to the sign reflects a level of concern in the community, after a recent NBC Bay Area investigation into "dirty" San Francisco. San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell also responded Monday, saying cleaning up the city will be a bigger priority in the next budget. "Were going to put a significant amount of resources toward cleaning our streets," he said. "The city of San Francisco deserves it, our residents deserve it, and its going to be a focus going forward." Rec and Parks Department officials declined to discuss the incident and did not confirm if a needle was found at the Sharon Art Studio. They did say the warning went up on the wall last November and was only taken down Monday after it showed up on social media. What to Know The president said he made the decision to oust Tillerson "by myself" "I look forward to guiding the worlds finest diplomatic corps in formulating and executing the Presidents foreign policy," Pompeo said Tillerson's ouster comes after Gary Cohn and Hope Hicks announced they would be leaving the administration President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, bringing Tillerson's rocky tenure to an abrupt end after months of disagreements. Trump tapped CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson and is elevating Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel to become the first woman to lead the spy agency. Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, was not consulted about the president's decision, according to an undersecretary of state. His relationship with Trump had soured over a period of months, and he learned he had been fired from a tweet, senior State Department officials told NBC News. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Trump said in the tweet announcing the decision. Tillerson told reporters he spoke to Trump while the president was aboard Air Force One after noon, hours after Trump's announcement. He said he would delegate the responsibilities of his office to Undersecretary of State John Sullivan at the end of the day Tuesday and would complete his commission as secretary at the end of the month, after dealing with some administrative issues. He encouraged department officials to stay on to help transition to Pompeo, who will need to be confirmed by the Senate, as will Haspel. In his remarks, Tillerson reflected on his achievements and ended without taking any questions, saying, "I'll now return to private life as a private citizen. As a proud American, I'm proud of the opportunity I've had to serve my country." Trump told reporters later Tuesday that he and Tillerson "have been talking about this for a long time" but added that he made the decision "by myself." He told reporters outside the White House that he and Tillerson have had a number of disagreements, including about the Iran deal, which Trump wants to end. He and Pompeo "have a very similar thought process" about that agreement, Trump said, and they reportedly have a much closer relationship. It's the latest upheaval in the Trump administration, following the resignation of Gary Cohn as Trump's top economic adviser and Hope Hicks as communications director. A senior White House official told NBC News that Trump removed Tillerson now because he wanted to have a new team in place ahead of talks with North Korea and amid trade negotiations. The Washington Post first reported the news of his ouster. Trump told reporters Tuesday morning, before boarding Air Force One for San Diego, that he and Tillerson "have been talking about this for a long time." He added that he made the decision on his own. He said that he and Tillerson had had a number of disagreements, among them whether to end the Iran deal as Trump wants to do. He and Pompeo reportedly have a much closer relationship and, Trump said, "have a very similar thought process" about the Iran agreement. "I look forward to guiding the worlds finest diplomatic corps in formulating and executing the Presidents foreign policy," Pompeo said in a release from the White House that also included statements from Trump and Haspel. Trump thanked Tillerson, saying "a great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months." The release did not include a statement from Tillerson, who had been returning from a trip to Africa. Haspel, a longtime employee at the CIA, was previously appointed by Trump as deputy director. She once ran a secret prison in Thailand where waterboarding took place. After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its deputy director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year, she said in a statement. I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Trump told reporters Tuesday that he and Tillerson got along well, despite their disagreements, but that he thought Tillerson would be happier now that he had been let go. Trump added that he has had "very good chemistry" with Pompeo since the beginning of the administration. In November, when White House officials formulated a plan to replace Tillerson with Pompeo, The Associated Press reported that Pompeo visited the White House frequently to give Trump his daily intelligence briefing, something more junior CIA officials have done in past administrations, and would stay for other meetings. "I'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the Cabinet, and other things, that I want," Trump said. Tillerson was sometimes left out of the loop on White House decisions, and his statements did not always align with the president's. Trump decided to negotiate with North Korea by himself, he said Tuesday. Hours before Tillerson was fired, he said that the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain "came from Russia," establishing a link before the White House did. (Trump later told reporters that it appeared that Russia was behind the attack and that the U.S. would concur with whatever Britain finds.) Tillerson was told by chief of staff John Kelly Friday that Trump intended to ask him to "step aside," but didn't give an exact date or time, two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News. Shortly after that, Tillerson's office said the secretary of state was canceling events for the day because he wasn't feeling well. Tillerson "had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security," Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein said in a statement released shortly after Tillerson was fired Tuesday. "The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling." Goldstein was fired later Tuesday, a senior State Department official told NBC News. Tillerson's time in office featured sometimes public clashes with the White House. NBC News reported in October that Tillerson called Trump a "moron" after a meeting at the Pentagon on July 20. Tillerson afterward deflected questions about the insult at a press conference, saying, "I'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that." His refusal to deny the charge was said to have infuriated Trump. Tillerson's spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, later said Tillerson had not made the comment. Tillerson also had threatened to resign in late July about the time Trump made a politicized speech to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization that Tillerson once headed. He was talked into remaining by other administration officials, according to NBC. Pence counseled Tillerson on how he could ease tensions with Trump, NBC News reported. "The vice president has never had to persuade me to remain as secretary of state because I have never considered leaving this post," he said at the press conference. But despite Tillersons effort to quash the October report, it continued to vie for headlines with Trumps visit to Las Vegas to pay respects after a gunman killed 58 in the largest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. During the visit, Trump maintained he had "total confidence" in Tillerson, dismissing NBC News report as "fake news." Tillerson was a surprise choice as secretary of state because of his lack of experience as a diplomat, though he had traveled widely and had negotiated gas and oil agreements in troubled parts of the world. He was immediately criticized for a close relationship with Russias President Vladimir Putin, who awarded him Russias Order of Friendship in 2013, and for his public skepticism of sanctions against Russia, which thwarted some of Exxon Mobils biggest projects in Russia. Tillerson, who had never served in government before accepting the job of secretary of state at his wifes urging, had a precarious position in the Trump administration. He expressed more traditional Republican views on many foreign policy topics than did Trump, sometimes earning the president's mockery. Trump publicly undermined him over North Korea in October, calling him out on Twitter over his attempts to open a line of communication on nuclear tensions. "I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time to negotiate with Little Rocket Man," Trump tweeted, referring to North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un. "Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!" Trump similarly undercut Tillerson earlier in the summer over a regional crisis involving Qatar. Trump accused Qatar of being a high level sponsor of terrorism as the State Department was trying to ease a blockade of the Gulf state. Tillerson's diminished role in the Trump administration resulted in fears that the State Department was adrift, NBC News reported in September. During the United Nations General Assembly that month, Vice President Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, the U.N. ambassador, had to step in at meetings Tillerson either ignored or refused to attend. His department was hobbled by budget cuts and unfilled staff positions, both of which he defended as part of an effort to make it more efficient. And in August, Tillerson distanced himself from Trump's handling of the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying the president "speaks for himself." Trump was said to be "livid" about Tillerson's comment, The New York Times' Maggie Haberman tweeted. While in office, Tillerson navigated the imposition of sanctions on North Korea by the United Nations Security Council for testing intercontinental ballistic missiles. North Korea continued to fire missiles. In an article in Foreign Policy magazine, defense policy expert Max Boot called Tillerson "quite possibly the most ineffectual secretary of state since America's rise to global prominence in 1898." As President Donald Trump steps up efforts to engage North Korea in nuclear disarmament talks, the State Department is in the most turmoil since the president's inauguration, CNBC reported. The latest upheaval came Tuesday with the sudden firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was dismissed with few details provided by the White House. Trump picked CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of state. The moves followed Trump's abrupt announcement last week of a yet-to-be-arranged meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But the prospects for any diplomatic breakthrough are clouded by senior State Department vacancies, including a permanent U.S. ambassador to South Korea. The Trump administration has also yet to fill other positions critical to any talks with North Korea, including a permanent undersecretary for arms control and international security affairs. A white former Connecticut university student accused of smearing body fluids on her black roommate's belongings will enter an accelerated rehabilitation program, which could mean that criminal charges are erased from her record, and her case will not go to trial. At a hearing Monday in Hartford Superior Court, a judge ruled in favor of accelerated rehabilitation for 18-year-old Brianna Brochu, of Harwinton. She has been ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and will avoid misdemeanor charges on her record. Police said the former University of Hartford student wrote on Instagram in October about rubbing used tampons on her roommate's backpack, putting her roommate's toothbrush "where the sun doesn't shine" and mixing moldy clam dip in her lotion. Her roommate said she developed throat pain. Civil rights advocates called for hate crime charges, but a prosecutor concluded there was no evidence of hate crimes. Brochu's lawyer said Brochu's actions weren't racially motivated. The victim, Chennel "Jazzy" Rowe, who attended the court hearing, was not opposed to Brochu entering the program. "At the end of the day, it's really going to boil down to how Brianna Brochu chooses to deal with this second chance," Derek Sells, the attorney for the victim, says. A tree worker was rushed to the hospital after falling as he tried to get into his truck's bucket lift Tuesday afternoon. The accident happened at Pleasant and Brook streets in Carver, Massachusetts as snow continued to fall. A witness said the Stanley Tree Service employee was trying to respond to a downed tree, and when he attempted to get into the bucket, he lost his footing, slipped, fell and hit his head. The eyewitness described seeing a lot of blood at the scene. "It was just an ugly scene, you know what I mean," he said of what he witnessed. A Carver police officer who was blocking the road for the tree work saw what happened and called for an ambulance. The worker, a 33-year-old Rhode Island man, was rushed to a hospital with head trauma and facial injuries. Police say he was alert and talking on his way to the hospital, despite his serious injuries. His condition was not immediately known. Tuesday night, the majority of the town remained without power, as did many other Massachusetts residents. Carver police tweeted Tuesday afternoon that trees and power lines are down everywhere, asking residents to stay home for their own safety and for those who have to be out working in this weather. No further information was immediately available. A plane crash at Nepal's main airport killed 49 of the 71 people on board, police said Tuesday, as an investigation was ordered into the cause of an accident that occurred after apparent confusion over landing instructions. The plane, which was coming from Bangladesh, was flying low and erratically before striking the ground and erupting in flames on Monday. US-Bangla Airlines Flight BS211 from Dhaka to Kathmandu was carrying 67 passengers and four crew members. In a recording posted by air traffic monitoring website liveatc.net, the pilot asked for permission to land from the north, which an air traffic controller granted. Less than a minute later, the pilot said he was ready to land from the south, and the controller cleared the plane to land from that direction. A separate conversation between the tower and a Nepali pilot added to the sense of miscommunication between the controllers and the pilot of the Bangladeshi plane before the crash. "Looks like they are really confused," one man says in Nepali, talking about Flight BS211. "They appear to be extremely disoriented," another man says. Just before landing, the pilot asks, "Are we cleared to land?" Moments later, the controller comes back on, using a panicked tone rarely heard in such conversations, and tells the pilot, "I say again, turn!" Seconds later, the controller orders fire trucks onto the runway. Kathmandu officials and the airline laid the blame for the accident on each other. The airport's general manager told reporters Monday that the pilot did not follow the control tower's instructions and approached the airport's only runway from the wrong direction. "The airplane was not properly aligned with the runway. The tower repeatedly asked if the pilot was OK and the reply was 'Yes,'" said the general manager, Raj Kumar Chetri. Imran Asif, CEO of US-Bangla Airlines, told reporters in Dhaka, "We cannot claim this definitely at the moment, but we are suspecting that Kathmandu ATC tower might have misled our pilots to land on the wrong runway." Asif added that after hearing the recording between the tower and the pilots, "we assumed that there was no negligence by our pilots." He said that the pilot, who survived the accident, was a former air force officer. Capt. Abid Sultan had flown the Bombardier Dash 8 for more than 1,700 hours and was also a flying instructor with the airline. Prior to the crash, the plane circled Tribhuvan International Airport twice as it waited for clearance to land, Mohammed Selim, the airline's manager in Kathmandu, told Dhaka-based Somoy TV. Police spokesman Manoj Neupane said Tuesday that 49 people were confirmed to have been killed and 22 injured. The injured were being treated in various hospitals in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. Autopsies on the dead were being performed at the Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital morgue, where some 200 relatives waited to hear about their loved ones. Dr. M.A. Ansari of the hospital's forensic department said positively identifying all the dead could take as long as a week because many of the bodies were badly burned. By late Tuesday morning, four bodies had been identified. Anita Bajacharya waited at the hospital with her parents and other relatives for details on her 23-year-old sister, a medical student who had just finished school in Bangladesh and was returning home on the flight. The sister, Asma Shakya, had called her mother from the airport, excited about returning home. Now her family sat outside a hospital waiting for her body to be identified. The government has ordered an investigation into the crash. One witness, Amanda Summers, an American working in Nepal, said the plane swerved repeatedly as it prepared to land. At one point it seemed like it would crash into the surrounding mountains, she said, adding that it seemed to have made a landing before two quick explosions were heard and it burst into flames. Fire crews put out the flames quickly, perhaps within a minute, Summers said, though for a time clouds of thick, dark smoke rose into the sky above the city. US-Bangla spokesman Kamrul Islam said the plane was carrying 32 passengers from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives. He did not provide the nationalities of the four crew members. US-Bangla operates Boeing 737-800 and smaller Bombardier Dash 8 planes, the model of the plane that crashed. The airline is based in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, and flies domestically and internationally. The parent company, part of US-Bangla Group, is also involved in real estate, education and agriculture. Kathmandu's airport has been the site of several deadly crashes. In September 2012, a Sita Air turboprop plane carrying trekkers to Mount Everest hit a bird and crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 19 people on board. AP journalists Niranjan Shrestha, Upendra Mansingh and Julhas Alam contributed to this report. Election Day in Illinois is officially here, with voters across the state heading to the polls Tuesday. Here's a look at some essential resources to help you prepare for the big day WHAT ARE THE RACES TO WATCH? These Are the 10 Races to Watch in Illinois Politics This Year SEE WHO'S ON YOUR BALLOT Enter your address below to find out who your representatives are, and who's running against them. For a full sample ballot, be sure to visit your local election authority's website. WHO ARE THE CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR? Heres Whos Running for Governor of Illinois With a wider field of six candidates, here's a look at some background information on the Democrats running for the chance to unseat incumbent GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner (or take on his conservative challenger, state Rep. Jeanne Ives): A Look at the Democrats Running for Illinois Governor WHO ARE THE CANDIDATES FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL? A Look at the Candidates Running for Illinois Attorney General WHO'S ENDORSED? If you're still undecided, it can be helpful to known who's backing whom. Click here for a breakdown of publications and their endorsements, and here for a list of organizations and elected officials who have thrown their support behind a candidate. WHAT QUESTIONS WILL BE ON THE BALLOT? Nearly every election includes some sort of referendum, and this year is no different. In addition to voting for your candidates, you can weigh in on issues specific to your municipality. Click through to find the questions that will be asked of Chicago voters, Cook County voters, and voters in suburban counties. WHERE TO VOTE EARLY If you want to avoid the rush and cast your ballot before Election Day, you have plenty of options: Full list of 51 early voting sites in Chicago Full list of 52 early voting sites for suburban Cook County residents How to find early voting locations in the Chicago-area's suburban counties With the exception of Will County, if your county offers multiple early voting locations, you can pick whichever one is most convenient for you. HOW TO FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE If you prefer to cast your ballot on Election Day, you have just one option: your designated polling place. If you don't know where that is, click here and choose your county to find out. WHAT TIME POLLS ARE OPEN Polls open at 6 a.m. statewide, and will stay open through 7 p.m. But remember - if you are IN LINE when polls close, you can still vote! So if you're rushing to your polling place at the last minute, don't worry if you see a line - and don't let anyone try to dissuade you from casting your ballot. WHAT YOU SHOULD BRING While a government-issued photo ID is not required to vote under Illinois law, it can be helpful to bring one should any questions about registration, address, signature, or more arise during the voting process. It's important to remember: you legally do not need any form of identification to cast your vote in Illinois, unless you are registering for the first time or changing your registration. SHOULD YOU TAKE A BALLOT SELFIE? NO. In Illinois, ballot selfies are prohibited by state law. It's a felony to mark your ballot so another person can see how you voted, carrying a potential prison sentence of one to three years. State election officials have said it's "unlikely" anyone would be prosecuted for a ballot selfie, but you should play it safe and take a picture of your "I Voted" sticker or pose next to the polling place sign instead. NOT REGISTERED TO VOTE? If you're not registered in Illinois but still want to vote, it's not too late! You can take advantage of grace period registration through Election Day. You simply have to bring two forms of identification, one with your current address, to your polling place and be prepared to vote at the same time. WHAT TO DO IF YOU RUN INTO PROBLEMS While millions of people will cast their ballots without any problems, some may be challenged on their voting eligibility, experience voter intimidation, or have trouble at their polling place. If you run into any issues at all, or even have questions about the process, you are encouraged to call the Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE (English only), 888-VE-Y-VOTA (English/Spanish) and 888-API-VOTE (English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Tagalog). The hotline is run by a nonpartisan coalition of more than 100 organizations, led by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. HOW TO GET LIVE RESULTS Live Election Day coverage will air on NBC 5 throughout the evening and at 10 p.m. You can also track up-the-minute race results live in the NBC Chicago app and right here on NBCChicago.com. Tinessa Moss says her husband Devon served as a police officer in Melrose Park for 13 years. But that all came to an end last year, just days after her husband had been deployed to Afghanistan to serve with the National Guard. They said that they terminated him, so it was like no health insurance, no check coming in, nothing, Tinessa Moss said. "Its just making me upset that hes going through all of this while he is over in Afghanistan." Devon has filed a lawsuit against the villages board of fire and police commissioners asking them to reverse their decision. The board requested Devons termination because the village says he never lived in Melrose Park during his tenure as a police officer, which is required by village ordinance. Devon Moss's attorney, Kelly Krauchun, says her client had been deployed to Afghanistan back in 2012 and received his full police pay--even though he did not have a residence in Melrose Park at that time. It was just rather suspect, the timing of everything, Krauchun said. (It's) very clear here that there was something wrong." Before his hiring, the village says Moss promised to move to Melrose Park but never did. The village also says Moss testified under oath during an internal hearing saying he was not a resident. Tinessa Moss wants the firing overturned, so her husband can find a job at a different police department "who would really appreciate his service." Authorities are seeking information about four women wanted in connection to a string of store thefts in the Hammond, Indiana area, police said Monday. The first crime occurred on Jan. 27 at the Mini-Mart in the 7300 block of Columbia Avenue. The second on the same day at Discount Liquors in the 7400 block of Columbia Avenue. The other two were committed Feb. 24 in the 1100 block of 5th Avenue at Sadoni Beauty Supply and another that day at Grand Foods in the 6800 block of Grand Avenue, police said. Police said in each incident two females enter the business and distract the employees by asking questions. Two other females then enter and go to the office or counter area where they steal money, police said. Three suspects are black women in their 20s or early 30s. One female is in her late 40s or early 50s. They wear the same clothing and cover their heads with scarves, hoodies and/or hats. They then flee in a black SUV (possibly a Hyundai Santa Fe type) with possible Illinois plates, police said. A large about of money was taken from the businesses, police said. Anyone with information about the thefts should contact Hammond police Det. John Suarez at 219-852-2981 or email jsuarez@hammondpolice.com. The third major nor'easter to hit the Northeast in two weeks lashed a storm-weary New England with heavy snow, whipping winds and blizzard conditions in some areas. Across Massachusetts, more than 154,000 customers were without power as of 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, mostly in the southeastern part of the state. Thousands more lost power in the other New England states. A blizzard was confirmed in Boston, as well as parts of Massachusetts' South Shore and Cape Cod. Blizzard warnings were issued for the entire coast of Maine, New Hampshire and most of Massachusetts. The rest of New England was under a winter storm warning. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker continued to urge residents to remain at home during the worst of the storm during a press conference Tuesday. Non-emergency state employees did not have to report to work. The governor said power outages are the "biggest concern" due to the heaviness of the snow and the strength of the wind gusts. "It would be very difficult for [utility crews] to get out there and start working those power outages until the snow stops falling and the wind stops blowing," Baker said. In Carver, power crews were working through the night Tuesday, while the majority of the town was without power. Non-emergency employees of Massachusetts' executive branch were asked not to come into work Tuesday. Baker announced Tuesday night that their start time Wednesday would be delayed until 11 a.m. In the Cape Cod town of Falmouth, police urged residents to shelter in place after receiving over 100 reports of downed trees and wires. The storm is expected to last through most of the day Tuesday and has already begun disrupting road and air travel. More than 1,500 canceled flights over 860 of them to and from Boston Logan Airport were reported within, into or out of the U.S. on Tuesday, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware. Airlines pre-emptively canceled nearly 160 Wednesday flights, with over 80 of those scrapped to and from Logan. On the ground, Amtrak suspended service between Boston and New York City for the day on Tuesday. Amtrak initially said train service would be suspended until at least 11 a.m. The agency said service will be restored "pending improved conditions." The MBTA and the commuter rail operated on a reduced schedule Tuesday, but normal service is expected Wednesday. All ferry service was suspended during the storm. Joe Rotella ducked into a train station as he tried to find his way to a hotel that's hosting a convention where he's speaking. Organizers were scrambling to find ways to video conference in speakers whose planes were delayed or canceled, said Rotella, the chief medical officer with the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. "As a visitor to Boston, I've been looking forward to this for months and this is kind of an adventure for me," the Louisville, Kentucky, man said. "I didn't have to go through the last two nor'easters so this still feels like fun." At the Yotel hotel in Boston's Seaport neighborhood, guests were busy rescheduling their flights over breakfast or, in the case of 80-year-old Roy Zaloom of Ramsey, New Jersey, preparing for a morning drive back home with his family. "Let's' hope this is the end of it, the end of the snow. We've had too much of it at one time," said Zaloom, recalling that he got a foot in New Jersey last week. Officials with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation said more than 3,300 crews were out treating and clearing the snow-covered roadways. Speeds on the Mass Pike were reduced to 40 and later 20 mph from the New York border to Boston. Numerous crashes were reported throughout the day, several of them involving jackknifed tractor-trailers. The National Weather Service defines a blizzard as three or more hours of sustained wind or frequent gusts to 35 mph or greater; and falling or blowing snow that reduces visibility frequently to less than one-quarter of a mile. Wind gusts of nearly 70 mph were reported on Cape Cod in the early stages of the storm. Boston and eastern Massachusetts, as well as Rhode Island, could get a foot and a half of snow, with less to the west of the city. Schools across the region announced they would be closed on Tuesday, including in Boston and Providence. Boston and a handful of other schools have already announced closures for Wednesday, with additional announcements expected to come later in the day. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said Tuesday morning that it was still too early to decide whether schools would be open on Wednesday. The school year has already been extended to June 26 due to the number of snow days this year. The mayor is scheduled to hold a press conference at 4 p.m. "Originally we thought the snow was gonna end early in the afternoon, so it would be good for tomorrow, but who knows yet? We dont know yet until as we get into this day," said Walsh. An on-street-parking ban is in effect in Boston. For details on the ban and where you can park, click here. Residents will be allowed to use space savers for parking spots until 48 hours after the end of the storm. Maine also is bracing for a hard hit from Tuesday's storm. The Portland International Jetport has had 75.5 inches of snow, far above the normal for the date of 51.8 inches, with another 12 to 18 inches is on the way, said James Brown, of the National Weather Service. "We're not out of winter yet, that's for sure," Paul Knight, of Portland, said as snow accumulated on his eyebrows during a stroll. "The groundhog was right. Six more weeks of winter, and probably then some." In New Hampshire, where as much as 14 inches of snow is forecast, the storm is wreaking havoc with the age-old town meeting tradition. But Secretary of State William Gardner and Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said under state law, town meeting elections must go on. Last year, nearly 80 communities postponed their annual elections due to snow, creating widespread confusion over who has the authority to change the date, traditionally the second Tuesday of March. While the Legislature is still working to clarify the law, the secretary of state was adamant this year that towns can't make the call. Most appeared to be heeding that warning Tuesday. Warner town moderator Ray Martin said turnout was steady early as voters hoped to avoid the worst of the snow later. Standing outside Town Hall, selectman candidate Ed Ordway said those who really want to change things won't be stopped by a little snow. In Rhode Island, the storm closed schools and businesses across the state, knocked out power and made driving treacherous. Gov. Gina Raimondo urged residents to stay off the roads and let the plows and work crews do their jobs. "I know we're all ready for winter to be over. This is the third storm in a row. I know folks are weary with power outages but hang in there with us," the governor said. More than a foot of snow is expected in parts of Connecticut, where Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is urging people to "take it slow and remember their winter weather driving skills." Investigators on Monday found the "black box" from a Turkish private jet that crashed in an Iranian mountain range on its way from the United Arab Emirates to Istanbul, killing all 11 people on board that included a Turkish bride-to-be and her bachelorette party. Authorities recovered all the dead from the crash site in the Zagros Mountains outside of the city of Shahr-e Kord, some 370 kilometers (230 miles) south of Iran's capital, Tehran, according to a report by the state-run IRNA news agency. Officials have so far identified eight bodies, including that of Mina Basaran, the 28-year-old daughter of the chairman of Turkey's Basaran Investment Holding, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported Monday. Heavy rains and wind in the mountain range since the crash Sunday made it impossible for helicopters to land in the area, though officials hoped to bring the bodies down from the mountain later in the day, IRNA said. Families of the victims arrived Monday in Shahr-e Kord, accompanied by Turkish diplomats, IRNA reported. The flight took off Sunday from Sharjah International Airport in the UAE, home to the low-cost carrier Air Arabia. A little over an hour into the flight, the aircraft rapidly gained altitude and then dropped drastically within minutes, according to FlightRadar24, a flight-tracking website. It remains unclear what caused the crash, though a witness told state television the Bombardier CL604 was on fire before it hit the mountain. Finding the aircraft's "black box" will help investigators trying to piece together what happened. That equipment, typically painted in a bright color to allow searchers to easily find it, records cockpit conversations and radio transmissions, as well as other data from a flight. Sharjah civil aviation authorities said in a statement late Sunday night that the plane's eight passengers were six Turks and two Spaniards. Three others were the flight crew. "The plane did not apply for maintenance procedures while on the ground of the airport," their statement said. Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper and other media reports said the plane's three crew members two pilots and one flight attendant were all women as well. Basaran and her friends had celebrated her bachelorette party in nearby Dubai. Turkey's Transport Ministry said the aircraft belonged to Basaran Investment Holding, which The Associated Press has not been able to reach since the crash. Basaran recently posted photographs on the photo-sharing app Instagram of what appeared to be her bachelorette party, which included eight women. Iranian authorities previously said the flight's passengers were all young women. Among those photographs was an image of the plane posted three days ago. In it, Basaran posed on the tarmac carrying flowers, wearing a denim jacket reading "Mrs. Bride" and the hashtag "#bettertogether." In another picture, she holds heart-shaped balloons inside the plane. On Saturday, Basaran posted a picture with seven smiling friends from a Dubai resort. The last videos posted to her account showed her enjoying a concert by the British pop star Rita Ora at a popular Dubai nightclub. Other victims included 28-year-old architect Zeynep Coskun, who also recently was engaged and would have married in the summer, Turkey's private Dogan news agency said. Melike Kuvvet, the plane's co-pilot, was a former Turkish air force captain who was dismissed from the military but was hoping to be re-instated in May, Dogan reported. Sunday's crash came less than a month after an Iranian ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short regional flights, crashed in southern Iran, killing all 65 people onboard. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell and Suzan Fraser contributed to this report. President Donald Trump's new pick to run the CIA, Gina Haspel, is a career officer who ran a secret prison in Thailand, where suspected terrorists were waterboarded after the September 11th attacks. She would be the first woman to head the agency. Haspel, who was named the CIA's deputy director in February of last year, briefly was in charge of the prison, or CIA black site, where accused terrorist Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri was waterboarded in 2002, The Associated Press has reported. She also helped to destroy the CIA's waterboarding videos, an order that resulted in a long Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. From 2003 to 2005, Haspel oversaw the interrogation program in which dozens of suspected terrorists also were deprived of sleep and stuffed into coffins, according to The New Yorker. Trump has supported waterboarding, the harsh interrogation technique that simulates drowning. Haspel, who joined the agency in 1985, would need to be confirmed as director by the U.S. Senate. She would replace Mike Pompeo, who would become secretary of state. Haspel served as chief of station at several CIA outposts abroad, and held top senior leaderships in Washington, D.C., including deputy director of the National Clandestine Service, a section of the CIA. She was deputy director of the CIA's Russia Group and NBC News reported that, according to former colleagues, she has a conventional, hardline view of Russia as a dangerous adversary. But she was passed over as director of the National Clandestine Service in 2013, after serving as acting director for two months, when California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein in particular raised concerns about her role in the controversial interrogation program. Her confirmation hearing will likely focus on that chapter in the CIA, after the Bush administration authorized the use of techniques such as waterboarding, which the U.S. government had previously regarded as torture "It's no secret Ive had concerns in the past with her connection to the CIA torture program and have spent time with her discussing this," Feinstein said in a statement Tuesday. "To the best of my knowledge she has been a good deputy director and I look forward to the opportunity to speak with her again." Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said that he wanted to hear about the extent of Haspel's involvement in the CIA's interrogation program, her beliefs about torture and her approach to current law. "In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, our government squandered precious moral authority in a futile effort to produce intelligence by means of torture," he said. "We are still dealing with the consequences of that desperately misguided decision." Any nominee for CIA director must pledge to uphold the current ban on harsh interrogation techniques, he said. Haspel said in a statement that after 30 years as an officer with the CIA, she had been honored to serve as its deputy director alongside Pompeo for the last year. "I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency," she said. "If confirmed, I look forward to providing President Trump the outstanding intelligence support he has grown to expect during his first year in office." A former CIA director, John Brennan, praised Haspel's competence and integrity and told MSNBC that there was tremendous respect for her within the ranks. He acknowledged that she was involved in a very controversial program, a role that he predicted would receive close scrutiny during her confirmation process, but said that he thought she deserved the chance to take the helm at the CIA. Asked if he would vouch for her, he said, "I vouch for her capabilities, her experience, her expertise, and I do have confidence that she will carry out the duties of director well. I just hope that in this administration where it seems as though loyalty seems to be the highest priority, that Gina Haspel speaks truth to power and represents the CIA in a apolitical, nonpartisan and honest and objective way." Some Democrats, the ACLU and other civil rights advocates objected when she was named deputy director last year. "I am especially concerned by reports that this individual was involved in the unauthorized destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, which documented the CIA's use of torture against two CIA detainees," Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island wrote in a letter to Pompeo at the time. Christopher Anders, deputy director of the ACLU's Washington legislative office, said in a statement Tuesday that Haspel was "up to her eyeballs in torture." "The CIA must declassify and release every aspect of Haspel's torture record before considering the nomination," the statement added. CORRECTION (March 16, 11:30 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article incorrectly described Gina Haspels role in the interrogations of suspected terrorist Abu Zubaydah. NBC News now reports that she was not present at those interrogations, according to current and former U.S. officials. Enfield High School is one of dozens of schools to be awarded grant money in connection with the new NBC show, "Rise." NBC is giving money to school drama clubs across the country as its show about a teacher who takes over a struggling school theater department debuts on Tuesday night. Enfield High School's Lamplighters drama club will receive $10,000. This is what I want to do with my life, Cole Wood, a senior at Enfield High, said. I have made long friends through Lamplighters. Ive learned social skills and confidence. Along with his classmate, Brendan Turner, Wood made a video and applied for the grant from NBC. Enfield High School was one of 50 winners out of thousands of entries from across the nation. Having more money were able to get better sound equipment, maybe better props, Turner said. Thanks to help from this grant, Enfield High School is starting new drama classes next year. It couldnt be more timely, Erin Clark, Enfield High's principal said. Weve had budget cuts and a budget freeze recently so having that extra money to make sure that the kids have the supplies they need to have some exciting work in the classroom, its really going to make a difference in the program here. It means that other people like myself get to experience and find their dream in the arts, Wood said. "Rise" debuts Tuesday at 10 p.m. on NBC Connecticut. A man who allegedly shot a customer at a convenience store in New London early Monday morning was arrested later in the day, police told NBC Connecticut. The suspect, Taj Johnson, 23, is accused of shooting a customer in their back at the Ravi Petro Food Mart at 290 Broad Street around 1:40 a.m. The victim was taken to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital then airlifted to Yale-New Haven Hospital for treatment. At last check he was in critical condition, police said. A police K9 was brought in to help with the investigation, but police were not able to locate the 23-year-old shooter who fled on foot. Later in the morning, police were notified about a fight between two men at the New London Library on Huntington Street. When police got to the scene, it was reported that one of the men had a firearm and had fled. Schools were contacted and a school lockdown was initiated out of precaution. After searching for the suspect, police located Johnson on Crystal Avenue and State Pier Road before bringing him into custody just after 11:40 a.m. A stolen .380 semi-auto pistol was found on Johnson during his arrest. Johnson faces charges that include threatening, breach of peace, assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a pistol without a permit. Anyone with information is asked to call the New London Police Department Detective Division at (860) 447-1481. Police have arrested a man after seizing more than 1,500 packages of edible marijuana gummies during a drug investigation that led to South Windsor. Manchester police said 32-year-old Jeremy Freeman faces drug charges after an investigation that began in February. According to police, the Eastern Central Narcotics task force, which focuses efforts on the Manchester, South Windsor, Vernon and Glastonbury communities, was looking into reports of a large marijuana operation and learned marijuana was being shipped from California to an address in South Windsor. With a search warrant, police intercepted one of the packages and found 339 marijuana gummy packets from Infused Creations. Upon further search, police seized another four packages, all containing more marijuana packets. In total, police found 1,588 individual gummy packets, each containing different styles of the edibles. Police said these packages usually sell for around $25 in California and $50 in Connecticut. Freeman, who police said took the packages and leased the space where they were being delivered, was arrested. He was charged with possession of more than one kilogram of marijuana with intent to sell, operating a drug factory, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Anyone with information on illegal drug activity in the area can contact the East Central Narcotics Task Force at 860-645-5548. State employees who work the second shift should report to work on their normal schedule Tuesday, according to Gov. Dannel Malloy. On Tuesday morning, he called for nonessential, first-shift state employees not to report to work on Tuesday because of the noreaster. The governor is asking commuters to go slow on the roads and leave plenty of time for travel, especially in eastern Connecticut, which has gotten heavy snow. All Connecticut judicial branch offices have been closed for the day. The Dallas Police Department issued a community awareness bulletin Monday night after two package bombs exploded in Austin. The statement indicates that there has been no similar incidents in Dallas, and no threats or connections have been made to the North Texas area. Dallas Police did offer some reminders to consider to keep anyone safe. If you observe a package at your residence that is not related to a recent purchase or order made by anyone in your residence, do NOT touch it. Do not let anyone near it. Call 911 and report the package. If you have made a recent purchase or order and observe a package at your residence that is NOT clearly addressed to you, does NOT contain a return address, or appears suspicious for any other reason, do NOT touch it. Do not let anyone near it. Call 911 and report it. If you observe any package at your residence that you find suspicious due to any noise it is making, any peculiar odor, or because of leaking powders or liquids, or suspicious wires/strings, do NOT touch it. Do not let anyone near it. Call 911 and report it. At the end of the release Dallas Police emphasized that there is currently no threat to the city by saying "We would like to emphasize that at this time we have no indication that the events in Austin are related to our area and we just want to provide you with information that is helpful anytime you are dealing with packages at your residence." The body of a Dallas firefighter killed in a helicopter crash Sunday in New York City returned home Tuesday to a hero's welcome. Brian McDaniel and friend Trevor Cadigan, both 26, were among the five people who died after the helicopter in which they were riding went down in the East River. The medical examiner's office ruled the victims' deaths accidental and said each died from drowning. Only the helicopter pilot survived. Firefighters gave a water cannon salute at D/FW airport to the plane delivering the body of Dallas firefighter Brian McDaniel - who was killed in a helicopter crash in New York City. The United Airlines plane carrying McDaniel's body arrived at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to a water cannon salute from D/FW firefighters. First Responders meet the plane bringing firefighter Brian McDaniel home. His body is back in North Texas. He was killed in a helicopter crash in NYC during a trip https://t.co/zOcJoR9SuP pic.twitter.com/cRPtqwowL3 Diana Zoga (@DianaNBC5) March 13, 2018 Several of McDaniel's fellow Dallas Fire-Rescue firefighters met the plane at the gate, and they were joined by D/FW Airport firefighters in paying their respects as the casket draped in an American flag was transferred to a hearse. A fire engine and ladder truck from the station where McDaniel worked, Station 36, then helped lead a procession from the airport to an East Dallas funeral home. [[476729353,C]] Cadigan's family has filed a lawsuit against Liberty Helicopters and others following the deadly crash. The suit calls the passenger harness systems a "death trap" in a water crash. Liberty Helicopters has referred all inquiries to federal officials. Firefighters who worked with Brian McDaniel, the Dallas firefighter killed in a helicopter crash in New York City, say it's tough coming back to work at the station and seeing his coat on the wall. A Riverside man who fled to Mexico in an effort to evade police was arrested for the 2008 shooting death of a 23-year-old man. Twenty-nine-year old Aexel Eduardo DeLeon, who is accused of fatally shooting Alexandro Bega, was located March 7 in Tijuana, Mexico. He was later arrested at the San Ysidro Port of Entry for the alleged homicide. On Oct. 10, 2008, Riverside police responded to a shooting call at a USA Gas Station in the 3900 block of Tyler Street. There, they found Bega suffering from gunshot wounds and transported him to a hospital, where he died. Detectives revealed there was a physical confrontation that ultimately led to Begas death. They also learned that DeLeon fled to Mexico. DeLeon has been booked at the Robert Presley Detention Center. It is unknown if he has an attorney. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact Detective Adrian Tillett of the Riverside Police Departments Homicide Investigation at 951-353-7105. A mandatory evacuation ordered Monday evening ahead of a round of wet weather for residents living near burn scars was lifted late Tuesday morning. View the evacuation map here. All residents living in the extreme risk areas, near the Thomas, Sherpa, and Whittier burn areas, were ordered to leave by 8 p.m. Monday, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office. The storm, the first of three expected this week, moved through the region Tuesday morning. Residents in the high risk areas (yellow) were under recommended evacuations, though any residents with large animals were asked to consider leaving Monday. Click here to see assessments in all California burn areas. The 101 Freeway was to remain open for evacuating residents. If the highway needs to be closed due to mudflow or flooding, the California Highway Patrol will do so just before the most intense part of the storm, authorities said. Get the latest information on alerts here. Anyone who needs help evacuating large and small animals is asked to contact the Santa Barbara County Animal Services hotline at 805-681-4332. NBC4 meteorologist Shanna Mendiola said the week will start off with areas of low clouds and fog in the morning, that could slow down the commute. Then Tuesday, chances of rain are back in the forecast. Two storms this week will bring periods of rain into SoCal, from Monday night to Wednesday morning, and another round Thursday Morning to Saturday night. Massachusetts State Police say they have solved a 32-year-old cold case involving the 1986 murder of a 15-year-old girl from Kingston. State police detectives, as well as the Plymouth police and Kingston police departments, had continued to investigate Tracy Gilpin's murder for the past three decades, resulting in information that led them to travel to North Carolina recently. There, over the past week, state police investigators, with assistance from the Troutman and Mooresville police departments in North Carolina, extensively interviewed their suspect, Michael Hand, 61, of Troutman. Statements made by Hand during these interviews led authorities to arrest him at his home on March 9. He was charged as a fugitive from justice based on an arrest warrant issued for the murder of Tracy. Hand was then transported to the Iredell County Detention Center where he was brought before a magistrate. Based on the charges against him and his potential to be a flight risk, he was given no bond. Authorities have already begun rendition proceedings to have Hand brought back to Massachusetts to be prosecuted for Tracy's killing. Hand is expected to appear in court in North Carolina on Monday to determine extradition. Once returned to Massachusetts, Hand will be arraigned at Plymouth District Court and charged with Tracy's murder. Tracy's older sister, Col. Kerry Gilpin, is the superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police. For the past three decades, we have remained hopeful that Tracys murderer would be identified. The much-welcomed news of an arrest in the case leaves us cautiously optimistic that justice for Tracy is within reach," Col. Gilpin said. "My thoughts today are not just with my own family, but also with all the families who have lost loved ones to violence. We will continue to work tirelessly to find justice for all murder victims. On Oct. 1, 1986, Tracy headed out to a party not far from her house. She left the party with two friends around 10:30 p.m. to head home. Her friends walked with Tracy until they reached their homes, and she then continued walking by herself. She stopped to buy cigarettes at a local Cumberland Farms, but never made it home. Three weeks later, on Oct. 22, a woman stumbled upon Tracy's body in Myles Standish Park in Plymouth, about 14 miles from where she had gone missing. Authorities later said Tracy had been murdered, and the cause of death was determined to be a massive skull fracture. Its believed she was killed on the night she disappeared. Democrat Conor Lamb is the apparent winner in the closely watched special election in Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district, NBC News projected. A surprisingly strong bid by the first-time candidate has severely tested Donald Trump's sway in a GOP stronghold. There are only 200 outstanding votes, all absentee ballots in Greene County and the provisional ballots that the district will count within the next 7 days. Even with those added to the count, it does not appear that Republican Rick Saccone will be able to catch up. Lamb, who declared victory early Wednesday morning, was leading by 641 votes. Saccone has not conceded and his campaign is in touch with legal counsel. Lamb, a Marine veteran, told his crowd that voters had directed him to "do your job" in Washington. "Mission accepted," he declared. Earlier, Saccone told his own supporters, "It's not over yet, we're going to fight all the way, all the way to the end, we'll never give up." Regardless of the outcome and a recount was possible Lamb's showing in a district Trump won by 20 points in the presidential race was sure to stoke anxiety among Republicans nationwide and renewed enthusiasm among Democrats. In a race this close, either candidate's supporters can ask for a recount. However, there are stiff requirements, including requiring three voters in the same precinct who can attest that error or fraud was committed. The stakes in the high-profile special election were more political than practical. The ultimate winner will face re-election in just eight months, and the congressional district as currently shaped will likely vanish next year thanks to a court-ordered redrawing of the state's district maps. Yet President Trump and his chief allies invested tremendous time and resources in keeping the seat in Republican hands, mindful the contest could be used to measure Trump's lasting appeal among white, working-class voters and Democrats' anti-Trump fervor. House Speaker Paul Ryan privately warned Republicans of a "bit of a wake-up call" in Lamb's apparent victory, telling House Republicans Wednesday they need to "get to work" and not be caught off guard heading into a midterm campaign, according to two people familiar with Ryan's remarks and who spoke on condition of anonymity. Publicly, Ryan was more upbeat, blaming the Pennsylvania outcome on Lamb's centrist views, saying, "you're not going to see repeated" in November. He urged colleagues to tout the GOP-passed tax plan and remind voters that Democrats opposed it. The White House scrambled to rally voters behind Saccone, who cast himself as the president's "wingman," but he struggled at times to connect with the blue-collar coalition that fueled Trump's victory little more than a year ago. Lamb, a 33-year old former federal prosecutor, asserted his independence from the Democratic Party, courted labor backing and focused on local issues. He studiously downplayed his opposition to the Republican president in the district where Trump's support has slipped by not plummeted. "This didn't have much to do with President Trump," Lamb said Tuesday after casting his vote in suburban Pittsburgh. The president has campaigned in the district twice and sent several tweets on Saccone's behalf. Other recent visitors include the vice president, the president's eldest son, the president's daughter and the president's chief counselor. Outside groups aligned with Republicans poured more than $10 million of dollars into the contest. For Democrats, a win would reverberate nationwide, while even a narrow loss would be viewed as a sign of increased Democratic enthusiasm just as the midterm season begins. Lamb's excited supporters included his middle school football and basketball coach, Joe DelSardo, who recalled him as "a leader from the beginning." The former coach described the district as having "a lot of suit-and-tie people and people who dig in the dirt." Lamb, he said, "can talk to all of them, and that's why he can win." Registered Republican Brett Gelb said he voted for Saccone, largely because the Republican candidate promised to support the president. "Saccone backs a lot of President Trump's plans for the country," said Gelb, a 48-year-old fire technician who lives in Mt. Lebanon. He added, "I do think Trump is doing a good job. I think he needs backup." Democrats must flip 24 GOP-held seats this fall to seize control of the House, and months ago few had counted on the district to be in play. The seat has been in Republican hands for the past 15 years. It was open now only because longtime Republican congressman Tim Murphy, who espoused strong anti-abortion views, resigned last fall amid revelations of an extramarital affair in which he urged his mistress to get an abortion. With polls showing a tight race for months, Saccone tried to persuade the GOP-leaning electorate that their choice was about "making America great again," as the president repeatedly says. Saccone, a 60-year-old Air Force veteran turned state lawmaker and college instructor, enjoyed enthusiastic backing from the social conservatives who've anchored his state career. He's been perhaps at his most animated when emphasizing his opposition to abortion rights. Yet Saccone struggled to raise money and stir the same passions that helped Trump on his way to the White House. The consistent fundraising deficit left him with limited resources to air the message he delivered one-on-one: His four decades of experience in the private sector, international business and now the Legislature should make voters' choice a no-brainer. Lamb, meanwhile, excited core Democrats and aimed for independents and moderate Republicans. "We worked really hard for it," Lamb said after voting. National Republican groups filled airwaves and social media with depictions of the first-time candidate as little more than a lemming for Nancy Pelosi the Democratic House leader that Republicans love to hate. Lamb answered the criticism by saying he wouldn't support Pelosi as floor leader, much less as speaker if the Democrats should retake control of the House. He also said he opposes major new gun restrictions though he backs expanded background checks and declared himself personally opposed to abortion, despite his support for its legality. Besides bruising the president, a Lamb defeat also could shake Republican self-assurance that their new tax law can shield them from other political woes. Lamb embraced Democratic orthodoxy on the new GOP tax law, hammering it as a giveaway to corporations at the future expense of Social Security, Medicare and the nation's fiscal security. And he embraces unions, highlighting Saccone's anti-labor record at the statehouse, which was a notable deviation from the retiring Murphy's status as a union-friendly Republican. The AFL-CIO counts 87,000 voters from union households around a fifth of the electorate. Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed a bill Tuesday to license gun dealers in Illinois, despite pressure from Democrats, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to sign the legislation. Rauner, a first-term Republican, said in a statement that he vetoed Senate Bill 1657 because it "created onerous, duplicative bureaucracy that does little to improve public safety." Known as the Gun Dealer Licensing Act, the bill passed the legislature in late February and would have required criminal background checks for all gun shop employees, as well as training to help them identify a buyer who may be purchasing a gun for someone else. The bill also proposed requiring basic store security measures to help prevent theft and requiring that anyone who sells, leases or transfers firearms in any way be licensed by the state. Proponents of the bill said it would have helped deter straw purchasing and stem the flow of illegal firearms into Chicago and across the state, while those who do not support the measure - including Rauner - said it is unnecessary as the federal government already licenses gun dealers. "The core issue is not which guns to legally ban or regulate," Rauner said in a statement, adding, "We have ample proof that such narrowly focused legislative responses make for good political cover, but they do little to stop the illegal flow of guns into Illinois or prevent people from committing thousands of crimes in our state each year with illegal guns." There was an immediate and emotional reaction to the governors veto. NBC 5s Charlie Wojciechowski has the details. In his veto message, Rauner called on leaders in the Illinois House and Senate to appoint four members of their respective caucuses to a newly-formed "Legislative Public Safety Group." Rauner said the group would work with his administration to develop proposals on topics including school safety, mental health, crime prevention, economic revitalization and more. "We have to work together to develop public safety solutions that truly make a difference," Rauner said. Rauner first publicly revealed his plan to veto the bill in an interview with downstate radio station WJPF Tuesday morning, having previously evaded questions while maintaining that he had been "crystal clear" in his stance. "We've been doing a lot of homework, doing a lot of research on this and I have decided I am vetoing that bill," Rauner, who told WJPF he is a gun owner and longtime member of the National Rifle Association, said. "It's just not right," he continued, adding, "It's unnecessary, burdensome regulation. It's redundant on top of existing federal regulation. It's crushing to our small business owners and creates bureaucracy that really doesn't help keep our community safer." Rauner's veto came just one day after several leaders in the city of Chicago - including Emanuel, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson, the Illinois Gun Violence Prevention Coalition, state legislators and advocates - issued a public call for him to support the measure. Emanuel initially sent a letter signed by all 50 Chicago aldermen to Rauner on March 2, asking him to sign the bill. He later suggested that Rauner - facing a tough reelection battle - may not want to act on the legislation until after the upcoming primary on March 20. In a blistering statement Tuesday, Emanuel again referenced the election, claiming that with one week left, Rauner "just put his primary election ahead of his primary responsibility to protect the safety of the people of Chicago and Illinois." "The governor's decision was cruel, it was cold and it was calculated to benefit his own politics at the expense of public safety," Emanuel said. "This veto is a slap in the face to crime victims, faith leaders and police who have pleaded with Governor Rauner to protect public safety by signing the Gun Dealer Licensing Act. This failure will be his legacy," his statement ended. What to Know Fidel Castro's alleged former lover described Castro as very into himself, narcissistic. She said she was recruited by the CIA to work as a spy in New York. She claims to have met Lee Harvey Oswald in Miami shortly before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Marita Lorenz was just 19 when she met and fell in love with Fidel Castro. It was February 27, 1959. The Cuban revolution had just taken over. She sailed into Havana Harbor aboard the German ship her father captained. I didnt even know he was in power. He could have been a mechanic somewhere, she said. I fell for him hook, line and sinker. Almost six decades later, Fidel Castro's former lover lives in an assisted living facility in New York City, yet can recount her story of love and lies in full detail. Shes German American and is not fluent in Spanish. But she says she picked up a few words because of her time with Castro. She says Castro came aboard her fathers ship looking for her dad. But she says her father was napping, so she greeted Castro and the others. I told Fidel, Okay, you can come on board on the steps outside of the ship and he just looked at me, she recalled. He was the tallest of them and I said, Put your guns off, no guns. This is Germany. She says his response, But I am Cuba. She says after meeting him, she returned home to New York but got a call that he wanted her by his side. So, she returned to Havana and stayed with him for eight and a half months living in the Havana Hilton Hotel, renamed the Havana Libre after Castro took power and turned it into his headquarters. She says it was there in Room 2408 that their love affair began. Lorenz, 79, describes Castro as very into himself, narcissistic. She concedes she was very submissive and stupid in staying there waiting for him and believing him. Lorenz says she soon became pregnant with Castros child, but says it didnt end well. Over the years, shes given conflicting versions of what happened to her pregnancy. She told NBC 6 that the last thing she remembers is being given a glass of milk to drink at eight months pregnant. I was totally out of it. Drugged, she said. I woke up in a room with lights like that, and in severe pain, and thats all I remember. I dont know if the baby died or lived. Lorenz says she was sent back to the U.S. bleeding from the procedure performed on her in Havana. She says she was admitted to Roosevelt Hospital. And its there she says she went from lover to spy. They (the CIA) recruited me right in the hospital in New York, she said. They had my signature. They said, Now you work for us. They used very clever words. They used neutralize. They used put him to sleep and they said, if I could do that, they said, I could be a hero for the American people. Soon after being released from the hospital, Lorenz says she took poisoned pills provided by the CIA and returned to the Havana Libre. I laid down on the bed again beside him and he said, Did you come to do me harm? And I said, I came to kill you. But Lorenz says her love for Castro didn't allow her to carry out the mission. She says she put the pills in a jar of cold cream. Later, she flushed the pills down the toilet. She admits she failed to take the opportunity to change the course of history and the lives of generations of Cubans. Im very sad that I wasnt the person they wanted me to be. The robot that kills, she said. After the failed assassination attempt, Lorenz left Cuba again. She says she continued working for the U.S. government and anti-Castro groups, some of which were backed by the ousted Venezuelan General, Marcos Perez-Jimenez. Lorenz once again became the lover of a dictator--this time bearing a child she named Monica Perez-Jimenez. In the midst of the Cold War, Lorenz was linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. She claims to have met Lee Harvey Oswald in Miami shortly before the killing. She says Oswald was involved with organized crime. She testified before the Warren Commission but U.S. officials concluded that she was an unreliable source. She still bristles at being discounted. Thats their problem because everything checked out, she said. That was probably because they eliminated 36 pages because I named names. After living in Miami for a brief time, Lorenz returned to New York. There she had a son and worked as an FBI agent for several decades before retiring. She has written a book, The Spy Who Loved Castro, documenting her adventurous years. Lorenz says she was saddened when she learned of Castros death but says it was time to go. As for the twists and turns her life took, she says she has paid a price. Loneliness. I think loneliness with each event and a little guilt, she said. But I also had a lot of fun. What to Know President Trump killed Broadcom's proposed buyout of Qualcomm, citing national security concerns, the White House says A fertility clinic says thousands of frozen eggs and embryos may have been damaged after a liquid nitrogen failure in a storage tank Heather Locklear has been charged with several counts of battery against first responders who answered a domestic violence call at her home 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. House Intel Committee Draft Report: No Collusion With Russia Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have completed a draft report concluding there was no collusion or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, a finding that pleased the White House but enraged Democrats who had not yet seen the document. After a yearlong investigation, Texas Rep. Mike Conaway announced the committee has finished interviewing witnesses and will share the report with Democrats for the first time Tuesday. Conaway is the Republican leading the House probe, one of several investigations on Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. "We found no evidence of collusion," Conaway told reporters, suggesting that those who believe there was collusion are reading too many spy novels. "We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings. But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings or whatever, and weave that into sort of a fiction page-turner, spy thriller." Trump Cites Concerns as He Blocks Broadcom-Qualcomm Deal President Trump killed Broadcom's proposed buyout of Qualcomm, citing national security concerns, according to a statement issued by the White House. "There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that Broadcom Limited, a limited company organized under the laws of Singapore (Broadcom)...through exercising control of Qualcomm Incorporated (Qualcomm), a Delaware corporation, might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States," the statement said. Both companies were ordered to immediately abandon the proposed deal, CNBC reported. Eggs, Embryos Possibly Damaged at California Fertility Clinic A San Francisco fertility clinic says thousands of frozen eggs and embryos may have been damaged after a liquid nitrogen failure in a storage tank. Dr. Carl Herbert, president of Pacific Fertility Clinic, told the Washington Post that officials have informed some 400 patients of the failure that occurred March 4. Herbert says the clinic's staff thawed a few eggs and found they remain viable. He says they have not checked any of the embryos. A call to the clinic from The Associated Press seeking further details was not immediately returned. Pacific Fertility Clinic released a statement, saying in part: "The vast majority of the eggs and embryos in the lab were unaffected, and the facility is operating securely. As soon as the issue was discovered, our most senior embryologists took immediate action to transfer those tissues from the affected equipment to a new piece of equipment." It's the second such failure at a U.S. clinic in a matter of days. Last week, an Ohio hospital said more than 2,000 frozen eggs and embryos may have been damaged due to a refrigerator malfunction. Heather Locklear Charged With Battery of First Responders Heather Locklear has been charged with several counts of battery against first responders who answered a domestic violence call at her Southern California home. The 56-year-old "Melrose Place" actress was charged with four misdemeanor counts of battery on an officer or emergency personnel, and one misdemeanor count of resisting or obstructing an officer. Sheriff's officials said Locklear kicked, pushed and shouted at deputies who were answering a report that she had been violent with her boyfriend back on Feb. 26. No domestic violence charges have been filed. Locklear's representatives did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Defendants in misdemeanor cases generally do not have to appear in court in person if they are represented by an attorney. Bizarre Battle Over Body of Charles Manson Won by Grandson A grandson of cult leader Charles Manson has won the bizarre California court battle for the killer's corpse. A Kern County Superior Court commissioner ruled Jason Freeman of Florida can collect the remains of Manson from the morgue in Bakersfield. Manson's body has been on ice since he died in November in a Bakersfield hospital. He had been serving a life prison sentence for orchestrating the 1969 killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and eight others. The fight for Manson's remains was waged between Freeman, a man who claims he was fathered by Manson before his followers carried out the heinous slayings, and a pen pal who collects so-called Manson memorabilia. The dispute over the body foreshadows a similar fight over his estate in a Los Angeles courtroom. Thousands of children's shoes were on display outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday as a temporary memorial to children killed by gun violence. The Monument for Our Kids, made up for 7,000 pairs of shoes, represents every child killed with a gun since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, organizers said. The silent protest is intended to put pressure on lawmakers, Oscar Soria, spokesman for the online activist network Avaaz, told News4 last week. The group coordinated the display. "Before so many of us march in our capital and across the nation, we want to call attention to all those who can't and remind Congress that part of why we march is because [gun violence victims] can't," he said. Gun violence survivors attended the memorial dedication. The shoes were on display until 2 p.m. Tuesday on the southeast lawn of the Capitol. "We want to represent everyone who's been lost," said activist Andrew Nazdin. "We want to bring the tragedy that's been felt in communities across the country right to Congress' doorstep." Shoes were collected at several locations around the D.C. area, and the donation response was overwhelming. Several bags and boxes of shoes were collected in just one day at Barstons Child's Play in Northwest D.C. "I think people are really moved by trying to do something to prevent gun violence and see this as something they can do," Child's Play owner Simmie Kerman said. Organizers said last month's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, served as a catalyst for creating the memorial and sending a message to lawmakers. Nearly 1,300 children die every year after being shot, according to data published in June 2017 in the medical journal Pediatrics. Another 5,790 children are hurt, the researchers said. Avaaz multiplied the fatality rate by the 5 years and three months that have passed since the Sandy Hook massacre and reached the approximate death toll figure of nearly 7,000 children's lives lost. Avaaz orchestrated a similar display of 11,000 shoes in Paris, in November 2015, to represent activists' opposition to climate change. Authorities cancelled planned marches after the terror attacks in the city that month. Pope Francis and United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon were among those who donated shoes. Two days after the Parkland shooting, Avaaz parked three vehicles with billboards outside of Florida Sen. Marco Rubios office in Doral, Florida. The senator opposed a ban on the rifle used in the shooting that left 17 people dead. The billboards read "Slaughtered in school," "And still no gun control" and "How come, Marco Rubio?" The shoes are set to be donated to local homeless shelters and other charities. An Idaho state lawmaker urges her constituents to submit entries for her "fake news awards." The Kentucky governor tweets #FAKENEWS to dismiss questions about his purchase of a home from a supporter. An aide to the Texas land commissioner uses the phrase to downplay the significance of his boss receiving donations from employees of a company that landed a multimillion-dollar contract. President Donald Trump's campaign to discredit the news media has spread to officials at all levels of government, who are echoing his use of the term "fake news" as a weapon against unflattering stories. It's become ubiquitous as a signal to a politician's supporters to ignore legitimate reporting and hard questions, as a smear of the beleaguered and dwindling local press corps, and as a way for conservatives to push back against what they call biased stories. "When Trump announced he was going to do his fake news awards, a group of us conservative legislators said, 'We need to do that, too,'" said Idaho state Rep. Priscilla Giddings, who has urged supporters to send examples of "biased, misleading and fake news" and plans to announce her awards March 18. "We need people to wake up to the fact that just because it's on the front page of the Boise newspaper doesn't mean it's 100 percent true." The winners of the contest, it turns out, will be announced at the end of Sunshine Week, an annual focus by the nation's news media on government transparency and the importance of a free press. Rhonda Prast, editor of the Idaho Statesman in Boise, said it was ridiculous for anyone to assert that it would publish a story it knew contained falsehoods. "The Statesman has a longstanding reputation as a reliable paper of record going back 154 years and our standards for accuracy and fairness have never changed," she said in a statement. "The allegations of 'fake news' are unjust attacks on a free press." Giddings used the term herself last year to dismiss a report from another newspaper suggesting she may have been unqualified to run for office because she was claiming a homeowner's exemption outside of her district. She said she's submitting paperwork to prove the break was legitimate. Experts on the press and democracy say the cries of "fake news" could do long-term damage by sowing confusion and contempt for journalists and by undermining the media's role as a watchdog on government and politicians. They say it's already exacerbated the lack of trust in media by conservatives and contributed to hostility that sometimes turns violent. In the last year, at least three political figures have been implicated in physical assaults on reporters asking questions, while journalists have been attacked in dozens of other incidents by protesters, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. "I worry about the ongoing attack on the legitimacy of the media by President Trump and some of his supporters. The press is hardly perfect, of course, but it is also an important mechanism of accountability for people in power," said Brendan Nyhan, a professor of government at Dartmouth College. "This kind of rhetoric is potentially corrosive to trust in the media and to people's willingness to accept information that is critical of politicians they support." Nyhan was among the authors of a recent study for the Poynter Institute that found partisan divisions in the public's attitudes toward the press. More Democrats now have more faith in the press, while Republicans have far more negative views and are "more likely to endorse extreme claims about media fabrication, to describe journalists as an enemy of the people, and to support restrictions on press freedom," the study found. The routine labeling of factual reporting as "fake news" comes as actual fake news proliferates on the internet. Media researcher Craig Silverman helped popularize the term in 2014 as a label for completely fabricated stories written and spread by individuals seeking profit. Now the news media editor at BuzzFeed, he wrote recently that he cringes when he hears anyone use the term, which he said became a partisan weapon after Trump's election in 2016. Silverman wrote that political figures are manipulating social media to "literally brand real things as fake" and manufacture reality for their followers. Politicians who have used the term in recent months in response to news reporting include the governor of Maine, a New Mexico congressional candidate, the Georgia secretary of state and the vice chairman of Trump's now-disbanded voter fraud commission. A California school board president repeatedly used the term to attack a journalist investigating the area's high rate of teenage pregnancy and its sex education policies. The cries of "fake news" create a quandary for reporters, who want to defend their stories while also not giving credence to the charge. "Our members, many of whom work for small news outlets, are bearing the brunt of these unwarranted attacks, and it's completely unfair. These are people who are serving the community," said Rebecca Baker, president of the Society of Professional Journalists. "Some are just ignoring it, and some are fighting back." Baker suggests that journalists respond to the attacks by showing their work as much as possible by sharing the audio, video and documents that back up their stories. She wonders whether the term is starting to lose its clout from overuse, but also worries that whichever party controls the White House, Congress and state governments in the future will continue to use the tactic. "This is part and parcel of the polarization of our politics right now," she said. Mike Pompeo's hawkish instincts may seem at odds with traditional diplomatic norms. But after 14 demoralizing months of budget cuts and staffing reductions for the State Department, his conservative political bent and closeness to President Donald Trump could breathe new vigor into an agency all too often sidelined on many of the nation's most pressing national security matters. Pompeo, the outgoing CIA chief, will bring a new, blunt-speaking style to the job of secretary of state, strikingly different from Rex Tillerson's understated approach. Pompeo's arrival in Foggy Bottom also promises far more aggressive stances on Iran and North Korea, and he'll at least start with Trump's full confidence something Tillerson never enjoyed. "One of the most important jobs for the secretary of state is to make clear to the world the president's policies and priorities," Sen. Lindsey Graham, an establishment Republican and initial Tillerson backer, said Tuesday, after Trump announced via tweet that Pompeo would replace Tillerson. "No one has a stronger relationship with President Trump than Mike Pompeo. This relationship will empower him throughout his tenure as secretary of state." Tillerson had been widely criticized for an aloof management style, which had alienated droves of career diplomats and driven many of the agency's senior brass into early retirements. But his foreign policy was far less controversial, as he hewed to much of the agency's pragmatic approach, from climate change to free trade agreements, and to preserving the Iran nuclear deal, even when that put him at odds with his president and his most conservative supporters. In Pompeo, the diplomats and civil servants who make up the 70,000-strong department may now encounter the opposite: a fiercely partisan veteran of some of the most bitter battles in Congress while he was a House Republican, and someone willing to jeopardize his reputation to defend Trump, as evidenced when he called up journalists to try to discredit a New York Times story outlining Trump campaign connections to Russia. But Pompeo also helped engineer a detente between Trump and the U.S. intelligence agencies after the incoming president likened them to Nazis. In doing so, Pompeo never lost his access to Trump, or experienced a mass revolt to his leadership like Tillerson faced at the State Department. "Tillerson's ouster is a sign of continued turbulence in U.S. foreign policy," said Jessica Chen Weiss, a Cornell University professor. "A potential silver lining is that the State Department will fare better under someone who has Trump's ear." Immediately, there were calls for Pompeo to abandon Tillerson's plans to shrink the department and empower marginalized diplomats. While some opponents lambasted the former Kansas lawmaker for his posturing on a House panel that investigated Hillary Clinton and the 2012 Benghazi attack, some Democrats held out hope he could lead a State Department turnaround. Rep. Adam Schiff, a harsh critic of Trump and Tillerson, said Pomepo would be wise to let the State Department's talent "do their jobs." Referencing the departure of many senior diplomats, Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, said Pompeo will "need to recruit and fill the many offices that have been left vacant." While Tillerson sought to reduce staffing at embassies and consulates abroad, and seemed to hoard many of the agency's minutest decisions among a small group of advisers, Pompeo sent more spies to the field and tried to improve the CIA's agility and speed by cutting bureaucratic red tape and moving decision-making down the chain of command. Pompeo said his goal as America's spymaster was to create a culture that says: "If you are in a process and you're not adding value, get out of the way." Pompeo and Tillerson navigated different paths with Trump, too. While Tillerson survived a tumultuous year amid rampant speculation that the White House wanted him out, he was unable to use a much-touted alliance with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to keep his job. Pompeo took a more direct approach, carefully cultivating Trump and even assuming the previously lower-level responsibility of delivering the daily presentation of intelligence to the president in the Oval Office. Bigger questions loom about Pompeo's ability to counteract Trump's often unpredictable decision-making processes. For all of Tillerson's bureaucratic stumbles, some of the president's most bitter adversaries credited the ex-oilman with acting as an adult and serving with dignity even as Trump publicly humiliated him. And, as Trump noted Tuesday, he and Pompeo have a "similar thought process" on the Iran deal, which Trump has threatened to abandon unless there are significant changes by May. Tillerson "has been a poor advocate for the State Department, but he served as a Cabinet-level check on some of President Trump's worst impulses," said Thomas Countryman, one of the career diplomats who left in early 2017. Countryman, who was assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, said if Pompeo "has a disdain for diplomacy mirroring Trump's, it will be bad for the department and the country." What to Know The third nor'easter to hit the region in 10 days swirled in overnight, punishing the region with snow and wind during the AM commute Heavy snow bands lingered over the eastern end of Long Island and Fairfield County in Connecticut, which saw nearly a foot by noon Conditions improved over the course of the day The third nor'easter to hit the tri-state area in 10 days dumped nearly a foot of snow on parts of Long Island and Connecticut, but largely spared most of the rest of a region weary of late-winter storms. Long Island saw the region's highest snow totals, with 11 inches of powder falling on both Dix Hills in Suffolk County and Plainview in Nassau County. Fairfield County, Connecticut, also saw significant snowfall totals; Newtown got the most with 10.8 inches. New York City was largely spared, with most areas seeing less than one inch of snow. Queens neighborhoods Littleneck and Bayside were outliers, with 4 inches and 3.3 inches, respectively. New Jersey, likewise, saw little in the way of accumulation; Cedar Grove got 3.3 inches of snow, marking the state's highest total. Storm Team 4 Breaks Down Timing, Expectations for 3rd Nor'easter Though the latest nor'easter stayed further offshore than the last two, the entire tri-state got clipped by the system. For most, it proved little more than a nuisance. The latest noreaster is dumping heavy snow on Long Island, and Suffolk County is seeing its snow budget for the year nearly wiped. Katherine Creag reports. The nor'easter approached Monday night with light snow and a wintry mix, before it turned to more snow overnight. The heaviest snow bands came through the Tuesday morning rush, making for treacherous travel in spots. Amtrak said Tuesday morning that it was suspending service between Boston and New York City for the entire day because of the nor'easter, which is expected to be much more severe in parts of New England. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said state offices were closed on Tuesday. [NATL]The Most Extreme Nor'easters in US History Winds speeds were between 15 to 25 mph, but many places were saw gusts top 30 mph at times, especially along the coast, Storm Team 4 said. Highs ranged from the upper 30s to low 40s. Conditions gradually improved early Tuesday evening as the storm moved out, but the afternoon commute was slow and slippery as plows continued to clear and salt roads, particularly in the hardest-hit areas. A few flurries or spotty snow showers are possible Tuesday night as well. That chance for flurries will stick around through Thursday, but it should be crisp with plenty of sunshine for St. Patrick's Day and get warmer -- around 50 -- on Sunday. The storm came as tens of thousands of people are still without power after a double whammy of nor'easters brought down power lines earlier this month. Those destructive nor'easters of the past two weeks -- one hit on March 2 and another on March 7 -- have been blamed on multiple deaths across the tri-state, including a young boy who was hit by a falling tree and a driver who was electrocuted when he drove near a live wire. Fourth Nor'easter in Three Weeks Rolls Into Tri-State, Once Again Buries Region and Knocks Out Power Lulled asleep by the humming of their Texas-bound charter bus following a trip to Disney World, members of a high school band were jarred awake before dawn Tuesday when the rig ran off a highway and plunged into a deep ravine. One person died, driver Harry Caligone, and about three dozen others were hurt, six seriously, authorities and the bus company said. Interstate 10 was blocked for hours where the accident occurred between Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida. A bus carrying Texas high school band members home from a spring break trip to Disney World plunged into a ravine before dawn Tuesday in Alabama, killing one person and injuring many others. The cause of the crash wasn't immediately known, but survivors from Channelview High School in metro Houston described being asleep one moment and tumbling through the air the next. Student DeWayne Benson, 15, told KTRK-TV by telephone he awoke to hear the band director repeatedly say "Harry" before the bus hit a series of bumps followed by one "huge bump." Mother of student, DeWayne Benson who was a passenger on the bus crash in Alabama, spoke to reporters. Her son was uninjured in the crash, but he told her about the moments that occurred soon after the bus left the road. "Some students were stuck under seats, some were on top of other students and there's a lot of panic to get people out," said Benson, who was taken to a hospital but wasn't injured. Students used cellphones as lights to get out and grabbed blankets to help people outside, he said. Temperatures were in the 40s at the time of the wreck, which happened around 5:30 a.m. First responders used ropes to rappel down the more than 50-foot (15-meter) ravine in the middle of I-10 and then had to cut some of the victims from the wreckage, said Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack. The Channelview Independent School District said 40 students and six adults from the school were on board. Medical officials said at least 37 people, most of them teenagers, were treated at hospitals or other facilities in Pensacola and southwest Alabama for injuries that ranged from minor to very serious. The sheriff said it wasn't immediately clear what caused the bus to enter the grassy median, which abruptly ends at a steep embankment where the interstate passes over Cowpen Creek. First Class Tours Inc., the bus operator, identified Caligone as a longtime driver with the company. The wife of bus driver, Harry Caligone killed in an Alabama bus crash, talked to reporters sharing fond memories of her husband. Channelview High's graduates include University of Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts, who tweeted: "Wow, praying for everyone involved! #PrayforChannelview." Josh Torres said his 17-year-old sister, Bianca Torres, was sitting at the rear of the bus when the impact of the wreck tossed her forward several rows. She had pain in her legs and bruising but was otherwise unscathed and taken to a hospital for evaluation, he said. "All that she remembers is that she felt a bump, then a crash and then the bus flipping onto its side," Torres said. The interstate was closed down in both directions as the injured were flown to hospitals including emergency rooms in Mobile and Pensacola, Florida, plus a free-standing emergency room in rural Baldwin County, said Chris Elliott, a Baldwin County commissioner. "Everybody is being transferred to a hospital to at least be checked out," said Elliott. Torres said his brother, also a member of the Channelview band, was on another bus not involved in the accident. That bus stopped after realizing what happened, but did not allow the students to get off, and eventually continued on to Channelview, a Houston suburb of about 38,000. It arrived at the high school there Tuesday afternoon with a police escort. The bus drove past a throng of reporters and into a part of the campus out of public view. Only hours before the crash, the band's Facebook page had been updated to show a large group posing outside Disney World, where the band performed at a music festival Saturday. Norman Haynes of Victoria, Texas, said his daughter, 18-year-old trumpet player Makena Campa, was headed home on the bus with her mother. He spoke with both of them after the crash and was on his way to the hospital. "My daughter was really groggy because they had her on some very heavy pain medication," he said. "They sounded kind of shook up. I think I'd be shook up as well." The bus charter company pledged to help local authorities investigating the crash in a statement that offered prayers for injured and their families. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration gives First Class Tours a satisfactory rating, meaning records show no evidence of substantial non-compliance with safety requirements. NTSB investigators gave the latest updates into the Alabama bus crash that killed the driver. The bus was carrying students on their way back from DisneyWorld. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records show that in the last two years, the carrier has been involved in four crashes prior to Tuesday's crash, with one of those one involving one fatality. The previous crash involving a fatality took place in May 2017 in Houston, when a bus failed to yield the right of way as it turned left and fatally struck a pedestrian in a crosswalk, according to a police report. ___ Reeves reported from Birmingham, Ala., and Anderson from Loxley. Associated Press contributors include Bill Kaczor in Pensacola, Florida; David Warren in Dallas; Michael Graczyk in Channelview, Texas; Rebecca Santana in New Orleans; and Jamie Stengle in Dallas. Dozens gathered at in Barrio Logan and Downtown San Diego Monday to protest President Donald Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall and deportation policies. This coming one day before the president is scheduled to come to San Diego Tuesday. On his agenda, talks with local marines as well as examination of the border wall prototypes in Otay Mesa. Immigration groups, politicians and activists gathered to speak out against the border wall at Chicano Park Monday morning. "I have voted to impeach Trump twice now," said California Congressman Juan Vargas (D-51), at the rally to a crowd. "We are peaceful people. It's Trump that brings the vitriol." But others in San Diego support President Trump and say there is a need for a border wall. "I'm hoping he can choose a prototype and they can start construction on it," said Troy Maddry. "I want our state and our country to be safe and I want people to come here legally." Trump's arrival Tuesday will come just days after his Justice Department sued to block a trio of state laws designed to protect people living in the U.S. illegally. Democratic Governor Jerry Brown likened it to "an act of war" with Trump's administration. "The State of California is sheltering dangerous criminals in a brazen and lawless attack on our Constitutional system of government," Trump said in his weekly address, accusing California's leaders of being "in open defiance of federal law." "They don't care about crime. They don't care about death and killings. They don't care about robberies," he said, calling on Congress to block the state's federal funds. The state of California has also joined lawsuits aimed at stopping construction of the border wall; and its judges have repeatedly ruled against policies Trump has tried to enact. At the rally in Chicano Park, speakers accused Trump of being racist. They added they will continue to protest the border wall to ensure it is never built. "We want to make sure the President understands that San Diego, as well as other border communities, reject his ideas for border wall proposals," said Pedro Rios, director of American Friends Service Committee. "We reject his deportation force." Another group gathered outside of the Federal Building in Downtown and urged the president to "build bridges, not walls." The group, Union Barrio, focused on the president's border wall plan, immigration legislation and alleged disrespect towards Hispanic communities, saying that his actions will tear families apart. "This is the only country I've known. I've made my life here, I'm going to college here," one protester said. "We're being looked down upon as racists and thieves." Some people just hoped that San Diegans on both side of the aisle keep things civil on Tuesday out of respect. "Regardless of whether people like him as president or not, we hope to see people respecting him because the truth of the matter is he is our president," El Cajon resident Lindsey Anderson said. Last week, Oakland's mayor warned residents of an impending immigration raid a move that Trump called disgraceful and said put law enforcement officers at risk. Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of flying in to Otay Mesa to pick the winning design for the border wall, telling rallygoers last year in Alabama: "I'm going to go out and look at them personally and pick the right one." A key member of President Donald Trumps national security team is already in San Diego. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen arrived in San Diego Monday on a last-minute scheduled visit, on her way home from South Korea. Secretary Nielsen spent the morning getting an aerial tour of the border wall prototypes before landing at the U.S. Coast Guard. She addressed the members of the Coast Guard Monday, emphasizing her four priorities as DHS Secretary: border security, counterterrorism, increasing national resilience, and cybersecurity. While weve worked extraordinarily hard to raise the bar in security across the globe, we are constantly reminded we live in a very dangerous time and a dangerous world, Secretary Nielsen said. Secretary Neilsen got a tour of some of San Diegos most important ports, by boat. The Coast Guards Maritime Security Response Team demonstrated maneuvers in the water that are used during large-scale anti-terrorism efforts. This is Secretary Nielsens first visit to San Diego since her confirmation in December 2017. She will be touring the wall prototypes with President Trump tomorrow. The principal of a private, Christian school in Northwest D.C. says a teacher was suspended after two students said the teacher pushed a desk into one student and left bruises on the neck of another. A concerned mother contacted News4 after her 13-year-old son left the Preparatory School of DC with bruises on his neck. They say that on Wednesday, the teacher attacked the student. The seventh-grader had refused to leave the classroom when the teacher told him to go out in the hallway, the schools principal, Betty North, said. A classmate who said he witnessed the attack said the teacher was angry, grabbed his student and then forced him out the door. [The teacher] got angry and grabbed him by the back of the neck and pushed him down to his waist area and shoved him out the door, the student said. The teacher put his hands on the 13-year-old to get him out of the room, North said. But she said the student wasnt attacked or grabbed. [The student] was pushing back. When he pushed back, the pressure from [the teachers] hand [was] pushing him forward. That created the problem, she said, demonstrating on News4's Shomari Stone. She mimed that the teacher placed a hand on the back of the boy's neck and another on his shoulder and back area. Another student said the same teacher was aggressive with him after he expressed confusion in class. I told him I didnt understand the questions, the student said. So he pushed a desk into me. Teachers are instructed not to touch students, North said. The teacher was still in the classroom Monday, but was suspended Tuesday, North told News4. She also said the school has launched an internal investigation. The seventh-grader's mother said she was too upset to speak on camera. The schools website says it is a nonprofit school that educates children from infancy through high school. Two package bomb blasts a few miles apart killed a teenager and wounded two women in Austin on Monday, less than two weeks after a similar attack left a man dead in another part of the city. The first of Monday's attacks killed a 17-year-old boy and wounded a 40-year-old woman, both of them black. As Police Chief Brian Manley held a news conference to discuss that blast, authorities were called to the scene of another explosion that injured a 75-year-old Hispanic woman. She was taken to a hospital with potentially life-threatening wounds. Authorities suspect that both of Monday's blasts were linked to a March 2 attack that killed a 39-year-old black man, and they urged the public to call police if they receive any unexpected packages. "This is the third in what we believe to be related incidents over the past 10 days," Manley said while briefing reporters near the site of Monday's second explosion. He at first suggested that the blasts could constitute a hate crime, but later amended that to say authorities had not settled on a motive and could not rule anything out. "We are not ruling anything out at this point," said Manley, who said the intended targets were not clear since multiple people live in the homes where explosives were placed. "We are willing to investigate any avenue that may be involved." The police chief refused to provide many details about the explosives, citing the ongoing investigation. But he said they were an "average size letter box" and "not particularly large." In all three cases, he said, the packages did not appear to have gone through the U.S. Postal Service or private carriers like UPS but were left on doorsteps without a knock or ringing of doorbells. The explosions happened far from the main events of the wildly popular festival known as SXSW, which brings about 400,000 visitors to Austin each year. The police chief urged visitors to "be aware of what's going on." "Enjoy yourself. Have a good time," he said. "There's no reason to believe that you are at any greater risk other than be aware, look for things that are suspicious." In a tweet, organizers said, "SXSW is heartbroken by the explosions in Austin," and they urged visitors to stay safe and alert police if they see any suspicious activity. Four years ago, a driver plowed through a barricade and into festival-goers, killing four people and injuring many others. Additional security measures were taken in the aftermath, including additional policing, tougher security checks and brighter street lighting, among others. The three explosions occurred in different parts of east Austin. Monday's first blast happened at a home in Springdale Hills, a leafy neighborhood of houses mostly from the 1960s and 1970s. After the attack, officials in hazardous materials suits came and went regularly. That was about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the home where the March 2 package bomb killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House. House's death was initially investigated as suspicious but is now viewed as a homicide. The day's second explosion occurred around the Montopolis neighborhood, about 5 miles south of the day's first blast. A neighbor who was home at the time of Monday's second bombing initially thought it sounded like a gas pipeline explosion. Brandon Rendon said he's lived in the neighborhood for 27 years and couldn't believe this happened so close to home. "It's unreal," he said. "For an explosion to go off like that it could have been anybody. A kid, or anybody, so it's just...it's just very scary." Joanna Samarripa, who lives around the corner, said she saw a woman slumped in the doorway of the home after rushing over moments after the explosion. "The cops were running and telling everyone 'Get out of the house! Get out of the house!'" Samarripa said. "I'm still scared. I'm still shaking. I don't even want to leave my daughter no more." Neighbor Keith Reynolds heard what sounded to him like a propane explosion. He rushed outside and saw a cloud of hazy smoke and others on his street running to help. "There was a horrible screaming. You knew that something terrible was happening," Reynolds said, adding that the victim's body was riddled with holes as emergency responders took her out of the house and into an ambulance. "It's just a regular family neighborhood," he said. "It's just a grandmother, you know what I mean? Like, why?" FBI teams from Austin, San Antonio and Dallas were investigating as was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Manley said anyone receiving a package they were not expecting should call 911. "Under no circumstances should you touch them, move them or handle them in any way," he said. The victims in Monday's blasts were not immediately identified. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said his office's criminal justice division is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for "information leading to the indentification and arrest of the person or persons involved in the deadly package blasts that have occurred in Ausitn over the past 10 days." Anyone with information should submit tips to Texas Crime Stoppers using one of the following methods: Call the hotline at 800-252-TIPS (8477) Text the letters "DPS" followed by your tip to 274637 (CRIMES) Submit a tip through the website Submit a tip through the DPS mobile app Associated Press writer David Warren in Dallas contributed to this report. A New Hampshire man accused of severely beating a woman following a minor car crash in Massachusetts has been arrested, authorities announced Tuesday. Massachusetts State Police troopers and Manchester police officers arrested Joseph Falero, 37, of Manchester, at a city apartment Monday morning. Falero was charged as a fugitive from justice and will be held in New Hampshire until his rendition to Massachusetts where he'll face charges of assault with intent to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and motor vehicle violations. The arrest resulted from an incident that played out on the side of Interstate 93 northbound in Methuen on Tuesday, March 6. After the woman's car was sideswiped by a Honda Civic driven by Falero, both drivers exited their cars, according to police. When the female victim attempted to call police, Falero began severly beating her in the face, and when she fell to the ground, officials say Falero kicked the female victim in her face, neck and back. As the woman began to lose consciousness, police say Falero fled before troopers arrived to the scene. Police later recovered the suspect's Honda Civic abandoned in Manchester and an investigation led them to set up surveillance on the Manchester apartment Monday. Falero was taken into a custody a short time later. No other information was immediately available. It's unclear if Falero has an attorney. Is President Donald Trump planning to visit New Hampshire next week? That's what some officials are saying. Manchester Fire Chief Dan Goonan told the Union Leader that he spoke with Secret Service personnel, and a visit is "very likely." He said Trump is expected to visit a fire station and discuss the city's "Safe Station" program, which helps opioid addicts seek aid without the fear of facing criminal charges. Goonan participated in the White House Opioid Summit on March 1 in Washington, D.C. The White House press office said only that they have no information on the rumored visit right now. Vice President Mike Pence is already confirmed to visit the state on March 22, when he is scheduled to attend a fundraiser for Republican Gov. Chris Sununu in Manchester. 'God in the science lab' topic of Norfolk event 'God in the science lab' topic of Norfolk event Over sixty people gathered to hear Dr Ruth Bancewicz reflect on how science helps to satisfy human curiosity about the workings of the natural world and how it also points towards the deeper questions about our existence. Report by Patrick Richmond & Nick Brewin Ruth Bancewicz spoke at the Science and Faith in Norfolk meeting on March 5. She presented three short videos of interviews with working scientists who are also people of faith. She works at the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge and previously helped to develop the Test of FAITH materials for use in schools and churches. Each scientist that she interviewed highlighted some interesting and challenging topics at the interface of science and faith. She noted that Science and Faith typically explain the mysteries of the natural world in different but complementary ways. Scientists try to discover the mechanisms and laws that underpin the workings of nature. On the other hand, Christian faith is more concerned with Why? things exist: - what is the purpose of their being so? As an illustration of this distinction, we can think about a kettle boiling: this might be explained, scientifically, in terms of energy, temperature, and the properties of water; on the other hand, it could be explained, philosophically, in terms of purpose: - in order to make nice a cup of tea. Both explanations have their place. A life-friendly universe The first of Ruths interview was with Stephen Freedland, an astrobiologist interested in the evolution of the genetic code. He pointed to the fact that the laws of physics and chemistry that underpin our universe seem to be precisely fine-tuned for the evolution of life. Because we can now see how life evolved, does this mean that we dont need to believe in a creator God? Or should we believe that God has made our wonderful universe to be so fruitful? With the guidance of Dr Bancewicz, the audience divided into small groups to discuss and to raise their own questions. For example, if there is intelligent life in other solar systems, how could this relate to our own experience of Christ and salvation? Dr Bancewicz noted that CS Lewis and others have offered several ways in which a Christian faith could accommodate the possibility of alien forms of intelligent life. Order from randomness Another interview was with Dr Rhoda Hawkins, a biologist studying the growth and organisation of structural filaments in living cells. At one level, this process seems to be almost random although it results in cells that have a coherent structure and function. She asked how God can create a purposeful universe using random processes based on the unpredictability of quantum mechanics, atomic behaviour, etc. Her answer to this perplexing question is that the random nature of processes at one level, for example, the molecule or the individual cell, becomes an intrinsic component of organisation at a higher level. The higher level of organisation has emergent properties that are more ordered and predictable than the random behaviour of its component parts. As an example, individual air molecules move in random ways, but heating air in a room predictably increases the temperature of the room as a whole. A purposeful world Jeff Hardin researches the development of sea urchins and worms, discovering processes that are similar enough to those in humans to be helpful to medical research. In his video, he wanted to explore the concept of a purposeful world. He explained that he, personally, had faith in the purposes of Gods universe, which includes generating creatures like us capable of developing a relationship with its creator. On the other hand, and at a much lower level, some agnostic scientists consider that our only evolutionary purpose is simply to propagate our own DNA. In common with most biologists, Prof Hardin did not want to suggest that God needs to interfere with or tweak the mechanisms of the world for life to evolve. Rather, he believed that God has imbued creation with rich, complex capabilities of its own. Dr Bancewicz used these examples to show how scientists who are Christians deal with matters that raise questions about their faith. These questions go beyond the merely scientific, mechanistic issues that they deal with professionally, causing them to wonder about the purposes that might be served by the existence of the universe itself. All welcome to next meeting - June 25 The open lecture and discussion was organised by Science and Faith in Norfolk. The next meeting in this series will be on Monday 25th June (7.30 8.45 pm) at Trinity Meeting Place, Essex St. Norwich NR2 2BJ. Dr Jeremy Lindsell will give a talk entitled Conservation and Hope for the Earth: A Christian understanding of planetary stewardship. This will explore the impact of climate change, environmental pollution and the mass extinction of species. For further information contact Professor Nick Brewin (07901 884114); sfnorfolk1@gmail.com; https://sites.google.com/site/scienceandfaithinnorfolk/ Tributes have been paid to a courageous Norwich Methodist preacher, who gave up everything and moved to Pakistan to follow Gods call to serve the poorest of the poor, and who has died suddenly. Tributes have been paid to a courageous Norwich Methodist preacher, who gave up everything and moved to Pakistan to follow Gods call to serve the poorest of the poor, and who has died suddenly. Tournament heralds start of Norfolk Christian league The start of the 2021/22 Norfolk Christian Football League season was heralded by the traditional 11-a-side tournament for half a dozen teams at Sloughbottom Park on Saturday September 18. Read more N Norfolk Christian artists in Open Studios event Two faith-filled artists from the Fakenham area will be taking part in the Norfolk Open Studios event starting later this month. Read more Nourishment for the body as well as the spirit? Robert Ashton wonders if there is scope for our parish churches to provide a further service for their local communities. Read more Norfolk authors poems speak to the heart Christian writer Catherine Ayre has had a book of poems published to encourage people to find out more about God. Read more Invite for Norfolk faith groups to help prisoners The Welcome Directory is a multi-faith charity that helps faith communities to offer welcome to people leaving prison. Norfolk churches are among those who are invited to register to make a commitment. Read more YMCA Norfolk needs Business Support Administrator YMCA Norfolk is looking for a Business Support Administrator to provide business, co-ordination and administrative support for the communities team, based in Norwich. Read more Women's Specialist Practitioner needed The Magdalene Group is seeking to employ a Womens Specialist Practitioner to provide gender and trauma-informed support to women experiencing multiple disadvantage and to provide specialist support to female sex workers and victims of sexual exploitation Read more Norwich church art and concerts reflect on Covid-19 Until September 25, concerts and an art exhibition at St Stephen's church in Norwich city centre will continue on the theme of "After the Storm? a reflection on the Covid-19 pandemic." Read more Tony to raise a laugh and funds for Norfolk kids charity Raise Kids Work has invited funny man Tony Vino to a cake and comedy event to raise funds for the charity. Read more Name change for expanding Norfolk foodbank North Norfolk Foodbank is the new name for the Cromer and District foodbank, which has changed its identity to reflect its expanding reach into the community. Read more Filling Station reopens on Norfolk-Suffolk border The Angles Way Filling Station has reopened this month after 18 months break, having changed its name from Ouse Valley Filling Station. Read more Dinosaurs, evolution and religion lecture Nick Spencer will give a lecture in the Cathedral on Tuesday September 21, starting at 7.00pm on the question what does evolution say about human life? Read more The Seven Real Reasons for Unbelief Regular columnist James Knight believes that understanding the reasons why many people choose not to believe will assist Christians in reaching out to them. Read more Burn Norwich worship nights are back Non-stop worship movement Burn has been continuing online throughout lockdown. Local group Burn Norwich are meeting in-person on October 2 in Norwich. Read more Holt charity holds prayer meetings for Malawi North Norfolk charity Aid Africa tells of a new toilet in Malawi, and invites everyone to a monthly on-line prayer meeting to pray for their work in that country. Read more Integrate Youth for Christ hiring in South Norfolk Integrate Youth for Christ currently have two vacancies which could be combined if the applicant has suitable skills, one based in Thetford and one in Diss. Both roles are to commence as soon as possible. Read more New air ambulance HQ in Norwich is blessed Faith leaders from across East Anglia took part in an official blessing at the official opening of the extended and renovated East Anglian Air Ambulance operational base and HQ at Norwich Airport on September 10. Read more Family-run paper wants to move to new building yards away from current home THE Newbury Weekly News has submitted plans to convert its current offices into flats and move to a newly-refurbished building just up the road. The plans, if approved, will see Newspaper House demolished and replaced with 84 apartments. The NWN is committed to staying in the heart of the town and plans to move into the building currently occupied by Skoda in Faraday Road, a stone's throw from where the paper is situated now. After taking the decision to close its press hall in January and move its print operation to Cambridge, the family-run paper no longer needs a site this size. Newbury Weekly News chief executive James Gurney said: "Now that our press hall has closed, our current site in Faraday Road is simply no longer suitable for our needs as a thriving newspaper and digital media business. "We remain totally committed to Newbury and will move to a building that we own next to our current site on Faraday Road once current tenants Marshall Skoda move out in the summer. "We are very excited to be moving to newly-refurbished offices in the heart of the town and look forward to welcoming customers there later in the year. "We believe our plans for new homes and office space on our current Faraday Road site will be a boost for local housing and jobs and will be a much better use of the land than a half-empty former print works." For full details on the plans, pick up a copy of this week's Newbury Weekly News, out on Thursday. Police increase patrols but warn van owners to beware what could be 'massive, organised group' POLICE believe a sophisticated gang could be behind an ongoing rash of tool thefts linked to van break-ins. The thieves are reportedly using multiple vehicles, lookouts and fake number plates to avoid increased police patrols and helicopter searches. Meanwhile, the livelihood of victims is suffering, as many used the stolen tools in their trade. Pcso Lee Bremner, of the Hungerford and Lambourn Valley neighbourhood police team, addressed a meeting of Hungerford Town Council on the resulting operation on Monday. She revealed there have been 18 recent incidents around the town involving theft of tools from vans or vehicle interference and said: Weve heavily increased patrols and hopefully the thieves have noticed our presence. As soon as its dark were driving in and out of every road. But they know what theyre doing theyve got someone looking out and theres whistling noises going on. In one incident they knew they had been disturbed yet later on they still targetted two more vehicles. They just carried on, even knowing theyd been detected. The meeting also heard of number plates, possibly stolen and being used by the gang, having been found in the town. One Hungerford resident has posted a photograph on social media of abandoned number plates and commented: Just found these dumped by the Triangle Field with double-sided sticky tape on. Deputy mayor Helen Simpson said there was grave concern in the town and asked whether the gang could even be deliberately distracting police while vehicles were plundered elsewhere. Pcso Bremner replied: Weve looked at that and I dont think so. But they are using two vehicles. We caught one vehicle on CCTV and next time they were using a different one. Theyre just so good at what they do. We can be en route to a call and theyre already gone. The neighbourhood team has travelled to Wiltshire to share intelligence with officers there, believing the gang may be operating across county borders. Pcso Bremner revealed that, in Wiltshire, an officer caught the thieves in the act but they still managed to evade capture, despite a helicopter search. She added: Usually thieves target roads where they can get quickly in and out, but these have targetted quite a few cul-de-sacs, which is really surprising. District councillor Paul Hewer (Con, Hungerford) revealed that his son was among the victims. He told the meeting: In many cases it means victims cant work the tools are their livelihood. Weve got all this information and no one has been apprehended. Pcso Bremner said that, even where a registration had been captured on film, it had turned out to have been stolen and so led nowhere. She said: We could be dealing with a massive, organised group. Anyone with information should contact the neighbourhood team via the 101 number. Alternatively, call the independent Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. The Community Culinary School of Northwestern CT in New Milford will host a culinary showcase, Recipe for Success, on March 24. The event will run from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the 19 Main Venue at 19 Main St. The culinary celebration is the largest fundraiser for the nonprofit school, which provides job and life-skills training to unemployed and underemployed adults from the greater New Milford area. All food prepared in classes is donated to local food banks to feed the hungry within the community. The event will feature hors doeuvres prepared by students under the direction of Chef Instructor and program graduate, Justin Elander. An open bar of beer and wine will be served throughout the night. Silent and live auctions will feature luxury goods, spa treatments and travel, including a week of fun and memories in Ireland. The trip will feature visits to well-known places as well as others less known to tourists, including the walled town of Fethard, Dun Aengus, the Gallarus Oratory, Blarney, Waterford and Cashel as well as the best hotels and dining. The Restaurants for a Year auction package with $100 gift certificates to area restaurants will return. Guests will also have the opportunity to purchase tickets for a wine basket drawing featuring more than 20 bottles. To date, 35 classes of students have graduated from the school, which boasts a 96 percent job placement rate for graduates and a 95 percent six-month post-graduation employment retention rate. Graduates have moved into dynamic careers within the food service industry. Tickets are $85 per person and can be purchased online at www.communityculinaryschool.org or by contacting the school at 203-512-5791. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to feature the skills of our students and graduates, while bringing awareness to our program and raising funds that will allow us to continue the important work that we do said Dawn Hammacott, executive director. Sponsorship, advertising and auction item donation opportunities are also available. Forty-five years after Roe v. Wade made abortions legal, a growing number of states and the federal government are restricting access to them. Ever the contrarian state, California is trying to do the opposite. A proposed state law would require student health centers at all 34 California State University and University of California campuses to make the abortion pill available for women who request it. Under the terms of the bill, which passed in the state Senate earlier this year and awaits action in the Assembly, health centers at those public institutions would have to stock the medication by 2022. The abortion medication, once known as RU-486, is now comprised of a two-pill dosage. The medication provides a non-surgical option for women in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. If the bill succeeds, California would be the first state in the nation to provide abortion pills on public college campuses. State Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino) said she's sponsoring the measure because she believes students should have access to safe abortions, early on, in an environment in which they feel comfortable. Under Leyva's measure, private donations would fund the startup costs for provider training and ultrasound equipment. After that, the service would sustain itself by billing students' insurance plans, she said. "We don't want students paying for something that possibly they don't believe in," Leyva said. Opponents say abortions have no place on college campuses, that health centers are not equipped to deal with potential complications and that abortion providers are easy to reach throughout most of California anyway. The median travel time from UC or Cal State campuses to an abortion provider is 34 minutes via public transportation, according to research by the University of California-San Francisco. Students at California State University-Stanislaus face the longest travel time - about an hour and a half, the study showed. California Healthline interviewed UC and Cal State students across the state, and they expressed mixed views about the proposal. Brooke Paz, 21, heads a student group opposed to abortion at Cal State-Fullerton. She spent a recent afternoon at an information table trying to persuade students to oppose the bill. "This bill is an injustice to women," she said, in part because she believes having an abortion can have lifelong emotional effects on them. Paz also called the bill unnecessary, given there are Planned Parenthood and other health clinics located near many campuses. "I think the money could be used for better things, like to help pregnant and parenting students," Paz said. Lacie Armstrong, 22, a student at Cal State-Los Angeles, said she took a close friend to get an abortion last year at a Planned Parenthood that was crowded and chaotic. Having the abortion pill available on college campuses would be more convenient and less intimidating, she said. "You would have another option instead of having to find the nearest Planned Parenthood and find somebody to take you," she said. "You could just walk to the campus health center." Offering the abortion pill at college health centers equates the medication to "something like an ibuprofen pill, said Bernadette Tasy, 22, a Cal State-Fresno student who leads a chapter of Students for Life of America. "This is a more serious issue," she said. "The bill undermines women by telling them that they need abortion in order to be successful in school." Saika Pitre, 22, a student at Cal State-L.A., gets birth control and her annual women's health exams at the campus health center. On a recent day, she looked through a bin of condoms at a booth set up by the health center. "If they already are providing health services on campus, it's just another service," Pitre said. "It's also convenient. You could go if you have a gap between classes." Justine Cross, 31, an accounting student at Cal State-Stanislaus, said she thinks a college campus is not an appropriate setting for abortions. "Schools should promote family counseling services and provide education about adoption," said Cross, who has a 4-year-old son. "I think there are better options than abortion." "My beliefs are pro-choice. I feel it's always the woman's right to decide what's best for her," said Dafne Garcia, 21, a student at University of California-Merced, who recently attended a Roe v. Wade rally at the Capitol, where she and friends voiced their support for the abortion pill bill. "Some girls are really nervous or too scared to go to Planned Parenthood. I think by having it on campus, they would feel more comfortable." Dei Gomez, 22, also supports abortion rights. "If women feel really strong about not having a baby, we shouldn't take that right away. It's their choice, and we can't tell them what to do," said the Cal State-Fullerton student. However, she said, she doesn't think student health centers should offer the abortion pill. "There are special facilities, like Planned Parenthood or other clinics. The centers don't have the resources to deal with this," she said. KHN's coverage of these topics is supported by California Health Care Foundation and Blue Shield of California Foundation This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation. Getting a large dose of a statin did not have an impact on major adverse cardiac events among a broad population of patients slated to undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a procedure to clear blocked arteries, in a trial being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 67th Annual Scientific Session. However, statins did significantly reduce the rates of such events among the subset of trial participants who actually underwent PCI. PCI is one of several treatments for people with acute coronary syndrome, an umbrella term that encompasses heart attacks and unstable angina (acute chest pain caused by narrowed arteries). The procedure involves threading a thin wire to the site of the blockage and then inflating a small balloon to open the artery and improve the flow of blood to the heart. In this trial, patients were randomized to receive either a placebo or a "loading dose" of a statin, consisting of two double-doses administered the day before and the day after a scheduled PCI, followed by a daily low-dose of a statin for 30 days. The trial is the largest study to date aimed at testing the hypothesis that statins could help reduce cardiovascular events around the time of PCI. More than 4,100 patients were enrolled in the trial at 58 centers in Brazil. All patients had acute coronary syndrome for which doctors planned to perform PCI within seven days. However, about one-third of the study participants ultimately did not receive PCI because doctors opted to perform other treatments, such as coronary artery bypass grafting (a heart bypass). Participants in this study were reflective of the broader population of people with acute coronary syndrome, and the study protocols were reflective of common hospital practices, said Otavio Berwanger, MD, PhD, cardiologist and clinical epidemiologist at the Brazilian Clinical Research Institute, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the study's lead author. He suggested that the results would likely be applicable in many countries and health care environments. About 70 percent of the patients had never taken statins and about 30 percent had taken them previously or were on low-dose statins when they enrolled in the study. Patients who were already taking a maximum tolerated dose of statins were excluded. Statins are a widely-used class of drugs that lower LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, thereby helping to prevent serious cardiovascular events in people at high risk for heart disease. In addition to their long-term preventive benefits, basic research suggests statins also may affect processes involved in inflammation and the formation of blood clots. In this study, half of the participants were randomly assigned to receive two double (80 milligram) doses of atorvastatinone shortly before the procedure and one within a day afterward. The other half received two doses of a placebo. Neither patients nor their doctors knew who had received the placebo. All patients then took 40 milligrams of atorvastatin daily for 30 days, which is standard practice after acute coronary syndrome. For 30 days, researchers tracked rates of major adverse cardiac events (the trial's primary endpoint), which included death, heart attack, stroke or urgent procedures to clear blocked arteries. Among all patients, the primary endpoint occurred in 6.2 percent of those taking the statin and 7.1 percent of those taking the placebo, a difference that was not statistically significant. Among patients who received PCI, the primary endpoint occurred in 6 percent of those taking the statin and 8.2 percent of those taking the placebo, a reduction that was statistically significant. "Although the trial is negative for our primary endpoint in the full study population, the findings of our prespecified analysis are very consistent with smaller trials and observational studies that suggest a reduction in events in the PCI population," Berwanger said. "Viewed in the context of the literature, our study helps to confirm what has been shown before and suggests that it can be beneficial to consider giving a loading dose of a statin to patients who undergo PCI." Overall, patients who underwent PCI and received a loading dose of statins were 28 percent less likely to experience a major adverse cardiac event and 32 percent less likely to have a heart attack compared with those taking the placebo. "This study adds another piece to the puzzle," Berwanger said. "I think it also opens the stage for testing other lipid-lowering agents that may have effects beyond lowering lipids." Researchers will continue to track outcomes for 12 months. In addition, the team is planning another trial focused on assessing potential benefits of statins and other drugs in patients undergoing PCI. Using xCELLigence assay, the interaction between two membrane proteins is shown to modulate the trans-endothelial migration of metastatic cells A team of Italian scientists reported this week that blocking the interaction between urokinase receptor (uPAR) and formyl peptide receptor type 1 (FPR1) suppresses the ability of melanoma cells to migrate, invade through an extracellular matrix, and to burrow through a layer of endothelial cells. Within gene knockdown and overexpression experiments, Maria Motti and colleagues employed an xCELLigence Real-Time Cell Analysis instrument to continuously track the migration/invasion of melanoma cells. The continuous tracking of these processes in a non-invasive manner using gold biosensors enabled them to tease apart subtle differences in kinetic behavior that would have gone unnoticed in a conventional endpoint assay. Melanoma currently affects more than 3 million people globally, resulting in ~60,000 deaths each year. Owing to its tendency to metastasize through the blood and lymphatic vessels, it is the most aggressive form of skin cancer. Although the five-year survival rate is 98% for patients with localized disease, this drops to just 17% once metastasis has occurred. To date, effective treatments for metastatic melanoma are lacking. Citing that there is a growing awareness that cancer therapy should include, in addition to treatment of the primary tumor and established metastases, also the prevention of metastasis formation, a focus of Mottis team has been the disruption of key protein-protein interactions that facilitate melanoma cell migration along chemical gradients. In their newest paper, published in the Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research, these scientists demonstrated that overexpression of uPAR and FPR1, which is known to occur in melanoma and to contribute to disease progression, promote metastatic disease phenotypes within melanoma cell lines in vitro. Using either a peptide antagonist of the uPAR-FPR1 interaction or an antibody that targets uPAR, the authors were able to suppress melanoma cell migration and invasion. Importantly, the peptide antagonist used here was effective at nanomolar concentrations, had no impact on cell proliferation, and displayed high stability in serum due to the retro-inverso nature of its construction. On the basis of their findings Mottis team suggests that disrupting the uPAR-FPR1 interaction may be a viable means of blocking the progression of metastasis in melanoma patients. Since the proportion of these patients who have metastases at the time of diagnosis is high, they suggest that combining current therapy with a systemic anti-metastatic agent might considerably improve the outcome. Scientists have developed cutting-edge imaging technology that can grade cancer tumors, thereby eliminating human subjectivity and variability in the grading of cancer severity. Credit: David Litman/Shutterstock.com The team, which was led by the Department of Physics and the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London recently described the technology, which is called Digistain, in the journal Convergent Science Physical Oncology. Currently, cancers are generally diagnosed using a tumor biopsy that is thinly sliced and stained with two vegetable dyes called haematoxylin and eosin. This H+E stained sample is analysed under a microscope and the severity of the cancer is graded by eye. . However, it is well known that different practitioners judging the same biopsy slice will only agree on the grade of severity about 70% of the time, meaning some patients receive overtreatment. The new Digistain technology overcomes this problem by measuring a biological marker called the nuclear-to-cytoplasmic-ratio (NCR) factor, which is known to be common to a wide range of cancers. The NCR factor occurs when the cell nuclei get distorted with rogue DNA in tumor cells. "Our machine gives a quantitative 'Digistain index' (DI) score, corresponding to the NCR, and this study shows that it is an extremely reliable indicator of the degree of progression of the disease. Because it is based on a physical measurement, rather than a human judgement, it promises to remove the element of chance in cancer diagnosis, " explains lead author Professor Chris Phillips. To test the technology, Phillips and team conducted a double-blind clinical pilot trail using two adjacent slices taken from 75 breast cancer biopsies. One slice was graded using the standard H+E staining and used to locate the region of interest (RoI) the area of the slice containing tumor tissue. Digistain was then used to obtain a DI score averaged over the corresponding RoI on the other biopsy slice and statistical analysis was performed on the results. "Even with this modest number of samples, the correlation we saw between the DI score and the H+E grade would only happen by chance 1 time in 1400 trials. The strength of this correlation makes us extremely optimistic that Digistain will be able to eliminate subjectivity and variability in biopsy grading," says Phillips. Phillips and team say Digistain could be easily and cheaply integrated into hospital laboratories and that it would be easy to prove the value of the technology by checking it using the thousands of biopsy specimens already archived in hospitals. The combined rate of death from any cause, heart attack or stroke within 18 months was not significantly different in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who were randomly assigned to receive dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) for either six months or at least 12 months after receiving a drug-eluting stent. Patients who were given DAPT for only six months, however, had more than double the risk of a heart attack compared with those treated for at least 12 months, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 67th Annual Scientific Session. "Based on our findings, we can't say that short-term DAPT is safe in patients with ACS who have received drug-eluting stents," said Hyeon Cheol Gwon, MD, a professor in the Division of Cardiology at Sungkyunkwan University, director of the cardiac center at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, and principal investigator of the study. "We conclude that current guidelines that recommend prolonged DAPT in patients with ACS who are not at excessive risk for bleeding should continue to be followed." ACS occurs when blood flow to the heart is suddenly blocked. It may take the form of a heart attack or unstable angina, chest pain that may signal an imminent heart attack. Patients who have had one episode of ACS are at elevated risk for another. ACS is often treated by inserting a small metal tube, or stent, into a blocked artery to keep the artery open, a procedure known as an angioplasty. A drug-eluting stent is a stent that has been coated with a drug to prevent scar tissue from forming inside the artery. Current guidelines published by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend that ACS patients not at excessive risk for bleeding should be treated with DAPT-- aspirin plus clopidogrel or a similar drug such as ticagrelor--for at least 12 months after the implantation of a drug-eluting stent. However, there is limited evidence that 12 months or more is the optimal duration for DAPT, Gwon said. Two recently reported studies suggested that six months of DAPT might offer similar benefits in terms of reducing patients' risk for death, heart attack or stroke, bleeding or other adverse events. These studies, however, had too few participants to provide definitive answers, he said. "This is the largest trial to address the optimal duration of DAPT in patients with ACS," Gwon said. The SMART-DATE trial enrolled a total of 2,712 Korean patients with ACS who were undergoing angioplasty. Their median age was 63 years, and 75 percent were male. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either DAPT for at least 12 months (DAPT-12) or DAPT for six months followed by aspirin alone for at least another six months (DAPT-6). The primary endpoint was the combined rate of death from any cause, heart attack or stroke within 18 months after stent insertion. At 18 months, 63 patients (4.7 percent) in the DAPT-6 group and 56 patients (4.2 percent) in the DAPT-12 group had experienced at least one of the primary endpoint events. Thus, over the entire 18-month follow-up period, DAPT-6 was significantly not worse (or non-inferior) than DAPT-12, Gwon said. Rates of death from any cause were not significantly different in the two groups (2.6 percent in the DAPT-6 group vs 2.9 percent in the DAPT-12 group). However, the risk of heart attack was 2.4-fold higher in the DAPT-6 group, with heart attacks occurring in 1.8 percent of DAPT-6 patients vs. 0.8 percent of DAPT-12 patients. Moreover, during the period between six and 18 months after stent insertion when patients in the DAPT-6 group were being treated with aspirin only, there was a 5.1-fold risk of having a heart attack in DAPT-6 patients compared with DAPT-12 patients. During this period, patients in the DAPT-6 group also had a 69 percent higher risk of dying from any cause or having a heart attack or stroke. Limitations of the study, Gwon said, include the absence of blinding-- that is, both patients and doctors knew whether a patient was in the DAPT-6 or the DAPT-12 group--and the absence of a group that was randomly assigned to receive a placebo. However, study statisticians and those whose role was to assess outcomes worked independently from those overseeing the trial, he said. Patients in the trial will be followed for an additional 18 months, for a total of three years of follow-up, Gwon said. Southern Research scientists are exploring how a mutated protein implicated in prostate cancer plays a role in the development of the disease and whether it holds a key to better treatment outcomes. The research focuses on a protein called SPOP and how its mutated form interacts with the DNA damage response, a network of cellular pathways that works non-stop in an attempt to repair damaged DNA strands and prevent potentially harmful changes. The findings could point to a new therapeutic target or a biomarker that predicts whether or not a certain course of treatment will deliver benefits for a prostate cancer patient, according to Dr. Bo Xu, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Fellow and Chair of the Oncology Department at Southern Research. "Ideally, our hope is that these findings somehow inform physicians to better diagnose and treat patients," said Joshua Fried, a researcher working in Xu's lab. "Ultimately, that's the goal of every cancer biology researcher. They want to better inform physicians." Fried is scheduled to make a presentation about the project on April 17 at the American Association of Cancer Research's (AACR) 2018 annual meeting in Chicago. The AACR is the largest scientific organization in the world focused on every aspect of high-quality, innovative cancer research. 'PRECISION MEDICINE' Xu said the study is significant because prostate cancer is the most common form of malignant cancer in American men, and about 20 percent of patients have mutations in this particular protein. "One of our goals is to understand how these mutations affect a patient's therapeutic response and to determine whether we can take advantage of these mutations as a biomarker to identify patients who are more likely to benefit from radiation or chemotherapy," Xu said. Additionally, the Southern Research team is trying to determine whether the mutation's interactions with other proteins could expose how to boost the effectiveness of radiation and chemotherapy for patients with non-mutated SPOP, he said. "We might be able to target that interaction to mimic the mutation so the patient would benefit more from the treatment," Xu said. "This is precision medicine, precision oncology, based on genetic information." DNA DAMAGE RESPONSE Fried said SPOP just one of several mutations associated with prostate cancer caught the attention of the Southern Research team because evidence showed that prostate cancer cells with mutated SPOP had increased chromosomal gains and losses compared to tumors without it. "That led us to believe that there could be some involvement in the DNA damage response, and that is where our expertise is," said Fried, a postgraduate student in cancer biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who has been working on the project for four years. Despite advances, progress is needed against prostate cancer. An estimated 165,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, according to the American Cancer Society. The disease is responsible for around 30,000 deaths annually, making it the second leading cause of cancer death in American men. Fried said physicians and prostate cancer patients could benefit from a biomarker based on the SPOP mutation that better directs the course of treatment. Androgen-deprivation therapy, for example, is currently part of the front-line treatment of prostate cancer, he said. But hormone therapy can have undesirable side effects and doesn't work for all patients. "You want to spare patients treatments that are less than efficacious and streamline them into the ones that you know are going to work best," Fried said. "Chemotherapy and radiation can be tough, so if we can spare patients from one seeming unnecessary treatment, that would be better." Mumbai: In a major decision, the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday banned banks from issuing Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) - instruments used allegedly by diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi to defraud state-owned PNB of Rs nearly 13,000 crore in connivance of bank officials. The RBI said the decision to discontinue the practice of LoUs and Letters of Comfort (LoCs) for trade finance comes into force with immediate effect. "On a review of the extant guidelines, it has been decided to discontinue the practice of issuance of LoUs/ LoCs for Trade Credits for imports into India by AD CategoryI banks with immediate effect," the central bank said in a notification. Punjab National Bank reported fraudulent issuance of LoUs/ Foreign Letters of Credit for payment of import bills and fraudulent transactions in accounts, amounting to Rs 12,967.86 crore, to the RBI through its fraud monitoring reporting system. A multi-agency probe, including by CBI and ED has been launched into the PNB fraud. The RBI notification further said that Letters of Credit and Bank Guarantees for trade credits for imports into India may continue to be issued subject to compliance with the provisions. It is no secret that our beloved Prime Minister Narendra Modi loves cameras. But things were about to change when French President Emmanuel Macron decided to drop by India over the weekend. Macron who arrived on Friday night on a four-day India visit was warmly received at the airport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a special gesture (along with the trademark Modi hug). Sadly for our PM, it was Macron who was facing the shutterbugs and his "evil grin" later caught the eye of social media who then gave the viral photograph hilarious edits and captions. (REUTERS/Adnan Abidi) Here's the exhibit: Friend : phir Goa ka plan final hai na? Me *already cancelled in my head* : Haan bilkul bhai pic.twitter.com/KElfAhK7xF Pakchikpak Raja Babu (@HaramiParindey) March 11, 2018 When you beat modi ji in spotting the camera.. pic.twitter.com/HQhtBypzoh BING (@ya_jhakaas) March 11, 2018 Monday waiting for us be like. pic.twitter.com/tD8bpMJcX0 Godman Chikna (@Madan_Chikna) March 11, 2018 Season Finale cliffhanger ending shot. pic.twitter.com/CtWMRggPlI Aisi Taisi Democracy (@AisiTaisiDemo) March 11, 2018 *Outside exam hall* Friend : bhai main fail Me *thinking 95/100 to pakke* : mai bhi bhai pic.twitter.com/eOAFLnv3N0 Mojo (@Singhlicious) March 11, 2018 Naresh Agarwal while joining the BJP pic.twitter.com/XvYIRDyiyf Ashwin Mushran (@ashwinmushran) March 13, 2018 Friend: Thanks bhai paise dene ke liye Marwadi Friend: *In mind* Interest ke sath wapas lunga pic.twitter.com/3aZemsuAXj Akshay (@AkshayKatariyaa) March 11, 2018 On Monday, Modi and Emmanuel Macron inaugurated Uttar Pradesh's biggest solar power plant in Mirzapur district's Chhanvey block. The prime minister and the French president pressed a button to energise the solar panels and dedicated the 75 MW facility to the people. Built at a cost of around Rs 500 crore by French firm ENGIE, the 75 MW solar plant has come up at Dadar Kalan village on the hilly terrain of the Vindhyas range. Around 1,18,600 solar panels have been set up in over 380 acres. New Delhi: Drones or Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) is the latest trend catching onto the imagination of the public. It is estimated that Indians have spent more than Rs 40 crore on civilian drones in 2016-17 alone. The government, though, seems to be struggling with major gaps in policy to regulate the use of the aircraft, which are, banned in the country. According to a study by the think-tank, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), ad-hoc measures taken by state and central government have been ineffective as questions of privacy and trespassing, air traffic, terrorist threat management, and legal liability have not been addressed properly. The Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India's civil aviation regulator, first issued a notification on the subject on October 7, 2014. Two years later, on April 21, 2016, first drafts of the guidelines were issued for the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). After a year-and-a-half of inactivity, the DGCA issued a new set of guidelines in October 2017. A report on Moneycontrol.com says the final proposal may be finalised this month. It was to be done by December 31, 2017. Despite the current blanket ban on drone use, the aircraft are being widely used. Wedding videographers, in particular, are being selected on the capability to use drones to capture the activities. According to ORF's research, the 2017 guidelines of the DGCA, despite what the authorities believe, do not seem to be a step in the right direction. Privacy and trespassing, two of the biggest concerns for civilian use of the aircraft, have been more-or-less untouched in the proposal. Most UAVs have constantly-transmitting cameras that often operate in high definition and have sound recording features. There are also examples of drones being fitted with equipment that jam networks or act as a data recorder, turning it into a tool to spy on someone even if they are in an enclosed space. The other major concern is the threat of terrorism. A drone could be fitted with explosives to detonate over its target, like ISIS have been doing against Kurdish forces in Iraq. Although current guidelines permit Indian security personnel to shoot down a drone, the aircrafts speed and surprise element can be used by terrorists to their advantage. The ORF study also reveals a fresh headache for air traffic controllers as the drones sometimes are too small to track and cannot be communicated with. Various examples, like in 2014 when an Air India flight almost collided with a UAV at Leh airport or when a drone was found hovering 1,500 feet above the runway of IGI airport, have stressed the need for fresh guidelines. Other than a major overhaul of current equipment and infrastructure available to air traffic controllers, a plan of action in case of any UAV found breaking the rules also need to be formulated. Globally, US, China, Australia, and Japan are leading the way in formulating guidelines for drone use. The US has by far the most commercial-friendly regulations, while back in 2002 Australia was one of first to come up with the regulatory framework. US guidelines state that drones weighing above 250 grams must be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and that all users must adhere to the laws of usage while specifying emergency risk mitigation strategies. While Australia has similar policies as the western superpower, China and Japan deal more with no-go zones than actual regulatory use. India is grappling with changing times and new technologies. The implementation of a strict policy that deals in and mandatory compliance and addresses key issues, rather than look over them, is the only way forward. New Delhi: Two men were killed and three women injured when their car crashed into a traffic signal pole in northwest Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar area. The incident occurred at around 2.45 am on Monday when the driver lost control over the vehicle and ended up hitting the central verge at T-Point, Hudson Lines, police said. The deceased have been identified as Ritesh Dahiya and Siddharth, both in their 20s. Three women occupants of the car, including the driver, sustained injuries, police said. The driver was under the influence of alcohol, said Aslam Khan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest). Police said the woman driver was arrested after being discharged from the hospital. She had a learner's license. The car belonged to Dahiya's father. The friends were returning from a fest in Amity, Noida when the incident happened. They had come to Delhi University for a drive, they said. After the car hit the pole it somersaulted twice before coming to a halt. Dahiya was a student of Sri Venkateswara College while the three women were students of Amity University, Noida. Siddharth was a student of Maharaja Surajmal Shiksha Sansthan. New Delhi: With US tightening the norms for issuing the H1B visas, a temporary work visa for foreign workers with a job offer in a specialty occupation, the EB-5 visa is fast gaining popularity as an alternative to it. The children of high net worth individuals, executives as well as middle class people, are looking at the EB-5 visa as a sure shot chance at a US Green Card, Moneycontrol reported. "Most people want to invest in EB-5 mainly for their children so they are able to go to the US and stay there and not be dependent on any other visa category," said Andrew Graves, Director of Business Development, U.S. Immigration Fund. "We're also recently seeing large uptick in current H-1B visa holders where they want their permanent residency, H-1B is just temporary and there's a long lottery so they're opting to go the EB-5 route. Plus the headwinds in the H-1B are not basically going away for the next year or so." The EB-5 visa has been around for 27 years now, with the minimum investment remaining the same. However, the cost for getting an EB-5 visa is likely to go up and the matter is under Congressional review. The United States Congress created the EB-5 Program in 1990 to enable high net worth foreign investors to obtain a US visa for themselves and their immediate family. However, the visa is now being increasingly availed by students from different parts of the world. "China makes up about 80 percent of the overall (EB-5) market. It is so popular that there is a waiting list. In 2016 we had over 14,000 investors from china while India had about 300," Graves said. India has been slow to take up on the opportunity and stands fifth in terms of countries that invest in the EB-5 visa category, after China, South Korea, Vietnam, Brazil. The most popular industry that EB-5 visa holders invest in is real estate because of safety of capital according to Graves. The strong focus on the vetting process for H-1B and the proposed overhaul of its lottery system, and the dependence on employers is making it an increasingly less lucrative option. Under the new rules, an IT company that is seeking an H-1B has to demonstrate that the visa beneficiary has an actual work assignment in a specialty occupation for a specific period. Much of the evidence for this has to come from the end client, which becomes cumbersome for the company in terms of administrative work, and also put clients in a sticky position because they could be viewed as a co-employer of the beneficiary. In the latter case, the client would become jointly liable to cover risks related to the H-1B employee. New Delhi: A second-year college student gunned down his teacher in the staff room of Shaheed Dalbir Singh College in Sonipat district's Kharkhoda in Haryana on Tuesday. The police are on the lookout for him. As per sources, the accused, a resident of VPO Rohana, second year student of Shaheed Dalbir Singh Government College fired, four shots at Rajesh Malik, working as a lecturer in the college. The victim died on the spot. He was a resident of Sector 23, Sonepat. The police have constituted special teams to arrest the accused in the case. Male: Asserting its 'India First' policy, the Maldivian government on Tuesday claimed that as far as it was concerned, India is its big brother in Asia. We have an India first policy and we believe that India is the big brother in the region, not China, said Mohammed Shainee, Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture. She is also the chairperson of the all-party talks committee. The statement was made in the presence of other senior Maldivian ministers, including Mohamed Saeed who is the Minister of Economics development, Aishath Azima Shakoor who is the Minister of Legal Affairs, and Moosa Zameer, the Minister of tourism. The statements were made in the President's office in the capital Male in the first international press conference hosted by the island nation this year. India will always be our best friend. India need not be threatened by Maldives, Shainee said. The ministers claimed that Maldives was concerned about China only when it came to Chinese investments in the island nation. Commenting on the alleged debt trap with regards to the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, the ministers said it was absolutely certain that there would be no such trap and that it would pay back every penny with the revenue it earns from the investment. Shainee also tried to allay concerns about Chinese militarisation of Maldives, claiming that "no matter what anybody says or suggests" Maldives will not be militarised and that nobody should be worried about it. As far the ongoing emergency was concerned, the minister of legal affairs, Shakoor, said that it will not be extended beyond March 23. The Maldivian government imposed emergency on February 5 for 15 days, and extended it by 30 days on February 20. The emergency gives security forces in the island nation wide-ranging powers to arrest suspected opposition members, prohibit public gatherings and impose travel restrictions. India, China, the US, the UK and Australia are among the countries that have issued travel advisories warning against non-essential travel to the islands. India has been particularly concerned about developments in Maldives because China is looking to occupy India's place in being the primary player and associate of the tiny Island country. India had three decades ago militarily intervened and ended a coup restoring democracy in the country. Both India and China have been keenly following the developments in Maldives for the past few weeks. While China has invested millions of dollars in the country through its OBOR projects, India is looking not to lose its strategic grip in the area. Tensions between both countries have risen since emergency was imposed in the state and both countries are said to have put their warships in standby mode. Disclaimer: Author is in Male on the invitation of Maldives government. Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government, along with the state Disaster Management Committee, on Tuesday sounded an alert along its coast in view of a well marked low pressure over the Indian Ocean, asking officials to ensure return of fishermen engaged in deep-sea fishing. The low pressure is likely to intensify into a deep depression in the next 48 hours, the Met office said. The warning also predicts rains and thunder showers across Kerala and heavy rainfall across south Kerala till March 15. It predicts a wind speed of upto 65 Kmph, over south Tamil Nadu and South Kerala coast for the next 48 hours. The alert comes in the backdrop of Ochki cyclone that hit the coasts of the state, neighbouring Tamil Nadu and union territory of Lakshadweep in November-December last year, claiming the lives of several fishermen and leaving many missing. The Kerala government was heavily criticised at the time for not sending out advisories in advance. The Disaster Management Authority has also given direction to the district collectors to have coastal taluk control rooms functioning 24*7, raise signal alert in all ports and harbours and take control of coastal relief shelters. A high level-meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has assessed the situation. Vijayan, in a Facebook post, said: "Fishermen should not strictly venture out into the sea till Thursday. We will also ensure that fishermen are not there in areas where there is already an alert. with the help of navy and coastguard they are trying to bring back those fishermen who are stuck in deep sea." According to weather bloggers, this is the first depression over Arabian sea during the month of March in over 125 years. The depression comes barely months after Cyclone Ocki battered the coasts of Kerala in November 2017. Bhopal: Almost a year and a half after eight suspected terror operatives of banned outfit Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were gunned down in an encounter, the Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday paved the way for tabling of the probe report in the Assembly. The inquiry panel presented the report at the state cabinet meet on Tuesday. "The report has been submitted to the state government and the cabinet has decided to table it in assembly," MP government's spokesperson Narottam Mishra said. A single member judicial panel of Justice (Retd) SK Pandey was formed and it had submitted the report to state government in September. Eight suspected terror operatives of SIMI were gunned down by the Madhya Pradesh police in Acharpura area on city outskirts on October 31, 2016, barely hours after they broke out of the Central Jail after assaulting and killing prison guard Ramashankar Yadav. A massive controversy had erupted after conflicting jailbreak theories surfaced and some videos of the said encounter also leaked to social media. The Maharashtra government accepted the demands of agitating farmers, including their right to till forest land, as thousands of agriculturists converged at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai in a sea of red. Talking to reporters outside Vidhan Bhawan, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, "We have agreed to set up a committee to hand over forest land used for farming, to tribals and farmers." When over 50,000 farmers in Maharashtra marched towards Mumbai, they followed a man hailing from Kannur, which has turned out to be a great source of inspiration to the millions of Communists in the state. Meet Vijoo Krishnan, a former President of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union and a firebrand leader of the Students Federation of India who is now the Joint Secretary of All-India Kisan Sabha, the largest farmers' organisation in the country that led the Long March from Nashik to Mumbai this week. Many tribal leaders walked 180 km with the Maharashtra farmers. Here's why. A 48 year-old protester from Ganeshgaon in Tryambak Taluka had come to the protest march with a solar panel installed on his head to charge farmers' phones free of cost. Meet the heroes who fuelled the march. When over 30,000 farmers across Maharashtra started their walk from Nashik, they were perhaps not prepared to walk a stretch of over 180 kilometres, but they were ready. The hammer and sickle flag that thousands of them carried didnt get to become the symbol of their hardships and their resilience. It was their bare-feet, injured, blistered, bleeding and bandaged. The ongoing protest by thousands of farmers in the heart of Mumbai may just be the beginning. For, leaders of farmers associations in several states are planning to hold similar marches in their respective states in the lead-up to a mega protest in the national capital in April. Hundreds of passengers were stranded across the country as dozens of flights were cancelled by IndiGo and GoAir after the regulator DGCA grounded 11 A320 Neo planes powered by Pratt & Whitney engines following a mid-air engine failure of an IndiGo plane earlier in the day in Ahmedabad. India's first set of brand new planes for the prime minister, president and vice-president will be customised and be ready for use by early 2020. The election of four members to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat will not be as thrilling as last year when Congress Ahmed Patel was elected to the Upper House in a fiercely fought battle. However, it will also not be a straightforward nomination of two candidates each from the BJP and Congress. For the four Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat, a total of six candidates will be in the poll fray - three from the BJP, two from Congress and an Independent candidate supported by the Congress. A trial court on Monday sent Karti Chidambaram, the son of former Union minister P Chidambaram, to 12-day judicial custody in the INX Media case. Karti will now be lodged at Tihar Jail till March 24 and his pleas for separate cell and home-cooked food were also denied. CBI Special Judge Sunil Rana in his order stuck to equal treatment of prisoners, denying the request for separate jail cell and washroom as it would lead to Karti being "treated differently than other accused persons". Amid the Pakistan High Commission lodging complaints of harassment with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, those who have served in the Islamic republic are saying that it was about time that Pakistan was given the same treatment that India deals with. Agree or disagree? TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has killed two birds in one stone. Firstly, he silenced his critics by withdrawing the ministers from the Modi government at the Centre, and then poured cold water over his main rival YSRCP chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddys dreams of going with the BJP. Naidu knows what he does. He wont do anything without calculating the risks involved. Taking on the ally BJP and withdrawing the ministers, Naidu has not come as a surprise to anyone who understand the style of politics --Telugu Bidda practices. In 2019, agriculture distress could be the nemesis of the BJP government at the Centre and in several other states, including Maharashtra. Firstly, the Narendra Modi government did a complete volte-face on the MS Swaminathan Commission recommendations. Secondly, it failed to ensure that farmers get Minimum Support Price (MSP) for pulses and oilseeds. And thirdly, it did not respond to farmers demand of complete and unconditional loan waiver. (Get a fresh dose of the news that matters, delivered directly to your inbox, every morning. The perfect way, to get you started and informed, for the day ahead. Subscribe to News18 Daybreak here.) New Delhi: India has a great potential to develop into a global superpower by 2030 but only if it is able to reconcile the corresponding rise of China. This is was the consensus between the three panellists of CNN-News18s Rising India curtain raiser debate. The participants, former diplomats KC Singh and TCA Raghavan along KC Singh with former Indian Army Chief General (retd) VP Malik, all agreed that if India was to rise to become a superpower, it had to sort out its position vis-a-vis its neighbourhood, most particularly with China. There is no doubt India is a rising power and there is no doubt is going to continue to rise. (But) The intimidating factor is the corresponding rise of China and her wariness about Indias rise, Singh said. Taking the example of 19th century Europe, Singh said whenever their two neighbouring rising powers trying to displace the existing power structure, it causes a lot of disturbance. The other problem, he said, was that the institutions of global governance like the United Nations and World Bank were created by the victors of the Second World War and, thus, not really configured to deal with the realities of a rising India and China. As a result, these create both opportunities of friction and cooperation between the two countries. In this context, we are rising in uncertainty whether we there is place for India and China together while getting evidence of the contrary, he said. Talking about Prime Minister Narendra Modis foreign policy, Singh said that the key for successful relations is continuity and process which takes time. Thus, the gains seen today are a product of several years. Modis attempts to build interpersonal relations with other leaders might help but the real question is whether they will help in the long term. Further, taking the example of the Middle East, he said the situation also doesnt remain the same over time. To Raghavan, the template of interaction between the two rising powers is not a homogenous one. The rise of China and the rise of India will see a lot of friction but cooperation as well, he said. It will not be a black and white situation. However, for him, the bigger challenge for a rising India to is to build up the requisite economic strength to be able to sustain international influence. The challenge and opportunity for India, to that extent, is an internal challenge of how much the country is able to drive up and sustain economic growth which is reflected on the ground, he said. External trade balance, domestic infrastructure and an indigenous and self-sufficient defence industrial setup were equally required to ensure India develops into a global superpower, he said. Malik, on the other hand, a conflict between India and China is not inevitable. For him, the issue lies in in unresolved borders between the two countries. Both India and China can co-exist if the boundary situation is resolved, he said. Apart from this, a seat in the UN Security Council would also go long way in resolving issues between the two countries he said. New Delhi: Nine CRPF personnel were killed on Tuesday after Naxals blew up their mine-protected vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Sukma, around a year after a dozen jawans were killed in a similar ambush in the district. Officials said the incident took place around 12:30 PM along the Kistaram-Palodi road of the district when the troops of the 212th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were out on an operation. At least nine men have been killed, while two other jawans suffered injuries after the mine-protected vehicle was blown up by multiple improvised explosive devices (IEDs) concealed under the dirt track, a senior official said. Home minister Rajnath Singh paid respects the jawans killed in the attack. "Todays IED blast in Sukma, Chhattisgarh is deeply distressing. I bow to each and every security personnel who attained martyrdom while serving the nation," he tweeted. The injured personnel are being airlifted to Raipur, they said. The rebels used a lot of explosives to blow up the vehicle, a state police official said. Soon after the incident, reinforcements were rushed to the spot, around 500 kms from state capital Raipur, he said, adding further details were awaited. Officials added that the first encounter between the two sides took place at 8 am and later this contingent was targeted by the Maoists. Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the attack showed the deteriorating state of the internal security situation. The Maoist attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh in which 9 CRPF jawans lost their lives is tragic. It reflects a deteriorating internal security situation due to flawed policies. My condolences to the families of those killed. To those who have been injured, I wish a speedy recovery, he tweeted. Twelve personnel of the force were killed on March 11 last year in the Bheji area of the district and their arms looted, when Naxals ambushed their patrol party. A few days later on April 24, twenty-five personnel of the paramilitary were killed in a similar ambush in Sukma. Kolkata: After the controversial 1946 Calcutta Killings which portray Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee in its lead role, film director Milan Bhowmik is now focused on a biopic on Princess Jahanara, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's eldest daughter, and her weakness for Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji. The movie, Jahanara, is learned to revolve around certain important aspects of the lives of Shivaji, Shah Jahan, his daughter Jahanara, his third son Aurangzeb, his eldest son Dara Shukoh and Aurangzebs daughter Zeb-un-Nisa. I have attempted to capture Jahanara right from her birth on March 23, 1614, to her death on September 16, 1681, and her fondness for Chhatrapati Shivaji. I have tried to portray Shivaji as a great warrior and how he fought against Mughals and promoted usage of Marathi and Sanskrit instead of Persian, Bhowmik, said. The Mughals were concerned and worried over the rise of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji and his bravery. Many of us dont know that Aurangzeb actually tried to use Jahanara to strike a deal with Shivaji to avoid war. Jahanara (after being advised by Aurangzeb as a part of the strategy to contain Shivaji) is also believed to have asked Shivaji to marry her but the Maratha king turned down her proposal. Some believe that Jahanara actually liked the Maratha king. Our team of researchers and historians are working on these facts so that we can bring a good informative movie before the people of India, the filmmaker said, explaining his subject. Bhowmik informed that after days of hunt for a new face to play role of Jahanara, he has zeroed in on debutant Eereen Adhikary. The shoot is likely to begin soon and producers are eyeing for a release during the Durga Puja. We will also highlight how Aurangzebs daughter Zeb-un-Nisa was obsessed with Shivajis chivalry. Zeb-un-Nissa remained a spinster all her life. There are historians who believe that it was Princess Zeb-un-Nisa who persuaded Aurangzeb for a meeting with Shivaji so that she could meet the Maratha king. There are more into it and I dont want to reveal everything right now. Lets wait for its release, Bhowmik said while stating that Zeb-un-Nisas part in the movie would be short but elaborate. The filmmakers controversial 1946 Calcutta Killings, which was stalled by Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in September 2016, is now set for release after four cuts. The movie deals with Syama Prasad Mookerjees role during the Partition and is based on the backdrop of widespread communal riots and manslaughter in Kolkata (then Calcutta under the Bengal province of British India) which began on Direct Action Day of 16 August 16, 1946 where over 4,000 people lost their lives and over a lakh were rendered homeless. New Delhi: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday that there was plenty of blame to go around for the nearly Rs 13,500 Punjab National Bank scam. Rajan, who was RBI governor from 2013 to 2016, broke his silence on the scam after allegations were levelled against the 80:20 gold scheme rolled out in 2014. This comes after a letter by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA) written to Rajan on July 26, 2014, surfaced in which it accused the previous UPA government of deliberately yielding to the cronies by changing the gold policy days before demitting office. Any policy has ramifications, both positive and negative. There is plenty of blame to go around for the PNB fraud. Need to look into how the PNB scam occurred, where the lapses happened, Rajan told CNBC-TV18. We also need to ask questions who appoint these board members of PNB (who allowed the scam to take place). We need to think very seriously on public sector bank governance reforms, he added. He also said that had the RBI had any idea of what was going on at the time, it would have done everything in its power to stop it. This (PNB scam) was something off the books, he said. As for the 80:20 gold scheme, Rajan said that that the scheme was brought in to combat the lack of gold supply and bring back jobs in the Indian jewellery sector. Rajan said the government in 2014 was looking to relax import restrictions on gold after the rupee after a rough 2013. The central bank then implemented the 80:20 scheme to allow importers of gold to start importing again but with certain conditions in place. In its letter, IBJA said that the RBI circular on May 21, 2014 had sidestepped nationalised banks, which have been the backbone support of our bullion importing and jewellery exporting members by allowing certain private sector export houses to import gold up to two tonnes at one time, even for those who are not in the business of bullion and gold jewellery. Rajan also hit out at social media after a fake quote was attributed to him, which claimed that he had warned Congress President Rahul Gandhi and former finance minister P Chidambaram about Nirav Modi, and about financial irregularities at Punjab National Bank, during his tenure. Social media has a habit of attributing complete rubbish to me, he said. Below is the full transcript of the interview. Q: First for starters, we have to start with the frauds because that is the reason why we are asking this question who fault is it? Is it the fault of the owner of the bank, the auditor, the regulator or the management? A: There is plenty of blame to go around, but it is important to first focus on why the fraud occurred and what systems were inadequate. In any such thing and I am sure the investigation will go into all these details, but why was this Letter of Undertaking (LoU) given. Why was it not recorded in the banking system? Did management take notice of it? Was it put before the board? And of course after that did the auditors pick it up, if they didnt why didnt they pick it up because auditors go branch by branch and then were the regulators instructions obeyed over time or were they not and why were they not obeyed? Of course the owner in this case the government which appoints the board members as well as the management what is their culpability in this whole thing. I think every facet has to be examined. One of the important concerns about frauds that I had when I was at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was that we unearth them, but we never actually brought any of the culprits to book. So, one of the things we did was we said we need to bring together all the people involved both in unearthing as well as investigating and see how we can move forward. So, we sent a list of the big frauds to the Prime Ministers Office to try and get some action on that. So, these are the kinds of things we need to figure out. Q: When you were governor, many of these LoUs were signed and used to get letters of credit and actually a letter when you were governor on August 03rd 2016 was sent to all the banks asking them to thoroughly scrutinise the SWIFT system, audit it. Looks like you all were sensitive that a problem can come from this SWIFT connectivity to the core banking system. Can the supervisor be blamed for not pushing hard enough to get their instruction implemented? A: Before we assign blame, we have to know what happened and why it happened. In many banking systems there are so many ways of getting around the system. We have to understand that when a way is discovered for example with the SWIFT system it was the problem at Bangladesh Bank which unearthed the problems that were there. When the problem is discovered it is important that the regulators send the message to the banks that we have unearthed this problem, now fix it in your systems. Of course after that the regulator basically assumes to some extent that the banks have fixed it. If they havent, we have to understand why the banks didnt. I mean when they were told about a problem why wasnt the problem fixed and I understand they were other reminders sent after that by the Reserve Bank and we have to understand why they werent obeyed. So, there is a fair amount of learning from this episode that we need to get. But surely there is plenty of responsibility to spread around. Q: Hot from the oven news is that the Reserve Bank has banned LoUs. News coming in just about 10 minutes back. Way to go you think? A: I cant opine on current policy and I am sure they have looked at the issues. One of my concerns in India is that there is sometimes a very ---cavalier treatment of guarantees whether it is bank given guarantees or government given guarantees. We dont think these are real and it is only when they are called upon by the entity that has relied on them that we understand that it is almost like giving a loan or in fact more than giving a loan because it usually called upon when the loan is in distressed. So, it is actually like providing equity. Unless we account for these properly there are huge contingent liabilities on the government balance sheet as well as on the bank balance sheet and it is important that we acknowledge them. Q: You are speaking about pushing blame around and the government has picked up this 80:20 gold scheme as one of the ways in which people were allowed to make money. What are your comments on you must have heard what the government said about this? A: As far as I understand, the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam started in 2011 and was unearthed in 2018. The gold scheme that is under the scanner at this point was something which lasted between May 2014 and November 2014. It seems to me very hard to argue that whatever happened then and I am happy to talk more about that, but whatever happened there was in any way related to the scam other than it happened in the same industry that there was gold involved. It is important to treat these has two separate issues. Happy to talk about the 80:20 because the actions there as far as I understand were justified, but I think it is important to keep it separate from the scam. A people conflate this all the time and I think this seems to be diversion of public interest rather than a focus on the key issues which are important. Why is it that our banking system is leaking so much? How do we prevent the leaks especially when there is so much new money going into the banking system as re-capitalisation? New Delhi: The coming two days could well decide whether India would be able to eliminate tuberculosis by 2025. The global 'End TB Meet', kicked off on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterating his promise to eliminate the disease in India five years ahead of the world's target, and Union health minister JP Nadda promising heavy strategising in the next two days. Nadda said the strategies and way forward for India's 2025 goal, the World Health Organisation's ministerial meeting and the STOP TB partnership will be hash out over the course of this conference. All eyes are on India currently, as the PM stressed on the significance of this meet, the only one before heads of state gather in New York in September 2018, for the high-level UN meet on TB. WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated India on showing political will to tackle the problem, as Russian president Vladimir Putin had at the Moscow meet in November 2017. India's numbers - one fourth of the world's TB cases and deaths - could tip the world's TB disease burden for better or worse. It had an estimated 28 lakh cases and 4.8 lakh deaths in 2015. While Nadda, in a speech that had very little to do with tuberculosis, enthusiastically thanked Modi for making health part of mainstream conversation in the past four years, the PM took stabs at India's past efforts to tackle the illness. What was missing, however, was any glimpse into what the upcoming strategies might entail. The promise to rid the country of this disease by 2025 was made in the 2017 union budget, and was met with disbelief by those working in the health sector. News18 had reported in March 2017, Nadda's promise that the draft national strategy to eliminate TB would be worked out in a month. The PM touched upon measures that have already been rolled out - Rs 500 per patient per month for nutritional support transferred to bank accounts, over a 1000 CBNAAT machines for better diagnostics, the global TB research consortium - while launching the TB-Free India Campaign. What didn't come up is a global appeal to scale up India's access to new drugs. India is still struggling to provide two essential medicines - bedaquiline and delamanid - in sufficient quantities to patients with multidrug resistant TB. On Tuesday, 60 civil society groups and activists and TB survivors from India wrote to the government to grant Indian generic manufacturers compulsory licenses to create affordable versions of these drugs. India has an annual estimate of 1.3 lakh multi-drug resistant TB patients, the highest in the world, the letter quoted the Central TB Division, Annual Status Report, 2017. Its current stock of bedaquiline and delamanid depends on a donation by parent companies Johnson and Johnson for bedaquiline and Otsuka for delamanid. This will run out by April 2019. As the letter points out the actual cost of the six month drug course will be $900 in India for bedaquiline and $1700 for delamanid, unaffordable for most patients in India. Though the PM pointed out how TB was a disease that affected the most poor, he did not touch upon access to medicines. Though Indian generic medicine manufacturers, known for their abilities to reverse engineer patented drugs and create affordable versions, can supply the two drugs at the required rate of USD 48 to 102 for bedaquiline and USD 36 to 96 for delamanid, the process will take them two years. The letter asked the government to grant a generic use licence to these companies, as soon as possible, for the process to start. "The grant of a government use license on grounds of public non-commercial use (under section 92) would create competition, significantly reduce government expenditure, provide impetus to the scaling up of access to these new TB drugs globally and help kick start the generic supply of new TB drugs to the national TB programme by 2019," it read. Washington: The lawyer defending U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort against a Russian oligarch's allegations of fraud will seek to dismiss the case, he said on Monday. Jeffrey Eilender argued the claims are too old and portrayed the case as an attempt to divert attention from a federal probe into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 election. Eilender made the comments to Reuters following a hearing in the case, a civil matter that is separate from criminal charges faced by Manafort, the former head of Trump's campaign, as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's federal probe. Eilender's comments marked the first time that Manafort's lawyers have detailed their planned response to the suit filed in January in New York state court by a Cyprus company tied to Oleg Deripaska, an aluminium magnate close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Eilender said he would seek to dismiss the case on the grounds that it had been more than six years - the statute of limitation for fraud in New York - since the funds at issue changed hands. Eilender said he believed Deripaska was seeking to reassert legal claims against Manafort and former business partner Rick Gates at a time when financial transactions of people close to Putin were under intense scrutiny. "This is a red herring. He is trying to create a distraction," Eilender said. James Altman, lawyer for the Cyprus company, Surf Horizon Limited, did not respond to a request for comment. Surf Horizon accused Manafort and Gates in the January lawsuit of misappropriating more than $18.9 million earmarked for deals in Ukraine in 2008. Surf Horizon had made similar legal complaints against Manafort and Gates in the Cayman Islands in 2014 and in Virginia in 2015. It is not clear to what degree, if any, Mueller's probe is focused on Deripaska, who was offered private briefings by Manafort during the 2016 campaign, according to the Washington Post. One company cited in Mueller's indictment of Manafort and Gates as being involved in an alleged money laundering and tax evasion scheme had a $27 million loan from a Deripaska-linked company at the end of 2012, Cyprus corporate records show. Last month Gates pleaded guilty to two charges and is cooperating with Mueller. Manafort maintains his innocence and is preparing for trial. The split created a potential conflict of interest for Eilender, who was granted permission by the judge on Monday to drop Gates as a client and continue representing Manafort. Kanpur: A woman and her 33-year-old daughter, suffering from muscular dystrophy, have written to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking permission for passive euthanasia. Shashi Mishra (59) and her daughter Anamika Mishra, hailing from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, have written letters to the President with their plea. City magistrate Raj Narayan Pandey said, "The letters have been sent directly to the office of the President of India. Anamika Mishra said that she had written letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Misra requesting them to provide financial help for their treatment or allow them to end their lives. "My father Ganga Mishra was also suffering from muscular dystrophy, and died almost 15 years ago. After his demise, there is no one to look after the family. In 1985, my mother came to know that she is suffering from the disease," she said. Anamika Mishra contracted muscular dystrophy, a genetic disease which leads to increasing weakening and breakdown of skeletal muscles, six years ago. The city magistrate said, "As far as financial assistance from the state government is concerned, it will be given from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, and the procedure will be completed after they submit an application." Anamika Mishra said, "In the past after writing a letter (with blood) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking help, a financial assistance of Rs 50,000 was given." The amount was not enough to sustain the mother-daughter duo beyond a few days, she said. On March 9, in a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court recognised a living will' made by terminally-ill patients for passive euthanasia. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said passive euthanasia and advance living will would be permissible. Living will is a written document that allows a patient to give explicit instructions in advance about the medical treatment to be administered when he or she is terminally ill or no longer able to express informed consent. Passive euthanasia is a condition where there is withdrawal of medical treatment with the deliberate intention to hasten the death of a terminally-ill patient. Washington/Seoul: The White House said on Monday it fully expected an unprecedented meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to take place, if North Korea stuck to its promises, even though Pyongyang has yet to comment publicly on the possibility of a summit. A South Korean delegation that visited North Korea last week said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed a wish to meet Trump and South Korea's president to discuss denuclearisation. North Korean media have reported the South Korean visit, but no details of the talks. Asked if the North Korean silence meant there was a chance the meeting between Trump and Kim would not take place, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: We fully expect that it will. "The offer was made and weve accepted. North Korea made several promises and we hope that they would stick to those promises and if so the meeting will go on as planned," she told a regular briefing. Earlier, South Korea said North Korea's silence on summits with both the United States and South Korea was probably because of caution in preparing for the meetings, while U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington expected to hear directly from Pyongyang. "We have not seen nor received an official response from the North Korean regime regarding the North Korea-U.S. summit," said Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman for South Korea's Unification ministry. "I feel they're approaching this matter with caution and they need time to organise their stance." Tillerson said several steps would be necessary to agree on the location and scope of the talks, adding later that a "neutral" site would be needed. "It's very early stages. We've not heard anything directly back from North Korea but we expect to hear something directly from them," he said during a visit to Nigeria. In an unexpected move last week, Trump agreed to hold a first-ever meeting with Kim, which South Korea said would take place by the end of May after a North-South summit in April. News of possible talks has been a dramatic turnaround from fears of war over North Korea's development of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States. Trump made the announcement after the head of a South Korean delegation that met Kim last week said the North Korean leader had committed to denuclearisation and pledged to refrain from nuclear and missile tests. Asked in a Fox News interview due to air on Monday evening whether there was a real possibility of North Korea denuclearising, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said: "We'll see, as the president often says." But Pence called Kim's offers to cease missile and nuclear testing while not objecting to U.S.-South Korean military exercises "a remarkable step forward" and a result of Trump's tough approach. "He's marshalled unprecedented economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime in North Korea and this breakthrough - and we hope it is a breakthrough - is a result of the strong leadership the president has provided on the world stage," Pence said. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet at the truce village of Panmunjom straddling the Korean border, but a venue for the North Korea-U.S. summit has yet to be decided. CHINA URGES PATIENCE U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster briefed U.N. Security Council envoys in New York on Monday. "We all agreed that we're optimistic about this opportunity, but we're determined, were determined to keep up the campaign of maximum pressure until we see words matched with deeds and a real progress toward denuclearisation," McMaster said. South Korean U.N. Ambassador Cho Tae-yul, who attended the McMaster briefing, described the plans for talks with North Korea as a once in a lifetime opportunity. The South Korean officials who met Kim travelled to Washington last week to relay his message and visited China on Monday to brief President Xi Jinping, who urged patience. South Korea's National Security Office chief, Chung Eui-yong, who led the delegation to Pyongyang, will head to Russia on Tuesday, while spy agency chief Suh Hoon met Japan's foreign minister in Tokyo, where he is to speak with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday. In Beijing on Monday, Xi told Chung there was an important opportunity for talks. "At the same time, all sides must exercise patience and be attentive, and show political wisdom, to appropriately face and dispel any problems and interference to resuming the talks process," state media cited Xi as saying. Xi said China looked forward to smooth talks between the two Koreas and between the United States and North Korea and substantive progress in the denuclearisation process and normalization of ties. Tensions eased as the Koreas held talks against the backdrop of the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month, but Japan has expressed scepticism and warned that "talks for the sake of talks" would be unacceptable. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said after talks with Suh Hoon that Tokyo and Seoul agreed that maximum pressure must be maintained on North Korea until it takes concrete action to address concerns about its weapons programmes. Kono declined to say what that action should be, but South Korea's presidential Blue House quoted him as saying that the breakthrough on talks with North Korea was a near "miracle". In Geneva, the U.N. investigator on North Korea told the world body's Human Rights Council that any progress in the nuclear and security dialogue must be accompanied by talks on human rights violations, including political prison camps. North Korea's state media have lauded the thaw in relations with South Korea. It has continued to warn the United States and Japan against war-mongering, but its rhetoric has been tame compared with threats exchanged at the height of tensions last year. With millions across the globe awaiting Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding day, the bride-to-be joined Queen Elizabeth II, on Monday, in what is supposedly her first public appearance with the monarch. Meghan Markle joined the queen and other senior royals at the Commonwealth Day service at Londons Westminster Abbey. It marked another milestone in Markles path to joining the British monarch's family. They were joined by Prince William and his wife, Kate, Prince Charles, and other royals. On such occassions, while most royals make sure that they stand out and their outfit is distinct while remaining classy and royal, both Markle and Middleton made a case for colour-coordinated outfits and similar footwear. Dressed in a navy sheath dress and a white coat by Amanda Wakeley, the former Suits star managed to turn heads as she made an appearance with Prince Harry. A white beret, matching navy clutch and suede heels rounded of Markle's look for the Commonwealth Day service. The Duchess of Cambridge, 36, who is pregnant with her third baby, took maternity fashion to another level as she stepped out dressed in a navy blue coat and dress by Beulah London. She completed her look with a matching box-clutch, wide-brimmed, recycled hat from Lock & Co., and colour-coordinated navy suede heels, similar to the one Markle wore. While Meghan sported navy footwear Manolo Blahnik, Kate opted for her favourite pair of heeled pumps by Rupert Sanderson. However, the look of the two was quite similar as can be seen in photos. Take a look. Britain's Prince Harry, his fiancee Meghan Markle, Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, arrive at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Britain, March 12, 2018/ ReutersBritain's Prince Harry, his fiancee Meghan Markle, Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, arrive at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Britain, March 12, 2018/ Reuters Seems like both the Duchess of Cambridge and the bride-to-be are already bonding over fashion conversations. (With input from AP) Veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan has taken ill on the sets of his upcoming movie Thugs of Hindostan. As per media reports, a team of doctors has been rushed from Mumbai in a chartered plane to tend to the actor in Jodhpur. The 75-year-old actor was in the city to finish shooting for his role in YRF's ambitious project co-starring Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, and Fatima Sana Sheikh. Doctors said the superstar's condition is stable. On Tuesday morning, the actor took to his blog to discuss his health issues which sparked concerns. He wrote, "I am getting my team of Doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again... I will rest and keep informed in the process," He also wrote about the grueling shoot schedule of the Vijay Krishna Acharya-directed film, which also features Aamir Khan."The morning after the night that began yesterday for work some people need to work for a living and work hard. T 2741 - 4:51 AM .. and just back from work .. ! the city Jodhpur sleeps .. and so shall I in a while after connecting with the well wishers .. love pic.twitter.com/2bsjzkLp3U Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) March 12, 2018 "Its been rough.. but whenever did any be achieved without it .. there is struggle and disappointment and pain and sweat and tears... then the expectation of all working out .. sometimes it does, most of the times not... it is the right impetus to say and deliver that it has been successful and achieved," he added. Directed by Dhoom 3 director Vijay Krishna Acharya, Thugs of Hindostan is an adaptation of the 1839 novel Confessions of a Thug. Amitabh completed the first leg of the shoot for the film in Thailand and described it as one of toughest shoots of his career. "Strangely though, the so-called harsh schedule just completed in the wilds and hills and chills of mountainous Thailand... of disciplined, gentle and smiling Thai has not had any after effects of discomfort or malaise. It's been tough, the shoot for 'Thugs of Hindostan', but in a funny way very energising," Amitabh had written on his blog after completing the shoot. The film is high on action and thrills, demanding the actors to work hard on their physical and mental fitness. The female leads have already been sharing videos of their workout on their social media handle. Rewind and repeat ..... #thugslife A post shared by Katrina Kaif (@katrinakaif) on Feb 1, 2018 at 8:56am PST between action rehearsals TOH A post shared by Fatima Sana Shaikh (@fatimasanashaikh) on Mar 10, 2018 at 8:56am PST Amitabh also has another film in his kitty 102 Not Out, which also stars vet, ran star Rishi Kapoor. The actors will be starring together after two decades. A team of doctors flew in to check on megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is in pain due to the heavy costumes for the shoot of Thugs of Hindostan. In an early morning blog post today, Amitabh, 75, revealed doctors would be coming in to "fiddle around" with his body and set him up again. A team of doctors was flown to Jodhpur, where the actor is, from Mumbai, on a private plane, and they recommended a day's rest. His wife Jaya Bachchan told the media at Parliament House in Delhi, "Amitji is fine. He has pain in the back and neck... The costumes are very heavy, so there's some pain. Otherwise he is fine." Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje extended her best wishes for his quick recovery. Raje, who is on a Kanchipuram and Andhra Pradesh tour, asked officials of the Jodhpur administration to ensure that Amitabh gets timely medical aid and care, read a statement from her office. The Big B has been shooting in the picturesque Mehrangarh Fort for Thugs of Hindostan, which also features Aamir Khan, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Katrina Kaif, and will release during Diwali 2018. The senior actor has been shooting at odd hours and staying up late for shoots. "It's been rough. But whenever did any be achieved without it. There is struggle and disappointment and pain and sweat and tears. Then the expectation of all working out. Sometimes it does, most of the times not. That not is the catalyst. When they say not, it is the right impetus to say and deliver that it has been successful and achieved," he wrote on the blog. The cine icon had revealed last year that he had been nursing a "stiff neck and shoulder pain" as a result of past injuries from stunts he did in the 1970s and 1980s. (With IANS inputs) New Delhi: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will host a dinner on Tuesday which is likely to be attended by leaders of 17 opposition parties, amid talk of forging a broader front against the BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2019 general elections. According to Congress sources, leaders of Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party, which recently pulled out its ministers in the Modi government but continues to be a constituent of the NDA, BJD, and the TRS have not been invited. The BJD and TRS rule Odisha and Telangana respectively. They said former chief ministers of Jharkhand Babulal Marandi of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha and Hemant Soren (JMM) will attend the dinner, along with former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, who recently quit the NDA and joined forces with Lalu Prasad's RJD, which is an ally of the Congress. Lalu's son and Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav is also likely to attend, but there was no immediate confirmation. Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay, DMK's Kanimozhi and Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party are likely to be present, and so would be leaders of left parties - CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and CPI's D Raja. Leaders of other parties like JD-S and Kerala Congress, Indian Union Muslim League, Revolutionary Socialist Party and RLD are also likely to attend. Sources said while BSP has been invited, but its leader Mayawati may not send a representative as her party has aligned with JD-S for the Karnataka polls likely in April/March this year. The dinner being hosted at the 10, Janpath residence of Sonia Gandhi, is expected to set the tone for opposition unity in the run up to the next general elections. Sonia Gandhi has called for opposition unity and said parties should set aside their minor differences to get together in the larger interest of keeping the BJP out of power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Monday accused Centre of diverting the tax revenues collected from southern states to the development of northern states. He also demanded to know from the Centre why a state divided on the basis of sentiment cant be given special category status based on the same sentiment. "There is nothing called Centre's or states money. Its the taxpayers money. The southern states contribute maximum tax revenues to the Centre. But they are diverting the money to the development of northern state," said Chandrababu Naidu. The statement, made amid the strain in ties and with an eye on the upcoming polls, echoes what his counterpart in Karnataka, Siddaramiah, has said previously. Known for pitching sub-nationalism against the BJP governments nationalistic tendencies, the Karnataka CM had also accused the Centre of not doing enough for the states that contribute more tax revenue. The comments came after a TDP delegation was left disappointed when the Home Ministry declined its demand for a Railway Zone in Vishakhapatnam. Hitting out at BJP for changing its stand and doing injustice to Andhra Pradesh, Naidu said, It is unfortunate that central minister says special category status cannot be given on basis of sentiment. But if state can be divided on the basis of sentiment, why cant special category status be given based on the same sentiment?" "I will work hard, day and night, and with my experience, I will rebuild the state", Naidu promised. Chandrababu Naidu has directed MPs to explain to everyone about the state of affairs in the Parliament and continue the fight till demands are fulfilled and justice is delivered. Earlier, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had also raised similar concerns. Hitting out at BJP president Amit Shah during his visit to state last year, KCR termed claims of Centre granting additional funds for the state a "blatant lie". "Centre earned Rs 50,013 crore in taxes from Telangana during 2016-17, while it gave only Rs 24,561 crore under all schemes. Amit Shah should know that it is Telangana which gave Rs 25, 452 crore to the Centre." New Delhi: Days before Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Agarwal joined the ruling BJP, he had put a rather inconvenient question to the government, asking if it has accepted that demonetisation was its "worst decision". Denied a re-nomination to the Upper House by Samajwadi Party, Agarwal joined BJP yesterday. But days before that he had put a written question to the finance minister, the reply to which was given today. In an unstarred question, he had wanted the finance minister to state if "it is a fact that government has accepted that its decision of demonetisation was the worst decision; (and) if so the reasons thereof". Minister of State for Finance, P Radhakrishnan, in a written response tabled in the House on Tuesday, said "No" to the first part of the question and "doesn't arise" to the second. As per the rules and procedures of the Rajya Sabha, an MP can raise or ask a question to any minister by giving it in writing at least 15 days in advance. A notice of a question is to be given in writing to the Secretary-General of Rajya Sabha and must contain the name of the minister it is addressed to and the date on which the query is proposed to be placed on the list of questions for answers. In the same question, Agarwal asked if the decision was not the worst, what areas benefited from the November 8, 2016 decision to scrap old 500 and 1000 rupee notes. In reply, Radhakrishnan listed elimination of fake currency and strike against terrorist activities, action against generation of black money, formalisation of economy and digitisation as benefits of demonetisation. "The fake Indian currency notes were being used by terrorists/naxalites to fund their operations in the country. As a result of demonetisation, terrorist and naxalite financing stopped almost entirely," he said citing stoppage of stone pelting and other terrorist demonstration activities in Jammu and Kashmir. He went on to state that as many as 17.73 lakh accounts, where Rs 3.68 lakh crore of scrapped notes were deposited post November 8, 2016, did not appear to be in line with the their tax profile. Explanation of such deposits were sought. "Responses from 11.18 lakh persons were received giving information on 16.92 lakh accounts. 1 lakh high risk cases for enforcement actions have been identified based on responses," he said and 20,572 income tax returns have been selected for scrutiny. More than 9.72 lakh taxpayers submitted their response providing information on 13.33 lakh accounts involving cash deposits of around Rs 2.89 lakh crore, he added. Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala BJP general secretary K Surendran on Tuesday alleged there was a major conspiracy behind the farmers' Long March in Maharashtra despite the Devendra Fadnavis government accepting most of the demands on Monday. Surendran said there was an ominous plot behind the agitation, which was spearheaded by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha (ABKS). He claimed it was carefully and purposefully constructed by the people who killed farmers in West Bengal to score political brownie points. "In fact, a big riot was their plan. A firing in order to take political mileage. This conspiracy, the second of its kind was hatched after the elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The first was a caste riot, which failed miserably. Fadnavis tackled this too, in a clever manner. It must be noted that those who have emerged as the messiah of farmers are those who killed farmers in West Bengal for the sake of Salim Group, which had pumped money for the annihilation of Communists in Vietnam. You can expect this kind of moves till next Lok Sabha elections. I have a gentle reminder to those who loudly applause the agitators. In the last elections, the vote share of CPM was just 1.25 percent. Some Kisan Sabha activists from Kerala along with some Maoists and separatists were behind this agitation," said Surendran his post in Malayalam. The leader, who lost the last Assembly elections at the northern tip of Kerala by a mere 89 votes, asked, "Do you think the farmers in the home-state of Pinaryi Vijayan who pledged his support to the Long March are in a better position? Moreover, what farming other than the political farming is greener in the state?". Demanding their right to till forest land and a complete loan waiver among other, over 35,000 farmers from across Maharashtra had marched 180 kilometers from Nashik to Mumbai in six days. The march caught national attention as the farmers, most of them who did not use any kind of footwear, put up a strong face throughout the march and maintained a peaceful mode. The Maharashtra government, on Monday, was forced to accept all the demands raised by the farmers. New Delhi: Representatives from 20 parties sat around Sonia Gandhis dinner table at her 10, Janpath residence in New Delhi on Tuesday as the UPA chairperson looked to forge a broader front against the BJP ahead of the 2019 elections. The informal meet is expected to set the tone for opposition unity in the run up to the next elections and included all parties that have been attending consultations to adopt a common strategy in Parliament and outside against the BJP. While there were a few notable omissions, particularly from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, there were a few surprise inclusions too, none more so than Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, who confirmed his presence at the very last moment. Pawar, who has been jockeying to lead the federal front, has also planned a meet of the opposition camp later this month. Also surprising was the presence of Satish Mishra from Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The BSP was not expected to send a representative as it has aligned with JD(S) for the Karnataka polls likely in April/March this year. But not only BSP, JD(S) too Kupender Reddy for the dinner. The Congress fielded its biggest names as apart from Sonia, Rahul Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh, her trusted aide Ahmed Patel and leader of opposition Mallikarjun Kharge were in attendance. Ghulam Nabi Azad, AK Antony and Randeep Singh Surjewala were also present. Bihars leader of opposition and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who has recently emerged as a strong voice against the BJP, and sister Misa Bharti also attended the dinner. In the absence of Lalu Prasad, Tejashwi Yadav is the main player for Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) -- an ally of the Congress party and the lead constituent of the three-party Grand Alliance in Bihar. Former state chief minister and chief of Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular Jitan Ram Manjhi, the third leg of the Bihar Grand Alliance, was also there. Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay, DMK's Kanimozhi and Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party were also present, and so was CPI(M)'s D Raja. Others at the dinner included AIUDF's Badruddin Ajmal, National Conferences Omar Abdullah, JMMs Hemant Soren, RLDs Ajit Singh and Hindustan Tribal Partys Sharad Yadav. The dinner took place in the backdrop of the stupendous wins by the BJP in Tripura and having managed to form alliance governments in Meghalaya, where Congress was the single largest party, and Nagaland. It has also ceded ground to other parties like the TMC in taking the fight to the BJP on issues like the banking scam. So, it again has to rely on Sonia to take the lead. Surjewala, the Congress communications in charge, said the dinner was not organised for politics, but for amity and friendship among opposition parties. He claimed at a time when the government was not allowing Parliament to function, it was obvious that leaders of various parties, who wanted to raise issues in national interest, would get together to discuss the current political situation. "This dinner was not hosted for politics, but for amity and friendship. The intention is not political, but to hold discussions in family-like setting at a time when the nation is confronted with a number of issues and thousands of crores being taken out of the country," Surjewala told reporters after the dinner. He said opposition leaders got together to discuss issues in national interest, create bonhomie in the opposition and exchange views. He also accused the government of running away from a debate on key issues such as banking frauds. New Delhi: Under fire for his comments against Jaya Bachchan, Naresh Agarwal expressed regrets over his comments on Tuesday. If someone was hurt by my words, I take it back. If anything said by me has hurt anyones sentiments, I express my regret, he said. Agarwal, who jumped ship from the SP to the BJP after being snubbed in favour of Bachchan for a Rajya Sabha ticket, termed the actor-politician a Bollywood Dance Girl. My ticket was denied and it was given to someone who dances in films. That is even more painful, he had said. Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav has attacked Naresh Agrawal for his comments against Jaya Bachchan and said that the BJP must act against him immediately. His (Agrawal) comments are an insult against all women. If the BJP respects women, the should act immediately, said Akhilesh seeking the intervention of the womens commission. Taking strong objection to Agrawal's remarks, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj rebuked him in a tweet meant to welcome his joining. Shri Naresh Agrawal has joined Bhartiya Janata Party. He is welcome. However, his comments regarding Jaya Bachchan ji are improper and unacceptable, she wrote. Shri Naresh Agrawal has joined Bhartiya Janata Party. He is welcome. However, his comments regarding Jaya Bachhan ji are improper and unacceptable. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) March 12, 2018 Union Minister Smriti Irani also condemned Agrawal's statement in a tweet late on Monday. "My case (against Sanjay Nirupam) is in the court of law for 5 years now. But let my battle not be an excuse to humiliate other women. In fact let it be a reminder for us that when a womans honour is challenged we stand as one in our condemnation irrespective of our politics," she wrote. My case is in the court of law for 5 years now. But let my battle not be an excuse to humiliate other women. In fact let it be a reminder for us that when a womans honour is challenged we stand as one in our condemnation irrespective of our politics. https://t.co/beneLYVHnk Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) March 12, 2018 The remarks have also caused a furore on social media, with several people already calling for BJP to sack him. Chandigarh: Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal's remark shaming the English skills of IAS officers in the state has started a new controversy in Punjab's power echelons. A video of the Finance Minister, in which he is speaking in Punjabi while addressing the World Punjabi Conference here on Sunday, has gone viral and has pitted the powerful IAS lobby in Punjab against him. "No one (IAS officers) can write letters. Sometimes we hold our heads in shame as to how these people cleared the IAS (exams). They cannot even write letters or memorandums to the government of India," Badal said. "Barring one or two, other IAS officers, mostly don't know how to write English. They don't know how to write a letter," Badal added. Badal made the remarks while pointing out that most of the work in the government was being done in Punjabi. "All files coming at my level are in Punjabi," Badal said. Although there were murmurs on Monday about the Finance Minister's comments, the state IAS officers' association did not react. A couple of officers said that the remarks were "unwarranted" and "insulting". Official sources said that messages were exchanged regarding this in Whatsapp groups of IAS officers. Bengaluru: The just concluded RSS conclave at its headquarters in Nagpur has opposed separate religion tag for the Lingayats, claim separate Lingayat movement leaders in Karnataka. According to them, RSS is opposing even minority status to them on the grounds that it will further divide Hindu religion. But it has not gone down well with the activists, who are pushing the government to accord a separate religion or at least a minority status to Lingayats. In the meantime, the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka has agreed to accord separate religion and minority status to the Lingayats. The government constituted committee, headed by a retired high court judge Justice Nagamohan Das, has already recommended minority status to them and the state cabinet is expected to approve it and send the recommendation to the Centre, putting the ball in PM Modi's court. But the entire community is not united in their fight for a separate religion or for minority status. The Veerashaivas want the religion to be called Veerashaiva or Veerashaiva Lingayat. But the hardcore Lingayats want the religion to be called just Lingayat religion and no Veerashaiva. They claim that Veerashaiva is a part of Hindu Vedic traditions and Lingayat religion is against all Vedic practices. It has complicated the matters for Siddaramaiah, who is backing the movement. His own government is divided over the issue. Water Resources minister MB Patil, who is spearheading the movement, wants them to be known as just Lingayats. But a veteran Congress leader and MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa is opposing and demanding Veerashaiva to be included in the name. He is also the president of All India Veerashaiva Lingayat Mahasabha. The five most powerful seers of Veerashaiva sect among the Lingayats are called Panchacharyas. They are opposing a separate religion tag. It has angered the people who want an independent religion tag. SM Jamadar, retired IAS officer and leader of the separate Lingayat religion movement, told News18 that he did not care about what Veerashaiva seers and leaders thought about the movement. He said, "We don't care about these people and their claims. Lingayats are not Hindus and we will never accept that we are also Hindus. Our religion founded by Basavanna is a casteless religion. Hinduism is caste ridden. We are not Hindus. We will continue our fight for a separate religion. It does not matter if the government recognises it or not. It makes no difference to us". Commenting on the RSS opposition to separate religion tag, Jamadar said that it was not new. He said: "The RSS chief M Bhagwat came to Bengaluru 10 months ago. He had opposed our movement. All of us know that RSS is against us. Since we are not Hindus, we don't need RSS' approval". He also reiterated that they will be called only Lingayats, and Veerashaiva sect can't dictate terms to them. Even MB Patil says he agrees with him. The BJP, whose core vote bank is Lingayats, is treading cautiously keeping in mind the sensitivities involved. Its CM face BS Yeddyurappa, himself a Lingayat, is trying his best to stay away from the debate. Speaking to News18, he said: "Siddaramaiah is dividing us for votes. He won't succeed. Lingayats and Veerashaivas are one and the same." According separate religion or minority status to Lingayats is worrying Muslims and Christians. Their leaders fear that the politically and economically powerful Lingayats may corner most of the privileges meant for them. Reacting to this, MB Patil said that there was no need for them to worry about it as the Lingayats would not take anything away from Muslims and Christians. He is also likely to meet Muslim and Christian leaders in the state to convince them. Lingayats are followers of the 12th century social reformer and mystic Basavanna or Basaveshwara, who revolted against the caste system in Hinduism. Basavanna was a Brahmin, but he opposed Brahminical practices and hegemony by founding a casteless religion called "Lingayats". They worship Shiva Linga and are not supposed to follow any Hindu rituals. Over 18% population in Karnataka is Lingayats. Only time will tell if the Congress' plan to woo them by granting separate religion status works. New Delhi: In 2015, history was created in Kashmir. For the first time, the BJP had made inroads into the valley and was about to form a government with the PDP. The alliance was about to be cemented. Thats when a name, associated with finance and economics, started making its way into newspaper headlines. The name was Haseeb Drabu. Known to be a 'sympathiser' of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in its initial years, Drabu, a former Jammu and Kashmir Bank Chairman and a loyalist of then PDP chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, was appointed by the party to do the maths with the BJP over a possible government formation in the state. What followed were endless meetings with BJP general secretary Ram Madhav in various locations in Chandigarh, Jammu and New Delhi. Madhav and Drabu had different agendas and perspectives on Kashmir's history. Yet they clicked and managed to form a coalition between the two parties, who earlier were sitting miles apart from each other. A popular face from the craftily woven alliance one of the most difficult agenda-setting exercises in recent history Drabu had done what nobody ever had fathomed. The BJP was finally in Kashmir. Fast forward to 2018 and the maverick Finance Minister has been sacked by his own party for his political views. Well, almost. Jammu and Kashmirs ruling party, PDP, on Monday sacked Drabu from the council of ministers over his remarks that Kashmir isnt a political issue. Drabu, on March 9, had claimed at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi that Kashmiri society faces social issues and the problem should be treated as such. It is not a political issue as far as I can see, he had said during the event, which was attended by around 130 ambassadors, government officials and business leaders. Drabu, a noted economist, formally joined the PDP in 2014 and contested the state elections from his home constituency Rajpora. After the alliance was finalised, Drabu was given the finance portfolio a ministry that was earlier manned by stalwarts such as Abdul Raheem Rather, Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Tariq Hamid Karra. With a doctorate in economics from JNU under his belt, Drabu started his career with the Government of India in 1990, first with the Perspective Planning Division of the Planning Commission, then as a consultant to the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister. He then joined the media and became an editor at Business Standard, where he set up a research bureau. Drabu has also been a regular commentator on economic issues and used to write a fortnightly column for business daily Mint. He also briefly served as a consultant to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). After the 2002 state elections, when a PDP-Led Coalition state government came to power in Jammu and Kashmir, Drabu was appointed as its economic advisor. He planned the tax reforms, methods of expenditure compression and attempted to reduce the debt stock of the state government. In the same year, the PDP-Congress presented its zero-deficit budget a brainchild of Drabu. In 2005, Drabu was appointed as the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Bank by the PDP Congress government. He was unceremoniously removed as the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Bank by the Omar Abdullah government in August 2010. A man who has is often being credited for bring PDP and BJP on the same table, Drabu, interestingly, was accused of being turn coat, by The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief, Yasin Malik. When Drabu joined PDP, the JKLF chief had said that in 1996, Drabu came to All Party Hurriyat Conferences Kashmir Awareness Bureau office at Delhi and discussed ideas to liberate Kashmir from India. Drabu talked to me for hours and while praising our efforts for liberation of Jammu Kashmir from illegal occupation of India delivered several ideas and concepts for it, Malik had said. JKLF chairman further had said that after few years Drabu got what he intended to and was awarded with the chairmanship of J&K Bank. Betraying his nation, he renounced resistance movement for his petty selfish gain and switched over to other side of the divide and joined Indian political system, Malik had said. In 2016, Drabus wife, Roohi Nazki, an entrepreneur, had taken to social media to express her outrage and angst over the killings and maiming of children. Nazki had said, children of Kashmir are being killed on street corners, by the forces, who pump pellets into their young bodies. In her social media, Nazki had cricitised the state government of which her husbad was a part of and had asked Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti-led government to step down. New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has decided to attend the dinner being hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday night which will be attended leaders of 17 opposition parties, amid talk of forging a broader front against the BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2019 general elections. The decision, a last-minute one, comes as a surprise, as Pawar has also planned a meeting of the opposition camp for talks later this month in what is being perceived as an attempt to take charge of the so-called federal front. NCP leader Praful Patel has already met Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata and invited her to attend the meet. After the meeting with Banerjee last week, Patel had told reporters that the idea of having a federal front in the future was discussed between them For Sonias dinner, all 17 opposition parties which have been attending consultations to adopt a common strategy in Parliament and outside against BJP, have confirmed their presence. According to Congress sources, leaders of Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party, which recently pulled out its ministers in the Modi government but continues to be a constituent of the NDA, BJD, and the TRS have not been invited. The BJD and TRS rule Odisha and Telangana respectively. They said former chief ministers of Jharkhand Babulal Marandi of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha and Hemant Soren (JMM) will attend the dinner, along with former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, who recently quit the NDA and joined forces with Lalu Prasad's RJD, which is an ally of the Congress. Lalu's son and Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav is also likely to attend. Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay, DMK's Kanimozhi and Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party are likely to be present, and so would be leaders of left parties - CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and CPI's D Raja. Leaders of other parties like JD-S and Kerala Congress, Indian Union Muslim League, Revolutionary Socialist Party and RLD are also likely to attend. Sources said while BSP has been invited, but its leader Mayawati may not send a representative as her party has aligned with JD-S for the Karnataka polls likely in April/March this year. The dinner being hosted at the 10, Janpath residence of Sonia Gandhi, is expected to set the tone for opposition unity in the run up to the next general elections. Sonia Gandhi has called for opposition unity and said parties should set aside their minor differences to get together in the larger interest of keeping the BJP out of power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi, say those who attend her rare dinner parties at 10 Janpath, is a very good and thoughtful host. The dinner on Tuesday by Sonia will give her and her party plenty of food for thought. The dinner takes place in the backdrop of the stupendous wins by the BJP in Tripura and having managed to form alliance governments in Meghalaya, where Congress was the single largest party, and Nagaland. What's worse is just after the results came in, Mamata Banerjee rued the fact that Rahul Gandhi did not accept her alliance proposal. "Had Rahul Gandhi accepted my proposal for an alliance among the Congress, the TMC and local hill parties, the situation would have been different in Tripura," said Mamata. Making matters worse was the fact that Rahul Gandhi chose to take a short break, again. On day one of Parliament, it was the TMC, and not Congress, which was seen agitating over the big bank scam. Congress once again lost out in taking the lead. Rahul did take the lead in protesting the day after but by then the match was lost. Even on the demonetisation issue, the lead was taken by the Trinamool. It was Mamata Banerjee who had marched to Rashtrapati Bhawan and reached out to other opposition parties. As Congress watched other regional stalwarts take the lead, the strain started showing on Congress. Of late Rahuls narrative against PM Modi has been matched by Pawar and Mamata Banerjee. Pawar is planning another meeting of opposition parties to plan a strategy against Modi. Tejashwi Yadav too has emerged as a strong voice against the BJP. The Congress has a reason to be worried. In 2004, it was Sonia who had reached out to stitch an alliance against the BJP. Congress had a headstart then. Today, the party is in a shambles. Also, the regional players are stronger and smarter. The big brotherly treatment by the Congress is no longer acceptable. Sonia once again has to take the lead. In 2004, she pushed herself to be accepted as a leader. Today, she is pushing for her son to be accepted as the leader of the opposition unity, said a senior Congress leader, who did not wish to be named. It's now a question of Congress 'asmita' (honour). And once again the responsibility has fallen on Sonias shoulders. Apple streaming music service now has 38 million paid subscribers, up from 36 million in February, the company said on Monday. Apple is locked in race for subscribers with Amazon.com, Alphabet's Google and others as streaming music becomes the dominant form of paid music consumption. Apple's number compares to 71 million premium subscribers at the end of 2017 at industry leader Spotify, which plans to list shares in the coming weeks on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SPOT. Also Read: Apple Adds More Texture to Its Services With Magazine Deal Apple said Eddy Cue, senior vice president of internet software and services, disclosed the most recent subscriber number for Apple Music at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Amazon Music Unlimited has 16 million paying subscribers, and Pandora Media has 5.48 million total subscribers. Google does not release paid subscriber numbers for its service, Google Play Music. Also Read: Huawei Partners With Savex to Expand Enterprise Footprint in India Apple, Spotify, Google and other services charge $9.99 a month for music. Amazon offers its service to members who already pay for its Prime membership, which includes shipping, video content and other benefits, for $7.99 per month. In addition to its paid service, Spotify also offers a free ad-supported version to help draw users into the service. Apple Music does not offer an ad-based version and instead uses a three-month free trial to lure customers. Cue said Apple has 8 million subscribers currently in the free trial period, the first time Apple has disclosed the number of trail users. Watch: Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer, HMD Global | Interview at MWC 2018 Yahoo has been ordered by a federal judge to face much of a lawsuit in the United States claiming that the personal information of all 3 billion users was compromised in a series of data breaches. In a decision on Friday night, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California rejected a bid by Verizon Communications Inc, which bought Yahoo's Internet business last June, to dismiss many claims, including for negligence and breach of contract. Also Read: Apple Adds More Texture to Its Services With Magazine Deal Koh dismissed some other claims. She had previously denied Yahoo's bid to dismiss some unfair competition claims. Yahoo was accused of being too slow to disclose three data breaches that occurred from 2013 and 2016, increasing users' risk of identity theft and requiring them to spend money on credit freeze, monitoring and other protection services. The breaches were revealed after New York-based Verizon agreed to buy Yahoo's Internet business, and prompted a cut in the purchase price to about $4.5 billion. Also Read: Huawei Partners With Savex to Expand Enterprise Footprint in India A Verizon spokesman had no immediate comment on Monday. A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The plaintiffs amended their complaint after Yahoo last October revealed that the 2013 breach affected all 3 billion users, tripling its earlier estimate. Koh said the amended complaint highlighted the importance of security in the plaintiffs' decision to use Yahoo. Also Read: Apple Files Patent For a Dust And Crumb-Resistant MacBook Keyboard "Plaintiffs' allegations are sufficient to show that they would have behaved differently had defendants disclosed the security weaknesses of the Yahoo Mail System," Koh wrote. She also said the plaintiffs could try to show that liability limits in Yahoo's terms of service were "unconscionable," given the allegations that Yahoo knew its security was deficient but did little. Also Read: Apple Music Hits 38 Million Paid Subscribers In seeking a dismissal, Yahoo said it has long been the target of "relentless criminal attacks," and the plaintiffs' "20/20 hindsight" did not cast doubt on its "unending" efforts to thwart "constantly evolving security threats." Last March, U.S. prosecutors charged two Russian intelligence agents and two hackers in connection with one of the Yahoo breaches. One accused hacker, Karim Baratov, a Canadian born in Kazakhstan, pleaded guilty in November to aggravated identity theft and conspiracy charges. The other defendants remained at large in Russia. The case is In re: Yahoo Inc Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. Watch: Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer, HMD Global | Interview at MWC 2018 U.N. human rights experts investigating a possible genocide in Myanmar said on Monday that Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech there. Facebook had no immediate comment on the criticism on Monday, although in the past the company has said that it was working to remove hate speech in Myanmar and kick off people who shared such content consistently. Also Read: Apple Adds More Texture to Its Services With Magazine Deal More than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state into Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown last August. Many have provided harrowing testimonies of executions and rapes by Myanmar security forces. The U.N. human rights chief said last week he strongly suspected acts of genocide had taken place. Myanmar's national security adviser demanded "clear evidence". Also Read: Huawei Partners With Savex to Expand Enterprise Footprint in India Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, told reporters that social media had played a "determining role" in Myanmar. "It has ... substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissention and conflict, if you will, within the public. Hate speech is certainly, of course, a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media," he said. Also Read: Apple Files Patent For a Dust And Crumb-Resistant MacBook Keyboard U.N. Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee said Facebook was a huge part of public, civil and private life, and the government used it to disseminate information to the public. "Everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar," she told reporters, adding that Facebook had helped the impoverished country but had also been used to spread hate speech. "It was used to convey public messages but we know that the ultra-nationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities," she said. "Im afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended." The most prominent of Myanmars hard-line nationalist monks, Wirathu, emerged from a one-year preaching ban on Saturday and said his anti-Muslim rhetoric had nothing to do with violence in Rakhine state. Also Read: Apple Music Hits 38 Million Paid Subscribers Facebook suspends and sometimes removes anyone that consistently shares content promoting hate, the company said last month in response to a question about Wirathus account. "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. Watch: Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer, HMD Global | Interview at MWC 2018 U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday blocked microchip maker Broadcom Ltd's proposed takeover of Qualcomm Inc on national security grounds, ending what would have been the technology industry's biggest deal ever amid concerns that it would give China the upper hand in mobile communications. The presidential order reflected a calculation that the United States' lead in creating technology and setting standards for the next generation of mobile cell phone communications would be lost to China if Singapore-based Broadcom took over San Diego-based Qualcomm, according to a White House official. Also Read: Apple Adds More Texture to Its Services With Magazine Deal Qualcomm has emerged as one of the biggest competitors to China's Huawei Technologies Co in the sector, making Qualcomm a prized asset. Qualcomm had earlier rebuffed Broadcom's $117 billion bid, which was under investigation by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a multi-agency panel led by the Treasury Department that reviews the national security implications of acquisitions of U.S. corporations by foreign companies. In a letter on March 5, CFIUS said it was investigating whether Broadcom would starve Qualcomm of research dollars that would allow it to compete and also cited the risk of Broadcom's relationship with "third party foreign entities." While it did not identify those entities, the letter repeatedly described Qualcomm as the leading company in so-called 5G technology development and standard setting. Also Read: Huawei Partners With Savex to Expand Enterprise Footprint in India "A shift to Chinese dominance in 5G would have substantial negative national security consequences for the United States," CFIUS said. "While the United States remains dominant in the standards-setting space currently, China would likely compete robustly to fill any void left by Qualcomm as a result of this hostile takeover." NATIONAL SECURITY AND HUAWEI A White House official on Monday confirmed that the national security concerns related to the risks of Broadcom's relationship with third party foreign entities. A source familiar with CFIUS' thinking had said that, if the deal was completed, the U.S. military was concerned that within 10 years, "there would essentially be a dominant player in all of these technologies and that's essentially Huawei, and then the American carriers would have no choice. They would just have to buy Huawei (equipment)." Also Read: Apple Files Patent For a Dust And Crumb-Resistant MacBook Keyboard Huawei has been forging closer commercial ties with big telecom operators across Europe and Asia, putting it in prime position to lead the global race for 5G networks despite U.S. concerns. Huawei has a dominant position in China, which is set to become the worlds biggest 5G market by far, and has also made inroads in the rest of world to compete with rivals such as Ericsson and Nokia in several lucrative markets, including countries that are longstanding U.S. allies. Qualcomm is also a major player in 5G, estimated to have 15 percent of 5G-essential patents in the world, compared with 11 percent for Nokia and 10 percent for all of China, according to a Jefferies report citing LexInnova research. Many smartphone makers are counting on Qualcomm to deliver its 5G chipset on time in late 2018 to roll out their 5G phones in 2019. Also Read: Apple Music Hits 38 Million Paid Subscribers Shares of Broadcom rose less than 1.0 percent to $264.10 in after-hours trade while Qualcomm fell 4.3 percent to $60.14. Broadcom said it was reviewing the presidential order. "Broadcom strongly disagrees that its proposed acquisition of Qualcomm raises any national security concerns," it said in a statement in response to the decision. Qualcomm, which had delayed its annual shareholder meeting during the CFIUS review, set the new date for March 23. The move by Trump to kill the deal comes only months after the U.S. president himself stood next to Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan at the White House, announcing the company's decision to move its headquarters to the United States and calling it "one of the really great, great companies." This is the fifth time a U.S. president has blocked a deal based on CFIUS objections and the second deal Trump has stopped since assuming office slightly over a year ago. Also Read: Google May Rebrand Android Wear to Wear OS "The proposed takeover of Qualcomm by the Purchaser (Broadcom) is prohibited, and any substantially equivalent merger, acquisition, or takeover, whether effected directly or indirectly, is also prohibited," the presidential order released on Monday said. The order cited "credible evidence" that led Trump to believe that Broadcom's taking control of Qualcomm "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States." BROADCOM'S NEXT MOVE Broadcom had struggled to complete its proposed deal to buy Qualcomm, which had cited several concerns including the price offered and potential antitrust hurdles. The presidential decision to block the deal cannot be appealed. However, it is not clear what rules Broadcom would have to follow if it goes ahead with announced plans to move its headquarters to the United States. Companies may challenge CFIUS's jurisdiction in court but may not challenge the inter-agency panel's national security findings, a CFIUS expert said. If Broadcom decides to press on with its effort to buy Qualcomm, it would be wise to drop the matter for now while the company quietly wraps up its move to the United States, a second CFIUS expert said. Once the move is done, Broadcom could argue that CFIUS does not have jurisdiction, the second expert said. Watch: Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer, HMD Global | Interview at MWC 2018 Gaza City, Palestine: An explosion targeted Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah's convoy as he arrived in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday for a rare visit, lightly wounding seven people, officials and witnesses said. Hamdallah was not injured in the explosion, which occurred shortly after his convoy entered the territory run by Islamist movement Hamas, a security source in the convoy said. Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj was part of the convoy but was not hurt either, the security source said. A statement on official Palestinian media said president Mahmud Abbas considered it a "cowardly targeting" of Hamdallah's convoy and held his rivals Hamas responsible. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Radical Islamists opposed to Hamas also operate within the Gaza Strip and have regularly been behind unrest there. The Hamas interior ministry confirmed there had been an explosion and said security forces were investigating the incident. It said it would not derail Hamdallah's visit, which comes as reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party falters. The two major Palestinian factions signed a reconciliation agreement in October that was supposed to see the Islamists hand over power, but it has all but collapsed. Hamdallah appeared on television shortly after the explosion as he opened a plant in the territory. Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping hopes "smooth" talks between North Korea's leader and the presidents of the United States and South Korea can produce progress towards Pyongyang's denuclearisation, according to state media. Xi made the remarks during a meeting on Tuesday with South Korea's national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, who was in Beijing to brief Chinese leaders about his meetings with Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump last week. Kim has agreed to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the Demilitarized Zone in late April, while Trump and the North Korean leader could meet by the end of May. "We expect a smooth DPRK-ROK summit and DPRK-US dialogue," Xi said, using the acronyms for North Korea and South Korea, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Xi voiced hope that the talks will lead to "substantial progress" in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and toward the normalisation of relations between the countries involved. The peninsula faces "an important opportunity for easing tension" and called on all sides to be "patient and cautious", the Chinese leader said. Xi said China is willing to work with the international community to promote Beijing's "dual-track approach" along with "helpful proposals from all sides". China has called for a "dual-track" of committing to denuclearisation while establishing a peace mechanism. It has also proposed a "suspension-for-suspension" plan in which the United States, South Korea and Japan freeze military drills in return for North Korea halting its nuclear and missile tests. "As long as all parties can focus on the fundamental goal of denuclearisation, peace and stability, the Korean peninsula will finally usher in the spring, when ice will thaw and flowers will bloom," Xi said. For his part, Chung thanked Xi for his "big role" in the diplomatic process that led to the "very positive changes". Beijing has played a key role in implementing UN sanctions on the North, which are believed to have put immense pressure on the country's fragile economy. China is North Korea's only diplomatic ally and its most important trade partner. Still, some in China are afraid the country, which hosted failed six-nation talks on the nuclear issue a decade ago, could be cut out of negotiations on denuclearising the Korean peninsula. Washington: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he had replaced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, ousting the embattled top diplomat after a series of public rifts. Trump announced the Cabinet shakeup on Twitter and said he had tapped the CIA's deputy director, Gina Haspel, to replace Pompeo at the intelligence agency. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018 Tillerson's departure represents the biggest staff change in the Trump Cabinet so far and caps months of tensions between the Republican president and the 65-year-old former Exxon Mobil chief executive. A senior White House official said Trump asked Tillerson to step down on Friday but did want not to announce it while he was on a trip to Africa. The official said Trump works well with Pompeo, a former congressman from Kansas who is seen as a loyalist within the administration, and wanted him in place before the US President's planned talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and trade negotiations. Trump and Tillerson, who had no diplomatic or political experience before becoming secretary of state, have diverged on policy numerous times, including over North Korea and Russia. On Monday, Tillerson sharply criticized Russia over the poisonings in England of a former spy and his daughter, directly blaming Moscow after White House press secretary Sarah Sanders stopped short of doing so. Tillerson also appeared out of the loop last week when Trump announced he would meet with North Korea's leader and become the first sitting US President to do so. "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Trump said on Twitter. London: The UK government seemed rattled by the India visit of French President Emmanuel Macron with UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson clashing with him on social media over Indian students being lured by both nations. During an address in New Delhi on Saturday, the French President offered up France as the new gateway to Europe for Indian students against the backdrop of Britain's exit from the EU. We are at the beginning of a new momentum between France and India I want to double the number of Indian students coming to France. If you choose France you gain access to francophonie, you gain access to Europe, said messages from Macron's official Twitter account. Nous accueillons aujourdhui 5 000 etudiants indiens en France.Lexcellence et lattractivite de notre enseignement superieur doivent nous permettre de doubler ce chiffre dici 2020. pic.twitter.com/GkDOKqJXTy Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) March 11, 2018 In a direct reply, Johnson tweeted back: We are proud too to have more than 14,000 Indian students coming to the UK in 2017 up a quarter over last year choosing the home of the greatest universities, including four of the global top ten. He concluded his message with the tag #EducationIsGreatInEnglish. The social media clash reflects the UK's obvious attempt to hold on to its attraction for international students post-Brexit. According to official estimates, overseas students contribute around 25 billion pounds a year to the UK economy and support about 200,000 jobs in the country. The number of Indian students choosing British universities has been on the decline in recent years due to a perceived unwelcome visa regime, though last year's figures came as some relief for the UK government. The number of study visas granted to Indians in 2017 amounted to 14,445, the second-largest after the Chinese. The figure marked a 28 per cent hike in student visas granted to Indians compared to the previous year. There are growing calls from universities for overseas students to be removed from the government's annual migration target for them to be able to attract larger numbers of what they believe are essentially temporary migrants who have a lot to offer the economy. The treating of students as immigrants leads to negative perceptions in India of the UK's restrictive visa regime. There is no justification for seeking to reduce numbers of international students, said Lord Karan Bilimoria, Indian-origin entrepreneur and president of the UK Council for International Student Affairs. Macron, meanwhile, has been making a direct play for these temporary migrants along with clinching deals worth an estimated 13-billion euros between French and Indian companies during his India tour. He has been touting France as the entry point to Europe in a direct challenge to Britain, which until Brexit had pegged itself as the gateway to Europe for Indian companies. Seoul: Since U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week he was willing to meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un, speculation has mounted over where might be chosen to host the first-ever meeting between sitting leaders of the two countries. Kim has yet to publicly confirm his invitation to meet with Trump in a bid to defuse a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear programme, and officials in Seoul and Washington say the exact location and timing of any summit remain to be determined. But that hasn't stopped officials, analysts, and other observers from debating the pros and cons of possible summit sites, ranging from North Korea's capital city of Pyongyang, to the Joint Security Area (JSA) between the two Koreas, to farther afield in other areas of Asia or Europe. Here are a few of the top locations being discussed: JOINT SECURITY AREA, PANMUNJOM One of the most likely sites being discussed is the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom that straddles the Military Demarcation Line between North and South Korea. It's the only spot along the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where North Korean troops stand face-to-face with South Korean and United Nations Command forces. "Places like Switzerland, Sweden or Jeju Island have been gaining a lot of attention, but we also view the JSA as a serious option," an official with South Korea's presidential Blue House said on Sunday. Some sceptics see the JSA as a symbol of the Korean War and continued tensions, rather than a place for a peace deal. However, it would allow Kim and Trump to meet without travelling far from either of their respective security forces or to be seen kowtowing in an "enemy" capital. Kim is scheduled to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the JSA in April for their first ever summit, and South Korean officials see it as a top contender for a Trump summit as well. "If North Korea and the U.S., who are the directly involved parties of the truce agreement, hold the summit at Panmunjom, it would hold the significant meaning of turning a symbol of division into one of peace," the Blue House official said. JEJU ISLAND Another spot in South Korea that has been raised as an option is scenic Jeju Island, off the southern coast, easily accessed by either boat or airplane from the Korean peninsula. Kim Jong Un's father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, was known to be afraid of flying, but the younger Kim has been shown in official photos getting off airplanes and even "flying" a North Korean designed aircraft. "In Korea, I'm sticking with Jeju Island. Jeju has soul, born of tragedy, and beauty and nature," said Yonsei University Professor John Delury, who led a discussion of possible summit locations on Twitter. The island hosts an annual "peace and prosperity" forum in May designed to attract international leaders. "As the Island of Peace, Jeju is the ideal place to hold the North Korea-US summit," Jeju's governor said in a statement. EUROPE Several spots in Europe, including Switzerland and Sweden, have been raised as possible neutral locations for a summit. Both countries have international reputations as mediators, and both played a role as members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission helping to regulate relations between the two Koreas after the 1953 armistice that paused - but did not officially end - the Korean War. As a child, Kim and his siblings attended an elite private school in Switzerland in the 1990s, according to former classmates there. However, Kim's time in the West is not an officially acknowledged part of his biography and analysts say he may want to avoid drawing attention to that period in socialist and impoverished North Korea. The Swiss foreign ministry has said the country is ready to facilitate talks between North Korea and the United States, and is in contact with both sides. "It is up to the parties involved to decide if, when and where the talks will be held," the ministry said in a statement. Sweden's prime minister told reporters on Saturday that the country stands ready to help "in any way." Sweden has held unofficial talks in the past, and North Korea's foreign minister is expected to visit soon, according to Swedish media. ASIA A summit in Asia would be closer to home for the notoriously reclusive Kim, and cities including Beijing, Singapore, Hanoi, or even Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia have been raised as possibilities. Beijing is seen as one of Pyongyang's biggest backers, and has hosted a series of multilateral negotiations over North Korea held intermittently since 2003 and attended by China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. In recent years, however, relations between Pyongyang and Beijing have cooled, and analysts say Trump may not be keen on providing a major rival like China a chance to steal some of the limelight. Mongolia's capital city, Ulaanbaatar, has been the site of past sensitive negotiations with North Koreans, maintains friendly relations with both sides, and has little in the way of political baggage. Its lack of pizzazz, however, may not provide the backdrop Trump is seeking for his riskiest diplomatic gambit. PYONGYANG OR WASHINGTON As far as is publicly known, Kim has not left North Korea since he came to power in 2011, meaning any trip outside the country might be problematic. Previous meetings between North Korean and American officials have taken place in Pyongyang, including a 2000 meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Kim's father and predecessor Kim Jong Il. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have also travelled to Pyongyang. However, Albright's trip in particular was criticised for appearing as an endorsement of a brutal and oppressive regime. Any a summit in North Korea - even outside Pyongyang - is seen as a long-shot as any Trump visit would risk similarly unfavourable criticisms of the American president. Kim could face similar problems travelling to the United States, where no North Korean leader has visited, making many observers think a more neutral setting will need to be found. Aden, Yemen: At least four people were killed in Yemen's port city of Aden on Tuesday when a car bomb ripped through a military kitchen used by Yemeni forces trained and backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), witnesses said. They said dozens more people were wounded in the blast. The witnesses said the blast was caused by a car laden with explosives, apparently driven by a suicide bomber towards the kitchen in al-Derain area in northern Aden. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. It was the second attack of its kind targeting security forces in the city, where UAE forces from the Saudi-led coalition that has been operating in Yemen since 2015 hold sway. Islamic State last month claimed responsibility for an attack targeting the headquarters of a counter-terrorism unit in Aden that killed at least 14 people, including the attackers. Witnesses said rescuers were trying to pull out four charred bodies from the destroyed kitchen. The force of the blast damaged stores and cars nearby. The Saudi-led coalition, armed and backed by the West, joined the Yemen conflict in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthi group pushed towards Aden, forcing the internationally-recognised President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile in Saudi Arabia. Last month, UAE-backed southern Yemeni forces wrested control of Aden from forces loyal to Hadi in several days of fighting that ended with a truce brokered by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Beijing: China's move to scrap term limits and allow Xi Jinping to serve as president indefinitely puts him on track to deal with some of the country's weightiest long-term sovereignty challenges, especially the fates of Hong Kong and Taiwan. The question is, will Xi bet big on bold moves that could result in potentially disastrous consequences? Hong Kong offers a delicate initial test. Since passing from British to Chinese rule in 1997, the financial hub has operated as a "special administrative region," retaining its own legal and economic system and enjoying a considerable degree of autonomy from Beijing. That arrangement was supposed to last 50 years, until 2047, but calls for political reform in the city and what many see as Beijing tightening its controls and encroaching on freedoms there have created rising tensions. Earlier this month, a member of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee delivered a stern warning to Hong Kong delegates to China's rubber-stamp parliament over the central government's limits of tolerance. "Using the high degree of autonomy to reject, fight and erode the central government's comprehensive jurisdiction is absolutely not allowed," Zhao Leji told members of the National People's Congress, which passed a constitutional amendment Sunday abolishing presidential term limits, opening the door for Xi to rule for as long as he wants. Hong Kong activists had already been set on edge by the disqualification of pro-democracy lawmakers from the city's Legislative Council and the apparent abduction by Chinese security forces of several men who published salacious tomes about China's leadership. Still, Hong Kong remains one of the world's freest economies and a window to the outside for the Chinese financial system, which operates under much tighter restrictions. The cosmopolitan city of 6 million, with its vibrant tourism, arts and education sectors, also remains a beacon to many aspiring Chinese. "I don't think bold action is necessary with respect to Hong Kong," said Michael Mazza of the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, D.C. Xi is "already well along in the process of turning (Hong Kong) into just another Chinese city," he said. Self-governing Taiwan, however, is quite a different story, posing a direct challenge to the Communist Party's claim as the representative of all Chinese and guardian of Chinese sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. Since splitting from the mainland amid civil war in 1949, the former Japanese colony has evolved into a wealthy, vibrant democracy whose 23 million people take an increasingly dim view of any form of political integration with Beijing. By casting himself as a leader of historic standing, Xi has assumed the mantle of unifier and may regard failure in this regard as a stain on his reputation. In his most direct comments on the issue, he told a Taiwanese envoy in 2013 that a final resolution was required, and that what he regards as the "sacred mission" of unification "cannot be passed on from generation to generation." "Action on Taiwan is certainly possible. Unification is a key aspect of Xi Jinping's goal of 'national rejuvenation,' necessary for achieving the 'China Dream,'" Mazza said, referencing two of Xi's chief goals. Washington: When President Donald Trump decided last year to hire Texas oilman Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state, the Washington foreign policy establishment thought it knew what to expect. After all, the then 64-year-old engineer had been chief executive of ExxonMobil, the US oil giant, and so close to Russia's Vladimir Putin that he had received a medal of friendship. He was expected to share Trump's affection for Moscow and hostility to the Paris climate change accord, and thought capable of cutting costs and streamlining his unwieldy department. The perfect Trump man, in other words, a player from the world of business brought in to shake up or smash the Washington bureaucracy and the international order under an "America First" banner. What Trump got, to his evident frustration, was a stubborn diplomat in a more orthodox conservative tradition, keen to reassure allies, work with the US military and hold Russia at arm's length. Tillerson was almost immediately drawn into conflict with the White House even as he attempted to staff his department. When he tried to enlist Republican veterans of previous State Departments, the White House barred all those suspected of having opposed Trump during his seizure of the party. But when Tillerson sought to promote from inside the department among career officials whose work he respected, that too was vetoed for fear "holdovers" from Barack Obama's administration would be disloyal. Now, a year on, the man who managed the world's biggest oil company has failed to staff his department, with more than 70 senior posts and ambassadorships unfilled. Tillerson, an Eagle Scout and former national president of the Boy Scouts movement, had a very different personal and moral persona to that of his flamboyant and unrestrained boss. Last week, he described his motivation for joining public service when he could have retired with several hundred million dollars and rode the range on his beloved Texas ranch. Before an audience at George Mason University, Tillerson described how when he was 18 he registered for the draft to fight in Vietnam but his number in the lottery system was 89 and the recruiters only got to 86. "And so I stayed in college, got a great education, got hired by a great company, had 41-and-a-half wonderful years," he said. "My father is a veteran, World War II, fought in the war in the Pacific. My uncle is a retired major in the Army, did three tours of duty in Vietnam," he said. "And as I reflected on things at that point, I said I hadn't really done anything yet. It's my time to serve, and that's why I'm doing it." But if his motives were admirable, his results were not what he hoped for. State Department employees were initially relieved not to have been placed under an inexperienced nationalist from the wilder shores of Trump's insurgent campaign, but were soon disappointed. 'HOLLOWING OUT' Tillerson spoke of respect and shared endeavor, but made it clear he intended to make good on the administration's plan to cut 30 percent or more from the department's budget. Even Republican lawmakers balked at such a hack and burn policy, and retiring diplomats fed a wave of stories lamenting a "hollowing out" of the prestigious agency. But while Tillerson's public championing of Trump's "America First" agenda cost him support from his own staff, he never really built up a bond with the commander-in-chief himself. Though never publicly disloyal, he made known his disapproval of Trump's sympathy for racist extremists after a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia turned deadly. And, surely most devastatingly for the thin-skinned Trump, Tillerson was reported to have referred to him as a "moron" after a national security meeting. Tillerson apologized, but never fully denied uttering the word. The secretary rode out months of reports his job was on the line. These became so common they were filed under the title "Rexit Rumors" by a diplomatic press corps that Tillerson never deigned to court. But the frustration was just under the surface. When Tillerson told reporters in China last year he had opened covert diplomatic channels to North Korea, Trump tweeted that he was "wasting his time." In February, when the secretary was in Mexico to discuss cooperating in the war on drugs, Trump accused Latin American leaders of corruption and laxity. On that trip, an aide to Tillerson let slip that Trump's comments were "not helpful" -- and White House officials began stirring the Rexit rumors once again. THIN LEGACY So Tuesday's decision was not a surprise, even if the timing was brutal and apparently made without warning. Tillerson will not leave much of a diplomatic legacy. The man who once negotiated a historic oil deal giving his US firm access to Russia's Arctic reserves left with US-Russia ties at a historic low, a day after slamming likely Russian involvement in a poison attack in Britain in his most blistering anti-Moscow statement to date. And the internationalist who argued with Trump that Washington should stand by allies in supporting the Iran nuclear deal steps down knowing his successor will probably tear it up. Talks with North Korea on nuclear disarmament will likely go ahead, but not because of Tillerson's patient back channel diplomacy. Instead, they may happen because of a gut instinct decision by Trump. US diplomats may be nervous about the plans of former CIA director and Trump confidant Mike Pompeo as he takes the State Department helm, but their taciturn outgoing boss will not be long mourned. Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, Tillerson joined ExxonMobil in 1975 as a young engineer fresh out of college, steadily rising through the ranks to become CEO in 2006. The silver-haired married father of four had been due to retire in March 2017, when he got Trump's call. The last days of the Sorcerer Supreme unveiled in Death of Doctor Strange #1 preview And Magik teams with Marvel Comics' Sorcerer Supreme in his final moments with Death of Doctor Strange #1 preview It was 13 minutes of soul searching, hurried consultations with leadership, head counting and finally for some conflicted lawmakers pressing the red button in the historic hall of the state House of Representatives. Veteran Rep. Fred Camillo, R-Greenwich, was surrounded by GOP colleagues during the dramatic period before he finally hit the red button on his desk, voting against Supreme Court Justice Andrew J. McDonald, a man he respects and considers a friend. After waiting and waiting, looking up at the electronic tally boards and talking quietly in the back of the bustling chamber with House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, first-term Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire counted the votes and saw she had enough room, barely, to vote against McDonald without actually sinking his candidacy. For both, and for many others who voted against McDonalds candidacy, which next moves to the state Senate, the issue was the 2012 repeal of the death penalty in Connecticut and its subsequent expansion to Death Row inmates three years later. While there were a variety of reasons for opposition to McDonald in the razor-thin House vote, including a dislike of Malloy and disagreement with McDonald on other decisions, the predominant one cited in the debate was the expansion of the death penalty. House Republican Leader Themis Klarides said there was no House caucus position, no showing of hands behind closed doors on McDonalds nomination. After Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz called for the vote Monday after three-and-a-half hours of debate, it took Camillo the better part of 10 minutes to finally vote. Linehan waited until the very end. In my 10 years up there I have never been so conflicted, Camillo said Tuesday. I had intended to vote yes, but I had an obligation to really listen to all the arguments. The one issue that bothered me was the way the death-penalty repeal was passed and the promises that were made. Waiting till verdict is clear As the minutes went by in the House and the white lights spelling out the names of 151 House members began to turn to green or red, with the letters Y or N next to them, several House Republicans congregated around Camillos desk. Hed never experienced that before, but didnt really hear much, amid the conversational roar in the chamber, which had remained abnormally silent during the debate. Youre kind of tuning everything out, Camillo said, remembering looking at the board as the colors filled in. I was weighing all the positives and negatives. I knew I wasnt going to feel good. Your heart ached one way or the other. They all knew I was struggling with this. When Camillo finally voted no, Linehan who had joined Middletown Mayor Dan Drews campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination as his lieutenant governor running mate before he withdrew last year was standing up against the wall in the back of the chamber, speaking to the Majority Leader Ritter, D-Hartford. A first-termer in a swing district, Linehan was torn between helping McDonald and representing her district, which still remembers the horror of the Petit family murders. Finally, when the 149 lawmakers present had made their decisions, Linehan voted no. McDonald was confirmed 75-74. It was a very difficult decision for Liz, Aresimowicz said in a Tuesday phone interview. She knows Andrew and thinks hes a superb Supreme Court justice. In the end she cast her vote against the nomination, based on the feelings of her district. In all five Democrats joined Republicans, including Linehan, Rep. Bruce V. Morris of Norwalk, Rep. Larry Butler of Waterbury, Rep. Minnie Gonzalez of Hartford and Rep. Dan Rovero of Killingly. All Republicans, except Rep. Livvy Floren, of Greenwich, voted red. Butler had a brother who was murdered and said during the debate that he felt betrayed by the expansion of the death penalty by the high court. As a state senator in 2009, McDonald voted to end capital punishment, but the bill was vetoed by then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell. When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed similar legislation in 2012, amid promises that the repeal would not affect the eventual lethal injections for the states 11 Death Row inmates, McDonald was his chief legal counsel. As a Supreme Court justice, McDonald sided in the narrow, 4-3 decision that led to the life sentences for inmates including Russell Peeler of Bridgeport, who ordered the killing of a mother and her young son; and Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky for the 2007 home invasion, rape and murders of the wife and two daughters of now-state Rep. William Petit of Cheshire. At the time the high court ruled that capital punishment for Death Row inmates was incompatible with contemporary standards of decency in the state. Eventually the Death Row inmates were resentenced to life without the possibility of release. Church ruling Morris, an associate pastor at the Macedonia Church in Norwalk, said he disliked an issue that might have changed the way the Roman Catholic Church is incorporated. The issue emerged after two priests were caught after million-dollar embezzelments in Catholic churches in Greenwich and Darien and the lawmakers discovered that 100-year-old law protects the church hierarchy from liability. This is more than a vote about Andrew McDonald, in my mind, said Morris, who bucked his party and voted against the nominee. Those priests did an injustice, but thats what we have criminal laws for. How many of you want Connecticut to determine the governance of your house of worship? McDonalds candidacy will head to the Senate next week where if Republicans unite against him, the nomination of the person who could become the first openly gay chief justice in the nation, will fail at least 18-17 following the recusal of Sen. Gayle S. Slossberg, D-Milford. State Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee who summed up the issue before the green-and-red lights on Monday, said a lot more than a judges career is at stake. What is really in dispute? Tong asked, noting that if a future Republican governor nominates a candidate who is rejected by a partisan Democratic House majority it ends up in a very ugly place including a possible constitutional crisis in the Constitution State. NEW MILFORD Town Council has approved a $100.9 million budget that holds school funding steady and cuts the town side of the budget by about $120,000. But residents can nevertheless expect a 3.87 percent tax increase, owing to the loss of about $4.2 million in revenue at both state and local levels. These arent decisions any of us want to make, said Councilman Paul Szymanski. Its being forced by the state of Connecticut. The budget now goes before the Board of Finance. Councilmen Peter Mullen and Walter Bayer opposed the budget proposal, saying the schools should get more money. The school board had proposed a $64.3 million budget, which was 2.34 percent more than the current year. The biggest single change the council made was to reduce the amount of money transferred from the unassigned fund, from $1.5 million as originally proposed to just $493,000. Council members said it is not a good practice to use the fund to offset falling revenue. But some school board members argued that in effect Town Council took money needed for the schools and put it in the unassigned fund. Tammy McInerney, vice chairwoman of the board, said the town is hurting the schools without giving residents tax relief. Its disappointing to say the least, she said Monday. Its almost cruel. I understand that times are tough for the town because of the state cuts, but decimating the school budget is not the right way to move forward. She said there is no way to cut $1.4 million in funding from the schools request without it affecting programs, staff and students. About nine positions were already cut in the schools proposal. Some of the cuts in the town budget include removing about $50,000 for the fire department capital spending, leasing a dump truck instead of purchasing it, reducing tree work and associated costs by about $9,000, reducing the towns contribution to the Candlewood Lake Authority by $7,800, removing a youth agency programmer for $14,500 and cutting contributions to nonprofits by $10,400. Councilman Michael Nahom said nonprofits should get private donations from residents instead of tax dollars unless there is an existing partnership with the town, like those with Loaves and Fishes and the Childrens Center. The cuts ordered by council are in addition to the ones Mayor Pete Bass proposed, including removing six town positions. One of those positions, that of parks and recreation deputy director, has since been restored. Another big change was to add about $150,000 to the budget for an economic development director so the town could get a qualified person to hold the job. Szymanski said the town has underfunded the position in the past, offering $70,000 to $80,000. We cant save our way out of this problem, said councilwoman Lisa Hida. We have to work both sides of the equation and I believe this is the place for that investment. New Centre a hub for robotic process automation service and innovation HALIFAX, March 13, 2018 /CNW/ - EY Canada has launched the first Canada-based EY Global Centre of Excellence for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Service in Halifax. The Centre will offer world-class customizable digital services to companies across the country. "The EY Centre of Excellence model is part of our ongoing commitment to supporting clients facing complex issues stemming from widespread digital change," says Jad Shimaly, EY Canada Advisory Services Managing Partner. "Halifax is turning heads as a hub for talent and innovation and the Centre will continue to fuel this evolution in the Atlantic region." Halifax joins a growing list of EY Global Centres of Excellence around the world with unique focuses ranging from cybersecurity and analytics to manufacturing services. Leveraging RPA technology presents an opportunity to businesses of all sizes across all sectors. Introducing automation to back office functions in particular can accelerate business performance. "Halifax has a wealth of talent and expertise to offer the Canadian business community," says John Munro, EY Canada IT Advisory Partner in Halifax. "The Centre is an important step in ensuring the prosperity and future growth of the city and the Atlantic region as a tech hot spot." The city was chosen based on a long list of attributes, including access to a well-educated and diverse workforce, transportation links to North America and the relatively affordable cost of living. "What's perhaps most exciting is the potential to recruit, develop and retain top talent in the region," says Munro. "We're focused on creating opportunities for STEM graduates from leading schools that all Canadian businesses can benefit from instead of outsourcing abroad." The Centre will employ data scientists, application developers, system architects, project managers and business analysts from a variety of sources, including leading local schools. The Centre is located at the EY Halifax office at RBC Waterside Centre, 1871 Hollis St. It will nearly double the current EY footprint in Halifax. About EY EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities. For more information, please visit ey.com/ca. Follow us on Twitter @EYCanada. EY refers to the global organization and may refer to one or more of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com. SOURCE EY (Ernst & Young) For further information: Sarah Shields, [email protected], 604 891 8235; Victoria McQueen, [email protected], 416 943 3141; Camille Lariviere, [email protected], 514 879 8021 Related Links http://www.ey.com The US Missile Defense Agency needs orbiting sensors to track hypersonic threats. Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves told the McAleese/Credit Suisse conference that satellites would use mature technology and could perform other surveillance missions to help justify their cost. ICBMs have followed smooth ballistic path trajectories which are easy to track. Increasing use of countermeasures on conventional ballistic missiles decoys or less brightly-burning propellants will mean missiles will need continuous monitoring while in flight. Hypersonic warheads and hypersonic missiles will be able to change direction which will require constant in-flight monitoring. A new space-based sensor system cannot be built with MDAs current budget. US Air Force funding would be needed. Heres a quirk you might not believe if you lived through the states loss of 90,000 manufacturing jobs, more than a third of its total, between 1999 and 2016: Connecticut gained 2,900 factory positions in 2017. Thats only the third annual gain since the 1980s, and its the largest one-year gain in more than a generation. Happy Days are here again? Not so fast. The state as a whole added just 2,300 jobs in 2017 even with the manufacturing jump meaning all other sectors combined actually lost 600 jobs for the full year. That makes two straight years with lame growth, a fraction of the nations pace. So its a mixed picture, overall lousy, based on Fridays annual revision of the jobs numbers weve been following every month from the Department of Labor. Economist Donald Klepper-Smith of DataCore Partners reported Monday that Connecticut ranked No. 43 in job creation in 2017, behind all other states in the Northeast. The bright spot? When was the last time manufacturing outpaced all other sectors combined for a full year in Connecticut? My guess after following this for more than 25 years: never, or at least since Sam Colt and Oliver Winchester set out to win the West. The picture comes into focus in Stratford, where Straton Industries, a defense and aerospace subcontractor that machines parts and assemblies, added a half-dozen employees over the last few months alone a 10 percent gain. And the company could use more workers if it could find them with the right skills, said Dave Cremin, the president and owner. The lack of skilled labor has been our biggest challenge for a decade, Cremin said. Cremin is bullish about Connecticuts high-end manufacturing picture. Across town, Sikorsky Aircraft has been stable at about 7,900 local employees for a year or so, but is looking ahead to a likely ramp-up after it signs contracts for the CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy inked a $225 million aid package for Sikorsky a couple of years ago to ensure the giant rotorcraft will be built here, just as production of the storied Black Hawk reaches long-planned declines. In East Hartford and Middletown, Pratt & Whitney reaches peak output of its geared turbofan commercial jet engines and its f135 engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. Both programs have faced controversy, but hiring remains robust. And in Groton, Electric Boat is at full employment building Virginia-class attack submarines and designing the next-generation Columbia class of subs to carry nuclear warheads. Call it my naive hope, but if factory declines led Connecticut down, maybe a new era of gains could pull an ailing state back into economic health. For now, lets shoot for coming out of intensive care. The world is in a technological growth phase and it boils down to, who can make this stuff? Were a skilled state, thats one thing weve got going for us, Cremin said. I think that bodes well for us ... The world needs the high end right now. Straton is boosting training, has an apprenticeship program and spends about $400,000 a year on new equipment, Cremin said. A couple of miles toward Milford, close to the Housatonic River, the very small Glyne Manufacturing Co., which shapes high-end tubes, hasnt added to its staff of 10 other than to replace people it lost. But the feeling is good and work is steady, Vice President Tom Frei said. It just seems like there are a lot of people we havent done work for in a couple of years and now there are small jobs, Frei said. Its a tempered hope. Stratford is the town where Phil Young just won a special election to the state House of Representatives, making him the first Democrat to represent his district in 44 years. Is that a sign people are starting to see progress? Does it mean Democrats will hold the governors seat despite Malloys unpopularity and deep budget shortfalls Connecticut still faces? We can hardly say that, considering Young, a chef, won by barely more than 60 votes in a genteel race. Coming off a door-to-door campaign, Young, 54, said families in his district, the eastern side of town, are kind of treading water. Its gotten better, but its not great, Young said in his first week on the job at the state Capitol. I did not see that people were really rosy out there, no I did not. People were kind of dissatisfied with the pace of things. But not utterly dissatisfied, either, he said. What if the pace does pick up? Preliminary numbers from the labor department showed a gain of 3,400 jobs in the Connecticut economy in January. If we do have a good year, will that help the Democrats hold on to power? If we gain momentum, Thank God for Donald Trump, said J.R. Romano, the Republican state chairman. There is a trend in the right direction. ... and it is finally hitting the shores of Connecticut. Democrats say the gains under Trump, including Fridays bump of 313,000 jobs for February, are still below what the economy did in the last few years under former President Barack Obama, whose policies set the stage for sustained growth. That debate wont end, and clearly the state picture depends primarily on the U.S. economy and on federal defense spending. Ironically, Malloy is hurt by his worst-performing sector, government jobs, precisely because hes the only governor in recent memory who has actually cut the state payroll significantly. The state job report is based on monthly surveys of employers, and the annual revisions use payroll data and other measures to draw a clearer picture. What we learned was that while manufacturing was much higher than we thought, the total number of jobs in finance another crucial engine of prosperity was lower than we had thought, by a couple of thousand jobs. Im using yearly averages here, since were looking at full years. If we look at the year-over-year change in December, manufacturing was up by a head-spinning 6,300 jobs. Overall, we thought we had created 5,900 jobs in 2017 based on the monthly reports, which was a lousy year. The new total of 2,300 jobs for the year is downright anemic, especially with a banner year on the machine shop floors. Connecticut is going to have to make those tough choices to really get fiscally responsible, said Cremin, at Straton Industries. I dont know how youre going to power your way out of this. NEW HAVEN Nobody whose job it was to clear snow off our roads seemed at all disappointed that New Haven and other areas along the shoreline got far less of the stuff Tuesday than forecasters had said. And while many area streets were relatively quiet and the schools were closed and downtown New Haven was particularly quiet compared to a usual Tuesday you didnt hear much post noreaster groaning from residents and business-goers, either. But the relative dusting near the shore followed by some dazzling afternoon sunshine was a localized phenomenom. Hamden got 4.8 inches of snow, North Haven saw 5.5 inches and parts of eastern and northeastern Connecticut reveled in 15-22 inches of snow, according to WFSB-TV, Channel 3. As of late Tuesday afternoon, Griswold had been buried in 22 inches of snow, Waterford had been slammed with 17.5 inches and Norwich got 16 inches, WFSB reported. New Haven, by contrast, lifted its downtown and residential parking bans early, ending them both as of 4 p.m. Tuesday rather than extending them into Wednesday as originally planned. Id say, honestly, much of New Haven got less than an inch, said city Emergency Operations Director Rick Fontana. I think we had a little more in the northern end of the city. The city had wind gusts of 31 mph Tuesday morning around 10 a.m., Fontana said. We did very well plowing, Fontana said. We did have some slush on the roads ... Our biggest thing was, we had trees and wires on the roads. New Haven received five such calls, Fontana said. Ill tell you, I think we did very well. I think we dodged a bullet... he said. By the weather forecast, we anticipated much more than we got. In West Haven, the city didnt even have to fully deploy its plows because the snow that did fall melted on its own, said acting Public Works Director Louis P. Esposito Jr. We had the guys on standby but we didnt need to call them in, said Esposito, also Mayor Nancy Rossis executive assistant. We did a little bit of light maintenance, put a little salt down and then had to move some slush around on just a few streets, but nothing major, he said. Most of the streets were warm enough that once the snow stopped, it just melted away. Other than that, we had a couple of minor limbs come down, taken care of by our tree service, Esposito said. Ill tell you, this is my kind of snowstorm, said Rossi, who said the city lucked out. She pointed out that at least one West Haven city worker was unable to make it to work because he lives in Shelton and they got a foot of snow. Tweed New Haven Regional Airport remained open for general aviation takeoffs and landings but all of its American Eagle commercial flights for Monday night, all day Tuesday and early Wednesday were cancelled, Assistant Airport Manager Felipe Suriel said. The first commercial flight is expected to land about noon Wednesday, Suriel said. Bradley International Airport also remained open, but approximately 75 percent of Tuesdays arriving and departing flights were canceled. Passengers who are scheduled to travel are advised to check with their airline on their individual flight itineraries and any potential rebooking options before heading to the airport. Several airlines are issuing travel waivers. According to state police Sgt. Eric J Haglund , state police received 810 calls for service during the storm and there were 77 reported motor vehicle accidents, including two with injuries. State police were called to assist 170 motorists, Haglund said. According to the National Weather Service, there was a 30 percent chance of light snow Tuesday night, with a low around 28 degrees. The forecast for Wednesday included a 30 percent chance of snow showers, mainly after noon. Wednesdays forecast called for it to be mostly cloudy with a high near 39 degrees and wind chill values between 20 and 30 degrees. Wednesday night, there was a 30 percent chance of snow showers, mainly before 9 p.m. The forecast called for it to be cloudy with a low around 30 degree and wind chill values between 20 and 25 degrees. The impact of this storm was particularly evident on elevations. Snow totals varied significantly throughout the state, ranging from 4 to 8 inches in western Connecticut, 6 to 12 in central and 10 to 14 in the eastern portion of the state, Gov. Dannel Malloy said. Malloy said last weeks storm resulted in significant power outages around 160,000 throughout the state, but the number of outages arent expected to be as significant this time. Between UI and Eversource, there were around 1,600 outages, with hundreds of line and tree crews dispersed around the state, according to Malloy. However, bucket trucks cannot go up when winds are above 30 to 35 miles per hour so repairs may take some time, he said. The United Illuminating Co. reported one customer without power in both New Haven and Shelton, and Eversource reported one in Branford, five in Guilford and 40 in Madison, as of 1:10 p.m. Malloy said Metro-North operated full service, with some delays, and Connecticut buses ran on a full schedule, with some detours, although Shore Line East suspended service at one point and Amtrak suspended service between Boston and Penn Station in New York. Silver Sands Road (Route 337) in East Haven was closed at Cosey Beach Road because of utility wires on the ground, according to the state Department of Transportation. North Augusta, SC (29841) Today Cloudy with occasional rain showers. High near 80F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing late. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Viewed 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. Thank you for reading The Cascadia Advocate, the Northwest Progressive Institutes journal of world, national, and local politics. Founded in March of 2004, The Cascadia Advocate has been helping people throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond make sense of current events with rigorous analysis and thought-provoking commentary for more than fifteen years. The Cascadia Advocate is funded by readers like you and trusted sponsors. We dont run ads or publish content in exchange for money. Help us keep The Cascadia Advocate editorially independent and freely available to all by becoming a member of the Northwest Progressive Institute today. Or make a donation to sustain our essential research and advocacy journalism. Your contribution will allow us to continue bringing you features like Last Week In Congress, live coverage of events like Netroots Nation or the Democratic National Convention, and reviews of books and documentary films. Become an NPI member Make a one-time donation Season 1, Episode 8: Psychopathia Sexualis Alas, poor Mary. We knew her not so well, actually. Written by John Sayles and directed by David Petrarca, this weeks episode ups the ante for its main characters considerably, in a fashion grimly familiar to fans of genre fiction: It killed off the male leads love interest. The episode begins with Dr. Laszlo Kreizler and his mute maid Mary Palmer mooning over each other like puppy-lovesick teenagers; it ends with her twisted corpse on the floor of Kreizlers home. When the former Captain Connor and his minions break into the doctors house, presumably to finish the job after a botched assassination attempt, Mary inexplicably grabs a knife and charges after the intruder. (Kreizler isnt even there, so its not clear what shes trying to protect except the sanctity of his bedroom.) A scuffle ensues, Connor gets stabbed in the shoulder, and Mary falls from the second-floor balcony, crashing into the chandelier on her way down before breaking her neck upon the bottom stair. Its a sorry fate for the character, who despite an expressive wordless performance by Qorianka Kilcher never truly found her voice. (No, falling in love with a guy is not a personality trait. And dont even get me started on the character Cyrus, who seems to exist solely to get jumped, despite being played by Robert Wisdom, who carried an entire season of The Wire, one of the greatest shows of all time.) Compare Marys fate with John Moores. That toffish illustrator has survived multiple run-ins with Connor, from tense staredowns and terse conversations all the way up to getting drugged and sexually assaulted at the ex-cops behest. Last weeks episode ended, rather pointlessly it turns out, with a cliffhanger in which Connor waylaid and coldcocked Moore in a skid-row alleyway. The securities regulator oversees the countrys stock markets and competes for jurisdiction with the other banking and insurance agencies for oversight of a large gray area of investments that combine aspects of debt and equity. The central bank seeks to maintain the overall stability of the financial system. The intellectual justification for the merger of just the banking and insurance regulators, Chinese experts said in interviews over the last two weeks, is to create a single regulator for financial institutions that accept money from the public and invest it with guaranteed rates of return. But the China Securities Regulatory Commission needed to stay separate from the new banking and insurance agency, they suggested, because its role involves overseeing markets, in which customers know that they are taking a risk that they may not recover their investments. But some Western experts have tended to recommend a broader combination of regulatory agencies. They have warned that Chinese financial institutions like Anbang Insurance Group, recently taken over by the central government after it embarked on a program of feverish overseas investment, have tended to exploit gaps in regulatory responsibility between the agencies. Mr. Xi did create a lightly staffed financial supervisory commission last summer, which Mr. Liu is expected to take charge of in the coming days, that oversees all the regulatory agencies. Alicia Garcia-Herrero, an economist in the Hong Kong office of Natixis, a French financial institution, said that the limited financial regulatory consolidation set forth on Tuesday would leave that commission with a lot of power. The beauty of this more fragmented model for Xi is that he is still the final overseer through the oversight commission he created, she said. The restructuring will also create a new, separate National Market Regulation and Administration Bureau to take over responsibility for registering and supervising companies, food and drug inspection, and price supervision. The new bureau will also grab control over antimonopoly actions from the Ministry of Commerce and another, smaller government agency. Chinas industrial takeoff and feverish urban growth have created dangerous levels of air, water and soil pollution, and placed deepening strains on land and water resources. The reforms proposed creating two superministries to take on those problems: a Ministry of Natural Resources and a Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Since October, a mysterious flying object has been seen moving through the skies over the South Island of New Zealand. It looks like a cross between a small plane and a drone, with a series of small rotor blades along each wing that allow it to take off like a helicopter and then fly like a plane. To those on the ground, it has always been unclear whether there was a pilot aboard. Well, it turns out that the airborne vehicle has been part of a series of stealth test flights by a company personally financed by Larry Page, the co-founder of Google and now the chief executive of Googles parent, Alphabet. The company, known as Kitty Hawk and run by Sebastian Thrun, who helped start Googles autonomous car unit as the director of Google X, has been testing a new kind of fully electric, self-piloting flying taxi. This is an altogether different project from the one you might have seen last year in a viral video of a single-pilot recreational aircraft that was being tested over water, and its much more ambitious. Imagine starting a network of autonomous air taxis, as Uber is planning to, but long before Uber actually does. Thats what Mr. Page is trying to do. The freezing, black water enters the helicopter from all sides, instantly flooding the cabin as it flips upside down. Passengers who have barely had time for a last gasp of air before submerging are trapped, unable to see or breathe. Quickly losing sensation in their frigid fingers, their best hope is to free a small blade from a shoulder strap and slash their way out of a complicated harness system designed to keep them safe in an airborne flying machine with no doors. This was the nightmarish scenario that followed the crash of a chartered helicopter in the East River on Sunday night. None of the five passengers on board succeeded in escaping, and all died. The helicopter that crashed was owned by Liberty Helicopters and flown by FlyNYON, a company that specializes in doors-off helicopter photo tours. The company promoted its safety standards on its website and singled out its proprietary eight-point Safety Harness System worn by passengers. It is a complicated system of straps, carabiners and an emergency blade for cutting it off in case of trouble. On Sunday evening, CBSs 60 Minutes broadcast an interview that Lesley Stahl conducted with Betsy DeVos, Donald Trumps education secretary and one of the richest members of his very rich cabinet. It was overwhelmingly seen as a disaster for DeVos, who struggled to answer very basic questions. She couldnt say, for example, why schools in Michigan, her home state, have largely gotten worse since the widespread introduction of the school choice policies she lobbied for. When Stahl asked whether, as secretary, shed ever visited a failing school to find out what went wrong, DeVos said, I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming. Like many things in Trumps administration, this performance was shocking but not surprising. Before becoming secretary of education, DeVos had never worked as an educator or a policymaker; she was a donor to education reform efforts favored by the right, such as school choice and vouchers. Her confirmation hearings last year were an embarrassment. She appeared to be unfamiliar with the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, a federal civil rights law. After taking office, she described historically black universities and colleges, founded in response to segregation, as pioneers when it comes to school choice. As this comment suggested, DeVos is, at best, oblivious about race. That obliviousness or worse is behind one of the more disturbing moments in her 60 Minutes interview. In a sick irony, some on the right would use the recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla. allegedly committed by a young man who carved swastikas into the magazines for his semiautomatic rifle as a pretext to roll back civil rights protections for students of color. On 60 Minutes, DeVos, whom Trump has chosen to lead his new school safety commission, appeared to signal shes on board. To understand how, we need to start with a letter that Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, sent to DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 5 about the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The solutions to the nations problems already exist somewhere out in the country; we just do a terrible job of circulating them. For example, if you want to learn how to improve city schools, look how Washington, New Orleans and Chicago are already doing it. Since 2011 the graduation rate at Chicago public schools has increased at nearly four times the national average, to 77.5 percent from 56.9 percent. The percentage of Chicago students going to two- or four-year colleges directly after graduation increased to 63 percent in 2015 from 50 percent in 2006. Sean Reardon of Stanford compared changes in national test scores between third and eighth grade. He found that Chicago students were improving faster than students in any other major school district in the country. Chicago schools are cramming six years worth of education into five years of actual schooling. These improvements are proof that demography is not destiny, that bad things happening in a neighborhood do not have to determine student outcomes. No doubt, Mayor Bill de Blasio convinced himself that he was raising consciousness. But mostly he raised eyebrows, sky high, with a lament that his wife, Chirlane McCray, isnt allowed to collect a paycheck on the taxpayers dime. I dont understand it, he said the other day, because if someone is working full time and is a professional with a whole lot of background and applying themselves, I dont understand why they cant get paid. Lets explain it to him. Its called nepotism, and its clearly outlawed under the City Charter, New Yorks equivalent of a constitution. Right there in Chapter 68 it forbids public servants to use their position to obtain any financial gain, contract, license, privilege or other private or personal advantage, direct or indirect, for the public servant or any person or firm associated with the public servant. Ms. McCray, married to Mr. de Blasio since 1994, surely qualifies as a person associated with a public servant. Not that the mayor has to be told this. He acknowledged there were good historical reasons for the proscription. He just thinks its unfair that it applies to his family, considering how involved Ms. McCray is in policymaking and vetting top officials in their, er, his administration. The evening I saw it, this line of thought had the audience roaring and clapping and then seeming to want to retract both responses as Charlie veered into ever more uncomfortable ideas. Thats good satire at work, causing us to think critically about people we dont at first recognize as images of ourselves. And the discomfort only deepens when Charlie, stung by his parents reaction to his tirade his father calls him a spoiled brat reconsiders his position and makes a startling decision. If there are going to be new voices at the table, he says later in the play, someone has to stand up and offer someone else his seat. By a method I will not spoil, Charlie proposes to do for diversity what his parents only give the appearance of doing, and in the process reinvent himself as a Great White Martyr. But martyrs are not always as determined as mothers, and Sherris tolerance turns out to be finite. Her assumptions of privilege, however unexamined, will not be denied. The crux of Mr. Harmons argument, which is as tightly constructed as a finger-trap toy almost every piece of information supplied at the start pays off by the end is that hypocrisy may look a lot like love. Satires dont usually go there. Recent racial comedies, like Branden Jacobs-Jenkinss An Octoroon and Bruce Norriss Clybourne Park, have been built on ludicrously bad behavior, and let the results speak for themselves. Admissions is less extreme but also, as a result, harder to put across. The characters are caught somewhere between well-observed types and absurd caricatures. Sherris mama bear ferocity is necessary to turn the plot, just as Charlies hysteria about Yale is, but in real life both would be subtler. Of course, in real life this plot wouldnt happen. That doesnt mean it shouldnt happen onstage. As in his previous plays Bad Jews and Significant Other, Mr. Harmon is admirably unafraid of portraying incorrectness in the guise of sour comedy. In a way, Charlie is a combination of Daphna, the relentless scold of Bad Jews, and Jordan, the whiny wallflower of Significant Other. But Admissions is even better for being about something substantially larger than one characters unhappiness. Still, Im not sure that Daniel Aukins warm and intermittently rollicking production finds the right tone. Though there are moments in which the mere placement of bodies on the Newhouses thrust stage is enough to make you anxious, there are too many others that seem to pull back from the blinding clarity thats needed. (Mark Bartons lighting is way too gentle.) When the actors, generally working in a naturalistic vein, tear into their characters most unhinged moments they seem to be grinding gears. You find yourself questioning the likelihood of their behavior when, ideally, you would be too breathless to study it. No matter. One of the things the theater should be doing today, and rarely does, is lancing the boil of our own self-deception. Admissions, as that pun of a title suggests, is a kind of confessional, except that no forgiveness is offered, or deserved. Jason L. Freeman, a purported grandson of Charles Manson, claimed in court papers that he was the notorious killers true heir. He wanted to give him a proper burial, Mr. Freeman said in a recent interview, noting that he would invite a small inner circle of his grandfathers friends to a private funeral service and then spread his ashes over water. Now, it appears, Mr. Freeman will get that chance. In a messy legal battle over Mr. Mansons remains and belongings, a judge in Kern County, Calif., ruled on Monday that Mr. Freeman, a Florida man who had claimed that his father was Mr. Mansons son, was the surviving competent adult next of kin. Three other men who had also staked claims a purported friend who said he filed Mr. Mansons will in court; and two people, including a purported son, who filed a joint petition could not refute Mr. Freemans assertion, the judge said. Mr. Freeman, who could not be reached for comment on Monday evening, said in an interview in January : Id like to grab ahold of my grandfathers name and have a little more control over it. Everybodys had a free-for-all for the past 50 years. Colonel Spath and prosecutors have portrayed the mass resignation by the defense lawyers as essentially a stunt strategically timed to delay or derail the case, suggesting there was no basis for their concerns. Because the basic details were classified until recently, the defense lawyers have been limited in what they could say to rebut those accusations. But the claim that the government had never previously put forward the explanation for the microphone sheds new light on the intensity of the recent sparring. Lt. Alaric Piette of the Navy, the only remaining lawyer representing Mr. Nashiri, also said the newly declassified statement was the first time the government said that the microphone was a legacy device and that a wire leading from it into the wall was not hooked up to anything. If you look at the microphone, there is no indication it is unhooked. If it is legacy, you cant tell, he said, adding, We had not heard anything of this before. The declassified statement and the interviews with the two defense lawyers also filled in other details about the highly disruptive incident in one of the most important war-crimes cases arising from the conflict with Al Qaeda. For example, Mr. Kammen said Mr. Nashiris defense team had already grown suspicious that its conversations with its client might be subject to surreptitious monitoring because of an earlier incident, although he said he could not describe it because its details might be classified. There was at least one episode, Im comfortable saying, that absolutely caused us to believe that there was ongoing eavesdropping, he said. In April 2017, the statement said, it came to light that confidential conversations involving other detainees and their lawyers elsewhere in the prison complex had been unintentionally overheard. As a result, Brig. Gen. John Baker, who oversees military commissions defense lawyers, sent an email in June warning all defense lawyers of confidentiality problems. WASHINGTON President Trump on Tuesday is to visit a barren stretch of scrubland in San Diego to view eight attempts at realizing his vision for a big, beautiful wall. All the prototypes are big. None are beautiful. The eight stolid slabs awaiting Mr. Trump inside the razor wire in the border neighborhood of Otay Mesa were chosen from numerous proposals (the Department of Homeland Security refused to say how many) submitted to the agency last year. In soliciting ideas, the department said that each prototype would be judged, along with its impenetrability, on aesthetics and innovative design. Innovation they got. Among the unsuccessful bidders was Clayton Industries, a Pittsburgh-based outfit that envisioned a 30-foot wall reinforced by sensors, an electrified chain-link fence and a railroad track dumping nuclear waste into a 100-foot deep moat. The waste is used as a power source. BOSTON The snow was blowing almost horizontally when the lights began to flicker at Steven Malatestas home in Eastham, Mass., on Cape Cod, on Tuesday, as yet another noreaster bore down on New England. But it was when the internet went down that Mr. Malatesta, 46, realized the power was out for the second time in less than a week. I expect this for this area during this period of the year, said Mr. Malatesta, an advertising manager, who spent last weeks storm playing board games by candlelight. On Tuesday, he headed for the local library, which was offering internet and hot coffee to residents without heat or light. A powerful storm the third in less than two weeks lashed New England on Tuesday, toppling trees and branches into power lines and by midday plunging more than 239,000 homes and businesses in Eastern Massachusetts into the dark. OTTAWA Nine years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Jim Crow-era bus in Montgomery, Ala., Viola Desmond tried to sit in a whites-only section of a movie theater in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Ms. Desmond, a businesswoman who had her own line of cosmetics and who died in 1965, was prosecuted for trying to defraud the provincial government of 1 cent the difference in sales tax for a seat in the balcony, where blacks were expected to sit and the whites-only ground floor ticket price. While she offered to pay the tax, she was convicted and fined 26 Canadian dollars, including court costs, at a trial at which the theater owner acted as the prosecutor and she was without a lawyer. Now she is about to become the first black person and the first woman other than a British royal to appear alone on Canadian currency. The new series of $10 bills is to be released this year. Outside of the Underground Railroad story, which has a fair amount of mythologizing around it, Canadians do not know about black Canadian history, said Barrington Walker, a history professor at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. Black history was imagined as not central to the founding of the country. LONDON The Russian opposition figure Vladimir L. Ashurkov breathed a sigh of relief when he fled Moscow for London in 2014. After months of being followed by the Kremlins intelligence agents to meetings, culminating in a televised raid of his apartment, he finally let his guard down, disappearing into the elegant, polyglot streets of Kensington. Six months passed before he realized that he was still being followed. An old friend returned from a trip to Russia with unnerving news: In Moscow, security officials had asked detailed questions about a private conversation he had with Mr. Ashurkov in a London cafe. As he built his life in London, Mr. Ashurkov learned to look for Russian agents reflexively men in dark suits sitting alone at emigre gatherings, dinner-party acquaintances rumored to be informants. You cant do much about it, he said. Even after you escape from Moscow to London, you know they have long hands. Russia now has more intelligence agents deployed in London than at the height of the Cold War, former British intelligence officials have said. They serve a variety of functions, including building contacts among British politicians. But the most important task is to keep an eye on the hundreds of heavyweight Russians those aligned with President Vladimir V. Putin, and those arrayed against him who have built lives in Britain, attracted by its property market and banking system. In the end, Ms. Wagner took the grant and spent it on living, and didnt make much art, she said. I had a pause. But she said that not only did it fuel her creative juices directly leading to her current museum show she used the time to learn bookkeeping skills, which had previously bedeviled her. Now, her finances are better organized. Image The Joan Mitchell Foundation started a counseling program after the last recession. Christa Blatchford is the chief executive of the foundation. Credit... Jeremy Tauriac, via Joan Mitchell Foundation The Mitchell foundation started the counseling program after the last recession. A recipient of one of our awards came to us, and she was having cash-flow issues, said Christa Blatchford, the foundations chief executive. She said, I need counseling. We had never given it before, but I realized it was irresponsible of us not to. The foundation has given more than 1,000 grants to artists since 1994, and the awards for painters and sculptors are generally $25,000, though they offer the option of taking the money over two years. Ms. Blatchford said that the counseling the foundation helped arrange focused on things that would make them feel successful. But she added that financial counseling was not for everyone: Some people show up, but they zone out they arent ready. While many arts organizations give grants for specific projects, rarer is the unrestricted grant, and the open-ended quality is the very thing that has brought financial counseling to the forefront. Think of Egyptian dancers and the first image to come to mind is not likely to be a ballerina. Yet once upon a time, the Egyptian ballerina Magda Saleh danced the dream role of Giselle in Moscow as a guest star with the mighty Bolshoi Ballet. Even more improbably, she danced it in the opera house in her hometown, Cairo where to call a woman a dancer was an insult with a full troupe of Egyptians trained by Russians in an academy established by the Egyptian state. This flowering of ballet in Egypt, an East-meets-West tale of Cold War cultural politics, happened long ago, in the 1960s and early 70s. But its receiving new attention in a documentary archly called A Footnote in Ballet History and in the latest installment of the performance series From the Horses Mouth (at the Theater at the 14 Street Y, Thursday to Sunday). The Horses Mouth show, which combines personal anecdotes with structured improvisations, addresses many aspects of Egyptian dance: stick-fighting, whirling dervishes and, the form that probably does come to mind first, belly dance. Ballet is such a tiny part, said Tina Croll, one of the organizers. Even so, Ms. Saleh is the central hub of the program, as is she is of the documentary. Zaubernacht was written while Weill was still a student, though it has seeds of what his theatrical music would be known for a taut, if deceptively streamlined, score. The actress Lotte Lenya, later his wife and a singular interpreter of his works, was among those who auditioned for the premiere. (Weill couldnt see her from the orchestra pit, and they didnt formally meet until 1924.) Weills copy of the score was lost when he fled Nazi Germany in 1933. Wladimir Boritsch, the works librettist and impresario, had all the orchestra parts but gave only the piano score to Lenya when she met with him after Weills death in 1950. The rest of the parts were donated to Yale, where they were meant to become part of the American Musical Theater Collection. Richard Meier, the celebrated architect and Pritzker Prize winner who designed the Getty Center in Los Angeles, established a graduate scholarship in January at his alma mater, Cornell Universitys architecture school. Intended to honor the 55th anniversary of his practice, the scholarship was designed to recruit and retain the most talented women applicants. But four women who have worked for Mr. Meier and another who met him when he was working on the Getty have described encounters when the architect, now 83, was, in fact, not good to women. Two of the women have described incidents over the past 10 years in which they were sent to Mr. Meiers New York apartment, where he exposed himself, according to interviews with one of the women and several former employees of the firm. A third woman said in an interview that Mr. Meier grabbed her underwear through her dress at a firm holiday party, and a fourth said he asked her to undress at his apartment so she could be photographed. Call it the Art Boomerang. On the eve of the opening last October of its major fall exhibition, Art and China After 1989: Theater of the World, the Guggenheim Museum pulled three works after an outpouring of protest from animal-rights activists. Now, one of those works, Xu Bings A Case Study of Transference, is coming back to the museum, this time as a valued part of its permanent collection, purchased with funds provided by an anonymous donor. The website ARTnews first reported the gift. The controversial work is a video documentation of a 1994 performance in which two pigs, one imprinted with nonsensical English words and one stamped with fanciful Chinese characters, copulate before a live audience. It is a satirical take on the collision of East and West. Instead of showing the video, the museum displayed a blank monitor with a wall label explaining, For Xu, who, like many intellectuals of his generation, had spent time on a farm during the Cultural Revolution and was familiar with animal husbandry, the performance was a literal and visceral critique of Chinese artists desire for enlightenment through Western cultural transference. Xu Bings A Case Study of Transference is recognized as an iconic work of conceptual and performance art from China during this period and is now part of the exhibition history, said Sarah Eaton, a spokeswoman for the Guggenheim, who told The New York Times that the museum might show the work there in the future. Western High School was an all-girls public school near Baltimores most cherished historic buildings. When I crossed the threshold for the first time, I saw down the long hallway a petite, elegantly dressed woman with perfect posture. Her diction, as she called out directives, could have cracked crystal. Moving a few steps closer, I saw that she was a Negro and later learned that she was a vice principal. Not unusual now, very unusual then. As I walked a few steps beyond her, I heard, Arent you a Smith? I turned. You look just like your mother and your father. That was the legendary Essie M. Hughes. Shed been a Latin teacher and had taught generations of Negro children, including my parents and aunts and uncles, in one of the two Negro high schools during the 40s and 50s. She saw me. I saw her seeing me. Within five minutes of my entering the new school, my invisibility in education was over. Homeroom seating was alphabetical. In front of me sat a white Jewish girl whose mother was a violinist in the Baltimore Symphony. Until then, the symphonys musicians were, to me, white and black dots Id struggled to magnify through binoculars. Yet, when my new classmate and I glanced at each other for the first time, I felt as though Id known her for a lifetime. The girl behind me, also white (and Catholic), was hilarious. As far as I was concerned, undiscovered forms of hilarity were always welcome. I like September. Even though it required going back to school, it always filled me with optimism. And my birthday falls in that month. That first year, the violinists daughter gave me a book of poems and a card. She signed the card Love, Ruthie. She was the first white person in my life who used the word love in relation to me. We became close friends, counseling each other until our last gasps of adolescence. Unlike Garrison, Western was not toxic. I credit its leadership. A commanding triumvirate indeed: Miss Kell, the principal, was a white woman over six feet tall who looked like a mix of George Washington and a Eudora Welty character. Mr. DeWolff, the other vice principal, was a white man with a disability at a time when there were no sloping curbs or much else to aid mobility. Miss Hughes was well traveled, fluent in several languages. Shed grown up when segregation was the norm in much of Baltimore and the surrounding areas. In spite of their personal battles, or perhaps because of them, they provided contours around which dividing lines melted. I experienced the fractured and often bloody 60s in an intellectual environment where many voices were heard, many cultures seen. It wasnt just being visible to myself that made education intoxicating. It was paying attention to the world in the company of those who had different histories, and who followed different paths, that turned on the lights for me. Not even the queen of England can get an equal slice of the mincemeat pie. The actress Claire Foy, who charmed critics and fans as a young Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix series The Crown, was paid less than her co-star Matt Smith, who played the queens husband, executive producers acknowledged on Tuesday at the INTV Conference in Jerusalem. Mr. Smith came to Netflix as an established actor in Britain, most notably as the titular character on the BBC staple Doctor Who from 2010 to 2013 a fact that informed the producers decision around salary, they said at the conference. Aside from a role in 2015 in the Golden Globe-winning BBC mini-series Wolf Hall, Ms. Foy, 33, was a relative unknown when she was cast in The Crown. But in the shows first two seasons, which centered on her characters reign, Ms. Foy became its breakout star, earning a best actress Golden Globe for Season 1 and a Golden Globe nomination in the same category for Season 2. She was also nominated for an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a drama for Season 1. Mr. Smith, 35, was not nominated for an Emmy or a Golden Globe for his role as Prince Philip. Netflix declined to comment. Representatives for Ms. Foy and Mr. Smith did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Image Abby Norman, author of Ask Me About My Uterus. Credit... Tim Sullivan These new doctor stories cut deep, especially in a moment when believe women has become a rallying cry. They feel linked to other instances of womens voices being suppressed and belittled in the accounts of assault and harassment emerging in the #MeToo moment, for example, or in the recent studies showing how frequently men interrupt women in meetings and how rarely women are quoted as experts. This is a crisis of authority, Dusenbery argues. Women are regarded as unreliable narrators who cant even be trusted to speak for themselves or to testify to their own pain. In Doing Harm, this cultural distrust of women ancient and ingrained is shown to govern quality of care at every stage of treatment. Women with abdominal pain wait in emergency rooms for 65 minutes compared with 49 minutes for men , and young women are seven times more likely to be sent home from a hospital while in the middle of a heart attack. Doctors rarely communicate (or understand) how drugs from aspirin to antidepressants affect women and men differently. Autoimmune disorders have been understudied because, as Hirsch points out, three-fourths of the patients are women and it is considered a womans ailment, never mind that 37 million people are afflicted, as estimated by the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association. (In comparison, 15 million Americans have cancer.) Women are consistently undertreated for pain, as one influential paper showed: Male patients are given pain relief while women, who are more likely to have their pain rated as emotional, are given sedatives. This also extends to children; a study of postoperative pain management found that boys were more likely to receive codeine and girls the gentler acetaminophen. For women of color, especially black women, the situation is even more parlous. Black patients are 22 times less likely to get any kind of pain relief in emergency rooms. And Dusenbery reports on a disturbing 2016 study of more than 200 medical students who were presented absurd, made-up statements on race and medicine. Half gave credence to statements like: Black people have less sensitive nerve endings than white people. Image Michele Lent Hirsch, author of Invisible. Credit... Willy Somma Addressing such entrenched inequities requires more than bringing more women doctors into the fold. As Norman learns the hard way in Ask Me About My Uterus, women doctors are not immune from implicit bias. Nor will a greater number of women doctors make up for the fact that, to this day, men are the default objects of study for research. A 2005 study found that almost 80 percent of animal pain studies used only males. A 1986 study on the influence of obesity on breast and uterine cancer infamously failed to enroll any women in the study. We would never have opened in a million years if our local bookstore hadnt closed, Ms. Straub said. As a bookseller and a writer, I understand the importance of stores like Barnes & Noble. I have no interest in talking smack about the chains. But an independent bookstore is all about understanding your customers and giving them what they need. It needs to be of its place and for its place. Starting an independent bookstore in a borough with few book-buying options might seem like a giant leap of faith, but for Ms. Santos of The Lit Bar, its the culmination of a dream begun three years ago when she learned that the local Barnes & Noble would close. Being an avid reader, that spoke to me on personal level, she said. While I appreciated Barnes & Noble when it was there, you would never know that you were in the Bronx. It didnt offer a lot of opportunities for the community. If you were a local author, good luck in getting your book on the shelf. But with an independent store, you can feel the energy of the neighborhood reflected in the choices. I couldnt think of a better way for people to engage and become real neighbors. Theres a difference between surviving and thriving for some indies. Thriving is a tough word, said Christine Onorati of Word in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (with a branch in Jersey City). We have people who are unbelievably loyal to us, and were digging in, trying to make our mark, but its a tough business. Rent is a challenge for many. Miles Bellamy opened Spoonbill and Sugartown in Brooklyns Williamsburg neighborhood almost 19 years ago, long before there was a Whole Foods and an Apple store, but he recently saw his rent almost double, to $14,500 a month from $8,000 a month. Just as I go to both the local drugstore and Duane Reade, book lovers can support my store and buy books online, Mr. Bellamy said. I feel like a better person when I go into the small store. But the pressure is constant. Its a full-time hustle. There is an opportunity for certain industries to reinvent themselves after a large shock in their business model or in technology, according to Ryan L. Raffaelli, assistant professor at Harvard Business School, who has been studying independent bookstores for about five years. (He even took a course in how to open one.) What Ive found is that the indies are able to compete on several dimensions, he said. One is community. They championed the notion of shop local and Small Business Saturday. Another is curation: Theyre not just offering best-sellers but diamonds in the rough. Theyve taken back a sense of pride in what they can provide: a deeper and ongoing relationship with their customers. In high-rent districts, because profit margins are relatively thin, success must come from multiple repeat customers, so that the customer cant imagine not visiting as part of his or her monthly routine. Theyre also flirting with adapting newer forms of technology. Thats what Mr. Neller is banking on. Each of the planned new Shakespeare and Company stores will have an Espresso Book Machine (Mr. Neller is also head of the manufacturer, On Demand Books) that has the potential to print and bind any book not on the shelves while youre having a cappuccino at the stores cafe. (Since Mr. Neller is the former chief executive of Dean & DeLuca, the new stores will definitely have baristas and snacks.) Its really a renaissance, he said, a new permutation that will have elements of the mom-and-pop blended with technology, allowing a store to have a practically infinite selection in a small setting. Well take a digital file and convert it into an analog product, putting the warehouse inside a small footprint. Thats transformative. Its almost like a new happy ending to Youve Got Mail. Somewhere, Nora is smiling. The wait is over. Markus Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, the best-selling World War II drama that was made into a film starring Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson, has a new young adult novel coming out in October, to be published by Random House. More than 10 years in the making, Bridge of Clay tells the story of Clay Dunbar, one of five brothers whose mother has died and whose father has left them. At the beginning of the book, Clays father returns to ask the boys to help him build a bridge on his property in the wilderness; only Clay agrees to do it. Though Mr. Zusak, 42, began work on the book soon after the publication of The Book Thief in 2005, he said in an interview by phone from Australia, where he lives, that he has had the idea for it since he was 19. At the time, he said, he knew he couldnt write the book. Years later, he found himself still struggling with it. When I started writing it, and this was 12 or 13 years ago, I just couldnt quite feel that it was right and so I just kept trying and trying and trying and then Id get halfway through and I couldnt keep going because I thought: this isnt it. New Zealand opened its skies to tests of self-piloted flying taxis financed by Larry Page, the co-founder of Google. Our DealBook columnist had the scoop on the announcement and the possibility of a commercial network of the vehicles in as soon as three years, furthering Prime Minister Jacinda Arderns target of making the country net carbon zero by 2050. President Trumps block of what would have been the biggest tech deal ever a $117 billion hostile-takeover bid by the Singapore-based Broadcom for the rival U.S. chip maker Qualcomm underscored the lengths he will go to shelter American companies from foreign competition, and to safeguard primacy in sectors that could shift to China. Officials in Washington say that China has too many steel and aluminum factories and many Chinese officials agree. Our food section tracked how the U.S. came to import more than half of its fresh fruit and almost a third of its fresh vegetables. U.S. stocks were down. Heres a snapshot of global markets. Qualcomm has slain a lion, but baited a dragon. Having the United States government essentially declare the firm a national champion allowed the chip maker to defend itself from rival Broadcoms $117 billion takeover bid. But a rise in anti-foreign sentiment may hurt Qualcomm, too since its still waiting for China to approve its own $44 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors. Qualcomms plans for growth lean heavily on acquiring the chip maker. Sealing the deal would reduce its dependence on the stagnating mobile-phone market and expand exposure to faster-growing ones such as autonomous vehicles. The problem is it needs approval from Chinas Ministry of Commerce, and that approval has been slow in arriving. The United States government has derailed multiple chip deals because of fears that American technology might fall into Chinese hands. Broadcom might not appear to fall into the same camp. It is based in Singapore and plans to relocate stateside this year and most of its shareholders and directors are American. Yet fear of the Middle Kingdom played a role: Lawmakers wondered whether Broadcom would follow its playbook on other deals and cut Qualcomms research and development. That would risk ceding wireless-technology leadership to Chinese firms like Huawei. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States was also concerned about Broadcoms business relationships with foreign entities when it assessed the bid for Qualcomm. Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Sean Lowry at the Peterson Institute for International Economics calculated the additional cost to consumers at $1.1 billion or about $900,000 per tire job saved. But the wages of workers whose jobs were saved amounted to about 5 percent of that. The lesson is not that protectionism is porous. It is. And it can be gamed. Until a few years ago, Ford attached rear seats and rear windows to the Transit Connect vans it imported from its plant in Turkey. Once they had gone through customs paying the 2.5 percent tariff on passenger vehicles instead of the heftier 25 percent levied on commercial vans the seats and windows were ripped out and recycled. The critical takeaway is that the distortions brought about by trade barriers impose a cost on the economy. It might not be easy to spot before the fact, but it tends to be more substantial than whatever fleeting gains protectionism can bring about to the protected. Think of the multifiber agreement, which until its demise at the end of 2004 allowed the United States to impose individual quotas on thousands of pieces of apparel cotton diapers from China, trousers from Guatemala. The rationale was to protect one of the lowest-wage industries in the country from lower wages in the developing world. A study by the United States International Trade Commission cited by the Dartmouth economist Douglas A. Irwin in his 2002 book, Free Trade Under Fire, concluded that it had raised apparel prices by 18 to 24 percent, imposing a particular burden on poor households. Sometimes the cost can squelch an industry. A 63 percent tariff on advanced flat-panel screens for laptop computers in 1991 helped drive a stake through the heart of the American laptop industry itself. Japans Toshiba stopped making laptops in the United States. Apple moved production to Ireland. An IBM spokesman called the decision an eviction notice from the U.S. government to the fastest-growing part of the U.S. computer industry. Similarly, the ring of protection around the sugar industry almost killed it instead. Hoping to protect a price floor for sugar of 16.75 cents a pound even as world prices sank, in the 1980s Washington resorted to increasingly stringent import quotas that drove domestic sugar prices up to five times the world average. Clever Canadian firms sent sugary cake mixes to the United States where the sugar was extracted. Other countries grabbed on to the tactic. In 1985, Washington put emergency quotas on all imports of sweetened cocoa, cake mixes and edible preparations. South Korean noodles with 0.002 percent sugar content were snagged in the dragnet. So was kosher pizza from Israel. As National Geographic editors prepared an issue dedicated to race, they realized the 130-year-old magazine might face questions about its troubled history on the subject. So they asked John Edwin Mason, a University of Virginia professor who studies the history of Africa and photography, to dig through the magazines archives to examine its shortcomings in covering people of color in the United States and abroad. He was unsparing. Through most of its history, National Geographic, in words and images, reproduced a racial hierarchy with brown and black people at the bottom, and white people at the top, Mr. Mason said in an interview on Tuesday. There was a complete absence of urban, educated Africans in the magazines pages, he told them. Black people were presented as static, primitive and non-technological, often unclothed or presented as savages, he said. And that image, which persisted until the 1970s, shaped how the magazines readers largely white and middle class perceived black people, he said. United Airlines apologized on Tuesday after a dog died on a flight during which it was stored in a passengers overhead compartment. A witness said that a flight attendant had ordered the pet owner to put the dog in the compartment before the plane took off. The dog, a black French bulldog that was traveling in a pet carrier, was placed in the compartment shortly before United Flight 1284 left Houston for New York at around 6 p.m. Monday, said Maggie Gremminger, 30, who was seated behind the pet owner. She said the owner was instructed to put her dog there shortly after she boarded with two children, one of whom was an infant. The pet owner was very adamant that she did not want to put the pet carrier up above, Ms. Gremminger said. She was saying verbally, My dog is in here, no, this is my dog. The flight attendant, in response, really just continued to ask her to put it above because it was a hazard where it was, it was a safety emergency, someone could trip. Eventually, the pet owner, whom United declined to name, complied with the flight attendant. Ms. Gremminger said the owner was preoccupied by her infant during the flight and did not check on the pet, which fell eerily silent after barking during takeoff and as the plane ascended to its cruising altitude. WASHINGTON The fall of Rex W. Tillerson from the Trump administration on Tuesday, Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, was tapped to replace him as secretary of state removes one the last remaining presidential advisers whose views on global warming are in line with the rest of the world. Mr. Pompeo has questioned the scientific consensus that human activity is changing the climate, and he has strongly opposed the Paris Agreement, a pact among nearly 200 nations to address climate change. He told Congress last year during his Senate confirmation hearing for the C.I.A. post that the notion of climate change as a top national security threat was ignorant, dangerous and absolutely unbelievable. Mr. Tillerson, despite his decades-long career in the oil industry a major contributor to planet-warming pollution holds that rising global temperatures spurred by human activity pose significant risks. The change in leadership at the State Department all but cements an increasingly hard-line opposition to the idea of climate change at the highest levels of the United States government. Mr. Tillersons departure follows the resignation announcement last week of Gary Cohn, the presidents top economic adviser, and the departure last month of George David Banks, a senior adviser to the president on international energy issues. All three had argued to keep the United States in the Paris agreement. Headliner BRASSERIE SEOUL This amounts to Act 2 for the chef Sung Parks French-Korean plan. About a year and a half ago, he said, the operators of the Holiday Inn in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, came to him about opening a restaurant in the hotel. He pitched the name, Brasserie Seoul, and some ideas for a menu of French fare with Korean touches that expanded on what he was serving at his Bistro Petit in Williamsburg. But thats as far as it went; he never cooked at Brasserie Seoul. And despite the name he suggested, the restaurant served what he called ordinary K-Town food like the bibimbap found all over West 32nd Street. Now, a new group runs the hotel, and he was approached again. They asked if I believed in fate, said the veteran chef, who is 47. And they gave me a chance to do my brainchild, my dream. His menu features French techniques with Korean ingredients, reflecting his background and his years in the kitchens of chefs like Wayne Nish, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Laurent Tourondel. His kimchi bouillabaisse is based on a South Korean fish stew, and his Korean beef bourguignon is similar to the long, slow French braise. Cod comes crusted with fermented black beans, and several dishes are fueled with his homemade kimchi. The spacious dining room is centered on the bar and has a profusion of greenery. (Opens Monday): Holiday Inn, 300 Schermerhorn Street (Nevins Street), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, 718-330-1099, brasserieseoul.com. Opening AKROTIRI The opening of another Greek restaurant in Astoria, Queens, sounds like business as usual. But, at this one, a seafood-focused spot owned by Chris Kouvaros, the chef Nicholas Poulmentis brings a new level of invention to the food of Greece. Taramosalata, the fish roe spread, for example, is black, infused with squid ink and truffles. Croquettes are made with octopus, and theres a dish of volvi onions from Crete pickled in balsamic vinegar. A list of mostly Greek wines has been selected to complement the food. (Thursday): 29-20 30th Avenue (29th Street), Astoria, Queens, 718-726-2447, akrotiritaverna.com. SEAMORES Michael Chernow continues to expand his group of seafood restaurants that feature the local, sustainable catch. His newest, and largest, is also the first Seamores in Brooklyn. The menu includes seafood paella for two and an assortment of poke bowls, a natural evolution since Seamores was among the first New York restaurants to serve poke. Theres a private dining room with a nautical theme and soon, a basement bar. (Sunday): 66 Water Street (Main Street), Dumbo, Brooklyn, 718-663-6550 seamores.com. SHINSUKE Kajitsu, the serene, two-story Japanese restaurant in Murray Hill, has invited a pop-up from Tokyo that is quite unlike its usual Buddhist Shojin approach. Shinsuke is an izakaya, and it is among the oldest of this kind of neighborhood pub, having been established in Tokyo in 1925. Small plates served quickly, like sashimi, fried chicken bites, ground shrimp tempura, and pickled vegetables, with drinks, are typical and will be available at Kajitsu. One variety of sake will be served cold, warm and hot. On the ground floor, after 7 p.m., there will be standing only at the bar for what is described as an authentic izakaya experience that began in the Edo era: Wednesday through Saturday, 5 to 9:30 p.m., Kajitsu, 125 East 39th Street, 212-228-4873, kajitsunyc.com. Over in Chelsea, aRoqa is the most cosmopolitan of the bunch, with moody cocktail-bar lighting and a swooping ceiling of bent wooden slats. The chef, Gaurav Anand, lightens the mood by serving rice-and-corn cakes in the luggage compartment of a tiny carrier tricycle. Dry ice makes an appearance, as do squeezable syringes, for injecting various chutneys into molded drums of paneer. Needless to say, there will be flowers. Old Monk, which took over Babu Jis original space in the East Village, is decorated with a different set of photographic portraits of men. This time they are monks from around Asia; one is taking a picture and another is holding a smartphone to his ear. The beer fridge is gone, but there is a long beer list, drawn from the more mainstream wing of the craft-brewing movement, like Fat Tire, Flying Dog, etc. (The wine list takes more chances.) One of Babu Jis more clever innovations is offering a $62 fixed-price package of dishes as a tasting menu. Its not a true tasting menu in the style of, say, Blanca, but the term has cachet with modern diners, who end up trusting the kitchen to choose what turns out to be a well-rounded, traditional family-style meal. The failure of systems used to store frozen eggs and embryos at two fertility clinics has rattled people who count on such clinics to help them realize their hopes of having children. But the breakdowns at clinics in Cleveland and San Francisco, each apparently involving the temperature or level of liquid nitrogen in one storage tank, have damaged at least some eggs and embryos belonging to potentially hundreds of people. At a time when egg freezing is increasing swiftly some Silicon Valley companies now tout it as a perk for their employees the incidents raise questions about what to look for and ask if you are considering taking that step. Here is a basic guide: How likely are storage failures? Several doctors with years of experience in the fertility industry say the recent incidents in San Francisco and Cleveland appear to be unusual. Im not aware of any other instances, said Catherine Racowsky, the director of the IVF lab at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, who has served on several professional and government oversight committees. Dr. Racowsky and others said that fertility clinics there are about 450 to 500 in the United States tend to have backup systems to handle technical failures and make sure frozen tissue stays frozen. Its every clinics nightmare, said Dr. Julie Lamb, director of fertility preservation at Pacific NW Fertility in Seattle. She has been fielding questions this week from concerned patients, assuring them that the clinic has multiple backup storage tanks, freezers checked by staff members twice daily, and a specialized alarm system that monitors tanks, monitors the temperature in the nitrogen level and is connected to a whole phone system with multiple layers of alarms. Jake Anderson, a founder of Fertility IQ, a website that provides assessments of fertility doctors and clinics, noted that both the Cleveland and San Francisco clinics are large, reputable, subject to oversight, and they both quickly acknowledged the failures publicly. But he said he worried about smaller, private clinics that have no affiliation with a university or hospital and whether some would be less inclined to disclose a problem. If this happens in other places that are private, people would take this to the grave and they would never breathe a word of this, Mr. Anderson said. To think that only the well-run places that have boards and clinical oversight theyre the only ones having this problem? I believe the opposite. Look carefully at the map that tracks the Northwest Passage, above. How difficult would the ocean passage be, do you imagine? What special challenges might sailors face, and why? In The Northwest Passage That Might Have Been, Brian Castner writes: In the summer of 1789, a young fur trader named Alexander Mackenzie led an expedition in search of a Northwest Passage. He and his voyageurs and Chipewyan guides were attempting, 14 years before Lewis and Clark, to cross North America, paddling birch bark canoes down a river they hoped would pierce the Rocky Mountains. Mackenzie was a businessman who wanted to speed the pace of trade by connecting New York and China via an interior passage through the continent. He did find such a route, without knowing it. Mackenzie died thinking he was a failure, when he was really just 200 years early. Some ideas are fantastically ahead of their time. In 1636, Rene Descartes created contact lenses, using glass tubes filled with water; unfortunately, the wearer was unable to blink. Charles Babbage invented digital difference engines essentially modern programmable computers but powered by steam in the 1820s. And Kodak developed digital cameras in 1974 but discarded the product idea because it thought no one wanted to look at photos on televisions. In a particularly ill-timed episode, Giovanni Caselli invented the fax machine in 1856. Letter writers could scribble a message onto electrically charged foil, and the portions covered by ink would block the flow of current. The stylus of Casellis device then scanned each line of text, transmitting the signal via telegraph lines to a second machine, which would scrawl out a fac simile of the letter. He continues: Like the fax machine and computer, Alexander Mackenzies Northwest Passage was too forward-looking to be practical or useful. Today the melting Northwest Passage along the North Slope of Alaska, through the maze of Canadian Arctic islands, then back down along Greenlands west coast, to the Atlantic is regularly in the news. A holy grail for generations of explorers is now finally open, because of climate change. Giant cargo and oil tankers regularly ply those seas, and even the Crystal Serenity cruise ship, with 1,700 people onboard (many in black tie), has made the journey the past two summers. Students: Read the entire article, then tell us: What was your reaction to the story about the long search for the Northwest Passage, and the fact it is now a reality because of climate change? What other ideas can you think of that were fantastically ahead of their time, only to become a reality at some point after they were dreamed up? Do you agree with the author that, Ideas do not exist only on their own merits. Timing matters. Why or why not? What idea do you have that is ahead of its time? What made you think of it, and do you expect it will one day come to fruition? Why or why not? Need help navigating the streaming landscape? Looking for more advice about great movies to watch at home? Subscribe to the Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox. TChalla, also known as the Black Panther, the title character of the blockbuster movie, wasnt the first person to land a spaceship (or something like it) in downtown Oakland, Calif. In the 1973 film Space Is the Place, the musician Sun Ra and his band descend into Oakland from their new home planet, seeking African-Americans to join them, to see, as he puts it, what they can do with a planet all their own, without any white people on it. In Black Panther, TChalla establishes a tech exchange enterprise in Oakland; in Space Is the Place, Sun Ra opens the Outer Space Employment Agency. When Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, opened in late January, there was a brief and counterproductive online discussion as to whether it was proper to deem it the first true black superhero movie. More interesting have been the subsequent discussions of the theme of Afrofuturism. The term, coined in a 1993 essay by the cultural critic Mark Dery, is defined differently by different writers and thinkers; through my own critical lens, I tend to see is as an aesthetic that illuminates African cultures intertwining with the cosmic (in both the technological and metaphysical senses). It was not particularly political, Mr. Kaya said, but he added that a few of the documentaries being shown had a political slant, and the inclusion of Kurdish-language films was a statement in itself because of the ongoing tension between the government and Kurdish independence groups. The content of the films, he said, might be less of a factor in the funding cut than the festivals premise which he said was to support the intercultural exchange between two cultures at a moment when Turkey is increasingly suspicious of the West. The Turkish Culture Ministry declined to comment for this article, explaining that the minister was traveling abroad. Without the expected support from Turkey, the festival scrambled for funding, making up its shortfall through various organizations including the German Foreign Ministry and the Goethe Institut, a worldwide organization that promotes the German language and culture. Cultural events have often been used as chess pieces in diplomacy between the two countries. Turkey withdrew from the arts funding body Creative Europe in November 2016 to protest money being used to fund a concert at the German embassy in Istanbul that dealt with the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman government. Germany had passed a resolution earlier that year labeling the killings a genocide, which angered Turkey. Sinan Ciddi, the director of Georgetown Universitys Institute of Turkish Studies, said in a telephone interview that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey makes quite a lot of electoral gain out of vilifying the West, adding that Mr. Erdogan believes that Western cultural norms are imports alien to Turkish culture. The Facebook page for Waymore Post-Conviction LLC a legal firm that purported to assist the wrongfully convicted is topped with the slogan: Take the correct road home Your family is waiting. The page shows a photograph of two young children kissing a man who seems to be their father. Waymore P.C. will review the entire case file and transcripts for a criminal case, it says. At the conclusion, a detailed report outlining the issues are provided to the defendant. But according to prosecutors in Brooklyn, Waymore Post-Conviction was run by a man who had no training as a lawyer and stole as much as $15,000 from hopeful convicts and their families from 2012 to 2016. On Tuesday, the Brooklyn district attorneys office unsealed an indictment against the man, Kenneth Moore, charging him with crimes that included larceny, fraud, forgery and the unauthorized practice of a profession. Working from an office in Bushwick, prosecutors said, Mr. Moore, 53, of Queens, targeted inmates serving long sentences, sending them certified letters in which he offered to file post-conviction motions on their behalf. His victims included prisoners in New York, North Carolina, Kansas and Virginia and his pitch was simple, according to the indictment: Mr. Moore would ask the inmates relatives to sign contracts with him and pay him 80 percent of his standard fee of $5,000 to $10,000 in advance of any work. But in 16 instances, prosecutors said, he never filed a motion. In two others, they added, Mr. Moore submitted fraudulent briefs, using the forged signature of a real attorney who had no idea the papers had been filed. As we live and grow, I feel like, my goodness, I am actually capable; I could do this, she said on Monday. She said that she would not run for mayor and has no intention, at this moment, of running for office until Mr. de Blasio leaves City Hall in 2021. She appeared to be considering everything from Brooklyn borough president to public advocate to state representative. It could be something in Albany, it could be Brooklyn, local, citywide, I dont know, she said. But certainly I would consider it. She said much the same thing during Tuesdays news conference. She had not had formal conversations with political strategists about a run, laughed off a question about what role Mr. de Blasio would play in her hypothetical life as an elected official I dont think I should answer that question, she said, smiling and engaged in lighthearted exchanges with reporters. Ill tell you one thing: Its giving me more practice, she said of taking questions on subjects other than the one she was there to address: an effort to help with mental health services in Puerto Rico. Indeed, her public profile has grown along with ThriveNYC, the mental health initiative she oversees on behalf of Mayor de Blasio. After the trial, jurors declined to comment except one who, as she strode away from the courthouse, offered that she was happy its over. The United States attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey S. Berman, said in a statement that Mr. Percoco had sold something priceless that was not his to sell: the sacred obligation to honestly and faithfully serve the citizens of New York. Much of the governments narrative of the bribery schemes revolved around Todd R. Howe, a disgraced former lobbyist and longtime Albany insider, who prosecutors said engineered the bribes from the executives to Mr. Percoco. Mr. Howe, who had pleaded guilty to eight felonies and was cooperating with prosecutors, described how Mr. Percoco helped COR Development, the Syracuse company that employed Mr. Aiello and Mr. Gerardi, evade a costly union requirement on a development, and wangled a pay raise for Mr. Aiellos son, who worked in state government. In return, Mr. Howe said, Mr. Percoco pressured the executives to help his wife land the job with the power company or to funnel thousands of dollars a month in covert payments. But Mr. Howe at times seemed poised to be the prosecutions downfall, rather than its linchpin. In early February, he was arrested midway through his testimony, after admitting during cross-examination that he had attempted to defraud his credit card company after signing his cooperation agreement with the government. The shocking development bolstered defense arguments that Mr. Howe was a self-interested liar whose testimony could not be believed; lawyers monitoring the case called the arrest a prosecutors worst nightmare. Prosecutors also suggested that Mr. Percoco had violated New York State election and ethics laws by continuing to intervene in state business even after he left to work in the private sector. Witnesses said they had often seen Mr. Percoco in Mr. Cuomos New York and Albany offices even after he was no longer a state employee. Public records indicate that Mr. Cuomo was often in the office at the same time. Craig Mack, the rapper whose Flava in Ya Ear, one of the most important rap songs of the 1990s, helped build the foundation for Bad Boy Records, one of hip-hops most influential labels, died on Monday at his home in Walterboro, S.C. He was 47. Richard Harvey, the Colleton County coroner, said the death was natural and did not otherwise give the cause. Mr. Mack, who rapped under his given name, was born in the Bronx on May 10, 1970, and raised on Long Island. He began rapping as a teenager under the name MC EZ and released one single in 1988, Just Rhymin backed with Get Retarded, as part of MC EZ & Troup. At the time, Long Island was a burgeoning hip-hop talent center, home to Rakim, De La Soul and the duo EPMD. Mr. Mack was friends with EPMD and eventually went on tour with them, doing odd jobs. He helped their D.J., DJ Scratch, assemble and disassemble his turntables at shows. Togo D. West Jr., who as secretary of the Army in the 1990s oversaw its wrenching post-Gulf War conversion to a truncated peacetime fighting force that granted women more combat roles and vowed to shield them from sexual abuse, died on Thursday on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. He was 75. The cause was a heart attack, his daughter Hilary Carter West said. Mr. West was the second black Army secretary and the second African-American to hold the cabinet-level position of secretary of veterans affairs, appointed to both posts by President Bill Clinton. After the Army department was flooded with thousands of complaints of sexual harassment in the mid-1990s and three male instructors at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland were accused of rape in 1996, Mr. West responded by greatly tightening penalties for sexual transgressions and ordering an internal investigation. It found that sexual harassment exists throughout the Army, crossing gender, rank and racial lines. In a speech last weekend in France, Stephen Bannon, the former top adviser to President Trump, urged an audience of far-right National Front Party members to let them call you racists, let them call you xenophobes. He went on: Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor. On the face of it, Bannons advice is strange. After all, by any normative understanding, racist, xenophobe and nativist are negative words from both a moral and rational point of view. Their definitions, taken from any standard dictionary, will bear this out. Racism, xenophobia and nativism embody, in their very meanings, both irrationality and unfairness. Irrationality is considered to be a negative quality (except perhaps by Dadaists); so is unfairness. For those of us to wish to understand the way Bannon is manipulating language here, and to what end, it is important to note what he is not doing. It is typical for far-right politicians who want to attract racist, xenophobic or nativist voters to attempt to provide at least the pretense of reasons, invariably shoddy ones, for animus against racial minorities, immigrants, or foreigners. In the United States, President Trump regularly connects individual crimes or criminal gangs with immigration in an effort to more broadly establish a link between immigrants with crime in the public consciousness. Though studies have shown that immigrants, both legal and illegal, are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans, Trump continues to make such claims (his statement that immigrants bring tremendous amounts of crime received a score of four Pinocchios from fact-checkers). Some said such accusations will taint the revolution, which is false because those two men did not make the revolution famous; rather the revolution made them famous, said Iman Shukri Abdel-Latif, one of the feminists and activists who criticized an internal investigation by Mr. Alis party that exonerated him. We cant truly oppose an oppressive regime with an opposition that is unjust and oppresses women, she added. Its tempting to call this Egypts #MeToo moment. But it may prove just another example of Egyptian women speaking out against sexual violence. In 2005, female journalists and activists exposed the use of systematic sexual violence by the government of Hosni Mubarak to stop them from protesting. Egypts first conviction for street sexual harassment came in 2008, when a 27 year-old named Noha al-Ostaz dragged a man to a police station after he grabbed her breast. Officers refused to file a complaint until the womans father arrived. Nobody had intervened to help her, and Egyptian media outlets accused her of cruelly ruining the life of her assailant, who was sentenced to three years in prison. Less than a month after the 2011 uprising forced Mr. Mubarak to step down, the military subjected female activists to virginity tests a form of sexual assault. Three women exposed the assaults. One tried, in vain, to sue the military. I too became a victim. In November 2011, the riot police beat me, broke my left arm and right hand, and sexually assaulted me before I was detained by the Interior Ministry and then military intelligence. Later, I went on Egyptian television with both arms in casts and with X-rays of my injuries. I tried unsuccessfully to sue the regime. Several other Egyptian women have shared stories of sexual assault by policemen or mobs during protests since then. Their goal was obvious: to reassert mens dominance over hundreds of thousands of women now claiming a role in Egypts political life. The police and the military are not alone in silencing women. A feminist group in Cairo told me that at least 12 other women who were sexually assaulted were too ashamed to speak or were silenced by their families. We still dont know the name of a woman who was stripped to her bra by soldiers who then stomped on her chest in Tahrir Square in December 2011. That woman deserves a statue for her courage, not a silencing. The killings might have succeeded in crushing indigenous opposition to a proposed dam in Honduras if Berta Caceres had not been one of the victims. Her leadership of a campaign against the construction of the dam, on the Gualcarque River, which is sacred to her Lenca people, garnered a prestigious international award and international attention, and her murder by gunmen two years ago generated intense pressure to find her killers. Now the Honduran police have arrested the man who at the time was chief executive of the company building the dam, Roberto David Castillo Mejia. He is at least the ninth person arrested in the killing, but, more important, he was identified as an intellectual author of the crime, or a mastermind behind the company employees, hired assassins and members of the army already under arrest for the murder. The arrest offers a glimpse into the links between government, military and business elite in a culture of corruption. Honduras is the deadliest country in the world for environmental activists. Ms. Caceres and two other members of her organization were among 14 killed in 2016. After her death, a team of international lawyers found that the killing had been months in the planning. The United States joined in pressuring the Honduran government to solve the case. Mr. Castillos arrest suggests the pressure worked. President Trump announced on Tuesday that he would nominate Mike Pompeo, the director of the C.I.A., to be the next secretary of state now that Rex Tillerson has been pushed out. This is bad news for the country and the world. If confirmed, Mr. Pompeo will bring to the job not the discretion and objectivity of a former intelligence chief, but instead the habits of a fierce ideologue, which is precisely what he continued to be as C.I.A. director, typically a nonpartisan position. He has been the most political head of the agency since William Casey in the 1980s. Mr. Pompeo has repeatedly stepped out of the proper role of an intelligence director to be an advocate for hawkish policies. The ruthless partisanship he displayed as a congressman foreshadows how he will perform at the State Department. Mr. Pompeo is a staunch defender of Mr. Trump and echoes his preferences on major national security and foreign policy matters. Thats likely the main reason he was given Mr. Tillersons job as the United States top diplomat. As secretary of state, Mr. Pompeo would reinforce Mr. Trumps more destructive inclinations on several key issues: Iran. In commenting to reporters on the appointment, Mr. Trump singled out the Iran nuclear agreement as an issue on which he disagreed with Mr. Tillerson, saying, I think its terrible; I guess he thought it was O.K. But with Mr. Pompeo, continued the president, we have a very similar thought process. Mr. Pompeo has indeed been a fervent foe of the 2015 nuclear agreement. While in Congress, he pursued every possible avenue to discredit and undermine it. He talked of imaginary secret side deals that the Obama administration had allegedly made with Iran and has played down the costs of bombing Iran. As director of the C.I.A., Mr. Pompeo has likened Iran to the Islamic State and has tried to make a case that Iran is allied with Al Qaeda, even ordering another dive into already-exploited documents captured in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and then taking the highly irregular step of furnishing a cherry-picked result to an advocacy group that opposes the nuclear agreement. This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter each weekday. Good morning, and welcome to Election Day at least in one congressional district, in southwestern Pennsylvania, which is holding a special election that feels like a referendum on President Trump. The 18th district is a mix of coal country and Pittsburgh suburbs, and it leans strongly Republican. Both Trump in 2016 and Mitt Romney in 2012 won it by almost 20 percentage points. Yet the Democrat nonetheless has a real shot to win. Why? Trumps unpopularity is the main reason. But the strength of the Democratic candidate Conor Lamb, a 33-year-old former Marine and prosecutor also matters. He has run to the political middle on cultural issues (like guns and abortion) and to the left on economic ones (like trade). Efforts to dismantle longstanding protections for Alaskas wild landscapes continue. The latest, by Alaskas senior Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, would deprive nearly 15 million acres of mostly pristine national forest lands of coverage by a 2001 rule that prohibits road construction and commercial logging on those tracts. Should she fail, Alaska is seeking to erect a backstop to accomplish her goal administratively. The state recently asked the Department of Agriculture, which runs the United States Forest Service, the agency I once oversaw, to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 regulation, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. This is bad not only for Alaskas forests but for the states economy and American taxpayers, who will end up subsidizing, through road building, the exploitation of these landscapes. Twenty-five percent of all the salmon caught on the West Coast come from streams on the Tongass. Maintaining healthy salmon runs should be the priority for the future management of the Tongass. Clearcutting old-growth trees represents the past. The principal target of Senator Murkowskis efforts, contained in proposals for inclusion in appropriations legislation making its way through Congress, is the Tongass, the nations largest national forest, 16.7 million acres of mostly wild land along the Inside Passage of Alaskas southeastern coast. About 9.5 million acres is classified as roadless under the 2001 rule. Alaskas other national forest, the Chugach, has about 5.4 million acres of roadless lands that would also be opened to road building. Two days after the 2016 presidential election, I held a town hall at the United States Mission to the United Nations. American diplomats were in shock; the president-elect had pledged to undo much of what we had helped achieve internationally. One of the first people who got up to speak, a Foreign Service officer, said: I dont agree with a lot of the things Trump has said. But he doesnt seem to have a lot of people experienced in foreign policy in his inner circle. He and his team will need us. And we will have the same duty to our country and the same privilege of serving our country on Jan. 20, as we had when we served George W. Bush and Barack Obama. This sentiment was echoed by speaker after speaker. Many of them, along with some of our most capable diplomats, have since left government. Ridiculed as Obama holdovers and unable to defend policies that depart so markedly from American interests, our diplomatic corps has been hollowed out. If Mike Pompeo, the director of the C.I.A., wins confirmation as Rex Tillersons replacement as secretary of state, fixing this would become his responsibility. He cant change the president, but he can make it his mission to revitalize Americas diplomatic corps and get back to trying to solve problems in the real world. Mr. Pompeo should start by putting forward nominations for dozens of open foreign ambassadorships (including key posts like Egypt, Jordan, South Korea, Turkey and South Africa). This would give us the means of engaging officials in those countries to promote investment, protect Americans abroad and combat terrorism. It would also send a signal that diplomats matter. To the Editor: Re Trump Retreats From Promises on Gun Control (front page, March 13): In the days after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, a month ago, President Trump announced to the world that if he had been there, he probably would have bravely run into the school without a gun to try to stop the killing. It was reality TV at its finest. But when it came to be brave in the real world, Mr. Trump turned and ran from the National Rifle Association like the coward he is, backing down from his previous proclamations that he would raise the minimum age of buying assault guns and other stricter gun proposals favored by most of the country. Big talk, no action, no backbone from Mr. Trump. RICHARD FINN GOLDENS BRIDGE, N.Y. To the Editor: In saying that the proposal to raise the age limit on purchases of assault weapons had not much political support (to put it mildly), President Trump fails a key test of presidential leadership. In his seminal work Presidential Power, Richard Neustadt concluded that the power of the president is the power to persuade. Significant public support exists for improvements in gun safety. Rather than mobilizing the public, the president retreats. In the aftermath of the massacre at Sandy Hook, I worked with courageous members of Delawares General Assembly to pass key pieces of gun safety legislation, including closing the gun show loophole. The margin of victory in these votes was surprisingly small given the public support. The relationship was further eroded when it was reported that last summer he called the president a moron at a gathering of national security and cabinet officials and, after Mr. Trump spoke respectfully of white nationalists who demonstrated in Charlottesville, Va., Mr. Tillerson said Mr. Trump speaks for himself. So the president announced he would replace Mr. Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director and former Tea Party congressman, who has endeared himself to Mr. Trump with his engaging approach during morning intelligence briefings. Mr. Pompeo has also endeared himself to the climate-denying Koch brothers, who, along with their family, employees and affiliated groups donated $357,300 to his campaigns and political action committee, according to the McClatchy newspapers. Mr. Pompeo is unlikely to be sidelined in major policy debates, as Mr. Tillerson was regularly, even though he too, unlike Mr. Trump, supported his agencys conclusion that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 elections. But his hawkish approach could do serious damage on major national security issues, including Iran and North Korea, on which he has expressed views at odds with his predecessors. The timing of Mr. Tillersons ouster most likely hinges on the fact that Mr. Trump is facing his biggest foreign policy gamble, a decision to hold direct negotiations over North Koreas nuclear weapons program, starting with face-to-face talks with the countrys leader, Kim Jong-un, supposedly in May. Tough trade talks are also looming. Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim are expected to set the stage for negotiations and then let senior teams for the two sides do the detail work, which is likely to take months if not years. Before the shakeup, it was assumed Mr. Tillerson would lead the American team one hobbled by a lack of North Korea expertise. Now, that role is likely to be filled by Mr. Pompeo, who has effectively pushed for regime change in North Korea and even alluded to assassinating Mr. Kim. Mr. Pompeo will face other challenges in managing an increasingly aggressive China, as well as dealing with Europe and Afghanistan and turmoil in Syria and other parts of the Middle East. China, knowing U.S. pressure is coming, has been looking for more U.S. goods to buy, said Bradsher, but the U.S. is just not that competitive anymore in a lot of products other than oil, food and aircraft. And China is now in the test-flight stage for mass-producing its own jetliners as well. So what would a smart American president do? First, hed sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord. TPP eliminated as many as 18,000 tariffs on U.S. exports with the most dynamic economies in the Pacific and created a 12-nation trading bloc headed by the U.S. and focused on protecting what we do best high-value-added manufacturing and intellectual property. Alas, Trump tore it up without reading it one of the stupidest foreign policy acts ever. We Brexited Asia! China was not in TPP. It was a coalition built, in part, to pressure Beijing into fairer market access, by our rules. Trump just gave it up for free. Once a smart president restored participation in TPP, hed start secret trade talks with the Chinese no need for anyone to lose face and tell Beijing: Since you like your trade rules so much, were going to copy them for your companies operating in America: 25 percent tariffs on your cars, and your tech companies that open here have to joint venture and share intellectual property with a U.S. partner and store all their data on U.S. servers. Having a really tough trade negotiation with China on manufacturing and high technology, but doing it in secret, makes sense to me. Starting a public trade war with our allies over aluminum and steel that raises the costs for our manufacturers, that doesnt protect our growth industries and that loses allies that we need to deal with China makes absolutely no sense. But while all of this is necessary, it is not sufficient to maintain the U.S. publics support for free trade, which seems to be declining in both parties now. We needed to be, and still need to be, much more serious, and generous, about creating wage insurance and community reinvestment policies for people and places whose employers are suddenly wiped out by a trade shock. Because this one wont be the last. At the same time, we need to be much more serious about using every tool we have tax incentives, Pell grants, community colleges to create the conditions for every American to be constantly upgrading skills and for every company to keep training its workers. That will matter whether the challenge is China or robots. Too much of the economic discussion of late has been focused on the 1 percent versus the 99 percent, observed Autor. Its become a kind of inequality porn where you get so focused on those two numbers that it becomes demobilizing. You lose sight of the fact that there is a dramatic rise in the economic return to tangibly acquiring skills skills that are available and should be within everyones reach. On todays episode: Wil S. Hylton, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. Background: If you missed our first episode about Mr. Lopez, you can listen to it here. The opposition leaders interview with The New York Times Magazine coincides with a renewed offensive against dissent in Venezuela. Tune in, and tell us what you think. Email us at thedaily@nytimes.com. Tweet me at @mikiebarb. And if youre interested in advertising with The Daily, write to us at thedaily-ads@nytimes.com. How do I listen? If you dont see an audio player on this page or to subscribe to The Daily for free, follow the instructions below. From your mobile device: You can listen and subscribe to The Daily from any podcast player. If youre reading this from an iPhone or other Apple mobile device, tap this link to listen in Apple Podcasts. If youre on an Android device, tap this link to listen in Stitcher or this link to listen in RadioPublic. Three of the bedrooms offer more than a place to sleep. Outfitted with Clei transformable furnishings from Resource Furniture, one bedroom has a Murphy bed with an attached desk that rotates into place, when the bed is closed, to serve as an office. Another has a Murphy bed with a table that unfolds for dining or games, and the third has folding bunk beds with an integrated sofa for watching television. In this bedroom-cum-media room, a custom pegboard wall with shelves made of Richlite (a countertop material made from recycled paper) can be adjusted to respond to Mr. Hills evolving storage and display needs. Even the lanai, open to the elements under a broad cedar-paneled ceiling, has adjustable furniture, including low coffee tables that pop up and expand to become larger dining tables, and modular sofas with weighted back cushions that can be pulled forward for support during meals or pushed back when Mr. Hill or his guests want to recline. Building a stand-alone house also gave Mr. Hill the opportunity to play with the sort of green technology featured on TreeHugger but almost impossible to deploy in a Manhattan apartment. The standing-seam metal roof is covered with thin-film solar panels from Sunflare that are nearly invisible. They generate enough power not only to run the house but to charge Mr. Hills car (a 1973 Volkswagen Thing that he had Hawaii Off-Grid convert to an electric vehicle with recycled Tesla batteries) and his electric Magnum bicycles. The roof, gutters and rain chains channel water to a 15,000-gallon tank used for irrigation. The Separett composting toilets use no water. The house was completed in January for just under $1 million. Its not as inexpensive as I had hoped, but its a prototype, Mr. Hill said, explaining that trial and error drove up the cost. We know we can make it a lot less expensive on the next one. But the comfort of the finished house seems to have surprised even its owner. Ive been doing environmental stuff for almost 20 years, and I had no idea how cool it would feel to be living off grid, he said. Done right, green can actually be more luxurious than a conventional house. Just remember, if youre in Maui and happen to see Mr. Hill zipping past in his electric Thing with a surfboard strapped to its roll bars, he isnt on vacation hes just doing his job. Everyone in Manhattan thinks Im being a slacker, and everyone here thinks Im being a workaholic, he said. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Dear Sugars, How do I deal with my anger toward men? I go to therapy, Im on anti-depressants and Im trying to practice self-care. But Im still angry. I dont think its unwarranted. Ive been sexually assaulted at least twice. We live in a time where women have more rights than ever, but our president is an alleged sexual predator. Men are socialized to be condescending toward women, and even the few who check themselves often fail. The only way to tell if a man is a sexual assaulter is to say no, and once youre in that position, its too late. I have male friends who care about me some whove even been sexually assaulted themselves but they still dont understand my pain. In my observation, there are elements of sexism in even the healthiest relationships, and that makes me angry. I dont want to be emotionally unavailable to the entire sex that I am attracted to. How am I supposed to find a life partner if I cant even find many men who treat women like equals? Justifiably Angry Feminist Steve Almond: Your letter made me think of James Baldwins famous formulation that to be African-American in this country and to be relatively conscious, is to be in a rage almost all the time. You have every right to be angry with men who have harmed you, in word or deed. No man can understand how it feels to grow up female in this culture, especially not an affluent white man like myself. We are largely ignorant of what its like to be economically, socially, professionally and sexually bullied. Having said that, your essential beef here really isnt with men, individually or as a population. Its with patriarchal thought and behavior, those monstrous forms of privilege by which men control women. The deeper question we need to reckon with is why boys and men are socialized to derive their self-worth from the denigration and domination of women. The symptoms of this mindset discrimination, abusive behavior, rape are infuriating. But beneath this rage lurks a deep sorrow that belongs to all of us. The house, said Ms. Beats thrifting buddy Muffy Bolding, a writer whose credits include the film Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust, is an expression of who she is and its a part of her art, and she loves nothing more than to bring people in to see her masterpiece. Ms. Beats housewarming, on a Monday night in January, drew a crowd that included the drag luminaries Bianca Del Rio and Alaska 5000, the actors Kate Flannery (The Office) and Selene Luna (Coco), and the transgender activists Andrea James and Calpernia Addams. When you see Jackies house, you realize how deep her attention to detail goes, said Alaska 5000, a recording artist who won the second season of RuPauls Drag Race All Stars in 2016. Who has a party and plans whats going to be on every single TV monitor? She keeps it like a showroom. With a wall-size mural that looks like the Arizona flag (Ms. Beat lived in Scottsdale as a child) rendered in hippie-era appliance colors, and a Paul Evans-inspired bedroom set by Pueblo by Lane Furniture, which Ms. Beat found for $2,300 on Craigslist, the master suite looks as if a great cinematic dame like Helen Lawson of Valley of the Dolls just slipped out to the balcony for a cig. One of Ms. Beats guest bedrooms, where Ms. Vine was staying during her Golden Girlz run, is a homage to the 1976 Brian De Palma horror film, Carrie, with nearly 100 framed pieces of memorabilia, and a bedspread that supersizes a photo of the movies stars, Piper Laurie and Sissy Spacek, in a familial embrace. Beneath a skull lamp on a bedside table, there is a small framed photo of the late Ms. Arthur (Ms. Beat refers to her as her spirit animal), the vestige of a Golden Girls-themed room that she had in her former home in Highland Park. Murray Mosss legendary SoHo shop and gallery, Moss, left an indelible mark on the design world. Filled with unexpected displays of seemingly incongruous items colorful Hella Jongerius ceramics, Maarten Baas chairs, 18th-century ceramics the store, which he ran with his partner, Franklin Getchell, between 1994 and 2012, was a unique, avant-garde treasure trove that set new precedents in retail. Moss and Getchell recently left New York and moved into a 1929 colonial revival house in a small Connecticut town. From there, they run a design and retail consulting firm, and on April 10 they will release a Rizzoli book reflecting on the impact of the Moss store. To mark the occasion, T sent Moss a Polaroid camera and asked him to photograph some of the many objects that decorate his home. These photos were all taken on the morning of March 1, Moss explains of his images, below. Every morning he rises at around 4 a.m. and, after making tea, surveys and rearranges his objects crystal glasses, a Nymphenburg porcelain bird. Its an activity born of both love and habit, he says. I always enjoyed doing this when we had the store and galleries and I still do it, although its now at home, and on a much smaller scale. The rising mens wear line Namacheko, designed by the siblings Dilan and Lezan Lurr, makes deceptively simple clothes that are, in fact, loaded with personal meaning. For example: A moss-green mohair peacoat, from the fall/winter 2018 collection, looks classic apart from its sculptural toggles. The biomorphic shape of the fastenings was inspired by the English sculptor Barbara Hepworth a tribute to the designers mother, who is, as Hepworths was, a math teacher. The brand also showed a navy blue sleeveless jacket made from fireproof fabric. The Lurrs, who founded the label in 2017, are inspired by their dual Swedish-Kurdish nationality, and the flame-retardant garment was a statement about the indestructibility of identity. As a teenager growing up in Sweden, you just want to be like your friends but you never lose being a Kurd, says Dilan, Its a funny thing. You are what you are. I want to translate that into the garments. Dilan is on a short visit to Belgium, where Namacheko is manufactured in part by Gysemans Clothing Group, a production and distribution company that has also worked with Raf Simons since his early years. But both Dilan, 29, and Lezan, 24, spend most of the year in Sweden, where they moved from Iraq with their family in 1997. THE CROISSANTS OF Baker Doe a delivery-only pastry service in San Francisco, run by a husband and wife who decline to reveal their identities appear like a new species startled in the wild. One is striped blue, with a coif of cotton candy in hydrangea hues and a lode of chile-enflamed orange curd waiting to be unleashed; another, ringed in deep purple, flaunts a lavender shard of ube (purple yam) like a lone, useless wing. They are originals, yet they dont exist in isolation: Others of their kin that is, pastries in thrillingly deviant forms with classical French lineage but non-canonical ingredients (often drawn from Asian cuisines), as likely to be savory as sweet can be spotted at Sugarbloom Bakery in Los Angeles, confettied in nori; at Bake Code in Toronto, blackened by charcoal under a rosy crust of mentaiko (cod roe); and at Supermoon Bakehouse in New York, piped with rum creme patissiere and pineapple jelly in a mirage of a pina colada. Is this blasphemy or natural evolution? Its not the first time pastries have undergone mutations in recent history. Nearly five years ago, the French-trained pastry chef Dominique Ansel trademarked the Cronut, that cannily named croissant-doughnut hybrid sold from his storefront in SoHo, New York. Hordes lined up before dawn for limited-batch runs that vanished within the hour, to be resold on the black market by scalpers at a 1,900-percent markup (as much as $100 each). The Cronut was fetishized, then scorned for being fetishized, then imperfectly and ubiquitously reproduced. Dunkin Donuts sold millions (of a version that a corporate spokesman insisted had been in development for decades). Within a year, the oracular science-fiction writer William Gibson had published a novel forecasting a future in which Cronuts were churned out by 3-D printers. And still people line up for Ansels Cronuts today, at his outposts in Tokyo, London and Los Angeles, where seasonal flavors like pineapple-chocolate-basil and eggnog-caramel are introduced monthly, for we are not yet immune to the novelty of pastry portmanteaus. The cruffin, made of croissant dough fastidiously draped in muffin tins to achieve a bouffants rise, was invented the same year as the Cronut by the pastry chef Kate Reid of Lune Croissanterie in Melbourne, Australia. When another Melbourne native, Ry Stephen (currently of New Yorks Supermoon), started making the puffy hybrids at San Franciscos Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in 2014, his curd-filled cruffins proved so popular that a burglar broke in one night and ignored the cash register and equipment, grabbing only a binder of recipes. Like the Cronut, these latter-day pastries rustic kouign-amanns at Sugarbloom laminated with white miso; eclairs at patisserie Chanson entombed under Day-Glo plaques of painted chocolate draw skepticism in part because theyre so swiftly and widely worshiped. In a culture beholden to images, its easy to simultaneously embrace and dismiss them as idle provocations. But for all the black garlic in the dough, the kimchi-spiked filling, the blood orange slices mashed on top, they are still viennoiserie, made in accordance with French tradition, precision-engineered with high-grade butter. (Stephen, for instance, is faithful to the revered Beurre dIsigny, imported from Normandy.) In the croissants and their variations, the layers are as distinct as ribs, from slabs of cold butter immured in fold after fold of dough; the interior resembles a honeycomb of air, due to steam released during baking as the butter slowly melts. SAN FRANCISCO President Trump appeared to bail out Qualcomm on Monday by blocking Broadcoms hostile takeover attempt of the chip maker, citing national security fears about China. But Qualcomms management team may not be out of the woods. Another arm of the United States government, the Federal Trade Commission, contends that some of Qualcomms key business practices are illegal. So does Apple, the most influential trendsetter in wireless phones. Such legal threats, and some signs of shareholder support for Broadcoms $117 billion bid, suggest that Qualcomms chief executive, Steven Mollenkopf, may still be in the hot seat. That means the company, which is based in San Diego, may need to take new steps to assuage investors unhappy with its performance. The feedback on the ground was a manifest dissatisfaction with the management team, Edward Snyder, an analyst at Charter Equity Research, said of what he had heard from Qualcomms shareholders. Qualcomm is in a tight spot at this point. Note: This story is from 2018. A spokesman for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned, saying that he could no longer bear the burden of spreading falsehoods on behalf of the Trump administration. The spokesman, James Schwab, who had worked for the agencys San Francisco Division, told news outlets Monday that his decision was prompted by false statements made by the agency on Feb. 27 and repeated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week. [James Schwab gave a television interview three months after quitting. Federal investigators also showed up.] The statements criticized the mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf, for her decision last month to warn city residents that a raid by federal immigration agents targeting roughly 1,000 people was imminent. The agencys deputy director, Thomas D. Homan, said that Ms. Schaafs warning had helped 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats to evade capture in the raid. Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.) For more than a decade, Christopher Hawthorne has had his dream job: architecture critic at The Los Angeles Times. From his perch, he has explored the regions history and pondered the future of the urban landscape. Mr. Hawthorne broke some surprising news to readers on Monday: He is leaving the newspaper to become the chief design officer for Mayor Eric Garcetti. The role grew in part out of Mr. Hawthornes conversations with the mayor during Third L.A., a public lecture series Mr. Hawthorne led at Occidental College. During one event, he and the mayor spoke about the idea of a design czar, a position other cities have recently created. Soon after, Mr. Garcetti offered him the job. We spoke to Mr. Hawthorne about his decision, his vision of the new role and what the next decade holds for Los Angeles. Heres some of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed: Working inside City Hall is a big change. What made you decide to do so? Ive always been interested in the intersection of politics and architecture. A lot is up for grabs, in terms of the civic identity of L.A. For me, it really is about the timing. The mayor has a five-and-half-year term, and on top of that there is the arrival of the Olympics in 2028. Its rare that a city has that kind of civic deadline. Its really an ideal time frame. Its long enough to take on some ambitious projects, but not so distant that it feels too abstract and too far-off. We have housing and transit funding in hand that was approved by voters, so bringing that all together and leveraging it is key. In an interview, Dr. Snowden said he was not concerned that very young children would be frightened by the walkout, only that they would not understand what it was about. Sometimes I think when youre teaching children, especially younger children, you try to take into consideration, will there be a full understanding of what theyre doing and why theyre doing it, he said. Just to walk out of class for 17 minutes, Im not sure what that is really teaching. Even within Akrons 50-school district, agendas for Wednesday differed markedly from school to school. At Firestone Park Elementary, students were expected to read a poem about peace. At Pfeiffer Elementary, students would be reviewing safety procedures. And at Robinson Community Learning Center there were no plans at all students had not expressed an interest, according to the district. Elise Cappella, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at New York Universitys Steinhardt School, said there was a difference between what the youngest students from kindergarten to second grade and older children could understand. While not advocating any particular stance, she said: Schools could make the decision that kids in kindergarten through second grade are not provided the opportunity to walk out. They are cognitively, socially, emotionally younger. They may feel more fear about it and less understanding. Children in the third grade and up, she said, will be more likely to be exposed to news and hear their parents talking about it. They are reaching a point where having something thats potentially positive and productive to do that makes them feel a sense of agency and safety could be a good thing, she said. Ms. Cappella said that whether elementary schools decided to participate in the protest or not, the goal should be to project a sense of community to their students. And if you can create that space, she said, whether thats in the classroom or in the hallways or in the schoolyard or out at a protest or a march, thats the most beneficial space for young kids to be in. Some school districts are trying to discourage any type of school walkout, regardless of age, warning that any student who participates will be marked as absent from class or even disciplined. A Florida prosecutor said Tuesday that he would seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing 17 people last month at a high school in Parkland, moving the state closer to a rare trial for someone charged in a mass shooting. Michael J. Satz, the state attorney for Broward County, made his decision public less than a month after the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and one day before students nationwide were expected to stage walkouts to demand new gun-control measures. The decision to seek the death penalty against Nikolas Cruz, 19, was widely expected, in part because Mr. Satz had hinted at his plans days after the attack. Lawyers for Mr. Cruz, who have repeatedly said that he would plead guilty in exchange for life in prison without the possibility of parole, are not expected to contest his guilt at what is certain to be an agonizing and emotional trial. They will instead focus on proving mitigating circumstances, such as extreme mental duress, that could persuade a single juror to block a death sentence. But in a filing in Circuit Court in Broward County, Mr. Satz cited seven aggravating factors that he said prosecutors would prove and that would make Mr. Cruz eligible for execution. Those factors, enshrined in Florida law, include that Mr. Cruz knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons and that the capital felony at issue was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel. Constituents will always oppose if they ... The sudden firing on Tuesday of Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil chief executive who never managed to capture the role of chief diplomat, makes room for a true believer in President Trumps America First views and a bitter critic of the Iran nuclear deal but also a deep skeptic about whether negotiations will persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear arsenal. Mr. Tillersons anticipated replacement, Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, was among the harshest critics of the 2015 nuclear agreement that world powers brokered with Iran. If confirmed, Mr. Pompeo will take over the State Department just as the president is weighing whether to ditch the deal altogether even if it outrages European allies. The move would also put Mr. Pompeo, who has been immersed in the details of Pyongyangs nuclear program, in a central role in running the negotiations with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator whom Mr. Trump has said he will meet by May. For all the criticisms of Mr. Tillerson and there were many, particularly in the State Department as he moved to slash its size he was considered a restraining influence on Mr. Trump. Mr. Pompeo, in contrast, has been an enthusiastic defender of the presidents policies, to the point that many senior current and former C.I.A. officials worried that he was far too political for the job. WASHINGTON John McEntee, who has served as President Trumps personal assistant since Mr. Trump won the presidency, was forced out of his position and escorted from the White House on Monday after an investigation into his finances caused his security clearance to be revoked, officials with knowledge of the incident said. But Mr. McEntee will remain in the presidents orbit despite his abrupt departure from the White House. Mr. Trumps re-election campaign announced Tuesday that Mr. McEntee had been named senior adviser for campaign operations, putting him in a position to remain as a close aide during the next several years. The campaigns decision underscores Mr. Trumps tolerance for and often encouragement of dueling centers of power around him. And it highlights the extent to which the re-election campaign has already become a landing pad for former Trump associates who have left the White House but remain loyal to the president. The decision to remove Mr. McEntee came to light on the same day that Mr. Trump announced that he was removing Rex W. Tillerson as secretary of state and replacing him with Mike Pompeo, his C.I.A. director. He has not moderated his messaging at the C.I.A. Five months ago, he called Iran a despotic theocracy and a pernicious empire that is expanding its power and influence across the Middle East. In October, he slipped up in discussing the volatile issue of Russias interference in the 2016 election, claiming that American intelligence agencies had concluded that the meddling did not affect the outcome. In fact, the agencies did not give an opinion on the effect of the Russian hacking, leaking and propaganda. The agency issued a corrective statement and Mr. Pompeo has not repeated the mistake. During Mr. Trumps campaign, Mr. Pompeo publicly welcomed WikiLeaks release of Democratic emails hacked and leaked by Russia. But at the C.I.A., he has denounced the group, which published secret documents on the agencys hacking last year, as a nonstate hostile intelligence service. He has had to juggle some political grenades. When Mr. Trump learned that some American intelligence retirees doubted the evidence that Russia was behind the 2016 hacking, he asked Mr. Pompeo to meet with William E. Binney, a National Security Agency veteran who has championed alternative theories. That put the C.I.A. director in an awkward spot because the agency had helped gather the evidence pointing at Russia. The two men had a polite meeting, but Mr. Pompeo did not change his view that Russia was responsible. Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called his former House colleague hard-working and intelligent and willing to hear different points of view. But he added a cautionary note, saying Mr. Pompeo has not always been willing to stand up to the president, particularly when Trump has questioned the intelligence communitys conclusions on Russia, and we will need the new secretary to be willing to speak hard truths to the president. On covert action, though the details of most operations remain secret, Mr. Pompeo has taken an aggressive approach. In Afghanistan, the agency has sent small teams of highly experienced officers and contractors alongside Afghan troops to hunt and kill Taliban militants across the country. This marks a shift for the C.I.A. in Afghanistan, where the agency had primarily focused on Al Qaeda and on helping the Afghan spy services. As recently as last week, the public positions of the president and the bureau were out of sync. Mr. Trump announced that the legal papers to ban bump stocks were nearly completed and said the devices would soon be gone. That same day, bureau officials said that the agency was still reviewing the issue, and that no final determination had been made. Traditionally, the bureau would study existing statutes, decide that the law permits it to regulate bump stocks and then submit a proposed rule to the Justice Department. The deputy attorney generals office would make modifications before the budget office reviewed and approved the rule change, and it would then be published in the Federal Register. The regulation of bump stocks has strayed from that pattern. The bureau determined in 2010 that it could not regulate the devices because they could not be defined as machine guns, which are regulated under the National Firearms Act, the law that regulates firearms in the United States. To prohibit bump stocks, the agency had to contradict that earlier position, essentially saying the statute had not changed but could be read differently to include such a ban. After the Las Vegas shooting, in which 58 concertgoers were killed by a gunman using firearms outfitted with bump stocks, public pressure grew to ban them. Justice Department and A.T.F. officials privately stuck by their earlier conclusion that they could not outlaw bump stocks, but with little appetite to tackle gun policy in Congress, Mr. Sessions asked the A.T.F. to review its determination. Agencies periodically scrutinize earlier rulings and change interpretations. What set apart the bump stock evaluation, according to former bureau officials, was Mr. Trumps overt political pressure. No disrespect intended, but Im sure President Trump has no idea what exactly the authority is for A.T.F. or the D.O.J. to ban these things, said Bradley A. Buckles, who was the head of the bureau from 1999 to 2004. In all honesty, he doesnt know what his authority is in that regard. And in altering its 2010 interpretation made under former President Barack Obama, the bureau could be subject to lawsuits that tie up a bump stock ban in the courts. The White House appeared to declare victory this week for an Obama-era initiative to stamp out disease outbreaks around the world even as it moved to scale back the program. The National Security Council released a report on Monday trumpeting the achievements of the multinational Global Health Security Agenda, which helps low-income countries halt epidemics before they cross borders. The report clearly shows how the investments made by taxpayers to improve global health security are paying dividends, White House officials said in the announcement. But the United States is set to sharply shrink its contributions to the initiative, a point that the report omitted. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing to narrow epidemic work from 49 countries to 10, an agency spokeswoman said. That has alarmed health policy experts. Its not a matter of if but when there will be another Ebola or Zika, and right now, the world isnt ready, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, who led the C.D.C. during the West African Ebola outbreak. Many life-threatening gaps have been identified, but most of them havent been closed. REPORTER: Did you fire him because he called you a moron? MR. TRUMP: What? REPORTER: Did you fire him because he called you a moron? MR. TRUMP: Say it again. REPORTER: (inaudible) Why now? MR. TRUMP: I respect his intellect. I respect the process that weve all gone through together. We have a very good relationship. For whatever reason, chemistry, whatever it is. Why do people get along? Ive always right from the beginning from day one, Ive gotten along well with Mike Pompeo. And frankly I get along well with Rex, too. And, you know, I wish Rex a lot of good things. I think hes going to do I think hes going to be very happy. I think Rex will be much happier now. But I really appreciate his service. But with Mike, weve had a very good chemistry right from the beginning. REPORTER: (inaudible) MR. TRUMP: Well, it sounds to me. Im speaking to Theresa May today. It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all of the evidence they have. I dont know if theyve come to a conclusion. But shes calling me today. As you know, now were going to the wall. Were going out to the wall. Were going to be looking at the prototypes, which is very important for our country. But Theresa May is going to be speaking to me today. It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia, and I would certainly take that finding as fact. REPORTER: Mr. President, do you believe there should be a response from the United States? MR. TRUMP: As soon as we get the facts straight. And were going to be speaking with the British today. Were speaking with Theresa May today. As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be. But I have not spoken to her. Ill speak to her some time today. REPORTER: (inaudible) MR. TRUMP: Were very happy with the decision by the House Intelligence Committee saying there was absolutely no collusion with respect to Russia. And it was a very powerful decision, a very strong decision. Broward County educators and advocates saw Mr. Rubios letter as an indictment of a program called Promise, which the county instituted in 2013 one year before the Obama guidance was issued and has guided its discipline reforms to reduce student-based arrests in Broward County, where Stoneman Douglas is. The N.A.A.C.P. said that Mr. Rubio notably backs away from raising the purchase age for assault-style rifles and restricting magazine capacity, and instead focuses on a system that once sent one million minority students to Florida jails for simple and routine discipline issues ranging from talking back to teachers to schoolyard scuffles. The program was praised by former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and echoes the goals of the 2014 Obama guidance in discouraging schools from using law enforcement as a first line of defense for low-level offenses. In the days before making his request, Mr. Rubio released a proposal that he said would remedy lapses in the Promise program and the 2014 guidance. In a tweet on Tuesday, Mr. Rubio noted that the gunman was not in the Promise program, but had displayed violent and threatening behavior. The more we learn, the more it appears the problem is not the program or the DOE guidance itself, but the way it is being applied, Mr. Rubio said, referring to the Education Department. It may have created a culture discourages referral to law enforcement even in egregious cases like the #Parkland shooter. Long before the attack in Parkland, Fla., the 2014 discipline guidelines, which encouraged schools to examine their discipline disparities and to take stock of discriminatory policies, were already on Ms. DeVoss radar but not because they were seen as a possible culprit in the next school shooting. Conservatives were using the Trump administrations effort to rein in federal overreach to reverse policies designed to protect against what the Obama administration had seen as discriminatory practices. SAN DIEGO President Trump explained on Tuesday that he fired Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson because they do not see eye to eye on certain major issues. Then he confirmed that he may hire Larry Kudlow as his economics adviser even though they do not see eye to eye on certain major issues. In the never-ending reality-show drama of the Trump administration, characters come and go and sometimes come back again based as much on personality, chemistry and the mood of the moment as on ideology or competence. Those who get on Mr. Trumps bad side are shown the exit, and those who connect with him rise through the ranks. The particular alchemy of that equation has eluded any number of people who were once masters of their own universe, as was Mr. Tillerson, who dominated the oil industry as chief executive of Exxon Mobil. Mr. Trump has cast aside both establishment figures and nationalist outsiders. He has recruited confidants he genuinely respects as well as virtual strangers who impressed him on television. He has even swung hot and cold on his own family members occupying offices in the West Wing. Anyone looking for a pattern should focus squarely on the man behind the desk in the Oval Office. Mr. Trumps presidency of one depends not on the team around him but on the instincts inside him. Where others see bedlam, he sees purpose. I like conflict, he said the other day, a statement that elicited no objections from fact checkers. Sometimes the conflict seems to be within himself. SAN DIEGO President Trumps welcome committee, a few hundred strong, many dressed in the colors of the flag, gathered on Tuesday at an industrial park not far from the border, and not far from the prototypes of the presidents border wall. It was part pep rally and part celebration of what they viewed, with the presidents trip, as a fulfillment of a promise, the reason they voted for him: the construction of a wall to keep undocumented immigrants away. A few miles of freeway to the west, Mr. Trumps opponents gathered in the parking lot of a hilltop church, overlooking Mexico. The distance between the groups was by design. Organizers from each side said they wanted to stay separate, and avoid clashes. It was Mr. Trumps first visit to California since his election in 2016, a state with which he has had particularly difficult relations. After landing on Tuesday, he inspected the series of wall prototypes, accompanied by United States Border Patrol agents on horseback, and talked about the need for a stronger barrier along the border. People are pouring in, he said. From here, he headed to a military base to give a speech and then to Beverly Hills for a fund-raiser before spending the night in downtown Los Angeles. Sniffing an alcohol pad may be a good cure for nausea. Almost five million people go to emergency rooms annually in the United States for severe nausea and vomiting, and it is commonly treated with oral ondansetron (Zofran), a drug used to control the nausea of chemotherapy. Sniffing isopropyl alcohol can also help control chemotherapy nausea, but until now it has not been tested against Zofran for emergency rooms patients, who have a wide variety of causes of nausea. Researchers randomized 120 patients with nausea to use either a sniffed alcohol pad and oral Zofran, alcohol and an oral placebo, or Zofran and sniffed saline solution. The study is in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Before treatment, patients averaged about 50 on a 100-millimeter visual scale of nausea severity, with 100 being the worst. The average decrease a half-hour after treatment was 30 millimeters for those who smelled alcohol and took Zofran, 32 for alcohol and an oral placebo, and 9 for those who took Zofran and sniffed a placebo. The lead author, Dr. Michael D. April, of the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, said that there is no reason to believe that sniffing alcohol would not work at home. Some of us probably thought we would never live to see the day, but we finally did last Friday, March 9th to be precise as President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga cast aside their political and ideological differences for the common good of the country. In doing so, the scions of the founding fathers of the nation, the late president Jomo Kenyatta and the first vice president the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, marked an end to months of political tension and further division of the country along tribal lines. While largely commendable, the handshake between the two leaders has cast some questions about Kenyas political future, particularly on the ongoing formation of Nasas Peoples Assembly. Days after the signed memorandum, Nasa has suspended the Peoples Assembly process. In a statement yesterday, Nasa strategist David Ndii commended the two leaders but noted that; It is not a NASA-Jubilee government engagement. It is not about power-sharing and it is not about 2022 elections. It is not a done deal. It is a statement of intent. For the avoidance of doubt, no negotiations on any issue has taken place. Ndii, who is the Peoples Assembly steering committee chairman further stated that the coalition will not hesitate to resume the process should the deal between the leaders be breached. This was his statement: ************************************************* STATEMENT OF THE PEOPLES ASSEMBLY ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ON THE MEMORANDUM SIGNED BY H.E. UHURU KENYATTA AND H.E. RAILA ODINGA The purpose of this statement is to provide an update on the Peoples Assembly process and roadmap in the light of the historic memorandum signed by the H.E Raila Amolo Odinga and H.E Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday 9th March, 2018. We take this opportunity to commend the two leaders for putting Kenya first. We are 100 percent behind them. We urge our supporters to rally behind this initiative. We wish to make a number of observations regarding the memorandum to clear the air on misunderstandings that we have already noted in the public debate. We will begin with what it is not. It is not a NASA-Jubilee government engagement; it is not about power-sharing and it is not about 2022 elections. It is not a done deal. It is a statement of intent. For the avoidance of doubt, no negotiations on any issue has taken place. The memorandum is an initiative of the two leaders in their individual capacities. In the memorandum, they describe themselves not as presidents or leaders of political formations which they are, but as friends and compatriots. The two leaders have acknowledged the historical origins of our current crisis and the many opportunities over the years that leaders have missed to right the ship. They recognize that they too have a historic opportunity to set the country on the right course, and they do not want to be remembered as another generation of leaders that did not rise to the occasion. We also wish to underline that the memorandum acknowledges that the nature of the crisis we are in is political, and that the dysfunction we see in the State is societal. It is the first time in our history that leadership at the highest level has acknowledged that we have a problem called tribalism. They have acknowledged that institutions and infrastructure do not make a nation. A nation is a shared sense of belonging. This is the glue that hold diverse people together, enables them to overcome adversities, and achieve great things. They have acknowledged that this glue is weak, the result of which is deterioration of relationships between ethnic communities and political formations. It is of course the case that our political formations are themselves ethnic formations. We must commend and congratulate the two leaders for this meeting of minds. Acknowledging a problem is the first step towards solving it. China Achebe bequeathed us the timeless African wisdom that a man who does not know where the rain started beating him cannot say where he dried his body. This initiative is about retracing our steps to where the rain started beating us. This we can only do as a people. Not as the state, not as government, not as social and economic interest groups but as communities as Abagusii, Abaluhya, Luo, Kambas, Kikuyu, Maa, Mijikenda, Makonde, Somali, Waswahili, Turkana and every other community that inhabits this land. As the Peoples Assembly Organizing Committee we embrace and support this, for this is precisely the purpose for which The Peoples Assembly has been established. The two leaders have asked us to give them an opportunity to spearhead this process. We have accepted. We acknowledge that it is better to reason together than separately. As another piece of African wisdom tells us, one fingernail cannot kill a louse. We are therefore in this spirit suspending the Peoples Assembly process. But this support is not a carte blanche, neither is it unconditional. We have impressed upon the leaders of the imperative for this process to be honest, truthful and courageous. Honest, truthful and courageous introspection will acknowledge that tribalism is not an end in itself but a means that has been used to acquire and use political power for unjust enrichment. It has been used to skew public resource allocation and opportunities to particular communities and regions so that they can in turn protect those in power. Tribalism is an unholy alliance between communities and their leaders to further the interests of the latter at the expense of other Kenyans. In a nutshell, it is the continuation of the divide and rule strategy of the colonial era. We have impressed upon the leaders that we cannot afford sacred cows, and no go areas and raw nerves. A decade into our new constitutional dispensation we continue to tiptoe around historical injustices. As we speak, public land is being enclosed, and tenderpreneurs are bankrupting the country. We have been assured that this initiative will be about the people, will involve the people, and will be validated and owned by the people. But we are alive to the painful history of political betrayal. We know that once crisis subside, leaders can get comfortable and allow the issues of the people to fade into the background. Thats how we have ended up where we are. It is our duty as citizens to hold these leaders feet to the fire and ensure that this does not happen again. We are remaining vigilant and we urge all Kenyans across the political divide to join hands so that we do this together. God Bless Kenya Peoples Assembly Organizing Committee March 12, 2018 President Trumps firing of Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson sent shock waves through the world on Tuesday. His unhappiness with Mr. Tillerson, who once called him a moron, was well known, and the possibility of his replacement by the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, was floated last autumn. Even so, the abruptness of the dismissal hours after Mr. Tillerson returned from a tour of Africa and on the brink of awaited talks between President Trump and the leader of North Korea surprised foreign policy experts. Some critics raised the prospects of what they called a more hawkish and rightward turn in United States foreign policy. Others, however, noted that Mr. Tillerson, an oil executive with no prior government experience, had been deeply unpopular within the State Department. They speculated that Mr. Pompeo, a former congressman from Kansas who is highly regarded by Mr. Trump, might be more effective at managing both the president and the diplomatic corps. BEIJING Days after Chinas president, Xi Jinping, consolidated his position as national leader, he moved to extend his control on Tuesday by unveiling new superagencies to tackle three major potential threats to popular support for Communist Party rule: financial recklessness, environmental pollution and official corruption. The plan for reorganizing the government, released to the national legislature in Beijing, would shake up some of Chinas most powerful bureaucracies by gathering powers that had been scattered across multiple regulatory agencies into a few new, stronger entities. It would create two enlarged ministries for protecting the environment and managing natural resources, as well as a new financial regulator spanning banking and insurance. A separate draft law would create a new anticorruption agency with greater reach than the current one, which is run by the Communist Party. With the announcements, Mr. Xi is moving to strengthen his authoritarian leadership over the entrenched cadres and vested interests that his allies have blamed for frustrating reforms he promised in 2013, a year after taking power. Mr. Xi has pushed for firmer action to control rising corporate and state debt, and to cut the smog and water pollution that have caused widespread fear and anger about public health. KABUL, Afghanistan Even in his mothers womb, Donald Trump was unusually sensitive. On nights when his mother was distressed, he would become restless, turning and kicking. Then, on a rainy autumn afternoon in a dusty village of about 200 adobe homes, it was time for his birth. There were no nurses or midwives, so a neighbors wife came to help. The newborn was calm. He had blonde hair, and perfectly normal feet and hands. This is not Donald J. Trump, the son of Mary and Fred Trump. This is Donald Trump, the third child of Jamila and Sayed Assadullah, who was born in Shahristan District deep in the central Afghan province of Daikundi on Sept. 3, 2016, around the time his American namesake was preparing for his first presidential debate after winning the Republican nomination. The baby Donald Trump got his name because of his fathers admiration for the tycoon Donald Trump. Mr. Assadullah comes from a poor farming family, in a place where a good almond crop often made the difference between starving or not. But he earned a college degree, and had read Mr. Trumps books, and watched him on television, which the family powered through solar panels provided in the village by an aid organization. The Labour Partys general secretary, Andrew Kirton, defended on Monday his decision not to involve the police or the victims parents, saying it had been a survivor-led response rather than a cover-up, which permitted the teenagers to decide whether they wanted the matter taken further. A sexual abuse support agency was asked to advise on the matter, but not until March 5, three weeks after the event. By that point, one of the victims had complained to a senior Labour lawmaker about the partys lack of response. Conor Twyford, chief executive of the agency HELP, said that while it was the first time she had been formally approached, it was not at all the first time she had heard of sexual misconduct at political party events. Ms. Twyford supported Labours decision to contain the circle of people who knew about the assaults, but she criticized officials for their delayed response. A lawmaker from the opposition center-right National Party, Judith Collins, criticized the decision not to involve the police. Mrs. Collins, previously a lawyer, said that a culture of not dealing with sexual assaults seriously and as the criminal acts that they are has fostered a culture that makes it very difficult for victims to come forward. But said she did not think sexual misconduct was a particularly political problem. The youth wings of New Zealands other major political parties said they had not had similar issues. But the sole lawmaker from the libertarian party ACT, David Seymour, said his group had stopped running youth camps. The European Court of Human Rights said on Tuesday that Spain had wrongfully condemned two Catalans for publicly burning a photograph of the king and queen, saying that the act was justifiable political criticism. In their unanimous ruling, the judges said they were not convinced that the burning could reasonably be construed as incitement to hatred or violence. The decision from the European court, which is based in Strasbourg, France, comes as Spain has mounted a series of challenges to freedom of expression by social media users as well as rappers and other artists. Many of them have been prosecuted on charges of violating antiterrorism laws introduced in 2015 by the conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The protest case, however, dates from 2007, when Catalan secessionism was still a fringe political movement. More recently, the northeastern region of Catalonia has become the epicenter of a territorial and constitutional crisis that culminated in a botched declaration of independence last October. Britain has financial and diplomatic weapons it can use against Russia to respond to the suspected poisoning of a former spy with a nerve agent, but it is unclear how willing the government is to wield them, or that they would influence the behavior of the Kremlin. Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament on Monday that her government had demanded that Russia explain the attack on the former agent, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, who remain in critical condition. Lacking a credible response from Moscow, she said, I will come back to this House and set out the full range of measures we will take. Britains strongest stance against President Vladimir V. Putins government would involve taking action both on its own and in cooperation with its allies, diplomatic and security analysts have said. But it is too soon to gauge how much appetite those allies have to stand up to Russia on Britains behalf. The Kremlin is also likely to retaliate for any measures Britain takes, and past governments have been unwilling to engage in such an escalating fight. JERUSALEM A roadside bomb blast in Gaza Tuesday morning damaged several vehicles in the convoy of the Palestinian Authoritys prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, in what the authority called a failed assassination attempt. But the incident quickly raised questions about the motives of those responsible, and whether a successful assassination might not have been their real aim. No group immediately claimed responsibility, and Mr. Hamdallah was unharmed, but the attack came amid a tense standoff between his Ramallah-based government, dominated by the Fatah political faction, and the Islamist militant group Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since routing Fatah in the coastal enclave in a civil war a decade ago. Israel, with help from Egypt, has kept Gaza under a strict blockade for years, and conditions in Gaza have grown increasingly dire. The Palestinian Authority compounded those problems last year with financial pressures that included mass layoffs and crippling daily power outages. In October, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority began reconciliation talks, but those have bogged down, even as shortages of clean water, medicine and other necessities have fueled concerns that the dispute could boil over into violence. Conor Lamb, a Democrat, pulled off a narrow but major upset by winning a special House election in the heart of Pennsylvania Trump country. Mr. Lamb won in the states 18th Congressional District, a reliably Republican seat in recent elections and an area that Donald J. Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016. The victory is an ominous sign for Republicans ahead of this years midterm elections. Sign up for election results updates. The results may still be contested, but Mr. Lambs current lead appears insurmountable based on the number of provisional, military and other absentee ballots left to count. Now Mr. Lamb will have to decide soon which district to run in this year. The State Supreme Court threw out Pennsylvanias current congressional map and recently issued a new map with redrawn boundaries. Tim Murphy, a Republican, resigned from the seat last year after reports that he encouraged a woman, with whom he had an affair, to have an abortion. Read more A Luo guys narration of an adventurous trip to Muranga County for a traditional Kikuyu wedding otherwise known as Ruracio is all the fuss on social media. The story, penned by journalist and publicist Kevin Otiende on Facebook, is aptly titled The Price of One Kikuyu Girl. Otiende narrates how the weekend expedition to a place called Koimbi in Muranga turned into a muddy affair as a result of the ongoing rains. Anyone who has been/driven to Muranga will confirm that the Murram roads are a nightmare when it rains. According to Otiende, they had been warned to leave their 40 cars by the tarmac road but that warning must have fallen on deaf ears. You see, we are Luos. There were at least 40 cars in the entourage. None was a Probox. A Probox that tried to overtake the convoy veered off the road in unclear circumstances. You dont want it to rain while you are in Muranga, someone warned us. Another had suggested we leave our vehicles by the tarmac, but they did not consult the first car in the entourage. So as soon as he turned left and into the slim Murram roads, everybody else followed suit in typical Kenyan fashion. In a few seconds, we all disappeared into the jungle. Reversing under the circumstances was not going to be possible in a thousand years, narrated Otiende. The post has since attracted over 1000 reactions and hundreds of shares, and it is probably the best thing youll read this week. Read and check out the pictures below. THE PRICE OF ONE KIKUYU GIRL Exactly one month ago, my phone buzzed it was the notification of Ortis Dundos becoming the first man since Albert Einstein who succeeded to add me into a WhatsApp group. The group was an expedition to Koimbi, Muranga County this past weekend. There are many trees there that made me miss Dedan Kimathi. Earlier, we had made a ritual stop at the Kenol Petrol Station to strategize on how we shall make our way. Half the men are part of the 1% of the population that can afford FOREMEN Shoes, a brand owned by Augustine Dundos of the powerful South Coast Family. It was here that I knew the ruracio was going to be lit everyone was yellow. Add that to the fact that we were going to meet Muranga girls and its a Yellow Yellow affair. You see, we are Luos. There were at least 40 cars in the entourage. None was a Probox. A Probox that tried to overtake the convoy veered off the road in unclear circumstances. You dont want it to rain while you are in Muranga, someone warned us. Another had suggested we leave our vehicles by the tarmac, but they did not consult the first car in the entourage. So as soon as he turned left and into the slim Murram roads, everybody else followed suit in typical Kenyan fashion. In a few seconds, we all disappeared into the jungle. Reversing under the circumstances, was not going to be possible in a thousand years. The rains started as soon as we entered the homestead. They didnt even wait for the poor groom to choose his bride. In fact, he selected while being rained on and failed, ostensibly because the covered girls were also rained on and looked the same. The bride had a special perfume shipped in from France for ease of identification but it was washed away. All this happened as an old woman from the area tried to dance to Ohangla music. It was painful to watch. Soon after the old men retreated into the home to negotiate. They couldnt agree until around 9:00pm. It had been raining all this time, and Muranga Murram was patiently waiting for us, and our expensive FOREMEN shoes. There were about 25 vehicles ahead of me, and 15 behind me. I sat there watching as they helplessly skidded all over the place, some banging their sides. Like an unattended boy in Bukusu circumcision ceremony, I waited for my turn to feel the heat. The turn came, and the heat was felt. Out of nowhere like the Wild Wild West, an old man in gumboots showed up going car to car to advise them on how to navigate. And he literally succeeded. One expensive Mercedes Benz failed to start. It didnt help that it was owned by a Slay Queen, and the cars behind had about 40 men who in unison proclaimed they cannot leave one Slay Queen behind. So this group arrived in Nairobi 24 hours later, in solidarity. In the wake of all this, we left that road well tilled for the planting season. This is the price of one Kikuyu girl. This marriage must work because if otherwise, sending the young girl back there would be considered a crime against humanity. I expect the resignation of the Koimbi MCA by close of business today. The decision comes six months after ASIC found Houghton had engaged in misleading, deceptive and dishonest conduct when providing financial services. According to the commission, Houghton created false documents, submitted insurance application forms with incorrect information, failed to make reasonable enquires into clients individual circumstances and failed to conduct reasonable investigations into financial products that might achieve the objectives of the clients. Houghton was also permanently banned from providing financial services as a result of the transgressions. He does, however, have the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision. This article was first published in our sister publication Australian Broker. FBD Insurance is the new title sponsor of the hugely successful National Livestock Show, which is Irelands Premier Livestock Show. As the show enters its 27th year, the event, which will now be called the Tullamore Show & FBD National Livestock Show, has grown to become the largest one-day agricultural event in the country and is a flagship event in the Irish agricultural calendar. On Sunday, August 12 next, the ideal location of the 250 acre Butterfield Estate, Tullamore, will be the venue where over 1,500 competitors will be vying to share in the massive prize fund of 176,000, not to mention the coveted gold medals, which have become the hallmark of excellence in livestock production. The full programme of the event will be announced at a later date, but applications are rolling in for the 700 trade areas with applications closing in mid May. This very prestigious show has an annual attendance in the region of 60,000 visitors and attracts people from all over the country and has a significant international audience. FBD Insurance is delighted to be a part of it, while the show organisers see FBDs involvement as a vote of confidence in the National Livestock Show At the launch John Cahalan, FBD Insurances Chief Commercial Officer said: FBD Insurance has been supporting farmers for 50 years and is proud to be involved with the National Livestock Show. As Irelands leading indigenous farm insurer, we are committed to supporting every generation of Irish farmer. With our excellent products, nationwide branch network, research grants and farm safety campaign, FBD continues to support the agricultural sector. I wish all entrants the very best of luck at this years show and to all exhibitors and visitors I hope you enjoy the day. Brenda Kiernan, Chairperson of the Tullamore Show and FBD National Livestock Show stated, The Tullamore Show is proud to welcome FBD Insurance as the title sponsor of the very prestigious National Livestock Show. We are certain that the partnership will help showcase, promote and nurture agriculture and the livestock industry. FBD Insurance is firmly established within the Farming sector and this is a positive development for the Tullamore Show as there are many areas of common interest. With FBD Insurance providing quality products and premium service and the Show being firmly established as Irelands Premier Show, we look forward to a mutually beneficial long term relationship and sharing of knowledge and experience which will support the Tullamore Shows focus on continuous improvement. We hope to see you all at the 2018 show on Sunday 12th August next." The committee in the Ballycommon, Ballinagar and Geashill (BBG) Town Twinning project are busy preparing for visitors from Jaux, Picardy region, Haut de France, France this week. Nine members of the Jaux area are coming to celebrate and experience the St. Patricks weekend festivities. This is the second visit of people from Jaux to our area and the itinerary is packed full of cultural and community events. Following arrival late on Thursday, the group will be transported to their host families in Ballycommon, Ballinagar and Geashill. Friday sees the group visiting the three national schools where a parade and display will be provided by the children of the three schools of Cappagh, Geashill and Ballinagar. The group is awaiting confirmation that the French Ambassador to Ireland, H.E. Mr Stephane Crouzat or his representative, will be in attendance in the schools and in Edenderry for the official events on March 16. The French Ambassador has taken a keen interest in how a small rural area like Ballycommon, Ballinagar and Geashill have succeeded in gaining support from the local community and schools to participate in a project of this nature. All schools have really engaged with and supported the French town twinning initiative with enthusiasm and now have over 150 children involved in French classes which are hosted by Alex Aubin, a French teacher living in Tullamore. The school halls of Cappagh, Ballinagar and Geashill will showcase the talents across the three schools followed by a refreshments kindly sponsored by the local Parents Association. The group will then depart for Edenderry Municipal Council Chambers where an official reception will take place between the visitors including the Chair of the Jaux Jumelage committee, Jean-Christophe Auge, the Lord Major of Jaux, Michel Jeannorot and the current council members including Cllr Noel Burke (Chair),Cllr Noel Cribbon, Cllr Martin OReilly Cllr John Foley and Mr Declan Conlon, Head of Finance, Offaly County Council. Following speeches and official presentation of documents the group will have lunch in the chambers and will return to their host families for a restful evening. St Patricks Day will commence with mass in one of the local churches and all the visitors will then arrive into Tullamore to view the parade from around the podium. The Chair of Jaux committee, the Major of Jaux and the Chair of BBG Committee Margo Sheil along with the French Ambassador will all be on the official stand and will be part of the welcoming committee. Meanwhile the children from the three local national schools Cappagh, Geashill and Ballinagar will be marching behind the BBG Town Twinning banner to promote and celebrate the town twinning. If you would like to march, please come along in your school uniform and contact one of the committee members. The visitors will remain in town to soak up the atmosphere and my even climb Croghan Hill with their host families following the parade as per local tradition should the weather permit. Sport, and particularly rugby, holds a strong bond between Jaux and the BBG area as members of the Jaux committee are avid French Rugby supporters. This along with Irelands recent victory of the Six Nations will prove a welcome draw for the visitors to watch Ireland versus England final rugby match and of course France versus Wales in Ballycommon House later on St Patricks Day. Ballycommon House will also sponsor food for the visitors following the rugby match along with some ceol agus craic for our French visitors. The rest of the weekend will be more restful for the group who will visit some local attractions, businesses and hostelries like Birr Castle, Lough Boora, Kinnity Castle, Clonmacnoise, Mount Lucas wind farm, Croghan Hill, Slieve Blooms and or Dun Na Si in Moate to name but a few. They may even take in the Offaly v Sligo match in OConnor Park. On Monday, the delegation will be given a tour and presentation at Glensik in Killeigh. The French visitors are intrigued by the rich culture and heritage and this will be a good opportunity to showcase what the midlands has to offer. The Jaux committee too are planning a full list of events for this year to generate more interest in the Jaux community. The committee are hosting their own St. Patrick's Day festival which will take place on the weekend of March 24 and will showcase the highlights of their visit to Offaly this coming week. The Jaux committee have extended an invitation for their summer village festival in June 2018 and we would welcome any members of the Ballycommon, Ballinagar and Geashill area who are interested to partake in this invitation. The Town Twinning committee welcomes interested people becoming host families to our new friends from Jaux France. If you would like to get involved at some stage in the future, please do not hesitate to let us know. To see more information check out the facebook page bbgtowntwinning or call any of the members of the BBG Committee on 087 7825855. The BBG committee members consist of: Gerard Nolan, Mary OConnor (Ballycommon), Greta Clear (Geashill), Mags Duffy, Denise Keoghan & Margo Sheil (Ballinagar). The resignation of several staff members from the well-known Droimnin Nursing Home and Care Centre in Laois has led to a temporary halt to admissions to the facility in Stradbally. The relatively new nursing home is the subject of a published investigation report by the health service watchdog, Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa). The home is part of the Brookhaven health care group. The report sets out the findings of a two day unannounced triggered inspection in December 2017 following receipt of unsolicited information of concern received by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa). The concerns alleged issues on inadequate staffing and a poor quality of care provided to residents. The 70-bed unit had 82 residents at the time of inspection. "Evidence found during this inspection did substantiate these concerns. The inspectors found that 28 members of staff (20 full time positions) had resigned since August and staffing levels were inadequate to meet the care and welfare needs of residents. "As a result the provider nominee agreed to a temporary hold on all new admissions into the centre until such time that the management are reassured that the staffing complement is stabilised and that the care delivered is safe, appropriate to residents' needs, consistent and effectively monitored," said Hiqa. The authority says its inspectors focused on care and welfare of residents and staffing, and also monitored progress on the actions required arising from the last inspection carried out on the 17th August 2017. The inspectors met with residents, relatives, the provider nominee, the person in charge, the deputy manager and staff members during the inspection. Hiqa say managerial change has taken place and recruitment is underway, but issues remain. "The centre's management team has undergone significant change over the past nine months, and has had two changes to the person in charge. As a result of the change in front line staff, the centre has put into place a recruitment plan and additional measures to minimise the impact on resident care needs. Despite these measures the inspectors found clear evidence that the turnover in staff is impacting negatively on resident care. The Hiqa inspectors found clear evidence that the "significant changes to the clinical staff was having a direct negative impact on the care for residents." the failure over an extended period of weeks to provide adequate staffing levels on each unit to deliver the care gaps in mandatory training records for fire and the detection, prevention and response to abuse the complete absence of nursing assessments and development of care plans for a high percentage of the resident's files reviewed. Each unit has one nurse on duty. However, the required documentation was not in place to guide nurses on the individual needs of residents in order to ensure that their medical and nursing needs are met. "These gaps in documentation coupled with the high turnover of nursing and care staff posed a significant risk for residents," said Hiqa. The inspection report found that the "vast majority of staff" that the inspectors spoke with over the course of the two day inspection "repeatedly highlighted the issue of healthcare staff shortages." "The overwhelming majority stated that the recent turnover of staff was significantly impacting on staff members' ability to effectively meet residents' needs," it said. Healthcare staff that inspectors spoke with informed the inspectors of occasions where cover was not provided for staff on unplanned leave. To counteract this issue the management team have implemented a new on call system. To date this system has not resolved the ongoing issue of providing cover when staff shortages occur. The inspectors were informed of and observed long periods of delay in responding to residents that requested assistance with care related issues. Large groups of residents were also observed sitting in communal areas and were unsupervised for extended periods of time. The inspectors also noted that concerns about the high level of staff turnover had been recorded in the minutes of residents' meetings. In these minutes, reassurance was given by that all steps were being taken to address the issue of staffing to ensure continuity of care. In its response to Hiqa, managment said this matter has been subject to comprehensive review by the Management Team and measures have been put in place which will ensure that correct staffing numbers are in place and that the skill mix of staff is appropriate to meet the needs of the Residents taking into account size and layout of the Nursing Home. It said safe and effective recruitment practices in line with the nursing homes policy are in place to recruit staff. Particular attention will be focused on ensuring that newly recruited care staff will have the required skills and experience necessary to enable them to respond to the needs of the residents. "The Management team, along with the Clinical staff, will focus particular attention on ensuring that care staff receive the necessary support and supervision to enable them perform their job to the best of their ability going forward," said the report. The nursing home's website says it places it "residents at the centre of all our efforts." "We strive constantly to achieve this through the provision of excellent care in a happy and respecting environment, while encouraging and supporting each person to enjoy their life as they wish. "We foster a culture of independence and choice where our residents can recover and build confidence in themselves and their abilities. At Droimnin Nursing Home we deliver the very highest standard of nursing and medical care to all our residents." The home was built in 2011. It is part of the same healthcare group that operates a nursing home in Ballyragget Co Kilkenny. Gearoid Brennan is the Chief Executive. An unknown number of robbers over the weekend broke into Habib Bank AG Zurich, Koinange Branch, and made away with millions of shillings. The robbers reportedly entered the bank through the rear door, went into the second floor of the building and disabled the alarm and the CCTV surveillance cameras before getting into the banking area. They are said to have used gas cylinders to break into safes and made away with an unknown amount of money. Confirming the Sunday night incident, Nairobi County Commander Joseph Ole Tito said the robbers used papers to block the banks tinted glass windows so that security guards could not see what was happening. The robbers even had time to eat supper inside the banking hall. They took their time because we have found food leftovers meaning they even had the time to eat inside the bank. They have really done a lot of destruction inside there, but they did not manage to get into the strong room, Tito said. The leftovers were found in disposable plates on the counters and floors and included githeri, beef, chicken, rice and chips. Tito said they suspected that the robbery was staged by people familiar with the bank. This must be an inside job, by people who knew how to access the bank through the rear gate, the location of the CCTV cameras, the alarm, the safes and the strong room, The strong room contained Sh41 million which was still intact by the time detectives opened it on Monday morning. Some employees who arrived for work were interrogated by the detectives as investigations continue. Authorities have also recovered gas cylinders and other breaking in materials at the scene. The incident comes in the wake of increased bank robberies in Nairobi and environs. In January, thugs disguised as nuns drugged a forex bureau attendant and stole Sh 2 million in Nairobis Karen area. Last November, thugs broke into Kenya Commercial Bank, Thika branch escaping with Sh50 million. Unless trust deficit is removed, we will be very weary says Army Chief Belief that defence expenditure is a burden on state is a myth: Army Chief India oi-Deepika By Deepika Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat, on Tuesday, addressed a press conference where he talked about myths surrounding the expenditure on defence forces and military diplomacy with China. The Army chief sought to dispel myths surrounding defence expenditure, insisting that almost 35 percent of the defence budget goes in the nation-building process. General Rawat, who delivered a lecture on " Changing Security Environment : The Role of Indian Army', said that "there is a belief that the defence expenditure is actually a burden on the state. They believe that whatever put in defence it is something that comes without any returns. I want to dispel that myth." "Is entire Defence expenditure being utilized only for maintaining military? This is the second myth I wish to dispel. Almost 35% of our budget goes into nation building, He further said. A major part of the Army's budget was being utilised in developing infrastructure, schools and hospitals in remote areas of the country, Rawat said. "When we develop infrastructure on our borders, we are connecting the people who live in far areas with mainland. This helps in uniting the nation," he said. Rawat hails China's military might The Army chief also acknowledged the military might of China, saying "Chinese have finally arrived". "Chinese have finally arrived. I can say that. They did not forget that military power should rise simultaneously with economy," said General Rawat. He further acknowledged that China stands "strong today in the world order, challenging the might of the US". According to the Army chief, counties across the world have started looking up to India after the rise of China. He said, "As China has risen, countries have started looking up to India to see whether we can also become a nation that can balance the rise of China." It was because of China's assertiveness that the focus of the international community shifted towards the Indo-Pacific region, said General Rawat. This comes days after the Army chief blamed Pakistan and China for influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. He had said that it is part of a proxy warfare by Pakistan, which is getting support from China with an aim to keep the area disturbed. "I think the proxy game is very well played by our western neighbour, supported by our northern border (China) to keep the area disturbed. We will continue to see some migration happening. The solution lies in identifying the problem and holistically looking at it," he had said. India and China recently ended about a 70-day long military standoff at the Doklam tri-junction near the Sikkim border which had strained bilateral ties. OneIndia News Attack on CRPF jawans in Jammu and Kashmir: One martyred, four injured in terror attack 9 CRPF jawans killed in Sukma attack: Rahul says 'it reflects deteriorating internal security' India oi-Madhuri At least nine CRPF personnel belonging to the 212th battalion Tuesday were killed in a Naxal IED blast in the jungles of Chhattisgarh's Sukma district. The jawans were killed during the search operations. Six CRPF personnel were injured, out of which 4 are critical. The injured personnel are being evacuated by helicopter to Raipur. The blast occurred when a team of CRPF's 212th battalion was patrolling in a forest in Kistaram area of Sukma, located around 500 kms from Chhattisgarh. The rebels used a lot of explosives to blow up the vehicle, the official said. Soon after the incident, reinforcement was rushed to the spot,he said, adding that further details were awaited Speaking to ANI, DM Awasthi, Special DG, said,''A patrolling party was going from Kistaram to Palodi in an anti-landmine vehicle which was targeted by Naxals with an IED. Extra force has reached the spot, there is no firing at present.'' Reacting to the incident, HM Rajnath Singh said,''My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans. I spoke to DG CRPF regarding the Sukma incident and asked him to leave for Chhattisgarh.'' SK Sood, Former DG, BSF on Sukma attack said,''CRPF has been repeatedly suffering big losses in this area, this means the CRPF authority is not taking remedial action, we should learn from mistakes.'' Chhattisgarh CM directs officials to intensify ops Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh convened an emergency meeting of officials and directed them to intensify the operations against the ultras. He reviewed the situation with senior officials of the administration and police at the meeting and directed them to intensify the operations against the naxals, a government official told PTI. Last April, in the biggest Maoist attack on CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh in the last seven years, 25 jawans were killed and six injured in an ambush in the Burkapal area of Sukma. According to officials, personnel from the 74th Battalion of CRPF were ambushed after emerging from their camp to secure an under-construction road in the area. OneIndia News 'I am not a full-time politician yet,' says Rajinikanth India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Superstar Rajinikanth on Wednesday said he is not a fulltime politician yet to answer political questions. He was speaking to reporters in Dehradun. The actor is on two weeks pilgrimage. Rajinikanth said, "I don't want to answer political questions, I have not yet become a full-time politician, have not yet announced my party." He said, "I have come here on a pilgrimage. It is a spiritual trip & has nothing to do with politics." Rajinikanth left for the Himalayas on Saturday. The actor is known to head to the hills to take a meditative break. He will be away for two weeks. However, the actor did not explain the reason for his visit. On Amitabh Bachchan's health condition, Rajinikanth said, "Just now heard about it (Amitabh Bachchan's health). I will pray to God, he will be alright." A team of doctors arrived in Jodhpur from Mumbai to attend to actor Amitabh Bachchan who fell during the shoot on the sets of Thugs of Hindostan. Recently, Rajini made his first political speech at a private college. He not only apologised for the hindrance his banners had caused, Rajini also took on several trolls. Asserting that there is a leadership vacuum in Tamil Nadu, he said that entered politics to fill that space. OneIndia News Karti Chidambram's CA gets bail in INX media case India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Delhi Court granted bail to Karti Chidambaram's Chartered Accountant S Bhaskararaman in INX media case on Tuesday. Karti's chartered accountant, S Bhaskararaman, who was currently in jail in a case filed by the ED, had moved the court for anticipatory bail in the CBI case of INX Media. S Bhaskararaman was arrested from a five-star hotel in Delhi on February 16. The ED had earlier claimed that during the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Bhaskararaman, a qualified CA, had been assisting Karti to manage his "ill-gotten wealth" in India and abroad. The CBI took Karti Chidambaram to Tihar jail and confronted him with S Bhaskararaman, who allegedly handled all the business activities and finances of Karti. Karti Chidambaram was arrested on February 28, 2018, at Chennai Airport on his return from the United Kingdom, in connection with the FIR lodged on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds worth about Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father was finance minister. OneIndia News Kashmir photo-journalist arrested on stone pelting charges granted bail India oi-Vicky Nanjappa The photojournalist, Kamran Yusuf who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency has been granted by a special court in Delhi. Yusuf was arrested in September for allegedly encouraging stone pelting and mobilising support against security personnel. Without giving further details, the NIA officials confirmed that Yusuf had been granted bail. He was arrested by the agency on September 5 for allegedly indulging in stone pelting and mobilising support against security personnel through social media. According to the NIA, Yusuf was allegedly involved in stone pelting incidents besides organising groups of youths who would throw stones at security personnel involved in counter insurgency operations. Yusuf, who had often been warned by the local police, was allegedly mobilising the youth and clicking their pictures for circulation in local and national newspapers. The NIA in its charge sheet had listed the "moral duty of a journalist" to highlight what it claimed was improper conduct. READ: "Had he been a real journalist by profession, he may have performed one of the moral duties of a journalist which is to cover the activities (good or bad) in his jurisdiction. He never covered any development activity, the inauguration of a hospital, school building, road, bridge, statement of political parties or the government of India", the NIA had said in its charge sheet filed against him and nine others on January 19 this year. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had on Monday requested Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to look into the case. "Spoke to Home Minister @rajnathsingh ji to look into Kamran Yousuf's case. I've requested him to intervene so that the life of a young budding journalist does not get ruined," Mehbooba said on Twitter yesterday. NIA officials had also alleged that Yusuf was acting as a conduit for those involved in terror funding. Kashmir editors guild and journalists in the valley have also sought his release, saying his arrest violated the freedom of the press. OneIndia News Maharashtra protest: Do farmers have the power to uproot governments? India oi-Oneindia Staff By Oneindia Staff Mumbai, March 13: The crises faced by the agriculture sector are out in the open. In the last few years, farmers have come together and protested against the government's apathy towards their problems. After last year's protest by farmers of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, among others, this year the farmers of Maharashtra came out in a huge number to raise their demands in Mumbai on Monday. While the "long march" of farmers of Maharashtra from Nashik to Mumbai, covering a distance of 180 kms on foot in a period of six days, led to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state conceding to most of the demands raised by the agitators, a delay in fulfilling the promises is likely to witness more such protests in urban hubs of the country in the future. Earlier on Monday, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury addressed at least 50,000 protesting farmers at Mumbai's Azad Maidan. During his speech, Yechury said farmers can "uproot governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra" if they failed to concede their just demands. In both the state and at the Centre, the BJP is in power. The veteran communist leader said the farmers were the "new soldiers of India" and like the jawans who protect the country's borders, the peasantry produces food for the people. "Any party which ignores the cause of farmers will not survive. Last year, for the first time in the country, Maharashtra farmers had gone on 'strike' which resulted in the announcement of a farm loan waiver package. But after 10 months, it remains unimplemented," Yechury said. The CPI-M general secretary also compared the "long march" of the farmers with the historic Dandi Yatra led by Mahatma Gandhi against the then British regime in 1930. He said that on (March 12) on this day 88 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi succeeded in shaking the very foundation of the British Empire which culminated in freedom for India. "Today, if the farmers' demands are not conceded, they will shake up the state and the Centre and remove the government and install a government of their choice which will stand by the farmers' cause," Yechury said. He also attacked the BJP government for being "pro-rich" as huge loans of industrialists and businessmen were being written off. Yechury criticised the current BJP regime for letting billionaires like Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi--all of whom have cheated banks--escape the country with impunity. "For writing off the entire debt burden of the farmers, the government needs barely Rs 1 lakh crore, which they don't have. But much more has been lost by banks and they are busy writing off loans by the big corporates," Yechury said. The farmers' protest was spearheaded by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) which is affiliated to the Left. After the farmers' leaders met chief minister Fadnavis who promised to act on most of their demands, the protesters had called off their agitation and took trains back home from Mumbai to Nashik district on Monday night. Along with complete waiver of loans, the other demands of the agitating farmers include fair pay, implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report and transfer of Adivasi land to farmers, to name a few. OneIndia News Massive All India MSP Satyagraha movement launched by alliances of farmers organisations India oi-Shreya The recent agitation of Farmers in Rajasthan and Maharashtra have made the Governments realise that immediate proactive steps have to be taken to tackle the problems of farmers but past experience shows that after making mouthful of promises, Governments do nothing tangible. Hence, the MSP Satyagraha is being launched to continue and strengthen the agitations that are springing up all over the country, so that the core issue of farmers, remunerative price, is brought to the fore and the Governments are compelled to honour promises already made to farmers. The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's budget speech of 2018 laid special emphasis on the Central Government's commitment to ensure MSP to the farmers. Jaitley announced and assured that his Government had already implemented (for majority of Rabi crops) and was going to further implement (for unannounced Rabi and Kharif crops) its electoral promise of ensuring prices that yield at least 50% returns over the cost of production. Farmers' Movements have already exposed this claim to be a case of sleight-of-hand. Mr. Jaitley has already admitted that the cost he was speaking about was not comprehensive C2 cost but partial cost known as A2 + FL. The Finance Minister and subsequently the Prime Minister also admitted that increasing MSP is not adequate and it is more important that farmers should get full benefit of the announced MSP and for achieving this, the Government was going to take special steps this year to ensure that all farmers actually get the MSP announced by the Government. The Finance Minister further promised that if prices at agriculture produce markets is less than MSP, then the Government shall purchase either at MSP or provide MSP to the farmers through some other mechanism; Niti Ayog, in consultation with Central and State Governments, shall put in place a fool-proof mechanism so that farmers will get adequate price for their produce. Farmer activists said, "It is time to test this promise as the marketing season for Rabi crop 2018-19 has begun. An analysis of the marketing season of Kharif crop 2017-18 had demonstrated that the farmers were forced to sell much below MSP and had incurred a total loss of at least Rs.32,702 crores. It may be kept in mind that traditionally farmers losses is lower in Rabi marketing season then during kharif marketing season.: They further claimed that so far the signals are not very good. In the first few weeks of this marketing season the prices of Bengal Gram (Channa) have fallen substantially below the MSP of Rs.4400 (MSP of Rs.4250+ Rs.150 bonus). The official Agmarknet data for the first week of March shows that the average modal price of Channa is anywhere between Rs. 800 to 1000 below the MSP, also substantially below the prices last year. Sadly much of this loss was avoidable as the Government knew about greater sowing acerage and expected bumper crop of Channa. Despite this, the Government allowed substantial quantity of Channa to be imported. In fact the import during April-November 2017 was 7.47 lakh tonne compared to 2.49 lakh tonne during the same months in 2016. So far, the state response has not been up to the mark. Maharashtra has announced procurement of just 3 lakh tonnes against an estimated arrival of 19 lakh tonnes of Channa. MP's Bhavantar Yojna has run into difficulties. So far we know little about special measures that the Niti Ayog was to evolve to support the farmers. On the basis of an estimated arrival of 90 lakh quintals of Channa and the modal price as seen in the first 3 weeks of the present season, farmers may suffer loss of Rs.6087 crores on this crop alone !!* Two charts showing the losses already made with comparisons of previous year are provided as illustration. The price situation of other crops is also a cause for concern. Rapeseed oil has also started arriving and is selling around 3,500 against the MSP of Rs. 4000 (MSP Rs.3,900 plus bonus of Rs. 100). Lentil (Masur) is selling between Rs. 3,200 to 3,800 against the MSP of 4,250. Jai Kisan Andolan of Swaraj Abhiyan has taken up this challenge in collaboration with many other organisations from within All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) like Ryathu Joint Action Committee (Telangana), Raithu Swarajya Vedika (Andhra), National Alliance of Peoples Movements (NAPM), Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (Rajasthan) and Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (Madhya Pradesh). An MSP Satyagraha is being launched from 14th March 2018 at Yadgir in Karnataka. In this Satyagraha, the plan is to travel from mandi to mandi and hold Kisan Darbar with twofold objectives: 1. To make farmers aware of the multiple ways in which they are looted and to raise demand for legal entitlement of fair MSP. 2. Check out whether farmers are able to get MSP that they have been assured of. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, March 13, 2018, 21:28 [IST] NIA charges one for blackmailing lady Army officer into divulging national secrets India oi-Vicky Nanjappa The National Investigation Agency has filed a charge sheet against one person for trying to blackmail an Indian Army official into divulging secrets pertaining to national security. The accused Mohammad Parvez, a 43-year-old resident of Delhi was charged with criminal conspiracy by the NIA. The allegations are that accused had sent obscene and morphed WhatsApp images/messages from a mobile phone and Facebook ID with a veiled threat to circulate them on social media, to the complainant, thereby causing mental harassment to her as well as threatening to ruin her reputation. This was done in pursuance of a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched by Pakistani Intelligence officials and the arrested accused with a view to compromise an officer of the Indian Army into divulging national security secrets. OneIndia News Push for UPA-3: Sonia Gandhi hosts dinner for leaders across party lines India oi-Vikas By Vikas Sv A need for a strong alliance has become the need of the hour for the opposition if they have to take on the BJP juggernaut. Sonia Gandhi seems to be one such leader who can unite the opposition and stitch an alliance which can give NDA a tough fight. Sonia Gandhi will on Tuesday on Tuesday hosted a dinner for Opposition leaders, attended by leaders of 17 Opposition parties. According to sources, leaders of NCP, RJD, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress, DMK and Left parties attended the dinner among others. The prominent leaders in attendance were NCP's Sharad Pawar, SP's Ram Gopal Yadav, BSP's Satish Chandra Misra and former chief ministers Omar Abdullah, Babulal Marandi, Hemant Soren and Jiten Ram Manjhi, besides JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav and RLD's Ajit Singh. The RJD was represented by both children of party chief Lalu Prasad former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti. The others present included TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CPI-M's D Raja and Mohammad Salim, DMK's Kanimozhi, AIUDF's Baddrauddin Ajmal and leaders of Kerala Congress, besides Kupender Reddy of the JD-S. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony and Randeep Surjewala were among the Congress leaders present. In what was seen as sounding the poll bugle for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sonia Gandhi had on February 8 called for an alliance of 'like-minded parties' to ensure the BJP was defeated. So today, Sonia is taking the next step and will probably set the ball rolling for 'UPA-3'. According to Congress sources, leaders of Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party, which recently pulled out its ministers in the Modi government but continues to be a constituent of the NDA, BJD, and the TRS have not been invited. "I will work with the Congress President and other colleagues in discussions with like-minded, political parties to ensure that in the next election, the BJP is defeated and India is restored to a democratic, inclusive, secular, tolerant and economically progressive path," Sonia had told party workers in February. Sonia succeeded in stitching a coalition with the Left parties to form the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that ruled the country for 10 years. Sonia has been urging party leaders and workers to be ready for an early Lok Sabha election. UPA-1 and UPA-2 were in power from 2004-2009 and again in 2009-2014 before BJP-led NDA won 2014 general elections with an overwhelming majority. Manmohan Singh had served as the Prime Minister in both UPA terms. [Congress gearing up for 2019 elections, Sonia Gandhi sets the ball rolling for UPA-3] The UPA was formed soon after the 2004 general elections when it had become clear that no party had won an absolute majority. The then ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won 181 seats in the 543-member 14th Lok Sabha, as opposed the UPA's tally of 218 seats. Initially, UPA was given external support from the Left Front which totalled 59 MPs. Similar external support was also promised by several smaller parties that were not a member of any coalition, including the Samajwadi Party with 39 MPs, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party with 4 MPs, the Janata Dal (Secular) with 3 MPs, and Bahujan Samaj Party with 19 MPs, who promised to support the government if it faced a vote of confidence. Nevertheless, these parties were not a part of the government. The UPA thus had at least 335 MPs out of 543 supporting it at the time of its formation. OneIndia News with PTI inputs Sonia and Rahul Gandhi don't believe in democracy: BJP India oi-Vikas By Vikas The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Congress over disruptions in Parliament for the last seven days and said that the grand old party does not have "democracy in their genes". Speaking to the media, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar urged the opposition parties to let the House function. "We request Congress and other parties to let House function. It seems Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi don't believe in democracy. They speak outside on democracy but don't practice it in Parliament. Congress doesn't have democracy in their genes," Kumar said. "We have included all important issues in list of business. We have also issued a 3-line Whip to all our MPs. We request all the parties to let the Parliament function and discuss constructively," he added. The impasse in the Lok Sabha continued for the seventh day today with no let up in protests by members from opposition parties and TDP over issues like bank scams and special status demand for Andhra Pradesh, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House. Both Question Hour and Zero Hour could not be taken up as scores of members from the TDP, Congress, AIADMK, TRS and Trinamool Congress trooped into the Well. Most of them were heard shouting "we want justice". Members from TDP, which quit the central government last week but remains part of the ruling NDA, were demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh. The House was scheduled to take up the key Finance Bill 2018 and Appropriation bills for FY 2017-18 and 2018-19. However, these could not come up today due to disruption of proceedings. The Lok Sabha has failed to transact substantial business on account of frequent disruptions since March 5 when the second leg of the Budget Session of Parliament commenced. OneIndia News with PTI inputs For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, March 13, 2018, 14:47 [IST] Residents of Masara village in Vihiga County were left shocked Sunday after a woman hacked her co-wifes three children to death before committing suicide. The body of Jacinta Adhiambo was found hanging from a rope tied to the ceiling while the bodies of the three children were found lying on the floor. They had deep machete cuts on the necks. The woman is said to have lured the children aged seven, four and two years, with porridge after a domestic wrangle with her co-wife Hellen Atieno. Atienos oldest child aged nine escaped the womans trap by a whisker. He said when he and his siblings got to Adhiambos house, she tried to pull the door closed but he became suspicious and stepped outside and ran away. According to witnesses, after Atieno had left for church, Adhiambo went for the children and offered them porridge for lunch. The three were then given porridge suspected to have been laced with poison before they were hacked to death. A neighbor who had seen the children enter the house informed their mother, who headed for her co-wifes house only to find it locked from inside. Villagers broke into the house and found the four bodies. Adhiambo, who was the second wife of Festus Ogonda, was married a year ago and had been living with her husband in Nairobi. Jacinta and my husband came home last week to attend my brother-in-laws graduation ceremony. That was when our differences began, said Atieno. She sent my second daughter on an errand in the rain. My daughter had been sickly and I was worried that she was walking in the rain, so I asked Jacinta about it, she added. After an altercation, Jacinta reportedly tried to commit suicide by burning herself in the house but she was rescued. Two days later, she attempted suicide again by ingesting poison but was rescued again. She was admitted in hospital for four days. Barely a week after the second suicide attempt, she succeeded in taking her life together with the lives of her co-wifes children. This is very sad; the woman should have been sent away after the first suicide attempt, said Naftal Orwa, chairman of the village peace initiative. Telanganas filmy way to tell moviegoers to fight against human trafficking India oi-Oneindia Staff By Oneindia Staff Hyderabad, March 13: The figures pertaining to human trafficking in India are startling. According to the government crime data, 8,132 human trafficking cases were registered in 2016 against 6,877 in 2015. This means in a year's time, India witnessed 20 per cent rise in cases related to human trafficking. The figures related to 2017 are yet to be made public by the government. The available data shows that cases of trafficking are mostly reported from West Bengal, followed by Rajasthan. Activists working in the field to rescue and rehabilitate victims of trafficking said that the government figures are just a tip of the iceberg. "The actual numbers could be much higher," maintain activists. In an attempt to curb the menace of trafficking in Telangana, Prajwala, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working in the field of anti-trafficking, the United States Consulate General in Hyderabad and the Telugu film industry (popularly known as Tollywood) have joined hands. At an event in Hyderabad on Monday, members of the US consulate, NGO and film industry screened a series of short video clips with a motto to generate awareness on the ills of trafficking. The organisers of the event stated that the video clips on anti-trafficking will be screened in movie theatres and educational institutions to reach out to maximum people and address the issue head-on. The United States Consul General Katherine Hadda said that trafficking and sex work are problems faced by all societies. She asked everyone to fight against the menace. Noted film personalities from Tollywood like Allu Aravind and Amala Akkineni, and Rachakonda Commissioner of Police Mahesh Bhagwat attended the Monday's anti-trafficking event to lend their support to the cause. In February, the cabinet approved the country's first anti-human trafficking bill. The bill is expected to be voted into law by Parliament soon. As per the new law, traffickers could be jailed for 10 years or, in some cases, for life. If convicted, they could be fined at least Rs 100,000. The legislation also mandates the establishment of special courts to expedite trafficking cases, setting a deadline of one year for trial and repatriation. Activists say traffickers abduct or lure women and children, mostly from remote villages, with false promises of jobs before selling them off to brothels, factories or gangs which force them into begging. "The idea of screening the video clips in theatres and educational institutions is to raise awareness against trafficking. Cinema halls are always the best places to attract people's attention on any subject. Similarly, we get to address the problem among youngsters at the educational institutions," said a member of the NGO. So, next time when you go and watch a film in Telangana, don't just come back home with memories of enjoying your favourite movie, do something to end the menace of trafficking too. OneIndia News Theni forest fire: Police nab 30-yr-old tourist guide, death toll rises to 11 India oi-PTI A 30-year-old man, believed to be a tour guide who led the 36-member trekking group on an ill-fated expedition in the district of Theni, has been arrested, police said on Tuesday. The death toll has increased to 11. Ranjith was arrested Monday night, they said, adding that he was being questioned to ascertain whether he had any links with a Chennai-based group which is believed to have arranged for the expedition. Police are probing, among others, how the trekkers came into contact with Ranjith, a local. Meanwhile, a 29-year-old woman succumbed to severe burn injuries on Tuesday, said an official. While nine persons lost their lives on the spot, one person died at a Madurai hospital on Monday. Trekking group organiser claims it followed procedures The city-based group believed to have arranged the ill-fated trekking expedition to Kurangani Hills where 11 members were killed in a forest fire, today claimed the team had received an "entry pass" to proceed with their mission. It also blamed local farmers for the fire that engulfed the area, killing some of the trekkers on a "women's trek to commemorate women's day." It may be recalled the state government had said the trekkers had not obtained required permission for the expedition. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palanisamy had on Monday said: "without permission, they embarked on a trekking expedition.Trekkers should climb hills only after taking the government's nod". A 36-member team -- 24 people from Chennai and 12 from Tirupur and Erode districts -- had embarked on the trekking expedition and reached Kurangani hills on March 10. The team included 25 women and three children. Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purhohit on Tuesday visited the Madurai Government Hospital and consoled the family members of the injured. PTI Trade Bandh in Delhi: Major markets to remain shut today to protest against sealing drive India oi-Vikas By Vikas To protest against the ongoing sealing drive by the municipal corporations in the national capital, the traders in Delhi have decided to observe a 'trade bandh' on Tuesday. Markets like Chandni Chowk, Connaught Place, Lajpat Nagar, Amar Colony, Khan Market, South Extension, Greater Kailash, Karol Bagh, Sadar Bazaar, Kamla Nagar and several other prominent commercial places are likely to remain shut today. "Not even a single shop owner will open his shop in Delhi-NCR on Tuesday, every corner of the Capital will remain shut," a DNA report quoted general secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), Praveen Khandelwal, as saying. Khandelwal said it would hold a 'vyapaari panchayat' in Karol Bagh in which thousands of traders are expected to participate. Over the last few months, hundreds of commercial establishments in Delhi have been sealed for non-payment of conversion charges and violation of the Delhi Master Plan. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has called for an all-party meeting today (March 13) at his residence to find a solution to the ongoing sealing drive in Delhi. Kejriwal had on Sunday written to Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, inviting them for the meeting at his residence on Tuesday, saying, "We should rise above politics and come together to find a solution to the problems that have risen due to sealing." Meanwhile, the BJP has decided to boycott the all-party meet called by Kejriwal even as the AAP slammed Tiwari for touring abroad at a time when city traders were facing problems. Tiwari is abroad as part of a delegation accompanying President Ram Nath Kovind and would be back by March 15. Ajay Maken will, however, attend all party-meeting to be held at the chief minister's residence on Tuesday. [Delhi Sealing: Kejriwal calls BJP, Cong for meeting] AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh on Monday submitted a Private Members Bill to put an end to the sealing drive in the city. He urged all political parties to come together to pass the bill to end the sealing of shops and businesses operating from residential premises in the national capital. Singh said the sealing drive had caused enormous difficulties for the traders and their families. OneIndia News 'Unfortunate that BJP did not attend the meeting on sealing', says Ajay Maken India oi-Shreya Delhi Chief Minister on March 13 called for a crucial meet to discuss the issue of sealing in Delhi. He called BJP and Congress in Delhi to attend the meeting to find a solution to the problem that has deeply affected the traders. However, only Congress attended while the BJP chose not to be a part of the meeting chaired by Kejriwal. Delhi Congress Chief Aja Maken expressed his displeasure at BJP not being a part of the meeting, he said, "It is unfortunate that the Delhi BJP chose not to attend the meeting. They should have been a part of this meeting along with Congress and AAP." About the discussion, Maken said, "We have divided Delhi into five parts and thought of the solution to the problem of sealing." He said that the Household industry also needs some changes, for which he has appealed. "We have requested the Delhi Government to deal with the issue in the sternest manner possible. Delhi Government has promised us that they will go to the Supreme Court and raise the issue. The issue will be also discussed in the Assembly," he said. "The Delhi Government will have to meet the monitoring committee, if the committee is not told about the laws, the situation will only get worse," he further added. OneIndia News Talks with China will not help says USA NSA on situation on Ladakh 20 members of a family removed from US flight after mask of 1 slipped under nose Attack on spy in UK an outrage: White House International pti-PTI Washington, March 13: The United States has expressed "outrage" over a nerve agent attack on a former spy and his daughter in an attempted murder in the UK allegedly by Russia. Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found collapsed after being poisoned last week. Both remain in a serious condition along with a police officer who came in contact with the same substance. Speaking before the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday said it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the nerve agent attack on Skripal who was once an informant for Britain's foreign intelligence service. Russia has denied the allegation. "We are standing with our UK ally," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference. Sanders said the United States has been monitoring the incident closely and takes it very seriously. "The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizens on UK soil is an outrage," she said. "The attack was reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation, and we extend our sympathy to the victims and their families, and our support to the UK government. We stand by our closest ally and the special relationship that we have," Sanders said. US' Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who is currently on a travel to Africa, spoke with his British counterpart. "We have full confidence in the UK's investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week," he said in a statement. Tillerson said there is never a justification for such an attack the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation and "the US is outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behaviour". "From Ukraine to Syria and now the UK Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens," he alleged. "We agree that those responsible both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it must face appropriately serious consequences. We stand in solidarity with our Allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to coordinate closely our responses," Tillerson said. PTI Bidhya Devi Bhandari elected as President of Nepal for a second term International oi-Deepika By Deepika Left Alliance candidate Bidya Devi Bhandari was on Tuesday relected for a second term in office. Incumbent President Bhandari defeated Nepali Congress leader Kumari Laxmi Rai with an overwhelming majority in the presidential election. Bhandari, 56, won since her nomination was backed by the ruling Left alliance of the CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre), the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and other fringe parties. Bhandari was first elected president on October 28, 2015. The electoral college for presidential election included 880 voters including 331 lawmakers of the federal parliament and 549 of the provincial assemblies. The votes of federal and provincial lawmakers were given different weightage. OneIndia News UN food programme to cut aid to poor Palestinians as US slashes funding US stalls key sewage project in Palestine city of Jericho; massive water contamination likely On anniversary of 2018 protests, tension soars at Gaza border "The risk of war remains imminent", says UN envoy on Israel, Hamas conflict Explosion strikes Palestinian PM Rami Hamdallah's convoy during Gaza visit International oi-Madhuri An explosion went off Tuesday morning near a convoy carrying Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, who is visiting the Gaza Strip. However, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was unharmed Tuesday but his Palestinian Authority quickly accused Gaza militants of trying to kill him. Three of the vehicles in his convoy were damaged, their windows were blown out. One had signs of blood on the door. Hamdallah, who operated in the West Bank, arrived in Hamas-run Gaza to inaugurate a long-awaited sewage plant project. OneIndia News Biden says another terror attack likely in 24-36 hours, vows to keep up airstrikes against ISIS International Solar Alliance: US lauds India's efforts International pti-PTI Washington, Mar 13: With India taking major initiatives to address the climate change issue, the United States has applauded India for its efforts in initiating and inaugurating the International Solar Alliance (ISA). The ISA is a treaty-based inter-governmental alliance of 121 sunshine-rich countries that lie fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Their adoption of solar energy is expected to help reduce the use of fossil fuels and combat climate change. Sixty countries have signed the agreement to join the alliance which was formally launched jointly by India and France last Sunday in New Delhi. The heads of state from 23 nations took part in the first ISA Summit. "We extend our congratulations to the ISA on the occasion of its founding ceremony. We applaud the Government of India for its efforts to initiate and inaugurate this organisation, and to bring together its founding members this weekend," a State Department Spokesperson told PTI. During the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron announced an additional USD 862 million to help developing countries with their solar energy projects. The spokesperson said the US appreciated the ISA's goal and looks to work with the ISA in future. "We appreciate the ISA's goal of expanding access to cost-effective solar power and look forward to the economic and social benefits this approach will bring to the developing world," the spokesperson said in response to a question. "We have been pleased to provide technical support to the ISA and will continue to look for opportunities where the US can collaborate with the ISA in future," the spokesperson said. At the launch event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced his ambitious goal of building 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2022, including 100 gigawatts of solar. However, the MIT Technology review said that the well-intentioned target looks nearly impossible to achieve. "India would have to build on average 35 gigawatts of renewable energy per year for the next five years. That's more than twice the capacity that the US added across all energy sources in 2016, after subtracting retiring plants, and less than eight gigawatts of the total were solar," the magazine said. PTI